Mystery On The Rocks

It's (almost) the end...A mammoth trawl through geopolitics, war and espionage brings us to 2021 and an outgoing US President incites an insurrection on the house of government. What led us there, what parallels from history can be drawn and, more interestingly, where could this possibly lead us?We don't get entirely gloomy though, there's also a bit where we all thirst over Denzel Washington. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We hurtle towards the present day and the end of this mammoth season as we hit 2018 this week when the poisonings of two Russians, a father and daughter named Sergei and Yulia Skripal, in the Wiltshire town of Salisbury kick off mass panic, the death of a woman entirely unrelated to them whatsoever, a further tensing of international relations with Russia itself, calls to boycott the World Cup AND (in the generation of social media) a slew of memes.And what part could the British weather have played in the whole thing?We take a look as we disorientate ourselves a little bit with both how recent and  distant this feels... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2010, Gareth Williams - a mathematician and spy - is found dead in a padlocked duffel bag in a bath tub in an en suite in a British secret service safe house in Pimlico with no fingerprints, not even Gareth's, left on the padlock, bag or bathroom. Loads of theories have come out since but, if we're honest, no real satisfactory explanation for what actually happened.Did Russia attempt to recruit him and he rebuffed them? Was he in possession of British secrets the authorities were worried about him handing over? And, if he was assassinated, why was he left in the flat in such a manner? Equally, if he killed himself, how did he get in the bag and leave no fingerprints?In what is one of our messiest recordings for a while, can we get to the bottom of this strange case and is this the drunkest Sooz has been for a while? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2006, British-based Russian author and journalist Alexander Litvinenko is suddenly taken seriously ill. His deterioration is world news, chronicled right up until his death 3 weeks later.Thing is, Litvinenko wasn't only a journalist - he was a former Russian agent. And not only was he a former Russian agent, he was a vocal critic of the Kremlin and of Vladmir Putin, having gone on record accusing Putin of unspeakable crimes.A deliberate assassination, not even disguised as an accident. Is this when the world started waking up to the idea of a new full-blown tyrant? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the most seismic events of recent history, conspiracy theories abound as to what "really happened" when planes flew into the World Trade Center (plus Pentagon, and stopped from flying into the Capitol) on September 11, 2001. We take a look at some of them and how, actually, such theories aren't as harmless as some might think.Yeah, as Masud called it - it's the Big One.Sooz has been waiting for this since we started the podcast. So excited that she didn't notice until too late that her headphones weren't plugged in, meaning this is a rip of the Zoom audio. That wouldn't usually be a massive problem except it coincided with the day Chris was having his windows replaced. So forgive any residual noise... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1998 a White House intern's life comes crashing down after her affair with the President of the United States is exposed. Worldwide media goes crazy, the President is impeached but ultimately moves on with reputation intact, relative to the intern's in question... Monica Lewinsky.So how did the affair come to light, what were the ramifications and could it possibly have somehow contributed to one of the most Earth-shattering events of the early 21st Century? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week is a rundown of the events of the final few years of the Cold War, ultimately bringing it to an end.Masud couldn't be with us this week so rather than do a mystery without him (it felt naughty doing one without Sooz a little while ago) we took the opportunity to chronicle something rather momentous in the geopolitics of the 20th Century.Which is what this season is meant to be about of course...Enjoy Sooz and Chris punctuating monumental historical events with their own misinformed childhood memories of it actually happening. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're hurtling towards the end of the Cold War and into the final decade of the 20th Century with this tale of intrigue concerning a Soviet double agent.Espionage, treason, a potentially mysterious fate and a recipe for coot...What happened to Dmitri Polyakov, a.k.a Top Hat???? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's Episode 150!And it's the nuclear disaster which cast an almost literal cloud over the latter half of the 1980s - Chernobyl!We look at what happened, the causes and the effects, some of which continue to this day. Panicking about how to sensitively handle this subject on a comedy podcast, we distract ourselves with a lengthy chat about breakfast cereals, another disaster by the name of Moonfall and there's also a bit about how the Chernobyl accident affected the local vole population.. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1986, the Swedish Prime Minister is shot dead walking back from the cinema. His long career in politics saw him make a lot of international enemies but even so, the case has never been solved. Maybe because there are so many damn suspects and possible motives?Including Yugoslavian intelligence, an arms deal scandal, Chilean extremists and more... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two out of three ain't bad, right?Not a full house this week guys as our schedules are still tricky to align. While we have decided to record if two of us can make it, this isn't a permanent arrangement so don't worry!This week we take a look at an unsolved murder mystery which also happens to be a love story taking in movie stars, gulags and Stalin's inner circle...It's the incredible story of Zoya Fyodorova! Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's episode sees us back to our current season and bidding farewell to the 1970s in...Cambodia!Malcolm Caldwell, a Marxist writer from Scotland, is killed in mysterious circumstances very shortly after meeting Cambodia's leader, the infamous Pol Pot. Despite being a vocal supporter of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime, uncommon in the West, could Caldwell have been murdered for something he said in his audience with the despot?Or for something else entirely?We also go in (too much?) depth about jalapeno margaritas...If you want to avail yourself of the lavender gin be sure to check out Lavinia's Mystical Caves! Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

An update to one of the earliest cases we covered and one of the most enduring mysteries of all time... The Somerton Man!A study believes they've unearthed the mystery man's identity so we take a sidestep from our current season and have a quick chat about the updates to this famous case... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

September 11 1978, Georgi Markov dies in hospital in Balham, South London. Markov was a Bulgarian journalist working for the BBC, having recently defected to the West earlier that year. He had developed a fear after something resembling an insect bite appeared on his thigh.An autopsy found a small pellet in the area, most likely filled with ricin. Before he died Georgi told his wife that when he felt the 'bite', he was on Waterloo Bridge and a man behind him was picking up an umbrella.Was Georgi assassinated for his defection by the Bulgarians or the KGB? And did they use a modified umbrella to do it?One of the most famous Cold War murders gets the Mystery on the Rocks treatment, which basically means bickering about the size and shape of the bullet, arguing about a 69 joke and getting distracted about little Masud watching Last Action Hero... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Content Warning for this week: graphic descriptions (ie, direct quotes from witnesses) of mass murder...July 14th 1976, a house is torched in eastern France. The charred remains of its owner, a man named Rainer Buschman, are found within holding a pistol and a .22 calibre rifle in a defensive position.Not only is Rainer Buschman not who he first appeared to be, but there is also doubt from the French police that the body found is of Buschman at all. What's more, the core elements of this mystery stretch back decades previously.Buckle up, it's a heavy one... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week's episode, we pop to Africa and gross ourselves out by having to say 'Rhodesia' a lot. In 1975, Herbert Chitepo was assassinated by a car bomb, which was so powerful it also claimed the lives of others. Herbert was the first black barrister in Rhodesia and a prominent figure in the fight for independence and the reclamation of Zimbabwe.However, some thought he was too moderate which means the list of suspects isn't just limited to his political enemies and the Rhodesian administration, but also potentially more militant rivals ostensibly on the same side.So who planted the car bomb?We also get sidetracked about the semantics of a head transplant (still not sure how) and give Timmy Mallett some props. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

January 1972, a plane crashes over what was then Czechoslovakia. Some believe it was shot down by Czechoslovakian defences mistakenly believing it to be an enemy aircraft, whereas some believe it was a briefcase bomb on board planted by Croatian nationalists.So what's the truth?Join us as we also dredge up the existence of Liam Lynch's 2003 microhit United States of Whatever and find ourselves in yet another surprise sequel to an episode from Mystery on the Rocks past... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 1970, prominent Italian journalist Mauro de Mauro vanishes without trace in Siciliy, his remains never discovered to this day.So what happened?Could it have something to do with the story he was about to break at the leftwing newspaper he was working at? Or was it to do with his shady fascist past during the era of Mussolini? Was it the Mafia? Or could it have something to do with a mysterious, unsolved plane crash eight years previously?We take a look at all the options while drinking a delicious praline-based cocktail and eating bar snacks... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week's episode takes a quick squint at the conspiracy theories that suggest mankind's greatest feat of space exploration never happened. There are many who believe the moon landings were 100% fake, but what do we think?We're sure you can guess...Along the way we also touch on the Flat Earth theory and one of the more outlandish conspiracy theories we heard about the pandemic.Remember, you can now watch extended Mystery on the Rocks episodes over at our Patreon - patreon.com/mysteryontherocks. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 1968 Francoist Spain, one of the leading members of the antifascist Basque separatist cell ETA sets in motion a chain of events that reach right up to the present day, including the assassinations of a Francoist police torturer and Franco's own chosen successor, a bitter fight throughout the 1980s with another terrorist group and maybe even the return of democracy to Spain in the late 70s.With, somehow, added chat about taxidermy... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.