The Ten FilesRandom file
File 004
Conspiracy Theories, Fact-Checked

Ten Conspiracy Theories That Turned Out to Be True

Secret programs and quiet deals that were denied, until the paperwork surfaced.

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Open the file

Inside this file

  1. 1.Project MKUltra
  2. 2.The Government Poisoned Liquor
  3. 3.The Light Bulb Cartel
  4. 4.COINTELPRO
  5. 5.Sugar Industry Research
  6. 6.Big Tobacco's Cover-Up
  7. 7.The Phantom Gulf of Tonkin Attack
  8. 8.Iran-Contra
  9. 9.The NSA Phone Records Program
  10. 10.Operation Northwoods

Every file

20 files, 200 cases, every one with a verdict.

  • File 001
    Unsolved

    National Park Disappearances

    Ten people walked into America's parks and were never found.

  • File 002
    Unsolved

    Uncracked Codes

    Computers, cryptographers and amateur sleuths have tried these, and lost.

  • File 003
    Unsolved

    Vanished Ships and Planes

    Radio silence, empty ocean, and in most cases, not a single body.

  • File 004
    Conspiracies

    Conspiracies That Were True

    Secret programs and quiet deals that were denied, until the paperwork surfaced.

  • File 005
    Conspiracies

    Conspiracy Theories Rated

    From the grassy knoll to robot birds, ranked by what the evidence supports.

  • File 006
    Conspiracies

    Secret Government Experiments

    Patients, soldiers and whole cities enrolled in tests nobody asked them about.

  • File 007
    History

    Bizarre Wars

    A pig, a pastry shop, a severed ear and some honey trees walk into history.

  • File 008
    History

    Accidental Inventions

    Moldy dishes, sticky hands and a dropped flask that changed modern life.

  • File 009
    History

    Weird Laws, Fact-Checked

    Bouncing pickles, bathtub donkeys and Bigfoot. Which weird laws are actually real?

  • File 010
    Lost & Found

    Lost Treasures Still Missing

    Stolen, sunk, buried or simply misplaced, and still out there. Maybe.

  • File 011
    Lost & Found

    Lost Cities Found

    Legends, rumors and blank spots on the map that turned out to be real.

  • File 012
    Lost & Found

    Shipwrecks Found Later

    They vanished beneath ice, storms and history, and the sea finally gave them up.

  • File 013
    Hoaxes

    Hoaxes That Fooled America

    Bat-men on the moon, a stone giant, a runaway balloon, and other national fakes.

  • File 014
    Hoaxes

    Legendary Con Artists

    A fake country, a fake heiress, a fake surgeon, and one fake legend.

  • File 015
    Folklore

    American Cryptids by State

    Ten states, ten monsters, and what the evidence actually shows.

  • File 016
    Folklore

    American Ghost Towns

    Abandoned boomtowns, their real histories, and the stories that outlived the residents.

  • File 017
    Science

    Phenomena That Sound Fake

    Red waterfalls, icicles of death and lightning that never stops. All real.

  • File 018
    Science

    Unexplained Sounds

    Ocean groans, phantom hums and one famous radio blip from deep space.

  • File 019
    Disasters

    Nuclear Near-Misses

    A rising moon, a bad switch, a stray rocket: the close calls of the nuclear age.

  • File 020
    Disasters

    Disasters Foretold

    Someone saw each of these coming and put it in writing.

How the verdicts work

Each case is stamped with one of five rulings, based on the evidence.

  • CONFIRMED

    It happened, or it's real. The record is solid.

    See all 79
  • SOLVED

    Once a mystery. Strong evidence now explains it.

    See all 22
  • UNSOLVED

    Still open. No accepted explanation.

    See all 42
  • UNPROVEN

    Some support, but not established. Could go either way.

    See all 22
  • DEBUNKED

    False, a hoax, or no credible evidence behind it.

    See all 35

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