Episode 380 Johnny Gosch · Part II — “Photos, Affidavits & a Story That Grew”

The morning at the corner never answered the central question—so the case grew. In Part II, we follow Johnny’s file as it leaves West Des Moines and enters a national spotlight. We examine the photographs that ignited debate—where they surfaced, how analysts tried to date and contextualize them, and what a still image can and cannot prove. We unpack sworn statements and affidavits, including how investigators separate method from authorship and why civil outcomes aren’t criminal proof. We also cover the alleged late-night visit recounted by Johnny’s mother and the law-enforcement posture that kept it in the realm of claim rather than evidence. Throughout, we draw a bright line between record and allegation, ending with what still stands under weight after decades of attention.

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Episode 37, Johnny Gosch · Part I —

West Des Moines, Iowa—September 5, 1982. Twelve-year-old paperboy Johnny Gosch heads out before dawn for his Sunday route—a morning that, for the first time, he’s running alone. At the bundle drop, other carriers fold and band papers as a car idles, loops back, and a man asks for directions through a passenger window. Minutes later, Johnny’s wagon and undelivered papers are found near the corner—without Johnny. This opening chapter reconstructs the morning step by step: the route choreography, the change in routine, Noreen’s first call to police, and the measured early response roughly forty-five minutes later. We unpack how that tempo set the stage for an immediate split between the family and West Des Moines PD leadership, then lay out the overlapping eyewitness accounts from paperboys and neighbors that anchor the timeline. Finally, we pare the day down to what can be said with certainty—what’s fixed, what isn’t, and why the silence at the corner still matters.

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Episode 36-The Disappearance of Genette Tate

19 August 1978, Aylesbeare, Devon. Thirteen-year-old papergirl Genette Tate rounds a bend on Within Lane—and vanishes. Minutes later, two friends find her blue Dawes bicycle on its side, the front wheel still spinning and newspapers scattered across the tarmac. No shout, no tire marks, no witnesses.

In this investigation, The Midnight Mystery Archive reconstructs the timeline minute by minute, follows the massive search that scoured hedgerows, ponds and quarries, and explains why detectives came to believe Genette was taken rapidly into a vehicle. We unpack the decades-long inquiry, the cold-case overhaul known as Operation Lester, and the circumstantial case that made delivery driver Robert Black the prime suspect—right up until his death halted a decision on prosecution. Along the way, we examine what 1970s forensics couldn’t do, what modern science might still reveal, and how one lane became a memorial to a girl who never came home.

If you were on the A3052 that afternoon, worked on PD&S vans, or remember a vehicle parked oddly on Within Lane, police still want to hear from you.

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Episode 35-Lucille Butterworth

25 August 1969, Claremont, Tasmania. At 5:55 p.m. radio copy-writer and beauty-pageant finalist Lucille Butterworth waited for the city bus outside the Shalimar Hostel. Ten minutes later the shelter was empty, her evening gown never reached rehearsal, and the turquoise Holden sedan seen cruising Main Road faded into legend.

This episode retraces Lucille’s last confirmed movements, the frantic 1969 search, and the men who fell under suspicion—convicted sex-offender Geoffrey Charles Hunt and serial rapist John William Wakefield—yet were never charged. We unpack the limits of pre-DNA forensics, the 2015-16 coronial inquest that named Hunt as the probable killer, and the 2019 jailhouse confession that still wasn’t enough for prosecutors.

Fifty-five years on, Lucille’s family still searches the Derwent’s banks while investigators wait for a single piece of evidence—one that may still lie along the Lyell Highway, or in a memory that’s finally ready to be spoken.

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Episode 34-Laureen Rahn

Spring 1980, Manchester, New Hampshire: Fourteen-year-old Laureen Rahn vanished from a third-floor apartment on Merrimack Street. When her mother returned after midnight, every hallway bulb on all three floors had been unscrewed, the front door was unlocked, and the back door stood open. A friend was asleep in Laureen’s bed. Laureen was gone—her new sneakers and clothes left behind.

This episode of The Midnight Mystery Archive reconstructs the last verified movements inside the apartment, the early investigation, and the details that continue to unsettle: a year of silent 3:45 a.m. phone calls, California long-distance calls billed to the home (two motels and a teen hotline), and unconfirmed sightings that led nowhere. We explore why police moved off the initial “runaway” label, how 1980-era phone tech could route distant calls to Judith Rahn’s bill, and why the unscrewed bulbs matter as more than a piece of lore.

Carefully separating proven facts from rumor, we also place the case in its neighborhood context—another disappearance six weeks later just blocks away (no proven connection)—and close with practical steps that could still help today. Forty-plus years on, the questions remain simple and unforgiving: who darkened the hall, who opened the doors, and who spoke through all that silence?

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Episode 33-The Disappearance of Ronya Livoni

On the warm, humid night of March 9, 1980, sixteen-year-old Ronya Livoni walked out of her mother’s home in the Darwin suburb of Moil. She didn’t take money, a change of clothes, or any belongings. She was never seen again.

In this episode of The Midnight Mystery Archive, we revisit one of the Northern Territory’s most enduring missing person cases — a mystery with no confirmed sightings, no physical evidence, and no official suspects. We’ll explore Ronya’s life, the environment she lived in, the early investigation, and the theories that have kept her name alive for over forty years.

From the quiet streets of Moil to the unanswered questions about those in her household, this is a story defined by absence — of evidence, of closure, and of a teenager whose trail vanished the moment she stepped into the night.

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Episode 32-The Zodiac Killer PT 2

In Part II of The Midnight Mystery Archive’s two-part investigation into the Zodiac Killer, we shift from the chaos of the early murders to the cryptic aftermath. Who were the leading suspects? What was really in the infamous coded letters? And did the Zodiac stop killing... or just stop writing?

We examine the evolving investigation, the many faces considered — Arthur Leigh Allen, Gary Poste, Richard Gaikowski, and more — and explore how media obsession, amateur codebreakers, and law enforcement missteps shaped a case that remains officially unsolved.

We’ll also cover the recent breakthroughs: the 340 cipher decryption in 2020, new DNA testing, and the online sleuths who may be closer to the truth than ever before.

Fifty years later, the shadows still move in the Bay Area. The question remains: Did we ever really get close to catching the Zodiac?

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Episode 31-The Zodiac Killer

In this first installment of a special two-part episode, The Midnight Mystery Archive investigates the terrifying origins of one of America’s most enigmatic killers: the Zodiac. We retrace the bloody path from Lake Herman Road to Blue Rock Springs, through the eerie daylight attack at Lake Berryessa, and finally to the chilling cab murder in San Francisco’s Presidio Heights. Along the way, we dissect the infamous letters, the cryptic ciphers, and the growing panic that spread across California in the late 1960s. Who was the man behind the mask? Why did he kill — and then write about it? This is the story of a killer who made murder into a message. And the message was meant for all of us.

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