Murder Mystery : "Who put Bella in the Witch Elm"

 Crimes.It reminds us of how dark the world really is.Some people find true crime stories to be disturbing(no hate). I, on the other hand like those stories. 

So, today I would like to share a true crime story that I know. It is popularly known as "Who put Bella in the Wych Elm"

This incident took place at the background of England during 1943, During World War II.

On one fateful evening, in the month of April, right when the sun was setting, Four teenage boys were roaming in the Hagley woods, near Wychbury hills.

They were looking for rabbits or something like that which would feed their families and also take their mind of the German bombing raids.

They spotted at weird looking tree named "The witch elm" due to it's weird shape. One of the boys named Bob Farmer, decided to climb that tree.

As he sat up on the tree and looked down in the hollow of the tree he noticed something being inside it. As he grew curiouser and curiouser, he plunged his arm inside the hollow. To his utter Disbelieve he found a skull. Like a real skull.

At first, he and his friends thought it was of an animal or something, but apparently they saw something stuck to the skull which resembled human hair. (I wonder how they knew it was human hair! I must be really dumb)

So, they dropped the skull, like any normal human would , and ran back home. At first they decided that they will not tell about this to anyone ever. 

But later they confessed it to it their parents.Keeping the skull a secret was getting hard for them, understandably.

Their parents informed the local police, like any normal parents would.

The police went to the tree and investigated the area and the tree properly.

The police found a woman's skeleton inside that hollow. A entire freaking skeleton!

A cheap gold imitation ring was found on her left hand, indicating that she was married. The police also found cheap clothes and a crepe soled shoe of size five and a half.

Disturbingly, the right hand of the dead women was completely sawed of and a few other bones of the skeleton were scattered.

The body or the whatever remained of the body of the poor woman was taken under for medical examination.

The medical examiner, Professor James Webster said that, the found woman was around 35 years old, with irregular teeth on the upper jaw, lightbrown hair and around 5 feet tall. She gave birth once in her life. She had been dead for about 18 months or more at the time of discovery.

He also said, it was impossible for the woman to have slipped in the hollow of the tree or to have crawled in the hollow of the tree. Someone put her there. Professor Webster also mentioned that the body was put there before rigor mortis set in.Rigor mortis is the phenomena when the body starts becoming stiff after death. He concluded that she must have been killed near the tree, for the killer set the body there "warm".

There was a piece of taffeta fabric found stuffed inside the mouth of the skull.

The police tried to identify the body. They tried to trace the shoe to it's manufacturer but the trail died cold with them tracing it to a small shop in Dudley.

There was practically no information to be found so the case was deemed a cold case.

Then in the year 1943, a weird message was seen chalked on a house near Old Mill. The message read "Who put Lubella in the Wych Elm?"

For the first time, the police had a name to work with. Lubella. Who was Lubella?

The police did not find huge leads on this but over the months more graffiti es started showing up.

Those read "WHO PUT BELLA IN THE WITCH ELM?" 

The change in name was something the police couldn't understand. 

The police came to the decision that the artist behind the graffitis knew something about "Bella".

They tried to trace down the artist but failed.

New messages started popping up around in the late 1940s again.

Each message reading the same "Who put Bella in witch elm?"

No one could figure out who "Bella" was.

The theories regarding the death of murder of "Bella" range from crazy to ballistic.

The 'fan' favorite theory is "Bella" as an victim of black magic.

According to anthropologist Professor Margaret Murray, the death of "Bella" might be an activity of Black Magic.

The severed hand suggested an occult practice called "Hand of Glory".

The scattered bones, the stuffed taffeta also suggested an involvement of occult practices.

The fact that she was "entombed" in a tree also suggested a type of "ritualistic" slaying. 

A herb commonly known as 'Witch's hazel" which is commonly used in the practice of witchcraft was found in Hagley woods.

The theory states that, "Bella" probably pissed over a coven of witches and the witches killed her in a "witchy" manner as a punishment. Ironically, the tree she was entombed in was also called "Witch elm". 

The next popular theory is that "Bella" was a spy.

I know. The jump between the two theories is a bit much......to say the least.

This theory starts with the discovery of an woman named "Anna". She allegedly wrote an letter to a few newspaper houses claiming that she had information about "Bella". 

She was later interviewed and she revealed that "Bella" was a part of a German spy circle and she was supposed to find the location of the local munition factories.

"Anna" later was identified by as Unna Mossop. Her husband was allegedly an RAF pilot and he witnessed the murder of "Bella". 

She stated that her husband and another spy named Van Rault went drinking to a pub and "Bella" got drunk and passed out. The two men then put her inside the tree, just to teach her lesson. When she woke up in the tree, she was unable to get out and died there. But this theory has a plot-holes according to me, I mean who cut her hand? who stuffed taffeta in her mouth? Who scattered her bones?

Then in later years, in some classified MI5 files, a spy named Josef Jacob, who was caught, had a picture of a German actress named Clara Baurele. She looked a lot like "Bella" and she was allegedly also a German spy.  It could be possible that Clara was actually "Bella".

But this theory was later debunked since Clara was taller than "Bella".

This case remains unsolved till date and many facts and information have been perished by time. 

This intriguing case might probably never get solved. Maybe the fact that this case is unsolved makes it more intriguing.

Thank you all for reading!

ALCHEMISTS AND HOMUNCULI

Chemistry it is one of the basic sciences but have you ever wondered how it came into existence? What was the reason for distinguishing so many elements?

 

Well some of us don’t know the story (I guess) BUT CHEMISTY CAME FROM ALCHEMY.

In the years when anything in which god was not concerned was a considered a taboo, a group of men got curious about the most precious metal of that age: GOLD.

 

These people were adamant on creating gold using the cheap and known metals (like tin, lead and bronze) available during that age. In the rigorous experimentation they started discovering a lot of new elements but failed in creating gold. If the gold craze could have been confined in that generation only then may be, we wouldn’t have to study so many elements in periodic table. But it didn’t happen this group of men shared their knowledge with their disciplines, thus increasing gold fandom. So the alchemists started prospering and growing over the eras until it came to a breaking point. It was then that some alchemists realized that gold is a noble metal and cannot be created. This section of alchemists moved away from the aim to create gold and started experimenting with the discovered elements to create new compounds .Thus began our very well known branch of chemistry.

It’s shocking to believe that the modern alchemists i.e. chemists are successful in creating gold in laboratory; it is a radioactive isotope of gold which can only last for few seconds. (but give them some credit, they succeeded right at last).

 

It is not known if the earlier alchemists were successful in creating gold but most of their journals claim that they created a living humanoid creature in a bottle: HOMUNCULI.

 

Unbelievable but true, if the fact was just written in journals then it wouldn’t be so hard to eliminate as rubbish but unfortunately ten of these humanoid creatures were exhibited at the court of King Louis XIV of France (the case is documented in Dr Emil Besetzny’s book “Sphinx”). The humanoids were created by Count Johann Ferdinand von Kufstein and Abbe Geloni.

Like all homunculi these ten were also grown in sealed jars with manure and water but due to some special solution they were taller than average homunculi. They were about a foot tall.

According to alchemists the culture medium of an homunculi consisted of albumin, sputum, semen, human blood( that in the primitive society was related with vital essence of life) and of course the mysterious element whose formula only alchemists knew ‘arcanum of blood’. Another element that some journals claim is ‘animal tincture’.

Out of the ten recorded homunculus eight were physical manikins while the remaining two were non corporal and all of them looked different from one another. The eight homunculi were given identities like king , queen , knight , monk, nun, seraph, miner and architect.( funny right)

It is so said that homunculi could not live outside their jars , once the king homunculus got out of his own jar and was desperately trying to open the jar of the queen but he soon fainted due to the exposure to air , luckily Count Kufstein noticed him and put him back in his own jar.

Now the question lies isn’t there any scientific explanations about this absurd humanoid creature?

Well there is one an amphibian the African clawed toad that looked vaguely humanoid, could have been brought by travelers and represented as homunculi.

But according to the documentation all the ten homunculi could answer questions concerning the future that came out to be true later. Now toad can’t speak right!

       So what are homunculi actually , are they just myths, caged animals in bottles or actually something more . You see semen contains sperms , what if alchemists with their vast knowledge and uncanny ways were able to create something very similar to a miniature version of test tube babies in a bottle .

 

                                                - blue rose belles

                                                      (Archie )

Vault B

India was once one of  the worlds richest country in terms of both wealth and agriculture .  The Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple is a proof of the theory. How ? well the recent exploration in 2011 of the temple's vault A unearthed treasure worth billions of dollars . Yes, just one vault out of six had that much treasure . Then can you guess how much the other vaults had. Out of six ,four vaults were opened time to time The two remaining vaults were vaults A and vault B . In 2011 a team was assigned to open both the vaults but they were only able to open one i.e vault A where they found a hidden chamber full of treasures from gold to diamond ,jewelleries to statues embedded with precious stones. So what happened to vault B?  

Well the mystery revolves around the particular vault. As the legend goes the vault cannot be opened by ordinary people it can only be opened by high order priests who know the secret incantation , it does not stop here but goes to the extent that if any human tries to open the vault forcefully , disaster would occur. 

The special team of seven opened the iron door to vault B then were greeted by a wooden door which also they opened with effort but the gates didn't there end they were greeted with a metal door which nomatter how much they tried couldn't be opened. They decided to hire a locksmith to open the gates later so they left vault B and went to vault A . After a few days when the team found a locksmith and wanted to investigate the unopened vault . The petitioner who gave the permission to investigate the hidden vaults died suddenly , thus adding fuel to the fire that the vault holds a powerful curse.

But the legend is not half as fascinating as the door to the vault itself.

The door is supposed to be protected by cobra snakes , then is it only me , why am I seeing a version of Chinese dragons rather than snakes on the door . Then there is a head of the demon and it is not dead but freakingly alive as if smiling maliciously at us, as if knows something we don't. As if he can read our minds and know exactly what we are going to do , are we going to open the gates or flee away. 

To add more to creepiness to the already existing creepy door there are human figurine hanging at the boundary of the door as if in despair , crying with pain , calling for help but are being crushed by the snakes.

But more interestingly what is fleur-de-lis doing here?. The lily symbol that represents  French royal blood , moreover the symbol that is said to be given to Merovingian bloodline. If the temple is created during 8th century there how did the fluer-de-lis  end up here. There is a talk that the fluer-de-lis was evolved from Poseidon's trident . Okay , so maybe it was a modified version of trident or a lotus but how come it was incorporated in a secret vault door in a temple in India. The symbol which is connected to Knights Templar in more than one ways what is it doing in India. Does the gates hold the cursed treasure of Templars. If so then how ?  then why would the door require  Vaishnava holy incantation to open up?

Now comes the twist in the story it is said that the vault door was opened once in1930s and found to be infested with cobras . It was like a den of deathly cobras . The people closed the door and ran away from after seeing the site. But some sources say those people never came out of the temple. You see food is required for any living creature so either the cobras were feed by someone or there is another way to the secret vault , a way that is hidden or long forgotten

But the doors can't opened now because the holy incantation that was supposed to open the door magically is long forgotten and the supreme court has ordered not to open the doors forcefully.

Now coming to the fact that civilization then was more advanced than us , they could make unbelievable sophisticated and tricky things using simple tools. Then couldn't it be possible that the incantation is actually a password and not a holy chanting. Only the people who had the password could open the gates.

But the question still lies what is so important that it needs to be guarded behind such high security door ?

There are treasures in other vaults also then why only vault B has this high security features and why in the world is the door designed like that? Why make a monstrous scary door in the temple of God.

Is it a test for humans like the pandora's box or there is actually something that is worth protecting , that is obviously more precious than jewels or gold. Is the doors protecting a secret , a secret so dangerous that it can rip the world in half . 

Well no-one can be sure until the doors are open but do we want to open the door after knowing just how much security measures have been taken to protect whatever is behind the door.

                                    - blue rose belles

                                            (  Archie)

Telepathy

Most of us know about Telepathy but for those who don't. 

It is a kind of communication between two people using directly their minds to send messages to each other rather than expressing it via talking , writing or using sign language .

Some of you believe it exists ,some don't while majority is at confusion.

So the question is does this unnatural thing even exist or it is just fictional ?

Have you ever experienced something like , you ever thinking about someone and then that someone calls or a random song was playing in your mind and then the person next to you just starts singing the same song.

Coincidence

That's what most off us will eliminate these everyday events as.

It's when this coincidences happen too often that someone starts suspecting something is weird.

Well you see we only use a very small part of our brains about one tenth , some geniuses could use a little more than it like Albert Einstein but not too much.

Unbelievable right , your brain does so much from morning to night continuously ,so many thoughts ,so many emotions , so much memorising and yet the amount of brain we can is just one tenth then what happens with the rest of part.

Can anyone answer?

No telepathy is not the answer.

Nobody actually knows what happens with the rest of brain but as far as theories go it can create wonders and destructions alike.

You see when even we don't know the extent of our mind how can we just state that things like telepathy, mind control , telekinesis ,foresight is absurd.

There are some real stories that explains that our brains can perform certain things that is even beyond our wildest imagination.

Why do people say that think positive and be with positive people.

It is proved that if we in proximity with positive thinkers we have optimistic approach to most things and can achieve success while with negative people we are pulled into a state of depression and self doubt .

Most researchers claim it to be something very similar to telepathy , being surrounded by positive people somehow influence our brain to think positive . It's not a one day task rather a long period is required but still if our brains can influence or be influenced by others' minds near us then how can telepathy and mind control be absurd phenomenas.

Maybe there is some kind of interaction between two brain waves that is the cause of this absurd events , maybe it is when two brain waves interact constructively or resonate together that these phenomenas occur . You see when people think about same thing their brain forms the same pattern. The same type of waves are formed and this is seen with the help of computer imaging so it could be possible right that same type of waves when interact, people can communicate with each other without even knowing they just send a random message to someone. Right!

If we actually could know how to use telepathy then life would be so easier right

Imagine you need to convey a secret information to someone on the opposite side of room , normally we would walk to that person then maybe whisper it in his ears,  now if you had telepathy then you don't even have to get up from your seat , all you have to do is call that person in mind and tell them whatever you want to tell.

But unfortunately telepathy is so rare a event that it's existence is even questionable in modern day.

Now it depends on us if we want to put away weird everyday events as mere coincidences or if we want to think about it.

                  

                            - blue rose belles

                                  ( Archie)