History Main / StockUnsolvedMysteries

** ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' had two sculptors on the head of the Sphinx, with one of them snapping, "'That's fine,' I said. 'Good nose,' I said. But NO, you had to go and hit the chisel one more time!"

* In ''Literature/TheMissing'' series by Creator/MargaretPetersonHaddix, it turns out that [[spoiler:future entrepreneurs went back in time to take many of the most famous missing children of history, such as Princess Anastasia, the Lindbergh baby, or Virginia Dare.]]

* The disappearance of the British peer Lord Lucan in 1974, shortly after his children's nanny was murdered. The nanny wasn't supposed to be in the house that night but had changed her night off, and it's believed the intended victim was Lady Lucan, the nanny being attacked by mistake when she entered the darkened basement. The two most common theories are that he committed suicide following the murder or that he's still alive somewhere (although the 2013 TV miniseries starring Rory Kinnear posits that he was shot dead and dumped into the English Channel on the orders of John Aspinall). Nevertheless, in 2016 he was finally declared legally dead.

** ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' [[http://xkcd.com/1400/ satirically suggests that]] he is none other than Creator/TommyWiseau, the maker of ''Film/{{The Room|2003}}''. Others have offered this theory, with varying degrees of seriousness.[[note]]This appears to be stemmed from the fact that for years, Wiseau's entire background before he made ''The Room'' [[MysteriousPast was a complete mystery]], not know even by his friends who participated in the film. We only know his birth name, birthdate, and birthplace ''now'' thanks to Canadian documentarian Rick Harper's 2016 film ''Room Full of Spoons'' and the lawsuit that Wiseau filed, supposedly in defense of his privacy, and which [[StreisandEffect spectacularly backfired]], revealing Wiseau to have been born as Tomasz Wieczorkiewicz in Poland in 1955; Website/{{Wikipedia}} even accepted this information for a while, but they have now removed all this information (save for the lawsuit) from their article on him out of a belief that the film isn't reliable enough as a source. And even all that still didn't clarify how exactly he made his way to California by the time he made '"The Room''.[[/note]] For the record, Wiseau denies that he is D.B. Cooper.

** ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' [[http://xkcd.com/1400/ satirically suggests that]] he is none other than Creator/TommyWiseau, the maker of ''Film/TheRoom2003''.
*** Others have offered this theory, with varying degrees of seriousness. For the record, Wiseau denies that he is D.B. Cooper.

* D.B. Cooper, also known as Dan Cooper, who vanished on November 24, 1971 with $200,000 after hijacking a 727 and parachuting from the stairs in the tail. The most likely hypothesis are a) he died in the parachuting attempt (which is the official opinion of the FBI, who suspended the investigation in 2016 after 45 years of searching), or b) he survived the jump and simply went back to his old job and old life as if nothing had happened--Cooper was certainly nondescript enough to escape notice. It should be noted that every single copycat attempt that made it as far as parachuting from the plane -- often in very similar conditions to the Cooper jump -- saw the hijacker survive. Over the decades, many have searched his projected landing site for traces of him. It is widely believed that the March 1980 eruption of nearby Mount St. Helens may have obliterated any remaining physical evidence, as none has been found since then. The most intriguing evidence is how some of the marked banknotes were found buried in the sand of a beach miles from the projected landing site just ''weeks'' before the eruption, by a young boy... but not only was the flow of many nearby rivers running in the ''opposite'' direction of the proposed landing site (making it unlikely they had simply floated on the waters to the beach before being buried in the sediment unless the FBI messed up the projected landing site), the rubber bands that bound them couldn't have lasted even a year in open air or water for the time it would sediment to build up over them naturally, suggesting they had been deliberately buried possibly only a few years earlier. In 2019, the FBI revealed that, three hours after Cooper jumped, a burglary was reported at a grocery store within the projected landing radius, with the only items stolen being survival gear such as beef jerky and gloves.

** [[https://xkcd.com/2498/ Another xkcd strip]] has Cooper stuck in a tree on [[CloudCuckoolander Beret Guy's]] land. Every day, Beret Guy drops by to chat: Cooper demands help getting down, Beret Guy asks if he's going to return his loot, Cooper refuses, and Beret Guy shrugs and continues his daily walk.

** In ''Series/NewsRadio'', it is heavily implied that millionaire Jimmy James may be Cooper--it is implied hard enough that a cold-case investigation of the heist [[PutOnABus forces him to go the run for the better part of a season]], endangering the station's finances. Ultimately, [[spoiler:Jimmy proves his innocence by identifying and eliciting a confession from the "real" Cooper: '''Creator/AdamWest.''']]

** ''Literature/CodexSeraphinianus'', created by Luigi Serafini in the 1970s, was inspired by the Voynich manuscript. Written in an indecipherable script, it appears to be an encyclopedia of an alien world. It was created in order to inspire in its readers the [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible feeling of impenetrable mystery]].

** "[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0608535/ The Black Dahlia]]", an episode of ''Series/{{Hunter}}'', has Hunter and [=McCall=] investigate after new evidence comes to light; it aired on the anniversary date of the original murder.

** ''Series/CloakAndDagger'' [[Recap/CloakAndDagger2018S01E10ColonyCollapse named an episode after the phenomenon]], using it as a metaphor for the possible destruction of New Orleans during the episode.

** ''ComicBook/CinemaPurgatorio'' #11 is a MusicalEpisode that goes over the media circus around Short's death and the badly, conspicuously mishandled LAPD investigation. The theory is put forth that Short was pregnant with the child of LA Times publisher Norman Chandler, who had her killed via his mob associate Benny "Bugsy" Siegel.

** ''ComicBook/CinemaPurgatorio'' #11 is a MusicalEpisode that goes over the media circus around Short's death and the badly, conspicuously mishandled LAPD investigation. Theories are discussed, including one involving Short pregnant with the child of LA Times publisher Norman Chandler and killed by his mob associates.