1943, an event in Hagley Woods, England brought about a mystery that still confuses investigators at the present time. The strange happening started with some kids who were hunting for food inside the forest. Upon climbing up into a big wych elm tree, they looked inside its empty trunk and discovered something surprisingly horrible. The things they found inside not only shocked the children, but also continued to trouble generations afterward.
We Found Something! Just Not Food…
The date was April 19, 1943. Four children from Stourbridge—Robert Hart, Bob Farmer, Thomas Willetts and Fred Payne—went poaching in nearby Hagley Woods. England was experiencing severe phases of World War II at that time, and it's a commong thing for kids to search for food in forests, even if there are legal bans on doing so. After spending some time within the forest, they came close to a big wych elm tree. Their idea was to look for bird nests and eggs in this location. Bob Farmer snapped off a branch and tried to get back what he saw inside, thinking it was a round, white thing. Instead of an egg like he expected, it turned out to be a human skull. This finding caused the children to become scared and puzzled.
The group understood how serious it was to find such things. They knew they must tell the officials. But, they were also scared that if people found out they were breaking the law by being in a place where they should not be. Afraid of punishment, they chose to keep the finding secret and promised not to inform anyone. However, things fell apart fast. The youngest one, Thomas Willetts, had too much fear, and he spills the tea to his dad about everything when he came back to his house. Then next morning, the father of Willetts contacted the authority who went quickly to check where this wych elm is located at in the Hagley wood.
When the police looked at the digging location, they found almost a whole skeleton. They also found old clothing that has rotted away nearby and just one shoe, as well as very odd pieces of a hand that was cut off. Professor James Webster, who was the leader of the Forensic Science Laboratory at the Home Office in West Midlands at that time, did a thorough search on the bones together with Dr. John Lund. Finally, Webster made a determination about the remains as follows:
"Her age is given as between 25 and 40, most probably 35, height 5ft (1m52), with light brown hair and dressed in dark blue and mustard coloured striped cardigan and mustard coloured skirt: blue crepe soled shoes, size 5 ½ (39). All the garments were described as poor quality, and a wedding ring found among the bones was of rolled gold, probably worth 2/6 to-day."
Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 24 April 1943Despite these detailed findings, crucial questions remained unanswered for investigators: who was this woman, and why did she die in such a mysterious manner?
Nothing New Until Someone Draw Something On The Wall
Even though experts in the forensics field tried to describe as many details as possible about the woman, the police couldn't identify who she was. They eventually made a detailed drawing that shows what the victim wore and her jewelry, then they shared these drawings with everyone. Besides, the unusual facts about her teeth were written in dental magazines in England, but all attempts were unsuccessful. The case appeared to be in a stalemate. However, about six months later a fresh clue surfaced - it was an enigmatic message found at Hayden Hill Road in Old Hill. The initial one read ‘Who put Luebella down the wych elm?‘ and the second message was seen on a wall at Upper Dean Street in Birmingham, it said ‘Who put Bella down the Wych elm - Hagley Wood.‘
This strange addition to the case that was already strange raised more inquiries. At this stage, the woman had not been given any form of name yet so it suggested by graffiti in both Old Hill and Birmingham about a woman called ‘Bella’, or ‘Luebella’ that someone might be aware of who she is inside wych elm, but who could this person possibly be?
On 30 March 1944 the Evening Despatch wrote the following about the mysterious graffiti artist:
"… The writing was too high on the wall to have been done by boys, and the police are inclined to the view that it is the work of someone coming into the city early in the morning with farm produce."
-Evening Despatch, 30 March 1944-
As the Evening Despatch reported on 30 March 1944, ‘the writing was too high on the wall to have been done by boys, and the police are inclined to the view that it is the work of someone coming into the city early in the morning with farm produce.’
But, same as the victim and her killer, the police could never find out who’s the artist behind the graffiti. The case got reopened in 1949 because of new evidence.
Theories
A German Influencer
On 1 February 1941, in the time of Second World War, Josef Jakobs parachuted into a field in Cambridgeshire. But he broke his ankle when landing there. Farmers from nearby areas found him and quickly told the police about it. Because they thought that Jakobs might be a spy, MI5 got involved with this case. Included in his things was a photo of a lady, later recognized as the German singer and performer Clara Bäuerle. As per Jakobs' words, Bäuerle was a secret agent who had landed with parachute in Midlands approximately during the same period or shortly after him. He also stated that she was his girlfriend, but this information could not be confirmed and Jakobs himself wasn't considered trustworthy for making such claims.
A different take on the story tells us that Clara was already present in the West Midlands, working at music halls and learning to hide her German accent. In this place, she supposedly got recruited by Gestapo which is the official secret police of Nazi Germany and Europe under German occupation. But no proof is given that Jakobs and Clara had any communication together.
Details on how Clara could have ended up dead in the wych elm are not typically part of the folklore surrounding Bella in the Wych Elm. The connection between Bella and Clara comes from Clara's disappearance from films and recordings after 1941, the hypothesized time of Bella's death, and the photograph found on Jakobs.
However, this theory was debunked once Bäuerle’s official death registration was found. It listed her cause of death as a lung infection due to Veronal poisoning on 16 December 1942 in Berlin, placing her death about a year later than Bella’s estimated time of death. Veronal was a popular sleeping aid in the early 1900s, so it is unclear whether Bäuerle’s death was due to an accidental overdose, suicide, or murder. Additionally, the reliability of German Nazi-era death records is questionable, leaving room for doubt and speculation.
As a side note, Josef Jakobs, convicted of espionage under the Treachery Act 1940, was executed at the Tower of London by firing squad on 15 August 1941. He was the last person to ever be executed at the Tower of London.
A Trick of the Witch
No mystery in the history can’t be omitted without theories that has something to do with magic. In the 1940s and 1950s, there was a lot of discussion about whether witchcraft played a part in Bella's death. The first person to suggest this theory was professor Margaret Murray, who lectured at University College London and is famous as an anthropologist, archaeologist and historian. She had special interest in the severed hand that got discovered together with Bella’s body. She made a hypothesis that the hand could be an indication of a ritualistic killing, connecting it to an item called the "Hand of Glory." As per belief, if anyone looked at a Hand of Glory, they would become overwhelmed and unable to move. Typically, these hands were made by robbers or those who participated in mysterious rituals.
Additionally, Murray mentioned her study about stories that told of a dead witch's soul getting stuck in the afterlife because her body was kept inside a hollow tree. Though this idea was well-known during that period, it did not help police to identify Bella. Firstly, there wasn't any proof showing the woman found in the tree was really a witch. There were also no strange signs or items linked with magic rituals discovered at the location. Secondly, the cut hand didn't fit the idea because that hand would have been needed for the ceremony by the person who did it.
Why the lady's hand was cut off and founded far from the body is still a mystery to this day. A possible reason might be that animals in the wild could have taken it from her body in the tree and carried it to the bushes. Many stories about magic and spiritual things about this case are still being told for many years, and there are lots of articles that keep writing about it. In spite of the gaps, this theory has persisted and still haunts the secret of Hagley Wood even now.
Spy in The Web
During the war in England, a period filled with fear from both inside and outside the country, there were many peculiar and mysterious cases. One notable instance is that of Bella in the wych elm which has several bizarre details along with various theories. Shortly following when the victim was discovered, gossip started spreading about possible participation of German spies too.
Mr. Peter Osborne, a councilor from Birmingham, recalled a memory his father shared with him as they strolled through Hagley Wood. They found a big tree and Peter's dad disclosed that he was the person who kept the dug up bones safe from wych elm. While returning home after the war ended, he had an interesting meeting with two pilots from the RAF, where he narrated them about Bella's story and how he guarded her body that night. Pilots shared one interesting thing; in previous times, they had found some papers that possibly relate to the case. Their story was about a lady involved in espionage who got executed during the war. This woman, she studied either at Oxford or Cambridge, and has front teeth with a noticeable overlapping.
1953 saw another clue that hinted at espionage, as the West Midlands newspaper Express and Star wrote a series of articles about this case. The writer, Lieutenant Colonel Wilfred Byford-Jones, got a letter with signature from a lady who called herself Anna, using an alias. It said:
"Finish your articles about the Wych Elm crime, if possible. They are interesting to the reader, but you will never find answers to the mystery.
The only hint I can offer you is that the individual who committed the crime passed away in 1942. The person who suffered was a lady from Holland, she came to England illegally around the time of 1941.
I don't want to remember anymore.
Anna of Claverley."
The letter's origin was discovered by the police to be from a woman named Una Mossop. She had been the wife of Jack Mossop, who in 1941 was working at an ammunition depot situated in Coventry. Based on what Una shared with authorities, it seems that Jack utilized his work position as a means for relaying critical intel to a Dutchman called Van Ralt. This individual appeared to be involved with Nazi espionage activities within West Midlands area. Like the first letter indicated, Bella was a Dutch lady who arrived in England during 1941 and got involved with spying activities. Una shared that Jack admitted to her about this when the pressure of his guilt became too much for him:
“Around March or April 1941, Jack said he went to the Lyttleton Arms pub with Van Ralt and a Dutch girl. After the lady drank too much, they moved her to the bushes and put her in a tree hollow as a joke, thinking she would wake up next day.”Jack's telling suggests the lady was living when they deserted her. However, the dread of this episode stayed with him, and he passed away in a Stafford hospital within one year. The police and MI5 looked into Una's tale but could not locate any data about Van Ralt…
During his book research, Donald McCormick interviewed a past Nazi named Franz Rathgeb, who was involved in England during the war. He said he knew of a German spy called Lehrer with a Dutch girlfriend named Clarabella Dronkers; she lived in Birmingham back in 1942 and had teeth that were not aligned correctly.
The resemblance between Una's story and Rathgeb’s details was quite noticeable. Both accounts mentioned that Bella came to England illegally in 1941, and there were talks about two German parachutists who landed in the Hagley Wood area but then disappeared. Rathgeb also stated that Clarabella was approximately thirty years old and had unique teeth features. Despite such a connection provided by Rathgeb, no evidence could confirm that Clarabella was the woman whose name was mentioned in the graffiti.
After many years of investigation, piecing together various clues only led to dead ends. Consequently, the police decided to close this unsolved case.
No Technology can Bring You Back
In today's times, using technology of our day, it could be possible to rebuild Bella's whole face and examine DNA from her remains for finding out who she was. But a case with so many secrets will not have an easy end like that. The bones of Bella disappeared more than sixty years ago from the laboratory at University of Birmingham where they were kept - nobody has any information about where they went. The mysteries piled upon one another in the Hagley Wood case might imply that we will never discover who placed Bella into the wych elm, a query that has lingered for over seventy years.
Author’s note
Yes, I know, I know. I apologize for disappearing into the void and not publishing anything new for the past week (or month, I've lost track). But here you go. From the last post, a reader mentioned enjoying old death cases, so I thought it would be interesting to delve into another one. For anyone who is interested in old cases and World War II, you're welcome.
Yes, I am fine. Yes, I am still doing well, and no, I am not giving up (so far, so good). It's just that I don't have as much free time compared to other authors. But hey, you can't rush art, right?
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This is Wyzard’s Explain: You just finished reading “A Rest in the Nest." Have a nice week <3.