Speaker 1: Welcome to Unexplained Extra with me Richard McClane 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. Last week's episode of View
Speaker 1: from a Hill took a look at the haunting tale
Speaker 1: of the infamous Coonian ghost House in Ireland. As was
Speaker 1: mentioned briefly in the episode, it is said that author
Speaker 1: Sean Leslie, who wrote about the Coonyan Haunting in his
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty six book Ghost Stories, did himself grow up
Speaker 1: in a haunted house. Castle Leslie and the surrounding estate,
Speaker 1: located in County Monaghan in the north of Ireland, has
Speaker 1: been owned by the Leslie family since the sixteen sixties,
Speaker 1: although the current castle was built in eighteen seventy. Now
Speaker 1: a high end hotel, the lavish, stately property has been
Speaker 1: home to a number of distinguished occupants over the years,
Speaker 1: some of which, it is alleged, have never truly left.
Speaker 1: When Sean Leslie's mother, Leone, was approaching the end of
Speaker 1: her life, she spent much of her time bedridden in
Speaker 1: what was known as the Mauve Room. Shortly before she died,
Speaker 1: it is said that her nurse witnessed her conversing with
Speaker 1: an elderly woman who was assumed to be just a
Speaker 1: good friend of Leone's. Later, after Leonie had died, the
Speaker 1: nurse was attending a memorial service at Leslie Castle when
Speaker 1: she recognized the elderly friend in a family painting. The
Speaker 1: woman was Lady Constance Leslie, Leonie's mother in law, who
Speaker 1: died twenty years before. A second ghost said to aunt
Speaker 1: the castle is that of Norman Leslie, Leoni's son, and
Speaker 1: Sean Leslie's brother. A number of visitors claimed to have
Speaker 1: seen an apparition fitting Norman's description in the room known
Speaker 1: ominously as the Red Room. It was there in nineteen
Speaker 1: fourteen that Leoni is said to have awoken suddenly to
Speaker 1: find her son standing next to her, despite the fact
Speaker 1: that he was overseas fighting in the First World War
Speaker 1: at the time. Leoni discovered shortly after that Norman had
Speaker 1: been killed in battle. As some might point out, it
Speaker 1: could be claimed that Leoni hadn't seen a ghost at all,
Speaker 1: but instead experienced what is referred to as a crisis apparition,
Speaker 1: a supposed momentary vision of a loved one that some
Speaker 1: belief can occur in a moment of extreme stress. This
Speaker 1: story put me in mind of a similar incident that
Speaker 1: has claimed to have taken place just over a decade later.
Speaker 1: Early one morning, aboard a large steamship out somewhere off
Speaker 1: the coast of West Africa in the early hours of
Speaker 1: March fourteenth, nineteen twenty eight, Below deck of the Grand
Speaker 1: ocean liner S S. Barrabole, somewhere to the south of
Speaker 1: the Canary Islands, Squadron leader Rivers old Meadow was fast
Speaker 1: asleep in his cabin. Also on board was old Meadow's
Speaker 1: good friend and colleague, Colonel George Henderson. The former RIF
Speaker 1: pilots and veterans of the Great War, were returning from
Speaker 1: South Africa after a six month stint demonstrating the latest
Speaker 1: in aviation technology. It had just gone to a m
Speaker 1: when Old Meadow was startled awake by the sound of
Speaker 1: someone crashing into his room. Hurriedly switching on the light,
Speaker 1: he was bemused to find his friend, Colonel Henderson standing
Speaker 1: before him in his pajamas, with a look of shock
Speaker 1: on his face and in the grip of an obvious
Speaker 1: and distressing panic. God Rivers. He cried something ghastly has happened?
Speaker 1: Hinch has been in my cabin by patch and all
Speaker 1: it was ghastly. He kept repeating, over and over again, Hendy,
Speaker 1: what am I going to do? What am I going
Speaker 1: to do? I've got this woman with me and I'm lost,
Speaker 1: I'm lost. And then he disappeared in front of my eyes,
Speaker 1: just completely disappeared. Old Meadow stared for a moment, trying
Speaker 1: to take it all in, then, thinking the best course
Speaker 1: of action was to try and calm his friend down,
Speaker 1: poured Henderson a stiff drink. As Henderson sipped his whiskey,
Speaker 1: the pair tried to comprehend what had taken place. Hinch
Speaker 1: was their mutual friend and fellow former RF pilot, Captain
Speaker 1: Raymond Hinchcliff. The three of them were said to have
Speaker 1: formed a strong bond, having flown together during the Great War,
Speaker 1: the only problem being that Hinchcliff wasn't on board the ship.
Speaker 1: Since they both knew Hinchcliff to be flying commercial planes
Speaker 1: in Europe, they could only assume that Henderson's vision had
Speaker 1: been at best and especially lucid dream or at worst,
Speaker 1: a portent of an imminent threat to their friend. As
Speaker 1: for the identity, of the mysterious woman he apparently spoke of.
Speaker 1: They had absolutely no idea. Having eventually calmed down, Henderson
Speaker 1: returned to his cabin and did his best to get
Speaker 1: back to sleep. As it happened, Hinchcliff wasn't in Europe
Speaker 1: at all, but was instead flying somewhere over the Atlantic
Speaker 1: while taking part in a record breaking attempt to fly
Speaker 1: to America. It was two days days later when the
Speaker 1: news reached all those on board the s s barable
Speaker 1: that the plane Captain Hinchcliffe had been flying in was
Speaker 1: now missing over the Atlantic. The vision, it seemed, had
Speaker 1: been portentous after all. However, there was no mention of
Speaker 1: any woman on board with him. Since Hinchcliffe had been
Speaker 1: attempting the journey alongside his good friend and co pilot
Speaker 1: for the flight, Gordon Sinclair, or so people thought, are
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Speaker 1: Slash Unexplained Podcast. Elsie McKay was born in eighteen ninety three,
Speaker 1: the daughter of wealthy businessman James McKay, who would go
Speaker 1: on to become the chairman of the Peninsula and Oriental
Speaker 1: Steam Navigation Company better known as p and O. After
Speaker 1: eloping with actor Den Windham in nineteen seventeen, Elsie was
Speaker 1: said to have been disinherited by her family before embarking
Speaker 1: on a successful career as an actor in her own right,
Speaker 1: starring in a number of silent movies over the next
Speaker 1: few years. When the marriage ended abruptly in nineteen twenty two,
Speaker 1: Elsie was welcomed back into the family, after which, with
Speaker 1: the help of her father, she embarked on a second
Speaker 1: career as an interior decorator, going on to design the
Speaker 1: interiors for a number of his company's vessels. Elsie's true passion, however,
Speaker 1: was flying. In the years since the end of the
Speaker 1: First World War, air flight and speed records had been
Speaker 1: rapidly tumbling as aviation technology continued to advance at an
Speaker 1: exponential rate. Elsie had followed them all with increasing excitement.
Speaker 1: In June nineteen nineteen, John Alcock and Arthur Brown were
Speaker 1: the first to cross the Antic, followed by Portuguese aviators
Speaker 1: Geigo Coutino and sat Dura Cabral in nineteen twenty two,
Speaker 1: who flew from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro. Five years later,
Speaker 1: Charles Limburgh caught the public imagination with his extraordinary solo
Speaker 1: crossing from the United States to Europe, and before long,
Speaker 1: Elsie was dreaming of creating her own record to become
Speaker 1: the first woman to cross the Atlantic, despite the reservations
Speaker 1: of her father, who worried about the dangers of such
Speaker 1: a venture. Elsie, who'd always plowed her own furrow, began
Speaker 1: preparations in earnest and by the end of nineteen twenty
Speaker 1: seven had purchased a six seater aircraft named the Endeavor
Speaker 1: to complete the trip. What she needed next was a
Speaker 1: co pilot. Captain Raymond Hinchcliffe needed little convincing, having lost
Speaker 1: an eye during an aerial dog fight towards the end
Speaker 1: into the war, The pilot, who'd become famous for his eyepatch,
Speaker 1: was by the late twenties finding it harder and harder
Speaker 1: to judge his take off and landings. With Mackay offering
Speaker 1: not only the prize money for becoming the first woman
Speaker 1: to complete the Atlantic crossing, she also offered to ensure
Speaker 1: his life for ten thousand pounds close to five hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand British pounds today, enough for the thirty
Speaker 1: three year old Hinchcliffe to retire altogether and spend the
Speaker 1: rest of his time at home with his wife and children.
Speaker 1: Worried that her father might try to stop her, Elsie
Speaker 1: took pains to keep the trip secret from him and
Speaker 1: the press, even threatening to sue one prominent paper when
Speaker 1: they got wind of the planned adventure. In order to
Speaker 1: throw them off the scent, Hinchcliffe's friend Gordon Sinclair was
Speaker 1: asked to put his name forward as the official copilot
Speaker 1: on the flight plan. Sinclair even went as far as
Speaker 1: to stay at a hotel close to the airfield in
Speaker 1: which they would begin their flight on the night before
Speaker 1: they were due to leave. By then, Sinclair's involvement had
Speaker 1: been leaked to the press, and by the morning of
Speaker 1: the flight a number of papers were heralding Hinchcliff's attempted
Speaker 1: journey to New York, with Sinclair accompanying him as his
Speaker 1: co pilot. Sinclair had even agreed to go into hiding
Speaker 1: until Hinchcliff and McKay had completed their journey. On the
Speaker 1: morning of Tuesday, March thirteenth, at r F Cranwell Airfield
Speaker 1: in the east of England, Captain Hinchcliffe clambered into the
Speaker 1: cockpit of the Endeavor and moments later Elsie McKay was
Speaker 1: smuggled on board without anyone noticing. A few minutes later,
Speaker 1: as a light snow began to fall, the pair were
Speaker 1: taking off into the sky. As they embarked on their
Speaker 1: ambitious three and a half thousand mile journey across the Atlantic.
Speaker 1: At one thirty pm, chief lighthouse keeper at Mysen Head
Speaker 1: on the southwest coast of Cork in Ireland, looked up
Speaker 1: to see mackay's six seater monoplane shooting overhead toward America.
Speaker 1: Not long after, the crew on board a steamship out
Speaker 1: in the Atlantic on route from France also witnessed the endeavor,
Speaker 1: by then heading on into increasingly stormy weather. Many hours later,
Speaker 1: roughly three thousand kilometers away, the S S. Barrabole was
Speaker 1: drawing closer to the Canary Islands when Squadron leader Rivers
Speaker 1: old Meadow was shocked awake by the arrival of Colonel
Speaker 1: George Henderson in his cabin, claiming to have seen a
Speaker 1: vision of a deeply distressed Hinchcliff. A five thousand strong
Speaker 1: crowd waited at Michael Field in Long Island, Newfoundland, to
Speaker 1: welcome the safe arrival of Hinchcliffe and what they assumed
Speaker 1: to be his co pilot, Gordon Sinclair, but the plain
Speaker 1: was never seen again. In December nineteen twenty eight, a
Speaker 1: wheel with a serial number traced back to Elsie McKay's
Speaker 1: endeavor washed ashore in Donegal, Northwest Island. The only part
Speaker 1: of her plain that was ever found, or at least
Speaker 1: that is how the story was told by writer John G.
Speaker 1: Fuller in his nineteen seventy eight book The Airmen Who
Speaker 1: Would Not Die, which drew largely on a letter that
Speaker 1: Fuller claimed to have found written by Rivers Old Meadow
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty one. Though there is no disputing the
Speaker 1: fate that befell Elsie McKay and Captain Raymond Hinchcliffe, doubts
Speaker 1: were raised regarding the extraordinary claim of Henderson's supposed vision
Speaker 1: on the night of their disappearance. In two and eighteen,
Speaker 1: Robert Chamran and Steve Hume, writing in the Journal of
Speaker 1: the Society for Psychical Research, exposed a number of holes
Speaker 1: in the story, not least of all that the SS
Speaker 1: Barraball had not in fact set self for England until
Speaker 1: mid April of nineteen twenty eight, which would have put
Speaker 1: Henderson and old Meadow on board the vessel a good
Speaker 1: two weeks after Mackay and Hinchcliffe's disappearance had come to light.
Speaker 1: Though some have sought to excuse the inconsistency that no
Speaker 1: one as yet has managed to uncover a copy of
Speaker 1: Old Meadows supposed nineteen sixty one letter describing the extraordinary
Speaker 1: event has only helped to cast further doubt on the story. Unexplained,
Speaker 1: the book and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never
Speaker 1: before been covered on the show, is now available to
Speaker 1: buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble,
Speaker 1: and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements of Unexplained, including
Speaker 1: the show's music, are produced by me Richard McClain smith.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe and rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts,
Speaker 1: and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts
Speaker 1: or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like
Speaker 1: to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast
Speaker 1: dot com or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at
Speaker 1: Facebook dot com, Forward slash Unexplained Podcast. Now it's time
Speaker 1: to take care of yourself. To make time for you,
Speaker 1: Tell a doc gives you access to a licensed therapist
Speaker 1: to help you get back to feeling your best. Speak
Speaker 1: to a licensed therapist by phone or video anytime between
Speaker 1: seven am to nine pm local time, seven days a week.
Speaker 1: TELEDOC therapy is available through most insurance or employers download
Speaker 1: the app, or visit teledoc dot com Forward slash Unexplained
Speaker 1: podcast Today to get started. That's t e ladoc dot
Speaker 1: com Slash Unexplained Podcast