M.J. Rose

Kidnapping? Bigfoot? Serial killer? Suicide? What happened to the Bennington College girl who wandered off campus one day never to be found again?

from NEW YORK DAILY NEWS,

Vt. student’s body never found after 1946 disappearance

by Mara Bovsun

Paula Jeen Welden would be nearing 88 years old today, perhaps a great-grandmother, an artist, or a gardener who delights in taking long walks in Vermont’s Green Mountains.

Or, she might be in another country, under an assumed name, leading a life that bears no resemblance to her first 18 years.

Or, as some people believe, she may have wandered into an area that has been dubbed the “Bennington Triangle,” where she’s a captive of extraterrestrials or Bigfoot.
Or she may be dead, the victim of a serial killer.

All kinds of theories have swirled around the girl’s disappearance — from suicide, to accident, to eloping with a secret boyfriend, to murder — since the last time anyone saw her in 1946.

But the truth is, no one knows what happened to her…”

For the rest, click here.

Sleuthing, ancient library-style:

From New Scientist,

Lead ink from scrolls may unlock library destroyed by Vesuvius

This 3000-year-old scroll survived Vesuvius’s eruption
Brent Seales/Lexington Herald-Leader/MCT via Getty

“Lead often gets a bad press. But its discovery in ancient Graeco-Roman ink could make it easier to read an early form of publishing – precious scrolls buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.

Some 800 scrolls, part of the classical world’s best-surviving library, have tantalised scholars since they were unearthed in a villa in the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum in 1752. About 200 are in such a delicate state that they have never been read.

Unrolling the charred scrolls can destroy them, so people have been X-raying the bundles in the hopes of discerning the writing inside. But progress has been slow – it is difficult to detect the difference between the letters and the papyrus they are written on.

Now physicist Vito Mocella of the Italian National Research Council and his colleagues have revealed lead in the ink on two Herculaneum papyri fragments held in the Institute of France in Paris.
The presence of lead means that imaging techniques could be recalibrated to pick up the metal, something at which X-rays excel….”

For the rest, click here.

What could be more mysterious than the discovery of a rare manuscript in a defunct magic shop’s collection?

The discovery of a rare manuscript created for Houdini, of course!

Enjoy…

Long-lost Lovecraft manuscript penned for Houdini found

by Bonnie Burton (cnet.com)

The man who brought us Cthulhu wrote a book for the man known to escape everything. But if you want to read the unfinished work, it’s going to cost you.

“Nothing could be more exciting to fans of legendary horror author H.P. Lovecraft than the discovery of a rare manuscript in a defunct magic shop’s collection.

But it gets better. “The Cancer of Superstition,” written by Lovecraft in 1926, was commissioned by magician Harry Houdini. A Houdini memorabilia collector found the book and is selling it to the public.

Anyone who wants to read the 31 typewritten pages for themselves can buy the work as part of a Houdini lot from Potter & Potter Auctions in Chicago on April 9.

Previously, most Lovecraft and Houdini scholars believed the book might exist only in outline form since the work was suspended soon after Houdini’s death in October of 1926.

The famous magician’s widow, Beatrice, did not want to pursue the completion of the work after his death…”

For the rest, click here.