Here are the stories of five famous folks who—to grave robbers, anyway—were worth more dead than alive.]]> After Michael Jackson passed away, his family decided to bury him inside Forest Lawn Memorial Park, a private, gated cemetery where many musicians, actors, and other celebrities are buried. As odd as it might sound, one of the main reasons the family chose the private cemetery was to ensure that Michael’s body could not be stolen and held for ransom. If you think they’re being paranoid, you should read these five stories of famous folks who—to grave robbers, anyway—were worth more dead than alive.

1. Stealing the Tramp

Silent-era funnyman Charlie Chaplin, best-known for his “Little Tramp” character, died on Christmas day in 1977 and was buried soon after in a 300-pound oak coffin in the village of Corsier, Switzerland. But in March 1978, his grave was disturbed and his body stolen, with a demand for £400,000 received by phone a few days later. The grave robbers’ plan seemed so perfect until Chaplin’s widow, Lady Oona Chaplin, refused to pay the sum, saying, “Charlie would have thought it rather ridiculous.”

In an attempt to nab the crooks, the local police set up false pay-off meetings, but these proved fruitless when the robbers chickened out and didn’t show. However, both the police and the suspects were persistent, so the two parties continued to communicate in the hopes of resolving the standoff.

In May, the police were expecting another call from the robbers, so they tapped the Chaplins’ phone. In an extraordinary display of coordination, they also assigned officers to watch as many as 200 phone booths throughout the area. When the call from the robbers came in, it was traced back to the originating booth, and two men, Roman Wardas and Gantscho Ganev, both auto mechanics, were arrested. The men led police to Chaplin’s remains, buried in a cornfield about 10 miles from the graveyard.

For his crime, Wardas received a four-year stint for masterminding the scam, while Ganev, seen only as a muscle man, got off easy with an 18-month suspended sentence. As for Chaplin, he was re-buried in the same burial plot, but this time his coffin was surrounded by thick concrete to prevent anyone else from disturbing his slumber.

2. Stay On the Line. Police Will Be With You Shortly.

Soon after his death in 2001, the body of Enrico Cuccia, a powerful bank president often considered the father of Italian capitalism, was removed from its vault. The foul play was discovered by a loyal housekeeper who visited the grave on a weekly basis to clean up around the tomb.

A ransom demand was received by the family a few days later, asking for the equivalent of $3.5 million to be deposited by Mediobanca—the bank Cuccia had controlled for more than 50 years—into a numbered Swiss account. When the ransom was not immediately paid, a man called Mediobanca to set up the transfer of funds, but was placed on hold under the pretense that the bank president was on the other line. This gave the police time to trace the call back to a small village near Turin, Italy, and found Giampaolo Pesce, a steelworker, still holding the phone.

Caught red-handed, Pesce led authorities to a barn where Cuccia’s coffin had been hidden under some straw.

3. Seeking: SWM, Rich, Deceased

Alexander T. Stewart made his fortune selling high-quality fabrics, European fashions, and popular household items inside giant, lavish buildings that became the model for modern day department stores. By the time of his death in 1876, his wealth was estimated at $40 million, making him one of the richest men in New York City.

A few weeks after he was buried in a vault at St. Mark’s Church, thieves broke in and made off with Stewart’s remains. As part of their plan, the culprits also removed the nameplate from the coffin and cut out a small piece of the coffin’s interior fabric.

Soon after, New York City lawyer and Civil War veteran General Patrick Jones was surprised to receive a letter from a man calling himself “Romaine,” asking Jones to serve as mediator with the Stewart family to help facilitate the return of Alexander’s body. Jones agreed and wound up communicating with Romaine for the next two years through a series of cryptic messages disguised as personal ads in the New York Herald.

To send a message, Jones would place a personal ad addressed to Romaine and sign it “Counsel” (or simply “C”). Romaine would then respond with a written letter to Jones’ office with further instructions. It was through this complicated system that Jones received a $250,000 ransom demand, as well as pieces of evidence to prove Romaine had the body—the screws from the nameplate, the nameplate itself, and a piece of paper cut in the shape of the fabric missing from inside the coffin.

Communication was tedious, but it got the job done when, finally, the two parties agreed to a reduced ransom payment of $20,000. In a scene straight out of a 1930s detective movie, Jones met Romaine alone on a deserted country lane in what is now Westchester County, New York. Money exchanged hands and the body of Alexander Stewart was returned. However, Romaine was never apprehended.

4. Honest Abe Worth a Pretty Penny

In the early hours of November 7, 1876, a group of four counterfeiters broke into Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois, with the intention of stealing Abraham Lincoln’s body from his sarcophagus. They planned to take the body, hide it in the sand dunes of northern Indiana, and hold it for $200,000 ransom, plus demand the release of one of their gang from prison.

The plot was foiled, though, by a paid police informant who had infiltrated the crew. When the men broke into the cemetery that night, police and Secret Service agents (who were only charged with investigating counterfeiters at the time, not guarding the body of the President) were waiting for them. Due to an errant gunshot going off before the trap was sprung, the crooks got away, but were arrested a few days later.

After the attempted robbery, Lincoln’s remains were re-buried in the same mausoleum at Oak Ridge, but instead of being inside the sarcophagus, they were secretly hidden in a shallow grave in the basement of the tomb—a fact that was known only to a handful of people for decades. There the body stayed until 1901, when eldest son Robert Todd Lincoln had his father’s remains placed inside a steel cage, lowered 10 feet into the ground, and covered in concrete for safe keeping

5. Elvis Almost Left the Building

In August 1977, just two weeks after The King’s death, police were told by informant Ronnie Adkins that he had infiltrated a group that planned to steal Elvis Presley’s 900-pound, steel-lined, copper-plated coffin and hold his remains for ransom.

With this information, a police task force was assigned to watch the grave at Forest Hills Cemetery in suburban Memphis and successfully caught three men—Raymond Green, Eugene Nelson, and Ronnie Adkins—snooping around Presley’s mausoleum. Just how the men were going to get through the two concrete slabs and solid sheet of marble that covered the coffin is unknown, since no tools or explosives were ever found. That doesn’t even take into account how they planned to remove the coffin without a forklift. The Memphis police felt like something about the situation didn’t add up, so until further evidence about the plot could be uncovered, they charged the men with criminal trespassing and kept them in jail.

As the investigation continued, it became apparent that the story Adkins told police was full of holes. He said the men were going to be paid $40,000 each by a mysterious criminal mastermind who planned to ransom the body for $10 million. But he couldn’t tell police how the men intended to get their reward or how to contact this shadowy kingpin once the deed had been done. With no actual crime being committed (other than the men being in the cemetery after dark), and the evidence against the men being so weak, all charges were eventually dropped.

As a result of the almost, kinda, sorta attempted grave robbery, the Presley estate requested permission to move the bodies of Elvis and his mother to Graceland where they could be monitored 24-hours a day by staff security and closed-circuit TV cameras. Of course they’re still at Graceland and have become one of the main attractions to the site.

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Whenever a message in a bottle is discovered floating in the ocean, it feels like something out of a fairy tale. Here are five stories of the almost unbelievable connections these messages have brought about. ]]>

Whenever a message in a bottle is discovered on a beach or floating in the ocean, it feels like something out of a fairy tale. The idea that two people have made a connection that mathematics would say is virtually impossible gives us hope that life is more than a series of random events. Here are five stories of the almost unbelievable connections these messages have brought about.

1. A Ticket to Freedom

During a 1979 cruise to Hawaii, Dorothy and John Peckham passed the time by writing notes and throwing them overboard inside empty champagne bottles. They asked anyone who found one of their bottles to write them back, and even went so far as to include a $1 bill to cover the postage.

On March 4, 1983, John’s 70th birthday, the couple received a letter from Hoa Van Nguyen. Nguyen, a former soldier in the Vietnamese Army, said he and his younger brother had found one of the Peckhams’ bottles as the two men were floating 15 kilometers from the shore of Songkhla Province in Thailand. They were braving the waters of the Pacific in a small, shallow riverboat in order to escape the Communist regime in Vietnam. When they saw the bottle, they felt as though a prayer had been answered, giving them the strength to carry on. After reading the letter, the Peckhams looked for Songkhla on a map and were shocked to find that the bottle had traveled 9,000 miles from Hawaii.

The Peckhams corresponded with Hoa for years, sharing in his joy when they received a photo from his wedding, then again nine months later when they saw his newborn son. But most of all, they empathized with Hoa’s desire to give his family the best life he could. So when Hoa asked if the Peckhams could help his family move to the U.S., they didn’t hesitate. After months of working with U.S. Immigration, the two families finally did meet in 1985, when a plane from Thailand landed in Los Angeles—the Nguyens’ new home.

[Image courtesy of the Los Angeles Times.]

2. Love in a Bottle

Ake Viking was a lonely Swedish sailor who decided to place his search for love in the hands of fate. He wrote a simple letter “To Someone Beautiful and Far Away,” corked it inside a bottle, and tossed it overboard in the hopes that it might help him find a young woman to marry.

Two years later, in 1958, he was surprised to receive a letter from a Sicilian girl, Paolina, who said, “I am not beautiful, but it seems so miraculous that this little bottle should have traveled so far and long to reach me that I must send you an answer…” The two began writing one another and, three years after he threw a bottle into the sea, Ake moved to Sicily to marry his very long-distance love.

3. A Soldier To Watch Over Them

When Josh Baker was 10 years old, he dumped an entire bottle of his mother’s vanilla extract down the sink. He then wrote a quick note that said, “My name is Josh Baker. I’m 10. If you find this, put it on the news. The date is April 16, 1995.” He stuffed the note inside the empty extract bottle and threw it into Wisconsin’s White Lake.

Life went on and, after high school, Josh signed up for the Marines. During his tour of duty in Iraq, he survived the dangers of fighting door-to-door in Fallujah and made it back home to the U.S. safe and sound. Tragically, shortly after his homecoming, Josh was killed in a car accident, leaving his family and friends devastated and asking the obvious question, “Why?” A few months later, Steve Lieder and Robert Duncan, friends of Josh’s, were walking on the banks of White Lake, when they saw something glimmer on the water. After fishing it out, they realized it was a vanilla extract bottle with a piece of paper inside.

To friends and family, the message from 10-year old Josh appeared when they needed it most. It felt as though he was reaching out, letting them know that he was watching, and trying to help them move on. This message of hope is currently displayed in the Bakers’ home as a constant reminder that their son is still with them, even though he’s gone.

[Image courtesy of CBS.]

4. The Right Fisherman

In 1999, Steve Gowan spotted something clinging to his fishing nets. It was a very old bottle containing two letters written by Private Thomas Hughes, dated September 9, 1914. The first message asked the person that found the bottle to forward the second message to Hughes’ wife, Elizabeth. The note for Elizabeth was a nice, simple love letter, showing that his wife was in his thoughts as he made his way to France to fight in the early days of World War I.

After reading the letters, Gowan felt a great personal responsibility to see that they found their way home, even though he assumed Mrs. Hughes had died long ago. He began searching for her descendants and soon learned that Thomas and Elizabeth Hughes’ daughter was still alive in Auckland, New Zealand.

Sadly, Hughes died in battle shortly after he wrote the letters, so he never got to see Elizabeth, nor his two-year old daughter, Emily, ever again. Due to her young age at the time of his death, Emily never knew her father, though she grew up listening to stories about him from her mother and cherishing his posthumously award medals. So when The New Zealand Post offered to send Gowan to Auckland to hand deliver the bottle to Emily, he jumped at the chance to help her connect to this lost piece of her past.

For Emily, the bottle was a great source of joy and comfort. She said her father’s message couldn’t come home “until the right boat came along at the right time with the right fisherman.”

5. Laura Buxton, meet Laura Buxton

(Technically this isn’t a “message in a bottle” story, but it’s the same concept—and the story is simply too good not to mention it.)

In June 2001, Laura Buxton (almost 10) released a red balloon into the air over her hometown of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. On one side of the balloon, she had written “Please return to Laura Buxton,” and on the other side, her home address. A few weeks later, a man 140 miles away in Milton Lilbourne found the balloon stuck in the hedge that separated his farm from the next-door neighbors. He noticed Laura Buxton’s name and address and immediately took the balloon to the neighbors’ house, showing it to the 10-year-old girl who lived there…whose name was also Laura Buxton.

Laura Buxton from Milton Lilbourne wrote Laura Buxton from Stoke-on-Trent to let her know that she had found the balloon. Thinking this coincidence was simply too amazing to be true, they decided they had to meet in person. And that’s when things got really weird.

On the day of the meeting, the two girls wore the same outfit – a pink sweater and jeans. The girls were the same height, which was unusual because they were both tall for their age. They both had brown hair and wore it in the same style. They both had three-year old black Labrador Retrievers at home, as well as gray pet rabbits. They both brought their guinea pigs, which were the same color and even had the same orange markings on their hindquarters. It was almost as though these two Laura Buxtons were the same person.

The strange events surrounding their meeting have helped the girls form a strong bond, and they remain friends eight years later. Both feel the circumstances that brought them together are too significant to be written off as mere coincidence.

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In the history of the criminal justice system, animals have been tried for crimes by two separate, yet equally important groups: the criminal court, which tried animals for crimes against individuals, and the ecclesiastical court, which prosecuted animals that were a menace to society. These are their stories.]]> In the history of the criminal justice system, animals have been tried for crimes by two separate, yet equally important groups: the criminal court, which tried animals for crimes against individuals, and the ecclesiastical court, which prosecuted animals that were a menace to society. These are their stories. Chung-chung!

“Order in the court? I’ll have a ham on rye.”

If your only exposure to pigs is Charlotte’s Web, it might surprise you to know that they aren’t all “some pig,” “terrific” or “radiant.” In fact, a majority of animal trials involved hungry pigs eating anything that got in their way, including, as horrific as it sounds, defenseless children.

In 1386, a sow was accused of devouring the face and arms of an infant that had been left unattended in its crib. The sow was arrested and imprisoned in the same cell as human criminals. During the pig’s trial, witnesses were called, evidence was weighed, and a verdict handed down: guilty of murder.

On execution day, the pig was paraded through town wearing a man’s waistcoat and white shirt to symbolize the equality of animals and men in the court’s eyes. It’s unknown if this was a common practice, but either way, the outfit only served to make the scene all the more dreadful when the execution began.

In the spirit of the old “eye for an eye; tooth for a tooth” rule, the convicted porker was brutally maimed just like the child was. Afterwards, still wearing the now-bloodstained clothes, the sow was hanged until dead.

A fresco painting of the event adorned a wall at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Normandy until 1820 when the entire church was whitewashed. An etching based upon the painting shows the townspeople, including women and children, gathered for the execution as though it were a form of entertainment.

While they were strict, the courts were not always so quick to condemn if extenuating circumstances merited an animal’s acquittal. Such was the case in 1457, when a sow killed a five-year old boy. As she began consuming the body, her six piglets joined in the feast, and were caught at the crime scene, covered in blood. However, no evidence was brought forward stating that the piglets were actually accomplices in the homicide itself. Therefore, the court gave the little pigs back to their owner with the understanding that he would be responsible if they committed a crime in the future. The owner was unwilling to vouch for the swine, so the court confiscated them, sold them, and kept the profits.

Heavy Petting

While most trials dealt with crimes against man, sometimes animals were the target of human cruelty as well. But even then they were not always viewed as innocent victims. In cases where men had committed “the unnatural deed of carnal lewdness” with an animal, the poor creature was considered compliant, and therefore charged, convicted, and executed along with the human that had assaulted it.

A rare animal trial held in the New World took place in 1662 (a trial overseen by Cotton Mather, who 20 years later became known as the instigator of the Salem Witch Trials) when a Connecticut man named Potter, described as “devout in worship, gifted in prayer,” was charged with numerous unnatural deeds reaching back 50 years. It was believed that Potter had been possessed by “an unclean devil,” which forced him to commit these acts, but he and the animals were found guilty nonetheless. On the gallows stood Potter and his only living victims – “a cow, two heifers, three sheep and two sows” – all of whom were executed for taking part in the crimes.

But even these animal victims were occasionally spared the hangman’s noose. Take the case of Jacques Ferron, who, in 1750, was caught with a female donkey.

During the trial, character witnesses came forward to say they had known the defendant for many years and had always found the accused to be virtuous and well-behaved. Of course they were talking about the donkey, who was acquitted and set free.

No one came forward to speak for Ferron, so he burned at the stake.

Criminal trials worked well for individual animals, but if the accused was a gang of zoological hoodlums, trying and executing them one-by-one would have been difficult at best. So the Catholic Church stepped in and held an ecclesiastical trial to determine if a special form of excommunication would be necessary to deal with the threat. Because excommunication was such a serious sentence – far more than mere execution – the Church hired lawyers to argue the case on both sides, something absent from human trials at the time.

You Dirty Rat!

In the year 1510, the people of Autun, France, went to their local bishop and asked him to “take care of” the rats that were eating the barley crop. Being a fair man, the bishop first instigated a trial, assigning Bartholomew Chassenee as legal counsel to the vermin defendants. Because his clients didn’t have a very good reputation to begin with, Chassenee knew it was going to be an uphill battle to get an acquittal.

On the first day of the proceedings, Chassenee argued that the prosecution had not specified which rats were being charged with a crime. This meant every rat in Autun, even the ones who hadn’t eaten the barley, could be facing excommunication for a crime they didn’t commit. Therefore, every rat across the countryside needed to be summoned to court to plead their case. So the bishop made every priest in every parish announce the charges, so as many rats as possible would hear when they should come to testify. Despite these special arrangements, no rats showed up for their court date.

To answer for his clients’ absence, Chassenee pointed out that human defendants could refuse a summons if making the journey to court placed their life in danger. Well, every rat was under constant threat of being eaten by hungry cats, so there was no way they could be expected to appear in court unless the prosecution was able to guarantee safe passage. The trial was adjourned to give the prosecution time to figure out how to keep every cat in town from killing a rat on the day of the trial. However, no date was set to reconvene, so the case was essentially dropped without a proper verdict. Chances are the prosecution knew it was outmatched by Chassenee, who would later become president of the Provence (similar to our U.S. Chief Justice) and widely considered one of the finest, fairest lawyers in French history.

The Root of All Weevil

If a trial appeared to be headed for a stalemate, ecclesiastical courts would often try to work out a compromise with the animal defendants. Take the case of weevils, small beetles known for their voracious appetite, which were destroying the vineyards of St. Julien, France, in April 1587.

Legal wrangling delayed the trial for months (and kept both lawyers on the court’s payroll) until late June, when the people were called to the town square. The prosecution explained to the crowd that the case had reached an impasse and asked them to suggest an alternative place for the weevils to live. After much deliberation, a plot of land was described in great detail including the location, the dimensions, the types of plants that grew there, and the topography that could be expected. This compromise was presented to the defense in the hopes the plague would end soon.

The case was delayed again until early September (that’s five months the weevils were able to stuff their bellies on grapevines), when the defendants’ lawyer refused the compromise, stating the land being offered was “sterile and neither sufficiently nor suitably supplied with food for the support of the said animals.” The bishop decided that both sides should have independent experts survey the land and report back as to its suitability for the bugs.

Sadly, the final decision in The People v. The Hungry, Hungry Weevils has been lost to history. Over the last 400 years, the final page of the case file has been seriously damaged, most likely eaten by insects. I smell a conspiracy…

A similar case occurred in 1712 at a Catholic parish in Brazil, when termites were eating the walls and tunneling under the foundations of the small settlement there. The defendants’ lawyer argued that the insects were only exercising their rights of possession, considering they were there long before the monks ever came and encroached on their land.

After a long legal battle, a compromise was reached and the plaintiffs provided a suitable location for the termites to live. It’s written in the case file that when the verdict was read aloud in front of the termites’ hill, “they all came out and marched in columns to the place assigned.” The monk who wrote the document believed this was “conclusive proof that the Almighty endorsed the decision of the court.”

* * * * *

While animal trials continued well into the modern age, they became less common after the Age of Enlightenment, when it was argued that punishment for breaking the law was only reasonable if the defendant had the mental capacity to understand and conform to the law. This same concept was later applied to human criminals who suffered from mental illness, meaning the modern day “insanity defense” actually has very close ties to these animal trials of the past.

But the primary argument against animal trials came down to the fact that an animal is controlled, not by man’s law, which dictates how a person should act, but instead by a natural law that dictates how an animal does act. As this idea grew more widely accepted in society, animal trials were virtually abandoned as an outdated symbol of man’s fruitless struggle to control the world around him.

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If you’re hoping to strike it rich, it might be time to look for an alternate source for your retirement fund. After all, these lost treasures are out there just waiting for you.]]> Last month we told you about people who stumbled upon their fortune. If you haven’t found your own copy of the Declaration of Independence or a few thousand Ancient Roman coins, let me give you a push in the right direction with these tales of lost treasures that are just waiting for you to find them.

1. The Lying Dutchman?

Arthur Flegenheimer, who went by the alias “Dutch Schultz,” was a New York mobster during the 1920s and ’30s known for his brutality and hard-nosed business tactics. By the time he was 33, Dutch had taken on the Mafia in numerous gangland wars, fought the U.S. government twice on tax evasion charges, and amassed a fortune thanks to his lucrative criminal operations.

As his second tax evasion trial began to take a turn for the worse, it appeared Schultz might be looking at jail time. In preparation, he placed $7 million dollars inside a safe, drove to upstate New York, and buried it in a hidden location so he’d have a nest egg when he got out of prison. The only other person who knew where the safe was buried was the bodyguard who helped him dig the hole. Shortly after, both men were gunned down by hitmen inside the Palace Chophouse Restaurant in Newark, New Jersey.

On his deathbed, Schultz began hallucinating and rambling after the rusty bullets used by the assassins caused an infection. A court stenographer was brought in to record his statements and some believe his incoherent references to something hidden in the woods in Phoenicia, New York, might be a clue to the location of his buried loot. Of course the meaning of his words is cryptic and not 100% reliable, but that hasn’t stopped hundreds of people from looking. So far, though, Dutch’s safe has not been found.

2. A Famous Poet and You Didn’t Know It

Before Edgar Allan Poe was Edgar Allen Poe, he was just another struggling writer who couldn’t catch a break. In 1827, he hired Calvin F. S. Thomas to publish 50 copies of his manuscript, Tamerlane and Other Poems, in the hopes that it would kick-start his career. Unfortunately, Tamerlane received no critical consideration at the time (and has only received middling reviews since), so Poe’s rise to fame would have to wait until he published The Raven nearly 20 years later in 1845.

Because the book had such a small, first editions have become one of the most sought after pieces in American literature. In all, only 12 copies are known to still exist, mostly held by libraries and museums. But there could easily be more that have gone unnoticed, because, for reasons unknown, Poe’s name does not appear as the author of the book; it is only attributed to “A Bostonian.” Without a familiar name on the cover, many people dismiss Tamerlane as a worthless collection of poems by some anonymous writer no one’s ever heard of. It was this fact that allowed the last copy, found in 1988, to be purchased for a mere $15 from an antique store. At auction a month later, the book wound up fetching $198,000.

3. A 10-Cent Treasure?

While yes, a dime could once buy you a phone call or a cup of coffee, today most people probably wouldn’t even bother to pick one up if they saw it lying on the ground. But what if you found a few thousand dimes sitting around? And what if those dimes were over 100 years old?

A wagon train left Denver in 1907 carrying six large barrels filled with newly-minted “Barber” dimes, nicknamed after Charles Barber, the designer of the coin. The dimes were being delivered to Phoenix, Arizona, some 900 miles away, but the shipment never arrived. One theory is that the wagon train was attacked by bandits and, despite their armed escort, were unable to fend off the attack. Others believe the party might have plummeted hundreds of feet to the bottom of Colorado’s Black Canyon while navigating the treacherous mountain trails. All that can be said for sure is that neither the coins, nor the men carrying them, were ever seen again.

Now, a little over 100 years later, a single 1907 Barber dime in excellent condition fetches around $600. Assuming the barrels weren’t destroyed and the coins haven’t been exposed to the elements all this time, these missing coins should be fairly flawless. If you estimate 5,000 coins at $600 each, you’re looking at $3,000,000. With that kind of dough, you could make an awful lot of phone calls.

4. Morriss’ Code

In 1820, a mysterious stranger left a locked iron box with Robert Morriss, an innkeeper in Bedford County, Virginia. The stranger, who went by the name Thomas Jefferson Beale, said that a man would be coming to retrieve the box some time in the next ten years. However, if no one ever came, Morriss could keep the box and the contents inside.

But what was inside the box? Beale reluctantly revealed that there were three pages covered in numbers. These “ciphertexts” were coded messages that could only be read by using corresponding documents as a key. Beale promised to send the three keys to Morriss when he arrived in St. Louis, so that, should the box become Morriss’, he could decipher the messages and learn the location of a treasure Beale had buried nearby.

Twenty years later, no one had ever come for the box, nor had Morriss received any key documents from St. Louis. He went ahead and opened the box, and spent the rest of his life trying to decode the pages to no avail. After his death, Morriss left the box to a friend, who, surprisingly, was able to decipher the second page using a particular copy of the Declaration of Independence. The page described the treasure itself—2900 pounds of gold, 5100 pounds of silver, and thousands of dollars worth of jewelry. The message then went on to say that the exact location of the treasure was found on the first page, so you would have to decode it to find the loot. The first and third pages have never been deciphered, despite people working on it for nearly 175 years.

All of the pages are available online (the first page is pictured above), so you can try your hand at deciphering them yourself. But if you find the Beale treasure, you better give me a cut for pointing you in the right direction.

5. A Blockbuster of a Poster

The film Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang, is considered a classic of the silent film era. However, upon its initial release in 1927, it was not well-received, even in its native Germany. Some critics said the story was boring, the acting was terrible, and the special effects were a joke. In America, its reception was even worse when 40 minutes of the film were cut to accommodate the 90-minute running time preferred by theater owners. The resulting film was nearly incomprehensible.

Because the movie was not a blockbuster, surviving promotional items from the film’s release are very rare. Perhaps the most famous of these rarities are the posters, called “one-sheets,” which hung in theaters while the film was showing and torn down and thrown away soon after. There are only four known original Metropolis one-sheets that survived the film’s German run in theaters – one at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, another in Berlin’s Film Museum, and two held by private collectors, one of whom bought the poster for the record-setting price of $690,000 in 2005.

But here’s the kicker: there are no known surviving posters from the film’s American release. No one is even sure what the American poster looked like. It could have resembled the German one-sheet, which features Maria, a stylized female robot, and a beautiful Art Deco cityscape above her. But there were also different designs for France and Hungary, so it’s possible the American version could have been based on those, too. Experts agree on one thing, though—if someone were to dig up an original American Metropolis one-sheet, it is very likely that it would become the first $1 million movie poster.

6. Crack the Case of the Lost Fabergé Eggs

Fabergé Eggs have long been seen as beautiful examples of excess wealth. Between 1885 and 1917, 109 unique egg sculptures were fashioned out of solid gold and precious gems for some of the richest families in Europe and Asia. Of that number, 54 were “Imperial Eggs” created exclusively for the Russian Imperial Family.

During the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, most of the Imperial Eggs were confiscated by the new government and moved to the Kremlin Armory to be cataloged and stored. By the time Joseph Stalin decided to begin selling them in 1927, a handful of eggs had disappeared from the inventory. More went missing as they were sold to private collectors, who usually insisted upon anonymity. In all, eight of the 54 Imperial Eggs are currently considered lost.

It’s theorized that, thanks to the anonymous nature of many of the sales, the true pedigree of the lost eggs was forgotten as they’ve been passed down as heirlooms. So it’s very likely that some oblivious person could have received a Fabergé Egg in their Great-Great-Great Aunt Ruth’s will and not even known it.

Finding one these lost Eggs would make you an instant multi-millionaire. In 2007, a Fabergé Egg, which was also a precision clock once owned by the Rothschilds, sold for £8.9 million, becoming the most expensive timepiece ever sold. In 2002, the Winter Egg sold for a still very respectable $9.6 million. And these two Eggs hadn’t been missing for 90 years. The publicity alone for finding one of the lost Imperial Eggs would elevate the final price to an astounding level.
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Does your hometown have any legends of buried treasure just waiting to be found? Maybe you’re searching for a rare comic book or record album. Tell us about your treasure-hunting experiences in the comments below.

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Iowa vs. Missouri? Ohio vs. Michigan? A war over a dead pig? Rob Lammle discusses a few border wars you might not have studied. ]]> This article was originally posted last year.

When America was being divvied up, surveyors and cartographers were as accurate as possible drawing the boundaries between these new regions. Unfortunately, mistakes were still made. And minor map mistakes led to years of fighting—sometimes in the courts, and sometimes on the field of battle.

1. The Toledo War: Ohio vs. Michigan

The story of The Toledo War actually begins in 1787, when the U.S. government enacted the Northwest Ordinance. The Ordinance described the border between Ohio and Michigan as “an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan.” Congress used the best map available at the time, The Mitchell Map (above), to create this east-west line, putting most of the west shoreline of Lake Erie within Ohio’s borders. This would include Maumee Bay, where the Maumee River and Lake Erie meet, giving Ohio a significant economic advantage for shipping.

However, it was discovered in 1803 that The Mitchell Map was incorrect—the tip of Lake Michigan was actually farther south. A straight line from the correct southern point would have cost Ohio almost all of Lake Erie. Hoping to avoid this loss, Ohio changed the description of the border so that it now ran northeast from the tip of Lake Michigan to Maumee Bay. This new description wasn’t an issue until 1833, when Michigan asked for statehood. Michigan kept the old Northwest Ordinance line description, but drew it from the correct tip of Lake Michigan. The overlap between Ohio and Michigan’s descriptions created the “Toledo Strip,” a ribbon of land five to eight miles wide, encompassing present-day Toledo.

In an effort to make Michigan concede the Strip, Ohio’s governor, Robert Lucas, used his political connections to convince Congress to deny Michigan statehood. Upset by Lucas’ scheme, Michigan governor Stevens Mason enacted the Pains and Penalties Act in February 1835. This law said that anyone caught in the Strip supporting the state of Ohio could be jailed for up to five years and fined $1,000 (about $24,000 in today’s money). To enforce his act, Mason raised a militia of 1,000 men and stationed them inside Toledo. In response, Governor Lucas sent 600 men. It was a fight just waiting to happen.

For the next five months, a series of skirmishes, arrests, lawsuits, and general chest thumping occurred in the Toledo Strip. But no one was killed or seriously injured until July, when Michigan sheriff Joseph Wood attempted to arrest Major Benjamin Stickney for voting in an Ohio election. Stickney and his sons, named—I kid you not—One Stickney and Two Stickney, resisted. In the melee, Two stabbed Sheriff Wood with a pocketknife.

Though the sheriff’s wound was not life threatening, this scuffle was enough to instigate peace talks, and troops were withdrawn. Still, the political dispute raged on until December 1836 when Congress offered Michigan a compromise—give up the Toledo Strip, but gain statehood and a large portion of the Upper Peninsula instead. Michigan had spent so much maintaining the militia’s presence in the Strip that they were quickly running out of money. They weren’t happy about it, but they had no choice but to accept the compromise.

Even after the deal, legal battles between the states occurred periodically until 1973, when it took a Supreme Court ruling to resolve claims to the waters of Lake Erie. Now Ohio and Michigan citizens channel their border war tensions onto the college football gridiron. Ohio State vs. Michigan is one of the great sports rivalries. And lately, bragging rights have gone to the Buckeyes—Ohio State has won the last four meetings.

2. The Pig War: United States vs. Great Britain

On June 15, 1846, the British and U.S. governments signed The Oregon Treaty, establishing the border between Oregon Country and the Columbia District in Canada. The border would reside from the 49th parallel, down through the middle of the channel that separates Vancouver Island from the mainland, and then out to the Pacific Ocean. The only maps available at the time were a little fuzzy on details, though, so neither government knew there were actually two channels that separated Vancouver Island from the mainland—the Haro Strait to the west and the Rosario Strait to the east. Stuck in the middle of those two straits were the San Juan Islands.

Both Britain and the United States claimed the islands, but the dispute was dormant for many years. Then, on June 15, 1859—exactly 13 years after the Oregon Treaty was signed—Lyman Cutlar, an American farmer, noticed a large, black boar rooting in his garden. On the other side of Cutlar’s fence was Charles Griffin, an Irishman, who sat laughing as the pig destroyed Cutlar’s crops. Annoyed, Cutlar took out his rifle and shot the boar dead.

After cooling down, Cutlar offered to pay $10 for the pig, but Griffin refused, demanding $100 instead. Cutlar countered by saying he shouldn’t have to pay anything since the animal was trespassing on his land. Tensions mounted and British authorities threatened to arrest the American, who then called the United States for protection. Both governments responded to the situation by sending troops to the San Juan Islands.

The dispute escalated for the next two years. At its peak, Britain had amassed five warships carrying 167 guns and manned with 2,140 soldiers. The Americans had a still-respectable 461 troops with 14 cannons in reinforced positions. Wisely, the commanding officers saw how silly the whole thing was and demanded that neither side fire unless fired upon; they knew it wasn’t worth dying over a pig.

Eventually it was agreed the armies should leave 100 men each and send the rest home. This small military occupation lasted for another 12 years without a single shot being fired. In fact, the occupying troops became friendly with one another, celebrating holidays and even playing games during their stay.

The dispute was finally resolved in October of 1872. Canada suggested a compromise boundary running through the islands, but the final border ran through the Haro Strait to the west, making all the islands part of the United States. In November, the British pulled their troops; in July, the Americans left as well. The only casualty of this “war” was a hungry farm animal.

3. The Honey War: Missouri vs. Iowa

Aside from incorrect maps, surveying mistakes have also been a major factor in American border disputes. In 1816, renowned surveyor John Sullivan was hired to map out the northern border of Missouri. In his description of the boundary, fittingly called “The Sullivan Line,” he referenced a latitude line passing through “the rapids of the River Des Moines.” Little did he know this simple phrase would come to complicate the state’s history for years to come.

Twenty years later, the Sullivan Line was resurveyed after Missouri annexed land to the west. Sullivan had died, so Joseph Brown was hired. Going by the somewhat vague description of the rapids, Brown searched on the banks of the Des Moines River until he found what he thought was the correct location. In fact, he was 9.5 miles north of Sullivan’s designation, accidentally carving out a large strip of new land for Missouri.

The discrepancy in Brown’s Line was not noticed until two years later, when Congress was establishing the Iowa Territory. Congress decided that Iowa’s southern border would simply be where it met Missouri’s northern border. This required yet another survey, this time done by Major Albert Lea. Looking at Brown and Sullivan’s descriptions of “the rapids,” Lea decided there were a handful of possible spots for this landmark: the first was at Brown’s Line; the second was at Sullivan’s Line; and the third possibility was south of Sullivan’s Line, 15 miles into Missouri. This new location was where the Mississippi and Des Moines rivers met, a place referred to as “The Des Moines Rapids.” As one might guess, Missouri preferred the Brown Line, while Iowa preferred the new line at The Des Moines Rapids.

Without waiting for Congress to decide on the survey, Lilburn Boggs, Missouri’s governor, ordered his officials to enforce Missouri law up to the Brown Line. In response, Iowa’s governor, Robert Lucas (yes, the same Governor Lucas involved in The Toledo War went on to become the governor of Iowa), demanded that Missouri keep out of the disputed area. Tensions rose until a Missouri sheriff attempted to collect taxes in November 1839. The Iowans ran him off, but not before he decided to collect his due in another way—by chopping down three trees filled with honey, an important local commodity, as partial payment.

The loss of the honey trees set off a political firestorm. Lucas sent 300 militiamen to defend the border; Boggs sent 800 men of his own. Cooler heads prevailed by late December, and both governors agreed to withdraw their troops. Not a single shot was fired. A temporary boundary was drawn until 1851, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the border should be placed down the middle of the strip of disputed land, along the original Sullivan Line of 1816.

See also…

• 3 Controversial Maps
• The Confederacy’s Plan to Conquer Latin America

Rob Lammle is probably the only cartographer you’ll ever meet who has an English degree. Read more on his own site, spacemonkeyx.com.

If you’re in need of some quick cash, here are six stories of people who found a fortune when—and where—they least expected it.]]> We’ve all been there—a week until payday, the rent is due, and you’re rummaging in your parents’ attic to find Dad’s Mickey Mantle rookie card. If you’re in need of some quick cash, here are six stories of people who found a fortune when—and where—they least expected it.

1. Lose a Hammer, Find a Horde

In November 1992, a farmer living near the village of Hoxne in Suffolk, England, lost a hammer in one of his fields, so he asked Eric Lawes to use his metal detector to search for it. While looking for the hammer, Lawes happened upon something else of interest – 24 bronze coins, 565 gold coins, 14,191 silver coins, plus hundreds of gold and silver spoons, jewelry, and statues, all dating back to the Roman Empire.

As required by British law, the so-called “Hoxne Hoard” was reported to the local authorities, who declared it a “Treasure Trove,” meaning it was now legally the property of Britain. However, the government is required to pay fair market value for a treasure trove, meaning the farmer and Lawes split a cool £1.75 million. The Hoxne Hoard is now on permanent display at the British Museum, drawing thousands of people every year.

Sadly, there is no word on whether or not the hammer was ever found.

2. Arkansas is a Girl’s Best Friend

W.O. Bassum found a giant of a gemstone in 1924 – a 40.23 carat diamond. It might surprise you to hear that he wasn’t digging in one of the famous South African diamond mines at the time, but was near Murfreesboro, Arkansas, at a site that is now the Crater of Diamonds State Park. Sitting on top of a volcanic pipe (a geologic tube formed by an ancient underground volcanic explosion), the park is the only diamond site in the world that is open to the public. Best of all, the park’s policy is: “You find it. You keep it. No matter how valuable it is.”

Bassum’s big find – nicknamed “The Uncle Sam Diamond,” the largest diamond ever discovered in North America – was later cut down to 12.42 carat and sold for $150,000 in 1971 (About $800,000 today). But his wasn’t the last valuable rock dug out of that Arkansas soil.

In 1964, “The Star of Murfreesboro” was discovered at the same site, weighing in at 34.25 carat. Then, in 1975, came the 16.37 carat “Amarillo Starlight Diamond.” The 6.35 carat “Roden Diamond” was found in 2006. And the crown jewel of the park has been the “Strawn-Wagner Diamond” (pictured), a comparatively small 3.09 carat diamond, that was dug up in 1990, and expertly cut down to 1.90 carat. Despite its smaller size, the Strawn-Wagner stands out because it was given a “Perfect” rating by the American Gem Society – the first diamond to ever receive such a high grade.

But don’t think this list of big gems means the site has been tapped out. On average, two diamonds are found every day at Crater of Diamonds. They’re not all as big as The Uncle Sam Diamond, but maybe you’ll get lucky. There’s only one way to find out…

If getting your hands dirty isn’t your idea of fun, maybe you should start hitting garage sales and thrift stores to find valuables buried among the castoff bread machines and Members Only jackets. Sometimes, one man’s trash really is another man’s treasure.

3. The Declaration of (Financial) Independence

We’ve all heard of the man who bought a $4 painting at a garage sale, found an original copy of the Declaration of Independence inside, and sold it for $2.4 million. A once-in-a-lifetime story, right? Not so much, actually.

Michael Sparks was visiting a Nashville thrift store, where he bought a candleholder, a set of salt and pepper shakers, and a yellowed print of the Declaration of Independence. Sparks figured the document was a worthless, modern reprint, so he paid the asking price – $2.48 – and headed home.

After looking over the document for a few days, he wondered if it might be older than he initially thought. So he hopped on the internet to do some research and soon realized he had purchased one of only 200 official copies of the Declaration of Independence commissioned by John Quincy Adams in 1820. Of those 200, 35 had been found intact; he had number 36.

It took a year for Sparks to have the print authenticated and preserved, and then he put it up for auction, netting a final sale price of $477,650.

The salt and pepper shakers, on the other hand, were still worthless.

4. A Good Heade for Bargains

One day, an employee at a tool-and-die company in Indiana spent $30 for a few pieces of used furniture and an old painting of some flowers. When he got his new stuff home, he decided to strategically hang the picture to cover up a hole in the wall that had been bugging him.

Some years later he was playing a board game called Masterpiece in which players attempt to outbid one another for artwork at an auction. Much to his surprise, one of the cards in the game featured a painting of flowers that looked a lot like the one he had on his wall. So he went online and found that his painting was similar in style to the work of Martin Johnson Heade, an American still-life artist best known for landscapes and flower arrangements.

Through his research he found the Kennedy Galleries in Manhattan, which handles many of Heade’s works, and asked them to take a look at his painting. They agreed and were able to verify that the piece of artwork covering the hole in his wall was a previously unknown Heade painting, since named Magnolias on Gold Velvet Cloth. In 1999, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston purchased the painting for $1.2 million dollars.

I emailed the Museum to ask if the painting was covering a hole in the wall, but I didn’t get a reply.

As you go in search of your nest egg, keep in mind the old adage: “It’s only worth what the market will bear.” Sometimes finding treasure is the easy part; finding someone willing to buy it can be the real challenge.

5. It’s nice, but it’s no Middleham Jewel…

Every Sunday afternoon for the last seven years, Mary Hannaby had gone for a walk with her metal detector. She’d never really found anything of value, but she liked getting the exercise, so she kept at it. On one Sunday in June 2009, her detector beeped, and she bent down to dig up what she thought was going to be another common coin or old nail. Instead, she uncovered a postage stamp-sized gold pendant featuring an intricate carving of the crucifixion of Jesus. Maybe she had finally hit the jackpot.

Upon inspection by the British Museum, the pendant was described as “an important find,” and they estimated the market value to be around £4,000. Still, they decided not to purchase it for their collection, so Mary took the pendant to Sotheby’s. The experts at the auction house felt the piece was much more valuable, because it was believed to be one of only three similar items known to exist. Their initial estimate was £250,000, but said it could easily sell for as much as £2.5 million thanks to its resemblance to another English treasure also found with a metal detector, the Middleham Jewel.

But as the saying goes, “Never count your millions until the auctioneer bangs his gavel.” Sotheby’s put the pendant up for auction on July 9, 2009, making it the highlight of a large lot of antique sculptures. Clearly the expectations were high. The bidding started at £30,000, but as the final call was made, the best offer was only £38,000 – far below the reserve price to make a sale.

6. A Possible Pollock

In 1992, Teri Horton, a retired truck driver, went to her local thrift store to buy a depressed friend a gag gift. She found a rather large painting – 66” x 47” – that she thought was pretty amusing because it was, in her opinion, so ugly. When she asked the thrift store employee the price, they said $8. She haggled and only paid $5. In the end, her friend didn’t want it (she, too, thought it was ugly, plus it wouldn’t fit through the door of her trailer), so Teri took it home and tried to unload it at her garage sale. A local art teacher saw the painting and suggested it could very well be a Jackson Pollock. In response, Teri famously asked the teacher, “Who the f*** is Jackson Pollock?”

Since that day, Teri Horton has been struggling to prove that her thrift store treasure is a lost piece of artwork potentially worth well over $100 million. However, due to the painting’s lack of verifiable history of ownership (called “provenance”), the piece is disputed by many fine arts experts as simply another artist’s work inspired by Pollock. To find proof of Pollock, Teri had the work examined by a forensic specialist who claims to have found a fingerprint that matches one in Pollock’s studio. But even the fingerprint evidence has been disputed by the art world, leaving the painting, as yet, unsold.

Teri, her painting, and her battle with the art world elite became the subject of a 2006 documentary called, appropriately, Who the *$&% is Jackson Pollock?
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Have you ever found buried treasure like these folks? A gold nugget in your backyard? A Honus Wagner card in your great-grandfather’s basement? Maybe a rare first edition book at your local thrift store? Or a shoe box full of Buffalo Nickels under the floorboards? Tell us about it!

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What do you do when you’ve just hanged someone for murder, and then their “victim” pops up alive and healthy a few towns away?]]> What do you do when you’ve just hanged someone for murder, and then their “victim” pops up alive and healthy a few towns away?

1. Not the Marion Type

William Jackson Marion and Jack Cameron met at a Kansas boarding house in 1872. The two men became fast friends and traveling companions, using Cameron’s team of horses to go from place-to-place to find work. Along their journey, the two made a brief stop in Beatrice, Nebraska to visit Marion’s in-laws before moving on. After a few days, however, Marion returned solo, sporting clothes that belonged to Cameron and driving Cameron’s horses. Then he left town again.

Weeks later, the body of a man was discovered with three bullet holes in his head. He was also wearing the same outfit that Cameron had worn the day he left town. Marion immediately became the prime suspect and a manhunt began. After 10 years of searching, Marion was finally captured in Kansas.

The trial and conviction of Jack Marion was seriously abbreviated. Marion’s verdict was read after just one hour of deliberation, and he was hanged for his crime on March 25, 1887.

Four years later, Jack Cameron reappeared looking for his old friend. Apparently, he had run to Mexico to avoid a shotgun wedding in Kansas, giving his horses and other possessions to Marion. Now he’d come back to reclaim them.

The story does end on a (slightly) positive note: Thanks to the work of Marion’s grandson, Elbert Marion, Nebraska governor Bob Kerrey granted Jack Marion a posthumous pardon in 1987, 100 years after his execution.

2. The Brothers Boorn

In May of 1812, when Richard Colvin vanished, speculation amongst the townspeople of Manchester, Vermont was that his brothers-in-law, Jesse and Stephen, were responsible. Without evidence of foul play, though, no charges were pressed. Seven years later, the Boorn Brothers’ uncle had a dream in which Richard said he’d been killed and his body buried in an old cellar on the Boorn farm. Upon excavation of the cellar, a penknife and a button were found, both identified as Richard’s. But the “evidence” still wasn’t enough to charge the Boorn Brothers. Soon after, when a barn on the Boorn farm burned to the ground, many believed it was arson to cover more evidence. But, again, no charges were filed.

Things finally came to a head, however, when a boy discovered bones under a tree near the Boorn home. While in custody, Jesse confessed that he and his brother had killed Richard. But before the trial began, a closer examination of the bones revealed they weren’t even human, but those of an animal. The prosecution carried on, however, for they had the damning testimony of Silas Merrill, a forger, who was Jesse’s cellmate.

Silas said Jesse had implicated himself, Stephen, and their father in Colvin’s murder. His testimony mentioned the suspected locations of the crime – the cellar, the barn, and the tree – all fitting together in a neat little package. For his cooperation in the case, Silas was set free.

As the evidence mounted, Stephen confessed as well, telling the same story as Silas, but without implicating his father. The Boorn Brothers were convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1819.  Jesse’s sentence would later be commuted to life in prison, but Stephen was set to hang.

Rather than sit idly by, Stephen placed an ad in different newspapers explaining his predicament. The ad included a description of Richard Colvin. Amazingly, the thing worked! Someone actually tracked Colvin down, who was alive and well in New Jersey.
The Boorn Brothers were released from prison and petitioned for compensation from the state.  But because they had both confessed to the crime, they received nothing but their freedom. The Boorn case became the first documented wrongful murder conviction in American history.

3. She Gets Convicted

Zhang Zaiyu disappeared from Hubei Province in 1994.  A few months later, a woman’s body was found in a lake and Zhang’s family identified it as their missing loved one. Her husband She Zaiyu was arrested for murder.

For 10 days, She was reportedly denied sleep and received severe beatings until he finally confessed to the crime. Once in court, She said the confession had been coerced and that he was not guilty. He was sentenced to death in late 1994, but four years later his sentence was reduced to 15 years because the courts felt there wasn’t sufficient evidence for the death penalty.

Then, in March of 2005, Zhang Zaiyu resurfaced in Hubei. Mrs. Zaiyu claimed to have suffered from mental illness and had wandered away from her home in 1994. She wound up in Shandong Province, living there and even marrying another man. Her identity was confirmed through DNA testing and her first husband was released from prison 11 years after he had been convicted. He then sued the government and received 700,000 yuan (about $102,650) in compensation.

But more importantly, She’s case – and that of Teng Xingshan – helped bring about changes to the Chinese judicial system in 2005. Now, capital punishment cases are the sole authority of the Supreme People’s Court, which requires more oversight and investigation before executions are carried out.

4. The Servant and the Bloody Shirt

On August 16, 1660, William Harrison left home in Campden, England to do business in a nearby town. When he didn’t return, his servant, John Perry, went to look for him. Perry found Harrison’s shirt covered in blood, along with his hat, which had been slashed by a knife. Harrison, however, was nowhere to be found.

Authorities immediately suspected Perry, and likely tortured him for answers. He confessed to a conspiracy involving himself, his mother, and his brother. According to his statement, Perry claimed that it was his brother who had actually killed Harrison while attempting to rob him. Despite the fact that all of Perry’s relatives proclaimed their innocence, the entire family was convicted and hanged. Mrs. Perry, who’d also been accused of being a witch, was hanged first.

Two years later, however, William Harrison returned to England claiming that he had been abducted, taken to Turkey, and sold into slavery. He escaped when his master died, and his return was publicly lauded.

While Perry’s trial didn’t do John Perry (or his family) much good, it did have an impact on future cases. John Perry’s story set a legal precedent in England – “no body, no crime” – that lasted for nearly 300 years.

5. The Professional Job

In April 1987, the dismembered body of a woman was dragged from the waters of the Mayang River in central Hunan Province. A young woman, Shi Xiaorong, had been declared missing shortly before the body was found, so police believed she was the victim. According to authorities, the dismemberment looked “very professional”, so local butcher Teng Xinhshan became a prime suspect. It was speculated that Teng had sex with Shi and killed her when she tried to steal his money. Teng claimed he had never met Shi, but was found guilty and sentenced to death anyway. He was executed in 1989.

Then, in 1993, Shi Xiaorong reappeared saying that she had been tricked and sold into marriage in March 1987. When Teng’s relatives learned that Shi was still alive, they sued the judiciary.  After the case was reopened, Shi testified that she had never even met Teng, and that he had obviously not killed her. Teng was posthumously exonerated in 2006.

6. Puppy Love

14-year old Natasha Ryan vanished from her Queensland home in 1999. No body was ever found, and, after years of searching, her family presumed she was dead. Their fears were confirmed in 2002 when incarcerated serial killer, Leonard Fraser, was secretly recorded in his jail cell confessing that Natasha was one of his many victims.

In the middle of Fraser’s 2003 trial for the murder of four women, including Natasha Ryan, the authorities received a tip that Ryan had been living with her boyfriend, Scott Black, since her disappearance. They raided Black’s house, which was less than a half-mile away from her parents’ home, and found Natasha hiding in a wardrobe. The charges for Natasha’s murder were dropped, though Fraser was sentenced to multiple consecutive life sentences for the other three murders.

As for Natasha and her boyfriend, he was sentenced to one year in prison for perjury for claiming he didn’t know Natasha’s whereabouts. He was also fined $3000 and had to pay $16,740 of the costs accrued by police while searching for Natasha. Natasha only had to pay $1,000 fine for causing a false police investigation, though she sold her story to Australian tabloids for much, much more. The two married in 2008; both of Natasha’s parents attended the ceremony.

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