WEBVTT 1 00:00:29.760 --> 00:00:33.600 Today I'm sharing the case of the pitch Park murders 2 00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:38.679 killed on Valentine's Stay. In nineteen forty five, Charles Walton 3 00:00:38.920 --> 00:00:41.640 came to a bloody end at a fair farm in 4 00:00:41.719 --> 00:00:46.600 Lower Quinty, a Warwickshire village where he lived. The seventy 5 00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:49.920 four year old farm laborer was known to be slightly 6 00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:53.880 an unusual character, although he was well liked in the 7 00:00:53.960 --> 00:00:58.719 village where he lived with his niece Edie. On February fourteenth, 8 00:00:58.920 --> 00:01:02.240 nineteen forty five, he was trimming hedges on the farm 9 00:01:02.280 --> 00:01:05.319 where he worked for a farm having walked to work 10 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:08.719 that morning carrying a pitch bark and a slash up, 11 00:01:09.239 --> 00:01:11.359 and the slash up is used for cutting branches, he 12 00:01:11.400 --> 00:01:14.840 will have been laying down hedging. Edith returned on from 13 00:01:14.840 --> 00:01:18.000 work about four pm and was surprised to find her 14 00:01:18.120 --> 00:01:22.480 uncle not at home. His habits were normally as regular 15 00:01:22.519 --> 00:01:26.840 as clockwork, and so after a while she asked a neighbor, 16 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:30.480 Harry Beasley, if he would help search for him. Immediately 17 00:01:30.519 --> 00:01:35.840 went to the fur and Alfred Potter, Walton's employer, joined 18 00:01:35.879 --> 00:01:38.239 them as they walked a where Potter claimed to have 19 00:01:38.359 --> 00:01:43.519 last seen Charles cutting edges sometime between twelve and twelve 20 00:01:43.560 --> 00:01:51.680 thirty pm. Mister Potter gave at least three separate timestamps 21 00:01:51.879 --> 00:01:56.560 for when he claimed that he'd seen Charles in his 22 00:01:56.640 --> 00:02:00.200 shirts leaves working on the edge cutting. As he said, 23 00:02:00.200 --> 00:02:03.640 he walked home from the Collige Arms pub. Before long 24 00:02:04.280 --> 00:02:08.159 the trio came upon the body of Charles Walton. The 25 00:02:08.199 --> 00:02:11.240 old man had been brutally murdered. He'd been beaten about 26 00:02:11.240 --> 00:02:13.919 the head and faced with his own walking stick, and 27 00:02:13.960 --> 00:02:16.520 there were injuries to his hands and arms where he 28 00:02:16.560 --> 00:02:19.599 had tried to fend off those blows. And then his 29 00:02:19.599 --> 00:02:22.800 throat had been slashed open with his own slash up 30 00:02:23.479 --> 00:02:27.280 which had been buried into his neck with great force. 31 00:02:28.159 --> 00:02:31.800 And finally, a pitch bark had been thrushed into his 32 00:02:31.919 --> 00:02:35.680 neck so powerfully that he completely pinned his body to 33 00:02:35.719 --> 00:02:39.680 the ground, as if to keep his spirit from rising. 34 00:02:40.759 --> 00:02:44.479 A large cross was also carved into his chest, leading 35 00:02:44.560 --> 00:02:48.599 villagers to suspect that Witchcraft was somehow involved in the 36 00:02:48.639 --> 00:02:52.639 savage killing. His pocket watch was missing, and it was 37 00:02:52.719 --> 00:03:00.560 found invariably fifteen years later in his home. Houses had 38 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:04.240 been unfastened and his slies were undone. His shirt, too 39 00:03:04.520 --> 00:03:08.800 had been unfastened, and many people have claimed subsequently that 40 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:12.919 a cross had been cut into Charles's chest, perhaps the 41 00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:18.639 source of the witchcraft theory. Despite his employer mister Potter's 42 00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:21.199 claims to have seen him with his shirts leaves rolled up, 43 00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:24.719 child was wearing a short sleeve shirt was found with 44 00:03:24.759 --> 00:03:28.639 his shackyon. Whoever did the deed, was possessed of an 45 00:03:28.719 --> 00:03:34.039 unnatural strength and violence, at least in those terrible fireal 46 00:03:34.199 --> 00:03:39.400 moments of Child's life. Locals were so concerned by the 47 00:03:39.400 --> 00:03:42.759 events that they sent the Scotland Yard and they sent 48 00:03:43.199 --> 00:03:47.759 Inspector Robert Fabian me and Hill where Child's body was found. 49 00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:51.199 As being the subject of strange tales for centuries was 50 00:03:51.319 --> 00:03:55.599 reports of huge black dog stalking a supposedly haunted hill 51 00:03:56.080 --> 00:03:59.879 which appeared from nowhere and no obvious owner was aroure. 52 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:04.400 In fact, the police inspector saw one of these dogs 53 00:04:04.719 --> 00:04:09.240 near the murdercy before hearing about the legends. He thought 54 00:04:09.319 --> 00:04:11.120 it must be long to a small boy who had 55 00:04:11.159 --> 00:04:14.599 appeared soon afterwards, but as soon as he Spector Fabian 56 00:04:14.680 --> 00:04:18.560 mentioned the dog, the boy ran in terror. In eighteen 57 00:04:18.600 --> 00:04:22.199 eighty five, another boy had seen the black dog and 58 00:04:22.319 --> 00:04:26.759 three consecutive nights before a death in his family, and 59 00:04:26.800 --> 00:04:32.360 that dog was a sort of black shook. On the 60 00:04:32.439 --> 00:04:36.759 final occasion, the dog was accompanied by the apparition of 61 00:04:36.839 --> 00:04:43.160 a headless woman. That boy's name was Charles Walton Charles, 62 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:47.279 who was found in the fields all those years later. 63 00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:52.720 A few nights after his body was found, the body 64 00:04:52.759 --> 00:04:56.839 of a black dog was found hanging from a tree 65 00:04:57.399 --> 00:05:00.120 close to his home, and it was said by the 66 00:05:00.199 --> 00:05:05.920 villages that Charles had a strange way with animals, and 67 00:05:05.959 --> 00:05:10.600 that he could calm the fastest of dogs, and birds 68 00:05:10.639 --> 00:05:13.839 would fly and land on to his hand. The mystery 69 00:05:13.879 --> 00:05:17.199 has never been sold. Nobody knows who killed George or 70 00:05:17.279 --> 00:05:20.759 who left him there in that way, and somebody does, 71 00:05:21.519 --> 00:05:26.199 and that somebody probably still has relatives in the area. 72 00:05:26.920 --> 00:05:30.120 Today the normal world will have heard of the screaming 73 00:05:30.199 --> 00:05:34.079 Woods of Pluckley, also known as deer in Woods now. 74 00:05:34.199 --> 00:05:38.120 It is said on Halloween night in nineteen forty eight, 75 00:05:38.879 --> 00:05:43.600 locals reported strange lights, sunweyed sounds that were seen and 76 00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:47.839 heard coming from the surrounding woodland. The next morning, a 77 00:05:47.920 --> 00:05:51.639 dog walker who lived locally discovered the bodies of over 78 00:05:51.720 --> 00:05:58.199 twenty people, including several children, lying scattered in piles amongst 79 00:05:58.199 --> 00:06:02.360 the leaf litter. Sadly, they were identified as villagers from 80 00:06:02.360 --> 00:06:07.439 the nearby Mountman's Hill area. Their bodies showed no visible 81 00:06:07.480 --> 00:06:10.959 wounds signs of the struggle, and an autopsy failed to 82 00:06:11.040 --> 00:06:14.399 determine a clear cause of death, which led to the 83 00:06:14.399 --> 00:06:19.360 police labeling the deaths as caused by carbon monoxide poisoning 84 00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:24.839 and closing the investigation, despite the usual symptoms of CMP 85 00:06:25.639 --> 00:06:29.040 not being there on the bodies. In nineteen sixty four, 86 00:06:29.639 --> 00:06:33.759 private investigator Robert Collins was determined to solve the mystery 87 00:06:33.759 --> 00:06:38.160 of the woods. Allegedly, it said a religious cult in 88 00:06:38.319 --> 00:06:43.879 Smarsden could have been responsible for the Halloween massacre. Robert 89 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:49.680 conducted extensive witness interviews and might have been onto something. Unfortunately, 90 00:06:50.319 --> 00:06:54.839 he died in a tragic car accident in nineteen sixty five. 91 00:06:56.199 --> 00:07:01.879 Was his death coincidence or another murder? Now? In nineteen 92 00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:05.199 ninety eight, fifty years later, on the anniversary of the 93 00:07:05.240 --> 00:07:11.319 mass death, villagers saw an odd spider shaped light covering 94 00:07:11.959 --> 00:07:16.519 over the woods and feared the worst. That night, four 95 00:07:16.800 --> 00:07:21.160 college students who camped in the woods disappeared and we're 96 00:07:21.199 --> 00:07:27.519 never seen again. Oddler. The police investigation was abandoned three 97 00:07:27.560 --> 00:07:33.560 weeks later. I know a couple of cryptid investigators that 98 00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:38.000 have had their own experience in the strange Pullock cly Woods. 99 00:07:39.240 --> 00:07:42.240 Have you have you ever been there? Have you ever 100 00:07:42.279 --> 00:07:45.000 heard of the mystery? And if you have been there 101 00:07:45.040 --> 00:07:47.920 and seen something, I'd love to getting touch and let 102 00:07:47.959 --> 00:07:51.920 me know or murder I'm sharing next. He's one written 103 00:07:52.120 --> 00:07:56.000 by the world of famous psychic researcher Tom Sleemy, which 104 00:07:56.079 --> 00:07:58.560 from my neck of the woods, and it's called Look 105 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:01.759 for Me at Midnight Now. Tom is very well known 106 00:08:01.839 --> 00:08:04.639 here in the Northwest of England and all across the UK. 107 00:08:05.240 --> 00:08:07.360 He has a number of books that I would urge 108 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:09.720 you to check out and if you like my content, 109 00:08:09.800 --> 00:08:13.959 you'll absolutely love Tom's Now. In this case, Tom tells 110 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:17.800 the Hanky Tale of the Axe Man. Now. It all 111 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:22.279 started in January nineteen seventy seven and two bachelors, twenty 112 00:08:22.319 --> 00:08:26.079 three year old John Wildman, a security guard from Liverpool, 113 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:30.079 and Nigel Selby, a twenty seven year old librarian from 114 00:08:30.120 --> 00:08:35.639 Birkenhead and the former boyfriend of John's sister Joanne. They 115 00:08:35.679 --> 00:08:38.519 decided to move in together and went to look for 116 00:08:38.600 --> 00:08:42.360 a decent Patchel flat. Both young men were still living 117 00:08:42.360 --> 00:08:44.799 at home and they felt that they's done a better 118 00:08:44.879 --> 00:08:47.879 chance with the ladies if they had their own pad. 119 00:08:48.600 --> 00:08:54.559 After much searching, Nigel spotted a luxurious low rent furnished 120 00:08:54.600 --> 00:08:57.559 at it flat and it was advertising their local rag. 121 00:08:58.279 --> 00:09:01.159 The flat was in a rather goth thick looking house 122 00:09:01.240 --> 00:09:06.440 on Park Road West, right on top of Birkenhead Park. Now. 123 00:09:06.600 --> 00:09:08.960 The two lads looked at the flat and agreed that 124 00:09:09.039 --> 00:09:12.000 although it was a bit glorified and it was just 125 00:09:12.120 --> 00:09:15.559 more of an attic, twenty five pounds a week was reasonable. 126 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:19.200 We paid the deposit and moved him. John was a 127 00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:22.639 keep fit enthusiast and looked forward to jogging around the 128 00:09:22.639 --> 00:09:26.799 nearby park, and Nigel claimed the little side room off 129 00:09:26.960 --> 00:09:30.639 the open plan lounge and kitchen. As he stood where 130 00:09:30.639 --> 00:09:34.279 he could line the walls with bookshelves. The only mind 131 00:09:34.279 --> 00:09:36.879 of great John Wildman had was some of the old 132 00:09:36.919 --> 00:09:41.480 furniture the landlord had left behind, a rickety dining chair, 133 00:09:41.960 --> 00:09:45.960 a huge ornamentally framed mirror which measured six feet in 134 00:09:46.159 --> 00:09:50.240 height and three feet in width. John had mistaken the 135 00:09:50.320 --> 00:09:54.519 mirror for a doorway at first, as it was mounted 136 00:09:54.600 --> 00:09:58.360 flush against the wall. Nigel liked it. John said it 137 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:02.080 was too big and great difficulty. He removed it from 138 00:10:02.080 --> 00:10:06.399 the wall. I found had a loose mahogany panel on 139 00:10:06.440 --> 00:10:10.840 its reverse. Took it off and saw a green tinted 140 00:10:10.879 --> 00:10:14.600 mirror of the same dimensions as the one on either side, 141 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:19.639 and upon looking at it, there were some faint, greasy 142 00:10:19.720 --> 00:10:25.600 looking words, possibly written in lipstick in some foreign language. 143 00:10:26.279 --> 00:10:29.039 Now Nigel was an avid reader of Voltaire and spoke 144 00:10:29.080 --> 00:10:33.639 French fluently, so he knew immediately what the mirrors scrawled 145 00:10:33.799 --> 00:10:39.519 message was. It said, looked for me at midnight now. 146 00:10:39.879 --> 00:10:43.480 Nigel later asked an own female resident downstairs if the 147 00:10:43.480 --> 00:10:46.840 previous occupier of the flat had been French, and he 148 00:10:46.919 --> 00:10:50.279 was told that it had been an old eccentric American 149 00:10:50.720 --> 00:10:55.279 that came from New Orleans named Richard Montford. He died 150 00:10:55.759 --> 00:10:59.000 nearly seven years back, and the flat had been empty 151 00:10:59.039 --> 00:11:04.080 all since. Around this time, John Warner's grandfather passed away 152 00:11:04.440 --> 00:11:07.399 over in Liverpool and the old man left John one 153 00:11:07.399 --> 00:11:11.639 thousand pounding his will tidy sun Back then, John said 154 00:11:11.639 --> 00:11:13.919 he'd use some of the money to get the flag decorated. 155 00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:17.759 He also, would you know, install a waterbed and build 156 00:11:17.759 --> 00:11:21.480 a cocktail bar in the kitchen. John and Nigel and 157 00:11:21.559 --> 00:11:23.799 went to the nearest pub and met a couple of 158 00:11:23.919 --> 00:11:27.519 very attractive ladies in their early twenties named Judy and Holly. 159 00:11:27.799 --> 00:11:30.440 As the scene plays out, I can guarantee it would 160 00:11:30.440 --> 00:11:34.120 have included a curly perm, some high kerta and some 161 00:11:34.240 --> 00:11:38.039 fire pants with his sharpest greasy Nan could iron now. 162 00:11:38.120 --> 00:11:41.000 The girls said they were our students, and pretty soon 163 00:11:41.080 --> 00:11:43.960 Holly made it clear that she liked John, and Judy 164 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:46.639 kind of lashed onto Nigel and the four of them 165 00:11:46.879 --> 00:11:49.759 sat in a corner chatting and drinking the evening away. 166 00:11:50.759 --> 00:11:54.480 By eleven forty pm, Nigel was discussing his love for 167 00:11:54.600 --> 00:11:58.600 abstract art with Judy, while Holly embraced a drunken John 168 00:11:58.720 --> 00:12:02.360 as they slowly danced Leo Sayers When I Need You 169 00:12:02.399 --> 00:12:05.600 on the jukebox. The lawndlads said there was a locking, 170 00:12:05.799 --> 00:12:07.519 and the girl said they were just going to go 171 00:12:07.559 --> 00:12:09.759 and powder their noses. But they were gone for quite 172 00:12:09.799 --> 00:12:12.840 some time. I concerned, John asked the bar maybe if 173 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:14.960 she'd go into the toilets if the girls were there. 174 00:12:15.759 --> 00:12:18.799 The toilet was found to be empty. The barman said 175 00:12:18.840 --> 00:12:23.360 he'd never seen the two girls before, or them in 176 00:12:23.399 --> 00:12:26.879 the pub. Or even in the toilets. Then did John 177 00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:30.039 delve into his Geene pockets and discovered that he couldn't 178 00:12:30.039 --> 00:12:33.679 find the keys to the flat, and Nigel discovered that 179 00:12:33.799 --> 00:12:37.240 his set of keys was also missing. When we were dancing, 180 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:42.759 did those girls no, surely not yet, he said, we've 181 00:12:42.759 --> 00:12:45.480 probably just been robbed. Those girls have had our keys off, 182 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:49.159 you know. So the two men staggered out of the pub, 183 00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:54.600 both in a livid estate, absolutely through me. That's you 184 00:12:54.720 --> 00:12:57.320 talking about all that money you've got off your uncle, 185 00:12:57.360 --> 00:13:00.039 yoll Nigel, that's what's done it. You turned it in 186 00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:04.840 to victims. They found Judy out called on the floor 187 00:13:04.879 --> 00:13:08.080 of the flat with a gash to her forehead, and 188 00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:10.559 when she came to, she said, a weird looking man 189 00:13:10.600 --> 00:13:13.639 in a hood with two eye holes in a creepy, 190 00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:16.519 smiling slit of a mouth. They'd come out of the 191 00:13:16.600 --> 00:13:19.559 long mirror. He had a cook where his right hand 192 00:13:19.559 --> 00:13:22.919 should have been, and he'd hit her with it. Judy's 193 00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:26.399 accomplice ran into the arms of two policemen on the beat. 194 00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:30.639 In his hysterical state, she said a hooded man brandishing 195 00:13:30.679 --> 00:13:32.919 an ax had tried to kill her, and she too 196 00:13:33.080 --> 00:13:36.559 mentioned the cook he had come with for a right hand. 197 00:13:37.320 --> 00:13:39.600 Ali said she thought the monster had killed a friend 198 00:13:40.159 --> 00:13:43.480 when it had come out of the mirror. The police 199 00:13:43.559 --> 00:13:46.080 thought Ollie had been drinking at first, but then they 200 00:13:46.159 --> 00:13:50.399 wondered if some prankster was behind his weird attack the girls. 201 00:13:50.559 --> 00:13:53.639 The police discovered at a criminal record and they work 202 00:13:53.720 --> 00:13:55.720 on artists, and they were going to robe the boys 203 00:13:55.720 --> 00:13:59.159 that night, and they were charged, and John and Nigel 204 00:13:59.240 --> 00:14:02.919 later moved the flat. When that long mirror started shaking 205 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:09.919 violently one night, what was haunting it now? Tom said, 206 00:14:10.120 --> 00:14:12.679 I trace the owner of that mirror to a certain 207 00:14:12.759 --> 00:14:16.000 quarter in New Orleans, and I have a sneaking suspicion 208 00:14:16.559 --> 00:14:19.399 there might have been one of the occultists who back 209 00:14:19.519 --> 00:14:23.759 in nineteen eighteen hunted up the demon known as the 210 00:14:23.799 --> 00:14:29.120 Axe Man, a mysterious murderer who killed six people and 211 00:14:29.200 --> 00:14:32.720 injured so many more. And I was vanished into the 212 00:14:32.840 --> 00:14:37.960 night despite a massive police presence. And what happened to 213 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:42.799 that mirror? And where is it now? Because nobody seems 214 00:14:42.879 --> 00:14:46.120 to know. No UK murder mystery theories would be complete 215 00:14:46.759 --> 00:14:50.080 without the almost eighty year old case of Beller in 216 00:14:50.120 --> 00:14:54.000 the Witch Owl. The discovery of skeleton remains in the 217 00:14:54.080 --> 00:14:58.279 tree were found during April of nineteen forty three my 218 00:14:58.440 --> 00:15:02.399 full local boys who went bird nested in Hagleywood, which 219 00:15:02.440 --> 00:15:06.559 is located just outside of Stourbridge and must One of 220 00:15:06.600 --> 00:15:11.840 the boys then made a very shocking discovery. Robert Hall 221 00:15:12.399 --> 00:15:15.919 of Wolves Coach Stourbridge, told the Coroner in jury. At 222 00:15:15.960 --> 00:15:19.399 midday on Sunday, April the eighteenth, he and three other 223 00:15:19.480 --> 00:15:23.039 lads went bird nesting in the wood. He left the others, 224 00:15:23.320 --> 00:15:26.039 walked off alone and went to the stump of an 225 00:15:26.080 --> 00:15:30.159 old elm tree. Looking in, he saw, to his horror 226 00:15:30.639 --> 00:15:33.679 the top of the skull. He called his friends across 227 00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:36.159 the sea and one of them raped the skull out 228 00:15:36.200 --> 00:15:38.399 of the tree with a stick, and in panic they 229 00:15:38.440 --> 00:15:41.679 put it back again and ran home. When they got home, 230 00:15:41.879 --> 00:15:44.559 one of them mentioned it to the father, who then 231 00:15:44.919 --> 00:15:49.399 telephoned the police. Professor J. M. Webster, who was director 232 00:15:49.399 --> 00:15:53.000 of the West Midlands Forensic Scigns Laboratory, was called to 233 00:15:53.120 --> 00:15:56.320 the scene. The tree trunk was opened out and he 234 00:15:56.399 --> 00:16:00.639 was able to reconstruct the skeleton. He found no evidence 235 00:16:00.679 --> 00:16:04.600 of violence upon any of the bones. However, he did 236 00:16:04.639 --> 00:16:08.159 find part of the garment stuffed deep into the cavity 237 00:16:08.200 --> 00:16:11.559 of the mouth, which might have been the cause of death. 238 00:16:12.559 --> 00:16:15.879 He did not imagine anyone getting into that tree voluntari 239 00:16:16.639 --> 00:16:20.399 whilst the skeleton had been there for at least eighteen months. 240 00:16:21.559 --> 00:16:24.559 With the murder suspected, the police were keen to establish 241 00:16:24.559 --> 00:16:28.759 the identity of the female victim as well as her killer. 242 00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:33.360 A probable description the victim was published by the Hartley 243 00:16:33.399 --> 00:16:36.840 pil Northern Daily Male in the twenty fourth of April 244 00:16:36.960 --> 00:16:41.799 nineteen forty three. The victim's age is estimated has been 245 00:16:41.840 --> 00:16:46.120 between twenty five and farter, most probably around thirty five. 246 00:16:46.799 --> 00:16:49.399 She was five foot in height, with light brown hair, 247 00:16:49.799 --> 00:16:52.840 and she was dressed in a dark blue a mustard 248 00:16:52.919 --> 00:16:57.759 colored striped cardigan and a mustard colored skirt, blue crapes, 249 00:16:57.799 --> 00:17:01.240 old shoes size five and a half. All the garments 250 00:17:01.279 --> 00:17:04.920 were as described as being of poor quality. I know 251 00:17:05.039 --> 00:17:07.920 wedding ring found among the bones was of rolled gold, 252 00:17:08.279 --> 00:17:12.400 probably worth about two and six At the time, despite 253 00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:15.720 hundreds of leads being followed by police and her identity 254 00:17:15.799 --> 00:17:19.920 was not established, the inquest returned the verdicts of murder 255 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:24.200 by some person or personal unknown, and then in nineteen 256 00:17:24.279 --> 00:17:27.920 forty four the case took an even more perplexing twist 257 00:17:28.960 --> 00:17:31.359 chalked on the wall of an empty premises on Upper 258 00:17:31.400 --> 00:17:35.160 Dean Street, Birmingham, with the words who put Bella down? 259 00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:39.519 The witch Elm, Hagleywood. The Sunday Mirror reports that another 260 00:17:39.559 --> 00:17:43.519 message was chalked previously, and that said who put lou 261 00:17:43.599 --> 00:17:47.279 Bello down the witch Elm? At Hayden Hill Road, Old Hill, 262 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:51.240 but it was not connected to the case until the 263 00:17:51.359 --> 00:17:55.759 second piece of writing appeared. According to the Evening Dispatch 264 00:17:55.839 --> 00:17:58.920 on the thirtieth of March forty four, the writing was 265 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:01.160 too high on the wall, have been done by children? 266 00:18:01.200 --> 00:18:04.279 Are boys and the police are inclined to the view 267 00:18:04.480 --> 00:18:07.119 that it is the work of someone coming into the 268 00:18:07.160 --> 00:18:11.359 city early in the morning with farm produce, possibly who 269 00:18:11.400 --> 00:18:14.799 wrote her, But like the victim and a murderer, the 270 00:18:14.839 --> 00:18:19.160 identity of the writer's offer was never uncovered. In a 271 00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:22.240 series of articles in the Birmingham Daily Post in nineteen 272 00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:26.440 sixty eight, Donald mccorbyck takes an extensive look at who 273 00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:29.440 Bella might have been and what might have happened to her. 274 00:18:30.640 --> 00:18:33.519 It was theorized that she may have been a brass 275 00:18:33.599 --> 00:18:37.240 a lady of the night, a scarlet woman, lord by 276 00:18:37.400 --> 00:18:40.119 car to the woods, where she's then met her death. 277 00:18:41.240 --> 00:18:44.200 According to McCormick, the police thought it was more probable 278 00:18:44.240 --> 00:18:46.920 that she was a refugee from the Blitz, for many 279 00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:50.319 people fled from Birmingham when the German air raids came, 280 00:18:50.960 --> 00:18:55.160 and some had been known to shelter in Hagleywood. McCormick 281 00:18:55.279 --> 00:18:58.599 also draws the link to witchcraft because Hagleywood has a 282 00:18:58.759 --> 00:19:02.640 reputation in the horn of witches and always had, and 283 00:19:02.839 --> 00:19:05.480 more compellingly, there is an ancient rite here in the 284 00:19:05.599 --> 00:19:08.079 UK that says that the spirit of a dead witch 285 00:19:08.279 --> 00:19:11.440 could be imprisoned in the hollow of a tree and 286 00:19:11.480 --> 00:19:13.680 then she can't come back, and you know, recab it 287 00:19:13.720 --> 00:19:17.400 anymore in the Villagers. Mister McCormick, however, does not put 288 00:19:17.480 --> 00:19:20.799 much cregence to the motive of witchcraft. He cites a 289 00:19:20.920 --> 00:19:24.680 letter received by the Wolverhampton newspaper in nineteen fifty three 290 00:19:25.160 --> 00:19:29.200 which pro faians the affair is closed and involves no witches, 291 00:19:29.559 --> 00:19:33.759 no black magic, and no moonlit rites. The writer claims 292 00:19:33.759 --> 00:19:36.839 that the victim was a Dutch woman who arrived illegally 293 00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:40.440 in England in nineteen forty one, and that her killer 294 00:19:40.599 --> 00:19:44.720 died of madness. A year later after she was killed, 295 00:19:45.519 --> 00:19:48.640 McCormick explores the theory that Bella was in fact the 296 00:19:48.799 --> 00:19:53.880 Dutch girlfriend of a German intelligence recruiter named Laher, who 297 00:19:53.960 --> 00:19:57.200 had had a lover in Kidderminster before the war and 298 00:19:57.440 --> 00:20:01.359 was fluent in English. German intelligen records tell of an 299 00:20:01.400 --> 00:20:05.640 agent code named Clara who was dropped into the area 300 00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:10.440 between Birmingham and Kidderminster between March and April of nineteen 301 00:20:10.519 --> 00:20:13.640 forty one. There is nothing to say that she was 302 00:20:13.720 --> 00:20:17.920 dropped in Hagleywood, but you know she never again made 303 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:22.079 contact with the intelligence agency. So who put Bella in 304 00:20:22.119 --> 00:20:25.720 the witch elm? Almost eighty years on now, you know? 305 00:20:26.279 --> 00:20:29.240 And that shocking discovery by those poor boys in the wood. 306 00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:33.200 It seems we're no closer to finding the truth. However, 307 00:20:33.359 --> 00:20:37.640 the newspaper archive does give us a fascinating glimpse into 308 00:20:37.640 --> 00:20:40.640 some of the series and the legends that have trickled 309 00:20:40.720 --> 00:20:44.319 down through the decades of the mysterious Lady of Hagley Wood. 310 00:20:45.559 --> 00:20:47.799 One thing of interest that stood out to me most 311 00:20:48.079 --> 00:20:50.720 You know, everyone has a family named don't man. Let 312 00:20:50.759 --> 00:20:53.200 you guys know me as Debrah hatswell. But when I 313 00:20:53.279 --> 00:20:56.359 was my family don't for my family, I'm w Crossley, 314 00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:00.880 so most of my life my name is in Wi Loom. 315 00:21:01.200 --> 00:21:03.400 So I wanted to know what the origins of the 316 00:21:03.480 --> 00:21:08.359 name Lou Bello was. Ah, what its meaning is. It 317 00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:12.720 seems it is of Italian origin and it means battles 318 00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:17.759 the famous fairy maiden, which I found absolutely fascinating. Now 319 00:21:17.920 --> 00:21:20.720 these days, you know that case would have been solved 320 00:21:20.799 --> 00:21:25.480 really easily using modern forensics and DNA testing. We probably 321 00:21:25.480 --> 00:21:29.519 would know who Bella was. Now we would do genetic DNA. 322 00:21:29.720 --> 00:21:31.960 We would go into Ances Street and try and find 323 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:35.039 her father or her mother and work back from there. 324 00:21:36.160 --> 00:21:39.640 Somebody back in those days, that cardigan was probably hand 325 00:21:39.720 --> 00:21:43.559 knitted and somebody would know or be able to know 326 00:21:43.680 --> 00:21:46.960 the pattern, because another thing about the UK and Europe 327 00:21:47.039 --> 00:21:49.359 is that a lot of places have their own knitting 328 00:21:49.400 --> 00:21:52.160 pattern and it's a way of knowing where you're from, 329 00:21:52.559 --> 00:21:56.039 especially in places like the Highlands or you know, island. 330 00:21:56.160 --> 00:21:59.200 My grandfather already only ever wore the same kind of 331 00:21:59.279 --> 00:22:02.119 knit jumper. It's a strange thing back in the day, obviously, 332 00:22:02.160 --> 00:22:04.759 isn't it. But yeah, it's a fascinating case in it. 333 00:22:05.119 --> 00:22:07.880 Who put Lou beller in the witch and somebody out 334 00:22:07.920 --> 00:22:12.119 there knows. And the strange thing is she has descendants, 335 00:22:12.440 --> 00:22:16.799 no doubt from maybe brothers or sisters, as does the murderer, 336 00:22:17.359 --> 00:22:20.279 and maybe walking around out there not knowing a link 337 00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:24.119 to the strange case. A Smith ghost murder case of 338 00:22:24.279 --> 00:22:28.039 eighteen oh four set a legal precedent in the UK 339 00:22:28.319 --> 00:22:32.640 regarding self defense, meaning that someone could be held liable 340 00:22:32.680 --> 00:22:36.440 for their actions even if they were the consequences of 341 00:22:36.480 --> 00:22:40.000 a mistaken belief. So towards the end of eighteen oh three, 342 00:22:40.319 --> 00:22:43.400 many people claim to have been seen or even being 343 00:22:43.440 --> 00:22:47.240 attacked by a ghost in the Hammersmith area of London. 344 00:22:47.920 --> 00:22:50.799 The ghost believed by locals to be the spirit of 345 00:22:50.839 --> 00:22:54.319 a man who took his own life. And January the third, 346 00:22:54.440 --> 00:22:57.960 eighteen oh four, a twenty nine year old excise officer 347 00:22:58.400 --> 00:23:01.519 named Francis Smith, a member of one of the Armed 348 00:23:01.519 --> 00:23:06.039 Guard patrols set up in Awaker reports, shot and killed 349 00:23:06.039 --> 00:23:11.200 a bricklayer, Thomas Millwood, mistaking the white clothes of Wilmore's 350 00:23:11.480 --> 00:23:16.079 trade for the shroud of a ghostly apparition. Smith was 351 00:23:16.119 --> 00:23:20.319 found guilty of murder and sentenced to death, later commuted 352 00:23:20.400 --> 00:23:24.359 to one year's hard labor the difference. Now, the issues 353 00:23:24.400 --> 00:23:26.960 surrounding the case were not settled for one hundred and 354 00:23:27.000 --> 00:23:30.599 eighty years, until the Court of Appeal made a decision 355 00:23:30.680 --> 00:23:34.400 in nineteen eighty four. Let's look at the local reports 356 00:23:34.400 --> 00:23:37.799 of the ghost for some context on the murder. Now. 357 00:23:37.839 --> 00:23:40.079 Local people said that the ghost was that of a 358 00:23:40.160 --> 00:23:42.960 man who had died by his own hand the previous 359 00:23:43.079 --> 00:23:47.680 year and had been buried in Hammersmith Churchyard. The contemporary 360 00:23:47.720 --> 00:23:50.119 belief was that people who took their own lives should 361 00:23:50.160 --> 00:23:53.640 not be buried in consecrated ground, as the soul's would 362 00:23:53.680 --> 00:23:56.880 not then be at rest. The apparition was described as 363 00:23:56.920 --> 00:24:00.640 being a very tall man dressed all in white, but 364 00:24:00.839 --> 00:24:06.000 also said to wear a calf skinned garment with horns 365 00:24:06.079 --> 00:24:11.720 and large eyeglasses at other times, so the witness reports 366 00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:15.000 a very very different anor. Stories about the ghosts soon 367 00:24:15.039 --> 00:24:18.519 began to circulate. Two women, one elderly and one pregnant, 368 00:24:18.920 --> 00:24:21.680 were reported to have been seized by the ghost on 369 00:24:21.720 --> 00:24:26.240 separate occasions while walking near the churchyard. They were apparently 370 00:24:26.319 --> 00:24:29.240 so frightened that they both died from shock a few 371 00:24:29.319 --> 00:24:34.799 days afterwards. A brewer's servant, almost groom, later testified that 372 00:24:34.880 --> 00:24:37.599 while walking through the church with the companion one night, 373 00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:41.720 close to nine pm, something rose from behind a tombstone 374 00:24:41.759 --> 00:24:45.079 and seized him by the throat. Hearing the scuffle, his 375 00:24:45.200 --> 00:24:48.519 companion turned around, at which the ghost gave me a 376 00:24:48.640 --> 00:24:51.839 twist around and I saw nothing. I gave it a 377 00:24:51.839 --> 00:24:53.559 bit of a push, he said. I hit it with 378 00:24:53.680 --> 00:24:57.599 my fist. I felt something soft, like a great coat. 379 00:24:58.240 --> 00:25:01.559 On the twenty ninth of December, Wlliam Girdler, a night watchman, 380 00:25:01.759 --> 00:25:04.640 saw the ghost while near beaver Lane and gave chase. 381 00:25:05.279 --> 00:25:08.200 The apparition threw off its shroud and managed to escape. 382 00:25:08.799 --> 00:25:12.160 In London, not having an organized police force at the time, 383 00:25:12.680 --> 00:25:16.240 many people set up kind of like a citizen's party, 384 00:25:16.640 --> 00:25:21.039 armed patrols in the hope of apprehending the ghost at 385 00:25:21.039 --> 00:25:23.559 the corner of Beaver Lane. While making his rounds at 386 00:25:23.559 --> 00:25:27.960 ten thirty pm and third of eighteen o four, Gerda 387 00:25:28.480 --> 00:25:31.480 met one of the armed citizens who was also patrolling 388 00:25:31.559 --> 00:25:34.680 the area, and that was the twenty nine year old 389 00:25:34.680 --> 00:25:38.680 Francis Smith. Smith was armed with a shotgun. Smith told 390 00:25:38.759 --> 00:25:41.079 Girdley he was going to look for the ghost, so 391 00:25:41.119 --> 00:25:44.640 they'd set up together at eleven pm at night, just 392 00:25:44.799 --> 00:25:49.240 after eleven, Smith encountered Thomas Millwood, a brick layer who 393 00:25:49.319 --> 00:25:52.559 was wearing what at the time was normal for his 394 00:25:52.720 --> 00:25:56.240 trade or white clothing. He had linen trousers which were 395 00:25:56.279 --> 00:25:59.759 white and washed and very clean, a waistcoat of white 396 00:25:59.759 --> 00:26:03.279 flown apparently knew and very white, and an apron which 397 00:26:03.319 --> 00:26:06.920 he wore around him. Mister Millwood had been heading home 398 00:26:06.920 --> 00:26:09.640 from a visit to his parents and sister, who lived 399 00:26:09.640 --> 00:26:13.160 in Black Lion Lane. According to his sister Anne, the 400 00:26:13.200 --> 00:26:19.680 brick layer left and immediately afterwards she heard mister Smith 401 00:26:19.799 --> 00:26:24.000