Case file 025The Unexplained
Sherlock Holmes and the Fairies
Two Yorkshire cousins photographed paper fairies, drawing Arthur Conan Doyle into a public campaign that outlived their joke and ended in conflicting admissions.
Open case fileCase file 025The Unexplained
Sherlock Holmes and the Fairies
Two Yorkshire cousins photographed paper fairies, drawing Arthur Conan Doyle into a public campaign that outlived their joke and ended in conflicting admissions.
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Case file 024Power & Secrets
Who Really Shot Bobby Kennedy?
Robert Kennedy was shot after a California election victory, leaving a convicted gunman and enduring disputes about what happened in the hotel pantry.
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Case file 023Power & Secrets
Guy Fawkes - the Fall Guy?
A warning letter exposed a plan to kill James I and Parliament, but did the government know more than it admitted?
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Case file 021Forgotten Histories
A Wonder from Godalming
A Surrey woman’s supposed rabbit births drew royal doctors into a medical scandal, leaving disputed accounts of deception, suffering and control over her body.
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Case file 020The Unexplained
The Vampire with Iron Teeth
In 1954, Glasgow children hunted an iron-toothed vampire through a cemetery, setting off an argument about horror comics and older fears.
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Case file 019Strange Science
A Light That Wasn’t There
A French physicist’s invisible rays promised extraordinary discoveries, until concealed tests exposed the uncertain observations behind a growing body of scientific claims.
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Case file 018Crime & Mystery
Mountain of the dead
Nine hikers left their tent on a frozen Ural slope; the surviving records explain much of their ordeal, but leave its first moments unresolved.
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Case file 017Culture & Legends
Turn me on dead man
A student review, a radio phone-in and a barefoot photograph helped turn a false story about Paul McCartney into a lasting Beatles legend.
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Case file 016Forgotten Histories
Last Landing at Lakehurst
Hindenburg burned before the cameras at Lakehurst, leaving investigators to separate an electrical accident from sabotage claims and a dispute about its skin.
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Case file 015Power & Secrets
Captives of the Atomic Age
Ten German scientists heard the Hiroshima news inside a bugged English house, exposing rival explanations for their failure to build an atomic bomb.
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Case file 014Forgotten Histories
Brotherhood of the Eye
A coded German manuscript revealed the Oculists’ initiation rites, secret signals and campaign to expose the Freemasons who shared their world.
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Case file 013Crime & Mystery
Scandal at Dublin Castle
Ireland’s crown jewels vanished before a royal visit, leaving an unlocked safe, a ruined herald and allegations of a cover-up.
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Case file 012Space & Beyond
Who Spoke for Ashtar?
A voice claiming to represent the Ashtar Galactic Command interrupted British television, leaving a trail of frightened callers, rival transcripts and disputed suspects.
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Case file 011Forgotten Histories
The Stone That Wouldn’t Sink
Six sailors died bringing Cleopatra’s Needle to London; the obelisk survived abandonment at sea, but was its notorious voyage cursed or dangerously mismanaged?
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Case file 010Culture & Legends
The Play That Fooled London
A young clerk produced Shakespeare’s lost papers and an unknown play, until a disastrous London performance exposed the fiction behind a celebrated discovery.
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Case file 009The Unexplained
The Ghost They Invented
A Toronto séance group invented a dead man, then reported knocks and moving tables: had they created a ghost, or misunderstood what answered them?
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Case file 008Power & Secrets
The Typewriter Was Listening
An extra coil inside an American embassy typewriter exposed Soviet bugs that could betray documents before the words ever reached a cipher.
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Case file 007Space & Beyond
A Signal from Proxima
A strange radio signal from the direction of Proxima Centauri survived the first tests for alien technology, but its closest matches were on Earth.
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Case file 002Ancient Mysteries
Mystery of the Crystal Skulls
Crystal skulls promised lost civilisations and deadly powers, but a trail through antique shops, auction rooms and laboratories exposed a very different history.
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Case file 001Crime & Mystery
Bella in the Wych Elm
Four boys found a woman’s skull inside a Worcestershire tree, beginning a mystery of anonymous messages, suspected spies and alleged witchcraft.
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Dates from the case files
On this Day
7 November
Coming up tomorrow / Case file 023
Guy Fawkes - the Fall Guy?
Conspirators are killed or captured at Holbeach
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