This story takes place in Greensboro, North Carolina. On June 9, 1993, a woman was returning to her motel room at around midnight. As she was entering the door, two men appeared behind her and forced their way into the room. Both men were armed and used the threat of deadly weapons to force everyone in the room onto the floor. Each of the five people in the room was robbed of all of their cash and jewelry. Just minutes later, the horrifying ordeal was over and the men were gone. The occupants of the room went to the police when the coast was clear. One of the guests got a good look at the robbers and was able to identify them. This lead to the police arresting two men — one of them named Frederick Young. The case would go to trial soon after and Young found himself being convicted of the motel robbery. However, Frederick Young was adamant that he wasn’t the one to commit those robberies. He asserts that his conviction is a case of mistaken identity and that his twin brother — Cedric Young — was actually the one who should be behind bars.

When Unsolved Mysteries had returned to our tv screens in July of 2020, one of their first cases was a doozy. The Netflix reboot of the show featured the case of a mid-twenties partygoer who may have been the victim of a series of hate crimes that ultimately lead to his death. If it wasn’t for the reboot, however, his case would still be closed. Twenty-three-year-old Alonzo Brooks grew up in Topeka, Kansas. He was the youngest of 5 children, growing up with one older brother and three sisters. The 5 kids were raised by single mother Maria Ramirez. Maria had a special bond with Alonzo according to everyone who knew them. When Alonzo’s older brother Billy turned eighteen and moved out, Alonzo and his mother move to the suburbs of Gardner. In what is perhaps a premonition, Billy felt that he needed to toughen his younger brother up — much to their mother’s chagrin. She felt that he was trying to make Alonzo grow up to fast, but Billy felt that he needed to protect him from getting taken advantage of by his new peers. That premonition would bear out in a series of mystifying events.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a very well-loved and respected historical figure. He is widely seen as the leader of America’s Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s. Unfortunately, his work surrounding that movement put a target on his back. On April 3rd, 1968, King arrived in Memphis and checked in at the Lorraine Hotel. He was there to show his support for the city’s sanitation workers who were on strike. Across the street from his hotel were a bunch of shoddy, run-down buildings. One of those buildings was actually a living space run by a woman named Bessie Brewer. On the night of April 4th, one of the building’s tenants went to use the communal bathroom and found it locked. We would later learn that the man inside the bathroom at the time was career criminal James Earl Ray.

Ray went into the bathroom with a high-powered rifle and took aim at Dr. King as he stepped out of his hotel room.

Ray immediately went to make his escape after pulling the trigger. As he was leaving the area, he dumped the rifle and his bag at the Canipe Amusement Company’s door. Witnesses reported seeing a white car fleeing the scene at the time. Just two months later, Ray was apprehended. He was in the process of boarding a flight to Brussels from London when the authorities took him in. On March 10th, 1969, James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. The judge in his sentencing trial handed him a 99-year consequence. However, Ray had a confession just three days after his conviction:

He was set up.