01x03 - The Edinburgh Executioner

[bunniefuu]

- There may be close
to 450,000 bodies

buried in Greyfriars Graveyard,

most of them without coffins.

When you go in there,
you are literally standing

on a mountain of dead people.

There's a legend about the
king's advocate

of Charles II, George Mackenzie.

He condemned hundreds of men,
women, and children to death.

He died in 1691.

But it's said that he haunts
Greyfriars Graveyard

because of the atrocities he
committed when he was alive.

In the 1700s, 1800s, children
from Heriot's School next door

used to come into the graveyard

and dare each other to go up

to the door of the mausoleum.

The question of
whether I am a skeptic

or whether I
wholeheartedly believe

the evidence put before me,

it's more difficult
than you might think.

Inherently in me, I'm
a complete skeptic.

And yet, just the
things I've seen,

the overwhelming volume
of evidence that we collected,

it's pretty hard to ignore.

I'd been living in
Edinburgh for many years

when I heard a story
that changed my entire life.

This was a story
that was told to me

by a caretaker at the church
of Greyfriars Graveyard.

It was a horrendous winter.

A homeless man
came into the graveyard,

looking for
somewhere to shelter.

And he spotted a
large mausoleum,

which was George
Mackenzie's tomb.

And he fell through into
a chamber underneath.

It was a huge pile of
decomposed bodies.

A dog walker, who was
taking his dog at night

through the graveyard...

- Terrified, they
both ran for it.

Seemed like that was the
end of the incident, really.

But I began to hear rumors

there was something
in the graveyard.

They had woken something up.

I moved to Edinburgh and
did a degree in philosophy

and English literature.

I had a real passion
for history, as well.

I love history.
It's fascinating.

And slowly, I got to know
the Edinburgh that I know now.

It's got a history.

This place stayed medieval
long after the rest of Europe

had cleaned up its act.

So it's not just a
long and rich history,

but it's also an incredibly
brutal and savage one as well.

As soon as I heard the
story of the homeless man,

I thought to myself, there's
a real opportunity here.

I could do something in
this graveyard with this story.

I decided to set up a
ghost tour company.

We hired four or five
guides who we thought

would be good at what they did.

However, it soon
transpired that we didn't

have to make up ghost stories.

After a few weeks,
I was doing a tour.

I'm talking away.

And suddenly...

this man, he just went
down onto the concrete floor.

A whole bunch of things
went through my mind.

But the first ones had nothing
to do with the supernatural.

It was like, should I
call an ambulance?

He went down like somebody
had hit him with a baseball bat.

The rest of the
tour was different.

The people inside the
mausoleum were scared,

properly scared.

And then it happened
again two or three days later.

Exactly the same thing.

The guides themselves,
they struggled with the things

that they were seeing, as well.

One of the guides
came in and said to me,

"I saw the scratches
appear on someone's face."

Like, they wasn't there,
and then suddenly they were.

After that, his whole
demeanor changed.

When he would finish a tour,

he wasn't happy and
joking about it anymore.

He was disturbed
by what he was doing.

- The year was 1999,

and I had just started out on
my first proper journalism job

at the "Edinburgh Evening News."

And this is my big break.

I worked with a
particularly brilliant

news editor who'd seen
a placard on the street

advertising ghost tours.

And I think there was some
kind of claim about attacks

or, you know, this
kind of vengeful ghost.

And he'd come back and
pulled me aside and said,

"I definitely think this
would be a great piece.

"Why don't you go
along and cover it

and write a feature on it?"

It's a difficult subject,
isn't it, because people

are open minded sometimes.

Sometimes people
are complete believers.

Sometimes people think
it's a whole lot of guff.

But I was a journalist,

and I was going along
there with an open mind.

The night that I went along
to cover the tour for the paper,

you know, it was an
Edinburgh winter's night.

So it was cold,
raining, a bit windy.

It's pitch black.

But you did think, what's
around that corner?

You know, sort of
crumbling old buildings

and things with all
the stories behind it.

Part of the tour was to go
down into this mausoleum.

And it was cold and damp.

It was very atmospheric.

And then everyone came back out.

And Jan had locked
it back up again.

And it was after then that
a few people started saying

that they had felt something.

One woman has said that she felt

this kind of chill
go through her.

Someone said that they
felt someone grab them.

A woman also said
that she felt quite unwell.

People were really,
genuinely frightened.

They were very
much of the opinion

that something that
they couldn't explain

had happened to them
down in that mausoleum.

I went back to the office.

I wrote up the piece.

It got a really good
position in the paper.

It was a big selling
paper at that time.

A lot of people read it.

And the fact that
people were talking

about their experiences
obviously resonated

with other people who'd
been in the graveyard.

This was the days
before social media,

so to kind of react to
something you read in the paper

was quite a big thing.

We got phone calls from people
who'd had similar experiences,

people writing letters,
people sending in photos,

people coming into the
offices, into the reception,

and wanting to talk to me
about their experiences.

There was a woman
that showed, it looked like

a kind of burn mark was
sort of around her neck

that she said hadn't
been there before she'd

gone into the mausoleum.

And then she'd come out
and felt this burning sensation.

Someone else sent
in pictures of a kind of

hand grasping mark on her wrist.

I didn't realize really how
much this story would grow

arms and legs,

because there were
people all over the world

that would come to Edinburgh
and have this experience.

So it was getting bigger
and bigger and bigger.

- Now to a somewhat
puzzling story in Edinburgh,

where investigations
are underway into a spate

of attacks in the city center.

So far they've been
isolated to one small area,

but it seems there's little
hope of finding the culprit.

Well, to explain everything
we can cross live to the capital

and our reporter,
Martin Geissler. Martin?

- Over the last eight months,

49 separate
paranormal experiences

are reported to have taken
place in this graveyard,

the most serious of
which came just last week,

when a 28-year-old college
lecturer from Edinburgh

noticed she suffered
serious bruising

to the side of her face.

- In the beginning, we were
just writing down the things

that had happened to people.

But when the cuts and
the scratches and the bites

became really severe,
we started to record them.

And people would send us stuff.

This one I remember.

She began screaming
that something

was holding on to her and that
she couldn't get away from it.

And then the next day,
we got that picture from her.

To begin with, I simply
didn't believe it was true.

I didn't believe any of
these things were happening.

But then as the months went
on, my opinion began to shift.

When the weight of evidence
became so huge that I couldn't

ignore it any longer,

I had to accept that
whatever this thing was,

I didn't have a good,
rational explanation for it.

All I knew what it was doing,
and that was hurting people.

It's quite severe.

Yeah, that one particularly,
that looks like, you know,

that's deep.

I thought, how are we
gonna justify it to ourselves

if it kills somebody?

- Poltergeist is a term.
It just means noisy spirit.

Most paranormal
experiences are harmless.

It's very rare to be
harmed in any way.

So this is an unusual case.

The fact that the
tomb was broken into it

does tie into a long-running
sort of theme or trope

in the paranormal that there has

to be some kind of trigger.

Why is there a disturbance?
Why do things start to happen?

It's because they're...
Well, in this instance,

a tomb was desecrated.

And what's more likely to
anger or make a spirit unquiet

than the resting
place disturbed?

And it's not just anyone's tomb.

It's this controversial
figure in Scottish history,

Sir George Mackenzie,
who was responsible

for the persecution
of essentially

the majority of
Scottish religious people

for decades during the 1600s.

He was the lord advocate.

He was responsible for enforcing

the king of England's
laws in Scotland,

trying to interfere in
the religion of Scotland,

which meant that the
people that would not agree

were basically treasonous
and tried as such.

And the worst
offenders were ex*cuted.

So Mackenzie had
blood on his hands.

I'm an investigator
with the Scottish Society

for Psychical Research.

We investigate the paranormal
in a scientific manner.

This one's fairly typical.

"On entering the mausoleum,
I heard what can only describe

"as scraping steps to
the right-hand side of me,

"though I was alone in the tomb.

"When I sat down,
I took my jacket off.

"My mate asked me what
the mark was on my neck.

"I looked in the
mirror and saw what

"I can only describe as a red
burn mark, like a big blotch.

It looked like I had three
finger marks on my throat."

Not only is this
quite a severe bruise,

but it's basically
somewhere you'd presumably

definitely notice, if pressure
was applied to your neck.

That seems to be really
quite hard to explain.

However, as a
responsible investigator,

I have to investigate
things scientifically.

These might be psychosomatic.

Once primed to know
that these sorts of things

happen in this location,

essentially you
hypnotize yourself

and your body
creates these effects.

We know from loads
of psychological studies

that expectancy can
have a tremendous

reality-warping effect.

The mind is extremely potent.

It has this ability to
create physical sensations,

even physical injuries,
even though it's your mind

over your own matter.

But if it is paranormal, why
would George McKenzie

be attacking people?

- I was fortunate
enough to be able to rent

a flat in Candlemaker Row.

And it was overlooking
Greyfriars Graveyard.

So that became our office,
as well as where I lived.

At this point, I
wanted to write a book

about the Mackenzie poltergeist.

I had all of this information.

I had collected all of these

eyewitness accounts,
photographs.

I pretty much had
sole access to all

of the information about
the Mackenzie poltergeist.

I was drawn to this thing.

It fascinated me.

I was making
my living out of it.

I wanted to write about
it. I wanted to study it.

I just couldn't stop.

But it didn't warrant
the kind of scrutiny

that I was giving it.

It seemed like the only person
who couldn't see that was me.

- After the initial feature,

the Mackenzie poltergeist story

was proving really popular.

We're a newspaper, so
we realized that we wanted

to not just report about what
people were experiencing,

but do something more ourselves.

I chatted with the news editor,

and we were sort of
throwing a few ideas around,

but thought that one of
the kind of best things to do

would be to see whether we
could get someone to agree

to perform an exorcism
in the graveyard

and kind of almost try and
move the poltergeist on as well,

because there
were so many people

talking about it that
actually we thought

it would be, you know,
kind of the next chapter

in the story.

It's quite an unusual thing
to be asking someone,

even that does exorcisms,
you know, to say,

"Can you come to this
graveyard and, you know,

try and sort out
this poltergeist?"

So the first person
said "Absolutely not."

You know, "It's
just not something

that I want to get involved in."

And then I rang Colin Grant.

Colin was a
Christian spiritualist

and a minister in a
local church as well.

He was a warm,
open-minded person

and very highly regarded.

But Colin wasn't really sure.

He thought about it.

And he agreed to do it
because he thought it would help.

I don't think either of us
realized the kind of impact

that it would have.

- Claire Gardner approached
me first with the idea

of doing an exorcism.

I wasn't particularly
keen on the idea.

It was just this
feeling with myself

and among the guides
that, let's not rock the boat

any more than we have.

But it wasn't really my place
to say, no, you can't do it.

And I actually went along.

- The night of the
exorcism, it was dark,

and it was cold,
and it was drizzly.

I'd arranged to meet
Susan, our photographer,

and Jan and Colin
outside the gates.

Colin walked
around the graveyard

with his old battered
Bible and some holy water

and some candles, working
out where he wanted to work first

and where he wanted to be.

And it was all just
very understated.

You know, you wouldn't think
that something life changing

was about to happen.

He set out a kind
of circle of candles,

put a crucifix in the front

and a smaller
crucifix at the back.

I remember he sort
of paced up and down.

And he was sort of chucking
holy water in various places

and reading from the Bible.

There was power in
the quietness, I think.

You know, and I was
kinda saying to him,

"What can you see?"

And he was talking
about all these spirits

that were trapped and
wanting him to free them.

It was a very
intimate thing, I think,

that we were watching, of
him releasing all these souls,

so there was a quietness to it.

- But then once he'd
finished this ritual,

he walked towards the
mausoleum and got to the gate.

He staggered a bit.

We kind of all went,
"Are you OK, Colin?"

And he said, "I'm absolutely
not going down there.

"There's something
too powerful for me.

I don't want to
interfere with that."

Obviously, he felt
some powerful force that,

you know, even
with his experience

and with his belief,

he didn't feel that he
wanted to take that on.

He said that he feared reprisals

if he started meddling.

Colin did seem really
quite kind of wrung out,

did take a lot out of him.

His wife was waiting for him,

so we kinda said our goodbyes
and walking towards the gate.

And again, he staggered a bit.

- Behind these gates
was an open-air prison.

1,200 prisoners persecuted
by Sir George Mackenzie

were kept in that prison.

Only 269 survived.

The human misery
and suffering must

have been terrible in here.

For spiritualists and
spiritualist ministers,

they would view the
situation as souls or spirits

being earthbound or trapped,

like some kind of
distilled black ink

of human misery
that just sits there.

And people entering
the mausoleum

are like blotting paper,

they're absorbing
these experiences

and taking parts of
those experiences away.

From a psychological
point of view,

once you start to believe
or expect the paranormal,

and that's that cognitive
expectation bias.

You start to interpret more
and more as being paranormal.

Every time you hear a creak
or a tap against the window,

you might start to feel dizzy.

You might start to feel sick.

It becomes paranormal.

- I went home
after the exorcism.

Obviously, I couldn't sleep.

I sort of sprinted
into work the next day

to write it all up.

When I had written
up the exorcism,

we went through a
lot of the photos that

were taken from that night.

And the picture editor
called me over and said,

"Oh my God, come and have a look

"at one that we've got here.

We just can't work it out."

- I'd done a few
jobs with Claire.

And we worked well together.

And it was just
another job, really.

Claire how to interview
him, and I had to get a photo.

We got it all set
up, got the candle.

And I did have a flash on.

And we kinda took a
couple of different shots

and things like that.

And I didn't develop the
stuff until the next day.

We were going
through the photos,

searching them all,

and working on what
we were gonna use.

And then this was when

we blew up this one photo.

It kinda describe everything,
because you've got him,

you've got the candle.

You've got the
graveyards around him.

It was nicely lit.

And then this was
when we noticed

this shadow in the window.

I kept saying, "It
can't be the flash,"

because the flash wasn't
pointed in that direction.

And even if it was, there
had to have been something

to cause the shadow.

So I went back that day.
I checked out the window.

I checked the window sill. I
checked the area around it.

There's no statue.
There's no bust

of a head or anything
like that in that window.

And I went back to
my editor and said,

"There is nothing there
that could have caused that."

There's literally nothing there.

- Who knows what that is?

You could imagine it's
somebody peering out the window.

But this is a perfect
example of just

because you don't
know what that is,

it does not mean it is unknown.

The story just keeps
on going because people

want to believe.

- The story continued to
generate a lot of interest.

But then I got a phone call.

And it was Colin's
son on the phone.

And he rang and said,

"Colin's dead."

And yeah, I just
had a moment of,

you know, that
moment of disbelief,

I think, when you get a
call like that, saying, what?

You know, what?

And he said that he
was doing a reading

in his shop in Edinburgh,
and was nearing the end of it.

And apparently he had
said to the lady he was

doing the reading for,
"I've got no good news left,

only bad news."

And he had a heart
attack and died.

You know, like, all
I could think about

was the time that
I'd last seen him

at the churchyard

and how he was
slightly exhausted

and how he'd talked so
much about how that exorcism

had taken so much out of him.

And yeah, I just thought,
God, that's just terrible.

And, you know, could
the two be related?

- When I found
out Colin had died,

I was sad about that.

And this whole thing worried me,

because finally
somebody had died.

So what might it do to us?

And it brought it home
to some of the guides,

especially, that they
were playing with fire.

And one by one,

in the two or three
weeks after that,

all of the original guides
said, "We're leaving."

It's happy just to cut
and bite and scratch you,

but don't push it.

Don't push it too far,
because if you do,

it's capable of so
much more than that.

- Colin Grant's death really
got the media's attention.

So now we were getting attention

not just from local media,
but from world media as well.

We had crews coming from
different parts of the world

and filming in the graveyard.

The poltergeist knocked
out a couple of people.

It cut and scratched
a few others.

But, you know, of course, it
didn't do the tours any harm.

Everything it does
is good for business

if it does something nasty,

which is one of the dichotomies

about the Mackenzie poltergeist.

And so we continued
what we were doing.

Guys, welcome to
Greyfriars Kirkyard.

Going by the book of
internments and the records,

there is up to 750,000
bodies under your feet.

You are walking
on a human lasagna.

- The really interesting
thing about this story

of the Mackenzie
poltergeist is it's basically

self-perpetuating.

You've got all these
hundreds of people, their skin

coming out in scars and
bruises and sometimes

burns and blisters.

You've got the spiritualist
minister Colin Grant

sadly passing away,
and all of that becomes

part of the myth,
part of the story.

- There has been
exorcism attempts

in Greyfriars over the years.

One in 1999 by Colin Grant.

He came in and
performed an exorcism.

Allegedly a week later, he
was doing a private reading

in his residence... bang,
heart stopped.

He dropped dead instantly.

- I don't regard this
as a particular mystery.

He was 66 years old.

There was a history of
heart problems in the family.

The family don't
regard it as a mystery.

- Some of the cases which
seems on the face of it

to have the most
impressive evidence

often have the
biggest question marks

over them in terms of motives.

And certainly this
case ticks a lot of boxes

because it's a
commercial enterprise.

For me personally, I still
haven't made my mind up.

It could be paranormal.

As a paranormal
investigator who's open

to the possibility
of the paranormal,

I would say, let
sleeping ghosts lie,

because sometimes, you know,

unpleasant or unwelcome
things can happen.

The story of the
Mackenzie poltergeist

may be the
equivalent of basically

people sticking their head in
a wasp's nest and being stung.

You know, don't stick
your head in a wasp's nest.

- I thought, I will not be
intimidated by something

that lives in a tomb.

And so I was still
writing a book about

the McKenzie poltergeist.

In hindsight, we were
just, we were ignoring

what was right in front of us.

And then it all came to a head
in the most horrendous way.

I was out, and I
got a phone call.

"You'd better get
back here right now."

I ran back to my house.

Firefighters were
tackling the blaze.

And they eventually
managed to put it out.

And I went in.

Everything, I mean, everything
I possessed was gone.

I lost everything I'd ever
gathered on the poltergeist

up to that point.

My computer was gone.

Two years' worth of notes

on the Mackenzie
poltergeist was gone.

The hard drive that
I used to back up to,

burned to a cinder.

Everything was gone,

and my home.

And yet, none of the
other flats were touched,

not even singed.

The one above me,
the one below me,

on either side... nothing.

It was simply my flat.

The firemen said it
looked like a flash fire

that had just gone
straight through

and destroyed everything.

Insurance investigators
looked at the place as well.

They could not find a reason
why the fire had started.

I could have chalked
it up to coincidence.

I still, there's a
part of me that

doesn't want to
believe it was anything

other than just a,
yeah, coincidence.

Part of me does
not want to believe

that an entity got back at me

because I was too nosy about it.

But it certainly
looks like that.

When the flat burned down,

I stopped being a
tour guide myself,

because my heart wasn't in it.

I started the tours
because I'd heard reports

of something attacking people

in Greyfriars Graveyard.

I didn't expect to
find anything real.

I've made peace
with the fact that I'll

never know what
I'm dealing with,

not the full extent of it.

The Mackenzie
poltergeist, for me,

for over the last 20 years,
has simply been a succession

of unanswered questions.

And so in some way, I
have given up asking.

I am now on the absolute
other side of the world.

I live in Brisbane, in
Australia, in Queensland,

so almost directly opposite.

Can't get me now.