1
00:00:06,879 --> 00:00:21,359
You're listening to the Paranormal UK Radio
Network and listening is Seventh Sanctum. This

2
00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:31,239
is Carry Anne and you're listening to
Seventh Sanctum. For those that haven't come

3
00:00:31,280 --> 00:00:38,880
across my podcast before, I am
a paranormal researcher. I'm a psychology graduate

4
00:00:40,320 --> 00:00:47,719
and I have an interest in true
crime and I have been using the platform

5
00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:55,200
Seventh Sanctem on Paranormal UK Radio Network
to look at the stories and tells within

6
00:00:55,240 --> 00:01:03,040
the UK that are linked to witchcraft
and true crime. I have tried to

7
00:01:03,159 --> 00:01:07,400
steal away from the conventional stories that
we hear. I did a lot of

8
00:01:07,439 --> 00:01:15,200
those on the Equilibrium UK YouTube channel, so this is more looking at the

9
00:01:15,239 --> 00:01:21,480
tells that you aren't likely to come
across unless you live local to the area,

10
00:01:22,799 --> 00:01:27,560
and I've found some really interesting ones. The last show that I did

11
00:01:27,799 --> 00:01:34,719
for Seventh Section, we covered three
different cases. One includeing Charles Woolton and

12
00:01:37,079 --> 00:01:42,599
that featured Margaret Murray, who is
also going to be featuring quite heavily within

13
00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:52,319
this show. Actually, this case
happened within two years of that one,

14
00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:56,799
and I think there's that neighboring towns
as well. They weren't too far from

15
00:01:56,799 --> 00:02:05,200
each other. So I will get
right in, should I say so,

16
00:02:05,319 --> 00:02:08,800
just a few hours journey from my
current location in Essex, which, by

17
00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:17,039
the way, if you are interested
in towers of witchcraft and you know history,

18
00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:23,960
Essex has a lot going on,
especially you know of Manningtree, Leonce

19
00:02:23,199 --> 00:02:31,000
and Hadley. But this isn't where
this tower belongs to. It's in a

20
00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:39,360
location called Witchbury Hill is noted for
its beautiful countryside and its picturesque views.

21
00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:47,439
But in the nineteen forties, where
this story took place, the location wasn't

22
00:02:47,599 --> 00:02:57,000
just about the beauty. It would
become known for so much more. Back

23
00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:07,520
then, hanging figuratively and quite literally
above the area was cryptic graffiti. And

24
00:03:07,800 --> 00:03:13,159
since then, since in nineteen forty
to eighty years, there has been the

25
00:03:13,159 --> 00:03:23,199
same question, who put Bella in
the witch elm Now discretion is required as

26
00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:31,439
for this towel? Has it all
murder? Mystery, espionage, war on

27
00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:35,479
witchcraft? Of course, of course, that is what we're here for.

28
00:03:37,039 --> 00:03:45,599
But first we shall start where it
appeared to begin. We shall start right

29
00:03:45,719 --> 00:03:53,840
in the middle of this towel.
On April eighteenth, nineteen forty three,

30
00:03:53,560 --> 00:04:00,759
a gruesome discovery, having made this
wiz inside of the trunk of an elm

31
00:04:00,759 --> 00:04:06,800
tree. It was a seemingly typical
Sunday afternoon for four teenage boys who had

32
00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:12,560
been spending their day in Hagley Woods. At this time, Hagley Woods was

33
00:04:12,639 --> 00:04:17,040
private land and without permission, the
boys have been hunting rabbits and looking for

34
00:04:17,279 --> 00:04:26,759
bursiness in search for eggs. England
has been at war with Germany for three

35
00:04:26,920 --> 00:04:31,680
years at this point, and a
nearby town, Birmingham, had been fallen

36
00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:40,920
foul to the most horrific bombings noted
that far. However, this particular day

37
00:04:40,959 --> 00:04:47,040
all had seemed uneventful. The four
boys named Robert Hart, Thomas Willett,

38
00:04:47,879 --> 00:04:55,759
Bob Farmer and Fred Payne, had
decided to detour for their normal route when

39
00:04:55,839 --> 00:05:00,800
heading back to where they call home. En route, they came across an

40
00:05:00,839 --> 00:05:09,800
incredibly unusual tree. It stood out
from its surroundings, which was which had

41
00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:17,639
picked the teenager's interest. It was
about six foot tall, with the circumference

42
00:05:18,319 --> 00:05:27,680
not being much smaller. It had
long, spindly branches that chaotically extended in

43
00:05:27,759 --> 00:05:38,040
all directions. This tree was identified
as a witch elm, and I will

44
00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:46,399
say at this point witchcraft hasn't yet
joined the chat by which is spelt w

45
00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:51,759
y c h. However, witchcraft
is coming, because that is what we're

46
00:05:51,759 --> 00:06:00,240
here for. For the young boys, it was common knowledge that such tree

47
00:06:00,519 --> 00:06:05,279
would often have hollowed spaces within trunk, and this was perfect to continue their

48
00:06:05,319 --> 00:06:14,160
hump for birds eggs. They allocated
the strongest climb up, Robert, to

49
00:06:14,160 --> 00:06:17,120
climb up and peek inside, but
when he did, it was not a

50
00:06:17,199 --> 00:06:25,079
bird's nest nor eggs staring up at
him. He was a skull. Thinking

51
00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:28,879
this may possibly be an animal skull, the boys passed up a stick to

52
00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:33,480
Robert for him to be able to
use, and with some great effort he

53
00:06:33,560 --> 00:06:41,439
finally was able to reach down and
was able to fish it up. But

54
00:06:42,959 --> 00:06:48,000
it become quite quickly apparent that this
was no animal skull, but in fact

55
00:06:48,079 --> 00:06:53,160
a human skull, and as they
examined this skull, they was able to

56
00:06:53,199 --> 00:06:59,480
see that there was small amounts of
flesh still attached, with tufts of round

57
00:06:59,639 --> 00:07:09,959
brist to hair clean onto the scalp. The fine for the boys was immensely

58
00:07:10,079 --> 00:07:14,639
terrifying. This skull had been so
deep down into the trunk of the tree

59
00:07:14,959 --> 00:07:20,920
it was hard to fathom how or
why it was even there. When assessing

60
00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:26,000
the magnitude of what was in front
of them, it seemed something out of

61
00:07:26,199 --> 00:07:32,800
a movie. The skull to be
there and where it was, a person

62
00:07:32,839 --> 00:07:39,639
would have needed to fight through the
jagged e sporadic branches and push deep down

63
00:07:39,680 --> 00:07:45,959
within the tree. The boys become
increasingly worried about the responsibility of what would

64
00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:49,560
happen next. Of course, they
wanted to tell someone. They wanted to

65
00:07:49,600 --> 00:07:55,199
tell someone of the discovery that they
had made, but they were concerned about

66
00:07:55,240 --> 00:08:03,240
the repercussions of trespassing, of hunting
without permission. This estate, Hagley Woods

67
00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:07,519
at the time, was private,
so it was decided amongst them to keep

68
00:08:07,680 --> 00:08:13,600
the find a secret. With that, Robert put the skull back and they

69
00:08:13,639 --> 00:08:22,519
returned home. However, the silence
from the boys were soon broken. The

70
00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:28,120
youngest of the group, Tommy Willitts, was so deeply disturbed by the friend

71
00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:35,679
he decided to tell his father.
It would be the next morning that Tommy

72
00:08:35,720 --> 00:08:41,120
would be headed the search party filled
with police to reveal the true horror within

73
00:08:41,159 --> 00:08:48,159
the trunk of the witch Elm.
It was soon discovered that there was much

74
00:08:48,360 --> 00:08:52,399
more than the remains of a skull. However, it was going to be

75
00:08:52,559 --> 00:08:58,399
very difficult to remove whatever was hidden
within it within the tree due to their

76
00:08:58,440 --> 00:09:05,120
being such a small and our gap. The only solution that seemed to be

77
00:09:05,200 --> 00:09:11,480
glaring is splitting the which with an
axe, and when they did so,

78
00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:16,559
inside was just not the hot the
skull that had been replaced by the boys

79
00:09:16,639 --> 00:09:26,720
after the find, but the complete
skeletal remains of a person. Now,

80
00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:31,720
when I went back, and I
hadn't, you know, obviously was researching

81
00:09:31,759 --> 00:09:35,120
the story, there's lots, like
I said, so much to this that

82
00:09:35,240 --> 00:09:39,320
was so interesting. In fact,
I've not been able to cover as much

83
00:09:39,320 --> 00:09:43,159
as I want to, but there's
a few things that I found quite interesting,

84
00:09:43,200 --> 00:09:48,919
and one of them was the positioning
of the remains. When they were

85
00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:56,879
able to separate the tree and they
found that the the person that was within

86
00:09:56,960 --> 00:10:03,639
it would have had to have entered
tree feet first. The remains appeared to

87
00:10:03,679 --> 00:10:09,799
be standing up due in too,
the verst placement. It did become apparent

88
00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:13,759
that the reason why the body had
fallen down so deeply was as the body

89
00:10:13,759 --> 00:10:20,360
decayed, it traveled further and further
down the tree, eventually becoming so entwined

90
00:10:20,799 --> 00:10:26,399
it become part of the tree itself. Now, at this point I encourage

91
00:10:26,399 --> 00:10:31,399
you to take a look at the
tree and ask yourself, how would the

92
00:10:31,519 --> 00:10:41,799
remains in the position it was found
enter it enter the tree? How would

93
00:10:41,799 --> 00:10:46,720
they have done that? Logic would
say that the body couldn't have entered it

94
00:10:48,039 --> 00:10:52,600
by itself, and it would have
had to have entered from above. This

95
00:10:52,639 --> 00:10:58,360
would obviously be met with great difficulty
when we think about how the boys found

96
00:10:58,399 --> 00:11:03,600
it so hard to even be able
to find access to the narrow opening,

97
00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:07,200
how the police deducted that it would
be a lot easier for them to be

98
00:11:07,279 --> 00:11:11,799
able to retrieve what was ever inside
by splitting the tree in a half.

99
00:11:11,799 --> 00:11:16,720
Because everything was just so narrow,
so it wouldn't have been an easy thing

100
00:11:16,799 --> 00:11:22,120
to do. It would have been
near and impossible without causing great injury to

101
00:11:22,159 --> 00:11:28,639
the person involved. The person that
was doing essentially the lower rim. The

102
00:11:28,679 --> 00:11:31,360
access point was so narrow that the
remains of the person could not have just

103
00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:37,960
dropped in either. It wasn't an
accidental entry from maybe climb and other trees.

104
00:11:39,039 --> 00:11:48,639
However, the remains entered it was
done so with massive effort and a

105
00:11:48,720 --> 00:11:54,840
great difficulty. The human remains was
taken to a forensic science sebatory in Birmingham,

106
00:11:56,759 --> 00:12:03,600
where they were examined by doctor James
Webbs. Working under Webster was doctor

107
00:12:03,679 --> 00:12:07,960
John Lunde, who at an impressive
age of a hundred and one, was

108
00:12:07,039 --> 00:12:13,399
interviewed on the VBC four punt PI, which is still available to listen to

109
00:12:13,480 --> 00:12:20,879
for those that are interested. During
this lund shared the notes and experiences he

110
00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:26,399
had developed on the case. He
stated the remains had entered the lab two

111
00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:31,440
days after the initial findings. Pathology
results determined that the remains belonged to a

112
00:12:31,480 --> 00:12:39,720
woman who was five at all,
a brunette who had not chemically treated,

113
00:12:39,879 --> 00:12:43,720
colored, or permed her hair,
and was between the ages of thirty five

114
00:12:43,799 --> 00:12:50,480
and forty at the time of her
death, and it was noted that at

115
00:12:50,519 --> 00:12:54,399
some point she was likely to have
given birth at some point in her life.

116
00:12:56,519 --> 00:13:01,039
It was determined her cause of death
was asphixiation caused by a piece of

117
00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:07,639
material in her airway. It was
also noted that this wasn't the type of

118
00:13:07,720 --> 00:13:11,960
tree a person would just be able
to get in and assisted, so this

119
00:13:13,200 --> 00:13:18,200
wasn't something that self inflicted. More
than one person would have had to have

120
00:13:18,279 --> 00:13:24,720
been the culprit. Placing a body
would have needed to have happened before or

121
00:13:24,759 --> 00:13:33,559
after briga mortis is set in or
worn off. With these findings, it

122
00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:39,360
was concluded that this body had been
hidden in the tree while still warm,

123
00:13:39,480 --> 00:13:45,440
With the possibility of this happening while
she was still alive, it was concluded

124
00:13:45,480 --> 00:13:50,159
the murder would have taken place in
the woods. It was noted that the

125
00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:56,240
body had entered an advanced stage of
decay, but it was unclear if this

126
00:13:56,279 --> 00:14:01,360
could have been attributed to time,
to nature or a unique place of burial.

127
00:14:01,960 --> 00:14:05,480
But it was noted this lady had
distinctive overweight and a tooth had been

128
00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:11,919
professionally removed in the last few years
before her passing. This sparked a search

129
00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:18,919
for dental records, starting in West
Midlands, then too Central England, which

130
00:14:18,960 --> 00:14:22,919
then spanned to the entirety of England. No records were found that matched.

131
00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:28,600
It was argued that was such a
little trace of this in England. Maybe

132
00:14:28,679 --> 00:14:35,639
the victim was a foreigner, or
or the dentist she visited did not keep

133
00:14:35,360 --> 00:14:41,559
up to date records. It was
estimated her remains had been hidden in the

134
00:14:41,600 --> 00:14:46,559
tree for a year and a half
before being found. In terms of what

135
00:14:46,799 --> 00:14:52,840
was found around her and with her, there was a number of items in

136
00:14:52,879 --> 00:14:58,919
the vicinity of the burial site.
This included several items of decayed clothing which

137
00:15:00,039 --> 00:15:05,679
include a cloth skirt, tafta underskirt, and a lightweight cardigan which aligned with

138
00:15:05,759 --> 00:15:07,840
the styles of clothing that would have
been worn at that time. A year

139
00:15:09,480 --> 00:15:16,440
estimated for a passing, which is
somewhat in summertime leading up to October,

140
00:15:18,399 --> 00:15:24,279
a cheap wedding ring was found,
indicating someone who wasn't particularly well off but

141
00:15:24,399 --> 00:15:30,480
married, As well as one shoe. The other was found inside the trunk

142
00:15:30,519 --> 00:15:35,600
itself. It was a pair of
expensive shoes estimated to have been manufactured in

143
00:15:35,720 --> 00:15:41,039
Dudley and sold at marketplace in nineteen
forty. They were incredibly well worn,

144
00:15:41,240 --> 00:15:48,720
which leans further to maybe not being
financially well to do. They were expensive

145
00:15:48,759 --> 00:15:54,240
shoes, yes, but the state
that they were in a wealthy person wouldn't

146
00:15:54,360 --> 00:16:00,960
probably wear them, so it was
leaned into maybe it was a gift she

147
00:16:00,039 --> 00:16:04,919
had been given. Is asked why
this shoe was removed, and the answers

148
00:16:06,519 --> 00:16:11,879
vary from being moved by animals to
being dropped by the killer. However,

149
00:16:11,639 --> 00:16:17,480
and this was the most important part
they really kind of in terms of true

150
00:16:17,519 --> 00:16:21,960
crime. If this is what you're
here for. The true crime this baffled

151
00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:33,799
me. They found a lady's ID
card in the vicinity of the burial site

152
00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:37,639
of the tree. It was thought
to belong to the victim herself, and

153
00:16:37,919 --> 00:16:42,679
when police went to the resisted address, the woman that belonged to was very

154
00:16:42,759 --> 00:16:47,519
much alive. Now, why is
this so interesting other than the fact that

155
00:16:48,039 --> 00:16:52,279
this person was alive and obviously had
visited the burial site at some point,

156
00:16:53,679 --> 00:16:56,919
But it was more for the fact
that the lady couldn't give an explanation of

157
00:16:57,080 --> 00:17:02,840
how or why her idea had been
found in Hagley Woods. She actually claims

158
00:17:02,840 --> 00:17:07,759
that she had never been there herself. Sadly, really sad is that this

159
00:17:07,839 --> 00:17:14,519
lead went cold as no other identifying
information on this person had been documented,

160
00:17:15,119 --> 00:17:18,440
nor anyone who had may have lived
with her at the time or had connections

161
00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:26,359
with her. No follow ups were
given, so this lead, like the

162
00:17:26,559 --> 00:17:33,720
entire case, eventually went cold with
no further information gathered and required that this

163
00:17:33,799 --> 00:17:38,920
were acquired at this point. Now, in terms of leads, that didn't

164
00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:45,240
mean that they stopped any lines of
inquiry and a bit to find the true

165
00:17:45,279 --> 00:17:51,279
identity of the mystery woman missing person
records were regularly checked. The newspaper and

166
00:17:51,359 --> 00:17:56,839
media outlets were following the case.
They provided the public with potential identifying information,

167
00:17:56,240 --> 00:18:02,359
but no one come forward to claim
her. Thousands upon thousands of missing

168
00:18:02,440 --> 00:18:10,119
records were cross examined, but this
was a fruitless task. This included information

169
00:18:10,160 --> 00:18:18,720
about what the woman would have worn
examined by website. Despite the distinguished looks

170
00:18:18,039 --> 00:18:25,000
the dental records the missing person records, no light was shared on who this

171
00:18:25,079 --> 00:18:32,880
lady wants would The information regarding what
was known so far was shared in newspapers

172
00:18:32,920 --> 00:18:38,640
and dental journals, and yet nothing
surfaced that would indicate information regarding who she

173
00:18:38,839 --> 00:18:53,720
was. Now this insert leads of
inquiry. There was a plethora of sightings

174
00:18:53,759 --> 00:19:03,279
and hearings and alleged communication and theories, and there's so many. There was

175
00:19:03,599 --> 00:19:08,079
so many that I've only been able
to really pick the top few that seemed

176
00:19:08,119 --> 00:19:15,079
to give any weight. But it
seemed to all start in July nineteen forty

177
00:19:15,079 --> 00:19:19,039
one. This was when a man
who worked in the industrial industry stated that

178
00:19:19,079 --> 00:19:25,400
he was walking home near Hagley Woods
he heard what he described as a woman's

179
00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:30,119
scream, and this seemed to be
validated by another passer by heading in the

180
00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:37,240
opposite direction at the same time.
The police were informed and they were called

181
00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:41,160
to the scene, but they didn't
find anything near where the screen was heard,

182
00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:47,519
and this remained the same when the
replace revisited in nineteen forty three after

183
00:19:47,640 --> 00:19:55,400
reviewing the murder that had happened.
The reports of the screen coincide with the

184
00:19:55,440 --> 00:20:00,960
window time given by Watson, but
again when they went there they didn't see

185
00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:07,200
anything. It seemed as though the
case was running cold again. And to

186
00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:11,359
be fair, when I look at
the case, it really didn't seem to

187
00:20:11,440 --> 00:20:22,799
get hot. They never really seemed
to have very much. But again it

188
00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:30,680
seemed to everything seemed to kind of
die down. And it isn't like at

189
00:20:30,720 --> 00:20:37,279
this time as well, there wasn't
bigger concerns nationwide. It would be easy

190
00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:41,400
for someone to forget that this had
happened in comparison to everything else that was

191
00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:47,000
happening around the world and in the
country. The country was still at war

192
00:20:47,039 --> 00:20:51,279
with Germany, and due to the
activity of Armor's development in Birmingham, the

193
00:20:51,400 --> 00:20:57,039
area was regularly attacked, which also
highlights an importance of the impracticability when it

194
00:20:57,079 --> 00:21:00,480
comes to record keeping. At this
time as well, so in terms of

195
00:21:00,519 --> 00:21:06,160
the dental records and missing person records, this was really hard to keep on

196
00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:11,279
top of considering the activity that was
going on in the area while the Midlands

197
00:21:11,359 --> 00:21:17,200
were moving away from the conversations that
surrounded the murder mystery. December nineteen forty

198
00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:22,640
three, odd graffiti or street up
as it's called now started to appear in

199
00:21:22,640 --> 00:21:29,279
the local area. Now it began
as statements, and these statements started as

200
00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:37,599
who puts Bella down the witch Elm? These words evolved to many variations such

201
00:21:37,640 --> 00:21:42,960
as Annabella died in Hagley Woods,
who put Luebella down the witch Elm?

202
00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:48,400
And who put Bella in the Wetchy
witch Elm? The original pid in Old

203
00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:56,039
Hill. This and of course those
that followed were examined and that it was

204
00:21:56,079 --> 00:22:02,160
determined that at that time each were
written the same large capital letters in the

205
00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:07,200
same word formation. By spring time
there wasn't a fence or building in the

206
00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:12,680
West Midlands that didn't seem to have
a variation of this statement. It seemed

207
00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:17,720
to have been done by the same
person due to the fact it was so

208
00:22:17,759 --> 00:22:22,480
similar across the world. It was
also determined that was too high up for

209
00:22:22,079 --> 00:22:27,160
it to be the hygiens or children. At this point there had been no

210
00:22:27,319 --> 00:22:33,880
identity of the victim, no idea
who the murderer or motive was no leading

211
00:22:33,039 --> 00:22:41,200
information uncovered. It was suggested that
the motive for the sudden appearance of Streetheart

212
00:22:41,279 --> 00:22:45,319
was unclear. They believed to be
the mocking of the authorities. With the

213
00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:52,079
little progress made, the police did
put out adverts for the person to come

214
00:22:52,160 --> 00:22:57,319
forward that had been creating a street
up, but no one did. They

215
00:22:57,440 --> 00:23:04,079
checked the name Bella Luebella Anabella against
the Misimparsson reports for the estimated time with

216
00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:10,839
the murder too, and still nothing. However, due to the persistency are

217
00:23:11,279 --> 00:23:17,640
the woman found in the witch elm
was from that point known as Bella.

218
00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:23,039
Now finding a body in an elm
is enough to leave people licking outside of

219
00:23:23,039 --> 00:23:27,640
the realm of russianale. However,
a body in a tree in Hagley Woods

220
00:23:29,160 --> 00:23:34,480
had them open to the possibility of
the realm of magic. Hagley Woods had

221
00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:41,480
a strong link still does within the
community of pagan sacrifices, black magic and

222
00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:47,799
rituals. Unlike with many superstitions and
a folklore, it is unclear where these

223
00:23:47,839 --> 00:23:52,279
associations were first established. It is
noted, however, a link to a

224
00:23:52,359 --> 00:23:59,079
local public house called the Gypsy's Tent. The Gypsies Tent had a regular report

225
00:23:59,519 --> 00:24:04,519
of alleged hauntings which included the woods
in many of the stories. At the

226
00:24:04,519 --> 00:24:08,920
time of Bella's murder in nineteen forty
one, the rumors were extensive rituals of

227
00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:15,920
all sorts of nature. And on
my last podcast I spoke of Charles Walton,

228
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:19,680
the man who was mysteriously murdered whilst
working on farmland. The way in

229
00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:23,799
which he was murdered was nest to
witchcraft. In the fact was labeled one

230
00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:30,119
of the witchcraft murders. Now.
Other than these two separate murders happening in

231
00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:34,720
neighboring towns only two years apart,
there are no links to one another,

232
00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:44,039
except for one particular individual consulting on
both the cases who believed occultist activity was

233
00:24:44,079 --> 00:24:51,079
at play at the very root of
the witch el murder. Involved and consulting

234
00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:56,960
The lead investigator on the Charles Walton
case was Margaret Murray. Will Murray found

235
00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:03,559
herself delving into Bella's case. Murray, at the time was eighty two years

236
00:25:03,559 --> 00:25:07,880
old and at this point in her
career was the first woman to publicly unwrap

237
00:25:07,079 --> 00:25:15,839
a mummy and due to academic research, consider the grand old woman of Egyptology

238
00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:21,279
as well as this. Murray was
a anthropologist and archaeologists and spent time in

239
00:25:21,319 --> 00:25:26,240
Britain and studying occultism. Amongst the
few in relation to Bella, Marie identified

240
00:25:26,279 --> 00:25:33,039
a number of practices that took place
during and directly after Bella's murder to indicate

241
00:25:33,319 --> 00:25:41,359
witchcraft. Murray argues that is believed
in Old European practice of witchcraft, encapsulating

242
00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:47,200
a person in a tree is considered
to trap the person and their magic inside,

243
00:25:49,319 --> 00:25:55,119
wouldn't of evil and preventing any further
harm to be caused from baneful from

244
00:25:55,160 --> 00:26:00,640
a baneful witch. But most importantly
was the act of recovery, the alleged

245
00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:06,480
removing and burying of the hand away
from the burying of the body. Murray

246
00:26:06,519 --> 00:26:12,240
claimed that this is known as black
magic. Now I know I haven't mentioned

247
00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:22,519
this yet because he is not in
the records of Lund or his lead pathologists.

248
00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:29,039
However, it is stated in the
police records that the hand was buried

249
00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:36,960
away from Bella's body. Murray states
that this is known as a black magic

250
00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:44,240
torch or the hand of glory.
This was done to remove the person from

251
00:26:44,279 --> 00:26:49,559
their predominant hand, relinquishing their ability
to cast. Murray stated this would be

252
00:26:49,839 --> 00:26:55,960
a tool for divination and is often
taken place with a criminal who has been

253
00:26:56,039 --> 00:27:00,839
hung during a lunar eclipse. Is
believed in corners from Murray. This is

254
00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:06,079
completed with the fact of the person
being used to make a candle using a

255
00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:10,839
hair as a wick. The name
Bella, according to Murray, is linked

256
00:27:10,839 --> 00:27:17,039
to named Bella Donna and name used
for the poisonous plant deadly nightshade. Murray's

257
00:27:17,079 --> 00:27:22,720
work has since come under scrutiny.
However, like the witchcraft murders previous,

258
00:27:22,799 --> 00:27:26,880
the media took hold of this story
and it become a sensation with no other

259
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:33,720
leads. This angle was investigated by
the police. This theory inspired the nineteen

260
00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:42,480
eight sixty eight David McCormick book Murder
by Witchcraft. I found the fact that

261
00:27:42,519 --> 00:27:47,880
her hand had been removed from my
body quite interesting. Again, I know

262
00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:52,519
I haven't stated this yet. This
is new facts because it was so heavily

263
00:27:52,599 --> 00:27:57,400
linked to the witchcraft theory, and
it was not put into any of the

264
00:27:57,480 --> 00:28:03,559
pathology records you are. However,
it is noted that the hand was removed.

265
00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:10,640
Her predominant hand was removed and was
found a few feet away from her

266
00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:18,200
body in the elm, buried underground. It is argued that this could have

267
00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:22,000
been done by an animal, the
same as the shoe that was missing.

268
00:28:22,319 --> 00:28:25,839
Like I said, once she was
in the elm with her, the obvious

269
00:28:25,920 --> 00:28:33,640
shoe was melt. Now, when
you think about at that time, when

270
00:28:33,640 --> 00:28:37,799
we've talked about things like the Ipswich
witches and the witch trials, and when

271
00:28:37,799 --> 00:28:45,759
you talk about the the mass hysteria
around the Satic Satanic murders and stuff,

272
00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:49,720
you always need to look at what's
going on in the community when these things

273
00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:56,759
take place, Like we've I've already
used the example of Ipswich. You know,

274
00:28:56,799 --> 00:29:00,839
you had the famine, you had
the war, you had, you

275
00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:04,039
know, the fact that everything was
so desolate, you know, in the

276
00:29:04,079 --> 00:29:11,000
community was feeling like they were being
punished by God and that they needed to

277
00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:18,799
you know, start looking outwardly for
people that were being sinful and punished them

278
00:29:18,839 --> 00:29:22,279
because they're the reasons why they're being
punished by God. So you had this

279
00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:26,799
going on, and it's the same
when you look at where this location is

280
00:29:26,839 --> 00:29:30,599
just not too far from the cots
Walls. It's not too far from you

281
00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:36,119
know, like I said with the
Charles Walton's murder before that there was a

282
00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:40,720
similar murder taken place that was linked
to he just because it happened in the

283
00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:45,000
same way. It's quite gruesome,
and I have covered them stories already.

284
00:29:45,079 --> 00:29:47,960
If you want to go back and
listen to those, you're welcome to on

285
00:29:48,279 --> 00:29:53,920
this channel. But at this time
there was so much superstition, and it's

286
00:29:55,039 --> 00:30:02,359
noted. Like I said with Charles
Wharton, it is a reoccurring theme of

287
00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:11,880
house steeped in superstition that the location
is with he was actually investigated. Charles

288
00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:18,359
Wilson's case actually was investigated by the
infamous detective Fabing and he was consulting with

289
00:30:18,519 --> 00:30:23,400
Murray. And I know that I'm
sidetracking, but I want to kind of

290
00:30:23,400 --> 00:30:26,680
give an insight what's going on in
that community at the time, and I

291
00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:36,200
know that one Fabian was investigating the
Charles Wharton murders. He really truly believed

292
00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:38,960
that the community was shutting down on
him, that they didn't want to talk

293
00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:45,160
to him about what was happening because
of the fact that they linked it to

294
00:30:45,279 --> 00:30:49,480
witchcraft. And it was always like
he believed that the community knew more than

295
00:30:49,519 --> 00:30:55,119
what they were letting on. And
it's almost like, you know, all

296
00:30:55,160 --> 00:31:00,599
for the grocer good of us that
we are not filmed talking about with Simon

297
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:06,359
Peg. But it's kind of that
kind of mentality. And and he says

298
00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:12,119
at one point he went within the
countrysidely he crossed paths this huge black dog

299
00:31:12,599 --> 00:31:17,759
with red going eyes, and he
shot off and he went looking for it,

300
00:31:17,799 --> 00:31:19,160
and a young boy stopped him,
and he said to him he was

301
00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:23,720
looking for this black dog and this
this boy was absolutely petrified. And when

302
00:31:23,759 --> 00:31:27,359
he went back into the fabian,
when he went back into a fabian,

303
00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:32,400
so he went into the community,
he went into a pub and no one

304
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:37,319
caught his gaze. They did not
want to even talk to him. So,

305
00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:42,279
yes, there's so much going on. And when he actually he actually

306
00:31:42,400 --> 00:31:47,640
published his findings, he's when he
spoke about the killing. He said he

307
00:31:47,759 --> 00:31:52,279
looked like the kind of killing the
Druids might have done in a ghastly ceremony

308
00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:56,279
of a full moon. And that
come from Scotland Yards Chief Inspector Robert Faban,

309
00:31:57,200 --> 00:32:01,400
And he wrote that in nineteen seventy
two memoirs in the nineteen forties,

310
00:32:02,319 --> 00:32:07,759
there was a number of sightings of
these large black dogs and describers either green

311
00:32:07,839 --> 00:32:10,200
or red eyes, and believe to
be the messenger for the dark and more

312
00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:17,400
blameful spirit. So there we have
it, a community that is still steeped

313
00:32:17,599 --> 00:32:24,400
in superstition, that is not talking
to authorities at the fear of witchcraft.

314
00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:29,599
And it gives you an insight of
what is happening at that time, in

315
00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:35,680
that window of space. You're having
an insight what is happening. You have

316
00:32:35,799 --> 00:32:40,640
a lead in Scotland, Scotland Yard, who is investigating a crime linked to

317
00:32:40,720 --> 00:32:45,599
witchcraft in nineteen forties. We aren't
talking about the witch trials, We're not

318
00:32:45,759 --> 00:32:52,839
talking about the years they know of
the witch Finder General. We're talking the

319
00:32:52,960 --> 00:33:00,440
forties in Scotland Yard. And it
isn't going to be a prize that this

320
00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:08,680
has happened again two years later.
But the more I read, the more

321
00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:15,200
I realized that witchcraft is not the
only otherness that he's being linked to.

322
00:33:15,279 --> 00:33:21,400
Themes and the theories that are being
associated to this story is a fascinating We

323
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:24,799
have a woman who we have no
idea where she comes from, who she

324
00:33:25,079 --> 00:33:30,000
is, how she got there.
No one has claimed her. She has

325
00:33:30,039 --> 00:33:37,359
not been identified in the entirety of
England. There is continual publicizing of details

326
00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:44,119
that someone can come forward. She
has suspected her family, yet no one

327
00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:49,079
is missing her. Of course,
when we do not understand something, we

328
00:33:49,200 --> 00:33:53,119
link it to otherness, We link
it to things that are out of the

329
00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:59,240
realm of understanding, because it helps
us make sense of something that does not

330
00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:06,000
make sense. And I understand that
that is what's happened. However, the

331
00:34:06,200 --> 00:34:17,480
link to the nazis if Clara Clara
Bella did parachute in where is the parachute?

332
00:34:19,639 --> 00:34:23,719
There was no parachute found alongside the
body of Bella other than the removed

333
00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:30,239
hand. I understand that it's not
in the pathology results or the findings.

334
00:34:30,119 --> 00:34:37,159
Maybe it wasn't added because the pathologists
didn't see any relevance of it, but

335
00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:43,559
it was noted in the police records
perishing whatever as well. So where did

336
00:34:43,599 --> 00:34:47,519
this come from? In the nineteen
fifties, before the writings of mccoric,

337
00:34:47,559 --> 00:34:53,599
who I hope I'm pronouncing correctly,
the newspapers were still sporadically publishing requests of

338
00:34:53,679 --> 00:34:59,800
information and better longing for a gleam
of hope to finally know the lady's origin.

339
00:35:00,800 --> 00:35:05,400
Ten years after the first discovery,
someone finally reached out to the media

340
00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:10,840
plane A lady who only identified herself
as Anna contacted the press with a letter.

341
00:35:12,599 --> 00:35:16,559
Anna indicated she not only knew the
victim, but who was responsible.

342
00:35:16,760 --> 00:35:22,239
And while it was in these writings
that the espanage had entered the chat.

343
00:35:24,039 --> 00:35:30,679
This is how the letter read.
Finish your article regarding the which own crime.

344
00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:35,840
By all means, they are interesting
to your readers, but you will

345
00:35:35,840 --> 00:35:40,079
never solve the mystery. The one
person who could give you answers is now

346
00:35:40,119 --> 00:35:45,199
beyond the jurisdiction of earthly courts.
As much as I hate to use a

347
00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:49,159
non to plume, I think you
would appreciate it if you knew me.

348
00:35:50,320 --> 00:35:54,119
The only clues I can give you
is the person responsible of the crime died

349
00:35:54,320 --> 00:36:00,400
insane in nineteen forty two, and
that the victim was a Dutch was Dutch

350
00:36:00,920 --> 00:36:07,679
who had arrived illegally in England in
nineteen forty one. I have no wish

351
00:36:07,719 --> 00:36:15,840
to recall anymore. Now, going
back to declassified information, it is noted

352
00:36:15,119 --> 00:36:20,880
that there was a Dutch woman who
hadn't been known to be in West Midlands

353
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:25,679
in the nineteen forties that the role
of the Dutch woman was to pass information

354
00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:31,239
from a British soldier to a tropeze
artist who appeared in sharing information that become

355
00:36:31,320 --> 00:36:39,840
too knowledgeable and subsequently killed. The
narrative become popular simply because of the scrutinizing

356
00:36:39,920 --> 00:36:45,239
of those that worked in the industry
by Nazis for information. At that time

357
00:36:47,119 --> 00:36:54,320
it was almost palable. There had
also been a British man connected to a

358
00:36:54,400 --> 00:37:00,920
German spy that had diet certified as
insane in Stafford Mental Hospital in nineteen forty

359
00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:08,199
two and was related to Anna,
whose real identity was Una Handsworth was Mossop.

360
00:37:09,079 --> 00:37:14,159
This man was Jack Mussop, and
Una had been married to him before

361
00:37:14,239 --> 00:37:19,519
he's passing. The newspapers appealed to
Anna to come forward to speak to the

362
00:37:19,599 --> 00:37:24,320
police, where she did and in
doing so revealed her true identity. Jack

363
00:37:24,360 --> 00:37:30,440
allegedly confessed to being accessory to murder
committed by a Dutchman called Van Roult.

364
00:37:31,719 --> 00:37:37,199
Una. Before that, faith fatal
Knight said that her husband, an officer,

365
00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:42,840
would meet many knights, and although
Van Rolt appeared to have no job,

366
00:37:43,239 --> 00:37:46,360
her husband would always have more money
than he left with. After meeting

367
00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:52,679
him, giving her the notion he
was a German spire. In March or

368
00:37:52,760 --> 00:37:57,360
April in nineteen forty one, she
noted her husband come home around one am,

369
00:37:58,039 --> 00:38:00,719
visibly shaking, asking for a dree. He has stated he had been

370
00:38:00,800 --> 00:38:06,119
driving Van Rolt's car with a Dutch
woman up front, Van Rolt in the

371
00:38:06,119 --> 00:38:08,360
back, and the woman began to
lean in like she had passed out.

372
00:38:09,159 --> 00:38:15,000
Van Rolt has reassured Jack that all
was fine and directed him to some woods.

373
00:38:16,320 --> 00:38:21,480
They collectively put the Dutch woman in
the tree that night, with a

374
00:38:21,559 --> 00:38:24,599
view that she would come to her
senses for acting inappropriately the following morning.

375
00:38:25,719 --> 00:38:31,360
After this, the relationship between Una
and Jack broke down. On the number

376
00:38:31,360 --> 00:38:36,960
of occasions that Una did see Jack
after that, He told her he thought

377
00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:39,719
he was losing his mind and how
he kept seeing the woman leering at him

378
00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:45,000
from the tree. It would be
in June nineteen forty two, Una was

379
00:38:45,039 --> 00:38:51,159
informed of hiss A mission in the
mental hospital. Now this wasn't the only

380
00:38:51,320 --> 00:38:55,280
Nazi spy and narrative of a theme
that come up when terms of understanding who

381
00:38:55,320 --> 00:39:00,320
Bella was. According to a Declass
of five file in the Britishish National Archive,

382
00:39:00,639 --> 00:39:06,960
an agent called Joseph Jacob's an inexperience, an undertrained agent was sent into

383
00:39:06,960 --> 00:39:13,039
Britain to gather information on weather patterns. Jacob was said to parachute into the

384
00:39:13,079 --> 00:39:16,519
Cambridge area in nineteen forty one,
had broken his ankle in the drop and

385
00:39:16,599 --> 00:39:23,199
was arrested by the World War two
Home Guard, a defense organization representation TIVE

386
00:39:23,360 --> 00:39:28,760
of the British Army. He had
nothing on him except for a photo of

387
00:39:28,800 --> 00:39:34,000
a woman called Clara, a singer
and actress, and he also said that

388
00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:40,960
she was his paramore. Jacob also
declares she too was a Nazi secret agent

389
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:46,760
who was supposed to parachute into the
West Midlands and contact Jacob. However,

390
00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:52,760
this line of inquiry didn't go much
further. Jacob was soon executed by firing

391
00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:59,119
squad late in the summer of nineteen
forty one. It is noted that this

392
00:39:59,159 --> 00:40:02,639
would be the last execution that would
take place in the Tower of London.

393
00:40:05,119 --> 00:40:09,920
It is alleged that there was an
m I five investigation into Jacobs. Alongside

394
00:40:09,960 --> 00:40:15,639
that, another included a singer born
in nineteen o six and in nineteen forty

395
00:40:15,679 --> 00:40:21,840
one would have been thirty five.
This person worked within the music industry in

396
00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:27,119
the UK two years in fact,
in the West Midlands, before the World

397
00:40:27,239 --> 00:40:32,199
War had been declared. She had
in that time learned impeccable English, removing

398
00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:37,480
any trace of a Dutch accent.
It would be though, in later years

399
00:40:37,559 --> 00:40:46,360
the granddaughter of Jacob's done extensive research
into his life and found a death certificate

400
00:40:46,599 --> 00:40:53,400
of Clara which included her year of
death as nineteen seventy two, taking place

401
00:40:53,559 --> 00:41:06,199
in Berlin of poisoning. So here
we are. There are many other alleged

402
00:41:07,079 --> 00:41:15,079
sightings and knowledge of who Klara was, including someone who was a housemaid for

403
00:41:15,159 --> 00:41:21,719
a public house, romany gypsy,
so much more, but these are the

404
00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:30,480
most prominent narratives that stuck out for
me. Three decades after a Crook book,

405
00:41:30,719 --> 00:41:34,159
the case was given a breath of
life again. In two thousand and

406
00:41:34,320 --> 00:41:38,920
five the case file was published and
in it stated that there was a search

407
00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:44,760
for Bella's body and that he had
gone underway. This was so that the

408
00:41:44,760 --> 00:41:49,880
body could be exhumed for DNA testing. However, the search was unsuccessful.

409
00:41:50,360 --> 00:41:54,000
This was mostly due to the search
happening in the wrong place. It was

410
00:41:54,039 --> 00:41:59,239
assumed the burial Bella would have happened
not far from the location of discovery.

411
00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:04,599
However, her remains had gone to
the University of Birmingham to a colleague of

412
00:42:04,639 --> 00:42:09,239
the original pathologists for additional testing.
The case was closed in two thousand and

413
00:42:09,400 --> 00:42:17,039
five with any remains, any official
records, any lab results disappearing, and

414
00:42:17,119 --> 00:42:22,039
this could be put down to the
potential cover up, poor record keeping,

415
00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:25,960
or during the time of the investigation, air raids shuffling around made it near

416
00:42:25,960 --> 00:42:31,800
and impossible to keep on top of. In two thousand and fourteen, statistical

417
00:42:31,920 --> 00:42:38,000
analysis of all known data of Bella
and the murder was examined by researchers Norman

418
00:42:38,280 --> 00:42:47,079
Tendon and Martin Neil using the Bayesian
analysis. The findings were published. They

419
00:42:47,079 --> 00:42:57,360
were based following the variables that the
police investigated all possible leads, exhausted every

420
00:42:57,440 --> 00:43:02,159
inquiry, and that all the witnesses
is were credible and this is what they

421
00:43:02,239 --> 00:43:08,000
found. Now, it might not
be a shocker to you to say that

422
00:43:08,320 --> 00:43:15,440
it was found that ninety nine percent
chance the cause of death was criminal.

423
00:43:16,639 --> 00:43:21,960
You heard it here first, No, not first, but you hear it

424
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:28,360
here. It was concluded that Bella
was a ninety seven percent chance not risk

425
00:43:29,119 --> 00:43:35,760
two percent Dutch eighteen percent German.
There was a ninety three percent chance that

426
00:43:35,840 --> 00:43:39,320
Bella was alive when she was placed
into the Elm, and there was a

427
00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:46,360
thirty three percent chance that Jack Mossip
was involved. There was also a seven

428
00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:53,599
percent chance that she was involved in
the intelligence services. Now Jack's involvement would

429
00:43:53,599 --> 00:43:59,840
have been up to ninety five percent
if four more additional witnesses had come for

430
00:44:00,199 --> 00:44:06,880
It was also concluded undetermined that sadly, due to the age of the case,

431
00:44:07,639 --> 00:44:14,519
it was forever deemed a mystery.
There was attempts, however, in

432
00:44:14,639 --> 00:44:23,320
twenty eighteen for this not to be
the case. Expert Caroline Wilkinson, leading

433
00:44:23,360 --> 00:44:30,119
in the area of rebuilding features and
developing photos for identifying those that had sadly

434
00:44:30,159 --> 00:44:37,360
passed away, had done so for
Bella. These photos were published. However,

435
00:44:38,280 --> 00:44:43,360
there was one thing that did remain
the same no matter what was published

436
00:44:44,159 --> 00:44:52,719
or information shared. Once again,
there was no steps forward the hearsay of

437
00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:59,360
those that were within the community.
Did Bella seek shelter in the Alma herself

438
00:44:59,440 --> 00:45:04,280
during their raid? Was she murdered
by a lover and hid it in the

439
00:45:04,320 --> 00:45:10,000
Elm? Wish romany killed by a
king for participating in an activity they not

440
00:45:10,320 --> 00:45:16,599
acceptable in their community thereafter all,
had been a client traveling in those woods

441
00:45:16,599 --> 00:45:22,239
at that time or was she a
sex worker? As a sex worker in

442
00:45:22,280 --> 00:45:25,679
Burma told the police a woman she
had known had gone missing by Hadley Woods

443
00:45:25,800 --> 00:45:32,760
three years previously, called Bella.
There is going to be speculation, as

444
00:45:32,760 --> 00:45:42,239
there's always been speculation. However,
we are no closer to knowing who pot

445
00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:47,480
Bella in the witch Elm. Thank
you so much for listening. I hope

446
00:45:47,519 --> 00:45:53,320
you've enjoyed hearing as much as I
have enjoyed telling. If you want to

447
00:45:53,360 --> 00:45:59,719
hear more of the towers from Seventh
Sanctum, make sure you join me next

448
00:45:59,760 --> 00:46:06,320
time. You can find me an
equally room collective UK over gu tub on,

449
00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:08,840
TikTok and other social media platforms