The case of Isidor Fink

On 9th March, 1929, the body of thirty-one-year old Isidor Fink, was found in the back room
of the laundry that he owned on Fifth Avenue, New York.
Fink was an immigrant from modern-day Lithuania, who had few friends and no family. He
had no known connections with the gangsters who terrorised much of New York at that time.
However, he was certainly frightened of something, for he had made his laundry into a kind
of fortress: it was equipped with the best locks that money could buy, and the windows were
fitted with heavy iron bars.
When the police finally found him, his body was lying ten metres from the doorway with two
bullet holes in his chest, and another in his left wrist. There was no gun in the room, and there
was money in both Fink's pocket and in his cash register. But what made the case so strange
was that the room was locked and bolted from the inside.

Questions
1. Was it significant that Isidor Fink had no family or friends?
2. Why did he have so much security?
3. Had he been burgled?
4. Did he commit suicide
5. Was he murdered?
6. Why was there a bullet hole in his wrist?

The Case of The Vanishing Children

One warm sunday afternoon in June 1905, neighbours of the Vaughan family from near
Gloucester in England, were asked to join a search party for three missing children, The three
Vaughan children, a boy aged ten and his two sisters aged three and five, had been playing in
a field and had failed to return for their lunch. Their father could find no sign of them, so he
raised the alarm, and crowds of neighbours began searching the area for the three youngsters,
but without success.
The following morning the newspapers reported that the Vaughan children had been
kidnapped, and within hours there were newspaper reporters everywhere. Hundreds more
volunteers joined the search, scouring every centimetre of the surrounding fields for the
slightest sign of the children. As one witness at the time said later, “If there had been a dead
dog in those fields, we would have found it.”
And yet, four days later, a farm labourer looked in a ditch only a few metres from the
children's home and found all three of them fast asleep. The children were completely
unaware of the fuss around them, and when asked, could only reply that they had been
sleeping. There was no sign that any harm had been done to them.
Questions
1. Could the search parties have missed the children?
2. Had they been kidnapped?
3. Could they have been asleep for four days?
4. Were they lying for any reason?
5. What do you think had happened to them?

Supernatural Happenings in The Temples?

In September, 1995 thousands rushed to Hindu temples throughout India, after reports of a
miracle: marble statues of the elephant headed god Ganesha had apparently started drinking
the traditional spoonfuls of milk offered by worshippers. The miracles were soon being
reported by the news media throughout the world, and tens of thousands of people flocked to
Hindu temples everywhere, and found that the miracle was being repeated. One small statue
in Hong Kong reportedly consumed over twenty litres of milk.

Questions
1. What was the 'miracle and where did it first occur?
2. In what way did the miracle spread?
3. Can you think of any explanation?

Is This a Photograph of The Loch Ness Monster?

Throughout 1933 rumours had been appearing in newspapers that there was a huge prehistoric
monster in Loch Ness in Scotland, but no proof could be found.
Then, in April 1934, Colonel Robert Wilson a distinguished doctor was driving along the
banks of Loch Ness with an unnamed friend. The friend apparently saw a commotion in the
water and shouted 'It's the monster! Grabbing a camera, the friend took four photographs,
three of which were blank when they were developed. But the fourth, above, soon appeared in
the Daily Mail, a British newspaper, leading to massive publicity.
For the next sixty years the photograph was used as proof that the monster existed, and
scientific tests seemed to confirm that it was authentic

Questions
1. What happened to Colonel Wilson and his friend?
2. Why do you think Wilson was considered a reliable witness?
3. Do you think it is significant that the friend was never named in the newspapers?
 4. What happened after the photo was developed? Did people believe it was real?
5. Do you think it was real or not? Why / Why not?

(From Cutting Edge, p. 102-103)