Today you need to try hard to make data about yourself inaccessible to the public. After all, you just need to type a few words in a search engine - and secrets are revealed, and mysteries come to the surface. With the development of science and the improvement of technology, the game of hide and seek becomes more and more difficult. It was, of course, easier before. And there are many examples in history when it was impossible to find out what kind of person he was and where he came from. Here are a few such mysterious cases.

Kaspar Hauser

May 26, Nuremberg, Germany. 1828 A teenager of about seventeen wanders aimlessly through the streets, clutching a letter addressed to Commander von Wessenig. The letter states that the boy was taken in for training in 1812, taught to read and write, but was never allowed to "take one step out of the door." It was also said that the boy should become a "cavalryman like his father" and the commander could either accept him or hang him.
After meticulous questioning, we were able to find out that his name was Kaspar Hauser and he spent his entire life in a “darkened cage” 2 meters long, 1 meter wide and 1.5 meters high, in which there were only an armful of straw and three toys carved from wood (two horses and dog). A hole was made in the floor of the cell so he could relieve himself. The foundling hardly spoke, could not eat anything except water and black bread, called all people boys, and all animals horses. The police tried to find out where he came from and who the criminal was that made a savage out of the boy, but they could not find out. For the next few years, he was cared for by one person or another, taking him into their home and caring for him. Until December 14, 1833, Kaspar was found with stabbed breasts A purple silk wallet was found nearby, and inside it was a note made in such a way that it could only be read in a mirror image. It read:
“Hauser will be able to describe to you exactly what I look like and where I came from. In order not to bother Hauser, I want to tell you myself where I come from _ _ I came from _ _ the Bavarian border _ _ on the river _ _ I’ll even tell you my name: M . L. O."

Green Children of Woolpit

Imagine that you live in the 12th century in the small village of Woolpit in the English county of Suffolk. While harvesting in a field, you find two children huddled in an empty wolf's hole. The children speak an incomprehensible language, are dressed in indescribable clothes, but the most interesting thing is that their skin is green. You take them to your home where they refuse to eat anything other than green beans.
After a while, these children - brother and sister - begin to speak a little English, eat more than just beans, and their skin gradually loses its green tint. The boy gets sick and dies. The surviving girl explains that they came from "St. Martin's Land", an underground "world of darkness" where they looked after their father's cattle when they heard a noise and found themselves in wolf's den. The inhabitants of the underworld are green and dark all the time. There were two versions: either it was a fairy tale, or the children escaped from the copper mines.

The Man from Somerton

On December 1, 1948, police discovered the body of a man on Somerton Beach in Glenelg (a suburb of Adelaide) in Australia. All the tags on his clothes were cut off, he had no documents or wallet, and his face was clean shaven. Even the teeth could not be identified. That is, there was not a single clue at all.
After the autopsy, the pathologist concluded that “death could not have occurred due to natural causes” and assumed poisoning, although no traces of toxic substances were found in the body. Apart from this hypothesis, the doctor could not guess anything more about the cause of death. Perhaps the most mysterious thing in this whole story was that with the deceased they found a piece of paper torn from a very rare edition of Omar Khayyam, on which only two words were written - Tamam Shud (“Tamam Shud”). These words are translated from Persian as “finished” or “completed”. The victim remained unidentified.

Man from Taured

In 1954, in Japan, at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, thousands of passengers were rushing about their business. However, one passenger seemed to be taking no part in it. For some reason, this outwardly completely normal man in a business suit attracted the attention of airport security, they stopped him and started asking questions. The man answered in French, but was also fluent in several other languages. His passport contained stamps from many countries, including Japan. But this man claimed that he came from a country called Taured, located between France and Spain. The problem was that none of the maps offered to him showed any Taured in this place - Andorra was located there. This fact greatly saddened the man. He said that his country had existed for centuries and that he even had its stamps in his passport.
Discouraged airport staff left the man in hotel room with two armed guards outside the door, while they tried to find more information about this man. They didn't find anything. When they returned to the hotel for him, it turned out that the man had disappeared without a trace. The door did not open, the guards did not hear any noise or movement in the room, and he could not leave through the window - it was too high. Moreover, all of this passenger’s belongings disappeared from the airport security premises.
The man, simply put, dived into the abyss and did not return.

Lady Grandmother

The 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy has given rise to many conspiracy theories, and one of the most mystical details of this event is the presence in photographs of a certain woman dubbed Lady Granny. This woman in a coat and sunglasses was in a bunch of pictures, moreover, they show that she had a camera and was filming what was happening.
The FBI tried to find her and establish her identity, but to no avail. The FBI later called on her to turn over her videotape as evidence, but no one ever came. Just think: this woman, in daylight, in full view of at least 32 witnesses (photographed and videoed by her), witnessed and videotaped a murder, and yet no one, not even the FBI, could identify her. It remained a secret.

D. B. Cooper

This happened on November 24, 1971 in international airport Portland, where a man who had bought a ticket using documents in the name of Dan Cooper boarded a plane bound for Seattle, clutching a black briefcase in his hands. After takeoff, Cooper gave the flight attendant a note saying that he had a bomb in his briefcase and his demands were $200,000 and four parachutes. The flight attendant notified the pilot, who contacted authorities.
After landing at Seattle Airport, all passengers were released, Cooper's demands were met and the exchange was made, after which the plane took off again. As he flew over Reno, Nevada, the calm Cooper ordered all personnel on board to remain seated as he opened the passenger door and jumped into the night sky. Despite the large number of witnesses who could identify him, “Cooper” was never found. Only a small portion of the money was found in a river in Vancouver, Washington.

21-faced monster

In May 1984, a Japanese food corporation called Ezaki Glico faced a problem. Its president, Katsuhiza Yezaki, was kidnapped for ransom from his home and held for some time in an abandoned warehouse, but then managed to escape. A little later, the company received a letter stating that the products were poisoned with potassium cyanide and there would be casualties if all products were not immediately recalled from food warehouses and stores. The company's losses amounted to $21 million, 450 people lost their jobs. The Unknowns - a group of people who took the name "21-faced monster" - sent mocking letters to the police, who could not find them, and even gave hints. The next message said that they had “forgiven” Glico, and the persecution had stopped.
Not content with playing with one large corporation, the Monster organization has its eyes on others: Morinaga and several other food companies. They acted according to the same scenario - they threatened to poison the food, but this time they demanded money. During a botched money exchange operation, a police officer almost managed to capture one of the criminals, but still let him go. Superintendent Yamamoto, who was responsible for investigating this case, could not bear the shame and committed suicide by self-immolation.
Soon after this, "Monster" sent his last message in the media, ridiculing the death of a police officer and ending with the words: "We are the bad guys. That means we have something else to do besides harass companies. Being bad is fun. A monster with 21 faces." And nothing more was heard about them.

The Man in the Iron Mask

The "man in the iron mask" had the number 64389000, as follows from prison archives. In 1669 the minister Louis XIV sent a letter to the head of the prison in the French city of Pignerol, in which he announced the imminent arrival of a special prisoner. The minister ordered the construction of a cell with several doors to prevent eavesdropping, to provide for this prisoner's every basic need, and finally, if the prisoner ever spoke of anything other than this, to kill him without hesitation.
This prison was known for incarcerating "black sheep" from noble families and the government. It is noteworthy that the "mask" received special treatment: his cell was well furnished, unlike the rest of the prison cells, and two soldiers were on duty at the door of his cell, who were ordered to kill the prisoner if he removed his iron mask. The imprisonment lasted until the prisoner's death in 1703. The same fate befell the things he used: the furniture and clothes were destroyed, the walls of the cell were scraped and washed, and the iron mask was melted down.
Many historians have since fiercely debated the identity of the prisoner in an attempt to find out whether he was a relative of Louis XIV and for what reasons he was destined for such an unenviable fate.

Jack the Ripper

Perhaps the most famous and mysterious serial killer in history, London first heard about him in 1888, when five women were killed (although it is sometimes said that there were eleven victims). All the victims were connected by the fact that they were prostitutes, and also by the fact that all of them had their throats cut (in one of the cases, the cut went right up to the spine). All victims had at least one organ cut out of their bodies, and their faces and body parts were mutilated almost beyond recognition.
What's most suspicious is that these women were clearly not killed by a novice or amateur. The killer knew exactly how and where to cut, and he knew the anatomy perfectly, so many immediately decided that the killer was a doctor. The police received hundreds of letters in which people accused the police of incompetence, and there appeared to be letters from the Ripper himself, signed “From Hell.”
None of the many suspects and none of the countless conspiracy theories have been able to shed any light on the case.

Agent 355

One of the first spies in US history, and a female spy, was Agent 355, who worked for George Washington during the American Revolution and was part of the Culper Ring spy organization. This woman provided vital information about the British army and its tactics, including plans for sabotage and ambushes, and if not for her, the outcome of the war might have been different.
Supposedly in 1780, she was arrested and sent aboard a prison ship, where she gave birth to a boy, who was named Robert Townsend Jr. She died a little later. However, historians are suspicious of this story, saying that women were not sent to floating prisons, and there is no evidence of the birth of a child.

The Zodiac Killer

Another serial killer who remains unknown is the Zodiac. This is practically an American Jack the Ripper. In December 1968, he shot and killed two teenagers in California - right on the side of the road - and attacked five more people the following year. Only two of them survived. One victim described the attacker as a pistol-waving man wearing a cloak with an executioner's hood and a white cross painted on his forehead.
Like Jack the Ripper, the Zodiac maniac also sent letters to the press. The difference is that these were ciphers and cryptograms along with crazy threats, and at the end of the letter there was always a crosshair symbol. The main suspect was a man named Arthur Lee Allen, but the evidence against him was only circumstantial and his guilt was never proven. And he himself died of natural causes shortly before the trial. Who was the Zodiac? No answer.

Unknown Rebel (Tank Man)

This photograph of a protester facing a column of tanks is one of the most famous anti-war photographs and also contains a mystery: the identity of this man, called Tank Man, has never been established. An unidentified rebel single-handedly held off a column of tanks for half an hour during the Tiananmen Square riots in June 1989.
The tank was unable to avoid the protester and stopped. This prompted Tank Man to climb onto the tank and talk to the crew through the vent. After some time, the protester got down from the tank and continued his standing strike, preventing the tanks from moving forward. Well, then he was carried away by people in blue. It is unknown what happened to him - whether he was killed by the government or forced into hiding.

Woman from Isdalen

In 1970, the partially burned body of a naked woman was discovered in the Isdalen Valley (Norway). More than a dozen sleeping pills, a lunch box, an empty liquor bottle and plastic bottles that smelled like gasoline were found on her. The woman suffered severe burns and carbon monoxide poisoning, was found with 50 sleeping pills inside her, and may have been hit in the neck. The tips of her fingers were cut off so that she could not be identified by her prints. And when the police found her luggage at a nearby railway station, it turned out that all the labels on the clothes were also cut off.
Upon further investigation, it turned out that the deceased had a total of nine aliases, a whole collection of different wigs and a collection of suspicious diaries. She also spoke four languages. But this information did not greatly help in identifying the woman. A little later, a witness was found who saw a woman in fashionable clothes walking along the path from the station, followed by two men in black coats - towards the place where the body was discovered 5 days later.
But this evidence was not very helpful.

Grinning Man

Usually paranormal events are difficult to take seriously and almost all phenomena of this kind are exposed almost immediately. However, this case seems to be of a different kind. In 1966, in New Jersey, two boys were walking along the road towards the barrier at night and one of them noticed a figure behind the fence. The towering figure was dressed in a green suit that shimmered in the lantern light. The creature had a wide grin or grin and small prickly eyes that constantly followed the frightened boys with their gaze. The boys were then questioned separately and in great detail, and their stories matched exactly.
Some time later, reports of such a strange Grinning Man appeared again in West Virginia, and in large numbers and from different people. Grinning even talked to one of them, Woodrow Dereberger. He identified himself as "Indrid Cold" and asked if there had been any reports of unidentified flying objects in the area. In general, he made an indelible impression on Woodrow. Then this paranormal entity was still encountered here and there until he disappeared completely.

Rasputin

Perhaps no other historical figure can compare with Grigory Rasputin in terms of the degree of mystery. And although we know who he is and where he comes from, his personality is surrounded by rumors, legends and mysticism and is still a mystery. Rasputin was born in January 1869 into a peasant family in Siberia, where he became a religious wanderer and “healer,” claiming that a certain deity gave him visions. A number of controversial and bizarre events led to the fact that Rasputin, as a healer, found himself in royal family. He was invited to treat Tsarevich Alexei, who was suffering from hemophilia, in which he was even somewhat successful - and as a result acquired enormous power and influence over the royal family.
Rasputin, associated with corruption and evil, suffered countless unsuccessful assassination attempts. Either they sent a woman with a knife to him under the guise of a beggar, and she almost gutted him, or they invited him to the house of a famous politician and tried to poison him there with cyanide mixed into his drink. But that didn't work either! In the end, he was simply shot. The killers wrapped the body in sheets and threw it into the icy river. It later turned out that Rasputin died from hypothermia, and not from bullets, and was even almost able to extricate himself from his cocoon, but this time luck did not smile on him.

Researchers are still scratching their heads trying to find out: who are they?

“No document, no person,” asserted Woland in the novel Bulgakov"Master and Margarita". But most of the situations described below have documentary evidence, but who their main characters were is still a mystery. One version is more bizarre than the other, some facts contradict others. And the truth is somewhere nearby, but completely elusive.

Green children from another planet

Several ancient manuscripts have survived that describe mysterious story, which occurred in the 12th century in the village of Woolpit in Suffolk. One hot August day, a boy and a girl materialized in front of the reapers. The children were scared and looked very strange: eyewitnesses were amazed green color their skins, strange clothes and an unfamiliar whistling language that the children spoke.

The boy turned out to be weak and soon died. And the girl was baptized, and over time she became lighter. According to some sources, she stayed in the village and married a local guy. According to others, her name was Agnes Barr and the Supreme Ambassador became her husband HeinrichII.

Selfish parents or evil guardian?

Over time, the girl told local residents how she and her brother ended up in Woolpit. According to her, they lived in a place where the sun did not shine, there was always fog, and the people were green. Another version: the guys lived in France. One day they were grazing sheep in a meadow when they saw a fireball. The boy and girl were pulled inside, and they woke up already in England on the field. But this does not explain the green color of their skin and strange language. The researchers suggested that the children escaped from the copper mines, where they were forced to work hard. Copper dust could stain their skin, and they made up the extraterrestrial origin story so they wouldn't be sent back.

Others were convinced that their guardian wanted to poison the children with arsenic. This poison turns the skin greenish. But why then did the unknown foundlings not die from poisoning?

There was a version that the brother and sister escaped from a troupe of traveling actors. Their parents somehow mutilated their skin and showed it at fairs for money. And many folklorists and chroniclers are sure that there never were “green children.” This is just a beautiful and slightly creepy legend.

Foundling with a small brain

On May 26, 1828, a 15-16 year old teenager was discovered in Nuremberg on the market square. He had with him a letter addressed to the commander of the cavalry squadron von Wessenig. It followed that the mother could not take care of the child, he did not have a father, but the boy wanted to become a cavalryman and serve the king. When they asked the boy what his name was, he firmly signed with his hand: “ Kaspar Hauser».

The foundling aroused unprecedented interest in society: he had the intelligence of a three-year-old child, moved strangely, was afraid of sounds, could not stand many smells, held his fingers spread apart, had an extremely small vocabulary, and ate mostly black bread and water. Kaspar said about himself that from an early age he lived in a cramped closet, in which it was impossible to really turn around and stand in full height. He slept half-sitting, and a “black man” served him. He fed him bread and water. Sometimes the water had a strange taste, and the child immediately fell asleep. He woke up already changed into clean clothes and with his fingernails cut. The boy was kept company by wooden toys, and later the “black man” taught him to write.

M.L.O.

The police tried to establish who kept the child locked up and for what reason, and who his parents were. Some considered him weak-minded, others took care of him in every possible way. Over time, Kaspar changed several houses of the nobility, became interested in painting, and even learned to play chess. But no one could guess his identity. There were rumors that he was the son Stephanie de Beauharnais, Grand Duchess of Baden, whose son died in the cradle under mysterious circumstances, but he could have been replaced.

On October 17, 1829, on a white day, Kaspar was attacked by an unknown person with a knife. The young man was delirious for several days and shouted: “Black man!” Fortunately, the wound was not fatal and he survived.

However, on December 14, 1833, the young man was attacked again and brutally stabbed to death. A wallet was found next to the body, and in it an illegible note that could only be read in a mirror image: “In order not to bother Hauser, I want to tell you myself where I’m from... I came from... the Bavarian border... on river... I’ll even tell you the name: M. L. O.”

An autopsy revealed that Casper's brain was too small, as if its development had been artificially stopped at a certain stage. In 2002, DNA samples were taken from the young man’s clothing. The result showed that it was quite possible that he was Stephanie's son, but not all researchers take this for granted. There is still debate about the identity of the “child of Europe,” as he was also called. Some even classify him as an alien, while others see him as a typical Mowgli child.

A man from a country that is not on the map

In 1954, at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, security noticed a European man in a business suit who was slightly confused. The man spoke French and knew several other languages. He showed his passport, which had stamps from different countries, including the Country rising sun, which he visited several times Lately. The detainee explained that he came from the country of Taured and clearly indicated it on the map, pointing to Andorra. He insisted that it was Tord who was here, and had flown to Tokyo on a business trip. He has a hotel room booked in the city, and company is waiting for him.

No one recognized the man either at the organization’s office or at the hotel. The distressed and confused stranger was locked in the room, deciding to continue the investigation of this mysterious case in the morning. However, the man disappeared, as did all his belongings that were in the airport security premises. He couldn’t get out of the window because the floor was high and there was no balcony. It is believed that it was a time traveler who got a little lost on the way.

Jump to nowhere

On November 24, 1971, a passenger boarded the Boeing 727-51 airliner - flight NW305 Portland - Seattle, who bought a ticket under the name Dan Cooper. After takeoff, the man passed a note to the flight attendant. The girl thought that he wanted to meet her and put the piece of paper in his pocket. However, Cooper stopped her and whispered about the theft and the bomb. He demanded $200 thousand and four parachutes.

After landing in Seattle, all passengers were released, the plane was refueled, and it took to the skies again. Cooper jumped out with a parachute in the area of ​​​​Lake Merwin. The fighter escorting the airliner did not track the man's jump due to poor visibility.

No one ever saw Cooper again, who managed to fool everyone around his finger. In 1980, a wad of dollars was found in river water northwest of Portland. A total of $6 thousand was raised. Experts matched the serial numbers to the numbers on $20 bills issued to Cooper and confirmed that they were the hijacker's trophy. Presumably, he died after crashing into the water. In July 2016, the FBI suspended its investigation into the case.

Dan Cooper. An identikit made by the FBI in 1972. wikimedia

Let mom hear

American under fifteen Monica Libao Together with my parents, I changed about 30 places of residence. At the age of sixteen she learned that her mother Burma I had my uterus removed twenty years ago, that is, before my daughter was born. The mother finally admitted that Monica was actually given birth to by her older sister, who could not raise the child on her own and placed him in the care of a close relative.

However, the biological mother quickly disowned the girl, telling a different story. Allegedly, an unknown woman gave the baby to the Libao family in exchange for a bus ticket. Monica then learned that Burma had been hiding her from the police and found evidence that she had, in fact, been kidnapped. Therefore, her parents constantly moved, covering their tracks.

A private investigator hired by Monica found a two-year-old story Elizabeth Gill, which was stolen from a home in Missouri in 1965. But the result of DNA analysis did not confirm this. The woman is still trying to find out who she is and to find her relatives, mom and dad.

The most mysterious people in the world

1. Satoshi Nakamoto worked in secret for years to develop and launch the digital currency Bitcoin. Nakamoto was very careful in his activities. Nobody knows the creator of Bitcoin by sight. A few years after the launch of Bitcoin, Satoshi completely disappeared into the shadows and no one has heard anything about him since then. But whoever Nakamoto is, he controls his hundreds of millions of dollars in untraceable Bitcoin.

2 . For 70 years on Edgar Allan Poe's birthday, a disguised figure raises a toast over Poe's grave. Before disappearing Po-Toaster, as he is now known, placed 3 roses on the grave to pay tribute to Poe. But, for unknown reasons, he has not been seen since 2010.

3. The assassination of John F. Kennedy is an event riddled with strange coincidences. One secret figure seen in the photographs is known as Umbrella Man. At the time of the murder, this man was the only person carrying an umbrella on a clear sunny day. He is one of the closest observers of the murder. In the photographs you can see how he raised his umbrella up and rotates it and at the moment of the murder he holds the umbrella clockwise. The identity of the "Umbrella Man" has not been definitively determined.

4. In France in the 1880s young woman body was caught from the Seine River. The coroner thought she was very beautiful and sculpted her face out of plaster. The woman has not been identified, but her face is now famous around the world thanks to CPR. A Norwegian toy manufacturer used the face of a woman from the Seine to create the first CPR doll. Her face is the most kissed face in history.

5. Dan Cooper is the pseudonym of the only hijacker in US aviation history. Cooper stole a Boeing 727 with explosives in his briefcase and demanded $200,000 in cash. After his demands were met, he jumped mid-flight from the back stairs of the plane into the darkness. Two fighters following the hijacked plane did not see Cooper's parachute. And despite a massive US manhunt for Dan, he and the cash were never found. The fate of the man who hijacked the plane is unknown.

6. In the 1790s, French prisoners in the Bastille noticed a special prisoner who was wearing an iron mask. The masked prisoner never removed his mask and was forbidden to speak to him for mysterious reasons. The only information in his prison file consists of one line: prisoner number. Most experts believe the man was an important, high-ranking prisoner who may have even been a royal. The masked man died in captivity without revealing his crimes to anyone.

7. In 1989, student protesters in Tiananmen Square forced the Chinese government to declare martial law. The persecution was brutal, with government forces using tanks and live ammunition against the demonstrators. One of the photographs shows unknown man in front of a column of tanks, who refused to leave in an act of defiance and bravery. However, his identity and fate are completely unknown.

8. In 1593, a Spanish palace guard named Gil Perez was on duty after the assassination of the local governor. Chinese pirates had killed the governor of Manila the night before while Perez fell asleep for a moment. When he woke up, he found himself in an unfamiliar place, people approached him asking who he was, and he discovered that he was in Mary City in the Plaza Mayor. He informed the authorities. The governor of Manila was assassinated two months later. News arrived from the Philippines by ship confirming his story. Little is known about Perez and his teleportation from Manila to Mexico City.

9. One more mysterious man was involved in the Kennedy assassination lady dressed as granny. This lady may have been the reason for the inaccurate recording of everything that happened at the crime scene. The FBI demanded that the unidentified woman come forward and turn around. But the woman did not come forward in the photo, and her footage has never been found. The last scene The photos were of the Grandma Lady walking away from the crime scene towards Elm Street.

10. A killer by name Zodiac was a crazed serial killer who openly mocked law enforcement. He sent them letters in coded letters and bragged about how many people he had killed. The Zodiac claimed to have killed 37 people, but only 7 crimes led to him. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, other murders remained unsolved and his identity remains unknown.

The article was prepared by ©Marina

These people committed scientific discoveries, performed magical rituals, expanded the boundaries of human capabilities, and were declared saints and prophets. They are very different, but they all left behind more questions than answers.

Grigory Rasputin

Nicholas II and the Empress called him “our friend”, or “Gregory”, and he called them “father and mother”. Montenegrin princesses were brought into the family of the last Russian Emperor Rasputin, who were disliked in the world for their addiction to the occult, calling them “Montenegrin spiders.”

Rasputin performed a rather practical function at court - he helped the sick Tsarevich Alexei.

According to popular legend, he came to St. Petersburg on the personal instructions of the Mother of God - as the savior of the prince, and also said more than once: “I will not exist - there will be no king” (and he turned out to be right).

All the time that Rasputin was at court, they were “digging” under him. He was a very inconvenient figure, protesting against Russia's participation in the First World War. Many of the accusations brought against Rasputin - of sectarianism, debauchery, behind-the-scenes influence on politics - were never brought to completion due to the fact that they did not receive proper confirmation.

In the summer of 1914 the first attempt was made on Rasputin, on December 30, 1916 - the second and last.

Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley can be called the most successful "bad boy intellectual" of the twentieth century. He managed to create, and most importantly, successfully sell his image and his teaching “Thelema” (Greek “will”).
Aleister Crowley was initiated into several occult Orders.

In terms of his level of fame and the resonance he made on culture, he can be compared to rock stars.

In his community (the Abbey of Thelema), Crowley promoted absolute liberation from bodily and spiritual fetters; community members performed magical rituals, indulged in promiscuity, and used drugs.

In his teaching, Crowley combined the teachings of various cultures; even Russian Khlystyism had a serious influence on his worldview and system. Crowley visited Russia more than once and admitted that Russian culture expanded his consciousness.

A widely accepted version is that one of Crowley's devoted fans was Adolf Hitler. The influence of the magician's teachings on Hitler was undeniable, but one cannot call him a direct follower. Crowley himself more than once denied involvement with Hitler, calling him a magician who did not understand the true meaning of the sacrament. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, was fond of Crowley's books.

Ungern von Steinberg

The Mongols called Baron Ungern the “white god of war.” He dreamed of restoring the empire of Genghis Khan and saving the monarchy throughout the world.

Ungern said that the blood of famous warriors flows in his veins, that his ancestor was almost Attila himself. The baron also had Teutonic knights in his family, and, as he himself assured, a knight-errant nicknamed “Axe,” the robber knight Ralph Ungern and the 17th-century alchemist Wilhelm Ungern, who was called only “the brother of Satan.”

Roman Ungern approached questions of faith with his characteristic originality.

In the interrogation report of Baron Ungern, he calls himself a man who believes in God and the Gospel and practices prayer. This is indirectly confirmed by Ungern’s letters; they often contain quotations from the Holy Scriptures.

However, during a conversation with the occultist writer Ferdinand Ossendowski, Ungern said: “I spent my life in battles and studying Buddhism. My grandfather became familiar with Buddhism in India, and my father and I also recognized the teaching and professed it.”

Baron Ungerni professed the Buddhist philosophical teaching of Chittamatra, one of the Mahayana movements, widespread among Tibetan lamas. One of its provisions is that reality is a game of the mind and a figment of the imagination.

Ungern distinguished himself with valor in the First World War. They said about him: “Either he wants to die, or he is absolutely sure that the bullets will not kill him.” For his exploits, the baron was awarded five orders, including St. George 4th degree with the inscription “For bravery”.

The baron did not accept the revolution; he believed in the monarchy.

The black baron dreamed of creating a power that would unite the nomads of the East from the shores of the Indian and Pacific oceans to Kazan and Astrakhan. Its first grain was to be Mongolia, its support was China, the ruling dynasty was the House of Qin, which the Chinese overthrew during the Xinhai Revolution of 1911-1913.

Ungern even succeeded in something. When Ungern took Urga on February 2, 1921, he received a lot of gold and the titles: Qing-wan, prince of the 1st rank, and the highest, khan, with the title “Great Bator, commander who revived the state.”

He didn't sit still for a long time. That same spring, he went north to fight the Bolsheviks and restore the empire of Genghis Khan.
He was betrayed by his own officers of the Asian Division. September 15, 1921, despite the moratorium on death penalty, he was shot. They say that before his death, Robert-Nicholas-Maximilian von Ungern-Sternberg chewed his Order of St. George so that it would not go to his enemies.

Casey

Edgar Cayce can be called one of the most effective predictors of the 20th century. Rare abilities were passed on to him by inheritance. Casey’s mother heard voices whispering to her what to do in a given situation, and her grandfather was an unusual person: “Whatever he touched, everything grew. It was like magic. Moreover, all the wells in the area were dug where grandfather showed, and they always found water.”

Edgar had special genes. According to his researcher Sugr, in the soothsayer’s gene code, two rare braids of double helices of DNA molecules were intertwined into a single braid, each of which was charged in its own way with paranormal information.

One of them went to Edgar Cayce from his mother, who heard whispers from other worlds, and the other from his grandfather.

Being an excellent doctor, a great predictor and a world-famous person, Edgar himself gave all his advice, diagnoses and methods of treatment in a state of trance, but he himself did not remember anything that was said. According to the recollections of his relatives, in his normal state he was not distinguished by his sharp mind, insight and education.

We must give him his due; Casey did not seek to make money from his gift, refusing the most attractive scams.
Cayce made many prophecies, he predicted both world wars, the rise of China, the discovery of the Qumran scrolls, and much more. He planned his reincarnation for the year 2100.

Gurdjieff

In his youth, George Gurdjieff studied at the same theological seminary as Stalin. IN mature years became one of the masters of thought in Europe. Here there was a real fashion for the teachings of magicians and teachers.

Gurdjieff founded the nomadic Institute for Harmonious Development here.

The basis of training was the principle of the pendulum, or more precisely, the removal of the pendulum from a state of equilibrium. Gurdjieff argued that any development begins in struggle, that for effective growth it is necessary to take a person out of his comfort zone. Well-groomed aristocratic women at the Gurdjieff Institute washed and hammered nails; a man, afraid of the sight of blood, was sent to slaughter cattle.

It is believed that Gurdjieff influenced Stalin to change his date of birth. The rectification of the date allowed him to take and maintain power. Both magicians chose the same year, 1879, as the year of their new incarnation. This year's totem is the spider.

In the last years of his life, Gurdjieff introduced himself as a dance teacher and claimed that each of his “sacred dances” contained a secret meaning inaccessible to the uninitiated.

There is even a version that Gurdjieff with his ballet “Battle of the Magicians” provoked the Second World War.

One of Gurdjieff's students in the 1920s was Karl von Stülpnagel. Already in the 30s, when a former student was walking down the street accompanied by two SS men with dogs, Gurdjieff gave him a kick with the words “Recollection!” (Remember!). Gurdjieff behaved like a Zen teacher beating a student with a stick to awaken him. In 1944, Stülpnagel, already a colonel general of the infantry, became a participant in a conspiracy against Hitler. According to recollections, before the execution, Gurdjieff’s student retained his “soldier’s bearing.”
The magician died on October 29, 1949 in an American hospital near Paris. Got into a car accident.

Nikola Tesla

The fact that Tesla was a genius is not even discussed today. Without his inventions, we would not have electricity, fluorescent lamps, wireless communications, vertical take-off aircraft, hovercraft... He predicted that the world would soon be filled with smart machines, robots, various sensors and autonomous systems.

Tesla invented the first radio-controlled model.

When demonstrating the boat in one of the parks, it caused some people to panic. His invention seemed like a miracle at the time, but now it is believed that Tesla was at the foundation of robotics.

In 1931, Tesla showed the public a mysterious car. The gasoline engine was removed from the luxury limousine and an electric motor was installed. Then Tesla, in front of the public, placed a nondescript box under the hood, from which two rods protruded, and connected it to the engine. Having said: “Now we have energy,” Tesla got behind the wheel and drove off.

The car was tested for a week. It reached speeds of up to 150 km/h and did not seem to need recharging at all. Everyone asked the scientist: “Where does energy come from?” He answered: “From the ether.” The mystery of that box has not yet been solved, but it is no coincidence that the first serious electric car, released recently, was named after the great scientist.

The “Death Ray” is perhaps the most famous invention of the brilliant Serb.

Tesla invented the charged particle beam emitter after studying the Van de Graaff generator. To implement his developments, Tesla needed money, but he did not want to sell the invention into the hands of one state, reasonably believing that this could forever change the balance of power on Earth.

The inventor sent proposals around the world to construct a “super weapon”, intending to establish a balance of power between different countries and thus avert the onset of World War II. The mailing list included the governments of the USA, Canada, England, France, Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. The USSR became seriously interested in Tesla's discovery.

In 1937, Tesla held negotiations with the Amtorg company, which represented the interests of the USSR in the United States, and gave it some plans for a vacuum chamber for its “death rays.” Two years later, Tesla received a check for $25,000 from the USSR.

The Second World War confused the cards, and the Tesla Tower was destroyed by the Americans themselves.

It was believed that it could be used by the Nazis. But the world has not forgotten about Tesla's developments. They were used in the Star Wars program (American Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).

Tesla seemed strange to those around him. While walking, he could do a somersault on the spot for no apparent reason, and often walked while talking to himself. Tesla spoke eight languages ​​fluently, was active in sports, wrote poetry, and went through an addiction to gambling, smoking and coffee. In later years, the inventor became a vegetarian. In an article for Century Illustrated Magazine, he wrote: “Surely it makes more sense to grow vegetables. I think that vegetarianism is a worthy way to get rid of barbaric habits.”

Bobby Fischer

Perhaps the most mysterious of the athletes of the twentieth century was Bobby Fischer. From his youth, he was distinguished by eccentric behavior, demanded special conditions for himself, and easily refused sponsorship.

After his first defeat to Spassky at the legendary meeting in Reykjavik in 1972, Fischer began to demand that there be no red traffic lights anywhere while he was being taken to the gaming hall, and demanded that all television cameras be removed, as he was annoyed by their noise.

And then he put forward an ultimatum: to play the next part in the back room, and not on stage. Otherwise he is removed from the match.

The organizers thought that Bobby was bluffing, but Fischer did not show up for the second game and was given a technical defeat. Spassky agreed to play the 3rd game behind the scenes. Bobby won it beautifully, seized the initiative in the match and eventually became the world champion.

After the championship match, Bobby left chess and, according to eyewitnesses, began to turn into paranoid. The chess crown passed to Karpov without a fight. However, Bobby said that he and no one else is the real world champion.

Fischer came out of the shadows only 20 years after the last match. He said that he still considers himself a world champion and gives Boris Spassky the right to a rematch. The chess community was delighted! Sponsors were quickly found. They decided to hold the match in Belgrade.

It was at that time that the United States introduced economic sanctions against Yugoslavia. The American government sent Fischer official letter, in which he was banned from participating in the match.

Fischer spat on this letter in front of journalists and tore it up. This act meant that upon returning to the USA, Bobby would face prison, so he never returned to his homeland.

He commented on the current situation as follows: “Because I played chess, should I go to jail? I’ve never seen greater idiocy in my life.” By the way, Bobby won the match again.

Houdini

The name Harry Houdini has become a household name. Until now, a person who is able to get out of insoluble situations is called “Houdini”.

The future “king of castles” was born in Budapest, into a poor Jewish family, his father was a rabbi. Houdini claimed that at the age of 11 he ran away from home, wandered with circus troupes, and was an apprentice to blacksmiths and metalworkers.

In fact, all that is known for certain is that he actually did not finish school, but earned his living at a tie factory.

Having already become famous, Houdini visited his first place of work and gave a speech to members of the trade union. After the speech, his former colleague approached him. “Eric,” he said, “the greatest liberation of your life was the liberation from making ties.”

Eric was inspired to take up magic tricks by a book by the illusionist Robert-Houdin. The boy read it in one sitting and was so inspired that he began to free time devote to working out card tricks. Showing them on the streets of New York, Eric began to earn his first, albeit tiny, fees.

Houdini devoted most of his life to exposing charlatans. To prove he was right, he took “spirit photographs” with his own hands and sculpted artificial hands, similar to those with which messages “from the other world” were tapped out at the sessions of mediums. He loved to attend seances and loudly declare: “I am Harry Houdini, and you are swindlers!”

Houdini was the "King of Castles." Houdini was interested in their device since childhood. According to him, when he was still a boy, he managed to pick the locks of kitchen cabinets, eat candy, and then leave everything “as it was.”

Over the course of his life, Harry had studied thousands of types of locks and could open almost any of them with a simple wire. These skills were acquired by him while studying in a locksmith's workshop, while studying the archives of Scotland Yard, which he became acquainted with while visiting London. Everywhere he visited, Houdini studied locks and made miniature master keys with his own hands.

Despite early death, Houdini lived full life: acted in films and was one of the first aeronauts. A large number of So far no one dares to repeat the “tricks” of the great Houdini.

Each of these mysterious stories one could call it a detective. But in detective stories, as you know, all the secrets are revealed by the last page. And in these stories, the solution is still far away, although humanity has been puzzling over some of them for decades. Perhaps we are not destined to find answers for them at all? Or will the veil of secrecy ever be lifted? And what do you think?

43 missing Mexican students

In 2014, 43 students from the College of Education from Ayotzinapa went to demonstrate in Iguala, where the mayor's wife was scheduled to speak to residents. The corrupt mayor ordered the police to rid him of this problem. On his orders, the police detained the students, and as a result of the harsh detention, two students and three bystanders died. The remaining students, as we found out, were handed over to the local crime syndicate Guerreros Unidos. The next day, the body of one of the students was found on the street with the skin torn off his face. Later, the remains of two more students were found. Relatives and friends of the students organized mass demonstrations, triggering a full-blown political crisis in the country. The corrupt mayor, his friends and the chief of police tried to escape, but were detained a few weeks later. The provincial governor resigned, and several dozen police officers and officials were arrested. And only one thing remains a mystery - the fate of almost four dozen students is still unknown.

Oak Island Money Pit

Off the coast of Nova Scotia, on Canadian territory, there is a small island - Oak Island, or Oak Island. There is the famous “money pit”. According to the legend, local residents they found it back in 1795. This is a very deep and complex mine, in which, according to legend, countless treasures are hidden. Many have tried to get into it - but the design is treacherous, and after the treasure hunter has dug to a certain depth, the mine begins to be intensively filled with water. They say that brave souls found at a depth of 40 meters a stone tablet with the scrawled inscription: “Two million pounds are buried 15 meters deeper.” More than one generation has tried to get the promised treasure out of the hole. Even future President Franklin Delano Roosevelt student years At Harvard, I came to Oak Island with a group of friends to try my luck. But the treasure is not given to anyone. And is he there?..

Who was Benjamin Kyle?

In 2004, an unknown man woke up outside a Burger King in Georgia. He had no clothes on, there were no documents with him, but the worst thing was that he didn’t remember anything about himself. That is, absolutely nothing! The police conducted a thorough investigation, but were unable to find any traces: neither missing people with such characteristics, nor relatives who could identify him from a photo. He was soon given the name Benjamin Kyle, under which he continues to live to this day. Without documents or certificates of any education, he could not find a job, but one local businessman, having learned about him from a television program, out of pity, gave him a job as a dishwasher. He still works there now. The efforts of doctors to awaken his memory, and the police to find his previous traces, did not yield results.

Shore of Severed Legs

"Severed Legs Coast" is the name given to a beach on the Pacific Northwest coast of British Columbia. It received this terrible name because local residents several times found severed human legs here, shod in sneakers or trainers. From 2007 to the present, 17 of them have been found, with the majority being right-wing. There are several theories to explain why legs wash up on this beach - natural disasters, the work of a serial killer... some even claim that the mafia destroys the bodies of its victims on this remote beach. But none of these theories looks convincing, and no one knows where the truth is.

"Dancing Death" 1518

One day in the summer of 1518 in Strasbourg, a woman suddenly began dancing in the middle of the street. She danced wildly until she fell from exhaustion. The strangest thing is that gradually others joined her. A week later, 34 people were dancing in the city, and a month later - 400. Many dancers died from overwork and heart attacks. The doctors did not know what to think, and the churchmen also could not exorcise the demons possessing the dancers. In the end, it was decided to leave the dancers alone. The fever gradually subsided, but no one ever knew what caused it. They talked about some special type of epilepsy, about poisoning, and even about a secret, pre-coordinated religious ceremony. But scientists of that time did not find an exact answer.

Signal from aliens

On August 15, 1977, Jerry Eman, who was monitoring signals from space at the volunteer Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Civilizations, picked up a signal at a random radio frequency, clearly coming from deep space, from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. This signal was much stronger than the cosmic noise that Eman was used to hearing on the air. It lasted only 72 seconds and consisted of a completely definite, in the eye of the observer, completely random list of letters and numbers, which, however, was accurately reproduced several times in a row. Eman disciplinedly recorded the sequence and reported it to his colleagues in the search for aliens. However, further listening to this frequency did not yield anything, as did any attempts to catch at least some signal from the constellation Sagittarius. What it was - a prank by completely earthly jokers or an attempt by an extraterrestrial civilization to contact us - no one still knows.

Unknown from Somerton Beach

Here's another perfect murder, the mystery of which has still not been solved. On December 1, 1948, in Australia, on Somerton Beach in southern Adelaide, the body of an unknown man was discovered. There were no documents with him, only a note with two words: “Taman Shud” was found in one of his pockets. This was a line from Omar Khayyam's rubaiyat, meaning "the end." The cause of death of the unknown man could not be determined. The forensic investigator believed that it was a case of poisoning, but could not prove it. Others believed it was a suicide, but this claim was also unsubstantiated. The mysterious case has alarmed not only Australia, but the whole world. They tried to establish the identity of the unknown person in almost all countries of Europe and America, but the efforts of the police were in vain, and the history of Taman Shud remained shrouded in secrecy.

Confederate Treasures

This legend still haunts American treasure hunters - and not only them. According to legend, when the northerners were already close to victory in Civil War, the treasurer of the Confederate government, George Trenholm, in desperation, decided to deprive the victors of their rightful spoils - the treasury of the southerners. Confederate President Jefferson Davis personally took on this mission. He and his guards left Richmond with a huge cargo of gold, silver and jewelry. No one knows where they went, but when the northerners took Davis prisoner, he had no jewelry with him, and 4 tons of Mexican gold dollars also disappeared without a trace. Davis never revealed the secret of the gold. Some believe that he distributed it to the planters of the South so that they could bury it until better times, others believe that it is buried somewhere in the vicinity of Danville, Virginia. Some believe that the secret society “Knights of the Golden Circle”, who were secretly preparing revenge in the Civil War, laid their paws on him. Some even say that the treasure is hidden at the bottom of the lake. Dozens of treasure hunters are still looking for him, but none of them can get to the bottom of either the money or the truth.

Voynich manuscript

The mysterious book, known as the Voynich manuscript, is named after the Polish-born American bookseller Wilfred Voynich, who bought it from an unknown person in 1912. In 1915, having taken a closer look at the find, he told the whole world about it - and since then many have not known peace. According to scientists, the manuscript was written in XV-XVI centuries in central Europe. The book contains a lot of text written in neat handwriting, hundreds of drawings depicting plants, most of which are unknown modern science. The signs of the zodiac and medicinal herbs are also drawn here, accompanied by text, apparently, of recipes for their use. However, the contents of the text are just speculations of scientists who have not been able to understand it. The reason is simple: the book is written in a language still unknown on Earth, which is also practically indecipherable. Who wrote the Voynich manuscript and why, we may not know even in centuries.

Karst wells of Yamal

In July 2014, an inexplicable explosion was heard in Yamal, as a result of which a huge well appeared in the ground, the width and height of which reached 40 meters! Yamal is not the most populated place on the planet, so no one was injured from the explosion and the appearance of a sinkhole. However, such a strange and potentially dangerous phenomenon required an explanation, and a scientific expedition went to Yamal. It included everyone who could be useful in studying the strange phenomenon - from geographers to experienced mountain climbers. However, upon arrival, they were unable to understand the reasons and nature of what had happened. Moreover, while the expedition was working, two more similar failures appeared in Yamal in exactly the same way! Until now, scientists have been able to come up with only one version - about periodic explosions of natural gas coming to the surface from underground. However, experts consider it unconvincing. The Yamal failures remain a mystery.

Antikythera Mechanism

Discovered by treasure hunters on a sunken ancient Greek ship at the beginning of the twentieth century, this device, which at first seemed like just another artifact, turned out to be, no less, the first analog computer in history! A complex system of bronze disks, made with precision and accuracy unimaginable in those distant times, made it possible to calculate the position of stars and luminaries in the sky, time in accordance with different calendars and dates Olympic Games. According to the results of the analyses, the device was made at the turn of the millennium - about a century before the birth of Christ, 1600 years before the discoveries of Galileo and 1700 before the birth of Isaac Newton. This device was ahead of its time by a thousand seconds. extra years and still amazes scientists.

Sea people

The Bronze Age, which lasted approximately from the XXXV to the X century BC, was the heyday of several European and Middle Eastern civilizations - Greek, Cretan, Cananese. People developed metallurgy, created impressive architectural monuments, and tools became more complex. It seemed that humanity was moving by leaps and bounds towards prosperity. But everything collapsed within a few years. The civilized peoples of Europe and Asia were attacked by a horde of “people of the sea” - barbarians on countless ships. They burned and destroyed cities and villages, burned food, killed and took people into slavery. After their invasion, ruins remained everywhere. Civilization was thrown back at least a thousand years ago. In once powerful and educated countries, writing disappeared, and many secrets of construction and working with metals were lost. The most mysterious thing is that after the invasion, the “sea people” disappeared as mysteriously as they appeared. Scientists are still wondering who and where this people were from and what their further fate. But there is no clear answer to this question yet.

Murder of the Black Dahlia

Books were written and films were made about this legendary murder, but it was never solved. On January 15, 1947, 22-year-old aspiring actress Elizabeth Short was found brutally murdered in Los Angeles. Her naked body was subjected to cruel abuse: it was practically cut in half and bore traces of many injuries. At the same time, the body was washed clean and completely devoid of blood. This story of one of the oldest unsolved murders was widely circulated by journalists, giving Short the nickname “black dahlia.” Despite active search, the police were never able to find the killer. The Black Dahlia case is considered one of the oldest unsolved murders in Los Angeles.

Motor ship "Ourang Medan"

In early 1948, the Dutch ship Ourang Medan sent an SOS signal while in the Strait of Mallaka off the coast of Sumatra and Malaysia. According to eyewitnesses, the radio message said that the captain and the entire crew were dead, and it ended with the chilling words: “And I am dying.” The captain of the Silver Star, having heard the distress signal, went in search of the Ourang Medan. Having discovered the ship in the Strait of Malacca, the sailors from the Silver Star boarded and saw that it was indeed full of corpses, and the cause of death was not visible on the bodies. Soon the rescuers noticed suspicious smoke coming from the hold and, just in case, chose to return to their ship. And they did the right thing, because soon the Ourang Medan spontaneously exploded and sank. Of course, because of this, the possibility of an investigation became zero. Why the crew died and the ship exploded is still a mystery.

Baghdad battery

Until recently, it was believed that humanity mastered the production and use of electric current only at the end of the 18th century. However, an artifact found by archaeologists in the region ancient Mesopotamia in 1936, casts doubt on this conclusion. The device consists of a clay pot in which the battery itself is hidden: an iron core wrapped in copper, which is believed to have been filled with some kind of acid, after which it began to generate electricity. For many years, archaeologists debated whether the devices were actually related to the generation of electricity. In the end, they collected the same primitive products - and managed to get with their help electricity! So, did they really know how to install electric lighting in ancient Mesopotamia? Since written sources from that era have not survived, this mystery will now probably forever excite scientists.