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This episode examines the seperate crimes of Ronald Bennell and Barry Bennell, two members of the same family whose offences became part of Manchester’s criminal history. Ronald Bennell was convicted on two separate occasions 15 years apart of rape and murder. Barry Bennell was convicted of numerous sexual offences against boys. Their crimes were their own and there is nothing to imply that there was any blame or wrong doing on other members of the Bennell family. The actions of two people should not define a family. However their story needs to be told.

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Following events in Middlesborough last weekend, on the lunch time news today, Friday 28 August, it seems that trouble continues. I wanted to understand what was going on so put this short podcast together. This was made in two hours so not a very polished but it includes all what is known at present. 

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This is a bit of a ramble about Chelsea, London in 1962. Rolling Stones and the Beatles get a mention as does the Kings Road and a murder.

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This is a short podcast after the sad news that Jason Arday was found dead yesterday, Friday 14 August 2026. As I have made a couple of podcasts on the Arday affair, I thought I would make some final comments.

This matter is not going to be forgotten as a result of the many issues raised. The spotlight now falls on John Moores University Liverpool and Cambridge University and other groups in order to explain their actions. People seem to be trying to deflect by blaming the media and newspapers  for doing their job.

Arday was unfortunate to live in an age of social media where ridicule can be unrelenting.

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This is another podcast concerning the Jason Arday affair at Cambridge University. Although so much has been posted on the subject I was concerned that those involved in Arday’s appointment had not been widely made. I thought I would name them hopefully in a neutral way. 

To make my position clear I will state my political views, in the past I had voted Labour and for the past couple of elections I voted Green for Caroline Lucas at Brighton. I do not intend to vote for the Greens now or for anyone else until some form of Proportional Representation is introduced. There is no party that represents me, my political touchstone is George Orwell.

I recently read the book Broken Vows about Tony Blair by Tom Bower and was amazed with the similarities there are with the Starmer premiership. Both were unprepared for office, Blair got away with it, but social media bought Starmer down. 

This podcast was made in the garden with chickens, dogs and cats all sheltering under a pergola with an intense sun beating down.

Some sad news the cock that always called out during earlier podcasts, ‘Blackie’ which my daughter thought a dreadful non PC name, (he was black). Anyhow he died this week. I don’t know how old he was. He was mature when we got him 12 years ago. I was told he was dead and went out to bury him but he was alive and took a day to die, just sitting there taking an occasional drink of water. He was buried in the pet graveyard in the wood with the rest of departed friends.

Thankyou to anyone listening, there is so much good content to listen to online, I am surprised anyone listens to this podcast. This one recorded on a 2014 Macbook (the two newer ones playing up) and two dodgy microphones, this one recorded on a Rode with a broken screen to stop ‘lisping’sounds. The Yeti mic was too temperamental.

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I have read this story in the news reports today and felt like making a podcast on it. It concerns a Critical Race theory sociologist who was appointed a professor at the University of Cambridge. The person was Jason Arday and he had not been truthful in his claims and should never of been given the appointment. 

The blame lies with the University of Cambridge for not carrying out due diligence on the appointment. Although Arday did not accept that he was delusional blaming his behaviour on his autism. 

I find the story almost unbelievable. I wrote this podcast in a couple of hours this afternoon, posted it from notes and have not listened to its back. Its is lofi, probs lots of mistakes and mispronunciations.

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The Michele Lupo case is the story of a serial killer and also a window into the mid 1980s London of High Society and High fashion. Also of the London GAY community during the AIDS crisis. The whole story will never be told as some influential characters involved thought it best for them to  keep quiet.

The story is loft, told in one take with no editing. I know I stumble over some words.

For a more detailed examination of the case, I would recommend the podcast: AIDS: The Lost Voices-Michele Lupo parts 1 & 2.

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The Peter B's, Fleetwood Mac and the Cobham Apparition explores one of Britain's most unusual ghost stories. In November 1965, four young musicians—including future Fleetwood Mac founders Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood—reported seeing a mysterious figure beside the A3 near Cobham, Surrey, while driving home from a rhythm-and-blues gig. Drawing on contemporary witness statements, Dr A. R. G. Owen's scientific investigation, newspaper reports, and the history of Cobham's ghost traditions, this podcast separates documented evidence from later folklore.  The podcast is lo-fi, recorded in one take wanders off the point and there are continuing microphone problems.

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Some offbeat stories about tattooing in the UK since the late Victorian period up to the modern day. Told in one take outside in the garden, lo fi and with a replacement microphone.

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Ronnie Harries was in his mid twenties, newly married with a baby girl living in rural South Wales, a member of a community where he had lived all his life. How did he think he could kill relatives he called uncle and auntie and take over their farm without anyone asking where they were and what was going on? Recorded in one take with the usual shortcomings. The description says send fan mail, I am not asking this, it comes up automatically and I cannot delete the request.

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This is a case you will not be aware of. A forgotten murder. A marriage dispute where a man kills his wife. What is a surprise is the sentence. Recorded in one take in the garden, with no edit, I do not even listen through after recording, so apologies for any mistakes. 

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Belmont road Southampton. Henry Novak was murdered outside number 68 Belmont Road during May 2026. 66 years before this date, there was another murder at 11 Belmont Road. At that time, the UK was a different country, this is the story.

Recorded in one take, without editing.

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I wanted to post this podcast on the 30th anniversary of the unsolved murder of Melanie Hall on 9 June 1996. I know Bath well having lived there during the 1980s. This is the story of Melanie Hall's disappearance and murder. The police have the case open and are asking for help in solving the crime.

Told in one take without editing with all the usual faults.

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This podcast is based on Eric Dingwall’s private papers that became available to view by the public during October 2025 at London University. It is about the R101 that crashed in October 1930, and resulting seances and investigations into the crash and the resulting Official report. 

This podcast is recorded in one take, (in the garden) without edit and is a lo-fi production.

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This case has just made national news headlines. It was not widely reported at the time or when the trial started but police worn body cam footage was reminiscent of the Black Lives Matter case when George Floyd Jr restrained by police said he could not breath and was ignored by police. In this case Henry Nowak a Southampton University Fresher was the victim.

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Windrush Men, Marriage and Murder” examines a series of domestic homicide cases involving Caribbean and African migrants in postwar Britain during the 1950s and 1960s. Drawing on police files, psychiatric reports, witness statements and court records, it explores how jealousy, marital breakdown, sexual insecurity and fears of abandonment were understood within the social pressures of migration and the Windrush era. The cases reveal recurring themes of emotional dependency, masculinity, racism, economic strain and changing gender roles, while also exposing how British courts and psychiatrists often treated so-called “crimes of passion” with sympathy. 

The podcast says 'Send fan mail' Please note I am not asking this. I have only just noticed this request and do not know how to delete it.

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This podcast will be niche. It is an in depth assessment about the Society of Psychical Research’s investigations into three famous mediums of the 1920s. Eva C., also known as Marthe Béraud or Eva Carrière, and Mina Crandon, better known as Margery and Dorothy Stella Cranshaw, aka Stella C. Most people will find it dull, although quite shocking in places; but I enjoyed researching it.

This podcast is recorded in one take with no editing. I probably mispronounce some words. There may be some background noise, chickens and there is a nightingale singing outside in the rain. 

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Something a little different in this podcast, an unsolved murder in the Dordogne. Karen Carter was murdered in April 2025 at her home in a small French village. A couple of months earlier a British couple were killed about 100n kms away and there were similarities. This was also an officially unsolved murder.

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This is a curious case. July 2023, a car mounts a pavement and crashes into a school injuring a number of people and killing two 8 year old girls who were all standing on a lawn in the school grounds. There seems to be a news blackout after initial reports.

A year later, 2024, The Crown Prosecution Service says there will be no further action as it was a result of a medical emergency. There was public puzzlement, two girls killed, ten people injured, no-one held responsible?

April 2026 it was announced that there was a reinvestigation, the original police officers investigating the case are also being investigated for gross misconduct and the CPS are reconsidering their decision.

This all against a backdrop of suggestions of one law for the rich and another for everyone else.

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During the 1980s there were  at least 10 pre-teenage and teenage boys that went missing from South London. This podcast is a reflection on what may have happened to them, the focal point is the case of Kevin Hicks who went missing on Sunday 2 march 1986 from Croydon.

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July 1966. A Labour government in trouble, America getting bogged down in a foreign war and England winning a world cup, Are there Parallels with July 2026? 

This case is long forgotten today from Richmond, Surrey. The sons from the   dysfunctional Brown family fight in the living room. A rather strange story unfolds, how can a fatal injury go unnoticed during a family fight?

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A selection of Society of Psychical Research investigations 1919-1922 get a mention and brief analysis.

Lord Rayleigh's presidential address. Arthur Conan Doyle, Veronica Laparelli, Hereward Carrington,  The Swanton Novers poltergeist,  The Woods family tradition, book review about by Bligh Bond,.

Martha Beraud, aka Eva C, Charles Richet, Gustave Geley, Mr Hope's psychic photographs and fraud in spirit photography, Fairies, the Abraham Florentine case, 

Harry Price and Eric Dingwall becoming known, The case of Nancy Sinclair, The Witch cult in Western Europe, Willy Schneider, Harry Houdini, Kathleen Goligher case, Teleplastic developments, all of these get a mention. 

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Please be advised that this is not a podcast but an announcement.

I feel sorry that I have to make this boring and tedious announcement, but I feel I have to  stand up to a fellow podcaster who I find an arrogant bully. 

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Society of Psychical Research investigations 1917 and 1918.

Usual poor narration, warning this is lo-fi, recorded in one take and no editing. There are also mistakes. I call Oliver lodge a physicist when he was a physician. I was conscious of this mistake at the time but there may be more.

 I am not a professional podcaster, I just enjoy making them rather than watching tv or scrolling through social media. I have full time work and am trying to rewild the farmland around the house where I live.

Regarding the content of this podcast. Gladys Osborne Leonard was the favoured medium of the time and very talented. I also think that she was an attractive woman which gave her prominence amongst certain male investigators of the time. She features strongly in this podcast as there was so much content about her in the SPR publications.

Also mentioned are a number of alleged apparitions and telepathic dreams of servicemen serving in the war reported in the SPR publications.

There are book reviews of the time, Oliver Lodge, William Barrett and Margaret Murray were the books I chose to showcase. Non of which have stood the test of time.

Cross-correspondence continued to be a puzzle that needed to be solved by the clever minds of the SPR investigators. It almost seems that those trying to make sense of the puzzle are showing off how clever they are.

There were some American case influences discussed in the SPR publications. James Hyslop is being  outspoken about his views, drowning out others.

There was what was known as the Folkestone poltergeist case which I covered in detail with associated subjects a few years back, but good to mention an interesting case.

There does seem to be a shift in thoughts about  paranormal phenomena being about psychological issues in the articles. 

I am just posting podcasts as I finish them now rather than scheduling trying to space them out. I have finished the next podcast in this sequence covering four years 1919-1922 but have not recorded it yet, so will probably post it next week for anyone that may be interested. After that there will be a true crime or cryptozoology episode.

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Part 2 of the Biddy Gold murder investigation. Crime gangs, corrupt police, suspicions about Bernie Silvers.

Please be advised, recorded in one take without editing.

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1975 was a time of corruption in Central London. There was a power struggle taking place over the vice trade in Soho. The Bernie Silvers led Syndicate was losing control of the area after investigations into corruption had exposed it. Although Silvers was in jail there may have been attempts to silence those who may have know of other crimes. Bent police were a complication in trying to understand what was going on. Different OCGs had different corrupt police helping them. 

It seemed that the killing of Biddy Gold was almost certainly ordered by an organised crime group.

I will upload part 2 in two days time.

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This podcast is about events and a mystery that took place in London during 1950. A very different London than exists today. The story centres on a small cafe in Paddington. Told in one take and without editing.

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This is a story you have not heard before. It comes from the unpublished papers of Eric Dingwall. It concerns an incident at Ham Hill in Somerset that was investigated by Dingwall. Not much happens and not much is resolved but it has some interest of the type of investigation, the state of knowledge and the history of the area in 1950s Uk.

The podcast is recorded in one take, there is no editing and I am chasing animals in and out of the recording studio which is a room in the attic at the top of the house.

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Warning. This episode is not suitable for children. 

The police files on this case  were released to the public in 1924. It tells of a dreadful event in Blackburn during 1948.

The podcast is recorded in one take and has not been edited.

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This is another podcast looking at some investigations by the Society of Psychical Research during 1915 and 1916 during World War 1.  

So not a podcast to interest everyone.

This podcast examines some premonition and myths during the war, perhaps the best known being the Angels of Mons. It also looks at some other strange events and makes an evaluation on them.

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Two murders unconnected within a mile and three days of each other in Plumstead, a district in South East London.

This podcast is recorded in one take without editing.

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Please be advised that the podcast starts after about six minutes when I share with you an accusation made by another podcaster who has called me a disgusting plagiarist.

The story when it starts,  is a forgotton story about  an affray at the Duke of York public house when some South African black nationalist exiles start an affray which ends in murder.

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I thought I would try something a little different for the podcast during 2026. Each month (in conjunction with the usual podcast content) I shall broadcast a podcast giving selected stories from SPR’s journal as they have been bound together (two years at a time) in the British Library. I am starting with the journals from 1913/14 and will continue in chronological order. I have started with World War 1 being the start of the modern world.

I can spare the time to make an SPR podcast each month as they are easy to research.

I record the podcast in one take with no editing. This is not a professional podcast, I make nothing from the podcast, it is a pastime in which I enjoy the research but not presenting the podcast

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This is the last podcast of 2025, calling it William Hepper of Chelsea and Brighton. painter, spy, BBC employee and child killer. 

A case you are unlikely to have ever known about. An unpleasant story,  I try not to comment, please listen and make up your own mind.

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Podcast 243 and the number eight Christmas podcast. This case took place in Scotland sixty five years ago over the Christmas period of 1960 in Sauchi, Scotland. Skeptics that studied the case concluded that some of the phenomena reported was genuine although they could not be sure of what caused it.

I am putting this podcast out on the shortest day of 2025, Sunday 21 Dec.

This podcast is recorded in one take without editing and I am not the best narrator.

For anyone that may be listening, Merry Christmas and a prosperous and peaceful New Year.

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This is a forgotten murder from a different time. 63 years ago, in the city of Newcastle a minor crime of embezzlement led to a murder. Not so much an exciting story but more of a reflection of the time. Told in one take without editing.

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Another short podcast while I am away. This is a story of a couple of women who breaking up in London in 1971 had a nasty falling out. Told in one take without editing. 

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I am still out of the country so am posting some shorter podcasts to keep the podcast ticking over. This one concerns a case from 1963 going on to 1967. The podcast is recorded in a studio that is soundproofed but visited by various cats and dogs and sometimes other creatures.

This podcast is set in Soho, Central London an area where I used to work and knew quite well back in the late 1980s.

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This is a short podcast just to post something while I am away. Daisy / Dorothy Wallis started a business in High Holborn, central London. She lived a quiet home life with her parents, one wonders who would have wished her harm ?

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Chloe and Josh Bashford lived at Newhaven with their four children. Their lives were ended by a family friend who killed them for no understandable reason and then claimed diminished responsibility.  The killer will be sentenced on 6 November 2025.

This podcast was recorded in one take with no editing with animals in the room.

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This podcast has been produced while I am away, recorded with a borrowed microphone and on a MacBook laptop with which I can't seem to upload any background music. Recorded in one take without editing this is the story off the BBC's first live broadcast from a haunted house. Dene/Dean manor, Meopham, Kent on 10 March 1936. 

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John Kealty travelled to Mexico to write a travel guide in the style of a Lonely Planet guide twenty years before they were a thing. It did not end well.

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This case is in living memory. Going back to 1974. Egon Von Bulow's parents came from South America, had him while in the UK, then left him when they went back home. Not an ideal start for him. He grew up  anti authoritarian. He shot three policemen and committed other crimes after seemingly losing control during July 1974. He could be living near you today.

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This case happened in Egypt in 1950, so just about in Living memory. It was a difficult time for British-Egyptian relations. When three soldiers were involved in a murder and tried by a British Court Martial, all politicians tried not to get involved as it was easier for all involved to bury an awkward problem. 

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Two recent tragic killings from West Sussex. Both preventable, both the result partly of council cuts. These stories are told in one take in lo-fi. Here are the end stories of Stephanie Marie and Nimroy Hendricks, their lives ending just as they were beginning.

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The story of Reverend Davidson, the vicar of Stiffkey dominated the newspapers in the early 1930s. This is the story.

The Lion and Albert, By  Stanley Holloway was a comic monologue inspired by actual events they had heard about  in 1932. The events in this podcast happened in 1937. Nevertheless, I have put the lyrics here for anyone unfamiliar with the verse.

There's a famous seaside place called Blackpool
That's noted for fresh air and fun
And Mr. and Mrs. Ramsbottom
Went there with young Albert, their son
A grand little lad were young Albert
All dressed in his best, quite a swell
With a stick with an horse's head handle
The finest that Woolworth's could sell
They didn't think much to the ocean
The waves they were piddlin' and small
There was no wrecks and nobody drowneded
'Fact, nothin' to laugh at at all!
So, seeking for further amusement
They paid, and went into the zoo
Where they'd lions and tigers and camels
And old ale and sandwiches, too
There were one great big lion called Wallace
His nose was all covered with scars
He lay in a somnolent posture
With the side of 'is face on the bars
Now Albert had heard about lions
How they was ferocious and wild
To see Wallace lyin' so peaceful
Well it didn't seem right to the child
So straightway the brave little feller
Not showin' a morsel of fear
Took 'is stick with the horse's head handle
And shoved it in Wallace's ear
You could see that the lion didn't like it
For givin' a kind of a roll
He pulled Albert inside the cage with him
And swallowed the little lad whole!
Then Pa, who had seen the occurrence
And didn't know what to do next
Said "Mother, yon lion's ate Albert!"
And Mother said "Ee, I am vexed"
Then Mr. and Mrs. Ramsbottom, quite rightly
When all is said and done
Complained to the animal keeper
That the lion had eaten their son
The keeper was quite nice about it
He said "What a nasty mishap
Are you sure that it's your boy he's eaten?"
Pa said, "Am I sure? There's his cap!"
The manager had to be sent for
He came and he said "What's to-do?"
Pa said "Yon lion's ate Albert
And him in his Sunday clothes, too!"
Then Mother said "Right's right, young feller-
I think it's a shame and a sin
For a lion to go and eat Albert
And after we paid to come in"
The manager wanted no trouble
He took out his purse right away
Sayin' "How much to settle the matter?"
Pa says "What do you usually pay?"
But Mother had turned a bit awkward
When she thought where her Albert had gone
She said "No, someone's got to be summonsed!"
So that was decided upon
Then off they went to the police station
In front of the Magistrate chap
They told him what happened to Albert
And proved it by showing his cap
The Magistrate gave his opinion
That no one was really to blame
And he said that he hoped the Ramsbottoms
Would have further sons to their name
At that Mother got proper blazin'
"And thank you, sir, kindly, " said she-
"What, waste all our lives raisin' children
To feed ruddy lions? Not me!"

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 Brothers Mohammed Fahir Amaaz and Muhammad Amaad were tried for assault at Liverpool Crown Court. The case is of interest due to CCTV footage going viral amid accusations of violent racist behaviour by the police  and accusations of two tier policing. This podcast is posted without editing and recorded in one take.

Amaaz has been found guilty on three charges, no verdict on one count. Amaad had a no verdict verdict against him. It is thought there will be a retrial.

Please watch the video of 'Manchester Airport Police attack- All footage in order' on Youtube

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This is a dark and dreadful case, it will be well covered in the news. Told in one take without editing. 

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You will not of heard this story before. Christmas Castletown, Sunderland, County Durham.  A grandad feeling story for himself and ignored by his family decides to do something about it. December 1966.

Recorded in one take without editing.