WEBVTT - Season 08 Episode 39: A Trembling Distant Voice 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.400 Hello, it's Richard mccleinsmith here with a quick update before 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:06.800 we dive into today's episode. Unexplained is very excited to 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:09.200 be a part of Crime Wave at Sea this November, 0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:12.600 joining forces with some of the eeriest voices in the 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:15.800 world of true crime and the paranormal four nights in 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:19.960 the Caribbean, with amazing podcasts like Last Podcast on the Left, 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:24.400 Scared to Death and many more live shows, Meet and greets, 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:27.960 Creepy Stories under the Stars and you can be there too, 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:31.960 but don't wait. Rooms are nearly sold out. Head to 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:36.600 Crimewavetsea dot com forward slash Unexplained to grab your fan 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:39.600 coat and lock in your cabin. We'd love to see 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:53.440 you on board. For as long as we've been cognizant 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:56.960 of our place within the universe, humans have been attracted 0:00:57.000 --> 0:01:00.320 to the notion of an afterlife. We see it every 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:03.800 time we pass a church or graveyard. We hear about 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:07.720 it every time someone makes reference to the dead. Passing 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:12.319 on from the ancient Egyptian belief that our body and 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:15.800 soul duplicate themselves in the Kingdom of the Dead to 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:19.920 the more modern iterations of heaven and hell represented by 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:25.280 the Abrahamic religions. Our relationship with mortality, and indeed religion, 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:30.040 is largely informed by our unwillingness to accept death as 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:36.040 the end. Understandably, believing in an after life offers great comfort, 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:41.399 yet simply believing the dead continue to exist somewhere else 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:47.360 isn't enough. Throughout history, we've desperately sought ways to pierce 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:51.200 the veil between life and death, to receive guidance from 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:55.040 those who have gone before us, or glimpse what awaits us. 0:01:56.200 --> 0:02:00.880 This is why so many cultures have produced oracles than visionaries. 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:05.640 In the Greco Roman era, these people were often revered 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:10.760 priestesses known as sibyls, who would invite pollucinogenic cocktails to 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:16.960 produce prophecies and dream visions. In Roman poet Virgil's epic 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:21.560 The Aeneid, for example, when Trojan hero a Eneas makes 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:24.440 the brave decision to try and visit his dead father 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:28.160 in the underworld, it is to the famous Cumean Sybil, 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:30.960 who he turns to for advice on how to make 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:35.480 it out alive. Since moving from the Renaissance, through the 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:40.160 Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, at least in the secular West, 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:45.639 we increasingly outsource our anxieties about death to empirical strategies 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:49.720 focusing more on sustaining life or at least providing the 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:55.519 illusion of eternal life through technology, cosmetics, and the intervention 0:02:55.800 --> 0:03:00.760 of modern medicine. But our animal hard wiring has proved 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:05.160 stubbornly persistent that little part of us that remains so 0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:08.760 terrified of the idea of death being the complete and 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:12.920 utter end, we just can't face up to it, So 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:16.720 that even when numerous studies show belief in gaud falling 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:20.800 steadily throughout the West over the last forty years, the 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:23.600 number of people who believe in an after life has 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:28.160 remained more or less consistent throughout the same period, despite 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:33.000 both ideas broadly going hand in hand. Perhaps one reason 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:36.720 for this has been the ever growing fascination with near 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:42.280 death experiences or endase, which, thanks to modern technology, has 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:45.200 never been more thoroughly studied than it is to day. 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:55.520 In two thousand and eight, in one large scale study 0:03:55.720 --> 0:04:00.080 published by the University of Southampton, over two thousand patients 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:04.600 from fifteen different hospitals were interviewed about what they encountered 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:09.600 during their near death experiences. It found that over forty 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:13.680 percent of those who survived cardiac events had an acute 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:17.280 sense of awareness during the time that they were supposedly 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:23.040 clinically dead. At least one patient had reportedly verified out 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:27.680 of body experience, while many more reported what were described 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:33.360 as hallucinatory events. One group of scientists from the Charite 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:37.839 University of Medicine in Berlin surmised during a study in 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:42.040 twenty eleven that near death experiences are most likely due 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:46.080 to an explosion of serotonin released into the bloodstream when 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:50.040 the brain senses the body shutting down. In this way, 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:54.479 an NDE is little more than consciousness giving itself one 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:59.200 last hurrah to ease the transition from being into non being. 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:03.800 The release of d MT from the pineal gland at 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:07.039 the moment of death has also been suggested as a 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:11.280 material explanation for the event. But even if this were 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:15.400 to prove categorically correct, we wouldn't be human if we 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:19.440 didn't at least think, hope or pray for a moment. 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:26.800 Just what if? Since the brain is relatively poorly understood 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:31.360 when compared with other organs, and since Newtonian physics does 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:35.000 not allow for the destruction of energy, only its transfer, 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:40.200 numerous hopeful theories have been proposed regarding the possibility of 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:44.600 consciousness surviving death, So it should come as no surprise 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:49.320 that visions experienced in the face of death still hold 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:54.240 a great fascination for us. In James One's twenty ten 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:59.200 horror blockbuster Insidious, a demonic entity known as the Long 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:02.919 Haired Fiend attaches itself to a young boy after he 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:06.600 falls from a ladder and slips into a prolonged coma. 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:11.599 To date, the Insidious franchise has made almost a billion 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:15.800 US dollars at the box office, clear evidence that the 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:20.400 very idea of another site still has the enduring power 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:24.359 to both titillate and terrify to such an extent that 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:27.080 we will turn out in droves just to get a 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:31.880 peak at what we imagine might be behind the curtain. But 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:35.520 how should we approach near death experiences when the visions 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:38.760 don't come from a hospital bed or a laboratory setting. 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:42.600 What happens when they emerge from the bowels of the 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:47.919 earth itself? From men trapped in absolute darkness, facing certain death, 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:52.400 with no medical equipment to monitor their brain activity and 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:57.039 no scientists to explain away what they're seeing, these were 0:06:57.080 --> 0:07:01.159 exactly the questions that would haunt investigators in the aftermath 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:05.480 of one tragic event in the small town of Shepton, Pennsylvania, 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:10.480 in the summer of nineteen sixty three. You're listening to 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:22.600 Unexplained and I'm Richard mc lean smith. Tuesday morning of 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:28.640 August thirteenth, nineteen sixty three was unseasonably cold, even more 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:32.200 so down in the depths of the single entry Anthrokite 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:37.640 coal mine near the small town of Shepton, Pennsylvania. Fifty 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:41.000 eight year old David Felon was the mine's co owner. 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:46.400 Despite his authority, David was well respected and liked by 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:50.600 his men because, unlike many other mine owners, he wasn't 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:54.480 afraid to get his hands dirty. He cared about his 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:57.720 co workers and was always quick with a kind word 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:02.920 about their families or asking after their welfare. That morning, 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:05.920 David was at the head of a skeleton crew with 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:09.840 two of his most trusted employees, fifty four year old 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:14.600 Lewis Bova and twenty eight year old Henry Throne. Though 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:18.640 fairly new to the wrong, Henry was energetic and curious 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:22.800 about the intricacies of his work, and usefully strong when 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:27.040 it came to moving heavy loads. Though David was loath 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:30.120 to admit it. He was fast approaching the end of 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:33.360 his own tenure physically, and was pleased to have the 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:37.720 eager young worker by his side. The coal mine was 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:41.520 small scale and cramped, but the men didn't mind. They 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:44.559 saw themselves as working within a tradition that went all 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:47.280 the way back to the days of the American Frontier. 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:52.679 They didn't need excavators or bulldozers, industrial drills, or fancy 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:56.839 lighting ricks. Felen and his men relied solely on their 0:08:56.840 --> 0:09:00.880 wits and the tried and tested method of extracting coal 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:05.720 with pickaxes and handcarts. They were three hundred and thirty 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:10.560 feet underground, separated from the outside world by countless tons 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:13.520 of rock and soil above them, with only a low 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:17.840 hanging narrow mine shaft held up by wooden support beams 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:22.000 for a way out. The men pummeled at the seam 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:25.680 under the flickering light of their gas lamps, their faces 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:29.240 black from the coal dust. After an hour or so, 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:32.600 they loaded up a cart with the spoils and sent 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:36.560 it back up to the surface. As the heavily laden 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:40.240 cart inched its way ever closer to the outside world, 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:44.640 pulled by an aging piece of corroded steel, cable. The 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:48.440 men got back to work chipping away at the coal. 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:51.679 They rarely thought of the perilousness of what they were doing, 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:55.680 preferring instead to focus on getting the job done so 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:58.320 they could get back to their families and loved ones. 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:02.120 So maybe it was just sheer luck that they'd gotten 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:06.000 away with working under such dangerous conditions for so long, 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:11.640 But that luck was about to change. As the cart 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:15.840 continued its way, inching up the tunnel toward the daylight, 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:21.320 that corroded steel cable slowly began to unravel, one strand 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:25.600 at a time, each loosening for a moment before suddenly 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:31.760 pinging off. Then, with one loud crack, the entire cable snapped. 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:37.480 Hearing a strange sound, at first, David Felon thought he'd 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:41.120 pierced through the seam and exposed a natural gas bubble, 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:44.480 something that was common in that line of work, and 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:47.559 that would have left all three men with no hope 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:52.040 of survival. Then he heard an ominous, distant rumbling sound, 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:56.040 the sound of the coal cart thundering back down the 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:59.800 mine shaft toward them, taking out every support beam in 0:10:59.840 --> 0:11:04.240 it path. David had just enough time to scream for 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:08.640 his team to take cover before their entire world collapsed 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:22.520 on their heads as countless tons of rock rained down 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:26.200 on them. Both David and the younger man, Henry Throne, 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:29.040 managed to dive out of the way just in time, 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:32.520 taking refuge in an air pocket at one end of 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:37.960 the mine track. Lewis Bova was not so lucky. He'd 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:41.080 been working further up the track when the collapse happened, 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:44.720 and was now separated from his colleagues by a meter's 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:50.280 thick wall of crushed stone, wooden beams, buckled railway sleepers, 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:55.080 and smashed metal. For a moment, David and Henry heard 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:58.559 him shouting from the other side of the rubble, something 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:02.480 about his hip being backd hurt. Then he went quiet. 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:07.320 They tried knocking and calling his name. They rattled the 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:10.679 wire on the light fixtures, hoping he would rattle back, 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:15.439 but there was no response. David and Henry, it seemed, 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:18.720 were now on their own, with only the flame of 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:23.000 a flickering gaslight to illuminate the cramped space, and not 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:30.600 long after the light flickered out, plunging them into unfathomable darkness. 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:34.960 The older David did his best to keep Henry calm. 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:38.320 The main thing was they were alive and uninjured, and 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.359 their colleagues would soon be coming for them, he insisted. 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:46.320 In the meantime, they just had to hold on. But 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:49.640 David knew only too well that in order to do that, 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:53.200 they were likely going to have to push the boundaries 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:57.199 of human endurance far beyond what either men had imagined 0:12:57.240 --> 0:13:01.640 they would ever have to do. Listening in the darkness, 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:06.240 they followed the sound of droplets and discovered puddles of brackish, 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:12.080 sulfurous water. It was vile, like drinking liquid coal, but 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:16.160 it would keep them alive. As for food, all they 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.320 had between them was the half eaten cheese and pickle 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:24.120 sandwich in David's top pocket. When that ran out, they 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:27.120 chewed on the damp bark of a broken support beam 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:31.120 to stave off the pangs of hunger. But worst of 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:34.240 all was the cold. It seemed to pulse through the 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:39.920 walls like a nuclear winter, and so they endured minute 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:44.760 after minute, hour after hour in the pitch black, clinging 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:48.359 to each other to preserve body heat and for comfort. 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:53.559 It had been two days, maybe even three by their 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:59.000 rough estimation, when David and Henry began to scent something strange, 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:03.440 though they knew it made no logical sense. Both men 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:12.240 were becoming increasingly convinced that they weren't alone in the mind. 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:21.240 It was David who saw it first, the faint light 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:25.640 in the distance, getting closer and closer. It seemed to 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:29.480 be coming from a flashlight. Then what appeared to be 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:32.960 two shapes seemed to emerge from out of the gloom. 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:38.600 Then Henry apparently saw it too, Hey, show me some 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:42.000 light over here, he shouted, annoyed at how long the 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:45.720 figures seemed to be taking to get to them. As 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:50.680 they came closer, David realized suddenly they were wearing spacesuits 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:55.800 and didn't seem to hear Henry's cry. David watched as 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:59.240 the figures drew closer, feeling as though he were spinning 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:03.520 through a hall of mirrors. Panicking suddenly, he tried to 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:06.840 move toward them, only for the two figures to suddenly 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:10.720 head off in the opposite direction, getting smaller and smaller 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:16.520 until they disappeared completely. It was some time later, as 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:20.320 the two men drifted in and out of consciousness, that 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:25.240 Henry suddenly stirred, Awake, Do you see it? He said? 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:32.600 See what, replied David? The light said Henry, But this 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:37.800 time it wasn't a flashlight, but something else entirely, an 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:41.920 eerie blue glow radiating from out of what appeared to 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:46.840 be a doorway located some way off in the darkness. 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:50.480 Henry was certain he could see a marble staircase in 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:55.320 the space behind leading up into the light. The young 0:15:55.400 --> 0:16:01.040 man stumbled to his feet, stooping low to avoid the ceiling. Davy, 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:04.040 I'm going home, and I'll go alone if you don't 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:07.320 want to come, he said, as he tried to stagger away. 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:12.280 Feeling a sudden surge of dread, David grabbed for Henry 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:15.920 and held on to him for dear life. Don't go 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:18.920 to it, he urged, as though he knew if he 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:23.560 went for it, Henry's life would be over in time. 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:27.280 As they would later tell it, David also came to 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:32.440 see the doorway. It was perhaps a day later when 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:37.880 Henry saw the strain celestial light again, this time seemingly 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:41.120 shining out of a huge fissure in the mine wall. 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:45.440 Henry couldn't take his eyes off it and what was 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:51.320 supposedly contained within it. Beyond the crack, as he later claimed, 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:55.920 he saw a vast, golden city with bizarre cherub like 0:16:56.000 --> 0:17:00.600 creatures flying in the air playing harps. There was a 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:05.800 face too, of a man Henry didn't recognize. Then the 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:11.600 crack closed up and the light disappeared. Throughout their ordeal, 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:16.080 a large glowing crucifix was also said to have appeared 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:21.040 to them. Neither man was quite sure how much time 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:24.920 had passed when they heard a faint rumbling sound above them, 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:30.720 followed by the unmistakable vibration of a drill moving closer overhead, 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:34.959 until finally it pushed through the rock and sent a 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:39.800 shower of rubble cascading from above. When all was still, 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:50.639 the men realized with startled relief that they had been found. 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:55.359 Unknown to David and Henry, from the moment the mind collapsed, 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:59.119 an extraordinary rescue effort had been put in motion to 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:02.959 try and get to the Five days had passed before 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:06.560 that first borehole pushed through into where they were sheltering. 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:10.600 As soon as they realized what had happened, the men 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:14.119 screamed out to whoever might be listening that they were alive. 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:20.960 In time, food, water, flashlights, and medication were passed down 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:24.800 into their chamber. A microphone was also dropped into the 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:29.000 hole so the men could communicate with their families. Here 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:32.480 we come, they shouted into it, delighted at the prospect 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:37.040 that their ordeal was finally coming to an end. Sadly, however, 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:41.320 there was still some way to go. It soon became 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.399 obvious the borehole had not been made wide enough for 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:48.080 the men to fit through. Having heard about the calamity, 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:53.560 eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes offered to help with the rescue effort. 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:57.440 With his support, a state of the art industrial drill 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:00.919 was flown in by the Navy, before being transported on 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:05.560 a flatbed trailer by a convoy of Pennsylvania State troopers. 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:09.359 The massive rig was set up and ready to begin 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:13.879 drilling on August twentieth, seven days after the initial collapse. 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:17.480 By then, family and friends had been joined at the 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:22.159 digging site by over two hundred media personnel, along with U. S. 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:25.119 Navy physicians who had been drafted in to tend to 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:27.440 the men as soon as they could be brought out. 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:32.879 All watched on in agonizing disbelief as every turn of 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:36.760 the huge drill increased the danger of further collapse into 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:41.120 the mine. What if the pickaxe hewn air pocket, which 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:45.000 held both David and Henry gave way. What if the 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:48.840 smaller borehole that had already taken five days to drill 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:55.080 suddenly collapsed too. Finally, after seven straight days of digging, 0:19:55.480 --> 0:20:01.199 howd Hughes's drill pushed through into the mine shaft. Even still, 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:04.840 the new borehole was only seventeen and a half inches 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:08.520 in diameter, and though the two men had lost considerable 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:12.440 weight during their entrapment, their exit proved a little more 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:16.480 difficult than anticipated. The men were given cover alls to 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:19.359 where to protect them from the three hundred feet of 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:22.560 jagged rock they were to be pulled through, and axel 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:25.920 grease to cover themselves with to help ease the journey. 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:30.560 And so it was that on August twenty seventh, at 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:34.680 David's behest, Henry was the first to be clipped onto 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:39.119 the rescue cable. Then, as he held on for dear life, 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:43.280 he was steadily winched through the tiny hole and ascended 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:47.600 up into the light. At the first sight of him 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:52.000 above ground, a huge cheer and wave of relief washed 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:56.000 over the crowd as Henry blinked furiously and winced at 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:59.760 the brightness of it all. It wasn't the after life, 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:02.560 but it was heaven to be back on the surface. 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:08.840 A short time later, David followed, singing deliriously as he went, 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:12.960 She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes, until 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:27.280 finally he too was pulled up into the light. Immediately 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:30.479 after both men were extracted from the cave, they were 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:34.160 rushed to the nearest hospital, where, incredibly, they were found 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:38.320 to be in relatively good health. Perhaps even more incredibly, 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:42.199 when Henry was brought into hospital, with his eyes slowly 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:45.800 adjusting to the daylight, he caught sight of an image 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:49.439 behind one of the nursing stations, a picture of the 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:53.200 same face he'd apparently seen in the vision he'd had 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:57.679 of the Golden City while trapped underground. When he asked 0:21:57.720 --> 0:22:00.800 who the man was, a nurse replied that it was 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:04.240 Pope John the twenty third, who had only recently died. 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:09.919 Henry had apparently never seen him before, and so steadily 0:22:10.240 --> 0:22:13.840 reports of the strange visions the men had seen while 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:18.840 trapped in the darkness began to emerge. Both men were 0:22:18.840 --> 0:22:22.439 interviewed separately by Fate magazine, where the author of the 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:25.359 piece was amazed to find that not only had both 0:22:25.440 --> 0:22:29.639 men apparently experienced the visions, but They claimed also to 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:34.680 have experienced the same ones, as David Felon himself told 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:38.160 the magazine. Pope John and a cross were there all 0:22:38.200 --> 0:22:42.600 the time, but these other things kept jumping across. First, 0:22:42.600 --> 0:22:45.760 there were these men with lights, and after a while 0:22:45.960 --> 0:22:49.800 the steps would come. It was real. Both of us 0:22:49.800 --> 0:22:52.800 were seeing it, and we knew they were live people. 0:22:53.520 --> 0:22:57.560 We know that both men are said to have become 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:01.280 convinced that the golden city they saw was in fact 0:23:01.320 --> 0:23:05.240 a vision of heaven. Though David had been raised Catholic 0:23:05.680 --> 0:23:09.680 and was familiar with the Pope and heavenly imagery, Henry 0:23:09.800 --> 0:23:12.960 was not a fact that many who believed the men's 0:23:13.000 --> 0:23:18.880 claims say proves the veracity of their account. Skeptics, however, 0:23:19.200 --> 0:23:23.080 point out that the stories of supposed heavenly visions only 0:23:23.200 --> 0:23:27.800 conveniently started to appear after the men began fielding criticism 0:23:27.960 --> 0:23:32.479 about their mining venture. Though glad to be alive, David 0:23:32.520 --> 0:23:36.200 Felon was quick to complain that he and Henry Throne 0:23:36.320 --> 0:23:39.639 could have been saved in five days instead of fourteen, 0:23:40.080 --> 0:23:43.440 had the rescuers come equipped with the proper drilling equipment 0:23:43.520 --> 0:23:48.600 in the first place. In response, Pennsylvania's Deputy Secretary of 0:23:48.720 --> 0:23:53.680 Mines Gordon Smith, who directed the rescue operation, blamed David, 0:23:53.800 --> 0:23:57.360 as co owner of the mine, for the collapse. As 0:23:57.400 --> 0:24:00.679 it turned out, the mine had already been worked out 0:24:00.720 --> 0:24:05.440 by another mining company, and David's team were effectively removing 0:24:05.560 --> 0:24:09.080 coal that had been deliberately left in place to keep 0:24:09.080 --> 0:24:13.680 the mind from collapsing. Despite the men's claim that their 0:24:13.760 --> 0:24:18.160 visions were identical, others have pointed out discrepancies in their 0:24:18.200 --> 0:24:23.000 account as evidence that they concocted their story. For example, 0:24:23.440 --> 0:24:26.959 the cross they apparently saw was said by David to 0:24:27.000 --> 0:24:30.840 have had square ends, while Henry described them as round. 0:24:31.960 --> 0:24:36.360 David also described the marble staircase he apparently saw as 0:24:36.440 --> 0:24:40.320 being ten to twelve feet wide and ascending upwards out 0:24:40.359 --> 0:24:44.600 of sight, while Henry described it instead as being three 0:24:44.680 --> 0:24:48.760 to four feet wide and leading to another doorway higher up. 0:24:56.040 --> 0:24:59.960 In February nineteen seventy, almost seven years after the shit 0:25:00.080 --> 0:25:03.800 Shepton incident, the band The Buoys from the nearby city 0:25:03.800 --> 0:25:08.200 of Scranton released a song called Timothy. The song was 0:25:08.240 --> 0:25:12.360 a minor success, spending eight weeks in the Billboard Top forty, 0:25:12.680 --> 0:25:17.359 peaking at number seventeen. In it, the Buoy's chief songwriter 0:25:17.560 --> 0:25:22.000 and frontman Rupert Holmes recounts a dark tale of three 0:25:22.119 --> 0:25:25.880 miners who descended into the earth, only to get trapped 0:25:25.920 --> 0:25:29.160 by a cave in. When one of the men dies, 0:25:29.440 --> 0:25:33.120 the eponymous Timothy, the other two are forced to eat 0:25:33.200 --> 0:25:37.399 him in order to survive. The strange blurring of the 0:25:37.480 --> 0:25:41.639 stories has left some wandering about what really happened to 0:25:41.760 --> 0:25:46.320 David and Henry's partner Lewis Bova, and whether the tale 0:25:46.359 --> 0:25:49.479 of their strange visions was in fact some way of 0:25:49.560 --> 0:25:54.800 distracting themselves from a far darker truth. For his part, 0:25:55.160 --> 0:25:59.240 songwriter Rupert Holmes has flatly denied any connection to the 0:25:59.280 --> 0:26:03.040 Shepton minace this ordeal, stating that if I had known 0:26:03.080 --> 0:26:06.000 about Shepton at the time, I probably never would have 0:26:06.040 --> 0:26:08.600 written the song because I don't want to make fun 0:26:08.640 --> 0:26:12.040 of something that's tragic. I sadly found out there was 0:26:12.080 --> 0:26:15.879 a parallel in reality, but only after the fact. It 0:26:15.960 --> 0:26:18.680 never occurred to me that there could be anything quite 0:26:18.800 --> 0:26:22.639 like that. Either way, there is no doubt that David 0:26:22.640 --> 0:26:26.480 and Henry's survival was a miracle of sorts. As for 0:26:26.560 --> 0:26:30.440 whether they experienced the true miracle of seeing heaven, however, 0:26:30.920 --> 0:26:34.560 if indeed they truly had those visions at all. That 0:26:34.760 --> 0:26:39.600 remains to this day unexplained. But there is one thing 0:26:39.720 --> 0:26:43.119 for sure. If there is such a thing as an afterlife, 0:26:43.400 --> 0:26:47.520 both David Felen and Henry Throne, who died in nineteen 0:26:47.600 --> 0:26:51.680 ninety and ninety eight, respectively, or know all about it. 0:26:52.840 --> 0:26:55.879 As for the rest of us, I guess we'll just 0:26:56.000 --> 0:27:06.119 have to wait and see. This episode was written by 0:27:06.200 --> 0:27:10.879 James Connor Patterson and Richard McLain Smith. James is a 0:27:10.920 --> 0:27:15.080 brilliant writer and poet. His debut collection of poems, titled 0:27:15.119 --> 0:27:18.880 Bandit Country, Exploring the Hintland between the North of Ireland 0:27:18.920 --> 0:27:22.600 and Republic, was shortlisted for the twenty twenty two T. S. 0:27:22.640 --> 0:27:25.879 Eliot Prize and is out now to buy, so do 0:27:26.040 --> 0:27:30.760 check it out. Thank you as ever for listening Unexplained 0:27:30.760 --> 0:27:34.840 as an Avy Club Productions podcast created by Richard McLain Smith. 0:27:35.400 --> 0:27:38.600 All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are 0:27:38.640 --> 0:27:43.040 also produced by me Richard McLain Smith. Unexplained. The book 0:27:43.080 --> 0:27:47.040 and audiobook is now available to buy worldwide. You can 0:27:47.040 --> 0:27:51.600 purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Quarterstones and other bookstores. 0:27:52.080 --> 0:27:54.840 Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get 0:27:54.840 --> 0:27:57.639 your podcasts, and feel free to get in touch with 0:27:57.680 --> 0:28:00.760 any thoughts or ideas regarding the story you've heard on 0:28:00.800 --> 0:28:03.919 the show. Perhaps you have an explanation or a story 0:28:03.920 --> 0:28:06.400 of your own you'd like to share. 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