Spooky Trees

A Blog, a Podcast and a YouTube Video explore Bella in the Wych Elm

My goodness… how people love an unsolved mystery. I guess there is a fair bit of fun in speculating on solutions. Bella in the Wych Elm generates a fair bit of blog posts, articles, podcasts and videos out there. I’ve come across a couple more recently…

Clara Bauerle
Clara Bauerle

Blog – Oh How Peculiar

A blog post on Tumblr notes the usual possibilities – prostitute, Dutch member of a spy ring, victim of a witch’s coven and… of course… that she was Clara Bauerle:

[one theory…] She was a part of a Nazi spy ring operating in the area. In declassified documents, a Nazi spy named Josef Jacobs was reportedly carrying a photograph of a woman he identified as Clara Bauerle. A music hall performer who had toured the Midlands before, he claimed that Bauerle was recruited and going to parachute into the area in 1941. Jacobs was captured before she was to have arrived and he was later executed by firing squad at the Tower of London. Investigators have been unable to eliminate Clara Bauerle as a match for “Bella.” [There is no evidence whatsoever that Clara Bauerle toured the Midlands. The Home Office records that tracked entry and exit records noted a different Klara Sophie Bauerle who had been in England in the 1930s.]

Podcast – Thinking Sideways

This is a bit different… a podcast on Bella in the Wych Elm. The podcast runs to about 45 minute and is, interestingly, hosted by a trio from Portland, OR – Joe, Steve, Devin. The main host (Joe) introduces the history of the story with the other two hosts (Steve and Devin) interjecting comments at various points In many ways it sounds like a morning radio show in North America where the hosts chat quite a bit with themselves. The co-hosts ask various clarifying questions, for example, how would the investigators know that the mystery woman had given birth? Answer – the hip bones change during pregnancy/child birth. Those questions and answers are generally helpful although sometimes they tend to go off onto tangents.

Apparently, the forensic examiner originally concluded that the body had been in the tree for four years (so, since 1939) and then revised his estimate to 18 months. That’s a pretty big spread… 18 months to 48 months. Clearly, determining time of death with little more than a skeleton is a tricky business. Many of the theories that Bella in the Wych Elm was Clara Bauerle would require the 18 month estimate to be fairly firm. It doesn’t sound like the forensic examiner would have been that certain of his estimate.

The podcast hosts cover the usual possibilities for Bella in the Wych Elm – victim of a witch coven, thief who had her hand cut off, a music hall singer of a West Midlands spy ring, and, of course, the Clara Bauerle theory. The hosts actually get the details of what Josef Jakobs said about Clara correct. Josef didn’t actually think Clara would be sent over since the Germans hadn’t heard from him. The hosts did make a tenuous connection with the music hall singer and Clara Bauerle – but it is a tenuous connection indeed. The hosts even mentioned my blog – which is nice. They do engage in a fair bit of discussion as to whether Clara could have been the singer who spent two years in the West Midlands, whether Clara spoke English, etc. According to one of the hosts, the Tower of London has all of Josef’s parachute gear (painted white). Actually, the parachute gear at the Tower are just generic props. The location of his parachute gear is unknown.

The hosts do mention the height difference between Bella and Clara and reference my website and conclude that the spy theory is far-fetched. The podcast was produced in 2014 so there is no mention of my tracking down Clara’s December 16, 1942, death certificate from Germany. The hosts then touch on a variety of other interesting parts of the story. Why was the body stuffed in a tree? Was she a local woman? Was she a refugee from London?

I thoroughly enjoyed this podcast. It was interesting and well researched, as well as entertaining.

Video – Cayleigh Elise – Nameless #3

This video, just over 15 minutes, goes into a fair bit of detail about about the West Midlands spy ring and the possibility that Bella in the Wych Elm was Clara Bella Dronkers, a Dutch woman and a member of the spy ring.

The video later notes that another spy, Johannes Marinus Dronkers was captured near the same area and might have a connection with Clara Bella Dronkers. This is not accurate. Johannes Marinus Dronkers was captured from a boat off the southeastern coast of England, nowhere near the West Midlands.

The video also spends a fair bit of time on the Clara Bauerle theory and does reference my blog and website. Again, there is no evidence that Clara Bauerle spent two years in the music hall scene of the West Midlands.Produced in November 2016, the video does reference my discovery of Clara Bauerle’s death registration in Berlin.

This was an interesting video and generally well-researched. It touches on many of the theories about Bella and presents the information well.

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