Disappearance of Ettore Majorana
On 25–26 March 1938 the brilliant physicist Ettore Majorana vanished after taking a mail boat from Naples to Palermo and apparently sailing back; he left letters hinting at suicide, then a telegram cancelling them.
1938 CE · 38.80, 14.60 · status: unexplained
The account
Theories include suicide, a monastery, flight to Argentina or Venezuela; in 2015 Rome prosecutors said he was probably alive in Venezuela in 1955–59.
The sceptical view
A real unsolved disappearance; nothing in it requires the paranormal.
The researched reading
A brilliant physicist who disappeared after letters hinting at suicide. A deliberate new life, supported by the 2015 inquiry, or suicide explain it.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Perception, memory or mind | 30% | His letters hinted at suicide and he was withdrawn and troubled; suicide at sea on the return boat remains plausible despite the later telegram. |
| Undetermined | 30% | The share the reading had given to fabrication on doubt rather than evidence: the record does not settle it either way. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 15% | Majorana withdrew his savings before vanishing and took his passport; in 2015 Rome prosecutors concluded he was alive in Venezuela in 1955–59, based on a photograph and witness testimony, which supports a deliberate disappearance. |
| A cultural story | 15% | Theories of a monastery retreat, kidnapping by foreign powers or flight from nuclear physics (Sciascia’s book) grew around a brilliant man’s absence. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 6% | An accidental fall overboard is possible but does not fit the letters. |
| Something in the surroundings | 2% | Not relevant. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 2% | A deliberate vanishing or suicide needs nothing anomalous. |
Official position: In 2015 the Rome public prosecutor’s office closed an inquiry concluding that Majorana was alive in Venezuela between 1955 and 1959.