Speaker 1: Hello, It's Richard mclin smith here with a quick announcement
Speaker 1: for any fans of The Lovecraft Investigations and Alistair Crowley.
Speaker 1: I'm very excited to be teaming up with Julian Simpson,
Speaker 1: genius creator of the Lovecraft Investigations, and of course Kennedy
Speaker 1: Fisher and Matthew Heyward to create a dedicated series on Crowley.
Speaker 1: You can hear the fantastic trailer for the show at
Speaker 1: the end of this episode, with details of the Kickstarter
Speaker 1: page being used to raise funding. That's all for now,
Speaker 1: on with the show. It was two forty am on
Speaker 1: December ninth, two thousand and one when a call came
Speaker 1: in to the nine one one Emergency Services Center in Durham,
Speaker 1: North Carolina.
Speaker 2: Are you Margaret?
Speaker 3: Why can't access still bring him?
Speaker 4: What kind of.
Speaker 1: The conscious work?
Speaker 3: Is she conscious? How many stairs to bow?
Speaker 4: Then?
Speaker 3: How many for bears?
Speaker 2: There?
Speaker 1: How many stairs com down?
Speaker 5: Stir com dowln?
Speaker 3: So? Somebody her mother? Word?
Speaker 6: Prough?
Speaker 5: Somebody's this back in the ambulance?
Speaker 3: Lalla asked you question?
Speaker 6: Is a horse job?
Speaker 7: Okay?
Speaker 5: Ques up the start?
Speaker 3: Somebody else? Is this back in the ambulance? Okay?
Speaker 4: Is she away? Now? Hello?
Speaker 1: The man on the line was fifty eight year old
Speaker 1: Michael Peterson. It was roughly six minutes later when officers
Speaker 1: and paramedics arrived at the Peterson's grand, fourteen room home
Speaker 1: in the affluent Forest Hills neighborhood. They were met by
Speaker 1: a blood soaked and hysterical Michael. He quickly led them
Speaker 1: through to a narrow stairwell at the back of the property. There,
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the stairs lay the still body
Speaker 1: of his wife, forty eight year old Kathleen Peterson. She
Speaker 1: was positioned awkwardly against the lower steps, with her head
Speaker 1: resting against the wall of the stairwell. Her pajamas were
Speaker 1: soaked with blood. The walls and several of the steps
Speaker 1: had also been splattered with blood, while under her head
Speaker 1: was a wet roll of blood soaked paper towels. As
Speaker 1: the police worked to calm Michael down and keep him
Speaker 1: away from the scene, the paramedics dashed in to assess
Speaker 1: the victim. Even in those initial moments, the officers couldn't
Speaker 1: help but notice some peculiarities about the scene. First off
Speaker 1: was the sheer amount of blood and the unusual spatterings,
Speaker 1: both seemingly inconsistent with a simple fall. Then there was
Speaker 1: the oddness of a pair of trainers and white socks,
Speaker 1: assumed to be Mica, alongside a pair of flip flops,
Speaker 1: presumably Kathleen's, just next to the body. It wasn't long
Speaker 1: before the paramedics realized that Kathleen was dead. With a
Speaker 1: wail of emotion, Michael pushed past the officers and threw
Speaker 1: himself down beside Kathleen's body, caressing her as he cried.
Speaker 1: Only when Michael's son Tod arrived soon after, was he
Speaker 1: finally prized away from the scene. By now, neighbors up
Speaker 1: and down the street had begun to appear in their doorways,
Speaker 1: woken by the persistent howl of emergency vehicles as one
Speaker 1: after another arrived at the Peterson property. They watched on,
Speaker 1: bleary eyed with a growing sense of dread. As a
Speaker 1: team of investigators in white protective coveralls disappeared into the
Speaker 1: Peterson's home. It was clear that something very bad had
Speaker 1: just happened there, but quite what exactly would turn out
Speaker 1: to be one of the most confounding and potentially bizarre
Speaker 1: mysteries of recent times. You're listening to Unexplained, and I'm
Speaker 1: Richard McLean smith. Kathleen Hunt Peterson was an engineering graduate
Speaker 1: who worked for a telecommunications manufacturing company in town. Following
Speaker 1: her death, neighbours described her to the press as a sweet,
Speaker 1: good natured friend and a loving mother who'd lived life
Speaker 1: to the full. She was active in the local Historic
Speaker 1: Preservation Society and served on the board of the Durham
Speaker 1: Arts Council, helping to raise money for local arts. By
Speaker 1: all accounts, as he told it to police, Michael Peterson
Speaker 1: had very much picked a winner when the two first
Speaker 1: got together, and the pair, who'd been married for four years,
Speaker 1: were very much in love. When police began their questioning,
Speaker 1: Michael said that prior to her apparent four he and
Speaker 1: his wife had been sitting outside by the swimming pool
Speaker 1: at the rear of the house, drinking wine. After some time,
Speaker 1: Kathleen left, saying that she was going upstairs to bed.
Speaker 1: When he finally got up and went inside, Peterson said
Speaker 1: that was when he found his wife lying at the
Speaker 1: bottom of the stairs leading up to their bedroom. A
Speaker 1: veteran of the American Vietnam War, Michael Peterson was an author.
Speaker 1: He'd written four books based on his combat experiences and
Speaker 1: had been a freelance columnist for a while for Durham's
Speaker 1: herald Son newspaper. He'd also run as a candidate to
Speaker 1: be Durham's mayor. Despite his insistence that his and Kathleen's
Speaker 1: relationship was solid, it wasn't long before the police began
Speaker 1: to question his version of events. For a start, there
Speaker 1: was the large amount of blood at the scene, too
Speaker 1: much it seemed to police investigators to be an accidental fall.
Speaker 1: And then there were the wounds to Kathleen Peterson's head.
Speaker 1: Unlike blunt force trauma as you might expect from a fall,
Speaker 1: these wounds were narrow and much more likely to have
Speaker 1: been caused by a sharp implement weel did with force.
Speaker 1: It didn't help that Peterson's past behavior had not always
Speaker 1: been exemplary. He had lost his bid to become mayor
Speaker 1: when it transpired that the permanent injury to his right leg,
Speaker 1: which he claimed had been sustained in combat, had in
Speaker 1: fact been sustained in a car accident in Japan some
Speaker 1: years later. There were whispers too that he had secretly
Speaker 1: been consorting with sex workers and might be bisexual, a
Speaker 1: fact he had concealed from his wife very quickly. Michael
Speaker 1: Peterson became the prime suspect in what was looking increasingly
Speaker 1: like an open and shut case of murder. The police
Speaker 1: and public prosecutor began to build their case against him.
Speaker 1: During multiple visits to the Peterson home, they found items
Speaker 1: including a used condom, bloody hair from a diet coke can,
Speaker 1: a knife, a wine bottle, and a wineglass. They sampled hair,
Speaker 1: traces of blood, and what they described as Christmas tree
Speaker 1: needles from the staircase. In the end, the state medical
Speaker 1: examiner who performed the autopsy determined the cause of death
Speaker 1: to be from multiple injuries to the back of Kathleen
Speaker 1: Peterson's head, inconsistent with the fall down the stairs. On
Speaker 1: December twenty, two thousand one, just eleven days after Kathleen's death,
Speaker 1: a grand jury indicted Michael Peterson on a charge of
Speaker 1: the first degree murder of his wife. Michael Peterson turned
Speaker 1: himself in at the Durham County Jail, surrounded by his
Speaker 1: two sons from a previous marriage, his brother, and a
Speaker 1: media throng. He wept openly, insisting that he was innocent,
Speaker 1: missed Kathleen terribly and looked forward to exonerating himself in court.
Speaker 1: His defense team had its work cut out. Led by
Speaker 1: a prominent lawyer named David Rudolph, they filed a counterbrief
Speaker 1: claiming that missus Peterson had either fallen down the stairs
Speaker 1: or more likely been attacked by an intruder to the
Speaker 1: family's home. They accused the police of botching the investigation
Speaker 1: by failing to seize important evidence during their initial search
Speaker 1: of the Peterson property, having returned to confiscate additional items.
Speaker 1: They also described how the couple's home had been broken
Speaker 1: into several times, including just six months before Kathleen's death.
Speaker 1: After eighteen months of investigations, on July first, two thousand three,
Speaker 1: under leaden Gray Skies, a phalanx of TV trucks, journalists,
Speaker 1: and camera crew jostled for the best positions in front
Speaker 1: of the Durham County Court House for the opening day
Speaker 1: of the trial. Inside, the court house was filled to capacity.
Speaker 1: After Judge Orlando Hudson had seated the jury, the lawyers
Speaker 1: made their opening statements. Prosecuting District Attorney Jim Hardin stood
Speaker 1: in front of a jury of eight women and four
Speaker 1: men and told them that the alleged fairy tale marriage
Speaker 1: that they were no doubt here described by the defense
Speaker 1: team was very likely a lie. He then held up
Speaker 1: a blow poke, a four foot long metal poker with
Speaker 1: a mouthpiece at one end used to blow air onto
Speaker 1: a fire and a short hook on the other. This
Speaker 1: Hardin claimed was an example of the implement very likely
Speaker 1: used to murder Kathleen Peterson. He claimed that the actual
Speaker 1: murder weapon from the deceased's house had conveniently disappeared immediately
Speaker 1: after her death. Defense attorney David Rudolph responded, insisting that
Speaker 1: Kathleen had died from a tragic but accidental form. The
Speaker 1: arguments and counter arguments went on for almost two months.
Speaker 1: At one point, defense lawyer Rudolph stunned everyone in the
Speaker 1: courtroom by playing a loud recording of the defendant's desperate
Speaker 1: nine one one calls. Peterson wept as he was forced
Speaker 1: to relive those moments, potentially humanizing him to the jury,
Speaker 1: just as Rudolph intended. The defense yints team then presented
Speaker 1: a stop action animation they'd commissioned, showing Kathleen falling backwards
Speaker 1: down the stairs, cracking her head not once but twice
Speaker 1: on the way down, then slipping and cutting her scalp
Speaker 1: one more time on the corner of the staircase. As
Speaker 1: David Rudolph's case for the defense went on, he again
Speaker 1: accused the Durham police of bungling the death scene investigation,
Speaker 1: contaminating the crime scene with too many officers. He also
Speaker 1: alleged that the police were out to get Michael Peterson
Speaker 1: because he'd been publicly critical of them for years, including
Speaker 1: in columns he'd written in the local paper in the
Speaker 1: late nineteen nineties. Rudolph also showed the jury a video
Speaker 1: of officers from the State Bureau of Investigation or SBI,
Speaker 1: attempting to reach create the blood spatters in the stairwell.
Speaker 1: They used a poker to bludgeon a mannikin's head containing
Speaker 1: a large blood filled sponge on a mock up stairway.
Speaker 1: The attempt clearly failed to reproduce the spatter found at
Speaker 1: the scene. A forensic expert for the defense was then
Speaker 1: called to testify that the blood spatters at the death
Speaker 1: scene were in fact consistent with a fall, not a beating.
Speaker 1: David Rudolph concluded his case while stood in front of
Speaker 1: a photograph showing a relaxed and laughing Kathleen sat on
Speaker 1: Michael's lap, gesturing to the loving image. Rudolph wrapped up
Speaker 1: by insisting this was a couple who deeply loved each
Speaker 1: other and that the idea of Michael murdering Kathleen was
Speaker 1: simply out of the question. In response, the prosecution called
Speaker 1: paramedic Jay Rose, one of the first to arrive in
Speaker 1: response to the nine one one call. A veteran of
Speaker 1: over thirty callouts to accidental falls typically, he said, if
Speaker 1: someone had fallen downstairs from a similar height to Kathleen,
Speaker 1: he wouldn't expect to find more than a broken bone
Speaker 1: or two and at worst a broken neck. Never had
Speaker 1: he come across an accident seen in that regard with
Speaker 1: such a huge volume of blood. An eSPI Eye agent
Speaker 1: then told the jury that investigations of Peterson's phone records
Speaker 1: and emails on his computer contained evidence that he'd been
Speaker 1: in touch with a male escort service. A former escort
Speaker 1: named Brent Walgamot testified that Michael Peterson had arranged to
Speaker 1: pay him for sex just three months before Kathleen's death,
Speaker 1: although the two never actually met. The prosecution clearly wanted
Speaker 1: to show that, far from being in a happy marriage,
Speaker 1: Peterson was in fact a frustrated bisexual suffering from the
Speaker 1: pressure of keeping his sexuality hidden. When his alleged infidelities
Speaker 1: had been discovered by his wife, they suggested a violent
Speaker 1: pulside argument had ensued, resulting in Kathleen's murder. After fourteen
Speaker 1: hours of deliberation, on October tenth, two thousand three, the
Speaker 1: jury found Michael Peterson guilty of first degree murder, and
Speaker 1: he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Kathleen's
Speaker 1: family felt that justice had been served. It was subsequently
Speaker 1: revealed that back in November nineteen eighty five, when Michael
Speaker 1: and his first wife were living in Germany, Elizabeth Ratliffe,
Speaker 1: godmother to one of his sons who lived near by,
Speaker 1: had also been found dead at the foot of a staircase.
Speaker 1: According to Peterson, he was asleep when it happened, and
Speaker 1: the death was due to a cerebral hemorrhage. Judge Hudson
Speaker 1: correctly ruled the information as inadmissible. Though it spared Peterson
Speaker 1: the awkward problem of having to explain how two women
Speaker 1: he'd been close to had ended up dead at the
Speaker 1: bottom of a staircase, its eventual revelation only served to
Speaker 1: further cement his apparent guilt. As Michael Peterson began his
Speaker 1: sentence in North Carolina's Nash Correctional Institution. He continued to
Speaker 1: protest his innocence, but despite an appeal, the state Supreme
Speaker 1: Court upheld his conviction. Three months later, Durham based lawyer
Speaker 1: and businessman Larry Pollard was just starting his day at
Speaker 1: the office when his phone rang. When he picked up,
Speaker 1: he was startled to hear the voice of his former
Speaker 1: neighbor from Forest Hills, Michael Peterson, calling him from jail.
Speaker 1: As Peterson explained he was in the prison wreck room
Speaker 1: the previous day when his attention was suddenly caught by
Speaker 1: a local TV report involving two men in the nearby
Speaker 1: town of Apex. Both had been attacked by a territorial
Speaker 1: barred owl. Peterson wanted Larry to follow up on the
Speaker 1: story for him, in the hope that it might prove
Speaker 1: to be a possible explanation for what had happened to
Speaker 1: his wife and exonerate him. A little skeptical but intrigued,
Speaker 1: Larry agreed to help and promptly track down Chris Cox,
Speaker 1: one of the victims of the owl attack. When Larry
Speaker 1: and Chris Cox discussed the details of Kathleen Peterson's murdericates
Speaker 1: the two men felt strongly that many things didn't add up.
Speaker 1: The supposed murder weapon, the blowpoke that was said to
Speaker 1: have disappeared from the Peterson's home, was later claimed to
Speaker 1: have been found in the garage with no traces of
Speaker 1: blood or damage to it. That only Kathleen's scalp was
Speaker 1: injured without any damage to the skull appeared to undermine
Speaker 1: the theory that she'd been struck forcibly by an assailant. Additionally,
Speaker 1: there was no physical evidence of a struggle, such as
Speaker 1: skin found beneath her fingernails, although of course, had she
Speaker 1: been attacked from behind, she might not have had a
Speaker 1: chance to struggle before falling down the stairs. All this,
Speaker 1: coupled with Chris Cox's recent experience with a bardow, was
Speaker 1: enough to convince Larry to dig further. A few days later,
Speaker 1: one of Pollard's team was down in the local police
Speaker 1: archives sifting through endless boxes of evidence relating to the trial.
Speaker 1: Flicking through the pages of one document, he suddenly saw
Speaker 1: something that stopped him in his tracks. It was an
Speaker 1: SBI laboratory report containing an entry which hadn't been given
Speaker 1: a second glance during Peter Sisson's trial. Now primed with
Speaker 1: the new owl theory, one worked jumped off the page.
Speaker 1: Feather or three microscopic feathers to be precise, discovered and
Speaker 1: twined in some strands of Kathleen Peterson's hair. The hair
Speaker 1: that had been pulled out by the roots close to
Speaker 1: the wounds on the back of her head were found
Speaker 1: clutched in the dead woman's left hand. Though he was
Speaker 1: met with disbelief or ridicule whenever he mentioned his burgeoning
Speaker 1: our theory to people, the more Larry Pollard researched, the
Speaker 1: more convinced of the theory he became. Records of owl
Speaker 1: attacks in the US between eighteen seventy seven and nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty showed there were seventy nine reports of owl's attacking
Speaker 1: people at a rate of around two year. One on
Speaker 1: an elderly farmer in Pennsylvania in nineteen eleven, was fatal.
Speaker 1: Two others resulted in prolonged hospital stays, and at least
Speaker 1: three left the victims unconscious. Around half the attacks resulted
Speaker 1: in serious lacerations to either the arms or head. Seven
Speaker 1: victims lost one or both eyes. Many of the other
Speaker 1: attacks left scratches to the head or face, with numerous
Speaker 1: reports of hair being torn out, ribbed scalps, and severe
Speaker 1: blood loss. One report of a barred owl attack was
Speaker 1: accompanied with photos showing an eye injury and puncture wounds
Speaker 1: made by the claws of the attacking owl that looked
Speaker 1: strikingly similar to those on Kathleen Peterson's scalp. For Larry Pollard,
Speaker 1: the timing of Kathleen's death was suggestive two It's in
Speaker 1: December when bard ours in North Carolina begin to establish
Speaker 1: breeding territories, which they are known to defend aggressively. There
Speaker 1: were many instances of them dive bombing humans, almost always
Speaker 1: targeting the head, and so Larry Pollard began to construct
Speaker 1: a different timeline of events. On the night Kathleen Peterson
Speaker 1: died in two thousand and one, North Carolina was experiencing
Speaker 1: a drought. The established timeline showed that Kathleen Peterson had
Speaker 1: been drinking wine with her husband by the back yard pool,
Speaker 1: where there was also a fountain. Could it be Larry
Speaker 1: wondered that with it being such a dry year, small
Speaker 1: mammals would have been drawn to the Peterson's fountain, in
Speaker 1: turn drawing in barred owls that preyed on them. Toxicology
Speaker 1: reports found anti anxiety and muscle relaxant medication in Kathleen
Speaker 1: Peterson's blood. Pollard theorized that at some point, woozy from
Speaker 1: the combination of boos and drugs, Kathleen had headed to
Speaker 1: the house and then out into the front yard out
Speaker 1: of earshot from her husband. That, according to Pollard, was
Speaker 1: when the owl could have attacked. Even though bard owl's
Speaker 1: only typically weigh between one and a half and two pounds,
Speaker 1: when one strikes at a speed of thirty five to
Speaker 1: forty miles an hour, the impact can feel surprisingly intense
Speaker 1: for such a light animal. Pollard proposed that the bird
Speaker 1: struck Kathleen in the back of her head without warning.
Speaker 1: It then dug its claws deep into her scalp, causing
Speaker 1: the seven lacerations revealed by the autopsy, lacerations he believed
Speaker 1: now were far more consistent with the pattern and size
Speaker 1: of owl talons than the end of a fireplace tool.
Speaker 1: While not cracking the skull, the owl's razor sharp talons
Speaker 1: would have caused huge amounts of bleeding. With the owl
Speaker 1: now entangled in Catherine's head, Pollard suggested it would be
Speaker 1: reasonable to assume that Kathleen panicked, tearing clumps of hair
Speaker 1: from her own scalp as she fought desperately to free
Speaker 1: herself from the owl. Kathleen was also found to have
Speaker 1: cedar needles stuck to one of her hands with a
Speaker 1: tiny fragment of wood, as well as more cedar needles
Speaker 1: under her fingernails. Could these have in fact come from
Speaker 1: an owl being transferred to Kathleen's hands when she supposedly
Speaker 1: fought it off. Finally, as Pollard's theory went on, having
Speaker 1: eventually freed herself from the owl's grip, he suggested that
Speaker 1: Kathleen then staggered into the house as blood from her
Speaker 1: wounds dripped over the front steps and smeared on the
Speaker 1: inside of the door, in an attempt to climb the stairs,
Speaker 1: presumably on route to the master bedroom. In shock and
Speaker 1: pain from the attack, Bleeding heavily and feeling woozy from
Speaker 1: the wine and pills, she lost her balance as she
Speaker 1: reached the top step and fell backwards to her death.
Speaker 1: In August two thousand eight, Larry Pollard held a news
Speaker 1: conference on the steps of the Durham County Courthouse with
Speaker 1: a pair of stuffed owls as props. In front of
Speaker 1: a small crowd of local media, he delivered his hypothesis
Speaker 1: about the potential owl attack. However, in the end, his
Speaker 1: theory never had the chance to be tested in court.
Speaker 1: In twenty eleven, emotion for a new trial was granted
Speaker 1: based on evidence that State Bureau of Investigations agent Dwayne
Speaker 1: Diva misled the judge and jury while giving his testimony
Speaker 1: at the original trial. It turned out that Diva had
Speaker 1: failed to report the results of lab tests that would
Speaker 1: have been perceived as favorable to Michael Peterson, and so
Speaker 1: in December twenty eleven, Peterson was essentially released from prison
Speaker 1: on a technicality, after serving only eight years of what
Speaker 1: should have been a lifetime sentence without parole. In February
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, he was allowed to take an Alford plea,
Speaker 1: a bizarre legal arrangement which enabled him to avoid any
Speaker 1: further jail time. The plea constituted an acknowledgment from Michael
Speaker 1: that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him of voluntary
Speaker 1: manslaughter without actually having to admit guilt. Peterson was then
Speaker 1: sentenced again to time served and set free as unbelievable
Speaker 1: as it may be, bard owts have continued to regularly
Speaker 1: attack people in parts of the US. In the early
Speaker 1: spring of twenty twenty two, conservation biologist Margaret Fowl was
Speaker 1: cross country skiing near her home in Vermont when she
Speaker 1: felt something hit the back of her head, followed by
Speaker 1: a sharp pain. Putting her hands up, she felt two
Speaker 1: legs with sharp talons gripping onto her head and hat.
Speaker 1: With prior experience of working in a wraptor rehab center,
Speaker 1: Fowl knew straight away that this was a barred owl.
Speaker 1: It took several minutes before she managed to free herself
Speaker 1: and the owl flew off, only to turn around and
Speaker 1: continue swooping at her, striking her on the head several
Speaker 1: more times. Having made its point, the owl eventually stopped
Speaker 1: its attack and flew off with her hat. In twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four, a man in Mobile, Alabama, was struck twice
Speaker 1: by an owl in the same week while out on
Speaker 1: a morning run. The first time it occurred, Trace Galloway
Speaker 1: thought he would being mugged when he was hit on
Speaker 1: the back of his head. Then he saw the owl
Speaker 1: flying away with one of his Apple AirPods in its talons.
Speaker 1: Five days later, he was assaulted again, this time by
Speaker 1: two owls seemingly working together. After one owl hit him
Speaker 1: on the side of his head, he turned just in
Speaker 1: time to see another flying right at him from the
Speaker 1: opposite direction. As he dodged the second owl, the first
Speaker 1: attacked again, delivering a blow that knocked the man off
Speaker 1: his feet. Thankfully, a friend happened to be driving by
Speaker 1: at that precise moment. Galloway jumped into his truck and
Speaker 1: escaped with just a few wounds on his hands from
Speaker 1: the fall. Even still, it would have taken an extraordinary
Speaker 1: series of events for Kathleen Peterson to have fallen victim
Speaker 1: to a similar attack, all without the knowledge of her husband,
Speaker 1: who would have been with her only moments before. For
Speaker 1: his part, Michael Peterson continues to protest his innocence and
Speaker 1: ignorance as to what really happened to his wife. He's
Speaker 1: also spoken out against what he claims is a crooked
Speaker 1: justice system in which duplicitous law enforcement officers and crime
Speaker 1: scene analysts deliberately stacked the odds against him. Kathleen Peterson's
Speaker 1: family and many others, however, insist that only Michael knows
Speaker 1: the real truth about what happened to Kathleen, and whether
Speaker 1: he takes that to his grave or not is up
Speaker 1: to him. This episode was written by Diane Hope and
Speaker 1: produced by me Richard McLean Smith. Diane is an audio
Speaker 1: producer and sound recordeded in her own right. You can
Speaker 1: find out more about her work at Dianehope dot com
Speaker 1: and on Instagram at in the sound Field. Unexplained is
Speaker 1: an AV Club Productions podcast created by Richard McClain Smith.
Speaker 1: All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are
Speaker 1: also produced by me Richard McClain smith. Unexplained. The book
Speaker 1: and audiobook is now available to buy worldwide. You can
Speaker 1: purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and other bookstores.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts, and feel free to get in touch with
Speaker 1: any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on
Speaker 1: the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of your own
Speaker 1: you'd like to share. You can find out more at
Speaker 1: Unexplained podcast dot com and reach us online through Twitter
Speaker 1: at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com. Forward
Speaker 1: slash Unexplained Podcast. Now for something completely different, enjoy.
Speaker 2: About LOUDI we ran our particular. You're out life life
Speaker 2: little gory. You'll be able to revolve about our without
Speaker 2: giving in.
Speaker 3: Album forever, what you're listening to there is the voice
Speaker 3: of Alistair Crowley, the infamous occultist and writer, conducting a
Speaker 3: gnostic mass Loud, loud or deliberty. It was recorded on
Speaker 3: a wax cylinder in the early years of the twentieth century.
Speaker 3: Crowley's name has come up a lot in our show
Speaker 3: ever since we started investigating the case of Charles dexter
Speaker 3: Ward back in.
Speaker 6: When was it twenty eighteen?
Speaker 3: Wow, okay, twenty eighteen. A lot's happened, It really has.
Speaker 4: I am you seek cool?
Speaker 3: Aya stay behind me.
Speaker 4: Seriously, this is my coming the dog.
Speaker 6: As they get to this point, there was a blinding flash.
Speaker 4: With no sound.
Speaker 3: Harry comes from the top. He's count Then the craft
Speaker 3: just rises up through the trees and flies away.
Speaker 6: Did you hear that?
Speaker 4: Hello?
Speaker 6: Your kids are creepy?
Speaker 4: You know that path?
Speaker 5: Huh, Meg, I can make you have some shames around
Speaker 5: the fire, Turn around, retrace your steps.
Speaker 6: Don't believe what you're seeing. You heard the story wisdom coat, Oh,
Speaker 6: that's where this goes to Canada.
Speaker 7: It's where aways go.
Speaker 4: This is le comte de There is the purest concentration
Speaker 4: of pollocks that has ever entered my.
Speaker 3: Anyway. Yes, so Alistair Crowley. He first came up while
Speaker 3: we were investigating the case of Charles dexter Ward and
Speaker 3: he's been referenced multiple times in every season of the
Speaker 3: show since then, but we've never really done a deep
Speaker 3: dive into him.
Speaker 7: So what we have planned here is a kind of
Speaker 7: interim season, an experiment, a five part series looking at
Speaker 7: the life and work of Aleister Crowley, from his formative
Speaker 7: years through his time in Paris and New York. The
Speaker 7: formation of his various occult groups, the rituals he conducted
Speaker 7: at Bileskin House in Scotland and in Sicily, his heroin addiction,
Speaker 7: his wartime activities, his famous friends.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of it.
Speaker 6: There is a lot of it, and it's a lot
Speaker 6: of work.
Speaker 3: And that's why we need your help. If you've been
Speaker 3: following the show, you know that money is always a
Speaker 3: little to light around here, and following the events at
Speaker 3: the end of the Haunt of the Dark, we're on
Speaker 3: the run. I don't know, i'd say on the run exactly.
Speaker 6: Fujuitis from justice.
Speaker 3: Well, we're staying under the radar, that's true. We don't
Speaker 3: have a studio anymore, and some of our more recent investigations,
Speaker 3: particularly in Amsterdam, have drawn quite a lot of unpleasant attention.
Speaker 3: So we need money and that is why we're talking
Speaker 3: to you now.
Speaker 4: Isn't this supposed to be a video?
Speaker 3: Hello, Elenor.
Speaker 4: I thought these kickstart things were always videos.
Speaker 6: We don't do video.
Speaker 4: You don't want people to see what you really look like.
Speaker 3: Well, it helps with the work if people don't recognize us,
Speaker 3: if they see us coming.
Speaker 4: I think they see you coming. Have you listened to
Speaker 4: your show?
Speaker 7: We're not doing video because we're a podcast and that's
Speaker 7: what we're trying to fund here.
Speaker 3: So we'd hoped you might provide some context eleanor, context
Speaker 3: for White's.
Speaker 6: Dark, context for Crowley, for why it's relevant to ours?
Speaker 4: Obvious, isn't it. He's the glue that sticks it all together.
Speaker 4: They know that. Every time Wizard you've come across since
Speaker 4: twenty eighteen, it was a big debt to Alistair Crowley.
Speaker 4: He's Davy Bowie for Lunatics. Why are you doing that Handjester?
Speaker 4: What does that mean? It's keep going, Oh okay, fine
Speaker 4: in a nutshell. Then. Crowley was born in Leamington, SPA
Speaker 4: in eighteen seventy five, and he died in Hastings in
Speaker 4: nineteen forty seven. That's seventy two years, in which time
Speaker 4: he wrote books and poetry, painted pictures, and started a
Speaker 4: publishing company. He developed an entire system of ceremonial magic.
Speaker 4: You could actually argue he started a whole religion. He
Speaker 4: traveled the world, climbed mountains, met a ton of celebrities,
Speaker 4: lived through two World Wars. Probably worked for British intelligence,
Speaker 4: may or may not have worked against British intelligence. He
Speaker 4: supposedly chatted to the god Horus in Egypt. He met
Speaker 4: an alien in New York, got kicked out of India
Speaker 4: for shooting two men who tried to mug him, got
Speaker 4: kicked out of Sicily for running a sex cult. He
Speaker 4: was addicted to heroin, hollowed out his nose on cocaine,
Speaker 4: and shagged pretty much everything he met with a pulse.
Speaker 4: The British tabloids called him the wickedest man alive.
Speaker 3: Were they right?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 4: Maybe? As always, it's a bit more complicated than that.
Speaker 4: You wouldn't want to have been married to him, that's
Speaker 4: for sure, and you probably wouldn't have enjoyed being his
Speaker 4: accountant either.
Speaker 6: But there's a lot of ground to cover right.
Speaker 4: Oh, it's hard to imagine anyone else packing that much
Speaker 4: into seventy two years.
Speaker 3: But we're going to pack it into five episodes. No,
Speaker 3: you're not, well, that's the plan.
Speaker 6: We got to get the money first that we do.
Speaker 3: This is an ambitious project.
Speaker 6: It's a lot of research, a lot of legwork.
Speaker 3: And a lot of expert opinion from Eleanor and from others.
Speaker 6: We think this is going to be an amazing.
Speaker 3: Project, but we need your help.
Speaker 7: Please pledge whatever you can so that we can get
Speaker 7: this made. On the Kickstarter site you'll find all kinds
Speaker 7: of tears and rewards.
Speaker 3: Yes, we're offering everything from exclusive access to the finished
Speaker 3: shows to the chance to come and hang out while
Speaker 3: we record.
Speaker 4: Is that supposed to be a treat? It might work
Speaker 4: better as a threat for anyone who doesn't cough up.
Speaker 6: We've got merch and books and a whole bunch of
Speaker 6: other stuff.
Speaker 3: Hopefully something there will look like a good fit. We've
Speaker 3: never gone down the crowd funding route before, but if
Speaker 3: this works out, it could open up possibilities for loads
Speaker 3: of new shows in the future.
Speaker 7: It really could. We have a ton of ideas and
Speaker 7: not least the next full season of the show.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's just sitting there ready to go.
Speaker 7: So just click the link, pledge whatever you can and
Speaker 7: we can get to work. And now thanks for listening.
Speaker 4: And well done for making it to the end us.
Speaker 6: No, then, is there anything we've forgotten?
Speaker 3: Just this. I'm Matthew Heywood.
Speaker 6: And I'm Kennedy Fisher and this is.
Speaker 2: Crowley bar in your bunny land, little fellow, you the
Speaker 2: idler dah, I shall find new ice, shall I have you?
Speaker 2: I am coming back and gain up Tilcom's bomb tomplete
Speaker 2: your intu the honey Man's bl