The Twilight Zone: The Lost Episode

In the Twilight Zone Andrew is at least twenty years old, with the mind of a six year old child. He has lived within the same room his entire life never having the oppertunity to interact with the world outside. All he knows is what hes been taught by a mysterious voice from behind the door which has become his adoptive mother. When one day he becomes a bit over curious, and we
all know what happened to that cat..

Voynich manuscript

The Voynich manuscript is a medieval document written in an unknown script and in an unknown language. For more than a hundred years repeatedly tried the code, not avail. The overall impression given by the surviving leaves of the manuscript suggests that it is meant to serve as Pharmacopoeia or to cover issues in the Middle Ages or the beginning of modern medicine. However, the puzzling details of illustrations have fueled many theories about the origin of the book, the contents of the text, and the purpose for which it was intended.

The document contains illustrations, indicating that the book is divided into six parts: herbs, astronomy, biological, cosmological, Pharmaceutical, and recipes.

Black Dahlia

Elizabeth Short (July 29, 1924 – ca. January 15, 1947) was an American woman who was the victim of a gruesome and much-publicized murder. Nicknamed the Black Dahlia, Short was found severely mutilated, with her body severed, on January 15, 1947 in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California. The murder, which remains unsolved, has been the source of widespread speculation as well as several books and film adaptations.

Biography

Elizabeth Short was born in Hyde Park, Massachusetts. She grew up in Medford, by her mother, Phoebe Mae, after her father, Cleo Short, leaving her and her four sisters in October 1930.

Troubled by asthma, Short spent the summer and winter in Medford in Florida. At the age of 19, she went to Vallejo, California to live with her father. The two moved to Los Angeles early 1943, but after an argument, they abflog to get a job at a post exchange at Camp Cooke (now Vandenberg Air Force Base), near Lompoc. Zog them to Santa Barbara, where she was arrested on 23 September 1943 to underage drinking and was returned to Medford juvenile delinquency authorities. In the few years after they lived in different cities in Florida, with occasional trips back to Massachusetts to earn money mostly as a waitress.

In Florida, Short met Major Matthew M. Gordon Jr., was part of the 2nd Air Commandos and training for use in China Burma India theater of operations. Short told friends that Gordon wrote a letter from India suggested that during the marriage, by a plane crash he suffered in the attempt to rescue a downed pilots. (He was, according to his obituary in Pueblo, Colorado newspaper, with a Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Air Medal with 15 oak leaf clusters, and Purple Heart). It accepted his proposal, but he died in a crash on 10 August 1945, before he could return that the U.S. later embellished the story and said that they were married and had a child who died. Although Gordon's friends in the air commands confirm that Gordon and Short were committed, his family later denied any connection after a short's Murder.

Short returned to Southern California in July 1946 to see an old friend she met in Florida during the war, Lt. Gordon Fick Ling, who was stationed in Long Beach. For the six months before her death, she remained in Southern California, especially in Los Angeles. During this time she lived in several hotels, apartment houses, rooming houses and private homes, never stay anywhere for more than a few weeks.

Death

The body of Elizabeth Short was found on 15 January 1947 in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, severely mutilated, halved and drained of blood. Her face was slash the corners of her mouth to their ears.

Rumors and popular misconceptions

According to newspaper reports shortly after the murder, Short received the nickname "Black Dahlia" at a Long Beach drugstore in the summer of 1946, as a play on the then-current movie The Blue Dahlia. However, Los Angeles County district attorney investigators' reports state the nickname was invented by newspaper reporters covering the murder. In either case, Short was not generally known as the "Black Dahlia" during her lifetime.

A number of people, none of whom knew Short in life, contacted police and the newspapers, claiming to have seen her during her so-called "missing week" between the time of her disappearance January 9 and the time her body was found on January 15. Police and district attorney investigators ruled out each of these alleged sightings, sometimes identifying other women that witnesses had mistaken for Short.

Many "true crime" books claim that Short lived in or visited Los Angeles at various times in the mid-1940s; these claims have never been substantiated, and are refuted by the findings of law enforcement officers who investigated the case. A document in the Los Angeles County district attorney's files titled "Movements of Elizabeth Short Prior to June 1, 1946" states that Short was in Florida and Massachusetts from September 1943 through the early months of 1946, and gives a detailed account of her living and working arrangements during this period.

Although popular belief as well as many "true" crime books portrayed Short as a call girl, a report by the district attorney's grand jury states that she was not a prostitute.

Another widely circulated rumor holds that Short was unable to have sexual intercourse because of some genetic defect that left her with "infantile genitalia." Los Angeles County district attorney's files state the investigators had questioned three men with whom Short had sex, including a Chicago police officer who was a suspect in the case. The FBI files on the case also contain a statement from one of Short's lovers. According to the Los Angeles Police Department's summary of the case, in the district attorney's files, the autopsy describes Short's reproductive organs as anatomically normal. The autopsy also states that Short was not and had never been pregnant, contrary to what is sometimes claimed.

The D.A.'s files contain the following:—

Doctor Schwartz last stated that he studied surgery and that victim was on the make for him but that she was the patient of Doctor Arthur McGinnis Faught who was treating victim for trouble with her bartholin gland and that he wanted nothing to do with her. He stated that the bartholin gland was the lubricating gland in the vagina and that Doctor Faught had lanced it on several occasions and it could account for the fact that she had not been having intercourse with men.

Suspects

The Black Dahlia murder investigation by the LAPD is the largest since the murder of Marian Parker in 1927, and involved hundreds of officers borrowed from other agencies of law enforcement. Because of the complexity of the case, the original investigators treated every person who knew that short a suspect who had to be eliminated. Hundreds of people were considered suspects and thousands of people were questioned by police. Sensational and sometimes inaccurate press coverage, and the nature of the crime, brought public attention to this matter. About 60 people have confessed to the murder, mostly men, and a few women. As the case continues to public attention, many others have been proposed as the killer court.

No theory is universally accepted, and none has been proven.

Possible related murders

Some crime writers have speculated on a link between the Short murder and the Cleveland Torso killings, also known as the Kingsbury Run murders, which took place in Cleveland from 1934 to 1938. The original LAPD investigators examined this case in 1947 and discounted any link between the two, as they did with a large number of killings, before and after, until well into the 1950s.

Other crime writers have suggested a link between the murder and short the 1945 murder of six-year-old Suzanne Degnan in Chicago; Degnan was also fragmented (and Short's body was discovered in the vicinity of Degnan Boulevard in Los Angeles). However serial killer William Heirens Degnan confessed to the murder and was in jail when Short's body was discovered. Steve Hodel, the claims of his father, George Hodel committed The Black Dahlia Murder, claims his father may have murdered as well Degnan.

Pictures

Unsolved Mysteries~Mary Celeste

The Mary Celeste (sometimes incorrectly spelt Marie Celeste) was a brigantine discovered in the Atlantic Ocean unmanned and under full sail heading towards the Strait of Gibraltar in 1872. The fate of the crew is the subject of much speculation; theories range from alcoholic fumes to underwater earthquakes, along with a large number of fictional accounts. The Mary Celeste is often described as the archetypal ghost ship.

Mary Celeste was in Nova Scotia in 1860. Their original name was "Amazon". She was 103 m total of 280 tons and displacing half Brigg. Over the next 10 years she worked at several accidents on the lake and through a series of owners. Finally, she turned to an auction in New York salvage, where she was purchased for 3000 dollars. After extensive repairs, she was under American registry and renamed "Mary Celeste".

On November 5, 1872, under the command of Captain Benjamin Briggs, the ship picked up a cargo of industrial alcohol shipped by Meissner Ackermann & Co and set sail from Staten Island, New York to Genoa, Italy. In addition to the captain and a crew of seven, she carried two passengers, the captain's wife, Sarah E. Briggs (maiden name Cobb), and their two-year-old daughter, Sophia Matilda, making 10 people in total.

On December 4, 1872 (some reports give December 5, due to a lack of standard time zones in the 19th century), the Mary Celeste was sighted by the Dei Gratia, commanded by Captain David Reed Morehouse, who knew Captain Briggs. The Dei Gratia had left New York harbour only seven days after the Mary Celeste. Dei Gratia's crew observed her for two hours, under full sail and heading toward the Strait of Gibraltar. They concluded that she was drifting, though she was flying no distress signals.

Oliver Deveau, the chief mate of the Dei Gratia, led a party in a small boat to board the Mary Celeste. He found the ship in generally good condition, though he reported that "the whole ship was a thoroughly wet mess". There was only one operational pump, with a lot of water between decks and three-and-a-half feet (1.1 m) of water in the hold. The forehatch and the lazarette were both open, the clock was not functioning and the compass was destroyed. The sextant and marine chronometer were missing, and the only lifeboat appeared to have been intentionally launched rather than torn away, suggesting the ship had been deliberately abandoned. Popular stories of untouched breakfasts with cups of tea on the cabin table, washing hung out to dry, a cat found asleep on top of the gallery locker and a bowl of a half-eaten apple pie are wholly without substance.

The cargo of 1701 barrels of alcohol was intact, even if it was finally discharged in Genoa, nine barrels were empty. A six-month supply of food and water on board. All papers of the vessel, with the exception of the master log, were missing. The last entry was on 24 November and put them 100 miles (160 km) west of the Portuguese islands of the Azores. The last entry in the ship's slate showed her how have reached the island of Santa Maria in the Azores on 25 November.

Crewmen from the Dei Gratia sailed the Mary Celeste to Gibraltar where, during a hearing, the judge praised them for their courage and skill. However, admiralty court officer Frederick Solly Flood turned the hearings from a simple salvage claim into a de facto trial of the men of the Dei Gratia, whom Flood suspected of foul play. In the end, the court did award prize money to the crew, but the sum was much less than it should have been, as "punishment" for suspected, but unproved, wrongdoing. Captain Morehouse was awarded one fifth of the ship and cargo.

None of the Mary Celeste's crew or passengers has been found. It is unlikely that the events leading to their disappearance will ever be known with certainty.

In the spring of 1873, two small wooden rafts made of wood lashed together offshore were sighted by fishermen from Spain. One contained a body wrapped in an American flag, and the other four bodies. It has been suggested that these are remains of the crew of the Mary Celeste. However, the corpses were buried in a grave without positively identified

The recovered ship was used for 12 years by a variety of owners.

During January 1885, she was loaded with an over-insured cargo of scrap, including boots and cat food, by her last captain who attempted to sink her to claim insurance money. The plan did not work as the ship refused to sink after having been run up on the Rochelois Reef in Haiti and an insurance investigation revealed the fraud.

On August 9, 2001, an expedition headed by author Clive Cussler (representing the National Underwater and Marine Agency) and Canadian film producer John Davis announced that they had found the remains of the brigantine off the Isle de Gonave in Haiti. Archaeologist James P. Delgado identified the wreck as Mary Celeste based on a survey of the large bay and by analyzing vessel fastenings, ballast, timber, and evidence of the fire that burned the stranded hulk. This evidence matched the wreck with historical accounts of Mary Celeste. Other researchers have, however, disputed this claim. Scott St George of the Geological Survey of Canada and the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona analyzed samples from wood fragments recovered from the site in an effort to reconstruct sufficient tree ring data for dating. Based on this, St. George felt that the wood was cut from trees still living at least a decade after the ship sank, as cited in The Independent of January 23, 2005

Dozens of theories have been proposed to explain the mystery, ranging from the mundane and plausible to the fantastic.

The most plausible theories are based on the barrels of alcohol. Briggs hauled had never such a dangerous cargo before and not trust. Nine leaking barrel would be an accumulation of steam in the handle. The historian Conrad Byers believed that Captain Briggs ordered keep that open, resulting in a heavy rush of smoke and steam. Faith, was the ship to explode, Briggs ordered everyone in the lifeboat, not in a hurry to properly secure the vessel with a strong towline. The wind picked up and blew the ship away from them. The inhabitants of the lifeboat either drowned or drifted on the sea to die of hunger, thirst and exposure.

First put forth by the ship's owner, James Winchester, this theory is perhaps the most widely accepted explanation for the disappearance. Even paranormally-inclined writers like Richard Winer and Colin Wilson consider this the most likely solution to the Celeste mystery.

A refinement of this theory was proposed in 2005 by German historian Eigel Wiese. At his suggestion, scientists at University College London created a crude reconstruction of the ship's hold to test the theory of the alcohol vapor's ignition. Using butane as the fuel and paper cubes as the barrels, the hold was sealed and the vapor ignited. The force of the explosion blew the hold doors open and shook the scale model, which was about the size of a coffin. Ethanol burns at a relatively low temperature with a flash point of 13°C or 55.4°F. A minimal spark is needed, for example from two metal objects rubbing together. None of the paper cubes was damaged, nor even left with scorch marks. This theory may explain the remaining cargo being found intact and the fracture on the ship's rail, possibly by one of the hold doors. This burning in the hold would have been violent and perhaps enough to scare the crew into lowering the boat, but the flames would not have been hot enough to have left burn marks. A frayed rope trailing in the water behind the ship is suggested to be evidence that the crew remained attached to the ship hoping that the emergency would pass. The ship was abandoned while under full sail and a storm was recorded shortly after. It is possible that the rope to the lifeboat parted because of the force from the ship under full sail. A small boat in a storm would not have fared as well as the Mary Celeste.

Some people theorize that the alcohol was to blame, but for a different reason. They believe that the crew tried to break into the hold to drink the alcohol, murdered Captain Briggs in the process, and later stole a lifeboat.


Another theory has proposed, there was a mutiny among the crew murdered, a tyrannical Briggs and his family, then fled into the rescue boat. However, Briggs had no history, he suggest the kind of captain to provoke his crew to mutiny. First Mate Albert Richardson and the rest of the crew also had an excellent reputation.

An alternate scenario has the ship encountering a waterspout, a tornado-like storm with a funnel cloud that occurs at sea. In such a case, it is suggested, the water surrounding the ship may, in being sucked upwards, have given the impression that the Mary Celeste was sinking. It would explain why the Mary Celeste was soaking wet when discovered by the crew of the Dei Gratia, and a mass panic among the crew during such an occasion would probably explain the scratched railing, and the broken compass, as well as the missing lifeboat. A further theory offered by Captain David Williams is that a seaquake erupted below the ship and jarred open nine barrels of alcohol (~450 gallons), which leaked into the bilge. The earthquake also dislodged the flue for the hot stove on deck and caused embers from the fire to drift into the rigging. Smelling the alcohol in full view of the burning embers caused the crew to panic and abandon the ship. The ship sailed on alone without the crew. The crew then decided to try to catch the ship and sail off after her in the small sailing dingy, but they never caught up with the Mary Celeste and died at sea.

Yet another theory posits a case of ergotism derived from bread aboard the ship which could have led all its occupants to throw themselves overboard. However, the sailors from the Dei Gratia were not affected.

Brian Hicks and Stanley Spicer in recent books revived the theory that Captain Briggs opened the hold to ventilate it while becalmed. The release of noxious alcoholic fumes from the hold might have panicked the captain and crew into abandoning ship for the yawl, tied to the halyard by an inadequate rope. If this broke with a weather change and consequent wind, then it could easily have explained the sudden and mysterious exit from the ship.

Hicks claims in the Real Life Media documentary that the cargo was the more toxic methanol, although there is no evidence to support this.

A recent investigation Smithsonian postulated that the captain thought close to the Azores in a bad storm, and with a pump inoperable, abandoned ship for the island. But he was 100 miles.