Famous Mysteries

By Albert Jack

From the Author of the Internationally Bestselling Books - Red Herrings & White Elephants, What Caesar did for My Salad, Shaggy Dogs, Pop Goes the Weasel, They Laughed at Galileo: 
 
We all love a good mystery, don't we? And by all, I mean each and every one of us are, or will be, captivated at one time or another by a decent, real-life mystery; either one of the world's best, or something on a smaller scale such.  
 
But writing a book on just one of these would have been relatively easy. The challenge came from researching lots and lots of them and then condensing them down in a way that I know you, the reader, who continue to pay my wages, enjoy reading. And that is short, sharp informative sections you can read on the train, bus queue or while waiting to pick the kids up after you arrive at school to find them in detention.  
 
In other words, the challenge was to explain the mystery in a way you can enjoy and absorb in about ten minutes. Inevitably some information will be missing, for which I apologize in advance. But the missing information isn't critical to the basic story; the 'core' details of the mystery in question should all be there. In some cases, such as the sections on The Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot and crop circles, there are literally thousands of examples that I could have used of course, but, in each case, i've kept it down to just a handful. 
 
And this brings me to an important point. Given that I am a fan of the unknown and the unexplained, I have not set out to be a mystery buster in this volume. Instead I just wanted to tell the story, provide some little-known detail and offer a rational explanation wherever I could. I wanted to provoke a bit of thought and conversation, but leave you to decide the answer for yourselves: does the story remain a mystery, in your view, or have you managed to piece together a theory of your own that you ca then share with your friends. Although, to be fair, I must admit there are some cases where I just couldn't resist presenting my own ideas and giving full rein to my scepticism, but don't let that stop you enjoying yourselves. 
 
Including: 
 
Mystery 1 – Bigfoot 
Mystery 2 – Crop Circles 
Mystery 3 – Who Killed Marilyn Munroe? 
Mystery 4 – The Loch Ness Monster 
Mystery 5 – The Death of Robert Maxwell 
Mystery 6 – Will the Real Paul McCartney Please Stand Up 
Mystery 7 – The Awful Fate of Edgar Allan Poe 
Mystery 8 – The St Valentines Day Massacre 
Mystery 9 – The Chilling Tale of The Chase Vault 
Mystery 10 – Fairies at the Bottom of the Garden

• Language: English
• Publisher: Albert Jack Publishing
• Release date: Apr 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781386458128

Book preview

Albert Jack

Albert Jack Publishing

Copyright Page

Famous Mysteries

The World’s Top Ten Mysteries Solved

(2021 eBook Edition)

Copyright © February 2017 Albert Jack

Cover Design: Albert Jack

ebook Production: Albert Jack Publishing

All rights are reserved to the author. no part of this ebook may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

This is largely a work of non-fiction although the author could not resist the temptation to be creative with historical detail wherever possible.

Albert Jack Publishing

PO Box 661

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Cape Town

South Africa

albertjack.co.UK

albertjackchat (Twitter)

About the Author

Albert Jack is a writer and historian. His first book, Red Herrings and White Elephants explored the origins of well-known idioms and phrases and became an international bestseller in 2004. It was serialised by the Sunday Times and remained in their bestseller list for sixteen straight months. He followed this up with a series of bestsellers including Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep, Pop Goes the Weasel and What Caesar did for My Salad.

Fascinated by discovering the truth behind the world’s great stories, Albert has become an expert in explaining the unexplained, enriching millions of dinner table conversations and ending bar room disputes the world over. He is now a veteran of hundreds of live television shows and thousands of radio programmes worldwide. Albert lives somewhere between Guildford in England and Cape Town in South Africa.

Other Books By Albert Jack

Red Herrings and White Elephants

Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep

Phantom Hitchhikers

Loch Ness Monsters and other Mysteries Solved

Pop Goes the Weasel

The Old Dog and Duck

What Caesar did for My Salad

It’s a Wonderful Word

Albert Jack – Part 1

Albert Jack – Part 2

The Jam: Sounds from the Street

Want To Be a Writer? Then Do it Properly

The President’s Brain is Missing

New World Order

9/11 Conspiracy

Rose Versus Thistle

They Laughed at Galileo

Including:

Introduction

Mystery 1 – Bigfoot

Mystery 2 – Crop Circles

Mystery 3 – Who Killed Marilyn Munroe?

Mystery 4 – The Loch Ness Monster

Mystery 5 – The Death of Robert Maxwell

Mystery 6 – Will the Real Paul McCartney Please Stand Up

Mystery 7 – The Awful Fate of Edgar Allan Poe

Mystery 8 – The St Valentines Day Massacre

Mystery 9 – The Chilling Tale of The Chase Vault

Mystery 10 – Fairies at the Bottom of the Garden

Word-of-mouth is crucial for any author to succeed. If you enjoyed the stories, please leave an online review. Even if it’s just a sentence or two. It would make all the difference and is very much appreciated.

––––––––

Introduction

We all love a good mystery don’t we? And by all, I mean each and every one of us  are, or will be, captivated at one time or another by a decent, real-life, scary mystery; either one of the world’s most famous or something on a much smaller scale. But, writing a book on just one of these would have been relatively easy. The challenge came from researching many of them and then condensing them down in a way that I know you, my reader, will enjoy them. And that is in short, sharp informative sections that can be read on the train, bus, queue or whilst you are waiting to pick the kids up from school. 

In other words, the challenge was to explain each mystery in a way you can enjoy, and absorb, in about ten minutes flat. Therefore, inevitably, some information will be missing, for which I apologise in advance. But the missing detail isn’t critical to the basic story; the core details of the mystery in question should all be in there. In some cases, such as chapters on The Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot and Crop Circles there are literally thousands of examples that I could have used of course, but, in each case I have kept them down to just a handful.

And this brings me to an important point. Given that I am a fan of the unknown and unexplained, I have not set out to be a mystery buster in this series. Instead I just wanted to tell the story, reveal some little-known detail and offer a rational explanation wherever I could. I wanted to provoke a bit of thought and conversation wherever I could, but leave you to decide the answer for yourselves; does the story remain a mystery, in your view, or have you managed to piece together a theory of your own that you can share with friends. Although, to be fair, I must admit there are some cases where I just couldn’t  resist presenting some of my own ideas and giving full rein to my scepticism. But don’t let that stop you from enjoying yourselves.

The other two books in this series are;

Paranormal Mysteries: Ten Famous Tales of the Paranormal

Unsolved Mysteries: Ten Famous Disappearances

1. Does Bigfoot Exist?

What made the oversized tracks found in Bluff Creak, California, and other parts of America? A giant ape or just a big jape?

In 1924, a group of miners working in the Cascade Mountain Range in the state of Washington were startled to see a huge simian creature staring at them from behind a tree. Panic-stricken, one of the men fired at it and although the bullet appeared to hit the giant ape in the head, the beast ran off, apparently unharmed. Soon afterwards another of the miners, Fred Beck, spotted it again on the edge of a canyon and again fired, this time hitting the creature in the back. The group watched as it fell over the ridge. They scrambled at once down into the canyon below, but could find no trace of the creature’s body.

However, that evening as it grew dark, the men heard strange scratching noises outside their log cabin and saw shadowy gorilla-like faces at the window. The terrified miners barricaded the door but soon the creatures were hammering at the roof and walls. Heavy rocks were thrown and the cabin rocked from side to side. The men began shooting through the walls in all directions but still the hammering continued, only ending as the sun rose the next morning. The miners packed up at once and left the cabin, vowing never to return.

It was only after Eric Shipton famously photographed a giant footprint on the Menlung Glacier of Mount Everest in 1951, putting his pick-axe alongside to show its size, that interest in giant apes began to gather pace. During the 1953 expedition to Everest, when Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing were the first to successfully climb the mountain, both men reported seeing over-sized footprints. Although Hillary later disputed that these were yeti tracks, there was so much interest in finding out more that the Daily Mail sponsored a ‘Snowman’ expedition in the Himalayas the following year. Keen to discover more about America’s very own yeti-style legend, John Green tracked down Fred Beck in the late 1960s and interviewed him for his book On the Track of the Sasquatch, and the Bigfoot mystery took even firmer root in America.

The word ‘Sasquatch,' applied to the large, hairy hominid in its North American manifestation, was first coined much earlier – in the 1920s – by J. W. Burns. While working as a schoolteacher at the Chehalis Indian Reserve on the Harrison River, he had learned that Native American Indians used the words soos-q’tal and sokqueatl to describe the various ‘giant men’ of their legends. To simplify matters, Burns decided to invent one name to cover all such creatures, and through one of his articles – ‘Introducing British Columbia’s Hairy Giants,' published in MacLean’s Magazine in 1929 – ‘Sasquatch’ passed into wider use.

As the public fascination for the giant ape-man grew, the media began to report sightings on a regular basis. In 1958 road construction worker Ray Wallace was amazed when his colleague reported finding huge footprints in the dirt at Bluff Creak in northern California, the area they were working in. The local press descended and soon the story was front-page news all over America. Casts were made of the prints, which experts declared genuine. The first newspaper to carry the story, the Humboldt Times of Eureka in California, used the name ‘Bigfoot’ in their headline, and the word has since become synonymous with America’s favourite mystery creature. When more tracks were found, Sasquatch hunters flocked into the now famous Bluff Creek area to see what else they could discover.

It wasn’t until Ray Wallace’s death, in December 2002, that the mystery was revealed. Members of Ray’s