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Chapter 1: What caused the panic in Hammersmith in 1803?
In the winter of 1803, a strange phantom began appearing late at night in the streets of Hammersmith, haunting locals and even physically grabbing them. Within weeks, the village of Hammersmith had fallen into a full-blown panic. Women refused to go out at night, men were patrolling the streets with guns, and by the time the terror was over, one man would be dead and another on trial for murder.
But how could it escalate to this point? If you shoot a ghost, can you kill it a second time? Why can't I bring a snake on the subway? If anything, it's weird that we're underground, not him! All these questions you can find the answer to on This Paranormal Life!
Hello everybody and welcome back to This Paranormal Life, the comedy paranormal podcast where every week we dissect a brand new paranormal tale and come to the conclusion to figure out once and for all whether or not it truly is paranormal. Sometimes, like last week, we are looking at newly released UFO footage by the government. And sometimes, like this week, we're not doing that at all.
We're going back in time to investigate some crazy paranormal cases that happened right here in the UK. You know, Kit last week showed us videos of unidentified objects, the likes of which I've never seen. After we recorded that episode, I cried in the bathroom for 45 minutes. But this week, I'm actually bringing some cool paranormal evidence to the table as well.
Yeah, from a case that happened in 1803.
Will I be crying in the bathroom about it afterwards?
Possibly. Maybe. Possibly. I'm telling you, this is a case that we've never covered on the podcast before. It's one of the UK's most famous, I would say, ghost stories because it descends in a way that you would not expect. I kind of gave away the twist at the end there, but somebody dies at the end. Wow.
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Chapter 2: How did Thomas Groom encounter the Hammersmith Phantom?
And it's Kit if he gives this episode a no.
Well.
But before we dive into today's case, and frankly the incredible evidence that I have for us today, a reminder that if you want to join the Paranormal Comm Union, you should head on over to thisparanormallife.com or www.war.gov. Either one will take you to the This Paranormal Life commune, where you can get access to a bunch of cool extra stuff, like extra podcasts.
But it's mostly extra podcasts. Mostly, but that is what we do. That kind of tracks and makes sense. But for as little as five bucks a month, pending your local currency, you can subscribe, become a member, and get... monthly bonus episodes, weekly after party episodes, the behind the scenes of This Paranormal Life, and much, much more. And also just, I started a newsletter for the pod recently.
We're just breaking down what's going on here, what we're, and also just like what we're watching, listening to, having fun with lately. It's a lot of fun. So check out the newsletter if you're curious. That is totally free, thisparanormallife.com.
Well, you were asking as well for like... Like, hey, let us know what you've been playing and what you've been reading. And Phil sent all those over. And then when I responded, I just sent you a bunch of bomb schematics. And I said, put this in. They need to know how to make these for what's coming.
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Chapter 3: What were the community's reactions to the ghost sightings?
And I said, they're not ready yet. I know that's what the newsletter is ultimately for, but they're not ready yet. So keep it light for now.
Check it out, guys. Thisparanormallife.com. Our story today begins way back in 1803, in Hammersmith, West London. It was a simpler time, long before Hammersmith became a bustling metropolitan borough with a tube station and a Taco Bell. Which is true, I did check, there's actually a Taco Bell there now.
In 1803, it was a quiet rural village, surrounded by countryside, market gardens, and maybe most importantly, graveyards. In November of 1803, a young man named Thomas Groom was walking home from a late night shift working as a brewer's servant.
It's important for me to tell you that he was a brewer's servant because this was around the time when people, their second name would be reflective of what they do as a career. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So Thomas Groom... Wasn't doing any of that shit. I'll make that clear. He was, what did I say? He was a brewer's servant. He was an honorable man.
Yeah, because actually my mind just went to like, oh, bride and groom.
No. No, no, no, no. Well, as Thomas' groom was walking past the local churchyard at night, he spotted something quickly shuffling between the graves. Thomas froze in his tracks. Hello? Is someone there? Is someone there? There was no response. Thomas figured it must have been a fox or just a trick of the light, so he turned back towards the road to continue his journey home.
But before he could take a single step, he saw it again, this time clearer. A strange, whitish shadow dashing between the tombstones. Thomas couldn't help himself. He slowly walked into the graveyard, passing between the headstones, towards the back where he'd seen this figure. I know you're back there! I'm not scared, you know! Unfortunately, Thomas should have been.
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Chapter 4: Who was Francis Smith and what was his role in the story?
In that moment, a tall glowing white shape erupted upwards from behind the tombstone! Good heavens! Before Thomas could run, the figure lunged at him, seizing him by the throat! Thomas thrashed wildly trying to break free from the spectre's grasp before he was choked to death on the spot.
He finally managed to wriggle free and scramble on his hands and knees out of the churchyard before running home as fast as he could. Now Thomas Groom might not have known it at the time, but he had just had a first-hand encounter with the Hammersmith Phantom. an otherworldly phantom from the early 1800s who was terrorizing locals on a daily basis.
Today, Kit, we are investigating this legend, quite literally an old fashioned ghost story that is one of London's most famous. And there's a good reason why, because as I said in our intro, by the end of our case, one man is going to be dead. It's Phil. It's scary because we've just learned immediately that this ghost could touch people. So no spoilers to where this is going.
That means he can also hold a gun. Now, Thomas Groom might be the first person to be chokeslammed by this ghost, but he was far from the first Hammersmith local to have seen the Phantom. In fact, by this point, dozens of people in Hammersmith had reported a strange apparition hovering around the churchyard and the nearby lanes.
This specter was said to be tall and entirely white in color, moving around the ground like smoke in the wind. In one story, an elderly woman claimed that while walking past the churchyard, she was seized by the phantom, and like Thomas Groom, she had to break free from its grasp before running home.
Another story claims that a pregnant woman suffered the same fate, and in some retellings, both women were said to have been so scared they died of shock. Oh.
So the ghost didn't kill them. They got away. And then they later went, ah. Once the adrenaline wore off, I guess they just dropped dead. I think he crushed their esophagus. He might've also done that a little bit. Because I was going to say, I don't want to like, this is dreadful. This is bad, scary. Sorry it happened to people.
That being said, I don't want to give a serial killer notes or a serial ghost killer notes here, but he's a work in his grip strength because he keeps successfully grabbing people by the throat, but then they keep wriggling away.
Yeah, I don't know what is going on here. Or he's grabbing, he's scaring them so much that they're just having a heart attack as well. It's kind of all over the place.
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Chapter 5: What led to the accidental shooting of Thomas Millwood?
Maybe for a ghost, getting your body to the point where it can physically interact with the human world takes so much energy. You can only do it for like a split second.
Classic. Yeah, because like Darth Vader never really actually killed mother with the force choke. It feels like he always kind of was like, man, that's enough.
Yeah, yeah. He would lift people up and be like, oh, you should have learned your lesson. And then he'd lower them down and he'd be like, get out of here.
I can't even look at you.
And they'd all like leave the room and he'd be like, oh, my God. Oh, that took so much out of me. Jesus. Jesus Christ. Yeah. And actually, it takes a lot of energy to do it.
You're lucky I'm feeling merciful today. Also, get out of here as fast as possible.
Get out, get out, get out, get out.
You know, it's kind of like an erection. You can hold it for like seven, eight seconds. But then at that point, it's like. You should be able to hold it for longer. Eight seconds. People dying from shock after they saw the ghost might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it does tell us something important about the atmosphere at the time in Hammersmith.
Whatever this thing was, people were terrified, which raises the questions, what was it? There were a lot of graves in that churchyard. Why was one spirit causing so much trouble? Well, in the local taverns, rumor began to spread about the origin of the Hammersmith Phantom.
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Chapter 6: How did the trial of Francis Smith unfold?
It's rough that they're like, this isn't a diddler.
It's far worse. A depressed person. A sick son of a bitch who had the misfortune of having the wrong brain chemicals.
We have generations of grooms buried in that graveyard and it's fine.
Listen, we've all got the urges. It's perfectly normal. But not being sad. That's unforgivable. Totally unforgivable.
Kit, I know that you're curious, so I'm happy to say that I do have some illustrations of what the Hammersmith Phantom does look like. Obviously, these are artist illustrations from 1803. It's the best we've got today, so let's get them up. Phil, can you bring up the evidence, please? All right. That's a guy. That's a guy in a nightie. No, it isn't.
And for our audio listeners, I don't want them to think that's what I'm showing you. Why not? Isn't it? It looks angelic. It looks like a figure all in white. Phil's laughing, just to say that. Well, he's fired. Because I want you guys to take this case seriously. He's standing on the ground, though, isn't he?
Did I say that for some reason this is a ghost that can physically grab people in the night? Sure, that is maybe something ghosts are capable of. We don't understand our place in this universe. Does this look like a drawing of a guy? Yes. Yeah, kind of.
That's why I brought... He has like a receding hairline and shit.
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Chapter 7: What were the implications of the Hammersmith Ghost case on legal precedents?
Maybe he died before the invention of f***ing hymns.com.
Finasteride, alright? That's not his problem. Luckily, I brought two pictures with me. Okay, well let's- Phil, please reveal photo number two.
It's another guy. It's clearly- Silence! Another guy. So it's also a guy in both images, a guy wearing a sheet. Now in the first image, at least you couldn't see his feet. But in this image, the sheet is like blowing in the wind. So you can see his legs and boots because he's running after a woman. And so the sheet is blowing off him. So it's as if they completely knew it was a guy in a sheet.
I'm not getting buried in the graveyard because I'm going to kill myself.
Chapter 8: How did the legend of the Hammersmith Ghost evolve after the trial?
I didn't realize how bad this case was going to go so quickly.
Hey, I'm not saying it's going badly. I'm just saying that these two artists' interpretations happen to be guy forward.
What do you think a ghost is, motherf***er? The ghost of a living... Man or woman. Who is here on Earth.
Right. What do you think they're going to look like? Translucent, hopefully. And unable to interact with our physical reality. Falling down on both of those accounts so far.
You know, I thought you would have a lot of problems with this. I thought it was mostly going to be based around his little hat. But you didn't even bring up the little hat.
Well, you know, priorities. Yeah, he's wearing a little Pikmin hat.
Okay, Kit hates the photos. That's fine. Can we remove the evidence?
Drawings. Guys, remember that.
While the most common depiction of the Hammersmith ghost was this, a tall figure dressed in all white, some accounts describe the phantom with glowing eyes, horns, or spectral chains rattling ominously in the dead of night. At this time, the people in Hammersmith were taking these ghost sightings very seriously. Seriously enough, the people began to change how they moved through the area.
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