Article Review - Express & Star Newspaper - Punt P.I. Investigates Midlands Riddle

By -
Last month, I reviewed a radio show in which Punt P.I. (a gumshoe of the British airwaves) investigated the story of Bella in the Wych Elm. The radio show was quite good, but a newspaper article that preceded it had a few errors, some more glaring than others.

Article Review - Express & Star Newspaper - Punt P.I. Investigates Midlands RiddleThe article, entitled Punt P.I. Investigates Midlands Riddle, was published in the Express and Star, a regional British newspaper based in Wolverhampton, West Midlands. The article has several errors but the most glaring is a reference to "Czech-born Gestapo agent Josef Jakobs".

Josef Jakobs was not born in Czechoslovakia - he was born in Luxembourg to German parents, and was a German citizen. Karel Richter, a German spy who landed by parachute in England in May 1941, was born in the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia.

Josef Jakobs was not an agent of the Gestapo, but of the Abwehr. The two organizations were very, very different. The Gestapo were the German Secret State Police, or the Geheime Staatspolizei. It was a Nazi organization. The Abwehr was the German Intelligence Service. It was a military organization. The Abwehr, under Admiral Canaris did not get along with the Gestapo or its umbrella organization, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). In fact, there is evidence to suggest that Canaris used his organization to protect people from the Gestapo. There is absolutely no evidence that Josef Jakobs was a member of the Gestapo and such a comment in the article is indicative of poor research and/or poor understanding of Germany military history.

Finally, the article used a photograph of Josef Jakobs without citing the source of the photograph.

Review Score
2 out of 5 - poorly researched


References
Express & Star (online newspaper) - Punt P.I. Investigates Midlands Riddle - accessed September 26, 2014.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Clara Bauerle is Finally Laid to Rest

By -
Image
It has taken me a few years, pursuing many leads, but I can finally say that Clara Bauerle has been laid to rest.

Clara did not die stuffed into a Wych Elm in England. She was not Bella in the Wych Elm. She was a German actress and singer who passed away in a Berlin hospital on December 16, 1942.

A while ago, I ordered the birth registration for Clara, from the Standesamt in Ulm. That record gave her death registration number in Berlin.

With that in hand, I wrote to the relevant Standesamt in Berlin and, after a lengthy wait, received her death registration in the mail last week. Translation follows below...


The actress Hedwig Klara Bauerle, Protestant, living in Berlin, Bleibtreustrasse 32, did, on 16 December 1942 at 12:15 in Berlin-Oberschoneweide, Konigin-Elisabeth-Hospital, die.
The deceased was born on 27 August 1905 in Ulm (Standesamt Ulm/Donau Nr.../...).
Father - Fruitseller Adolf Bauerle, deceased, last living in Ulm.
Mother - Dorothea Barbara Bauerle, born Schaufele,…
Read more

Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?

By -
Image
Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?

On 18 April 1943, near the town of Stourbridge, four young boys in search of bird nests in Hagley Wood found a hollow elm tree (a Wych Elm or Scots Elm). One boy climbed up and peered into the hollow trunk and found a human skull staring back at him. Despite a pact of silence, one boy, Tommy Willetts, told his father about their grisly discovery and the police were quickly called.
The Worcestershire County Police recovered a skeleton from the trunk, along with some fragments of clothing and finger bones scattered around the trunk. A pathologist concluded that the remains belonged to a woman  who had been placed in the tree about 18 months previously (October 1941) while still warm. She had likely been asphyxiated due to the taffeta stuffed inside her mouth.


The woman was thought to be 35-40 years old. She was five feet tall with mousy brown hair and a deformed lower jaw. She wore a cheap gold wedding ring, no more than four years old, and had …
Read more

Bella in the Wych Elm - The Story of Jack Mossop

By -
Image
Who was Jack Mossop? Did he and an accomplice murder a woman after a night of drinking at the Lyttleton Arms near Hagley? Did they stuff her still warm body into a wych elm in Hagley Wood? Did the memory of this traumatic event drive Jack mad? Did he die of an overdose in a mental hospital in 1942?

So many questions. So many suppositions and rumours. It's hard to tease apart fact and fiction. But let's give it a try. Before we get started, I am deeply indebted to Duncan Honeybourne. for sharing his information on the Mossop clan. Duncan's grandmother was a first cousin of Jack Mossop and he has conducted extensive interviews with the elders in the Mossop-Crump family.

Family
It all begins in Ireland, as most great stories do. Maurice Mossop and his wife Mary, both born in County Mayo, emigrated to England with their three young sons, sometime between 1847 and 1851. The family settled in Eccleshall, Staffordshire and Maurice worked at various jobs including agricultural labo…
Read more