WEBVTT - Season 09 Episode 08: A Black Star Over His Shoulder 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:11.600 It's one thing when someone appears to vanish off the 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:15.480 face of the earth. It's quite another when they appear suddenly, 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:20.240 as if from nowhere, their clothes, behavior and mannerisms completely 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:24.360 at odds with their surrounding environment. At best, this might 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:28.280 make for a sensational, unthreatening news story, a slice of 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:31.760 the Bazaarre to liven up the day, like the story 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:35.080 of Andreas Grassel, who seemed to appear in England one day, 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:38.320 completely out of the blue. Back in April two thousand 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:41.680 and five, Grassel was found on a beach in a 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:45.120 distressed state and appeared to have no recollection of who 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:49.880 he was or how even to speak. While being looked 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:53.400 after in care, Grassol began playing the piano in an 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:56.840 effort to communicate with those around him, leading to him 0:00:56.880 --> 0:01:00.840 becoming known as the Piano Man. It was four months 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:03.280 after he was first seen on the beach that he 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:07.000 finally revealed his name and true identity. A twenty year 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:10.760 old man from southern Germany, he claimed to simply have 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:15.520 forgotten who he was until then. At worst, like the 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:19.640 titular character in Nicholas Rogue's nineteen seventy six sci fi 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:23.200 classic The Man, who fell to earth, or any immigrant 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:27.120 for that matter, taking their first steps through an unfamiliar land. 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:32.959 Some unfortunate individuals might find themselves becoming bogeymen for local 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:36.800 anxieties about the general state of a nation and about 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:42.360 just what constitutes the correct way to be in the world. 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:46.440 Arguably the most famous example of the mysterious arrival narrative 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:50.680 is the apocryphal tale of the Man from Torret. It 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:54.600 was back in nineteen sixty when an enigmatic traveler reportedly 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:58.160 arrived at Hanada Airport in Tokyo, claiming to be from 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:01.800 a country which no borderers, officials, or anyone else for 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:05.600 that matter, had ever heard of. The man was said 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:08.960 to have spoken multiple languages, and when his flight number 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:11.400 was not found to be on any register, he was 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:15.720 ordered to hand over his travel documents. He presented police 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:19.160 with a strange looking passport from a non existent city 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:24.520 state named Torret. After leaving the interrogation room to consult 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:28.760 with senior officials, the officer whose responsibility it was to 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:32.680 question the man apparently returned to the small office, only 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:37.160 to discover that the man had completely disappeared. All that 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:40.679 was left behind was the strange passport lying face down 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:43.960 on the table, and the man's returned plane ticket, which 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:55.040 supposedly gave his name as John Zegris. As it turned out, 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:58.520 the man from Torret as he became known, was simply 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:02.040 the misreporting of a very real case about a genuine 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:05.840 individual named John Zegris who was arrested in Japan for 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:10.640 committing international identity fraud. The man had already been sentenced 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:13.480 to one year in prison and deported to Hong Kong 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:17.320 when the story was eventually picked up by Canadian newspaper 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:22.639 The Province. From there, the story was embellished with speculative 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:26.079 details that had nothing to do with the actual events 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:30.679 of the case. Our ability to make narratives out of 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:34.600 the chaos of existence is perhaps both our greatest strength 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:39.160 and greatest weakness as a species. On the one hand, 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.400 it is through narrative that we are able to construct 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:46.000 the world around us. It empowers our sense of self 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:49.360 and enables us to project meaning onto the world and 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:54.560 the universe more broadly through the stories we create about them. 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:57.400 But on the other hand, since so much of how 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:00.400 we see the world is dependent on what story stories 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:03.600 we choose to believe, it is all too easy to 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:06.800 get swept up in a lie, and whenever we are 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:10.880 presented with a story that seems incomplete, it is almost 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:14.360 impossible for us not to speculate on what those missing 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:18.159 parts may be. So when a body is found with 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:22.320 no identity, like the so called Isdel Woman has covered 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:26.520 in Season six, episode seventeen, a story of ice and fire, 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:30.320 we are almost pathologically driven to want to know who 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:34.440 they were and what exactly happened to them. The case 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:37.760 of the Isdel Woman has been dissected so much that 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:41.040 it's become a kind of shorthand for a certain variety 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:44.240 of true crime story, one in which we are both 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:48.680 baffled and titillated by the mystery at its center. It 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:53.920 also took place over fifty years ago. In more recent times, 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:58.400 it is almost inconceivable, with the advancement of technology and 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:03.080 the normalization of survey, that someone could suddenly appear in 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:06.640 a well populated town with no trace of who they 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:10.640 are or where they came from. And yet that is 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:14.480 exactly what happened in two thousand and nine, during one 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:18.920 strange summer in a picturesque seaside town in the west 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:26.000 of Ireland. You're listening to unexplained and I'm Richard McLean Smith. 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:40.960 To anyone else, his appearance would have been unremarkable. To 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:44.120 the driver of the bus route between Derry City and 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:47.919 Sligo Town, The stooped figure who boarded his coach on 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:51.599 that June twelfth afternoon in two thousand and nine cut 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:55.240 a tragic figure against the cold rain beating down on 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:58.839 the bus stop. Perhaps it was the ill fitting pair 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:02.240 of trousers which hung too loosely from his waist as 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:05.599 he mounted the steps, or perhaps it was the purple 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:10.839 shopping back filled with torn pieces of random paper. Whatever 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:14.200 it was, the man could barely meet the driver's gaze 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:17.280 as he spoke in what was later described as a 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:22.279 crisp North European accent. Where you headed, the driver asked, 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:27.760 single to Sligo, the man replied. The driver asked if 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:32.839 he wanted Sligo Town or somewhere else in the wider countryside. 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:35.840 The man seemed put out by the question, as if 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:38.760 he wasn't exactly sure himself where he wanted to go. 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:43.240 The man rubbed awkwardly at the thick white stubble on 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:46.800 the back of his head, leveled his eyes momentarily with 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:53.080 the drivers, and repeated his first instruction single ticket to Sligo. 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:56.599 As he shambled up the aisle, the driver turned in 0:06:56.640 --> 0:07:00.520 his seat to watch him go. He noticed that, as 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:03.360 well as the purple shopping back, the man was carrying 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:06.520 a simple black shoulder back and a medium sized hold, 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:10.920 all which he'd placed neatly on the empty seat beside him. 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:13.840 He leaned his head against the window and made sure 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:16.960 to avoid eye contact with the other passengers who walked 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:19.920 onto the bus, as though he didn't want to be recognized. 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:24.240 He removed a bread roll wrapped in cellophane and chewed 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:27.400 slowly as the vehicle pulled out at the station and 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:32.320 began the arduous four hour journey down the coast. No 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:35.239 matter how many times he drove this route, the driver 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:39.000 was always struck by the breath taking landscape that unfurled 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:43.520 before his windshield. He considered himself lucky as he passed 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:47.000 through Donegal Town and breathed in the brackish sea air. 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:50.280 As he made his way along the coast past Bundoran, 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:54.280 passengers got on and off, some of whom he'd known 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:58.320 for years. He took comfort in observing the local people 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:02.480 going about their lives with the regularity of atomic clocks. 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:06.920 The strange man seemed not to have moved during the 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:11.400 entire bus journey. The driver couldn't help but wonder if 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:14.360 he was simply a tourist, or was he here visiting 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:18.240 family or for work, or was it something more sinister. 0:08:19.720 --> 0:08:22.200 As the driver reached the terminus in the center of 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:26.360 Sligo Town, he caught himself reciting the Lord's Prayer under 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:29.640 his breath. It was a habit he'd formed in childhood 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:34.400 during moments of stress and confusion. As the unknown passenger 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:38.320 descended the steps onto the nearly deserted platform, the driver 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:43.079 finished his prayer in earnest Lead us not into temptation, 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:55.240 he whispered, but deliver us from evil. Amen. It was 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:58.920 just after six thirty pm when the stranger walked into 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:02.480 the lobby of the sligh Go City Hotel. Though it 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:05.480 was only a short distance from the bus station, the 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:08.000 man was yet to find his bearings and seemed to 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:10.920 have a persistent pain in his lower back, which made 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:14.760 it difficult to walk. The bags he carried weighed heavy 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:18.120 on his shoulders, so he stopped and waved down a taxi. 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:21.480 When asked by the driver where he wanted to go, 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:25.720 The man said nothing. He rustled around in his purple 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:28.800 carrier back before pulling out a slip of paper with 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:32.520 a hastily scribbled set of directions on it. The paper 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:36.200 looked like it had been torn from an envelope. The 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:38.679 driver squinted at it in an effort to read it 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:43.440 the City Hotel. The man nodded in reply, and the 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:46.240 driver gestured for him to jump into the back seat. 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:49.439 When he got out to help the man with his bags, 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:52.640 the stranger clutched the hole door to his chest like 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:56.400 he was protecting it with his life, leaving him to it. 0:09:56.640 --> 0:09:59.640 The driver jumped back in and promptly made his way 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:05.120 to the City Hotel. Minutes later they arrived, though the 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.440 fare was little over five euros. The man handed the 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:12.600 driver a crisp new twenty euro note, waving him away 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:16.160 when he tried to give him change. The driver watched 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:19.160 as the man ambled slowly away and in through the 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:23.240 hotel's front door, before pulling off and heading back into town. 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:29.800 Inside the hotel, the stranger approached the front desk carefully 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:33.480 with great deliberation, as if he was weighing each word 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:37.040 for the energy it would take to speak. He requested 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:39.679 a room for four nights and offered to pay up 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:43.480 front in cash. When asked for his ID, the man 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:47.680 replied that he didn't have any. The receptionist explained that 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:50.040 it wasn't a problem as long as he told them 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:54.200 his name and address, and so, taking a pen and paper, 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:57.800 the man put his name down as Peter Bergman and 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:03.760 his address as Einstetters four four seven two, Vienna, Austria. 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:06.760 Then he handed over the cash to pay for his 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:16.959 stay and headed up to his room. The next time 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:20.440 the man known as Peter Bergman was seen, he appeared 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:26.120 neatly groomed. Locals remembered the piercing blue eyes, the tanned complexion, 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:31.720 the clean shaven face, and closely cropped white hair. Each 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:36.160 day he wore the same simple outfit black leather jacket, 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:42.280 blue jeans, black shoes, black leather belt. He appeared to 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:46.000 be a heavy smoker, being noticed several times making the 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:49.160 long trek down from his room to stand outside in 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:53.160 the mild air for a cigarette or two. The staff 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:56.120 at the Sligos City Hotel liked to play a game 0:11:56.360 --> 0:12:00.200 where they tried to guess his background. The consensus was 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:03.000 that he was some kind of professional worker. In his 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:06.560 fifties or sixties, or a man away on business of 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:12.000 some kind, perhaps a property speculator or a financier. Maybe 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:14.520 he's a spy, joked one of the porters on his 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:18.400 coffee break, a momentary silence to send it, as his 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:21.560 colleagues tried to decide whether he was serious or not. 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:26.600 Whatever his occupation, the man known as Peter Bergmann seemed 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:29.040 to have a spring in his step after checking into 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:33.280 his room, as if a weight had been lifted, perhaps 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:36.720 because for the time being, at least, he wasn't required 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:41.040 to answer any more questions. In between sitting down for 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:44.560 an occasional beer at the hotel bar and dining in 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:47.839 some of the cafes and restaurants in the area, Peter 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:52.720 Bergmann was most often observed taking long walks around Sligo. 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:57.240 Over time, he became more adventurous in his outings, despite 0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:01.040 the obvious back pain that continued to plague him, and 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:05.240 with every foray into more extroverted activity, he became more 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:10.760 and more the topic of fevered discussion and speculation. One 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:15.240 thing that didn't go unnoticed was how every morning, after breakfast, 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:18.520 which he took at eight thirty a m. Sharp, he 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:22.439 left carrying his purple shopping bag full of papers, only 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:27.560 to return later having apparently disposed of its contents. It 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:30.000 was as though he was ferrying bits of his life 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:33.719 bag by measured bag out of his room, until there 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:36.200 was nothing left at all but the clothes that he 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:40.880 was wearing. On the afternoon of Saturday, June thirteenth, he 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:43.280 made a visit to the local post office, where he 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:47.920 purchased eight international stamps and some air mail stickers, though 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:50.360 there was never any record of the letters he might 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:54.720 have sent. During one of the periods when hotel staff 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:58.640 thought he was out, the housekeeper entered his room. When 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:02.079 they opened the door, the found Peter fully dressed, standing 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:04.760 in the entryway with a look on his face that 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:08.480 seemed to suggest both that he was expecting somewhat and 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:18.600 doing something that he wasn't supposed to be doing. Early 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:22.280 on the morning of Sunday, June fourteenth, Peter asked the 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:27.000 hotel receptionist to order him a taxi. As usual, he 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:30.280 was holding the purple carrier bag, which by now seemed 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:32.480 so much a part of his uniform that it was 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:35.640 barely remarked upon when he walked out onto the footpath 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:39.560 with its plastic handles straining from the weight of its contents. 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.000 When the driver pulled up to the curb, he asked 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:45.800 Peter through the open window where he wanted to go. 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:50.760 Once again, in that calm, slightly eerie manner he developed 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:55.440 when communicating with locals, Peter chose each of his words carefully, 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:59.120 measuring them for impact. Perhaps, or maybe it was just 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:02.680 the limited inc he spoke. I want to go for 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:06.080 a swim, he said, Is there anywhere quiet? You know? 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:10.040 The driver thought for a moment, and, after clocking that 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:13.760 Peter was not a local, eventually suggested taking a short 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:17.200 drive out to the nearby beauty spot of Ross's Point. 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:21.360 The place was popular with families and sweethearts for the 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:26.160 dramatic views it offered over the open Atlantic. Seemingly pleased 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:29.480 by the suggestion, Peter ducked into the back of the car. 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:35.000 Ten minutes later they arrived at the spot. Peter ordered 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:37.440 the driver to stay put for a few minutes while 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:41.360 he stepped out and went for a wonder. After walking 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:44.280 only a few paces, he stopped and took in the 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:48.280 view of the tranquill Bay and its grassy borders to 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:52.440 the ben Bolburan Mountains. Beyond. Then he turned and headed 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:56.680 back to the car. A brief smile flashed across his 0:15:56.760 --> 0:16:00.120 face as he approached the driver. Are you not going 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:05.360 in today, the driver asked, Confused, Peter said something vague 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:08.160 about there being too many people on the beach and 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:11.800 that he wanted to come back some other time. Though 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:14.400 Peter was as quiet as ever on the journey back 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:17.720 to his hotel, the driver couldn't help but notice that 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:22.240 he seemed, somehow more relaxed than he was before. It 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:25.680 reminded him of the serenity that people talked about when 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:29.200 they were close to death, what his father had once 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:33.840 called a Saints calm. As he glanced in the mirror 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:37.240 at the strange man sitting in his back seat, the 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:41.200 afternoon sun caught the glint of his spectacles, turning his 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:55.520 eyes into wide pools of light. On his final morning 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:59.200 at the Sligo City Hotel, Peter Bergmann came down to 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:01.920 the reception and asked if it would be possible to 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:04.560 have a later check out, since he had some errands 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:07.320 to run and his bus was not until the afternoon. 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:10.640 He explained that because of the pain in his lower back, 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:13.840 he wanted to restrict his movements as much as possible. 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:17.359 Since the hotel was quiet and there were only a 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:21.720 handful of bookings, the receptionist was happy to accommodate his request. 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:25.240 After breakfast, the man returned to his room for a 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:29.280 few hours before finally checking out at one p m. 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:32.760 Though he'd arrived in Sligo with a small black rucksack 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:35.560 and a hold all, by the time Peter made it 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:38.440 to the bus station, the only items he was carrying 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:42.320 were the distinctive purple carrier back and a disposable cup 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:46.320 of coffee, which he'd purchased at a kiosk. After sitting 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:48.440 down at one of the tables in the waiting area, 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:52.119 he was observed scribbling profusely on some scraps of paper, 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:56.160 which he then put in his bag. When the bus arrived, 0:17:56.400 --> 0:18:00.800 the man got on board alongside a handful of other passengers. 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:06.760 The destination on the front read Ross's Point. The countryside 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:10.240 that the so called peter Bergman traveled through that day 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:14.879 is widely associated with the great Irish poet W. B. Yates, 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:18.600 who spent much of his formative years holidaying in the region. 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:22.320 It was the country of his heart, as he called it, 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:25.760 and its presence and landscape can be felt in much 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:30.080 of his poetry. I will arise and go now and 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:33.440 go to innis free, and a small cabin build there 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:37.600 of clay and wattles, made nine bean rows. While I 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:41.080 have there a hive of the honey bee, and live 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:44.840 alone in the bee loud glade, and I shall have 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:49.040 some peace there. For peace comes dropping, slow, dropping from 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:53.240 the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings. There. 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:57.520 Midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, and 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:02.000 evening full of the linnet's wings. I will arise and 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:06.280 go now. For always night and day I hear lake 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:10.199 water lapping with low sounds by the shore. While I 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:13.919 stand on the roadway or on the pavement's gray, I 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:24.320 hear it in the deep hearts core. Just after dawn 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:29.040 on Tuesday, June sixteenth, two thousand and nine, Ross's Point 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:32.359 native Arthur Kinsella was out on the beach with his 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:36.320 son Brian. Normally, they like to swim at a spot 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:39.359 close to their house, but due to high winds coming 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:43.159 from the west, the waves had been particularly treacherous that morning. 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:47.880 Arthur suggested walking a little further up the promenade, where 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:52.119 the rocks offered protection from the blowing gale. It was 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:56.120 Brian who noticed it first, what looked like a discarded 0:19:56.240 --> 0:20:00.280 department store mannequin dressed in speedos and a T shirt, 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:03.440 lying face down in the sand with its arms by 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:08.440 its side. As the two men drew closer, they realized 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:13.239 it was a body. Arthur sank to his knees and 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:17.680 gestured for Brian to phone the police. As they waited, 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:21.520 Arthur said to Brian that it might be appropriate to 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:25.160 speak the Lord's prayer for the repose of this unknown 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:30.119 man's soul, our father, which art in heaven. Arthur spoke 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:34.280 solemnly as the nearby waves crashed onto the beach. As 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:36.800 it is in heaven. They couldn't have known at that 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:40.280 moment that theirs would be the only prayer spoken for 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:43.720 the man known as Peter Bergman, who died alone on 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:47.159 that beautiful beach at the most westerly point of the 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:52.679 European continent. The man had clearly been washed up on 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:56.200 the beach, having gone into the water. In spite of this, 0:20:56.520 --> 0:21:00.199 a post mortem examination found no signs of what they 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:05.639 termed a classical salt water drowning. What the pathologist did find, however, 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:08.600 was that the man was in the advanced stages of 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:12.879 prostate cancer and had multiple bone tumors. He would have 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:15.720 been in considerable pain in the last few weeks of 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:19.760 his life. The rest of the man's clothes were found 0:21:19.760 --> 0:21:23.320 in a neat pile further up the shore. The labels 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:26.080 on the various items, along with the clothes he was 0:21:26.119 --> 0:21:31.480 found in had all deliberately been removed. No money, wallet, 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:37.240 or form of identification was found. After a police investigation, 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:40.560 it was also discovered that the address he supplied to 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:44.119 the Sligo City Hotel turned out to be nothing but 0:21:44.200 --> 0:21:50.080 a vacant lot in an uninhabited commercial building in Vienna, Austria. 0:21:50.600 --> 0:21:54.840 As for the name Peter Bergman, no passports issued anywhere 0:21:54.840 --> 0:21:58.760 in Europe were found for anyone matching the man's physical 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:10.280 description or aim profile. The stranger in Sligo clearly had 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:14.760 some awareness about CCTV and their blind spots, because although 0:22:14.840 --> 0:22:18.120 police were convinced that he disposed of all his worldly 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:22.280 possessions in public bins dotted around the town, there was 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:27.120 no visual footprint of him actually doing it anywhere. Despite 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:30.640 numerous attempts to find any next of kin, the Irish 0:22:30.640 --> 0:22:35.480 guardy failed to locate anyone that knew the man. Four 0:22:35.520 --> 0:22:38.960 months after his body was discovered, the man known as 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:42.520 Peter Bergmann was laid to rest in an unmarked grave 0:22:42.960 --> 0:22:48.919 in Sligo Town Cemetery. Unsurprisingly, like the Isdaar woman and 0:22:49.040 --> 0:22:53.119 the Somerton man before him, covered in Unexplained season six 0:22:53.240 --> 0:22:57.200 episode twenty two to mourn Names, that so called Peter 0:22:57.280 --> 0:23:00.280 Bergmann seemed to have gone to such an effort to 0:23:00.359 --> 0:23:06.040 deliberately obscure his identity has only intensified people's curiosity about him. 0:23:07.000 --> 0:23:10.080 One of the more outlandish theories is that Peter Bergmann 0:23:10.280 --> 0:23:12.720 was a nom de plume for none other than the 0:23:12.760 --> 0:23:18.119 elusive founder of Bitcoin, Sir Tooshe Nakamoto. Some have suggested 0:23:18.200 --> 0:23:20.440 he may have been a spy on the run from 0:23:20.480 --> 0:23:25.840 something sinister, with nowhere left to turn. Whatever his motivation. 0:23:26.560 --> 0:23:30.000 In a world obsessed with making ourselves the center of 0:23:30.040 --> 0:23:33.879 every one else's story or getting our fifteen minutes of fame, 0:23:34.520 --> 0:23:38.800 there is something undeniably poetic about how that unknown man 0:23:38.840 --> 0:23:43.240 in Sligo left us knowing next to nothing about him, 0:23:43.400 --> 0:23:46.879 and until some one comes forward with more concrete information, 0:23:47.680 --> 0:23:55.320 his identity will continue to remain Unexplained. This episode was 0:23:55.359 --> 0:23:59.080 written by James Connor Patterson and Richard mc lean smith. 0:24:04.680 --> 0:24:07.400 Thank you as ever for listening Unexplained as an AV 0:24:07.560 --> 0:24:12.040 Club Productions podcast created by Richard McLain smith. All other 0:24:12.080 --> 0:24:15.720 elements of the podcast, including the music, are also produced 0:24:15.760 --> 0:24:20.240 by me Richard McClain smith. Unexplained. The book and audiobook 0:24:20.480 --> 0:24:24.440 is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, 0:24:24.640 --> 0:24:29.280 Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and other bookstores. Please subscribe to 0:24:29.400 --> 0:24:32.320 and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts, and 0:24:32.400 --> 0:24:34.720 feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or 0:24:34.760 --> 0:24:38.360 ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps 0:24:38.359 --> 0:24:40.680 you have an explanation or a story of your own 0:24:40.720 --> 0:24:43.119 you'd like to share. You can find out more at 0:24:43.240 --> 0:24:47.040 Unexplained podcast dot com and reaches online through X and 0:24:47.200 --> 0:24:52.320 Blue Sky at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com, 0:24:52.359 --> 0:30:03.880 Forward Slash Unexplained Podcast name assass