Prompt Cast
The Mystery of the Body Found in a Metal Cylinder in Liverpool
TLDR During the Blitz, American soldiers in Liverpool found a metal cylinder containing the skeletal foot of a man, leading to the discovery of an entire skeleton in Victorian dress. The body was identified as T.C. Williams, who disappeared in 1885, and it is believed that he took his own life by crawling into a ventilation shaft.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
During the Blitz, Liverpool was the second most bombed city in England after London.
02:09
During the clearing of rubble in Liverpool after the bombing, American soldiers found a long metal cylinder that initially didn't seem interesting, but after a few years, a little boy named Tommy Lawless discovered a bony skeletal foot inside it on Friday the 13th, 1945.
04:28
American soldiers find a long metal cylinder containing the skeletal foot of a man, leading to the discovery of an entire skeleton in Victorian dress.
07:02
The cylinder also contained a London Northwestern Railway notice, a postcard from Birmingham, and a couple of illegible diaries.
09:13
The papers found under the body included a receipt and account sheets for a company called T.C. Williams & Company, but other items found, such as grave wax and a damaged skull, did not provide any useful information about the body's identity or cause of death.
11:23
The body found in the cylinder was not the son of T.C. Williams, but rather the father who had disappeared in 1885, and one theory suggests that he may have crawled into the ventilation shaft out of despair over the loss of his factory.
13:42
The case of the body found in the cylinder was officially closed in 1945, with the prevailing theory being that T.C. Williams, after the ruination of his paint business, took his own life by crawling into the ventilation shaft with a pillow or brick wrapped in burlap, and remained there until the bombing of Liverpool during World War II.
Categories:
Society & Culture
