Liu Yongbiao He feels “relieved” to be arrested now, in fact, to “finally be free from the mental torment” of knowing the day might come. He doesn’t dispute, after all, that he killed four people years ago, for nothing more than the worth of their measly possessions. He’s always known those murders might come home […]
Perhaps especially in death penalty cases, a jury’s subjective read on a person’s face was writ large. The correlation between a face judged untrustworthy and imposition of the death penalty was unmistakable, according to the scientists. Mind you, many of those “untrustworthy” faces belonged to defendants later proved entirely innocent by forensic science. We’ve never […]
LaVena Johnson was a soldier who had just completed basic training, and had began settling into duty in Iraq. The army says she shot herself with her own rifle the night of July 19, 2005. She was known to be a bright and spirited girl, so there was nothing to suggest that she would turn […]
Their sworn witness offered stunning testimony–that he’d worked on computer programs to rig U.S. elections, that the programs could deliver 51% of the vote to any candidate you wanted, and that local election officials would never know it happened. And thus they asked him, so “how could it be detected?” “You would have to view […]
One of the blessings, or curses, of mystery studies is that every intriguing case suggests dozens of subtle questions, and can send you down the path of some new, complex studies. Suicide, a depressing subject, stands as a field of its own–organizations like the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the American Association of Suicidology attempt […]
The year was 1967. Ferment and experimentation were rife, and nowhere more than the world of academia. At Cornell, a two-story red brick building had been converted to a dorm and primarily housed young members of a very experimental class: young students, some only 17, who would earn a Ph.D. in only six years on […]
But here’s the mystery angle: Why? Why, when anyone with enough sense to have a responsible job knows that purchases leave an audit trail? Why would anyone throw away their career on some temporary luxuries, that you’ll surely have to pay back anyway? How can you enjoy soaking in a spa, when: a) your comforts […]
If you’re professionally suspicious, as espionage professionals are paid to be, you’ve got to be wary of these people who seem to just love your country, your culture, who always want to snuggle up closer to it. Just what’s their agenda, you always ask yourself. If you’re a cynic. If you’re a professional spy yourself, […]
The highest paid spy in American history managed to pass polygraphs and keep under the radar, even though the CIA suspected an in-house mole. He lied, repeatedly, with an absolutely icy calm. Aldrich “Rick” Ames became wealthy selling secrets to the Soviet Union from 1985 to his arrest on February 21, 1994. He received $2.5 […]
The Following is the core of a Wikipedia entry for “The Death of Marilyn Monroe.” On the Wikipedia site, scrolling down, are several other sections including “Conspiracy Theories.” Don’t wade through all this, unless you really want to. Much is misleading anyway. We place all this text here because, below it, we’re going to discuss […]
Often, interviews with and debates between Mystery Masters will enliven our study of mystery. But… Read More We need to know – Featured this week… The case of Michelle O’Connell, from our Crime and… Read More
Rene Jeannel Very early in the 20th century a French naturalist named Rene Jeannel discovered prehistoric art in caves in southern France, near the Spanish border, that redefined the archaeological orthodoxy about early man and artistic expression. Scientists and researchers, never ready to accept conventional wisdom when someone can take ideas in new directions, innovate […]
It’s like the old jokes that started as soon as the commercials aired– “It’s a candy mint, no, it’s a breath mint, no, no, it’s two, two, two mints in one.” Comedy routines would hawk products that were both “a floor wax, and a desert topping.” So we revisit the story of Mark Whitacre: it’s […]
We’ll never know what happened, exactly, on Valentine’s Day of 2013 when the South African model Reeva Steenkamp was shot, through a closed bathroom door, by her lover, Oscar Pistorius. We’ll never know, but it didn’t seem very Valentine’s-like to authorities, who were doubtful about his version: he thought an intruder took refuge behind the […]
