Chapter 4: mi5. 21century Witchfinders. The Royal Family. Free Masons. High rank Police and the Hammer.
How many people a year die in police custody every year. It is easy to keep a person alive while they are in your care. Get them a drink, some food, a toilet, a sink and somewhere to sleep. Yet somehow 2000 people on average, a year die whilst in police custody. But perhaps we should not place all the blame on the men and women who have to do the dirty work. And why are certain individuals deemed so dangerous to the status quo that they must be eliminated. The last official Witchfynders were given their registration under king James and these were few. Times were changing and the enlightenment had seen reason and the scientific method find societal consensus begin to look upon Witchfynders as superstitious. The last witch to be officially burned to death was Janet Horne. Her daughter had misshapen feet used for riding towards the devil with. She bravely escaped but her mother was not so fortunate. The upstanding Christian townsfolk smeared her in tar, paraded her through the town on a barrel before burning her alive.
As times changed witchfynding as a practice grew more secretive and though Witchfynders found themselves becoming less overt their number never truly disappeared. Dwindled, yes and those remaining synthesised to a secretive body known of only by those who held the real power. Royalty knew. As did the spooks who today are known as MI5 and 6. The establishment has retained some two dozen Witchfynders led by the Witchfynder general. It's true there were no more public mass executions like those carried out by Edward Hopkins who hanged 19 witches in one session. Instead this secretive department of the state continued its business in disappearings where suspected witches simply disappeared. A recent case found a dog and a mobile phone on a bench by a small shallow river. Despite the river being searched in great detail no body was found. Two weeks later, in a spot numerous people had gone by a body was finally discovered. Little information came out on its condition nor any explanation as to why it had not been spotted by police or members of the public who had initiated mass searches. More simply the number of people who die in mysterious circumstances whilst in police custody rarely causes media outrage.
Science has moved on since the days of Edward Hopkins when a wider public awareness of witchcraft was about. Culture began to embrace a more scientific and logical understanding of humanity. The unexplained was soon assumed to be subject to natural law and ultimately all could be thought to one day submit to human understanding. Yet consciousness, the one singular thing we know to exist continues to baffle the neuroscientists whose scanners and tests have delivered virtually nothing as to how matter can think and feel. Despite this complete absence of any clue as to the essence of being a belief still remains, through our hubris, that one day we will crack the hard problem of consciousness.
Who really runs the country. Governments come and go like football players and managers but the clubs continue. The government are analogous to our politicians who rise in popularity and fall just so easily as the players and coaches the fans love and hate. But they could all be swept away and the country would continue to run. MI5, MI6, our national and international intelligence agencies. GCHQ in Cheltenham scanning all communications to protect the country. Most people are happy these are there to protect us from terrorists and to give them their credit they have been brilliantly successful in nipping terrorist activities in the bud. Also an aristocracy of land owners that finds its summit in the royal family has been in control since 1066. The fallings out and inter family politics has continued for close to a millennium but has remained largely private and unseen by the lower orders bar the odd passing scandal such as when the misguided matching of the future king to an outspoken girl. Divorce and a tv interview that opened up far too much to a changing public may have been allowed to take place. Martin Bashiers interview with Dianne Spencer opened the eyes of the public to a secretive world but her subsequent relationship with a non Christian from beyond the tight circle left little option for the royal family. Her execution was messy but perhaps appropriate for someone who spent much of her time courting and rejecting the press in equal measure. Her suspicions car crash in a tunnel in France whilst being followed by paparazzi and the failure to get her to a hospital for two hours left her dead and no longer a problem to the family with a long history of beheading any provocateurs who sought to reveal secrets to the greater public.
Moving on Charles married his childhood sweetheart and found happiness. His enthusiastic support of environmental causes gave him popularity in contemporary culture. His talking to plants, his writing curiosity in the supernatural was slowly played down as his mother aged. Following his coronation , unknown to the public, among his earliest moves was to gather together the country's few remaining Witchfynders. Rupert Bunsen had been a close friend as had a number of those who perished in the destruction of his spaceship that was called by Bunsen the Noah project. Indeed he had one of the highly sought after tickets and but for the timing of his mother's death and his ascension to the throne he would have been amongst those bodies that littered the sea following the destruction of Noah. News had soon spread that only witchcraft could have prevented Bunsens dream. Witchcraft was afoot once again. King Charles was soon in contact with MI5 and the Witchfynders were summoned.
Henry Bennett worked most of the time in finance. His frame, however was not what most would imagine an office worker to have. A keen runner and a daily user of the gym before work kept him strong. At six foot five he towered above the MI5 people who had called again for his services. Few knew that he was the Witchfynder General, the title Edward Hopkins had created all those years ago. Rather like Albert Pierrepoint, the chief and most skilled hangman who worked prior to the abolition of hanging in 1964. Pierrepoints father and uncle had done the same work before him though he fine tuned the long drop technique they had developed. Looking at the size and physical condition of the man or woman to be executed he knew the precise length of rope that would snap a person's neck and cause instant death. Prior to this there had been people survive the drop if the rope was too short and the condemned too strong. Others were decapitated if the rope too long. Following Pierrepoints executions the bodies were left to hang for an hour before being taken down, cleaned and prepared for burial. Working in a number of jobs before becoming the landlord of a pub he would be called when needed, travel to the prison the night before, peep through the cell hatch to assess the length of rope needed for the job. The following morning he would carry out his work treating the condemned with respect and have them taken from the cell to the platform, stand them on the hatch, tie their arms to their sides with a leather belt, hood them and pull the leaver in a matter of seconds. It is estimated he hanged between 420 and 600 people in his career including 200 nazi war criminals. Numerous miscarriages of justice took place and it was this that ultimately led campaigners in succeeding to have the death penalty repealed. However the practice continues to take place in certain less advanced in thinking countries like Saudi Arabia and North America. By Though keeping his work secret from most he felt compelled to write an autobiography following a series of misconceptions about his work in the press.
In 1974 he wrote that the death penalty had been a folly. He said that there had been murders from the beginning of time and no penalty had ever been able to stop heinous crimes. Henry Bennett was similar in that he kept his work secret from friends and family however he was deeply enthusiastic in his work. The testing of witches was a science to him. Stripping the accused naked to find the nipple from where the witch suckled their demonic familiar using metal tools handed down from Witchfynder to Witchfynder from Hopkins day till now. Probing the suspect until his skilled eye had located the evidence of witch hood. The dunking chair of old had been modernised to a tank but the principal was the same. And the burning was now largely carried out in furnaces which were heated slowly so the witch was able to renounce their commitment to Satan before they died.
Superstitious thinking hadn't changed. No understanding of witches had ever developed. Witches existed but these ideas of alliance with the devil and nipples for feeding familiars was ignorant idiocy. A Christian perception imbedded in establishment thinking. Nevertheless, unbeknownst to the public witches were still being executed by Witchfynders and often for no reason and frequently in more torturous ways. This evil and secret department of the state has been part of the establishment and the country's rulers for centuries. For a normal person to grasp the reason is all but impossible but it lies in a patriarchal society that has always been suspicious and afraid of the female. Indeed men had built the world we live in; its roads and buildings, provided shelter and protection. But wars are the work of men. Violent crime is the preserve of men bar the rare oddity. The terrible violence against women evident in the extreme cases like Peter Sutcliffe but common in the domestic environment throughout the country. Rape within marriage was until recently legal and still less than 1% of reported rapes lead to a conviction The protesters who came out following the murder of Sarah Everard by the police man Wayne Couzens were treated brutally by the police though some were disgusted by his crime. We can only hope that the jailhouse justice of righteous inmates in prison will ultimately find this evil individual.
The prime minister and a few close advisers stood fearful and crestfallen. A couple had been deemed worthy by Rupert Bunsen and had seats on Noah. The PM had hoped for a last minute cancellation but hadn't been party to the details of when the take off was to take place. Two high ranking MI5 officials stood slightly apart but all were silent and scoobied as to what to do now the mission had been destroyed by a ragged bunch of mysterious individuals who had gathered together. Two shamans had been found to be the ringleaders but druids and witches the establishment had no prior knowledge of were involved too. Each of these….these terrorists? No. Subversives yes. Murderers all, must be eliminated and 'interrogated' before their death.
Without a knock the door opened and a figure that seemed to fill its frame entered.
"I'm guessing that this summons is serious enough to drag me away from my work"
The PM felt that it was up to him to speak to the imposing figure. "Indeed it is. Were you aware of the Noah project."
"I'd heard talk and rumours. A crazy project to my mind but a tragedy that so many of the wealthy and world leaders should die from the miscalculations of its engineers."
PM "Well no! It was not in fact technical problems that caused its destruction. In truth it attacked and sabotaged by some strange people, people who had not known each other a few weeks before the disaster. It is beyond my field of understanding but our intelligence sources have suggested that they were druids, shamans and witches."
At this Bennett an inner rage saw his face redden, his shoulders enliven his posture and a piercing stare focused first on the prime minister before scanning each person there to measure their manner. "If this is true it is the most serious gathering of those who stand against god and our saviour Jesus Christ that has happened in a century. Me and my men have killed some but these worshippers of trees and the devil himself are thought to be pretty much driven to the tips of the island and incapable of causing any real harm."
PM "I'm afraid we don't have much to go on. They stole a boat from Porlock Weir. We know they had some lunatic who claimed to be Jesus Christ among their number. The rest is just snippets retrieved from mobile phones gathered by the few who filmed the disaster. One is quite clear. There are voices that say "come on Lipton and Skree" as they rescue the two men in the water. We have no other names. There's some rambling nonsense about Jesse Presley, the dead twin of Elvis Presley who was buried shortly after his birth. I'm sure you are familiar with the old wives tales of demon conger eel hybrid creatures created by witches centuries ago . Well some parts were found and captured that were severed by the broken glass. It appears the old wives were right. We've been able to put these broken parts, heads and tails that are still moving. In fact since we moved them in protective tanks away from the disaster area and into our laboratories they have grown stronger and our scientists are growing scared."
Bennett "I must see these abominations immediately and they must be destroyed swiftly. It's madness to think your scientists are able to cope with even fragments of demon."
pM "Of course general"
Bennett's demeanour had completely dominated the room. Those who spoke did so apologetically and called him sir.
Bennett "I have been aware of Skree and Lipton for some time but have never been able to completely work out if they are in league with satan or not. We have kept a watch but both have seemed to be on the poverty line, both have been sectioned at times under thee mental health act, this led me to think they were no threat."
PM "Well from what little we know they were the architects of this act of terrorism and whether they are mystics or satanist matters not. Kill them. There were some women, undoubtedly witches seen by the sole survivor. What she describes is beyond natural law. There were a few others too. These were casualties of their own hideous actions. We have the bodies but as yet we don't know who they are."
Bennett "I will take over now. My team of Witchfynders will track down and burn them alive for God and his glory. I will need everything you have. I must begin my work now."
PM "indeed sir. Anything at all you need just ask and it's yours. And purely out of interest could you forward me film of their executions. It's important I see the evil destroyed in the name of our good lord. Thank you."
With this the Witchfynder general turned and left. A lunatic who believes he is Christ! The deluded fool, he thought. When Christ returns he will be known across Christendom not hiding away, colluding with devil worshippers. And that Skree and his mate Lipton. Both homeless drug addicts most of the time with mental illnesses. How on earth could they have conducted an act of terror on a par with 9:11? For a fleeting second his mind made a link, 'didn't Christ hang out with the homeless'? But the thought was soon gone. His church was always full and attended by drivers of expensive modern cars. The homeless only had themselves to blame. And the female witches. He had always taken the greatest pleasure in stripping them and closely studying their bodies to find the teet the demons suckled from. And his manhood never failed to rise and point to the lord above as they burned. Indeed he had often stroked his shaft through the fold in his cassock, cradling his testicles, slowly opening the fold to show the witch how it pointed to heaven and as his self caress reached the holy level his seed would explode skyward and fall before the flames. This time he would have the witches kneel before him and bathe the sword of righteousness in the waters of their mouths and clutch their heads close as the righteous semen cleansed their insides before the burning.
