Mystery on the Rocks

It's 1992 and former (and unpopular) Polish Prime Minister lives in an almost paranoid level of security - his house is fortified by an 11 foot barbed-wire-topped wall and patrolled by a vicious Rottweiler, a dog which Jaroszewicz would walk while armed with a handgun.Nevertheless, he and his second wife Alicja are found tortured and murdered in their home, the motivation for the crime unclear. The perpetrators equally unclear.Until almost 30 years later...Also in this episode Sooz makes the decision to pivot into directing porn. Hear her plans!______We're doing a live show! On November 3rd at 7pm we will be at The Princess Victoria pub in London's Shepherds Bush as part of the Cheerful Earful podcast festival. If you're in or around the area we'd love to see you there, simply head to https://www.cheerfulearful.co.uk/events/mystery-on-the-rocks for details!PLUS get early, ad-free access to episodes as well as cocktail recipes and outtakes plus whole bonus episodes over on our Patreon! Just head to www.patreon.com/mysteryontherocks where we've got a huge back catalogue of really cool stuff which we keep adding to all the time! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The final (fingers crossed) in our trilogy (still keep em crossed) of duo episodes as Chris and Sooz tackle a mass poisoning of a French village in 1951, which led to 250 cases and 7 deaths, including a man who thought he was a plane and jumped from a second storey window.And want to hear about the government's policies on the distribution of flour in post-war France? Sooz didn't, so decided to counter each bread fact with a fact about dressage.Will that be enough to convert Chris to the sport?________We're doing a live show! On November 3rd at 7pm we will be at The Princess Victoria pub in London's Shepherds Bush as part of the Cheerful Earful podcast festival. If you're in or around the area we'd love to see you there, simply head to https://www.cheerfulearful.co.uk/events/mystery-on-the-rocks for details!PLUS get early, ad-free access to episodes as well as cocktail recipes and outtakes plus whole bonus episodes over on our Patreon! Just head to www.patreon.com/mysteryontherocks where we've got a huge back catalogue of really cool stuff which we keep adding to all the time! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Needs must means the second in a trilogy of only 2 of us at the recording. This week, it's Chris and Masud who go over one of Finland's most notorious murder cases, the 17 year old Kyllikkii Saari in 1953...On her way back from a prayer meeting, Kyllikkii vanishes. Six months later, her remains are found in a bog. Three suspects quickly fall into the frame but which one did it? And what really happened?KGB spies, another well-known murder case and quite possibly the best name this podcast has ever heard all seem to be connected..._____We're doing a live show! On November 3rd at 7pm we will be at The Princess Victoria pub in London's Shepherds Bush as part of the Cheerful Earful podcast festival. If you're in or around the area we'd love to see you there, simply head to https://www.cheerfulearful.co.uk/events/mystery-on-the-rocks for details!PLUS get early, ad-free access to episodes as well as cocktail recipes and outtakes plus whole bonus episodes over on our Patreon! Just head to www.patreon.com/mysteryontherocks where we've got a huge back catalogue of really cool stuff which we keep adding to all the time! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here is a fairly substantial shake-up to the formula as Sooz and Masud make up their own mystery based on what Chris told them it was called as he was away on holiday and unable to join the recording as planned.How close do they get? And in an episode which involves time travel, premature burial and gluten intolerant interdimensional beings, which come from the actual mystery and which come from the minds of Sooz and Masud???_____We're doing a live show! On November 3rd at 7pm we will be at The Princess Victoria pub in London's Shepherds Bush as part of the Cheerful Earful podcast festival. If you're in or around the area we'd love to see you there, simply head to https://www.cheerfulearful.co.uk/events/mystery-on-the-rocks for details!PLUS get early, ad-free access to episodes as well as cocktail recipes and outtakes plus whole bonus episodes over on our Patreon! Just head to www.patreon.com/mysteryontherocks where we've got a huge back catalogue of really cool stuff which we keep adding to all the time! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1939 Barbara Newhall Follett vanishes without trace. She was 25 years old and disillusioned with her life. So what happened to her? And what about her extraordinary early life could have contributed to her being able to disappear so completely...?____________________We're doing a live show! On November 3rd at 7pm we will be at The Princess Victoria pub in London's Shepherds Bush as part of the Cheerful Earful podcast festival. If you're in or around the area we'd love to see you there, simply head to https://www.cheerfulearful.co.uk/events/mystery-on-the-rocks for details!PLUS get early, ad-free access to episodes as well as cocktail recipes and outtakes plus whole bonus episodes over on our Patreon! Just head to www.patreon.com/mysteryontherocks where we've got a huge back catalogue of really cool stuff which we keep adding to all the time! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The sensational story of the gruesome 1943 murder of Sir Harry Oakes - a baronet, philanthropist and incredibly wealthy owner of a gold mine who was living in the Bahamas at the time. Stabbed with a miner's pick, to disguise other wounds from an ice pick, and then doused in insecticide, set alight and covered in feathers.All of that in a story which also finds time to take in the actual King of England turning detective to try to solve the murder!Plus time for us to natter about the 1998 version of Godzilla for a bit...____________________We're doing a live show! On November 3rd at 7pm we will be at The Princess Victoria pub in London's Shepherds Bush as part of the Cheerful Earful podcast festival. If you're in or around the area we'd love to see you there, simply head to https://www.cheerfulearful.co.uk/events/mystery-on-the-rocks for details!PLUS get early, ad-free access to episodes as well as cocktail recipes and outtakes plus whole bonus episodes over on our Patreon! Just head to www.patreon.com/mysteryontherocks where we've got a huge back catalogue of really cool stuff which we keep adding to all the time! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In one of the most ghoulish cases we've covered, in 1932 in Sweden a sex worker by the name of Lilly Lindeström is found dead in her apartment, naked and face down on the bed. Police had to break into her apartment and she had been dead for days.There are several sick elements to this case, not least that Lily's body had been drained of blood without a drop being spilled, except for traces on a soup ladle next to her body...We're doing a live show! On November 3rd at 7pm we will be at The Princess Victoria pub in London's Shepherds Bush as part of the Cheerful Earful podcast festival. If you're in or around the area we'd love to see you there, simply head to https://www.cheerfulearful.co.uk/events/mystery-on-the-rocks for details!PLUS get early, ad-free access to episodes as well as cocktail recipes and outtakes plus whole bonus episodes over on our Patreon! Just head to www.patreon.com/mysteryontherocks where we've got a huge back catalogue of really cool stuff which we keep adding to all the time! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An unidentified man, beaten to death, is found floating in the sea 12 miles off a tiny archipelago, itself 43 miles off the coast of Germany. Dressed in smart clothes, he is known to this day only as The Gentleman...OK, so this week's mystery has so few clues and such little hope of ever being solved we kind of got very distracted...Distracted enough to invent a new game, play it through, have such fun doing it and end up devising a brand new panel show!Enjoy!And we're doing a live show! On November 3rd at 7pm we will be at The Princess Victoria pub in London's Shepherds Bush as part of the Cheerful Earful podcast festival. If you're in or around the area we'd love to see you there, simply head to https://www.cheerfulearful.co.uk/events/mystery-on-the-rocks for details!PLUS get early, ad-free access to episodes as well as cocktail recipes and outtakes plus whole bonus episodes over on our Patreon! Just head to www.patreon.com/mysteryontherocks where we've got a huge back catalogue of really cool stuff which we keep adding to all the time! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's October 1954 in Tuscany and local football rivals Fiorentina and Pistoriese are playing a derby in front of 10,000 screaming fans. But the stadium falls silent, the players stop playing and the ball rolls to a slow halt.Everyone is transfixed by cigar-like UFOs drifting up above, with strange materials trailing down far enough to be touched by the crowd and taken away to be sampled...So what on Earth was it? Hear Sooz spooked far more than she ever has been before!Get early, ad-free access to episodes as well as cocktail recipes and outtakes plus whole bonus episodes over on our Patreon! Just head to www.patreon.com/mysteryontherocks where we've got a huge back catalogue of really cool stuff which we keep adding to all the time!Video we mention - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrS0igctMi0Geological Society Blog Post we mention - https://blog.geolsoc.org.uk/2014/12/09/door-9-football-geothermal-energy-and-the-1954-wave-of-ufos/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happened to Lawrence Joseph Bader, the salesman riddled with debt who rented a fishing boat and promptly vanished in 1957?Does it have anything to do with the gregarious TV show host John Johnson who appeared elsewhere four days later?And what is pole sitting?Let's find out!Get early, ad-free access to episodes as well as cocktail recipes and outtakes plus whole bonus episodes over on our Patreon! Just head to www.patreon.com/mysteryontherocks where we've got a huge back catalogue of really cool stuff which we keep adding to all the time!PLUS our very own Sooz is touring the UK with her stand-up show Playstation RIGHT NOW. Head to www.soozkempner.co.uk/copy-of-playstation-2022 to see if the tour is coming near you and, if it is, to buy tickets! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

January 1994, in a sleepy West Midlands village, a retired school caretaker makes a gruesome discovery while walking his dog.A gruesome delivery with links to arms dealing, a double shooting and Kuwaiti royalty...Get early, ad-free access to episodes as well as cocktail recipes and outtakes plus whole bonus episodes over on our Patreon. Just head to www.patreon.com/mysteryontherocks where this currently a considerable back catalogue of loads of cool stuff!And our very own Sooz is touring the UK with her stand-up show Playstation RIGHT NOW. Head to www.soozkempner.co.uk/copy-of-playstation-2022 to see if the tour is coming near you and, if it is, to buy tickets! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oslo, 1995.A Jane Doe. With a gunshot wound to the head. Holding a gun she couldn't possibly have fired. In a locked hotel room in Oslo... Mystery upon mystery upon mystery. So what really happened and who was she? The answers to these questions might never be answered but join us for a quick look through what we DO know and if it might offer a solution?Get early, ad-free access to episodes as well as cocktail recipes and outtakes plus whole bonus episodes over on our Patreon! Just head to www.patreon.com/mysteryontherocks where we've got a huge back catalogue of really cool stuff which we keep adding to all the time!PLUS our very own Sooz is touring the UK with her stand-up show Playstation RIGHT NOW. Head to www.soozkempner.co.uk/copy-of-playstation-2022 to see if the tour is coming near you and, if it is, to buy tickets! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In April 1935 a tiger shark is caught 2 miles out to sea from Sydney before being transferred to a nearby aquarium where, in front of awed spectators, it vomits out a human arm with a distinctive tattoo.This is only the beginning...We take a look at the series of coincidences and bizarre chain of events which centre around this puking shark.Get early, ad-free access to episodes as well as cocktail recipes and outtakes plus whole bonus episodes over on our Patreon. Just head to www.patreon.com/mysteryontherocks where this currently a considerable back catalogue of cool stuff!And our very own Sooz is touring the UK with her stand-up show Playstation RIGHT NOW. Head to www.soozkempner.co.uk/copy-of-playstation-2022 to see if the tour is coming near you and, if it is, to buy tickets! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're back!A quick note to say that the first episode of the sixth season had a bit of a messed up audio file (Masud going away obviously jinxed us) but we have cleaned up to the best of our abilities. Going forward, all should be resolved tech wise and subsequent episodes won't have this hiccup...In February 1945, 70 year old Charles Walton is found near his Warwickshire home brutally murdered and impaled to the ground through his neck with his own pitchfork. Who did it? And, more to the point, why did so many people think witchcraft was responsible?Joining us to pick it apart is the FANTASTIC Alasdair Beckett-King - comedian, host of the brilliant podcast Loremen and now bona fide mystery writer with the publication of his awesome childrens' book 'Murder at the Museum'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season Six starts NEXT MONTH but we recorded a brand new special episode ahead of that to mark our 4th anniversary!December 2008 in Jackson, Tennessee bar owner and sheriff's deputy Euhommie Bond is tragically killed in a shootout outside his bar and grill, Spanky's. With so much gunfire concentrated in such a short space of time, finding out who killed him is no mean feat, one main reason why the police investigation stalls so dramatically...And why is the family so reluctant to support his beloved aunt when she tries to get the case looked into?For a huge backlog of exclusive bonus content, including early ad-free access to episodes, be sure to check out our Patreon at www.patreon.com/mysteryontherocks! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's here! We did it! YOU did it!Made it through our longest season yet. We take stock of the topics covered and take a moment to reflect on our collective favourite episode of this season - Magnus Hirschfeld and Dora Richter. We discuss how it's a good indicator of whether or not humanity has learned from the history of the 20th Century.We don't think it has!Thanks for sticking with us this season - we're looking forward to sharing some cases of the week again with you very soon!And while we're taking a break between seasons, we're not taking a break over on our Patreon where we'll still be posting mini episodes, bonus episodes. If you can't bear the thought of waiting for Season Six why not head over to our Patreon to see if you fancy going one extra step in supporting the podcast! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.