Mystery Atlas
Country

United States

The country whose military and intelligence secrecy during the Cold War generated many of the era's most persistent mysteries and conspiracy theories.

View on mapExplore connections

This is a knowledge-graph entry: what our data records about United States and how it connects to the rest of the atlas. It does not have a full article of its own yet.

Connected to

How this topic links to the people, places, and ideas around it — drawn from our knowledge graph.

Related Mysteries

  • Betty and Barney Hill Abduction Case19–20 September 1961 (incident); publicised from 1965

    United States was the site of Betty and Barney Hill Abduction Case.

  • Malmstrom Air Force Base UFO/Missile Incident16 March 1967

    United States was the site of Malmstrom Air Force Base UFO/Missile Incident.

  • Coyne Helicopter Incident18 October 1973

    United States contains Coyne Helicopter Incident.

  • Villisca Axe Murders9-10 June 1912

    United States was the site of Villisca Axe Murders.

  • Skyquakes

    United States was the site of Skyquakes — The 2020 University of North Carolina infrasound study that produced the leading modern instrumental data recorded booms near Cape Fear, North Carolina; reports of the broader phenomenon are worldwide.

  • Bayside Marketplace "Alien" Panic1 January 2024

    United States was the site of Bayside Marketplace "Alien" Panic — Miami, Florida, on New Year's Day 2024.

Theories & Explanations

People

  • Robert F. Kennedy Jr.b. 1954

    United States contains Robert F. Kennedy Jr..

  • Michael Jackson

    United States contains Michael Jackson.

  • Elvis Presley1935-1977

    United States contains Elvis Presley.

  • Stephen Paddock

    United States contains Stephen Paddock.

  • Conrad Murray

    United States contains Conrad Murray.

  • Lyman Lemnitzer

    United States contains Lyman Lemnitzer.

  • Steven D. Miller

    United States contains Steven D. Miller.

  • Jerome Eisenberg

    United States contains Jerome Eisenberg.

  • William Fuld

    United States contains William Fuld.

  • Frank F. Jones

    United States contains Frank F. Jones.

  • Henry Lee Moore

    United States contains Henry Lee Moore.

  • Ana Montesarrested 2001

    United States is associated with Ana Montes — Worked as a senior Cuba analyst at the US Defense Intelligence Agency while secretly spying for Cuba, until her arrest in 2001.

  • Ann Hodges

    United States is associated with Ann Hodges — Her case became a brief national media sensation in the United States.

Events

Places

Organisations & Programmes

Creatures & Figures

  • Organ Theft Legend

    United States was the site of Organ Theft Legend — The legend's best-known 'kidney heist' variant spread nationally by chain email in the United States in 1997.

  • Denver Airport Conspiracy Claim

    United States contains Denver Airport Conspiracy Claim.

  • Skinwalker (Yee Naaldlooshii)

    United States contains Skinwalker (Yee Naaldlooshii) — Documented across Navajo communities of the American Southwest.

Objects & Artifacts

Media Works

Explored on these pages

Is Champion, Wisconsin the Only Church-Approved Marian Apparition Site in the US?

Why Champion, Wisconsin's 1859 apparitions became the only Church-approved Marian apparition site in the US, and how its shrine survived a deadly wildfire.

What Causes Skyquakes, the Mystery Booms Heard Around the World?

What causes skyquakes, the cannon-like mystery booms heard worldwide for centuries, and what a 2020 infrasound study found, and still couldn't explain.

What Darkened the Sky on New England's Dark Day of 1780?

What caused New England's Dark Day of 19 May 1780, why contemporaries feared Judgment Day, and how a 2007-08 tree-ring study finally identified the cause.

Who Committed the Villisca Axe Murders?

Who committed the 1912 Villisca axe murders in Iowa: the Reverend George Kelly trials, the business-rivalry theory, and the traveling-killer theory.

Is "Birds Aren't Real" a Serious Conspiracy Theory?

Is Birds Aren't Real a real conspiracy theory? Peter McIndoe's 2017 satire, its viral spread, and why some people believe it literally anyway.

What Happened in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study?

What happened in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study: the 1932-72 US Public Health Service study that withheld treatment from Black men, and its lasting impact.

Who Pulled Off the Gardner Museum Art Heist?

Who stole 13 works worth $500 million from Boston's Gardner Museum in 1990? The FBI's 2013 breakthrough and why no art has been recovered.

Is the Organ Theft Urban Legend Based on Any Real Cases?

The 'wake up missing a kidney' organ theft legend has no confirmed case behind it, but real, differently structured organ trafficking does exist.

What Happened at the Miami Mall 'Alien' Sighting on New Year's Day 2024?

What really happened at Miami's Bayside Marketplace on New Year's Day 2024, when a police response to a fight went viral as a 10-foot alien sighting.

What Do 9/11 Conspiracy Theories Claim, and How Were They Investigated?

What 9/11 conspiracy theories claim: the controlled-demolition and inside-job claims, NIST's structural findings, and where the evidence actually stands.

Why Was a Motive Never Established for the 2017 Las Vegas Shooting?

Why the 2017 Las Vegas shooting has no established motive: the FBI's 2019 finding, the shifting police timeline, and the second-shooter claim it fuelled.

What Caused the Phantom Clown Panics of 1981 and 2016?

What caused the 1981 Boston-area and 2016 US 'phantom clown' scares: how rumours of costumed strangers spread nationwide with almost no confirmed sightings.