Strange Stories UK: Soho murder and prison. The life of George Pickering

Send us a textI am still out of the country so am posting some shorter podcasts to keep the podcast ticking over. This one concerns a case from 1963 going on to 1967. The podcast is recorded in a studio that is soundproofed but visited by various cats and dogs and sometimes other creatures.This podcast is set in Soho, Central London an area where I used to work and knew quite well back in the late 1980s.

Send us a textThis is a short podcast just to post something while I am away. Daisy / Dorothy Wallis started a business in High Holborn, central London. She lived a quiet home life with her parents, one wonders who would have wished her harm ?

Send us a textChloe and Josh Bashford lived at Newhaven with their four children. Their lives were ended by a family friend who killed them for no understandable reason and then claimed diminished responsibility.  The killer will be sentenced on 6 November 2025.This podcast was recorded in one take with no editing with animals in the room.

Send us a textThis podcast has been produced while I am away, recorded with a borrowed microphone and on a MacBook laptop with which I can't seem to upload any background music. Recorded in one take without editing this is the story off the BBC's first live broadcast from a haunted house. Dene/Dean manor, Meopham, Kent on 10 March 1936. 

Send us a textJohn Kealty travelled to Mexico to write a travel guide in the style of a Lonely Planet guide twenty years before they were a thing. It did not end well.

Send us a textThis case is in living memory. Going back to 1974. Egon Von Bulow's parents came from South America, had him while in the UK, then left him when they went back home. Not an ideal start for him. He grew up  anti authoritarian. He shot three policemen and committed other crimes after seemingly losing control during July 1974. He could be living near you today.

Send us a textThis case happened in Egypt in 1950, so just about in Living memory. It was a difficult time for British-Egyptian relations. When three soldiers were involved in a murder and tried by a British Court Martial, all politicians tried not to get involved as it was easier for all involved to bury an awkward problem. 

Send us a textA selection of Ghost Club discussion topics 1902-1913. These include : Haunted bottles, Egyptian mummy curses, Mrs Etta Wreight’s seances, The Glastonbury Cup, Whymper’s pony, The Pickwick mystery and the Dorchester incident. My narration is not great and there is a pug  called Otto snoring at my feet and it is recorded in one take without editing. his is the first of four podcasts I will post on Ghost Club meetings over the course of the next year.

Send us a textTwo recent tragic killings from West Sussex. Both preventable, both the result partly of council cuts. These stories are told in one take in lo-fi. Here are the end stories of Stephanie Marie and Nimroy Hendricks, their lives ending just as they were beginning.

Send us a textThe story of Reverend Davidson, the vicar of Stiffkey dominated the newspapers in the early 1930s. This is the story.The Lion and Albert, By  Stanley Holloway was a comic monologue inspired by actual events they had heard about  in 1932. The events in this podcast happened in 1937. Nevertheless, I have put the lyrics here for anyone unfamiliar with the verse.There's a famous seaside place called BlackpoolThat's noted for fresh air and funAnd Mr. and Mrs. RamsbottomWent there with young Albert, their sonA grand little lad were young AlbertAll dressed in his best, quite a swellWith a stick with an horse's head handleThe finest that Woolworth's could sellThey didn't think much to the oceanThe waves they were piddlin' and smallThere was no wrecks and nobody drowneded'Fact, nothin' to laugh at at all!So, seeking for further amusementThey paid, and went into the zooWhere they'd lions and tigers and camelsAnd old ale and sandwiches, tooThere were one great big lion called WallaceHis nose was all covered with scarsHe lay in a somnolent postureWith the side of 'is face on the barsNow Albert had heard about lionsHow they was ferocious and wildTo see Wallace lyin' so peacefulWell it didn't seem right to the childSo straightway the brave little fellerNot showin' a morsel of fearTook 'is stick with the horse's head handleAnd shoved it in Wallace's earYou could see that the lion didn't like itFor givin' a kind of a rollHe pulled Albert inside the cage with himAnd swallowed the little lad whole!Then Pa, who had seen the occurrenceAnd didn't know what to do nextSaid "Mother, yon lion's ate Albert!"And Mother said "Ee, I am vexed"Then Mr. and Mrs. Ramsbottom, quite rightlyWhen all is said and doneComplained to the animal keeperThat the lion had eaten their sonThe keeper was quite nice about itHe said "What a nasty mishapAre you sure that it's your boy he's eaten?"Pa said, "Am I sure? There's his cap!"The manager had to be sent forHe came and he said "What's to-do?"Pa said "Yon lion's ate AlbertAnd him in his Sunday clothes, too!"Then Mother said "Right's right, young feller-I think it's a shame and a sinFor a lion to go and eat AlbertAnd after we paid to come in"The manager wanted no troubleHe took out his purse right awaySayin' "How much to settle the matter?"Pa says "What do you usually pay?"But Mother had turned a bit awkwardWhen she thought where her Albert had goneShe said "No, someone's got to be summonsed!"So that was decided uponThen off they went to the police stationIn front of the Magistrate chapThey told him what happened to AlbertAnd proved it by showing his capThe Magistrate gave his opinionThat no one was really to blameAnd he said that he hoped the RamsbottomsWould have further sons to their nameAt that Mother got proper blazin'"And thank you, sir, kindly, " said she-"What, waste all our lives raisin' childrenTo feed ruddy lions? Not me!"