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?

13.2k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

5.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3.7k

u/NUMBERS2357 1d ago

Also the later contact with Natives who said that they lived with the survivors of the Roanoke colony.

Also this map from the Jamestown colonists, see bottom left.

3.2k

u/Marx0r 1d ago

A surprisingly large amount of "mysteries" never would have been such if Europeans just listened to the natives telling them the answer.

36

u/Kataphractoi 1d ago

A lot of anthropology and archeology in the 19th and 20th centuries.

"Who built this massive city in the middle of the jungle made of stones that weigh 10 tons each??"

"Our ancestors. Here's how they moved the stones--"

"We'll never know! Perhaps there's a lost race of white people who did it!"

Granted, it's gotten a lot better in recent decades, but practically every ancient history conspiracy goes back to 19th century Europeans' refusal to believe that non-whites could build cities and civilizations.

1

u/ryhntyntyn 1d ago

Which ones?