(somber piano note)
(eerie music)
- Oh.
See? She's fine.
Right? We're good?
(demonic groaning)
Oh come on.
(explosion)
We're back, that's right.
We went outside to the nation's capital,
somehow made it back to
this purgatorial darkness
and thank you for tuning in.
Matt's there behind the camera, I'm Ben.
There are all number of strange characters
floating around behind us in the abyss.
But you are here, and
you're the most important
part of the show and
you're the reason this is
Stuff They Don't Want You to Know.
Now, here in Atlanta, it is summer,
and summer in Atlanta
always means three things.
It's hot, hellishly so, unbearably so.
Walking outside is like
getting hit in the face
with a rubber blanket that just sort of
stays on you until you give up.
Number two, there are kids everywhere.
They're usually out of
school around this time.
And some people love kids,
some people hate 'em,
not to make a judgment call,
but there are a lot of them.
Number three, most
importantly for our purposes,
crime rises every summer in Atlanta.
It has been rising, it is rising now,
it will continue rising until
a slight lull in the fall,
and then it'll start rising
again because of the holidays.
And this inspired Matt and I
for our latest series today,
which is bizarre unsolved
and strange crimes.
You will recall, long-time listeners,
that we took a look at
some of the criminals
who got away with things,
but we never looked at
some of the crimes that are so mysterious,
we don't know exactly who did what,
in some cases, who did what to whom,
and in other cases, we're
not even sure what happened.
Here are four.
Number one, the Taman Shud Case
or the Tamam Shud Case.
This is strange.
So, about 6:30am, December 1st, 1948,
people find the unidentified body of a man
on the shore in a town
that's south of Adelaide.
This is unusual because they can't
figure out how this guy died.
He appears to have been
part-way through smoking a cigarette.
In a hidden pocket, they
find a roll of paper
with the phrase "Tamam Shud."
Later, they find that this
was ripped from a book,
the "Rubaiyat"
specifically, a copy of that
that is found in somebody
else's car nearby.
So, ever since that point,
people have tried to figure out
who the heck this guy was, how he died,
why, what was he talking about, right?
So, given that people
usually don't just expire
from unknown circumstances
with cryptic pieces of Persian poetry.
"Tamam Shud," by the
way, means "finished,"
as in "it is finished."
People don't just die
that way, not usually.
It's not a statistically
(laughs) significant
amount of the population, right?
Compared to heart attacks or
car accidents or whatever.
So, a few interesting things.
This death ties into the
beginnings of the Cold War.
Another interesting
thing, investigators found
that there appeared to be micro-writing,
a tool that's used in spy craft
to hide small instructions or codes
in something as small as the dot,
the period at the end of a sentence.
So, they found what they
believe was micro-writing,
they just didn't know how to interpret it.
Furthermore, it turns out
that the Somerton man,
whomever he is, whoever
he was, he had a kid,
possibly, maybe, with a lady who died
but took some secrets
about this to her grave.
And she might've also been a
spy sleeping with this guy.
This guy might've been a Russian spy.
That's one of the guesses.
However, there is more recent news,
as recent as 2011, 2013.
So, a few years back, there was
a U.S.-issued seaman's ID,
S-E-A-M-E-N identification,
with a face that looked
very much like this guy
with a moniker like H.C. Reynolds.
Problem is, other than that,
people can't find any record
of this supposedly
British-born H.C. Reynolds,
so it smacks of a pseudonym
or a fake identity.
And the lady who gave
this to the authorities
didn't wanna be identified
and didn't want to be interviewed.
However, the people who may have been
her relatives or her children
were interviewed later
on "60 Minutes" in 2013.
And according to their accounts,
these relatives are pretty sure
that their relative was the same lady
who had this illegitimate child,
who turned in this ID card,
and that she knew the real identity
of the man in the Tamad Shud
Case and that other people,
higher level than the police, also knew.
So, today this remains a mystery,
but it's a solvable mystery, possibly.
If the body is exhumed and
if they conduct DNA tests
on the people who may be
this guy's descendants,
then we'll get a pretty clear answer
and we'll start to unravel
the big mass of enigmas here,
which could be a good thing.
But how far back does
national security go, right?
Number two, the Brabant Killers.
This was in Belgium.
Between 1982 and 1985,
there was this gang-style spree killing.
These people would go into grocery stores
and just start shooting people.
There's not that much money
in a grocery store in
'80s Belgium at this time.
But they killed 28
people, they injured 40,
there were children involved,
and people were trying to figure out
why this gang was so unbelievably
ruthless and violent.
They identified some people
only by the nicknames
given to them by the press.
They were things like "The Giant,"
who, obviously, he's a big guy.
It's not a ironic name
like "Little John" or whatever, big guy.
And then there was "The Killer,"
the person who seemed to
do most of the shooting.
Then there was "The Old Man,"
the person who drove the getaway vehicle.
These guys were never apprehended
as of the time we record this.
People believe one of them may have been
fatally injured in one
of their last raids.
However, it also seems like
they weren't in it for the money.
There are reports of them apparently
throwing away the stuff
that they had picked up
during the robbery, which
leads people to wonder
what their motivation is.
And Matt and I have
been talking about this
a little bit off-air.
There are a couple of guesses.
One would be a disruptive
right-wing Neo-Nazi group,
which one did form in
Belgium around that time.
And those people have actually been
recently questioned about that case.
Another slightly darker scenario
is the idea of Operation Gladio,
stay-behind armies used to disrupt
local populations through
false flag tactics.
I mean, that's a lot to take in.
But if you'd like to learn
more, check out our podcast
and our earlier video on Operation Gladio.
And the reason that this is important,
by the way, this case led to
the reformation of the Belgian police,
but even more importantly,
the statute of limitations
for these crimes, these spree
killings and these robberies,
that statute expires in November of 2015.
The clock is literally ticking.
Three, and this one is
a little bit different.
I personally am not sure whether
this is actually a crime,
but to give you the best picture,
let's visualize it this way.
If we can pull up a map,
then you'll see Florida over here, right?
With the little peninsula thingamabob,
all the way up the coast.
And then on the other
side, you've got California
all the way up the Pacific,
across Canada to Alaska.
Since at least the early 2000s,
feet have been washing up
all across the coast here.
Yeah, just feet, just like
one foot just bobs up,
like this shoe, but there's a foot in it,
and people don't know why.
People are wondering,
people initially, of course,
thought, "Well, this has to
be a serial killer," right?
Or perhaps these could be
suicide victims or people
who committed suicide
and somehow their feet are
washing up to the surface.
And then, we started to learn
some interesting things.
At this point, the most recent
foot that has been discovered
was discovered in February
2015 of this year,
bringing the total of discovered feet,
as in the ones that are acknowledged
and known of, to about 15.
That means that there were
probably realistically more,
especially if we're talking about
rural or less occupied areas,
and especially if we
consider the fact that, yes,
there might be somebody
out there who said,
"Cool, a foot," then took it home.
So, why does this not
necessarily mean it's a crime?
It might not be some sort of
foot fetish serial killer.
It might be something a
little bit more mundane,
but it's still incredibly
tragic, and it's this.
When people die underwater,
depending on the kind of
shoes they're wearing,
especially if they're wearing sneakers
that might have the air pocket technology,
their feet become buoyant.
And as, if this is your
ankle and this is your foot,
as your body is decaying there
in the depths, this thing,
this hinge, this ankle
becomes increasingly stressed,
there's buoyancy on the foot,
and then one day, (smacks lips).
And to make it ever more grim,
it turns out that feet can
travel pretty far in the ocean,
thanks to the currents and not
being attached to your body.
All of this means that at this point,
we still have mystery feet washing up
on the Pacific Northwest
and we're probably going to see some more,
especially when disasters occur at sea.
Number four, and this is one
that fascinates Matt and I both.
It's pretty weird; we saved it for last.
Ready?
The Monster with 21 Faces.
Yes, as strange as it sounds,
that's the actual name of this thing,
this whatever it was.
Okay, first there's this
Japanese candy company
called Glico, G-L-I-C-O.
Glico has a president
and this president has a mother
because a president of a candy company
is a person just like anyone else.
Here's what happens to his mother.
These two masked men break into her house.
They steal a key to the
president of Glico's house
and then they enter his house
and they kidnap him and
they put him in a warehouse.
They write to his company
and ask for a ransom.
They say, "Give us one billion yen,"
let me say that again, one billion yen.
And then they say they also
want 100 kilograms of gold.
Now, this president doesn't ever learn
if his company would
actually pay that ransom
because he manages to
escape three days later.
However, he does not have the ability
to identify the people who abducted him.
And these folks who identify themselves
in their letter as the
Monster with 21 Faces,
they are not done with this company yet.
They set cars on fire
in the company property.
They send letters saying
that the candy Glico makes
has been contaminated with
potassium cyanide soda,
which could be lethal, of course,
to anyone who consumes it.
Glico doesn't call their
bluff here, by the way,
and loses around $21 million US
taking all of their
products from the store,
and they have to lay off over 400 people.
The Monster continues
taunting the candy company
and the police before
eventually doing a 180
and saying they forgive
Glico, at which point
they move on to other food companies.
And we'll have more details on this
in our upcoming audio podcast
on bizarre unsolved crimes,
so let's fast-forward a little
because the Monster with
21 Faces eventually says,
"Well, give me 50 million
yen and I will stop.
"I won't do anything."
And they have this process
for a police officer
to throw some money out which
would be caught by the gang.
There was one guy who was seen twice,
clearly identified as, get
this, the "fox-eyed man,"
and that was one of the main descriptions.
They said he had eyes like a fox.
I'm not sure what that means.
But he got away clean
and was never captured.
In October of the same year,
the Monster sent out another warning
about contaminated
candy and poisoned candy
was actually found in several cases.
The investigation continued into 1985.
The police weren't making much headway.
By August of 1985, the
police superintendent
heading up this
investigation or part of it
committed suicide by self-immolation,
which means he set himself on fire.
This did prompt a final letter
from the Monster with 21 Faces,
which was that they were going to stop
their reign of terror
with these food companies.
At this point, numerous
people have been proposed
as possible perpetrators
or members of this,
but no one has been caught.
This remains one of the strangest
unsolved crimes in Japanese history.
And this is just scratching the surface
of the wealth of bizarre, disturbing,
unsolved crimes across the globe.
So, we're going to be doing
an audio podcast on that this week.
Check it out when it comes out.
And in the meantime, let us know
about the unsolved crimes
in your neck of the woods
or the ones that you would
like to hear more about.
You can also see some
stories about these crimes
if you follow us on
Facebook and on Twitter,
where we are ConspiracyStuff.
Oh, and check out our live show
that we do once a week on Periscope.
The best way to find out about that
is to check us out on Twitter.
(thunder rolls)
And if you have any other ideas for stuff
that we should cover in the future,
thank you in advance because
all of our best ideas
come from the audience.
And if you don't wanna do
the social media thing,
totally get it, write to us directly.
We are Conspiracy@HowStuffWorks.com.
(somber piano note)
(bones rattle)
