68. Phantom Snatchers! In episodes 29, 30, 31 and 34 I chronicled various cases pertaining to phantom assailants, ranging from the bizarre to the sinister. From dress-snippers and buttock slashers to cat-rippers, and now, without further ado I'd like to introduce you to another asylum of weirdos who've plagued London's streets as mystery assailants and irritants. The first odd-bod on the list is the 1975 spectacle thief, who, during his brief reign of quirky......

66(6)! The Coventry Street Vampire It is a case obscure, hardly spoken of. Whilst the legend of the Highgate 'vampire' continues to intrigue and be discussed, something just as wicked occurred several decades before, in the West End at Coventry Street. In 1922 a giant bat-like creature had been seen in the vicinity of West Drayton Church, as I have mentioned before, and some believed it was the vampyric spirit of a creature once......

60. More Than Just A Haunting... In the borough of Lewisham sits Brockley Road. Not exactly known for its supernatural relations or unnerving apparitions, but let me share with you a campfire story to chill even the warmest of hearts... It happened during the 1800s and the experience was written up and posted to a magazine known as the Review Of Reviews edited by a Mr W.T. Stead who would unfortunately perish aboard the......

48. The Phantom Cat Whilst searching through my archives, like a gleeful grave-digger shoveling out the mounds of soil on a moonlit night, I literally stumbled across a text from a pamphlet dated 1674, in reference to a peculiar haunting, if it was indeed a haunting, or maybe one of the first ever encounters with a large 'panther'! I make no apologies for transcribing the original document exactly for weirdness sake! News from Puddle-dock......

42. The Phantom Ape Apologies that last week's installment of the weird and sinister went missing... the author decided to go in search of a phantom ape, but never returned... so, in the style of 'Blair Witch' we bring you his notes for another episode of the bizarre and the obscure. The story revolves around a Mr Ward, a Hampstead man who during the early 1900s went to Sumatra on an expedition through the......

31. Phantom Assailants: Part Three The last two episodes of the Strangeness have concentrated on bizarre and elusive individuals who have slashed their way into folklore. This third instalment in the mini-series continues the thread except that the victims have been domestic cats! 1998 was a very grisly year throughout the city with regards to frequent mysterious moggie murders, by way of decapitation and tail removal. Forty cats had turned up in eight months......

30. Phantom Assailants: Part Two One hundred years before the fog-saturated reign of Jack The Ripper there was the London Monster of 1788 (see previous episode). Fifty years later came the bewildering spectacle of the iron-clawed Spring Heeled Jack (episode 11), another tormentor and slasher of females. Fast-forward almost thirty-years and gasp at the horror of the Phantom Skirt-Slasher Of Piccadilly, who for a terrifying reign of six-months prowled the London underground like some......

28. Urban Legends Of The Underbelly! Urban legends are often vague, friend-of-a-friend tales (FOAFtales) similar to ‘Chinese whispers’, in that they are distorted, exaggerated and through generations of storytelling, they become myth, embedded in our society. For the last fifty or more years there has been a sinister legend pertaining to the London Underground that a mysterious, possibly caped figure, lurks in the cold tunnels, and is known for the ghastly act of pushing......