Episode 25 Hoax Ghosts Part 2

[00:00:00] - [Speaker 0]
Hello. My name is Graham.

[00:00:02] - [Speaker 1]
My name is Karen.

[00:00:03] - [Speaker 0]
And welcome to Lights on Still Scared, which is our post Halloween episode continuing the exploits of fake ghosts and phantom tomfoolery. How have you been Karen?

[00:01:04] - [Speaker 1]
I've been very well yourself.

[00:01:05] - [Speaker 0]
Not bad at all. Thank you. I've got a few stories today for you that you may find entertaining. Indeed. I hope.

[00:01:12] - [Speaker 0]
Mhmm. Maybe even a little spooky. Who can tell? Depending on how easily scared you are. I don't know.

[00:01:17] - [Speaker 1]
Indeed. Indeed.

[00:01:18] - [Speaker 0]
So what have you got for us today, Karen?

[00:01:20] - [Speaker 1]
Well, brace yourself. Okay. We've been down this road before.

[00:01:25] - [Speaker 0]
Yeah. Monks? No. No. Talking animals?

[00:01:32] - [Speaker 0]
Nope. Nope. Go on then. Tell me.

[00:01:36] - [Speaker 1]
Brace thyself. Brace thyself. We are going back to scratching fanny cock

[00:01:43] - [Speaker 0]
Please God, no. I thought that had been cured. I mean, I thought we'd finished with that.

[00:01:50] - [Speaker 1]
Scratching fanny of cock clay.

[00:01:53] - [Speaker 0]
Okay.

[00:01:54] - [Speaker 1]
Now, when we spoke about previously in between the chortles of our 10 year old self coming up, discussed it as a potential haunting.

[00:02:03] - [Speaker 0]
Yeah. That's true.

[00:02:05] - [Speaker 1]
I did say perhaps it was a little bit Yeah. This time we're looking at it from a hoax point of view.

[00:02:12] - [Speaker 0]
Ah, okey dokey. That's fair

[00:02:13] - [Speaker 1]
enough. Okay. So right. So anyone who doesn't know this story, it dates back to 1762 in London. And the story begins with a a William Kent with his partner, Fanny Lyons, lodged with a Richard Parsons house in Cock Lane

[00:02:32] - [Speaker 0]
Mhmm.

[00:02:33] - [Speaker 1]
In Smithfield. Yeah. So Fanny was the sister of Kent's late wife. And they lived as a married couple, and they were not legally married. But back then, you weren't allowed to marry your

[00:02:44] - [Speaker 0]
Right. Okay. Other halves Okay.

[00:02:46] - [Speaker 1]
Sisters or brothers. So Kent lent Parsons money, which became a source of a disagreement, and the couple moved out. Unfortunately, Fanny died in February 1760, reportedly from smallpox. Kent later successfully pursued Parsons for repayment of the debt.

[00:03:07] - [Speaker 0]
So

[00:03:09] - [Speaker 1]
knocking and scratching have reportedly been heard during Fanny's stay. In January 1762, around the time passed in Serrape Kent, the noises returned. So it would appear

[00:03:23] - [Speaker 0]
Right.

[00:03:24] - [Speaker 1]
That these scratches were before started before Fanning had died.

[00:03:28] - [Speaker 0]
Okay. Right. Okay.

[00:03:30] - [Speaker 1]
So, yeah. So they appeared to center on Parsons' young daughter Elizabeth, particularly when she was in bed. So Parsons claimed that a spirit was responsible, so minister John Moore helped question it. One knock meant yes and two knocks meant no. Through these supposed answers, the spirit identified itself as Fanny and claimed Kent had poisoned her with arsenic.

[00:04:01] - [Speaker 0]
Okay. Yeah.

[00:04:02] - [Speaker 1]
So the domestic haunting had become a public accusation of murder. So I don't know why I wrote this, but I put scratching funny becomes a sensation.

[00:04:17] - [Speaker 2]
Oh, dear. See?

[00:04:19] - [Speaker 1]
Fall into these I You're

[00:04:21] - [Speaker 0]
great for the sun.

[00:04:22] - [Speaker 2]
I hope you're judging early.

[00:04:24] - [Speaker 1]
So the press nicknamed the apparition Scratching Fanny, and crowds gathered at the house and Parsons charged visitors to attend.

[00:04:33] - [Speaker 0]
Oh. Crikey.

[00:04:35] - [Speaker 1]
The story attracted people from across London society. The celebrated writer Samuel Johnson became involved in investigating. Picture the scene, a crowded room, limited light, a child lying in bed, and everyone listened for the replies from the dead. So there you go. That's insane,

[00:04:57] - [Speaker 0]
isn't it?

[00:04:58] - [Speaker 2]
That is insane.

[00:05:01] - [Speaker 1]
So, yes, so they set the scene, basically. So on the 02/01/1762, Elizabeth was taken to a clergyman's house so investigators could examine the phenomena away from her usual surroundings. And the investigators heard no convincing supernatural noises, so obviously she wasn't in the house or anything. The supposed ghost had also promised to knock on Fanny's coffin. Members of the party visited the church vaults where she was buried and waited.

[00:05:35] - [Speaker 1]
And there was no response. So Johnson recorded the committee conclusion that Elizabeth could apparently counterfeit the noises and that there was no evidence of the supernatural cause. A later historical account describes Elizabeth being placed under pressure to reproduce the sounds with threats that her father would be imprisoned if she failed.

[00:05:58] - [Speaker 0]
Right. Okay.

[00:05:59] - [Speaker 1]
Knocking and scratching resumed, but a piece of board was discovered concealed in her clothing and taken into bed.

[00:06:08] - [Speaker 0]
For the...

[00:06:09] - [Speaker 1]
Yes, for the knocking.

[00:06:10] - [Speaker 0]
For the knocking.

[00:06:12] - [Speaker 1]
So, yes, so in July, tenth of July seventeen sixty two, Richard Parsons, his wife and Mary Fraser, who helped conduct the seances, were convicted of conspiracy. Parsons received two years imprisonment and was ordered to stand in the pillory three times.

[00:06:32] - [Speaker 0]
Pillory? Oh, yeah. Oh, god. That wouldn't be good. Get stuff chucked at

[00:06:36] - [Speaker 2]
your head.

[00:06:36] - [Speaker 1]
I like one of them.

[00:06:37] - [Speaker 0]
One of them. Yeah.

[00:06:39] - [Speaker 1]
Tomatoes and all sorts of things. And you'd make a salad afterwards. Yeah.

[00:06:43] - [Speaker 0]
Certain elements, maybe not others.

[00:06:47] - [Speaker 1]
His wife and Fraser received shorter custodial sentences. Other supporters agreed to compensate Kent, so there you go. Wow.

[00:06:59] - [Speaker 0]
Didn't end well then really.

[00:07:00] - [Speaker 1]
Didn't end well, no. And poor Scratch and Fanny...

[00:07:04] - [Speaker 0]
Blimey.

[00:07:04] - [Speaker 1]
Was the supposed ghost that didn't exist.

[00:07:09] - [Speaker 0]
Well, we're back to Dundee again. Dundee Courier seems to be the paper for these kind of stories. Obviously not which was happening back in the day but this is a cracker. It's actually written by the way, it's written in the Dundee Courier but it was about a place in Aberdeen called Canal Street. Uh-huh.

[00:07:26] - [Speaker 0]
So Canal Street today is kind of King Street, I don't know if you know Aberdeen but it's it's a tiny little street, there's barely anything there. Back in the day of course, there's some rather nice houses in there but it's it's there's a I think a dual carriageway though, at least a fairly major road, so a lot of the old stuff got knocked down. This was typical of a time ghostly goings on noted by scared servants began to attract crowds of people. So basically people talked about it and it gathered huge crowds every night gathering outside these houses in the hope of seeing the ghost and of course the papers wrote about it and it became this huge huge thing but it estimated that every night there was crowds of between 500 and a thousand people standing outside the house and that was a big problem. They would decamp there, they would drink, they would gawp, fight, carry on.

[00:08:24] - [Speaker 0]
It was noisy. So basically said they'd been disturbed by this ghost that came in at night. So all began when the maid was walking on hearing the soft tread of steps heading upstairs closely followed by the sound of a heavy thud on a table. She, of course, roused the household who soon recalled in horror the visible presence of supposedly a lady in a silk dress who was seen gliding into the room of the unfortunate maid who then had her bed clothes pulled from her. Her story was affirmed by another servant within the house and the owner's son who also witnessed the apparition.

[00:08:58] - [Speaker 0]
Vigils were kept and in doing so, extraordinary sights were seen at midnight such as furniture dancing around and skipping.

[00:09:06] - [Speaker 1]
Skipping furniture. Skipping furniture.

[00:09:07] - [Speaker 0]
Yeah. That's a new one. Yeah. And more than one watcher was slapped on the face for their troubles. And so, with each new report, the stories became more outlandish and the readers credulity was sorely tested.

[00:09:22] - [Speaker 0]
One witness wondered to claim that the ghost had appeared in varying forms, firstly without the head and secondly with a head albeit a very small one. This ghost was also described as clutching at its throat across which were a series of vivid red wheels as if in the manner of Banco's ghost as seen in a provincial theatre. Oh. Another account stated that the ghost had related a tale of woe as to its demise in its bones should be discovered and given a Christian burrow which would free it from its earth bound torment. However, unhelpfully did not suggest where to look.

[00:10:01] - [Speaker 0]
The more outlandish the story, the bigger the crowd and soon the street was swollen with humanity and further reports indicated that visitors then had their hats helpfully plucked from their heads when entering the house by the ghost who became something of a spiritual doorm an. The story as was suggested is likely product of wicked rumor mongering throughout the time several ministers did gather and read passages from the bible just to be certain and within time, typically, it just faded away once more. Yeah, they claimed the ghost was actually molesting visitors to the house.

[00:10:39] - [Speaker 1]
I see.

[00:10:40] - [Speaker 0]
And the family were quite keen to keep that whole thing up. I mean, whether they believed it to be real or not, I do not know, but all centered around the maid who may or may not have been, you know, hysterical maybe. I don't know. Mhmm. But a thousand people a night is quite

[00:10:56] - [Speaker 1]
a fair old crowd. Crikey. Yeah.

[00:10:58] - [Speaker 0]
Folk are getting rather annoyed. Nobody could get any sleep either. That was a problem. Yeah.

[00:11:02] - [Speaker 1]
I can understand that. Yeah. Do you really? Do you really? The things people would do.

[00:11:09] - [Speaker 1]
God. He

[00:11:10] - [Speaker 0]
would do anything.

[00:11:12] - [Speaker 1]
Right. Okay. Where am I off to next? I think we're off to Wells. Yes.

[00:11:16] - [Speaker 1]
We are. We're off to Wells. Okay. We're off to Wells. Oh, I'm just gonna say Wales.

[00:11:24] - [Speaker 1]
Don't pronounce any long words.

[00:11:27] - [Speaker 0]
Yeah. Yeah. Wales Wales is good.

[00:11:29] - [Speaker 1]
London. London. No. That's it. London.

[00:11:33] - [Speaker 1]
No. Thank you, Graham. So off we go. We're going there, and it's December 1912 to January 1913.

[00:11:42] - [Speaker 0]
Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

[00:11:43] - [Speaker 1]
So a strange figure reportedly appears beneath the Great Orms Cliffs.

[00:11:49] - [Speaker 0]
Mhmm.

[00:11:49] - [Speaker 1]
So it attracted newspaper coverage across Britain and prompted a local correspondent to suggest an ingenious practical joke. So the first sighting was on New Year's Eve

[00:12:02] - [Speaker 0]
Right.

[00:12:03] - [Speaker 1]
12/31/1912

[00:12:06] - [Speaker 0]
Mhmm.

[00:12:06] - [Speaker 1]
Where a man was walking with his wife along Marine Drive near the old La Roche photographic studio by Happy Valley. Mhmm. It's very descriptive.

[00:12:18] - [Speaker 0]
It's very descriptive.

[00:12:19] - [Speaker 1]
In case you want to go there.

[00:12:21] - [Speaker 0]
Yeah. Is it still there? I

[00:12:22] - [Speaker 1]
wonder. I have no idea. Don't think the...

[00:12:27] - [Speaker 0]
Second on the left mind.

[00:12:28] - [Speaker 2]
He probably isn't there. Yeah.

[00:12:31] - [Speaker 1]
Claimed that a strange figure appeared beneath the cliffs and began gliding towards them. When he approached to investigate, it vanished without leaving a physical trace. The man returned with a friend the following night, and they walked in the darkness for an hour but saw nothing. So there was a second reported appearance. He then enlisted a skeptical representative for the North Valley Weekly News, a well known newspaper, I'm sure.

[00:13:02] - [Speaker 1]
They waited on the mound at the foot of the cliff, nothing happened, and they began to think the whole affair was a practical joke. As they prepared to leave, they reportedly noticed a faint glowing shadowy shape in the hollow of the cliff, a few yards from the road. They moved towards it, but it disappeared before they could get closer.

[00:13:23] - [Speaker 0]
A

[00:13:25] - [Speaker 1]
further search revealed nothing. So the story does spread. The witness letters appeared in the North Wales weekly news on the Friday, 01/10/1913. The stories are subsequently covered by the Dundee Evening Telegraph, the Sheffield Evening Telegraph, Lincolnshire Chronicle and the Western Mail. The Western Mail reported considerable interest on the January 14, so it went quite far this...

[00:14:00] - [Speaker 1]
That's a pretty

[00:14:01] - [Speaker 0]
wide, readership as it were, kitten a few counties there.

[00:14:06] - [Speaker 1]
So according to the later Daily Post article, people interested in the occult visited the area after dark hoping to see the apparition. When it failed to appear, interest failed. Faded.

[00:14:18] - [Speaker 0]
Always the way, ain't it? Always the way.

[00:14:20] - [Speaker 1]
Oh, dear. So the proposed explanation was on the 01/17/1913, the weekly new published a letter from a Mr. J Grant. He described himself as a long standing student of spiritualism, magnetism and hypnosis.

[00:14:37] - [Speaker 0]
Mhmm. Okay.

[00:14:39] - [Speaker 1]
But said he did not believe in ghosts. He suggested the explanation was a carefully managed practical joke. Grant proposed a large black cloth folded in two with French figure painted on one in a half. Mhmm. Black strings attached to four corners would allow people leaning over the cliff to manipulate it.

[00:15:03] - [Speaker 0]
Put So they hung a sheet over the cliff.

[00:15:05] - [Speaker 1]
Basically, with a bit

[00:15:07] - [Speaker 2]
of a spooky drawing on there. That's brilliant. Yeah. So pulling

[00:15:12] - [Speaker 1]
and releasing the strings would open or close the fold. The painted figure would become visible and then disappear as the black cloth concealed it against the dark surroundings. And Grot concluded that more than one person must have been involved.

[00:15:29] - [Speaker 0]
I'm sorry to interrupt but I've just got a thought there. How on earth would one see a ghost drawn on a sheet at the, if you're staying at the foot of a cliff, which you'd have to be and I know the cliff I'm assuming is fairly big, but hell good eyesight. In the dark as well, you know, if it's pitch black, that's, you're not gonna really, But anyway, it's wild, isn't it?

[00:15:55] - [Speaker 1]
So, you know, there's an original witness description which is is... Yeah. Anyway, this account is published as a letter to the North Wales weekly news on the 01/10/1913.

[00:16:14] - [Speaker 0]
Right.

[00:16:14] - [Speaker 1]
And what I'm going to read to you, it was actually excerpts, it's not complete transcript of the original letter. Although had I seen the original letter, I would have thought it's an absolute gem. Anyway, the writer describes the matter as a little matter which I deem to be of scientific importance.' So it begins. So the ghost's first appearance was reported by a letter writer in the North Wales, as I said, back then. The writer put pen to paper in a hope of reporting a little matter which I deem as scientific importance, which I have just said.

[00:16:50] - [Speaker 1]
And on December 31, while strolling with his wife along Marine Drive, close to the old Lerich photograph study near

[00:17:03] - [Speaker 2]
Happy Valley,

[00:17:04] - [Speaker 1]
the pair had been startled by what they saw beneath the Great Orms Cliff. For a moment we were too surprised to think or act, and while we stood looking at the form, it suddenly commenced gliding towards us slowly,' he wrote. 'Recalling memories of a practical joke, I advanced towards the figure with the object of discovering its character.

[00:17:31] - [Speaker 0]
So...

[00:17:31] - [Speaker 1]
But to my amazement, no sooner had I commenced to approach it. Then it disappeared. I could not find a trace of any physical form. Accompanied by a friend who visited the same spot the next night, only to idle away an hour in the darkness. Determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, he then enlists the sceptical weekly news representative to investigate.

[00:17:58] - [Speaker 1]
And this is the bit... Oh, I might lose it. Anyway, it was a dark, cheerless night. The road was deserted and set for two or three lovemaking couple.'

[00:18:14] - [Speaker 0]
I hope they didn't trip over them in the dark. That's quite amusing. I've

[00:18:24] - [Speaker 2]
got a vision of these darkened lumps in the street. Is that a bollard? No? Or maybe.

[00:18:35] - [Speaker 0]
There you go.

[00:18:36] - [Speaker 2]
I've got fishes scratching fatty whenever Maybe it was her on holiday. Embracing sea air. He wrote he wrote presuming referring

[00:18:48] - [Speaker 1]
to cuddling.

[00:18:49] - [Speaker 0]
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Not not... No.

[00:18:51] - [Speaker 0]
No. Not nosedies. They didn't do that then, you know.

[00:18:54] - [Speaker 2]
Oh, yeah.

[00:18:55] - [Speaker 0]
So I heard.

[00:18:59] - [Speaker 2]
Can't bring up a mound. Well, thank god you've finished that sentence. I'm just Oh.

[00:19:08] - [Speaker 0]
Confused for a moment.

[00:19:10] - [Speaker 2]
Alright. So, yeah, clambering up a mound.

[00:19:18] - [Speaker 0]
Oh, dear god. I knew this would

[00:19:20] - [Speaker 2]
happen. Oh. Alright. Okay. Yeah.

[00:19:26] - [Speaker 0]
You go.

[00:19:27] - [Speaker 2]
Again. So clambering up and around at the foot of the cliff. We secreted ourselves and waited.

[00:19:36] - [Speaker 1]
Nothing happened, and after waiting a considerable time, we came to the conclusion that the whole thing was a hoax.

[00:19:45] - [Speaker 2]
In an uncharitable frame

[00:19:47] - [Speaker 1]
of mind, we descended into the road, and we're off the point of return to the town when our attention was attracted by what appeared to be an unnatural, physiological, shadowy something within the hollows of the cliff a few yards from the road. We made towards it, but before we could advance more, then a few paces it disappeared. And although we remained in the facilities for some time, we could not trace of the substance or whatever it was.

[00:20:18] - [Speaker 2]
Oh, dear.

[00:20:22] - [Speaker 0]
I

[00:20:24] - [Speaker 1]
thought that was brilliant.

[00:20:25] - [Speaker 0]
That was very good.

[00:20:28] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. It made me cry.

[00:20:30] - [Speaker 0]
Yeah. It made me cry.

[00:20:33] - [Speaker 1]
Making love in the road. Who would have thought it? Dearly man.

[00:20:36] - [Speaker 0]
Pretty dangerous occupation, have to say. Indeed. Particularly in Edinburgh.

[00:20:40] - [Speaker 1]
Oh, yeah. I mean, those gobbles.

[00:20:42] - [Speaker 0]
Indeed. And the drivers, they drive far too fast. No way they could stop in time.

[00:20:48] - [Speaker 1]
What a way to go though.

[00:20:50] - [Speaker 0]
Depends, I suppose. I know where where am I gonna go with you. What what am I doing? I forgot what I was doing. This story is gonna be this story is gonna be miserable in comparison.

[00:21:06] - [Speaker 0]
I mean, this is the one... There's no human in this whatsoever. Good god. Well, I did actually talk about this years ago and... Well, not years ago, but if if...

[00:21:19] - [Speaker 0]
I think at the very first episode we did potentially, I think I mentioned this very one, but given it's it was considered potentially to be a hoax, I've kind of drawn it back into the fold. It's again from Aberdeen. It's from a place called Garden Lane which was demolished some years ago and the Gordon Lane poltergeist became one of the most talked about and written about poltergeist cases in the nineteen twenties in Britain, was featured in newspaper articles, you know, from the London Times upwards. People really believed this to be real and huge crowds would gather outside. The police were called to keep, you know, crowd control basically and there's always been some people said it's maybe real but people think it's fake and it also sort of do with this young guy called John Uckert who lived there with his family and John Uckert was by all accounts a rather strange child shall we say and he was prone to spending a lot of time in bed.

[00:22:27] - [Speaker 0]
He claimed that there was something in the room knocking on the walls and you would hear voices and of course the family got drawn into it and they were convinced there was a ghost haunting the house but who the ghost was has remained elusive. Spiritualists would come and visit, they did several seances, there were a couple of theories as to the ghost, one was his actual grandfather who'd passed away not that long ago, the other was the ghost of their former neighbor who lived beneath them in a very rustic kind of basement who was a blacksmith who'd actually taken his own life by poison. Shortly before that, his remains were found years later but they were the two prime suspects. However, we don't know if the boy made up because like one of the stories you just mentioned, he was found with a large lump of wood and a lot of the stuff seemed to be violent thumping. The neighbors across the way, the Grants corroborated the thumping and noises but it turns out that it was a bed they thought was actually battering on the ground.

[00:23:43] - [Speaker 2]
Mhmm.

[00:23:43] - [Speaker 0]
So it looks like somebody said, when the kid was in the room, the ghostly stuff stopped, when he wasn't, it started and he was bouncing up and down on his bed. Right. So it wasn't totally ghostly at all Yeah. But the fact was this is what happened. Police came and they actually investigated the walls and put holes in them to see what was what and nothing very much at all.

[00:24:08] - [Speaker 0]
So, basically, this blacksmith guy had actually vanished fifty years before which is rather odd and they found his skeletal remains or I think it was, it's hard to see, miles away also in the outskirts of Aberdeen in a place called Countess Wells and they thought that he might have been the ghost for whatever reason. Also things like motor cars, toys, you know, children's toys, motor cars were moved, but again, probably him because they heard it moving when he wasn't in the room. So he's also sitting in his bedroom playing with toy cars. Right. And everybody's outside going, oh, it must be a ghost.

[00:24:50] - [Speaker 0]
As you do.

[00:24:51] - [Speaker 1]
As you do.

[00:24:52] - [Speaker 0]
Loud knocks coming like that, coming from a hammer, really loud heavy knocks would wake the family up, they were obviously not sleeping particularly well and because of this, the poor kid became known as Johnny Ghosty. Oh, Ghosty? Johnny Ghosty. So they'd shout after him Johnny Ghosty in the street. It turns out I think that he basically was...

[00:25:16] - [Speaker 0]
He had issues. Right. He had issues.

[00:25:19] - [Speaker 1]
Mhmm.

[00:25:19] - [Speaker 0]
He was probably, you know, hyperactive or

[00:25:22] - [Speaker 1]
something. Mhmm.

[00:25:23] - [Speaker 0]
He got himself in mischief. He was old and he was always in trouble. A neighbor actually, believe it or not, from 1989, a former resident of the same street called E. T. Sheppard, she was 16 at the time of the disturbances in 1920, wrote a letter to the Evening Express stating that her mother was called in by missus Uchert, this is Johnny's mother Mhmm.

[00:25:46] - [Speaker 0]
When the problem first started, and she recalled that nothing untoward ever happened while John was in the room with him. She went on to say that at one point he was even caught jumping on the bed and on being discovered shouted, there's your ghost. She later said there's no ghost and that he would rock in his chair, jump in his bed and was never seen outside. Looking back now, it would appear that John, due to erratic behavior, was responsible for creating it. The family for whatever reason played along with it.

[00:26:18] - [Speaker 0]
It's a really strange one. But there's a companion piece to this because a very similar story actually happened in another area called Shuttle Lane. Uh-huh. Shuttle Lane was destroyed many, many years ago. There's only a few photographs left.

[00:26:34] - [Speaker 0]
I mean, it's a real grimy looking place. It was a poor working class area and the article described the extra ornises which unfolded for 500 people assembled near the home of a local called mister Lamont because he believed it'd be haunted, and for several weeks had claimed that both he and his wife had been subject to all manner of occurrences much like the Gordon Lane one which was... Happened eighteen months before then. Mhmm. So every night, this massive flash mob would arrive and they would gawk and wait, the police would be there and mischievous youngsters would take great delight in actually hammering, would you believe it, on the door or breaking in the house, the lobby, common lobby, hammer on the door, the windows and such like to annoy the neighbors.

[00:27:26] - [Speaker 0]
So the owner, by now fed up of this and feeling like he was humiliated, took the matters into his own hands and took a hose, stuck out the window and actually turned on the crowd Oh. To disperse them. Oh. Yeah. And then his wife would also throw buckets of water from the window.

[00:27:42] - [Speaker 0]
So essentially, they came up with a mad story because they were obviously paranoid.

[00:27:49] - [Speaker 2]
Mhmm.

[00:27:49] - [Speaker 0]
Then the crowd arrived, then they contacted the paper and then all of a sudden didn't want the publicity anymore. Mhmm. So decided to throw buckets of water over the crowd. There's a common theme. I just think people have nothing else to do.

[00:28:03] - [Speaker 0]
No. I really do. And I think when the news spread like that, hundreds of kids would just turn up and adults Yep. Hang about. Must have been really boring back then with no TV.

[00:28:13] - [Speaker 1]
Well, there you go. If they don't know TV...

[00:28:16] - [Speaker 0]
No TV at all.

[00:28:17] - [Speaker 1]
Well, mean, what have we got now? We've got many, many things to watch and tell you. Yeah. Like Love Island and traitors. Well, do you know what happened?

[00:28:28] - [Speaker 1]
I didn't watch any of them. No.

[00:28:30] - [Speaker 0]
I don't watch any at all. So the report stated at the very end of the day that a number of theories had been put forward as to what the ghost was. And believe it or not, the general consensus was rats. Oh, okay. So basically, scrambling noises behind the walls and that's all it takes is to become a ghost back in nineteen twenties Aberdeen.

[00:28:52] - [Speaker 0]
Yeah. I feel feel like I've cheated you people by putting that story across because it wasn't half as funny as the one before. Well, it wasn't funny at all. I should have made some bits up and thrown it in there.

[00:29:05] - [Speaker 1]
Oh, dear

[00:29:06] - [Speaker 0]
dear. But anyway, let's not dwell on these things.

[00:29:08] - [Speaker 1]
Don't dwell. No. You're bitter at all, are you, Greg?

[00:29:13] - [Speaker 2]
Pardon? You're not bitter at all.

[00:29:15] - [Speaker 0]
I'm not bitter. Karen's got the best stories this episode.

[00:29:21] - [Speaker 1]
Right. We are off to Canada.

[00:29:23] - [Speaker 0]
Oh, crickety.

[00:29:25] - [Speaker 1]
Yes. So we're going across, cross over to Quebec, I think.

[00:29:30] - [Speaker 0]
Mhmm. Yes.

[00:29:31] - [Speaker 1]
So this is the dag farm talking poltergeist. Have you heard of it before?

[00:29:36] - [Speaker 0]
I don't think I have actually. No. Must be a newbie.

[00:29:39] - [Speaker 1]
Indeed. Yes. So the family lived on a farm.

[00:29:44] - [Speaker 0]
Yeah.

[00:29:44] - [Speaker 1]
And the disturbances reportedly began in September 1889. Right. So another old one. And the farm is near Shawville, Incubic in Canada. So it's a Georgian Susan Dagg, lived with their young children, and 11 year old Dana Burden McLean.

[00:30:04] - [Speaker 1]
Dana had come from Scotland through a child's immigration scheme, as contemporary accounts described her as the adopted daughter of the Dax. So the trouble began when money started to go missing and a boy employed around the farm was suspected. But the disturbances still continued after he's removed. Well, that's...

[00:30:26] - [Speaker 0]
Oh, that's rotten.

[00:30:27] - [Speaker 1]
No. He lost his job for nothing.

[00:30:29] - [Speaker 0]
Did do the job back?

[00:30:31] - [Speaker 1]
So reports describe broken windows, unexplained fires, disturbed food and moving household objects. Disturbed. But Peppa looks very disturbed.

[00:30:44] - [Speaker 0]
Yeah, that's the reason she'd go and get some therapy with that poor food.

[00:30:48] - [Speaker 1]
Indeed, yes. So witness associated the activity within Diana's presence and this raised suspicion but did not establish responsibility.

[00:30:58] - [Speaker 0]
Right.

[00:30:59] - [Speaker 1]
So in later retellings, Dana complained that something unseen was put in her hair. Mhmm. And during another instant, adults encouraged her to strike a figure only she could see with a whip. Mhmm. Witnesses supposedly heard a squeal.

[00:31:15] - [Speaker 1]
A later written message complained about the blows. These details are reported claims and not independently established evidence. So apparently, said spooky, complained about being whipped and completing a message. That's I a

[00:31:36] - [Speaker 0]
don't know who could feel anything.

[00:31:38] - [Speaker 1]
Well, you wouldn't have thought so.

[00:31:40] - [Speaker 0]
I believe you.

[00:31:40] - [Speaker 1]
So then a voice apparently joins in, a deep masculine voice reportedly begins speaking. You could answer people, argue and threaten them. The voice had a change in identity. Accounts described it presenting itself as a troublesome spirit and later claimed to be an angel. According to one report, it then lost its temper and said, it's rather unsuitable for a heavenly visitor.'

[00:32:10] - [Speaker 0]
Voidy.

[00:32:13] - [Speaker 1]
'Venquiloquism', I can't say that word, ventriloquism became a proposed explanation.

[00:32:20] - [Speaker 0]
Oh, yeah.

[00:32:21] - [Speaker 1]
So apparently an artist called Percy Woodcock visited in November.

[00:32:26] - [Speaker 2]
Don't. Brace, lace it out. No relation to...

[00:32:33] - [Speaker 0]
Never mind.

[00:32:33] - [Speaker 2]
No, don't go there.

[00:32:34] - [Speaker 1]
Visited in November 1889 to investigate, and he published an account describing conversations with the voice, which initially presented itself as Satan.

[00:32:47] - [Speaker 0]
Crikey.

[00:32:48] - [Speaker 1]
And used offensive language. So Woodcock challenged its behaviour. The Voice supposedly apologised, although its good manners did not last long. He also blamed a neighbour for the disturbances, then reportedly withdrew the accusation when challenged. This is bizarre.

[00:33:08] - [Speaker 0]
Yeah. Would Satan do that? Would Satan, I'm really sorry.

[00:33:12] - [Speaker 1]
Would an angel do that either?

[00:33:13] - [Speaker 0]
Probably not. So

[00:33:15] - [Speaker 1]
by the end of the accounts, the troublesome presence was expressing religious sentiments and singing hymns. Neighbours gathered for its promised departure. So that's just weird. So human voice and practical trickery was a plausible explanation. Dana was suspected as the culprit.

[00:33:38] - [Speaker 0]
It's always the kids,

[00:33:39] - [Speaker 1]
isn't it? It's always the kids.

[00:33:40] - [Speaker 0]
It's the kids.

[00:33:41] - [Speaker 1]
But I just thought it was funny. He starts swearing at you and

[00:33:44] - [Speaker 0]
Yeah.

[00:33:45] - [Speaker 1]
I'm an angel. No. I'm a devil.

[00:33:48] - [Speaker 0]
That's wild. So this actually was a newspaper article in around... Oh, crikey. It's a long time ago, 1880.

[00:33:57] - [Speaker 1]
Uh-huh.

[00:33:57] - [Speaker 0]
And again, up north in in King's College near Aberdeen Mhmm. A place called Snow Kirk. Most people probably walk by Snowcirk and never realize it's a very old graveyard, teeny tiny graveyard where a lot of ex university workers or principals, if that's the right word to use, were buried. And it's interesting. It's very, very ancient and there's a guy buried there called Priest Gordon.

[00:34:23] - [Speaker 0]
Priest Gordon founded Blair's Catholic School among many other things, but he's very well liked in Aberdeen, so it's a great philanthropist at the time and when he passed away, and I think it was about 1860, this humongous crowd, like 50,000 people turned up for his funeral or something. But anyway, that's that's the small Kirk, the the the Snow Kirk. Anyway, basically, there is a rumor and has been for years that it's haunted. And so the last person buried there is meant to be the ghost. Mhmm.

[00:34:55] - [Speaker 0]
And the ghost can't rest till the next person gets put in. But of course, they stop biting people. Right. So whoever was lost, the ghost. Okay.

[00:35:04] - [Speaker 0]
Forevermore. According to story. So that's the way it goes. So basically what happened was people claimed that they heard the voice of Charles Gordon or Priest Gordon, a kindly voice heard in the graveyard. Sometimes he would speak in either Broadscots or Latin, and this is true, Broadscots, because he was known to speak very broad, you know, Doric language, and even the bishop himself had told him to kind of, you know, tone it down a bit for the old congregation because was very broad, what is called the Aberdeen vernacular.

[00:35:42] - [Speaker 0]
Anyway, a servant girl from the nearby Manz was the first to claim to have heard his voice, a fact that was corroborated by her boyfriend who was with her at the time. However, others in the company questioned whether a priest, dead or otherwise, would swear so prolifically because when she heard the voice, he was he was effing and blinding, basically.

[00:36:01] - [Speaker 1]
Of I

[00:36:02] - [Speaker 0]
know he was. Considering this, several volunteers keen to get the bottom of mystery then hid amongst the remains of the derelict Snow Kirk in the hope of hearing the voice. Soon after, they were not disappointed when the ghost appeared, but disappointingly, the spirit turned out to be no more than a young youth, a callow youth who was the third part of a love triangle with the court and couple. Oh. So essentially, he was chasing the girl and every time she appeared they were boyfriend, he would hide amongst tomb stones and swear hoping that they would they would split up, I guess.

[00:36:43] - [Speaker 0]
He was seized by locals and he admitted on requesting that due to jealousy, he'd try to scare off the other lad. In court, he denied trying to imitate the priest's ghosty rather claiming he was scared enough lying among the graves in the dark without doing anything to anger or rouse their occupants. It was said that during proceedings that apparently the guilty party's rich vocabulary had been mistaken for the Roman tongue. So it wasn't... They everybody thought he was speaking Latin but actually was swearing.

[00:37:13] - [Speaker 0]
There you go. No charges brought against him and that was the end of. However, the persistent stories of the ghost still continues to this day. Oh. There's no card.

[00:37:24] - [Speaker 0]
So tiny, I thought it's... I didn't even know if we're... Where he could have possibly hidden in there. Oh. I mean, honestly, there's only about 30 headstones or something.

[00:37:32] - [Speaker 0]
Right. But anyway, that's what happened. I know. Some people go at the ends of the earth, do they? They did.

[00:37:38] - [Speaker 0]
Hide them...

[00:37:38] - [Speaker 1]
But you say it's still still to this day though, this...

[00:37:41] - [Speaker 0]
Well, allegedly. I mean I mean, I remember there was a book called Ghoulies and Ghosties by Stanley Robertson and he wrote about it too, but the ghosts meant to chase people

[00:37:54] - [Speaker 2]
Right.

[00:37:54] - [Speaker 0]
Near the Snowcark. And there is a story of a woman apparently seeing a spirit there from about 1968, which was probably the last major one that was written about, I think. Who knows? Who knows? Indeed.

[00:38:12] - [Speaker 1]
Okay. Right. Well, another one I think you've got to brace yourself for.

[00:38:17] - [Speaker 0]
I mean,

[00:38:19] - [Speaker 1]
isn't particularly haunting, it's more like a medical hoax. But it is very bizarre. Anyway, so it's a lady called Mary Toft. So Mary Toft lived in Godelming in Surrey, these women that live in Godelming. I'm probably now upset at the people of Godelming now.

[00:38:42] - [Speaker 1]
Never mind. Anyway, so Mary Toft lived in Godelwing in Surrey, and she married to Joshua Toft, who was a clothing worker and already had children. So this actually does go back to 1726.

[00:38:58] - [Speaker 0]
So

[00:38:59] - [Speaker 1]
it is quite an old one. So in August 1726, she unfortunately suffered a miscarriage. And following the month, she began apparently producing animal remains during episodes resembling labor.

[00:39:13] - [Speaker 0]
Oh, God.

[00:39:15] - [Speaker 1]
So John Howard, a surgeon from nearby Guildford, attended Mary and reported increasingly remarkable deliveries, including rabbit parts and dead rabbits.

[00:39:28] - [Speaker 0]
Oh, God.

[00:39:30] - [Speaker 1]
He contact prominent medical men and the royal court. What began in a Surrey household became a national sensation, apparently. So on 11/15/1726, Nathaniel St Andre, surgeon and anatomist to George the first visited with court official Samuel Moilay. So Andrew's become convinced that the extraordinary births were genuine.

[00:39:59] - [Speaker 0]
Alright.

[00:40:00] - [Speaker 1]
The story drew on the contemporary theory that a maternal impression, the idea that a pregnant woman experiences fears or desires what physically affects her unborn child. Mary's account involved chasing rabbits, developing a tense craving for rabbit meat. This supplied an explanation for what some people could fit into their existing beliefs. But the doctors were divided. Yeah.

[00:40:31] - [Speaker 1]
So not the entire medical profession.

[00:40:35] - [Speaker 0]
Mean... That

[00:40:35] - [Speaker 1]
means that she can give birth to

[00:40:36] - [Speaker 0]
a To a bunny, yeah.

[00:40:38] - [Speaker 1]
So another investigator, Siracus Achler, which is a marvellous name.

[00:40:45] - [Speaker 0]
A good name spot there, didn't it?

[00:40:47] - [Speaker 1]
It's Sammaged Rabbit's remains and found evidence suggesting that the animals had lived and fed normally outside Mary's body. Mary was taken to Lucy Magnonia, a bathhouse in London's Leicester Fields, for close observation. Under Schupenny, the supply of rabbits stopped.

[00:41:12] - [Speaker 0]
Oh my god.

[00:41:13] - [Speaker 1]
A porter was then caught, attempted to bring a rabbit into her room. He said Mary's sister-in-law had asked him to obtain it.

[00:41:21] - [Speaker 0]
What the heck?

[00:41:22] - [Speaker 1]
So on the 04/07/1726, Mary admitted this deception after being threatened with painful experimental surgery. Well I think that would

[00:41:33] - [Speaker 0]
be yes, it's not true at all.

[00:41:38] - [Speaker 1]
The method involved concealing dead rabbits and other animal parts inside her body, then having them removed as an apparent birth.

[00:41:47] - [Speaker 0]
My Lord.

[00:41:48] - [Speaker 1]
Her confessions implicated other people but changed over time and were obtained under pressure. Her precise motives of responsibility of everyone involved remains difficult to establish. So, yeah, Mary was imprisoned in Bridwell and consequently released without the case being pursued to conviction. And she returned to Godelming and died in 1763. The scandal inspired set out prints including works by William Hogarth, mocking the medical men involved.

[00:42:24] - [Speaker 1]
And it became a story about professional credibility as well as deception. So I just think that's really became bizarre. I mean, why why would she want to do that?

[00:42:34] - [Speaker 0]
Yeah. I know. And it it must have been painful, I would imagine. And, yeah, it's horrible, really. I'm sure there's a condition of some description

[00:42:47] - [Speaker 1]
I'm sure to do. Probably is. Yeah. So it's just just really weird. Very weird one, that one.

[00:42:53] - [Speaker 0]
Oh, well.

[00:42:54] - [Speaker 1]
There you I mean, poor button up there. I would ask, were the bunnies alive?

[00:42:58] - [Speaker 0]
Yes. I was thinking that. That's what did pass my mind, but I thought, should I should I ask that question or keep schtum? Yeah. Were they alive?

[00:43:06] - [Speaker 0]
Good god.

[00:43:07] - [Speaker 1]
Deary me. But anyway, yeah. So that that's weird one. Yeah. Very weird.

[00:43:12] - [Speaker 0]
Very good. Very Very

[00:43:13] - [Speaker 1]
good. Right.

[00:43:14] - [Speaker 0]
I've got one more story and it's it's a very short story, but it's quite funny. It's literally a quote, I suppose. It's Boness. Boness.

[00:43:26] - [Speaker 1]
Oh, no. Boness. Yes. It's... So,

[00:43:28] - [Speaker 0]
it sits 17 miles Northwest of Edinburgh close to the Firth Of Forth and has of course, like most towns, has a smattering of creepy stories and legends attached to it. And regarding this, I was passed on the story by Stuart Simpson who provided some historical or should I say hysterical information regarding a place called Keneel House. I hope I'm pronouncing it correctly. Keneel House. This is what he said.

[00:44:00] - [Speaker 0]
So basically, my great uncle John Simpson was custodian at Keneel House for many years. He was something of a character and used to regale visitors with tales of drinking tea or playing cards with the ghost of Lady Alice. She was a previous owner. And then he had the audacity to claim that she cheated all the time. So anyway, he was at the center of what was called the Great Ghost Scare in the 1960s where hundreds of people locally turned up in the hope of seeing something.

[00:44:39] - [Speaker 0]
So the manifestation was appearing at night and of course, typically the rumors spread that it was this lady. The man infestation seems to have been audible rather than sighting. For in the end, an asthmatic owl was claimed to be responsible for the strange croaking noises That's

[00:45:02] - [Speaker 1]
magic cow. Oh, poor owl.

[00:45:04] - [Speaker 0]
I know. Other suggestions to the hauntings were attributed to the sound of the barn running nearby traveling through a tunnel under the house. And the legend is that the good lady jumped out of the window in the barn whilst in spate. It was apparently the daily record that actually we first put the story out there. Yeah.

[00:45:27] - [Speaker 0]
It fizzled out basically. It turned out basically he had made up stuff. They bought him a book actually. They bought the guy a ghost book and they had him sitting in a chair pretending like, you know, his hair was raising and he's talking about the ghost, but it was. It was just a to see thing.

[00:45:45] - [Speaker 0]
But I mean, when the nineteen sixties, there still were hundreds of people willing to turn up at the drop of a hat. It was claimed to be an owl just could be making a croaking noise. Ridiculous, really. No actual physical sightings of the woman, apart from his uncle who claimed he played cards with her, but I don't think that's... Well, he maybe did.

[00:46:05] - [Speaker 0]
He did say he was eccentric.

[00:46:07] - [Speaker 1]
Yeah.

[00:46:09] - [Speaker 0]
Who knows? But anyway, that's that. That's my not so true ghost stories for this episode.

[00:46:18] - [Speaker 1]
We've had a lot there. We've had like, what, people making love in the road. We've had Scrap Jim Fanny. Yeah. We've had people with...

[00:46:25] - [Speaker 1]
Yeah. All sorts of things.

[00:46:26] - [Speaker 0]
It's all happening.

[00:46:27] - [Speaker 1]
All happening.

[00:46:28] - [Speaker 0]
And probably more to come. I mean, there's still stories pop up now and then in the papers that stretch one's credulity.

[00:46:36] - [Speaker 1]
Indeed. And you think, what on earth's going on there? I know. I know. Anyway, until next time.

[00:46:44] - [Speaker 1]
Keep the lights on, still scared.