Monsters from the Shadows: The Halifax Slasher and other Monsters from the Shadows
A brief history of imaginary assailants, including the Halifax Slasher, the London Monster, Spring-heeled Jack, the Todmorden Shaker, needle spikers and more…
Paul will discuss the weird history of phantom attacker panics – when a community becomes mistakenly convinced there is a bogey man in the shadows leading to terror, hysteria and paranoia.
The talk will also include a Phantom Attacker Detection Kit: tips on how to recognise phantom attacker panics when they occur – and they will!
Bio
Paul Weatherhead is a native of the Calder Valley and was brought up in Hebden Bridge. After several years teaching in Greece, Moscow and Northern Siberia, he returned to the Valley in the late 1990s. He has a longstanding obsession with the weird history of the area leading to the first edition of Weird Calderdale in 2003 which went on to become a local best-seller. His research into Alan Godfrey’s alien encounter led to a deeper investigation into the phenomenon, which formed his Master of Arts dissertation about the philosophy of alien abduction.
Paul’s writing has been published in various magazines and journals, including Psychology Today, The Skeptic, Northern Life and Psychedelic Scene magazine.
His books include
· Weird Calderdale: Strange and Horrible Local History (Tom Bell Publishing)
· Social Panics and Phantom Attackers: A Study of Phantom Assailants (with Robert Bartholomew) (Palgrave Macmillan)
· Phantoms of Christmas Past: Festive Ghost Hoaxes, Ghost Hunts and Ghost Panics (Sixth Books)
As well as his research interests, Paul is a musician and songwriter, playing electric mandolin with a cult folk rock band as well as composing his solo work of comic folk horror songs inspired by 60s psychedelia, 80s video nasties and the Hebden Bridge Times.
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