These 8 Cases PROVE Something is Wrong with the UK - Compilation (Ep 158) - The InBetween Official Podcast

Episode Transcript
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(01:11):
East Anglia.
A region of England that most Americansprobably couldn't find on a map.
But this ancient landscape, with its misty
marshlands and crumblingchurches, holds a secret
that's been terrorizing localsfor centuries.
And unlike most folklorethat fades into history,
this particular terror is still stalkingthe countryside today.

(01:36):
Now, before we diveinto the nightmare fuel that is the Black
Shuck, we need to understand somethingabout British folklore.
They have this thing about black dogs.
I'm not talking about your neighborsfriendly black lab.
These are something else entirely.
Almost every county in Britain hasits own version of a phantom black hound.

(01:59):
In Somerset, they call it the Gurt Dog.
Up in Yorkshire,it's known as the Barghest.
The Welsh border has the Black Vaughan.
Even the Isle of Man has its ownversion, called the Moddey Dhoo.
But none of these spectral canines
have quite the reputation of Black Shuck.

(02:19):
The name itself should give you a clueabout what we're dealing with.
Shuckcomes from the Old English word ‘scucca,’
which means demon or fiend.
That's right.
This isn't just a ghost storyabout a big black dog.
This is a tale about a creatureso terrifying
that the Anglo-Saxonsliterally named it “demon dog.”

(02:41):
And while these phantom black dogsare spotted all over Britain, Black Shuck
seems to have carved out his own territoryin East Anglia,
particularly around Norfolk,Suffolk, Essex, and Cambridgeshire.
Think of it as his own personalhunting ground.
And unlike most folklore creaturesthat stick to the deep woods or abandoned

(03:04):
ruins, Shuck has the habit of showingaround exactly where people are.
Ancient roads? He's there. Churchyards?
Lonelycrossroads in the middle of the night?
That's prime Shuck territory.
He's been seen on beaches, in graveyards,and even,

(03:25):
as we'll get to in a minute, insidechurches during Sunday's service.
But here's where thingsget really interesting.
Most folklore tends to fade over time,
becoming nothing more than bedtime storiesto scare children.
But Black Shuck, he'sstill actively terrorizing people today.

(03:47):
We're talking about sightingsfrom the 1970s, 80s, 90s,
and yes, even into the 21st century.
And unlike most paranormal encountersthat happen to one person
alone in the dark, some of Black Shack'smost famous appearances
happen in broad daylightin front of dozens of witnesses.

(04:09):
In fact, one of these appearanceswas so well documented it changed
the town of Bungay foreverand made sure that Black Shuck
would never be forgotten.
The memory is so indeliblethat the citizens of Bungay decided
to make lemonade from lemons, and in 2022started the Black Shark Festival.

(04:31):
Kids in demon dog costumes.
Artistsshowing their shark inspired creations.
It's like watching a townreclaim its nightmare
and turn them into sweet dreams.
You can check out their festival websitein the description later.
But first, let me tell youabout the morning that started it all.

(04:53):
Because while today's Bungaymight celebrate with street food and face
paint that fateful Sunday in 1577
served up something far less appetizing.
The date is August 4th, 1577.
The townspeople of Bungay are gatheredin Saint Mary's Church for their Sunday

(05:14):
morning service.
Probably thinking about anythingexcept imminent doom.
But Mother Nature has other plans.
A storm rolls in.
And not just any storm.
We're talking Old Testamentlevels of fury here.
According to Abraham Fleming, a clergymanwho documented the events just days

(05:36):
after they happened,“This tempest brought Darkness, rain,
A region of England that most Americansprobably couldn't find on a map.
hail, thunder and lightning
as was never seen thelike The congregation huddles together
as thunder shakesthe very foundations of the church.
Lightning flashesilluminate the stained glass windows,

(05:57):
creating an eerie light showthat has everyone on edge.
But then something happens that makes themforget all about the storm.
There, in the middle of their sacred houseof worship, appears
what Fleming describes as, a black dog
or the devil in such a likeness

(06:19):
This isn't some wet stray seeking shelter.
The creature is described as havingan absolutely horrible appearance,
so bad that it makes the congregation
believe Judgment Day has finally arrived.
Before anyone can react,this demonic hound tears down the center

(06:40):
aisle of the church,with great swiftness and incredible haste.
It passes betweentwo people who are kneeling in prayer,
and I kid you not, Rings the necks of them
both at one instant gleamed backward.
They die right there on their knees.

(07:02):
But Shuck isn't done.
The beast then attacks another memberof the congregation,
leaving him as Flemingputs it, drawn together and shrunk up,
as it were, a piece of leather
scorched in a hot fire.
Amazingly, this third victim survives,

(07:23):
although I'm betting his church attendanceis never quite the same after that.
Just minuteslater, Black Shuck appears at Holy
Trinity Church in Blythburgh,about 12 miles away.
Same storm, same terror, same results.
The demon dog burst through the doors,kills two more people, and then flees,

(07:45):
but not beforeleaving his mark on the church doors.
Those claw marks are still visibleon the north door today,
what locals call the “Devil'sFingerprints.”
The attack is so violentthat it supposedly causes
the church steeple to collapsethrough the roof.

(08:05):
Though skeptics will tell you that it'sprobably just the lightning.
Yeah, because lightning strikesthat can take out a church
steeple, are so much more comfortingthan demon dogs.
The people of Bungay never forgotwhat happened that day.
The town's coat of arms now featuresBlack Shuck himself.

(08:25):
There's a weathervanein the shape of the Devil Dog.
The local football team?
They're called the Black Dogs.
It's like they decided that
if you can't beat them,at least put them on your merch.
But before you write this offas just another
medieval tall tale, consider this.
We have multiple contemporary sourcesdocumenting what happened.

(08:48):
The story appearsnot only in Flemings detailed account,
but also in the recordsof several other churches
and even in the official chroniclesof the time.
Whatever prowled through those churchesthat stormy Sunday morning,
it left an impression that's lasted nearly
450 years.

(09:08):
And maybe that's exactlywhat Black Shuck wanted,
because this wasn't his first appearance,and it certainly wouldn't be his last.
So what exactly does a demon doglook like?
Well, that depends on who you ask,and when you ask them.
Because unlike your typical cryptidthat has a fairly consistent description,

(09:30):
Black Shuck seems to be a masterof keeping people guessing.
The most common description?
Picture the biggest, blackest dogyou've ever seen.
Now make it bigger.
We're talking anywherefrom the size of a large mastiff to
and I'm not making this upas big as a horse.
His fur is described as shaggy and matted,

(09:51):
the kind that seems to absorb lightrather than reflect it.
But it's the eyes that really sealthe deal.
Most witnessesdescribed them as blazing red,
like burning coals in the darkness, thoughsometimes they're reported as green,
and occasionallyin a particularly weird twist,

(10:13):
there's only one giant eyeright in the middle of his head.
Like some kind of canine cyclops.
Interestingly enough, for a creature
his size, Black Shuck moves like a ghost.
No footprints, no sound, nothing.
Imagine a horse sized dogsomehow moving in complete silence.

(10:35):
Witnesses reportseeing him run alongside their cars,
keeping pace even at high speedswithout making a single sound.
No panting, no claws clicking on pavement,just silence.
And Shuckdefinitely has his favorite haunts.
He's particularly fond of ancientpathways,

(10:56):
cross roads and churches, placesthat folklore traditionally considers
boundaries between our worldand whatever's on the other side.
It's almost like he'spatrolling these liminal spaces,
these in-between placeswhere reality gets a little thin.
But here's the amazing part.

(11:17):
And this is what makes Black Shuckdifferent from your typical spooky story.
He doesn't always show up to cause harm.
In fact, some encounters with himare downright protective.
The same creature that burst into churchesand snapped necks
has also been knownto guide lost travelers home
and chase awaythose who mean harm to innocent people.

(11:39):
Take this story from the 1800s.
A woman walking alone at nightsuddenly found herself
being followed by a massive black dog.
But then she passed a group of roughlooking men
who she later overheard,had been planning to rob and assault her.
The only reason they didn't?

(11:59):
The enormous black houndwalking beside her.
When she reached her home safelyand turned
to thank her protector,he'd vanished into thin air.
This Jekyll and Hyde routine
makes Black Shuck particularly perplexing.
Is he a harbinger of death?
A guardian spirit? Both?

(12:21):
The locals have learned to takea “better safe than sorry” approach.
If you see a giant black dogon a lonely road in East Anglia,
it's probably best not to stick aroundlong enough
to figure outwhich version you're dealing with.
But even with all these varyingdescriptions and behaviors, there's one
consistent thread that runs throughalmost every Black Shuck encounter.

(12:46):
The feeling of otherworldliness.
Whether he's terrorizing church goersor protecting lone travelers,
there's always somethingunmistakably supernatural about him.
This isn't just some oversized strayor escaped wolf.
There's somethingancient and powerful at work here.

(13:06):
Something that's been stalkingthe misty fields and ancient roads
of East Anglia for centuries.
And speaking of centuries.
While that church incident in 1577
might be BlackShuck's most famous appearance,
it's far from his last.
In fact, some of the most intriguingencounters happened

(13:27):
well within living memory.
Now, you might think that in our modernage of smartphones and security cameras,
a horse sized demon dog would havea hard time keeping a low profile.
But Black Shuck didn't get the memo.
If anything, the 20th centuryseemed to make him bolder.

(13:47):
Let's start withwhat happened in Walberswick in 1945.
A couple had rented a little hut betweenthe salt marshes and Dunwich forest.
Not exactly prime real estate, but hey.
It was postwar Britain. People made do.
One night they are startled by somethingpounding on their door.

(14:07):
And I don't mean a polite knock.
We're talking about the kind of poundingthat makes you wonder if someone's
trying to break down your wallwith a battering ram.
When they peeked through the window, there
it is, a massive creaturewith matted black fur
and one blood red eye

(14:28):
hurling itself against the door.
The terrified couple doeswhat any rational people would do.
They pile every piece of furniturethey own against the door.
But that doesn't stopwhatever that thing is.
It spends hours throwing itselfagainst the walls, then leaping
onto the roof, pacing back and forth

(14:49):
like some kind of nightmarish guard dog.
Then comes the howl.
Now, I've heard people try to describethe sound, but they always struggle.
The couple says it starts low,building to a crescendo
that shakes the entire hut,then drops to frequencies so deep

(15:11):
they seem to bypass their earsand vibrate straight through their bones.
After one final endless
howl, everything goes silent.
They wait until dawn,
because nobody in their rightmind is going outside before then,
and find massive claw marks

(15:32):
scoring the door and walls.
Windows are shattered.
The roof looks likesomething has been dancing
the Cha-Cha in steel toed boots up there.
However, in the soft sandy soil
around the hut, not a single pawprint.
Nothing.
Just their own tracks from the day before.

(15:54):
Fast forward to 1972.
Graham Grant is workingthe early morning shift at the Gorleston
rescue headquarters.
He spotswhat he thinks is a large black dog
on the beach, about a quartermile north of him.
Nothing too weird about that, right?
Except this dog suddenly vanishes.
Not runs away.

(16:15):
Not hides behind something.
Just blinks out of existencelike someone hit a cosmic light switch.
But my favorite modern encounterhappens in 1988,
on the lonely roadfrom Norwich to Bawburgh.
A cyclist, and remember,this is way before
everyone is kitted out in GoProsand LED gear,

(16:37):
is pedaling along the dead of night
when somethingmassive and black overtakes him.
It's running alongside his bike.
And yes,it has those signature glowing eyes.
Before our cyclist can properly panic,the dog
suddenly charges ahead and blocksthe road, forcing him to stop.

(17:00):
Seconds later,a car comes screaming around the corner
way too fast, rightwhere the cyclist would have been.
The car seems to hit the dog, but
Shuck just fades awaylike the morning mist.
Our cyclist later says, All I can say isthat on that night, the dog saved my life.

(17:21):
These aren't
just campfire storiespassed down through generations.
These are first hand accounts from peoplewho are probably still alive today.
People with jobs and mortgages,and absolutely no reason
to make up storiesabout giant phantom dogs.
And the sightings haven't stopped.

(17:41):
The pattern in these modernsightings is fascinating.
While Shuck still shows up at churchesand graveyards,
he seems to have developeda particular fondness for roads.
Maybe he's adapting to the times.
After all, why haunt old footpaths
when you can terrorize the A149?
But there's something elsethat's happening here, too.

(18:04):
More and more often he's showing upnot to harm, but to help.
It's like East Anglia'smost terrifying resident is slowly
transforminginto its most intimidating guardian angel.
But before you start hoping for your own
protective phantom pooch, remember this.

(18:24):
Black Shuckdoesn't exactly give you a warning
about which version you're going to get.
Trust me, you don't want to flipthat particular coin
on a dark night in Norfolk.
So why is this massive phantom hound
still prowling around East Angliaafter all these centuries?

(18:44):
Well, to understand Black Shuck,we need to zoom out.
Way out.
Because this isn't just some randomghost story.
We're looking at something that might beas old as human civilization itself.
See, pretty much every ancient culture
had their own version of a supernaturalor canine guardian.

(19:06):
The Egyptians had Anubis, thatjackal headed guy
who guided souls to the afterlife.
The Greeks gave us Cerberus, the threeheaded hound guarding the gates of Hades.
And up in the Norse lands, they had Garm,
who kept watch over the entranceto their underworld.
Notice a pattern here?
Dogs weren't just man's best friend.

(19:28):
They were basically cosmicsecurity guards.
But in almost every one of thesetraditions, these supernatural dogs
show up in what scholars callliminal spaces, those in-between places
where the normal world startsto get a little fuzzy.
Cross roads, bridges, shorelines.

(19:50):
Wouldn't you know it?
Those are exactly the kinds of placeswhere people keep running into our boy
Shuck.
Remember all those sightingson ancient pathways and old Roman roads?
Turns out there might be a reasonfor that.
Some researchers think Black Shuck followswhat are called ley lines.
These supposed energy pathwaysthat crisscross

(20:13):
the British landscape,connecting ancient sites.
It's like he's patrolling some kind ofprehistoric supernatural highway system.
Now. You're probably thinking
there's got to be a rational explanation,right?
Andd sure, skeptics have tried.
Some blame for lightning for the Bungaychurch incident.
Which, maybe explains the scorching.

(20:36):
But last time I checked, lightningdoesn't typically have
glowing red eyes or run downchurch aisles.
Mass hysteria?
That might work for one incident,but we're talking about
hundreds of sightings across centuries.
The really wild part?
Modern science might actuallybe backing up some of the old legends.

(20:59):
You know how witnesses always talkabout the feeling
of this overwhelming sense of dreadbefore Shuck appears?
Turns out there are certainelectromagnetic frequencies
that can trigger exactlythat feeling in the human brain.
Where do these frequenciestend to be strongest?
Along fault lines, and you guessed it,

(21:21):
those same ancient pathwayswhere Shuck likes to hang out.
Some placestake the threat seriously enough
that they've actually put up barriers.
There are caves in the Norfolk coastthat have been sealed off,
supposedly to protect bat colonies.
But as the locals now tell you,those bars aren't keeping anything out.

(21:43):
They're trying to keep something in.
The British military even got involvedat one point during World War two.
They actually used the legend of BlackShuck in their coastal defense plans.
They figured that if German spieswere lurking around,
stories of a massive demondog might keep them from poking around

(22:04):
certain sensitive areas at night.
Talk about weaponizing folklore.
But maybe we're all missing the point.
What if Black Shuck isn'tjust some random supernatural entity?
What if he's something more fundamental?
Think about it.
Here'sthis creature that shows up at boundaries,

(22:25):
at crossroads, at moments of transition.
Sometimes he's terrifying.
Sometimes he's protective.
But he's always markingsome kind of threshold.
It's almost like he'snot just haunting East Anglia.
He's guarding it.
Standing watch over the boundaries betweenthis world and whatever lies beyond.

(22:47):
Maybe that's why he's still around whenso many other legends have faded away.
Because as long as there are boundariesto guard and thresholds to watch over,
there's still a job for anotherworldly watchdog to do.
February 8th,

(23:08):
1855, in the quaint county of Devonin southwest England.
Rolling hills, charming villages.
And on this particular morning, a freshblanket of snow covering the ground.
It's like a postcard,
except for one tiny detailthat's about to turn this idyllic setting
into the backdrop for one of history'smost baffling mysteries.

(23:31):
As the good folk of South Devonroll out of bed
and look out their frost covered windows,they're met with a sight
that would make even the stiffestEnglishman spill his tea.
Snaking through the pristinesnow are tracks.
But not just any tracks.
These aren't the paw printsof a neighbor's cat
or the boottracks of an early rising milkman.

(23:55):
These are something altogether different.
There on the ground is a line of kind
of horseshoe shaped, hoof like marks,
each about four incheslong and three inches wide, running
single file,with each print about eight inches apart.
Now my first thought was

(24:16):
maybe it's just a really welltrained horse.
Well, setting asidethe fact that it would have to be a super
small horse,I suggest you grab your beverage of choice
and kick back for a bitbecause we are just getting started.
These tracksdon't just stick to the ground.
No no no.
That would be way too boring.

(24:38):
They scale walls.
They traipse over rooftop.
They even seem to pass through narrowdrainpipes,
emerging on the other sidewithout missing a step.
And perhaps the most amazing of all,they cross a two mile
stretch of the River Exe estuary
or the spot where the River Exe meetsthe English Channel.

(24:59):
That's right.
Whatever's making these tracks apparentlytakes a little stroll across the water.
Jesus himself would be impressed.
But wait, there's more.
These tracksaren't from some strange animal
that decided to cut across a few backyards.
These tracks stretch for a mindboggling 100 miles,

(25:22):
maybe more, from Exmouth to Topsham,from Dawlish to Teignmouth.
Across fields and farms.
Through towns and villages.
This trail of impossible footprintsstretches the entire South Devon area.
It's like a paranormal pub crawl.
Now imagine you're a simple Devonfarmer or shopkeeper.

(25:45):
You lived your whole life in this
one little areawhere the strangest thing you've ever seen
is maybe a two headed calfat the county fair.
Suddenly you're trying to make senseof something that defies
all logical explanation,something that can climb walls,
cross rivers, and covervast distances in a single night.

(26:07):
What would you do?
Well, if you're anythinglike the good people of Devon in 1855,
you'd probably panic,which is exactly what they do.
As news of the track spreadsfaster than a fox in a henhouse,
the whole area eruptsinto a frenzy of fear and speculation.
Churches filled to bursting as terrifiedresidents seek divine protection.

(26:31):
Local militia groups formpatrolling the streets with muskets
and pitchforks, thoughwhat good they think these things will do
against a wall climbing, rivercrossing entity is beyond me.
But here's where thingsget really interesting.
In times of inexplicable events,
humans have a tendency to reachfor the most dramatic explanations.

(26:54):
And in the 19th century England, steepedin centuries of folklore and Christian
tradition, there is one explanationthat pops to the top of everyone's mind.
The devil himself has paid a visitto Devon.
That's right.
Old Scratch, Beelzebub,
the Prince of Darkness,whatever you want to call him.

(27:16):
But suddenly he's the talkof every pub and parlor in the country.
The idea spreads like wildfire.
After all?
Who else could leave such bizarre tracks?
Who else could traversesuch impossible terrain so fast?
And don't forget the hoof like prints.
There's one thingeveryone knows about the devil.

(27:36):
It's that he's got a ratherdistinctive choice in footwear.
Local legends and superstitions,long simmering
beneath the surface of polite society,bubble up with renewed vigor.
Stories of demonic visitationsfrom centuries past
are dusted offand retold with fresh urgency.
That old tale about Farmer Giles’sgreat grandfather,

(28:00):
who claimed to have seen a cloven hoofedfigure dancing in the moonlight.
Suddenly it isn't just a quaintfireside story,
but potential evidencein the case of the century.
Some locals even claim to have heardunearthly shrieks in the night,
or to have seen a dark, shadowy figure
leaping from rooftop to rooftop.

(28:22):
But not everyone is convincedthat Old Nick has decided
to take a winter vacation in Devon.
Some of the more skeptical residentspropose alternative explanations.
Maybe it's an escaped exotic animalfrom a traveling circus.
Or maybe a flock of birds.
Stranger things have happened.
Well, maybe not, but you get the idea.

(28:43):
As the days wear on and no more tracks,the initial panic dials back a notch.
But the mystery remains.
The tracks are real.
Hundreds of people have seen
them, sketched them, measured them.
Something crisscrossedDevon that February night,
leaving behind a puzzlethat is unsolved to this day.

(29:04):
So we find ourselves with a mystery
that has endured for over 150 years.
A set of tracks that seemingly defyall logical explanation,
a panicked populace convincedthey've been visited by the devil himself,
and a whole lot of questionsleft unanswered.
But is any of this true?

(29:25):
It's time to channel upsome Benedict Cumberbatch
and dive into the evidence on both sides.
Let's startwith any historical documentation.
Is there any?
Luckily for us, the devil'sfootprints caused such a satanic panic
that it made headlinesin several newspapers
like the Exeter and Plymouth Gazetteand the Western Luminary.

(29:47):
Not to mention the London Times.
The Illustrated London News on February17th,

1855, reports (29:54):
“It appears on Thursday night last, there was a very heavy
fall of snow in the neighborhood of Exeterand the South of Devon.
On the following morning,
the inhabitants of the above townswere surprised at discovering the tracks
of some strange and mysterious animal,endowed with the power of ubiquity,
as the footprints were to be seenin all kinds of unaccountable places –

(30:19):
on the tops of houses and narrowwalls, in gardens
and court-yards,enclosed by high walls and palings
(picket fences), as well in open fields.”All righty then.
But it isn't just the papers that arebuzzing about this bizarre occurrence.
We have numerous eyewitness accountsfrom people who saw the tracks first hand.

(30:42):
One such account comes from Reverend H.T.
Ellacombe,the vicar of Clyst Saint George.
In a letter to the IllustratedLondon News, he writes:
“The creature seems to have approachedthe doors of several houses,
and then to have retreated,but no one has been able to discover
the standing or restingpoint of this mysterious visitor.

(31:05):
On Sunday last, the Reverend Mr.
Musgrave alluded to the subjectin his sermon and suggested
the possibility of the footprintsbeing those of a kangaroo.” A kangaroo?
But let's get down to the nitty gritty.
What do these tracks actually look like?
Spoiler alert!
They don't look like a kangaroo.

(31:26):
But we're in luck because several sketcheswere made at the time.
The most famous of these, publishedin the Illustrated London News,
shows a series of hooflike prints in a single file.
Each print is describedas being about four inches long
and 2.75in wide,with a stride of about 8 to 16in.

(31:48):
And the tracksdon't just stick to open fields or roads.
They are reported to go overhouses, high walls,
and even haystackswithout disturbing the snow on the top.
In some places, the tracks seem to gothrough small holes or tight spaces,
emerging on the other sideas if whatever made them
had simply passed through solid objects.

(32:11):
But maybe the most insane aspect of
all is the sheer extent of the tracks.
They are reported acrossan area of 100mi²,
crossing rivers and other obstaclesthat would have been impassable
for any known animal.
And all of this, in a single night.

(32:31):
Now, what about the weather conditionsthat night?
Because they play a crucial rolein this mystery.
The night of February 8th isparticularly cold, with a heavy snowfall.
I don't know how much snow,but it was at least enough
to cover everythingin a pretty good blanket.
This fresh snow provides the perfectcanvas for our mysterious track maker,

(32:55):
but it also means thatwhatever left these tracks did so
in a relatively short window of timebetween the end of the snowfall
and the early morning,when the tracks were discovered.
It's worth notingthat this isn't an isolated incident.
Similar tracks have been reportedin other places at different times.
In 1840, similarmysterious tracks were found in Scotland.

(33:19):
And in 1855,just a month after the Devon incident,
similar tracks are reportedin South Molton, Devon.
So we have multiple eyewitness accounts,newspaper reports and even sketches
of the tracksthat occurred over a vast area in a short
period of time, leaving a trailthat seems to defy logical explanation.

(33:43):
On the other hand, we're dealing withevents that happened over 150 years ago.
We can't go back and examine the tracksourselves or interview the witnesses.
We're relying on second hand accountsand interpretations,
all filteredthrough the lens of 19th century
superstition and sensationalism.
And evidence, especially a 150 yearold evidence, can be tricky.

(34:09):
It can be misinterpreted, exaggerated,or even fabricated.
But now that it's out therefor consideration,
it's time to play devil's advocate.
Pun very much intended.
And explore some potential explanationsfor our mysterious tracks.
Let's start with the most obviousexplanation, animals.

(34:30):
After all,we're talking about tracks in the snow.
And last time I checked,animals were pretty good at that.
Some have suggested that the culpritmight have been a badger,
a fox, or even an escaped kangaroo.
Thank you, Reverend Musgrave.
The problem is,none of these animals quite fit the facts.
Badgers and foxes don't typically travel

(34:53):
in straight lines for miles on end,
and I'm pretty sure they haven't masteredthe art of scaling walls.
As for the kangaroo theory, well, let'sjust say that if there was a six foot
marsupial bouncing around Devon in 1855,
someone probably would have noticed.
Some researchers have proposedthat the tracks might have been made

(35:15):
by a wood mouse.
These little critters are knownto make strange tracks in the snow
by hopping, leavingwhat looks like a line of hoof prints.
It's an intriguing idea,but it doesn't explain how these tracks
appeared on rooftops, or how they crossed
such long distances in one night.
Moving on to the weather explanation,some have suggested that the tracks

(35:39):
were actually formedby some kind of natural phenomenon.
One theory proposesthat chunks of ice might have fallen
from telegraph wires, creating hooflike impressions in the snow.
It's an interesting thought,but it doesn't account for the track's
continuity or their appearance in areaswithout telegraph wires.

(36:00):
Another weather related theory involvessomething called frost polygons.
These are honeycomb like patternsthat can form in frozen soil
under certain conditions.
When snow fallson the top of these patterns,
it can create tracks that look somewhatsimilar to the devil's footprints.
But again, it doesn't explain the tracks

(36:21):
on the rooftops or their linear nature.
Now let's venture into more controversial
territory, hoaxes and pranks.
Wouldn't be the first timesomeone faked out their neighbors,
especially in a small communitywhere entertainment might have been hard
to come by in the dead of winter.
But let's think about the logisticsfor a moment.

(36:43):
We're talking about tracksthat covered over a hundred
miles, allegedly in a single night.
That would be a level of commitmentthat I cannot even comprehend.
Some have suggested that multiple peoplemight have been involved,
each creating a section of the tracks.
But that would require a levelof coordination and secrecy

(37:05):
that seems highly unlikely.
And no one ever came forwardto claim responsibility.
Ever.
Then there's the theory of mass hysteriaor exaggeration.
And it's possiblethat a few odd tracks in the snow
were blown way out of proportionas the news spread, with each retelling

(37:25):
adding more fantastical elementslike a hysterical version of operator.
We've seen this kind of thing happenbefore with other mysterious phenomena,
but this doesn't quite explainthe consistent descriptions
from multiple eyewitnessesor the sketches made at the time.
And of course,we can't rule out the possibility

(37:46):
that the truth liesin some combination of these factors.
Maybe an animal did leavesome unusual tracks,
which were then exaggerated in retellings,and perhaps even embellished
by a few opportunistic hoaxersjumping on the bandwagon.
And then, of course,there's the explanation that started it

(38:06):
all that these were indeedthe footprints of the devil himself,
out for a nighttime strollthrough the Devon countryside.
So the next time you're out on a snowynight, take a moment to look around.
You never know what you might find
or who might find you.

(38:32):
For many of us,
the year 1984conjures images of dystopian futures
now lost in the past.
But for three people
living in the small village of Dodlestonin Cheshire County, England, 1984’s
dystopian future was a present dayquandary,

(38:53):
a puzzle that would just get crazierand crazier, for almost two years.
Ken, Debbie, and Nicola (or Nic)
were living together in an old cottagecalled Meadow Cottage in Dodleston.
Dodleston is a little villagein the county of Cheshire
that was also the birthplace of LewisCarroll and his Cheshire Cat.

(39:15):
Ken was renovating in his spare time,which there wasn't much of,
so the renovationseemed to be going on forever.
But just when the endless layer of cementdust covering
absolutely everything in the housethreatens to break
the last threads of everyone's patience,they finished the main floor.

(39:37):
Now, all it needs is a little paint.
Late summer of 1984.
the three notice a trailof what looked to be cement dust smudges
trailing diagonally up the kitchen walluntil they stop at the ceiling.
They're an average looking size,but some prints
look to have six toes.

(39:59):
The three giggle about itand try to figure out how they were made,
without success.
As their attention to them fades,so do the prints themselves
until they're almost invisible, by latefall, when they finally have a chance
to paint, adding some much needed
color to the cement gray walls.

(40:20):
The next morning, Ken walksinto the kitchen and stops in his tracks.
On the freshly paintedwall are fresh footprints.
But these are not on the same track.
They're on a different trackthan the old ones.
So they're not just the same onesjust coming through the paint.
Ken and Deb are pretty perplexed,

(40:40):
but Nic is pretty horrifiedand about ready to pack her bags.
But instead she grabs the paint and paintsthe new footprints away.
Two days later, after a major food
shopping spree, all three are too tired
to figure out what to do with the extracans of cat food and some other things.

(41:03):
So the overflow is left on the kitchenfloor to be dealt with in the morning.
When the morning comes, Ken discoversthe cat food cans
stacked up in a neat little pyramid.
All right, they decide,this has to be a prank.
But who?
They decideit has to be Ken's friend, John.

(41:24):
Ken has always suspectedthat John has a thing for Debbie.
Odd way to show it, but whatever.
Not 36 hours later,
they are treated to a four foot high,
precarious tower made of two 2-literbottles of lemonade,
a bag of dry cat food and a roll of papertowels.

(41:46):
Ken startsto rethink the idea that this is John.
He doesn't think John has the skillsto pull this off.
Anxiety levels start to rise.
Everyday creaks and groans of an old housestart to freak them out.
Weirdthings are now happening on a regular
basis and John is looking lessand less like the culprit.

(42:07):
Now, Nic is trying to move her career
in a new directiontoward the performing arts.
So to try to help her out,
Ken, who's an economics teacherat Hawarden High School in Dodleston,
is able to check out a BBC microcomputer
fitted with the EdWord 2 chip,which turned the computer

(42:28):
into a very clunky word processor.
Nic is all excitedbecause now she can really start working
on writing some comedy sketchesusing the computer.
After a short tutorial on namingand saving files on the five inch floppy
disk in the connected disk drive,Nic is off and running or writing.

(42:52):
One Sunday night in December,all three decide
to take some time away from the cottageand go see a friend.
When they return a few hours later,they see the green glow
of the computer screen and realize thatno one had turned it off before they left.
No big deal.
Ken sits down to take a look and seesthat there's a new file on the disk

(43:12):
named differentlythan the single letter names
Nic had been using, like ABC.
This one is called KDN.
Intrigued, Ken opens the file.
Now, just to let you guys know,I will be showing you the actual text
of these messages on the video,but using a modernized translation

(43:35):
for the audio just to make everythingeasier to understand.
True are the nightmares of a personthat fears.
Safe,are the bodies of the silent world turn
pretty flower turned towards the sun foryou shall grow and sow.
But the flower reaches toohigh and withers in the burning light.

(43:57):
Get out your bricks.
Pussy, cat, pussy cat went to Londonto seek fame and fortune.
Faith must not be lost, forthis shall be your redeemer. LW.
Weird.
Ken was fascinated but didn't really knowwhat to do about it.
As Decemberpassed, Nic left to go visit family

(44:18):
for the holidays and didn't come backfor a couple of months.
So it wasn't until she was home againin February
that Ken borrows the school'scomputer again.
One cold Sunday, the three decide
to go hang out at the Red Lion Pubfor the evening.
When they come back,another message is waiting for them.
What strange words you speak.

(44:40):
Although I must admitthat I have also received poor education.
Sometimes I think changesare somewhat harmful,
for they disruptmany nights of sleep in my bed.
I have seen many changes around my houseand your home.
It is a fitting place with lightsthat seem devil made and expensive.
Things that only my friend Edmund Greyor the King himself can afford.

(45:02):
It was a great crimeto have corrupted my house. LW.
Wow. That sounds a little ominous,
considering the word bribedin early modern English means to corrupt.
And who is LW?
Who's Edmund Gray?
And how are these messagesgetting on the computer?

(45:22):
At first, Ken thinks it's one of the girlsplaying a prank.
But how?
They were both with himwhen both of these messages appeared.
And this is 1985 now,so no network or Internet connections.
In late February, Ken asks to have
a private wordwith another teacher, Peter Trinder.

(45:43):
Peter is another teacher at Hawarden,who incidentally had been Ken's
English teacher when he was a studentthere and is a tutor era
English specialist with a degreein English from Oxford University.
Ken tells him that he's getting thesemessages just appearing on the computer.
Peter looks at the print outthat Ken gives him

(46:06):
and it takes him some time,but he finally gets back to Ken to say
that the English used insome of the messages
took him some time to look up,and in his humble opinion,
it's unlikelya hoaxer would take that kind of time.
But it's got to be a hoax, right?
The threesome, now foursomeincluding Peter, asks LW questions

(46:29):
to try to get their arms aroundwhat they are dealing with here.
Did you live on this land in about 1620?
Is the King James or Charles Stewart?
Do you have a family?
Through the continual back and forth,they find out that LW stands for Lukas
Wainman, who says he's in the year 1521and that the king is Henry VIII,

(46:54):
who he says is 46 years old,and the queen is Catherine Parr.
But Henry VIII wasn't 46 in 1521.
Henry was married to Catherine
from 1543 to his death in 1547.
And there is more informationthat he gives that is just flat out wrong.

(47:15):
But they decide not to challenge Lukasbecause they want to keep him talking.
However, eventuallyLukas sends an angry message, wondering
if they are who they say they are,why do they not challenge him
on the things that he is sayingthat should be easy for them to disprove?

(47:36):
He's been testing them, too!
And this goes on for months,with Ken giving copies
of all of the new messagesto Peter to decipher and opine
on regarding whether or not they're legit,and helping Ken
figure out ways to try in either proveor disprove their authenticity.

(47:57):
Lukas seems to have livedin the same house that Ken and Debbie now
live in and sends his messagesthrough something he calls a Leems Boyste.
Light Box.
He says that he's a farmer whose wifeand son died in the plague in 1517
and that he'd been a deanat Brasnose College at Oxford University.

(48:19):
It also seems as if he can seeand hear them as well.
He talks about the impromptu jam sessionsthat they sometimes have
with Ken's friends.
And after Ken, a Jaguar sportscar fanatic,
leaves him a magazinecut out picture of a Jaguar,
Lukas remarksthat his cart won't get far without horses

(48:42):
and even asks what the picture is printedon because it's so smooth.
Debbie has a whole other level of strangehappening
as she seems to be ableto see Lukas as well, sometimes falling
into a dream state where she finds herselfliterally with him.
Not to mention that it also seemsas if Lukas can send them

(49:04):
physical messagesas well, leaving notes on paper
or scribbling messages on the stonekitchen floor with chalk.
Ken reaches out to the Societyfor Psychical Research or SPR.
This is not some fly by nightorganization.
These guys have been around since 1888.

(49:24):
They send John Bucknelland Dave Welsh, who
quickly in on Debbie as being the hoaxer.
She immediately says, “Wait a minute!
I'm only 19 and haven't a cluehow people talked 400 years ago.”
That answer seems to sufficewith John and Dave, for now.

(49:45):
And of course, nothing happenswhile they are at the cottage.
“That's okay,” they say.
“We'll be back.”But Lukas has gone silent,
only to have his mantletaken up by some unknown stranger,
letting the foursome knowthat Lukas has been arrested
for witchery, for sending the messagesthrough the lightbox.

(50:06):
You are a foolish scoundrelwho has brought nothing less than evil
upon the wretch.
I hope he comes to no harm for I guaranteeyour death by my own hand some way.
It was not to be avoided
with your charm of lights,and now he sits in the shameful dungeon.
It will be your own ruin,unless you help Lukas he will die.
If you reveal yourselves to the Crownfor what you are

(50:28):
and display your devilish powers, thenhis life is saved.
Reveal the truth and give no false threatsand explain what is necessary.
Computer.
Friend of Lucas.
The SPR comes back again
a few days later, seals up the doorsand windows so no one can get in or out,

(50:48):
and plantsmicrophones all over the cottage,
hoping to catchkeyboard noises made by the perpetrator.
Nothing.
Ken suggests that maybe Lukasisn't writing because he's been executed.
And the SPR guys think, how convenient.
But they say they'll be back.

(51:08):
Ken and Debbie find out from Lukas’sfriend that the sheriff hasn't executed
Lukas yet because the box only workswhen he's around.
And the sheriff wants all the powerthe box presumably holds.
Feeling pretty responsiblefor Lukas predicament, they actually
manage to have a conversationwith the sheriff, Sir Tomas Fowlshurst.

(51:31):
They tell the sheriffthat unless he releases Lukas immediately,
they will use the power of the boxto damn his soul to
And holy crap.
It works.
If you swear to not use your power,
then I shall releaseLukas within one hour.
Lukas is home again,at least for the time being.

(51:52):
They also find outhis real name is Tomas Hawarden.
Ken mentionsthat he is from the year 1985,
at which Lukas is shocked answering...
You said your time is 1985, thoughI thought you were also
from 2109, Like your friendwho brought me the light box.
He said the box was brought to him

(52:13):
by someone named One from 2109.
More than a little taken abackby this, Ken decides to message
that person too,in tapes into the computer, Calling.
2109--
and in less than an hour
they get a reply from 2109.

(52:33):
We are sorrythat we can only give you two choices. 1.
You either have your predicament explainedin such a non-writing way that you may
have instant understanding, but causewhat should not be to happen or...
2. Try to understand
that you three have a purpose,that child in your lifetime.
James. The face of history.

(52:54):
We want to know nine must not affectyour thoughts directly.
That gave you some sort of guidancethat will allow room for your own destiny.
All we can say is that we are all partof the same God, whatever he is.
Well, isn't that interesting?
Now they're talking to the pastand the future.

(53:15):
So Peter tries to question 2109
and gets scoldedfor “endangering the mission.” Meanwhile,
Lukas has agreed to answer some questionsfrom John Bucknell from the SPR.
It's also importantto note that through all of this
the poltergeist activityis still happening.
And it sounds like it's happeningto Tomas too.

(53:39):
All the while being reminded by 2109
that should they learntoo much information about one another,
the entirety of humanitycould be at stake.
No pressure.
So everyone but John heads outto the Red Lion while he sits for hours
waiting for an answer to the questionsthat Lukas has agreed to answer.

(54:01):
Nothing...
until the group are on their way back.
Only then does a messagepop up on the monitor.
John thinks they must be transmittingthe messages
to the computer, like wirelessly somehow.
That's when a rather interestingmessage comes through.

(54:21):
Please tell me why you move my writingso 2109
for I do wish communionwith my friend John.
In other words,
2109 is messing with the messages
and immediatelyanswers Lukas questions with...
Do not speak with psychic Nan.
But Dave has an idea.

(54:41):
Alone in the kitchen with the computer,he writes
ten questions to 2109, leaves the computeron, hides the screen
so no one can see the questions,
and goes into the living roomwith Dave and Ken to wait.
After a while, with no response,Dave turns the computer off
without saving the questions,so no one can figure out what they were.

(55:05):
2109 responds,
Yes, we are what you would call a tachyonuniverse.
If your understanding is incorrect,we ask nothing
more of youthan to carry on as you would prefer.
Not answering their questions directly,but answering them all
withinthe text of the entirety of their message.

(55:26):
This gets Dave's attention
and he comes back with two more questionsfor 2109, asking 2109
to tell us the next largest prime number
over the largest one we know to date,and if he can solve Fermat's Last Theorem.
Fermat's Last Theoremis a mathematical puzzle that for Fermat,

(55:48):
sometime around 1637, said had an answer.
But people have been trying to prove that
theorem unsuccessfully ever since.
2109;s response.
Dave, yes, both questions can be answered,one directly,
the other requires an understandingof a new conversion formula.

(56:09):
Before we tell you,do you swear to grant us our wish?
Dave's response.
If it be within our power to do so,
and that we do not lose our mindsor souls or bodies to you.
2109 Then
let the man who is willingto lose these step forward.
To lose your soul is to lose all.

(56:31):
Surely this would not bother David.
Call our bluff!
Cheeky.
David is not willing to take that bet.
Ken tries to reason with 2109, but
I guess no means no, telling Ken...
Answer either yes or no.
You asked a question we answered it.

(56:52):
Your turnif we are to answer questions again.
Do you want the answer?
Ken and Debbiecertainly think about offering
Dave's soul for him,but decide against it.
Not giving 2109 the yes or no answerit's waiting for, it writes...
We'll catch the bulletsbefore you pull the trigger.

(57:12):
Lots of love, 2109.
So 2109 has the answers to the questions
that Dave now can't askwithout offering his soul.
Checkmate on SPR.
John reverted to his original theorythat the computer is somehow bugged,
and that is pretty much the lastthey hear from the SPR.

(57:35):
Ghosted.
Ken, Debbie and Peter continue theirmessages back and forth to both Tomas
and 2109, and now a
third party known only as One.
In fact, Tomas says that One is the onewho came out of the green light
in Tomas's fireplace to give him the LeemsBoyste.
seems to also be from the futureand is aware of 2109. 2109

(58:01):
and One seem to be somewhat
rivals and both take turns at playinggood cop, bad cop
- with Tomas wondering the whole time,what the hell is going on?
It becomes clearthat the only way Tomas can be sure
that his notes to Kenand Debbie will not be messed with
is to write them on physical paper,which he does on several occasions.

(58:23):
By December of 1985, one of Ken
and Peter's former students, Neil Bertram,
who now works for the local newspaper,The Chester Observer,
sits at a table listening to Ken and Petertell their story.
And much to Ken's delight, he'snot laughing at them.
Ken cringesat the thought of this article actually

(58:45):
being published, that could very wellthrow them under the bus.
Most interestingly,Neil is able to talk to John Bucknell
of the SPR, who does basically throw themunder the bus, saying that he believes
“human agencies are responsible”.
At this point,Ken's growing more and more frustrated

(59:08):
at the lack of help to figure outexactly what is going on in their house.
So he calls the SPR again,just to get copies of John's case file,
which John claims he files on every case.
The SPR tells them they have no case file.
And not only that, but John Bucknell

(59:29):
is in the wind,with no one having heard from him.
And they've never heard of DaveWelsh Case.
What case?
That's when 2109 offers Ken a lifeline.
2109 sends a message that says...
In order that you may paya little more attention to our needs

we ask you to do the following: There is a brilliant researcher (59:48):
undefined
(ufologist…we know you don’tlike the word) His name is Gary M.
Rowe, his ideasdiffer somewhat to yours but
nevertheless he can help youwith a couple of your problems.
You may phone him at the [number] belowand invite him to talk with you,
when he comes show him thisand ask him what he makes of it,,,

(01:00:12):
Peter must do the telephoning.
So, they call him.
Gary listens to their story,curiosity piqued, and then comes over
and conducts some of his own teststo try to figure out what's going on.
2109 makes it known that they wantto communicate with Gary privately,
with Ken printing out 2109’sside of the conversation,

(01:00:35):
sealing the print out in an envelopewhich they deliver to Gary.
Gary gets the message and writesa reply, also sealed in an envelope,
which Kenthen places on top of the computer,
which then sometime
over the course of the next few days,disappears.
It's important to know that by this time,Debbie has rented a new place

(01:00:59):
not far away from the cottagein Dodleston, but far enough away
that they can get some sleepand relax for a hot minute.
So they're no longer at the cottage 24/7.
Ken starts to get annoyed at the catand mouse game happening around him,
but 2109 tries to reassure him.

(01:01:20):
Ken, thank you.
We do notice your hard work.
Thomas will be back as soon as possible.
Our conversation with Garywill not be of interest to you.
We are implanting anything against you.
And this goes on for a while, with Garystarting to play hard to get,
when he hands Ken a message for 2109.

(01:01:41):
Only this time, it'snot in a secret envelope.
Greeting.
I am instructed to apologise
but in any event I would have doneso of my own volition.
There will be a letterhopefully this weekend.
I am also instructed to apologiseto Ken and Debbie.
I must try and answer your last letter.

(01:02:02):
It would appear that
you are more important than I had realisedin the scheme of things.
- Gary.
And with this final note.
Gary's now in the wind, too.
Tomas tells the once againthreesome, since their friend Nic
has moved out by this time,that he's getting evicted from his land
and plans to try to go backto Brasenose College at Oxford

(01:02:25):
and write a bookabout this entire experience.
The final message from both Tomas
and 2109 comes around the middleof March, 1986.
Tomas writes,
One day
you will all sit at my table for wineand meat by my river in Oxford,
where we shall read each other'sbooks and rejoice.

(01:02:47):
We shall speak of truth and good men,watching Oxford
change together for evermore.
In your time my book is old,
but I shall not go to my Goduntil it is written.
Then, we will all be truly united.
My love to you all,I shall wait for you in Oxford.
-Tomas

(01:03:09):
But since he can'treally tell anybody about it
without being thrown in jail for Witcheryagain, he'll have to hide it someplace.
He promises he will hide itwhere it will be found some day.
Has anyone found it? Nope.
2109 signs off with...
Ken, Deb, Peter - Trueare the nightmares of those that fear.

(01:03:32):
What you fear will be your realityif you let it.
Believe in yourselves.
Safe are the bodies of the silent world.
As long as your kindcannot penetrate our world, we are safe.
We will finishnow you have a lot of work to do!!
There is no need for you to write backas we will have gone.
Thank you for your cooperation.

(01:03:53):
- 2109
When all is said and done,
over 300 messages are received by Ken and
Whooo.
Where do we go with this one?
I guess it really only boils downto two choices.
Either it's a hoax or it's not.

(01:04:14):
So let's talk about the possibilitythat this whole thing is a hoax.
And let's start with the obvious suspects,
that Ken and Debbie stagedthe whole thing.
There were never any signs of a break in
or that anyone else was ever in the housewithout them knowing about it.
And at least one of them was usuallyin the house when messages came in.

(01:04:36):
They could have just addedsome poltergeist activity stories for a
bit of flavor, piled up some furniturefor pictures, instant haunting.
Also in the 1996 BBC television show
“Out of This World”,which featured a segment on this case, Dr.
Laura Wright, a linguistics expertfrom Cambridge University, said this...

(01:05:00):
Looking at the verb structure,there are things
which Lucas saysthat would not have been said in 1546.
It's true that individuals
can make up individual words,but we don't make up our verbs.
It's possible,or it was possible in England in 1546
to say I do thou dust he she, or it dothhe she or it does.

(01:05:24):
But it wasn't possible to say I doth or heshe dust.
Now, all the way through Lucas'smessages,
he mixes and messes up these suffixeswith the wrong subject.
If it's meant to look like early modernEnglish writing,
it doesn't even look close.
Tomas should have been educatedenough to know better.

(01:05:45):
She also analyzed the usage of adjectives
before pronouns in both Tomas's messagesand known writing samples from Ken.
She found that Ken's adjectiveusage was 26.6%, while Tomas's was 26%.
But writings from that periodgenerally have a much
higher usage at 32 to 35%.

(01:06:09):
So it seems as though Ken
and Tomas are one in the same.
Or maybe it was an outsidehoaxer intent on pranking Ken and Deb.
If that's the case. Well-played,my friend.
Of course. The other option is it's real.
Like I said before,
there were never any signs of abreak in from an outside intruder.

(01:06:32):
And there were times that the messagescame in when no one was home.
We have statements from Debbie'smother and brother
attesting to the factthat they were at the cottage
with the kitchen locked up tight,so no one could go in there,
sitting with Debbie in the living room,when a message came in.
Not to mention the ten questiontest by the SPR.

(01:06:55):
Their big beefwas that their questions were
only answered in a general sense,not one by one.
But if they were answeredunder their own testing procedures,
namely that only Dave knew the questions,not Ken and Deb,
how can they claim hoax?
And since the computer camefrom a pool of loaner computers,

(01:07:20):
it would be really tough for someoneto mess with the computer itself,
since Ken didn't check out the same oneevery time.
They would haveto rig all of the computers.
And what exactly does that mean?
No one ever came up with a plausible way
to rig the computer, to behave the wayit behaved in the first place.
Not to mention...1984...

(01:07:42):
so no WiFi or internet.
So no direct hacking.
Ken and Debbie found out laterthat the SPR had
continued its investigationjust without their knowledge,
and they concluded that John Bucknell'sconclusion
that the computer had been tamperedwith, was impossible.

(01:08:04):
I think John Bucknell's idea was thatsomeone
was sending messagesthrough the ground wire of the house.
But even his own organizationcan't buy that one.
And what hoaxer is going to camp out
outside this cottage for 18 months,
waiting their chances to sneak inand continually prank this random couple?

(01:08:30):
In a tiny village like Dodleston,
chances arethey'll get caught by somebody.
In 1989, Ken wrote his book on the wholeadventure called The Vertical Plane,
with an updated second editionpublished in 2021.
The Vertical Plane being the way 2109
described time as happening all at once,

(01:08:53):
not a two dimensional linethe way humans generally visualize it.
Ken and Debbie participate in the 1996
BBC program “Out of this World”,but with their backs to the camera
for anonymity.
Other than the book, Kenpretty much stays out of the limelight.
But apparently, Debbiecan be occasionally spotted online.

(01:09:16):
Neither of them seem to be interestedin cashing in on a story
that certainly has cash potential.
And neither of them have anywhere closeto the level of knowledge of Tudor
era English required to pull this off.
According to their friend Peter Trinder,who remember,

(01:09:36):
is an expert himselfon Tudor era literature
and who also appeared on the episodeof “Out of This World”, said...
The vocabulary is a mix of educatedand uneducated
and would be really tough to hoax.
It was very real.
That's all I'm saying, Richard.
It was very close.
The kind of thingthat you could not doubt.

(01:09:57):
But all the time one was awareof the possibility of hoax.
But if it was a hoax, by golly,it was brilliant.
If it's a hoax,
the hoaxer would have to decideon their message, peruse the dictionary
to figure out which wordshe could substitute to a word less common,
and then go back
through the dictionary againto make sure the iteration of the word

(01:10:18):
is the correct iterationfor the 16th century time period.
Not only is this more workthan the average hoaxer
is most likely willing to commit to, butaccording to Peter, it would be impossible
to do the research needed in the timeframes given for many of these messages.

(01:10:40):
They just wouldn't have enough time.
But if you take what Peter saysabout the time and expertise involved,
it sounds like someone would almosthave to have a degree
in early modern Englishjust to have a clue as to where to start.
And let's not forget about the poltergeistactivity.
Could a poltergeisthave targeted Ken and Debbie

(01:11:03):
and collected energy from their anxietyto fuel this whole escapade?
Here.
Maybe.
Certainly did manage to freak them outand than one occasion.
And many poltergeists have been documentedas being a problem for multiple years.
The longest covering a 12 year span.

(01:11:27):
But to me, there are two things
that make me kind of leanto the real category.
The math and the quasar.
Remember that question Dave asked 2109about solving Fermat's Last Theorem?
Well, 2109didn't solve the theorem for Dave,
but did tell him it would be solvedsometime in his lifetime.

(01:11:51):
And lo and behold, here comes
Andrew Wiles in 1995 to do just that.
And 2109 told Ken that there was a quasar
about to happenin the Delphinus constellation.
And in 2019 there was.
Now those are pretty specific thingsto say

(01:12:13):
that could not have been known in 1984.
And as a small post-script, Gary Rowe,the Ufologist, did resurface
after a few years and said unequivocally,
that he believes every word of it.
Now we just need to find Tomas's book.
Anyone want to volunteerto house clean Oxford University with me?

(01:12:41):
Our story todaystarts on the Isle of Wight,
a beautiful island offthe southern coast of England.
The island itselfis about 150 square miles,
but only about 20 of that is developed,leaving
wide open expanses of farmland.
But I guess 20square miles of people is enough

(01:13:02):
including the National Pool Museum,to become a ghost factory
because the island iswell known as Ghost Central.
Which I guess since a wight is a ghost,make sense.
But our story today is aboutan entirely different kind of weirdness.

(01:13:23):
I can't even explain it.
I just have to tell it.
We start with two kids.
Now, one note here.
All of this information comesfrom an article in the January/February
1978 edition of the BUFORA Journal,which was a magazine
put out every couple of monthsby the British UFO Research Association.

(01:13:46):
I will have a link to the original articlein the description below
if you'd like to check it outfor the article that this story comes from
makes it very plainthat they have kept the names
of all of the people involved anonymous.
They called the little girl, Fay,and we are going to call the little boy,
On a Tuesday

(01:14:08):
in May of 1973,about 4:00 in the afternoon
in the town of Sandown,Fay is about seven years old
and she's out with a friend, Tom,who's about the same age.
And they're out on the beautifulspring day, seeing what they can discover.
Back in the day,the kids actually played outside.
they're walking along.

(01:14:28):
They both hear a weird wailing noise,kind of like an ambulance siren.
They follow the sound across a golf courseand through a hedge
leading to a swampy meadowthat's right next to the Sandown Airport.
And the noise stops.
Oh well! They start offon a new adventure.

(01:14:49):
As they're crossing a wooden footbridgeover a narrow little stream,
A blue, gloved hand pops upfrom under the bridge,
followed by the strangest figurethe kids have ever seen.
The person truly,for lack of a better word,
and I'm calling it ahe just for simplicity's sake,

(01:15:12):
because really,who knows, a book in his hands.
And as he's getting up,
he fumbles with the book
and he drops it in the water and thenkind of splashes around trying to get it
starts
walkingalong with a strange hopping motion
with its knees raised high and the kidswatch it go into a metallic hut.

(01:15:34):
Kind of like
the ones that are used on building sites,except that it has no windows.
The kids completely blow off this bizarrebeing that just crawled out
from under a bridge, and startmoving onto their next adventure.
They're about 50 yards awaywhen the thing comes back out of his hut
carrying a black knobbed microphonewith a white cord attached.

(01:15:58):
The wailing noise starts up again,but this time it is so loud
that Tom gets scared and startsto run away and Fay starts to follow.
The noise stopsand the thing speaks into the microphone.
Hello? Are you still there?
The kids are a decent distanceaway by this time,
but they can hear his voice like he'sstanding right next to them.

(01:16:22):
So they stop and figure that, well,he sounds friendly enough
and they start walking backto talk to their new friend.
Their friend is nearly
seven feet tall and has no neck.
His head is just sittingright on his shoulders.
He has a yellow pointed hatwhich is connected

(01:16:43):
to the red collar of his green shirt.
A round, black knob is attached to the topof his hat,
and woodenantennae are sticking out on each side.
His face has triangles
for eyes, a brown square for a nose
and yellow lips that never move.

(01:17:04):
skin, again for lack of a better
term, is paperwhite with round spots on his cheeks
and a fringe of red hairsticking out of his hat onto his forehead.
Wooden slats stick out from his sleevesand from below his white pants.
I don't even know what to do with that.

(01:17:24):
He pulls out his notebookin a large hand and points to a page
that has several words written on it,but in no discernible order.
He points to words and Fayreads them out loud.
“Hello, and I am all colors Sam.
The kids get a little closer and discoverthat the creature can actually talk

(01:17:46):
without the microphone.
But his lips don't move and it's reallyhard to understand what he's saying.
Kind of like a persontrying to talk without moving their lips.
He asks the kidsquestions about themselves,
so they decide to ask some questionsof their own.
They ask about his clothes,which are all ripped,
and he tells them that he only ownsone set of clothes.

(01:18:09):
So that's it.
And they're curious about his white skin.
So they ask if he's actually a man.
The thing kind of chuckles and says,
Well, then what are you, a ghost?
The thing cryptically replies, “Well,not really, but I am in an odd
sort of Well, if you're not a manand you're not a ghost, then what are you?

(01:18:33):
The only answer they get is, know.”that's it.
He also says he doesn't have a name,but he does
tell themthat there are more like him, though.
And he drawsa rough sketch of one of them.
He also confesses to the kidsthat he's afraid of people.
Scared that they might hurt him,
but that if he ever did get attacked,he wouldn't fight back.

(01:18:56):
Now, he must have been a prettylikable character because he
then invites the kids into his shackand they accept.
They crawl through a flap into his hut,which is actually two levels.
The lower level has plenty of headroom.
Is that by their four foot standardsor is that by his seven foot standards?

(01:19:17):
Is Wall papered in blue, green
and covered with a pattern of dials.
It also has an electric heaterand simple wooden furniture.
The upper level is smallerwith a metallic floor.
He tells the kids that he eatsberries that he collects in the afternoons
and that the water from the river isactually okay to drink after he cleans it.

(01:19:41):
Without giving up any kind of location,he says that
he also has a camp on the mainland.
Once inside the hut,he takes off his yellow hat
and the kids can see little roundwhite ears and thin brown hair.
He grabs a berry and performswhat the kids can only describe
as a conjuring trick.

(01:20:02):
He places the berry in his ear, snapshis head forward, which causes the berry
to disappear from his earand reappear by one of his eyes.
Then he does it again, snaps his head.
But this time the berry disappearsfrom his eye and reappears in his mouth.
Faye and Tom casually visitwith this weird

(01:20:23):
creature for half an hour or more.
Then, after saying their goodbyes, startrunning back home across the golf course
and tell the first man that they seethat they'd seen a ghost.
Of course, the guy just laughs at them.
But what do you expect?
It's a pretty crazy storycoming from the mouths of seven year olds.

(01:20:44):
But the kids are adamantthat they'd been hanging out
with either a ghost or someone dressed up.
doesn't tell her dad, known only as Mr.
Y, about her experienceuntil about three weeks
later, on June 2nd, 1973.
At first.
Understandably, he thinks the story isjust her imagination.

(01:21:06):
I mean, if I were Fay's mom, I'd be like,
“Wow, honey, you're so
But he was amazedat all of the details in the story
and Fay'sabsolute insistence that it was true.
And she gets really upsetwhen he kind of insinuates
that he knowsshe's just invented the whole thing.

(01:21:28):
So Mr.
Y goes to talk to Tom.
Tom is not as forthcoming with informationas Fay is.
But Mr.
Y is able to verify thatTom apparently had seen the same thing.
Now, obviously, Mr.
Y goes through any other possibilitiesin his head.
Like, maybe the kids sharedsome kind of hallucination

(01:21:52):
or are the victims of a hoaxer,or just some random weirdo.
He even tries to find the spotwhere Faye says it happened,
but he can't find a metal hutanywhere in sight.
Now, I think it's important to note herethat the kids are very close
to the Sandown Airport, which naturally
has a few metal hangers, and a little kid

(01:22:15):
might not have the vocabularyto describe exactly
what Sam's hut looked like.
But if Mr.
Y went looking for the hut,
then presumably Faytold him exactly where to find it.
And so if she points him to an areathat turns out to be the airport, well,

(01:22:36):
then at least that questionwould be answered.
But it doesn't sound like the airportis the area of the incident because Mr.
Y finds nothing.
But there is so much detail -like the creature had only three fingers
on each blue gloved handand three toes on his bare white feet.

(01:22:57):
Now, fakingthree fingers isn't that hard, but
faking three toesmight be a little tougher.
But if it's a hoax,why go to all that trouble?
And Mr.
Y just can't helpbut feel that certain parts of the story
just resonate with him as being true.

(01:23:17):
I mean, unfortunately, we don't havea full transcript of their conversation
to get a little better ideaof exactly what it is that she saw.
But Mr.
Y says that he got the impressionthat Faye was somehow taken
into a bubble of alien reality
created by this strange person.

(01:23:40):
I mean, this, whateverit is, told the kids he had just made the
And Faye
tells her dadthat while they're talking to this ghost,
two workmen are close by repairing a post
or something,and they pay zero attention to this weird
real lifecartoon happening right in front of them.

(01:24:03):
Like they can't even see it.
So based on his gut and his trust
that he knows when his own child is lying,Faye's dad doesn't call the police.
I would have.
He calls the British UFO ResearchAssociation, or BUFORA.
Weird, right?
But not so much for him. He has a reason.

(01:24:25):
Three years prior to Faye's encounter,
Faye’s dad had an encounter of his own.
On Tuesday, October 20th, 1970,at around 7:00 in the evening, Mr.
Y is driving from Shanklin to Ryde,with a stop in Seaview to see a friend.
Passing through the village of Brading,he turns right to St Helen's

(01:24:48):
and then sees a large aircraftwith multiple lights to his right,
about halfwaybetween the road and Bembridge Downs,
which is basically the southern coastlineonly a couple of miles away.
So it's about a mile from him.
This thing looks huge
and it's flyinglow over the swampy terrain.

(01:25:12):
He stops the car and watches.
The object is a wide ring of sevenor more red lights,
each of them large, clearlydefined spheres like bright red cherries,
with some turquoise and white lightspopping up occasionally
- and is completely silent.
It looks like it's kind of aimlesslywandering

(01:25:35):
over the swampy banks of the RiverAfter a while, Mr.
Y gets back in his carand starts driving again.
The object starts pacing him.
He drives through St Helen'sand once he's on the other side,
the object closes into about 300 yards behind him
and kind of slowly drops, and starts

(01:25:57):
just kind of meandering above
the trees in the hedges,but looks a lot smaller now
because now it's only for lightswhich are slowly rotating.
Mr. Y stops again and this time uses hisflashlight to try to signal the object.
Way braver than I am For like 10 minutes.

(01:26:20):
And that whole timethe object weaves backwards
and forwards without ever stopping.
Mr. Y then gets back in his car
and starts driving againbecause he has to go meet with his friend.
When he reaches his destination,the red lights are still there.
So he leaves the lights on in his car,so the brake lights

(01:26:41):
would be on, facing the object,and runs to the house to get his friend.
“You got to see this.” out of the house,his friend looks up and sees it too,
kind of bobbing up and downand around the treetops.
Once he's donevisiting with his friend, Mr.
Y gets back in his carto continue on to Ryde.

(01:27:02):
But the lights are gone.
However, over the next year and a half,
there are several times when he noticessingle balls of red light in the sky,
which would either just hang in one spot
or follow him, like it'skeeping an eye on him or something.
But on March 1st, 1972,a considerably more

(01:27:27):
or terrifying, incident occurs.
It's somewhere between 9:00 and 10:00in the evening, and Mr.
Y is perched on some rocks at Compton Bay.
He was walking along closeto the water's edge when a sudden surprise
surge of water, like a tidal
surge, raises the water level so fast

(01:27:48):
that he had to scramble to the rocksto avoid getting caught in it.
As he's looking around, wondering,What the hell am I going to do now?”,
he looks out into the channel and seeswhat looks like
some kind of craftjust under the surface of the water.
From his vantage point,he sees two points of yellow light

(01:28:11):
that look like the eyes of some horriblesea monster staring at him.
The eyes, the lights on the craft
are about 40 feet away and are just belowthe surface of the water.
Kind of like a periscope.
The lights and the craft disappear,
and as the water levelgradually goes back down to normal, Mr.

(01:28:33):
Y is able to get back to his carand drive home.
So knowing that UFO experiences often
run generationally in families,and knowing that at no time
did he ever tell Faye about anythingthat he'd experienced, Mr.
Y is inclined to think that his daughterhas indeed experienced

(01:28:55):
something beyondjust a weirdo in a clown suit.
So he calls BUFORA and reportseverything that happened to both of them,
thus planting the seed of what would grow
into the legend of Sam The

(02:10:32):
Grant is a full time park rangerfor the British National Trust,
established almost 130 years ago,the National Trust
is the largest heritage conservationsociety in the United Kingdom,
and its job is to look after placesof historic significance
or natural beauty across the country.

(02:10:53):
And this includes everything from historichouses and buildings to national parks.
And since Grant grew up in County Downin Northern Ireland,
his career as a park ranger inevitably
saw him posted to the Mourne Mountains.
The Mourne Mountains actuallyinclude a few different forests and parks

(02:11:14):
that come together under the jurisdictionof the National Trust.
But since they're all in an areathat's only about 50 miles across,
they're all under the domainof Grant's team.
And not only hashe been a ranger in the area for years,
but he was born and raisedjust north in the town of Lurgan
and also did his trainingaround the Mourne, too.

(02:11:37):
He knew that arealike the back of his hand.
So by the time he actually becomesa ranger, everyone on his team knows that
he is the go to guy for expert adviceon the Mourne mountain terrain,
which is how he ends up getting a phonecall early one morning from a colleague.
Let's callher Julie in need of assistance.

(02:11:58):
Julie had gotten a callfrom someone she described
as a very upset camperwho'd woken up at dawn
to find a couple of deadsheep outside of his tent.
And since it's oddlynot all that uncommon for sheep to turn up
dead for a multitude of reasons, Grantdidn't really think a whole lot about it.

(02:12:19):
Julie calls Grant because she needs hishelp to actually find the guy's campsite.
Grant says, “Well, sure,but why can't the guy just leave you there
himself?” Julie says, “It'snot that he can't go
back, it's that he won't go
back.” He is terrified.
This really piques Grant's interest.

(02:12:42):
Waking up to dead sheepin front of your tent
wouldn't behow most people would choose to wake up.
But he doesn't understand why the campersso afraid.
So afraid that he refuses to even go
back to the campsiteand pack up his stuff. Wow.
So Grant starts offto try to find this guy's campsite,

(02:13:02):
and Julie gave him a vague ideaof where the camper spent
the night enoughfor a rough starting point.
But this guy didn't pitch his tentat a marked campsite.
That would have been way easier.
This guy decided to gowild-camping or rambling,
as some people call it, basicallypitching a tent in the middle of nowhere,

(02:13:23):
which means there's very little to go onin terms of location, aside of,
you know, near such and such a fieldas Grant's driving around.
He gets Julie back on the phone again,who's still with the terrified camper
down at the Mourne Country Park office.
And he basically says, I'mgoing to need more to go on.

(02:13:44):
The camper says after waking upto that horrific scene,
he basically just ran all the way from hiscampsite to the Mourne Country Park.
That's about seven miles.
Grant asks, Why didn't he just callsomebody from his campsite?
But the campers say he'd been so terrifiedthat he didn't
bother to grab anythingbefore running for his life.

(02:14:07):
At this point,as he's driving around on speakerphone,
Grant starts wonderingjust how many dead sheep
it takes to scare somebody who'sapparently well into middle age.
This guy isn't some scared kid.
He sounds older than Grant.
So Grant tells Julie, ask him exactly
how many dead sheep were outside his tent?

(02:14:29):
The reply came back.
He doesn't know the guy, can't even guess.
He only adds It's a mess up thereand that grant should take
a gun of some kind with himif he's going to be the one investigating.
Grant only overheard that last part
because Julie didn'teven think it was worth repeating.
Being a park ranger in
Ireland is way differentthan being a park ranger in America.

(02:14:52):
National park staff in Ireland
never carry gunsand don't even have any access to them.
They just don't have any really kind of
crazy wildlife that would requirethat kind of protection.
So some guy saying that he needs to takea gun with him just sounds like insanity.
Grant finally ends uptalking to the camper directly and says,

(02:15:14):
I need you to describe your campsiteto the best of your ability, every detail.
And the camper tries his best,
but nothing in his descriptionclicks with Grant until.
He mentionedhow on his first day he walked past
a large body of waterthat was kind of in a ‘C’ shape.

(02:15:36):
Grant thinks for a moment,the only large reservoir
in the Mournes shaped likethat is the Spelga Dam.
The camper says he pitched his tent onlyfive or 10 minutes away from the water.
Bingo.
That narrows the search quite a bit.
Then Grant starts thinking.
If I were to camp near Spelgawhere would I go?

(02:15:57):
And he decides to drive over and check outthe only two places that come to mind.
Now, the first one is a dud,but the second one is a direct hit.
Grant can see a bright red tent
sitting inside the tree line up ahead.
The camper had chosento camp among some trees,
meaningthat Grant can't see much from a distance.

(02:16:20):
Dead sheep included.
So he starts trudging across a muddy fieldand hops a fence
before he finally gets a goodlook at what has terrified the camper.
And wouldn't you know it?
It terrifies Grant, too.
From what he can see, the reasonwhy the man couldn't tell
the number of dead sheep isbecause there are bits and pieces of wool

(02:16:43):
splashed and bone strewnall over the campsite.
It shakes Grant to his core.
He has never seen anything like it,
not just during his Ranger career,but ever.
He has to count the sheep skulls,or at least what
his guesses are the remains of the skullsto get an accurate number.

(02:17:08):
Four.
He counted four eviscerated sheeparound that man's campsite.
No wonder he'd been so terrified.
Imagine opening your eyes in the morning,seeing the morning sun
shining through the tent walls,having a good stretch
before crawling out of your sleeping bagand unzipping your tent

(02:17:32):
only to see blood and bonesand guts everywhere!
Grant considers himself quite heartywhen it comes to things of this nature,
but good Lord, evenhe was having a bit of a problem
with the grisly display in front of him.
Grant then contacts another ranger andtells them exactly where the campsite is

(02:17:56):
and asks them to lock the place downso they can secure the scene.
It may seem kind of like overkill goingall CSI on a few sheep,
but in this case they have to do somethingto preserve the evidence.
It's the only chance they're goingto have to figure out what happened.
Now, once Grant knows thatthat is in the works, he starts

(02:18:17):
heading back to Mourne Country House,where there's a little portacabin
in the parking lotthat serves as the Ranger Station office.
Time for a serious chatwith the frightened camper.
When he arrives,the guy's still freaked out,
so he startsasking the guy some questions,
but he goes pretty easy on himsince he figures out that he'll get most

(02:18:38):
of what he really needs to knowfrom the scene itself.
But he has to ask,how did you not wake up?
Obviously,the camper doesn't know what to say.
So Grant asks him,Are you a heavy sleeper?
And the camper says, I don't think so,
but I think this is some kind of warning.
Grant says,Why did you pissed somebody off?

(02:19:01):
But again, he says, I don't think so.
Well, since he wasn't getting anythinguseful from the camper, Grant thought he'd
just move on to the next task at hand,
figuring out who is missing sheep.
It is certainly possiblethat four sheep had staged a prison break,
gone out on the run and been taken outby a dog or a couple of foxes.

(02:19:23):
Stranger things have happenedaround there, but not many.
As strangeas the way his day was shaping up.
It actually didn't take Grant longto find the farm
where the four missing sheephad come from.
So he drives over to have a wordwith the farmer and to check the guy's
fences.
Now, we're already at Weird with the deadsheep stew on the campus front lawn, but

(02:19:48):
this next part is where the whole story
takes a hard left toward Freaky Town.
The farmer tells Grant
that four of his sheep had indeed gonemissing from the farm.
But not all last night.
Over the past two weeks, one would justdisappear randomly every couple of nights.
In fact, the farmer says,Please check the fences, be my guest.

(02:20:13):
I have been beefing them upfor the last two weeks,
but I can't figure outhow they're getting out.
Grant is in no way a sheep fencing expert,but he gives the fences a check anyway.
And just like the farmer had said,he'd turn the place into a Fort
Knox of wood stakes and chicken wire.
After Grant gives himthe nod on his handiwork,

(02:20:34):
the farmer says,I think someone's stealing them.
But for the life of me,I can't figure out how a sheep going
missingis an irritatingly common occurrence,
but four sheep goingmissing over the course of two weeks.
Then all turning upin the exact same location,
looking like they'd each swallowed a handgrenade?

(02:20:56):
You don't have to be Sherlock Holmesto know that something odd is going on,
but they never figured out what.
The campsite is cleaned upand a wildlife expert stops by and tells
Grant that the sheep were too shredded,to properly analyze.
They would never know if it was an animal
or a personthat had done those horrible things.

(02:21:18):
When the farmer heardexactly how his sheep had died.
He wanted an investigationinto the camper for animal cruelty.
Can't really blame him, but for dead sheep
don't really make a big blipon the local police's radar.
And the camper was in the wind, sothere was no arresting or questioning him.

(02:21:40):
And the Park Servicehas enough on its plate
without having to investigatesheep murders.
But still, Grant is mystified.
There's obviously somethingmore to the whole thing.
Yet everyone but himand a handful of his fellow Rangers either
don't know enough or don't careenough to actually investigate properly.

(02:22:03):
Everyone up the ranger chain of command
wants to chalk it up to a spikein the local fox population.
But no one who actually witnessedthe carnage up at that campsite
would be dumb enough to claimthat foxes did that.
The only real feedback or reactionthey got from the National Trust was

(02:22:24):
keep an eye out for any large escaped dogsand any other such predators.
They all found that last part a bit scary,but it made no difference in the end.
There was no hellhound type creatureromping around the Mourne mountains,
but no investigation meantthat they would never figure out what was.

(02:22:44):
Of all the thingsthat Grant has seen or experienced
during his timeworking for the National Trust.
The incident with the deadsheep is the one thing that still sends
shivers down his spine, but it's not whathe knows about it that scares him.
It's what he doesn't knowthat keeps him up at night.

(02:23:10):
The Pennine region in England,
between Lancashire and Yorkshireis commonly referred to as U.F.O.
Valley, which means absolutely nothingto Leokadiya Adamski.
Not only doesthis have no bearing on her day to day
life, but especially now,now that she is too busy
worrying about her husband, Zigmund,who's been missing for 12 days.

(02:23:35):
But the person about to knock on her door
will change her world forever.
Leokadiya or Lottie, as she isknown, is beside herself.
She's a wreck with worry today.
Her husband of 29 years, Zigmund or Ziggy,
has been missing for 12 days now.

(02:23:58):
He went out for a bag of potatoesand never came home.
There might be a joke in there somewhere.
If she didn't feel likeher world was crashing down around her.
Lottie and Ziggy are Polish immigrantswho, after both having nasty run ins
with the Nazisafter they invaded Poland in 1939,

(02:24:19):
fled to the Leeds area of the UK.
Eventually they metand were married in 1951
and since they both have had enoughdrama in Poland,
they settled down in the smalltown of Tingley, just outside of Leeds,
to build themselvesa nice, quiet life together.

(02:24:39):
And they do a pretty good job of it.
Ziggy gets a good, stable jobat the coal mine that supports them both.
But life is not life without some drama.
Since they moved to Tingley,Lottie was diagnosed
with multiple sclerosisand is now in a wheelchair.
But they've managed to builda good community

(02:25:01):
of friends and family and are bothwell liked by everybody.
Ziggy and Lottie are never ableto have any children of their own.
So instead, Ziggykind of leans into his relationship
with his goddaughter,and the two become pretty close.
So close that Ziggy is set to walk herdown the aisle for her upcoming wedding.

(02:25:22):
But that had happenedthe day before the wedding.
Lottie will never forget that day.
June 6th, 1980, when her world stopped.
Ziggy went shopping that morningwith his cousin Laska,
who had been staying with themfor a couple of months.
After the two came homeand he had lunch with Lottie,
Ziggy gets up from the table and announcesthat he's running down the street

(02:25:45):
because he forgot to buy the potatoes
that they're going to needfor the next day's festivities.
He grabs his striped coatand his wallet and heads out the door.
He walks to the store, buyshis bag of potatoes, and starts
heading back to home, but stops to chatwith the neighbors for a few minutes.
And that is the last timeanyone has seen Ziggy in the last 12 days.

(02:26:10):
The grocery store is like a holethree blocks down the road,
so to walk there by potatoes and walk back
should have taken all of 15,20 minutes max.
So after half an hour, Lottie sends Laskaout to see what the problem is.
But Ziggy is nowhere.

(02:26:31):
Lottie starts calling everyoneshe can think of and raising
the alarm that something is wrong,including calling the police.
The police tell her to just sit tight fora day or two and just see what happens.
Surely he will be back intime for the wedding.
But he wasn't.
So she filed a missing persons reportand the police start

(02:26:54):
checking around a bit,talking to family, friends and neighbors,
and they talk to one of Ziggy'sclose friends, Christopher Solinski,
who'd been out at the pub with Ziggyjust two days before he disappeared.
He told police that Ziggyseemed like his normal, cheery self.
He described the Adamski’smarriage as happy, and said

(02:27:15):
that there's no waythat Ziggy would voluntarily disappear
and leave his wheelchairbound wife, Lottie, to fend for herself.
No way.
But so far,no one has either seen or heard a thing.
No leads, no theories, nothing.
He's just gone.

(02:27:36):
So Lottie has donenothing for these last 12 days
except sit in her chair and pray
that God will return her Ziggy.
Then a knock at the door.
A young man who was visiting Lottiegets up and answers the door for her.
Standing on her frontsteps are a detective and Police Constable

(02:27:57):
Alan Godfrey.
The two officers come in and inform Lottiethat they're there because they heard
she had filed a missing personsreport about her husband.
They had some pictures to show her.
Pictures, it turns out, of Ziggy.
Seven days earlier on June 11th, AlanGodfrey is standing on a stoop

(02:28:19):
having a smokeand trying to stay out of the rain.
when a call comes in his radioasking officers to respond
to an incident at the Tomlinson Coal Yard.
I'm on my way.
What's going on?
A body has been found.
As he steps out into the rain,a police car pulls in front of him,
driven by his friend and fellow cop,Malcolm, who tells him to get in.

(02:28:42):
And the two are off to the coal yard.
When they get there,they're greeted by two paramedics,
and Trevor Parker,the son of the coal yard owner.
“We think you have a murder,” camethe greeting from one paramedic.
Malcolm and Alan look around.
But they don't see a body anywhere.
So they both look back at the paramedics,kind of confused.

(02:29:07):
And one paramedic says, “Look up.”
So they scan a little higher and spot it
at the very top of one of the coal piles,about 15 feet up
is something that definitely doesn'tbelong there.
The two officers work their wayup the pile, the coal
constantly shifting under their feetas they go.

(02:29:29):
And Alan noticessomething as he and Malcolm are climbing.
They're messing up this once perfect pile.
But if it was perfect when they got there,how did this body get up there
without messing it up?
The body is lying face down.
So the two men turn it over.
And even as seasoned policemen,they are not prepared for what they see.

(02:29:53):
The face that rolls over to greet them
is a frozen picture of fear,with eyes wide open
and a mouth fixed in a silent scream.
Alan recoils for a moment,but then years of training
quickly take overand he starts examining the scene.
The body is that of an older malewearing a nice brown suit.

(02:30:16):
Interesting, though.
The suit is perfectly cleanwhile Alan and Malcolm
are now covered in cold dust.
How did he climb up here without so much
as a smudge of dust on his clothes?
Also,there's something off about the suit.
The jacket is buttoned wrong.

(02:30:37):
The pants are buttoned wrong.
And he's only wearing a string vestunder the jacket.
It's like someone dressed himin these clothes and got it wrong.
And it looks like someone gave hima really bad haircut.
Like someone had just taken scissorsand hacked away
a few bits,some of them down to the scalp.

(02:30:58):
Alan and Malcolmcan't see any obvious cause of death,
but they do see an openwound on the back of his neck
at the base of his skullthat looks to have some kind of
greenish ointment smeared all over it.
And they can also see a few penny
sized spots around his headand shoulders that look like burn marks.

(02:31:21):
Well, there's not much morethat they can do now.
So they climb down the pile and callthe Criminal Investigation Department.
While they're waiting for the C.I.D.
Guys, they talk to Trevor Parker,the young man who discovered the body.
He says he was at the coal yardthis morning
and didn'tsee anything out of the ordinary.

(02:31:41):
The coal yard is just this huge,
fenced in area with piles of coalall around
and trucks going in and outthroughout the day, either
bringing in more coalor loading some up to take away.
Trevorthen leaves for lunch and to check on
some of the other coal yards,and when he comes back around 3:45,

(02:32:03):
he immediately sees something lyingon top of one of those piles.
He goes to check it out, seesa shoe and calls the paramedics thinking
that it is yet another stray drunk
was found his way into the coal yard.
Apparently, it happens a lot.
The pathologist who did the autopsy, AlanEdwards, noted that

(02:32:26):
this guy had apparently been eating welland wasn't malnourished or dehydrated,
although it doesn't look like he ateanything on the day that he died.
And there's only about one day'sworth of stubble on his face.
And the time of death is calculatedas being between 1:15 a.m.
and 1:15 p.m.

(02:32:46):
on the 11th - so the same day that he wasfound on the coal pile.
So apparentlyright after Trevor left for lunch.
And the burn marks around his headand shoulders looked like
some type of acid burns that he estimatesto be about two days old.
And the greenish jelly substanceover the wound at the base of

(02:33:07):
the skull is testedand they can’t identify it.
There are no defensive wounds.
The only other wounds on the bodyare a few small light cuts on the palms
of both of his hands, both knees,and a small cut on the right thigh.
The cause of death is ruled as heartfailure or, more specificly,

(02:33:29):
a combination of emphysema and ischemicheart disease.
In other words, natural causes.
Alan Godfrey is tasked with trying tofigure out who this John Doe actually is.
So he hits the pavement, checking out shop
and pubs in the Todmorden area.
But no one has ever seen this guy.

(02:33:51):
He calls all the area hospitalsto see if anyone
has been treated for a head woundin the last few days.
Nothing.
Eventually, someone connects the dots
and clues Alan Godfreyin to a missing persons report of a man
that sounds an awfullot like his John Doe.
But it's from Tingley.
That's almost 25 milesor 40 kilometers from Todmorden.

(02:34:16):
What would he be doing out here?
But lacking any other leads,
Alan and the detective assignedto the case make that fateful trip
to Tingley on June 18th,which lands them on Lottie's doorstep.
She's heartbroken, but there's really not
anything else that she can dobut wait for the coroner's inquest

(02:34:38):
to hopefully get some answers as towhat the hell happened to her husband.
Now a coroner's inquest is a formal
legal investigationconducted by the coroner with the help
of the pathologist into a deathwhere either the cause of death
or the circumstances surrounding itremain unknown.

(02:35:01):
In Ziggy's case,the coroner sticks to the pathologist's
findingsthat Ziggy dies of natural causes.
It's the circumstances surrounding itthat are the issue.
Despite protestationsfrom Alan and Malcolm,
they rule that Ziggy diedwhere he was found.

(02:35:21):
Alan and Malcolm are not even calledto testify.
Okay, fine.
But if he disappeared on the sixthand he died on the 11th,
where was he for those five days?
And how did he end upat the top of the coal pile?
Trevor Parker testifiedthat he was not expecting any deliveries

(02:35:42):
that day, so he didn't come in on a truckand get dumped.
And that nice brown suit he was wearing?
It wasn't
confirmed
that those were not the clothesZiggy was wearing when he left the house.
And where are his wallet and watch?
The closest thingto a rational explanation
to this entire scenariois that Ziggy had been kidnaped

(02:36:03):
by a family memberand held in a shed for five days.
Remember Ziggy's cousin, Laska?
Well, apparentlyshe was staying with Ziggy and Lottie
because things were not goingwell between her and her husband.
Like restraining order bad.
So the theory is that Laska’s husband,

(02:36:24):
in a fit of rage,
kidnapsZiggy and tortures him for five days
before Ziggy's heartjust can't take it anymore and gives out.
And exactly how did he think this wouldmake things better with his wife?
But police find zero evidence that this ishow things actually went down.

(02:36:47):
It just doesn't make sense.
If that's what happened,why would Laska’s husband
dump Ziggy's body in a wide open area
in the middle of the day when the chancesof getting caught are pretty high?
And if they dragged his dead bodyto the top of the pile,
why aren't Ziggy's clothescovered in soot?

(02:37:09):
And why bother to drag a heavy bodyto the top of the coal pile?
And bonus,if he was dragged up there by someone,
how did the pile of coal showno signs of anyone climbing it?
Nonetheless, the coroner'sinquest concludes with an open finding.

(02:37:30):
In other words, they had no idea.
But once the inquest is over,the coroner, James
Turnbull, gives an odd statementto the press.
“The question of where he wasbefore he died
and what led to his deathcould not be answered.
In my 12,000 cases,
this is the most baffling I've ever had.

(02:37:54):
If I was tolda UFO took this man up and dropped him
on the coal pile,I would only raise one eyebrow.”
Sounds like a weird end to a weird story,right?
Well, it is.
But that's not the end.
At least not for Officer Alen Godfrey.
As ticked off as he was about the resultsof the coroner's inquest,

(02:38:15):
he managed to eventually leaveall of the unanswered questions
in the past and get back to his regularlife as a Todmorden beat cop.
Life was pretty much back to normal
until the rainy, drearyevening of November 27th, 1980 -
so just six months after the discoveryof Ziggy Adamski’s body on the coal pile.

(02:38:39):
Alan has just started his night shiftand is on his way to the northwest
part of Todmorden to check out a reportof a number of escaped
cows out on an unsanctioned walkabout.
When a second call comes in.
Somebody else had spotted the cows.
But when Alan finally gets there,he doesn't see any cows.

(02:39:00):
And that's when it dawns on himhe's been punked.
And so he just heads back to the station.
But then a third call comes infrom the same neighborhood
complaining about the cows.
But this time it's an old lady,not likely a practical joker.
So, he heads back out there.
He gets to the house around midnightand is greeted at the door

(02:39:23):
by a lovely older woman who invites him inand offers him some tea.
And she explainsthat she had been sleeping
but woke upbecause of some strange noises outside.
She looked out the window and she sawfive or six cows in the street,
puts in her call to the policeand goes back to the window
to keep tabs on those hooligan cows.

(02:39:46):
It's then that she is hitwith a blinding light
that lights up her entire house.
When the light fades, the cows are gone.
Alan suggests that maybe it was just
the headlights of a carpassing by that scared the cows away.
The old woman isn't so convinced.
The following morning, towardthe end of Alan's all-nighter shift -

(02:40:11):
so now, the morning of November 28th -
at about 5 a.m., three officers in Halifax
are wandering aroundnorth of the city, around the moors.
A moor is a low,hilly area covered in only low
growing vegetationand is sometimes wet containing peat bogs.

(02:40:32):
So these guys are out there checking outa tip on some stolen motorcycles.
All three of them see a blue
pulsating light hanging just under the low
cloud cover and moving erratically.
Not like any aircraftany of them have ever seen before.
The movements are so wildand unpredictable

(02:40:55):
that one of the officerssaid, enough of this.
I'm going back to the car.
The blue light then heads towardthe officers, buzzes over the top of them
and takes off at a crazy fast speed
in the direction of Todmorden.
About 5 minutes later, in a little townon the outskirts of northern Manchester

(02:41:18):
called Littleborough, two police officerssat in their car in the parking
lot of a local pub called the White Housewhen they noticed a blue
pulsating light off in the distance,
hovering between two electrical towers.
Oddly enough,neither of them saw the object appear,

(02:41:38):
but they sat there just mesmerized by it.
One of the officers makes a sketch
drawing of the lightwhile the other radios into the station
to let somebody know what it isthat they are looking at.
They stare at it for a few more minutesbefore it shoots off
at a high rate of speed, againtowards Todmorden.

(02:42:00):
Roughly 5 minutes later,
so around5:10 a.m., Alan is getting into his car
for his last patrolaround town before his shift ends.
The rain had finally stopped,but he still had
those stupid cows on his mind,so he heads off back

(02:42:20):
toward that area to take one more stabat finding them.
He's heading north on Burnley Road,
he sees something in the road.
About 5 minutes later,
so around 5:15 a.m., Leonard Smith,
the caretaker for Ferney LeeJunior School, which is north of Burnley

(02:42:42):
Road, is walking across the school groundswhen he notices something
dark in the sky to the south of him,so right over Burnley Road.
It’s hard to see in the morning darkness,but it looks like
it is rising from the road.
It zigzags a bitand then shoots off at an insane speed.

(02:43:03):
Around 45 minuteslater, Alan's friend and fellow officer,
Malcolm, is just leaving the stationat the end of his shift,
when Allen comes racing up in his policecar, stops,
rolls down the windowand tells Malcolm to get in.
Now. Malcolm really just wants to go home.

(02:43:24):
But Allen's face is palewith a very dire look.
So Malcolm gets in the carand thinks, “This better be good.”
It was Trying to catch his breathand calm down, Alan
tells Malcolm about how he was on his wayback to the area of the renegade cows.
But just as he wasabout to take a right off of Burnley Road

(02:43:45):
to head north to the area,he sees something in the road
about 100 yards in front of him,sitting in the middle of Burnley Road.
So he passes the turnoff to gonorth and heads toward the object,
thinking it's a bus that's thatcrash and jackknifed across the road.
But then he realizes that this thing isway bigger than a bus

(02:44:10):
and is floatingabout five feet off the ground.
By Alan's estimate,it's about 20 feet wide and 14 feet tall.
And it's actually diamond shapedand in two halves,
the top half being stationaryand the bottom half rotating.

(02:44:30):
And it has a row of dark windowsall the way around.
Alan hears no sound,
but notices the treesand bushes to the sides of the object
are shaking all round as if there'sa big wind blowing them all over.
But Alan doesn't see or feel any wind.

(02:44:51):
Alan stopshis car about 30 feet away from the thing
and turns on his bluepolice lights and hazard lights
because whateverit is, it’s blocking the entire road.
He tries to radio in to the police station
to let them knowthere is a problem on Burnley Road.
But his personal radio doesn't work.

(02:45:12):
Neither does the radio in the car.
So he starts doing whatevery British constable is
taught to do at the sight of an accident.
Alan takes out his notepadand starts to sketch what he sees.
And he remembers starting that sketchbut not finishing it.
Because before he has a chance,a brilliant light,

(02:45:32):
like a hundred suns, hits Alan's face.
By the time the blindness from the lightflash clears, the object is gone.
And Alan is another 50 yards up the road
with his hands on the steering wheeland the car rolling along in first gear.
Blue police lights are off,hazard lights are off,

(02:45:56):
and the headlights of the car are off.
Alan quicklyturns the car around and goes back.
Now, remember,it's been raining all night,
so everything is still wet,except for that spot on the road.
It's dry with a whirlpool pattern of twigslying on the road.

(02:46:18):
Now it's almost 6 a.m., 30
minutes gone, literally in a flash.
Malcolm doesn'tknow what to say about Alan's story,
as Alan drives him back to the spotwhere he saw whatever it is that he saw.
And they get out of the car, and Malcolmcan see the dry circle on the road

(02:46:39):
with the whirlpool of twigs,just like Alan had described.
He knelt down and touched the drypatch of the road.
And despite it being a cold, rainy
November morning, the dry patch is warm.
They look around and Alan remembers thatthey are right next to Centre Vale Park.

(02:47:00):
Hopingmaybe to find some early morning joggers
or dog walkers who had witnessedwhat Alan had witnessed,
they grab their flashlightsand head toward the park
They have to cross a small bridgethat spans a gully that run
almost the entire length of the park,parallel to Burnley Road.

(02:47:22):
When they get to the main gate, it'slocked.
The two climb over the fenceand just start walking through the park.
And in the pre-dawn darkness,
Alan can barely make out the outline
of a number of dark shadows moving aroundon the other side of the park.
He shines his flashlightin that direction, only to see, staring

(02:47:46):
right back at him.
The faces of a half a dozen cows.
In the days and weeks that
followed, Alanlearned a number of very important things.
First,he learned that it would be really hard
for cows to wander from the neighborhoodwhere they're in first spotted,

(02:48:06):
through town, across the road,
over the gully next to the road,
and through the locked gate of the park.
He also learned that the roadleading to the house
of the little old ladywho served him tea while
while telling him of the disappearingcows, was not situated in a way

(02:48:28):
where lights from oncomingtraffic could shine through her windows.
Whatever that light was that shined in herhouse was not from a car.
And he learned that all records concerningboth Ziggy Adamski’s
death and his own encounter,including the reports
filed to the Ministry of Defenseby not only himself,

(02:48:52):
but the three other officers from Halifaxas well,
are totally locked down as classified.
There's actually a lot moreto Alan's story than I could cover here.
But he wrote a book called “Whoor What Were They?”,
that details his entire ordeal,that I will link in the description

(02:49:14):
below, if you care to take a deeperlook into his story.
So what plucked Ziggyfrom the face of the Earth,
killed him, and set himback down on that pile of coal.
And what happened in that 30 minutechunk of time
that Alan lost, that morning on the road?
Do they have anythingto do with each other?

(02:49:36):
Or are these eventsjust some massive coincidence?
As much as I would love to say “Thetruth is out there!”...
in this case,I'm not sure we're ever going to find it.
Tucked away
in Dumfries, Scotland, is a place called The Crichton,

(02:49:58):
which is a former Victorian areapsychiatric complex.
Now before your mind wandersto all those horror movie cliches,
let me tell you, this place is nothinglike what's in your head.
It's actually a peaceful campus,
part of the local universitywith beautiful Victorian houses
built of soft red sandstone, complete

(02:50:20):
with stunning gardens, sprawling lawns,
and this magnificentcathedral style church right at its heart.
Marsha worksthere as a night patrol security manager.
Part of her job includesdriving around the complex several times
each night, windows down, listeningfor any alarm systems that might go off.

(02:50:42):
Sounds insanely creepy to me.
But Marsha says it's totally fine.
Now, the abandoned care home and formerWorld War Two airbase that she also has
to patrol, that's a whole different storyfor another time.
But back to the Crichton.
One bitter cold December night in 2017,

(02:51:02):
Marsha hears an alarm activateat Solway house.
If she has to pick the creepiestbuilding on campus, this one would be it.
She drives over to the buildingand goes in.
But everything looks okay.
So she takes a closerlook at the motion detector.
And there is the culprit, a huge spider
taking a midnight strollacross the motion detector. Ugh!

(02:51:27):
Now I have to write up a whole reportor a spider.
So Marsha takes a seat at the bottomof the staircase and starts writing.
That's when she hears it.
Now we're not talking aboutthose little taps you see
people freaking out about onghost hunting shows. No!
This is more like someone's upstairsthrowing boxes around

(02:51:47):
and rearranging furniture at 3 a.m..
Keep in mind that this building is nowused for art classes and music lessons.
So it's not like there'sanything in here to steal.
But heeding the call of duty,Marsha jumps up and heads upstairs.
All the lights blazing.
Unfortunately,the only weapon she has is her flashlight.

(02:52:09):
Because in Scotland,they can't even carry mace.
Are they supposed to sweettalk criminals into submission?
So she's got herselfthe biggest, sturdiest torch she can get.
According to Marsha,this thing could probably stun a dog, man.
So she runs up the stairs,and the moment she reaches the top,

(02:52:30):
everything goes silent.
But somebody's got to be there, right?
So she searches every single room,every cupboard, every toilet, nothing.
Despite all that racketshe heard, everything's perfect in place.
Not a single thing disturbed.
All the windows are locked tight.
Plus, there's absolutely no wind outside,so it's certainly not rattling windows.

(02:52:54):
Satisfied that nobody's there.
She heads back downstairsto finish her paperwork.
But the second she sits back down,the whole thing starts up again.
Marsha lets out a wordthat's definitely not suitable for polite
company, grabs her monsterflashlight and sprints back up the stairs.
Just like before,the moment she hits that top

(02:53:14):
step, dead silence.
She does another thoroughsweep, checking every nook and cranny.
But everything's exactly as it should be.
The funny thing is, the idea of a ghosthasn't even popped into her head yet.
She's been working this job long enoughthat The Crichton has never once
given her the creeps.

(02:53:35):
It's always been a peaceful place.
Until now.
She heads back downstairs one more time,and that's when it happens.
This cold, static electricity startscrawling across her skin.
Now, Marsha's is no strangerto the paranormal.
She's had her fair share of experiences.
And this sensation,it's like a big red warning light.

(02:53:59):
Then she feels it.
Something right behind her,following her down those stairs.
And notice I said something.
Not someone.
Because whatever this is, doesn't feelhuman,
doesn't feel like a spirit,doesn't feel friendly.
It feels all wrong.
All kinds of wrong.

(02:54:21):
The only thought running through Marsha'shead is
don't let it know that you knowit's there.
Don't let it know you're scared.
Though of course she is. Who wouldn't be?
Having watched enoughparanormal shows to know the drill.
She starts reciting the prayerto the Archangel Michael in her head.
Mind you, she's not even Catholic.

(02:54:42):
But when things get dicey,you pull out all the stops.
The moment she hits that bottomstep, the feeling vanishes.
She finishes up her paperwork.
And wouldn't you know it, that bangingand crashing starts right back up again.
Well, Marsha's had enough.
She plants herselfat the bottom of those stairs and shouts,

(02:55:03):
“I am too busy for your nonsense.” “I'mleaving now.
So knock yourself out.” With that, shelocks up and drives off into the night.
Back at the office,
she starts telling her colleague,“I had an alarm at Solway house.
It was weird, but...”He cuts her off mid-sentence.
“I meant to tell you.
Solway house is haunted as...”

(02:55:27):
To this
day, it remains Marsha's number oneparanormal experience,
Which, considering Marsha's own housein Dumfries, built back in 1870,
seems to have an innocuous spiritor two hanging around.
But she says she would never dreamof asking them to leave.
That would just be rude.
After all, they were there first.

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These 8 Cases PROVE Something is Wrong with the UK - Compilation (Ep 158)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}These 8 Cases PROVE Something is Wrong with the UK - Compilation (Ep 158)