Podchaser Logo
Home
Listen Now: Ghost Story

Listen Now: Ghost Story

BonusReleased Monday, 23rd October 2023
Good episode? Give it some love!
Listen Now: Ghost Story

Listen Now: Ghost Story

Listen Now: Ghost Story

Listen Now: Ghost Story

BonusMonday, 23rd October 2023
Good episode? Give it some love!
Rate Episode

Episode Transcript

Transcripts are displayed as originally observed. Some content, including advertisements may have changed.

Use Ctrl + F to search

0:00

Hey listeners, as part of the Morbid

0:02

Podcast Network, we tell the

0:04

kind of spooky and macabre stories

0:07

that send chills down your

0:09

spine. But few

0:11

stories are creepier than the one

0:13

at the center of the new podcast,

0:16

Ghost Story. The host, Tristan

0:19

Redman, is a journalist investigating

0:21

a supernatural murder-suicide

0:24

in his own family.

0:25

Tristan would be the first to tell you, he

0:28

never used to believe in ghosts. Sure,

0:31

odd things happened in his childhood bedroom

0:33

in London. Objects that moved

0:35

around inexplicably, lights

0:38

that switched themselves on and off,

0:40

but ultimately, he shrugged it all

0:42

off.

0:43

That is, until a couple of years

0:45

ago, when he discovered that every

0:48

subsequent occupant of

0:50

the top floor of that house was convinced

0:53

they'd experienced something inexplicable

0:56

too.

0:57

From Wondery and Pineapple

0:59

Street Studios comes Ghost Story,

1:02

a podcast about family secrets,

1:05

overwhelming coincidence, and the

1:07

things that come back to haunt us.

1:09

I'm about to play a clip from Ghost Story.

1:12

Follow Ghost Story on the Wondery app

1:15

or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:25

I want to tell you a story. Well,

1:27

it's really three stories all wrapped around each

1:29

other. It's a ghost story,

1:32

it's a murder mystery, and it's a family

1:34

drama. By which I mean, it's

1:37

about my wife's family, her family's

1:39

history. And there's a chance

1:41

they'll disown me for doing this.

1:45

If you come out with a piece that says he was a murderer,

1:48

then I will be sorry that we

1:51

ever said we would contribute to it.

1:59

But before we get into any of that, let's

2:02

start at the beginning, with

2:05

a thing that set all of this in motion.

2:10

When I was 16 back in the 90s, my

2:13

family moved to an old Victorian

2:15

house in London, on a street called

2:18

Queens Road.

2:20

I slept in a bedroom tucked into the

2:22

creaky top floor and weird

2:24

things would happen up there. I'd

2:27

wake up and objects would have moved

2:29

across the room, specifically

2:31

this one vase. When

2:34

I'd go to bed, it'd be on the mantelpiece,

2:37

and then in the morning I'd find it on the desk.

2:40

I'd put it back, and the next morning I'd find

2:42

it somewhere else. Lights

2:45

would flash on and off on their own, and

2:47

I'd get this uncomfortable cold feeling whenever

2:49

I was alone in the house. It

2:52

freaked me out at the time, but the

2:54

truth is, I didn't really think much of it.

2:57

I was a teenager, I had other

2:59

things on my mind. Every

3:01

now and then I'd ask my sister if she was

3:03

messing with me, but she always swore

3:05

she wasn't. I grew

3:07

up, left home, and became a

3:09

journalist for Aldozira. I

3:11

cover things like French labour strikes in

3:13

the war in Ukraine. I don't believe

3:16

in ghosts. So when my family

3:18

moved out of the house on Queens Road, I

3:20

completely forgot about the weird stuff that

3:22

happened in there. Until

3:25

that is, a few years ago, a man

3:28

reached out, an old neighbour of

3:30

ours, with a story about

3:33

that very room. I

3:36

mean, it's quite a story. His

3:38

name is Charles Benény, and

3:40

he knows everything about this neighbourhood.

3:43

You could say he's a bit of a gossip, but

3:45

you probably shouldn't. Flanders gives

3:47

completely the wrong impression. Anyway,

3:50

this is what he told me. Charles

3:52

was walking around my old neighbourhood one day, going

3:55

door to door, collecting donations

3:57

for the local museum. I

3:59

was there rapping.

4:58

don't

6:00

believe in that sort of thing. So

6:03

I rang your father and

6:05

he said that was Tristram's rom.

6:09

So I imagine he phoned you and the

6:11

cat was out of the bag. I

6:16

promise you, and I hope you believe me,

6:18

that I don't normally find

6:21

myself having conversations like this, or

6:23

even entertaining these sorts of ideas.

6:26

But it's kind of weird, you

6:32

now have three completely unconnected

6:35

families who have had some

6:38

sort of strange

6:40

in-expericable experience on the top

6:43

floor of that house. I think it's wonderful.

6:47

It was definitely intriguing, but

6:49

it probably wouldn't have been anything more than a

6:52

story I'd tell my friends in the pub. Except

6:55

I couldn't stop thinking about this faceless

6:58

woman. And that's because

7:00

there's another coincidence, something

7:03

I hadn't thought about in years. So

7:06

I guess Tristram and I had just started going out and

7:10

they invited my parents round to

7:12

his house to come and say hi. I

7:14

first learned about it when my wife Kate and

7:16

I had just started dating about 20 years

7:19

ago. My family still

7:21

lived in the house on Queen's Road, the

7:23

one with the supposed ghost. And

7:25

Kate was staying with us. And my granddad

7:28

was in London, so they invited him over too. She

7:30

was very close to her grandfather, so my folks

7:33

asked if he'd join us.

7:34

So granddad arrived. He's

7:38

got nice rosy cheeks granddad, like

7:40

all the men in my family. He wore

7:43

a berry every day

7:44

to keep his bald head warm.

7:48

And then my granddad walked into the house

7:51

and

7:52

before he said anything else,

7:55

he said

7:56

my mother was murdered in

7:58

the house next door.

8:03

And I don't think we had ever put two and

8:05

two together between

8:07

where Tris lived

8:10

and this big murder that happened in the family.

8:18

To be clear, I'd never heard

8:20

about this murder before. In fact,

8:22

Kate didn't know a lot about it either. Just

8:24

that her great-grandmother had been killed decades

8:27

before. She had no idea

8:29

that it happened here. Neither

8:31

of us had any clue at the time that my

8:33

new girlfriend's family had any

8:35

connection to this neighborhood, let alone

8:38

the house next door. But

8:41

the details of the murder make the coincidence

8:44

even stranger. Because

8:46

just next door to my house, the

8:48

house supposedly haunted by a faceless

8:51

woman, Kate's great-grandmother

8:54

was killed by two gunshots to

8:56

the face.

Unlock more with Podchaser Pro

  • Audience Insights
  • Contact Information
  • Demographics
  • Charts
  • Sponsor History
  • and More!
Pro Features