September 12, 2025 • 23 mins
SEASON 9 BEGINS FRIDAY OCTOBER 31ST
This week's rerun is perhaps the most disturbing story I’ve covered on Unexplained.
Back in the 1970s, in the quiet North English town of Ossett, an ordinary family found themselves drawn into a world that was anything but.
What began as a struggle with doubt, faith, and the weight of daily life soon took on a darker shape, as strange behaviors and unsettling visions began to erode one man’s fragile sense of normality...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
With Unexplained on an end of season break. We'll be
dipping back into the archives each week until season nine
begins on Friday, October thirty. First, this week's episode might
just be the most disturbing story I've ever covered on Unexplained,
and it's certainly one that has stayed with me to
this day. Back in the nineteen seventies, in the quiet
(00:22):
North English town of Ossit, an ordinary family found themselves
drawn into a world that was anything but. What began
as a struggle with doubt, faith, and the weight of
daily life soon took on a darker shape as strange
behaviours and unsettling visions began to erode one man's fragile
(00:43):
sense of normality. What followed would leave an entire community
shaken and raised chilling questions about the nature of free will.
Was it illness, suggestion or something far older and more
sinister at work? This week we revisit one of Britain's
(01:03):
most disturbing tales of possession, faith and madness, a story
that remains shrounded in mystery to this day. This is Unexplained,
Season one, episode six, Demons in Suburbia. We humans can
(01:31):
often take for granted that we are ultimately responsible for
our actions, that the choices we make are governed by
nothing but our own free will. And yet studies have
shown that the brain can enact certain decisions up to
seven seconds before we have even become aware that we
are making them. The notion of free will is explored
(01:55):
by the philosopher John Gray in his groundbreaking book straw Dogs,
a work of startling insight, deposits, amongst many other profound notions,
that the fallacy of free will is merely a concept
that helps us make sense of the world, that all
our acts are in fact nothing but the end point
in a series of long sequences of unconscious responses. To
(02:20):
accept that free will is little more than an illusion
is a little unnerving, to say the least. For some,
it could be seen as merely a fascinating quirk of life,
perhaps the existence of the seven second delay, merely the
consequence of a quantum process we are yet to fully understand.
But for others, a lack of free will might speak
(02:43):
of something else, entirely, something far more sinister. For after all,
if we aren't in control of our minds, than just
who or what is to unexplained? And I'm Richard MacLean Smith.
(03:07):
The following story took place in England in nineteen seventy four,
and I must warn the listener that it will contain
some horrific and graphic details. Believed by some to be
the most shocking account of demonic possession ever to have
occurred in the UK. The events that took place one
quiet Sunday morning in a small Yorkshire town have never
been fully accounted for. It is a chilling mystery that
(03:29):
remains to this day unexplained. For Britain, the nineteen seventies
was a time of extraordinary uncertainty. As the government lurched
from right to left. The country found itself struggling to
adapt to a posed industrial age. For some, especially those
(03:52):
in power, it seemed that nothing less than the country's
entire social fabric was at stake. For the residents of
the West Yorkshire market town of Ossit, the landscape had
been shifting for some time. The town, situated in border
country where the northwest of the coal fields merged with
the southeast of the woolen mills, had once been a
thriving pocket of industry, but like many northern towns in
(04:16):
the early seventies, it was facing an uncertain future. For
one couple in particular, that future was beginning to look
increasingly bleak. Thirty one year old Michael Taylor and his
twenty nine year old wife, Christine were described by friends
as a kind and loving couple and doting parents to
five young boys who were well liked by the local community.
(04:39):
After an accident at work, Michael had been forced to
leave his job after seriously injuring his back, and as
the country slipped into a full blown recession, opportunities for
jobs had all but dried up. For a proud young
father of the seventies, his sense of inadequacy and low
self esteem was profound, and with the pressure to provide
for his family starting to mount, Michael began to suffer
(05:01):
from intermittent bounts of depression. At some point, a local
friend called Barbara Wardman, called to see how the family
were holding up. Concerned that the couple's recent struggles had
left them socially isolated, Barbara suggested they accompany her to
an upcoming social event that she had organized. Barbara, it
turned out, had recently become involved with a local group
(05:23):
calling themselves the Christian Fellowship of Ossit The group were
part of a growing movement known collectively as charismatic Christianity.
For Michael and Christine, who had never shown an interest
in the church, or any religion for that matter, the
invitation to join Barbara's group seemed a little daunting. Nonetheless,
later that week, the Tailors attended their first fellowship meeting
(05:46):
and were surprised by what they found. Rather than the
stuck up, prickly group of religious eccentrics that they had expected, instead,
they found a group of friendly, ordinary people just like themselves.
Leading the congregation was a twenty two year old lay
preacher named Marie Robinson. The young charismatic in every sense
(06:08):
of the word, made a deep impression on the couple.
That night, under Marie's magnetic tutelage. Lifted by the joyous
spirit of the group, Michael and Christine converted to Christianity.
Eager to learn more about their new religion, Michael and
(06:29):
Christine attended a service conducted by Marie in the town
of Hawbury. During the service, Marie seemed to become suddenly distressed.
Shaking wildly, she started speaking in a strange language, claiming
she was possessed by the Holy Spirit. Unbeknownst to the tailors,
speaking in tongues, also known as glossalalia, was a prominent
(06:49):
feature of the charismatic movement. Later that night, the Christian Fellowship,
led by Marie Robinson, convened for a meeting at the
Taylor's house. At some point jo during the service, many
in the congregation noticed Michael becoming strangely animated, seeming to
be in the grip of an unknown force. Michael started
shaking violently before shouting a stream of strange, garbled words. Ordinarily,
(07:15):
such an outburst might cause celebration amongst the group, but
this was something different. The group were greatly disturbed. One member,
Mavis Smith, sank into an instant depression and started to
cry uncontrollably. Instinctively, Marie knelt in front of Mavis, calmly,
placed her hands on her head, and proceeded to perform
(07:37):
what Christine and Michael later discovered was an exorcism. As
Marie's voice grew louder, Mavis began to writhe uncontrollably, becoming
more and more animated and swearing at Marie, telling her
she hated her and to leave her alone. When it
was finally over, the scared and confused members slowly left
(07:59):
and agreed to record later in the week. The following day,
a concerned Marie returned to the tailor's home to check
on Michael's welfare. Christine, who had sensed that Michael was
developing an attraction to Marie, suggested the pair be left
alone to discuss their feelings. When Christine exited the room,
(08:20):
Michael kissed Marie, who immediately pushed him away. Marie pleaded
with Michael to think of his love for Christine. When
Christine re entered, Michael declared that they had won a
great victory for the Lord. A miracle has happened, he said.
We have both overcome our passions. But then something strange occurred.
(08:47):
Michael found himself standing naked, as if in a dream,
in a place that was not of this world. In
front of him, with her face turned away, was Marie,
who was also naked. As she slowly turned her head
to face him, Michael was horrified to see that her
eyes had been replaced by two snakelike slits. At once,
(09:09):
he felt a tremendous evil rise up inside of him.
For Marie, looking on at Michael in the room, she
recounted seeing a strange look come over him, a look
that she would later claim was nothing less than the
face of the devil. Suddenly, Michael began shouting in tongues
and slapped at Marie's head. Christine tried her best to
(09:32):
get between them, but was pushed out of the way
by her husband. Michael grabbed Marie by the hair and
threw her across the room, knocking her out cold. When
she came to moments later, the usually timid and gentle
Michael was crouched over her with a look of murder
in his eyes. Seconds later, having completely snapped out of
whatever had come over him, Michael collapsed exhausted after towards
(10:00):
Christine ordered Marie to stay away from their home, and
in the days that followed, noticed Michael's behavior becoming increasingly erratic.
He muttered strange things to himself and became angered by
religious iconography. A neighbour spotted Michael wandering the local streets
in the Bazaarre state. He spat on the ground and
told her to look on it as milk, telling her
(10:22):
to drink it, for it was the milk of human kindness.
As Christine became increasingly concerned for Michael, they turned again
to the fellowship for guidance. On the evening of October three,
they attended a meeting led by the Reverend Peter Vincent
of the Church of Saint Thomas at Gorbaugh in Barnsley.
(10:43):
Vincent was a well respected figure in the local charismatic movement,
having introduced it to his own congregation earlier in the year.
Within minutes of meeting Michael, it was clear to Reverend
Vincent that something was profoundly wrong. After inviting Michael to
make confession, he perferre formed a minor exorcism before sending
the emotionally drained tailor's back home. Once they had returned, Michael,
(11:07):
fearful of what exactly was happening to him, was too
afraid to sleep, pleading with his wife to stay by
his side. That night, they made the Sign of the
Cross repeatedly over each other in an attempt to ward
off the evil spirits. Two days later, on October the fifth,
(11:30):
Michael returned for another fellowship meeting. Alarmed by his behaviour,
the group suggested he be taken immediately to see the
Reverend Vincent. After being driven to the Vickers house, the
vicar's wife, Sally welcomed the couple into her home and
settled them down in the kitchen. A local Methodist minister
from Barnsley called Raymond Smith was called to provide a
(11:52):
second opinion. A short time later, Smith duly arrived at
the vicarage with his wife Margaret. As they sat down
to eat dinner, Michael immediately smashed his plate to the floor.
When the vicar's cat entered the room, he screamed at it,
pulling fur from its back and throwing it out of
the house before he could be restrained. Reverend Vincent was
(12:14):
utterly shocked. To him, it was clear Michael was possessed
by something deeply evil. There was no other option but
to perform a complete exorcism. As the others looked around nervously,
Reverend Smith was the first to speak up. Unconvinced by
Vincent's diagnosis, Smith thought it best that they consult a
(12:36):
doctor first. However, Christian was worried that calling the medical
services may cause even more distress to Michael. Sally agreed.
It was clear to her that not only was Michael possessed,
but that Marie Robinson was the culprit, having pledged Michael's
soul to Satan during one of her unorthodox rituals. The
(13:01):
team moved quickly, calling in Methodist lay preacher Donald James
to assist with the exorcism at once. Michael was taken
to Saint Thomas's Church and ordered to lie down in
the vestry on a pile of hassecks that had been
laid out on the floor. Candles were lit all around,
and the three clergymen, watched on by their wives, gathered
ominously around Michael. A bright moon hung in the sky,
(13:26):
and as the chill of the night descended, the preachers
began casting the demons from Michael's soul. For over six hours,
the priests worked casting out demon upon demon as Michael
rised and screamed into the night, at one point shouting
out the demon name of Incest in a strange guttural voice.
A cross belonging to Michael was later burned in a
(13:48):
cleansing ritual. The following morning, as the sun's first rays
filtered through the windows of the church, the preachers collapsed,
exhausted to the ground. By Reverend Vincent's count, it had
been an unqualified success, having cast out no less than
fifty demons from Michael's troubled soul. However, there remained three
(14:11):
demons that they had not successfully exercised, the demon of insanity, violence,
and most worryingly of all, murder. Too exhausted to continue,
it was agreed that Michael be sent home to rest
before returning at a later date. With the tailor's children
spending the night at their grandparents, Christine and Michael returned
(14:33):
to an empty home shortly after nine a m. On
the morning of Sunday, October sixth A neighbor of the
tailors later recounted seeing Christine shortly after they arrived back.
Christine had seemed distressed, telling her neighbor that she was
worried that something might have gotten into her. She had
(14:53):
planned to rest with Michael a short while before calling
for a doctor. Soon after, Christine went back inside the
he It was the last time she would ever be
seen alive again. Shortly after ten am, a strange call
(15:13):
was received at Ossit Police station. P c Ian Walker,
who had just clocked in for work, assumed it was
some kind of practical joke. The caller claimed to have
seen a naked man walking through the streets, covered head
to foot in paint. Walker and his partner promptly got
into their regulation patrol vehicle and headed out in search
of the mysterious man. Being as it was a quiet
(15:37):
Sunday morning in a small market town, it wasn't long
before they found him. The two officers pulled over in
the car and carefully approached. As Walker drew near, his
confusion turned to horror. It wasn't paint that covered the
man from head to toe. It was blood. Walker radioed
(15:59):
back to bed and was informed that the man he
had before him was Michael Taylor. Walker's first reaction was
to search Michael's body for any sign of a wound,
but was horrified to discover that whoever's blood this was,
it wasn't Michael's. Staring out to an unimaginable distance, Michael
(16:19):
spoke in a quiet, detached manner, it is the blood
of Satan, he said, I have killed my wife. I
know I have. With Michael safely picked up and dispatched
to hospital, Worker made his way to the Taylor's house.
When he arrived at the property, a superior officer had
(16:41):
already inspected the scene. From the look on his face alone,
Walker should have known better than to enter, but despite
efforts to prevent him. P. C. Walker's curiosity got the
better of him. What he saw would form the basis
for every nightmare he has suffered ever since. Tracing back
(17:04):
from the front door, a clear trail of blood could
be seen leading out from the living room. Through the
door frame, he could just make out Christine Taylor's lifeless
body strewn across the floor. All around the room was
splattered in blood. Her blood. It seemed to cover every
inch of her face, as if she had been smeared
(17:25):
in it. But as he drew near, the full horror
was revealed to him. There was no face where there
should have been eyes. Instead, there were two seemingly endless cavities.
Her eyeballs had been ripped from the sockets and thrown
across the room, the flesh of her face torn from
(17:45):
her skull in a brutal fit of mania, and perhaps
the strangest of all, her tongue had been pulled clean
from her mouth. As the police searched desperately for a
sign of the murder weapon, something dawned on them with
a profound sense of shock. There was no weapon. Michael
Taylor had done it all with his bare hands. On
(18:15):
March twenty fifth, nineteen seventy five at Leeds Crown Court,
Michael Taylor was found not guilty of the murder of
his wife due to what was deemed a momentary bout
of insanity. Coroner Philip Gill believed that Michael had no
criminal or evil intent, and that he was merely trying
to relieve his wife of the evil he saw in her.
(18:37):
After sentencing, doctor HUGO. Milne, consultant psychiatrist to the Bradford
Group of Hospitals, entered Michael Taylor's cell in Leeds Prison.
He found the defendant to be completely detached from reality,
unaware of his surroundings, and unfit to remain in prison custody.
He was immediately transferred to Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital, where doctor
(18:58):
Milne made an initial diagnose of an acute schizophrenic attack,
but subsequently reversed his decision. It was his belief that
one way or another, the Fellowship Group had created Michael's insanity,
and that Michael's fascination with Marie Robinson had in some
way played a part in it. Archbishop of Canterbury at
the time, Donald Coggan, strongly condemned the reckless approach of
(19:20):
the fellowship. The Reverend Peter Vincent, for his part, exhibited
no remorse, believing unequivocally that Michael had been possessed by
an evil spirit. The Church of England continues the practice
of exorcism to this day. Aside from the senseless and
(19:44):
avoidable loss of life, what strikes me most about this
tragic story is the fact that, regardless of what you believe,
there is no doubt that whatever Michael Taylor experienced or witnessed,
it all appeared horrifyingly real to him. Although we will
never know exactly what happened to Michael, conventional wisdom suggests
some form of schizophrenia. As such, I found myself drawn
(20:09):
to a fascinating paper titled Quantum Logic of the Unconscious
and Schizophrenia. The paper, written by theoretical physicists Paula Zizi
and Massimo Pregnolato, explores the mechanics of schizophrenia through the
framework of what is known as the quantum mind. In
a trivial sense. The notion of the quantum mind derives
(20:29):
from the theory that since all of everything we know
can be reduced to the quantum level, it follows that
consciousness itself must in some way be linked to quantum
mechanical phenomena. It is a thought that has led some
to consider the brain as a form of quantum computer.
Drawing on earlier work by psychiatrists and creator of the
(20:50):
term schizophrenia, Eigenbleoiler and the work of Sigmund Freud Zizi,
and Pregnolato's paper posits the idea that in a computational sense,
the logic of the unconscious may well be the same
as the logic of schizophrenia. While a healthy mind will
adopt the logic of consciousness as its primary process of thinking,
the schizophrenic mind instead adopts the unconscious mind at its
(21:14):
primary mode. By extension, might it then be that not
only do we all possess the capacity to experience schizophrenic episodes,
but that such occurrences may be the result of quantum
processes in the brain, processes that, in theory, could at
any time be switched from one state to another. Is
(21:34):
it possible that the extraordinary nature of Michael's experiences, exacerbated
by the intense delirium of his exorcism, created a fundamental
change in Michael's mind, a change that converted his darkest
unconscious nightmares into a physical, conscious reality. It is certainly
compelling to wonder at what could possibly cause such a
(21:57):
gentle and loving husband as Michael Taylor to say so
brutally and manically murder his wife in a sudden moment
of insanity. That the mind might be so fragile and
susceptible in such a way is a truly terrifying thought.
Might we too be little more than a quantum leap
from madness if we are not indeed already there? It
(22:19):
certainly puts a new spin on that most familiar Biblical adage,
Please forgive us, for we know not what we do.
Thank you, as ever for listening. Unexplained as an Avy
Club production podcast created by Richard McLain Smith. All other
(22:42):
elements of the podcast, including the music, are also produced
by me Richard McLain Smith. Unexplained. The book and audiobook
is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon,
Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and other bookstores. Please subscribe to
and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts, and
(23:03):
feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or
ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps
you have an explanation or a story of your own
you'd like to share. You can find out more at
Unexplained podcast dot com and reaches online through X and
Blue Sky at Unexplained pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com,
Forward Slash Unexplained Podcast
With Unexplained on an end of season break. We'll be
dipping back into the archives each week until season nine
begins on Friday, October thirty. First, this week's episode might
just be the most disturbing story I've ever covered on Unexplained,
and it's certainly one that has stayed with me to
this day. Back in the nineteen seventies, in the quiet
(00:22):
North English town of Ossit, an ordinary family found themselves
drawn into a world that was anything but. What began
as a struggle with doubt, faith, and the weight of
daily life soon took on a darker shape as strange
behaviours and unsettling visions began to erode one man's fragile
(00:43):
sense of normality. What followed would leave an entire community
shaken and raised chilling questions about the nature of free will.
Was it illness, suggestion or something far older and more
sinister at work? This week we revisit one of Britain's
(01:03):
most disturbing tales of possession, faith and madness, a story
that remains shrounded in mystery to this day. This is Unexplained,
Season one, episode six, Demons in Suburbia. We humans can
(01:31):
often take for granted that we are ultimately responsible for
our actions, that the choices we make are governed by
nothing but our own free will. And yet studies have
shown that the brain can enact certain decisions up to
seven seconds before we have even become aware that we
are making them. The notion of free will is explored
(01:55):
by the philosopher John Gray in his groundbreaking book straw Dogs,
a work of startling insight, deposits, amongst many other profound notions,
that the fallacy of free will is merely a concept
that helps us make sense of the world, that all
our acts are in fact nothing but the end point
in a series of long sequences of unconscious responses. To
(02:20):
accept that free will is little more than an illusion
is a little unnerving, to say the least. For some,
it could be seen as merely a fascinating quirk of life,
perhaps the existence of the seven second delay, merely the
consequence of a quantum process we are yet to fully understand.
But for others, a lack of free will might speak
(02:43):
of something else, entirely, something far more sinister. For after all,
if we aren't in control of our minds, than just
who or what is to unexplained? And I'm Richard MacLean Smith.
(03:07):
The following story took place in England in nineteen seventy four,
and I must warn the listener that it will contain
some horrific and graphic details. Believed by some to be
the most shocking account of demonic possession ever to have
occurred in the UK. The events that took place one
quiet Sunday morning in a small Yorkshire town have never
been fully accounted for. It is a chilling mystery that
(03:29):
remains to this day unexplained. For Britain, the nineteen seventies
was a time of extraordinary uncertainty. As the government lurched
from right to left. The country found itself struggling to
adapt to a posed industrial age. For some, especially those
(03:52):
in power, it seemed that nothing less than the country's
entire social fabric was at stake. For the residents of
the West Yorkshire market town of Ossit, the landscape had
been shifting for some time. The town, situated in border
country where the northwest of the coal fields merged with
the southeast of the woolen mills, had once been a
thriving pocket of industry, but like many northern towns in
(04:16):
the early seventies, it was facing an uncertain future. For
one couple in particular, that future was beginning to look
increasingly bleak. Thirty one year old Michael Taylor and his
twenty nine year old wife, Christine were described by friends
as a kind and loving couple and doting parents to
five young boys who were well liked by the local community.
(04:39):
After an accident at work, Michael had been forced to
leave his job after seriously injuring his back, and as
the country slipped into a full blown recession, opportunities for
jobs had all but dried up. For a proud young
father of the seventies, his sense of inadequacy and low
self esteem was profound, and with the pressure to provide
for his family starting to mount, Michael began to suffer
(05:01):
from intermittent bounts of depression. At some point, a local
friend called Barbara Wardman, called to see how the family
were holding up. Concerned that the couple's recent struggles had
left them socially isolated, Barbara suggested they accompany her to
an upcoming social event that she had organized. Barbara, it
turned out, had recently become involved with a local group
(05:23):
calling themselves the Christian Fellowship of Ossit The group were
part of a growing movement known collectively as charismatic Christianity.
For Michael and Christine, who had never shown an interest
in the church, or any religion for that matter, the
invitation to join Barbara's group seemed a little daunting. Nonetheless,
later that week, the Tailors attended their first fellowship meeting
(05:46):
and were surprised by what they found. Rather than the
stuck up, prickly group of religious eccentrics that they had expected, instead,
they found a group of friendly, ordinary people just like themselves.
Leading the congregation was a twenty two year old lay
preacher named Marie Robinson. The young charismatic in every sense
(06:08):
of the word, made a deep impression on the couple.
That night, under Marie's magnetic tutelage. Lifted by the joyous
spirit of the group, Michael and Christine converted to Christianity.
Eager to learn more about their new religion, Michael and
(06:29):
Christine attended a service conducted by Marie in the town
of Hawbury. During the service, Marie seemed to become suddenly distressed.
Shaking wildly, she started speaking in a strange language, claiming
she was possessed by the Holy Spirit. Unbeknownst to the tailors,
speaking in tongues, also known as glossalalia, was a prominent
(06:49):
feature of the charismatic movement. Later that night, the Christian Fellowship,
led by Marie Robinson, convened for a meeting at the
Taylor's house. At some point jo during the service, many
in the congregation noticed Michael becoming strangely animated, seeming to
be in the grip of an unknown force. Michael started
shaking violently before shouting a stream of strange, garbled words. Ordinarily,
(07:15):
such an outburst might cause celebration amongst the group, but
this was something different. The group were greatly disturbed. One member,
Mavis Smith, sank into an instant depression and started to
cry uncontrollably. Instinctively, Marie knelt in front of Mavis, calmly,
placed her hands on her head, and proceeded to perform
(07:37):
what Christine and Michael later discovered was an exorcism. As
Marie's voice grew louder, Mavis began to writhe uncontrollably, becoming
more and more animated and swearing at Marie, telling her
she hated her and to leave her alone. When it
was finally over, the scared and confused members slowly left
(07:59):
and agreed to record later in the week. The following day,
a concerned Marie returned to the tailor's home to check
on Michael's welfare. Christine, who had sensed that Michael was
developing an attraction to Marie, suggested the pair be left
alone to discuss their feelings. When Christine exited the room,
(08:20):
Michael kissed Marie, who immediately pushed him away. Marie pleaded
with Michael to think of his love for Christine. When
Christine re entered, Michael declared that they had won a
great victory for the Lord. A miracle has happened, he said.
We have both overcome our passions. But then something strange occurred.
(08:47):
Michael found himself standing naked, as if in a dream,
in a place that was not of this world. In
front of him, with her face turned away, was Marie,
who was also naked. As she slowly turned her head
to face him, Michael was horrified to see that her
eyes had been replaced by two snakelike slits. At once,
(09:09):
he felt a tremendous evil rise up inside of him.
For Marie, looking on at Michael in the room, she
recounted seeing a strange look come over him, a look
that she would later claim was nothing less than the
face of the devil. Suddenly, Michael began shouting in tongues
and slapped at Marie's head. Christine tried her best to
(09:32):
get between them, but was pushed out of the way
by her husband. Michael grabbed Marie by the hair and
threw her across the room, knocking her out cold. When
she came to moments later, the usually timid and gentle
Michael was crouched over her with a look of murder
in his eyes. Seconds later, having completely snapped out of
whatever had come over him, Michael collapsed exhausted after towards
(10:00):
Christine ordered Marie to stay away from their home, and
in the days that followed, noticed Michael's behavior becoming increasingly erratic.
He muttered strange things to himself and became angered by
religious iconography. A neighbour spotted Michael wandering the local streets
in the Bazaarre state. He spat on the ground and
told her to look on it as milk, telling her
(10:22):
to drink it, for it was the milk of human kindness.
As Christine became increasingly concerned for Michael, they turned again
to the fellowship for guidance. On the evening of October three,
they attended a meeting led by the Reverend Peter Vincent
of the Church of Saint Thomas at Gorbaugh in Barnsley.
(10:43):
Vincent was a well respected figure in the local charismatic movement,
having introduced it to his own congregation earlier in the year.
Within minutes of meeting Michael, it was clear to Reverend
Vincent that something was profoundly wrong. After inviting Michael to
make confession, he perferre formed a minor exorcism before sending
the emotionally drained tailor's back home. Once they had returned, Michael,
(11:07):
fearful of what exactly was happening to him, was too
afraid to sleep, pleading with his wife to stay by
his side. That night, they made the Sign of the
Cross repeatedly over each other in an attempt to ward
off the evil spirits. Two days later, on October the fifth,
(11:30):
Michael returned for another fellowship meeting. Alarmed by his behaviour,
the group suggested he be taken immediately to see the
Reverend Vincent. After being driven to the Vickers house, the
vicar's wife, Sally welcomed the couple into her home and
settled them down in the kitchen. A local Methodist minister
from Barnsley called Raymond Smith was called to provide a
(11:52):
second opinion. A short time later, Smith duly arrived at
the vicarage with his wife Margaret. As they sat down
to eat dinner, Michael immediately smashed his plate to the floor.
When the vicar's cat entered the room, he screamed at it,
pulling fur from its back and throwing it out of
the house before he could be restrained. Reverend Vincent was
(12:14):
utterly shocked. To him, it was clear Michael was possessed
by something deeply evil. There was no other option but
to perform a complete exorcism. As the others looked around nervously,
Reverend Smith was the first to speak up. Unconvinced by
Vincent's diagnosis, Smith thought it best that they consult a
(12:36):
doctor first. However, Christian was worried that calling the medical
services may cause even more distress to Michael. Sally agreed.
It was clear to her that not only was Michael possessed,
but that Marie Robinson was the culprit, having pledged Michael's
soul to Satan during one of her unorthodox rituals. The
(13:01):
team moved quickly, calling in Methodist lay preacher Donald James
to assist with the exorcism at once. Michael was taken
to Saint Thomas's Church and ordered to lie down in
the vestry on a pile of hassecks that had been
laid out on the floor. Candles were lit all around,
and the three clergymen, watched on by their wives, gathered
ominously around Michael. A bright moon hung in the sky,
(13:26):
and as the chill of the night descended, the preachers
began casting the demons from Michael's soul. For over six hours,
the priests worked casting out demon upon demon as Michael
rised and screamed into the night, at one point shouting
out the demon name of Incest in a strange guttural voice.
A cross belonging to Michael was later burned in a
(13:48):
cleansing ritual. The following morning, as the sun's first rays
filtered through the windows of the church, the preachers collapsed,
exhausted to the ground. By Reverend Vincent's count, it had
been an unqualified success, having cast out no less than
fifty demons from Michael's troubled soul. However, there remained three
(14:11):
demons that they had not successfully exercised, the demon of insanity, violence,
and most worryingly of all, murder. Too exhausted to continue,
it was agreed that Michael be sent home to rest
before returning at a later date. With the tailor's children
spending the night at their grandparents, Christine and Michael returned
(14:33):
to an empty home shortly after nine a m. On
the morning of Sunday, October sixth A neighbor of the
tailors later recounted seeing Christine shortly after they arrived back.
Christine had seemed distressed, telling her neighbor that she was
worried that something might have gotten into her. She had
(14:53):
planned to rest with Michael a short while before calling
for a doctor. Soon after, Christine went back inside the
he It was the last time she would ever be
seen alive again. Shortly after ten am, a strange call
(15:13):
was received at Ossit Police station. P c Ian Walker,
who had just clocked in for work, assumed it was
some kind of practical joke. The caller claimed to have
seen a naked man walking through the streets, covered head
to foot in paint. Walker and his partner promptly got
into their regulation patrol vehicle and headed out in search
of the mysterious man. Being as it was a quiet
(15:37):
Sunday morning in a small market town, it wasn't long
before they found him. The two officers pulled over in
the car and carefully approached. As Walker drew near, his
confusion turned to horror. It wasn't paint that covered the
man from head to toe. It was blood. Walker radioed
(15:59):
back to bed and was informed that the man he
had before him was Michael Taylor. Walker's first reaction was
to search Michael's body for any sign of a wound,
but was horrified to discover that whoever's blood this was,
it wasn't Michael's. Staring out to an unimaginable distance, Michael
(16:19):
spoke in a quiet, detached manner, it is the blood
of Satan, he said, I have killed my wife. I
know I have. With Michael safely picked up and dispatched
to hospital, Worker made his way to the Taylor's house.
When he arrived at the property, a superior officer had
(16:41):
already inspected the scene. From the look on his face alone,
Walker should have known better than to enter, but despite
efforts to prevent him. P. C. Walker's curiosity got the
better of him. What he saw would form the basis
for every nightmare he has suffered ever since. Tracing back
(17:04):
from the front door, a clear trail of blood could
be seen leading out from the living room. Through the
door frame, he could just make out Christine Taylor's lifeless
body strewn across the floor. All around the room was
splattered in blood. Her blood. It seemed to cover every
inch of her face, as if she had been smeared
(17:25):
in it. But as he drew near, the full horror
was revealed to him. There was no face where there
should have been eyes. Instead, there were two seemingly endless cavities.
Her eyeballs had been ripped from the sockets and thrown
across the room, the flesh of her face torn from
(17:45):
her skull in a brutal fit of mania, and perhaps
the strangest of all, her tongue had been pulled clean
from her mouth. As the police searched desperately for a
sign of the murder weapon, something dawned on them with
a profound sense of shock. There was no weapon. Michael
Taylor had done it all with his bare hands. On
(18:15):
March twenty fifth, nineteen seventy five at Leeds Crown Court,
Michael Taylor was found not guilty of the murder of
his wife due to what was deemed a momentary bout
of insanity. Coroner Philip Gill believed that Michael had no
criminal or evil intent, and that he was merely trying
to relieve his wife of the evil he saw in her.
(18:37):
After sentencing, doctor HUGO. Milne, consultant psychiatrist to the Bradford
Group of Hospitals, entered Michael Taylor's cell in Leeds Prison.
He found the defendant to be completely detached from reality,
unaware of his surroundings, and unfit to remain in prison custody.
He was immediately transferred to Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital, where doctor
(18:58):
Milne made an initial diagnose of an acute schizophrenic attack,
but subsequently reversed his decision. It was his belief that
one way or another, the Fellowship Group had created Michael's insanity,
and that Michael's fascination with Marie Robinson had in some
way played a part in it. Archbishop of Canterbury at
the time, Donald Coggan, strongly condemned the reckless approach of
(19:20):
the fellowship. The Reverend Peter Vincent, for his part, exhibited
no remorse, believing unequivocally that Michael had been possessed by
an evil spirit. The Church of England continues the practice
of exorcism to this day. Aside from the senseless and
(19:44):
avoidable loss of life, what strikes me most about this
tragic story is the fact that, regardless of what you believe,
there is no doubt that whatever Michael Taylor experienced or witnessed,
it all appeared horrifyingly real to him. Although we will
never know exactly what happened to Michael, conventional wisdom suggests
some form of schizophrenia. As such, I found myself drawn
(20:09):
to a fascinating paper titled Quantum Logic of the Unconscious
and Schizophrenia. The paper, written by theoretical physicists Paula Zizi
and Massimo Pregnolato, explores the mechanics of schizophrenia through the
framework of what is known as the quantum mind. In
a trivial sense. The notion of the quantum mind derives
(20:29):
from the theory that since all of everything we know
can be reduced to the quantum level, it follows that
consciousness itself must in some way be linked to quantum
mechanical phenomena. It is a thought that has led some
to consider the brain as a form of quantum computer.
Drawing on earlier work by psychiatrists and creator of the
(20:50):
term schizophrenia, Eigenbleoiler and the work of Sigmund Freud Zizi,
and Pregnolato's paper posits the idea that in a computational sense,
the logic of the unconscious may well be the same
as the logic of schizophrenia. While a healthy mind will
adopt the logic of consciousness as its primary process of thinking,
the schizophrenic mind instead adopts the unconscious mind at its
(21:14):
primary mode. By extension, might it then be that not
only do we all possess the capacity to experience schizophrenic episodes,
but that such occurrences may be the result of quantum
processes in the brain, processes that, in theory, could at
any time be switched from one state to another. Is
(21:34):
it possible that the extraordinary nature of Michael's experiences, exacerbated
by the intense delirium of his exorcism, created a fundamental
change in Michael's mind, a change that converted his darkest
unconscious nightmares into a physical, conscious reality. It is certainly
compelling to wonder at what could possibly cause such a
(21:57):
gentle and loving husband as Michael Taylor to say so
brutally and manically murder his wife in a sudden moment
of insanity. That the mind might be so fragile and
susceptible in such a way is a truly terrifying thought.
Might we too be little more than a quantum leap
from madness if we are not indeed already there? It
(22:19):
certainly puts a new spin on that most familiar Biblical adage,
Please forgive us, for we know not what we do.
Thank you, as ever for listening. Unexplained as an Avy
Club production podcast created by Richard McLain Smith. All other
(22:42):
elements of the podcast, including the music, are also produced
by me Richard McLain Smith. Unexplained. The book and audiobook
is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon,
Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and other bookstores. Please subscribe to
and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts, and
(23:03):
feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or
ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps
you have an explanation or a story of your own
you'd like to share. You can find out more at
Unexplained podcast dot com and reaches online through X and
Blue Sky at Unexplained pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com,
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