Mystery On The Rocks

This week is a rundown of the events of the final few years of the Cold War, ultimately bringing it to an end.Masud couldn't be with us this week so rather than do a mystery without him (it felt naughty doing one without Sooz a little while ago) we took the opportunity to chronicle something rather momentous in the geopolitics of the 20th Century.Which is what this season is meant to be about of course...Enjoy Sooz and Chris punctuating monumental historical events with their own misinformed childhood memories of it actually happening. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're hurtling towards the end of the Cold War and into the final decade of the 20th Century with this tale of intrigue concerning a Soviet double agent.Espionage, treason, a potentially mysterious fate and a recipe for coot...What happened to Dmitri Polyakov, a.k.a Top Hat???? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's Episode 150!And it's the nuclear disaster which cast an almost literal cloud over the latter half of the 1980s - Chernobyl!We look at what happened, the causes and the effects, some of which continue to this day. Panicking about how to sensitively handle this subject on a comedy podcast, we distract ourselves with a lengthy chat about breakfast cereals, another disaster by the name of Moonfall and there's also a bit about how the Chernobyl accident affected the local vole population.. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1986, the Swedish Prime Minister is shot dead walking back from the cinema. His long career in politics saw him make a lot of international enemies but even so, the case has never been solved. Maybe because there are so many damn suspects and possible motives?Including Yugoslavian intelligence, an arms deal scandal, Chilean extremists and more... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two out of three ain't bad, right?Not a full house this week guys as our schedules are still tricky to align. While we have decided to record if two of us can make it, this isn't a permanent arrangement so don't worry!This week we take a look at an unsolved murder mystery which also happens to be a love story taking in movie stars, gulags and Stalin's inner circle...It's the incredible story of Zoya Fyodorova! Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's episode sees us back to our current season and bidding farewell to the 1970s in...Cambodia!Malcolm Caldwell, a Marxist writer from Scotland, is killed in mysterious circumstances very shortly after meeting Cambodia's leader, the infamous Pol Pot. Despite being a vocal supporter of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime, uncommon in the West, could Caldwell have been murdered for something he said in his audience with the despot?Or for something else entirely?We also go in (too much?) depth about jalapeno margaritas...If you want to avail yourself of the lavender gin be sure to check out Lavinia's Mystical Caves! Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

An update to one of the earliest cases we covered and one of the most enduring mysteries of all time... The Somerton Man!A study believes they've unearthed the mystery man's identity so we take a sidestep from our current season and have a quick chat about the updates to this famous case... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

September 11 1978, Georgi Markov dies in hospital in Balham, South London. Markov was a Bulgarian journalist working for the BBC, having recently defected to the West earlier that year. He had developed a fear after something resembling an insect bite appeared on his thigh.An autopsy found a small pellet in the area, most likely filled with ricin. Before he died Georgi told his wife that when he felt the 'bite', he was on Waterloo Bridge and a man behind him was picking up an umbrella.Was Georgi assassinated for his defection by the Bulgarians or the KGB? And did they use a modified umbrella to do it?One of the most famous Cold War murders gets the Mystery on the Rocks treatment, which basically means bickering about the size and shape of the bullet, arguing about a 69 joke and getting distracted about little Masud watching Last Action Hero... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Content Warning for this week: graphic descriptions (ie, direct quotes from witnesses) of mass murder...July 14th 1976, a house is torched in eastern France. The charred remains of its owner, a man named Rainer Buschman, are found within holding a pistol and a .22 calibre rifle in a defensive position.Not only is Rainer Buschman not who he first appeared to be, but there is also doubt from the French police that the body found is of Buschman at all. What's more, the core elements of this mystery stretch back decades previously.Buckle up, it's a heavy one... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week's episode, we pop to Africa and gross ourselves out by having to say 'Rhodesia' a lot. In 1975, Herbert Chitepo was assassinated by a car bomb, which was so powerful it also claimed the lives of others. Herbert was the first black barrister in Rhodesia and a prominent figure in the fight for independence and the reclamation of Zimbabwe.However, some thought he was too moderate which means the list of suspects isn't just limited to his political enemies and the Rhodesian administration, but also potentially more militant rivals ostensibly on the same side.So who planted the car bomb?We also get sidetracked about the semantics of a head transplant (still not sure how) and give Timmy Mallett some props. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

January 1972, a plane crashes over what was then Czechoslovakia. Some believe it was shot down by Czechoslovakian defences mistakenly believing it to be an enemy aircraft, whereas some believe it was a briefcase bomb on board planted by Croatian nationalists.So what's the truth?Join us as we also dredge up the existence of Liam Lynch's 2003 microhit United States of Whatever and find ourselves in yet another surprise sequel to an episode from Mystery on the Rocks past... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 1970, prominent Italian journalist Mauro de Mauro vanishes without trace in Siciliy, his remains never discovered to this day.So what happened?Could it have something to do with the story he was about to break at the leftwing newspaper he was working at? Or was it to do with his shady fascist past during the era of Mussolini? Was it the Mafia? Or could it have something to do with a mysterious, unsolved plane crash eight years previously?We take a look at all the options while drinking a delicious praline-based cocktail and eating bar snacks... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week's episode takes a quick squint at the conspiracy theories that suggest mankind's greatest feat of space exploration never happened. There are many who believe the moon landings were 100% fake, but what do we think?We're sure you can guess...Along the way we also touch on the Flat Earth theory and one of the more outlandish conspiracy theories we heard about the pandemic.Remember, you can now watch extended Mystery on the Rocks episodes over at our Patreon - patreon.com/mysteryontherocks. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 1968 Francoist Spain, one of the leading members of the antifascist Basque separatist cell ETA sets in motion a chain of events that reach right up to the present day, including the assassinations of a Francoist police torturer and Franco's own chosen successor, a bitter fight throughout the 1980s with another terrorist group and maybe even the return of democracy to Spain in the late 70s.With, somehow, added chat about taxidermy... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 1965, civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo was fatally shot during a car chase when she was pursued by four members of the KKK after she had been shuttling civil rights protestors back to the airport.Except, this is in a Southern State, so justice isn't easily forthcoming.And even the architect of the murder itself isn't all he seems...Lots of surprises in this one, not least how we manage to end up talking about The Phantom Menace... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The daddy of all conspiracy theories...In November 1963, president of the United States John F Kennedy is shot dead in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald is quickly named as the assassin, firing from the Texas Book Depository, but this version of events has failed to satisfy everyone. The presence of some homeless men with "nice shoes", a man with an umbrella despite clement weather and a incongruously dressed "Baboushka Lady" in the vicinity are just some ingredients which have perpetuated quite probably the most famous conspiracy theory of all time.So what do we think...? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week we find ourselves well and truly in the 1960s with the world the closest to nuclear war as it had come by this point... We take a quick look at why and what happened, get the year in which Dr Strangelove was released wrong and somehow become a Red Dwarf fan-cast along the way as well as finding ourselves performing a rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody.It's a weird one, even by our standards... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union supposedly sent up doomed manned spaceflights before Yuri Gagarin was recognised officially as the first man in space. While the Soviet Union never formally acknowledged the existence of these lost cosmonauts, and neither has Russia since the end of the Cold War, some recordings made by two Italian brothers apparently intercepted transmissions from these doomed missions and have given credence to the story.But is it true?If you would like to get episodes early, and in extended video form, why not join our Patreon from as little as £3 per month?www.patreon.com/mysteryontherocks See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Due to life/scheduling reasons, this week's episode isn't our regular programming. Instead of a mystery, this is a compilation of a tiny percentage of the extra just-chatting bonus stuff we put out on Patreon.So join us in the members' lounge of the Mystery on the Rocks bar as we discuss the recent (when we recorded) Oscars hoo-ha, weird dreams, diarrhoea, the bombshell that Chris was a nerd at school, snail depression, forgotten kids' TV shows, and 9/11 conspiracy theories.For more, sign up to our Patreon where there are regular bonus episodes, exclusive outtakes, special video content and even some merch!www.patreon.com/mysteryontherocks See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our current season continues into the 1950s as we take a look at the suicide of Lester C Hunt, a Democratic Senator for Wyoming. Several factors could have led to his ultimate decision to take his own life, including a personal scandal and recent diagnosis of ill health.Or was it increased pressure from certain politicians whom he had rubbed up the wrong way? Or a combination of all three?Due to a combination of life and scheduling reasons, next week's episode will be a frivolous cut of some of our bonus content before normal service is resumed the following week... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.