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The BIZARRE case of The Hammersmith Ghost · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: good old fashioned ghost story. But before we get into
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Speaker 1: today's story. On the night of January third, eighteen oh four,
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Speaker 1: a twenty two year old man named Thomas Millwood sat
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Speaker 1: inside of a local pub in Hammersmith, England, feeling totally annoyed. Now, normally,
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Speaker 1: Thomas was a very upbeat and social person. He worked
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Speaker 1: as a bricklayer and basically every day after work he
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Speaker 1: would meet up with his friends at this pub. They
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Speaker 1: would have some drinks and share stories and laugh. It
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Speaker 1: would be a great time. But tonight it was like
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Speaker 1: everything annoyed Thomas, especially his friends. And as his friends
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Speaker 1: droned on and on about the current drama going on
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Speaker 1: in their town, Thomas finally had just had enough, and
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Speaker 1: before he could stop himself, he stood up and slammed
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Speaker 1: his beer mug down on the table. And right away
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Speaker 1: Thomas knew he had overdone it because immediately the pub
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Speaker 1: went deadly silent. His friends all stopped, everybody's looking over
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Speaker 1: at Thomas, and Thomas kind of muttered an apology and
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Speaker 1: then quickly grabbed his coat. He stood up and just
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Speaker 1: began walking like he was going to leave the pub,
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Speaker 1: and the pub again is totally silent as he's walking,
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Speaker 1: and then Right as he's about to go out the door,
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Speaker 1: his friends broke the tense silence in the pub and
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Speaker 1: they called out to him and said, hey, be careful
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Speaker 1: out there, and Thomas just looked at his friends and
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Speaker 1: kind of rolled his eyes and said, yeah, okay, and
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Speaker 1: then he went outside. Thomas decided he would walk to
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Speaker 1: his parents' house, which was not far away, and he
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Speaker 1: would just sip by the fire and warm up for
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Speaker 1: a bit before he had to go back out later
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Speaker 1: that night to meet up with his wife. His wife
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Speaker 1: worked long hours and she often worked late, and when
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Speaker 1: she worked late, Thomas would meet her at work and
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Speaker 1: escort her back home. And that's what he was doing tonight,
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Speaker 1: And so Thomas began walking down Black Lion Lane, and
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Speaker 1: per usual, Thomas was basically one of the only people outside.
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Speaker 1: Hammersmith used to be this very friend and bustling place.
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Speaker 1: It was home to forty five thousand people. It was
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Speaker 1: located right on the outskirts of London, and lots of
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Speaker 1: rich people liked to go there to vacation. But recently
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Speaker 1: there had been a string of all these increasingly bizarre
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Speaker 1: sightings or attacks as people were calling them, in Hammersmith,
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Speaker 1: and it had all the residents completely on edge, to
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Speaker 1: the point where people were not going outside. Now, Thomas
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Speaker 1: thought it was totally ridiculous and thought people were completely overreacting,
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Speaker 1: and so he had been doing his best to ignore
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Speaker 1: the drama going on in town, but it was getting
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Speaker 1: harder and harder to do that. As Thomas rounded a corner,
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Speaker 1: he nearly walked into two men that were walking the
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Speaker 1: other direction, and when Thomas looked up to say he
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Speaker 1: was sorry, one of the men screamed, get back, and
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Speaker 1: he was holding a club in his hand, and the
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Speaker 1: other guy had a pistol in his waist and he
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Speaker 1: had his hand on the pistol grip. Thomas instinctively threw
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Speaker 1: his hands up to show he was not a threat,
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Speaker 1: at which point the man lowered his club and the
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Speaker 1: other guy took his hand off his pistol, and one
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Speaker 1: of them said to Thomas, hey, it's dangerous to be
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Speaker 1: out here alone. You should not be out here by yourself,
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Speaker 1: and then before Thomas could say anything to them, they
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Speaker 1: quickly walked past him and disappeared around the corner. By now,
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Speaker 1: Thomas was only a few houses away from his parents' house,
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Speaker 1: and so he just kind of brushed off the incident
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Speaker 1: and sped walked his way to his parents' house, kind
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Speaker 1: of cursing the two men under his breath for their
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Speaker 1: ridiculous warning about how dangerous it was out here. A
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Speaker 1: minute later, Thomas arrived at his parents' house and he
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Speaker 1: walked up to the door, and normally his parents would
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Speaker 1: keep the door unlocked, but when he tried it, it
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Speaker 1: was locked. And then a second later he heard his
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Speaker 1: sister Anne inside the house coming to the door, and
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Speaker 1: she called out through the door, who's there? And Thomas
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Speaker 1: is like, it's me. But apparently that was not enough,
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Speaker 1: and Anne called through the door, well, I don't know
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Speaker 1: if it's really you, so back up so I can
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Speaker 1: see you through the people. Thomas rolled his eyes, but
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Speaker 1: he did with his sister asked. He stepped back and
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Speaker 1: allowed her to see his whole person through the people,
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Speaker 1: at which point he heard Anne fumbling with the lock.
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Speaker 1: The door was unlocked. She opened it up. Thomas stepped inside,
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Speaker 1: and his sister immediately shut and locked the door behind him,
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Speaker 1: and her first question to Thomas was, well, did you
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Speaker 1: see it? Thomas immediately wished he had not come to
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Speaker 1: his parents' house to avoid talking about the stupid topic.
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Speaker 1: But he realized that if he had gone back to
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Speaker 1: his house, he likely would have gotten the same question
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Speaker 1: from his mother in law, who lived with him and
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Speaker 1: his wife, because actually it didn't really seem to matter
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Speaker 1: where you went in Hammersmith or who you talked to,
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Speaker 1: because the conversation was always going to be the same.
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Speaker 1: It was going to be about these attacks because the
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Speaker 1: people of Hammersmith were absolutely convinced these attacks were being
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Speaker 1: committed by a ghost. It all started about two months
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Speaker 1: earlier when somebody spotted this mysterious figure lurking in the
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Speaker 1: church cemetery, and Thomas thought, really, the hysteria should have
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Speaker 1: stopped right then and there, because only a couple of
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Speaker 1: days after the sighting it was figured out that the
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Speaker 1: figure was actually just the butcher's son and he was
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Speaker 1: just dressing up in women's clothes walking around in the
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Speaker 1: cemetery to scare his friends. It was a prank, that
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Speaker 1: was it. But the hysteria in town did not go away,
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Speaker 1: because a week after this first weird sighting, there was
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Speaker 1: another sighting in the cemetery. A local chimney sweep said
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Speaker 1: he saw someone walking around in the cemetery who disappeared
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Speaker 1: into the ground. Now, admittedly a lot of people in
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Speaker 1: Hammersmith when they heard about this second sighting they did
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Speaker 1: kind of brush it off as just hysteria. But it
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Speaker 1: was after this second sighting that the so called attacks
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Speaker 1: began in town. Late one night, a local resident was
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Speaker 1: walking past the cemetery when something came up behind them
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Speaker 1: and began choking them, and this resident was able to
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Speaker 1: break free and run away to safety, but they turned
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Speaker 1: and got a look at whatever was attacking them, and
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Speaker 1: they described it as a phantom. Shortly after that, a
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Speaker 1: local carriage driver was going past the cemetery when they
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Speaker 1: got out for some reason, and then this creature with
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Speaker 1: horns on its head came charging out and confronted the
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Speaker 1: carriage driver, who apparently just turned and ran away, abandoning
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Speaker 1: his eight horses and sixteen passengers. By late December, there
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Speaker 1: had been so many more of these strange attacks and
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Speaker 1: weird sightings in town that basically everybody in Hammersmith saved
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Speaker 1: for Basically, Thomas was totally gripped by fear, and as
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Speaker 1: terror kind of spread across town, Thomas had attempted to
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Speaker 1: convince his wife and mother in law and his family
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Speaker 1: that there was just no way this was a real ghost.
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Speaker 1: This is people's paranoia and their imaginations running wild. That's
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Speaker 1: all this is. But Thomas's theory was really put into
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Speaker 1: question when just a few days earlier, so a few
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Speaker 1: days before he stormed out of the pub because he
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Speaker 1: was so annoyed, somebody had died following one of these attacks.
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Speaker 1: A pregnant woman had died. The woman had been walking
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Speaker 1: alone near the church cemetery at about ten pm at
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Speaker 1: night when something in the cemetery had rose up out
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Speaker 1: of the ground, rushed over to her and grabbed onto her,
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Speaker 1: and she barely had time to kind of turn and look,
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Speaker 1: and she saw this kind of white flowing robe and
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Speaker 1: a long pointed white hat, and that was all she remembered,
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Speaker 1: because then she passed out. Then she woke up again,
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Speaker 1: and she was in somebody's house and her neighbors were
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Speaker 1: all around her. They had found her passed out in
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Speaker 1: the cemetery and carried her there. And so she comes too,
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Speaker 1: and she's only able to choke out the story of
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Speaker 1: what happened to her the ghost attack before she died.
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Speaker 1: And so following this pregnant woman's death, the town of
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Speaker 1: Hammersmith offered a reward for anybody who could capture or
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Speaker 1: kill the ghost, which was now being dubbed the Hammersmith Ghost.
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Speaker 1: The night watchman began doing extra patrols. In fact, those
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Speaker 1: two men that Thomas had turned the corner and bumped into.
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Speaker 1: One guy had the club, the other guy had a gun.
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Speaker 1: Those guys were on their own patrol and so the
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Speaker 1: ghost and had to capture or kill. It was basically
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Speaker 1: the only thing people in Hammersmith wanted to talk about,
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Speaker 1: and it totally annoyed Thomas. It was what was being
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Speaker 1: talked about at the pub by his friends. When he
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Speaker 1: got so mad he slammed the cup down and left
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Speaker 1: the pub. To Thomas, the idea of capturing or killing
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Speaker 1: a ghost made no sense because a ghost is not real.
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Speaker 1: Now by this point point, the butcher's son had come
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Speaker 1: out and said, look, I didn't do any of these
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Speaker 1: other attacks. That's not me. I only did the first one,
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Speaker 1: and he had an alibi to prove it. But to Thomas,
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Speaker 1: this didn't rule out that the ghost was not a person.
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Speaker 1: To Thomas, he just felt like, Okay, then there's somebody
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Speaker 1: else in town that's just copying the butcher son's prank,
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Speaker 1: except obviously they've taken the pranks too far because they've
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Speaker 1: gotten someone killed. At about ten pm, Thomas was inside
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Speaker 1: of his parents' house, sitting by the fire, just kind
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Speaker 1: of beginning to doze off, and as he sat there,
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Speaker 1: he thought to himself how little he wanted to go
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Speaker 1: out into the freezing cold night to go walk with
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Speaker 1: his wife all the way back home. He'd much rather
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Speaker 1: just stay here and sleep for the night and let
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Speaker 1: his wife walk home on her own. But when he
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Speaker 1: floated this idea to his sister Anne, who was standing nearby,
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Speaker 1: she exploded on him and was like, are you kidding me?
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Speaker 1: You're gonna let your wife walk home alone in this environment,
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Speaker 1: She's going to be the next victim of the Hammersmith Ghost.
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Speaker 1: Get out there and protect your wife. Thomas was like, okay, okay, hey,
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Speaker 1: and he got up, He grabbed his jacket and he
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Speaker 1: walked outside. As soon as Thomas was outside, he was
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Speaker 1: feeling so annoyed at the current situation that he found
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Speaker 1: himself thinking, you know what if I run into that
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Speaker 1: stupid Hammersmith ghost, the person disguised as a ghost, I'm
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Speaker 1: gonna bum rush them and beat them up. And it
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Speaker 1: will prove to the entire town that there was never
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Speaker 1: any ghost. It was just a person the whole time.
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Speaker 1: And so Thomas began walking briskly down the road. He
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Speaker 1: turned onto Black Lion Lane, and immediately he saw this
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Speaker 1: big bush off to the side of the road on
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Speaker 1: the sidewalk, and he could have sworn behind this bush
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Speaker 1: there was something or someone crouched down like they were
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Speaker 1: trying to hide. And so Thomas stopped and he squinted
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Speaker 1: in the direction of this bush, and then at some
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Speaker 1: point he saw a movement enough to confirm to him
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Speaker 1: that that must be a person back there. And suddenly
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Speaker 1: it clicked for Thomas, that must be the person pretending
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Speaker 1: to be this ghost. That's the prankster slash murderer. There
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Speaker 1: they are. And so without any hesitation, Thomas balled up
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Speaker 1: his fists and just started sprinting towards this person. At
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Speaker 1: virtually the exact same time, and Thomas's sister was still
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Speaker 1: in their parents' house, and she was looking out the
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Speaker 1: window kind of roughly in the direction that Thomas had gone,
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Speaker 1: and she heard this loud scream that sounded like a man.
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Speaker 1: Now she couldn't see her brother, but She's thinking, you know,
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Speaker 1: oh my god, it's coming roughly from the area where
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Speaker 1: he went. What if he's getting attacked by the ghost,
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Speaker 1: And so she bolted outside. Just a couple of minutes
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Speaker 1: after that, a big posse of men came tumbling out
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Speaker 1: of that pub where Thomas had been drinking earlier that
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Speaker 1: night and got really mad and slammed his cup down.
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Speaker 1: So they come stumbling out of the pub, and they
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Speaker 1: were being led not by the night watchman, who was
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Speaker 1: amongst the posse, but instead they were being led by
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Speaker 1: the town's tax collector, a man named Francis Smith, who
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Speaker 1: looked totally disheveled and out of breath and did not
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Speaker 1: look like the type of guy who would be leading
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Speaker 1: a big posse. But here we were. He was leading
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Speaker 1: this posse, and he took them down the road and
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Speaker 1: they turned the corner onto Black Lion Lane, and as
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Speaker 1: soon as they looked down that same road that Thomas
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Speaker 1: had been on and then seen the person in the bush,
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Speaker 1: the posse they stopped because they saw a body in
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Speaker 1: the middle of the road and it didn't appear to
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Speaker 1: be moving, and then crouched over the body was this
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Speaker 1: dark figure that was kind of hunched over this body,
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Speaker 1: and the figure turned and it looked at the posse
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Speaker 1: and let out this unbelievable scream, and the posse just
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Speaker 1: kind of backed up and didn't know what to do.
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Speaker 1: But then the night watchman broke ranks and just began
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Speaker 1: sprinting at the creature that was perched over the body,
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Speaker 1: and the watchman tackled the creature onto the ground and
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Speaker 1: kind of pinned it there. At the same time, the
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Speaker 1: rest of the posse, seeing an opening, rushed over to
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Speaker 1: the body in the road to see if maybe they
12:44
Speaker 1: were alive and if maybe they could help this person.
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Speaker 1: But unfortunately, when they got to the body, they could
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Speaker 1: tell this person was dead. The posse believed they had
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Speaker 1: just discovered the latest victim of the Hammersmith Ghost, and
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Speaker 1: the Hammersmith Ghost themselves creacher that the watchman tackled onto
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Speaker 1: the ground, but they were wrong. When Thomas had rounded
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Speaker 1: the corner onto Black Lion Lane and he looked into
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Speaker 1: that bush and he saw that figure moving around. It
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Speaker 1: really was a person. It was not a ghost. It
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Speaker 1: was a human being. It was Francis Smith, the town's
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Speaker 1: tax collector, and he was hiding behind the bush. However,
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Speaker 1: Francis was not hiding behind the bush because he was
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Speaker 1: pretending to be the Hammersmith Ghost like Thomas was assuming,
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Speaker 1: which is why he ran after him. Instead, Francis was
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Speaker 1: hiding behind that bush because he was basically laying in
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Speaker 1: wait for the Hammersmith Ghost. He was hoping the ghost
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Speaker 1: would walk past him and he could run out and
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Speaker 1: capture or kill this thing and get the reward. Basically,
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Speaker 1: Francis was doing the same thing Thomas was doing. The
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Speaker 1: only difference was Francis actually believed in the ghost and
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Speaker 1: Thomas did not. And it was just Thomas's bad luck
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Speaker 1: that that night he had chosen to wear his all
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Speaker 1: white work clothes, which to Francis, who's hiding the bush,
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Speaker 1: terrified and waiting for the ghost, you know, he sees
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Speaker 1: Thomas in these white clothes and he was absolutely convinced
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Speaker 1: he was the Hammersmith Ghost. And so when the two
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Speaker 1: men spotted each other, they both attacked, except Francis had
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Speaker 1: a rifle, and so when Thomas ran up to him
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Speaker 1: to basically punch him in the face, Francis just raised
14:18
Speaker 1: his gun and fired, and the bullet hit Thomas directly
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Speaker 1: in the face, which killed him instantly. But after shooting
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Speaker 1: and killing Thomas, Francis had no idea that it was
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Speaker 1: a real person. He was so jacked up on adrenaline
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Speaker 1: that he did think he shot the ghost, but didn't
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Speaker 1: know if the ghost was actually dead or not, and
14:36
Speaker 1: he didn't want to be alone when he checked, so
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Speaker 1: he just turned and ran to the pub, gathered up
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Speaker 1: the posse and said, hey, I got the ghost. Come on,
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Speaker 1: and they all ran back to Black Lion Lane. And
14:46
Speaker 1: when they got there, Thomas's sister Anne, who heard that scream,
14:50
Speaker 1: She had made it to her brother's body, and she
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Speaker 1: was the creature, crouched over him, screaming out of grief.
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Speaker 1: That's all she was doing. She had just found her
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Speaker 1: dead brother and was reacting to it when the watchman
15:02
Speaker 1: tackled her to the ground. But luckily, the posse quickly
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Speaker 1: realized this is not a ghost, this is Thomas and
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Speaker 1: his sister, and so his sister was not harmed, and
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Speaker 1: so on January eleventh, eighteen oh four, Francis Smith was
15:15
Speaker 1: found guilty of murder and sentenced to death, but five
15:18
Speaker 1: weeks later, the King of England would pardon Francis and
15:21
Speaker 1: shorten his sentence to just one year the Hammersmith Ghost
15:24
Speaker 1: incident was debated for more than one hundred and fifty years,
15:27
Speaker 1: and ultimately it led to a modern day ruling that
15:31
Speaker 1: says a person is allowed to use self defense if
15:34
Speaker 1: they truly and reasonably believe they're in danger, even if
15:38
Speaker 1: they are wrong about the danger they face. The true
15:40
Speaker 1: identity of the Hammersmith Ghost not the very first one,
15:44
Speaker 1: which we know was the butcher's son, but all the
15:46
Speaker 1: other instances, all the other attacks. While it would turn
15:50
Speaker 1: out it was the town shoemaker who would confess to
15:53
Speaker 1: his crime. Following Thomas's murder, he would tell people that
15:56
Speaker 1: the only reason he did it was to get revenge
15:58
Speaker 1: on his apprentices who had really badly scared his children
16:02
Speaker 1: by telling them ghost stories. Thank you so much for watching.
16:12
Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
16:14
Speaker 1: the comments. And remember we have hundreds of videos for
16:17
Speaker 1: you to binge right now. But if you're looking for
16:20
Speaker 1: a recommendation for me of that one video that's worth
16:23
Speaker 1: your time, well it's this one right here, So give
16:26
Speaker 1: it a watch, all right, Until next time, see y