Following on TJ’s suggestion I’m posting this link I came across last month on the Black Vault. It’s a 1582 page PDF of FBI memos relating to Unsolved Mysteries episodes and cases profiled. I’m using it to revise my own list of Unsolved Mysteries episodes for Seasons 0 and 1 at present.

Below is the information I've thus far found from it regarding air dates and episode contents.

Incidentally, there's a subject I would've so loved to have seen on Unsolved Mysteries, but disappointingly it was never made, and that's an episode fully dedicated to Jack the Ripper! According to the FBI files it was scheduled to air October 26, 1988, but it was evidently switched for a Halloween special profiling four ghost cases instead (see pp. 677 and 634 of the FBI PDF).

The Black Vault Unsolved Mysteries page is: www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/fbi-files-unsolved-mysteries-tv-show/

The direct PDF link is: https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/fbifiles/UnsolvedMysteries-fbi1.pdf

Hope it’s of interest and/or benefit to any Unsolved Mysteries fans out there!��

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The following are the page numbers I've been able to find for a few seasons of Unsolved Mysteries in the PDF. There's probably more seasons, but as stated my focus has currently been on Seasons 0 and 1. Hence, there might be other errors in the PDF I'm still unaware of.

SEASON 0

25 Apr 88 Repeat of 24 Sep 87
575
NB Unabomb case and its original airing and rerun mentioned 578.

6 May 88
573

18 May 88
NB Carlucci and Brodbeck/Yount cases mentioned 578 and 603.

14 Sep 88 Repeat of 6 May 88
582

5 Oct 88
591
NB Joseph Arlin Shepherd case mentioned

SEASON 1

26 Oct 88
677
NB 634 states the original subject for that episode was going to be Jack the Ripper.

23 Nov 88
860-61
Reference to episode profiling Bob Dozier and John Russell aired on 2 Nov 88 is incorrect as the correct date is 9 Nov 88.

30 Nov 88
579

14 Dec 88
742

28 Dec 88
868

4 Jan 89
862

11 Jan 89
760
NB Episode is wrongly dated as 6 Jan 89.

18 Jan 89
809

25 Jan 89
906
NB A case stated to be scheduled for profiling in the episode is either wrong or was not included for some reason 908 re armed robbery of Augusta Rodin sculpture.

1 Feb 89
903

8 Feb 89
891

15 Feb 89
803

22 Feb 89
927
NB Daniel Blasczuk and “Bridget Cheryle Jones” was going to air, but apparently never did.

1 Mar 89
877

15 Mar 89
992
NB Mistakenly dates the arrest of Louis Carlucci as 19 May 89, but it was 19 May 88.

22 Mar 89
988

29 Mar 89
949

5 Apr 89
882

12 Apr 89
1003

19 Apr 89
961

26 Apr 89
53

3 May 89
8

10 May 89
12
NB States Mohon case was to be updated in this episode, but wasn’t in my MP4 original airing. Later FBI memo for 6 Sep 89 refers to Mohon case and hence it was possibly updated in that 6 Sep 89 episode?

17 May 89
953

24 May 89
932
NB Mistakenly states year of original broadcast for Steven Cox case as 1989, but it was 1988.

31 May 89
917

7 Jun 89
86

14 Jun 89
980

21 Jun 89
21

28 Jun 1989
143

5 Jul 89
61
NB Reference to a case aired in this dated episode on 211.

12 Jul 89
140

19 Jul 89
1021

26 Jul 89
943
NB Page 2 is missing so it’s possible other cases were repeated on the episode since page 3 starts with the word “impairment” evidently referring to another case separate to case 1 (Annie Hearin) referred to on page 1.

2 Aug 89
1008

9 Aug 89
291
NB An unknown case is referred to as “A segment about possible amnesia victim [redacted] contact [redacted] LAPD Missing Persons [redacted] for further information” 292. This case is possibly Rogest Cain?

16 Aug 89
NB No FBI Memo re UM with this air date.

23 Aug 89
287

30 Aug 89
134

6 Sep 1989
147

13 Sep 89
210

SEASON 2

20 Sep 89
172

27 Sep 89
252

4 Oct 89
204

18 Oct 89
297

8 Nov 89
304

15 Nov 89
205

6 Dec 89
332

13 Dec 89
320

27 Dec 89
342

10 Jan 90
347

24 Jan 90
403

11 Feb 90
408

28 Mar 90
504

4 Apr 90
1056

11 Apr 90
474

18 Apr 90
471

25 Apr 90
476

2 May 90
490

9 May 90
1132
NB Garbage Bag Bandit mentioned as aired on this date 1427-33. Possibly a repeat as original was 29 Nov 89

16 May 90
1184

18 May 90
1098

23 May 90
1111

30 May 90
1082

13 Jun 90
1273

20 Jun 90
1062

27 Jun 90
1139

4 Jul 90
1128

18 Jul 90
1137-38

25 Jul 90
1269

4 Aug 90
1266
NB Date might be incorrect as 4 Aug 90 was Saturday not Wednesday in 90.

8 Aug 90
1264
NB cf 1290

15 Aug 90
1259

22 Aug 90
1261

29 Aug 90
1245

3 Oct 90
1287

10 Oct 90
1318

17 Oct 90
1312

24 Oct 90
1236

11 Nov 90
1388

14 Nov 90
1241

21 Nov 90
1536

19 Dec 90
1321

9 Jan 91
1368

6 Feb 90
1384

20 Feb 91
1462

13 Mar 91
1438

27 Mar 91
1464

3 Apr 91
518

10 Apr 91
1476

17 Apr 91
1508

24 Apr 91
1479
NB Shaner case mentioned as aired in this episode 1577-1582 and material re case 411-25.

1 May 91
1457

8 May 91
521

15 May 91
1471

22 May 91
1525

29 May 91
1528

5 Jun 91
1520

19 Jun 91
534

26 Jun 91
1517

3 Jul 91
1511

10 Jul 91
1514

17 Jul 91
1524

24 Jul 91
1530

31 Jul 91
1532

7 Aug 91
1534

14 Aug 91
1539-41

28 Aug 91
1541

18 Sep 91
1547

2 Oct 91
1549

20 Nov 91
1575

25 Dec 91
1573

Thanks for sharing this. Pretty cool historical background on the show. Good luck with your project!

Dude I think this is cool as hell. Thanks for sharing and for giving me a new internet rabbit hole to fall into! :lol:

Awesome TY

This doc is great. A ton of neat info including letters back and forth between UM producers and the FBI and reasons for why they want cases to be on UM and why they want other cases not featured. Fascinating.

Incidentally, there's a subject I would've so loved to have seen on Unsolved Mysteries, but disappointingly it was never made, and that's an episode fully dedicated to Jack the Ripper! According to the FBI files it was scheduled to air October 26, 1988, but it was evidently switched for a Halloween special profiling four ghost cases instead (see pp. 677 and 634 of the FBI PDF).


The Secret Identity of Jack the Ripper was aired as a two-hour live special in syndication on October 26, 1988. John Cosgrove and Terry Dunn Meurer are listed as executive producers.

These articles mention it. It must have been originally considered for NBC.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-10-21-ca-4257-story.html

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/08/12/Entertainment-shorts-UPI-Arts-Entertainment/3744587361600/

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0347971/

https://forum.casebook.org/forum/ripper-media/audio-visual/visual-media/762879-the-secret-identity-of-jack-the-ripper-1988-special-feature-with-peter-ustinov

27 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Unsolved Mysteries

14. THANKS TO JACK THE RIPPER, THERE WAS AN UNSOLVED MYSTERIES HALLOWEEN SPECIAL.

In its first year on the air, Unsolved Mysteries had a Halloween special—an entire hour devoted to ghosts. "Bob was pretty skeptical at this point about doing an entire hour about ghosts," Cosgrove said on DVD commentary. "He definitely, I don’t think, thought it was a great idea for us to change the formula of having four segments of different categories for this Halloween special. It was a little risky doing an hour on one topic."

NBC had asked the producers to create a one hour special, Cosgrove said, because the network "had gotten wind that there was going to be a Jack the Ripper special in syndication, one of those live event specials, that revealed the secret identity of Jack the Ripper at the end of the show. And they said, 'We want you to come up with a stunt program on Halloween.' But we said, 'Wait, we’re the people producing the Jack the Ripper special—we don't want to do that!' And they said 'We don’t care!' So we came up with this, which clobbered the Jack the Ripper special."

After this, though, the show would occasionally do single-topic episodes.

https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=323725

The Secret Identity of Jack the Ripper was aired as a two-hour live special in syndication on October 26, 1988. John Cosgrove and Terry Dunn Meurer are listed as executive producers

Many thanks again for this TJ!🙏 I ended up watching this special a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed it!🍿

You can definitely see CM’s fingerprints all over it as the "spooky" ambience they gave it was not unlike the spine-chilling effects they so successfully recreated time and again with various cases on Unsolved Mysteries.

I felt even the subtle direction towards Stephen Knight's now largely discredited Masonic theory for the Jack the Ripper slayings typical of the times and evident in Unsolved Mysteries what with its numinous sets and well-crafted stories that lent a haunting, even occult quality to them.