Welcome to Unexplained Extra with me Richard McClane Smith, where for the weeks in between episodes, we look at stories and ideas that, for one reason or other, didn't make it into the previous show. In last week's episode, Somewhere to See, one family in Savannah, Georgia got a little more than they bargained for after they bought an antique bed and, according to them, simultaneously acquired the ghost of
a young boy who was attached to it. It certainly stands to reason that should you believe in such things, a bed would be such a fertile receptacle. After all, since we each spend on average roughly a third of our lifetimes asleep, if we were going to leave some ghostly residue of ourselves anywhere, it would most likely be our beds. In fact, I came across so many haunted bed stories when researching the episode, I was a little spoiled for choice in deciding exactly which one to cover.
One story printed in the Charlotte Observer of North Carolina back in nineteen twenty seven, was especially chilling, as recounted to the writer Arthur Conan Doyle, who later recorded it for posterity. The story involved a woman named Anne Eden, a friend of Conan Doyle's, who'd been visiting her sister at her country estate in the north of England when it began. After a long night of partying, Anne was taking her breakfast in bed the following morning when she
sensed someone else in the bed with her. Turning round, she was horrified to see the ghostly head of a large, burly man appear suddenly on the pillow next to her, only for it to vanish moments later. It was some years after that, when visiting her sister again, that she found herself back in the same bed for the night. Anne was just on the precipice of sleep when a terrible clattering drew her attention to a half opened window through which a huge, shapeless body appeared to be crawling.
Paralyzed with fear, she could only watch as the thing slithered onto the floor and proceeded to drag itself painfully on all fours toward the bed, before flinging itself down next to her. It was only later that she found out the bed that had been bought at a fire sail had once belonged to a deeply troubled man, much
loathed by local residents. The man was said to have kept a terrifying and drunken rain over his servants, and had eventually succumbed to a form of drunken delirium, dying alone in that same bed in a hallucinatory, tortured fit of specter. Haunted mania, The idea of an object harboring ghosts or some residue of those who have come into contact with it in the past is a common one
found in most cultures throughout the world. Though objects of any age can be considered haunted, it certainly helps to spied the imagination if they are a little more on the ancient side, as a number of staff working at the British Museum in London have testified footsteps echoed down the cavernous corridor. As the security guard continued on his rounds. Stepping down into the basement, he eventually found himself staring at a peculiar and terrifying looking ornament made of a
dark stained wood. It comprised two dogs, as if standing back to back from the waist, with four legs and two heads, each bearing an impressive array of sharp teeth all over its body. Was covered in nails and sharp iron blades that had long ago been hammered into its skin. The piece, made at some point in the nineteenth century.
In the Congo region of Africa, is what's known as a fetish, a protect dive magical figure often used to cure illness or ward off an evil spirit or in the case of this type of fetish known as an enchisi, it was also used to hunt down and punish adversaries. In some Congo cultures, an encisi was one of the many tools of the nganga, ritual specialists who would be called on by individuals and communities to assist in dealing with the many elements of life that were otherwise beyond
their control. Encissi were often given the form of dogs due to their association with death. Since the community's dogs were often buried away from the village, they gained the status of a creature that could mediate between the living and the dead. When the nganga was called on to cast a spell, they would concoct the requisite medicine, binding it in resin before rubbing it into the back of
the encisi. Each invocation would then be sealed with the hammering of a nail or blade into the totem's body. That they were close to a hundred or so blades and nails in the piece the security guard was now staring at would suggest to some at least that this was a piece imbued with no small amount of dark
retributive magic. All of that was unknown to the guard, however, as he stood before it alone at night in the bows of the British Museum, feeling suddenly overwhelmed with the unmistakable sense that this peculiar, nail riddled sculpture was possessed by a deep mystical power. Just then he was gripped by the strange, irresistible urge to raise up his hand
and point directly at it. But as he did at that precise moment, the frantic blare of the museum's fire alarm burst inexplicably into life, startling the guard and releasing him suddenly from his peculiar reverie. Over the next few days, clearly some thing of the ornament had got under the guard's skin. Unable to shape the feeling that he'd somehow connected with something in the object, the guard invited his
brother to see it a few nights later. Sure enough, he too found himself gripped by the sudden urge to raise his arm and point toward it, And in that moment, once again, the museum fire alarms burst inexplicably into life. Rosemary Kent, a woman who lives on the edge of the infamous Black Hill's Forest, needs your help to find her missing son. But to find him, you must investigate the mysterious forest yourself. Will you face down the horror
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for twenty percent off your first box. Head to hunter killer dot com slash bw unexplained for twenty percent off and to show support for the podcast once again, that's hunt a killer dot com slash bw unexplained. Will you Survive the Curse of the Blair Witch. The story of the Inkys was detailed in an Apri twenty article in
The Economist titled Our Ghosts Haunting the British Museum. The article, written by Killian Fox, recounted a series of stories as told to artist and storyteller Noah Angel, who'd collected over fifty different accounts of strange goings on at the museum since twenty sixteen. Perhaps one of the more compelling was that told by another security guard who'd been locking down
the Sutton Who Gallery at the time. The gallery contains articles found buried in the ground at Sutton Who in Suffolk in the southeast of England, the site of a series of Anglo Saxon burial mounds, including one thought to be that of King Radwald of East Anglia, buried within a ship surrounded by treasure to take to the next world. The centerpiece of the exhibition is the Sutton who Helmet,
dated to round six hundred CE. It sits prominently perched on a small pole in the middle of the gallery, staring back at visitors through a pair of black, hollowed eyes where once other eyes had been. After inspecting the area, the guard pulled shut the room's large wooden doors and bolted them securely to the floor before continuing on his rounds. So it was with some surprise when the voice of the museum's Cecy TV operator burst out of his walkie
talkie moments later. The doors, it appeared, were now open again. When footage of the gallery was reviewed afterwards, it showed the doors appearing to open of their own volition, shortly after the guard had locked them down. Another story involved orbs of white light seen moving about on Cecy TV in the early hours of the morning at the top
of a staircase in the museum's main hall. Staff on duty at the time speculated that perhaps they had something to do with a newly installed exhibition that included a wrought iron gate that had once stood at the front of the infamous Boukenvald concentration camp. The orbs were said to have appeared in the same place every night until
the exhibition and the gates departed. Regardless of what you believe, it isn't hard to sympathize with the notion that ancient historical objects might retain some kind of residual power or presence of the past. That so many stories would spring up from within the vast halls and corridors of the British Museum is perhaps even less surprising, given not only the array of items kept inside around eight million in total, but also the dubious manner in which many of them
were procured. Located on Great Russell Street in London and first opened in seventeen fifty nine, the museum as widely regarded to be among the finest collections of historical relics and antiquities in the world. In recent years, however, the
museum's function has come under increasing scrutiny. From the vast and ancient stone headed sculptures of the Assyrian Galleries to the Elizabethans scrying mirror that once belonged to John Dee to the more than six thousand human remains that are kept there, Each and every piece could be considered to carry something of the peoples and cultures from which they originated, and though not every piece was acquired under questionable circumstances,
certainly for many of them, often plundered and stolen during colonial times or in the aftermath of war, or traded unilaterally by people who never quite owned them in the first place. Most famously in the case of the Elgin Marbles, there are compelling arguments to suggest they are not where they belong, As no Angle suggested, perhaps what the museum's staff have been experiencing is not just a result of spirits trapped within these objects, but that the objects themselves
are restless to return to their rightful place. If you enjoy Unexplained and would like to help supporters, you can now do so via Patreon. To receive access to add three episodes, just go to patron dot com, forward Slash Unexplained Pod to sign up, or if you'd like to make a one time donation, you can go to Unexplained podcast dot com. Forward Slash Support. All donations, no matter
how large or small, are greatly appreciated. Unexplained, the book and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never before been covered on the show, is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements of Unexplained, including the show's music,
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