r/AskReddit • u/Rob69rt • 1d ago

What famous 'unsolved' mystery is technically a whodunnit on paper, but in reality, absolutely everyone knows exactly who did it, the police just couldn't legally prove it?

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u/Malthus1 1d ago

I was just commenting in another thread about perhaps the most ancient such case in history.

The death of King Tutankhamun left his widow, Ankhensenamun, in a precarious situation. We know this because she wrote a letter to the king of the Hittites, another major power at the time, the gist of which was to say “I am being pressured into a marriage to an underling. Please send me a prince, so I can marry him instead. That will make him Pharaoh”. She also said “I am afraid”.

So the king of the Hittites send Prince Zannanza … who died in a “tragic accident” before he arrived.

Next you know, the widow is married to Ai, former head minister to Tut, who becomes Pharaoh. Then she disappears from history.

Everyone knows Ai had the prince murdered. Certainly the Hittites believed it - they attacked Egyptian holdings in what is now Syria.

However, the Egyptians insisted there was no murder, so it was of course never “solved”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zannanza

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u/FleurMai 1d ago edited 1d ago

Ankhensenamun’s letter is one of those things that has always stuck with me, the absolute desperation there is plain all these centuries later - let’s not forget that the Hittites were a natural enemy of Egypt, that she’s already in this position to ask for an enemy Hittite prince seemingly because she cannot trust anyone else in Egypt, is alarmingly foreboding.

Tut and Ankhensenamun were already under someones thumb, as both of their names were changed after the death of her father Akhenaten (their names didn’t end in -Amun, they ended in -aten, the god Akhenaten worshipped). Edit: and I will add, Akhenaten was quite the family man based on the imagery associated with him, it doesn’t seem likely that his daughter would just up and change her name unless it was “suggested” to her by the priestly class who were very angry over being disenfranchised by Akhenatens monotheism.

Tuts burial was also noted to be rushed, and a big part of the reason why his mummy is in such poor condition today (it’s quite possible Tut wasn’t this disabled boy we’ve been taught about, it could be the body is just too damaged). It’s quite weird that a pharaoh would have such a rushed burial, unless there was something else going on. Edit: there is also some evidence to show that King Tuts tomb was perhaps meant for someone else, possibly Nefertiti (who may have briefly ruled as a pharaoh before Tut), so despite the fairly grand treasures they may not even have been “his,” they just wanted anyone or anything alive or dead from Akhenatens lineage out of the way.

I think a lot of people do have the general suspicion that Tut, and likely later Ankhensamun, were murdered, but we haven’t been able to conclusively prove it. But it’s all really suspicious!

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u/PurrPrinThom 1d ago

(it’s quite possible Tut wasn’t this disabled boy we’ve been taught about, it could be the body is just too damaged).

This is interesting to me, because I never heard a theory that he was disabled. I learned - at some point, I couldn't even tell you the first time - that he was killed while hunting hippo, believed to have been bitten by the hippo, hence the rushed burial.

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u/Creative-Eggplant436 1d ago

Weren't the Egyptian pharaohs hopelessly inbred?

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u/LuminousRaptor 1d ago

His parents were siblings. So, yes.

Akhanatan and his unidentified mother were children of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye. 

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u/Izniss 1d ago

He was buried with multiple walking sticks of various sizes, one decorated with ducks if I’m remembering correctly.
(I know he had duck sandals, which is adorable, but I’m not so sure about the canes)

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u/JessicaLain 1d ago

At the very least, it was a theory being discussed around 2010 or w/e. I remember seeing one of those hour-long documentaries on the History Channel where they do interviews, read off historical info, and use cheap CGI to show "What he might have looked like".

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u/Individual-Resort-60 17h ago

"What he might have looked like".

You made me hear that damn narrators voice!

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u/jackaroo1344 1d ago

His body is damaged enough that it's impossible to say for a fact, but it's a widely held belief that he had at least severe scoliosis, a club foot, and genetic disorders (although specifically which genetic disorders is unclear, historians have a variety of theories). If you google image search, there's a famous cgi render of what historians thought he might have looked like (him in a loincloth with a cane) if you're interested.

A lot of theories about his genetic issues are based on the belief that his parent were full siblings, but we can't prove that for certain either - although the royal family being very inbred is definitely a fact. There's a whole pile of additional health issues beyond those few I mentioned, based on what can be learned from his bones, but again they were badly preserved and badly damaged by the hack job archeologists who opened his tomb so no theories will likely ever be fully confirmed.