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"Martyn's Ape" admiring itself in a hand-mirror. Legend has it starving to death in a locked room following its mistress's suicide.
Credit: Carolina Manosca Grisales
Two stories with ghostly interest appearing in recent editions of Fortean Times deserve further comment.
The commemoration of Stan Gooch (1932–2010) in FT272:38–47 mentioned the collective vision of a prehistoric man occurring at a Coventry séance held in the late 1950s, perhaps symbolic of his theories of Neanderthal inheritance that occupied his mind in later years. Describing this manifestation in his classic book The Paranormal (1978), Gooch stated: “This was a crouching ape-like shape, which became clearer as the moments passed. I guess it approximated to most people’s idea of what an ancient cave man would look like. Yet one could not make out too much detail – the eyes were hidden, for example. It stood in half shadow, watching us, breathing heavily as if nervous. I must say, though, that I sensed rather than heard the breathing. I could not decide whether our visitor was wearing the skin of some animal, or whether it had a rough coat of hair of its own.” Despite being questioned and invited to join the circle, the figure showed little response and faded away. Reflecting on his later work, Gooch wondered “if it was [a] classic Neanderthal I saw that evening.” ...
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