Case of most interest besides JtR poll

[sdreid]

There are degrees of unsolved, I suppose. Maybe I need to come up with something like a Fujita Scale.

[caz]

As Hanratty was innocent...

Unfortunately, Reg failed to mention that the Hanratty case only remains unsolved in the 'Reg reckons...' sense.

Reg has been probed and prodded with the comfy cushions elsewhere, and he has more or less confessed to a personal conviction so rigid that no evidence, however strong, could ever have begun to change his mind about Hanratty's innocence.

Love,

Caz
X

[sdreid]

OK - I have it.

THE REID SCALE - FOR UNSOLVED MURDERS

I will post the details later today when time permits. It's a five tier scale from 0-4. At the extremes, 0 being solved with a standing conviction and no serious doubt (example Bundy) and 4 being unsolved and with not even any serious suspects (example The Original Nightstalker).

[sdreid]

I put the scale on its own thread.

[Mayerling]

I have to opt for the case that I still owe an article on: The Balham Poisoning of Charles Bravo on 04/21/1876. And still will finish that article one day.

Other mysteries:

The Princes in the Tower - a good one, but only to settle if Richard III, Henry VII, Cardinal Morton, or Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, was responsible.

Amy Robsart - wife of Robert Dudley, subsequently Queen Elizabeth I's closest lover and Earl of Leicester. Amy was found at the foot of a staircase when she was all alone in the family mansion at Kenilworth (subsequently the subject of a Walter Scott novel). Did Dudley do it to make himself available to marry Liz?

Henry, Lord Darnley - killed in the explosion of Kirk-o-Field in 1567 at Edinburgh. His demise allowed Mary, Queen of Scotts to marry the Earl of Bothwell. Were they both involved, or was it other enemies of Darnley (a very unpleasant man).

The poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury while under arrest in the Tower of London (1613) by the Countess of Somerset, wife of the then court favorite
the Robert Kerr, Earl of Somerset. Was Kng James I aware of the slow poisoning of his prisoner, and winking at it at the time.

The murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey in 1678 - who killed the magistrate.
Green, Berry, and Hill, were hanged for the murder - though it is obvious they were framed. The suspects: high ranking Catholics around James, Duke of York (heir to King Charles II, later King James II); high ranking Protestants against York (Lord Shaftesbury, James, Duke of Monmouth); fanatics led by
Titus Oates; personal grudge enemies (the 7th Earl of Pembroke).

The disappearance of Philip, Count Koenigsmarck, in the capital of the Electorate of Hanover in 1694 - possibly by order of the future George I because Philip was too close to George's wife. Possibly by Countess Platten out of jealousy.

The Praslin Murder Case of 1847 - wherein the Duc killed his Duchesse, probably because of the nanny. No question of the Duc's guilt (the nanny's is still debated), but did the Duc de Praslin actually poison himself while under arrest, or was he allowed to fake his death and fled to Latin America.

The Lincoln Assassination - Who is behind Booth? His own creation; the Radical Repubicans and Stanton; the Confederates under Jeff Davis; a possible link to CSA raider-hero General John S. Mosby? Who

Governor William Goebel of Kentucky - was he shot by order of his rival in that 1900 election?

The Disappearance of the steamship Warahtah off the coast of South Africa in 1909.

Th disappearance of socialite Dorothy Arnold in Manhattan in 1910.

The Disappearance of the U.S.S. Cyclops in April 1918.

The Disappearance of the French Dirigible Dixmunde in December 1923.

The fate of Roald Amundsen in the search for survivors of the crash of the Italian seim-rigid Italia under Commander Umberto Nobile in 1928.

The disappearance of Amazon explorer Percy Fawcett and his son and a third man in 1928

The disappearance of Judge Joseph Force Crater of New York City in August 1930.

The Burning of the S.S. Morro Castle (September 1934) - Sabotage by Communist members of the crew, or by a trusted member of the crew (the Radioman is usually suggested - he subsequently went to prison for another murder).

The Destruction of the German Dirigible Hindenburg (May 1937) - Accident, act of God, or sabotage by anti-Nazis?

The Disappearance of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan near Howland Island (July 1937) - was it just an accident (or set of accidents) or was it a spy mission that went haywire?

Lord Lucan - did he flee successfully or did he commit suicide (and where are is remains then?).

That should do it.

Jeff

[kensei]

Good grief, what a list! Just a few comments.

Percy Fawcett- there are a thousand ways to die and never be found in the Amazon, few of them surprising.

Amelia Earhart- I remember an episode of the old show "Unsolved Mysteries" hosted by Robert Stack that had an account of someone witnessing her being executed by the Japanese, and the burning of her plane. It was years ago, can't recall all the particulars. Also, there is a new movie about her coming out soon starring Hillary Swank.

And the Hindenburg- On an episode a few years ago of the PBS series "Secrets of the Dead," it was pretty convincingly explained that static electricity ignited the highly flammable paint that had been used to coat the doomed craft, making it a tragic accident. Again, I'm just taking this from memory.

[Roy Corduroy]

Hi Jeff,

The Lincoln Assassination - Who is behind Booth? His own creation;

Yes. Not a mystery. Subject of a massive investigation at the time, and a conclusion fully backed by modern scholarship.

Roy

[Mayerling]

Hi Jeff,



Yes. Not a mystery. Subject of a massive investigation at the time, and a conclusion fully backed by modern scholarship.

Roy

Probably on target Roy, but that does not keep the lunatic fringe from shouting their opinions. I liked AMERICAN BRUTUS and MANHUNT - both were excellent recent studies (supporting Booth as the main cog of the scheme).

Jeff

[Mayerling]

Good grief, what a list! Just a few comments.

Percy Fawcett- there are a thousand ways to die and never be found in the Amazon, few of them surprising.

Amelia Earhart- I remember an episode of the old show "Unsolved Mysteries" hosted by Robert Stack that had an account of someone witnessing her being executed by the Japanese, and the burning of her plane. It was years ago, can't recall all the particulars. Also, there is a new movie about her coming out soon starring Hillary Swank.

And the Hindenburg- On an episode a few years ago of the PBS series "Secrets of the Dead," it was pretty convincingly explained that static electricity ignited the highly flammable paint that had been used to coat the doomed craft, making it a tragic accident. Again, I'm just taking this from memory.

Hi Kensei,

I am aware of the UNSOLVED MYSTERIES episode, and the HINDENBURG theory about the outer skin having some chemical that was flamable on it. As for Fawcett, last week's Sunday New York TImes Book Review had an article on the Fawcett Mystery. Seems there is a new book on the Colonel and his last journey.

I am aware that there are myriads of ways a person can die in the Amazon.
But that just shows that the disappearance has that many possible solutions at least (provided Fawcett died in the Amazon, and did not just decide to "disappear" for his own reasons). So the mystery is not eradicated because we know possible solutions. If that were true none of us would be discussing the case of the Whitechapel killer either.

As for the list, I could have extended it, but after awhile it becomes really arcane if you do that. Missing ships and dirigibles, or missing explorers like Amundsen and Fawcett fascinate us, but someone out rafting on a lake who vanishes is another matter. For instance, this is a true mystery that has occasionally cropped up (in one of Charles Fort's books among others):

December 1881 - Walter Powell, Member of Parliament from Bridport, is lost when the baloon he was flying in breaks loose before he can leave it. It is seen going out to sea, and never officially seen again.

I once wrote an essay on this incident - it never got published. If one studies the meteorological information of the day Powell was doomed one can figure out what led to the final catastrophe. Powell, a wealthy manufacturer and member of Parliament, was an amateur balloonist, and had been going on an aerial trip with two men (the brother of another M.P. and an army lieutenant) when the weather got rough. They managed to get the balloon into a position (with the aid of some local men) where the three could jump out. But the lieutenant broke his ankle in doing so, and Powell hesitated. I
still believe the man feared heights. While the other two survived, Powell got carried out to sea. No doubt he drowned. But where?

Most likely the Bay of Biscay. Hidden in a New York Times issue of a year and a half later was a small item that some Spaniards found the remains of the balloon in the mountains. However, I never was able to find a second article anywhere verifying this. By the way, if the balloon ended up on land, could Powell too have ended up on land? There is a distinct chance.

But the Powell mystery is not a real mystery. One can follow events step by step and see what finally resulted. This meant it boils down to: where is the poor man's body? A matter of curiosity, but hardly on the level of was Amelia doing government espionage on the Japanese on that trip? In Earhart's case, where is her (and Noonan's) remains is simply one more mystery to the case, not the sole one.

Best wishes,

Jeff

[Roy Corduroy]

Thanks Jeff,

I enjoyed Manhunt.

Like many people, the South's Secretary of State was suspected. His biographer, Eli Evans dealt into the assasination conspiracy in Judah P. Benjamin, The Jewish Confederate and concludes he wasn't part of it.

Here's one for you that may be a true Civil War mystery, the Sultana. Always thought a case of simply overloading and the boiler blowing up, but I recently read a new take on it - possibly a sabetour put a bomb in the coal loaded on at Memphis. That's one to chew on.

Roy

[Mayerling]

Hi Roy,

As I was about to write a comment on the "Sultana" they use the term "titanic" referring to "gigantic" on television. Must mean something.

I have read of the bomb on the Sultana theory for several decades. I first came across it in the book WEB OF CONSPIRACY, by Theodore Roscoe, which was written about 1959. It was one of the most thorough studied (up to that time) of the events before, during, and after the assassination that was written to that time, but lacked the publicity associated with Jim Bishop's excellent THE DAY LINCOLN WAS SHOT and Otto Eisenschiml's intriguing if wrong headed WHY WAS LINCOLN MURDERED? and IN THE SHADOW OF LINCOLN'S DEATH.

Roscoe does the discuss the fact that in the years 1864-1865 the war entered a new phase with fifth columnists (the "Copperheads") and various odd plots against the North (the attempt to burn down New York City in November 1864, the attack on St. Albans, Vermont from Canada by Confederate raiders). This was also the period the South launched and used their celebrated hand cranked submarine, C.S.S. Hunley. All kinds of ideas were tried, as well as new weapons, one of which was an explosive that looked like a piece of coal and was meant to be put into some locomotive boiler on a Yankee train to blow it up. It is possible that some device like this is what might have been in the coal supply on the Sultana, but we'll never really know. Problem is that the Sultana's boilers were giving Captain Mason trouble for some time, and the strain of carrying nearly five times the normal passenger weight (at least) probably dd not help them.

But if it was a bomb, then the person that was responsible killed 1,700 people with one blow - making such a person one of the bloodiest in world history.

Jeff

[Sara]

I'm with Reg, it's the Hanratty case for me too. It's only 'solved' if you believe the highly suspect (almost certainly corrupted) DNA 'evidence' and disregard all the other extraordinary and anomolous aspects of the case. Sadly I had to stop reading the most fascinating thread on this board, as there were too many trolls personalising the argument (and resorting to abuse), without in any way moving it forward.

The Kennedy assassination runs it pretty close - in fact in a way it's more interesting of course, as it has historical ramifications. JonBenet Ramsay is fascinating too.

But of the list, Zodiac I guess

[sdreid]

It's a little puzzling to me why Zodiac has 20 votes today and Texarkana Phantom has zero. The crimes are almost identical right down to the number of victims. There was even a poster on here years back who conjectured that the murders might have been perpetrated by the same person. I guess letter writing must be a more important factor than I thought. That's about the only major difference.

[sdreid]

That said, New Orleans Axeman allegedly wrote at least one letter and he doesn't have any votes yet.

[sdreid]

I guess if Zodiac is solved it will screw up the poll but I think we're pretty safe.