24 Unsolved American Mysteries That Deserve More Attention

Unsolved mysteries — Jack the Ripper, Bigfoot, and Stonehenge, among others — perplex experts and astound everyday people. These inexplicable events are among the world’s most compelling unanswered questions.

For centuries, American citizens have long scratched their heads over possible UFO sightings, disappearing towns, and mysterious monoliths. While millions speculate and theorize about the Loch Ness monster or other internationally-known cryptids, many questions in the U.S. remain unanswered.

How do ships and their crews vanish without a trace? Have we already communicated with aliens? Where is Jimmy Hoffa? Unsolved mysteries comprise much of America’s extensive history. Despite countless armchair historians’ and true crime buffs’ viral video essays, experts have yet to close these popular cases.

Edgar Allen Poe’s Death

Gothic fiction pioneer Edgar Allen Poe’s grim death is still a mystery. In late September 1849, a concerned printer named Joseph Walker found a disheveled and distressed Poe. The author couldn’t clearly communicate and appeared to be wearing someone else’s clothes, leading onlookers to believe he’d indulged in one too many drinks. A few days passed, and the author was fading in and out of consciousness, sweating profusely, and even trying to talk to room decor. Caregivers at his side forbade guests due to this “excitable” state. Poe died on October 7, just days later. He was 40.

Popular theories concerning his cause of death include alcohol poisoning, drug use, rabies, and brain tumors. Others posit he suffered from heart disease, epilepsy, rabies, carbon monoxide poisoning, or endured trauma following a robbery. Some believe he was a victim of “cooping,” a violent and coercive form of voter fraud. The diverse theories show just how little we know about his final days, comprising a mystery befitting of a man whose prolific works still stun audiences.

Roanoke Island

More than 400 years since the abandonment of Roanoke Island, American historians still have no answers. In this “Lost Colony,” an entire colonist community disappeared without a trace. The settlement, established in 1587, originally comprised nearly 120 people. But when Gov. John White returned to the site following a three-year absence, it was empty — other than the word “CROATOAN” etched into a tree.

For centuries, people have speculated about the catalyst behind the colony’s demise — disease outbreaks, violent storms, attacks, invasions, famine, and more. Though researchers continue to collect artifacts from the bygone settlement, the eerie mystery still has no explanation.

Lizzie Borden

Thanks to creepy nursery rhymes and long-circulated misinformation, many are familiar with Lizzie Borden and her parents’ untimely demise. The 32-year-old woman lived with her affluent father, stepmother, and a maid. The case garnered nationwide attention due to its brutality, the Borden family’s socioeconomic status, and its young female defendant.

Many clues point toward Lizzie’s guilt, but just as many suggest other suspects’ guilt and Ms. Borden’s innocence. Pop culture references remember her as a murderer; though acquitted, suspected purchases and hidden evidence suggest she had more of a role than the jury believed. Others believe Mr. Borden’s frugality and cold demeanor soured community members, including his maid Bridget Sullivan, believed to be the only witness — or the axe-wielder herself.

The Knights of the Golden Circle

While evidence confirms the Knights of the Golden Circle‘s existence, plenty of mystery swirls around this Civil War-era secret society. With Confederate ally George W. L. Bickley at the helm, the Knights of the Golden Circle were a pro-slavery southern group with plans to annex Mexico in an attempt to further disconnect Southerners from naysayers in the North. The group sought to recruit new Knights and garner nationwide support, but they ultimately fell following the Union’s victory.

Historians still have questions about the group: the whereabouts of their hidden treasure (scattered stolen U.S. Army payrolls), operation locations, and more. Some attribute the KGC’s anti-U.S. government sentiments to the South’s historic uprising. Others theorize prolific figures were aboard the movement, including John Wilkes Booth and Jesse James.

Arkansas Bird and Fish Deaths

On New Year’s Eve 2010, thousands of birds fell from the sky and thousands of fish washed up on a riverbank nearby. News of the unsettling scene circulated worldwide, leaving onlookers and experts speechless. Theories run the gamut, from birds’ proximity to fireworks and animal predators to supernatural interference.

As for the fish, people suspect disease or pollution, but tests haven’t proved either.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Theft

Nearly 35 years later, the 1990 Gardner Museum incident remains unsolved. The heist remains the largest art theft ever, resulting in the loss of 13 irreplaceable pieces. Notable works stolen include several Degas paintings and even a bronze sculpture from 12th-century China. The empty frames are still on display, a metaphor representing the facility’s enduring hunt.

Two men posed as Boston police officers entered the museum, departing with a haul worth around $500 million. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s commitment to solving the case persists; a $10 million reward for the works’ whereabouts is still up for grabs.

Amelia Earhart

We all learned about Amelia Earhart’s disappearance in elementary school, but many forget its complexity. At the time of her disappearance, Earhart was one of the most famous women in the world, but her career, flush with shattered records and “firsts,” was ultimately cut short. The U.S. government declared her and navigator Fred Noonan dead following their July 1937 disappearance.

Government leaders assert Earhart and Noonan crashed into the Pacific, but countless hypotheses constructed since their deaths — many of them farfetched — suggest otherwise. Commonly, people believe the pair were marooned on an island, while others think the aircraft sunk, submerging those inside. Offbeat theories blame espionage attempts and hungry coconut crabs.

The Missing 18.5 Minutes of the Nixon Tapes

The Watergate scandal is one of the biggest in American history, and we all know Nixon was behind the secret tapings. The Nixon tapes included more than 3,000 hours of conversation, but many still question the contents of the missing 18.5 minutes. Supposedly, secretary Rose Mary Woods accidentally deleted nearly 20 minutes, while some believe there’s more to the story.

Like most speculations, those surrounding the missing minutes range from mundane to fantastical. Some believe the portion contained nothing of note, while others insist the deletion deliberately hid something sinister. Ultimately, failed attempts to restore the tape’s contents mean no one knows for sure.

Wall Street Bombing of 1920

In September 1920, a man disappeared after he abandoned a horse and cart in front of the U.S. Assay Office and J.P. Morgan building. A few minutes later, the cart exploded, killing dozens and injuring hundreds. Details weren’t immediately obvious, but officials now call the bombing an act of domestic terrorism.

The case is unsolved, and authorities never named a convincing suspect. Mysterious flyers concerning an Italian anarchist group surfaced, suggesting they were behind the tragedy, but mystery still clouds most details.

The Phoenix Lights

On March 13, 1997, the “Phoenix Lights” illuminated Arizona skies, resulting in UFO speculations among civilians and officials that dominated news circuits. While some made references to the supernatural in jest, others felt they were extras in an apocalyptic blockbuster.

No one knows for sure what these lights are, even now. What’s more, the government’s explanations were all eventually disproven. Some say dropped flares and nighttime test flights were to blame, but no explanations perfectly align with witness retellings.

Former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington later poked fun at UFO claims by donning a party store alien outfit during a taped conference. However, he later backtracked, confirming he saw alien activity that night.

DB Cooper

In November 1971, a seemingly ordinary man boarded Flight 305 from Portland to Seattle. Once in the air, he informed a flight attendant he had a bomb. In Seattle, he exchanged the flight’s passengers for $200,000 in exclusively $20 bills and four parachutes before taking off again, this time with only a few crew members.

It’s believed the still-unidentified man jumped from the aircraft with the random money in tow, never to be seen again. Though officials have named suspects, nothing’s stuck, and the identity of one “D.B. Cooper” has never been confirmed.

Alcatraz Escape

Alcatraz has held infamous criminals over the years, including some of history’s most notorious gangsters. But in the early 1960s, it welcomed three inmates who would ultimately finish what many would-be escapees started. Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin assembled plaster replicas of themselves and placed them in their cots, leading watchmen to believe the three were still asleep. Unbeknownst to Alcatraz staff, the men were long gone. To this day, no one knows where they were heading or how they did it.

Their bodies were never recovered, making some hypothesize they’d succeeded. But if the fugitives made it to land, they beat impossible odds, enduring frigid water and violent currents as well as intense media coverage. The FBI closed the case in the late 1970s, but experts at the U.S. Marshals Service are still investigating.

The Sodder Children

On Christmas Eve 1945, the Sodder family house caught fire, resulting in the disappearance of five of the nine children. The nature of their disappearance led many to suspect they perished in the fire, but no remains were ever found. Mysteriously, George Sodder’s ladder went missing on the night of the fire, his trucks wouldn’t start, and the fire department took a staggering four hours to arrive. None of the children were ever found.

Popular theories cited the Italian mob, trafficking, murder, and other grisly accusations. Some witnesses reported seeing the children being hauled from the site in an unidentified car. The youngest of the Sodder children, Sylvia, held onto the belief that her brothers and sisters made it out alive until her death in 2021.

Kryptos Sculpture

Sculptor James Sanborn’s “Kryptos” sits in the CIA headquarters’ courtyard. The installation is rumored to contain government secrets and CIA mysteries. Agency employees, government officials, and outsiders alike have worked tirelessly to unpack potential hidden meanings behind Sanborn’s design choices, solving roughly 75% of the puzzle.

However, a sizeable chunk is still unsolved. Some think the sculpture is meaningless gibberish, but others suspect it holds a compelling message. Sanborn himself has said that the puzzle’s answer is a mystery, which means we may never fully understand the piece’s significance.

The Wow! Signal

In 1977, astronomers recorded an unusual radio signal lasting 72 seconds. Figures shown on the subsequent data report read “6EQUJ5,” numbers astronomer Jerry Ehman later circled with a red pen. His “Wow!” in red ink ultimately gave this signal its funny name. In the decades following the discovery, experts worked to understand both the cause and source of the emission.

As with most unexplained phenomena, many hastily blamed extraterrestrial interference. Nearly a half-century later, scientists believe they’re getting closer, suggesting magnetic forces or cold hydrogen clouds caused the sound. Despite almost 50 years of deep-diving and decodes, they haven’t solved the mystery, but we’ve never been closer.

Beale Ciphers

The Beale Ciphers are three sets of ciphertexts allegedly pointing to treasures Thomas J. Beale hid in the early 1800s. These encoded numbers perplex even the best codebreakers; to this day, ciphers have solved only one of the three papers. The deciphered text, which uses the Declaration of Independence as the key, says the treasure is in an underground vault in Bedford, Virginia. Maybe Nic Cage can help humanity with the other two.

Questions concerning the ciphers are endless, leaving some to wonder if they’re entirely random or if treasure even exists at all. In an effort to debunk these mysterious texts, some have even explored U.S. Census information to determine if Beale himself was real. While these texts are legendary for conspiracy theorists and cryptographers, most people know little — which probably spells good news for treasure hunters.

The Max Headroom TV Hacking

In November 1987, an intruder in a Max Headroom mask hijacked a Chicago TV station, a crime that resulted in a now-historic video that’s unsettled audiences for decades. The still-unidentified person rambled for a few minutes as the background contorted behind him. While Max Headroom intentionally evoked “uncanny valley” feelings in the bellies of viewers with his glitchy speech patterns and unnatural movements, this off-putting interruption crossed a line. Even decades later, American media buffs everywhere connect using online forums to share information and track the Headroom imposter.

The identities and means of the two culprits are still unknown, and the disturbing broadcast went as quickly as it came. However, people still wonder how they managed to pull it off.

The Taos Hum

Residents of Taos, New Mexico, reported hearing a low, consistent humming noise. People first reported the hum in the 1990s, and the resulting theories explaining this hum range from paranormal to psychological. Speculators blame the persistent drone on everything from faulty nearby equipment to alien attempts to reach humans. Not everyone hears the hum but accounts from the 2% of “hummers” who do have been consistent for decades. Some in earshot report illness after prolonged exposure, like headaches and fatigue, as the sound stirs some from sleep.

Scholars have proposed explanations of their own, including tinnitus or other inner ear disorders, but no hypothesis has been confirmed.

Carroll A. Deering Ghost Ship

The Carroll A. Deering ship is among the most well-known ghost ships in American history. The entire crew disappeared from the ship in 1921, and none were recovered. The ship, however, continued to sail, eventually hitting North Carolina’s coast. Coast Guard members boarding the ship saw no crew members nearby. Many assume pirates kidnapped or murdered the crew, but that doesn’t explain how or why the ship sailed itself. Some Coast Guard members who hopped aboard after its North Carolina arrival claim the vessel appeared as if it was actively in use.

Most speculative finger-pointing is directed toward the Bermuda Triangle. While many modern Americans suspect the area is the site of many notable disappearances, collective apprehension wouldn’t popularize until the 1960s — 40 years after Carroll A. Deering’s crew vanished, and several other vessels met a similar fate.

Dudleytown, Connecticut

The small settlement of Dudleytown, Connecticut, is a supposedly cursed town plagued by ghosts, demons, and other paranormal entities. Settlers constructed the town in the 1740s, and a suspected curse set in shortly after, which many believe gave way to numerous inexplicable tragedies.

Numerous strange and unsettling incidents seemed to be far more than a few coincidences. Theories concerning the strange happenings cite witchcraft, government cover-ups, hauntings, polluted water, and more. However, no one truly knows what drove the people here mad. Unfortunately, the town has since been abandoned, leaving little left to uncover.

The Axeman of New Orleans

The Axeman of New Orleans was a serial killer who terrorized NOLA in 1918 and 1919. The axe-wielding perpetrator broke into nearby homes, brutalized the residents inside, and disappeared into the night. He also forced residents to engage in strange acts, like impromptu overnight jazz parties.

His unusual behavior made his motives confusing. Experts combed the killer’s past attacks, hunting for any trends or tendencies, eventually finding he was his most merciful around area musicians. A warning note the suspect submitted to a regional publication claimed he would appear on March 18, 1919, and spare only those with live jazz bands playing inside their homes.

Despite studying erratic behaviors and foreboding messaging, the killer was never identified.

New Haven Green Graves

In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy in the early 2010s, residents of New Haven, Connecticut, found unearthed human remains beneath an uprooted tree. While a handful of skeletons were identified, the remaining bones still intrigue the town and historians. The tree is believed to have been more than 100 years old at the time of its destruction, the bones beneath likely belonging to late 18th- to early 19th-century victims of illnesses like smallpox or yellow fever.

Anthropologists at Yale acquired the remains for further study, though nothing has been proven. New Haven police said the unearthed remains drew a crowd of spectators.

The Idaho Mutilations

The Idaho towns of Bliss and Jerome have been the site of brutal mutilations since the 1970s. These gruesome acts spanned species but often involved similar acts, including the removal of organs. Related acts have been reported as recently as October 2022, with one cow inexplicably hollowed out in nearby Oregon in 2019.

While some are quick to cast blame on the occult, police investigations have identified no such cause — or any one cause at all. In the 1970s, the FBI declined to explicitly attribute the killings to any one perp, they found some animals were tranquilized or administered anticoagulating drugs ahead of their deaths. These findings lead curious minds to believe ritualistic cults were involved, though that’s as far as accusations have gone.

Devil’s Tower

Many plains tribes, including the Lakota, have historically celebrated the spiritual and cultural significance of Devil’s Tower, or “Mato Tipila,” a sprawling Wyoming monolith. The striking structure is unlike any other, comprising a shape geologists still deliberate the creation of today. Scientists understand the information behind its formation, but they don’t understand how those theories translate into practice.

Seeking answers, adventurers worldwide continue to piece together new and old data. However, like a dictionary with only definitions, they’re still missing some fundamental pieces of the puzzle.