Speaker 1: This episode is adapted from a live episode that I
Speaker 1: presented at the London Podcast Festival in twenty sixteen and
Speaker 1: later released on this stream, so may be familiar to
Speaker 1: some listeners. The town of Runcorn, located on the banks
Speaker 1: of the River Mersey, fifteen miles east of Liverpool in
Speaker 1: the northwest of England, was once a beating heart of
Speaker 1: the British Industrial Revolution. Back then, the chemistry of soap
Speaker 1: and alkali production were its most prominent industries. By the
Speaker 1: mid twentieth century, however, it was the chemistry of societal
Speaker 1: change that seemed to be working hardest on the town.
Speaker 1: With much of its past industrial glory having dissolved or
Speaker 1: moved on, it was only the dark and pungent tanneries
Speaker 1: that still clung on the last remnant of a different
Speaker 1: age in nineteen fifty two, despite the Second World War
Speaker 1: having ended seven years previously, its shadow continued to linger
Speaker 1: deep within the fabric of British society, and the communities
Speaker 1: of Rumhorn were no different. Among the many from the
Speaker 1: town who went off to fight one hundred and nineteen
Speaker 1: did not return, and the ones that did were not
Speaker 1: the same anymore. It caused significant upheaval to a great
Speaker 1: many families, families like the Glenn and Joneses of Number
Speaker 1: one Byron Street, Like most typical working families of the region,
Speaker 1: they had little choice but to keep calm and carry
Speaker 1: on regardless, to just somehow find a way through it all.
Speaker 1: But there was nothing that could prepare them for the
Speaker 1: extraordinary events that were soon to engulf their lives. What
Speaker 1: exactly happened to the family in that most peculiar year
Speaker 1: has never truly been accounted for. You're listening to Unexplained,
Speaker 1: and I'm Richard McClean smith. In nineteen fifty two, Number
Speaker 1: one Byron Street, a two story end of terrace house
Speaker 1: in the north of Runcorn, was home to sixty eight
Speaker 1: year old widower Sam Jones, as well as his widowed
Speaker 1: sister in law Lucy Jones, his eight year old granddaughter
Speaker 1: Eileen Glynn, and his seventeen year old grandson John Glynn.
Speaker 1: Fifty nine year old Ellen Whittle, who'd been lodging with
Speaker 1: the Glynn and Joneses since nineteen thirty seven, completed this
Speaker 1: unusual quintet of occupants. The house was divided into three bedrooms,
Speaker 1: with Lucy and Eileen sharing one room and Sam and
Speaker 1: John sharing another, while the third, which led off from
Speaker 1: Sam and John's room, was occupied by Miss Whittle. Things
Speaker 1: became a little more crowded On Sunday, seventeenth of August, however,
Speaker 1: when Sam, John, Lucy, and Eileen were forced to share
Speaker 1: a bedroom together to accommodate Lucy's son and daughter in law,
Speaker 1: who were visiting that weekend. It was by no means
Speaker 1: a new arrangement. Yet for some reason that night Lucy
Speaker 1: was having trouble sleeping. Lying in the dark, she was
Speaker 1: convinced she could hear a strange noise that seemed to
Speaker 1: be emanating from the dresser, like something gently clawing at
Speaker 1: the wood. Did you hear that? She whispered. Irritated, Sam
Speaker 1: got up and turned on the light, then whipped open
Speaker 1: the drawers. Inside he found nothing but the usual odds
Speaker 1: and ends of pencils, notepaper, and shaving implements. Pushing the
Speaker 1: drawers back in with a huff, he switched off the
Speaker 1: light and went back to bed. Moments later, the noise returned,
Speaker 1: except this time it began steadily to get louder and
Speaker 1: the clawing faster, until it started to sound as though
Speaker 1: something were trying to get out of the dressing table,
Speaker 1: staring aghast in the dark toward the sound. The family
Speaker 1: hurriedly jumped up together and rushed from the room in
Speaker 1: a collective terror. Suddenly finding themselves standing together in their
Speaker 1: nightclothes in the cold of the hallway, they looked sheepishly
Speaker 1: toward each other, feeling a little silly about the whole episode,
Speaker 1: Laughing it off. One by one, they returned to the
Speaker 1: bedroom to find the strange noise had now stopped, But
Speaker 1: as they each slipped back under their respective sheets, they
Speaker 1: soon found that something of the event had remained with them,
Speaker 1: and no matter how hard each of them tried, neither
Speaker 1: of them quite managed to reach the land of sleep.
Speaker 1: The next night, Lucy and Eileen returned to their usual bedroom,
Speaker 1: leaving Sam and John alone to sleep in theirs. No
Speaker 1: sooner had their lights gone out, the scratching began again,
Speaker 1: followed moments later by a terrific series of bangs as
Speaker 1: the dresser draws were repeatedly slammed open and shut. Sam
Speaker 1: hurriedly switched on the light and gasped the dressing table
Speaker 1: was now standing well over a foot away from the wall,
Speaker 1: thinking that perhaps some kind of practical joker had invaded
Speaker 1: their home. Sam immediately called the police. A short time later,
Speaker 1: two local officers and a sergeant arrived to find the
Speaker 1: family in deep distress. As the police listened patiently to
Speaker 1: Sam detailing the strange events, how they only happened in
Speaker 1: the dark and stopped as soon as the light was
Speaker 1: turned on, it was hard not to suspect that one
Speaker 1: of Sam's own family was in fact responsible. Nonetheless, after
Speaker 1: making a thorough search of the property, the police set
Speaker 1: a series of traps to rule out human involvement, including
Speaker 1: placing a tumbler on the dressing table and applying adhesive
Speaker 1: tape over the drawers. Sam and John sat together on
Speaker 1: the bed as the police kept watch. Then one of
Speaker 1: the officers switched off the light. Moments later, the dressing
Speaker 1: table was heard rocking wild back and forth, followed by
Speaker 1: a furious rattling of the drawers and an almighty crash,
Speaker 1: like the sound of a window being smashed in. When
Speaker 1: the light was turned on. Seconds later, the smashed remains
Speaker 1: of the tumbler could be seen on the floor, and
Speaker 1: the dresser had once again been seemingly pulled from the wall. Strangely, however,
Speaker 1: the tape remained intact over the drawers, and neither Sam
Speaker 1: nor John had been seen to leave their bed. One
Speaker 1: lesser known fact about Unexplained is that it actually started
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Speaker 1: vidence of criminal activity. After a second fruitless night of tests,
Speaker 1: the police withdrew from the property and later filed a
Speaker 1: report detailing the unexplained activity at the house. As the
Speaker 1: sergeant would go on to note, we tried every method
Speaker 1: known to us, and believe me, the family and not
Speaker 1: doing it. After four sleepless nights, seventeen year old John
Speaker 1: was fast becoming a nervous wreck, not least because of
Speaker 1: the growing sense among those in the house that the
Speaker 1: disturbances were beginning to center on him. As word of
Speaker 1: the events began to spread, a local self styled medium
Speaker 1: named Phil France volunteered to help the family. Believing the
Speaker 1: house to be haunted, France, together with fellows self described
Speaker 1: medium and friend of the family, Missus Bousfield, offered to
Speaker 1: conduct a seance to rid the property of any ghosts
Speaker 1: that were located there. On the evening of Thursday, twenty
Speaker 1: first of August, France and Bousfield gathered with John and
Speaker 1: Sam in their bedroom. Then after asking for the light
Speaker 1: to be switched off. France called out into the darkness
Speaker 1: and asked for a sign. Just then, two bibles that
Speaker 1: France had brought with him were flung from the dresser,
Speaker 1: followed by a small clock that clattered to the ground
Speaker 1: as the family shrieked in fear. In haste, the light
Speaker 1: was switched back on. Sam gasped at the sight of Bousfield, who,
Speaker 1: with a strange look on her face, was staring directly
Speaker 1: to the side of the dresser. There's someone there, she said,
Speaker 1: a man. As she began to describe him, It quickly
Speaker 1: became clear to John that the man she was detailing
Speaker 1: was his dead father, Michael, who died of cancer only
Speaker 1: four months previously. Then France spoke suddenly and appeared to
Speaker 1: double over in pain. It was a spirit guide coming through,
Speaker 1: he said, with the message for John to pass on
Speaker 1: to his mother Norah. A pained and tight voice came
Speaker 1: from France's lips, saying that Michael's spirit had remained earth
Speaker 1: bound after inadvertently becoming attached to an evil poltergeist. Once
Speaker 1: John had delivered this message to his mother, it said,
Speaker 1: Michael would be free to pass over. The following night,
Speaker 1: with John having spoken to his mother. Just as France predicted,
Speaker 1: not a sound was heard, and the family finally bedded
Speaker 1: down for their first uninterrupted sleep in five nights. The
Speaker 1: disturbances appeared to be over. With news of the events
Speaker 1: at Byron Street spreading fast, the family became inundated with
Speaker 1: interview requests from local press. Having first resisted them all,
Speaker 1: when a series of unflattering rumors began to circulate about
Speaker 1: the family, Sam decided to set the record straight. The
Speaker 1: resultant article appeared in the Runcorn Guardian on August twenty ninth,
Speaker 1: by which point there had been no sign of activity
Speaker 1: in over a week. But any hope that going public
Speaker 1: would settle the story once and for all proved to
Speaker 1: be wildly naive. Certainly, for a town eager to be
Speaker 1: distracted from the drudgery of the shipyards and tanneries, an
Speaker 1: article proclaiming the existence of an evil poltergeist at the
Speaker 1: home of one of their own was too much to ignore.
Speaker 1: For one reader, especially, the story would prove to be
Speaker 1: of particular interest. On the afternoon of the twenty ninth,
Speaker 1: on the other side of the River Mersey, in the
Speaker 1: town of Widness, Reverend William Stephens was settling down for
Speaker 1: his tea when he came across the story of the
Speaker 1: Byron Street poltergeist, now being referred to as the Runcorn Thing.
Speaker 1: As a Methodist minister, it was perhaps unsurprising that Stephens
Speaker 1: would take an interest in such speculative talk of evil spirits. However,
Speaker 1: it was in a somewhat different capacity that his interest
Speaker 1: had been piqued. In addition to his position as a minister,
Speaker 1: Stevens had also for a number of years been a
Speaker 1: member of the Society for Psychical Research, with a particular
Speaker 1: interest in the paranormal and mediumship. Despite all his years
Speaker 1: of interest, however, never before had Stephens had a case
Speaker 1: land on his own doorstep, and it was too good
Speaker 1: an opportunity to turn down. Meanwhile, back at the Glyn
Speaker 1: and Jones's household, something was stirring. After two weeks of peace,
Speaker 1: John and Sam had just settled down to sleep when
Speaker 1: those familiar scratches darted up again in the darkness. Sam
Speaker 1: had just enough time to duck as something large and
Speaker 1: bulky flew through the air before clattering to the floor
Speaker 1: at the far side of the room. Switching on the light,
Speaker 1: Sam and John gasped at the sight of the chair,
Speaker 1: now lying on its side against the wall, a large
Speaker 1: dent in the plaster where it had hit the thing,
Speaker 1: it seemed was back. The following day, Sam turned up
Speaker 1: for work at near by Pool Farm, completely shattered. Seeing
Speaker 1: the state of his employee, His boss, Harold Crowther, couldn't
Speaker 1: help but ask if Sam was okay. Sam took a
Speaker 1: moment as he tried to answer. Then a wave came
Speaker 1: over him, and despite his best efforts to stop it,
Speaker 1: he burst into a flood of tears. He couldn't take
Speaker 1: it anymore, he said, all the sleepless and endless nights
Speaker 1: of terror. As he wiped away at his eyes. He
Speaker 1: begged Crowther to come and see for himself if anything
Speaker 1: could be done. Back home, John was also struggling to cope.
Speaker 1: Equally terrified and afraid for his life, He divided his
Speaker 1: good friend, nineteen year old John Berry to stay with
Speaker 1: him in the house. Happy to help, Berry promptly moved
Speaker 1: into John's bedroom with Sam, by then preferring to sleep
Speaker 1: downstairs on the sofa. On Monday, twenty second of September,
Speaker 1: having been informed of a sick our barrage of violent activity,
Speaker 1: occurring at Byron Street the night before, Reverend Stevens resolved
Speaker 1: to go immediately to the property. That evening, he and
Speaker 1: two associates, Reverend Stafford and Leicester, made their way to
Speaker 1: the Glynn and Jones's home, only to find roughly three
Speaker 1: hundred people gathered outside and the house crammed with visitors,
Speaker 1: the result of an open invitation from Sam for anyone
Speaker 1: who doubted his family's story to come and witness the
Speaker 1: phenomenon for themselves. At eleven thirty pm, with the crowd
Speaker 1: largely dispersed, the ministers were joined in the bedroom by
Speaker 1: Sam's boss, Harold Crowther and one other of his associates.
Speaker 1: With things only seeming to happen under cover of darkness,
Speaker 1: the men had brought torches with them in the hope
Speaker 1: of catching the phantom out. John Glynn and John Berry
Speaker 1: got into the bed and the light was once again
Speaker 1: switched off. The five men stood watch in the dark,
Speaker 1: waiting patiently with their fingers poised over the switch of
Speaker 1: their torches, ready to catch a ghost. Before long, the
Speaker 1: dresser cracked and creaked into life and started rocking viciously
Speaker 1: against the wall. The torches were hurriedly switched on, and
Speaker 1: all activity instantly ceased. Stevens pushed the dresser back into
Speaker 1: the corner, and again the light was turned out. If
Speaker 1: you can hear my voice, knock three times, shouted Stevens,
Speaker 1: as if in response, the dresser began again to shake violently,
Speaker 1: but this time, when Stevens shone his torch at it,
Speaker 1: all in the room reeled back in horror as the
Speaker 1: dresser continued to rock on its own accord for over
Speaker 1: three seconds. What followed was another night of violent bombardment,
Speaker 1: with everything in sight dislodged. A chest at the foot
Speaker 1: of the bed was repeatedly banged against it, moving four
Speaker 1: men who were sat on it at the time, and
Speaker 1: the bed itself across the room. At one point, something
Speaker 1: even grabbed hold of John Berry and threw him to
Speaker 1: the floor. Another time, Stephen's positioned a jigsaw puzzle box
Speaker 1: behind him, making sure it was beyond any one's reach.
Speaker 1: At the sound of a rattle coming from inside the box,
Speaker 1: Stephens shone his torch on the two boys, but both
Speaker 1: were lying completely still under the bed sheets. Moments later,
Speaker 1: the box flew through the air, caught by the beam
Speaker 1: of Stephen's torch and for a moment, it seemed almost
Speaker 1: suspended in mid air, as if, as one of the
Speaker 1: witnesses described it, it were being carried with directional intent.
Speaker 1: With the violence of the incidents intensifying, a second seance
Speaker 1: was hastily arranged, led once again by Phil France. On
Speaker 1: the evening of September twenty sixth, in a house on
Speaker 1: Greenway Road, overlooking Runcorn Cemetery. John Glynn and his mother
Speaker 1: Norah arrived to find a small crowd waiting for them inside.
Speaker 1: In the center of the living room stood a cone
Speaker 1: shaped trumpet coated at both ends with luminous paint. The participants,
Speaker 1: including Reverend Stephens, two Methodist ministers, and a journalist, gathered
Speaker 1: in a circle around the trumpet, and the lights were extinguished.
Speaker 1: After a short prayer, came the soft hum of voices
Speaker 1: breaking gently into song hymns to awaken the spirits. As
Speaker 1: the singing grew louder, eyes glanced anxiously around the room
Speaker 1: and back to the cone, but it remained fixed to
Speaker 1: the floor. Suddenly, the calm was punctured by strange, garbled
Speaker 1: voices emanating from the mouth of one of the mediums.
Speaker 1: It was Phil France again. The words were unintelligible, but
Speaker 1: was said by one journalist a little vaguely, and no
Speaker 1: doubt stereotypically to resemble the tones of a native of Africa.
Speaker 1: It is unlikely that phil France had much experience with
Speaker 1: African dialects, either regional or ones that might somehow represent
Speaker 1: an entire continent. However, he later claimed to have been
Speaker 1: channeling the spirit of a member of the Southern African
Speaker 1: Zulu tribe who was called Duca. Although there is little
Speaker 1: credibility attached to this incident, the name Juca was often
Speaker 1: used in reference to the apparent poltergeist. No other evidence
Speaker 1: of supernatural activity was recorded at the seance, nor did
Speaker 1: it bring an end to the disturbances. In nineteen fifty four,
Speaker 1: Richard Whittington Egan, who would later become known as a
Speaker 1: leading authority on the so called Jack the Ripper, wrote
Speaker 1: a piece for the Runcorn and Witnessed Guardian detailing the
Speaker 1: events that occurred at Byron Street. Years later, feeling that
Speaker 1: his editor had opted for hyperbole at the expense of
Speaker 1: sobriety and reason, Whittington Egan felt compelled to set the
Speaker 1: record straight. Like everyone else from the local area, Richard
Speaker 1: had read and heard much about the Runcorn thing, Although skeptical,
Speaker 1: such was the sheer number of stories that appeared in
Speaker 1: the press, he felt compelled to take a look for himself.
Speaker 1: On Sunday, twenty eight of September back in nineteen fifty two,
Speaker 1: he drove to Witness to meet with Reverend Stevens, who,
Speaker 1: although he found to be of a decent and agreeable character,
Speaker 1: he couldn't help but question whether he might have been
Speaker 1: too willing to believe all that he'd supposedly been seeing.
Speaker 1: At ten thirty pm, Whittington Egan arrived at one Byron Street,
Speaker 1: parking up outside as a light drizzle began to fall.
Speaker 1: Later that night, he watched quietly as the two Johns
Speaker 1: clambered into bed in front of a group of twenty
Speaker 1: people who'd somehow squeezed into the room with them. Again,
Speaker 1: the light was clicked off, and barely a moment later,
Speaker 1: the clock was hurled across the room, followed by a
Speaker 1: colossal bang. There it is, said John. There it is
Speaker 1: all right, said Stevens. A woman sung a hymn. Others
Speaker 1: claimed to see ghostly lights appear in the room. Stevens
Speaker 1: offered up the lord's prayer while John Glynn played haunting
Speaker 1: strains on a harmonica in the dark. To Whittington Egan,
Speaker 1: the entire thing was a ridiculous pantomime, and later on,
Speaker 1: when the familiar pattern of events was repeated, something different occurred,
Speaker 1: but the sound of one supposed knocking of a spirit.
Speaker 1: Whittington Egan switched on his torch just in time to
Speaker 1: see the arm of John Glynn rapidly withdrawing from the
Speaker 1: direction of the chest at the end of the bed. Later,
Speaker 1: when Whittington Egan finally stepped out of the house in
Speaker 1: the early hours of the morning, with the rain falling harder,
Speaker 1: he allowed himself a rye smile at the crowd of
Speaker 1: onlookers huddled silently underneath the bedroom window, gazing up expectantly
Speaker 1: for any sign of the phantom. A few days later,
Speaker 1: a genuine tragedy would strike the house. On the evening
Speaker 1: of Thursday, October sixteenth, the family's lodger, Ellen Whittle, was
Speaker 1: out walking with her friend James Sutton. While making their
Speaker 1: way over runcorn Hill, just above a disused quarry known
Speaker 1: as Frog's Mouth, they inexplicably slipped and fell twenty four
Speaker 1: feet to the ground. James Sutton was hospitalized for three months,
Speaker 1: but Ellen Whittle was not so fortunate. She died of
Speaker 1: her injuries the following day. By mid November, after three
Speaker 1: months of unbridled destruction, the strange activity at Number one
Speaker 1: Byron Street seemed to be coming to an end. On
Speaker 1: November twenty third, pioneering BBC documentarian Dennis Mitchell was sent
Speaker 1: to the house in the hope of catching a glimpse
Speaker 1: of the phantom, but nothing unto ward occurred. Then a
Speaker 1: few days later, Reverend Stevens, along with three journalists, caught
Speaker 1: Sam Jones red handed launching a book against the bedroom wall.
Speaker 1: To journalist Whittington Egan, it was the final nail in
Speaker 1: the coffin of the Runcorn thing forever and Stephens, However,
Speaker 1: like many of the other witnesses, it was proof only
Speaker 1: that Sam, like John before, had merely succumbed to the
Speaker 1: pressure of maintaining the disturbances so that people would continue
Speaker 1: to believe their original claims. By mid December, however, the
Speaker 1: press were no longer calling at Byron Street, while outside,
Speaker 1: the noise and bustle of expectant crowds had dispersed, replaced
Speaker 1: by the more familiar quietude of small town suburbia. A
Speaker 1: short time later, the disturbances stopped altogether. But then something
Speaker 1: very peculiar came to light. At eight am on the
Speaker 1: morning of Saturday, December thirteenth, roughly the same time that
Speaker 1: the events at Byron Street were coming to an end.
Speaker 1: Down at Pool Farm, where Sam Jones worked, his boss,
Speaker 1: Harold Crowther, had just released his dogs into the courtyard
Speaker 1: when he noticed something bizarre towards the back of the yard.
Speaker 1: A small black cloud appeared to be hovering just above
Speaker 1: the ground. The dogs had seen it too, and immediately
Speaker 1: gave chase when it started to move away at a
Speaker 1: rapid pace. Before the dogs could reach it, it lifted
Speaker 1: into the air and disappeared. An odd event, no doubt,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't the first time that Crowther had seen
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Speaker 1: code Unexplained. With his assessment of the events completed, Reverend
Speaker 1: Stephens submitted his report to the Society of Psychical Research
Speaker 1: in April of nineteen fifty three. A short time later,
Speaker 1: Stevens heard of a series of distressing events believed to
Speaker 1: have taken place at Pool Farm. Intrigued, he contacted the Krouthers,
Speaker 1: who eventually agreed to share their story, but only on
Speaker 1: one condition that their names and the events they were
Speaker 1: about to divulge be kept out of the press. The
Speaker 1: Crowthers were pig farmers and had lived at the fifteenth
Speaker 1: century farmhouse at Pool Farm for a number of years
Speaker 1: without ever witnessing anything strange. On the morning of Sunday,
Speaker 1: August seventeenth, the exact same day that trouble began at
Speaker 1: Byron Street, Harold Crowther was approaching the pigstye when he
Speaker 1: sensed that something was wrong. One of the pigs, in
Speaker 1: a fit of terror, was trying desperately to jump the fence,
Speaker 1: while a number of other pigs were fighting among themselves.
Speaker 1: As Crowther neared the pen, he then saw three pigs
Speaker 1: lying dead on the ground. It isn't uncommon for livestock
Speaker 1: to die unexpectedly from time to time, but to lose
Speaker 1: three in one night was a serious cause for alarm,
Speaker 1: and this was only the beginning. A week later, several
Speaker 1: more pigs dropped dead under the same mysteria circumstances. By
Speaker 1: mid September, all fifty three of the Crowthers animals were dead.
Speaker 1: At a complete loss to explain the deaths, the Crowthers
Speaker 1: sent entrails and blood samples to be analyzed. Despite being
Speaker 1: assessed by five veterinary surgeons, nobody could find an answer.
Speaker 1: Rather disturbingly, the best they could do was surmised that
Speaker 1: something had frightened the animals to death. Then, as Reverend
Speaker 1: Stevens reported, one night, they found their cow in a
Speaker 1: state of intense fear. Its eyes were bulging, the hair
Speaker 1: on its back stood on end, and it was covered
Speaker 1: in beads of sweat. While no cause for alarm could
Speaker 1: be discovered, from that night on, the cow never again
Speaker 1: gave milk. On the Wednesday, two days after the loss
Speaker 1: of the last pig, mister Crowther saw the black cloud
Speaker 1: for the first time. It was moving across the yard,
Speaker 1: an amorphous mass about seven feet high with two prongs
Speaker 1: sticking out of its back. When he approached it, it
Speaker 1: moved off in the direction of the pigstyes, turned into
Speaker 1: an outhouse and disappeared. Crowther told nobody of his experience
Speaker 1: for fear that he would be ridiculed. So it was
Speaker 1: with great surprise when his wife told him that she
Speaker 1: too had seen it on the same Wednesday. Crowther later
Speaker 1: claimed to have seen the cloud when he visited Byron Street,
Speaker 1: but perhaps the most shocking account was from his wife.
Speaker 1: It was Sunday, November ninth, and Missus Crowther was in
Speaker 1: the kitchen when Sam Jones called by the farm. Missus
Speaker 1: Crowther looked up in horror to see that the cloud
Speaker 1: was following Sam. As it happens, John Glynn's father, Michael,
Speaker 1: had also once been a laborer at Pool Farm, working
Speaker 1: for the Crowthers. At some point, Michael had been accused
Speaker 1: of a crime by the Crowthers, for which he was
Speaker 1: later sent to prison. It wasn't long after Michael's release
Speaker 1: that he was diagnosed with the cancer that would eventually
Speaker 1: take his life, only four months before the strange disturbances began.
Speaker 1: By the end of nineteen fifty two, the Runcorn thing
Speaker 1: was no more for many in the local area. It
Speaker 1: had provided endless hours of gossip and speculation, something of
Speaker 1: color to leaven the day, and for the residence of
Speaker 1: number one Byron Street, a moment in the spotlight orbit,
Speaker 1: one that had come at a severe mental and physical cost. Interestingly,
Speaker 1: despite what later came to pass, everyone that came into
Speaker 1: contact with John Glynn, even Richard Whittington Egan, described him
Speaker 1: as an honest and likable boy. In January nineteen fifty three,
Speaker 1: he joined the Irish Guards to begin national service. Weeks later,
Speaker 1: he would suffer a complete nervous breakdown, and after a
Speaker 1: psychiatric evaluation, was granted an immediate discharge. He later married
Speaker 1: and continued to live in Runcorn. Reverend Stevens remained convinced,
Speaker 1: in spite of some strong evidence to the contrary, that
Speaker 1: something inexplicable had taken place at one Byron Street, and
Speaker 1: it is worth noting that Whittington Egan's criticism that Stevens's
Speaker 1: faith had clouded his judgment was a little unfair. It
Speaker 1: was never the case that Stevens believed the activity to
Speaker 1: be the result of an otherworldly spirit communicating from beyond
Speaker 1: the grave. He believed instead that the disturbances had in
Speaker 1: some way emanated from John Glynn. It was a fashionable
Speaker 1: idea at the time, having been posited by a number
Speaker 1: of eminent academics, such as psychologist doctor John Layard, that
Speaker 1: excessive vitality in the young, exacerbated by acute anxiety or neurosis,
Speaker 1: might in some way be the cause of apparent poltergeist activity.
Speaker 1: It was early in nineteen fifty six when Harold Crowther
Speaker 1: wrote to Reverend Stevens, finally agreeing to allow his story
Speaker 1: to be told. He hadn't wanted his name to be
Speaker 1: published before, he said, because he was still getting over
Speaker 1: the shock. As he explained, we are very slowly getting
Speaker 1: round the corner, but things will never be the same
Speaker 1: again here. In May nineteen fifty eight, Sam Jones, who
Speaker 1: was by then seventy four, had moved in with his
Speaker 1: daughter in law in Stenhill's Cres. On being asked about
Speaker 1: his experiences of nineteen fifty two, he replied, all I
Speaker 1: can say is that anyone who doubts the story of
Speaker 1: the way my home was haunted should have, for just
Speaker 1: one week the sort of experience that I lived through.
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