Investigating the Dark Underworld

This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Unexplained now has a substack page. If you enjoy Unexplained and want to go deeper into the world of the show, I've created a new space for all the bits that don't quite fit into the podcast. including the unexplained addendum, a weekly companion piece to each new episode. Expect essays that lean more academic and analytical, explorations of folklore, psychology, and the shadowy corners of history that have shaped the stories you hear on the show. But it's also a home for something more personal. My fiction, my strange amusings, and the odd fragments that don't belong anywhere else. Search for unexplained podcast on Substack or go to unexplained podcast.substack.com to find out more and subscribe. If you'd like a little bit more of me and Unexplained in your week, join me on Substack, and let's keep exploring the unknown together. New writing every note the following episode contains graphic scenes of mutilation and sexualized violence. Parental discretion is advised. The early evening of January seventh. 1937 in Peking, as Westerners called it then. Was an especially chilly one. Not that anyone cared down at the French club. in the heart of the city's location district. For a start, there were far more important things to be worried about. With China firmly in the grip of its own civil war, other forces were also looking to assert themselves. Outside the city walls, the ominous presence of Japan's military loomed large, as rumors of an imminent attack. Japan's presence in the region had been supported by an eight-nation alliance of the world's most powerful states, keen to preserve their imperial ambitions in China in the wake of the Boxer Rebellion of the 1900s. Things had changed. Alliances had fractured. Chiefly those between the United States and Germany. France. The United Kingdom. and what was now the Communist Soviet Union. The fracturing of the whole wall was only two years away. But down in the legation quarter on that especially chilly Thursday evening. You'd be forgiven for thinking anything of the sort was taking place. A legation is a diplomatic minister, one rank below an ambassador. The legation district then Their headquarters and their families were based. It was a kind of strange hinterland. wealthy aristocrats and foreign dignitaries. A world of gas-lit, swanky embassy buildings. Well stocked bars and tailored coats. rising incongruously out of a city where most people lived cheek by jowl in the Hutongs. Ancient networks of low rise narrow lanes and cramped courtyard dwellings that made up the bones of old Peking. Beijing, as the Chinese called it. Which is to say that, though Legation District residents were undoubtedly highly informed of current events, They were all so weirdly shielded from them. Or at least that was how it seemed to them. surrounded by their private guards, and the kind of luxury that most residents of Beijing Or indeed anywhere. It was a disconnection experienced most keenly by the children of the legation quarter. Especially a strange hinterland of their own. Like the three young women. Presently zipping about the French club's newly installed ice skating rink. In the French legation zone. Ethel Guryevich Lillian Maranovsky. Hamala Warner. For over an hour, they skated about the rink in their fur coats and hats. breath and laughter clouding generously in the cold air. They shared cigarettes and a little wine. Then, as it approached 730 p.m. Pamela announced it was time for her to leave. as she was expected home for dinner. That's young women in their late teens and early twenties. Somewhere between the naivety of adolescence and And the mature worldly women. They one day hope to become a Perhaps none more so than 19 year old Pamela. As it happened. Unlike her friends, she didn't live in the legation quarter. but in a traditional Hutong home with her father, a retired diplomat. She also loved to cycle everywhere. and was fluent in Mandarin. affording her a little more freedom than most of her expat contemporaries. Nonetheless, it was always a little hard for Ethel and Lillian, whenever the time came. to watch her leave the safety of the legation district. Especially at night. They wondered whether it was safe for her to be going home alone in the dark. As Pamela always assured them. It would be no different to any other time she'd done it. Besides, she said. Nothing can happen to me here, in Peking. And with that She slung her skates over her shoulder. Climbed onto a bicycle. And Rhode Island. The chilly night. You're listening to Unexplained. Dime. Richard McClain. Pamela Werner's father. Theodore Charmers were not was the son of wealthy Prussians, who was born in New Zealand, but was classed as a British citizen. Having been educated at Tunbridge School, one of England's oldest and most elite private institutions, Ferner joined the British diplomatic service in his late teens and was promptly sent to Beijing to lear Mandarin. He took to the language and culture with guster and held a variety of positions. There was one area in which he was sorely lacking. Possessing a quick Himper. He became known for terrible interpersonal skills, and frequently got into violent disagreements with his superiors. This, combined with what other British diplomats considered a little too much of an interest in Chinese culture. meant that he was mostly posted to remote locations to keep him from causing too much trouble. Despite his effective ostracization from the Foreign Office, Edward Werner developed a great affection for China and had no intention of returning back to the UK. In 1911, at the age of forty-seven. He married a young socialite. The twenty four year old Gladys Ravenshaw. pair eventually made Beijing their home. After retiring from the consular service in 1914, Ferner devoted himself fully to scholarly work. Indulging his passions for Chinese culture and folklore. Establishing a reputation as a meticulous and respected Sinologist. He and Gladys tried for years to have children. But for whatever reason they were unable to conceive. So in nineteen nineteen. They decided to adopt. It was then that they met and fell in love with a sprightly two-year-old girl from a local orphanage. The couple decided to take her home and named her Pamela. Not long after, Gladys became seriously ill. After weeks of treatment in China, she was eventually diagnosed with meningitis and sent to the United States to see a specialist. She returned to Beijing sometime in 1922. Having failed to overcome the illness. Tragically she died shortly after. Leaving the five year old Pamela without a mother. and the by then fifty-eight year old Edward, a single parent. By all accounts Edward Werner, albeit with significant assistance from servants and nannies. was a devoted father to Pamela. With his diplomatic career over, he was able to devote much of his time to bringing her up. including teaching her Mandarin, in which she became fairly fluent from an early age. The Verners lived at number one, Armour Factory Lane. In a modernised traditional courtyard house. Many children of wealthy expats in the area. Pamela attended St. Mary's School for Girls in the Legation Quarter. Later T in grammar school. It was at Tien Sin Grammar that Pamela was allegedly sexually harassed. possibly by the school's head teacher, Sidney Yates. what extent he was reprimanded, if he was at all. or whether Pamela was blamed for the incident by the perpetrator, as is often the case. No. Either, some have speculated it marked the beginning of a change in Edward's relationship with his daughter. And he became Wari. That men might start to take advantage of her. Sometime around late December in nineteen thirty six. Pamela's Chinese classmates, a young man named Han Shu Qing, turned up at her house. Some say they were just friends. Others that there was more to the relationship. And though it isn't clear why, not long after here, right? Edward Werner is said to have violently accosted him. beating him with his cane before chasing him away from the house. Werner reportedly hit Xu Ching so hard that he broke his nose. Not long after this incident, Werner announced that he planned to send his daughter back to England to continue her education there at the first opportunity. It was a move which Pamela was said to have been extremely resistant to. On the morning of Thursday, January 7, 1937. The day Pamela went ice skating at the French club in the Legation Quarter. She attended a dental appointment. Then went back home. Later, just before leaving again that afternoon, She told a family servant named Ho Yong she'd be back for dinner at 730, and asked if he could prepare her some meatballs and rice. At some point, she made her way to the wagon lit hotel. popular hangout for the city's expat community. where she met up with her friend Ethel Guryevich. The pair then went back to Ethel's home, where Ethel's mother served them tea and cake. before they then headed back out to meet their friend Lillian. Having left the skating rink shortly before 7.30 that evening, it shouldn't have taken her more than 15 minutes to get home. But by nine PM. There was still no sign of her. growing increasingly worried, since it wasn't like Pamela not to stick to an arrangement. Her father Edward asked Ho Young to go to the ice rink to look for her. time he arrived at the rink, the whole place was dark, and everyone had gone home for the night. Save for a handful of workers diligently cleaning the place up. Ho Young asked if they'd seen anyone matching Pamela's description. But all shook their heads. There were at least two hundred people there that night. and they hadn't been keeping tabs on individual guests. When Ho Yong returned empty-handed, a despondent Edward sent him home for the night. Then, grabbing a coat and a flashlight, he ventured out alone into the icy darkness. to see what he could find himself. for hours, with the temperature now well below freezing. Werner traped back and forth. Between his home and the legation district. crunching over the frozen ground, as he asked anyone he came across if they'd seen his daughter. No one had It was about 1 a.m. in the morning, when Edward finally cut his losses and returned home. Where he spent an anxious night. Waiting for any word from his daughter. Ten minutes. From Edward and Pamela Werner's home. The Fox Tower. dark and imposing monolithic fortress, with a garish red tiled roof and upturned eaves. In the manner of much ancient Chinese architecture. Formerly a watchtower built in the sixteenth century. Marked what once had been the eastern access gate to the ancient imperial city. A borderland between World. Now strangely out of place. By nineteen thirty seven. So it was still an impressive structure. It had long been abandoned. and was home then only to the many hundreds of bats that nested there. Though some believed it was also home to things a little less earthly. The man who ordered its construction was said to be cruel and obsessed with achieving immortality, and he employed all manner of alchemical practices to achieve his aims. No sooner had the tower been constructed. Rumors began to emerge that it had been taken over by fox spirits. Which gave rise to its name. are shape-shifting mythological beings, said to typically disguise themselves as beautiful women, to ensnare unsuspecting men. Though it is said they also have the power to possess them, causing them to go mad. Even in nineteen thirty seven. Locals knew to stay away from the fox tower. More recently due to the belief that the area was also haunted by a man who committed suicide the year before. The morning after Pamela disappeared. A thick mist swirled at the base of the tower over the frosty ground. Amorphous shapes seem to flitter in and out of it. Long, loping, four limbed bodies. Maybe foxes. Maybe wild dogs. It was hard to tell. Through it all came a long, eerie howl. Rickshaw pullers appeared through the mist. when their attention was caught suddenly by a pack of feral dogs sniffing about a strange lump and grey thing at the base of the tower. Every so often they dunk their teeth into it. and wrenched a bit of it away. The sweet trill of a bird pierced the air. followed moments later by the appearance of an elderly man holding a songbird in a cage, which he was taking for a walk. He too was distracted by the sight of the dogs, milling about the strange lump and thing. With his curiosity getting the better of him, he settled the cage by the side of the road and carefully lowered himself into the frozen ditch. Closer look. He drew near to the shape until his brain was finally able to calibrate what it was. to recognize the twisted limbs as arms and legs. Pendages as hands and feet. and the thickly matted material at the top of it all as hair. But where there should have been a face. He saw only a ragged Ray Void. He reeled back in horror. leaving the Rickshaw men to cover the body with a bamboo mat, and keep the feral dogs and onlookers away. The man with the songbird hurried to the nearest police box to report his grisly find. Officers from the Beijing police arrived soon after. Inspector Hang Shi Chung stepped forward to inspect the corpse. From what little he could discern from the partially clothed body. He concluded it was a young white woman. Probably European. But the Fox Tower looming over him. Had she jumped from there, he wondered? Many formerly wealthy Russians from the now Soviet Union. had fled to Beijing in the wake of the Bolshevik uprising. unable to reconcile their newfound destitution with the luxuries of their past. Some chose to end their lives. That would at least explain the horrific injuries and the crumpled manner of the body, he thought. But then he took a closer look. almost hidden within the extensive bruising that covered the body. Clearly multiple stab wounds. Some were especially large. though oddly there were no big stains, or any other sign of the blood that should have flowed out at them. He noticed then that the arm was virtually hanging off, and a particularly deep incision had been made across the woman's neck. face was almost entirely missing, he reasoned, was probably due to wild dogs, who may well have been picking at the corpse ever since it appeared in the area. This then was no suicide. And as it happened, the victim was no destitute immigrant. at least, judging by the expensive platinum jewellery that still adorned her body. platinum and diamond wristwatch that lay close by. So not a robbery gone awry either. There was something else too. Heart lying in the frosty dirt. Inspector Han bent down to pick it up. to be a membership card for an ice rink. Splattered with blood. It was about this time that Edward Werner, who had since resumed the search for his daughter, Happened to be passing the Fox Tower. when he saw the small crowd people gathered at the base of it. He drew closer, until he was just about able to make out the grim scene at the center of it all. and what was quite clearly a badly battered dead body. No. Please no, he muttered to himself, as he continued forward toward it. Then he caught a glimpse of the body's clothing. and his legs went weak. Werner recognized it immediately as his daughters. No, no, no, he repeated as he hurried ever closer. the tears welling up in his eyes as the officers tried to hold him back. Until finally. He saw it all. Oh god. Amala. He cried. And everything went black. Edward Werner fainted at the sight of his daughter's body. Such was the brutality with which she had been quite evidently murdered. He was eventually dragged away and carried back home. Later that evening, the 19 year old Pamela Werner's body was taken to the Peking Union Medical College to be autopsied. It was not an easy time to carry out a murder investigation among the general chaos of the city. Crowd as it was with so many war refugees. Most mornings, authorities would find themselves collecting several bodies from the streets. although most had died by suicide or natural causes. This was significantly different. With the victim being a foreign national, Detective Hahn brought it immediately to the attention of the legation quarters British police commissioner William Thomas. Both knew that the ensuing investigation but not be a mere formality. It had been an especially brutal attack. And while Pamela's body was found on land under Chinese jurisdiction, There was every reason to suspect. Least of all, because of the lack of blood at the scene. that the murder had not been committed there. So just whose jurtion it fell under was not entirely clear. Not only that. with it occurring close to the legation quarter, which Pamela regularly frequented. They'd likely need to interview others who spent time there. Only the Beijing police had no authority in that region. And in any case, many of its residents had diplomatic immunity. Then there was the social standing of the Werners, which would most certainly attract press attention. In short, it was a complicated and delicate case. So in a very unusual move. Commissioner William Thomas agreed to a joint investigation with the Beijing police, in which they would work together to find the perpetrator. Detective Chief Inspector Richard Dennis. A former veteran from Scotland Yard. who is now the chief of police for the British in the city of Tianjin. was selected to lead the investigation, alongside Inspector Hahn. The Beijing police agreed to this, because Inspector Dennis was not under the authority of the British Diplomatic Service, and so it was hoped his findings could not be influenced by them. For the most part. Inspector Hahn was glad to have Dennis's assistance. Not least of all because of the access it afforded him with the expat community. but it would be a few days yet before he could join him in Beijing. So in the meantime Inspector Hahn began by reviewing the evidence from the scene. Pamela was found. Pamela's skirt was loosened around her body. Her silk stockings had been torn. And her underwear was missing. Although her overcoat scarf and shoes were still with the body when it was discovered. As mentioned before. There wasn't much blood on them. The scene at all. Pamela's watch, that was located near the body, was found to have stopped shortly after midnight. Suggesting this as a possible time of death. While her skating rink membership card was discovered at the scene, her bicycle and skates were nowhere to be found. And then there was the autopsy. Pamela had received several blows to the head. Strong enough to fracture her skull. possibly inflicted with a smooth wooden or stone implement. Pathologist surmised. To inflict such direct blows, the assailant would have been very close to the victim. Suggesting that Pamela may well have been killed by someone she knew. But there were many other wounds. More blunt force trauma to her right arm, along with numerous stab and slash wound in multiple locations, which went clean through muscle. likely inflicted with a two-edged blade, at least four inches long. possibly post mortem. Even more horrifically. When the coroner inspected her sexual organs, he found that a sharp implement had been used repeatedly to penetrate the young woman's vagina. So much so that it was impossible to tell if she'd been sexually assaulted. either before or after she was killed. And there was more. The coroner couldn't help but notice how some of the larger stab wounds actually looked more like incisions. When he opened the body up. He discovered why. Most of Pamela's internal organs had been removed. Bladder. Liver and kidneys were all gone. And so too was her heart. surrounding it had even been broken specifically to take it out. judging by the extensive neck wound and the partially severed arm, The coroner also concluded that it was likely the perpetrator had attempted to dismember Pamela's corpse. but for whatever reason had been forced to give up and leave the body as it was. Perhaps having been spooked off by a passer by the same thing As for the lack of blood It seemed that the body had been deliberately exanguinated shortly after death. The watch suggested that Pamela had been alive for several hours after leaving the ice rink. Placing her time of death. Somewhere between ten PM and two AM. One of the few internal organs remaining was the stomach. Which contains some partially digested meat and rice. Pamela was only known to have eaten a little bread and cake before she left the ice rink to make the 15 minute journey back home. Question. When had she eaten this? Was it possible? But Pamela hadn't, in fact, left to go home. to do something else instead. To many, the murder of Pamela Werner was reminiscent of the crimes committed by so-called Jack the Ripper some 50 years previously. according to a gynecologist who was also present at the autopsy. Although Pamela's killing appeared to be sexually motivated, It was not the work of what might be termed an ordinary sexual sadist. But something far more unusual. When Chief Inspector Richard Dennis arrived in Beijing to join Inspector Han, The unlikely duo began their investigation by retracing Pamela's steps on the day that she died. This, they quickly gleaned one vital new piece of information. It was something that had come up in speaking with Pamela's friend Ethel Gurievich. one of the last known people to have seen Pamela alive. pair had met at the Wagonslit Hotel the day she disappeared. Pamela let slip that she'd already been there that afternoon. Chasing up the lead. Anne and Dennis discovered that she'd spoken to the concierge there about renting a room. The men couldn't help but wonder if she was planning to meet an unknown romantic acquaintance there. Either way, the revelation hinted at the possibility of Pamela having something of a secret life. Or at least, one she wanted to keep hidden from her father. The two detectives combed through Pamela's diary, but couldn't find anything significant to expand on the theory. press conference a few days later, the pair admitted that they'd yet to find even a single solid lead. In the absence of a possible suspect. Public speculation began to intensify. Some wondered if perhaps the evil spirits that reside in the foxt tower might have been to blame. but there was something else that had caught the public's attention. Pamela's body had been found on the edge of an especially shady part of town known as the Badlands. A maze of narrow Hutong streets. Packed with opium dense. brothels and gambling houses. where the city's underworld did its business openly. The lights burned a little lower. It sat just outside the walls of the legation quarter. close enough that it was well known to the foreign community, and even frequented by some of them. even if they preferred not to say so out loud. It was a place where people went to disappear. And not the kind of place that you went to by accident. Could the killer have come out of there? The inspectors wondered. Helen and Edgar Snow were American journalists who lived in one of the courtyard homes adjacent to the Werners. When Helen found out about Pamela's gruesome murder, she was reportedly extremely shaken. She later told inspectors Han and Dennis that the Kuomintang government might have carried out the killing. And have mistaken Pamela for her. Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, had governed China since the late 1920s, when their leader, Chiang Kai-shek's forces, swept to power following a bloody civil war. By 1937, they were the official government of the Republic of China. Based in the southern capital of Nanjing. And were locked in an uneasy standoff with both the communist forces of Mao Z Donk. And the ever encroaching Japanese military. They were not by any measure. A government that tolerated dissent or scrutiny from foreign journalists. Although now based in Nanjing, the Kuomintang still had agents in Beijing. And Helen Snow knew that they were not happy about certain things that she and her husband had written. Particular unsympathetic portrayals of the Kuomintang hierarchy. which had contrasted markedly with their more positive portrayal of mouths at Dong's communists. Helen thought it quite possible that Kuomintang assassins had been sent to murder her. But in the dark. had mistakenly attacked Pamela instead. The two women looked somewhat similar, especially in low lighting. And they lived on the same street. To inspect it, Dennis, it seemed partially plausible. But why would they have gone to such lengths to mutilate corpse? Weren't their typical political assassinations? Much tidier affairs he thought. Usually involving just a single shot to the head. After ten days of investigating, Inspectors Hahn and Dennis still had very little to show for their efforts, other than their leading hunch. Did Pamela's killer had possible links to the Badlands area? Perhaps they'd just been visiting there when they caught sight of Pamela and attacked her. But then Inspector Hand began to wonder. What if it wasn't the killer who had the connection with the Badlands? Pamela a cell. Han immediately ordered his officers to go door to door through the Badlands, dingy, smoke filled streets. It wasn't long before their diligence paid off, when shocking new evidence came to light. that would take the investigation in an entirely new and even darker direction. You've been listening to the first part of Unexplained, Season 9, Episode 15. Dust. The second and final part will be released next Friday, March 27. This episode was written by Diane Hope. And Richard McClain Smith. Thank you as ever for listening. Unexplained is an AV Club Productions podcast created by Richard McLean Smith. All other elements of the podcast, including the music. are also produced by me. Richard McClain Smith. Unexplained the book and audiobook is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble. Waterstones and other bookstores. Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts, and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation or a story of your own you'd like to share. You can find out more at unexplainedpodcast.com and reaches online through X and Blue Sky, at Unexplained Pod, and Facebook. At facebook.com Forward slash. Unexplained podcast.