WEBVTT - Season 6 Episode 16: Visions from Darkness 0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:14.200 Once upon a time, on a cold, dark night on 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:18.480 the outskirts of Stromitza, a town in Ottoman territory close 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:22.040 to the border with Bulgaria, a baby's cries were heard 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:27.320 coming from a small hut inside. Paris gave a Searchev 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:31.680 wrapped her newborn baby's bloody and vernick's covered body in 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:36.440 a sheepskin rug and cradled her, while husband Panda watched on, 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:40.640 his eyes damp with tears as he prayed for a miracle. 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:47.760 The child, a girl, was two months premature, feeble and wrinkly. 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:52.120 With her eyes clenched tightly shut, she yawned and wriggled 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:56.720 in her mother's arms. It was October third, nineteen eleven, 0:00:57.120 --> 0:01:01.040 and with little to their name, Paris Gava Panda had 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:05.319 no option but to simply hope for the best. But slowly, 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:09.840 day by day, as Panda rose early each morning to 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:13.160 work in the fields and Paris Gava stayed at home 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:17.319 to nurture their daughter, the child began gradually to gain 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:21.760 her strength. With the parents confident enough that the worst 0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:25.240 was behind them, it was decided finally to give her 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:29.640 a name, as was the custom. The child's grandmother was 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:33.000 promptly sent out into the street to ask a passer 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:36.440 by for a suggestion, and so it was that the 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:41.920 nameless baby girl became Vangelia, from the Greek meaning bearer 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:45.959 of good news. In English, they called her Fanger for short. 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:50.840 If Vanger's entry into the world was a precarious one, 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:55.200 the next ten years would prove little different. By the 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:58.960 age of four, she'd lived through two Balkan Wars and 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:03.640 the burning down for town. The following year, Fanga's mother, 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:09.600 Paris Gava, died in childbirth along with her baby. After 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:15.160 five years scraping through together, Fanga's father remarried. A young 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:18.680 woman named Tanker was due to marry her beloved, a 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:22.400 Bulgarian soldier, when her parents canceled the wedding at the 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:27.679 last minute. With the region around Strumitza recently coming under 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:30.880 the control of the Kingdom of Serbia in nineteen nineteen 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.799 in the aftermath of the First World War, a policy 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:39.799 of cultural cleansing had been enacted, Tanker's parents were fearful 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:43.160 that they would all be deported if the marriage went ahead, 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:48.240 so they offered their daughter to Panda instead. It was 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:52.280 an awkward, unwanted beginning to a union, but by all accounts, 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:54.679 they appeared to have made the most of it when 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:58.480 two years later they welcomed their first child, a brother 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:03.520 for Vanger named Vassal. While Panda worked as a shepherd 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:07.000 in neighboring villages that by then eleven year old Fanger 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:10.000 helped her stepmother to bring up the baby and take 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:13.959 care of the house. It was a difficult, impoverished life, 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:18.560 but one that was filled with love. Nonetheless, Fanger, especially 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:22.200 a bright and sociable girl who remained stoic in the 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:25.679 face of so much misery, was much loved by all 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:30.160 who knew her. And then a year later came the 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:35.000 moment that would change Fanger's life forever, and if the 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:39.240 stories are to be believed, the lives of many others too. 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:52.800 You're listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard McClane Smith. In 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:56.800 nineteen twenty three, Fanger and her family moved a few 0:03:56.840 --> 0:04:01.120 miles east to Novo Cello, trekking By and Cart to 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:05.320 live with her uncle in his much larger home. Whilst there, 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:09.440 one bright summer's day, then twelve year old Vanger and 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:12.640 her two cousins were running an errand to fetch milk 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:16.680 when they took a detour to a nearby spring. Then 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:22.000 the world went suddenly dark around them. Looking up, they 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.880 saw that a vast bank of cloud had blotted out 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:28.240 the sun, like a veil being drawn across the sky. 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:33.320 Seconds later, a violent gust of wind whipped across the hills, 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:36.960 pulling at their bodies as it began to coil around them, 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:42.440 sending clouds of dust corkscrewing into the air. As Vanger's 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:45.760 cousins screamed and ran for shelter, they could only watch 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:49.560 in horror as Vanga was slowly lifted from the ground 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:54.880 and taken high up into the ever growing vortex. When 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:58.799 an eerie stillness returned to the land, the cousins lifted 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:03.480 their heads to mind that Fanger had completely vanished. A 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:06.479 small search party was sent out to find her, and 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:10.320 an hour later they found the girl lying unconscious in 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:13.479 a field close to the spring, covered in leaves and 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:19.840 broken branches. Then she began to stir my eyes, she 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:25.039 cried in agony, I can't open my eyes. Fanga's face 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.400 was smeared in soil and grit that had been pushed 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:31.720 so deep into her eye sockets it scraped and scoured 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:36.680 her eyeballs. At the slightest movement. After being diagnosed with 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:40.760 severe corneal abrasions, her father, with the help of friends 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:45.240 and family, miraculously managed to find enough money for an operation. 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:49.560 For it to work, however, fanger would be required to 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:53.839 rest and eat healthily. But no sooner had she returned home, 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:58.120 her father and stepmother had a second child, a boy 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:03.160 named Tomma. With the family already struggling for money, there 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:06.960 was no chance of maintaining the diet required for her recovery, 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:11.480 and now with one more mouth to feed, both Fangua's 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:15.360 parents had to work, leaving her to look after the babies. 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:20.799 As the weeks turned to months, Fangus's sight failed to return, 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:24.679 and by the age of fourteen, it was completely gone 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:36.400 for ever. With fanguars parents struggling to feed their three children, 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:39.799 it was suggested to Panda that he sent his daughter 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:43.200 to the School of the Blind, a charity about five 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:48.279 hundred kilometers north on the outskirts of Belgrade. Though it 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:51.800 was painful to leave her family, Fangus soon learned to 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:56.159 appreciate the opportunity that had been afforded her, being effectively 0:06:56.279 --> 0:06:59.960 the first time she'd ever been to school, she learned 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:03.080 how to read Braille and how to navigate the world 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:07.520 independently without her sight. She even fell in love for 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:12.160 the first time with a fellow pupil named Dimita. The 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:16.680 pair fantasized about getting married and moving in together, but 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:22.400 then news arrived from Strumitza. Fanga's stepmother, Tanka, and her 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:27.000 unborn baby had died in childbirth, just like Fanga's mother. 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:31.920 Fanga's father requested that she returned home to help raise 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:36.240 her siblings, who by then included two year old Leubka, 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:39.720 a sister who'd been born while Vanger was in Belgrade, 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:45.040 and so after only three years of school, Fanga said 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:49.800 goodbye to Dimita and returned to Strumitza, where life continued 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:53.520 much the way it had been before, as Panda worked 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:58.000 whatever hours he could while Vanga cooked, cleaned, and took 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:02.320 care of her brothers and sisters, until one day when 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:07.280 Panda returned, exhausted from work, despairing at his family's plight. 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:12.080 That night, as Vanga lay in the bed she shared 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:16.600 with her sister, her father's desperate words echoed through her head. 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:22.320 As she drifted off to sleep. Through darkness, shapes began 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:26.960 to materialize, coalescing into the fragmented pieces of an old 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:31.760 abandoned village, the crumbling ruins of an old fortress standing 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:36.040 prominently among them. There was a river close by, too, 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:41.559 and a jagged black rock. Then something glinting in the light, 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:47.760 gold coins buried under the fortress. Vanguer woke with a 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:52.360 start the following morning, unable to forget the strange dream. 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:55.800 When she told her father about it, he thought nothing 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:58.680 of it at first, but then remembered the tale of 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:03.360 the nearby village, abandoned many years before after the outbreak 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:07.720 of a plague. It too had a large fortress and 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:13.400 a giant, jagged rock just outside its walls. Panda's plans 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:16.720 to investigate it, however, were curtailed when he broke his 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.840 arm at work, and coming to his senses, he dismissed 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:25.760 his daughter's unusual vision as nothing but a fantasy. It 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:30.120 wasn't long after that did Panda returned from work once again, 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:34.840 tired and embittered, as he explained to Vanger as he 0:09:34.880 --> 0:09:37.679 took a seat at the table, a sheep he'd been 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:41.400 tending had gone missing, and now he was expected to 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:45.440 find the money to replace it. Fanger felt for the 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:47.800 edges of the table as she brought a bowl of 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:52.000 stew over for her father, then stopped suddenly and turned 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:56.000 her face toward him. It was a man from Mono's Beethovo, 0:09:56.160 --> 0:10:01.480 she said, a village near by. He stole it. Panda 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.640 looked to his daughter with confusion as she went on 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:08.600 to explain the man in great detail. The following day, 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:12.960 her father made the short track to Monospetovo, where, much 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:16.600 to his astonishment, he found the missing sheep in a 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:20.920 flock belonging to a man identical to that which Fanga 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:32.000 had described. With the outbreak of another European war in 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:37.160 nineteen thirty nine, the Serbian government allied themselves with Hitler's Germany. 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:41.760 One morning, a then twenty eight year old Fanger and 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:45.280 her twelve year old sister Lyubka went to collect water 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:49.240 from the well outside the village of Hamzali, where they'd 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:52.920 moved at the beginning of the year. As Lyubka drew 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:56.240 the water, she saw her sister sitting with her face 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:59.920 turned away from her, seemingly looking into the middle distant 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:05.600 It's in a peculiar way, Vanger, she said, but Vanga 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:10.319 didn't reply. Lyubka dropped the bucket and rushed to her 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:13.520 sister's side, worried that she might be having some kind 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:17.520 of seizure. Then Vanga snapped out of it and told 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:21.160 her sister not to worry. She was just talking to 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:24.280 a man on horseback, she said, who was dressed in 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:30.599 shining armor and wanted to use the well. Liubka looked about, confused. 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:36.120 The two of them were completely alone. The following year, 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:41.040 Fanga's father, Panda, died from blood poisoning, and Vanga and 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:45.720 her siblings moved back to their home in Stramitza. Soon after, 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:49.400 Fanga claimed she was visited again by the man in 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:53.679 shining armor, who came with a message saying that soon 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:57.880 everything will turn upside down in the world and many 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:03.000 people will die. The man also insisted that Vanga should 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:05.240 stay in the village to speak of the living and 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:09.400 the dead, and that she mustn't be afraid. A great 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:12.520 war was coming to their home land that would begin 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:18.160 in April nineteen forty one. A few months later, on 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:23.040 April eighth, nineteen forty one, the German army marched across 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:27.959 what was by then the Yugoslavian border and into Vanga's country. 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:38.040 As words spread that the German army were nearing the 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:41.720 town of Stramitza. Those who hadn't already left to fight, 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:44.280 or who had been captured by the German army and 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:48.040 sent to work camps, hid in barns or cellars, or 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:51.680 abandoned their homes entirely as they sought shelter in the 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:56.160 nearby hills and forests, except for the blind Vanger and 0:12:56.280 --> 0:13:01.800 her sister Lyubka, who had nowhere else to go. Before long, 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:06.120 the ominous roar of armored vehicles and the heavy steps 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:09.800 of booted feet drew near to their home, until one 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:14.400 day a German soldier arrived outside and kicked down their 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:18.040 front door. The young man took one look at the 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:22.320 pitiful scene inside, and, finding not even food to steal, 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:28.560 simply left Vanger and Leubka alone. Some time later, a 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:32.000 neighbor of Fangers appeared at the door, coming to check 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:36.160 if she and her sister were still alive. Stepping inside, 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:41.640 she found Fanger standing quietly in the corner. At first, 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:47.319 Vanger didn't move, Then slowly she turned around and fixed 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:51.280 the neighbor with an unsettling stare, the whites of her 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:56.720 upturned eyes seeming to look straight at her. Then a strange, 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:02.000 unfamiliar voice came from her lips. It spoke of people 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:07.079 and far off places and seemingly random events. Then the 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:11.120 neighbor realized Fanga was talking about all the men from 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:14.600 the village who'd left to fight in the war, revealing 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:17.959 each of their stories from where they were to whether 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:21.240 they were dead or alive, and when, if at all, 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:25.720 they would be coming home. In shock, the neighbor called 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:28.600 on others to come and witness the miracle for themselves, 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:33.080 and soon women from all across Dramitza turned up at 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:36.920 Vangar's door, desperate to know more about their missing loved 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:42.400 Once a missus Nartanoff came in tears, looking for news 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:46.000 about her husband Milan, who she hadn't heard from in months. 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:51.000 Fanga told her not to cry, because Milan was safe, 0:14:51.280 --> 0:14:55.800 albeit tired and hungry. He was hiding in a nearby ravine, 0:14:55.880 --> 0:15:00.560 she said, in nothing but his underwear, having just escaped activity. 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:04.680 Vanger told the woman to go home and prepare some 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:08.320 clean clothes and a hot meal for him that night. 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:12.480 Natinov did just that and sat up waiting for her 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:16.440 husband to appear, But as the hours went by and 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:22.160 he failed to show sleep finally overcame her. It was 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:25.600 sometime around midnight when she awoke to the sound of 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:30.520 someone knocking against her window. When she pulled back the curtain, 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:34.640 there stood her husband in the front yard, his pale, 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:39.240 skeletal figure lit up by the moonlight, all but naked 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:50.400 in his muddy and sodden underwear. 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In 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:09.679 nineteen forty three, Fanger was approached by a stranger and 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:13.720 told to expect an important visitor with no time for 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:16.879 airs and graces. She had altered nothing of her home 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:21.040 when one afternoon, a car pulled up outside and the 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:25.280 same stranger once again appeared at the door. The man 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:29.399 then stepped back as another man entered the property, but 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:33.359 before he could speak, Fanga turned to him sharply and said, 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:38.120 your power is growing and to spread wide, but remember 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:43.800 the date August twenty eight. The man then left without 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:47.880 saying a word. At the sound of a door slamming 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:52.480 shut and the heavy car driving away Lyubka informed her 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:56.919 sister that the man was the Bulgarian King Boris the Third. 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:03.520 About the same time, in the town of Krinsolitza. Dimatar Kushkaroff, 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:07.840 a soldier in the Bulgarian army, tossed and turned in 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:11.480 his sleep as images of his brother being brutally attacked 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:16.560 and murdered flashed before him. Then a face materialized from 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:20.240 out of the chaos, while he recognized as the blind 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:25.800 woman he'd heard about in Straumitza. The following day, Dimatar 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:29.000 paid a visit to Vanger's home, only for her to 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:31.880 tell him immediately that she knew why he was there. 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:35.080 He wanted to know who'd killed his brother, she said. 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:40.160 As Dimatar looked at the woman dumbfounded, she continued that 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:42.639 she would give him the answer, but only if he 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:46.720 promised not to seek revenge and allow the justice system 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:51.119 to do its work. Dimatar agreed, and over the next 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:55.199 few months he returned often to Vanger's home, intrigued by 0:18:55.280 --> 0:19:00.280 her apparent gifts. Slowly, over time, the pair fell in love, 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:05.080 and in May nineteen forty two, they were married. Over 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:08.240 the next year, having now moved across the border to 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:13.520 petrich in Bulgaria to live with Dimaita, Fanger continued dispensing 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:16.760 what knowledge she claimed to have about men fighting in 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:20.359 the war to anyone who came asking for it. It 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:23.480 isn't quite known what King Boris the Third made of 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:28.480 their alleged encounter, but as August nineteen forty three came around, 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:34.159 he found himself in an increasingly delicate position, having concluded 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:36.719 that he had little choice but to ally himself with 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:40.160 Adolf Hitler, believing it the safest option for his country. 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:42.639 He is said to have spent a large part of 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:47.119 the war resisting Hitler's demands that he deport tens of 0:19:47.200 --> 0:19:51.159 thousands of Bulgaria's Jewish population into the hands of the 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:56.119 German government. Though many Bulgarian Jews were put into forced 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:59.919 labor to build roads in Bulgaria, it has been argued 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:02.960 that this was in fact a ploy to avoid having 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:05.360 to send them out of the country, with the full 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:08.800 understanding that to do so would mean almost certain death. 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:14.399 Boris also resisted calls to send Bulgarian troops to fight 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:19.159 against the Soviet Union's army, since many Bulgarians supported the nation. 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:23.840 After being summoned to another meeting with Hitler in August 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:28.280 nineteen forty three, King Boris the Third returned to Bulgaria, 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:33.200 seeming a little unwell. On August twenty eighth, the day 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:36.680 that Fanga is alleged to have warned him about King 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:41.560 Boris died. Some have suggested that he was poisoned at 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:53.280 Hitler's request for his refusal to cooperate. As word of 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:57.760 Vanger's apparent gifts spread throughout the Balkans, more and more 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:01.080 people came from far and wide to seek her knowledge. 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:05.280 Some were afraid of the spiky and assertive blind woman, 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:09.280 believing she was a witch, while others questioned if the 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:13.480 stories and her predictions were exactly what people said they were, 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:19.760 But the stories kept coming. In nineteen forty four, Fanga's 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:23.679 elder brother, Vasil, told his sister that he was leaving 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:28.399 to join the Yugoslav partisan movement. Fanga begged him not 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:31.840 to go, warning her brother that he'd be dead by 0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:35.760 the age of twenty three if he did. Meanwhile, Vanga's 0:21:35.840 --> 0:21:39.440 husband Dimita was also sent back to the front to 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:44.560 fight in Greece. Though he would return, albeit severely ill, 0:21:44.760 --> 0:21:50.639 having contracted malaria, Vasil would not be so lucky. It 0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:53.399 is said that after blowing up a bridge in order 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:57.359 to hamper the retreating German army, Vasil was tracked down 0:21:57.400 --> 0:22:01.400 by German soldiers to a nearby village. When the villagers 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:04.840 were given the ultimatum to turn Vasil over or face 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:08.399 the consequences, the young partisan is said to have given 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:12.800 himself up, after which he was allegedly brutally beaten and 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:16.800 eventually shot to death, his body left to rot in 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:19.800 the open as a warning to any others who might 0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:24.959 feel inspired by his actions. Vasil, just as Vanguer had 0:22:25.000 --> 0:22:31.560 apparently warned, was twenty three when he died after the war, 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:35.240 As Vanger's fame continued to grow, she soon came to 0:22:35.280 --> 0:22:40.919 the attention of paranormal researchers. One afternoon, a young scientist 0:22:41.119 --> 0:22:45.080 named Georgi Lozonov traveled to Vanger's home to find a 0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:50.240 crowd of almost three hundred people milling about outside. Many 0:22:50.359 --> 0:22:53.160 had come on a pilgrimage simply to get a glimpse 0:22:53.160 --> 0:22:57.679 of the avowed mystic. When Lozonov's turn to speak with 0:22:57.760 --> 0:23:01.760 her came, Vanguer turned to him in her inimitable way, 0:23:02.359 --> 0:23:07.200 her eyes now kept permanently shut, and said, you're a doctor, 0:23:07.560 --> 0:23:11.960 and you've come to test me. Lozonov smiled with disbelief. 0:23:13.200 --> 0:23:16.879 Lozonov would go on to lead a Bulgarian government funded 0:23:16.960 --> 0:23:22.040 laboratory known as the Institute of Suggestology and Parapsychology, and 0:23:22.160 --> 0:23:25.199 devoted a large part of his career to investigating the 0:23:25.240 --> 0:23:29.679 possibility of clairvoyance. He would become famous for developing a 0:23:29.720 --> 0:23:34.639 process that he termed suggest Apedia, which, according to Lozonov, 0:23:35.160 --> 0:23:38.280 enabled people to learn a second language at a faster 0:23:38.359 --> 0:23:41.760 than average rate. What brought him most joy in his 0:23:41.800 --> 0:23:48.160 professional career, however, was Vangor. Over twenty years, Losonov continued 0:23:48.200 --> 0:23:51.399 to visit her to record the many predictions she made 0:23:51.480 --> 0:23:55.119 about all manner of people, and claimed that roughly eighty 0:23:55.119 --> 0:24:06.639 percent of them could be considered accurate. By the nineteen sixties, 0:24:06.960 --> 0:24:09.960 Baba Vanger, as she would come to be known, was 0:24:10.000 --> 0:24:13.960 a much loved iconic figure in Bulgarian society, who was 0:24:14.040 --> 0:24:16.720 even said to have been placed on the government payroll 0:24:17.080 --> 0:24:20.000 as a member of the civil service for her services 0:24:20.040 --> 0:24:24.800 to the people. After her husband Dematar died in nineteen 0:24:24.840 --> 0:24:28.639 sixty two, she entered a permanent state of mourning and 0:24:28.760 --> 0:24:32.440 was rarely seen without a black shawl clasped around her head. 0:24:33.480 --> 0:24:36.200 Fanger often said that when she met with a stranger, 0:24:36.680 --> 0:24:39.960 she was struck instantly by a reel of footage playing 0:24:39.960 --> 0:24:43.280 out the entirety of that individual's life in her mind. 0:24:44.119 --> 0:24:47.160 It was from this that she drew her apparent knowledge 0:24:47.160 --> 0:24:52.760 and predictions. Other times, she claimed that invisible creatures whose 0:24:52.760 --> 0:24:57.600 origin she couldn't explain, communicated the information to her within 0:24:57.760 --> 0:25:03.640 human voices. Many continued to question her apparent psychic abilities, 0:25:04.000 --> 0:25:08.199 with some even speculating that these invisible creatures were in 0:25:08.280 --> 0:25:13.240 fact the Bulgarian state intelligence agency, who fared information to 0:25:13.320 --> 0:25:18.120 Fanger in return for money. With this information, as is claimed, 0:25:18.400 --> 0:25:21.200 she was able to fool people into thinking she knew 0:25:21.200 --> 0:25:24.919 things about them that she couldn't possibly know. Once she 0:25:24.960 --> 0:25:28.040 had them on side, she could then extract more information 0:25:28.080 --> 0:25:31.840 about the individual to pass on to the intelligence agency. 0:25:33.119 --> 0:25:36.719 More recently, Fanger has become known for a string of 0:25:36.760 --> 0:25:41.280 extraordinary global predictions, such as apparently predicting the attack on 0:25:41.320 --> 0:25:44.800 the Twin Towers in New York on September eleventh, two 0:25:44.800 --> 0:25:48.160 thousand to one, and the destruction wrought by the two 0:25:48.200 --> 0:25:52.760 thousand and four Indian Ocean earthquake and soon army. It 0:25:52.840 --> 0:25:56.639 is also said that she predicted Barack Obama's presidency and 0:25:56.760 --> 0:25:59.879 that Donald Trump's presidency would mark the beginning of the 0:26:00.160 --> 0:26:04.560 end for America. Further to this, she is also said 0:26:04.600 --> 0:26:08.280 to predicted that Europe would cease to exist after twenty 0:26:08.320 --> 0:26:12.760 seventeen and President Putin of Russia would become lord of 0:26:12.800 --> 0:26:16.760 the world. The fact that such claims tend to appear 0:26:16.840 --> 0:26:20.520 first on Russian message boards suggest there is good reason 0:26:20.840 --> 0:26:32.399 to question their validity. In August nineteen seventy six, Baba 0:26:32.440 --> 0:26:37.160 Vanga was visited by Yugoslav superstar the singer and actor 0:26:37.160 --> 0:26:41.200 Sylvana Armenelich, who was on tour in Bulgaria at the time. 0:26:42.400 --> 0:26:46.159 Fanga rarely asked for any money for her predictions, but 0:26:46.280 --> 0:26:51.120 Sylvana insisted she wanted to give her something. No, replied 0:26:51.119 --> 0:26:54.080 the blind woman, you don't have to pay anything. I 0:26:54.119 --> 0:26:57.240 don't want to talk to you. Go now and come 0:26:57.280 --> 0:27:02.000 back in three months. Wait, actually, you won't be able 0:27:02.040 --> 0:27:07.880 to come. Two months later, the thirty seven year old 0:27:07.920 --> 0:27:13.840 Sylvana performed in Belgrade with the Serbian National Orchestra. Afterwards, 0:27:13.880 --> 0:27:16.520 she and her twenty five year old sister, who was 0:27:16.600 --> 0:27:19.840 five months pregnant at the time, decided to get an 0:27:19.840 --> 0:27:23.080 early night and planned to drive home in Sylvanah's car. 0:27:24.160 --> 0:27:27.800 Mire drag Yassevitch, the head of the Serbian National Orchestra 0:27:28.240 --> 0:27:32.760 was tired too, and offered to drive them. Roughly thirty 0:27:32.800 --> 0:27:36.960 minutes later, with the Assovich at the wheel, Sylvana's forward 0:27:37.040 --> 0:27:41.480 grenada feared across into the opposite lane and plowed headlong 0:27:41.880 --> 0:27:44.760 at a hundred and thirty kilometers an hour into a 0:27:44.800 --> 0:27:49.000 truck coming the other way. The entire front part of 0:27:49.040 --> 0:27:52.719 the car disappeared under the front of the truck, killing 0:27:52.760 --> 0:27:59.200 all three passengers on the spot. By nineteen ninety six, Babavanger, 0:27:59.640 --> 0:28:03.320 now eighty four years old, was suffering from breast cancer, 0:28:04.320 --> 0:28:08.120 tired and weary from life. In July, it is said 0:28:08.160 --> 0:28:11.000 that she made the prediction that she would die on 0:28:11.119 --> 0:28:17.320 August eleventh. The following month, almost completely incapacitated by the cancer, 0:28:17.760 --> 0:28:20.760 she was moved to a hospital to receive palliative care. 0:28:22.040 --> 0:28:25.760 On the morning of August eleventh, Vanger requested to be 0:28:25.840 --> 0:28:29.800 bathed and dressed in a clean set of clothes. When 0:28:29.840 --> 0:28:32.880 the process was finished, she lay back on her bed 0:28:33.320 --> 0:28:36.840 and held her face to the ceiling. Now I'm fine, 0:28:37.280 --> 0:28:42.560 she said. Then, at just after nine am, she claimed 0:28:42.560 --> 0:28:45.840 to see people in the room with her, her family 0:28:45.920 --> 0:28:49.240 and loved ones from the mother she'd lost at only 0:28:49.280 --> 0:28:52.360 four years old, as well as her father and her 0:28:52.400 --> 0:28:57.240 beloved Dimita. They've come for me, she said, as she 0:28:57.320 --> 0:29:00.560 made movements with her hand as though she were stroking 0:29:00.600 --> 0:29:04.680 the head of a young child. And then, at ten 0:29:04.720 --> 0:29:16.040 am on the day she predicted, Baba Vanger died. If 0:29:16.080 --> 0:29:18.440 you enjoy Unexplained and would like to help support us, 0:29:18.720 --> 0:29:21.960