# 3.5 Hours of Horrifying Unsolved Mysteries Too Dark For Netflix | 261

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 21 Jun 2026, 3 h 26 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/10f1e70d4/podcast/play/121765607/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-5-21%2F426527858-44100-2-b8171fa8274f6.mp3

Join me for 3.5 hours of horrifying unsolved mysteries, including true crime cases, historical mysteries, the occult, and more. Episode 261 of the true crime podcast btw. 👇 Youtube links: Lazy Chill History Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillHistory Lazy Chill Zone Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillZone 👇 Support My Work: ❤️ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lazychillzone 👇Social Media Links: https://www.instagram.com/lazychillzone/ 👇 Podcast links: ⚡History Video Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/7km5pLWpYWEj1mrPpEfRUr?si=0FHYnZf-Qs2FY1GyLevfig ⚡True Crime Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/0klIz08pAr7wR4we0Ia4sk?si=68qZxCeAQkysXzMZrHE0Iw 🍏 True Crime Podcast on Apple 🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lazy-chill-true-crime/id1815534472 unsolved mysteries, true crime, cold cases, unsolved mysteries, missing persons, murder investigation, forensic evidence, serial killers, crime scene analysis, dark history, criminal psychology, real life horror, police investigations, DNA breakthroughs, forensic genealogy, crime documentaries, criminal profiling, mysterious disappearances, solved cases, justice system, law enforcement stories, cold case files, creepy mysteries, true crime storytelling, crime reconstruction, chilling cases, investigative reporting, modern forensics, victim advocacy, unidentified remains, crime scene forensics, cold cases, true crime, true crime solved, 5 true crime cases, cold case compilation, true crime compilation, fall asleep, sleep compilation, sleep video

## Transcript

[0:00] On a warm 4th of July night in 1988, two Texas teenagers
[0:03] vanished without a trace. 18 year old Sally McNally and 16
[0:08] year old Shane Stewart had reunited that holiday evening to
[0:11] watch the fireworks in their hometown of San Angelo, TX.
[0:15] It was the first time they've been together in months and
[0:18] tragically, the last time they would ever be seen alive.
[0:23] By the next morning, Shane's prized Camaro was found
[0:26] abandoned near the lake, keys resting on the dashboard and
[0:31] fast food wrappers littering the front seat.
[0:34] There were no obvious signs of a struggle, and initially some
[0:38] hoped the young couple had simply run off together.
[0:41] But as days turned into weeks, that hopeful notion faded and
[0:46] four months later, in November 1988, Hunter's made a grim
[0:50] discovery that would set this mystery into motion.
[0:56] The Sally Mcnelly and Shane Stewart case is built on
[0:59] fragments of facts and long held suspicions, as well as a
[1:03] surprise twist that wouldn't be revealed until 2017.
[1:08] What is definitively known is that on July 4th, 1988, Sally
[1:13] and Shane spent the evening together at Lake Nasworthy
[1:16] enjoying the Independence Day festivities.
[1:20] They were former high school sweethearts who had recently
[1:23] reconnected after a brief breakup, and both had only just
[1:26] returned to San Angelo that summer.
[1:30] Sometime around 9:00 that evening, they watched the annual
[1:33] fireworks show at the lake, and they likely left the crowded
[1:37] area late that night. In the early hours of July 5th,
[1:42] a park Ranger discovered Shane's copper colored Camaro abandoned
[1:46] near Fisher Lake, another reservoir in the area.
[1:50] The car's presence was puzzling. It was parked in a different
[1:53] section of the park than where the fireworks took place, and
[1:57] Shane's keys were left in plain sight on the dash.
[2:01] Inside, nothing seemed to miss, and there were no obvious signs
[2:05] of foul play. That said, because no crime had
[2:09] knowingly been committed at the time, it's unclear how closely
[2:14] the authorities examined this vehicle.
[2:19] Authorities at first treated the situation as a possible runaway
[2:22] or teenage escapade gone awry, but the families of the teens
[2:27] felt in their gut that something was very wrong.
[2:31] Shane had promised to be home by 11:00 PM on the 4th, and it
[2:35] wasn't like him to disappear. A search was launched when the
[2:39] pair failed to turn up after a couple of days, with friends and
[2:43] family frantically checking any places the teens might have
[2:46] gone. On November 11th, 1988, the
[2:52] first breakthrough came in a devastating fashion.
[2:56] Remains, later identified as Sally's, were found on a remote
[2:59] ranch property off a rural farm Rd. in Tom, Greene County.
[3:04] Three days later, on November 14th, searchers discovered
[3:08] skeletal remains of Shane in the same general vicinity.
[3:11] The two were found only a short distance apart, confirming they
[3:16] had met the same fate. The condition of the remains
[3:20] indicated they had been exposed to the elements for quite some
[3:23] time. Any forensic clues that might
[3:26] have lingered had likely been eliminated by West TX weather
[3:29] and scavengers. Over those four months,
[3:32] investigators could determine little beyond the cause of
[3:35] death. Both teens had been slain by a
[3:38] shotgun blast, likely on the night they disappeared.
[3:44] As the investigation unfolded, an unsettling picture emerged of
[3:49] the teenagers lives before their deaths.
[3:52] These allegations involve alleged occult activities and a
[3:56] circle of friends that many in town would later describe as a
[3:59] satanic cult. In the year leading up to the
[4:02] event, both Sally and Shane had become involved with a
[4:06] clandestine group of local youths engaged in bizarre
[4:09] rituals. And I should note here that the
[4:13] existence of this group has been confirmed by the authorities,
[4:17] for what that's worth. Sally's close friends and even
[4:22] her mother Pat Wade, recalled that the 18 year old had been
[4:27] attending strange late night parties featuring black magic
[4:31] ceremonies. When Sally started dating Shane
[4:35] in late 1987, she introduced him to these new friends and their
[4:39] so-called ritualistic parties. Marshall Stewart, Shane's
[4:43] father, noticed an abrupt change in his son's behavior around
[4:47] that time, claiming the once easygoing teen was now getting
[4:51] into fights and acting out. The influence of this group was
[4:56] clearly negative, and both sets of parents feared the teens were
[5:00] in over their heads. And unlike most of these stories
[5:03] involving the occult, those fears weren't unfounded, since
[5:07] this occult group really sounds more like a local gang with some
[5:11] occult trappings. In March 1988, just a few months
[5:16] before their disappearance, Sally and Shane themselves went
[5:20] to the police with alarming information.
[5:24] Sally contacted a sheriff's deputy, Larry Counts, and
[5:28] reported that members of the cult were involved in serious
[5:31] crimes. She handed over a weapon that,
[5:35] according to her, a cult member had given the couple.
[5:40] The person allegedly told Sally and Shane that the weapon had
[5:43] recently been used in a slaying. Skeptical at first, Deputy
[5:48] Counts checked the serial number and discovered it was indeed
[5:52] stolen property, which lent some credibility to the teen story.
[5:59] The teens confided to law enforcement that they were
[6:02] trying to extricate themselves from the cult, but they feared
[6:05] retaliation if they were caught betraying the group secrets.
[6:09] This chilling warning that their lives could be in danger would
[6:13] prove to be eerily prophetic. But at any rate, even with the
[6:18] stolen weapon being turned over, the cops didn't seem to take the
[6:22] case overly seriously. In fact, this led to rumors at
[6:29] the time that there was a cover up related to the occult group,
[6:33] A theory which leaned fully into the Satanic Panic memes of the
[6:36] time. This theory essentially
[6:39] suggested that all the institutions in this Texas town
[6:42] had been infiltrated by agents of the Devil, a theory that has
[6:46] later been dismissed as mass hysteria.
[6:49] But I'll come back to this peculiar phenomenon shortly, so
[6:53] just hang tight for a moment. Shortly after turning over the
[6:58] weapon, Sally and Shane took steps to distance themselves
[7:02] from the occult group and appear to have initially had some
[7:05] success, at least for a short time.
[7:08] They moved out of the apartment they had briefly shared and
[7:10] actually left San Angelo for a time in the spring of 1988.
[7:15] But by early summer, both teens found themselves drawn back to
[7:18] their hometown. In mid June 1988, roughly 2
[7:23] weeks before she went missing, Sally made a distressed phone
[7:26] call to her friend Helen. Sally was frantic in the extreme
[7:32] and claimed someone was trying to eliminate her due to her
[7:34] connections with the group she had been trying to distance
[7:37] herself from. Helen, not fully understanding
[7:41] the gravity of the situation, tried to calm her down and
[7:45] didn't report the incident to Sally's family at the time.
[7:49] With hindsight, this plea for help was another ominous red
[7:52] flag that went unheeded. Piercing together, the events of
[7:57] July 4th, 1988 has been critical to understanding what might have
[8:01] happened to Shane and Sally. Thanks to witness accounts,
[8:06] investigators have a general timeline of the couple's last
[8:09] hours. After watching the 9:00 PM
[8:12] fireworks at Lake Nosworthy, the pair left the busy lake area and
[8:16] at some point travelled in Shane's car to a secluded spot
[8:20] by Fisher Lake a few miles away. Why they went there remains
[8:25] uncertain, though it's been speculated that they may have
[8:29] been using it as a lover's lane of sorts.
[8:32] This theory makes a lot of sense to me since they were just
[8:35] reconnecting and they no longer had a shared private apartment
[8:39] where they could spend some alone time.
[8:44] One eyewitness later came forward to say he saw Sally and
[8:47] Shane near a park at Fisher Lake in the late night hours.
[8:51] This witness, fishing from a boat, noticed a pickup truck
[8:55] approached the couple's parked Camaro.
[8:58] He distinctly heard Sally's voice carrying over the water,
[9:02] telling the truck's occupants that they didn't want to be
[9:04] involved with the group anymore. An argument ensued, but the
[9:09] witness assumed it was just some teens partying or quarreling and
[9:13] paid little attention as he departed the area.
[9:19] That snippet of overheard conversation, if accurate, is
[9:22] incredibly telling. It suggests that the people who
[9:26] met Sally and Shane at the lake that night were likely connected
[9:30] to the very group the teens were trying to escape.
[9:33] Notably, this was the last known sighting of them alive and by
[9:37] daylight on July 5th, when the Camaro was found abandoned, the
[9:42] teens were nowhere to be found. Marshall Stewart, who never
[9:48] believed the runaway theory in the wake of July 4th, took it
[9:51] upon himself to investigate. He recalled that Shane had been
[9:55] having trouble with a particular individual.
[9:59] This was another teenager from the cult crowd whom Shane didn't
[10:02] get along with. According to Marshall, Shane had
[10:06] once said that if he ever saw this person again, a fight would
[10:09] be inevitable. Now, in the wake of the
[10:13] disappearance, Marshall went to that young man's home to
[10:17] confront him. The teen refused to talk about
[10:20] Shane and Sally, but Marshall noticed something.
[10:23] Chilling scratch marks on the boy's face, as if he'd been in a
[10:28] recent scuffle. It was suspicious, to say the
[10:32] least. But with no further evidence,
[10:34] nothing was ever done further. Yet.
[10:38] The authorities were still treating the case as a runaway
[10:40] at the time and wouldn't have interviewed Shane's scratched up
[10:44] rival. Also, I note that this
[10:48] individual's name has never been released to the public, and
[10:51] you're going to want to keep this in mind going forward since
[10:54] it may be important given the eerie circumstances of the case.
[11:01] A number of theories have been proposed to explain who
[11:04] eliminated Sally and Shane and why.
[11:07] The most prevalent theory, especially at the time, was that
[11:10] their slayings were connected to Satanic cult activity.
[11:14] The late 1980s were the height of the Satanic Panic in America,
[11:19] when fear of cults and ritual crime was rampant.
[11:23] According to the media, teenagers would get together,
[11:26] listen to heavy metal while summoning demons and Dungeons
[11:29] and Dragons, all for the glory of the devil, as was the style
[11:34] at the time. Sally and Shane's story,
[11:37] teenagers dabbling in devil worship who then mysteriously
[11:41] disappeared fit neatly into that narrative.
[11:46] In 1991, Unsolved Mysteries ran a segment on the case, heavily
[11:52] implying that the couple might have been slain as part of a
[11:55] satanic ritual or cult retribution.
[11:58] This is where I first found out about the case, and where I'm
[12:02] sure most of you who heard about it previous to this segment did
[12:05] as well. The show dramatized the occult
[12:10] angle, suggesting that sinister ceremonies or even a sacrifice
[12:14] could be involved. However, as time passed,
[12:18] investigators began to question whether the slayings were really
[12:21] ritualistic at all. Despite the rumors, no concrete
[12:26] evidence of an actual Satanic ceremony or symbols was ever
[12:30] reported at the crime scene. In fact, decades later, law
[12:34] enforcement has stated they don't believe the teens were
[12:37] slain because of a Satanic right.
[12:41] More likely, the cult story provided A dramatic backdrop,
[12:46] but the real motive may have been more mundane.
[12:49] Notably, the so-called cult was also involved in a lucrative
[12:53] side business for Satan. They were pushing the devil's
[12:56] lettuce on the local youth and making a tidy profit doing so.
[13:01] Shane and Sally had recently turned over a weapon to the
[13:04] police and were clearly interested in getting out of
[13:07] this group. Under this theory, the two of
[13:11] them were seen as liabilities who would sink a profitable St.
[13:15] pharmaceutical operation and land the ringleaders in the
[13:19] slammer. Another theory that has been
[13:23] floated over the years involves specific suspects within the
[13:26] victims social circle. As mentioned, Shane had conflict
[13:30] with at least one other teenager who was involved in the occult
[13:34] group. Marshall Stewart's encounter
[13:36] with that individual noticing scratches on his face is often
[13:41] cited as a clue that a fight happened around the time of the
[13:44] slayings. Some have speculated that this
[13:47] teen confronted Shane and Sally on July 4th and things turned
[13:51] violent. Under this theory, while this
[13:55] teenager may have been a social connection from the occult
[13:57] group, he didn't commit the act on the authority of the group.
[14:04] For nearly three decades, the mystery of who slew Sally
[14:07] McNally and Shane Stewart saw little movement until a shocking
[14:11] break in 2017 injected New Hope into the cold case.
[14:16] And trust me, this is going to be one of the weirdest and most
[14:20] disturbing twists I've ever discussed and suggest the occult
[14:23] group wasn't your typical group of edgy teenagers.
[14:28] In June 2017, a 47 year old San Angelo man named John Cyrus
[14:34] Gilbreth was pulled over by Tom Greene County deputies on a
[14:38] routine stop. This minor incident quickly
[14:41] escalated into something far more significant.
[14:45] Gilbreath's passenger made a remark to officers that he was
[14:48] involved in the street pharmacy game, prompting investigators to
[14:52] obtain a warrant to search his home.
[14:55] What they found instead was a trove of items that appeared to
[14:59] tie Gilbreath directly to the 1988 double slaying.
[15:04] According to police statements and reports from local media,
[15:07] the search of Gilbreath's residence uncovered personal
[15:10] writings and notes explicitly mentioning Shane and Sally.
[15:15] There were also three cassette tapes, all of which contained
[15:19] the initials of the couple, though the sound quality was so
[15:22] degraded that it was impossible to determine what was going on.
[15:28] Even more damning, they discovered physical evidence,
[15:31] including hair and fingernails, that are believed to have
[15:34] belonged to the deceased pair. The revelation was stunning, and
[15:38] for the first time, authorities publicly named John Gilbreath as
[15:42] a person of interest in the slayings of Sally and Shane.
[15:47] It turned out Gilbreath was not an unknown figure in the case.
[15:51] Investigators acknowledged that he had been on their radar from
[15:54] the very beginning, and he was one of the teenagers involved in
[15:57] the same occult group back in 1988.
[16:01] In other words, Gilbreth was one of Sally and Shane's alleged
[16:05] friends who had a penchant for Satanic themed gatherings.
[16:11] He had a checkered past in the years after the slayings,
[16:15] including a felony theft conviction in 1989 and a
[16:19] substance related conviction in 1994.
[16:23] Gilbreth was eventually convicted on unrelated charges
[16:26] based upon an arsenal of weaponry that was also
[16:30] incidentally found during the search.
[16:33] As a convicted felon, he was, of course, not allowed to be in
[16:37] possession of these items, and he was sent to federal prison in
[16:41] 2018. Notably, however, he has never
[16:45] been charged with the slayings of Shane and Sally.
[16:49] The evidence found at his home is strongly suggestive, but
[16:52] likely not enough on its own to secure an indictment without
[16:55] corroborating proof or testimony.
[17:00] As of now, the slayings of Sally Mcnelly and Shane Stewart remain
[17:05] officially unsolved. Cold case detectives and Texas
[17:09] Rangers continue to follow leads, and advancements in
[17:12] forensic technology offer new possibilities.
[17:16] Perhaps the most interesting potential new forensic
[17:18] opportunity will come from those cassette tapes.
[17:22] If new technology improves the ability to restore the tapes,
[17:26] these recordings may contain the truth of what happened to the
[17:28] young couple. My own theory is that while John
[17:34] Gilbreath sits in federal custody, investigators are
[17:37] quietly stacking evidence against him and re examining
[17:41] items seized in 2017. Given that he's out of the game
[17:45] for the foreseeable future, the authorities have been gifted the
[17:49] ability to build the absolute strongest case possible against
[17:52] him. Prosecutors have strong
[17:55] incentives to wait until the case is airtight.
[17:58] Cold cases can hinge on so many different factors, and an
[18:02] acquittal triggers double jeopardy protections in almost
[18:05] all cases. Of course, it may be that
[18:09] there's simply no evidence that this guy actually did it, and he
[18:13] may have received these disturbing mementos from the
[18:16] person who did. After all, they all hung out in
[18:19] the same spooky cult like group, so it's very possible that
[18:23] biological material from the victims was distributed amongst
[18:27] the members. Also, Personally, I wonder if
[18:32] Gilbreath is the guy that Shane's dad confronted back in
[18:35] the day. If he's not, I would hope that
[18:39] the cops have paid that guy a visit as well.
[18:45] In the summer of 1911, on a warm Saturday night in Atlanta, GA, a
[18:50] young woman named Emma Lou Sharp went out to look for her missing
[18:54] mother. 20 year old Emma Lou was worried as she walked the dark
[18:59] streets, knowing a dangerous menace lurked in the city's
[19:02] black neighborhoods. Sure enough a tall, broad
[19:07] shouldered stranger in a wide brimmed hat appeared out of the
[19:10] darkness. He spoke calmly and told Emma
[19:14] Lou she had nothing to fear, he didn't harm girls like her.
[19:19] Then in an instant the man lunged and stabbed her in the
[19:22] back before disappearing into the night.
[19:26] Bleeding and terrified. Emma Lou managed to stagger away
[19:30] and survive, but not far from where she was attacked, her
[19:34] mother, 40 year old Lena Sharp, lay dead, her throat cut so
[19:39] deeply that she was nearly beheaded.
[19:43] Atlanta had a serial predator on its hands. 1 so brutal and
[19:47] elusive that the press would soon dub him the Atlanta Ripper.
[19:53] Atlanta in 1911 was a booming Southern city, proudly
[19:57] advertising itself as the capital of the New South and
[20:00] effectively the business capital of the South.
[20:04] Notably, black-owned businesses and colleges catering to black
[20:08] students were growing at a rapid pace, but for most black
[20:12] residents, life was harsh and segregated.
[20:15] Many members of the black community in the city were also
[20:18] recent arrivals from rural regions and were far away from
[20:22] their family and the rest of their social connections.
[20:27] In this fraught atmosphere, crimes against black people
[20:30] often didn't receive meaningful attention from the authorities
[20:34] or media. The first slaying that drew
[20:39] notice occurred on May 28th, 1911, when a woman named Belle
[20:44] Walker failed to return home from her job as a cook.
[20:48] Her body was found the next morning near her house, her
[20:51] throat slashed by an unknown assailant.
[20:54] The gruesome slaying got only a brief mention in the city's
[20:57] newspapers. 2 weeks later, on June 15th, another black woman
[21:03] was brutally attacked. 22 year old Addie Watts was struck in
[21:07] the head with a brick and left in some bushes with her throat
[21:10] cut. This second attack in such a
[21:13] short span set off alarm bells, and a local paper published a
[21:17] story claiming there was a quote butcher stalking the streets.
[21:23] The article claimed a quote insane criminal might be
[21:26] prowling the city and drew a direct comparison to Jack the
[21:30] Ripper. The idea seemed implausible at
[21:33] the time, but as more victims surfaced it began to seem more
[21:38] likely. Over the next several weeks, one
[21:43] Saturday night after another brought news of another slain
[21:46] woman. Nearly every victim fit a
[21:49] pattern. Young black or mixed race women,
[21:53] often in their early 20s, attacked while walking alone at
[21:57] night. Each was found with her throat
[22:00] viciously slashed and some victims bodies showed signs of
[22:03] horrific mutilation. By early July 1911, at least
[22:09] eight women had been slain in this manner.
[22:14] The attack on Emma Lou Sharpe and her mother Lena on July 1st,
[22:18] 1911 finally convinced even the skeptics that a serial predator
[22:22] was likely on the loose. Newspapers that had earlier
[22:26] downplayed the crimes now featured them prominently,
[22:30] perhaps in hopes of using lurid stories to sell more papers.
[22:34] Significant pressure on the police mounted as prominent
[22:37] wealthy white families exerted pressure on them to solve the
[22:41] case. These families weren't
[22:43] necessarily upset about the crime spree, but rather the fact
[22:47] that their black female employees started to leave work
[22:50] early or refused to show up at night.
[22:53] Regardless of this apparent lack of altruism or genuine concern,
[22:58] they were able to pressure the authorities into taking the case
[23:01] very seriously. However, as I'll explain
[23:05] shortly, this pressure may have simply led to the cops
[23:08] attempting to close out the file, so to speak.
[23:13] On July 11th, 1911, just ten days after the sharp incident,
[23:18] the body of another victim, 25 year old Sadie Hawley, was
[23:22] discovered beside A streetcar line.
[23:24] The local papers weren't even sure how to number this attack.
[23:28] Depending on the source, Sadie was either the 7th, 8th, or 9th
[23:33] victim attributed to the Ripper. What was clear was that the
[23:38] perpetrator was growing bolder and the city's outrage was
[23:41] growing with each new body that was found.
[23:46] Under tremendous pressure, the police ramped up their efforts.
[23:50] Within a day of Sadie Holly's slaying, they arrested a 27 year
[23:54] old black laborer named Henry Hough.
[23:58] Hough had reportedly been seen with Sadie on the night of her
[24:01] death and when picked up he was found wearing bloody clothes and
[24:05] bearing scratch marks on his arms.
[24:08] The arrest was splashed across headlines and for a moment it
[24:12] seemed the nightmare might be over.
[24:15] However, the case against Huff was weak and he was held only on
[24:19] suspicion and investigators admitted they lacked solid
[24:22] evidence tying him to the string of attacks.
[24:27] Soon after Huff's arrest, another suspect was caught.
[24:30] A tip LED police to 35 year old Todd Henderson.
[24:34] Henderson, like Huff, had been seen around the area of one of
[24:38] the slayings. The police brought Emma Lou
[24:40] Sharp to the station to see if she could identify Henderson as
[24:44] the man who attacked her. Emma Lou was startled by
[24:48] Henderson's voice and thought he might be the same man, but she
[24:52] couldn't be absolutely certain. That lingering doubt meant
[24:56] Henderson couldn't be definitively pinned as the
[24:59] perpetrator. Henderson didn't do himself any
[25:02] favors. He made an off color remark that
[25:05] if he were Jack the Ripper, he would have eliminated his own
[25:08] wife first. The police ended up presenting
[25:13] both Hough and Henderson to a grand jury, essentially hoping
[25:17] the jurors might decide whom to indict for the slaying of Sadie
[25:21] Holly. Throughout August 1911, with
[25:24] Huff and Henderson locked up, the attacks unfortunately
[25:28] continued. In late August, another young
[25:31] woman was found with her throat cut in a rail yard on Atlanta's
[25:34] West side. Then in November 19, 1115, year
[25:39] old Minnie Wise was discovered slain in an alley in the style
[25:43] of the Atlanta Ripper. These attacks occurred while the
[25:47] two main suspects were behind bars, suggesting that neither
[25:51] Huff nor Henderson was the true Ripper unless a copycat was at
[25:54] play. Both men were eventually
[25:57] released without charge in early 1912.
[26:03] With the investigation stalling, some authorities floated
[26:06] alternative theories. A Fulton County grand jury
[26:10] concluded that the so-called Atlanta Ripper might be a myth.
[26:14] They speculated that each attack could have been an unrelated act
[26:17] of violence by different men, but many Atlantans doubted this
[26:21] explanation. The consistency in the crimes,
[26:26] the uncanny similarities in how, when and against whom they were
[26:30] carried out, was hard to dismiss.
[26:33] To the community and many officers, it still looked like
[26:37] the work of a single madman. Leeds continued to trickle in,
[26:43] and in April 1912, a man named Charlie Owens was convicted and
[26:48] sentenced to life in prison for one of the attacks attributed to
[26:52] the Ripper. It was never clearly reported
[26:55] which victims case this was, and the secretive way the trial was
[26:59] handled left observers puzzled. Whatever the truth, Owens's
[27:04] imprisonment didn't halt the attacks that newspapers linked
[27:08] to the Ripper. That summer, police arrested yet
[27:13] another suspect, Lawton Brown. Brown's wife had gone to the
[27:18] police with a disturbing story. She said that on several
[27:21] Saturday nights matching the attack dates, her husband came
[27:25] home late with blood on his clothes.
[27:28] Under interrogation, Brown reportedly confessed to at least
[27:32] one attack and hinted at knowing about the others.
[27:35] It seemed like a breakthrough, but the manner of the confession
[27:39] raised red flags in court. It came out that detectives had
[27:43] beaten Brown severely to extract his confession.
[27:49] Brown recanted, claiming he was coerced, and he was acquitted in
[27:52] October 1912 when a jury found the case against him
[27:56] unconvincing. Once again, Atlanta was back to
[28:00] square 1. By 1913, the panic had begun to
[28:04] subside a little, perhaps out of fatigue and the lower frequency
[28:08] of new attacks. But the mystery was far from
[28:11] solved. In March 1913, the slaying of
[28:16] yet another young black woman, Laura Smith, made the papers,
[28:21] and she was noted as possibly the third victim of the Ripper
[28:24] that year. In early 1914, a chilling
[28:29] development revived all the old fears.
[28:32] Handwritten notes were found pinned to emergency call boxes
[28:35] around the city, warning that the Ripper would start attacking
[28:39] younger black women caught out at night.
[28:44] Soon after, several more women were attacked and slain in
[28:47] familiar fashion, bringing the total toll attributed to the
[28:51] Atlanta Ripper to somewhere around 20 victims in all.
[28:55] And then, as mysteriously as it all began, the attack stopped
[29:00] and never resumed. After 1914, no more slayings
[29:05] were linked to the Ripper's spree.
[29:08] The nightmare that had terrorized Atlanta for three or
[29:10] four years simply evaporated without any satisfactory
[29:15] conclusion. Over a century has passed, and
[29:20] the Atlanta Ripper case remains unsolved.
[29:23] No single suspect was ever definitively identified as the
[29:26] perpetrator, and no one was convicted for the majority of
[29:30] the attacks. After the attack stopped, the
[29:34] authorities rapidly lost interest in wrapping up the
[29:36] investigation and the case went cold.
[29:41] Contemporary analysis has strongly considered that the
[29:44] Atlanta Ripper might not have been a lone wolf at all.
[29:48] It's possible that multiple perpetrators use the Rippers
[29:51] brutal methods as a cover for their crimes.
[29:54] Some have suggested it could have been a group that actually
[29:57] communicated and conspired with one another.
[30:00] Others have suggested that as the hysteria built, copycats
[30:05] could simply employ the widely known methods of the Ripper to
[30:09] provide cover for their crimes. Under this theory, these
[30:13] individuals may have simply used it as a cover to attack those
[30:16] close to them without the usual scrutiny that would bring.
[30:22] Others maintain it truly was one man who vanished from Atlanta by
[30:26] 1915, explaining why the attacks ceased so suddenly.
[30:32] Ultimately, the truth of this case is unlikely to ever be
[30:35] known. In the pre dawn darkness of
[30:41] August 9th, 1975, a quiet Sudbury, Canada neighborhood hid
[30:46] a chilling secret. A young woman vanished without a
[30:49] trace from her own home. The next morning, 20 year old
[30:54] Jane Smith's bed was empty and her belongings untouched.
[30:58] This baffling disappearance would leave her family and
[31:01] community haunted for the next 50 years, desperate for answers
[31:05] to what really happened in those fateful hours.
[31:11] Born in 1955, Jane grew up in Newmarket, ON and attended
[31:16] school in the town where she was born.
[31:19] In 1973, she enrolled at Laurentian University in Sudbury
[31:23] to study social work, reflecting her passion for helping others.
[31:28] By 1975, at age 20, she was an aspiring social worker and
[31:33] active student leader, even serving on the student council
[31:37] during her first year at Laurentian.
[31:39] Friends and family recall Jane as energetic and compassionate,
[31:44] someone who wanted to make a difference in the world.
[31:48] The summer of 1975, instead of returning home, Jane chose to
[31:52] stay in Sudbury. She had a job at a local
[31:56] Canadian Tire store, which is a national chain that's
[31:59] essentially a Walmart, minus the food, with a service center
[32:03] attached. By all accounts, she was happy
[32:08] living in Sudbury, excited about her future and closely connected
[32:12] to her family back home. There were no signs of trouble
[32:17] in Jane's life as she headed into that August, which makes
[32:20] her sudden disappearance all the more mystifying.
[32:26] On Friday, August 8th, 1975, Jane is thought to have gone
[32:30] about her usual routine. There's little record of what
[32:33] she did that evening, but nothing seemed out of the
[32:36] ordinary. Based on what's been reported,
[32:40] she lived in a small basement apartment on Charlotte St. in
[32:43] Sudbury, which she shared with a roommate.
[32:46] That night, the two young women stayed up late.
[32:49] Around 2:00 in the morning on August 9th, Jane's roommate saw
[32:53] her in their apartment as Jane was preparing to head to bed.
[32:57] It was the last confirmed sighting of Jane Smith.
[33:00] Sometime in the early morning hours, something went terribly
[33:04] wrong. By 7:30 that Saturday morning,
[33:09] Jane's roommate realized Jane was nowhere to be found in the
[33:12] apartment. Jane's bed was empty, and she
[33:15] was gone without making a sound in the night.
[33:18] Panicked, the roommate searched and then contacted others.
[33:23] Before long, police were notified that Jane was missing.
[33:27] What they found, or rather did not find, was deeply unsettling.
[33:33] Apart from the clothes Jane had been wearing when she was last
[33:36] seen, all of her personal belongings were left behind in
[33:40] her room. Her purse, identification, and
[33:44] even everyday items a young woman would normally take were
[33:47] untouched. It looked as if Jane had
[33:50] intended to be back soon or had no chance to gather anything at
[33:54] all. Crucially, Jane's bank accounts
[33:58] were never accessed again after that day.
[34:01] This meant that none of her money was withdrawn or spent,
[34:04] and she didn't contact any friends or family.
[34:08] For investigators, this was a red flag.
[34:11] It strongly suggested that Jane did not plan to leave for long,
[34:15] since she took no money or belongings and she hadn't simply
[34:19] started a new life elsewhere. It appeared that someone had
[34:22] removed Jane from her home or the surrounding area against her
[34:27] will. In the immediate aftermath of
[34:31] Jane's disappearance, an intensive investigation
[34:34] unfolded. Friends, family, and volunteers
[34:38] scoured the area for any clue. Sudbury Police treated the case
[34:42] with urgency. A young woman disappearing from
[34:45] her own home was not something they took lightly.
[34:49] Early on, Jane's family and the local community offered a reward
[34:52] for information. Her distraught parents, along
[34:56] with family friends, put up reward money in hopes of
[35:00] enticing anyone with knowledge to speak up.
[35:03] Jane's fellow students at Laurentian University even
[35:06] organized fundraisers to add to the reward fund.
[35:10] Posters of Jane's smiling face were distributed and local media
[35:14] covered the story. Despite these efforts, no solid
[35:19] leads emerged and it was as if whatever happened to Jane had
[35:23] left no witnesses or evidence willing to surface.
[35:29] Initially, 2 main theories took shape that Jane was the victim
[35:33] of foul play or that she left of her own accord.
[35:37] As the weeks and months passed with no sign of Jane, the
[35:41] runaway theory rapidly lost credibility.
[35:45] Tragically, the foul play theory is now widely accepted as the
[35:49] likely explanation. The Greater Sudbury Police have
[35:53] never closed the case, and Jane's case is officially
[35:56] classified as a suspected slaying, albeit without a body
[36:00] to prove it. Without concrete evidence,
[36:05] speculation has run rampant. 1 possibility is that Jane knew
[36:10] her abductor. Perhaps she stepped outside to
[36:13] meet someone she trusted in those early morning hours and
[36:16] met with harm. It's been theorized that perhaps
[36:20] she had recently started dating a man and hadn't yet told anyone
[36:24] else about him. Under this theory, she may have
[36:28] headed out in the early morning hours to meet up with him, and
[36:31] the encounter turned deadly. Another speculative theory is
[36:36] that she perhaps stepped out in the middle of the night for some
[36:39] fresh air. This would explain why the only
[36:42] thing that was missing was her clothing While out.
[36:46] Under this theory, she was abducted by an assailant who may
[36:50] have been stalking her, waiting for her to emerge from her home.
[36:54] Again, this is speculative, but given how completely she
[36:58] vanished, it's potentially accurate.
[37:03] In the end, the story of Jane Smith is a heartbreaking tale of
[37:07] a young woman who should have had a long, fulfilling life.
[37:11] Her family hasn't given up the search for her and has been able
[37:15] to use the 50th anniversary of her disappearance to bring
[37:18] additional attention to her case.
[37:21] It's likely someone out there somewhere knows exactly what
[37:24] happened to Jane on that Sudbury Saturday morning.
[37:31] In late March of 2024, a routine morning drive turned into a
[37:36] chilling mystery. Christina Ace, a 61 year old
[37:41] nurse from Vancouver, WA, left her home before dawn to head to
[37:45] work, something she'd done faithfully for 15 years.
[37:50] But this time she never arrived, and instead her colleagues
[37:53] received an unusual message that she would be late.
[37:57] By the next day. Her SUV was found abandoned with
[38:00] a strange residue on the seats. Christina herself had vanished
[38:04] without a trace, and what happened to her continues to
[38:07] remain an unresolved mystery. Born in Argentina in 1962,
[38:15] Christina moved to the United States in the mid 2000s to build
[38:18] a new life. Back in Argentina, she had
[38:21] worked as a biochemist and after immigrating she earned a
[38:25] bachelor's in nursing followed by a doctorate in medical
[38:29] science. This impressive background LED
[38:32] her to a career in elder care. By 2024, Christina was the
[38:37] nursing director at the Rose Lynn Care Center in West Linn,
[38:40] OR, where she had worked for about 15 years.
[38:46] Tuesday March 26th, 2024 began like any other work day for
[38:51] Christina. She was last seen by her husband
[38:54] around 6:30 AM that morning as she left their Vancouver home to
[38:58] drive to work across the Columbia River in Oregon.
[39:03] Typically Christina started work around 7:30 AM, but that morning
[39:08] her Co workers received a brief text.
[39:11] It was from her phone and it was sent at about 6:30 AM,
[39:16] indicating she would arrive around 8:30 instead.
[39:20] No explanation was given for this one hour delay, which
[39:23] struck her colleagues as unusual.
[39:26] In fact, 2 Co workers later remarked that it was odd
[39:29] Christina only messaged one Co worker instead of their usual
[39:33] group chat, almost as if she didn't want to alert everyone.
[39:38] Still, the message suggested Christina was on her way, just
[39:41] running late. However, Christina never showed
[39:46] up at the care facility that day.
[39:48] By mid morning, concern was mounting, especially since this
[39:52] was a woman who never missed work without prior notice in 15
[39:55] years. Her Co workers tried to reach
[39:58] her, but calls went straight to voicemail.
[40:01] By early afternoon, the Rose Lynn Care Center's executive
[40:04] director phoned Christina's husband, Anabel Diaz, to ask if
[40:08] she was OK. It turns out he was just as
[40:13] shocked to hear she hadn't arrived at work, and for good
[40:16] reason. He had watched her leave for her
[40:19] normal shift and had no idea she planned on coming in late.
[40:24] Alarmed by her unexplained absence, both Annabel and
[40:27] Christina's Co workers independently contacted the
[40:30] police that same day to report her missing.
[40:33] A search for the missing nurse was now underway just hours
[40:37] after she was last seen. Initial searches found no sign
[40:43] of Christina herself, but a series of unsettling clues soon
[40:48] surfaced. The day after she vanished on
[40:51] March 27th, investigators discovered Christina's vehicle,
[40:55] a dark grey 2013 Toyota Rav 4, parked on a roadside about a
[41:01] mile from her apartment in Vancouver.
[41:03] The SUV was unoccupied and appeared as if someone had left
[41:07] it in haste. Tellingly, the rear view mirror
[41:10] was skewed and more disturbingly, a white residue
[41:14] coated several surfaces inside the car.
[41:17] It looked as if someone might have wiped down the interior
[41:20] with bleach or another cleaner, an ominous sign that suggested
[41:24] evidence could have been deliberately scrubbed.
[41:27] Literally. Police seized the vehicle for
[41:32] forensic analysis, considering the unusual state of the car a
[41:36] major red flag. The fact that the car had
[41:39] reappeared near her home, seemingly cleaned, raised many
[41:43] questions. Had Christina driven off and
[41:47] then returned on her own? Or had someone else driven her
[41:51] car back to her neighborhood after harming her?
[41:54] Investigators noted that whoever brought the SUV back must have
[41:58] known where Christina lived or found her address, hinting at a
[42:02] possible personal connection. Meanwhile, detectives delved
[42:07] into Christina's cell phone records, which revealed A
[42:10] puzzling journey on the morning of March 26th.
[42:13] Data from her phone showed that after leaving home at 6:34 AM,
[42:18] she drove S from Vancouver into Portland via Interstate 2O5.
[42:24] At 6:47 AM, her phone took the Foster Rd. exit into a
[42:29] residential area of Southeast Portland.
[42:32] Instead of continuing toward her workplace, the phone stayed in
[42:35] the vicinity of a neighborhood near Glenwood Park for over 3
[42:39] hours that morning. During that period, roughly 648
[42:44] to 10 AM, the phone signals suggested movement between the
[42:47] park and one or more houses nearby.
[42:51] At 10 AM, the device pinged near the intersection of Flavel
[42:55] Street and 92nd Ave. a spot adjacent to that same park.
[43:00] And then it went dark, either powered off or disabled.
[43:06] After a full forensic review of the phone and all records, the
[43:10] authorities determined it was never turned on again.
[43:15] The area around Glenwood Park is a residential zone and it has a
[43:19] reputation for higher crime related activities.
[43:22] The phone data suggested this was not a one time occurrence
[43:26] either. Investigators discovered that on
[43:28] at least two prior occasions in the weeks before her
[43:31] disappearance, Christina had travelled to that same Southeast
[43:35] Portland vicinity. Each time, she left home around
[43:39] 6:30 AM and sent a text to her boss about 20 minutes later,
[43:45] roughly when she would be reaching the Foster Rd. exit.
[43:48] According to police analysis, it appeared Christina had some
[43:52] secret errand or meeting in that neighborhood that she hadn't
[43:56] shared with her husband or employer.
[44:00] These revelations deepen the mystery, and police were
[44:03] increasingly convinced that foul play was involved.
[44:07] The Vancouver Police Department publicly stated that Christina's
[44:11] disappearance was suspicious. They enlisted help from multiple
[44:15] agencies, including Portland and Westland police and even the
[44:18] FBI. Based on the evidence,
[44:21] detectives said there was probable cause to believe
[44:24] Christina's fate was linked to a serious crime or an imminently
[44:28] dangerous situation. With concrete evidence scarce,
[44:34] numerous theories have emerged about what might have happened
[44:36] to Christina Ace. One line of speculation centers
[44:40] on the secret visits to the Southeast Portland neighborhood.
[44:44] Some who know Christina find it hard to believe she would lie
[44:47] about her whereabouts unless she had a compelling personal
[44:51] reason. It's been speculated that she
[44:54] may have sparked up a hidden romance in the area.
[44:57] If so, it's possible she arranged A brief meet up that
[45:01] morning and something went terribly wrong.
[45:04] An acquaintance or romantic partner might have harmed her
[45:08] and then driven her car back to Vancouver to cover their tracks.
[45:12] The careful cleaning of the car's interior supports the idea
[45:16] that an offender tried to destroy evidence.
[45:20] This theory is chilling, suggesting Christina fell victim
[45:23] to foul play at the hands of someone she trusted.
[45:28] Another theory points to a more random crime.
[45:31] The area where her phone last pinged near Glenwood Park is
[45:35] known for some homeless encampments and criminal
[45:37] activity. It's conceivable that Christina
[45:40] could have been carjacked or abducted by a stranger after
[45:43] taking that detour. Perhaps she stopped for someone
[45:48] in distress or was lured into that area and then attacked.
[45:53] In such a scenario, the perpetrator might have driven
[45:56] her car back to her neighborhood to delay raising alarm.
[46:00] Under this scenario, they may have learned her address from
[46:03] her license or registration. However, this seems less likely
[46:10] to some random criminals, typically abandoned stolen cars
[46:14] or strip them for parts, not return them cleaned.
[46:17] The level of effort to wipe down the vehicle and place it near
[46:20] her home suggests a more calculated approach, which a
[46:24] stranger would be less motivated to do.
[46:27] However, without knowing why Christina went to that
[46:30] neighborhood, a chance encounter gone wrong seems much less
[46:34] likely. It's not a great neighborhood,
[46:37] and absolutely nobody knew why she would be there to begin
[46:40] with. Naturally, investigators also
[46:45] look close to home. Statistically, a spouse or
[46:48] family member is often involved when someone disappears.
[46:52] However, by all accounts, Christina's husband and
[46:55] relatives have fully cooperated with the investigation.
[46:58] There were no known marital problems reported publicly, and
[47:02] Annabelle was genuinely shocked and upset when he learned she
[47:05] was missing. Police have not named him or any
[47:09] family as suspects, and the focus seems to be elsewhere.
[47:14] The fact that Christina was apparently hiding something from
[47:16] both her husband and boss suggests that the key to this
[47:20] mystery might lie in that secret part of her routine.
[47:26] While investigators and loved ones have leaned heavily toward
[47:29] foul play, one possibility worth examining is that Christina may
[47:33] have voluntarily left her life behind.
[47:36] To many, this seems improbable. She was deeply committed to her
[47:41] nursing career, adored by her colleagues, and described as
[47:45] reliable to a fault. Yet the details of her
[47:48] disappearance raise questions that leave the door open for
[47:51] this theory. The most striking clue is the
[47:55] repeated detours Christina made in the weeks before she
[47:58] vanished. That secrecy hints at the
[48:01] potential for dissatisfaction at home or in her professional
[48:04] life. Choosing to start fresh
[48:07] elsewhere, especially for someone with her professional
[48:10] background and international ties, isn't beyond imagination.
[48:17] Another possibility investigators have quietly
[48:19] considered is that Christina may have been battling a private
[48:22] addiction. And yeah, I'm going to confess
[48:24] here that when I was researching this case, this was the first
[48:28] thing that popped into my mind. To those who knew her, Christina
[48:33] seemed the picture of stability, A devoted nurse, a reliable Co
[48:38] worker and a compassionate leader.
[48:42] Yet her unexplained detours into a Southeast Portland
[48:45] neighborhood raised the question of whether she was seeking
[48:48] something she didn't want others to know about.
[48:52] Addictions can remain hidden even from close family,
[48:55] especially when someone is highly functional in other
[48:58] aspects of life. If Christina had developed a
[49:01] dependency, she may have concealed it to protect her
[49:04] professional reputation in marriage.
[49:07] This could explain the secrecy, the unusual morning trips, and
[49:12] even why she kept those visits private.
[49:15] While unproven, the possibility of a secret addiction lingers as
[49:20] one of the darker theories in her case.
[49:25] If this theory is true, it could be that she overdosed and her
[49:28] body was dumped separately from her vehicle.
[49:31] If so, she may be a Jane Doe, or perhaps she's never yet been
[49:35] located. For now, what actually happened
[49:39] to Christina remains an unsolved mystery.
[49:42] Her family and friends remain extremely active in the search
[49:45] for Christina and this case is still being actively
[49:49] investigated by the authorities. A frantic phone call and a pride
[49:56] open door led to a chilling discovery. 19 year old beauty
[50:00] queen Nona Dirksmeyer was found deceased in her apartment after
[50:04] being beaten with the base of a floor lamp.
[50:08] The crime, which took place on December 15th, 2005, shocked the
[50:13] small town of Russellville, AR Russellville had rarely seen
[50:18] such brutality, and the loss of a beloved young woman left
[50:22] residents shaken and hungry for justice.
[50:26] In the aftermath, a desperate search for answers unfolded,
[50:30] entangling police, family, and an entire community in a
[50:34] whodunit that remains unsolved to this day.
[50:39] Nona Dirksmeyer was, by all accounts, a kind and
[50:42] compassionate young woman. By 2005, she was a freshman at
[50:46] Arkansas Tech University and had been a contestant in the Miss
[50:50] Arkansas pageant. She was dating her high school
[50:54] sweetheart, Kevin Jones, and was deeply loved by her family and
[50:58] friends. On December 15th, 2005, Nona
[51:04] spent the day on campus taking final exams.
[51:08] That evening. Her boyfriend Kevin grew alarmed
[51:10] when she didn't answer her phone, which was highly unusual.
[51:15] He sent a friend to check on her.
[51:17] The friend saw Nona's car outside but got no answer at the
[51:20] door. Fearing something was wrong,
[51:24] Kevin and his mother, Janice, drove to Nona's apartment
[51:27] immediately. They found the front door
[51:30] locked, so Kevin forced open a sliding glass door at the back.
[51:36] Inside, they stumbled onto a nightmare.
[51:40] Nona lay on the floor in a pool of blood, unresponsive.
[51:44] Kevin frantically tried to revive her while Janice called
[51:47] 911, but it was too late. Nona was already gone.
[51:53] The living room was spattered with blood, and a tall floor
[51:56] lamp lay broken nearby. Investigators later determined
[52:00] that the lamps heavy base was the weapon used to dispatch her.
[52:05] Nona had also been stabbed multiple times around her neck
[52:08] and chest before being bludgeoned, indicating an
[52:11] extremely personal rage fueled assault.
[52:16] There were no signs of forced entry and nothing whatsoever to
[52:19] suggest that she had been subjected to an indecent
[52:22] assault. To investigators, this strongly
[52:25] suggested she likely knew her attacker and had let him in
[52:29] willingly. Police naturally looked at Kevin
[52:34] first. He was the one who found Nona,
[52:37] and when officers arrived, they noticed he was covered in her
[52:40] blood. Kevin said it got on him from
[52:43] cradling and trying to revive her, but detectives remained
[52:47] wary. His demeanor also struck them as
[52:50] odd. One officer later noted that
[52:53] Kevin, in shock, reached out as if to shake hands despite having
[52:57] blood on him. This struck the officer as
[53:00] incredibly odd for a number of reasons.
[53:06] At the station, Kevin underwent hours of questioning and even a
[53:09] polygraph test, which police said he failed.
[53:13] When left alone in the interrogation room, he broke
[53:16] down and at one point slammed a chair in frustration and
[53:21] outburst investigators interpreted as a sign of a
[53:23] hidden temper. Then a critical piece of
[53:28] evidence turned up, a bloody palm print on the lamp, and it
[53:32] matched Kevin's hand. To the police, this was damning
[53:36] proof that he had handled the weapon during the attack.
[53:41] By this point, detectives had formulated a theory that Nona's
[53:44] slaying was a crime of passion. On the kitchen counter, they
[53:48] found an empty condom wrapper, a clue suggesting Nona might have
[53:51] been with another man. Investigators speculated that
[53:55] Kevin discovered this and in a jealous fury, confronted Nona.
[54:01] In their scenario, an argument erupted and Kevin brutally
[54:05] assaulted her. The brutality of the scene did
[54:08] seem to fit a sudden outburst of anger.
[54:11] Just six days after the attack, the lead detective told Kevin he
[54:15] was no longer the prime suspect, but rather that he was their
[54:19] only suspect. On March 31st, 2006, Kevin was
[54:25] formally arrested and charged with Nona's slaying.
[54:31] By then, investigators had interviewed around 50 people in
[54:34] Nona's life, but nothing they learned shook their focus on
[54:37] Kevin. The case quickly became front
[54:40] page news, and the slaying of a beauty queen brought intense
[54:43] pressure to solve the crime. Local media coverage and
[54:47] community outrage added momentum to the swift action against
[54:51] Kevin. Kevin, just 20 years old,
[54:55] continued to insist he was innocent, and those close to the
[54:59] couple argued that the police had it wrong.
[55:02] Nevertheless, the case against Kevin moved forward to a jury
[55:05] trial. Kevin's trial took place in
[55:10] 2007, and prosecutors argued he was a jealous boyfriend who
[55:15] snapped, pointing to the bloody handprint and the condom
[55:18] wrapper. As evidence, the defense
[55:21] countered that Kevin's palm print got on the lamp when he
[55:24] tried to help Nona and that there was no direct proof he
[55:27] committed the crime. One point of contention was the
[55:32] state of the blood on the lamp. Police witnesses described it as
[55:36] slightly sticky, which the defense argued meant Kevin's
[55:39] handprint was left when the blood was fresh.
[55:43] Under this theory, it was left there during his panicked
[55:46] attempt to save Nona, not at the time of the attack.
[55:50] With no eyewitnesses or confession, and with Kevin's
[55:54] clean record, the defense maintained that the
[55:56] prosecution's case was built on circumstantial clues and a
[56:00] flawed timeline. The decision in this case
[56:04] probably won't shock you because, yeah, the prosecution
[56:07] has to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
[56:13] After deliberation, the jury agreed there was reasonable
[56:16] doubt, and in July 2007, Kevin was found not guilty and
[56:22] acquitted of all charges. He walked free, his name cleared
[56:26] after 18 months under a cloud of suspicion.
[56:30] Nona's family, however, was crushed by the verdict,
[56:33] convinced that the perpetrator had just escaped justice.
[56:37] For the investigators, the outcome was a major set back.
[56:41] Their primary theory had completely collapsed and the
[56:44] real perpetrator was still at large.
[56:49] After Kevin's acquittal, authorities appointed a special
[56:52] prosecutor to re examine Nona's case.
[56:56] In this second investigation, a new suspect emerged, Nona's
[57:01] neighbor, Gary Dunn. It turned out that a crucial
[57:05] piece of evidence, the condom wrapper from Nona's apartment,
[57:09] had been tested for DNA in early 2008.
[57:12] That DNA was matched to Gary Dunn.
[57:15] Also, as a quick aside, the initial investigators never
[57:19] checked for DNA on the wrapper, and it was Kevin's defense team
[57:23] that had it tested in an effort to get him acquitted.
[57:26] Clearly, that seems like incredibly sloppy police work
[57:29] from investigators who were sure they already had their man.
[57:36] This was a major turning point in the case.
[57:39] Dunn lived in the same complex and had a violent past.
[57:43] In 2002, he was convicted of attacking a female jogger with a
[57:47] tree branch in a park and served several years in prison.
[57:50] He had been out on parole for only a few months at the time of
[57:54] Nona's death. Investigators also learned that
[57:58] Dunn's initial statements were deceptive.
[58:01] He gave a shaky alibi and even showed signs of lying on a
[58:04] polygraph when questioned. Shortly after the slaying.
[58:09] In 2008, armed with the DNA evidence, prosecutors charged
[58:14] Gary Dunn. The case against Dunn, however,
[58:17] was not a slam dunk. The DNA on the condom wrapper
[58:20] placed him in Nona's apartment, but there was little else to tie
[58:24] him definitively to the crime. Further, there was no evidence
[58:29] that she had been subjected to an indecent assault.
[58:35] Notably, it was Kevin's defense team, not the original police,
[58:39] who uncovered the rapper DNA match, raising questions about
[58:43] oversights in the initial investigation.
[58:46] At Dunn's trial, prosecutors argued that his history of
[58:50] violence made it likely he attacked Nona, while the defense
[58:54] insisted the evidence was too weak and circumstantial.
[58:57] The first trial, in 2009, ended with a hung jury when jurors
[59:02] couldn't agree on a verdict. A second trial in 2010 had the
[59:06] same result, another deadlocked jury.
[59:10] After two mistrials prosecutors decided not to attempt a third
[59:14] trial. Dunn was released and once again
[59:17] Nona's case had no resolution. Gary Dunn always maintained his
[59:21] innocence and continues to do so until this day.
[59:27] The attack that led to the end of Nona Dirksmeyer remains
[59:30] unsolved at present, despite 2 men having been tried for her
[59:34] slaying. No one has been convicted, and
[59:37] the question of who ended her life her still hangs over
[59:41] Russellville. Many who followed the case
[59:44] believe Gary Dunn was the likely culprit and that he slipped
[59:47] through the cracks of the justice system.
[59:50] This suspicion was reinforced when in 2018, Dunn was arrested
[59:56] for harassing and attempting to abduct a woman in a parking lot,
[1:00:00] a crime for which he is now serving prison time.
[1:00:05] I have some significant doubts that there will ever be justice
[1:00:08] for Nona. The initial investigators
[1:00:11] clearly mishandled the evidence and didn't even bother to test
[1:00:15] the condom wrapper found in the apartment.
[1:00:18] Any further attempt to prosecute anyone for this crime will
[1:00:21] likely be limited by these failures of the initial
[1:00:24] investigators. It's important to remember that
[1:00:27] the prosecution has to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt,
[1:00:31] and when there are such glaring holes in the initial
[1:00:34] investigation, that makes it hard to do.
[1:00:39] The story of Gerald Cotton's demise sounds like something out
[1:00:42] of a movie. One day he was the youthful CEO
[1:00:45] of Canada's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, and the
[1:00:48] next he was reportedly dead overseas, taking to the grave
[1:00:52] all the secret keys to a digital fortune.
[1:00:56] For 10s of thousands of investors, that nightmare
[1:00:59] scenario became reality. His sudden death left
[1:01:03] $169,000,000 in cryptocurrency and cash inaccessible, and
[1:01:08] customers were in shock. As the case unfolded, it became
[1:01:12] clear that this may not have been the tragic end to a
[1:01:15] visionary entrepreneur's life, but rather a story of deceit,
[1:01:20] fraud and voluntary disappearance.
[1:01:25] Gerald Cotton was a Canadian cryptocurrency entrepreneur
[1:01:29] known as the Co founder and CEO of Quadriga CX, which was at one
[1:01:34] point the country's dominant Bitcoin exchange.
[1:01:37] Born in 1988, Cotton grew up in Ontario and graduated from York
[1:01:42] University's business program where he developed an early
[1:01:46] interest in digital currencies. In 2013, he teamed up with an
[1:01:51] associate, Michael Patron, to launch Quadriga, a
[1:01:56] cryptocurrency exchange platform.
[1:01:59] Cotton became the public face of the company, projecting an image
[1:02:02] of a friendly, tech savvy innovator on a mission to make
[1:02:06] crypto accessible to Canadians. He marketed himself as a
[1:02:11] friendly blockchain wizard with a genial demeanor.
[1:02:14] He was also active in the community, serving as a director
[1:02:18] of the Vancouver Bitcoin Co-op and hosting local Bitcoin
[1:02:22] meetups to champion the new technology.
[1:02:27] The crypto boom of that period made Cotton very wealthy.
[1:02:30] He acquired luxury items like a sailboat, multiple high end
[1:02:34] properties, an airplane, and even a private island.
[1:02:40] After its founding, Quadriga quickly grew to become a major
[1:02:44] player in Canada's cryptocurrency market.
[1:02:47] At its height, the platform boasted around 350,000 users and
[1:02:52] saw about $1.2 billion worth of Bitcoin traded in 2017 alone.
[1:02:59] To put this in perspective, Bitcoin was only a few years
[1:03:02] removed from being traded on a Magic the Gathering online
[1:03:05] exchange by that point. Or should I say something that
[1:03:10] originally started out that way? At the very least, Cotton ran
[1:03:16] the business largely from his encrypted laptop and by 2016 was
[1:03:20] essentially running it single handedly with no other full time
[1:03:24] employees or directors involved. On the surface, Quadriga
[1:03:28] appeared to be thriving. However, behind the scenes, it
[1:03:33] lacked proper financial controls and had growing liquidity
[1:03:36] problems. For instance, a Canadian bank
[1:03:40] once froze about 25,000,000 of Quadriga's funds in 2018 due to
[1:03:46] uncertainty over who really owned the money.
[1:03:49] Still, users remained largely unaware of any issues and
[1:03:53] continued to entrust their money to Quadriga right up until after
[1:03:57] Cotton's fateful trip in late 2018.
[1:04:03] In December 2018, Cotton travelled to Jaipur in South
[1:04:07] Asia with his new wife, Jennifer Robertson, for a honeymoon that
[1:04:11] doubled as a charitable visit. The couple planned to visit an
[1:04:15] orphanage and donate supplies to children.
[1:04:18] Super charitable of them. And yeah, even through my
[1:04:23] deadpan delivery, I'm hoping you could detect the sarcasm in my
[1:04:27] voice because things are about to go seriously off the rails.
[1:04:34] Just days into the trip, Cotton fell I'll with sudden stomach
[1:04:37] pain and was admitted to a local hospital.
[1:04:40] On December 8th, 2018. He was diagnosed with acute
[1:04:45] gastroenteritis that rapidly escalated to septic shock.
[1:04:50] Within roughly 24 hours on December 9th, the 30 year old
[1:04:54] went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead.
[1:05:00] The official story was that Cotton died from complications
[1:05:03] of Crohn's disease. The gastroenterologist who
[1:05:07] treated him later said he wasn't entirely sure about the
[1:05:10] diagnosis and was haunted by how quickly Cotton's condition
[1:05:13] spiraled out of control. Cotton's body was quickly
[1:05:17] embalmed and flown back to Canada, and a local death
[1:05:20] certificate was issued. No autopsy was conducted, and
[1:05:24] stranger still, Quadriga didn't immediately inform its customers
[1:05:28] of Cotton's passing. It was only on January 14th,
[1:05:32] 2019, more than a month later, that the company announced
[1:05:37] Gerald Cotton had died from Crohn's complications in a
[1:05:40] foreign land. As soon as Cotton's death was
[1:05:45] disclosed, panic set in among Quadriga's users.
[1:05:49] It turned out that Cotton was the only person with the
[1:05:51] passwords and recovery keys for Quadriga's funds, and now those
[1:05:55] digital wallets were inaccessible without him.
[1:05:59] Roughly 169,000,000 Canadian dollars worth of Bitcoin and
[1:06:03] other assets were effectively frozen on the platform,
[1:06:07] affecting around 75,000 customers.
[1:06:11] The exchange soon halted operations and filed for
[1:06:14] creditor protection by the end of January 2019.
[1:06:19] In fact, during the weeks before the death was made public,
[1:06:22] Quadriga's website still accepted deposits.
[1:06:27] This was suspicious because withdrawals had quietly stopped
[1:06:31] because the only person who could execute them was already
[1:06:33] dead. This infuriated customers and
[1:06:37] further deepened the mystery. For many, this was more than
[1:06:42] just an online drama. It was a personal financial
[1:06:46] catastrophe, as some lost their retirement savings or children's
[1:06:50] college funds in the freeze. It didn't take long for doubts
[1:06:53] and conspiracy theories to swirl.
[1:06:56] Cryptocurrency observers were baffled that ACEO, like Cotton,
[1:07:00] had no contingency plan for access to the exchange's assets.
[1:07:04] Even those who knew him were astonished.
[1:07:07] One blockchain security expert noted that Cotton understood the
[1:07:10] need for backups and would never leave everything to chance,
[1:07:14] making the lack of any Plan B extremely hard to fathom.
[1:07:18] However, what would come out later would explain why old
[1:07:22] Jerry didn't take these basic security precautions.
[1:07:25] But hang tight, because I'll come to that in a moment.
[1:07:32] The circumstances of his death abroad also raised extreme
[1:07:35] suspicion. Cotton had signed a will just
[1:07:38] days before his trip, leaving his $10 million estate to his
[1:07:42] wife and even setting aside $100,000 for his two dogs.
[1:07:47] Yet that document curiously made absolutely no mention of any
[1:07:51] passwords or crypto wallets for Quadriga's funds.
[1:07:55] Of course, creating the will just before the trip was also a
[1:07:58] suspicious act as well, though initially it was explained away
[1:08:02] by his new marriage. In addition, his death related
[1:08:07] paperwork from overseas had peculiarities.
[1:08:10] His name was misspelled on the death certificate, and the
[1:08:13] hospital executive who signed his documents had a prior fraud
[1:08:16] conviction. On Reddit and Twitter, some
[1:08:21] aggrieved users openly speculated that Cotton might
[1:08:24] have faked his death and vanished with the money.
[1:08:29] Authorities in the crypto community alike set out to
[1:08:32] investigate. Initially, many assumed
[1:08:35] Quadriga's predicament was just a worst case scenario of poor
[1:08:38] succession planning, essentially A1 man business where the keys
[1:08:43] died with the king. However, as inquiries proceeded,
[1:08:47] a far more sinister reality began to emerge.
[1:08:53] In early 2019, Canadian courts declared Quadriga bankrupt and
[1:08:58] appointed forensic accounts as an independent monitor to trace
[1:09:02] any remaining assets. Law enforcement agencies also
[1:09:06] opened probes. Meanwhile, armchair detectives
[1:09:09] scoured the blockchain, the public Ledger of transactions to
[1:09:14] follow the trail of Quadriga's holdings.
[1:09:17] They discovered something alarming.
[1:09:20] Some of Quadriga's so-called cold wallets.
[1:09:23] Offline reserves were empty and large sums had been moved out
[1:09:28] months before Cotton's trip. In other words, much of the
[1:09:32] money was already missing rather than simply locked away waiting
[1:09:35] for a password. The deeper investigators dug,
[1:09:41] the stranger the story became. Journalists uncovered that
[1:09:44] Cotton's Co founder Michael Patron was actually a convicted
[1:09:48] fraudster who had changed his name from Omar Danani after
[1:09:52] serving time in the States. Cotton's own past was also
[1:09:56] scrutinized, revealing that he had dabbled in dubious online
[1:10:00] investment schemes as a younger man.
[1:10:03] By late 2019, with still no recovery of the missing
[1:10:07] cryptocurrency, lawyers for Quadriga's users even asked
[1:10:12] authorities to exhume Cotton's corpse.
[1:10:17] In June 2020, a report by the Ontario Securities Commission
[1:10:21] finally provided definitive answers.
[1:10:24] The OSC concluded that Quadriga collapsed because of fraud
[1:10:27] committed by Gerald Cotton. Essentially, Cotton had turned
[1:10:31] Quadriga into a Ponzi scheme in its final years.
[1:10:35] He secretly siphoned off client assets for personal use and made
[1:10:39] reckless trades with customer funds.
[1:10:42] When his bets went wrong or cryptocurrency prices fell, he
[1:10:46] covered the losses using new deposits from other users.
[1:10:50] By the time of his death, the exchange owed about $215 million
[1:10:55] to its users, but the money was largely gone.
[1:10:59] Cotton had also drained approximately $24 million for
[1:11:02] personal expenses and lost about $115 million through bad trades
[1:11:08] and mismanagement of user assets.
[1:11:12] Only a small fraction of the funds was ever recovered.
[1:11:15] Roughly $34 million was eventually found and paid back
[1:11:19] to customers. Cotton's widow denied any
[1:11:22] knowledge of the scam and ended up voluntarily turning over all
[1:11:26] the money she had received from his estate.
[1:11:30] In the end, Quadriga was a case of deceit and financial
[1:11:33] wrongdoing hidden behind the hype of a crypto platform.
[1:11:39] Cotton's body was never exhumed, and it remains unclear if this
[1:11:43] cryptocurrency fraudster remains out there somewhere in the world
[1:11:46] or not Personally, I think the entire thing sounds a little bit
[1:11:51] too convenient to be taken at face value.
[1:11:56] Hey everyone, it's Jimmy here with a quick reminder to like,
[1:11:59] subscribe, hit the notification bell, and turn on all
[1:12:02] notifications. Also, don't forget to leave a
[1:12:04] quick comment saying where you're listening from.
[1:12:09] In October 1985, a highway mowing crew in Smith County,
[1:12:13] Texas made a gruesome discovery. Human skeletal remains hidden in
[1:12:18] a brushy gully beside Interstate 20.
[1:12:21] The victim was an unidentified young woman, and for almost 40
[1:12:25] years her name and story remained unknown.
[1:12:29] Today we know that she was Gina Crowe, a 27 year old new mother
[1:12:34] from Arlington who vanished in 1984 and became the center of a
[1:12:39] decades long mystery. Gina was a young Texas mother
[1:12:45] with an extremely tumultuous personal life.
[1:12:48] By 1984, at age 26, she had been through multiple marriages, the
[1:12:54] latest in January 1984 to a man named Dwight Crowe.
[1:12:59] That summer, she gave birth to a daughter.
[1:13:01] In July 1984, but not long after, Gina vanished without a
[1:13:06] trace because her family lived out of state and didn't even
[1:13:10] know about her new marriage or baby.
[1:13:13] No one reported Gina missing when she disappeared in late
[1:13:16] 1984. In the wake of her
[1:13:19] disappearance, Gina's husband Dwight told People that his wife
[1:13:23] had left voluntarily and cut off contact.
[1:13:27] He even sent their infant daughter to live with Gina's
[1:13:29] relatives in Alabama, as he claimed he couldn't care for the
[1:13:33] baby alone. With Gina's family initially
[1:13:36] unaware of any potential foul play and no police inquiry, her
[1:13:41] absence flew under the radar. It would be many months before
[1:13:45] the truth of her fate began to surface.
[1:13:49] On October 1st, 1985, more than a year after Gina's
[1:13:53] disappearance, a Texas highway work crew made a grim discovery
[1:13:58] in Smith County. While mowing brush along
[1:14:01] Interstate 20 near the Highway 69 exit, workers stumbled upon
[1:14:05] human skeletal remains in a gully about 75 feet from the
[1:14:09] road. Scattered near the bones was a
[1:14:12] pile of clothing, a yellow shirt emblazoned with Top Rail Country
[1:14:17] Music Dallas TX, which turned out to be a souvenir from a
[1:14:21] local bar. She also had a gold butterfly
[1:14:25] earring and a gold wristwatch were also found in the dirt
[1:14:28] nearby. Investigators determined the
[1:14:31] victim was a young woman, and it appeared someone had tried to
[1:14:35] deliberately hide her body under the brush.
[1:14:38] Based on the condition of the remains, they estimated she had
[1:14:41] been dead for about 12 to 15 months, placing her death in the
[1:14:46] latter half of 1984. This timeline aligned eerily
[1:14:51] with the period when Gina Crowe went missing.
[1:14:54] While the autopsy couldn't reveal the cause of death, the
[1:14:57] location in which her body was discovered meant it was
[1:15:01] investigated as a homicide. For decades, the case remained
[1:15:07] unsolved, and the young woman remained unidentified.
[1:15:11] No one had realized that the missing Gina Crowe and this Jane
[1:15:14] Doe were the same person, since Gina was never reported missing
[1:15:19] to authorities. Furthermore, Gina had been
[1:15:23] living in the Dallas Fort Worth area where as the remains turned
[1:15:27] up in East Texas, making the link even harder to recognize.
[1:15:32] Gina's family was left with painful questions.
[1:15:35] Her father even speculated that because she often hitchhiked,
[1:15:39] she might have been picked up by a serial predator like Ted
[1:15:41] Bundy. By 2021, with the trail long
[1:15:46] cold, the Sheriff's Office finally tried a new approach,
[1:15:51] Enlisting the DNA Doe Project to help put a name to their Jane
[1:15:55] Doe specialists managed to extract the DNA profile from the
[1:16:00] old skeletal remains and uploaded it to genealogy
[1:16:03] databases. By late 2023, their research
[1:16:08] pointed to a missing woman named Gina Crowe.
[1:16:12] Detectives soon tracked down Gina Crowe's relatives, her
[1:16:16] mother in Fort Worth and her now adult daughter in Alabama, and
[1:16:20] obtained their DNA. As a result of these efforts,
[1:16:24] the Sheriff's Office announced the identification in April
[1:16:27] 2024, restoring Gina's name nearly 40 years after she
[1:16:32] vanished. Even with Gina's identity known,
[1:16:37] the mystery of her death remains.
[1:16:40] No definitive cause of death could be determined, but
[1:16:43] investigators believe she was undoubtedly killed and her body
[1:16:47] dumped to hide the crime. Naturally, suspicion centers on
[1:16:52] the person closest to her at the time, her husband Dwight Crowe.
[1:16:58] He had a history of heavy drinking, and there are
[1:17:01] allegations that he engaged in violence towards her.
[1:17:05] Further, when Gina vanished, he claimed she left on her own.
[1:17:09] Dwight never reported Gina missing and his behavior struck
[1:17:13] her family as highly suspicious. Although Dwight is now deceased,
[1:17:18] 1 investigator on the case has stated he believes Dwight was
[1:17:21] likely responsible for Gina's death.
[1:17:24] If that is true, Dwight escaped justice, but the investigation
[1:17:28] remains open. Also, just a quick strange
[1:17:33] footnote on the case, Gina had previously been married to a
[1:17:37] convicted serial killer named Larry Keith Robinson.
[1:17:41] While he was permanently locked up at the time of her death,
[1:17:45] investigators have considered whether he used his contacts on
[1:17:48] the outside to orchestrate the event.
[1:17:51] Personally, I think this is much less likely than her husband
[1:17:54] having done it, but ultimately this is an Ave. that
[1:17:58] investigators are going down. April 8th, 1988, along the Lake
[1:18:08] MI shoreline near New Buffalo, MI, authorities recovered the
[1:18:13] remains of an unidentified woman.
[1:18:16] To local investigators, she became known only as the New
[1:18:19] Buffalo Jane Doe, a mysterious victim with no name and an
[1:18:23] uncertain fate. For nearly four decades, the
[1:18:27] identity of this woman and the story of what happened to her
[1:18:30] remained A haunting puzzle. Today, we know that the woman
[1:18:35] found that day was Dorothy Glanton, a 71 year old Chicago
[1:18:40] resident who had vanished months earlier.
[1:18:44] For decades, both her family and the police wondered who she was
[1:18:48] and how she ended up in the lake until cutting edge science
[1:18:51] finally provided answers, though not the full story.
[1:18:58] Dorothy Glanton was a 71 year old resident of Chicago's
[1:19:01] Bronzeville neighborhood in 1987.
[1:19:04] Born in Alabama and raised in Chicago from the 1920s onward,
[1:19:09] her family moved north during the Great Migration and Dorothy
[1:19:13] had very deep roots in her community.
[1:19:16] On December 9th, 1987, she left her home on S Prairie Ave.,
[1:19:21] telling a family member she was headed to a local drug store and
[1:19:24] would be back soon. It was a routine errand on an
[1:19:28] ordinary day, but Dorothy never returned home.
[1:19:32] Concerned relatives reported her missing to Chicago police that
[1:19:36] very evening. Officers and family members
[1:19:39] combed the neighborhood and checked local hospitals and
[1:19:41] shelters, but no trace of Dorothy was found.
[1:19:46] In the weeks that followed, her family frantically searched and
[1:19:50] even took out newspaper ads pleading for Dorothy to contact
[1:19:54] them. Four months after Dorothy's
[1:19:58] disappearance, an unsettling discovery took place far from
[1:20:01] her neighborhood. On April 8th, 1988, near the
[1:20:06] shoreline of Lake MI by New Buffalo, a passerby spotted a
[1:20:10] woman's body floating in the water.
[1:20:13] Police were called, and the remains of a female were pulled
[1:20:16] from the lake. The body was decomposed after
[1:20:20] months in the water, making visual identification
[1:20:23] impossible. Investigators carefully noted
[1:20:27] the unknown woman's features and clothing for clues.
[1:20:30] She had brown hair and was found dressed in men's blue jeans with
[1:20:34] a striped belt, a pair of shorts and pantyhose underneath, and
[1:20:39] black ankle boots. These odd details gave police
[1:20:43] some hints about the woman's appearance and attire, but
[1:20:46] nothing that immediately revealed who she was.
[1:20:50] An autopsy provided a few more insights.
[1:20:53] The Jane Doe had a long surgical scar on her abdomen and evidence
[1:20:57] of a past hysterectomy. She also had extensive dental
[1:21:01] work, including a porcelain dental bridge on a front tooth
[1:21:04] and gold crowns, indicating she'd received high quality
[1:21:08] dental care in recent years. The examiner noted her teeth
[1:21:12] were in good condition, with little staining, suggesting she
[1:21:16] didn't smoke or drink. These clues implied the unknown
[1:21:20] woman might have been older and of a relatively affluent
[1:21:24] background in life. Still, nothing in her physical
[1:21:28] description or medical history was distinctive enough to match
[1:21:31] her to a name. With no identification on the
[1:21:34] body and no immediate matches to missing person reports,
[1:21:38] authorities were left stumped. Unable to identify the body,
[1:21:45] Michigan authorities treated the case as a Jane Doe
[1:21:47] investigation. Based on the state of the
[1:21:50] remains, police initially assumed the victim was a white
[1:21:54] woman in her 40s or 50s. This erroneous profile sent
[1:21:59] investigators down the wrong path.
[1:22:02] They compared the Jane Doe's description against missing
[1:22:04] persons cases from around the region, but none fit the limited
[1:22:09] details they had. Investigators even entered the
[1:22:12] case into national missing persons databases to seek a
[1:22:15] match, but nothing turned up. Despite these efforts, no leads
[1:22:21] emerged and the trail went cold, likely because Dorothy was an
[1:22:24] elderly black woman, not a middle-aged white woman.
[1:22:30] Meanwhile, Dorothy Glanton's family in Chicago heard nothing
[1:22:34] about the body in New Buffalo. They continued to search for
[1:22:38] Dorothy in the Chicago area, utterly unaware that she had
[1:22:41] already been found deceased across state lines.
[1:22:45] The newspaper plea they published in August 1988,
[1:22:49] imploring Dorothy to come home as soon as possible, received no
[1:22:53] answer. For decades, the New Buffalo
[1:22:56] Jane Doe lay buried without a name in a Benton Harbor
[1:22:59] cemetery, and Dorothy's family had no closure and it seemed
[1:23:04] like a hopeless mystery. In 2021, Michigan State Police
[1:23:10] decided to reopen the investigation into the New
[1:23:13] Buffalo Jane Doe. Detectives had the unknown
[1:23:16] woman's remains exhumed to obtain DNA samples for advanced
[1:23:20] testing. Using modern forensic
[1:23:23] technology, they developed Adna Profile and in 2023 enlisted the
[1:23:29] help of the DNA Doe Project. Before long, the DNA results
[1:23:34] yielded a surprise that corrected the old assumptions.
[1:23:37] The genetic data revealed that the Jane Doe was actually an
[1:23:40] African American woman in her 70s, not a middle-aged white
[1:23:45] woman as previously believed. At one point, the genealogy team
[1:23:49] even wondered if the unidentified remains might
[1:23:52] belong to a daughter of Dorothy Glanton.
[1:23:54] Due to the age confusion, they soon realized the supposed
[1:23:59] daughter never existed. The Jane Doe was, in fact,
[1:24:04] Dorothy herself. Armed with this new
[1:24:07] understanding, researchers homed in on a family originally from
[1:24:11] Alabama and a woman who had moved to Chicago as a child.
[1:24:16] By comparing the Jane Doe's DNA with Dorothy's relatives,
[1:24:20] investigators finally confirmed that the unidentified remains
[1:24:24] belonged to Dorothy Glanton. In November 2025, nearly 38
[1:24:31] years after Dorothy disappeared, the Michigan State Police
[1:24:35] announced that the New Buffalo Jane Doe had been positively
[1:24:38] identified. At long last, the nameless
[1:24:41] victim had a name. This development brought a
[1:24:45] bitter sweet sense of relief. Dorothy's surviving family
[1:24:49] members, after so many years of wondering, finally learned her
[1:24:54] fate and could hold a proper remembrance for her.
[1:24:58] Now that Dorothy has been identified, one big question
[1:25:01] remains. How did she end up in Lake, MI
[1:25:05] so far from home? The autopsy back in 1988
[1:25:09] suggested that drowning was the likely cause of death, but
[1:25:13] investigators couldn't determine whether her drowning was
[1:25:16] accidental, self-inflicted, or the result of foul play. 1
[1:25:22] theory that's currently being considered is that she slipped
[1:25:24] and fell accidentally into the water.
[1:25:27] However, no one seems to explain how she ended up in New Buffalo
[1:25:30] to begin with, which adds a great deal of uncertainty to
[1:25:34] this theory. As you'll recall, she informed
[1:25:37] her family member that she was just quickly running out to the
[1:25:39] pharmacist and would be back shortly.
[1:25:42] Personally, I suspect that foul play must have been involved
[1:25:45] here, though at present there's just not enough evidence to say
[1:25:48] if this is the case conclusively.
[1:25:52] The cold waters of Lake MI still hold the secrets of what
[1:25:56] happened to Dorothy, but at least they no longer hold her
[1:25:59] identity. A passerby walking along
[1:26:04] Portland, ME's waterfront on the spring morning of May 22nd, 2015
[1:26:10] made a chilling discovery. It was the body of an
[1:26:14] unidentified woman washed ashore on the rocky beach.
[1:26:18] She was strikingly well dressed, wearing a white sweatshirt
[1:26:22] emblazoned with the word BRIDE in rhinestones and other layered
[1:26:26] clothing, and carrying $500.00 cash.
[1:26:30] Yet she carried no identification, and this mystery
[1:26:33] woman came to be known as the Portland Jane Doe.
[1:26:37] Investigators found no immediate signs of foul play, describing
[1:26:41] the death as an apparent drowning.
[1:26:44] Nearly a decade later, her true name remains unknown and the
[1:26:48] case is still unsolved. On May 22nd, 2015, at around
[1:26:55] 6:10 in the morning, a passerby walking the Eastern Promenade
[1:26:59] Trail in Portland noticed a waterlogged body on the rocks by
[1:27:03] Casco Bay. The woman appeared to be of
[1:27:06] Asian descent and was estimated to be between 30 and 50 years
[1:27:10] old, standing about 5 feet one inch tall and weighing around
[1:27:15] 100 lbs. Distinctively, she had
[1:27:18] cosmetically tattooed eyebrows and a well heeled horizontal
[1:27:22] scar about 6 inches long on her lower abdomen.
[1:27:26] This was consistent with a past caesarean section surgery.
[1:27:30] Examiners also noted that she had very extensive, high quality
[1:27:34] dental work for someone with no identity on record.
[1:27:38] Despite having these physical details, authorities initially
[1:27:42] had no meaningful leads for this Jane Doe.
[1:27:46] Despite all her distinctive clothing, including that bride
[1:27:50] hoodie, she had no shoes on her feet.
[1:27:53] Her accessories included a yellow metal quartz watch,
[1:27:56] dangling bird shaped earrings, a floral ring, and a black
[1:28:00] butterfly hair clip. Along with these items, she
[1:28:04] carried $500 in cash in her pocket.
[1:28:08] The fact that her jewelry and money were left untouched
[1:28:11] suggested that robbery wasn't a factor in her death.
[1:28:15] Some wondered if she had come to Portland from elsewhere.
[1:28:18] The city has a ferry link to Canada, but this remains only
[1:28:22] speculation. Police initially announced that
[1:28:27] the death did not appear suspicious.
[1:28:30] An autopsy later confirmed that the cause of death was drowning,
[1:28:34] and investigators ruled it likely that she had done it
[1:28:37] herself. She had likely been in the water
[1:28:40] for only about one day when discovered.
[1:28:43] No signs of trauma or struggle were found, reinforcing the
[1:28:47] finding of no foul play involved.
[1:28:50] Her fingerprints and DNA were run through databases in 2015
[1:28:55] and again in subsequent years, but no identification was made.
[1:29:01] Investigators theorized that she might not have been from the
[1:29:04] local area at all, or that her family wasn't aware she was
[1:29:08] missing. Officials noted that families
[1:29:11] sometimes fail to report an adult missing if they think
[1:29:15] she's safely living her life. By 2018, with no leads from
[1:29:21] traditional methods, The Maine authorities turned to advanced
[1:29:25] genetic genealogy to seek this Jane Doe's identity.
[1:29:29] The DNA Doe Project took on her case, uploading her genetic
[1:29:33] profile to a public database to search for relatives.
[1:29:37] Before long, the DNA data yielded a few distant cousin
[1:29:40] matches. From these, analysts deduced
[1:29:44] that she likely had family ties in the New York tri-state area
[1:29:48] and was probably a recent immigrant from South Korea.
[1:29:52] Unfortunately, the genetic genealogy process was and
[1:29:56] remains extremely painstaking. The matches were only distant
[1:30:02] relatives, 3rd or 4th cousins, which made building her family
[1:30:06] tree difficult. Further, fewer people of Korean
[1:30:10] American descent have tested their DNA, limiting the pool of
[1:30:14] matches. Compounding this issue,
[1:30:17] according to reports, the technology has gained little
[1:30:20] traction in South Korea as people are already aware that
[1:30:24] they are of Korean ancestry. Today, the Portland Jane Doe
[1:30:29] case endures as an open mystery. After more than 10 years,
[1:30:34] investigators haven't given up on giving this woman back her
[1:30:37] name. The ongoing genetic genealogy
[1:30:40] research continues, and the team remains hopeful that one day a
[1:30:45] clear match will emerge. However, this case does show the
[1:30:49] limits of this technology for people from ethnic backgrounds
[1:30:52] that aren't likely to show an interest in genetic testing.
[1:30:56] For now, her identity remains an enduring enigma in Maine's cold
[1:31:00] Case Files, still awaiting a solution to its tragic mystery.
[1:31:09] In the pre dawn darkness of July 8th, 1993, the quiet town of
[1:31:14] Charlton, NY woke up to an unimaginable tragedy. 37 year
[1:31:20] old Betty Conley was found shot on the floor of the convenience
[1:31:23] store where she worked. She had been a beloved mother
[1:31:26] and wife, and her life was taken for the sake of roughly $100
[1:31:31] stolen from the register. Charlton was the kind of rural
[1:31:35] community where nobody locked their doors and kids roamed
[1:31:39] freely after dark. The violent end of such a
[1:31:43] familiar face in this peaceful setting shook the town and
[1:31:47] launched A decades long quest for answers.
[1:31:52] Betty Conley spent the evening of July 7th, 1993 cheering on
[1:31:57] her daughter at a softball game before heading to work the night
[1:32:00] shift at the Extra Mark Convenience store on Route 67.
[1:32:04] The store had only recently started staying open 24 hours
[1:32:09] and Betty was helping cover overnight shifts.
[1:32:12] Sometime around 210, an unknown assailant entered the store and
[1:32:16] ambushed Betty from behind the counter.
[1:32:19] The intruder fired a single shot to the back of her head with a
[1:32:22] pistol. The perpetrator then grabbed
[1:32:25] what little money was in the register and fled into the
[1:32:28] darkness. At about 3:00 that morning, a
[1:32:32] customer came into the Extra Mart and stumbled upon a
[1:32:35] horrific scene. Betty's lifeless body lay on the
[1:32:39] floor behind the counter. Police were summoned
[1:32:42] immediately. In a grim twist, responding
[1:32:46] officers recognized Betty as a neighbor, yet they still needed
[1:32:50] a family member to identify her. Betty's husband, Bruce, was
[1:32:55] awakened at dawn by police and brought to the scene to confirm
[1:32:58] that the victim was indeed his wife, slain in the apparent
[1:33:01] robbery. Saratoga County sheriff's
[1:33:06] investigators quickly began working Betty's case, but from
[1:33:09] the start, they faced major challenges.
[1:33:12] The store's only security camera had been knocked to the floor,
[1:33:15] so no footage of the crime was captured.
[1:33:18] Physical evidence at the scene was scant.
[1:33:22] The crime scene was also not properly preserved, and for
[1:33:25] reasons that are unclear, the convenience store was allowed to
[1:33:28] reopen shortly after the shooting.
[1:33:31] This likely destroyed or contaminated any fingerprints or
[1:33:35] DNA the perpetrator left behind. In fact, the shell casing wasn't
[1:33:39] discovered until days later, after the store had reopened for
[1:33:43] business. Investigators analyzed the
[1:33:47] bullet and tested numerous firearms across New York, but
[1:33:50] never found a weapon that matched.
[1:33:53] Witnesses did offer some crucial clues.
[1:33:56] Several people reported seeing a suspicious car near the Extra
[1:33:59] Mart around the time of the slaying.
[1:34:02] It was described as a white mid 1980s sedan with rust on the
[1:34:07] driver's door that had been partially covered by primer
[1:34:10] paint. Likewise, a tall, clean shaven
[1:34:13] white male around 6 feet 2 inches and 35 years old with
[1:34:18] shoulder length blonde hair was seen in the area that night.
[1:34:23] This individual became the focus of early leads, but he was never
[1:34:27] identified or located by police. No arrests were made and no
[1:34:32] justice was served in the immediate aftermath.
[1:34:37] With the mystery still unsolved, many locals began to speculate
[1:34:41] that the culprit must have been someone from the area.
[1:34:44] The Extra Mart's location was isolated and it's overnight
[1:34:48] hours were new details that an outsider passing through would
[1:34:53] be unlikely to know. Some also considered the
[1:34:56] possibility of a drifter or truck driver randomly committing
[1:34:59] the crime, but investigators found no evidence supporting an
[1:35:03] out of town suspect. Over the years, numerous tips
[1:35:08] and rumors have pointed to a few individuals in or around
[1:35:12] Charlton. Detectives followed up on these
[1:35:15] leads and interviewed people repeatedly, but no solid
[1:35:19] evidence ever emerged to name a definitive suspect.
[1:35:23] As in most cases, investigators also scrutinized the victim's
[1:35:27] family. Bruce Conley was investigated
[1:35:30] for weeks. He cooperated fully, passed a
[1:35:34] polygraph and was ultimately cleared of suspicion.
[1:35:38] His personal firearm did not match the bullet used, and none
[1:35:42] of his vehicles match the white sedan scene that night,
[1:35:46] according to some later reports. Many, including Linda Conley,
[1:35:51] her daughter, have been highly critical of this intensive
[1:35:54] initial focus on his father. By the time Bruce was cleared,
[1:35:59] there were few other leads for police to chase, leaving the
[1:36:03] town anxious and frustrated Further, this may explain why
[1:36:07] the store was allowed to reopen so soon and why there wasn't a
[1:36:11] thorough search done of the premises.
[1:36:14] The cops thought they had their man, and then when it was very
[1:36:17] clear it wasn't him, the evidence they potentially needed
[1:36:21] to break the case had already been destroyed.
[1:36:26] Ultimately, I suspect that this case will never be solved given
[1:36:30] the fact that the police botched the initial investigation.
[1:36:34] That said, that shell casing does provide the last glimmer of
[1:36:37] hope that there will one day be justice for Betty Conley and her
[1:36:41] family. Wendy Michelle was just 30 years
[1:36:47] old when her life was brutally cut short in the summer of 1990.
[1:36:51] That July, a farmer in rural Illinois stumbled upon the body
[1:36:55] of an unknown young woman in his soybean field.
[1:36:58] For over 3 decades, she remained known only as the Madison County
[1:37:02] Jane Doe until a recent forensic breakthrough finally gave her
[1:37:06] back her name. While the perpetrator of this
[1:37:09] horrific act on Wendy still walks free, the authorities are
[1:37:13] now one step closer to bringing him to justice.
[1:37:18] Wendy, who was born Winona Michelle in 1959, LED a life as
[1:37:23] dynamic as it was unpredictable. She was described by those who
[1:37:28] knew her as a loving, fun person with a kind heart and a great
[1:37:32] love for animals. By age 23, she was married and
[1:37:36] had two children, demonstrating A nurturing side even as she
[1:37:40] maintained an adventurous spirit.
[1:37:43] Wendy's life took her across the country.
[1:37:46] She was born in Los Angeles, raised in Tennessee from
[1:37:49] toddlerhood, and spent her teen years in Vero Beach in Florida.
[1:37:55] In the mid 1980s she moved to Northern California, but she
[1:37:59] never stayed put for long. Always restless and eager to
[1:38:05] travel, Wendy was known to hitch rides with long haul truck
[1:38:09] drivers during her journeys. In April 1990, she and her kids
[1:38:13] took a bus trip back to Nashville, TN where she left her
[1:38:17] children in the care of family before venturing out on her own.
[1:38:22] By May 1990, Wendy was spotted during a brief visit with
[1:38:27] relatives in the Washington, DC area.
[1:38:30] Notably, she was in the company of an unknown man who worked as
[1:38:34] a truck driver. This would be the last time her
[1:38:37] family ever saw her. Wendy's penchant for travel
[1:38:40] meant it wasn't unusual for her loved ones to lose track of her
[1:38:44] whereabouts for stretches of time.
[1:38:46] But as months passed with no word, her family grew concerned.
[1:38:50] And sadly, they would not learn of her true fate for 35 long
[1:38:55] years. On July 20th, 1990, the mystery
[1:39:01] woman's body, not yet known to be windy, was discovered in that
[1:39:05] soybean field outside the small city of Troy, IL.
[1:39:10] The location was a patch of farmland near a rural Rd.
[1:39:13] intersection, a quiet place that became the scene of a horrific
[1:39:17] crime. Investigators noted that the
[1:39:20] victim was found without clothing, except for a pair of
[1:39:23] white sandals on her feet and a silver ring with a turquoise
[1:39:27] heart on her finger. Some of her clothing, including
[1:39:31] a pink Florida T-shirt and undergarments, were found tossed
[1:39:34] along a path leading toward the body.
[1:39:37] It appeared the perpetrator had scattered her belongings,
[1:39:40] perhaps in an attempt to destroy evidence or stage the scene.
[1:39:46] The young woman had been savagely attacked in a way that
[1:39:49] shocked investigators. Several of her internal organs
[1:39:53] were missing. Her reproductive organs had been
[1:39:55] apparently removed, a disturbing detail that underscored the
[1:39:59] perpetrators disturbed intent. Strangely, forensic examiners
[1:40:04] found no defensive wounds on the victim's body.
[1:40:08] This suggested that she might have been overpowered very
[1:40:10] quickly or even slain elsewhere and then hauled to the site and
[1:40:15] dumped in that field, potentially supporting the
[1:40:18] staging theory. The condition of the remains
[1:40:21] indicated she had likely been deceased for at least several
[1:40:24] days. But perhaps even as much as a
[1:40:27] week before the farmer came across the body.
[1:40:31] Notably, the length of the post mortem interval, the period
[1:40:34] between when the individual perished and when they were
[1:40:37] found, may play a role in whether this case gets solved.
[1:40:42] But I'll get into that shortly. For now, back to 1990.
[1:40:47] The Madison County Sheriff's Office launched an intensive
[1:40:50] investigation, pouring hundreds of hours into chasing down
[1:40:54] leads. They had the unenviable task of
[1:40:58] trying to identify a victim with no name and no obvious
[1:41:01] connection to the area. Detectives circulated forensic
[1:41:06] sketches of the woman's face and carefully preserved the evidence
[1:41:10] found with the body. The case was entered into
[1:41:13] national databases for missing and unidentified persons hoping
[1:41:18] to match the Jane Doe to someone reported missing, but no match
[1:41:22] turned up. Despite their efforts, the trail
[1:41:25] went cold, and as months turned into years and then decades, the
[1:41:30] Madison County Doe case remained unsolved, the victim's identity
[1:41:35] a stubborn mystery. She was laid to rest in a local
[1:41:39] cemetery under a headstone that gave no name, only an epitaph
[1:41:43] for a Jane Doe who had been cruelly taken before her time.
[1:41:50] For nearly 35 years, Wendy's family had no idea what became
[1:41:54] of her. They feared the worst after so
[1:41:56] long with no contact. But they had no closure and
[1:42:00] always held on to hope that she was somewhere out there alive.
[1:42:04] Meanwhile, her case file sat gathering dust until late 2024,
[1:42:09] when advances in forensic science offered New Hope.
[1:42:13] Investigators decided to take a fresh look at the cold case
[1:42:17] using modern DNA technology. The Madison County Sheriff's
[1:42:21] Office teamed up with the Illinois State Police Crime Lab
[1:42:25] and Othrum to re examine physical evidence from the 1990
[1:42:29] crime scene. Othrum scientists applied
[1:42:33] cutting edge forensic grade genome sequencing to build a
[1:42:37] comprehensive DNA profile from the tiny degraded samples.
[1:42:43] From there, they turned to forensic genetic genealogy, a
[1:42:47] method that involves comparing the unknown DNA profile to
[1:42:50] genealogical databases to find familial matches.
[1:42:56] By early 2025, this DNA sleuthing paid off, and
[1:43:01] Authram's team discovered genetic matches that led them to
[1:43:05] potential relatives of the unidentified victim.
[1:43:08] Detectives tracked down these family members and obtained
[1:43:12] reference DNA swabs from them, which confirmed the
[1:43:15] relationship. The identification was
[1:43:18] officially announced on July 1st, 2025, bringing a mix of
[1:43:23] sorrow and relief to Wendy's surviving family.
[1:43:27] Wendy's brother came out and released a statement on behalf
[1:43:30] of the family saying that they were devastated.
[1:43:34] That said, they expressed gratitude for the hard work by
[1:43:37] all the investigators in locating their missing family
[1:43:40] member. With Wendy's identity uncovered,
[1:43:45] the focus has now shifted to catching the perpetrator.
[1:43:49] The nature of the crime has led to some chilling theories.
[1:43:53] One major theory is that Wendy fell victim to a serial predator
[1:43:56] who stalked women along Midwestern highways.
[1:44:00] Wendy's habit of hitchhiking with truck drivers in 1990 put
[1:44:04] her in contact with many strangers on the road.
[1:44:07] It's possible that the unknown man she was last seen with, the
[1:44:11] truck driver in DC, could have been involved in her death, or
[1:44:16] perhaps she met another assailant as she travelled West.
[1:44:20] Long haul trucking routes have infamously been corridors for
[1:44:23] serial offenders targeting vulnerable women.
[1:44:28] Another compelling lead links Wendy's case to an earlier
[1:44:31] unsolved mystery in the same region.
[1:44:35] In 1986, four years before Wendy's death, a 27 year old
[1:44:40] woman named Leah Chavez was found slain in a cornfield near
[1:44:44] Lebanon, IL, just one county over.
[1:44:48] The similarities are striking. Like Windy, Leah was found in a
[1:44:52] similar condition, with evidence that the perpetrator had
[1:44:56] attempted to surgically remove her reproductive organs.
[1:45:00] Both women had no defensive wounds, suggesting a surprise
[1:45:04] attack or some other form of incapacitation.
[1:45:07] The eerie congruence in the violence done to Wendy and Leah
[1:45:10] Chavez has LED some to suspect the same perpetrator may have
[1:45:14] been responsible for both. Notably, Leah also lived a
[1:45:18] similar free spirited drifter type lifestyle, much like Windy.
[1:45:25] In fact, authorities and criminologists have pointed to
[1:45:28] Larry Hall as a possible suspect.
[1:45:31] Hall is a convicted kidnapper and a suspected serial
[1:45:35] perpetrator with 2 confirmed victims and potentially dozens
[1:45:39] more. He was active in the Midwest
[1:45:42] during the 1980s and early 1990s.
[1:45:45] While Hall has never been charged with Wendy's slaying,
[1:45:48] investigators are actively considering his involvement.
[1:45:53] Notably, it's unclear if male DNA evidence was found at the
[1:45:56] scene, but if it was, it's likely that Larry Hall wasn't
[1:46:01] the perpetrator since he's currently incarcerated for his
[1:46:05] crimes, and given the severe nature of what he's been
[1:46:08] convicted for, his DNA profile would have been cross referenced
[1:46:12] in a database. That said, it's always possible
[1:46:16] that the DNA evidence was too degraded and that Othram
[1:46:19] scientists are currently working on that piece of the puzzle as
[1:46:22] well. Others have theorized that the
[1:46:27] perpetrator may have been someone much closer to her who
[1:46:30] used her drifter lifestyle as cover to eliminate her far from
[1:46:34] home. Under this theory, the
[1:46:37] disturbing acts committed to her body may have been an attempt to
[1:46:40] make this look like a copycat type incident.
[1:46:43] That said, this theory is highly speculative, and it's unknown
[1:46:48] whether Wendy had any individuals in her life who
[1:46:51] wished to do her harm. On December 5th, 1872, the crew
[1:46:59] of the British Brig de Gratia spotted an unguided ship
[1:47:02] drifting about 400 miles West of Portugal's Azores Islands.
[1:47:07] As they drew closer, they were astonished to recognize the
[1:47:10] vessel as the Merry Celeste, a merchant Brigantine that had
[1:47:14] left New York City for Europe but never arrived.
[1:47:18] Captain David Morehouse knew the Mary Celeste had departed New
[1:47:21] York 8 days ahead of his own ship, making it baffling that
[1:47:25] she had not yet reached any port.
[1:47:28] When a boarding party from the day Gracia climbed aboard, they
[1:47:32] found an eerie scene. The Mary Celeste was completely
[1:47:36] deserted, yet still seaworthy and intact.
[1:47:40] The crew's personal belongings were undisturbed, and a six
[1:47:44] month supply of food and water remained neatly stored.
[1:47:48] The ship's charts and papers were scattered about below decks
[1:47:51] as if the crew had left in a hurry.
[1:47:54] The cargo of almost 2000 barrels of industrial alcohol was
[1:47:57] untouched, aside from a few barrels that were mysteriously
[1:48:01] empty. However, the ship's only
[1:48:04] lifeboat was gone, and one of the pumps had been disassembled
[1:48:08] on deck. About 3 1/2 feet of water
[1:48:11] sloshed in the hold, a worrisome but not catastrophic amount.
[1:48:17] There were no signs of violence or fire.
[1:48:20] The 10 people who had embarked on the Mary Celeste, Captain
[1:48:23] Benjamin S Briggs, his wife and young daughter, and seven
[1:48:27] crewmen had vanished without a trace.
[1:48:33] The Mary Celeste was a sturdy 2 masted merchant ship originally
[1:48:37] launched in 1861 under the name Amazon before coming under
[1:48:41] American ownership and Captain Briggs's command.
[1:48:45] In early November 1872, Briggs set sail from New York Harbor
[1:48:50] bound for Genoa in Italy, carrying a hold full of
[1:48:54] denatured alcohol. The Atlantic crossing was
[1:48:58] difficult and the ship battled heavy weather on route.
[1:49:02] According to the last log entry dated November 25th, 1872, the
[1:49:08] Mary Celeste had reached a point just shy of the Azores.
[1:49:12] That entry gave no hint of anything amiss, yet sometime
[1:49:16] between that date and December 5th, the crew apparently
[1:49:19] abandoned ship. When the day Gratia encountered
[1:49:23] the vessel, her sails were ragged and some lines were
[1:49:27] dangling loosely, suggesting she had been adrift and unattended
[1:49:31] for several days. The crew of the ship brought the
[1:49:35] Mary Celeste to Gibraltar, where British authorities held an
[1:49:38] inquiry into the baffling incident.
[1:49:43] Investigators found no evidence of mutiny, piracy or foul play
[1:49:48] that could solve the Riddle. The inspector leading the
[1:49:51] investigation suspected some sort of foul play, but after
[1:49:55] months of examination he could prove nothing amiss.
[1:49:58] The court later even entertained wild possibilities.
[1:50:02] One was that perhaps the crews of the day, Gracia and the Mary
[1:50:05] Celeste, had somehow engineered the incident as part of a fraud
[1:50:09] scheme. But nothing came of these
[1:50:11] suspicions. In the end, the salvagers
[1:50:15] received only a modest reward, and the mystery remained
[1:50:19] unsolved. Reports of the ghost ship Mary
[1:50:22] Celeste quickly spread, capturing public fascination
[1:50:26] with the idea of a perfectly fine modern vessel found
[1:50:29] inexplicably empty on the high seas.
[1:50:34] In the absence of an official explanation, a slew of theories
[1:50:38] emerged to fill the void, and early speculation focused on the
[1:50:42] specter of foul play. One of the most lurid ideas was
[1:50:46] the suggestion that perhaps pirates had attacked the Mary
[1:50:49] Celeste and slain everyone on board, leaving her adrift.
[1:50:55] This was a narrative that could send newspapers flying off the
[1:50:58] shelves, but it didn't hold up under any meaningful scrutiny.
[1:51:04] This idea didn't fit well with the facts.
[1:51:07] Piracy in those waters was rare, and the ship's cargo and
[1:51:10] valuables were still intact. The final raids by the Barbary
[1:51:15] Pirates of North Africa had taken place over 40 years prior
[1:51:19] to the Mary Celeste, and in essence, the waters were
[1:51:23] essentially absolutely pirate free.
[1:51:27] Further, these waters were heavily trafficked by both
[1:51:30] civilian and military vessels, so one off instances of piracy
[1:51:35] were extremely unlikely. Another rumor blamed a mutiny or
[1:51:41] drunken rage, the crew supposedly tapping into the
[1:51:44] alcohol cargo and turning on the captain.
[1:51:47] But this too was implausible. The alcohol was industrial and
[1:51:52] the crew were experienced, trustworthy men not likely to
[1:51:56] mutiny without cause. Further, they weren't exactly in
[1:52:00] bad conditions and were well compensated.
[1:52:04] Simply put, none of the traditional elements that could
[1:52:07] foment a mutiny on board a ship were present.
[1:52:11] With human treachery seeming extremely unlikely, people look
[1:52:15] to more extraordinary events. Some speculated that a
[1:52:19] disastrous natural incident could have forced the crew to
[1:52:21] flee. For instance, some suggested an
[1:52:25] underwater seaquake might have violently shaken and stirred the
[1:52:28] ship. Others suggested a sudden water
[1:52:31] spout could have been responsible.
[1:52:34] Still others suggested that a Rogue Wave could have slammed
[1:52:37] the vessel with water. Notably, while rogue waves are a
[1:52:41] scientific fact now, prior to the first measured Rogue Wave in
[1:52:46] 1995, they were considered nautical folklore.
[1:52:51] Suggesting a Rogue Wave in the 19th century was nearly on the
[1:52:54] level of suggesting that a ghost did it in terms of scientific
[1:52:58] credibility. Others pointed to the volatile
[1:53:03] cargo itself. Perhaps alcohol fumes built up
[1:53:07] and LED the crew to fear an imminent explosion.
[1:53:10] Notably, 9 of the barrels were found empty, and those were made
[1:53:14] of red oak, a wood more prone to leaking alcohol vapors.
[1:53:19] It's conceivable that Captain Briggs, smelling fumes or
[1:53:23] hearing alarming noises from the hold, ordered everyone into the
[1:53:26] lifeboat as a precaution in case of a blast.
[1:53:32] Beyond these scenarios, even Wilder ideas took root in the
[1:53:36] imagination. Some claimed attacks by giant
[1:53:39] sea monsters were responsible, and later stories have claimed
[1:53:43] alien abductions to explain the disappearance.
[1:53:47] In fact, I found a picture of a book released in 1981 that has
[1:53:52] the Mary Celeste being hit with a waterspout and a giant
[1:53:56] tentacle while traveling in the Bermuda Triangle.
[1:53:59] It also looks as though it may have been struck by a Rogue
[1:54:02] Wave, and it's also watched over by an alien.
[1:54:08] Modern investigations have steered toward a more
[1:54:10] straightforward explanation that doesn't require sea monsters or
[1:54:13] aliens or any form of intrigue. The leading theory today is that
[1:54:18] Captain Briggs abandoned ship in a desperate but honest attempt
[1:54:21] to save lives after misreading a situation that wasn't actually
[1:54:25] fatal. Several pieces of evidence point
[1:54:29] to this scenario. The ship's sounding rod for
[1:54:33] measuring water in the bilge was found on deck as if left out.
[1:54:37] After a frantic check of the holds water level, one of the
[1:54:41] pumps was discovered broken and inoperative, suggesting the crew
[1:54:45] may have struggled to remove water from the hull.
[1:54:49] The Mary Celeste had undergone a major refit not long before, and
[1:54:53] it's believed debris or coal dust from an earlier cargo might
[1:54:57] have clogged the pump system. Thus, although there were only
[1:55:01] about 3 feet of water in the hold when found, Briggs may have
[1:55:05] had no way to gauge the situation accurately and feared
[1:55:09] his ship was flooding uncontrollably.
[1:55:13] Some researchers also theorized that the ship's chronometer was
[1:55:17] faulty, making Briggs think they were closer to land than they
[1:55:20] really were. And for those who didn't know,
[1:55:23] like myself, a chronometer is a precise marine timepiece used to
[1:55:27] determine longitude at sea. By comparing Greenwich Mean time
[1:55:32] to local time, navigators calculate their East West
[1:55:35] position accurately. We know the ship was in fact
[1:55:41] nearing Santa Maria Island in the Azores on November 25th.
[1:55:45] If Briggs expected to see land earlier and didn't, he might
[1:55:49] have worried that they were off course or in escalating danger.
[1:55:53] All these factors combined rough seas, a possibly explosive
[1:55:58] cargo, a malfunctioning pump, and uncertainty about their
[1:56:02] position could have driven Briggs to a dire decision.
[1:56:07] He may have ordered everyone into the lifeboat, hoping to
[1:56:10] temporarily evacuate until whatever threat was facing the
[1:56:13] ship passed. Tragically, once off the Mary
[1:56:18] Celeste, the crew never made it to safety.
[1:56:22] Perhaps the tow line to the lifeboat snapped, or a wave
[1:56:25] swamped the small boat, leaving the people stranded at sea while
[1:56:30] their ship, relieved of its human cargo, carried on without
[1:56:34] them. This scenario, while
[1:56:37] unconfirmed, fits the best available evidence and has
[1:56:40] become the most widely accepted explanation.
[1:56:45] It casts the incident not as a violent crime or supernatural
[1:56:49] event, but as a tragic misjudgment.
[1:56:52] By all accounts, Briggs was a capable and cautious captain.
[1:56:57] He would not abandon his ship unless he truly thought she was
[1:57:00] doomed. In this case, he seemingly acted
[1:57:03] to preserve lives, only for that action to doom everyone in the
[1:57:06] lifeboat. Despite countless attempts to
[1:57:11] unravel it, the fate of the Mary Celeste's crew remains an open
[1:57:16] question. No final log entries or
[1:57:19] purported survivor stories have ever surfaced to provide
[1:57:22] closure. Interestingly, the Mary Celeste
[1:57:25] itself survived its infamous voyage and sailed under new
[1:57:29] owners for another dozen years. Unfortunately, this wouldn't be
[1:57:33] the last time the Mary Celeste would dominate the headlines for
[1:57:37] all the wrong reasons. In 1885, the ship met a
[1:57:43] questionable end when a disgruntled captain deliberately
[1:57:46] ran at aground on a reef in Haiti in an attempted insurance
[1:57:50] fraud. The scheme failed and the
[1:57:53] battered ship was abandoned to rot in Haiti.
[1:57:56] This subsequent event again made people look at the owners of the
[1:57:59] ship and consider the potential for insurance fraud the first
[1:58:03] time around, but nothing came of it.
[1:58:05] Once again, the Mary Celeste is a story that has been retold and
[1:58:12] embellished for over 150 years, yet it never seems to lose its
[1:58:16] grip on our imagination. Personally, I'm a big lover of
[1:58:21] maritime mysteries, and this is 1 I would love to see solved one
[1:58:25] day, even though I know it'll never be definitively cracked.
[1:58:33] The Codex Gigas, famously nicknamed the Devil's Bible, is
[1:58:38] a colossal manuscript created in the early 13th century in
[1:58:41] Bohemia. It's renowned not only for its
[1:58:44] size, but also for the breadth of its contents and the
[1:58:47] mysterious full page portrait of the Devil found inside.
[1:58:51] It's also famous because the entire massive tome is believed
[1:58:55] to be the work of one single scribe, a fact that's been
[1:58:58] mostly confirmed by modern analysis.
[1:59:02] The Codex Gigas contains an entire Vulgate Latin Bible, but
[1:59:06] it's much more than a Bible. The remaining pages include many
[1:59:10] other works that together make it a miniature library of 13th
[1:59:13] century knowledge. It features 2 extensive
[1:59:16] histories by Flavius Josephus, a collection of medieval medical
[1:59:20] texts known as ARS Medicinae, and the Chronicle of Bohemia by
[1:59:25] Cosmos of Prague. In addition, the codex
[1:59:28] incorporates various shorter texts, including a calendar of
[1:59:32] Saints, various rituals, and even a few incantations intended
[1:59:37] to ward off evil. Most famously, one page is
[1:59:41] devoted entirely to a large color illustration of the devil.
[1:59:48] The documented history of the manuscript is as fascinating as
[1:59:51] its content. It was created in the Kingdom of
[1:59:54] Bohemia in what is now the Czech Republic, sometime between 1200
[2:00:00] and 12:30. According to an entry on its
[2:00:04] first page, the earliest known home of the manuscript was the
[2:00:07] Benedictine monastery of Podljits in Bohemia.
[2:00:12] This was a relatively small and poor monastery, which makes it
[2:00:15] unlikely that such an immense and resource intensive book was
[2:00:19] produced entirely within its walls.
[2:00:22] Nonetheless, the Codex Gigas was treasured there.
[2:00:26] However, by the late 13th century, the monastery fell on
[2:00:29] hard times. In 1295, the monks pawned this
[2:00:34] great tomb to another monastery, the Cistercian Abbey and Sedlec.
[2:00:39] It was soon repurchased for the Benedictine monastery at
[2:00:42] Berevnov in Prague that same year.
[2:00:45] Its fame had already grown substantially, and medieval
[2:00:49] sources described the Codex Gigas as one of the wonders of
[2:00:53] the world. Over the following centuries,
[2:00:58] the codex moved through the hands of those who valued rare
[2:01:01] books. In 1594, Holy Roman Emperor
[2:01:06] Rudolph the Second, an avid collector of curiosities and
[2:01:10] occult items, quote UN quote, borrowed the manuscript.
[2:01:15] He transferred it to his castle in Prague and evidently never
[2:01:19] intended to return it, since the codex remained in this Prague
[2:01:22] collection until the turmoil of the 30 Years War, long after his
[2:01:27] passing in 1648. As Swedish forces conquered
[2:01:32] Prague at the war's end, the Codex Gigas was seized as part
[2:01:37] of the spoils of war and taken to Sweden.
[2:01:41] From 1649 onward, this Czech treasure resided in Stockholm,
[2:01:46] becoming part of the Swedish Royal Library, established with
[2:01:50] the help of loot from this conflict.
[2:01:55] Sweden would end up as the Codex Gigas's forever home, but its
[2:01:59] presence there was not uneventful.
[2:02:02] On May 7th, 1697, a great fire broke out in Stockholm's Trey
[2:02:08] Kroner Castle, which housed the Royal Library.
[2:02:12] In a dramatic rescue, someone saved the Devil's Bible from the
[2:02:16] flames by throwing it out of a window to the ground below.
[2:02:20] The hefty book survived, though according to one report, it
[2:02:24] landed on a bystander and severely injured them.
[2:02:28] Following this close call, the manuscript was moved to a secure
[2:02:31] location. On New Year's Day 1878, it was
[2:02:36] officially transferred to the National Library of Sweden in
[2:02:39] Stockholm, where it's been kept ever since.
[2:02:43] In modern times, the manuscript has occasionally travelled on
[2:02:46] special exhibit and even made its way to the Czech lands for a
[2:02:50] short period in the 21st century.
[2:02:53] In 2007, it was loaned back to Prague for several months,
[2:02:57] drawing large crowds eager to see the legendary Devil's Bible
[2:03:01] return to its place of origin after nearly 400 years.
[2:03:07] No account of the Codex Gigas would be complete without the
[2:03:10] eerie legend that clings to its origin.
[2:03:14] According to medieval lore, the manuscript was created by a
[2:03:18] single monk under extraordinary circumstances, with the help of
[2:03:22] the devil himself. The story goes that a
[2:03:26] Benedictine monk named Herman the Recluse broke his monastic
[2:03:30] vows and was sentenced to a particularly harsh punishment.
[2:03:35] He was to be walled up alive inside the monastery, perishing
[2:03:39] of hunger and complete darkness. Desperate to save his life, he
[2:03:44] promised that in one night he would create a book that would
[2:03:46] glorify the monastery forever, compiling all human knowledge
[2:03:51] into one volume. According to the lore, the Abbot
[2:03:55] of the monastery agreed to these terms and said that if he could
[2:03:59] actually do this, he would be spared.
[2:04:02] So Herman, the reclusive Benedictine monk, immediately
[2:04:06] got to work. As midnight approached and the
[2:04:11] enormity of the task became clear, the panicked monk
[2:04:14] allegedly prayed not to God, but to the devil himself.
[2:04:18] In exchange for his soul, the devil agreed to aid him and
[2:04:23] finish the manuscript in a single night.
[2:04:26] With this infernal help, the monk miraculously completed the
[2:04:30] entire book by dawn, inscribing the full Bible and all the other
[2:04:34] texts at supernatural speed. To seal the pact, the Devil left
[2:04:40] his likeness in the book, which became the large famous portrait
[2:04:43] of Satan himself on one of the pages.
[2:04:47] Thus, the giant tome gained the sinister nickname The Devil's
[2:04:51] Bible, since people believed no mere mortal could have created
[2:04:55] it without diabolic assistance. While this origin myth is both
[2:05:02] famous and chilling, unsurprisingly it has no basis
[2:05:06] in historical fact. It likely arose as an attempt to
[2:05:09] explain the awe inspiring achievement that the work
[2:05:13] represents. The idea that one person could
[2:05:16] produce such a massive and comprehensive book alone seemed
[2:05:20] unbelievable to medieval observers, so a supernatural
[2:05:24] story took hold. In reality, analysis of the
[2:05:28] handwriting indicates the manuscript was indeed the work
[2:05:31] of a single scribe, but over a far longer period.
[2:05:36] Experts estimate it would have taken at least 20 to 30 years
[2:05:40] for one person to write and decorate all the pages with such
[2:05:44] care and consistency. In other words, it likely
[2:05:48] represents the life's work of a devoted monk who labored for
[2:05:52] decades. We don't know the name of this
[2:05:55] scribe for certain, but the script strongly suggests it was
[2:05:59] one individual and it was signed Herman the Recluse.
[2:06:04] Some have speculated that this isn't the name of the scribe,
[2:06:07] since one of the primary virtues of the Benedictine order is
[2:06:11] humility. It's been speculated that Herman
[2:06:14] may have been someone who the scribe was close to, like a
[2:06:18] mentor or perhaps a close friend.
[2:06:23] Notably, the Devil's Bible also presents another mystery beyond
[2:06:27] its authorship. The manuscript initially
[2:06:30] contained 320 sheets, but for reasons which are unknown, 12 of
[2:06:35] these sheets have gone missing. There's been significant
[2:06:38] speculation about what could have been contained on these
[2:06:41] sheets, though at least one of them is known to be the start of
[2:06:45] the Book of Genesis. Legends have popped up around
[2:06:49] what was contained in these pages, with myths unsurprisingly
[2:06:53] focusing on the potential that something of a cult significance
[2:06:57] was contained within. Beyond the myths, the Codex
[2:07:02] Gigas stands as a culturally and historically important artifact.
[2:07:07] It's a snapshot of 13th century knowledge and belief,
[2:07:11] encapsulating religious scripture alongside history,
[2:07:15] science and even rituals all in one book.
[2:07:19] The inclusion of so many diverse texts under a single cover is
[2:07:23] extremely rare, making it a kind of medieval encyclopedia.
[2:07:27] This suggests it was intended as a one stop reference for a
[2:07:31] monastic library meant to educate readers with a broad
[2:07:34] range of information from the sacred to the mundane.
[2:07:39] Artistically, the codex is significant for its scale and
[2:07:42] craftsmanship. Large illuminated Bibles were
[2:07:46] not unheard of in the period, but the Devil's Bible is
[2:07:49] exceptional even among these for its dimensions and the ambition
[2:07:53] of its creation. The full page Devil portrait
[2:07:57] remains unique in medieval art. While depictions of Satan
[2:08:01] existed elsewhere, no other known Bible features the Devil
[2:08:04] taking up an entire page, standing alone as a symbol of
[2:08:08] evil. On a cool evening in early
[2:08:12] December 2015, a ranch owner in rural Arizona opened her door to
[2:08:16] find a polite stranger asking for a place to spend the night.
[2:08:20] The stranger was Haruchika Miyagi, a successful 34 year old
[2:08:25] entrepreneur from Utah, and his unexpected plea for shelter was
[2:08:29] just the beginning of a baffling mystery.
[2:08:32] Moments after being turned away, Haruchika speed off in his red
[2:08:36] Mazda sedan, crashing through a gate as he vanished into the
[2:08:40] night, and he has never been seen again.
[2:08:45] Haruchika Miyagi was by all accounts a bright and
[2:08:48] accomplished individual with a promising life.
[2:08:51] He was of Japanese descent and sometimes went by the nicknames
[2:08:55] Haru and Chika. He lived in American Fork, UT,
[2:09:00] where he had graduated from Utah Valley University and
[2:09:04] established himself as an entrepreneur and day trader.
[2:09:08] Haruchika created his own investment software program
[2:09:11] called Tenci and was involved with several companies in the
[2:09:15] finance and tech sector. In addition to his business
[2:09:18] ventures, he maintained A prolific presence on social
[2:09:21] media. He posted frequent updates and
[2:09:25] even uploaded numerous YouTube videos on diverse topics, though
[2:09:29] most of these were related to finances in some way.
[2:09:34] The chain of events leading to Haruchika's disappearance
[2:09:37] unfolded over just a few days in late 2015.
[2:09:41] On December 3rd, 2015, Haruchika failed to show up at his
[2:09:46] workplace, which immediately alarmed his friends and
[2:09:49] colleagues. That same evening, he posted on
[2:09:53] Facebook around 9:00 PM, marking the last known contact anyone
[2:09:58] had with him. The post mentioned the
[2:10:00] importance of giving to others and seems pretty much in line
[2:10:04] with what Haru would generally be posting to his social media
[2:10:07] accounts. However, it did mention that he
[2:10:11] wanted to give as much as possible, which has been
[2:10:14] interpreted in a more sinister light given what would happen
[2:10:17] next when no one could reach him.
[2:10:22] By the end of the day on December 3rd, a missing person
[2:10:25] report was filed in American Fork.
[2:10:28] At that point, Haruchika's sudden absence was already out
[2:10:31] of character, and while he was a quirky guy, he was good hearted
[2:10:36] and always kept in touch with his friends and family.
[2:10:41] Two days later, on December 5th, 2015, Haruchika surfaced in a
[2:10:46] place no one expected, the small community of Dewey, AZ, over 550
[2:10:52] miles away from his Utah home. Dewey is a small and somewhat
[2:10:56] desolate desert community in Northern Arizona.
[2:11:01] Also, before you leave angry comments about me calling Dewey
[2:11:04] desolate, I absolutely love isolated communities in the
[2:11:08] Southwest to a somewhat weird degree.
[2:11:12] But anyway, I'm going off script.
[2:11:14] Let's get back to business. That late afternoon, around 5:00
[2:11:20] PM, a resident on a remote ranch property off Orme Road near
[2:11:24] Dewey called authorities to report a trespasser on her land.
[2:11:28] The trespasser was Hiruchika Miyagi, and after navigating
[2:11:32] miles of rough dirt roads, he drove up to the woman's house.
[2:11:37] He politely asked if he could spend the night on her property,
[2:11:41] though she sensed that something was quite off with him at the
[2:11:44] time. Unsurprisingly, the homeowner
[2:11:47] refused and suggested he get a hotel in a nearby town.
[2:11:53] According to the woman, Haruchika remained calm as he
[2:11:56] returned to his car. Unfortunately, rather than
[2:12:00] turning around normally, he speed forward and crashed
[2:12:03] through a closed gate on his way out.
[2:12:06] This seemed incredibly odd to her because he had been so calm
[2:12:09] and composed just moments earlier.
[2:12:14] About two hours later, around 7 that night, deputies found
[2:12:18] Haruchika's Mazda abandoned in a dry Creek bed not far from that
[2:12:23] ranch. The car had heavy front end
[2:12:26] damage and was wedged against a barbed wire fence, but Haruchika
[2:12:30] was nowhere insight. The car was towed from the
[2:12:33] remote spot, and investigators began a thorough search of the
[2:12:37] surrounding desert and ranch lands.
[2:12:42] Over the next several days, search and rescue teams combed
[2:12:45] the area with helicopters and dogs, but they found no trace of
[2:12:49] Haru. The dogs didn't pick up any
[2:12:51] scent to follow, and checks of local hospitals turned up
[2:12:55] nothing. Haruchika's cell phone was never
[2:12:58] found, and records showed it connected to a cell tower
[2:13:01] shortly after he left the ranch, then shut off.
[2:13:05] Haruchika's family in Utah had no explanation for why he would
[2:13:09] go to Arizona. He had no known contacts or
[2:13:12] business there. Utah and Arizona police worked
[2:13:16] together on the case, but as weeks turned into months without
[2:13:20] any answers, the mystery only deepened.
[2:13:23] To this day, no one knows exactly what happened to him
[2:13:27] after his car was found, and the events of that December evening
[2:13:31] remain uncertain. With a case as puzzling as
[2:13:36] Hiruchika Miyagi's disappearance, numerous theories
[2:13:40] have emerged to explain what might have happened.
[2:13:43] Investigators and the public alike have carefully considered
[2:13:46] each scenario, from the mundane to the extraordinary.
[2:13:50] It's important to note that all of these ideas are speculative.
[2:13:54] There's no hard evidence yet to confirm any particular outcome.
[2:13:59] However, examining the most frequently proposed theories can
[2:14:03] shed light on the possible fate of this good-natured
[2:14:05] entrepreneur. One leading theory is that
[2:14:10] Haruchika fell victim to a tragic accident, or perhaps
[2:14:14] simply just to the elements after fleeing his vehicle.
[2:14:18] People seriously underestimate the dangers associated with
[2:14:21] deserts, and it's possible to perish very quickly in these
[2:14:25] environments. The desert around Dewey can be
[2:14:28] harsh, especially for someone on foot with no supplies.
[2:14:32] Without shelter, nighttime temperatures in that region can
[2:14:36] drop dangerously low, increasing the risk of hypothermia for
[2:14:40] anyone lost outdoors. If Haruchika became injured or
[2:14:44] disoriented after crashing his car, he could have wandered off
[2:14:48] and succumbed to the elements. Authorities did search
[2:14:52] extensively in the vicinity of the crash, but the terrain is
[2:14:56] vast and rugged. It is possible that Haruchika's
[2:15:00] remains were missed during the initial search or have yet to be
[2:15:03] discovered, perhaps hidden by brush or washed away by seasonal
[2:15:08] floods. However, the lack of any tracks
[2:15:13] or other signs despite search efforts leaves this theory
[2:15:16] unproven. If he did perish in the
[2:15:19] wilderness, it would explain the complete silence, but without
[2:15:23] any discovery, an accident remains only a possible
[2:15:27] explanation. Another widely discussed
[2:15:31] possibility is that Haruchika experienced a sudden mental
[2:15:34] health crisis or psychological break that led him to behave
[2:15:38] erratically and abandoned his life.
[2:15:42] Those who support this theory note the abrupt, unannounced
[2:15:45] trip far from home and Haruchika's uncharacteristically
[2:15:48] odd behavior. Knocking on a stranger's door,
[2:15:52] asking to stay the night and then crashing through a gate are
[2:15:55] cited as key examples of this. These actions suggest he was
[2:15:59] confused or distressed. By all accounts, he was normally
[2:16:03] responsible and stable, so something must have snapped to
[2:16:06] drive him to act so out of character.
[2:16:09] Some have speculated that the pressure of his business
[2:16:12] ventures or personal issues might have been weighing on him,
[2:16:16] potentially triggering an emotional breakdown.
[2:16:21] If Haru was in a psychological crisis, it could have led him
[2:16:24] into danger or even a failed attempt to voluntarily hide from
[2:16:28] the troubles in his life. Some observers have even
[2:16:31] compared Haruchika's situation to other cases where seemingly
[2:16:35] well adjusted people suddenly abandoned their lives.
[2:16:39] This theory is hard to prove without more evidence, but it
[2:16:42] offers one possible explanation for his otherwise inexplicable
[2:16:46] actions. This theory is complicated by
[2:16:49] the fact that there's nothing definitive to suggest that he
[2:16:52] was in the midst of a breakdown prior to leaving.
[2:16:55] Thus, the mental breakdown idea is essentially an educated guess
[2:17:01] based solely on his bizarre final behavior.
[2:17:05] Nonetheless, the extraordinary nature of his disappearance
[2:17:09] means investigators cannot rule out that something in his mind
[2:17:12] went very wrong that weekend. A further variant of this theory
[2:17:18] suggests that he may have used psychoactive substances.
[2:17:22] His last Facebook post about giving everything away has been
[2:17:26] suggested to be potentially driven by the ingestion of such
[2:17:29] a substance. Ultimately, though, like with
[2:17:32] the other theories, this is interesting.
[2:17:34] But there's simply nothing beyond weak circumstantial
[2:17:37] evidence. Other less likely theories
[2:17:42] involve foul play or a voluntary disappearance, but these simply
[2:17:46] have no evidence to support them whatsoever.
[2:17:51] Nearly a decade later, Haruchika Miyagi's fate remains unknown.
[2:17:56] Neither his family nor investigators have given up.
[2:17:59] But with each passing year without answers, it becomes less
[2:18:03] likely the case will be solved. Personally, I think his case is
[2:18:07] often discussed because it's so confounding.
[2:18:10] A man with a stable life ends up far from home, behaves bizarrely
[2:18:15] and then vanishes without a trace.
[2:18:18] All we know for certain is that Hiruchika Miyagi is missing and
[2:18:22] the circumstances are unexplained, and everything else
[2:18:26] is open for speculation. Picture a quiet evening in a
[2:18:32] Russian pharmacy. Customers are browsing the
[2:18:35] aisles and everything seems ordinary.
[2:18:38] Suddenly, a man walks in wearing a medical mask and a baseball
[2:18:42] cap, carrying a black plastic bag.
[2:18:46] Without warning, he pulls A sawed off shotgun from the bag
[2:18:50] and fires into the store. Chaos erupts.
[2:18:54] People scream and scramble for cover as the gunman briefly
[2:18:57] steps back outside to reload. Moments later, he returns and
[2:19:01] calmly shoots an injured customer again at point blank
[2:19:04] range before vanishing into the city streets.
[2:19:07] This isn't a movie scene but a real crime from 2011.
[2:19:12] The unknown perpetrator would later be dubbed the Pharmacy
[2:19:15] Maniac by the press. The Pharmacy Maniacs first known
[2:19:21] attack took place on May 26th, 2011.
[2:19:25] In the late afternoon, a young man in a surgical mask and cap
[2:19:29] walked into a classica pharmacy on a busy Central St. in
[2:19:33] Chelyabinsk. He was carrying a plastic bag
[2:19:37] that concealed A sawed off shotgun.
[2:19:39] Inside the store were several employees and customers going
[2:19:42] about their day. The masked intruder suddenly
[2:19:47] pointed the shotgun and demanded the equivalent of 2000 bucks
[2:19:51] from those present, threatening to shoot anyone who didn't
[2:19:53] cooperate. Panicked, the people began
[2:19:57] handing over cash and valuables. As this robbery unfolded, 49
[2:20:02] year old Vladimir Shin walked into the pharmacy unaware of the
[2:20:06] danger. Shin was simply stopping by to
[2:20:09] pick up some medicine on his way home.
[2:20:14] The armed man yelled at him to stop, and when Shin tried to
[2:20:17] back out of the doorway, the gunman shot him in the chest,
[2:20:21] slaying him on the spot. In the commotion, some witnesses
[2:20:25] escaped out a back door, while the shooter fled through the
[2:20:28] front, disappearing into nearby alleyways before police could
[2:20:32] arrive. The whole incident lasted only
[2:20:35] minutes, leaving one innocent man dead and a community in
[2:20:39] shock. For several weeks, the pharmacy
[2:20:44] shooting appeared to be an isolated incident, a botched
[2:20:48] armed robbery with a tragic outcome.
[2:20:51] But on August 10th, 2011, the Predator struck again, and this
[2:20:56] time it was clear that he wasn't just your usual armed robber.
[2:21:01] Around 5:30, PMA man with a similar disguise walked into
[2:21:05] another Classica pharmacy near the site of the first attack.
[2:21:09] Without saying a word, he immediately opened fire on a
[2:21:12] customer near the entrance, 30 year old Igor Ustinov, who had
[2:21:17] just briefly stopped in to grab a prescription.
[2:21:23] Igor fell to the floor wounded and other patrons ran or hid in
[2:21:27] terror. The attacker didn't take any
[2:21:29] money from the register or make any demands.
[2:21:32] He simply fired another round into the store and stepped back
[2:21:36] outside. In that moment, we can speculate
[2:21:39] that Ustinov likely thought the worst of his nightmare was over.
[2:21:43] Unfortunately, this couldn't be further from the truth.
[2:21:49] Incredibly, the maniac then re entered the pharmacy.
[2:21:52] After a brief pause as panicked onlookers cowered, the shooter
[2:21:56] walked up to the injured Ustinov and shot him in the head
[2:22:00] multiple times. According to some witnesses, the
[2:22:04] attacker muttered that it was quote all your fault and kept
[2:22:07] referring to the pharmacy staff as white coats.
[2:22:12] He slipped away into the streets just as effortlessly as he had
[2:22:16] the first time. Security cameras captured the
[2:22:19] suspect leaving the scene, and police later traced his path
[2:22:23] through side streets, but they lost his trail about a mile away
[2:22:26] from the pharmacy. Despite dozens of eyewitnesses
[2:22:31] and footage of the crime, the mysterious shooter once again
[2:22:34] vanished without a trace. After the second attack, it
[2:22:39] became clear that Chelyabinsk had a serial predator targeting
[2:22:43] local pharmacies. The media branded the unknown
[2:22:46] assailant the pharmacy maniac, and fear spread through the
[2:22:50] city. For a time, some residents were
[2:22:53] even afraid to visit pharmacies for basic medicines, not knowing
[2:22:57] if the maniac would strike again.
[2:22:59] Law enforcement launched a massive manhunt and the Classica
[2:23:03] pharmacy chain, the specific target in both cases, was put
[2:23:08] under special protection by the cops.
[2:23:13] Investigators collected descriptions from witnesses and
[2:23:16] released a composite sketch of the suspect, described as a
[2:23:20] light haired man in his late 20s to mid 30s of average build.
[2:23:25] He was often seen wearing a dark baseball cap and glasses, and
[2:23:29] the police plastered this sketch on public transportation in shop
[2:23:33] windows and across the city. Authorities also posted a
[2:23:38] 1,000,000 ruble reward for information leading to the
[2:23:41] capture of the pharmacy maniac. For investigators, there were
[2:23:47] some clues but also frustrating gaps.
[2:23:50] Ballistic tests confirmed that the same sawed off weapon was
[2:23:53] used in both events, proving the attacks were linked.
[2:23:57] However, the weapon itself offered little insight.
[2:24:01] It was a common model used for hunting that had been illegally
[2:24:05] modified, making it impossible to trace ownership.
[2:24:10] The surveillance footage, while chilling, didn't reveal the
[2:24:13] shooter's face due to his cap and mask.
[2:24:17] Witnesses noted that during the second attack, the gunman looked
[2:24:20] unusually sickly, with a yellowish complexion and sores
[2:24:24] on his hands. Police checked local hospitals.
[2:24:27] Haunted for anyone with relevant military experience and even
[2:24:31] considered that the perpetrator might have fled the region or
[2:24:34] the country. Despite A thorough investigation
[2:24:37] that continued for years, the pharmacy maniac was never
[2:24:41] caught. With the case unsolved, many
[2:24:46] theories arose about the pharmacy maniacs identity and
[2:24:49] motive. One theory is that these were
[2:24:52] simply robberies gone wrong. In the first incident, the
[2:24:56] attacker clearly demanded cash and valuables, suggesting his
[2:25:00] goal was theft. Under this theory, the maniac
[2:25:04] might have been an ordinary criminal driven by greed who
[2:25:08] panicked when a customer entered into the ongoing crime scene.
[2:25:14] The second attack, however, complicates the robbery motive,
[2:25:18] as that time the assailant didn't even try to steal
[2:25:21] anything before opening fire. Some investigators thought the
[2:25:24] shooter might have had a personal grudge against the
[2:25:27] Classic of pharmacy chain or the medical community.
[2:25:31] The fact that he targeted the same brand of pharmacy in the
[2:25:34] same area hinted at a possible vendetta.
[2:25:38] Notably, he did call the pharmacy workers white coats,
[2:25:42] which suggests that he may have been using this as a derogatory
[2:25:46] term towards healthcare workers. However, these theories also
[2:25:52] have significant holes. The attacker didn't actually
[2:25:56] physically harm any employees of Classica, which would be unusual
[2:26:00] if he was intending to attack healthcare workers.
[2:26:03] Further, if a vendetta against the Classic of pharmacy chain
[2:26:07] was at play, he could have made his intentions much more
[2:26:10] specific or released a manifesto.
[2:26:15] Another line of thought focuses on the attacker's psychological
[2:26:18] state. The pharmacy maniac's actions
[2:26:21] were extraordinarily violent, and he was clearly acting in a
[2:26:24] way that can't possibly be rationalized.
[2:26:28] Some experts profiled him as someone who might be suffering
[2:26:31] from a psychotic break, perhaps brought on by substance usage.
[2:26:37] The suspects dishevelled sickly appearance with jaundiced skin
[2:26:41] and sores further fueled speculation that he might have
[2:26:45] been an addict. Under this scenario, the attacks
[2:26:50] might have been the result of paranoia or rage from an
[2:26:53] unstable individual rather than a calculated plan.
[2:27:00] Over a decade later, the pharmacy maniac case remains
[2:27:03] unsolved and continues to haunt the residents of Chelyabinsk.
[2:27:07] Even now, some residents of the city reportedly maintain a state
[2:27:10] of high alert while entering pharmacies, indicating the
[2:27:14] collective damage he did to the psyche of the people there.
[2:27:22] Late one night in January 2021, a rising rap artist who went by
[2:27:27] the name Six Dogs took a walk to one of his favorite spots, a
[2:27:32] building rooftop where he often went to gaze at the stars.
[2:27:36] He never returned alive, and the next day news spread that the 21
[2:27:41] year old, whose real name was Chase Amick, had died after
[2:27:45] falling from that building. Chase was born on May 5th, 1999
[2:27:52] and grew up in the Atlanta suburbs in a strict Christian
[2:27:55] household. As a teenager, he began crafting
[2:27:59] rap music in secret, aware that his devout mother would
[2:28:02] disapprove of his rhymes. In late 2016, at age 17, he
[2:28:08] uploaded a song called Flossing to SoundCloud.
[2:28:13] The track quickly went viral, introducing listeners to his
[2:28:16] laid back melodic style. Shortly after, Six Dogs released
[2:28:22] Phago Dreams, a hazy single that racked up 10s of millions of
[2:28:26] streams. And yeah, for all the Juggalos
[2:28:29] out there in my audience, don't get too excited.
[2:28:33] The title appears to be purely coincidental.
[2:28:37] By 2017, he had released his self-titled debut album, further
[2:28:42] expanding his audience. This rapid success caught the
[2:28:46] music industry's attention, and he soon landed a deal with
[2:28:49] Interscope Records. For most aspiring musical
[2:28:54] artists, this would have been an indisputedly great development,
[2:28:58] but this small taste of fame brought serious complications at
[2:29:01] home. Once his mother discovered his
[2:29:04] secret music career, she was alarmed by the lifestyle that
[2:29:07] came with it, reportedly grounding him indefinitely.
[2:29:11] Determined to keep pursuing music, Six Dogs moved out of his
[2:29:15] family home at 18 to live with his girlfriend and focus on his
[2:29:19] art. Free from restrictions, he
[2:29:23] continued to build momentum and expand his creative vision.
[2:29:27] He collaborated with popular producer Benny Blanco, and in
[2:29:31] 2019, Six Dogs released his second album, High Hats and
[2:29:36] Heartaches, which was well received by his growing fan
[2:29:40] base. His song stood out for their
[2:29:44] dreamy beats and candid, emotional lyrics.
[2:29:47] Many of his tracks openly touched on dark topics like
[2:29:50] depression and loneliness, giving a voice to struggles that
[2:29:54] resonated with young listeners. His introspective style led many
[2:29:59] to associate him with the emo rap wave of SoundCloud rappers,
[2:30:03] placing 6 Dogs alongside artists like Lil Peep on the scenes
[2:30:07] Moody emotional end. By late 2026, Dogs was working
[2:30:14] on 1/3 album, which he planned to title Ronald.
[2:30:18] That year had been difficult for him, and in July 2020 he
[2:30:22] contracted the Big Sneeze, an illness that forced him to delay
[2:30:26] recording while he recovered. He bounced back, but in a candid
[2:30:31] tweet that November, he hinted at the mental toll the music
[2:30:35] industry was taking, urging friends in the industry to check
[2:30:38] in on each other. Still, to those around him, Six
[2:30:43] Dogs appeared optimistic about the future.
[2:30:47] He had even stated in an interview that he wasn't
[2:30:49] depressed and was excited about his new music, giving fans no
[2:30:53] obvious warning of any crisis ahead.
[2:30:58] Tragically, on January 26th, 2021, Chase Amex Life came to an
[2:31:04] end. That night, he walked to a
[2:31:06] favorite lookout spot, a building in Atlanta where he
[2:31:10] often watched sunsets and stars, and fell from the rooftop,
[2:31:14] suffering fatal injuries. He was only 21 years old, and
[2:31:19] the exact circumstances of the fall remain unclear.
[2:31:24] Officially, authorities couldn't determine whether his plunge was
[2:31:27] accidental or intentional. It was known that six dogs had
[2:31:32] long battled quite severe mental health issues.
[2:31:35] He was open about struggling with bipolar disorder and
[2:31:39] occasional psychotic episodes that came from this.
[2:31:42] In fact, he once admitted that if he hadn't started making
[2:31:45] music during his lowest point, he might not still be here.
[2:31:50] This statement and some of his lyrics suggested to some fans
[2:31:54] that the fall may have been intentional.
[2:31:59] In the wake of Six Dogs death, the hip hop community mourned a
[2:32:03] bright young talent. Meanwhile, fans on forums and
[2:32:06] social media were trying to make sense of what happened.
[2:32:10] For many, it was frustrating that aside from a couple of
[2:32:13] brief statements on Six Dogs Instagram confirming his
[2:32:17] passing, no details were provided about how he died.
[2:32:22] With so little information publicly available, various
[2:32:25] theories emerged. Some wondered if substances or
[2:32:31] an accidental overdose played a role, but others noted that six
[2:32:35] dogs had distanced himself from hard substances.
[2:32:38] Those who supported this theory argued that relapses are by far
[2:32:42] the most dangerous time to overdose on St. pharmaceuticals.
[2:32:47] This is because people often take the doses they were
[2:32:49] accustomed to while they were in the midst of their battle with
[2:32:53] addiction. However, after months or years
[2:32:57] of being clean, tolerances fade in a massive way, leading to
[2:33:02] deadly results. Under this theory, it's
[2:33:05] suspected that he became disoriented while hanging out on
[2:33:08] the roof and then fell. Others argued that it was likely
[2:33:14] intentional, referring to six dogs, mental health struggles,
[2:33:18] and references to these thoughts in his music.
[2:33:21] Yet those close to him saw no indication that he intended to
[2:33:25] do any such thing, and many have argued that lyrics aren't a
[2:33:30] reflection of present reality. It's not hard to imagine that
[2:33:35] someone who had a difficult in stifling upbringing and dealt
[2:33:38] with serious mental health problems and addiction may have
[2:33:41] had those thoughts in the past. Ultimately, it's unlikely that
[2:33:47] the truth of the situation will ever be known.
[2:33:55] Shamanism is a spiritual practice found in many cultures
[2:33:58] across the globe, rooted in the belief that humans, nature, and
[2:34:02] the spirit world are intimately connected.
[2:34:06] Although the specific rituals and traditions of shamanism can
[2:34:10] vary greatly among different societies, a few core principles
[2:34:14] tend to be consistent. These are accepted as the
[2:34:18] existence of a spirit realm, the shamans ability to enter altered
[2:34:22] states of consciousness, healing ability, and the role of the
[2:34:27] shaman as an intermediary between realities.
[2:34:31] Shamanic practices have been traced back thousands of years,
[2:34:35] with archaeological evidence suggesting that ritual
[2:34:37] specialists who engaged with the spirit world have existed since
[2:34:41] the Paleolithic era. The term shaman itself
[2:34:45] originates from the peoples of Siberia, where shamans were
[2:34:49] believed to communicate with spirits to heal the sick,
[2:34:53] predict the future, and influence natural events.
[2:34:58] From Siberia, the concept of the shaman traveled and took on
[2:35:02] different forms across Asia, the Americas, Europe, and parts of
[2:35:07] Africa. One reason for shamanism spread
[2:35:11] and durability lies in its adaptability.
[2:35:14] Early hunter gatherer societies relied heavily on their
[2:35:18] environment for survival. Scholars speculate that shamans,
[2:35:22] using their perceived ability to tap into a cult knowledge, claim
[2:35:27] to know where game would migrate and how to avoid natural
[2:35:30] disasters. As societies changed, shamanic
[2:35:34] practices were reshaped by agricultural shifts,
[2:35:38] interactions with neighboring cultures, and religious
[2:35:41] evolutions. Shamanism isn't generally a job
[2:35:45] one chooses. Instead, many communities
[2:35:49] believe the spirits themselves select the shaman.
[2:35:52] This calling can manifest through visions, dreams, or even
[2:35:57] prolonged illnesses that serve as initiation crises.
[2:36:02] In many cultures, it's thought that if the chosen individual
[2:36:05] ignores or refuses the call, further spiritual or physical
[2:36:10] affliction could result until they accept their destiny.
[2:36:14] By doing so, the future shaman demonstrates resilience and
[2:36:19] gains insights deemed vital for guiding others through
[2:36:22] suffering. Once an individual is identified
[2:36:25] as a potential shaman, they typically undergo A rigorous
[2:36:29] apprenticeship under the mentorship of an established
[2:36:32] practitioner. This training includes learning
[2:36:35] rituals, chance myths, and medicinal uses of plants.
[2:36:41] In many regions, such as the Amazon rainforest, psychoactive
[2:36:45] substances are integral to this training.
[2:36:48] These substances are believed to facilitate contact with the
[2:36:51] spirit world and grant the shaman access to knowledge that
[2:36:55] can't be acquired through ordinary means.
[2:36:58] During apprenticeship perspective shamans also learn
[2:37:01] methods for entering trance states without the aid of
[2:37:04] psychoactive plants. Techniques such as drumming,
[2:37:08] dancing, chanting, breath work, fasting, and isolation are
[2:37:13] commonly employed. A defining characteristic of
[2:37:17] shamanism is the practitioners ability to enter altered states
[2:37:20] of consciousness to interact with the spirit realm.
[2:37:25] This trance state, sometimes referred to as soul flight or
[2:37:30] journeying, is the linchpin of the shaman's power.
[2:37:35] Through trance, shamans claim to converse with spirits, departed
[2:37:39] ancestors, or animal guides seeking guidance, healing, or
[2:37:45] protection for their communities.
[2:37:48] Shamans are frequently called upon to treat illnesses believed
[2:37:51] to have spiritual or energetic causes, such as soul loss,
[2:37:56] possession by malevolent spirits, or negative energies.
[2:38:01] Shamanic healing rituals often revolve around the principle
[2:38:05] that sickness can stem from a disruption in the person's
[2:38:08] relationship with the spirit world.
[2:38:11] By restoring this harmony, the shaman seeks to alleviate
[2:38:15] physical and emotional suffering in the patient.
[2:38:18] One common method is sometimes known as soul retrieval, in
[2:38:22] which the shaman enters a trance and journeys to the spiritual
[2:38:26] realm. In this realm, the shaman
[2:38:29] attempts to recover fragments of the patient's soul that are
[2:38:32] believed to have fled due to trauma or disease.
[2:38:36] Through chanting, drumming, and ritual actions, the shaman
[2:38:41] endeavors to reintegrate the lost parts into the individual's
[2:38:44] body and spirit. Afterward, the individual often
[2:38:48] participates in a series of ceremonies to solidify the
[2:38:52] healing and re establish balance.
[2:38:55] Of course, shamanism has recently gained mainstream
[2:38:58] popularity, with trips being offered to destinations solely
[2:39:01] for the purposes of engaging in shamanic rites and rituals.
[2:39:08] Elizabeth Bathory, a 17th century Hungarian Countess, is
[2:39:12] enshrined in legend as one of history's most prolific
[2:39:16] monsters. The lurid tales surrounding her
[2:39:19] have made Bathory infamous as the blood Countess.
[2:39:23] However, modern historical research paints a very different
[2:39:26] picture. Increasingly, scholars are
[2:39:29] disputing the traditional narrative and suggest that
[2:39:32] Bathory may have been the victim of a conspiracy.
[2:39:35] Under this theory, she was framed by powerful political and
[2:39:39] family rivals who stood to benefit from her downfall.
[2:39:44] Bathory lived in a time of intense turmoil in the Kingdom
[2:39:47] of Hungary. The early 1600s saw Hungary
[2:39:50] split into factions amid ongoing wars with the Ottoman Empire and
[2:39:55] the Counter Reformation conflicts in Europe.
[2:39:59] Since the disastrous Battle of Mohach in 1526, Hungary had
[2:40:03] effectively been divided into 3 parts.
[2:40:06] The western and northern regions were under Habsburg rule and
[2:40:10] were known as Royal Hungary. The central portion was under
[2:40:14] direct Ottoman occupation and the eastern principality of
[2:40:18] Transylvania which was semi autonomous.
[2:40:22] This meant that Hungarian politics were a high stakes game
[2:40:26] involving the Catholic Habsburg Empire, the Protestant nobility
[2:40:30] of Transylvania, and the ever present threat of the Ottomans.
[2:40:36] The Habsburgs were staunch Catholics intent on reimposing
[2:40:39] Catholicism, while many Hungarian nobles, including the
[2:40:43] Bathory family, were Protestant and resisted Habsburg religious
[2:40:47] control. In this climate, accusations and
[2:40:51] scandals could be weaponized to eliminate political opponents.
[2:40:55] At the time of Elizabeth Bathory's alleged crimes, her
[2:40:59] cousin Giorgi Thurzo was the Palatine of Hungary.
[2:41:03] The King's representative, King Matthias the Second, an Austrian
[2:41:08] Catholic Habsburg ruler, SAT on the Hungarian throne.
[2:41:13] Both had vested interests in curbing the influence of
[2:41:16] powerful nobles in this unstable realm.
[2:41:19] Bathory's own nephew, Prince Gabriel Bathory, ruled
[2:41:23] Transylvania and was actively involved in Hungary's
[2:41:27] independence movement against Habsburg rule.
[2:41:31] Gabriel even eyed the Hungarian throne, a direct threat to King
[2:41:35] Matthias. As a Protestant with significant
[2:41:38] land holdings, Elizabeth Bathory was caught in the crosshairs of
[2:41:42] these power struggles. The Habsburg court had ample
[2:41:46] motive to discredit the Bathory family.
[2:41:49] Undermining Elizabeth's reputation would neutralize her
[2:41:52] political influence. Not only that, but it would also
[2:41:56] indirectly weaken her ambitious Transylvanian relatives.
[2:42:00] Indeed, contemporaneous records show that Matthias the Second
[2:42:04] had a very concrete incentive to move against her.
[2:42:08] The king owed Elizabeth an extremely large sum of money,
[2:42:12] Notably, after Bathory's arrest, that royal debt was conveniently
[2:42:16] cancelled. This suspicious detail suggests
[2:42:19] that eliminating Bathory was financially advantageous for the
[2:42:23] Crown. Elizabeth Bathory was not an
[2:42:27] obscure figure to contemporaries.
[2:42:29] She was born into one of the most illustrious families of
[2:42:32] Central Europe. The Bathory family had been
[2:42:35] major players in Hungarian and Transylvanian history since the
[2:42:40] 13th century. Her lineage included numerous
[2:42:43] Princess of Transylvania, though this was a small time role
[2:42:47] compared to the status of her uncle.
[2:42:50] This uncle, Stephen Bathory, was the elected King of Poland and
[2:42:54] Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1576 to 1586.
[2:42:59] Raised a Calvinist Protestant, young Elizabeth received an
[2:43:03] excellent education for a woman of her time and was noted to be
[2:43:06] intelligent and strong willed. At age 15, she married Count
[2:43:11] Ference Nadasdi, a member of another influential Hungarian
[2:43:16] dynasty. Nadasdi was a famed soldier
[2:43:19] celebrated for his battles against the Ottomans, earning
[2:43:23] the nickname the Black Knight of Hungary amongst his Turkish
[2:43:26] foes. Through this marriage,
[2:43:29] Elizabeth's social standing grew even higher, and the couple
[2:43:33] acquired a vast network of estates, including multiple
[2:43:37] castles throughout Hungary. The couple controlled vast
[2:43:41] estates in Hungary, including the castle of Chaktichi, which
[2:43:45] became Elizabeth's primary residence.
[2:43:48] They had several children together and lived in
[2:43:50] considerable wealth and privilege.
[2:43:53] When Ference Nadasdi died in 16 O 4, Elizabeth became a widowed
[2:43:58] Countess in her mid 40s, suddenly assuming sole control
[2:44:02] of the enormous combined estate. This made her one of the
[2:44:05] wealthiest land owners in Hungary.
[2:44:08] It was after her husband's death that dark rumors about
[2:44:12] Elizabeth's treatment of her servants began to spread more
[2:44:15] widely. Importantly, Bathory's status as
[2:44:19] a propertied widow also made her vulnerable.
[2:44:23] Her position was envied by other nobles, including her own kin.
[2:44:28] Indeed, there is evidence that some of Elizabeth's sons in law,
[2:44:31] who stood to inherit parts of her estate, were eager to
[2:44:35] control her lands and wealth. Thus, both the Habsburg
[2:44:39] authorities and elements of her extended family had something to
[2:44:43] gain from bringing Elizabeth Bathory down.
[2:44:46] The stage was set for what many historians now believe was a
[2:44:50] coordinated effort to remove the Countess and redistribute her
[2:44:53] riches under the guise of a criminal prosecution.
[2:44:59] The case against Elizabeth Bathory officially began in
[2:45:02] 1610, when complaints about the disappearance of young women in
[2:45:07] the area around Chuck Teach Castle could no longer be
[2:45:11] ignored. Locals whispered that peasant
[2:45:14] girls who went to work at the Countess's castle were never
[2:45:17] seen again. By late 1610, King Matthias the
[2:45:21] Second had ordered an investigation, which Palatine
[2:45:24] Giorgi Thurzo undertook with zeal.
[2:45:28] According to the later trial records, Thurzo collected
[2:45:31] testimony from around 300 witnesses who alleged all manner
[2:45:36] of horrors. They told stories of girls being
[2:45:39] kidnapped or lured to the castle, then tortured by
[2:45:42] Bathory. Accounts spoke of beatings,
[2:45:46] burnings, and other even more ghastly tortures.
[2:45:50] When this evidence didn't prove convincing enough, these rumors
[2:45:54] grew to include even higher born victims.
[2:45:57] Several minor noble women who had been entrusted to Bathory's
[2:46:01] care for etiquette training were said to have been eliminated by
[2:46:04] the Countess as well. It was this detail that
[2:46:08] daughters of the Gentry might have been among the victims that
[2:46:12] finally prompted authorities to act decisively.
[2:46:16] On December 29th, 1610, Thurzo raided Elizabeth's castle and
[2:46:21] arrested her along with four of her servants who were alleged
[2:46:24] accomplices. A letter by Thurzo claims that
[2:46:28] upon arriving, he caught her red handed with her prey in the
[2:46:32] castle. In truth, however, this dramatic
[2:46:36] account appears to have been an embellishment for effect.
[2:46:40] Contemporary evidence indicates Bathory was actually having
[2:46:43] dinner when Thurzo arrived, not in the midst of torturing
[2:46:47] anyone. The quote UN quote prey girl
[2:46:50] found alive in the castle, recovered from whatever had
[2:46:53] happened to her, and never testified about any violations.
[2:46:58] Bathory herself was never given a trial, an extraordinary
[2:47:02] violation of the usual legal process.
[2:47:05] Considering her rank, Thurzo and Bathory's relatives quickly
[2:47:09] agreed that she would be kept under house arrest, avoiding the
[2:47:13] spectacle of a public trial that could tarnish the noble family
[2:47:17] names. This also conveniently prevented
[2:47:20] Elizabeth from speaking in her own defense before any court.
[2:47:25] In early January, 16112 judicial proceedings were held to
[2:47:30] prosecute Bathory's servants. The servants?
[2:47:34] Two older women, Deroche Sentez and Ilona Yo, a younger woman,
[2:47:39] Katarina Binica, and a teenage boy, Janos Uvari, were accused
[2:47:45] of being accomplices under torture themselves.
[2:47:49] These servants confessed to participating in the slayings of
[2:47:53] dozens of girls at Bathory's behest.
[2:47:56] The court found them guilty and three were executed in a
[2:47:59] particularly brutal fashion. The 4th servant, Katarina, was
[2:48:04] spared execution and given life imprisonment as the court
[2:48:08] believed she had been coerced by the others.
[2:48:11] Notably, I find this logic a little bit unusual, as if true,
[2:48:17] they were all asked to participate in these acts by the
[2:48:20] most powerful person in their world.
[2:48:23] Elizabeth Bathory, meanwhile, was simply kept locked in a set
[2:48:26] of rooms of her own castle. She would remain confined there
[2:48:31] for the rest of her life until her death in 1614.
[2:48:37] The evidence used to condemn Elizabeth Bathory has been a
[2:48:41] subject of growing skepticism. A close look reveals that the
[2:48:45] case was shockingly weak by modern standards, relying on
[2:48:49] hearsay, rumor, and coerced confessions.
[2:48:53] Although some 300 witnesses were interviewed, none of them
[2:48:56] claimed to have actually seen the Countess or her accomplices
[2:49:00] do anything. In fact, not a single alleged
[2:49:04] victim ever gave testimony. All the stories were second or
[2:49:08] third hand accounts of what I heard happened at the castle.
[2:49:13] Many witnesses had been primed by local gossip before
[2:49:16] testifying. Some have suggested that
[2:49:19] Thurzo's men had spread the horrific rumors in each village
[2:49:23] to ensure everyone knew the narrative by the time they were
[2:49:26] questioned. Unsurprisingly, the testimonies
[2:49:31] were inconsistent, with different people citing wildly
[2:49:34] different numbers of victims. Some spoke of a dozen dead,
[2:49:39] others dozens or hundreds. The most sensational claim of
[2:49:43] all is that Elizabeth's body count was 650 individuals.
[2:49:48] This came from a witness who said that one of Bathory's
[2:49:51] estate administrators had seen such a number written in the
[2:49:54] Countess's private diary. Crucially, this mysterious diary
[2:49:59] was never produced as evidence, nor was it supposed witness able
[2:50:03] to confirm the story. Underoath.
[2:50:05] In short, the dramatic number of 650 victims was nothing more
[2:50:11] than unverified hearsay. By contrast, when Elizabeth's 4
[2:50:16] servants were interrogated, the total number of victims they
[2:50:19] could come up with was 36. Furthermore, we have no record
[2:50:24] of any contemporaneous complaints or petitions from
[2:50:27] peasants regarding missing daughters or mistreatment by the
[2:50:31] Countess. In that era, it was common for
[2:50:34] villagers to send written complaints to the authorities,
[2:50:37] even for minor offenses, so the absence of a paper trail
[2:50:42] alleging true evil is noteworthy.
[2:50:46] The picture that emerges is that the physical evidence of
[2:50:49] Bathory's guilt was scant. It was customary at the time for
[2:50:53] large estates to function partly as infirmaries.
[2:50:57] As a large landlord, Bathory was responsible for providing
[2:51:01] medical care to servants and tenants.
[2:51:04] Some of the quote UN quote torture described by witnesses
[2:51:09] may have actually been misunderstood accounts of
[2:51:11] primitive medical treatments like cauterization or bleeding
[2:51:15] sick patients. These procedures were gruesome
[2:51:18] by our standards, but were legitimate remedies for serious
[2:51:21] illness. In the 17th century.
[2:51:24] It is easy to see how a superstitious witness, primed by
[2:51:28] terrifying rumors might mistake a medical intervention on a
[2:51:32] dying plague victim for an act of torture.
[2:51:37] Ever since the 1980s, historians have revisited the Elizabeth
[2:51:41] Bathory case and cast doubt on the traditional accounts.
[2:51:45] What they have uncovered strongly suggests that Bathory
[2:51:48] was not a vampiric monster, but rather the target of a
[2:51:52] deliberate character assassination.
[2:51:55] As noted, King Matthias had obvious financial and political
[2:51:59] motives to remove Bathory, and he entrusted the task to Gorgi
[2:52:03] Thurzo, who also stood to gain the cooperation of Elizabeth's
[2:52:09] kin and her prosecution further hints at familial betrayal.
[2:52:14] Her two sons in law helped Thurzo quietly imprison her,
[2:52:17] likely angling to claim parts of her estate for themselves.
[2:52:21] Indeed, after Elizabeth was safely locked away, an agreement
[2:52:26] was reached to divide her vast lands among her family, ensuring
[2:52:30] the Habsburg crown couldn't seize everything.
[2:52:34] However, the Habsburgs did seize portions of the land and did
[2:52:38] succeed in breaking up the vast estates into smaller, easier
[2:52:42] controlled estates. Further, the Habsburgs
[2:52:46] drastically increased the land holdings of the Catholic
[2:52:49] nobility in Hungary and Transylvania to the detriment of
[2:52:53] the Protestant nobility. But let's get back to Elizabeth
[2:52:57] Bathory and discuss the most lurid claim against her.
[2:53:03] The most famous aspect of her story suggests that she
[2:53:06] preferred to bathe in the blood of virgins for the purpose of
[2:53:09] preserving her youth. This detail was first
[2:53:12] popularized in the 18th century by Jesuit writers over a century
[2:53:17] after Bathory's death as a sensational morality tale during
[2:53:22] the Counter Reformation. Those later retellings were part
[2:53:26] of a broader effort to portray Protestant nobles as depraved,
[2:53:30] which further indicates how Bathory's story was Co opted for
[2:53:34] propaganda. Further, it was Co opted amongst
[2:53:38] those who believed that women shouldn't hold power in their
[2:53:41] own right, with the implication that Bathory resorted to sick
[2:53:45] acts to satisfy her vanity. In other words, the bloodbath
[2:53:50] legend is almost certainly fiction, grafted onto her name
[2:53:53] long after she could defend herself.
[2:53:56] Notably, despite the extremely lurid accusations made against
[2:54:00] Bathory by Habsburg officials and in the trials of her
[2:54:03] accomplices, this detail was never even hinted at.
[2:54:08] Had there been any inkling of potential vampiric involvement,
[2:54:12] it stands to reason that the authorities would have brought
[2:54:14] this up in the trials. Today, the academic consensus is
[2:54:19] that Elizabeth Bathory's evil reputation far exceeds the
[2:54:23] probable reality of her life. While she may have been a harsh
[2:54:28] ruler, perhaps even guilty of inflicting punishment or cruelty
[2:54:31] on some servants, there's no reliable evidence for the most
[2:54:35] disturbing accusations against her.
[2:54:43] Imagine standing on a featureless expanse of ice, the
[2:54:46] wind a physical force that steals both warmth and reason.
[2:54:51] Or perhaps you're alone in the cockpit of a small plane, the
[2:54:55] drone of the engine a hypnotic lullaby pulling you toward a
[2:54:58] fatal sleep over a black ocean. Maybe you're in the choking dust
[2:55:03] of a collapsed building, the weight of the world above you
[2:55:07] hope dwindling with each shallow breath.
[2:55:11] In these moments, at the absolute precipice of human
[2:55:14] endurance, when the body has exhausted its reserves and the
[2:55:18] mind begins to fray, something extraordinary can happen.
[2:55:23] The crushing solitude evaporates, replaced by a
[2:55:26] sudden, inexplicable and certain feeling.
[2:55:30] You are not alone. This is the core mystery of the
[2:55:33] Third Man Factor, a phenomenon also known as the sensed
[2:55:37] presence. It's a recurring report from
[2:55:41] individuals pushed to the very edge of survival, describing an
[2:55:45] incorporeal but vividly felt companion.
[2:55:50] This unseen entity is always benevolent, offering comfort,
[2:55:54] providing clear headed guidance, and instilling A profound sense
[2:55:58] of hope. Many spiritual people, or even
[2:56:02] people who have no spiritual inklings whatsoever, describe
[2:56:06] the experience as if they are communing with a higher power.
[2:56:10] The Third Man Factor, far from being a mere story, represents A
[2:56:15] profound intersection of neurology, psychology, and the
[2:56:19] innate human drive to survive. The genesis of our modern
[2:56:26] understanding of the Third Man Factor begins in the desolation
[2:56:29] of the Antarctic amidst 1 of history's greatest tales of
[2:56:33] survival. In May 1916, Sir Ernest
[2:56:37] Shackleton, commander of the Imperial Transantarctic
[2:56:41] Expedition, faced a final, desperate gamble.
[2:56:45] His ship, the Endurance, had been trapped and ultimately
[2:56:49] crushed by pack ice, stranding his crew for over a year.
[2:56:54] After a perilous open boat journey, Shackleton and two of
[2:56:58] his toughest men, Frank Worsley and Tom Crean, landed on the
[2:57:02] coast of South Georgia Island. The whaling station that
[2:57:08] represented their only hope of rescue lay on the opposite side,
[2:57:12] across an uncharted and forbidding spine of mountains
[2:57:15] and glaciers. What followed was an epic feat
[2:57:18] of Endurance, a nonstop 36 hour March across this treacherous
[2:57:23] terrain. The men were at the absolute
[2:57:26] limit of their physical and mental strength, suffering from
[2:57:30] exhaustion, dehydration, and the constant threat of the elements.
[2:57:36] They possessed no tent, no sleeping bags, and their only
[2:57:40] equipment consisted of a few pieces of rope and some climbing
[2:57:44] picks. They were three men alone
[2:57:47] against an entire continent. Or so they thought.
[2:57:53] During that grueling trek, each of the three men experienced a
[2:57:57] strange and powerful sensation. As Shackleton later recounted in
[2:58:01] his 1919 book, they began to feel the presence of 1/4
[2:58:06] individual with them. This wasn't a fleeting delusion,
[2:58:10] but a persistent feeling of a companion walking alongside
[2:58:13] them, a silent, supportive presence.
[2:58:18] Crucially, none of them spoke of it at the time, each man keeping
[2:58:23] the inexplicable experience to himself, focusing only on the
[2:58:27] task at hand. It was only weeks later, after
[2:58:31] their miraculous arrival at the whaling station, that the shared
[2:58:35] nature of their experience came to light.
[2:58:39] Shackleton's Antarctic Apparition wasn't an isolated
[2:58:43] anomaly, it was merely the first widely publicized account of a
[2:58:47] phenomenon that appears to be a universal feature of the human
[2:58:50] experience under duress. Notably, the high altitude world
[2:58:55] of mountaineering is a fertile ground for the Third Man
[2:58:59] phenomenon, and this is actually how I originally found out about
[2:59:03] it. The combination of hypoxia,
[2:59:07] extreme cold, fatigue and isolation creates a perfect
[2:59:12] storm of physiological and psychological stress.
[2:59:15] One of the most compelling accounts comes from Reinhold
[2:59:18] Messner, arguably the greatest Mountaineer in history.
[2:59:23] During a desperate descent of Dimer Mountain in the Himalayas,
[2:59:26] Messner became acutely aware of 1/3 climber accompanying him and
[2:59:30] his partner. He couldn't see the figure
[2:59:33] directly, but he felt its presence with absolute certainty
[2:59:37] just out of his field of vision, keeping pace with them on the
[2:59:41] treacherous slope. Similarly, in his book Touching
[2:59:46] the Void, climber Joe Simpson recounts his near fatal
[2:59:50] experience in the Peruvian Andes.
[2:59:53] After shattering his leg and falling into a deep pit, he was
[2:59:57] left to perish. During his impossible, agonizing
[3:00:00] crawl back to base camp, he was guided and relentlessly
[3:00:04] encouraged by an internal voice. This voice was distinct from his
[3:00:09] own thoughts, providing clear, pragmatic instructions and
[3:00:13] pushing him to continue when every instinct screamed for him
[3:00:16] to give up. The phenomenon isn't limited to
[3:00:21] the world's highest peaks or frozen wastelands.
[3:00:25] The sensory monotony and profound isolation of long
[3:00:28] distance solo travel can also conjure the unseen companion.
[3:00:33] In 1927, during his historic 34 hour non-stop flight across the
[3:00:38] Atlantic, Charles Lindbergh battled overwhelming fatigue in
[3:00:43] the cramped cockpit of the Spirit of Saint Louis.
[3:00:46] He reported the presence of translucent, friendly beings who
[3:00:49] spoke with him, discussed navigation and offered
[3:00:53] reassurance. And yeah, I'm just going to say
[3:00:56] that we could all use some of those crazy entities in our
[3:00:59] life. While the stories are
[3:01:02] compelling, they beg the fundamental question about what
[3:01:05] this phenomenon actually is. Perhaps the simplest answer is
[3:01:10] that it's a spiritual entity sent to assist an individual
[3:01:13] under duress. From a neurological perspective,
[3:01:16] scientists have speculated that this is essentially a glitch in
[3:01:20] the brain brought on by extreme duress.
[3:01:23] Psychologists, on the other hand, note that it seems to
[3:01:26] serve an adaptive function while in those extreme situations, and
[3:01:30] speculate that the brain invents an imaginary friend.
[3:01:36] These theories have little to back them up and are, in
[3:01:38] essence, really just preliminary hypotheses.
[3:01:42] After all, it's hard to replicate the circumstances that
[3:01:45] make the Third Man phenomenon appear under laboratory settings
[3:01:50] for obvious ethical reasons. However, perhaps the most
[3:01:56] persistent and challenging aspect for any purely
[3:01:59] mechanistic explanation is the overwhelmingly helpful and
[3:02:03] benevolent nature of the presence.
[3:02:05] Neither scientific theory fully accounts for why this internally
[3:02:09] generated entity is always a force for good.
[3:02:13] Simply put, there's no stories like this of the stressed out
[3:02:17] brain conjuring A malevolent demon wishing for someone's
[3:02:20] demise. The third man present in these
[3:02:23] extreme survival situations is a consistent ally that's found
[3:02:27] across cultures and time. This points toward a deeply
[3:02:31] embedded pro survival bias in the very fabric of the
[3:02:35] mechanism, a feature that continues to elude a complete
[3:02:39] scientific explanation. Ultimately, at present, no one
[3:02:44] can truly say what the third man is if it's just a neurological
[3:02:48] glitch. Those who believe it has a
[3:02:51] spiritual dimension question why this presence is universally
[3:02:55] positive and calming. Also, I don't usually directly
[3:03:01] ask this, but since this phenomenon is so unusual, I'm
[3:03:05] going to take a shot in the dark here and ask if anyone has
[3:03:08] experienced this first hand. If so, let me know the details
[3:03:13] of the experience in the comments below, since I'm
[3:03:16] endlessly fascinated by the concept of the third man, a
[3:03:23] United States congressman, vanishing without a trace sounds
[3:03:26] like something out of a Netflix series.
[3:03:28] Yet that's exactly what happened to Jeremiah Harrelson.
[3:03:32] Harrelson, a pioneering African American politician during the
[3:03:36] Reconstruction Era, survived the horrors of an antebellum
[3:03:40] plantation to enter Congress. Despite this, we know remarkably
[3:03:45] little about his last years, and he disappeared without a trace,
[3:03:50] having become a disgraced public figure.
[3:03:54] The only thing that's certain is that this man's journey from the
[3:03:57] very bottom to the halls of Congress to his mystery end make
[3:04:01] for one of American history's most intriguing unsolved
[3:04:04] stories. Born in Georgia in 1846, he was
[3:04:10] sold twice as a child and endured brutal whippings that
[3:04:14] left his back scarred for life. With no formal schooling
[3:04:18] available, Harrelson taught himself to read and write as a
[3:04:21] young man. This self education, combined
[3:04:25] with his natural gift for public speaking propelled him into
[3:04:29] politics. By 1870, just five years after
[3:04:33] his emancipation, Harrelson won election to the Alabama State
[3:04:37] Legislature as one of the first black lawmakers in the
[3:04:40] Reconstruction Era. Two years later, he advanced to
[3:04:44] the state Senate, where he pushed through laws focusing on
[3:04:48] equality between black and white citizens of the state.
[3:04:53] Harrelson quickly earned A reputation as a witty, eloquent
[3:04:57] speaker and an independent thinker.
[3:04:59] His talents didn't go unnoticed, and Frederick Douglass himself
[3:05:03] applauded Harrelson for combining keen humor with sound
[3:05:06] sense in his oratory. In 1874, at just 28 years old,
[3:05:13] Jeremiah Harrelson set his sights on the United States
[3:05:16] Congress. He ran for a House seat in one
[3:05:19] of Alabama's black majority congressional districts and one
[3:05:23] with roughly 55% of the vote. Taking office in 1875, he joined
[3:05:30] the very small group of African Americans then serving in
[3:05:34] Congress. Harrelson sat on the House
[3:05:37] Committee on Public Expenditures and introduced bills to support
[3:05:41] public education and aid his constituents back home.
[3:05:47] However, the same forces that had propelled him to office also
[3:05:51] made his tenure precarious. His service deeply angered many
[3:05:55] ex Confederates, and they worked incredibly hard, both through
[3:05:59] legal and illegal means, to ensure Harrelson wouldn't remain
[3:06:03] in Washington. In the 1876 election,
[3:06:08] Harrelson's voter base faced A rampant voter intimidation
[3:06:11] campaign, allowing an ex Confederate Democrat to take his
[3:06:15] seat essentially by force. Due to the suppression campaign
[3:06:20] against him and his supporters. In early 1877, Harrelson
[3:06:25] traveled to Washington to testify about voter intimidation
[3:06:28] tactics. Even after losing office,
[3:06:33] Harrelson didn't give up on public service, and he later
[3:06:36] served roles within the Washington bureaucracy.
[3:06:40] By the early 1890s, he had relocated to Arkansas to serve
[3:06:44] as a federal pension agent, helping veterans and widows file
[3:06:48] claims. Unfortunately for Harrelson,
[3:06:52] this chapter of his life ended in extreme disgrace.
[3:06:56] In late 1894, Harrelson was arrested on charges of fraud,
[3:07:01] accused of forging pension paperwork, and swiftly convicted
[3:07:04] in federal court. A judge sentenced him to two
[3:07:08] years in prison, the maximum penalty, which he served in the
[3:07:12] Albany County Penitentiary in New York.
[3:07:15] Newspapers in America and around the world picked up the story of
[3:07:19] the former congressman who would now be serving hard time for
[3:07:23] fraud. Harrelson was about 49 years old
[3:07:28] when he entered prison in 1895, and that's the last time he
[3:07:32] appears in known historical records.
[3:07:35] From that point forward, he vanished entirely from newspaper
[3:07:39] accounts and official documents. After serving his sentence,
[3:07:44] likely by 1897, Harrelson effectively stepped off the
[3:07:48] public stage. Once Harrelson dropped out of
[3:07:53] sight, his final fate became a subject of speculation.
[3:07:57] Lacking concrete evidence, biographers struggled to
[3:08:00] determine when or how he perished.
[3:08:03] The most infamous account of his demise emerged in the 1920s,
[3:08:07] when a congressional biographical directory reported
[3:08:10] that Harrelson had moved to Colorado after his release.
[3:08:14] In this biography, it was claimed that he had been slain
[3:08:17] by, quote, wild beasts while hunting around 1916.
[3:08:22] Even Harrelson's portrait in the Library of Congress archives was
[3:08:26] long captioned with that grisly claim.
[3:08:30] According to the tale, the former congressman met that
[3:08:33] brutal end in the Rocky Mountains at age 69 or 70.
[3:08:39] In the absence of any other information, this lurid story
[3:08:42] took hold and was repeated for decades as fact.
[3:08:48] Today, historians generally doubt the wild animal story.
[3:08:51] Modern research has found no evidence that Harrelson ever
[3:08:54] relocated to Colorado permanently, and there's no
[3:08:58] evidence that he ever even traveled there.
[3:09:01] There's no death certificate, no known grave, and no contemporary
[3:09:06] news report to verify the account.
[3:09:09] The wild beast's tale appears to have been based on nothing more
[3:09:12] than hearsay or mistaken identity.
[3:09:17] Some have suggested that he may have perished while he was in
[3:09:20] federal custody and that the authorities simply never
[3:09:23] reported it or even covered it up.
[3:09:26] In support of this theory, proponents have argued that the
[3:09:29] living standards in American prisons in the late 19th century
[3:09:33] were abysmal and diseases ran rampant.
[3:09:37] Further, despite being a disgraced politician, Harrelson
[3:09:41] still had access to politically powerful friends who may have
[3:09:45] made life very difficult for those who had custody of him
[3:09:48] when he perished. However, all that said, this
[3:09:52] theory is purely speculative and simply relies upon the
[3:09:56] circumstantial evidence that he was in prison and the prisons
[3:09:59] were unsanitary. Yet another theory suggests that
[3:10:04] Harrelson was released and simply left the country
[3:10:07] afterwards. It's been speculated that he may
[3:10:10] have quietly moved to Canada or Latin America, where he lived
[3:10:14] out his life under an assumed identity, escaping the disgrace
[3:10:18] of his criminal conviction. Supporters of this theory
[3:10:21] believe that given that he was released from prison in upstate
[3:10:24] New York, Canada would have been his most likely destination.
[3:10:31] Despite substantial efforts over the last decades, no new
[3:10:35] evidence has turned up, and the consensus among experts is that
[3:10:39] Jeremiah Harrelson's fate remains a mystery.
[3:10:42] He remains one of the few people to have served in Congress whose
[3:10:45] fates are entirely unknown to history.
[3:10:51] It was a chilly dawn on Friday, October 13th, 13 O 7, and the
[3:10:57] balance of power in France was about to shift drastically.
[3:11:01] King Philip the 4th's agents were fanning out across France,
[3:11:05] poised to arrest every Knight Templar they could find in a
[3:11:08] single stunning sweep. In Paris, officials crashed
[3:11:13] through the doors of the Templar headquarters, only to discover
[3:11:17] to their astonishment that the vaults were empty.
[3:11:20] The famed treasure of the order had vanished.
[3:11:23] And far to the West, at the coastal city of La Rochelle,
[3:11:28] legend claims the King's men arrived at the docks to a
[3:11:31] similarly baffling scene. If the legends are to be
[3:11:35] believed, the Templar's ships that once bobbed in their
[3:11:38] Atlantic harbor had slipped away, leaving nothing behind and
[3:11:43] officially never to be seen again.
[3:11:46] Thus was born the enduring mystery of the lost Templar
[3:11:49] fleet of La Rochelle. Was there really a secret Armada
[3:11:54] laden with Knights and treasure? Or, as some have suggested, was
[3:11:59] this supposed historical event more fable than fact?
[3:12:04] Long before becoming the stuff of legend, La Rochelle was a
[3:12:08] practical asset for the Knights Templar.
[3:12:11] This Atlantic seaport in western France had been a major Templar
[3:12:15] base since at least the 12th century.
[3:12:17] The order received privileges in La Rochelle and helped transform
[3:12:21] the Sleepy Harbor into a bustling hub of trade.
[3:12:25] By the late 1200s, La Rochelle was effectively the Templar's
[3:12:29] chief Atlantic port, a counterpart to their ports in
[3:12:33] the Mediterranean. It was here that the Knights
[3:12:36] stationed what they considered their main fleet of ships,
[3:12:41] though one should picture this fleet in context.
[3:12:44] Unlike a King's Navy of dozens of ships, the Templar's Atlantic
[3:12:48] Fleet was a relatively modest collection, mostly used for
[3:12:51] commerce and transport rather than direct conflict.
[3:12:58] Historical records show that Templar ships at La Rochelle
[3:13:01] were primarily engaged in trade, especially the lucrative wine
[3:13:05] trade. The order owned vineyards and
[3:13:08] produced wine in the region, and their ships ferried barrel upon
[3:13:11] barrel to markets in England and beyond.
[3:13:15] In other words, these weren't armadas bristling with Knights
[3:13:18] in shining armor, but likely ordinary medieval merchant
[3:13:22] vessels tasked with hauling goods.
[3:13:25] While the Templars did have ships more suited for conflict,
[3:13:29] these were located with their Mediterranean assets.
[3:13:34] The Templars, being astute businessmen in addition to
[3:13:37] warriors, often rented additional ships as needed for
[3:13:41] their transport activities. Owning a huge permanent fleet
[3:13:45] would have been impractical, so they kept only a few ships on
[3:13:48] hand and hired others for bigger jobs.
[3:13:52] By all accounts, the fleet at La Rochelle was limited and
[3:13:55] utilitarian, not a mighty secret Navy.
[3:13:59] This point becomes crucial when judging tales of a grand
[3:14:02] disappearance. The stage for the fleet's
[3:14:07] disappearance was set by the infamous events of October 13 O
[3:14:10] 7. King Philip the 4th of France,
[3:14:14] deeply in debt to the Knights Templar and eyeing their assets,
[3:14:18] had resolved to destroy the order.
[3:14:21] Under the cloak of secrecy, Philip issued sealed orders to
[3:14:24] his officials across France to be opened and executed on the
[3:14:28] same day, Friday the 13th. At dawn that day, the roundup
[3:14:33] began. Templar brothers were arrested
[3:14:36] on mass, their commanderies raided and their property seized
[3:14:41] in Paris. The Templar Grandmaster Jacques
[3:14:44] de Molay, was taken into custody.
[3:14:47] Yet, intriguingly, no vast treasures were found.
[3:14:52] Philip's men searched the Paris Temple treasury and found it
[3:14:56] virtually empty, fueling later speculation that someone had
[3:15:00] warned the Templars in time for them to move their wealth.
[3:15:07] It's within this drama that the legend of La Rochelle's fleet
[3:15:10] takes root. According to later accounts, the
[3:15:13] Templars managed a last minute escape at La Rochelle.
[3:15:17] The story goes that as Philip's net closed around them, carts
[3:15:20] laden with chests of gold slipped out of Paris in the
[3:15:23] dark, racing toward La Rochelle. There at the port, Templar ships
[3:15:28] awaited undercover of knight. Just hours or days before the
[3:15:33] King's officers arrived, a fleet of numerous ships allegedly set
[3:15:37] sail from La Rochelle, carrying fleeing Knights and a fortune
[3:15:41] and treasure. When the royal arrest team
[3:15:44] finally reached La Rochelle's harbor, the docks were empty of
[3:15:47] Templar vessels and the orders ships had vanished into the
[3:15:51] Atlantic mist, destination unknown.
[3:15:56] The contemporary evidence for this escape is both scant and
[3:15:59] ambiguous. In the trials of the Templars
[3:16:02] that followed, one piece of testimony stands out.
[3:16:06] A Templar named Jean de Chalons claimed he heard it said that
[3:16:10] the Paris preceptor Gerard de Villiers fled with fifty horses
[3:16:15] and 18 galleys. This hearsay account, a second
[3:16:19] hand rumor from a prisoner who, to put it mildly, wasn't treated
[3:16:24] well, is the only medieval reference to Templar ships
[3:16:28] escaping arrest. It's from here that the entire
[3:16:32] saga of a missing fleet seems to spring.
[3:16:35] Notably, Jean de Chalon didn't claim to witness the ship's
[3:16:38] departing. He merely recounted a rumor
[3:16:41] circulating in the chaos of 13 O 7.
[3:16:46] Assuming for a moment that some Templar ships did put to sea
[3:16:49] from La Rochelle ahead of the arrests, where could they have
[3:16:53] gone? Here, the line between history
[3:16:56] and legend blurs even further, and theories are all over the
[3:16:59] place. Some of them are theoretically
[3:17:02] plausible, while others are outright fantastical and tend to
[3:17:07] involve a certain island that The History Channel has made a
[3:17:09] meal out of for the last decade. But I'll get to all the ideas
[3:17:13] shortly. First, let's start with perhaps
[3:17:16] the most common idea, that the fugitive Templars headed north
[3:17:20] to safety. Scotland is frequently mentioned
[3:17:25] as a destination, since in 13 O 7, Scotland was ruled by Robert
[3:17:29] the Bruce, who was outside King Philip's reach.
[3:17:33] Notably, he was also formerly outside of the reach of the
[3:17:36] papacy as well. King Robert the Bruce had been
[3:17:40] excommunicated, and unlike many of the excommunications of the
[3:17:45] time, this wasn't for some arcane political reason.
[3:17:49] If the accounts are to be believed, he lured a Baron to
[3:17:53] the church, where the Baron presumed he would be safe, and
[3:17:56] that's when Robert finished him off.
[3:18:01] Later legend claims that Templars fought alongside the
[3:18:03] Scots at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 and that the
[3:18:07] treasure was used to fund Robert the Bruce's campaigns.
[3:18:11] This romantic notion of Templars in Scotland has inspired many a
[3:18:15] book and film, though hard evidence is lacking.
[3:18:19] It's conceivable a handful of templars found asylum there, but
[3:18:23] the idea of a large Templar fleet unloading tons of gold on
[3:18:27] Scottish shores remains unproven folklore.
[3:18:31] That's not to say that it's definitely not true, but that we
[3:18:34] simply don't have the evidence. Another theory points to the
[3:18:40] Iberian Peninsula. Several Templar ships might have
[3:18:44] sailed to Castile, Portugal, or Aragon, where the persecution
[3:18:48] was less severe and sympathetic rulers could offer protection.
[3:18:52] In Portugal, for example, King Dennis later absorbed the
[3:18:55] Templars into a new order, the Order of Christ, allowing the
[3:19:00] Knights to continue quietly. Some speculate that any escaping
[3:19:04] Templar vessels could have headed to Portuguese ports,
[3:19:08] contributing their manpower and assets to the rebranded Templar
[3:19:12] successors there. This route has a ring of real
[3:19:16] possibility. Historically, many Portuguese
[3:19:20] Templars indeed survived by becoming Knights of Christ, and
[3:19:24] Portugal had a strong naval tradition.
[3:19:27] However, once again, there's no record of a treasure laden
[3:19:30] convoy arriving in Lisbon or elsewhere, so it remains
[3:19:34] conjecture. That said, of course, secret
[3:19:38] convoys are generally kept secret and not recorded in any
[3:19:42] official records. The legend doesn't stop at
[3:19:47] Europe. In its most colorful form, the
[3:19:49] Templar fleet sails across the Atlantic Ocean, embarking on a
[3:19:53] transoceanic odyssey decades before Columbus.
[3:19:58] This fringe theory suggests the Knights took their hidden
[3:20:01] treasure to the New World. There, on Oak Island in Nova
[3:20:05] Scotia or some other secret location, they supposedly buried
[3:20:09] the Templar treasure for safekeeping.
[3:20:12] If this sounds like the plot of an adventure novel or a
[3:20:15] Hollywood movie, that's because it essentially is.
[3:20:20] The 2004 film National Treasure, starring Nicolas Cage, even
[3:20:25] includes a significant nod to the idea of Templar treasure
[3:20:28] hidden in the New World. Finally, some down to Earth
[3:20:34] researchers have proposed a far less exotic fate.
[3:20:38] Perhaps the Templar ships didn't make it far at all.
[3:20:42] The English Channel in the area surrounding it can be perilous
[3:20:45] waters. A few heavily laden ships
[3:20:48] fleeing in haste might have been wrecked in a storm, their secret
[3:20:51] cargo lost to the depths. It's an unromantic end, but not
[3:20:56] an implausible one. Medieval ships were at the mercy
[3:20:59] of weather, and a sudden Gale could have sent the orders
[3:21:02] escapees to a watery grave unbeknownst to anyone on shore.
[3:21:08] Again, though, there's no hard evidence to say this occurred,
[3:21:11] only conjecture based upon rapid flight in overloaded boats.
[3:21:17] When we strip away the legend and scrutinize the facts, what
[3:21:21] picture emerges of the Templar fleet at La Rochelle and its
[3:21:24] supposed disappearance? 1st, it's clear that the
[3:21:28] Templars did use La Rochelle as a maritime base, but their naval
[3:21:32] resources were limited. The order at the time of its
[3:21:36] suppression probably had no more than a handful of galleys in
[3:21:40] total, and those were built for the Mediterranean, not for
[3:21:45] Atlantic exploration. The ships operating out of La
[3:21:49] Rochelle were likely coastal traders, with their more
[3:21:52] significant naval assets in the Mediterranean itself.
[3:21:58] They were small and suitable for ferrying goods through
[3:22:01] relatively calm waters. Crucially, such ships were I'll
[3:22:05] suited to long ocean voyages. They couldn't carry enough
[3:22:08] provisions or withstand the ferocious winds and waves of the
[3:22:11] open Atlantic. This makes the idea of a Templar
[3:22:15] fleet immediately sailing to Scotland, across the rough Irish
[3:22:19] Sea, or especially to North America extremely doubtful from
[3:22:23] a naval standpoint. Secondly, consider the
[3:22:28] documentation. King Philip's confiscators kept
[3:22:31] detailed records of the property seized from the Templars,
[3:22:34] including all records of the inventories kept by the Templars
[3:22:38] themselves. Nowhere in the surviving records
[3:22:41] is there an inventory of a significant fleet of Templar
[3:22:44] ships at La Rochelle. That said, they could have been
[3:22:48] rented ships or ships that were kept off the record as things
[3:22:52] heated up in France. The absence of evidence is not
[3:22:56] evidence of absence, as the saying goes, but it does raise
[3:23:00] eyebrows. Notably, if a large fleet had
[3:23:05] been present and then gone missing overnight, one would
[3:23:08] expect it to be noted in correspondence at the time.
[3:23:12] Instead, the historical silence on this matter suggests that if
[3:23:16] any Templar ships departed, it was not a large scale
[3:23:19] evacuation, but perhaps one or two ships quietly slipping away.
[3:23:25] It might even be that no ships were in port at that moment, and
[3:23:28] the Templars could have already dispatched them on routine runs.
[3:23:33] Thus they could have unintentionally foiled Phillips
[3:23:35] plans simply because there were no vessels docked to seas.
[3:23:41] In short, the dramatic disappearance may have been
[3:23:43] nothing more than the normal movement of a very small number
[3:23:46] of vessels. Under this theory, the Templars
[3:23:50] would have simply never returned their ships to their French
[3:23:52] base, and the ships may have found their way into the service
[3:23:56] of merchants. Finally, we have the perspective
[3:24:01] of modern scholarship on the fate of the Templars wealth and
[3:24:03] personnel. No credible historical source
[3:24:07] from the 14th century describes A Templar convoy escaping France
[3:24:11] with vast riches. The first mentions of the lost
[3:24:14] fleet and treasure surface much later, as part of Templar myths
[3:24:19] and theories that blossomed over the centuries in academic
[3:24:24] circles. The consensus is that while some
[3:24:26] Templars may have evaded capture and some assets were spirited
[3:24:30] away, there was no grand, coordinated seaborne evacuation.
[3:24:36] The consensus is that the mystery of the missing fleet is,
[3:24:39] in effect, a later invention, a legend that endures because it's
[3:24:44] an undeniably compelling tale. In the end, the tale of the lost
[3:24:52] Templar fleet at La Rochelle reminds us how history and myth
[3:24:55] can intertwine. It's easy to see why this story
[3:24:59] refuses to go away. It's equal parts tragedy and
[3:25:03] adventure, with a tantalizing question mark that invites us to
[3:25:07] fill in the blanks. We may never know exactly what
[3:25:11] happened to any Templar ships that left La Rochelle in 13 O 7,
[3:25:15] but we also can't say for certain that there were even any
[3:25:18] that left in an escape. Our one source on the matter is
[3:25:22] inherently unreliable, as we can only imagine what horrors the
[3:25:26] Templar who confessed to hearing about the LA Rochelle transport
[3:25:30] had to endure. It's also important to remember,
[3:25:33] too, that many of these captured Templars would basically confess
[3:25:37] to anything the Inquisitors wanted to hear.
[3:25:40] And since the Inquisitors wanted to hear proof of the misdeeds of
[3:25:43] the Order, a story of a vast treasury being moved out of the
[3:25:47] country, potentially to a rival nation, may have fit that bill.

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