In 1986, the Swedish Prime Minister is shot dead walking back from the cinema. His long career in politics saw him make a lot of international enemies but even so, the case has never been solved. Maybe because there are so many damn suspects and possible motives? Including Yugoslavian intelligence, an arms deal scandal, Chilean extremists and more... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 01, 2022•52 min•Season 5Ep. 40
Two out of three ain't bad, right? Not a full house this week guys as our schedules are still tricky to align. While we have decided to record if two of us can make it, this isn't a permanent arrangement so don't worry! This week we take a look at an unsolved murder mystery which also happens to be a love story taking in movie stars, gulags and Stalin's inner circle... It's the incredible story of Zoya Fyodorova! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Aug 18, 2022•48 min•Season 5Ep. 39
This week's episode sees us back to our current season and bidding farewell to the 1970s in... Cambodia! Malcolm Caldwell, a Marxist writer from Scotland, is killed in mysterious circumstances very shortly after meeting Cambodia's leader, the infamous Pol Pot. Despite being a vocal supporter of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime, uncommon in the West, could Caldwell have been murdered for something he said in his audience with the despot? Or for something else entirely? We also go in (too much?) depth...
Aug 11, 2022•45 min•Season 5Ep. 38
An update to one of the earliest cases we covered and one of the most enduring mysteries of all time... The Somerton Man! A study believes they've unearthed the mystery man's identity so we take a sidestep from our current season and have a quick chat about the updates to this famous case... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 04, 2022•27 min
September 11 1978, Georgi Markov dies in hospital in Balham, South London. Markov was a Bulgarian journalist working for the BBC, having recently defected to the West earlier that year. He had developed a fear after something resembling an insect bite appeared on his thigh. An autopsy found a small pellet in the area, most likely filled with ricin. Before he died Georgi told his wife that when he felt the 'bite', he was on Waterloo Bridge and a man behind him was picking up an umbrella. Was Geor...
Jul 28, 2022•58 min•Season 5Ep. 37
Content Warning for this week: graphic descriptions (ie, direct quotes from witnesses) of mass murder... July 14th 1976, a house is torched in eastern France. The charred remains of its owner, a man named Rainer Buschman, are found within holding a pistol and a .22 calibre rifle in a defensive position. Not only is Rainer Buschman not who he first appeared to be, but there is also doubt from the French police that the body found is of Buschman at all. What's more, the core elements of this myste...
Jul 21, 2022•49 min•Season 5Ep. 36
This week's episode, we pop to Africa and gross ourselves out by having to say 'Rhodesia' a lot. In 1975, Herbert Chitepo was assassinated by a car bomb, which was so powerful it also claimed the lives of others. Herbert was the first black barrister in Rhodesia and a prominent figure in the fight for independence and the reclamation of Zimbabwe. However, some thought he was too moderate which means the list of suspects isn't just limited to his political enemies and the Rhodesian administration...
Jul 14, 2022•50 min•Season 5Ep. 35
January 1972, a plane crashes over what was then Czechoslovakia. Some believe it was shot down by Czechoslovakian defences mistakenly believing it to be an enemy aircraft, whereas some believe it was a briefcase bomb on board planted by Croatian nationalists. So what's the truth? Join us as we also dredge up the existence of Liam Lynch's 2003 microhit United States of Whatever and find ourselves in yet another surprise sequel to an episode from Mystery on the Rocks past... Hosted on Acast. See a...
Jul 07, 2022•46 min•Season 5Ep. 34
In 1970, prominent Italian journalist Mauro de Mauro vanishes without trace in Siciliy, his remains never discovered to this day. So what happened? Could it have something to do with the story he was about to break at the leftwing newspaper he was working at? Or was it to do with his shady fascist past during the era of Mussolini? Was it the Mafia? Or could it have something to do with a mysterious, unsolved plane crash eight years previously? We take a look at all the options while drinking a d...
Jun 30, 2022•43 min•Season 5Ep. 33
This week's episode takes a quick squint at the conspiracy theories that suggest mankind's greatest feat of space exploration never happened. There are many who believe the moon landings were 100% fake, but what do we think? We're sure you can guess... Along the way we also touch on the Flat Earth theory and one of the more outlandish conspiracy theories we heard about the pandemic. Remember, you can now watch extended Mystery on the Rocks episodes over at our Patreon - patreon.com/mysteryonther...
Jun 23, 2022•47 min•Season 5Ep. 32
In 1968 Francoist Spain, one of the leading members of the antifascist Basque separatist cell ETA sets in motion a chain of events that reach right up to the present day, including the assassinations of a Francoist police torturer and Franco's own chosen successor, a bitter fight throughout the 1980s with another terrorist group and maybe even the return of democracy to Spain in the late 70s. With, somehow, added chat about taxidermy... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information...
Jun 16, 2022•41 min•Season 5Ep. 31
In 1965, civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo was fatally shot during a car chase when she was pursued by four members of the KKK after she had been shuttling civil rights protestors back to the airport. Except, this is in a Southern State, so justice isn't easily forthcoming. And even the architect of the murder itself isn't all he seems... Lots of surprises in this one, not least how we manage to end up talking about The Phantom Menace ... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informat...
Jun 09, 2022•58 min•Season 5Ep. 30
The daddy of all conspiracy theories... In November 1963, president of the United States John F Kennedy is shot dead in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald is quickly named as the assassin, firing from the Texas Book Depository, but this version of events has failed to satisfy everyone. The presence of some homeless men with "nice shoes", a man with an umbrella despite clement weather and a incongruously dressed "Baboushka Lady" in the vicinity are just some ingredients which have perpetuated quite...
Jun 02, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Season 5Ep. 29
This week we find ourselves well and truly in the 1960s with the world the closest to nuclear war as it had come by this point... We take a quick look at why and what happened, get the year in which Dr Strangelove was released wrong and somehow become a Red Dwarf fan-cast along the way as well as finding ourselves performing a rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody. It's a weird one, even by our standards... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
May 26, 2022•45 min•Season 5Ep. 28
At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union supposedly sent up doomed manned spaceflights before Yuri Gagarin was recognised officially as the first man in space. While the Soviet Union never formally acknowledged the existence of these lost cosmonauts, and neither has Russia since the end of the Cold War, some recordings made by two Italian brothers apparently intercepted transmissions from these doomed missions and have given credence to the story. But is it true? If you would like to get ...
May 19, 2022•49 min•Season 5Ep. 27
Due to life/scheduling reasons, this week's episode isn't our regular programming. Instead of a mystery, this is a compilation of a tiny percentage of the extra just-chatting bonus stuff we put out on Patreon. So join us in the members' lounge of the Mystery on the Rocks bar as we discuss the recent (when we recorded) Oscars hoo-ha, weird dreams, diarrhoea, the bombshell that Chris was a nerd at school, snail depression, forgotten kids' TV shows, and 9/11 conspiracy theories. For more, sign up t...
May 05, 2022•52 min
Our current season continues into the 1950s as we take a look at the suicide of Lester C Hunt, a Democratic Senator for Wyoming. Several factors could have led to his ultimate decision to take his own life, including a personal scandal and recent diagnosis of ill health. Or was it increased pressure from certain politicians whom he had rubbed up the wrong way? Or a combination of all three? Due to a combination of life and scheduling reasons, next week's episode will be a frivolous cut of some o...
Apr 28, 2022•53 min•Season 5Ep. 26
This week we find the Cold War well and truly underway as one of the Soviet Union's most totemic figures (probably the most) bows out. In 1953, the Iron Man of Russia - Joseph Stalin - pegged it, precipitating a scramble for power and potentially a pretty big set back for the USSR at a crucial point in the burgeoning Cold War... We also briefly discuss weird sneezes, Lenin's dick and Sooz considers getting a boob out "for the podcast". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Apr 21, 2022•53 min•Season 5Ep. 25
This week's episode sees us move from the war into the 1950s, to the United States where the Civil Rights Movement is gaining momentum. So much so, that it has some white supremacists pretty worried. And at this point, white supremacists didn't need to be threatened in order to kill people. In 1951, pioneering Harry and Harriet Moore are murdered at home, becoming the first civil rights activists to be assassinated during the movement by opponents to their cause. The case remains unsolved decade...
Apr 14, 2022•47 min•Season 5Ep. 24
This week, we recorded on location in Sooz's dressing room as she got ready for a show (hence the echo, sorry guys) to discuss the end of World War II, specifically the devastating bombings of Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear weapons in August 1945. The death toll was huge and not always immediate. They may have put an end to World War II but the bombings also ushered in a new era of terror, the concept of mutually assured destruction and had a human cost which continues to be...
Apr 07, 2022•44 min•Season 5Ep. 23
Happy Birthday to us! We take a break from the current season as this week's episode is our third birthday special! A hugely self-indulgent stroll down memory lane as we recount the Mystery on the Rocks origins story, recap all of our mysteries so far, briefly discuss the future of the podcast and - naturally - get sidetracked by being silly. We've done so many episodes now that the completists among you may notice a few misrememberings. We know now that the Somerton Man's last meal was a pasty ...
Mar 31, 2022•1 hr 25 min
This week we are reaching the end of World War II and quite probably our most immature episode yet as we take a look at some of the conspiracy theories regarding the possibility that Adolf Hitler didn't end his own life in the bunker as Allied forces closed in on him in 1945, but instead survived and escaped via submarine to Argentina... And is there even a chance that he invented Angostura bitters...? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 24, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Season 5Ep. 22
For listeners from Eastern Europe, Poland specifically, we apologise sincerely and profusely for our terrible, terrible pronunciations. What dinguses we felt! Right stupidos... Why so heavy on Polish place names this episode? WELL! This week finds us in the latter days of World War II as a supposed train full of gold and treasures plundered by the Nazis goes missing in the Polish mountains. Is it still out there somewhere? Many have searched for it, including the Polish military for a time, and ...
Mar 17, 2022•47 min•Season 5Ep. 21
In early 1943, the Allies are planning to invade Sicily - although with each side of the war closely scrutinising the other with a ramped up focus on espionage and stealing secrets the question arises as to how to do so without the enemy knowing. A supremely audacious plan is concocted to throw Axis powers of the scent, a plan which has to be perfectly calibrated in order for the enemy to fall for it. And so, in nominally netural territory, Operation Mincemeat is put into action thanks to a futu...
Mar 10, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 5Ep. 20
Slightly looser episode this week as we get far too distracted by the relationship status of the two main characters in Jurassic Park but when we get to business it's two mysteries for the price of one! Our series hits the 1940s, which you know full well means World War 2. America's entrance into the conflict lies in the attack on Pearl Harbour so here we delve into two mysteries centered around the attack. Firstly, could a board game contain a coded message warning of the attack ahead of time a...
Mar 03, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Season 5Ep. 19
We might take a little longer than usual to get to the subject of this week's episode because Sooz and Chris were recording in the same room and so more time was spent on the cocktails as Masud instructed them on what to make but when we get there, we uncover something of a mystery within a topic we all thought we knew quite a great deal about. In 1938, the Nazis targeted Jewish businesses in what has become known as the Night of Broken Glass. Except, that's a bit of a simplification over time -...
Feb 24, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Season 5Ep. 18
Our current season hits 1937 an we head to Paris where Russian politician and economist Dimitri Navachine is stabbed to death while walking his dog. Despite the attack taking place in broad daylight, the mystery has never been solved, possibly because so many questions surround Dimitri himself... Was he exiled in France? Had he just emigrated there? Was he advising the French government off his own left-leaning back or was he infiltrating it as a spy for the Soviet Union? And who really wanted h...
Feb 17, 2022•56 min•Season 5Ep. 17
Federico Garcia Lorca was one of Spain's most promising and famous poets and playwrights of the 1920s. The fall of the Restoration era in 1931 saw the monarchy abolished, the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera fall and the installation of a left-leaning democratic government. Under this, Lorca thrived creatively except trouble was brewing in Spain... This new democracy wasn't to last and in 1936 increasing tensions saw another coup - this time against the government. It failed but still led ...
Feb 10, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Season 5Ep. 16
Famine hit the Soviet Union in 1932-1933, killing millions upon millions. It was covered up with creative language in the press but certain crusading journalists began uncovering the truth and reporting anonymously for their own safety. Until one Welsh journalist by the name of Gareth Jones returned from what is now the Ukraine and decided it was time to not only expose what was going on, but to be the first reporter to do so under his real name. Barely two years later, Gareth is murdered. Was i...
Feb 03, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 5Ep. 15
This week we learn about the founder of the controversial religious and political group Nation of Islam - Wallace Fard Muhammad. No fixed date of birth exists for the man and many have tried, including the FBI, to ascertain exactly from where and when he came. But to no avail... What's more, the elusive Wallace Fard Muhammad vanished completely from public record in 1934. Where did he come from? Where did he go? Along the way we uncover tales of adultery, an alliance between white supremacists a...
Jan 26, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 5Ep. 14
