A man sits next to you on an airplane. He looks familiar. Is he an amnesiac who’s
wandered miles from home?
A woman in line at the grocery store seems to be stealing furtive glances. Could she
be the missing heir to a fortune? Or a murderer?
Some people would call these paranoid, delusional thoughts. But this behavior probably seems
pretty normal if you grew up watching Unsolved Mysteries. The primetime show used spooky
lightning and sometimes-questionable acting in an effort to crack vexing cases, both legal
and metaphysical. Join us. Perhaps you can help solve a mystery. Or at least dive into
the mysteries behind Unsolved Mysteries. It’s all next on this installment of Throwback.
Welcome back to the series where we take a deep dive into some of the most fascinating
pop culture stories and events you might remember from your childhood. I’m your host, Erin
McCarthy, and I spent many a Wednesday night scared out of my mind when Robert Stack came
on to introduce the latest collection of unsolved mysteries. In fact, just the opening notes
of the theme song were enough to send me diving under the covers and make me eye my little
brother with suspicion. It’s not that the show was graphic or intentionally scary. It
was true crime before true crime was a mass media obsession, and reality television before
reality television was everywhere.
In the mid-1980s, primetime television didn’t leave a lot of room for reality programming.
Aside from some Geraldo specials, shows about real people involved in crimes just weren’t
common. In fact, the closest thing viewers had ever seen to a reality-based crime show
was a series called Wanted that aired on CBS for one season in 1955. Wanted featured real
victims and law enforcement officials in a telecast that urged viewers to help them capture
fugitives. It was likely the first program of its kind, but it wasn’t popular, and
the format went dormant for about 30 years.
That fact didn’t go unnoticed by producing partners John Cosgrove and Terry Dunn Meurer,
who met while working at the same production company in the early 1980s. In 1985, they
created a series of specials for NBC titled Missing…Have You Seen This Person? Hosted
by Family Ties star Meredith Baxter and her then-husband David Birney, the specials profiled
children and adults who had disappeared. At the time, the concept of “stranger danger”
and kids profiled on milk cartons was in the cultural zeitgeist, and Cosgrove and Meurer
believed a show exploring these types of cases could be something rare for primetime television—a
public service.
They were right. The Missing specials resulted in 25 people being found and reunited with
their families. They were also a ratings success for NBC. Cosgrove and Meurer knew they had
something, but there were a few missing pieces.
For one thing, it was hard to continue doing specials based strictly on missing persons.
While there was no shortage of cases, a solid hour of them might prove emotionally taxing
for viewers. For another, even though the shows acted as a way to inform the public,
they still had to be entertaining and hold the viewer’s attention.
So Cosgrove and Meurer took a cue from a special they had produced for HBO back in 1983 called
Five American Guns. In the special, they had used reenactments to portray the far-reaching
consequences of owning a handgun. If they could combine mysteries of all types with
dramatic reenactments, they might have a shot at shaking up the primetime landscape. All
they needed now was a host.
Obviously, they chose Robert Stack. But not at first. Or second. But we’ll get to that.
When Unsolved Mysteries premiered as a special on January 20, 1987, actor Raymond Burr was
hosting. Burr is probably best known for playing Perry Mason, the dogged criminal defense lawyer
who never lost a case. Or, he lost like three. But that was over nine seasons. The guy was
good.
Burr had an authoritative presence that lent itself well to stories of disappearances,
unsolved murders, and lost loves. But Burr didn’t return for the following specials.
Those were hosted by actor Karl Malden, who won an Academy Award for his role in 1951’s
A Streetcar Named Desire opposite Marlon Brando. Malden did two of the specials before he also
bowed out.
When Unsolved Mysteries returned for a fourth primetime special, there was a new host. His
name was Robert Stack, and viewers knew him best as legendary lawman Eliot Ness in the
popular 1960s drama The Untouchables, which had just been turned into a major feature
film starring Kevin Costner and Robert De Niro. Stack gave the show an air of legitimacy,
which was key, as some critics dismissed its examination of cold cases as tabloid television.
His presence was the last and maybe the most important thing Unsolved Mysteries needed
in order to take off.
NBC was very happy with the specials, and ordered a weekly series to debut in the fall
of 1988. But there were still some growing pains to work through.
By the producers’ own admission, the earliest reenactments on the show were rough. Cosgrove
and Meurer used the actual people involved in a case whenever possible. While that gave
the segments an authentic feel, it also meant that regular people were called upon to act.
The results were mixed, to say the least. To solve this problem, Stack would narrate
over the scenes, effectively drowning out some of the less effective performances.
The reenactments would prove to be a trademark of the show once producers could afford real
actors. But the real secret to the success of Unsolved Mysteries was hidden in how it
presented its cases. No, we’re not talking about the music by composer Gary Malkin, which
was amazing and which we can’t play for you because we don’t have permission. In
almost every episode, Cosgrove and Meurer highlighted one eerie, unexplained death and
one story of lost love. For the other two segments, they’d rotate stories from categories
like missing persons, fugitives, missing heirs, amnesia, or fraud. There might also be an
update on a previously-aired case. By changing up the stories, the show had something for
everyone. But when it came to the paranormal segments, they had at least one vocal critic—Robert
Stack.
The host was outspoken about his reluctance to cover paranormal stories, which Cosgrove
and Meurer labeled their “ooga booga” material and which sometimes featured very
affordable special effects like shining lights in an actor’s face or using a projector
to depict a ghost. The show went to great lengths to present stories they felt had credibility—they
rejected 80 percent of paranormal ideas. But that wasn’t enough for Stack, who would
sometimes challenge the more fantastic elements of the show.
It didn’t take long for Unsolved Mysteries to go from a modest success to a huge hit.
By 1990, it was ranked 11th in the ratings out of 131 shows. Up to 30 percent of all
viewers watching television during its time slot were tuned in to Unsolved Mysteries.
And at a cost of $375,000 to $700,000 an episode, it was about half as expensive as most hour-long
dramas. After all, it didn’t cost much to hire unknown actors—unknown at the time,
anyway.
With multiple reenactments per episode, Unsolved Mysteries provided plenty of opportunities
for actors looking to get their big break. If you watch classic episodes, you’ll probably
be able to spot a few performers who went on to greater success.
Matthew McConaughey played a murder victim in a 1992 episode. He later told IMDb that
he was, quote, “the guy that got shot while mowing my mother’s grass.” McConaughey
went on to say that a viewer tip led to the arrest of the murderer 11 days later. The
next year, McConaughey appeared in Dazed and Confused as David Wooderson, launching his
career as a guy that didn’t get shot mowing his mother’s grass.
Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Cheryl Hines appeared in a 1997 segment about fugitive Maria Rosa
Hernandez. Hines played a mother whose child was attacked by Hernandez.
Daniel Dae Kim, who played Jin-Soo Kwon on the show Lost, can be seen in an episode playing
the brother-in-law of a murder victim named Su-Ya Kim.
Finally, future Saturday Night Live cast member Taran Killam played a World War II-era German
kid in one memorable segment. Killam had an in, though. His mother’s aunt was married
to an actor named Robert Stack.
In many of the episodes of Unsolved Mysteries, Stack is seen in a trenchcoat standing in
front of some appropriately spooky location. Sometimes he appeared in front of a Masonic
temple that gave the show a gothic atmosphere. Other times, Stack would stand in front of
a phone bank of telephone operators. This wasn’t just for show. During and after a
typical episode of the series, roughly 28 operators would field around 1500 calls from
viewers, many of whom believed they had information that could lead to the resolution of a case.
The show took legitimate tips extremely seriously—so seriously that an FBI agent was often standing
by on set in Los Angeles to act on valid information. Representatives from other law enforcement
agencies would be on hand if the series was profiling a case from their jurisdiction.
There were a few indicators of a hot tip. Multiple callers describing details in a similar
way was a good sign. Calls coming from the same region were also regarded as promising.
And the show could find resolution quickly. In 1991, a maintenance worker named Becky
Granniss was watching Unsolved Mysteries when she saw a profile of an alleged killer named
Gregory Richard Barker. She thought Barker looked familiar, and then she realized she
knew Barker as Alex Graham, a telephone solicitor who worked in her building. Grannis called
the show and Barker was arrested just 18 hours later.
But not all calls were that helpful. Some people phoned in hoping to talk to Stack and
convince him to feature their own mysteries. Producers also looked at viewer mail and used
a newspaper clipping service that worked kind of like a pre-internet Google Alert to find
stories for the show. The service sent in articles from around the country that featured
keywords like "murder," "missing," and "UFO." Cosgrove and Meurer liked stories that had
multiple theories or where enough information was present where it seemed like it could
be solved.
Oh, and as you might expect, some people who contacted the show were not necessarily Unsolved
Mysteries material. One man sent in his mother’s lung because he believed she had been murdered
and wanted forensic testing performed. Please do not send Robert Stack organs, as he will
be unable to review them.
Throughout its run, Unsolved Mysteries profiled well over 1000 cases, and had a high degree
of success. Over 340 cases were solved. At one point, the producers estimated that they
could solve 60 percent of lost love cases. They could also help locate around 18 percent
of the missing heirs they profiled. They even helped capture over half of the fugitives
featured. Many of these resolutions were covered in the update segment, which producers said
was the most popular among viewers. Let’s take a closer look at some of the more memorable
cases, both solved and unsolved.
Cynthia Anderson A legal secretary in Toledo, Ohio, 20-year-old
Cynthia Anderson told her mother she was having recurring dreams about a man who entered her
house to harm her. She also received harassing phone calls—so many that her employers installed
an alarm buzzer on her desk in case there was a problem. On August 4, 1981, Cynthia
disappeared from the law office. The door of the office was locked, and her car was
still in the parking lot. Police had no leads. But two anonymous phone calls came in where
a woman claimed Cynthia was being held in a basement. She’s never been found. The
most chilling part? The novel left on her desk after her disappearance was open to a
page describing an abduction.
The Kecksburg UFO Incident It’s easy to dismiss a UFO sighting by one
or two people. But on December 9, 1965, thousands of people in the northeast reported strange
lights in the sky. In Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, residents claimed they saw government officials
surrounding an acorn-shaped spacecraft. Was it a meteor? A satellite? Or did the town
of Kecksburg have a close encounter? No one knows for sure.
The Circleville Letters In 1976, several letters were sent to school
bus driver Mary Gillespie of Circleville, Ohio, accusing her of having an affair with
the school superintendent. Both Mary and her husband, Ron Gillespie, thought they knew
who it was. Ron went out to confront the letter-writer, only to be killed after his car crashed into
a tree. Authorities discovered that he had fired his gun before the accident, leading
to more questions. The letters didn’t stop with Ron’s death—in fact, they continued
for years, eventually escalating off the page and onto harassing signs posted along Mary's
bus route. She ripped one of the signs down one day and discovered a booby trap behind
it that would have fired a gun had she pulled the sign down in just the right way. The gun
belonged to her brother-in-law, Paul Freshour, who was charged with attempted murder. He
was also believed to be the one writing the threatening letters but denied both setting
the trap and being the poison penman. Freshour was paroled in 1994 and maintains he didn’t
write the letters. When Unsolved Mysteries was preparing to profile the case in 1993,
the production got a postcard warning them to stay away. It was signed “The Circleville
Writer.”
Craig Williamson told his wife Christine he was going on a trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado
to sell tilapia they had raised on their farm in Wisconsin. That was August 28, 1993. On
August 30, she spoke to him on the phone. Then he vanished. Christine thought a concussion
he had suffered a few weeks prior may have given him amnesia. It wasn’t until he was
profiled on the show that a viewer recognized him. Actually, the viewer recognized himself.
Craig was watching Unsolved Mysteries when his face appeared onscreen. He was living
in Key West, Florida, and claimed he had been mugged, lost his memory, and started a new
life there. He reunited with Christine, but because he said he couldn’t remember anything,
they got divorced. Solved? Kinda. He was found—but did he really have amnesia?
Unsolved Mysteries kept the spooky music humming for nine seasons before being cancelled by
NBC in 1997. But Stack didn’t hang up his trench coat for long. The show was picked
up by CBS, where it aired for two more seasons. When CBS declined to renew it, it found yet
another home on Lifetime, where it aired through 2002.
When Robert Stack passed away in May 2003 at the age of 84, that seemed to be the end.
But the show returned in 2008 on Spike TV with actor Dennis Farina as host. Farina,
who was once a Chicago police officer, stuck with the show through 2010. Classic episodes
have been available on streaming services like Amazon Prime, sometimes with updates,
which Cosgrove and Meurer have said are mandatory if a person featured in a segment has been
released from prison. Other times, they’ve deleted segments if the statute of limitations
has expired or if the law enforcement agency handling the case asked them to remove it.
Now, Unsolved Mysteries is being revived again, this time for Netflix.
So why do we keep coming back to a show about unexplained disappearances, strange alien
sightings, and amnesia? It’s simple. Unsolved Mysteries was interactive television. We watched
because we never knew if we’d see a suspect or missing person just around the corner.
People enjoyed the ambiguity, and they knew that even if the show didn’t offer a resolution
for one case, they’d be able to wrap up another. It was scary without being graphic.
It was emotional without being exploitative. And it had Robert Stack, who could make anything—even
little green men—sound plausible.
That’s it for this installment of Throwback. If you have an unsolved mystery from your
childhood, leave it in the comments and we’ll try our best to crack the case. I’m Erin
McCarthy. Thanks for watching.