Here’s a blog I found today (“Alan’s Mysterious World”) with an odd story embedded in a brief history of crossword puzzles.
Apparently, in 1926 a Budapest coffee house waiter committed suicide, leaving a blank crossword puzzle as an explanation. According to this page, a note with it said: “The solution will give you the exact reasons for my suicide and also the names of the people interested.” The police asked the public if they could help solve it, but I can’t find any reference to anyone’s having solved it.
Honestly, am I really the only person who wants to see that crossword puzzle?
Update: we now know that this really happened – here’s a 2013 update on the whole crossword suicide story.
According to this,
http://www.amusingfacts.com/facts/History/
“In 1926, a waiter in Budapest committed suicide. He left his suicide note in the form of a crossword and the police had to get help from the public to solve it.”
… they did solve it.
Why don’t you ask those at the Budapest Voynich conference about this one?
Cheers,
Dennis
Ah, that would be one of those typical Internet sites full of facts of dubious authenticity. I’ll ask our Budapest chums, see if it’s an urban myth Hungarians use to scare their children… 🙂
The Davis Morgenstein puzzle is not real. The blog is not real and is related to a series of books known as “Gone” written by Michael Grant. It is being considered as a “Transmedia” experience.
See http://thebookscapereport.blogspot.com/2011/08/where-is-davis-morgenstein.html for more.
Chris: yes, you’re right – the Davis Morgenstein societytwins thing (which is mentioned in the high-traffic site omgfacts linking here) is indeed a transmedia blog experience thing. However, the 1926 Budapest waiter crossword suicide story is (as far as I can tell) both entirely unconnected and genuine. Just so you know! 😉
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