# Unsolved mysteries that aren't nightmare fuel **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 21, 2015, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538 "2015-05-21T19:07:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2015, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538/101 "2015-05-31T02:47:33Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > One or more very well may have, but if the bad guys know, they will change their codes. > Should a one time pad also be captured, it is unlikely that the information would be disclosed. At the risk of beating this Hotel-Oscar-Romeo-Sierra-Echo to death… I realize that most or all of the truly sensitive information gathered by authorities upon discovery of a numbers station (such as one time pads, coding techniques, real names, and other intelligence that might hurt further investigation if it was made public) would not be made available to the average Joe Internet. But it seems to me—and I may be quite wrong—that mundane, non-sensitive information about a numbers station discovery would most likely get out if for no other reason than authorities like to brag about such coups and, after enough time facts leak out or are declassified. These things have existed since WWI or before. If such an operation had ever been discovered I expect there would be, at the very least, a harmless, watered-down, detail-starved statement that basically said no more than \*\*\*“Yes, we found a numbers station.” \*\*\* Maybe something like this: \*\* \*"We have discovered a numbers station that was used by a major Central American drug cartel to distribute coded information among the cartel’s members. This information was given to us by a senior member of the cartel that we recently arrested. “We have located the site where the coded messages were prepared as well as a separate site where the transmissions themselves originated. Evidence gathered at these locations confirm the cartel’s coded message operation.” \*\*\* But, from what I have read (not much), there is no public record that anyone has ever busted a numbers station. Conspiracy theory debunkers always like to point out that so many people would have to have knowledge of such an operation that someone would eventually blab. But no one has. Is the whole thing just a wacky CT? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2015, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538/102 "2015-05-31T03:08:01Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > But, from what I have read (not much), there is no public record that anyone has ever busted a numbers station. The “Atención” station. > **[Numbers station](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station#The_Atenci.C3.B3n_spy_case_evidence)** > > A numbers station is a shortwave radio station characterized by broadcasts of formatted numbers, which are believed to be addressed to intelligence officers operating in foreign countries. Most identified stations use speech synthesis to vocalize numbers, although digital modes such as phase-shift keying and frequency-shift keying, as well as Morse code transmissions, are not uncommon. Most stations have set time schedules, or schedule patterns; however, some appear to have no discernible patt > **[Cuban Five](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Five)** > > The Cuban Five, also known as the Miami Five, are five Cuban intelligence officers (Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González) who were arrested in September 1998 and later convicted in Miami, Florida of conspiracy to commit espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, acting as an agent of a foreign government, and other illegal activities in the United States. The Five were in the U.S. to observe and infiltrate the Cuban-American groups Alpha 66, The... ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2015, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538/103 "2015-05-31T03:27:23Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > The “Atención” station. > > [Numbers station - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station#The_Atenci.C3.B3n_spy_case_evidence) > > [Cuban Five - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Five) :smack:As I said, I really hadn’t read the Wikipedia article carefully enough. Thanks! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2015, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538/104 "2015-05-31T16:55:01Z")
This is an interesting one, a little more detail than the usual UFO reports: > **[1976 Tehran UFO incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Tehran_UFO_incident)** > > The 1976 Tehran UFO Incident was a radar and visual sighting of an unidentified flying object (UFO) over Tehran, the capital of Iran, during the early morning hours of 19 September 1976. During the incident, two Imperial Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom II jet interceptors reported losing instrumentation and communications as they approached the object. These were restored upon withdrawal. One of the aircraft also reported a temporary weapons systems failure while the crew was preparing to open f... ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538/105 "2015-05-31T17:27:38Z")
Thanks, Hero. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2015, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538/106 "2015-05-31T17:32:25Z")
> [@Disposable Hero](#): > > This is an interesting one, a little more detail than the usual UFO reports: > > [1976 Tehran UFO incident - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Tehran_UFO_incident) Most of the “detail” is hearsay, second-hand reports, “apparentlys” and embellishments some time after the incident. General’s stars do not make an individual an exceptional observer. Nor are most pilots trained in observing or recognizing anything but the focus of their job - air traffic and markers for civilians, IFF for military. The skeptical explanations may be a little glib, but given the number of identical “exceptional observers and tons of data and no possible other explanations” cases that pretty conclusively were Venus… I have trouble putting this one in even the “maybe” column. The mid-1970s were also a peak in UFO hysteria/reports, IIRC. So a certain predisposition to think/see/interpret might have been present. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2015, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538/107 "2015-05-31T17:37:24Z")
Do a search for “Coral Castle Wikipedia” (sorry, having trouble creating links). One single man made a castle of out huge coral/limestone blocks in very southern Florida. Then, he MOVED the thing to just outside Miami, Florida. Kinda like a one man version of the Pyramids. Probably didn’t actually involve aliens and or anti gravity devices, but still you look at it and think “damn, that’s pretty impressive”. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2015, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538/108 "2015-05-31T17:54:53Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > One single man made a castle of out huge coral/limestone blocks in very southern Florida. Then, he MOVED the thing to just outside Miami, Florida. > > Kinda like a one man version of the Pyramids. Probably didn’t actually involve aliens and or anti gravity devices, but still you look at it and think “damn, that’s pretty impressive”. What I recall about this was a gosh-wow TV show about it that showed, for example, the two-ton pivoting door block that could be opened and closed with one hand. My Gosh, How Did He Do That!? Well… in part by standing it on a truck axle with mofo roller bearings. The scale and amount of work is impressive, but there was no mystery about how the door worked. Unless you didn’t show that part and implied it was floating on grav-fields or used the Lost Secret Lube of the Mayans. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2015, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538/109 "2015-05-31T17:59:48Z")
So that’s what killed the Mayans…death by snu snu 🙂 Yeah, the door part isn’t that impressive. But the scale certainly is. ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2015, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538/110 "2015-05-31T20:41:14Z")
Who was [Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff](http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/she-stole-anotherrsquos-identity-and-took-her-secret-to-the-grave-who-was-she/)? Short version: in 1988, a young woman gets the birth cert of a dead child and uses it to get ID in the child’s name. Then she legally changes her name to Lori Erica Kennedy. She goes to college under that name, marries, has a child. When she and her husband get divorced, she begins to unravel mentally and finally kills herself. It’s only afterwards, when they’re going through her stuff, that her husband’s family find the name-change documents and discover that they have no idea who she was. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2015, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538/111 "2015-05-31T22:18:12Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > Who was [Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff](http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/she-stole-anotherrsquos-identity-and-took-her-secret-to-the-grave-who-was-she/)? > > Short version: in 1988, a young woman gets the birth cert of a dead child and uses it to get ID in the child’s name. Then she legally changes her name to Lori Erica Kennedy. She goes to college under that name, marries, has a child. When she and her husband get divorced, she begins to unravel mentally and finally kills herself. It’s only afterwards, when they’re going through her stuff, that her husband’s family find the name-change documents and discover that they have no idea who she was. Wow, that one is really good! Thanks for sharing it. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2015, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538/112 "2015-05-31T23:28:48Z")
Accessing alternate realities to visit lands like Taured, Laxaria, and Lizbia? > **[The strange mystery of the man from Taured – Strange Unexplained Mysteries](https://coolinterestingstuff.com/the-strange-mystery-of-the-man-from-taured)** > **[The man who feel to earth - Strange and mysterious cases](http://www.dark-stories.com/eng/the_man_who_fell_to_earth.htm)** > > There have been many reports of visitors from elsewhere dropping in on this island Earth from time to time. A story from Tom Slemen. What if you came back from one of these parallel worlds: what proof would you accept? A tape from The Beatles…who NEVER BROKE UP? > **[The Beatles Never Broke Up...](http://thebeatlesneverbrokeup.com/)** > > The Beatles Never Broke Up... Download the recently recovered Beatles album "Everyday Chemistry" & read about how the album was found.. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2015, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538/113 "2015-05-31T23:32:13Z")
> [@Enola\_Straight](#): > > Accessing alternate realities to visit lands like Taured, Laxaria, and Lizbia? > [http://coolinterestingstuff.com/the-strange-mystery-of-the-man-from-taured](http://coolinterestingstuff.com/the-strange-mystery-of-the-man-from-taured) > [http://www.dark-stories.com/eng/the\_man\_who\_fell\_to\_earth.htm](http://www.dark-stories.com/eng/the_man_who_fell_to_earth.htm) > What if you came back from one of these parallel worlds: what proof would you accept? > > A tape from The Beatles…who NEVER BROKE UP? > [http://thebeatlesneverbrokeup.com/](http://thebeatlesneverbrokeup.com/) Good ones. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538/114 "2015-06-01T01:15:30Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Good ones. 😃 Anyone who downloaded the other-world Beatles album and opened it, post what happened. Probably from another computer. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538/115 "2015-06-01T01:43:22Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > Anyone who downloaded the other-world Beatles album and opened it, post what happened. Probably from another computer. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538/116 "2015-06-01T01:49:48Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > Anyone who downloaded the other-world Beatles album and opened it, post what happened. Probably from another computer. I found it derivative, and lacking in the originality of their earlier works. Clearly The Beatles have passed their high point and will go down as just another semi-has been band, playing 'last world tour" live concerts over and over. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538/117 "2015-06-05T01:21:40Z")
Which kid owns the extra thumb? [http://d3u5xmnnxiuz0w.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/the\_most\_unexplained\_photos\_that\_exist\_05.jpg](http://d3u5xmnnxiuz0w.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/the_most_unexplained_photos_that_exist_05.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538/118 "2015-06-05T14:56:18Z")
> [@Enola\_Straight](#): > > Which kid owns the extra thumb? > [http://d3u5xmnnxiuz0w.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/the\_most\_unexplained\_photos\_that\_exist\_05.jpg](http://d3u5xmnnxiuz0w.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/the_most_unexplained_photos_that_exist_05.jpg) There’s a kid behind all of them that can’t be seen. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538/119 "2015-06-05T15:28:08Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > The [Taman Shud](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taman_Shud_Case) case. The guy may have been murdered, but there’s nothing gruesome, and there’s a huge amount of general mysteriousness. > [@grude](#): > > The lead masks case But of those - especially the Taman Shud / Somerton Man Case - are _total_ nightmare fuel. I’m a grown man in my thirties, but after spending the better part of a weekend reading up on the case - and even trying to work out my own “interpretation” of the hand-scribbled “code” - you’d better believe I was spooked. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538/120 "2015-06-06T03:55:51Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > [Who was Kaspar Hauser and why was he killed?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaspar_Hauser) Since it looks like I may never finish The Staff Report That Keeps Expanding, I’ll give it in a nutshell: The latest mtDNA test does not eliminate the possibility that Kaspar was the son of Grand Duke Karl and Grand Duchess Stéphanie de Beauharnais of Baden, exchanged as an infant with a sickly baby by the Countess of Hochberg, the second wife of the late Grand Duke Karl Frederick, to guarantee that her son would ascend to the throne instead of Kaspar. Kaspar did not spend all of his youth in his “dungeon.” As he almost instantly picked up reading and writing (and because of one of his claims) it is apparent he did spend some time in school. The likeliest possibility is that he lived on a farm in Darkest Bavaria until he was about eight or ten. He was then isolated somewhere where he developed psychosocial short stature, caused by stress and extreme emotional deprivation. When found he was not nearly mute, as some stories claim, but spoke with a limited vocabulary in an thick, old-fashioned, Alp-Billy accent. He was clearly traumatized when he was found, though, and didn’t talk much at first, preferring to keep to himself. Rumors noting his resemblance to the Grand Duke started almost immediately. These made their way to Baden, and may have caused the Countess to think about assassinating him. On the other hand, Kaspar became one of the first international media sensations, and his injuries and “assassination attempts” correspond to times when interest was waning. All I know is that the medical examiner believed signs pointed to murder and not an accident or suicide. Researching this has led me to believe that the Napoleonic Wars and emigration had so depleted the population of Europe that everybody knew everybody. Duchess Steph was Napoleon’s niece/adopted daughter, while Kaspar’s champion, Lord Stanhope, fathered Wellington’s penpal. It happened right when the modern world was being created, and I wish I could find all my files because I don’t feel like translating them again. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-that-arent-nightmare-fuel/720538.md?page=7)