Speaker 1: Today I'm sharing the case of the pitch Park murders
Speaker 1: killed on Valentine's Stay. In nineteen forty five, Charles Walton
Speaker 1: came to a bloody end at a fair farm in
Speaker 1: Lower Quinty, a Warwickshire village where he lived. The seventy
Speaker 1: four year old farm laborer was known to be slightly
Speaker 1: an unusual character, although he was well liked in the
Speaker 1: village where he lived with his niece Edie. On February fourteenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen forty five, he was trimming hedges on the farm
Speaker 1: where he worked for a farm having walked to work
Speaker 1: that morning carrying a pitch bark and a slash up,
Speaker 1: and the slash up is used for cutting branches, he
Speaker 1: will have been laying down hedging. Edith returned on from
Speaker 1: work about four pm and was surprised to find her
Speaker 1: uncle not at home. His habits were normally as regular
Speaker 1: as clockwork, and so after a while she asked a neighbor,
Speaker 1: Harry Beasley, if he would help search for him. Immediately
Speaker 1: went to the fur and Alfred Potter, Walton's employer, joined
Speaker 1: them as they walked a where Potter claimed to have
Speaker 1: last seen Charles cutting edges sometime between twelve and twelve
Speaker 1: thirty pm. Mister Potter gave at least three separate timestamps
Speaker 1: for when he claimed that he'd seen Charles in his
Speaker 1: shirts leaves working on the edge cutting. As he said,
Speaker 1: he walked home from the Collige Arms pub. Before long
Speaker 1: the trio came upon the body of Charles Walton. The
Speaker 1: old man had been brutally murdered. He'd been beaten about
Speaker 1: the head and faced with his own walking stick, and
Speaker 1: there were injuries to his hands and arms where he
Speaker 1: had tried to fend off those blows. And then his
Speaker 1: throat had been slashed open with his own slash up
Speaker 1: which had been buried into his neck with great force.
Speaker 1: And finally, a pitch bark had been thrushed into his
Speaker 1: neck so powerfully that he completely pinned his body to
Speaker 1: the ground, as if to keep his spirit from rising.
Speaker 1: A large cross was also carved into his chest, leading
Speaker 1: villagers to suspect that Witchcraft was somehow involved in the
Speaker 1: savage killing. His pocket watch was missing, and it was
Speaker 1: found invariably fifteen years later in his home. Houses had
Speaker 1: been unfastened and his slies were undone. His shirt, too
Speaker 1: had been unfastened, and many people have claimed subsequently that
Speaker 1: a cross had been cut into Charles's chest, perhaps the
Speaker 1: source of the witchcraft theory. Despite his employer mister Potter's
Speaker 1: claims to have seen him with his shirts leaves rolled up,
Speaker 1: child was wearing a short sleeve shirt was found with
Speaker 1: his shackyon. Whoever did the deed, was possessed of an
Speaker 1: unnatural strength and violence, at least in those terrible fireal
Speaker 1: moments of Child's life. Locals were so concerned by the
Speaker 1: events that they sent the Scotland Yard and they sent
Speaker 1: Inspector Robert Fabian me and Hill where Child's body was found.
Speaker 1: As being the subject of strange tales for centuries was
Speaker 1: reports of huge black dog stalking a supposedly haunted hill
Speaker 1: which appeared from nowhere and no obvious owner was aroure.
Speaker 1: In fact, the police inspector saw one of these dogs
Speaker 1: near the murdercy before hearing about the legends. He thought
Speaker 1: it must be long to a small boy who had
Speaker 1: appeared soon afterwards, but as soon as he Spector Fabian
Speaker 1: mentioned the dog, the boy ran in terror. In eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty five, another boy had seen the black dog and
Speaker 1: three consecutive nights before a death in his family, and
Speaker 1: that dog was a sort of black shook. On the
Speaker 1: final occasion, the dog was accompanied by the apparition of
Speaker 1: a headless woman. That boy's name was Charles Walton Charles,
Speaker 1: who was found in the fields all those years later.
Speaker 1: A few nights after his body was found, the body
Speaker 1: of a black dog was found hanging from a tree
Speaker 1: close to his home, and it was said by the
Speaker 1: villages that Charles had a strange way with animals, and
Speaker 1: that he could calm the fastest of dogs, and birds
Speaker 1: would fly and land on to his hand. The mystery
Speaker 1: has never been sold. Nobody knows who killed George or
Speaker 1: who left him there in that way, and somebody does,
Speaker 1: and that somebody probably still has relatives in the area.
Speaker 1: Today the normal world will have heard of the screaming
Speaker 1: Woods of Pluckley, also known as deer in Woods now.
Speaker 1: It is said on Halloween night in nineteen forty eight,
Speaker 1: locals reported strange lights, sunweyed sounds that were seen and
Speaker 1: heard coming from the surrounding woodland. The next morning, a
Speaker 1: dog walker who lived locally discovered the bodies of over
Speaker 1: twenty people, including several children, lying scattered in piles amongst
Speaker 1: the leaf litter. Sadly, they were identified as villagers from
Speaker 1: the nearby Mountman's Hill area. Their bodies showed no visible
Speaker 1: wounds signs of the struggle, and an autopsy failed to
Speaker 1: determine a clear cause of death, which led to the
Speaker 1: police labeling the deaths as caused by carbon monoxide poisoning
Speaker 1: and closing the investigation, despite the usual symptoms of CMP
Speaker 1: not being there on the bodies. In nineteen sixty four,
Speaker 1: private investigator Robert Collins was determined to solve the mystery
Speaker 1: of the woods. Allegedly, it said a religious cult in
Speaker 1: Smarsden could have been responsible for the Halloween massacre. Robert
Speaker 1: conducted extensive witness interviews and might have been onto something. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: he died in a tragic car accident in nineteen sixty five.
Speaker 1: Was his death coincidence or another murder? Now? In nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety eight, fifty years later, on the anniversary of the
Speaker 1: mass death, villagers saw an odd spider shaped light covering
Speaker 1: over the woods and feared the worst. That night, four
Speaker 1: college students who camped in the woods disappeared and we're
Speaker 1: never seen again. Oddler. The police investigation was abandoned three
Speaker 1: weeks later. I know a couple of cryptid investigators that
Speaker 1: have had their own experience in the strange Pullock cly Woods.
Speaker 1: Have you have you ever been there? Have you ever
Speaker 1: heard of the mystery? And if you have been there
Speaker 1: and seen something, I'd love to getting touch and let
Speaker 1: me know or murder I'm sharing next. He's one written
Speaker 1: by the world of famous psychic researcher Tom Sleemy, which
Speaker 1: from my neck of the woods, and it's called Look
Speaker 1: for Me at Midnight Now. Tom is very well known
Speaker 1: here in the Northwest of England and all across the UK.
Speaker 1: He has a number of books that I would urge
Speaker 1: you to check out and if you like my content,
Speaker 1: you'll absolutely love Tom's Now. In this case, Tom tells
Speaker 1: the Hanky Tale of the Axe Man. Now. It all
Speaker 1: started in January nineteen seventy seven and two bachelors, twenty
Speaker 1: three year old John Wildman, a security guard from Liverpool,
Speaker 1: and Nigel Selby, a twenty seven year old librarian from
Speaker 1: Birkenhead and the former boyfriend of John's sister Joanne. They
Speaker 1: decided to move in together and went to look for
Speaker 1: a decent Patchel flat. Both young men were still living
Speaker 1: at home and they felt that they's done a better
Speaker 1: chance with the ladies if they had their own pad.
Speaker 1: After much searching, Nigel spotted a luxurious low rent furnished
Speaker 1: at it flat and it was advertising their local rag.
Speaker 1: The flat was in a rather goth thick looking house
Speaker 1: on Park Road West, right on top of Birkenhead Park. Now.
Speaker 1: The two lads looked at the flat and agreed that
Speaker 1: although it was a bit glorified and it was just
Speaker 1: more of an attic, twenty five pounds a week was reasonable.
Speaker 1: We paid the deposit and moved him. John was a
Speaker 1: keep fit enthusiast and looked forward to jogging around the
Speaker 1: nearby park, and Nigel claimed the little side room off
Speaker 1: the open plan lounge and kitchen. As he stood where
Speaker 1: he could line the walls with bookshelves. The only mind
Speaker 1: of great John Wildman had was some of the old
Speaker 1: furniture the landlord had left behind, a rickety dining chair,
Speaker 1: a huge ornamentally framed mirror which measured six feet in
Speaker 1: height and three feet in width. John had mistaken the
Speaker 1: mirror for a doorway at first, as it was mounted
Speaker 1: flush against the wall. Nigel liked it. John said it
Speaker 1: was too big and great difficulty. He removed it from
Speaker 1: the wall. I found had a loose mahogany panel on
Speaker 1: its reverse. Took it off and saw a green tinted
Speaker 1: mirror of the same dimensions as the one on either side,
Speaker 1: and upon looking at it, there were some faint, greasy
Speaker 1: looking words, possibly written in lipstick in some foreign language.
Speaker 1: Now Nigel was an avid reader of Voltaire and spoke
Speaker 1: French fluently, so he knew immediately what the mirrors scrawled
Speaker 1: message was. It said, looked for me at midnight now.
Speaker 1: Nigel later asked an own female resident downstairs if the
Speaker 1: previous occupier of the flat had been French, and he
Speaker 1: was told that it had been an old eccentric American
Speaker 1: that came from New Orleans named Richard Montford. He died
Speaker 1: nearly seven years back, and the flat had been empty
Speaker 1: all since. Around this time, John Warner's grandfather passed away
Speaker 1: over in Liverpool and the old man left John one
Speaker 1: thousand pounding his will tidy sun Back then, John said
Speaker 1: he'd use some of the money to get the flag decorated.
Speaker 1: He also, would you know, install a waterbed and build
Speaker 1: a cocktail bar in the kitchen. John and Nigel and
Speaker 1: went to the nearest pub and met a couple of
Speaker 1: very attractive ladies in their early twenties named Judy and Holly.
Speaker 1: As the scene plays out, I can guarantee it would
Speaker 1: have included a curly perm, some high kerta and some
Speaker 1: fire pants with his sharpest greasy Nan could iron now.
Speaker 1: The girls said they were our students, and pretty soon
Speaker 1: Holly made it clear that she liked John, and Judy
Speaker 1: kind of lashed onto Nigel and the four of them
Speaker 1: sat in a corner chatting and drinking the evening away.
Speaker 1: By eleven forty pm, Nigel was discussing his love for
Speaker 1: abstract art with Judy, while Holly embraced a drunken John
Speaker 1: as they slowly danced Leo Sayers When I Need You
Speaker 1: on the jukebox. The lawndlads said there was a locking,
Speaker 1: and the girl said they were just going to go
Speaker 1: and powder their noses. But they were gone for quite
Speaker 1: some time. I concerned, John asked the bar maybe if
Speaker 1: she'd go into the toilets if the girls were there.
Speaker 1: The toilet was found to be empty. The barman said
Speaker 1: he'd never seen the two girls before, or them in
Speaker 1: the pub. Or even in the toilets. Then did John
Speaker 1: delve into his Geene pockets and discovered that he couldn't
Speaker 1: find the keys to the flat, and Nigel discovered that
Speaker 1: his set of keys was also missing. When we were dancing,
Speaker 1: did those girls no, surely not yet, he said, we've
Speaker 1: probably just been robbed. Those girls have had our keys off,
Speaker 1: you know. So the two men staggered out of the pub,
Speaker 1: both in a livid estate, absolutely through me. That's you
Speaker 1: talking about all that money you've got off your uncle,
Speaker 1: yoll Nigel, that's what's done it. You turned it in
Speaker 1: to victims. They found Judy out called on the floor
Speaker 1: of the flat with a gash to her forehead, and
Speaker 1: when she came to, she said, a weird looking man
Speaker 1: in a hood with two eye holes in a creepy,
Speaker 1: smiling slit of a mouth. They'd come out of the
Speaker 1: long mirror. He had a cook where his right hand
Speaker 1: should have been, and he'd hit her with it. Judy's
Speaker 1: accomplice ran into the arms of two policemen on the beat.
Speaker 1: In his hysterical state, she said a hooded man brandishing
Speaker 1: an ax had tried to kill her, and she too
Speaker 1: mentioned the cook he had come with for a right hand.
Speaker 1: Ali said she thought the monster had killed a friend
Speaker 1: when it had come out of the mirror. The police
Speaker 1: thought Ollie had been drinking at first, but then they
Speaker 1: wondered if some prankster was behind his weird attack the girls.
Speaker 1: The police discovered at a criminal record and they work
Speaker 1: on artists, and they were going to robe the boys
Speaker 1: that night, and they were charged, and John and Nigel
Speaker 1: later moved the flat. When that long mirror started shaking
Speaker 1: violently one night, what was haunting it now? Tom said,
Speaker 1: I trace the owner of that mirror to a certain
Speaker 1: quarter in New Orleans, and I have a sneaking suspicion
Speaker 1: there might have been one of the occultists who back
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighteen hunted up the demon known as the
Speaker 1: Axe Man, a mysterious murderer who killed six people and
Speaker 1: injured so many more. And I was vanished into the
Speaker 1: night despite a massive police presence. And what happened to
Speaker 1: that mirror? And where is it now? Because nobody seems
Speaker 1: to know. No UK murder mystery theories would be complete
Speaker 1: without the almost eighty year old case of Beller in
Speaker 1: the Witch Owl. The discovery of skeleton remains in the
Speaker 1: tree were found during April of nineteen forty three my
Speaker 1: full local boys who went bird nested in Hagleywood, which
Speaker 1: is located just outside of Stourbridge and must One of
Speaker 1: the boys then made a very shocking discovery. Robert Hall
Speaker 1: of Wolves Coach Stourbridge, told the Coroner in jury. At
Speaker 1: midday on Sunday, April the eighteenth, he and three other
Speaker 1: lads went bird nesting in the wood. He left the others,
Speaker 1: walked off alone and went to the stump of an
Speaker 1: old elm tree. Looking in, he saw, to his horror
Speaker 1: the top of the skull. He called his friends across
Speaker 1: the sea and one of them raped the skull out
Speaker 1: of the tree with a stick, and in panic they
Speaker 1: put it back again and ran home. When they got home,
Speaker 1: one of them mentioned it to the father, who then
Speaker 1: telephoned the police. Professor J. M. Webster, who was director
Speaker 1: of the West Midlands Forensic Scigns Laboratory, was called to
Speaker 1: the scene. The tree trunk was opened out and he
Speaker 1: was able to reconstruct the skeleton. He found no evidence
Speaker 1: of violence upon any of the bones. However, he did
Speaker 1: find part of the garment stuffed deep into the cavity
Speaker 1: of the mouth, which might have been the cause of death.
Speaker 1: He did not imagine anyone getting into that tree voluntari
Speaker 1: whilst the skeleton had been there for at least eighteen months.
Speaker 1: With the murder suspected, the police were keen to establish
Speaker 1: the identity of the female victim as well as her killer.
Speaker 1: A probable description the victim was published by the Hartley
Speaker 1: pil Northern Daily Male in the twenty fourth of April
Speaker 1: nineteen forty three. The victim's age is estimated has been
Speaker 1: between twenty five and farter, most probably around thirty five.
Speaker 1: She was five foot in height, with light brown hair,
Speaker 1: and she was dressed in a dark blue a mustard
Speaker 1: colored striped cardigan and a mustard colored skirt, blue crapes,
Speaker 1: old shoes size five and a half. All the garments
Speaker 1: were as described as being of poor quality. I know
Speaker 1: wedding ring found among the bones was of rolled gold,
Speaker 1: probably worth about two and six At the time, despite
Speaker 1: hundreds of leads being followed by police and her identity
Speaker 1: was not established, the inquest returned the verdicts of murder
Speaker 1: by some person or personal unknown, and then in nineteen
Speaker 1: forty four the case took an even more perplexing twist
Speaker 1: chalked on the wall of an empty premises on Upper
Speaker 1: Dean Street, Birmingham, with the words who put Bella down?
Speaker 1: The witch Elm, Hagleywood. The Sunday Mirror reports that another
Speaker 1: message was chalked previously, and that said who put lou
Speaker 1: Bello down the witch Elm? At Hayden Hill Road, Old Hill,
Speaker 1: but it was not connected to the case until the
Speaker 1: second piece of writing appeared. According to the Evening Dispatch
Speaker 1: on the thirtieth of March forty four, the writing was
Speaker 1: too high on the wall, have been done by children?
Speaker 1: Are boys and the police are inclined to the view
Speaker 1: that it is the work of someone coming into the
Speaker 1: city early in the morning with farm produce, possibly who
Speaker 1: wrote her, But like the victim and a murderer, the
Speaker 1: identity of the writer's offer was never uncovered. In a
Speaker 1: series of articles in the Birmingham Daily Post in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty eight, Donald mccorbyck takes an extensive look at who
Speaker 1: Bella might have been and what might have happened to her.
Speaker 1: It was theorized that she may have been a brass
Speaker 1: a lady of the night, a scarlet woman, lord by
Speaker 1: car to the woods, where she's then met her death.
Speaker 1: According to McCormick, the police thought it was more probable
Speaker 1: that she was a refugee from the Blitz, for many
Speaker 1: people fled from Birmingham when the German air raids came,
Speaker 1: and some had been known to shelter in Hagleywood. McCormick
Speaker 1: also draws the link to witchcraft because Hagleywood has a
Speaker 1: reputation in the horn of witches and always had, and
Speaker 1: more compellingly, there is an ancient rite here in the
Speaker 1: UK that says that the spirit of a dead witch
Speaker 1: could be imprisoned in the hollow of a tree and
Speaker 1: then she can't come back, and you know, recab it
Speaker 1: anymore in the Villagers. Mister McCormick, however, does not put
Speaker 1: much cregence to the motive of witchcraft. He cites a
Speaker 1: letter received by the Wolverhampton newspaper in nineteen fifty three
Speaker 1: which pro faians the affair is closed and involves no witches,
Speaker 1: no black magic, and no moonlit rites. The writer claims
Speaker 1: that the victim was a Dutch woman who arrived illegally
Speaker 1: in England in nineteen forty one, and that her killer
Speaker 1: died of madness. A year later after she was killed,
Speaker 1: McCormick explores the theory that Bella was in fact the
Speaker 1: Dutch girlfriend of a German intelligence recruiter named Laher, who
Speaker 1: had had a lover in Kidderminster before the war and
Speaker 1: was fluent in English. German intelligen records tell of an
Speaker 1: agent code named Clara who was dropped into the area
Speaker 1: between Birmingham and Kidderminster between March and April of nineteen
Speaker 1: forty one. There is nothing to say that she was
Speaker 1: dropped in Hagleywood, but you know she never again made
Speaker 1: contact with the intelligence agency. So who put Bella in
Speaker 1: the witch elm? Almost eighty years on now, you know?
Speaker 1: And that shocking discovery by those poor boys in the wood.
Speaker 1: It seems we're no closer to finding the truth. However,
Speaker 1: the newspaper archive does give us a fascinating glimpse into
Speaker 1: some of the series and the legends that have trickled
Speaker 1: down through the decades of the mysterious Lady of Hagley Wood.
Speaker 1: One thing of interest that stood out to me most
Speaker 1: You know, everyone has a family named don't man. Let
Speaker 1: you guys know me as Debrah hatswell. But when I
Speaker 1: was my family don't for my family, I'm w Crossley,
Speaker 1: so most of my life my name is in Wi Loom.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to know what the origins of the
Speaker 1: name Lou Bello was. Ah, what its meaning is. It
Speaker 1: seems it is of Italian origin and it means battles
Speaker 1: the famous fairy maiden, which I found absolutely fascinating. Now
Speaker 1: these days, you know that case would have been solved
Speaker 1: really easily using modern forensics and DNA testing. We probably
Speaker 1: would know who Bella was. Now we would do genetic DNA.
Speaker 1: We would go into Ances Street and try and find
Speaker 1: her father or her mother and work back from there.
Speaker 1: Somebody back in those days, that cardigan was probably hand
Speaker 1: knitted and somebody would know or be able to know
Speaker 1: the pattern, because another thing about the UK and Europe
Speaker 1: is that a lot of places have their own knitting
Speaker 1: pattern and it's a way of knowing where you're from,
Speaker 1: especially in places like the Highlands or you know, island.
Speaker 1: My grandfather already only ever wore the same kind of
Speaker 1: knit jumper. It's a strange thing back in the day, obviously,
Speaker 1: isn't it. But yeah, it's a fascinating case in it.
Speaker 1: Who put Lou beller in the witch and somebody out
Speaker 1: there knows. And the strange thing is she has descendants,
Speaker 1: no doubt from maybe brothers or sisters, as does the murderer,
Speaker 1: and maybe walking around out there not knowing a link
Speaker 1: to the strange case. A Smith ghost murder case of
Speaker 1: eighteen oh four set a legal precedent in the UK
Speaker 1: regarding self defense, meaning that someone could be held liable
Speaker 1: for their actions even if they were the consequences of
Speaker 1: a mistaken belief. So towards the end of eighteen oh three,
Speaker 1: many people claim to have been seen or even being
Speaker 1: attacked by a ghost in the Hammersmith area of London.
Speaker 1: The ghost believed by locals to be the spirit of
Speaker 1: a man who took his own life. And January the third,
Speaker 1: eighteen oh four, a twenty nine year old excise officer
Speaker 1: named Francis Smith, a member of one of the Armed
Speaker 1: Guard patrols set up in Awaker reports, shot and killed
Speaker 1: a bricklayer, Thomas Millwood, mistaking the white clothes of Wilmore's
Speaker 1: trade for the shroud of a ghostly apparition. Smith was
Speaker 1: found guilty of murder and sentenced to death, later commuted
Speaker 1: to one year's hard labor the difference. Now, the issues
Speaker 1: surrounding the case were not settled for one hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty years, until the Court of Appeal made a decision
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty four. Let's look at the local reports
Speaker 1: of the ghost for some context on the murder. Now.
Speaker 1: Local people said that the ghost was that of a
Speaker 1: man who had died by his own hand the previous
Speaker 1: year and had been buried in Hammersmith Churchyard. The contemporary
Speaker 1: belief was that people who took their own lives should
Speaker 1: not be buried in consecrated ground, as the soul's would
Speaker 1: not then be at rest. The apparition was described as
Speaker 1: being a very tall man dressed all in white, but
Speaker 1: also said to wear a calf skinned garment with horns
Speaker 1: and large eyeglasses at other times, so the witness reports
Speaker 1: a very very different anor. Stories about the ghosts soon
Speaker 1: began to circulate. Two women, one elderly and one pregnant,
Speaker 1: were reported to have been seized by the ghost on
Speaker 1: separate occasions while walking near the churchyard. They were apparently
Speaker 1: so frightened that they both died from shock a few
Speaker 1: days afterwards. A brewer's servant, almost groom, later testified that
Speaker 1: while walking through the church with the companion one night,
Speaker 1: close to nine pm, something rose from behind a tombstone
Speaker 1: and seized him by the throat. Hearing the scuffle, his
Speaker 1: companion turned around, at which the ghost gave me a
Speaker 1: twist around and I saw nothing. I gave it a
Speaker 1: bit of a push, he said. I hit it with
Speaker 1: my fist. I felt something soft, like a great coat.
Speaker 1: On the twenty ninth of December, Wlliam Girdler, a night watchman,
Speaker 1: saw the ghost while near beaver Lane and gave chase.
Speaker 1: The apparition threw off its shroud and managed to escape.
Speaker 1: In London, not having an organized police force at the time,
Speaker 1: many people set up kind of like a citizen's party,
Speaker 1: armed patrols in the hope of apprehending the ghost at
Speaker 1: the corner of Beaver Lane. While making his rounds at
Speaker 1: ten thirty pm and third of eighteen o four, Gerda
Speaker 1: met one of the armed citizens who was also patrolling
Speaker 1: the area, and that was the twenty nine year old
Speaker 1: Francis Smith. Smith was armed with a shotgun. Smith told
Speaker 1: Girdley he was going to look for the ghost, so
Speaker 1: they'd set up together at eleven pm at night, just
Speaker 1: after eleven, Smith encountered Thomas Millwood, a brick layer who
Speaker 1: was wearing what at the time was normal for his
Speaker 1: trade or white clothing. He had linen trousers which were
Speaker 1: white and washed and very clean, a waistcoat of white
Speaker 1: flown apparently knew and very white, and an apron which
Speaker 1: he wore around him. Mister Millwood had been heading home
Speaker 1: from a visit to his parents and sister, who lived
Speaker 1: in Black Lion Lane. According to his sister Anne, the
Speaker 1: brick layer left and immediately afterwards she heard mister Smith
Speaker 1: challenge him, saying, damn you, who are you? What are you?
Speaker 1: Damn you? I'll shoot you, after which Smith shot him
Speaker 1: in the left lower jar and killed him Outright after
Speaker 1: hearing the short, Girdler and Smith's neighbor, one John Locke,
Speaker 1: together with George Stowe, met Smith, who appeared very much
Speaker 1: agitated upon seeing Millwood's body, and they advised Smith to
Speaker 1: return to his home. Meanwhile, I Constable arrived at the
Speaker 1: scene and tuck Smith into custody. Millwood's corpse was carried
Speaker 1: to an inn where a surgeon mister Fowler, examined the
Speaker 1: body on the six of John and pronounced death to
Speaker 1: be the result of a gunshot wound on the left
Speaker 1: side of the lower jaw. His small shot about the
Speaker 1: size number four, and that I penetrated the vertebrae of
Speaker 1: the neck and went into the spinal marrow. Smith was
Speaker 1: trying for wilful murder now. The deceased wife, missus Fulbrook,
Speaker 1: stated that she had warned him to cover his white
Speaker 1: clothing with a greatcoat, as he'd already been mistaken for
Speaker 1: the ghost on a previous occasion. On the Saturday evening,
Speaker 1: she said, him and I were at home for her
Speaker 1: live with me. He said he had frightened two ladies
Speaker 1: and a gentleman who were coming along the terrace in
Speaker 1: the carriage. For that. The man said he dared to say,
Speaker 1: there goes that ghost. That he said he was no
Speaker 1: more of a ghost than he was, and he asked him,
Speaker 1: using a bad word, did he want to punch on
Speaker 1: the head. I begged him to change his dress. She said,
Speaker 1: there's a piece of work about the ghosts, and your
Speaker 1: clothes look white, prey. Put on your greatcoat tonight and
Speaker 1: that may not run into any day. Millwood's sister testified
Speaker 1: that although Smith had called on her brother to stop
Speaker 1: or he would shoot. He fired the gun immediately. Despite
Speaker 1: a number of declarations of Smith's food character. The chief Judge,
Speaker 1: Large Chief Baron, Archibald McDonald advised the jury that malice
Speaker 1: was not required for murder, merely the intent to kill.
Speaker 1: All killing whatever amounts to murder unless justified by the law,
Speaker 1: or in self defense in cases of some involuntary acts
Speaker 1: or some sufficiently violent provocation or lauri is just so
Speaker 1: long winded in it. Basically, after considering for an hour,
Speaker 1: the jury returned the verdict of manslaughter. McDonald informed the
Speaker 1: jury that the court could not receive such a verdict
Speaker 1: and that they must either find Smith guilty of murder
Speaker 1: or acquitting. The jury, then returning the verdict of guilty
Speaker 1: and after passing the customary sentence of death, MacDonald said
Speaker 1: that he intended to report the case to the King,
Speaker 1: who had the power to commute the sentence. The initial
Speaker 1: sentencing of hanging, drawing, and quartering was commuted to a
Speaker 1: year tired labor. I bet it was just about that
Speaker 1: now the used publicity to give in to the case
Speaker 1: persuaded the true culprit, the ghost, to come forward. John Graham,
Speaker 1: an elderly shoemaker, had been pretending to be a ghost
Speaker 1: by using a white sheet to frighten his appentice as
Speaker 1: he walked home to pay him back, after the apprentice
Speaker 1: had been scaring Graham's children in ghost stories so much
Speaker 1: that they wouldn't sleep. Now there's no record of Graham
Speaker 1: ever being punished. What an absolute debacle. They seems to
Speaker 1: have been beset by a series of calamities. I would
Speaker 1: you imagine what's happened is one person has seen this
Speaker 1: Graham dressed up as a ghost, and you know it's gone,
Speaker 1: and then the next thing, it's got horns and it's fairy,
Speaker 1: and you know it's got eyes like spectacles, and that's
Speaker 1: kind of what happens in it. Poor man got shot
Speaker 1: for nothing, just walking on from work one day after
Speaker 1: he'd bince visit his mum and dad. And it took
Speaker 1: them one hundred and eighty years to change the law,
Speaker 1: which is just mind boggling, isn't it. Now? I couldn't
Speaker 1: speak about Hammersmith without mentioning the unsolved mystery of a
Speaker 1: series of gruesome murders that's kept London in the dark
Speaker 1: for over sixty years. Now. These happened one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty years after The Ghosts was shot. Between nineteen sixty
Speaker 1: four and sixty five, a number of female brasses were
Speaker 1: brutally killed, and despite intense media interest and one of
Speaker 1: the biggest man unts in Scotland yard history, that killer
Speaker 1: has never been caught. Now. The mystery serial killer was
Speaker 1: dubbed Jack the strip Off due to the way in
Speaker 1: which the victims were found undressed in or near the
Speaker 1: River Thames. The string of murders, which was originally known
Speaker 1: as the Hammersmith Nude murders. They had received significant attention
Speaker 1: over the years, with many theories being put forward. At
Speaker 1: least six women are officially listed as victims of Jack
Speaker 1: the Stripper, but it is thought it could be up
Speaker 1: to eight. To this day, no one knows exactly who
Speaker 1: the murderer was or how many victims there were. Elizabeth
Speaker 1: Fig twenty one and Gwinney Threes twenty two, two women
Speaker 1: thought to be the early victims of the killer. Elizabeth
Speaker 1: was found out on June seventeenth, fifty nine, five years
Speaker 1: before the Jack the Shiper murders started. Her body was
Speaker 1: found near the River Thames in Chiswick, and many have
Speaker 1: noted the considerable similarities to the latter murders, such as
Speaker 1: the location, the method of death being strangulation. Welsh born
Speaker 1: Gwyneth was found dead in a rubbish tip four years
Speaker 1: later on November eighth, ninety sixty three. Once again, investigators
Speaker 1: thought her death may have been an early murder of
Speaker 1: Jack The's stripperff due to a body being found near
Speaker 1: the River Thames, and she was also strangled. Several other
Speaker 1: teeth were also missing when a body was discovered. The
Speaker 1: first official victim of the strip off is start to
Speaker 1: be Hannah Tailford when she was thirty years old and
Speaker 1: had two children. There were many physical similarities between her
Speaker 1: and the two earlier possible victims. She was short and
Speaker 1: she was slim. Her body was found by the River
Speaker 1: Thames in February sixty four. She'd been strangled, several of
Speaker 1: her teeth are missing, and her underwear had been stuffed
Speaker 1: into her mouth, just like Bella. At first, the police
Speaker 1: did not seem to take the case too seriously because
Speaker 1: these were working girls, you know, instead putting her death
Speaker 1: down to a possible misadventure kind of occupational hazard, as
Speaker 1: they say. As little as two months later on in
Speaker 1: the April, on that same stretch of river, the body
Speaker 1: of twenty five year old pregnant woman Irene Lockeup was found.
Speaker 1: She was also petite and she was from Nottinghamshire, and
Speaker 1: she was found naked based down in the river. Police
Speaker 1: quickly worked out that she'd also been strangled. With the
Speaker 1: discovery of another strangled woman, the police began to suspect
Speaker 1: they had a serial killer on the loose. Another possible
Speaker 1: victim was discovered just weeks later, when twenty two year
Speaker 1: old Helen Bartholomeer was found dumped in an alley in Brentford.
Speaker 1: Like the other victims, Helen was missing a front teeth,
Speaker 1: which came to be a recognizable trait of the killer.
Speaker 1: Hellen's death gave investigators their first piece of solid evidence
Speaker 1: when they found flex of paint used in calm manufacturing Honor.
Speaker 1: They felt the paint likely came from the killer's workplace,
Speaker 1: and therefore focused on nearby businesses. The next victim was
Speaker 1: thirty year old Mary Fleming, whose body was similarly discovered
Speaker 1: with paint spots on it, but without the advanced technology
Speaker 1: we have now, you know, we're unable to use that forensically.
Speaker 1: Back then, the front teeth were missing and she had
Speaker 1: been strangled and her body was found on clothed Witnesses
Speaker 1: also recalled here in a car reversing down the street
Speaker 1: shortly before the body was discovered. The body of twenty
Speaker 1: one year old Margaret McGowan, who also went by the
Speaker 1: name Francis Brown, was found in Kensington in November of
Speaker 1: sixty four. She was last seen allied by her friend
Speaker 1: fellow brass Kim Taylor, a month before her body was found.
Speaker 1: The Scottish woman was a lady of the night like
Speaker 1: the other victims, and had worked at the higher end
Speaker 1: of the trade with clients including businessmen and politicians. She
Speaker 1: testified actually with Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice David at
Speaker 1: Stephen Wall's trial in the midst of the infamous Perfumo scandal.
Speaker 1: Margaret's spend was reportedly with her when the man believed
Speaker 1: to be a killer hit her up, meaning she is
Speaker 1: able to provide police with a description of the man's car,
Speaker 1: thought either to be a Ford Zephyr or a Zodiac.
Speaker 1: Now it's believed that a local boxer was responsible for
Speaker 1: the crimes, or like most serial killers, he probably would
Speaker 1: have started in his early teens and even younger because
Speaker 1: they don't just instantly start with murder. It's kind of
Speaker 1: an escalation of events that leads to that. When I
Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed what I've brought you tonight. And they
Speaker 1: may not be from the case files of BBR, but
Speaker 1: there are things that I'm interested in and I thought
Speaker 1: that you'd be interested in them too. So if you
Speaker 1: like content like this, please subscribe or if it's a
Speaker 1: rash are it really helps to grow our channel. I
Speaker 1: will be back next week with some more amazing stories
Speaker 1: from the BBR case files. Good Night everyone,