Speaker 1: This show is sponsored by Better Help Online Therapy. Visit
Speaker 1: betterhelp dot com Forward slash unexplained one zero because honestly,
Speaker 1: being a human can be exhausting. It's easy to forget
Speaker 1: sometimes that bad things happen on bright summer days, especially
Speaker 1: for those of us who live in places rarely blessed
Speaker 1: with such things. It is a unique sense of optimism
Speaker 1: and perhaps even faith we feel for the day ahead
Speaker 1: as we step from our various abodes into cool summer mornings,
Speaker 1: already laced with the exhilarating promise of heat mantled by
Speaker 1: the hazy blue sky above, as we head out to
Speaker 1: the park, or the river, or, in the case of
Speaker 1: Maurice and Peggy growth on that balmy August fourth morning
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy six, to the beach so jarring. It
Speaker 1: was then for Peggy's day to be punctured by that
Speaker 1: sudden sense of unease and queasiness that came over her
Speaker 1: in the early afternoon. Looking back on it in the
Speaker 1: weeks that followed, the couple from North London, who were
Speaker 1: visiting relatives on the Island of Jersey at the time,
Speaker 1: couldn't help but read more into it. Perhaps it was
Speaker 1: nothing perhaps it was everything. The following morning, as they
Speaker 1: prepared to set out for yet another blissful day on
Speaker 1: the sand in what was the hottest British summer on record,
Speaker 1: they received the news that their twenty two year old daughter,
Speaker 1: Janet had been involved in a motorbike accident. Janet and
Speaker 1: her friend Adam were riding through the city of Cardiff
Speaker 1: in Wales when they crashed. Adam, who was driving at
Speaker 1: the time, was killed instantly, while Janet had been left
Speaker 1: seriously injured, having been thrown from the back of the bike,
Speaker 1: dropping everything. Maurice and Peggy raced immediately to the University
Speaker 1: of Cardiff Hospital, where their daughter was being treated. Janet
Speaker 1: was unconscious when her parents arrived to take their place
Speaker 1: at her bedside, where they stayed until at four twenty
Speaker 1: pm that afternoon. Having never regained consciousness, Janet died three
Speaker 1: days later. Maurice awoke just after eight am with no
Speaker 1: recollection of how and when he'd finally dozed off to sleep,
Speaker 1: and for the briefest of moments in that space between
Speaker 1: the dream and the waking, became that same tingle of
Speaker 1: summer optimism again, only for reality to come quickly rushing
Speaker 1: in with the four of a thousand tsunamis, and with
Speaker 1: them came that one single word to take his breath away, Janet,
Speaker 1: Their Janet. Morris dragged himself to the bathroom and peered
Speaker 1: out of the window at the yellow lawn, bleached dry
Speaker 1: from weeks of drought, then looked across to his daughter's
Speaker 1: old bedroom window. The tears came fast, welling up in
Speaker 1: his eyes. He let them fall to the ground, when suddenly,
Speaker 1: with a jolt, something caught his attention. Just the night before,
Speaker 1: Morris had whispered secretly into the air for Janet to
Speaker 1: give them a sign, if by some miracle she was
Speaker 1: still with them, somehow, perhaps make it rain, he asked
Speaker 1: if she could. Maurice stared in complete disbelief at the
Speaker 1: small section of roof below Janet's old bedroom window and
Speaker 1: the unmistakable layer of moisture on it, now glistening in
Speaker 1: the soft morning sun, while everywhere else was dry as bone.
Speaker 1: The strange incident of the wet roof was one of
Speaker 1: eight unusual coincidences Marris noticed in the immediate aftermath of
Speaker 1: his daughter's death, including the inexplicable stopping of his sister
Speaker 1: in law's clock at four twenty pm, the precise time
Speaker 1: that Janet had died. Believing that it had to mean something,
Speaker 1: Morris compiled a list of all the coincidences and sent
Speaker 1: them off to the UK's Society of Psychical Research, along
Speaker 1: with the request for an expert of valuation. Though Marris
Speaker 1: never received a definitive answer from the Society, a few
Speaker 1: months later he joined the organization himself, keen to take
Speaker 1: part in any potential haunting investigations that might crop up,
Speaker 1: anything that might reveal the possibility of life surviving death.
Speaker 1: In September the following year, Maurice was contacted by the
Speaker 1: SPR with exactly what he'd been looking for, an invitation
Speaker 1: to investigate reports of unusual disturbances taking place at a
Speaker 1: modest suburban house in Enfield, North London. To day, this
Speaker 1: case is widely considered to be the most documented, compelling
Speaker 1: and terrifying supposed poltergeist haunting the UK has ever known.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard McClane Smith. I
Speaker 1: won't tell you again, said Peggy as she pushed open
Speaker 1: the door. Get back to bed. But we're not doing anything,
Speaker 1: came a soft voice from out of the dark. Peggy
Speaker 1: switched on the light and stared at her daughter, eleven
Speaker 1: year old Janet, tucked up in bed in the far
Speaker 1: corner of the room, then threw a stern look to
Speaker 1: her brother John in the opposite bed. We didn't, he insisted.
Speaker 1: It was the chair, said Janet. It's making a funny noise.
Speaker 1: The Hodgsons lived at two hundred and eighty four Green
Speaker 1: Street in Enfield, in a typical nineteen twenties three beds
Speaker 1: of urban house, part red brick and pebbledash, with a
Speaker 1: small patch of garden out front and a long narrow
Speaker 1: strip of garden out the back. Though the house was
Speaker 1: located on a fairly busy road, being opposite the local
Speaker 1: school made for a relatively quiet neighborhood. That night of
Speaker 1: August thirty first, nineteen seventy seven, forty three year old
Speaker 1: Peggy Hodgson had been getting ready for bed in her
Speaker 1: own bedroom that she shared with her two other children,
Speaker 1: thirteen year old Margaret and seven year old Billy, when
Speaker 1: she heard a strange shuffling noise coming from Janet and
Speaker 1: John's room. Peggy rolled her eyes, fine, she said, as
Speaker 1: she grabbed the chair and switched off the light, now
Speaker 1: get to sleep. After taking the chair downstairs, Peggy returned
Speaker 1: moments later, only to hear that same sound again coming
Speaker 1: from the second bedroom, like some one was dragging their
Speaker 1: feet across the floor. Heading back into the room, Peggy
Speaker 1: switched on the light again to find Janet and John
Speaker 1: still tucked up under their duvets. Then the noise came again.
Speaker 1: See it isn't us, said Janet. Just then a soft
Speaker 1: knocking came from what seemed like the other side of
Speaker 1: the party wall. Peggy stepped in for a closer listen
Speaker 1: than heard something scrape behind her. Spinning round, she was
Speaker 1: surprised to find the children's heavy chest of drawers had
Speaker 1: somehow moved eighteen inches away from the wall, as Janet
Speaker 1: and John watched on with confusion. As somewhat perturbed, Peggy
Speaker 1: gently eased the chest of drawers back into place. When
Speaker 1: she turned back round, she heard that scraping sound again.
Speaker 1: Turning round once more, Peggy was horrified to see the
Speaker 1: chest of drawers had moved again, this time about a
Speaker 1: foot toward the door. With her heart now pounding in
Speaker 1: her chest, Peggy went again to ease the drawers back
Speaker 1: into place, only this time no matter how hard she tried,
Speaker 1: they wouldn't budge it felt, she later said, as though
Speaker 1: someone or something was pushing back from the other side.
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Speaker 1: Next Door, at the home of Peggy and Vic Nottingham,
Speaker 1: the couple were watching TV with their twenty year old
Speaker 1: son Gary when they heard an urgent knocking at the
Speaker 1: front door. Peggy opened it to find the terrified Hodgson's
Speaker 1: huddled together on the doorstep, dressed in their nightclothes. Moments later,
Speaker 1: the two family were sat in the Nottingham's living room
Speaker 1: as Peggy Hodgson did her best to explain what had
Speaker 1: just taken place, believing that someone must have broken into
Speaker 1: their home and was playing a trick on them. Seeing
Speaker 1: that Peggy and her kids were clearly too scared to
Speaker 1: go back, the Nottinghams offered to go with them and
Speaker 1: check the house for any intruders. Returning next door, the
Speaker 1: Hodgson's and Peggy Nottingham waited in the living room as
Speaker 1: Vic and Garry made a quick sweep of the house
Speaker 1: and gardens. Much to everyone's relief, The pair returned moments
Speaker 1: later having found nothing untoward. Feeling suddenly embarrassed by the
Speaker 1: whole saga, Peggy thanked them for their help and apologized
Speaker 1: for wasting their time. But just as the Nottinghams were
Speaker 1: about to leave, Vic heard a knocking on the wall
Speaker 1: by the stairs that seemed to be coming from outside.
Speaker 1: Vic rushed out the door and stood for a moment
Speaker 1: in the dark, peering down the alleyway that ran down
Speaker 1: the side of the house, but no one was there.
Speaker 1: Back inside, a palpable sense of fear was beginning to
Speaker 1: spread as the knocking continued. Make it stop, yelled Margaret.
Speaker 1: It's okay, It's just the pipes, said Vic as he
Speaker 1: attempted to locate the source of the noise, only as
Speaker 1: he soon realized the knocking seemed to be following him
Speaker 1: wherever he went. Garry put his hand to the wall
Speaker 1: as the knocks rang out. That's strange, he said, I
Speaker 1: could feel the wall vibrating. Then Peggy Nottingham joined them
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the stairs. It's almost like someone
Speaker 1: wants to get in, she said. Police Constable Caroline Heaps
Speaker 1: and her partner PC Hyams were conducting a routine patrol
Speaker 1: of the local area when a call came through sometime
Speaker 1: around ten thirty pm to attend a possible break in
Speaker 1: at two hundred and eighty four Green Street. Having been
Speaker 1: given no other information, The officers arrived at the house
Speaker 1: moments later, surprised to find the two families waiting for
Speaker 1: them with quite a different story to tell. We think
Speaker 1: the house might be haunted, said Peggy, sheepishly, well aware
Speaker 1: of how preposterous it sounded. Before PC's Heaps and Hyams
Speaker 1: had time to react, Vic suggested they wait a moment
Speaker 1: to experience it for themselves, then promptly switched out the light,
Speaker 1: leaving all nine of them waiting together silently in the dark.
Speaker 1: As the minutes of complete silence ticked by Hyams was
Speaker 1: just about to switch the light on when the sound
Speaker 1: of four knocks sent the children into hysterics. As Peggy
Speaker 1: did her best to calm them down, another four knocks
Speaker 1: rang out. The children screamed once again. Suspecting also that
Speaker 1: it was probably nothing but the pipes. Piecy Hyams quickly
Speaker 1: switched on the light and raced into the kitchen to
Speaker 1: examine the plumbing. Piecy Heaps, not quite sure what to
Speaker 1: do herself, began by asking the family to tell her
Speaker 1: again what had been happening. As she took down notes,
Speaker 1: Then ten year old John suddenly froze. What is it,
Speaker 1: asked Heaps. The chair, he said, pointing to the armchair
Speaker 1: nearest the door that was now quite clearly wobbling, when
Speaker 1: all of a sudden it slid across the room. Hearing
Speaker 1: the screams from the kitchen, PC Hyams raced back to
Speaker 1: the living room. The chair just moved, said Heaps, in total,
Speaker 1: bewilderment estimating that it moved a good three feet in total. Then,
Speaker 1: seeing a marble on the TV stand, Heaps placed it
Speaker 1: on the spot where the chair had been, expecting it
Speaker 1: to reveal a clear slant in the ground, but the
Speaker 1: marble remained completely still. Despite the family's obvious distress at
Speaker 1: whatever it was that was going on, With nothing tangible
Speaker 1: to act on, all the officers could do under the
Speaker 1: circumstances was offered to return in a few days time
Speaker 1: to check up on the moor. That night, with the
Speaker 1: police and the Nottinghams having departed, the Hodgsons were once
Speaker 1: again left alone in their home. Too scared to sleep upstairs,
Speaker 1: they bedded down together in the living room and nervously
Speaker 1: awaited the next strange occurrence. A few days later, on
Speaker 1: the evening of Sunday, September fourth, an operator on the
Speaker 1: news desk of the Daily Mirror newspaper received a call
Speaker 1: from a woman in Enfield claiming that her neighbor's house
Speaker 1: was haunted. The operator rolled his eyes as the woman
Speaker 1: proceeded to outline all the peculiar things that had apparently
Speaker 1: been happening over the last few days, from banging on
Speaker 1: the walls, to moving furniture and now even objects being
Speaker 1: thrown about the house. The operator was just about to
Speaker 1: put the phone down when the woman quickly cut in
Speaker 1: and the police have seen it too. With that, Daily
Speaker 1: Mirror photographer Graham Morris and journalist Douglas Spence were swiftly
Speaker 1: dispatched to Green Street in Enfield to investigate, arriving at
Speaker 1: the Nottingham's home a short time later to find the
Speaker 1: Hodgson children fast asleep and are deeply distressed Peggy Hodgson
Speaker 1: waiting for them. It was Peggy Nottingham's idea to call
Speaker 1: the press after yet another night of activity had driven
Speaker 1: the Hodgson's back to her home, feeling increasingly helpless about
Speaker 1: the whole situation, with the journalists keen to witness the
Speaker 1: strange activity. They promptly headed next door and let themselves
Speaker 1: into the property. Though neither believed the story one bit,
Speaker 1: it was hard to shake the pervasive air of weirdness
Speaker 1: as they stepped into the silence of the Hodgson's home.
Speaker 1: The pair smirked nervously as they passed first into the
Speaker 1: living room and then on into the kitchen, with Graham
Speaker 1: holding his camera in front of him, ready to capture
Speaker 1: any signs of a ghost. Things only got weirder when
Speaker 1: one by one the children were brought back into the house,
Speaker 1: fast asleep in the arms of Peggy and the Nottingham's
Speaker 1: After more than two hours of waiting in the house, however,
Speaker 1: the journalists saw nothing untoward, and by two thirty am,
Speaker 1: the pair of them decided to call it a night.
Speaker 1: But just as they were walking back to the car,
Speaker 1: Peggy Nottingham's father, who'd been staying with them that weekend,
Speaker 1: raced out of the house and shouted after them. It's happening,
Speaker 1: he said, breathlessly. It took me a long time to
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Speaker 1: dot Com promo code unexplained, Graham and Douglas could hear
Speaker 1: the screams before they reached the front door, emanating from
Speaker 1: out of the kitchen at the back of the house.
Speaker 1: Hurrying through, Graham burst into the kitchen and froze. Amid
Speaker 1: the screaming of the children. The clattering of objects could
Speaker 1: be heard as one after another, pieces of lego and
Speaker 1: marbles were sent whizzing around the room. Remembering suddenly why
Speaker 1: he was there, Graham grabbed at the wide angle lens
Speaker 1: and ducked into a far corner to see if he
Speaker 1: could capture all the chaos swirling above his head. As
Speaker 1: he reeled off a series of shots, he had just
Speaker 1: enough time to catch a sudden movement out at the
Speaker 1: corner of his eye when something hit him in the
Speaker 1: middle of his forehead, causing him to yell out in pain.
Speaker 1: Graham rubbed at the now tender spot on his head
Speaker 1: that was already becoming raised, then looked down at the
Speaker 1: small piece of lego now lying at his feet on
Speaker 1: the floor, and then back up to all the people
Speaker 1: in the room and tried to figure out where on
Speaker 1: earth it could have come from. Later that day, shrouded
Speaker 1: in the dark red light of the processing room. Graham
Speaker 1: stood over the developing tray, watching as the photochemical swished about,
Speaker 1: while underneath a ghostly picture began to emerge. It was
Speaker 1: a shot of the Hodgson's kitchen, taken just at the
Speaker 1: moment that the lego brick had struck him on the head,
Speaker 1: showing the only two people in the room who had
Speaker 1: a clear angle to throw it at him. One was
Speaker 1: his colleague, Douglas Pence, stood with both hands in his pockets,
Speaker 1: while the other was Peggy Nottingham, stood with her arms
Speaker 1: clearly folded across her chest. It was Monday, September fifth,
Speaker 1: when Maurice, working in his office in Holloway, received the
Speaker 1: corps from the Secretary of the Society of Psychical Research,
Speaker 1: Eleanor O'Keefe that would change his life or ever. Maurice
Speaker 1: could feel the hairs stand up on the back of
Speaker 1: his neck as he listened to Eleanor detailed the phone
Speaker 1: call she'd just taken from a journalist in any field.
Speaker 1: As she explained, it sounded like they had a potential
Speaker 1: poltergeist case on their hands that would need immediate investigating.
Speaker 1: It was everything Morris had been looking for Morris had
Speaker 1: barely finished the call before he was out the door
Speaker 1: and hopping into his car. An hour later, he arrived
Speaker 1: at number two hundred and eighty four Green Street. The
Speaker 1: street was quiet when Morris arrived, parking up just outside
Speaker 1: the house, as thoughts of his daughter Janet rushed inevitably
Speaker 1: to the front of his mind. Maurice took a moment
Speaker 1: to compose himself, then stepped from the vehicle and made
Speaker 1: his way to the front door. Maurris was welcomed in
Speaker 1: by George Fallows, senior reporter of the Daily Mirror, who'd
Speaker 1: also rushed at the house after hearing about Graham Morris
Speaker 1: and Douglas Beence's experiences. Fallows ushered Morris through to the
Speaker 1: living room to meet the family, with ten year old
Speaker 1: John having left that morning to go back to the
Speaker 1: boarding school he attended for children with learning differences. Maris
Speaker 1: was introduced first to Peggy, then Margaret and little Billy,
Speaker 1: and lastly Janet. Morris couldn't help but flinch a little
Speaker 1: at the name. Hello Janet, I'm Morris. It's very nice
Speaker 1: to meet you, he said. Janet just about managed to
Speaker 1: shy smile in return, but it was clear the atmosphere
Speaker 1: in the home was far from a happy one. Sensing
Speaker 1: the family's fear, Maurice sought first to reassure them that
Speaker 1: what they were experiencing was not something to be afraid of,
Speaker 1: and that, like all things, it would soon pass. Peggy
Speaker 1: wondered if it might be the ghost of a child,
Speaker 1: a four year old girl from the local area who
Speaker 1: only a few years before had been murdered by her father,
Speaker 1: who then went on to kill himself. Peggy had bought
Speaker 1: some furniture from the man once and wondered if perhaps
Speaker 1: she had somehow brought the spirit. If that was what
Speaker 1: it was, into her home, she'd thrown the pieces out
Speaker 1: just in case. Though Maurice couldn't confirm exactly what it was.
Speaker 1: The one thing he did know, as he told Peggy,
Speaker 1: was that the family shouldn't blame themselves for anything that
Speaker 1: was taking place. Though it was painful to see the
Speaker 1: Hodgsons in such distress, Maurris couldn't resist the tremble of
Speaker 1: excitement he felt as he entered their home and its
Speaker 1: strangely charged atmosphere. There was something there, he thought of
Speaker 1: that there was no doubt. Over the next few days, However,
Speaker 1: Morris saw nothing strange himself, as it appeared the apparent
Speaker 1: haunting had come to an end. But then everything changed.
Speaker 1: First came the familiar banging in the walls, followed by
Speaker 1: more items whizzing through the air, as photographer Graham Morris
Speaker 1: back for more, worked in vain to capture it all.
Speaker 1: At one fifteen a m. In the early morning of
Speaker 1: September the eighth, Morris joined the men from the Daily
Speaker 1: Mirror upstairs on the landing outside the family's three bedrooms,
Speaker 1: With one full of disused items, The family shared the
Speaker 1: other two between them. As the men waited expectantly in
Speaker 1: the dark, a loud crash was heard coming from the
Speaker 1: second bedroom. When the men rushed in, they found Janet
Speaker 1: and Margaret seemingly asleep in the two beds and their
Speaker 1: bedroom chair flung four feet from where it had been
Speaker 1: only moments ago. Janet stirred then began to cry. Seeing
Speaker 1: her distress, Maurice was quick to reassure her that there
Speaker 1: was nothing to worry about and that they were there
Speaker 1: the whole time keeping watch. After coaxing her back to sleep,
Speaker 1: Maurris righted the chair and the men once again left
Speaker 1: the room. A short time after returning to the landing,
Speaker 1: another crash was heard. Once again. The men rushed into
Speaker 1: the room to find the chair tossed to the side,
Speaker 1: far away from where they'd left it. Morris and Fallows
Speaker 1: looked immediately to the two children, apparently still fast asleep
Speaker 1: in their beds, then stepped toward Janet's bed and stared
Speaker 1: down at the girl's closed eyelids. With his fingers, Morris
Speaker 1: lifted one of them, revealing the white of her eyeball
Speaker 1: rolled back underneath. Then Fallows picked up her arm and
Speaker 1: let it flop down onto the covers. Satisfied she was
Speaker 1: completely asleep, the men left the room again at three
Speaker 1: thirty am. After compiling his notes, Morris returned home. Is
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Speaker 1: start living a happier life today. In the evening of
Speaker 1: September eighth, Morris attended a Society of Psychical Research lecture
Speaker 1: at Kensington Public Library about the nature of poltergeist activity.
Speaker 1: Nodding along as he took notes, illistened attentively as the
Speaker 1: speaker outlined what he believed to be the two most
Speaker 1: likely explanations for such activity. The first was that all
Speaker 1: the noises and moving about of items was in fact
Speaker 1: caused by pubescent children, who were often found to be
Speaker 1: at the center of such activity, unwittingly wielding psychic powers
Speaker 1: brought on by the intense hormonal transition of puberty. The
Speaker 1: second possibility was that the often terrifying, supposedly paranormal events
Speaker 1: were caused by spirits of disgruntled individuals feeding off the
Speaker 1: energy of the living. Also in the audience that night
Speaker 1: was forty two year old Guy Lion Playfair, very much
Speaker 1: the antithesis of the self made Morris. Guy was brought
Speaker 1: up in British colonial India, the son of a British
Speaker 1: Army major, and studied modern languages at Cambridge University at
Speaker 1: some point, having moved to Brazil in the nineteen sixties,
Speaker 1: where he worked as a freelance journalist. After a strange
Speaker 1: experience with an apparently psychic healer, Guy developed an interest
Speaker 1: in the paranormal. At the end of the talk, he
Speaker 1: watched as Morris addressed the audience asking for volunteers to
Speaker 1: help him with his investigation at Green Street. Though Guy
Speaker 1: was interested, having just spent the last fifteen months writing
Speaker 1: his own account of as opposed poltergeist haunting in Rio
Speaker 1: to Jennero, he'd been looking forward to taking some time off. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: Guy introduced himself to Morris after the talk, and suggested
Speaker 1: he get in touch if things start to go out
Speaker 1: of control. Back at the Hodgson's home later that night,
Speaker 1: with Marris having returned to check in on the family,
Speaker 1: he sat patiently sipping tea with Janet, Margaret, and Billy
Speaker 1: as they went through all the events of that day,
Speaker 1: from all the marbles being flung around to how the
Speaker 1: drawer under the TV had slid out on its own,
Speaker 1: when all of a sudden, a marble flew through the air,
Speaker 1: narrowly missing Morris by inches. While up on the wall,
Speaker 1: a set of hanging chimes had begun shaking from side
Speaker 1: to side, as if a light breeze had just blown
Speaker 1: through the room. Then a scream came from the kitchen.
Speaker 1: Marris and the kids hurried through to find Peggy staring
Speaker 1: strangely at the bathroom door. There's something in there, she said,
Speaker 1: her voice trembling. Morris asked for silence as they all
Speaker 1: stood together, eyes fixed on the bathroom door, when suddenly,
Speaker 1: in one movement, it swung open and closed. The family
Speaker 1: gasped in horror as Maurris tried his best to calm
Speaker 1: the situation, telling them again there was nothing to be
Speaker 1: frightened of, while watching incredulously as the door continued to
Speaker 1: swing open and shut a further three times, and in
Speaker 1: that moment, Maurice could have sworn he felt a cold
Speaker 1: wind wrap around his legs. Though Marris was at a
Speaker 1: loss to explain exactly what he'd seen so far, when
Speaker 1: a box was flung from a table while eleven year
Speaker 1: old Janet was close by, he realized that Janet was
Speaker 1: almost always around when the strange events occurred. After speaking
Speaker 1: to Peggy Nottingham's father following day, it was clear that
Speaker 1: others were beginning to suspect that she might be responsible.
Speaker 1: Finding a quiet moment with Peggy, Marris advised her to
Speaker 1: keep an eye on her daughter, just to be sure
Speaker 1: she wasn't playing games with the more. He knew all
Speaker 1: too well how difficult children could be at that age,
Speaker 1: he said fondly. And as rumors of the peculiar activity
Speaker 1: began to spread throughout the neighborhood, many began to question
Speaker 1: the minds of the family, while others made a point
Speaker 1: of crossing the road as they approached the house, terrified
Speaker 1: at what might happen should they get too near. The
Speaker 1: local gossip would only intensify when, on September tenth, the
Speaker 1: Hodgson story finally hit the news. In a front page
Speaker 1: article in The Daily Mirror, written by George Fallows under
Speaker 1: the title House of Strange Happenings, it went on to say,
Speaker 1: with the motional atmosphere at the house and the neighborhood
Speaker 1: ranging from hysteria through terror, to excitement and tension, it
Speaker 1: has been difficult to record satisfactory data. Nevertheless, I am
Speaker 1: satisfied the overall impression of our investigation is reasonably accurate.
Speaker 1: To the best of our ability, we have eliminated the
Speaker 1: possibility of total trickery. Later that night, Peggy Hodgson and
Speaker 1: her neighbor Peggy Nottingham were joined by Maurice Gross on
Speaker 1: London's LBC Radio to discuss the bizarre events. When they
Speaker 1: returned to Green Street at two am, they found another
Speaker 1: reporter waiting for them outside. Rosalind Morris was a producer
Speaker 1: from BBC Radio four who had been sent to report
Speaker 1: on the story. With nothing much else to report on
Speaker 1: that day, Rosalind proceeded to spend the night in the house,
Speaker 1: where she witnessed beds being shaken and to flung across
Speaker 1: the room, stating later that whatever had happened that night,
Speaker 1: she could not explain it. The following day, at his
Speaker 1: home in London, Guy Playfair was listening to the radio
Speaker 1: when he heard Roslyn Morris's report of what had taken
Speaker 1: place the night before. Hearing the tiredness in Maurice Gross's voice,
Speaker 1: he realized immediately that he and the family were in
Speaker 1: desperate need of help. You've been listening to Unexplained Series six,
Speaker 1: Episode four, The Widening Gyre, Part one of three, Part
Speaker 1: two will be released next week Friday, November fifth. If
Speaker 1: you enjoy Unexplained and would like to help support us,
Speaker 1: you can now do so via Patreon. To receive access
Speaker 1: to add three episodes, just go to patriot dot com
Speaker 1: forward slash Unexplained pod to sign up. Unexplained, the book
Speaker 1: and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never before been
Speaker 1: covered on the show, is now available to buy worldwide.
Speaker 1: You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones,
Speaker 1: among other bookstores. All elements of Unexplained, including the show's music,
Speaker 1: are produced by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and
Speaker 1: rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts, and feel
Speaker 1: free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas
Speaker 1: regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you
Speaker 1: have an explanation of your own you'd like to share.
Speaker 1: You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com
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Speaker 1: Forward Slash Unexplained Podcast