Miss Blackwood's Neighborhood Tales - Update

I have a hard time leaving things alone and subjects I research and write about are no different. In my continuing research of the Hope Development School fire case I was able to locate a memorial marker, over a mass grave for the victims. It is located in a cemetery in Inglewood in an older, rarely visited section of the cemetery. I will visit them soon, with a flower for each of the girls.

To read the complete story: http://merricatblackwood.blogspot.com/2010/01/miss-blackwoods-neighborhood-tales.html

Who Put Bella In The Wych Elm?

In the midland of England there is a place called Hagley Wood. An isolated spot that sits in the country, shadowed by the Clent Hills.

One day in 1943 four young boys from nearby Stourbridge set out to take advantage of the sunny day that April was offering them.

Boys of the era engaged in a variety of interesting pastimes, now long forgotten. The most common or popular manuals of the day included such inspired options, complete with detailed instructions for making kites, traps, guns, taxidermy and insect collection and decorative displays.

Today the boys set out to do some bird nesting so that they might expand their collections of preserved eggs and nests. Along the way the boys crossed over into Hagley Wood. There they happened upon a large hazel tree, mistaken for a wytch elm, an unusual but aptly named tree, for the sight of it’s twisted and gnarled branches, evoked something both sinister and mysterious.

The oldest of the boys, Bob, climbed up onto the tree to search for a nest in a deep hole. Bob looked into the hole which provided a view of the hollowed out trunk. Seeing something he suspects is an old animal skull he reaches within and pulls out instead a human skull.





There is still a small patch of of rotting flesh attached to the forehead…as well as some hair. The two front teeth are crooked.

Shocked and horrified at their discovery while trespassing on private land, the boys replace the skull in the tree and agree to tell no one.

However, as in all good fairy tales the youngest child always represents the conscience. Tommy Willetts cannot carry the burden of such a terrible secret for long and tells his father what they had fond.

Tommy’s father informs the Worchestershire County Police Force. When they arrive at the wych elm the following morning they find not only the skull but a nearly complete skeleton, fragments of clothing, a pair of crepe shoes and a gold wedding ring.

Another alarming discovery was made upon an extensive search of the area and surrounding undergrowth – a severed hand that had clearly been buried.

Professor James Webster, head of forensics at the home office forensic science lab in the west midlands, took over the task of examining the body and other evidence collected at the scene.

Webster’s examination suggested that the remains belonged to a woman, approximately 35 years old. She was mother to at least one child. She also had been dead for 18 months prior to the boys discovery – which would place the incident in the month of October of 1941.

The coroner officially declared the cause of death, murder by asphyxiation. You see, her mouth had been stuffed with taffeta – a fabric most commonly used for party dresses. She had been put in the hole while her body was still warm.

Then , there was still the unusual matter of the severed hand. What motive or intent would cause such an act? Speculation immediately turned to black magic and the possibility of the desire to create a hand of glory. Potter fans will remember Draco obtaining one of these from Bourgin and Burkes to help smuggle Death Eaters into Hogwats. But enough about my fandoms.

Bella, a popular name in Black Country, was being used by some to describe the unknown victim. The name stuck when Margaret Murray, a professor at University College in London pressed the idea that the severed hand was evidence of a black magic execution. The wych hazel tree, belladonna and even Hagley Wood itself were all rumored to be associated with witchcraft. Had Bella perhaps been executed for crimes against a coven – or even her own coven?

The forensics team was able to recreate a description for the evidence culled. An exhaustive search of missing persons files and dental records were fruitless. Then, in December the words began to appear.

First in nearby old hill, another in Birmingham, all seemingly written by the same hand asking “Who put Bella in the wych elm?"

Who indeed?






The years went on with no new information on the case. The writing and the question persisted, however, there was the implication that maybe, just maybe the hand behind the writing knew…something. Pleas to the writer to contact the police went unanswered. Then, in 1953, Anna arrived on the scene, bringing with her a new theory.

The Wolverhamption Express and Star ran a piece about the case. The journalist responsible for the piece was contacted by someone calling themselves “Anna.”

Anna had claimed that Bella had been playing the role of the spy who knew too much and had been murdered for what she knew, about a pro Nazi spy ring that included a Dutchman, a British officer that had gone insane and died and a trapeze artist. The police investigated Anna’s claims, and some of them were verified, lending aid to the rumors that two German parachutists had landed and vanished in the surrounding area in 1941. They were supposedly helping to guide bombers to munitions factories in surrounding areas.

Things were beginning to look promising and then, came the news that Bella’s remains had suddenly gone missing from Birmingham Medical University School where they were housed. This prompted an onslaught of suspicion that information was being suppressed to protect persons of some importance. No one ever suggested who was being protected, or exactly why and the trails laid out by Anna seemed to lead…nowhere. No arrests were ever made.

Many subsequent theories have been put forth over the years but none of them seem likely. Perhaps Bella’s child had been fathered by a GI who wanted to get rid of her. But then, what happened to the child and why the wedding ring? Or, maybe Bella was a local woman who fled and hid in the woods during an air raid and fell victim to someone. If so, why would she not come up in a missing persons report, especially being married and having a child? Perhaps a prostitute that had been killed and dumped? This doesn’t quite make sense either.

To this day, the police will not allow anyone access to the case files, citing that Bella’s case is still open.

Locals claim Bella haunts the wood.

The sound of a woman crying and screaming is often heard and strange lights are seen.
In Wychbury Hill, located opposite Hagley Wood, there is a pub that used to be called The Gypsy’s Tent – so named for the Gypsies common to the area. As the legend goes, a number of Gypsies who were camping near Bella’s tree were brutally murdered there. The pub has been renamed The Badger’s Set. Both patrons and employees tell stories of doors opening of their own accord, cold spots and objects being moved. Some think it might be Bella. If it is, she might have some company.

An account from a Detective Constable Roger Ryder, ran in the Black Country Bugle in 2007. One summer night around 2 o’clock in the morning, Detective Ryder was driving past the pub. Out of the corner of his eye he sees that the Badger’s Set is all lit up and glowing brightly. As his car gets closer, the figure of a man emerges in the parking lot area. He is dressed like an old cavalier soldier - in boots, big hat, the red uniform and a sword. Logically, he assumed there is what the Brits call a “Fancy Dress Party” going down. The man runs right into the road and their eyes meet. At this point Ryder thinks to himself, “If this guy keeps running, I will never be able to stop the car in time.” Of course, the uniformed man does just that.

Ryder had been going sixty miles an hour but he slams on his breaks anyway, knowing it is too late. The car screeches to a halt, whilst spinning on it’s axis – a full 180. It finally came to a stop facing the opposite direction. He sits there, stunned. Knowing he has just killed a man. Ryder finally exists the car and goes to find the body. There is nothing there. He checks the nearby field, the hedges and under the car itself. There is no sign of the uniformed man nor that he has hit anything. He also notices that it is eerily quiet. Ryder looks over toward The Badger’s Set and finds it in total darkness.

Haunted Houses

Corrine May Botz's body of work is fascinating. I've posted about her Nutshell Studies Of Unexplained Death earlier this year. She is a storyteller, of sorts - through her photography, film and in this case oral collection of ghost stories. Of the collection, Botz says:

The series was inspired by turn of the century spirit photographs and Victorian ghost stories written by women as a means of articulating domestic discontents. In being the medium through which the spirit of these houses was recorded, I continued the tradition of female sensitivity to the supernatural.

Haunted Houses provides a unique way of understanding our relationship to the spaces we inhabit, and reflects romantic and dystopian notions of the domestic realm. The notion of hauntedness activates and highlights the home, revealing the hidden narratives and possibilities of everyday life.

Haunted Houses includes an archive of first-hand ghost stories. The stories were collected on location and over the phone. They range in length from a few minutes to an hour. The voice is captured much like the space. Both image and text are haunted by absence, history, memory, and the possibility of never being seen or heard. Unlike the majority of horror films where the ghosts arrive as a result of an inopportune death, or to right a wrong, the inhabitants of these houses are often at a loss for why the ghosts are there, and in some cases the ghost is considered a source of comfort.


The photographs: http://www.corinnebotz.com/Corinne_May_Botz/Haunted_1.html


The stories: http://www.corinnebotz.com/Corinne_May_Botz/Stories.html

Inside The Box

Across the street from my grandmother's house, just behind the train tracks, is ABC Caskets Factory. Opened in 1933 ABC is now the oldest casket factory in California.

They boast the unusual feature of a showroom, where those in need can select from the variety of models displayed in lieu of a catalog. Unusual requests come in, of course - fake fur, all-american, a 900 pound relative? No problem. Of course, Hollywood comes calling frequently. ABC's coffins are frequently seen on television and film.

A few shots from my visit:

The Devil's Weed

Colonists arrived on the shores of Jamestown Island in 1607. At first look, this was an ideal location. No native inhabitants, prefect visibility to watch for any Spanish ships approaching. A safe, insulated place. As we all know, looks are so often deceiving.

In reality, a lack of any vegetative sustenance, no wildlife for hunting, a filthy water supply and a voracious mosquito population made the island a very poor home, indeed. It was however, overrun with a particularly attractive weed, that sported pretty, trumpetlike flowers which some of the settlers took the chance with by adding them to their food and drink.

The weed took hold of them quickly causing convulsions, hallucinations and failure of their respiratory systems resulting in death.

Seventy years later when British soldiers arrived, descendants of the original settlers remembered their history well and placed the plant into the soldier's food. They did not die, but instead went mad - for eleven days. ."..the effect of which was a very pleasant comedy, for they turned natural fools upon it for several days: one would blow up a feather in the air; another would dart straws at it with much fury; and another, stark naked, was sitting up in a corner like a monkey, grinning and making mows [grimaces] at them; a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and sneer in their faces with a countenance more antic than any in a Dutch droll.

In this frantic condition they were confined, lest they should, in their folly, destroy themselves — though it was observed that all their actions were full of innocence and good nature. Indeed, they were not very cleanly; for they would have wallowed in their own excrements, if they had not been prevented. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after eleven days returned themselves again, not remembering anything that had passed." - The History and Present State of Virginia, 1705

It's Two, Two, Two Dogs In One!

The work of Russian surgeon, Vladimir Petrovich Demikhov, known as the grandfather of what he called "transplantology," revolutionized the medical world and through his work organ transplant became possible. Um, not before some crazy experimenting with animal heads, first.

http://youtu.be/uvZThr3POlQ

Medicinal Cannibalism

'The human body has been widely used as a therapeutic agent with the most popular treatments involving flesh, bone or blood."
- Dr. Sugg