page_title: List of unsolved murders (before the 20th century)
section_title: 19th century
hierarchical_section_title: List of unsolved murders (before the 20th century) / 19th century
caption_attribution_description: Robert Vinkler Richardson (1820–1870), a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
context_page_description: This list of unsolved murders includes notable cases where victims have been murdered under unknown circumstances.
context_section_description: Líbero Badaró (28), an Italian Brazilian physician, botanist, journalist and politician, was murdered on 21 November 1830 by persons unknown. The assassination of Libero Badarò made the environment more conducive to the most exalted liberals. He is honored in São Paulo with a street that bears his name, Líbero Badaró Street.
  Elijah Parish Lovejoy (34), was an American Presbyterian minister, journalist, newspaper editor, and abolitionist. He was shot and killed on 7 November 1837 by a pro-slavery mob in Alton, Illinois, during their attack on the warehouse of Benjamin Godfrey and W. S. Gillman to destroy Lovejoy's press and abolitionist materials. The murder remains unsolved.
  Mary Rogers (21–22), also known as the "Beautiful Cigar Girl"; her body was found in the Hudson River on 28 July 1841. The story became a national sensation and inspired Edgar Allan Poe to write "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" (1842).
  Helen Jewett (22), American prostitute who was murdered on 10 April 1836. The murder to this day remains unsolved.
  Françoise de Choiseul-Praslin, wife of French duke Charles de Choiseul-Praslin; she died shortly after a beating and stabbing in the family's Paris apartment on 17 August 1847. Her husband was arrested, but committed suicide during trial, protesting his innocence all along. No other suspect has ever been identified. The scandal caused by the case helped to provoke the French Revolution of 1848.
  Sakamoto Ryōma (31), was a Japanese samurai and a prominent figure in the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate who was assassinated at the Ōmiya Inn in Kyoto, not long before the Meiji Restoration took place. On the night of 10 December 1867, assassins gathered at the door of the inn and one approached and knocked, acting as an ordinary caller. The door was answered by Ryōma's bodyguard and manservant, a former sumo wrestler who told the stranger he would see if Ryōma was accepting callers at that hour of the evening. When the bodyguard turned his back, the visitor at the door drew his sword and slashed his back, which became a fatal wound. His killer remains unknown.
  Nakaoka Shintarō (29), a samurai in Bakumatsu period Japan, and a close associate of Sakamoto Ryōma in the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate. was killed on 12 December 1867 by persons unknown. His murder remains unsolved.
  Thomas C. Hindman (40), an American politician assassinated by one or more unknown assailants on 27 September 1868. The assassins fired through his parlor window while he was reading his newspaper with his children in Helena, Arkansas, United States.
  Alexander Boyd was the county solicitor of Greene County, Alabama, who was lynched by the Ku Klux Klan on 31 March 1870. His murderers were never brought to justice.
  Robert V. Richardson (49), an ex-Confederate General officer was killed in 1870 by a shotgun blast outside a tavern he was staying in at Clarkton, Missouri. He died the next day and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis. The identity of his assailant and motive are unknown.
  Benjamin Nathan (56), a financier turned philanthropist; he was found beaten to death in his New York City home on 28 July 1870. Several suspects were identified, including Nathan's profligate son Washington, who discovered the body along with his brother. None were ever indicted, and the case remains unsolved.
  Juan Prim (56), a Spanish general and statesman; in December 1870, he was shot through the windows of his carriage by several unknown assailants and died two days later. In 2012, his body was exhumed; the ensuing autopsy showed he may have been strangled in his deathbed, but results were deemed inconclusive.
  Sharon Tyndale (65), former Illinois Secretary of State, was robbed and shot fatally as he walked from his house in Springfield to the train station nearby early on the morning of 29 April 1871. No suspect was ever found.
  Henry Weston Smith (49), a minister, was found dead on the road between his home in Crook City, South Dakota, and Deadwood, where he was going to give a sermon, on 20 August 1876. While he was not robbed, it h
caption: Robert V. Richardson
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