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Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Great Mysteries   of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
the                    •


Unex
Great Mysteries   of the 20th Century




        JENNY R A ND L E S



              INDEX
First published in Great Britain in 1994 by
Anaya Publishers Limited 3rd Floor, Strode House
44-50 Osnaburgh Street London NWI 3ND


Text copyright© 1994 Jenny Randles


All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted   ,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior written permission of the copyright owner.


British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data


Randles, Jenny
The Unexplained: Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
  I. Title
  001.9


ISBN 1-85470-178-9 (hardback only)
ISBN 1-85470-086-3 (paperback only)


Designed by Glynn Pickerill
Design Production by The R & B Partnership
Edited by John Gilbert
Printed and bound in Portugal




Cover photographs by Fortean Picture Library
Frontispiece, of a medium producing ectoplasm in a
1920 experiment, by Fortean Picture Library
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION                                 6

19��]9�9    rrhe New Centurv
                           I
                                             8

191�[1919   Portents of Var               20

ln�J19l9    rrhe Roaring rlventies        36

19J�]9J9    A Shrinking rVorlcl            44

194�JI949   Disaster and Recovery           52

191�]1919   Alien Encounters                66

196�]969    The Space Race                  86

197� ]979   Challenge of the Paranonnal    I02

198�]989    Society and the U ncxplained   II4

T�e 199��   �rhe Future Beckons            I26

an� onwar�...                              I3 8

            Further Reading                139

            Index                          I42

            Acknowledgen1ents              144
INTRODUCTION

                          D      u ri ng the twe ntieth ce n t ury the s t ra n gest
                                 t hings have h appened bot h in the worl d s of
                          scien ce and of parascience.
                            So-called normal science has witnessed a
                          revo lution so i m me n se as to equal or even surpass
                          those pion eered by N e w to n a n d Galileo. vVe h ave
                               reached upward and outward int o space ,

DrJWII1g    or the                     p robed the in terior of t h e a tom,
'Jersey Dev1l'.
Phrlacielphi<J f venrng                 discove red h idden rad iation s ,
Bu/letrn. jdnudry 1909
                                        revealed a ghost u niverse fil led wit h
                              time-travel ling phantoms and created
                                   techn olog ical miracles u nforeseen even by
                                   the writers of science fictio n. The si n i s ter
                                   side to th ese achieve m e n ts is the
                                    un leash i n g of natu ral catastrophes and
                                    the forgi n g of weapons capable of ending
                                    life on Eart h . No sin gle ce n tury i n history
                                     can m atch this record of i nven t iven ess,
                                     with its unl i m ited poten tial for crea tion
                                     a n d destru ction.
                                         In t he wake of t h is   o-
                                                                  �
                                                                       a l l o iJin � char<re
                                                                                    u
                                                                                          �


                                      by t he forces of ration alism has come a
                                     deluge of p a ran ormal p h e n o me n a I h a t
                                    seem s t o herald a ret u r n t o t h e distant age
                          of s uperstition. Ve have been asked to believe in
                          f�tiries and spacemen , we have sought f(Jr meaning




                                        ITJ
i n past lives a n d we have u sed com p u t ers to probe
t h e futu re . Our ocea n s h ave teetued with m o n sters,
o u r fields h a ve been speckled wit h m y s te rious
circ les a n d our sk ies h ave been overflown by
dazz l i n g fleets of U FOs.

   It seems ap propriate, as the cen tury draws to a
close, to review the logbook of the last h u ndred years,
examining some of t hese remarkable even ts and

developments to see how t h i n gs may inter-relate.
   To t h i s end I h ave d evised       a   c h ro nol ogy of t e n
m os t e x t raord i nary decades , descr ib i n g m a n y of
t h e broa d trends a n d i n dividual mvsteries that
                                                 I




h ave paralleled, a n d often o u t stripped , t h e realities
of I�Kt a n d t h e l�mtasies of fiction . They h a ve
woven t hei r way, l ike an i n visible threa d , through              Sw John Hunt    leading the Everest
                                                                       exped1tion of   1951   The
t h e a n n als of t h is lascinating                                  H1malayas   have been the    scene
                                                                       of several alleged sight1ngs of the

period to cre;:tle a tapestry of                                       Abom1nable Snowman.


awesome bea u t y o u ts h i n i n g
                        ,




a n yt h i n g i n t h e pages of t he
Ambim1 Nights.
   So c l i m b aboard ou r m agic
carpet for a ride t h rough the
t we n tieth century.  V h o
knows w h a t wonders w e
s h a l l confi·on t?




                                                 ITJ
THE NEW CENTURY
 ; s t h e twe n t ie t h centu ry dawn ed , t h a n ks to
fi_ Da rwi n s t h eo rv of evolu t ion, t he b i rt h of
psych oanalysis as pion eered by S i gm u n d Freud
                   '
                             '




a nd t h e e x pe r i m e n tal research of Anton Pavlov,
science seemed dose t o creat i n g an ordered,
predictable world peopled by aut o m ata: a godless
U n i verse w i t h n o s p i r i t, no soul and no aherlile .
   More encou rag i n g were the first l�1lteri n g steps
         �ravitv-free enviro n m e n t as sc i e n t is t s a n d
i n to a u
aviators converted age-old dreams i nto real i t y.
               '




   Yet, as t rad it io n al rel igion declined , t h e hu m a n
spi rit rebel led. creat i n g n e w modes of e x p ression
f(:>r its i n ner worl d , as if to prove to sci ence t h a t all
was n ot qui t e as s i m ple as i t seemed.




                 [JJ
19��
                                                                Boxi n g Day. the t lu-ee m e n left i n charge
                                                                had     vanished.         :'o   weapons         had      been
         14   FEBRUARY                                         touched a n d there was no trace of a distur­
                                                               bance. The last log entry by the men. dated
 T H E VAN I S H I NG AT H A N G I N G ROCK
                                                                15 December, referred to t he calmness of
 O n e oft he most astonishing disappearances                   t he sea after the ending of a s t ra n ge storm
 on record t ook place at              Ha nging Rock,           not renlrded twen t�· miles away, a n d men­
 ncar : lclbournc, 'inoria, :ustralia. T h i s               t io n ed t hat they were afraid, praying and
 w a s recorded i n 1 he book Pirnic at 1/anging                allirmi n g that 'God is oYer all'.
 Roth   by Joan Lindsay (1967), a n d was also



                                                              19�1
 t h e subject of a n cthcrcal and eerie 197 5
 film of the same title by Peter 'eir. The
 book, although labelled a novel, is by impli­                        JUNE
 cation based on Ctrt. It tells of a school
                                                               AN EARLY CLOSE E N C O U N T E R
 party on a day outin g at the isolated beauty
 spot, a n d hm,· four teenage girls and a                      The first rcconlcd dose encounter of the
 female teacher vanished after setti n g off, i n               third   kind     (or alien contact) occurred at
 sight o f m a n y colleagues. t o explore a rock               Bournbrook, 'est ilidlands, England, when
 lace in the bush. One girl retur n e d in a                    an objefl like      a   'hut' was seen in      a   garden by
 slate of deep shock. Another, in an equallr                    a youth. It contained two slllall men. under 4
 cat atonic rondit ion, was found a week lat er.                feet tall, wearing khaki suits and helmets, one
 :'either could explain what had occurred.                     of whom         approached             the wimess bd(lre
 The three missin g members of the part}'                       rctuming i nside. The o�jefl ncated an clcr­
 were llC cr found. A strange pink cloud                       trical glow around its base and took oil' sky­
 seen    hm·ering         near    br   reinforced       the     ward wit h a whooshing noise.
 supernatural ,·iew that ther had slipped



                                                              19�11
 into anothct· d imen s ion or time. The eve n t
 strtL(·k a cl10rd deep in t h e psyche because
 of i t s diren rhallcnge to s(·icnti(i(· omn ipo­                      0 AUGUST
 tence. On the other hand, whereas manr of
                                                               T I M E S L I P AT V E RSAILLES
 the people a n d plares did historically exist,
 the Joan      Lin dsay     no'el rontains serious             Two English srhoolteachcrs, A n n e :tuber­
 errors of f;lct and no contemporary media                      ley a n d Eleanor Jourdain, were on holiday
 accounts     refer   to    the    vanishings.     'hen       in    France.       Visitin g the        grou n ds     of the
 asked in 1977 if she had i nvented it all, the                 Palace of Versailles             011   a hot sun ny day,
 author replied, e nigmatically, that this was                  they claimed to have been projected more
 impossible to answe r because 'fact a n d fic­                 than a century back in time. They came
 tion are so dosclv i n t ert wi ned'.
                      I
                                                                across the Petit Trianon, the small chateau
                                                                giYcn by Louis X'1 to llarie-,ntoniette, as



19��
                                                                it had been on 10 August 1792, the h is t oric
                                                                day     when    the      French royal           family      was
         MID-DECEMBER                                           forced lo flee. The 1 wo women wa ndered
                                                                pat hwa'S      that      no     longet·     existed,       saw
 THE L I G H T H O U S E D I SAPP EARAN C E
                                                                people in old-fashioned clothi n g and even
 On G     Dc(·ember, .Joseph :loore             Jell   for     witnessed       a    woman        busy     pai nting       who
 three weeks' lca'e from t he desolate Eilean                  stared them ti.t ll in t he face and bm·e t h e
 :lor ligh t house on the Flaunan I sles, west                 resemblance o f           :laric-Antoinetle          herself.
 of Lewis, Scotland. 'hen he returned o n                     Only     f(lllowin g later 'isits          to the scene.



                                                                                                           T H E N E W C ENT U R Y
Above: the Pet1t T nanon, Versailles.
                         Below: Eleanor ]ourda1n and Anne Moberley




T H E N E W CE NTU R Y
when they noted that pathways they had                     momentum            and        remained              constant
 trodden in 190 I had since 'anished, and                  throughout the rest of the century. The
 when subsequently researching the history                  slaughter    or world           wars       and      countless
 of the grounds, did they come to under­                    bloody      local       conflicts      brought           many
 stand many of these e'ents.                               bereaved rush i ng to Spiritual ist churches
      The women stood by their story until                  for comfort.
 their deaths, despite sceptical claims that                  The real reason for this sun:ess was that,
 they had stumbled across a costume party                   while conventional religions called for Ctith
 (the existence of which was ne,·ei- verified).             as a path toward solace, they had no way of
 They described a llat feel to the imagery                  combating the ad'ance of science. Indeed,
 and    other   strange     sensations     typical    of    some sects hn.>ke away and attempted to
 more recent sl i ps through time: and some                 bring hack a p u ritanical way of life and                     to
 modern      researchers think this is indeed               restore literal belief in the truth of the Old
 what       happened.       Somehow        they      slid   Testamelll stories that had by now been
 through the years or 'tuned into' a memory                 severely    eroded        by    rationalism.         On the
 left by the Queen in the grounds of the                    other hand, Spiritual i s m olfen�d hard evi­
 chateau.                                                   dence, albeit in the guise or              m ediu m s     pass­
                                                            ing on often ,·ague tittle-tattle about dead



I�Ol
                                                            relatives and friends. But for many that was
                                                            sufficiently persuasi'e.
                                                              The only answer science had was to cry
                                                            'cheat' and, often without any proof of this
 T R I U M P H OF T H E S P I R I T
                                                            assumption,     to       argue      that     people       were
 As the century began, mysterious e'ents                   deluding themselves. Thm, at one and the
 such as these confirmed the 'iew of many                  same time, Spiritualism established a har­
 ordinary people that science was mistaken                  rier that science, with all its might, could
 to    presume    that      all   things   could      be    barely dent: and it offered hope to a world
 resol'ed. The scient ilic desire to pro'e the            fast being stripped to its spiritual bones.
 soul redundant was matched by the increas­                   Inevitably, as a consequence of this and
 ing belief in Spiritualism.                                the maxim that one could fool some people
      This mm·ement had begun in the eastern                most or the time,              charlatans cashed in.
 United      States    after      simple   messages,        Phoney mediums sprang up all over the
 believed to come from beyond the grave,                    place. The new gadgetry of science, from
 were received by the contro'ersial Fox sis­               photography to X-ray tubes, was hi-jacked
 ters in llydes'ille, 1:ew York. The belief               for 'experiments' in which dubious spirit
 that the dead were in another dimension                    images, floating clouds or ectoplasm (the
 and that contact with them was possible                    transient 'matter' of the spirit world) and
 spawned both religious institutions and the                other such doubtful practices became rif(·.
 Society f(>r Psychical Research. The latter,                 It was some time before Spiritualism was
 based in London, aimed to persuade scien­                  able to set its own house in order and as a
 tists to study such reports, and like its reli­            consequence         a     growing       rili      developed
 gious counterpart, it was soon to spread                   between the popular hclie,·ers and the sci­
 around the world.                                          entific sceptics, who accused these gullible
      The   religion   of   spirit   messages,     with     folk of believing only because they wanted
 preachers known as mediums, proliferated                   to and not because the evidence dictated it.
 in the 1890s and was legally constituted                   This rift widened as the century progressed.
 into the Spiritualists' National          Union in           :'owadays,           Spiritualism          has       waned
 1902. The appeal of the mm·ement gained                    slightly, but it has also become big business.



                                                                                                       T H E N E W C E N T U RY
thanks  to the install! celebri ty status                           belief tha t      Spiri t u a lis m      p rov id es    f(u·    so
alllmtcd by TV. Doris Stokes, Doris Collins,                        many.
St e phen O'Brien and many others hm·e                                As to whether it is tru th or delusion, like
brought their min istrations to the world,                          all   spiritual       m atte r s     t hroughout       history,
packi ng Tnnes such as the Sydn ey Opera                           that q uestion remains a maller or faith.
llouse, theatres in         London' s 'est       End,



                                                               19�4
etc., and dra wing in enormous ratings for
the media. In response , scientific vigilante
groups such as CSICOP (Commillee for the                                   SEPTEMBER
Scientific   lm·es t igat i on   or Claims of the
                                                                    THE LEA P I N G M ON ST E R
Paranormal) have launched themselves as
guardia u s of rationalism, sniping away on                         Spri ng - he el ed Jack was a bizarre neatur e
the fringes of the s u pema t u ral. b r i ngi ng                   often re po rted i n Viet orian Lon d on d uring
down the occasio nal victim, hut largely fail­                      the n i n eteenth cen t u ry. He h ad grown to
ing to penetrate the armour of hope and                             legendary status. With his grotesque f<Ke,
                                                                    ancl clad in      a    black cape, he would appa r­
                                                                    en t ly leap out of nowhere ami allack people
                                                                    in the streets, often lea v i n g them wounded
                                                                    though not dead. His name derived ti·om
                                                                    h i s repu t ed abil i t y to jump huge distan ce s
                                                                    i n one bou nd . Although 1 here were isol ated
                                                                    sight ings in London even after World War
                                                                    Two, t he l a st pro m ine nt o n e was in Liver­
                                                                    pool in I !JO-t when the fig u re was said to
                                                                    have jumped over a b u ildi n g in William
                                                                    I lenry St reet. llowever, research by scep ti c
                                                                    Paul lkgg revealed this as an e x agg eration
                                                                    of a true story of a religiou s zealot who
                                                                    claimed the devil was chasing hi m a n d who
                                                                    leapt d angerousl y from rooftop to rooftop
                                                                    to escape the att ent ions of the police and
                                                                    lire services.         Legend         has assoc i a t ed this
                                                                    spur io u sl�·    with      a      mani fe st at ion    of the
                                                                    archetypal Victorian monster.




                                                               19��       JANUARY
                                                               I    T H E B I N BROOK POLT E R G E I S T
                                                                    On e of 1 he most frighteni n g polt ergeist out­
                                                                    breaks     struck        Binbrook          Fa rm,      in      Lin­
                                                                    colushire, England. Ohjects 1110'ed around
                                                                    the room on t h e i r own, hundreds of chick­
                                                                    ens were found ski n n ed and slaug h tered
Above and opposite: two 1mag1nat1ve popular rendenngs, from
1877 and 1904, of Sp1ing-heeled Jack.                               noiselessly even after a guard had been


                                                               I
                                                                    111ou n ted, and m yst erious fires spra n g u p
                                                                    from nowhere. In o n e case a teenage se r -



THE NEW CENTURY                                               []]
On   the   tomb.stonc,   "ith upraised arms and rnge In C'ery feature,
towered the terrific form of 5pring-11ecled Jnck.    Frl'eZt'r and Unk.4
.stood transfixed; their glwstly h<1rdcn slippl'd slowly to the gross,
 but they remained gnpin;:-, tcr:l6r-struck.    'cn;:cance hud fallen   I




                                                                             T H E N E W CEN T U R Y
,·;utl ca u gh t ablate as she wa s sweeping the                     o f fire sell down t wo feelers toward the
 f l oor and       was      hospitalitcd       with     serious       groun d at Ynysybwl.
 inju ries. The ii J( ide nts lasted t w o months                       I t was argued that some of the lights
 and then ceased            as    ra pidly as they began.             were probabl y mispercep tions of the planet
 The case became              a    pro totype f()r future             'enus, t hen bright           in the night sky, or
 allacks of this nat u re the          world     O'er. Opin­         meteor a c t ivit y , which was liule understood
 ion at llrst was that 'c'il spirits' were to                        at the time. In any c ve lll, the myst erio us
 blame, but this altered later                 to    the para­        li ghts helped  l ary Jones to circulate her
 scientific theory that some unknown b u t                            religio us message, and when t he y finally
 latent energy within a traumat ized vinim                            d i s a ppeared, her influ ence declined.
 'leaked'     out and was somehow t ranslated                           Kevin        lcCiure            conducted       detailed
 i nto   de stmn i v e        phys ical      force.     Science       research into the maler and regards the
 m ai ntai n s that such cases arc mere como­                         phenomenon as an             i mportalll phase in the
 dence or      f:thrication.                                          de velo p meut       of religious v isions- strong in
                                                                      Cat holic communities of I rcland,                     France
                                                                               Sp ain ,


19��
                                                                      and                   but   rare        outside.   :lodern
                                                                      researchers, however, think that these lights
         JANUARY                                                      may      be   produced        by     t he    ground     itsciL
                                                                      Rocks arc kuown to generate electrical sig­
 L I G HTS O F I N S P I RAT I O N
                                                                      nals wheu           p u t under strain, e.g. during
 E gryn i s a small village north of' Barmouth                        earthquakes.         Short -liwl       glowing plasmas
 on the mid-Wales coast. In l!JO:> it became                          seem to be created in the atmosphere as a
 the cent re of a trad itional lethodist reli­                       result   of this l;mh       line   act ivity. In the years
 g i ou s revival that was dramatically st imu­                       prior to the Welsh revi'al, they wac termed
 lated by a fanner's wile named 1lary Jones .                        'spooklights'. Tod ay .            of   cou rse, the same
 The p rincipal reason f(>J·              her    astonishing          lights wo u ld      be seen as     UFOs.
 achievements           was      the   matute•· in        which         Researcher Paul Devereux has coined the
 strange      light     phenomena allached them­                      term 'ea rthlight' to define these glows and
 selws 10 her per son. llundrcds of' people                           has f(mnd a bull line running right past
 saw them and her r;une soon sprea d. The                             the Egryn chu rch.
 t i ny chapel became a !(Jcal point fo1· pil grims.


                                                                     19��
      The lights were first wit ness ed by a train
 dri,·er at l'ensam in early January a t a time
 when Irs Jones was pre ac hing in the town.                               30 JUNE
 lie said t h ey resembled glowing balls of fire
                                                                      T H E TU NGU SKA S KY C RASH
 that streaked away in many direrlions, then
 conver ged         with a        t remendous        explosion        An eart hlight t o end all carthlights was seen
 li ke thunder. Another person described a                            hy remote villagers in the Siberian taiga
 bright blue bar that straddled a pi t ch - dark                      forest near the Stony Tunguska River. Its
 country road. And many witnesses claimed                             origin remains the su �j erl of intense con­
 to han: seen the l ight s ho'ering d i rectly                       trm·eJ·sy but its impact is beyond dis p u te.
 O'er lary Jones and inside chu rches where                           Shortly alicr 7 a . m . that morning, a white
 she preached.                                                        mass, brighter than the sun, appeared in the
    There       followed six months of dazzling                       sky above northern Eu rope,                 creating   ground
 li gh t shows in the skies that brought                   jour­      shadows. Within seconds it swept across the
 nalists     s cu rry ing     fi·om     as    (;u-    a field   as    desolate land scape miles high in the aunos­
 Lo ndon and lanchester. These were d ra­                            phcre and t urned into a column climbing
 matically concluded on 2:�               July   w hen a bal l        'ertically upward and visible for hundreds



 T H E N E W C EN T U R Y
of miles arou n d . There fi1llowed a series of                           conlt't's tail . If a piece ol romet h a d h it the
huge     explosions which                were   hc<Jrd      sixty         Eart h , it wou ld ha' e largely 'aporized a n d
m iles from th e impact point.                                            spr i n kled l i n e dust 0T r t h e grou nd. Locals
   �linutes <Jfter the e'ent. a shock wa 'e                             i ndeed referred to a black rain t hat accom­
spread      outward.         It    uprooted        trees    and           panied the Tunguska i m pact. Particles of
smashed rooftops more t h a n se 'enty miles                             d us t tlll-0nl into t he   a t m osphe re    cou ld also
fro m t h e centre of destruct ion. If was felt as                        ha·e p ro d u ced t h e lum inous clouds.
an earth trem or in (;ermany and recorded                                      :'cvertheless. <Jfter n uclear weapons were
e'en in Britai n . :lc<Jsured on widely d is­                           lirst detonated in         19·1:-l and t h eir          t
                                                                                                                             c lfec s

persed seismogr<� p h s, the wa'e              '<IS   power­           wc..-e   seen to be remarkably similar to t h ose
ful enough to circle t he Earth-twice�                                    in    Siberia. a pop u la r parascience t heory
   Fm· seH·ral           subse q uen t     nights        �t range         eme t·ged. 'as the Tung u s ka explosion t h e
luminous douds lit t h e skies <Jho'e Europe                             result o f a nuclear-powered spa'cecrali t h at
and Ahica. They glowed pink and yellow                                    exploded on its way i n to the atmosphere?
and   were    bright e nough fiJr people to read                               Sup porters poin ted out t hat lora! rein­
newspapers outdoors in t h e absence of any                               deer     d ev e loped   scabs on t heir bodies and
<Jrti liri<Jl lighti n g.                                                 there was some limited evidence li>r exces ­
   Because of the remoteness of the im p<�ct                              sive radiation i n the area (although meas­
zone and the i n tenention of the Russi <J n                              ured       only    fol lowing   man-made         nuclear
reYolution it w<Js al most twenty years belilre                           detouations by t he USSR, which compro­
a scien t ific expedi tion reached Tunguska.                              m ised t h e findings). K u l i k had l(mnd n o
Astrono mer Leonard Kulik e x pe cted to find                             local people who s u lkred radiation sickness
e·idence of       <1   meteor t hat h<Jd exploded on                     on his 'is it in I !l28; a n d by I 940. when he
impact. l c;n·in g a h uge crater and fragment s                          wen t again, direl'l eyewit nesses to t h e e' e nt
behind . In fact, he fou nd neither crater nor                            were still f(nmd alive and well -i m probable
ft ·agments. Trees at t he exact centre or t he                           had they been ·ery c lose obse rvers to a
e x plosion , a l t hough st r i pped of h<�rk, were                      n u clear impart.
still stand ing; t hose in          <1   SIIITounding area                     Several more recent          exped it ions      haYe
many miles across were llallened .                                        fou nd eYidence consistent w i t h t h e comet
   The       meteorite            theory     was     all     but          t h eory, i nclud in g cle ments and c h e m i cals
destmyed by t his e'idence , which dearly                                on the g ro un d . r precise mappin g of the
showed t h at the object had exploded high                                impa ct damage also fits the idea. I loweve1·,
in mid-air. so t hat t h e area immediately                               ot her Russian scientists who h ave 'isited
below was to some extent shielded . Th ere                                the area t hin k t h a t somet hing       u nexplained

were also repons by local tlnesters that t h e                            was to blame. Theories as diYerse as a l u m p
glowing mass h a d seemed to cl t an ge d i rec­                          o f an ti-maller explod i n g o n con tact wit h
t ion in m i d-flight         - a bet partially Yind i ­                  t h e atmosp here, a n d e ve n a n u clear- pow­
rated, d espite much argt1ment, b y a e ro­                               ered space rocket fro m t he fu t u re which
dynamic reconstruc t ion.                                                 acciden tally crossed a t i m e barrier and t he n
   Scientists now 1�1'0111' 1 he view that t he                          detonated, haw been proposed , bu t ,,·ith­
object     was a small comet. To create an                                out murh linmdati on.
i m pact of   <1   I :! -megatonne nuclear bomb. as                            Yet    if    the   Tunguska        explosion     was
this obj ect had done, it wou ld need to he                               raused by an impact from a piece of debris
seYcral h un d red feet in diameter, br bigger                            from outer space, one th ing is certain. Surh
t han a meteol'.                                                          a    happen ing is not all t hat rare and may he
   Comets are composed or a solid cru mbly                                expected         by chance      every    few    h und red
cot·e ami ice th<Jt         vapo ri tes    in a shell on the              years. Smaller ones wil l occu r seTJ'al t imes
o u tside. Th is p roduces               t h e characteristic             a century. It would ha'e been pure l urk



                                                                    []]                                           THE NEW CENTURY
gTH�ARCH                                                      I
                                                                        that the I !10� object exploded
                                                                        tiveh· unillltabited area. Tlte next one could
                                                                        just as easily do so oYer London. Tokyo
                                                                                                                          mer    a rela­

                                                                                                                                         or

                            MUSEUM I                                    the heart of :lanhauan, with all too ohYious
                                                                        ronseq11ences.



                                                                    l"ft"
     T   t·. IIIIJ"'J(I :"'� .   .   .   .



         CAUGHT!!!
    A�L��:� ;    !!
                                                                     JlJJ        17   JANUARY


                                                                    I !,��,��-�:kE�,��:��                 tommooitie' of �ew
                                                • • •
                                                                        Je rsey. LS:, were plagued with sigluings of
                                                                        a giatll hat-like cr e al l t r e with a face t h a t was
                                                                        likened variously 10 a mule, a dog or a kan­
                                                                        garoo. It was said to he terrorizing local
                                                                        brms, la ndin g. lcaYing strange marks and
                                                                        then leaping into the sky.
                                                                           The prints were in the               f(mn of a single
                                                                        hoof and seemed 10                  pass straight OYer
                                                                        obst ar le s such as fe nces. They were also
                                                                        [(>Und on heaches in deep snow.
                                                                            In matn· ways the tracks resembled those
                                                                        left in the still mvsterious incident in Febru­
                                                                        ary Hl:'i?i when residents of 'illages over a
                                                                        large     area     of South         Devon         awoke onl'
                                                                        morning to find a line of single hoofjnints
                                                                        etched into a snowd rift.            It spread f(H· many
            LEEDS DEVIL                                                 miles over the landscape a n d eYe n crossed

         Captured friday After a                                        rooftops as if unimpeded!
                                                                            In   1909 reports began on li January
             Terrific Struggle.                                         when      policeman shot at the thing as it
                                                                                  a
    EXKTJUl""Y.l> r.:.:n.t-�1 t:l." llF.RI!: Al'
                 11noo no A "t:l-:1(.                                   flew n'er the Delaware RiYer in Penns'1'a­
    The r-rl'nl. J'rlchli'JI,
        }"<!'roduu• :llon.el<'r f""hl<'h                               nia. Sounds like a sh r iek ing whistle were
                   ltn�t lJN"G l"C"rrurlrla•
                                          'J',..o �l:>tf'•.
                                                                        heard. On 21 Jan uary firemen at 'est


    Swims l Flys! Gallops.
                                                                        Collingswood. :'ew Jersey. were rep111edly
                                                                        allacked b' the :�- foot monster with glowing
    .Ex.WbUed �al"''l.1 l'h11lar<t                                      ey es. It then perched on a roof and they
                    lu ,. ll:o••''�'" !'lt .... t CJI�te.

         A UVING DRAGON
                                                                        turned their hoses on to it, to its apparent
                                                                        disgust! In lew Jersey. the sightings of the
    •- F_,_,me Than
          t.l.oe I'"IJIN !llnn•t.•ro                                    creature in conjunction with the finding of
                                   ot �Tth<>lftJr7.
              no�·y     !tl�!il Tilt-:                                  the hooljnints soon ga,·e rise to hyster ia.
         81loiiT Ill' A I.II'I:."U.IR.
                                                                        and the name Jersey Devil' was coined,
    uro s·rru.so nt>
                �1-.:''iATlO:-.· ... I�                                from a local legend
                                       IT"lUO nU.T.
                                                                           The wa'e ended with reports from �lorris­
                       THi.::ATRE                                       ,·ilk, l'ennsyh·ania. that the creature had
      GA.,:Vrt ('0:'�n '"l'Ol'"J            Y A t'T>F.l""TJJ.l!l
                                                                        A poster tn the Phrlaceiphra Pubf:c Leager of a               to the
         1 Oc ADMITS TO ALL
                                                                                                                          precu"5or
                                                                        jcr;ey Devil, th1s one exhtbited 1n captiVIty



T H E N E W C ENTURY
flown into a barn and become trapped. The        The first flight by a Zeppelin;   LZ-1, over Lake Constance.
doors were sealed and rein forceme nts           Genmany.   2 July 1900.

rapidly sent for. U n fortunately, when the
barn doors were opened, and despite there           In fact, the first sighting occurred in the
being no other obvious exit route, the           autumn of 1896, in Sacramento and later
J ersey Devil had van ished into the hinter­     San Francisco, California, when a cigar­
world from which it had arrived and was          shaped object with bright lights was
never heard li·om again.                         reported floating in the aiL According to
   At least, not until 1 966, when Ohio had a    research by Jerome Clark, frontier humour
terrifying spate of visions of a creature pos­   had a field day. As the sightings continued
sessing a n u mber of similar features that      almost nightly, many tall tales were spun
became k nown as 'mothman'.                      simply to outdo rival provincial papers.
                                                 Eccentric inven tors came forward to claim,
                                                 through agents, t hat they had b uilt the
                                                 devices, then vanished without ever making
                                                 public their secret.
                                                    A further outbreak was reported across a
P H ANTO M SCARE S H I P S
                                                 wider area of the western and mid-western
As the first primitive aircraft were flying on   states in April and May 1 897. The first
dangerous short hops around the world,           flights by genuine airships - which began in
the inexplicable appearance of a wave of         Europe - were still some mon ths away. But,
strange airships soon developed into a mys­      like the previous wave, the 1897 airships of
tery of epic proportions.                        the western USA swiftly disappeared.


                                                                                             T H E N E W C ENT U R Y
In   Elml. howner, the problem suddculy
bectnw g-lohal, as scallcrcd reports came in
h·mn :l'r Zealand, ,ustr;tlia and especially
ti·otn Britain.
     On :!:� :larch, a policeman on patrol in
l'etcrhorough,            north-east     of    Cambridge.
heard a buzzing engine aiHI looked up to
sec a single floodlight auached to a dark
cigar-shape             silhoueued    against     the     sky.
Local police suggested it was an illuminated
kite. but as more reports J(,llowcd, rumonr
spre;td that the Cermans were llying Zep­
pelins on spy missions. There was real ten­
sion between the two imperial nations in the
nm-up to World 'ar One; but althoug-h
the activities of airship b u il der Count Fenli­
nand von Zeppelin were well allested, it is
certain that no such spy missions were C'er
laun<·hed ag-ainst Britain in this way. nor did
the Germans ha'e the capability to do so.
     On 14 :lay. the captain and new of the
St   Ofaj:   steaming in the :orth Sea on· Blyth.
:'lort h u mherlaud, saw an object apparently
materialize out of thin air above.                     It was
again described as a cigar with lights.
     An e'en more remarkable incident took
place on           Il-l :lay which has all the hall­
marks         of    a    UFO    landing.       If it      were
reported today. fe,,· details would need to
be a<ljttsted for it to be i u terpret cd as an
alien contact, rather than - as it was at the
time-     a   precursor to a Cerman im·asion.                          German       army!    The   terrain   was   also
     Punch and          Judy   s h owman. l1 r C. Leth­               crushed llat.
bridge, was walking home late at night m·er                              There were other reports of airship pilots
Ca e rphilly :fountain in Smtth Wales when                            standing bes ide their craft, in one rase
he saw a cigar-like object              011    the grou n d .          requesting water. But alter a few days the
Two men wearing strange fur coats were                                 sightings tailed otT, lca'ing the usual spent­
talking- in an unknown language and reacted                            lation about mistaken identity and mass
instincti'ely when they saw the intruder,                             hysteria.
picking up something from the ground and                                 The sightings began again, howe'er, in
jumping into their craft. which soared sky­                            late   Ell:!. One incident. above Sheerness,
ward over some telegraph wires. As it rose.                            Kent, on      14 OctohlT, was then taken so
t wo      powerful         searchlight        beams       were         seriously that questions were asked in the
switched on. one at each end of the <Tall.                             Honse of Commons- possibly the first ever
     The witness returned to the site with                             p u b lic debate   on UFOs. Lord of the Admi­
li·iends to find objects on the grass. includ­                         ralty and future prime minister, Winston
ing a piece of blue paper with unknown                                 Churchill,    had the    dubious   pri'ilege   of
Titing       and       printed     m atter    abo u t    the         being the fi1·st go'emment ollicial under



T HE NEW C E N T U R Y                                           [[]
pressure to come up wi th an answer and                       Tnal   flrght of the   Zeppelrn LZ -�   over·   Lake Constance, 1908
warned of the need not to underestimate
the Cerman forces. A law was passed that                      ing light-in-the-sky pheno m e na not viewed
prohibited     airship     flights without     prior          as airships.            One. on 30               Ik cember      19i7,
authority and allowed the police or army to                   inn>h·ed a golden egg sha pe seen ,-ising
shoot one down if it failed to respond to                     from power lines, pu n ching a hole in the
warning si�nals. :'o such inridcnt, fortu­                   cloud cover which then gradually tilled in
nately, occur r e d   .                                       until no longer visible.
     The   final fling of these airship waves                      :lodern researchers suspect that there is
hel(>re war erupted came on the night of 2 I                  some sort of natural phenomenon of a
Feb nt ary 1913 when reports lloodcd in                       glowing, electrical nature, possib ly akin 10
li·mn scwral pans of Britain. :lost interest­                De·ereux's earthlights. 'hen seen in 1977,
ing was one from the small village of Exhall                  th e ionization caused the douds to disperse.
in    Warwickshire.       It   was just   a   typical         Today we understandably view these things
description of a lighted object, but was to                   as     alien      cran,       hut       in      1909 and       191 :�.

                                                         I
acquire more relevance because the same                       immer sed in pre-war hysteria                         ,   were they
location has since generated several bscinat-                 seen as scareships?



                                                        [[]                                                      THE NEW CENTURY
P O R TE N T S O F W A R
T      his traumatic decade, punctured by

       rebellion and reYolution, culminated in the

titanic and bloody clash or Vorld Var One, the

'war to end all wars'.

  Meanwhile the scientific reYolution gathered



relatiYity turned our notion or the U niYerse on its
momentum. Albert Einstein's 'general theory' or



head. The f(wm taken by basic conceptions such as

speed, size, shape and time was rdatiYe to where

you were and what you were doing. Atoms were

composed of energy fields in constant Hux within

largely empty space, beyond the grasp of our

normal senses. New Yistas opened up, ready f(w

exploration. The UniYerse had suddenly become a

vastly more complicated place.
1911   SEPTEM BER
  M I RAC LE B L E E D I N G
 This   was   one   of 1he      first   well-attested   hands    bled   at   rhe   c entre    poin t .     lo ng
 report s of miracle bl eed i n gs. , pi ct u re of'   hel ie,·ed   to he where nails       were        placed
 Christ in the French ,·illage dlllrch at llire­       d u ri n g cruc ifix ion ami familiar f'rom many
 hea u -e n - Poitou began to ooze blood from           religious port raits . We now know Ji·01n h is ­
 the hands and the forehead. While scientists           torical evidence, howe'er, that crucifixion '
 argued thar ir was ju st pi gment ation from           victims had n ails hammcred t h rough rhe
 rhe pa in t seepi n g out. the de'o ut llocked ro     bones ar rhe wr is t as 1 he fleshy palm was too
 t he s ite, convinced t ha t t he local priest was     soh t o support rhe hanging weight of a body.
 somehow responsible. The location of t he              The b leed i ng intensified l(>r six months ami
 bleedi ngs was e xact ly t hat of the rep u t ed       at t he same t i me a nearby stat ue of t he
 wounds of Ch r ist when crucified, i.e. on the         Virgin 'wept' rears. Afier the priest's death in
 hands and crown.        Yet,   interestingly,   rhe    I �115 all these eiTerts ceased.




       15 Septembre 1911                                         Decembre                  191l

                                                                                           P O RTE N T S OF W A R
1911 1 4     APRIL
lfR E M O N I T I O N O F D I SAST E R
  The Tita uir, lll l i l t in t h e norl heru En g l is h
  port or L i e rp ool and stea m i n g li·om
                       '



  So u th;am p t o n t o New Yor k, is p robably t h e
  most i n b mous n a m e i n marine h istory.
  Se'eral days i 11 1 o her m aiden voyage, t he
  so-ca l led ' u nsin kable' l i ner s t ru c k a n
  u nseen iceberg. was holed deep a n d c a n ied
   1 :>00 passengers a n d crew to t he bot t om of
  t h e At lan t ic Ocean . ;lore p eop le wou ld
  ha'e been saved fro m her hu ge cont i nge n t
  had n o t t h e owners. u l l edy nm vi n ced o f
  h e1· s ec u ri t y n egl ect e d t o pro v i d e e n o u g h
                   .



  lilt.·boats.
        A side efkct of t he shocki n g disaster was
  t o set in mot ion one or the m ost po w erlia l
  psych ic experiences e·er recorded. For t h e
  fi rst t i m e t hen: was open t a l k o f precogni­
  t ion - the abil i t y to s e e t h i n gs before t h e y
  h app e n .
        No fewer t h a n twenty cases arc k n ow n o f
  p eo ple who had p re m on i t io n s of disa st er
  bcli:>re t h e ship sailed. Some rdiased t o
  board ; ot hers had relat ives amon14 t h e pas­
  s enge rs and sen se d u a ge d y . Famed n ews
                                 ·                           ­



  paper writer William Stead, who had
  h i mself wrillen in a n art icle t hat such a
  t ragedy could happe n , was warned expl ic­
  i t l y in writin14 by a psychic t hat he was i n
  great d a n ge r during April I D I 2 a nd should
' avoid water and t ravel at t hat t i me. H e
  ignored t he w a rn i n g and paid w i t h h i s l i fe.
        Even more incredible was t h e case of
  ret i red seam a n 1organ Robertson who was
  stru gg l i n g to se ll his short stories. I n I H!IH,
  experiencing write1·'s block in his New York
  aparl m e n t , h e suddenly had a v isi o n in
1 w l a ich he saw a h u ge l i n e r sutler a catast ro­
  phe w i t h an iceberg. I n h is t ra nce. he heard
  dearly t h e word s 'April' and ' u nsi n kable'.
        I n spi red by t hi s episode, he wrote his
  story 'The 'reck o l the Titan', i n w hich his
  ncar-ident ical su pe1·s h i p , t h e SS T itan. s i n ks
  on her m a i den voyage ali e r s t r i k i n g a n
                -------------




  PORTENTS OF WAR
C R ETAC E O U S PA R K

                                                                     S i r ;rt h u r Conan D ovic's I inion o r S U r'1'­
u n seen     iceberg, w i t h      l w n dreds peri s h i n g        i n g d i nosaurs had rea l - I i i (· i n s p irat ion li·mn
needlessly beca use o l i n adequate l i iCboat                      lege n d s and s t o ries fi1·st hmught hac k by
CO"l'L                                                              eigh t een t h -cen t u ry         m issionaries           li·01n        the
   Scept ics argued t h a t t h i s was m e re coi n c i ­           Ali·ica n       Con go. Th e n ,            in    lat e    El l :� .     the
d e n ce .   Fo nne1· s e a m c 1 1    1 1 1ay u n d ers t a n d ­   Gerl l l an gon• n u n c n t sen t out t h e l i rst sci­
ably have h a d q u a l m s about t h e s a f e t y  or              e n t ilic    exped i t ion      to    ascer t a i n       the     l i kely
such a big l i n e r.     �lm·em·tT, Tita n or Tita 11ic             t n l l h beh i n d t h ese t a les.
was au oh'ious choice or n a m e l i ll · a h u ge                      Captain Frei h ei T von Stein set out on a
s h i p . Yet   Rober t s o n kit s u re he h a d an                 lon g        and   t reacherous             walk     t h rough           t he
u n seen      presence       gu i d i n g   his   hand.      Or      j u n gl e     swam ps        of      the        Likou l a      regw n ,
cou l d it ge n u i n e l y h ave been precogn i t ion �             encou nteri n g            Tnomous              s n akes,       deadly
                                                                     i nsects all(l h ea d h u n t i n g p yg l l l ies as he ven­
                                                                     t t u-ed into u ncharted t erritory sit u a t ed h u n­
                                                                                  or m i les fi-om any towns or c i t ies.
Left survrvor> packrng the Trtanrc lrfcboats.
Below: the last moments of the "unsrnkable' liner.                   dreds
                                                                     ,her q u es t i o n i n g n a t ives a n d w h i t e h u n t ers
                                                                     who had explored the region , h e repea ted l y
                                                                     h eard lege n d s a b o u t a large beas t , sol l l e                   :.!0-
                                                                     :Hl li long. wh ich i n h abited a local l a k e .
                                                                        The creat u r e , n a med /1/Vkt•lt lllhe111be, was
                                                                     said to han a lon g n e c k and brow n body
                                                                                ·
                                                                     all(l t o be bigger t h an a h i p popot a m u s . I t
                                                                     l i ved i n t h e l a ke caves a n d sur[Kcd periodi­
                                                                     cally t o eat leaves fro m a f lower i n g I i a n a
                                                                     plant        cal led   uwlo111ho,       stretch i n g        its       n eck
                                                                     u p wa rd rat h e1· like a giraHi.· . : a t i n:s who
                                                                     had ap proac hed the a n i m a l i n can oes h a d
                                                                     been         a t t acked   and      d rowned              when         t h eir
                                                                     boats san k , but t h ere were no clai m s t h a t
                                                                     t h e 1 1 1 o n s t c r a t e i t s prev.
                                                                         V o n Stein never saw the o-ea t u re but was
                                                                     s hown a t rack by n a t ives w h o swm-e t h a t a
                                                                     s peci m en        had recen t l y en tered                 t h e river
                                                                     s y s t e m at t ha t poi n t . l i e cou l d a d d l i t t l e
                                                                     except t h at t h e an i m a l wh ich left t h e m arks
                                                                     was abo u t t h e s i ze t h a t h ad been dcso-ibed
                                                                     and u n fiu n i liar t o h i m .
                                                                        T h e �cncral view o r zoologi s t s was t ha t
                                                                     t h e lege n d s m i g h t h a 'l' h ad a bct u a l basi s ,
                                                                     part i cu l a r l y because t h e creat w·e w a s n o t
                                                                     dep i ct ed as a tcrril)·i n g or carn ivorous beast
                                                                     (as     is      normal        with          such      stories)           but
                                                                     described as a p lacid p l a n t eater. I I erbivo­
                                                                     rous d i n osau rs such as U ro nto.lt/ 1/ nt. llo u r­
                                                                     ished in t h e Cret aceous era a n d it was j u s t
                                                                     conceivable t ha t a             tc"· s p eci m e n s s t i l l sm·-


                                                                                                                        P O R T EN T S O F W A R
· . ;· .
                                  :.·: ·..
                      '
                      ·.




Skeletdl model of o,p/odocus, the Cretaceous d1nosaur               govern m e n t             put       d i llicult ies   in   the   wa y.
                                                                    These trips estab lished m u ch u sefu l data,
vived locally. B u t in the absence of proof,                       asse m b l i n g match i n g acco u n ts a n d reports
nobody seemed inclined to be too exci ted                           of how in              1 9[ 9
                                                                                               >     a    gro u p of pygmies ca p­
by a collection of stories.                                         t u red a n d ate o n e of t h e creatures. But t h e
   Subsequ e n t attempts to m o u n t d i nosaur                   scientists only had tantalizi n g near m isses,
h u nts fa iled because of hostile n atives. I n                    as     when             one      huge          l u mbering        beast
the 1 940s, however, a new field of research                        sp lashed i n to the water j u st o u t or sigh t .
was lau nched by a group of pro fessionals                               American              explorer         Herman          Regusters
who      called      t h e m selves          'uyptozoologists'.     visited in the 1 980s and his party claimed t o
They collected             data   and          tried   to create    s e e t h e crea t u re several t i m e s a n d h e a r its
public      i n terest     by   searc h i n g      for   h i dden   t h roaty roar. They took some d i m , d i s t a n t
creatu res such as moliflf mbnnbf. I n 1 958,                       pictu res t h ro u gh t h e d e n se t r e e cover.
one o f their n u mber, Ber nard H e u ve l m a n s ,                    Local sci en tist D r .Iarce l l i n Agnaga, fi·om
published the first detailed accou n ts i n ' O n                   the zoological ga rde n s in B razzavil l e , also
t h e Track of U n k n ow n An i m a l s ' .                        made several visits a n d i n :l ay 1 9H3 came
   D u r i n g t h e 1 970s an American s pecialist                 closest yet to captu r i n g proof when h e wan­
in reptiles visited the area several times and                      dered o u t i n to t h e sha llows to come within
sh owed i l l u strations of d i n osa u rs t o a rece n t          a few              h u n d red feet of a bas k i n g mokl'le
eyewitness of t h e crea ture, who picked o u t                     m/Jembe.             For    half       an     hour      the   a n i mal
a DijJ/odoms as the most s i m ilar o n e .                         browsed              on    Iiana       leaves      before     sinking
   The first serious expeditions specifically                       b e n e a t h the water. S a d l y , t h ro u gh a combi­
desi gned t o fi n d the animal were orga n ized                    nation of h u m a n error, m isfort u n e a n d the
by Professor Roy lt ackal , a biologist a t the                    extreme climate, none of h is p h otographs
U n i versi t y of Chicago, with the re ptile spe­                  s u rvived the t re k home.
cialist, J a mes Powe l l . llackal moun ted sev­                       The .J apanese have since tried twice, and
eral more Yisits before the n ew Congolese                          a you n g B ritish ex-army man, B i l l Gibbons,



P O R T E N T S OF W A R
D•nosaur and human t•-acks 1n D•nosaur Valley State Park.      dinosaurs did lin� i n t hese swamps d u ring
Glen Rose. Texas. (See also page 39.)
                                                               the late Cretaceous geological period some
                                                               sixty-fi·e m illion years ago and the area has
has    been     there     t wo    more      t i mes   (most    remained almost una ltered.
,·ecently in 1992) in what has been dubbed                        It i s perhaps feasible t hat a few such crea­
'Operation Congo'. This was s u pported by                     t u res may ha·e su n·i'ed      in t h is remote
a     paranormal          magazine          which       sold   region.   But   as   'estern   society   intrudes
dinosaur T-shirts to raise funds!                              e'er furt her into Africa, they are hou nd to
    lt uch anecdotal e'idence has been gat h­                come under t h reat . I t may be a race against
ered and latest t h in king is t hat the creature              extinction to come up with hard e'idence
is an e'OI'ed 'ersion of Allantosaurus. Such                abou t t he world's last su rvi'ing d inosa u rs.



                                                                                                  PORTENTS Of WAR
t h e non·ls in volved ext raord inary dept h of
191J   13   MAY                                                   research k nowledge about distant ami
                                                                  fu t u re t i mes - fi-mn the B iblical era to Vic­
 T H E T E S TA M E N T O F                                       torian London .
 PATI E N C E WORTH                                                   Prior to her etHoun tcr wit h Pat ience, M rs
                                                                  Curran's wri t i n gs had exh ibited no h i n t of
 On 1 his dale I'earl Curran and a fi·iend,                       sophist ication or skill; and a fter she died,
 using a ouija board i n t h e C u rran home at                   Pat ience ldl sile n t , Jea,·ing behind the m ys­
 St Lou is, M issouri . first saw the name ' Pa t                 tery of her highly pra ised literary genius.
 C' speh out by t he moving glass. Pea rl's                           So was t h is a real con t act fi·om a departed
 h usband. deten n i n ed !0 prove the i ncom ­                   spirit or did Pearl Curran tap some hidden
 ing message a t ri<·k or t h e m imi, p retended                 creat ive source from wh ich gn·at writers
 he had once known an I rish man named                            have long derived inspi rat ion?
 Pa t . For a t ime t hat fict it ious individual sent                Automatic writers today continue the
 messages ,·ia t he hoard , bill soon a n ew and                  t rend. Rosemary B rown, a London house­
 more powerful voice took con t rol. On 8                         wife, writes m usic t h at she says is dictated by
 J u ly. t he cryptic words that llowed out                       dead composers such as Beet hm·cu aud
 whent''cr Pearl Cu rran used the device                         Liszt . Healer :latthcw :Ian n in g has created
 were explicitly signed ' Pat ienn· 'ort h ·.                   f:.thulous pai n t i n gs in 1 he style of a rt ists stKh
     Patience, belying her name, soon out grew                    as Diirer ami Picasso. A woman in t h e USA
 the slow ouija hoa rd , graduat ing first to au!O­               has in f(>J·mcd me t hat she is cu rreutly seek­
 matic Ti l i ng; pen in hand, she would 't ake                 ing an agent to market t h e autobiogra phy of
 over' �Irs Curran and write lengt h y scripts,                    Billy the Kid, determined to correct t h e
 and finally took to sending words straight                       f;1Jse imagr of h is outlaw days fl·om beyond
 into the consciousness of her medium.                            t h e grave. I have also received tapes fi·om a
     It req uired some cHi>rl to ext ra<t i n for­                 :'ew York med i u m , Bill Ten uto, containing
 mation abou t hersel f fi'Om Pat ietl<T. She                     verbal messa14es abou t t he real purpose of
 was reponedly a Quakn girl who emi­                              his m u nl c1· spoken by li:mner Beat ie, John
 grat ed fi·01n Dorset to t he U SA in the seven ­                 Le n n o11 . : lr Ten uto also reports that
 teen t h cen t m-y a n d died you ng d u ring a n                 Len non is d ictating new music to some
  I ndian attack. S h e spoke in a rchaic lan­                    world renowned song writers.
 gu age. complete with spelling and usages
 t hat l i n guistic sc holars veri fied as bei ng
 t otally correct . Lat er. lwH'·er, she began to
 u t ilize a more modern idiom.
     Pa t ience 'ort h seems to have expressed
                                                             1914
                                                                             E
 hersel f fi·eely in literary limu. Across
 twent y-five years she came up wit h mill ions
 of words, including widely an·Jaimed
                                                             I    :- ���-J:�j<� �>;:l� ��t�e:.:.�,,��:ught
                                                                     0 -- -
                                                                      e-� st
                                                                  at :I ons i n Fland e1·s in August 1 9 1 4 .
 novels, plays and poems, some of w h ic h                        Legend has i t that spect ral interven tion
 were published without rcferetHe to t h eir                      may have saved t he day fiJ1· the Allies.
 bi tarre <Tca t ion. Pat ience 'dirtated' t hem                     B 1·it ish t mops made a D u n k i rk-style with­
 with aston ishing rap id ity. Once, when                         d rawal against a l l t h e odd s and a vastly
 asked h>r a mol l o of about I � 0 characters to                 su perior Cerman army. Although t h ere
  put on t h e wall of t h e :l isso u ri state c1pital,         were sound reasons as to w h y t h is was pos-
 she <h·afted a literary ode of exact ly the                      sible ( t h e British had bet ter wt·apons and
  requi red lengt h . in t h e brief time i t t oo k fi>r         highly d iscipli ned sold iers). the victory
  !'carl C u rran to write dow n t h e words. An d           II   fro m the jaws of defeat was h ailed as a m i r-


 PORTENTS OF WAR                                            [[]
acl e by pol i t icians keen to rally t h e t roops                   A corner o f the ANZAC pos1t1on at Gdllipol1. scene o f the ill­
and the nation after what had almost been                             fated Allied landing of Apnl 19 1 5 .

a cat astro p h e .
  A fe w w e e k s lat er (in late September) t h e                   h ad done anyth i n g- oth e•· t h a n i n v e n t a tal c         .



Lon d o n   EPt'niug Nt·w�      t:arried a s h ort piece              I ndeed . when asked to q u o t e h i s sources,
of fict ion by Art h ur         M achen       called      Th e        h e e x p l a i n e d that t h ere were n o n e as it was
Bowmen'         in    w h ich   a   sol dier      at     Mons         u n t r u e . B u t by then so m e pe o p l e were so
i n vo k es t he s p i ri t of St Ge01·g-e, bel i eve d t o           t a ken i n b y         t h e accou n t , t he y refused to
ride t o t h e rescue of E n gla nd whenever she                      beli eve 1lachen 's denials!
is i n p eril . The s a i n t a n d a ho s t or a n g-e l ic              In Ul l 5 t h e s t o ry was p roc u red by all
bowmen reinforce t h e d es pn a t e Allies a n d                     manner o r bod ies, rel i giou s a n d m i l itary
t he Germans are heavily felled b y magical                           a l i ke . 'i t n esses, u s u a l ly secon d - h an d , came
an-ows t h a t leave no m a rks.                                      forward w i t h tales t h ey had               h eard fro m
   The talc h a d a g•·eat dlect on                    B r i t is h   ' m e n at t h e fro n t ' and en· u t u a l l y   act ua l   eye­
morale. It was re pri n t e d       ,   o f i e n by c h u 1-ch       wit ness       acco u n t s   s u rfacl'd   fro m      so ld i ers
j ou rn als, as proof of d i v i n e support of t h e                 clai m i n g       to    h a ve    seen     the      p han tom
war, a n d soon became t a ken for fact . Even­                       bow m e n .
t u all y a special bookl e t was p rod uced t o sat             ­       In july       I 9 I 5 l ach e n fu elled t h e l i re b y
isfy d e m a n d .                                                    prod uci n g       a    book .    The Bowllll'll !111(/ Othn
   Appare n t l y i l achen n e·e•· p ret e n d e d h e             Lt•gnul.' of the Wa r.            H e d escribed how h is



                                                                                                                  PORTENTS OF WAR
fict io n had become acce p t e d as fact a n d                                 group {the First - F i ft h ) was. This was not a
reallirmed that i t was no m o r e tha n a st ory.                              regim ent b u t a battalion , a m u ch s m a l l e r
Yet it did not           p re,·e n t the book beco m i n g a                    body of m e n .
ru naway           best-seller             in      many      co u ntries .           l l istorical records , indeed, note t hat on
do ubt less with m a n y readers believi n g the                                1 2 August        (not    21    August as repo rted)
                                                          fi ct io n .
                                                                                                                                                ,



au thor's disavowal t o be t he rea l                                           m a n y of these m e n v a n ished . though not
   B y t he e n d o f the war the legend had                                    i n to a    my s t e r ious clo u d. : l oreover, even
beco me          so     entwined             that      so m e    psychic        their puzzling loss is part ially explained.
a u t hori t i e s even alleged that : I achen had                             'ar records show that the group um t i n ued
' t u n ed i n to ' real w i t nesses to t h e ,·ision a t                      to fight , and t h a t a ft e r hostilities ended, the
t he Fron t, usi n g t elepathy directly from the                               bodies of some 1 22 of t he 266 m iss i n g m e n
troops a t :lons. H e o n l y thought t h at he                                were f u n d . Presumably o t hers were killed
                                                                                      o
had i n v e n t e d t h e st ory. It was rea l l y tru e !                      i n the light i n g but thei1· bodies had not
   Lat e r in         t he war, a nother s t r a n ge eve n t                   bee n t raced three years lat er.
occUlTed which, l i k e the bow m e n a t :lons,                                    Frederic k Reichardt's son con linned i n
sti l l holds sway today. This did, a t least,                                  1 9� 2 . afte1· h i s father's death, t hat h e had
have som e f act ual basis i n war records.                                     been told the story of the vanish i n g                 '   regi­
   It s u rfaced in 1 965 when an old soldie1· a t                              me n t '   d m i n g the G a l l i poli ca m paign soon
a li h ieth reu n io n o f t h e :- e w Zealand a n d                          a fier his birt h i n 1 93 2 . T h u s it had not sud­
Australian t roops i n voh·ed i n the Gallipoli                                 denly      been i m·ented at the fi ftieth reu n ion
campaign came forward. Sapper Frederick                                         in    J 9(i5 , as m a n y sceptics had p r e,·iously
Reichardt and two others told o n afTida,·it                                    argued . Clearl y it was based on some sort of
how on         :.? l Au gust l �� 1 5 an entire regi m ent                      act ual episode.
(the        First - Fourth         :'orfolks)         was      seen      to         As for the s tra n ge cloud, lkgg d iscove re d
m arch         towards          I I ill     (j()    above       the      hot    that a very u m t s u a l m i st a n d clo u d f() n n a­
deserted Su'la Bay area of the Dardanel les                                    tion was re liably see n to have covered the
i n Turke y . Directly above t h e m ho"Cred a                                 area on      :.? I A u g u s t a n d that this was noted
very s t ra n ge cloud. below                        which another              in the record books on the oppos i t e page to
colum ned             cloud      perched             upon       the      hill   t h e reference to t he d i sappeara nce of the
slope. Despite the wind. this cloud never                                       Firs t - F i fth soldiers n i ne days preYiously.
moved .          The          seyeral           hu ndred         soldiers            Bcgg co ncluded that the two u nrelated
marched o n a clange m u s ofTens i,·e i n to the                               e·euts     were     con fused         in   the   m i n ds    of
mists but ne,·er e m erge d fro m the br side.                                  Reicha r dt      and     his   colleagues         clown      the
An hour later the cloud l i fted and the men                                    years. part icularly given t h e scars o f war
had disappe are d with it. In late 1 9 1 8 , after                              they had endured               after    1 9 1 5 . A cmious
the war. the Turks denied that they had ever                                    misty cloud was i n deed see n . A few hun­
ca p t u red or en gaged these m issi n g troops. I t                           dred men did vanish, hut not i n expl icably
was as i f they had been spirited away.                                         so. ,ud the l i n k between the two events
   An        exce l l e n t    in Yest i gation         of his torical          that has f()rged a supernat ural lege n d was
data was mounted by researcher Pa u l Begg                                      merely a coi n ci d ence.
who         checked            facts        that       were          widel y         or com·se. nobod y can ever prove, as
ass u med          by    ot her           a u t hors    to      be    tru e .   these eyewit n esses co n t e n ded t o thei r dyi n g
I n deed, t h e s tory freque n t l y appeared i n                              day . that the 1 44 m en s t i l l u n accou u ted for
mystery hooks m·er the next three decades .                                     did uol vanish in so m e supern a t u ral fash­
Begg s  '       research,           l w-e·er,        encou ntered            ion. As s uch the legend will e n d u re .
som e serious prob l e m s .
   The         Firs t - Fo u r t h        was       a p parent l y       not          Bowmen ofMons. b y A . Forest1er. used in the Christmas
i n voh·ed i n am· va n ish i n g tric k , but another                                        london /1/ustrored News. 1 9 1 5.
                                                                                The
                                                                                ed1t1on of the




PORTENTS OF WAR
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
1916      SUMMER                                                          1917
 G H O STLY P H OTO G RA P H                                               FA I R I E S AT T H E B OTTO M OF TH E
 O n e o f ' t h e f1 r st i m p ressi v e phot ographs o f                GARDEN
 an       appari t ion     was      t a ken     in   Ti n ge1ri ck    .



 B u c k i n g- h a m s h i re . s o u t hern   E n gl an d ,   by a       Alt hough lf.:w p eo p l e , even i n r u ral co m m u ­
 re t i red police       d e t ec t in� i nsp ect o r. ! l is p i c ­       n i t ies , any l o n ge r bel ieved i n Elirics, t wo
 t u re     showed        t h ree    women           c1�j o y i n g   a     you n g cousins in t h e suburb of Cot t i n glcy.
 garden p a r t y ; h u t i n t r u d i n g i n t o t h e image            on t h e o u t skirts o f Bl·adf(Jrd , West York­
 was t he f i g u re of a sem i - t ransparen t . ghost ­                   sh i n   >,   England, cert ainlr did. And t he ev i ­
 l i ke dog. i o bml y at t h e t i m e remembered                        d ence t hey p roduced was a t t he heart o f a
 s ee i n g i t ;I p jw a r or depart . 'as it a pet                     st rangt> rase t h at received wide pu b l ic i t y    .



 back rrom I h e gran�?                                                        Fou rt ecn -yt•ar-old       Elsie   'rig h t   o ft en
                                                                            p l ayed 1ri t h I 0-ycar-old F1·ances Griffi t h s in
 The ghostly dog at   the ·l rngewick tea party.                            t h e wooded beck at t he rear of h e r house.




 PORTENTS OF WAR
The famous photograph of the Cottlngley gnome. later          was     gazmg not       at     the    weird           spm t s    but
adm1ned to have been a hoax.
                                                              s t ra i ght at t he camna. W h e n l a t e r asked
                                                              about this odd i t y . the girls explained t hat
For bot h girls it was a m agical place,               f(n·   they saw liliries all or the t i me but having
t hey had regu larly obser'ed fairies - s m a l l .          yo u r photograph taken was a nove l t y !
et hereal, flying cre a t u res - li m n i n g o l l t or       A m on t h l a t e r Frances fi l m ed Elsie play­
t hin air in the b u shes.                                    i n g with a gnome. The m a n n er in which
     Their stories were not believed.              Elsie's    her     ha nd     was       out s t re t ched         was       later
father    was     part icu larly    dism issive,       and    ascribed by psychic sou rces t o mystic e n er­
mainly u n happy t hat they got dirty or wet                  gies,     though      Frances         m a t lt_' l'    of   bct l y
in   the process, co n duct in those days u n be­             explained i t as the res u l t o f h e r ineptit ude
coming of a yo u n g lady.                                    behi n d   the l e n s . The girls showed these pic­
     Opi nions changed. howe'er, o n          a   day in     t u res to li'iends and t ried t o convince ! l r
j u l y when the girls bo rrowed his camera.                  Wright , who s t i l l thou ght the m lakes.                I t was
�lr 'right de'Cioped one photograph on                     o n l y two years later when ! I rs Wright . who
which so m e s t ra n ge white blobs showed up.               was     i n teres t ed in    the     supern a t u ra l ,        took
These crys t a l l i zed i n t o a n imag e of danci n g      them t o    a   meet i n g o f psychics in             B radf(Jrd.
fai ries parading i n Ji·ont o f Frances, who                 that the story too k off


                                                                                                          PORTENTS OF WAR
Psychic researchers, who moun ted an
i nvestigation, were divided abou t the
authenticity of the two photogra phs. It was
pointed out that the i mages looked suspi­
ciously two-dimensional and i n focus,
whereas the background 'iews of the girls
t hcmsel'CS were more fuzzy. �loreo'el·, the
fairies had surprisingly modern hairstyles.
Even noted fairy lore experts fou n d that a
bit m uch to sw::�llmv. l'obody examined the
original plates and, on the assumption that
'a pictu rc is worth a thousand words· , the
testimon y of the two girls went u nchal­
lenged. Little heed was paid to the fact,
either, t hat Elsie h ad worked for a photog-


P O R T E N T S OF W A R
Above left and right: two of the 'Cottingley Fa1nes'
photographs.
Left: the banks of the beck at Cottingley, playground of the
'fa1ries'.


rapher for some months and was quite a
talented artist, constantly drawing fairies
(because, as she remarked, she was always
seeing them).
  The girls we1·e reunited in 1 920, but
although they were lent a new camera, in
the presence of others they always failed to
produce an image. Left on their own some
time later, they d id, nevertheless, obtain
three more fairy photographs. Finally, in
August 1 92 1 , a noted psychic was sent to the


                                          PORTENTS OF WAR
hc(-k         and         'saw       t he      bi rics           along     will1     you could sec t he head o f t he hat p m t hat
Frances. btl l             110   photogra phs proved possi­                           was hold i n g up t he gnome. I t was st icki n g
ble. " her t h a t t h e girls mo'ed apart and                                     o u t of t h e figu re's ches t : alt hough          Conan
sl Opped seei u g a n yt hi n g s t r a n g e. B UI t hey                             Doyle had t hought              t h is t o he a psyt:hic
had left a legac y of fi'e p hotographs t h a t                                      umbilical coni �
con t i n ued              to       i n t rigue           bclie'ers        and         As f()]· t he fifth im age, w h ich is somewhat
doubters al i ke.                                                                    less dear or t wo-di mensional , a curious dis­
       lh coi u cidence Sir Art h u r Conan D oy l e                                 crepancy has e m erg ed . Elsie said t hat i t was
was         w r i t i n g an        a rt icle on          bi ri e s f(>r t h e       also a hoax _just l i ke t h e other f(HJ r , b u t
Chris t m as 1 920 ed i t io n or S/rand magaz i n e                                  Frances u n t i l h e r dea t h w a s adamant t ha t
precisely w h e n t h is saga bega n . I l e used t h e                               t h i s w a s t h e o n l y real f;1iry photograph t h e
fi r st t w o photographs ( a n d t h e lat t e r t h ree                             l w o girls ever took.
d u r i n g a El2 1 sequel) to press his case t hat                                     These hoax phot ogra p h s date from                      a
f iries were real. I I is belief i n them p art ly
 a                                                                                    t i m e w he n t h e world was on a t h reshold
dcri,-cd fi·01n his fat her, diagnosed m e n tall y                                   bet ween d y i n g bel iefs i n magic and folklore
i l l . wh o had long reported seei n g t hem .                                       ami emergent scien t ific supremacy. They
Doyle a l so held d e e p Spiritualist rom·ic­                                       offer many t e l l i n g lessons to        su   pe rn a t u ral
t ions about t h e existence of other d i m e n ­                                     researchers. Lat er popu larizat ion of o t h e r
ston s .                                                                              stra nge i m ages suggest 1 hat 1 hese lessons
       In     1 92 2 ,     Do y le ,       ha,· i 1 1 g
doued h i s hcs t -selling lictious t o foc u s o n
psychic researc h . published h i s work o u e l c ­
                                                           largel y      aban­        went


                                                                                         H oax
                                                                                                                  .
                                                                                               largely u nheeded c'cn
                                                                                     more h i-tech societY
                                                                                                  or
                                                                                                                                 i n a much


                                                                                                        n o t , t h e Cot t i n gley (airy pho­
men t a l s , The              Coming of 1111' Fairit'.l,                w hich       tographs h;n·e one fi nal t w ist t o ollc1·, w h ich
legit i m i zed the phot ograp h s of Elsie a n d                                     may n e v e r h e resol'ed. Bot h Elsie 'right
Frauces for all                     1 he world            to sec.      Fairies        and Ft·atJCcs G r iffi t h s , c·en o n t heir death
were a popular t opic of co n n·rs at i o n . . l ore                                bed s, i n sisted t hat regardless o f t h e status of
books f()llowed and fairy sight i n gs w e re col­                                    their      much     debated       phot ographs        t here
lect ed,         a       few     still    be i n g        re po rted       e'en      were real fairies and cl'cs in Co t t i n g le y
toda' .                                                                              heck and t h a t t hey bot h often saw t h e m .
       . l uch later. w i t h t h e adn'l l l of modem



                                                                                    ���7
tec h n ology. the rat her d u bious nat u re of


   ·
the Cott ingley phot ograp h s soon bec a m e


                     ·
                                                                                            MAY - OCTOBER
                                                                                    !TH     E FAT I M A M I RACLE
c i d c n t .       Com p u t er            e n hancement                 t ech­
n i q u e s d e , e l o ped          fi·om t h e deep space pro­
gra m m e                showed            t he       fa iries        to      be
t wo-dimensional and p robably mere paper                                             O n I :� :-. J a y 1 9 1 7 t w o girl s and a b o y aged
c u t -o u t s . But the two wome n , still a li'c fi ft y                           be t ween () and        9 years old were tending
'cars        after        t heir        ad'cn t u re ,         refused      to      s h ee p i11 t he ru ral area of F<' l i m a , in nort h ­
                                                                                                                         l
admit 1 h a t t h e y had been cheat i n g. I n 1 966                                e rn l'ort ugal , when a beam o f light flashed
Elsie s pok e of fil m i n g ' fi gmen t s or my i mag­                               fro m the sky and a small, glo w i n g figu re of
ination·             and       on    B BC         T'       in    1 97 1 just         a woma n , clothed in a st ra n ge rad iance,
wanted t o lea'e 1 he sul�jcct 'open ' .                                             a p pea red .     She    spoke      of   coming        from
       Th e t r u t h . i f t ru t h i t he. e m erge d o n l y a                     hean·n and asked t h e c h i l d ren t o ret urn on
d ecade          lat e1·        sho n h·      bd(Jrt'        t he     cousins         the     L :l t h of each successi·c motl l h . The
died. Both finally co n f(-s sed t hat t he fi rst                                    ston· soon got out and o n the U t h o f each
((m r photogJ-aphs                       were       o u t r ight     h oaxes.         motl l h   a cr ow d    gathered. Only t h e origi nal
The i m ages were s i m p l y pa per d raw i n gs by                                  t h ree wit nesses C'er saw t h e being. Tl 1 ey
Elsie. I ndeed t he y pointed to the fact t hat                                       called it a n 'a ngel': hut t h e c h u rd1 a u t h m-i-



P O R T E N T S OF W A R
t i cs soon i n t erpreted it as ' t h e 'irg i n � l a r y ' .                S1nce the visions at F,it1ma, the v1 1lage has become a world-
                                                                                1amous centre of pilgnmage.
      Prophecies w e r e give n : one of t h e i m m i ­
l l l' l l t   R u ssian   Re'o l ution         and    t h e other



                                                                            1919
abo u t 'oriel 'ar Two. :' e i t h e r . howc'lT,
was            p ublicly   rC'caled       un til      alter     t h ese
e'c n t s       occurre d .   :     t h i rd    prophecY         was                  MAY
gi'en by t h e c h i ld ren u nd er seal to t h e  ' a t ­
i r a n t e l l i n g of a m ; u o r t ra u m a s t i l l to come.
                                                                            l   LIVING FOSSIL
     This         third    p ro p h ec y         was    reportedly              :  m i ner extract i n g roal b r below t h e s u r­
opened i n secret by the pope i n                       1 9!i0   but -          r;�re of the :'et h erseal Colliery north-east o f
desp i te i n structions to do so - not t h e n                                 B i rm i n gham           in    the      E n glish       �lidlands
revealed t o t he world . R u m o u rs as to i t s                              fo u n d   a small brown                 toad       bu ried      a l i 'e
co n te n t        i n clude   a    n uclear        war.    n at u ral          i n side a coal sea m .               :'ot    rese m b l i n g a n y
global disaster a n d the dcst rurt ion of t h e                                normal toad , it measured o n l y :� i nches i n
Cat holic Ch urch .                                                             d i ameter, a n d ap peared t o b e b l i n d a n d to
      The fi n a l ·i s i t of t h e · a n gel' was on              17         ha'e no mou t h .              B u t it was u n doubtedly
OctoheL A crowd o f                   70,000- 1 00,000           ga t h ­       a l i ve a n d adjusted t o i t s s u rrou n d i n gs o'er
ered t h is t i m e from fa r a n d w i d e t o s e e a                         t he next few <Ia ys.
p redicted             ' m iracle'.       �lany          on lookers                There are m a n y o t her reliable i n st ances
i u sisted that a hole was p u n c hed t h rough a                              of small a n i m a l s bei n g f(m n d ali'e i nside
ra i n do u d at noon and a s p i n n i n g d isc, pre­                         l u m ps of mck. The coal seam wou ld h a'e
su mably the S u n , pou red down great heat                                    limned      200     m i l l ion yea1·s ago, so most scep­
and b l i n d i n g rad ia n ce o n to the grou n d .                           t ics    assu m e     that       the      a n i m al     some how
bclc)re corksuewi n g eart hwards a n d t h e n                                 e n t ered a cra<·k and became t rapped t here
retreat i n g u p aga i n . :'o a t t est able photo­                          after its birt h           in   recen t       t i mes.   H owe'er,
graphs of t h i s phenomenon exist despite                                      t h ere are t h ose who speculat e t h a t t h e crea­
exten si'e eyewit n ess accou n t s.                                           t u re m i ght h ave en tered w h e n the rock first
      Sce p t ics argue t h at t h is was an opt ical                           formed and t h en li'ed i n 'suspen ded a n i ­
i l l usion brou g h t o n by mass h y ste ria and                              m a t i o n ' for m i l len n ia , or t h a t it was tele­
i n t e nse expect ation. A more recent t h eory                                ported t h ro u g h t i m e a n d space d i re c t l y i n t o
h as de'eloped t ha t t h ese 'isits were rea l l y                           t h e rock c;n- i t y .
b y a l ie n s i n a lJ FO masquera d i n g as a reli ­                             In     tnllh,     nobody            k nows         how      t h ese
gious m i racle.                                                                embedded a n i m a l s get t h ere.



                                                                                                                                 P O R T E N T S OF W A R
THE ROAR I N G TWE NT IE S

T         h i s decade, f(: n- all i ts postwar u n certa i n ties,

          was in many ways a n e xc i t i n g period.
Electri c l i gh t i n g and cars were beco m i n g
com mon place. T h e ci nema was a popular a rt for m .
R a d i o w a s e n te r i n g many h o m es a n d ' t a l k i n g
rad io' (televis i o n ) w a s u n der develop men t . Scie nce
e m phasized t he way in w h ich i n v isible rays could
t ravel t h rou gh space a n d c reate action a t a
d i s ta nce.
   All t h i s a ffected the worl d o f the para n o r m a l .
Science fictio n , t o o , looked to t he fu t u re w i t h
st ories of robots a n d c i v i l i za t ion to c o m e , refl ect i n g
t h e s p i r i t o f t h e age. A n d h a v i n g conquered t h e a i r,
t h o ughts t u rned to t h e n e x t grea t fro n t i e r. O n e
d a y we m i g h t h a ve t h e abi l i ty to reach t h e stars.
l�ll
                                                          After some weeks of wrangles with the
                                                        Egyptian government over ownership of


T H E C U RS E OF K I N G T U TA N K H A M U N
                                                        the bejewelled golden artefacts and other
                                                        marvels in this long-sought historic treas­
                                                        ure, Carnarvon developed a strange malady.
  The Earl o f Carnanon had spent many                  At first it was thought to be a fever, then
  years in Egypt with his young protege and             blood poisoning was diagnosed. In early
  mentor Howard Carter expending vast                   April I 923 he collapsed into a coma at a
  sums of money in the search for the fabled            Cairo hotel. I I e ne,·er recovered .
  treasure-laden tomb of the boy king                     According to eyewitnesses, including his
  Tutankhamun . By late 1 92 2 , on the verge           family and I fowarcl Carter, at the very
  of giving up the quest in despair, he made a          point of his death the hotel lights flickered
  discm·ery that was to turn into one of the            and went out. The electricity was off for ft,·e
  most frightening stories of the century.              minutes in an unexplained power loss.
     On 4 �ovember, the sealed tomb was                 Back in England, apparently at the same
  found in t he onlv small area thcv had not
                           I                        I
                                                        moment, the Carnarvons' housekeeper
  so far searched. The carl was back in Eng-            noticed the family terrier let out a terrible
  land but sailed immediately to the Valley of          howl and collapsed dead on to the carpet.
  t he Kings near Luxor. On 2() :'ovember,               'hen these stories were all combined,
  with Carter and the crew, he cleared the              the notion rapidly took hold that there was
  last pieces of rubble to enter the sacred             a curse associated with the tomb. It was
  ruins that had remained untouched for                 considered that the dead king's spirit had
  3000 years. As an early omen, the lucky               been disturbed and was seeking revenge.
  canary that the team had with them was                  Although the curse theory seems some­
  eaten by a cobra that stole into its cage.            what tenuous, a number of people loosely
  This snake was the anciellt protective                associated with the opening of the tomb did
  symbol of pharaoh kings. I m mediately.               die at a relatively early age. The nurse who
  dread descended upon the local workers.               looked after Carnan-on during his fatal ill­
                                                        ness, for exam ple, died in childbirth when
  View from the N1le   of the Valley of the Kings       just 28.




                                                                                  THE ROARING TWENTIES
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
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Jenny Randles - The Unexplained - Great Mysteries of the 20th Century

  • 2. Great Mysteries of the 20th Century
  • 4. the • Unex Great Mysteries of the 20th Century JENNY R A ND L E S INDEX
  • 5. First published in Great Britain in 1994 by Anaya Publishers Limited 3rd Floor, Strode House 44-50 Osnaburgh Street London NWI 3ND Text copyright© 1994 Jenny Randles All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted , in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Randles, Jenny The Unexplained: Great Mysteries of the 20th Century I. Title 001.9 ISBN 1-85470-178-9 (hardback only) ISBN 1-85470-086-3 (paperback only) Designed by Glynn Pickerill Design Production by The R & B Partnership Edited by John Gilbert Printed and bound in Portugal Cover photographs by Fortean Picture Library Frontispiece, of a medium producing ectoplasm in a 1920 experiment, by Fortean Picture Library
  • 6. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 6 19��]9�9 rrhe New Centurv I 8 191�[1919 Portents of Var 20 ln�J19l9 rrhe Roaring rlventies 36 19J�]9J9 A Shrinking rVorlcl 44 194�JI949 Disaster and Recovery 52 191�]1919 Alien Encounters 66 196�]969 The Space Race 86 197� ]979 Challenge of the Paranonnal I02 198�]989 Society and the U ncxplained II4 T�e 199�� �rhe Future Beckons I26 an� onwar�... I3 8 Further Reading 139 Index I42 Acknowledgen1ents 144
  • 7. INTRODUCTION D u ri ng the twe ntieth ce n t ury the s t ra n gest t hings have h appened bot h in the worl d s of scien ce and of parascience. So-called normal science has witnessed a revo lution so i m me n se as to equal or even surpass those pion eered by N e w to n a n d Galileo. vVe h ave reached upward and outward int o space , DrJWII1g or the p robed the in terior of t h e a tom, 'Jersey Dev1l'. Phrlacielphi<J f venrng discove red h idden rad iation s , Bu/letrn. jdnudry 1909 revealed a ghost u niverse fil led wit h time-travel ling phantoms and created techn olog ical miracles u nforeseen even by the writers of science fictio n. The si n i s ter side to th ese achieve m e n ts is the un leash i n g of natu ral catastrophes and the forgi n g of weapons capable of ending life on Eart h . No sin gle ce n tury i n history can m atch this record of i nven t iven ess, with its unl i m ited poten tial for crea tion a n d destru ction. In t he wake of t h is o- � a l l o iJin � char<re u � by t he forces of ration alism has come a deluge of p a ran ormal p h e n o me n a I h a t seem s t o herald a ret u r n t o t h e distant age of s uperstition. Ve have been asked to believe in f�tiries and spacemen , we have sought f(Jr meaning ITJ
  • 8. i n past lives a n d we have u sed com p u t ers to probe t h e futu re . Our ocea n s h ave teetued with m o n sters, o u r fields h a ve been speckled wit h m y s te rious circ les a n d our sk ies h ave been overflown by dazz l i n g fleets of U FOs. It seems ap propriate, as the cen tury draws to a close, to review the logbook of the last h u ndred years, examining some of t hese remarkable even ts and developments to see how t h i n gs may inter-relate. To t h i s end I h ave d evised a c h ro nol ogy of t e n m os t e x t raord i nary decades , descr ib i n g m a n y of t h e broa d trends a n d i n dividual mvsteries that I h ave paralleled, a n d often o u t stripped , t h e realities of I�Kt a n d t h e l�mtasies of fiction . They h a ve woven t hei r way, l ike an i n visible threa d , through Sw John Hunt leading the Everest exped1tion of 1951 The t h e a n n als of t h is lascinating H1malayas have been the scene of several alleged sight1ngs of the period to cre;:tle a tapestry of Abom1nable Snowman. awesome bea u t y o u ts h i n i n g , a n yt h i n g i n t h e pages of t he Ambim1 Nights. So c l i m b aboard ou r m agic carpet for a ride t h rough the t we n tieth century. V h o knows w h a t wonders w e s h a l l confi·on t? ITJ
  • 9. THE NEW CENTURY ; s t h e twe n t ie t h centu ry dawn ed , t h a n ks to fi_ Da rwi n s t h eo rv of evolu t ion, t he b i rt h of psych oanalysis as pion eered by S i gm u n d Freud ' ' a nd t h e e x pe r i m e n tal research of Anton Pavlov, science seemed dose t o creat i n g an ordered, predictable world peopled by aut o m ata: a godless U n i verse w i t h n o s p i r i t, no soul and no aherlile . More encou rag i n g were the first l�1lteri n g steps �ravitv-free enviro n m e n t as sc i e n t is t s a n d i n to a u aviators converted age-old dreams i nto real i t y. ' Yet, as t rad it io n al rel igion declined , t h e hu m a n spi rit rebel led. creat i n g n e w modes of e x p ression f(:>r its i n ner worl d , as if to prove to sci ence t h a t all was n ot qui t e as s i m ple as i t seemed. [JJ
  • 10. 19�� Boxi n g Day. the t lu-ee m e n left i n charge had vanished. :'o weapons had been 14 FEBRUARY touched a n d there was no trace of a distur­ bance. The last log entry by the men. dated T H E VAN I S H I NG AT H A N G I N G ROCK 15 December, referred to t he calmness of O n e oft he most astonishing disappearances t he sea after the ending of a s t ra n ge storm on record t ook place at Ha nging Rock, not renlrded twen t�· miles away, a n d men­ ncar : lclbournc, 'inoria, :ustralia. T h i s t io n ed t hat they were afraid, praying and w a s recorded i n 1 he book Pirnic at 1/anging allirmi n g that 'God is oYer all'. Roth by Joan Lindsay (1967), a n d was also 19�1 t h e subject of a n cthcrcal and eerie 197 5 film of the same title by Peter 'eir. The book, although labelled a novel, is by impli­ JUNE cation based on Ctrt. It tells of a school AN EARLY CLOSE E N C O U N T E R party on a day outin g at the isolated beauty spot, a n d hm,· four teenage girls and a The first rcconlcd dose encounter of the female teacher vanished after setti n g off, i n third kind (or alien contact) occurred at sight o f m a n y colleagues. t o explore a rock Bournbrook, 'est ilidlands, England, when lace in the bush. One girl retur n e d in a an objefl like a 'hut' was seen in a garden by slate of deep shock. Another, in an equallr a youth. It contained two slllall men. under 4 cat atonic rondit ion, was found a week lat er. feet tall, wearing khaki suits and helmets, one :'either could explain what had occurred. of whom approached the wimess bd(lre The three missin g members of the part}' rctuming i nside. The o�jefl ncated an clcr­ were llC cr found. A strange pink cloud trical glow around its base and took oil' sky­ seen hm·ering near br reinforced the ward wit h a whooshing noise. supernatural ,·iew that ther had slipped 19�11 into anothct· d imen s ion or time. The eve n t strtL(·k a cl10rd deep in t h e psyche because of i t s diren rhallcnge to s(·icnti(i(· omn ipo­ 0 AUGUST tence. On the other hand, whereas manr of T I M E S L I P AT V E RSAILLES the people a n d plares did historically exist, the Joan Lin dsay no'el rontains serious Two English srhoolteachcrs, A n n e :tuber­ errors of f;lct and no contemporary media ley a n d Eleanor Jourdain, were on holiday accounts refer to the vanishings. 'hen in France. Visitin g the grou n ds of the asked in 1977 if she had i nvented it all, the Palace of Versailles 011 a hot sun ny day, author replied, e nigmatically, that this was they claimed to have been projected more impossible to answe r because 'fact a n d fic­ than a century back in time. They came tion are so dosclv i n t ert wi ned'. I across the Petit Trianon, the small chateau giYcn by Louis X'1 to llarie-,ntoniette, as 19�� it had been on 10 August 1792, the h is t oric day when the French royal family was MID-DECEMBER forced lo flee. The 1 wo women wa ndered pat hwa'S that no longet· existed, saw THE L I G H T H O U S E D I SAPP EARAN C E people in old-fashioned clothi n g and even On G Dc(·ember, .Joseph :loore Jell for witnessed a woman busy pai nting who three weeks' lca'e from t he desolate Eilean stared them ti.t ll in t he face and bm·e t h e :lor ligh t house on the Flaunan I sles, west resemblance o f :laric-Antoinetle herself. of Lewis, Scotland. 'hen he returned o n Only f(lllowin g later 'isits to the scene. T H E N E W C ENT U R Y
  • 11. Above: the Pet1t T nanon, Versailles. Below: Eleanor ]ourda1n and Anne Moberley T H E N E W CE NTU R Y
  • 12. when they noted that pathways they had momentum and remained constant trodden in 190 I had since 'anished, and throughout the rest of the century. The when subsequently researching the history slaughter or world wars and countless of the grounds, did they come to under­ bloody local conflicts brought many stand many of these e'ents. bereaved rush i ng to Spiritual ist churches The women stood by their story until for comfort. their deaths, despite sceptical claims that The real reason for this sun:ess was that, they had stumbled across a costume party while conventional religions called for Ctith (the existence of which was ne,·ei- verified). as a path toward solace, they had no way of They described a llat feel to the imagery combating the ad'ance of science. Indeed, and other strange sensations typical of some sects hn.>ke away and attempted to more recent sl i ps through time: and some bring hack a p u ritanical way of life and to modern researchers think this is indeed restore literal belief in the truth of the Old what happened. Somehow they slid Testamelll stories that had by now been through the years or 'tuned into' a memory severely eroded by rationalism. On the left by the Queen in the grounds of the other hand, Spiritual i s m olfen�d hard evi­ chateau. dence, albeit in the guise or m ediu m s pass­ ing on often ,·ague tittle-tattle about dead I�Ol relatives and friends. But for many that was sufficiently persuasi'e. The only answer science had was to cry 'cheat' and, often without any proof of this T R I U M P H OF T H E S P I R I T assumption, to argue that people were As the century began, mysterious e'ents deluding themselves. Thm, at one and the such as these confirmed the 'iew of many same time, Spiritualism established a har­ ordinary people that science was mistaken rier that science, with all its might, could to presume that all things could be barely dent: and it offered hope to a world resol'ed. The scient ilic desire to pro'e the fast being stripped to its spiritual bones. soul redundant was matched by the increas­ Inevitably, as a consequence of this and ing belief in Spiritualism. the maxim that one could fool some people This mm·ement had begun in the eastern most or the time, charlatans cashed in. United States after simple messages, Phoney mediums sprang up all over the believed to come from beyond the grave, place. The new gadgetry of science, from were received by the contro'ersial Fox sis­ photography to X-ray tubes, was hi-jacked ters in llydes'ille, 1:ew York. The belief for 'experiments' in which dubious spirit that the dead were in another dimension images, floating clouds or ectoplasm (the and that contact with them was possible transient 'matter' of the spirit world) and spawned both religious institutions and the other such doubtful practices became rif(·. Society f(>r Psychical Research. The latter, It was some time before Spiritualism was based in London, aimed to persuade scien­ able to set its own house in order and as a tists to study such reports, and like its reli­ consequence a growing rili developed gious counterpart, it was soon to spread between the popular hclie,·ers and the sci­ around the world. entific sceptics, who accused these gullible The religion of spirit messages, with folk of believing only because they wanted preachers known as mediums, proliferated to and not because the evidence dictated it. in the 1890s and was legally constituted This rift widened as the century progressed. into the Spiritualists' National Union in :'owadays, Spiritualism has waned 1902. The appeal of the mm·ement gained slightly, but it has also become big business. T H E N E W C E N T U RY
  • 13. thanks to the install! celebri ty status belief tha t Spiri t u a lis m p rov id es f(u· so alllmtcd by TV. Doris Stokes, Doris Collins, many. St e phen O'Brien and many others hm·e As to whether it is tru th or delusion, like brought their min istrations to the world, all spiritual m atte r s t hroughout history, packi ng Tnnes such as the Sydn ey Opera that q uestion remains a maller or faith. llouse, theatres in London' s 'est End, 19�4 etc., and dra wing in enormous ratings for the media. In response , scientific vigilante groups such as CSICOP (Commillee for the SEPTEMBER Scientific lm·es t igat i on or Claims of the THE LEA P I N G M ON ST E R Paranormal) have launched themselves as guardia u s of rationalism, sniping away on Spri ng - he el ed Jack was a bizarre neatur e the fringes of the s u pema t u ral. b r i ngi ng often re po rted i n Viet orian Lon d on d uring down the occasio nal victim, hut largely fail­ the n i n eteenth cen t u ry. He h ad grown to ing to penetrate the armour of hope and legendary status. With his grotesque f<Ke, ancl clad in a black cape, he would appa r­ en t ly leap out of nowhere ami allack people in the streets, often lea v i n g them wounded though not dead. His name derived ti·om h i s repu t ed abil i t y to jump huge distan ce s i n one bou nd . Although 1 here were isol ated sight ings in London even after World War Two, t he l a st pro m ine nt o n e was in Liver­ pool in I !JO-t when the fig u re was said to have jumped over a b u ildi n g in William I lenry St reet. llowever, research by scep ti c Paul lkgg revealed this as an e x agg eration of a true story of a religiou s zealot who claimed the devil was chasing hi m a n d who leapt d angerousl y from rooftop to rooftop to escape the att ent ions of the police and lire services. Legend has assoc i a t ed this spur io u sl�· with a mani fe st at ion of the archetypal Victorian monster. 19�� JANUARY I T H E B I N BROOK POLT E R G E I S T On e of 1 he most frighteni n g polt ergeist out­ breaks struck Binbrook Fa rm, in Lin­ colushire, England. Ohjects 1110'ed around the room on t h e i r own, hundreds of chick­ ens were found ski n n ed and slaug h tered Above and opposite: two 1mag1nat1ve popular rendenngs, from 1877 and 1904, of Sp1ing-heeled Jack. noiselessly even after a guard had been I 111ou n ted, and m yst erious fires spra n g u p from nowhere. In o n e case a teenage se r - THE NEW CENTURY []]
  • 14. On the tomb.stonc, "ith upraised arms and rnge In C'ery feature, towered the terrific form of 5pring-11ecled Jnck. Frl'eZt'r and Unk.4 .stood transfixed; their glwstly h<1rdcn slippl'd slowly to the gross, but they remained gnpin;:-, tcr:l6r-struck. 'cn;:cance hud fallen I T H E N E W CEN T U R Y
  • 15. ,·;utl ca u gh t ablate as she wa s sweeping the o f fire sell down t wo feelers toward the f l oor and was hospitalitcd with serious groun d at Ynysybwl. inju ries. The ii J( ide nts lasted t w o months I t was argued that some of the lights and then ceased as ra pidly as they began. were probabl y mispercep tions of the planet The case became a pro totype f()r future 'enus, t hen bright in the night sky, or allacks of this nat u re the world O'er. Opin­ meteor a c t ivit y , which was liule understood ion at llrst was that 'c'il spirits' were to at the time. In any c ve lll, the myst erio us blame, but this altered later to the para­ li ghts helped l ary Jones to circulate her scientific theory that some unknown b u t religio us message, and when t he y finally latent energy within a traumat ized vinim d i s a ppeared, her influ ence declined. 'leaked' out and was somehow t ranslated Kevin lcCiure conducted detailed i nto de stmn i v e phys ical force. Science research into the maler and regards the m ai ntai n s that such cases arc mere como­ phenomenon as an i mportalll phase in the dence or f:thrication. de velo p meut of religious v isions- strong in Cat holic communities of I rcland, France Sp ain , 19�� and but rare outside. :lodern researchers, however, think that these lights JANUARY may be produced by t he ground itsciL Rocks arc kuown to generate electrical sig­ L I G HTS O F I N S P I RAT I O N nals wheu p u t under strain, e.g. during E gryn i s a small village north of' Barmouth earthquakes. Short -liwl glowing plasmas on the mid-Wales coast. In l!JO:> it became seem to be created in the atmosphere as a the cent re of a trad itional lethodist reli­ result of this l;mh line act ivity. In the years g i ou s revival that was dramatically st imu­ prior to the Welsh revi'al, they wac termed lated by a fanner's wile named 1lary Jones . 'spooklights'. Tod ay . of cou rse, the same The p rincipal reason f(>J· her astonishing lights wo u ld be seen as UFOs. achievements was the matute•· in which Researcher Paul Devereux has coined the strange light phenomena allached them­ term 'ea rthlight' to define these glows and selws 10 her per son. llundrcds of' people has f(mnd a bull line running right past saw them and her r;une soon sprea d. The the Egryn chu rch. t i ny chapel became a !(Jcal point fo1· pil grims. 19�� The lights were first wit ness ed by a train dri,·er at l'ensam in early January a t a time when Irs Jones was pre ac hing in the town. 30 JUNE lie said t h ey resembled glowing balls of fire T H E TU NGU SKA S KY C RASH that streaked away in many direrlions, then conver ged with a t remendous explosion An eart hlight t o end all carthlights was seen li ke thunder. Another person described a hy remote villagers in the Siberian taiga bright blue bar that straddled a pi t ch - dark forest near the Stony Tunguska River. Its country road. And many witnesses claimed origin remains the su �j erl of intense con­ to han: seen the l ight s ho'ering d i rectly trm·eJ·sy but its impact is beyond dis p u te. O'er lary Jones and inside chu rches where Shortly alicr 7 a . m . that morning, a white she preached. mass, brighter than the sun, appeared in the There followed six months of dazzling sky above northern Eu rope, creating ground li gh t shows in the skies that brought jour­ shadows. Within seconds it swept across the nalists s cu rry ing fi·om as (;u- a field as desolate land scape miles high in the aunos­ Lo ndon and lanchester. These were d ra­ phcre and t urned into a column climbing matically concluded on 2:� July w hen a bal l 'ertically upward and visible for hundreds T H E N E W C EN T U R Y
  • 16. of miles arou n d . There fi1llowed a series of conlt't's tail . If a piece ol romet h a d h it the huge explosions which were hc<Jrd sixty Eart h , it wou ld ha' e largely 'aporized a n d m iles from th e impact point. spr i n kled l i n e dust 0T r t h e grou nd. Locals �linutes <Jfter the e'ent. a shock wa 'e i ndeed referred to a black rain t hat accom­ spread outward. It uprooted trees and panied the Tunguska i m pact. Particles of smashed rooftops more t h a n se 'enty miles d us t tlll-0nl into t he a t m osphe re cou ld also fro m t h e centre of destruct ion. If was felt as ha·e p ro d u ced t h e lum inous clouds. an earth trem or in (;ermany and recorded :'cvertheless. <Jfter n uclear weapons were e'en in Britai n . :lc<Jsured on widely d is­ lirst detonated in 19·1:-l and t h eir t c lfec s persed seismogr<� p h s, the wa'e '<IS power­ wc..-e seen to be remarkably similar to t h ose ful enough to circle t he Earth-twice� in Siberia. a pop u la r parascience t heory Fm· seH·ral subse q uen t nights �t range eme t·ged. 'as the Tung u s ka explosion t h e luminous douds lit t h e skies <Jho'e Europe result o f a nuclear-powered spa'cecrali t h at and Ahica. They glowed pink and yellow exploded on its way i n to the atmosphere? and were bright e nough fiJr people to read Sup porters poin ted out t hat lora! rein­ newspapers outdoors in t h e absence of any deer d ev e loped scabs on t heir bodies and <Jrti liri<Jl lighti n g. there was some limited evidence li>r exces ­ Because of the remoteness of the im p<�ct sive radiation i n the area (although meas­ zone and the i n tenention of the Russi <J n ured only fol lowing man-made nuclear reYolution it w<Js al most twenty years belilre detouations by t he USSR, which compro­ a scien t ific expedi tion reached Tunguska. m ised t h e findings). K u l i k had l(mnd n o Astrono mer Leonard Kulik e x pe cted to find local people who s u lkred radiation sickness e·idence of <1 meteor t hat h<Jd exploded on on his 'is it in I !l28; a n d by I 940. when he impact. l c;n·in g a h uge crater and fragment s wen t again, direl'l eyewit nesses to t h e e' e nt behind . In fact, he fou nd neither crater nor were still f(nmd alive and well -i m probable ft ·agments. Trees at t he exact centre or t he had they been ·ery c lose obse rvers to a e x plosion , a l t hough st r i pped of h<�rk, were n u clear impart. still stand ing; t hose in <1 SIIITounding area Several more recent exped it ions haYe many miles across were llallened . fou nd eYidence consistent w i t h t h e comet The meteorite theory was all but t h eory, i nclud in g cle ments and c h e m i cals destmyed by t his e'idence , which dearly on the g ro un d . r precise mappin g of the showed t h at the object had exploded high impa ct damage also fits the idea. I loweve1·, in mid-air. so t hat t h e area immediately ot her Russian scientists who h ave 'isited below was to some extent shielded . Th ere the area t hin k t h a t somet hing u nexplained were also repons by local tlnesters that t h e was to blame. Theories as diYerse as a l u m p glowing mass h a d seemed to cl t an ge d i rec­ o f an ti-maller explod i n g o n con tact wit h t ion in m i d-flight - a bet partially Yind i ­ t h e atmosp here, a n d e ve n a n u clear- pow­ rated, d espite much argt1ment, b y a e ro­ ered space rocket fro m t he fu t u re which dynamic reconstruc t ion. acciden tally crossed a t i m e barrier and t he n Scientists now 1�1'0111' 1 he view that t he detonated, haw been proposed , bu t ,,·ith­ object was a small comet. To create an out murh linmdati on. i m pact of <1 I :! -megatonne nuclear bomb. as Yet if the Tunguska explosion was this obj ect had done, it wou ld need to he raused by an impact from a piece of debris seYcral h un d red feet in diameter, br bigger from outer space, one th ing is certain. Surh t han a meteol'. a happen ing is not all t hat rare and may he Comets are composed or a solid cru mbly expected by chance every few h und red cot·e ami ice th<Jt vapo ri tes in a shell on the years. Smaller ones wil l occu r seTJ'al t imes o u tside. Th is p roduces t h e characteristic a century. It would ha'e been pure l urk []] THE NEW CENTURY
  • 17. gTH�ARCH I that the I !10� object exploded tiveh· unillltabited area. Tlte next one could just as easily do so oYer London. Tokyo mer a rela­ or MUSEUM I the heart of :lanhauan, with all too ohYious ronseq11ences. l"ft" T t·. IIIIJ"'J(I :"'� . . . . CAUGHT!!! A�L��:� ; !! JlJJ 17 JANUARY I !,��,��-�:kE�,��:�� tommooitie' of �ew • • • Je rsey. LS:, were plagued with sigluings of a giatll hat-like cr e al l t r e with a face t h a t was likened variously 10 a mule, a dog or a kan­ garoo. It was said to he terrorizing local brms, la ndin g. lcaYing strange marks and then leaping into the sky. The prints were in the f(mn of a single hoof and seemed 10 pass straight OYer obst ar le s such as fe nces. They were also [(>Und on heaches in deep snow. In matn· ways the tracks resembled those left in the still mvsterious incident in Febru­ ary Hl:'i?i when residents of 'illages over a large area of South Devon awoke onl' morning to find a line of single hoofjnints etched into a snowd rift. It spread f(H· many LEEDS DEVIL miles over the landscape a n d eYe n crossed Captured friday After a rooftops as if unimpeded! In 1909 reports began on li January Terrific Struggle. when policeman shot at the thing as it a EXKTJUl""Y.l> r.:.:n.t-�1 t:l." llF.RI!: Al' 11noo no A "t:l-:1(. flew n'er the Delaware RiYer in Penns'1'a­ The r-rl'nl. J'rlchli'JI, }"<!'roduu• :llon.el<'r f""hl<'h nia. Sounds like a sh r iek ing whistle were ltn�t lJN"G l"C"rrurlrla• 'J',..o �l:>tf'•. heard. On 21 Jan uary firemen at 'est Swims l Flys! Gallops. Collingswood. :'ew Jersey. were rep111edly allacked b' the :�- foot monster with glowing .Ex.WbUed �al"''l.1 l'h11lar<t ey es. It then perched on a roof and they lu ,. ll:o••''�'" !'lt .... t CJI�te. A UVING DRAGON turned their hoses on to it, to its apparent disgust! In lew Jersey. the sightings of the •- F_,_,me Than t.l.oe I'"IJIN !llnn•t.•ro creature in conjunction with the finding of ot �Tth<>lftJr7. no�·y !tl�!il Tilt-: the hooljnints soon ga,·e rise to hyster ia. 81loiiT Ill' A I.II'I:."U.IR. and the name Jersey Devil' was coined, uro s·rru.so nt> �1-.:''iATlO:-.· ... I� from a local legend IT"lUO nU.T. The wa'e ended with reports from �lorris­ THi.::ATRE ,·ilk, l'ennsyh·ania. that the creature had GA.,:Vrt ('0:'�n '"l'Ol'"J Y A t'T>F.l""TJJ.l!l A poster tn the Phrlaceiphra Pubf:c Leager of a to the 1 Oc ADMITS TO ALL precu"5or jcr;ey Devil, th1s one exhtbited 1n captiVIty T H E N E W C ENTURY
  • 18. flown into a barn and become trapped. The The first flight by a Zeppelin; LZ-1, over Lake Constance. doors were sealed and rein forceme nts Genmany. 2 July 1900. rapidly sent for. U n fortunately, when the barn doors were opened, and despite there In fact, the first sighting occurred in the being no other obvious exit route, the autumn of 1896, in Sacramento and later J ersey Devil had van ished into the hinter­ San Francisco, California, when a cigar­ world from which it had arrived and was shaped object with bright lights was never heard li·om again. reported floating in the aiL According to At least, not until 1 966, when Ohio had a research by Jerome Clark, frontier humour terrifying spate of visions of a creature pos­ had a field day. As the sightings continued sessing a n u mber of similar features that almost nightly, many tall tales were spun became k nown as 'mothman'. simply to outdo rival provincial papers. Eccentric inven tors came forward to claim, through agents, t hat they had b uilt the devices, then vanished without ever making public their secret. A further outbreak was reported across a P H ANTO M SCARE S H I P S wider area of the western and mid-western As the first primitive aircraft were flying on states in April and May 1 897. The first dangerous short hops around the world, flights by genuine airships - which began in the inexplicable appearance of a wave of Europe - were still some mon ths away. But, strange airships soon developed into a mys­ like the previous wave, the 1897 airships of tery of epic proportions. the western USA swiftly disappeared. T H E N E W C ENT U R Y
  • 19. In Elml. howner, the problem suddculy bectnw g-lohal, as scallcrcd reports came in h·mn :l'r Zealand, ,ustr;tlia and especially ti·otn Britain. On :!:� :larch, a policeman on patrol in l'etcrhorough, north-east of Cambridge. heard a buzzing engine aiHI looked up to sec a single floodlight auached to a dark cigar-shape silhoueued against the sky. Local police suggested it was an illuminated kite. but as more reports J(,llowcd, rumonr spre;td that the Cermans were llying Zep­ pelins on spy missions. There was real ten­ sion between the two imperial nations in the nm-up to World 'ar One; but althoug-h the activities of airship b u il der Count Fenli­ nand von Zeppelin were well allested, it is certain that no such spy missions were C'er laun<·hed ag-ainst Britain in this way. nor did the Germans ha'e the capability to do so. On 14 :lay. the captain and new of the St Ofaj: steaming in the :orth Sea on· Blyth. :'lort h u mherlaud, saw an object apparently materialize out of thin air above. It was again described as a cigar with lights. An e'en more remarkable incident took place on Il-l :lay which has all the hall­ marks of a UFO landing. If it were reported today. fe,,· details would need to be a<ljttsted for it to be i u terpret cd as an alien contact, rather than - as it was at the time- a precursor to a Cerman im·asion. German army! The terrain was also Punch and Judy s h owman. l1 r C. Leth­ crushed llat. bridge, was walking home late at night m·er There were other reports of airship pilots Ca e rphilly :fountain in Smtth Wales when standing bes ide their craft, in one rase he saw a cigar-like object 011 the grou n d . requesting water. But alter a few days the Two men wearing strange fur coats were sightings tailed otT, lca'ing the usual spent­ talking- in an unknown language and reacted lation about mistaken identity and mass instincti'ely when they saw the intruder, hysteria. picking up something from the ground and The sightings began again, howe'er, in jumping into their craft. which soared sky­ late Ell:!. One incident. above Sheerness, ward over some telegraph wires. As it rose. Kent, on 14 OctohlT, was then taken so t wo powerful searchlight beams were seriously that questions were asked in the switched on. one at each end of the <Tall. Honse of Commons- possibly the first ever The witness returned to the site with p u b lic debate on UFOs. Lord of the Admi­ li·iends to find objects on the grass. includ­ ralty and future prime minister, Winston ing a piece of blue paper with unknown Churchill, had the dubious pri'ilege of Titing and printed m atter abo u t the being the fi1·st go'emment ollicial under T HE NEW C E N T U R Y [[]
  • 20. pressure to come up wi th an answer and Tnal flrght of the Zeppelrn LZ -� over· Lake Constance, 1908 warned of the need not to underestimate the Cerman forces. A law was passed that ing light-in-the-sky pheno m e na not viewed prohibited airship flights without prior as airships. One. on 30 Ik cember 19i7, authority and allowed the police or army to inn>h·ed a golden egg sha pe seen ,-ising shoot one down if it failed to respond to from power lines, pu n ching a hole in the warning si�nals. :'o such inridcnt, fortu­ cloud cover which then gradually tilled in nately, occur r e d . until no longer visible. The final fling of these airship waves :lodern researchers suspect that there is hel(>re war erupted came on the night of 2 I some sort of natural phenomenon of a Feb nt ary 1913 when reports lloodcd in glowing, electrical nature, possib ly akin 10 li·mn scwral pans of Britain. :lost interest­ De·ereux's earthlights. 'hen seen in 1977, ing was one from the small village of Exhall th e ionization caused the douds to disperse. in Warwickshire. It was just a typical Today we understandably view these things description of a lighted object, but was to as alien cran, hut in 1909 and 191 :�. I acquire more relevance because the same immer sed in pre-war hysteria , were they location has since generated several bscinat- seen as scareships? [[] THE NEW CENTURY
  • 21. P O R TE N T S O F W A R T his traumatic decade, punctured by rebellion and reYolution, culminated in the titanic and bloody clash or Vorld Var One, the 'war to end all wars'. Meanwhile the scientific reYolution gathered relatiYity turned our notion or the U niYerse on its momentum. Albert Einstein's 'general theory' or head. The f(wm taken by basic conceptions such as speed, size, shape and time was rdatiYe to where you were and what you were doing. Atoms were composed of energy fields in constant Hux within largely empty space, beyond the grasp of our normal senses. New Yistas opened up, ready f(w exploration. The UniYerse had suddenly become a vastly more complicated place.
  • 22. 1911 SEPTEM BER M I RAC LE B L E E D I N G This was one of 1he first well-attested hands bled at rhe c entre poin t . lo ng report s of miracle bl eed i n gs. , pi ct u re of' hel ie,·ed to he where nails were placed Christ in the French ,·illage dlllrch at llire­ d u ri n g cruc ifix ion ami familiar f'rom many hea u -e n - Poitou began to ooze blood from religious port raits . We now know Ji·01n h is ­ the hands and the forehead. While scientists torical evidence, howe'er, that crucifixion ' argued thar ir was ju st pi gment ation from victims had n ails hammcred t h rough rhe rhe pa in t seepi n g out. the de'o ut llocked ro bones ar rhe wr is t as 1 he fleshy palm was too t he s ite, convinced t ha t t he local priest was soh t o support rhe hanging weight of a body. somehow responsible. The location of t he The b leed i ng intensified l(>r six months ami bleedi ngs was e xact ly t hat of the rep u t ed at t he same t i me a nearby stat ue of t he wounds of Ch r ist when crucified, i.e. on the Virgin 'wept' rears. Afier the priest's death in hands and crown. Yet, interestingly, rhe I �115 all these eiTerts ceased. 15 Septembre 1911 Decembre 191l P O RTE N T S OF W A R
  • 23. 1911 1 4 APRIL lfR E M O N I T I O N O F D I SAST E R The Tita uir, lll l i l t in t h e norl heru En g l is h port or L i e rp ool and stea m i n g li·om ' So u th;am p t o n t o New Yor k, is p robably t h e most i n b mous n a m e i n marine h istory. Se'eral days i 11 1 o her m aiden voyage, t he so-ca l led ' u nsin kable' l i ner s t ru c k a n u nseen iceberg. was holed deep a n d c a n ied 1 :>00 passengers a n d crew to t he bot t om of t h e At lan t ic Ocean . ;lore p eop le wou ld ha'e been saved fro m her hu ge cont i nge n t had n o t t h e owners. u l l edy nm vi n ced o f h e1· s ec u ri t y n egl ect e d t o pro v i d e e n o u g h . lilt.·boats. A side efkct of t he shocki n g disaster was t o set in mot ion one or the m ost po w erlia l psych ic experiences e·er recorded. For t h e fi rst t i m e t hen: was open t a l k o f precogni­ t ion - the abil i t y to s e e t h i n gs before t h e y h app e n . No fewer t h a n twenty cases arc k n ow n o f p eo ple who had p re m on i t io n s of disa st er bcli:>re t h e ship sailed. Some rdiased t o board ; ot hers had relat ives amon14 t h e pas­ s enge rs and sen se d u a ge d y . Famed n ews · ­ paper writer William Stead, who had h i mself wrillen in a n art icle t hat such a t ragedy could happe n , was warned expl ic­ i t l y in writin14 by a psychic t hat he was i n great d a n ge r during April I D I 2 a nd should ' avoid water and t ravel at t hat t i me. H e ignored t he w a rn i n g and paid w i t h h i s l i fe. Even more incredible was t h e case of ret i red seam a n 1organ Robertson who was stru gg l i n g to se ll his short stories. I n I H!IH, experiencing write1·'s block in his New York aparl m e n t , h e suddenly had a v isi o n in 1 w l a ich he saw a h u ge l i n e r sutler a catast ro­ phe w i t h an iceberg. I n h is t ra nce. he heard dearly t h e word s 'April' and ' u nsi n kable'. I n spi red by t hi s episode, he wrote his story 'The 'reck o l the Titan', i n w hich his ncar-ident ical su pe1·s h i p , t h e SS T itan. s i n ks on her m a i den voyage ali e r s t r i k i n g a n ------------- PORTENTS OF WAR
  • 24. C R ETAC E O U S PA R K S i r ;rt h u r Conan D ovic's I inion o r S U r'1'­ u n seen iceberg, w i t h l w n dreds peri s h i n g i n g d i nosaurs had rea l - I i i (· i n s p irat ion li·mn needlessly beca use o l i n adequate l i iCboat lege n d s and s t o ries fi1·st hmught hac k by CO"l'L eigh t een t h -cen t u ry m issionaries li·01n the Scept ics argued t h a t t h i s was m e re coi n c i ­ Ali·ica n Con go. Th e n , in lat e El l :� . the d e n ce . Fo nne1· s e a m c 1 1 1 1 1ay u n d ers t a n d ­ Gerl l l an gon• n u n c n t sen t out t h e l i rst sci­ ably have h a d q u a l m s about t h e s a f e t y or e n t ilic exped i t ion to ascer t a i n the l i kely such a big l i n e r. �lm·em·tT, Tita n or Tita 11ic t n l l h beh i n d t h ese t a les. was au oh'ious choice or n a m e l i ll · a h u ge Captain Frei h ei T von Stein set out on a s h i p . Yet Rober t s o n kit s u re he h a d an lon g and t reacherous walk t h rough t he u n seen presence gu i d i n g his hand. Or j u n gl e swam ps of the Likou l a regw n , cou l d it ge n u i n e l y h ave been precogn i t ion � encou nteri n g Tnomous s n akes, deadly i nsects all(l h ea d h u n t i n g p yg l l l ies as he ven­ t t u-ed into u ncharted t erritory sit u a t ed h u n­ or m i les fi-om any towns or c i t ies. Left survrvor> packrng the Trtanrc lrfcboats. Below: the last moments of the "unsrnkable' liner. dreds ,her q u es t i o n i n g n a t ives a n d w h i t e h u n t ers who had explored the region , h e repea ted l y h eard lege n d s a b o u t a large beas t , sol l l e :.!0- :Hl li long. wh ich i n h abited a local l a k e . The creat u r e , n a med /1/Vkt•lt lllhe111be, was said to han a lon g n e c k and brow n body · all(l t o be bigger t h an a h i p popot a m u s . I t l i ved i n t h e l a ke caves a n d sur[Kcd periodi­ cally t o eat leaves fro m a f lower i n g I i a n a plant cal led uwlo111ho, stretch i n g its n eck u p wa rd rat h e1· like a giraHi.· . : a t i n:s who had ap proac hed the a n i m a l i n can oes h a d been a t t acked and d rowned when t h eir boats san k , but t h ere were no clai m s t h a t t h e 1 1 1 o n s t c r a t e i t s prev. V o n Stein never saw the o-ea t u re but was s hown a t rack by n a t ives w h o swm-e t h a t a s peci m en had recen t l y en tered t h e river s y s t e m at t ha t poi n t . l i e cou l d a d d l i t t l e except t h at t h e an i m a l wh ich left t h e m arks was abo u t t h e s i ze t h a t h ad been dcso-ibed and u n fiu n i liar t o h i m . T h e �cncral view o r zoologi s t s was t ha t t h e lege n d s m i g h t h a 'l' h ad a bct u a l basi s , part i cu l a r l y because t h e creat w·e w a s n o t dep i ct ed as a tcrril)·i n g or carn ivorous beast (as is normal with such stories) but described as a p lacid p l a n t eater. I I erbivo­ rous d i n osau rs such as U ro nto.lt/ 1/ nt. llo u r­ ished in t h e Cret aceous era a n d it was j u s t conceivable t ha t a tc"· s p eci m e n s s t i l l sm·- P O R T EN T S O F W A R
  • 25. · . ;· . :.·: ·.. ' ·. Skeletdl model of o,p/odocus, the Cretaceous d1nosaur govern m e n t put d i llicult ies in the wa y. These trips estab lished m u ch u sefu l data, vived locally. B u t in the absence of proof, asse m b l i n g match i n g acco u n ts a n d reports nobody seemed inclined to be too exci ted of how in 1 9[ 9 > a gro u p of pygmies ca p­ by a collection of stories. t u red a n d ate o n e of t h e creatures. But t h e Subsequ e n t attempts to m o u n t d i nosaur scientists only had tantalizi n g near m isses, h u nts fa iled because of hostile n atives. I n as when one huge l u mbering beast the 1 940s, however, a new field of research sp lashed i n to the water j u st o u t or sigh t . was lau nched by a group of pro fessionals American explorer Herman Regusters who called t h e m selves 'uyptozoologists'. visited in the 1 980s and his party claimed t o They collected data and tried to create s e e t h e crea t u re several t i m e s a n d h e a r its public i n terest by searc h i n g for h i dden t h roaty roar. They took some d i m , d i s t a n t creatu res such as moliflf mbnnbf. I n 1 958, pictu res t h ro u gh t h e d e n se t r e e cover. one o f their n u mber, Ber nard H e u ve l m a n s , Local sci en tist D r .Iarce l l i n Agnaga, fi·om published the first detailed accou n ts i n ' O n the zoological ga rde n s in B razzavil l e , also t h e Track of U n k n ow n An i m a l s ' . made several visits a n d i n :l ay 1 9H3 came D u r i n g t h e 1 970s an American s pecialist closest yet to captu r i n g proof when h e wan­ in reptiles visited the area several times and dered o u t i n to t h e sha llows to come within sh owed i l l u strations of d i n osa u rs t o a rece n t a few h u n d red feet of a bas k i n g mokl'le eyewitness of t h e crea ture, who picked o u t m/Jembe. For half an hour the a n i mal a DijJ/odoms as the most s i m ilar o n e . browsed on Iiana leaves before sinking The first serious expeditions specifically b e n e a t h the water. S a d l y , t h ro u gh a combi­ desi gned t o fi n d the animal were orga n ized nation of h u m a n error, m isfort u n e a n d the by Professor Roy lt ackal , a biologist a t the extreme climate, none of h is p h otographs U n i versi t y of Chicago, with the re ptile spe­ s u rvived the t re k home. cialist, J a mes Powe l l . llackal moun ted sev­ The .J apanese have since tried twice, and eral more Yisits before the n ew Congolese a you n g B ritish ex-army man, B i l l Gibbons, P O R T E N T S OF W A R
  • 26. D•nosaur and human t•-acks 1n D•nosaur Valley State Park. dinosaurs did lin� i n t hese swamps d u ring Glen Rose. Texas. (See also page 39.) the late Cretaceous geological period some sixty-fi·e m illion years ago and the area has has been there t wo more t i mes (most remained almost una ltered. ,·ecently in 1992) in what has been dubbed It i s perhaps feasible t hat a few such crea­ 'Operation Congo'. This was s u pported by t u res may ha·e su n·i'ed in t h is remote a paranormal magazine which sold region. But as 'estern society intrudes dinosaur T-shirts to raise funds! e'er furt her into Africa, they are hou nd to lt uch anecdotal e'idence has been gat h­ come under t h reat . I t may be a race against ered and latest t h in king is t hat the creature extinction to come up with hard e'idence is an e'OI'ed 'ersion of Allantosaurus. Such abou t t he world's last su rvi'ing d inosa u rs. PORTENTS Of WAR
  • 27. t h e non·ls in volved ext raord inary dept h of 191J 13 MAY research k nowledge about distant ami fu t u re t i mes - fi-mn the B iblical era to Vic­ T H E T E S TA M E N T O F torian London . PATI E N C E WORTH Prior to her etHoun tcr wit h Pat ience, M rs Curran's wri t i n gs had exh ibited no h i n t of On 1 his dale I'earl Curran and a fi·iend, sophist ication or skill; and a fter she died, using a ouija board i n t h e C u rran home at Pat ience ldl sile n t , Jea,·ing behind the m ys­ St Lou is, M issouri . first saw the name ' Pa t tery of her highly pra ised literary genius. C' speh out by t he moving glass. Pea rl's So was t h is a real con t act fi·om a departed h usband. deten n i n ed !0 prove the i ncom ­ spirit or did Pearl Curran tap some hidden ing message a t ri<·k or t h e m imi, p retended creat ive source from wh ich gn·at writers he had once known an I rish man named have long derived inspi rat ion? Pa t . For a t ime t hat fict it ious individual sent Automatic writers today continue the messages ,·ia t he hoard , bill soon a n ew and t rend. Rosemary B rown, a London house­ more powerful voice took con t rol. On 8 wife, writes m usic t h at she says is dictated by J u ly. t he cryptic words that llowed out dead composers such as Beet hm·cu aud whent''cr Pearl Cu rran used the device Liszt . Healer :latthcw :Ian n in g has created were explicitly signed ' Pat ienn· 'ort h ·. f:.thulous pai n t i n gs in 1 he style of a rt ists stKh Patience, belying her name, soon out grew as Diirer ami Picasso. A woman in t h e USA the slow ouija hoa rd , graduat ing first to au!O­ has in f(>J·mcd me t hat she is cu rreutly seek­ matic Ti l i ng; pen in hand, she would 't ake ing an agent to market t h e autobiogra phy of over' �Irs Curran and write lengt h y scripts, Billy the Kid, determined to correct t h e and finally took to sending words straight f;1Jse imagr of h is outlaw days fl·om beyond into the consciousness of her medium. t h e grave. I have also received tapes fi·om a It req uired some cHi>rl to ext ra<t i n for­ :'ew York med i u m , Bill Ten uto, containing mation abou t hersel f fi'Om Pat ietl<T. She verbal messa14es abou t t he real purpose of was reponedly a Quakn girl who emi­ his m u nl c1· spoken by li:mner Beat ie, John grat ed fi·01n Dorset to t he U SA in the seven ­ Le n n o11 . : lr Ten uto also reports that teen t h cen t m-y a n d died you ng d u ring a n Len non is d ictating new music to some I ndian attack. S h e spoke in a rchaic lan­ world renowned song writers. gu age. complete with spelling and usages t hat l i n guistic sc holars veri fied as bei ng t otally correct . Lat er. lwH'·er, she began to u t ilize a more modern idiom. Pa t ience 'ort h seems to have expressed 1914 E hersel f fi·eely in literary limu. Across twent y-five years she came up wit h mill ions of words, including widely an·Jaimed I :- ���-J:�j<� �>;:l� ��t�e:.:.�,,��:ught 0 -- - e-� st at :I ons i n Fland e1·s in August 1 9 1 4 . novels, plays and poems, some of w h ic h Legend has i t that spect ral interven tion were published without rcferetHe to t h eir may have saved t he day fiJ1· the Allies. bi tarre <Tca t ion. Pat ience 'dirtated' t hem B 1·it ish t mops made a D u n k i rk-style with­ with aston ishing rap id ity. Once, when d rawal against a l l t h e odd s and a vastly asked h>r a mol l o of about I � 0 characters to su perior Cerman army. Although t h ere put on t h e wall of t h e :l isso u ri state c1pital, were sound reasons as to w h y t h is was pos- she <h·afted a literary ode of exact ly the sible ( t h e British had bet ter wt·apons and requi red lengt h . in t h e brief time i t t oo k fi>r highly d iscipli ned sold iers). the victory !'carl C u rran to write dow n t h e words. An d II fro m the jaws of defeat was h ailed as a m i r- PORTENTS OF WAR [[]
  • 28. acl e by pol i t icians keen to rally t h e t roops A corner o f the ANZAC pos1t1on at Gdllipol1. scene o f the ill­ and the nation after what had almost been fated Allied landing of Apnl 19 1 5 . a cat astro p h e . A fe w w e e k s lat er (in late September) t h e h ad done anyth i n g- oth e•· t h a n i n v e n t a tal c . Lon d o n EPt'niug Nt·w� t:arried a s h ort piece I ndeed . when asked to q u o t e h i s sources, of fict ion by Art h ur M achen called Th e h e e x p l a i n e d that t h ere were n o n e as it was Bowmen' in w h ich a sol dier at Mons u n t r u e . B u t by then so m e pe o p l e were so i n vo k es t he s p i ri t of St Ge01·g-e, bel i eve d t o t a ken i n b y t h e accou n t , t he y refused to ride t o t h e rescue of E n gla nd whenever she beli eve 1lachen 's denials! is i n p eril . The s a i n t a n d a ho s t or a n g-e l ic In Ul l 5 t h e s t o ry was p roc u red by all bowmen reinforce t h e d es pn a t e Allies a n d manner o r bod ies, rel i giou s a n d m i l itary t he Germans are heavily felled b y magical a l i ke . 'i t n esses, u s u a l ly secon d - h an d , came an-ows t h a t leave no m a rks. forward w i t h tales t h ey had h eard fro m The talc h a d a g•·eat dlect on B r i t is h ' m e n at t h e fro n t ' and en· u t u a l l y act ua l eye­ morale. It was re pri n t e d , o f i e n by c h u 1-ch wit ness acco u n t s s u rfacl'd fro m so ld i ers j ou rn als, as proof of d i v i n e support of t h e clai m i n g to h a ve seen the p han tom war, a n d soon became t a ken for fact . Even­ bow m e n . t u all y a special bookl e t was p rod uced t o sat ­ In july I 9 I 5 l ach e n fu elled t h e l i re b y isfy d e m a n d . prod uci n g a book . The Bowllll'll !111(/ Othn Appare n t l y i l achen n e·e•· p ret e n d e d h e Lt•gnul.' of the Wa r. H e d escribed how h is PORTENTS OF WAR
  • 29. fict io n had become acce p t e d as fact a n d group {the First - F i ft h ) was. This was not a reallirmed that i t was no m o r e tha n a st ory. regim ent b u t a battalion , a m u ch s m a l l e r Yet it did not p re,·e n t the book beco m i n g a body of m e n . ru naway best-seller in many co u ntries . l l istorical records , indeed, note t hat on do ubt less with m a n y readers believi n g the 1 2 August (not 21 August as repo rted) fi ct io n . , au thor's disavowal t o be t he rea l m a n y of these m e n v a n ished . though not B y t he e n d o f the war the legend had i n to a my s t e r ious clo u d. : l oreover, even beco me so entwined that so m e psychic their puzzling loss is part ially explained. a u t hori t i e s even alleged that : I achen had 'ar records show that the group um t i n ued ' t u n ed i n to ' real w i t nesses to t h e ,·ision a t to fight , and t h a t a ft e r hostilities ended, the t he Fron t, usi n g t elepathy directly from the bodies of some 1 22 of t he 266 m iss i n g m e n troops a t :lons. H e o n l y thought t h at he were f u n d . Presumably o t hers were killed o had i n v e n t e d t h e st ory. It was rea l l y tru e ! i n the light i n g but thei1· bodies had not Lat e r in t he war, a nother s t r a n ge eve n t bee n t raced three years lat er. occUlTed which, l i k e the bow m e n a t :lons, Frederic k Reichardt's son con linned i n sti l l holds sway today. This did, a t least, 1 9� 2 . afte1· h i s father's death, t hat h e had have som e f act ual basis i n war records. been told the story of the vanish i n g ' regi­ It s u rfaced in 1 965 when an old soldie1· a t me n t ' d m i n g the G a l l i poli ca m paign soon a li h ieth reu n io n o f t h e :- e w Zealand a n d a fier his birt h i n 1 93 2 . T h u s it had not sud­ Australian t roops i n voh·ed i n the Gallipoli denly been i m·ented at the fi ftieth reu n ion campaign came forward. Sapper Frederick in J 9(i5 , as m a n y sceptics had p r e,·iously Reichardt and two others told o n afTida,·it argued . Clearl y it was based on some sort of how on :.? l Au gust l �� 1 5 an entire regi m ent act ual episode. (the First - Fourth :'orfolks) was seen to As for the s tra n ge cloud, lkgg d iscove re d m arch towards I I ill (j() above the hot that a very u m t s u a l m i st a n d clo u d f() n n a­ deserted Su'la Bay area of the Dardanel les tion was re liably see n to have covered the i n Turke y . Directly above t h e m ho"Cred a area on :.? I A u g u s t a n d that this was noted very s t ra n ge cloud. below which another in the record books on the oppos i t e page to colum ned cloud perched upon the hill t h e reference to t he d i sappeara nce of the slope. Despite the wind. this cloud never Firs t - F i fth soldiers n i ne days preYiously. moved . The seyeral hu ndred soldiers Bcgg co ncluded that the two u nrelated marched o n a clange m u s ofTens i,·e i n to the e·euts were con fused in the m i n ds of mists but ne,·er e m erge d fro m the br side. Reicha r dt and his colleagues clown the An hour later the cloud l i fted and the men years. part icularly given t h e scars o f war had disappe are d with it. In late 1 9 1 8 , after they had endured after 1 9 1 5 . A cmious the war. the Turks denied that they had ever misty cloud was i n deed see n . A few hun­ ca p t u red or en gaged these m issi n g troops. I t dred men did vanish, hut not i n expl icably was as i f they had been spirited away. so. ,ud the l i n k between the two events An exce l l e n t in Yest i gation of his torical that has f()rged a supernat ural lege n d was data was mounted by researcher Pa u l Begg merely a coi n ci d ence. who checked facts that were widel y or com·se. nobod y can ever prove, as ass u med by ot her a u t hors to be tru e . these eyewit n esses co n t e n ded t o thei r dyi n g I n deed, t h e s tory freque n t l y appeared i n day . that the 1 44 m en s t i l l u n accou u ted for mystery hooks m·er the next three decades . did uol vanish in so m e supern a t u ral fash­ Begg s ' research, l w-e·er, encou ntered ion. As s uch the legend will e n d u re . som e serious prob l e m s . The Firs t - Fo u r t h was a p parent l y not Bowmen ofMons. b y A . Forest1er. used in the Christmas i n voh·ed i n am· va n ish i n g tric k , but another london /1/ustrored News. 1 9 1 5. The ed1t1on of the PORTENTS OF WAR
  • 31. 1916 SUMMER 1917 G H O STLY P H OTO G RA P H FA I R I E S AT T H E B OTTO M OF TH E O n e o f ' t h e f1 r st i m p ressi v e phot ographs o f GARDEN an appari t ion was t a ken in Ti n ge1ri ck . B u c k i n g- h a m s h i re . s o u t hern E n gl an d , by a Alt hough lf.:w p eo p l e , even i n r u ral co m m u ­ re t i red police d e t ec t in� i nsp ect o r. ! l is p i c ­ n i t ies , any l o n ge r bel ieved i n Elirics, t wo t u re showed t h ree women c1�j o y i n g a you n g cousins in t h e suburb of Cot t i n glcy. garden p a r t y ; h u t i n t r u d i n g i n t o t h e image on t h e o u t skirts o f Bl·adf(Jrd , West York­ was t he f i g u re of a sem i - t ransparen t . ghost ­ sh i n >, England, cert ainlr did. And t he ev i ­ l i ke dog. i o bml y at t h e t i m e remembered d ence t hey p roduced was a t t he heart o f a s ee i n g i t ;I p jw a r or depart . 'as it a pet st rangt> rase t h at received wide pu b l ic i t y . back rrom I h e gran�? Fou rt ecn -yt•ar-old Elsie 'rig h t o ft en p l ayed 1ri t h I 0-ycar-old F1·ances Griffi t h s in The ghostly dog at the ·l rngewick tea party. t h e wooded beck at t he rear of h e r house. PORTENTS OF WAR
  • 32. The famous photograph of the Cottlngley gnome. later was gazmg not at the weird spm t s but adm1ned to have been a hoax. s t ra i ght at t he camna. W h e n l a t e r asked about this odd i t y . the girls explained t hat For bot h girls it was a m agical place, f(n· they saw liliries all or the t i me but having t hey had regu larly obser'ed fairies - s m a l l . yo u r photograph taken was a nove l t y ! et hereal, flying cre a t u res - li m n i n g o l l t or A m on t h l a t e r Frances fi l m ed Elsie play­ t hin air in the b u shes. i n g with a gnome. The m a n n er in which Their stories were not believed. Elsie's her ha nd was out s t re t ched was later father was part icu larly dism issive, and ascribed by psychic sou rces t o mystic e n er­ mainly u n happy t hat they got dirty or wet gies, though Frances m a t lt_' l' of bct l y in the process, co n duct in those days u n be­ explained i t as the res u l t o f h e r ineptit ude coming of a yo u n g lady. behi n d the l e n s . The girls showed these pic­ Opi nions changed. howe'er, o n a day in t u res to li'iends and t ried t o convince ! l r j u l y when the girls bo rrowed his camera. Wright , who s t i l l thou ght the m lakes. I t was �lr 'right de'Cioped one photograph on o n l y two years later when ! I rs Wright . who which so m e s t ra n ge white blobs showed up. was i n teres t ed in the supern a t u ra l , took These crys t a l l i zed i n t o a n imag e of danci n g them t o a meet i n g o f psychics in B radf(Jrd. fai ries parading i n Ji·ont o f Frances, who that the story too k off PORTENTS OF WAR
  • 33. Psychic researchers, who moun ted an i nvestigation, were divided abou t the authenticity of the two photogra phs. It was pointed out that the i mages looked suspi­ ciously two-dimensional and i n focus, whereas the background 'iews of the girls t hcmsel'CS were more fuzzy. �loreo'el·, the fairies had surprisingly modern hairstyles. Even noted fairy lore experts fou n d that a bit m uch to sw::�llmv. l'obody examined the original plates and, on the assumption that 'a pictu rc is worth a thousand words· , the testimon y of the two girls went u nchal­ lenged. Little heed was paid to the fact, either, t hat Elsie h ad worked for a photog- P O R T E N T S OF W A R
  • 34. Above left and right: two of the 'Cottingley Fa1nes' photographs. Left: the banks of the beck at Cottingley, playground of the 'fa1ries'. rapher for some months and was quite a talented artist, constantly drawing fairies (because, as she remarked, she was always seeing them). The girls we1·e reunited in 1 920, but although they were lent a new camera, in the presence of others they always failed to produce an image. Left on their own some time later, they d id, nevertheless, obtain three more fairy photographs. Finally, in August 1 92 1 , a noted psychic was sent to the PORTENTS OF WAR
  • 35. hc(-k and 'saw t he bi rics along will1 you could sec t he head o f t he hat p m t hat Frances. btl l 110 photogra phs proved possi­ was hold i n g up t he gnome. I t was st icki n g ble. " her t h a t t h e girls mo'ed apart and o u t of t h e figu re's ches t : alt hough Conan sl Opped seei u g a n yt hi n g s t r a n g e. B UI t hey Doyle had t hought t h is t o he a psyt:hic had left a legac y of fi'e p hotographs t h a t umbilical coni � con t i n ued to i n t rigue bclie'ers and As f()]· t he fifth im age, w h ich is somewhat doubters al i ke. less dear or t wo-di mensional , a curious dis­ lh coi u cidence Sir Art h u r Conan D oy l e crepancy has e m erg ed . Elsie said t hat i t was was w r i t i n g an a rt icle on bi ri e s f(>r t h e also a hoax _just l i ke t h e other f(HJ r , b u t Chris t m as 1 920 ed i t io n or S/rand magaz i n e Frances u n t i l h e r dea t h w a s adamant t ha t precisely w h e n t h is saga bega n . I l e used t h e t h i s w a s t h e o n l y real f;1iry photograph t h e fi r st t w o photographs ( a n d t h e lat t e r t h ree l w o girls ever took. d u r i n g a El2 1 sequel) to press his case t hat These hoax phot ogra p h s date from a f iries were real. I I is belief i n them p art ly a t i m e w he n t h e world was on a t h reshold dcri,-cd fi·01n his fat her, diagnosed m e n tall y bet ween d y i n g bel iefs i n magic and folklore i l l . wh o had long reported seei n g t hem . ami emergent scien t ific supremacy. They Doyle a l so held d e e p Spiritualist rom·ic­ offer many t e l l i n g lessons to su pe rn a t u ral t ions about t h e existence of other d i m e n ­ researchers. Lat er popu larizat ion of o t h e r ston s . stra nge i m ages suggest 1 hat 1 hese lessons In 1 92 2 , Do y le , ha,· i 1 1 g doued h i s hcs t -selling lictious t o foc u s o n psychic researc h . published h i s work o u e l c ­ largel y aban­ went H oax . largely u nheeded c'cn more h i-tech societY or i n a much n o t , t h e Cot t i n gley (airy pho­ men t a l s , The Coming of 1111' Fairit'.l, w hich tographs h;n·e one fi nal t w ist t o ollc1·, w h ich legit i m i zed the phot ograp h s of Elsie a n d may n e v e r h e resol'ed. Bot h Elsie 'right Frauces for all 1 he world to sec. Fairies and Ft·atJCcs G r iffi t h s , c·en o n t heir death were a popular t opic of co n n·rs at i o n . . l ore bed s, i n sisted t hat regardless o f t h e status of books f()llowed and fairy sight i n gs w e re col­ their much debated phot ographs t here lect ed, a few still be i n g re po rted e'en were real fairies and cl'cs in Co t t i n g le y toda' . heck and t h a t t hey bot h often saw t h e m . . l uch later. w i t h t h e adn'l l l of modem ���7 tec h n ology. the rat her d u bious nat u re of · the Cott ingley phot ograp h s soon bec a m e · MAY - OCTOBER !TH E FAT I M A M I RACLE c i d c n t . Com p u t er e n hancement t ech­ n i q u e s d e , e l o ped fi·om t h e deep space pro­ gra m m e showed t he fa iries to be t wo-dimensional and p robably mere paper O n I :� :-. J a y 1 9 1 7 t w o girl s and a b o y aged c u t -o u t s . But the two wome n , still a li'c fi ft y be t ween () and 9 years old were tending 'cars after t heir ad'cn t u re , refused to s h ee p i11 t he ru ral area of F<' l i m a , in nort h ­ l admit 1 h a t t h e y had been cheat i n g. I n 1 966 e rn l'ort ugal , when a beam o f light flashed Elsie s pok e of fil m i n g ' fi gmen t s or my i mag­ fro m the sky and a small, glo w i n g figu re of ination· and on B BC T' in 1 97 1 just a woma n , clothed in a st ra n ge rad iance, wanted t o lea'e 1 he sul�jcct 'open ' . a p pea red . She spoke of coming from Th e t r u t h . i f t ru t h i t he. e m erge d o n l y a hean·n and asked t h e c h i l d ren t o ret urn on d ecade lat e1· sho n h· bd(Jrt' t he cousins the L :l t h of each successi·c motl l h . The died. Both finally co n f(-s sed t hat t he fi rst ston· soon got out and o n the U t h o f each ((m r photogJ-aphs were o u t r ight h oaxes. motl l h a cr ow d gathered. Only t h e origi nal The i m ages were s i m p l y pa per d raw i n gs by t h ree wit nesses C'er saw t h e being. Tl 1 ey Elsie. I ndeed t he y pointed to the fact t hat called it a n 'a ngel': hut t h e c h u rd1 a u t h m-i- P O R T E N T S OF W A R
  • 36. t i cs soon i n t erpreted it as ' t h e 'irg i n � l a r y ' . S1nce the visions at F,it1ma, the v1 1lage has become a world- 1amous centre of pilgnmage. Prophecies w e r e give n : one of t h e i m m i ­ l l l' l l t R u ssian Re'o l ution and t h e other 1919 abo u t 'oriel 'ar Two. :' e i t h e r . howc'lT, was p ublicly rC'caled un til alter t h ese e'c n t s occurre d . : t h i rd prophecY was MAY gi'en by t h e c h i ld ren u nd er seal to t h e ' a t ­ i r a n t e l l i n g of a m ; u o r t ra u m a s t i l l to come. l LIVING FOSSIL This third p ro p h ec y was reportedly : m i ner extract i n g roal b r below t h e s u r­ opened i n secret by the pope i n 1 9!i0 but - r;�re of the :'et h erseal Colliery north-east o f desp i te i n structions to do so - not t h e n B i rm i n gham in the E n glish �lidlands revealed t o t he world . R u m o u rs as to i t s fo u n d a small brown toad bu ried a l i 'e co n te n t i n clude a n uclear war. n at u ral i n side a coal sea m . :'ot rese m b l i n g a n y global disaster a n d the dcst rurt ion of t h e normal toad , it measured o n l y :� i nches i n Cat holic Ch urch . d i ameter, a n d ap peared t o b e b l i n d a n d to The fi n a l ·i s i t of t h e · a n gel' was on 17 ha'e no mou t h . B u t it was u n doubtedly OctoheL A crowd o f 70,000- 1 00,000 ga t h ­ a l i ve a n d adjusted t o i t s s u rrou n d i n gs o'er ered t h is t i m e from fa r a n d w i d e t o s e e a t he next few <Ia ys. p redicted ' m iracle'. �lany on lookers There are m a n y o t her reliable i n st ances i u sisted that a hole was p u n c hed t h rough a of small a n i m a l s bei n g f(m n d ali'e i nside ra i n do u d at noon and a s p i n n i n g d isc, pre­ l u m ps of mck. The coal seam wou ld h a'e su mably the S u n , pou red down great heat limned 200 m i l l ion yea1·s ago, so most scep­ and b l i n d i n g rad ia n ce o n to the grou n d . t ics assu m e that the a n i m al some how bclc)re corksuewi n g eart hwards a n d t h e n e n t ered a cra<·k and became t rapped t here retreat i n g u p aga i n . :'o a t t est able photo­ after its birt h in recen t t i mes. H owe'er, graphs of t h i s phenomenon exist despite t h ere are t h ose who speculat e t h a t t h e crea­ exten si'e eyewit n ess accou n t s. t u re m i ght h ave en tered w h e n the rock first Sce p t ics argue t h at t h is was an opt ical formed and t h en li'ed i n 'suspen ded a n i ­ i l l usion brou g h t o n by mass h y ste ria and m a t i o n ' for m i l len n ia , or t h a t it was tele­ i n t e nse expect ation. A more recent t h eory ported t h ro u g h t i m e a n d space d i re c t l y i n t o h as de'eloped t ha t t h ese 'isits were rea l l y t h e rock c;n- i t y . b y a l ie n s i n a lJ FO masquera d i n g as a reli ­ In tnllh, nobody k nows how t h ese gious m i racle. embedded a n i m a l s get t h ere. P O R T E N T S OF W A R
  • 37. THE ROAR I N G TWE NT IE S T h i s decade, f(: n- all i ts postwar u n certa i n ties, was in many ways a n e xc i t i n g period. Electri c l i gh t i n g and cars were beco m i n g com mon place. T h e ci nema was a popular a rt for m . R a d i o w a s e n te r i n g many h o m es a n d ' t a l k i n g rad io' (televis i o n ) w a s u n der develop men t . Scie nce e m phasized t he way in w h ich i n v isible rays could t ravel t h rou gh space a n d c reate action a t a d i s ta nce. All t h i s a ffected the worl d o f the para n o r m a l . Science fictio n , t o o , looked to t he fu t u re w i t h st ories of robots a n d c i v i l i za t ion to c o m e , refl ect i n g t h e s p i r i t o f t h e age. A n d h a v i n g conquered t h e a i r, t h o ughts t u rned to t h e n e x t grea t fro n t i e r. O n e d a y we m i g h t h a ve t h e abi l i ty to reach t h e stars.
  • 38. l�ll After some weeks of wrangles with the Egyptian government over ownership of T H E C U RS E OF K I N G T U TA N K H A M U N the bejewelled golden artefacts and other marvels in this long-sought historic treas­ ure, Carnarvon developed a strange malady. The Earl o f Carnanon had spent many At first it was thought to be a fever, then years in Egypt with his young protege and blood poisoning was diagnosed. In early mentor Howard Carter expending vast April I 923 he collapsed into a coma at a sums of money in the search for the fabled Cairo hotel. I I e ne,·er recovered . treasure-laden tomb of the boy king According to eyewitnesses, including his Tutankhamun . By late 1 92 2 , on the verge family and I fowarcl Carter, at the very of giving up the quest in despair, he made a point of his death the hotel lights flickered discm·ery that was to turn into one of the and went out. The electricity was off for ft,·e most frightening stories of the century. minutes in an unexplained power loss. On 4 �ovember, the sealed tomb was Back in England, apparently at the same found in t he onlv small area thcv had not I I moment, the Carnarvons' housekeeper so far searched. The carl was back in Eng- noticed the family terrier let out a terrible land but sailed immediately to the Valley of howl and collapsed dead on to the carpet. t he Kings near Luxor. On 2() :'ovember, 'hen these stories were all combined, with Carter and the crew, he cleared the the notion rapidly took hold that there was last pieces of rubble to enter the sacred a curse associated with the tomb. It was ruins that had remained untouched for considered that the dead king's spirit had 3000 years. As an early omen, the lucky been disturbed and was seeking revenge. canary that the team had with them was Although the curse theory seems some­ eaten by a cobra that stole into its cage. what tenuous, a number of people loosely This snake was the anciellt protective associated with the opening of the tomb did symbol of pharaoh kings. I m mediately. die at a relatively early age. The nurse who dread descended upon the local workers. looked after Carnan-on during his fatal ill­ ness, for exam ple, died in childbirth when View from the N1le of the Valley of the Kings just 28. THE ROARING TWENTIES