Elite MemberThe recent murder of MI6 worker Gareth Williams has shown there are some crimes that simply defy all logic.
On 23 August 2010, the body of the Cambridge maths genius was discovered stuffed naked into a zipped and padlocked bag in his bath.
A post mortem has established no obvious cause of death and toxicology tests have found no evidence of drugs in his body. At the same time there was no sign of forced entry into his Pimlico flat or of disturbance inside his rooms. Nothing was stolen.
Scotland Yard is working on the assumption that Williams was either smothered or poisoned and investigators are currently scanning the globe for a Mediterranean couple who were let into his communal front door, late one evening, either in June or July. Yet other than this lead, the case continues to baffle the best detective brains in Britain.
The Williams case is by no means the only headline-making crime investigation to confound the authorities, as this list of some of the world's most bizarre unsolved cases proves.
~~~
Mystery feet in British Columbia
Since August 2007, nine human feet have been washed up on the shores of British Columbia, Canada and nearby Washington State, US. Apart from one foot, nobody has yet figured out who they belong to - or how they got sliced off in the first place.
An athletic shoe pictured outside the Clallam County Courthouse. The shoe, containing a human foot, was found on a Washington state beach.(AP Photo)
But that's not to say it remains a complete mystery as detectives have discovered the feet were attached to five different men, one woman and, er, another person whose gender remains undetermined. Two of the left feet to have so far washed ashore have also been matched to two of the right feet. But other than that the trail is cold.
To make things even more complicated a hoax 'foot' was also planted on Vancouver Island in June 2008 by a lunatic prankster
~~~
Lead Masks
On 20 August 1966, the bodies of Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana were discovered on top of Vintém Hill in Rio de Janeiro dressed in suits and waterproof jackets. The corpses displayed no outward signs of violence and could quite easily have been treated as run-of-the mill deaths, were it not for one fact: both men were wearing home made lead masks.
An entry in one of their notebooks also read: meet at the designated spot at 5:30pm. At 6:30pm ingest the capsules. After the effect is produced, protect half of the face with lead masks. Wait for the prearranged signal.
The masks were later discovered to be poor copies of anti-radiation masks worn by nuclear power workers. Yet until this day nobody knows why the pair wore them, or what capsules they ate.
Some have speculated they donned the masks because they hoped to make contact with aliens on the hill; others suggest they were duped into donning the masks, as part of an elaborate ambush by armed robbers. Truth is, we will probably never find out for sure.
~~~
Paris Museum of Modern Art
While Paris is the capital of world art, it is also the capital of art theft. And none have been more bizarre than the £430 million heist from the Paris Museum of Modern Art in May 2010.
Police officers at the entrance of the Paris Museum of Modern Art following the theft of five expensive paintings(AP Photo)
Yet this is not because the caper involved an Ocean's 11-style master plan. Far from it - this is unusual because it only took one man armed with a ladder, a knife and a mask to waltz past the museum's hi-tech security systems and make off with paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Modigliani and Léger.
The light-fingered genius was last seen lobbing the rolled-up masterpieces into the back of a clapped-out Renault van. He has never been spotted since - and neither have the etchings. Chances are, they never will.
~~~
Monster with 21 faces
When Japanese industrialist Katsuhisa Ezaki escaped from a pair of armed kidnappers on 21 March 1984, it's fair to say he thought he'd foiled their plan to extort 1 billion yen and 100kg in gold bullion from his employer, the confectionary giant Glico.
He couldn't have been more wrong. On 10 April, a series of cars mysteriously exploded outside the Glico headquarters. Then, six days later, hydrochloric acid was posted to his office. Later, on 10 May, he received a letter from a group called The Monster with 21 Faces, who claimed to have laced hundreds of Glico's sweets with cyanide.
In total panic the company removed thousands of chocolates from supermarket shelves and laid-off 450 workers. Weeks of bizarre taunting followed from the group until they randomly wrote a letter saying We Forgive Glico! and moved their aim onto another chocolate manufacturer called Morinaga.
This time they meant business: police discovered 21 poisoned chocolate bars - mainly because the 'Monster' had stuck huge labels on them reading Danger: Contains Toxins.
Police then set up a series of stings to try and capture 'the Monster'. Yet despite twice chasing a man with a tight curly perm and eyes like a fox, the case has never been solved.
~~~
DB Cooper
When passengers boarded Northwest Airlines flight 305 from Portland, Oregon to Seattle on 24 September 1971, they unwittingly became involved in the greatest crime mystery in American history.
Shortly after take-off a man with receding hair sat in the last row of the plane, ordered a bourbon and passed the stewardess a note that read: I have a bomb in my briefcase. I want you to sit beside me.
He then dictated the following instructions: I want $200,000 by 5:00pm in cash. Put in a knapsack. I want two back parachutes and two front parachutes. When we land, I want a fuel truck ready to refuel. No funny stuff or I'll do the job.
When the plane landed at Seattle the money was bundled through the doors. The hijacker then told the captain to head for Mexico City at under 10,000 feet and approximately 200 knots. Shortly afterwards, over the wilderness of Washington State, he strapped on the parachutes and leapt out of the plane.
Apart from the discovery of a bag containing $5,800 in 1980, nothing has been seen of him or the money since. The FBI claims he didn't survive the jump - but all anyone really knows is he checked in under the name DB Cooper.
~~~
Torso in Thames
In a quiet plot in a London churchyard, a small pastel blue coffin decorated with teddy bears carries the remains of 'Adam', an unknown 5-year-old whose dismembered remains were found floating in the Thames on 21 September 2001.
As the body was missing its head and all of its limbs the Metropolitan police had no dental records or fresh blood to help them trace his identity. In fact, just about the only evidence Scotland Yard had was a concoction of calabar beans found in his stomach and the fact that he was wearing bright orange shorts.
Yet, amazingly, Met police scientists have used DNA sampling to unlock the mystery of this meagre evidence and now believe that Adam hails from a 50 square mile region between Benin City and Ibadan in the South-West of Nigeria. They also believe the poor boy was hacked to pieces in a bizarre religious ritual.
While nobody has been charged with the murder the case is still open - and will be until Scotland Yard gets their man.
More & link: http://him.uk.msn.com/in-the-know/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=155014057&ocid=today
On 23 August 2010, the body of the Cambridge maths genius was discovered stuffed naked into a zipped and padlocked bag in his bath.
A post mortem has established no obvious cause of death and toxicology tests have found no evidence of drugs in his body. At the same time there was no sign of forced entry into his Pimlico flat or of disturbance inside his rooms. Nothing was stolen.
Scotland Yard is working on the assumption that Williams was either smothered or poisoned and investigators are currently scanning the globe for a Mediterranean couple who were let into his communal front door, late one evening, either in June or July. Yet other than this lead, the case continues to baffle the best detective brains in Britain.
The Williams case is by no means the only headline-making crime investigation to confound the authorities, as this list of some of the world's most bizarre unsolved cases proves.
~~~
Mystery feet in British Columbia
Since August 2007, nine human feet have been washed up on the shores of British Columbia, Canada and nearby Washington State, US. Apart from one foot, nobody has yet figured out who they belong to - or how they got sliced off in the first place.
An athletic shoe pictured outside the Clallam County Courthouse. The shoe, containing a human foot, was found on a Washington state beach.(AP Photo)
But that's not to say it remains a complete mystery as detectives have discovered the feet were attached to five different men, one woman and, er, another person whose gender remains undetermined. Two of the left feet to have so far washed ashore have also been matched to two of the right feet. But other than that the trail is cold.
To make things even more complicated a hoax 'foot' was also planted on Vancouver Island in June 2008 by a lunatic prankster
~~~
Lead Masks
On 20 August 1966, the bodies of Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana were discovered on top of Vintém Hill in Rio de Janeiro dressed in suits and waterproof jackets. The corpses displayed no outward signs of violence and could quite easily have been treated as run-of-the mill deaths, were it not for one fact: both men were wearing home made lead masks.
An entry in one of their notebooks also read: meet at the designated spot at 5:30pm. At 6:30pm ingest the capsules. After the effect is produced, protect half of the face with lead masks. Wait for the prearranged signal.
The masks were later discovered to be poor copies of anti-radiation masks worn by nuclear power workers. Yet until this day nobody knows why the pair wore them, or what capsules they ate.
Some have speculated they donned the masks because they hoped to make contact with aliens on the hill; others suggest they were duped into donning the masks, as part of an elaborate ambush by armed robbers. Truth is, we will probably never find out for sure.
~~~
Paris Museum of Modern Art
While Paris is the capital of world art, it is also the capital of art theft. And none have been more bizarre than the £430 million heist from the Paris Museum of Modern Art in May 2010.
Police officers at the entrance of the Paris Museum of Modern Art following the theft of five expensive paintings(AP Photo)
Yet this is not because the caper involved an Ocean's 11-style master plan. Far from it - this is unusual because it only took one man armed with a ladder, a knife and a mask to waltz past the museum's hi-tech security systems and make off with paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Modigliani and Léger.
The light-fingered genius was last seen lobbing the rolled-up masterpieces into the back of a clapped-out Renault van. He has never been spotted since - and neither have the etchings. Chances are, they never will.
~~~
Monster with 21 faces
When Japanese industrialist Katsuhisa Ezaki escaped from a pair of armed kidnappers on 21 March 1984, it's fair to say he thought he'd foiled their plan to extort 1 billion yen and 100kg in gold bullion from his employer, the confectionary giant Glico.
He couldn't have been more wrong. On 10 April, a series of cars mysteriously exploded outside the Glico headquarters. Then, six days later, hydrochloric acid was posted to his office. Later, on 10 May, he received a letter from a group called The Monster with 21 Faces, who claimed to have laced hundreds of Glico's sweets with cyanide.
In total panic the company removed thousands of chocolates from supermarket shelves and laid-off 450 workers. Weeks of bizarre taunting followed from the group until they randomly wrote a letter saying We Forgive Glico! and moved their aim onto another chocolate manufacturer called Morinaga.
This time they meant business: police discovered 21 poisoned chocolate bars - mainly because the 'Monster' had stuck huge labels on them reading Danger: Contains Toxins.
Police then set up a series of stings to try and capture 'the Monster'. Yet despite twice chasing a man with a tight curly perm and eyes like a fox, the case has never been solved.
~~~
DB Cooper
When passengers boarded Northwest Airlines flight 305 from Portland, Oregon to Seattle on 24 September 1971, they unwittingly became involved in the greatest crime mystery in American history.
Shortly after take-off a man with receding hair sat in the last row of the plane, ordered a bourbon and passed the stewardess a note that read: I have a bomb in my briefcase. I want you to sit beside me.
He then dictated the following instructions: I want $200,000 by 5:00pm in cash. Put in a knapsack. I want two back parachutes and two front parachutes. When we land, I want a fuel truck ready to refuel. No funny stuff or I'll do the job.
When the plane landed at Seattle the money was bundled through the doors. The hijacker then told the captain to head for Mexico City at under 10,000 feet and approximately 200 knots. Shortly afterwards, over the wilderness of Washington State, he strapped on the parachutes and leapt out of the plane.
Apart from the discovery of a bag containing $5,800 in 1980, nothing has been seen of him or the money since. The FBI claims he didn't survive the jump - but all anyone really knows is he checked in under the name DB Cooper.
~~~
Torso in Thames
In a quiet plot in a London churchyard, a small pastel blue coffin decorated with teddy bears carries the remains of 'Adam', an unknown 5-year-old whose dismembered remains were found floating in the Thames on 21 September 2001.
As the body was missing its head and all of its limbs the Metropolitan police had no dental records or fresh blood to help them trace his identity. In fact, just about the only evidence Scotland Yard had was a concoction of calabar beans found in his stomach and the fact that he was wearing bright orange shorts.
Yet, amazingly, Met police scientists have used DNA sampling to unlock the mystery of this meagre evidence and now believe that Adam hails from a 50 square mile region between Benin City and Ibadan in the South-West of Nigeria. They also believe the poor boy was hacked to pieces in a bizarre religious ritual.
While nobody has been charged with the murder the case is still open - and will be until Scotland Yard gets their man.
More & link: http://him.uk.msn.com/in-the-know/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=155014057&ocid=today
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