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...

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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...

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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...

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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.

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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...

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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...

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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.

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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...

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In 1965, civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo was fatally shot during a car chase when she was pursued by four members of the KKK after she had been shuttling civil rights protestors back to the airport.

Except, this is in a Southern State, so justice isn't easily forthcoming.

And even the architect of the murder itself isn't all he seems...

Lots of surprises in this one, not least how we manage to end up talking about The Phantom Menace...

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The daddy of all conspiracy theories...

In November 1963, president of the United States John F Kennedy is shot dead in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald is quickly named as the assassin, firing from the Texas Book Depository, but this version of events has failed to satisfy everyone. The presence of some homeless men with "nice shoes", a man with an umbrella despite clement weather and a incongruously dressed "Baboushka Lady" in the vicinity are just some ingredients which have perpetuated quite probably the most famous conspiracy theory of all time.

So what do we think...?

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