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 […]

Scientists believe they may have made a major breakthrough in efforts to solve a decades-long mystery of a burned body found in Norway 1970. New forensic analysis on the teeth of the unidentified “Isdal woman” found chemical traces which may tell investigators where she grew up. The results narrow the search to an area along […]

We just finished an amazing one-two punch, or should I say a punch and counterpunch, of reading (one thousand plus pages). Kind of like getting blown out to sea by strong winds, and then aggressively pushed back to shore by powerful waves. I’m talking about the Jeffrey MacDonald murders, now about half a century old, […]

Some mysteries are mysteries of the human psyche, the human animal itself.  At times whole communities, or societies, seem to go simply crazy.  What’s that all about? And sometimes someone with everything to live for, and lots more to contribute to the world, suddenly ends their live through suicide.  That’s not really a mystery, but […]

Not far from the world headquarters of Mind Over Mystery, a man runs for the Arizona State Senate. A routine thing, until it’s revealed that he once shot someone to death–in fact it was his mother! He was eighteen. Whoa! “Bobby Wilson Confesses He Murdered His Mother and Sister Last Thursday,” screamed a 1963 headline […]

Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bunker by cyanide capsule, then shooting himself in the head in Berlin, April 30, 1945. He died with his long-term mistress, Eva Braun, whom he had married a day before, and his dogs. Germany surrendered to the Allied Forces shortly thereafter.  At least that’s the way it reads in […]

The case of Amanda Knox offers international intrigue at its finest,” proclaims a brief video on the case available, where else, on YouTube (“Bizarre Things That Never Made Sense About the Amanda Knox Case”). In fact, YouTube offers so many videos on the Knox case, from two minutes to two hours, that you can watch […]

Sometimes sheer statistics, dry numbers, begin a mystery. The numbers are anomalous and observers feel compelled to ask “What’s up with that?” It’s the question that puts mystery on the map. If one teenage girl, or boy, goes missing, that’s deeply agonizing for the family, but it could mean most anything. A victim of random […]

What do iPads, computer hackers, bionic limbs, mass surveillance, and the moons of Mars have in common? Science fiction writers predicted them long before their existence. Published in 1726, literature’s well-known Gulliver’s Travels predicts in a brief passage that Mars will have two small moons orbiting at much greater speeds than Earth’s single moon. Over […]

“Optimist” is a cute, humanizing word, but what’s really happening with these animals? How did a loyalty and persistence get programmed into their brains that surpasses all reason, at least homo sapien reason? Movie buffs will remember “Hachi,” the English language version of the ultimate dog-loyalty tale. The dog waits at the station, literally for […]

Any investigation of an accident or incident conducted by the Safety Board directly or pursuant to the appendix to part 800 of this chapter (except major marine investigations conducted under49 U.S.C. 1131(a)(1)(E)) has priority over all other investigations of such accident or incident conducted by other Federal agencies. The Safety Board shall provide for the […]