the devil's breath hypno-heists on the streets of paris a musical history of the ants on an iphone do insects have an electrosense? kennedy assassination hopeless hold-ups the world's dumbest criminals alien secret agent • rat-killing monkey • horned granny • chicken dinosaurs THE WORLD OF STRANGE PHENOMENA

ft333 noVemBer 2015 £4.25

the story of england's strangest family

did kenneth anger curse led zeppelin's jimmy page? C@ntrol MSS Fortean Times 333

strange days

‘Alien hybrid’ mystery man, horned granny, white wallaby on the loose, physical mediums, hopeless hold-ups, Arkansas black panthers, Dismaland, Ig Nobels 2015, Devil’s Breath, CONTENTS insect electrosense, Neolithic discoveries – and much more. 05 THE CONSPIRASPHERE 19 ALIEN ZOO 14 SCIENCE 20 GHOSTWATCH the world of strange phenomena 16 ARCHAEOLOGY 23 MYTHCONCEPTIONS 17 CLASSICAL CORNER 24 NECROLOG features

COVER STORY 26 THE LIZARD MAN OF SCAPE ORE SWAMP In the spooky swamps of South Carolina lurks one of America’s most mysterious and menacing monsters: a seven-foot-tall reptilian terror with a taste for trashing motor vehicles. BENJAMIN RADFORD sets out in search of the elusive Lee County Lizard Man…

36 THE STRANGEST FAMILY IN ENGLAND ETIENNE GILFILLAN 6 BEMUSEMENT PARK In an extract from his new book, Great British Eccentrics, A visit to Banksy’s Dismaland SD TUCKER tells the story of the real-life Addams Family who wrote poems, hunted ghosts and tried to paint cows to fi t in with the crockery. 42 TRAGIC SONGS FROM THE GRASSY KNOLL: A MUSICAL HISTORY OF THE JFK ASSASSINATION The assassination of President John F Kennedy in November 1963 sent shockwaves around the world, but its impact on popular music and recorded sound remains largely neglected. DAVID THRUSSELL assesses a forgotten legacy of discarded vinyl artefacts. reports

48 BUILDING A FORTEAN LIBRARY No 4. A mound of Venus 72 TALES FROM THE ILLUSTRATED POLICE NEWS No 42. The rat-killing monkey of Manchester

RON / GETTY IMAGES 76 FORTEAN TRAVELLER BA PRAKASH MATHEMA / AFP / GETTY IMAGES 36 THE STRANGEST FAMILY IN ENGLAND 24 WALKING TALL No 103. Oddities of the Jurassic Coast The story of the Sitwells Farewell to the world’s shortest man forum

51 Dancing with the Devil by Chris Saunders 52 The cryptid petting zoo by Rob Gandy regulars

02 EDITORIAL 71 IT HAPPENED TO ME ETIENNE GILFILLAN 42 TRAGIC SONGS FROM THE GRASSY KNOLL 26 THE LIZARD MAN ATTACKS! 55 REVIEWS 79 PHENOMENOMIX A musical history of the JFK assassination Something nasty in the swamps... 67 LETTERS 80 STRANGE DEATHS

COVER: ALEX TOMLINSON / ETIENNE GILFILLAN / GETTY IMAGES FT333 1 www.forteantimes.com Fortean Times

editor dAVid SUttoN ([email protected]) foUNdiNg editorS bob rickArd ([email protected]) pAUl SieVekiNg ([email protected]) Art director etieNNe gilfillAN ([email protected]) editorial book reViewS editor VAl SteVeNSoN ([email protected]) reSideNt cArtooNiSt HUNt emerSoN In search of ASS SUbScriptioN eNqUirieS ANd bAck iSSUeS www.subsinfo.co.uk [email protected] lizARd mAn STRikES AGAin close-up of the world’s most elusive artist – and FORTEAN TIMES is produced for Dennis Publishing by Wild Talents Ltd. Postal address: Fortean Times, We’d been planning to run Benjamin Radford’s he probably didn't. But Etienne’s photograph of PO BOX 71602, London E17 0QD. investigation into the classic case of the Lizard a car park attendant (or was that Banksy hiding You can manage your existing subscription through Man of Scape Ore Swamp (pp26-34) for some in plain sight cunningly disguised as a car park http://www.subsinfo.co.uk/ – this should be your first port time now, but the need to tackle various other attendant?) became a tabloid sensation when of call if you have any queries about your subscription. stories led its being put on hold for a few the Daily Mail website published it alongside Change your address, renew your subscription or report problems months. It turned out to be a fortuitous delay, an older photograph from 2008 of someone UK subscriptions: 0844 844 0049 as in the meantime new reports – including a who, er, might be Banksy. One Dismaland USA & Canada subscriptions: (+1) 800-428-3003 (toll free) rather astonishing photograph snapped on a employee was quoted as saying: “This is exactly Fax (+1) 757-428-6253 email [email protected] Other overseas subscriptions: +44 (0)1795 592 909 mobile phone – of the monster of Lee County, the sort of thing Banksy would do”. Perhaps Fax: +44 (0)1795 414 555 South Carolina, have it is, but within hours the emerged. Sharon Hill, media frenzy appeared licEnSinG & SYndicATiOn Fortean times IS AvAILABLE FOR owner of the sceptical to be over, with the Mail INTERNATIONAL LICENSINg AND SYNDICATION – CONTACT: website Doubtful News, “revealing” that the man Syndication Senior Manager ANj DOSAj-HALAI TEL: +44- (0) 20 7907 6132 takes a look at the latest Etienne had photographed [email protected] ‘evidence’ for the Lizard was “a parking attendant Licensing Manager CARLOTTA SERANTONI TEL: +44- (0) 20 7907 6550 Man (p31), but remains for the local council”. So [email protected] unimpressed by both that’s that then – or is Licensing & Syndication Assistant NICOLE ADAMS TEL: +44- (0) 20 7907 6134 the photograph and a it? Does the Mail really [email protected] blurry video that has expect us to believe that YOU cAn REAch FT On ThE inTERnET also emerged. Regular an unnamed parking www.forteantimes.com readers will know that attendant is not Banksy Benjamin Radford is also just because it tells us © Copyright Dennis Publishing Limited a monster hunter of the so? Like UFO-watchers sceptical kind, and his the world over, Bansky- point-by-point demolition seekers will surely suspect SeNior prodUctioN pUbliSHed bY of the original Lizard Man a cover-up and demand full deNNiS pUbliSHiNg, execUtiVe dANiel StArk sighting (made by 17-year- disclosure… 30 cleveland Street 020 7907 6053 old Christopher Davis in Meanwhile, in london w1t 4Jd, Uk [email protected] June 1988) is a thorough the Times daily quiz on 23 tel: 020 7907 6000 AdVertiSiNg director SteVe NicolAoU one: thorough enough to July 2015 was the following groUp pUbliSHer 020 7907 6633 make it hard to believe that what Davis saw question: “Founded in 1973, which magazine's iAN weStwood steve_nicolaou@ that night – if indeed he saw anything – was tagline is ‘The world of strange phenomena’?” 020 7907 6000 dennis.co.uk really a 7ft-tall reptilian creature of unknown circUlAtioN mANAger SAleS execUtiVe JAmeS mANgAN brAdleY beAVer origin. ERRATA james.mangan@ But doubt remains, and there were numerous seymour.co.uk 020 7907 6701 FT332:23 The photo of the blue devil spider bradley_beaver@ other Lizard Man witnesses in 1988 (and should have been credited to Carl Portman (not export circUlAtioN dennis.co.uk mANAger later) whose testimony remains.The late Karl Portman). gerAldiNe grobler John Keel pointed out that: “There’s hardly geraldine.grobler@ seymour.co.uk a respectable swamp in the deep south that FT332:40 A number of FT readers and Twitter does not boast at least one ASS.” By ASS, Keel followers spotted a booboo we made in Sophia PRinTEd BY POLESTAR BICESTER meant ‘Abominable Swamp Slob’, his own Kingshill’s “Reclaiming the Mermaid” feature. diSTRiBUTiOn name for the big, smelly critters reported from The pull-quote on p40 turned out to be a bit of distributed in Uk, ireland and worldwide the marshes and bayous of the region. He also an unintentional cliffhanger, reading: “Most by Seymour Distribution Ltd. noted that these elusive entities – like the one 2 East Poultry Avenue, London EC1A 9PT famous of all visual interpretations is the Tel: 020 7429 4000 / Fax: 020 7429 4001 that Chris Davis believed he’d encountered and statue that has become a…” Queries on overseas availability should be emailed to unlike the generally shy and retiring Bigfoot/ The rest of the sentence should have read [email protected] Speciality store distribution by Worldwide Magazine Sasquatch – had a tendency to give chase, “national symbol of Copenhagen”. Distribution Ltd, Tel: 0121 788 3112 Fax: 0121 788 1272 noting 16 examples in which they were said STAndARd SUBScRiPTiOn RATES to have approached or pursued cars. So, if the 12 issues: UK £39.98; EU £47.50 Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp is not unique Fortean Times (USPS 023-226) is published every four weeks by Dennis Publishing Ltd, 30 Cleveland Street, London, W1P 4JD, United Kingdom. in the fortean annals, does Ben’s explanation of The US annual subscription price is $89.99. the Lee County case hold good for these other Airfreight and mailing in the USA is by Agent named Air Business, daVid r SUTToN C/O Worldnet Shipping USA Inc., 149-35 177th Street, Jamaica, cases too? Or is further investigation of the ASS New York, 11434. phenomenon needed? Readers will decide for Periodical postage paid at Jamaica, NY 11431, USA. themselves, but if you can dig up a copy you’ll bob rickard US Postmaster: Send address changes to: Fortean Times, find further contemporary details on this case 3330 Pacific Avenue, Suite 500, Virginia Beach, VA, 23451-2983, USA. PaUL SiEVEkiNG REST OF THE WORLD £55; US $89.99 ($161.98 for 24 issues) and others in FT51:34-37. See also John Keel’s dEnniS PUBliShinG limiTEd Strange Creatures from Space and Time (1975). GROUP FinAncE diREcTOR IAN LEggETT FinAncE diREcTOR BRETT REYNOLDS ExEcUTivE diREcTOR KERIN O’CONNOR FT in ThE mEdiA Why fortean? chiEF ExEcUTivE jAMES TYE cOmPAnY FOUndER FELIX DENNIS When our intrepid art director Etienne Everything you always wanted to Gilfillan (pictured above) set off to photograph Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations. know about Fortean Times but Circulation 17,024 (jan-Dec 2011) Dismaland, the pop-up ‘Bemusement Park’ were too paranoid to ask! Printed in the UK. ISSN: 0308 5899 created by Banksy in Weston-super-Mare this © Fortean Times: OCTOBER 2015 summer (see pp6-7), he didn't expect to get a SEE PAGE 78

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a digest of the worldwide weird strangedays

time in the CIA. “Whether he LA’s gun-totin’ alien spy really was working undercover for some government agency or not,” said Braun, “he was convinced he was and he had Confusion over estate of supposed spook with a lethal weapons collection my client convinced.” It was not clear what, if anything, he did for a living. On 17 July, the badly decomposed Though it was only Nebron and body of Jeffrey Alan Lash, 60, was VadBunker – along with, oddly, found in an SUV parked in the Nebron’s dentist ex-husband, 1700 block of Pacific Palisades, Philip Gorin – who were with Los Angeles. Inside his house, Lash when he died, lawyers police found a massive arsenal dealing with Lash’s considerable of weapons, worth about five estate said it appeared that at million dollars.There were more least two other women were than 1,200 handguns, rifles and involved with Lash and believed shotguns; nearly seven tons of the story of his alien origins and ammunition; bows and arrows, secret government involvement. knives, machetes; and $230,000 in Lash kept a condo in Malibu cash. Many of the weapons were with a woman identified only as still in boxes or had price tags. “Jocelyn”, whose neighbours Some of the explosive-making knew Lash as “Bob Smith”. He material had to be detonated was also romantically linked to because it was too unstable to a third woman, Michelle Lyons. move. Among the 14 vehicles As a probate judge struggled registered in Lash’s name to make sense of the Jeffrey and kept in rented garages all Lash estate and to solve the over Southern California, they ABOVE: Mystery man Jeffrey Alan Lash. mystery of where and how he discovered several were modified got rich enough to afford all the for combat and a Toyota SUV “I can’t believe this. It’s worse weaponry, all three women were designed to drive underwater. “I can’t believe than a Twilight Zone movie and battling Lash’s six first cousins The story that emerged was we’ve lived through hell.” for control of everything he left weirder than they could have this. It’s worse Lash grew up in a modest behind. imagined. When Lash collapsed home near the Los Angeles At the time of the news in a grocery store parking lot in than a Twilight international airport and reports, DawnVadBunker had Santa Monica on 4 July, property had ambitions at one point to not returned from Oregon manager Catherine Nebron, his Zone movie…” become a microbiologist like or called her parents or her live-in girlfriend of 17 years, his father. Then, according to children. She did send a letter along with her assistant Dawn his stepmother, he largely cut in which she confirmed she was VadBunker, tried to help him, parked not far from their condo himself off from his family and there when “Bob” died and but he didn’t want to be taken and decamped to Oregon with became secretive about what that he “fought to stay alive,” to a hospital or have anyone call DawnVadBunker, 39, a mother he was doing. Nebron told her according to her mother. Her 911, so he died.The women were of two, whose family reported attorney that it wasn’t unusual estranged husband Jim Curry convinced Lash was a secret her missing two days later. After to hear Lash on the phone said that Nebron had introduced agent working for multiple two weeks, no one had come to supposedly talking to Secretary his wife to Lash three months unnamed government agencies, get Lash’s body. “When [Nebron] of State Condoleezza Rice or earlier, and that she quickly but was not entirely human.They came back, she was shocked that former CIA Director David began believing that he was, believed “he was part alien and the agencies hadn’t picked him Petræus. Braun subsequently indeed, an alien-human hybrid. part human and was out to save up,” said her attorney, Harlan revealed that Nebron was After meeting Lash,VadBunker the world,” according to Dawn’s Braun, “so then she decided essentially held captive at the began insisting that she needed mother, LauraVadBunker. she’d better call police.The story Pacific Palisades condo for years to eat raw meat. Lash frequently Nebron later told a friend she itself sounds totally crazy, but while she financed his military ate raw filet mignon when he had specific instructions from then how do you explain all [the endeavours. Lash apparently went out to dinner.VadBunker Lash on what to do if he died: weaponry]? There’s no evidence made her drive in a separate car left her husband on 14 July, don’t call the authorities; leave [Lash] was a drug dealer or that when they went out to dinner, a little over a year after their him in a car; get out of town, he stole these weapons, or had and they always paid in cash. marriage. KTLA5, 22 July 2015. and let the secret agencies he any criminal source of income Police said he had cancer, but NY Daily News, Guardian, worked for take care of the body. or stolen property.” Laura told neighbours he suffered from dailymail.co.uk, 23 July; inquisitr. She left his body in his SUV VadBunker told a radio station: nerve gas poisoning from his com, 29 Aug 2015.

4 FT333 www.forteantimes.com ig Nobels hopeless paiNt it 2015 hold-ups black Latest awards Are these The mystery for science’s the world’s panthers of most improbable most inept Arkansas on research bankrobbers? canvas page 8 page 18 page 19

The Conspirasphere Extra! Extra!

Conspiracy theorists have as many niche shopping opportunities as ordinary FT’s FavouriTe headlines consumers. Noel rooNeY looks at mainstream/fringe market segmentation. From around The world

The Blood Moon was spectacular, even the traditional newspaper terms tabloid from light-polluted London. Two things and broadsheet; part of this market also occurred to me while watching it. First, comprises products that might better the Moon loses its flat appearance and be termed home-made (the equivalent really looks like a globe; if I noticed this, of running off a few photocopies and Canberra Times, 25 Sept 2014. then I’m quite sure some people in the stapling them together before selling far distant past also noticed it, which them on street corners) but we’ll may tell us something about astronomy concentrate on the mainstream for now. in the ancient world. Secondly, I found The fact that conspiracy theory now myself thinking that if our culture had has its own mainstream (and thus its developed differently, we would all, own fringe) is telling; both because it always, have been celebrating eclipses demonstrates the size of the market, and for their ethereal beauty rather than because it means that, out there, there fearing them as portents of evil. Ah, are outlets that are really (I mean really) D.Telegraph, 26 Sept 2014. well. Since the event hasn’t brought out there. on an immediate apocalypse, despite The tabloid/broadsheet divide is best predictions to the contrary, we can carry exemplified by, on the one hand, the on for a bit. Alex Jones media empire (Prison Planet, The conspiracy theory world has (as Infowars) and, on the other, the academic I’ve discussed in previous columns) respectability and in-depth coverage of evolved into a huge market, with its own Global Research, the website started by news media and a class of experts and dissident Canadian academic Michael celebrities selling books and DVDs to an Chossudovsky. While they regularly host Hull Daily Mail, 18 Oct 2014. eager audience, giving talks to packed the same articles on the same topics, halls, and even arranging group holidays there is a clear distinction in delivery, and with conspiracy and alternative history political viewpoint; Jones’s audience is themes. It represents an increasingly generally right-leaning, bellicose, patriotic important segment of the leisure market and intrigued by sex and violence, while and, as a market in its own right, has Chossudovsky’s is liberal, relatively developed its own segmentation. pacifist, and prefers its news shorn In broad terms, this market of sensationalism and dressed in the segmentation is about topical choice; it’s colours of humanitarian concern. a superstore of belief reinforcement. If Have a look at their coverage of you choose to believe in shape-shifting the crisis in Syria, global warming or lizards ruling the world, you can buy the ongoing alternative investigation Daily Press, 21 Aug 2014. into a range of products and services, of 9/11 and you’ll see, along with the either slick, well-packaged products common content, clear demarcations such as the David Icke juggernaut, or of taste, politics and style. Conspiracy low-end, amateur efforts available on has very nearly arrived as a mainstream an impressive variety of sites. You can movement, and its pact with Mammon choose products that go with your wider is the smoking gun. And if you’re looking beliefs; websites such as Before It’s for smoking guns, how about the fact News, for instance, cater to a Christian that Global Research went online a mere audience who like their conspiracy diet two days before the events of 9/11? Just spiced with prophetic visions and biblical putting it out there… references. In the conspiracy news media, this www.globalresearch.ca/ segmentation is developing into a www.prisonplanet.com/ market one might characterise using http://beforeitsnews.com/

D.Mail, 20 Oct 2014.

FT333 5 www.forteantimes.com Dismaland Elusive guerrilla artist Banksy secretly created a pop-up art exhibition in the disused Tropicana lido in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. The ‘Dismaland Bemusement Park’, described by the artist as “a family theme park unsuitable for children”, opened on 21 August 2015 and featured 10 new Banksy pieces alongside contributions from a further 58 artists, including Damien Hirst, Jimmy Cauty and Jenny Holzer. PHOTOS: ETIENNE GILFILLAN

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SIDELINES... Improbable findings BONEY’S REVENGE? The Wellington Monument (near Wellington in Somerset) This year’s winning research into the birds and the bees was struck by lightning on 18 June, 200 years to the day after the Duke of Wellington’s victory at Waterloo, which the stone needle commemorates. Western Morning News, 9 July 2015. INTO THE UNKNOWN A woman claiming to have built a fully functioning time machine in her garage in Exminster, Dev- on, posted an ad on Gumtree. com to recruit a companion to time-travel with her. She states she has made mice “disap- pear”, but is unsure if the animals went back or forward in time. “Owner drivers would be a plus,” she states, “as the machine needs to be taken to a wide open space like a beach to prevent property damage.” exeterexpressandecho.co.uk, INDERS UNIVERSITY

15 June 2015. FL TOAD LICKER The 25th annual Ig Nobel ABOVE: Professor Colin Raston of A barefoot Richard Mullins, 41, ceremony, organised by the Flinders University, Adelaide, has found who licked a toad and refused magazine Annals of Improbable a way to unboil an egg. to stop dancing, was expelled Research, took place at Harvard’s from a bar in La Porte, Indiana, Sander Theatre on 17 September. (or its equivalent) seems to exist but returned with a second These are awards to “make in every human language – or toad and was busted for tres- people laugh and then make at least in the 10 examined – passing. Times, 26 June 2015. them think”. The physics prize although no one is quite sure ROYAL MONSTER was given for a study showing why. The conclusion was that Newly discovered papers that most mammals take the same this interjection “is linguistic in show that Sir Peter Scott, the amount of time to pee. Using nature rather than being a mere eminent conservationist who high-speed video analysis, the grunt or non-lexical sound”. The at one time led the search researchers modelled the fluid Rodents are diagnostic medicine prize was for Nessie, asked the Queen dynamics involved in urination awarded for testing whether pain in 1960 if it could be named and discovered that all mammals a poor choice experienced when driving over Elizabethia nessiæ after her – weighing more than 3kg (6.6lb) speed bumps can help diagnose provided it was proved to exist. empty their bladders over about for studying appendicitis. The idea started as Palace officials were not keen, 21 seconds (plus or minus 13 a running joke among surgeons, fearing the monarch could seconds). Their subjects included urinary health but Helen Ashdown decided to become associated with an rats, goats, cows and elephants – test it out while working as a embarrassing hoax. Sunday and although the findings reveal junior doctor at Stoke Mandeville Telegraph, 6 Sept a remarkably consistent “scaling she said, “every time we need Hospital in Aylesbury. “It’s quite a 2015. law” in bigger beasts, they also a new function, we figure out a residential area, so it’s a town that emphasise that small animals do new design for it. But in nature, does have a lot of speed bumps,” things quite differently. Rats can they just have one system for said Dr Ashdown. “We noticed pee in a fraction of a second, for all different sizes. This might that quite a few of the patients example. The study’s lead author inspire us – we could have a who had appendicitis said how Dr Patricia Yang said this made scalable design that fits different bad the journey to hospital had rodents a poor choice for studying purposes.” been.” Sure enough, in a formal urinary health problems, but Ig winners travelled from study of 101 patients, 33 of 34 there might be physical lessons six continents to accept their people who were diagnosed to learn from the adaptability trophies. The triumphant research with appendicitis reported pain of the micturition system in included a chemical recipe to travelling over speed bumps. “It’s bigger creatures. From water partially un-boil an egg, and the a test that has high sensitivity, so towers to drinking backpacks, discovery that the word “huh?” it’s a good rule-out test,” said Dr MARTIN ROSS

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SIDELINES... CASH WINDFALL On 11 July, the equivalent of £130,000 in €50 notes rained down from an oak tree at a campsite near Mirow in northern Germany, startling a group of hikers. The money had been in a plastic bag hanging on a pipe between two branches, but after a heatwave the pipe bent and an elastic band tying the bag shut snapped, causing the bank- notes to slip out. Under German law, the finders can keep three per cent of the money – and all LEFT: At last, proof that chickens walk differently (and possibly like a non-avian therapod) with a stick attached to their bottoms. the rest, should police fail to find the owners. [UPI] 11 July; D.Mail, 13 July 2015. Ashdown. sting him repeatedly on 25 Dr Rodrigo Vasquez, different parts of his body MOSSAD’S NEW from the University of over 38 days, to map pain STRATEGY Chile, received the biology intensity. The least painful Asghar Bukhari, a founding Ig Nobel for observing spots were the skull, middle member of the Muslim Public that if you raise a chicken toe tip and upper arm, all of Affairs Committee UK, claimed with a weighted, artificial which he rated as a 2.3 on on Facebook that ‘Zionists’ had tail stuck to its arse, it will a pain scale of 1 to 10, with broken into his home and stolen walk like a dinosaur (more 10 being the most painful. a shoe, “to let me know some- specifically a non-avian The most painful locations one had been there”. These therapod). It is of course – the nostril, upper lip, and furtive Zionists had form: a year impossible to know for penis shaft – received pain or so earlier, he had been told sure how extinct species ratings of 9.0, 8.7, and 7.3 by another Muslim leader that like Tyrannosaurus rex respectively. The Schmidt they had been coming into her might have moved, but Sting Pain Index rates house and “re-arranging things”. palæontologists had made only on a scale of one to D.Telegraph, 15 June 2015. educated guesses that four, but also features the HEAVE-HO! are now closely matched entomologist’s descriptions A US Airways flight became a

DIMAS ARDIAN / GETTY IMAGES by the gait of these stick- of 78 sorts of stings, vomit-soaked nightmare after a tailed chickens. Said Dr written with the flair of a strange odour filled the cabin, Vasquez: “[The gait] is a study the biomedical benefits sommelier in a wine cellar prompting a chundering chain little bit crouching and the steps or biomedical consequences with something to prove. The reaction down the aisle. The are a bit longer, because the of intense kissing (and other bald-faced hornet, for instance, Philadelphia-bound flight made centre of gravity of the animal intimate, interpersonal activities). is in Schmidt’s estimation: “rich, an emergency landing in Rome is changed… and they have to A couple of academics from the hearty, slightly crunchy. Similar after take-off from Israel’s Ben counterbalance the weight of the University of Vienna took home to getting your hand mashed in Gurion airport on 6 December tail by stretching their neck a the mathematics prize for trying a revolving door.” Yellowjackets, 2014. Two passengers and 14 little bit.” to use mathematical techniques on the other hand, sting “hot and crewmembers were unable to The management prize was to determine whether and how smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine stop throwing up, while others awarded for the discovery that Moulay Ismael the Bloodthirsty, WC Fields extinguishing a cigar were treated for nausea. MX many business leaders developed the Sharifian Emperor of Morocco, on your tongue.” Both rate a two. News (Sydney), 8 Dec 2014. a fondness for risk-taking as managed to father 888 children The four-plus-rated bullet ant, in children, when they experienced between 1697 and 1727. It helped contrast, punishes a victim with natural disasters (such as that he had four wives and 500 “pure, intense, brilliant pain, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, concubines. like fire-walking over flaming tsunamis, and wildfires) that – The physiology and entomology charcoal with a three-inch for them – had no dire personal prize was awarded jointly to rusty nail grinding into your consequences. Economics went two individuals: Justin Schmidt heel”. to the Bangkok Metropolitan (Southwest Biological Institute, For last year’s awards, see Police (Thailand) for offering to US) for painstakingly creating the FT321:9. For full details of pay policemen extra cash if they Schmidt Sting Pain Index, which winners and published refuse to take bribes. (No one rates the relative pain people feel research, see www. attended in person to receive when stung by various insects; improbable.com/ig/. that one.) Medicine was awarded and Michael L Smith (Cornell livescence.com, 17 Sept;

jointly to groups in Japan and University, US), for carefully theguardian.com, BBC News, MARTIN ROSS Slovakia for experiments to arranging for honey bees to 18 Sept 2015.

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SIDELINES... GirLs wiLL BE BOys, muLTipLE pEnisEs, hOrnEd WoMEDICALrms fromBAG wOmEn, theLOOOnG TOnGuEs skies And OThEr OddiTiEs SUBTERRANEAN MUSIC Since the summer of 2002, a number of tourists, fishermen their voices deepen. Many decide and residents, in and around not to change from their female the towns of Sóller, Deià and names, so some men in Salinas Valldemossa on the island have names such as Catherine. of Mallorca, have reported Other guevedoces go through an hearing strange improvised operation and remain female. music apparently coming The delayed gender from underground, the origin phenomenon was discovered of which is unknown. Ling in the 1970s by Dr Julianne (Vueling Airlines inflight maga- Imperato-McGinley, an zine), July 2015. endocrinologist at Cornell MIGHTY MOGG Medical College. Further cases Kenny, a massive Main Coon have since been found in the cat, jumped up and down on Sambian villages of Papua New

his sleeping owner’s chest LIFE / BBC Guinea, although the Sambians to alert him to a fire. Chris TO often shun their children – unlike Oakley, 31, was able to put the Dominicans, who celebrate out the fire in his kitchen in the change. Imperato-McGinley

Colchester, Essex, started COUNTDOWN discovered that the guevedoces when another cat turned on ABOVE: Catherine and Carla, aged nine, who is undergoing the transformation. tend to have small prostates. This the cooker. D.Mirror, 19 June observation, made in 1974, was 2015. picked up by Roy Vagelos, head IT’S A MIST-ERY GIRLS WILL BE BOYS of research at the multinational About one in every 90 children One in every pharmaceutical giant Merck, At least three people in Elm- in Salinas, an isolated village which led to the development sett, near Hadleigh in Suffolk, in south-western Dominican 90 children are of the drug finasteride. This reported suffering swollen Republic, are machihembras blocks the action of 5-alpha- and itchy eyes after a mysteri- ous dust fell in the vicinity of – men who are born as women – guevedoces – reductase, mimicking the lack of Manor Road on 2 June. Tests also known as guevedoces, which dihydro-testosterone seen in the on the substance indicated it translates as “penis at 12”. “penis at 12” guevedoces, and is an effective way was likely to be “food protein Despite appearing to be girls at to treat benign enlargement of powder”. East Anglian Daily birth, they are biologically male, the prostate, a real curse for many Times, 4 June 2015. but only develop male organs as featured recently in a BBC men as they get older. Finasteride they approach puberty. Johnny, documentary, Countdown To Life – is also used to treat male pattern EXOTIC IMMIGRANT 24, is one of the guevedoces. His The Extraordinary Making of You, baldness. BBC News, Sunday A Peruvian giant centipede parents named him Felecita and presented by Dr Michael Moseley. Telegraph, 20 Sept 2015. – one of the largest of its dressed him in a skirt because he The rare genetic disorder occurs kind in the world and toxic to had no visible testes or penis and because of a missing enzyme, DIPHALLIA humans – flew into England what appeared to be a vagina. 5-alpha-reductase, which prevents A two-year-old boy in Uttar from Antigua as a stowaway “I never liked to dress as a girl,” the production in the womb of Pradesh, India, was born with in Jennie Esler’s dirty wash- he said. “When they brought a specific form of the male sex three penises. Doctors described ing. It is now at Bristol Zoo’s me girls’ toys I never bothered hormone, dihydro-testosterone. the extra organs as ‘soft, bony’ Bug World exhibition. Irish playing with them. All I wanted All babies in the womb, male masses, and in doing an operation Independent, 13 June 2015. to do was play with the boys.” His or female, have internal glands discovered he had no anus. The gender change happened at the known as gonads and a small boy suffered from diphallia, an age of seven. “When I changed I bump between their legs called extremely rare condition that was happy with my life,” he said. aa tubercle. At around eight causes males to be born with A little boy named Carla is weeks, male babies who carry the more than one penis. There are currently going through the same Y chromosome start to produce only 100 cases in the medical transformation, aged nine. His dihydro-testosterone in large literature since 1609. In a six- mother noticed that from the amounts, which turns the tubercle hour operation, doctors removed age of five he was more inclined into a penis. (In the case of one penis and fused the two towards the rough and tumble girls, the tubercle turns into the remaining into one that could be play of boys. “I love her however clitoris.) However, guevdoces are used normally. Dr Vishesh Dixit, she is,” said his mother. “Girl or missing the enzyme that triggers a paediatric surgeon at Sion boy, it makes no difference.” He the hormone surge, so they appear hospital in Mumbai, said: “The has recently been renamed Carlos to be born female. It is not until two functional penises were fused and had his hair cut short after puberty, with another large surge into one, by wrapping a mass wearing plaits. of testosterone, that the male of skin around them.” Surgeons The stories of these children reproductive organs develop and also performed a colostomy to MARTIN ROSS

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allow the boy to pass excrement Two years ago, the mole gave way had grown from eggs laid inside SIDELINES... properly. They said he should be to a small horn-like mass the size of the ear several weeks earlier. A able to father children as an adult. a little finger. Xiuzhen accidentally female roach can carry a capsule EASTER SPREE Metro, Sun, 26 Aug 2015. “broke” the small horn in February contain around 40 eggs, with the At 2.30pm on Easter Sunday (5 2015, and in its place her current development into adults from April), Przemyslaw Kaluzny, 41, TONGUE CHAMPION horn began growing rapidly over egg taking around three to four crashed a car in a Dundee re- Adrianne Lewis, 18, from Twin the past six months. Chaojun said: months. The doctor told Mr Li that tail park and ran into a crowded Toys R Us store with a cricket Lake, Michigan, has a tongue “Now the horn hurts my mother if he had come to the hospital any bat. He launched an incompre- measuring 4in (10.2cm), which and prevents her from sleeping. It later his ear “would have been hensible tirade, lashed out with could be the longest in the world. also bleeds from time to time.” Her destroyed”. independent.co.uk, 28 the bat, took off his clothes, She can lick her nose, chin, elbow, neighbours began calling her “the Aug 2015. and ran naked through the and even her eye, if she pushes unicorn woman”. shop before being pinned down her tongue up with a finger. A Doctors diagnosed the growth as NEEDLE IN BRAIN by about 20 shoppers. He tongue this long, though, has its cornu cutaneum (cutaneous horn), For the past 46 years, Liu Kao, faced various charges. Scots- challenges. “I bite my tongue every a keratinous skin tumour that has 48, of Huaibei, in eastern China’s man, 7 April; Dundee Courier, 8 single day,” says Lewis in one the appearance of a horn. Often Anhui province, experienced July 2015. of her videos – and often in the small and benign, the growth can painful headaches and thought same place, over and over again. in some cases be much larger and the problem was with her heart, JUST KIDDING Ouch. She is hoping Guinness malignant. Chaojun said doctors but tests revealed nothing wrong. On 4 March, someone rang the World Records will confirm she has believe they can remove the growth It was only when she began police to say they had heard beaten the current record holder, through surgery, but the family has suffering more headaches and a child screaming for help in Nick Stoeberl, 24, whose tongue its reservations due to Xiuzhen’s numbness in half of her body that Cheddar Gorge, Somerset. A measures 3.9in (9.9cm). D.Mail, 9 old age – and are considering other, she was checked into hospital, police helicopter was scram- May; yahoo.com, 9 July 2015. unspecified, options. For other where a CT scan of her brain bled from Filton near Bristol, human horns, see FT177:50-54, found a 1.8in (4.6cm) needle 20 miles (32km) away, but concluded it was just a goat HORNED WOMAN 225:12, 254:14, 268:12. mirror.co.uk, standing straight up in the left and her kid. Then on 9 April, Liang Xiuzhen, 87, has grown a 27 Aug 2015. hemisphere. The pain was “like a dozen members of Ogwen 5in (13cm) hard mass resembling being pricked with a needle,” Liu Valley rescue team raced up a horn from her head.The elderly WORSE THAN EARWAX often told her daughter. Liu will Devil’s Kitchen in Snowdonia Chinese woman is a resident of Complaining of a painful and itchy undergo a craniotomy to remove after a hiker was reported Guiyan village in Ziyang City, right ear, 19-year-old Mr Li from the needle. “shouting for help”; it was goats Sichuan province. According to the city of Dongguan in China’s “Mother has no recollection again. Guardian, 6 Mar; Sunday Wang Chaojun, Xiuzhen’s son, his southern Guangdong province of the needle being inserted in People, 12 April 2015. mother had something resembling went to Chang’an Xiaobian her head,” said her daughter a ‘black mole’ growing on her Hospital, where Dr Yang Jing saw Xiaozhang, “but doctors said it BURIED EIGHT DAYS head seven or eight years ago. “an insect-shaped object” blocking must have happened before she A woman picking herbs near “My mother complained that it his ear canal completely. This was 18 months old, when her a cemetery in China’s Guangxi itched all the time,” he said. “We turned out to be female cockroach skull was still soft and flexible as region heard an infant’s cries found ways to cure her itch using 0.3in (8mm) long. Dr Yang then a child.” Some kind of fiendish coming from underground. She traditional Chinese medicine, and found 25 baby roaches inside anti-acupuncture? Fox5ny.com, 8 alerted the police, who dug then let it be.” the ear canal, which he assumed Sept 2015. up a muddied cardboard box containing a wailing newborn boy with a cleft lip. The parents had abandoned the baby on April 24. Two days later, and believing him dead, relatives returned and buried the child. He was buried for eight days, surviving because rainwater and oxygen seeped into his box. D.Telegraph, 14 May 2015. COME AND GET ME A would-be assassin was arrested after advertising his services on Facebook. RCROFT USA Jonathan Giraldo used the alias BA ‘Tony Garcia’ and the nickname ‘A nthrax’ in an effort to evade CHOLKA /

PA police – but posted videos of himself with weapons and piles of cash. He was busted BRIDGETTE CEN / EUROPICS at his flat in Lima, Peru, while ABOVE LEFT: Adrianne Lewis’s troublesome tongue. ABOVE riGhT: Liang Xiuzhen, 87, and the horn that disturbs her sleep. updating his profile. Metro, 24 Feb 2015.

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SIDELINES... SEA LION SAVIOUR In 2000, Kevin Hines, a depressed teenager, jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, but was saved from drowning by a sea lion that repeatedly bumped him to the surface until a rescue boat arrived. Less than one per cent have survived the jump. Spec- tators from the bridge saw the creature circling beneath him. Hines, now 33, devotes his life to suicide prevention. [AFP] 5 Mar 2015. FATE’S FICKLE FINGER Daniel Askew and Jessica Croker were both born in Rush Green Hospital in Romford, Essex, on 1 May 1988. They shared a visitor after their birth who knew both families. The pair fell for each other at Haver- ing Sixth Form College without realising their connection, which they only discovered a year later after viewing an old video. They were due to marry on 10 September, after being together for 10 years. Romford Recorder, 15 May, D.Express, 16 May 2015. SOUTH PAWS Scientists have determined that wild kangaroos are left- handed – or, more accurately, left-pawed – for grooming, NEWSTEAM / SWNS GROUP feeding and all observed types of behaviour. The report, pub- White wallaby on the loose lished in Current Biology, pro- vides the first demonstration of horse trainer Caroline phillips, 41, was riding with a friend in salcey Forest, near roade in population-level ‘handedness’ northamptonshire, on 31 July when she saw a “white thing” at the bottom of her 16-acre field. she in a species other than hu- thought it was a piece of plastic stuck on the hedge, but as she got closer she realised it was an mans. It was found in eastern albino wallaby. ms phillips, originally from Australia, made a 51-second video of the unusual animal at a grey kangaroos, red kangaroos, distance of 20ft (6m), and watched it for at least half an hour. and red-necked wallabies. [R] Then on 17 August, ronald newbould, 72, and his wife Linda, 69, were out for a walk near the village BBC News, 18 June 2015. of hanslope, Buckinghamshire, four miles (6.4km) from roade, when they spotted a white wallaby FAILED MAGIC between a field of corn and a boundary hedge about 45ft (14m) away. They watched it for almost 10 A Nigerian man was sentenced minutes, and mr newbould managed to take a good photograph of the marvellous marsupial, posing to 14 years’ jail for collect- unfazed with crossed paws. it was almost certainly the same beast filmed earlier by ms phillips. ing large sums from cocaine On 17 september farmer nathan Chambers, 24, found an albino wallaby dead in a cornfield in traffickers looking to get his piddington, northamptonshire, around 40 miles (64km) from hanslope. it had severe throat injuries, supernatural protection from and dark-coloured fur scattered nearby suggested that a dog was to blame. michael wells, who records the authorities. Christopher sightings for the mammal society, said the only other albino wallaby spotted in the uK was at stoke Omigie, a naturalised US citizen mandeville station, Buckinghamshire, in december 2004. Could it possibly have been the same one? living in Lafayette, Louisiana, wallabies are closely related to kangaroos and range in height from 12in (30cm) to 71in (180cm). provided traffickers with dcar There are colonies living in rural areas of Britain, including the Lake district, parts of the peak district, readings, massages with magic and Loch Lomond in scotland. up to 120 can be found on the isle of man after a pair escaped from a ointments, razor-blade cuttings nearby wildlife park in the 1970s. Experts say the latest sighting appeared to be a Bennett’s wallaby, and various magic powders, which might have escaped from a private collection or zoo (or teleported 9,400 miles from down belts, coconuts and rocks. They under). Bennett’s wallabies’ native habitat is Tasmania and the south-eastern coastal strip of Australia. failed to work. Times Colonist telegraph.co.uk, 3 Aug; Times, 19 Aug; D.Mail, 19 Aug, 19 Sept 2015. (Victoria BC), 2 May 2015.

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TTINSON

PA ScIeNce MATT

of its rapid and seemingly random ANTS AND elecTroSeNSe foraging pattern, which is more likely to bring it into contact with electrical components in the first even though a recent viral video of fire ants circling an iPhone is most likely a fake, many place. creatures – ants included– respond to magnetic fields. DAVID HAMBLING investigates. Given that ants do have a magnetic sense for new viral navigation, and this video, ‘A nts sense may be disrupted circling my by electromagnetic Aphone’, radiation – such as shows fire ants the radiation from a marching around smartphone – and that an iPhone as fire ants are especially it rings. This is interested in electricity, not a marketing the video appears to campaign by Apple, make sense. On the but supposedly a other hand, we should demonstration of a not give too much weird phenomenon. credence to random “I don’t know the videos posted on reason why the YouTube, especially ants are controlled when they are linked to by the smartphone. scaremongering about I also don’t know mobile phone radiation. if a smartphone There are a whole is able to cause series of bogus YouTube injury because of videos showing eggs electromagnetic apparently cooked by radiation,” says the video poster. cockroach,” describing how the been visited recently by another phone radiation. As the Mobile Are the ants affected by the insects lost the ability to orient bee. Manufacturers Forum points phone, or is something else going themselves when exposed to a Fire ants – the type shown out, a phone’s radiated power on? field of a particular frequency. in the iPhone video – have a of a quarter of a watt is much A few decades ago, the US Patent 7712247 B2, reputation when it comes to too feeble for such microwave suggestion that insects could “Use of electromagnetic fields electrical equipment. They often cookery. respond to magnetic fields would to affect insect movement”, choose electric junction boxes Similarly, the ant video appears have been wild speculation. aims to harness the effect for and transformer equipment to be a hoax, though it shows a Although migrations of many types a cockroach trap, using an as nesting sites, as well as genuine unusual phenomenon. of animal, including insects, had electromagnetic field toaw dr traffic lights, electric pumps, The ant mill or death spiral is a been studied for centuries, there in the insect to where it can be air conditioners and similar curiosity of ant behaviour, caused was no indication of how they poisoned or electrocuted. equipment. Some have suggested by the way they tend to follow were navigating. Now researchers The electric sense was first that the ants are attracted by the the pheromone trails left by other have shown that not just birds, identified in sharks, provided electricity, but a warm, dry space ants. The more a trail is used, but creatures as diverse as by a series of jelly-filled pores which is enclosed and protected the stronger it becomes, and the turtles, trout, wood mice and known as ampullæ of Lorenzini, from the elements and from more strongly ants are impelled insects including cockroaches, which are believed to sense the predators is inherently appealing. to follow it. This helps ensure fruit flies and indeed antsve ha a electrical activity of muscles The problem comes when an that more ants are drawn to a magnetic sense. through the water over short ant chews through insulation or trail that leads to a food source Birds have a compass in distances. When prey is thrashing otherwise causes a short circuit, and is generally very efficient their eyes. They have receptors about, completely obscured by getting shocked in the process. for foraging. However, if the trail that are affected by changing a cloud of blood, the ampullæ When this happens, the dying ant loops round in a circle, ants can magnetic field, so a bird may see allow sharks to bite with deadly releases a distress pheromone, become trapped, constantly direction in terms of getting lighter accuracy. This electrosense was a chemical signal to other ants. reinforcing their own trail so they or darker. Trout, by contrast, have only discovered in the 1960s. More ants arrive, are shocked are unable to leave it. Some a nose for direction: cells in their More recently researchers have on contacts with the first ant, ants can die of exhaustion when nasal passages contain particles found that insects have their own and release more pheromone. trapped this way. of magnetite, and changing electrosense. The end result can be a ball of This, then, is the likely direction causes these to move Bees build up a static charge thousands of dead ants extending explanation for the video. and stimulate the cells they are in flight, which helps pollen stick into contact with other parts of Someone saw ants circling around attached to. Given the location, to them. When a bee lands on the electrical circuit, causing a in a mill, with a space in the trout may perceive north as a a flower, some of the charge is major meltdown. middle. They put their phone in particular smell. transferred. The charge on the Another species of ant, the space and filmed the results. Further, this electric sense flower remains for some, time Nylanderia fulva, known as the The ants are certainly circling, may be affected by external only leaking away slowly. In 2013 crazy ant, has recently started but it is doubtful whether the factors. In 2009 a team at Daniel Robert of the University colonising Texas. It is causing phone has anything to do with the Masaryk University in the Czech of Bristol showed that bees a much higher rate of electrical behaviour. Republic published a paper preferred to visit flowers with problems and again, some The only way to be sure, with the descriptive title “Radio no charge, suggesting that they suggest this is down to an innate of course, would be a little frequency magnetic fields disrupt could sense the difference and attraction to electricity. However, it experimentation. Which is exactly magnetoreception in American went for blooms that had not is known as a crazy ant because how real science works.

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TTINSoN pA ARCHÆOLOGY MATT PAUL SIEVEKING presents our round-up of archæological discoveries, including a giant megalithic ritual site that may overturn our previous assumptions about Stonehenge and the Neolithic world...

SUPERHENGE UNEARTHED The big news in British archæology is the discovery of a huge ritual monument less than two miles from Stonehenge, dwarfi ng the world famous megalithic circle, and probably predating it. durrington walls, a roundish landscape feature, had long puzzled archæologists because the south- eastern side is straight while the rest of the structure is curved – suggesting to one historian in 1810 that it had been “much mutilated” by agriculture. ground- penetrating radar has now revealed that the straight edge is actually aligned over a row of up to 90 standin=g stones – about 30 still intact – that once stood 15ft (4.6m) LudwIg BoLTzMANN INSTITuTE high, and formed one side of a C-shaped arena, aligned like Stonehenge with the ABOVE: A computer recreation of the row of standing stones at durrington walls. setting Sun on the winter Solstice, and hidden for millennia. It is thought the stones in diameter. It is surrounded by a ditch the dead. However, the new discovery were pushed over and a bank built on top, up to 54ft (16m) wide and a bank over suggests that durrington walls had an but both their significance and burial are 3ft (90cm) high. “This is archæology on earlier and less domestic history. In fact, currently a mystery – nothing else like it steroids,” said Vince gaffney of Bradford all our assumptions about wiltshire’s exists in the known Neolithic world. university, who leads the Stonehenge megalithic complex will need revising. Last durrington walls, near Amesbury Hidden Landscapes project. It was once year, researchers found the remains of in wiltshire, the largest known henge suggested that the builders of Stonehenge 17 new chapels and hundreds of other monument in Britain and possibly in all lived at durrington. woodhenge nearby archæological features scattered across the Europe, was built at least 4,500 years was thought to represent the land of 4.6 square mile (12km2) ritual landscape ago and measures about 1,640ft (500m) the living, and Stonehenge the realm of of Salisbury plain. D.Telegraph, Guardian, 7

ELONGATED SKULL FOUND IN 20,000m2 (about 215,000ft2). discovered of that time involved binding the head to RUSSIA in 1987, it allegedly comprises a primitive make it grow out of shape, a phenomenon The remains of a woman with a strangely astronomical observatory and a village fortified also found in Africa and Australia – and elongated skull have been unearthed at a by two large stone circular walls, with a central in a 1,000-year-old cemetery in Mexico Russian archæological site called Arkaim, near community square. In its heyday, it was home [FT305:20]. The Huns also did it, and it the city of Chelyabinsk and known as Russia’s to around 1,500 to 2,500 people. was taken up by various germanic tribes answer to Stonehenge. while the skeleton when pictures of the egg-shaped skull that came under Hunnish rule. Researcher appears to be only about 1,800 years old, the emerged, some of the less restrained Maria Makurova said: “I would not exclude site dates back about 4,000 years. In those ufologists announced it was proof that aliens the possibility that the skeleton belongs to days, it was a settlement of the Sintashta- had once visited Earth; but archæologists said a woman from the Sarmati tribe that lived petrovka culture and covered an area of about the skull was elongated because the culture in the territories of what is now modern day ukraine, Kazakhstan and southern Russia. Her skull was elongated because the tribe did so by tying up the heads of their children with rope. It was clearly a tradition in the tribe.” The ufologists, however, didn’t concede the argument; they suggested the tribe was doing this as a way of mimicking the elongated skulls of the alien visitors to the area. express.co.uk, 27 July; Yahoo News, softpedia.com, 29 July 2015. MUTTON DRESSED AS LAMB All that glistered was not gold in Anglo-Saxon Mercia. Research on the seventh century Staffordshire hoard, the largest cache of precious metal from the period ever found, has revealed a secret technique that gave 12-18 karat gold the appearance of 21- 23 karat gold of a rich deep yellow. The ABOVE: The elongated ‘alien’ skull unearthed at the Russian archæological site of Arkaim. technique was not written down in Anglo- Saxon times, and has never previously been

16 F T333 www.forteantimes.com CLASSI CAL CORNER detected in metalwork from the period, FORTEANA FROM THE ANCIENT WORLD COMPILED BY BARRY BALDWIN but a similar technique was known from Roman accounts. It involved taking gold that was alloyed with up to 25 per cent 192: DON’T READ MY LIPS silver, and heating it in a weak acid solution, probably ferric chloride, so that at the surface the silver and other impurities leached out and could be burnished off. The ferric chloride was probably made by heating up a mixture of water, salt and iron-rich clay – or dust from crushed-up old Roman tiles. “They knew what they were doing,” said Eleanor Blakelock, the archæometallurgist who discovered their secret. “This wasn’t something that could possibly have happened by accident.” She found the technique was sometimes used æsthetically to change the colour of the surface and create contrasting First, ancient history of a different sort. gastromuth as such. However, the girl diviner decoration. However, she and the experts One of the BBC comedies I grew up with whom Paul and Silas ‘cured’ (Acts 16. 16-18), at Birmingham Museum, where some of was ‘Educating Archie’ (1950-58). Apart to the fury of her owners who’d been making the hoard is displayed, believe it must from the blazer-clad wooden hero, it was a huge profits from their tame prophet, is usually have been done to disguise lower forcing-ground for such future luminaries described in the Greek as “having a Python quality gold. The Staffordshire hoard as Julie Andrews (no relation to Archie, but spirit”. was found in a field near the village of differently wooden), Max Bygraves, Bernard Plutarch (‘Decline of Oracles’, ch9 = Hammerwich, near Lichfield in 2009 Bresslaw, Dick Emery, Bruce Forsyth, Benny Moralia, ch2 para414e) says: “Those who (with more finds in 2010 and 2012). It Hill, Beryl Reid, Harry Secombe, and the Lad used to be called ‘Eurycleis’ are now comprises more than 3,500 items, 839 himself – Tony Hancock. known as Pythones.” Eurycles was the first of which are gold. Nearly all are martial Archie’s manipulator was Peter Brough, famous Greek gastromancer. Along with the in character, largely for use by elite a notoriously bad lip-mover. So, too, was puppeteer Potheinus (perhaps throwing his warriors. By contrast, artefacts made for his American predecessor Edgar Bergen voice into a dummy), he was honoured with Anglo-Saxon royalty, rather than for mere (creator of Charlie McCarthy, Effie Klinker, a statue in the Athenian theatre (Athenæus, nobility, were made of high karat material, and Mortimer Snerd). To conceal their labial Learned Men at Dinner, bk1 ch1paraE). with no need of ‘surface enrichment’. inadequacies, both Bergen and Brough took His fame is confirmed by the mockery of These include the Sutton Hoo artefacts refuge in the airwaves.Ventriloquists on the Aristophanes (Wasps, vv1016-20) and Plato and six items from the Staffordshire wireless – you couldn’t make it up... (Sophist, para252C). hoard. Guardian, Independent, 17 Oct ‘Ventriloquist’ derives from the Latin words The geographer-historian Strabo mentions 2014. for ‘stomach’ and ‘speaking’, but there’s no that some people thought the famous ‘Singing such actual noun or verb in Roman literature. Statue’ of Memnon was actually a ventriloqual Our other term, ‘Gastromuth’, comes from fraud by “some locals” (guides or priests out Greek ‘engastrimuthein’ (‘To speak from the to make a quick drachma? (cf. my article stomach’). in Prudentia 15 (1983), 53-7). Not hard to The earliest adepts were not stage imagine similar tricksters being responsible performers but religious ones, their for (e.g.) the statue that talked to Camillus bombinations being thought to be those of or the one that laughed at Caligula (see their the un-dead resident within their bellies. A Lives, respectively Plutarch, ch6 para2, and cognate feature was their supposed ability to Suetonius, ch57 para2); cf FT145:18, also predict the future. Much scope, then, for fame F Poulsen, ‘Talking, Weeping and Bleeding and fortune as oracle-mongers and conductors Statues,’ Acta Archaeologica 116 (1945), 178-95. of séances. The most elaborate hoaxes were the Many objurgations are aimed against them ‘autophones’ of Alexander of Abonoteichus in the Old Testament: Leviticus 19. 31, 20. 6 (see Steve Moore’s excellent account, & 27; Deuteronomy 12. 11; 1 Samuel 28. 3-8 FT276:46), connected (so Lucian’s biography, (the Witch of Endor, whence Endora in the old ch26, says) to a faked head of Asclepius by a American sit-com Bewitched). ‘Belly-speaking’ tube made of cranes’ windpipes running to of one kind or another is also mentioned by an accomplice in the next room who uttered RLoNg / gETTy IMAgES Confucius; cf. Roger Ames, Confucian Role the prophecies, a common trick in later Fu Ethics: A Vocabulary (Hong Kong, Chinese antiquity (Hippolytus, Refutation of All the University Press, 2011), with concomitant Heresies, ch28), revived by Thomas Irson’s online reviews and symposia. similar duping of Charles II (A Harmon’s CHRISTopHER Wikipedia and company trace Greek and Loeb Lucian, vol4 p211 n2), all prefiguring The ABOVE: An intricately decorated gold artefact Roman ventriloquism from the Pythian Wizard of Oz. from the Staffordshire Hoard. priestess of Apollo at Delphi. She seems (the “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas sources are discrepant) not to have been a anymore.” – You Know Who...

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A furthEr finE sELEctiOn Of fruitLEss fELOniEs, ridicuLOus crime croppers rOBBEriEs And hOpELEss hOLd-ups frOm ArOund thE WOrLd

ABOVE: Dominyk Antonio Alfonseca posted his hold-up note and wads of stolen cash on Instagram. BELOW: The unknown would-be robber foiled by the language barrier.

In a wonderful news report phone sometime during the videotape it, post the picture of redolent of Dada and conceptual robbery, he placed a call to police the letter and do that all to come art, a man tried to rob a bank in to inquire whether it had been to jail,” he said. Bless! Times, Warsaw by holding up a drawing turned in. Unsurprisingly, this 8 May 2015. of a gun. The unnamed 33-year-old quickly led to his apprehension. Briton entered the bank on the During his trial at Newcastle • A burglar was caught after central Jerozilimskie Avenue at Crown Court on 8 May, where he he took a selfie on the iPad he 9am on 11 August and showed was sent down for two years and had just stolen and sent it to a female cashier the drawing. four months, he was described the owner’s mobile phone by He then brandished a second as “stupid”, “incompetent” and mistake.Yanzi Ying, 27, was sheet of paper, on which he had “unsophisticated”. [AP] 11 May stunned to see the photo flash written in broken Polish: “This 2015. up on her phone soon after the is a robbery I have a gun give iPad and cash were taken from me all the money.” The woman • A mugger in Sweden demanded her home in Zhangpu county, told him to wait at the back of his victim transfer money to his south-eastern China. She posted the queue, and he duly obliged. account using a popular smart the picture on social media, and In the meantime, she called the phone app. The app enables the thief, Wu Cai, 35, was soon police and the slow-witted chap money transfers to be done using arrested after a tip-off. Metro, 1 was arrested shortly after. Polish mobile phone numbers, giving May 2015. police provided few details, the police all the information saying merely that he had lived in they needed to catch the culprit, • A similar farce played out Germany for a year and had only A man tried to who now faces six years inside. in Leyton, east London, on 5 been in Poland for a few hours D.Telegraph (Sydney), 1 Aug 2015. August.The mugger accidentally before trying to rob the bank. He hold up a bank sent a selfie to his female pleaded guilty and was jailed for • A bank robber inVirginia victim as he tried to unlock three years. D.Telegraph, 15 Aug; with a drawing Beach posted his hold-up note on the smartphone he had stolen Metro, 17 Aug 2015. the Internet. Dominyk Antonio from her. The victim told police Alfonseca, 23, uploaded to she had downloaded an app • On 1 September, a woman of a gun Instagram a picture of the note that takes a photo of the user walked into a bank in San demanding cash that he handed when the pin code is entered Antonio, Texas, asked for a to a teller. The note concluded: incorrectly – and sends the teller who spoke Spanish, and slip back, and left.The police “I would appreciate if you Ring image to the owner’s email. then handed over a deposit slip released surveillance photos in the alarm a minute after I am The mugshot was published in with the words “dame dinero” a bid to find the suspect, and gone…Make sure the money the press and FT presumes the (Spanish for “give me money”) offered a $5,000 reward. newser. doesn’t blow up on my way out suspect has been identified by written on it.The Wells Fargo com, 2 Sept 2015. :-)” Alfonseca was arrested now. D.Telegraph, 18 Aug 2015. teller thought it said “Damien” soon afterwards, with a bag full and started looking up accounts • One early morning in March, of cash. He told a TV station • A robber was arrested when he under that name. When the teller a 25-year-old man mugged a he believed he was innocent, returned to his victim in Miami, asked the suspect to confirm the woman in a Sunderland street because asking for money Florida, to complain that a gold name, she apparently got tired and stole her bag. Later that day, politely was not a crime. “If it was necklace he stole was a fake. of waiting for cash, took the realising he dropped his mobile a robbery, I don’t think I would Sun, 11 May 2015.

18 FT333 www.forteantimes.com Karl ShuKer presents his regular round-up from the ALIEN ZOO cryptozoological garden

and ‘Barebacking Werewolves in Rural America’. Interest in the UK’S only werewolf conference was considerable. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ news/uk-england-beds- bucks-herts-33971546 22 Aug 2015.

TEARING APART A PTEROSAUR For decades, cryptozoologists, creationists and iconography researchers have been discussing the likely identity of the tantalisingly pterosaur- like creature, bright red in colour, depicted in ancient artwork decorating Black Dragon Canyon in Utah. True, there is indeed a resemblance

MEMPHIS BRooKS MUSEUM oF ART to a pterodactyl with outstretched wings and AMERICAN BLACK PANTHER been procured in tropical Latin America, and even a possible crest on its head like some ARTWORK no captive individuals are currently known to latter-day Pteranodon, which had led some In previous Alien Zoo reports and FT feature- exist anywhere. (I have documented elsewhere cryptozoologists to suggest that it offered length articles, I’ve documented several one possible example exhibited at London Zoo proof of modern-day pterosaur survival in North fascinating examples of apparent cryptids during the 19th century.) America. depicted by famous artists. Here’s another In short, even if they do occur, black pumas However, new research has effectively torn such example, one that may not have are exceptionally rare as far as physical apart this visual testimony. Dating back to attracted any cryptozoological publicity before. evidence for their reality is concerned. the agrarian Fremont culture (c. AD 1-1100) I am grateful to American correspondent Countless normal-coloured (tawny or grey) but remaining undiscovered in modern times David McAvoy for bringing to my attention a pumas have been shot in North America, until 1928, this ambiguous artwork has been remarkable painting on display at the Memphis and there are numerous reports of black revealed by researchers co-led by freelance Brooks Museum of Art in Tennessee. Entitled panther-like cats on file from this continent, so archæologist Paul Bahn to be a composite ‘Story Told By My Mother’, it was produced in whatever this cat form is it does not appear to pictograph, not a single one as previously 1955 by highly acclaimed Arkansas-born artist be especially rare; so why have no specimens assumed. In fact, the ‘pterosaur’ is actually Carroll Cloar (1913-1993), and depicts a snow been found if it is indeed a melanistic a combination of no less than five separate scene in which a woman is stepping briskly version (morph) of the puma? This apparent pictographs, respectively depicting a sheep, away from a very large black panther-like cat paradox remains a major riddle for American a dog, a tall person with protruding eyes, a standing at the edge of some trees. David cryptozoology – but at least we do now have an smaller person, and a snake-like entity. informed me that it was inspired by tales that additional and most interesting, unexpected In 1947, a certain John Simonson traced Cloar had heard from his mother concerning piece of evidence supporting the existence over what he believed to be the outline of the black panthers that had once roamed of black panther-like cats in North America, one, single pictograph with red chalk, yielding Arkansas. regardless of their identity. David McAvoy, pers. the pseudo-pterodactyl image, but this artefact Moreover, David himself hails from comm., 9 Aug 2015. was recently exposed by Bahn and company Arkansas, and he mentioned that he has using a portable X-ray fluorescence device heard such stories for as long as he can WHERE TO GO FOR WEREWOLVES and a special program/tool called DStretch. remember. Indeed, mysterious, unidentified A three-day conference devoted to This enables researchers to photograph a big cats of black panther-like appearance (i.e. werewolves and the fascinating, albeit pictograph, upload it onto a computer, and resembling melanistic leopards) have been highly controversial, subject of lycanthropy then highlight its original pigments (even reported all over North America for centuries. took place on 3-5 September 2015 at if invisible to the naked eye) while also Leopards of course are not native to the New the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield. distinguishing pigments that have been added World, so if such beasts are indeed roaming Entitled ‘The Company of Wolves’, its eclectic later. So when DStretch removed the confusing the wilds here, they can only be escapee or offerings included workshops, walks with real effect caused by Simonson’s red chalk, the released individuals from captivity. However, wolves, picnics alongside the Berkhamsted true, five-piece artwork was duly revealed, their eyewitnesses often claim that these grave of Peter the Wild Boy from the 18th with the pterodactyl of Black Dragon Canyon cats are not black leopards anyway, but are century [FT161:36], a keynote speaker, and unceremoniously jettisoned into the dustbin of instead black pumas. Yet no such cat form an international array of papers featuring historical howlers. has ever been scientifically confirmed from such memorable titles as ‘I’m Hairy on the www.livescience.com/51886-winged-monster- North America, only two such specimens have Inside’, ‘Rabid Bitches and Fanged Whores’, rock-art-deciphered.html 18 Aug 2015.

FT333 19 www.forteantimes.com TTINSON GHOSTWATCH PA MATT

ALAN MURDIE reports on how physical mediumship continues to cause controversy today

“The history of physical mediumship LEFT: ‘Ectoplasm’ emerges from the mouth of is the history of fraud!” declared medium Marthe Beraud (aka Eva C) during a Professor Peter Mulacz from Austria at séance, circa 1910. the joint international conference of the Society for Psychical Research and there were people for whom a “broom the Parapsychology Association held at and a sheet are quite enough to make up Greenwich over 16-19 July 2015. a grandmother for some wild enthusiasts His comment was part of a who go with the figure in their eye, blazing controversy among psychical and see what they wish to see... I have researchers still raging this autumn, had pictures that might be anything ignited by the reports surrounding a in this or any other world sent to me, German physical medium, Kai Mügge and gravely claimed as recognised of Hanau. Mügge has gained an portraits”. (Human Nature, May 1875). increasingly high profile in the lastw fe Difficulties with eyewitness testimony years with claims that he is producing in emotionally charged proceedings a wide range of séance manifestations remain with us, posing a problem for the including ectoplasm, floating lights and historian, as with medium Helen Duncan the materialisation of small objects tried in 1944 under the Witchcraft Act during sittings of his ‘Felix Circle’ 1735 and convicted by an Old Bailey (so-called after the name of the first jury (see FT103:24, 107:13 and Malcolm spirit to make contact).The judgment Gaskill, Hellish Nell, 2001). Of course, of Professor Mulacz is drawn from his eyewitnesses can be mistaken, duped or extensive knowledge of the history of be victims of wishful thinking. But it is on arChivE / GEtty iMaGEs

the topic and his own opinion after one only because eyewitness testimony has lt sitting with Mügge at which he noticed any doubt – although eventually this policy been established as reliable and accurate hu a distinct lack of controls.The inability to was marginally relaxed with acceptance on other occasions that we can ever consider control proceedings – especially in the dark of unconscious fraud in altered states of trusting it to begin with. Unfortunately, – obviously risks the manifestations reported consciousness, it being acknowledged that there may be profound difficulty with around Mügge being manufactured. whilst in a trance a medium might behave personal testimony, no matter how sincere or This is unfair, say defenders of Mügge who suspiciously or fraudulently, rather like a authoritative the witnesses. have been convinced by his mediumship, sleepwalker. An example is a remarkable story with the dispute spreading into the pages Unfortunately, the number of mediums involving the psychical researchers Frederic of the Paranormal Review published by willing to be subjected to rigorous controls Myers and Sir William Barrett, early in the Society for Psychical Research. Both has declined enormously since 1945, their careers. In the 1870s the artist William sides in the argument have been given the coinciding with the wider availability of de Morgan held séances at his studio in opportunity to ventilate their views by the infra-red photography to penetrate the Cheyne Row, Chelsea. One of the most editor Dr Leo Ruickbie who has interviewed darkness of the typical séance. fascinating was when a medium named Husk Mügge at length and also attended one of his Can all physical mediumship be attributed materialised the spirit of a pirate, John King. boisterous and noisy séances, concluding that to the stunts perpetrated by quicksilver The séance was held in an almost bare room for the moment the circle is best studied from conmen and women? History shows this is furnished with a small deal table about 3ft a social science perspective, as a sociological not an easy question to answer and it must be by 5ft (90cm x 1.5m), and a few chairs. Myers rather than psychical phenomenon (See said at the outset that the least reliable place brought Husk to the studio by hansom cab, ‘The Séance’ by Leo Ruickbie in Paranormal for information is Wikipedia and the Internet and the group comprising William de Morgan, Review summer 2015, issue 76). where information is all too often filtered, his mother and sister, Myers and Barrett sat The dispute centring upon the Felix biased, partial, inaccurate and chronically down with the medium at the table, the wrists Circle is a crystallisation of wider arguments limited in its treatment of sources. One must of all present being loosely joined together that have repeated themselves in every go to original sources. by silk thread. Husk went into trance after generation since the beginning of modern Mediums themselves have warned against the candle was extinguished by Barrett spiritualism at Hydesville, New York State, in chicanery in the dark.The outstanding who recalled how “lights, very like fireflies, 1848. Initially, all spiritualist manifestations physical medium of the 19th century, were seen darting about over our heads, the were of the physical variety, consisting Daniel Dunglas Home, warned against movement of some objects in the room was predominantly of knocks, raps and table such deceptions in two chapters in his heard, and a deep guttural voice spoke to us.” movements, progressing to flying objects, Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism (1877), A violent convulsion of the medium eerie glows and the materialisation of condemning ‘dark séances, puppet shows, occurred, and Barrett recalled that “right in spirits. Effects were presented as objective and third rate jugglery’ (p412). Home made front of me appeared a clothed human figure manifestations by spirits, later claimed as a point of performing in good light and his from the waist upwards: the lower part of the being registerable on camera and measuring reputation has largely survived, despite the body might have been concealed by the table. apparatus. efforts of generations of critics denouncing The face was illuminated by a bluish light In his comment, Peter Mulacz was echoing him. Although hated and despised, the fact which seemed to issue from an object held in the hard-line approach of original SPR remains Home was never detected in fraud, the hand of the materialized figure.” pioneers of the 19th century whose philosophy which even the most grudging sceptics have Barrett stated: “The face was undoubtedly could be summed up as “one strike and to admit, rather to their annoyance (e.g. Ruth a living one, for I saw its eyes open and close you’re out”, whereby mediums were dropped Brandon The Spiritualists, 1983). and its lips move; I asked who it was and the as subjects as soon as any fraud was detected, Another (and unjustly forgotten) physical guttural voice said, ‘John King.’” Barrett or if they refused to comply with stringent medium was the Revd. Stainton Moses described the face as “a dark, bearded and experimental controls. Offending mediums (1839-1892). But he warned regarding rather unpleasant face, quite unlike that of were almost invariably refused the benefit of materialisations and psychic photography; the medium.” Barrett exclaimed, “Do you

20 FT333 www.forteantimes.com all see the figure? I am going to light the an accomplice popped up like the Demon psychical researcher. Schrenck-Notzing tested candle”.The figure vanished the moment King at a pantomime, yet unnoticed by any the boys after Rudi was content to have some the match was struck, and the medium was investigator. Notably, the limitations of this level of illumination at séances where object found in deep trance, lying back in his chair “undetected accomplice” theory are soon movements and materialisations of hand-like and groaning. Barrett and Myers found it exposed as soon as one asks basic questions apparitions were observed. impossible to reproduce the appearance and such as “How wide was the trapdoor?” “Was In 1929 Harry Price brought Rudi to agreed “it was extremely difficult to explain this accomplice male or female?”, revealing England for a series of tests, inviting a wide the phenomena by trickery on the part of the the trapdoor and the mysterious accomplice range of people to some 26 experimental medium.” theories as mere suppositions, unsupported sessions, including the actors Stanley Barrett was one of the few SPR pioneers by any actual evidence. Holloway and Laurence Olivier, along with showing interest in physical mediumship Regrettably, neither side in this argument scientists and professional conjurors, many and poltergeist phenomena. Unfortunately, was prepared to attempt the obvious (at least of whom testified to witnessing inexplicable many early SPR leaders disliked physical to me) forensic step of testing the hidden manifestations.Though Price was condemned mediumship because it was seen as trapdoor theory by establishing if the building for having such an eclectic mix of people disreputable and vulgar, with Society that formed the GrandVictoria hotel in attend séances with Rudi, I find it significant founders Professor Henry Sidgwick and Naples had survived (the city was bombed that no one claimed to have detected any his formidable wife Eleonore wanting to heavily in World War II), or finding out fraud, the sheer diversity of individuals distance the organisation from spiritualism. whether architectural plans or records existed ruling out a giant conspiracy. Price offered Thus, Barrett, who received a knighthood which might shed light on the existence of a £1,000 reward for anyone reproducing the for his work as a physicist, did not publish any trapdoor. (See Richard Wiseman, ‘The Schneider phenomena under comparable his account of the Husk séance until 1924, Fielding Report A Reconsideration’, JSPR vol conditions; there were no takers. Sceptics having been discouraged by the reception to 58, 1991-1992 128-58; and JSPR vols 59 and 60 either ignored these invitations or if they his reports on poltergeist cases. By this time for discussion). attended were baffled by Rudi. Price Myers had been dead a quarter of a century Some of the most impressive evidence of rushed out a book Rudi Schneider (1933) and the delay in publicising his experience physical mediumship accumulated during and experiments continued in 1930-32 with might cast doubt upon his recollections. 10 years of testing conducted between 1923- Dr Osty in Paris involving infra-red beams. Yet would we doubt Barrett if he had been 33 on two teenage mediums, Rudi and Willi However, it appears that when Price felt he recalling his laboratory experiments on Schneider from Braunau am Inn, Austria – was being shut out of experiments by other the properties of flames? (William Barrett, infamous as the birthplace of Hitler. In the researchers, he retaliated by releasing a ‘Reminiscences of fifty years’, Proceedings of difficult times following World War I, the photograph to the press suggesting that Rudi the SPR 1924, v.34). Schneider family had begun experimenting had freed his hand to fake phenomena at Assessment is even more complicated in with séances as an evening entertainment, one session.The resulting publicity had the the case of Eusapia Palladino (1954-1918), with their sons showing marked mediumistic effect of discrediting the entire mediumship one of the most extensively tested mediums abilities. Josef Schneider, their father, made a in the eyes of many. But by this stage Rudi was of the early 19th and 20th century. Eusapia careful record of these from 1923, in addition becoming a healthy, robust youngster, more thrived on attention, admitting faking to those made by others who attended. A interested in cars, football and his sweetheart phenomena herself during experiments, Herr Kogelnik, a sceptic, was stunned by Mitzi than further testing, so the séances soon claiming she could not help it.Yet a wide witnessing manifestations and called in Baron ceased. Star psychic subjects getting fed up range of observers were also convinced she Schrenck-Notzing, then Germany’s leading with endless testing rounds was repeated in could produce genuine effects such as the case of Matthew Manning and Uri knocking sounds, object movements Geller in the 1970s. (See The Strange Case and the materialisation of spirit hands. of Rudi Schneider, 1985, by Anita Gregory The Palladino case provides a difficult and FT229:28-36). one for sceptics when the totality of the Ultimately, the position that one takes evidence is addressed, the evidential on physical mediumship is likely to be testimony being not only that of determined by pre-existing beliefs. Even “hordes of hard-headed academics, but with sophisticated technology, debate also that of the sceptical conjurors”. on trickery by mediums is inevitably (See Adrian Parker ‘A Sceptical set to continue; indeed, a paper on the Evaluation of A Skeptic’s Handbook of prosecution of fraudulent UK mediums Parapsychology’ in Journal of the Society was presented by Mark Norman at the for Psychical Research 1988Vol. 55, No. Folklore Society’s Conference ‘Law and 811). Crime in Legend and Tradition’ over Hereward Carrington (1880-1958), 5-6 September 2015 at the Town Hall a prolific author andve in stigator who at Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. As an spent many years detecting fraudulent aside, whilst attending this event, I spoke mediums, was convinced by Palladino, with a caretaker of the building, who producing a book on her mediumship told me of his experience of seeing the (Eusapia Palladino, 1909) following unexplained apparition of a woman with extensive testing in the GrandVictoria blonde hair looking out from an upstairs Hotel in Naples by SPR investigators window one winter’s evening after he the previous year. In 1910 Eusapia was had checked and locked everything caught cheating in the United States, securely. Hearing his story, it occurred marking the end of her career. to me that whilst phenomena occurring Her case still provoked passionate within group settings in dark séance arguments 80 years later. An extensive rooms remain contentious, the proper discussion in the SPR Journal in 1991- experience of seeing a ghost is more 94 saw Dr Richard Wiseman proposing likely to come your way when you are that deceit was achieved by means ABOVE: Eusapia Palladino levitates a table in Milan in 1892. alone, simply going about your ordinary, of a hidden trapdoor through which daily business.

FT333 21 www.forteantimes.com strangedays

Parisian hypno-heist, jumping lice vs Japanese fortean follow-ups knotweed and more of those creepy clowns

DEVIL’S BREATH ancient times, we are told, the [FT60:32, 79:48] drug was given to the mistresses of dead Colombian kings to make them enter their lovers’ graves to be buried alive. Since the 1950s, Colombia has allegedly led the world in the criminal use of burundanga, a narcotic preparation including In late August, two Chinese scopolamine, as an instant women, aged 42 and 59, were zombie powder. In the previous arrested at the entrance to a decade, Joseph Mengele, the Metro station in Paris’s 20th notorious Nazi physician, had it arrondissement, accused of imported from Colombia to use in stealing millions of euros from interrogations. Early practitioners unsuspecting victims by blowing a had to contend with an aggressive

VINAYRAJ / CREATIVE COMMONS powerful hypnotic drug – recently response the drug often provoked. dubbed “devil’s breath” – into ABOVE: Scopolamine can be obtained from most species of datura. Many victims died, not from toxic their faces. “The victims targeted, effects, but from the beating very often old, were accosted in mental submission with the aid of killed his wife Cora in 1910 using they were given to subdue them. the street by a first woman,” said unknown products,” according to the drug before trying to flee to Around 1982, rogue chemists a source close to the investigation. Le Parisien. Other members have Canada. added the barbiturate Ativan “This person claimed to be reportedly been arrested in China Also known as hyoscine, and came up with new, improved looking for a mysterious ‘Doctor and South Korea.The two women’s scopolamine is used as a sedative burundanga – although any Wang’ before being joined by passports suggested that they had in cases of mania and delirium, sufficiently strong tranquilliser her accomplice.They managed recently travelled to Madrid and in the treatment of Parkinson’s would have done.The highly to isolate their victims, then got Mexico. disease, and in patches that soluble white powder with no them to breathe in a mixture The basic ingredient of ‘devil’s prevent travel sickness. Larger taste or smell can be slipped into of plants on the grounds they breath’ is said to be scopolamine. does can lead to disorientation, a drink or blown into the face of a had powerful curative qualities It can be obtained from henbane, memory loss, hallucinations, great chosen victim. – even protecting them from datura (thorn apple) or a shrub suggestibility and convulsion. Dementia Black, a drug dealer misfortune… They then took of the belladonna family known In ancient Greece, the priests of (we do so hope that’s a real name), advantage by getting the victims across northern South America Apollo used datura to achieve told the news websiteVice News to take them to their home, where as el borrachero (‘the intoxicator’). subliminal, prophetic states. that the effects of blowing ‘devil’s they asked them to put all their In the early 20th century, it was Indian dacoits (bandits) would breath’ into someone’s face are jewellery and money into a bag administered by some doctors as put datura leaves on campfires to almost instant. “It works in a and hand it over to them.” One a pain-relief drug – or rather a knock out their victims or make flash.You wait for a minute for it Parisian victim lost €100,000 drug that led to the forgetting of them more co-operative. When to kick in and then you know you (£73,500) worth of valuables and pain – in childbirth. It was noticed Cristoval Acosta visited India in own that person.You can guide cash in this way. how women who had been given 1578, he learned that datura seeds them wherever you want. It’s The pair had reportedly been it answered questions with rare were used by “mundane ladies” like they’re a child.” Intoxication operating in Paris since the candour. Dr Robert House, a Texas (prostitutes) to sedate and rob induces obedience and a spring. In a subsequent raid on obstetrician, was so astonished by clients; a similar stratagem is used condition similar to transient their hotel room in Seine-Saint- this side effect that he managed today by Bangkok’s sex workers global amnesia. According to the Denis, a north-eastern suburb, in the 1920s to persuade the [FT72:9]. US State Department, unofficial police discovered an array of authorities to let him use the drug Food secretly laced with estimates put the number of vials including “various Chinese on two prisoners in Dallas County scopolamine was said to have annual scopolamine incidents medicinal substances as well Jail. He found their protestations been fed to British soldiers in Colombia at approximately as weighing scales, filters and of innocence had not changed during the 1676 Bacon’s 50,000. “Scopolamine can render a gloves”. Analysis of the hypnotic’s and, since they were (supposedly) Rebellion, when settlers in victim unconscious for 24 hours or ingredients was under way at the unable to lie, they were acquitted. Virginia revolted against their more,” its website warns. “In large time of the report. A third suspect, A local newspaper covering Governor, Sir William Berkeley. doses, it can cause respiratory a 56-year-old European man who the case coined the term ‘truth The result was that they spent failure and death. It is most often allegedly prepared the drug serum’.The drug ceased to be “several days making monkey administered in liquid or powder compounds, was later arrested. used in court cases in the 1930s faces and generally acting like form in foods and beverages. Chinese authorities informed after subjects reported horrifying lunatics”. One soldier was found The majority of these incidents their French counterparts that hallucinations and depression – “stark naked, sitting in a corner occur in night clubs and bars, the trio belonged to a notorious but both the Soviet authorities like a monkey, grimacing at his and usually men, perceived to be Chinese Triad-style criminal and the CIA reportedly used it as comrades.” They sobered up after wealthy, are targeted by young, network, which “acts around a truth serum during the Cold War. 11 days (!), “not remembering attractive women.” the world and specialises in Dr Crippen is believed to have anything that had passed”. In Some experts remain deeply

22 FT333 www.forteantimes.com Mythconceptions by Mat Coward 93: tHe MIraCulous Brown BaG The myth When you’re sceptical. If ‘devil’s breath’ is Japanese habitat by sucking having a panic so effective, why isn’t its use its sap – but environment attack, you ubiquitous? “You get these scare minister George Eustace has should breathe stories and they have no toxicology, admitted that the strategy had into a paper bag. so nobody knows what it is,” said failed “because only small This is because Val Curran, of University College populations of the psyllid have hyperventilating London’s Clinical Pharmacology survived in the wild.” However, causes your Unit. “The idea that it is scientists are planning to levels of carbon scopolamine is a bit far-fetched. release more of the jumping dioxide to fall, The degree to which any of this lice in area with above-average so that when stuff is true is unknown.There’s a humidity in the hope that you practise lot of myth.” What’s more, ‘hypno- they will live long enough to “rebreathing” you heists’ can apparently occur start feeding on the weed. are taking expelled without the use of any drug (see, Perhaps the little critters can air back into your lungs, for instance, FT323:9). telegraph. be bred to resist the vagaries thus rebalancing the mix co.uk, 1 Sept; D.Mail, Guardian, 3 of British weather. Independent, between oxygen and carbon Sept 2015. 20 Oct; D.Telegraph, 25 Oct dioxide. 2014; D.Mail, 27 July; Sunday JAPANESE KNOTWEED Telegraph, 26 July 2015. [FT138:14, 314:22] The “truth” MORE SINISTER CLOWNS [FT321:4, 322:16] Although rebreathing is still prescribed by many doctors and nurses, fi rst aid experts have long opposed it. Not only is it unlikely to do any good, they argue, it might make matters worse – and in some circumstances reducing oxygen and increasing CO2 can actually be dangerous. There are cases on record of people mistaking the symptoms of asthma or heart attacks for hyperventilation, using the Japanese knotweed (Fallopia paper bag technique, and dying. Various studies have shown that japonica) grows up to 4in rebreathing is no more effective against hyperventilation than ordinary (10cm) a day, with roots Last July, Julia Graham and her breathing, while some have suggested a link between anxiety attacks 15ft (4.5m) deep. Plucked husband were driving through and too much CO2. from the sides of Japanese Chicago late at night when they volcanoes, it was named saw a fi gure dressed as a clown the “most interesting new with shiny trousers running Sources ornamental plant of the year” towards the Ravenswood Avenue https://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/meat/INT-what-meat-color.html; in 1847 by the Society of entrance of Rosehill Cemetery http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/health/13real.html?_r=0; http:// Agriculture in Utrecht. First and scaling the 7ft (2m) gate, www.netdoctor.co.uk/interactive/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=1630; recorded in the wild in Britain quite a feat for anyone, let alone at Maesteg, South Wales, in someone in a clown suit. “I mean, Disclaimer 1886, it is today one of the this was somebody putting forth country’s most invasive and a lot of effort, and being really As always, this column makes no claim to medical expertise, and destructive plants. It pushes weird,” said Mrs Graham. Her welcomes corrections and further discussion via the letters page. through concrete and road husband managed to fi lm the surfaces, chokes riverbanks, strange fi gure on his cell phone, Update weakens fl ood defences and and the result was posted on railway embankments, invades YouTube. Such clown sightings In FT151:26 we discussed “burglar’s signs” – those mythical houses, blights development have occurred at other cemeteries chalk marks supposedly left outside houses by cooperatively- sites, and crowds out all around the US, apparently. minded criminals to help their peers decide which properties other vegetation. Knotweed chicago.cbclocal.com, 23 July; are and aren’t worth robbing. In an interesting twist to the usual damage costs the UK economy Raycom News Network, 24 July story, a Neighbourhood Watch leaflet distributed in Nailsea, North around £166 million a year 2015. Somerset, describes the secret code apparently used by crooks in weed control and property At 4.30am on 7 August, a man who specialise in stealing dogs. The pet-pinchers are said, devaluation. Homeowners who wearing a clown mask and a for instance, to mark people’s doors with a “pink cross” ignore orders to control it can multicoloured wig knocked on a to signify that a small dog lives there, and a red one be fi ned up to £2,500. woman’s door in Hickory, North for big dogs. Numerous dogs have gone missing, says The Government has Carolina, and swung an axe at her. the leaflet, and anyone fi nding a crayon mark now admitted defeat in the She was not hurt, and managed to on their front door should call the police. The knotweed war, as eradication remove his mask and recognised police response is hilariously weary: no dog would be prohibitively him as an acquaintance before he thefts have been reported in the area, say expensive at £1.56 billion. ran off. The next day she reported the cops – and anyone fi nding such markings For a while, hope was pinned the incident to the police and is advised to “wash them off”. Western Daily on the introduction of the requested the man’s arrest.Victim Press, 3 Sept 2015. tHe BooK psyllid Aphalara itadori and perpetrator were not named. tHConCeptIons – small jumping lice that No motive for the attack was Don’t MIss MY control knotweed in its native given. [AP] 10 Aug 2015. BooKsHops out now onlIne anD In all GooD

FT333 23 www.forteantimes.com strangedays

This month we say goodbye to the world’s shortest man, the biochemist who became the NECROLOG public face of vodou and the mild-mannered master of modern horror movies

cabaret, a sacred, secret voodoo Intrigued by the tale of the ceremony and Rick’s Café from resurrected man, Clairvius Casablanca”. Bill and Hillary Clinton Narcisse [FT78:28-30], Wade visited Beauvoir’s hounfour on their Davis, a Harvard professor of honeymoon in 1975, where the ethnobotany, in 1982 visited saw a man walking on hot coals Beauvoir, who introduced him to and a woman biting the head off a bokor (sorcerer) called Marcel a live chicken. Beauvoir insisted Pierre. Pierre gave Davis a coup vodou has a genuine effect: “It poudre (‘zombie powder’) recipe does work, 100 per cent. It always with the power to resurrect works.” the dead and turn them into Vodou, originating in the ‘mindless slaves’, a condition 17th century, is centred on reinforced with regular doses trances said to be induced by of Datura stramonium, which spirit possession and includes causes amnesia, delirium and animal sacrifice, dancing, drum- suggestibility (see page 22). beating and elements of Catholic The most significant ingredient liturgy. In this fusion, Christian of the coup poudre came from saints became vodou spirits. a poisonous puffer fi sh whose

PRAKASH MATHEMA / AFP / GETTY IMAGES The 400-strong vodou pantheon liver and reproductive organs includes Kouzin Zaka (St Isidor) contain tetrodotoxin, a nerve CHANDA DANGI York, with a degree in chemistry. and Papa Lekba (St Lazarus). The toxin about 500 times stronger Dangi, 21.5in (54.6cm) tall, was In 1962 he took another degree, Peruvian St Martin de Porres was than cyanide. Convinced by the recognised by Guinness World in biochemistry, at the Sorbonne, syncretised as Baron Samedi, wonder powder’s effectiveness, Records as the shortest living man after which he became a research usually depicted as a corpse Davis wrote The Serpent and the in 2012 – and also the shortest scientist in the US, synthesising dressed in top hat, dinner-jacket Rainbow (1985), which Wes Craven human adult in recorded history metabolic steroids. He returned to and dark glasses; he is known (see below) turned into a movie in [FT286:6]. Since his Nepalese Haiti in the early 1970s to conduct for obscenity, debauchery, and 1988, sparking a new interest in home village of Reemkholi (or experiments on traditional herbal a fondness for tobacco and rum the traditional zombie in movies, Rhimkholi) was so remote, he had remedies, but shortly after his infused with hot peppers. Beauvoir myths and horror stories. not gained notice until 2012. He arrival he was summoned to the himself sometimes assumed the In the 1990s Beauvoir moved beat the previous record set by bedside of his dying grandfather. spirit of Papa Ogou (St James the to Washington, where he set to Gul Mohammed from New Delhi, “Grandfather turned to me Great), one Western witness of his work ‘demystifying’ vodou for who was 22.5in (57.2cm) tall and and said, ‘You will carry on the performance describing how the Americans. In 2008, when Haiti’s died aged 40 in 1997. Dangi, tradition.’ It was not the sort of spirit “through Beauvoir, downed 6,000 houngans formed a national who had a normal-sized head and thing you could refuse.” a bottle of what the celebrants federation, Beauvoir was invited weighed just 26lb (11.8kg), used In 1974 Beauvoir founded Le told me was the spirit’s favourite back to assume the newly created his trips abroad to raise money Péristyle de Mariani, a hounfour scotch, Johnnie Walker. Then, his position of ‘A ti’ or supreme chief of for Reemkholi. Before winning the (vodou temple) in his home in balance intact, Beauvoir resumed the religion. After the terrible 2010 world record he made placemats Haiti, and established himself dancing.” earthquake, he urged his network and namlos (jute headstraps for as the public face of the popular Vodou houngans (and mambos, of houngans to help with the carrying heavy loads). Three of religion. One writer described their female counterparts) are recovery effort; but in December his fi ve brothers are less than 4ft the hounfour as a “bizarre mix often the most influential people that year he appealed to the (1.2m) tall, while his two sisters of an ancient temple, a touristy in Haitian communities, acting as authorities to intervene to stop the and two other brothers are of healers, soothsayers, exorcists lynchings of vodou priests, whose average height. Last November in and counsellors – and in remoter scattering powder and spell- London, Dangi met Sultan Kösen, places, even as mayors and casting were blamed for causing a a Turk reportedly the world’s tallest notaries. Francois ‘Papa Doc’ cholera outbreak. He believed that living man (98.75in/251cm). Duvalier (President of Haiti 1957- vodou was a solution to Haiti’s Chanda Bahadur Dangi, world’s 71) relied on vodou to bolster problems and he called for the shortest human, born Reemkholi, support for his regime and country’s houngans to be given a Nepal 30 Nov 1939; died from recruited houngans for the Tontons formal role in government. pneumonia in American Samoa 3 Macoutes, his brutal secret police. Max Gesner Beauvoir, biochemist Sept 2015, aged 75. Papa Doc’s son, Jean-Claude ‘Baby and vodou ‘pope’, born Haiti, 25 Doc’ Duvalier, had a more strained Aug 1936; died Port-au-Prince, MAX BEAUVOIR relationship with vodou, though Haiti 12 Sept 2015, aged 79. Beauvoir was born in Haiti in after he fl ed Haiti in 1986, mobs 1936, the son of a doctor and killed more than 100 houngans WES CRAVEN grandson of a houngan (vodou/ and a crowd even gathered The so-called ‘Sultan of Slash’ voodoo ‘priest’). In 1958 he outside Beauvoir’s walled estate, made his living out of scaring the graduated from City College, New demanding his death. wits out of people. Later, he poked CHIP SOMODEVILLA / GETTY IMAGES

24 FT333 www.forteantimes.com strangedays

fun at the horror genre with such films as Wes Craven’s New Nightmare , (1995). Some critics denounced him as a purveyor of gore with a dazzling technique and nothing to say; others compared him to Ingmar Bergman. He created some of the most memorable bogeymen in film, most notably the blade-taloned Freddy Krueger, a murdered child-molester in a moth- eaten sweater and filthy fedora who is brought back to life via the dreams of the teenage descendants of his killers (A Nightmare on Elm Street, 1984). Craven subverted the horror genre again with Scream (1996), the tale of a high-school student who becomes the target of a mysterious killer known as Ghostface. It is full of ironic self- reference: “This is like something out of a Wes Carpenter film,” one character observes. Fairies, Folklore and Forteana Craven earned a master’s in philosophy and writing from Johns Hopkins University, and worked Simon Young FiLES A nEW REPoRT FRom THE inTERFACE oF STRAngE PHEnomEnA AnD FoLK BELiEF as a humanities professor at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York State. In 1971 he left Manus’s The Middle Kingdom, one of our teaching to work as a film editor pixy-led plus best collections of ‘raw’ fairy experiences. in Manhattan. After writing and Should we associate this, as Mac Manus does, directing pornographic films under BM was, in 1935, a 19-year-old Irish girl with ‘the stray sod’, an Irish version of being pseudonyms, he made his debut working in a house at the base of the fort pixy-led? We have looked at being pixy-led under his own name with the ultra- of Lis Ard in County Mayo. One afternoon, previously (FT323:25) and that experience low-budget shocker The Last House she went out for a walk that took her up typically involves stumbling around a known on the Left (1972), about a gang of through the fort, and there on place that suddenly becomes psychotic killers who rape, torture the heights she had a strange unfamiliar. What happened and murder two teenage girls, only experience. Crossing the fort, sHe KepT pROBiNG to BM might be better called to meet a more horrific fate at the she walked through a narrow THe BANK iN ‘pixy-led plus’: involuntary hands of the girls’ parents. His gap into a prehistoric ditch movements, invisible walls, follow-up, The Hills Have Eyes (1977), and then along that ditch. At A CeAseless an inability to communicate about cannibalistic mutants stalking the end of the ditch she felt with people who are walking a suburban family who have become a ‘muscular jerk’ and found eFFORT TO FiNd close by and invisibility to stranded in the desert, established herself involuntarily returned A WAy THROuGH those outside the space. Some his reputation as a cult director. to where she had come from. of these features turn up in Craven was a prominent defender She tried again and again to THe MAGiC WAll pixy-led experiences – there of the horror genre, which, he argued, escape from every point of this WHiCH sHuT is, for example, a terrifying gives people the mental equipment ditch but there was an invisible instance of a bark stripper near to deal with a frightening world. barrier around the area. HeR iN Torrington who was paralysed “You’re talking about the beasts in “Like a wild animal in a in a wood in 1890 – but they are the forest that come after you… but cage, she kept moving up not common. in a way that’s under control. So, in and down that stretch of ditch and probing In fact, the most interesting parallels would a sense, you can own the beast.” the bank in a ceaseless effort to find a way be with a number of the missing persons cases People were sometimes surprised through the magic wall which inexorably shut gathered together by David Paulides in the to learn that Craven was not (in his her in”. The magic wall not only trapped her United States under his 411 series. Paulides’s words) “a Mansonite crazoid”, but but apparently kept others out. Many hours master thesis is that something is kidnapping a charming, humorous man whose later, BM saw a rescue party sent to find her, people in America’s national parks: he hobby was bird-watching. When asked but they could not hear her cries, though she artfully avoids the question of what. But to name the thing that most terrified could see and hear them. In fact, she was Paulides has done a very good job at bringing him, he replied “my ex-wife’s divorce just feet away when they walked past her, together witness accounts of temporarily lawyer”. He is survived by his third quite oblivious to her presence. The ‘magic missing people who have experienced wife, Iya, and by a son and daughter. wall’ finally disappeared a little before 11pm extreme disorientation: in one case a woman Wesley Earl Craven, film director, born and she made her way home: BM had been saw people but could not communicate with Cleveland, Ohio 2 Aug 1939; died trapped for as long as 10 hours in a ditch on them… from brain cancer in Los Angeles 30 a hill. Simon Young writes on folklore and history Aug 2015, aged 76. The account appears in Dermot Mac and runs www.fairyist.com

FT333 25 www.forteantimes.com The Lizard Man of Scape ore SwaMp

In the spooky swamps of South Carolina lurks one of America’s most mysterious and menacing monsters: a seven-foot-tall reptilian terror with a taste for trashing motor vehicles. BENJAMIN RADFORD sets out in search of the elusive Lee County Lizard Man…

mong the mysterious tours, selling autographs, and making creatures said to lurk in media appearances”. 1 the remote regions of North What began as a local curiosity blew America, the Lizard Man is up as national and international news surely among the strangest. media got wind of the story. Television a The monster goes by several shows from Good Morning America to the names, including the South Oprah Winfrey Show called; newspapers Carolina Lizard Man, the Lizard Man and magazines, including Time, People, of Scape Ore Swamp, and the Lizard The Los Angeles Times, and Charlotte Man of Lee County. Whatever you call Observer, all clamoured for a story. By the beast, it’s something no one would one estimate, 50,000 people visited want to encounter: Seven feet (2m) tall, Bishopville in the weeks and months powerful, aggressive, incredibly fast, and following Davis’s sighting, creating a – according to some – with a penchant booming crypto-tourism business that for chewing on automobiles. It was fi rst survives to this day, trading in T-shirts, sighted near a butterbean fi eld in a hats, mugs, fi gurines, and Lizard spooky area called Scape Ore Swamp Man hamburgers. Several reports of (originally named Escaped the Lizard Man were proven hoaxes Whore Swamp). – including faked footprints created Most monsters have one signature because a local man wanted to keep the world-class sighting to their credit. For story alive. Bigfoot, the gold standard is Roger Despite, or perhaps because of, all Patterson and Bob Gimlin’s 1967 sighting the publicity surrounding the Lizard and fi lm; for the chupacabras, the Man, relatively little critical scrutiny has best evidence is eyewitness Madelyne been brought to bear on Chris Davis’s Tolentino’s seminal 1995 account; for original sighting over the years, and his Champ – the Lake Champlain monster remarkable story merits a closer look. – it’s Sandra Mansi’s 1977 sighting; and so on. In the small South Carolina CHRIS MEETS THE LIZARD MAN town of Bishopville, a teenager named Here is the story Chris Davis told: Christopher Davis is considered the “Driving home from his job, he had godfather of Lizard Man lore; his run over something sharp near the dramatic sighting in the early hours of swamp, which caused a fl at tire. Just a summer morning in 1988 remains the as he fi nished changing the wheel, he definitive account of the creature (a suddenly heard a noise and looked full report appeared in FT51:34-36) and “HELOOKEDACROSS across a moonlit butterbean fi eld and saw appeared in the Sumter (SC) Item of 20 July something that stood more than seven feet

1988, pictured at right). tall. According to Davis’s report on the mLINSON / geTTy ImAgeS TO Though a handful of others have reported AMOONLITFIELDAND Associated Press wire service, the creature the beast, most of these cases were not fi rst- ‘was about 25 yards away and I saw red eyes hand eyewitness sightings but reports of SAWSOMETHING glowing. I ran to the car and as I locked it, damaged, mangled metal attributed after the thing grabbed the door handle. I could the fact to the Lizard Man. Davis is credited see him from the neck down – the three big with spawning the legend and indeed MORETHANSEVEN fi ngers, long black nails and green rough “became somewhat of a celebrity over this skin. It was strong and angry. I looked in my sighting... [he] was taken under the wing FEETTALL...” mirror and saw a blur of green running. I

of a local talent agent who had him doing could see his eyes and then he jumped on ILLUSTRATION: eTIeNNe gILfILLAN / ALeX

26 fT333 www.forteantimes.com

JImmy S emeRSON, DVm

ABOVE LEFT: The road to Scape Ore Swamp. ABOVE RIGHT: The spot by the swamp where Christopher Davis stopped to change a fl at tyre. BELOW: early press coverage of the story made a link between the Lee County Lizard man and the ‘gill man’ from the Creature from the Black Lagoon fi lm.

the roof of my car. I thought I heard a grunt A CLOSER LOOK could have been a bear with wet, green mud and then I could see his fi ngers through the It all makes for a vivid and compelling story, covering its fur.” 6 Davis also gave different rear windshield, where they curled around on but several important aspects wither under accounts of how far away the creature was the roof. I sped up and swerved to shake the sceptical scrutiny. For example – contrary when he fi rst saw it, and other details. creature off.” to Sheriff Truesdale’s statement – Davis’s Another account from the local newspaper, Dolores Riccio and Joan Bingham pick story had in fact changed several times in The (Sumter) Item of 20 July 1988, offered a up the account in their book More Haunted the months and years following the sighting: somewhat different version in an interview Houses: “A shaken Davis reached home, ran “As he told and retold the story some of with Davis conducted at the site of his in, and told his father. Together they went to the details changed. For instance, while he sighting: “‘I had just put the tyre in the trunk inspect the car for damage. The fi rst thing fi rst said the creature had scales, he later when I see this thing coming from those trees they found was that the side mirror had been said the creature was caked with mud...” 5 (about 50 yards away), kicking up dust as it terribly twisted. When Chris Davis’s father As Lyle Blackburn notes in his book Lizard ran.’ He said the creature grabbed the car looked at the roof of the car, he found deep Man: The True Story of the Bishopville Monster, door just as Davis sped off. When he reached scratches penetrating the paint and even Davis “didn’t discount the possibility that it 40mph (64/kmh), he said he noticed it had denting the metal.” 2 caught up with him. ‘I looked Davis’s story was endorsed in the rear-view mirror and I by local sheriff Liston saw something, and heard a Truesdale. Part of the reason crash on the roof’”. 7 that Sheriff Truesdale found This version is puzzling Davis credible is that his story not only for the details it never wavered or varied: includes but for those it “What impressed me was that leaves out. Davis states that he told the same story every he sees the Lizard Man time. And he had to tell the under some trees running story over and over again toward him and “kicking to the media and others. If up dust”. This is a curious you’re lying, you can’t tell detail, partly because the same story twice,” said swamps are not known for Truesdale of Davis. 3 being particularly dusty, Not only that, but some and partly because Davis is sources claim that Davis was claiming to have seen dust administered a polygraph (lie being kicked up in near- detector) test by police in an darkness from 50 yards away effort to get to the bottom of – half the length of a football the mystery: “Christopher fi eld, and twice as far away Davis drew an image of the as he claimed in other being that attacked his car accounts. There’s no mention and got wired up for the test. of the three green fi ngers A series of questions about he later saw clinging to the the event were put to him car as he drove, terrified, at and Christopher answered 40mph trying to shake off them without hesitation. the creature. Although believing that Furthermore Davis’s claim they were victims of an that he saw “a blur of green” imagination gone wild, the coming at him as he drove officers administrating the away cannot be true. Car lie detector test and Liston taillights are red, not white, soon realised otherwise. and thus everything just Christopher had passed the behind Davis’s car would be test with fl ying colours”. 4 bathed in a red hue giving

28 fT333 www.forteantimes.com LEFT: Christopher Davis’s sketch of the creature he claimed pursued him as he drove away.

supernatural and cryptozoological creatures including chupacabras, the Mothman, and even Satan (one source notes that Davis at fi rst thought he was seeing the Devil himself because of the red eyes).

• How, exactly, did Davis even see the Lizard Man creature at 2am? The area is a swamp, and therefore there was little or no ambient, available light from any nearby houses, businesses or buildings (Lyle Blackburn states that “there were no houses for at least a half mile”). This was and is a very rural area, and photographs of the scene taken at the time show no streetlights. Most writers and researchers have ignored this issue, though a few note that perhaps Davis saw the creature by moonlight. This seems plausible until you consider that the area is overgrown with trees, as swamps tend to be; if the creature emerged from the swamp and under trees (as he claimed in one interview), it would have been hidden in shadows cast by the trees above. I consulted an almanac to determine what phase the Moon was in that night. It was not full, but nearly so. Even under the best of circumstances the Moon is not very bright; an ordinary person might be able to see some details at close range under a full Moon, assuming the moonlight was not blocked from above, but Chris Davis’s detailed description beggars belief. Either Davis’s eyesight was nearly superhuman or his imagination fi lled in many of the details he saw – or claimed to see. Try it yourself: try to describe details of an unknown object from 25 (or 50) yards away in near-darkness. Psychological studies have shown that under such conditions, the human mind is very poor at accurately perceiving, remembering, and reporting even basic elements of the experience. Our brains often “fill in” details a false colour. Davis could not have seen a with what we expect to see – not necessarily green blur behind him as he claimed because “ILOOKEDIN what we actually see – and we bias our both red and green are primary colours, reports accordingly. and nothing looks green under a red light; a light green object in red light appears THEREAR-VIEW • How did Davis escape from the creature? yellow, and a dark green object in red light The logistics of Davis’s account don’t add up; appears black. Though many writers have MIRRORANDISAW he claimed to have spotted the Lizard Man taken Davis’s description at face value, a bit from about 25 (or 30, or 50, depending on the of logic and research reveals that whatever SOMETHING,AND source) yards (at least 23 metres) away (in he did or did not see that night, several of his near-darkness), and that it caught up with important details cannot be accurate. If he his car even as it raced at a speed of up to imagined or assumed the creature’s colour, HEARDACRASHON 40mph (65km/h). A creature that could move what other details might he have imagined that fast would take less than fi ve seconds to or assumed? THEROOF” reach Davis’s car from where it was seen. It should have been able to grab Davis in the • How did the creature go from running in time it took for him to notice the Lizard Man, a forward direction to chase Davis’s car to running toward him on its “hind legs” makes see the details he described, realise it was having its fi ngers (not its toes) being seen little sense; lizards are tailed quadrupeds running toward him, close the trunk of his through the rear-view mirror? Any bipedal (with the notable exception of the Jesus car, go around to the driver’s side, open the creature running and jumping on the roof of Christ Lizard or common basilisk, which door, get the keys out and start the ignition, a car would land with its head, hands, and can run for short distances on water) and close and lock the door, get the car in gear fi ngers toward the front of the car and its cannot run bipedally. What Davis drew (and and speed off. Time it yourself in a vacant windscreen. Yet if Davis’s account is correct described) is simply not very lizard-like parking lot to judge its plausibility. somehow this acrobatic Lizard Man ended up – especially since it lacked a tail. Lizards with its fi ngers on the rear windshield. also do not have eyes that emit light; in fact • Why would the Lizard Man chase Chris If the Lizard Man was bipedal, as Davis no animals do, though the pupils of many Davis in the fi rst place? He was no threat claimed (and as represented in the sketch he animals can refl ect light if it shines on them. to the beast. If the behaviour that Davis drew), then his description of the creature The red eye-shine has been claimed for many described was accurate and typical of the

fT333 29 www.forteantimes.com creature, why is he the only person to claim sceptical, hard-nosed types who would see deception, not mistakes or false information. being chased? While there are other reports through any deception. If both the police and If Davis sincerely (but mistakenly) believed of something odd in the area, Davis is the a lie detector believe Chris Davis’s story, then he saw something unknown he would likely only person in the world to ever describe who is anyone else to doubt it? pass. such an encounter. Real, known animals Many reports state that Sheriff Liston have typical temperaments and repeated Truesdale administered the lie detector A CAR-CHEWING LIZARD MAN? behaviours: even the few land animals that test in the course of investigating the Regardless of any questions about the are known to be aggressive against humans incident, but this is not true. No crime was validity of his polygraph test, Chris at times (such as bears protecting their reported or committed, and therefore it Davis had one piece of evidence that cubs or apes defending their territory) was not a criminal matter; why would a was unimpeachable: the damage done to exhibit the same behaviour under the same police department spend valuable time and his vehicle. There were (apparently) no circumstances. If the Lizard Man had existed resources giving someone a lie detector eyewitnesses to Davis’s sighting, and little for years or decades in the swamp, surely this just because they said they saw something or no evidence to show that his encounter was not the fi rst time it had seen humans, and strange near a swamp? A little digging was real – except for the damage done to logically there should be dozens of reports reveals the truth: according to news reports his car, the “deep scratches penetrating similar to Davis’s. Instead, his is unique. on 18 August 1988, Davis was given a the paint and even denting the metal”. private polygraph test “paid for by Southern Another account 10 states that “the driver • According to one account written the Marketing Inc., a company formed by two side mirror was bent and twisted” and there year after the Lizard Man encounter, Davis Sumter men to arrange personal appearances were scratches on the car’s roof. In fact, “waited three weeks before he reported [the for Davis”. 9 (Tuten 1988). “mysterious” car damage would later become incident] to authorities”, 8 though he may In other words, the polygraph was not integral to Lizard Man lore, as later “chewed or may not have reported it to his father given as part of any police investigation or up” auto fenders would be seen as evidence immediately. Lyle Blackburn states that procedure (though an officer administered of its presence. If a seven-foot tall animal as Davis reported it to police on 16 July, just the test), but was instead a publicity stunt. large and powerful as that described by Davis over two weeks later. There seems to be no Because the test was informal, unofficial, leapt onto a car from a 40mph run, surely record of Davis mentioning his dramatic, and private, the results could only be given it would have cracked a window, or at least life-changing encounter with an unknown to, and released by, Davis’s promoters, who badly dented the roof of the car. monster to any friends, co-workers, or anyone could choose what information, if any, to In his book on the monster, Lyle Blackburn else until weeks after his experience. Even make public. Because there was no criminal asks: “How do we explain the damage to granting that eyewitnesses to strange events or civil legal matter being investigated, the side mirror and roof of the car? Sure, may sometimes be reluctant to come forward, there were no consequences to the outcome. Davis could have damaged the car himself this is curious behaviour. Polygraphs work (to the degree to which they to back up his monster story, but would Unfortunately, we may never know the do “work,” the machines being inadmissible a kid who worked for minimum wage at answers to these questions: Davis died in in court because of concerns about their McDonald’s want to bust up his own car?” 2009, killed in what police described as a validity and reliability) only when there This scenario is indeed far-fetched; however, drug-related incident, sticking by his story is some penalty for knowingly and falsely there are two other, far simpler plausible to the end. There are, however, several issues lying to an authority such as the police. explanations. The fi rst is not that Davis that bear on the credibility of his sighting. Being interviewed by police who can charge intentionally damaged his own car as proof you with a crime for lying to them is a very of his Lizard Man encounter, but exactly the THE LIE DETECTOR different situation than being interviewed by opposite: Davis accidentally damaged the car The fact that Davis passed a lie detector test your publicity team, who can simply pretend (perhaps through speeding or typical teen has become an important element of the the polygraph test didn’t happen if they don’t recklessness) and later made up the Lizard story, giving it the implicit endorsement of like the results. In any event, at best the Man encounter to explain it. Alternatively, the police. After all, police (even in small polygraph only detects signs of nervousness assuming Davis did in fact see something Southern towns) are typically assumed to be or physiological reactions to intentional strange and scary as he claimed, he could

ABOVE: Since Davis’s 1988 encounter, many local instances of damage to vehicles have been attributed to the Lizard man of Scape Ore Swamp.

30 fT333 www.forteantimes.com RETURN OF THE LIZARD MAN

LEFT: The mobile phone photo taken by ‘Sarah’. BELOW: A frame and enlargement taken from the video supposedly shot in may 2015

Davis, gained notoriety for his frightening back road encounter with a monster he claimed attacked him and his car. The creature was said to run upright and to have three fi ngers and three toes. Crude, three-toed prints Lizard man prints duly appeared. Sheriff Truesdale took all this mighty seriously, and the legend of an aggressive, possibly dangerous, definitely freaky creature lurking in the dark was born. The town embraced its native monster. Later reports of damaged cars, complete with teeth marks, continued to be attributed to the Lizard man. Documented cases of dogs causing remarkable amounts of damage to cars in attempts to get to a cat hiding in a wheel well were glossed over if a Lizard man attack could be invoked. Lyle Blackburn wrote the fi rst comprehensive book on the Lizard man in 2013. Blackburn expressed serious doubts about the latest encounters saying: “It appears to be some sort of costume or miniature model rather than a real creature.” Neither did he fi nd the video clip credible. While the Lizard man reports gained web SHARON HILL reports on a hits and popularity, no reporters bothered to recent rash of reptoid sightings contact Blackburn. The Sunday-strolling Lizard in South Carolina’s swamps... man story (based on just one email) was repeated by a myriad of web sites, with little research and no follow-up provided. ishopville’s infamous Lizard man Lizard man’s popularity is greater than ever made a surprise appearance on a thanks to his appearance on mystery-themed Sunday summer afternoon about a television shows, Blackburn’s book, and now mile from his old Scape Ore Swamp this latest fl ap. What the eyewitnesses saw, if Bstomping grounds. The sighting was anything, is undetermined. Telling a good story reported via email to the local news station and getting attention for it is easy. Supporting in Lee County, South Carolina, on 2 August the idea of an actual (and biologically 2015, accompanied by a photograph of implausible) bipedal man-like lizard is a big the monster strutting along a tree line. The stretch. Lizard man is a creature of legend, witness, “Sarah”, said she saw the creature not zoology – but the Bishopville monster has after leaving church and swore: “I am not achieved the status of a pop culture icon, so making this up”. The photograph, taken you can bet he’ll be around for a long while. with a mobile phone, is low-resolution, but the distinctive, pointed, lizard-like face, red REFERENCES Lyle Blackburn, Lizard man: The True Story of the eyes, three-fingered hand, and buff physique Bishopville monster, Anomalist Books, 2013; are clearly discernible, just as described in Personal communication, 3 Aug 2015. previous accounts. “Pit bulls maul Calif. minivan chasing kitten”, CBS The news report was updated the next day social media sharing and take their place News, 22 Aug 2012. www.cbsnews.com/news/pit- to include a video from an unidentified man as the latest bits of poor-quality evidence bulls-maul-calif-minivan-chasing-kitten/. who said he had captured what he thought supporting the claim of a bipedal reptilian “Something gnawed on this BmW, but it’s not so was the Lizard man in a short clip taken in humanoid living in Lee County. mysterious”, Doubtful News, 29 mar 2013. http:// may 2015 in Bishopville’s Scape Ore Swamp. The Lizard man (or Bishopville monster) doubtfulnews.com/2013/03/something-gnawed-on- this-bmw-but-its-not-so-mysterious/ The video shows a dark, human-like fi gure story began in 1988 when Sheriff Liston “Has Bishopville’s ‘lizard man’ returned? New darting among trees in the distance. The Truesdale responded to a call regarding video surfaces in case”, WCIV ABC News, 3 Aug photo can best be described as a person in a damage to a car parked in a rural area of 2015. www.abcnews4.com/story/29690324/has- creative Hallowe’en costume, while the video Browntown, South Carolina. The car was bishopvilles-lizard-man-returned-photo-apparently- is no better than the average “blobsquatch” described as “chewed on”. Witnesses came shows-fabled-sc-creature. clip – shot from too far away and too indistinct forward with reports of seeing a seven-foot Sharon Hill is an advocate for science and to be of any real value. Both pieces of tall, green or brown, bipedal creature with red scepticism but loves monsters. She is the owner of “evidence”, though, were prime fodder for eyes roaming the area. One witness, Chris Doubtfulnews.com. Contact her at sharonahill.com.

fT333 31 www.forteantimes.com easily have damaged and scratched the in the Scape Ore swamp early one summer latest. Why was Davis still driving home two vehicle as he drove away in a panic, swerving morning. The obvious explanations include a hours after his shift likely ended? Having through trees and shrubbery. hoax, a misidentification, or a genuine Lizard worked many years in food service myself, Yet there may be no need to speculate on Man monster. I know that workers do not leave when the what damaged Davis’s car, because though doors close. But a two-hour delay is unusual, the mangled metal certainly makes for a THE HOAX THEORY and suggests that perhaps Davis had not left dramatic story, there is little evidence that Could Chris Davis have simply made the work and gone directly home, as he’d claimed. it is a true one. Several versions of Davis’s whole thing up? Davis’s account is gripping, Perhaps he’d stopped off at a friend’s house, story state that his car sustained significant scary – and suspiciously cinematic. It has or was out having a drink or smoke, as many damage, alyhtough one early local news many of the standard hallmarks of a scene people do just after getting off work late at report offers the following: “When he from a monster or horror fi lm, starting night. reached 40mph, he noticed it had caught up with a car breaking down late at night on a Even though there was apparently little or with the car, but he escaped with no more dark and lonely section of road. When the no damage to the car, perhaps Davis had been than a scratch on his fender, Davis said”. 11 victim/eyewitness is almost through fi xing in a minor accident. As a 17-year-old working Not only do newspaper reports quote Davis the problem, he sees something terrifying the night shift at a fast food joint, it’s unlikely himself as saying that the encounter left in the distance: a monster that nobody has that Davis owned the car outright, and he little more than a scratch, but there seem to ever seen before! He rushes into the car, had only recently gotten his licence to drive. be no extant photographs of any damage to starts the engine, and the creature runs after Any damage to the vehicle would be noticed the car. A handful of photographs related to him; he guns the engine and speeds away. by his father and might jeopardise not only Davis’s encounter can be found – in books, Thinking he’s managed to escape, he starts his continued use of the car but perhaps his magazines, and on the Internet – of vehicle to relax – but, to his horror, he realises his employment as well. The idea of a teenager damage attributed to the Lizard Man in other, nightmare isn’t over as he sees a monstrous concocting some outlandish story about minor later cases, but I have been unable to fi nd hand through the windshield and hears damage to a car to cover up for carelessness a single image of damage to Davis’s car as a horrifying thump on the top of the car. or illegal behaviour is hardly unknown. a result of his encounter with the powerful, Panicked, he drives like a madman, trying Perhaps he had been drinking, using drugs aggressive, car-mangling monster. to shake loose the monster clinging to the or speeding that night and had an accident The absence of any photos of the only roof, and fi nally he does so. He rushes home, – one that was not severe enough to seriously hard evidence of Chris Davis’s Lizard Man wondering if it was all some horrible dream damage or disable the car, but enough to encounter is very curious. Surely, if the or nightmare – until the classic and terrifying cause a noticeable scratch. Perhaps in the car’s mirror was indeed nearly torn off and reveal: monstrous claw marks on the car darkness Davis couldn’t see the extent of the “deep scratches penetrating the paint and prove his story. damage, and he decided to come clean before even denting the metal” of the car were From a folkloric point of view, this story his father saw it the next morning. Or perhaps found, Davis and his publicity team would has several recognisable motifs that are used his father was awake when he returned home have eagerly circulated photos of them to in the traditional plot narrative structures and wanted to know why he was so late. bolster the credibility of his story; instead, of legends and tales. Of course, just because Though a hoax seems like a real possibility, they inexplicably neglected to photograph something sounds like it came from a movie there are more charitable explanations. the damage. On the other hand, if the teen’s doesn’t mean it didn’t really happen. But it terrifying encounter resulted in “no more does counsel caution before accepting such LUCIOUS THE LIZARD MAN? than a scratch on his fender” – as the original extraordinary claims. If it wasn’t a hoax, what, if anything, did reports said – then there would be no reason There’s another curious element to Davis’s Davis see? There’s little real evidence from to highlight an ambiguous, unimpressive story; in a big city on a weekend night, one which to draw a solid conclusion, but one part scratch that could have been caused by might expect a fast food restaurant to be open of his report that stands out is the red eyes, anything. until midnight or later. But Bishopville was a and locals have a few theories that might The inconsistencies and contradictions small town, and 29 June 1988 was a Tuesday explain that. A longtime resident who lives in Davis’s story, plus the matter of the night/early Wednesday morning. Though it’s near Scape Ore Swamp, Joe E Moore Jr, told polygraph test and the lack of evidence of car not impossible that the teenager was working one researcher: “I doubt very seriously if damage, should give even the least sceptical at a national fast food franchise until nearly anything ‘chased’ Davis’s car down that night. investigator pause. Still, this brings us no two o’clock in the morning, he seems more I think he saw a bear’s eyes refl ecting his closer to knowing what, if anything, Davis saw likely to have gotten off at midnight at the brake lights as he was closing his trunk, and BeNJAmIN RADfORD JImmy S emeRSON, DVm

ABOVE LEFT: Lucious ‘Brother’ elmore’s butterbean shed on Browntown Road. ABOVE RIGHT: Visitors to Bishopsville can even buy a sample of ‘Lizard man Butter Beans’.

32 fT333 www.forteantimes.com ABOVE: movie monsters may have influenced Davis’s interpretation of what he saw that night, as appears to have been the case with the Thetis Lake monster of 1972. by the time he had gotten into the car and THE HOLLYWOOD CONNECTION gotten it started, the bear had climbed on top ITWASASCALY Perhaps Davis saw Elmore, or something of it, which park bears are notorious for doing. else he didn’t recognise, and his mind raced Everything I observed led me to believe it BEASTWITHA“POINT to make sense of it, perhaps drawing from was probably a black bear in that particular a movie monster he’d seen. It may seem instance”. 12 outlandish, but there are precedents for just One intrepid Lizard Man investigator from STICKINGOUTOFITS such an event (this is part of the explanation the College of Charleston, Alicia Lutz, visited for the very fi rst chupacabras report in 1995; Bishopville recently and was told by several HEAD”AND“GREAT see FT271:30-35 and my book Tracking the locals that they had a pretty good idea what Chupacabra). Davis saw that night – and it wasn’t a Lizard Karl Shuker has noted that the Davis Man. It was instead a local named Lucious BIGEARS” report is just one of several encounters with Elmore, a butterbean farmer who had a shed reptilian man-monsters astonishingly similar not far from where Davis had his fl at tyre. incentive for Elmore to make up a story in appearance to the amphibious ‘gill-man’ “Lucious ‘Brother’ Elmore was a lucrative about encountering Chris Davis near his from the Hollywood fi lm Creature from the butterbean farmer, with 40-something acres butterbean shed that night; as Blackburn Black Lagoon movie. 16 It’s also interesting to of butterbeans... In order to keep his harvest notes, “It would certainly be coincidental note that a popular comedy/horror fi lm, The moving quickly, he dumped the beans onto that Davis reported having a fl at near the Monster Squad, was released a year before, drying tables in his shed on Browntown Road, Butterbean Shed on the very night Elmore and featured a Lizard Man-like creature. which he equipped with air-conditioning chased away a thief.” 14 Though Davis would In 2009, Canadian researcher and Skeptic window units to further speed up the drying have been aware of any passing cars from magazine editor Daniel Loxton investigated process. ‘In those days, not everybody had their headlights as he changed his tyre on reports of a monster in British Columbia’s air conditioning, and I guess it got so hot the dark, lonely stretch of road, it’s unlikely Thetis Lake. It was 1972, and according to sometimes that it went to people’s heads, that he (or anyone else) would expect to see several books, the monster was described by because people kept stealing the units right someone walking toward him in the moonlit eyewitnesses as a fi sh-like humanoid “with out of Brother Elmore’s shed,’ Al Holland, darkness from the nearby swamp. Any one of silvery scaled skin, sharp claws and spikes owner of the local feed and seed, had told us us could have been startled and spooked by on its head.” Two teenagers saw the creature that morning. ‘Well, he’d just picked up three such a sudden appearance, and in his panic emerge from the lake and look around; new units from the store, and people knew Davis’s imagination may have fi lled in the a newspaper headline the next day read: this. But he was determined to make sure no other details. This explanation also jibes with “Thetis Monster Seen by Boys”. According to one stole them.’” 13 the fact that there was little or no damage one eyewitness, Mike Gold, the creature “was Annoyed by the nighttime thefts, Elmore to Davis’s vehicle. We need not assume that shaped like an ordinary body, like a human stayed up overnight at his shed guarding his Elmore actually jumped on Davis’s vehicle, being body but it had a monster face and it new air conditioning units, sitting quietly and in fact in some statements Davis suggests was all scaly”. Furthermore, the scary beast alone in the dark to catch a thief. He was that he was not sure that the Lizard Man had “a point sticking out of its head” and “on a stakeout the night that Christopher actually did jump on his roof: “I looked in the “great big ears”. Several authors of monster- Davis’s tyre blew, and – when he heard the rear-view mirror and saw something. And I themed tomes cite the case in their books as car stop just 100 yards down the road from heard a crash on the roof”; “He never saw it a genuine mystery, possibly representing a the butterbean shed, he thought he’d found fall but eventually the swerving must have new type of creature. his culprit. ‘He walks out to the road, which worked because the creature was no longer Other than the pair of seemingly sincere is lower than the yard, so he’s up high, hiding clawing and banging on the roof”. 15 eyewitnesses, there was no other evidence in the dog fennel,’ Holland told us. ‘So he’s As Davis only mentioned seeing of the creature. Nothing of that size or shape standing there, he’s looking down, when the “something” behind him and was swerving had ever been seen in the man-made lake kid turned around and screamed and took back and forth through a swampy, wooded before or since, and the incident was very off.... Davis’ taillights refl ected in Elmore’s area, it’s possible that he scraped low-hanging bizarre. Loxton noted that the Thetis Lake glasses, causing an illusion of red glowing tree branches that in his panic he mistook monster seemed outlandish and suspiciously eyes’.” them for something in his roof. If there was cinematic (almost like The Creature from the Though not definitive proof, this account indeed a scratch on the car’s roof, that might Black Lagoon), and wondered if somehow the seems plausible, and there would seem little account for it. boys’ description of the monster had been

fT333 33 www.forteantimes.com influenced by something they had seen or heard. After careful research, Loxton discovered that though The Creature from the Black Lagoon had not been shown recently in Victoria, British Columbia, a very similar low-budget knockoff, Monster from the Surf, (1965, aka The Beach Girls and the Monster) had. In fact, as Loxton discovered: “Monster from the Surf played twice one weekend – and the fi rst Thetis Lake monster sighting was reported within a week! That’s right: local TV showed a monster movie about a scaled, humanoid gill-man attacking teenagers at the beach after dark. Four days later, local teenagers reported being attacked at the Thetis beach after dark by a scaled monster!” Furthermore, the boys’ description of the monster they saw exactly matched

the creature in Monster BeNJAmIN RADfORD from the Surf, down to the RIGHT: Lizard man T-Shirts and bumper point and the large, ear- stickers are available in a variety of designs. like gills on the creature’s head. This is an open- needs no explanation other than that and-shut case of people many monster sightings, like many taking their detailed UFO sightings, occur in fl aps that eyewitness description of gradually fade away. Chris Davis’s report a supposedly real, mysterious monster they causes without ever being – the most celebrated and detailed had seen directly from a movie. When Loxton found, and this explains its disappearance. encounter on record of the Lizard Man – is contacted one of the now-grown men about However this presumes the beast was quite literally incredible, riddled with both their sighting decades later—something unique. As with other cryptids, if it’s a real implausibilities and impossibilities. It may no other researcher had done before – the fl esh-and-blood animal then of course it be sincere or it may be a hoax, but in either man admitted it was all a hoax. They had cannot be a single solitary creature – unique event no hard evidence of the creature has described the monster they had seen in the animals do not simply pop into existence, been found. Davis is gone, and it seems that fi lm, and pretended they saw it in real life. and certainly not for brief periods of time. the monster he made famous is gone as Like all other animals it would need to well. Still, if you ever visit the small town of A REAL MONSTER? have parents, and in order for there to be a Bishopville, South Carolina, you can fi nd the A quarter-century after the events of that surviving population there would need to be Lizard Man – on shirts, caps, bumper stickers night in Scape Ore Swamp it’s impossible to enough of them to ensure genetic variation. and mugs. FT know what, if anything, Chris Davis saw, but For example it has been estimated that there a seven-foot tall Lizard Man is among the would need to be between 6,000 and 10,000 AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY least likely explanations. There have been Bigfoot in North America alone to sustain few if any credible reports in over 20 years, a breeding population. Bigfoot reports are BENJAMIN RADFORD is a and most of those were not actual sightings far more common than Lizard Man reports, longtime researcher and writer. but cars that sustained some ambiguous and simply from a biological perspective He has degrees in psychology damage blamed on the Lizard Man. This the Lizard Man’s singular existence is and education, and is author of phenomenon of assuming an unknown implausible in the extreme. eight books including Tracking creature’s presence from ambiguous An alternative explanation is that the the Chupacabra, Scientific indirect evidence is not uncommon in Lizard Man never existed in the fi rst place, Paranormal Investigation: How to cryptozoology. For example it occurred in and that its mythology was created by one or Solve Unexplained Mysteries, and most recently many chupacabras ‘reports’ in which the more misidentifications, misunderstandings, Mysterious New Mexico: Miracles, Magic, and animal was never actually seen but inferred hoaxes, or some combination of those. If Monsters in the Land of Enchantment. His Web from the presence of dead livestock (in fact that’s true, then the fact it is no longer seen site is www.BenjaminRadford.com. killed by ordinary predation). Unremarkable damage to cars in the Bishopville area that NOTES php/t-121492.html. 1 January 1989. of Charleston magazine, otherwise would have been attributed to 7 Sept 2011. Available minor vandalism or careless driving was seen 1 Dolorea Riccio and 5 Riccio and Bingham, 9 Jan Tuten, “first Joan Bingham, More op cit. Lizard man Spotter at http://magazine.cofc. as mysterious and alarming in the context of edu/2011/09/07/lizard- Haunted Houses, 6 yle Blackburn, Lizard Passes Polygraph”, the Lizard Man publicity. Pocket Books, 1991. Columbia Slate, 3 Sept man/. Why would a fully-grown, man-sized Man: The True Story of 2 Ibid. the Bishopville Monster, 1988. 14 Blackburn, op cit. creature only be seen once or twice and then Anomalist Books, 2013. 10 Blackburn, op cit. 15 Ibid. disappear? This fact can be interpreted in 3 Randy Burns, several ways. The fi rst is that the Lizard Man “Police: murder victim 7 george georgas, 11 www.missfidget. 16 http:// Lizard man witness”, “Bumps in the night?”, com/?p=3403 karlshuker.blogspot. was real, and was actually sighted by one or The Item, 20 June Sumter Item, 20 July 12 Terrance Zepke, co.uk/2015/06/coming- more of the witnesses but is no longer seen, 2009. Available at 1988. to-swamp-near-you- perhaps because it has radically changed Best Ghost Tales www.missfidget. 8 Ron Schafner, “South of South Carolina, lizard-men.html. its behaviour (from openly attacking and com/?p=3362 Carolina’s Swamp Pineapple Press, 2004. chasing humans and cars) and has been 4 www.cockytalk. Slob?”, Creature remarkably adept at hiding. Alternatively, 13 Alicia Lutz, “Off to com/archive/index. Chronicles newsletter, See the Lizard”, College it may have been killed or died of natural

34 fT333 www.forteantimes.com Daily Mail HHHHH The Daily Telegraph HHHHH The Times HHHHH the strangest family in england

In an extract from his new book, Great British Eccentrics, SD TUCKER tells the story of the real-life Addams Family who wrote poems, hunted ghosts and tried to paint cows to fi t in with the crockery.

obody writing a book about in 1903. A talented musician, as well eccentricity can avoid putting as a translator of French poets such as pen to paper in the shadow of Rimbaud, Rootham became an important Dame Edith Sitwell (1887-1964). influence upon the young Edith; it has been NNot only was she the author of suggested that without her governess’s perhaps the most celebrated artistic example Sitwell would never of all books on the subject – 1933’s The have become the famous poet she did English Eccentrics – she was also a member as an adult. Another influence that may of arguably the strangest family ever to have rubbed off on Edith, though, was have lived. The exploits of the three Sitwell Helen’s undoubted eccentricity. As well as siblings, Dame Edith and her younger translating Rimbaud, Rootham had tried to brothers Sir Osbert (1892-1969) and Sir introduce the 19th-century Russian mystic Sacheverell (1897-1988) were legendary, Vladimir Solovyov to the English-speaking so much so that tales of their eccentricities world. An inspiration for both Tolstoy and have often overshadowed recognition of Dostoyevsky, Solovyov had argued for a their very real achievements in the fi elds of synthesis of Christianity with Buddhism literature, music and the arts. and the teachings of Plato, and claimed to Seemingly, the Sitwells were attracted have had mystical encounters with a being to other unusual people like moths to a named ‘Sophia’, the very personification of fl ame. After achieving fame, for instance, Divine Wisdom. Edith and Osbert composed a questionnaire Rootham had a weakness for this kind to send out to any correspondents whose of thing, being drawn to arcane movements fan mail seemed weird enough to mark like Theosophy and its offshoots, engaging them out as being potential loons. As well in bare-footed ‘nature-dances’, and as asking for deliberately nonsensical tales oftheir becoming convinced that she was the information like the “Age, sex and weight reincarnation of a mediæval Yugoslavian of your wife”, and demanding they provide eccentricities have princess named Yelena. At one point, Helen passport photos signed by clergymen, the became abnormally obsessed with a dream siblings also made several personal queries overshadowed in which a giant leaf had emerged from the relating to the mental health of the letter- body of what she rather vaguely termed “a writers’ families. “Has any relative of yours their very real Being”; she asked everyone she met if they ever been confined in a mental home?” was knew what it meant. Many said they did, one such question; “If not, why not?” was achievements but, being English, were much too polite to the next. add out loud: “It means you’re mental”. Given this taste for the agreeably grotesque, it is perhaps no surprise that a striking example of the kind of curious MARCHING TO HER OWN DRUM Edith Sitwell chose to write a book about acquaintance the Sitwells liked to cultivate. The weirdest incident involving Rootham eccentrics, generously using the royalty- Coming from a difficult background – her and the Sitwells occurred in 1915, however, payments to help support a cancer-stricken insane sister occasionally tried to murder when the governess took it upon herself to friend of hers named Helen Rootham people – Helen fi rst became known to expel a demon – or ‘elemental’, as she had N ARCHIVE / GETTY IMAGES

(1875-1938). Rootham herself, though, was Edith after being appointed her governess it – from the family home of Renishaw Hall TO HUL

36 FT333 www.forteantimes.com

in Derbyshire. Built in 1625 and occupied by and passed through a doorway. Rootham life ghost. Edith had discovered the story successive generations of the Sitwell family later swore blind that the elemental had of the Drummer in a 1682 edition of Joseph ever since, the Hall certainly had plenty visited her again in bed that night, where she Glanvill’s tract Saducismus Triumphatus, a of time to acquire some ghosts to haunt its engaged in a “battle” with it whose precise book of witchcraft-tales that provided the lonelier corners, but the one that Rootham details have sadly never been revealed. fi rst comprehensive account of the haunting. claimed to have expelled was particularly Osbert wrote a poem about this uncanny The story, which has a fairy-tale air to it, horrible in nature. Edith apparently met it event called Night, and Edith herself was also begins with a Wiltshire magistrate named herself as a child; she heard lame-sounding inspired to versify by poltergeist phenomena, John Mompesson confiscating the drum of a footsteps dragging their way across empty her poem The Drum being based upon local beggar named William Drury. Robbed rooms, and on one occasion saw a door- one of the most celebrated of all English of his livelihood, Drury is then supposed to handle repeatedly turning around by itself hauntings, the famous ‘Demon Drummer of have cursed the official, leading to his home before the door burst open, revealing... Tedworth’ (see FT48:54-56, 202:38-44). The being plagued by poltergeist phenomena, nothing, other than the melancholy sound poem presents an interesting demonstration including loud raps and knocks. Seeing as of the invisible spook, limping away into the of Sitwell’s own peculiar poetic craft; often, these knocks seemed to play distinct tunes distance. she was concerned above all with the sound from thin air, they were interpreted by Clearly this was a poltergeist infestation, her lines made when read aloud, and the contemporary observers as being drumbeats and on a trip back to Renishaw during rhythm of The Drum is an extreme example caused by the supernatural agency of WWI, Rootham decided to play ghost- of this, for it is surely the only poem in the Drury in revenge for his instrument being buster, wandering around the place with English language to take its tempo direct impounded. Sitwell’s poem was supposed to Edith and Osbert saying prayers for the from the noises allegedly made by a real- imitate the sound of this unearthly tattoo – dead. Suddenly, standing at the bottom and lines like “Dust doth clack/Clatter and of a staircase, Rootham announced: “It quack/To a shadow black” do indeed sound is coming!”; whereupon the sound of the like the regular beatings of an invisible drum halting footsteps began once more. Overcome a black mist if you read them correctly. by a sense of evil, Helen retreated to join Edith and Osbert, the latter gulping: “It is appeared, floating CURIOUS GEORGE coming for us.” Seemingly, it was; a sound Renishaw Hall was apparently so full of like whispering waves fi lled the trio’s heads, down the stepsand spooks that it sometimes seemed the place and a shapeless black mist appeared, fl oating had more dead occupants than living ones – down the steps and interfering with their not that Edith’s father, Sir George Reresby brains in a strange, trance-inducing fashion. interfering with Sitwell (1860-1943), would have agreed. Sir Perhaps disturbed by all the praying, the George was a truly odd man, as we shall ghost then veered off at the last moment their brains soon see, but when it came to ghosts he was HAYWOOD MAGEE / PICTURE POST / GETTY IMAGES

ABOVE: Osbert Sitwell at work in the gardens of Renishaw Hall, Derbyshire. The family home’s numerous ghosts inspired some of the Sitwell’s literary endeavours.

38 FT333 www.forteantimes.com utterly orthodox in his opinions; he didn’t ABOVE LEFT: Reginald Farrer, way out East. ABOVE believe in them one bit. He accepted that RIGHT: The Sitwell Family by John Singer Sargent. people saw ghosts, but considered them LEFT: Edith and Osbert in 1956. hallucinations or “reverse impressions of something seen in the past, and now the curtain between two worlds, Sitwell projected from an overtired and excited was unsurprised to fi nd Florence Cook’s brain”, as he put it. Sir George simply saw discarded clothing scattered all over the fl oor spooks as silly ‘women’s matters’, caused behind it. The séance then broke up amidst by the supposed inferiority of the female shouting and abuse, but Sir George later nervous system. “Ghosts are sometimes met appeared in the pages of the Times and the with, but they are not ghosts,” he said. When Telegraph, where he was praised for having it came to his own wife’s nervous system, Sir exposed a fraud. George may have had a point: an unstable alcoholic and occasional ghost-seer with a THEY’RE CREEPY AND THEY’RE taste for self-dramatisation, Lady Ida Sitwell KOOKY (1869-1937) was given to explaining away any Whilst most of the Sitwells were more sleepless nights by reference to Renishaw’s than a bit abnormal on their own, it was spirits being noisy, kept an expensively- on a collective basis that the family’s true acquired hangman’s noose on display at the eccentric strength rested. Edith’s paternal top of her bed for luck, and squandered a grandmother, for example, Lady Louisa fortune of her husband’s money on a pet pig Sitwell (1827-1911) was an excessively she was convinced was psychic. religious woman whose favourite pastime was Perhaps Sir George’s cynicism stemmed driving through the streets of Scarborough in not only from his wife’s foolishness but also her coach together with a suffragan bishop,

RON / GETTY IMAGES from a youthful experience whilst studying kidnapping prostitutes (or, more accurately, BA at Oxford. Attending a séance arranged women she thought resembled prostitutes) by the British National Association of to require any underwear and that, even if and carting them off to a home for ‘fallen Spiritualists on 9 January 1880, George had they did need to purchase fresh knickers women’ she funded. Here, the whores were witnessed a notorious 24-year-old medium in case of ectoplasmic accidents, there was stripped naked, forcibly bathed by a burly named Florence Cook (see FT179:30-37) walk no reason for a 12-year-old spectre to wear matron to wash away their sins and then behind a curtain only to re-emerge moments such an adult undergarment. This time, dressed up like policemen, before being put later having apparently transformed into however, Sitwell had come prepared. When to work as laundresses behind closed doors. a dead 12-year-old girl called Marie. On a ‘Marie’ emerged from behind the curtain, Cousins and second-cousins provided further previous visit to the séance-room, however, he jumped up and grabbed her, establishing weird delights, most notably one Reginald George had noticed something suspicious that, beneath her shroud, the ‘little girl’ Farrer (1880-1920), a Yorkshireman with a about Marie – beneath her white shroud- was indeed wearing only her undies, thus cleft palate who turned both vegetarian and like robes, the dead child was sporting a no doubt allowing him to observe that she Buddhist after accidentally eating his pet cat corset. Pondering this fact later, George was unusually well developed for a girl of whilst visiting Japan; he became the world’s had concluded that ghosts were unlikely such alleged tender years. Tearing down leading authority on oriental rock-gardens,

FT333 39 www.forteantimes.com adopting the bizarre alpine-planting method and a tiny revolver for fi ring miniature series of quite unpublishable books whose of fi lling his shotgun up with rare Himalayan projectiles at wasps – devices that are still titles ranged from the wilfully obscure – The seeds and then fi ring them into cliffs in being searched for by his descendants. History of the Fork, The Use of the Bed, Leper’s order to lend an element of chance to his As an adult, his unsuccessful marriage to Squints, The Introduction of the Peacock into horticultural compositions. In 1913, Farrer the alcoholic Lady Ida sent him retreating Western Gardens – to the absurdly specific stood for Parliament, but lost after blowing further and further inside himself. Convinced – Domestic Manners in Sheffield in the Year his entire campaign-budget on fl ower-bulbs. he was always right about everything, ever, 1250, Rotherham Under Cromwell, Acorns as As a family, then, the Sitwells could take Sir George once published a pamphlet an Article of Medieval Diet and his analysis for on the entire world in the ever-popular sport pointing out to Einstein where he was going curing insomnia, The Twenty-Seven Postures of competitive nuttiness, but their only real wrong, and deliberately tried to alienate of Sir George R Sitwell. A weird mixture hope of a solo world-champion lay with Sir any visitors to Renishaw by having a notice of miser and spendthrift, Sir George was George. George, like Reginald Farrer, was a made, reading: “I must ask anyone entering perfectly happy to buy a mediæval Italian fan of gardening, devoting much of his time the house never to contradict me or differ castle on pure whim, but once attempted to (and his fortune) to planning alterations to from me in any way, as it interferes with the persuade Eton to accept Osbert’s school-fees his estate, constructing numerous tall wooden functioning of the gastric juices and prevents in the form of potatoes. Frequently, he would pillars upon which he would sit perched with my sleeping at night”. question trivial household expenses, buying an umbrella for hours on end, surveying his Appalled by modernity, Sir George his children utilitarian ‘presents’ like bars lands through a telescope, fantasising about became an expert on the Middle Ages, a of soap at Christmas, and yet when it came adding lakes and statues and bulldozing away period he thought better than his own day in to his own interests of landscape-gardening annoying hills which interfered with his line every respect, banning electricity from his and antiquities, money was no object. Even of sight. Today, visitors to Renishaw Hall’s presence until the 1940s, rationing visitors the cows that wandered through the fi elds beautiful formal gardens may well be pleased to two candles apiece during their stays, of Renishaw were not safe from Sir George’s that Sir George took such troubles over his and calculating Osbert’s allowance upon æsthetic attentions; he seriously conceived hobby; but most people will no doubt be the basis of the amount one of his ancestors the idea of paint-stencilling their hides with rather more pleased that his son Osbert took had given his own son during the years of blue and white willow patterns to match his equal pains over the careful presentation of the Black Death. Appropriately enough, he tasteful Chinese crockery. Sir George died in his father’s life-story in his fi ve-volume 1945- began devoting much of his time to highly Switzerland in 1942, though for him, in many 50 autobiography Left Hand, Right Hand! specialist historical research, writing a respects, it might as well have been 1342. DADDY QUEEREST JEEVES AND BLUSTER Osbert’s very funny book is a treasure- So eager was Osbert to portray his father trove of mad anecdotes about his parent. as a modern-day Don Quixote that he even Eager to present his father as crazy from gave him his own Sancho Panza fi gure, birth, Osbert related how, after inheriting Sir George’s faithful butler Henry Moat his title as a toddler in 1862, the young Sir (1871-1940). Moat may have described his George immediately began to feel a sense master as “the strangest old bugger you of superiority and entitlement. There was ever met”, but he was a little odd himself. the time, for instance, when travelling on a Described as resembling a “benevolent train with his nurse, that an avuncular old purple hippopotamus”, the burly Moat was man sitting opposite had asked him “And forever having bust-ups with Sir George and who are you, young fellow?” The enquiry was walking out on him before returning to patch to elicit an alarmingly precocious response: things up again. Moat’s chief role was to try “I am Sir George Sitwell, Baronet,” the tiny and curb Sir George’s madder schemes as tot answered. “I am four years old and the tactfully as possible. There was the time, for youngest Baronet in England.” instance, that Sir George called Moat into his Sir George’s odd ways continued whilst presence and informed him excitedly of his boarding at Eton between 1873 and 1878, new idea that, from now on, all knife-handles where he is alleged to have devised two “should always be made from condensed amazing inventions; a musical toothbrush milk”. Taking his time to ponder this bizarre N ARCHIVE / GETTY IMAGES

TO that played as you scrubbed your teeth, suggestion, Moat eventually formulated the HUL following droll response: “Yes, Sir George... but what if the cat gets at them?” When Lady Ida died and was buried in 1937, Moat consoled the household thus: “Well at least now Sir George will know where Her Ladyship spends her afternoons.” When Moat fi nally died in 1940, 43 years after fi rst entering the Sitwells’ service, Sacheverell, typically, thought he heard his ghost banging about in the pantry at Renishaw. When she heard this claim, Edith fondly imagined that Moat was returning home to check up on the poor neglected children whom he had tried his best to protect from their parents’ harsh inadequacies during their earliest and most tender years. These are marvellous stories. The only question is – how accurate are they? Osbert did not like his father, for a variety of reasons, and what must be remembered with the paternal portrait painted in Left Hand, Right TOP: Sir George Sitwell. ABOVE: Osbert’s autobiography portrayed his father as an eccentric on a grand scale. Hand! is that it is extremely partial. Nothing in it is untrue, as such, but Sir George’s

40 FT333 www.forteantimes.com numerous episodes of weirdness were stitched together by his unfaithful son in such a way as to obscure the general day-to-day pattern of his life. While he was undoubtedly very strange, for most of the time Sir George acted in a reasonably rational manner, and no doubt whole months would sometimes pass without him appearing to need a straitjacket. He was, for example, a well respected Tory MP, sitting for fi ve years in the Commons. I looked up the contributions he made there – there aren’t many – hoping they would be fi lled with insane ramblings, but they were not. In some ways, this is all most unfair; and yet, at the same time, Osbert’s skewed version of Sir George is undeniably a great literary creation. Exaggeration and selective quotation is, essentially, the method of all eccentric biography; a presentation of an unusual life with all the dull bits taken out in order to leave us with a heightened, slightly inaccurate, yet not untrue, portrait of the subject. You can make more-or-less anyone resemble a fruitcake using such a method, I would suggest – including Dame Edith herself. QUEEN OF THE GOTHS One of Sir George’s many unpublished masterworks was called The Errors of Modern Parents – a subject upon which he really was qualified to write, particularly in relation to Edith’s childhood. Sir George was not HAROLD CLEMENTS / EXPRESS / GETTY IMAGES deliberately vindictive towards his daughter, TOP: Dame Edith photographed in 1953 sporting typically mediæval-style garb and one of her antique rings. but many of his kindnesses seemed to her very much like cruelties. For example, genuinely concerned about her wellbeing, I, about whom she wrote two bestselling being slightly mad? Not necessarily. The Sir George allowed himself to be convinced books. So strongly did she begin to identify last word, as ever, must go to the formidable by misguided doctors that the 11-year-old with the Virgin Queen that Sitwell, fi nding Dame Edith, who in a 1923 lecture assessed Edith was in danger of growing up with both they shared a birthday, hired a professional her family’s reputation for insanity and a crooked spine and a severely misshapen astrologer to cast their charts for comparison. weirdness thus: “Let us speak of our madness. nose, thus condemning her to spend years According to Sitwell, the astrologer We are always being called mad. If we are locked up within a kind of artificial bodily tentatively concluded his client might well mad... at least we are mad in company with prison. Specially-made iron-lined boots and have been the reincarnation of Good Queen most of our great predecessors... Beethoven, a weighty metallic corset restricted Edith’s Bess, an idea she found pleasing. Schuman and Wagner, Shelley, Blake, Keats, movements during the day, while at night her As all this suggests, Edith Sitwell felt Coleridge, Wordsworth, were all mad in turn. legs were sealed within a locked cage that a very real need to engage in acts of self- We shall be proud to join them in the Asylum rendered it impossible for her to leave her reinvention, perhaps in an attempt to escape to which they are now consigned.” bed – even, as she complained, if there were from the miseries of her childhood. Deciding So, surely, would anybody remotely sane. FT to be a fi re. She was also made to wear a nose- upon life as a poet, she started to view herself truss, with two steel prongs constantly locked as different from other people and more This is an edited and into place against either side of her proboscis, ‘sensitive’. She believed, for instance, that she condensed extract taken forcing it to grow straight. So hideous did and her brothers were slightly psychic, having from SD Tucker’s new book this apparatus look that, callously, her hated access to what she called “a leakage in Great British Eccentrics, mother used to encourage friends to visit time” that facilitated prophetic dreams. She released in September Edith during her home-schooling lessons in claimed that, when asked as a toddler what 2015 by Amberley order to peer at the infant freak-show. she would be when grown, had answered “A Publishing (ISBN:978- With a childhood this gothic, no wonder genius!” a prediction that, it was implied, 1-4456-4770-8). All Edith grew up to be somewhat unusual. The had since come true. Determined to embark references can be found very word ‘gothic’, for example, is surely the upon the literary life, as a young woman listed within. (For a discussion of Sacheverell best way to describe the manner of dress she Edith began performing acts of faintly Sitwell’s theory that Adolf Hitler was a adopted in adulthood; long fl owing velvet embarrassing poetic pilgrimage, travelling poltergeist-medium, see FT293:46-49) dresses, fi ngers covered with antique rings, to Algernon Swinburne’s grave on the Isle of and strange, mediæval-style head-wear Wight and pouring libations of milk over it as AUTHOR BIORAPHY and golden turbans were far indeed from an offering to his soul, or leaving red roses on the usual fashions of the day. With her tall, the doorstep of WB Yeats and then running SD TUCKER is an FT regular thin frame, elongated fi ngers, unusual nose away. whose most recent books (in spite of the childhood truss) and even Because of such eccentricities, it remains are Great British Eccentrics more unusual outfits, Edith certainly made an inescapable fact that the Sitwells are and (forthcoming) The Hidden a striking fi gure, and, to many, a strikingly today more celebrated for their bizarre Folk. Currently at work on a ridiculous one. Ever the self-dramatist, she lifestyle and humorous escapades than they book about forgotten science, eventually began claiming to have modelled are for their art. But is it really such a terrible he loves strange people, but only from a her appearance on that of Queen Elizabeth fate to be remembered by the multitude as distance.

FT333 41 www.forteantimes.com Tragic Songs from the Grassy Knoll A MUSICAL HISTORY OF THE JFK ASSASSINATION

The assassination of President John F Kennedy in November 1963 sent shockwaves around the world, but its impact on popular music and recorded sound remains largely neglected. DAVID THRUSSELL assesses a forgotten legacy of discarded vinyl artefacts.

watershed political ON THE MARGINS and historical One aspect seldom considered A moment, the 22 is the assassination’s impact November 1963 on music and the fi eld of assassination of John F recorded sound. A sincere and Kennedy approaches its 52nd global tide of grief greeted anniversary and still stirs the young President’s death passions and debate. (frankly unimaginable for Visitors to Dealey Plaza, incumbents of recent memory) in Dallas, Texas, consistently and a legion of scribes and remark how time appears wordsmiths hastily took up ‘frozen’ at the the scene of pen, microphone, guitar or the crime: little has changed baton. since that infamous date and Perhaps fortuitously, late a haunting stillness hangs 1963 also lay at the apex of over the fateful intersection. an era when recording and N ARCHIVE / GETTY IMAGES

TO Likewise, the momentous event record (LP and 45) pressing is captured in a mountainous technology (while never range of forgotten, discarded cheap) were accessible and ghostly vinyl artefacts. and many, especially in the

THREE LIONS / HUL No one can deny the seismic genetically entrepreneurial impact on culture, politics USA, expressed themselves and the popular consciousness of the A sincere and musically or in spoken-word form in assassination of the 35th US President. small editions or regional releases and Some sources assert that over 40,000 private pressings. Pop music, with its books (is that possible?) have been written global tide of commodified corporate parameters, that relate in some way to JFK’s demise, national or international marketplace scores of major and minor fi lms have grief greeted the and rigid schedules barely registered the refl ected upon the murder, and hundreds assassination (with notable exceptions from of documentaries have presented various president’s death The Byrds, Phil Ochs and a few others) but conflicting theories and versions of events. out on the margins, with less commercial Even select names or phrases (‘Grassy imperatives but considerable popular Knoll’) have seen their usage or cultural sentiment, hundreds of artists committed resonance forever altered, and Kennedy’s odes or laments to the fallen President slaying regularly appears (in some form or to wax, sometimes within weeks or even another) in such pop-culture touchstones as days. Where today a blog, YouTube post The Simpsons or South Park. or Facebook thread might register social While the public appears to be disquiet or topicality, in 1963 a troubadour, divided between those who adhere to singing group or organisation could tap into the establishment Warren Commission the popular ferment in recorded song or conclusions (or those of the House Select spoken tract. Media outlets were relatively Committee on Assassinations) and a wide few and generally inaccessible, but modest landscape of competing alternate theories recording studios were plentiful, and (FT72:30-33, 176:32-36, 292:25, 307:30-36), do-it-yourself or independent releases a it’s worth reiterating that there was never a roughhewn, entry-level democracy. trial and no one has ever been found guilty Perhaps unsurprisingly, Country music, of the crime (mainstream assumptions with its southern lineage, preternatural about Lee Oswald’s guilt notwithstanding). sentimentality and historical claims to

42 FT333 www.forteantimes.com ABOVE: Country singer Buddy Starcher (below) had a regional hit with his JFK tribute; it was picked up by bigger labels and spawned cover versions, including one in Dutch.

authenticity and sincerity, and #39 in the Pop charts, thus and apparently the fi rst ever singing cowboy spawned a veritable cottage evidently persuading Decca to appear live on television, at the 1939 industry of JFK threnodies. Records to license the master New York World’s Fair. McEnery turned his The exception that proves and rush-release an LP of talents to topical songwriting and became the rule is the notably bizarre sibling recitations, including a prodigious chronicler of current events in 1966 hit 45 ‘History Repeats toe-tappers like ‘The Fall Of A song. His 1937 ode ‘Amelia Earhart’s Last Itself’ penned, recited and Nation’ [a comparison of then Flight’ reputedly sold in the millions and recorded by journeyman West contemporary America and the has become a standard, performed by Kinky Virginia Country singer, radio fall of the Roman Empire] and Friedman, Joan Baez and countless others. personality and renowned ‘A Tax-Payer’s Letter’. For a time, Red River Dave was a genuine ‘pitchman’ Buddy Starcher Starcher’s song created cowboy singing star. (1906–2001). Over a stirring enough traction to result in Once in 1946, at a San Antonio radio rendition of ‘The Battle Hymn a charting cover version cut station, McEnery sat handcuffed to a piano Of The Republic’ Starcher by bluesman Cab Calloway, a for 12 hours (“not goin’ to the bathroom or recites a litany of eerie Dutch version (‘De Geschiedenis nothin”) and composed 52 songs. Moving coincidences and connections Herhaalt Zich’ naturally), a to Hollywood, Dave spent time in ‘talkies’ between the assassinations of Kennedy and parody by irreverent duo Homer & Jethro before roaming and selling topical 45s Abraham Lincoln. Like a tuneful James that chronicled further eerie coincidences from his car boot. Tall, with a white fl owing Shelby Downard (of ‘King-Kill/33°’ infamy), between Lyndon Johnson and Batman, and ‘Buffalo Bill’ beard, gold-sprayed cowboy Buddy intones his striking (and disarmingly a sequel, Buddy’s own and somewhat tired boots and a steer-horned Cadillac, during fortean) list with stentorian, authoritative ‘History Repeats Itself Part II’. the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s McEnery aplomb. Originally released in 1965 on waxed and yodelled about Lee Harvey his own microscopic BES (Buddy Edgar RED RIVER DAVE AND OTHERS Oswald, the Bay Of Pigs incident, the deaths Starcher) label, regional interest motivated Red River Dave is the kind of storied of Marilyn Monroe, JFK and James Dean, the independent Boone label to reissue the itinerant troubadour who deserves a book. Korean War brainwashing, Elvis’s mother, 45 (complete with transparent orange vinyl Raised as a cowboy “within a rifle shot of the Jonestown massacre and Patty Hearst promo edition) in 1966, landing this surreal the Alamo” in San Antonio, David Largus among a multitude of other, essentially lost, slice of pseudo-historical/political patter all McEnery (1914–2002) soon took up the guitar recordings. ‘California Hippie Murders!’ is a the way at #2 in the national Country charts and became a successful radio entertainer lyrically harrowing, journalistically accurate

ABOVE: Red River Dave was a singing cowboy and topical songwriter who tackled topics from the JFK assassination to the Manson murders and the Jonestown Massacre.

FT333 43 www.forteantimes.com retelling of the infamous Manson- Saturday Night: Volume One’ and vinyl. Allen was a musically inclined North masterminded Tate-LaBianca ‘Nudist Marriage’ (which veered Carolina Korean War veteran so moved slayings. Released while the towards the Neil Hamburger by Kennedy’s death that he made his only trial was still ongoing in ‘so unfunny, it’s kind of extant recording soon after. September 1970 on the funny’ style comedy). Similarly, southern Colorado construction homespun ‘Reveal’ label, 1968 saw Autry return to worker and weekend musician Phil Albo original 45 copies are sadly Country and record (with was so shaken by the assassination that he so rare as to be almost Bob Luman) his greatest immediately wrote and recorded (at the local mythical. commercial success, ‘The Gordon’s Music Store) his heartfelt ode ‘The McEnery’s homily Ballad Of Two Brothers’ Ballad of John F Kennedy’. His wife Maria to JFK, ‘God’s Game Of (nope, not the Kennedys), reports that Phil sent copies of the resultant Checkers’ (available for $1 a delirious cowpoke privately pressed 45 to Bobby, Jackie and postpaid at the time), made juggernaut of hyper-patriotic Ted, receiving in return “the nicest letter it to market just weeks after the agitprop that vividly portrays two from them, thanking him for the record.” tragedy; it’s copyrighted 1963, with brothers (one fi ghting/burning babies Sadly, just a few years later Phil passed away his then home address in San Antonio in Vietnam, the other a loafing campus from leukemia. listed as the label headquarters. It takes hippie) on either side of the Vietnam War Though contested, it is most likely that the appropriate form of a letter, delivered social divide. As entertaining a late 1960s ‘Johnny Rebel’ is the pseudonym of Clifford as recitation, from a gnarled, silver-haired time capsule as one could possibly hope Joseph Trahan, a Louisiana, Cajun Country cowboy to the son he never had (JFK Jr. to fi nd, ‘The Ballad Of Two Brothers’ was a musician. Trahan is infamous for composing – who ‘celebrated’ his third birthday the sizeable hit, #14 on the Country chart and and recording a number of overtly racist day his father was buried). Red River Dave #48 on Billboard. 45s for notable producer JD Miller’s speaks eloquently about checkers as a Nevertheless, by the early ‘Reb Rebel’ label in the mid-1960s. gladiatorial metaphor for the “great game of 1970s, Inman had been nabbed Spawned at the height of the life” and reassures John John that his father heading a massive operation Civil Rights era, these cuts was sacrificed so that others might live and allegedly pirating LPs received no radio play prosper. The song ends as the weary old onto 8-track tapes in but were apparently sold cowboy mounts his steed to deliver the letter Nashville and Memphis. under the counter at to a far-off post office where ‘Old Glory’ “still At trial, Autry (rather juke-box joints and other hangs” at half-mast. convincingly) argued establishments. Recorded Another talented but largely that despite decades of at Miller’s Crowley, unappreciated Country and Rockabilly hard slog, he’d never been Louisiana, studio, some singer, Autry Inman (1929–1988), plugged paid a cent in the music of the ‘Reb Rebel’ releases away at the Bullet, Decca and RCA labels business previously and was reportedly sold over 200,000 during the 1950s with little commercial determined to make a go of it, units in underground trade. success. He also rushed his catchy and really one way or another. Unfortunately, When cornered about his deep rather fi ne ‘The Ballad Of John F Kennedy’ he eventually did jail time and drifted stable of sometimes dubious recordings, onto the market via the independent Sims into other pursuits. Miller would protest that they were only label within weeks of the assassination. waxed as a “joke,” and the fact that Miller The cut was earwormish enough to receive BALLADS AND BLUES often recorded interracial bands and also sporadic radio play and decent distribution Innumerable other privately pressed or (over decades) a notable cast of local on 45, and later turned up as an album cut regionally released JFK homages exist. bluesmen only serves to muddy the waters. on an Alshire budget label LP. Some, like Leamon Allen Jr’s fi ne, folksy, Bootlegged and banned, with their ownership By the mid-1960s Inman had traded rustically engaging ‘The Ballad of John F often in dispute, these incendiary records are careers to become an ‘adult comedian’ Kennedy’ were completed so quickly that today available only via ominous sounding and cut spicy releases like ‘Riscotheque/ there is no fl ipside to the 45, just blank white-supremacist groups like the “Condor

ABOVE: Many Country artists recorded homages to the fallen JFK, including Autry Inman (‘The Ballad of John F Kennedy’) and Doc Williams (“Oh Why Do the Good Die Young?)

44 FT333 www.forteantimes.com ABOVE: Other vinyl responses to JFK’s killing included an album of Chicago blues, an Italian fi lm score and an instrumental tribute from eccentric British producer Joe Meek.

Legion Ordnance”. According to some researchers, fl eeting and For his troubles, ‘Johnny Rebel’ was The 45 commends distant footage (seemingly only available reportedly offered an honorary membership in this particular fi lm) depicts Oswald, in the Klu Klux Klan. On the rare occasion Jim Garrison and notorious assassination fi gure David Ferrie that Trahan (by day, a driving school owner) and future Watergate burglar and CIA wasn’t recording racist tracts, however, he his controversial operative Frank Sturgis, together training for showed himself to be a fi ne Country singer. an anti-Castro operation. If that is the case, His 1967 45 ‘Keep A Workin’ Big Jim’ investigation the theory of Lee Oswald as lone assassin (flipside: ‘(Federal Aid Hell!) The Money becomes essentially untenable. Belongs to Us’) commends and encourages into the Lauded Italian musician Carlo Savina New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (music director on The Godfather and (“Keep a workin’ Big Jim, we want to assassination composer on more marginal titles like Feast know the truth!”) and his controversial Of Satan and School Of Erotic Enjoyment) investigation into the Kennedy assassination. wrote the fi lm’s suitably funereal score, A spirited, swinging (and rare) musical which was issued in extremely limited rebuke to the Warren Commission, Trahan’s numbers on a Cinevox label LP. record nevertheless receives no mention in Garrison’s iconic book (the inspiration SELF-PORTRAIT IN RED behind Oliver Stone’s 1991 fi lm JFK), On The Parallel to all this musical activity, another, Trail Of The Assassins. even more subterranean industry thrived. From Doc Williams to The Country Though largely forgotten now, record albums Gentlemen, Jimmy Newman to David Price, were once seen as a suitable vehicle to legions of Country artists – big and small, capture and distribute audio documentaries, known and unknown – mourned Kennedy’s solemn lectures and apocalyptic tirades. violent, shocking death. Especially amongst those denied access Dispelling the illusion that perhaps to the mainstream media, LPs were used only white southerners grieved enough to to propagate often unconventional or put needle to wax, the 1964 LP Can’t Keep marginalised views. Running the gamut from From Crying: Topical Blues On The Death Of Russian/American Objectivist Ayn Rand President Kennedy proved that blues artists reading her short stories and delivering also penned tributes to the fallen president. tributes came from the USA, internationally philosophical treatises (she released at Largely recorded around the Chicago area the tragedy also left ripples etched deep in least half a dozen LPs during the 1960s) to in the weeks following the assassination, wax. Maverick British producer Joe Meek religious tracts denouncing hallucinogenic the album is composed entirely of emotive and his orchestra dedicated their spritely drugs (1966’s LSD: Battle For The Mind and African-American blues laments to JFK, and yet haunting ‘The Kennedy March’ to the 1968’s Instant Insanity Drugs among others) features well known singers Big Joe Williams slain president, and Scottish blues-rocker the battlefield of ideas played out on vinyl as and Otis Spann (whose ‘Sad Day In Texas’ Alex Harvey wrote (according to the lyrics) it did in print and on the airwaves. is a particular highlight) amongst a cast of ‘The Ballad Of JFK’ a week after the event. Oswald: Self-Portrait In Red is a 1964 LP relatively lesser known artists. Harvey’s song was unreleased at the time and pressed and distributed by INCA (‘The Fast forward a few decades, and just only exists today because of an acetate/demo Information Council Of The Americas’), in time for the 50th anniversary of the recording recovered through the deceased a group linked by some to the CIA. It assassination (22 November 2013), the estate of his manager. It paints a remarkably presents a 21 August 1963 radio appearance excellent NYC-based Norton Records sympathetic portrait of alleged assassin Lee by Oswald on New Orleans’s WDSU with (co-founded by former Cramps drummer Harvey Oswald, comparing him favourably to inserted commentary by Dr Alton Ochsner, Miriam Linna) issued Tragic Songs From The renowned and railroaded Italian anarchists Congressman Hale Boggs and Ed Butler. Grassy Knoll, a compelling compilation LP Sacco and Vanzetti, as well as murdered Ochsner was President of both INCA and the of obscure period Country songs mourning unionist Joe Hill, while hinting at darker Alton Ochsner Medical Foundation (he also JFK’s murder (the set doesn’t contain any forces behind the scenes. released an LP The Death Of A Smoker on the cuts mentioned here, such is the wealth of Rarely seen outside of Italy, the fascinating Waco, Texas, ‘Word’ label) and, according relevant and forgotten material). 1969 documentary fi lm I Due Kennedy (‘The to Judyth Vary Baker, he hired her, her Two Kennedys’) presents the assassination as ‘boyfriend’ Lee Oswald and David Ferrie INTERNATIONAL RESPONSES a domestic political intrigue at the nexus of to work in a clandestine cancer laboratory Though undoubtedly the bulk of Kennedy ‘Big Oil’, CIA malfeasance and mob muscle. to develop a carcinogenic bio-weapon to be

FT333 45 www.forteantimes.com ABOVE: Vinyl as a battlefield of ideas: the Kennedy assassination wasn’t the only topic addressed by spoken-word recordings. BELOW: The debate about the assassination, and the guilt, or not, of Lee Harvey Oswald raged across a slew of releases at the time. deployed against Fidel Castro. Uncountable other elegiac JFK Numerous other LPs of the period audio artefacts also exist, from feature that same Lee Oswald albums of poetry like JFK: 30 Poems radio interview (or another, less On The Death Of A President (on familiar one from a week earlier) Folkways again) to The Controversy with additional commentary. (on Probe/Capitol), a wide-ranging The privately distributed Hear! analysis of heatedly divergent Kennedy’s Killer: An Interview – Lee opinions. Harvey Oswald, The President’s We’re left with a vast and Assassin Speaks (on the Los Angeles unremembered archive, largely based Key Records, founded and consigned to oblivion, that run by Frank Sinatra songwriter sonically captures events, emotions, and John Birch Society associate recollections, grief, pain, anger, Vic Knight) and Lee Harvey Oswald pleadings, protestations, exhortations, Speaks (among others) alleged misinformation, disinformation, Oswald’s guilt. propaganda and a desperate yearning On the other side of the debate search for the truth; a plasticised are at least three LPs that feature ‘Stone Tape’ formed in cultural notable Warren Commission critic detritus and reverberant rubble; a Mark Lane: The Oswald Case: Mark catalogue of innocence and optimism Lane’s Testimony to The Warren lost. Commission (a 1964 double-LP box As the controversy around John F set on Folkways) and two different Kennedy’s death refuses to subside, so audio LPs documenting the (then these vinyl relics continue to whisper popular on campuses) fi lm version of Lane’s from the shadows. FT best-selling book Rush To Judgement, one on the well-regarded left-of-centre folkie All records, covers and images are from the Vanguard label (home to Buffy Sainte-Marie, collection of the author. Much information is Tom Paxton and others) and another on gleaned directly from the actual records/covers Happening Records Inc. themselves. Some of the records described can Folkways also issued in 1964 The Oswald be heard on YouTube and other corners of the Case: Mrs Marguerite Oswald Reads Lee Harvey Internet. Some can’t. Good luck. This article is Oswald’s Letters from Russia, wherein Lee’s far from exhaustive; no complete discography mother plainly states her opinion that her of Kennedy assassination-related recordings son was an intelligence “agent of the United exists and the above largely reflects the States government”. author’s own tastes and interests. Auschwitz survivor and left-leaning writer/publisher MS Arnoni wrote AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY presciently in an early 1964 edition of ‘conspiracy’ and ‘conspiracy theorists’ and is his fascinating journal The Minority Of worth perusing even today. Arnoni released DAVID THRUSSELL is a One about the assassination as a possible his impassioned 15 October 1965 speech musician/composer/ ‘deep state’-inspired regime change or at a Berkeley ‘teach-in’ (delivered while he writer/record label mogul/ subterranean military coup action. His clear was wearing a concentration camp uniform) fi lmmaker/closet-hillbilly who and provocative reasoning showed no sign on the privately pressed LP A Manifesto Of lives deep in the Australian of the Establishment Left’s later allergy to Belief In Man. outback and is best avoided.

46 FT333 www.forteantimes.com EXECUTIVE MSc IN THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF EUROPE

A part-time degree aimed at working professionals

European Institute The London School of Economics and Political Science, [email protected]

Visit our website to find out more: lse.ac.uk/ei/execmsc THE HIEROPHANT’S APPRENTICE PRESENTS cbUilDinG a c fortean library 4. A MOUND OF VENUS

plane”, both literally and figuratively, did not have wars, and were “kindly There was no one quite like the contactee George Adamski, and half a people who come to us more often in century after his death he remains as potent an invitation to spill ink as time of stress and trouble.” Leslie openly when living. It is strange to us that anyone, even in the early 1950s when he looted, and treated as fact, large chunks first burst upon an astonished world, took him at all seriously – that’s to say, of his ‘history’ from early Theosophists, literally. But as a supernova of the ufological firmament, he should be taken forerunners in their own special way seriously, although in another sense. His story, the tales he spun, the import of ‘ancient astronaut’ theory. What was of the messages he brought from ‘outer space’, and his sheer brilliance at most startling, and undoubtedly new to self-promotion, all illuminate his own times and the wider context of the the Anglophone world, was his lengthy history of ufology. And he casts an interesting light on ufologists, too. treatment of vimanas, the sky-chariots of the Hindu gods, later treated at great length by Richard L Thompson in Alien Identities (1993). But that was as nothing he first ‘must read’ volume here beside Adamski’s claim to have met the is Adamski’s first book, Flying occupant of a flying saucer in California tSaucers Have Landed. Some on 20 November 1952. background is worth reviewing Adamski said he had no more than a before looking at the book itself. It was hunch that a spot about 11 miles down the first published in the UK by T Werner highway from Desert Center was the place Laurie. Their newly arrived editor-in- he and his invited companions should chief, Ian Waveney Girvan, as a director start their vigil. But there they went and, at Carroll & Nicholson and Westaway after a light lunch, sat scanning the sky. Books, had not long before commissioned Then: “Riding high, and without sound, and published Gerald Heard’s The Riddle there was a gigantic cigar-shaped silvery of the Flying Saucers. Girvan was, if not ship, without wings or appendages of any obsessed, certainly deeply fascinated by kind.” The craft moved as if drifting in flying saucers: he had begun subscribing the direction of the group, then stopped, to a clippings agency for UFO-related hovering. Adamski felt that the ship had newspaper reports in 1949, and in 1954, come specifically for him, and on another along with others such as Brinsley le hunch demanded to be taken down the Poer Trench, became one of the founders road. Adamski was duly driven onto a dirt of Flying Saucer Review (later FSR). As road. After half a mile or so, fearing the Steve Holland tells it (http://bearalley. presence of his companions would deter blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/waveney-girvan. the aliens, he sent them back to their html), “Girvan’s arrival at T Werner parking spot, to watch from there. Laurie coincided with the arrival of Within five minutes, he saw a flash in a manuscript from a member of the the sky and “almost instantly a beautiful Anglo-Irish aristocracy, Desmond Leslie Saucers Have Landed was published in 1953 craft appeared” and settled on a ridge, (1921-2001). While he was touting his to a chorus of derision from reviewers, and Adamski took photographs. Then it book around various publishers, Leslie soon followed by massive sales on both lifted and flew out of sight. After some heard of a Polish-born American, George sides of the Atlantic. minutes Adamski realised that a man Adamski (1891-1965), who claimed to Leslie’s contribution amounted to about was beckoning him from the opening of have photographed alien spaceships three quarters of the book, and one can a ravine about 450 yards (411m) away. in the Californian skies and who later, see why, in the innocence of those early Adamski made his way toward the figure. in 1952, said he was taken on a trip to saucer days, Girvan would have been Only when he was within arm’s length of Venus by an alien visitor to Earth. Leslie intrigued. As his Daily Telegraph obituary the man did Adamski realise that he was contacted Adamski who sent him copies put it: “To Leslie, ancient monuments and looking at a visitor from another world. of his photographs and then sent him artefacts were proof of a sophistication “The beauty of his form surpassed a manuscript detailing his adventures. of culture and technology that could not anything I had ever seen,” he wrote. If Leslie submitted both his and Adamski’s be attributed to the people of their times. that raises an eyebrow and a quick flick of manuscripts to Werner Laurie...” Waveney The makers, he concluded, were evidently the eye at the closet, we should remember Girvan thought the two manuscripts were super-human – or came from elsewhere” that only two years previously Al Jolson too slim to publish individually, so he – that is, from Mars or Venus. Leslie (generally conceded to have been a bloke) combined them into a single book. Flying believed these visitors were “of a higher had had a hit with the song ‘I’m Just Wild

48 FT333 www.forteantimes.com About Harry’, which goes in part: “The in the US, and there seems to be no direct heavenly blisses/ Of his kisses/ Fill me with evidence that Adamski himself had Nazi, ecstasy.” No identity politics in those days. in booKS i HaVe Fascist or antisemitic leanings. But these The man was about 5ft 6in (1.7m) tall, connexions are provocative. And it’s ironic weighed about 135lb (60kg), and seemed traVelleD not to say the least that Girvan introduced to be about 28 years old. He had shoulder- the world to what’s been called one of length, sandy, wavy hair “glistening more only to otHer the founding documents of the (love-and- beautifully than any woman’s I have WorlDS, bUt peace-touting) New Age. ever seen”. He appeared to be beardless. Flying Saucers Have Landed was Adamski’s attempts to speak to the alien into My oWn certainly a seminal book. It spawned failed, but he succeeded in communicating a host of Adamski imitators, and still with a mixture of hand signals and Anna Quindlen generates ructions among ufologists telepathy. The first thing he told Adamski about the nature and causes of close- was that he was from the planet Venus. encounter claims. It is reviled by ‘serious The Venusians were there, he said, because mutual annihilation was real. But we also researchers’ as a hoax and distraction. But, they were concerned about radiation recall that tall blond humanoid aliens as we pointed out in the Dictionary of the from atomic explosions: too many of these soon became known as ‘Aryan’ or (less Damned (FT269:50–52), Adamski and his explosions would destroy all of Earth. provocatively) ‘Nordic’ types. Which brings cohorts set in train many of the themes of The saucer had not brought the us back to Ian Waveney Girvan. later abduction lore. This book is pivotal in Venusian – who on this occasion did not It’s not entirely unreasonable to wonder ufological history. divulge his name – directly to Earth, quite what, besides a simple fascination Having read it, you should promptly but had been launched from within the with UFOs and perhaps a good nose for download your free copy of Belgian atmosphere by the giant mother ship the market, decided Girvan to publish ufologist Marc Hallet’s A Critical Appraisal that Adamski had seen earlier. The craft such a patently dodgy work. The Aryan of George Adamski: the man who spoke to was powered by ‘magnetism’. Asked if he angel may have had something to do with the space brothers, written with Richard believed in God, the spaceman replied it, along with Desmond Leslie’s patronising Heiden. yes, but observed that Venusians lived notion that a great, spacefaring, peace- Hallet has spent decades picking the according to the laws of the Creator and loving race had built the world’s more bones out of Adamski’s claims, having not the laws of materialism as Earthmen enigmatic ancient monuments. The travelled that well-trodden path from did. People from the other planets in the key term is probably race, which leads believer to sceptic. Not much work is Solar System – all of which were inhabited to politics. Girvan’s own politics were needed to dismantle his former hero’s – and from other systems too were visiting so questionable that from 1941 the most outrageous tales, such as seeing lush Earth. All aliens were essentially human British security services kept a file on vegetation on the far side of the Moon, but in form. Some of their craft had been shot him (http://discovery.nationalarchives. he is exceptionally good in analysing the at and crashed on Earth. Saucers landed gov.uk/details/r/C11135023). One memo way Adamski set up his first meeting with only in remote places to avoid panicking therein, stamped SECRET, notes: “He is a Orthon and how (for whatever motive) his people, but the time would eventually right-wing extremist; is anti-Jewish; anti- companions signed false affidavits – they come when they would land openly near Socialist; anti-Communist and anti-war. simply could not have seen what they centres of population. There were numbers He specialises in spreading doubt of the said they did. The notorious photos are of aliens living in our midst already, and wisdom of the Government policy and thoroughly debunked, as are Adamski’s for this reason the Venusian refused to be our war aims.” Steve Holland (loc. cit.) stories of meeting John F Kennedy and photographed, lest his features become tells us that at Westaway Books, Girvan’s half the crowned heads of Europe plus the recognisable. Adamski was then allowed co-director was John Warburton Beckett, Pope. Even Adamski’s ‘confession’ that to approach the saucer hovering nearby, one-time director of publications of the he got into “all this flying saucer crap” but was not allowed inside it. After this, British Union of Fascists, and that Girvan solely because the end of Prohibition the Venusian climbed aboard his craft, knew Beckett “through his involvement kyboshed his bootlegging business gets and it glided silently away. Adamski with the British People’s Party (BPP), an hammered on the head. All this is backed prints affidavits from his companions –his anti-war party founded by Beckett and by interviews, documentation, and steely secretary Mrs Lucy McKinnis, Mrs Alice Lord Tavistock after Beckett split with logic. K Wells, Mrs and Mrs Al C Bailey, and Dr the National Socialist League in 1939.” Hallet also puts the late Colin Bennett and Mrs George Hunt Williamson – that Girvan was involved with other extreme in his place in a short appendix, describing confirm they were witnesses to all this. right-wing organisations, among them him as “not a serious critical historian” We would not be the first to notice the National Front After Victory, which and his Looking for Orthon as “not worth that the lovely Venusian (whose name, was “briefly allied with the, BPP which quoting.” Readers may recall an hilarious Adamski later revealed, was Orthon) drew the interest of people as diverse stand-off between Supreme Commander bears a distinct resemblance to an angel as philanthropist Viscount Nuffield, James Moseley and Bennett over the as depicted in Western iconography. fascist Jeffrey Hamm, and author Henry matter of Orthon at an FT UnConvention Magic technology replaces the impossible Williamson (also a former member of some years ago. Adamski is dead: long live celestial wings, but the androgynous Moseley’s British Union of Fascists).” Adamski! FT Orthon flies down from veHea n (the planet In that context, Girvan’s pacifism was of Love) bearing a message of peace – of possibly a trifle selective – maybe he pacificism, even. One can wax sociological would have felt a little more belligerent Flying Saucers Have Landed about this: the Soviets had had nuclear had the enemy been the Red Army, not his George Adamski & Desmond Leslie weapons since 1949 and, three days before revered Nazis. Nonetheless one can see the T Werner Laurie, 1953. Adamski’s alleged encounter, the New appeal to him of Leslie’s and Adamski’s York Times announced somewhat obliquely visitors’ anti-war sentiments, and the A Critical Appraisal of George Adamski: the that the US had detonated a prototype implication that the aliens belonged to an man who spoke to the space brothers nuclear fusion (‘hydrogen’) bomb on 1 interplanetary ‘master race’. It may be no Marc Hallet with Richard W Heiden, November; it was more than 20 times more than coincidence that George Hunt 2015 (various formats; free to more powerful than the fission (‘atom’) Williamson was an associate of William download from archive.org/details/ bomb that wiped out Hiroshima. ‘Cold War Dudley Pelley, founder of the antisemitic, ACriticalAppraisalOfGeorgeAdamskiThe paranoia’ is misnamed: the possibility of Nazi-aping Silver Legion (‘Silver Shirts’) ManWhoSpokeToTheSpaceBrothers).

FT333 49 www.forteantimes.com

SEND FORUM SUBMISSIONS TO: THE EDITOR, FORTEAN TIMES, PO BOX 71602, LONDON E17 0QD, UK, OR TO [email protected] haVe YOuR saY forum sdsdsvdsvs Dancing with the Devil

ChRis saundeRs wonders whether filmmaker Kenneth Anger really cursed one of rock’s guitar greats

never move again. Nothing will change. chris saunDers has written I often wonder whether that curse for FT on Welsh portents, the 27 actually worked, because Jimmy hasn’t Club, the Boston bombing and produced fuck all of note since Zep Chinese UFOs. He writes fiction under the name of CM Saunders. finished. Outrider, his one and only solo album, is truly average. I would love to hear Jimmy invoke his influences and ock music has always had just make some beautiful music. But its links with the dark side, the truth is, he can’t do it. It’s not that Rwhether real or imagined. he won’t, but he can’t.” One of the great proponents The notoriously difficult Anger had is Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, a history of cursing people; this time, his love of the arcane being well it seems to have worked. Every project documented. He even ended up living Page has been involved in since that in Boleskine House, Aleister Crowley’s era has indeed been a critical and onetime residence on the shores of commercial failure. What’s more, the Loch Ness, which Page insisted was perceived curse seemed to have had haunted by a spectral severed head.1 wider repercussions, as a succession Page’s fixation with the Great Beast of tragic events befell what was then was at least part of the reason the the biggest rock band in the world. cover of Led Zeppelin’s fourth album Singer Robert Plant’s five-year-old was adorned with occult imagery and son Karac died suddenly in 1977, the symbolism. Released in 1971, the non-appearance of several band mates record went on to sell 37 million copies at the funeral prompting him to quit and is widely regarded as one of the the band. The following year, Sandy best albums ever made. It was reissued Denny, who had sung with Plant on the last year. track ‘The Battle of Evermore’ on the Just prior to the album’s release, aforementioned fourth album, died Page struck up an unlikely friendship after falling down a flight of stairs, and with the filmmaker Kenneth Anger. then came the tragic death of drummer The two bonded over a mutual John Bonham three years later that

Michael PuTland / GeTTy iMaGes fascination with Crowley, the story ended Led Zeppelin’s reign once and going that they met at Sotheby’s whilst miser. He and Charlotte, that horrible nOTes for all. bidding on pieces of memorabilia, vampire girl. They had so many 1 http:// Yes, this could be nothing but a beforeitsnews.com/ and for a time became good friends. servants, yet they would never offer paranormal/2015/04/ tragic string of coincidences. But In 1973, Anger commissioned Page to me a cup of tea or a sandwich. Which updated-article- two things make this chain of events write and record the soundtrack to his is such a mistake on their part because hess-crowley-and- particularly interesting; Anger’s very 2 the-loch-ness- film Lucifer Rising, and later moved I put the curse of King Midas on them. monster-2487718. public curse, and the fact that it was into the basement of Page’s Tower If you’re greedy and just amass gold html common knowledge that certain House mansion in London. Everything you’ll get an illness. So I did turn her members of Led Zeppelin were heavily 2 The music Page seemed hunky dory, but trouble was and Jimmy Page into statues of gold recorded for the film involved in occultism. brewing. because they’ve both lost their minds. was later scrapped, “To people who practise the occult, In October 1976, while Page was on He can’t write songs anymore”. 3 and remained it’s not like Spinal Tap with a Ouija tour in America, Anger had a blazing Noted rock journalist Mick Wall, 4 (officially) unreleased until 2012. board,” says Mick Wall in summary. row with the musician’s partner who researched the episode in depth “To those who are into it, it’s serious Charlotte, who kicked him out on the for his A Biography of Led Zeppelin: 3 http:// as Judaism or Catholicism. The whole dangerousminds.net/ street. A few days later, the filmmaker When Giants Walked the Earth (2009) comments/lucifer_ basis of occultism is to invoke often, called a mystified Page and fired him says: “I interviewed Anger, and he rising_jimmy_pages_ or practice often. It’s not a once a year from the Lucifer Rising project. But talked about the big falling out in ’76 insane_amazing_ meeting in a forest. It’s all the fucking that wasn’t all. He went on to vilify when he put the Curse of King Midas unused_soundtrack_ time. Anger was always at it, and so was to_the_kenneth Page and suggested that the rocker on Jimmy. What that does is turn Jimmy. He’s still sitting in the same only ‘dabbled’ in the occult – the someone into a ‘golden statue,’ so all 4 Mick Wall’s latest room he was sitting in when Bonham book, Foo Fighters: implication being that Anger did that see you admire you from afar, and Learning to Fly, is died. The clock stopped for Page right more than dabble. Speaking publicly, can’t comprehend your beauty. But the published on 27 then, and he’s still there waiting for it Anger said: “He’s a multi-millionaire fact is that you are a statue, and you’ll October by Orion. to start again.” FT

FT333 51 www.forteantimes.com forum cryptoculture

The Cryptid Petting Zoo

roB GANDy attends an unsual event in Liverpool, and gets up close and personal with some monsters...

ROB GANDY is a visiting professor at the Liverpool Business School, John Moores University. He has written for FT on Merseyside dop- pelgängers, ghostlore, football curses and phantom hitchhikers.

was browsing the programme for LightNight 1 in Liverpool when my eyes settled upon The Cryptid IPetting Zoo in the wonderful Picton Reading Room of Liverpool Central Library. It stated that you could “see undiscovered animal oddities from around the world! Often thought to be creatures of myth and legend, this is a chance to meet some truly remarkable animals, with presentations from trained handlers”. Naturally, I put this at the top of my list. In the event, the room was packed, with parents seating dozens of young children at the front only inches from cages and boxes with labels suggesting that the Jersey Devil and a Sasquatch were inside – surely a tad dangerous if ABOVE: Beatrice Balfour III in the Picton any of these cryptids fancied a snack? Reading Room of Liverpool Central Library; On the balcony, I spied compere the Beast of Borneo is visible at right. LEFT: Beatrice Balfour III, dressed in Beatrice introduces Harry the Hybrid Hound. traditional explorer attire and BOTTOM: The Awful – caged, thankfully. reading the current issue of Fortean Times. Obviously, a lady of taste! She was greeted with a loud “Aaah!” from descended the steps accompanied by the audience, and was popular at the Harry the Hybrid Hound, a chimera subsequent petting session. – with the head of a boar, the body of The Mongolian Death Worm: Smaller a lion and the tail of a fish – who liked than I had anticipated, Bertie the having his tummy tickled. He bounced Mongolian Death Worm lives in his around the floor escaping the attentions handler’s airing cupboard. Apparently of small, clutching hands. this is the nearest thing in Liverpool Beatrice explained that to the climate of the Gobi Desert. cryptozoology was the study of hidden Bertie has something of a vicious animals and highlighted that this was temperament, and when he stuck his a rare opportunity for people to see so head out from inside his bucket, he many of them at first hand and in a safe bit one of the handlers with his strong environment.Then, she introduced five beak, releasing his electric venom.This more fortean fantastics: caused the light bulb she was holding The Awful: There was near in her other hand to flash on and. off catastrophe when the handlers almost Happily she recovered. dropped its cage. Fortunately the bars Baby Dragon(s): Tyson the baby were strong and it was only able to dragon was roused from his slumber growl and flash its red Mothman-like in his incubator, unfurling his wings. eyes from the darkness for the rest of All of the children knew that dragons the show. love gold and the handler wanted to The Wetlands Indigenous Mer-Pixie, demonstrate this to them. It wasn’t her or WIMP: This shy, nervous creature day, as Tyson greedily swallowed her uL MAnLey

PA answered to the name of Trixie and had gold ring and nearly took her fingers to be coaxed out from behind the covers with it. Attention then switched to s: JoHn to her cage. Her timid disposition, big the large egg at the other end of the To eyes and blue colouring meant she incubator which started to shake and PHo

52 FT333 www.forteantimes.com forum cryptoculture

LEFT: The Mongolian Death Worm (smaller than expected) and handler. CENTRE: A pair of baby dragons. BOTTOM: The shy Wetlands Indigenous Mer-Pixie, or WIMP, needed to be coaxed from the corner of her cage.

Beast was quickly placated with its favourite sugar lumps, although this required Beatrice, in the interests of dental hygiene, to clean its rather large teeth with what looked like a bath brush.The Beast performed some of its party tricks to the delight of the children, before Beatrice thanked everyone and said that there was time for petting the cryptids before they returned to their cages. And so finished a show full of visual fun, tricks and humour. I suppose I should add that the cryptids weren’t actually real, and

uL MAnLey were puppets designed, built and PA performed by the Headstrung Puppet Company (HPC), which consists of s: JoHn

To three puppeteers: Katy-Anne Bellis,

PHo Eilidh Bryan and Beccy Hillam, augmented for shows by trusted associates Aisling Leyne, Alice Rowbottom and Jan Rule.Their interests and skills complement one another: Katy-Anne focuses on choreography and costume; Eilidh is a designer and puppet-maker; and Beccy is the Techy. Puppetry attracted them because of the creativity it involves: there are no rules and much scope to experiment. HPC formed in 2012 and developed within the late- night cabaret/clubland environment of Liverpool, with acts including knife throwing, fire breathing, circus and burlesque. However, reactions to the (original) Beast of Borneo, who tap-dances to “Singing In The Rain”, encouraged HPC to broaden their repertoire by developing The Cryptid Petting Zoo as an indoor and outdoor street show for families, with humour at multiple levels. Eilidh says that she and her husband are keen on cryptozoology and regular readers of FT, while cryptids offer innumerable crack. Finally another baby dragon opportunities for puppetry. She and popped out, drawing another “Aaah!” her colleagues hope that The Cryptid from the audience and an interesting Petting Zoo will give children a sense of look from Tyson. wonder and inspire them to keep open The Beast of Borneo: Beatrice did minds about whether there might be the big build-up for the final cryptid, unknown creatures out there. the Beast of Borneo. She described its If any cryptozoologists or forteans habitat and how it was related to Orang want to add some cryptid puppetry fun Pendek. Unfortunately, neither she to their planned events, contact HPC nor the handlers had noticed that it at [email protected] or visit the had already entered the room, and was website: www.headstrung.org FT looming over them. Only pantomime cries of “It’s behind you!” made them 1 Lightnight Liverpool, 15 May 2015: aware of the creature’s presence.The www.lightnightliverpool.co.uk

FT333 53 www.forteantimes.com

SEND REVIEW COPIES OF BOOKS TO: BOOK REVIEWS, FORTEAN TIMES, PO BOX 71602, LONDON E17 0QD, UK. Thisreviews month’s books, films and games The modern shamanism More cynical observers of the psychedelic scene can dismiss it as fun cloaked in spirituality; others may see clear links to shamanism’s spirit worlds

more valid view of humans’ place into general problem-solving in the planetary environment. “Devereux writes (as the US military has done), Hancock rails against our about psychedelics or to probe the potential of our technological society, framing consciousness for telephony, it as ‘demonic’ because it treats being a tool to remote viewing and so on, is humans as production units to eminently sensible. further the endless cycle of birth/ contact plant Many of the contributors do school/work/death, a belief that intelligences” not shy away from one of the chimes with many Westerners fundamental truths of most The Divine Spark who take psychedelics. Divine psychedelics: that they are A Graham Hancock Reader: Spark is, therefore, a timely and pleasurable beyond imagining, Psychedelics, Consciousness, welcome collection of essays, consumerist culture encourages to the point of evoking states and the Birth of Civilization curated by and with contributions tools such as the telescope to of cosmic ecstasy – a state Ed: Graham Hancock from Hancock, examining how explore outer space and the which itself is worth the Hay House UK 2015 psychedelics interact with microscope to explore the price of admission to the Pb, 288pp, £12.99, ISBN 9781781805626 consciousness and where this can minutiæ of reality, it does not strange invitation offered by FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £11.69 lead us as individuals, societies look kindly on those wishing to psychedelics. and cultures – and what they explore inner space and altered Readers who see Hancock’s Graham Hancock is no stranger to mean for the future of the human states of consciousness via the historical revisionism as join- fortean topics. His examinations race. agency of psychedelics. Yet as the-dots New Age nonsense of ancient cultures and their Surprises include Russell several essays here make clear, need not worry. This is an mysteries in books such as Brand, a high-profile supporter psychedelics can be used in so intelligent collection of essays; Fingerprints of the Gods opened of the responsible use of many useful ways. Artist Alex unpretentious and sincere, avenues of interest for the psychedelics, though a debatable Grey, for instance, has used DMT written by people with an ontologically curious. More poster boy for the psychedelic to enhance the creative process, insatiable curiosity to explore recently, in Supernatural, he Renaissance. Elsewhere, Paul and there is now a worldwide who we are and what we might opened up discussions about Devereux, Rick Doblin, David community of visual artists whose become in the great mystery we the use of psychedelic drugs Jay Brown and several others work draws on drug-induced dwell in. The unspoken sadness throughout history. His interest psychedelic luminaries give altered states of consciousness. here, and a potential drawback to in psychedelics was triggered, their views and theories about There are also explorations of further exploration is that these as it was for many forteans, by the purpose of psychedelic more complex matters, such as remarkable plants and chemicals encounters with LSD in the 1960s drugs. For the general reader how psychedelics can inform how are, for the most part, forbidden and 1970s, in his case at the unfamiliar with psychedelic we perceive and interact with the and controlled by legislation 1974 Windsor Free Festival. That culture, Rick Strassman’s brief wider environment we live in, the with punitive sanctions applied experience left Hancock in awe but comprehensive essay about Great Mystery, and how we can, to those who would seek to of the potential of mind-altering how the curious individual should put simply, use psychedelics to manufacture or use them. substances, but it was not until prepare for the psychedelic help save the Earth. A naïve hope, That these substances are he was in his 50s that he chose to journey deserves close reading. perhaps, but many of the early largely harmless and have such explore them. The cynical observer of the environmentalists of Greenpeace potential for person and planet Not wishing to write about rapidly expanding psychedelic and other ecological organisations can only make the curious altered states of consciousness scene might easily dismiss the were inspired by the psychedelic question why this state of affairs without first-hand knowledge, ideas expressed here as just experience. is so and what implications it has Hancock embarked on a another excuse for people to Expanding on this idea, FT’s for our future as sovereign human psychedelic odyssey, taking justify taking mind-bending Paul Devereux writes about beings wishing to explore our DMT, psilocybin, ayahuasca, drugs for fun, cloaked in the psychedelics being a tool to consciousness in accordance with ibogaine and other drugs. These dubious mantle of spirituality. contact plant intelligences, such our will. experiences convinced him that And it may be. Psychedelics experiences being enshrined Andy Roberts the ‘spirit world’ of the shamans are not for everyone, but if they in shamanic cultures across the may be more relevant to the have taught us anything, it’s globe. If that’s too far out, then Fortean Times Verdict modern world than previously that what we call ‘reality’ is not David Jay Brown’s suggestion that wHAT GOES AROuND COMES thought – and it may also be a what it seems. While Western psychedelics could be integrated AROuND, uNNECESSARIly MAyBE 8

FT333 55 www.forteantimes.com reviews BOOKS

Ghosts The magic roundabout A Haunted History Lisa Morton Ufology (like fashion) is having a 1970s moment, revisiting the Reaktion Books 2015 Hb, 208pp, illus, £16.00, ISBN 9781780235172 theory that UFOs are caused by macro-psychokinesis… FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £14.40 Since beginning her career in 1988, Lisa that embraced. 305:56–57). Typically, Ouellet does Morton has worked on After all this time, I am not engage with the ETH, just film, television, short modestly confident that UFOs do dismisses it with waving hand, no horror fiction and not constitute a single anomaly. reference to or awareness of the novels. In recent years, I wonder if we have gone to a lot seminal writings on the subject she has branched out into the of unnecessary trouble because by the likes of environmental factual, Ghosts: A Haunted History, we keep trying to cram them into scientist/ufologist Michael D being her latest on paranormal one box, as Dr Ouellet (hardly Swords, space journalist/non- history. Trick or Treat: A History of alone) essentially does here. It ufologist Edward Ashpole, and Hallowe’en (2012) won the Bram Illuminations would also help if we stopped others. Like you, I don’t know if Stoker Award. The uFO Experience As a dragging in creaky concepts such the ETH is valid or false, but it is Morton manages to pack a Parapsychological Event as macro-PK, on its best days one reasonable working inference, lot into a relatively short book, Eric Ouellet a hugely speculative notion, to awaiting decision for the day proving her mettle as a writer explain anything. And let’s keep when all the facts are in, from the and her extensive knowledge Anomalist Books 2015 Pb, 223pp, bib, ind, $14.95, ISBN 9781938398537 “social stresses” out of it too. small subset of CE2s/radar-visuals of the history of ghosts around FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £9.88 There are always social stresses, that hint at the presence of a not- the world. That said, Ghosts and there is no empirically earthly technology. isn’t exhaustive; details on each Everything comes around demonstrated reason to link them A more modest, intellectually facet of ghostly history are eventually, and here we have to UFO sightings. If there were agnostic approach – perhaps quite brief. But given the large the revival of a largely forgotten such a link, the Middle East would the only one possible in our number of hefty tomes on the obsession of 1970s ufology. In be so thick with UFOs that all (ufology’s, culture’s, science’s) social history of the ghost, some 1975 Loren Coleman and I wrote concerned would be distracted current ignorance – may also of which go into excruciating The Unidentified, which captured from the pursuit of ceaseless, be a pluralistic one. What if the analytical detail, and are equally the spirit of the era: Jungian bloody conflict. One wishes. phenomenon of landing traces, excruciating to read, this is a theories and parapsychological Early in Illuminations radar/visuals, and multiple/ good thing. What Lisa Morton has UFOs. He and I soon moved on, Ouellet denies the existence independent witnesses is to offer is something for those relegating the book to youthful of physical evidence for UFOs, fundamentally unrelated to the who may wish to delve a little excess and embarrassed recall. thus apparently eliminating a extreme, high-strangeness cases further into the subject and not It still has its defenders, among whole category of cases (close so beloved of paranormalists and run the risk of being put off by them the author of Illuminations, encounters of the second kind self-styled psychosociologists? high-falutin’ discourse. Eric Ouellet, a Canadian professor and radar/visuals), though he The latter are the most thinly Ghosts gives the reader a little of defense studies and an active eventually addresses them, evidential, the hardest from which taste of everything, allowing them parapsychologist. if rather ambiguously. He to glean information, beyond to find what may be of the most In short, not much new here: represents CG Jung as endorsing the obvious one that it appears interest, which they then might macro-PK creates UFOs, and parapsychological/psychosocial possible to undergo really weird follow up in reading the more experiences of them are symbolic, views like his, while in fact experiences which, unverifiable complex histories and studies. generated in response to “social Jung distinguished dreams and in any conventional sense, live on Ghosts starts off trying to stresses”. This hypothesis, if that’s visions from real-world UFO only in memory and testimony, define just what a ghost is, a the word for it, persuades no more reports, which he suspected were however vividly and confusingly. difficult taskve gi n the various now than four decades ago, when produced by space visitors quietly Well-researched CE2s give shapes and forms the entity it passed out of fashion. Some going about their business. As scientists something to work takes. It then harks back to the of the original advocates woke he wrote in the last chapter to with, on the other hand, and such Ancient World, where ghosts were one morning with a terrifying Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth research should be encouraged, more deadly than they are now, realisation: their rejection of (1959, p150), “By all human not ridiculed into extinction. recounting the famous legends extraterrestrial UFOs would not standards it hardly seems possible Meanwhile, the absence of of the ghost met by Athendorus render them socially respectable to doubt [UFO reality] any knowledge ought not to give us in Greece, the epic of Gilgamesh if at the same time they advocated longer.” That Jung specifically free rein to insist upon certainties and the Witch of Endor. The something just as heretical, rejected parapsychological and that are nothing of the sort. Show Ancients certainly could spin a namely psychic phenomena. In a psychosocial theories about UFOs me real evidence that macro- ghostly yarn. blink or two they were promoting has not stopped either camp from PK, working through selectively The following significant part the “psychosocial hypothesis,” a citing his authority. defined “social stresses,” creates of the book is quite a refreshing shiny, freshly minted moniker for Unfortunately, Ouellet is taken UFO events, and we’ll talk. take on Spiritualism, where rusty, old-fashioned debunkery. with the late demonologist John Jerome Clark Morton gives the impression Some of us, on the other hand, Keel, whom many of us would she is somewhat sceptical of turned to scepticism of sweeping not have trusted with breakfast, Fortean Times Verdict the movement. Instead of the explanatory approaches, both as I’ve had occasion to document wHAT GOES AROuND COMES well-worn story of the Fox sisters those that dismissed and those in these pages (FT156:39–42; AROuND, uNNECESSARIly MAyBE 6 being given the usual revered

56 FT333 www.forteantimes.com reviews BOOKS

treatment, Morton chooses fiction filmmaking; a monolithic to touch briefly upon them, tome on a feat that seems mentioning other founders of the almost miraculous the more you why a duck? movement, who don’t get much discover about how it was done, attention in other books. the struggle towards something It’s not about Tunguska, the characters Perhaps the best part of cinematically sublime. the book is the space given Expressed through hundreds of are dead and the audience is uncertain to ghosts and spirit belief in images with dozens presented on other parts of the world, giving fold-out pages, the world Stanley a good sense of the variation Kubrick made at Shepperton the bombing of Nagasaki (cutely of ghosts in different cultures. Studios during the mid-1960s rendered in anagram – why?). Although the detail is brief, comes alive, with photographs Having your characters dead Morton reflects the richness and conceptual illustrations on gives them rather a privileged and quirks of cultural variation the film’s most groundbreaking perspective, which complicates well. She could very well have technical stages. their discussions needlessly. It ended the book here, but adds The most obvious thing that would have been better (since an extra dimension by exploring seemed missing was a ‘making the characters are presented scientific vein stigation of the monolith’ shot, so the genesis as fictional) tove ha them alive ghosts and their appearance in of the OOPART that kickstarted Tunguska, or the and simply gather in the senior popular culture via literature, humanity will (rightfully) retain End of Nature common room over port. film and. TV The chapter on its mystery. Michael Hampe is a Michael Hampe, trans. Michael Winkler ghost research is particularly The accompanying text is the German philosopher, trained good as it goes into great detail subordinate component, but Chicago UP - 221p at Heidelberg, and currently explaining the science and gives solid background to the Pb, 240pp, $35.99, illus,ISBN 9780226123127 Professor of Philosophy at ETH FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £24.50 function – and shortcomings – of lengths the crew went to give Zurich (that’s AY-TAY-HAH to all the gadgetry such as the K II form to the conceptual duelling First off, if you are interested in you). And oh, this book is so meter and Ghost Box that appear between Kubrick and Arthur C the Tunguska event, don’t buy this German in style! The dense and on paranormal reality shows Clarke as they absorbed a welter book. Despite the title, that is not florid text leaps around from like Ghost Adventures. The final of contemporary reports on space what this book is about. Tunguska idea to idea, packing in thoughts chapter on the ghost in popular travel and the implications for is used as a hook on which to and notions like fruit in a fruit culture may lead to the reader humanity of the existence and hang a series of philosophical cake. The translator has generally compiling a list of books, movies discovery of extraterrestrial dialogues between four fictional done a good job, but in places and TV shows with which to civilisations. As for unsung crew characters based on real people (a is reduced to citing the original scare themselves silly. members, a standout contribution philosopher, a physicist, a biologist German in brackets. Mandy Collins comes from Dan Richter, who and a mathematician), broadly This book is jam-packed with directed the ape performances, on the subject of Man’s place in ideas, and there is much food for Fortean Times Verdict and Joseph Gelmis, who got a rare Nature, how we can perceive it, thought. But… I am very unsure BRIEF, PuNCHy AND DOwN-TO- enlightening interview with the and how we should rationalise our who is the ideal audience for it. EARTH BOOK FOR GHOST NEwBIES 8 director. perceptions. Anyone without a good grounding Given it was all half a century The idea of using dialogues as in basic philosophy already is The Making of ago, some of the historical and a way of presenting arguments is likely to find it much too heavy Stanley Kubrick’s scientific research inevitably something that goes back a long going, particularly given the dense covers old ground (e.g. the way, most famously to Plato. It has style. The author thinks nothing 2001: A Space Fermi Paradox), but the deep some advantages, in that one can of firing off abrupt references to Odyssey perspective on the film’s use one character to put up straw- Heidegger, Kant, and so on. On the Piers Bizony development compensates for this, man opinions that can then be other hand, it isn’t an academic

Taschen 2015 with visual highlights including reasoned away from, and Hampe work either. It seems to be a sort Hb, 562pp, illus, £49.99, ISBN 9783836559546 the conceptual artists’ attempts makes the most of this, perhaps at of very high-brow philosophical FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £49.99 to fulfill the director’s request the expense of maintaining a clear jeu d’esprit. If that appeals, there is With Stephen for hardware, worlds and an alien thread of exposition through the plenty here to set you thinking. Hawking and design in “a shape that doesn’t book. But matters are not helped Roger Musson Elon Musk remind you of anything in a color by the bizarre setting in which warning of the that doesn’t exist”. Kubrick’s all four appear as ghosts on a fog- Fortean Times Verdict potential dangers of artificial vision and idiosyncratic methods bound cargo ship, three of them SOMETHING FOR PHIlOSOPHERS intelligence, 2001: A Space were too much for some of his apparently having been killed in TO CHEw ON, PERHAPS 6 Odyssey seems more relevant crew (and the critics) to bear, yet as we inch closer to sentient the near-miraculous achievement computers like the film’s HAL- has never been surpassed in To order any of these titles – or any other book in print – contact the 9000. Back in 1970, The Making of its genre, and this book is a Kubrick’s 2001 by Jerome Angel monument, both physically and in FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP provided tantalising glimpses substance, to that end. Telephone: 08430600031 Fax: 01326 569555 Email: [email protected] behind the scenes, but this Jerry Glover Address: Fortean Times Bookshop, PO Box 60, Helston TR13 0TP. new approach by Piers Bizony we accept all major credit and debit cards including Switch & Amex. Cheques or postal conveys the gruelling effort and Fortean Times Verdict orders should be made payable to the FT Bookshop. Delivery is 7–10 days, subject to creativity that went into history’s BlOwS OPEN THE POD DOORS ON availability. Postage & packing is free within the uK. most creative effort of science- A lANDMARK S.F. FIlM 9

FT333 57 www.forteantimes.com reviews BOOKS

Mind wars Traditional healing A History of Mind Control, Surveil- lance, and Social Engineering by the Government, Media, and Forteans, neopagans, environmentalists – and bioprospectors Secret Societies – share an interest in ancient indigenous plant wisdom Marie D Jones & Larry Flaxman New Page Books 2015 Pb, 240pp, £13.99, ISBN 9781601633583 FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £13.99 for forteans, neopagans and intestinal worms. It’s easy to environmentalists. speculate the plant might contain Marie D Jones and Traditional Belizean medicine chemicals responsible for these Larry Flaxman, the mixes ancient indigenous wisdom actions. But the Copal tree is also team who penned and Christian rituals. The used as an incense in rituals to This Book Is From The Conquistadors didn’t fully control tackle, for example, mal de ojo, Future, take a look at the Yucatan’s remote southern witchcraft and evil generally. Its how since the dawn of forests, including those in today’s resin also makes a nail polish. human history, from the Ancient Messages from the Belize. This helped Mayan Messages from the Gods Egyptian Pharaohs to the CIA refugees keep their traditions highlights how many medicines of today, the rich and powerful Gods alive alongside teachings imposed could be awaiting discovery. have used various techniques A Guide to the useful Plants of by the Conquistadors. Even today, For instance, the world’s herbal to control the human mind for Belize many prayers and incantations heritage might yield the long their own ends. Topics covered Michael J Balick & Rosita Arvigo for sick people refer to Mayan sought-after male contraceptive. include: Operation Paperclip, gods as well as Jesus. A ceremony Men in the Papua tribes of the Office of Strategic Services Oxford University Press 2015 marking the Day of the Holy Cross Indonesia traditionally used a (OSS) programme which brought Hb, 539pp, illus, ind, refs, £32.99, ISBN 9780199965762 FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £32.99 was initially “sombre and sacred” plant called Justicia gendarussa Nazi scientists, engineers, and with Catholic prayers, hymns and to control family size. An extract technicians to the United States It’s easy to forget how many rituals. Around midnight, the from J. gendarussa reduced for employment in the aftermath drugs have botanical roots. ceremony became a celebration the activity of hyaluronidase, of WWII; as well as the CIA’s Metformin, a mainstay of type 2 that included loud music, wild an enzyme that helps sperm MK-Ultra programme to create diabetes management, originally dancing, drinking and passing a penetrate the egg. Early results a Manchurian Candidate style derives from Goat’s Rue (Galega freshly severed, bloody pig’s head from clinical studies seem assassin. Jones and Flaxman officinalis). For centuries, from guest to guest. Balick and promising (see my article at are not simply just conspiracy European herbalists used it to Arvigo suggest that this may be a http://bit.ly/1LVciRs). Similarly, theorists, however, as well as treat symptoms doctors now recreation of a Mayan ritual. people in Belize use a mix of exploring the real life origins ascribe to type 2 diabetes. Aspirin The Belizean healing network four herbs – including Billy Webb of terms like “brainwashing” in is a modification of chemicals in encompasses shaman-like (Acosmium panamense) and skunk Mao’s China, they also examine willow bark and meadowsweet priests and priestesses (called root (Chiococca alba) – and a how the concept of mind control (Filipendula ulmaria the herb h’men – ‘one who knows’), village drink made of the mashed leaves has entered into popular culture previously known as Spiræa and ‘granny’ healers, massage of Tococa guianensis as male via films such as the Manchurian ulmaria – hence aspirin’s name) therapists, midwives, bonesetters, contraceptives. Candidate and TV series like The traditionally used for headaches, snake doctors and specialists in Since 1987, Balick and Arvigo X-Files. pains, and fevers. Pacific yew using prayers to heal. In addition interviewed “dozens of traditional The text also explores the (Taxus brevifolia) yielded to aches, pains, constipation and healers”, surveyed “hundreds creeping Orwellian surveillance paclitaxel, an important treatment the other diseases everyone’s flesh of local people” about plants state as well as some of the for breast, lung and some other is heir to, healers manage several and their uses, and collected positive impacts mind control cancers. Indeed, according to ‘culturally bound syndromes’, such botanical specimens from more techniques can have, for instance the Journal of Natural Products as mal vientos – bad or evil winds, than 220 sites. The book draws brainwashing yourself to be a (2012;75:311–335) almost half of or malevolent spirits controlled by on data collected during more better athlete, or hypnotising cancer drugs introduced between evil magic – maldad (a curse that than 8,000 plant collections by someone to quit smoking. the 1940s and 2010 are natural can prove fatal if not treated) and various groups. Messages from the In Mind Wars, Jones and products or direct derivatives. mal de ojo, the evil eye. Gods details some 900 plants. Yet Flaxman don’t pretend to have Not surprisingly, the rainforest Several traditional treatments Balick and Arvigo suggest that written the definitive text on is a rich source of new drugs – and seem empirically rational even the book may represent less than the history of mind control many pharmaceutical companies to a sceptical, scientific, Western five per cent of the knowledge and state surveillance; instead ‘bioprospect’. According to the eye, such as using the white, about plants in Belize. With the the 238 pages serve as a good Eden Centre, more than half milky latex of the Dog Balls plant destruction of the rainforest introduction to the paranoid the world’s terrestrial species (Tabernaemontana alba) to extract and other biodiverse habitats world of parapolitics, where of animals and plants call the parasites including beefworm continuing, Messages from the Gods secret societies and social rainforest home. Yet 99 per cent of and screwworm. Other plants is a sobering reminder of what we engineers control the course of these species remain unstudied. have ‘magical’ and ‘medical’ roles might be losing. human history. So, Balick’s and Arvigo’s book (although this is a scientific rather Mark Greener Richard Thomas is an important contribution than indigenous distinction). to the ethnobotanical, medical Preparations of the Copal tree Fortean Times Verdict Fortean Times Verdict and pharmacological literature (Protium copal) treat headache, ESSENTIAl MESSAGES FROM THE GOOD PARAPOlITICS PRIMER (AND – as well being fascinating wounds and sores, colds, and GODS – IF ONly wE’D lISTEN… 10 yES, THEy ARE wATCHING yOu...) 9

58 FT333 www.forteantimes.com reviews BookS

We leaf through a small selection of the dozens of books that ALSo RECEIVED have arrived at Fortean Towers in recent months...

The Sasquatch Seeker’s and argues that they had a tual destruction of its sea-going seems all the more welcome. Field Manual common ancestor in the people empire in a mighty catastrophe. Alice Karlsdóttir has championed Using Citizen Science to that colonised Egypt around This slender book is made all the the ‘Germanic Heathen’ revival Uncover North America’s Most 100,000 years ago, it comes as more exciting by dramatic full-col- in the USA since 1974, and here Elusive Creature little surprise that he claims they our illustrations, and would make presents a primer on the Allmother David George Gordon were descended from “the 4th an inspiring gift to any youngster Frigg, wife of Odin, and the 12 and 5th Root races of Atlantis”. interested in the lore and legends Asynjur goddesses associated Mountaineers Books 2015 Pb, 172pp, resources, illus, ind, $14.95, Classic Theosophy, reinvented of lost worlds. with her; in fact, these 13 form a ISBN 9781594859410 for the New Age; that said, it is model for constructing a coven. well written and well argued, but Nordic Goddess Magic Against this background, Karlsdót- If we were in a quibbling mood, probably addressing only a sympa- Alice Karlsdóttir tir, also a Master in the Rune Gild, we’d wonder why this book has thetic audience. Destiny Books 2015 outlines a system of meditation to have a rhetorical question on Pb, 240pp, bib, ind, $19.95, ISBN 9781620054074 exercises for each goddess. These the cover: “Does the Sasquatch Journal of Cryptozoology are extended into shamanic-type really exist?” The book’s exist- Vol 3, Dec 2014 The revitalisation of the ancient invocations and ‘direct’ experi- ence answers for Gordon’s belief, Asatru (Northern Paganism) in ences of their different principles Ed: Karl PN Shuker laid out in a selection of sightings the modern era is arguably less or personality traits. For good from USA’s Northwest Territories. CFZ Press 2014 well-known today than Klingon and measure, accounts of Frau Holle Pb, 97pp, illus, refs, $6.99, However, the main part of the ISBN 9781601633422 relatively sparely documented, and the Three Spinners are added book forms a comprehensive so this ‘manual’ from one of from the Brothers Grimm, and of guide for any would-be Sasquatch It is to Jon Downes’s credit that America’s leading practitioners Queen Olga from a Russian source. hunter; covering the planning and he has kept going this journal, mounting of search expeditions, one of the last remaining outlets equipment, the gathering of dif- for research into cryptozoology, FoRTEAN FICTIoN ferent kinds of evidence and, now edited by FT’s old friend Karl probably critically important these Shuker. Articles in this issue : The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Vol 1 days, how to disseminate any ‘The Thunderbirds of Western Ryan North, Erica Henserson discoveries and evidence you may Pennsylvania: Mistaken Identity or Marvel be lucky to find. Throughout there Migratory Cryptids?’ by Jonathan Pb, 128pp, £11.99, ISBN 9780785197027 is a sensible emphasis on proto- D Stiffy; ‘New Material on the cols and responsibility, on having Moha-Moha’ by Ulrich Magin; Batman, Spider-Man and even Ant-Man (at least since his big screen a sound scientific basis for your ‘Target Practice: Evaluating Avail- debut) are familiar names… but Squirrel Girl? You’ve got to be kidding, expectations and methods, and able Fine-Resolution Satellite right? respect for the wilderness. Imagery as a Potentially Useful Well, yes, a bit... sort of: this is a book that doesn’t take itself too Tool in Cryptozoology’ by Edmond seriously and is intent on having – and providing – plenty of fun: The Esoteric Egypt W Holroyd III; ‘Searching For the Dark Knight it ain’t, and fanboys of a grimdark persuasion should prob- JS Gordon Pink-Headed Duck in Myanmar’ by ably give it a wide berth, as should Gamergaters and others upset by Bear & Co. 2015 Richard Thorns; and ‘Bessie, the a noticeable trend toward inclusivity in geekdom. For those of us of Pb, 408pp, illus, bib, index, $25.00, Lake Erie Monster: Assessed and sunnier dispositions, this upbeat take on the superhero comic proves ISBN 9781591431961 Assembled’ by Scott E Strasser. hard to resist: while it stops short of deconstructing the genre, it plays Subscription details are on the affectionately with its tropes, sending them spinning off in unexpected Lauded by his colleagues for CFZ website: www.journalofcrypto- directions and making the familiar Marvel universe dance to its tune. his “deep insight” into the eso- zoology.com/ Our unlikely superheroine is Doreen Green, a chubby-cheeked, buck- tericism of the ancient Egyptians, toothed, first year computer science student who tucks her prehensile Gordon here embarks upon a The Wars of Atlantis tail into her trousers and has a female squirrel companion called Tippy- survey of the prehistoric origins of Phil Masters Toe. Doreen communicates with squirrels and “eats nuts, kicks butts”. the magical and mystical beliefs Osprey Adventures 2015 Her squirrel powers, and infectiously positive attitude, are tested by that underpinned its historically Pb, 80pp, illus, colour plates, notes, bib, ind, $19.99, ISBN college freshers’ week, a random encounter with Kraven the Hunter, and influential civilisation. Given that 9781601632913 an Earth-threatening visit from Galactus, Devourer of Worlds and wielder Gordon is a senior fellow of the After a fairly sound summary of the Power Cosmic. Doreen triumphs – I won’t say how – not so much Theosophical Society, it seems of the historical sources and by having super powers as through confidence, quick thinking and a inevitable that he focuses on the theories about the city-state and nice line in diplomacy: the results are uplifting and hilarious. Egyptian interpretation of reincar- its eponymous island, Masters This is a warm, witty and rather wonderful series suitable for all ages, nation and ‘spiritual evolution’. launches into an imaginative and a playful riposte to the idea that comic books are filled with pneu- Given, also, that he finds traces evocation of its conflicts with matic sex objects and violence. Included in the collection are issues of star and astronomical lore in peoples on both sides of the 1-5, plus SG’s one-shot 1992 debut, courtesy of a certain Steve Ditko. the other civilisations adjacent Atlantic – including the Amazons, Highly recommended for lovers of comics, squirrels and life. to Egypt and the Mediterranean, the proto-Athenians, the Gorgons, David Sutton whose purest form was in Egypt, and the Egyptians – and the even-

FT333 59 www.forteantimes.com reviews FILM & DVD

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ently neutral consideration of a phenomenon that is misunderstood if it is acknowledged at all. Unfor- tunately, the lack of context and of a basic structure to frame the testi- monies means that if one is to take anything away from the film at all one is obliged to make a judgement based solely on the interviewees’ statements (or even their charac- ters), which is desperately unfair. As forteans, we are all too aware that witness testimony is merely one source of potential evidence and often an unreliable one at that. By offering us nothing more, Ascher has barely dipped a toe into the deep and murky waters of this phenomenon. Daniel King Fortean Times Verdict a rather superFIcIaL Look at a FascInatIng subject 6 The Lobster Dir Yorgos Lanthimos, Greece/UK/Ireland/France 2015 On UK release from 16 October The Nightmare by Christianity, and evil; another designed to correct this imbalance, David (Colin Farrell) is newly Dir Roddy Ascher, US 2015 suggests it is an alternate universe but are rather flatly staged, a bit divorced, but being single is simply On UK release from 9 October intruding into our own. One inter- like those reconstructions in Ray not permitted in the dystopian soci- Sleep paralysis sounds like a self- viewee suggests that ‘alien abduct- Mears survival programmes where ety in which Greek director Yorgos explanatory condition, and in ees’ are merely sleep paralysis we see five men adrift on a lilo sur- Lanthimos has set his first English- part it is; however, that paralysis sufferers, while at the same time viving on rainwater and albatross language feature,The Lobster. The is accompanied by nightmares of resolutely maintaining that his own meat.The problem is that they tend grey and misty land may resemble a particularly vivid and frighten- encounters amount to a genuine to undercut the interviewees’ sto- rural Ireland but the regime that ing nature.This documentary, supernatural experience. ries of unbearable terror by failing oversees it is closer to the one that from the director of Room 237, the The condition seems to beset to stir up any real fear. After all, if bred children for organ donation mind-bending documentary about people regardless of gender, age, you don’t find the reconstructions in Never Let Me Go or forced over- Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, ethnicity or nationality, which sug- frightening then the whole premise 30s to their premature deaths in combines sufferers’ accounts with gests it is linked to human neurol- of the film becomes redundant. Logan’s Run. reconstructions of their individual ogy or physiology, as opposed to The familiarity of the images is The solution open to David – and terrors. anything supernatural, but director another problem. If you’ve seen every other singleton – is to be In fact, one element of the night- Rodney Ascher doesn’t provide a any the films cited above, or scores checked into a tawdry institution mares – the imagery – is common to scientific benchmark against which of similar ones, then the substance run by the evangelically married a number of separate experiences. we can judge the validity of these of the nightmares is not going to Hotel Manager (Olivia Williams) Multiple interviewees speak of other interpretations. It doesn’t appear particularly unusual. We’ve as a nightmarish cross between seeing three-dimensional shadow help the viewer to hear the physi- all had bad dreams, and most of Pontins and Borstal. Here, David figures, often accompanied by ological explanation being poo- us will have had nightmares in has 45 days to fall authentically in a hatted figure that seems to be pooed if we’ve not been told what it which we’ve tried to run away from love; if he fails, he will be turned superior to, or in charge of, the is, especially when the alternative something horrible but have been into an animal of his choosing and others.This imagery is similar to theories are somewhat outlandish. unable to. Surely this begs the let loose in the wild. While frater- a number of characters from folk- A friend of mine used to say question of whether sleep paralysis nally close to his dog (it is after lore and, more recently, cinema: that there is nothing more boring is merely a more powerful version all his own, once single brother), specific films are cited as refer- than listening to accounts of other of this universal experience or a David has decided that he wants ence points for these characters, people’s dreams; The Nightmare separate and far more serious con- to become a lobster, for reasons it for example A Nightmare on Elm contradicts that view, but only just, dition; the film provides no answer. would be a spoiler to reveal. In fact, Street, Insidious and Communion. because after about half an hour I completely understand the it is difficult to go into much detail Many of the interviewees com- one really has heard the full range need for ambiguity in certain kinds about the incidents of this weird plain about the short shrift they’ve of experiences. Beyond that point, of documentary – the invitation to and, at times, hilarious film with- been given by health professionals, there are really only slight varia- reach your own judgement or seek out spoiling the surprise of what on but some of them then go on to tions on the basic theme; as intrigu- out further information – but The Earth – or wherever it might be – is discount the possibility that their ing as the condition is, personal rec- Nightmare doesn’t deal with an coming next. sleep paralysis is a physiological ollections of it are not quite enough emotive or ethical subject as do, Uncharismatic, heavily mous- issue. One ascribes it to a spiritual to sustain interest for 90 minutes. for example, the films of Michael tachioed and pot-bellied – but conflict between good, represented The reconstructions are Moore. It is, in contrast, an appar- strangely self-assured and accept-

60 FT333 www.forteantimes.com reviews FILM & DVD

ing of his situation – Colin Farrell as David is riveting to watch as he attempts to find a partner, rarely exchanging his hangdog expres- The Reverend’s Review sion for the mildest flirtation or smile.There is much to squirm FT’s resident man of the cloth reVerenD peter Laws dons at in one potential relationship his dog collar and faces the flicks that Church forgot! with Heartless Woman (Aggeliki (www.theflicksthatchurchforgot.com; @revpeterlaws) Papoulia), who is devoid of any human feeling.The Limping Man (Ben Whishaw), skinny and nerv- MADMAN down at his victims still manage ously stammering, succeeds a Dir Joe Giannone, US 1982 to chill, and there’s a quirkiness little better in his quest for love, Arrow Video, £14.99 (Dual Format) to the characters and perfor- inducing his own nasal hæmor- mances that makes the viewer rhages so that he has at least EATEN ALIVE care when they finally get sliced. something in common with Nose- Dir Tobe Hooper, US 1976 Watch out for the funky closing bleed Woman, on whom he has set Arrow Video, £14.99 (Dual Format) song, too. his affections. There’s more blade wielding The whole story is narrated by NIGHTMArE CITY madness in Tobe Hooper’s Eaten Short Sighted Woman (Rachel Dir Umberto Lenzi, Italy/Mexico/Spain 1980 Alive. Known in the UK as Death Weisz), a ‘single’ who has escaped Arrow Video, £14.99 (Dual Format) Trap, it’s an unsettling tale of a the hotel to live with others like crazed hotel owner murdering her in the woods, where they ZArDoZ his guests and feeding them to are frequently shot at by hotel Dir John Boorman, Ireland 1974 his prized crocodile. It lacks the inmates, who gain an extra day Arrow Video, £12.99 (Blu-ray) gritty realism of Texas Chainsaw this has ‘party movie’ written all at the facility for every body they Massacre but Hooper con- over it. Be warned though, while bring in. David and Short Sighted It’s slashers, swamps and Sean sciously replaces it with a sort of Arrow Video present the very Woman’s paths eventually cross Connery’s shielded scrotum this theatrical, colourful and stagey best print they can, they’re open and give to the film its moments month, with a clutch of mad cult horror. The result feels surreal, and apologetic about the some- of poignancy. The film finishes movies hitting Blu-Ray. First up, dreamlike and as unsettling as times uneven picture quality. To abruptly, but not before David an insane farmer hacks his fam- Chainsaw, but in a different way. help, they provide two different shows his willingness to make an ily to bits then returns after his It may well follow the themes versions, so you can pick your extreme sacrifice in order to be own execution to behead anyone and rhythms of Hitchcock’s favourite flavour. able to empathise fully with her. who speaks his name above a Psycho, but Hooper’s thoughtful Finally we get Zardoz, a film The suddenness of the ending whisper. Madman was overshad- despair has a terror all of its so creative and out there, it leaves you wondering what owed by the higher profile slash- own. sometimes feels as if you’re exactly it is you just witnessed – ers of the time (this was 1982, The whole world turns mad, having a mini-stroke just watch- for days, if not weeks, afterwards. after all, a critical-mass year for in Umberto Lenzi’s high-octane ing it. Sean Connery is Zed, The Lobster does seem to have a the genre), yet what looks like a horror romp, Nightmare City. The a moustachioed ‘Brutal’ on a very darkly humorous message straight rip-off of Friday the 13th monsters might technically be post-apocalyptic Earth. He kills – satirising the strong emphasis is a fun, likeable movie. Yes it’s zombies, but they’re a frenetic, anything that moves for his society places on the pressures a summer camp and yes there’s eager breed, sprinting across stonehead God, Zardoz (the to couple, the compromises that plenty of head-chopping, but it’s aircraft tarmac for victims, and scene when Zardoz vomits rifles a person is willing to make, and surprisingly eerie too. Shots of doing something not often seen is as awesome it sounds). When the lies he or she is willing to tell, Marz swinging his axe mid-stroll in zombie cinema – using weap- Zed stumbles into the Vortex in order to win the affections of or standing in a tree staring ons! Exciting horror action like and discovers a Shangri La land another. of chilled-out Eternals, he finds The filmmaker who comes he can offer them things they most frequently to mind during may desire. Like violence… and The Lobster’s many bizarre juxta- an erection. Throughout the film positions and situations is Luis Connery races around in a sort Buñuel, whose brand of cinematic of Terry Towelling Mankini. The surrealism similarly questioned film’s been lauded as one of the accepted social behaviours and best ‘bad’ movies ever made, turned them on their head. Fol- but let step into its world on its lowing in his footsteps, Lanthimos own terms and you’ll find a fas- is a new European surrealist cinating explosion of creativity. to watch. He has created a film Catch all four of these mad and that is funny, beautiful, strange, marvellous movies from Arrow chilling, and fully deserving of Video. the Jury Prize it won at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. Rob Weinberg Fortean Times Verdict Fortean Times Verdict a quartet oF the MaD anD the MarVeLLous 8 rIch anD strange sLIce oF conteMporary surreaLIsM 8

FT333 61 www.forteantimes.com reviews FILM & DVD

Howl purposely designed to capture the Dir Paul Hyett, UK 2015 most horrific aspect of lycanthropy sHorTs On UK release from 16 October – not the fully transformed wolf, but “British Rail would like to apologise the transmogrification stage of part DeMonIc for the delay to your journey. This is human, part animal; they’re just the Icon Entertainment, £7.99 (DVD) due to lycanthropes on the line.” right side of creepy when you first What’s that… another attempt to re-invent the Reviewing smaller horror films, encounter them.The cast performs found footage genre? This time around, police rather than blockbusters, can lead to well and portrays a nice cross sec- question the sole survivor in a house filled with trepidation; filmmakers tend to have tion of the capital’s commuters, from corpses, while officers watch the video shot by the big ideas but small budgets, the cast the fat, guzzling football fan to the now dead people. It’s a reasonably effective back- tries too hard and special effects are smarmy investment banker who and-forth between shaky-cam and standard movie not all that special. Paul Hyett’s new initially takes charge but dooms vari- techniques. There are a few spooky moments and subtlety and film may be a small one, but its con- ous passengers to death.The film’s plot twists are at least attempted, if not always achieved. Horror cept and delivery are worthy of many climax made me wonder if it wasn’t hit-meister James Wan produces, and you do get the sense of him a bigger release. the director’s exploration of interper- hovering about on the margins, which is no bad thing. Just praise On a dark and stormy night, Joe sonal relationships between men and the good Lord this wasn’t all shot shaky-style. It’s getting boring. (Ed Speelers), a London train guard, women that made me want to watch rev pL 5/10 draws the unenviable late shift it a second time. Hats off to Hyett, on the last train out of the capital, who has taken a mundane British rail stung dealing with drunks, clubbers and journey and turned it into a feast of Entertainment One, £9.99 (DVD) exhausted office workers.The only bloody horror. Two party planners have to deal with the common bright spot of the journey is that Joe Mark McConnell annoyance of wasps screwing up an outdoor gets to work alongside Ellen (Shauna Fortean Times Verdict event – only these critters are huge and homicidal. MacDonald), the train’s trolley-push- Plus, when they sting you, new giant wasps climb ing hostess. Off they trundle into the werewoLVes on the LIne! a horrIFyIngLy Fun rIDe 8 right out of your skin. This is an energetic fusion of night, only to come to a screeching 1950s big-bug movies and 1970s ‘nature attacks’ halt somewhere down the line when Jurassic World films, but Stung is smart, funny and self-aware. It’s also gloopy and the train hits something, forcing the gory fun, with a refreshingly high quota of practical effects. Plus driver (Sean Pertwee providing the Dir Colin Trevorrow, US 2015 BFI, £9.99 DVD, £12.99 (Blu-ray) Lance Henriksen shits himself: bonus! rev pL 7/ 10 cameo) to check before the journey can continue. But the driver never I’m astonished that Jurassic World returns, and the train is stuck on a beat all comers to take the box the VoIces lonely stretch of track, surrounded by office crown of 2015. It’s a painfully Arrow Films, £9.99 (DVD), £12.99 (Blu-ray) dense forest, with something nasty unimaginative affair, moving with This is certainly a left-field directorial choice from lurking in the woods… the leaden plod of a constipated Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian-born writer/director So begins what is part claustropho- diplodocus rather than the zippy whose animated adaptation of her autobiographi- bic psychological horror, part gore- attack of an angry velociraptor; it cal graphic novel Persepolis won her admirers fest, with a fresh and truly beastly simply tramples its open-mouthed the world over. The Voices is unlikely to repeat take on the werewolf. The creature audience into submission over a very that trick: it’s a ham-fisted retooling of Psycho starts to pick off the passengers one long two hours in which the same as a black comedy about a likeable factory worker/delusional by one, until they decide to attempt thing (dinos escape, chase people, schizophrenic driven to kill by his talking cat. It fails to deliver either the walk to the next station; travel- get taken down) simply happens proper laughs or real unease, while its overbearing visual whimsy ling through woods at night while again and again until – the end! The consistently mistakes itself for cinematic style. Ryan Reynolds being stalked is not such a good idea, film’s plot – corporate hubris and deserves praise for his performance as the lonely nutcase Jerry, and extra marks for also voicing his talking pets (Roscoe the dog though, and results in a panicked a jaded public lead to the creation is an all-round good egg, unlike his scheming and psychopathic sprint back to the safety of the rail of the world’s biggest and deadliest feline housemate); but Mr Whiskers has no business sounding like carriage. Joe rallies the passengers dinosaur ‘attraction’ – appears to be a super-sweary reject from a Danny Boyle film. I suspect that nine to attack the creature with successful self-reflexive, meditating somewhat out of ten cats will be offended by this hopelessly crude portrayal results… but, as we all know, wolves ruefully on its own overinflated and that captures none of the hauteur or Machiavallian cunning of their hunt in packs. empty nature; when our heroes dis- tribe. Ds 5/10 Hyett directs well, and characters cover traces of the original Jurassic that are essentially one-dimensional Park, it serves as both Ozymandian are given enough telling dialogue warning and aching nostalgia for a InsIDIous 3 that their deaths register, although lost world in which blockbuster films Entertainment One, £12.99 (DVD), £14.99 (Blu-ray) not always in sympathetic terms; were actually fun. Chuck in irritating I liked the original Insidious, James Wan’s horror-riff when the self-absorbed teenager kids in peril, everyday sexism, lash- on astral projection. It had some nice Argento- got it, I wondered whether she was ings of schmaltz and a criminal waste inspired splashes of surrealism and colour. This tweeting: “Being eaten by were- of the cheeky talent Chris Pratt prequel starts promisingly enough, with a young wolf… lol”.The effects and monsters displayed in Guardians of the Galaxy, woman seeking out a medium to help her contact are very good and were created by and tedium ensues. her dead mother. She soon learns, however, that Hyett’s own company, which was David Sutton when you call out to one of the dead, all of them responsible for the creatures in can hear you. The film’s spooks at least look distinctive; yet the Neil Marshall’s The Descent and The Fortean Times Verdict final result isn’t particularly scary and it’s all surprisingly schmaltzy. rev pL 5/10 Woman In Black. The werewolves gargantuan DIno-Fest are lean, supernatural and vicious, Lacks requIreD bIte 5

63 FT333 www.forteantimes.com THE EFFECT

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An Ice Surprise as well as your sister”. He cleaned Simulacra corner his sister on the outside and then I was very interested to read opened her torso and proceeded to Malcolm Christophers’s letter clean. Another story is one about [FT331:73] in which he reported a bird fi ght, normally roosters, seeing “dozens of coots and and in this case between Burma moorhens” entombed in a sheet of (Myanmar) and Thailand. He said ice on a Cornish pond, these fowl he would bring his ‘bird’ to the apparently having been “instantly fi ght and the Burmese accepted frozen in the postures they as- his generic word.You guessed it, sumed going about their normal he brought a hawk.The rooster business”. Sadly I can’t provide an lasted a few seconds. explanation for this, but I can pro- On a totally different subject: vide an (alleged) further instance when on a fi eld trip collecting of the same type of phenomenon rocks in streambeds in southern on an even grander scale, and in- Indiana, my old elementary school volving a different type of frozen friend, the late James Drew, came animal – namely, horses! across a Mediæval coin, partly It appears in a 1944 book called embedded in a nodule of quartz. Kaputt by the Italian writer and In later years James told me adventurer Curzio Malaparte, an This photo of a fl int nodule resembling a human face apparently disfigured someone had stolen the coin. account of his escapades in Nazi- by fi re was sent in by someone called Christer Stone. We are always glad Terry W Colvin occupied Europe, and describes to receive pictures of spontaneous forms and fi gures, or any curious images. Prachuabkhirikhan, Thailand an event he says occurred in Fin- Send them to the PO box above (with a stamped addressed envelope or inter- land in 1941, when he was a war national reply coupon) or to [email protected] – and please tell us Indian poltergeist correspondent embedded with your postal address. German troops during the ‘War in For the fortean database I submit the East’ against Russia. Accord- the following datum: “The ing to Malaparte, one day in the its arenas for æsthetic reasons, couple of dozen kinds. My favour- Indians [specifically the Shuswap icy Finnish wastes he came across with his book apparently being ite is the Pee-ka-sua, human during people] aver that unknown beings a frozen lake fi lled with hundreds a curious mixture of accurate the day and a ghost after mid- sometimes throw stones at them, of (bathing?) horses which had real-life reportage and odd, sur- night.This one’s head separates particularly at night, when stones been transformed to ice by a realist fantasy. Maybe Malaparte from the body that is left behind. may be noticed occasionally fl ash-freezing event so sudden made it all up. Maybe he saw a The head trails the spinal cord and falling into the fi re.” (Recorded that it appeared to have beheaded dead frozen horse or two in some organs.This ghost has an appetite in 1877 or 1888-1890).This comes them. Malaparte (or his English water and simply exaggerated for raw meat and afterbirth.There from GM Dawson, ‘Notes on the translator, anyway) described the the sight. Or, then again, maybe is also a folk hero, Su-tee-chai, who Shuswap People of British Colum- scene thus: he really did see something was apparently an actual person. bia’, (Proceedings and Transactions “The lake looked like a vast genuinely anomalous. My guess He took your words literally and of the Royal Society of Canada for sheet of white marble on which would be the second option, but then did exactly as you said. Leav- 1891, 9. 2 (1892), 3-44: 38) rested hundreds upon hundreds seeing as Malcolm Christophers ing the house, his mother said: Marinus van der Sluijs of horses’ heads.They appeared apparently really did see some “Clean the house inside and out Philadelphia to have been chopped off cleanly birds which had been killed and with an axe. Only the heads stuck insta-frozen in this manner, who out of the crust of ice. And they knows? Maybe one day some mad were all facing the shore.The scientist could perform a deeply white fl ame of terror still burnt unethical experiment upon some in their wide-open eyes. Close to livestock and fi nd out for us. It the shore a tangle of wildly rear- was just a truly bizarre image and ing horses rose from the prison I thought I’d share it. of ice.” (Cited in John Gray, The SD Tucker Silence of Animals, Allen Lane, Widnes, Cheshire 2013, p.24) As for whether this is actually Thai Ghosts true or not, I have no idea – Nazi war correspondents were not, as I’ve been watching Thai ghost a rule, the most honest of men lakorn (soap operas) with my wife, I suppose, and Malaparte ap- followed by royal family news, all pears to have been one of those proper and prim, as well as Thai adventurous piratical types who news. I wish there were a primer “I LIKE WHATYOU’VE DONE WITH YOUR SHADOW.”

idolise war and actively seek out on Thai ghosts.There must be a JORODO

FT333 67 www.forteantimes.com letters

New light on dated 16 De- as when he conspired with Gray Adamski cember 1953 Barker to fake “official” support gave the year for contactee George Adamski In November 1980, an elderly incorrectly as with the “RE Straith” letters, writ- Milwaukee psychic named Lillian 1916), and in ten in December of 1957. Their (“Myrah”) Lawrance provided Portland, Ore- colleague who provided the of- information to help fill in a previ- gon, in 1918. ficial State Department stationery ously unknown period in the life Although they used was James D Villard. of flying saucer contactee George Adamski was Villard wrote an article about Adamski. That month she ap- an accom- the Straith letters for Max Miller’s peared on a Milwaukee television plished artist, Saucers 6:4, of winter 1958/59 programme, taking calls from that probably (pp. 2-6). The article included viewers about personal problems, isn’t the kind the type of paper used and the and giving them her predictions. of painting non-existence of an RE Straith in Near the end of that portion of the that these the State Department. He said show, the interviewer, Ms BJ Raab, documents are talking about. In his father was the US Ambas- asked her about UFOs. Myrah re- The psychic told fact, his 1920 census record (in sador to the United Nations in plied: “I’ve been acquainted with Portland, Oregon) specifically says Geneva. Donald Keyhoe had sent UFOs since 1926. When George Adamski that house painter. him a letter about the rumour that Adamski first came out with his But Adamski could also have Villard was an accomplice in the theory that there were UFOs, eve- he would be been a milkman in St Paul (as Straith matter, as provider of the rybody laughed, tried to laugh at Myrah said), either during a cer- stationery, but Villard denied it. I him – [Raab, interrupting: Are they world-famous tain part of that four-year period, have some issues of Villard’s own from another planet?] Oh, yes!” or perhaps at a different time of newsletter, The UFOloger. He sent I had never seen the pro- the day – because delivering milk it out from Switzerland for a while gramme before, but Jerome There was a presidential election would have only kept him busy in when his father was stationed Clark and I happened to be in the day after the TV programme, the early morning hours. there. the TV studio for the segment and Myrah said she did not see Adamski was missing from the I had long suspected Villard of on UFOs. When Myrah said that how Jimmy Carter could lose. Of 1926 directory, and in the 1927 providing the stationery, and Jim about Adamski, Jerry and I looked course, Ronald Reagan was the one he had a different address. Moseley finally confirmed it, in a at each other in astonishment. winner, and served as president (He had moved from 775 Ray- letter to me dated 2 August 2011: But apparently it didn’t make a 1981-1989. mond Ave to 374 Sturgis.) There “Yes, it was James Villard (whom lasting impression on him, as in To people who know something are multiple possible explanations I met only once, much later). Your later years he had forgotten all about Adamski (or even about for this, including that in 1926 he info about him + his father is about it – though Jerry is gracious UFOs in general), some of what moved before the first block was correct.” enough to add that he takes my Myrah said does not ring true. canvassed, but after the second See also the incriminating word for it. Nevertheless, research does block was canvassed. Many correspondence between Barker During the commercial break, confirm her main point. This was entries in the city directories and Villard about the station- I got more details from Myrah. done using the Library Edition included the name of the wife, ery, written in November and She had known Adamski in St of Ancestry.com, with access to but Adamski was by himself. (But December of 1957. Michael D Paul (Minnesota) in 1926, and census records, city directories, then, Myrah Lawrance wasn’t list- Swords quoted from it in CUFOS’s also knew his wife and sister-in- family trees, etc. In 2014 I started ed with her husband either.) Mary International UFO Reporter 17:6, law there. “He was an ordinary using it to research George Adamski was as obscure then Nov./Dec. 1992, p. 10. milkman then,” and was also into Adamski and his family, for a book as she was later, in the pages of Jim Moseley wrote in Saucer the psychic. Myrah suggested about him that I am collaborating George Adamski’s books. Smear (10 Jan 1985, when he to Adamski that he get out of St on with Marc Hallet of Belgium. Whether George Adamski confessed that he and Barker had Paul, telling him, “You’ll be world- Mary Adamski (née Shimber- did it at Myrah’s suggestion or hoaxed the letters) that Straith’s famous.” He protested, “What sky) was the fifth of 10 children. not, within a couple of years he initials were “in deference to R.E. am I going to do?” But later he did Her younger sister Ella Blanche did leave St Paul. By 1928, he Palmer [sic].” Even though – as move to California, where he was (Mrs Elmer C Rasmussen) lived was back in Los Angeles, where I reminded him – Ray Palmer’s set up by a very wealthy woman, in St Paul, and during that period he had lived previously – still middle initial was A rather than to establish an observatory and she often moved around – in the identified as a painter. In 1930 E. Oops. a (UFO) landing area. (Naturally, I 1925 city directory, she was at the census-taker there recorded The FBI has an extensive file on presumed that this woman was 100 E 11th St; in the 1926 direc- George’s occupation as lecturer, their investigation of the Straith Alice K Wells, but Myrah did not tory at 666 Selby Ave; and in the in the field of “gener. Religion.” As letters. Gray Barker seemed to recognise the name.) 1927 directory at 1591 Schwabe. they say, the rest is history. be their prime suspect, though In 1944, Myrah had predicted Ella eventually died in 1976. Adamski was the subject of the of course proper names like that Liberace (the flamboyant The St Paul city directories exposé issue of James Moseley’s his were deleted. This file was pianist, a native of suburban for 1924, 1925, and 1927 gave Saucer News (October 1957). In separate from the FBI’s other ma- Milwaukee) would become world- Adamski’s occupation as painter. my opinion, this was Jim’s major terial on Adamski, and required a famous. Of course, it is easy He had also worked as a painter contribution to ufology. Later he specific FOIA request. to talk about such predictions in Yellowstone National Park in turned to treating the subject in Richard W Heiden selectively and in retrospect. 1917 (an FBI office memorandum a less-than-serious manner, such Milwaukee, Wisconsin

68 FT333 www.forteantimes.com letters

Gloves advised called the public meeting, some 200 or more people crammed Regarding Steve Yates’s ‘Posh Soot’ into the Town Hall. My BUFORA [FT330:73] I can vouch that most colleagues, Dr Geoffrey Doel, mechanics treat carbon black with BUFORA Chairman, and ‘Dr’ John respect, but the best-known sub- Cleary-Baker, journal editor, were stance to avoid isViton, a ‘fluoroe- on the platform with Rev Ing. lastomer’ produced by DuPont. (Cleary-Baker was never BUFORA It is used in many applications Chairman, as stated by Clarke.) and provides proven resistance to Afterwards, Dr Doel told me that chemicals and extreme tem- they had felt obliged to reassure peratures. It is mainly used in fuel the public that they were not in system seals and hoses, O-rings and any danger. I felt Cleary-Baker some rubber gaskets. Story has it lacked objectivity on occasion. that although safe when cool, once The late Arthur Shuttlewood its been heated to its limitViton be- was the mainstay of the Warmin- comes aggressive in the sense that ster phenomena. I saw at first hand if it comes into contact with flesh how he manipulated lights-in-the- it eats its way in and like a necrotic sky and satellites into UFOs. And bug doesn’t stop until there is none yes, people went on skywatches Clarke compulsively mentions Admittedly, Arthur Shuttlewood left to consume. How true this is I “wanting to believe”. I was told Rendlesham. At the ‘briefing’ at (1920-1996), the main conduit don’t know but I always wore gloves Shuttlewood’s colleague Bob Woodbridge Community Hall for published reports about the when removing seals and ‘O’ rings. Strong had threatened me (for my on 11 July 2015, Colonel Charles phenomena, wasn’t the most Most classic car fanatics will know scepticism) and I later learned Halt (former Base Commander reliable of writers. He was a local the story of designer Giovanni that he had been mauled by a at RAF Woodbridge) told us that journalist, and wrote several books Michelotti – author of numerous lion at the Longleat estate. Shut- the event in 1980 interrupted the bearing on the manifestations, superb designs for Triumph (Stag, tlewood wrote some seven books base Christmas party and that he starting with The Warminster TR4, Herald), Jaguar, BMW, Lancia, as I recall, and More UFOs Over remained mystified. Mystery, which was first published Ferrari, Maserati Alfa etc. – who Warminster suggested he was run- Clarke pads the end of his (by Neville Spearman, London) in was once presented with a block ning out of titles. lengthy feature by rubbishing the 1967 (not 1968, as Clarke asserts). of ‘blue-grey plaster of paris’ for Much is made of Flying Saucer study of UFOs. Now, back in 1979 Shuttlewood’s writings contain sculpting models. It proved to be an Review and others falling for the (the year of the House of Lords direct quotes from witnesses. But excellent medium, and Michelotti SIUFOP hoax. I am pleased to say UFO debate), I put some effort into judging from the relative formality with his typical sleeves-rolled-up that, as publisher of the inter- running a well-attended UFO con- of the wording, I suspect that he approach, couldn’t wait to use it; in nationally circulating Spacelink ference at Morley College, not far exercised some licence in formu- fact it quickly became his favourite magazine, I chose to ignore this from Waterloo Station. (The course lating the quotations. Similarly, material for fleshing out ideas. It story. While Simpson prides him- made BBC national news.) At the I suspect that he paraphrased seems initially he wasn’t told that self for his elaborate hoaxes, some end of term I asked the Principal written testimony and passed it off protective clothing was a must, regard this activity with the sort of about continuing. I fancy he had as direct quotation. He was prone but apparently even after being contempt reserved for graffiti tag- had a couple of drinks that even- to exaggeration 1, but I don’t think warned he still carried on.The dust gers. Did they contribute towards ing, and his reply was roughly: “Mr that entitles us to write off the is said to have been absorbed into scientific data? Beer, I have been told by County testimony of the many witnesses his system through his lungs and In my 1986 booklet, The Moving Hall [just up the road] that if I let that he cited. Indeed, a positive skin and he died of cancer in Turin Statues of Ballinspittle, I explained your [UFO] course continue, my aspect of his reporting was that in 1980. the phenomena at this remote [college] funding will be cut.” That he often gave background details Jack Romano grotto in County Cork, using the was more than Clarkean ridicule – about them (even their addresses, Worksop, Nottinghamshire autokinesis theory. However, this that was brusque censorship. on occasion). Some of them would did not account for the wave of Lionel Beer have been well known in the local Recalling religious phenomena reported Hampton, Middlesex community. Fabricating complete- from over four dozen locations. So ly bogus stories about them would Warminster may I point out that the mysteri- From the mid-1960s until well into have exposed him to reputational ous sounds that triggered the the 1970s, the Warminster area of damage and the risk of losing his I read David Clarke’s faintly ‘Warminster Syndrome’ have not Wiltshire generated many reports job with the Warminster Journal. amusing article on David Simpson, been adequately explained? of strange phenomena (unusual Even if we disregard all of the Warminster and tripods [‘Warmin- Curiously, Clarke makes no men- sounds, UFO sightings, apparitions, witness testimony cited by Shut- ster Syndrome’, FT331:40-47] tion of the Bedford UFO Society’s etc.). David Clarke cites incidents tlewood, there remain grounds for with interest as I attended the caravan that was located near in which people were duped by thinking that the area was the set- meeting called by Elwyn Rees in Warminster. It contained several hoaxers, and implies that the whole ting for paranormal phenomena. Warminster Town Hall in August chart recorders for monitoring case can be satisfactorily explained In his 2007 book UFO Warminster: 1965. Clarke describes Simpson as events in the area. Although Simp- in terms of psychosocial factors, Cradle of Contact 2, Kevin Goodman “a reserved, quietly spoken man”. son worked for the National Physi- such as misinterpretation, credu- describes unusual manifestations However, he had a reputation for cal Laboratory, I am not aware lity and a ‘will to believe’. But his that he and some friends experi- being argumentative in an unpleas- that this equipment contributed highly selective portrayal doesn’t enced there in the 1970s. He men- ant manner. anything useful in studying the do justice to the complexity of the tions, for instance, an unsuccessful When Council Chairman Rees alleged local anomalies. wide-ranging events. attempt to photograph a UFO in

FT333 69 www.forteantimes.com letters

Star Jelly?

On my morning dog walk in early July 2015, the white blob visible in the first picture [right] caught my eye at the side of the road – Pot House Lane, Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire. It had the initial appearance of frogspawn but not a single black speck as you would expect, and was of a brighter-white colour and much denser- looking than the amphibious spawn we get in our ponds. It was lying under some pretty dense trees and hedgerow and as you can see from the curbstone in the foreground, right next to the road. Handily for scale, a standard size can lid was lying just within shot. This would have been an odd talking point had it not been a fairly regular occurrence in this neighbourhood. My father and I have walked dogs over the west Pennine Moors every week for years, which means we have ‘got our eye-in’ when it comes to spotting the out-of-place: and we’ve spotted this stuff at least half a dozen incompatibility had returned the plasma up the as it passed through the trees it must have times in all seasons. For those who claim it’s way it had gone down, but in a new chemical been laid (barfed) at ground level. a gift from the Gods, this would appear to form. I’ve witnessed the canine precedent of There is a specific spot on the moor where vindicate the “non-terrestrial, anti-organism” dogs chowing down on the discarded umbilici of we have come across this more than twice: it rationale as frogs and the like certainly wouldn’t new-born lambs, only to start the ‘bilge-pump’ is within a quarter of a mile of a sinkhole where be out on the top of the moors after heavy two days later and bring back an ungodly black frogs breed in profusion (and presumably hiber- snows in November (I nearly put my hand in the oil that no decent person should have to deal nate), and is on a route where we have tracked stuff making snowballs), nor should the spawn with in the early hours. foxes and mink in winter as they make beelines still be ongoing half-way through the year. The second photo was taken about 14 days for the bins at the back of a fairly remote pub. I’d like to add my own humble theory (pure later. The stuff has thickened up/evaporated If anyone has touched this slime and been conjecture, of course): I always assumed that somewhat, but not into thin air as the legend transformed I shall stand corrected, but I’ll this “Meteor Shit” (to quote Stephen King’s says it should, (rain, thunder, humidity as fac- admit I’m not man enough to go sticking my character in Creepshow) was the result of the tors?), and by my observations it has held no digits in space-snot for the sake of fortean- interaction between vermin and amphibians; i.e. nutritional value for any other scavengers. furtherance. that a fox or mink had guzzled some unfortunate The other anti-space factor is the dense over- James Crossley critter, and that due to some biological/digestive growth: unless the goop de-con/re-congealed Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire the summer of 1977 (pp. 113-115). using a long, heavy lens I needed “My film was developed when the local UFO phenomena. For At the time, he and his friend to avoid camera shake. I hadn’t we returned to Stourbridge.When example, according to Shuttle- Chris Butler were staying at a brought a tripod to Warminster the prints came back, there was wood’s second book 3, Bill Nixon Warminster guesthouse. Butler with me, but I knew I could use blue sky, white clouds but no UFO! of Pathé News had taken movie was lying on his bed, gazing out of the post in the garden to brace the In the left bottom corner of the shots of UFOs from Cradle Hill a window. Goodman writes: camera. […The film in the camera] final print were the tips of the (near Warminster), in both colour “I sat on my bed reading a book had a rating of 400ASA – one of trees on Elm hill. […] I assure you, and black-and-white, but nothing […]. Suddenly, Chris […] ran to the fastest film speeds commer- I had the object dead centre in the appeared on his film .(p 41). In my the window, crying out, ‘What the cially available at that time – so I viewfinder, and we could see from view, this raises the possibility that fuck’s that?!’ I got off my bed […] felt certain that I would be able the print that the exposure had some of the sightings were para- and joined Chris at the window. to catch the object in mid-flight, obviously been correct. […] I had, normal hallucinatory experiences, Over Cop Heap, slowly traversing without any blurring. I reached the at the time, my own enlarger and perhaps engendered by a trickster- the sky from right to left, was a post, lined up the camera and care- printing equipment at home. Both ish higher intelligence. silver, cigar-shaped object. Chris fully focused.The object was in the Chris and I spent a good few hours fumbled for his binoculars, and viewfinder, with blue sky and high, looking at the negatives through 1 See, for example: Steve Dewey & through the lenses could see a light grey cloud in the background. the enlarger, at different settings. John Ries, In Alien Heat: The Warminster uniform elliptical object. He I carefully took three exposures, At no time did we ever see any sign Mystery Revisited (Anomalist Books, San Antonio, Texas, 2006); Peter A McCue, passed the binoculars to me and manually winding the film on, refo- of that UFO.” Zones of Strangeness: An Examination of I confirmed what Chris had seen. cusing each time, before the UFO In an email to me in March 2010, Paranormal and UFO Hot Spots (Author- I handed the binoculars back went behind the trees on Elm Hill Chris Butler stated that, at first, House, Bloomington, Indiana, 2012). to Chris and began to rummage and out of my view. As I finished, the UFO looked like the fuselage 2 Southampton, Swallowtail Books. through my camera equipment. Chris yelled from the bedroom of a plane reflecting the sunlight, 3 Warnings from Flying Friends, Warmin- […] As I started to screw on a window, binoculars still to his eyes, but no wings or tail were apparent. ster, Portway Press, 1968. 400mm telephoto lens, I left the ‘There are people on the hill, and Goodman may not have been room, running down the stairs they’re pointing at it too… It’s got the only person to experience Peter A McCue into the back garden […] As I was to be a real object!’[…] difficulty in capturing images of By email

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First-hand accounts from Fortean Times readers and posters at forum.forteantimes.com

The toilet would flush itself at night Comforting presence so often that we began to ignore it; keys would jangle in the back door lock, and My wife Carol and I have had many odd on one occasion my husband watched experiences over the years. As a teenager transfixed from the toilet as the shower she would wake on several occasions with curtain ‘shook’ by itself and a shampoo the feeling someone was either stroking or bottle jumped into the bath. Some of nuzzling her hair. This feeling would continue these incidents are perhaps easy to after she woke and would continue until debunk, but others were not so easy to she fell asleep again. She never found explain away. One night I awoke to see a it unsettling or scary. She described the shape bending over my bed as if to look stroking as soothing, as if someone were more closely at me. The only way I can comforting her and reassuring her with their describe it is to say that it looked as if it presence. was made up of the ‘snowiness’ you would My wife’s brother moved into her room get on pre-digital television sets when the when she moved out and one day he signal was weak or receiving interference. mentioned in passing about being woken by One weekend my parents visited and the feeling of having his hair stroked in the my mother swore she saw a gold-framed night. One of my wife’s friends was sleeping mirror appear on the bathroom wall when over when they were kids; the girl woke up we only had a frameless modern version screaming that someone was in the room above the sink. The next incident followed touching her hair and refused to go back to closely after that. My mother had made sleep until my wife had opened the wardrobe some slightly disparaging remarks about and checked under the bed for an intruder who might have lived in the house and I and left the light on for the rest of night. cautioned her not to say such things in Many years later, after we’d married and were all the time. When I told him I didn’t know a ‘busy’ house. Shortly after my parents had living in our first home together, the comforting what he was talking about, he became upset, left to drive home, the biggest haunted house presence returned, visiting when I was away on insisting that he could see the balls of light and cliché of all took place: a small picture of my business, leaving my wife and children alone in that they were there behind me as we spoke. It parents in a metal stand-up frame which had the house. freaked me out at the time, but I wish now I’d been on the mantelpiece for months crashed to Some other odd phenomena happened in asked him more about those lights. He never the floor. It was unharmed and I replaced it and that house. We had things appear and reappear mentioned them again. then made a quick call to my parents’ mobile in weird places, in cupboards and under the Gary Smith to check all was well. It never fell down again in covers at the foot of freshly made beds. Several Victoria, Australia the remaining time we lived there, and neither times my wife and children caught sight of a did my mother ever mention the previous small blond-haired girl in one of the rooms. She A busy house occupants again. would appear for an instant, stand staring at The strangest thing of all is that I never felt them, then vanish without a sound. When my husband and I relocated to scared in the house, even when alone at night; It seemed we also had a pet we weren’t Manchester 11 years ago, we had very little I was more annoyed than anything. I recall aware of. I’d been napping one afternoon when time to find somewhere to live between getting misplacing my purse just before going out and I felt what I thought was our dog jump onto the married and getting the go-ahead to move. On I could have sworn I just had it in front of me. bed and walk along beside me, finally stopping visiting letting agencies we found our choice In exasperation I shouted to the house that I to stand on the pillow right by my head. I in the location we wanted limited to a tiny flat had enough of flying pictures, flushing loos and distinctly felt the small feet land on the bed, or a large, turn-of-the-century house. Naturally jangling keys and yes, you guessed it, suddenly the feet walking on the bed and the pressure there was no contest, and at that time the there it was, on the table right in front of me. on the pillow beside me when it stopped. I cheaper rent after living down south meant that As I say, in general the house did not feel opened my eyes ready to tell what I thought an Edwardian house in north Manchester was uncomfortable apart from one of the two was the dog to get off the bed. Nothing. affordable. reception rooms that we used for storage. There were prints on the bed and pillow, but I am usually a bit sensitive to what I term This particular room had a horrible blood-red no dog. My wife told me later that she’d had ‘busy’ houses, but in the chaos and stress carpet and bizarrely an old sword propped up similar experiences in the house: the feeling of moving in I was too preoccupied to notice against one wall. Very off-putting. In time we of something small walking beside her on the anything out of the ordinary. It wasn’t until we found a house we wished to buy and moved bed and then standing beside her head on put our first picture up that I began to wonder out. It wasn’t until a number of years later that I the pillow. She’d open her eyes to find she if the house was as quiet as it first seemed. realised that the only time the house was quiet was alone. When talking about it later, we both The picture was a glass-covered frameless was when I had been very ill and had required agreed that the feeling was actually more like print of nudes dancing by Rodin. My husband an emergency operation. Was the house a two-legged rather than four-legged creature. A firmly secured it (or so we thought) to the wall sensitive enough to know I needed peace or tiny biped. above the large, marble fireplace, but about was I just too busy recovering to notice anything We only found out about these shared 20 minutes later it fell, clearing the large at that time? experiences years later when we talked about mantelpiece by a good few inches and landing In March 2014 we noted that the house the odd things that had happened in that old on the floor. The glass was smashed irreparably was up for sale. Looking at the pictures on the house. We also agreed that the experiences and it frightened the life out of us. We couldn’t estate agent website, the sword was gone but increased when we were renovating the house. work out how the picture had managed to avoid the horrible red carpet remained… and what I can recall my youngest son, when he was the wide mantelpiece below it, but we were too else? about four or five, asking me about the coloured relieved that no other damage had been done Vicky Holt balls of light that followed me around the house to worry about it any further. And so it began. Manchester

FT333 71 www.forteantimes.com STRANGE AND SENSATIONAL STORIES FROM

JAN BONDESON presents more sensational stories and startling Victorian images from the "worst newspaper in England" – the Illustrated Police News.

42. THE RAT-KILLING MONKEY OF MANCHESTER

InVictorian times, the ‘sport’ of ratting enjoyed considerable popularity. In this unsavoury pastime, a number of rats were put into a rat-pit, and then an angry terrier was released. Bets were made how many rats the dog could kill within a certain amount of time, or how long it would take for the animal to kill 20 or 100 rats. sport spread from rural areas to London and going on. A dog owner might announce in the It would appear that ratting originated as other cities. Instead of just being dog trials, newspapers that his animal was capable of a form of 18th century dog trial, where the the ratting matches became increasingly killing a certain number of rats in a certain killing instinct of young terriers was tested by competitive, with a greater number of rats amount of time – say 20 rats in five minutes giving them a few rats to kill. With time, the put into the pit, and a good deal of betting – and bets were placed as to whether the dog would be capable of this feat. After a sack of live rats had been emptied into the pit, the dog was let loose on its path of destruction. The best dogs dispatched each rodent with a swift bite, without worrying at it or carrying it around, before attacking the next rat.The rats scurried around as best as they could, sometimes piling up in the corner of the rat- pit as if to seek protection, at other times desperately fighting for their lives. Already in the early 1800s, there were several rat-pits in London, the most famous of which was the Westminster Pit, located in Duck Lane, Orchard Street. In the 1820s, this sleazy establishment became the catalyst of the growth of London ratting, thanks to Billy the Raticide, the most famous ratting dog ever. Billy was a muscular dog of 26lb (12kg), mostly white in colour, with strong jaws and a fierce glare in his eye. He had set a record already in 1820, by killing 20 rats in 71 seconds, at the cost of being deprived of one of his own eyes by one of the infuriated rodents. In September 1822, Billy was wagered for 20 sovereigns to kill 100 rats in less than 12 minutes. Since ratting of this magnitude had rarely been seen before, the Westminster Pit was completely full.The TOP: The Great 100 Rat Match. ABOVE An old colour print depicting the famous ratting dog Billy. audience, nearly 2,000 strong, laid many hundreds of pounds on the outcome of the ANGE AND SENSATIONAL STORIES FROM

match.There was a huge cheer when Mr frenzied sewer rats running up the handler’s the rat managed to crawl out of the circle, it Dew brought the squirming, growling Billy legs and inflicting very painful bites, the dog was ‘alive’, otherwise it counted as ‘dead’. down to the pit, and another when a huge handlers made it a habit of wearing their Supplying rats for London’s 70 rat-pits sack of large sewer rats was carried into the trousers tied to their boots. was an industry of its own. If we assume that arena.The gentlemen puffed hard at their A sample of the rats was closely examined these establishments were each open twice cigars to escape the pungent smell of the before the match, to rule out that they had a week, and that 200 rats were destroyed at rodents, and tankards of beer were liberally been drugged with laudanum beforehand each session, this would imply that the rat- swigged.There was a roar as the umpire and to make the dog’s task easier. A dog could pits of London alone would require 4,000 timekeeper checked their watches, and Billy be disqualified for a false pick-up, or for rats each day. The rodents were supplied by was set free.To the delight of his supporters, jumping out of the pit. A badly trained dog a network of rat-catchers, who scavenged for the fierce little dog dispatched all 100 rats worrying the rat after killing it or carrying live rats in warehouses, hedges and ditches, in eight minutes, 45 seconds – a new world it proudly around the pit brought a volley of and often in the sewers as well. Jemmy Shaw, record. oaths from its backers. who boasted that he never had less than There could be serious grudge matches A tricky question was what to do if 2,000 rats on the premises, had a number of when two ambitious dog fanciers or rat-pit some of the rats played dead. In a 50-rat rat-catcher families dependent on him. He proprietors matched their best dogs against match, three rats, and three rats only, were bought between 300 and 700 rats each week, each other. Syndicates were formed to back allowed to ‘come to life’ after time had paying two or three pence for large, well-fed the dogs, hundreds of pounds were bet, and been called and the dog lifted out of the specimens. Jemmy kept his rats on a diet of crowds gathered in their thousands to back pit.The opposite party was allowed to make good barley meal, not from kindness of heart their favourites.The beer and the excitement an appeal by calling out That ‘un ‘baint but to keep them from eating each other. In sometimes got the better of the audience, dead, guv’nor!’ and pointing at the rodent spite of the relatively good financial rewards, and serious fights could break out. When a in question.The umpire would then put the rat-catching does not appear to have been a celebrated provincial ratting dog challenged rat within a chalked circle on his table, and very amusing line of work. Henry Mayhew one of the London stars, the atmosphere strike its tail three times with a metal rod; if once spoke to one of the rat-catchers, who might resemble that of a present-day football game between a London club and an out- of-town rival. In 1848, the London dog Jack was carried round the streets in a drunken procession after beating the Southampton bitch Beauty by 106 rats to 100 in a fiercely contested encounter. In another epic ratting match, the Manchester bitch Miss Lily, under eight pounds in weight, was wagered to kill 100 large barn rats. After a frenzied effort, she narrowly lost by one minute, 40 seconds; still, the London sportsmen gave her a standing ovation. The Godfather of the London Ratting Fancy was Jemmy Shaw, a dog-fancier and publican who kept his rat-pit at the Blue Anchor, Bunhill-row, St Luke’s. Jemmy was proud of his little dog Tiny, only five and a half pounds (2.5kg) in weight, since this fierce little terrier had once won him a large bet by killing 200 rats in less than an hour. By the 1840s, the ratting matches were governed by a strict system of rules, constructed to ensure fairness for the dog-owners and fair play for the betting fraternity. There was always a match umpire, and a time-keeper as well.The dog’s second was strictly forbidden to interfere with the gory proceedings in the pit, except to cheer the animal on with gestures and verbal commands. He was also allowed to take the dog out of the pit if he felt it needed rest or refreshments, and to blow on the rats when they had piled up in the pit corner, in order to disperse them. After some distressing incidents involving ABOVE: Ratting in the Haymarket, from the IPN, 24 Dec 1870. gave a graphic ABOVE: The amazing Rat- demonstration of ting Monkey, from the IPN, what it felt like to 4 Sept 4 1880. Note the have your finger expression on the dog’s bitten to the face in the background. bone by a large LEFT:A ratting scene. sewer rat, and showed the best show; between 1861 technique to pull and 1866, Jacko had out a rat’s teeth won 300 matches, and that had broken destroyed 8,000 rats. off inside a bite Just like Billy, Jacko wound. was stuffed after The long-time death; his record still aim for Jemmy stands today. Shaw and other There was dog-fanciers was turmoil among the of course to find Manchester Ratting a dog capable Fancy after an of matching the unprecedented match exploits of Billy in 1880. Mr Benson’s the Raticide. fox-terrier Turk was During the 1840s matched against Mr and 1850s, there Lewis’s monkey, in a were several 12-rat match. Since attempts at the monkey was an beating Billy’s epic 100-rat record, but none But as we have seen, there were safeguards unknown quantity, and the dog a formidable was successful. Then in 1861, Jemmy Shaw’s against such skullduggery, and the matches ratter, Turk was the favourite. After the dog black-and-tan Bull Terrier Jacko was spoken took place before numerous and critical had killed the 12 rats in very good time, of as a future star in the London rat-pits. spectators; had the rats been drugged, they the monkey was put into the rat-pit. Mr Jacko destroyed 60 rats in two minutes, would surely have detected it. The crowning Lewis handed it a hammer, which the clever 42 seconds, with a killing time of just 2.7 moment of Jacko’s career was the famous primate made good use of, bashing the seconds per rat. In 1862, Jacko beat Billy’s 1,000-rat match of 1862, in which Jemmy’s rodents’ heads in with alacrity and winning record, killing 100 rats in just five minutes, famous dog killed 100 rats once weekly for the match with time to spare. 28 seconds. There have been claims from 10 consecutive weeks, destroying all 1,000 Several months later, it was still debated various ‘experts’ alleging that the exertions rodents in less than a 100 minutes. Jacko was whether the rules of ratting should be of Billy, or Jacko, or both, had been aided by still alive in 1866, when he and Jemmy were amended to exclude monkeys wielding blunt some person drugging the rats beforehand. guests of honour at the Crystal Palace dog instruments.

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Please see house ads in the latest issue for details of special offers. magazine of news, reviews the term ‘teleportation’, and was F and research on strange perhaps the first to speculate that North America (US & Canada) phenomena and experiences, mysterious lights seen in the sky Subscribers should contact: IMS. 3330 Pacific Avenue, Suite 404, Virginia Beach, VA 23454, USA. Tel: 800-428 3003 (toll free); Fax: 757 428 6253; curiosities, prodigies and portents. might be craft from outer space. Or order online at www.imsnews.com. It was founded by Bob Rickard However, he cut at the very roots of UK, Europe & rest of world in 1973 to continue the work of credulity: “I conceive of nothing, in Major credit cards accepted. Cheques or money orders should be in sterling, Charles Fort (1874–1932). religion, science or philosophy, that preferably drawn on a London bank and made payable to Dennis Publishing. Born of Dutch stock in Albany, is more than the proper thing to Mail to: Fortean Times Dovetail Services, 800 Guillat Avenue, Kent Science New York, Fort spent many years wear, for a while.” Park, Sittingbourne, ME9 8GU, UK. NB: This address should be used for orders and subscriptions only. researching scientific literature in Fort was by no means the first Telephone payments and queries: 0844 844 0049. the New York Public Library and person to collect anomalies and Fax payments and queries: 0844 815 0866. the British Museum Library. He oddities – such collections have E-mail payments and queries: [email protected] marshalled his evidence and set abounded from Greece to China how to submit forth his philosophy in The Book of since ancient times. Fortean Times the Damned (1919), New Lands keeps alive this ancient task of Dennis Publishing reserves all rights to reuse material submitted by FT (1923), Lo! 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We occasionally use material that has been placed in the public domain. It is not always Special Correspondents possible to identify the copyright holder. If you claim credit for something we’ve published, we’ll be pleased to make acknowledgement. AUSTRALIA Graham Cordon (SA), Tony Healy (ACT), John Palazzi (NSW), Len Watson (Qld). CANADA Brian Chapman (BC), Graham Conway (BC), CYBERSPACE Richard Alexander, John F Callahan, Hugh Henry, Steve Scanlon, Janet Wilson. ENGLAND Gail-Nina Anderson, Louise Bath, James Beckett, Claire Blamey, Peter Christie, Mat Coward, Kate Eccles, Paul Farthing, George Featherston, Paul Gallagher, Alan Gardiner, Keith George, Anne Hardwick, Richard Clippers wanted! Lowke, Alexis Lykiard, Diana Lyons, Dave Malin, Nick Maloret, Valerie Martin, Tom Ruffles, Meryl Santis, Paul Screeton, Gary Stocker, Roman Suchyj, Frank Thomas, Paul Thomas, Nick Warren, Owen Whiteoak, Bobby Zodiac. FRANCE Michel Meurger. GERMANY Ulrich Magin. Regular clipsters have provided the HOLLAND Robin Pascoe. IRELAND Andy Conlon, Pat Corcoran, Andrew Munro. ISRAEL lifeblood of Fortean Times since it Zvi Ron. NEW ZEALAND Peter Hassall. ROMANIA Iosif Boczor. SCOTLAND Roger Musson. began in 1973. One of the delights SWEDEN Sven Rosén. THAILAND Chris Williams. USA Loren Coleman (ME), Jim Conlan for the editors is receiving packets of clips from Borneo or Brazil, Saudi Arabia (CT), Myron Hoyt (ME), Greg May (FL), Dolores Phelps (TX), Jim Riecken (NY), Joseph Trainor or Siberia. We invite you to join in the (MA), Jeffrey Vallance (CA), Gary Yates (UT). WALES Janet & Colin Bord. fun and send in anything weird, from trade journals, local newspapers, extracts from obscure tomes, or Fort Sorters (who classify clippings placed in the Archives for Fortean Research) library newspaper archives. Phil Baker, Rachel Carthy, Chris Josiffe, Mark Pilkington, Bob Rickard, Paul Sieveking, Ian To minimise the time spent on preparing clippings for a Simmons. Fort Sort, we ask that you cut them out and not fold them too small. Mark each clip (on the front, where possible) with Clipping Credits for FT333 the source, date and your name, so that we can credit you Richard Alexander, Gerard Apps, Louise Bath, James Beckett, John F Callahan, Brian in the listing (right) when we use the material. For UK local Chapman, Andy Conlon, Pat Corcoran, Mat Coward, JD Evans, Paul Farthing, Alan Gardiner, and overseas clips, please give the town of publication. For foreign language clips, we appreciate brief translations. To Keith George, Tony Healy, Hugh Henry, Nigel Herwin, Ernest Jackson, Tony James, Rosalind avoid confusion over day and month, please write the date Johnson, Diana Lyons, Dave Malin, Nick Maloret, Valerie Martin, Greg May, Andy Munro, in this form: 1 NOV 2015. If you send photocopies, copy on Alan Murdie, John Palazzi, Zvi Ron, Tom Ruffles, Steve Scanlon, Paul Screeton, Jonathan one side of the paper only. Sibley, Frank Thomas, Carole Tyrrell, Nicholas Warren, Clive Watson, Len Watson, Owen Mail to: Fortean Times, PO Box 2409, London NW5 4NP, UK Whiteoak, Janet Wilson, Gary Yates, Bobby Zodiac. E-mail: [email protected] or post on the FT website at www.forteantimes.co.uk, where there is a contributor’s guide.

78 FT333 www.forteantimes.com

COMING Strange deathS NEXT UNUSUAL WAYS OF SHUFFLING OFF THIS MORTAL COIL

John ‘Goldfinger’ Palmer, 64, was Powys. Meakings was on Cribyn Peak, shot dead at his home in South near Pen y Fan, while Prescott was on Weald, Essex, on 24 June, the latest Corn Du, 1.2 miles (2km) away. At the MONTH underworld figure to fall victim to the inquest, coroner Andrew Barkley said “curse of Brink’s-Mat”. Tried for melting such deaths were “very rare”, but two down gold bars stolen in the £26 so close together were “remarkable”. million theft of bullion and jewellery from Two other climbers were also struck by a warehouse at Heathrow Airport, Palmer lightning on Cribyn Peak, but survived. is the eighth man with close links to the 1983 Independent, D.Telegraph, 6 July; BBC News, 3 robbery to be shot dead. The earlier victims Sept 2015. were Nick Whiting (1990), accused of being an informant (1990); Great Train Robber Charlie A groom was killed eight days after his wedding Wilson (1990) and Donald Urquhart (1995), by a blood clot caused when he broke his hired to launder some of the proceeds; Keith ankle walking back from his stag night. Ben Hedley (1996), suspected money launderer; Aucott, 40, collapsed at his parents’ home and Solly Nahome (1998), Brian Perry (2001) on 9 August. It seems the clot had moved and George Francis (2001), who handled some up his leg and blocked his heart. The graphic of the gold. Kenneth Noye, the most notorious designer had been on crutches when he member of the gang, is currently serving a life married partner Sam. The couple, from Earl murder most weird sentence for a 1996 ‘road rage’ murder. Around Shilton, Leicestershire, had a young daughter. THE STRANGE CASE OF THE half the stolen gold remains unaccounted for. D.Telegraph, 15 Aug 2015. HEADLESS EVANGELIST D.Telegraph, 2 July 2015. An outdoor enthusiast who enjoyed bad weather Say Phalla, 25, climbed 10m (33ft) down a drowned in a freak accident on 30 March after well in Cambodia after his dog fell in. A male a huge gust of wind puffed up her overcoat and neighbour, followed by Phalla’s mother, 64, then carried her into the swollen River Irwell. Valerie climbed down in a bid to save him, but all three Weston, 58, a retired teacher, was tending to suffocated because of a lack of oxygen. MX her pot plants in her garden and tying up her News (Sydney), 7 July 2014. canoe in a fierce Atlantic storm at 10.45pm when it is believed she was lifted off her feet by In August a Utah man in his 70s died from the winds of up to 70mph (113km/h). The gale blew plague, probably contracted from a flea after her into the river at the bottom of her garden in it had bitten an infected prairie dog. (In July, the Lancashire village of Irwell Vale. Her body plague killed 60 to 80 prairie dogs in an eastern was found 10 miles (16km) downstream 36 Utah colony.) Squirrels, rabbits and ferrets are hours later. She had suffered injuries consistent also known to carry the plague bacterium, with being dragged through a rocky, fast- Yersinia pestis. The man was the fourth ‘Black flowing waterway. The coat was never found. Death’ fatality in the US in 2015, double the D.Telegraph, 17 Sept 2015. a woolf in the fold 2014 toll, although the first case in Utah since 2009. Plague occurs naturally in rural and semi- A London art dealer is in jail in Pozzuoli near THE BLOOMSBURy SET AND rural areas of the Western US, most commonly Naples, accused of killing her 93-year-old jACK THE RIppER in New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. [CNN] 27 mother by stuffing a rosary down her throat Aug; Sun, 29 Aug 2015. in an attempt to ‘cleanse’ her of evil spirits. Italian-born Francesca Martire, 61, who ran A couple from Normandy, both aged 31, fell a successful design, furniture and lighting + 40ft (12m) to their deaths while having sex on dealership in Alfie’s Antique Market, St John’s top of an historic fort in the English Channel. Wood, London, was undergoing psychiatric occult black dahlia, Police found the man’s naked body in a dried-out assessment following the alleged murder of france’s lost lake, section of the moat of Fort Vauban on Grande- her mother, Maria Luigia Magazzile, in their Île in the Chausey Archipelago, and that of his home town of Taranto, southern Italy, on 27 blind artists, partner in 5ft (1.5m) of water. Their belongings May. Mrs Martire, who had lived in Britain since and Much More… were on top of the fort. Sunday Sun, 23 Aug 1986, told the police that she believed her 2015. mother’s flat was infested with evil spirits and that by shoving the rosary in her mouth she David Shingler, 54, took a large bottle of was performing a sort of exorcism. A friend of potassium cyanide from the firm where he 30 years who saw her three days before the FORTEAN worked as a surface scientist and swallowed it incident said she appeared to be “away with while sitting in his car in Oulton, Staffordshire, the fairies”. He added: “She was not herself, on 26 May. The chemicals were so dangerous she was miles away, it was very odd… People that firefighters had to be called to the mortuary said she had been acting strangely for years.” TIMES to protect staff after they received his corpse. D.Telegraph, D.Mail, 14 Aug 2015. No post mortem exam was carried out, as doctors said it would be too dangerous to their own and the public’s health. D.Telegraph, 7 Aug THE FORTEAN TIMES 2015. BOOK OF STRANGE DEATHS VOL 2 Robin Meakings, 59, from Surrey, and Jeremy ON SALE NOW FROM 334 Prescott, 51, from Telford, Shropshire, both died WH SMITH AND AMAZON.CO.UK on 5 July, hit by separate lighting strikes minutes TO ORDER DIRECT CALL 0844 844 0053 ON SALE 12 NOV 2015 apart while walking in the Brecon Beacons in WhyNot Be A Proofreader?

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