Last Podcast On The Left
Last Podcast On The Left
"The ghost is like we could just speed this up so much if you just get me a fucking typewriter." — Ed Larson
"I think the spookyest story of all, is Harry Chippet reading about Prince Louis for no fucking reason for years." — Marcus Parks
"It's very interesting in the way that the message was delivered versus what the message is. That's kind of what I keep coming around is they keep talking about how the messages were found and they were both highly strange, like written in weird, like not papers and doing the kind of stuff, but also in this knocking like weird way, they do it in the long form, knocking communication that they did, that it's just, it's just interesting." — Henry Zebrowski
The episode continues the deep dive into the Battersea Poltergeist case, focusing on the subsequent investigations and evolving theories. Investigator Harold Chibbit became fixated on the idea that the entity, "Donald," was the spirit of Prince Louis XVII, the young son of King Louis XVI, who disappeared during the French Revolution. Chibbit dedicated years to this pursuit, attempting to find historical evidence to corroborate Donald's claims of past life knowledge and communication. The narrative explores Donald's varied communications, from threats of arson and insults to his family, to claims of alien knowledge and an affinity for celebrities, particularly actors like Jeremy Spencer and James Dean. These communications, often delivered through taps or written messages, became increasingly elaborate.
A significant portion of the discussion revolves around the plausibility of Chibbit's Prince Louis theory versus alternative explanations. The hosts and guests discuss the possibility that Shirley Hitchens, the young woman at the center of the phenomena, may have been projecting her own desires and fantasies, potentially with latent psychokinetic abilities. This theory is supported by the evolving nature of the "entity's" communications, which often aligned with Shirley's interests and adolescent desires, such as wanting to meet celebrities or become an actor. The sheer volume and detail of the alleged paranormal activity are examined, with some guests suggesting that the phenomena could have been amplified by Shirley's own subconscious or an emergent psychic ability.
The episode concludes by detailing the eventual departure of "Donald" and the diminished activity in the Hitchings household, as well as Harold Chibbit's lifelong, ultimately unfulfilled, quest to prove his theory. Despite Chibbit's extensive research and eventual conclusion that the phenomena were genuinely supernatural, he could not definitively link Donald to Prince Louis. The hosts reflect on the nature of belief, the difficulty of proving paranormal events, and the possibility that the case represents a complex interplay of psychological factors, wish fulfillment, and unexplained phenomena, leaving the true nature of the Battersea Poltergeist as a lasting mystery.