On Halloween Eve, 1938 Orson Welles' The War of the Worlds aired on CBS radio. It detailed an alien invasion so realistic that, according to legend, it caused widespread panic among listeners. People really believed aliens were invading Earth. The mass hysteria is an important part of media history. However, some believe that there was never actually any panic at all. So why do we think that there was? It could all be a conspiracy by the newspaper industry to take down their new rival: radio.

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On April 3, 1996, Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski – better known as the Unabomber – was arrested, ending a 17-year-long bombing spree that left 3 dead and 23 injured. He promised to end his campaign of terror only after outlets published his 35,000-word manifesto; in his view, technology is an uncontrollable and dangerous system that could only be stopped by revolutionary means. But where did his ideology come from? Some suggest he was pushed to the brink during a three-year human psych experiment he took part in while a young student at Harvard University, overseen by a popular, prominent – and sometimes controversial – father of personality testing, Henry A. Murray.

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No comedian surprised people like Andy Kaufman. He was always one step ahead of the audience. In fact, he was so good at pulling pranks that when he died in 1984, some of his friends thought it was a joke. But what if it really was? Today, some people still believe that Andy faked his own death. Maybe, just maybe, Andy hasn’t left the building.

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On July 4th, 1975, journalist and Sydney heiress Juanita Nielsen disappeared. Most assumed she was the victim of foul play. After all, for years she’d been fighting a land developer determined to turn her charming, low-income neighborhood into a bunch of high-rises. She was last seen inside a nightclub operated by the developer’s associate, and owned by Sydney crime boss Abe Saffron. The case should have been a slam dunk – so why was nobody ever charged with Juanita’s murder?

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The chupacabra is considered the third most widely known cryptid in the world, behind Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster – kind of mind-blowing, considering the fact that this mythical creature’s origins are relatively recent. Reports of el chupacabras began in Puerto Rico in 1995… where one theory holds that the creature is the result of a U.S. military experiment gone horribly wrong.

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Chuck Barris created game show classics like The Dating Game and The Gong Show. However, his memoir claims his prolific career was all a cover for his classified missions as a CIA assassin. The agency says his claim is 100% false, but as Barris notes, "Have you ever heard the CIA acknowledge someone was an assassin?" So who should we believe?

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1981, Skidmore, Missouri. Ken McElroy, the “bully of Nodaway County,” is gunned down in the street – in broad daylight, and in front of his wife and an untold number of witnesses. Despite multiple investigations and grand juries, nobody has ever been indicted in the case, thanks to an airtight conspiracy of silence among neighbors. But what’s the real reason they’ve all refused to talk?

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In the 1960s, a new musical revolution emerged from Laurel Canyon, California. Bands like The Beach Boys, The Doors, and Crosby, Stills & Nash sang hit songs protesting the Vietnam War. However, while these tunes spoke to war protesting "hippies," some believe that they were created by the very people they spoke out against: the US government.

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On October 21st, 1978, 20-year-old pilot Fred Valentich disappeared while flying across the Bass Strait, off the southeastern coast of Australia. Moments before vanishing, Fred described a bizarre encounter over the radio. He claimed an unidentified object seemed to be harassing him – moving at impossibly fast speeds, disappearing and then reappearing, and hovering above his Cessna. His final transmission? “That strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again. It is hovering, and it’s not an aircraft.”

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On September 20, 1973, tennis star Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in “The Battle of the Sexes,” notching a victory for feminism, women’s athletes, and societal equality. In America’s collective memory, the iconic sporting event was on the up and up. But what if Riggs, a man nicknamed “The Happy Hustler,” needed money so badly that he threw the match? Was the fix in?

Check out the 2013 ESPN article “The Match Maker,” by Don Van Natta:

https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/9589625/the-match-maker

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This July, we’re revisiting five classic topics in our Conspiracy Theories: Rewind series! This week: Every summer, members and guests of the exclusive and elusive Bohemian Club meet in a vast redwood grove in Monte Rio, California. Between the towering trees and the secretive nature of their summer retreat, one thing seems certain: Bohemian Grove is shady, Hundreds of influential and ultra-wealthy men drink together, under the watchful eye of a 40-foot owl statue, every year. The question is: What else happens there? And what don’t they want us to know?

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