Book picks similar to
Unsolved Mysteries by Colin Wilson


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non-fiction
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Australia's Strangest Mysteries


John Pinkney - 2011
    Photographs. Illustrations.DRIVER FRANK CLEWER sparked panic in his hometown - when he began to leave trails of scorchmarks and flames wherever he walked.The Baffling Burning Man's brush with the impossible occurred in September 2005, and was chronicled by TV news crews and hundreds of witnesses. Astonished scientists at the University of New South Wales found that Frank was generating 30,000 volts of static electricity: a charge powerful ernough to melt synthetic carpets.But somehow he survived the mysterious 'inner fire' without the slightest lesion on his skin - the only visible evidence of the colossal voltage he'd carried being a charred hole in a knee of his jeans.Many media outlets treated the Clewer case as a one-off event. But SHC [Spontaneous Human Combustion] has been inexplicably occurring for more than 2,000 years, with one of the earliest recorded events dated 52 BC.In this unique book, bestselling author and journalist John Pinkney describes the mysterious history of the 'flames from heaven' - a phenomenon which obsessed even Charles Dickens, who featured it in his novel Bleak House.Pinkney also presents a new selection of some of the most tantalizing cases he has investigated during a lifetime's specialist research:UNEXPLAINED DISAPPEARANCES, from the enigma of the vanishing heiress to the saga of the 'jinxed' ship, which vanished with 130 people aboard.OUTBACK RIDDLES. The desert aboriginals whose astonishing song saved the life of a dying woman, 4,000 kilometres away...The uncanny invasion of Lake Eyre...the bush monster that guarded an abandoned potato farm...the terrifying UFO incursion into Queensland's Isla Gorge.MYSTERIOUS DEATHS, including the fate of John Friedrich, 'the man who never was'...the American divers' diaries of doom...the horror in Sydney's dunes.EERIE PHENOMENA Astounding case of the Shining Crosses...the Australian magazine that foretold the assassination of JFK...Lost, on a Road Without Shadows. And more.These pages offer you intriguing insights into some of our planet's most perplexing mysteries.

Unexplained: Supernatural Stories for Uncertain Times


Richard MacLean Smith - 2018
    . . Demonic possession in 1970's Germany. UFOs in Rendlesham forest. Reincarnation in Middlesbrough. To this day, these real life mysteries and very many more evade explanation. Based on one of the most successful paranormal podcasts ever, with over 10 million streams and downloads to date, Unexplained consists of ten chapters focussing on a different paranormal event, from Australia to Germany, the UK to Zimbabwe, using the stories as gateways to a journey beyond the veil of the uncanny, exploring what they reveal of the human experience. Taking ideas once thought of as supernatural or paranormal and questioning whether radical ideas in science might provide a new but equally extraordinary explanation, Unexplained is The Examined Life meets The X Files.'A grisly treat' Financial Times on the podcast

True Ghost Stories: Real Police Ghost Stories: True Tales of the Paranormal as Told by Cops and Other Law Enforcement Officials


Zachery Knowles - 2017
    The figure hangs for a moment then disappears and the officer is changed forever. Suddenly, a world that made sense has been turned upside down and the terrified family who first called the police remains uncomforted. This family is not alone though, for all over the world, police officers come in contact with the strange and the paranormal. If it were anyone else, we would dismiss these tales as falsehoods by most. But the people in these stories are not unreliable witnesses or fanciful con artists; they are the men and women who serve our communities when terrifying forces seek to harm us. Our patrollers are trained to observe, to remember details, and to never assume things are as they seem; the officers involved in these stories have never been able to find rational explanations for their experiences. These accounts come from officers across the globe, from devout Catholics to staunch Atheists and everyone in between who could not have imagined what they would come across when they took their calls, and many of them wish they could forget their experiences after they did. Delve into these eighteen stories and discover that even those charged with protecting us witness things they were never equipped to deal with. If you are a non-believer, withhold your judgment until you have read the chillingly convincing evidence for yourself. If you already believe, you will know the fear these officers faced. When your job is to confront the evils that people can do to each other, to protect those who are unable to against harm, it is inevitable you will one day find something that you cannot protect. After all, as Nietzsche once said, “And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.” Ready to scare yourself senseless? Scroll to the top of the page and hit buy!

Mortal Error: The Shot That Killed JFK


Bonar Menninger - 1993
    Another conspiracy theory identifies the two men who, operating separately, allegedly shot President Kennedy in the ""Crime of the Century."" Reprint.

Strange Stories, Amazing Facts


Reader's Digest Association - 1975
    But TrueSome Sample chapters from the book are:Was Atlantis a legend or fact?The building of the Great Pyramid of CheopsHistory of the can opener

The Grumpy Old Git's Guide to Life


Geoff Tibballs - 2011
    We all know one! They like to groan and grumble, offering their own commentary on the shortcomings of modern life. Whether it is queues at the supermarket, the state of the health system, the price of a pint these days, the hairstyles of teenagers, or the number of Maltesers you actually get in a bag, there is always something that will get their goat. 'The Grumpy Old Git's Guide to Life' is a hilarious celebration of all these grumps, how to identify one, what exactly they find so irritating and why we find their rants quite so amusing.

Crash at Corona: The U.S. Military Retrieval and Cover-Up of a UFO


Stanton T. Friedman - 1992
    Army stated that the remains of a flying disk had been recovered from a ranch near Corona, New Mexico. Now, this book exposes the government's successful 40-year conspiracy to conceal the truth behind Americ's most documented UFO encounter.

Killers in Uniform


Adrian Vincent - 2016
    Yet here are over thirty true stories of real life murderers who abused the trust of the public, their patients, their friends and their colleagues, indulging in chilling killing sprees. Neville Heath, the charming RAF officer with uncontrollable urges. Susan Christie, the ‘Fatal Attraction’ killer from the Ulster Defence Regiment. Robert Erler, the so-called Super Cop who shot a mother and daughter seemingly on a whim. Genene Jones, the loving nurse who killed many of the children in her care. James Camb, the ship’s steward who charmed and then killed one of his passengers. What drove these people to commit such heinous acts and how did they utilise the confidence placed in those in uniform? Killers in Uniform is saturated with stark reminders that real-life killers are far from monsters of fiction. In providing a comprehensive history of some of the most shocking crimes on record, Adrian Vincent raises important questions about patterns of crime, the psychology of murder and regulation of systems where trust and exploitation can unfortunately go hand in hand. He also charts changes in the justice system and controversial judicial attitudes towards punishment: documenting the move away from the death penalty and punitive punishment towards rehabilitation and flexible sentencing terms, detailing crimes which ended in hanging and life-sentences to prisoners sent to psychiatric hospitals including Broadmoor. Adrian Vincent worked in Fleet Street for twenty-seven years, becoming managing editor of IPC’s educational magazines. He is the author of many books on art and antiques, novels and true crime.

Revelations


Jacques F. Vallée - 1991
    In Dimensions, he presented his theory that UFOs are probably not spacecraft but manifestations of a consciousness-controlling technology from "dimensions beyond spacetime"; in Confrontations, he bolstered that theory with examples from his own casebook. Here, deftly blending theory & memoir, he attempts to clear ufololgy of "the weeds & the vines of human fantasy &...the poisonous flowers of unbalanced minds." That is, to him, cases from the infamous Roswell incident (spacecraft & aliens purportedly captured by the USAAF in '47) to the popular legend of Area 51 (aliens working tentacle-in-hand with US officials beneath the Nevada desert) to the alleged abduction of Franck Fontaine in '79 (exhaustively researched 1sthand by Vallee) to the purported top-secret federal UFO-investigating committee of Howard Blum's Out There ('90) aren't only mostly nonsense, but--here's the rub--"complex hoaxes that have been carefully engineered for our benefit." But by whom, & why? By federal disinformation agents, & possibly as "psychological warfare experiments" or "as a cover for something else"--i.e., experimental spy/warcraft or real "flying discs." He offers little hard evidence to back those conjectures, but he does unglove the heavy hand of military intelligence in many cases, while at the same time exposing the absurdity of others, including Budd Hopkins' best-selling alien-rape reports. So what's left? A host of genuinely mysterious cases, e.g., the '89 USSR sightings, & the spirit of rigorous scientific inquiry that he urges they be subjected to. Except for his wobbly conclusions, a forceful & refreshingly iconoclastic study that, for all its good sense, will likely add up to only a cry in the alien-infested ufowilderness.--Kirkus (edited)

Murderer with a Badge


Edward Humes - 1992
    Pulitzer Prize-winner Humes, the first to break the story, conducted exclusive jail-cell interviews with convicted LAPD officer Bill Leasure to give an enthralling account of his chilling crimes. 8-page insert.

100 Things They Don't Want You To Know: Conspiracies, mysteries and unsolved crimes


Daniel Smith - 2015
    Under his investigative searchlight are mysterious landmarks, disappearances at sea, legendary myths, astonishing coincidences, UFOs, missing people and bizarre natural phenomena. Ranging from suspicious deaths (The Black Dahlia) to notorious murderers (Jack the Ripper) and from ancient artefacts (Tarim Mummies) to Cold War cover-ups (Lost Cosmonauts), via documents that remain untranslatable (Voynich Manuscript), debated icons of religion (Shroud of Turin) and puzzling paranormal appearances (Marfa Lights), Daniel Smith leaves no stone unturned in his quest to expose the bare facts and unravel the tales that have gripped curious minds for years. Also includes: Spontaneous Combustion, Whereabouts of Nazi Gold, Red Rain, Lost Literature of the Mayan Civilisation, Disappearance of Jean Spangler, Severed Feet of British Columbia, Shakespeare's Dark Lady, The Shugborough Inscription, Stonehenge, The Flying Dutchman, Lewis Carroll's Lost Diaries and the Beast of Bodmin Moor.

"I'm just an ordinary girl." The Sharon Kinne Story


James C. Hays - 1997
    husband, her boyfriend's wife and a man in Mexico. All this before her twenty-fifth birthday.Sentenced to thirteen years in Mexican prison, she escaped and is still at large with an active murder warrant biting at her ass.This story has been featured on Unsolved Mysteries and Discovery I.D.'s Deadly Women series. (Episode-"Born Bad").

Alpe d'Huez: The Story of Pro Cycling's Greatest Climb


Peter Cossins - 2015
    Re-introduced to the Tour in 1976, Alpe d’Huez has risen to mythical status, thanks initially to a string of victories by riders from Holland, whose exploits attracted tens of thousands of their compatriots to the climb, which has become known as ‘Dutch mountain’. A snaking 13.8-kilometre ascent rising up through 21 numbered hairpins at an average gradient of 7.8%, Alpe d’Huez is the climb on which every great rider wants to win. Many of the sport’s most famous and now even infamous names have won on the Alpe, including Bernard Hinault, Joop Zoetemelk, Lucho Herrera, Marco Pantani and Lance Armstrong. As well as days of brilliance, there have controversies such as the high-speed and drug-fuelled duels of the EPO years in the 1990s and into the new millennium.  In Alpe d’Huez, veteran cycling journalist Peter Cossins reveals the triumphs, passion and despair behind the great exploits on the Alpe and discloses the untold details that have led to the mountain becoming as important to the Tour as the race is to resort at its summit. It is a tale of man and machine battling against breath-taking terrain for the ultimate prize.

The Curious Habits of Doctor Adams: A 1950's Murder Mystery


Jane Robins - 2013
    

The Murdered Family - Mystery of the Wolf Family Murders


Vernon Keel - 2010
    A wave of fear sweeps across the barren prairies of central North Dakota in April of 1920 with the tragic news that seven members of a farm family and their hired boy have been brutally murdered at their home just north of Turtle Lake in McLean County. A massive search for the killers begins immediately in the midst of an intense statewide election campaign. Three weeks later, eager investigators encouraged by nervous politicians get a signed confession from one of the prime suspects in the case. He is sentenced that same day to life in the state penitentiary in what the New York Times referred to then as ''the most rapid administration of justice in the country.'' From the beginning, the man denies his guilt and says his confession was obtained under duress, intimidation and fear. In November, his lawyers file a motion in district court asking that his plea of guilty be withdrawn and for a trial upon the merits. Their motion is strengthened when some new evidence is discovered on the Wolf family farm only days before the motion is filed. Some ninety years later, people in the area still recall the words the convicted man was supposed to have said: ''My eyes have seen but my hands are clean!''