Top 10 Strangest Unsolved Mysteries of All Time

Mysteries Ghost Ship: The Mary Celeste

On December 4, 1872, something quite eerie unfolded in the vast Atlantic Ocean. It was the discovery of a Mysteries ship, the British-American vessel known as “the Mary Celeste,” completely devoid of people and drifting aimlessly. Strangely, this ship was found to be in perfect sailing condition, with its cargo untouched, except for one conspicuous absence—a lifeboat. It seemed as though the crew had left the ship in an oddly organized manner. But why? The answer remains an enduring enigma, as no communication was ever received from anyone aboard.

In November 1872, the Mary Celeste embarked on her journey from New York, bound for Genoa, Italy. Captain Benjamin Briggs helmed the ship, accompanied by seven crew members, including his wife and their 2-year-old daughter. The ship was well-provisioned, with enough supplies to last six months, even boasting some luxuries like a sewing machine and an upright piano. Experts concur that for a seaworthy ship to be abandoned, a truly extraordinary and distressing event must have transpired. Yet, the final entry in the ship’s daily log recorded nothing unusual, and the ship’s interior appeared to be in impeccable order.

Over the years, numerous theories have emerged, ranging from mutiny and pirate attacks to bizarre notions like giant octopus or sea monster assaults. In recent times, some scientists have speculated that alcohol fumes onboard may have triggered an explosion. Remarkably, due to a peculiar scientific anomaly, this explosion might not have left the typical signs of fire, but it could have been terrifying enough for Captain Briggs to order the evacuation of everyone aboard. The mystery of the Mary Celeste endures, joining the ranks of perplexing ghost ship enigmas that continue to baffle us.

Also Read: “Unbelievable Discoveries: 10 Fascinating Archaeological Finds”

Mystery of Area 51

The existence of Area 51, a US military installation in southern Nevada, remained unknown until 2013, when the CIA was compelled to reply to a Freedom of Information Act request from 2005. According to historical evidence, Area 51 promotes the development and testing of innovative weapons and aircraft. Public satellite images, such as those found on Google Maps, lack context. Even people with security clearance to visit Area 51 travel there from Las Vegas in the unmarked aircraft of “Janet,” which covers its windows as it descends.

The tight secrecy surrounding Area 51 has given rise to theories that the government keeps crashed UFOs there and utilizes it for testing on extraterrestrial life. Research on teleportation, time travel, encounters with extraterrestrials, the creation of a method for weather control, and operations connected to a mysterious one-world government are some other hypotheses regarding Area 51’s purposes.

People adore a good conspiracy theory, but where these notions originate is as much of a mystery as Area 51 itself. Conspiracy theorists once thought the 1969 moon landing had been staged. Giveaway: It wasn’t. See the Area 51 secrets the government won’t tell you for much more enigmatic information.

The Flannan Isles Lighthouse disappearances

Off Scotland’s west coast, three Flannan Isles Lighthouse keepers mysteriously vanished in 1900 under peculiar circumstances. Thomas Marshall, James Ducat, and Donald MacArthur made up the three-person crew that operated the lighthouse, with a fourth person rotating in from the beach. When the relieving keeper arrived on Boxing Day (December 26) in 1900, none of the lighthouse keepers were there. The only indication that something was wrong was a chair that was upside down close to the kitchen table.

There were never any bodies discovered, which sparked unending rumors. Theories include everything from drownings to foreign espionage kidnapping people, ghost ships, and enormous sea monsters. We might never know what took place at the Flannan Isles Lighthouse in December 1900.

Mystery of Big Grey Man

Legend has it that The Big Grey Man, or Am Fear Liath Mr. in Scots, is an inhuman entity that haunts Ben Macdui, Scotland’s second-highest mountain. Unlike the Yeti of the Himalayas and Big Foot (also known as Sasquatch) of the American Pacific Northwest, very few eyewitnesses have claimed sighting the Big Grey Man. The Big Grey Man is so terrifying because of the physical distinctions between him and a bear, which prevent sightings of him from being confused for bear sightings.

The Big Grey Man is described by many who have seen it as being over ten feet tall, human-like, with short hair, broad shoulders, and long arms. Almost all sighting reports mention the sound of gravel crunching under footfalls. Although psychologists have suggested that those who claim to have seen and heard the Big Grey Man were in a state of physical and mental anguish brought on by exhaustion and/or isolation, scientists have not been able to explain the sightings and the accompanying sounds.

The Big Grey Man is still a mystery for the time being, but if you visit Scotland, let us know if you spot him.

The lost colony of Roanoke

On Roanoke Island, one of a group of barrier islands now referred to as the Outer Banks of North Carolina, John White helped a group of Britons establish an English colony in 1587. White left the colony to get more supplies, but when he came back three years later, he discovered it had been systematically abandoned, with all of the homes and defenses carefully taken apart.

White had told the colonists to carve a cross into a nearby tree in case they were seized by force before he left the colony, but the cross wasn’t there. The only hint was a word carved into a post that read “Croatoan,” the name of a tribal tribe that had aligned themselves with the English. White interpreted this to suggest that the colonists had relocated to Hatteras, which is today known as Croatoan Island.

There were claims made after investigations that the colonists had been massacred by the Powhatan tribe. Archaeological evidence, however, contradicts this, and a recent re-examination of the main sources indicates that any slaughter that occurred was likely not of this specific group of colonists but rather of a group that had come previously. Though more enduring ideas suggest that the colonists interacted with the Croatoans or other local tribes, no colony ancestor has been positively identified using DNA evidence to far. These mysteries of the water remain a mystery to scientists.

The Mysteries disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370

On March 8, 2014, a Boeing 777 carrying 239 passengers and crew members appeared to have vanished into thin air while traveling from Malaysia to China. This incident is the latest of this group of unanswered mysteries. Only 20 pieces of airplane debris have been found despite the largest international search operation in aviation history. Apart from stating that the plane vanished over the Indian Ocean, the Malaysian Prime Minister has refrained from responding.

The lack of resolution has given rise to numerous ideas, many of which are regarded as “conspiracy theories,” which, in the words of Harvard professor Cass Sunstein, are a natural byproduct of “horrific and disastrous situations, because such events make people angry, fearful, and looking for a target.”

Numerous scenarios have been proposed, such as hijacking, American capture, crew suicide (the pilot reportedly had marital issues), fire on board, vertical entry into the water, meteor strike, and even alien abduction.

Even after three years have passed and $160 million has been spent searching thousands of square miles of ocean, the fate of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 and the 239 persons on board is still unknown. After then, educate yourself on these puzzling forensic cases.

Also Read: Top 6 Scariest Exoplanets in the Universe: Worlds of Cosmic Horror

The Strange Disappearance of D.B. Cooper

Daniel Cooper, a guy, purchased a $20 one-way ticket on Northwest Airlines Flight 305 from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington on Wednesday, Nov. 24, 1971. A business suit, overcoat, brown shoes, a white shirt, and a black tie were characterized as Cooper’s attire. Cooper was also described as being in his mid-40s. He also carried a brown paper bag and a briefcase.

He requested a bourbon and soda from a flight attendant before takeoff. Cooper gave the flight attendant a message after the aircraft took off. She initially simply tucked the note in her pocket without giving it much thought, but Cooper soon advised her, “Miss, you better look at that note. I’ve got a bomb. Cooper then requested her to sit next to him and informed her that the bomb was in his briefcase. When he opened the briefcase, he found a collection of red sticks encircled by wires.

Cooper instructed the flight attendant to take notes of everything he said before giving them to the captain. “I want $200,000 by 5 p.m. in cash, only in $20 bills, put in a knapsack,” the note stated. Both two front and two back parachutes are on my want list. I want a fuel truck ready to refuel when we land. Otherwise, I won’t be able to accomplish my work.

FBI operatives gathered the ransom money from multiple banks in the Seattle region, while Seattle police bought the parachutes from a nearby skydiving school.

Cooper permitted all of the passengers and several of the crew to leave the aircraft after claiming that his demands had been met. Cooper instructed the surviving crew to refuel the aircraft and steer it toward Mexico City while maintaining an altitude below 10,000 feet. Cooper wore a set of black wrap-around sunglasses during the flight, and those sunglasses would appear in the official drawing and become well-known to anyone looking into the case. Cooper leaped out of the back door of the aircraft with two of the parachutes and the cash just after 8 o’clock, somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Nevada. He vanished without a trace.

Despite a thorough manhunt and more than 45 years of looking, no answers regarding the man’s identity or what happened to him after he jumped have been found. One of the biggest cold cases in FBI and US history, so the saying goes.

Jack the Ripper 

A serial killer who would become known as Jack the Ripper lived in the Whitechapel District in London’s East End in 1888 during a period of foggy, dark streets. Even though the Whitechapel District had a reputation for violence and crime, Jack the Ripper’s run of killings would terrify the populace like nothing else had. He was labeled as being insane with no discernible goal. Despite the fact that his most well-known killings, the “Canonical Five,” only included five women, numerous theories contend that he may have killed as many as eleven.

All of the victims of the Canonical Five were prostitutes, which was a common livelihood for women in the Whitechapel District. Between August 7 and September 10, 1888, five murders occurred all within a mile of one another. Investigations into several further homicides that took place around that time have implicated the murderer known as “Leather Apron” (another moniker for the killer).

The murderer allegedly wrote many messages to the London Metropolitan Police Service (often referred to as Scotland Yard), mocking officers and speculating about future killings. A letter that was released at the time of the attacks and is now infamously known as the “From Hell” letter is where the name “Jack the Ripper” came from.

Numerous investigations have claimed to have conclusive proof of the horrific killer’s identity, but their real name and motivation remain a mystery.

The Body on Somerton Beach

A body was discovered on Somerton Beach near Adelaide, Australia, in December 1948. The body was that of a man who was immaculately attired in a suit and polished shoes, with his head leaning against a wall. Authorities believed poisoning or heart failure to be the cause of death, however the examination revealed no evidence of poisoning.

The man had no wallet, no form of identification, and all of his clothing’s tags had been removed. His fingerprints were likewise unidentified when they were collected by the authorities. Even after publishing a photo of the body in the press, no one was able to identify the individual. Detectives discovered a secret pocket that was sewed onto the inner of his pants four months after the body was discovered. A scrolled page from the Rubaiyat, a rare book, was kept within the pocket.

The writing on the piece of paper read, “Tamam Shud” which translates to “it has ended.” Authorities choose to bury the Somerton Man in the absence of identification after searching for the precise book for months. Nevertheless, to preserve him, a cast of the bust was obtained, and he was embalmed.

A man entered the police station eight months later. He asserted that he discovered a copy of the Rubaiyat in the trunk of his car, which was parked close to Somerton Beach, shortly after the body was discovered. Before reading about the search in a newspaper article, he gave it little thought. It turned out that the torn portion of the book’s final page matched the piece of paper discovered in the Somerton Man’s pants. A phone number and an odd code were found inside the book.

The phone number helped the cops locate Jessica Thompson, a local resident. She was very evasive in her interview and even claimed she thought she might pass out when she saw the bust of the Somerton Man, but she denied knowing him. She did, however, claim that she sold the book to Alfred Boxall. Unfortunately, Alfred Boxall, who had been sold a copy of the Rubaiyat by Jessica, was still very much alive at the time. The code that was discovered proved to be even less helpful and has still not been deciphered as of this writing.

The individual on Somerton Beach has not been identified as of yet.

The Mystery of the Circleville Letters

Residents of Circleville, Ohio, started getting threatening mail in 1976, and it has followed them ever since. Columbus wrote the letters, but they lacked a return address. They claimed that the principal of the school, Mary Gillespie, and they had an adulterous relationship. One of the letters, which threatened to kill Ron, Mary’s husband, if he didn’t put an end to the affair, was specifically addressed to him. Ron passed away in a strange one-car collision in 1977 that included gunfire. When the Sheriff declared the death to be an accident, additional Circleville residents started getting letters accusing the Sheriff of concealing the alleged “accident.”

Paul Freshour, the husband of Ron’s sister, was found guilty of composing the letters after Mary was targeted for murder with a booby-trapped gun. The Circleville Letters persisted throughout the 1970s and the early 1980s even after he was imprisoned. Even while incarcerated, Freshour got one.

Freshour was released in 1994, and up until his passing in 2012, he maintained his innocence. The Circleville Letter Writer’s real identity is still a mystery.