Before Utopia
fictionThe Utopia Conspiracy
A magician teaches a billionaire to disappear
A celebrated stage illusionist's mastery of misdirection draws Howard Hughes to him — the craft that will one day keep an entire island off every map.
Explore UtopiaReconstructed chronology · Restricted
Timeline
The events history recorded — and the ones it didn't. A high-level chronology of the world behind the Utopia Series, from the first staged disappearance to the present day.
1930s
1950s
3 Feb 1959
factThe Day the Music Died
A chartered light aircraft comes down in an Iowa field at night. Three young musicians and the pilot are killed.
Open in the Archive →1960s
5 Aug 1962
factMarilyn Monroe is found dead in Los Angeles
Ruled a probable suicide. The timeline of that night, and who was in the house, is still disputed sixty years on.
Open in the Archive →Early 1960s
fictionThe Utopia ConspiracyThe island becomes a hiding place
A powerful organisation begins quietly moving people the world believes dead onto a remote, uncharted island in the North Atlantic.
Mid 1960s
fictionThe Utopia ConspiracyThe Organisation takes shape
The machinery to erase a person from the public record — and to keep them erased — is built out into something that can shape events from the shadows.
Nov 1966
factHoward Hughes vanishes from public view
The aviator and industrialist retreats into a sealed penthouse and is never knowingly photographed in public again. His affairs are run through intermediaries.
1970s
Early 1970s
fictionThe Utopia TreatyA secret Presidential pact protects the island
An agreement at the highest level of the US government formalises Utopia's protection — and its silence. It will come to be known as the Utopia Treaty.
24 Nov 1971
factD. B. Cooper hijacks Flight 305
A man in a business suit extorts $200,000 and parachutes from the back of a 727 into the night over the Pacific Northwest. He is never found.
Open in the Archive →5 Apr 1976
factHoward Hughes dies — officially
He is reported dead aboard a flight from Acapulco to Houston. The body is so altered that the FBI needs fingerprints to confirm identity.
16 Aug 1977
factElvis Presley is pronounced dead at Graceland
The best-selling solo artist in history dies at 42. Within days, the first sightings are reported.
Open in the Archive →Late 1970s
fictionThe Utopia TreatyHughes' villa anchors the island's Southside
The settlement organises around Southside Bay, its pier and the villa above it — a hierarchy with the Organisation, and Hughes, at the top.
Late 1970s
fictionThe Utopia TreatyThe Northside split
A faction breaks from Southside, crosses the forest buffer zone and begins governing itself on the far side of the island. The two territories have distrusted each other ever since.
2000s
25 Jun 2009
factMichael Jackson dies in Los Angeles
Cardiac arrest at his rented mansion, weeks before a 50-date comeback residency. His doctor is later convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
Open in the Archive →2020s
Present day
fictionThe Utopia ConspiracyA young couple washes ashore
Sam and Lauren survive a crash at sea and wake on a beach that should not exist. Beyond the treeline is a community of the officially dead — and the start of everything.
Present day
fictionThe Utopia TreatyThe outside world edges toward the truth
With the Treaty straining and deserters in revolt, Lauren races to expose Utopia before the government — or the island itself — buries the evidence for good.
Real events are documented. Utopia events are drawn from the published books only — this record grows as the series does.