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Speaker 1: The village of Doddalston lies just five miles to the

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Speaker 1: southwest of Chester in the northwest of England, surrounded by rich,

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Speaker 1: dark soil, fields of green and soft rolling hills. Like

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Speaker 1: all of the British Isles, its position has been an

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Speaker 1: ever shifting and often disputed thing. Today it sits on

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Speaker 1: a border between worlds, one designated England and the other Kymrie.

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Speaker 1: Five hundred years ago, these lands were ruled by Tudor

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Speaker 1: monarch King Henry the Eighth. It was Henry's fifteen thirty

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Speaker 1: six Act of Union between England and Wales that fixed

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Speaker 1: the border as it remains today, placing Doddalston once but

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Speaker 1: undoubtedly not for all, on the English side. The Act

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Speaker 1: formed one of a number of policies devised by Henry's

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Speaker 1: adviser Thomas Cromwell, who sought to remove the influence of

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Speaker 1: the Catholic Church on the British state. Prior to the Act,

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Speaker 1: aristocrats known as lord wardens of the Marches, governed the

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Speaker 1: borderlands on behalf of the monarchy. It was their duty

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Speaker 1: to maintain the security of the border between nations. The

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Speaker 1: word march is derived from the ancient Proto Indo European

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Speaker 1: word merek, meaning edge and boundary. With the Act of Union,

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Speaker 1: Henry the Eighth had single handedly dissolved the powers of

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Speaker 1: the lords. Just under four hundred and fifty years later,

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Speaker 1: one resident of Doddleston might have been forgiven for thinking

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Speaker 1: that perhaps it wasn't merely geographical boundaries that they had

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Speaker 1: been guarding. You're listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard McClane Smith.

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Speaker 1: It was late August nineteen eighty four when Ken first

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Speaker 1: spotted the strange markings on his kitchen wall, shaped inexplicably

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Speaker 1: like small footprints stretching in a diagonal line to the ceiling.

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Speaker 1: The discovery had been in keeping with what was proving

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Speaker 1: to be an especially peculiar summer. Just the previous month,

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Speaker 1: Ken had been woken shortly before eight am, alarmed to

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Speaker 1: find his entire house being rocked on its foundations, the

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Speaker 1: result of the largest earthquake ever recorded in the United Kingdom,

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Speaker 1: with the epicenter located in Clin Peninsula, eighty miles to

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Speaker 1: the west, measuring five point four on the Richter scale,

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Speaker 1: Its subsequ quent shockwaves were felt as far away as

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Speaker 1: Dublin in Ireland. Ken's house known as Meadow Cottage, was

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Speaker 1: one of four eighteenth century buildings lined up along Kinnerton

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Speaker 1: Road on the edge of Doddalston Village. Ken, an economics

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Speaker 1: teacher in his mid twenties, lived at the property with

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Speaker 1: his nineteen year old girlfriend, Debby. She too had noticed

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Speaker 1: the strange markings on the wall, but since most of

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Speaker 1: the ground floor had been undergoing renovations for the best

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Speaker 1: part of the summer, the markings were soon forgotten, before

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Speaker 1: eventually fading away altogether. It was a few months later,

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Speaker 1: with the renovations completed, that Nicola, a friend of Ken's,

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Speaker 1: came to stay for a couple of months. One morning,

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Speaker 1: in the kitchen, as Ken was preparing breakfast, Nicola drew

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Speaker 1: his attention to something she had noticed the day before,

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Speaker 1: an odd set of markings that went diagonally across the

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Speaker 1: back wall all the way to the ceiling. They looked

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Speaker 1: like footprints, she said. Ken brushed his hand over the

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Speaker 1: newly plastered and painted wall, finding the markings exactly where

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Speaker 1: they had been before. Unnerved by their uncanny resemblance to feet,

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Speaker 1: Nichola painted over them the next day. A few days later,

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Speaker 1: a sudden cry from Debby had Ken racing into the

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Speaker 1: kitchen to find a bizarre sight laid out before him

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Speaker 1: a pyramid of cans stacked up on the floor, with

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Speaker 1: three of the tins placed one on top of the other,

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Speaker 1: forming a precarious tower at the top. Ken gave a

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Speaker 1: rise smile, suddenly realizing what had been going on. He

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Speaker 1: had first suspected the builders playing a trick on them,

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Speaker 1: but since they had left some time ago, it must

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Speaker 1: have been John or sten It, two friends of his

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Speaker 1: who often came to the house to play music in

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Speaker 1: the small home studio upstairs. Ken had also given them

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Speaker 1: keys to let themselves in if they ever needed to

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Speaker 1: use the place when he was at work. At first,

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Speaker 1: he reasoned there was no point in confronting them since

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Speaker 1: they would never own up to it, But when he

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Speaker 1: found another strange construction in the kitchen two days later,

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Speaker 1: this time comprising a large bottle of lemonade, kitchen roll,

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Speaker 1: and dried cat food, he had had enough. As he expected,

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Speaker 1: both denied all knowledge of the bizarre activity, but Ken

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Speaker 1: was satisfied he had got the message across. None the less.

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Speaker 1: That night, Ken, Debby, and Nick made extra shore to

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Speaker 1: check that all the windows and doors were locked before

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Speaker 1: they made their way to bed the following morning, they

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Speaker 1: found nothing unto wart. A few months later, one evening

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Speaker 1: in mid December, Debby and Nikola had just settled down

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Speaker 1: in front of the fire in the living room when

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Speaker 1: the temperature dropped. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind swept

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Speaker 1: through the room, lifting a number of pages from a

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Speaker 1: paper that had been left on the floor high into

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Speaker 1: the air. Debbi watched with amusement as the log in

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Speaker 1: the hearth, having been burning, gently flashed a sudden bright red,

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Speaker 1: before returning to a soft orange as the pages fluttered

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Speaker 1: down to the floor. As new year approached, Nicola was

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Speaker 1: beginning to feel restless and wary of taking up too

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Speaker 1: much of Ken and Debby's time, began to look for

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Speaker 1: work and somewhere else to live. With plans of becoming

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Speaker 1: a performer on the cabaret circuit, she decided to try

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Speaker 1: her hand at sketchwriting. Ken, who taught at nearby Howard

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Speaker 1: and School, suggested she work on one of the schools

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Speaker 1: recently acquired BBC micro computers, and so it was when

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Speaker 1: a few days later, Ken booked out the machine and

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Speaker 1: brought it back to the house later that day, having

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Speaker 1: decided to set it up in the kitchen. Ken and

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Speaker 1: Nichola sat down in front of the slick, black and

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Speaker 1: beige device with its bulky monitor stacked up behind it.

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Speaker 1: After switching it on, the words BBC computer glowed green

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Speaker 1: on the screen with a small flashing line beneath. Waiting

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Speaker 1: for their instruction, Ken typed in asterisk D, then pressed return,

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Speaker 1: followed by asterisk eed w O r D and hit

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Speaker 1: return again. Immediately the word processing program ed word opened up.

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Speaker 1: Having introduced Nick to the program, Ken left her at

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Speaker 1: the computer to get to grips with it. After a

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Speaker 1: number of days writing, Nikola joined Ken and Debbie for

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Speaker 1: dinner at the home of their friends Sean and Dave Lovell.

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Speaker 1: Returning back to the house later that night, Nick made

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Speaker 1: her way to bed, while Ken and Debbie headed to

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Speaker 1: the kitchen to make some tea. Opening the door, it

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Speaker 1: was clear by the fuzzy green glow bot lighting the

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Speaker 1: kitchen table that Nick had forgotten to turn off the computer.

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Speaker 1: Curious as to what she had been working on, Ken

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Speaker 1: had just pulled up the files when he discovered something unexpected.

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Speaker 1: Where all of Nick's files were labeled with single letters,

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Speaker 1: there was one file that had not been on the

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Speaker 1: disc when he first gave it to her, Labeled with

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Speaker 1: three kay, D and N. Ken selected it with the

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Speaker 1: mouse and reeled back in surprise. It was two months later,

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Speaker 1: in February nineteen eighty five, when Ken approached fifty year

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Speaker 1: old Peter Trinder in the school's staff room with a

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Speaker 1: peculiar request. A hugely experienced teacher and former Oxford University graduate,

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Speaker 1: Peter who had once been Ken's own English teacher, had

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Speaker 1: become a good friend since Ken had joined the teaching staff,

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Speaker 1: but more importantly, Peter was someone he could trust with

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Speaker 1: what he was about to tell him. It had all

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Speaker 1: started that Sunday evening in December, as Ken explained, after

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Speaker 1: opening the mystery file, he found a message a rest

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Speaker 1: to Ken, deb and Nick. True, are the nightmares of

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Speaker 1: a person that fears safe? Are the bodies of the

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Speaker 1: silent world? Turn pretty flower, turned towards the sun, for

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Speaker 1: you shall grow and sow. But the flower reaches too

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Speaker 1: high and withers in the burning light. It was a poem, evidently,

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Speaker 1: but not one that Ken or anyone else in the

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Speaker 1: house had written. Ken explained further that a number of

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Speaker 1: strange things had been occurring in the house prior to this,

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Speaker 1: and naturally he had assumed it was all part of

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Speaker 1: some elaborate joke. That was until he found something else

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Speaker 1: a few weeks later, another file, this time named Rate.

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Speaker 1: He handed Peter a print out of what he'd found.

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Speaker 1: Peter stared at it for a moment. Well, it's English,

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Speaker 1: but not contemporary, that's for sure. He studied the lines again.

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Speaker 1: I hath no want to affray for only sith mine

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Speaker 1: half witted antic has ripped a twain mine bound hath

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Speaker 1: I been wreathed a knight. It was signed by L. W.

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Speaker 1: Peter recognized the text as perhaps sixteenth century, but much

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Speaker 1: of the language seemed unfamiliar. Not quite sure what to

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Speaker 1: make of it all, he agreed none the less to

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Speaker 1: give the text a proper look and promised to get

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Speaker 1: back to Ken in due course. A few days later,

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Speaker 1: Peter approached him at the staff room, demanding to know,

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Speaker 1: in no uncertain terms, if he was being messed around with.

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Speaker 1: Convinced by Ken's assurances that he wasn't, and thinking it

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Speaker 1: unlikely that Ken had the requisite knowledge to fabricate the

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Speaker 1: message himself, Peter Julie explained his findings, having tallied the

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Speaker 1: words against the Oxford English Dictionary, many of which he

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Speaker 1: didn't know himself. He was surprised to find that they

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Speaker 1: were all genuine. Whoever had written the message, he said,

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Speaker 1: was either a very skilled linguist or was writing from

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Speaker 1: a very long time ago. The following week, Ken's solicitor,

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Speaker 1: John Cummins, having also learned of the peculiar correspondence, suggested

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Speaker 1: that Ken write a reply to try and catch the

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Speaker 1: hoax out. The next day, Ken Julie booted up the

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Speaker 1: computer and started to type. He began by thanking the

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Speaker 1: recipient for the messages before listing a series of questions.

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Speaker 1: The second message mentioned a man named Edmund Gray, prompting

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Speaker 1: Ken to ask who this was. He asked also if

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Speaker 1: the person writing the message was writing from the sixteen hundreds,

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Speaker 1: and if so, who the king was at the time.

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Speaker 1: The following day, John Cummins received a phone call from Ken.

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Speaker 1: It seemed they had written back. John listened patiently as Debbie,

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Speaker 1: reading from the screen, shouted from the kitchen while Ken

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Speaker 1: clarified what she was saying. The writer listed Edmund Gray

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Speaker 1: as the brother of John Gray, who they claimed lived

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Speaker 1: in nearby Kinnaton Hall. They also claimed to be writing

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Speaker 1: not from the sixteen hundreds, but from the year fifteen

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Speaker 1: twenty one, during the reign of King Henry the Eighth,

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Speaker 1: who they listed as being six and forty years old.

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Speaker 1: As Ken would later tell John and Peter, having ended

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Speaker 1: the call with John, he was suddenly perturbed by the

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Speaker 1: age given for Henry the Eighth. He knew he had

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Speaker 1: been born in fourteen ninety one, meaning whoever had written

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Speaker 1: the message had got the age completely wrong. But when

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Speaker 1: deb returned to the computer to double check the details,

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Speaker 1: the message had vanished. They needn't have worried, however, as

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Speaker 1: it would prove to be only the first reply of many.

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Speaker 1: A follow up message, received on February the sixteenth, gave

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Speaker 1: the writer's name as Lucas. It had been received the

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Speaker 1: same day that Ken had returned home from a trip

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Speaker 1: to the garage to find three milk cartons on the

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Speaker 1: kitchen floor, stagged up on top of each other. Subsequent

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Speaker 1: messages would reveal the full name to be Lucas Wayneman.

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Speaker 1: Each time Ken received a message, he would print it

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Speaker 1: out and hand it to his colleague Peter to analyze,

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Speaker 1: and each time he came to the same conclusion. Though

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Speaker 1: the grammar was a little odd in places, the vocabulary

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Speaker 1: was completely authentic for the period. Though Ken and Depp

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Speaker 1: had been a little unnerved at the thought of some

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Speaker 1: one entering the house while they slept upstairs, the assumption

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Speaker 1: that it had been Ken's bandmate John had made it

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Speaker 1: somewhat less sinister. What John wasn't, however, was an expert

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Speaker 1: in Tudor era English. He looked again at the print

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Speaker 1: out of the first message and read the final lines again,

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Speaker 1: twas a great crime to have bribed mine house, or,

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Speaker 1: as Peter's translation read, it was a great crime to

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Speaker 1: have stolen my house. Are you always taking care of

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Speaker 1: your family? Do you often take care of others and

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Speaker 1: not yourself? Now it's time to take care of yourself.

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Speaker 1: To make time for you you deserve it. Tell a doc.

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Speaker 1: Give you access to a licensed therapist to help you

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Speaker 1: get back to feeling your best, to feeling like yourself again.

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Speaker 1: With TELEDOC, you can speak to a licensed therapist by

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Speaker 1: phone or video. Therapy appointments are available seven days a

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Speaker 1: week from seven am to nine pm local time. If

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Speaker 1: depressed or lonely, or you might be struggling with a

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00:16:24,960 --> 00:16:29,640
Speaker 1: personal or family issue. Teledoc can help. Teledoc is committed

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Speaker 1: to facilitating great therapeutic matches, so they make it easy

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Speaker 1: available through most insurance or employers. Download the app or

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00:16:42,080 --> 00:16:46,360
Speaker 1: visit teledoc dot com forward slash unexplained podcast Today to

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00:16:46,440 --> 00:17:00,160
Speaker 1: get started. That's teladoc dot com slash unexplained podcast. At

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Speaker 1: one point, Ken wrote to the mysterious Lucas asking how

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Speaker 1: it was that he was able to send messages on

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Speaker 1: a computer if he was writing from the distant past.

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Speaker 1: Ken's preferred method was to write his message and leave

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Speaker 1: the computer on until he received a reply, usually leaving

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Speaker 1: the house in order to prompt a response. That evening,

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Speaker 1: having only been gone an hour, he returned to find

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Speaker 1: a new file saved onto the disc. I hath seen

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Speaker 1: thee Maketh leams on thy voice and Art sly read

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Speaker 1: the reply. He had been watching them make lights on

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Speaker 1: the box and copied them, explained Peter. The next day,

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Speaker 1: things progressed steadily between Lucas, Ken and Debbie as they

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Speaker 1: apparently sought more information about each other, until one message

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Speaker 1: brought a curious revelation. As Ken explained it to Peter,

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Speaker 1: all this time he and Debbie had been trying to

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Speaker 1: catch out whoever had been hoaxing them, until it became

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Speaker 1: apparent in their exchanges with Lucas that he might in

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Speaker 1: fact have been trying to catch them out. Perhaps it

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Speaker 1: was they who he thought were not real, said Ken,

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Speaker 1: What if to Lucas it was they who were the ghosts.

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Speaker 1: A few weeks later, Debby was alone in the house,

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Speaker 1: resting on the sofa when she heard a bizare scuffling

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Speaker 1: coming from the kitchen. Opening the door, she found a

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Speaker 1: wire chair leaning back on a rail at a forty

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Speaker 1: five degree angle. After staring for a moment, she moved

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Speaker 1: slowly toward it and pulled it down into place, before

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Speaker 1: hurrying back to the living room and bolting the kitchen

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Speaker 1: door shut behind her. After falling asleep again on the sofa,

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Speaker 1: Debb plucked up the courage to return to the kitchen

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Speaker 1: to make some coffee. Having returned again to the living room,

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Speaker 1: she had just sat down on the couch when she

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Speaker 1: felt something cold brush against the left side of her face.

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Speaker 1: She felt her hand run through her hair, and another

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Speaker 1: grip her on the shoulder. She became aware of a

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Speaker 1: figure standing to her left, but when she turned to look,

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Speaker 1: there was nothing Leaping from the couch, she ran straight

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Speaker 1: into the cold and wet outside, where she remained for

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Speaker 1: the next hour until Ken returned home. It was some

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Speaker 1: time in the spring of eighty five that Peter, having

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Speaker 1: suggested they widened their investigation, wrote to the UK's Society

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Speaker 1: of Psychical Research for assistance. It wouldn't be until early May, however,

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Speaker 1: that John Bucknell and Dave Welsh of the SPR were

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Speaker 1: finally able to meet with them, and much had happened

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Speaker 1: Peter had first been in touch. The pair sat in

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Speaker 1: Peter's living room listening as he, Debbie, and Ken explained

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Speaker 1: the events of the past six months. It appeared that

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Speaker 1: after the first flurry of messages, things had started to

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Speaker 1: take increasingly strange turns. One incident involved Ken leaving a

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Speaker 1: picture of the type of car he owned by the

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Speaker 1: computer at the request of Lucas, who wanted to understand

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Speaker 1: more about it. The picture had gone missing, only to

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Speaker 1: reappear the following day, scorched around all the edges. Additional

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Speaker 1: messages had also started appearing around the house, written in

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Speaker 1: chalk in long cursive script, the first had said simply

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Speaker 1: Lucas As for Lucas himself, Ken explained as he handed

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Speaker 1: a folder to John and Dave contain all the messages

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Speaker 1: to date. He was no longer corresponding with them. Ken

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Speaker 1: paused for a moment, wondering if he should continue. It seemed,

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Speaker 1: he said, as John perused the many pages of text,

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Speaker 1: that he had been arrested for witchcraft after he was

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Speaker 1: apparently discovered trying to communicate with Ken and Debbie. What's more,

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Speaker 1: Ken had never told him what year they were living in.

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Speaker 1: When he did, Lucas had apparently been confused, believing they

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Speaker 1: had been speaking to him from the year twenty one

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Speaker 1: o nine. When Ken had asked why, Lucas replied because

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Speaker 1: it was the year in which the others lived. Ken

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Speaker 1: handed a final message to the spr investigators. It was

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Speaker 1: from them, he said, Ken, Peter deb It read, try

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Speaker 1: to understand that you three have a purpose that shall,

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Speaker 1: in your lifetime change the face of history. We twenty

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Speaker 1: one o nine must not affect your thoughts directly, but

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Speaker 1: give you some sort of guidance that will allow room

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Speaker 1: for your own destiny, John and Dave studied the messages

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00:22:24,840 --> 00:22:30,520
Speaker 1: carefully and looked to Peter for clarification. He confirmed again

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Speaker 1: that the messages in Old English seemed authentic. It was

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Speaker 1: clear to Ken, however, from the following questioning, that he,

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Speaker 1: deb and Peter were under suspicion of concocting a hoax.

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Speaker 1: John and Dave eventually agreed to mount a formal investigation,

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Speaker 1: but made it clear their focus was not on the

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Speaker 1: possibility of contact from a distant past or future, but

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Speaker 1: rather on trying to catch out the assus umed hoaxer.

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Speaker 1: Over the next few months, with communication now apparently coming

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Speaker 1: regularly between Ken and the enigmatic twenty one o nine group,

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00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:21,600
Speaker 1: John and Dave traveled to Ken's house in Doddleston, rigging

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Speaker 1: up a series of traps and microphones throughout the house

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Speaker 1: in their efforts to snare the trickster. After the traps

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Speaker 1: were set, the group would retire to the local pub

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Speaker 1: in the hope of returning to find either a message

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Speaker 1: or one of the traps disturbed, but every time they

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Speaker 1: found nothing. Next, Dave secretly composed ten as yet unanswered

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Speaker 1: mathematical problems that he reasoned might be simple for someone

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Speaker 1: in twenty one o nine to answer. Sitting in the

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Speaker 1: kitchen on his own, he typed them out carefully returned

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Speaker 1: to sit with the others in the living room. With

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Speaker 1: the kitchen locked and deb Ken and Peter all gathered together,

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00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:11,919
Speaker 1: no one had entered the kitchen when Dave returned to

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Speaker 1: the computer an hour later. Satisfied that nobody had replied,

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Speaker 1: he deleted the questions. When a few days had passed,

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Speaker 1: Dave received a phone call from Ken. He had found

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Speaker 1: a new file on the disc. Dave was disappointed but

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Speaker 1: unsurprised to discover that his questions had not been answered,

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00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:41,080
Speaker 1: and yet, curiously, whoever had written the message had referred

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Speaker 1: directly to a number of the questions, suggesting they had

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Speaker 1: at least found some way to read them. Frustrated by

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Speaker 1: the insufficient response from Dave's first request, Ken had apparently

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Speaker 1: written back demanding they at least answered two questions provide

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Speaker 1: them with a prime number bigger than the largest currently known,

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Speaker 1: as well as the solution to the mathematical conundrum known

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Speaker 1: as for Mars last theorem. Ken called Dave again later

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Speaker 1: that day to explain what he had done, but more importantly,

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Speaker 1: to let him know that they had replied again, Dave.

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Speaker 1: It read yes, both questions can be answered, one directly,

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Speaker 1: the other requires an understanding of a new conversion formula.

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Speaker 1: But if we tell you, do you swear to grant

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Speaker 1: us our wish. After a moment of silence, Dave instructed

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Speaker 1: Ken what to write next if it be in our

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00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:51,160
Speaker 1: power to do so, and that we do not lose

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Speaker 1: our minds or souls or bodies to do so. Ken

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00:25:56,680 --> 00:25:59,920
Speaker 1: put down the phone and dutifully typed out the words

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00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:02,800
Speaker 1: before heading out for a walk in the hope that

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Speaker 1: a reply would be waiting for him. On his return

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00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:11,040
Speaker 1: back in Dave's home. An hour later, the phone rang.

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Speaker 1: It was Ken. They had replied again. Then let the

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Speaker 1: man who was willing to lose those step forward. They said.

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Speaker 1: Now they just want you to answer yes or no,

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Speaker 1: explained Ken. Dave hesitated for a moment before deciding to

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Speaker 1: decline their offer. It was now becoming clear that any

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Speaker 1: effort to uncover the truth was merely an exercise in futility.

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Speaker 1: Aside from keeping the computer under twenty four hours surveillance

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Speaker 1: or being present for when the apparent messages appeared on

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Speaker 1: the screen, there was little to no way that anybody

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00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:59,359
Speaker 1: could evervalidate the authenticity of the communications, and what good

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00:26:59,359 --> 00:27:03,840
Speaker 1: asking questions to the people supposedly communicating with them when

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00:27:03,880 --> 00:27:08,000
Speaker 1: there was no imperative for them to answer it proved nothing.

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00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:12,760
Speaker 1: The SPR at least would eventually conclude they had reached

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00:27:12,760 --> 00:27:17,320
Speaker 1: a dead end. According to Ken, John Bucknell left the

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00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:22,359
Speaker 1: Society soon after, and neither he nor Dave Welsh ever

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00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:37,680
Speaker 1: filed a report on the case. Having lost the interest

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00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:41,679
Speaker 1: of the SPR, Peter advised Ken to go public with

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00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:45,000
Speaker 1: his story. After gaining the attention of the local paper,

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00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:49,879
Speaker 1: The Chester Observer, Ken met with reporter Neil Bartlam at

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00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:54,760
Speaker 1: the beginning of December nineteen eighty five. The subsequent article,

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00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:58,960
Speaker 1: published on Sunday twenty second of December, detailed most of

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00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:03,240
Speaker 1: what had happened to day, including one incredible piece of information.

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00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:09,840
Speaker 1: Sometime after the SPR ended their investigation, Lucas had apparently

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00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:12,919
Speaker 1: got back in touch with Ken, only to reveal that

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00:28:13,040 --> 00:28:16,679
Speaker 1: his name wasn't Lucas at all, but was in fact

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Speaker 1: Thomas Howarden. Some months before, Lucas had claimed to have

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Speaker 1: once been a fellow at Brasenose College of Oxford University,

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Speaker 1: taking it on himself to see if there was any

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Speaker 1: record of a Lucas attending the college in the early

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00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:38,160
Speaker 1: sixteenth century. Peter contacted Robin Pendle, an acquaintance at Brasenose,

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Speaker 1: to see if he might do some digging for him.

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00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:45,200
Speaker 1: As it turned out, there was no record of a

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00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:52,160
Speaker 1: Lucas Wayneman, but Robin did find something interesting. Thomas Hawarden

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00:28:52,800 --> 00:28:56,040
Speaker 1: or Harden, who hailed from an area close to present

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00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:59,120
Speaker 1: day Doddleston, had been a tutor at the college in

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00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:04,040
Speaker 1: fifteen thirty. The man had apparently been fired after expunging

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00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:09,080
Speaker 1: the name of the Pope on official documents. Later, after

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00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:11,920
Speaker 1: Lucas had allegedly revealed his name to in fact have

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00:29:12,040 --> 00:29:16,800
Speaker 1: been Thomas Howarden and later Thomas Harden. Ken had in

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00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:19,880
Speaker 1: turn informed him that they had been told of his

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00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:23,240
Speaker 1: name before and asked if it was true that he

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00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:28,080
Speaker 1: had been fired from the college. Ken maintained. He then

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00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:31,880
Speaker 1: received a reply from Thomas confirming he had indeed been

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00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:36,320
Speaker 1: released by the college. It wasn't for expunging the Pope's name, however,

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00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:42,600
Speaker 1: but rather for failing to do so. A few weeks later,

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00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:48,120
Speaker 1: Robin Pendle, while searching the archives again at Brasenose, came

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00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:53,000
Speaker 1: across another document pertaining to Thomas her Warden. It appeared

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00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:56,920
Speaker 1: that his initial assessment had been wrong after all, with

394
00:29:56,960 --> 00:30:01,280
Speaker 1: the newly discovered document revealing just as Tom had apparently said,

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00:30:01,720 --> 00:30:14,240
Speaker 1: he was punished for not removing the Pope's name. Ken

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00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:17,720
Speaker 1: would eventually go on to publish a book titled The

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00:30:17,840 --> 00:30:22,440
Speaker 1: Vertical Plane, outlining the extraordinary set of events that apparently

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00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:26,280
Speaker 1: plagued him and his girlfriend Debbie in that quiet, sleepy

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00:30:26,360 --> 00:30:32,440
Speaker 1: village of Doddleston. The final communication was said by Ken

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00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:36,080
Speaker 1: to have been received on March twenty first, nineteen eighty six.

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00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:40,760
Speaker 1: It was written by the Enigmatic twenty one O nine

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00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:47,040
Speaker 1: group and contained one final tantalizing piece of information. At

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00:30:47,080 --> 00:30:50,520
Speaker 1: one point during all the correspondence with the man said

404
00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:54,680
Speaker 1: to be named Lucas Wayneman, later revealed as Thomas Harden,

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00:30:55,440 --> 00:30:58,480
Speaker 1: he said that he had been writing a book documenting

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00:30:58,480 --> 00:31:01,640
Speaker 1: the bazaar events in the hope that someone in the

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00:31:01,680 --> 00:31:07,600
Speaker 1: future would discover it. As the final message detailed, Thomas

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00:31:07,680 --> 00:31:12,480
Speaker 1: did eventually write his book, but died shortly after. He

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00:31:12,600 --> 00:31:15,520
Speaker 1: placed it in a secure place. But it shouldn't take

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00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:21,040
Speaker 1: too many years to find it, the inscription reads, me

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00:31:21,120 --> 00:31:24,520
Speaker 1: writes this in the hope that mine fellows will one

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00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:29,000
Speaker 1: day find this book, then may our lands be not

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00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:40,120
Speaker 1: so distant. If you enjoy listening to Unexplained and would

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00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:43,120
Speaker 1: like to help supporters, you can now go to Unexplained

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00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:48,400
Speaker 1: podcast dot com forward slash Support. All donations, no matter

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Speaker 1: how large or small, are massively appreciated. All elements of

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00:31:56,160 --> 00:31:59,960
Speaker 1: Unexplained are produced by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe

418
00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:02,200
Speaker 1: and rate the show on iTunes. Feel free to get

419
00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:04,840
Speaker 1: in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories

420
00:32:04,840 --> 00:32:07,840
Speaker 1: you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation

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00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:10,240
Speaker 1: of your own you'd like to share. You can reach

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00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:13,240
Speaker 1: us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or on Twitter

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00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:32,160
Speaker 1: at Unexplained pod. Now. It's time to take care of yourself.

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00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:36,320
Speaker 1: To make time for you, teledoc gives you access to

425
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Speaker 1: a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling

426
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Speaker 1: your best. Speak to a licensed therapist by phone or

427
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Speaker 1: video anytime between seven am to nine pm local time,

428
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Speaker 1: insurance or employers. Download the app or visit telldoc dot com,

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Speaker 1: Forward slash Unexplained Podcast Today to get started. That's teladoc

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Speaker 1: dot com Slash Unexplained podcast