Unsolved Mysteries with More Questions than Answers

I have a fascination with unsolved mysteries. The Sodder Children disappeared one night during a house fire—the identity of The Somerton Man and where the lighthouse keepers went from Flannan Isle are some of my favourites.

Of course, this interest in unsolved cases started with the ultimate mystery of Jack the Ripper. This story has intrigued me since I was ten after a visit to London Dungeons.

These cases are unique because many may never be solved, and we may never know the answers, but we can have hours of fun putting our theories forward.

I doubt any of us will know the identity of Jack the Ripper as it happened at a time when science and collecting evidence were irrelevant. It is also clear that large portions of the investigation showed massive police incompetence. Whether the evidence was hidden deliberately or not is another matter of debate.

Not all remain unsolved; as technology advances, we may be given more answers to our mysteries. The Somerton Man has been identified, and so has that of the Boy in the Box.

Here are five more cases to keep you asking questions and working out your theories. Some of them you may be familiar with, others you may have a vague idea of; all will keep you asking what happened.

The Mary Celeste

The famous saying 'It is like the Mary Celeste in here' has long been used to describe a quiet place. Like many of the sayings lodged in our vocabulary, many may not know where it came from.

On 4 December 1872, a British-American ship called The Mary Celeste was found empty floating in the Atlantic. On examination, the ship was found to be seaworthy with its cargo intact.

The only thing missing was a lifeboat. All signs pointed to this being boarded in an orderly fashion. The bigger mystery was why the crew and family had abandoned the ship.

No one from the ship was ever heard from again.

The ship set sail in November from New York, bound for Italy. Captain Benjamin Briggs and his family, wife, and two-year-old daughter were on board. There were also seven other crew members.

The ship had enough provisions for six months and included several luxury items, such as a sewing machine and an upright piano. The last entry in the ship's daily log revealed nothing unusual.

So what had made these people flee the ship for a lifeboat? Theories have been plenty over the years. They have included a mutiny, pirate attack and even an assault by a giant octopus or sea monster.

The evidence, though, rules several of these out. Why would pirates leave the cargo intact? Wouldn't a sea monster have left a mark on the ship?

The most recent theory that has been put forward is that the fumes from the alcohol caused an explosion that, due to a scientific anomaly, left no burning; this was, however, enough for Briggs to order everyone into a lifeboat.

Voynich Manuscript

As a writer, I am drawn to this mystery. The Voynich Manuscript is a 250-page book written in an unknown language using an unknown writing system. The book is named after a Polish book dealer who bought it in 1912.

Carbon dating has identified it as a 1400s manuscript. It contains illustrations of plants that do not resemble any known species. It is thought it could be a medical text, but no one is sure.

The first confirmed owner of the manuscript was Georg Baresch, an alchemist in Prague. He found the book taking up space in his library and tried to investigate the origins unsuccessfully.

The manuscript then changed hands over the centuries until Voynich finally purchased it. He believes it was authored by Albertus Magnus (an alchemist) or Roger Bacon (a scientist.)

Many theories have been put forward, one that Voynich fabricated the manuscript and its history. However, this would not answer why the paper was dated from the 1400s. The manuscript remains an inexplicable mystery.

Circleville Letter Writer

In 1976, the residents of Circleville, Ohio, started receiving threatening mail. The letters were all from Columbus and had no return address.

The letters contained several allegations, including that the school bus driver, Mary Gillespie and the school superintendent were having an affair.

The letters were addressed to several people, including Mary's husband, Ron. The letter stated that Ron would be killed if he did not stop the relationship. To add to the legend, Ron was killed in a suspicious one-car crash in 1977. The car contained gunshot holes.

When the Sheriff ruled the death an accident, letters were sent to several residents accusing the Sheriff of a cover-up.

The police needed to solve the mystery quickly and arrested Ron's brother-in-law, Paul Freshour, for writing the letters. He has maintained his innocence. Once in jail, the letters continued for ten years. Paul even received one in prison.

In 1994, he was released and claimed his innocence until he died in 2012. The author of the letters remains anonymous to this day.

Escape From Alcatraz

Alcatraz was originally a military base. It sits on a 22-acre island called 'The Rock,' just outside San Francisco—the water surrounding the island has strong currents and is cold all year round.

It had the impressive title of being inescapable until several inmates proved that presumption wrong by escaping, in a plot you would expect to see on Prison Break.

Allen West planned to escape and approached Frank Morris with a plan in early 1960. West knew of a ventilator cover in Cell Block B, which had not been sealed with concrete as was customary.

Through this vent, the prisoners could access the roof of the prison from inside. West, working with the maintenance crew, had a clear idea of the structure and weaknesses of the building.

By September 1961, the Anglin Brothers, John and Clarence, had joined the gang. All requested cell moves to be closer to each other in Cell Block B; all of these moves were approved. They were now living under the vent.

Phase one involved giving the group a head start before they were reported missing. They made and painted dummy heads from a mixture of plaster, soap and concrete. Placing real hair on the heads, they had the decoy they needed.

They laid the heads in the beds so that the guards were not aware of the escape until they physically tried to wake the men up at 7 am.

Phase two was to get out of their cells. They spend months drilling small closed holes with handmade tools to do this. These holes made removing the entire wall section around the air vent possible.

Once this was removed, they had access to the utility corridors behind their cells, which were rarely guarded. From there, they climb pipes to the ceiling, reaching an air vent and escaping.

They climbed from the roof down to the north shore of the island. They used handmade life preserves to make a raft and sail to freedom.

In a twist of fate, though, West never made it out of prison; unable to take down his section of the wall and make it to the first landing, he had to watch his friends escape. The raft and the three men were never seen again.

Walter Collins

Many who have seen the Changeling starring Angelina Jolie will know this story. It is one of the most bizarre and tragic crime stories of the 1920s.

Single mum Christine Collins reported her nine-year-old son Walter missing in March 1928. He had gone missing from their home in Los Angeles.

Five months later, the police returned Walter to her, but the child was not her son. The more Christine denied it was her son, the more the police told her he was. They accused her of being a terrible mother and committed her to a mental hospital.

The real Walter Collins was never found. Some have suggested he was a victim of child murderer Gordon Stewart Northcott. What is hard to explain, though, is why the police were so invested in covering the murder up.

Modern Mysteries

Although many of these mysteries happened years ago, some modern mysteries remain unsolved despite the technology and equipment at our disposal.

The most recent was that of Malaysia Flight 370, which went missing whilst flying from Malaysia to China. The Boeing 777 was carrying a total of 239 passengers and crew. Nothing has ever been found to state what happened to the flight.

Despite the most extensive search in aviation history, only twenty pieces of aircraft debris have been found, and these have not conclusively provided any ideas as to what happened to the plane.

Some of the theories put forward are that the plane was hijacked or captured by the US for reasons that have not been made clear. Other theories include a mass crew suicide and a fire that resulted in the aircraft entering the water vertically, reducing debris.

Some have even gone as far as to suggest aliens abducted the aircraft.

Notwithstanding the passage of three years and the expenditure of $160 million scouring thousands of square miles of ocean, the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 and the 239 people aboard remains a mystery that may never be solved.