crime generator/unsolved mysteries

[morgajel]

It'd be really cool to be able to generate a crime

stats severity

features kind suspects victims twists

[morgajel]

To help flush this out, here's a list of unsolved mysteries.

The Taos Hum: In the small town of Taos, New Mexico, there is a certain buzz often heard on the horizon that can be compared to the sound of a distant diesel engine. Although it can be heard by the naked ear, various sound detection devices are not able to pick it up. This is known as the Taos Hum and up to this day, no one still knows how this sound is being created.

Voynich Manuscript

Jack the Ripper

Bermuda Triangle

Kryptos Just outside the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, you will behold a statue that has coded encryptions on its surface. This very captivating sculpture was created by Jim Sanborn to show that everything can be resolved and decoded with the use of patterns and clues. Of the four inscription sections that were included, only the first three have been cracked. But the fourth? Not even the brilliant minds in the CIA were able to get to the bottom of it.

Shepherd’s Monument Inscription In Staffordshire, England, there is a sculpture that has invited the wits and intellect of many intellectuals in an attempt to decode an inscription reading DOUOSVAVVM. Although the Shepherd’s Monument was constructed back in the 18th century, the letters found therein were never solved, even 250 years after it was completed.

Tamam Shud Tamam Shud

Back in December 1948, an unidentified man was found dead in Somerton Beach, located in Adelaide, Australia. Found in one of his pockets was a piece of paper with the words “Tamam Shud” written on it. The words were translated “finished” or “ended” based on excerpts found in The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Although governments around the world have tried to identify the man his identity has remained mystery.

18 Zodiac Letters

During the 1960s and 1970s, there was a certain criminal in the San Francisco Bay area that was identified as the Zodiac killer for the mind-boggling letters he sent to the police and to the press. Although one of the four letters were cracked, which contained a very disturbing message, the other three have never been identified, even until now.

17 Georgia Guidestones

Also identified as the American version of Stonehenge, the Georgia Guidestones located in Elbert County are shrouded in mystery, although they were erected only in 1979. Written on the walls are 10 “new commandments” written in English, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, China, Russia, and Spanish although no one is sure why or for whom they were meant.

16 Rongorongo

n the mysterious Easter Islands where the moai stands, a set of glyphs have been discovered, called the Rongorongo. These glyphs have never been deciphered although they may contain clues concerning the huge heads found scattered around the island.

15 The Loch Ness Monster

For ages, people have been hearing about the Loch Ness monster and how it baffled everyone thinking that it is a creature unlike any other. There have been many sightings over the years and photos and videos of actual footage have been checked and looked at time and time again, confirming if it could be some kind of sea serpent or a descendant of the dinosaurs. Even up today, as some are claiming, it still exists and swims under the waters.

14 Bigfoot

Also known as Sasquatch, bigfoot is supposedly a creature that lives in the snowy mountainous regions of the United States and Canada. It may be identified as a gorilla at first, however, its walking posture can be compared to that of a man’s.

13 Black Dahlia Murder

22-year old Elizabeth Short was very active at promoting herself into showbiz at the time the Black Dahlia murder occurred, however, no one knew of the killer or who actually did the murder.

12 Stonehenge

While Stonehenge is a very fascinating structure due to the big rocks that stand atop one another, the biggest mystery isn’t how it was created but why.

11 Shroud of Turin

The shroud containing an imprint of a human face has been one of the main focuses of Christian research, as many have suggested that the person’s face in the shroud could be Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

The Lost City of Atlantis

The City of Atlantis has been imagined as the crowning city of Neptune, where mermaids and mermen live. But based on what Plato has discussed during his time, specifically with his two dialogues Timaeus and Critias, it specifically mentioned the existence of Atlantis based on the stories being heard during the journeys, and how Atlantis was in its prime state, thus giving a clue that the place did exist as Plato was a real entity. Now that it sunk into the deep, many are still wondering if it is real, knowing that there are certain objects underwater that may be the remnants of this once beautiful city.

9 Extraterrestrials

From the mysteries found in the Eastern Islands, to the Bermuda Triangle, and even with the Roswell Incident during World War II, men have always been in question as to whether we are not alone in the universe. With some claiming to have been abducted and others calling hogwash, there is as of yet no consensus.

8 Severed Foot Beach in British Columbia

is not uncommon for bodies to wash up on beaches but for one beach in British Columbia severed feet have consistently been floating ashore for the past several years causing numerous theories to be put forth.

7 Wow! Signal

When Jerry R. Ehman worked under the SETI Project of the Ohio Wesleyan University’s Perkins Observatory, he did not expect that he would be able to pick up a radio frequency supposedly coming from deep space. He was able to get a 72-second signal from the constellation Sagittarius and was never able to get it again. Up to this day no one is sure about the origin of the signal. It derived its name, however, from the “wow!” that Jerry wrote in the margin of the printout.

6 DB Cooper

When DB Cooper hijacked a Boeing 727 along with $200,000, he proceeded to jump out of the plane with a parachute. He was never found, however, and this remains the only unsolved case in US aviation history.

5 Lal Bahadur Shastri

He died an unexplainable death since he left the country healthy. Many have claimed that he died of heart attack, but the doctors and other specialists who have checked him out, including his wife, confirmed that he was A-okay. His wife had also made the assertion that the Tashkent Pact, upon signature, gave the chance for him to be poisoned. This was never proven since there was no post-mortem diagnosis of the body so every assumption that could be answered were already included in the grave.

4 Nazca Geoglyphs

The Nazca civilization is responsible for some of the most fascinating geoglyphs on the face of the Earth. They include everything from spiders, monkeys, sharks, orcas, and flowers, the precision of which is incredible given that the Nazca had no way of examining their work from above.

3 SS Ourang Medan

What happened to SS Ourang Medan or “Man from Medan” in Malaysia is perhaps one of the most fascinating and mind-boggling mysteries that ever existed in seafaring history. Everything began with an SOS message in 1947 that mentioned the captain, along with the rest of the crew, was dead. What’s worse, even the telegrapher died during the transmission of the message. When the Silver Star was able to receive the distress call and went to inspect the ship, they confirmed the deaths of all aboard. Speculations of ghosts, hazardous chemicals, and even aliens have been raised, but there is still no conclusion as to what actually happened.

2 Aluminum Wedge of Aiud

Back in 1974, a group of workers in Romania discovered three different objects 10 meters deep in a sand trench. Two of the items were prehistoric elephant bones that have been dated as old as 2.5 million years ago. The third object however, is an aluminum wedge that was found together with the ancient bones. This discovery dumbfounded most researchers, as aluminum was difficult to create even by 19th century standards. While some call it evidence of extraterrestrials, others are calling it a hoax. Whatever it is, we may never know.

1 Mackenzie Poltergeist in Greyfriars

The Mackenzie Poltergeist is one of the most famous attractions when taking the City of the Dead tour within the Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh as people who join the tour experience bruises, scratches, and some even faint as they enter and see the Black Mausoleum where Sir George Mackenzie lies. Is it all for show? Maybe there’s only one way to find out…

The Dancing Plague of 1518

In July 1518, a woman named Frau Troffea turned onto a narrow street in Strasbourg and began dancing. Not a waltz, a tango, or the dreaded Macarena, but a tortured, convulsed, involuntary dance fever that gripped her for days. It would be one thing if this was an isolated case of psychosis, but Troffea's creepy moves were somehow contagious, and about 400 people were infected with the so-called "dancing plague" over the next month. Many of them died of exhaustion, heart attacks, or strokes, and we HAVE NO IDEA WHY. The event is widely recorded, but other than chalking the whole thing up to "mass hysteria" — which is hardly a satisfactory explanation — the reason dozens of people boogied into their graves remains unknown.

The Princes in the Tower

While we're on the subject of Shakespeare, did you hear that Richard III's body was found earlier this year under a freakin' parking lot? Many new revelations about the reviled king have resulted from the find, but it still doesn't settle the question of what happened to Richard's two nephews, Edward V of England and Richard of Shrewsbury. At 12 and 9, the boys were locked in the Tower of London in 1483, supposedly for their own protection. They were never seen again. While there is no direct evidence that they were murdered, it's certainly the obvious conclusion. Richard III is the prime suspect, but he's far from the only candidate, as there were plenty of people in the boys' lives with motive. Poor little kids didn't have a chance. This eerie Paul Delaroche portrait of them perfectly captures their haunting disappearance.

The lost city of Atlantis

The very first mention of Atlantis came from Plato in his dialogue Timeaus. He talks of an island which was situated “in front of the Pillars of Hercules”. There has been discussion ever since whether it exists or if Plato just made up the island as a way to prove a point in his dialogue (philosophers tend to do that). To summarize the story of Atlantis, it existed in the 10th millennium, was a world power, it attacked Athens, failed miserably, and then sank in a single day.

Of the places suggested to be the location of Atlantis, the two most probable are the island of Santorini, which was a prosperous Minoan island and sank by huge volcano eruption or Sicily, the people who lived there were called “the sea people” and used to raid Egyptian settlements and how Plato described Atlantis, as pretty similar to Sicily (Athens also once attacked Sicily and failed miserably, maybe Plato made a reversal?) . Note both of these places are no where near the strait of Gibraltar (AKA. The Pillars of Hercules).

9 Roanoke Colony

During the late 16th century, the British were desperately trying to gain a foothold in the Americas competing with the French and the Spanish at every step. But this colony had bad luck from the very beginning its surprising how none of the colonists just came up and said “I think this is a bad idea”. Here’s how it goes Sir Walter Raleigh (ring a bell?) sent an expedition to Roanoke island (now part of North Carolina), the ships got lost on the way, then lost most of their food, then when they reached they blamed a local native village for stealing a silver cup (I swear I aint making this up) and which they promptly raided and burned it to the ground. Then when the expedition leader needed to go back to England and get more supplies most of the colonists abandoned the colony at the first opportunity.

Enter expedition number two, Raliegh not easily deterred sent a much larger expedition, to join up with the remnants of Ronoake and set up a large colony. When they arrived all they found was an empty colony and a skeleton, it turns out that when you sack and loot a village, natives don’t like it very well surprisingly . Understandably fearing for their lives they sent the new expedition leader John White (snow?) back to England to get more soldiers to help defend the colony. He left his granddaughter Virginia Dare there (she was the first British born on American soil) and went for home. Sadly he couldn’t return for another three years due to a little thing called the Spanish armada. When he did finally make it back, The entire colony was abandoned including his granddaughter, with no sign of struggle, it seemed as if everyone just packed up and left in an orderly fashion. The only clue left there was a carving on a tree saying “CROATAN”. Before White left he told the colonists to draw a cross if they were forced to leave by force but there was no cross anywhere. So one of three things happened, either they all moved to a new place and got captured, or they tried to return to England (they had some small boats with them) and sank, or they all just died very shortly after White left, the last one seems likely because Virginia’s mother Eleanor wrote these “Dare stones” which people think are fake but they basically list on stones about where and when everyone of the colonists died. Either way it was a sad ending.

8 Dyatlov Pass incident

There is this mountain in Russia called “Dead mountain”, I think that should be reason enough to never go even near it. A gang of 10 people attempted to scale it from the most dangerous route possible. During the journey one of the guys got sick and was left in a small village along the way. The other 9 continued forward but very soon they realized they took a wrong turn and with the rapidly worsening weather conditions which included a brewing snow storm they hunkered down in the slope of the mountain. They weren’t heard from ever since, 10 days after their disappearance a massive search party was assembled and they found their tent. It was filled with supplies but was abandoned and it seemed the campers cut through the tent from the inside in the dead of night and made a run randomly out of it. Their bodies were found only in undergarments and socks, one of them even tried to climb a tree. The last four bodies were found much later and they are what makes this strange, they were found fully clothed, wearing the clothes of the other campers and they had fallen into a ravine. They had fractured skulls and other injuries, one of them was even missing a tongue. What happened here?

The two most plausible theories are either there was an avalanche which forced them to abandon base in a hurry or the government was conducting nuclear tests there which killed them (the bodies were found with a high level of nuclear radiation).

7 Los Lunas Decalogue stone

Ok enough about totally creepy things, this one is of a lighter tone. The Los Lunas Decalogue is an out of place artifact, it was found in Los Lunas, New Mexico and this stone is around 2000 years old. The real kicker is that this has the ten commandments written on it, and most evidence points to the fact that this happened way before the arrival of Columbus. Its written in an ancient phonetic script and refers to Yahweh as “YHWH”.

Many archaeologists say its a hoax, but it still doesn’t explain what a Jewish relic was doing in America, 2000 years ago..

6 Tomb of Alexander the Great

When in India, Alexander the Great met a naked philosopher named Calanus, he was an old man who self immolated himself infront of him, rather than turning old and getting sick. His last words to Alexander were, “See you in Babylon” which sounds like the beginning of a cheesy 80′s era song, and Alexander and his soldiers didn’t get the meaning at that point because he had no plans of ever revisiting that city. Only when Alexander later died in Babylon did it make sense to his followers. The discussion of his death is for another day, today we still don’t know where his tomb is.

His coffin was hijacked on its way to Greece, by Ptolemy (his former general who was now ruler of Egypt), and buried him in Alexandria. Caesar visited his tomb, Caligula also did and he looted his breastplate, later Muslim travelers visited it as well and even wrote about it. And then suddenly in the last two hundred years we have no idea where it is. There have been more than 100 search attempts and all have failed. Legend has it he is buried under a Coptic church.

5 King Arthur

The legendary king, at first seems like a total myth, but remember that all myths are based loosely on reality. The strongest candidate for King Arthur is Riothamus, who was a historic figure referred to as the “king of Britons” who fought with the Romans twice in Gaul, just like Arthur did. He was betrayed by his close adviser just like Arthur was (Lancelot in Arthur’s case). And in the end Arthur goes off to Avalon, Riothamus had to escape and he was last seen in a town called Avallon. I think we have a clear winner.

4 Summerwind

Another creepy post. There is this mansion in Wisconsin named “Summerwind”. It was built in the 1920′s and who ever lived there had a bad experience. When the first owner lived there with his wife, he heard complaints from his maids that the place was haunted which he shrugged off as women talk, until one day the basement door started shaking and he saw a ghostly apparition of a man, he fired two shots at it and fled with his wife. After remaining vacant for 40 years new owners moved in and almost immediately saw strange occurrences from flickering shadows, to hearing soft voices when they entered a room, you know standard horror movie stuff. There was also a ghost of a woman who appeared occasionally in the dining room. I hope you aren’t alone when you read this. Later they found the remains of a little girl, and when they went to double check, the body was gone. Later they hired some construction workers to renovate the house, but the workers complained about lost tools and how the rooms changed sizes every time they measured them.

Needless to say it was abandoned again, this time for good and after multiple lightning strikes a very small portion of the house remains today.

3 Mayerling Incident

This one is a pretty interesting mystery, it reads just like a Agatha Christie novel. Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria had an affair with Baroness Mary, during a family dinner with his parents, he excused himself and left to an imperial hunting lodge called “Mayerling“. This was where he had invited Mary so he could spend time with her. The next day, when one of the staff knocked on his door, it didn’t open. After waiting long enough they broke the door to find the Prince and Baroness dead. The prince had a gun in his hand making it seem like a standard murder-suicide at first and that’s the official story. A thing to note is that the Prince was in a big fight with his father over his mistress which might have caused him to do that in despair.

But things are never that simple. In reality the affair was an open secret in the royal family, even his wife knew about it and didn’t care (she had an affair of her own), everyone seemed okay with it. The official report also says that only one shot was fired, but there is evidence to suggest that 6 were fired, where did the other 5 go? (Modern forensic evidence suggested that the baroness died from a head wound); and during the burial, the prince was wearing gloves and his mother was not allowed to see his hands as there were defensive wounds there. Since his death changed the Austrian succession and eventually even led to world war 1, it makes sense that he was attacked by some assassin whom he tried to defend himself from but failed in the end, or maybe the lovers just had a quarrel which got sour and the royal family did their best to cover it up. We may never know.

Ghost Ship of the Frozen North 1931 Url-41The Baychimo, a 1,322 ton steam ship owned by the Hudson Bay Trading Company, regularly traveled to Alaska and British Columbia transporting goods and passengers, and fur trading with the Inuit who lived along the Beaufort Sea. On October 1, 1931, Baychimo was making a return trip to Vancouver. She’d completed a run to Victoria Island, and her hold was stuffed with furs. Unfortunately for captain John Cornwell and the crew, winter arrived sooner than expected with freezing temperatures, strong winds, and the threat of blizzards. Baychimo became stuck fast in the pack-ice, and the crew were helpless to do anything except wait.Luck seemed to be on the captain’s side since two days later, the ice shifted and Baychimo broke free, but Dame Fortune was fickle. The ship continued to be trapped, then released by the thickening ice. By October 15, the Hudson Bay Company sent airplanes to rescue twenty-two of the crew, but the captain and fourteen other crew members stayed behind, building a shelter on the ice. Imagine their surprise when they awoke on November 25, the morning after a terrible blizzard, to find Baychimo gone.A few days later, a seal hunter told Cornwell he’d spotted the ship adrift about forty-four miles (71 km) southwest. As time passed, the company continued to receive reports from eyewitnesses who had seen the drifting ghost ship. By 1939, scores of sightings were reported. However, no one was able to catch up to Baychimo, which continued to uncannily elude pursuit. The last sighting occurred in 1969. Despite recent searches, the ship’s ultimate fate remains unknown.9 Pascagoula’s Phantom Barber 1942 Url-1-23In June 1942, after a population boom brought about by the increased manufacturing of warships in the area, the citizens of Pascagoula, Mississippi were stalked by more than the specter of war—a hair cutting phantom terrorized the night.The man nicknamed the Phantom Barber by newspapers worked in the darkness made more profound by the Army’s blackout regulations. On Monday or Friday evenings, he slit a window screen to gain access to a house, crept inside, and cut the hair of sleeping occupants, particularly blonde girls. Not necessarily one lock or two, but sometimes shearing as much as a full head of hair. He took nothing else from the home except his prize.He began with two young girls in the convent of Our Lady of Victories, followed by a six year old female child visiting another family. That time, he left a clue—the print of a man’s bare foot in sand on an unoccupied bed in the room. The police were baffled and offered a $300 reward for information. The public was in a panic. Women refused to go outside at night. Men applied for pistol permits. Bloodhounds were brought in to track the bizarre intruder, but the efforts failed. The Phantom Barber continued his hair cutting incursions.At last, the phantom broke his pattern, or so it seemed. A window screen was slit in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Terrell Heidelburg, and the intruder came inside their bedroom. However, rather than cutting hair, he brutally assaulted the couple. Mrs. Heidelburg lost her front teeth and was knocked unconscious, while her husband was beaten with a metal bar. Both survived the attack. Two months later, the police chief announced the arrest of a suspect, William A. Dolan, a chemist, who was charged with attempted murder.A connection between Dolan and the Phantom Barber came with the discovery of human hair allegedly found near his residence. He continued to deny he was the phantom, and while convicted of the attack on the Heidelburgs—he bore a grudge against Terrell’s father, a judge—was never charged with the phantom’s acts. Since the Phantom Barber never touched his victims other than their hair, it would seem no meaningful tie exists between Dolan and the Phantom Barber, whose break-ins ended as mysteriously as they began.8 The House of Blood 1987 Url-2-19In Atlanta, Georgia, just prior to midnight on September 8, seventy-seven year old Minnie Winston found what appeared to be blood splattered on her bathroom floor and fetched her seventy-nine year old husband, William. Further searching by the couple revealed more spots of red, blood-like fluid on the bathroom’s lower walls, the kitchen, living room, bedroom, hallways, and basement. Blood was also found in a crawlspace and under a television set.Nothing like this had ever happened in their rented house before and the couple were understandably alarmed. They owned no pets and lived alone together. Unable to come up with a satisfactory explanation, and with blood continuing to come out of the floors and walls, Minnie and William called the police.At first, their concern wasn’t taken seriously. William regularly underwent dialysis at home, but he and his wife insisted the blood belonged to neither of them. On police investigation, laboratory results showed the liquid was human blood, Type O. Both William and Minnie were Type A. Once detectives ruled out evidence of wrongdoing, they were at a loss to explain the phenomena and dropped the investigation.Was the “bleeding house” a hoax perpetrated on the Winstons? Or evidence of poltergeist activity? We’ve been unable to discover what happened to the couple following the events in 1987. Current records indicate the house at 1114 Fountain Drive is occupied.7 The Guyra Ghost 1921 Url-3-19Around April 8, the Bowen family in Guyra, New South Wales, Australia, was terrorized by heavy thumps and bangs on the walls, followed by showers of stones striking the roof and the outside of the house, sometimes breaking windows. The apparent poltergeist attacks continued every night. Local police investigated, patrolled the area, and even surrounded the house, but stones continued to fly and loud bangs were heard. A team of detectives from Sydney kept the Bowen family under constant surveillance and formed a double cordon around the residence, to no avail. The thumping did not cease, nor did the stone throwing, much to the neighborhood’s consternation and distress. Detectives concluded the family couldn’t be responsible.At one point, a twelve year old daughter, Minnie, confessed to throwing a few stones and rapping on a wall to scare a sibling, but events proved she couldn’t have been responsible for all the phenomena. Minnie appeared to be the focus of the activity. When she was sent to Glenn Innes to visit her grandmother, violent thumps and bangs began to disrupt the house. Ornaments toppled off shelves. Stones were thrown out of nowhere. In early August 1921, Minnie returned home. The poltergeist activity declined, and finally stopped.Minnie Bowen eventually married and never spoke to journalists about her past encounters with the unknown. The attacks have never been fully explained.6 Eleanore Zugun the Ghost Girl—1925 Url-4-15At the age of twelve, frightening events began to occur to Eleanore Zugun. When she visited her grandmother’s cottage in Romania, stones smashed against the structure. Pins and needles flew across the room to scratch her and bury themselves in her arms. Broken dishes added to the ordeal. A witness reported seeing a water jug float through the air and land several feet away. Her grandmother believed Eleanore was possessed by an evil spirit.Months later, Eleanore was sent to a monastery where she was given an exorcism with no effect. The priests sent her to a lunatic asylum. By that time, newspapers had reported her story, which came to the attention of Fritz Grunweld, a respected researcher. His observations of Eleanore concluded the supernatural phenomena was genuine. Next, she was invited to live with Countess Zoë Wassiliko-Serecki in Vienna. The countess became her protector and had thirteen year old Eleanore trained as a hairdresser. The strange events continued, including objects appearing out of nowhere or disappearing into thin air. The attacks on Eleanore escalated. She was knocked to the ground, slapped, bitten, had her hair pulled, and things thrown at her. On a couple of occasions, the countess observed an inexplicable moving shadow in Eleanore’s vicinity shortly before phenomena occurred.Eleanore was taken to London for more testing by the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, and also to Munich, where she was caught cheating. On her return, the activities began to fade gradually, although the attacks against her continued. By the time she turned fourteen, all phenomena ended and her life returned to normal. 5 Angelo Faticoni the Human Cork—Early 20th Century Url-5-14Freak show performer, contortionist, and a man possessing a strange and unique power, Angelo Faticoni’s singular talent was reflected in his nickname—the Human Cork. Faticoni was unsinkable, and he made his living demonstrating that fact.Faticoni could sleep on his side while floating in water. He could stay afloat for hours with lead weighing twenty pounds fastened to his ankles, and assume any position in the water without danger. He was sewn into a sack with a heavy cannonball chained to his body and tossed into the water. He didn’t sink, but floated up to eight hours in apparent unconcern, now and then peeping his head out of the top of the sack. He is also reported to have crossed the Hudson River fastened to a lead weighted chair.After testing Faticoni, Harvard University doctors concluded he did not possess abnormal internal organs, but they failed to find an explanation for his amazing buoyancy. Faticoni continued astonishing audiences with his performances in lakes, rivers, and pools. He was investigated numerous times, but no evidence of trickery was ever found.In 1931, while visiting relatives in Jacksonville, Florida, Faticoni died. Although he promised to reveal the secret of his talent, he never did. He remains a mysterious individual.4 Lost Boy Larry August 1973 Url-6-9New Mexico CB radio operators were shocked and concerned on August 7 to hear transmissions from a young boy pleading for help. His name was Larry, he told them, and he was trapped in a red and white pickup truck with his father, who might be dead.According to Larry, his father had taken him on a hunting trip. At some point along the way, there was an accident and the truck overturned into a gully, jamming the driver and passenger side doors. He said he couldn’t get out, had no food or water, and no idea where the accident had occurred. He also made matters worse by constantly switching channels in an apparent panic. And he thought his father had suffered a heart attack and died.Much to the operators’ frustration, Larry’s signal faded in and out. Due to atmospheric conditions, his cries were heard in California, Wyoming, and elsewhere. The authorities were contacted and the search for Larry began in New Mexico, somewhere in the mountains where local and state police believed the signal originated. Thousands of civilian volunteers hit the roads, but not all as part of the official search, leading to confusion.As the days passed, newspapers and TV stations picked up the story. Larry’s signal grew weaker, a sign the battery was running out of juice. Practical jokers began mimicking his voice over the airwaves, adding to the chaos. By August 12, no sign of an overturned pickup truck had been found, no one reported a missing boy, Larry’s signal disappeared for good, and authorities claimed the broadcasts were a hoax. However, no one has ever come forward to claim responsibility and no suspects were named. Were Larry’s cries for help a fraud? Or did a young boy die, trapped and alone? The mystery remains unsolved.3 The Methuen Water Demon 1963 Url-7-4The Martin family’s ordeal in Methuen, Massachusetts began in October when Francis, his wife, and children first noticed a damp patch on the wall in the den. While they watched, the patch grew larger. A moment later, they heard a popping sound and a drenching spout of extremely cold water began spewing from the wall.Francis Martin immediately ruled out frozen pipes—temperatures weren’t freezing—and he’d recently had the drains cleaned. The inexplicable water spout continued to stream a few seconds before it stopped. The next day, a second spot in another location began to spew water like a fountain. The spray lasted less than half a minute and ceased. The phenomena continued over several more days, with new icy water streams occurring at fifteen minute intervals in various rooms throughout the house, soaking floors, furniture, and occupants. A deputy witnessed a water jet burst out of a wall and spray two feet into the room.When the Martins moved into a relative’s house, that place was also inflicted with mysterious water streams from the walls. Returning his family to their own home, Francis Martin had the water turned off at the mains. The next day, water spouts began to explode from the plaster walls, often from several spots simultaneously. Gallons of water poured out in twenty second intervals, but the source remained unknown. The Martins moved away again, but were forced to return to Methuen when the water demon followed them.Gradually, the phenomena tapered off and stopped altogether. The family never discovered what caused the frightening activity. The official explanation? Moisture build-up.2 The Black Flash of Provincetown 1939 Real Alien Men In BlackBeginning just before Halloween, the citizens of Provincetown, Massachusetts were startled by the sudden, eerie appearance of a mysterious Black Flash—an impossibly tall, impossibly fast human-like creature who appeared dressed all in black, with a black face, pointed ears, and silver eyes. According to witnesses, the Black Flash also made a loud buzzing sound. He lurked around Provincetown jumping at people, laughing maniacally, and eluding pursuit with extreme agility and speed.Witnesses would report seeing the Black Flash in one location, and a minute later, other reports would come in of sightings across town. Some said he was a Peeping Tom. Others thought he was a devil with supernatural powers. The town was in such an uproar, frightened children refused to go trick-or-treating that year.The police believed the Black Flash was the work of practical jokers. Chief Anthony Tarvers claimed he knew the identity of the hoaxers, but he declined to name them. “The Black Flash is dead and buried,” he said. There were no further appearances of the terrifying phantom fiend who menaced the small town. Who was the Black Flash? No one has ever claimed responsibility, and Tarvers died with his secret intact.1 The Phantom Whistler 1950 Hd Wallpaper Download Free((Thewallpaperdb.Blogspot (83)In February, eighteen year old Jacquelyn Cadow of Paradis, Louisiana began hearing wolf whistles outside her bedroom window at night. The home she shared with her mother was also broken into by an intruder. She reported the incidents to the authorities, but nothing came of it. Night after night, she heard the same whistles until she announced her engagement to State Trooper Herbert Belsom. The whistler changed his tune to a menacing funeral dirge.Around this time, Jacquelyn also received telephone threats, the voice on the other end of the call promising to come to her home and stick a knife in her if she went ahead with her marriage. Her sleep continued to be broken by whistling dirges and bloodcurdling moans. Newspapers picked up the story, and hundreds of curiosity seekers began driving by the house in the hope of catching a glimpse of the phantom whistler or his victim.Jacquelyn suffered a collapse when she, her mother, her aunt, and a New Orleans States-Item reporter heard the whistler at work. The reporter and Belsom searched the yard, but found no one. Investigations by the State police and the sheriff’s office turned up nothing. The harassed bride-to-be, her nerves shattered, tried staying with relatives. The whistler soon followed. And when she went to the home of Belsom’s parents, the whistler called her mother with a message: “Tell Jackie I know she’s at Herbert’s house.”On October 1, she and Belsom married. Was the whistler at the wedding as he’d promised? If so, he never spoke up, nor did he carry out his threats. The local sheriff considered the case closed—a hoax by persons he declined to name. Who was the phantom whistler and why did he choose to terrify Jacquelyn Cadow? We’ll never know.

TheSpiderFromMars

Circleville is a small city in Ohio that has a population of over 13,000. Its biggest event is the annual Circleville Pumpkin Show. It is also the home of a mysterious letter writer known as the Circleville Letter Writer. Starting in 1976 residents of Circleville began receiving mysterious, vindictive letters. Thousands of letters, written in block letters were sent to city officials and even normal citizens. One recipient of the letters was school bus driver Mary Gillespie. She received letters accusing her of having an extra-martial affair with a school official. On August 19, 1977 Mary’s husband Ron Gillispie received a phone call seeming to indicate the identity of the writer. He left his house with his gun to confront the writer. He was found dead a short distance from his house. His car was driven off the road and his gun had been fired once. He died as a result of the crash and it is unknown why he fired the gun. It is unclear if it was an accident or murder. Later, while driving her bus, Mary saw signs along her route harassing her. She went to take one down and discovered a booby-trap meant to fire a gun at her. The gun belonged to her former brother-in-law Paul Freshour. Freshour was convicted of attempted murder and was thought to be the Circleville writer. However, while incarcerated the letters continued despite him being in solitary confinement without access to letter writing material and his mail being monitored. He was denied parole because of the letters and received one himself after his parole was denied.

2. Charlesworths

The Hinterkaifeck murders.

Footprints had been found leading to the house, but not returning a few days before the murder

3. RoflPancakeMix

Disappearance of Amy Lynn Bradley.

Basically, a girl goes missing during a cruise with her family in 1998. A year later, a guy reported being approached by her at a brothel. She told him her name is Amy Bradley and asked him to help her. Before he could do anything, she was escorted upstairs. That guy ended up reporting this to the police… Several months later. By the time he reported it, the brothel had been burned down.

4. Subwaycookienipples

Jack the Ripper. Strangled, disemboweled, cut up prostitutes and f*cking got away with it.

6. forumrabbit

Harold Holt. Australian PM goes swimming off the coast of Portsea (the open sea is notoriously rough near the bay opening), despite it being common knowledge that the water is far too violent for swimming. He goes swimming and dies despite guards being there, but his body was never found.

7. Bazzcry

Back in the 40s my home town had a streak of about 10 unsolved murders, all believed to be committed by the same person. All the victims were teenage couples, usually killed while doing it in their cars at midnight. The incident came to be known as the Moonlight Murder Spree, and the mysterious killer came to be known as “The Phantom Slayer”.

8. caitlinadian

Taman Shud for sure.

9. JustAPoop

Those green kids from the 1800′s or something. the green children of woolpit, they said they lived underground, in a big civilization of green people. The boy died, the girl learned English and lost her ‘green tint’.

10. Crimsonnrose

Scariest unsolved mystery for myself is the ourang Medan. It was a ship that had sent out an SOS and then a message said “captain and his crew found dead in chartroom. Possible entire ship’s crew dead. I die.” And soon after, a boarding party was sent out. They found all the crew lying on their backs, eyes wide open and all out on the front deck. They found the crew’s dog barking at nothing and the ship sank as it was being towed to shore.

11. scrotum_nachos

Although a lifeboat was missing, The Mary Celeste still freaks me out. A lot.

12. RedditName

The Gilgo Beach Killer… 12 murdered and no suspects.

13. brettship2007

Every missing child case that is unsolved

14. Drooperdoo

I noticed a weird shadow in the corner of my daughter’s room that was never there before. It was an odd dog-shaped shadow (like the head and shoulders of a German Shepherd). After tucking her in at night, I noticed it. At first I paid very little attention to it. Then two nights later, I was driven to try and find the source of the new shadow. I turned off lights, put my hand in front of the venetian blinds over the window; I examined ambient light sources. Nothing I did affected the shadow, or allowed me to trace its source. It was bizarre. But I still wasn’t terribly spooked. Then one night, I found myself sleeping in my daughter’s bed (after her brother kicked me out of my own bed, subsequent to snuggling in between my wife and I.)

My daughter was away with her grandparents camping, so I took her bed. At around three in the morning, my foot brushed the wall (near the shadow). For some reason, my body recoiled–as if some instinctive, visceral impulse was telling me not to touch it. It was so jarring that I woke up a little bit. Only after that did I become more suspicious about the strange new shadow. I felt as if my subconscious (but no: not my subconscious. Something deeper and more primitive) was warning me about its true nature. I almost instantly dismissed this paranoid thought. But it resurfaced the next night, when my daughter came home and I was tucking her in. She said apropos of nothing, “Have you noticed that shadow there? The one in the corner? I’ve never noticed it before. But it’s been here since last week.” I was stunned that she, too, had recognized that it was new. (Like myself, she couldn’t determine its source.) It was just suddenly . . . there. I carried out my duty as a parent and pretended as if it was nothing. Just a trick of light, I said. I paid it no more attention, and encouraged her to do the same. Then a few nights later, I was unsettled yet again, when, just as mysteriously as it appeared, it vanished. No furniture was different in her room. Same venetian blinds. Same light fixtures. Same everything. But now suddenly, the shadow was gone.

What the hell was it? What created it? Why did my body (quite apart from my conscious mind) recoil when my foot brushed it? I’m a grown-ass man and I’m still perplexed by it.

15. aetbeut

Whenever I almost finished a bowl of cereal, I held it up to my mouth and drank remaining milk. But every time I did that I could see some strange figure standing behind me. I could see it through the reflection at the bottom of the bowl. I freaked out and I couldn’t figure out what the heck the figure was for a long time. I thought some kind of ghost was always following behind me. Then about a year later, I found what it was. It was my thumb holding the bowl.

16. BatardNoix

Tara Calico’s dissapearance

17. Auraeuphorialic

The Zimbabwe school alien sighting.

Basically a bunch of kids, I think the whole class, aged between 8-10 or something like that, is playing outside when they notice someone looking at them.. they all stop and start screaming and run to their teachers. They all described a some odd looking beings – and all of them describe the same thing.

18. xCBS

I think the West Memphis 3 are a good candidate.

It all starts when 3 boys are together outside playing. The step father of one of the boys reports them missing.

During a mass manhunt for the missing boys someone finds 3 mutilated bodies of the 2nd grade children by a creek. They had be castrated, hogtied and stripped naked. The entire community went on a witch hunt and blamed 3 teenagers because they were dark, and did dark things. Like praised satan and whatnot.

Anyway, the three teenagers were convicted of murder and kidnapping, basically because of their looks and practices. Then 18 years later they are acquitted on new DNA evidence. Since then no one knows who did it.

19. limesta

Vladimir Komarov

20. Read-It-Reddit

A mysterious radio station that has been constantly broadcasting since the early 1970s from an unknown location in Russia. It broadcasts this weird buzzing sound, and has been interrupted by creepy voice transmissions in Russian. Nobody knows the purpose of the radio station, who oversees it, etc. Interesting stuff.

21. RedditName

The Alphabet Murders. I think most people have heard of these.

From wiki: “The so-called “Alphabet murders” (also known as the “double initial murders”) took place in the early 1970s in the Rochester, New York, area; three young girls were raped and strangled.”

22. RedditName

The disappearance of Maury Murray.What intrigues me so much about this case is not so much that she disappeared, although of course, that’s interesting because no trace of her has been found, but no that’s not the real mystery to me.

23. calicoan

Chicago Tylenol murders

24. MarvelousMagikarp

As a native Nova Scotian, the money pit on Oak Island interests me very much.

Basically, it’s a very, very deep hole (like, 150+ feet deep) that many speculate to be some sort of pirate treasure location. There are things like metal and logs as deep as 100 feet, and some stones with inscriptions that hint at treasure. Everytime they dig deep enough, the pit floods. You should like List Catalog on Facebook here.

25. CrazyCapitalist

I know I put four pairs of socks in the dryer, I have 7 socks now. My theory is the spinning action creates a wormhole that has enough energy to send one sock into the far reaches of the universe, where a mirror image of me is wondering where the extra sock came from.

26. cybercreep

Philadelphia Experiment

27. Shadow_Wielder

Boy in the Box (Philadelphia)

28. ECU_BSN

I drive through the Texas Killing Fields every day.

It’s creepy as 5 fucks at night. One has to wonder HOW MANY MORE bodies are around there. It’s MILES of marshy open sludge: it’s surrounded by Big-Oil plants along the back side. They made a movie about them….

29. kjt231

My dad was driving from Hanover, New Hampshire to Sharon, Vermont – about a 15 minute drive – after a long night of studying at the Dartmouth library. After placing his books in the trunk and turning on the radio, he took a look at the clock and noted it was 12:06am. My dad drove onto the two lane highway and headed home. About 12:11 he saw a very bright light coming towards him, but he quickly dismissed it as the high beams of an 18 wheeler and focused his attention on the road. The light grew brighter and brighter until suddenly he started hitting the brakes and swerving to the right to avoid this huge vehicle. The light vanished. My dad was driving on the road towards Sharon. He took a look at the clock. 2:13am.

30. Jaydee

I’m still unsure how much I personally believe it, but if true the smiley face killer is one fucked up mystery.

31. BlueOak777

Beginning just before Halloween in 1939, the citizens of Provincetown, Massachusetts were startled by the sudden, eerie appearance of a mysterious Black Flash—an impossibly tall and gangly, impossibly fast human-like creature who appeared dressed in a black suit, and without a face.

According to witnesses, the Black Flash also made a loud buzzing sound. Witnesses would report seeing the Black Flash in one location, and a minute later, other reports would come in of sightings across town.

Slenderman at his best.

32. qtrules

Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion. sends shivers down my spine every time i think about it.

33. gem_eater

Personal experience that made me afraid of the woods at night. I was eleven years old and my buddy and I decided it would be fun to go out “ghost hunting” in the middle of the night just the two of us. We ventured out into the woods with a single dim flashlight which my buddy kept hold of the entire trip. Not long after we had started searching the woods I noticed something that stood out amongst the brush. Being as my friend had the flashlight I had to try and direct the beam by instruction, which was unnervingly difficult. I pointed him to the bush where I had seen something unusual, directing him to the precise spot. The flashlight quickly lighted upon a mans face with a wide-eyed expression. The moment the light touched him he burst through the bushes coming at us at full speed. We screamed and ran in a moment of pure terror with the sound of heavy footfalls at our back and the feeling of sand projecting off the mans steps onto the backs of our legs. He pursued us relentlessly until we reached my buddy’s well lit backyard and ran inside and locked all the doors and windows. Took me a long time to feel comfortable in the woods at night after that.

34. blondedre3000

the case of the missing germans

35. Fuzzy_Ramblings

Why the Fast and The Furious movies continue to be successful.

36. narweenie

Nazca lines. Not really scary, but if I remember correctly, they were very long (like around 660 ft?) and although there’s speculation as to how they got there, there’s no real answer as to how they were made so accurately on such a large scale back then.

37. DasUberVega

This is my own personal story so you may choose to believe it or not, but to me it was the creepiest experience of my life which is still a mystery to this day.

It was the summer of 1999 in a small middle of no where town called Accord, NY in an old summer camp which was converted over to small vacation homes. I was 12 years old and was running around playing man hunt (hide and seek with a jail and base) with a group of my friends. There must have been about 10 of us playing.

After we were done playing we would sit in the middle of the camp and watch the stars. The camp is surrounded by woods and in the spot we were sitting we were no more then 30 yards from the edge of the woods. I happened to be positioned in the circle so that I was facing the woods, and between all the laughing and talking I saw a figure emerge from the darkness near the forest. I wasn’t scared at first but more puzzled at what I was looking at. It had a humanoid shape, It was nearly completely white, had arms which extended to its knees, and was very thin. The way it walked was probably what creeped me out the most. It’s arms swung in a very strange way, with very long swings and very smooth motion

As it emerged from the woods it was walking along a tennis court fence and it’s head was just about at the top of the fence. Which would make it seem it was about 10 ft tall. It walked along the tennis court fence and then turned the corner and headed back into the woods.

While this was all happening I pointed it out to all the kids that were there with me. Some got up and ran, a bunch of us stayed and watched the entire time.

The following morning we went to area we saw the creature and tried to look for signs that would help us identify what it was. We found nothing. then we tried to figure out how someone could prank us so good. We thought maybe two adults got together and put one on the shoulders of another, but that doesn’t even come close to the height of the creature we saw, and how would they make themselves look so thin? How would they make their arms seem so long? How could the move so smoothly and walk up a hill like that? There were so many questions we had, and no solid explanation for these answers.

To this day, the white creature we saw that night remains a mystery to us. And one we will most likely never solve.

38. Makirs46

Eight young men have been found drowned in Wisconsin in the last decade, many in La Crosse. Thus far, police have ruled all the deaths accidental. Others have been found dead in the Mississippi River or other bodies of water in Iowa and Minnesota.

They mostly go missing around bar time. As someone who spent many college nights in downtown La Crosse, WI site of 8 of these deaths), I can tell you there is no way they simply “wandered” into the river or got to the bridge (the opposite way of campus) without being noticed.

39. megahitler

Mutilated cows. What the f*ck is up with that shit?

40. MafuZa

Numbers stations are basically radio stations found all around the world, that broadcast artificially generated voices reciting non-stop streams of random numbers and codes in various languages. No one seems to be able to locate their origins and no one know what on earth they are, what they’re for and why they are broadcast.

41. grasswasgreener

I cannot remember the name he was given, but recently i was watching america’s most wanted and it told of a killer that climbs in through open windows and kills couples. Usually tortures the male first, but keeps him alive as he rapes and kills the woman and then he kills them both by beating them to death. The scariest part is that he’s still out there. Even though our room is upstairs, i still get a little freaked out when we sleep with the window open.

42. marcm6246

Falcon Lake incident

43. vanillathundah

Wanda beach murders..

44. giulianosse

Nazi experiments/occultism researches.

I’d give everything to know the secrets behind those things.

45. BeautifulKiller

There was a story my former english teacher told our class. I don’t remember the whole story and I think I missed some things, because this was about 4 years ago when she told us (and I’m not a great storyteller, I apologize (also for my english)). She told us the story from time to time which took overall hours and it was fucking creepy the way she told us. I know it sounds like a horror story/movie, but … I just don’t know. But anyway and after all I wanna tell this story.

Back when she lived in Amsterdam (when she was young, so about 25 years ago, before she moved to the south of Germany), she had a small apartment in an old house under the attic. The house itself was very old and kind of ‘open’ for strangers. Sometimes alcoholics got in and drank/slept in the hallway and in the attic. And because of that was there some noise in the old house. At night she kept hearing these noises from the attic. One night/late evening she went outside in a small street to buy some stuff. Then some black clothed stranger stole walked slow by her, as she wanted to go home and stole her purse or something. She went after him. He was kinda quicker than her, but she followed him into a industrial area, before he somehow disappeared… or lost him in the fog or something. He was gone.

She went home afterwards. Now I don’t remember exactly what happened next. But after she got out of the shower (a few days after this incident) there was a word written on the blurred mirror, which kinda made no sense in the common language. I don’t remember the word exactly, but my teacher thought is was some kind of a name. She asked in the neigborhood if the word or the name had some kind of a meaning, but I’m not sure if somebody could tell her something. When she got back home (after work the next days) her stuff was spread all over the apartment, and with lipstick written on the mirrors and windows again this word. She was just creeped out till end. She wanted to go upstairs to the attic and talk to these alcoholics but she was too scared. She called her brother and his friends to stay over at night. As she told, they were tough guys and wouldn’t mind beat those guys up. I don’t know, but these noises from the attic where louder than ususal and finally they went upstairs. She stayed in her apartment.

After a few moments her brother and his friends came down, serious as hell, grabbed a few things and told her “Get the hell out of the house, you’re coming with us, right now!”. She had no time to ask, she grabbed some of the stuff and drove with the guys to her brothers house. During the driving everyone was quiet. She tried to ask them what happened or what they found up there, but she couldn’t get an answer. Her brother was normally not that type of guy. He was always fun and open, but he was serious as fuck and drove like he was insane. The next days they kept telling her, how she’ll never go back into that house again. She found another flat somewhere else near Amsterdam, but she thought her brother and the guys… kind of changed. Everytime she tried to ask, what was in the attic, her brother started to scream at her. Even the brothers wife didn’t know what was going on with him and was kind of desperate. She never knew what was up there or what happened there. The followed years one or two of the friends turned into alcoholics and went to psychiatrists. Her brother was never the same again. She tried asking him from time to time again, but he always avoided that coversation. In that year she told us (2009/2010), she said her brother called her and was ready to tell her, what happened 25 years ago…

We still don’t know. She promised, she would tell us, what happened, but it was the end of the school year and the next year (which was our last year at the school), we got a new english teacher. There was not really a chance to finish the story because her brother lives still in the Netherlands. I’m still dying to hear what happened. Now i’m not that great storyteller, but the way she told us the full version of the story… woah.

46. PsyTheLoser

The YOGTZE case. IB4: No Dinosaur Walking!

In 1984 an unemployed guy called Günther Stoll (used to work as a technician in the food industry), from Anzhausen in Germany is suffering from paranoia. From time to time he talks about “them” who want to hurt or kill him but never says who “they” are. On the 25th of October 1984, around 11pm, while his wife is present, he suddenly stands up from his chair and says: “Jetzt geht mir ein Licht auf!”(germ. “I got it!”/”Now I understand!”) and writes down YOGTZE(the G might be a 6) and leaves.

Later that night he shows up in his favorite pub in Wilnsdorf. He orders a beer but suddenly falls from his chair and hurts his face. Witnesses say that he was not drunk at this time. He leaves immediately after and shows up at 1 am in Haigerseelbach where he grew up and knocked at the door of an old lady who was his former neighbor. She was known for her religiosity and he was eager to come in and have a talk with her. According to her he was talking about “horrible incidents which will take place tonight”. At the end she didn’t let him in because it was 1 am and he seemed confused. Till here it sounds like just another guy with paranoia but here is where it gets interessting:

At 3 am two truck driver find Stoll’s damaged car in the roadside ditch of the Autobahn 45 near Hagen-Süd. Both witnessed that they saw four men, in bright cloths, walking around the wreck. They stopped, stepped out of their truck and headed to the emergency telephone nearby, at the side of the road, to call for help. After that they walked over to the wreck and found Stoll in his car, he was naked and heavily injure but conscious. He said that there used to be other men with him in the car but that they hit the road. He died in the ambulance on his way to the hospital. The police later found out that the deadly injury was not caused by the accident but that someone drove over him, while he was already naked, and later put him into his car. Till this day no one knows what really happened that night and what the meaning of YOGTZE is.

47. hpstrprgmr

Michelle Bachman

48. rb4r

The Mcpherson Tape

Some scary shit.

49. andy_panzer

F*ckin’ magnets. How do they work?

50. DovakiinBF3FTW

The Solway Firth Spaceman will always be the creepiest for me. A man takes a picture of his daughter and when he gets it developed he sees a strange figure in a space suit in the background of the photo. This was in the 1960′s. Here’s the link if you’re interested

51. raverbashing

The Isdal Woman

This is really scary. TC mark

he Murder Of Edmund Godfrey01 Edmund Berry Godfrey, an English magistrate, was found dead in 1678. Though three men were convicted of his murder and hanged, many historians believe they may have been entirely innocent. The late 17th century was a time of great religious tension in England. King Charles II was on the throne but had no children. First in line was Charles’s brother James, the Duke of York. Yet Charles was Protestant, and James was Catholic. England’s Protestants weren’t keen on the idea of a Catholic taking power, so a man named Titus Oates forged a plan known as the Popish Plot. Oates claimed—falsely—to have evidence that Catholics were planning to assassinate Charles in order to bring James into power.Godfrey was dragged into the affair when Oates presented him with this “evidence.” Godfrey was a poor choice, as he had some Catholic sympathy and so failed to do much about the accusation. Yet the strain of dealing with the case caused him to have a breakdown at the start of October 1678. He disappeared on October 12 that year, reportedly a very unhappy man.Godfrey was found on October 17, strangled in a ditch. His own sword was sticking out of his back. A silversmith named Miles Prance claimed he’d witnessed Godfrey being strangled under the watch of Catholic priests—this was a claim many were happy to use to their political advantage. Prance later admitted to lying, and many had doubted him in the first place. In 1682, three men were tried for libel for suggesting that Godfrey had committed suicide. That put anyone off talking about the issue until 1685, when King Charles died and James took power. James ordered another investigation, and suicide became the official story.Subsequent historians have suggested Titus Oates and his co-conspirators may have killed Godfrey themselves. One person unrelated to the conspiracies, the Earl of Pembroke, has been suggested as a possible culprit. Pembroke was a violent aristocrat that Godfrey had convicted of murder, a conviction the House of Lords later overturned. Truly, no one knows for certain, and this one’s going to remain forever unsolved.9 The Cheapside Hoard

On June 18, 1812, a group of laborers were demolishing a tenement building in the center of London. They were in for a surprise—a few feet below the brickwork, they found a huge collection of buried treasure. It included large amounts of jewelry crafted with gemstones from around the world, including rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. The pieces were intricate and varied—the emerald items alone included a carving of a parrot, bunches of grapes, a lizard, and a completely unique carving of a clock. In total there were 500 items, making the collection easily the most significant find of its type. Yet no one knows who it belonged to or why it was left there.The hoard has been dated to the middle of the 17th century, perhaps during the English Civil War. At that time, the area was home to a number of jewelers and goldsmiths, and it’s entirely possible one of them buried the goods for safekeeping while he went off to fight, then never made it back. Shortly afterwards, the Great Fire of London came along and destroyed everything but the cellar. The workers that found the items took them, still covered in mud and dirt, to a jewelry dealer known as Stony Jack. Jack had made it known to the laborers of London that he was more than happy to take a look at anything they dug up. He bought the pieces for a tidy sum and negotiated in secret to give them to the newly opened London Museum. The treasures continue to be shown today. The curators in charge of the collection hope that historians from around the world can help figure out where the gems came from and who was forced to leave them behind.8 The St. Pancras Walrus 03 Photo credit: High Speed 1 “Who is the walrus?” is no longer just a question of interest to Beatles fans. Archaeologists in London were excavating the graveyard of St. Pancras Old Church this past July, in preparation for the construction of a rail terminal. The area had been used for mass graves during the first half of the 19th century. A number of epidemics meant 44,000 bodies were buried there from 1822 to 1854, yet the contents of one coffin were particularly unusual. Scientists opened up the coffin to find the remains of eight people—and a walrus. No one knows how the sizable beast got to London. Historians think it was likely dissected by medical students, yet there are no records of such a large and exotic animal in the city at the time. Given that it would have needed to have been shipped from the Arctic, and the specimen was 4 meters (13 ft) long, it’s surprising that it didn’t make a stir. To most people around at that time, walruses were essentially sea monsters.7 Who Owns Witanhurst Mansion?04 Photo credit: Wikimapia The most modern mystery on this list involves Witanhurst Mansion, which is the second largest home in London after Buckingham Palace. While we know who owns the Queen’s residence (it’s our shape-shifting lizard overlords), no one has any idea which lucky person is in possession of number two.The 65-bedroom mansion was purchased for 50 million pounds (a little over $80 million) back in 2008. Yet the purchase was made by an offshore company, Safran Holdings, and the owners of that organization are a closely guarded secret. Whoever the owners are, they have since almost doubled the size of the building. Underground, they’re building a 20 meter (70ft) swimming pool, a spa, a cinema, and a parking lot with 24 spaces. Their expenditure on building work has cost as much as they paid for the place.One person that isn’t the owner is Russia’s richest woman, Elena Baturina. She successfully sued British newspaper the Sunday Times for libel when they suggested she was the one splashing out. Butarina claimed the “blatant lie” caused a backlash in the press in her home country. We’d like to make it absolutely clear we make no claims whatsoever as to what she may or may not have purchased with her payout from the suit. 6 The Abduction Of Elizabeth Canning 05 While relatively few people nowadays have heard of Elizabeth Canning, she was one of the most famous people in the whole United Kingdom back in 1753. Her tale begins on the first of January that year—Canning, who was working as a maidservant, disappeared for four weeks. Her story, and whether or not she was telling the truth, ultimately divided the nation.Canning claimed a couple of thugs had abducted her and carried her out of London to a brothel in Enfield, a town just outside the capital (which is today part of the Borough of London). The owners of the establishment had tried to force her into prostitution and locked her in an attic when she refused. They stole her corset and fed her stale bread, until she was able to escape through a window on January 29. When Canning returned to share her story, a mob led by Canning’s employer descended upon the place of her alleged imprisonment. Police soon arrested Mother Wells, the madam of the brothel, and her gypsy accomplice Mary Squires. Henry Fielding, a magistrate now famous for his novels, acquired convictions for them both. Wells was branded, and Squires was sentenced to hang for her theft of Canning’s corset. The Lord Mayor of London, Sir Crisp Gascoyne, heard about the case and thought something wasn’t right. Squires had a number of reliable alibis suggesting she was in a completely different part of England at the time of her alleged crimes. Gascoyne called on King George II to intervene, and Squires’s conviction was quashed. This angered a large swath of the public, and the entire case became a point of debate.Pamphlets on both sides of the argument were published. People wrote poems and gave talks. Even France’s Enlightenment hero Voltaire weighed in. Those against Canning suggested she’d gone into hiding to have an abortion or an illegitimate child, and concocted her abduction to avoid the shame. She was tried for and convicted of perjury, and sentenced to seven years in America. She never came back, and died in 1773.The truth of the matter has yet to be resolved, and it’s captivated many academics since. It seems impossible to be certain how much of her story is true, if any, but there doesn’t appear to be any evidence for her being anywhere else during the month she was missing. 5 The Natural History Museum Mystery Bug 06 Photo credit: Terry Thormin London’s Natural History Museum has 28 million bugs on record, so when museum entomologist Max Barclay found one hanging around in the building’s grounds, he decided to check what it was. It turned out to be a mystery—there was no record of where the insect had come from or what it was. The creature’s closest relative was American, the box elder bug, though a similar specimen had also been found on the Mediterranean coast of France. “I was surprised to be confronted by an unidentifiable species while having a sandwich in the museum’s garden,” Barclay said. He suggested two explanations, that it may be a similar species called roeselii that’s started feasting on a different type of tree, or it might not be roeselii. We suppose two options covers all bases, at least.4 The Beast Of Sydenham 07 The wildlife of England doesn’t offer much in the way of danger to its residents. The bears and wolves are long gone, and it’s much too cold for alligators. It’s perhaps no surprise, then, that sightings of large, toothy creatures create a stir. One such example is the Sydenham beast, a large black cat said to stalk the suburb from which it gets its name.The Sydenham beast was first encountered in 2005 by resident Tony Holder. In the early hours of March 22 he was out looking for his (smaller) cat, named KitKat, when he came under attack. A 1.5 meter (5 ft) long animal pounced on him, pinning him to the ground. It ran off before doing any serious damage, and Mr. Holder was treated for scratches by ambulance crew. A police team armed with tranquilizer guns scoured the area in search of the beast, but without success.While sightings of fantastical creatures are often met with understandable skepticism, the police took the issue seriously. After all, large black cats do exist. Officers made visits to schools to offer safety advice to youngsters, telling them to avoid wooded areas and dark alleyways. The police said they’d had a report of a similar creature in south London in 2002. The last reported sighting was in 2009, when a jogger claimed he’d been chased by the cat.3 The Origin Of The London Stone 08 Photo credit: lonpicman/Wikimedia The London Stone, also known as the Stone of Brutus, is an unassuming piece of history. It’s located at 111 Cannon Street in London, behind a grate in the wall of a disused office building. You can see its resting place on Google Street View, directly underneath a “Shop To Let” sign. It’s an extremely understated home for an object that folklore deems to be necessary to London’s very survival.The stone has been in London for thousands of years. Legend says it used to form part of an altar built by Brutus the Trojan, mythical founder of the city. Poet William Blake portrayed it as a site of pagan sacrifice. Sir Christopher Wren suggested it may have been used by the Romans as the starting point for measuring distances from London, as it was located in the center of the city. It’s been mentioned by Shakespeare and Dickens. A proverb about the stone says “So long as the stone of Brutus is safe, so long shall London flourish.”It’s been moved many times, and survived disasters including the Great Fire and the Blitz. Until recently, it was under the charge of Chris Cheek, who happened to run the sports shop in 111 Cannon Street’s lower floor. The best view of the stone was from inside the shop, through a glass window just below the cricket equipment. This was arguable quite fitting because understatement and cricket are about as English as anything can be.As the To Let sign from Google Maps indicates, that shop is no longer open. The future of the stone is uncertain, and it may well be moved to a museum, at least temporarily. The building is due for demolition, so it can’t stay where it is. Chris Cheek thinks the mystery of the stone’s origin is part of its appeal, saying “If it doesn’t have a beginning, then perhaps it doesn’t have an end either.” 2 The Hanging Of Roberto Calvi 09 During his life, Roberto Calvi was nicknamed “God’s banker” due to his work with the Vatican. Yet he is best known for the manner of his death—he was found hanging from Blakcfriars Bridge in the heart of London on June 18, 1982. He had five bricks in his pockets, along with $14,000 worth of cash in three currencies. Leading up to his death Calvi had been accused of stealing money from the mafia, making the whole situation sound like the set-up of a crime thriller (probably starring Jason Statham). That July, a jury at an inquest declared the hanging a suicide. Not everyone was convinced, and a second inquest took place in 1983—it declared an open verdict. In 2002, a group of forensic investigators appointed by Italian judges concluded that Calvi had been murdered and hung from the bridge after his death. An American Archbishop was sought for questioning, but his position as a Vatican employee granted him immunity. Five people were put on trial in Italy in 2005, but all were acquitted in 2007.Francesco Di Carlo, a former mob boss. was linked with the killing, though he wasn’t one of the people that stood trial. Di Carlo thinks the murder will never be solved because those involved have too much power. “They are made up of a mixture of politicians, bank presidents, the military, top security. and so on,” he says. Calvi’s son continues to pursue the truth and claims to have spent nearly $25 million on lawyers and private investigators. Yet even with his efforts, the mystery won’t be solved soon, if ever.1 The Pimlico Poisoning 10 On the January 1, 1886, Thomas Edwin Bartlett was found dead at his home in Pimlico in the center of London. He had been ill for some time, but when doctors performed a post-mortem, they discovered a large quantity of chloroform in his stomach and intestines. They declared this the cause of his death, and blame fell on his wife Adelaide Bartlett.There was a fair amount of circumstantial evidence against Adelaide. Her tutor (and probable lover) George Dyson confirmed that he had bought chloroform from a chemist on Adelaide’s behalf. She had admitted her intention to us the chemical to knock out her husband should he try to claim his “marital rights.” Adelaide apparently avoided sex due to her husband’s mental instability and the horrendous stink from his chronic gum disease. The case went to trial and she was acquitted. The jury believed that no convincing case had been made about how she might have been able to murder her husband. There were no burns to his throat, which would’ve been inevitable had he been forced to swallow. After the trial, famed doctor Sir James Paget said, “Now that she has been acquitted for murder and cannot be tried again, she should tell us in the interest of science how she did it!”History is silent on what became of Adelaide after the trial, and the passage of time has also failed to solve the mystery of how Thomas Bartlett met his fate.Alan’s been to London a few times and, having once paid 8 pounds for a bucket of popcorn, considers its greatest mystery to be how anyone can afford to live there. He’d love to get the chance to explore an abandoned Underground station or two.