WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:04.360 Hi, listeners, it's your host, Tanya. There's a new podcast I 2 00:00:04.360 --> 00:00:08.359 think you'll like, and I'm gonna tell you about it. It's called ghost 3 00:00:08.560 --> 00:00:13.839 Story. Journalist Tristan Redman is going where no son in law should ever go, 4 00:00:14.599 --> 00:00:18.039 deep into his wife's family history, digging up the cold case of his 5 00:00:18.079 --> 00:00:23.320 wife's murdered great grandmother and asking questions no one in the family wants answered. 6 00:00:23.800 --> 00:00:27.600 Oh, and did I mention that he's looking into whether the murderer was actually 7 00:00:27.679 --> 00:00:34.280 his wife's great grandfather, the beloved family patriarch. Well, this all started 8 00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:37.880 with a ghost, that's right, a ghost. Growing up, Weird things 9 00:00:37.920 --> 00:00:44.159 would happen in Tristan's bedroom, objects moving around with no explanation, lights switching 10 00:00:44.159 --> 00:00:48.759 themselves on and off, But ultimately he shrugged all of this off until a 11 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:53.880 couple years ago, when he discovered that every subsequent occupant of his old room 12 00:00:54.119 --> 00:01:00.039 was convinced they'd experienced inexplicable things in there too. From Wondery and Pineapple Street 13 00:01:00.159 --> 00:01:07.359 Studios comes ghost Story, a podcast about family secrets, overwhelming coincidence, and 14 00:01:07.480 --> 00:01:11.079 the strange things that come back to haunt us. I'm about to play a 15 00:01:11.079 --> 00:01:15.280 clip from ghost Story. Follow a Ghost story on the Wondery app or wherever 16 00:01:15.319 --> 00:01:26.280 you get your podcasts. I want to tell you his story. Well, 17 00:01:26.319 --> 00:01:30.719 it's really three stories all wrap around each other. It's a ghost story, 18 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:36.359 it's a murder mystery, and it's a family drama, by which I mean 19 00:01:36.560 --> 00:01:41.640 it's about my wife's family, her family's history. And there's a chance they'll 20 00:01:41.640 --> 00:01:46.519 disown me for doing this. If you come out with a piece that says 21 00:01:46.599 --> 00:01:51.439 he was a murderer, then I will be sorry that we ever said we 22 00:01:51.519 --> 00:02:01.560 would contribute to it. But before we get into any of that, let's 23 00:02:01.560 --> 00:02:06.799 start at the beginning with the thing that set all of this in motion. 24 00:02:09.199 --> 00:02:14.120 When I was sixteen, back in the nineties, my family moved to an 25 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:20.520 old Victorian house in London on a street called Queen's Road. I slept in 26 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:24.400 a bedroom tucked into the creaky top floor, and weird things would happen out 27 00:02:24.439 --> 00:02:30.599 there. I'd wake up and objects would have moved across the room, specifically 28 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:36.360 this one vase. When I go to bed, it'd be on the mantelpiece, 29 00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:39.719 and then in the morning i'd find it on the desk. I'd put 30 00:02:39.759 --> 00:02:44.719 it back, and the next morning I'd find it somewhere else. Lights would 31 00:02:44.719 --> 00:02:47.479 flash on and off on their own, and I'd get this uncomfortable, cold 32 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:53.199 feeling whenever I was alone in the house. It freaked me out at the 33 00:02:53.240 --> 00:02:57.280 time, but the truth is I didn't really think much of it. I 34 00:02:57.319 --> 00:03:00.080 was a teenager. I had other things on my mind. Every now and 35 00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:04.919 then, I'd ask my sister she was messing with me, but she always 36 00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:09.039 swore she wasn't. I grew up, left home and became a journalist for 37 00:03:09.080 --> 00:03:14.479 Al Dazeerra. I covered things like French labor strikes in the war in Ukraine. 38 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:17.800 I don't believe in ghosts, so when my family moved out of the 39 00:03:17.800 --> 00:03:23.000 house on Queen's Road, I completely forgot about the weird stuff that happened in 40 00:03:23.039 --> 00:03:30.159 there until that is a few years ago a man reached out an old neighbor 41 00:03:30.199 --> 00:03:36.159 of ours with a story about that very room. I mean, it's quite 42 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:42.599 a story. His name is Charles Perinelli's and he knows everything about this neighborhood. 43 00:03:42.840 --> 00:03:45.800 You could say he's a bit of a gossip, but you probably shouldn't. 44 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:50.560 Slander us gives completely the wrong impression. Anyway, this is what he 45 00:03:50.599 --> 00:03:53.879 told me. Charles was walking around my old neighborhood one day, going door 46 00:03:53.919 --> 00:04:00.919 to door collecting donations for the local museum. I was there rattling at and 47 00:04:00.039 --> 00:04:04.400 definitely not gossiping. Well, I mean, it was just Surnsay is still 48 00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:08.360 there, and surn Say has moved out, and they've had a divorce and 49 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:12.599 all that sort of business. Eventually he gets to my old house and knocks 50 00:04:12.599 --> 00:04:16.319 on the door. A woman answers she's the mother of the house. After 51 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:20.160 chatting for a bit, she invites him inside and she tells him a story 52 00:04:20.680 --> 00:04:26.959 unlike anything he's ever heard before. The story goes Americans swans up with a 53 00:04:27.399 --> 00:04:30.879 hallo, and here's what she tells him. One day, the woman is 54 00:04:30.920 --> 00:04:33.839 at home in my old house. She looks out of the window and she 55 00:04:33.879 --> 00:04:39.560 sees a man standing on the driveway. So the mother of the house opens 56 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:43.319 the door. It's someone who used to live in the house, an American 57 00:04:43.399 --> 00:04:46.879 man who'd lived there with his wife and two children. The American says to 58 00:04:46.920 --> 00:04:51.279 her, I'm so sorry to bother you, but I just have to know, 59 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:58.120 do you still have that ghost in the top bedroom? Straight like that? 60 00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:05.000 What? The American man proceeds to tell her the things his family experienced 61 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:11.199 on the top floor. It makes her go completely white, because this isn't 62 00:05:11.240 --> 00:05:15.319 the first time she's heard of something going on up there, she just never 63 00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:24.759 believed it before. Has struck a chord. Since the daughter had always insisted 64 00:05:24.759 --> 00:05:29.160 that there was a ghost in her bedroom which would manifests itself on occasions and 65 00:05:29.240 --> 00:05:32.439 sit on her bed. The woman's daughter, starting when she was around ten, 66 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:39.279 began complaining about a ghost visiting her room at night, specifically the ghost 67 00:05:39.680 --> 00:05:46.160 of a faithless woman. She said to me, oh, yes, my 68 00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:51.040 daughter told me about some goings on, some sort of faceless woman who comes 69 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:57.720 and sits on my bed, and she said, I always batted them away 70 00:05:58.199 --> 00:06:02.319 on the basis that we don't believe in that sort of thing. So I 71 00:06:02.399 --> 00:06:09.839 rang your father and he said that was Tristram's room. So I imagine he 72 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:16.079 phoned you and the cat was out of the bag. I promise you, 73 00:06:16.439 --> 00:06:21.279 and I hope you believe me that I don't normally find myself having conversations like 74 00:06:21.319 --> 00:06:27.360 this or even entertaining these sorts of ideas. But it's kind of weird, 75 00:06:27.439 --> 00:06:38.319 right. You now have three completely unconnected families who have had some sort of 76 00:06:39.639 --> 00:06:43.959 strange, inexplicable experience on the top floor of that house. I think it's 77 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:50.360 wonderful. It was definitely intriguing, but it probably wouldn't have been anything more 78 00:06:50.399 --> 00:06:56.120 than a story i'd tell my friends in the pub. Except I couldn't stop 79 00:06:56.199 --> 00:07:02.560 thinking about this faceless woman because there's another coincidence, something I hadn't thought about 80 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:08.199 in years. So I guess Christ and I had just started going out, 81 00:07:08.480 --> 00:07:13.920 and they invited my parents around to his house to come and say hi. 82 00:07:14.279 --> 00:07:17.040 I first learned about it where my wife Kate and I had just started dating 83 00:07:17.199 --> 00:07:21.600 about twenty years ago. My family still lived in the house on Queen's Road, 84 00:07:21.920 --> 00:07:26.480 the one with the supposed ghost, and Kate was staying with us, 85 00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:30.639 and my granddad was in London, so they invited him over to She was 86 00:07:30.759 --> 00:07:32.839 very close to her grandfather, so my folks asked if he join us. 87 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:40.680 So Granddad arrived. He's got nice rosy cheeks. Granddad, like all the 88 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:45.800 men in my family, he wore a berry every day to keep his bald 89 00:07:45.800 --> 00:07:53.120 head warm. And then my granddad walked into the house and before he said 90 00:07:53.240 --> 00:07:59.360 anything else, he said, my mother was murdered in the house next door. 91 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:07.759 And I don't think we had ever put two and two together between where 92 00:08:07.800 --> 00:08:18.600 Chris lived and this big murder that happened in the family. To be clear, 93 00:08:18.879 --> 00:08:22.560 I'd never heard about this murder before. In fact, Kate didn't know 94 00:08:22.600 --> 00:08:26.759 a lot about it either, just that her great grandmother had been killed decades 95 00:08:26.839 --> 00:08:31.560 before. She had no idea that it happened here. Neither of us had 96 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:35.240 any clue at the time that my new girlfriend's family had any connection to this 97 00:08:35.399 --> 00:08:41.840 neighborhood, let alone the house next door. But the details of the murder 98 00:08:41.879 --> 00:08:48.519 make the coincidence even stranger, because just next door to my house, the 99 00:08:48.559 --> 00:08:54.799 house supposedly haunted my faceless woman, Kate's great grandmother was killed by two gunshots 100 00:08:56.399 --> 00:09:03.759 to the face. Binge all episodes of ghost Story ad free right now by 101 00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:09.000 joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.