THE X-FILES car-crash politics jg ballard versus ronald reagan cave of the witches south america's magical murders 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 FORTEAN TiMES 338 chimaera cats • death by meteorite • flat earth rapper • ancient greek laptop WEIRDES NEWS T THE WORLD OF STRANGE PHENOMENA www.forteantimes.com ft338 march 2016 £4.25 THE SEcRET HiSTORy OF DAviD bOWiE • RETuRN OF THE x-FiLES • cAvE OF THE WiTcHES • AuTOMATic LEPREcHAuNSP • jAPAN'S GHOST ACE 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 MAR 2016 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, Harry Price 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 GHOSTWATCH 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 GHOST FARES 14 CURIOUS CATS 59 REVIEWS 79 PHENOMENOMIX Taxi drivers report phantom passengers Chimæras and other feline freaks 71 LETTERS 80 STRANGE DEATHS COVER: BOWIE MASK BY MARK WARDEL. COVER IMAGE ETIENNE GILFILLAN/MARK WARDEL FT338 1 www.forteantimes.com Fortean Times editor dAVid SUttoN ([email protected]) foUNdiNg editorS bob rickArd ([email protected]) pAUl SieVekiNg ([email protected]) Art director etieNNe gilfillAN ([email protected]) editorial book reViewS editor VAl SteVeNSoN ([email protected]) reSideNt cArtooNiSt HUNt emerSoN 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 Dennis Publishing 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 grief and tributes from the Loren Coleman 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 urban legend, 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, United Kingdom. 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.