A "ghost story" of 1947, narrated by the alleged witness, one Margaret Mortimore, by a letter she sent to the Fate US magazine in November 1957, appeared in at least two "ghost stories" books in 2002 and 2009. Then it was introduced by British "skeptical" ufologist Peter Rogerson in his ufology catalog INTCAT of "encounters wih entities".
According to Rogerson, the witness letter told that in July 1947 at dusk, she was on a train going from Wareham to Poole, Dorset, U-K., when she became aware of a dark figure in the otherwise deserted and poorly lit carriage.
When the figure got up, Margaret saw that it was a woman dressed in black from head to toe, in "flowing robes", This woman looked at Margaret, revealing "a white face and staring eyes, which seemed to exude malice." The woman gestured at Margaret who jumped out of the moving train, apparently unharmed because the train came into the station.
We learn that "There was no sign of the figure on the platform."
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[Ref. pr1:] PETER ROGERSON:
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July 1947. Dusk. POOLE (DORSET : ENGLAND) Margaret Mortimore was on a train going from Wareham to Poole when she became aware of a dark figure in the otherwise deserted and poorly lit carriage. When the figure got up, Margaret saw that it was a woman dressed from head to toe in black, flowing robes, who looked at her to reveal a white face and staring eyes, which seemed to exude malice. The woman gestured at Margaret who felt impelled to jump out of the moving train, but was saved as the train came into the station. There was no sign of the figure on the platform. Guttridge 2009 p62 citing an a [sic] letter from Margaret Mortimore in an unspecified issue of Fate. Evans 2002 p125 citing Fate November 1957 p55. |
As he very often did, British ufologist Peter Rogerson [pr1] included in his INTCAT catalogue a story that obviously is not about UFOs, not about UFO occupants, not about aliens, but rather a "ghost stories" type report.
Rogerson did this, not because in his mind this would be a "UFO occupant" report, but because he intended to show that "imagination" and "invention" have always existed - which nobody should doubt - so that UFO occupants reports must be invented or imagined - which reasoning I cannot share.
This was actually only a letter from the alleged witness to the sensation magazine FATE in 1957. It later appeared in the "ghost stories" books indicated by Rogerson.
I see no strangeness in the story. A woman was apparently so frightened by another, weird-looking woman, that she panicked and got off the train they were in. The weird woman is not that weird, actually. There is nothing "paranormal" about her. It is likely to me that Mrs. Mortimore was frightened by a woman who misbehaved, giving her a mean look and dressed in a weird manner, possibly a woman with some psychosis or psychological disorder. It seems to me that this story does not really show imagination or invention, just some possibly unjustified fright, of a possibly too much impressionable woman (we know nothing about her). The indication that the weird woman was not on the platform after the witness went down the train has nothing really strange: she probably just stayed in the wagon. So, to me, this is not even a "good" ghost story".
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No strangeness, not UFO-related.
* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.
| Main Author: | Patrick Gross |
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| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Created/Changed By: | Date: | Change Description: |
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| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | October 10, 2018 | Creation, [pr1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | October 10, 2018 | First published. |
