Can I assume this is a Gmail account? If so, the "All Mail" folder includes literally all mail, including the Trash folder. If you look in the Inbox folder you should see them gone, and you should find them in the "Trash" where you can permanently delete them if you want. It's recommended that you unsubscribe from the "All Mail" folder to avoid being misled.

Knew all that. seems to be a Thunderbird thing. Went to Gmail and deleted all mail went back and they were gone. I will not spend any more time on this. Just put a tab in Firefox for Gmail maintenance .

I've used Thunderbird with Gmail for many years and, once I learned to accomodate Gmail's quirks, it's always worked as I would expect. I've never had it not delete a message. So, if it is a Thunderbird thing, it's very rare and more likely some unusual interaction with your system, or a glitch on Gmail's end.

I don't know what a Gmail maintenance tab would do that's not done already.