On 24 July 1915 the SS Eastland rolled over in the Chicago River while still tied to its dock. 844 people died, most of them young factory workers on a company picnic. Nobody was ever convicted.
In 2013, troopers testing a new sonar found two cars side by side at the bottom of Oklahoma’s Foss Lake. Inside were six people who vanished in 1969 and 1970. The official answer is accident. The families still have questions.
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.
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.
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 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.
On Diwali morning 2023, a Himalayan road tunnel in Uttarakhand caved in and trapped 41 workers. Giant drills broke. After 17 days, a team of rat-hole miners dug them out by hand. Listen to the narrated true crime podcast episode.
Peru, 1985. With Joe Simpson hanging over a cliff in a storm, his partner Simon Yates cut the rope. Everyone believed Simpson was dead. Three days later he crawled back into base camp on a broken leg. Listen to the narrated true crime podcast episode.
In 1967, a man climbed through a window in Bristol and left a palm print on the glass. Fifty-eight years later, DNA from a blue skirt kept in an evidence box finally gave it a name.