5 Dark Historical Mysteries We'll Probably Never Solve

In the later stages of World War II, members of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron, who were in constant dogfights over the Rhine, started to report some far-out stuff. According to the flying aces, they were being followed by an inexplicable series of lights -- sometimes green lights, sometimes red lights, sometimes one light, sometimes up to ten lights, sometimes slow-moving lights, sometimes lights that would outmaneuver their asses like it was a scene in Extraterrestrial Top Gun.

Only one thing remained constant: These lights were clearly fascinated by the pilots. The first time they were spotted, the crew reported seeing "eight to ten bright orange lights off the left wing ... flying through the air at high speed. [The plane] turned toward the lights and they disappeared ... later they appeared farther away. The display continued for several minutes and then disappeared." This became such a common occurrence that the pilots created a nickname for these alien lights, "foo fighters" -- after something from a Smokey Stover comic of the time and not Dave Grohl's first words.

According to the squadron, the sightings continued for weeks and months, but as the lights never appeared on the military's fancy new radar, high command thought their soldiers had gotten a little shell-shocked and ignored their ramblings. That is, until an embedded reporter from the Associated Press picked up on the story and propelled it to newspapers across the country. After that, the military began seriously researching whether these things were a danger to troops -- or, y'know, some kind of new Nazi weapon to steal when the Russians weren't looking.

In the aftermath of major disasters, it isn't uncommon for people to go missing. On 9/11, 1,113 people were never found or identified, leaving their families nothing to bury. However, nobody knows whether Sneha fell victim to the attack or if something had happened to her the previous day. There were signs pointing in almost all possible directions. Right before the plane hit, a woman of roughly her description was captured by security cameras in her apartment building lobby, only to turn at the elevator and make a run for it. If that was Sneha, it looks like a heroic medical professional dropping everything to go help the victims of a disaster. That's the story her family wanted to believe. There was only one little snag: Sneha had been living a double life.

When the police started looking into Sneha's case, their profile of her wasn't that of a heroic martyr, but more like the kind of person who probably has a go-bag under her bed. Sneha was apparently very unhappy in her current life, frequently going out alone to dark lesbian bars ("conducting bisexual acts," as they claimed her husband put it) and constantly getting into serious trouble at work on account of "alcohol related issues." Because of this, it was the court's official stance that Sneha could have as likely committed suicide, been the victim of a crime, or run off to start a new life with less guilt and less dude.

Ron and Sneha's family vehemently denied everything, claiming that the police were making up a story to cover their sloppy work. They kept campaigning to see their loved one remembered as a hero, and following a tough battle with the OCME, Sneha was added to the list of victims in 2008 after all, making her the 2,751st official victim of the attacks, although it's hard to see that as a "win."

So what the hell happened? Did the captain piss off Poseidon or something? Investigators were never able to figure out what had caused the fire. However, later experts suspected chief radio engineer George W. Rogers as the likely arsonist. Why? Maybe because his previous place of employment also suffered a fire-related catastrophe after the owner accused Rogers of stealing equipment. Or maybe because a radio repair shop Rogers bought after the Morro Castle sank also burnt to the ground after it failed to turn a profit. Or maybe it was how after his shop burned down, he joined the police and tried to murder his captain with a bomb for asking suspicious questions about the Castle Morro. Oh, and after he was released, he killed two people over a debt he owed them.

We're not saying that Rogers definitely torched the Castle Morro, but either the guy was a serial arsonist or someone owed him a lot of favors. However, his possible motive for burning down a ship in the middle of the ocean (besides the fun of the challenge) remains unknown. Some have suggested that he was paid by the steamship company to burn the Morro to the seabed for the insurance money, while others have suggested that he was a federal agent tasked with scuttling the Morro for -- and we can't emphasize how little evidence exists for this -- transporting arms to Cuban rebels. Our money is still on him just being a psychopath, though.

Well, maybe it was Bruce Ivins. For years, the FBI's biggest suspect was Steven Hatfill. However, Hatfill successfully sued their asses for $4.6 million for harassing him without any decent evidence. Needing a new suspect, they directed all their attention to Ivins, but it turns out that again their case against him was really sketchy as well. Unlike Hatfill, though, Ivins never sued them, mostly because he committed suicide days before the FBI formally charged him as the sole culprit. Then they closed the case.

Ivins could have been their guy, but there are too many holes in the investigation. It would've taken Ivins 240+ hours to cultivate the necessary number of anthrax spores, but none of his colleagues ever witnessed him using the required laboratory equipment. The FBI also didn't find any rogue spores in his workplace, vehicle, or home. But the biggest piece of evidence, according to the feds, was that the specific strain of anthrax used in the attacks had been created by the biologist. As far as evidence went, they treated it like someone murdering a person by shoving their driver's licence down their throat. Of course, it was later revealed that Ivins had provided many samples of his RMR-209 strain to any researcher who requested them. If the smoking gun says "Smith & Wesson" on the side, you arrest Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson, right?

Ultimately, however, it doesn't matter. Despite the fact that the National Research Council later released a report calling the scientific evidence against Ivins, to put it in layman's terms, total garbage, the FBI refuses to revisit their findings or allow an independent inquiry to review the matter, considering the case closed and keeping their fingers crossed that dead men will never be allowed to launch defamation lawsuits.

Adam Wears is on Twitter and Facebook! He also has a newsletter about depressing history that only the coolest kids subscribe to.

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For more, check out 6 Utterly Terrifying Unsolved Mysteries No One Can Explain and 5 Creepy Unsolved Disappearances That Nobody Can Explain.

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