Ooooh! Those Russians… (Boney M) Those nefarious Russians have been up to no good, as usual. According to a recently published joint report by US current affairs show 60 Minutes, German legacy newspaper Der Spiegel and NATO apologist website The Insider, nasty Russians have been zapping our poor freedom and democracy loving spies and diplomatsContinue reading “Russkies Zap Yank Spooks with Mind Melting Ray Gun!”
Author Archives: Paul Weatherhead
Yorkshire Serial Killer Witch’s Chicken Lays Doomsday Egg
In 1806, the good people of Leeds were preparing for the end of the world. Millenarian sects warned of the coming apocalypse and many were convinced they were living through the Last Days before the second coming of Jesus Christ. There were strange signs and wonders that portended End Times, and one of these cameContinue reading “Yorkshire Serial Killer Witch’s Chicken Lays Doomsday Egg”
Spiked or Spooked? The Myth of the Drink Spiking Bogeyman
Blurred vision and dirty thoughts Feel out of place, very distraught Feel something coming on…. ‘Somebody Put Something in my Drink’ (The Ramones) In every bar and every club they lurk, lying in wait for their helpless innocent victim. Concealed in their hands are vials of potent date rate drugs, and the minute the victimContinue reading “Spiked or Spooked? The Myth of the Drink Spiking Bogeyman”
Who Killed Navalny?
The death of Alexey Navalny in a Siberian prison on 16 February 2024 has been met with ghoulish glee by western news outlets. It’s an unmissable opportunity for an orgy of hypocrisy, sanctimony and demonisation of the Big Bad Bear. Navalny was just the kind of Russian politician that the West loved. He had allContinue reading “Who Killed Navalny?”
The Yorkshire Piper who Came Back from the Dead
On 27 March 1634, John Bartendale stood on the scaffold outside Micklegate Bar, York with a noose around his neck. Bartendale was a piper, a wandering musician who had turned to crime and been convicted of a felony. It seemed his piping days were over. The hangman pulled the lever, and Bartendale dropped through theContinue reading “The Yorkshire Piper who Came Back from the Dead”
Terror in Todmorden: Who was the Tod Shaker?
Over Christmas 1903 Todmorden was under a reign of terror, according to local and national press. For over two weeks at the end of December, a series of bizarre attacks by a strange new ‘bogey man’ created a sense of panic and alarm on the Yorkshire-Lancashire border. Just who was this bogey man, asked theContinue reading “Terror in Todmorden: Who was the Tod Shaker?”
Buried Alive!
Imagine being woken by the soft thud of loose soil falling on wood. Lying in the darkness you wonder where you are or how you got there, but as you try to move you realise you’re confined in a narrow box. Then the full horror of the situation hits you, but your screams are muffledContinue reading “Buried Alive!”
A Halifax Christmas Ghost Mystery
Christmas Eve with a Ghost – or Murdered Thirty Years Ago… Here’s a strange Christmas ghost story that was supposed to have occurred in Halifax in 1875. Unfortunately, it’s not at all clear which Halifax is meant. It was reported in the notorious true crime tabloid the Illustrated Police News on 1 January 1876. OnContinue reading “A Halifax Christmas Ghost Mystery”
Why is a Ghost Like a Fart?
Christmas Horror from 1734 If you thought the tradition of the Christmas ghost story started with Charles Dickens, think again. In the eighteenth century many people’s Christmas reading list would have included a best-selling little pamphlet called Round About Our Coal Fire: Christmas Entertainments. It was written by an anonymous author who called himself JackContinue reading “Why is a Ghost Like a Fart?”
The Halifax Witch Bottle
In February 1844 a woman called Nancy Houldsworth and an unnamed friend burst into the newspaper office of the Halifax Guardian. Nancy proceeded to tell the astonished journalists a true ‘tale of mystery’.[i] A tale of love, death, curses and witchcraft. The story begins in 1841 with two sweethearts, Mary Wilson and Samuel Bottomley, bothContinue reading “The Halifax Witch Bottle”
Paul Weatherhead 