Unsolved mysteries

The Weirdest Unsolved Mysteries of World War II

World War II was a period of dramatic change across the globe. But along with all the political machinations and military strategies, some seriously bizarre stuff happened. Here are five of the most mysterious incidents from World War II.

The Baffling Battle of Los Angeles

A few months after Pearl Harbor, America was pretty on-edge, especially along the west coast. Everyone was scanning sky and sea in fear of another Japanese attack. In fact, a Japanese submarine had shelled the Ellwood oilfield near Santa Barbara in February of 1942. Later that month, the mounting tension exploded into full-blown hysteria. An AWOL weather balloon triggered the initial panic. After that, flares were fired into the night sky, either to illuminate potential threats or signal danger. People saw the flares as more attackers, and a barrage of anti-aircraft fire soon filled the night.

The activity continued for several nights. In the end, the only casualties from the whole affair were three heart attack victims and three dead due to friendly fire. No Japanese aircraft were found, and the Japanese later denied having anything in the air near L.A. at the time.

That's the official story, at least. At the time, there were claims of a coverup and a bunch of wild theories. The incident was five years prior to the Kenneth Arnold flying saucer report that sparked the U.S. UFO craze, but this is sometimes retroactively described as one of the first major UFO sightings. Newspapers at the time thought the whole thing was orchestrated to drum up support for the war effort by inducing panic. Tight-lipped military reports did little to alleviate concerns – a full public investigation wasn't performed until 40 years later.

The Mysterious Disappearance of Flight 19

This is one of the most famous mysterious incidents of all time. It technically happened a few months after the war had ended, but it involved the U.S. military and aircraft used during World War II. The basic story is quite simple: Lieutenant Charles Taylor lead a flight of five TBM Avenger planes on a training exercise from a Naval air station in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Over the radio, Taylor complained that his compasses weren't working and that he didn't know where he was. After flying around in confusion for several hours, the planes ran out of gas. None of them have been seen since, and all 14 men on board were presumed dead.

The Navy's inquiry was pretty clear-cut as well. Taylor had a history of getting lost while flying, and several radio operators and even junior members of Flight 19 seemed to know where they were, but following Taylor's faulty leadership, they flew far into the Atlantic instead of back to Florida. Much of the mystery surrounding the incident stems from the Navy's efforts to assuage Taylor's mother, who complained when the inquiry blamed her son without hard evidence. They changed it to, "cause unkown."

Later writers would wrap supernatural elements around the story, creating the legend of the Bermuda Triangle and inventing details out of whole cloth, such as pilots having premonitions of tragedy that prevented them from joining the doomed flight, and mysterioso radio transmissions like, "the sky is all wrong here."

It's a creepy enough story on its own – five planes lost over open sea with night falling and bad weather moving in, the encroaching certainty of their own deaths looming over them. The actual final radio transmission was a faint, garbled message. Radio operaters could only make out the flight's call sign, "FT…FT…FT…"

Since the planes have still never been recovered, the true fate of Flight 19 technically remains a mystery.

The Strange Life of Rudolf Hess

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Rudolf Hess' life is straight out of a spy novel, filled with bizarre twists and turns before you even to get to the really weird stuff. He was a high-ranking Nazi who carried the title "Deputy to the Fuhrer." On May 10, 1941, Hess ate dinner at his home in Augsburg, Germany, then hopped into a Messerschmitt Bf 110 and flew to Scotland. He was chased by British planes, crashed, survived and was captured by a farmer. He asked to speak to the Duke of Hamilton and other British officials, claiming he sought a peace agreement between Germany and Britain (he feared the bloodbath of a lengthy war between Germany, Britain and Russia).

It's not really clear that Hess had the authority to create a peace agreement on his own (Hitler was certainly not in on the deal), and the British simply kept him as a prisoner of war. He spent some time in the Tower of London and other prisons, then was tried at Nuremberg. Found guilty of conspiracy and crimes against peace, Hess was given a life sentence. He spent most of that time at Spandau Prison in Berlin – for the last 20 years of his life, he was the only prisoner in the entire place. When he died in 1987, they tore Spandau down, partly because it was obsolete and unneeded, but partly to prevent it from becoming a shrine for neo-Nazis.

That's all pretty weird, but there are conspiracy theories galore. The Russians always suspected that Hess was trying to secretly unite Germany and Britain so they could team up against Russia. Churchill and Stalin had some memorable confrontations over the matter. Hess' mental state declined dramatically once he was imprisoned, despite reports that he seemed mentally fit when he first arrived in Scotland. By the time of the Nuremberg trial, he was suffering from severe amnesia and was periodically unable to remember anything from his years as a Nazi. This resulted in claims that the real Hess was in hiding, and the man tried at Nuremberg and left to rot at Spandau was an impostor.

The Haunting Case of WW II Ghost Planes

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It's not hard to find reports of World War II ghost planes. Unfortunately, it's quite hard to find documented sources of these ghostly tales. The fact is, they're all pretty much folk tales. They take many forms, but there are two basic types.

First, you have post-war stories about people encountering planes from the past. Typically, you'll have a young couple out for a country stroll in the 1960s, 70s or 80s. They hear an odd sound and turn around to see a prop-driven vintage warplane cruising along at low altitude, or perhaps an entire flight of them. Some of these stories are heavily embellished (the plane disappears into thin air, the sighting was a harbinger of a tragic plane crash that happened shortly thereafter, the ghostly pilots waved sadly to the witnesses as they passed). Stories might incorporate speculation about "time slips."

The second type is more interesting. These are ghost plane sightings that happened during the war. In its most common form, the story revolves around a flight of planes that left for a dangerous mission. Later, all the planes return and are accounted for except one. Everyone watches the sky, hoping they made it out alive, but no plane appears on the horizon. Then, hours later, the drone of radial engines sounds in the distance. A plane is spotted. Could it be their missing comrades? But, no they would have run out of fuel hours ago. Still, there it is, heavily damaged, limping along toward the air field. It makes a ragged landing and fellow airmen rush to the scene. Inside the plane they find…nothing. Not a soul. Not a corpse. And the fuel tanks are bone dry.

There are variations – sometimes the crew is on board, but dead. Sometimes the plane is so badly damaged there's no physical way it could have flown. There's a story that a U.S. plane appeared over the California coast hours after the Pearl Harbor attack, smoking and sputtering. Witnesses could see a pilot on board, but when the plane crashed, the wreckage was empty.

The Creepy Coincidence of the Deadly Double

If you dive deep enough into the rabbit hole of paranormal experiences, you'll eventually run into numerology. Numerologists find meaning in odd numeric coincidences that seriously strain credulity. But in the case of the Deadly Double, the numbers lined up just a little too perfectly to be dismissed out of hand.

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A few weeks before the Pearl Harbor attack, a pair of strange ads appeared in the New Yorker. They seemed to be advertising a dice game called The Deadly Double. One of the ads showed a pair of dice with the characters 0, 5, 7, xx, 24, and 12 on the visible faces. Above were warnings in a variety of languages: "Achtung! Warning! Alerte!" The other ad showed people in a bunker and explained that the dice game was essential air raid survival gear. The company logo was a suspiciously Germanic looking double eagle.

The ads have a somewhat strange design, but only in retrospect did they appear to contain a coded message. The numbers could allude to the date of the Pearl Harbor attack (12/7), with the other numbers representing codes to be deciphered by sleeper agents in the U.S. The Deadly Double itself was thought to refer to the twin threats of Germany and Japan.

Like many mysteries, retellings of this story emphasize the unknown and leave out crucial facts. The 0 and 5 are sometimes thought to foretell the exact time of the attack, but the first aircraft opened fire on Pearl Harbor at 7:48 a.m. local time. Books on mysterious events like to leave this story unresolved, as though the identity of the ads' creator remains unknown to this day. In truth, it was traced to a game company in Chicago that made a dice game called the Deadly Double. Their war-themed ad might seem like poor taste today, but the numbers on the dice matching the date of Pearl harbor was pure coincidence. Still, it was weird enough that the FBI got involved.

Sources:

Breuer, William B. Unexplained Mysteries of World War II. Wiley, 1998.

California State Military Museum. "California and the Second World War: The Battle of Los Angeles."

Fishman, Jack. Long Knives and Short Memories: The Spandau Prison Story.Breakwater Books, 1986.

New York Times. "Hess Dies at 93; Hitler's Last Lieutenant."

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• There are thousands of UFO, Big Foot or other cryptozoological sightings recorded around the world every year, and most of them can easily be proven as fakes or the ramblings of some mad-man. Yet, among these absurdities there are some rare events which simply have no explanation, and leave even skeptics puzzled. Here are six of the most peculiar mysteries that no one can find a good explanation for.
  
  

  1.

  Valentich disappearance

  
  

  I want to believe… that this isn’t just a pie tin on a string.

  Frederick Valentich was an experienced pilot, with over 150 hours of air time. He was flying a Cessna 182L light aircraft on a perfectly clear day with no wind, perfect visibility and no technical problems, when suddenly he disappeared without a trace.
  The case sounds like an urban legend about the Bermuda Triangle; however this is a well documented disappearance that left authorities puzzled. A search and rescue mission was sent out only minutes after the plane disappeared from radar, however there was no trace of the plane. All Cessena aircrafts are meant to stay afloat for up to an hour after crashing in water, but in this case the plane was simply nowhere to be found. Valentich did have a life vest inside the cockpit, so why he didn’t attempt the highly complex technique known as “getting out of the plane” is unknown. Further, why the radio beacon that he had on board didn’t activate is another mystery.
  Perhaps the strangest detail of the disappearance is that only minutes before he crashed, Valentich reported that he was staring down an UFO. His last, vaguely unsettling message was: “It’s not an aircraft.” This strange detail has lead to two conclusions. Some figure Valentich suffered some sort of non-hilarious stroke and started seeing things, in which case we still don’t know why his plane couldn’t be found. Other’s lean towards the possibility that Valentich was indeed kidnapped by little green men.
  

  2.

  Bimini Road

  
  

  Not an extreme closeup of an old waffle.

  This road, sometimes also called the Bimini Wall, is an underwater structure that stretches for half a mile near Bimini Island in the Bahamas. The whole structure is formed of rectangular limestone blocks which look very much like an ancient road or a wall. The official explanation for the strange structure is that it was caused over the years by concentrations of shells and sand. In other words, the whole thing could potentially be created over millions of years by a natural occurring phenomenon of hard shells gathering in straight angles. However, this doesn’t explain why the formation is completely unique to one specific spot in the entire whole world. It also doesn’t explain why it seems like it has multiple layers.
  

  
  

  Atlantis was known for it’s mediocre craftsmanship.

  Furthermore, several anthropologists and oceanographers believe that the road might have been created by an ancient civilization, some going as far as suggesting this might be the fabled Atlantis. Probably a stretch, but we still have to wonder how these underwater roads were created.
  

  3.

  Mary Celeste

  
  

  Thankfully, there is no Gordon Lightfoot song about this.

  The Mary Celeste was launched in 1860 out of Nova Scotia and was approximately 103 feet from bow to stern (sailor talk!). What is interesting about the ship is that it seems to have been cursed right out of the shipyard. It had several accidents during construction and on board, and was sold dozens of times within the first ten years.
  Eventually, the ship, which was originally named “Amazon” ended up under an American captain who renamed it as “Mary Celeste.” The ship departed New York on November 7th, 1872 with a crew of seven as well as the captain’s family. None of the people on board were ever seen again.
  A shipwreck was hardly a strange turn of events. But when we say “nobody was seen again”, that doesn’t include the ship. It’s considered one of the most mysterious maritime disappearances of all time because all the crew and the family members simply vanished. Nothing on board was missing, all the cargo and valuables were accounted for, and there was no sign of a struggle. The ship had month’s worth of food and water, and nothing seemed out of place, except for the fact that there were no people on board.
  Explanations range from underwater earthquakes to alcohol induced hallucinations (the ship was carrying a load of whiskey). Presumably something scared all the sailors into the ships lifeboat; however why they didn’t take any food with them or what they could have seen that terrified seasoned sailors into abandoning their ship is a mystery
  
  

  4.

  Marfa lights

  
  

  Spookiness.

  These unexplainable lights, also known as ghost lights, are usually seen near U.S. Route 67 on Mitchell Flat east of Marfa, Texas. The lights usually appear at night with no particular pattern behind them; sightings can occur days apart at times, years apart at others. Since the 1800’s, eyewitnesses report seeing mysterious orbs of light hovering in the air approximately about ten times a year. The lights almost always appear in groups or pairs, merge, separate and dance around each other, before they disappear as mysteriously as they appear like a Baldwin brother fresh out of rehab.
  Since the lights usually appear over the desert, it’s hard to reach them before they disappear and there are only a few accounts of people who have reached the lights. According to these eyewitnesses the lights are created by something similar to fireworks, but lacking smoke and sound. So, not at all like fireworks.
  Explanations range from alien visitors to a jerk stunt pulled by the city in order to increase tourism. Either way, no one really has a good explanation as to why the lights appear when they do or what could cause them. To add to the mystery, similar ghost lights have been seen all over the world, usually in swamps and deserts and other places people usually avoid.
  

  5.

  D. B. Cooper

  
  

  A sketch of Cooper during his “Blues Brothers” phase.

  One of the most famous disappearance acts in all of history doesn’t belong to Houdini, but to a man known as D.B. Cooper. Cooper and his massive stones hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft in November of 1971 and demanded $200,000 in ransom. After receiving the money, Cooper ordered the plane to take off and midway through the flight, parachuted himself and his ill gotten gains into the night, disappearing forever.
  This is the only unsolved case of aircraft hijacking to date and even the money has not been traced back. Even more puzzling, no one has ever found the parachute or the body of the hijacker, despite very careful investigations of the area where he would have landed. The authorities did find about $5000 of what they believe was the random money down the river from where Cooper could have landed, but only after years of fruitless searching.
  The case was re-opened in 2007 when the FBI released new sketches of the hijacker, based on DNA samples and new eyewitness testimonials. Previous eyewitnesses were classified as “time-wasting jerks”. So far, not even the latest technology could reveal who D.B. Cooper really was.
  

  6.

  Shag Harbour UFO Incident

  
  

  Artists rendition of something awesome.

  Even most people who don’t believe in UFO’s, are confused by the case of the mysterious Shag Harbor incident. In October of 1967, an unidentified object crashed into the Nova Scotia harbor, which is officially the most mysterious harbor in the world. The object destroyed several boats and upset the local tide patterns. Despite a several month long investigation by various government agencies, no one has any idea as to what the object might have been.
  This case is remarkable because it’s one of the few times that government officials formally admitted that an unidentified flying object was involved. The Canadian government stated this after all other possibilities were exhausted: the object that crashed was not a plane or a meteorite of any sort and since no wreck was ever discovered we can’t know more details about it. Canadians are, of course, known for “telling it like it is”, albeit as politely as possible.
  Several of the witnesses to the crash included military personnel who declared that the object was an alien spacecraft like nothing they have seen before. A driver involved in an attempted recovery went as far as identifying the U.S. military as being responsible for the whole rescue mission, because they were interested in learning about alien life. Officially the case was only investigated by the Canadian government with the help of the U.S. Condon Committee UFO study, who didn’t offer any explanation aside from the official statement. Americans are, of course, known for “telling you to mind your own f***ing business”.
  
  

  Image sources:

  • – Valentich disappearance:
    http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/ufo05.jpg
  • – Bimini Road:
    http://tymask.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/bimini-road1.jpg 
    http://www.hasslberger.com/terceira/images/yonaguni.jpg
  • – Mary Celeste:
    http://taholtorf.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/ghost-ship.jpg
  • – Marfa lights:
    http://www.rense.com/1.imagesF/marf.jpg
  • – D. B. Cooper:
    http://rinnayu.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/db_cooper.jpg
  • – Shag Harbour UFO Incident:
    https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUZda4B7EYgmWQAVgyM1x_3GeB0mtLS6j3MygzNNeV9V-D3AEKCSM0CnACjTbfH-V4B74tpXiK7-NBAhRgsgZLYZF04MHn7ABc9GDjfANZtabtza2d-sJdP_zg-sRKsDpYD9BLAllZjmwk/s400/crashed_ufo.jpg

  Sources:
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentich_disappearance#Search_and_rescue
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimini_Road
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marfa_lights
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shag_Harbour_UFO_incident

GHOST FACES ON THE KITCHEN FLOOR - a true story of paranormal happenings in Spain.

An elderly woman (Maria Goméz Pereira) and her infant grandchild were sitting in the kitchen of their village home when suddenly the child cried out excitedly.
The innocent eyes of the child had seen nothing more than a diverting new game; but it was a 'game' that terrified the old lady, and developed into a mystery for which scientists, despite every test, have as yet been unable to find any natural explanation.

It happened in the village of Bélmez, not far from the city of Cordoba in Southern Spain, on a hot morning of August 1971.

What the child had seen was a human face which had spontaneously imprinted itself on the pink floor tiles — a face with troubled features, infinitely sad. No recognisable pigment of any kind had formed the image, and when the family tried to rub it out, they were horrified to find that the eyes only opened wider and the expression grew even more sorrowful.

Alarmed and bewildered, the owner of the house tore up the floor and replaced the sinister tiles with concrete. But three weeks later a second face emerged, this time with even more clearly defined features.

The affair had taken a turn far beyond the grasp of the simple village folk, and now the local authorities became involved. They ordered a section of the floor where the faces had appeared to be cut away, and an official inquiry began. Workmen dug the floor up, uncovering the remains of a medieval cemetery.

Meanwhile, a third apparition took place, then a fourth, then a series of faces all together. The kitchen was locked and sealed. Four more faces, including that of a woman, appeared just as mysteriously in another part of the house. But they were the last: the phenomenon melted away as inexplicably as it had begun.

All this time the curious apparitions had attracted experts of one kind and another to the house. Even the most cynical of them were unable to prove that the images were the work of a human hand. Their puzzlement was enhanced by the evidence of ultra sensitive microphones planted in the house.

These microphones had recorded sounds not audible to the ear—voices speaking strange languages, agonised moans matching the torment in the eyes of the faces on the floor.

No one yet has come forward with a really satisfying explanation of the Faces of Bélmez. All the experts have been able to suggest is that the house was once the scene of some tragic and terrible incident, perhaps connected with some form of medieval witchcraft.

This list comprises the most famous unsolved mysteries known to man that really defy rational explanation or are just outright strange.

1. Shroud of Turin [Wikipedia]

The shroud of Turin is a linen cloth bearing the image of a man who had apparently died of crucifixion. Most Catholics consider it to be the burial shroud of Jesus Christ. It is currently held in the Cathedral of St John the Baptist in Turin, Italy. Despite many scientific investigations, no one has yet been able to explain how the image has been imprinted on the shroud and despite many attempts, no one has managed to replicate it. Radiocarbon tests date it to the middle ages, however apologists for the shroud believe it is incorrupt – and carbon dating can only date things which decay.

Prior to the middle ages, reports of the shroud exist as the Image of Edessa – reliably reported since at least the 4th century. In addition, another cloth (the Sudarium) known even from biblical times (John 20:7) exists which is said to have covered Christ’s head in the tomb. A 1999 study by Mark Guscin, a member of the multidisciplinary investigation team of the Spanish Center for Sindonology, investigated the relationship between the two cloths. Based on history, forensic pathology, blood chemistry (the Sudarium also is reported to have type AB blood stains), and stain patterns, he concluded that the two cloths covered the same head at two distinct, but close moments of time. Avinoam Danin (a researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem) concurred with this analysis, adding that the pollen grains in the Sudarium match those of the shroud.

2. Mary Celeste [Wikipedia]

Mary Celeste was launched in Nova Scotia in 1860. Her original name was “Amazon”. She was 103 ft overall displacing 280 tons and listed as a half-brig. Over the next 10 years she was involved in several accidents at sea and passed through a number of owners. Eventually she turned up at a New York salvage auction where she was purchased for $3,000. After extensive repairs she was put under American registry and renamed “Mary Celeste”.

The new captain of Mary Celeste was Benjamin Briggs, 37, a master with three previous commands. On November 7, 1872 the ship departed New York with Captain Briggs, his wife, young daughter and a crew of eight. The ship was loaded with 1700 barrels of raw American alcohol bound for Genoa, Italy. The captain, his family and crew were never seen again. The ship was found floating in the middle of the Strait of Gibraltar. There were no signs of struggle on board and all documents except the captain’s log were missing.

In early 1873, it was reported that two lifeboats grounded in Spain, one with a body and an American flag, the other containing five bodies. It has been alleged that these could have been the remains of the crew of the Mary Celeste. However, the bodies were apparently never identified.

3. The taos hum [Wikipedia]

The ‘Taos Hum’ is a low-pitched sound heard in numerous places worldwide, especially in the USA, UK, and northern europe. It is usually heard only in quiet environments, and is often described as sounding like a distant diesel engine. Since it has proven indetectable by microphones or VLF antennae, its source and nature is still a mystery.

In 1997 Congress directed scientists and observers from some of the most prestigious research institutes in the nation to look into a strange low frequency noise heard by residents in and around the small town of Taos, New Mexico. For years those who had heard the noise, often described by them as a “hum”, had been looking for answers. To this day no one knows the cause of the hum.

4. Black Dahlia [Wikipedia]

In 1947 the body of 22 year old Elizabeth Short was found in two pieces in a parking lot in Los Angeles. According to newspaper reports shortly after the murder, Short received the nickname “Black Dahlia” at a Long Beach drugstore in the summer of 1946, as a play on the then-current movie The Blue Dahlia. However, Los Angeles County district attorney investigators’ reports state the nickname was invented by newspaper reporters covering the murder. In either case, Short was not generally known as the “Black Dahlia” during her lifetime.

Many rumours and tales have spread about the Black Dahlia, and the investigation (one of the largest in LA history) never found the killer.

5. Comte de Saint Germain [Wikipedia]

The Count of St. Germain (allegedly died February 27, 1784) was a courtier, adventurer, inventor, amateur scientist, violinist, amateur composer, and a mysterious gentleman; he also displayed some skills with the practice of alchemy. He was known as ‘Der Wundermann’ — ‘The Wonderman’. He was a man whose origin was unknown and who disappeared without leaving a trace.

Since his death, various occult organizations have adopted him as a model figure or even as a powerful deity. In recent years several people have claimed to be the Count of St. Germain. (Note that St Germain was never regarded as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church – the “st.” before his name refers to his alleged home).

6. Voynich manuscript [Wikipedia]

The Voynich Manuscript is a medieval document written in an unknown script and in an unknown language. For over one hundred years people have tried to break the code to not avail. The overall impression given by the surviving leaves of the manuscript suggests that it was meant to serve as a pharmacopoeia or to address topics in medieval or early modern medicine. However, the puzzling details of illustrations have fueled many theories about the book’s origins, the contents of its text, and the purpose for which it was intended.

The document contains illustrations that suggest the book is in six parts: Herbal, Astronomical, Biological, Cosmological, Pharmaceutical, and recipes.

7. Jack the Ripper [Wikipedia]

In the later half of 1888, London was terrorrised by a series of murders in the east end (largely in the Whitechapel area). The name Jack the Ripper was taken from a letter sent to a newspaper at the time by someone claiming to be the killer. The victims were typically prostitutes who had their throats cut and bodies mutilated. In some cases the bodies were discovered just minutes after the ripper had left the scene.

The police at the time had many suspects but could never find sufficient evidence to convict anyone. In modern times there has even been some speculation that Prince Albert Victor was the murderer. Even with modern police methods, no further light has been shed on the murders in recent times. To this day no one knows who the ripper was.

8. Bermuda Triangle [Wikipedia]

The Bermuda triangle is an area of water in the North Atlantic Ocean in which a large number of planes and boats have gone missing in mysterious circumstances. Over the years many explanations have been put forward for the disappearances, including bad weather, alien abductions, time warps, and suspension of the laws of physics.

Although substantial documentation exists to show that many of the reports have been exaggerated, there is still no explanation for the unusually large number of disappearances in the area.

9. The Zodiac Killer [Wikipedia]

The Zodiac killer was active in Northern California for ten months in the late 1960s. He killed at least five people, and injured two. He comitted the first two murders with a pistol, just inside the Benecia border. In his second shooting in Vallejo, he attempted to kill two people, but one survived despite gunshots to the head and neck. 40 minutes later the police recieved an anonymous phone call from a man claiming to be their killer and admitting to the murders of the previous two victims. One month three letters were sent to Newspapers in California containing a cypher that the killer claimed would give them his name. They cypher was decrypted to read:

“I LIKE KILLING PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS SO MUCH FUN IT IS MORE FUN THAN KILLING WILD GAME IN THE FORREST BECAUSE MAN IS THE MOST DANGEROUE ANAMAL OF ALL TO KILL SOMETHING GIVES ME THE MOST THRILLING EXPERENCE IT IS EVEN BETTER THAN GETTING YOUR ROCKS OFF WITH A GIRL THE BEST PART OF IT IS THAE WHEN I DIE I WILL BE REBORN IN PARADICE AND THEI HAVE KILLED WILL BECOME MY SLAVES I WILL NOT GIVE YOU MY NAME BECAUSE YOU WILL TRY TO SLOI DOWN OR ATOP MY COLLECTIOG OF SLAVES FOR MY AFTERLIFE EBEORIETEMETHHPITI” The last eighteen letters have not been decrypted.

While Arthur Leigh Allen was the prime suspect, all of the evidence was against him being the killer. To this day the Zodiac murders have not been solved.

10. The Babushka Lady [Wikipedia]

During the analysis of the film footage of the assasination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, a mysterious woman was spotted. She was wearing a brown overcoat and a scarf on her head (the scarf is the reason for her name as she wore it in a similar style to Russian grandmothers – also called babushkas). The woman appeared to be holding something in front of her face which is believed to be a camera. She appears in many photos of the scene. Even after the shooting when most people had fled the area, she remained in place and continued to film. Shortly after she is seen moving away to the East up Elm Street. The FBI publically requested that the woman come forward and give them the footage she shot but she never did.

In 1970 a woman called Beverly Oliver came forward and claimed to be the Babushka Woman, though her story contains many inconsistencies. She is generally regarded as a fraud. To this day, no one knows who the Babushka Woman is or what she was doing there. More unusual is her refusal to come forward to offer her evidence.

The Wow! signal: Alien hunter claims best clue yet to existence of E.T. came from an interstellar lighthouse

An astronomer who has spent three decades hunting for the source of a transmission which is believed by many to be proof of alien life says it may have come from an interstellar 'lighthouse'.

Since 1982, Robert Gray has been on a quest to solve the puzzle of the 'Wow! signal', an enigmatic blip in the read out of a radio telescope - the like of which has never been seen again since.

Mr Gray, who has just published a book about his attempt to rediscover the signal said he believes it could have come from an alien 'lighthouse'.

The 'Wow!' Signal: This is the printout form the Ohio-based radio satellite that received the enigmatic transmission

The 'Wow! signal' was received at 11.16pm on August 15, 1977 - the night before Elvis died - as a radio telescope in Ohio swept its gaze through the constellation of Sagittarius.

It lasted 72 seconds and was earned its name because of the message of disbelief Jerry Ehman, a researcher with the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) programme, scrawled next to the printout recording it.

The characteristics of the signal - a rise and fall in its 'loudness' were exactly what the alien-hunters had been told to look out for.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2102529/The-Wow-signal-Did-best-clue-existence-alien-life-come-interstellar-lighthouse.html#ixzz1rzeaMfqu 

Vile Vortices

The vortices

Sanderson asserts that twelve "vortices" are situated along particular lines of latitude.^[1]

The best known of the so-called "vortices" is the Bermuda Triangle. Others include Algerian Megaliths to the south of Timbuktu, the Indus Valley in Pakistan, especially the city of Mohenjo Daro, Hamakulia Volcano in Hawaii, the "Devil's Sea" near Japan and the South Atlantic Anomaly.^[2] Five of the vortices are on the same latitude to the south of the equator; five are on the same latitude to the north. The other two are the north and south poles.

The idea has been taken up by other fringe writers, who have argued that the vortices are linked to "subtle matter energy", "ley lines", or "electro-magnetic aberration"^[3]

Paul Begg, in a series of articles for The Unexplained magazine, criticized the methodology of writers on the subject of unexplained disappearances. He checked original records of the alleged incidents. Often, he found, the ships which were claimed to have 'mysteriously disappeared' had a mundane reason for their loss (see for instance Raifuku Maru). Some were lost in storms, although the vortex writers would claim that the weather was fine at the time. In other cases, locations of losses were changed to fit the location of the vortex. Sometimes no record of the ship even existing in the first place was found.^[4]