Catapult riddle
Mercury Staff Reporter.
Ballistics experts from Aston University have been called in to try to help catch a catapult marksman who has been bombarding the windows of four Birmingham houses with stones for the last six months. The stones break the back windows of the four homes in Thornton Road, Ward End, which have 150-foot gardens. Thousands of pounds worth of damage has been done.
Birmingham Weekly Mercury, 13th December 1981.
Ghost theory for street’s stone-flinger.
A poltergeist may be the phantom stone-flinger who has caused thousands of pounds worth of damage in a city street. Frightened residents in Thornton Road, Ward End, Birmingham, have been barricading their homes in a bid to beat the nightly showers of stones thrown at their windows. Police have been trying to trace the culprit since July, putting a watch on the four homes affected, and using infra-red cameras, but so far the mystery chucker has not been identified.
There are now suggestions a poltergeist may be at work, and the Rev Peter Lawrence, vicar of Christ Church, Ward End, has been called in. But he said he has no evidence so far of supernatural activity.
Residents have sent in a flood of insurance claims after windows were shattered in the attacks, and one man was slightly hurt when he was showered with glass. Pensioner Joseph Malcolm said he had lived in the street since he was a child and could see no reason for the attacks. “It’s very worrying and we have no idea who could be doing this. It has been going on for about three years, but got much worse in June when we had attacks nearly every night, with the exception of Saturdays. Some of us have wire mesh up in front of our houses, and one has wooden shutters, but still stones about 2in wide are thrown. The neighbours have not fallen out so I can’t see why these things are happening.”
Shropshire Star, 15th December 1981.
Going bump in the night.
A quiet suburban street in the heart of Birmingham has become the victim of savage and almost nightly stone attacks – and the police are at a complete loss. That is not surprising, according to space age visionary Arthur C Clarke. The culprits could be a ghost, ghoul or something that goes bump in the night.
The residents of the houses in Thornton Road, Washwood Heath, have spent several distressing and expensive years trying to figure out why they should have been singled out for these devastating attacks from stones which seem to come from nowhere.
The stones are all potato-sized, dirt-free and appear to have been washed or scrubbed.
The Thornton Road case has many of the hallmarks of classic poltergeist assaults and Arthur C Clarke’s World of Strange Powers (Central, 7.0) reports a similar case of stone throwing at Tucson, Arizona, where the local sheriff is equally baffled.
Vanda Rumney
Birmingham Mail, 10th April 1985.
‘Phantom’ hurls his last stone.
Families terrorised by a phantom stone-thrower are once again living in peace. A three-year nightmare for neighbours in a suburban Birmingham street ended as suddenly and mysteriously, as it began. But the culprit, who bombarded homes with cricket ball sized missiles has never been caught despite a police hunt of murder-style proportions.
The lull in regular nightly attacks aimed at four houses in Thirton Road, Ward End has now lasted more than a year.
Mr David Rivitt, a 41-year-old sales rep who moved into number 30, 12 months ago, said today: “There is no problem at all and in fact it had ceased before we arrived.”
This week the street was featured in a television programme when space age visionary Arthur C Clarke put forward the theory that a poltergeist could have been responsible. However, Mr Rivitt, a father-of-two, said: “I have no idea what caused it, but I am sure it was not a ghost. I am just glad it has stopped and we are not suffering.”
Chief Inspector Len Turley of Bromford Lane Police said 3000 police manhours had been spent trying to catch the stone-thrower without success. As many as 10 officers a night had been on stake-outs and sophisticated equipment had also been fruitlessly used, as well as tracker dogs.
“I have a bag of the stones we have recovered in my office. They all appear to have been scrubbed clean of dirt,” he said. “The whole affair is a big mystery as ever and it is certainly the most unusual case I have ever dealt with.”
He also disagreed with the ghost or ghoul theory, and said it was more likely to be a vandal.
Families forced to turn their homes into fortresses after suffering hundreds of pounds worth of damage, feared the phantom used a giant catapult, but this was never proved.
Birmingham Mail, 13th April 1985.
It’s the X-smile.
Families chuckle as vandals become a paranormal mystery.
By Vincent Crump.
It’s the spooky, real-life X Files mystery caused by… stone-throwing children. A long-forgotten vandal attack on a street of homes in Birmingham is being given a sinister twist. It is being featured in a top-selling book based on the hit TV series about spook-finding FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. The book claims a spate of stone-throwing attacks which plagued four houses in Thornton Road, Ward End, may have been the work of a poltergeist. The case is listed in a chapter exploring alleged true-life tales of the paranormal. The story is also included on a new CD-rom computer disc called The Unexplained, which explores mysteries which are “beyond the explanation of modern science.”
But families living in Thornton Road yesterday scoffed at the bizarre claims and so did the police. Instead of ghosts, phantoms or alien invaders, they blame a yob wielding a catapult.
The spate of stone attacks in Thornton Road stretched over a 12-month period in 1981 and 1982. At the time, the Sunday Mercury told how families were saddled with a £1000 repair bill from the night-time bombardments, which shattered windows and roof tiles. West Midlands police launched a major investigation, including stationing plain clothes officers in the gardens and rigging up infra-red cameras in windows. The investigation drew a blank and eventually the hail of missiles stopped.
Yesterday, John and Betty Johnson, who still live in one of the four homes, said they were bemused by The X Files Book of the Unexplained. Retired car worker John, aged 69, said: “I find the whole thing preposterous. “Nobody came and asked us our opinions before the book was published. This theory about a poltergeist was around at the time but I didn’t believe it for a minute. I told people not to be so silly.”
A West Midlands Police [sic] said: “It looks like some people are presenting the case in a certain way to suit their own purpose.”
How we broke the story:
The year of fear in Thornton road.
As dusk falls tonight on a Midland suburban road, frightened residents will check their barricades and prepare to fend off yet another mystery attack on their homes. In over a year of misery they have had to shelter behind wire defence screens and locked doors as stones rain down in the dead of night, shattering roof tiles, ripping gutters and breaking windows.
The barrage has been directed at just four houses in respectable Thornton Road in the Birmingham suburb of Ward End. The trail of destruction has left the residents with bills of over £1000 and despite a major police investigation throughout the area, none of the culprits has been apprehended, and no reason for the incredible [?] has come to light.
Hundreds of people living in surrounding streets have been questioned. Plain clothes policemen have hidden in the victims gardens throughout the [night?]
Birmingham Weekly Mercury, 11th August 1996.