WEBVTT - Season 07 Episode 26: The Devil's Money 0:00:10.520 --> 0:00:15.240 One chilly morning in February nineteen twenty five, eleven year 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:19.320 old Eleonora Zugan and her eighteen year old cousin left 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:23.600 their rural farming village of Talba in Romania to visit 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:29.680 their sick and elderly grandmother in the neighboring village of Boohi. Eleonora, 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:32.960 who never owned a pair of shoes, did well to 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:35.839 keep pace with her cousin as they skipped over the 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:39.360 frosty ground and made their way into a thick forest. 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:44.120 As they moved deeper into the trees, ear Leonora caught 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:48.159 sight of something shining on the ground among the ferns 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:52.800 and rusty dead pine leaves. It was a coin, partially 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:57.160 wrapped in a handkerchief. Someone must have dropped it, she thought, 0:00:57.560 --> 0:01:00.880 as she bent down to pick it up. Don't, said 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:06.520 her cousin. Suddenly, it's the devil's money. Eleanora stared at 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:09.800 her cousin for a moment, then looked back at the coin. 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:13.080 It was more money than she ever had in her 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:20.360 possession before. Don't do it, he said, but Eleanora ignored him. 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:23.600 He was only jealous that she'd found it first, she thought, 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:28.480 then bent down again. And picked it up. The cousin 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:32.800 strode off her head as Eleanora rubbed the coin against 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:36.560 her coat and held it up to the light, admiring 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:40.640 how it gleamed in the morning sun. When they arrived 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:45.039 in Boohai, Eleonora stopped at a little confectionery shop, where 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:49.480 she spent all the money on some pastries and candy. 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:53.480 More of Eleanora's cousins greeted her on her arrival at 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:57.360 her grandmother's house, including one who gave her a pretty 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:01.640 coral change she'd made as a welcome present, But when 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:05.240 they asked if Eleanora would share her treats with them, 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:10.519 she refused to do so. The cousins crowded eagerly around her, 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:13.960 but she pushed them away, crabbing the sweets into her 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:17.720 mouth as fast as she could. She almost made herself 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:20.680 sick just to avoid having to share any of it. 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:26.520 Eleonora's blind, one hundred and five year old grandmother was 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:30.920 horrified by her granddaughter's behavior. It was bad enough that 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:33.600 she'd taken the coin in the first place, she said, 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:36.320 but the fact that she'd hoarded all of that food 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:40.080 for herself confirmed that it was already having a malign 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:45.320 influence on her. Despite being tired and sick, she couldn't 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:51.080 help but scold her granddaughter. You have swallowed Dracool, she hissed, 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:56.880 and now you'll never be free of him. Dracool Romanian 0:02:57.440 --> 0:03:03.560 for the devil, had never seen her grandmother so animated before. 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:07.680 It was enough to make her question what she'd done, 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:11.079 and in the days to come, those words would echo 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:16.240 again and again in her mind. You'll never be free 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:22.920 of him. You're listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard McLean Smith. 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:34.160 It began the very next day, as Eleanora and her 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:38.760 cousins were eating breakfast in their grandmother's kitchen, a barrage 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:44.000 of noise suddenly enveloped the house like gunfire. The children 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:47.800 dropped to the floor in terror as windows shattered all 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:52.360 around their heads. Eleonora peeked out from behind her fingers 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:56.000 to see a flurry of stones flying against the house, 0:03:56.600 --> 0:04:00.600 seemingly out of nowhere, as if they'd been thrown by 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:06.000 an invisible, malignant force. Over the following days, it was 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:11.320 said that wherever Eleonora went, small objects shifted and flew 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:17.000 through the air towards her, without any obvious cause. Growing 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:21.440 Tired of the mayhem, Eleonora's grandmother sent her back home, 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:25.600 hoping what appeared to be some kind of curse would 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:31.360 leave with her. Sure Enough, the strange phenomena followed Eleonora 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:36.640 back to Talpa. After a few days of objects flying 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:42.320 around their house at will, Eleonora's parents became desperate, believing 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:46.240 she was being haunted by the devil. They took Eleonora 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:50.960 to a monastery in the mountains. There, an exorcism was 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:56.279 performed on her, but the exorcism did nothing as the 0:04:56.320 --> 0:05:00.880 disturbances carried on. It was with great regret said one 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:04.840 priest that he had to inform her family that Eleonora 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:10.600 was now beyond help. This strange story of an eleven 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:15.320 year old girl seemingly possessed by demonic forces soon caught 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:18.119 the attention of the local press, who ran a front 0:05:18.160 --> 0:05:22.320 page story about Eleonora. In April of nineteen twenty five, 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:28.000 in Germany, an article written by Romanian journalist Kobi Klein 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:32.359 caught the attention of the Ravallo Bund, a spiritualist and 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:39.080 parapsychological organization devoted to investigating the potential of the paranormal. 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:44.480 So intrigued were the group by Eleonora's story, they offered 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:49.400 to pay Fritz Grunewauldt, a German engineer who also moonlighted 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:55.000 as a parapsychologist, to go and investigate her. Grunwaldt was 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:58.599 a key player in the German parapsychology movement at the 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:03.320 time and had several pieces of equipment for testing and 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:10.520 measuring supposed psychic abilities. He gladly accepted the offer. When 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:14.560 grunewald arrived in Romania, he was disappointed to find that 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:18.919 Eleonora had since been removed from the monastery and placed 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:22.599 in a psychiatric asylum, where she'd been left to languish 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:27.320 ever since. With the help of Kubi Klein, grunwald had 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:30.359 her removed from the asylum and returned her to the 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:35.120 monastery in order to study her without any interference from doctors, 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:39.640 and there for the next six weeks he observed the 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:45.120 young girl, writing extensive notes about the many bizarre events 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:59.200 he supposedly witnessed. One Sunday morning, as Grunewald later wrote, 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:03.560 he was sitting quietly outside on a verandah with Eleanora, 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:08.679 when out of nowhere, a small, gleaming object appeared behind 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:12.960 Eleonora's head, It hovered in mid air for a moment, 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:17.240 and then dropped onto the floor beside her. It was 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:20.880 a silver chain which Eleonora had given as a present 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:26.120 to the monastery's cook some days earlier. According to Grunivult, 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:30.000 the incident had happened in broad daylight, and neither he 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:35.200 or Eleanora had moved an inch. The chain had moved 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:40.640 all by itself. Another time, Grunivald decided to see if 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:44.600 he could have some influence on what was happening when 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:48.320 in the company of Eleanora, he decided to fixate on 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:52.320 a water jug that was placed on a stool. After 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:55.920 five minutes of staring at it, the jug, which was 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:59.760 full of water, apparently began to rise a good half 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:03.960 a mint in the air before returning to the stool 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:08.680 without a drop of water being spilt. Having felt he'd 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:13.400 seen enough, Grunivald published a short statement confirming that, in 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:20.080 his professional opinion, the phenomena occurring around Eleonora were genuinely paranormal. 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:25.640 He promised to publish a full report in due course. However, 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:30.960 not long after his encounter with Eleonora, Grunivald died suddenly 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:35.720 from a heart attack in the end. His report was 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:40.920 published posthumously and caught the attention of Austrian Countess Soy 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:46.960 Vasilko SERETCHKEI. In addition to being a wealthy and influential aristocrat, 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:52.920 Countess Vasilko Seretchke was also a parapsychologist who'd long admired 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:57.720 Fritz Grunivold's work. She was determined to continue what he'd started, 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:02.880 and so in January nineteen twenty six, she brought Eleonora 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:07.520 to live in Vienna under her protection. Despite her belief 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:11.160 in the paranormal, the Countess was in the main a 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:15.560 grounded and sensible individual with many years of experience in 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:19.600 her field. In fact, she had recently drawn the ire 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:23.960 of some of her contemporaries after publicly exposing one so 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:28.240 called psychic as a fraud. But within a few days 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:33.360 of meeting the girl, Basilico Seretchki had no doubt she 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:38.520 was in the presence of something truly paranormal. Over the 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:42.040 next eight months, the Countess brought in a variety of 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:47.079 experts to observe Eleonora. The first was a medical doctor 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:52.560 who conducted a thorough physical and mental examination. He concluded 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:57.199 she was in good health aside from an extreme skin sensitivity, 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:03.000 and highly intelligent for her own. The assessment was backed 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:08.240 up by famed British paranormal investigator Harry Price, who traveled 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:13.440 to Vienna in April to also study Eleonora. His first 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:19.080 impression was that Eleonora was stubborn, sometimes sulky, and highly 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:23.080 suspicious of new people, but had grown very attached to 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:29.600 the Countess. Pryce also noted that Eleonora was strangely immature 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:34.160 in some ways, later writing that although thirteen years old, 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:37.800 Eleonora is like a child of eight in many ways. 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:42.200 She is incessantly playing with toys more suitable to a 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.880 child half her years, and will spend the day amusing 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:58.600 herself with squeaking animals, rubber balls, and furry rabbits. Between 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:02.920 January and August of five, nineteen twenty six, Countess Vasilko 0:11:03.000 --> 0:11:08.080 Seretchki recorded more than three thousand separate incidents that she 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:11.959 believed to be paranormal, more than eight hundred of which 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:17.760 were corroborated by other people. One such individual was Johannes 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:23.760 Maria Vervaian, a German philosophy professor. Throughout the day, as 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:27.640 he kept watch on Eleonora, he noticed that the books 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:31.720 on a shelf behind her head were slowly moving forward, 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:36.160 as if being pushed by an invisible hand. He took 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:39.199 note of which books had been moved, trying to find 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:43.319 some pattern or message in their titles, but no pattern 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:48.720 could be found. Objects also appeared and disappeared at will, 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:53.400 often seeming to travel through walls or locked doors and 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:57.840 dropping into the middle of a room. They were generally small, 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:02.360 every day things, hair brush or a set of dominoes, 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:07.240 for example, seeming, as Harry Price noted, to briefly exist 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:11.600 outside of the dominion of the physical laws of our world. 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:17.080 At other times, mysterious rapping noises were heard on the 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:23.040 furniture surrounding Eleonora, as though some invisible presence was knocking 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:29.000 on them. One evening, Harry Price was watching Eleonora closely. 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:33.840 His gaze occasionally shifted down to his notebook as he 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:39.240 recorded her movements. Then suddenly something whizzed past him, so 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:43.920 close he felt the air shift against his cheek as 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:47.240 it clattered to the ground. Price saw it was a 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:51.840 ten inch steel letter opener. If he'd been standing just 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:55.120 a hair further to the right, its blade would have 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:59.640 sliced right into his skin. Though he was no stranger 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:05.400 to ominous events. Price was deeply unnerved at the time. 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:10.240 There was nobody in the house besides him, Eleonora and 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:14.720 the Countess. As he later claimed, he was watching both 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:18.800 of them when the blade launched itself at him. There 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:22.360 was simply no way that either of them could be responsible, 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:26.720 he believed. But more than that, he couldn't help thinking 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:30.320 that the violence of this gesture was some kind of 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:35.400 warning sign if Eleanora had indeed been possessed by something. 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:40.520 Whatever it was, he felt was getting angry. A few 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:44.520 days later, Price was back at the Countess's house to 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:50.800 observe Eleonora again. Vasilko Seretchki asked the young girl to 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:53.800 move a table. As she was in the middle of 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:57.640 doing so, the trio heard a deafening crash from the 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:01.720 other side of the room. We all span round just 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:06.480 in time to see a bizarre sight. A large black 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:09.480 toy dog, which had been left on a chair in 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:12.760 the far corner of the room, had fallen onto the floor, 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:16.880 knocking into a metal coal scuttle that had clattered loudly 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:22.120 onto its side. Just a toy, and yet the sight 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:26.080 of it lying there on the ground was unmistakably ominous. 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:31.000 Throughout European history, the black dog had long been a 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:38.480 symbol of foreboding, misfortune and death. In folklore, ghostly black 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:43.240 devil hounds often appear to wayward travelers as a harbinger 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:55.040 of imminent doom. Having gathered several months worth of observations, 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:58.520 the Countess and Harry Price had plenty of data to 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:01.480 work with, so they set out to try and find 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:06.320 patterns in the psychic phenomena. There was one consistent thing. 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:11.320 Whenever these events happened, Eleonora was always either in the 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:15.240 same room or an adjoining one. As they pored over 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:20.040 their findings, they soon found some other correlations. The phenomena 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:24.840 often happened shortly before meal times, when Eleonora was hungry. 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:28.360 They also seemed to be stronger whenever she was in 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:33.440 an irritable mood, and they never happened when Eleonora was sleeping. 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:38.800 It suggested to the Countess and Price that the supposedly 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:44.040 psychic events were strongly tied to Eleonora's moods and therefore 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:48.840 to her consciousness. Even still, she seemed to have no 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:52.240 control over them at all, with Price noting that she 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:56.000 seemed as startled as anyone when objects flew across the 0:15:56.080 --> 0:16:02.200 room or appeared and disappeared at will. As a parapsychologist, 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:06.520 more than anything, the Countess was fascinated by the possibility 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:12.040 that the key to this bizarre situation lay within Eleonora's mind. 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:17.120 Perhaps she wasn't being possessed by an external paranormal force 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:22.880 at all, she thought, but instead she was the paranormal force. 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:28.760 The Countess began to suspect that the psychokinetic events were 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:33.480 rooted in Eleonora's repressed feelings of guilt and shame caused 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:37.240 by her grandmother telling her that she had swallowed the devil. 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:44.040 Countess Basilko Seretchkei began to carry out psychoanalysis on Eleonora 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:48.320 in the hope of releasing any unconscious emotions that might 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:52.240 be tormenting her, But she was not a trained psychoanalyst, 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:57.720 and the sessions only seemed to make things worse. One 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:02.400 afternoon in the summer of nineteen twenty six, Eleanora cried 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:07.359 out in pain, clutching her arm. The Countess hurriedly pulled 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:10.600 back her sleeve to find a bite mark on the 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:15.199 girl's pale skin, deep enough that it had drawn blood. 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:20.359 At first, the Countess in Price suspected she'd done it 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:23.720 to herself. They hadn't been watching her at the time, 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:27.800 But over the next few weeks, more and more fresh 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:32.879 punctures and cuts appeared all over Eleanora's skin, many of 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:37.160 them in places they felt she simply couldn't have reached herself. 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:42.679 One other afternoon, the Countess was making another set of 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:48.280 notes when a piercing scream rang out. The Countess looked 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:52.560 up in horror to see Eleanora staring wide eyed at 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:58.359 her Her face twisted into a haunting look of abject terror. 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:03.560 She held up her hands, both of them had countless 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:07.720 needles sticking out of her skin. It was only when 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:10.719 the small beads of red began to appear on the 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:15.600 girl's face that the Countess realized it was also covered 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:21.159 in needles buried deep into her flesh. The Countess and 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:25.639 Price did their best to calm the screaming girl. The 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:28.919 event left her with a pox like scars that didn't 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:43.360 fade for weeks. Worried that her own methods of psychoanalysis 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:50.200 had intensified whatever was affecting Eleonora, the Countess immediately discontinued 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:55.679 the sessions, she decided to try something new instead. The 0:18:55.760 --> 0:19:00.520 practice of automatic writing as its roots in spiritualism, which 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:03.720 is the belief that it's possible for living people to 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:08.320 communicate with the spirits of the dead. In the spiritualist version, 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:12.480 a seance is conducted in which the subject is asked 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:15.280 to hold a pen against a piece of paper, but 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:20.440 not consciously attempt to write anything. Then, after a period 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:24.879 of calling forth any supposed spirits that might be in attendance, 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:28.399 it is hoped that the subject's hand might then be 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:33.840 manipulated by a spirit. Any writing that emerges is thought 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:38.640 to be a message sent directly from the other side. However, 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:42.439 in the early twentieth century, a new school of thought 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:48.000 merged around automatic writing, attributing the process not to external 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:55.199 supernatural forces but to an internal psychological process. Being a parapsychologist, 0:19:55.520 --> 0:20:00.439 the countess was open to either possibility. One morning, she 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:03.600 set Eleanora up in the parlor of her house with 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:06.920 a pen and a large sheet of paper, and then 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:11.440 waited for a long time. Nothing appeared to be happening. 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:18.200 Eleonora was mostly just bored and restless. Suddenly her expression changed. 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:22.760 Her eyes lost focus and glazed over. Then her hand 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:27.960 began to move against the page. The Countess watched over 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:32.760 Eleanora's shoulder as one letter after another was scratched out 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:37.040 on the page in jagged block capitals. It was a 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:41.080 promise that more strange events would follow. At five pm 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:46.720 the following day, it was signed Drac who the Devil. 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:52.880 All day, Eleanora and the Countess waited nervously for five 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:56.960 pm to come around, but when it did, nothing happened. 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:02.000 The investigation had hit yet another dead end. In the 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:06.159 autumn of nineteen twenty six, nine months after she'd first 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:10.720 brought Eleonora to her home, the Countess decided that she'd 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:15.200 done all she could to unravel the mystery. Many people 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:19.160 had been interested in Eleonora's case, but had been unable 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:22.679 to travel to Vienna to study her in person. So 0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:29.440 that September, Countess Forasilkosretchke and Eleonora began an ambitious voyage 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:34.080 across the continent. They started in Berlin, where first a 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:39.120 team of doctors studied the girl, then German zoologist Karl Zimmer. 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:43.360 From there they moved on to Munich and then to London. 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:49.720 Thanks to Harry Price's detailed publications about her case, Eleonora 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:55.840 became an international sensation. Publications including The New York Times, 0:21:56.119 --> 0:21:59.840 reported on her arrival in London, and research as clamored 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:05.040 their chance to examine the so called Tupa poltergeist. But 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:08.359 for all their efforts, nobody could arrive at a solid 0:22:08.400 --> 0:22:13.000 explanation for what was happening to Eleonora, and though they 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:17.280 didn't know it yet, their window of opportunity was coming 0:22:17.320 --> 0:22:27.879 to a close. In February of nineteen twenty seven, just 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:32.240 over a year after Countess Vasilko Seretski first brought her 0:22:32.280 --> 0:22:38.240 to Austria, Eleonora at her first menstrual period. It was 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:42.320 said that from that point onwards, the supposedly psychic phenomena 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:48.480 steadily declined. The final apparent psychokinetic event is said to 0:22:48.520 --> 0:22:53.200 have taken place on June seventeenth of that year. Later 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:57.919 that summer, Eleonora returned to Romania, relieved to find that 0:22:58.000 --> 0:23:02.760 her so called curse didn't not follow her there by 0:23:02.800 --> 0:23:07.000 all accounts, Eleonora went on to live a perfectly ordinary 0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:11.040 life out of the public eye. She married and worked 0:23:11.040 --> 0:23:15.320 as a hairdresser and manicurist. She also maintained her bond 0:23:15.440 --> 0:23:18.800 with the countess, who by then had become like a 0:23:18.880 --> 0:23:24.240 mother to her. Eleonora Zugan died in nineteen ninety six 0:23:24.720 --> 0:23:28.919 at the age of eighty three. To this day, the 0:23:29.000 --> 0:23:33.040 truth about what exactly had occurred in those early years 0:23:33.080 --> 0:23:40.800 of her life remains unexplained. This episode, written by Emma 0:23:40.840 --> 0:23:46.240 Dibden and produced by me Richard McLean Smith concludes Unexplained. 0:23:46.400 --> 0:23:50.000 Season seven will be taking a short break now until 0:23:50.119 --> 0:23:55.000 season eight, which will begin on Friday, September sixth. For 0:23:55.080 --> 0:23:57.760 the weeks in between, I'll be sharing some more of 0:23:57.800 --> 0:24:01.440 my favorite episodes from season's part and maybe a few 0:24:01.480 --> 0:24:05.080 other things, so listen out for that. If I may 0:24:05.080 --> 0:24:07.919 have your attention for a moment, Before I go, I 0:24:07.960 --> 0:24:10.040 want to leave you with a personal message from me. 0:24:10.960 --> 0:24:14.160 But first I want to thank all the fantastic writers 0:24:14.280 --> 0:24:17.320 that have contributed to the show this season. Thank you 0:24:17.359 --> 0:24:21.159 so much. Firstly to Emma Dibden. Emma is a fantastic 0:24:21.200 --> 0:24:24.680 freelance journalist and writer and author of two books to date, 0:24:25.080 --> 0:24:28.000 Through His Eyes and The Room by the Lake, which 0:24:28.040 --> 0:24:31.159 you should go and check out. Secondly, thank you so 0:24:31.320 --> 0:24:35.080 much to Ella McLoud. Ella is another brilliant author who 0:24:35.119 --> 0:24:39.040 also has two books out currently rapun Zella or Don't 0:24:39.080 --> 0:24:42.040 Touch My Hair and the map that led to You, 0:24:42.680 --> 0:24:45.639 which I highly recommend and which you can purchase at 0:24:45.680 --> 0:24:49.600 all good bookstores. And last, but not least, thank you 0:24:49.680 --> 0:24:53.399 so much to doctor Diane Hope. Diane is a fantastic 0:24:53.480 --> 0:24:57.000 audio producer and sound recordeded in her own right. You 0:24:57.040 --> 0:24:59.560 can find out more about her work and her personal 0:24:59.600 --> 0:25:04.000 coach in field recording, sound design and podcast production at 0:25:04.080 --> 0:25:08.800 Dianehope dot com and on Instagram at in the Sound Field. 0:25:09.880 --> 0:25:12.639 And lastly, but very much not least, I want to 0:25:12.680 --> 0:25:15.240 thank you all for being the most amazing audience of 0:25:15.280 --> 0:25:17.480 all time. I know some of you have been listening 0:25:17.520 --> 0:25:19.720 to the show since day one and I can't tell 0:25:19.760 --> 0:25:22.439 you how much that means to me. And for anyone 0:25:22.440 --> 0:25:25.960 who's new to the show, welcome and thank you too 0:25:26.359 --> 0:25:30.640 for giving us your time. So yes, finally, I want 0:25:30.680 --> 0:25:32.840 to say a few words in a way I don't 0:25:33.000 --> 0:25:36.440 really tend to do one Unexplained about the world as 0:25:36.480 --> 0:25:39.840 it is today. There are many reasons that I don't 0:25:39.920 --> 0:25:43.760 share my own thoughts and feelings in Unexplained episodes or 0:25:43.840 --> 0:25:47.760 on social media. Mainly it's because that's not what Unexplained 0:25:47.760 --> 0:25:50.160 it's about, and it's certainly not what any of you 0:25:50.200 --> 0:25:53.320 come here for. Who needs to hear my take on anything? 0:25:54.359 --> 0:25:56.600 But it's also because if I took the time to 0:25:56.680 --> 0:26:01.280 comment on whatever terrible, atrocity or tragic thing happens to 0:26:01.280 --> 0:26:04.320 be occurring in the world at any given time, I'd 0:26:04.400 --> 0:26:08.000 barely have time to breathe. And for the most part, 0:26:08.119 --> 0:26:11.000 I don't think one tragedy is more deserving of attention 0:26:11.240 --> 0:26:14.359 over another. So please don't take this as a dismissal 0:26:14.400 --> 0:26:16.760 of everything else going on in the world right now, 0:26:17.160 --> 0:26:20.840 because I haven't mentioned something specific, But today I do 0:26:20.920 --> 0:26:24.560 want to say something specific to all my amazing American 0:26:24.600 --> 0:26:28.320 listeners out there. There's a big election coming up in November, 0:26:28.800 --> 0:26:31.200 and you may be nervous about which way it's going 0:26:31.240 --> 0:26:34.480 to go, So I just want to say this. I 0:26:34.560 --> 0:26:37.720 firmly believe that just because someone doesn't see the world 0:26:37.840 --> 0:26:40.280 in the same way that you do, or want for 0:26:40.320 --> 0:26:43.480 the same things, that doesn't make them a bad person. 0:26:44.240 --> 0:26:47.359 It is, of course possible to live side by side 0:26:47.400 --> 0:26:50.679 with people who don't have the same political leanings as you. 0:26:51.440 --> 0:26:54.960 I grant you It's not always easy, but it is possible. 0:26:55.880 --> 0:26:58.240 I also think there is a huge difference between the 0:26:58.320 --> 0:27:01.240 level of hostility that's seems to be festering in the 0:27:01.280 --> 0:27:04.159 country as it may feel online or in the media, 0:27:04.560 --> 0:27:07.240 with how it actually is out in the real world. 0:27:08.200 --> 0:27:10.919 I don't believe that, for the most part, if you 0:27:10.920 --> 0:27:13.320 were to look to that neighbor of yours who might 0:27:13.359 --> 0:27:16.560 not vote like you in real life, that you will 0:27:16.560 --> 0:27:19.639 feel anywhere near the animosity you think you feel for 0:27:19.680 --> 0:27:22.360 them if you regard them simply as part of an 0:27:22.359 --> 0:27:26.560 amorphous group of people who don't share your political views. 0:27:27.280 --> 0:27:30.040 I believe for the most part that we're all ultimately 0:27:30.080 --> 0:27:33.520 striving for the same thing, we just disagree on how 0:27:33.560 --> 0:27:37.080 to get there. I think you're still a long way 0:27:37.119 --> 0:27:41.000 from descending into a genuine, all out civil war. But 0:27:41.119 --> 0:27:44.280 the fact that it isn't wholly inconceivable that you can 0:27:44.320 --> 0:27:48.320 watch a film like Alex Garland's Civil War without requiring 0:27:48.400 --> 0:27:54.080 any suspension of disbelief is frankly horrifying. Equally, that I 0:27:54.080 --> 0:27:57.560 can wake up to the news that the Republican candidate 0:27:57.600 --> 0:28:01.800 for the presidency only narrowly escape being assassinated on live 0:28:01.880 --> 0:28:07.800 TV without being entirely surprised is astonishing. This will, no 0:28:07.880 --> 0:28:10.879 doubt have haunted many of you. But when you think 0:28:10.920 --> 0:28:14.840 back to that moment in the days, weeks, months, and 0:28:15.000 --> 0:28:19.280 years to come, perhaps think not about the shooter or 0:28:19.320 --> 0:28:24.080 the intended target, but think instead about the innocent people 0:28:24.119 --> 0:28:27.600 in the audience who are not so fortunate. Think of 0:28:27.720 --> 0:28:32.560 Corey Comparator, who, in the moment of deadly chaos, did 0:28:32.560 --> 0:28:36.080 the only thing he could reasonably think of. He put 0:28:36.119 --> 0:28:39.560 his arms around his family to save them at the 0:28:39.600 --> 0:28:44.640 cost of his own life. Regardless of your politics, this 0:28:44.760 --> 0:28:49.760 deeply human and crucially relatable act is the defining moment 0:28:49.840 --> 0:28:54.960 of that horrific event. For me. Empathy, as ever, is 0:28:55.000 --> 0:29:00.880 always the key experience art, watch movies, read books, read 0:29:00.960 --> 0:29:04.760 novels especially, and not just stories that you will personally 0:29:04.800 --> 0:29:09.400 relate to. Watch, read and listen to stories about how 0:29:09.480 --> 0:29:13.800 other people feel and experience the world. No doubt you 0:29:13.880 --> 0:29:16.719 all already do, but if not, I can promise you 0:29:16.800 --> 0:29:19.720 it will open up gateways in your mind that you 0:29:19.800 --> 0:29:25.600 didn't know existed. And above all, listen to music. It's 0:29:25.640 --> 0:29:30.000 the closest thing we have to the truth. Until next time, 0:29:30.560 --> 0:29:39.960 I wish you all the best. Unexplained as an Avy 0:29:40.000 --> 0:29:45.000 Club Productions podcast created by Richard McClain smith. All other 0:29:45.040 --> 0:29:48.680 elements of the podcast, including the music, are also produced 0:29:48.720 --> 0:29:53.360 by me Richard McClain smith. Unexplained. The book and audiobook, 0:29:53.600 --> 0:29:56.680 with stories never before featured on the show, is now 0:29:56.720 --> 0:30:01.120 available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes 0:30:01.160 --> 0:30:05.840 and Noble, Waterstones, and other bookstores. Please subscribe to and 0:30:05.960 --> 0:30:09.240 rate the show wherever you get your podcasts, and feel 0:30:09.240 --> 0:30:11.840 free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas 0:30:12.160 --> 0:30:15.160 regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you 0:30:15.240 --> 0:30:17.560 have an explanation of your own you'd like to share. 0:30:18.240 --> 0:30:21.719 You can find out more at Unexplained podcast dot com 0:30:21.720 --> 0:30:25.440