5 Bodies Nobody Ever Found

The wreckage of Steve Fossett's plane was located last month, but it's still too early to say with absolute certainty that Fossett's body has been found. (Partial remains are currently undergoing DNA analysis.) Here are five bodies we still haven't stumbled across, even after all these years.

1. Ambrose Bierce (1842"“1914?)

He was wounded during the Civil War, drank with fellow journalists Mark Twain and H. L. Mencken, and kept a human skull on his desk. Bierce was also a devilishly fine writer who lampooned and skewered just about everyone in the American public eye during the last half of the 19th century. One thing he wasn't, however, was found.

In late 1913, Bierce went to Mexico to cover the country's revolution. What happened to him when he got there is a mystery. Theories include: he was killed at the Battle of Ojinaga; he was executed by the revolutionary leader Pancho Villa; he shot himself at the Grand Canyon. Any of those ends would have doubtless suited Bierce. Death by bullet, he wrote before leaving for Mexico, "beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs."

2. Joseph F. Crater (1889"“????)

3. Amelia Earhart (1897"“1937?)

4. Glenn Miller (1904"“1944?)

5. Harold Holt (1908"“1967?)

But in 2004, a change in Australian law prompted a formal inquiry to formally close the case of the missing PM. The ruling? A lackluster verdict to say the least: death by drowning.

See also: 6 Unsolved Disappearances

This article was excerpted from Forbidden Knowledge: A Wickedly Smart Guide to History's Naughtiest Bits. You can pick up a copy in the mental_floss store.