Hellish Nell: The Scottish Witch Nazi - PART II
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Sources:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/article/last-witch-britain-helen-duncan-wwii https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-18456106 https://historyatkingston.wordpress.com/2021/04/02/winston-and-the-witch-the-strange-case-of-alleged-wartime-witchcraft/ https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/Helen-Duncan-Scotlands-last-witch/ https://www.scottishlegal.com/articles/our-legal-heritage-helen-duncan-the-wartime-witch
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Zevon Odelberg is a true crime podcast host and disability advocate. Zevon has cerebral palsy and he wants Kinda Murdery to be welcoming community for people with disabilities and for people living with challenges of any kind. Life can be hard, but being together makes it better.
Warning, Kind of Murdery contains adult themes, explicit language, and descriptions of
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Now true crime with a dash of the paranormal, the garish, the
strange in the darkly comic. I'm Zevnodelberg, host of Kind of Murdery,
a podcast that's about more than just murder. It's my very own pocket dimension,
home to a curated collection of bizarre and compelling stories, the unsolved,
the unsettling, and the unbelievable. I cover it all just so long as
it's kind of murdery. Hey, everybody, you just heard it there in
the intro, and you're about to hear it here because it's all true.
I am Zevanodelberg, and this is kind of Murdery and welcome. You've found
your way too. Part two the thrilling conclusion of Hellish Nell the Scottish Witch
Nazi. Now notice that I said part two, So if you haven't heard
part one yet, go back and listen to it, then rejoin us.
We'll save you a seat if you'll recall from Sunday's episode, Helen Duncan aka
Hellish Nell has just announced in one of her seances the sinking of the British
battleship the HMS Hood in the Battle of Denmark Strait. Now this announcement comes
as a spine tingling shock to one of her seance attendees, Scottish intelligence officer
Roy Firebrace. Firebrace immediately wonders, is it true that this ship was sunk
and if so, how the heck does this medium know about it? When
he, a man at the center of British intelligence, does not, Firebrace
swiftly moves to confirm Helen Duncan's claims, and what he finds, much to
his shock, is that yes, indeed, the HMS Hood was sunk in
the Battle of Denmark Strait. Even more surprising that sinking would not be admitted
to or reported by the British government until months later. So the burning question
on the minds of everyone with a little bit of authority or leverage in the
British intelligence community is how in the heck a medium presumed to be a fraud
could possibly be in possession of top secret government wartime secrets aka the fate of
the HMS Hood. And if she has this information, does that mean she
has access to more information that could potentially be shared with the enemy. In
the minds of the wartime establishment, Helen Duncan has moved from a paranormal curiosity
slash flimflam entertainer into a possible threat to Great Britain's national security and even its
continued existence. So if you're ready to find out more, please join me
as we uncover what truths we can and solve what mysteries we may kind of
murderies. Helen Schnell The Scottish Witch Knotze, Part two starts now. After
the seance, Firebrace moved swiftly to verify Duncan's claims regarding the sinking of the
HMS Hood. What he found was astonishing. The medium was correct, the
Hood had been lost, taking hundreds of sailors down with it. For Firebrace,
the revelation presented an unsettling conundrum. How had Duncan come into possession of
classified information before him a man at the very epicenter of the nation's intelligence network.
Mysteries continued to envelop Duncan as the war raged on. In November nineteen
forty one, while conducting a seance in Portsmouth, she again stunned her audience,
a spirit claiming to be a sailor relayed grim news the HMS Barum had
been torpedoed by a German U boat, taking eight hundred and sixty two lives
with it to the ocean floor. The British government, concerned about the potential
ramification of such news, had kept the sinking under wraps and would not make
an official announcement until January nineteen forty two, Some two plus months later,
Duncan had once more thrust herself into a situation of great sensitivity and risk.
The implications went beyond questions of paranormal activity or moral propriety. She was now
treading dangerously close to In fact, I would say smack dab in the middle
of matters of national security if Firebrace had been startled before. He, along
with the rest of the British intelligence community, was now faced with a dilemma
that defied conventional explanation. Was Helen Duncan a genuine medium, a charlatan,
or something far more complex? Regardless of the answer, her actions had drawn
the intense scrutiny of authorities at a time when the nation could ill afford uncertainties
or vulnerabilities. Helen found herself at the intersection of the mysterious and the palpably
real, and it was a crossing fraught with peril. The question of how
Helen Duncan obtained classified in information about naval tragedies was a matter of serious concern
to the authorities. It was not a topic that could be dismissed as mere
parlor trickery or coincidence. While the British government was engaged in a life or
death struggle against the Axis powers, here was a woman claiming to have knowledge
of sensitive, closely guarded military secrets. As a result, she became a
subject of quiet but intense surveillance by the powers that be. Two years after
the incident in Portsmouth concerning the HMS Barhum, Duncan found herself once again in
the same city, conducting another seance. This time among her audience was Lieutenant
Stanley Worth, a Royal Navy officer who harbored significant doubts about Duncan's supposed abilities.
His skepticism intensified when Duncan purportedly summoned spirits of his relatives, who were,
to his certain knowledge, very much alive. Oh Fueled by this incredulity
and a desire to expose Duncan for what he believed she was a fraud.
Worth returned for another sitting, but he was not alone. Accompanying him was
a police officer in disguise, blending in with the other. As the seance
unfolded in its mysterious ambiance, the disguised officer waited for the right moment.
Then, seizing his opportunity, he sprang from his seat, drew back the
curtain behind which Duncan was concealed, and arrested her on the spot. The
arrest was more than just an attempt to unmask a suspected charlatan. Obviously,
it was a dramatic act that intersected with national anxieties and wartime secrecy. Helen
Duncan had transformed from a figure of public fascination or even scorn, to a
person of interest in a national security investigation. Her arrest reflected the tension of
a country at war, a country where the boundaries between the explicable and the
inexplicable, between harmless spiritualism and dangerous exposure of state secrets had become frighteningly blurred.
Duncan, whether she realized it or not had crossed an invisible line,
and the consequences of that crossing were about to become all two real. The
lineage of witchcraft related prosecutions in the United Kingdom can be traced back for centuries.
These historical proceedings were a grim testament to the public's fear and misunderstanding of
those who were perceived to possess supernatural abilities. In the sixteenth century, witchcraft
was not just an offense. It was a crime that could cost you your
life. Janet Horn, who was executed in seventeen twenty seven, bears the
tragic distinction of being the last person to be executed for witchcraft in Great Britain.
Yet, by the time Helen Duncan stood before the law, the legal
framework had evolved. Charges related to witchcraft had grown exceedingly rare. In fact,
mediums who found themselves in legal trouble were usually prosecuted under the Vagrancy Act,
a law that originated in the nineteenth century. This legislation had a far
less ominous purpose than the executioner's acts. It was primarily designed to protect the
public from being defrauded by fortune tellers, psychics, and others so called fakes.
This shift in how the legal system dealed with those who communed with the
dead is a compelling reflection of the societal evolution that had occurred over the set
centuries. Once accusations of witchcraft could ignite community hysteria and culminate in the darkest
of penalties, but in the twentieth century the focus had shifted from punishing heresy
and witchcraft to prosecuting fraud. Nevertheless, Helen Duncan's case would reach back through
the years to a time when witchcraft was a matter of life and death.
She would find herself accused under the antiquated Witchcraft Act of seventeen thirty five,
a law rarely invoked in modern times but still lurking in the statutes, a
vestige of a bygone era. In a story like this, it's impossible not
to think about the lasting impact of these ancient laws and how they were often
used to persecute women throughout history. Witchcraft laws and witch trials served as a
mechanism for a male dominated society to punished or silence women who defied convention or
who possessed something, whether it was property, power, or knowledge that others
generally men coveted. In a world at war where every misstep could have severe
consequence. Helen Duncan's actions brought her into a collision with a pass that many
thought had been long buried, but was it seemed, only lying dormant.
The landscape of the legal proceedings against Helen took an unexpected turn where authorities shifted
their strategy. Recognizing a potential loophole in the Vagrancy Act that Duncan charged for
injury to her seances but not explicitly for magical services, they decided not to
prosecutor under that Act, and as we've just been discussing, they decided instead
to dust off a nearly forgotten piece of legislation, the Witchcraft Act of seventeen
thirty five, now passed shortly after Janet Horn's execution, as was the last
woman to be executed as a witch in Great Britain in seventeen twenty seven.
While the Witchcraft Act was passed shortly after her execution, and the law aimed
to modernize the country's approach to witchcraft. Rather than sentencing so called witches to
death, it imposed imprisonment for those claiming to practice or accusing others of practice
seeing witchcraft. This shift in prosecutorial strategy underscored the unique gravity ascribed to Duncan's
case. While her trial could have unfolded im Portsmouth, the local magistrates concluded
that the circumstances were quote unusually grave unquote. Thus they determined she should face
her accusers at London's Central Criminal Court, commonly known as the Old Bailey,
an institution steeped in centuries of legal tradition and societal judgment. It was a
move that elevated her case to a level of scrutiny in visibility that few others
received. Once the heart of legal proceedings against witches, the Old Bailey now
stood as a more modern edifice of justice. Yet for Helen Duncan, it
was about to serve as the backdrop for a convergence of past and present,
a stage where old laws long considered dormant, could reawaken to cast judgment upon
her. It's a decision that invites reflection on how the judicial system can at
times reach into the archives of history to wield laws that were products of their
time but feel incongruous in the present. The move to prosecute Duncan under the
Witchcraft Act of seventeen thirty five serves as the chilling reminder that the past,
with all its prejudices and fears, is never as distant as many of us
would like to assume. Hellish Nell's trial unfolded in such a fashion that it
was impossible to ignore, not just for the everyday citizen, but also for
those sitting in the highest seats of government. Beginning on March twenty third,
nineteen forty four, the court room drama became a national preoccupation. Journalists chronicled
each twist in turn, effectively turning the trial into what could only be described
as a media circus. It was a vivid tableau of legal and societal attitudes,
a spectacle so unordinary, so extraordinary, that it caught the eye of
none other than Prime Minister Winston Churchill himself. With a war to win and
a nation to lead, Churchill nevertheless took a moment to denounce the proceedings against
Duncan as quote obsolete Tom Fool. His words echoed in the corridors of power,
adding a layer of almost oxymoronic absurdity to the gravity of what was already
a watershed moment in British history. Then, on April third, the jury
returned from their deliberations with a verdict that reverberated beyond the courtroom. Guilty.
In this moment, the entire drama tinged with elements of the arcane, and
the judicial reached its climax. The guilty verdict was more than a legal decision.
It was a societal pronouncement, a declaration that seemed to defy the advances
of modernity that a world at war had so painfully wrought. A medium prosecuted
under a law more than two centuries old, was found guilty in the very
heart of a society that split the atom and was coming to terms with the
dawn of the computer age. And yet Helen Duncan was found guilty of the
most medieval, the most ancient, the most biblical, even of crimes witchcraft.
And so the verdict stood inscribed in the historical record, a testimony to
the complexities and contradictions that characterize human societies even in their gravest hours, perhaps
most especially in their gravest hours. The chain of events surrounding Helen Duncan's trial
raises some compelling questions that cannot be easily dismissed. Was her prosecution merely an
application of an outdated law, a last gasp of archaic beliefs regarding witchcraft and
mediums. Or was there something more at place, something deeply rooted in wartime
strategies and safeguarding of state secrets. I think it seems pretty clear that it
was a little bit of both. But these questions take on more weight when
you consider the timing. You see, Helen Duncan was found guilty on April
third, nineteen forty four. Just two months later, on June sixth,
Allied troops launched their secret invasion of Nazi occupied France, what we all remember
today as D Day. The stark proximity of these two dates led some to
wonder did the British government, in prosecuting Duncan believe that she could actually compromise
this highly classified operation, the invasion of the Beaches in Normandy. Did they
suspect her of intentionally aiding the Nazi war machine directly by revealing state secrets through
her seances? That is the question, isn't it. Historian Francis Young doesn't
directly substantiate these claims, but he does acknowledge that Duncan was treated quote most
unusually unquote by the courts. The further question then becomes why the unusual treatment.
Was it merely a judicial oddity or did it veil a deeper concern about
national security? The pieces of the puzzle fit together too neatly for some,
fueling the belief that Duncan's legal proceedings were not merely a bizarre anomaly, but
a calculated move, driven perhaps by concerns far graver and more strategic than the
public was led to believe. While nothing can be said definitively, these questions
enveloped the Helen Duncan story in a cloak of mystery that extend beyond the courtroom
into the shadowy corridors where war strategies were being formed. It remains a baffling
episode, tantalizingly purged to the intersection of wartime exigencies, the judicial system,
and the inexplicable. In the face of monumental events that were shifting the course
of world history, Helen Duncan and her legal team mounted a final desperate appeal
to overturn her conviction. The appeal largely focused on the dubious nature of the
conviction under the Witchcraft Act of seventeen thirty five, a law considered out data
and rarely enforced by that time. As we have discussed, her defense argued
that she should not have been convicted under this legislation, as it was intended
to prosecute fraudulent claims of magical powers rather than the sort of mediumistic activities that
Helen was engaged in. And I have to tell you that I think this
argument absolutely holds legal merit, and her conviction probably should have been tossed out.
You see, the law itself was aimed at penalizing individuals who who claimed
to possess the ability to conjure spirits or perform acts of witchcraft, not necessarily
those who actually believed they had such abilities or who actually did have such abilities.
In other words, being magical was only a crime if you were fraudulently
magical lying to people about abilities you didn't have. Being actually, Harry Potter
magical should have, even under the Witchcraft Act of seventeen thirty five, been
legal. However, despite the strength of the arguments presented, Helen's appeal was
ultimately unsuccessful and she remained incarcerated, which I think indicates what's already been repeatedly
suggested, which is that her prosecution and arrest had more to do with wartime
secrecy concerns than the fact that anyone was concerned about her. Conjuring ectoplasm in
dim rooms under red lights, Duncan was transported to Holloway Prison, a facility
known for its grim atmosphere and tough conditions. As she walked through Holloway's daunting
gait, she unknowingly etched her name into the annals of legal history. She
became the very last person to feel the weight of iron bars closed behind her
due to the Witchcraft Act, a law soon to be considered obsolete, but
one that had cost Helen dearly. While Duncan languished in her cell contemplating a
future clouded by uncertainty, another medium named Jane Yorke was tried under the same
antiquated legislation at the ripe old age of seventy two. York faced her own
day in court in September nineteen forty four. Unlike Duncan, however, she
was fined a mere five pounds and spared the harshness of imprisonment. It was
as if society was slowly recognizing the absurdity and injustice of such prosecutions. For
witchcraft was that it? Or was it the fact that D Day had already
come and gone successfully, So York wasn't nearly the perceived threat that Duncan was.
The Witchcraft Act itself would only survive a few more years. The law
was officially taken off the books in nineteen fifty one. If for Helen Duncan
the repeal came too late, the toll had already been exacted, a life
altered irrevocably, and a cautionary tale penned in the margins of a society in
flux. However, there's something that seems to sadly have been forgotten all too
often these days, and that is, whenever looking at historical events, the
context is crucial, and in understanding what happened to Helen Duncan, context is
everything. We must remember that Great Britain was in the grips of World War
II, facing an existential threat from Nazi Germany. This was not a time
of relative peace or stability, but a period marked by enormous national anxiety and
life or death stakes, and Duncan had predicted more than one classified military event,
correctly raising alarming questions about the safety of Great Britain's entire communications pipeline and
of course, its national security, so the actions taken against her by the
British government may be seen as more understandable, even justifiable, when compared to
other instances where governments have acted to suppress individuals, times when that suppression occurred
when the government, the society, the people were not facing immediate and extreme
threats as Britain was in World War II. For example, the case of
Raf Badawi in Saudi Arabia comes to mind, but Nawi was imprisoned and sentenced
to one thousand lashes for creating a blog that criticized the Saudi government. Consider
also the plight of the Wigers in China, who are being detained and subjected
to forced labor and other human rights abuses because of their tribal and Muslim identity.
These actions are often taken under the umbrella of national security, but proper
historical contexts suggests that they lack the pressing, urgency, and high stakes that
characterize the British government's actions against Duncan. That said, the legacy of witch
trials, replete with prejudice, false accusations, and often deadly outcomes, does
cast a shadow over the British government's actions against Helen Duncan historically, which trials
were often more akin to ritualistic purges than any notion of modern day justice,
and this is a history that arouses understandable skepticism about Duncan's trial and the British
government's actions, even in the context of war. However, it's equally critical
to acknowledge that Duncan, known colloquially as Hellish Knell, was not exactly an
innocent player in all this, not truly innocent. That is, at the
very least, she was an opportunist, capitalizing on the emotional vulnerabilities of those
seeking to connect with lost loved ones. She profited from the grief and desperation
that naturally pervade a nation at war, and the moral ambiguity of her actions
alone places her in a less than favorable light. Then there's the disturbing,
almost inconceivable question that we must ask, what if Duncan was indeed a legitimate
witch, or at least a real medium, an actual supernaturally powered being who
had chosen to collaborate with the Nazis. While it's a specuative leap, it's
not entirely outside the realm of possibility. Given that she somehow obtained information about
the sinking of British ships not once, but twice, information so precise and
immediate that it startled even those privy to military secrets, this is a fact
too, and it raises serious questions about her intentions and the potential risks that
she did in fact pose to national security. In the final analysis, were
left with this reality, the full scope of Duncan's abilities, fraudulent or authentic,
has never been proven, and thus remains shrouded in mystery, and it's
precisely this lack of clarity that prevents us from categorically vilifying or absolving her.
What we do know is that intentional or not, she existed at the intersection
of the inexplicable and the dangerous, and in times of national crisis, that
is an exceptionally carrious place to be. In this context, while the British
government's actions may have been extreme, they were not necessarily unfounded. Duncan's case
serves as a cautionary tale for both the government and the individual. It's a
reminder of how fear and uncertainty can make the lines between right and wrong all
the more blurry. The ethical questions surrounding Hellishnell remain relevant today, serving as
a stark warning that we remain ever vigilant about how society treats those who operate
on its fringes, especially during times of national crisis. Until next time,
I'm Zevan Odelberg, and this has been kind of murdery
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