# Your favorite historical mystery, legend, conspiracy theory... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 26, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341 "2004-06-26T18:47:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341/61 "2004-06-29T15:08:52Z")
St. Germaine. That’s the guy. Thank you! If I ever go into the witness protect program, that is the last name I am picking for myself. ---
**Author:** ![Sassafras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@Sassafras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sassafras)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341/62 "2004-06-29T15:57:22Z")
When I was a kid this story used to bug me[Kasper Hauser](http://www.madladdesigns.co.uk/unexplained/people/kasper.htm) and I second The Mary Celeste ---
**Author:** ![Sassafras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@Sassafras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sassafras)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341/63 "2004-06-29T16:04:33Z")
hey, did I miss or or has no one mentioned [DB Cooper](http://home.earthlink.net/~quade/dbcooper.html) ? ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341/64 "2004-06-29T18:56:00Z")
I was a nut for _Titanic_ lore as a kid, and checked out every book I could find on the subject. Didn’t actually _read_ the books, but it was part of that whole ADD thing. I had a book on historical mysteries in fifth grade or so, and a I must have read some of those chapters a hundred times. The Oak Island Money Pit was one of them. Cryptozoology, including Bigfoot, Nessie, and the sauropod supposedly living in the jungles of Africa. Mysterious disappearances and appearances (Kasper Hauser). Unknown identities, such as the Man in the Iron Mask. Noah’s Ark. The Shroud of Turin. I’ve visited the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, CA. A wonderful combination of stately manor home and lunatic-asylum-as-designed-by-the-lunatics. ---
**Author:** ![Aguecheek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Aguecheek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aguecheek)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341/65 "2004-06-29T19:59:17Z")
**The Man in the Iron Mask**. I read one book when I was a kid that purported to prove it was the only surviving son of Louis XIV’s _real_ father, as Louis XIII was said to be sterile. **The Gunpowder Plot** Several theories around that the government knew of the plot well before capturing the principals involved. Some believe that it was all a Machiavellian scheme by the Prime Minister, Robert Cecil, to shore up support for James I. ---
**Author:** ![Proudest\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/proudest_monkey/32/13257_2.png) [@Proudest\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Proudest_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341/66 "2004-06-29T23:28:41Z")
I’m not sure this fits the category, but how about **Paul (McCartney) is dead**? Many years ago, I met a seemingly intelligent woman who told me with all sincerity about a mysterious island where his body lay and where lucky believers would be jetted off to live in the true knowledge. Her “evidence” went beyond the usual album cover/song lyric clues although I can’t remember what else. (Hey, I said it was a long time ago, ok?) The thing that struck me was just how normal this woman appeared and how fervently she believed in this fairy tale. Anyone know of any good Paul is Dead websites? ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341/67 "2004-06-30T00:23:55Z")
> [@Kizarvexius](#): > > I had a book on historical mysteries in fifth grade or so, and a I must have read some of those chapters a hundred times. The Oak Island Money Pit was one of them. Cryptozoology, including Bigfoot, Nessie, and the sauropod supposedly living in the jungles of Africa. Actually the whole field (swamp?) of Weird PseudoScience is fascinating, not to mention unintentionally hilarious, in a very twisted way. IIRC Charles DeLint, the SF writer, did a gorgeous, elegant debunking of some of the most notable woo-woo beliefs of recent times. Space aliens and the pyramids, rock carvings of space aliens, the whole Atlantis and Lemurian schtick, etc. (Some of the dead serious “translations” of alien wisdom are gems of unconscious humor.) The whole alien abduction thing could keep a lively, inquiring mind occupied for ages, just for the psychology if nothing else. It could be fun to incorporate it with historical precedents, such as mesmerism, Cagliostro, Conan Doyle and Houdini and communication after death, etc. Veb ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341/68 "2004-06-30T00:27:51Z")
It’s already been mentioned, but I’m a Richard III junkie. I think Henry VII did it, or rather, that his mother got a lackey to do it. Can’t quite decide if I think Henry had prior knowledge or not. ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341/69 "2004-06-30T00:31:24Z")
Almost forgot - I’m attempting to get hold of a book called “Where Troy Once Stood,” which puts forth the theory that Troy was actually in Great Britain; tin mines in Wales or Cornwall, I think. ---
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341/70 "2004-06-30T01:21:43Z")
[The Disappearance of Michael Rockefeller](http://boingboing.net/2000/09/14/in_1961_23yearold_mi.html) [The Spanish soldier who (apparently) teleported from Manilla to Mexico City in 1593](http://www.para-normal.com/nuke/html/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=2045) [Pre-Columbian contact between Europe/Asia/Africa and the Americas](http://www.ancientamerican.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341/71 "2004-06-30T04:15:32Z")
Thanks, **Eve**. Yet another thing to go on my wish list! Ever watch _Haunted History_ on the History Channel? Now, I don’t necessarily believe or not believe, in ghosts (I really don’t have any strong beliefs one way or the other), but I LOVE the stories. Oh boy, do I love ghost stories. Someday, I want to go on a Haunted House tour or something. Of course, I could not be alone. I’d be too scared to be by mself. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341/72 "2004-06-30T04:20:31Z")
Oh, I just remembered another one (That “Unexplained Site” is sure to provide HOURS of entertainment!)-the Cottingly faeries. (Although the site doesn’t provide the true story-they were simply illustrations from fashion plates, I believe, cut out and photographed. Still, they are GORGEOUS pictures either way-I love faeries). ---
**Author:** ![sofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/35a633/32.png) [@sofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sofia)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341/73 "2004-06-30T13:37:28Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Oh, I just remembered another one (That “Unexplained Site” is sure to provide HOURS of entertainment!)-the Cottingly faeries. (Although the site doesn’t provide the true story-they were simply illustrations from fashion plates, I believe, cut out and photographed. Still, they are GORGEOUS pictures either way-I love faeries). I remember reading about this when I was a little, little girl. I asked my grandmother what her take on it was, and she said that it was a shame that probably someone would figure out it wasn’t real…and ruin the whole thing. As far as I know, in my grandmother’s life, the story was never debunked (or if it was, she hadn’t heard it). There’s also a brief/vague reference to it in John Crowley’s _Little, Big._ …there are references to a lot of stuff in that book… Just another quick thank you to everyone who’s posted. These are fabulous stories–it means a great deal to my daughter that you shared your ideas. ---
**Author:** ![bigdfrombigd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df705f/32.png) [@bigdfrombigd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bigdfrombigd)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341/74 "2004-06-30T21:08:55Z")
> [@Laughing Lagomorph](#): > > One of my favorite local historical legends is that Ho Chi Minh was at one time employed at the Parker House Hotel in Boston as either a busboy or a bellboy (I’ve heard both). This would have been before his political career. > > Malcom X also apparently worked there too. I don’t know if they knew each other. I also heard that one about Ho Chi Minh, only he was working as a chef in a posh London hotel and he screwed Mae West after delivering her room service. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341/75 "2004-06-30T22:44:08Z")
> [@bigdfrombigd](#): > > I also heard that one about Ho Chi Minh, only he was working as a chef in a posh London hotel and he screwed Mae West after delivering her room service. [Mae West] “Mmmm . . . An’ Ah was horny again an hour latuh.” [/Mae West] [Yes, I know Ho Chi Minh was not Chinese!] ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341/76 "2004-06-30T23:02:18Z")
The prehistoric Saharans, who painted [these](http://www.fjexpeditions.com/tassili/frameset/rockart.html), and lived there about 4.5 to 9 thousand years ago, when the climate was much wetter than it is today. No one really knows what happened to these people after the Sahara dried out, but even today there are small oases and leftover pools inhabited by pygmy crocodiles, some of whose “herds” have dwindled to two or three individuals and can no longer sustain themselves. ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2004, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341/77 "2004-07-01T01:04:26Z")
Alot of these are really neat. I’ll add mainly because they were missed: A Wider Conspiracy in the Lincoln Assasination Edwin Booth Saving Robt. Lincoln’s life Masonry and it’s effect on the American Revolution incl. the British Generals ---
**Author:** ![Atrael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Atrael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atrael)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341/78 "2004-07-02T14:58:34Z")
Let’s see…there are a lot of things that she can research and explore. Off the top of my head, I’d suggest reading up on the Mayan civilization. Fairly advanced society, that prospered from around 350B.C. to around 900 A.D. the entire civilization collapsed within about 100 years. There are still “lost cities” being discovered in Central America today. Two theories about their collapse are either drout, or a change in the relationships between the city-state’s, that lead to more and more conflict. Some great work being done in that field now. With the destruction of the Mayan libraries by Catholic priest in the…1500’s I think…most of the history of the Maya was lost. We can only piece together tiny bits from events that were important enough to document on their buildings, or _stela_. Also, while I’m not a big believer in the “how did primitive people build huge buildings” type of conspiricy type things, I do wonder at why there are so many independant cities so close to each other. Off the top of my head, the ruins of [Calakmul](http://www.mayan-world.com/ruinas/campeche-m.htm#calakmul) and [Mirador](http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/meso_america/el_mirador.html) are only about 15 km apart, yet separated by several hundred years of development. So why when Calakmul was being constructed (with several very large structures) did it not occure to anyone to take stone from Mirador? After all, the limestone facing on the Pyramids of Egypt was taken for construction of parts of Cairo. Closer to present day, I’ve always thought the [Coral Castle](http://www.coralcastle.com/home.asp) was a fascinating story. Nobody really knows how this was constructed by one person, working mostly at night, by himself. Pretty cool to read about! ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341/79 "2004-07-03T06:44:00Z")
The Shakespearean authorship controversy – [Edward DeVere](http://www.free-books.org/shakespeare/EdwardDeVere-17EarlOxford.htm), [Christopher Marlowe](http://www2.localaccess.com/marlowe/pamphlet/pamphlet.htm), [Francis Bacon](http://www.sirbacon.org/links/evidence.htm), and even [Queen Elizabeth I](http://www.bardweb.net/debates.html) have been put forth as the “true Bard”. As I grew up in Northeast Ohio, I read plenty of newspaper coverage about such Cleveland evergreens as the [Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run](http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/unsolved/kingsbury/index_1.html) and the question of whether [Sam Sheppard](http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/sheppard/Sheppard.htm) murdered his wife. ---
**Author:** ![MaveeickOpinions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a9a28c/32.png) [@MaveeickOpinions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaveeickOpinions)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2016, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341/80 "2016-10-23T12:46:30Z")
I came across a hardcover book several years ago, which contained atories of practically every single, legend, myth, conspiracy theory, folktale, & mystery mentioned on this thread. It also included stories like “When the Devil Walked in Devon”, Spring-Heeled Jack, the assassination of the Kennedy brothers, the Black Dalia murder, and the mystery of Anastasia. I first read the book when I moved in with my son’s mother 14 years ago. She claimed she didn’t own it, & didn’t kbow who did. When we separated, I took it with me. But when I moved a few years later, it got lost or misplaced. I can’t remember the title. I just remember it being a very thick, hardcover book, with something like “folktales” or “tall tales” or “mysteries” in the title.Internet searches have turned up zero hits. And even questioning librarians during trips to several different librarys has resulted in almost universal eyebrow raises & questions like, “are you sure all of these stories were in one book?” So if anyone might know of this book, I would be thrilled to know at least the name of it… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-historical-mystery-legend-conspiracy-theory/252341.md?page=5)