Page 76 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Late January 2019

76 Mysteries from Unsolved Mysteries Show

10 Still-Unsolved was grazed by a bullet, but Shakur was hit four After eight months of surreptitious
times—twice in the chest, once in the arm, and digging, the men (minus West, who had trouble
Mysteries From Unsolved once in the thigh—and was in bad shape; he died getting into the ventilation shaft) had created

of his wounds six days later. Of the many paths to the roof. They placed dummy heads—
Mysteries witnesses, only one came forward: Yafeu Fula, a made from soap and concrete, plus hair swiped
backup singer for Shakur. Before he could try to from the prison barber shop—in their beds so
Continued from Page 75 identify any suspects or submit to further police that guards wouldn’t notice they were gone.
questioning, Fula was gunned down at his home Once on the outside, they blew up a raft they had
in New Jersey. No one has ever been arrested in made from raincoats using a concertina, an
connection with Shakur’s murder. instrument similar to an accordion. Then they
5. FRIENDS TO THE END (1987)
vanished.
In 1980s Arkansas, a popular (albeit
7. THE KECKSBURG UFO The next morning, their bunks were
illegal) activity among youth was
INCIDENT (1965) discovered to be empty, and authorities began a
“spotlighting,” a practice in which a hunter manhunt. The raft was found, along with some
would freeze animals in their tracks by shining a Steven Spielberg couldn’t have scripted personal effects, but no bodies were ever
flashlight in their eyes while their partner fired a a better opening. On the evening of December 9, recovered. The case was closed in 1979, but got
weapon. That’s what teenage friends Don Henry 1965, thousands of eyewitnesses reported seeing renewed attention in early 2018 when it was
(16) and Kevin Ives (17) set out to do the a strange light appearing over parts of the revealed a man claiming to be John Anglin had
evening of August 22, 1987 in the small town of northeastern United States and Canada. Citizens written to the San Francisco police department
Bryant, Arkansas, near the train tracks that ran of Kecksburg, Pennsylvania saw it, too, but they
behind Henry’s house. also witnessed a lot of commotion coming from in 2013 claiming to be alive but in need of
medical attention for a cancer diagnosis.
Hours later, a conductor named Stephen what looked to be a crash site. Local law
Shroyer was navigating his train through the enforcement was said to have been quickly Handwriting analysis and DNA testing on the
letter were inconclusive. If it’s genuine, then
area when he noticed the teens laying motionless ordered out of the area by government officials perhaps so is Anglin’s claim that both his brother
on the tracks; they were covered by a green tarp. who crowded around an acorn-shaped spacecraft and Frank Morris made it to shore alive, living
Shocked, Shroyer tried to come to an emergency embedded into the ground. Reports of the crash decades as free men before Frank died in 2005,
stop, but it was too late. The train ran directly being a meteor or some kind of space debris followed by his brother Clarence in 2008.
over their bodies. A coroner would later circulated, but UFO researchers have long
conclude that the boys were asleep on the tracks insisted the incident was extraterrestrial in 10. D.B. COOPER (1971)
as a result of smoking 20 or more marijuana origin. Others believe it was a spy satellite that
cigarettes, a finding that both sets of parents the United States wanted to disavow. Neither Year after year, snippets of information
rejected. Owing to public pressure, the bodies NASA nor the Air Force has responded to continue to trickle out about “D.B. Cooper,” the
were exhumed so another autopsy could be civilian inquiries about what may or may not alias for the man (or woman) who successfully
conducted. The findings revealed that the boys have landed in Kecksburg that night. hijacked a plane bound for Seattle on November
24, 1971. Cooper—who politely and calmly
had had one to three marijuana joints, and that
one of them was dead and one unconscious 8. ONE MINUTE MILLION (1989) informed the stewardess that he had a bomb and
before the train ran over them. That, coupled On April 19, 1989, an armored car in demanded $200,000 in cash when the plane
landed—got his money and jumped out of the
with the fact that Henry appeared to be stabbed Eden Prairie, Minnesota was besieged by a gang
aircraft with a parachute. Though traces of his
and Ives struck with the butt of his own gun, led of armed robbers who quickly and efficiently
ransom have been found and numerous people
a grand jury to conclude the case was a double relieved them of $1 million in roughly 60
have told stories of people in their lives they
homicide. seconds. While two stood guard with machine
suspect of being Cooper, authorities have never
In 2018, the Ives family was still guns, a third put a (fake) bomb on the hood to
been able to nail down a single suspect. In 2018,
pursuing answers with the help of a private encourage cooperation. The explosive rig was
an amateur sleuth and codebreaker named Rick
investigator. In a bizarre twist, former similar to one used in a robbery in Baltimore
professional wrestler Billy Jack Haynes claimed three years earlier. A year after the Eden Prairie Sherwood came forward to state that he had
he was a witness in the case. He came forward to heist, they struck a third time. In each case, no analyzed letters believed to be from Cooper and
read the cryptography that indicated the criminal
assert that, at the time, he was involved in drug one was able to follow in pursuit, and the thieves
was identifying himself as Robert Rackstraw, a
trafficking in the area, and had been called to the were never caught. The FBI believed they were
Vietnam veteran with parachuting experience.
area to make sure a scheduled air drop happened far from common criminals: Their protocol was
One letter hinted at three separate military units
without incident. (In 1988, a confidential so precise that authorities suspected they might
that Rackstraw belonged to. The FBI hasn’t
informant told police the area the boys were in have been heavily trained in ambush or attack
made a specific comment on Sherwood’s claim.
was used to drop drugs from passing aircraft.) scenarios, possibly as a result of entering the
Neither has Rackstraw, who is still alive and was
According to KATV, Haynes claimed he was military.
present when an air-drop of cocaine took place reportedly questioned by the FBI back in the
1970s. []
and that the boys had witnessed the drop. 9. ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ
Haynes also said he helped lay the boys on the (1962)
track. Police have not yet commented on his Buck Hill, Barry’s Bay,
Of the many notorious prison escapes of
claims.
the 20th century, none proved as unbelievable as Ontario
the three men who fled from the isolated
6. TUPAC SHAKUR (1996) Alcatraz, located on an island in San Francisco
Both Cosgrove and Meurer have been Bay, on June 11, 1962. Anyone who could Buck Hill has a legend about a logger’s
unable to shake the puzzling details that led up successfully navigate past their cells, armed family during the Depression. The daughter
to the murder of 25-year-old rapper Tupac guards, and fences would then have to swim vanished one night while chasing the pet dog,
Shakur. On September 7, 1996, Shakur was in miles to shore. Inmates Frank Morris and Allen who had run off. The logger searched for her
Las Vegas to watch Mike Tyson in a boxing West hatched a plan to do exactly that, and and eventually went mad. His ghost still
match against Frank Bruno, and was riding with enlisted brothers John and Clarence Anglin to searches for her, and his lantern is seen as
rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight following the come along with them. West had discovered that ghost lights in the area. The balls of light,
fight. Both men had run-ins with the law in their access to the outside was possible if the seen at close range, are baseball-size white,
past and both flirted with danger in rap’s prisoners pulled out the entire ventilation shaft amber or green lights that will occasionally
criminal element. Earlier that night, the two under the sink in their cells rather than trying to flare up to much larger.
reportedly got into a physical altercation with cut through the bars blocking the shaft. By
members of the Crips street gang. Later, while burrowing into the opening, they could make Thanks to Ronnie Stringer from Barry’s Bay,
driving, the men stopped at an intersection. A their way behind the cell wall and up to the roof Ontario for giving us the tip about Buck Hill.
white Cadillac pulled up and opened fire. Knight by using the plumbing to climb up. Ronnie was a witness to the light!