For old times sake. Somewhat relevant.
Forums › General Discussion › For old times sake. Somewhat relevant.-
This is a true account, and a toast from me to a player I respect. Enjoy.
WHO PUT BELLA IN THE WITCH ELM is a graffito that started appearing soon after a 1941 unsolved murder. The graffiti was last sprayed onto the side of a 200 year-old obelisk on 18 August 1999, in white paint. The obelisk known as Wychbury Obelisk is on Wychbury Hill, Hagley near Stourbridge, in Worcestershire, England.
On 18 April, 1943, four boys (Robert Hart, Thomas Willetts, Bob Farmer and Fred Payne) from Stourbridge were poaching in Hagley Woods near to Wychbury Hill when they came across a large Wych Hazel, a tree often confused by local residents with a Wych Elm. Hagley Wood is part of the Hagley Hall estate belonging to Lord Cobham. -
Believing this a good place to hunt birds' nests, Farmer attempted to climb the tree to investigate. As he was climbing, he glanced down into the hollow trunk and discovered a skull, believing it to be that of an animal. However, after seeing human hair and teeth, he realized that he was holding a human skull. As they were on the land illegally, Farmer put the skull back and all four boys returned home without mentioning their discovery to anybody.
On returning home the youngest of the boys, Tommy Willetts, felt uneasy about what he had witnessed and decided to report the find to his parents. When police checked the trunk of the tree they found an almost complete human skeleton, a shoe, a gold wedding ring, and some fragments of clothing. After further investigation, a severed hand was found buried in the ground near to the tree.
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The body was sent for forensic examination by Prof. James Webster. He quickly established that the skeleton was female and had been dead for at least 18 months, placing her time of death around October 1941. He found taffeta in her mouth, suggesting that she had died from asphyxiation. From the measurement of the trunk he also deduced that she must have been placed there "still warm" after the killing as she could not have fit once rigor mortis had taken hold.
Since the woman's killing was in the midst of World War II, identification was seriously hampered. Police could tell from items found with the body what the woman had looked like but with so many people being reported missing during the war, and people regularly moving, the records were too vast for a proper identification to take place. The current location of her skeleton is unknown.
In 1944 the first graffiti message related to the mystery appeared on a wall in Upper Dean Street, Birmingham, reading Who put Bella down the Wych Elm - Hagley Wood. -
Your guess is as good as mine.
Moving on... Anyone want to hear about my favorite mysterious death?
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Actually ill do that story some other time. Im a tad sleepy.
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Good to see you again greenman.
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💚Ⴚгɘɘɲʍɑɳ💚 wrote:
Yay! I love these stories. Cant wait to hear the next one.Actually ill do that story some other time. Im a tad sleepy.
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Weird, ay. Good spot to hide a body though, lol who'd ever think of looking in a tree 🌳👀
Good stuff Green! Keep it up brother 👍
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Okay I got a second wind. My favorite murder mystery. Well maybe murder...
On December 1, 1948, a man’s body was found on a beach in Australia. He carried no identification. He was dressed in a suit with all the labels deliberately cut off, suggesting that someone was trying to obfuscate his identity. Early attempts to determine who he was were unsuccessful, as dental records resulted in no matches, and his personal items — cigarettes, a pack of Juicy Fruit, and some change — were otherwise not unique to him. Not knowing who the man was, how he got to the beach, or how he died, officials turned to an autopsy. The results were consistent with poisoning, as examiners found congestion throughout the brain and body, blood in the man’s stomach and liver, an extremely enlarged spleen, etc. Clear cut poisoning — except that no poisons were found in the man’s system.
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The police managed to come up with a few possible identities, each eventually proven wrong. (At one point, police determined that the body was that of one E.C. Johnson — only to have the real Mr. Johnson walk into the police station a few days later.) By mid-January of 1949, the case had gone cold. But then, officials hit pay dirt. A suitcase, checked into a nearby train station the night the mystery man died, turned up. Again, all labels were removed — except for a few which ascribed ownership to a “T. Kean[e],” spelled in various ways (e.g. “Kean” or “T. Keane”). A sailor by the name of Thomas Keane had recently gone missing, but those who knew him stated that the body could not be his. Again the trail had gone cold.
And then — then! — things got weird.
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In the summer of 1949, inspectors found a concealed pocket inside the man’s trousers. In the pocket was a piece of paper, which read “Tamam Shud,” which means “ending” in Persian. (The actual phrase is “Taman Shud,” but in transliteration, the “n” became a second “m.”) Officials from the public library identified the paper as coming from a version of a collection of poetry called The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. After circulating copies of the piece of paper (and the name of the book it came from) in the press, the police gained what they hoped would be a key clue: the book from which the paper came. The relevant copy of The Rubaiyat was in the back seat of an unlocked car the night before the mystery man’s death. On the back was a cipher, pictured above. In the front was a phone number.
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The phone number belonged to a former nurse who, being recently married and now the mother of a toddler, requested that she be spared the embarrassment of being associated with a murder, and that her name not be disclosed. Incredibly, the police agreed. She claimed that, four years earlier, she gave the book to a man named Albert Boxall. Police, convinced that the mystery man was Boxall, were thrown for another loop in the weeks upcoming. Not only did the police find the real Mr. Boxall, alive and well, but he provided them with the copy of The Rubaiyat give to him by the unnamed nurse — with the phrase “Tamam Shud” still intact.
To date, the identity of the mystery man remains unknown, as does the meaning, if any, of the cipher. Even the cause of death is not certain. Researchers are still enamored with the case and there are current attempts to crack it. New research has determined one thing to be almost certainly true: the mystery man was the father of the unnamed nurse’s (illegitimate) son.
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I've got a mystery for you! A man was found hanging from a rope in a totally sealed room with no furniture or steps of any kind. The only thing in the room was a small water stain on the ground. How did the man hang himself?
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That's an ice cold mystery bro.
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Sabasaul wrote:
😳WowThat's an ice cold mystery bro.
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Great stories, Green.
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Hell yes! Looked forward to these on TW every few weeks and then they stopped happening. Good to see you're back green.
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Psych wrote:
Probably the oldest one in the bookI've got a mystery for you! A man was found hanging from a rope in a totally sealed room with no furniture or steps of any kind. The only thing in the room was a small water stain on the ground. How did the man hang himself?
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