1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:03,239 Speaker 1: Due to the recent arrival of another Minnie McLean Smith. 2 00:00:03,560 --> 00:00:06,279 Speaker 1: The next new episode will be with you next Friday, 3 00:00:06,680 --> 00:00:10,600 Speaker 1: June thirteenth. In the meantime, we're heading back into the 4 00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:13,920 Speaker 1: vault for this week's episode, going all the way back 5 00:00:14,040 --> 00:00:18,239 Speaker 1: to the beginning of season two. England's Black Country, a 6 00:00:18,320 --> 00:00:21,200 Speaker 1: region just west of Birmingham, is considered one of the 7 00:00:21,239 --> 00:00:25,959 Speaker 1: birthplaces of the British Industrial Revolution. It's centered around a 8 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:30,720 Speaker 1: thirty foot wide and unusually shallow coal seam, a product 9 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:35,400 Speaker 1: of once living trees compressed and buried for millions of years, 10 00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:41,760 Speaker 1: returning to the surface like an irrepressible secret. There are 11 00:00:41,800 --> 00:00:45,880 Speaker 1: some who say the trees can talk, and if they could, 12 00:00:46,720 --> 00:00:51,479 Speaker 1: what secrets might they hold? In full for the first time, 13 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:57,640 Speaker 1: this is unexplained. Season two episode one Whispers in the Trees. 14 00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:14,040 Speaker 1: At nineteen hundred hours on Wednesday, January nineteenth, two thousand six, 15 00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:19,039 Speaker 1: NASA's New Horizons Probe, propelled by the Majestic Atlasphe rocket, 16 00:01:19,319 --> 00:01:24,360 Speaker 1: is launched into space, having begun its journey at Cape 17 00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:28,040 Speaker 1: Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The probe, which is 18 00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:31,039 Speaker 1: part of the New Frontiers program, is the focal point 19 00:01:31,160 --> 00:01:36,760 Speaker 1: of NASA's first ever mission to Pluto. With the spacecraft 20 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:40,200 Speaker 1: being hurled towards its target at over thirty six thousand 21 00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:43,440 Speaker 1: miles per hour, it will be another ten years before 22 00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:46,240 Speaker 1: it begins to uncover the secrets lying in wait at 23 00:01:46,280 --> 00:01:50,640 Speaker 1: the outer regions of our solar system back home, a 24 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:53,680 Speaker 1: week after the launch, in a small bedsit in London, 25 00:01:54,120 --> 00:01:58,720 Speaker 1: a far more earthly discovery is about to be made. 26 00:01:59,240 --> 00:02:02,840 Speaker 1: On the afternoon Wednesday, January twenty sixth a team of 27 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:05,840 Speaker 1: housing officials are making their way towards a flat in 28 00:02:05,880 --> 00:02:09,880 Speaker 1: wood Green, North London. The apartment is part of a 29 00:02:09,919 --> 00:02:13,760 Speaker 1: complex known locally as Sky City, which forms an estate 30 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:18,320 Speaker 1: perched on top of a vast shopping mall. When the 31 00:02:18,320 --> 00:02:21,280 Speaker 1: team arrive at the front door, noises from the TV 32 00:02:21,480 --> 00:02:25,000 Speaker 1: can be heard emanating from inside the flat, an indication 33 00:02:25,120 --> 00:02:30,680 Speaker 1: perhaps that the occupier is home. The office's subsequent knocks, however, 34 00:02:31,120 --> 00:02:34,480 Speaker 1: go unanswered, and after a few minutes they decide to 35 00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:38,440 Speaker 1: break down the door. Stepping into the gloom of the 36 00:02:38,440 --> 00:02:41,800 Speaker 1: flat beyond, the offices, are first struck by a cloying 37 00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:45,800 Speaker 1: smell that hangs thickly in the air. Pushing the front 38 00:02:45,800 --> 00:02:48,520 Speaker 1: door wider reveals a stack of unopened mail on the 39 00:02:48,560 --> 00:02:53,800 Speaker 1: floor or the while the voices from the TV continue uninterrupted. 40 00:02:55,480 --> 00:02:58,440 Speaker 1: A moment later, the officers step into the living room 41 00:02:58,639 --> 00:03:03,359 Speaker 1: and make a gruesome discovery. Lying there on the sofa, 42 00:03:03,880 --> 00:03:08,200 Speaker 1: illuminated by the incessant flickering of the TV screen, are 43 00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:12,120 Speaker 1: the skeletal remains of the tenant. A pile of Christmas 44 00:03:12,120 --> 00:03:17,919 Speaker 1: presents lie unopened on the floor. The tenant was thirty 45 00:03:17,960 --> 00:03:21,840 Speaker 1: eight year old Joyce Carol Vincent, and her body at Laine, 46 00:03:21,919 --> 00:03:28,240 Speaker 1: undiscovered and unreported for over two years. Filmmaker Carol Morley 47 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:31,440 Speaker 1: was so moved by this revelation that she began an 48 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:35,440 Speaker 1: investigation to uncover who this tragically forgotten woman had been. 49 00:03:37,360 --> 00:03:41,200 Speaker 1: Morley's beautiful and hypnotic film Dreams of a Life, released 50 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:45,160 Speaker 1: in twenty eleven, pieces together the story of Joyce's life 51 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:50,400 Speaker 1: in an attempt to rescue her existence from obscurity. It 52 00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:54,240 Speaker 1: is surely a fate that haunts us all the sadness 53 00:03:54,280 --> 00:03:57,360 Speaker 1: of a life forgotten, an affirmation of a degree of 54 00:03:57,400 --> 00:04:01,800 Speaker 1: meaninglessness too profound to comprehend. We see it in the 55 00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:05,480 Speaker 1: propensity for social media to so often operate not as 56 00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:08,119 Speaker 1: a tool with which to explore each other, but rather 57 00:04:08,160 --> 00:04:12,360 Speaker 1: a means with which to validate ourselves, our way of 58 00:04:12,440 --> 00:04:15,320 Speaker 1: saying not only that this is who we are, but 59 00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:18,520 Speaker 1: in the way of old school room graffiti. Perhaps it 60 00:04:18,560 --> 00:04:21,839 Speaker 1: is more fundamentally a way of merely saying that we 61 00:04:21,920 --> 00:04:29,200 Speaker 1: were here, that we exist. You're listening to Unexplained and 62 00:04:29,279 --> 00:04:42,080 Speaker 1: I'm Richard MacLean Smith. The British Industrial Revolution was a 63 00:04:42,120 --> 00:04:47,400 Speaker 1: time of extraordinary physical and philosophical upheaval, a time, as 64 00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:51,440 Speaker 1: the inimitable Humphrey Jennings once observed, that was borne from 65 00:04:51,520 --> 00:04:55,800 Speaker 1: a sudden synchronicity of vision and the means of production. 66 00:04:57,200 --> 00:05:01,480 Speaker 1: But its fuel was, of course the land, the raw 67 00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:05,159 Speaker 1: materials that men and women ripped from the ground and 68 00:05:05,240 --> 00:05:10,640 Speaker 1: smelt it in the factories Throughout the country. Colossal cauldrons 69 00:05:10,640 --> 00:05:14,360 Speaker 1: of industry sprouted up around the places where such fuel 70 00:05:14,640 --> 00:05:19,560 Speaker 1: was most in abundance. One such centre, perhaps the most 71 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:23,839 Speaker 1: intense of the mall, was the Black Country, a region 72 00:05:23,880 --> 00:05:27,520 Speaker 1: in the west Midlands of England whose very name proudly 73 00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:31,800 Speaker 1: bears the scars of its past. As the Scottish philosopher 74 00:05:31,920 --> 00:05:34,800 Speaker 1: Thomas Carlyle once wrote of the place at the time, 75 00:05:36,080 --> 00:05:39,799 Speaker 1: a dense cloud of pestilential smoke hangs over it forever, 76 00:05:40,760 --> 00:05:44,480 Speaker 1: blackening even the grain that grows upon it, and at 77 00:05:44,560 --> 00:05:49,560 Speaker 1: night the whole region burns like a volcano, spitting fire 78 00:05:49,839 --> 00:05:54,080 Speaker 1: from a thousand tubes of brick. At the height of 79 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:57,719 Speaker 1: the Revolution, the region was a city of chimney stacks, 80 00:05:58,200 --> 00:06:03,800 Speaker 1: of iron foundries and steel mills, but its blood was coal. 81 00:06:05,520 --> 00:06:09,920 Speaker 1: In fact, traditionalists consider the real Black Country to only 82 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:13,279 Speaker 1: include the region just west of Birmingham, where the thirty 83 00:06:13,279 --> 00:06:17,359 Speaker 1: foot coal seam comes to the surface, a product of 84 00:06:17,440 --> 00:06:21,280 Speaker 1: once living trees compressed and buried for millions of years, 85 00:06:21,880 --> 00:06:27,960 Speaker 1: returning to the surface like an irrepressible secret. There are 86 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:32,560 Speaker 1: some who say the trees can talk, and if they could, 87 00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:38,520 Speaker 1: what secrets might they hold. On the edge of the 88 00:06:38,520 --> 00:06:42,040 Speaker 1: Black Country, there is an area of forest just outside 89 00:06:42,080 --> 00:06:45,520 Speaker 1: of Birmingham that today is struck through by the busy 90 00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:48,840 Speaker 1: A four five six road, But in years gone by 91 00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:52,880 Speaker 1: it was a far more wild and darkly place. It 92 00:06:52,960 --> 00:06:55,039 Speaker 1: is thought by some to be imbued with the sort 93 00:06:55,080 --> 00:06:58,960 Speaker 1: of magic, a place where witches may have gathered, and 94 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:05,000 Speaker 1: perhaps or perhaps it is merely a place that echoes 95 00:07:05,160 --> 00:07:08,080 Speaker 1: with the footsteps of ancient people who once walked and 96 00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:12,360 Speaker 1: eventually settled on the land. Indeed, it is possible that 97 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:15,160 Speaker 1: settlers may have frequented the area as far back as 98 00:07:15,200 --> 00:07:20,760 Speaker 1: Neolithic times. Certainly, the nearby Witchbury Ring Fort is evidence 99 00:07:20,840 --> 00:07:24,240 Speaker 1: of a local community having existed here as far back 100 00:07:24,280 --> 00:07:29,880 Speaker 1: as the second or first century b c. By nineteen 101 00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:33,040 Speaker 1: forty three, although signs of the fort can still be found, 102 00:07:33,680 --> 00:07:37,640 Speaker 1: they have faded well into the land. Half the world 103 00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:40,160 Speaker 1: is in the grip of war, and for anyone who 104 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:44,480 Speaker 1: has found themselves mercilessly drawn into the horrors abroad, home 105 00:07:44,800 --> 00:07:48,960 Speaker 1: is a distant and aching memory. For those left behind, 106 00:07:49,600 --> 00:07:53,520 Speaker 1: home is a familiar but forever changed landscape, with or 107 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:59,600 Speaker 1: without the bombs. For Birmingham and the immediate surrounds, those 108 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:02,760 Speaker 1: bombs would come thick and fast, being as it was 109 00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:06,080 Speaker 1: the second most populous city in the UK and a 110 00:08:06,120 --> 00:08:10,240 Speaker 1: major center of industry. It is hard to imagine that 111 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:14,120 Speaker 1: in the midst of such turmoil, something hidden, a secret 112 00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:18,120 Speaker 1: closer to home might somehow penetrate the sound of those bombs. 113 00:08:19,240 --> 00:08:24,320 Speaker 1: But in April of nineteen forty three, it did. What 114 00:08:24,440 --> 00:08:28,320 Speaker 1: happened exactly one evening, under the cover of darkness, while 115 00:08:28,360 --> 00:08:32,040 Speaker 1: explosives reigned down only a few miles away, has never 116 00:08:32,120 --> 00:08:36,200 Speaker 1: been fully accounted for. It is a mystery that remains 117 00:08:36,240 --> 00:08:47,000 Speaker 1: to this day unexplained. Barely ten miles to the west 118 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:50,040 Speaker 1: of Birmingham, in the shadow of the Clint Hills lies 119 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:53,880 Speaker 1: the village of Hagley. On a warm spring evening, in 120 00:08:53,920 --> 00:08:57,440 Speaker 1: the magic hour, as dusk begins to fall, four young 121 00:08:57,480 --> 00:09:02,080 Speaker 1: boys of roaming through the Hagley Woods. The date is Sunday, 122 00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:07,520 Speaker 1: April eighteenth, and the youngsters are Robert Hart, Thomas Willits, 123 00:09:07,559 --> 00:09:12,960 Speaker 1: Bob Farmer and Fred Payne. With rationing starting to bite, 124 00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:18,000 Speaker 1: the boys, although they wouldn't tell you, are searching for food, birds, 125 00:09:18,040 --> 00:09:22,559 Speaker 1: eggs or rabbits. If they're lucky, as their father's fight 126 00:09:22,720 --> 00:09:25,760 Speaker 1: in foreign fields to protect the green and pleasant lands 127 00:09:25,760 --> 00:09:29,320 Speaker 1: of home. The boys might be forgiven for thinking such 128 00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:32,320 Speaker 1: wide open country to be as much theirs as any 129 00:09:32,360 --> 00:09:36,240 Speaker 1: other Englishman, but such is the way of things. The 130 00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:39,440 Speaker 1: land has been privately owned by the Lyttleton family since 131 00:09:39,480 --> 00:09:45,959 Speaker 1: fifteen fifty six, and the boys are trespassing. The area 132 00:09:46,040 --> 00:09:49,360 Speaker 1: is known as Hagley Park, taking its name from Hagley Hall, 133 00:09:49,679 --> 00:09:52,640 Speaker 1: which in nineteen forty three is home to Charles John 134 00:09:52,720 --> 00:09:58,280 Speaker 1: Lyttleton the tenth Viscount Cobbham. The boys are about to 135 00:09:58,280 --> 00:10:01,800 Speaker 1: make their way back home when if something catches their eye. 136 00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:06,640 Speaker 1: A tree unlike any of the others around. The trunk 137 00:10:06,840 --> 00:10:10,760 Speaker 1: appears strangely squat, having at some point been heavily coppiced. 138 00:10:11,600 --> 00:10:14,920 Speaker 1: As a result, a shocking mesh of spinly branches has 139 00:10:14,960 --> 00:10:17,320 Speaker 1: grown out at the top of it, forming the perfect 140 00:10:17,320 --> 00:10:23,520 Speaker 1: sanctuary for nesting animals. Fifteen year old Bob Farmer volunteers 141 00:10:23,559 --> 00:10:26,680 Speaker 1: to take a closer look and swiftly scrambles up through 142 00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:31,160 Speaker 1: the branches. Having soon reached the top, he looks down 143 00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:35,320 Speaker 1: into the gaping hollow of the tree. In the fading light, 144 00:10:35,800 --> 00:10:38,640 Speaker 1: he can just make out the familiar dusty white hue 145 00:10:38,880 --> 00:10:43,040 Speaker 1: of a bird's egg. Reaching down. He stretches his arm 146 00:10:43,280 --> 00:10:47,080 Speaker 1: deep into the trunk, but the egg remains tantalizingly out 147 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:50,720 Speaker 1: of reach. With the aid of a stick, he manages 148 00:10:50,760 --> 00:10:53,320 Speaker 1: to move it, but it's bigger than he expected and 149 00:10:53,360 --> 00:10:58,319 Speaker 1: seems to be wedged inside. With great care, Bob manages 150 00:10:58,360 --> 00:11:01,400 Speaker 1: to dislodge the egg. As it starts to move free, 151 00:11:01,760 --> 00:11:04,960 Speaker 1: something dawns on him. Not only would this be the 152 00:11:05,040 --> 00:11:08,640 Speaker 1: largest egg he had ever seen, but that familiar dusty 153 00:11:08,640 --> 00:11:12,319 Speaker 1: white hue is a little darker and more yellow than 154 00:11:12,360 --> 00:11:17,559 Speaker 1: it had at first appeared. It looks more like bone. 155 00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:21,240 Speaker 1: When finally he lifts it from the hollow, it is 156 00:11:21,320 --> 00:11:24,640 Speaker 1: clear that it is not an egg at all. It is, 157 00:11:24,679 --> 00:11:30,280 Speaker 1: in fact a skull, a human skull. Bob holds it 158 00:11:30,320 --> 00:11:33,160 Speaker 1: aloft as the other boys look on with a mix 159 00:11:33,160 --> 00:11:38,679 Speaker 1: of fear and wonder. A quick discussion ensues. Is it 160 00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:41,200 Speaker 1: really what they think it is? How old is it? 161 00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:45,240 Speaker 1: Should they tell someone? Fred is keen to show it 162 00:11:45,280 --> 00:11:48,480 Speaker 1: to his older brother Donald, But in the end they 163 00:11:48,480 --> 00:11:51,600 Speaker 1: decide to keep it between them, better that than risk 164 00:11:51,640 --> 00:11:56,520 Speaker 1: punishment for poaching on private land. With night fast approaching, 165 00:11:57,160 --> 00:12:01,960 Speaker 1: one of the boys notices some material protruding from the farmer, 166 00:12:01,960 --> 00:12:05,240 Speaker 1: pushes it into the skull, and taking the stick, climbs 167 00:12:05,280 --> 00:12:08,760 Speaker 1: back up the trunk and carefully lowers the mistaken treasure 168 00:12:09,120 --> 00:12:13,000 Speaker 1: back into the hollow, and there it might possibly have 169 00:12:13,040 --> 00:12:17,320 Speaker 1: remained if it wasn't for the fact that unsurprisingly, something 170 00:12:17,360 --> 00:12:21,920 Speaker 1: of the event had followed the boy's home. The youngest, 171 00:12:22,040 --> 00:12:25,760 Speaker 1: Tommy Willits, was finding it particularly difficult to erase the 172 00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:29,280 Speaker 1: ghoulish image from his mind, an image that had found 173 00:12:29,280 --> 00:12:34,160 Speaker 1: its way into his dreams. The next morning, unable to 174 00:12:34,160 --> 00:12:37,640 Speaker 1: ignore it any longer, Tommy told his parents, who in 175 00:12:37,679 --> 00:12:48,240 Speaker 1: turn wasted little time in telling the police. The next day, 176 00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:53,520 Speaker 1: Sergeant Charles Lamborne is dispatched to investigate. En route to 177 00:12:53,559 --> 00:12:57,480 Speaker 1: the forest, Lamborne calls in on Robert Hart, the oldest 178 00:12:57,520 --> 00:12:59,760 Speaker 1: of the boys, to help lead him to the strange 179 00:12:59,760 --> 00:13:04,680 Speaker 1: and tree. A short time later, having pointed out the location, 180 00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:09,080 Speaker 1: the young heart watches on as Lamborne, along with Sergeants 181 00:13:09,200 --> 00:13:13,439 Speaker 1: Richard Skerratt and Jack Wheeler, and Constable Jack Pound take 182 00:13:13,520 --> 00:13:17,520 Speaker 1: it in turns to peer into the cavernous trunk. The 183 00:13:17,559 --> 00:13:20,880 Speaker 1: boys had indeed found a human skull, but what they 184 00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:24,280 Speaker 1: didn't know was that the peculiar tree was also hiding 185 00:13:24,559 --> 00:13:28,960 Speaker 1: the rest of the body. One of the men remarks 186 00:13:29,160 --> 00:13:32,520 Speaker 1: that the tree is an old and rotted witch hazel, 187 00:13:32,720 --> 00:13:36,920 Speaker 1: also known as which elm, a tree long associated with 188 00:13:36,960 --> 00:13:41,040 Speaker 1: the underworld, the name which derives from the Old English 189 00:13:41,080 --> 00:13:45,680 Speaker 1: word meaning pliant and durable. This feature of which elm 190 00:13:45,720 --> 00:13:48,800 Speaker 1: wood is one of the reasons it was traditionally used 191 00:13:48,880 --> 00:13:53,800 Speaker 1: to build coffins. The policemen request a forensic team to 192 00:13:53,840 --> 00:13:56,200 Speaker 1: come and inspect the body, but they are unable to 193 00:13:56,240 --> 00:13:59,920 Speaker 1: attend until the following morning. As a result, a volunteer 194 00:14:00,120 --> 00:14:04,000 Speaker 1: is sought to guard the skeleton through the night. The 195 00:14:04,120 --> 00:14:08,040 Speaker 1: task falls to Squadron Leader William Douglas Osborne, a former 196 00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:13,319 Speaker 1: Special Constable home on leave for a few days. That night, Monday, 197 00:14:13,360 --> 00:14:17,319 Speaker 1: April the nineteenth, Osborne kept watch over the remains of 198 00:14:17,360 --> 00:14:21,240 Speaker 1: the unknown, encased like a missive from the underworld itself 199 00:14:21,640 --> 00:14:26,160 Speaker 1: inside the natural coffin of the old witch Elm. The 200 00:14:26,200 --> 00:14:30,480 Speaker 1: following morning, on Tuesday, April the twentieth, Douglas Osborne was 201 00:14:30,520 --> 00:14:34,680 Speaker 1: relieved of his duty by Superintendent Sidney Knight, Deputy Inspector 202 00:14:34,680 --> 00:14:40,440 Speaker 1: Thomas Williams, and Constable Jack Pound. Later that evening, at 203 00:14:40,440 --> 00:14:45,000 Speaker 1: approximately six forty the police were joined by Professor James Webster, 204 00:14:45,560 --> 00:14:49,360 Speaker 1: head of the newly established Home Office Forensic Science Laboratory 205 00:14:49,520 --> 00:14:55,920 Speaker 1: at nearby Birmingham University. Webster was a foreboding figure described 206 00:14:55,960 --> 00:15:00,160 Speaker 1: by writer John Mervyn Pew in his book Execution as 207 00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:03,080 Speaker 1: a large, balding Scot with a glass eye and a 208 00:15:03,120 --> 00:15:06,400 Speaker 1: monocle to enhance the vision of the other. He would 209 00:15:06,400 --> 00:15:09,960 Speaker 1: often arrive on the scene scruffly dressed in baggy trousers 210 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:13,400 Speaker 1: and an old brown Harris tweed jacket with his tie 211 00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:18,160 Speaker 1: hanging loose half way around his neck. With the ladder 212 00:15:18,240 --> 00:15:22,120 Speaker 1: safely secured by the tree, the imposing Webster clambered up 213 00:15:22,160 --> 00:15:25,840 Speaker 1: to take a look inside. It was clear immediately the 214 00:15:25,880 --> 00:15:30,360 Speaker 1: great access would be needed. An axe was called for 215 00:15:30,720 --> 00:15:35,040 Speaker 1: and handed over to Constable Pound as the other men 216 00:15:35,080 --> 00:15:38,520 Speaker 1: stood back and watched, Pound swung the axe and cut 217 00:15:38,600 --> 00:15:41,880 Speaker 1: into the bowl of the tree. One blow was followed 218 00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:45,480 Speaker 1: by another until a clear break had been made large 219 00:15:45,560 --> 00:15:49,720 Speaker 1: enough to pull the skeleton out. With great care, the 220 00:15:49,800 --> 00:15:53,000 Speaker 1: men worked together to free the bones before laying them 221 00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:57,320 Speaker 1: out gently on the forest floor. On the ground, the 222 00:15:57,320 --> 00:16:00,760 Speaker 1: skeleton appears at first to be fairly intact, but Webster 223 00:16:00,800 --> 00:16:04,680 Speaker 1: is quick to notice a number of missing fragments. After 224 00:16:04,720 --> 00:16:08,960 Speaker 1: a quick search of the immediate vicinity, Webster stumbles upon 225 00:16:09,080 --> 00:16:13,320 Speaker 1: the slightly chewed tibia of the left leg. One small 226 00:16:13,480 --> 00:16:17,120 Speaker 1: midnight blue shoe with a crep's sole is also pulled 227 00:16:17,160 --> 00:16:21,080 Speaker 1: from the splintered trunk. With the pieces now laid out 228 00:16:21,360 --> 00:16:23,720 Speaker 1: from the size and frame, as well as the few 229 00:16:23,760 --> 00:16:27,840 Speaker 1: bits of material that remained, Webster could see instantly that 230 00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:31,000 Speaker 1: the boys had stumbled upon the skeleton of a young woman. 231 00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:44,440 Speaker 1: Later that evening, the first of the bones are delivered 232 00:16:44,480 --> 00:16:47,720 Speaker 1: to the West Midlands Forensic Science Laboratory to be formally 233 00:16:47,720 --> 00:16:52,280 Speaker 1: assessed by Webster and his assistant, doctor John Lund. Over 234 00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:55,120 Speaker 1: the course of the next few days. The various sections 235 00:16:55,160 --> 00:16:59,080 Speaker 1: are deftly laid out by the two pathologists. Any external 236 00:16:59,080 --> 00:17:03,200 Speaker 1: fabric is delicate removed, and slowly a body begins to 237 00:17:03,240 --> 00:17:09,000 Speaker 1: take shape. Professor Webster proceeds while doctor Lund records its findings. 238 00:17:10,200 --> 00:17:13,720 Speaker 1: He begins at the skull, noting that it is undoubtedly 239 00:17:13,920 --> 00:17:16,639 Speaker 1: that of a female and there are no obvious marks 240 00:17:16,720 --> 00:17:20,080 Speaker 1: of a fatal injury. On the side of the skull, 241 00:17:20,359 --> 00:17:24,560 Speaker 1: it's a small clump of mousey brown hair. An examination 242 00:17:24,640 --> 00:17:27,679 Speaker 1: of the jaw reveals a clean and healthy set of teeth, 243 00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:32,640 Speaker 1: with one peculiarity, a noticeable irregularity of the front two 244 00:17:32,640 --> 00:17:37,680 Speaker 1: in sizes which overlap slightly. A piece of material, part 245 00:17:37,720 --> 00:17:40,320 Speaker 1: of a khaki or mustard coloured dress that the deceased 246 00:17:40,359 --> 00:17:43,240 Speaker 1: would have worn, is found lodged into the cavity of 247 00:17:43,240 --> 00:17:47,399 Speaker 1: the mouth, suggesting a possible cause of death, perhaps placed 248 00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:53,480 Speaker 1: in the victim's mouth to hasten asphyxiation. Moving down the skeleton, 249 00:17:53,920 --> 00:17:57,840 Speaker 1: Professor Webster notes no signs of disease or ill health, 250 00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:00,960 Speaker 1: with the fine condition of both the h hyoid bone 251 00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:04,440 Speaker 1: and the sternum suggesting that the victim was a woman 252 00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:09,479 Speaker 1: below the age of forty. The pelvis reaffirms the victim 253 00:18:09,600 --> 00:18:13,280 Speaker 1: as being indisputably female, with a particular feature in two 254 00:18:13,320 --> 00:18:16,440 Speaker 1: of the hip bones suggesting a childbirth at some point, 255 00:18:16,840 --> 00:18:21,760 Speaker 1: though this is deemed inconclusive. All in all, Webster finds 256 00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:25,640 Speaker 1: little unusual, with the major exception of one thing. The 257 00:18:25,760 --> 00:18:32,520 Speaker 1: entirety of her right hand was missing. Professor Webster concludes 258 00:18:32,680 --> 00:18:35,399 Speaker 1: the victim to have been a female of approximately thirty 259 00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:38,680 Speaker 1: five years of age, of lower than average height, placing 260 00:18:38,720 --> 00:18:42,960 Speaker 1: her at roughly five feet tall. The time of death 261 00:18:43,240 --> 00:18:46,960 Speaker 1: is given as approximately eighteen months previously, due to the 262 00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:49,960 Speaker 1: state of decomposition and the age of the tree roots 263 00:18:50,119 --> 00:18:53,440 Speaker 1: which had weaved their way through what remained of the clothes. 264 00:18:55,720 --> 00:18:57,720 Speaker 1: Since the victim had to have been placed in the 265 00:18:57,760 --> 00:19:02,360 Speaker 1: hollow before riga mortis, if, as Webster suspected, she had 266 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:05,480 Speaker 1: been murdered, it is likely that she would have been 267 00:19:05,480 --> 00:19:09,040 Speaker 1: placed in the tree while she was still warm, possibly 268 00:19:09,320 --> 00:19:14,240 Speaker 1: even alive. As such, she would likely have been murdered nearby, 269 00:19:14,680 --> 00:19:19,879 Speaker 1: or at least driven to the spot in a significant hurry. 270 00:19:20,520 --> 00:19:23,679 Speaker 1: An assessment of the rotted fragments of clothing reveal the 271 00:19:23,680 --> 00:19:26,600 Speaker 1: remains of a mustard colored cloth skirt, as well as 272 00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:31,040 Speaker 1: a dark blue and yellow striped knitted cardigan. An inexpensive 273 00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:33,960 Speaker 1: wedding ring is also found, which may have been worn 274 00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:38,600 Speaker 1: for as long as four years. Back in the forest, 275 00:19:39,160 --> 00:19:41,399 Speaker 1: members of the Home Guard, with the assistance of a 276 00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:46,240 Speaker 1: local scout group, continue to comb the area. A second 277 00:19:46,320 --> 00:19:49,120 Speaker 1: shoe is found not far from the tree, as well 278 00:19:49,160 --> 00:19:53,720 Speaker 1: as a green glass bottle. A short time later, one 279 00:19:53,760 --> 00:19:58,280 Speaker 1: of the volunteers notices something protruding from the soil. As 280 00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:02,119 Speaker 1: he digs into the earth, coils in horror as there, 281 00:20:02,440 --> 00:20:12,960 Speaker 1: buried just below the surface is the missing right hand. 282 00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:17,920 Speaker 1: Taking Webster's bone and material analysis, the Worcestershire Constabulary put 283 00:20:17,960 --> 00:20:20,640 Speaker 1: together a poster campaign in the hope of encouraging any 284 00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:24,399 Speaker 1: witnesses to come forward, but as the days turn to 285 00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:28,200 Speaker 1: weeks and then to months, despite evidence that the victim 286 00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:31,199 Speaker 1: had possibly been married at the time of death and 287 00:20:31,359 --> 00:20:35,960 Speaker 1: may also have borne a child, remarkably nobody comes forward. 288 00:20:37,320 --> 00:20:40,720 Speaker 1: Then an identity card is found in the woods, but 289 00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:43,719 Speaker 1: when the police visit the owner's address, they are somewhat 290 00:20:43,760 --> 00:20:46,960 Speaker 1: disappointed to find her alive and well, if a little 291 00:20:46,960 --> 00:20:49,800 Speaker 1: bemused as to how her ID card was found so 292 00:20:49,960 --> 00:20:55,080 Speaker 1: close to a possible murder scene. All in awe, the 293 00:20:55,119 --> 00:20:58,719 Speaker 1: police trawl through over three thousand open reports of missing 294 00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:03,000 Speaker 1: women but are unable to find a significant match. The 295 00:21:03,040 --> 00:21:06,080 Speaker 1: irregularity of the teeth offered a glimmer of hope, but 296 00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:10,520 Speaker 1: a subsequent check of all UK dental records again yields nothing. 297 00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:15,359 Speaker 1: The green glass bottle is also analyzed but reveals little 298 00:21:15,359 --> 00:21:18,800 Speaker 1: of interest, but the police enjoys some luck when the 299 00:21:18,840 --> 00:21:23,000 Speaker 1: crep sold shoes are traced to one specific manufacturer by 300 00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:28,920 Speaker 1: the name of Silsby's, located in nearby Northampton. Almost six 301 00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:32,040 Speaker 1: thousand pairs of the shoes have been made, but remarkably 302 00:21:32,520 --> 00:21:35,080 Speaker 1: all of the owners are traced, except for those of 303 00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:38,320 Speaker 1: six pairs that are eventually tracked to a market store 304 00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:43,640 Speaker 1: in nearby Dudley, where the trail goes cold. A similar 305 00:21:43,680 --> 00:21:47,560 Speaker 1: process is attempted with the clothes, but curiously, all of 306 00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:51,960 Speaker 1: the labels have been cut or removed entirely. A strange 307 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:55,760 Speaker 1: state of affairs, perhaps, but also one that was in 308 00:21:55,840 --> 00:21:58,200 Speaker 1: keeping with the notion that the shoes might have been 309 00:21:58,240 --> 00:22:02,200 Speaker 1: market bought, since store owners would often remove the labels 310 00:22:02,320 --> 00:22:06,440 Speaker 1: of the clothes they sold. In spite of the distraction 311 00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:09,840 Speaker 1: and devastation of war, the mystery of the skeleton found 312 00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:12,479 Speaker 1: in Hagley Wood, now being referred to in the press 313 00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:15,359 Speaker 1: as the tree murder riddle, had continued to hold a 314 00:22:15,359 --> 00:22:18,840 Speaker 1: firm grip on the local community, But as the months 315 00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:22,359 Speaker 1: wore on, the tale of yet one more wartime death 316 00:22:22,800 --> 00:22:28,479 Speaker 1: had begun to fizzle from the public consciousness. After six months, 317 00:22:28,880 --> 00:22:31,760 Speaker 1: the police had drawn a complete blank, with no leads 318 00:22:32,160 --> 00:22:34,199 Speaker 1: and not even as much as a name for the 319 00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:46,119 Speaker 1: tragic forgotten victim. But all that was about to change. 320 00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:49,800 Speaker 1: It was on one morning, some time towards Christmas of 321 00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:53,800 Speaker 1: nineteen forty three, that the rising sun revealed a cryptic 322 00:22:53,880 --> 00:22:57,359 Speaker 1: message hastily scrawled across a wall in the nearby village 323 00:22:57,400 --> 00:23:02,439 Speaker 1: of Old Hill in chalk in three inch high capital 324 00:23:02,560 --> 00:23:07,520 Speaker 1: letters were the words who put Lubella down the witch elm. 325 00:23:09,600 --> 00:23:12,720 Speaker 1: Not long after, another message appeared scrawled on a wall 326 00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:19,159 Speaker 1: in Birmingham, declaring hagley Wood bella Again and again. The 327 00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:24,280 Speaker 1: messages continued to appear, evolving each time, until eventually settling 328 00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:26,959 Speaker 1: on what has perhaps become the most well known phrase, 329 00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:33,040 Speaker 1: who put Bella in the witch elm? But who had 330 00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:36,760 Speaker 1: authored these teasing questions? Do they really know who the 331 00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:40,320 Speaker 1: dead woman was or what may have happened to her? 332 00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:46,360 Speaker 1: And why are they not talking to the police? As 333 00:23:46,359 --> 00:23:50,200 Speaker 1: if from nowhere, it would seem the authorities now had 334 00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:54,440 Speaker 1: a name to work with, but the mystery was only 335 00:23:54,640 --> 00:24:06,080 Speaker 1: just beginning. As Christmas approached, at last, the authorities had 336 00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:09,520 Speaker 1: something to work with, a name, or at least the 337 00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:13,800 Speaker 1: derivation of a name. Now, the police began to focus 338 00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:16,840 Speaker 1: their efforts on women with versions of the name Bella 339 00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:20,200 Speaker 1: who may have gone missing. Around the autumn of nineteen 340 00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:25,160 Speaker 1: forty one. One woman was of particular interest, whose name, 341 00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:29,560 Speaker 1: Bella Lua, bore a striking similarity to the name Leua Bella, 342 00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:33,080 Speaker 1: as depicted in the earliest of the graffiti linked to 343 00:24:33,160 --> 00:24:38,040 Speaker 1: the case. Bella. Leua's friends had become concerned when they 344 00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:41,080 Speaker 1: lost all contact with her after she moved to Birmingham 345 00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:46,120 Speaker 1: from Stamford Hill in London. Although Lewa's whereabouts were never 346 00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:50,320 Speaker 1: officially established, she was eventually deemed irrelevant to the case. 347 00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:53,960 Speaker 1: As for all the other missing bellas that the police 348 00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:58,080 Speaker 1: looked into, they were found alive and well before long. 349 00:24:58,560 --> 00:25:04,640 Speaker 1: The investigation it wall in defense of the Worcestershire Constabulary. 350 00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:08,320 Speaker 1: Nineteen forty one was a difficult time to be keeping 351 00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:12,399 Speaker 1: track of British citizens, and with resources stretched to the limit, 352 00:25:12,840 --> 00:25:15,000 Speaker 1: it is much to the credit of the force that 353 00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:19,600 Speaker 1: such an extensive investigation was conducted at all. As the 354 00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:22,879 Speaker 1: months passed and war eventually came to an end, the 355 00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:27,320 Speaker 1: public interest in the case soon diminished by the summer 356 00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:30,560 Speaker 1: of nineteen forty five, with the nation celebrating an end 357 00:25:30,600 --> 00:25:34,600 Speaker 1: to hostilities while mourning their countless other dead. The Tree 358 00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:40,439 Speaker 1: murder riddle was fated to remain unsolved and forgotten, but 359 00:25:40,600 --> 00:25:44,240 Speaker 1: someone was about to make a startling claim concerning a 360 00:25:44,320 --> 00:25:47,120 Speaker 1: vital piece of the evidence that they believed had been 361 00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:59,920 Speaker 1: criminally overlooked, the severed right hand back In eighteen ninety eight, 362 00:26:00,320 --> 00:26:03,720 Speaker 1: at the age of thirty five, doctor Margaret Murray was 363 00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:06,520 Speaker 1: making a name for herself in the field of egyptology. 364 00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:11,159 Speaker 1: She had just become the first female lecturer in archaeology 365 00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:15,080 Speaker 1: in the United Kingdom, having accepted a post at University 366 00:26:15,119 --> 00:26:19,119 Speaker 1: College London. She would continue to work and teach at 367 00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:23,160 Speaker 1: the university until her retirement in nineteen thirty five at 368 00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:28,840 Speaker 1: the age of seventy two. Although formerly an anthropologist and historian, 369 00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:32,879 Speaker 1: Murray was perhaps best known for her highly controversial views 370 00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:38,560 Speaker 1: regarding the history of witches. Her primary theory became known 371 00:26:38,880 --> 00:26:43,920 Speaker 1: as the witch cult hypothesis. The theory suggests that, rather 372 00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:48,000 Speaker 1: than being the hapless victims of vile and arbitrary witch hunts, 373 00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:53,000 Speaker 1: witches persecuted throughout European history, where in fact followers of 374 00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:57,879 Speaker 1: a definite religion, with beliefs, rituals, and organization as highly 375 00:26:57,880 --> 00:27:01,560 Speaker 1: developed as that of any cult. What drew her attention 376 00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:05,399 Speaker 1: to the Hagleywood case was the curious revelation that the 377 00:27:05,520 --> 00:27:08,399 Speaker 1: right hand had been found separated from the rest of 378 00:27:08,400 --> 00:27:13,560 Speaker 1: the skeleton and buried in the ground. The police merely 379 00:27:13,600 --> 00:27:16,600 Speaker 1: assumed it to be the work of an industrious forest animal. 380 00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:21,360 Speaker 1: To doctor Murray, however, it suggested something far more sinister. 381 00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:26,400 Speaker 1: She believed that, instead of being a gruesome but incidental 382 00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:30,080 Speaker 1: off cut, the hand had in fact been removed and 383 00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:33,280 Speaker 1: placed in the ground deliberately as part of an elaborate 384 00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:38,160 Speaker 1: occult ritual. Doctor Murray suggested that the severed hand may 385 00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:41,119 Speaker 1: have been used to create a magic artifact known as 386 00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:45,600 Speaker 1: a hand of glory. Traditionally, such totems were made by 387 00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:49,159 Speaker 1: removing the right hand of a convicted criminal, followed by 388 00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:52,680 Speaker 1: the casting of a spell to invest the separated extremity 389 00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:57,720 Speaker 1: with magical power. A bizarre suggestion, you might think, but 390 00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:01,480 Speaker 1: not so, she believed if the victim had been considered 391 00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:05,600 Speaker 1: to be a witch. The theory was given more weight by 392 00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:09,679 Speaker 1: the location of the body, As outlined in James George 393 00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:13,680 Speaker 1: Fraser's groundbreaking book The Golden Bough. There is a rich 394 00:28:13,720 --> 00:28:17,480 Speaker 1: tradition in Celtic and Pagan beliefs of investing trees with 395 00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:22,560 Speaker 1: spirits and sometimes souls of their own. In addition, there 396 00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:25,520 Speaker 1: are some who believe that certain trees have the power 397 00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:30,280 Speaker 1: to bind magic. There are some who believe Hagley Wood 398 00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:33,160 Speaker 1: to have long been a traditional meeting place for covens 399 00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:36,080 Speaker 1: of witches, and it certainly wouldn't have been the first 400 00:28:36,119 --> 00:28:39,480 Speaker 1: time that an occult ritual had been conducted in England. 401 00:28:39,640 --> 00:28:45,480 Speaker 1: During the Second World War. In August nineteen forty, Gerald Gardner, 402 00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:48,720 Speaker 1: a well known follower of pagan witchcraft, along with the 403 00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:52,240 Speaker 1: number of other members of the New Forest coven performed 404 00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:56,440 Speaker 1: a magic ritual that became known as Operation Cone of Power. 405 00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:00,840 Speaker 1: It was hoped that the operation with Oltimate dissuade the 406 00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:06,080 Speaker 1: High Command of Nazi Germany from invading the United Kingdom. 407 00:29:06,680 --> 00:29:09,760 Speaker 1: It is also important to note that doctor Murray's theory 408 00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:13,560 Speaker 1: wasn't based on any personal belief in the magic of witchcraft, 409 00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:18,600 Speaker 1: but rather the notion that such practices did occur. Whether 410 00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:21,560 Speaker 1: or not a hand of glory had any discernible power, 411 00:29:21,920 --> 00:29:25,200 Speaker 1: it remains that somebody willing to believe in such things 412 00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:28,400 Speaker 1: may have enacted some form of ritual in the murder 413 00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:34,240 Speaker 1: of the unknown woman. In any case, despite influencing a 414 00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:37,320 Speaker 1: number of well known authors such as Aldus Huxley and 415 00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:42,280 Speaker 1: Robert Graves, Murray's Hagleywood theory and her witch cult hypothesis 416 00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:46,320 Speaker 1: have been roundly discredited, and in reality, there is little 417 00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:49,200 Speaker 1: to support her claim that the victim had been subject 418 00:29:49,280 --> 00:29:54,200 Speaker 1: to a ritualistic killing. What Murray's theory did do, however, 419 00:29:54,720 --> 00:29:57,080 Speaker 1: was to enact a sort of magic of its own. 420 00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:01,920 Speaker 1: Such spells tend to be most post during times of uncertainty, 421 00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:05,400 Speaker 1: when a scapegoat is required to make sense of the 422 00:30:05,440 --> 00:30:09,800 Speaker 1: ills of the world. Perhaps it was only ever going 423 00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:12,840 Speaker 1: to be a matter of time, but soon a bogey 424 00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:15,360 Speaker 1: man would be brought forth from the fog of truth. 425 00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:20,000 Speaker 1: With all the talk of ritual murder and black magic, 426 00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:23,200 Speaker 1: fueled by a press ever ready to fan the flames 427 00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:27,520 Speaker 1: of a salacious story, many became convinced that local travelers 428 00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:32,640 Speaker 1: were to blame. The rumour would persist for ten years, 429 00:30:33,320 --> 00:30:47,120 Speaker 1: but all that was about to change. In nineteen fifty three, 430 00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:51,560 Speaker 1: a journalist at the Wolverhampton Express and Star, writing under 431 00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:56,560 Speaker 1: the name Questa, decided to reassess the evidence. His real 432 00:30:56,640 --> 00:31:02,120 Speaker 1: name was Wilfrid Bifford Jones. Bifford Jones, who had never 433 00:31:02,160 --> 00:31:06,320 Speaker 1: been convinced by the reductive traveler theory, revisited the case 434 00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:09,600 Speaker 1: in a series of articles appearing in late November of 435 00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:13,360 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty three. Concluding the series, in a third and 436 00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:18,840 Speaker 1: final article published on Friday, November twentieth, Bifford Jones notes, 437 00:31:19,760 --> 00:31:21,920 Speaker 1: whether the young woman is supposed to have been a 438 00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:26,000 Speaker 1: gipsy who was ritualistically murdered with witchcraft or after a 439 00:31:26,040 --> 00:31:30,800 Speaker 1: trial by her tribe, well, I do not accept it. 440 00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:33,480 Speaker 1: It is true that there had been gypsies for years 441 00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:36,200 Speaker 1: in the area, but every crime is laid at the 442 00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:41,120 Speaker 1: door of Romany's. For Bifford Jones, the suggestions of witchcraft 443 00:31:41,360 --> 00:31:44,360 Speaker 1: had been a gross and fanciful obscuring of the facts. 444 00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:48,760 Speaker 1: It was a gallant and single minded campaign that fought 445 00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:52,080 Speaker 1: to wrestle the case back from acceptable fiction to more 446 00:31:52,200 --> 00:31:57,520 Speaker 1: unsettling fact. But nobody could have anticipated what came next 447 00:31:58,280 --> 00:32:01,600 Speaker 1: when a few days later a Strange's letter landed on 448 00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:08,200 Speaker 1: Bifford Jones's desk. It was postmarked Claverly, Wolverhampton and dated 449 00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:13,960 Speaker 1: eighteenth of November nineteen fifty three. It read, my dear quest, 450 00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:18,440 Speaker 1: finish your articles regarding the witch Elm crime. By all means, 451 00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:22,160 Speaker 1: they are interesting to your readers, but you will never 452 00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:25,480 Speaker 1: solve the mystery. The one person who could give the 453 00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:30,800 Speaker 1: answer is now beyond the jurisdiction of earthly courts. The 454 00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:35,520 Speaker 1: affair is closed and evolves no witches, black magic or 455 00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:39,480 Speaker 1: moonlight rites. Much as I hate having to use a 456 00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:42,440 Speaker 1: nom de plume, I think you would appreciate it if 457 00:32:42,440 --> 00:32:45,240 Speaker 1: you knew me. The only clues I can give you 458 00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:48,720 Speaker 1: are that the person responsible for the crime died insane 459 00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:52,880 Speaker 1: in nineteen forty two, and the victim was Dutch and 460 00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:57,520 Speaker 1: arrived in England illegally about nineteen forty one. I have 461 00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:04,640 Speaker 1: no wish to recall any more, yours, sincerely, Anna. It 462 00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:07,680 Speaker 1: is not uncommon for people to claim knowledge of crimes 463 00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:10,920 Speaker 1: they have no connection to, but something of Anna's letter 464 00:33:11,240 --> 00:33:15,240 Speaker 1: rang true to Bifford Jones. After a series of pleas 465 00:33:15,400 --> 00:33:18,560 Speaker 1: for Anna to come forward and reveal herself, a few 466 00:33:18,640 --> 00:33:24,320 Speaker 1: days later, against all expectation, she did. And so it 467 00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:27,360 Speaker 1: was on one cold morning at the local police station 468 00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:32,320 Speaker 1: that Anna proceeded to reveal everything that she knew. Her 469 00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:44,560 Speaker 1: name was Una Hainsworth, and this was her story. Sometime 470 00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:47,800 Speaker 1: in the early thirties, Una had met and fallen in 471 00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:50,920 Speaker 1: love with a dashing young man called Jack moss Up. 472 00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:54,920 Speaker 1: Not long after, the young lovers would be married and 473 00:33:55,040 --> 00:33:59,480 Speaker 1: expecting their first child. Sure enough, in nineteen thirty two, 474 00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:03,000 Speaker 1: with the couple still in their teens, a son, Julian, 475 00:34:03,320 --> 00:34:07,240 Speaker 1: was born. As the country slowly clawed its way back 476 00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:11,440 Speaker 1: from a decade of economic stagnation. Here encapsulated in the 477 00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:14,600 Speaker 1: face of their new born baby was a renewed sense 478 00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:18,840 Speaker 1: of hope for the future. But that hope would be 479 00:34:18,880 --> 00:34:22,279 Speaker 1: short lived, for there as a shadow looming over the 480 00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:26,080 Speaker 1: young family, a shadow that was soon to fall across 481 00:34:26,120 --> 00:34:31,160 Speaker 1: most of the world. On Sunday, September third, nineteen thirty nine, 482 00:34:31,600 --> 00:34:34,680 Speaker 1: at eleven fifteen, a m families up and down the 483 00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:39,239 Speaker 1: land huddled around the wireless as Nevill Chamberlain announced that 484 00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:43,200 Speaker 1: the country was at war. Less than a year later, 485 00:34:43,520 --> 00:34:47,359 Speaker 1: on Friday, August ninth, nineteen forty, the first of many 486 00:34:47,400 --> 00:34:51,520 Speaker 1: bombs dropped on the Midlands. What followed was just under 487 00:34:51,560 --> 00:34:55,320 Speaker 1: two years of sustained bombing of the heavily industrialized region. 488 00:34:56,600 --> 00:35:00,239 Speaker 1: For Jack, perhaps to his relief and shame, as a 489 00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:04,160 Speaker 1: skilled factory worker, he was exempt from the draft and 490 00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:09,239 Speaker 1: was instead assigned to work in coventry building munitions. But 491 00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:12,560 Speaker 1: as the months wore on, UNA's relief that Jack had 492 00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:16,320 Speaker 1: avoided the draft was tempered somewhat by a sudden change 493 00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:20,640 Speaker 1: in his character. He started to drink more and stay 494 00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:24,800 Speaker 1: out later, often at a new favorite haunt, a lively 495 00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:27,200 Speaker 1: place on the edge of the Clent Hills called the 496 00:35:27,239 --> 00:35:32,400 Speaker 1: Littleton Arms. He started buying new clothes, including an RAF 497 00:35:32,520 --> 00:35:36,440 Speaker 1: officer's jacket to which he was not entitled. He had 498 00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:41,280 Speaker 1: also started to accrue money from an unknown source. Una 499 00:35:41,560 --> 00:35:44,480 Speaker 1: was particularly suspicious of the new crowd he seemed to 500 00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:48,360 Speaker 1: be hanging out with, a suspicion that was further aroused 501 00:35:48,680 --> 00:35:51,160 Speaker 1: when one of the crowd turned up one night at 502 00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:55,160 Speaker 1: their home. The enigmatic man, who gave his name as 503 00:35:55,239 --> 00:35:59,040 Speaker 1: Van Rolt, was well dressed and claimed to be from Holland, 504 00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:04,000 Speaker 1: with a seat seemingly endless disposable income, despite no discernible 505 00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:08,400 Speaker 1: occupation to speak of. One evening in the spring of 506 00:36:08,480 --> 00:36:12,600 Speaker 1: nineteen forty one, after yet another late night, Jack returned 507 00:36:12,640 --> 00:36:16,480 Speaker 1: home drunk and agitated. He'd been at the Littleton Arms 508 00:36:16,480 --> 00:36:19,319 Speaker 1: again with Van Rolt, where they were joined by what 509 00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:23,680 Speaker 1: he described as the Dutch piece. Jack claimed that the 510 00:36:23,719 --> 00:36:27,479 Speaker 1: woman had become awkward and later passed out, at which 511 00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:30,239 Speaker 1: point Van Rolt decided to play a trick on her. 512 00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:34,319 Speaker 1: After carrying the woman to Van Ralt's car, the pair 513 00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:37,480 Speaker 1: drove to a nearby wood and dropped her unconscious body 514 00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:41,200 Speaker 1: into the hollow of a tree. They had only meant 515 00:36:41,200 --> 00:36:44,160 Speaker 1: it as a joke, he said, believing in the morning 516 00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:48,200 Speaker 1: that she would come to her senses. In the weeks 517 00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:51,160 Speaker 1: that followed, it was clear to Una that something was 518 00:36:51,200 --> 00:36:55,480 Speaker 1: playing on Jack's mind. As he retreated further into himself, 519 00:36:55,880 --> 00:37:00,880 Speaker 1: and his behaviour became increasingly erratic. Una eventually had enough, 520 00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:06,760 Speaker 1: so she left, taking their son with her. For Jack, 521 00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:09,760 Speaker 1: now without his wife and child to keep him company, 522 00:37:10,320 --> 00:37:15,080 Speaker 1: things began to unravel drastically. It wasn't their leaving that 523 00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:19,560 Speaker 1: tortured him every night, but rather what had crept in 524 00:37:19,560 --> 00:37:24,920 Speaker 1: in their absence. Later, after Una and Jack had divorced, 525 00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:29,160 Speaker 1: Jack confided in Una. He told her that he was 526 00:37:29,200 --> 00:37:32,360 Speaker 1: being driven mad by the recurring image of a woman's 527 00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:37,719 Speaker 1: face leering at him from inside a tree. But it 528 00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:40,799 Speaker 1: wasn't until Una heard that a skeleton had been found 529 00:37:40,840 --> 00:37:44,120 Speaker 1: in Hagley Wood that she put the two events together. 530 00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:49,319 Speaker 1: Back in the police station or those years later, the 531 00:37:49,440 --> 00:37:54,040 Speaker 1: interviewing officers are dumbfounded by UNA's statement and immediately demand 532 00:37:54,200 --> 00:37:58,440 Speaker 1: a contact address for her ex husband, but she couldn't 533 00:37:58,440 --> 00:38:02,560 Speaker 1: give them one. Jack had been committed to a psychiatric 534 00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:07,600 Speaker 1: hospital in Stafford in nineteen forty two. A few months later, 535 00:38:08,120 --> 00:38:11,719 Speaker 1: at the age of twenty nine, he was dead, apparently 536 00:38:11,800 --> 00:38:16,800 Speaker 1: driven insane by his recurring nightmare. But what really shook 537 00:38:16,840 --> 00:38:22,000 Speaker 1: things up was UNA's parting thought on the matter. Van Rolt, 538 00:38:22,160 --> 00:38:33,080 Speaker 1: she believed was the spy there is no firm evidence 539 00:38:33,200 --> 00:38:36,239 Speaker 1: to suggest that Jack Mossup had found himself embroiled in 540 00:38:36,280 --> 00:38:40,840 Speaker 1: a spy ring. So what to make of UNA's story. Certainly, 541 00:38:41,360 --> 00:38:44,359 Speaker 1: much of it is true. She did indeed have an 542 00:38:44,360 --> 00:38:47,520 Speaker 1: ex husband called Jack Mossup, who had been a regular 543 00:38:47,640 --> 00:38:51,400 Speaker 1: visitor to the Littleton Arms. It is also true that 544 00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:54,440 Speaker 1: he would later die in a psychiatric hospital in nineteen 545 00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:58,840 Speaker 1: forty two. Police also had some luck in tracing the 546 00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:02,800 Speaker 1: mysterious Van Rohlt figure, but nothing untoward could be found. 547 00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:07,120 Speaker 1: It could be said that much of UNA's story begins 548 00:39:07,160 --> 00:39:11,640 Speaker 1: to make more sense if her spy theory is applied. Certainly, 549 00:39:12,160 --> 00:39:15,520 Speaker 1: in his capacity as a munition's worker in Birmingham, Jack 550 00:39:15,560 --> 00:39:18,640 Speaker 1: would have been uniquely placed to pass off useful information 551 00:39:18,800 --> 00:39:23,600 Speaker 1: to the German Air Force. Although UNA's spy theory was 552 00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:27,400 Speaker 1: never officially confirmed, it was a theme keenly picked up 553 00:39:27,640 --> 00:39:33,359 Speaker 1: fifteen years later by writer Donald McCormick. In nineteen sixty eight, 554 00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:37,520 Speaker 1: McCormick is alleged to have conducted a series of interviews 555 00:39:37,680 --> 00:39:42,479 Speaker 1: with a former Nazi called Franz Rathgeb. It turned out 556 00:39:42,680 --> 00:39:45,400 Speaker 1: that a number of spies had been active around the 557 00:39:45,400 --> 00:39:49,320 Speaker 1: Midlands after all, at precisely the time that the unknown 558 00:39:49,320 --> 00:39:53,880 Speaker 1: woman would have gone missing. One of those spies was Rathgeb. 559 00:39:55,680 --> 00:39:58,400 Speaker 1: Although he claimed not to know anything of the murdered woman, 560 00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:01,200 Speaker 1: he did recall a fellow spy by the name of 561 00:40:01,320 --> 00:40:06,880 Speaker 1: Leara who had a Dutch girlfriend called Drunkers Clara Bella Drunkers, 562 00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:12,759 Speaker 1: who was herself a spy living in the Birmingham region. Intriguingly, 563 00:40:13,320 --> 00:40:15,239 Speaker 1: she would have been around thirty years old at the 564 00:40:15,280 --> 00:40:18,480 Speaker 1: time of the murder and had a regular front teeth 565 00:40:18,800 --> 00:40:22,680 Speaker 1: similar to those noted on the skeleton. Could it be 566 00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:25,960 Speaker 1: that the fruitless search of dental records all those years 567 00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:30,280 Speaker 1: ago hadn't failed because of an administrative error, but merely 568 00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:33,160 Speaker 1: because the woman had not actually been from the UK. 569 00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:38,800 Speaker 1: McCormack further alleged that he later came across some interesting 570 00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:44,720 Speaker 1: information in declassified papers from German military intelligence. The papers 571 00:40:44,760 --> 00:40:48,520 Speaker 1: suggested that a spy had been parachuted into the Midlands 572 00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:51,439 Speaker 1: in nineteen forty one, but had then failed to make 573 00:40:51,480 --> 00:40:55,439 Speaker 1: contact with their handlers. The name listed for the spy 574 00:40:56,160 --> 00:41:04,720 Speaker 1: was Clara Bella. Needless to say, this theory two remains unconfirmed. However, 575 00:41:05,360 --> 00:41:08,880 Speaker 1: on the eighteenth of May nineteen forty two, the British 576 00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:12,440 Speaker 1: Navy intercepted an unregistered boat just off the coast of 577 00:41:12,480 --> 00:41:17,239 Speaker 1: the UK. In it were three Dutch nationals who were 578 00:41:17,239 --> 00:41:22,080 Speaker 1: promptly interrogated. After routine questioning, two of the men were 579 00:41:22,120 --> 00:41:25,520 Speaker 1: deemed rational and of little threat. The third, on the 580 00:41:25,560 --> 00:41:28,640 Speaker 1: other hand, became hysterical at the first sight of the 581 00:41:28,640 --> 00:41:33,719 Speaker 1: British officers. He was immediately arrested and later convicted under 582 00:41:33,760 --> 00:41:37,520 Speaker 1: the nineteen forty Treachery Act on suspicion of being a spy. 583 00:41:38,680 --> 00:41:44,840 Speaker 1: His name was Johannes Marinus Drunkers. Was this the man 584 00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:48,560 Speaker 1: Franz rathgeb knew as lera come in search of his 585 00:41:48,640 --> 00:41:53,799 Speaker 1: missing wife? Sadly we will never know. On New Year's 586 00:41:53,840 --> 00:41:58,400 Speaker 1: Eve of nineteen forty two, Johann's Drunkers was executed in 587 00:41:58,480 --> 00:42:09,480 Speaker 1: Wandsworth Prison in London. Towards the end of the twentieth century, 588 00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:13,799 Speaker 1: a number of British wartime files were declassified, with one 589 00:42:14,040 --> 00:42:18,880 Speaker 1: proving of particular interest to our case. On the evening 590 00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:23,000 Speaker 1: of January thirty one, nineteen forty one, just above the 591 00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:26,440 Speaker 1: town of Ramsey in Cambridgeshire, high up in the night sky, 592 00:42:26,760 --> 00:42:31,160 Speaker 1: a man was silently drifting down to earth. No one 593 00:42:31,200 --> 00:42:34,080 Speaker 1: saw the black spot as it fell hard and fast, 594 00:42:34,360 --> 00:42:36,879 Speaker 1: landing with a bump in a field next to Dove 595 00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:42,480 Speaker 1: House Farm. Two men, Charles Bulldock and Harry Caulson, had 596 00:42:42,480 --> 00:42:45,520 Speaker 1: been walking by the area shortly after when they heard 597 00:42:45,560 --> 00:42:48,439 Speaker 1: the sound of a revolver being fired into the air. 598 00:42:50,520 --> 00:42:54,040 Speaker 1: Locating the source of the gunshots, Bulldock and Coulson were 599 00:42:54,080 --> 00:42:56,560 Speaker 1: astonished to find a man lying on his back in 600 00:42:56,560 --> 00:43:00,000 Speaker 1: a field surrounded by the silken canopy of a parachute. 601 00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:04,600 Speaker 1: The man, who was in some distress, had clearly broken 602 00:43:04,640 --> 00:43:09,400 Speaker 1: his leg. Coulson ran immediately to fetch James Godfrey, a 603 00:43:09,440 --> 00:43:12,760 Speaker 1: member of the Home Guard, who in turn telephoned Ramsey 604 00:43:12,800 --> 00:43:16,200 Speaker 1: Police Station before accompanying Coulson to take a look at 605 00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:21,359 Speaker 1: the prostrate man. Godfrey later noted that the man had 606 00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:25,680 Speaker 1: been wearing civilian clothes underneath his flying suit. They also 607 00:43:25,760 --> 00:43:29,440 Speaker 1: found in his possession an attache case four to five 608 00:43:29,520 --> 00:43:35,120 Speaker 1: hundred pounds in one pound notes and a wallet. Together, 609 00:43:35,480 --> 00:43:38,840 Speaker 1: the three men bound the parachutist's leg and waited for 610 00:43:38,920 --> 00:43:44,400 Speaker 1: further instructions. A short time later, Captain William Henry Newton 611 00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:48,120 Speaker 1: arrived on the scene, and began to question the mystery man. 612 00:43:49,400 --> 00:43:52,480 Speaker 1: He gave his name as Joseph Jacobs and claimed to 613 00:43:52,520 --> 00:43:55,759 Speaker 1: have flown over solo from Luxembourg before bailing out of 614 00:43:55,800 --> 00:43:59,719 Speaker 1: his plane. Jacobs was then loaded onto a horse and 615 00:43:59,800 --> 00:44:05,280 Speaker 1: car and delivered to Ramsey Police station. Once detained, Jacobs 616 00:44:05,360 --> 00:44:09,439 Speaker 1: was asked to open the attache case. Inside they found 617 00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:11,960 Speaker 1: a wireless set, as well as a pair of headphones 618 00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:16,239 Speaker 1: and batteries. They also found a map, on which was 619 00:44:16,280 --> 00:44:21,840 Speaker 1: marked the location of two RF satellite stations nearby. But 620 00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:26,880 Speaker 1: Jacobs is also carrying something else, something found tucked away 621 00:44:27,080 --> 00:44:31,719 Speaker 1: deep inside his pocket a picture photograph of a glamorous 622 00:44:31,719 --> 00:44:34,840 Speaker 1: looking woman, on the back of which was a message 623 00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:40,040 Speaker 1: written in English. It read my dear, I Love you forever, 624 00:44:40,840 --> 00:44:47,520 Speaker 1: Your Clara Landau, July nineteen forty. The woman is Clara 625 00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:53,239 Speaker 1: Sophie Bowler born in Ulm, Germany, on the twenty ninth 626 00:44:53,280 --> 00:44:56,960 Speaker 1: of June nineteen o six. In nineteen forty one, she 627 00:44:57,040 --> 00:45:00,440 Speaker 1: would have been thirty five years old. She is a 628 00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:04,279 Speaker 1: cabaret singer and sometime actress who not only worked for 629 00:45:04,320 --> 00:45:07,160 Speaker 1: a number of years performing in music halls across the 630 00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:11,080 Speaker 1: West Midlands, but speaks fluent English with a Birmingham accent 631 00:45:11,680 --> 00:45:16,360 Speaker 1: and was known locally as Clara Bella. Not only that, 632 00:45:16,640 --> 00:45:20,120 Speaker 1: but according to Jacobs, she is extremely well connected to 633 00:45:20,160 --> 00:45:23,040 Speaker 1: the Nazi Party and had been recruited as a spy 634 00:45:23,360 --> 00:45:27,280 Speaker 1: with plans to drop her into the Midlands region. Finally, 635 00:45:27,760 --> 00:45:31,520 Speaker 1: it seemed that the pieces were coming together. Is it 636 00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:38,600 Speaker 1: possible that Clara Bowler is our unknown woman? Not so, 637 00:45:39,000 --> 00:45:42,880 Speaker 1: according to Jacob's granddaughter Gizelle, whose own website on the 638 00:45:42,920 --> 00:45:47,320 Speaker 1: subject provides an exhaustive account of the life of Joseph Jacobs. 639 00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:52,080 Speaker 1: As Giselle's research details, the skeleton found in the witch 640 00:45:52,160 --> 00:45:56,000 Speaker 1: Elm Tree suggested a woman of around five foot in height. 641 00:45:56,880 --> 00:46:01,400 Speaker 1: Clara Bowler, as has been well documented, was substantially taller 642 00:46:01,840 --> 00:46:05,880 Speaker 1: at almost six feet in height. In a final blow 643 00:46:06,040 --> 00:46:09,239 Speaker 1: to the theory, it was also discovered that Clara had 644 00:46:09,280 --> 00:46:12,719 Speaker 1: in fact died in Berlin on the sixteenth of December 645 00:46:13,120 --> 00:46:20,360 Speaker 1: nineteen forty two. Joseph Jacobs was eventually tried and convicted 646 00:46:20,440 --> 00:46:24,160 Speaker 1: of being a spy and sentenced to death by firing squad. 647 00:46:25,120 --> 00:46:28,400 Speaker 1: Jacobs protested his innocence to the end, declaring that he 648 00:46:28,480 --> 00:46:30,960 Speaker 1: was a friend of England and had arrived to help 649 00:46:31,080 --> 00:46:33,960 Speaker 1: in her fight against the Nazis, but it was to 650 00:46:33,960 --> 00:46:38,880 Speaker 1: no avail. On the thirteenth of August nineteen forty one, 651 00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:42,759 Speaker 1: Joseph Jacobs became the last man ever to be executed 652 00:46:42,960 --> 00:46:52,680 Speaker 1: at the Tower of London. Thinking about the mystery in 653 00:46:52,719 --> 00:46:56,560 Speaker 1: its entirety, it is quite striking when you consider that 654 00:46:56,600 --> 00:46:59,920 Speaker 1: perhaps the least strange element of the whole thing is 655 00:47:00,080 --> 00:47:03,279 Speaker 1: that a woman had been murdered, and most likely by 656 00:47:03,320 --> 00:47:06,839 Speaker 1: a man, And not only had she been disposed of 657 00:47:07,120 --> 00:47:10,600 Speaker 1: with such apparent ease, but there seemed nobody willing to 658 00:47:10,640 --> 00:47:14,960 Speaker 1: come forward on her behalf. According to writer and broadcaster 659 00:47:15,239 --> 00:47:18,680 Speaker 1: Steve Punt, who investigated the witch l murder as part 660 00:47:18,719 --> 00:47:22,480 Speaker 1: of his Punt PI series broadcast by the BBC, there 661 00:47:22,600 --> 00:47:25,000 Speaker 1: was one report at the bottom of a police file 662 00:47:25,360 --> 00:47:28,800 Speaker 1: that is so often overshadowed by the louder, more colorful 663 00:47:28,840 --> 00:47:32,880 Speaker 1: components of this compelling mystery. It notes a missing persons 664 00:47:32,920 --> 00:47:37,640 Speaker 1: report logged some time around October of nineteen forty one, 665 00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:41,640 Speaker 1: a sex worker by the name of Bella had gone missing. 666 00:47:42,800 --> 00:47:46,040 Speaker 1: Could it be that that same Bella, a woman whose 667 00:47:46,080 --> 00:47:51,400 Speaker 1: initial disappearance had perhaps been deemed unworthy of investigation, was 668 00:47:51,440 --> 00:47:55,759 Speaker 1: the woman they had been searching for all along. There 669 00:47:55,880 --> 00:47:59,319 Speaker 1: was one other report recorded shortly after the skeleton had 670 00:47:59,360 --> 00:48:03,680 Speaker 1: been discovered, an eyewitness account by two Home guards who 671 00:48:03,719 --> 00:48:06,759 Speaker 1: had been wrapping up their nightly patrol near Hagley Wood 672 00:48:06,920 --> 00:48:10,160 Speaker 1: one evening in the autumn of nineteen forty one, when 673 00:48:10,200 --> 00:48:13,840 Speaker 1: the sound of an approaching engine stop them in their tracks. 674 00:48:14,440 --> 00:48:16,880 Speaker 1: As the guards looked down to a turn at the 675 00:48:16,880 --> 00:48:20,040 Speaker 1: bottom of the road, a scattering of light is followed 676 00:48:20,040 --> 00:48:23,840 Speaker 1: shortly by a vehicle appearing from around the bend, before 677 00:48:23,840 --> 00:48:27,279 Speaker 1: swiftly pulling in to the side of the road. The 678 00:48:27,320 --> 00:48:31,240 Speaker 1: guards approach with caution, surprised to see a private vehicle 679 00:48:31,400 --> 00:48:35,040 Speaker 1: driving round these parts at this time of night. As 680 00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:37,759 Speaker 1: they neared the vehicle, one of the guards holds a 681 00:48:37,840 --> 00:48:41,000 Speaker 1: light up to the driver's window and knocks on the glass. 682 00:48:42,440 --> 00:48:45,560 Speaker 1: The driver blinks into the light and rolls down his window. 683 00:48:46,840 --> 00:48:51,040 Speaker 1: He smiles awkwardly as he hands over his ID. The 684 00:48:51,120 --> 00:48:54,319 Speaker 1: guards are surprised to discover, judging by the jacket he 685 00:48:54,400 --> 00:48:59,640 Speaker 1: is wearing, that the man is an RAF officer. Shining 686 00:48:59,640 --> 00:49:02,880 Speaker 1: a light into the vehicle, the patrolman noticed there is 687 00:49:02,920 --> 00:49:06,720 Speaker 1: someone else in the car, huddled under an overcoat, lying 688 00:49:06,840 --> 00:49:10,480 Speaker 1: very still in the passenger seat. At the look on 689 00:49:10,520 --> 00:49:14,440 Speaker 1: the faces of the guards, the officer gives an embarrassed shrug. 690 00:49:15,520 --> 00:49:18,680 Speaker 1: The guards return the ID, which is gratefully received by 691 00:49:18,719 --> 00:49:22,000 Speaker 1: the driver, who proceeds to roll up the window before 692 00:49:22,080 --> 00:49:33,280 Speaker 1: driving away back into the night. Unexplained as an Avy 693 00:49:33,280 --> 00:49:38,279 Speaker 1: Club Productions podcast created by Richard McClain Smith. All other 694 00:49:38,320 --> 00:49:42,000 Speaker 1: elements of the podcast, including the music, were also produced 695 00:49:42,000 --> 00:49:46,600 Speaker 1: by me Richard McClain smith. Unexplained. The book and audiobook 696 00:49:46,960 --> 00:49:51,040 Speaker 1: is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, 697 00:49:51,320 --> 00:49:56,120 Speaker 1: Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and other bookstores. Please subscribe to 698 00:49:56,280 --> 00:49:59,400 Speaker 1: and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts, and 699 00:49:59,440 --> 00:50:01,799 Speaker 1: feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or 700 00:50:01,800 --> 00:50:05,560 Speaker 1: ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps 701 00:50:05,640 --> 00:50:08,120 Speaker 1: you have an explanation of your own you'd like to share. 702 00:50:08,760 --> 00:50:12,239 Speaker 1: You can find out more at Unexplained podcast dot com 703 00:50:12,280 --> 00:50:15,960 Speaker 1: and reach us online through Twitter at Unexplained Pod and 704 00:50:16,160 --> 00:50:20,880 Speaker 1: Facebook at Facebook dot com. Forward Slash Unexplained Podcast