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Fact or Fable · Fact or fiction?

True unexplained stories you've probably never heard

Everyone has heard the famous mysteries. Fact or Fable tells the other ones: documented, unsettling cases from archives and old newspapers. And mixes them with invented ones that sound just as real.

True unexplained stories you've probably never heard

Real cases, off the beaten path

For Fact or Fable we looked for stories that are well documented but little known. Events from small villages and remote islands, from local papers and academic articles. Cases that make you want to look them up the moment the story ends.

And you can: every true story's reveal comes with sources for further reading.

Why there are invented stories too

True cases alone would be interesting. True cases next to invented ones turn into a game. The invented stories are written to sound believable, and the true ones are often so strange you'd swear they were made up.

Along the way you sharpen your instincts: how can you tell whether a story is true?

What's on record and what isn't

Even true stories are told, not transcribed. Place, time, sequence of events and outcome are accurate; mood and inner thoughts are dramatized. The reveal tells you where the line is.

A few of the stories

True or made up? We won't tell you here. Listen and decide for yourself.

The Lodger

A lonely farmhouse on an island in the Irish Sea, where something scratches behind the wooden paneling. Then it starts to talk.

6 min

The Signal Tower

One night, in an old signal tower on the Gotthard line, a lever stands halfway thrown. The signalman swears no one touched it.

7 min

The Dark Hull

A freighter freezes into the pack ice off Alaska. After a blizzard, it is gone. But it keeps coming back. Again and again.

6 min

FAQ

How many stories are true?

Roughly half. The order follows no pattern, so you have to think it through every time.

Are there sources for the true cases?

Yes. Every true story has at least two independent sources, linked in the reveal.

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