Suspicious Disappearance: the Sodder children
Since 1945, there has been mass speculation about what happened to the five Sodder children who were trapped in the upstairs attic of the family home as it was reduced to ash on Christmas Eve. The odd circumstances surrounding the case provided the optimal breeding ground for conspiracy theories about what happened to the children - theories that haunted surviving family members until their natural deaths and continued to plague sleuthers today.
Sources
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-children-who-went-up-in-smoke-172429802/
https://www.npr.org/2005/12/23/5067563/mystery-of-missing-children-haunts-w-va-town
https://sites.rootsweb.com/~wvrcbiog/WhatReallyHappenedToChildrena.html
https://medium.com/@sarajrathore/the-disappearance-of-the-sodder-children-faaebb94c697
https://www.legendsofamerica.com/missing-sodder-children/
The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes 2nd Ed: https://books.google.ca/books?id=gijG7fSwvjAC&pg=PA349&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=sodder&f=false
Excellent independent dissection of the case: https://stacyhorn.com/2005/12/28/long-long-long-sodder-post/
West Virginia history:
https://minesafety.wv.gov/historical-statistical-data/mining-in-west-virginia-a-capsule-history/
Brief about Benito Mussolini:
Photo of Louis received by the Sodder's postmarked from Kentucky.
One of the billboards erected by the Sodder's.
Jennie Sodder holding her eldest son, John.