Random Shit

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.

Barbara Newhall Follett (NEW!) - A young writer disappears. Was she murdered or just tired of her life?

The Baychimo - When winter strikes, a ship sheds its crew–and then decides to take off without them.

The Black Dahlia Murder - Who murdered and maimed this woman, and is she the only victim? [suggested by several people]

Blair Adams - 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 Cleveland Torso Murderer (aka The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run) (NEW!) - Who killed and dismembered the poor during The Great Depression in Ohio and Pennsylvania? [suggested by the-fisher-queen]

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?

Edgar Allan Poe (NEW!) - What killed the famous poet, and was there foul play? [suggested by anon]

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]

Jack the Ripper (NEW!) - Who is the world’s most famous serial killer? [suggested by diepflaume]

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 Original Nightstalker (aka the Golden State Killer) (NEW!) - A very, very bad man tormented California in the 70s and 80s, and we don’t know who he is. [suggested by thesmallestbird]

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 Villisca Axe Murders (NEW!) - A killer with an axe terrorizes Iowa more than 100 years ago, and the murders remain unsolved to this day. [suggested by several people]

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 - 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.)

“Forgive me, Father, I have sinned”