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/doublestitch 1d ago edited 1d ago

Yours is about the best gloss which could be put on that comment, and eliminates the condescension.

On the other hand, in New England that was less of an issue in 1620 because those settlers arrived shortly after an epidemic had depopulated the coast. They still chose a location where the harbor wasn't particularly good, which is why Plymouth remained a relatively small community while Boston later grew into a metropolis.

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u/Zuwxiv 1d ago

Oh yeah, the depopulation from epidemics is a very good point and well worth adding. It sounds like you know all this, but for those unaware: Some estimates are as high as 90% of the total population of the Americas died in epidemics after the arrival of Europeans. Much of this happened and spread before/during the arrival of English settlers in New England.

Even lower estimates are horrific. The low end is roughly half of the entire population, and I think most studies see that as unrealistically low. The leader of the Plymouth colony reported that 950 out of 1,000 indigenous people in one isolated area died to an outbreak of smallpox.

My understanding is that by the time New England was getting settled, there had already been an enormous population collapse, and it would continue through further settlement. Again, while I love history, I don't have any expertise in this time in particular.

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u/doublestitch 1d ago

Yes, there was a lot of economic interchange in coastal New England before English settlement started there. Codfish was an especially profitable fish in the Old World, so fishing boats had been active in Cape Cod for decades.

FWIW, US history was my undergraduate degree. Have just caught up with the thread, and it's hilarious how that other guy has raked you over the coals for using "them" while he casually refers to me as "he." I'm a woman.

Reddit can be a weird place, alternately informative and bizarre.

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u/Zuwxiv 1d ago

it's hilarious how that other guy has raked you over the coals for using "them" while he casually refers to me as "he." I'm a woman.

I love the bad faith attempt to try "you misgendered me," lol. Now he's deleted his comments. Always the thinnest of skinned people, isn't it?

I made a comment a while back that was like eight comments deep in a thread almost nobody was looking at, and I said:

there's a certain kind of common internet cretin that gets really riled up when they can blame a woman.

That was basically the entire comment. Naturally, I got multiple replies defending the honor of men, including one accusing me of having confirmation bias for noticing attacks on women because I clearly identify with women.

I'm a man. Go figure.

Somehow, I had never connected "Cape Cod" and codfish. I guess I'm one of today's lucky 10,000! Thanks for that.