THE 'IT' FACTOR REVOLUTION IN THE HEAD INSIDE PUTIN'S VIRTUAL RUSSIA SINISTER CLOWNS SPREAD GOING UNDERGROUND UNCOVERING A TUNNEL TO HADES TERROR ACROSS THE USA CRYING WOLF CHILDREN ABDUCTED BY ANIMALS FT346 NOVEMBER 2016 £4.25 CELLULOID HITLER'S THE DEVIL INFERNO HELLMOUTH IN STEREO BRINGING HELL TO THE DARK SECRETS THE AMAZING ART THE SILVER SCREEN OF HRAD HOUSKA OF THE DIABLERIES Fortean Times 346 strange days Rains of meat, catfish from the sky, creepy clowns, attack of the sea potatoes, world’s oldest people, signals from space, self-immolating ancients, EU aliens, pioneer potheads and CONTENTS early brewers, the lost city that wasn’t – and much more. 05 THE CONSPIRASPHERE 22 NECROLOG 14 ARCHAEOLOGY 23 FAIRIES & FORTEANA the world of strange phenomena 15 CLASSICAL CORNER 24 FLYING SORCERY 16 SCIENCE 25 UFO CASEBOOK features COVER STORY 26 DIABLERIES: THE DEVIL IN 3-D In the 19th century, Paris was overtaken by a new sensation – stereoscopic cards in which the Devil and all his works were shown in astonishing, and often humourously satirical, detail. BRIAN MAY tells how he fell under their diabolical spell and with fellow fi ends DENIS PELLERIN & PAULA FLEMING explores the technological and cultural background of these hellish creations. 32 A VISIT TO THE UNDERWORLD MIKE DASH examines the unsolved mystery of the tunnels at Baia. Did ancient priests fool visitors to a sulphurous NDON STEREOSCOPIC COMPANY subterranean stream into believing that they had crossed LO 26 THE DEVIL IN 3-D the River Styx and entered Hades? The diabolical pleasures of the ‘Diableries’ stereoscopic cards 38 DARKNESS VISIBLE: HELL IN THE CINEMA Ever since the silent era, fi lmmakers have been putting their visions of Hell on the silver screen, and much of their inspiration derives from a 14th century Italian poet and a 19th century French artist. PETER LAWS descends to the fi ery pits in search of the template for this celluloid inferno. forum 51 Spirits of Place by FR Maher 52 There will be dragons by Jerome Clark reports 38 DARKNESS VISIBLE 32 A VISIT TO THE UNDERWORLD Dante’s Inferno on the cinema screen Excavating an entrance to Hades 44 STRANGE STATESMEN No 14. All the world’s a stage: Putin’s virtual Russia 48 BUILDING A FORTEAN LIBRARY No 14. The Mothman Prophecies 70 FORTEAN TRAVELLER No 108. Hrad Houska, Czech Republic 74 STORIES FROM THE ILLUSTRATED POLICE NEWS No 51. Help! My baby was taken by a... regulars WSE TO 02 EDITORIAL 69 IT HAPPENED TO ME MARK OWENN RICHARDSON 70 HITLER’S HELLMOUTH 8 CLOWNS FROM HELL 55 REVIEWS 79 PHENOMENOMIX The Satanic secrets of Hrad Houska Men with outsize feet spread fear 65 LETTERS 80 STRANGE DEATHS COVER: LONDON STEREOSCOPIC COMPANY FT346 1 TOP FLASH: CLOWN ILLUSTRATION - OWEN RICHARDSON 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 A hell of an issue... SUbScriptioN eNqUirieS ANd bAck iSSUeS www.subsinfo.co.uk [email protected] hEll oN EArth No lAuGhiNG mAttEr? FORTEAN TIMES is produced for Dennis Publishing by Wild Talents Ltd. Postal address: Fortean Times, Welcome to our Hallowe’en issue, where we Coulrophobes should perhaps skip a few pages PO BOX 71602, London E17 0QD. turn our attention to the spookier end of the this issue or face their own personal Hell. While You can manage your existing subscription through fortean spectrum.This year, however, we avoid the annual ‘Clown Service’ in East London (p6) is http://www.subsinfo.co.uk/ – this should be your first port the usual trick-or-treaters – ghosts, ghouls, an innocent affair, the activities of sinister clowns of call if you have any queries about your subscription. witches and werewolves – and focus instead on elsewhere – specifically the states of North and Change your address, renew your subscription or report problems a place: Hell. Satan’s infernal realm might not South Carolina – has been cause for concern. UK subscriptions: 0844 844 0049 be an actual place, of course, but a theological We’ve been reporting on similar ‘creepy clown’ USA & Canada subscriptions: (+1) 800-428-3003 (toll free) conceit, a powerful metaphor, an existential panics for some time now, but this year’s outbreak Fax (+1) 757-428-6253 email [email protected] Other overseas subscriptions: +44 (0)1795 592 909 state, or just other people; nonetheless, it seems not only to show no sign of abating but is, Fax: +44 (0)1795 414 555 has been searched for and as we go to press, spreading sometimes found.The further afield.While the licENSiNG & SYNDicAtioN Fortean times IS AvAILABLE FOR ancients believed Hades South Carolina incidents INTERNATIONAL LICENSINg AND SYNDICATION – CONTACT: could be entered in the continued – from Lexington, Syndication Senior Manager ANj DOSAj-HALAI TEL: +44- (0) 20 7907 6132 sulphurous environs of SC, came a report of a clown [email protected] Lake Avernus, and – as and someone dressed as a Licensing Manager CARLOTTA SERANTONI TEL: +44- (0) 20 7907 6550 Mike Dash explains (p32) bear (!) attempting to entice [email protected] – a controversial find made children into their car – news Licensing & Syndication Assistant NICOLE ADAMS TEL: +44- (0) 20 7907 6134 in the 1950s revealed a arrived of clown sightings [email protected] mysterious system of tunnels across the southern States, You cAN rEAch Ft oN thE iNtErNEt that might have been the in Louisiana, Kentucky, www.forteantimes.com setting for a ritualistic Maryland, Mississippi, journey across the Styx. Alabama and Georgia; there © Copyright Dennis Publishing Limited There are other candidates was even one weird outlier for the title of Gateway as far north as Pennsylvania. pUbliSHed bY prodUctioN execUtiVe to Hell (see FT260:46-48, Some of these incidents were lAwreNce brookeS deNNiS pUbliSHiNg, 020 7907 6062 307:20-21) and Mark Towse accompanied by threatening 30 cleveland Street lawrence_brookes@ IN ROSS visited one such in the Czech messages posted on social RT dennis.co.uk london w1t 4Jd, Uk Republic (p70): a spooky media, others appeared to MA tel: 020 7907 6000 AdVertiSiNg director SteVe NicolAoU castle full of dark secrets, "Reverend green! Fancy seeing you here, have been fabricated by groUp pUbliSHer 020 7907 6633 built, say the stories, over a you dark horse!" children, perhaps as pranks, iAN weStwood steve_nicolaou@ gaping, abysmal pit whence malicious or otherwise. A full 020 7907 6000 dennis.co.uk emerged winged monsters and men driven mad. follow-up report will appear next issue. circUlAtioN mANAger SAleS execUtiVe In the 14th century, Dante made an imaginary Perhaps the increasingly visible figure of the JAmeS mANgAN brAdleY beAVer james.mangan@ 020 7907 6701 descent into the titular Inferno of his poem, creepy clown is set to displace more traditional seymour.co.uk bradley_beaver@ inspiring the epic visual treatment of Hell in Hallowe’en bogeymen (and women): around this export circUlAtioN dennis.co.uk Doré’s celebrated 19th century illustrations, time last year, Tonbridge in Kent was gripped by mANAger SAleS execUtiVe gerAldiNe grobler imogeN williAmS which in turn reverberated through the whole of its own clown panic when a masked female figure geraldine.grobler@ 020 7907 6247 the 20th century as filmmakers translated this was seen approaching young schoolchildren. seymour.co.uk imogen_williams@ rich seam of imagery into their own popcorn- Teachers issued warnings, the police investigated dennis.co.uk fuelled visions of the abode of the damned, as and parents fretted. The culprit turned out to PriNtED BY WYNDEHAM BICESTER Rev Peter Laws explains (p38). Cinema might be an 18-year-old girl who was “helping police DiStriButioN have been the ultimate expression of 19th with their enquiries”.The cops suggested Distributed in uK, ireland and worldwide century optical technology, morphing into the that the run-up to Hallowe’en was probably to by Seymour Distribution Ltd. 2 East Poultry Avenue, London EC1A 9PT dominant entertainment form of the 20th, but blame for her activities, and that there was no Tel: 020 7429 4000 / Fax: 020 7429 4001 between Dante and DeMille there were all sorts connection with “a number of different reports Queries on overseas availability should be emailed to [email protected] of fascinating, if shorter-lived, media equally in recent weeks, involving people travelling in Speciality store distribution by Worldwide Magazine obsessed with the Devil and all his works. vans and approaching children”; which might Distribution Ltd, Tel: 0121 788 3112 Fax: 0121 788 1272 One of the most fascinating and bewitching have been reassuring… aside from the fact that StANDArD SuBScriPtioN rAtES 12 issues: UK £39.98; EU £47.50 of all remains the ‘Diableries’ – stereoscopic these mystery van drivers were also described as cards looked at through a special viewer that clowns… (Kent Online, 9 + 23 Oct; D.Mirror, 17 Oct Fortean times (USPS 023-226) is published every four weeks by Dennis Publishing Ltd, 30 Cleveland Street, London, W1P 4JD, United Kingdom. brought the exquisitely-wrought images to 2015). The US annual subscription price is $89.99. glorious three-dimensional life.These late-19th Airfreight and mailing in the USA is by Agent named Air Business, C/O Worldnet Shipping USA Inc., 149-35 177th Street, Jamaica, century creations drew on peculiarly French New York, 11434. traditions of satirical literature and cartoons daVid r SUTToN Periodical postage paid at Jamaica, NY 11431, USA. to mock both contemporary Parisian life and US Postmaster: Send address changes to: Fortean Times, 3330 Pacific Avenue, Suite 500, Virginia Beach, VA, 23451-2983, USA.