People Break Down The Historical Mysteries That Will Never Be Solved

How 'bout a side of mystery with your history? (uh-uh. Stopping myself right there. There will be no rapping.)

Reddit user Apart-Scale asked:

"What historical mystery is unlikely to ever be solved?"

True crime lovers, history geeks, awful-sh*t aficionados and wizards of weird - this article is definitely for you.

Heads up, though, we need to add trigger warnings for:

harm/death of a child

murder

war/enslavement

domestic violence

... yeah humans are awful.​

"Hun, Can We Talk?"

"What Pope Leo said to Attila the Hun."

"Attila was taking over the world and made it to Rome and the Vatican. Leo rode out alone and spoke to Attila and convinced Attila to not destroy Rome and the Vatican."

"What was said, only the archives of the Vatican has any idea."

- Xikkiwikk

"Unfortunately the answer is probably really mundane and disappointing."

"Like a lot of miraculous historical events, it probably boils down to 'the story is just bullsh*t we made up later cause it sounded good.' ”

"They could’ve just bribed the Huns."

"Italy and Rome weren’t particularly rich by that time, so throwing a bunch of gold at the Huns and being like 'here let me spare you the time and energy of sacking it all' could’ve ACTUALLY worked because there wasn't enough there worth sacking for yet."

"Or no conversation ever happened and it’s a story developed later as a way for the Church and the Pope to take credit. The Huns could’ve left for any reason."

"Maybe the Pope did try to negotiate, it failed, but the Huns left after that anyway. Pope and Church still take credit."

- pyrhus626

After Alcatraz

"Whether Frank Morris, John Anglin, and his brother Clarence Anglin survived their escape from Alcatraz Federal Prison."

- onefinegander

"The History Channel has a great documentary about this."

"The two brothers families claim they survived by tying a rope onto a boat and holding on, which they used to do for fun as kids. Their friend claims he took them to Mexico and they lived to old age there with families and everything. They even offer evidence; Christmas cards they received and even a photo of them old."

"I'm convinced it's true."

- Crepes_for_days3000

"Freezing waters, rumors of sharks, handmade boat from vests that they probably had to inflate again and again throughout their trip."

"I saw a picture somewhere which was taken in or around 1985 and there were 2 people which pretty much were the Anglin brothers (you can find it if you search)."

"A body was also discovered by the Norwegian Navy, and it matched the description of Frank Morris."

"To me, the Anglin brothers made it and Morris drowned. Maybe they couldn't carry so much weight and the brothers conspired against Morris? Who knows."

"Fascinating nonetheless."

- CookieAdmiral

Where's The Prime Minister?

"One of Australias Prime Ministers just disappeared when he went for a swim in the ocean, so probably that."

- hulloiliketrucks

"There were suspicions the CIA had a hand in his disappearance because the US was royally pissed at him over his refusal to allow a US military installation in Australia."

"There were also rumours he was kidnapped by a submarine but those were most likely started by the CIA."

- Spookyrabbit

"Wasn't it assumed he was eaten by a saltwater croc?"

- Pyroclastic_Hammer

"Shark got him."

- SuperTrojan

"Probably just drowned and sunk into the ocean."

"The ocean has a tendency to completely an entirely delete corpses once they sink to the bottom. This is why it's rare to find the bodies of plane crash victims and sunken boats."

"Everything at the bottom is evolved to eat corpses with increasing efficiency. Not even bones last most of the time."

- jerrythecactus

"So the mystery is what Australian sea monster had Prime Minister for lunch?"

- CRANSSBUCLE

Not Too Neighborly

"Not a huge historical event, but one that will haunt my local history for a long time to come, I'm sure. My neighbor killed his whole family, buried them in his house, then went for a trip."

"Nobody knows if he's dead or hiding somewhere; and if so, where? The police kind of screwed up the start of the investigation, so he had a good head start on them."

"I went to the same school as the kids but we weren't the same age, so we didn't end up in the same class. He sent increasingly strange letters to family and friends before he disappeared."

"We didn't really knew them beside living nearby and frequenting the same places as a result."

"His name is (or maybe was if he is dead?) Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès. This was about ten years ago and he was since then featured in multiple TV shows and books."

- deadalnix

Before The Ancient Egyptians

"The disappearance of the Lake Fayum nomadic people that predated the pharaohs."

"They had no writing, no records of any form, and lived solely near the banks of the Nile and an ancient lake. They had a community for a long time that included bakeries, agriculture, weaving, and some precursor to religious or artistic elements."

"One day, the people vanished. But I mean JUST the people."

"They left their fish in the cooking pots, dry food stored under the floorboards of their houses, and pottery still on the wheel. It was like they were picked up and carried away or the people suddenly left in a hurry and left everything behind."

"Then shortly after, the material culture of early Pre-Pharaonic Egyptian kingdoms arose."

"Some believe the fayum people migrated north to become the early Egyptians because of unusually arid conditions - but you don't leave food cooking if you're going to migrate. They were nomads, packing up and moving on was their thing. This wasn't how it was done."

"Others say they were killed or captured, but there were no signs of struggle and they possessed and left no weapons. Also, that doesn’t make sense. Why would the invading people leave their entire culture and settlement intact and just poof the people away?"

- Squaragus_Asparagus

"I’d suggest that they may have died suddenly and were then buried by survivors or visitors. Similar to what happened at Lake Nyos?"

"Hypothetical, of course, but not impossible."

- Scottzilla90

"I'd assume some other folks came in to town, highly outnumbered them, and enslaved them all without giving the chance to take anything but the clothes on their backs."

"Egypt was built on the backs of slaves after all."

"This could have been common practice since before the pharaohs, and the people in that village knew it would've just meant their death if they fight back, so they all complied and no one died on site."

- shastaxc

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Read The Room

"What happened to the Amber Room."

"It was a big room in a Russian Palace that was covered ceiling to floor in sheets of amber and gold. The Amber Room was dismantled by Nazis and then all the pieces 'disappeared.' "

"Supposedly it was in a train carriage, hidden in some abandoned tunnels somewhere in Europe. The search continues even now."

"Germany helped build a replica in 2003, but the original panels and pieces are still missing."

- SweetieLove

"Sadly it was almost certainly destroyed during the burning of Königsberg Castle. It was its last known location, and a few non-flammable bits were found in the ruins."

- TheMightyGoatMan

"I had a Russian history professor at college who said that given the amount of debris from World War II in Russia that haven’t been found yet - he said that they continue to find train cars and other artifacts - he wouldn’t be surprised if it was just sitting around undiscovered in a lost train somewhere."

"I find it hard to believe, but it’s not like I have a PhD in Russian history to back anything up."

- Reasonable_Trash5928

"I think it’s just been broken down and scattered to many parts."

"They just found a sunken ship off the coast somewhere in Norway that supposedly has some pieces. On its way to South America with the rest of the Nazis stolen stuff."

- ksnizzo

Rasputin

"Rasputin."

"Even if he took the kings son off his asprin to help his hemophilia, how did he know to do that?"

"How did he even get so close with the royal family without anyone raising an eyebrow until it became completely public."

"Did Tsar Nicolas's advisories see nothing wrong with a homeless wizard being associated with the tsar?"

"How did he really die or how did he survive the shot and poison if that story is true? Just so many questions lost to time..."

- alexander_the_ok-

"The answers probably aren't lost to time; they are just ... kinda stupid."

" 'How did he know to do that?' Happy accident."

"Rasputin was a holy man who believed in the power of God over medicine, so he tried to cure the son with prayer. It's what any extremist would do."

"To the uncritical eye, it appeared he had cured him."

"How did he get so close? Alexandra."

"She was so insistent that he had healed her son and he became a confidant to her, even a best friend. She relied on his guidance and wouldn't listen to any bad words about him."

​"When the Duma confronted Nicholas about how influential Rasputin appeared to be to his decision making and how bad it was making him look, he simply replied that he would rather deal with the bad press than feel his wife's wrath."

"Yes, advisors absolutely did see something wrong and speak up - but Nicholas was an autocrat so his decisions were final."

"As for the story of his death; the cyanide that Felix Yusapov had bought for the poisoning was later tested to be an inert powder."

"It's likely that a lot of the myth surrounding Rasputins death was invented by Yusapov himself as a way of making him sound like he had won some heroic battle rather than just shot an unarmed man 3 times and had him carelessly dumped in a river."

"Sadly, a lot of the stories that you hear about Rasputin are like this; tales that have been inflated over time to make him sound more like a mythical creature, rather than just a sexual predator and high powered manipulator hiding behind the fake persona of a man of God."

"There are a lot more Rasputins - manipulative predators hiding behind the persona of a man of God - out there."

- ImSigmundFraud

Mystery Men

"The missing men of Bermagui, NSW, Australia."

"Five men disappeared in the 19th century. Like completely vanished off the face of the planet, with some very confusing things left behind."

"So few people know this story, yet it's such a baffling one."

"The men, one of which was a geological surveyor, went on a trip to scout new gold mines along the coast. Three days later the boat was spotted sitting stationary with only one man aboard."

"Later that same day along the beach people found the boat and things got weird."

"From what I remember:"

"On the beach now called Mystery Bay (due to this mystery), there was a doused campfire with a meal for one, not quite finished."

"There was a boat nearby, which had been deliberately scuttled with holes made from the inside, rather than from the outside. At least some of the holes were confirmed to be bullet holes."

"The hull was also stuffed with rocks - but also pillows and clothes and everything was dry."

"Inside the boat were some papers belonging to one of the missing men, who was supposed to be taking a boat trip with a local policeman instead."

"Also inside the boat was at least one bullet cartridge and vomit, as though someone had maybe been seasick."

"The bay was right below the hilltop where two of the men had been camping, and the other three men who disappeared were boatmen."

"The problem is that there's no real evidence of a crime, so it's not considered an unsolved murder case. Five men vanished and there's all this confusing stuff, but it's not a crime. It's just... a mystery."

"Honestly, I'd believe alien abduction or sea monster over a crime, because I don't see how anyone could've killed that many men and not left evidence of it behind, even if it was a gang."

"There's a monument at the bay, but I've never been to that part of New South Wales. Would love to go, though."

- CeliaEquus

Baby Beauty

"Jon Benet Ramsey."

- lukovdolboy

"I don't remember the channel or program (I want to say PBS) but it was on child pageants and contestants. Jon Benet and another girl were the main ones because of all their wins."

"I swear it was PBS because I caught it at a weird hour and it all played back to back. It followed their circuit for maybe a year or so?"

"I mostly remember how pretty she was and learning words like 'flappers' (for hiding teeth) and just how much they go through to keep such a hectic schedule (the ones that went to lots of them) as far as school and even the practice and makeup and all that."

"It was such a blur."

"And I remember parents that didn't understand, or care, that their 4 year old had simply had enough."

"Not all were bad situations, many enjoyed it so it wasn't like an undercover or shockumentary or anything - but you could tell in some instances that being unhappy may be a norm for some of these babies."

"I remember the parents being especially cruel at times to the kids because of their frothing desire to always have winners. I remember Jon Benet saying she didn't want to do them anymore."

"It was uncomfortable to look at at times and it sure did stick with me. Next I had heard, that poor child was dead.

"I can't stop myself from believing the mom did it or had it done. I stay wondering about that baby."

- bonafidebunnyeyed

"Jon Benet and I were in pageants together."

"I knew her from age 3 til 6 and only a few things stand out from that time. Her whole family was always weird."

"We often stayed in the same hotels and her mom tried to control everything, I remember slipping her pieces of my waffle at breakfast since her mom only let her eat yogurt."

"I distinctly remember seeing her face and the words 'dead' and 'murder' on tabloids in the grocery store and asking my mom what murder meant."

"It was very upsetting and still breaks my heart."

- clarissaswallowsall

"Agreed. Whoever really knows what really happened has been keeping their secret(s) for a very long time and will likely take those secrets to their grave if they haven't already."

"I also think the truth is likely something we could never think of because it's such a unique situation."

"Web sleuths and journalists seem to have a very hard time figuring out what's important and relevant and what's not. I think many people point the finger at someone in the family, while others still think it's an intruder."

"I still have no idea what really happened but I wish someone would just come forward with the truth already."

- Hotlikessauce69

The Vault

"There is a huge ancient temple in south India with vaults full of treasure that have been locked since God knows when."

"Historians tried opening a few and it is said that those who entered the vault were never the same after they came back."

"Some people believe it was cursed. I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with superstition and everything to do with stuff that may have grown or been trapped inside coz it was undisturbed for many hundreds of years."

"I read on it and it appears they opened 5 small vaults and there is one massive one which holds around 1 trillion dollars worth treasure but it is sealed and they are not able to open it without destroying the 500 year+ old monument."

"The problem is that the temple is covered with gold so any damage would cost a fortune. I would love for someone to solve the mystery but for now government has sealed it away forever."

- Venomally

Reddit has had their turn, now it's yours.

What unsolved-something are you pretty sure we're never going to know the truth about?