If you could solve just one mystery....

[jamespowers]

They're not going to tell the truth. They can't even get a Kennedy movie on the history channel, because the family threw a fit.

There is case where the truth is probably stranger than fiction.

 

[jamespowers]

He'll be 69

I'll be a much younger 68

lol

Thanks. You'll be right there behind me in a few months.lol lol lol

 

[Almost Vintage]

Not Golden Era, but I'd like to confirm that Lizzie Borden killed her parents. I'm quite certain she did it, but I'd really like to know for sure.

 

[jamespowers]

Not Golden Era, but I'd like to confirm that Lizzie Borden killed her parents. I'm quite certain she did it, but I'd really like to know for sure.

Didn't they find the ax in the wall a while back?[huh]

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Ahh, you old fogies!

He'll be 69

I'll be a much younger 68

lol

 

[jamespowers]

Ahh, you old fogies!

You'll get there.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Long after you will!

 

[jamespowers]

Long after you will!

Age is still age.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

To quote Charlie Rich, I ain't never growin' old, I'll keep on rollin' with the flow.

Age is still age.

 

[Miss Golightly]

For me it would be the following:

The Black Dahlia
The death of Marilyn Monroe
The Disappearance of the Beaumont Children (this case haunted me) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaumont_children_disappearance

 

[Black Dahlia]

I think they actually have it nailed with James Kelly.:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Jack-The-Ripper-In-America

He is there at the times and dates. He even wrote a confession. A regular nut fooled every one until his death.

Hey there,

James Kelly is a fair suspect, but again...not a match. If you ever have the chance read Prisoner 1167, I recommend it. James Kelly had a fascinating and disturbing life of his own. A great and interesting book!
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[Black Dahlia]

The only real uproar I can see coming will be from those naive enough to think now that they'll release anything like the truth. [huh]



Certainly, if memory serves, when the last of the murders that are regarded as Ripper canon was committed, the Duke of Clarence was genuinely in Scotland. What still seems a possibility to me is that the murders were committed in order to cover up a royal indiscretion. It certainly seems more likely than the idea of one of the Old Firm getting their own hands dirty.

That's what makes this case so fascinating, there are so many possibilities! However, everyone has their own pet theory. It certainly was amazing being in Whitechapel visiting the sites. Hope to go back one day!
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[in/y]

One mystery that I have always found haunting since I first heard about it is the disappearance of 10 year old Beverly Potts in 1951.

Beverly went (with a friend) to an outdoor community show attended by a large number of people on a Friday night at a park that was a few blocks from her home in Cleveland, Ohio. The friend had to go home before the show ended and left Beverly behind.

Eyewitnesses recall seeing Beverly leaving the park at the end of the show with the rest of the crowd. She never arrived home. The case remains unsolved.

More about this case can be found at: http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/p/potts_beverly.html

 

[pasnthru]

I'd like to know exactly what happened to Jimmy Hoffa.

 

[Tiller]

It certainly is a distinct possibility that the true identity of the killer was discovered, and the ongoing 'mystery' down to a cover-up. I'd be very surprised if they did it simply to protect the Jewish community back then, though. A royal, now that would have been different. The Masonic conspiracy also can't be easily dismissed, given the specifics of the ritual nature of the killings.

Well I'm not suggesting that the Victorian police would have done it out of love for the Jewish community there, but a race war in your city is bad no matter the era. I could see the police fearing their being an outrage towards the Jewish Community if a Jew had done the crime at the time, and that the police would want to stop such violence. They looked bad enough at the time because they couldn't "catch" the killer, I think it would have looked worse though if racial warfare had opened up in the streets of Whitechappel, I doubt the police would have been up to stopping two large angry mobs clashing (the annoyed majority, and the Jewish community defending themselves).

Hi Tiller. Levy is your favourite suspect? Interesting. There are just so many suspects, and more being added to the list. I personally don't favour Levy as a suspect, but I too am no Ripperologist. I have read a great deal on the case, but there are always more books and articles to read, and new research coming to light. Hey...I use to be on Casebook (your link).

For me he seems the most logical. A mentally unstable man with syphilis? Perhaps he blamed the prostitutes in the area there that had inflected him, ruining his family life? Like many others I've always believed in the theory that a butcher would be a good cover up, who notices a butcher covered in blood? If you believe in "Jill the Riper" as a certain famous author suggested a midwife for the same reason.

IMO he is the most likely candidate. I think a lot of people are expecting "Jack the Ripper" to be as glamorous as his legend which is why a royal/Masonic conspiracy appeals to so many. I think it was more likely that he was a poor mentally disturbed butcher who blamed the ladies of low virtue, for the destruction of his life and mind.

 

[Lily Powers]

One Golden Era mystery? Only one? Fun question, but one that's hard to narrow down. Well, certainly the 1947 Elizabeth Short/Black Dahlia murder, but that's a given for a lot of people, so I'll venture on to the disappearance of a lesser known personality, actress Jean Spangler.
She disappeared in 1949 at age 26. The red herrings were a note to "Kirk" indicating a possible termination of pregnancy and her having just finished a movie with Kirk Douglas. He of course, called cops to say it wasn't him in the note. Love a good mystery, especially the Golden Era ones.

 

[Story]

Could the infamous Black Dahlia case be about to be solved? Cadaver dog discovers death scent at Hollywood home of suspect 66 years after the horrific murder

The severely mutilated body of Elizabeth Short was discovered in 1947
The case remains one of the oldest unsolved murder cases in L.A. history
Steve Hodel believes his father killed the Black Dahlia at the family home and later fled the country
A Cadaver dog has discovered the faint trace of human remains in the basement and soil samples are being tested

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...me-suspect-66-years-murder.html#ixzz2JxQEGRSN

 

[Fletch]

One mystery - mostly - solved!

What happened to those two humungous Do X flying boats built for the Italian airlines. They were presumably sold for scrap sometime around 1935. But how does even a Fascist state make the two largest airplanes in the world simply disappear in complete secrecy?

Do X2 Umberto Maddalena

Do X3 Alessandro Guidoni

Thanks to the kind of seek-and-ye-shall-find serendipity the Internet always promises, I now have an answer to the fate of these incredible ships - probably the best I could ask for.

The Do X2 and X3 - each slightly bigger than the original Do X, and powered by Fiat engines - were originally built to fly a planned de luxe passenger and mail route between Genoa and Gibraltar. The idea was to help Italian ocean liners compete with French and British lines, whose Atlantic ports gave them a 2-day head start on the crossing to America.

The service never began. SANA, the state airline, said the plane "did not meet standards." It probably was just too big, and without a doubt, too expensive to run.

At that point, with only one plane delivered, the Do X project passed to the Italian Air Force. Abstracts of documents in Italian Defense Ministry archives reveal that they served until at least 1934, undertaking school cruises for Italy's war colleges, joint aero-naval maneuvers, military air shows, and the kind of public spectacles the Fascisti so loved. Mussolini himself boarded a Do X at least once, alongside the famous Air Minister General Balbo.

By 1934, Maddalena had been sidelined by two major accidents, one of which snapped off her tail section. The exact same thing had happened to the German Do X1 just weeks earlier. Nazi leaders were quietly embarrassed by the colossal belly flop, and Italy's blackshirts surely felt the same. The writing was on the wall for these outsized, underpowered, fragile craft.

That summer, the Italians cut the two Do X crews down to one and moved both planes to the shipyards at Pisa, close to repair facilities. The crew was apparently reassigned in 1935 and the planes presumably decommissioned.

Maddalena was definitely broken up for scrap in 1937. Guidoni couldn't have been far behind.

 

[Two Types]

I once spoke with a veteran of the USAAF who swore that he spoke with those associated with the incident. They supposedly informed him that Miller was so drunk on that particular flight that he actually (somehow) fell out of the plane, and that the idea of it getting shot down was just a concoction made to protect Miller's (and the USAAF's) image to the public.[huh]

As a child I lived about one mile from where Miller took off for his final flight. My uncle claimed Miller wasn't on the plane but had died of lung cancer at nearby Milton Ernest Hall and was secretly buried in the village. He said everyone in the village knew about it. My Dad disagreed (he was good at disagreeing): he claimed Miller had decided to give it all up and was still alive, living in a barn at the top of the hill and working on the farm. Nonsense of course, but fun nonsense.

On a related point, a friend was surprised recently when he discovered that his great-grandfather had been a suspect in the Jack the Ripper case.

Personally, i always wanted to know the truth about the Hanratty case: he was convicted of a crime he claimed he didn't commit. Someone else (the original suspect) admitted to the crime. However, Hanratty was executed and there was a long campaign to clear his name. There were books written about the case that were very convincing. And people from my local area who remembered the trial and execution - and who had followed the case closely - said he was innocent.

Eventually, the family asked for him to be dug up so that DNA tests could be done to match against the evidence and show he was innocent. Oops, thirty of more years of campaigning had been a waste - he was guilty after all! That's the trouble with mysteries and conspiracies etc - sometimes there's no mystery at all.

 

[Edward]

That's what makes this case so fascinating, there are so many possibilities! However, everyone has their own pet theory. It certainly was amazing being in Whitechapel visiting the sites. Hope to go back one day!
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It's a fun area (I live just very the road from the Blind Beggar pub, which post-dates the Ripper but has its own mythology due to the obvious Kray connection). Part of me would love a look inside the building in which Saucy Jack did his last one (the last of the canon, at least), but it's creepy enough a vibe standing outside...

The other element of the Ripper story I would love to know about is whether any of the other murders sometimes believed to have been committed also by the same man really were. Patricia Cornell attributed another three or four in her book claiming to solve the case - she fingered Walter Sickert, the painter. Far from the definitive 'proof' the blurb claims; really, her case sounds good but is no more conclusive than many of the others. Still, a cracking yarn, though.

One Golden Era mystery? Only one? Fun question, but one that's hard to narrow down. Well, certainly the 1947 Elizabeth Short/Black Dahlia murder, but that's a given for a lot of people, so I'll venture on to the disappearance of a lesser known personality, actress Jean Spangler.
She disappeared in 1949 at age 26. The red herrings were a note to "Kirk" indicating a possible termination of pregnancy and her having just finished a movie with Kirk Douglas. He of course, called cops to say it wasn't him in the note. Love a good mystery, especially the Golden Era ones.

Wording this very carefully for libel purposes... ... I've heard of this case too. There continue to be allegations that a Famous Hollywood Star of the period was involved in the unnatural death of a young lady, and the studio worked hard to cover it up. Interesting, but unlikely this one will ever be much explored and discredited or otherwise during the lifetime of said Famous Hollywood Star. Whether because there's something to it or it is all just bunk, well - that's up to conjecture, isn't it? Pinch of sodium chloride, and all that...

Personally, i always wanted to know the truth about the Hanratty case: he was convicted of a crime he claimed he didn't commit. Someone else (the original suspect) admitted to the crime. However, Hanratty was executed and there was a long campaign to clear his name. There were books written about the case that were very convincing. And people from my local area who remembered the trial and execution - and who had followed the case closely - said he was innocent.

Eventually, the family asked for him to be dug up so that DNA tests could be done to match against the evidence and show he was innocent. Oops, thirty of more years of campaigning had been a waste - he was guilty after all! That's the trouble with mysteries and conspiracies etc - sometimes there's no mystery at all.

Am I misremembering, or did it turn out they had gotten the right man, but that part of the case against him (and evidence used to convict) was questionable, potentially falsified? I know the same allegation was levied at the police in connection with the later investigation against the Great Train Robbers, to the effect that while guilty, they had been unlawfully convicted on the basis of fabricated evidence (not the same allegations over which Jack Slipper sued the BBC - those related to accusations of incompetence over the 1974 extradition fiasco).