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My name is Frank Edwards. I am the author and narrator of this unique radio series, Strangest

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of All. The series is actually based on my four books, which deal entirely with unexplained

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and unexplainable phenomena. The books, like my newspaper columns, are based on documented

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events which defy explanation in the light of conventional knowledge. Fascinating true

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stories about the famous and the near famous and their baffling experiences, dreams that have

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produced great inventions, and dreams to solve crimes, disappearing ships and planes and people.

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Some of these cases very recent. Every field of human endeavor, including the very newest,

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that of outer space, has contributed and is contributing to this fascinating collection

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of documented reports. Strangest of all packs a wallop unlike that of any other program,

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because no other program has such a wealth of material. Around the world, in print and on the

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air, each day millions of people enjoy my fantastic but factual report. Your audience will enjoy them

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too. Here, for example, is a modern mystery. From the Canadian Mounted Police comes the story of a

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village that literally vanished. Thirty-five men, women and children who disappeared so suddenly

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that their guns and food were still in place in their huts, awaiting the owners who never came back.

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And the story of the incredible manner in which a queen was saved from death by a moth. The true

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story of the weird signals from outer space, which the US Navy recorded on film, so shocking that

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the film had to be filed and forgotten. And the story of a nationally famous physician who was

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summoned to the bedside of a woman he did not know by a girl who did not exist. The first ship

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that ever made the passage across the Arctic Sea with a captain and crew who had been dead for 13

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years. In 1963, the Australian government found three beautiful metallic spheres in the desert of

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New South Wales. And the Minister of Supply admitted to the Australian House of Representative that

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these spheres did not originate on this earth. You will hear, in strangest of all, the astounding

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results of a request for professional astronomers to watch the moon, why they did it, and what they

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saw. Of fires that consume human beings but which are harmless to the surroundings. Of the strange

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objects which are making a systematic surveillance of every important man-made center, what they are,

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and how they operate. The reports in this series run the gamut of science and history and every

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phase of human activities. They are indeed strangest of all. This is Frank Edwards saying,

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welcome to our program. This is a position in the program where you have your first connection as a

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sponsor with your public. However, let me take this opportunity to tell you a little about this

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fabulous man, Frank Edwards, a man who was a pilot at the age of 15, an accredited newsman doing on

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the spot coverage of the Floyd Collins tragedy. One of the original members of Pioneer Radio Station

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KDKA in Pittsburgh served a time as a golf pro, produced many travelogues of the South Seas and

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Antarctica, holding a post of special consultant to the military in World War II and a noted author,

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obviously is not content with an 8 to 5 routine the rest of his life. Frank has searched the world over

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for stories of the unusual, one of which he relates now. One of the most devastating and

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unpredictable pranks of nature is the earthquake, which spreads death and destruction without warning.

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Science has devoted much time and thought to ways of knowing in advance when earthquakes can be

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expected, but little if any progress has been made. But for Bob Barr of Oakland, California,

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earthquakes are an open book. On April 25, 1954, shortly after 1.30 on that Sunday afternoon,

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Bob reached over and turned off the radio program to which he had been listening. Then he rubbed his

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abdomen and said, there's going to be an earthquake. I've got that funny stomach ache again. Seconds

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later, a temblor hit the city of San Jose with a shuttering jar. Bob Barr guessed that it would

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register about five on the Richter scale, which measures the violence of quakes. As a matter of

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fact, that particular temblor registered exactly five on the scale. Barr feels that he has a stomach

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that is seismographically sensitive, to such an extent that he can detect earthquakes at great

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distances when they are of considerable magnitude. The more violent the quake, the more pain he feels

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in his stomach. And this sort of built-in earthquake predictor has been functioning for him for 20 years,

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says Mr. Barr. Scientists don't believe it. They say he cannot predict earthquakes and that when he

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does it, it is pure coincidence. Mr. Barr only smiles. He has predicted many an earthquake,

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which is a record that the scientists who criticize him cannot approach. There is admittedly some

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factor which some living creatures sense and which enables them to know in advance of an

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impending earthquake. In the case of the Alaskan quake of March 1964, the animals and birds in

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zoos all along the west coast of the United States became wildly excited a few minutes before the

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temblor ripped the city of Anchorage apart. We have no way of knowing whether these creatures in the

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zoo share Bob Barr's mysterious tummy aches and no way of knowing that they do not. Somehow they

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knew and they were terrified. Perhaps a clue to the mysteries to be found in the discovery which

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was announced by George Moore of the U.S. Geological Survey Laboratory at Menlo Park, California,

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who says that just 66 minutes before the Alaskan quake of March 27, 1964, there was a majorably

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sharp change in the earth's magnetic field. He suggested this might be due to the stresses in

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the rocks, which also caused the quake. At any rate, a majorably sharp change in the earth's magnetic

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field might explain why the birds and animals in the zoos got so excited and might even explain

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Bob Barr's prophetic stomach ache. Thank you, Frank. And now let me tell you a little of our

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success with the strangest of all series. We originally started with a much smaller number

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of episodes of Strangest of All, but the demand for more of these rare and unusual episodes have

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led us to increase the number of available programs to 520, with Moore being contemplated.

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An amazing 90% of stations now carrying this program have continued uninterrupted into the

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second and third year broadcast. We feel sure with the inclusion of this program in any advertising

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picture, you will be ordering this series for the second and third year and even into the fourth

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and fifth year, for more of these stories are the strange and unusual as reported and recorded

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for you by Frank Edwards. Now, we've presented the program to you, the rest is up to you. It's

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not an expensive proposition, as you can see by consulting the rate chart accompanying this

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presentation. And it's the time program that will hold and gain listeners for you and do a selling

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job. Now, we'll be glad to aid you in merchandising this program to your best advantage. In addition

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to on the spot merchandising aids such as window banners and so forth, the Frank Edwards books have

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been a very successful self-liquidating item in several areas. Our service to you does not end

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at the signing of the contract. We seriously endeavor to help you in any way possible. Thank you for

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letting us present Strangest of All. Stranger than science. Incredible the true events that have

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baffled mankind since the day they happened. Narrated by Frank Edwards. Unique among American

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warships was the watery, for she fought her only battle on dry land. I'll be back in just a moment

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with the story of the desert dreadnought. It was a strange name for a battleship, but then the watery

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was a strange battleship. She was a sidewheeler, a wooden ship with huge awkward paddle wheels in

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wooden boxes on either side of the vessel. The watery was proud but passé, outmoded before she

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slid down the ways in late 1864. Commissioned too late for use in the Civil War, perhaps it was just

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as well for she was a wooden ship born into the days of the ironclads. Fitted with some small

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cannon, given a captain and a crew, the watery was set out to sea, banished you might say,

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from the sight of a navy that had no need for her. For a couple of years she bummed around the

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Caribbean, then by easy stages she ventured down the coast of South America and around the horn

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to Akanagua in Chile. Her orders were to act as a morale builder for the shaky Chilean government

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by merely hanging around, showing her cannon and waving the stars and stripes. This sort of thing

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had been going on for more than a year when the crew began to get restless. The watery needed

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some repairs so the skipper asked for permission to return to the states. The permission was granted

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but it came too late. Destiny had already made other arrangements for the ugly duckling of the

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United States Navy. Captain Alexander was sitting in his cabin one evening, reading the letters which

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had just been brought to him from a passing mail steamer. The messages were a month old, but even

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that was pretty good service for the time. The captain's log picks up the report at this point

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for he wrote, while servicing the mail I noticed that the cabin lamp was swinging

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fore and aft, a most unusual procedure. I noticed this because we were anchored well

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inside the bay and there was no wind. I hurried on deck and quickly recognized the disturbance as

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a submarine earthquake since the water was visibly draining out of the bay. By prompt action we managed

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to swing the watery around but in a matter of minutes we were aground with our stern to the sea.

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I anticipated, he writes, that we might be able to ride it by cutting the anchor cable and this

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was quickly done. The stench from the exposed harbor bottom was most distressing and several

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members of the crew became ill. Others, including the officers, managed to endure the stench by

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breathing only through handkerchiefs which had been soaked in vinegar, a practice which is to be

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recommended under such conditions. The great wave which came surging in from the open sea struck us

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and broke high above the stern of the ship and did heavy damage as well as sweeping overboard

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three crew members who were never seen again. We had no control of the ship and indeed felt

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ourselves fortunate to be afloat. Riding the wildly turning waters of the great tidal wave

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the watery was driven inland with scores of other craft. Thanks to her shallow draft and flat

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bottom construction she rode it like a raft coming to rest finally at the foot of a great cliff.

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Two miles from the sea scattered about her was the wreckage of other vessels and the debris from

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the wrecked city itself. The barren sand that stretched for miles along the face of the cliff

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was strewn with tempting bait for looters and like locusts they came to prey on the plunder.

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Captain Alexander armed his crew with pistols and warned the swarms of looters away. But one morning

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came he realized that he was in for serious trouble for his vessel was tilted at such an angle

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that it could easily be boarded by the mob that was milling about. Already his tired crewmen were

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forced to discourage the more determined thieves by knocking them off the rails with clubs a form

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of defense that could not long prevail in the face of such odds. The watery offered such an

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irresistible piece of plunder that the mob had already marked it for its own when daylight came.

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They were milling about just out of pistol range. The wateries hour was at hand. Captain Alexander

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had two of the cannon pulled from their moorings and popped up so they would face the mob. Unable

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to find the metal shot for the guns in the wreckage below decks the captain thought himself of an

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ingenious substitute hard round cheeses from the galley. When the screaming mob came surging across

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the sand toward the gunboat Alexander held his fire until they were only a couple of hundred yards

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away and then the cannon roared and balls of cheese skipped over the sand. A couple of men

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were bowled over like ten pins. Another broadside sent the mob fleeing in wild disorder. They had

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had more than enough cheese. The watery was broken up for salvage where she lay listed in the navy's

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records as lost in action. She enjoys the unique distinction of being the only battleship that

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fought a battle on dry land firing cheeseballs at a gang of thieves.

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Stranger than fire. Incredible but too advanced for the baffled mankind since the day they happened.

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As the nation of President Lakin, but was a high official of the government also involved,

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I'll have the evidence for you in one minute. An outraged nation clamored for vengeance on

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those who had plotted and carried out the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. John Wilkes

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Booth, the vain bombastic trigger man, was subsequently shot to death. Mary Serrat at

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whose house the crime was plotted died on the gallows with three other characters all convicted

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of involvement in the same dastardly crime. That much is clear from the record. But were they the

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leal plotters, the brains behind the crime itself, or did their death merely enable others to avoid

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exposure? The plot called for the simultaneous assassination of President Lakin, Vice President

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Johnson and Secretary of State Seward. And had this happened, Secretary of War Stanton would

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then have become a power to be reckoned with. He was cunning at times brilliant. He was also

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ruthless, hard and power hungry. But the plot was bungled. Johnson and Seward survived. And after

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a few brief hours as acting president, Stanton was again reduced to his capacity as Secretary of War.

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On the night of Mr. Lincoln's murder, Stanton hurried to the house where the stricken president

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lay dying and set up an office in an adjoining room. Directing the activities of the government

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from that point, he was promptly informed that John Wilkes Booth was the killer. But for five hours,

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Stanton refused to issue a public statement naming the killer. And when at last he did so,

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he furnished newspapers not with a picture of Booth, but with a picture of Booth's brother.

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And Booth himself used those five hours of grace to make his escape. Only an unforeseen accident

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presented the getaway being successful. Lafayette Baker was the head of the Secret Service,

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and he was in New York City at the time of the assassination. Because of the news blackout,

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which had been imposed by Mr. Stanton, Baker knew nothing of the murder until noon of the

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following day. He hurried back to Washington to find the killer's trail grown cold. The search

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itself a well of confusion. The Army, under Stanton's direction, was refusing to cooperate with

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other official groups. Secretary of State Seward had issued orders that Booth was to be captured

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and brought back alive so he could be questioned. But Secretary Stanton refused to pass those orders

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along to the troops who were searching for the assassin. Now this Lafayette Baker was a bit

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of a scoundrel himself. He worked under Mr. Stanton, but the men admittedly distrusted each other.

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There was a marriage of convenience based on Stanton's cunning and Baker's lack of scruples.

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On April 24, Lieutenant Luther Baker was called to the office of his cousin,

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the Secret Service Chief. After a brief conference there, they went together to the office of Secretary

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Stanton, who told Lieutenant Baker where he would find John Wilkes Booth. Later on the witness stand,

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Lieutenant Baker testified that Stanton did not tell him to make any effort to bring Booth back

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alive, although by then all the other search parties were under such orders.

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Booth died of a gunshot wound, which Sergeant Boston Corbett, a crackpot fanatic,

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claimed to have inflicted. But the evidence indicates that Booth died of a pistol shot

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in the back of the neck, inflicted at such close range that Booth's neck was powder burned. Corbett,

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who was armed with a rifle, was 30 feet away when the shot was fired. The only man inside the barn

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with Booth was Lieutenant Luther Baker, who was acting under orders from Stanton himself.

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The pistol shot that killed Booth and Garrett's barn sealed the lips of the one man who might

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have named all his co-plotters had he been brought in alive. The subsequent military trial, which

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brought about the execution of Mary Surratt and her three co-defendants, silenced others who might

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have talked. Lafayette Baker testified that he turned over Booth's complete diary to Secretary

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Stanton. Stanton first testified that he had never seen the diary, but later came back and said that

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he did have the diary after all. But that pages representing more than two weeks immediately

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prior to the killing of Lincoln were missing. The military court ruled at Stanton's request

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that no deletions had been made from the diary. For months before the assassination, an employee of

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Stanton's own department, one Louis Weitman, talked openly of the plot being brewed at the Surratt

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home where he boarded. He was never questioned before the killing, which might have prevented Mr.

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Lincoln's untimely death. But for his services as a witness at the trial at silence Mrs. Surratt

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forever, Weitman loked for years on the public payroll as long as Stanton held office.

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Lincoln asked to be guarded on that fateful night by Major Eckert, who was one of Stanton's employees.

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But Stanton refused. So instead of Major Eckert, Lincoln's life was entrusted to a disillusioned

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scoundrel named John Parker, who promptly deserted his post to visit a nearby tavern. And as soon as

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Booth saw him there, he knew that the waiter Lincoln was open. Yet Parker was never prosecuted,

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and he too remained on the public payroll as long as Stanton was in office.

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The official investigation of the circumstances which led up to Mr. Lincoln's assassination

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left many important questions unanswered. But the unexplained actions of Secretary Edwin M.

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Stanton are strangest of all. Stranger than science. Incredible the true events that have baffled

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mankind since the day they happened. Narrated by Frank Edward. For half a century science has

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been recording strange radio beams from elsewhere in the universe. Are they signals from outer space?

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I'll have the full report for you in just a moment. Radio signals from outer space are not new,

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but they are just as mystifying today as they were when Marconi first picked them up more than 50

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years ago. The father of wireless was conducting some experiments on his yacht in the Mediterranean

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when he detected signals which he regarded as code, meaningless to him. He instructed one of

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his co-workers to make a public statement on the matter at a scientific and business banquet in

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New York. Marconi's remarkable telegram was read, it created some headlines, and then was quietly

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dropped. Nikola Tesla, the famed Yugoslav electrical wizard, also reported receiving cryptic code

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signals which were most numerous and strong when the aerial was turned toward the planet Mars.

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Like Marconi, Tesla had no qualms about making a public report on his findings. If Mars was trying

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to reach us, these scientists felt that we should know about it. In 1924, engineers for RCA admitted

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that they too had picked up these mysterious chatterings which did not fit the patterns of any

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known code, but which bore the earmarks of being intelligently conceived. The signals were recorded

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by RCA, discussed, then filed and forgotten. But they were suddenly recalled by a remarkable

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experience which befell the scientists in the Naval Research Laboratories in Washington. Scarcely

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more than a year after the RCA incident, the Naval Research experts were testing the Jenkins process

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while recording wireless signals on photographic film. Out of the ether came a weird chirping that

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made no sense in terms of intelligible code, but when the film was developed, the scientists were

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astounded at the results. Instead of recording as intermittent dots and dashes, the weird code had

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arrived in such a fashion that it was recorded in the form of faces, crude caricatures to be sure,

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but faces beyond the doubt. In 1926, the United States government financed a project

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which was designed to contact Mars by radio if possible. Scientists from Johns Hopkins University,

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aided by radio experts from both the Navy and the Signal Corps, selected a spot in Nebraska.

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There they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars constructing a powerful transmitter

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and delicate receiving sets. For two weeks they sent radio signals in the direction of Mars

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and waited hopefully for some indication that they had been heard. The net result, according to

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the official statement, was inconclusive. Thirty years later, great observatories all over the

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world were installing costly radio telescopes, huge metallic dishes that can be focused on

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individual planets. On June 4th, 1956, the Naval Observatory in Washington announced that it had

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succeeded in making what it called the first radio contact with Venus, a contact which led

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them to believe that Venus had a surface temperature about equal to that of boiling water.

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Ohio State University reported that its radio astronomer, Dr. John Krauss, had used their radio

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telescope to receive two types of signals, including the Class II signals, which, said the

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University, have many of the characteristics of a terrestrial radio transmitting station.

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These signals, which Dr. Krauss said resembled radio telegraphy in many ways,

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were received only when the giant radio telescope at the University was trained precisely on Venus.

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One of the strangest and perhaps one of the most significant of these bizarre broadcast incidents

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occurred in England in 1953, when many television viewers were startled to see on their screens

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the station identification card and call letters of television station KLEE in Houston, Texas.

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The signals came in strongly throughout a large portion of the British Isles

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during two consecutive days, and many viewers recorded the freak broadcast

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by photographing the picture on their television sets. Notified of the unusual reception,

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the British broadcast engineers had no difficulty picking up the same signal.

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Now freak long-range television pickups are rather more common than most viewers realize,

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and the British authorities attached no unusual significance to the reception of KLEE

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until they contacted the Texas station. Then they got a real shock.

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KLEE went off the air in 1950. The successor to KLEE notified the British that no KLEE

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identification card had been televised at any time since 1950, three years before the picture

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was picked up in Britain. The officials in Britain ruled out the possibility that it could have been

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a pointless practical joke, which would have cost at least a hundred thousand dollars to

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perpetrate. Where did the signal come from? Why was it being only to the British Isles?

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The chief engineer for the British Broadcasting Company said,

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Our investigation leaves us with but one possibility, however incredible, that these

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signals were transmitted to us purposefully and intelligently from a source and for a purpose

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presently unknown. Stranger than science. Incredible the true events that have baffled mankind

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since the day they happened. Narrated by Frank Edwards. Abraham Lincoln called it the song that

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saved the union. The lady who wrote it called it the song that wrote itself. I'll be back with its

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remarkable story in one minute. The battle hymns of republic is one of the most stirring songs ever

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written. Abraham Lincoln cried the first time he heard it during the darkest days of the civil war.

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The music to battle hymn came from an old southern camp meeting song. Say, brother, will you meet us

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on Canaan's happy shore? But where the words came from was quite another story and a very strange one.

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On the night of November 18th, 1861, the fog from the nearby Potomac River was drifting through the

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streets of the nation's capital. Long lines of dispirited union soldiers shuffled past Willard's

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Hotel. Some of them stumbled along for they'd been marching all day, marching with heavy hearts

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from the defeats of yesterday to the uncertainties of tomorrow. In a corner room of Willard's famed hotel,

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the pretty red-haired wife of a Boston social leader sat beside her window in the darkened room,

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watching the long lines of troops pledging past in the gloom.

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Ordinarily, Judy Award, how would have been asleep at this hour? But this was no ordinary occasion.

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Faith had chosen her for a strange mission. The campfires from the Anacostia flats

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blinked at her through the myths over the Potomac.

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I have been healing the waters of a hundred percent land. They have yielded him a life.

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This is how Watts delivered Panorama for a long time before she decided to retire.

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She was exhausted from her long train ride from Boston, and she slept soundly.

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Shortly before daylight, she found herself sitting at the writing desk in the corner of the room.

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She wrote rapidly, which was unusual for her. Here, therefore, she'd always found rhyming difficult.

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But on this cold gray dawn, her pen flew across the paper, scratching out the lines

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that would make her name live in history. It was so dark in the room that she could scarcely see the

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paper, but she didn't bother to light the candle on the desk. She wrote as one inspired. If she had

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a mission in life, she was now fulfilling it magnificently. Long after daylight, when she awakened,

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she found that she had written a poem of five verses on a sheet of stationery

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from the government agency where her husband worked. She recalled vaguely sitting at the desk

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in the darkness, but she remembered nothing of what she had written. But there it was,

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so well written that she felt compelled to change only four words in the entire work.

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It was entitled, The Battle Hymn of the Republic. But she could recall neither the verses nor the

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title. What to do with this piece of work? She mailed it to the Atlantic Monthly Magazine,

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where it was published as a poem in the February issue of 1862. They sent her a check for four

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dollars. Great songs like Great Men and Great Ideas must arrive on the scene at exactly the

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right time and place, and so it was with the masterpiece of Julia Ward Howe. Her forceful

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and moving little poem fell into the hands of Chaplain Charles McCabe of the 112th Ohio Volunteers.

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He had it in his pocket when he was captured at Winchester and sent to Libby Prison. McCabe noticed

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that Mrs. Howe's poem fitted perfectly to the tune of John Brown's Body, which had been borrowed

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from the old Southern song on Canaan's happy shore. McCabe sang Battle Hymn to his fellow prisoners,

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and they soon sang it with him. One night, when a Confederate guard told the prisoners that the

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rebels had just won another smashing victory in Pennsylvania, the prisoners were sunk in gloom.

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But a few minutes later, another trustee, who served in the officer's mess at the prison,

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brought them the real story that the Union had won a great victory at a little town called Gettysburg.

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McCabe and his fellow prisoners sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic till the windows rumbled.

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His truth goes marching on. Months later, McCabe was released as an exchange prisoner

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and sent back to Washington. There, in a crowded theater, he told the audience of his experiences

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in Libby Prison and of the song that shook the walls. He sang it for them, and suddenly they

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were singing it with him. President Lincoln rose to his feet, tears streaming down his cheeks,

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and asked them to sing it again and again. Julia Ward Howe said of her masterpiece,

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I wonder if I really wrote it. I feel that I did not. I was just an instrument. It really

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wrote itself. When he died in 19th-day at the age of 91, a chorus of 100 little children from

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the University of the Blind told her goodbye as they sang.

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The Stranger Than Siren. Incredible but true events that have baffled mankind

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since the day they happened. Narrated by Frank Edwards. I think you'll agree with me that it's

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a wacky world. A world where one man got shot by a cigarette, another was run over by a bathtub,

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and a steam shovel went head-hunting. In just a moment I'll be back with a full report on the odd

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balls of 1958. Science spends a great deal of time and money in its laudable efforts to understand

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and explain how and why strange things happen. But the day-to-day events of our modern world sometimes

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defy explanation, and sometimes the scientists themselves are involved. For instance, a veteran

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00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:37,240
research specialist for General Electric got a call from his wife asking him to pick up a basket

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of eggs at the home of a friend who lived near his laboratory in Syracuse. He remembered the eggs,

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and as he approached the railroad crossing he remembered that it was very rough. So he leached

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back with one hand and steadied the basket of eggs as he drove slowly and very carefully across the

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track, or almost across. There just happened to be a freight train coming along at that moment.

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It struck the good doctor's car and knocked it in front of another engine, which was going in the

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opposite direction. Fortunately, neither engine was moving very fast. The scientist was badly frightened,

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got a bump on his head, and his car was erect. But the eggs were perfect. How do you think science

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would explain that one? 1958 produced buffer crops of wheat and corn, and it also produced a

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buffer crop of unpredictable incidents, such as the case of the hitchhiking jackrabbit of Grand

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Island, Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Joe Ambers of Columbus, Ohio were driving across country,

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and as they rolled along the highway west of Grand Island, they were suddenly reminded that

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they were in jackrabbit countries, for their windshield dissolved in a shower of fragments

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as a rabbit came through it head first. He plunged into the backseat of the car. Joe and his wife

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agreed that it was some jackrabbit, but it turned out that the critter was a bit of a sissy. His first

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automobile ride killed him. One of the least appealing aspects of being a telephone lineman is

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that of having to work down in manholes hour after hour, while the world rumbled past overhead.

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Sam Bradford of Ithaca, New York was repairing some telephone cables in a manhole.

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When a collar dropped in on him, a nine-year-old girl who landed on the back of his neck.

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Only a surprise visit, nobody heard. Two weeks later, Sam came out of a manhole,

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just in time to meet the screech sprinkler, face to face. But Sam isn't complaining. One of his

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buddies was also down in a manhole when a truck loaded with sand turned over and poured its cargo

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down in the hole with him. The lineman got out all right, told reporters he wasn't frightened at all.

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A real man of grip. Ed Taylor of Madawan, West Virginia was probably congratulating himself

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on having found the parking space into which he was carefully backing his new car. Just at that

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moment, a power shovel knocked down a utility pole. The pole fell across Ed's car. Naturally,

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Ed was curious about all the rumpets, so he stuck his head out the car window, just in time for the

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clam shovel to slide off the top of the car and close its jaws around Ed's head and shoulder.

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Thirty minutes later, when they got him out of his predicament unhurt, Ed hurriedly drove away

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and let someone else have his parking place. And the cigarette that shot a man, well, that's a

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matter of record in Beloit, Wisconsin, where Jim Drager will gladly tell you how it happened.

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He was merely relaxing in his big easy chair one evening at a casually placed a lighted cigarette

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in the ice tray. Earlier that evening, his five-year-old son had placed a 22 caliber shell in

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the same tray. The cigarette he did the car preach, there was a bang, and Jim was nicked in the arm,

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shot by a cigarette. No other cigarette can make that claim. Then Quinlan of St. Louis got into

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the wreckage in 1958 through an ironic twist of fate. Then, you see, is a safety director for a

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large industry in St. Louis, and he tries to practice the safety that he preaches. But fate

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00:35:11,240 --> 00:35:17,800
played a mean little trick on me. After a nice, safe day at work, Ben went to bed for a well-deserved

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snooze. During the night, a bedspring worked loose, popped through the mattress cover, and stabbed Ben

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right in the middle of his night's rest. Runaway bathtubs are rare indeed, so rare that they are

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mentioned only once in the records of this busy year. Scientists calculate that your chances

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of being struck by a runaway bathtub are billions to one in your favor. But look out for that one

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chance, as Andy Anderson of Oakland, California will tell you. Andy was parked on a mountain

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highway, fixing a tire. When a truck loaded with bathtubs came rolling down out of control,

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two bathtubs came spinning toward Andy. He leaped over the first, got hit by the second,

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saw the top of his new car bashed in by still another tub. You are often admonished to avoid

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accidents by using horse fans, but even that seems to have taken a turn for the worse. Just outside

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Ann Arbor, Michigan, two delivery wagons approached each other. The horses became frightened and

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knocked each other silly when they criss-haired on. But of course, they had a perfect alibi.

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The horses were using man's sense.

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Man's science. Incredible the true events that have baffled mankind since the day they happened,

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narrated by Frank Edwards. Electronic instruments tell us there are tons of gold there on Oak Island,

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and it may be yours for the taking, but getting it may be a bit difficult. I'll be back in one

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minute with the incredible true story of the treasure in the well. Then Oak Island may be the

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00:37:01,720 --> 00:37:08,040
end of the rainbow for you. Like the proverbial pot of gold at the rainbow's end, you may find it

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a bit elusive, but it's there. No mistake about that. The lucky ones have touched some of it.

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The better equipped seekers have watched the indicator needles on their gear

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flutter to match their own hearts. But one and all they've had to admit defeat for the treasure of

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Oak Island has been so cunningly concealed that it defied the best efforts of all comers from

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almost a century and a half. Oak Island is a tiny rocky knoll that sticks up from the cool

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blue waters of Mahon Bay in southern Nova Scotia. Nobody paid much attention to this insignificant

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speck of land until 1795. On a bright Sunday morning in April of that year, three young men

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rode out to the island and spent the rest of their lives wishing they hadn't. Tony Vaughn, Danny

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McGinnis, and Jack Smith knew that Oak Island had been used as a haven of refuge and repair

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by the free boozers who infested the seas in those days. The pirates could anchor in one of the

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convenient deep coves on the north end of Oak Island, post a lookout in one of the several

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tall trees, and go about their business of removing the barnacles from the ship's bottoms in comparative

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safety. Old Teach came there according to local gossip, and Morgan and Steve Bonney and other

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notorious scum of the seas, they came there and they traded with the Cannae Nova Scotians,

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and they paid handsomely to the local authority to look the other way while the pirates camped out

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on Oak Island. One by one the pirates had been hanged or driven from the seas, and when Smith

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and Vaughn and McGinnis rode over to the island in 1795, they knew that no pirates had been there

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openly or otherwise for at least seven years. But they knew too that the roistering free boozers

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had left a lot of evidence of their visits, pistols, knives, sometimes a gold coin or two could be

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straight from the sand of the little beach where the pirates gambled and fought and bred. It was Tony

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Vaughn who called the attention of his two companions to a worn place on the limb of a huge oak tree,

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and to the strange depression in the soil directly beneath that same tree limb. They agreed that it

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looked very much like heavy ropes had been looped over the limb to lower something ponderous into

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a hole that had later been carefully filled in. Working quietly in their spare time for several

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years, the three boys finally dug down to a depth of about 35 feet. Then in 1803, Smith told Dr.

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John Linds of their strange find, and of the thick layers of coconut fibers they had discovered at

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the 35 foot level. It was a fateful day for Dr. Linds when he first stood there beside that pit,

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for in the ensuing years he spent his entire fortune tolling its depths for the treasure he was so

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confident that it contained. Workmen, paid by the doctor, pulled out at successive 10 foot levels

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layers of heavy oak planks, a layer of chips putty and more thick tough layers of coconut fibers,

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presumably hauled there by pirates who had loaded this stuff in the West Indies 2000 miles away.

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Beneath the layer of oak and planks at the 80 foot level, the workmen found a flat stone

389
00:40:23,480 --> 00:40:29,560
covered with unintelligible hieroglyphics. As the last resort when his funds were virtually gone,

390
00:40:29,560 --> 00:40:35,720
Dr. Linds brought in a large hand-powered drill, and with it he probed to a depth of 100 feet.

391
00:40:35,720 --> 00:40:41,160
The drill cut its way through brittle plaster and more hardwood, then it seemed to drop into some

392
00:40:41,160 --> 00:40:46,760
sort of subterranean room. The next effort with the drill, racing against the water that was rising

393
00:40:46,760 --> 00:40:53,080
rapidly in the pit, brought up a few scraps of gold and a bit of paper, and moments later, disaster.

394
00:40:53,080 --> 00:40:59,080
For water broke into the pit with such a rice that three workmen drowned, and Dr. Linds was bankrupt.

395
00:41:00,440 --> 00:41:04,760
If he had established nothing else, he had given his fortune in nine years of his life

396
00:41:04,760 --> 00:41:10,440
to prove that there was gold in some sort of a man-made vault, about 100 feet below the scarred

397
00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:16,840
old oak tree. It was 46 years before Dr. Linds was able to try again. In the Gold

398
00:41:16,840 --> 00:41:23,720
Reich madness of 1849, old and roomy-eyed, he gathered about him a small group of financial backers.

399
00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:29,960
Their workmen reopened the crumble pit, sank it 10 feet deeper than ever before,

400
00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:35,480
until they came to a hard layer of cement. The drill broke through into that room again,

401
00:41:35,480 --> 00:41:42,600
brought up a bit of gold chain, and again, just as success seemed inevitable, the water came pouring

402
00:41:43,080 --> 00:41:49,640
in and ruined them. Other treasure seekers down through the years, including Franklin D. Roosevelt,

403
00:41:49,640 --> 00:41:56,200
have spent lavishly of their time and money on Oak Island. They have confirmed that the gold is there,

404
00:41:56,200 --> 00:42:02,920
that it is cunningly protected by seawater, brought in through tunnels, and that the gold is likely

405
00:42:02,920 --> 00:42:11,800
to stay there. For in 1957, modern engineers found it just as real and just as elusive as ever.

406
00:42:12,680 --> 00:42:21,560
Stranger Than Science. Incredible but true events that have baffled mankind since the day they happened.

407
00:42:22,120 --> 00:42:28,040
Narrated by Frank Edwards. Alarm citizens of Devonshire patrolled the countryside,

408
00:42:28,040 --> 00:42:33,320
where something had left tiny footprints even on their rooftops. I'll be back in one minute

409
00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:40,280
with the fully documented report on the Devil's Footprints. The good citizens of Canvey Island

410
00:42:40,280 --> 00:42:45,080
had never seen anything like it, and they were disturbed, so they dragged the creature out of

411
00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:50,440
the shallow water onto the beach, covered it with seaweed, and ran for the authorities. The

412
00:42:50,440 --> 00:42:55,560
authorities sent for help too, and the British government assigned the task to a pair of competent

413
00:42:55,560 --> 00:43:01,480
zoologists. These gentlemen examined the fantastic creature at length, photographed it, measured it,

414
00:43:01,480 --> 00:43:07,240
and finally admitted that it looked like nothing they had ever seen or heard of before. It appeared

415
00:43:07,240 --> 00:43:12,280
to be some sort of marine creature, but it had feet and legs so arranged that it could walk upright

416
00:43:12,280 --> 00:43:17,560
if it chose. In an upright stance, it would have been about two and a half feet tall, with a thick,

417
00:43:17,560 --> 00:43:23,880
tough, brownish-red skin, a pulpy head with two protruding eyes. Well, the scientists measured

418
00:43:23,880 --> 00:43:29,480
and photographed and gave up. They had the thing cremated and left without making any public conclusions.

419
00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:34,920
If these learned gentlemen thought they were ending the enigma of Canvey Island once and for

420
00:43:34,920 --> 00:43:39,880
all by that simple procedure, they reckoned without the facts, for the case certainly did not end

421
00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:47,720
there. On August 11, 1954, the Reverend Joseph Overs was walking along the beach of Canvey Island,

422
00:43:47,720 --> 00:43:52,520
just a couple of miles from the scene of that earlier monster, when he too came upon a grotesque

423
00:43:52,520 --> 00:43:58,200
carcass wallowing in a small tidal pool. The good man took one look at the thing and sent one of

424
00:43:58,200 --> 00:44:03,480
his youngsters for the police. The bobbies pulled the carcass ashore and sent for the experts again.

425
00:44:04,360 --> 00:44:09,480
The creature which had been found in the preceding November had been about two and a half feet tall.

426
00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:14,840
This one was slightly more than four feet in length, weighed about 25 pounds, and was in good

427
00:44:14,840 --> 00:44:19,640
condition for examination. The report which the perplexed scientist submitted to the British

428
00:44:19,640 --> 00:44:25,880
government shows that the thing had two large eyes, nostril holes, a gaping mouth with strong,

429
00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:32,120
sharp teeth, and it also had gills. But instead of scales, it was covered with a pink skin,

430
00:44:32,120 --> 00:44:37,080
which the experts reported was as tough as the height of a healthy pig. Perhaps the most

431
00:44:37,080 --> 00:44:42,520
remarkable part of all, this creature, like that of the preceding November, had two short legs with

432
00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:49,640
perfect feet, feet which ended in five tiny toes, arranged in a U shape with a concave center arch.

433
00:44:51,400 --> 00:44:56,280
If science was able to identify these monstrosities, the report was never disclosed,

434
00:44:56,280 --> 00:45:02,440
but to many the things brought back memories of that incredible night in February of 1855,

435
00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:07,480
when the English countryside around Devonshire had a most remarkable visitor or visitors,

436
00:45:07,480 --> 00:45:11,640
which may or may not have been akin to the strange creatures found a hundred years later

437
00:45:11,640 --> 00:45:16,920
on the shores of Canvey Island. The story was written in the form of little footprints in the

438
00:45:16,920 --> 00:45:22,840
smooth blanket of snow that covered the countryside during the night of February 7th, a gentle snowfall

439
00:45:22,840 --> 00:45:27,800
that ended around 11 o'clock that night, somewhere between the end of the snowfall and the break of

440
00:45:27,800 --> 00:45:33,480
day on February 8th. Devonshire had played host to a mysterious visitor, something that had

441
00:45:33,480 --> 00:45:40,280
scampered or pranced or slithered over fences and fields, over walls and housetops, leaving an unbroken

442
00:45:40,280 --> 00:45:45,720
line of thousands of footprints to mark its passing. What was it? This thing that could travel nimbly

443
00:45:45,720 --> 00:45:51,080
up the walls and over the rooftops of decent god-fearing folk while they slept. Where did it

444
00:45:51,080 --> 00:45:57,160
come from and where did it go? Well, where it came from remains a mystery, but where it went was

445
00:45:57,160 --> 00:46:02,840
written in the snow from Topcham and Bictum in the north to Dollas and Totness in the south,

446
00:46:02,840 --> 00:46:09,240
a trail more than a hundred miles long. A baker in Topcham, a chap named George Fairley, seems to

447
00:46:09,240 --> 00:46:14,120
have been the first to take notice of the trail. He saw the strange marks that preceded him almost

448
00:46:14,120 --> 00:46:19,080
to the door of his little shop, but from a point about three feet short of his door, the tracks

449
00:46:19,080 --> 00:46:25,000
turned sharply right to a five-foot high brick wall. Mr. Fairley noticed that the soft curl of the

450
00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:31,400
snow atop the wall had been disturbed by the same little U-shaped footprints. He was not disturbed

451
00:46:31,400 --> 00:46:36,440
by this oddity. That remained for the other residents of the community. By nightfall, the

452
00:46:36,440 --> 00:46:41,400
countryside was up in arms, for there were many who attributed the tracks to the devil himself.

453
00:46:41,400 --> 00:46:47,160
Tiny hoof-shaped marks exactly eight inches apart from X-mouth across fields and housetops

454
00:46:47,160 --> 00:46:52,280
to the bay near Powderham Castle, only to reappear on the other side of the bay and then on to the

455
00:46:52,280 --> 00:46:57,560
end of the trail at Totness, many miles to the south. The London Times and other newspapers

456
00:46:57,560 --> 00:47:02,200
devoted many columns to reporting the strange story of the Devonshire footprints. There were

457
00:47:02,200 --> 00:47:07,640
various explanations ascribing the marks to kangaroos, birds, even a wolf. None of these was

458
00:47:07,640 --> 00:47:13,000
acceptable because none of them fitted the facts. Perplexed experts nervously advanced the theory

459
00:47:13,080 --> 00:47:18,200
that two or three creatures of unknown type had been involved. A theory that was convenient but

460
00:47:18,200 --> 00:47:23,400
unconvincing, unless you were willing to agree that three unknown creatures were all possessed of

461
00:47:23,400 --> 00:47:28,360
the same irresistible urge at the same time at three different spots on the coast of Devonshire

462
00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:34,120
on the same night and that after roping over the housetops they fled back into the sea never to

463
00:47:34,120 --> 00:47:40,600
be seen again. Unless, by some strange chance, the two monstrosities washed up on the coast of

464
00:47:40,600 --> 00:47:47,960
Canvey Island in 1953 and 54 were a clue. Did these creatures point to a solution to the riddle

465
00:47:47,960 --> 00:47:53,560
of the Devonshire footprints of a century before or did they merely add new questions to compound

466
00:47:53,560 --> 00:47:56,360
the mystery for science?

467
00:47:56,760 --> 00:48:04,040
Ranger than science. Incredible but true events that have baffled mankind since the day they

468
00:48:04,040 --> 00:48:12,280
happened. Daryed by Frank Edward. Police were admittedly desperate after weeks of investigation

469
00:48:12,280 --> 00:48:18,440
had failed to solve the disappearance of Joy Aiken. Did she tell them where to find her killer?

470
00:48:18,440 --> 00:48:21,640
I'll have the fully documented story for you in one minute.

471
00:48:23,320 --> 00:48:28,200
Science is admittedly operating under difficulties when it endeavors to explore the human mind.

472
00:48:28,200 --> 00:48:33,400
The very nature of the study precludes success in many respects. Science has learned a great

473
00:48:33,400 --> 00:48:38,360
deal about the mind in the past few decades thanks to new instruments and new techniques.

474
00:48:39,080 --> 00:48:45,320
But reduced to its fundamentals, it becomes a program of the mind studying the mind and that

475
00:48:45,320 --> 00:48:50,920
complicates the problem. We know that the human mind is capable of some very remarkable feats

476
00:48:50,920 --> 00:48:56,680
which we can only record without understanding. That it may also be capable of other and even

477
00:48:56,920 --> 00:49:04,120
more incredible attainments is a matter for debate. For example, let us examine the case of Joy Aiken

478
00:49:04,120 --> 00:49:11,560
found in the police records of Pine Town, Natal, South Africa under the date of October 9th, 1956

479
00:49:11,560 --> 00:49:16,680
and attested by four senior police officers and 46 invited witnesses.

480
00:49:18,600 --> 00:49:24,840
Joy Aiken was a few days past 17 years of age when she vanished in the middle of September 1956.

481
00:49:24,840 --> 00:49:31,800
Joy was a very pretty girl. She was also very shy. Joy had no steady boyfriend nor did she have

482
00:49:31,800 --> 00:49:37,960
any enemies. Why then had she disappeared? Her family suspected foul play and the police

483
00:49:37,960 --> 00:49:43,240
concurred. They sent out bulletins bearing her picture to police posts throughout South Africa.

484
00:49:43,240 --> 00:49:48,360
A reward was offered for anyone who could provide information leading to the finding of the missing

485
00:49:48,360 --> 00:49:55,640
girl or her body. Weeks passed without results. There were a few crank tips, the usual crackpot

486
00:49:55,640 --> 00:50:01,880
reports which are to be expected and as customary they came to naught. Joy Aiken had vented as

487
00:50:01,880 --> 00:50:08,600
completely as if the earth had swallowed her which police suspected it had done. The missing girl's

488
00:50:08,600 --> 00:50:14,200
brother Colin Aiken visited the police station in Pine Town each day in the hope that they might have

489
00:50:14,200 --> 00:50:18,440
learned something that would lead them to the end of their search, whatever that might be.

490
00:50:19,320 --> 00:50:25,240
Each day the police had to tell him that they had found nothing and by October 8th they admitted

491
00:50:25,240 --> 00:50:31,720
complete defeat. On that same day Colin heard through a friend of the retired headmaster of a

492
00:50:31,720 --> 00:50:37,720
school, Mr. Nelson Palmer, who had located some missing items for various of his close personal

493
00:50:37,720 --> 00:50:43,800
friends. Mr. Palmer did this said Colin's friend by merely relaxing closing his eyes

494
00:50:44,440 --> 00:50:49,800
and subsequently describing what his mind seemed to see. He was embarrassed by the

495
00:50:49,800 --> 00:50:53,800
knowledge that he could do this and he never discussed it for fear of ridicule.

496
00:50:55,000 --> 00:51:00,360
Colin Aiken and the Pine Town office of the South Africa police were of the same opinion.

497
00:51:00,360 --> 00:51:06,360
They had nothing to lose by asking Mr. Palmer to try. A senior police officer visited Palmer and

498
00:51:06,360 --> 00:51:12,040
his wife that night and finally secured their consent to a meeting on the following day October

499
00:51:12,040 --> 00:51:20,040
9th 1956. While 50 persons sat silently in the two front rooms and the hall of Mr. Palmer's home,

500
00:51:20,040 --> 00:51:25,400
he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. His breathing became heavy and labored.

501
00:51:26,040 --> 00:51:31,000
Sweep covered his face and began to trickle down from his chin. For many minutes there was only

502
00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:36,200
the sound of his breathing and those who were present, some of them began to suspect that that

503
00:51:36,200 --> 00:51:42,920
was going to be the extent of the program. Then Palmer's lips began to move but the sound that

504
00:51:42,920 --> 00:51:47,720
came from them was a voice like that of a young girl and it was a young girl in terror.

505
00:51:48,520 --> 00:51:53,320
I am dead said the voice and then there was a silence for two minutes according to the police

506
00:51:53,320 --> 00:51:59,000
record after that Palmer's lips began moving again and he said my body is in the ravine near

507
00:51:59,000 --> 00:52:05,960
the higher rocks. A man has attacked me. He's killing me. Palmer's eyes opened and he seemed to be

508
00:52:05,960 --> 00:52:11,400
staring without seeing. A few minutes later he began breathing normally and arose from the chair.

509
00:52:12,040 --> 00:52:16,840
Says the record and again I quote from it. Mr. Palmer then told us that the girl's body was

510
00:52:16,840 --> 00:52:23,000
partially concealed under some stones near a culvert at a spot about 60 miles from Feindown.

511
00:52:23,000 --> 00:52:28,600
The murderer he said was a man named Clarence about 30 years old who had hidden the murder weapon

512
00:52:28,600 --> 00:52:34,280
whatever it was in an outbuilding at his home. Mr. Palmer said he believed he could lead us to the

513
00:52:34,280 --> 00:52:40,920
place where the body was hidden. One hour and 40 minutes later Palmer led police to a lonely spot on

514
00:52:40,920 --> 00:52:46,280
the highway along the coast of Nassau. There under a culvert and partially hidden by stones

515
00:52:46,280 --> 00:52:51,720
they found the body of the missing girl. Joy Aiken had been beaten and then shot to death.

516
00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:57,240
What of the killer? Palmer had described him as a man named Clarence. Relatives recalled that

517
00:52:57,240 --> 00:53:02,920
Joy had known a chap by that name Clarence Gordon Van Vuren. 10 hours later police placed

518
00:53:02,920 --> 00:53:08,840
Van Vuren under arrest. In a shed behind his home they found a gun which he later identified as the

519
00:53:08,840 --> 00:53:15,480
murder weapon. It was the old old story of a frustrated lover. He had lured her into his car he said

520
00:53:15,480 --> 00:53:21,880
lost his temper, struck her then shot her to death in the fit of anger. How did Palmer know

521
00:53:21,960 --> 00:53:27,320
where to find the body? Joy's family prefers to think that the dead girl told him somehow.

522
00:53:27,960 --> 00:53:35,080
But Palmer scoffs at the idea. Nothing supernatural about it he says and he adds I have found missing

523
00:53:35,080 --> 00:53:40,280
pieces of jewelry by the same process whatever it is and these pieces of jewelry certainly didn't

524
00:53:40,280 --> 00:53:46,840
tell me where they were. I think the human mind he said has some perfectly normal capabilities

525
00:53:46,840 --> 00:53:52,120
which we do not understand and this projection in time is merely one of them.

526
00:53:54,680 --> 00:54:02,680
Stranger Than Science. Incredible but true events that have baffled mankind since the day they happened.

527
00:54:03,240 --> 00:54:07,320
Narrated by Frank Edwards and now here is Frank Edwards.

528
00:54:07,960 --> 00:54:13,000
Armed guards stood watch beside the tomb both day and night but the coffins continued their

529
00:54:13,000 --> 00:54:18,680
strange antics. I'll be back in one minute with the amazing true story of the restless dead.

530
00:54:20,120 --> 00:54:25,400
Scientists who investigated carefully had to admit defeat for they could arrive at no logical

531
00:54:25,400 --> 00:54:30,040
explanation for the strange events that were uncovered on the sweltering afternoon of August

532
00:54:30,040 --> 00:54:37,000
24th 1943 when a group of masonic officials opened a sealed grave on the island of Barbados.

533
00:54:37,000 --> 00:54:42,120
It was the tomb of Sir Evan McGregor who had been buried there in 1841 but the

534
00:54:42,120 --> 00:54:47,960
masons were not interested in Sir Evan instead they wished to pay tribute to one Alexander Irvine

535
00:54:47,960 --> 00:54:53,640
who was the father of free masonry in Barbados Irvines remains had been placed in the same vault

536
00:54:53,640 --> 00:54:59,080
prior to those of McGregor. The crypt itself had been carved out of the native stone of the island

537
00:54:59,080 --> 00:55:04,120
and was so constructed that it projected about four feet above ground resting on a concrete

538
00:55:04,120 --> 00:55:08,360
and brick base which extended underground to a depth of about four and a half feet.

539
00:55:09,000 --> 00:55:15,080
Entrance could be obtained only by descending a flight of six steps and opening a sealed door

540
00:55:15,080 --> 00:55:20,600
after the heavy cover slab had been removed it was found that the doorway to the vault itself

541
00:55:20,600 --> 00:55:26,040
was sealed by having been bricked up. As the bricks were being removed while the waiting

542
00:55:26,040 --> 00:55:31,720
masonic officials sweltered the workmen called attention to a metal object of some sort which

543
00:55:31,720 --> 00:55:36,760
had become visible through the aperture they had made by removing the bricks a little more careful

544
00:55:36,760 --> 00:55:42,440
work and the nature of the metal object became unmistakable it was a coffin sheathed in lead

545
00:55:42,440 --> 00:55:48,600
and it was leaning against the only door to the crypt head downward little by little the bricks

546
00:55:48,600 --> 00:55:53,800
were removed and the heavy coffin eased away from the door until it rested once again on the floor

547
00:55:53,800 --> 00:56:01,800
of the tomb. The masonic delegation was understandably mystified how did this 600 pound lead coffin

548
00:56:01,800 --> 00:56:06,600
containing the remains of Sir Evan McGregor get out of its niche on the opposite side of

549
00:56:06,680 --> 00:56:12,200
the sealed vault what could have moved it after the vault had been carefully sealed more than a

550
00:56:12,200 --> 00:56:18,680
century before and what had caused the three tiny holes in the lid where the coffin had been sealed

551
00:56:18,680 --> 00:56:24,760
with solder confused though they were the masons had little time to ponder the problems presented

552
00:56:24,760 --> 00:56:31,080
by this state of affairs for they had another puzzle on their hands there was no trace of either

553
00:56:31,080 --> 00:56:37,320
the coffin or the body of Alexander Irvine his remains had vanished completely from the niche

554
00:56:37,320 --> 00:56:42,280
in the vault where they had rested at the time McGregor's coffin had been placed beside them

555
00:56:42,920 --> 00:56:48,920
both men had been entombed in heavy lead covered coffins placed side by side on cement shelves

556
00:56:48,920 --> 00:56:55,000
now one coffin had vanished and the other had somehow managed to cross the crypt and end up

557
00:56:55,000 --> 00:57:01,720
in a standing position against the sealed door the masons placed a guard at the tomb and went

558
00:57:01,720 --> 00:57:06,760
away to ponder the puzzle they reported to the authorities of Barbados who in turn promptly

559
00:57:06,760 --> 00:57:11,960
called in several learned men to conduct an investigation examination of the church record

560
00:57:11,960 --> 00:57:17,960
showed that both men had been entombed in that same crypt and the crypt had been sealed all

561
00:57:17,960 --> 00:57:22,360
witnesses agreed that the seals had not been broken and that the crypt had been in perfect

562
00:57:22,360 --> 00:57:29,960
condition when the workman began to open it on that hot afternoon in 1943 yet somehow and

563
00:57:29,960 --> 00:57:36,520
sometime very strange things had happened inside the vault after lengthy deliberation and careful

564
00:57:36,520 --> 00:57:42,600
investigation the scientists came away as baffled as the masons had been all of them went away to

565
00:57:42,600 --> 00:57:48,920
ponder the unexplained disappearance of Alexander Irvine whose remains should have been in the sealed

566
00:57:49,000 --> 00:57:56,440
tomb where they had been placed except they were not there and nobody knew why the disturbances in

567
00:57:56,440 --> 00:58:02,040
the vault we have just mentioned are by no means unparalleled also on Barbados but in a different

568
00:58:02,040 --> 00:58:07,240
cemetery miles from the scene of the Irvine mystery officials were plagued with the eerie

569
00:58:07,240 --> 00:58:13,400
antics of the coffins in the vault of the chase family time after time down through the years

570
00:58:13,400 --> 00:58:18,760
as various members of that family were taken to the crypt for entombment the other coffins

571
00:58:18,840 --> 00:58:25,400
inside the sealed tomb were found in wild disarray in each case they found the heavy capstone in

572
00:58:25,400 --> 00:58:32,680
position sealed with a thick layer of molten lead and no trace of tampering and in each case when

573
00:58:32,680 --> 00:58:38,440
they finally removed the seals from the inner door they found the inside a shambles coffins

574
00:58:38,440 --> 00:58:44,280
tumbled about the lead covered box that contained the body of sir thomas chase was so heavy that it

575
00:58:44,280 --> 00:58:51,000
required eight good men to lift it but time after time it was found upside down on the side of the

576
00:58:51,000 --> 00:58:57,640
crypt opposite the shelf on which it belonged oddly and perhaps significantly only two coffins

577
00:58:57,640 --> 00:59:04,200
remained untouched those of mrs. Goddard the original occupant of the tomb and that of a baby girl

578
00:59:04,200 --> 00:59:10,760
mrs. Goddard's granddaughter armed guards placed beside the vault day and night were unable to

579
00:59:10,760 --> 00:59:16,600
prevent recurrences of the disorders that occurred inside it eventually the chase family had to

580
00:59:16,600 --> 00:59:23,480
remove the bodies and re entomb them elsewhere in the old christ church cemetery of barbados the

581
00:59:23,480 --> 00:59:30,440
chase vault still stands its heavy stones and coral intact and appropriately enough carved into the

582
00:59:31,000 --> 00:59:35,400
capstone is a large question mark a reminder of the restless dead

583
00:59:41,160 --> 00:59:45,400
incredible but true events that have baffled mankind since the day they happened

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validated by frank edwards is it possible for a man to be swallowed by a whale and live to tell

585
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the story the logical answer is no but the correct answer is yes and i'll be back in a moment with

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the amazing true story of this modern giona official records of the british admiralty provide

587
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documentary evidence for the astounding account of james barclay of british seaman who was swallowed

588
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by a whale and lived to tell about it james was making his first and only trip as a saver aboard

589
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the wailing ship star of the east in february of 1891 she was pounding along before a fair wind

590
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a few hundred miles east of the falcon islands in the south atlantic suddenly the lookout gave

591
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his electrifying cry a bear she blows for he had cited a huge sperm whale half a mile off the port

592
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bow the star of the east flakened her sails and the wailing crew scrambled into the three small

593
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boats to harpoon the mighty mammal if possible young james barclay was in the first long boat to

594
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reach the side of the whale pulling slowly on their oars the sailors drove their frail cockle shell

595
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behind the unsuspecting creature so near in fact that the harpooner could lean over and drive his

596
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huge spear deep into the whale's vitals barclay and his fellow seaman backed practically to get out

597
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of the reach of those massive tail flukes which stretched the water to foam as the stricken beast

598
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fought to free itself of the barred harpoon for a moment luck seemed to be with the savers the whale

599
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ponds deep into the ocean 800 feet of heavy line streaked out of the tub before the creature ceased

600
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to dive then there was an ominous flakening in the line the great brute was coming up but where

601
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in such cases this was a matter of life and death and the sailors did not have long to wait

602
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they hunched over their oars ready to pull for their lives once they knew which way to pull

603
01:01:44,680 --> 01:01:49,800
without warning the sea boiled up around them there was a splintering price as their frail boat

604
01:01:49,800 --> 01:01:55,400
spun into the air the mortally wounded whale thrashed about madly in its agony beating the

605
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water to a bloody frost before it sounded into the depths again a nearby long boat picked up the

606
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survivors but two men were missing and one of them was the apprentice saver james barclay

607
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the wind which had borne the star of the east to the scene of this tragedy now deserted her and

608
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she waddled in the long swells hour after hour her sails flapping idly shortly before sunset on

609
01:02:21,160 --> 01:02:28,440
that same fateful day the dying whale floated to the surface about 400 yards from the vessel the

610
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crew hastily fastened the line to the whale and the witch brought it slowly to the side of the ship

611
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hot weather made it imperative that it be cut up at once and since they had no means of raising

612
01:02:40,760 --> 01:02:46,920
the hundred ton mammals to the deck the men took flensing spades and peeled off the thick blubber as

613
01:02:46,920 --> 01:02:53,000
they slipped and slid along the creatures back it was dirty work and dangerous for the water was

614
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full of sharks maddened by the taste of blood shortly before 11 that night working by lantern

615
01:02:59,400 --> 01:03:06,040
might the tired crewmen removed the stomach and the huge liver and had them hoisted aboard

616
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ship for processing once on deck they were startled and noticed movement inside the giant

617
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pond a slow rhythmic movement that looked like something breathing the captain heard they

618
01:03:18,280 --> 01:03:23,400
called the ship's doctor and a great infusion was made in the tough place a human foot became

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visible shoe and all a moment later and they had pulled out one of the missing sailors it was

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James Bartley doubled up unconscious but alive perhaps for one of anything better the excited

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ship's doctor ordered Bartley dredged with buckets of seawater it was a treatment which soon restored

622
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consciousness but not reason for Bartley was babbling incoherently as he placed about in his

623
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delirium for almost two weeks he lingered between life and death strapped to the bunk in the captain's

624
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cabin gradually so the ship's doctor wrote in the record which was signed by all on board

625
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gradually Bartley recovered his senses but it was a full month before he was able to tell them what

626
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had happened he remembered being flung into the air when the whale crushed their longboat and as he

627
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fell back into the sea he saw the tremendous mouth open over him he screamed as he was engulfed there

628
01:04:19,800 --> 01:04:25,960
were sharp stabbing pains he said as he was swept across the rows of tiny sharp teeth then he found

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himself sliding down a slimy tube he could recall fighting for his breath kicking about and then

630
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blissful oblivion until he regained consciousness a month later in the captain's cabin he had been

631
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inside the whale's stomach for 15 hours and as a result he lost all the hair on his body his skin

632
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was bleached to an unnatural whiteness that never left it and he was virtually blind for the rest

633
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of his life which he spent as a shoe cobbler in his native roster England numerous medical men from

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many lands came to examine him and to discuss his incredible experience he lived 18 years after his

635
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remarkable adventure and on his tombstone is a brief account of his experience and a footnote

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01:05:11,000 --> 01:05:18,280
which says James Bartholomew 1870 1909 a modern Jonah