GHOSTS AROUND UNITED KINGDOM

DEAR AGNES: LETTERS FROM THE DEAD, BRISTOL

Dear Agnes: Letters From the Dead.

Old letter, like the one received by Judith Manson, during the "Dear Agnes" mystery.

Most people consider "trolling" to be one of the less palatable by-products of the multi-media age. The term is heavily associated with modern technology and the concept of "cyber bullying". However, the reality is that this internet phenomenon actually has roots that stretch deep into the past.

The predecessor of trolling was the poison pen letter – anonymous written correspondence containing threats and/or other forms of hate, much like internet trolling. Poison pen letters were a popular way in which the cowardly could attack their unsuspecting victims without confronting them face-to-face. The effect of such communications would depend very much on the personal resilience of the recipient, but on occasions they were devastating, leading to fear, anxiety, depression and even suicidal tendencies.

In the mid 1940s a particularly strange sequence of events came to light, which were allegedly triggered by a flood of poison pen letters targeted at one unfortunate individual. An experience that was born out of cruel mischief-making went on to acquire much more sinister and perplexing tones, leading to a flurry of interest from supernatural researchers and forcing many to question whether real-world negativity could act as a vector for empowering malevolent spirits.

In 1945, Judith Manson lived in the Clifton area of Bristol. She lived alone, in a large terraced house, which she had once shared with her now long-dead husband, Arthur Manson. She was locally renowned as as a colorful, eccentric character, with a fondness for purple clothing and peacock's feather hats. She was also known for her very public interest in the supernatural.

Judith's life had been turned upside when her young husband was killed during First World War combat. Aged just 26 she became a widow and the loss devastated her. Struggling under the burden of grief, Judith's spirit was broken. She went on to live the life of a recluse for the next 20 years, never leaving her home and shunning all avoidable contact from the outside world, including family and friends.

Eventually, the cloak of despair lifted and by the late 1930s Judith was finding her way in the world again. She was leaving the house regularly and engaging with the outside world in a relatively normal fashion. However, the years of isolation had impacted significantly on her character. In particular, she emerged from her self-imposed seclusion with a new fondness for the paranormal. Indeed, fondness is an understatement; she was obsessed.

Judith would talk endlessly about the supernatural world, informing anyone who would listen of her own supposedly paranormal experiences. She vehemently believed that a group of spirits had been attempting to make contact with her in a variety of bizarre and specious ways. One particularly colourful tale related to a letter that had been delivered to her house in the 1930s. The letter was post-marked 1902 and had thus been sent decades before it arrived. It was addressed to a woman called Agnes Meades, who Judith knew to be a now deceased previous occupant of the property. The correspondence contained horrific details of a tragic accident that had claimed the lives of three of Mrs Meades grown-up children.

Of course, most people took Judith Manson for delusional and pretty soon she acquired the reputation of an weird eccentric. Eventually, after many futile years of attempting to convince non-believers, Judith made contact with an amateur research team that had been created to investigate "unexplained phenomena". The loose organisation was a forerunner of today's "scientific" paranormal investigators. The members would attempt to use empirical research methods to document and explain mysterious occurrences in the South West. Intrigued by Judith's insistence that her home was haunted, the group agreed to investigate the property and enlisted a well-known medium in the process.

By the time the paranormal researchers began investigating Judith Manson's claims, there had been a small shift in attitudes towards paranormal investigation, which had been precipitated by some high profile witchcraft cases reported in the press during the Second World War. When news of the group's activities leaked, press in Bristol became interested in the story. Judith was tracked down and quizzed for information on what was happening at her house. Obliging as ever, she explained that a seance had been held at the property as part of a paranormal investigations, during which contact was made with the spirit of a deceased female, who she firmly believed to be Agnes Meades, the woman named on the mysterious letter of 1902.

The following week, a popular regional newspaper ran a report on Judith's story, devoting half a page to it under the title "Dear Agnes: Letters From the Spirit World". The tone of the article was derogatory and mocking, which upset Judith deeply. However, there was far worse to come. Shortly after the newspaper reported the story, Judith began receiving more letters addressed to Agnes Meades. Unlike the first letter, these correspondences showed contemporary post dates, indicating that they had been written and sent recently. The communications ranged in terms of factual content, but all were based on the original narrative.

Over the following months, Judith Manson received dozens of hoax letters from across the country. Subsequent to the initial article that sparked the first wave of letters, Judith had written to the newspaper blasting the authors of the malicious correspondence for their narrow-minded intolerance. However, this move only served to worsen the situation, causing an escalation in the number of poison pen letters in the following weeks

As the volume of malicious communications began piling up, Judith started exhibiting behaviour that was unusual even for her. According to members of the research team (who were continuing to investigate Judith's house), she suddenly started dressing differently, abandoning her quirky purple frocks in favour of dowdy black dresses. Overnight, her voice seemed to change, taking on a gruffness that rendered her speech almost unrecognisable. More disturbing were the conversations that she would conduct openly with entities that were invisible to all others. Pretty soon, Judith was telling those around her that she was Agnes Meades, revealing details of a life that were as intricate as they were convincing.

Sceptics would probably attribute Judith's sudden change of character to a kind of nervous breakdown, believing the pressure of the anonymous hate letters had caused her to step into a self-made realm of fantasy. However, the members of the paranormal research team were less willing to relegate their friend to the dustbin of insanity. Judith's insistence that her home was haunted had caught their attention in the first place and their subsequent investigations had returned encouraging results. Once again, Judith was displaying a remarkable vehemency in what she was saying, only this time, she was saying it as Agnes Meades.

After a few weeks of observation, the researchers decided to take action. Judith was showing no sign of overcoming her new paranormal affliction; indeed, the problem just appeared to deepen, with increasingly bizarre behaviour exhibited. Pretty soon, those around Judith determined that removing her from the property was probably the best course of action to ensure recovery. Whether they believed she was possessed or not, clearly remaining in the "haunted house" was having a negative impact on her.

After planning the "removal" for several days, the team managed to convince Judith to leave the property under the guise of visiting a local records office. Once in the car, Judith was whisked away and taken to her temporary home – a heavily secured flat on the other side of town, which was owned by one of the paranormal researchers. Initially reluctant, Judith was eventually forced to accept her new living conditions and within days of moving in was showing signs of returning to her original self. Soon she was dressing as she used to and within days she started referring to herself as Judith again. When she was confronted with an account of her apparent "possession" she determined never to return to her home again. It was a resolution that held true.