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THE X-FILES car-crash politics jg ballard versus ronald reagan cave of the witches south america's magical they're back: is the truth still out there? phantom fares japan's ghostly cab passengers THE WORLD’S THE WORLD OF STRANGE PHENOMENA WWW.FORTEANTiMES.cOM OTA iE 338 TiMES FORTEAN chimaera • by meteorite • rapper • ancient greek laptop WEIRDES NEWS T THE WORLD OF STRANGE PHENOMENA www.forteantimes.com

ft338 march 2016 £4.25 H ERTHSOyO Ai Oi EuNO H -iE AEO H icE uOAi ERcAN•jPNSGHOST jAPAN'S • LEPREcHAuN AuTOMATic • WiTcHES THE OF cAvE • x-FiLES THE OF RETuRN • bOWiE DAviD OF HiSTORy SEcRET THE SPACE ODDITY

from aliens to the occult: the strange fascinations of daVid b0Wie FA RES bogey beasts the shape-shifting monsters of british folklore mystery moggies on the trail of alien big A 2016 MAR cats in deepest suffolk

Fortean Times 338

strange days

Japan’s phantom taxi fares, John Dee’s lost library, Indian claims death by meteorite, cretinous criminals, curious cats, traduced, ancient Greek laptop, Flat Earth rapper, CONTENTS ghostly photobombs, bogey beasts – and much more. 05 THE CONSPIRASPHERE 23 MYTHCONCEPTIONS 05 EXTRA! EXTRA! 24 NECROLOG the world of strange phenomena 15 ALIEN ZOO 25 FAIRIES & FORTEANA 16 26 THE UFO FILES features

COVER STORY 28 THE MAGE WHO SOLD THE WORLD From an early interest in UFOs and Aleister Crowley to fl irtations with Kabbalah and Nazi mysticism, David Bowie cultivated a number of esoteric interests over the years and embraced alien and occult imagery in his costumes, songs and videos. DEAN BALLINGER explores the fortean aspects and influences of the late musician’s career. 34 THE RUNNING MAN CHRIS AUBECK and MARTIN SHOUGH unearth a baffling proto-UFO incident, involving a fi ery anthropomorphic 28 THE MAGE WHO SOLD THE WORLD fi gure, from the early 19th century, and explain the work of The strange fascinations of David Bowie Magonia Exchange, an online group dedicated to bringing fortean research into the 21st.... 40 IS THE TRUTH STILL OUT THERE? LOREN AND JENNY COLEMAN welcome The X-Files back to our TV screens after a decade-and-a-half absence. What do Mulder and Scully have to say to us in a post-9/11 world? 44 THE CAVE OF THE WITCHES According to local legend, a Chilean island was once home to a secret society of powerful warlocks who murdered their victims, kidnapped children, created terrifying monsters and were only brought to trial in the late 19th century. MIKE DASH uncovers a strange story... forum

54 The Automatic leprechaun by Ryan Shirlow 56 Suffolk’s mystery mutant moggy by Matt Salusbury WELLCOME LIBRARY 40 IS THE TRUTH STILL OUT THERE? 12 LOST LIBRARY reports The X-Files returns to our screens John Dee’s books go on display

50 STRANGE STATESMEN No 9. American Psychos 2: Raping Ronald Reagan 76 STORIES FROM THE ILLUSTRATED POLICE NEWS No 45. Succi, the fasting man regulars

02 EDITORIAL 75 IT HAPPENED TO ME DANIEL BEREHULAK / GETTY IMAGES 4JAPAN’S FARES 14 CURIOUS CATS 59 REVIEWS 79 PHENOMENOMIX Taxi drivers report phantom passengers Chimæras and other feline freaks 71 LETTERS 80 STRANGE

COVER: BOWIE MASK BY MARK WARDEL. COVER IMAGE ETIENNE GILFILLAN/MARK WARDEL FT338 1 www.forteantimes.com

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 Lazarus rising SUbScriptioN eNqUirieS ANd bAck iSSUeS www.subsinfo.co.uk [email protected] iMMErSEd iN CrOWlEY'S uNiFOrM changing self as an artistic product in its own FORTEAN TIMES is produced for by Wild Talents Ltd. Postal address: Fortean Times, David Bowie died in January, aged 69, just days right. PO BOX 71602, London E17 0QD. after the release of what turned to be his final In this issue, Dean Ballinger surveys the You can manage your existing subscription through album and last musical testament, Blackstar fortean aspects of Bowie’s career (pp28-33) http://www.subsinfo.co.uk/ – this should be your first port (although further recordings may emerge while Hunt Emerson and Kevin Jackson of call if you have any queries about your subscription. posthumously, as hints have been dropped provide their own pictorial history of the Change your address, renew your subscription or report problems that he had planned a further record). Amidst Starman’s many changes (p79). Elsewhere, UK subscriptions: 0844 844 0049 the outpourings of and tributes from the ponders the return of that USA & Canada subscriptions: (+1) 800-428-3003 (toll free) great and the good, more interesting chatter fortean fixture of the 1990s, The X-Files (pp40- Fax (+1) 757-428-6253 email [email protected] Other overseas subscriptions: +44 (0)1795 592 909 surfaced online about what it all meant: were 42), and wonders whether it has managed, Fax: +44 (0)1795 414 555 Bowie’s final album and the accompanying Bowie-like, to reinvent itself to address the videos for the songs changes we’ve seen in our liCENSiNG & SYNdiCATiON Fortean times IS AvAILABLE FOR ‘Lazarus’ and ‘Blackstar’ post-9/11 world. INTERNATIONAL LICENSINg AND SYNDICATION – CONTACT: full of half-hidden clues to All this, plus South Syndication Senior Manager ANj DOSAj-HALAI TEL: +44- (0) 20 7907 6132 deeper occult meanings in American sorcerers, curious [email protected] the artist’s work? cats, a Flat Earth rapper Licensing Manager CARLOTTA SERANTONI TEL: +44- (0) 20 7907 6550 It’s entirely possible and the anal rape of Ronald [email protected] that Bowie prankishly Reagan. And next issue – Licensing & Syndication Assistant NICOLE ADAMS TEL: +44- (0) 20 7907 6134 filled these final laughing gnomes. Seriously. [email protected] statements with esoteric YOu CAN rEACH FT ON THE iNTErNET Easter eggs he knew would MEdiævAl FT www.forteantimes.com send fans scurrying in A number of listeners search of hidden meanings to Radio 4’s In Our Time © Copyright Dennis Publishing Limited after he was gone, being (28 Jan 2016) drew our well aware of the degree attention to a not entirely pUbliSHed bY prodUctioN execUtiVe of scrutiny to which his flattering reference to lAwreNce brookeS deNNiS pUbliSHiNg, 020 7907 6062 previous ‘comeback’ FT on the programme 30 cleveland Street lawrence_brookes@ album had been subjected. from Professor Nicholas london w1t 4Jd, Uk dennis.co.uk And he was right: Vincent of the University MARTIN ROSS tel: 020 7907 6000 AdVertiSiNg director "NO, MAjOR TOM, I QUITE CLEARLY SAID TAKE SteVe NicolAoU esoterically inclined YOUR PROTEIN PILLS AND of East Anglia. Discussing groUp pUbliSHer 020 7907 6633 Bowie fans were all over *THEN* PUT YOUR HELMET ON" with Melvyn Bragg 12th iAN weStwood steve_nicolaou@ Blackstar like a rash. It’s contemporary stories 020 7907 6000 dennis.co.uk interesting, though, that such occult-minded that Eleanor of Aquitaine had enjoyed an circUlAtioN mANAger SAleS execUtiVe pop-pickers grant Bowie a degree of authorial affair with Saladin or fought at the front in JAmeS mANgAN brAdleY beAVer james.mangan@ 020 7907 6701 agency denied the likes of lesser stars: most the Crusades, ProfVincent described these seymour.co.uk bradley_beaver@ esoteric interpretation of recent pop songs, products of the 12th century rumour mill with export circUlAtioN dennis.co.uk and especially music videos, has focused the words: “This is the Fortean Times of its day. mANAger SAleS execUtiVe gerAldiNe grobler imogeN williAmS on the clues offered up by ‘Illuminati mind- This is nonsense.” Since we have always been geraldine.grobler@ 020 7907 6247 controlled’ performers – Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, in the business of reporting and commenting seymour.co.uk imogen_williams@ Lady Gaga and the like – who simultaneously on rumour and , rather than dennis.co.uk encode and flaunt the hidden agendas of their creating it, we can only assume that the absent- PriNTEd BY POLESTAR BICESTER shadowy or reptilian masters (see FT258:32- minded professor was really thinking of the diSTriBuTiON 39) but have no real message of their own to Weekly World News. distributed in uK, ireland and worldwide impart. by Seymour Distribution Ltd. 2 East Poultry Avenue, London EC1A 9PT Bowie, though, often cultivated the image ErrATuM Tel: 020 7429 4000 / Fax: 020 7429 4001 of the alien messenger, most notably in his FT337:17. We hope you enjoyed Barry Queries on overseas availability should be emailed to [email protected] Ziggy Stardust guise, as well as that of the Baldwin’s Classical Corner entry on classical Speciality store distribution by Worldwide Magazine seeker after hermetic truths of Hunky Dory or insults and obscenities.There was a certain Distribution Ltd, Tel: 0121 788 3112 Fax: 0121 788 1272 Station to Station: as well as elevating raiding irony to the fact that the column’s title STANdArd SuBSCriPTiON rATES 12 issues: UK £39.98; EU £47.50 the dressing up box to a fine art (vouched for mysteriously disappeared from the layout by aV&A exhibition, no less) Bowie perfected before it went to press. It should have read: Fortean Times (USPS 023-226) is published every four weeks by Dennis Publishing Ltd, 30 Cleveland Street, London, W1P 4JD, . the image of pop star as otherworldly purveyor “196. Expletives not deleted”. The US annual subscription price is $89.99. of gnomic utterances, his lyrics pored over for Airfreight and mailing in the USA is by Agent named Air Business, C/O Worldnet Shipping USA Inc., 149-35 177th Street, Jamaica, hidden meanings and his constantly changing

New York, 11434. appearance interrogated for the clues it might daVid r SUTToN Periodical postage paid at Jamaica, NY 11431, USA. offer to our post-human future. A flick though US Postmaster: Send address changes to: Fortean Times, 3330 Pacific Avenue, Suite 500, Virginia Beach, VA, 23451-2983, USA. Aleister Crowley’s photo albums reveals a man bob rickard PaUL SiEVEkiNG REST OF THE WORLD £55; US $89.99 ($161.98 for 24 issues) similarly in love with his own evolving image dENNiS PuBliSHiNG liMiTEd and its visual representations, an interest in GrOuP FiNANCE dirECTOr IAN LEggETT the external, showbiz aspects of the magical FiNANCE dirECTOr BRETT REYNOLDS ExECuTivE dirECTOr KERIN O’CONNOR project that prefigures Bowie’s own. Bowie Why fortean? CHiEF ExECuTivE jAMES TYE made light of his early Crowley obsession, COMPANY FOuNdEr Everything you always wanted to but while it might not have been deep, one Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations. know about Fortean Times but Circulation 14,320 (jan-Dec 2015) suspects it was certainly meaningful for his were too paranoid to ask! Printed in the UK. ISSN: 0308 5899 own sense of the power of visuals in an age © Fortean Times: FEBRUARY 2016 of mass media and of the idea of the ever- SEE PAGE 78

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a digest of the worldwide weird strangedays

numerous reports of “spectral Japan’s ghost fares figures” in residential districts that have been scoured of all buildings and spirits lining up outside shops that no longer Taxi drivers report phantom passengers in tsunami-devastated town exist. Exorcists have reported helping people who claim to be seeing headless , bodies t least seven taxi drivers missing arms or legs and others ain Ishinomaki, northeast who believe they have assumed Japan, have reported the spirits of some of the dead. experiencing a ‘phantom fare’ Asahi Shimbun (Japan), telegraph. in the wake of the devastating co.uk, 21 Jan; D.Mirror online, 2 2011 tsunami and earthquake, Feb 2016. according to The Asahi Shimbun newspaper. The 9-magnitude • These tales of vanishing quake – the most powerful passengers remind us of ever recorded in Japan and the historical tales of fourth most powerful in the travelling companions, world – lasted for six minutes worldwide “phantom hitchhiker” and triggered a tsunami that in folklore, and its apparent places reached 133ft (40m) high ostension, when legend manifests and travelled six miles (9.6km) in the phenomenal world. Jan inland, destroying thousands Harold Brunvand’s classic 1981 of homes and other buildings. study, The , Last March, an official report inaugurated the modern study of Daniel Berehulak / Getty imaGes confirmed 15,893 people had urban legends, although back in been killed, more than 6,000 1942/43 the folklorists Richard injured, while 2,572 remain they were picking up genuine Beardsley and Rosalie Hankey missing. Ishinomaki, a coastal The young passengers, because they each analysed 79 stories of phantom town in Miyagi Prefecture, was started their meters. As a result, passengers and contributed among the regions most seriously woman asked the drivers were forced to pay two important papers on the affected by the tsunami. More their fares. Some jotted down subject to the California Folklore than 3,000 residents lost their the driver, their experiences in their logs. Quarterly. lives, including 70 students and One showed his driver’s report, In the basic version, a driver nine staff members at Ishinomaki “Have I died?” which noted that there was a picks up a hitchhiker on a lonely Okawa Elementary School. fare that went unpaid. Several road and later looks around to Speaking to Yuka Kudo, a noted that the ‘ghosts’ were find the hitchhiker gone. Most student of sociology at Tohoku pointing toward the front.The young. “Young people feel strong elaborations serve to indicate Gakuin University, one taxi driver, who was in his forties, chagrin [at their deaths] when that the passenger was a ghost. driver in his fifties related how repeatedly asked the man for they cannot meet the people they “In one variant,” writes David he may have encountered one of his destination, and eventually love,” said Kudo. “As they want Hambling (FT298:14), “the these dead residents just months the latter said “Hiyoriyama” to convey their bitterness, they driver continues to the address after the disaster. He was working (mountain).The driver set off, may have chosen taxis, which are requested by the hitchhiker, and in the town when a young woman but when he eventually pulled like private rooms, as a medium is told the hitchhiker died years dressed in a coat climbed into over, he found the passenger had to do so”. What impressed Kudo before. Other versions have the his cab near Ishinomaki Station disappeared. was that the drivers had no fear driver finding on a gravestone and told him: “Please go to the These haunting accounts, and of their spectral passengers, a coat or scarf borrowed by Minamihama [district].” He told five similar ones, were collected but held them in reverence. the hitchhiker.” We have her that the area was “almost by Kudo as part of her graduation They regarded the encounters returned to the subject many empty” and asked her if she was thesis. She asked more than 100 as important experiences to times since FT10:4-5 (1975), sure she wished to go there.The drivers if they had experienced be cherished. One said that he including features by Steve woman replied in a trembling anything unusual in the wake had lost a family member in the Moore (FT24:13-14), Michael voice, “Have I died?”.The driver of the earthquake.The question disaster. Another said he would Goss (FT34:14-16), Rob Gandy said he then turned around and strangely sparked anger among willingly accept a ghost as a (FT56:52-53, 328:32-39), Sean discovered that no one was there. some of the cabbies, while others customer again. Tudor (FT73:27-32, 104:36-40) Another driver said a man in his pretended not to hear her – but Taxi drivers are not the only and Alan Murdie (FT278:16). twenties climbed into his taxi. a few were willing to talk. Kudo ones to report seeing ghosts in See also Michael Goss: The When he looked into the rear- said that her research suggests the rubble of Tohoku’s coastal Evidence for Phantom Hitch-hikers view mirror, his passenger was that the seven drivers believed communities.There have been (Aquarian Press, 1984).

4 Ft338 www.forteantimes.com cretiNous whistle aNd the price crimiNals i’ll come... isN’t right Our latest round- The remarkable Facts and up of foolish ‘bird language’ of fallacies in felons from a remote Turkish ITV’s new ghost around the world village hunting drama page 8 page 10 page 16

The Conspirasphere Extra! Extra! FT’s FavouriTe headlines Noel rooNeY is not entirely convinced by one scientist’s attempts to quash conspiracy theories with the aid of a few graphs… From around The world is it possible to derive an algorithm that predicts the potential failure rate of a conspiracy? On the face of it, this is a quixotic endeavour at best, but David robert Grimes, a physicist and cancer researcher at Oxford university, has Palm Beach (FL) Post-Times, – Feb 2015 taken up the challenge. his recently published paper is titled ‘On the Viability of Conspiratorial Beliefs’, but is actually about the theoretical viability of conspiracies themselves. using a range of modelling formulæ, including Gompertz ratios (used by the Times, 24 Jan 2015. insurance industry to predict the death century, the conspirators should number no rate among its customers) and analyses more than 125. based on the number of people potentially thereby hangs one of the principal (and involved (more on that point below) he comical) weaknesses in the Grimes model. has arrived at a conclusion that – given a For instance, he estimates the conspirator few minutes’ thought – required very little number for the moon landing hoax as mathematical acumen: if a conspiracy the total number of nasa employees in involves a large number of people, the the late 1960s. so the tea lady gets the probability that it will be exposed is same weighting in the model as the chief correspondingly high. architect of the landings (or non-landings Independent, 6 Jan 2015. Dr Grimes is primarily concerned with in this case). Obviously it’s not easy to anti-scientific thinking; he is trying to find estimate the number of conspirators a model with sufficient explanatory power based on actual involvement until the plot to persuade people reluctant to accept is exposed, but there ought to be a more vaccines, global warming, or orthodox subtle weighting formula available than treatment for cancer that the scientific everyone and everyone’s auntie. community is not out to get them. that’s i’m not convinced we will see conspiracy Guardian, 2 Mar 2015. laudable in many respects; blanket mistrust theories regularly measured on the Grimes of science and the people who do science index in the near future. First of all, the is a very limited and limiting cognitive true believers are unlikely to turn face model. But Dr Grimes’s endeavour is in when presented with a mere graph; what’s many other respects a little dotty. a graph compared to years of ‘research’ the Grimes model attempts to show a conducted from a million armchairs? probability curve for exposure of a given second, until Dr Grimes separates conspiracy based on the number of people those who have a difference of opinion involved and their average life expectancy: with a point of view (those who reject thus he concludes that, for instance, the vaccination on the ground that it is crude D.Mail, 7 Feb 2015. lunar landing hoax (if hoax it was) would herd medicine, for instance) from those have been exposed within three years and who believe that it’s all a Big lie (those eight months. it also offers an estimate who think Bill Gates and co are planning of the optimal number of conspirators by injection) his model is as crude required for a conspiracy to succeed. as the extremities of the beliefs he wants Times, 27 Dec 2014. For a plot to survive five years in secrecy, to change. a maximum of 2,521 people should be involved; for a decade of success, under http://journals.plos.org/plosone/ Public urged to keep track a thousand conspirators are needed; and article?id=10.1371/journal. of squirrels with mobiles for a plot to survive unexposed for a full pone.0147905#pone.0147905.ref008 Aberdeen Press & Journal, 11 Mar 2015.

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SIDELINES...

GETTING THEIR GOAT Ghostly photobombs In what has become a Yuletide tradition in Sweden, a giant • Nurul Islam took this straw goat was set ablaze photograph of his young niece on 27 December. The 42ft and nephew – Mayrian, 11, and (12.8m) tall goat is a beloved Ryhan, seven – in front of the Christmas symbol in the city gateway of a 200-year-old folly of Gavle, central Sweden, but in Roundhay Park, Leeds. Mr the attack was the 34th time Islam, 37, claims there was no in the last 49 years that it was one lurking in the gateway at destroyed. A drunken man the time. The mysterious figure covered in soot was arrested was only noticed when the family nearby. D.Telegraph, 28 Dec looked at the photograph later. 2015. D.Mail, 8 May 2015. SLIMEY INTERLOPERS • Actress Rachel Mckeown The population of Mogocha, performed in a production of a remote town in Russia’s Queertet at the Unity Theatre Zabaykalsky Krai region, have in on 24 July 2015 and recently found their tap water teeming with leeches. Town joined fellow cast members hall chief Dmitry Plyukhin told for drinks at the Lisbon bar the 14,000 inhabitants to put afterwards, when a number of filters on taps, but medics photographs were taken. It was pointed out that this would only not until the next day that she

stop adult leeches, not their saw the ghostly face in one of MeRCuRY PReSS & MeDIA larvæ. Metro, 27 Nov 2015. them. “There was about 20 of us HERO IN THE MAKING from the theatre who went to Jaine Ferreira Figueira, 19, was The Lisbon,” she said. “The shocked when her 17-month- picture was of a group of us who old son Lorenzo ran in from the had been dancing. When I saw garden carrying a dead snake, the face I didn’t recognise it. At with blood in his mouth and on first I was trying to figure out if his hands. This took place in it was the light, but it doesn’t Mostardas, Rio Grande do Sul look like a reflection and I don’t state, southern Brazil, on 1 No- think there was anyone behind vember. The snake turned out to be a pit viper (Bothrops jara- when it was taken.” Liverpool raca) with a potentially lethal Echo, 27 July 2015. bite. Initially Lorenzo’s parents LIveRPOOL eChO thought their dog had killed it, but doctor Gilmar Carteri said the boy had evidently bitten the STARMAN snake close to its head, immo- A constellation has bilising it and preventing it from been named after David biting him. [AFP] 3 Nov 2015. Bowie, who died on 10 January 2016 aged 69. Belgian astronomers chose seven stars near Mars that form the shape of a lightning bolt that marked his Aladdin Sane era. D.Telegraph, 19 Jan 2016. MARTIN ROSS

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SIDELINES... Ancient Greek laptop? DIVINE DEMARKATION Chicago’s Wheaton College (an evangelical school) is seeking to fire Professor Larycia hawkins Is she checking her lippie or FB page, or is it a takeaway? for saying that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. The academic, who wears a hijab in protest against anti- Muslim rhetoric, refused to take part in “clarifying conversa- tions”. Metro, 7 Jan 2016. FAIRY REVENGE WARNING West, a uS pharmaceutical company, was warned off build- ing its new factory on a fairy fort at Knockhouse in Waterford City, Ireland. “Friend of the fairies” eddie Lenihan, from Crusheen, Co. Clare, urged the company to choose another site, warning that the Good People would otherwise take revenge against all involved. he cited the example of the Ferenka factory in Limerick, which was built on a fairy fort and closed suddenly in 1977 after six years and a series of setbacks – including the IRA kidnapping of its boss. Irish Sun, 3 Sept 2015. FASHION HAZARD Squatting in skinny jeans can cut off the blood supply to muscles and compress a nerve behind the knee leading to a loss of

uL GeTTY MuSeuM feeling called compartment syn- PA

J drome. Doctors issued a warning ABOVE: The “uSB ports” are to attach an element of the original funerary statue, not a peripheral, says classicist and art historian. after a 35-year-old woman was found lying in an Adelaide street, unable to stand, after spending This ancient Greek marble relief, it appears to have two USB ports. hours emptying cupboards and “Grave Naiskos of an Enthroned The object could Naysayers to the laptop theory lifting boxes. her calves were so Woman with an Attendant”, is assert that the object could be all swollen that her trousers had to in The J Paul Getty Museum in be a small pizza, sorts of things, including a small be cut off, and she spent four Malibu, California, and was used pizza, hinged mirror or cosmetic days in hospital before she could as a marker around 100 hinged mirror or box. It also looks like a wax walk. (elio Fiorucci, was invented BC. The museum bought it in 1972 tablet that the Greeks used for skinny jeans, died a month later, from the collection of the eighth cosmetic box writing with a stylus, according on 20 July, aged 80). Adelaide Advertiser, 23 June; D.Telegraph, Marquess of Lansdowne. A little to bio-archæologist Kristina 23 July 2015. over 37in (94cm) tall, it depicts Killgrove, but laptop advocates a woman sitting on a throne-like YouTube channel “Still Speaking say it does not resemble any MONKEY SABOTAGE chair while reaching toward “the Out,” claimed the object could other wax tablets seen in ancient Baboons forced a Zimbabwe lid of a shallow chest held by a be proof of time travel. In the Greek art; and if it is a wax radio station off air for an servant girl” according to the YouTube video, the group says tablet, where is the stylus? And hour by chewing through fibre description on the Getty website. the object is too wide to be a what about the USB ports? Jeff optic cables in a mountainous “The depiction of the deceased jewellery box and notes that the Hurwit, a professor of art history area near the central town of reaching out for an item held by woman is looking at the screen and classics at the University Zvishavane. “I’m told there were a servant has a long history in as one would with a laptop. “[The of Oregon, asserts these “are more than five of them that ate Greek funerary art and probably statue] depicts an astonishing drill holes for the attachment into the cable,” said station alludes to the hope of continuing object that bears a striking of a bronze object, or perhaps a head Munyaradzi hwengwere. earthly pleasures in the ,” resemblance to a modern laptop separate piece of marble.” D.Mail “When we got to the tower, we the Museum adds. or some handheld device,” the (online), 3 Feb; USA Today (online), saw them scurrying away.” BBC In 2014, a video on the YouTube video says. What’s more, 5 Feb 2016. News, 1 Oct 2015.

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SIDELINES... criME rEAlly DOESn’t pAy if WoCReTinousrms from CRims theyOu’rE skies thESE kinDS Of StupiD BISON MYSTERY A herd of almost 100 bison has appeared near Tisdale in • After sobering up, two lEft: Describing Paul Wayne the Canadian prairie province men from Ayr in Terry was not the challenge it of Saskatchewan, 150 years couldn’t remember what might have been – and the cops after they were hunted to the had happened. In 2013, already knew him brink of . Town au- railway worker Jamie thorities have no idea where Abernathy, 46, and jobless So I was amazed when the they came from, or whether Brian Darrach, 35, joined police told me that Nicholas they are domesticated or Bannatyne’s health club Allegretto had walked into wild. Police warned drivers in Blackpool, 200 miles Parkside police station to watch out for them. “They (320km) from home, where next day, complaining that have very dark fur so they’re they stole credit card his human rights were not easy to spot and they’re details from five lockers being infringed by my quite well built, weighing and splurged on meals, media campaign against about 1,400lb [635kg],” said hotel rooms and heroic him. He was immediately a police spokesman. Bison amounts of booze. They interviewed by officers, (aka ‘buffalo’) are raised on some Saskatchewan farms also spent £35,000 on fresh and then arrested and for meat, but no farmer has fish from a wholesaler in prosecuted for theft… reported a missing herd. Fleetwood, Lancashire. You’ve got to laugh really.” [AFP] 12 Dec 2015. By the time they came Cambridge News, 1 Oct 2015. to trial in Burnley this DEADLY BRACELETS January, it was still not • Paul Davies, 47, was On sale for £5 at hamp- clear what had happened trapped in the Asda garage stead Art Fair in London to 80kg (176lb) of Dover in Basildon, Essex, after on 27 June were red and sole, 80kg of halibut, 150kg smashing his way into black bead bracelets made (330lb) of lobster and 150kg of He dialled 999: the building with a hammer from Jequirity seeds (Abrus king scallops. The men also spent and triggering a fast-moving precatorius), which contain £3,600 on chartering a private “Basildon, near security shutter, which pinned abrin, a toxin more deadly jet from Blackpool to Elstree in him to the ceiling. He dialled than ricin. In Jamaica, the Hertfordshire, home of the TV petrol garage. 999 on his mobile and shouted to beads are believed to ward and film studios – and £4,000 on police operators “Basildon, near off evil spirits, while the three stoves (perhaps to cook the petrol garage. Help me!” before Chinese celebrate them as fish). None of this made sense, Help me!” the call cut out. Passers-by also “love beans”. If chewed or and the defendants could shed called the emergency services rubbed into the skin, abrin can cause vomiting, diar- no light on the matter. They were after hearing his cries. Police and rhoea and (in three recorded fined andve gi n suspended prison wanting to speak to his brother, firemen arrived just before 5am cases) immediate death. sentences. D.Mirror, D.Mail online, who was out at the time. As on 10 October, and freed Davies, There is no known antidote. 22 Jan 2016. the police walked back to their a persistent thief, using cutting Camden New Journal car, Hussein dashed upstairs equipment. He was jailed for six (London), 2 July 2015. • On 18 December, Paul Wayne and started throwing bags of months. D.Telegraph, 13 Oct 2015. Terry, 27, forced his way into an heroin and cocaine out of an GARDEN HAZARDS apartment in Tulsa, Oklahoma, attic window. Seeing this, the • Michael Claude, 19, broke into harley, a three-year-old with ex-girlfriend Sonja Marie officers returned to the house a school in Delaware, got stuck border collie, spent 10 days Moro, 29, and, brandishing a knife, and discovered a £3 million drugs in an elevator and was forced to in pain before dying of liver demanded money from a resident. factory in the basement. Hussain call emergency services for help. failure. he had eaten leaves The victim handed over his wallet, was jailed for 11 years and six He was found wearing a jacket from a sago palm, native to realising that describing the months. Sunday Mirror, 25 Oct that didn’t belong to him and was Japan, which contain cyca- robber to the police was going to 2015. charged with criminal mischief sin, lethal for dogs, which the be a doddle. Terry has devil-horn and theft. The News (Portsmouth), dog’s owner had unwittingly tattoos and “Fuck Cops” written Last February, Nicholas 10 Sept 2015. introduced to her garden in • on his forehead. His other tattoos Allegretto, 23, was caught on Stroud, . include Nazi SS insignia below his security camera stealing a • A greedy burglar found himself Another victim of liver failure eye and kissing lips on his cheek. £23 magnet from a hardware stuck inside a house after getting was a 14-month-old He was arrested the next day. store in Cambridge. “I put [the locked inside the food cupboard. called Loris, which was stung Turns out he was not a stranger thief’s] image on Facebook,” said Marko Herz, 43, broke into the by a bee in Stoke-on-Trent, to the criminal justice system. owner Neil Mackay, “and it was house in Bonn, Germany, to steal Staffordshire. unfortunately, nypost.com, 21 Dec 2015. reproduced in a local newspaper. jewellery and electronics but the insect’s was cov- But it was indistinct, with lines couldn’t resist grabbing a snack ered with lily pollen – highly • Rezwan Hussein, 29, panicked across his face, and you couldn’t as well. He tried to get out, but toxic to cats. D.Telegraph, 21 when police knocked on his identify who it was, so I didn’t after a while gave up and called Aug; D.Mail, 27 Aug 2015. parents’ door in Rochdale, really expect him to be caught. police – who rescued and then

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arrested him. The homeowner said • Raymond Green, 34, dropped a a felony count of marijuana SIDELINES... the faulty cupboard could not be business card with his name on it trafficking. Guardian, 22 Jan 2016. opened from the inside. Metro, 14 while burgling an elderly couple’s FELINE BENDER Oct 2015. house in Swansea, South . • A burglar who left his phone at Aljosha, a Turkish Angora cat, He had been given the card by his a crime scene returned his loot was trapped for seven weeks • A stoned David Smith, 31, probation officer, who wrote the when his victim threatened to call in a neighbour’s wine cellar spotted a wallet, iPad and car keys thief’s name on it. Green was jailed his mother and grandmother. Tom in Würselen, near Aachen, Germany, and got through inside an unlocked Ford Focus at for seven years. Sun, 24 Dec 2015. Evans, 28, from Swansea, phoned three bottles of Riesling after 4am, but as he grabbed the items numbers on the mobile to get the smashing them open. he even- in Barrow, Cumbria, he unwittingly John Stevens, 25, broke into youth’s name and also threatened • tually staggered home to owner touched a button on the key fob, Rumwood Cricket Club in to put photos on Facebook. The Claudia von Buren. Diagnosed which locked him in. Baffled, he Maidstone, , in June, stealing burglar came back with the bike with alcohol poisoning, he was panicked and eventually smashed three cricket balls and a handbag. and tools he had taken from a shed put on a drip for three days and a window to get out. He was Before leaving, he scrawled “Can’t and apologised. “I truly believe he recovered – but was refusing caught when he tried to use a catch me” on a wall. He was was sorry,” said Mr Evans. Sun, 26 water, in case it was alcoholic. bank card from the wallet at a arrested after his fingerprints were Dec 2015. D.Express, 22 Oct 2015. shop. D.Mirror, D.Express, 19 Sept found on the marker pen he left 2015. behind. He also left his prints on a • Vanity is a cruel thing. Detectives REBEL REBEL glass he used to drink squash. He in Swansea investigating a An African grey parrot called • Some felons make police work was fined andve gi n a six-month house raid issued a mugshot of Rebel has created much really easy. For instance, Paul community order. Sun, Metro, 6 Oct the burglary suspect. Matthew confusion at Brooke house Neaverson, 61, who wanted cash 2015. Maynard, 24, complained to care home in , , to fly to Corfu for a job interview the local paper that the picture after learning to mimic the as a golf coach. On 16 March 2015 • Leland Ayala-Doliente, 22, and “wasn’t very flattering”, and sent panic alarm residents use to he tried to rob a NatWest bank Holland Sward, 23, driving from an alternative shot of himself summon help. “It is all taken in good humour,” said his owner, branch in Rainham, Kent. Holding Las Vegas to Montana with 20lb standing and smirking next to a Roy hagley, 53. “The nurses a cashier at knifepoint, he told her (9kg) of weed on 23 January police van. After it was published, like him, even if they do think to transfer £500 to his personal 2015, crossed the Idaho border he was spotted by a member of the his noises are the call bell.” bank account. Before he could give while stoned and paranoid. They public who recognised him from his Rebel has also mastered text his details, the cashier pressed imagined undercover police were new picture, and on 12 November message alerts and a range of the alarm and he fled, Maidstone tailing them and were about 2009 he was arrested in Taffy’s mobile phone sounds. Metro, Crown Court heard. Neaverson to stop and arrest them. They barbershop in Morriston, Swansea, 23 Nov 2015. was jailed for two years. D.Mail, decided to speed up the process while having an £8 trim. “This just D.Mirror, 12 Sept 2015. of their arrest, so they pulled shows how stupid he is,” said an SHAVING ENIGMA over near Rexburg and called officer. “He had his own picture A two-year-old girl was found • Joshua Jording had “Josh” Madison County police – politely plastered around and then decides miles away from her home in stencilled on his sweatshirt on requesting that they “just end to go for a trim to keep up his hamilton, Massachusetts – 2 December, while breaking it”. Ayala-Doliente told the police image. Perhaps he wanted to look sitting naked by the side of a into a western Pennsylvania dispatcher: “It’s getting cold good when he appeared in court.” road with her head shaved. taxi company where he used to out here, man. I just want to get D.Telegraph, Metro, 13 Nov 2009. She had been reported missing work, clearly seen on security warm.” When police showed up, the previous day, 20 November. video. Jording, 26, of Latrobe, the men had their hands behind • A burglar was found fast asleep Sunday Post, 22 Nov 2015. Pennsylvania, faced a preliminary their heads, and Sward told an and snoring loudly on his victim’s PHANTOM PEE hearing 12 days later. [AP] 7 Dec officer: “We’re surrendering”. sofa. Serial offender Ian Carr was An incontinent ghost is said to 2015. The two were each charged with in the middle of raiding a student haunt Dumfries house in Ayr- flat in Heaton, Newcastle, when he shire, making it smell of urine. nodded off. Michael Kitchen, 25, The stately pile was saved from woke at 2.15am and discovered the ruin by Prince Charles in 2007. raider in his living room. Kitchen Sun, 9 Jan 2016. and his flatmate phoned police and waited in the hallway until they arrived. Carr was woken up and arrested. He was wearing Kitchen’s jacket and a wallet was among stolen items in the pocket. A laptop was found in a carrier bag on the balcony of the first-floor flat. Carr, 29, of Byker, told police he had taken 12 Valium tablets and methadone that day. He had 95 previous offences, including five house raids. He was jailed for two IDAhO POLICe years and eight months. D.Express, ABOVE: Stoned, paranoid and arrested felons Leland Ayala-Doliente and holland Sward. 2 Dec 2015. MARTIN ROSS

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SHALL BE NAMELESS Dominic Greyer, selling Whistle down the wind mugs and tea towels at an (unnamed) english fair, was asked to cover up his merchandise after organisers ‘Bird language’ contradicts left-brain/right-brain theories deemed the genuine British place names on the items to be too rude. These included Sandy Balls, Wetwang, Cock- ermouth, Three Cocks, Twatt, Bell end, Slack Bottom, Furry Way and Rings end. (Sydney) D.Telegraph, 12 Sept 2015. IZZIE, NO! Keepers are considering tethering a mischievous, foul-mouthed raven to a wall at Knaresborough Castle in . The eight-year-old bird, Izzie, has stolen phones, cameras, golf balls and a baby’s dummy – and torn up flowers. She also says “What For 600 years, a ABOVE: ‘Bird language’ you fucking looking at?” to whistle language enabled long-distance tourists trying to photograph has been used in communication before the advent of phones. her. Igraine hustwitt Skelton, La Gomera, one her Majesty’s Keeper of of the Canary Ravens, said that after Izzie Islands – a handy fed into their right stole one camera “she flew way of long-distance ear, which suggests onto the museum roof and communication that their left brain took a picture of herself”. before telephones. was more active at Sunday Post, 11 Oct 2015. Less well known is a the time. But when similar language in presented with two SAUCY DANCER Turkey. Nestled deep different whistled A topless Angelic valle turned in the mountains of Turkish sounds, they over tables and chairs at north-east Anatolia, heard the syllables Johnny Rockets, a diner in harmonious echoes All of the volunteers were fluent equally well in both Miami Beach, Florida. She fill the air asa group of people in Turkish whistling and ordinary the left and right ear. The results then removed her bikini whistle to each other across Turkish. Each whistler completed “tell us that the organisation bottom, climbed on a table, deep valleys and long distances a psychological listening test: of our brain, in terms of its doused herself with tomato to communicate. According to while wearing headphones, asymmetrical structure, is ketchup and performed a a recent report, the people who they sometimes heard the same not as fixed as we assume,” kind of dance while lying on speak this musical ‘bird language’ syllable in both ears while other said Güntürkün. “The way the table. Customers called are using their entire brain while times they heard one syllable in information is given to us appears the police, but valle, 23, had whistling instead of only the left one ear and a different syllable to change the architecture of our gone by the time they arrived. hemisphere, which contradicts in the other. The test sometimes brain in a radical way.” Irish Independent, 3 Nov the common notion that language played spoken Turkish and other Güntürkün added: “As a 2015. is dominated by the left half of times Turkish whistling, though native Turkish-speaking person, our brains. ‘Bird language’ can only one type of language was I was struck that I did not be heard from over three miles played at a single time. understand a single word when (4.8km) away. Scientists have During each test, the listeners these guys started whistling. known for years that the left were asked to identify which Not one word! After about a half of our brains is responsible syllable they had heard. Because week, I started recognising a for speech and understanding the left half of our brain few words, but only if I knew the language whereas the right half processes information that goes context.” He wonders whether dominates how we process music, in our right ear (and vice versa), people who suffer from speech pitch, and tone. the researchers could determine impediments after a stroke – Onur Güntürkün of Ruhr- which part of the brain was more which can damage their brain’s University Bochum in Germany active during the test by which left hemisphere – could learn MARTIN ROSS wondered which part of the brain syllable the listeners identified to communicate in a whistle would control a language based when the two sounds didn’t language. For a video of two on music. To find out, Güntürkün match up. More often than not, people speaking in Turkish and his colleagues studied 31 when the volunteers heard two whistle, go to: www..com/ volunteers who lived in the small, syllables in spoken Turkish, watch?v=SjcVLLdPCoU [AP] 19 mountain town of Kusköy (above). they identified the one that was Aug 2015.

10 FT338 www.forteantimes.com

strangedays SPecial rePort

content. One of the recipients, Scholar, courtier, magician: Nicholas Saunder, bleached or scraped away Dee’s name in the books, writing his own on top; the loSt library of John Dee Saunder’s collection passed eventually to the Marquis of Dorchester, whose library was given to the RCP on his death in 1680 – complete with the overwritten name on some of the books. Dee loved books. In 1556 he proposed to Queen Mary I that there should be a project to recover and preserve the countless volumes that had been scattered during her father’s dissolution of the monasteries JOhn chAse / rcP and religious houses – a sort of ohn Dee was a “Master of national library. Mary turned him Jdivers Secrets”, according down. to Elias Ashmole – and He’d had a run-in with her the classic portrait of the the previous year; she’d had him scholarly Dee, with gown, ruff arrested for casting horoscopes, and skullcap, on loan from including one for her half-sister the Ashmolean Museum in Elizabeth. He spent some time Oxford, greets you at the start under house arrest with the of “Scholar, Courtier, Magician: Bishop of London, Edmund The Lost Library of John Dee”. Bonner, who investigated Dee’s In 1650 Ashmole wrote religious beliefs. It was a lucky of “the excellent physician, escape; in the three years Doctor John Dee”. But Dee following his arrest Mary had was actually never a doctor. He nearly 300 people executed for was an exemplary student at their beliefs.

rD St John’s College, Cambridge But he’d been in trouble even FO

Ox – he slept only four hours a before that. Whilst at Cambridge night to leave more time for he’d created a prop for a studying – but his main area of theatrical production: a flying expertise was mathematics; he dung beetle that allowed an wasn’t a qualified or registered actor to ride up to the roof of the physician, and he never took a college hall. It was such a striking doctoral degree, though he was effect that some believed it a founding Fellow of Trinity could only have been achieved

hMOleAn MuseuM, univerisTy OF College. by magic. As John Dee (1527-1609) was a What’s most fascinating about true polymath: a mathematician, Dee’s books in this exhibition a cartographer, a spy, a are his notes in the margins. cryptographer, an astrologer, He underlined passages, wrote an alchemist and much more. comments, drew little pointing This is the first ever exhibition hands (called manicules), added of his books – some 50 of the horoscopes – and in his copy of 100+ that the Royal College of the complete works of Cicero Physicians holds in its museum he drew a sailing ship in one by Regent’s Park, London, the corner of a page. His handwriting largest collection of his books is clear and readable, offering anywhere. insights into what he found The books came from Dee’s significant in his reading, massive personal library. When whether it was on mathematics, he went travelling in central medicine or . His

Mike FeAr / rcP Europe in 1583 (see FT290:74- comments show a sense of 76) he left his home in Mortlake, humour; in the margin of the London, with its 3,000 books Trojan War by Dictys Cretensis, and 1,000 manuscripts, in the TOP: A selection from John Dee’s library. CENTRE: Portrait of Dee by unknown artist who claimed to have witnessed care of his brother-in-law – who c. 1594, now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. ABOVE: Dee’s copy of Quintillian’s it, Dee notes in Latin: “Nothing promptly flogged off much of the Institutionum oratoriarum (1540), showing his marginal notes. here on the Trojan Horse”. His

12 FT338 www.forteantimes.com strangedays nDOn / WellcOMe iMAGes lO WellcOMe liBrAry science MuseuM long preface to Euclid’s The herbalist Nicholas Culpepper Elements of Geometrie has little as a reward for healing his liver fold-up 3D diagrams. complaints. Culpepper tried The Royal College of using the crystal for healing Physicians isn’t ideally designed but stopped, he said, when a for exhibitions, and it’s easy to demonic corrupt ghost appeared miss the fact that this one is on within it. two floors. Upstairs concentrates Dee still holds secrets. A huge on Dee the alchemist.There’s a painting by the 19th-century copy of his Monas Hieroglyphica, artist Henry Gillard Glindoni of a slim book explaining his Dee performing a demonstration famous glyph, an esoteric symbol before Queen Elizabeth, reveals of the unity of the cosmos. when X-rayed that he originally There’s Méric Casaubon’s 1659 stood within a circle of human publication of A true and faithful skulls.

relation of what passed for many As for alchemy... it’s actually WellcOMe liBrAry years between John Dee and a very modern concept. Novelist some spirits. Dee’s search for Jeannette Winterson, who the Enochian language of the spoke at the opening of the angels was an attempt to find exhibition, put it beautifully. the original language of God, Alchemy is transmutation, so that he could understand relativity, connectiveness, the Universe better. Dee loved interdependency. Alchemy is knowledge; he would never have philosophy. The iron is us; the said, as Shakespeare’s Prospero gold is us. Manchester, where did: “I’ll burn my books”. And Dee was sent as Warden of the there’s a too-short section on Collegiate Church towards the Dee’s influence on popular end of his long life, was known culture. In Neil Gaiman’s as the Golden Sewer; it was the Sandman, Doctor Destiny is also richest city in the world. Where known as John Dee; and Damon there’s muck there’s brass.The Albarn co-wrote a recent rock Industrial Revolution, which opera called Dr Dee. There could really turned base metal into have been more. gold, was “alchemy on steroids”, As well as the RCP’s own she said. collection of books, the British DAVID V BARRETT Museum and British Library have loaned the exhibition Dee’s Scholar, courtier, magician: the magical mirrors, a small crystal TOP: ‘J ohn Dee Performing an experiment Before elizabeth i’ by henry Gillard Glindoni. lost library of John Dee is at the JOhn chAse / rcP ball and a mounted crystal that CENTRE: skulls revealed when the painting was x-rayed. TOP RIGHT: The crystal given Royal College of Physicians, Dee’s son Arthur gave to the to nicholas culpepper. ABOVE: Dee’s sketch of a ship in his copy of cicero. London, to July 29; entry free.

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Boss-eyed but happy, grumpy but fAbuLouS fuRRy fREAKS rich and a pair of chimæra cats kaTielee arrowsmiTh / swNs JoN rowley / swNs.com ABOVE LEFT: ozzy became permanently cross-eyed after falling from a windowsill; and he can lick his nose. ABOVE RIGHT: Pixie, britain’s answer to america’s Grumpy cat.

HEADbAngER oZZy Book panther Bagheera after he to America’s Grumpy Cat, with IMPALED CATS Ozzy fell from a windowsill was hypnotised by the snake Kaa. sad eyes and turned-down mouth. Impaled in the heraldic sense in Perth, Scotland, and ended Despite a bit of tunnel vision, he Grumpy was born with dwarfism – juxtaposition of two coats up permanently boss-eyed. leads a normal life – though he and an underbite, but her of arms on a single vertically The eight-year-old tomcat was sometimes gets lost. Sun, 31 July unusual appearance made her a divided shield – not pierced by a completely normal as a kitten, 2015. star with a £60 million fortune pointed stick.Venus, a five-year- but got his new look after (and that was many months ago). old tabby living in Florida, is a bashing his head in the tumble. PIXIE STRIKES IT RICH Pixie belongs to Sophie Batt, 24, feline gynandromorph: jet-black Ian and Evelyn McDougall took Pixie, a two-year-old pedigree who said the cat’s appearance with a green eye on one side and him in after the accident. They Persian living in , has belies a cheerful soul. Bristol Post, marmalade tabby with a blue eye reckon he looks like the Jungle been touted as Britain’s answer 19 Aug 2014. on the other. By last December, Venus had 913,000 likes on her Facebook page, dozens of YouTube videos and her own website selling merchandise. She had been featured in National Geographic magazine and appeared on numerous US television shows. Her owners, Christina and Chris, got her in 2009 from a dairy farm in North Carolina, where she was a stray. Tuppence is another feline gynandromorph, but with both eyes the same colour (orange). This impaled pussy is owned by Jim MacConnell, 73, of Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne and Wear. Venus and Tuppence are chimæras – creatures comprising two lots of genetically distinct cells. D.Mail, 12 Dec; Sun, 12+14 Dec 2015.

LEFT: Facebook star Venus, with a cuddly lookalike, and Tuppence, ebook

another feline gynandromorph. ebook Fac Fac

14 FT338 www.forteantimes.com presents his regular round-up from the cryptozoological ALIEN ZOO garden

NESSIE’S HIDEAWAY? in January 2016, keith stewart, a 43-year-old loch Ness tour-boat operator, announced that hire using state-of-the-art 3-D sonar equipment, as he had obtained a sonar reading at the loch revealing that it was 889ft (271m) deep, thus surpassing the previous record of 813ft (248m) measured at a spot called edwards’ Deep, and that he had returned to this location several times and verified his

UNiVersiTy oF ceNTral laNc reading. moreover, the site of this reading – yet to be independently confirmed – was a hitherto undiscovered trench, situated about halfway between the clansman hotel and Drumnadrochit. Not surprisingly, the media soon seized upon the possibility of this deep trench being a potential hideaway for Nessie, suggesting that during sonar scans of the loch in the past, the monster(s) may have hidden in it to avoid detection. of course, one has to ask how – assuming that such creatures even exist – they would have known that the loch was being scanned during such procedures, unless they can detect sonar? after all, cetaceans utilise a sonar-like echolocation mechanism in navigation and locating prey – emitting sound waves and being guided by the precise nature of their echoes. also needing mention here is that any creature hiding in the trench for any length of time would either need to be able to hold its breath underwater for that period or be able to breathe directly in water. stewart also claims that two weeks earlier, he had obtained a sonar image of what looked like a long object with a hump, lying on the loch bed, but which wasn’t there when he scanned it again later. should the trench’s existence and depth be confirmed it will demonstrate that there are sizeable surprises still awaiting disclosure in the depths of this most mysterious of freshwater lakes. dailyrecord.co.uk, 19 Jan; news.discovery.com, 22 Jan 2016.

WORMING OUT SOME MONSTERS also in January 2016 and also in scotland, but

this time focusing upon some very different Ters News monsters, the media carried many reports ca detailing a remarkable discovery made recently on the small, virtually uninhabited Derek lee / inner hebridean island of rum (aka rhum) TOP: britain’s largest recorded earthworms, on the island of rum. TOP: omo, Tanzania’s white giraffe. by a research team from the University of central lancashire. in an abandoned settlement on rum called Papadil, the team of birds from trying to catch one too! telegraph. contrast, her mane is deep reddish-orange, was astonished to discover some gigantic co.uk, 16 Jan 2016. and both her tail tuft and her eyes are dark, earthworms – the size of baby snakes and as in normal giraffes, thereby revealing that as heavy as small mice! and certainly, with A WHITER SHADE OF TALL she is not an albino. instead, she appears to the biggest specimens measuring up to 16in on account of their exceptional height, giraffes be leucistic, a genetically induced condition (40cm) long and weighing 0.4oz (12.5g), they stand out from the crowd at the best of times, in which normal coloration is present but very are three to four times as large as average- but a specimen observed and photographed in dilute in most regions of the body, so that an sized earthworms, and are the largest on Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park by ecologist individual exhibiting leucism generally looks record from britain. The team suspects that Dr Derek lee has a very special additional washed-out in terms of its pigmentation. their huge growth is due to the absence of reason for doing so. eschewing her species’ currently 15 months old, omo is fully accepted mammalian predators on rum – no , very distinctive brown-and-white coat pattern, by her herd despite her unusual coloration, moles, hedgehogs, or badgers. and who omo is white – or at least so pale that her coat and this should aid her survival, as long as knows? The sight of such monstrous worms pattern is little more than a series of ashen poachers do not view her as a special target. may be sufficient to dissuade even the earliest blotches upon a pure-white background. in dailymail.co.uk, 24 Jan 2016.

FT338 15 www.forteantimes.com TTINSON ghostWAtch PA MATT

ALAn MUrDie finds a new TV drama about Harry Price plays fast and loose with the facts

ABOVE: Rafe Spall played the celebrated psychic investigator in ITV’s drama Harry Price – Ghosthunter. OPPOSITE: The real Harry Price, photographed in 1932.

the price is not right mad by poisoning her with barbiturates (a That you can’t libel the dead is well known. HARRY PRICE plot partly derived from the film Gaslight, Similarly, there is no remedy available 1944). Goodwin is jealously reacting to his to disappointed ghost hunters or those HAS BEEN BOTH adulterous wife having become pregnant TV viewers caring for historical accuracy by a former handyman, only to lose the who were offended by Harry Price – Ghost CHAMPIONED baby later (events having a faint echo of Hunter, a one-off drama broadcast on 27 allegations concerning Marianne Foyster, December 2015. Inspired by the novel AND VILLIFIED wife of the Revd Lionel Foyster, incumbent The Ghost Hunters (2013) by Neil Spring at Borley between 1930-35) 3. Along the about Borley Rectory, it was billed as a way, Price challenges a fraudulent medium “spine chilling mix of real history, fiction revered by the mother of the Goodwins’s and the famous legend of Harry Price”.1 housemaid who assists him. Regrettably, this drama presented an From a legal angle, the most blatant extremely misleading depiction of the perversion of fact for me – aside from personality of the man who was the best falsely suggesting Price’s wife was a known psychical researcher of the 20th mental patient – were opening scenes century, an internationally regarded figure, showing Price faking séance effects who produced an immense output of to extract money from a gullible family. published work and was among the first Another scene featured a similarly duped to recognise the value of . 2 soldier committing on Price’s front Were Price alive today he would have been doorstep. Thus, Price was presented as the more than justified in bringing defamation perpetrator of acts that would constitute proceedings. Based on what I saw on criminal offences both then and now, and screen within the first 10 minutes, I would would amount to libels without further proof have been happy to represent him. of damage if Price were living.4 Aside from Harry Price (1881-1948) has been both the fact neither event ever happened, it championed and vilified as a psychic was a complete distortion to depict Price investigator in the 70 years since his posing as a spiritualist. In fact, this was death. Sadly, the programme had virtually one thing even his harshest sceptical critics nothing to do with Price’s real 20-year could never accuse him of doing. investigation of Borley Rectory, ‘the most The real Harry Price was initially a hard- in ’, the actual baked sceptic, and throughout his life he theme of Neil Spring’s book. Instead, it haunting in the country manor owned by a considered that mediumistic effects were based itself around a wholly invented tale fictitious Liberal politician named Goodwin mostly fraudulent. He was a man no more which sends Price investigating an alleged who was secretly trying to drive his wife likely to hold a phoney spiritualist séance

16 FT338 www.forteantimes.com than Richard Dawkins would be The Economist branded Price “a likely to lead a prayer meeting. A rogue, a falsifier and manufacturer of committed member of the Church evidence” whilst The Observer declared of England, he had a profound of Price’s Borley books: “Not one contempt for hosts of fraudulent brick in the whole extraordinary fabric mediums who exploited the grief of suggestion, muddle-mindedness, of the bereaved after World War gullibility and publicity-hunting remains I. He exposed many frauds and on another”. 11 Not only did these broad- was often very scathing towards brush smears damage the reputation gullible spiritualists, some of whom of Price but they opened the door to he categorised as ‘Cheese-Cloth subsequent waves of denigration of Worshippers’.5 His biographer Paul other psychical researchers, 12 and Tabori styled him ‘the whipping spanning the generations they have boy of ’, stating: “The eventually filtered down to commercial rites and trappings of spiritualist television giving us Harry Price – Ghost churches awakened a deep Hunter. antipathy of which he never rid Amid such loaded language the himself.” 6 He had many critics person who has regard for the truth amongst spiritualists and stirred up must tread most carefully. Price was no furious controversy, clashing often saint and certainly had his faults and with Sir . But flaws, but a more balanced view came it was not until after Price’s death from Robert Aickman who knew him in March 1948 that anyone was for 30 years and declared him neither openly prepared to call his integrity as good, nor as bad as people made and honesty into question in the out. 13 way this television play presumed To this extent the biggest mistake

ENCy / GETTy IMAGE at the outset. of the ITV dramatists and many who AG Attacks commenced nine months consider him today is to see Price after his death. In December primarily as a ghost hunter. What one GRAPHIC 1948 a Daily Mail journalist can certainly say is that the case that To named Charles Sutton claimed has been presented against Price in he had apprehended Price with the 21st century has been curiously

GENERAL PHo his pockets “full of bricks and – indeed obsessively – one-sided, pebbles” faking a stone-throwing proceeding far more by way of innuendo at Borley Rectory in 1929. 7 More For Hall, Marianne to some extent than direct evidence, focusing on Borley serious was the sceptical The Haunting replaced Price as a fixation, pursuing her and avoiding consideration of his laboratory of Borley Rectory (1956) by Eric Dingwall across the Atlantic after she left Britain as work. and Kathleen Goldney, both of whom had a GI bride in 1945. In his spare time he Admittedly, Price wrote an worked with Price, and Trevor Hall, who never compiled a 600-page dossier on her life autobiographical work entitled Confessions met him but displayed an extraordinary and lovers, gloatingly presenting her as of A Ghost Hunter (1936), but only a quarter hostility towards his memory. Their book a scheming nymphomaniac, bigamously of the book is dedicated to exploring sought to demolish the case for ghosts at married several times over and even a haunted houses and . In Borley, with Hall proving the most persistent potential murderess. However, a psychiatrist reality, Price spent far more time in séance critic, singlehandedly repeating his attacks he enlisted in 1980 for his exposure pulled rooms and laboratories – particularly in the in further books such as New Light on out of his pet project and in the end Hall 1920s and early 1930s – testing mediums Old Ghosts (1966) and an entire critical was robbed of his triumph of publishing an under controlled conditions than visiting biography, The Search for Harry Price (1978). exposé by dying in 1992, pre-deceasing haunted houses. Price was primarily a If you wish to see Price’s faults Marianne, by then long-settled in Canada, gadgets man, 14 interested in practical ways exhaustively dissected, Hall’s books provide by a year. Subsequently, an anæmic version of testing mediums; he was not in any or suggest them all. Price is condemned of Hall’s dossier was published by Robert sense a theoretician or interested in the for distorting and disguising his working Wood as The Widow of Borley in 1993, the psychological aspects of . 15 class background, for his lack of advanced year she died. Since then, the leading book Despite mediums claiming communication education, for exploiting psychical research devoted to attacking Price was Harry Price – with the dead, Price saw them as generating financially, of being careless with facts, for The (2006), a physical force unknown slips of memory, for borrowing library books which revisited many of the to science and craved and not returning them, for faking or allowing allegations, and corrected a recognition as a scientist. dubious or naturally occurring phenomena to number of Hall’s errors. 9 Three series of be passed off as , together with However, in my view the experiments stand out. suspicions of literal skull-duggery with an damage to Price’s reputation Price extensively tested allegation of planting human remains in the was ultimately done not by the telekinetic powers of burnt-out rectory cellar at Borley in 1943. 8 any of these books – which a young English woman, That Hall was a man obsessed with have themselves been Stella Cranshaw, attracting the case is clear in his zealous pursuit of the subject of challenge, much attention at the time the aforementioned Marianne Foyster of argument and rejoinder 10 but swiftly forgotten. His Borley. But for those 18 months of alleged – but repetition of the tide results were finally issued in poltergeist activity, she would have been of abuse and exaggerated book form in 1973, edited wholly forgotten; Price suspected much but language they released by James Turner (who had certainly did not know all of her sexual antics among reviewers working bought the site of Borley when he published his first Borley book, The for influential and highbrow Rectory in 1946), but it House in England (1940). publications. For example, attracted little attention. 16

FT338 17 www.forteantimes.com Price also joined in international research efforts into Eleonore Zugun, a Romanian teenager surrounded by poltergeist effects, conducting extensive tests with her in London in 1927. 17 Even more remarkable was his decade-long research into the Austrian Schneider brothers, a pair of teenage mediums, between 1922-1932. Price brought Rudi Schneider to London for 100 sittings attended by numerous independent observers, rushing out an entire book soon after, 18 similarly forgotten today. Ultimately, it was Price himself who undermined his own work when in a fit of pique in 1933 he released a single photograph implying Rudi might have cheated at one session. This came after Rudi opted to go to Paris with other researchers whom Price saw as rivals. 19 Price’s critics have avoided this research, ABOVE: Rafe Spall, “ludicrously miscast as the eponymous lead character”, with Cara Theobald. merely alleging fraud without explaining how it was done, why dozens of other people involved themselves and, more marked social charm or have the ability new ideas and theories about the past. crucially, why researchers reported similar to mix well (“he had no small talk”22). Equally, it can be symptomatic of mere experimental findings in independent tests. Altogether Price was engrossed in his laziness or a paucity of creative imagination The Rudi Schneider incident shows work to the point of obsession and “very on the part of writers. More pertinently, Price’s great failing was his ego, being sensitive to being found in error”. 23 His under the duress of feeding the demands obsessed with publicity and showmanship, friend Sidney Glanville further detailed this of the modern entertainment economy, leading to numerous superficial stunts at sensitivity: “[H]e was the last man to sit today’s generation of dramatists no longer haunted houses duly adored by the public. down under any criticism, especially if he enjoy the luxuries of generous budgets or His greatest interest in phenomena outside had the slightest idea that it was unjustified time to wade through numerous out-of- the laboratory was not actually ghosts but – perhaps even if it was!” 24 whilst Paul print books and archives to ensure their poltergeists, one shared with Charles Fort Tabori recalled him “as a hot-tempered, facts are right. Truth is swiftly sacrificed because of their physical and potentially impetuous man” and that “those of us for entertainment purposes, as dramatists measurable aspects. In appreciating the who knew him could easily testify that he choose to freely invent whilst original labours of Fort, Price was an exception at could and did lose his temper quickly and authors relinquish control. 26 Besides, the time. Like Fort, Price also assiduously gloriously” – one who if he had ever been lengthy rounds of laboratory tests and collected newspaper stories – 25,000 of accused of fraud in life would have “reacted experimental sittings don’t make for prime- them about himself. 20 with a punch on the nose rather than some time drama. Finally, it is minor and carping to point meek muttering”. 25 2016 will also see the ITV Encore out that Rafe Spall was ludicrously miscast So much for Harry Price, but what can be channel airing Houdini and Doyle, which has as the eponymous lead character. Price pleaded for the fictional treatment of Price Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini was neither slim nor good-looking, rather in the ITV show? teamed up for a set of adventures which ‘bald-headed, short and stocky’ 21 as The introduction of real characters never happened. If facts don’t matter, why photographs confirm. Price was not isolated into wholly fictional stories can be an not throw in a few ‘Lost World’ dinosaurs as depicted, though neither did he possess entertaining device and a way of exploring as well?

REFERENCES Rectory Companion (2009) by Paul 14 Lucy Meeker, formerly Mrs Lucy 19 Anita Gregory: Anatomy of a 1 ITV Press announcement 13 July Adams, Eddie Brazil and Peter Kaye, In Tabori note 5 p282-285 Fraud (1987), reviewed by Alan 2015; writer Jack Lothian, Bentley Underwood and discussion in The 15 Paul Tabori, note 5. Gauld, Journal 49, 1978, pp.828-35. Productions. Ghosts of Borley (1973) by Paul 20 Paul Tabori, op cit. p.35. Tabori and Peter Underwood pp.97- 16 James Turner / Harry Price: Stella 2 Harry Price: Poltergeist Over 106. C. An account of some original 21 James Turner in introduction to England. (Country Life Books, 1945). experiments in psychical research. Stella C., op. cit. 8 Trevor Hall (1978) The Search for 3 See Paul Tabori and Peter Record of sittings with a physical 22 Lucy Meeker, formerly Mrs Lucy Harry Price (Duckworth, 1978); The medium (Souvenir Press, 1973), Underwood in The Ghosts of Borley Companion, note 7 Kaye in Tabori pp.284-285. Borley (David & Charles, 1973); reviewed by Anita Gregory, Journal of 9 Richard Morris: Harry Price – The the SPR vol.47, 1973, pp.265-7. 23 Sidney Glanville in Tabori, note Robert Wood: The Widow of Borley at p.275. (Duckworth, 1993); Paul Adams, Psychic Detective (History Press, 17 Harry Price: ‘Poltergeist Eddie Brazil and Peter Underwood: 2006). See also Morris’s article in Phenomena of Eleonore Zugun’ 24 Sidney Glanville, in letter to Peter The Borley Companion (History FT229:28-36. (Journal of the American SPR, 1926, Underwood 2 Sept 1950, cited in Press, 2009). 10 ‘Harry Price: the Case for the p.459). Tabori and Underwood (1973) n.7. 4 Fraud, theft, the Vagrancy Act Defence’ by John L Randall in Journal 18 Harry Price: Rudi Schneide: 25 Paul Tabori in The Ghosts of 1824 and the Fraudulent Mediums of the SPR July 2000. A Scientific Examination of his Borley (1973, note 3). Act 1954 all come to mind. 11 Published in 1956 and quoted in Mediumship (1930); Anita Gregory: 26 As Neil Spring states: ‘”once 5 Harry Price: Leaves from a Trevor Hall: New Light On Old Ghosts The Strange case of Rudi Schneider you have sold the dramatic rights to Psychist’s Case-Book (Gollancz, (Duckworth, 1966). (Scarecrow Press, 1985); Anita your work, it is your professional duty 1933). 12 Robert Hastings: The Borley Gregory in Annals of Science vol to stand back and let the producers, Report (SPR 1969, p. 77). 34, 1977, pp.449-559; Lord Hope: directors and actors do their work”. 6 Paul Tabori: Harry Price Ghost ‘Report of a series of sittings with Guardian, 14 Dec 2015. nd Hunter (1950, 1974) Ch.4 p.63. 13 Robert Aickman: Introduction 2 Rudi Schneider’. (Proceedings of the 7 Charles Sutton: The Inky Way Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories SPR vol.41, 1932, pp.255-330). Annual no.2 (1948); see The Borley (1966).

18 FT338 www.forteantimes.com

strangedays

Rapper takes to Twitter to express his opposition to the FLAt eARth RAp ‘Globalism’ and disses prominent astrophysicist

ABOVE: A Flat Earth map by Orlando Ferguson, 1893. BELOW: Bobby Ray Simmons, aka rapper B.o.B (left) was taken to task by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Bobby Ray Simmons Jr, 27, better in his logic. B.o.B claimed that the Earth’s curve blocks 150ft (46m) known as B.o.B, American rapper “there’s no way City skyline shouldn’t of Manhattan, not 170ft. and music producer, believes that be visible from 60 miles (96km) Seemingly displeased by the the Earth is flat, according to his u can see all away at Harriman State Park’s astrophysicist’s critiques, B.o.B tweets on 25 January. The rapper Bear Mountain. He said it would then released a diss track titled – who has released hits ‘Nothin’ the evidence be hidden behind 170ft (52m) ‘Flatline’, featuring numerous on You’, ‘Airplanes’ and ‘Magic’ – of curved Earth, if the planet conspiracy theories and Tyson presented a variety of arguments and not know” were not flat.Tyson not only talking about the formation of as to why modern science pointed out that most buildings the Earth. In the lyrics, B.o.B – and indeed very nearly all in Manhattan are much taller claims that “Globalists see me as philosophers since Pythagoras in than that, but also corrected the a threat,” and compares himself the sixth century BC – are wrong. “No matter how high in elevation rapper’s calculations, informing to black power activist Malcolm He also claimed that NASA fooled you are... the horizon is B.o.B that the X. He calls science a cult and the entire world in 1969 be faking always eye level... adds that Tyson “needs to loosen the Moon landing. “A lot of people sorry cadets... I up his vest”.The rapper also are turned off by the phrase ‘flat didn’t wanna believe instructs listeners to “Do your earth’”, he tweeted, “but there’s it either,” B.o.B research on [Holocaust denier] no way u can see all the evidence tweeted. David Irving”, and refers to Dr and not know... grow up.” He While the Richard Sauder, who has written argued that if the Earth were general reaction numerous books including indeed curved, evidence of that was laughter, Underground Bases and Tunnels: would be apparent when looking astrophysicist Neil What is the Government Trying to at the horizon in the distance and deGrasse Tyson took Hide?, in which he explores the S: GETTy imAGES

TO distant cities would be hidden him seriously and possibility of secret government from view because of curvature. pointed out some flaws funded underground bases. BOTh phO

20 FT338 www.forteantimes.com The first book to proclaim LEFT: Founder of the international Flat belief in a flat Earth was the sixth Earth Research Society (iFERS), Samuel century Christian Topography Shenton, in 1967. BELOW: A map by Flat by Cosmas Indicopleustes, a Earth proponent Charles K Johnson. well-travelled Greek monk from Alexandria.This ran counter to Peculiar Notions (Thames & the general opinion of natural Hudson, London, 1984) and in philosophers in the previous Kooks: A Guide to the Outer Limits thousand years. Since the Bible of Human Belief by refers to “four corners of the (Feral House, Portland, 1994). earth” (Revelation, ch7, v1), In 1956 Samuel and Indicopleustes maintained Lillian Shenton of Dover, our world was a flat rectangle, England, formed a new zetetic N ARChivE / GETTy imAGES TO Jerusalem at the centre, the organisation,The International firmament char ing overhead, with Flat Earth Society. When Samuel Heaven above that. Around the died in 1971, Lillian decided that Earth’s landmass lay the oceans, the Texan Charles Johnson (1924- surrounded by Eden.The Sun 2001) [FT147:26] should inherit NEwS / ExpRESS / hul

revolved around a mountain at his mantle. Johnson carried TO the North Pole. Seasonal changes on the tradition of maverick were caused by the position of metaphysics that battled KENT phO the Sun at the mountain – in the ‘globularism’ and founded summer it revolved around the the International Flat Earth peak, in winter around the base. Research Society of America. Although Cosmas’s flat Earth He carried out his own zetetic was welcomed by the Church experiments across Lake Tahoe and accepted for centuries, it and the Salton Sea, proving once was scorned by the scientifically again that the Earth was flat. He inclined by the early Middle called himself a natural sceptic Ages. (Much later, Galileo got into and seemed to delight in battling trouble for denying the Earth was the scientific elites, exposing the the hub of the Universe rather secrets that They Don’t Want You than for denying its flatness). To Know. In the 1790s, the flat or planist From his shack in the doctrine was championed by California desert, he could square Sir Richard Phillips (1767-1840) off against the leading lights of with no reference to Scripture. science and government. “What This patent medicine vendor and everyone has been taught all their founder of the Leicester Herald lives is complete foolishness,” was a radical republican, jailed said Johnson. “It’s nothing more for dealing in atheist literature. than a joke. Scientists consist The mantle was next taken up of the same old gang of witch by ‘Parallax’ (Samuel Birley doctors, sorcerers, tellers of Rowbotham), whose 1838 optical tales, the ‘priest-entertainers’ experiments along six miles of for the common people. ‘Science’ the Old Bedford Level (a canal consists of a weird, way-out occult in ) disproved concoction of gibberish theory- the curvature of the Earth – to theology.” his own satisfaction, at least. B.o.B is probably playing the Parallax wrote Earth Not a Globe same game Samuel Rowbotham and Zetetic Astronomy (from the did 185 years ago, stirring up Greek zeteo, I find out for myself). the public to boost sales. Flat He founded the Universal Zetetic Earthism works well for that Society in 1832.The zetetics dome 1,000 miles (1,600km) people would pay to listen to a purpose because it’s not really maintain that the known world is higher up. Sunrise and sunset are feisty debate on these themes.” tied to any ideology, group a circular plane of indeterminate mere optical illusions. (Christine Garwood’s History of identity, or economic interest, size floating in primordial waters, “Delighting in controversy Flat Earthism.) Parallax made so it allows someone to stir up the North Pole at its centre, the and dispute, Parallax could not many converts at his lectures. controversy without having to South Pole at its circumference, resist the ultimate challenge The Universal Zetetic Society serve as a dog whistle. It signals marked by an impenetrable wall of toppling orthodox ideas and (UZS) was founded in New York some sort of vague, ill-informed of ice 150ft (46m) high.The Sun a fact so established as the in 1873, and soon had branches anti-intellectualism/anti-elitism, and Moon, each 32 miles (51km) Earth’s rotundity… he had seen round (across?) the world. Brief and no one ever went broke in diameter, circle the earthly disc the passions that scientific and histories of the zetetic movement selling that to the American at a steady height of 3,000 miles religious topics could evoke can be found in ’s public. Guardian online, 26 Jan; (4,830km), with the heavenly and, moreover, the money that wonderful Eccentric Lives and Washington Post, 2 Feb 2016.

FT338 21 www.forteantimes.com strangedays

Contested reports from India claim that a man has death from above? been killed by a meteorite in Tamil Nadu...

METEORITE INJURIES According to Valerius maximus, Aeschylus was killed (456 BC) by an eagle dropping a tortoise on his head, mistaking it for a rock suitable for shattering the shell of the reptile – but maybe the eagle was invented and the tragedian was killed by a meteorite. Supposedly, tens of thousands of people were killed during the Chíing-yang meteorite shower in ’s Shansi province between April and may 1490. Other reported deaths by meteorite include a Franciscan friar in 1633 and two sailors in the Indian Ocean in 1647. Over the years, there have been quite a few deaths and injuries attributed to meteorites, but many reports are buried in newspaper archives unseen by the academics who compile textbooks.

STR / AFP / GeTTy ImAGeS Here are a few discovered by ABOVE: Indian authorities inspect the site of a suspected meteorite impact in Vellore district, southern Tamil Nadu. fortean researchers and posted to Magonia Exchange and Forteana Indian scientists are investigating from the sky on an agricultural Exchange (for which many thanks), whether a man had been killed Witnesses said field, leaving a 3ft (90cm)-deep together with incidents noted by by a meteorite. Such deaths pit.Tamil Nadu Chief Minister The International Comet Quarterly, are rare – if indeed they have they had seen Jayalalithaa Jayaram issued a sober publication from Harvard. ever been truthfully recorded – a statement on Sunday, the No doubt, more delving will reveal because the rocks usually burn an object fall day after the explosion at the further cases. up when passing through the engineering college, describing it Earth’s atmosphere, or land in the from the sky as a meteorite strike and offering 16 Jan 1825: man killed and woman ocean, or hit remote areas. While 100,000 rupees (£1,015) in injured by falling meteorite in 100 to 300 tons of extraterrestrial compensation to Kamraj’s family. Oriang, malwate, India. Considered material reaches Earth every day, standing on a patch of grass near At the time of the reports, “possible” by L LaPaz (“The effects almost all is fine cosmic dust. the college cafeteria, was thrown the soil samples and stone of meteorites Upon the earth”, Adv. At about 12.30pm on 6 10ft (3m) in the air, sustained were yet to be analysed by the in Geophys. 4, pp.217ff, 1958.) February 2016, a mystery blast serious facial injuries and died on Indian Institute of Astrophysics, at Bharathidasan Engineering the way to hospital; two gardeners although the dean of the 11 Nov 1836: cattle killed by College in the southern Indian and a student were also injured. institute was sceptical of the meteorite shower, macau, Brazil. state of Tamil Nadu left a small Initially, government officials meteorite hypothesis, stating Considered “possible” by LaPaz crater, 2-3ft (60-90cm) deep, and suspected the blast was caused that no meteorite shower had (1958). broke windows up to 1,300ft by explosives accidentally been observed.The possibility of (400m) away. The impact also left after building work, but man-made space debris was yet 2 July 1839: a young man named shattered the windows of a when no evidence of explosive to be ruled out, though NASA Smith, at work in a field near Wells, number of buses on campus. material was found, investigators announced that photographs , killed by meteorite, G Baskar, the principal of the suggested that it might have posted online of the impact crater, “which, passing through his hat, college in Natrampalli,Vellore been a meteorite. A dark blue (now said to be 5ft/1.5m deep carried away part of his skull-bone, district, was working in his cabin jagged stone weighing about 11g and 2ft/60cm wide), were more entering his leg, and then passed when he heard the explosion. “It and resembling a diamond was consistent with a land-based into the earth.” Exeter Flying Post, was a sound like nothing I’ve ever found at the scene, behind the explosion that with something via Dublin Morning Register, 4 July heard before,” he said. “There was college cafeteria – and witnesses from space. Also counting against 1839. no smell at all, no fire, nothing… said they had seen a mysterious the meteorite explanation were We felt a vibration in the building object fall from the sky. This was the absence of a sonic boom 1 May 1860: horse killed by for nearly a minute. All the the second such incident in 11 before impact, a lack of debris meteorite, New Concord, Ohio. students and faculty members days in the district. On 26 January, and the colour of the recovered came outside and we saw a cloud villagers of Bethaveppampattu stone. [R, CNN] The Hindu, BBC 13 Jan 1879: the body of Leonidas of dust,” he said.V Kamraj, a inVaniyambadi claimed that News, rt.com, 8 Feb; nytimes.com, Grover, “torn through as if by a 40-year-old bus driver who was they saw a burning object fall Discovery News, 10 Feb 2016. cannon shot”, was found by his

22 FT338 www.forteantimes.com mythconceptions by mat Coward 98: LIeS IN theIr eYeS

The myth If you’re well daughter on his bed in Covington, meteorite, part of a shower in versed in the Indiana. There was a hole in the Nakhla, egypt. Total weight of study of body roof directly above the bed and stones gathered: 40kg (88lb). language you through the bedding and fl oor. can spot whether A “meteoric stone pyramidal in 25 April 1915: meteorite tore off someone’s being shape”, weighing more than 20lb woman’s arm in Ta-yang, east of truthful or not, (9kg) and stained with blood, was mai-po, China. because there are unearthed from a crater nearly 5ft little unconscious (1.5m) deep. Indianapolis Journal, 28 April 1927: young girl suffered tics and tells via Eve. Post (Wellington, NZ), 17 two injuries when struck by stony which we all do May 1879. Like many sensational meteorite in Aba-mura, Inashiki- when we’re lying. 19th century news reports, this is gun, Ibaragi-ken, Japan. widely regarded with scepticism. Dec 1929: wedding party in small 25 Nov 1884: farmer Julius Robb yugoslav town struck by meteorite, killed by meteorite descending killing one. New York Times, 8 Dec through a tree in Hot Springs, 1929, via Huffington Post, 31 July Arkansas, “cutting a limb clean 2014. off,” before passing through his body “from his shoulder obliquely” 24 June 1938: cow killed by and burying itself. The missile was meteorite in Chicota, Pennsylvania. The “truth” described as “an iron pyrite the size A farmer recovered “two stones” in Not for want of trying, but no one has yet come up with a universal, of a teacup”. Potsdam (NY) Herald, his poultry yard. [AP] Reading (PA) consistent “tell”. Not a single one. Despite what you’ve heard – 28 Nov 1884. Eagle, 20 Dec 1938. or even been taught on training courses – there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that people look up and to their right when 13 Nov 1892: FK Sprowles, out 15 Aug 1951: 62 houses in Tehran, they’re inventing answers, and up and to the left when they’re hunting quail near Cloverdale, Iran, destroyed by a meteorite remembering truths; or that we touch our mouths or eyes when lying; California, was knocked out for shower; 12 killed, 19 injured, and or wriggle in our chairs; or become fl ushed; avert our gaze; increase fi ve minutes by shockwave from 300 livestock killed. Lowell (MA) our rate of blinking; or wring our hands. Or anything. Individuals may meteorite that landed within 20ft Sun, no publication date given, via of course have their own tells, but repeated research has shown that (6m) of him. There was a “deep Huffington Post, 31 July 2014. there are none which apply generally. In experiments, no correlation is hole” and many pieces of “meteoric found between body language and truthfulness, and attempts at using metal” lying around. Los Angeles 30 Nov 1954: Ann Hodges, 34, eye movement to predict truthfulness never achieve more success Herald, 18 Nov 1892. hit on the thigh by 8lb (3.6kg) than random guessing. This myth – which seems to have originated meteorite after it broke through in a 1970s self-help book – is so prevalent and potentially dangerous 12 Oct 1898: six meteorites, each her roof in Sylacauga, Alabama, that the websites of the UK’s Judiciary and the USA’s FBI specifically weighing 500lb (227kg) or more, and bounced off a radio. She was warn investigators, magistrates and others against falling for it. fell in and about a house, in Perry, seriously bruised on her left hip, Oklahoma, at night. One crashed abdomen and arm. The meteorite Sources through the roof, injuring members is on display at the Smithsonian www.judiciary.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/cuthbert_myths- of the Henderson family, including Institution. Hodges died in 1972 about-body-language.pdf; https://leb.fbi.gov/2014/june/the-truth- two children who were crushed to from kidney failure. about-lying-what-investigators-need-to-know; http://well.blogs.nytimes. death. Several fell in high grass com/2012/07/16/really-you-can-spot-a-lie-by-watching-a-persons-eyes; and set it on fi re. Marble Head (IA) 14 Aug 1992: in a meteorite www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/myth-busted-looking-left-or- Weekly, 10 Nov 1898. shower, boy hit on head by 3.6g right-doesnt-indicate-if-youre-lying-1922058/?no-ist meteoric fragment after it hit tree in 5 Sept 1907: report of meteorite mbale, Uganda. Disclaimer causing house to collapse, killing Probably the only way to know for sure that’s someone’s lying is to the entire family of Wan Teng-kuei in 21 June 1994: 1.4kg (3lb) fi nd out whether they’re a government spokesman. But if you have Hsin-píai-wei, Weng-li, China. meteorite, 12cm (4.7in)-wide, broke evidence that the truth lies elsewhere, please confess to it on our windshield and bent steering wheel letters page. 30 June 1908: Tunguska, Siberia, of moving car, breaking fi nger of aerial explosion of meteor/comet/ driver; more than 50kg (110lb) asteroid/spaceship/black hole of meteorites found within 200m Mythchaser (?) fl attened around 80 million (660ft) of accident near Getafe, 2 A reader notes that drivers often have to adjust their rearview mirrors trees over 2,150km (830 sq Spain. fi rst thing in the morning. He’s been told this is because humans miles) and killed hundreds of are slightly taller at breakfast-time than at reindeer – and two men, according 15 Feb 2013: the large meteor bedtime. We, however, favour a more obvious to the New York Times (10 Feb that exploded above Chelyabinsk, explanation: that goblins break into your 2016), though Wikipedia says “no Siberia, left more than 1,200 car overnight and mess with your stuff. Can known casualties”. (Numerous FT people injured (including 200 anyone settle this argument? Tunguska reports, starting with children), mainly by fl ying glass. the booK FT1:12, Nov 1973.) Of these casualties, 112 were thCoNCePtIoNS hospitalised, two in serious doN’t mISS mY 28 June 1911: dog killed by condition [FT300:7]. booKShoPS oUt NoW oNLINe aNd IN aLL Good

FT338= 23 www.forteantimes.com strangedays

We mark the passing of the genial explorer of the fortean outliers of human neurology NECROLOG and of the Bletchley Park alumna-turned-archæologist who popularised sea peoples.

of the titular man: Dr P, a music His compelling autobiography, On teacher whose visual agnosia the Move (2015), tells of his early made it impossible for him to interest in gay sex and fascination recognise everyday objects and with motorbikes, “staggering caused him to try and pick up amounts of pharmacological his wife’s head and put it on experimentation” (as one reviewer his own as if it were a hat. “He noted), and his 35 years of saw faces where there were no celibacy until, in 2008, he became faces to see: genially, Magoo-like, the partner of the writer Bill Hayes, when in the street he might pat who survives him. the heads of water hydrants and Sacks’s obsession with teasing parking meters, taking these to out medical tales might have be heads of children; he would come, he thought, from the amiably address carved knobs on way his parents – both doctors the furniture and be astounded practising in north London – liked when they did not reply.” The story to tell such stories over dinner. It inspired an opera of the same might have come from observing name by Michael Nyman and The the psychosis of his brother Man Who, a play by Peter Brook. Michael or his own homosexuality, Several of Sacks’s patients which despite the prejudice of the

CHRIS MCGRATH / GETTY IMAGES became famous. There was time (and his mother’s despair) Jimmie G, who in 1975 still lived was no ‘condition’, simply who he ABOVE: Sacks – “the presiding genius of neurological drama”. in 1945, believing Truman to be was. His popular renown meant president and himself to be a that he received about 10,000 OLIVER SACKS up the human experiences and fresh-faced teenage submariner; letters a year. (“I invariably reply Sacks has been called “the encounters that are the bedrock of Tony C, who became obsessed to people under 10, over 90 or in presiding genius of neurological medicine and everyday life. with piano music after being prison,” he once said.) His ability drama”. He read medicine at In his best-known book, struck by lightning; and Christina, to combine scientific detachment Oxford, but spent most of his Awakenings (1971), he told the who no longer felt that any part with sympathetic understanding career in the . His story of a group of patients at Beth of her body belonged, or would of the pathos of his patients’ subjects were people afflicted Abraham Hospital in the Bronx respond, to her. Sacks’s slightly predicaments and the astonishing with fantastic perceptual and where he worked as a consultant bemused appearance in public resilience of human life, gave his intellectual aberrations; people neurologist. The patients were may have been attributable to his books enormous poise and power. who had lost their memories survivors of the great epidemic of striking, and apparently inherited, His writing inhabits the tension, and with them the greater part encephalitis lethargica (sleeping prosopagnosia – an inability to constantly present in medicine, of their pasts; people unable sickness) that had swept the recognise faces. In a 2010 article between art and science, the to recognise common objects; world from 1916 to 1927, and for the New Yorker, he described warmth of individual lives and Tourette’s syndrome sufferers had spent the subsequent the comedy of a rendezvous with a the cooler strength of general stricken with violent tics and decades in a comatose state, similarly prosopagnosic colleague. principles. Talking to patients, grimaces and unable to stop unable to initiate movement. Their True to form, Sacks identified shy as he was, opened a door themselves shouting obscenities; cause had long been given up and befriended a prosopagnosic into private inscapes that were and sufferers from Asperger’s as hopeless, until 1969, when portrait painter, Chuck Close, magical, challenging and almost syndrome who relate to other Sacks tried the new Parkinson’s whose gigantic portraits depended unfathomable. “Empiricism,” he people with difficulty but often disease drug L-dopa, which on his idiosyncratic attention to wrote, “takes no account of the possess uncanny artistic or had an astonishing ‘awakening’ the details of the faces the painter soul.” mathematical talents. For Sacks, effect, transforming previously failed to recognise. Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE, the brain was “the most incredible lifeless individuals into personable In all, Sacks wrote 14 books, neurologist and writer, born thing in the Universe”. and intelligent human beings. including: Migraine (1970); A Leg Cricklewood, north London 9 July Sacks’s case histories lack Unfortunately, most of the patients to Stand On (1984), detailing his 1933; died New York 30 Aug the meticulous measurements eventually returned to their former recovery from a mountaineering 2015, aged 82. and experimental detail that frozen state as the drug ceased to accident; Seeing Voices (1989), contemporary science expects of have an effect. The book inspired which examined language NANCY SANDARS its practitioners, who like to point the play A Kind of Alaska by Harold perception among the deaf; An In 1939 Nancy Sandars joined out that “the sum of anecdote Pinter and a fi lm starring Robin Anthropologist on Mars (1995), Kathleen Kenyon’s excavation of is not evidence”. While it’s true Williams as the dedicated doctor about autistic savants; and The an Iron Age hill fort on the Wrekin that personal experience often and Robert de Niro as a patent Island of the Colourblind (1996). in . WWII saw her as a misleads, particularly in the temporarily freed from years of In 2001 Sacks was treated for an motorcycle dispatch rider, and in context of medical treatment, one catatonia. ocular melanoma, which he wrote 1942 she joined the Wrens and can imagine Sacks reflecting that Sacks’s second best known about in The Mind’s Eye (2010). was assigned to the Government anecdote is in fact precisely where book was The Man Who Mistook In early 2015 he announced that Code and Cypher School at evidence begins. Sacks does His Wife for a Hat (1985), a series the cancer had spread to his liver Bletchley Park, eavesdropping on a wonderful job of summoning of case histories including that and he had only months to live. radio transmissions from German

24 FT338 www.forteantimes.com strangedays

E-boats and aircraft. In 1947 she enrolled for a diploma in prehistory , under Gordon Childe at the Institute of Archæology. Later she took a BLitt in Archæology at St Hugh’s College, Oxford. Her degree thesis was published as her first book, Bronze Age Cultures in France (1957). During the 1950s and 1960s she joined many archæological digs in Europe and the Middle East, and published a number of authoritative works, including a translation of The Epic of Gilgamesh, a poem written on clay tablets in a cuneiform script around 1,000 years before Homer, making it the oldest epic poem in world literature. Published as a Penguin Classic, it sold more than a million copies and remains in print. Her Sea-Peoples: Warriors of the Ancient Mediterranean (1978) Fairies, Folklore and Forteana examined an intriguing era of havoc in the eastern Mediterranean and surrounding areas towards the Simon Young FiLES A nEW REPoRT FRom THE inTERFACE oF STRAngE PHEnomEnA AnD FoLK BELiEF end of the second millennium BC, when Egyptian influence collapsed, the Hittite Empire and Were these shadows of the victims of bear the late Bronze Age cities of Cyprus BogeyBeasts baiting, only banned in 1835 in the UK? and Mesopotamia fell, and the Or were they an ancestral memory of the Mycenæan civilisation lay in ruins, Folklore does not necessarily have strong indigenous British bear? If so, where are the plunging Greece into a “Dark Age” connections with real life experiences, but wolves and boars? And what about sheep and that lasted more than 300 years. through much of the English-speaking world, goats? Why are they discriminated against? The dearth of texts from the people out walking or riding What else do we gather from period, coupled with a paucity of at night reported, even as the Bogey reports? Well, two archæological evidence, prompted late as WWI, encounters with colours, white and black, some theorists to posit some shape-changing monsters. shape-shifting dominate: usually there is natural catastrophe sweeping These were eye-witness supernatural just one but sometimes there across the entire region. Sandars, accounts, and if we take UFO is a mixed ‘zebra’ effect. The however, focused her attention or sasquatch reports seriously entities tied to animals are often ‘shaggy’ on the so-called “sea peoples”, a it is difficult to nonchalantly certain haunted (a word that comes up again confederacy of navel raiders who dismiss the night-time walker and again) with glowing eyes. harried the coastal towns and in the Fylde or Wakefield who patches of Shape-changers seem to have cities of the Mediterranean region saw, say, a white dog turn into had the capacity to go from between about 1276 and 1178 a black donkey or vice versa. countryside rodent size to, if we believe BC, with a ferocity that made the These monsters are what one Lancashire eyewitness, Vikings seem positively benign. folklorists have called ‘Bogey the size of a house. A minority Although the sea peoples remain Beasts’, shape-shifting supernatural entities hovered among different forms, being a dog something of a mystery, Sandars tied to certain haunted patches of countryside; or a donkey or ‘something in between’. Others deftly drew together evidence from locals called them, instead, ‘dobeys’, ‘boggarts’, dazzled with their versatility, flicking from several cultures, from literature and ‘bogles’, ‘shucks’, or even simply ‘ghosts’. one creature to another like a CD changing archæology, to speculate that their Now Bogey Beasts have, of course, like all tracks. Also, bits of the animal were frequently origins lay in Anatolia, which had good shape-shifters, to decide what animals absent: above all, heads. And where are the been in the grip of a widespread to introduce into their repertoire. In rough Bogey Beasts today? It has been suggested and severe famine caused by a order of frequency, their preferred forms in that they became Alien Big Cats, the large climatic downturn. Sandars’s other the accounts that come down to us were: dogs, out-of-place felines that stalk most of the publications included Prehistoric Art humans, calves, rabbits, bears, horses, donkeys, British Isles. But though ABCs have something in Europe (1967), Poems of Heaven bulls, pigs, deer, hare, cats and birds, but protean about them, they do not, to the best and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia there are also records of badgers, foxes, fish of my knowledge, change shape before the (1971) and a book of her own and glow-in-the-dark mice. Rabbits and hares eyes of witnesses. It looks very much as if poems, published in 2001. were the typical vehicles for shape-changing this trickster, like much else that was good, Nancy Katharine Sandars, witches, so there is a kind of logic there. disappeared from the haunted lanes and archæologist, born Little Tew, But why did Bogey Beasts love calves so wooded valleys sometime between the wars. Oxfordshire, 29 June 1914; died 20 much? I have no answer unless it is calves’ Simon Young writes on folklore and history Nov 2015, aged 101. playfulness. I’m also intrigued by the bears. and runs www.fairyist.com

FT338 25 www.forteantimes.com the UFO files FORTEAN TIMES presents our monthly section featuring regular sighting reports, reviews of classic cases, entries on major ufological topics and hands-on advice for UFO investigators. The UFO Files will benefit from your input, so don’t hesitate to submit your suggestions and questions.

To contact The UFO Files, email: [email protected] UFO CASEBOOK RE-EXAMINES BRITAIN’S BIGGEST AND MOST CONTROVERSIAL UFO CASE 35 YEARS ON

RENDLESHAM FOREST Regarding Rendlesham, the MoD letter they had checked all radar sources from the GENESIS: PART THREE could “confirm” that “USAF personnel did see area and found none of them had tracked unusual lights outside the boundary fence (of anything – partly confirming the claims of David During 1981 I tried to make sense of the RAF Woodbridge) early in the morning of 27 Potts at Watton. I asked how she knew this, handwritten notes and frequent long phone December 1980”. This was the wrong date, given that the MoD officer insisted that she calls with Brenda Butler and Dot Street. It yet the MoD said “no explanation for the had not ‘boned up’ on her way to see us. She was like knitting fog, as an ever-growing pile occurrence was ever forthcoming”. stated that this failure to verify radar tracks of stories from airmen, farmers and local folk I copied this key letter to everyone involved had been discussed at a recent briefing on emerged, some of which were true (as I later and fi nally persuaded BUFORA that we attempts to correlate UFO reports, and indeed verified directly) others unresolved to this day – should debate Rendlesham at an upcoming had been used as a good illustration of how and all in addition to the account from the RAF conference. Weeks later, US researchers (to this had never once happened. Watton radar operator. whom I sent it) using a Freedom of Information Potts had told us that Watton had The USAF witnesses were silent for years, Act obtained the report sent to the MoD in themselves checked with the air traffic control fearing it might affect their careers, so we mid-January 1981 by deputy base commander centre in West Drayton who indicated that an struggled to persuade ufologists that there Lt Col Charles Halt. It formed the basis for aircraft on airway ‘Red One’ had fi led a UFO was a case. I wrote progress reports just Ms Titchmarsh’s letter to me. The MoD had sighting around that time and how another to keep it ticking over, but this did help helped the USAF release this to Americans, radar report had come in that weekend from researchers in America to pick up hints from but kept its own citizens in the dark. Ash, Kent. Despite a lot of papers released by USAF personnel returning stateside. However, A March 1985 letter to me from Defence the MoD since 1983 I have seen nothing on British only became convinced after Minister Lord Trefgarne later confirmed that these other “non-correlations”. 13 April 1983, when I received the fi rst written the Halt memo was the Ministry’s sole source According to Potts, the call to Watton admission from the MoD via Air Staff officer of knowledge: as in the South Wales case, it from Bentwaters tower overnight on 27/28 Pam Titchmarsh. She included a blank report seemed that they had not followed it up. December spoke of UFOs seen over the forest form to prove that that MoD case fi les contain So by August 1983 Brenda, Dot and myself four miles east of Woodbridge. The USAF “very little” data, yet ignored Rendlesham had perfect ammunition to go to the MoD in requested access to their radar data for that altogether – the fi le I had asked for – and London and ask to see the Air Staff officer night and “several others”, and “a few days instead sent me two redacted forms from very who had written to me four months earlier. later” USAF and RAF/MoD staff sought this recent cases in Wales. Catching her on the hop with a copy of their data. The USAF staff told Watton that a base I had the chance to pursue one near Cardiff. ‘secret’ Halt report, we were able to ask all commander and several other officers took a It was a fascinating close encounter with sorts of questions of Pam Titchmarsh after jeep and went into the forest after being called multiple witnesses – including an RAF aircraft she confirmed it seemed genuine. We knew away to investigate from a base party. engineer at an airbase. So, if the MoD did that we risked arrest under the Official Secrets From witness testimony and documentation just log this report without any follow-up I had Act by telling her we were to make the report that emerged much later, we know this officer found serious cause to wonder just how many public at the BUFORA conference. Interestingly, was Colonel Halt himself and the party was other significant cases they missed as a result despite no warning, the MoD officer knew all at Woody’s bar on that Saturday evening. of never following any of them up. about this three-year-old case. She insisted Potts further explained that the US team heading into the forest told of problems with their radio transmissions and lights and then examined ground traces and “radiation traces” in the forest. The events that ensued were also recorded as they happened. All this information had made its way into my notes just fi ve weeks after the events and days after Halt’s memo reached the MoD. So why was the MoD never aware of so much significant data missing from Halt’s report? In 1997 I asked Halt this question and he told me that he believed the MoD already knew about the case well before he sent what he intended as a summary, expecting the MoD to dig deeper into it. Had they sought more detail from him he would have co-operated. But they never did. However, the MoD might

JENNY RANDLES have found his understated report useful – as ABOVE: Dot Street (middle) and myself with American investigator Ray Boeche, who helped a lot in the early days something safe to release to the public should to get the US airmen to talk. We are outside the MoD main building in Whitehall where we took the Halt memo a Freedom of Information request ever require and confronted Pam Titchmarsh, risking arrest by declaring we were going to make it public. a fi le to go on open record. Halt’s suspicion

26 FT338 www.forteantimes.com matches Potts’s story that the radar LEFT: The memo describing the Rendle- tapes were accessed long before sham encounters written by second night the Halt memo was even submitted, eye witness Lt Col Charles Halt, deputy although no released MoD fi les base commander. confirm any of this as more than my speculation. So we have a mystery. If his Halt also has support from Brenda current recall is the full extent of and Dot, who set up a visit to the base what happened at RAF Watton in on 18 February 1981 – just a month 1980, where did the details come after Halt’s memo reached the MoD. from that I wrote down in February They were directed to meet Squadron 1981? Did I wrongly ascribe them to Leader Donald Moreland – the sole RAF Potts when they came from someone officer there acting as liaison with the else? If so, then who was it? I spoke MoD and a sort of landlord to the USAF. to no one other than Potts up to He had asked Halt to send the memo 2 February 1981 and have always to Whitehall. Moreland’s secretary believed it was he who said all this guessed why they were there (“Oh, the (though partly at second hand via a events around the end of December”), radar colleague and USAF officers, of and Moreland and he thought they had course). come from the MoD to follow up Halt’s Interestingly Kevin McClure (who report. Once he realised otherwise he confirms he also spoke to Potts, stopped cooperating and told them though once again Potts does not they must get MoD approval fi rst. But recall this) thinks he might have this confirms what Halt told me: that talked with another ‘peripheral’ the MoD did not follow up on base witness in February 1981 but has no at all after his memo – so they never idea who that might have been. The discovered the hard evidence, such as only person then talking to Brenda the tape, photos of ground traces and and Dot locally was ‘Steve Roberts’ plaster casts of the ‘landing marks’. from base affairs, and his account He showed some of this to me when is very unlike what I documented via we met. Potts. I believe the other things that Potts Commenting in Magonia in 2001 told me on 2 February 1981 were about what he was told (by Potts or also beyond what the MoD knew at this other unknown witness) Kevin that point or – based on the Trefgarne said that the object seen was: “Solid, letter – ever knew. What’s astonishing light, reflective, possibly burning, is that we are talking about a strategic appearing to be in a tree”. It was JENNY RANDLES air base staffed by the USA, reputedly to the base party or an engine problem or VHF such a specific description that possessing nuclear material, close to a nuclear radio malfunction or a live tape recording of the when the theory that the airmen mistook the reactor in the middle of the Cold War. Whatever sightings in Halt’s account sent to the MoD. lighthouse fi rst surfaced McClure dismissed it your views on UFOs, this decision not to pursue Yet all of this did occur, and in 1985 we got because of that account. hard evidence – including alleged physical the Halt tape to prove it. Hoping to clarify things Kevin seems to have lost all interest since traces and radiation readings – in a case which for this column, I did some digging to fi nd Potts the late Georgina Bruni (who wrote a 2001 the MoD itself said it could not explain looks as he had moved area and changed jobs since book about Rendlesham called You Can’t Tell disturbing, to say the least. 1981. He was surprised that I was enquiring the People) convinced him that I had removed On 30 January 1984, I went on base to see about the case, but not uncooperative, saying his contribution from the case. Bruni stated Moreland myself, unannounced. He granted he recalls very little about it now and did that I replaced Kevin with a fi ctional person me a few minutes but was not complimentary not even remember talking to us in 1981 or called ‘Bob Easton’. She could not research about the media circus and “exaggerations meeting Paul Begg. He also had no recollection this aspect of the case because of that that blew the case up out of all proportion”. He of any story about an actual radar tracking “deception” and, though she asked me lots was right that the News of the World stories of heading toward Rendlesham as communicated of questions by email when writing her book, aliens hovering in light beams were unhelpful. to him by another (military) radar officer before all of which I answered, she never raised this He insisted that nothing like this had happened, the events that he witnessed that weekend. nonsense with me. and anyway it was now “almost certainly “Did I say that?” he asked. Well, it is what I It is nonsense for two reasons that can explained to almost everyone’s satisfaction as wrote down on 2 February 1981. be established just by reading the book on the lighthouse”. So – he pleaded – “Why not Nor does he remember any details about Rendlesham that Brenda, Dot and I wrote in leave us all alone?” when radar tapes were accessed by the 1984 (Sky Crash). Kevin McClure’s limited role I asked about the then still unreleased Halt authorities. “I only recall that they were very is credited in chapter three, followed by that tape – which he confirmed was real but “just eager to study them because their base officers of Bob Easton – who was the very much non- a commentary – nothing more”. He insisted saw something.” imaginary BUFORA East Anglian co-ordinator the case consisted of “just a few lights” and But he does recall that it was a quiet working with Dot Street and who made a few blamed an unnamed “airman who has been Christmas night and they might even have been enquiries with her during those weeks. blabbing away and has now been sent home” watching TV when sudden pandemonium broke Bruni’s curious allegations helped steer for exaggerating the sighting into “absurd out on the night of 27-28 December. Kevin McClure away from the case, which is a stories”, perhaps as “revenge against the “I recall all the phones were going,” he says, pity as his insight would have been very useful. USAF”. and that senior staff were running about asking But her strange error here fi red me to try to Before telling me my time was up Moreland them all to check their scopes to look for what unravel the early months of this now legendary suggested that I give up investigating the case, the guys at Bentwaters were seeing in the sky. case in search of possible clues. as there was nothing worth investigating. I But none of them had anything on the Watton In the fi nal parts of this article I will try to politely disagreed, although I believed – and radar screens. piece together what we can conclude from still do – that all his comments were sincerely That was pretty much it – though he did not my early contact with USAF witnesses – did offered. He also reminded me pointedly that he deny that other things might have occurred they misperceive meteors and the lighthouse? was not present during any of the events. or been said 35 years earlier; it was not – and discover whether, as sceptics claim, Potts had given us crucial details apparently something he had given much thought to since their stories changed across the decades to not in any MoD records. There is no reference then. become ever more bizarre.

FT338 27 www.forteantimes.com StEVE WOOD / EXpRESS / gEttY IMAgES D wo creati phenomenally the to ex 50 last ye the of personalities culture pop wide a innumer inspiring ha 1970s, the of rxo sDvdRobert David post-war as in Brixton born performer the of side time apt the gush in Bowie to encomia and eulogies career complex and long integ an constituting themes paranormal and occult with distinctly a as considered eiu osdrto a engi been has consideration serious mor panel), Alien’ the sensational ‘Loving (see and superficial the the of on side err to tend tendencies ufological UFOs. and magic/ esotericism paranormal: and occult the of Bowie 04study 2014 Jimmy acolyte wa scholars and Commentator occult. the with engagement lc oi ntesalbtinfluential but gr small the in Bowie often place ideas) occult and culture popular by 28 www.forteantimes u f1970s of oup r.Hsatsi esblte n stylistic and sensibilities artistic His ars. eietto,particular perimentation, sms fhsbio his of most As cutr (the occulture r rk e eplngiaitadCr and guitarist Zeppelin Led ODTEWORLD THE SOLD Fr Ft David 338 epoue uighsgolden his during produced he mgr nhis in imagery mu THE wa man om va fo neetdi w anaspects main two in interested s it fgne.Bwecnas be also can Bowie genres. of riety i lg n ospmg,i san is it mags, gossip and blogs sic Blackstar the Ja av influential wa r .c esno the of Season om H AEWHO MAGE THE FT nu dBwe–wode n11 on died who – Bowie id ex Bo nrubyoeo h most the of one inarguably s re Pa r this ary rock lrn h ujc fpost- of subject the ploring ve opytiuet the to tribute pay to es fhis of lease ea wie e(ee Berbegal’ (Peter ge ab enisrmna in instrumental been re nrl magi ’n’roll ST l in rly nhs69 his on gr le ra ainhp between lationships rock cu pesacknowledge, aphers ieso fhis of dimension l mu Wh ye Wi . Jo smainstream As tvtdanumber a ltivated ar fo sicians co mu l Bowie’ ile te RA ve c:Hwthe How tch: nes… , ly ta superstar rtean fi w asafter days two th st re a album nal iin and sicians oyof body in birthday ex ume st re ow ve wo emplified e lation NGE ohis to n nUO n Aleis and UFOs in le s rk we fo ye s y s, n in ing rth ar irder – so s s , g n video and ngs in FA fl SP CONTACTING AT DIRECTED WERE SESSIONS MEDITATION GROUP uenc of eso AC SC es te te BROTHERS E of i in ric Cr r NTOSOF INATIONS s. h aemusician late the DEAN ow te re ley st PA BA to s ove fl LLINGER SSING ir ta the r in with tions ’s ca ye re r n mrcdainadoc and alien embraced and ars ex er plor ly from clear is it – wa oecniee in considered more h ig trutcnet,3Jl 1973. July 3 concerts, Stardust Ziggy the ABOVE: included ear Bowie’s GOLDEN cutSvdRc n Roll and Rock Saved Occult na on substanti with loose pretty is occult the sha us perhaps be may elementals, in interest their with theosophists, (although the soundtrack to contributions his or albums contemplate to stretch a re of bit a be perhaps life. personal FT333:51). re no h ih epassing be might brother who space any contacting at directed friend’s a efrsetn counterculturalist. self-respecting that interests and the of many incorporated mu fhslf n nseicpee of pieces specific Wh in and life his periods of specific in visibly most themselves manifested leanings apparent esoteric also his is that it entirety its in career DA Ka is n iesta uhiespla ideas such that videos and rics, odt enn nthe in meaning condite this in point ference ve Ho ob dilettante a be to s ab iinadatri ae16sLondon, late-1960s in actor and sician l cuts odutifrshsœuvr his informs doubt no occultism ile es t-it TeLuhn Gnome’). Laughing ‘The lty-ditty nu blhadNazi and bbalah Pa ve wev et icr rfniisthe profundities discern to le ai oi nsaein stage on Bowie David bro utxulle subtextual of mber es–Bwesntrlinclination natural Bowie’s – ge’s the isdi oi’ naos1960s infamous Bowie’s in missed VID er ve gr fl Wh , ly DA tna apta Heath Hampstead near at u eiainssin at sessions meditation oup ro pncnieigBowie’ considering upon fo creati ei i creati his in le l Bowie’s ile N H AL 19 EARLY THE WN: rt re we ea eecsi interviews, in ferences ve ve BO re tgtoso Eastern of stigations set and aspects n ra ie sstruggling as life, ove re erigeur de hrta de a than ther pc;sealso see spect; by re ha alongside rhead Ti my sagood a is Lo ainhpwith lationship Machine n WIE my comparison ve ve tclactivities stical dna h atof last the at ndon s it ls, uptand output st fo Th Labyrinth mu an r icism, re wo re s ye ese cu tof st sic. 70S cent vo y uld d lt s tee a e

BOWIE MASK: MARK WARDEL. phOtOMOntAgE: EtIEnnE gILFILLAn

spirituality, with Bowie studying the tenets (“I’m closer to the Golden Dawn/Immersed of Tibetan from expatriated in Crowley’s uniform/of imagery”), The lamas. 1 That Bowie was also reading up on Tibetan Book of the Dead (“You can tell me esoteric subjects and alternative ideas in a all about it on the next Bardo”), and Nazi relatively in-depth way beyond fashionable mysticism (“Portraying Himmler’s sacred namedropping is made clear by the songs realm of dream reality”).3 These references on his fourth album, Hunky Dory (1971). also suggest that Bowie was quite familiar The jaunty pop of ‘Oh You Pretty Things!’ is with contemporary fortean literature, belied by lyrics that evoke a rather sinister such as Pauwels & Bergier’s seminal The picture of spiritual evolution, in which the Morning of the Magicians, one of the fi rst listener is asked to “make way” for “the popular expositions of subjects such as coming race” of “homo superior” Nietszchean Nazi occultism and the psychic evolution superchildren (these references came across of humankind (see FT277:54-55). Another as humorously incongruous when sung by fortean classic, Colin Wilson’s The Occult, was ex-Hermans Hermits frontman Peter Noone, also published in 1971, but given that Bowie for whom a cover of the song was a Top 20 recorded Hunky Dory in June of that year hit that same year). The “coming race” is using songs he had composed earlier it seems also a probable nod to the Bulwer-Lytton IT SUGGESTS THAT highly unlikely it was a source of inspiration novel of the same name that became a for this album). 4 staple of the ‘Vril’ mythos associated with With Bowie’s star rising rapidly at this occult-minded Nazis (see FT303:42-46), a BOWIE WAS QUITE time – his next album, The Rise and Fall of subject that would have a rather negative Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars influence on Bowie in the near future. 2 More FAMILIAR WITH (1972), would prove his ticket to megastardom overt is the ballad ‘Quicksand’, in which – it’s a good point to consider some of the Bowie expounds a New Age manifesto – “I’m CONTEMPORARY evident resonances between occultism and not a or a Stone Age man/Just a his musical career. Bowie’s autodidactic and mortal with potential of a superman” – with FORTEAN LITERATURE æsthetic tendencies were a crucial part of reference to the Western magical tradition his creative modus operandi, enabling him to keep his music fresh (through the 1970s, anyway) by drawing inspiration from a wide range of cultural influences. The realms of the esoteric, rich in drama and symbolism, would undoubtedly have been sussed by Bowie as a source of stimulating ideas and imagery to explore in lyrics, costumes and videos. The theory and practice of magic can also be seen to possess a more integral relationship with Bowie’s work. Parsing Crowley’s legacy, one of the key aspects of magic is the transformation of the self (and, possibly, the wider social reality) through acts that focus the imagination/will towards such change, such acts including sex, drug consumption, meditation, and creative performance (i.e., rituals). In this vein Bowie can be considered a distinctly magical musician whose whole career revolved around the transformation of the self and the wider culture through the ‘ritual performances’ of rock music, such as concerts, recordings, and videos. In his most influential period of the 1970s, Bowie created personæ (such as Ziggy, Aladdin Sane, and the Thin White Duke) and undertook musical experiments (the ‘plastic soul’ of Young Americans and the avant-garde/krautrock/funk synthesis of the ‘Berlin trilogy’) that in turn transformed rock culture by inspiring scores of other artists. The gender-bending that was a notable aspect of Bowie’s personæ in this period (for example, the androgynous cover photo for The Man Who Sold The World (1970) or the 1979 video for ‘Boys Keep Swinging’), and the cultivation of bisexual overtones in his lyrics and performance (‘John, I’m Only Dancing’ as an account of bisexual angst), are also interesting to consider in relation to Crowley’s emphasis on sexuality as a core component of magical transformation. The richness of meaning to be had from interpreting Bowie’s œuvre in

MIChAEL pUtLAnD / gEttY IMAgES relation to magical perspectives has led to TOP: 1971’s Hunky Dory album seemed to confirm that Bowie was indeed “immersed in Crowley’s uniform”, drop- him becoming a cult fi gure for contemporary ping references to esoteric matters. ABOVE: the pop star as Starman, embracing futuristic glam fashion. esotericists (see ‘Sound And Vision’ panel).

30 Ft338 www.forteantimes.com LOVING THE ALIEN: BOWIE AND UFOs

In the 1970s Bowie quickly ago. And I made sightings than passing familiarity with story, revealing that the became established as an six, seven times a night for the UFO underground of the earlier reports were a hoax icon of alienness thanks about a year when I was in the pre-Roswell and X-Files era. perpetrated by the (now- to his unusual appearance observatory. We had regular For instance, a 1974 dialogue sacked) prime-time news (aided by his famous dilated cruises that came over. We has Bowie earnestly talking team. Ms Bowie states that eye), space-themed tunes knew the 6.15 was coming about the recent recovery of a everyone present would have (‘Space Oddity’, ‘Starman’, in and would meet up with crashed saucer around “A kron, dismissed the incident as ‘Moonage Daydream’) and another one. And they would Ohio” and then-US senator “an overblown cosmic-hippie- otherworldly personæ, notably be stationary for about half an Barry goldwater’s decision, cocaine dream” if not for the Ziggy Stardust. It was an hour, and then after verifying aware that official disclosure fact that British documentarian identification cemented by what they’d been doing that would soon be forthcoming, to Alan Yentob, then shooting his starring role in nicolas day, they’d shoot off.” 1 resign from politics in favour of the contemporary BBC Bowie Roeg’s arty 1976 sci-fi fl ick While sceptical UFO research. this reference documentary Cracked Actor, The Man Who Fell To Earth commentators have suggested to a UFO crash presumably had taped the evening (right). On a personal level, that Bowie and company were refers to the UFO story related newscasts in question, Bowie’s interest in occultism simply misperceiving the busy by ex-wife Angie Bowie in her confirming their veracity. As was complemented by a fl ightpaths around heathrow autobiography, in which with most stories of this ilk, fascination with UFOs. In a whilst under the influence Bowie’s entourage, hanging these invaluable pieces of remarkable 1975 interview of various substances, out in a Detroit hotel room evidence have, as of yet, failed in the US rock mag Creem, many of Bowie’s during his 1974 US tour, to resurface. 3 writer Bruno Stein documents acquaintances from that watched an afternoon tV Bowie’s post-gig discussion with time confirm that they newsflash about a local 1 Bruno Stein, ‘Flying Saucers, a contactee from Missouri, in really did espy saucers.2 UFO crash involving four hitler, and David Bowie’, Creem Feb 1975: archived at the Bowie which he makes the following Interviews from around alien bodies. the main 6pm golden Years website, http:// claims about his skywatching the same period feature bulletin confirmed the www.bowiegoldenyears.com/ experiences in hippy London: Bowie espousing earlier report. articles/750200-creem.html. See “I used to work for two guys various theories however, the also FT88:34-88. who put out a UFO magazine of UFO cover- 11pm update 2 trynka, ch 14. in England,” he told the fl ying ups that debunked 3 http://kevinrandle.blogspot. saucer man. “A bout six years imply a more the whole com/2008/12/david-bowie-and-

COCAINE, CROWLEY, KABBALA: THE MID 1970S While occultism may have constituted an important subtext for most of Bowie’s career, the mid-1970s was his ‘dark’ period, when these interests manifested in more overt and sinister forms. Beset by fi scal, managerial, and marital problems – and probably suffering the psychological and emotional effects incurred from several years of non- stop writing, recording, and touring – Bowie spent most of 1975 living in LA in a state of drug-addled manic depression. Subsisting on an ‘all white’ diet of cocaine and milk, he studied occultism in a more serious fashion. In his comprehensive biography, Starman, Paul Trynka asserts that this enthusiasm derived from a February 1975 meeting with Jimmy Page (who, interestingly, shares his n ARChIVE / gEttY IMAgES tO birthday with Bowie), in which the artistically competitive and status-conscious Bowie, intimidated by Page’s Crowleyan hauteur, was inspired to develop his own magickal will KEYStOnE / hUL accordingly. Bowie’s subsequent coked-out ABOVE: Station to (Victoria) Station, 1976; moments after this photograph was taken, Bowie gave what was interpreted by some as a nazi salute. immersion in books such as Dion Fortune’s Psychic Self-Defence, Trevor Ravenscroft’s The Spear of Destiny, and the works of Golden The Spear of Destiny and Occult Reich by J was out to steal his semen for the purposes of Dawn acolytes Israel Regardie and AE Waite, H Brennan). This unsavoury fascination in making a ‘devil child’. Sadly, the yarns that had a number of significant consequences. 5 turn manifested in quasi-fascist statements he carefully collected his bodily residues One was an interest in Arthurian made in interviews around this time and an such as nail clippings and urine, and stored mythology and Grail mysticism. enduring controversy about whether or not them in his fridge so that they couldn’t be Unfortunately, as Bowie himself later Bowie greeted UK fans at Victoria Station used in black magic acts against him, appear admitted, this interest led on to a in 1976 with a Nazi salute. Another was a to be apochrypal. 6 This paranoia reached its contemplation of Nazi occultism (a subject bout of full-blown occult paranoia, in which apotheosis in the story of ‘the demon in the introduced in Morning of the Magicians Bowie, among other things, solicited the swimming pool’, related by Bowie’s then-wife and subsequently exploited in the early advice of friends regarding a Rosemary’s Angie in her salacious 1993 autobiography Seventies by sensationalist tomes such as Baby scenario in which a coven of witches Backstage Passes: Life on the Wild Side with

Ft338 31 www.forteantimes.com David Bowie. Having to overcome “the side procured an LA effects of the cocaine” SOUND AND manse with an indoor and fi nd redemption VISION: ESOTERIC swimming pool, Angie in some (presumably found her husband spiritual) love. Explicit BOWIEOLOGY disturbed one night by reference is made to an a vision of the Devil ascent of the Sephiroth, rising out of the water. the Kabbalistic Tree of Discussion of the esoteric aspects of NY music journalist Life (“Here are we/One Bowie’s life and work can be found readily and white witch Walli magical movement from online, with speculation unsurprisingly Elmlark was consulted Kether to Malkuth”), booming after Bowie’s recent passing. for instruction on along with a nod to a Much of this material is tainted with exorcising the house well-known volume tosh: for instance, one anecdote doing of evil spirits, with of Crowley’s mystic- the rounds of mystery and UFO websites a ceremony being erotic poetry (“The claims that aliens were audience undertaken by Mr return of the thin white members at Bowie’s LA concerts in and Mrs Bowie duke making sure September 1974, the otherworldly shortly thereafter. Angie describes how, as white stains”). Despite the lyrical references costuming and make-up of Bowie fans the ritual progressed, the water in the pool to Crowley here and in ‘Quicksand’, it is enabling them to mingle amidst humans “bubbled and thrashed”, culminating in interesting to note that Bowie was markedly incognito (apart from being intuitively the appearance of a demonic shadow on the ambivalent about his influence. For example, sensed by the man himself from the bottom of the pool. While the freaked-out in a 1993 NME interview, Bowie states that “I stage). While this story appears to be and coked-up couple departed the residence didn’t get into Crowley, by the way, because presented as ‘fact’, it is derived from a shortly thereafter, Angie adds the coda he uses too much Greek. I’m always very passage in the 1994 postmodern sci-fi that the ‘Mark of Satan’ remained visible suspicious of anybody who says they’re into novel Diamond Nebula by UK author to subsequent tenants despite extensive Crowley because they’d better have a pretty Jeremy Reed, in which Bowie is one of the repainting of the pool. While a great story, fair handle on Greek and Latin otherwise main characters. 1 the most plausible explanation for this they’re talking bullshit”. 8 Bowie’s occult however, there are several writers largely uncorroborated yarn is (if not pure ‘dark night of the soul’ proved an ultimately who have produced well-developed invention) that the couple esperienced a folie fruitful experience, as he thereafter moved analyses of Bowie’s esoteric dimensions a deux related to Bowie’s advanced state of to Europe and hit what many critics and fans that are available online. Mark Dery is cocaine-induced psychosis. In a much-cited consider his creative peak with the ‘Berlin an American cultural theorist whose Rolling Stone interview from 1976, journalist trilogy’ of Low, Heroes, and Lodger (1977- critical novella Leper Messiah: A Jesus Cameron Crowe (now a leading Hollywood 1979). Freak’s Search for the Meaning of Bowie director) describes a June 1975 encounter (2010) contemplates the star’s appeal with Bowie in which the musician breaks I’M A BLACKSTAR: 2016 in relation to the Messianic mysticism off his megalomaniacal ramblings (“I think Esotericism doesn’t appear to be particularly of Christianity,2 while Australian artist I might have been a bloody good Hitler. I’d overt in most of Bowie’s post-70s work, unless tanja Stark has written extensively be an excellent dictator. Very eccentric and his creative nadir in the mid-80s is considered on Jungian interpretations of Bowie’s quite mad”) to look through the blinds, a delayed case of psychic backlash from his work (‘Jung the foreman’ being a lyric in decorated with protective pentagrams, after occult dabblings in the prior decade. Even ‘Drive-In Saturday’ from 1973’s Aladdin hallucinating a body falling past a window. 7 this period, however, produced the likes Sane).3 the gnostic/magic/shamanistic Bowie initiated his recovery from of ‘Loving the Alien’ (1984), an atypical aspects of Bowie are covered in (often this slough of despond in late 1975, commentary on the dark history of Western jaw-droppingly) comprehensive detail by undertaking work on the Station to religion inspired by another tome from by two writers in particular: Swiss Station album. The abstruse lyrics to the Bowie’s fortean library, Donovan Joyce’s occult researcher peter Koenig in his epic title track can be interpreted as an 1972 The Jesus Scroll, which pioneered the brilliantly titled essay ‘the Laughing autobiographical account of Bowie’s mystical/ ‘Jesus conspiracy’ genre several years before gnostic’ (updated 2016) 4, and American narcotic gnosis, in which his “searching The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail. 9 Outside Christopher Knowles in multiple entries and searching” results in him being able (1995), an experimental concept album about on his occulture blog The Secret Sun (for example, Knowles discusses the magical overtones of Bowie’s relationship with transsexual singer Romy haag, which was a defining aspect of his tenure in Berlin in the late 1970s).5

NOTES 1 For example: http://gnosticwarrior.com/david- bowies-gnostic-obsession.html 2 http://religiondispatches.org/leper-messiah-a- jesus-freaks-search-for-the-meaning-of-bowie-a- critical-novella/ 3 http://tanjastark.com/2015/06/22/crashing- out-with-sylvian-david-bowie-carl-jung-and-the- unconscious/ 4 www.parareligion.ch/bowie.htm. the title presumably derives from a quip uttered by journalist Steven Wells when interviewing Bowie for the NME in 1995: in Egan (ibid), p280. 5 http://secretsun.blogspot.com TOP: the 1976 Station to Station contained references to the Kabbalah and Crowley. ABOVE: Both Crowley and Bowie were fond of dressing up and Bowie’s sartorial choices sometimes seemed to echo those of the Beast.

32 Ft338 www.forteantimes.com his bejewelled skull for ritual veneration by a sect of mutant women. Where the esoteric overtones of the ‘Blackstar’ video are eerie, those of the video for ‘Lazarus’ are poignant. Bowie plays himself as a patient in a hospital bed, whose closet is a portal from which appears a double who is seemingly meant to signify his essential spirit. This fi gure is not garbed as Ziggy, the Thin White Duke or any of Bowie’s most famous personæ, but in the striped black jumpsuit in which he undertook the famous occult photo shoot for Station to Station, in which he is depicted drawing Kabbalistic symbols on the wall. That Bowie chose this costume for his valedictory performance suggests he was giving a subtle nod to the deep, lasting metaphysical significance that this period had upon the rest of his life. While critics may readily dismiss Bowie’s magical side as the drug-addled dabblings of one of rock’s greatest poseurs, the overall nature of his esoteric references and experiences has an intensity and integrity ABOVE: Bowie brandishes a Blackstar bible in the song’s video. BELOW: the transfiguration of Major tom? that indicate something of more intrinsic import to his life and work. For instance, in a the fi n de siècle that saw Bowie collaborating 50th birthday interview in 1997, he expressed once more with Brian Eno, was based around the “abiding need in me to vacillate between the premise of mutilation murders being atheism or a kind of Gnosticism… what I committed as a new form of art, echoing one need is to fi nd a balance, spiritually, with of the real-life explanations for the notorious the way I live and my demise”. His views on 1946 ‘Black Dahlia’ (see FT334:48-54). death, however, appeared ultimately to tip However, the Blackstar album has seen towards the Gnostic rather than the atheistic: Bowie go out with a distinctly occult bang, “I believe in a continuation, kind of a dream- with the artwork, lyrics and accompanying state without the dreams. Oh, I don’t know. music videos being steeped in symbolism I’ll come back and tell you”. 11 that actively invites esoteric interpretations In light of the magical transformations of Bowie’s impending mortality. As every that marked his entire career it would, prior Bowie album cover has featured a century faith, brandishing a Blackstar bible perhaps, be unsurprising if Bowie ended up portrait, the fi ve-pointed ‘black star’ of among acolytes whose spasmodic ‘dancing’ the fi rst post-mortem rock star, relaying new this one is presumably meant to represent suggests a state of possession. A reading of music through media such as séances, Bowie too – perhaps in his ultimate persona the imagery here as analogous to Crowley boards, and ghost boxes. FT as spirit (the fi ve-pointed star being a and his Book of the Law is perhaps apt; classic Hermetic/Gnostic symbol of “man as director Johan Renck, who designed the AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY microcosm”, with the contradictory image videos with Bowie, has mentioned Crowley as of a ‘black star’ also evoking a koan or the a reference point. 10 Some kind of Hermetic/ DEAN BALLINGER researches alchemical union of opposites). The creepy Gnostic subtext about eternity, spirit and and atmosphere conjured up by the lyrics of the the fl esh is further implied in the imagery teaches media studies at title track – “In the villa of Ormen/stands a of the video’s other ‘storyline’, in which the the University of Waikato in solitary candle/On the day of execution/Only shade of a dead astronaut – Bowie himself, hamilton, new Zealand. he women stand and smile” – is successfully in his formative Major Tom persona? – fl oats has written previously for Ft evoked in the video for the song. Bowie up into a ‘black star’ of eternity, before, in on the conspiracy theories is depicted as preacher of some dark 21st a possibly Orphic reference, leaving behind surrounding Stanley Kubrick.

NOTES 4 gary Valentine 5 Bowie’s esoteric 6 trynka, p236. 10 http://noisey.vice.com/ 1 paul trynka, Starman: (Lachman), New York reading is mentioned in 7 Cameron Crowe, en_au/blog/david-bowie- David Bowie, The Definitive Rocker (Sidgwick & many sources, such as ‘ground Control to Davy blackstar-video-johan- Biography (Sphere, 2011), Jackson, 2002), pp226- Valentine (2002) above: Jones’, Rolling Stone renck-director-interview pp83-84. 227. Lachman also trynka (2011), ch 14; 12 Feb 1976: archived 11 David Cavanagh, outlines here a comical and Marc Spitz, David at the Bowie Golden ‘ChangesFiftyBowie’, Q 2 David Buckley, Strange occult encounter with Bowie: A Biography (Aurum Fascination: David Bowie, Years website, http:// Feb 1997: in Egan (ibid), Bowie, in which his press, 2010) ch 18. www.bowiegoldenyears. p322. The Definitive Story (Virgin, attempt to engage in Bowie himself outlined 2005), p233. com/articles/760212- conversation about Colin his magical reading in rollingstone.html 3 the song ‘A fter All’ on Wilson is met by Bowie’s an interview with Steve The Man Who Sold The breathless assertions that Sutherland, ‘One Day, 8 Sutherland, ibid. World (1970) apparently Wilson is a ‘witch’ who Son, All this Could Be 9 Charles Shaar Murray, includes a Crowley quote can ‘invoke the spirits of Yours…’, NME 20-27 Mar ‘Sermon from the Savoy’, in the lyrics: Buckley (ibid) ectoplasmic nazis to do 1993: in Egan (2015), p NME 27 Sept 1984: in p85. his bidding’. 218. Egan (ibid).

Ft338 33 www.forteantimes.com THE RUNNING MAN

CHRIS AUBECK and MARTIN SHOUGH unearth a baffling proto-UFO incident, involving a fi ery anthropomorphic fi gure, from the early 19th century, and explain the work of Magonia Exchange, an online group dedicated to bringing fortean research into the 21st...

As James Smith, a labourer, was going to his work on Lansdown, on large tea kettle; it came down to the earth and then rose up into the Thursday morning last, about half-past fi ve o’clock, it was completely heavens again. The hostler and several men at the Inn, Milford, dark, but all of a sudden it became as light as day; he looked up and saw it like a huge fi gure of fi re, in shape like a man; it passed by saw the element in a quivering blaze of fi re for the space of a minute, them and they thought they should have been burnt to death by the after which it became as dark as before. He never saw anything like heat; it then went up through the valley, like a man running, and it in his life; it appeared to him like fl ames issuing from the sky. passed two men near the canal, but it did not burn them; it then The meteoric phenomenon was seen between Frome and Maiden ascended out of sight. Bradley, by Mr Wadman, Weymouth carrier; by the turnpike man This phenomenon has been witnessed in various parts, in Devizes, at Midford (Elliot), to whom it appeared in shape like the face of a in Wincanton, in Bridgwater, at the New Passage, by the Severn; at clock, and about the height of a man; a quarter of a mile farther it Frome, and various other places. The country people seem puzzled was seen by two men, and it appeared to them to have legs to it like how to account for the dazzling light, the heat, the curious forms men’s legs. it assumed, and the numerous places in which it was seen. The The wife of the turnpike man said, as she lay in bed the whole millenarians will think the fulfilment of prophecy is at hand; all room appeared to her to be in a blaze. At Brislington, it passed by a will think some wonderful events are coming, until the philosophers waggoner with a rustling noise like the wheel of a carriage, and there convince them of its physical cause. is a pathway where the grass is completely scorched by it. It was seen at Devizes very high in the element; it appeared in various shapes — The Courier (London, England), 12 December 1831, taken from and threw out a great light. Farmer Wooley, of Hinton, saw it like a the Bath Journal

ere, in the early 19th man running, and passed two century, we fi nd an men near the canal without Haccount associating harming them. It then a bright object ascended out of sight. with scorched ground and • The phenomenon appeared a fi ery humanoid fi gure. Its in Devizes (in the form of a resemblance to modern UFO powerful light high in the encounters is clear, and the sky, in various shapes), in report is impressive: although Wincanton, in Bridgwater, fragmentary and confusing, at the New Passage, by it provides multiple named the Severn, at Frome, and witnesses and locations, elsewhere. something few of today’s UFO stories possess. something resembling a clock face in SEARCHING FORA ROUTE shape, the size of a man. His wife said it Most of the locations are scattered along a For the sake of clarity, we present a illuminated the whole bedroom. roughly north-south line 40 miles in length rearranged and bulleted version of the • Two men saw it a quarter of a mile away. from the Bristol Channel to Wincanton (see information contained in the newspaper They said it seemed to have legs. map on opposite page), but the time of day article: • At Brislington, it passed by a wagoner is not given except for the fi rst sighting, with a rustling noise, scorching the grass. so we cannot plot a path. If a sequence • James Smith, labourer, was travelling to • Farmer Wooley, of Hinton, described it as is implied, then it runs northward from Lansdown at 5.30am when the dark sky was like a large teakettle that descended to the Maiden Bradley and Frome, past Hinton suddenly lit up by a blaze of fi re. It lasted a ground and returned to the sky. to Midford, and then on to another point a minute and then disappeared. • Men at the Fox Inn, Milford, saw it as a quarter-mile “further on”, maybe heading • Mr Wadman saw a meteoric phenomenon huge man-shaped fi gure of fi re. It passed so north to Brislington. But this is unclear. between Frome and Maiden Bradley. close they were surprised not to be burnt. The common denominator of these • The turnpike man at Midford saw • It went along the valley, in the form of a accounts is the fi ery nature of the

34 FT338 www.forteantimes.com Sightings in the vicinity of Bath (map, R Wilkin- son, 1812. OPPOSITE PAGE: A clipping from the Worcestor Journal, 15 Dec 1831.

reported time of 5.30am, the Sun was 22° under the horizon, fully two and a half hours before sunrise (around 8am). It is possible that, in addition to the early morning sighting in Bath, a meteor also passed across the sky at Bath and in in sunlight hours on 8 December, but this would be an unusual coincidence. We think it is more likely that someone had read about the Somerset affair, either the original story or a summary, and assumed that whatever happened in Herefordshire was the same as the incident at Bath because of the date. Only one possible source of this Herefordshire meteor story has turned up so far, in a British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) publication of 1852. 2 This mentions a single vague observation of an unidentified fl ickering light made under “dense cloud” on the morning of 8 December. If this is the same event, then on the one hand it does help us connect it with the Bath sequence, because it was not in “daylight” but early in the morning and “very dark.” On the other hand, this is hardly a meteor observation at all, and it is ironic that the editor justifies carrying it as hsuc only because he associates it with the “unscientific” story in the Bath Journal. If the speculative BAAS account is the source for the “Herefordshire” event in the meteor catalogue, 3 then there is no phenomenon. Its shape and behaviour basis for it. In fact, we suggest that the varies from “a quivering blaze of fi re” to “THE COUNTRY opposite is true: it was the Bath UFO event a circular light, a man-shaped fi gure of PEOPLE SEEM PUZZLED that gave rise to the vague tale of a meteor fi re, or a kettle shape, or a thing with legs, AS TO HOW TO over Herefordshire. On the other hand, the either close to the ground or up in the sky. article helpfully provides a weather report Are they all related? It might be more ACCOUNT FOR THE for south Herefordshire that positively prudent to identify a core of connected DAZZLING LIGHT AND discounts the likelihood of any clearly stories, focusing on those with more details, observed meteor in the area: “Overcast and then consider the possibly unrelated CURIOUS FORMS” with very low foggy clouds... such dense ones.The former group includes Lansdown, clouds”. Brislington, Midford (the Fox Inn and seen at Bath. 1 the Coal Canal), Hinton, and the Frome- Herefordshire is an interesting PEOPLE AND PLACES Maiden Bradley road.The latter group additional location. When we plot the Although there is no Fox Inn at Milford, includes sightings at Wincanton, Devizes, Somerset sightings on a map, there is a east Yeovil, today, there was one at Midford. New Passage, and at Bridgwater, some 30 hint of a near north-south alignment that, Local inquiries established that the Fox miles (48km) west of the Bath cluster. extrapolated north, would indeed pass Inn continued in business into the 20th Those in the latter group tend to be over Herefordshire. Is this a coincidence? century but is today a private house. 4 geographical outliers, while the descriptive The report that at Brislington “it passed Could the event have occurred at Midford? core tends to cluster within about a by a waggoner with a rustling noise” is We think so, because the story specifically dozen miles of Bath. Since the original suggestive of the so-called “electrophonic” says: “It went up through the valley... source is the Bath Journal, this all seems sounds sometimes heard by observers of and passed two men near the canal.” consistent. A group of circumstantial fi reball meteors; vague stories of fi ery There is no canal anywhere near Milford. accounts collected from known sources in forms in the sky could be distorted; and the However, Midford is just a mile from the the local area form the core story, but in scorched grass may have had nothing to do important Kennet and Avon Canal. A the excitement these were combined with with it. simple typo probably changed Midford stories from further afield. The problem with seeking a common to Milford. In 1858, a previous innkeeper, cause for both sightings is that the one William Chancellor, was summoned A DAYLIGHT METEOR? from Herefordshire is listed as a “daylight” to Somersetshire County Court on an Other brief newspaper summaries were meteor, whereas the Bath events happened unnamed matter. We wonder if William printed in Bath, Worcester, and Yorkshire, in the dark. James Smith at Lansdown, a Chancellor “late of the Fox Inn” was the all evidently based on the Bath Journal labourer on his way to work, said it was very innkeeper who was witness to the story. However, a meteor catalogue “full dark,” and the Midford turnpike amazing events of 1831. does have this entry: 1831 – Dec. 8 – man’s wife still “lay in bed” when the The canal mentioned was a local branch Herefordshire – large – by daylight; also object lit up the bedroom. In fact, at the known as the Somerset Coal Canal, opened

FT338 35 www.forteantimes.com A RETURN TO MAGONIA

CHRIS AUBECK argues that a global army of latter-day Charles Forts, armed 200 new items a month, few of which with laptops and with access to the digitised archives of the world’s newspapers, is had ever been seen since they were first transforming fortean research in the 21st century... published. Magonia Exchange also serves as a network of colleagues across the s devoted as Charles drive helps nobody. world, in countries such as the US, Fort was to the search In April 2003, a colleague and I set Britain, Canada, Germany, Spain, Italy, for reports of strange up an online group in which fellow Greece and Russia. This helps not only Aphenomena in historical researchers could store and share their in obtaining rare research material texts, he must have been latest discoveries made in newspaper but also in translating documents. painfully aware that just one man libraries. It was an exciting time. Finding out that very similar encounters could only peruse a limited number of Genealogy was becoming big business with unknown entities took place in archives in a single lifetime. Libraries as people looking for clues about their different parts of the world, sometimes hold hundreds of thousands of journals family history finally got to consult simultaneously, is invaluable. and newspapers, bound together in the census records and birth or death Since its inception, three other thick musty volumes. With their tiny certificates that hadev pr iously been groups have been established using print, and often labyrinthine structure, locked away in government basements the same basic model. PreUFO, an a single month of dailies might take an or sat on shelves in rolls of microfilm. Italian-language group directed by hour to thumb through. Back ufologist Edoardo Russo; then, transcribing whole Forteana Exchange, founded articles was too impractical in 2012 by Bob Rickard; and and time-consuming, so, in recently Magonia Exchange the absence of photocopy ES, a Spanish-language group machines or scanners, I opened in January 2016. gathering information meant Membership is free and open taking copious notes with to anyone who wants to help a pencil in a notebook or build up the archives. Our on index cards. Those of vision is simple: let’s collect all us who began research in the data we can, as often as we traditional bricks-and-mortar can, and share it. Imagine an libraries can only sympathise army of Charles Forts armed with Fort and marvel at with laptops all over the world! his stamina, his unfailing Readers of my two co- eyesight and more-than- authored books Wonders in likely backache. the Sky (2009) and Return to Fortunately, things have Magonia (2015) will have seen changed in recent years. The what can be done with access advent of computers has to so much new information. led to the digitisation of the Having access to books and world’s libraries, allowing documents from across the us to carry on Fort’s tireless centuries gives us a completely efforts in only a fraction new view of our fortean past of the time. Since the late and shows that very few of 1990s, dozens of public and the strange sightings reported private archives have been today are as unique or new scanning their collections as they seem. How we should to make them available online. Most of Some newspapers and scientific interpret all this new data, of course, is these projects are free of charge, others journals had their own webpages a different question altogether. Are we charge a monthly or annual subscription, where you could consult century-old staring at proof of alien intervention, but they all offer something Fort would back issues, and universities invested or confirmation that the human have loved to see: search engines. in giving students easy access to old imagination is confined to a series of Instead of fetching heavy bound volumes books. It was a no-brainer: if we built up archetypes that resurface in similar ways from a shelf and gingerly turning each a network of likeminded individuals we in every generation? If our grandparents’ brittle page hoping to find something could scan the world’s libraries for UFO crashed saucers are still controversial useful amid all the announcements of and fortean data in no time and build today, what about the objects that births, marriages and deaths or political the world’s largest archive of cuttings fell in our great-grandfathers’ back commentary, we can now type a series on weird sightings through history. yards, and even in those of their great- of words such as “shower of fish” or Thus Magonia Exchange was born, and grandfathers? Join us in the hunt for the “singular phenomenon” into a box and thanks to the work of many dedicated roots of all this and maybe you, too, can click search: a list of results springs into researchers it is still going strong. In experience what Fort must have felt as view that would have taken months to 13 years we have amassed over 30,000 he read about people’s encounters with assemble the old-fashioned way. This is individual items relating to strange the seemingly impossible and dreamt of the future of fortean research, and we phenomena from mediæval times up shipwrecks in the sky. don’t even have to leave the house to to the first decades of the 20th century, do it. in languages ranging from English and https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ We still need somewhere to put our French to Russian and Greek – and even magonia_exchange/info finds, though, as saving them to thed har Chinese. The group adds an average of www.chrisaubeck.com

36 FT338 www.forteantimes.com seem puzzled how to account for the dazzling light, the heat, the curious forms it assumed, the many places it was seen.” There is no mention of anyone seeing an angel, or a devil. Cases of anthropomorphised fi reballs were reported throughout the 19th century, but there’s no cluster of cases that shows us any common thread of popular theory. An ordinary person who thought he saw a luminous human-like fi gure in this era would suppose it to be a ghost (as in, for example, a case in Illinois in 1874). SEARCHING FOR EXPLANATIONS Insofar as the people and places are traceable, there is little to indicate a hoax. Whether all the incidents are causally connected is unclear, but it seems a core group of events in the Midford area may NDON STERESCOPIC COMPANY / GETTY IMAGES

LO have attracted a halo of tenuously related ABOVE: The Fox inn, Midford, early 1900s. The innkeeper and locals felt the heat from “a huge fi gure of fi re, in anecdotes from further afield.The core stories shape like a man”, passing up the valley. indicate a low-level fi ery blob, sometimes with appendages, moving quite fast, giving off scorching heat. in 1805 to connect the Kennet & Avon Canal FARMER WOOLEY SAW Ball lightning is more or less a refl ex with coalfields to the west, running close by THE OBJECT DESCEND explanation in cases like this, but the the Fox Inn. It went into decline after a peak implied geographical scope and duration in 1838 and closed due to competition from TO THE EARTH AND are excessive. Several distinct ball lightning the railway in 1898. RISE AGAIN, LOOKING events are a possible explanation, if highly Today the Coal Canal is mostly derelict improbable; but there is no evidence of the and fi lled in, but in 1831 it came from Combe LIKE A LARGE thunderstorms that might have caused them. Hay in the west down the valley of the Cam TEAKETTLE The Bath & Cheltenham Gazette claimed all Brook, passing through Midford along the the descriptions were “easily accounted for” line of the Midford Brook towards a junction by mirages and imagination – to which we with the Kennet & Avon Canal in the MILLENARIAN PORTENTS respond, mirages of what? northeast.To pass along the valley close to The Bath Journal had predicted that: “The Our search for some astronomical stimuli the men by the canal, the phenomenon could millenarians will think the fulfilment of turned up nothing. Obvious candidates might have been heading either northeast or west. prophecy is at hand. All will think some be the Moon (“in shape like the face of a We favour the latter, simply because the wonderful events are coming; until the clock”) orVenus. On the date in question the story describes it as passing “up through the philosophers convince them of its physical Moon was a thin crescent, and at 5.30am it valley”.The gradient of the valley fl oor is not cause.” was still far below the horizon, only rising great, a fall of only 135ft (41m) overall, but Another writer, proposing to fi ll this in the southeast three hours after the Sun. it descends to the east towards the Kennet solemn role in the Bath & Cheltenham Venus was very bright (magnitude -4.2) and at and Avon.The Coal Canal climbed west by Gazette, announced complacently that it maximum elongation (46°), rising well ahead Combe Hay via a fl ight of 22 6ft (1.8m) locks, was a “meteoric phenomenon” that was of the Sun. At 5:30 it was about 15° above so we think this would have defined the “up” wholly expected given the “unusual warmth the horizon in the southeast and would have and “down” for locals in 1831. 5 Thus we and moisture of the atmosphere next to the been very prominent (if the sky were clear). infer that the direction of departure of the earth, meeting with cold currents of superior That direction appears not to fi t the core phenomenon seen at Midford was towards air,” wafting across the country “as driven sightings at Midford, butVenus might have the west. by slow-moving currents of air” – in other been involved in some peripheral sightings We infer that “Hinton,” where farmer words, a mirage. He noted that the variety of the same morning, about which we have little Wooley saw the object descend to the earth descriptions is “easily accounted for, every information. and rise again, looking like a large teakettle, meteor is liable to a change of form like a Other sketchy stories suggest a bright refers to the area of Hinton Charterhouse common cloud, and with a little aid from auroral display – such as the Lansdown report and Hinton Hill Road about 1.5 miles imagination may be supposed to resemble of “flames from sky”, and the fl ickering light (2.4km) south of Midford, but we have anything.” He found the witnesses’ “palpable in the clouds over south Herefordshire – but struggled to trace “farmer Wooley”. misconceptions” to be “quite amusing,” and only if “in the clouds” could be interpreted to There is a Woolley Barn Farm in a district lamented “the foolery of believers in portents mean “between the clouds”.This is unlikely of northeast Bath known as Woolley, and this and omens.” given that the cloud was described as “dense”, appears in some records of the early 1800s as We see no evidence of millenarian foolery “overcast with very low foggy clouds”. A “Wooley,” 6 but no Hinton exists near there; in the sighting accounts themselves. Phrases bright display would be very unusual at this on the other hand, no “Wooley” connections such as “they thought they should have been latitude, except during exceptional solar are fi ndable in Hinton Charterhouse to burnt to death by the heat; it then went up events.These sometimes occur around the the south of Bath. Old maps before the through the valley, like a man running, and peak of the solar cycle, but this date was 1950s show fi ve farms around Hinton, but passed two men near the canal, but it did closer to the minimum of Cycle 7 (May 1823 to there has clearly been much merging and not burn them” might owe something to the November 1833). Activity was therefore low. 8 changing of names.Today the farm names writer’s instinct for scriptural allusion, in this In some ways this case reminds us of others in the area include Tytherly Farm on Wellow case Daniel 3:25 (“He answered and said, Lo, I we have come across and where we have Lane and Willow Farm at Wellow, leading see four men loose, walking in the midst of the considered a tornado as a possible cause. 9 In to a suspicion that Wooley and Wellow or fi re, and they have no hurt; and the form of this case, though, phrases like “blaze of fi re” Willow might be cognate corruptions, 7 but the fourth is like the Son of God”). However, and “great light” imply a real luminosity that this is speculative. We cannot trace “farmer there is nothing religious about the sightings. isn’t easy to square with a regular funnel Wooley”. The same writer tells us: “The country people cloud.

FT338 37 www.forteantimes.com TOP: Map of the Midford sighting area showing probable westward departure direction along the route of the old Somerset Coal Canal (Ordnance Survey, 1817).

Taking together the linear alignment Descriptions differed: one man said it was This article is extracted from across the countryside, the rushing motion like a clock face; to another it seemed to have the book Return to Magonia: generally at ground level, references to human legs. It emitted light, heat and sound. Investigating UFOs in History fi re and heat, and in one place a “scorched To one observer it resembled a large kettle. by Chris Aubeck and Martin path”, one thinks of a fi re-tornado or “fire Some saw a man-shaped fi reball. It descended Shough, Anomalist Press, whirl”.These are real phenomena, but they from the sky – scorching the grass as it passed 2015. do not come from nowhere.There is no hint – and ascended again.The locations are of the devastating heath fi res or forest fi res named and appear on a map, but without AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY that might maintain a fi re-tornado over a the time of day we cannot plot the path it distance of tens of miles or generate a series took. Many of the accounts come from near CHRIS AUBECK lives in Spain, of separate ones. Bath, where the article appeared in the local where he works as a translator It seems as if the heat and burning were newspaper. Other sources noted a meteor over and teacher. He runs Magonia secondary local effects of the phenomenon Herefordshire on the same day, but apparently Exchange and has coauthored two rather than its primary cause.What was this was hearsay based on the phenomenon previous books: Wonders in the seen remains a mystery – perhaps several described near Bath. Collectively these Sky, with Jacques Vallée (2009) and OOPARTs, mysteries. But because of the fi ery or glowing stories have some of the common features of with Juan Jose Sanchez Oro (2015). fi gure mentioned in three cases, it remains of a fi reball, but other aspects are more unusual. MARTIN SHOUGH is a Research special interest. Folklore and legends aside, We are left with a fragmentary but fascinating Associate for National Aviation this is a rare early example of a man-like account of a UFO with all the trimmings: a Reporting Center on Anomalous creature associated with objects from the sky luminous object behaving strangely, physical Phenomena (NARCAP) and in reports from named individuals. traces on the ground, possible references to author or co-author of numerous To summarise: witnesses saw a fi ery an entity (or appendages on the object itself), papers and other publications. He has been a phenomenon descend from the sky in and no hint of a veiled political or religious photolithographer, musician, artist, and gallery Somerset, England, on 8 December 1831. message. FT owner and lives in the .

NOTES 3 The “daylight” Luci Smolarek, co- completed. It was htm/ descendants%20 9 For example, a listing would be just a proprietor of the Hope built only as far as of%20peter%20 smoky, fi ery thing that 1 www. careless error. & Anchor inn (www. Twinhoe and did not noad%201760%20 visited Perthshire in meteoritehistory.info/ hopeandanchormidford. reach Midford, so is to%201843.htm 1767; this and other UKIRELAND/CAT5.HTM 4 We initially thought that the Hope & co.uk/), kindly gave us not relevant here. www. 7 A 1750 map identifies examples can be found 2 Report of the Anchor inn, which was information leading to coalcanal.org/maps/ a large area west of the in the book from which 22nd Meeting of the renamed in the 19th the actual site nearby. m04.htm village as “West Wells” this article is extracted. British Association for century after being 5 A southern branch of 6 www.payman.pwp. and “Willis’s land.” the Advancement of enlarged in expectation the canal was planned blueyonder.co.uk/ www. freshford.com/ Science, Sept. of business from new coming from Radstock somersetshire/ hintonmaps.htm 1852; John Murray, canal traffic, was the in the southwest, descendants-of-peter- London, 1853 p.182. 8 http://en.wikipedia. site of the Fox Inn. but this was never noad-1760-to-1843. org/wiki/Solar_cycle_7

38 FT338 www.forteantimes.com

poring 1990s? fo pesky in be actually might fa longing a fuelled among Ho Wo a hijac fly to plot Mar 4 2001. Th September 11 with associated theories of off terrorists? the t aftermath its ensuing the in arms more wa monsters actual when creatures, scary and conspiracies wo happened. destr fa T hooked. (“I unexplained the and We ‘Monster-of-the- standalone while series, the that storyline conspiracy episodes “The and One” No “Trust co iaeo 9My20,teso presented the show UFO 2002, 19 May series on its to finale 1993 September 10 on episode ogseasons. long heavy the pr network, Tl u There? ouT sTill www.forteantimes 40 tas isn h r-/1dy fthe of days pre-9/11 the missing rteans, ts htaseildvso fteFBI the of division special a that ntasy shion. ve ov Th u oehr ln the along somewhere But io psd of episode pilot e go s l n wn obelie to “want one uld wev rl k psdscnendcetrs cryptids creatures, concerned episodes ek’ ch Ft r- iding d oye e my 338 ch Th p n aiuain ftetruth. the of manipulations and ups eaeadahl ab decade-and-a-half o n etuto nti psd;it episode; this in destruction and aos my Tr ve er ra ove Wa fo X-Files e tre nescigwt go with intersecting steries oeaki ear in comeback made 1990s, the in Carter Chris created series television horror fiction/ science American successful X-Files, he h eis otesoyge:wh goes: story the so series, the d d etrsto Center’s ade 01 t storyline its 2001, , netaet who agents rnment ther tas fe l,it all, After rteans. fo Fo steries wa terrorists va my u pining our s r We Th ue nthe on cused .c TV x fo kdaogtu nthe in us amongst lked ito n needed and riation om Vi hstra unn hog the through running thread thos etuto fthe of destruction e we ab omany so r r si a seem, may it as ird Lo ew . utedto end rupt re we ke eaepr fteconspirac the of part became Fr fo sTeTruTh The is e n Jenny and ren r costhe across ers h phenomenall the rdce nahaunting a in predicted ipaeit n fthe of one into airplane d mtearn fisfirst its of airing the om the r ’d we ve Th been tgtn l those all stigating re fo oeGunman Lone e wers ye ex Wa h ad the r re ve o or not ly ev Tr wa ars. traterrestrial/ fo uno h series the of turn re ” 06o t home its on 2016 le throughout olved tt Belie to nt Th t sOut is uth wa wa wa lwn terrorist a llowing r. (see nain and aliens in sear We Wh X-Files e ch nenjo an s y, tdt sell to nted re ve wo ev 9/11 estrating FT165:52). ch re Tw a /1and 9/11 oa! pt from spite trsof ntures se naspin- a en rl fo ve n and ing y we in d mof rm rnment ve c u htd udrand Mulder do what but – nce Th we To ie on aired , ya asked ”), by a ere” wers re y ble Co y Leman we lcome Th e Sc X- lyha ully Files ba ve ck to to sa u TV our y to si po a in us sc re n after ens st -9/11 a wo rld?

Agung PArAmeswArA / getty ImAges Mulder and Scully based in nostalgia? I don’t think so. Yes, we were delighted with how remarkably on-target the series was in addressing so many of the interests we had in UFOs, cover-ups, animal mysteries, wild talents, strange people, and monsters. After all, those things, we knew (even if the general television audience didn’t) were called forteana. When I (Loren) wrote the first X-Files article for Fortean Times,(FT82:22- 29) I mentioned how Chris Carter appeared to be using source material from my book Mysterious America (1983) and the work of many friends who had written for FT back in the 1970s and 1980s. For us, the series was a warm and comfortable televised projection of the fortean worldview. The stories spoke to us, and Mulder and Scully were parts of our own personalities, right there on the screen. Would the return of the series in 2016 also feel like “home” again? So much has happened. We are all older. Mysteries have ABOVE: Old friends and new quests – mulder and scully reunited in episode one, “my struggle”. been solved or debunked. More government cover-ups and cover stories have been revealed. But forteana still exists: more refreshed. And then there are those new to monsters are out there, and a greater number for us,The series the series, who must be carefully brought up of reports, cases, and histories need to be to speed via talking points setting out how investigated. Conspiracies are darker, alien wasawarmand the conspiracy has evolved. It can’t have been histories are longer, and DNA legacies are easy to summarise over 20 years of plotlines more complex than the 1990s led us to and backstories into under an hour and cater believe. Phrases like false flag, Snowden, and comforTableTV to both rabid fans and newbies alike. the NSA are now a part of daily jargon, used Personally, we would have been a little not just by conspiracy theorists and their ilk, projecTion ofThe disappointed if there had not been the but by practically everyone. touchstone of the legacy of the 1947 Roswell How would The X-Files mirror the scary forTeanworldView incident at the beginning of this revival. It mess that is the second decade of the 21st seemed, well, just right. century? The six episodes of the new miniseries First off, The X-Files 2016, or Season X, they are immediately believable in their reflect theve di rsity of the writers perfectly. if you will, has not gone all glam on us.The assignments and examinations of evidence, The first one was all Chris Carter and his sartorial styles of Fox Mulder and Dana events and artefacts of the unknown (albeit foundation mythos. (The last three episodes, Scully appear very familiar, as if they stepped seemingly more known than unknown in this “Home Again,” “Babylon,” and “My Struggle straight from 1993 into 2016, with the day and age). II,” are expected to resolve some of the exception of Scully’s sensible pumps being Some critics, using phrases such as “too questions posed in the mythology arc, but we replaced by sharp stilettoes.The lines of their heavy-handed” or “too bogged down,” have will make some observations about only the faces and bodies tell us they have aged since roundly criticised the first episode in this first three of the six.) the end of the series, but Gillian Anderson new season. It’s important to understand that, “My Struggle” bursts forth, outlining the and David Duchovny are still, as they say, after all these years, there are many people internal challenges all the characters – the “easy on the eye”. FBI agents once again, who need to catch up or have their memories X-Files division, the FBI, the agents and their boss, Walter Skinner, and, yes, even their creator, Chris Carter – have had to overcome to get here again.The political and media hurdles seem obvious, but the externalising of this through the Alex Jones-like figure was a nice stroke for the conspiracy storyline. The key to “My Struggle” is reflective of what is to be found in the Norwegian novelist Karl Ove Knausgård’s 3,600-page autobiographical novel, My Struggle. The book holds a mirror up to Knausgård’s life, and the reader finds that what one sees is oneself. The first X-Files episode of 2016 begins this journey by saying something similar. We are all in this morass, post-9/11, and we are all feeling this together. Did aliens crash? Was the collapse of the Twin Towers symbolic of the fiscal collapse most of us experienced seven years later? Are aliens genetically engineering babies and stealing them from mothers? What the hell is going on here, and who is more truthful: Alex Jones, Art Bell, or Brian Williams? Dana Scully, Fox Mulder or ABOVE: episode two, “Founder’s mutation”, pulls together X-Files mythology old and new. the Cigarette Smoking Man?

Ft338 41 www.forteantimes.com pointlessness of human existence. He thanks Mulder for being, essentially, a decent human, to which Mulder replies, to a Horny-Toad Lizardman that shoots blood from his eyes: “Likewise”. Point made. At its heart, the “Were-Monster” episode is about loss, and the internal changes we experience here in the 21st century. The tombstones of Jack Hardy and Kim Manners are there, in the background.They are two beloved producers of The X-Files who died in the intervening years. We must refl ect that as this episode opens, Mulder’s monologue details the withdrawal of his affections from Bigfoot and Mothman, and his understanding that the Jackalope is a myth. He also talks of Charles Fort, openly and deeply. “Since we’ve been away, much of the unexplained has been explained,” he says to Scully. “Charles Fort spent his entire life researching natural and scientific anomalies.” Mulder appears to be pining for the days when he was a young man, like a young ABOVE: scully and Daggoo in “mulder and scully meet the were-monster”. BELOW: X-Files creator Chris Carter. Charles Fort. “At the end of his life, Fort himself wondered if it had all been a waste,” Mulder In the second episode, “Founder’s This episode’s writer and director is Darin pondered. “I get it.” Mutation,” written and directed by James Morgan. Darin Morgan is the brother of Now feeling like an old Charles Fort, Wong, we fi nd a tender journey in which Glen Morgan and brother-in-law of Kristen Mulder tells Scully, he’s now middle-aged Scully and Mulder have frequently created Cloke, who worked in various capacities on and wonders if it’s “time to put away childish memories of a child they were forced to place a total of 28 episodes of The X-Files and 23 of things. Is this how I want to spent the rest of for adoption. It is an episode about deformed Millennium. In The X-Files, he guest starred as my days, chasing monsters?” children, suicide, and PK. It is horror realised, Flukeman in the Season 2 episode “The Host” And then Scully tells Mulder: there’s a new and horror lived. Anyone who has lost a and as EddieVan Blundht in the Season case… and it’s a monster. child – through death, divorce or adoption – 4 episode “Small Potatoes”. As we know, The X-Files is fi ction. We will realise quickly that whoever wrote this Darin Morgan also penned the classic don’t know that Fort, despite his recurrent episode understands that, as Scully says, a X-Files episodes, “Humbug”, “Clyde frustrations, ever felt as deeply despondent as mother never forgets her child; neither do Bruckman’s Final Repose”, and “Jose Mulder suggests, and we certainly don’t feel fathers. Chung’s ‘From Outer Space’”. Morgan has we have wasted our lives being forteans… or The mythos of the series – old and new – is a pronounced and unique sense of humour, watching The X-Files, come to think of it. pulled together in “Founder’s Mutation,” as and is very much a fortean. Furthermore, he We see ourselves in Mulder and Scully. In it becomes apparent that the “monsters” of ghostwrote The X-Files’ “Quagmire”, the very their confusion with technological advances, the “Monster-of-the-Week” episodes probably fi rst television series episode to mention the their regret over past decisions, and their have something to say to us about alien word “”. It’s a story that has willingness to continue to fi ght for the truth, genetic engineering. Watch the episode and a lake monster called Big Blue dwelling in they represent an aging generation that just see for yourself. Like “My Struggle,” this is Heuvelman’s (sic) Lake. wants to sit quietly and think for a minute. a form of meditative insight about you, as Morgan places many – very many – Easter As for the younger crowd, the new, post-9/11 a fortean, as a citizen of the 21st century, as Eggs throughout this “Were-Monster” inductees to the world of The X-Files, they a nerd – but not as a Wall Street banker or story. As in “Quagmire,” he references enter with different eyes, their vision fi lled a rock star or a politician, please note.This Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. Guy Mann’s with scepticism and knowledge, but possibly show is about you. runaway dog in this 2016 episode is name wonder too. Perhaps we older forteans have Next, comes a self-evident “Monster-of- Daggoo, which is also the name of one of become jaded, our worldview tired. But if the-Week” episode: “Mulder and Scully the harpooners on the Pequod, Ahab’s ship. The X-Files can rise splendidly from the ashes Meet the Were-Monster.” It’s a Lizardman, Scully’s pet Pomeranian in “Quagmire” was and still have something to teach us about straight from the pages of Fortean Times named Queequeg, another harpooner on forteana and the unexplained, if it can make old (“Creatures From The Black Lagoon”, the Pequod and good friend of Ishmael.The us question, discuss, think and look up from Loren Coleman, FT40:43-47) dog was introduced in “Clyde Bruckman’s our devices long enough to see the unseen, or new (“The Lizard Man of Final Repose” and is eaten by an alligator then maybe we are, as Scully says, “immortal” Scape Ore Swamp”, by Ben in “Quagmire”. after all. FT Radford, FT333:26-34). Scully’s decision to steal (or rescue) Carter was inspired by Daggoo from the animal shelter in this aUTHor BIoGraPHy the 1970s series Kolchak: episode was particularly poignant; she The Night Stalker to create “missed having something to love”. LOREN COLEMAN The X-Files, and the new Many long-term fans of the show are is the Director of season visits that landscape experiencing an empty nest, either the International again in the third instalment. from their children transitioning into Cryptozoology museum The character of Guy independence or from the regret of and the author of Mann, played by well-known having never had children of their over 40 books. JENNY cryptozoology fan Rhys Darby, is own.The Were-Monster expresses COLEMAN is the editor dressed like Kolchak himself, that he prefers the company of of the new Journal right down to the straw hat and “non-humans” to humans, of the International seersucker sports coat. while pondering the Cryptozoology Society.

42 Ft338 www.forteantimes.com

uLF anDeRsen / getty images T aefrom. came environment. hostile It a from livings of the basest claw to wher struggled and peoples black, indigenous to blue from turned and pt70mls(,3k)desuho the of Santiago capital, south Chilean due (1,130km) miles 700 spot Seagulls. of Place the where place a of land a lay unknown and and ended strange Incas the of Empire the naie,ada t oeyhatle the Chiloé: lies of heart island lonely its at and inhabited, Earth. no the Even of part uttermost “the as n osse fadsic n interesting and histor distinct a of possessed and str wa fo mar it century 16th n n18,altl oeta half it than after more century little a 1880, in And island the rule, described accurately so Chiloé ra,probabl trial, re it Chile, into America Latin pri www.forteantimes 44 nte ,0 ie 190m l the all (1,930km) miles 1,200 another r Ac akbetil–tels infiatwitc significant last the – trial markable wa To thought, Incas the Maule, the of South ew udrdtervcis inpe hlrn cr children, kidnapped victims, their murdered to y va ntelt 19th late the in Ft da loweetewthsli witches the where also s ern.I h 9hcentur 19th the In teering. ,mte ihutmdvirgin untamed with matted n, co 338 y. Ti wa y, Fi w, rd radlFuego del erra h Witches the h lc fSaul eisat begins Seagulls of Place the rs ogknown long s n nthe in and mte nothe into empties Ri Maule 35th the the where parallel, to close lies It Earth. America South that in place a is here the .c Th visited t ing om h aeof Cave The my y, wa na aldti ad“the land this called Incas e re wa revo nweei the in anywhere re wa loteseeof scene the also s tr n akes It darkness. and stery gion to ra ” andlo mained neteedo the of end the once s Pa s nsae and in-soaked tdaantimperial against lted ke fi oa eed hla island Chilean a legend, local by cific’s fi re al incorporated nally h pta whic at spot the d wo rs uoen n1567, in Europeans an sparsel mains , fo by t h ln of “land the ce rl , iayand piracy r ye n stretches and began. d wa ua Bridges Lucas Pa ya nt r fthe of ars ters icOcean, cific oSpain. to l ury. ve y, wo and d ra when ch a rl a ” inbow- a d. illed fo MIKE y fi [1] wa re re ve h ev a e st ” s r il h DA SH sadofChiloé island onthe witches of stor uponthe stumbled chatwin unc a sectofmale ove wa nehome once s rs ea a te st d ra te nge rfigmons rrifying st y to r rmaland a from ory a se cr et ters so nae ignforest...” virgin untamed – Chiloé witches. the of story the LEFT: falternati of fa 1880 in court to brought actually ad alternati an He aedrn h ra f18,they 1880, of trial the during made their to According [2] that witches” male ex of the “sect 1970s, a the to in belonged story their of traces upon Pr Righteous “The as translated loosely Provincia Recta a to belong to claimed slashes. by enemies their of protection the tr to According age? industrial an ebr fthe of members hmn hnsorcerers. than shamans per a of justice offered that society diso a enamme fthe Pr of Righteous member a been had admission h society the testimon Coñuecar’s to According decades. eoeacourt a before Wh WA idt nin iigudrterl of elite. rule white the a under living Indians to kind ave cie rmer ov se frteproeo utn people. hurting of purpose the “for isted va Th and sajaduras: o wa LCSADMONSTERS AND RLOCKS ne n tldthemselves styled and – ince” nced. tr lrBueCawn h stumbled who Chatwin, Bruce ller otiprato the of important most e we ty av hn70 then s of “r by ” re lwie rc hti,wocm across came who Chatwin, bruce writer el re i-okdand ain-soaked we u ic h aemnalso men same the since But of h aeo ae Coñuecar Mateo of name the the Pe presentati my ra ve wa ve re po ck hp hs witches these rhaps ov aial nitd“profound inflicted magically Pe y, go nipratpo important an s nepeainmyas be also may interpretation fo st t nteiln,disposing island, the on ets ince haeta a be may that phrase a – hs ocrr hauled sorcerers these ye hp they rhaps Mayoria, nybrought only we ve atn plsin spells casting r by r n darkne and ery r l,and old, ars net nindigenous an rnment, osnn or poisoning fo rful ve FA ra oeta tw than more r ow gr CING fasrnesort strange a of s no-ten atdwith matted inbow-strewn, wa u called oup statements, n h “Majority the wa we Chilote a s PA wa GE: lcswho rlocks re by we rl , mor h sadof island the wors his we ocks nthe on r to ve ra La re e ow o rted n e, ss trial ,” . n ... y ” y,

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island, with numerous members, an elaborate has rotated through an angle of 180 degrees, hierarchy of “kings” and “viceroys” – and that is until the child can look straight down a headquarters located in a vast cavern, 40 the line of its own vertebrae. There remains or more yards long, whose secret entrance one last operation, for which another specialist had been cleverly concealed in the side of is needed. At full Moon, the child is laid on a a ravine. This cave (which Chilote tradition work-bench, lashed down with its head covered asserts was lit by torches burning human in a bag. The specialist cuts a deep incision fat) was hidden somewhere outside the under the right shoulder blade. Into the hole he little coastal village of Quicavi, and was inserts the right arm and sews up the wound – Coñuecar and other witnesses swore – with thread taken from the neck of a ewe. home to a pair of monsters that guarded When it has healed the Invunche is complete. the society’s most treasured possessions: an ancient leather book of magic and a bowl Naked, fed principally on human fl esh, that, fi lled with water, allowed secrets to be and confined below ground, neither the seen. chivato nor the invunche received any sort Coñuecar’s testimony, which may be found of education; indeed it was said that neither lodged among the papers of the Chilean ever acquired human speech in all the historian Benjamín Vicuña McKenna, years they served what Chatwin calls the includes this remarkable recollection of his Committee of the Cave. Nevertheless, he fi rst visit to the cave: concludes, “over the years, [the invunche] does develop a working knowledge of the Twenty years ago, when José Mariman was Committee’s procedure and can instruct king, he was ordered to go to the cave with novices with harsh and gutteral cries.” meat for some animals that lived inside. He complied with the order, and took them the he had encountered in 1860. The goat-like THE RIGHTEOUS PROVINCE meat of a kid he had slaughtered. Mariman monster was the chivato, a deformed mute It would be unwise, of course, to accept at went with him, and when they reached the covered in piggish bristles. The other – and face value the testimony given at any witch cave, he started dancing about like a sorcerer, by far the more dangerous – of the cave’s trial – not least evidence that concerns the and quickly opened the entryway. This was twin denizens was the invunche or imbunche. existence of a hidden cave that a week- covered over with a layer of earth (and grass Like the chivato, it had once been a human long search, conducted in the spring of to keep it hidden), and under this there was a baby, and had been kidnapped in infancy. 1880, failed utterly to uncover, and that piece of metal… the ‘alchemy key.’ He used this Chatwin describes what happened to the was extracted under who knows what sort to open the entryway, and was then faced with baby next: of duress. Yet it is as well to concede that, two completely disfigured beings which burst whatever the Righteous Province actually out of the gloom and rushed towards him. One When the Sect needs a new Invunche, the was, the society does seem to have existed in looked like a goat, for it dragged itself along on Council of the Cave orders a Member to steal some form, and that many Chilotes regarded four legs, and the other was a naked man, with a boy child from six months to a year old. The its members as fearsome enemies possessed a completely white beard and hair down to his Deformer, a permanent resident of the Cave, of genuinely supernatural powers. waist. starts work at once. He disjoints the arms and Accounts dating to the 19th century tell of legs and the hands and feet. Then begins the the regular collection of protection money on It is possible, from other records of the delicate task of altering the position of the Chiloé – what Ovidio Lagos describes as “an Righteous Province, to learn more about head. Day after day, and for hours at a stretch, annual tribute” demanded of “practically the hideous creatures that Coñuecar swore he twists the head with a tourniquet until it all villagers, to ensure they would have no

TOP: the papers of the Chilean historian benjamín vicuña mcKenna contain a remarkable account of a visit to the witches’ cave. ABOVE: the traiguén River, in which the initiates of Chiloé’s sect of witches were said to wash off the effects of the Christian baptism, bathing in the freezing waters for 15 successive nights.

46 Ft338 www.forteantimes.com only on Chiloé. This potion was, supposedly, so noxious that it made them vomit up their own intestines. Thus lightened, the girls turned into large, long-legged birds, resembling rooks, whose caws, Lagos says, “are the most unpleasant sounds ever to fall on a human ear.” When their mission was completed, the birds returned at daybreak to the spot where the potion had been drunk to re-ingest their entrails, and once again they became human. The power to perform such spells was never conferred lightly, and the testimonies collected in 1880-81 suggest that the society developed elaborate initiation ceremonies to test would-be witches. Initiates were fi rst required to wash away all traces of their baptism by bathing in freezing waters of the Traiguén River on 15 consecutive nights. They might then be ordered to murder a close relative or friend to prove that they had cleansed themselves of human sentiment (these murders, for some unstated reason, were to take place on Tuesdays) before running three times round the island naked, calling to the Devil. Chatwin, eccentric as ever, adds two further details that do not appear in the surviving trial transcripts: that the novice was required to catch, without fumbling, a skull thrown to him from the crown of a tricorn hat, and that while standing naked in the freezing river, prospective members were “allowed a little toast.” It was only when these tests had been completed that the initiate would be

LuFKe admitted to the cave at Quicavi, shown the ABOVE: a statue of a fl esh-eating invunche – a kidnapped infant turned into a deformed monster that would serve the Committee of the Cave and carry out the will of its sorcerer members. secret book of magic, and allowed to meet the elders who ran the Righteous Province. (Lagos suggests that the word mayoria refers accidents during the night”. These make Nor were the chivato and the invunche the to these elders – mayors – rather than to the it clear that islanders who resisted these only supernatural beings thought to be under proportion of Chiloé’s Indian population.) demands for payment could expect to have the control of the Righteous Province. The There he received instruction in the strict their crops destroyed and their sheep killed prisoners who testified in 1880 admitted that, code that governed members, including – by sorcery, it was believed, for the men on joining the society, each warlock was given prohibitions on theft, rape and eating salt. It of the Mayoria were believed to possess a a small, live lizard, which he wore strapped was claimed that these ceremonies concluded pair of magical stones that gave them the to his head with a bandana so that it was with a great feast in which the chief dish was power to curse their enemies. The records next to the skin. It was a magical creature the roasted fl esh of human babies. of the trial of 1880-81 make it clear that from which the novice might imbibe all sorts the proceedings had their origins in a rash of forbidden knowledge – not least how to MAGIC AND MURDER of suspicious poisonings that had claimed transform himself into an animal and how Thus far, perhaps, the details uncovered in numerous victims over the years. to open locked doors. Among the islanders, 1880 are of value chiefly to folklorists. The Whether one takes literally the many initiates were also believed to use seahorses organisation of the Righteous Province, supernatural claims that litter the trial to convey them to a magical vessel owned though, is of interest to historians and transcripts, though, is a very different matter. by the society and known as the Caleuche anthropologists, for it consisted of an The members of the Righteous Province – a word that means “shapeshifter” in the elaborate hierarchy whose titles seem claimed, for example, to possess the ability local language. The Caleuche was a brightly to have been deliberately chosen to ape to fl y, using a special word – arrealhue – as lit that could travel underwater the established government. Chiloé was, they leapt into the air, and wearing a magical and surfaced in remote bays to unload for example, divided into two kingdoms, waistcoat, known as the macuñ, that gave contraband cargoes carried for the island’s each with its own native ruler – the them the power to defy gravity. Each novice, merchants, a trade that was one of the chief King of Payos, who held the higher rank, when he joined the sect, was expected to sources of the warlocks’ wealth. This tradition and the King of Quicavi. Below them fashion his own waistcoat; Chatwin reports has outlived the warlocks of the Righteous came a number of queens, viceroys and that it was done by digging up and fl aying a Province, and even today, many Chilotes fi nally reparadores (“repairmen”), who were recently interred Christian corpse, though fi rmly believe that the Caleuche still haunts healers and concocters of herbal medicines. other sources say the waistcoat was made their coast, harvesting the souls of drowned Each ruler had his own territory, to which from the skin of a virgin girl or a dead sailors. the society gave a name associated with the sorcerer. Once dried and cured, the skin was When the witches needed spies and old Spanish empire – Lima, Buenos Aires, sewn into a loose garment, and Chatwin adds messengers, they drew on still other Santiago. Perhaps, Lagos suggests, it did this the detail that “the human grease remaining resources. The society was widely believed in the belief that “this change would not in the skin gives off a soft phosphorescence, to use adolescent girls, who were stripped only encourage secrecy, but also magically which lights the member’s nocturnal naked and forcibly fed a drink made of wolf- recreate a geography.” expeditions.” oil and the juice of the natri, a fruit found The fi ne detail of the trial transcripts

Ft338 47 www.forteantimes.com suggests that an intriguing marriage had Spanish conquest is not especially far- taken place between local traditions and fetched; Spanish rule was only lightly felt Christian belief. Chiloé was, and is, inhabited in Chiloé, and representatives of the central largely by the Mapuche, an indigenous government were rarely encountered outside people, noted for their machis (shamans), the island’s two main towns, Castro and who had long resisted the rule of Spain. Ancud. This vacuum in authority no doubt Gonzalo Rojas Flores, with his background helps to explain why much of the evidence in anthropology, suggests that the Righteous collected in 1880 related to struggles for Province “succeeded in establishing deep ties power within the Righteous Province itself. to rural communities, providing solutions to These had apparently been going on for needs the Chilean State could not satisfy.” decades; writing in June 1880, a columnist for This same model, of course, has driven the a newspaper published in Ancud recalled the emergence of secret societies such as the details of a murder inquiry that had taken Mafia in many different jurisdictions. It helps place in 1849 when one Domingo Nahuelquin to explain why the Mayoria had an official according to a magical recipe. According – who as King of Payos was in theory the known as the “Judge Fixer,” and why – laced to Coñuecar, when an islander named Juana supreme leader of the sect – had disappeared though they were with magical trappings Carimonei came to him to complain that without a trace. Nahuelquin’s wife alleged – the most important of its activities revolved her husband had been seduced by another that he had been killed on the orders of the around its attempts to compel obedience woman, he arranged the murder of her rival King of Quicavi, the same José Mariman from poor local farmers. in exchange for a payment of four yards of who a few years later took Mateo Coñuecar Several of the warlocks who testified in calico. to meet the invunche, and that Mariman 1880 expressed regret at the way their society The idea that the Mapuche still aspired had thereby seized control of their society. had changed in recent years, becoming to govern themselves years after the The mystery of Nahuelquin’s disappearance ever more prey to personal vendettas. Both was never formally resolved, since Mariman, Mateo Coñuecar and José Aro, a Mapuche it seems, had his rival and several of his carpenter who was his co-defendant, shed supporters dropped into the sea with large interesting light on these attempts to he invitedthe pair rocks chained around their necks. exercise power. According to Aro, he was It may be asked why, if the existence of ordered to kill a couple, Francesco and Maria foradrinkand the Righteous Province had been known Cardenas, who had fallen out with Coñuecar. to the Chilean authorities for more than 30 He invited the pair for a drink and slipped a slippedarsenic years, the government chose 1880 to clamp preparation of arsenic into their cups when down on the Mapuche and their murderous he served them; when the couple failed to intotheir cupsas sect of witches. The answer, so far as can notice anything, he attributed his success to now be ascertained, has to do with shifting the fact that his potion had been prepared he servedthem circumstances, for in 1880 Chile was in crisis,

TOP: a photo purporting to show members of Chiloé’s murderous society of warlocks. ABOVE: mapuche machis – healers and shamans – photographed in 1903.

48 Ft338 www.forteantimes.com maRtin beRnetti / aFP / getty images

ABOVE: stilt houses on Chiloé.

fi ghting Peru and Bolivia in a brutal four-year – perhaps still more damagingly – proof conflict known as the War of the Pacific. As a that other members of the group believed AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY result, the great bulk of the country’s armed themselves to represent a legitimate native forces were committed far to the north – a government. MIKE DASH is a longtime situation that Chile’s old rival, Argentina, was It is not, perhaps, surprising in the member of the gang of Fort. quick to take advantage of. The Argentines circumstances that the Chilean authorities He was Ft’s publisher for chose 1880 to revive a number of claims went to considerable lengths to destroy the some years, as well as a they had to land along their border, and this power of Chiloé’s sorcerers. Two members of regular contributor, and is threat was keenly felt on the western side of the Righteous Province were sentenced to the acclaimed author of the the Andes until it was defused by the 1881 serve 15-year terms for manslaughter, and 10 books Tulipomania, Batavia’s Tratado de Límites – a treaty that continues more were convicted of membership in an Graveyard, Thug, Satan’s to determine the boundary between the “unlawful society”. The old warlock Mateo Circus and The First Family. countries. Chiloé’s witch trial is probably best Coñuecar was sent to prison for three years, understood as a product of these tensions; and his brother, Domingo, for a year and a SOURCES certainly the fi rst published references to half. Not, it should be noted, on charges of Francisco Cavada, Chiloé y los Chilotes, santiago, the Righteous Province appear in decrees witchcraft – Chile, in 1880, had long ceased imprenta universitaria, 1914. ordering the round-up of army deserters that to believe in such a thing – but as racketeers bruce Chatwin, In Patagonia, London, Pan, 1979. were issued by the island’s governor, Louis and murderers who had subjected their Constantino Contreras, “mitos de brujería en Rodriguez Martiniano. island to reign of terror for the best part of a Chiloé”, Estudios Filológicos 2 (1966). If this interpretation is correct, the century. gonzalo Rojas Flores, Reyes Sobre la Tierra: Brujeria persecution of the Righteous Province The governor’s triumph was short-lived; the y Chamanismo en Una Cultura Insular: Chiloe Entre grew out of official concerns that the native dubious testimony of the prisoners aside, it Los Siglos XVIII y XX, santiago, editorial bibliteca americana, 2002 (www.memoriachilena.cl/archivos2/ Chilotes who were sheltering indigenous proved all but impossible to uncover credible pdfs/mC0037759.pdf). deserters from the Chilean army might also evidence that the Righteous Province had Ovidio Lagos, Chiloé: A Different World, self-published be sheltering Mapuche sorcerers. The pursuit wielded real influence in Chiloé, much less e-book, 2006. of the deserters seems to have turned up that its members killed by magic or could marco antonio León, La Cultura de la Muerte en evidence against the Mayoria. Flores points fl y. The majority of the sentences imposed Chiloé, santiago, RiL editores, 2007. out that Rodriguez proclaimed only one in 1881 were overturned on appeal. But David Petreman, “the Chilean ghost ship: month later that: “sorcerers and healers have on Chiloé the imprisonment of many of its the Caleuche”, Jorge Febles (ed), Into the for many years formed a partnership that leaders was widely believed to have fi nished Mainstream: Essays on Spanish American and has produced misery and death for whole the Righteous Province off for good, and no Latino Literature and Culture. Cambridge, Cambridge families.” conclusive trace of any such organisation has scholars Publishing, 2008. The governor did not believe in magical been found on the island since. “Proceso a los brujos de Chiloé”, Anales Chilenos de powers, and found it easy to convince himself Still, several mysteries remained when Historia de la Medicinia ii: i (1960). that the men of the Righteous Province were the verdicts were handed down. Had Janette gonzález Pulgar, “Proceso a los ‘brujos de nothing more than “thieves and murderers”. every member of the Mayoria really been Chiloé’ – Primer acercamiento”, Revista El Chuaco, December 2010-January 2011. One hundred or so members of the society accounted for? Had the society actually were rounded up, and if their interrogation been headquartered in a hidden cave? If so, nicholas shakespeare, Bruce Chatwin, London, vintage, 2000. revealed that at least a third of them were what happened to its ancient leather book of antonio Cárdenas tabies, Abordaje al harmless native “healers,” it also produced spells? Caleuche. santiago, nascimento, 1980. evidence of a number of murders and And what became of the invunche? FT

Ft338 49 www.forteantimes.com STRANGE STATESMEN #9

AMERICAN PSYCHOS 2 RAPING RONALD REAGAN

As the US prepares to choose a new leader in 2016’s presidential elections, SD TUCKER profiles some other recent American candidates for high office who almost make Donald Trump sound normal... well, almost.

LEFT: Ronald Reagan on the presidential campaign trail in 1979. BELOW: The fi rst edition of JG Ballard’s The Atrocity Exhibition.

– advice, according to MacLaine, that he accepted. 1 Reagan’s false-memories, meanwhile, were inextricably mixed up with his old Hollywood fi lm career. Brass Bancroft, Secret Agent (whom Reagan once played), seems to have been particularly enamoured with the 1944 war-movie A Wing and a Prayer, publicly recalling how he had personally given a medal to its entirely fi ctional hero for his bravery. Even weirder, Reagan also claimed to have been present at the liberation of the Nazi concentration-camps – when in fact he had been stationed back home in California with the USAAF’s First Motion Picture Unit, where he had spent several weeks helping process genuine footage of Nazi atrocities for use in newsreels. Apparently the task made such an impression on Reagan that, as the

N ARCHIVE / GETTY IMAGES years passed, he began utterly to confuse

TO his own life with one he had simply seen

HUL depicted on screen. Thank God he never saw

he slurs and political scandals we looked at last month were alarming enough, but are T as nothing compared to the numerous false allegations that have been made down the years against the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan… sometimes even by himself. Reagan was a highly fortean President. Not only did he claim to have seen UFOs, he also suffered from false-memory syndrome (which makes you wonder what he would have ‘remembered’ under hypnosis had John Mack ever got his hands on him). Maybe Ron would have recalled a strange event that New-Age Hollywood actress Shirley MacLaine described to newspapers in 2012. According to MacLaine, Reagan only switched careers from acting to politics after encountering an alien while on the way to a party attended by the I Love Lucy star Lucille Ball back in the 1950s. Supposedly, a saucer landed, Reagan pulled over in his car, and an ET advised the star to become a politician

50 FT338 www.forteantimes.com AMERICAN PSYCHOS 2

LEFT: JG Ballard at home in Shep- 2 Dr Strangelove. perton, 1988. BELOW: The 1968 It has often been argued that Unicorn Bookshop printing of the Reagan was himself a kind of author’s experimental story. myth, a sort of jobbing actor waiting to fi ll any role you desired significant appearance” with the him to. This was the view of the end of his nose resembling the English novelist JG Ballard, who tip of a fl abby, drooping penis, was accidentally responsible for and his jowly jaw a baggy, age- spreading the most bizarre Reagan- worn scrotum. Johnson came related rumour of all – namely, that to power during the depressing large numbers of the American period following JFK’s death public would like to forcibly (JFK’s face represented sodomise him following a car- a circumcised penis, thus crash. Ballard’s experimental 1970 presumably showing him as anti-novel The Atrocity Exhibition young, open and fresh, although features, among many other also horribly exposed), and thus ingenious obscenities, discussion had the correct disheartening of the idea that there was some facial-genitalia to fi t the unacknowledged sexual component mournful public mood. Now to the way the public consumed times were improving, however, car-crashes through the media – and amongst the focus group think of the way both smashes and Reagan’s face “was uniformly sex involve the collision of bodies. perceived as a penile erection”, Towards the end, the book eschews pointing towards a more vigorous narrative altogether and becomes and hopeful future. a series of fake psychological and However, there were medical reports, including one inconsistencies among the very, very strange one called Why fi ndings. Whilst 65 per cent of I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan, male respondents made “positive which purports to be a discussion connections” between Reagan’s of the suppressed politico-sexual hairstyle and their own pubic desires of a focus-group of mentally hair, this did not necessarily DAVID LEVENSON / GETTY IMAGES disturbed potential voters, many correlate with the fact that, of whom are in the fi nal stages of when asked to imagine the best syphilis. way to rape Reagan following Ballard wrote the piece in 1967, when THIS INSANE an imaginary car-crash, 82 per cent of Reagan, as the newly elected Governor of voters expressed desire to enjoy a “massive California, was getting a lot of airtime. To DAYDREAM GOT rear-end collision” with the then-Governor, Ballard, Reagan exploited his thespian skills ideally involving “expressed fæcal matter in order to dupe viewers into believing he BALLARD INTO and rectal hæmorrhages”. (One shudders to was something he was not: “Reagan used the think what else Ballard would have invented smooth, teleprompter-perfect tones of the TV ALL SORTS OF at this point had he known Reagan’s pet auto-salesman to project a political message name for his wife Nancy was ‘Mommie Poo that was absolutely the reverse of bland TROUBLE Pants’ and hers for him ‘Daddie Poo Pants’.) and reassuring. A complete discontinuity Apparently, thinking of vaginal sex with existed between Reagan’s manner and body an imaginary Reagan proved “uniformly language on the one hand, and his scarily disappointing”, as did the idea of enjoying simplistic far-right message on the other. congress with his armpit, bellybutton, eyes Above all, it struck me that Reagan was the or ears. Only visualising anal penetration fi rst politician to exploit the fact that his TV made voters consistently satisfied, leading audience would not be listening too carefully, to the conclusion that Reagan’s “profound if at all, to what he was saying, and indeed anality... may be expected to dominate the might well assume from his manner and United States in the coming years”. The presentation that he was saying the exact overall conclusion was that Reagan had a opposite of the words actually emerging from wholly “non-functional character” and thus his mouth.” stood merely as a kind of ink-blot, in which But what if, Ballard suggested, rather each individual saw whatever it was they than merely political desires, viewers were wanted to see – in this case, something very also projecting their secret sexual desires disturbing indeed. onto their new, media-literate politicians As may be expected, this insane daydream too? The psychologists in Ballard’s fake got Ballard into all kinds of trouble. In 1970, survey appear to have uncovered the ‘fact’ his US publisher, Doubleday, pulped the that all elected leaders have faces which whole fi rst print-run of the book after its subconsciously refl ect the zeitgeist of their CEO, who knew Reagan, fl icked idly through times – by virtue of their hidden resemblance an advance-copy one day and saw what was to male genitalia. If you look at former in it. In 1968, the American poet Bill Butler, President Lyndon B Johnson, for instance, who ran Brighton’s Unicorn Bookshop, had you will notice his face is “clearly genital in published the Reagan piece as a separate

FT338 51 www.forteantimes.com STRANGE STATESMEN #9

BELOW: Carly Fiorina, mastermind of a video in which a rival candidate was shown as a demonic, red-eyed sheep. WESLEY / KEYSTONE / GETTY IMAGES ABOVE LEFT: A wrecked American Pontiac on show at ‘The Atrocity Exhibition’ mounted by Ballard and sponsored by the Institute for Research in Art and Technology, Robert Street, London, 1 April 1970. ABOVE RIGHT: Jordan D Haskins, whose love of ‘cranking’ seems living proof that Ballard’s ‘autoerotic’ fantasies have jumped from the printed page.

booklet, and was hauled into court to face across, just because I used to break into these days were “whitewashed” and bland, obscenity charges for his pains. Much cars, disconnect the ignition wires, start the with all their rough edges smoothed down, more bizarre, however, were events at the engine and masturbate as the wires sparked Haskins opined that his backstory was 1980 Republican Convention in Detroit, at and snapped? I was just a lonely, angry kid at actually a highly compelling one that would which Reagan won the Party’s nomination the time”. make him stand out from the faceless to run for President in that year’s election. Haskins felt obliged to address this political crowd. It appears that most voters Here, delegates found a strange paper issue in his speech, as police-reports had disagreed with this assessment, however, and being distributed, on genuine Republican surfaced detailing his prior convictions for Haskins later withdrew his candidacy. 4 stationery, headed ‘Official Republican 1980 breaking into empty squad cars and pest- Still, never mind, Jordan. If all else fails, Presidential Survey’. It was Ballard’s fake control trucks, joyriding them, then tossing Top Gear’s still in need of new presenters. report, shorn of its title and attribution. himself off to a climax after removing the Due to his knack of forecasting future trends, Some ex-Situationist pranksters had printed sparkplugs. Apparently, the niche hobby is JG Ballard was often dubbed ‘The Sage of hundreds of copies and given them away to known as ‘cranking’, and Haskins became Shepperton’, after the town where he lived. make mischief. The joke worked splendidly; obsessed with it after viewing specialist Perhaps we can chalk this sorry tale up as despite its overwhelmingly absurd subject websites. “The only way I can explain my yet another success for Ballard’s amazing matter, those who read it, while deeply youthful indiscretions is that I had no predictive powers. FT confused, believed it was real. In Ballard’s friends at the time,” Haskins explained, own words: “It was accepted for what it before, unbelievably, going on to claim AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY resembled, a psychological position-paper that his perversions actually qualified him on the candidate’s subliminal appeal, to hold public office. Seeing that he had SD TUCKER is a regular commissioned from some maverick think- been sentenced to prison in 2011, Haskins contributor to FT whose books tank.” 3 considered that his intimate familiarity with are Paranormal Merseyside, the criminal justice system gave him special Terror of the Tokoloshe and CRANKING ONE OUT insights into issues of law and order, and he (forthcoming) The Hidden Folk. Nowadays, such is Reagan’s sainted status, proposed a scheme to help former inmates His Great British Eccentrics is it is almost obligatory for new Republican fi nd gainful employment after release. available now from Amberley candidates to proclaim how influenced by Furthermore, seeing as most candidates Publishing. him they are; but only one man – Jordan D Haskins, who stood for election to Michigan’s District House in 2014 – appears NOTES content/article/2011/02/04/ fi rm’s head was a Democrat to have been inspired not by the real AR2011020403106html who objected to a different 1 www.dailymail.co.uk/ chapter relating to the proposed Reagan, but by Ballard’s highly-sexualised, news/article-2205360/ 3 JG Ballard, The Atrocity assassination of Jacqueline automobile-related fantasy-version. Aged Screen-legend-Shirley- Exhibition (Annotated Edition), Kennedy, but the version given only 24, Haskins outlined his philosophy MacLaine-says-Ronald-Reagan- 2014, 4th Estate, pp165-170; above is Ballard’s own account. and life-story in a truly touching speech to spotted-UFO-1950s--alien-told- John Baxter, The Inner Man: reporters: “I have dreams,” he said, “and switch-careers.html; www. The Life of JG Ballard, 2011, 4 #1372, citing I want to make a difference. I want to be presidentialufo.com/ronald- Weidenfeld & Nicolson, pp181- Michigan Local News, 27 reagan/99-reagan-ufo-story 184, 210; Jeanette Baxter, JG June 2014; www.dailymail. the conservative candidate that says red- Ballard’s Surrealist Imagination, co.uk/news/article-2672678/ 2 Carl Sagan, The Demon- blooded American conservatism is all about 2009, Ashgate, pp97-98; John GOP-state-House-candidate-24- Haunted World, 1997, grit, hard work, loyalty and traditional Baxter in his biography of Ballard trying-past-sex-fetish-convictions- Ballantine Books, p140; www. says that Doubleday actually caught-pleasuring-inside-cop-cars- family values.” So far, so Ronnie. But then, washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ Ballard kicked in. “Why should my youthful pulped the book because the cranking-engine.html indiscretions prevent me getting my message

52 FT338 www.forteantimes.com

SEND FORUM SUBMISSIONS TO: THE EDITOR, FORTEAN TIMES, PO BOX 71602, LONDON E17 0QD, UK, OR TO [email protected] HAVEforumYOUR SAY The Automatic Leprechaun

RYAn SHIRlOw shares an unusual first-hand experience of ‘mass hysteria’ – just in time for St Patrick’s Day…

RyAn SHiRLow is a Northern Irish writer and punk musician, currently working undercover as a civil servant, and father of two. His debut novel Doubt is available on or via www.ryanshirlow.com

’d like to tell you a personal story. It’s one that I feel has some Irelevance to the subject of mass hysteria, in particular laughing hysterias in schools and religious institutions; and it has a particular Irish twist to it. Campbell College is an all-boys’ school in Belfast, still known as a ‘grammar’ school in Northern Ireland, and combines a fearsome reputation for rugby with a Hogwarts style atmosphere of mystery and history. 1 As a young ‘day boy’ I displayed no aptitude whatsoever for any of the eriC jones / CreATive CoMMons traditional sporting activities. I was ABOVE: Mullartown a double-take: “Keith, you’re a... what also useless at chess, couldn’t sing, and Sing-a-longs, House, Annalong, a did you say?” was a serious liability in the Combined venues for Christian There was something instantly camps for many Cadet Force; so my options for after- wonderful about this juxtaposition Bible study and years. school clubs were rather limited. of words – the mechanical and the Somehow I fell into membership of the FACING PAGE: The mystical, the modern and the arcane. It videos of Hell scene from the Scripture Union, a religious society that film Wayne’s World also particularly suited Keith, who had conducted harmless sing-a-longs and 2 that appears an impish grin and shock of gingery wholesome Bible study, and occasionally and damnation to have sparked hair. Keith laughed, and claimed it was terrified us with video nasties of Hell the leprechaun a slip of the tongue. and damnation. hysteria. But the Automatic Leprechaun had It was on one of their annual weekend Later, in the dormitory, with our summoned himself into being, and camps in the mid-1990s that my friends sleeping bags and torches, there were much childish laughter and repetition and I were to inadvertently encounter, or many tiresome re-enactments. As we of our torch based antics followed. to create, a discarnate force we dubbed were on a single-sex religious retreat Despite (or perhaps because of) several the Automatic Leprechaun. in the Ulster countryside, I’m afraid angry visits from the teachers, we could The camp was held at a youth hostel there was precious little else to do not settle down and that night we got near the south east coast of County other than teenage goofing around. very little sleep. Down called Mullartown House. I At some point, long after we were The next morning at breakfast our recall a lovely country property with an supposed to be asleep, one of the relentless giggling tormented the extended dormitory and grassy grounds boys was still complaining about his older, more serious boys, who were that still play host to scouts, youth ingrowing toenail, and another – Keith supposed to be keeping order. Their groups and Christian events. 2 – offered to shine his torch at the stern disapproval only made it harder On the first night, we had a break offending foot so he could paint on to control our behaviour. The game from Jesus and watched the strictly non- the foul anti-septic ointment that his quickly developed that we would try canonical Wayne’s World 2, 3 the only mother had given him. Flicking the and trick one of these prefects, or portion of which I can remember is the torch on and off, Keith announced to even a teacher, into saying the word short scene in which Wayne torments no one in particular: “I’m an automatic “automatic”. Then someone, usually Garth by shining a torch under his chin leprechaun!” The conversation Keith, would shout “Automatic and screeching: “I’m the leprechaun!” continued for a few seconds. Then I did Leprechaun!” before everyone who

54 FT338 www.forteantimes.com was in on the joke would roll around in and seemingly without free will. institutions, and which are regularly hysterics, leaving the bemused ‘victim’ As the serious religious content documented in Fortean Times. Perhaps none the wiser as to what on earth was of the weekend had by now been the most famous of these was the 1962 going on. derailed, doubts began to circulate Tanganyika laughing epidemic in “Sir, what type of car do you drive? as to who or what might be behind Tanzania that engulfed a mission-run Is it an... automatic?” And so on... and the Automatic Leprechaun. Was boarding school, although that went so on... seemingly without end – and the Satanic adversary attacking on to spread across several schools and indeed, at this remove, without any our gathering, distracting and lasted 18 months (see FT229:46-50). element that an adult might recognise misdirecting God’s children? Was Hysteria of a different kind informs as humour. he filling our minds with inane the high concept behind the recent Following our lead, the younger and involuntary thoughts to block Maisie Williams film set in an equally children from another dormitory out Christ? Some of the more ‘strict’ girls school: “The Falling” asked us what was going on. Soon they impressionable young children (reviewed FT327:64). joined in, sharing the opportunity for became justifiably frightened. Poltergeist activity, too, is nonsensical silliness at the expense of We were all painfully aware of typically associated with teenagers. authority figures. And so leprechaun the then highly controversial We can speculate about whether mania consumed the whole of Saturday ‘Toronto Blessing’, which involved the pubescent mind is particularly morning and continued into lunchtime. laughing and speaking in tongues vulnerable or attractive to spiritual A couple of the more imaginative, keen (FT77:24-28, 310:44-49) and which forces – or more simply prone to to curry our favour, developed a whole had been condemned in some of intense emotion and creative flights background mythos to the Automatic our conservative religious circles. of fancy, along with a healthy Leprechaun and invented adventures Many of the children from these disrespect for authority. Perhaps for him now mercifully lost in the mists backgrounds in Northern Ireland such a mischievous, folkloric force as of my memory. had been brought up to believe in the leprechaun can encompass both Perhaps for us, as Protestant city the literal reality of the Devil and explanations. boys, there was something intrinsically demonic activity. Why could we not Finally, on the Sunday, our camp fascinating in the ‘other’ nature of the stop thinking about the leprechaun? drew to a close. leprechaun; something rural, ancient There was a gentle, but firm At the last meeting, one of the older and well... Irish, which was a culture we clampdown on mentioning his name. boys, in a lame attempt by authority to were not encouraged to identify with at Of course, as soon as we were trying co-opt and dismiss the whole horrible that time. Which made it all the more not to think of the leprechaun, he craze, presented the SU leader with a forbidden and exciting. consumed our every thought. His leprechaun T-shirt. It is telling that not By the afternoon, the teachers were victory was complete. The boys, now one of the affected children laughed. getting seriously irritated, especially silent, all knew what everyone else In fact, I can remember feeling as leprechaun madness was disrupting in the room was thinking. We may nauseous and uncomfortable, glancing their planned Bible lessons and, have been quiet, but not a word of around at the pale faces of those who, crucially, children were sniggering the lesson could be heard above by that point, could not bear to look during prayers. And that was when the infernal, internal chanting. upon the leprechaun’s dread visage. things started to get weird. Automatic. Automatic Leprechaun. Back at school, we soon moved on to By evening the original joke had Many years later I had the the next obsession, and the Automatic run out of steam, our brains robbed misfortune to watch the original Leprechaun was swiftly forgotten. In of serotonin by close to 24 hours of Leprechaun film that Wayne’s fact, for something that had so utterly pointless laughter. But the Automatic World had lampooned, and it consumed us, the forgetting was Leprechaun refused to leave us. was interesting to note that the extraordinarily quick and absolute. Instead, his grip on our bored and leprechaun was himself the victim Deliberate even. When, a week or so infantile minds only tightened and of strange compulsions. In several later I laughed a loud “Automatic!” evolved into a strange compulsive scenes, characters are able to escape at the boy with the ingrowing toenail, desire to mumble his name, just within from the leprechaun by throwing his reaction was so overwhelmingly earshot of the teachers. Boys passing shoes, which he is then compelled to aggressive that I refrained from trying in the corridor would tense up, waiting pick up and polish. 4 to kick-start the joke ever again. for the inevitable. “Automatic,” one This strange little experience Perhaps I should have realised that would mutter, joylessly. “Automatic is perhaps informative as part of we had left the leprechaun behind in Leprechaun,” the other would respond, the long history of hysterias that his Irish country domain. Perhaps he completing the ritual, without laughter, have afflicted schools and religious still resides there, stalking the minds of the devout and upstanding young, impishly distracting them from prayer and righteous thought. FT

nOTES 1 www.campbellcollege.co.uk/ 2 www.mullartowncamp.org/ 3 This dates the experience to after 1993, although as the film was either on Tv or a rented vHs, 1995/1996 seems most probable. 4 My favourite leprechaun story is the one in which the hero catches, tricks or rescues a leprechaun who then owes him a favour. Compelled to reveal the location of his pot of gold by tying a ribbon around the tree where it is buried, the hero arrives the next morning to find the entire forest has been bedecked with golden ribbons. There remains a lesson here for our so-called information Age.

FT338 55 www.forteantimes.com forum BRITISH ABCs

North Suffolk’s mystery mutant moggy

MATT SAluSBuRy is undaunted by a setback – after all, it was just one of many examples from the county

taking measurements and estimating to the location shown on CCTV with MATT SALUSBURY is editor of how close to the doormat our mystery measuring poles and some big cat cut- English language teaching indus- try newspaper EL Gazette and the cat had passed. Based on instructions outs positioned at various points in the author of Pygmy Elephants. His shouted to each other through an open yard for comparison. next book, Mystery Animals of the door into the yard while watching it It was a couple of months before I British Isles: Suffolk, is imminent. live on the farm office’s CCTV monitor, could finally turn up – during a gale, we set up crude markers for the as it turned out – at the secret North was recently in a state of tense approximate distance from the edge Suffolk location; at the ready was my excitement over some CCTV footage of the rubber doormat to where the improvised measuring pole with 50cm Iof an animal briefly known as the cat had walked. Some rough-and-ready (20in) stripes in red and white, as “North Suffolk mystery mutant maths produced a tentative estimate of recommended by an archæologist. moggy”. Last September, a call came a mystery cat just under a metre long, I’d sent homemade cardboard cut- from a free-range poultry farmer in a plus the tail – smallish puma-sized. outs ahead by post.These included my secret location in North Suffolk who We realised our calculations were not attempt at a silhouette of the animal told me his CCTV security camera had terribly scientific and that furthery stud seen on the confusing, blurry farmyard captured what looked like a British was needed. footage – a leggy, slim, one-metre long big cat. (East Anglian agriculturalists Centre for Fortean Zoology director cat outline – and a 50cm domestic cat default to the “anonymous” setting for Jonathan Downes advised caution, cut-out for comparison. anything to do with big cats.) recalling red faces over some previous We obtained footage on the same My source and I convinced ourselves footage that turned out not to be a big CCTV camera of myself marching we’d seen a young puma, or possibly cat after all.Ten big cat experts in the around a rainy, featureless yard with a long-legged or .The 18 after a British Big Cat Research a one-metre measuring pole, trying seconds of monochrome footage that so gathering concluded our footage was to reconstruct the walk taken by our vexed us begins with a cat-like animal more likely a “mutant moggy” than our mystery moggy. I was then filmed walking towards a farm gate on a dark hypothetical young puma. But even the moving our various cut-outs around the night, its eyes showing up as two huge prospect of a feral domestic cat close to BELOW: The same yard. I sent off these little films mystery cat caught white blobs in infrared.Then it walks a metre long was exciting! on a free-range to Mark Fletcher, who responded with towards a building just out of the frame, Mark Fletcher, an award-winning poultry farm’s video overlays revealing our mystery at which point it triggers the motion- wildlife filmmaker who has filmed CCTV on the night mutant moggy was, beyond doubt... an sensor security light and more detail North American pumas in the wild, of 05 September ordinary domestic cat; and a small one becomes visible.The mystery cat then kindly offered to do some “scaling” 2015. Just visible at that! on the right is strolls casually out of shot. work for us, overlaying images from the the doormat, the The video of me in the yard, It’s an odd-looking cat – long-limbed footage on something that could give an only background superimposed with the ghostly and long-bodied, with a small head, a idea of scale. First we needed to return feature. images of our mystery moggy, clearly relatively short tail and a pointy chin. It’s hard to make sense of the low- resolution video, recorded as it was on a desktop PC, shot mostly in infrared darkness. Sometimes the mystery cat has the appearance of a stripped-down, whippet-like puma. In a couple of frames it appears to have spots. In one frame we thought we saw long, pointed, lynx- like ears. It was as if the animal were shape-shifting from a puma to a spotted lynx; perhaps Merrily Harpur was right about being phantoms or “daimons” after all (see FT**:**). But most of this “data” is just artefacts thrown up by a low-resolution camera in low light. More problematic was the background in the footage – a featureless tarmacked yard, with nothing giving any sense of scale except for a black rubber doormat in front of a just-out-of-shot door. In the footage, our cat briefly walks alongside the mat, which we measured at just over 1.83 metres long. I visited the scene with the farmer,

56 FT338 www.forteantimes.com forum BRITISH ABCs

showed a small domestic cat next to my and became “so excited, they sent measuring pole laid on the ground. Its someone along. He was very convinced length didn’t reach the end of the pole’s it was the print of a big cat. He made 50cm red stripe. In the frames that a plaster cast… sent it to the Natural showed my cuts-outs deployed in the History Museum for verification.” same yard, my “domestic cat” silhouette Steven rang up to see how it went.The was slightly bigger than the mystery big cat guy was despondent. “Dog” animal. As the farmer commented: was the Natural History Museum’s “Disappointing, but you can’t argue conclusion. with that.” A far stranger saga comes from The “North Suffolk mystery mutant Laxfield, where the BlythValley meets moggy” affair shows how easy it is Mid-Suffolk, via a source I agreed not to misidentify animals as big cats, to name. “My friend was out lamping particularly in the dark. It’s made me at night with his gamekeeper and saw a wary of reports I receive of after-dark dark shape hunkered down in one field. big cat sightings, like the recent one Looking at it through the riflescope from a driver who saw “the eyes of a the gamekeeper swore that it was a big cat” in his headlights at Yaxley, big black cat and wanted to shoot it. Mid-Suffolk, or another motorist’s My friend wouldn’t let him shoot and encounter with a pair of eyes in his they drove closer and closer, with the headlights he thought were a big cat’s, gamekeeper swearing more and more it near the Tesco roundabout outside was a big black cat, the closer they got! Thetford in early 2015. PC Paul Carter, When they were only a few feet away, a Cambridge Police Wildlife Officer, this ‘black cat’ jumped up and turned has for years been on the case of the into a night hawker” – a clandestine “Fen Tiger” frequently seen along the detectorist out metal-detecting without Suffolk-Cambridgeshire border. He the landowner’s permission – “who told the Newmarket Journal: “As most promptly threw his detector… at the sightings occur after dark, it is possible farmer, shouted ‘keep it’ and ran off that peoples’ minds can play tricks on without a backward glance.” them.” 1 Nonetheless, I continue to hear Over the last 18 months I’ve gathered remarkably consistent accounts of over 140 Suffolk big cat reports going big cats from around the county. back to 1974 – and some hilarious These range from a black Suffolk big cat misidentifications too. cluster along the Waveney River to Following my own East Anglian big cat the “Haverhill Puma” and other West setback, my sympathies go out to all Suffolk sandy pumas, to in a S: MATT SALuSBury those who think they’ve seen a big cat, To 10-mile coastal corridor from Dunwich

Pho only for it to be no such thing. Forest to Wrentham in the north. As I Sudbury Town Council’s wardens reported to “rub their eyes and look TOP: An image write, there’s news just in of an A-level Bradley Smith and Nathan Mitchell, for twice” on seeing a tiger lounging showing the author student seeing a black leopard at example, were on patrol in their hi- on the roof, whence it was watching with his “biggest dusk on the sports ground of the large possible domestic vests in February 2012 when Bradley got over the “great grasslands of the moggy”-sized Suffolk village of Wickham Market, a call regarding “a tiger on the loose” in Trimleys”. (The two adjacent villages cardboard cut-out which made the national press – the the South Suffolk market town’s Siam of Trimley St Martin and Trimley St overlaid onto the ’s ‘Weird News’ section. Gardens. Bradley told the Suffolk Free Mary, inland suburbs of the port of original CCTV The struggle continues… FT Press that: “We normally get calls about Felixstowe, have their churches at footage. ABOVE: The “big dogs on the loose, but never tigers.” He opposite ends of the same graveyard.) NOTES and Nathan arrived to see a tiger hiding Drivers quickly realised, however, cat” cutout with 1 PC Carter’s comments in “I tawt I taw a behind a tree. that it was a soft toy tiger, albeit a the legs shortened after a trial run, puddy cat, I did,” Newmarket Journal, 17 Sept It transpired it was a tiger of “the rather realistic one, “of the type won still completely 2008; “Driver spots ‘big cat’ on late night A11 large cuddly toy species”. After the accidentally at fairground stalls,” as wrong. It was journey”, Thetford and Brandon Times 4 Feb obligatory posed news photograph of the Star put it. A worker renovating based on our initial 2015. The Thetford sighting was technically the wardens crouching next to the large, the house confessed to finding the calculations on the just over the Norfolk border. realistic soft toy tiger (every day is a soft toy inside and placing it on the size on the animal 2 “Look what we found in town gardens,” 3 in the footage. Suffolk Free Press, 28 Feb 2012; Duncan slow news day in Suffolk), the Sudbury roof “for a laugh”. Bradley, Suffolk Free Press editor, pers. comm. Tiger went to the Suffolk Free Press Then there was the big cat by email 12 Jan 2015. office for safekeeping. A reader offered furore circa 2004 at the Cliff House 3 “Trimley: Big cat spotted in Trimley St to take it off their hands in exchange campsite, Dunwich. Its director Martin!” Evening Star, 27 Apr 2013 for a £20 donation to the newspaper’s Steven Johnson told me contractors favoured charity, so it found a good were laying concrete pads as bases Mystery Animals of the home. 2 for new chalets. “The contractors said British Isles: Suffolk by Another Suffolk tiger a year later they saw a cat – a big cat.” Then a big Matt Salusbury is available was the “Big cat spotted in Trimley St paw print appeared overnight, set in from CFZ Publishing later Martin!” according to the Evening Star the dried concrete: “a nice clear one”. in 2016. Meanwhile, it’s on of Ipswich. Many motorists passing A big cat investigation group was Twitter at @MysteryAnimals a property on the old A45 road were sent a photo of the “nice clear” print

FT338 57 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 Flame-haired seductresses? Posh redheads are auburn, redheaded females are passionate and the chaps are ginges – and they all have different biochemistry from their mouse-haired brethren

I), always has gloriously long, plenty of science. Do redheaded gloriously red hair only partly “Redheads are women smell different, as the covering her curves. But on the notoriously bad 19th-century Dr Augustus Galopin other hand, redheaded men are claimed in Le Parfum de la sometimes seen as traitors; Judas at keeping dental Femme? Well, yes, says Harvey – is often shown as a redhead. “or rather, if you have red in your Amongst northern Europeans appointments and hair, anything applied to your skin Red being red-headed is a by-product having injections” is going to smell different from of a recessive gene for pale skin the way it will smell on anyone A Natural History of the Redhead which makes your body “much else”, because redheads have a Jacky Collis Harvey more effective at synthesising “uniquely different biochemistry, Allen & Unwin 2015 vitamin D, using whatever her court. “Lettice was as head- the consequences of which have Hb, 230pp, £16.99, plates, notes, ind, ISBN 9781925266191 sunlight is available, than if turning a redhead as Elizabeth... all fed into the stereotyping and FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £14.99 your skin were darker”.Vitamin and she was ten years younger.” societal and cultural attitudes D helps your skeleton develop The contradictory stigma about evinced towards the redhead for Jacky Collis Harvey begins Red, correctly and stops you having red hair means that if you want to centuries”. So there’s something her utterly splendid study of the rickets, which can distort the be approving of it, you sometimes behind the verse by Toulouse- redhead, with a story of when she pelvis and “make carrying a call it something else. Mark Twain Lautrec’s friend, cabaret singer was five. The school bully annoyed pregnancy to full term difficult wrote in A Connecticut Yankee Aristide Bruant: “She has soft her friend, so she punched him and childbirth hazardous, if not in King Arthur’s Court, “When skin / And freckles / And the scent in the face. Expecting to be told fatal”. red-headed people are above a of a redhead / That gives you the off, if not punished, she was The author wonders “whether certain social grade their hair is shivers.” They taste different as astounded to hear teachers and the often highly sexualised image auburn.” It even applies to dolls; well, Harvey says. other kids’ parents say, “Well, of female redheads might not until the 1980s, Harvey says, It’s really all about sex. what did he expect? She’s a start here, with the simple fact red-haired Barbie dolls were sold If you have red hair, certain redhead!” She spent the rest of that choosing a redhead as a mate as ‘Titian’. parts of the body (male and her childhood and teens growing meant you bred successfully, and In art, red hair is usually female), when aroused, are into the expectations that other that your pale-skinned children, shown loose, “so luxuriant that redder than on non-redheads, people had of her. themselves now carrying the it’s almost out of control” – and and even more so against the We all know there’s something genes for red hair, did the same”. of course it was a favourite of characteristically pale skin. And different about redheads – but But “red hair is simply the the Pre-Raphaelite artists who, so redheads are literally seen as what is it? Why are redheaded signifier”, she says; “it’s the pale we discover, favoured the term being more passionate. Jonathan women sexy and alluring – the skin that makes the difference”. ‘stunner’, still used in tabloid Swift, in Gulliver’s Travels, “has archetype of “the flame-haired Red is the colour of blood. One headlines today. the red-haired members of his seductress, exotic, sensual, of the most ancient slurs thrown Red-headed men have a harder imaginary race the Yahoos being impulsive, passionate” – and at redheads, she writes, is that time. In literature they are often ‘more libidinous and mischievous redheaded men just ginger? they are the product of sex during deeply unpleasant characters: than the rest’”. But redheaded women are menstruation. And as well as the Uriah Heep in Dickens’s David Harvey has an amazing eye for also dangerous. Boudicca, with colour of blood and of passion, Copperfield and Peter Quint in detail – and some of her almost her mythical yard-long knives it’s the colour of fire. Christian James’s The Turn of the Screw. throwaway details are fascinating. protruding from her chariot authorities took against red hair Children’s literature redresses the Redheads feel pain more acutely; wheels, is “the image of the early on. St Jerome wrote to Læta balance somewhat: Tin-Tin, the they have to be given 20 per cent indomitable, ferocious and about her daughter Paula in loyal Ginger in the Just William more anæsthesia in surgery. And usually voluptuous female AD403: “Do not dye her hair red, stories, and more recently Harry so they are “notoriously bad at barbarian... what other colour and thereby presage for her the Potter’s sidekick. “But it takes keeping dental appointments, could Boudicca’s hair be?” fires of hell.” many, many Tin-Tins, Gingers and having injections, and as children, Redheads feature prominently One of Britain’s strongest Rons to expunge the centuries- having knots dragged out of our in religious iconography. queens was a redhead, and long prejudice reflected in a red hair”. They react badly to cold Mary Magdalene, especially jealous of competitors. She single Uriah Heep.” – but can eat spicier curries than when portrayed as a reformed banished Lettice Knollys, who As well as art and history and prostitute (blame Pope Gregory married Robert Dudley, from religion and literature there’s Continued on page 60

FT338 59 www.forteantimes.com reviews BOOKS

Continued from previous page join-the-dots approach is a fevered stew of contactees, abductees, Optimistic Lee the rest of us. And because their government cover-ups, crashed hair contains more sulphur, it’s saucers and the usual folkloric Rosy-tinted but enjoyable graphic novel more difficult to perm. Oh, and flotsam and jetsam from the far redheads are more likely to be shores of ufology. There is no of poor-boy-made-good comic maestro stung by bees. critical authorial voice, nor is Less happily, redheads have there any counter-evidence from a three-times greater risk of the sceptics. Each and every story personal issues, such as the loss developing Parkinson’s than is given equal credence, right of Lee’s second daughter at just people with dark hair. Redheads down to the notion the Moon three days old. “Let’s not dwell are also ‘over-represented’ and our DNA are alien creations. on it,” he says, before jumping amongst sufferers from Tourette’s Without even a hint of sceptical back into the story of how his syndrome. balance the book is redundant in impossible workload led to the To come back to lighter terms of its subtitle. ET believers creation of the ‘Marvel Method’ matters, some of the best-known will lap it up and seasoned, (in which his hurriedly typed redheads on the large and small sceptical ufologists will find space synopses were given to artists screen weren’t: Rita Hayworth, on their bookshelves for it as to draw from before he added Lucille Ball and Alyson Hannigan position statement of where belief Amazing, Fantastic, the final script at the end of the (Buffy’s Willow) all dyed their in extratrerrestrial involvement process). Arguably, it’s a telling hair red. So did Gillian Anderson, in earthly matters sat in the early Incredible bit of character detail; it’s also the who we learned after this book part of the 21st century. A Marvelous Memoir stuff of the , in was published will be wearing a Andy Roberts Stan Lee, Peter David & Colleen Doran which personal setbacks must be wig as Agent Scully in the remake overcome on the road to eventual of The X-Files. Fortean Times Verdict Simon & Schuster 2015 Hb, illus, 192pp, £20.00, ISBN 9781471152597 success. And it’s Lee’s public Red is beautifully illustrated, A PARTIAL LITERATURE REvIEw ANd A FUTURE CURIOSITy, PERHAPS 4 FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £17.00 persona that comes through not just with the expected Pre- most strongly: the hyperactive, Raphaelites but with paintings Stan Lee’s life story is presented hyperbolic carny-barker, teetering throughout history, and with Ten Physicists who here, appropriately enough, as knowingly on the very edge of some startling photographs of Transformed our a graphic novel, its subject’s self-parody, a four-coloured, Fifth redheads from Afghanistan, rambling recollections shaped Avenue Mad Man determined not China, the Solomon Islands and Understanding of and visualised by a pair of just to create good comics but to elsewhere, showing that although Reality industry veterans, writer Peter promote the hell out of them too. genetically the redhead is a Rhodri Evans & Brian Clegg

David and illustrator Colleen Views of Lee have become northern European pale-skinned Robinson 2015 Doran. polarised in the era of creator- type, there are exceptions around Pb, xii + 258pp, ind, £9.99, ISBN 9781472120373 The book follows Stanley owned comics and IP rights for the world. FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £9.49 Lieber’s progress from an artists that are a world away Fact-filled and thoroughly impoverished New York from the conditions of the 1960s. enjoyable, this has to be the The title of this childhood, spent devouring the Despite his lavishing praise on definitive book of the redhead. book sums it up in a works of HG Wells and Arthur Kirby and Ditko, one suspects David V Barrett nutshell – it’s all about Conan Doyle, to his current role Stan still believes that his was the people who changed as éminence grise of the comic primary creative act in bringing Fortean Times Verdict the Western world’s business and offers a whistle-stop the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, ART, LIT, RELIgION ANd SCIENCE collective view of reality. tour through the history of Marvel and a host of other characters OF REdHEAdS – A SPLENdId BOOK 10 You may not be a big fan of and of the medium itself into the to life. This book won’t lay the physics, or you may even hate the bargain. arguments to rest, but it’s an They Exist subject, but if your world-view The author’s fortunes are enjoyable, rosy-tinted vision of the A Review of Key Literature on includes things like planets and bound up with those of the Silver Age revolution and Lee’s Extraterrestrial Existence atoms – or spacecraft, mobile company – indeed, industry – he undeniably crucial role in that Piers Morris phones and nuclear weapons –

helped reinvigorate, and its process. And for those of us who Grosvenor House Publishing 2015 then you have these 10 physicists ups and downs are recollected grew up with Stan’s Soapbox and Pb, 248pp, £7.99, ISBN 9781781489147 to thank for it. Some of them in typically humorous style. the Bullpen Bulletins, it’s hard to FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £7.49 are household names, like There are nice asides about the resist his seemingly inexhaustible Galileo, Newton, Einstein and vicissitudes of comics in the fund of self-belief and optimism, Morris’ book starts off Marie Curie – all of whom were immediate post-war era: the social or not to be rather touched by badly by asserting there fascinating human beings as well stigma of admitting you wrote the fact that when he meets is an ‘extraterrestrial as great scientists. Others are them for a living, the bafflement Joan, his wife-to-be, it’s in a panel Controller’ race less well-known, particularly in of a Senate Subcommittee that quotes Mary Jane Watson’s operating on Earth. the latter part of the book (it’s faced with some of campaigner famous “Face it tiger…” entrance Maybe, but where’s the evidence? arranged chronologically), as Fredric (Seduction of the Innocent) back in Amazing Spider-Man #42. For Morris, the evidence is the work becomes increasingly Wertham’s more outré Freudian David Sutton enshrined in historical sightings abstract and the focus shifts from readings of them and the eventual of UFOs and the saucer scare individual researchers to teams introduction of the Comics Code. Fortean Times Verdict stories emanating from Tim Good, of scientists. Any book of this Perhaps less successful are ENjOyABLE LIFE ANd TIMES OF ONE Moulton Howe, William Cooper type is going to involve a mix of the attempts to deal with more OF AMERICAN COMICS’ gREATS 7 and others of that ilk. Morris’s biography and popular science.

60 FT338 www.forteantimes.com reviews BOOKS

This one does an excellent job (within the space available) of the first of these. So much so, in Sister Moon’s circle fact, that I felt it didn’t quite live up to its billing. A well illustrated, succinct and well written book (with a bit of By summarising each person’s whole career, their single hard-to-follow ) on Stonehenge (and Sister Moon) towering contribution that “transformed our understanding of reality” ends up being diluted. to the middle category, though texts this numerological aspect Personally I would have liked to sometimes in clear viewing of the book is difficult to follow, see a stronger emphasis on those distance of the third, most notably seemingly perching on a few, big discoveries, and on their when Sister Moon (Keeper of the given as read (even revealed) impact and legacy. As it is, this is Dead) and Father Sun appear assertions; challenge those and still a must-read book for anyone above the horizon to illuminate only a ruin remains. interested in the history of ideas. the text. His rewriting of the The text is written in a light, Andrew May literature is selective but has few informative style, though there factual errors, though the origin are intrusive asides and talking Fortean Times Verdict Stonehenge and of sarsens is wrong, there is no to the fourth wall (“Yabba Dabba EASy-TO-REAd PRIMER ON 10 OF prehistorical use of tin metal Doo”). The book’s impact for THE gREAT NAMES OF SCIENCE 8 the Neolithic in Wessex, and sarsen is not six most readers will be due more to Shirley MacLaine Cosmos times harder than granite. It is the diagrams and photographs topical, but Vespasian Camp/Blick than the text. Much care has Meets the A new look at the oldest mystery Mead and its votive stone ducks gone into the blending of newly in the world. Pleiadians and the Mesolithic generally, commissioned and historical ND Wiseman may, eventually, be shown to have photographs. Glastonbury’s aerial The Amazing Flying Saucer The Vinland Press 2015 little to do with the far later main view of the Stonehenge Greater Experiences of Celebrities, Rock Pb, 58pp, illus, £19.99, ISBN 9780692362822 reason(s) for Stonehenge. Cursus is a highlight, being Stars and the Rich and Famous FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £17.00 Wiseman belongs to the sub- wonderful, plus playfully ironic Timothy Green Beckley & Sean Casteel Stonehenge books with their set of Stonehenge workers, the in almost losing Stonehenge Global Communications/Global Journal 2015 inexhaustible supply of arcane, ‘cabalistic aligners’, for whom the in the upper right hand corner Pb, 227pp, refs, illus, £15.00, ISBN 9781606111932 new, or re-interpreted knowledge, summer-winter solstice alignment/ and allowing us to see the FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £13.50 must sell well. In this century few orientation (for Father Sun) is ‘Stonehenge Landscape’. It is Director John Waters years have passed without one or just first amongst the piers (sic). a pity that the quality of the would love this book. two authors’ “new revelations” Over a third of the book discusses printing and paper (ultimately Here is the collection that promise to “rewrite the the celestial significance of one of the costs associated with that camp gossip history of Stonehenge”. alignments between the standing self-publication) do not allow for junkies have been These works fall into a stones, the 56 Aubrey Holes and a greater crispness; it just misses waiting for. With shameless self- minimum of three categories; the legion of post holes within out on being a fine coffee-table promotion, the author recounts data-rich and written by the half of Stonehenge that has book. Would there be a market for how he and Harold Salkin professional archæologists, state- been excavated (but what of a deluxe, limited edition on high covered crackpot news for The funded, (loosely) constrained the, as yet, uncovered rest?) and quality paper? National Enquirer, “which had by peer pressure and attached later the relationship between Is the book worth having, does a bad, but totally undeserved, to mainstream publishers; the stone circle and its closest it stand re-reading? Clearly, yes. reputation for sensationalism”. non-professionals, sometimes satellite barrows. Many sight But does it (and the abundant, (This is like saying night has a self-funded and published lines, he asserts, were to keep new [in]sight-lines) add to totally undeserved reputation privately or with bespoke/ “constant surveillance on ever Stonehenge studies? Others need for dark.) Soon, “celebrities boutique publishers, the authors capricious Sister Moon”. Father to understand them and judge. were calling us to tell us about undergoing translation into Sun only later rose in importance, Has Mr Wiseman been wasting his their psychic experiences as archæo-astronomers etc; and striding along the summer-winter and our time? Most definitely, no. well as their sightings of UFOs”. the self-taught, mono-railers, solstice alignment into the Robert Ixer Included are Charles Bronson, who through misunderstanding, Trilithons of “solid imperishable Russell Crowe, Milton Berle, Jimi misinterpretation or misuse of Earth Mother”. As with many Fortean Times Verdict Hendrix, David Bowie, circus data (or more often a datum) find mainstream and most non- INTERESTINg, wELL ILLUSTRATEd, clown Emmett Kelley, Jr, Charo, themselves as sole holders of The orthodox archæo-astronomical CONCISE ANd LARgELy ACCURATE 8 and ‘King of UFO Watchers’ Truth (which is out there) and Muhammad Ali. Brilliantly titled compelled to enlighten the world. To order any of these titles – or any other book in print – contact the and shoddily referenced, but who Mr Wiseman, a credible cares? William Shatner sought commentator on the Druidical psychic communication with Plains, tells us early on that he FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP aliens! does not hold ‘The Truth’. In just Telephone: 08430600031 Fax: 01326 569555 Email: [email protected] Jay Rath 58 pages, he has synthesised Address: Fortean Times Bookshop, PO Box 60, Helston TR13 0TP. much of the recent, first-category we accept all major credit and debit cards including Switch & Amex. Cheques or postal Fortean Times Verdict literature. Despite his choice of orders should be made payable to the FT Bookshop. delivery is 7–10 days, subject to SOLId gOLd FOR FANS OF CLOSE a slightly recycled title, for most availability. Postage & packing is free within the UK. ENCOUNTERS OF THE gLITTERATI 6 of the book he remains close

FT338 61 www.forteantimes.com reviews BOOKS

UFOs Over Poland An illusionist inventor The Land of High Strangeness Piotr Cielebia

Flying Disk Press 2015 Nikola Tesla was equally the persuasive figure adored by the Pb, 182pp, £6.95, ISBN 9780993492808 alt science community and a boastful but failed inventor FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £6.45 Piotr Cielebia’s book underlines that technical reader will be able to to sending radio signals across UFO sightings and handle. The complex descriptions the Atlantic, to experimenting high strangeness of brushless electric motors and with artificial earthquakes , to encounters are global. the intricacies of polyphase receiving communications from He puts Polish sightings in a current are covered exhaustively, outer space… it soon becomes folklore context; Ognik (flame) and anyone without a good apparent that Tesla became or Swietlik (firefly) phenomena working knowledge of electricity bored quickly after the initial are similar to our will-of-the- is likely to be left no wiser than discovery. Once he had made wisp. (Lights dancing over a field before. the intellectual breakthrough near Czestochowa in the 1980s Tesla Carlson is much more need to crack a problem, he had were explained as Swietlik.) illuminating in describing Tesla’s little interest in seeing through Another folkloric theme was of Inventor of the Electrical Age method of working, his vivid, the thousand details needed to sky people blown down to Earth, W Bernard Carlson detailed flashes of inspiration move his projects forward. Money who manifested as small, sexless Princeton University Press and his ability to construct in particular was a problem. monsters or old, linen-clad men, Pb, 520pp, illus, notes, ind, £13.95, ISBN 9781400846559 a mental image of a piece of After a brief heyday, Tesla found much like today’s ‘space’ aliens. FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £12.45 apparatus. Tesla evidently did himself increasingly devoting his Even after WWII, older witnesses most of his tinkering in his head, time to trying to sell himself in often interpreted sightings in The problem for any biographer is making slight changes to complex a market which had lost interest such terms rather than as UFO that there are really two distinctly devices and working out the in electrical novelties. Nor did phenomena. different Nikola Teslas. results before he built anything. rivalry with Edison and Marconi For Cielebia, the first ‘modern One is the towering genius This made him the opposite of help, and Tesla soon stopped era’ report was in 1922, when shunned by the ignorant the arch-mechanic Edison, who being the celebrated inventor. hundreds of people in Warsaw establishment, whose greatest famously worked through all His lack of visible successes saw an enormous flying object works are still suppressed; possible combinations by trial made him look like a chancer if “like two plates connected this is the Tesla adored by the and error in the laboratory. not an outright fraud. Without together”. Among other historical alternative science community There is also, crucially, the backers, Tesla was confined to the and WWII accounts is one of a and the popular media. Being aspect of what Carlson called smallest of experiments and lost hat-like object that landed at played by David Bowie as a ‘illusion’, which is not deception any chance of being an important Nowiny, eastern Poland; eight -worker is surely the but rather “a blend of wizardry, figure in scientific or industrial or nine small humanoids in highest accolade any scientist scientific facts and social circles. uniforms spoke what sounded like could aspire to. commentary” which was the key Carlson does a good job of Japanese before flying off. Such The other Tesla is the miserable to Tesla’s ability to persuade explaining why Tesla has become incidents show that UFOs were failed inventor whose great backers to finance his schemes. such a giant in the counter- not just a product of the Cold plans and endless boasts came Carlson somewhat speculatively cultural world, largely thanks War. In the flying saucer era, the to nothing, and who ended up traces Tesla’s understanding of to some of his more spectacular earliest abduction story in Poland living in poverty in New York with the importance of illusion in ‘illusions’ and his grandiose occurred in 1954. There is even pigeons as his only friends. fostering belief to the Orthodox claims. The truth behind the a UFO crash report in 1959. This Carlson manages the religion of his childhood. peculiar story of the ‘missing was probably a meteorite impact impressive feat of steering a During his scientific career, papers’ left on Tesla’s death, or satellite re-entry, though it middle course between these two. Tesla repeatedly used this type reputed to contain secret plans became associated with a story of He explains how great Tesla’s of illusion to make investors for world-shaking inventions, is a male humanoid found not long contributions were but how he aware of the possibilities and given a thorough airing. afterwards (perhaps seeded by US stumbled over his biggest project, advantages of his inventions. On As a biography, Tesla: Inventor of intelligence to discredit the story). a giant tower to transmit wireless some occasions, most notably at the Electrical Age is sound enough, Cielebia details many equally power at Wardenclyffe, and how Wardenclyffe, Tesla’s belief in but could perhaps have done bizarre cases: flying humanoids, this effectively ended his career. the illusion outran the physics with some editing in the more telepathic encounters, sightings, The two Teslas are reconciled into needed to support it. technical passages. For those able landing reports and even little a single complex individual. In the middle section the book to wade through it, there is plenty green men. He sides with Jacques There is a thorough account leaps about, following Tesla’s own of interesting material on this Vallee: the UFO phenomenon of Tesla’s unusual childhood and lurches from one field to another. most fortean of scientists, and it is real, but remains a mystery upbringing in Croatia, including From tracking thunderstorms will do Tesla’s reputation no harm because it presents itself in a the moment when the young by their electrical effects to at all. chaotic and baffling manner. Tesla first encountered electrical inventing radio-controlled David Hambling Nigel Watson sparks while stroking Macak, the torpedo boats (which Tesla family cat. Tesla’s early years as optimistically thought would Fortean Times Verdict Fortean Times Verdict an inventor are covered in detail, end war) to setting up a huge BALANCEd BIOgRAPHy, BUT THE A FASCINATINg REvIEw OF HIgH perhaps far more than any non- power plant at Niagara Falls, TECHIE BITS ARE CHALLENgINg 8 STRANgENESS IN POLANd 8

62 FT336 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...

Goodbye God? magicians, mystics, wizards, the use of by the Elizabeth Berry in 1887. As a young An Illustrated Exploration of alchemists, necromancers and SS; Hitler’s interest in astrology, nurse working in the Oldham Work- Science vs. Religion demonologists, etc; and a list of the mystical anthroposophy of house, she was tried and hanged what words appear in which spell. Rudolf Steiner and the glacial for the poisoning of her daughter. Sean Michael Wilson & Hunt Emerson New Internationalist 2015 We hope someone somewhere cosmology of Hanns Hörbiger; Even after her death the press and Pb, 117pp, illus, £9.99, ISBN 978170262260 will want this reference book the militaristic use of ‘pragmatic rumour-mill suggested she might because an awful lot of scholarly occultism’; and the synergy also be responsible for the deaths Wilson, better known as a writer time and effort has gone into it. between ‘national socialism’ of her mother, her husband and of graphic novels, presents the and the phenomena of Therese several other children. argument and campaign by the our Holographic World Neumann, the famous stigmatic. Taylor, a winner of the Non-fiction Humanist Society against the Anthony Milne The third part looks at the influ- Crime Writers’ Association award, deleterious effects of the Empiricus Books, 2014 ence of the German mystic Bruno argues in a well-written and gripping religious imperative in general Pb, 326pp, notes, index, £10.95. ISBN 9781857568271 Gröning, believed by some to be account of his research that she and the teaching of Creation- a ‘messiah’; the origin and rise of was indeed a cold-blooded mur- ism in schools in particular, and Milne has spent most of his life German research derer. Coming after the previous tackles the many manifestations fascinated by the mysteries of under Hans Bender; the legacy of year’s acclaimed book by Stephen of fundamentalism along the way. time and ‘reality’; or, as he puts the Nazis in modern comics and Bates on the crimes of Dr William But there is little opportunity for it, “people’s unusual time and video games; and the Nazi use of Palmer, executed in 1856 and you to nod off with this tightly dream experiences and the mys- folk myth and music in promoting England’s “most prolific medical written exposition because it is tery of coincidences” which he modern ‘paganism’. murderer” before Harold Shipman, wonderfully illustrated throughout endeavours here to “integrate into Duckworth is developing a grim but – as a graphical thesis – by our a mainstream scientific frame of The UFo Dossier edifying line in period criminology. own Hunt Emerson in a variety of reference”. Kevin D Randle styles, from maps, diagrams and The conclusion he presents is Visible Ink 2016 A Colorful History of photos, to portraits and strips, that ‘reality’ behaves like a holo- Pb, 413pp, notes, bib, ind, $19.95, ISBN 9781578595648 Popular Delusions and his illustrated monologues gram; and that phenomena often Robert E Bartholomew & Peter Hassall of Christopher Hitchens, Stephen judged paranormal may actually If you are interested in UFOs but Prometheus Press 2015 Law, AC Grayling, Lawrence Krauss be a misperception of something bewildered by the myriad conten- Pb, 354pp, notes, $19.00, ISBN 9781633881228 (who also provides a foreword), quite natural but beyond the tious topics that spin off from the and many other advocates past scope (or interest) of orthodox relatively straightforward topics of If you want a handy, up-to-date and present. scientists to explain. Nothing aliens and lights in the sky, you reference to what the 19th cen- Written with wit and style, this new in this hypothesis, but it’s need an authoritative guide – and tury writer Charles Mackay called brilliantly entertaining and pro- always interesting to see another few come more experienced “extraordinary popular delusions vocative book – perfect for anyone theorist’s selection of evidence than Kevin Randle, a well-known and the madness of crowds”, who has no time to read or is and data and Milne explains with veteran of UFO research. Around a you can have no better or more too daunted by more scientific or patience and clarity. core of 60 different cases, Randle qualified guides than Robert Bar- philosophical texts – needs to be presents overviews and discus- tholomew, a sociologist who has in every school library. Revisiting the ‘Nazi sion of astronomical ‘UFOs’; pho- specialised in mass hysteria, and occult’ tographic evidence; sighting flaps; Peter Hassall, a skilled fortean Dictionary of Ancient Histories, Realities, Legacies injuries by UFOs; scientific and researcher and stuntman, both of Magic Words political opinions; and so-called this parish. Eds. Monica Black and Eric Kurlander ‘humanoid’ encounters. There is Here – organised as separate From Abraxas to Zoar Camden House, 2015 full coverage, along the way, of chapters on rumours, fads, crazes, Claude Lecouteax Hb, 297pp, illus, notes, bibs, index, £60.00. ISBN 9781571139061 alleged conspiracies, cover-ups, manias, urban legends, panics and Inner Traditions 2014 Hb, 418pp, $35.00. ISBN 9781620553749 hoaxes and denials, with much stampedes, mass hysteria, anxiety Those of you looking for a more material drawn from the files of hysteria, immediate community The main part of this intense substantial and reliable account the CIA, FBI and other military and threats, moral panics, riots, and book is arranged as a huge of the Nazis’ fascination with governmental agencies. small isolated groups – are count- dictionary discussing each magic occultism in both theory and less fascinating examples drawn word, its etymology and uses, practice than Trevor Ravenscroft’s There Must Be Evil from the records of every age, from with sources. Lecouteax is a highly influential but thoroughly The Life and Murderous Career classical antiquity up to yesterday’s professor of mediæval literature fanciful Spear of Destiny (1973) of Elizabeth Berry newspapers. A concluding chapter at the Sorbonne, and this book will do well to turn to this anthol- offers an analysis of the similar Bernard Taylor is a monument to his erudition ogy of 12 scholarly papers. Duckworth Overlook, 2015 characteristics shared by the and fascination with magical The first part looks solidly at Pb, 242pp, illus, bib, index, £12.99. ISBN 9780715650516 ‘deluded’ and their ‘delusions’, and languages. There are appendixes the sociological and historical some wise words on how to defuse on cryptography (tabulating the background of the ‘Modern Occult Against the backdrop of grinding such situations. It could do with an character alphabets supposedly Revival’ in Germany and across poverty, Victorian England became index, but does have a whopping invented or created by such Europe. The second deals with fascinated with the trial of 53 pages of notes.

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ral episodes that will appeal to the fortean viewer: bringing a dragon to be healed in order to finish a painting, a night-time session with a possessed Geisha and some dreamtime wandering hands all feature. While this isn’t the most action- packed of movies, there’s lots of interest in a film that celebrates female creativity, has nice little touches of humour, a sprinkle of pathos (O-Ei’s relationship with her sister is very moving) and a great deal of beauty. Julie McNamee Fortean Times Verdict beautIFuL ceLebratIon oF FeMaLe creatIVIty 7 Insidious Chapter 3 Dir Leigh Whannell, US 2015 Entertainment One, £12.99 (Blu-ray), £9.99 (DVD)

This unnecessary sequel doesn’t require you to have seen the two Hitchcock/Truffaut elatory here, but the stroll down It’s episodic in nature and preceding films, as it’s a prequel, Dir Kent Jones, France/US 2015 memory lane is never less than focuses on O-Ei, the daughter of but you’ll get slightly more out of On UK release from 4 March enjoyable; for newbies, though, this Katsushika Hokusai (often called it if you know the rest of the series. is a perfect primer on Hitch, auteur Tetsuzo in the film), he of “The The main connecting character is There aren’t really all that many theory and the French New Wave Great Wave off Kanagawa”, a print troubled medium Elise (Lin Shaye); bona fide classics in the field of – just like the original, inimitable that had an enormous influence the Lambert family of the other written film history, but François book itself. It also goes some way to on Western painters like Degas movies is nowhere in sight). Truffaut’s 1966 study of Alfred explaining how Hitchcock’s almost and Monet and inspired music by The advantage of this move is Hitchcock is one of them. It was a mathematical attention to form Debussy and poetry by Rilke. that Insidious Chapter 3 shows how genuine game-changer of a book, and film technique could somehow Set in 1814, and apparently Elise hooks up with goofy ghost- the product of a series of 1962 achieve a sort of transcendence, largely based on contemporary busters Specs (director Whannell, interviews in which the young and how for a particular generation accounts, (manga creator Sugiura whose character was killed off in French director sat at the feet of of cineastes film could bear all the is a specialist in Edo-era Japa- the original Insidious) and Tucker the Anglo-American master and marks of a revealed religion. nese culture) the film shows how (Angus Sampson), allowing for an drank up the cinematic wisdom of David Sutton this pipe-smoking, back-chatting ongoing series of adventures – how- the ages; in the process, he turned daughter is the unsung painter of ever, they’d have to be an awful lot conventional wisdom on its head Fortean Times Verdict some of her father’s prints, working more engaging than this one. and ensured that the ageing Hitch truFFaut’s hItchcock on them in Hokusai’s grotty Tokyo Elise gets involved with single was no longer thought of merely as InterVIews LIVe agaIn 8 studio alongside the surly painter father Sean Brenner (Dermot a purveyor of slick, effective thrill- and his misbehaving student. Mulroney) and his daughter Quinn ers but as a major artist whose sty- Behind closed doors, O-Ei cre- (Stefanie Scott), who is being listic and thematic concerns were Miss Hokusai ates erotic prints and paints a haunted by a malevolent demon always visible despite working Dir Keiichi Hara, Japan 2015 fabulous dragon that’s presented after attempting to contact her late within the commercial constraints Anime Ltd, £14.99 (Blu-ray, £12.99 (DVD) to its buyer as a Tetsuzo creation, mother in the afterlife. Everything of the Hollywood system. Ah, yes: It’s refreshing to see that not only while in public carrying out the tra- that follows is fairly predictable. the politique des auteurs – usu- did women make important contri- ditional role expected of her, blush- The most interesting thing is how ally set forth and debated within butions to award-winning Japanese ing at boys and looking after her a series of events incapacitates the hallowed pages of Cahiers du anime film Miss Hokusai (which little blind sister. It’s thought that Quinn, putting her in several plas- Cinéma – here went mainstream in took the Jury Award at the 39th the real O-Ei did produce many of ter casts and thus unable to easily the Anglophone world, and nothing Annecy International Animated her father’s paintings, helping him outrun the supernatural nemesis. was ever the same again. Film Festival among others), but in the studio into his 90s when he The scares are rote, the character Kent Jones’s film uses the 1962 that the film’s subject is one of that started painting in a style not com- work basic, and the effects nothing interview tapes – as well as rare rarest of breeds (if you believe the pletely consistent with his age. not seen before.The depiction of filmed portions of them – along standard history books) – a 19th Miss Hokusai is a beautifully ani- the spirit world is timid, failing to with still photos, film clips and century female artist. Director Kei- mated film with some interesting push the surrealist opportunities newly filmed contributions ichi Hara’s film is closely based on rocky electric guitar pieces on the the setting and modern effects from the likes of Scorsese, Paul female artist Hinako Sugiura’s cult soundtrack, hinting at O-Ei’s not technology could allow a suitably Schrader, David Fincher and Wes 1980s manga series Sarusuberi, and wholly conventional lifestyle and imaginative filmmaker to explore. Anderson. Hardcore cineastes was even adapted for the big screen personality. Its stories are nicely Building a series around the older will find nothing particularly rev- by a female screenwriter. punctuated with some supernatu- female character of Shaye (a horror

64 FT338 www.forteantimes.com reviews FILM & DVD

film perennial since the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is not a bad idea. She simply needs a better vehicle than Whannell has The Reverend’s Review been able to offer her. Brian J Robb FT’s resident man of the cloth reVerenD peter Laws dons Fortean Times Verdict his dog collar and faces the flicks that Church forgot! (www.theflicksthatchurchforgot.com; @revpeterlaws) oVerLy FaMILIar anD unForgIVabLy unscary 3 Dragon Blade THE MUTILATor ible cocktail of incompetence Dir Buddy Cooper, US 1984 and inspired brilliance. Actors Dir Daniel Lee, China 2015 Arrow Video, £14.99 (Dual format) may well shuffle into shot and Signature Entertainment, £14.99 (Blu-ray, £12.99 (DVD) stare straight into the camera, When John Cusack was making FIVE DoLLs For AN but then you come across The Grifters in 1990 I doubt he con- AUGUsT MooN scenes that are cleverly framed sidered he would ever be second Dir Mario Bava, Italy 1970 and artfully shot. Even gender billed to Jackie Chan in a corny Arrow Video, £14.99 (Dual format) stereotypes are turned on historical martial-arts movie. I their head. Plus – and this also doubt that as Adrien Brody DEEP rED isn’t to be sniffed at – the film walked off the stage at the 2003 Dir Dario Argento, Italy 1975 boasts actual, real-life sus- Academy Awards clutching his Arrow Video, £19.99 (Blu-ray) pense. The restored gore deliv- Oscar for Best Actor it crossed his ers too, with some brutal scenes mind that one day he’d be third This month we have a trio of that still have the power to billed behind Jackie Chan and titles showcasing psychos with shock. The Mutilator is a great ultimately a pretty tedious and John Cusack. For my part, I never big pointy knives. example of a ‘throwaway’ movie confusing affair. I therefore thought I would end up writing First to run amok is The that endures long after expen- recommend playing the Mario about a film starring those three Mutilator (also known as Fall sive and anodyne studio efforts Bava drinking game to add to and proclaiming that Jackie Chan Break, a title that would have have faded from memory. the fun. Basically, have one drink gives the best performance. But been incomprehensible to many Mario Bava’s Five Dolls for for every camera zoom – et such are the vagaries of life that non-US audiences at the time). an August Moon could have voila! You and your friends will this situation has come to pass. It’s a fun and freaky slasher faded from memory too. One be paralytic within the first 11 Chan plays Huo An, the leader from the mid-Eighties which of Bava’s most obscure titles, minutes. of a squad that protects the Silk starts like a home-made episode it enjoyed an all-too-brief resur- Dario Argento brings this Road trade route; his method is to of Casualty. A proud young boy gence on DVD almost 30 years months most distinguished eschew conflict in favour of diplo- pastes a sweet, hand-written after its original 1970 release. and best known entry. Deep macy. For various reasons, he and note on a gun cabinet: Happy Now, Arrow have restored it Red (Profondo Rosso) is an his men find themselves exiled Birthday Dad. All Cleaned by and thrown it on the HD table ideal introduction to the direc- to a part-demolished fort sited at Me! He gets polishing, then: for those who might have tor’s style. The gliding camera, a strategic point along the Road. BANG! Mum, in the next room, missed it. It’s an island-set, the bad-ass prog soundtrack, When the fort is approached by a gets a bullet in the back. Dad Agatha Christie-style carve-up, the brutal (yet somehow still Roman legion commanded by the reacts strangely, dragging the in which kooky millionaires try to tasteful) violence. It’s all here, honourable Lucius (Cusack), Huo corpse into the other room so persuade a scientist to give up a in a giallo that heralds Argento’s An forms an alliance with him and he can share a whiskey with it. fortune-making formula. But peo- welcome first ateps into is dragged into a rebellion against And then takes the kid’s note ple keep getting murdered and more supernatural waters. His tyrannical consul Tiberius (Brody). and sets it neatly on mum’s sealed in plastic. Bava’s visual masterpiece, Suspiria, was to It’s all nonsense, of course, bloodied chest. All Cleaned by flair means there are plenty follow, and there are times when and apart from a few moments of Me! Such is the twisted nature of sweet things to look at (not you can almost taste that film, broad comedy is presented with of a film that’s an irresist- least Edwige Fenech), yet it’s deep inside the red, here. great solemnity. But nothing looks right: the CGI isn’t very good, the sets don’t look authentic and the period detail is virtually non-exist- ent; there is greater verisimilitude in an episode of Horrible Histories. On top of all that, the script is awful – a ragbag collection of sen- timentality, platitudes and rabble- rousing Braveheart-style rhetoric. John Cusack looks pitifully uncomfortable throughout: he is the least convincing screen Roman soldier since Carry On Cleo and the distant look in his eyes suggests he is either contemplat- ing how he ended up on location in China wearing a brush on his

FT338 65 www.forteantimes.com reviews FILM & DVD

head or daydreaming about firing his and a fish factory from a wealthy agent. Probably both. Adrien Brody Norwegian she has never heard of, sHorTs takes the opposite tack, and overacts Hjalmar Jordahl. She goes to the like mad. Jackie Chan pitches his port of Alesund in western Norway DeathgasM performance just right though; he’s to see her inheritance, intending to Studiocanal, £9.99 (DVD) in his 60s now, and while his action sell it, and meets her benefactor’s Brodie and Zakk are the only two metalheads in sequences are still dazzling and his two daughters, Anna-Marie (Susan a bland suburban New Zealand town; Brodie is charm still shines, I think he has Gilmore, later in Howard’s Way) and routinely beaten up at school, whereas Zakk is realised he’s going to be relying on Ingrid (Edita Brychta), about the expelled for stabbing someone with a set square. his acting a lot more from now on. same age as herself. She learns that When they come into possession of ancient sheet He’s got the best part, of course, but their mother Freya had taken her music that unlocks a demonic portal, it’s up to he’s the only one who’s really giving own life when they were children. them to save the world. Any gross out horror- it the beans. When Catherine moves into comedy from New Zealand will immediately invite unfair compari- Despite all its faults, and they are one of the houses she is startled sons with Peter Jackson’s early films; this isn’t in that class, but – if you’ll pardon the pun – legion, to see a painting of Freya; she had it is nevertheless rather entertaining. Crucially, it’s funny – where I found myself enjoying it. What I seen her on the coastal steamer as many attempts at this genre are not – and the gore is both liked was that even amid the corny she was travelling to Alesund.The inventive and plentiful. Some of the characters are little more dialogue and Hallmark card senti- other house, a short distance away than stereotypes (jock, RPG nerd, uptight Christian) but there’s mentality there was a grain of truth on a small island, had been Freya’s a genuine affection here for life’s misfits. Subtle it ain’t, but then – profundity even.You don’t see home, and it had been kept exactly the title (the name of Brodie and Zakk’s band) pretty much gives many action movies where the star as she left it, with her dresses and that away. Dk 7/ 10 preaches love instead of hate, toler- strange collection of dolls. Each time ance instead of prejudice, forgiveness Catherine visits she finds that the trIppeD instead of revenge. And you don’t dolls have moved or that a record ITV Studios Home Entertainment, £12.99 (DVD) see many films of any type in which is playing on the record player. One In this mini-series first broadcast on the UK’s E4 people of different religions and evening, she looks across the narrow channel, feckless stoner Milo (George Webster) ethnicities work together to achieve water and sees Freya standing out- and reformed, soon to be married, Danny (Blake shared goals. As the music swells side her house. In the basement she ‘Inbetweeners’ Harrison) are two friends who find and the Parthians arrive over the discovers a stack of paintings show- themselves stuck in a seemingly endless cycle of mountains to join their Roman, Chi- ing distorted and mutilated figures; parallel universes. Trying to get back to their own nese, Indian and Hunnic comrades in clearly the artist was deeply dis- world, they wisecrack, pratfall and goof their way through various battle, only the hardest of hearts will turbed. Did Freya paint them, or one adventures, all of which involve in some capacity Danny’s fiancée be able to resist such rousing stuff. of her daughters? Then, one evening Kate (Georgina Campbell), a time-travelling assassin, and Milo’s Daniel King when she goes over to the island, her gran. The idea is unoriginal (Quantum Leap, Sliders), the tone little dinghy is deliberately rammed grating (cf aforementioned Inbetweeners) and the execution poor, Fortean Times Verdict by a motor launch. both in script and effects. It is at least performed with gusto by corny but stIrrIng Why did Jordahl leave her the the leads, but there just isn’t enough decent material to fill 160 hIstorIcaL actIon 6 houses? Is Freya somehow still alive, minutes of TV. I’ll put my hand up and say that as an old-ish fart Maelstrom or is she haunting her? Why are other I’m miles outside the demographic for this sort of thing; perhaps people – the daughters, an aged great in some alternate reality I’m lapping it up... Dk 4/10 Dir David Maloney, UK 1985 aunt, an over-friendly and slightly Eureka Entertainment Ltd, £24.99 (DVD) creepy doctor – acting strangely aaaaaaaah! Scary Scandinavian stories are a towards her? And why do the dolls Icon Entertainment, £7.99 (DVD), £11.99 (Blu-ray) mainstay of today’s TV – but they go keep moving around? As the tension Imagine that people were more like their primate back further than you think. Set in rises, Catherine’s only ally is local cousins; imagine that they lived among the trap- Norway, Maelstrom dates from 1985 journalist Anders Bjornson (David pings of civilisation – games consoles, TV shows and was the final BBC drama by Beames), who has been doing his own – but acted like chimps. I can imagine someone, Michael J Bird, better known for his research into the family; they soon perhaps a group of people, imagining this. I can four Mediterranean series, including become lovers. imagine them imagining it after coming back from Who Pays for the Ferryman? and The Tusse Silberg has been criticised the pub and smoking a few spliffs. Steve Oram did Dark Side of the Sun. Before these for her somewhat flat acting in this imagine this, and then he made a film of it with his mates from he had worked on Journey to the series, but in some ways her bland The Mighty Boosh. Alpha male Smith (Oram) and his Beta side- Unknown and Out of the Unknown, normality helps heighten the scari- kick (Tom Meeten) displace previous Alpha Jupiter (Julian Barratt) which might account for the sense of ness going on around her. The atmos- and take over his house and females, one of whom is played by the weird in his stories, the deliber- pheric music is by Johnny Pearson, Toyah Wilcox (whose hubby Robert Fripp contributed the sound- ate blurring between psychological better known for the All Creatures track music). The cast communicate by grunting in ape-talk (a and possibly supernatural elements. Great and Small theme and for his helpful director’s commentary by Oram is similarly language-free), He’s helped in Maelstrom by director arrangements on . And throwing food at one another, marking territory by urinating and David Maloney’s background in some the scenery – Maelstrom was filmed crapping on the floor, and, ultimately, through acts of extreme of the more disturbing episodes of on location – is just magnificent. violence. The whole thing is shot, inexplicably, in 4:3 ratio as if it Doctor Who. David V Barrett were a television programme from the 1970s. Part of me thought Recently redundant advertising this was a brave, bleak, situationist satire on our most cherished executive Catherine Durrell (Tusse Fortean Times Verdict human delusions; part of me thought it was a TV comedy sketch Silberg) learns to her surprise tense anD DIsturbIng stretched to an insufferable 80 minutes. Who knows? Ds 5/10 that she has inherited two houses psychoLogIcaL thrILLer 7

66 FT338 www.forteantimes.com

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Spectrophilia by a private door, and so escaped Simulacra corner for the time. But the most curious Alan Murdie’s article on spectro- part of the story is to come: it is an philia [FT336:12-14] was interest- ascertained fact, that not one child ing, but I am not convinced that in Valparaiso is missing!” his conclusions refl ect the modern Mr LB Jackson situation. As he rightly points out, Willenhall, spectrophilia has probably been around for a long time. However, it Goat chow is probably only in the 21st century that it has been possible for it to In Mythchaser [FT336:21], a reader be openly discussed. Quite apart wanted to know if her goat was be- from religious concerns, it is only ing a fussy eater. Goats in general recently that it has been acceptable are not fussy eaters; however, if for women to say that they enjoy they are pets or are otherwise used sex for its own sake (rather than to being fed goat chow, grains, or as part of a “meaningful relation- some other regular foodstuff, then ship”).This means that they can that is what they expect to be fed. talk of ghosts as purely sexual If a goat has not been taught to partners rather than in the terms forage by its mother or its fl ock that Alan Murdie posits at the end Cowled witness then it will not do so instinctively. of his article. If someone takes a pet goat and de- One caption mentions the fi lm around noon on 7 January 2016, Kirsty cides to ‘go cheap’ and let the goat Ghost, but not its UK contemporary richardson took this photograph on her forage in the yard – forget it.The Truly Madly Deeply. This, readers iPhone of the aftermath of a car crash goat will stand around and wait will no doubt recall, also involved a on a main trunk road called Simonsway to be fed. Goats will not eat cans, dead lover returning as a ghost; but in Wythenshawe, south Manchester. though they may try to get the instead of American sentimental- She sent it to my son, her boyfriend, as labels off. They won’t eat anything ity, it showed the dead lover behav- he drives the same car in the same col- that’s metal or plastic (as far as I ing just like a live boyfriend (e.g. our and it was in his neighbourhood. He know) unless they are just trying to bringing his dead mates round to texted her back to ask what the hooded fi gure was doing on the grass get at something remaining in the drink beer, watch videos and gener- verge to the right. She hadn’t noticed the strange fi gure, which appears container or the aforementioned ally interfere with his girlfriend’s to be hovering above the grass and carrying some kind of bag. labels. routine).The message was that a Anthony Cranstoun, by email In the last two years I learned a sensitive live boyfriend was prefer- Editor’s note: Though spooky, the ‘monk’ might just be a lot about goats from the co-owner able to an insensitive dead one. simulacrum, but I guess we’ll never know for certain. of Eco-Goats.com, who hires out its The spectrophiliacs’ lovers cited in herd of goats in the Pennsylvania- the article definitely do not vebeha Maryland-Virginia area.We used like that ghost. no one knows of which sex––is in increased; they poured through them in May 2015 to eat invasive Martin Jenkins the habit of devouring any num- the streets like a torrent, and plants from a one-acre plot belong- London ber of children he or she can get ladies, as they swept by, crossed ing to the swimming club adjoin- hold of. The juvenile population is themselves, and exclaimed: ‘A ing our neighbourhood.That was Panic in Chile of course in as great terror as the revolution!’ a great experience and I learned papas and mammas; and one day “But the unfortunate prisoner a lot about what goats will and I was fascinated by the article a boy, on being asked by a French- was safely landed at the station- won’t eat. “The monster makers” [FT334:30- man for a light to his cigar, took to house, and the mob, by thousands, Tracey Serle 31], especially with the reference his heels in such trepidation, that pressed round, eager and furious. Alexandria, Virginia to the missing children panics of he stumbled, and rubbed the skin Then the story ran: ‘This is the man 1869.This is a subject of which I off the point of his nose.This was who eats our children! He has been Lady Diana Cooper am making a special study. In the seen at a glance to be ‘the fi rst at it two years and a half! He has same year that the strange charac- bite of the ghoul’; and the exas- eaten up one hundred and ten in- Alan Murdie says he was told by ter called Femorus was seemingly perated populace made a rush at fants!’ ‘Two hundred!’ says another. Denis Healey that a ghost seen in trying to graft the wings of a swan the monster, and would have torn ‘Two hundred and fi fty!’ says a his Admiralty House fl at in 1969 onto a human child, the follow- him to pieces if he had not been third. ‘He eats them raw!’ ‘He broils was that of Lady Diana Cooper ing report appeared in Chambers’ rescued by the police.These put them on a gridiron!’ ‘He makes [FT234:18]. Since Cooper was still Journal (7 January 1854): him in a carriage, and whirled them into sausages, and sells alive in 1969, only dying in 1986, “We learn by the Valparaiso him off towards the station-house; them!’ The end of the adventure this was either an apparition of a Herald [in Chile] that an extraor- the crowd gave chase, and for two was, that as the mob seemed deter- living person rather than a ghost – dinary excitement prevails in that miles or so ran hooting and yell- mined not to raise the siege of the or Healey was pulling Murdie’s leg. place, in consequence of a report ing after the carriage; everywhere station-house, the Frenchman was Rob Kemp having arisen that an Individual–– the alarm spread, and the mob dressed in some disguise, let out Colchester, Essex

FT338 71 www.forteantimes.com letters

Wait Ummo enough” and we would get ill if we breakdowns or apparent mental fashionable hairstyles (especially drank it. I drank it, and was fine illness whilst incorporating their in the 1860s, which is the period In response to footnote three of (as was my husband). Everyone experiences into their creations. cited) were often so elaborate “Were the Ummites British?” by else on the tour thought we were While I am certainly no as to absolutely require “false Reinaldo Manso [FT336:58-59], bonkers and purchased bottled Wordsworth, I have found a safe hair” (well, preferably someone the film Los Monstruos del Terror/ water. haven in creative writing and find else’s real hair) to bulk them out. The Man Who Came from Ummo In 2010 I went to Germany to the twin demons of mental illness This practice found its way into was released in Britain as Dracula see the Passion Play at Oberam- and inexplicable happenings 19th century literature. In The vs Frankenstein in 1970 on a double mergau. I went as part of a group morph into an angel when ex- Woodlanders (1886-7) Thomas bill with the Pete Walker-directed with the company Leger, whose pressed in poetry. The paranormal Hardy offered an uncharacteristi- Susan George thriller Die Scream- tour rep told us that we should experiences go back to childhood cally sympathetic account of the ing, Marianne. American Interna- drink only bottled water because and include bedroom visitors, peasant girl, Marty South, who tional Pictures bought the film, we would get “upset tummies” out-of-body experiences directed sells her beautiful chestnut hair. it played US TV and had aVHS from water we “were not used to”. by said visitors, a waking dream of More typical was Anthony Trol- release. It seems The Man Who I questioned this.The rep was ada- life in the 22nd century directed lope’s distrust, verging on disgust, Came from Ummo was a working mant that tap water would make by a four-foot-tall lady in blue, the for the fashion of padding out a title for marketing the film. everyone ill. Not because it was face of an Aztec god staring at me lady’s coiffure. In Is He Popenjoy? George White dirty, but because it was “differ- from the ceiling on waking, and (1877) he memorably describes a Bray, Co Wicklow ent”.This was the first time I had most recently a robotic voice be- character’s “great crested helmet heard this explanation. I couldn’t hind me, on waking in an armchair, of false hair nearly eighteen Foreign water get any answer as to how it was seemingly giving me an instruc- inches deep”, while in He Knew He different. I drank the tap water. I tional lecture.When I turned Was Right (1869) Trollope has his Mythchaser [FT334:25] asks if was fine. round to see what was going on the character Mr Gibson frightened anyone is still told not to drink the In 2015 I was in Chile, and at voice went into skip mode like an off from marriage by the size of water whilst travelling in foreign one point I was in the Atacama old vinyl record, and only resumed his intended’s chignon: “…never lands, and whether only the Brit- Desert, based near the town of when I closed my eyes and went in his life had he seen anything so ish were so warned. I reside in San Pedro de Atacama. Everyone back to sleep. unshapely as that huge wen at the the UK, and make the following in that area is told not to drink the When I write it is a subliminal back of her head… It grew bigger observations. water, and everyone buys bottled attempt to make sense of why and bigger, more shapeless, mon- In 1996 I went to Spain with water (all local people included) such things have happened to me, strous, absurd, and abominable, three friends for the usual Costa because the tap water is contami- and what is the true nature of as he looked at it. Nothing should del Sol sort of holiday, staying nated with trace amounts of arse- reality, consciousness and history. force upon him the necessity of just outside Malaga. We were nic.This is due to all the copper It seems an impossible task given assisting to carry such an told by travel reps not to drink mining that goes on there – near the elusive nature of forteana, but through the world.” the water and never to have ice Calama (about 75 miles/120km I am only happy when writing. In A Summer in Brittany in our drinks, as the water was away) is the world’s largest copper ‘Bertrand Beech’ (1840) Trollope’s brother, Thomas “not clean” and we would get mine, and arsenic is a by-product. Somerset Adolphus Trollope, aided by their ill. Incredulous, we drank the This was a sensible reason for mother Frances, described the water and didn’t get ill. We were not drinking the water, so here I Selling hair practice of hair-selling as being or- all fine. In 2001 I went to Tunisia purchased bottled water. I don’t ganised and acceptable in country as part of a tour group with the have any great worries about Just a contextualising footnote to districts: company Cosmos. We were told to drinking tap water generally in Ulrich Magin’s letter on hair-clip- “In various parts of the motley drink only bottled water that we most developed countries; I don’t ping panics [FT336:71].The girls crowd there were three or four had purchased, as once again the think I lead a wild and daring life who lied about selling their hair different purchasers of this com- water from taps was “not clean by doing so, either. are most likely to have disposed of modity, who travel the country Lorna Stroup their crowning glory to a wig-mak- for the purpose of attending the Nilsson er. At a time when women rarely if fairs, and buying the tresses of the Princetown, ever cut their hair, a young girl of peasant girls.They have particu- the lower orders blessed with luxu- larly fine hair and frequently in Perks or riant locks might well be prepared the greatest abundance. I should to them for cash. Country have thought that female vanity perils girls and peasants (in those areas would have effectually prevented where such a term was still appli- such a traffic as this from being I was gratified by cable) were supposed to provide carried on to any extent. But the letter about the best hair because of their there seemed to be no difficulty the link between healthy rural lives away from the in finding possessors of beautiful forteana and crea- polluted atmosphere of cities. As a heads of hair perfectly willing to tivity [FT335:70], as good head of hair was considered sell. We saw several girls sheared I recognised myself a major asset to a woman’s charms, one after the other like sheep, and in his description however, such an action might as many more standing ready for of artistic types not go down well with parents or the shears, with their caps in their having brushes with lover – hence the need to make up hands, and their long hair combed the paranormal, a story about the hair being cut off out and hanging down to their ylor as well as having against their will. waists. Some of the operators were Ta ul experienced mental From the buyer’s point of view, men and some women. By the side Pa

72 FT338 www.forteantimes.com letters

of the dealer was placed a large corpses for purposes of dissec- the body of excess fat. Second basket, into which every succes- tion.” The archives of the School of thousand days: the adoption of sive crop of hair, tied up into a Scottish Studies offer 38 recorded a special nut, herb and tea diet whisp by itself, was thrown. No accounts from 20th century Scot- which mixes sap from the Urushi doubt, the reason for this indiffer- tish travellers of escapes from or tree (Toxicodendron vernicifluum). ence to their tresses on the part of being lost to burkers, at http:// The sap induces vomiting and uri- the fair Bretonnes, is to be found www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/ nation, and the intent was to help in the invariable ‘mode’ which en/.These are all related as true the body rid the flesh of moisture. covers every head, from child- events, at times happening to Add to that drinking water from hood upwards, with close caps, members of the reporter’s family. a sacred spring on the slopes of which entirely prevent any part of when crossing the deep water off A much earlier use of the word is Mount Choukai, which is to this the hair from being seen, and of Loch Inver on a beautiful calm day in an account of the 1831 London day rich in arsenic.Whether the course as totally conceal the want in June, at about four o’clock in the Burkers at https://en.wikipedia.org/ effect was understood or not, the of it.” afternoon, when one of the crew wiki/London_Burkers. The name of consumption of this water helped The sophisticated urban author saw a strange creature with a head course derives from the notorious suffuse the flesh of the priests can’t eliminate a hint of cultural on a long neck, at least three feet Edinburgh body snatchers and involved with enough toxic mate- superiority here.The peasants of [90cm] long, above the surface. murderers Burke and Hare, active rial to hinder the growth of post Brittany are viewed as interesting I can only describe the head as in 1828. mortem flora, and thereby slow – curiosities, described in the book’s being similar to a seal’s, but much Ewan McVicar even stop – decay. Final thousand preface as offering to the cultured larger and having that distinct Linlithgow, West Lothian days: the living priest – if he has observer the “most perfectly neck.We decided to attempt to not already passed on from his preserved specimen… [of] the lasso it and I and one of the crew DIY trials – is interred in the ground remaining lineal descendents… of each made one, then we slowed with only a bell and an air tube. the ancient Celtic race”. the boat down and approached Regarding the letter from Richard Whilst the bell rings, air is fed to While wearing false hair was the creature to within a few yards, Ecclestone [FT335:69], my former the tomb.When the bell stops, usually criticised as a practice but both attempts missed and it student misses a couple of points the tomb is sealed and left for a related to vanity and decep- dived down, giving us all a clear which professional pride and royal thousand days. tion, theVictorians did have a view of its body. The creature was pedantry demand that I make It seems that most who un- complex and often contradictory eighteen to twenty feet [5.5-6m] good. I’ll not have it said that I sent dertook this process failed, but attitude to feminine tresses. Even long, had large flippers, one on a student out into the world with 24 such monks live to this day, amongst the leisured classes it each side, a grey/brown/black body an iffy grasp of Japanese dead standing on the brink of Nirvana was common to save the loose with a white blotch on its side. It folks. as guiding the faithful hair or “combings” that brushing reappeared on our port side and as Though Richard suggests that on, and protecting their flocks. My long hair always produces.These before dived under again on being the process of Sokushinbutsu is of local haunt, Sakata, was the home could be woven into sentimental approached. In all we made four Japanese origin, this is not really of the two priests mentioned, keepsakes, such as a watch-chain or five attempts to catch it, and fair. It was certainly refined by the Chukai and Enmyoukai – men who for dear Papa or a display in a the nearest boat on our offside, monk Ku¯kai (774-835), working died not to escape the world and glass-fronted brooch – a practice the Marguerite, called us up on from his base at Mount Ko¯ya, but its burdens, but to serve the world also common with the hair of the the WT enquiring if we had a man he had already acquired much of as they saw it. No wonder they deceased. It can be difficult to overboard as we had been circling the lore regarding the preservation are still ‘employed’ by the family distinguish jewellery of so much. My father reassured him of the flesh of important Buddhist temple and receive the stipends this kind from merely sentimental that all was well and then told us to priests whilst travelling in China, that priests normally receive. How- examples that used the locks of a forget what we were trying to do as and the technique itself appears ever, as Richard rightly suggests, living relative or friend. One’s own we were only wasting time. Catch- to have been transmitted from they might spend their money on combings could, of course, also be ing herring was what we should India. However, what is certain their regular redressings (every arranged as hair-pieces, especially be interested in... I have never had is that when Ku¯kai’s traditions decade), after which their clothes as curls for the forehead, known as any enlightenment as to what the began to penetrate into the cold, are shredded and offered, bound “false fronts”. Older ladies with species might be...This was a real hard lands of northern Japan (old in sea shells, as tokens of luck thinning hair typically had re- creature, observed by all the crew... Dewa – modern Akita andYama- for pilgrims heading out to climb course to this innocent deception. That creature we saw was no Loch gata prefectures) the Shingon Mount Choukai. Gail Nina Anderson Ness Monster, or whale, or walrus.” monks who took up their master’s Noble? Foolish? Certainly , Newcastle-upon-Tyne [Donald Patience: Skipper’sYarns ideals often drove themselves to dedicated... Indeed, the current from Avoch, published 2010 by ‘For extremes. Shingon being a tradi- head priest of the Kaikoji in Loch Inver creature The Right Reasons, Inverness’, tion that encompasses physical pri- Sakata even speaks of one such pp.83/4.] vation as a way to spiritual purity, priest castrating himself as a way Here is an interesting sea monster it is not surprising that someone of convincing his old flame that account from a Black Isle fisher- • Theo Paijmans’s account of would come to the conclusion that his former life was over... Dropping man skipper, 45 years at sea. reports about 19th century body enduring the ultimate test in an the meat-and-two-veg into her “One particular day that always snatchers in Afro-American com- excruciating death would bring lap and telling the poor woman to sticks in my memory was in the munities [FT332:30-31] includes “a the greatest benefit. ‘sling her hook’.There’s a certain summer of ‘52 whilst we were plausible solution” as to the origin This is where we get to the finality to that though.... steaming from Ullapool, along with of the stories, and the suggestion Sokushinbutsu: The Three Thou- Dr Darren-Jon Ashmore five other driftnet boats, making by the Wisconsin State Register in sand Days of Endurance. First Professor of Anthropology, for the Handa grounds off Cape 1891 of “a new word [added] to the thousand days: starvation diet, Yamanashi Gakuin University, Wrath.We were inside the boat dictionary – ‘burking’ – stealing daily exercise and prayer. Ridding Sakaori, Japan

FT338 73 www.forteantimes.com CONTACT US BY POST: BOX 2409 LONDON NW5 4NP OR E-MAIL [email protected] letters PLEASE PROVIDE US WITH YOUR POSTAL ADDRESS

We are always glad to receive pictures of spontaneous forms and figures, or any curious images. Send them to the PO box above (with a stamped addressed envelope or international reply coupon) Simulacra corner or to [email protected] – and please tell us your postal address.

ABOVE: Some wooden personalities snapped and sent in by FT readers (clockwise from top left): Great Coates, lincolnshire by Nicola Maasdam; Stowe Estate, Buckinghamshire, by Pete Bowman; ashby-de-la-Zouch, , by Chris Seavor; Highgate , north london, by Nickie Baglow.

74 FT338 www.forteantimes.com Have you had strange experiences that you cannot explain? We are always interested in reading of odd events and occurrences. CONTACT US BY POST: FORTEAN TIMES, BOX 2409, LONDON, NW5 4NP it happened to me… OR E-MAIL TO [email protected] Or post your message on the http://forum.forteantimes.com.

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

Phantom Footsteps In response to Matt Kenway’s “Phantom the bar and head there for a late night beer and footsteps” [FT319:75]: I often have large cigarette. Sometime in the early Seventies I was staying doves and pigeons land on the flat roof of my First I went down to stage level and dropped at a farm in rural Norway. This was a traditional extension and it is surprising the amount of the heavy safety curtain, after which I was free Norwegian smallholding in a traditional farming noise they can make as they waddle around. to turn off the front-of-house lights on each district, but the owners had a countercultural I have often thought that a person was on my level up to the gods. I was still left with a small bent and the place was a popular stopover for roof – so don’t rule out an avian source for the 25-volt emergency lighting bulb, which is on until European and american hippies. (let me make noise. you are out of the door. From the stalls (ground it clear that there was no overt drug use on the Paul Jackson floor) I proceeded through the tiny “green room” farm, and I did not myself indulge in any kind Wiltshire up a set of stairs to the dress circle, turning of drug-taking, so this cannot be used as an lights off until I was up in the gods. Everything explanation for the ghost.) The main building Bloodshot Eyes now was pitch black apart from the comforting was (and is) an old, ramshackle, two-storey chink of light behind me. wooden house. The upper floor had several I had my appendix removed when I was 11 years as I reached over to switch off the lighting bedrooms plus a bath and a toilet; the ground old. I was already pushing 6ft (1.8m) and was on desk, I heard an audible sigh from the stalls floor had a large kitchen-cum-dining room and a the men’s ward in North Staffordshire Hospital, 10m (33ft) below me, then a groan, and the large common room. outside the kitchen was a Stoke-on-Trent. on the day I left, an asian chap unmistakable sound of the cinema-style seat narrow hall or vestibule with a staircase to the walked up to me and shook my hand. He was squeaking and flipping to its upright position as first floor. It is important to understand that it very elderly and had bloodshot eyes. Two years if someone had stood up. Suffice to say I was would be impossible to get around the house later when playing football with my friend in a in the bar very quickly after this incident. I like without making a noise. The staircase was churchyard, the same man appeared as if from to think it was a patron from long ago, finally creaky, and the outside door and the kitchen nowhere and tried to shake my hand again. realising it was time to go home after spending door were large, ungainly affairs with heavy, Freaked, we ran. My friend revealed how he was a wonderful night at the theatre. hand-wrought hinges, locks and handles – at freaked out as the asian guy had ‘ruffled’ his Nidge Solly least 100 years old and maybe more. hair years before at a parade in the town centre. By email one night I had to sleep in the kitchen (which We both remembered his weird bloodshot eyes was equipped with bunk beds) since all the and how old he looked. Bettyhill Phantom upper bedrooms were taken. I was thus the only During the summer holidays in 1997, the day person on the ground floor. Sometime during after Princess Diana died, I was walking to my In august 1974, when I was 14, I spent a family the night, I was awakened by heavy footsteps, local shop in Stoke-on-Trent to buy a newspaper holiday in Bettyhill in the north of Scotland. My ‘slow and deliberate’ as in Matt Kenway’s story for my mother. as I walked past a public phone parents had rented a tiny isolated caravan down [FT319:75], tramping around inside the kitchen. box in Sun Street, the phone rang. Picking it up, by the beach. It was absolutely pitch dark, so it was impossible I was astonished to hear my friend on the other one day my mum suggested she and I visit to see anything. I was of course scared stiff, so end – even weirder was that apparently, I had the large shingle deposit on the beach, as I didn’t dare switch on the light – I just lay stock called him. Note that we lived miles apart, myself a local guidebook indicated the presence of still until the footsteps stopped. in Shelton, he in an area known as Berry Hill. several ancient graves. To reach the site, we The obvious explanation would be that Elijah Lycett had to walk to the local village and cross some someone else in the household had come Macclesfield, Cheshire low heathland. The area was remote with long into the kitchen. But if they had any business reaching views, and the weather fair but not there, they would have switched on the light or Music Hall Fright sunny. We exchanged greetings with a French carried a torch. on the other hand, if somebody couple eating a picnic by their car and continued had wanted to scare me as a practical joke, Many years ago I was a stagehand at the City walking for about 20 minutes before arriving at they wouldn’t have been able to enter or leave Varieties Music Hall in leeds, yorkshire, one the shingle mound. without making a lot of noise. Having stayed of the oldest surviving Music Halls in the uK. Not being sure what we were looking for, we there many times before, I knew the sounds of one night it was my turn to turn off the lights split up. a few moments later I heard my mum the house well, and I am certain that nobody left in the theatre’s auditorium. although I have a call out: “Karen – over here. I’ve found one!” the room after the footsteps ceased. fortean view of ghosts and “as a fortean I have Turning round, I saw my mum waving me forward. So, to make a long story short, I am pretty no opinion”, there is nothing more spookier Behind her stood a tall figure, about 6ft 6in to 7ft sure it was a ‘ghost’, whatever that is. Stupidly, I than walking around a darkened auditorium in (2–2.1m) tall, with arms stretched out, wearing a never told the owners about it, so I never got to the dead of night. I am quite happy to account long-sleeved black robe with a hood or cowl over know it the house was supposed to be haunted. for the ghost phenomenon with the “stone its head and face. I scampered down a slight dip I have of course ruled out ‘house noises’ as a tape” theory: over a period of 200 years so and crossed to where my mum was indicating cause of these sounds. Heavy footsteps are much emotion has been expressed by actors a box-like grave. “Was it the French tourist who heavy footsteps, and everybody knows they and singers alike that it’s quite feasible that showed you?” I asked, to which she replied: sound different from the cracks and pops in emotional has somehow become trapped “There’s no one else here – only you and me.” old wood. Matt Kenway also mentions mice as in the environment and this energy is released I have no idea why I thought it was a French a possible cause of sounds. I have lived in two somehow. tourist. The following day I went back by myself different houses with mice, and apart from the My story begins with me leaving the dress and willed it/him/her to appear, but nothing fact that you would never believe what a racket circle bar, which was still open. I had no need happened. I will always be grateful to have had these small animals can make, it is impossible for a torch as the lighting board was the last that experience – it convinced me there is more to mistake them for footsteps. thing to be turned off. The “lx” board was in to this world than we know. Nils Erik Grande the upper circle or the “gods”, and if I turned Karen Lilly Oslo, Norway around I could see the far off chink of light from Chatham, Kent

FT338 75 www.forteantimes.com STRANGE AND SENSATIONAL

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

45. SUCCI, THE FASTING MAN

Giovanni Succi was born in the coastal town of Cesenatico, Italy, in 1853. His early career was uneventful and he became a bank clerk in Rome, but in the 1880s he travelled as a commercial agent in Madagascar and East Africa and claimed to have discovered an elixir that enabled him to fast for extended periods of time without any ill effect.To prove that his elixir worked, he made himself available to the medical profession in Italy and France. Experiments began in Paris, where Succi fasted for 14 days and nights. In August 1886, he completed a 30-day fast in Milan, and in December the same year, he won a bet of 15,000 francs by repeating the same feat in Paris. In 1888, he was awarded a diploma by the Medico-Physical Academy of Florence after successfully completing another 30-day fast. ‘Fasting Artists’ were considered quite a novelty in the 1880s and 1890s, and Succi could make a comfortable living, travelling around in Europe to show off his fasting prowess. In March 1890, he came to the Westminster Aquarium, where he wanted to complete a 40-day fast.There was immediate interest from Londoners, who took a keen interest in fasting artists, as well as from the medical profession, who saw a golden opportunity to study the physiology of fasting at first-hand. According to Dr George N Robins, Succi’s personal medical attendant, the Italian was 5ft 5in (165cm) tall and slightly built. He seemed quietly confident that the fast would be a success, and ate heartily in the days before it was to commence. After beginning to fast, Succi took neither solid nor liquid nourishment; he drank only water, and regularly sipped small quantities of his elixir. He smoked one or two pipes each day, and occasionally a cigar or cigarette. After 10 days of fasting, Succi had lost more than 16 pounds in weight, but he seemed none the worse for his abstinence from nourishment. He health: his pulse was regular and fairly firm, body mass! sometimes suffered from biliousness, which and his heart sounds, though feeble, were After the 40-day fast at the Royal Aquarium, he treated using warm water as an emetic. On distinct. He had lost more than 34 pounds in Succi became the most famous fasting artist the 40th day of fasting, he remained in good weight, in excess of 26.5 per cent of his original in the world. He was paid £3,000 for his ordeal, SENSATIONAL STORIES FROM

and had no shortage of other offers. Later in As for the original performer, Giovanni had regained more than 14 of the 34 pounds 1890, he completed a 45-day fast in New York. Succi fell on evil times in the 1900s, since he had lost. Extreme fasting of this kind can In 1892, he was back at the Royal Aquarium fasting artists had gone out of fashion. In lead to serious electrolyte disorders, and for an intended 52-day fast, but he felt very ill Vienna, he was paid only £20 for a 30-day Succi was fortunate to survive his foolhardy on the 44th day, and had to take nourishment. fast. According to a newspaper article from exploits; his ‘madness’ in 1897 may well have For several years to come, he travelled 1908, Succi was working as a male nurse been related to some dangerous fluctuation in around in Europe, performing various fasting at the asylum in Nanterre outside Paris, his serum levels of sodium and/or potassium. stunts, sometimes combined with gymnastic commenting that “Fasting does not feed Later, during an even longer fast inVienna, performances.When he came toVienna, the faster!” Another newspaper report said Succi is recorded to have been exposed as a disaster struck: during a 50-day fast, it was that in 1918, Succi had died destitute in cheat, and this of course undermines one’s discovered that he had nourishment smuggled Florence; after fasting had completely gone confidence in the authenticity of his other in to him.This exposure did not end his out of fashion during the Great War, the exploits, although the careful monitoring of career, however: inVerona, he was bricked up once-famous artist could no longer support his London fast in 1890 was quite impressive. inside a small prison without windows, and in himself. He was said to have been 70 years old Succi’s ‘elixir’ may well have contained some Florence, he was imprisoned in a cell without at the time of his death, but the real Succi was appetite suppressant, although I would put food. In 1897, when Succi was performing at just 65 at the time. It is also suspicious that it beyond the witch-doctors of East Africa a music-hall in Paris, he went stark raving according to Oettermann & Spiegel’s Lexikon to have made any important breakthrough mad and broke everything in his room.When der Zauberkünstler, Succi was still alive in in this field. A jocular London paper two police constables appeared on the scene, 1924. recommended that Succi’s elixir should be the frenzied Italian threw empty champagne Fasting performers have always been mixed with the drinking-water of the paupers bottles at them, until he was eventually regarded with suspicion, and there have been and workhouse inmates, in order to reduce secured and tightly bound.There were several instances of their drinking water the bills for food to maintain the poor; and quite a few other fasting artists at being mixed with nutrients, and cloths with this rather Swiftian modest proposal, the large at the time, and after Succi had saturated with broth. But a writer tale of the Italian fasting performer ends. left Britain, two competitors tried in the British Medical Journal, who to usurp his fame, namely Giuseppe reported on Succi’s 40-day fast in 1890, Sacco-Homann and Ricardo Sacco, declared himself certain that there FACING PAGE: 1. Succi the Fasting Man at the who both flourished intoward Ed ian had been no deception; after all, the Aquarium, IPN, 26 April 1890. ABOVE: The end of Succi’s fast, IPN, 3 May 1890. LEFT: The fasting times and had picture postcards man had lost more than 26.5 per cent usurper Ricardo Sacco from a signed postcard sold at printed to celebrate their of his body weight. After having eaten his performances. exploits. heartily for a week after his fast, he reader info Why Fortean? how to subscribe ANNUAL SUB of 12 issues (inc p&p) UK £39.98; EC £47.50; USA $89.99 ortean Times is a monthly of all apparent phenomena, coined ($161.98 for 24 issues); Rest of World £55. 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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. 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 FT338 the source, date and your name, so that we can credit you Garrick Alder, Gerard Apps, Louise Bath, James Beckett, Terry Browning, Rob Chambers, in the listing (right) when we use the material. For UK local Terry Colvin, Andy Conlon, Pat Corcoran, Graham Cordon, Ken Crocker, Kate Eccles, JD and overseas clips, please give the town of publication. For foreign language clips, we appreciate brief translations. To Evans, Grum Gallagher, David Gamon, Alan Gardiner, Keith George, Alan Gibb, Hugh Henry, avoid confusion over day and month, please write the date Colin Ings, Tim Greening-Jackson, Don Lamont, Diana Lyons, Dave Malin, Bert & Betty Gray- in this form: 1 MAR 2016. If you send photocopies, copy on Malkin, Nick Maloret, Tom Mason, Greg May, Andy Munro, Paul Music, John Palazzi, Jim one side of the paper only. Price, Noel Rooney, Tom Ruffles, Meryl Santis, Christian Saunders, Paul Screeton, Richard Mail to: Fortean Times, PO Box 2409, London NW5 4NP, UK Spiers, Gary Stocker, Frank Thomas, Paul Thomas, Dave Trevor, Carole Tyrrell, Nicholas E-mail: [email protected] or post on the FT website at www.forteantimes.co.uk, Warren, Len Watson, Owen Whiteoak, Paul Whyte, Colin Wight, Janet Wilson, Gary Yates, where there is a contributor’s guide. Bobby Zodiac.

78 FT338 www.forteantimes.com

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

A German man died on Christmas Day New Year’s firecrackers, which are said after blowing up a condom dispenser to ward off evil spirits in the Philippines, MONTH with a homemade bomb in a botched left 380 people injured and one dead: robbery. The 29-year-old from Münster, a drunk man who lit a firecracker called and two accomplices, attached the bomb “Goodbye Philippines” and was killed as to the vending machine in a quiet street he embraced it. Times, 2 Jan 2016. before taking cover in their vehicle; but the victim didn’t close the door in time and A Pennsylvania man was helping to decorate was struck in the head by a steel shard from the his mother-in-law’s tombstone last Easter when explosion. it toppled over, pinning him underneath and His accomplices took him to hospital but he killing him. We wonder what “decorating” a later died of his wounds. The men told staff at the tombstone involves… Irish Independent, 11 April hospital in the western town of Schoppingen, near 2015. the Dutch border, that their unconscious friend had fallen down the stairs, but one of them later A 71-year-old woman was walking on a sidewalk admitted what had happened. Police confirmed in central New York when she was crushed by a that none of the money or condoms from the woman who had jumped from a window on the machine had been taken. The two surviving men third floor of her apartment building. People at were arrested before later being released from an office party rushed to help. The jumper was mexican fairies custody. BBC News, 28 Dec 2015; thelocal.de, 9 rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where she died. IN SEARCH OF DUENDES, Jan 2016. The pedestrian suffered serious, but not life- threatening injuries. (Sydney) D.Telegraph, 14 Dec CHANEqUES AND OTHERS A suspected burglar who jumped into a Florida 2015. lake while fleeing police was killed and partially eaten by an alligator. The body of Matthew Ka Yang, 34, an office worker and mother of four Riggins, 22 – missing parts of both legs and an from Sacramento, California, was jailed for life arm – was found 10 days after he disappeared on 29 December for murdering her one-month- on 13 November while being chased by sheriff’s old daughter Mirabella Thao-Lo by putting her in deputies in a residential area of Palm Bay, where a microwave oven for up to five minutes in 2011. he had gone with a friend to break into houses. The baby suffered horrific burns. Yang claimed His corpse was found in Barefoot Bay lake near she had an epileptic fit, blacked out and woke to an aggressive 11ft (3m) alligator, which was later find the bay injured next to theav microw e. She killed. Parts of his body were found inside the had a history of seizures, but paramedics said reptile’s stomach. she was not disoriented when they got to her There are more than a million alligators in home, and they found the baby’s pacifier in the Florida. Attacks on humans are rare, though microwave. Ka Yang was jailed for a minimum of Riggins’s death was the second in two months 29 years for first-degree murder. (in October, a 61-year-old man was attacked Another death-by-microwave took place in while swimming). Before that, the last fatal Houston, Texas, last November, when police the tell-tale eye alligator attack was in 2007 when, like Riggins, found the body of J’zyra Thompson, aged 19 CAN MURDER VICTIMS’ FINAL a convict fleeing police dived intoe. alak Florida months, covered with burn marks. Two of J’zyra’s wildlife officials said that there had been 22 siblings, both three years old, told investigators VISIONS CATCH THEIR KILLERS? known deaths caused by alligators since 1948. one of them put their sister in the oven while Times, Irish Examiner, 9 Dec; (Queensland) the other turned it on. The children said they Courier-Mail, 10 Dec 2015. made the oven “hot” and J’zyra was kicking the door while inside. (Their mother was out at the + The body of 18-year-old Joshua Vernon Maddox, time). (Queensland) Courier-Mail, 24 Nov; Sun on reported missing in May 2008, was found in the Sunday, (Queensland) Sunday Mail, 20 Dec 2015. being a beast, chimney of a cabin less than 2km (1.2 miles) from demonic divorce, his home in Colorado. The macabre discovery His Li, known as Michael, was walking his pug- was made in September 2015, when builders type dog in Dovercourt, Essex, on a lead when it eye-spy teddies, demolished the cabin, named Thunderhead dragged him into the path of a car. He suffered and mUcH more… Ranch, which had been abandoned for more than head injuries and died in hospital. The pet was a decade. The teenager was identified by dental unhurt. Sun, 30 Sept 2015. records. His death was ruled an accident with no signs of trauma, but the circumstances are Three Chinese men suffocated while trying to likely to remain a mystery. (Sydney) D.Telegraph, rob an ancient tomb in Henan province. Yiyang FORTEAN Adelaide Advertiser, 2 Oct 2015. county police said that five villagers entered a tomb near their village of Chengjiao when three Donnie Barker III, 25, and his neighbour, Steven of them fainted from lack of air. The other two Lee Setser, 19, were out hunting on a mountain called for help, but a rescue attempt failed. Irish TIMES in Boone County, in southern West Virginia, on 23 Independent, 2 Oct 2015. November. They built a fire beneath a massive sandstone boulder sitting atop a rock, and the heat evidently split the boulder in half and a part THE FORTEAN TIMES of it landed on Barker, killing him. A policeman BOOK OF STRANGE estimated that the lethal rock was the size of DEATHS VOL 2 a police cruiser. Setser barely escaped with his ON SALE NOW FROM life, as the sheared boulder grazed his head. 339 WH SMITH AND AMAZON.CO.UK He was able to leave the scene on an all-terrain TO ORDER DIRECT CALL 0844 844 0053 vehicle to summon help. [AP] 24 Nov 2015. ON SALE 31 MAR 2016 WRITERS BUREAU CREATIVE WRITING COURSE Why Not Be AWriter?

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