Unsolved Mysteries
Some interesting reading for a rainy day.
Ambrose Bierce - A famous Civil War-era writer decides to leave his cushy life to go to Mexico, only to disappear forever.
Agent 335 - One of the first U.S. spies was a woman, but who?
The Axeman of New Orleans - This guy won’t stop coming after people with an axe until everybody plays jazz music.
The Baychimo - When winter strikes, a ship sheds its crew–and then decides to take off without them.
The Black Dahlia Murder (NEW!) - Who murdered and maimed this woman, and is she the only victim? [suggested by several people]
Blair Adams (NEW!) - What is this Canadian man running from and did it find him?
Cahokia - A gigantic ancient civilization along the Mississippi is abandoned, but why? [suggested by luminescent-wanderings]
The Canneto di Caronia Fires - Mysterious fires keep popping up in this small Sicilian town.
Çatalhöyük - A 9,500-year-old city in Turkey had everything going for it, and yet it was abandoned.
The Chicago Tylenol Murders - Someone laces Tylenol with poison and descends an entire city into chaos.
The Dancing Plague - People are stricken with the need to dance, some to their deaths.
D. B. Cooper - An unknown man hijacked a plane, extorted hundreds of thousands, and then parachuted to freedom.
The Dyatlov Pass Incident (tw: photo of a dead body) - Several experienced mountain hikers go into a mountain range in Russia and die of unknown causes. [see also]
Ebola in Rome - Did an outbreak of ebola strike ancient Athens long before it ever tormented Africa?
Elisa Lam - A woman, seemingly pursued by an unseen foe, disappears, only to be found inside her hotel’s water tower two weeks later.
Erdstall - There are thousands of still-standing, ancient tunnels beneath central Europe, but no one knows what they’re for. [see also]
Genghis Khan’s Tomb - One of the greatest and most successful rulers of all time, but no one can find his final resting place.
The Hinterkaifeck Murders - Unexplained noises, missing house keys, and an entire family found dead in rural Germany.
The Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum Theft - Some hacks in police uniforms steal a bunch of priceless art, including a Rembrandt.
The Isdal Woman - What happened to this woman in Norway, who was she, and why were so many steps taken to conceal her identity? [suggested by whalesguts]
Japan’s Ghost Ship Problem - Ships from North Korea keep showing up on Japan’s shores… filled with mutilated corpses.
The Jian Seng - A giant ship is found floating with no crew and no one knows where it came from.
Jimmy Hoffa - A teamster with mob ties disappears, theories abound.
Joseph Newton Chandler III - Is this dead identity thief the Zodiac Killer? And if so, what is his real name?
The Joyita - Crew members abandon a real unsinkable ship, but why?
The Lighthouse Mystery - Several Scottish lighthouse keepers disappear abruptly.
The Lost Colony (on Roanoke Island) - A bunch of white people decide to try and colonize an island and it doesn’t go well.
The Lost Dutchman Mine - In unforgiving territory lies a lost treasure just waiting to be found–if you don’t die first.
The Lost Nazi Plunder - The nazis stole hoards of important items, including art and cultural artifacts. Where are they now? [see also]
The Mary Celeste - A sailing ship in working order is found, still at sea, without a crew.
Monsieur Chouchani - Who was this mysterious Jewish teacher and mentor of Elie Weisel who dressed like a vagabond?
The Oakville Blobs - Gelatinous blobs of an unknown substance rain from the sky.
The Paris Catacombs - A seemingly infinite series of tunnels filled with bones, artwork, and missing explorers. [see also]
The Phaistos Disc - A mysterious disc, thousands of years old and covered in strange symbols, is found in Crete.
Rongorongo - An undecifered set of glyphs from Easter Island, possibly a completely independent language.
The Tamam Shud Case (tw: photo of a dead body) - A body shows up on a beach in Australia, and how it got there is wrapped in mystery and lies.
Tarrare - A man who couldn’t stop eating, anything and everything.
UVB-76 - A strange radio station in Russia broadcasts a constant buzz, broken only by strange readings of names and numbers.
The Voynich Manuscript - An unbreakable code in an ancient manuscript full of strange drawings–what’s not to like?
The Woman in the Tree (aka Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm?) - A body turns up stuffed into a tree trunk, becomes a local rallying cry.
The Wow! Signal - A strong radio signal from space still has researchers stunned and baffled.
The Zodiac Killer (NEW!) - Who is the cryptic killer behind a rash of murders? (Other than Ted Cruz.) [suggested by several people]
(These are the most reliable unsolved stories I could find. There are many others that require more sources to be believed or already have very plausible answers.)
Know a good one that isn’t listed? Let me know!
