Mystery on the Rocks

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 i...

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 mysteriou...

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...

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...

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...

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 incongruo...

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...

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 t...

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 s...

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...

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 consider...

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...

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 e...

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 am...

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 bitter...

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...

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...

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 t...

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...

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 ow...

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 19...

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 b...

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? W...

In 1934 to consolidate his iron grip on Germany, Hitler did away with dozens of political foes, and even allies he considered might be foes. This was Operation: Hummingbird. Also known as The Night of the Long Knives... This is the story of how Hitler turned on one of his closest allies, the story of the first openly gay politican in history and the story of Germany's further descent into tyranny....

The Nazis are in power and barely one month after the enabling act effectively makes Hitler dictator of Germany steps are made to eradicate literature and research deemed to go against the Nazi ideology. One particular place of scientific learning which falls foul is an institute set up by a Dr Magnus Hirschfeld, a progressive man who dedicated his life to helping the LGBTQIA+ community. No mean f...