Strange Stories UK – Détails, épisodes et analyse

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This is the second podcast setting the scene to examine crime gangs active in the UK between the two world wars.
This rambling podcast is about the fear of white slavery and the first celebrity drug death in the UK.
This podcast is not edited and recorded in one take with words mispronounced. 

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This is the first of a series of podcasts regarding some incidents in the UK (London) that took place 100 years ago and caused a 'moral panic'. This first podcast tells of how drugs, (class A drugs as we understand them today) were introduced into the UK, at first accepted but then rejected after misuse. The second podcast will be about what was known as 'White Slavery' 100 years ago but as we better understand as human trafficking. Then I will broadcast some podcasts based on these podcasts and police reports of the time. Incidents that are mainly forgotten today. I will post the next pod shortly.
This podcast has not been edited in anyway, and has been recorded in one take. I apologise in advance for any mispronounceations.

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What is the largest fish caught in British freshwaters and are they dangerous? This episode is about a huge creature that lived in Martin Mere that was said to feed on swans!  Some of the podcast is rather silly but all of it true.
There is a Slightly boring opening about geological features, folklore and drainage systems, this lasts about five minutes, so maybe  skip that part. 
 As usual please be warned this is a lo fi production by someone that often stumbles over words and records in one take without any editing.
CFZ have a facebook site 

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Season 4 starts with contemporary Organised Crime in London, there will be four or five linked podcasts on this theme starting with a case that developed in Canning Town, the next few podcasts will flow on from this case including a podcast of the Rettendon aka Essex boys murders. I know this case has been very well covered but  it does tie in with the other podcasts.

 For this case :  We examine the Canning Town area which suffered from Organised Crime. I keep referring to OCGs which refers to Organised Crime gangs. There were several in the Canning Town area who seemed to work as a cartel and hence were known as the Canning Town Cartel OCG. This story will develop and was inspired by the book ‘Legacy’ by Michael Gillard.  The actual recording was done as a thunderstorm took place without any warning, towards the end of the podcast this storm can be heard so apologies for that.

 This is my fourth year of producing podcasts within a month, I will be producing my one hundredth episode having produced a podcast every 2/3 weeks. Early podcasts were quite amateurish but I think they have improved over time. I have now got a website: www.strangestoriesUK which has a blog introducing each episode. I will be aiming to improve the Facebook and Instagram sites by keeping them up to date with some more information.  I will continue to produce the podcasts in one take without editing as I like to produce the feel of a live radio station. Obviously it is not, but perhaps the closest I can get to it.

As with most podcasts, I am trying to get an income stream to fund the hosting costs and the subscriptions I have to pay in order to research some episodes. This will not affect the podcasts being produced and of course there is no obligation to make a contribution although I am thinking of making some sort of reward for anyone that does want to contribute such as extra podcasts. I thought I would make a podcast related to a story being covered. The podcasts go off in so many tangents that I will develop one of these.

https://ko-fi.com/strangestoriesuk
This is the Ko-fi link. 

I was looking at Patreon which most podcasters seem to use but having looked into Patreon it seems that it is losing popularity. It is explained that it has taken a lot of Venture Capital funding who are pushing for continuous growth and providing new services to generate increased income. Also Patreon is based on a regular monthly contribution which I think is too much of a commitment.

I am going with Ko-Fi but may consider other options if this doesn’t work out as there are lots of alternatives and lots of conflicting advice.

Regarding the podcast. There is a lot of information, primary sources, that has been taken from the internet. The Operation Tiberius Report was a very useful source and for this podcast the transcript of the Hunt v Times Newspaper from the Royal Courts of Justice case no. HQ10D02588. Also many newspaper reports from the Times archive have been useful. 

Sorry that I don’t give a list of all sources but in the course of producing the podcast I often don’t record which book or source I am using. I realise that this is an area that needs improving.

I am going to broadcast at least four podcasts related to organised crime stemming from this area and one podcast for Ko-Fi subscribers. I was also thinking of re recording series 1 which some were so ropey that I have taken a couple off line. There are some good stories there that could be updated, this could be another Ko-Fi subscriber inducement. I am not expecting to make any money from these podcasts but if I can cover my costs I would be delighted. 

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This a short episode to end Series 3. Again a rambling story about a possible paranormal incident in a small village (St.Boswells)  in the Borderlands between England and Scotland. The story comes from the Journals of the Society of Physical research. I give the links to these on www.strangestories.uk.com
I will not post anything for the next six weeks. I would like to thank you for reading this and I will try to get some different Damselfly music for series 4.

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This is part 2 of the Hess Enigma. What happened to Hess? Was he murdered? Was it Hess? We also examine the roles of other characters such as Tancred Borenius, the Polish leader Sikorski and others.
There is also Anthony Blunt the Soviet spy who carried out dirty business for the Royal family.
There are so many secrets and rumours regarding the Hess flight, and he was prevented with communicating with anyone after he was locked up, so it is unlikely that the truth will ever come out.

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May and June 1941 was the period that Nazi Germany came close to conquering Western Europe. But the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler then  opened  a second Front which was going to cost him the war. 
Events during May and June 1941 are  shrouded in mystery, part of the puzzle was Rudolf Hess's (Hitler’s deputy) flight to Scotland during May 1941. Was Hess sent by Hitler to offer Britain peace terms so he could concentrate on invading the USSR? Did Hess ask Britain to help them defeat the USSR? Was Hess tricked by the British security services ? Was Hess trying to cause civil unrest in Britain to aid the Nazi cause? 
What is certain is that there was a large section of the British people who seemed to be in favour of  a peace deal with the Nazis, appeasement;  these were the Middle and Upper classes that had the most to lose. The perception of Britain in 1940 was that the Nation was united against the Nazi threat. This was not  true.
Was the Churchill government playing the Nazis and the Soviets against each other? I don’t think that we will ever know the true story, but some members of the aristocracy and the Royal family do not come out of this story very well. This is part one of the story, part two will be posted within the next two days. 

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This is a rambling story based on John 'Goldfinger' Palmer. We find how the Brinks Mat gold bullion robbery was responsible for a lot of criminal enterprises as these were funded by the proceeds of Brinks Mat gold. John Palmer was an interesting character, a key figure in disposing of the Brinks Mat gold.
Palmer managed to avoid prosecution and started a huge Timeshare fraud on the island of Tenerife which made him so much money that he made the Sunday Times rich list on equal place with the Queen!
Anyone who has read the book McMafia will realise that organised crime noticed the money made by Palmer and moved in on his enterprises. The police and insurance companies were also trying to get back stolen money. There was a lot of paranoia, jealousy and shootings, so much so that it was said that the Brinks Mat gold was cursed.
British organised crime gangs and enemies of Palmer were also making moves against him. Palmer was never really able to enjoy his wealth and always had to wear a bullet proof vest when he was in public. Having just played back the recording while uploading I realise that I have not thanked Damselfly for providing the backing music or you for listening.
The main sources of information for this podcast were the two Wensley Clarkson books: Killing Goldfinger and the Curse of Brinks Mat,  Goldfinger and me by Marnie Palmer, various other books and newspaper articles. http://www.strangestoriesuk.com 

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There has been recent news items on the interview between the BBC Panorama  programme and Princess Diana in November 1995  and that was the inspiration for this podcast. 
I have not attempted a full story of the car crash that killed Princess Diana, in chronological order, as the story is quite well known. I have focussed in on some areas.
There have been suggestions that Diana was killed by a faction within the security services that were unable to accept the fact that the future king of England's mother may have married a Muslim and converted to that faith.
This podcast looks at certain aspects of the car crash that killed her and Dodi Al Fayed and their driver Henri Paul. 
I try not to come to any conclusion in these podcasts and leave it to the listener to make their own minds up. 
The Princess Diana death is a well known conspiracy theory, it won't be proved either way but there are some inconvenient loose ends that have not been explained.
For a bibliography please visit the 'strangestoriesuk.com'  website.

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I thought it time for a paranormal type episode, this one taken from the journals of the Society for Psychical Research. I do my research in the British Library for these podcasts, this one comes from the 1949 journal.

I like to do a paranormal podcast during the month of May, This story was published in the 1949 Journal of the Society of Psychical Research and was called 'The Woman in Brown'.

 Edward Osbourne was an investigator for the SPR and it was he that wrote up the story.

I gave quite a long lead into the podcast explaining what London was like in 1948, for someone in their 80s, they must have seen so much change during the course of their lifetimes’, it would scarcely seems credible to someone much younger so I thought I would give some description to London life at that time.

There may be something of a delay in my next podcast as I have to do some building works, I am going to try to lay a concrete floor using Youtube tutorials, so I think that will take up most of my time for the next month. I will try to put another podcast out within the month.