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Authors: Peter Underwood
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jacket became known as the ‘Strangler Jacket’ and actress Thora Hird was among those who were affected by wearing it.
In 1948, Thora Hird was leading lady in A Queen Came By , a play set in the days of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, and part of her costume was an old short-backed, bolero-style jacket that had been made some five years earlier. Although there seemed ample room in the jacket and the size was right, Thora Hird found that it produced an unpleasant tightness about the arms and chest. She said nothing at first, but began to detest the coat, which seemed tighter every time she wore it.
One night, Thora Hird was unable to appear and her understudy, Erica Foyle, took over the part, and for the first time wore the jacket. She experienced exactly the same tight and unpleasant sensations, although she knew nothing of Thora Hird’s impressions. That night Erica Foyle saw the apparition of a young woman wearing the tight-fitting jacket.
Erica Foyle told her experiences to the stage manager, Marjorie Page, and when Thora Hird related feeling similar sensations, Marjorie Page tried the jacket on herself and found that it affected her in the same way. Mrs Frederick Pifford, wife of the play’s director, tried on the coat with no ill effect, until she removed it and those present pointed in horror at a series of red weals that had appeared on Mrs Pifford’s throat, marks that might have been expected after an attempt at strangulation! During the course of a séance held at the theatre a medium described a vision in which a young girl provoked insane jealousy and anger in a man who attacked the girl, tearing her clothes, until the girl fell backwards and she was forced into a barrel of water until she drowned. The man then dragged her body up a flight of stairs where he wrapped the body in a blanket and carried it down the stairs again, wet and dripping with water. Here the vision faded. At this point, Marjorie Page, who was watching the proceedings, exclaimed with some excitement that she had seen a very similar vision at the time she had worn the jacket, but it had seemed so fantastic that she had said nothing about it at the time. A little later, a man tried on the coat — and promptly fainted. A younger man took a turn and immediately seemed to have difficulty with his breathing.
The subsequent history of the jacket is interesting. It seems to have become the property of a man named Lloyd who lives in Los Angeles and within minutes of wearing the jacket his wife felt totally exhausted, almost as though she was being strangled or drowned; she complained of a feeling of suffocation of the lungs and an oppressive weight on her legs. A sixteen-year-old girl felt as though fingers were plucking at her throat when she wore the coat, another woman who tried it on said it felt as heavy as armour and it hurt her and a third woman hurriedly removed it after three minutes, saying that it seemed to choke her. The mental condition of those wearing the jacket and knowing something of the story associated with it may be the cause of the impressions received by later wearers of the ‘Strangler Jacket’, but what about the initial reactions of Thora Hird and her understudy? The origin of the jacket is obscure. There is some evidence that it was originally made for an early production of Charley’s Aunt and was stored at a theatrical costumier’s for nearly fifty years, but other people maintain that it was picked up from an old clothes stall at a London market. What is indisputable is that the coat is a piece of Victoriana and it was worn by a young woman in a play concerning Queen Victoria; perhaps the combination of these facts and circumstances sparked off some kind of psychic energy.
GOWER STREET, BLOOMSBURY
A teashop that used to stand at the north end of Gower Street (before the modernization of the road junctions there) was said to be haunted by the ghost of a man with a bandaged head, a man who vanished whenever
In 1948, Thora Hird was leading lady in A Queen Came By , a play set in the days of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, and part of her costume was an old short-backed, bolero-style jacket that had been made some five years earlier. Although there seemed ample room in the jacket and the size was right, Thora Hird found that it produced an unpleasant tightness about the arms and chest. She said nothing at first, but began to detest the coat, which seemed tighter every time she wore it.
One night, Thora Hird was unable to appear and her understudy, Erica Foyle, took over the part, and for the first time wore the jacket. She experienced exactly the same tight and unpleasant sensations, although she knew nothing of Thora Hird’s impressions. That night Erica Foyle saw the apparition of a young woman wearing the tight-fitting jacket.
Erica Foyle told her experiences to the stage manager, Marjorie Page, and when Thora Hird related feeling similar sensations, Marjorie Page tried the jacket on herself and found that it affected her in the same way. Mrs Frederick Pifford, wife of the play’s director, tried on the coat with no ill effect, until she removed it and those present pointed in horror at a series of red weals that had appeared on Mrs Pifford’s throat, marks that might have been expected after an attempt at strangulation! During the course of a séance held at the theatre a medium described a vision in which a young girl provoked insane jealousy and anger in a man who attacked the girl, tearing her clothes, until the girl fell backwards and she was forced into a barrel of water until she drowned. The man then dragged her body up a flight of stairs where he wrapped the body in a blanket and carried it down the stairs again, wet and dripping with water. Here the vision faded. At this point, Marjorie Page, who was watching the proceedings, exclaimed with some excitement that she had seen a very similar vision at the time she had worn the jacket, but it had seemed so fantastic that she had said nothing about it at the time. A little later, a man tried on the coat — and promptly fainted. A younger man took a turn and immediately seemed to have difficulty with his breathing.
The subsequent history of the jacket is interesting. It seems to have become the property of a man named Lloyd who lives in Los Angeles and within minutes of wearing the jacket his wife felt totally exhausted, almost as though she was being strangled or drowned; she complained of a feeling of suffocation of the lungs and an oppressive weight on her legs. A sixteen-year-old girl felt as though fingers were plucking at her throat when she wore the coat, another woman who tried it on said it felt as heavy as armour and it hurt her and a third woman hurriedly removed it after three minutes, saying that it seemed to choke her. The mental condition of those wearing the jacket and knowing something of the story associated with it may be the cause of the impressions received by later wearers of the ‘Strangler Jacket’, but what about the initial reactions of Thora Hird and her understudy? The origin of the jacket is obscure. There is some evidence that it was originally made for an early production of Charley’s Aunt and was stored at a theatrical costumier’s for nearly fifty years, but other people maintain that it was picked up from an old clothes stall at a London market. What is indisputable is that the coat is a piece of Victoriana and it was worn by a young woman in a play concerning Queen Victoria; perhaps the combination of these facts and circumstances sparked off some kind of psychic energy.
GOWER STREET, BLOOMSBURY
A teashop that used to stand at the north end of Gower Street (before the modernization of the road junctions there) was said to be haunted by the ghost of a man with a bandaged head, a man who vanished whenever
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