Monsters Myths and Manias

The UFO Cult that Saved the World

In 1954 a group of undercover psychologists joined a doomsday UFO cult who believed the world was about to be destroyed and the true believers whisked away in a flying saucer. What would happen to the believers' faiths when the prophesised apocalypse didn't happen, the psychologists wondered? The results reveal an important truth about human nature...

The Gorefield Ghost

In early 1923 a Fenland farm was visited by strange destructive phenomena – household objects mysteriously flying across the room and smashing. Some said the house was haunted by a poltergeist, others blamed witchcraft or even demons. The haunted house became a national sensation, leading to psychic investigators, spiritualists, an exorcist, a witch and Arthur Conan Doyle all trying to solve the mystery. But perhaps the answer was right under their nose all along… Paul Weatherhead alias Professor Weird examines the strange case of the Gorefield Ghost....
SOURCES:
‘Ghost that moves furniture’, Daily News 19 February 1923, p.1; ‘Ghost as heavy weightlifter’, Daily News 20 February 1920, p.1
‘The Cambridgeshire Ghost’, Saffron Walden Weekly News 23 February 1923, p.7
‘The Gorefield Spook’, The Spalding Guardian 3 March 1923, p.7
‘Fen Ghost Reappears’, Newcastle Daily Chronicle 10 March 1923, p.1
‘The Gorefield Spook’, The Spalding Guardian 3 March 1923, p.7
‘Burned to death in bed’, Diss Express 11 May 1923, p.8

Doomsday Herring and Fishy Farts

The strange history of prophetic herring and how they spelled doom for mighty men. Plus, how herring farts nearly brought about the apocalypse...

Monster Fly Attacks Yorkshire

A monster fly three feet in length and with an 18 inch dagger like tongue caused mayhem when it escaped from a laboratory and went on the rampage in Yorkshire in February, 1932. This is according to a contemporary Bulgarian newspaper and reported by Reuters in several British papers a few months later when it created quite a buzz...
Sources
Sheffield Daily Telegraph 12 December 1932; Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer,  12 December 1932
 

Drug Lore: The Hippy Babysitter and the Roasted Baby

The Hippy Babysitter (also known as the Baby Roast) is one of the darkest pieces of acid lore to emerge in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This cautionary tale about the dangers of drugs is actually older and more widespread than you might think. This episode of Monsters, Myths and Manias examines different versions of this psychedelic myth and traces its weird and disturbing history around the world...
Sources
Brunvand, J.S. (2000). The Truth Never Stands in the Way of a Good Story (University of Illinois Press).
Smith, P. (1983). The Book of Nasty Legends (Routledge and Kegan Paul).

The Corsets of Immortality

The true story of Professor Charles Munter, the real life Svengali who invented the Corsets of Immortality... 
 
SOURCES:
‘She is Trilby in real life’, Milwaukee Leader, 18 May 1912, p.12
‘Woman, hypnotised, sings operatic airs’, Bridgeport Evening Farmer, 29 June 1912, p.10
‘Prince of Healers’, Westminster Gazette, 26 July 1923, p.7
‘Professor Munter himself…’, Catholic Telegraph, 10 March 1921, p.10
‘Jail sentences recommended for those who are sick’, The Ogden Standard, 23 May 1914
‘The Munter Method’, Western Evening Herald, 26 July 1923, p.2
Margaret Hubbard Ayer, ‘Girls, don’t marry sharp-nosed men’, Omaha Daily Bee, 7 September 1912,
Birmingham Herald, 22 September 1918, p.19
Washington Evening Star, 3 May 1922, p.20

Weird Felines: Talking Cats, the Cat Organ and the Cat Orchestra

In this week's episode, a brief history of talking cats, cat organs and cat orchestras...
Sources 
For talking cats see the following:
Hamilton Daily News, 16 February 1912
Nelson Leader, 3 June 1932
Dundee Evening Telegraph, 12 July 1946
Dundee Evening Telegraph, 21 September 1946
Dundee Evening Telegraph, 20 June 1947
For the cat organ and cat orchestras see the following:
GH Wilson, The Eccentric Mirror (1807)
For more on learned pigs and other odd animal stories see Jan Bondeson, The Cat Orchestra and the Elephant Butler: The Strange History of Amazing Animals (The History Press, 2006)
Robert J. Richards, ‘Rhapsodies on a Cat-Piano, or Johann Christian Reil and the Foundations of Romantic Psychiatry’, Critical Enquiry, Spring 1998, pp.700-701

Needle Spiking - A Hysterical History

Panic about maniacs lurking in the shadows ready to jab innocent girls with syringes dripping with evil drugs is nothing new. Similar episodes have been occurring for over a century. In this week's Monsters, Myths and Manias we uncover the hidden history of needle spiking and explain why the maniac with the syringe is a phantom of our imagination.
For a full history of needle spiking and other phantom attacker panics, see my book (co-authored with Robert Bartholomew): https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-97-4272-1 

Yorkshire Serial Killer Witch’s Chicken Lays Doomsday Egg

The bizarre story of Mary Bateman, witch, serial killer and psychopath and how she made a fortune from a chicken who laid eggs that predicted the end of the world...
Sources
Arthur Vincent, Lives of twelve bad women; illustrations and reviews of feminine turpitude set forth by impartial hands, (London: T.F. Unwin,1897); E. Baines, Extraordinary Life and Character of Mary Bateman, the Yorkshire Witch: Traced from the Earliest Thefts of Her Infancy, Etc Till Her Execution on the 20th of March, 1809 (leeds: Davis and co, 1811
Owen Davies, Popular Magic: Cunning-Folk in English History, (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007)
Globe 27 March 1809
William Knipe, Criminal chronology of York castle; with a register of criminals capitally convicted and executed at the County assizes, commencing March 1st, 1379, to the present time, (York: C.L. Burdekin, 1867)
Summer Strevans, The Yorkshire Witch, (Barnsley: Pen and Sword, 2017) 

The Headless Bear from Hell: England's Forgotten Phantom

This episode tells the story of one of the strangest entities ever to haunt this land - the demonic headless bear from hell. This strange monster is nowadays forgotten, but he left odd tracks in the realms of demonology, the works of William Shakespeare and also in the language we speak.
A monstrous headless bear, a flaming demonic snail, levitation and a possessed woman rolled around the house like a human hula hoop. And that’s just the beginning...
SOURCES:
A True and Most Dreadful Discourse (1584 and 1614) is easy to find online, or see Joseph Laycock’s excellent Penguin Book of Exorcisms for the full text in a readable format
Richard David Macey, Fake News and News Anxiety in Early Modern England (2018), PhD thesis, Loyola University Chicago
Gary Bills-Geddes, ‘Ghost bear in a time of war at Worcester Cathedral, Worcester News, 25th October 2019 Available at: https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/17992749.ghost-bear-time-war-worcester-cathedral/ I’ve slightly modernised spelling and punctuation
https://www.mysteriesofmercia.com/post/edgar-tower-it-s-spectral-bear