In 1915 Antarctic pack ice crushed Ernest Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance. Her 28 men lived on drifting ice, sailed open boats to Elephant Island and sent six men about 800 miles for help. Every one of them came home. In 2022 the wreck was found 3,008 metres down. Listen to the narrated mystery podcast episode.
Jo Hee-pal promised 70,000 Koreans monthly rent from bathhouse massage chairs, then slipped out to China on a fishing boat while a Coast Guard sting watched, by one informant’s account. In 2012 police announced he had died there, and the main proof was a 51-second funeral video. Prosecutors closed the case in 2016. His victims still do not accept it. Listen to the narrated true crime podcast episode.
In 1909 a Bengal prince was reported dead and cremated at Darjeeling. In 1921 an ash-covered ascetic in Dacca was recognised as him. Three courts agreed, and he died within days of the last ruling. Listen to the narrated mystery podcast episode.
In 1983 Korean Air Lines Flight 007 drifted off course for over five hours, unnoticed, until a Soviet fighter shot it down near Sakhalin. 269 people were on board. Listen to the narrated true crime podcast episode.
In 1997 a 22-year-old student stepped into a Burger King restroom in Seoul and never came out, and the two American teenagers inside each said the other did it. Korea convicted the wrong one first, let the other leave the country, and needed a mother’s petition, a feature film and 20 years to finish the job. Listen to the narrated true crime podcast episode.
Children used to catch the drips in pails. The tank groaned every time it was full, so the company painted it brown. On a mild January day in 1919, the rivets started firing like a machine gun, and 2.3 million gallons of molasses came down Commercial Street. Listen to the narrated true crime podcast episode.
Christmas Eve, 1971. Lightning tore apart a plane over the Peruvian Amazon. A 17-year-old girl woke up on the forest floor under a row of seats, alone, with one sandal and a bag of sweets. Of 92 people aboard, she was the only one who would live. Listen to the narrated true crime podcast episode.
A two-day shark-fishing trip off Mexico turned into 438 days adrift across the Pacific. His young crewmate died at sea. Ships passed him by. Then a wild-haired man with a knife walked out of the surf on a tiny atoll. Listen to the narrated true crime podcast episode.
In 1991, more than 300,000 people searched for five schoolboys from Daegu. Their faces were on cigarette packs. In 2002, an acorn gatherer found them on the hill behind their homes. Listen to the narrated true crime podcast episode.
Halloween 1974, Texas: five children got giant Pixy Stix stapled shut with cyanide inside. The man who handed them out was one boy’s father. Listen to the narrated true crime podcast episode.
At 5pm Gus Lamont, 4, was playing outside his outback home. By 5:30 he was gone. A year of searching later, police say somebody knows something. Listen to the narrated true crime podcast episode.
Police earned points for every “vagrant” sent to Busan’s Brothers Home. At least 657 died. The owner served two and a half years. Listen to the narrated true crime podcast episode.
In 1925 Percy Fawcett, his son Jack and Raleigh Rimell walked into the Brazilian rainforest to find a lost city he called Z. His last letter came from Dead Horse Camp. The bones found later weren’t his. Listen to the narrated true crime podcast episode.
In 1590 John White returned to Roanoke Island for his daughter, his granddaughter Virginia Dare and more than a hundred colonists. The houses were gone. CROATOAN was carved on a post, with no cross. Listen to the narrated true crime podcast episode.
Leongatha, 2023: four guests ate beef Wellington at Erin Patterson’s table, and three died of death cap poisoning. On 30 October 2026 her appeal failed and she got life without parole. Listen to the narrated true crime podcast episode.