1
00:00:11,080 --> 00:00:14,560
Speaker 1: Welcome to part two of Whispers in the Trees, where

2
00:00:14,560 --> 00:00:17,520
Speaker 1: we return to the midlands of England in the winter

3
00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:23,960
Speaker 1: of nineteen forty three. You're listening to Unexplained and I'm

4
00:00:24,079 --> 00:00:38,360
Speaker 1: Richard McClain Smith. As Christmas approached, at last, the authorities

5
00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:41,720
Speaker 1: had something to work with. A name, or at least

6
00:00:41,840 --> 00:00:45,879
Speaker 1: the derivation of a name. Now the police began to

7
00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:48,919
Speaker 1: focus their efforts on women with versions of the name

8
00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:52,159
Speaker 1: Bella who may have gone missing around the autumn of

9
00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:57,640
Speaker 1: nineteen forty one. One woman was of particular interest, whose name,

10
00:00:57,800 --> 00:01:01,240
Speaker 1: Bella Lua, bore a striking syl malarity to the name

11
00:01:01,400 --> 00:01:04,800
Speaker 1: Lua Bella, as depicted in the earliest of the graffiti

12
00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:09,839
Speaker 1: linked to the case. Bella Lua's friends had become concerned

13
00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:12,800
Speaker 1: when they lost all contact with her after she moved

14
00:01:12,880 --> 00:01:18,040
Speaker 1: to Birmingham from Stamford Hill in London. Although Luis whereabouts

15
00:01:18,160 --> 00:01:22,280
Speaker 1: were never officially established, she was eventually deemed irrelevant to

16
00:01:22,319 --> 00:01:25,840
Speaker 1: the case. As for all the other missing Bellers that

17
00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:28,959
Speaker 1: the police looked into, they were found alive and well

18
00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:35,520
Speaker 1: before long. The investigation hit a brick wall in defense

19
00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:39,720
Speaker 1: of the Worcestershire Constabulary nineteen forty one was a difficult

20
00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:43,160
Speaker 1: time to be keeping track of British citizens, and with

21
00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:46,000
Speaker 1: resources stretched to the limit. It is much to the

22
00:01:46,040 --> 00:01:49,480
Speaker 1: credit of the force that such an extensive investigation was

23
00:01:49,520 --> 00:01:54,040
Speaker 1: conducted at all. As the months passed and war eventually

24
00:01:54,080 --> 00:01:56,760
Speaker 1: came to an end, the public interest in the case

25
00:01:57,080 --> 00:02:01,440
Speaker 1: soon diminished by the summer of nineteen forty five, with

26
00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:04,960
Speaker 1: the nation celebrating an end to hostilities while mourning their

27
00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:08,680
Speaker 1: countless other dead. The Tree murder riddle was fated to

28
00:02:08,760 --> 00:02:14,600
Speaker 1: remain unsolved and forgotten, but someone was about to make

29
00:02:14,639 --> 00:02:18,119
Speaker 1: a startling claim concerning a vital piece of the evidence

30
00:02:18,320 --> 00:02:23,119
Speaker 1: that they believed had been criminally overlooked, the severed right

31
00:02:23,200 --> 00:02:33,840
Speaker 1: hand back. In eighteen ninety eight, at the age of

32
00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:37,440
Speaker 1: thirty five, doctor Margaret Murray was making a name for

33
00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:41,720
Speaker 1: herself in the field of egyptology. She had just become

34
00:02:41,760 --> 00:02:45,760
Speaker 1: the first female lecturer in archeology in the United Kingdom,

35
00:02:45,800 --> 00:02:50,519
Speaker 1: having accepted a post at University College London. She would

36
00:02:50,560 --> 00:02:53,799
Speaker 1: continue to work and teach at the university until her

37
00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:57,360
Speaker 1: retirement in nineteen thirty five at the age of seventy two.

38
00:02:58,960 --> 00:03:03,640
Speaker 1: Although formally an anthropologist and historian, Murray was perhaps best

39
00:03:03,680 --> 00:03:08,119
Speaker 1: known for her highly controversial views regarding the history of witches.

40
00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:13,680
Speaker 1: Her primary theory became known as the witch cult hypothesis.

41
00:03:14,919 --> 00:03:18,440
Speaker 1: The theory suggests that, rather than being the hapless victims

42
00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:24,160
Speaker 1: of vile and arbitrary witch hunts, witches persecuted throughout European history,

43
00:03:24,480 --> 00:03:28,880
Speaker 1: where in fact followers of a definite religion with beliefs, rituals,

44
00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:32,519
Speaker 1: and organization as highly developed as that of any cult.

45
00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:36,720
Speaker 1: What drew her attention to the Haglewood case was the

46
00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:40,720
Speaker 1: curious revelation that the right hand had been found separated

47
00:03:40,800 --> 00:03:43,760
Speaker 1: from the rest of the skeleton and buried in the ground.

48
00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:47,840
Speaker 1: The police merely assumed it to be the work of

49
00:03:47,880 --> 00:03:52,760
Speaker 1: an industrious forest animal. To doctor Murray, however, it suggested

50
00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:57,760
Speaker 1: something far more sinister. She believed that, instead of being

51
00:03:57,800 --> 00:04:01,600
Speaker 1: a gruesome but incidental off cut, the hand had in

52
00:04:01,640 --> 00:04:05,200
Speaker 1: fact been removed and placed in the ground deliberately as

53
00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:09,920
Speaker 1: part of an elaborate occult ritual. Doctor Murray suggested that

54
00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:12,440
Speaker 1: the severed hand may have been used to create a

55
00:04:12,480 --> 00:04:17,279
Speaker 1: magic artifact known as a hand of glory. Traditionally, such

56
00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:20,039
Speaker 1: totems were made by removing the right hand of a

57
00:04:20,080 --> 00:04:23,760
Speaker 1: convicted criminal, followed by the casting of a spell to

58
00:04:23,800 --> 00:04:29,279
Speaker 1: invest the separated extremity with magical power. A bizarre suggestion,

59
00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:32,960
Speaker 1: you might think, but not so, she believed if the

60
00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:37,080
Speaker 1: victim had been considered to be a witch. The theory

61
00:04:37,279 --> 00:04:39,960
Speaker 1: was given more weight by the location of the body.

62
00:04:40,800 --> 00:04:44,560
Speaker 1: As outlined in James George Fraser's ground breaking book The

63
00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:48,039
Speaker 1: Golden Bough, there is a rich tradition in Celtic and

64
00:04:48,120 --> 00:04:52,480
Speaker 1: Pagan beliefs of investing trees with spirits and sometimes souls

65
00:04:52,560 --> 00:04:56,640
Speaker 1: of their own. In addition, there are some who believe

66
00:04:56,680 --> 00:05:01,520
Speaker 1: that certain trees have the power to bind magic. There

67
00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:04,120
Speaker 1: are some who believe Hagley Wood to have long been

68
00:05:04,160 --> 00:05:07,440
Speaker 1: a traditional meeting place for coverns of witches, and it

69
00:05:07,520 --> 00:05:10,159
Speaker 1: certainly wouldn't have been the first time that an occult

70
00:05:10,279 --> 00:05:13,880
Speaker 1: ritual had been conducted in England. During the Second World War,

71
00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:19,760
Speaker 1: in August nineteen forty, Gerald Gardner, a well known follower

72
00:05:19,800 --> 00:05:22,839
Speaker 1: of pagan witchcraft, along with the number of other members

73
00:05:22,920 --> 00:05:26,640
Speaker 1: of the New Forest Covern, performed a magic ritual that

74
00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:31,479
Speaker 1: became known as Operation Cone of Power. It was hoped

75
00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:34,520
Speaker 1: that the operation would ultimately dissuade the High Command of

76
00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:40,200
Speaker 1: Nazi Germany from invading the United Kingdom. It is also

77
00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:43,880
Speaker 1: important to note that doctor Murray's theory wasn't based on

78
00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:47,320
Speaker 1: any personal belief in the magic of witchcraft, but rather

79
00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:51,960
Speaker 1: the notion that such practices did occur. Whether or not

80
00:05:52,120 --> 00:05:55,599
Speaker 1: a hand of glory had any discernible power, it remains

81
00:05:55,839 --> 00:05:58,719
Speaker 1: that somebody willing to believe in such things may have

82
00:05:58,839 --> 00:06:02,599
Speaker 1: enacted some formal ritual in the murder of the unknown woman.

83
00:06:04,640 --> 00:06:08,160
Speaker 1: In any case, despite influencing a number of well known

84
00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:12,960
Speaker 1: authors such as Aldus Huxley and Robert Graves, Murray's Haglewood

85
00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:17,080
Speaker 1: theory and her witch cult hypothesis have been roundly discredited,

86
00:06:17,320 --> 00:06:20,480
Speaker 1: and in reality, there is little to support her claim

87
00:06:20,640 --> 00:06:23,560
Speaker 1: that the victim had been subject to a ritualistic killing.

88
00:06:25,400 --> 00:06:28,479
Speaker 1: What Murray's theory did do, however, was to enact a

89
00:06:28,560 --> 00:06:32,320
Speaker 1: sort of magic of its own. Such spells tend to

90
00:06:32,320 --> 00:06:36,280
Speaker 1: be most potent during times of uncertainty, when a scapegoat

91
00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:39,440
Speaker 1: is required to make sense of the ills of the world.

92
00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:43,359
Speaker 1: Perhaps it was only ever going to be a matter

93
00:06:43,360 --> 00:06:46,760
Speaker 1: of time, but soon a bogey man would be brought

94
00:06:46,800 --> 00:06:50,839
Speaker 1: forth from the fog of truth. With all the talk

95
00:06:50,880 --> 00:06:54,680
Speaker 1: of ritual murder and black magic fueled by a press,

96
00:06:54,680 --> 00:06:57,320
Speaker 1: ever ready to fan the flames of a salacious story.

97
00:06:57,920 --> 00:07:02,760
Speaker 1: Many became convinced that local travelers were to blame. The

98
00:07:02,880 --> 00:07:07,520
Speaker 1: rumor would persist for ten years, but all that was

99
00:07:07,560 --> 00:07:20,920
Speaker 1: about to change. In nineteen fifty three, a journalist at

100
00:07:20,920 --> 00:07:24,840
Speaker 1: the Wolverhampton Express and Star, writing under the name Quester,

101
00:07:25,480 --> 00:07:30,240
Speaker 1: decided to reassess the evidence. His real name was Wilfred

102
00:07:30,280 --> 00:07:35,600
Speaker 1: Bifford Jones. Bifford Jones, who had never been convinced by

103
00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:39,680
Speaker 1: the reductive traveler theory, revisited the case in a series

104
00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:44,040
Speaker 1: of articles appearing in late November of nineteen fifty three.

105
00:07:44,080 --> 00:07:47,440
Speaker 1: Concluding the series, in a third and final article, published

106
00:07:47,440 --> 00:07:52,840
Speaker 1: on Friday, November twentieth, Bifford Jones notes whether the young

107
00:07:52,880 --> 00:07:55,360
Speaker 1: woman is supposed to have been a gypsy who was

108
00:07:55,480 --> 00:08:00,560
Speaker 1: ritualistically murdered with witchcraft or after a trial by her tribe, well,

109
00:08:01,200 --> 00:08:04,560
Speaker 1: I do not accept it. It is true that there

110
00:08:04,560 --> 00:08:07,640
Speaker 1: had been gypsies for years in the area, but every

111
00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:11,600
Speaker 1: crime is laid at the door of Romanes. For Bifford Jones,

112
00:08:12,080 --> 00:08:15,520
Speaker 1: the suggestions of witchcraft had been a gross and fanciful

113
00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:19,320
Speaker 1: obscuring of the facts. It was a gallant and single

114
00:08:19,400 --> 00:08:22,800
Speaker 1: minded campaign that fought to wrestle the case back from

115
00:08:22,840 --> 00:08:28,120
Speaker 1: acceptable fiction to more unsettling fact. But nobody could have

116
00:08:28,160 --> 00:08:32,280
Speaker 1: anticipated what came next when a few days later a

117
00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:38,360
Speaker 1: strange letter landed on Bifford Jones's desk. It was postmarked Cleverly,

118
00:08:38,679 --> 00:08:44,880
Speaker 1: Wolverhampton and dated eighteenth of November nineteen fifty three. It read,

119
00:08:45,640 --> 00:08:49,920
Speaker 1: my dear quester, finish your articles regarding the witch Elm crime.

120
00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:54,000
Speaker 1: By all means, they are interesting to your readers, but

121
00:08:54,120 --> 00:08:57,319
Speaker 1: you will never solve the mystery. The one person who

122
00:08:57,360 --> 00:09:01,120
Speaker 1: could give the answer is now beyond the jurisdiction of

123
00:09:01,200 --> 00:09:06,120
Speaker 1: earthly courts. The affair is closed and evolves no witches,

124
00:09:06,559 --> 00:09:11,440
Speaker 1: black magic or moonlight rites. Much as I hate having

125
00:09:11,480 --> 00:09:13,920
Speaker 1: to use a nom de plume, I think you would

126
00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:17,080
Speaker 1: appreciate it if you knew me. The only clues I

127
00:09:17,120 --> 00:09:19,760
Speaker 1: can give you are that the person responsible for the

128
00:09:19,800 --> 00:09:24,040
Speaker 1: crime died insane in nineteen forty two, and the victim

129
00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:28,800
Speaker 1: was Dutch and arrived in England illegally about nineteen forty one.

130
00:09:29,720 --> 00:09:36,800
Speaker 1: I have no wish to recall anymore, Yours, sincerely, Anna.

131
00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:39,600
Speaker 1: It is not uncommon for people to claim knowledge of

132
00:09:39,640 --> 00:09:43,040
Speaker 1: crimes they have no connection to but something of Anna's

133
00:09:43,120 --> 00:09:47,360
Speaker 1: letter rang true to Bifford Jones. After a series of

134
00:09:47,400 --> 00:09:50,800
Speaker 1: pleas for Anna to come forward and reveal herself a

135
00:09:50,840 --> 00:09:56,520
Speaker 1: few days later, against all expectation, she did, and so

136
00:09:56,679 --> 00:09:59,520
Speaker 1: it was on one cold morning at the local police

137
00:09:59,559 --> 00:10:03,240
Speaker 1: station that Anna proceeded to reveal everything that she knew.

138
00:10:04,600 --> 00:10:08,760
Speaker 1: Her name was Una Hainsworth, and this was her story.

139
00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:19,240
Speaker 1: Sometime in the early thirties, Una had met and fallen

140
00:10:19,280 --> 00:10:22,560
Speaker 1: in love with a dashing young man called Jack Mossup.

141
00:10:23,600 --> 00:10:26,480
Speaker 1: Not long after, the young lovers would be married and

142
00:10:26,600 --> 00:10:31,120
Speaker 1: expecting their first child. Sure Enough, in nineteen thirty two,

143
00:10:31,320 --> 00:10:34,600
Speaker 1: with the couple still in their teens, a son, Julian,

144
00:10:34,880 --> 00:10:38,800
Speaker 1: was born as the country slowly clawed its way back

145
00:10:39,040 --> 00:10:43,000
Speaker 1: from a decade of economic stagnation. Here encapsulated in the

146
00:10:43,080 --> 00:10:46,280
Speaker 1: face of their newborn baby was a renewed sense of

147
00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:51,120
Speaker 1: hope for the future. But that hope would be short lived,

148
00:10:51,800 --> 00:10:54,600
Speaker 1: for there was a shadow looming over the young family,

149
00:10:55,160 --> 00:10:58,040
Speaker 1: a shadow that was soon to fall across most of

150
00:10:58,040 --> 00:11:03,319
Speaker 1: the world. On Sunday, September third, nineteen thirty nine, at

151
00:11:03,360 --> 00:11:07,400
Speaker 1: eleven fifteen am, families up and down the land huddled

152
00:11:07,440 --> 00:11:11,440
Speaker 1: around the wireless as Neville Chamberlain announced that the country

153
00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:15,760
Speaker 1: was at war. Less than a year later, on Friday,

154
00:11:15,800 --> 00:11:19,840
Speaker 1: August ninth, nineteen forty, the first of many bombs dropped

155
00:11:19,880 --> 00:11:23,679
Speaker 1: on the Midlands. What followed was just under two years

156
00:11:23,800 --> 00:11:28,679
Speaker 1: of sustained bombing of the heavily industrialized region. For Jack,

157
00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:33,040
Speaker 1: perhaps to his relief and shame, as a skilled factory worker,

158
00:11:33,520 --> 00:11:37,040
Speaker 1: he was exempt from the draft and was instead assigned

159
00:11:37,040 --> 00:11:41,559
Speaker 1: to work in coventry building munitions. But as the months

160
00:11:41,559 --> 00:11:45,040
Speaker 1: wore on, UNA's relief that Jack had avoided the draft

161
00:11:45,559 --> 00:11:48,880
Speaker 1: was tempered somewhat by a sudden change in his character.

162
00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:54,200
Speaker 1: He started to drink more and stay out later, often

163
00:11:54,240 --> 00:11:57,120
Speaker 1: at a new favorite haunt, a lively place on the

164
00:11:57,200 --> 00:12:00,760
Speaker 1: edge of the Clent Hills called the Littleton Arms. He

165
00:12:00,840 --> 00:12:05,120
Speaker 1: started buying new clothes, including an r F officer's jacket

166
00:12:05,320 --> 00:12:09,000
Speaker 1: to which he was not entitled. He had also started

167
00:12:09,040 --> 00:12:13,880
Speaker 1: to accrue money from an unknown source. Una was particularly

168
00:12:13,920 --> 00:12:16,480
Speaker 1: suspicious of the new crowd he seemed to be hanging

169
00:12:16,480 --> 00:12:20,680
Speaker 1: out with, a suspicion that was further aroused when one

170
00:12:20,679 --> 00:12:23,240
Speaker 1: of the crowd turned up one night at their home.

171
00:12:24,480 --> 00:12:27,480
Speaker 1: The enigmatic man who gave his name as Van Rolt,

172
00:12:28,040 --> 00:12:31,240
Speaker 1: was well dressed and claimed to be from Holland with

173
00:12:31,320 --> 00:12:36,560
Speaker 1: a seemingly endless disposable income, despite no discernible occupation to

174
00:12:36,600 --> 00:12:41,040
Speaker 1: speak of. One evening in the spring of nineteen forty one,

175
00:12:41,200 --> 00:12:46,000
Speaker 1: after yet another late night, Jack returned home drunk and agitated.

176
00:12:46,600 --> 00:12:49,400
Speaker 1: He'd been at the Littleton Arms again with Van Rolt,

177
00:12:49,640 --> 00:12:52,240
Speaker 1: where they were joined by what he described as the

178
00:12:52,360 --> 00:12:56,600
Speaker 1: Dutch piece. Jack claimed that the woman had become awkward

179
00:12:56,720 --> 00:13:00,760
Speaker 1: and later passed out, at which point Van Rot decided

180
00:13:00,800 --> 00:13:04,000
Speaker 1: to play a trick on her. After carrying the woman

181
00:13:04,040 --> 00:13:06,920
Speaker 1: to Van Rolt's car, the pair drove to a nearby

182
00:13:06,960 --> 00:13:10,200
Speaker 1: wood and dropped her unconscious body into the hollow of

183
00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:13,520
Speaker 1: a tree. They had only meant it as a joke,

184
00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:16,560
Speaker 1: he said, believing in the morning that she would come

185
00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:20,880
Speaker 1: to her senses. In the weeks that followed, it was

186
00:13:20,920 --> 00:13:24,040
Speaker 1: clear to Una that something was playing on Jack's mind,

187
00:13:25,120 --> 00:13:28,640
Speaker 1: as he retreated further into himself and his behavior became

188
00:13:28,679 --> 00:13:35,040
Speaker 1: increasingly erratic. Una eventually had enough, so she left, taking

189
00:13:35,080 --> 00:13:39,720
Speaker 1: their son with her. For Jack, now without his wife

190
00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:43,920
Speaker 1: and child to keep him company, things began to unravel drastically.

191
00:13:45,440 --> 00:13:48,680
Speaker 1: It wasn't their leaving that tortured him every night, but

192
00:13:48,920 --> 00:13:54,959
Speaker 1: rather what had crept in in their absence. Later, after

193
00:13:55,080 --> 00:13:59,560
Speaker 1: Una and Jack had divorced, Jack confided in Una. He

194
00:13:59,640 --> 00:14:02,320
Speaker 1: told her that he was being driven mad by the

195
00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:06,160
Speaker 1: recurring image of a woman's faith leering at him from

196
00:14:06,160 --> 00:14:11,000
Speaker 1: inside a tree. But it wasn't until Una heard that

197
00:14:11,040 --> 00:14:14,040
Speaker 1: a skeleton had been found in Hagley Wood that she

198
00:14:14,120 --> 00:14:19,200
Speaker 1: put the two events together. Back in the police station

199
00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:23,240
Speaker 1: all those years later, the interviewing officers are dumbfounded by

200
00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:27,520
Speaker 1: UNA's statement and immediately demand a contact address for her

201
00:14:27,560 --> 00:14:32,480
Speaker 1: ex husband, but she couldn't give them one. Jack had

202
00:14:32,520 --> 00:14:36,400
Speaker 1: been committed to a psychiatric hospital in Stafford in nineteen

203
00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:40,280
Speaker 1: forty two. A few months later, at the age of

204
00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:44,760
Speaker 1: twenty nine, he was dead, apparently driven insane by his

205
00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:49,920
Speaker 1: recurring nightmare. But what really shook things up was UNA's

206
00:14:49,920 --> 00:14:55,120
Speaker 1: parting thought on the matter, Van Rolt, she believed was

207
00:14:55,160 --> 00:15:02,280
Speaker 1: the spy. Are you always taking care of your family?

208
00:15:02,600 --> 00:15:04,960
Speaker 1: Do you often take care of others and not yourself?

209
00:15:05,560 --> 00:15:08,240
Speaker 1: Now it's time to take care of yourself, to make

210
00:15:08,280 --> 00:15:12,160
Speaker 1: time for you you deserve it. TELEDOC gives you access

211
00:15:12,200 --> 00:15:14,800
Speaker 1: to a licensed therapist to help you get back to

212
00:15:14,920 --> 00:15:19,240
Speaker 1: feeling your best, to feeling like yourself again. With teledoc,

213
00:15:19,480 --> 00:15:22,400
Speaker 1: you can speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video.

214
00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:26,160
Speaker 1: Therapy appointments are available seven days a week from seven

215
00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:30,000
Speaker 1: am to nine pm local time. If you feel overwhelmed

216
00:15:30,040 --> 00:15:34,640
Speaker 1: sometimes maybe you feel stressed or anxious, depressed or lonely,

217
00:15:35,160 --> 00:15:37,960
Speaker 1: or you might be struggling with a personal or family issue,

218
00:15:38,360 --> 00:15:43,680
Speaker 1: teledoc can help. Teledoc is committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches,

219
00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:46,520
Speaker 1: so they make it easy to change counselors if needed.

220
00:15:46,760 --> 00:15:51,640
Speaker 1: For free. Teledoc therapy is available through most insurance or employers.

221
00:15:52,400 --> 00:15:55,920
Speaker 1: Download the app, or visit teledoc dot com forward slash

222
00:15:56,000 --> 00:16:01,480
Speaker 1: Unexplained podcast today to get started. That's t e ladoc

223
00:16:01,880 --> 00:16:13,200
Speaker 1: dot com slash Unexplained Podcast. There is no firm evidence

224
00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:16,360
Speaker 1: to suggest that Jack Mossup had found himself embroiled in

225
00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:20,960
Speaker 1: a spy ring, So what to make of UNA's story. Certainly,

226
00:16:21,480 --> 00:16:24,480
Speaker 1: much of it is true. She did indeed have an

227
00:16:24,480 --> 00:16:27,680
Speaker 1: ex husband called Jack Mossup, who had been a regular

228
00:16:27,760 --> 00:16:31,480
Speaker 1: visitor to the Littleton Arms. It is also true that

229
00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:34,560
Speaker 1: he would later die in a psychiatric hospital in nineteen

230
00:16:34,640 --> 00:16:38,960
Speaker 1: forty two, police also had some luck in tracing the

231
00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:42,880
Speaker 1: mysterious Van Rolt figure, but nothing untoward could be found.

232
00:16:44,160 --> 00:16:47,200
Speaker 1: It could be said that much of UNA's story begins

233
00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:51,760
Speaker 1: to make more sense if her spy theory is applied. Certainly,

234
00:16:52,240 --> 00:16:55,600
Speaker 1: in his capacity as a munitions worker in Birmingham, Jack

235
00:16:55,640 --> 00:16:58,800
Speaker 1: would have been uniquely placed to pass off useful information

236
00:16:58,920 --> 00:17:03,720
Speaker 1: to the German Air Force. Although UNA's spy theory was

237
00:17:03,760 --> 00:17:07,560
Speaker 1: never officially confirmed, it was a theme keenly picked up

238
00:17:07,760 --> 00:17:13,560
Speaker 1: fifteen years later by writer Donald McCormick. In nineteen sixty eight,

239
00:17:14,160 --> 00:17:17,639
Speaker 1: McCormick is alleged to have conducted a series of interviews

240
00:17:17,800 --> 00:17:22,520
Speaker 1: with a former Nazi called Franz Rathgeb. It turned out

241
00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:25,480
Speaker 1: that a number of spies had been active around the

242
00:17:25,520 --> 00:17:29,440
Speaker 1: Midlands after all, at precisely the time that the unknown

243
00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:34,040
Speaker 1: woman would have gone missing. One of those spies was Rathgeb.

244
00:17:35,800 --> 00:17:38,520
Speaker 1: Although he claimed not to know anything of the murdered woman,

245
00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:41,320
Speaker 1: he did recall a fellow spy by the name of

246
00:17:41,400 --> 00:17:47,000
Speaker 1: Lera who had a Dutch girlfriend called Drunker's Clara Bella Drunkers,

247
00:17:47,680 --> 00:17:52,880
Speaker 1: who was herself a spy living in the Birmingham region. Intriguingly,

248
00:17:53,400 --> 00:17:55,359
Speaker 1: She would have been around thirty years old at the

249
00:17:55,400 --> 00:17:58,600
Speaker 1: time of the murder and had a regular front teeth

250
00:17:58,920 --> 00:18:02,679
Speaker 1: similar to those note on the skeleton. Could it be

251
00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:06,080
Speaker 1: that the fruitless search of dental records all those years

252
00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:10,399
Speaker 1: ago hadn't failed because of an administrative error, but merely

253
00:18:10,400 --> 00:18:13,240
Speaker 1: because the woman had not actually been from the UK.

254
00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:18,920
Speaker 1: McCormick further alleged that he later came across some interesting

255
00:18:18,920 --> 00:18:24,840
Speaker 1: information in declassified papers from German military intelligence. The papers

256
00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:28,600
Speaker 1: suggested that a spy had been parachuted into the Midlands

257
00:18:28,680 --> 00:18:31,560
Speaker 1: in nineteen forty one, but had then failed to make

258
00:18:31,600 --> 00:18:35,560
Speaker 1: contact with their handlers. The name listed for the spy

259
00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:44,800
Speaker 1: was Clarabella. Needless to say, this theory, too, remains unconfirmed. However,

260
00:18:45,440 --> 00:18:48,960
Speaker 1: on the eighteenth of May nineteen forty two, the British

261
00:18:49,040 --> 00:18:52,560
Speaker 1: Navy intercepted an unregistered boat just off the coast of

262
00:18:52,600 --> 00:18:57,360
Speaker 1: the UK. In it were three Dutch nationals who were

263
00:18:57,400 --> 00:19:02,199
Speaker 1: promptly interrogated after routine questioning. Two of the men were

264
00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:05,679
Speaker 1: deemed rational and of little threat. The third, on the

265
00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:08,760
Speaker 1: other hand, became hysterical at the first sight of the

266
00:19:08,760 --> 00:19:13,800
Speaker 1: British officers. He was immediately arrested and later convicted under

267
00:19:13,840 --> 00:19:17,639
Speaker 1: the nineteen forty Treachery Act on suspicion of being a spy.

268
00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:24,960
Speaker 1: His name was Johannes Mariners Drunkers. Was this the man

269
00:19:25,119 --> 00:19:28,679
Speaker 1: Franz rathgeb knew as lera come in search of his

270
00:19:28,720 --> 00:19:33,920
Speaker 1: missing wife? Sadly we will never know. On New Year's

271
00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:38,520
Speaker 1: Eve of nineteen forty two, Johannes Drunkers was executed in

272
00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:52,880
Speaker 1: Wan'sworth Prison in London. Towards the end of the twentieth century,

273
00:19:53,320 --> 00:19:57,280
Speaker 1: a number of British wartime files were declassified, with one

274
00:19:57,359 --> 00:20:02,280
Speaker 1: proving of particular interest to our case. On the evening

275
00:20:02,359 --> 00:20:06,240
Speaker 1: of January the thirty first, nineteen forty one, just above

276
00:20:06,280 --> 00:20:09,199
Speaker 1: the town of Ramsey in Cambridgeshire, high up in the

277
00:20:09,280 --> 00:20:12,800
Speaker 1: night sky, a man was silently drifting down to earth.

278
00:20:14,160 --> 00:20:16,760
Speaker 1: No one saw the black spot as it fell hard

279
00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:19,920
Speaker 1: and fast, landing with a bump in a field next

280
00:20:19,920 --> 00:20:25,200
Speaker 1: to Dove House Farm. Two men, Charles Bulldock and Harry Coulson,

281
00:20:25,640 --> 00:20:28,640
Speaker 1: had been walking by the area shortly after when they

282
00:20:28,680 --> 00:20:31,800
Speaker 1: heard the sound of a revolver being fired into the air.

283
00:20:33,880 --> 00:20:37,440
Speaker 1: Locating the source of the gunshots, Bulldock and Coulson were

284
00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:39,879
Speaker 1: astonished to find a man lying on his back in

285
00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:44,040
Speaker 1: a field surrounded by the silken canopy of a parachute.

286
00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:48,000
Speaker 1: The man, who was in some distress, had clearly broken

287
00:20:48,040 --> 00:20:52,679
Speaker 1: his leg. Coulson ran immediately to fetch James Godfrey, a

288
00:20:52,800 --> 00:20:56,159
Speaker 1: member of the Home Guard, who in turn telephoned Ramsey

289
00:20:56,160 --> 00:20:59,560
Speaker 1: Police Station before accompanying Coulson to take a look at

290
00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:04,720
Speaker 1: the prost man. Godfrey later noted that the man had

291
00:21:04,720 --> 00:21:09,040
Speaker 1: been wearing civilian clothes underneath his flying suit. They also

292
00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:12,800
Speaker 1: found in his possession an attache case, four to five

293
00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:18,480
Speaker 1: hundred pounds in one pound notes and a wallet. Together,

294
00:21:18,840 --> 00:21:22,239
Speaker 1: the three men bound the parachutist's leg and waited for

295
00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:27,800
Speaker 1: further instructions. A short time later, Captain William Henry Newton

296
00:21:28,119 --> 00:21:31,480
Speaker 1: arrived on the scene and began to question the mystery man.

297
00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:35,840
Speaker 1: He gave his name as Joseph Jacobs and claimed to

298
00:21:35,880 --> 00:21:39,159
Speaker 1: have flown over solo from Luxembourg before baling out of

299
00:21:39,200 --> 00:21:43,119
Speaker 1: his plane. Jacobs was then loaded onto a horse and

300
00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:48,680
Speaker 1: cart and delivered to Ramsey Police Station. Once detained, Jacobs

301
00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:52,840
Speaker 1: was asked to open the attache case. Inside they found

302
00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:55,320
Speaker 1: a wireless set, as well as a pair of headphones

303
00:21:55,359 --> 00:21:59,560
Speaker 1: and batteries. They also found a map on which was

304
00:21:59,600 --> 00:22:05,159
Speaker 1: marked the location of two RF satellite stations nearby. But

305
00:22:05,359 --> 00:22:10,280
Speaker 1: Jacobs is also carrying something else, something found tucked away

306
00:22:10,440 --> 00:22:15,080
Speaker 1: deep inside his pocket, a picture photograph of a glamorous

307
00:22:15,080 --> 00:22:18,240
Speaker 1: looking woman, on the back of which was a message

308
00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:23,399
Speaker 1: written in English. It read my dear, I love you forever,

309
00:22:24,200 --> 00:22:30,880
Speaker 1: Your Clara Landau, July nineteen forty The woman is Clara

310
00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:36,640
Speaker 1: Sophie Bowler born in Ulm, Germany, on the twenty ninth

311
00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:40,320
Speaker 1: of June nineteen o six. In nineteen forty one, she

312
00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:43,800
Speaker 1: would have been thirty five years old. She is a

313
00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:47,639
Speaker 1: cabaret singer and sometime actress who not only worked for

314
00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:50,520
Speaker 1: a number of years performing in music halls across the

315
00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:54,439
Speaker 1: West Midlands, but speaks fluent English with a Birmingham accent

316
00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:59,560
Speaker 1: and was known locally as Clara Bella. Not only that,

317
00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:03,480
Speaker 1: but according to Jacobs, she is extremely well connected to

318
00:23:03,520 --> 00:23:06,440
Speaker 1: the Nazi Party and had been recruited as a spy

319
00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:10,640
Speaker 1: with plans to drop her into the Midlands region. Finally,

320
00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:14,879
Speaker 1: it seemed that the pieces were coming together. Is it

321
00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:22,119
Speaker 1: possible that Clara Bowler is our unknown woman? Not so?

322
00:23:22,320 --> 00:23:26,240
Speaker 1: According to Jacob's granddaughter Giselle, whose own website on the

323
00:23:26,280 --> 00:23:30,240
Speaker 1: subject provides an exhaustive account of the life of Joseph Jacobs.

324
00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:35,480
Speaker 1: As Giselle's research details the skeleton found in the which

325
00:23:35,480 --> 00:23:39,359
Speaker 1: Elm Tree suggested a woman of around five foot in height.

326
00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:44,760
Speaker 1: Clara Bowler, as has been well documented, was substantially taller

327
00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:49,240
Speaker 1: at almost six feet in height. In a final blow

328
00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:52,600
Speaker 1: to the theory, it was also discovered that Clara had

329
00:23:52,640 --> 00:23:56,080
Speaker 1: in fact died in Berlin on the sixteenth of December

330
00:23:56,480 --> 00:24:03,760
Speaker 1: nineteen forty two. Joseph Jacobs was eventually tried and convicted

331
00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:07,160
Speaker 1: of being a spy and sentenced to death by firing squad.

332
00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:11,800
Speaker 1: Jacobs protested his innocence to the end, declaring that he

333
00:24:11,840 --> 00:24:14,320
Speaker 1: was a friend of England and had arrived to help

334
00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:17,280
Speaker 1: in her fight against the Nazis, but it was to

335
00:24:17,320 --> 00:24:21,640
Speaker 1: no avail. On the thirteenth of August nineteen forty one,

336
00:24:22,359 --> 00:24:26,160
Speaker 1: Joseph Jacobs became the last man ever to be executed

337
00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:38,760
Speaker 1: at the Tower of London. Thinking about the mystery in

338
00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:42,639
Speaker 1: its entirety, it is quite striking when you consider that

339
00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:46,119
Speaker 1: perhaps the least strange element of the whole thing is

340
00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:49,400
Speaker 1: that a woman had been murdered and most likely by

341
00:24:49,440 --> 00:24:52,919
Speaker 1: a man, And not only had she been disposed of

342
00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:56,719
Speaker 1: with such apparent ease, but there seemed nobody willing to

343
00:24:56,720 --> 00:25:01,120
Speaker 1: come forward on her behalf. According to writer and broadcaster

344
00:25:01,359 --> 00:25:04,840
Speaker 1: Steve Punt, who investigated the witch El murder as part

345
00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:08,600
Speaker 1: of his Punt PI series broadcast by the BBC, there

346
00:25:08,720 --> 00:25:11,080
Speaker 1: was one report at the bottom of a police file

347
00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:14,920
Speaker 1: that is so often overshadowed by the louder, more colorful

348
00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:19,000
Speaker 1: components of this compelling mystery. It notes a missing persons

349
00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:24,560
Speaker 1: report logged sometime around October of nineteen forty one, a

350
00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:27,760
Speaker 1: sex worker by the name of Bella had gone missing.

351
00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:32,160
Speaker 1: Could it be that that same Bella, a woman whose

352
00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:37,520
Speaker 1: initial disappearance had perhaps been deemed unworthy of investigation, was

353
00:25:37,560 --> 00:25:41,880
Speaker 1: the woman they had been searching for all along. There

354
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:45,480
Speaker 1: was one other report recorded shortly after the skeleton had

355
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:49,800
Speaker 1: been discovered, an eyewitness account by two home guards who

356
00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:52,920
Speaker 1: had been wrapping up their nightly patrol near Hagley Wood

357
00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:56,240
Speaker 1: one evening in the autumn of nineteen forty one, when

358
00:25:56,280 --> 00:25:59,480
Speaker 1: the sound of an approaching engine stopped them in their tracks.

359
00:26:00,520 --> 00:26:03,000
Speaker 1: As the guards looked down to a turn at the

360
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:06,159
Speaker 1: bottom of the road. A scattering of light is followed

361
00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:09,919
Speaker 1: shortly by a vehicle appearing from around the bend, before

362
00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:13,320
Speaker 1: swiftly pulling in to the side of the road. The

363
00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:17,359
Speaker 1: guards approach with caution, surprised to see a private vehicle

364
00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:21,120
Speaker 1: driving round these parts at this time of night. As

365
00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:23,840
Speaker 1: they near the vehicle, one of the guards holds a

366
00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:27,120
Speaker 1: light up to the driver's window and knocks on the glass.

367
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:31,720
Speaker 1: The driver blinks into the light and rolls down his window.

368
00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:37,080
Speaker 1: He smiles awkwardly as he hands over his ID. The

369
00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:40,439
Speaker 1: guards are surprised to discover, judging by the jacket he

370
00:26:40,520 --> 00:26:45,760
Speaker 1: is wearing, that the man is an RAF officer. Shining

371
00:26:45,760 --> 00:26:49,000
Speaker 1: a light into the vehicle, the patrolman noticed there is

372
00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:52,240
Speaker 1: some one else in the car, huddled under an overcoat,

373
00:26:52,560 --> 00:26:56,480
Speaker 1: lying very still in the passenger seat. At the look

374
00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:59,560
Speaker 1: on the faces of the guards, the officer gives an

375
00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:04,200
Speaker 1: embarrass shrug. The guards return the ID, which is gratefully

376
00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:07,199
Speaker 1: received by the driver, who proceeds to roll up the

377
00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:17,880
Speaker 1: window before driving away back into the night. All elements

378
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:21,280
Speaker 1: of Unexplained are produced by me Richard McClain smith. Please

379
00:27:21,320 --> 00:27:23,879
Speaker 1: subscribe and rate the show on iTunes. Feel free to

380
00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:26,280
Speaker 1: get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the

381
00:27:26,320 --> 00:27:28,919
Speaker 1: stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an

382
00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:31,640
Speaker 1: explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can

383
00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:34,480
Speaker 1: reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or on

384
00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:51,640
Speaker 1: Twitter at Unexplained Pod. Hello, it's Jamie from My Dad

385
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:55,040
Speaker 1: Wrote a Porno. Now, Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without

386
00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:59,080
Speaker 1: my dad writing some really terrible erotic literature. And Rocky

387
00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:03,520
Speaker 1: Flintstone has not disappointed this year because twenty eighteen's Christmas

388
00:28:03,560 --> 00:28:08,119
Speaker 1: Pornos Special is available right now, exclusively on Spotify for

389
00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:10,640
Speaker 1: two weeks only to get you in the festive mood.

390
00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:13,320
Speaker 1: Not only that, but you can listen to all four

391
00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:15,480
Speaker 1: seasons of My Dad Wrote a Porno, as well as

392
00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:19,040
Speaker 1: thousands of other amazing podcasts, all for your oral pleasure.

393
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:36,120
Speaker 1: Just head over to Spotify and start listening now. Now

394
00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:39,160
Speaker 1: it's time to take care of yourself. To make time

395
00:28:39,360 --> 00:28:43,360
Speaker 1: for you. Teledoc gives you access to a licensed therapist

396
00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:46,760
Speaker 1: to help you get back to feeling your best. Speak

397
00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:50,680
Speaker 1: to a licensed therapist by phone or video anytime between

398
00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:54,400
Speaker 1: seven am to nine pm local time, seven days a week.

399
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:59,800
Speaker 1: Teledoc Therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download

400
00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:04,120
Speaker 1: the app, or visitteldoc dot com Forward Slash Unexplained podcast

401
00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:08,040
Speaker 1: Today to get started, that's t e. L a d

402
00:29:08,200 --> 00:29:11,240
Speaker 1: oc dot com Slash Unexplained Podcast