Speaker 1: Before we start this episode, I'd just like to clarify that,
Speaker 1: contrary to what I said a few episodes back, season
Speaker 1: six will not be finishing this week, but we'll be
Speaker 1: continuing for a few more weeks yet, So apologies to
Speaker 1: everyone for any confusion. Now, with that out the way,
Speaker 1: welcome to Unexplained Extra with me Richard McClain Smith, where
Speaker 1: for the weeks in between episodes, we look at stories
Speaker 1: and ideas that, for one reason or other, didn't make
Speaker 1: it into the previous show. In last week's episode, Fire
Speaker 1: in the Belly, we ventured into the murky realm of
Speaker 1: alleged spontaneous human combustion, or SHC as it is often
Speaker 1: referred to. I was inspired to make the episode in
Speaker 1: part due to a recent tweet I saw remarking on
Speaker 1: how prevalent these stories used to be and how rarely
Speaker 1: we hear about them today. Certainly compared to tales of
Speaker 1: apparent hauntings or UFO sightings, for example, that continue to
Speaker 1: crop up, modern cases of apparent SHC do seem increasingly
Speaker 1: rare that we might notice. This is perhaps due to
Speaker 1: just how memorable these types of stories are when you
Speaker 1: first come across them. Perhaps flicking through an old copy
Speaker 1: of The Unexplained Magazine or the Fourteen Times. For me,
Speaker 1: it was always the strange and shocking images that came
Speaker 1: with the stories that really made them stick out in
Speaker 1: the mind. All those disembodied limbs poking incongruously out of
Speaker 1: large piles of ash, rendered all the more strange by
Speaker 1: their often banal and domestic settings. That being said, a
Speaker 1: proposed case of spontaneous human combustion was put forward as
Speaker 1: recently as two thousand and ten, when the partially cremated
Speaker 1: remains of seventy six year old Michael Fahatty were found
Speaker 1: in his home in Gorway, Ireland in December of that year.
Speaker 1: Although Fahatty's body was found close to an open fireplace,
Speaker 1: local fire officer Jerry O'Malley concluded that this had not
Speaker 1: been the cause of Fahaty's death, with no traces of
Speaker 1: any fire accelerant found on or close to the body either.
Speaker 1: Coroner doctor Kieran McLaughlin even went as far as to
Speaker 1: declare that this fire was thoroughly investigated and I'm left
Speaker 1: with the conclusion that it fits into the category of
Speaker 1: spontaneous human combustion, for which there is no adequate explanation.
Speaker 1: Our extra episode this week also involves a fire revealing
Speaker 1: something peculiar in its wake. Its tenuous connection to last
Speaker 1: week's episode is that, like the story of Mary Reesa,
Speaker 1: it also took place in Florida, albeit at the remove
Speaker 1: of two hundred and thirty miles and twenty three years
Speaker 1: up in the northeastern corner of Fort George, Ireland in Jacksonville, Florida,
Speaker 1: surrounded by sprawling woodlands of Spanish moss draped trees, sits
Speaker 1: the steadily crumbling ruin of a strange property known variously
Speaker 1: as Neff House and Betts Castle. The eccentric Tudor Star mansion,
Speaker 1: complete with its own turret, was commissioned in nineteen twenty
Speaker 1: six by Nettleton Neff, a wealthy estate agent from Chicago
Speaker 1: who wanted it built as a place for him and
Speaker 1: his family to escape the harsh winters. Six months into
Speaker 1: its development, however, Nettleton's wife, Catherine, was killed in a
Speaker 1: fire while staying at another of the family's properties in Michigan.
Speaker 1: The house was eventually finished in nineteen twenty seven, but
Speaker 1: perhaps owing to the fallout from his wife's death, by
Speaker 1: June twenty eight had remained completely empty when tragedy once
Speaker 1: again struck the family. Catherine and Nettleton's son Wayne, was
Speaker 1: studying at Harvard University when he went missing from his
Speaker 1: halls of residence. Two weeks later, he was found hanging
Speaker 1: from a tree on the outskirts of Stonington, Connecticut, having
Speaker 1: seemingly committed suicide. And it was only three years after
Speaker 1: that that Nettleton neff locked himself in his office at
Speaker 1: the Railway Exchange Building in Chicago and shot himself through
Speaker 1: the head. Despite not one member of the neph family
Speaker 1: having so much as visited the New Florida property in
Speaker 1: all that time, it inevitably retained something of the macabre
Speaker 1: aura associated with the unfortunate family. All that would soon
Speaker 1: be expunged, however, when the house passed first to the
Speaker 1: Merrill family and then in nineteen sixty seven to Jerry
Speaker 1: and Anton Betts. Though some might have been put off
Speaker 1: by the house's tangential history, Jerry had a good feeling
Speaker 1: about it. Ever since she was a child, Jerry had
Speaker 1: considered herself blessed with an innate, perhaps even God given
Speaker 1: sense of intuition. Back in nineteen sixty at the age
Speaker 1: of twenty seven and raising six children at the time.
Speaker 1: Jerry had used that same intuition when she decided to
Speaker 1: take on the finance payments of her soon to be
Speaker 1: ex husband's truck and trailer. Within a few years, she
Speaker 1: turned that single truck into a fleet of transport vehicles
Speaker 1: and launched her own trucking service, making her a millionaire
Speaker 1: in the process. However, not even Jerry could have foreseen
Speaker 1: the events that were soon to her family. In spring
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy four, a wildfire ripped through a large section
Speaker 1: of bush and woodland close to the beds it's home.
Speaker 1: The next morning, Jerry and her twenty one year old son,
Speaker 1: Terry Matthews went out to inspect the damage when in
Speaker 1: a large patch of smoldering bush, Terry noticed something peculiar,
Speaker 1: a perfectly round metallic orb that appeared to have been
Speaker 1: left exposed by the fire. Moving closer to inspect it,
Speaker 1: Terry could see it was roughly the size of a
Speaker 1: bowling ball, but when he picked it up it seemed
Speaker 1: significantly heavier. Terry called his mother over to take a
Speaker 1: look at it, but with the temperature quickly dropping and
Speaker 1: a light rain beginning to fall, she suggested they'd take
Speaker 1: it act to the house. Over the next few days,
Speaker 1: the family speculated about what it might be, believing that
Speaker 1: it was most likely an old cannonball, perhaps left over
Speaker 1: from one of the many skirmishes that occurred in the
Speaker 1: region in the sixteenth century. But the something strange happened
Speaker 1: a few days after finding the object. Terry was tuning
Speaker 1: his guitar near it when it began to resonate with
Speaker 1: a peculiar hum, as if it were reflecting the notes
Speaker 1: right back at him. Then things got even weirder. One day,
Speaker 1: the sound of an organ was heard drifting through the
Speaker 1: extensive property, but the family had no such instrument in
Speaker 1: the house. Doors also began to slam off their own
Speaker 1: accord while on more than one occasion, a glass fell
Speaker 1: from a cupboard and smashed on the floor and the
Speaker 1: ball started to move. It isn't clear how it began,
Speaker 1: but at some point the family noticed that when the
Speaker 1: ball was rolled into motion, it would suddenly stop, then
Speaker 1: move back or off to the side, before returning to
Speaker 1: the original spot. Best Fiends is a new, fun packed,
Speaker 1: free to download mobile game with thousands of exciting levels
Speaker 1: for new adventures every time you play. With your band
Speaker 1: of cute creature heroes, match and solve thousands of fun
Speaker 1: puzzles as you take down your slug enemies and blast
Speaker 1: your way to the top of Mount Boom. Having made
Speaker 1: it as far as level thirty three myself, it's hard
Speaker 1: to look past Edward the Mosquito as my own personal
Speaker 1: favorite creature, though Howie the Lizard gives him a good
Speaker 1: run for his money. Best Fiends is great to play
Speaker 1: in your downtime or on a commute while listening to
Speaker 1: your favorite podcast, and with offline play, you'll never be
Speaker 1: stranded without fun even if you lose your Internet connection.
Speaker 1: Look out for brand new events and challenges all year round,
Speaker 1: so you've always got a chance to earn exclusive in
Speaker 1: game items, characters, and rewards. Download your new favorite getaway
Speaker 1: Best Fiends for free today on the App Store or
Speaker 1: Google Play. You'll even get five dollars worth of in
Speaker 1: game rewards when you reach level five. That's friends without
Speaker 1: the our Best Fiends. Lou Egner was working as a
Speaker 1: photojournalist for the Florida Times Union paper when they were
Speaker 1: contacted by Jerry Betts requesting that a reporter be sent
Speaker 1: out to her home to take a look at the
Speaker 1: mysterious sphere that her son had found. When Lou arrived
Speaker 1: at the property, he was immediately shown into the living
Speaker 1: room and introduced to the ball. Jerry handed it to
Speaker 1: Lou and then stepped back, instructing him to roll it
Speaker 1: toward her on the ground. Lou Julie obliged, only for
Speaker 1: the ball to run out of steam half way between them.
Speaker 1: O K said Lou, So what Jerry held up her hand?
Speaker 1: Just wait, she said. A moment later, Lou watched with
Speaker 1: stunned amazement as the ball, seemingly of its own accord,
Speaker 1: began to move again, first rolling four feet to the right, Then,
Speaker 1: after stopping dead again, it began to roll back the
Speaker 1: other way, about eight feet before completing a wide arc
Speaker 1: of the ground and arriving back at Lou's feet. The
Speaker 1: bets of Matthew's family story first appeared in the Florida
Speaker 1: Times Union on April eleventh, under the headline bizarre sphere
Speaker 1: is Castle's latest mystery happening. Lou Egna described it as
Speaker 1: the darndest thing he'd ever seen. After the article broke,
Speaker 1: the family were besieged by other people who were also
Speaker 1: desperate to see it. For themselves. Ron Kivet, host of
Speaker 1: local radio show Tales of Strange Things, who was one
Speaker 1: of the fortunate ones to get a look at it,
Speaker 1: described seeing the ball move of its own accord across
Speaker 1: a glass topped coffee table, with the ball rolling right
Speaker 1: up to the table's edge, but inexplicably not rolling off it.
Speaker 1: When a TV crew arrived to film it, Jerry suggested
Speaker 1: they put the family's poodle next to it to provide
Speaker 1: a sense of scale, but as soon as the dog
Speaker 1: got near it, it immediately started to whimper and tried
Speaker 1: desperately to cover its ears with its paws. Carl Wilson,
Speaker 1: a self styled independent researcher from an organization called Omega
Speaker 1: minus one based out of bat and Rouge, declared the
Speaker 1: ball to have its own magnetic field and that, incredibly,
Speaker 1: it was even transmitting its own radio signal. Jerry Bets
Speaker 1: convinced the US Navy, who operated a base not far
Speaker 1: from the bets Is home, to conduct a formal analysis
Speaker 1: of the object without wanting to break it. However, they
Speaker 1: found only that it was hollow, with a half inch
Speaker 1: thick shell made from a high grade stainless steel. It
Speaker 1: was eight inches in diameter and weighed approximately twenty two pounds.
Speaker 1: A curious three millimeter wide triangular mark was also found
Speaker 1: amongst the scuffs and scratches on its outer shell, but
Speaker 1: since the object was not US naval property, they made
Speaker 1: no further effort to identify it and simply returned it
Speaker 1: to the family. As the mystery deepened, some began to
Speaker 1: speculate if the object was in fact not from this world.
Speaker 1: In March nineteen seventy two, the National Inquirer agreed to
Speaker 1: put up fifty thousand dollars to the first person who
Speaker 1: submitted proof that an unidentified flying object came from outer
Speaker 1: space and was not a natural phenomenon. The pledge had
Speaker 1: been announced in collaboration with famed UFO investigator j Allen Heineck, who,
Speaker 1: after spending twenty years helping the US Air Force to
Speaker 1: debunk UFO sightings, had by then become much more sympathetic
Speaker 1: to the potential truth of the UFO phenomenon. Hei Neeck
Speaker 1: expressed interest in the sphere, and, having told Jerry that
Speaker 1: he was due to attend a National Inquirer event in
Speaker 1: New Orleans, Jerry saw an opportunity to submit the sphere
Speaker 1: as a possible contender for the fifty thousand dollar prize.
Speaker 1: With Terry driving this beer up to New Orleans, the
Speaker 1: Inquirer convened a five person panel led by high Neck
Speaker 1: to inspect it. Sadly, however, high Neck and his colleagues
Speaker 1: failed to find anything unusual about it at all, and
Speaker 1: so the Sphere and Terry returned home empty handed. Not
Speaker 1: long after, news of the mysterious bet Sphere, as it
Speaker 1: would come to be known, came to light, another Jacksonville resident,
Speaker 1: Lottie Robinson, came across the story in the Palm Beach Post.
Speaker 1: Robinson just so happened to have her own steel ball,
Speaker 1: which had been given to her son by a family
Speaker 1: friend fifteen years before, but was by then collecting dust
Speaker 1: in her garage. Robinson contacted the Palm Beach Post to
Speaker 1: let them know that her ball had previous being identified
Speaker 1: as a decidedly earthly piece of industrial equipment, being part
Speaker 1: of a large valve and pipe system used for distributing
Speaker 1: corrosive liquids. Robinson's mundane suggestion was then backed up by
Speaker 1: Robert Edwards, the president of a Jacksonville equipment supply company
Speaker 1: who'd purchased many similar items. It was a short time
Speaker 1: after this that artist James Darling Jones was alerted to
Speaker 1: the steadily growing mystery. Darling Jones perhaps allowed himself a
Speaker 1: wry smile when, on hearing the story, he remembered a
Speaker 1: trip he'd taken through Jacksonville a few years previously. Back
Speaker 1: in the spring of nineteen seventy one, Darling Jones was
Speaker 1: driving through Fort George Island, not far from the Betts
Speaker 1: family's home, with a van load of scrap materials he'd
Speaker 1: acquired for a series of sculptures he'd planned to make.
Speaker 1: It was only when he got home that he realized
Speaker 1: some of the material had fallen off the roof rack
Speaker 1: of his vw. The pieces in question several hollow steel balls,
Speaker 1: measuring eight inches in diameter and weighing approximately twenty two pounds.
Speaker 1: If you enjoy Unexplained and would like to help supporters,
Speaker 1: you can now do so via Patreon. To receive access
Speaker 1: to add three episodes, just go to patron dot com
Speaker 1: forward slash Unexplained pod to sign up Unexplained. The book
Speaker 1: and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never before been
Speaker 1: covered on the show, is now available to buy worldwide.
Speaker 1: You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones,
Speaker 1: among other bookstores. All elements of Unexplained, including the show's music,
Speaker 1: are produced by me Richard M. Plain Smith. Please subscribe
Speaker 1: and rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts, and
Speaker 1: feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or
Speaker 1: ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps
Speaker 1: you have an explanation of your own you'd like to share.
Speaker 1: You can reach us online but Unexplained podcast dot com
Speaker 1: or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com,
Speaker 1: Forward Slash Unexplained Podcast