1. The Chilling Case of the Chase Vault
The chilling case of the Chase Vault and its restless inhabitants is
one that would stump even the most stubborn cynic. The bodies of the Chase
family were placed in the vault over seven years. However, every time the
vault was re-opened there were signs of disturbance - lead coffins
appeared to have been flung across the room and moans echoed from the
chamber at night. Theories of flooding, magnetic currents, grave robbers,
zombies and earthquakes have all been suggested, but this ghoulishly grim
story is yet to be solved.
2. The Lady Vanishes: Agatha Christie’s Disappearance
In 1926 Agatha Christie, the world’s favourite crime writer, became
involved in a real life whodunnit to puzzle even Poirot. Christie’s car
was found buried in the bushes, headlights blazing, with a suitcase in the
back and no sign of the author. After ten days and a national hunt Agatha
was found reading the coverage of her own disappearance in a hotel in
Yorkshire. Needless to say the police were not impressed. Claiming amnesia
brought on by the stress of being jilted by her husband Archie, she
returned to face her critics. But was this the whole story?
3. D.B.Cooper, Plane Hijacker
In 1971 a man going by the name of D.B Cooper hijacked a domestic
American flight. Demanding $200,000 in twenty-dollar bills and four
parachutes, the enigmatic passenger jumped out of the plane and literally
vanished into thin air. Following an obsessive eight-year hunt by the FBI,
no body, parachute or money were ever recovered. Had the hijacker
concocted the perfect crime with this mile-high mystery?
4. The Loch Ness Monster
Nowadays Nessie is a national institution, but sightings of the Scots
sea monster have been rolling in for years. We even have photographic
‘evidence’! Could it be more than coincidence that the bulk of the
sightings started in 1933 the same year Bertram Mills’ circus came to
town, featuring swimming elephants? However, others tend to stick to the
monster idea, what with Loch Ness earning £50 million a year for Scottish
tourism!
5. The Mystery of the Mary Celeste
A mystery to rival the fishiest of fisherman’s tales, the Mary
Celeste was found mysteriously adrift, desolate and abandoned, with nobody
left alive on board except a half-finished meal. Was it the work of sea
monsters, alien abductions, pirate invasions, shark attacks or freak
waves?
6. Not in the Mood: Glenn Miller’s Disappearance
The American bandleader vanished without trace en route to entertain
the Allied troops in a newly liberated Paris in 1944. Police announced
that Miller had sung his last Sun Valley Serenade, but no body was ever
found. Some say he was accidentally shot down by the American army, some
that he was helping David Niven rescue Marlene Dietrich from the Nazis and
died in a disreputable brothel bar fight; maybe he’s even still alive…
7. The Death of Marilyn Monroe
They say gentlemen prefer blondes but Marilyn Monroe’s dangerous
liaisons with Presidents, gangsters, playwrights and baseball players
suggested a case of murder most horrid. Why was it that the police were
informed of the sex symbol’s ‘suicide’ at 4.25am when Twentieth
Century Fox had been called four hours earlier? Why was Marilyn placed in
a position unusual for suicide? Why was it that drugs were found in her
blood, but not stomach, with no signs of injection? Was Marilyn
‘accidentally’ killed by her doctor, or could JFK, the CIA or even the
mafia tell us another story?
8. The Dreadful Demise of Edgar Allen Poe
The high priest of American horror, Edgar Allen Poe’s unexplained
death is just as dark and cryptic as his stories. After saying that he was
going to visit his ex-mother-in-law, Poe cryptically asked for a letter
sent to him under the name E.S.T Grey at the Philadelphia post office. He
was found five days later at a tavern in Baltimore, dishevelled,
disorientated and wearing someone else’s clothes. He died later that
day. Was it a case of one too many or the work of the shadowy figures seen
following him on a train? Was another woman involved or could the blame
lie closer to home?
9. Who Was Kaspar Hauser?
In 1828 a young man was found wandering the streets of Nuremburg able
to say nothing more than ‘I want to be a soldier like my father’.
Kaspar Hauser had two letters in his pocket, one bearing his name, and the
other entrusting him to the army and detailing that if he was not
accepted, he was to be hanged. After being probed for information it was
found that he was 16, but had the mental age and vocabulary of a six
year-old, although he bore a striking resemblance to the Grand Duke of
Baden…
10. From Russia with Love: What Happened to the Real Life James
Bond?
Lionel ‘Buster’ Crabb was employed by the MI5 as a spy during the
height of the Suez Canal crisis. Ordered on a mission to look for
anti-sonar devices on a Russian ship, Crabb was never seen again.
Conspiracies range from murder by the MI5, suspicion of treachery, and
abduction and torture by the Russians. Why was it then that a washed up,
headless body of a frogman was confirmed as Crabb by the MI5, when there
was no way they could be sure of its identity? Did the authorities have
their own View to a Kill?
Albert Jack is a writer and researcher. His first book Red Herrings and
White Elephants, which explored the origins of well known phrases in the
English language, sold more than 250,000 copies. His new book, Albert
Jack's Ten Minute Mysteries, is published by Penguin.