Mystery on the Rocks
Episodes
Mystery on the Rocks Does MK Ultra! | Special Bumper Episode
30 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
From 1953 to 1973, the CIA carried out a massive operation, the ripples of which are still felt today and the extent of which is, frankly, unthinkable...
Episode 214: MK Ultra Part X - Chasing Justice
23 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Our MK Ultra series comes to a close with a look at ongoing court cases, alleged subjects and attempts to seek justice over the years.While justice is...
Episode 213: MK Ultra Part IX - The Mosaic
16 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In 1973, director of the CIA Richard Helms orders all records of MKUltra destroyed and the project is wound down. Nonetheless, thanks to a report by t...
Episode 212: MK Ultra Part VIII - Midnight Climax
09 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Our MK Ultra series continues with one of the more eccentric subprojects...Known as Operation Midnight Climax, the lengths the CIA begin to go to when...
Episode 211: MK Ultra Part VII - MK Chickwit
02 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This chapter of our ongoing MK Ultra series is all about MK CHICKWIT! Not only the most fun-named of the MK Ultra subprojects, but also what sounds li...
Members' Lounge Open Day 2
26 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Owing to lots of stupid stuff, our MK Ultra series will be back next week with Part 7 but for this week please enjoy an excerpt from a recent Patreon-...
Episode 210: MK Ultra Part VI - Harris Isbell & Subproject 27
12 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
When MK Ultra was given the greenlight, Sidney Gottlieb enlisted Donald Ewen Cameron (Part IV's hypocritical psychiatrist) and renowned pharmacologist...
Episode 209: MK Ultra Part V - Big Dog Hess
05 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The episode Sooz has been waiting for!For the fifth instalment of our MK Ultra series we sidestep ever so slightly to take a look at the life of promi...
Episode 208: MK Ultra Part IV - The Hypocritical Psychiatrist
26 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Part 4 of our MK Ultra series introduces us to Donald Ewen Cameron, a psychiatrist of world renown whom Sidney Gottlieb recruited to MK Ultra. Born in...
Episode 207: MK Ultra Part III - The Bacteriologist and the Tennis Pro
19 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Our trawl through the CIA's appalling MK Ultra project takes in the stories of two men - bacteriologist Frank Olson and professional tennis player Har...
Episode 206: MK Ultra Part II - Plötner & Pash
12 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This week we chart the shifting from Project Artichoke to MK Ultra following the appointment of Allen Dulles to Director of Central Intelligence and h...
Episode 205: MK Ultra Part I - Bluebirds & Artichokes
05 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This week we begin a brand new series looking at something we've been wanting to cover on the show for a long, long time... Project MK Ultra!One of th...
Episode 204: The Strange Tale of Emilie Sagee - Part II
29 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This week's episode is, as threatened, us attempting a commentary. Specifically, a commentary on the 1977 'Leap in the Dark' episode called 'The Fetch...
Episode 203: The Strange Tale of Emilie Sagee - Part I
22 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This week we're looking at the creepy story of schoolteacher Emilie Sagee who, while teaching in a school in what is now Latvia in the mid-19th centur...
VHGuess #5 | A Bag of Twos | NEW YEAR SPECIAL
01 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Happy New Year you filthy animals! Have the best day, the best year and what better way to see in 2026 than by listening to us play what could be argu...
There's No One Quite Like Grandma | Sooz's One Hit Wonders #6 | CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
25 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's the Mystery on the Rocks Christmas Special and Sooz is back with a festive edition of her occasional One Hit Wonders series, this time looking at...
Episode 202: The Kentucky Fried Chicken Murders
11 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1983, 5 KFC employees in Kilgore, Texas were abducted by armed robbers and executed in a truly horrific crime. A crime which went unsolved for over...
Episode 201: The Burger Chef Murders
04 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On November 17th 1978 something horrific happened to 4 employees finishing their shift at the Burger Chef restaurant in Speedway, Indiana.A robbery or...
Patting Ourselves on the Back for 200
27 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Last week's episode was our 200th 'proper' one. Yes, the counting got weird at some point so we're not entirely sure but the current numbering convent...
Episode 200: Dr. No Legs
20 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This is the story of how a 21st Century Cornish surgeon had his legs amputated below the knees... But went to jail for it.Masud couldn't join us for t...
Episode 199: The Jack Wheeler Mystery
13 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jack Wheeler, a US Army veteran and aide to several US Presidential administrations, was found dead in mysterious circumstances on New Year's Eve 2010...
VHGuess #4 | This is Your La Bamba!
30 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's another edition of our favourite game VHGuess! Which videos are in the bundle this time? Who will win? And was Masud Googling in the toilet?Find ...
Episode 198: The Bizarre Death of Katherine Briscoe
23 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How can a woman be fatally shot in the chest in a house no killer could have gotten in or out of, with no murder weapon left behind at the scene?Kathe...
Episode 197: The Greenbrier Ghost
02 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For the first time in a long time we got a ghost case!In 1897, Elva Zona Heaster Shue was found dead at home, the coroner ultimately concluding a natu...
Maniac | Sooz's One Hit Wonders #5
25 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sooz's One Hit Wonders series returns with a look at Michael Sembello's 1983 megahit 'Maniac'.But what's Michael's story? Why did he not follow up 'Ma...
Episode 196: The Trump is Dead Rumour
18 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Our summer holidays are over and bringing us back to school, Sooz talks us through the recent rumours of Trump being dead. Where did they come from, w...
Episode 195: The Phone Found in Fiji
24 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In our first recording together we take a look at a mystery Chris stumbled upon when compiling mysteries for our very first season! Since then, there ...
Episode 194: The Big Grey Man [Guess the Mystery Part III]
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The third and final instalment in our current Guess the Mystery trilogy as Sooz and Masud have to guess the mystery from the title alone, and this wee...
Episode 193: The Campden Wonder [Guess the Mystery Part II]
03 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The second in our Guess the Mystery miniseries sees Sooz and Masud having to work out what the heck The Campden Wonder is.Is it a batshit insane 1660 ...
Episode 192: The Kentucky Meat Shower [Guess the Mystery Part I]
26 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With Chris away on holiday, Sooz and Masud attempt to guess the mystery from the name alone. How close do they get? Well you'll be surprised! Chris ce...
The Ken Brennan Trilogy #3 - Shootout at Spanky's [RE-RELEASE]
19 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Our revisiting of our Ken Brennan trilogy comes to a close.December 2008 in Jackson, Tennessee bar owner and sheriff's deputy Euhommie Bond is tragica...
The Ken Brennan Trilogy #2 - The Vanishing Blonde and the Mercury Man [RE-RELEASE]
12 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's the second in our Ken Brennan Trilogy and come with us to Florida in 2005 as we look at how a woman got out of a hotel she couldn't possibly have...
The Ken Brennan Trilogy #1 - The Body in Room 348 [RE-RELEASE]
05 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Revisiting our Ken Brennan trilogy over the next 3 weeks, we begin with our first Ken episode from way back in January 2020 as we meet Ken solving the...
Episode 191: The Mysterious Lori Erica Ruff
29 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week's episode is the story of Lori Erica Ruff, who took her own life in 2010. She was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in her car, park...
Episode 190: The Fate of the Flower Doctor
15 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week's episode is the story of Charles Budd Robinson - a botanist from Canada who went missing while on an expedition to an Indonesian island in ...
Episode 189: Does the Pope Have a Time Machine?
08 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Coinciding with the papal conclave of 2025 as cardinals reverently decide who will be the new Pope, we dive into a pervading mystery that the Vatican ...
You Get What You Give | Sooz's One Hit Wonders #4
01 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the latest in our Sooz's One Hit Wonders series, we are transported to 1998 and take a look at a serious contender for song of the 90s as we learn ...
Episode 188: The Severed Feet of the Salish Sea
24 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week we uncover Sooz's fear of the ocean as we discuss the bizarre phenomenon of loads of severed feet washing up at various points along the Bri...
Episode 187: What Happened at the Ole Miss Riot?
17 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week's episode is the story of (among others) Paul Guihard, Ray Gunther and James Meredith, whose lives intersect and, in two of their cases, com...
VHGuess #3 | Urgh, It's Not Stripes Is It?
10 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Our favourite game is back this week and has some of the very best and some of the very worst guesses Chris and Masud have made.And it may also be the...
Episode 186: The World's First Aerial Murder?
03 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week we take a look at possibly the world's first aerial murder, which is certainly what it was called in newspapers at the time. In 1923, darede...
Episode 185: Robert Johnson & The Devil at the Crossroads
27 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
While you may be forgiven for thinking that Robert Johnson is our guest for an episode about the devil at a crossroads, don't let the naming conventio...
The One & Only | Sooz's One Hit Wonders #3
13 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The next in Sooz's series of the stories behind some of the biggest one-hit wonders.This week, she walks us through Chesney Hawke's 1991 mega-hit 'The...
Episode 184: The Calvine Sighting
06 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week's episode is the twisty story of what is considered to be the greatest photo ever taken of a UFO...In August 1990, two men hiking near the S...
Spoilerific Oscars Chat
01 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week's episode is a relaxed chat about this year's Best Picture nominees just ahead of the Oscars ceremony. We give our opinions (with SPOILERS) ...
Episode 183: The Rey Rivera Mystery
20 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week's episode is the bizarre story of Rey Rivera, who was missing for 8 days in 2006 before turning up dead in the strangest of circumstances, c...
VHGuess #2 | Four People Who Haven't Written For The Simpsons [LIVE]
13 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A live edition of our favourite game!And joining us in an echoey room to an intimate crowd is returning friend of the show and host of the fantastic E...
Episode 182: The W*nking Man of Pompeii
30 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Following the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD Pompeii was devastated by an intense burst of intense heat, smoke and ash, leaving many ...
Episode 181: Murder of a Marine
23 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week we take a look at the 1994 murder of former marine David Cox. David had been missing for 3 months when his body was found next to a river in...
Me & Mrs Jones | Sooz's One Hit Wonders #2
16 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The next episode in our occasional new series called Sooz Kempner's One Hit Wonders where Sooz takes us through the story of some of the very best (an...
Episode 180: The Cape Intruder and the Halifax Sleepwatcher
09 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Two creepy (and possibly) connected crimes this week and we take a look at the Cape Intruder, a man whose identity remains a mystery, who broke into p...
Episode 179: The Warminster Thing
02 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Happy New Year!The second in our festive episodes is a brief curio - in the English town of Warminster at Christmastime in 1964, plenty of independent...
Episode 178: 'Twas The Night Before Christmas...
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house...Possibly one of the most famous Christmas verses yet itself the subject of a pervading my...
VHGuess #1 | Oh Golly, I've Fallen Into Your Rectum
12 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Joining Sooz Kempner's One Hit Wonders as another occasional new series, our favourite game returns!Discovered during the recording of our Gentleman o...
Episode 177: Will Duggan and the Story of Kaspar Hauser
05 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Will Duggan becomes the first ever returning guest on Mystery on the Rocks as he joins us while we go through the bizarre story of the mysterious Kasp...
Episode 176: The Murder of Gary Triano
28 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1996, Gary Triano is murdered - a pipe bomb explodes his car.It takes a decade for justice to be served. So what on Earth took so long?Hosted by Ma...
St Elmo's Fire | Sooz's One Hit Wonders #1
21 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Something a little different this week as we begin a new occasional series called Sooz Kempner's One Hit Wonders where Sooz takes us through the story...
Episode 175: The House vs Akio Kashiwagi
14 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we take a look at the brutal murder of Japanese businessman and high stakes gambler Akio Kashiwagi, stabbed (potentially up to 150 times) i...
Episode 174: The Oven Homicide
07 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We know we spent last week's catch-up episode wanking on about the US election so you may wonder why we don't mention the outcome here. Recorded befor...
Grand Reopening! (A General Catch-Up & US Election Chat)
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We're back! The bar is back open and, easing back into the swing of things, we have a loose catch up and a discussion about the upcoming US election. ...
RE-RELEASE: Nish Kumar & The Curious Tale of Clairvius Narcisse
17 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Unable to record an episode this week due to sudden diarrhea, we dig into the archives and dust off one of our earliest episodes.Bookended by some new...
Episode 173: The Assassination of Piotr Jaroszewicz
10 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Episode 172: The Cursed Bread of Pont-St-Esprit
03 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 19...
Episode 171: The Murder of Kyllikkii Saari
27 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Episode 170: The Lady with the Ring
20 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Episode 169: Whatever Happened to Barbara Newhall Follett?
13 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Episode 168: Murder of a Gold Miner
06 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 l...
Episode 167: The Atlas Vampire
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Episode 166: The Gentleman of Heligoland
22 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Episode 165: The Day Aliens Stopped A Football Match
15 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 stadiu...
Episode 164: The Mystery of the Salesman & The TV Show Host
08 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 t...
Not Serious People: A One-Off Succession Podcast
03 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sooz, Chris and Masud all agree that Succession is one of the greatest TV shows ever made, and that the finale is one of the greatest TV finales of al...
Episode 163: The Severed Head of Cheslyn Hay
01 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
January 1994, in a sleepy West Midlands village, a retired school caretaker makes a gruesome discovery while walking his dog.A gruesome delivery with ...
Episode 162: Who on Earth was Jennifer Fairgate?
25 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 upo...
Episode 161: The Mystery of the Puking Shark
18 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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,...
Episode 160: Alasdair Beckett-King and the Witchcraft Murder of Charles Walton
11 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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) b...
Episode 159: Shootout at Spanky's
30 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Politics & Pizza
12 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An extra episode to (belatedly) kick off 2023.When the Andrew Tate/Greta Thunberg thing kicked off on Twitter, we decided to do an impromptu episode t...
Episode 158: Did Michael Jackson do the Music for Sonic 3?
31 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
So a little later than expected...By us too!Illness and Christmas and family and bollocks conspire as they always do to stymie any kind of momentum. N...
Episode 157: Season 5 Last Orders | Geopolitics, War & Espionage #50
01 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 colle...
Episode 156: Attack on the Capitol | Geopolitics, War & Espionage #49
24 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Episode 155: The Salisbury Poisonings | Geopolitics, War & Espionage #48
17 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 daught...
Episode 154: The Spy in the Bag | Geopolitics, War & Espionage #47
10 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Episode 153: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko | Geopolitics, War & Espionage #46
03 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 2006, British-based Russian author and journalist Alexander Litvinenko is suddenly taken seriously ill. His deterioration is world news, chronicled...
Episode 152: 9/11 | Geopolitics, War & Espionage #45
27 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
One of the most seismic events of recent history, conspiracy theories abound as to what "really happened" when planes flew into the World Trade Center...
Episode 151: Monica | Geopolitics, War & Espionage #44
20 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1998 a White House intern's life comes crashing down after her affair with the President of the United States is exposed. Worldwide media goes craz...
Episode 150: The End of the Cold War | Geopolitics, War & Espionage #43
13 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week is a rundown of the events of the final few years of the Cold War, ultimately bringing it to an end.Masud couldn't be with us this week so r...
Episode 149: Codename - Top Hat | Geopolitics, War & Espionage #42
06 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We're hurtling towards the end of the Cold War and into the final decade of the 20th Century with this tale of intrigue concerning a Soviet double age...
Episode 148: Chernobyl | Geopolitics, War & Espionage #41
08 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It's Episode 150!And it's the nuclear disaster which cast an almost literal cloud over the latter half of the 1980s - Chernobyl!We look at what happen...
Episode 147: Who Killed Olof Palme? Geopolitics, War & Espionage #40
01 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1986, the Swedish Prime Minister is shot dead walking back from the cinema. His long career in politics saw him make a lot of international enemies...
Episode 146: The Story of Zoya Fyodorova | Geopolitics, War & Espionage #39
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Two out of three ain't bad, right?Not a full house this week guys as our schedules are still tricky to align. While we have decided to record if two o...
Episode 145: The Death of Malcolm Caldwell | Geopolitics, War & Espionage #38
11 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week's episode sees us back to our current season and bidding farewell to the 1970s in...Cambodia!Malcolm Caldwell, a Marxist writer from Scotlan...
SIDESTEP: The Identity of the Somerton Man
04 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
An update to one of the earliest cases we covered and one of the most enduring mysteries of all time... The Somerton Man!A study believes they've unea...
Episode 144: The Umbrella Murder | Geopolitics, War & Espionage #37
28 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
September 11 1978, Georgi Markov dies in hospital in Balham, South London. Markov was a Bulgarian journalist working for the BBC, having recently defe...
Episode 143: Peiper Pays the Piper | Geopolitics, War & Espionage #36
21 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Content Warning for this week: graphic descriptions (ie, direct quotes from witnesses) of mass murder...July 14th 1976, a house is torched in eastern ...
Episode 142: The Assassination of Herbert Chitepo | Geopolitics, War & Espionage #35
14 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week's episode, we pop to Africa and gross ourselves out by having to say 'Rhodesia' a lot. In 1975, Herbert Chitepo was assassinated by a car bo...
Episode 141: The Fate of Flight 367 | Geopolitics, War & Espionage #34
07 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
January 1972, a plane crashes over what was then Czechoslovakia. Some believe it was shot down by Czechoslovakian defences mistakenly believing it to ...
Episode 140: The Mystery of Mauro de Mauro | Geopolitics, War & Espionage #33
30 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1970, prominent Italian journalist Mauro de Mauro vanishes without trace in Siciliy, his remains never discovered to this day.So what happened?Coul...
Episode 139: The First Men on the Moon | Geopolitics, War & Espionage #32
23 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week's episode takes a quick squint at the conspiracy theories that suggest mankind's greatest feat of space exploration never happened. There ar...
Episode 138: Txabi's Twitchy Trigger Finger | Geopolitics, War & Espionage #31
16 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1968 Francoist Spain, one of the leading members of the antifascist Basque separatist cell ETA sets in motion a chain of events that reach right up...