Mystery on the Rocks

Joining Sooz Kempner's One Hit Wonders as another occasional new series, our favourite game returns!Discovered during the recording of our Gentleman of Heligoland episode, VHGuess sees Chris and Masud have to guess which particular VHSes are in a bundle Sooz finds at random on eBay.With new rules, structure and lifelines added, join us as we play Mystery on the Rocks panel game VHGuess!Hosted by Masud Milas, Chris Stokes, and Sooz Kempner Mystery on the Rocks is a high concept comedy and true crime/unexplained phenomena podcast set in a fictional mystery-solving bar with real cocktails!. The focus of the show is to attempt to crack a real, unsolved mystery from history – true crime and bizarre occurrences, all with a whodunnit or WTF happened question hanging over them.You can follow us on Bluesky, X and Instagram too!

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 Kaspar Hauser.Found wandering the streets of Nuremberg in 1828, Kaspar was apparently sixteen years old and had about his person two letters which offered little in the way of identification beyond his name and age. He claimed to have grown up in captivity and, as he was moved about under the guardianships of different people and endured several attempts on his life, some began to wonder if Kaspar was in fact an illegitimate royal heir who had been swept away out of sight...Ultimately, in 1833, one of the attempts on his life was successful and Kaspar was murdered, aged 21. Nobody knows who did it, or why, or even what the truth behind Kaspar himself was...Hosted by Masud Milas, Chris Stokes, and Sooz Kempner Mystery on the Rocks is a high concept comedy and true crime/unexplained phenomena podcast set in a fictional mystery-solving bar with real cocktails!. The focus of the show is to attempt to crack a real, unsolved mystery from history – true crime and bizarre occurrences, all with a whodunnit or WTF happened question hanging over them.You can follow us on Bluesky, X and Instagram too!

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 Masud Milas, Chris Stokes, and Sooz Kempner Mystery on the Rocks is a high concept comedy and true crime/unexplained phenomena podcast set in a fictional mystery-solving bar with real cocktails!. The focus of the show is to attempt to crack a real, unsolved mystery from history – true crime and bizarre occurrences, all with a whodunnit or WTF happened question hanging over them.You can follow us on Bluesky, X and Instagram too!

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 of some of the very best (and worst) one hit wonders.Where are they now? Why did their one hit hit so hard and then other songs fail to replicate the success?For the first episode, Sooz tells us the story of John Parr and his almighty anthem 'St Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)'...Hosted by Masud Milas, Chris Stokes, and Sooz Kempner Mystery on the Rocks is a high concept comedy and true crime/unexplained phenomena podcast set in a fictional mystery-solving bar with real cocktails!. The focus of the show is to attempt to crack a real, unsolved mystery from history – true crime and bizarre occurrences, all with a whodunnit or WTF happened question hanging over them.You can follow us on Bluesky, X and Instagram too!

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) in his home in January 1992. One of the world's greatest gamblers, he rinsed several casinos enough to give them cause for concern that, for once, the house might not win...As well as delving into which enemies he may have made enough to kill him, we also ask the burning question... Why was Peter Lorre a prominent cartoon character years after he passed away?Hosted by Masud Milas, Chris Stokes, and Sooz Kempner Mystery on the Rocks is a high concept comedy and true crime/unexplained phenomena podcast set in a fictional mystery-solving bar with real cocktails!. The focus of the show is to attempt to crack a real, unsolved mystery from history – true crime and bizarre occurrences, all with a whodunnit or WTF happened question hanging over them.You can follow us on X and Instagram too!Produced by Chris Stokes, Masud Milas and Sooz Kempner.

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 before the projections trickled in, this is our first case in well over a year.And with a twist! While recording the episode The Murder of Kyllikkii Saari Chris noticed it was the second most notorious homicide case in Finland. So what was the first? Rather than research ahead of time, Chris decides to find out about this one alongside Sooz and Masud...Hilkka Saarinen vanishes in 1960 and only through dogged determination from her son does the truth of what happened to her come to light. Except as the facts unravel, it seems pretty damn obvious what happened and who did it to her. Which begs the question...Just why was this case unsolved?Hosted by Masud Milas, Chris Stokes, and Sooz Kempner Mystery on the Rocks is a high concept comedy and true crime/unexplained phenomena podcast set in a fictional mystery-solving bar with real cocktails!. The focus of the show is to attempt to crack a real, unsolved mystery from history – true crime and bizarre occurrences, all with a whodunnit or WTF happened question hanging over them.You can follow us on X and Instagram too!Produced by Chris Stokes, Masud Milas and Sooz Kempner.