S02 Episode 1: Whispers in the Trees pt.2

nineteen forty one. One woman was of particular interest, whose name, Bella Lua, bore a striking syl malarity to the name Lua Bella, as depicted in the earliest of the graffiti linked to the case. Bella Lua's friends had become concerned when they lost all contact with her after she moved to Birmingham from Stamford Hill in London. Although Luis whereabouts were never officially established, she was eventually deemed irrelevant to

the case. As for all the other missing Bellers that the police looked into, they were found alive and well before long. The investigation hit a brick wall in defense of the Worcestershire Constabulary nineteen forty one was a difficult time to be keeping track of British citizens, and with resources stretched to the limit. It is much to the credit of the force that such an extensive investigation was

conducted at all. As the months passed and war eventually came to an end, the public interest in the case soon diminished by the summer of nineteen forty five, with the nation celebrating an end to hostilities while mourning their countless other dead. The Tree murder riddle was fated to remain unsolved and forgotten, but someone was about to make a startling claim concerning a vital piece of the evidence that they believed had been criminally overlooked, the severed right

hand back. In eighteen ninety eight, at the age of thirty five, doctor Margaret Murray was making a name for herself in the field of egyptology. She had just become the first female lecturer in archeology in the United Kingdom, having accepted a post at University College London. She would continue to work and teach at the university until her retirement in nineteen thirty five at the age of seventy two.

Although formally an anthropologist and historian, Murray was perhaps best known for her highly controversial views regarding the history of witches. Her primary theory became known as the witch cult hypothesis. The theory suggests that, rather than being the hapless victims of vile and arbitrary witch hunts, witches persecuted throughout European history, where in fact followers of a definite religion with beliefs, rituals, and organization as highly developed as that of any cult.

What drew her attention to the Haglewood case was the curious revelation that the right hand had been found separated from the rest of the skeleton and buried in the ground. The police merely assumed it to be the work of an industrious forest animal. To doctor Murray, however, it suggested something far more sinister. She believed that, instead of being a gruesome but incidental off cut, the hand had in fact been removed and placed in the ground deliberately as

part of an elaborate occult ritual. Doctor Murray suggested that the severed hand may have been used to create a magic artifact known as a hand of glory. Traditionally, such totems were made by removing the right hand of a convicted criminal, followed by the casting of a spell to invest the separated extremity with magical power. A bizarre suggestion, you might think, but not so, she believed if the

victim had been considered to be a witch. The theory was given more weight by the location of the body. As outlined in James George Fraser's ground breaking book The Golden Bough, there is a rich tradition in Celtic and Pagan beliefs of investing trees with spirits and sometimes souls of their own. In addition, there are some who believe

that certain trees have the power to bind magic. There are some who believe Hagley Wood to have long been a traditional meeting place for coverns of witches, and it certainly wouldn't have been the first time that an occult ritual had been conducted in England. During the Second World War, in August nineteen forty, Gerald Gardner, a well known follower of pagan witchcraft, along with the number of other members of the New Forest Covern, performed a magic ritual that

became known as Operation Cone of Power. It was hoped that the operation would ultimately dissuade the High Command of Nazi Germany from invading the United Kingdom. It is also important to note that doctor Murray's theory wasn't based on any personal belief in the magic of witchcraft, but rather

the notion that such practices did occur. Whether or not a hand of glory had any discernible power, it remains that somebody willing to believe in such things may have enacted some formal ritual in the murder of the unknown woman.

In any case, despite influencing a number of well known authors such as Aldus Huxley and Robert Graves, Murray's Haglewood theory and her witch cult hypothesis have been roundly discredited, and in reality, there is little to support her claim that the victim had been subject to a ritualistic killing. What Murray's theory did do, however, was to enact a

sort of magic of its own. Such spells tend to be most potent during times of uncertainty, when a scapegoat is required to make sense of the ills of the world. Perhaps it was only ever going to be a matter of time, but soon a bogey man would be brought forth from the fog of truth. With all the talk of ritual murder and black magic fueled by a press, ever ready to fan the flames of a salacious story.

Many became convinced that local travelers were to blame. The rumor would persist for ten years, but all that was about to change. In nineteen fifty three, a journalist at the Wolverhampton Express and Star, writing under the name Quester, decided to reassess the evidence. His real name was Wilfred Bifford Jones. Bifford Jones, who had never been convinced by the reductive traveler theory, revisited the case in a series of articles appearing in late November of nineteen fifty three.

Concluding the series, in a third and final article, published on Friday, November twentieth, Bifford Jones notes whether the young woman is supposed to have been a gypsy who was ritualistically murdered with witchcraft or after a trial by her tribe, well, I do not accept it. It is true that there had been gypsies for years in the area, but every crime is laid at the door of Romanes. For Bifford Jones, the suggestions of witchcraft had been a gross and fanciful

obscuring of the facts. It was a gallant and single minded campaign that fought to wrestle the case back from acceptable fiction to more unsettling fact. But nobody could have anticipated what came next when a few days later a strange letter landed on Bifford Jones's desk. It was postmarked Cleverly, Wolverhampton and dated eighteenth of November nineteen fifty three. It read, my dear quester, finish your articles regarding the witch Elm crime.

By all means, they are interesting to your readers, but you will never solve the mystery. The one person who could give the answer is now beyond the jurisdiction of earthly courts. The affair is closed and evolves no witches, black magic or moonlight rites. Much as I hate having to use a nom de plume, I think you would

appreciate it if you knew me. The only clues I can give you are that the person responsible for the crime died insane in nineteen forty two, and the victim was Dutch and arrived in England illegally about nineteen forty one. I have no wish to recall anymore, Yours, sincerely, Anna. It is not uncommon for people to claim knowledge of crimes they have no connection to but something of Anna's

letter rang true to Bifford Jones. After a series of pleas for Anna to come forward and reveal herself a few days later, against all expectation, she did, and so it was on one cold morning at the local police station that Anna proceeded to reveal everything that she knew. Her name was Una Hainsworth, and this was her story. Sometime in the early thirties, Una had met and fallen in love with a dashing young man called Jack Mossup. Not long after, the young lovers would be married and

expecting their first child. Sure Enough, in nineteen thirty two, with the couple still in their teens, a son, Julian, was born as the country slowly clawed its way back from a decade of economic stagnation. Here encapsulated in the face of their newborn baby was a renewed sense of hope for the future. But that hope would be short lived, for there was a shadow looming over the young family, a shadow that was soon to fall across most of

the world. On Sunday, September third, nineteen thirty nine, at eleven fifteen am, families up and down the land huddled around the wireless as Neville Chamberlain announced that the country was at war. Less than a year later, on Friday, August ninth, nineteen forty, the first of many bombs dropped on the Midlands. What followed was just under two years

of sustained bombing of the heavily industrialized region. For Jack, perhaps to his relief and shame, as a skilled factory worker, he was exempt from the draft and was instead assigned to work in coventry building munitions. But as the months wore on, UNA's relief that Jack had avoided the draft was tempered somewhat by a sudden change in his character. He started to drink more and stay out later, often at a new favorite haunt, a lively place on the

edge of the Clent Hills called the Littleton Arms. He started buying new clothes, including an r F officer's jacket to which he was not entitled. He had also started to accrue money from an unknown source. Una was particularly suspicious of the new crowd he seemed to be hanging out with, a suspicion that was further aroused when one of the crowd turned up one night at their home.

The enigmatic man who gave his name as Van Rolt, was well dressed and claimed to be from Holland with a seemingly endless disposable income, despite no discernible occupation to speak of. One evening in the spring of nineteen forty one, after yet another late night, Jack returned home drunk and agitated. He'd been at the Littleton Arms again with Van Rolt, where they were joined by what he described as the

Dutch piece. Jack claimed that the woman had become awkward and later passed out, at which point Van Rot decided to play a trick on her. After carrying the woman to Van Rolt's car, the pair drove to a nearby wood and dropped her unconscious body into the hollow of a tree. They had only meant it as a joke, he said, believing in the morning that she would come

to her senses. In the weeks that followed, it was clear to Una that something was playing on Jack's mind, as he retreated further into himself and his behavior became increasingly erratic. Una eventually had enough, so she left, taking their son with her. For Jack, now without his wife and child to keep him company, things began to unravel drastically. It wasn't their leaving that tortured him every night, but rather what had crept in in their absence. Later, after

Una and Jack had divorced, Jack confided in Una. He told her that he was being driven mad by the recurring image of a woman's faith leering at him from inside a tree. But it wasn't until Una heard that a skeleton had been found in Hagley Wood that she put the two events together. Back in the police station all those years later, the interviewing officers are dumbfounded by UNA's statement and immediately demand a contact address for her

ex husband, but she couldn't give them one. Jack had been committed to a psychiatric hospital in Stafford in nineteen forty two. A few months later, at the age of twenty nine, he was dead, apparently driven insane by his recurring nightmare. But what really shook things up was UNA's parting thought on the matter, Van Rolt, she believed was the spy. Are you always taking care of your family? Do you often take care of others and not yourself? Now it's time to take care of yourself, to make

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a spy ring, So what to make of UNA's story. Certainly, much of it is true. She did indeed have an ex husband called Jack Mossup, who had been a regular visitor to the Littleton Arms. It is also true that he would later die in a psychiatric hospital in nineteen forty two, police also had some luck in tracing the mysterious Van Rolt figure, but nothing untoward could be found. It could be said that much of UNA's story begins

to make more sense if her spy theory is applied. Certainly, in his capacity as a munitions worker in Birmingham, Jack would have been uniquely placed to pass off useful information to the German Air Force. Although UNA's spy theory was never officially confirmed, it was a theme keenly picked up fifteen years later by writer Donald McCormick. In nineteen sixty eight, McCormick is alleged to have conducted a series of interviews

with a former Nazi called Franz Rathgeb. It turned out that a number of spies had been active around the Midlands after all, at precisely the time that the unknown woman would have gone missing. One of those spies was Rathgeb. Although he claimed not to know anything of the murdered woman, he did recall a fellow spy by the name of Lera who had a Dutch girlfriend called Drunker's Clara Bella Drunkers,

who was herself a spy living in the Birmingham region. Intriguingly, She would have been around thirty years old at the time of the murder and had a regular front teeth similar to those note on the skeleton. Could it be that the fruitless search of dental records all those years ago hadn't failed because of an administrative error, but merely because the woman had not actually been from the UK. McCormick further alleged that he later came across some interesting

information in declassified papers from German military intelligence. The papers suggested that a spy had been parachuted into the Midlands in nineteen forty one, but had then failed to make contact with their handlers. The name listed for the spy was Clarabella. Needless to say, this theory, too, remains unconfirmed. However, on the eighteenth of May nineteen forty two, the British Navy intercepted an unregistered boat just off the coast of the UK. In it were three Dutch nationals who were

promptly interrogated after routine questioning. Two of the men were deemed rational and of little threat. The third, on the other hand, became hysterical at the first sight of the British officers. He was immediately arrested and later convicted under the nineteen forty Treachery Act on suspicion of being a spy. His name was Johannes Mariners Drunkers. Was this the man Franz rathgeb knew as lera come in search of his

missing wife? Sadly we will never know. On New Year's Eve of nineteen forty two, Johannes Drunkers was executed in Wan'sworth Prison in London. Towards the end of the twentieth century, a number of British wartime files were declassified, with one proving of particular interest to our case. On the evening of January the thirty first, nineteen forty one, just above the town of Ramsey in Cambridgeshire, high up in the night sky, a man was silently drifting down to earth.

No one saw the black spot as it fell hard and fast, landing with a bump in a field next to Dove House Farm. Two men, Charles Bulldock and Harry Coulson, had been walking by the area shortly after when they heard the sound of a revolver being fired into the air. Locating the source of the gunshots, Bulldock and Coulson were astonished to find a man lying on his back in a field surrounded by the silken canopy of a parachute. The man, who was in some distress, had clearly broken

his leg. Coulson ran immediately to fetch James Godfrey, a member of the Home Guard, who in turn telephoned Ramsey Police Station before accompanying Coulson to take a look at the prost man. Godfrey later noted that the man had been wearing civilian clothes underneath his flying suit. They also found in his possession an attache case, four to five hundred pounds in one pound notes and a wallet. Together, the three men bound the parachutist's leg and waited for

further instructions. A short time later, Captain William Henry Newton arrived on the scene and began to question the mystery man. He gave his name as Joseph Jacobs and claimed to have flown over solo from Luxembourg before baling out of his plane. Jacobs was then loaded onto a horse and cart and delivered to Ramsey Police Station. Once detained, Jacobs was asked to open the attache case. Inside they found a wireless set, as well as a pair of headphones

and batteries. They also found a map on which was marked the location of two RF satellite stations nearby. But Jacobs is also carrying something else, something found tucked away deep inside his pocket, a picture photograph of a glamorous looking woman, on the back of which was a message written in English. It read my dear, I love you forever, Your Clara Landau, July nineteen forty The woman is Clara Sophie Bowler born in Ulm, Germany, on the twenty ninth

of June nineteen o six. In nineteen forty one, she would have been thirty five years old. She is a cabaret singer and sometime actress who not only worked for a number of years performing in music halls across the West Midlands, but speaks fluent English with a Birmingham accent and was known locally as Clara Bella. Not only that, but according to Jacobs, she is extremely well connected to the Nazi Party and had been recruited as a spy with plans to drop her into the Midlands region. Finally,

it seemed that the pieces were coming together. Is it possible that Clara Bowler is our unknown woman? Not so? According to Jacob's granddaughter Giselle, whose own website on the subject provides an exhaustive account of the life of Joseph Jacobs. As Giselle's research details the skeleton found in the which Elm Tree suggested a woman of around five foot in height. Clara Bowler, as has been well documented, was substantially taller

at almost six feet in height. In a final blow to the theory, it was also discovered that Clara had in fact died in Berlin on the sixteenth of December nineteen forty two. Joseph Jacobs was eventually tried and convicted of being a spy and sentenced to death by firing squad. Jacobs protested his innocence to the end, declaring that he was a friend of England and had arrived to help in her fight against the Nazis, but it was to

no avail. On the thirteenth of August nineteen forty one, Joseph Jacobs became the last man ever to be executed at the Tower of London. Thinking about the mystery in its entirety, it is quite striking when you consider that perhaps the least strange element of the whole thing is that a woman had been murdered and most likely by a man, And not only had she been disposed of with such apparent ease, but there seemed nobody willing to

come forward on her behalf. According to writer and broadcaster Steve Punt, who investigated the witch El murder as part of his Punt PI series broadcast by the BBC, there was one report at the bottom of a police file that is so often overshadowed by the louder, more colorful components of this compelling mystery. It notes a missing persons report logged sometime around October of nineteen forty one, a sex worker by the name of Bella had gone missing.

Could it be that that same Bella, a woman whose initial disappearance had perhaps been deemed unworthy of investigation, was the woman they had been searching for all along. There was one other report recorded shortly after the skeleton had been discovered, an eyewitness account by two home guards who had been wrapping up their nightly patrol near Hagley Wood one evening in the autumn of nineteen forty one, when the sound of an approaching engine stopped them in their tracks.

As the guards looked down to a turn at the bottom of the road. A scattering of light is followed shortly by a vehicle appearing from around the bend, before swiftly pulling in to the side of the road. The guards approach with caution, surprised to see a private vehicle driving round these parts at this time of night. As they near the vehicle, one of the guards holds a light up to the driver's window and knocks on the glass. The driver blinks into the light and rolls down his window.

He smiles awkwardly as he hands over his ID. The guards are surprised to discover, judging by the jacket he is wearing, that the man is an RAF officer. Shining a light into the vehicle, the patrolman noticed there is some one else in the car, huddled under an overcoat, lying very still in the passenger seat. At the look on the faces of the guards, the officer gives an embarrass shrug. The guards return the ID, which is gratefully received by the driver, who proceeds to roll up the

window before driving away back into the night. All elements of Unexplained are produced by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes. Feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or on Twitter at Unexplained Pod. Hello, it's Jamie from My Dad

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