Speaker 1: Alone with everybody. Part two. Bill defintely wiped away the
Speaker 1: paint with the cloth and tried once more, this time
Speaker 1: taking extra care as he dipped the brush before again
Speaker 1: attempting to correct the line from the upper thigh to
Speaker 1: the knee. He stood back to get a better look
Speaker 1: and was immediately disappointed. Damn it, he thought, as he
Speaker 1: grudgingly wiped the paint away again. Though the week since
Speaker 1: the house had been exercised in July had been comparatively calm,
Speaker 1: the family's financial situation was becoming increasingly desperate. Things appeared
Speaker 1: to be looking up, however, when Bill was commissioned out
Speaker 1: of the by his neighbor Susannah, to paint a portrait
Speaker 1: of her favorite horse, Echo. Bill wasn't entirely sure if
Speaker 1: it had been out of sympathy or genuine interest, but
Speaker 1: either way he was grateful not only for the money,
Speaker 1: but also the chance to finally put his mind at
Speaker 1: rest and move on from the stress of the previous year.
Speaker 1: It was a fairly simple piece to complete by his standards,
Speaker 1: constructed in two parts, the first being the composition of
Speaker 1: the backdrop, which Bill had decided on himself after spending
Speaker 1: the day scouring the local countryside for the perfect setting.
Speaker 1: With that completed, he had then set about painting in
Speaker 1: the horse on top, using a recent photograph provided by
Speaker 1: his neighbor. All was going well until it came to
Speaker 1: finishing up the back leg. No matter how many times
Speaker 1: he tried, the brush just wouldn't do what he wanted.
Speaker 1: In the end, despite countless efforts, Bill was eventually forced
Speaker 1: to admit defeat, hoping that his neighbor wouldn't notice. Thankfully, Susannah,
Speaker 1: who was clearly very fond of the animal, was delighted
Speaker 1: with his efforts, and so it was with some distress
Speaker 1: when she informed Bill a few weeks later that Echo
Speaker 1: had died. It began soon after Susannah had hung up
Speaker 1: the painting, watching the horse in the paddock one afternoon,
Speaker 1: she noticed he was limping and clearly in some considerable pain.
Speaker 1: A subsequent check up with the vet revealed a peculiar
Speaker 1: injury to one of its hind legs, which had caused
Speaker 1: it to swell up inexplicably. Echo's condition deteriorated rapidly over
Speaker 1: the next few days, until one morning he simply wandered
Speaker 1: out into the fields, keeled over and died. Having returned
Speaker 1: home after burying the animal, a devastated Susannah found herself
Speaker 1: reminiscing in front of Bill's painting when she noticed something
Speaker 1: peculiar At the precise spot where the horse had developed
Speaker 1: his injury. Bill's multiple attempts to get the leg just
Speaker 1: right had left it looking oddly swollen. Then she noticed
Speaker 1: something else that sent a sharp chill along her spine.
Speaker 1: The backdrop that Bill had randomly chosen was the precise
Speaker 1: spot where Echo had been found dead. A few nights later,
Speaker 1: Bill and Liz were woken at home by that familiar sound,
Speaker 1: like heavy footsteps lumbering about the house. The thing, it seemed,
Speaker 1: was back in August, it was the turn of Reverend
Speaker 1: Roy Matthews of the Holy Trinity Church in Abergavenny to
Speaker 1: try and put an end to the couple's troubles. Arriving
Speaker 1: with three colleagues, he immediately set about getting a feel
Speaker 1: for the property, extraordinarily without any prompting from Bill or Liz.
Speaker 1: He also came to the unsettling conclusion that a plaintive
Speaker 1: elderly woman, as well as two young men and one
Speaker 1: other much darker and distinctly inhuman entity, were haunting their home.
Speaker 1: The couple were left a little disappointed, however, when the
Speaker 1: best the reverend could offer was to get together and
Speaker 1: pray whenever they sensed the atmosphere growing oppressive. Soon after,
Speaker 1: whilst clearing space in his studio, Bill discovered a photograph
Speaker 1: of an elderly woman hidden amongst some old furniture. When
Speaker 1: he showed it to Liz, her face dropped in astonishment.
Speaker 1: The woman, who turned out to be Marion Hoben, the
Speaker 1: landlord's mother and former occupant of heel Fannog, was the
Speaker 1: same ghostly figure she had been seeing. In December nineteen ninety,
Speaker 1: the couple's second child, Rebecca, was born, arriving like a
Speaker 1: spark of fire to illuminate the incessant gloom. But it
Speaker 1: wasn't long before the darkness was beginning to press in
Speaker 1: once more. Shortly after the birth, Liz had just returned
Speaker 1: to the house after taking the babies for a stroll
Speaker 1: when she sent something moving across the kitchen doorway, calling
Speaker 1: out for Bill, she got no ply, despite now clearly
Speaker 1: seeing the outline of a tall figure hovering just inside
Speaker 1: the door. Hurriedly, she gathered up the children and whilst
Speaker 1: keeping her eyes firmly fixed on the figure in the kitchen,
Speaker 1: quietly backed out of the house. A few days later,
Speaker 1: Liz and Bill packed their things and moved into Lizz's
Speaker 1: mother's house in nearby Cowbridge. The quiet market town of
Speaker 1: Cowbridge was a welcome respite from the isolation of Hilfanov,
Speaker 1: and though money was still an issue, with demand for
Speaker 1: Bill's work struggling to pick up, it wasn't long before
Speaker 1: they felt a sense of normality being restored for a
Speaker 1: short while. At least it was Liz who noticed it first,
Speaker 1: that sudden familiar fee of being watched, as if a
Speaker 1: wispy tendril of darkness were reaching out to them from
Speaker 1: out of the depths of the countryside. One evening, having
Speaker 1: put the children to bed, Bill, Liz and her mother
Speaker 1: were just sitting down for dinner when a weird crackle
Speaker 1: of static came through on the baby monitor. That wasn't static,
Speaker 1: thought Liz with horror, it was a voice. Immediately she
Speaker 1: rushed to the bedroom and switched on the light, but
Speaker 1: found only her two children fast asleep in their beds.
Speaker 1: A few days later, having heard all about Lizz's troubles,
Speaker 1: a neighbor suggested she make contact with local reverend David Holmward,
Speaker 1: having reached out to him. Holmward arrived at Lizz's mother's
Speaker 1: home a few days later along with his associate and
Speaker 1: Anita to discuss the couple's predicament. By the time he
Speaker 1: left at two am, he was in no doubt as
Speaker 1: to the source of their affliction. It was simple, he
Speaker 1: told them, you are being stalked by demons. That night,
Speaker 1: as David and Anita drove home through the narrow, winding
Speaker 1: country roads, something shot toward them from out of the
Speaker 1: dark and smashed into the windscreen with a mighty crack.
Speaker 1: The pair screamed as David slammed on the brakes and
Speaker 1: brought the car to a shuddering stop by the side
Speaker 1: of the road. Catching their breath, they looked up to
Speaker 1: find the shattered windscreen covered in blood. Cautiously, David stepped
Speaker 1: out into the road, and there, illuminated by the glare
Speaker 1: of the headlights, he found the twitching body of a
Speaker 1: dead owl. The message was clear, he thought, stay away
Speaker 1: from the house. It was two weeks later that David
Speaker 1: and Anita were back on the road, keeping their eyes
Speaker 1: fixed on Bill's car up ahead as he led them
Speaker 1: through the winding country lanes toward their destination under the
Speaker 1: shadowed edges of the Northern Beacons. But as they turned
Speaker 1: a corner, David was gripped by a sudden pang of anxiety,
Speaker 1: as if something were pushing down hard on his chest.
Speaker 1: Anita could only watch in terror as he struggled to
Speaker 1: keep control of the vehicle, before finally bringing it to
Speaker 1: a skidding stop by the side of the road. Immediately,
Speaker 1: David reached out for Anita's hand, and there they sat,
Speaker 1: repeating the Lord's prayer over and over until they were
Speaker 1: certain a disturbance had been left. Moments later, they pulled
Speaker 1: into the driveway of hiel Fannock. The plan was simple
Speaker 1: to get in and out as quickly as possible, confiscating
Speaker 1: anything that could be serving as a conduit for the
Speaker 1: demonic forces which David believed were plaguing the home. From
Speaker 1: incense burners to books on the paranormal and Buddhism, all
Speaker 1: of it was thrown into a box and taken out
Speaker 1: to the car. Upsettingly, for Bill, it was largely his
Speaker 1: own artwork that was of most concern to the evangelists.
Speaker 1: It was this, above all else that David believed to
Speaker 1: be empowering whatever demons were stalking the family. Bill could
Speaker 1: only watch with dismay as one offending article after another
Speaker 1: was removed and promptly escorted from the house. But what
Speaker 1: will you do with all, he asked, We will burn it,
Speaker 1: of course, came David's prompt reply. The following morning, with
Speaker 1: the help of his son, David dug a shallow pit
Speaker 1: in his garden into which all the tainted items were dumped,
Speaker 1: covered in lighter fluid, and set on fire. The pair
Speaker 1: watched as the flames jumped and licked ever higher, spitting
Speaker 1: and crackling as the fire feasted on the myriad items. Then, slowly,
Speaker 1: David became aware of another sound, seeming to emanate from
Speaker 1: deep within the flames, a hideous screeching sound, as if
Speaker 1: something inside the fire were being burned alive, but it
Speaker 1: would all be in vain. Despite his best efforts, David's
Speaker 1: attempted exorcism would ultimately prove ineffective when only a few
Speaker 1: weeks later the hauntings returned with a vengeance. Unable to
Speaker 1: afford a move away and with all avenues seemingly exhausted,
Speaker 1: Bill and Liz had no choice but to try and
Speaker 1: learn to live with it all. And so they did,
Speaker 1: doing all they could to ignore the disembodied footsteps and
Speaker 1: strange spectral visions. As ever, Bill sought solace in his painting,
Speaker 1: and with one painting in particular, with which he was
Speaker 1: becoming increasingly immersed, a peculiar canvas of past all colors
Speaker 1: and tubulus strands that seemed to wrap and snake around themselves.
Speaker 1: It was like nothing he had painted before. But such
Speaker 1: endeavors only ever provided fleeting moments of comfort, and by
Speaker 1: the end of nineteen ninety three they had all but
Speaker 1: given up hope of ever escaping their horrifying ordeal. Little
Speaker 1: could they have known then that help was just around
Speaker 1: the corner. Are you always taking care of your family?
Speaker 1: Do you often take care of others and not yourself?
Speaker 1: Now it's time to take care of yourself, to make
Speaker 1: time for you. You deserve it. Tele adoc gives you
Speaker 1: access to a licensed therapist to help you get back
Speaker 1: to feeling your best, to feeling like yourself again. With
Speaker 1: tele adoc, you can speak to a licensed therapist by
Speaker 1: phone or video. Therapy Appointments are available seven days a
Speaker 1: week from seven am to nine pm local time. If
Speaker 1: you feel overwhelmed. Sometimes maybe you feel stressed or anxious,
Speaker 1: depressed or lonely, or you might be struggling with a
Speaker 1: personal or family issue, teledoc can help. Teledoc is committed
Speaker 1: to facilitating great therapeutic matches, so they make it easy
Speaker 1: to change counselors if needed. For free. Teledoc therapy is
Speaker 1: available through most insurance or employers. Download the app or
Speaker 1: visit teledoc dot com forward slash Unexplained podcast today to
Speaker 1: get started. That's teladoc dot com slash Unexplained podcast. Film
Speaker 1: producer Annie McDonald had been wrestling with a documentary idea
Speaker 1: for some time regarding the exploits of apparent psychic and
Speaker 1: self styled ghost hunter Eddie Burkes. Back in August nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety two, Burkes had achieved some notoriety after he claimed
Speaker 1: to have successfully banished the ghost of a sixteenth century
Speaker 1: courtier from the offices of the exclusive British banking institution COOTS. Incredibly,
Speaker 1: not only had Burkes been invited to local the ghost
Speaker 1: by representatives of the bank itself, but they had also
Speaker 1: attested to his success in removing it from their offices.
Speaker 1: When McDonald who also lived near the Breckham Beacons, heard
Speaker 1: about the peculiar goings on at Joel Fannock. She wasted
Speaker 1: little time in contacting listened Bill with a proposition she
Speaker 1: would set them up with Burks if they agreed to
Speaker 1: let her film his process. Though the couple were reticent
Speaker 1: at the thought of letting a documentary crew into their home,
Speaker 1: they also knew they had nothing to lose. It was
Speaker 1: difficult to know quite what to make of the slight,
Speaker 1: bespectacled Burks when he first arrived that early March afternoon,
Speaker 1: dressed unassumingly in his dark green anorak. Nonetheless, Lizz and
Speaker 1: Bill tried to remain optimistic as they invited him, along
Speaker 1: with his friend and writer Julian Cribbs, as well as
Speaker 1: McDonald and her production into their home. Moments later, with
Speaker 1: everyone gathered around the kitchen table, Liz and Bill filled
Speaker 1: them in on all that had happened so far. The
Speaker 1: tiredness and distress etched across the couple's faces as they
Speaker 1: talked showed just how difficult the last few years had been.
Speaker 1: While behind them, long triangular strips of wallpaper hanging limply
Speaker 1: from the wall gave the impression that even the house
Speaker 1: itself was starting to crumble from the strain. When Liz
Speaker 1: finally brought their account to an end, Burkes became suddenly
Speaker 1: distracted and asked to be taken outside to inspect the
Speaker 1: ruins of the old manor house. With the camera operator
Speaker 1: following close behind, the group made their way into the
Speaker 1: garden through a line of trees and onto the crumbling
Speaker 1: ruins behind. Strangely, when they arrived, much to the operator's dismay,
Speaker 1: the camera completely shut down. The battery, despite having been
Speaker 1: almost fully charged only minutes before, had gone completely flat.
Speaker 1: A second camera operated by McDonald appeared unaffected as she
Speaker 1: kept it steady on Burks while he requested quiet from everyone,
Speaker 1: and then promptly fell into a trance. When McDonald had
Speaker 1: first traveled to meet Burks not long after she first
Speaker 1: informed him of the situation at Lisabelle's home, he had
Speaker 1: also entered a trance. When he came out of it,
Speaker 1: he explained that he had been communicating with a young
Speaker 1: man whose soul he said was trapped at hiel Fannock.
Speaker 1: The man had apparently described the experience to him as
Speaker 1: like being caught in a thicket that conspired to entrap
Speaker 1: him every time he tried to escape. The young man
Speaker 1: had apparently also told Burkes that he had been murdered
Speaker 1: sometime in the nineteenth century by a sickening blow to
Speaker 1: the back of the head. Back in the garden. Burkes's
Speaker 1: voice broke the silence. The young man was with them now,
Speaker 1: he said, and was trying to tell him something. This
Speaker 1: was the place, he was saying, where he had seen
Speaker 1: something he shouldn't have, the very thing that had cost
Speaker 1: him his life. As Burkes went on to detail more
Speaker 1: about the boy's murder, Gillian noticed a look of recognition
Speaker 1: spreading across Liz's face. As Liz explained later, during the
Speaker 1: second year of their stay at the house, she had
Speaker 1: learned about the brutal murder of a young farm hand
Speaker 1: that occurred in the mid nineteenth century within walking distance
Speaker 1: of Heolfanock. All this time she had wandered if it
Speaker 1: had anything to do with the strange activity in their home.
Speaker 1: Could it be she thought that this was the young
Speaker 1: man that Burke's had been communicating with. It was a
Speaker 1: cold and misty morning in November eighteen forty eight at
Speaker 1: Coombe Goody Farm, a kilometer away from what would later
Speaker 1: become heol Fannock. When farm servant Elizabeth Phillips rose just
Speaker 1: before dawn and made her way to a nearby brook
Speaker 1: to fetch some water. Approaching the entry gate to the yard,
Speaker 1: she was surprised to find seventeen year old farm hand
Speaker 1: James Griffiths suddenly appear from out of the dark with
Speaker 1: an odd grin on his After muttering a brief good morning,
Speaker 1: he headed off toward the farmhouse, leaving Elizabeth to fetch
Speaker 1: the water on her own. When she returned via the
Speaker 1: gate a few minutes later, she was startled by a
Speaker 1: strange moaning sound that seemed to rise out of nowhere.
Speaker 1: In terror, she hurried back to the house and called
Speaker 1: out for James to help her find the source of
Speaker 1: the noise. When Elizabeth heard it again, coming from somewhere
Speaker 1: toward the back of the yard, she asked James to
Speaker 1: stay put while she went to fetch a torch. By
Speaker 1: the time she returned, however, James had disappeared after failing
Speaker 1: to find a source for the noise. It wasn't until
Speaker 1: much later in the day that Elizabeth caught sight of
Speaker 1: something lying underneath a dunkeep that caused her to cry
Speaker 1: out in horror of legs lying in a pool of blood.
Speaker 1: Having been roused by Elizabeth's screams, farmer John Powell and
Speaker 1: his son rushed to her aid. Together they pulled the
Speaker 1: body from the heap to find it was in fact
Speaker 1: another of their farm hands, the eighteen year old Thomas Edwards. Remarkably,
Speaker 1: the young man was still alive. Remarkable because on picking
Speaker 1: him up to carry him inside, they discovered a four
Speaker 1: inch wide hole in the back of his head, bleeding profusely,
Speaker 1: and beneath him clearly visible on the ground the missing
Speaker 1: pieces of his skull. Thomas clung on for a number
Speaker 1: of hours in a state of severe confusion, before eventually
Speaker 1: succumbing to his injuries. Just as Eddie Burkes had claimed,
Speaker 1: the unfortunate man had been killed by a sickening to
Speaker 1: the back of his head. Four months later, James Griffiths,
Speaker 1: who also went by the name of Thomas Williams, was
Speaker 1: arrested in Ipswich, some three hundred miles away, still wearing
Speaker 1: clothes that he had stolen from Thomas Edwards. Griffiths eventually
Speaker 1: confessed that he had murdered Edwards to steal what little
Speaker 1: money he had in his possession. It was Eddie Burkes's belief, however,
Speaker 1: that Edwards had in fact stumbled upon some kind of
Speaker 1: Satanic ritual and was murdered by Griffiths, acting under the
Speaker 1: instructions of someone unknown to protect the identities of those
Speaker 1: who had been seen. However, no evidence has ever been
Speaker 1: found to support this theory, although curiously not that it
Speaker 1: suggests anything to do with the greatly misunderstood practice of Satanism.
Speaker 1: When Griffiths first confessed committing the murder, he also claimed
Speaker 1: that a woman named Jane Morgan had been the cause
Speaker 1: of it. This name was later retracted from his confession.
Speaker 1: Once convicted of his crime, Griffiths, who had been abandoned
Speaker 1: by his family at a young age and spent most
Speaker 1: of his teenage life drifting from one job to another,
Speaker 1: was sentenced to death by hanging on Wednesday, eighteenth April
Speaker 1: eighteen forty nine. The by then eighteen years old James
Speaker 1: Griffiths was marched to the gallows at Brecon County Jail
Speaker 1: in front of a large crowd of onlookers and hung
Speaker 1: from his neck until death, with liers concluding the tragic
Speaker 1: tale of the farm Hands. Something striking occurred to the group.
Speaker 1: Could it be that perhaps the spirits of those two
Speaker 1: young men were the same spirit that the couple had
Speaker 1: been told on two separate occasions were trapped in the property,
Speaker 1: with the landlord's mother possibly accounting for the third. That
Speaker 1: left only the fourth in human entity unaccounted for. With
Speaker 1: the group back in the kitchen, the quiet Burke's took
Speaker 1: a seat at the table. After confirming that the spirit
Speaker 1: of the young man he had been communicating with had
Speaker 1: now moved on, he closed his eyes and fell into
Speaker 1: another trance. Opening them again, Burke was drawn immediately to
Speaker 1: the spot near the bathroom close to the bottom of
Speaker 1: the stairs, sensing a strange darkness was being harbored there,
Speaker 1: but there was also something else. He closed his eyes again.
Speaker 1: He could see a vision, he said out loud. A
Speaker 1: bright cross was manifesting, bringing light into the house. Something holy,
Speaker 1: he said. Bill got up immediately from the table and
Speaker 1: appeared a moment later holding a large canvas painting. Burkes
Speaker 1: opened his eyes and looked up. Though the background was
Speaker 1: an abstract mesh of dark colors and thick brushstrokes, the
Speaker 1: large white cross in the middle was unmistakable. It was
Speaker 1: just as Burkes had described. Yes, he said quietly, that
Speaker 1: is what's been keeping you safe. Bill had painted the
Speaker 1: White Cross three years previously, over the course of a
Speaker 1: few nights, the imagery having come to him completely out
Speaker 1: of the blue. One evening, Burkes's friend Gillian was instantly
Speaker 1: intrigued to know what else Bill might have unconsciously channeled,
Speaker 1: and asked to see the studio. In amongst what Gillian
Speaker 1: later described as a collection of landscapes and pop art studies,
Speaker 1: there was one painting that stood out against the rest,
Speaker 1: a strange and puzzling picture, unlike anything else in the room,
Speaker 1: comprised of a vast, pastel colored mesh of tubular, tendril
Speaker 1: like things linked together in a bizarre organic circuitry. Looking closer,
Speaker 1: Gillian noticed they were in fact vines, complete with sharp thorns,
Speaker 1: and in amongst them were what looked like internal organs,
Speaker 1: outstretched hands, and even the occasional face peering out with
Speaker 1: pained expressions as if they were screaming. Gillian was instantly
Speaker 1: reminded of Eddie Burkes's first conversation with producer Annie McDonald.
Speaker 1: Was this, she thought, not a depiction of the imprisoned soul?
Speaker 1: As had apparently been described to Burkes by the spirit
Speaker 1: of the deceased young man, had he been calling out
Speaker 1: to Bill for help all this time. Although a possible
Speaker 1: identity to the apparent fourth in human presence was never ascertained,
Speaker 1: Burkes was adamant he had done enough to exercise whatever
Speaker 1: it had been from Liz and Bill's home. In the
Speaker 1: immediate aftermath of his trip to the house, once again
Speaker 1: the family felt a renewed likeness, and though they experienced
Speaker 1: a few subsequent troubles with Burke's returning in June to
Speaker 1: conduct a further exorcism, his intervention appeared to have done
Speaker 1: the trick. That following day after Burkes's second visit, the
Speaker 1: rate of electricity usage dropped the first time since they
Speaker 1: had lived in the house. By nineteen ninety five, the
Speaker 1: family experienced no further hauntings, and Bill's work was starting
Speaker 1: to pick up again. As for film producer Annie McDonald,
Speaker 1: she never did quite get her film of Burke's in action,
Speaker 1: with the battery of one camera having inexplicably died as
Speaker 1: Burke's attempted communication with the spirits, McDonald's second camera appeared
Speaker 1: to be capturing it all fine It was only when
Speaker 1: she returned home later, however, that she had a chance
Speaker 1: to review the footage. Switching on the camera, she ran
Speaker 1: the tape forward to the point where the group made
Speaker 1: their way to the back of the garden, impressed play
Speaker 1: with great anticipation, she watched as Burke's positioned himself by
Speaker 1: the ruins and asked for silence. Then, just at the
Speaker 1: moment of apparent contact, the screen went blank. She fast
Speaker 1: forwarded in desperation, but it was to no avail. The
Speaker 1: rest of the tape was completely empty. If you enjoy
Speaker 1: listening to Unexplained and would like to help supporters, you
Speaker 1: can now go to Unexplained podcast dot com forward slash support.
Speaker 1: All donations, no matter how large or small, are massively appreciated.
Speaker 1: All elements of Unexplained are produced by me, Richard McClain smith.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe, I rate the show on iTunes. Feel free
Speaker 1: to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding
Speaker 1: the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have
Speaker 1: an explanation of your own you'd like to share. You
Speaker 1: can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or
Speaker 1: on Twitter at Unexplained Pod. Now it's time to take
Speaker 1: care of yourself to make time for you. Teledoc gives
Speaker 1: you access to a licensed therapist to help you get
Speaker 1: back to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed therapist
Speaker 1: by phone or video anytime between seven am to nine
Speaker 1: pm local time, seven days a week. Teledoc Therapy is
Speaker 1: available through most insurance or employers. Download the app, or
Speaker 1: visit telldoc dot com Forward slash Unexplained podcast Today to
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