WEBVTT - Season 09 Episode 15: Red Dust (Pt. 1 of 2) 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.400 Unexplained now has a substack page. If you enjoy Unexplained 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:05.280 and want to go deeper into the world of the show, 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:07.440 I've created a new space for all the bits that 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:11.200 don't quite fit into the podcast, including the Unexplained Addendum, 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:15.040 a weekly companion piece to each new episode. Expect essays 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:19.640 that lean more academic and analytical explorations of folklore, psychology, 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:22.400 and the shadowy corners of history that have shaped the 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:24.799 stories you hear on the show. But it's also a 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:28.680 home for something more personal, my fiction, my strange amusings, 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:32.000 and the odd fragments that don't belong anywhere else. Search 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:35.599 for Unexplained podcast on substack, or go to Unexplained podcast 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:38.880 dot substack dot com to find out more and subscribe. 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:40.839 If it's like a little bit more of me and 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:43.800 Unexplained in your week, join me on substack and let's 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:47.559 keep exploring the unknown together. New writing every note. The 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:51.879 following episode contains graphic scenes of mutilation and sexualized violence 0:00:52.200 --> 0:01:07.400 parental discretion as advised. The early evening of January seventh, 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:11.560 nineteen thirty seven, in Peking, as Western has called it then, 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:15.680 was an especially chilly one, not that anyone cared down 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:18.039 at the French Club in the heart of the city's 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:21.959 legation district. For a start, there were far more important 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:25.320 things to be worried about. With China firmly in the 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:28.560 grip of its own civil war, other forces were also 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:33.240 looking to assert themselves outside the city walls. The ominous 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:37.440 presence of Japan's military loomed large, as rumors of an 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:42.200 imminent attack grew louder by the day. Japan's presence in 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:45.520 the region had been supported by an eight nation alliance 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:49.040 of the world's most powerful states, keen to preserve their 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:52.200 imperial ambitions in China in the way could the Box 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:56.440 a rebellion of the nineteen hundreds. But things had changed. 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:03.960 Alliances had fractured, chiefly those between the United States, Germany, France, 0:02:04.480 --> 0:02:08.520 the United Kingdom, and what was now the communist Soviet Union. 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:13.079 The fracturing of the whole world was only two years away. 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:17.720 But down in the legation quarter on that especially chilly 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:21.240 Thursday evening, you'd be forgiven for thinking anything of the 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:25.960 sort was taking place. A legation is a diplomatic minister, 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:30.600 one rank below an ambassador. The legation district, then, was 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:35.040 where said ministers their headquarters and their families were based. 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:39.960 It was a kind of strange hinterland of wealthy aristocrats 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:45.240 and foreign dignitaries, a world of gas lit, swanky embassy buildings, 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:50.520 well stocked bars, and tailored coats, rising incongruously out of 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:53.560 a city where most people lived cheek by jowl in 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:58.320 the hutons, ancient networks of low rise, narrow lanes and 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:01.720 cramped courtyard dwelling that made up the bones of Old 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:06.320 p King, or Beijing as the Chinese called it, which 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:10.279 is to say that though Legation District residents were undoubtedly 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:14.160 highly informed of current events, they were also weirdly shielded 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.480 from them, or at least that was how it seemed 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:20.000 to them, surrounded by their private guards and the kind 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:24.080 of luxury that most residents of Beijing, or indeed anywhere 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:29.440 could only imagine. It was a disconnection experienced most keenly 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:34.040 by the children of the Legation quarter, especially those occupying 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:37.800 a strange hinterland of their own, like the three young 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:42.600 women presently zipping about the French clubs newly installed ice 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:48.200 skating rink in the French legation zone. Ethel Guryevitch, Lilian 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:53.920 Maronovsky and Pamela Werner for over an hour, they skated 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:57.320 about the rink in their fur coats and hats, their 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:01.680 breath and laughter clouding generously in the cold air. They 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:06.200 shared cigarettes and a little wine. Then, as it approached 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:09.680 seven thirty pm, Pamela announced it was time for her 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:13.800 to leave, as she was expected home for dinner. As 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:17.679 young women in their late teens and early twenties each 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:22.760 were caught somewhere between the naivete of adolescence and the mature, 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:27.520 worldly women they one day hoped to become, perhaps none 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:31.799 more so than nineteen year old Pamela. As it happened, 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:35.400 Unlike her friends, she didn't live in the legation quarter, 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:39.080 but in a traditional Hutong home with her father, a 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:43.400 retired diplomat. She also loved to cycle everywhere and was 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:47.240 fluent in Mandarin, affording her a little more freedom than 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:52.200 most of her expat contemporaries. Nonetheless, it was always a 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:55.400 little hard for Ethel and Lilian whenever the time came 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:58.800 to watch her leave the safety of the legation district, 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:03.080 especially night. They wondered whether it was safe for her 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:07.400 to be going home alone in the dark, But as 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:10.760 Pamela always assured them, it would be no different to 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:15.320 any other time she'd done it. Besides, she said, nothing 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:18.719 can happen to me here in p King, And with 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:22.479 that she slung her skates over her shoulder, climbed onto 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:27.520 her bicycle, and rode off into the chilly night. You're 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:40.440 listening to Unexplained, and I'm Richard McLean Smith. Pamela Werner's father, 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:45.120 Theodore Chalmers Werner, was the son of wealthy Prussians, who 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:47.680 was born in New Zealand but was classed as a 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:51.960 British citizen. Having been educated at Tunbridge School, one of 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:56.600 England's oldest and most elite private institutions, Werner joined the 0:05:56.600 --> 0:06:00.279 British Diplomatic Service in his late teens and was promptly 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:03.760 sent to Beijing to learn Mandarin. He took to the 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:07.720 language and culture with gusto and held a variety of positions, 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:11.080 but there was one area in which he was sorely lacking. 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:16.040 Possessing a quick, hot temper, he became known for terrible 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:21.960 interpersonal skills and frequently got into violent disagreements with his superiors. This, 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:26.120 combined with what other British diplomats considered a little too 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:29.440 much of an interest in Chinese culture, meant that he 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:32.920 was mostly posted to remote locations to keep him from 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:37.440 causing too much trouble. Despite his effective ostracization from the 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:41.360 Foreign Office, Edward Werner developed a great affection for China 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:44.440 and had no intention of returning back to the UK. 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:48.839 In nineteen eleven, at the age of forty seven, he 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:52.880 married a young socilite, the twenty four year old Gladys Ravenshaw, 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:57.200 and a pair eventually made Beijing their home. After retiring 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:01.600 from the Consular Service in nineteen fourteen, Werner devoted himself 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:06.120 fully to scholarly work, indulging his passions for Chinese culture 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:11.880 and folklore, establishing a reputation as a meticulous and respected sinologist. 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:16.400 He and Gladys tried for years to have children, but 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:20.640 for whatever reason, they were unable to conceive, and so 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:25.560 in nineteen nineteen they decided to adopt. It was then 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:28.440 that they met and fell in love with a sprightly 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:32.520 two year old girl from a local orphanage. The couple 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:37.040 decided to take her home and named her Pamela. Not 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:42.120 long after, Gladys became seriously ill. After weeks of treatment 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:46.040 in China, she was eventually diagnosed with meningitis and sent 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:49.600 to the United States to see a specialist. She returned 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:53.720 to Beijing sometime in nineteen twenty two, having failed to 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:58.720 overcome the illness. Tragically, she died shortly after, leaving the 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:01.800 five year old Pamela without a mother and the by 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:06.240 then fifty eight year old Edward a single parent. By 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:10.960 all accounts, Edward Werner, albeit with significant assistance from servants 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:14.800 and nanny's, was a devoted father to Pamela. With his 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:18.160 diplomatic career over he was able to devote much of 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.920 his time to bringing her up, including teaching her Mandarin, 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:24.920 in which she became fairly fluent from an early age. 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:30.120 The Verners lived at Number one Armor Factory Lane in 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:35.560 a modernized traditional courtyard house. Like many children of wealthy 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:39.360 expats in the area, Pamela attended Saint Mary's School for 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:43.840 Girls in the Legation Quarter, then later tiens In Grammar School. 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:49.480 It was at Tiensin Grammar that Pamela was allegedly sexually harassed, 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:54.520 possibly by the school's head teacher, Sidney Yates. To what 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:58.040 extent he was reprimanded if he was at all, or 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:01.400 whether Pamela was blamed for the incident by the perpetrator, 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:05.920 as is often the case isn't known either way. Some 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:08.720 have speculated it marked the beginning of a change in 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:12.920 Edward's relationship with his daughter, and he became worried that 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:26.520 men might start to take advantage of her. Sometime around 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:31.479 late December in nineteen thirty six, one of Pamela's Chinese classmates, 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:35.320 a young man named hansho Ching, turned up at her house. 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:39.440 Some say they were just friends, others that there was 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:42.880 more to the relationship, and though it isn't clear why. 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:46.640 Not long after he arrived, Edward Werner is said to 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:50.400 have violently accosted him, beating him with its cane before 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:54.520 chasing him away from the house. Werner reportedly hit sho 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:59.000 Ching so hard that he broke his nose. Not long 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:02.040 after this incident, Werner announced that he planned to send 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:05.360 his daughter back to England to continue her education there 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:09.320 at the first opportunity. It was a move which Pamela 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:14.440 was said to being extremely resistant to. On the morning 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:18.520 of Thursday, January seventh, nineteen thirty seven, the day Pamela 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:21.760 went ice skating at the French Club in the Legation Quarter, 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:26.400 she attended a dental appointment, then went back home. Later 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:30.480 just before leaving again that afternoon, she told a family 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:33.720 servant named Ho Yong that she'd be back for dinner 0:10:33.760 --> 0:10:36.679 at seven thirty, and asked if he could prepare her 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:40.280 some meat balls and rice. At some point, she made 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:43.800 her way to the wagon Lits Hotel, a popular hangout 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:46.760 for the city's expat community, where she met up with 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:50.400 her friend Ethel Guryevitch. The pair then went back to 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:53.800 Ethel's home, where Ethel's mother served them tea and cake, 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:57.400 before they then headed back out to meet their friend Lilian. 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:01.600 Having left the skating rink shortly before seven point thirty 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:04.520 that evening, it shouldn't have taken her more than fifteen 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:08.200 minutes to get home, but by nine pm there was 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:12.800 still no sign of her. Growing increasingly worried, since it 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:17.160 wasn't like Pamela not to stick to an arrangement, her father, Edward, 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:19.840 asked Ho Young to go to the ice rink to 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:23.360 look for her. By the time he arrived at the rink, 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:26.560 the whole place was dark and everyone had gone home 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:30.160 for the night, save for a handful of workers diligently 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:33.840 cleaning the place up. Oh Young asked if they'd seen 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:38.520 anyone matching Pamela's description, but all shook their heads. There 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:41.200 were at least two hundred people there that night, and 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:45.240 they hadn't been keeping tabs on individual guests. When Ho 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:49.440 Young returned empty handed, a despondent Edward sent him home 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:53.000 for the night. Then, grabbing a coat and a flashlight, 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:56.480 he ventured out alone into the icy darkness to see 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:00.720 what he could find himself. For hours, with the temperature 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:04.920 now well below freezing, Werner traped back and forth between 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:09.280 his home and the legation district, his weary feet crunching 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:12.440 over the frozen ground as he asked anyone he came 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:16.600 across if they'd seen his daughter, but no one had. 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:19.760 It was about one a m. In the morning when 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:23.360 Edward finally cut his losses and returned home, where he 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:27.320 spent an anxious night waiting for any word from his daughter. 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:38.120 Not ten minutes walk from Edward and Pamela Werner's home 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:43.319 stood the Fox Tower, a dark and imposing monolithic fortress 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:47.800 with a garish red tiled roof and upturned eaves in 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:53.239 the manner of much ancient Chinese architecture. Formerly a watchtower, 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:57.240 built in the sixteenth century, it marked what once had 0:12:57.240 --> 0:13:01.040 been the eastern access gate to the ancient Imperial City, 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:07.040 a borderland between worlds now strangely out of place. By 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:11.079 nineteen thirty seven, though it was still an impressive structure, 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:14.959 it had long been abandoned and was home then only 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:18.640 to the many hundreds of bats that nested there, though 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:21.880 some believed it was also home to things a little 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:26.800 less earthly. The man who ordered its construction was said 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:30.880 to be cruel and obsessed with achieving immortality, and he 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:35.200 employed all manner of our chemical practices to achieve his aims. 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:40.200 No sooner had the tower been constructed, rumors began to 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:43.920 emerge that it had been taken over by fox spirits, 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:49.199 which gave rise to its name. Fox spirits are shape 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:54.120 shifting mythological beings said to typically disguise themselves as beautiful 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:58.640 women to ensnare unsuspecting men, though it is said they 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:01.760 also have the power to possessed them, causing them to 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:07.280 go mad. Even in nineteen thirty seven, locals knew to 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:11.040 stay away from the Fox Tower. More recently due to 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:14.200 the belief that the area was also haunted by a 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:19.200 man who committed suicide the year before, the morning after 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:22.720 Pamela disappeared, A thick mist swelled at the base of 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:27.320 the tower. Over the frosty ground. Amorphous shapes seemed to 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:31.760 flitter in and out of it, long loping, four limbed bodies, 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:36.600 maybe foxes, maybe wild dogs, it was hard to tell. 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:42.680 Through it all came a long, eerie howl. Two rickshaw 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:46.760 pullers appeared through the mist, when their attention was caught 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:51.160 suddenly by a pack of feral dogs sniffing about a strange, 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:54.000 lump and gray thing at the base of the tower. 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:57.800 Every so often, they dug their teeth into it and 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:01.680 wrenched a bit of it away. The sweet trill of 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:05.600 a bird pierced the air, followed moments later by the 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:08.840 appearance of an elderly man holding a song bird in 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:12.360 a cage, which he was taking for a walk. He 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:15.400 too was distracted by the sight of the dogs milling 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:19.920 about the strange, lumpen thing. With his curiosity getting the 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:22.480 better of him, he settled the cage by the side 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.880 of the road and carefully lowered himself into the frozen 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:30.080 ditch for a closer look. After shewing the dogs away, 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:33.120 he drew near to the shape until his brain was 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:37.000 finally able to calibrate what it was. To recognize the 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:41.560 twisted limbs as arms and legs, their appendages as hands 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:45.120 and feet, and the thickly matted material at the top 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:48.440 of it all as hair. But where there should have 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:52.200 been a face, he saw only a ragged gray void. 0:15:53.280 --> 0:16:03.360 He reeled back in horror, leaving the rickshaw men to 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:05.920 cover the body with a bamboo mat and keep the 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:09.560 feral dogs and onlookers away. The man with the songbird 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:13.360 hurried to the nearest police box to report his grisly find. 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:19.800 Officers from the Beijing Police arrived soon after. Inspector Hang 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:24.120 shir Chung stepped forward to inspect the corpse. From what 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:27.600 little he could discern from the partially clothed body, he 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:32.760 concluded it was a young white woman, probably European. He 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:36.560 looked up at the Fox Tower looming over him. Had 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:41.800 she jumped from there, he wondered. Many formerly wealthy Russians 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:45.040 from the now Soviet Union had fled to Beijing in 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:49.080 the wake of the Bolshevik uprising. Unable to reconcile their 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:53.320 new found destitution with the luxuries of their past, some 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:57.240 chose to end their lives that would at least explain 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.440 the horrific injuries and the crumpled manner of the body, 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:04.719 he thought, But then he took a closer look. Almost 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:08.480 hidden within the extensive bruising that covered the body were 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:13.800 quite clearly multiple stab wounds. Some were especially large, though 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:16.840 oddly there were no big stains or any other sign 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:19.600 of the blood that should have flowed out of them. 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:23.280 He noticed then that the arm was virtually hanging off, 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:27.000 and a particularly deep incision had been made across the 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:32.520 woman's neck. That the face was almost entirely missing, he reasoned, 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:35.800 was probably due to wild dogs who may well have 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:38.679 been picking at the corpse ever since it appeared in 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:44.200 the area. This then, was no suicide, and as it happened, 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:49.120 the victim was no destitute immigrant, not at least judging 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:52.719 by the expensive platinum jewelry that still adorned her body 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:56.920 and the platinum and diamond wrist watch that lay close by. 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:01.560 So not a robbery gone awry either. There was something 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:06.879 else too, a cart lying in the frosty dirt. Inspector 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:10.040 hand bent down to pick it up. It appeared to 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:13.639 be a membership card for an ice rink, splattered with blood. 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:18.399 It was about this time that Edward Werner, who had 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:21.639 since resumed the search for his daughter happened to be 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:24.879 passing the Fox Tower when he saw the small crowd 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:27.960 of people gathered at the base of it. He drew 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:31.080 closer until he was just about able to make out 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:34.040 the grim scene at the center of it all and 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:40.720 what was quite clearly a badly battered dead body. No, please, no, 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:44.720 he muttered to himself as he continued forward toward it. 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:48.479 Then he caught a glimpse of the body's clothing, and 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:53.240 his legs went weak. Werner recognized it immediately as his 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:59.280 daughter's No, no, no, he repeated as he hurried ever closer, 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:02.960 the tears welling up in his eyes as the officers 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:07.320 tried to hold him back, until finally he saw it all. 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:21.600 Oh God, Pamela, he cried. Then everything went black. Edward 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:25.320 Werner fainted at the sight of his daughter's body. Such 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:29.120 was the brutality with which he had been quite evidently murdered. 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:34.720 He was eventually dragged away and carried back home. Later 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:38.560 that evening, the nineteen year old Pamela Werner's body was 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:42.200 taken to the Peaking Union Medical College to be autopsied. 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:45.320 It was not an easy time to carry out a 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:49.640 murder investigation among the general chaos of the city, crowded 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:53.640 as it was with so many war refugees, most mornings 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:57.960 authorities would find themselves collecting several bodies from the streets, 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:02.680 Although most had died by suicide or natural causes. This 0:20:02.920 --> 0:20:07.440 was significantly different, with the victim being a foreign national. 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:11.159 Detective hand brought it immediately to the attention of the 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:16.280 Legation Quarters. British Police Commissioner William Thomas both knew that 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:21.040 the ensuing investigation would not be a mere formality. It 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:24.800 had been an especially brutal attack, and while Pamela's body 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:29.000 was found on land under Chinese jurisdiction, there was every 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:32.240 reason to suspect, not least of all because of the 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:35.040 lack of blood at the scene, that the murder had 0:20:35.080 --> 0:20:38.800 not been committed. There s just whose jurisdiction it fell 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:43.199 under was not entirely clear. Not only that, with it 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:47.440 occurring close to the Legation Quarter, which Pamela regularly frequented, 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:50.920 did likely need to interview others who spent time there. 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:54.840 Only the Beijing Police had no authority in that region, 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:59.480 and in any case, many of its residents and diplomatic immunity. 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:03.040 Then there was the social standing of the Wernets, which 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:07.960 would most certainly attract press attention. In short, it was 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:12.400 a complicated and delicate case, so in a very unusual move, 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:16.639 Commissioner William Thomas agreed to a joint investigation with the 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:19.920 Beijing Police, in which they would work together to find 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:25.240 the perpetrator. Detective Chief Inspector Richard Dennis, a former veteran 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:28.080 from Scotland Yard who was now the chief of police 0:21:28.119 --> 0:21:31.480 for the British in the city of Tienjin, was selected 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:36.879 to lead the investigation alongside Inspector Hahn. The Beijing Police 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:40.080 agreed to this because Inspector Dennis was not under the 0:21:40.119 --> 0:21:43.440 authority of the British Diplomatic Service, and so it was 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:47.119 hoped his findings could not be influenced by them. For 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:51.080 the most part, Inspector Hahn was glad to have Dennis's assistance, 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:54.120 not least of all because of the access it afforded 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:57.320 him with the expat community, But it would be a 0:21:57.359 --> 0:21:59.960 few days yet before he could join him in Beijing, 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:04.520 so in the meantime, Inspector Hahn began by reviewing the 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:18.080 evidence from the scene where Pamela was found. Pamela's skirt 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:21.920 was loosened around her body. Her silk stockings had been 0:22:21.960 --> 0:22:27.440 torn and her underwear was missing, although her overcoat, scarf, 0:22:27.480 --> 0:22:30.320 and shoes were still with the body when it was discovered. 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:34.199 As mentioned before, there wasn't much blood on them or 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:38.000 at the scene at all. Pamela's watch that was located 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:41.640 near the body was found to have stopped shortly after midnight, 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:45.680 suggesting this as a possible time of death. And while 0:22:45.720 --> 0:22:49.200 her skating rink membership cart was discovered at the scene, 0:22:49.400 --> 0:22:53.479 her bicycle and skates were nowhere to be found. And 0:22:53.520 --> 0:22:58.360 then there was the autopsy. Pamela had received several blows 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:01.960 to the head, strong enough to fracture her skull, possibly 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:06.359 inflicted with a smooth wooden or stone implement. The pathologists 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:11.080 surmised to inflict such direct blows, the assailant would have 0:23:11.119 --> 0:23:14.680 been very close to the victim, suggesting that Pamela may 0:23:14.720 --> 0:23:18.680 well have been killed by someone she knew. But there 0:23:18.680 --> 0:23:22.800 were many other wounds, more blunt forced trauma to her 0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:26.320 right arm, along with numerous stab and slash wounds in 0:23:26.480 --> 0:23:31.639 multiple locations which went clean through muscle, likely inflicted with 0:23:31.720 --> 0:23:35.760 a two edged blade at least four inches long, possibly 0:23:35.840 --> 0:23:40.800 post mortem even more horrifically. When the coroner inspected her 0:23:40.840 --> 0:23:44.360 sexual organs, he found that a sharp implement had been 0:23:44.480 --> 0:23:48.960 used repeatedly to penetrate the young woman's vagina, so much 0:23:49.040 --> 0:23:51.640 so that it was impossible to tell if she'd been 0:23:51.720 --> 0:23:56.119 sexually assaulted, either before or after she was killed. And 0:23:56.160 --> 0:23:59.760 there was more. The coroner couldn't help but notice how 0:23:59.800 --> 0:24:03.760 some of the larger stab wounds actually looked more like incisions. 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:08.679 When he opened the body up, he discovered why most 0:24:08.680 --> 0:24:14.119 of Pamela's internal organs had been removed. Her bladder, liver, 0:24:14.240 --> 0:24:18.119 and kidneys were all gone, and so too was her heart. 0:24:18.960 --> 0:24:22.840 The ribs surrounding it had even been broken specifically to 0:24:22.920 --> 0:24:27.040 take it out, judging by the extensive neck wound and 0:24:27.080 --> 0:24:30.879 the partially severed arm. The coroner also concluded that it 0:24:30.920 --> 0:24:35.040 was likely the perpetrator had attempted to dismember Pamela's corpse, 0:24:35.400 --> 0:24:38.160 but for whatever reason, had been forced to give up 0:24:38.320 --> 0:24:41.160 and leave the body as it was, perhaps having been 0:24:41.200 --> 0:24:45.080 spooped off by a passer by. As for the lack 0:24:45.119 --> 0:24:48.600 of blood, it seemed that the body had been deliberately 0:24:48.640 --> 0:24:54.360 exanguinated shortly after death. The watch suggested that Pamela had 0:24:54.359 --> 0:24:57.640 been alive for several hours after leaving the ice rink, 0:24:58.240 --> 0:25:02.159 placing her time of death somewhere between ten pm and 0:25:02.280 --> 0:25:06.960 two am. One of the few internal organs remaining was 0:25:07.000 --> 0:25:11.440 the stomach, which contains some partially digested meat and rice. 0:25:13.040 --> 0:25:15.359 Since Pamela was only known to have eaten a little 0:25:15.400 --> 0:25:18.240 bread and cake before she left the ice drink to 0:25:18.280 --> 0:25:21.720 make the fifteen minute journey back home, it begged the 0:25:21.800 --> 0:25:26.640 question when had she eaten this? Was it possible that 0:25:26.720 --> 0:25:30.040 Pamela hadn't in fact left to go home, but to 0:25:30.119 --> 0:25:40.879 do something else since stead to many, the murder of 0:25:40.920 --> 0:25:44.520 Pamela Werner was reminiscent of the crimes committed by so 0:25:44.640 --> 0:25:49.399 called Jack the Ripper some fifty years previously. According to 0:25:49.400 --> 0:25:53.040 a guynecologist who was also present at the autopsy, although 0:25:53.080 --> 0:25:56.600 Pamela's killing appeared to be sexually motivated, it was not 0:25:56.680 --> 0:26:00.600 the work of what might be termed an ordinary sexual sadest, 0:26:01.200 --> 0:26:06.320 but something far more unusual. When Chief Inspector Richard Dennis 0:26:06.520 --> 0:26:10.800 arrived in Beijing to join Inspector Han, the unlikely duo 0:26:11.119 --> 0:26:15.280 began their investigation by retracing Pamela's steps on the day 0:26:15.320 --> 0:26:19.640 that she died. From this, they quickly gleaned one vital 0:26:19.800 --> 0:26:23.280 new piece of information. It was something that had come 0:26:23.359 --> 0:26:27.320 up in speaking with Pamela's friend Ethel Garyevitch, one of 0:26:27.359 --> 0:26:31.280 the last known people to have seen Pamela alive. When 0:26:31.280 --> 0:26:34.040 the pair had met at the Wagons Lits Hotel the 0:26:34.119 --> 0:26:37.920 day she disappeared, Pamela let slip that she'd already been 0:26:37.960 --> 0:26:42.560 there that afternoon. Chasing up the lead, hann and Dennis 0:26:42.640 --> 0:26:46.280 discovered that she'd spoken to the concierge there about renting 0:26:46.320 --> 0:26:50.000 a room. The men couldn't help but wonder if she 0:26:50.080 --> 0:26:55.040 was planning to meet an unknown romantic acquaintance there. Either way, 0:26:55.440 --> 0:26:59.720 the revelation hinted at the possibility of Pamela having something 0:26:59.760 --> 0:27:03.480 of a secret life, or at least one she wanted 0:27:03.520 --> 0:27:07.719 to keep hidden from her father. The two detectives combed 0:27:07.720 --> 0:27:11.560 through Pamela's diary, but couldn't find anything significant to expand 0:27:11.600 --> 0:27:15.240 on the theory. At a press conference a few days later, 0:27:15.640 --> 0:27:18.480 the pair admitted that they'd yet to find even a 0:27:18.560 --> 0:27:23.240 single solid lead. In the absence of a possible suspect, 0:27:23.600 --> 0:27:28.399 public speculation began to intensify. Some wondered if perhaps the 0:27:28.480 --> 0:27:32.120 evil spirits that reside in the foxtower might have been 0:27:32.160 --> 0:27:35.320 to blame, but there was something else that had caught 0:27:35.359 --> 0:27:39.399 the public's attention. Pamela's body had been found on the 0:27:39.560 --> 0:27:42.880 edge of an especially shady part of town known as 0:27:42.920 --> 0:27:47.159 the bad Lands, a maze of narrow hutong streets packed 0:27:47.160 --> 0:27:51.919 with opium dens, brothels and gambling houses, where the city's 0:27:52.000 --> 0:27:56.080 underworld did its business openly and the lights burned a 0:27:56.119 --> 0:27:59.639 little lower. It sat just outside the walls of the 0:27:59.680 --> 0:28:02.879 Legate Quarter, close enough that it was well known to 0:28:02.960 --> 0:28:06.639