I could counter with Trevanian, but he was finally outed - by Poundstone, some time before he officially unmasked, IIRC.
On the grassy knoll behind the Globe?
The Nine Nanas [HuffPo] of Tennessee. It’s my understanding that they’ve managed to deliver over a million dollars worth of help and aid to people in need. So far, no one knows their identity. The linked article claims slightly less than a million, but I read an article recently that said they’d topped the 7 figure mark.
You can send them a donation, or at least buy one of their cakes here.
These are the types of people we should be holding parades for. Not sports figures. (imo)
The Shotgun Man: Shotgun Man - Wikipedia
The unknown Boy Scout in London in 1910.
The sour-faced woman in the background when Mary Tyler Moore throws her hat in the air.
OOPSIE! Nope. Wasn’t me! It must have been other kids!
Nuh-uh She was a local celebrity from the first night MTM aired.
Or A.J. Quinnell, but he was also identified after his death.
Leon Redbone - Wikipedia (but it’s wikipedia)
Good one.
In 1943, British Intelligence concocted and executed a plan to mislead the German military about where the Allies were planning to invade southern Europe. This was Operation Mincemeat. The idea was for a dead body to wash up on the coast of Spain, the apparent victim of a plane crash, with a well-documented false identity and papers saying that invasions were to take place in Greece and Sardinia. The body of Captain (acting Major) William “Bill” Martin was found, the documents were examined by the Germans, and they committed extra resources to defend those two locations. The real target was Sicily.
I didn’t think the real identity of the body was known, but (according the Wikipedia, at least) it was discovered many years later. In 1996 he was identified as Glyndwr Michael.
There’s a mysterious person in the Chicago area who drops gold coins in Salvation Army kettles at Christmas time.
BTW - There’s a marked difference between famous and infamous. Just sayin’.
That reminded me of the Kasper Hauser case:
Thanks for the answers everyone, I hadn’t heard of some of these before.
Act 1, Day 1 after I invent a time-machine is to go back and solve these mysteries! (well after I assassinate Hitler of course but that kind of goes without saying)
We’re getting a bit obscure here, but the Boy in the Box.
Not exactly *famous *people, then.
Subcomandante Marcos, the masked leader / spokesperson of the Zapatistas. He has never revealed his true identity, although some say…
[SPOILER]…that he’s the Stig.
(No, actually, the Mexican government claims to know that he’s a dude named Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente.)[/SPOILER]
Huh! I was born and raised in Minneapolis (and in junior high when MTM debuted) and never heard of Hazel Frederick!
Ignorance fought!
How about this Batman?
Reminds me also of Little Miss 1565, a girl whose body was found after the Hartford circus fire of 1944, but never positively identified.
Reading that Wikipedia entry just now, it says that Charles Nelson Reilly was a survivor of the event at age 13. I hadn’t heard that before.
Okay, then: how about the kid with the glasses who circles Felix Unger while he’s sitting with his suitcases on the sidewalk? :dubious:
Target identified… relay firing solution to predator drone…
Nah, we know who they are.
The band originally consisted of Homer Flynn, Hardy Fox, Jay Clem, and John Kennedy. Clem and Kennedy quit after the Mole tour. Since then, it has been just Flynn and Fox.