1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:06,360 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:09,200 --> 00:00:13,440 Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a 3 00:00:13,560 --> 00:00:17,720 Speaker 1: show that uncovers a little bit more about history every day. 4 00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:22,360 Speaker 1: I'm Gabe Lucier, and in this episode, we're exploring the 5 00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:27,280 Speaker 1: real life mystery behind the disappearance of Agatha Christie. As 6 00:00:27,280 --> 00:00:31,360 Speaker 1: a warning, though, today's episode includes discussion of mental illness 7 00:00:31,440 --> 00:00:40,400 Speaker 1: and attempted suicide, which may be upsetting for some listeners. 8 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:49,000 Speaker 1: The day was December fourteenth, nineteen twenty six. Acclaimed novelist 9 00:00:49,080 --> 00:00:55,240 Speaker 1: Agatha Christie resurfaced after a mysterious eleven day disappearance. The 10 00:00:55,280 --> 00:00:58,240 Speaker 1: author was thirty six years old at the time and 11 00:00:58,280 --> 00:01:01,240 Speaker 1: had already made a name for herself with several popular 12 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:06,240 Speaker 1: detective novels, including The Secret Adversary, The Murder on the Lynx, 13 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:09,880 Speaker 1: and her most recent work, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. 14 00:01:10,560 --> 00:01:14,760 Speaker 1: Her sudden disappearance on December third led to rampant speculation 15 00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:18,880 Speaker 1: that she herself had been murdered, possibly by her own husband, 16 00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:23,720 Speaker 1: Colonel Archibald Christie. It was later revealed that his actions 17 00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:26,720 Speaker 1: were indeed at the heart of the mystery, but not 18 00:01:26,840 --> 00:01:30,080 Speaker 1: in the way that the police and the press had suspected. 19 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:34,280 Speaker 1: It all started on the evening of December third, when 20 00:01:34,319 --> 00:01:37,520 Speaker 1: Agatha Christie left her sleeping seven year old daughter with 21 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:41,240 Speaker 1: the family maid and drove off into the night. She 22 00:01:41,319 --> 00:01:45,360 Speaker 1: departed her home in Berkshire, England, just before ten pm 23 00:01:45,600 --> 00:01:48,800 Speaker 1: and didn't tell anyone where she was going. About an 24 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:53,360 Speaker 1: hour later, her car was found abandoned miles from her home, 25 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:57,320 Speaker 1: teetering on the edge of a chalk pit. Inside the 26 00:01:57,360 --> 00:02:01,360 Speaker 1: car were several articles of clothing and chris id but 27 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:04,400 Speaker 1: the author herself was nowhere to be found, and there 28 00:02:04,480 --> 00:02:08,480 Speaker 1: was no evidence of a struggle or injury. The police 29 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:13,560 Speaker 1: conducted a day's long search, scouring the countryside with bloodhounds, 30 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:18,360 Speaker 1: biplanes and more than ten thousand civilian volunteers, but they 31 00:02:18,400 --> 00:02:22,000 Speaker 1: found no sign of Christie. They even enlisted the aid 32 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:26,040 Speaker 1: of two other famous crime writers, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 33 00:02:26,240 --> 00:02:30,040 Speaker 1: the creator of Sherlock Holmes, and Dorothy Sayers, author of 34 00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:34,400 Speaker 1: the Lord Peter Whimsey series. Sayers visited the site of 35 00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:38,280 Speaker 1: Christie's disappearance to search for clues but didn't find any, 36 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:42,639 Speaker 1: and Doyle, a devout occultist, took one of Christie's gloves 37 00:02:42,639 --> 00:02:45,560 Speaker 1: to a renowned medium, hoping it could be used to 38 00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:50,559 Speaker 1: track down the novelist's spiritual aura, but that too, proved ineffective. 39 00:02:51,520 --> 00:02:54,120 Speaker 1: By the second week of the search, the press had 40 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:58,359 Speaker 1: grown restless and began concocting all sorts of wild theories 41 00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:01,560 Speaker 1: as to what might have happened to Christy. Some journalists 42 00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:04,600 Speaker 1: suggest that she may have purposely drowned herself in a 43 00:03:04,639 --> 00:03:08,519 Speaker 1: local lake known as the Silent Pool, but after divers 44 00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:12,320 Speaker 1: were dispatched and came back empty handed, the suicide theory 45 00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:16,960 Speaker 1: was quickly abandoned. Other more cynical reporters said the author's 46 00:03:17,040 --> 00:03:20,320 Speaker 1: disappearance was nothing but a marketing ploy to promote her 47 00:03:20,360 --> 00:03:24,240 Speaker 1: latest book. But the most prevalent theory by far was 48 00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:28,000 Speaker 1: that Christie had been murdered by her husband, Archie Christie, 49 00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:31,519 Speaker 1: a former World War One pilot who had recently asked 50 00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:35,960 Speaker 1: his wife for a divorce. Archie remained the primary suspect 51 00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:40,880 Speaker 1: until December fourteenth, when Agatha Christie was finally located, alive 52 00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:44,320 Speaker 1: and well. It turned out the author had spent the 53 00:03:44,400 --> 00:03:48,240 Speaker 1: last eleven days at the Old Swan Hotel and Spa 54 00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:51,520 Speaker 1: in Harrogate, where she had checked in with barely any 55 00:03:51,600 --> 00:03:56,040 Speaker 1: luggage under the assumed name of Teresa Neil. She had 56 00:03:56,080 --> 00:03:59,560 Speaker 1: made no attempt to disguise herself during her stay, taking 57 00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:03,000 Speaker 1: part at all the dinners, balls, dances and other forms 58 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:07,559 Speaker 1: of entertainment the hotel offered. Finally, though, she was recognized 59 00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:11,400 Speaker 1: by one of the hotel's banjo players, Bob Tappan, who 60 00:04:11,440 --> 00:04:15,200 Speaker 1: informed the police of her whereabouts. They in turn told 61 00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:18,920 Speaker 1: Colonel Christie, who went to quietly collect his wife, hoping 62 00:04:18,960 --> 00:04:24,120 Speaker 1: to dodge the press. However, the mystery wasn't over just yet. 63 00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:28,000 Speaker 1: According to Colonel Christie, his wife had no memory of 64 00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:31,040 Speaker 1: how she got to the hotel or why she checked 65 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:34,160 Speaker 1: in using an alias. It was up to the police 66 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:37,680 Speaker 1: then to piece together what might have happened. Their conclusion 67 00:04:37,960 --> 00:04:41,240 Speaker 1: was that Christy had left home for London, but accidentally 68 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:44,719 Speaker 1: ran her car off the road along the way, suffering 69 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:47,320 Speaker 1: a blow to the head. She then wandered to the 70 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:50,920 Speaker 1: nearest rail station and bordered a train to Harrogate, where 71 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:54,520 Speaker 1: she settled in for some much needed rest. Her memory 72 00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:57,560 Speaker 1: loss was attributed to the car crash, but her invention 73 00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:01,400 Speaker 1: of a new personality, missus Terreea A Kneel of Cape Town, 74 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:04,960 Speaker 1: South Africa, was a bit harder for the police to explain. 75 00:05:05,680 --> 00:05:08,960 Speaker 1: Colonel Christie, on the other hand, probably had a much 76 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:12,279 Speaker 1: better sense of what was going on. It later came 77 00:05:12,360 --> 00:05:14,680 Speaker 1: to light that he had been having an affair with 78 00:05:14,720 --> 00:05:18,960 Speaker 1: his twenty five year old secretary, Nancy Neil. He had 79 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:22,320 Speaker 1: confessed his love for her to Agatha earlier that August, 80 00:05:22,640 --> 00:05:25,160 Speaker 1: but his wife had refused to grant him a divorce. 81 00:05:25,920 --> 00:05:28,760 Speaker 1: The couple tried to work through their problems, but on 82 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:32,239 Speaker 1: December third, they had an argument and Archie stormed away 83 00:05:32,360 --> 00:05:36,200 Speaker 1: for the weekend. Nineteen twenty six had been a trying 84 00:05:36,320 --> 00:05:40,159 Speaker 1: year for Agatha Christie. Her mother had passed away earlier 85 00:05:40,200 --> 00:05:44,120 Speaker 1: that spring, and Archie had provided little comfort or support. 86 00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:47,279 Speaker 1: He didn't help clear out her mother's home or even 87 00:05:47,320 --> 00:05:50,440 Speaker 1: attend the funeral. The trauma of the death of her 88 00:05:50,480 --> 00:05:53,839 Speaker 1: mother was then compounded by the disillusion of her marriage, 89 00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:56,880 Speaker 1: leading the author to have a nervous breakdown on that 90 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:01,640 Speaker 1: snowy night in December. Her mental state became so troubled 91 00:06:01,680 --> 00:06:05,560 Speaker 1: that she contemplated suicide and then entered what's commonly known 92 00:06:05,640 --> 00:06:09,760 Speaker 1: as a fugue, a dissociative state brought on by trauma 93 00:06:09,880 --> 00:06:14,960 Speaker 1: or depression. These details were seemingly confirmed by Christie herself 94 00:06:15,160 --> 00:06:17,760 Speaker 1: in the one and only interview she ever gave on 95 00:06:17,839 --> 00:06:21,320 Speaker 1: the subject. In a nineteen twenty eight discussion with The 96 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:24,600 Speaker 1: Daily Mail, she shared her recovered memory of the night 97 00:06:24,640 --> 00:06:29,560 Speaker 1: of her disappearance, saying quote, that night I felt terribly miserable. 98 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:32,760 Speaker 1: I felt that I could go on no longer. I 99 00:06:32,880 --> 00:06:35,719 Speaker 1: left home in a state of high nervous strain with 100 00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:39,000 Speaker 1: the intention of doing something desperate. When I reached a 101 00:06:39,040 --> 00:06:41,680 Speaker 1: point on the road which I thought was near the quarry, 102 00:06:42,040 --> 00:06:44,640 Speaker 1: I turned the car off the road down the hill 103 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:48,200 Speaker 1: toward it. I left the wheel and let the car run. 104 00:06:48,680 --> 00:06:51,280 Speaker 1: The car struck something with a jerk and pulled up. 105 00:06:51,320 --> 00:06:54,560 Speaker 1: Suddenly I was flung against the steering wheel and my 106 00:06:54,680 --> 00:06:58,520 Speaker 1: head hit something. The shock of the impact seemed to 107 00:06:58,560 --> 00:07:01,719 Speaker 1: bring the author to her senses, convincing her that life 108 00:07:01,760 --> 00:07:04,520 Speaker 1: was worth living. But when she emerged from the wreck, 109 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:06,720 Speaker 1: she didn't want to deal with the pain of her 110 00:07:06,720 --> 00:07:10,080 Speaker 1: old life any longer, so she created a new one. 111 00:07:10,680 --> 00:07:14,160 Speaker 1: Up to this point, she said, I was Missus Christie. 112 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:18,119 Speaker 1: I had now become in my mind Missus Teresa Neil 113 00:07:18,440 --> 00:07:22,120 Speaker 1: of South Africa. She had borrowed the surname of her 114 00:07:22,160 --> 00:07:25,640 Speaker 1: new identity from her husband's lover, and she chose Cape 115 00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:28,440 Speaker 1: Town as her point of origin because she had fond 116 00:07:28,520 --> 00:07:31,800 Speaker 1: memories of vacationing there with Archie back when they were 117 00:07:31,840 --> 00:07:36,480 Speaker 1: still happy. Years later, Christie would say, you can't write 118 00:07:36,480 --> 00:07:38,880 Speaker 1: your fate, but you can do what you like with 119 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:42,679 Speaker 1: the characters you create. For a week and a half 120 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:46,000 Speaker 1: she did what she liked as the character of Teresa Neil. 121 00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:49,440 Speaker 1: But eventually her old life caught up with her and 122 00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:51,880 Speaker 1: she had to face the pain she had so badly 123 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:56,240 Speaker 1: sought to avoid. Agatha Christie made a full recovery and 124 00:07:56,280 --> 00:07:59,240 Speaker 1: returned to writing, her best work still ahead of her, 125 00:07:59,800 --> 00:08:03,080 Speaker 1: but the incident seemed to grant her new resolve. She 126 00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:06,520 Speaker 1: was no longer willing to look past her husband's infidelity, 127 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:10,920 Speaker 1: so fifteen months after her re emergence, she sued him 128 00:08:11,280 --> 00:08:16,360 Speaker 1: for divorce. Two years later, she married a distinguished archaeologist 129 00:08:16,520 --> 00:08:19,920 Speaker 1: named Sir Max Malawan, and the two of them enjoyed 130 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:24,640 Speaker 1: many happy, scandal free years together. Oh and in case 131 00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:29,360 Speaker 1: you're wondering, Archibald Christy remarried as well. His new wife 132 00:08:29,600 --> 00:08:36,520 Speaker 1: was none other than Nancy Neal. I'm Gabe Luesier and 133 00:08:36,640 --> 00:08:40,120 Speaker 1: hopefully you now know a little more about history today 134 00:08:40,559 --> 00:08:44,680 Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. If you enjoyed today's episode, consider 135 00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:48,280 Speaker 1: keeping up with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You 136 00:08:48,320 --> 00:08:53,160 Speaker 1: can find us at TDI HC Show Special. Thanks to 137 00:08:53,240 --> 00:08:57,120 Speaker 1: longtime listener Joey de Grondis for suggesting the topic for 138 00:08:57,200 --> 00:09:00,400 Speaker 1: today's episode, and if you have a suggest for a 139 00:09:00,520 --> 00:09:03,080 Speaker 1: historical event you'd like to hear covered on the show, 140 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:05,959 Speaker 1: feel free to pass it along by writing to This 141 00:09:06,080 --> 00:09:10,720 Speaker 1: Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for 142 00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:13,920 Speaker 1: producing the show, and thanks to you for listening. I'll 143 00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:17,280 Speaker 1: see you back here again tomorrow for another day in 144 00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:18,280 Speaker 1: History Class.