In Their Own Words – Christmas Bells

This week, in the first of our Christmas shows, we tell the tales of six families who had unexpected visitors over the festive season at some point in the Swinging Sixties. Our first tale is of Eleanor, who was a young secretary who was about to go to a dance when someone intervened…

It was meant to be a party for the girls at the office, in a local restaurant, and the dress code was smart, so I had put on a new pink dress, that came down to my knees. Over that I was wearing a white fleece jacket that had a pink trim, and white shoes on my feet.

I had been to the hairdresser that day as well, getting my hair into a lovely curled style, and was really looking forward to the evening. So imagine how surprised I was when I picked up my purse, looked at myself in the mirror – and saw the man in the mirror behind me, putting a gloved finger to his lips before he apologised, and said he was going to have to tie me up and gag me so that he could steal my valuables.

It took me a minute or two to realise this wasn’t a joke – although the gunhe then pointed at me was a great help in that, as he told me to take off my jeweller and put it into the bag that he held beside me. So I removed my pearl necklace, my bracelets and my watch, as well as my earrings and put them in, before he thanked me, and told me to put my hands behind my back.

I felt I really had no choice, as I did as he asked, and I felt him take my purse – and then some sort of rope was pulled round my arms, forcing my palms together as I felt it being wound around and between my wrists. Whatever he was doing, it was certainly holding my wrists together, especially once he had finished.

He then took my by the arm and led me back into my front room, before he told me to lie down on a long recliner I had, and put my legs out straight on the cushions. I watched as he took some more lengths of white rope from his pocket, and tied my ankles tightly together, and then my legs below my knees – but he was gentle, kept talking to me, kept me calm. I mean, I was afraid, but there was not a lot I could do about it.

Once he had tied my legs, he took a clean handkerchief from another pocket, and folded it as he told me to open my mouth. When I did so, he pushed the cloth in, telling me to keep it in there while he had a look round. I was too scared to do anything other than nod, as he left me lying there while he left the room and walked upstairs.

I could hear him walking round, and drawers opening, but I genuinely was too scared. The thin ropes were rubbing on my bare wrists and ankles, but the knots were tight and I could not reach them – and I was scared of what he might do if I pushed the cloth out of my mouth and called for help. I looked at the Christmas tree, and started to pray…

When he came back down, he had a red scarf in his hands which I used to keep my hair back at night – but he pulled that between my lips as well and tied the scarf round my head, before he patted my head and apologised once again that he ah dot do this, before he turned the radio on and left me there. I was tied and gagged for two hours before a friend from work called round to find out what had happened to me…

Christmas is a time for visiting family as well – and we talked to Honey Grove, who remembered one memorable Christmas when they were visiting their grandmother, and spent some time close together…

I was ten that year, and my sister Hannah was thirteen. My folks had to go to an event, so we were going to spend the night with Granny – Harriet Grove, but to both of us she was Granny.

She had black hair, and a nice smile – the night this all happened, she was wearing a knee length dress, green with a fern pattern and a round neck. Hannah and I were both wearing tartan dresses – mine was brown and green, with a round neck and no sleeves, and under it I was wearing a white blouse with a peter pan collar. Hannah’s was red, with a top half like a waistcoat, and she had a white jumper under hers. She also had on black shoes, like me, but I was wearing knee length white socks as well.

Granny had just cooked our tea, and we were sitting down to eat when there was a knock on the front door, and she went to see who it was while Hannah and I talked about what we wanted to do for the holidays. We could hear Granny talking to somebody at the door, and then she called out “NO!”

That was when we put our cutlery down and looked to the door – to see three men come in, one of them holding what looked like a shotgun, but with a short part at the front, one carrying a bag – and the third holding Granny by the arm with his gloved hand. They were all wearing suits, shirts and ties, and all wearing glasses with dark lenses – and they scared the heck out of me and Hannah.

The man with the gun told us to put our hands on our heads, while the one with the bag put it down, and took two long lengths of brown rope out of it. He then used them to tie us to the chairs, round our waists, pulling it so that our backs were forced against the chairs and the rope tied off behind the chair back. The one holding Granny then took a length of rope and made her sit down, before he tied her to the chair round her waist as well.

He then said we were going to be there a while, and we should eat. Granny then told us we should finish our supper, so we started to eat again, Granny telling us everything was going to be all right while the man who had the bag went into the hallway, then back in again.

The big question in my mind was, who were they, and what were they going to do when we had finished…

But we did finish, and then two of the men picked me up in the chair and carried me into the front room, one of them staying with me while the other one went back. A few minutes later, the other two carried Hannah in on her chair, while Granny walked with them – and I saw she now had her hands behind her back.

I asked her if she was all right, and she nodded as one of the men left, and came back with the bag of rope. I was told to lean forward, and my arms were taken through the gaps in the chair back, before I felt him cross my wrists and then the rough brown rope as they were tied together, then to the chair back. He then knelt down behind Hannah and told her to do the same as me, while Granny was made to go upstairs.

I tried moving my arms, but they were stuck fast, and then the man knelt in front of Hannah, tying her ankles tightly together, and then her legs below her knees. I then got the same treatment, as I swung my legs to and fro, wondering just what was going on.

They then turned the television on, moving Hannah and me so that we could see the screen, while a film started. But they then did something else – they stuck strips of brown sticking plaster over our mouths, so that we could only mumble as we looked at each other.

A little while later, Granny was brought back in, her mouth covered with sticking plaster as well, and rope holding her arms to her sides – the other two men then using more rope to make sure we really could not move as it was employed to fix our arms and bodies to the chair backs.

And then they left – Granny sitting in her armchair, her ankles and legs tied like ours, wriggling round as the Black and White minstrels started singing on the television…

For our next tale, Megan Dearing recalls the night she and her mother met a man known as The Cat…

I was fifteen years old, a bit self-conscious because of the glasses I had started to wear. If I remember rightly, I was wearing a long sleeved knee length dress, in a burnt orange colour with a pattern on it and a dark brown silk band tied round the waist, the same colour as my long hair. Mum had slightly shorter hair of the same colour, and I remember she was wearing a dark blue jersey dress with a buckle at the front. We both had on black heels – and when this started, we were also wearing coats as we walked home from Church in the dark night.

When we got back to our house, Mum unlocked the door and we walked in, taking off our coats and putting them an dour scarves on the coat rack, and I went into the front room while Mum went to make a hot drink – and that was when I was grabbed from behind, a gloved hand over my mouth as a male voice whispered to me not to struggle, and just to be quiet.

When Mum came in, she stared at me, and then asked who he was. He was polite, he was calm, andhe said he was a cat burglar, and unfortunately we had come home before he could get away – which meant he had to make sure we could not raise the alarm for a while. Mum looked at me, and then nodded as she asked what he was going to do.

He sounded nice, but given he had his hand over my mouth, all I could do was look at Mum as he told her to walk up the stairs, and he would follow with me. We went up and into my parent’s bedroom, where he told her to lie on her side, with her hands on her lap. I watched as she did this, and then he told me to lie in the same way next to her.

I looked at him when I did this – a young man, tall, broad shouldered, and smiling as he stood in his black jumper, leather jacket and pants. He told us to stay still, and then he looked to the side of the bed. Mum sometimes liked to sit in bed and knit, and he leaned down to pick up a ball of grey wool – then told Mum to put her hands together in prayer. As she did this, I watched as he made a loop in the end of the ball, put it over her hands and then pulled it tight, before he wrapped the wool around and between her wrists to hold them together.

He then lowered her hands down and tied the wool round her ankles, making sure they were secured together as well, before he took a pair of scissors and cut the end free – and then made a second loop as he looked at me.

A few minutes later, my hands were together in prayer and tied together as well, as I watched him tie my ankles in the same way as my mum’s. She looked at me and said it would be all right, as he went to her wardrobe and took out two short scarves, which he folded into pads – and then put in our mouths to keep us quiet.

He apologised again, and then left the two of us there as he took Mum’s jewels and left…

The visitor Astrid Wells had also left her in her bedroom, but secured in a very different way…

This would have been about fifty years ago – I was having an afternoon nap at my home, having spent most of the day putting up the Christmas decorations. I was wearing a fawn coloured over a mustard coloured sweater, with bare feet, and I must have been out for the count – because the first hint I had someone else was there was when a hand was pressed over my mouth, and I was told to keep quiet.

I opened my eyes to see a man standing there, with something over his head that was blurring his features – and I saw the knife in his hand as well, as he told me to be quiet and not move. He then went to a drawer and took out two pairs of stocking, leaving them on the bed before he took one and tied one end round my left wrist – and then pulled my arm up and tied the other end to the headboard.

He was tying mw to the bed with my stockings? That was confirmed when he walked round and took my other wrist, securing it to the other side of the headboard in the same way. The band was digging into my wrists, but he had a knife, what was I meant to do.

He then took the other two stockings and tied them round my ankles, before he pulled them to the sides and tied them to the foot of the bed – and right then, I got scared. But he looked at me, shook his head and said women were not his type – right before he pushed a blue silk scarf into my mouth, and proceeded to take all my jewellery.

And that was where my husband found me when he got home from work…

Audrey Roberts was a mother of a six month old baby, called June, when she and her husband had an unexpected visitor – and an unexpected helper…

We had been out to dinner, and when we got back our babysitter was happy with walking home, so I paid her while Daniel took off his greatcoat, and then hung it in the closet. He looked so fine in his suit, before I closed the door and he removed my fur coat. I was wearing a white angora sweater, with sleeves that came to above my elbows, and a long brown skirt with matching heels. I also had on the pearls and drop earrings he had bought for our anniversary, and smiled as we sat in the front room, and he handed me a sherry.

It was while we were sipping it that we both heard the noise upstairs, and he told me to wait there while he went upstairs to have a look. I stayed there and sipped my sherry – but after ten minutes, he still had not come back down, and I began to wonder what was going on. So I put my glass down, and slowly walked up the stairs, asking if he had found out what had caused the noise.

I looked in the nursery first – little June was fast asleep under the blankets – and then I went into our bedroom, and I found out what had caused the noise. Daniel was lying face down on the bed, with his wrists crossed behind his back, and tied together with white rope.

What was worse, the man who had tied his wrists was standing there, smiling as he pointed a gun at me, and said he was glad I had come up, because it meant he did not have to come and find me. He was wearing a black sweater and trousers, and black leather gloves, as well as a black mask covering his eyes – and he also had a gun in his hand which he was pointing at me.

Daniel turned and looked at me, and said if he hurt me… But the man told him to calm down, and told me to sit on the bed, with my hands on my head, while he finished securing my husband. He waved the gun as he said this, so I walked round and sat down, watching as he put the gun where we could both see it, and then took a second length of white rope out of a bag that was on the floor, doubling it over and using it to tie Daniel’s ankles together.

I watched as he took the rope between his legs as well, and then told him to roll onto his side as he looked at me. Reaching down, he brought the bag round and took out a small velvet sack, Daniel watching as he pointed the gun at me and told me to put my jewellery into the bag.

I had seen Daniel no longer had his gold watch on, and he said to do what the masked man asked, so I unclipped my pearls and put them in, then my earrings, and my watch. I asked if I could keep my wedding and engagement ring – and to my surprise, he agreed, before he told me to lie face down on the bed next to my husband, and put my hands behind my back.

Daniel kept telling me it was going to be all right as I felt the intruder cross my wrists behind my back, and then the rope as it was pulled tightly round my wrists. That on its own told me I was not going to be able to move them, as he wound the rope around and between my wrists, and then tied the knot out of reach of my long fingers with the red painted nails. I then felt him put my ankles together, as he tied them with more rope.

And that was when I heard June start to cry, as he tied that last rope off. The masked man asked me where she was, and I pleaded with him not to hurt her – but he said he wasn’t going to hurt her, just see what the problem was.

Well, I said she would be hungry and needed a bottle of milk that was in the kitchen, so he told me to roll onto my side, and left the room. A few minutes later, he carried June through and put her by my side, telling me and Daniel not to move as he left the room for a few minutes.

We both talked to June as she looked at us, and I kissed her forehead, but she was crying – which is why it was such a surprise that the masked intruder came back, shaking the bottle and then holding June in the crook of his arm before she started to drink the milk through the teat.

I had to say thank you as Daniel looked on over my shoulder, the masked man nodding as he cooed and talked to June, until she had finished the milk – and then he stood, with one of my scarves over his shoulder as he winded our daughter. He then took her out of the room, as I rolled over to look at Daniel.

“He fed her, he winded her – surely he’s not going to change her nappy and get her back to sleep?”

I shook my head – I had no idea, as we lay there in the light from the bedside lamp. But I could hear him talking to her, saying that must feel better, before he came back in.

“Nappy all changed,” he said as he walked with her, and we watched June slowly go back to sleep. He took her back to the nursery, and then walked in, saying “she should sleep now – but I need to make sure neither of you can raise the alarm.”

With that, he pulled my ankles back and tied them to my wrists with more rope, then did the same to Daniel, before he stuck several strips of silver tape over our mouths, leaving us struggling on the bed as he made his escape. The police arrived to find us an hour later – he must have tipped them off…

Finally for this edition, Cher Mansen recalls a different Christmas Eve with her mother…

I had been out for a drink with the girls, and had worn a red dress with matching shoes for the evening. So when I got home that Christmas Eve, I figured Mum and I would do what we had done for the last few years – sit up and watch a church service, then exchange presents before we got to bed.

So I was taken completely by surprise when I walked into our front room, and saw the tree lights twinkling, the television on – and Mum sitting in an armchair, her lips over a large silk knot that had bene tied in our of her headscarves before it had been pulled in and tied round her head.

She was wearing a pink, white and green striped top and a knee length green skirt, as well as white slippers – but as I looked at her, I saw the white rope round her ankles, her legs below her knees, her arms and chest. I saw the look in her eyes, the fear as she struggled and tried to speak – and then I felt the pressure on my back as a voice said “this must be your daughter. Welcome home – I hope you don’t mind if I bind your wrists together behind your back.”

A female voice. I swallowed as I said “do I have a choice?”

“No.” With that, I slowly put my hands behind me, and I felt the rope as it was tied tightly round my wrists. Mum just looked at me and said “hmshrreechurrr” as I saw how the blue silk in her mouth was getting darker.

“It’s all right Mum, I get the feeling you didn’t have a choice,” I said as I felt the rope tighten round my wrists, and then more rope as it was passed round me, forcing my arms into my sides as whoever this was formed two bands to hold my arms in place, framing my chest above and below. She then tightened it by taking the rope under one arm, up and around the back of my neck as she lifted my hair out of the way, and then under the other arm before it was tugged again – taking my breath away as she tied it off.

“Sit in front of your mother.”

I nodded as I sat down, my legs bent at the knees and my feet to the side, looking up at Mum as I saw the woman tie my ankles together. I got a good look at her now – she was dressed like Cathy Gale, in a black leather cat suit slightly open at the throat, knee length boots, leather gloves, and a black bandana folded into a triangle and tied over her nose and mouth.

She secured my ankles together, and then my legs below my knees, before she smiled and stroked my cheek with her gloved hand – and then rolled up a large blue headscarf, tying a knot in the middle as she told me to open my mouth.

Which is why I could not talk, the knot pressing my tongue down as it sat behind my teeth, the band tied tightly round my head as Mum struggled in the chair. We both watched her walk out, and were left alone to try and get free as the choir started to sing on the television.

And that ends out Christmas special. We will be back soon, but until then – have a happy and Merry Christmas…

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