Speaker 1: With Unexplained on an end of season break. We'll be
Speaker 1: dipping back into the archives each week until season nine
Speaker 1: begins on Friday, October thirty. First, this week's episode might
Speaker 1: just be the most disturbing story I've ever covered on Unexplained,
Speaker 1: and it's certainly one that has stayed with me to
Speaker 1: this day. Back in the nineteen seventies, in the quiet
Speaker 1: North English town of Ossit, an ordinary family found themselves
Speaker 1: drawn into a world that was anything but. What began
Speaker 1: as a struggle with doubt, faith, and the weight of
Speaker 1: daily life soon took on a darker shape as strange
Speaker 1: behaviours and unsettling visions began to erode one man's fragile
Speaker 1: sense of normality. What followed would leave an entire community
Speaker 1: shaken and raised chilling questions about the nature of free will.
Speaker 1: Was it illness, suggestion or something far older and more
Speaker 1: sinister at work? This week we revisit one of Britain's
Speaker 1: most disturbing tales of possession, faith and madness, a story
Speaker 1: that remains shrounded in mystery to this day. This is Unexplained,
Speaker 1: Season one, episode six, Demons in Suburbia. We humans can
Speaker 1: often take for granted that we are ultimately responsible for
Speaker 1: our actions, that the choices we make are governed by
Speaker 1: nothing but our own free will. And yet studies have
Speaker 1: shown that the brain can enact certain decisions up to
Speaker 1: seven seconds before we have even become aware that we
Speaker 1: are making them. The notion of free will is explored
Speaker 1: by the philosopher John Gray in his groundbreaking book straw Dogs,
Speaker 1: a work of startling insight, deposits, amongst many other profound notions,
Speaker 1: that the fallacy of free will is merely a concept
Speaker 1: that helps us make sense of the world, that all
Speaker 1: our acts are in fact nothing but the end point
Speaker 1: in a series of long sequences of unconscious responses. To
Speaker 1: accept that free will is little more than an illusion
Speaker 1: is a little unnerving, to say the least. For some,
Speaker 1: it could be seen as merely a fascinating quirk of life,
Speaker 1: perhaps the existence of the seven second delay, merely the
Speaker 1: consequence of a quantum process we are yet to fully understand.
Speaker 1: But for others, a lack of free will might speak
Speaker 1: of something else, entirely, something far more sinister. For after all,
Speaker 1: if we aren't in control of our minds, than just
Speaker 1: who or what is to unexplained? And I'm Richard MacLean Smith.
Speaker 1: The following story took place in England in nineteen seventy four,
Speaker 1: and I must warn the listener that it will contain
Speaker 1: some horrific and graphic details. Believed by some to be
Speaker 1: the most shocking account of demonic possession ever to have
Speaker 1: occurred in the UK. The events that took place one
Speaker 1: quiet Sunday morning in a small Yorkshire town have never
Speaker 1: been fully accounted for. It is a chilling mystery that
Speaker 1: remains to this day unexplained. For Britain, the nineteen seventies
Speaker 1: was a time of extraordinary uncertainty. As the government lurched
Speaker 1: from right to left. The country found itself struggling to
Speaker 1: adapt to a posed industrial age. For some, especially those
Speaker 1: in power, it seemed that nothing less than the country's
Speaker 1: entire social fabric was at stake. For the residents of
Speaker 1: the West Yorkshire market town of Ossit, the landscape had
Speaker 1: been shifting for some time. The town, situated in border
Speaker 1: country where the northwest of the coal fields merged with
Speaker 1: the southeast of the woolen mills, had once been a
Speaker 1: thriving pocket of industry, but like many northern towns in
Speaker 1: the early seventies, it was facing an uncertain future. For
Speaker 1: one couple in particular, that future was beginning to look
Speaker 1: increasingly bleak. Thirty one year old Michael Taylor and his
Speaker 1: twenty nine year old wife, Christine were described by friends
Speaker 1: as a kind and loving couple and doting parents to
Speaker 1: five young boys who were well liked by the local community.
Speaker 1: After an accident at work, Michael had been forced to
Speaker 1: leave his job after seriously injuring his back, and as
Speaker 1: the country slipped into a full blown recession, opportunities for
Speaker 1: jobs had all but dried up. For a proud young
Speaker 1: father of the seventies, his sense of inadequacy and low
Speaker 1: self esteem was profound, and with the pressure to provide
Speaker 1: for his family starting to mount, Michael began to suffer
Speaker 1: from intermittent bounts of depression. At some point, a local
Speaker 1: friend called Barbara Wardman, called to see how the family
Speaker 1: were holding up. Concerned that the couple's recent struggles had
Speaker 1: left them socially isolated, Barbara suggested they accompany her to
Speaker 1: an upcoming social event that she had organized. Barbara, it
Speaker 1: turned out, had recently become involved with a local group
Speaker 1: calling themselves the Christian Fellowship of Ossit The group were
Speaker 1: part of a growing movement known collectively as charismatic Christianity.
Speaker 1: For Michael and Christine, who had never shown an interest
Speaker 1: in the church, or any religion for that matter, the
Speaker 1: invitation to join Barbara's group seemed a little daunting. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: later that week, the Tailors attended their first fellowship meeting
Speaker 1: and were surprised by what they found. Rather than the
Speaker 1: stuck up, prickly group of religious eccentrics that they had expected, instead,
Speaker 1: they found a group of friendly, ordinary people just like themselves.
Speaker 1: Leading the congregation was a twenty two year old lay
Speaker 1: preacher named Marie Robinson. The young charismatic in every sense
Speaker 1: of the word, made a deep impression on the couple.
Speaker 1: That night, under Marie's magnetic tutelage. Lifted by the joyous
Speaker 1: spirit of the group, Michael and Christine converted to Christianity.
Speaker 1: Eager to learn more about their new religion, Michael and
Speaker 1: Christine attended a service conducted by Marie in the town
Speaker 1: of Hawbury. During the service, Marie seemed to become suddenly distressed.
Speaker 1: Shaking wildly, she started speaking in a strange language, claiming
Speaker 1: she was possessed by the Holy Spirit. Unbeknownst to the tailors,
Speaker 1: speaking in tongues, also known as glossalalia, was a prominent
Speaker 1: feature of the charismatic movement. Later that night, the Christian Fellowship,
Speaker 1: led by Marie Robinson, convened for a meeting at the
Speaker 1: Taylor's house. At some point jo during the service, many
Speaker 1: in the congregation noticed Michael becoming strangely animated, seeming to
Speaker 1: be in the grip of an unknown force. Michael started
Speaker 1: shaking violently before shouting a stream of strange, garbled words. Ordinarily,
Speaker 1: such an outburst might cause celebration amongst the group, but
Speaker 1: this was something different. The group were greatly disturbed. One member,
Speaker 1: Mavis Smith, sank into an instant depression and started to
Speaker 1: cry uncontrollably. Instinctively, Marie knelt in front of Mavis, calmly,
Speaker 1: placed her hands on her head, and proceeded to perform
Speaker 1: what Christine and Michael later discovered was an exorcism. As
Speaker 1: Marie's voice grew louder, Mavis began to writhe uncontrollably, becoming
Speaker 1: more and more animated and swearing at Marie, telling her
Speaker 1: she hated her and to leave her alone. When it
Speaker 1: was finally over, the scared and confused members slowly left
Speaker 1: and agreed to record later in the week. The following day,
Speaker 1: a concerned Marie returned to the tailor's home to check
Speaker 1: on Michael's welfare. Christine, who had sensed that Michael was
Speaker 1: developing an attraction to Marie, suggested the pair be left
Speaker 1: alone to discuss their feelings. When Christine exited the room,
Speaker 1: Michael kissed Marie, who immediately pushed him away. Marie pleaded
Speaker 1: with Michael to think of his love for Christine. When
Speaker 1: Christine re entered, Michael declared that they had won a
Speaker 1: great victory for the Lord. A miracle has happened, he said.
Speaker 1: We have both overcome our passions. But then something strange occurred.
Speaker 1: Michael found himself standing naked, as if in a dream,
Speaker 1: in a place that was not of this world. In
Speaker 1: front of him, with her face turned away, was Marie,
Speaker 1: who was also naked. As she slowly turned her head
Speaker 1: to face him, Michael was horrified to see that her
Speaker 1: eyes had been replaced by two snakelike slits. At once,
Speaker 1: he felt a tremendous evil rise up inside of him.
Speaker 1: For Marie, looking on at Michael in the room, she
Speaker 1: recounted seeing a strange look come over him, a look
Speaker 1: that she would later claim was nothing less than the
Speaker 1: face of the devil. Suddenly, Michael began shouting in tongues
Speaker 1: and slapped at Marie's head. Christine tried her best to
Speaker 1: get between them, but was pushed out of the way
Speaker 1: by her husband. Michael grabbed Marie by the hair and
Speaker 1: threw her across the room, knocking her out cold. When
Speaker 1: she came to moments later, the usually timid and gentle
Speaker 1: Michael was crouched over her with a look of murder
Speaker 1: in his eyes. Seconds later, having completely snapped out of
Speaker 1: whatever had come over him, Michael collapsed exhausted after towards
Speaker 1: Christine ordered Marie to stay away from their home, and
Speaker 1: in the days that followed, noticed Michael's behavior becoming increasingly erratic.
Speaker 1: He muttered strange things to himself and became angered by
Speaker 1: religious iconography. A neighbour spotted Michael wandering the local streets
Speaker 1: in the Bazaarre state. He spat on the ground and
Speaker 1: told her to look on it as milk, telling her
Speaker 1: to drink it, for it was the milk of human kindness.
Speaker 1: As Christine became increasingly concerned for Michael, they turned again
Speaker 1: to the fellowship for guidance. On the evening of October three,
Speaker 1: they attended a meeting led by the Reverend Peter Vincent
Speaker 1: of the Church of Saint Thomas at Gorbaugh in Barnsley.
Speaker 1: Vincent was a well respected figure in the local charismatic movement,
Speaker 1: having introduced it to his own congregation earlier in the year.
Speaker 1: Within minutes of meeting Michael, it was clear to Reverend
Speaker 1: Vincent that something was profoundly wrong. After inviting Michael to
Speaker 1: make confession, he perferre formed a minor exorcism before sending
Speaker 1: the emotionally drained tailor's back home. Once they had returned, Michael,
Speaker 1: fearful of what exactly was happening to him, was too
Speaker 1: afraid to sleep, pleading with his wife to stay by
Speaker 1: his side. That night, they made the Sign of the
Speaker 1: Cross repeatedly over each other in an attempt to ward
Speaker 1: off the evil spirits. Two days later, on October the fifth,
Speaker 1: Michael returned for another fellowship meeting. Alarmed by his behaviour,
Speaker 1: the group suggested he be taken immediately to see the
Speaker 1: Reverend Vincent. After being driven to the Vickers house, the
Speaker 1: vicar's wife, Sally welcomed the couple into her home and
Speaker 1: settled them down in the kitchen. A local Methodist minister
Speaker 1: from Barnsley called Raymond Smith was called to provide a
Speaker 1: second opinion. A short time later, Smith duly arrived at
Speaker 1: the vicarage with his wife Margaret. As they sat down
Speaker 1: to eat dinner, Michael immediately smashed his plate to the floor.
Speaker 1: When the vicar's cat entered the room, he screamed at it,
Speaker 1: pulling fur from its back and throwing it out of
Speaker 1: the house before he could be restrained. Reverend Vincent was
Speaker 1: utterly shocked. To him, it was clear Michael was possessed
Speaker 1: by something deeply evil. There was no other option but
Speaker 1: to perform a complete exorcism. As the others looked around nervously,
Speaker 1: Reverend Smith was the first to speak up. Unconvinced by
Speaker 1: Vincent's diagnosis, Smith thought it best that they consult a
Speaker 1: doctor first. However, Christian was worried that calling the medical
Speaker 1: services may cause even more distress to Michael. Sally agreed.
Speaker 1: It was clear to her that not only was Michael possessed,
Speaker 1: but that Marie Robinson was the culprit, having pledged Michael's
Speaker 1: soul to Satan during one of her unorthodox rituals. The
Speaker 1: team moved quickly, calling in Methodist lay preacher Donald James
Speaker 1: to assist with the exorcism at once. Michael was taken
Speaker 1: to Saint Thomas's Church and ordered to lie down in
Speaker 1: the vestry on a pile of hassecks that had been
Speaker 1: laid out on the floor. Candles were lit all around,
Speaker 1: and the three clergymen, watched on by their wives, gathered
Speaker 1: ominously around Michael. A bright moon hung in the sky,
Speaker 1: and as the chill of the night descended, the preachers
Speaker 1: began casting the demons from Michael's soul. For over six hours,
Speaker 1: the priests worked casting out demon upon demon as Michael
Speaker 1: rised and screamed into the night, at one point shouting
Speaker 1: out the demon name of Incest in a strange guttural voice.
Speaker 1: A cross belonging to Michael was later burned in a
Speaker 1: cleansing ritual. The following morning, as the sun's first rays
Speaker 1: filtered through the windows of the church, the preachers collapsed,
Speaker 1: exhausted to the ground. By Reverend Vincent's count, it had
Speaker 1: been an unqualified success, having cast out no less than
Speaker 1: fifty demons from Michael's troubled soul. However, there remained three
Speaker 1: demons that they had not successfully exercised, the demon of insanity, violence,
Speaker 1: and most worryingly of all, murder. Too exhausted to continue,
Speaker 1: it was agreed that Michael be sent home to rest
Speaker 1: before returning at a later date. With the tailor's children
Speaker 1: spending the night at their grandparents, Christine and Michael returned
Speaker 1: to an empty home shortly after nine a m. On
Speaker 1: the morning of Sunday, October sixth A neighbor of the
Speaker 1: tailors later recounted seeing Christine shortly after they arrived back.
Speaker 1: Christine had seemed distressed, telling her neighbor that she was
Speaker 1: worried that something might have gotten into her. She had
Speaker 1: planned to rest with Michael a short while before calling
Speaker 1: for a doctor. Soon after, Christine went back inside the
Speaker 1: he It was the last time she would ever be
Speaker 1: seen alive again. Shortly after ten am, a strange call
Speaker 1: was received at Ossit Police station. P c Ian Walker,
Speaker 1: who had just clocked in for work, assumed it was
Speaker 1: some kind of practical joke. The caller claimed to have
Speaker 1: seen a naked man walking through the streets, covered head
Speaker 1: to foot in paint. Walker and his partner promptly got
Speaker 1: into their regulation patrol vehicle and headed out in search
Speaker 1: of the mysterious man. Being as it was a quiet
Speaker 1: Sunday morning in a small market town, it wasn't long
Speaker 1: before they found him. The two officers pulled over in
Speaker 1: the car and carefully approached. As Walker drew near, his
Speaker 1: confusion turned to horror. It wasn't paint that covered the
Speaker 1: man from head to toe. It was blood. Walker radioed
Speaker 1: back to bed and was informed that the man he
Speaker 1: had before him was Michael Taylor. Walker's first reaction was
Speaker 1: to search Michael's body for any sign of a wound,
Speaker 1: but was horrified to discover that whoever's blood this was,
Speaker 1: it wasn't Michael's. Staring out to an unimaginable distance, Michael
Speaker 1: spoke in a quiet, detached manner, it is the blood
Speaker 1: of Satan, he said, I have killed my wife. I
Speaker 1: know I have. With Michael safely picked up and dispatched
Speaker 1: to hospital, Worker made his way to the Taylor's house.
Speaker 1: When he arrived at the property, a superior officer had
Speaker 1: already inspected the scene. From the look on his face alone,
Speaker 1: Walker should have known better than to enter, but despite
Speaker 1: efforts to prevent him. P. C. Walker's curiosity got the
Speaker 1: better of him. What he saw would form the basis
Speaker 1: for every nightmare he has suffered ever since. Tracing back
Speaker 1: from the front door, a clear trail of blood could
Speaker 1: be seen leading out from the living room. Through the
Speaker 1: door frame, he could just make out Christine Taylor's lifeless
Speaker 1: body strewn across the floor. All around the room was
Speaker 1: splattered in blood. Her blood. It seemed to cover every
Speaker 1: inch of her face, as if she had been smeared
Speaker 1: in it. But as he drew near, the full horror
Speaker 1: was revealed to him. There was no face where there
Speaker 1: should have been eyes. Instead, there were two seemingly endless cavities.
Speaker 1: Her eyeballs had been ripped from the sockets and thrown
Speaker 1: across the room, the flesh of her face torn from
Speaker 1: her skull in a brutal fit of mania, and perhaps
Speaker 1: the strangest of all, her tongue had been pulled clean
Speaker 1: from her mouth. As the police searched desperately for a
Speaker 1: sign of the murder weapon, something dawned on them with
Speaker 1: a profound sense of shock. There was no weapon. Michael
Speaker 1: Taylor had done it all with his bare hands. On
Speaker 1: March twenty fifth, nineteen seventy five at Leeds Crown Court,
Speaker 1: Michael Taylor was found not guilty of the murder of
Speaker 1: his wife due to what was deemed a momentary bout
Speaker 1: of insanity. Coroner Philip Gill believed that Michael had no
Speaker 1: criminal or evil intent, and that he was merely trying
Speaker 1: to relieve his wife of the evil he saw in her.
Speaker 1: After sentencing, doctor HUGO. Milne, consultant psychiatrist to the Bradford
Speaker 1: Group of Hospitals, entered Michael Taylor's cell in Leeds Prison.
Speaker 1: He found the defendant to be completely detached from reality,
Speaker 1: unaware of his surroundings, and unfit to remain in prison custody.
Speaker 1: He was immediately transferred to Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital, where doctor
Speaker 1: Milne made an initial diagnose of an acute schizophrenic attack,
Speaker 1: but subsequently reversed his decision. It was his belief that
Speaker 1: one way or another, the Fellowship Group had created Michael's insanity,
Speaker 1: and that Michael's fascination with Marie Robinson had in some
Speaker 1: way played a part in it. Archbishop of Canterbury at
Speaker 1: the time, Donald Coggan, strongly condemned the reckless approach of
Speaker 1: the fellowship. The Reverend Peter Vincent, for his part, exhibited
Speaker 1: no remorse, believing unequivocally that Michael had been possessed by
Speaker 1: an evil spirit. The Church of England continues the practice
Speaker 1: of exorcism to this day. Aside from the senseless and
Speaker 1: avoidable loss of life, what strikes me most about this
Speaker 1: tragic story is the fact that, regardless of what you believe,
Speaker 1: there is no doubt that whatever Michael Taylor experienced or witnessed,
Speaker 1: it all appeared horrifyingly real to him. Although we will
Speaker 1: never know exactly what happened to Michael, conventional wisdom suggests
Speaker 1: some form of schizophrenia. As such, I found myself drawn
Speaker 1: to a fascinating paper titled Quantum Logic of the Unconscious
Speaker 1: and Schizophrenia. The paper, written by theoretical physicists Paula Zizi
Speaker 1: and Massimo Pregnolato, explores the mechanics of schizophrenia through the
Speaker 1: framework of what is known as the quantum mind. In
Speaker 1: a trivial sense. The notion of the quantum mind derives
Speaker 1: from the theory that since all of everything we know
Speaker 1: can be reduced to the quantum level, it follows that
Speaker 1: consciousness itself must in some way be linked to quantum
Speaker 1: mechanical phenomena. It is a thought that has led some
Speaker 1: to consider the brain as a form of quantum computer.
Speaker 1: Drawing on earlier work by psychiatrists and creator of the
Speaker 1: term schizophrenia, Eigenbleoiler and the work of Sigmund Freud Zizi,
Speaker 1: and Pregnolato's paper posits the idea that in a computational sense,
Speaker 1: the logic of the unconscious may well be the same
Speaker 1: as the logic of schizophrenia. While a healthy mind will
Speaker 1: adopt the logic of consciousness as its primary process of thinking,
Speaker 1: the schizophrenic mind instead adopts the unconscious mind at its
Speaker 1: primary mode. By extension, might it then be that not
Speaker 1: only do we all possess the capacity to experience schizophrenic episodes,
Speaker 1: but that such occurrences may be the result of quantum
Speaker 1: processes in the brain, processes that, in theory, could at
Speaker 1: any time be switched from one state to another. Is
Speaker 1: it possible that the extraordinary nature of Michael's experiences, exacerbated
Speaker 1: by the intense delirium of his exorcism, created a fundamental
Speaker 1: change in Michael's mind, a change that converted his darkest
Speaker 1: unconscious nightmares into a physical, conscious reality. It is certainly
Speaker 1: compelling to wonder at what could possibly cause such a
Speaker 1: gentle and loving husband as Michael Taylor to say so
Speaker 1: brutally and manically murder his wife in a sudden moment
Speaker 1: of insanity. That the mind might be so fragile and
Speaker 1: susceptible in such a way is a truly terrifying thought.
Speaker 1: Might we too be little more than a quantum leap
Speaker 1: from madness if we are not indeed already there? It
Speaker 1: certainly puts a new spin on that most familiar Biblical adage,
Speaker 1: Please forgive us, for we know not what we do.
Speaker 1: Thank you, as ever for listening. Unexplained as an Avy
Speaker 1: Club production podcast created by Richard McLain Smith. All other
Speaker 1: elements of the podcast, including the music, are also produced
Speaker 1: by me Richard McLain Smith. Unexplained. The book and audiobook
Speaker 1: is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon,
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Speaker 1: and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts, and
Speaker 1: feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or
Speaker 1: ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps
Speaker 1: you have an explanation or a story of your own
Speaker 1: you'd like to share. You can find out more at
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