Jan 2010
How do we get close to a killer the police haven't been able to identify for over 100 years? With the help of renowned British crime historians and authors applying modern techniques, "Mystery Files" unearths new evidence to eliminate an age-old suspect, and to discover a new, likely candidate who was right under the policemen's nose.
Tue, Feb 9, 2010
The literary horror classic theme traces to Voltaire, the Illumination author 'philosopher' who who was a bitter enemy of Louis XIV's absolute monarchy. He had himself been a victim himself for three years of the 'lettre de cachet', a practice which gave the crown discretionary powers to have any subject arrested and incarcerated indefinitely without form of trial. Secret prisons in desolate fortresses are documented, as author St. Mars was governor under war minster Louvois, as well as anonymous prisoners and even masks, but an iron mask for years would have been fatal by infection. For a royal brother there are no indications, as royal births were very public court events.
Sun, Jun 5, 2011
Mystery Files investigates why Adolf Hitler decided to go into politics. In World War I, Hitler as a young army private is injured during a poison gas and is taken to a psychiatric military hospital where he makes his fateful decision. Scholars argue that his traumatic experiences may have inspired his political outlook.
Wed, Feb 10, 2010
Last Russian emperor ('czar') Nicholas and his five kids (weakling heir and four girls) were revered by the simpleton Russian people like saints, until the Great War turned out disastrous and the imperial commander in chief was blamed for national misery. The Menshevik revolution brought peace by capitulation to the German empire and a quiet revolution, the dynasty being 'bannished' to a luxury palace. But Lenin's Bolsheviks seize power and ordered the 'tyrant' imprisoned to desolate, hostile Ekaterinaburg, guarded by a zealot captain. The czar's cousin, the British king, had to abandon an exile hospitality offer due to the czar's German wife, and a spy found a rescue impossible. The family was taken to a woodland meadow and shot. Burning the corpses proved arduous, so two kids were separated, giving rise to the hope they survived, but modern DNA evidence identified all.