The Clapham Wood Mystery is the name given to a collection of unusual events which are associated with Clapham Wood, West Sussex, England.

This area is known for the disappearances of several family pets, including a case where a dog went missing but later reappeared. The dog suffered from an unknown, untraceable disease and had to be put down.

This area is also associated with the deaths of four people.

The first such case was that of Police Constable Peter Goldsmith in 1972. Goldsmith, 46, was a former Royal Marine Commando and an experienced rambler who was in excellent physical condition. He was last seen in June that year, walking across the Downs and carrying a large holdall. His body was found six months later, hidden in a patch of thick bramble.

In August 1975, pensioner Leon Foster was found in the woods, by a couple searching for a lost horse, three weeks after his wife had reported him missing.

And then the Reverend Harry Neil Snelling – the retired vicar of Clapham Parish – disappeared on All Hallow’s Eve in 1978 while returning home across the Downs from a dental appointment in Goring; his body was eventually found three years later by a Canadian tourist, who only informed the police of his discovery after he had left the country.

The murdered woman was Miss Jillian Matthews – a 37-year-old divorcee and a homeless schizophrenic, who went missing in September 1981. Her body was discovered six weeks later in a state of partial undress, having been raped and strangled. No one was ever charged with her murder.

The only explanation provided for these mysterious deaths and disappearances:

In their 1987 book The Demonic Connection Toyne Newton, Charles Walker and Alan Brown claimed that Clapham Wood had been used by a cult called the Friends of Hecate (FoH).

There is no further explanation of the mysterious murders.

A Modern Banshee: Multiple Ghost Sightings Precede a Brutal Murder

In folklore the banshee is a female fairy spirit that wails to warn of an approaching death.  We all assume the banshee is simply folklore.  Yet maybe behind folklore there is truth just interpreted differently.

Lara is a widow.  Her husband died around two years ago.  She’s reported an unnerving incident. 

She was asleep, lying in the same bed where she had slept with her deceased husband.  Lara said she still tends to still sleep on her side of the bed even now.

It was early morning when she was awakened by pressure on her husband’s side of the mattress.  It was identical to the movement she experienced when her husband laid down or moved around beside her.  The bed creaked, the mattress moved.  Startled she turned and saw her husband in their bed.  And then he was gone.

Lara got out of bed, not comprehending what just happened.  She decided to call her daughter who would be getting ready to go to work at this early hour.  She immediately called her daughter and told her what she had just experienced only minutes ago.

Her daughter said she had her own visitation from dad only a couple of nights earlier ago.  She saw him, briefly, in her apartment.

Here we have multiple ghost/spirit sightings or ADC (After Death Communication) days apart of the same individual to members of the family.  That is remarkable.

Less than a week after Lara’s encounter with her husband’s spirit she received some shocking awful news.  Her nephew (who was in his early 40s) was beaten to death in his apartment.  It was a brutal murder.  Some thugs entered his apartment and simply beat him until he died.  Why?  Nobody really knows yet.  The police have an active investigation going.  They are confident they will bring the killers to justice.  We hope.

This nephew was her favorite, who she always thought of as like a son to her.  She and all her extended family were obviously in shock. 

Perhaps Lara’s deceased husband visited Lara and her daughter shortly before this hideous event not to prevent it, or to even warn them.  But to comfort them and let them know there is a life after death, and the nephew would be okay. The role of the banshee may not be so much to warn of ruin, but to let the living know death is not the final word.

Mummy facts post 3:

Rosalia Lombardo. The blinking dead.

Born in 1918 in Palermo, Sicily. Died December 20th, 1920 of Pneumonia. 

Rosalia’s grief stricken father was so distressed by her death that he approached Doctor Alfredo Salafia, a noted embalmer and taxidermist, to mummify her body. For years we marveled over her embalming fluid, but as of recent we’ve found the mixture to be of formalin, zinc salts, alcohol, salicylic acid, and glycerin.

One of the last corpses to be admitted to the Capuchin catacombs of Palermo, and one of the most known. Nicknamed sleeping beauty for her lifelike state, it appears she’s caught a case of insomnia.

The Hands Resist Him - Urban Legends - In February, 2000 this painting appeared in an auction on eBay. The painting, titled ‘The Hands Resist Him’, quickly earned a reputation as tens of thousands of people viewed the item, and more than a few made bids. The reason for the attention was that the seller made the claim that the painting was haunted. The family added their story, starting from their discovery of the painting, abandoned at an old brewery, to the events and the investigation they carried out in order to try to prove their claims. Before we get into all of that we will take a step back, and start from the beginning… back to when the artist applied the brush strokes that would soon grab worldwide attention through the internet… and, to keep you interested, here is the disclaimer that was added to the auction: “WARNING: Do not bid on this painting if you are susceptible to stress-related disease, [or if you are] faint of heart or are unfamiliar with supernatural events. By bidding on this painting, you agree to release the owners of all liability in relation to the sale, or any events happening after the sale, that might be contributed to this painting. This painting may or may not possess supernatural powers that could impact or change your life. However, by bidding you agree to exclusively bid on the value of the artwork, with disregard to the last two photos featured in this auction, and hold the owners harmless in regard to them and their impact, expressed or implied.” In 1972 Bill Stoneham, an artist from Oakland, California used an old photo of himself from the age of five, to be the model for the boy in the painting. The boy is either looking to the future, or the viewer is looking back into their past. The hands seen in the windows are other potential routes and possibilities his life path may have taken, or other potential lives that may have been, but he does not see them, his back is turned. The little girl doll is his guide through life, though she is holding a piece of herself, a battery and some wires. What to her would have been the power of autonomy is removed, yet she still stands… a first step towards her own life? Finally, the glass door is a veil between waking and dreaming, and perhaps between life and death. Stoneham displayed the piece at an art show he put on in Los Angeles in the early 70’s. The painting eventually sold to actor John Marley, who played Jack Woltz in ‘the Godfather’ (the character who awakens to find the severed head of his prized horse in bed with him.) Before the painting was sold, it was reviewed by an art critic who died within the year, as did the owner of the art gallery. No doubt a coincidence, but Stoneham does speculate this may be the beginning of some sort of curse… John Marley died in 1984 after open heart surgery. He was interred at Cedar Park Cemetery in Emerson, New Jersey, and no doubt the painting went into someone else’s possession. From that point on, the journey of the painting was a mystery, until it turned up when a family found it, abandoned, behind an old brewery. Without thinking twice, the family took the painting home, but soon wished they had not. The painting had only been in the house for a few days when the young daughter started to complain about it. She told how the ‘children’ in the painting would fight; the girl (aka the doll) would threaten the boy with the object she was holding in her hand. Finally, after a good period of time, the girl started talking about how the figures would leave the painting as ‘ghosts’ and continue their fighting. The parents decided to try to persuade their daughter that the painting was just a painting, and in order to do that they set up a motion activated camera to watch the painting for them. For three days and nights they let the camera keep its vigilant lens on the painting, and after that period of time they went to view any of the footage it may have captured. Remember, this is a motion activated camera, so if it found no movement there would be nothing recorded. However, to the shock of the family, the camera had indeed recorded several pieces of footage. What the camera seemed to capture was the painting almost taking on a life of its own… although the figures did not seem to be moving, the colours changed and the object in the girls hand took on the resemblance of a gun or other weapon, and not the battery she had been carrying before. The object in her hand may have seemed to have changed due to different lighting conditions being present in the dark, but the family insists that something was remiss with the painting. They wanted to get rid of it, but rather then burning it or destroying it in any other way; they decided to let the public decide. The put it up as an auction on eBay, and the buyer could do with it as they wanted. The opening bid started at $199, but at the end of the auction the painting had sold to the ‘Perception Gallery’ in Grand Rapids, Michigan for $1025. The gallery got in contact with Bill Stoneham, the artist, and the back story you read at the beginning of this article came to light. Bill was not expecting all the fuss over his painting, but was not entirely surprised. There had been the deaths at the original art show, and the fact he put a lot of himself into the painting. He says his paintings resonate strongly with lots of people by opening an inner door, or even channelling through his art. If that is the case maybe something has been caught in his strokes? All throughout the auction on eBay, and subsequently its placement in its new home at the Perception Gallery, the painting still affects those who view it. People feel ill and a few have fainted. Children seem to be the most affected, having vivid nightmares the night after seeing it, and waking up screaming. Haunted, cursed or all in peoples heads, it does not really matter. Something strange seems to befall many of the people who have set their eyes on this art, and that in itself makes for a great story. (Since the popularity of the painting Bill Stoneham has had two sequel to the paintings commissioned ‘Resistance at the Threshold’ depicts the boy aged another 40 years and ‘Threshold of Revelation’ shows the boy aged 70+ years and the doll now a little girl. View them here: http://stonehamstudios.com/hands-series.html) Ashley Hall 2013. Photo: The Hands Resist Him by Bill Stoneham Inset: Close ups of the boys face, the hands and the girl/dolls face.

Urban Legends: Jessica Jung as 口裂け女, “Slit-Mouthed Woman”. 

This Japanese urban legend tells of a woman whose face was brutally mutilated by her husband. According to the legend, children walking alone at night may encounter a woman wearing a surgical mask. The woman will stop the child and ask, “Am I beautiful?” If the child answers no, the child is killed with a pair of scissors which the woman carries. If the child answers yes, the woman pulls away the mask, revealing that her mouth is split from ear to ear, and asks “How about now?”. If the child answers no, he/she will be cut in half. If the child answers yes, then she will slit his/her mouth like hers. It is impossible to run away from her, as she will simply reappear in front of the victim.