I am posting this before the retrial of the Nicholas Billingham / Fiona Beal case which is due to be heard at the Old Bailey in the late Spring of 2024. This is a retrial of a case abandoned during June 2023 for no apparent reason. I am giving the background to the original trial. It is told in one take without editing. I will post another podcast when the case finishes probably at the end of June 2024.

A Famous murder of its time in 1964, almost forgotten today. The case was famous for its forensic breakthrough. Recorded as usual in one take without editing.

This is the fourth podcast of what is proving to be an extraordinary case. I was expecting this to be a one podcast case.T his podcast concentrates on the events of week 7 of this case being heard in Court 5 of the Old Bailey in London. This is being posted before the expected start of week 8 on March 25 2024.

Recorded in lo fi without editing. I don't think you would have heard of this story from Portsmouth, UK in March 1973.

I am posting this podcast after week 6 of the trial. The case is intriguing with many odd and unexplained aspects . Week 7 is about to commence with Constance Marten continuing her defence. I am wondering how the jury are going to come to a verdict on which they all agree. As usual, this podcast is posted without editing and the presentation is not of a professional standard.

This is part 2 of the Constance Marten, Mark Gordon trial at the Old Bailey. Some reflections on the first five weeks of the trial. As always the podcast is recorded in one take with no editing.

The Constance Marten and Mark Gordon trial is at present being held at the Old Bailey, it started January 2024 and is scheduled to finish on 8 March. It seems to have caused great interest and a number of podcasts have been commissioned by newspapers and the BBC. This podcast is lo-fi and is not a polished corporate effort. I have tried a different approach , concentrating on the background and events leading to the arrest of the couple in part 1. I will post a second podcast (part 2) after the trial, this will be the story of the trial. What should be noted is that Constance Marten and Mark Gordon believe that they have not done anything wrong, so it will be interesting to see how the trial plays out.

This is a short podcast about a totally senseless murder last August in the West Sussex town of Crawley. Condolences to the family of Harrison Tompkins.

Two characters with links to the Elephant and Castle area of South London. Alfred Hinds probably unjustly imprisoned in 1953 and determined to do something about it. Shirley Pitts born into poverty and determined to do something about it. Recorded in one take in lo-fi with a dog next to me.

Cleator Moor is a small town near the East Coast of Cumbria in the North of England on the Eastern edge of the Lake District a few miles away. It is an area quite isolated and probably quite dull for young people living there. 23 August 1974 there was a horrific crime committed there which seems totally forgotten now, 50 years later. Those involved seem totally forgotten.

This started as a podcast on the Bethnal Green Tube disaster in 1943. I was surprised to learn about other crowd crush disasters that I had never heard of before. I have gone into some detail on the Bethnal Green story but then give an overview on the other disasters. The last three crowd crush disasters reported on here are exclusively child death disasters, so not a podcast for everyone.

In January 2021 there was news reported that shocked the people of Brighton and Hove. Prominent and popular businesswoman Sue Addis was stabbed and killed in the bath while at home. This podcast is lofi, recorded in one take with no editing.

This is a story that has not really been told with any accuracy before. Feckless youth struggling to find an identity, wanting to prove their worth to the skinhead group they identify with. There is important information missing from police files although some interesting reports giving psychiatric reports on those involved. These events took place during Easter 1972 when a fatal stabbing by youths was a rarity. This is recorded in one take and is lo-fi and there is a disastrous attempt to include a popular skinhead anthem. Please do not listen if you are expected a professional production as this podcast reaches new lows. There is some bad language as I have told some of the story in the street talk of the time, as told by those involved.

This a shorter and quirkier podcast than usual. I read a book which moved me and I wanted to make a podcast about it. It is essentially about the life of a sparrow. I suppose most of us had a time when we tried to rescue an infant or injured bird, usually with an unhappy outcome. In this story an interesting relationship develops between a special woman and a special sparrow. I know its doomed to a low download figure, but I enjoyed making it. As per usual please be advised that it is low-fi, recorded in one take and I am not a good narrator. I will upload this pod on Christmas day.

The first haunting considered is that of Hinton Ampner, then the podcast moves onto the East Riding and West ridings of Yorkshire for further cases of supposed paranormal activity. The Podcast is recorded in one take with animals in the room. I mispronounce words and stumble over words, so apologies for that. I wish anyone reading this a Happy Christmas and all the best for 2024.

This is the first episode of Season 7. I spent a couple of weeks at Winchester Crown Court watching a few cases. There was a murder trial in Court 1, a stabbing on the Isle of Wight, there were a few Organised Crime Gangs ranging from drug smuggling to human trafficking. I found it difficult to accept the description OCG, especially when applied to a 'dodgy' roofer who worked with some other cowboy builders cheating vulnerable house owners. An Albanian gang snatching items from elderly people in deserted car parks. There were of course the usual historic sex cases and County Lines cases. Court 4 had a home grown terrorist downloaded and sharing illegal content. The podcast ends rather abruptly and I did not thank the people at Winchester Crown court, or Damselfly for the background music, or those that downloaded and listened. I have some rather quirky episodes planned, some shorter podcasts than normal that may not be to everyone's tastes. I aim to post the normal paranormal episode for Christmas.

This podcast has a dog snoring throughout, some cats make an appearance but dont seem to have any audio affects. The window is open so warning there may be some crow or frog noise. Anyhow, I remember the story being told during a Christmas with elderly relatives in the 1960s in the city where the murder was committed. The most cogent memory in the 1960s is distant relatives giving my sisters and I stocking shaped presents with mars bars, milky ways and similar offerings which did not really connect with children, they were such boring presents, but they must have seemed such treats to elderly relatives who would have had to make do with an orange and a couple of Brazil nuts at Christmas, or so we were told . What I remember most is sitting in uncomfortable chairs in yellow light lightbulbs having to talk with very old people who were my elderly relatives. This the atmosphere when I heard about the Messiter case. A case I was totally uninterested in at the time but now have made into a podcast and probably am better informed than my elderly relatives at the time. It isn't really much of a murder either.

Hello Anybody reading this. This podcast is regarding some stories as reported in the Society of Physical Research (SPR) records for 1923. The SPR tended not to report on ghost type stories at this time which were considered old fashioned. World War 1 had ended in 1918 and this resulted in many unexplained stories. Here are a few as recorded in Proceedings and the Journal of the SPR in 1923. I would like to say that I am aware that there have been issues regarding sound quality of these podcasts and I am working on solutions for the start of Series 7 starting in early December 2023. Meanwhile, I intend to post one podcast on 15 November 2023 to end Series 6. In Series 7, I will finish the series on the Kray crime gang. I will not focus on the twins but on those characters in their gang. I also want to focus on cryptozoology and other strange stories and of course obscure true crime.

Please don't get too excited by the title of this podcast. By definition, Burkitt was a serial killer whose killing area was Hull, but I think that the nickname 'The King of the Serial Killers' that was given to him by fellow prisoners was perhaps ironic as Burkitt was a rather pathetic human being. I had never heard of this story before but I think it is of some interest as Burkitt managed to avoid the hangman on three occasions when most people would have thought that he had committed murder on three separate occasions. Please be advised that this podcast is recorded in one take without editing.

Episode 165: Reg Calvert was a family man who got involved in the pop music scene in the early 1960s and through chance became involved with Pirate radio. He was a person that made things happen and was on the look out for new projects. He was well liked although he was said to have a temper when he was let down. I think there was a miscarriage of justice regarding this case. An unarmed Reg Calvert was shot with a shotgun by Oliver Smedley who had tried to steal his radio Station from him. The police proved useless, it was their advice that sent Calvert to discuss matters with Smedley as they could not be bothered to get involved themselves. This advice caused Reg’s death when he shot Calvert with no good reason. It seems clear that Smedley who was a decorated war hero and was probably a psychopath was protected by establishment figures. Although I am guessing here, I would imagine he was a freemason. Smedley was given virtually a free pass for murder. Pirate radio was something of a ‘free for all’ Radio London broadcast from a ship about 6 kms off Frinton on Sea managed to steer clear of dubious activities. However most of the others did things that would be questioned if not illegal. The Government at the time were reluctant to act. I was going to include some audio clips of Pirate radio and this speaking about what happened regarding Reg's death. I decided against this as it would be better to visit the Offshore Radio museum website and the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame websites that are great sites with so much information. There are other sites as Pirate radio was very popular for the early Boomer generation. There is so much information about Pirate radio online. Just a word of warning, this podcast is made in one take by someone who does not enjoy being a narrator and makes little sense at times, for example I find it difficult to say 'Fort', There is no editing. There may be some chicken interference.