5. Jack The Ripper.
Perhaps the most notorious serial killer ever, the identity of Jack The Ripper is still unknown
to this day. Jack The Ripper was responsible for the murders of five women, all of which
were prostitutes, in the area of Whitechapel, London, between August and November 1888 and
was never caught for his crimes. He would often brutally dismember and mutilate his
victims upon strangling them. It is unclear to the actual number of lives the Ripper claimed,
however, the five that are generally accepted as the work of the Ripper are: Mary Ann Nichols,
Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and his final victim, Mary Jane Kelly.
An ongoing investigation has seen mass speculation over the years to who the killer actually
was with theories that the Ripper may have been a doctor or a butcher demonstrating knowledge
of the human anatomy based on the mutilations that occurred. Some of the main suspects,
favoured by police who led the investigation, are: Montague John Druitt, George Chapman,
Prince Albert, Michael Ostrog and Aaron Kosminsky. However, despite the hundreds of letters forwarded
to the police, such as the famous “From Hell” letter, there are over 100 theories
associated with Jack The Ripper. Do you think they will ever find out who the Jack The Ripper
was? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
4. The Hessdalen Lights.
The Hessdalen Lights are unexplained nocturnal lights that was observed in a 7.5 mile long
Hessdalen Valley in Norway. Hundreds of strange lights were observed and at the peak of activity
there were around 20 reports a week. The mysterious lights make no audible sound, appear to be
cool and do not leave any scorch marks on the ground. Despite ongoing research there
has been no concrete explanation for this extraordinary phenomenon. With the flashing
orbs being as large as cars, the Hessdalen phenomenon has attracted attention from many
UFOlogists believing that it could be the presence of aliens. However, recently scientists
hypothesise that the unusual lights could be formed by a natural ‘battery’ buried
deep underground, created by metallic minerals reacting with a sulphurous river running through
it. What do you think?
3. Cicada 3301.
Cicada 3301 is arguably the most mysterious Internet-based organisation in the world responsible
for posting extremely complex puzzles online. Information security, cryptography and a number
of other skills are necessary to crack the puzzles offered by Cicada. The first puzzle
started on January 4th 2012 and was posted on 4chan, reading: “Hello. We are looking
for highly intelligent individuals. To find them, we have devised a test. There is a message
hidden in this image. Find it, and it will lead you on the road to finding us. We look
forward to meeting the few that will make it all the way through. Good luck.” The
message was signed off, “3301”. It is unclear to what the ultimate purpose of the
organisation is with some believing it to be a recruitment tool for the CIA and others,
to recruit a global think tank. Some have even claimed that Cicada 3301 is a cult or
religion! However, what is clear is that the organisation is looking to recruit, “highly
intelligent individuals”.
2. The Wow! Signal.
In 1977, while working on a SETI project at the Big Ear radio telescope, Jerry Ehman came
across a rather odd radio signal picked up by a radio telescope in Ohio. A computer recorded
the signal as a string of 6 letters and numbers with the alphanumerical sequence: “6EQUJ5”.
To his amazement, Astronomer, Jerry Ehman, saw the sequence, circled it and wrote one
word in the margin of the print-out in red marker: “Wow!” The trace of the signal
seemed to originate from the northwest of the globular cluster of M55 in the constellation
Sagittarius, near the Chi Sagitarii star group. The entire signal sequence lasted for the
full 72 seconds that the Big Ear radio telescope was able to observe it for, but has not been
detected since. Could it have been a cryptic message from an extra-terrestrial alien civilisation?
Who knows…we may never know.
1. The Zodiac Killer.
The Zodiac Killer is the nickname given to an unidentified serial killer in the late
60s and early 70s who was accountable for the murders of at least five people, maybe
more, in northern California. The Zodiac Killer claimed to have taken the lives of 37 individuals,
however, investigators agree on seven, two of whom survived. From the seven, four of
the targeted individuals were men and three were women between the ages of 16 and 29.
The killer taunted and made threats to the police through letters sent to area newspapers.
These letters included four cryptograms and of the four, one of them was solved. Despite
this, the cracked cipher did not reveal any crucial information but instead contained
a misspelled message including that he was collecting slaves for the afterlife and detailed
that, “I like killing people because it is so much fun…” A number of suspects
have been named, however, no one has been formally charged and arrested for the heinous
crimes committed. The case to this day still remains open.