1. Jim Thompson:
A former U.S. intelligence officer who became wealthy from his Thai silk export business in the 1950s and 1960s, Jim Thompson was the “most famous American in Asia” when he disappeared in 1967 during an afternoon walk in Malaysia’s Cameron Highlands. Despite the largest manhunt in Malaysian history, Thompson was never found.
2. ‘Dan Cooper’, Skyjacker:
In 1971 a hijacker who bought a plane ticket under the name Dan Cooper told the stewardess on the flight that he was carrying a bomb – and demanded the plane land so he could collect a ransom of US$200,000 (B6 million). After picking up up the money and four parachutes, “Cooper” ordered the plane back in the air - and then parachuted from the back door as it flew between Seattle and Portland, taking the money with him. He was never seen again.
3. The Kiss of Death:
Bela Kiss, aged 39 at the time of his disappearance, was a Hungarian serial killer who murdered 24 young women before he was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian Army during the First World War. Police traced him to a Serbian military hospital, but he escaped before the police arrived. A French Foreign Legionaire later reported another legionnaire who fit Kiss’ description, but the suspect deserted from the legion before police could find him.
4. Lord Lucan:
Richard John Bingham, the 7th Earl of Lucan, disappeared in 1974 on the night his children’s nanny, Sandra Rivett, was beaten to death with a lead pipe in the basement of his estranged wife’s home. Lucan, a charismatic society figure who was tipped as a future “James Bond” actor, was rumoured to have fled to live overseas, although his friends suggested he had killed himself in remorse for the murder of Rivett. His disappearance captured the public imagination, and thousands of sightings were reported over the years.
5. Missing Prime Minister:
In 1967, Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt, aged 59, disappeared while swimming in heavy surf at a beach in Victoria. Despite one of the largest search-and-rescue operations mounted in Australia, his body was never found. The mystery of Holt’s disappearance has become part of Australian urban legend: rumours of its cause include Holt faking his own death so he could run away with his mistress, or that he was a spy for China spirited away by a submarine, or that he was abducted by a UFO.