William the skeleton is not happy
Brixham News: October 14th, 1994
BRIXHAM was swamped by media attention this week after we revealed the story surrounding the voodoo cursed skeleton found in a cottage in the town and featured on BBC TV in the new psychic phenomena programme "Out of This World".
Now through local medium Margaret Barratt, who has been in regular contact with the spirit of the skeleton, we can tell you the other side of the story.
"Ghostbuster" Graham Wyley explained to us how he came to be in possession of "The Little Guy" as he calls him and whom we now understand to be William Young, who died in Brixham in 1747 aged 48 years after a witch doctor's curse shrunk his body from 5 foot 11 inches to just 9 and a half inches.
A local businessman, who refuses to be named, gave the skeleton to Graham after his friends and family became victims of horrendous happenings which he said only started when he took the skeleton to his shop in town and allowed people to handle it.
But William told Margaret that he only started to attack the man and the others because they treated his remains with such disrespect.
Brixham News reporter Gina Coles has been to visit Margaret Barratt the medium shown in the TV programme, and through her Gina has been in contact with William Young's spirit.
BRIXHAM has hit the media headlines since we revealed the story behind the skeleton found by a business-man in the town and we can now complete the story, literally, from the other side!
Brixham medium Margaret Barratt has been in regular contact with the spirit of the skeleton, whom we now know to be sailor William Young, who died in the port in 1747 and she says that he has told her he has only harmed people who have treated his earthly remains with contempt.
Gina Coles reports from the "other side"
I have never met a medium before and although she sounded quite normal on the telephone I was still a little apprehensive as I rang the doorbell. This feeling was heightened by the fact that I was half-an-hour late for my appointment because the exhaust had fallen off my car and I was desperately trying to stop myself from jumping to the conclusion that William was up to his tricks again and was trying to tell me that he didn't want me interfering in his life, or should that be his death?
I needn't have worried about Margaret, she is an extremely friendly and unassuming lady and if I hadn't been told about her amazing psychic powers I certainly would not have known from her manner.
She led me into her immaculate and comfortable lounge and laughed when I told her of my fears about my exhaust, saying that William was quite happy with all the publicity and had promised to be good until after the TV programme had been shown for fear that the man at the centre of his attacks should try to stop the programme from going out. Now that the programme is over, however, she really does not know what William will get up to!
One thing is certain, according to Margaret, and that is that William is extremely protective of his skeleton and he is certainly very unhappy with the Brixham businessman who is the "owner" of it.
Speaking through Margaret, William has told me that he is also very cross about the programme, because it failed to properly show his life story and the story of problems encountered by his present owner, even though the programme's researchers had been given the full details. Margaret is going to write to the BBC to complain on William's behalf.
William has also confirmed to me that he is happy for Graham Wyley, Brixham's own "ghostbuster" , to keep his skeleton and that Graham's wife Thelma and Margaret also have his blessing to touch him.
Margaret revealed to me that it was not until long after she had described William's life story to Graham Wyley that either of them were made aware of the slave rings and carved whale's tooth which prove the story is correct.
I asked William if he had anything to do with the mysterious problems alleged to have been suffered by the actor who played the Brixham businessman in the TV film, which were reported by national newspapers, and he denied all knowledge of them, which leads me to suspect that they were publicity by the TV company. But personally I don't think that I would have put that sort of idea into William's head!
I was very curious as to what William's skeleton had been doing for the last 250 years, but was unable to get a very clear picture.
Through speaking to William, Margaret has managed to discover that the family (perhaps the Dashper occupants of the Dashper House) who looked after him before he died kept the skeleton after the local church refused to bury him because of the curse. But William did convey to me that this is the first problem he has had in the 250 years and Margaret is the first person to contact his spirit. He also confirmed, I am pleased to say, that he was not responsible for my exhaust falling off!