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Will Sharp
Hexam, May 1957. John's running late. He needs to hurry. It's 8:00 already and he's going to miss the start if he's not careful. He's striding down Beaumont street in the center of town and he stops outside the Queens Hall Cinema. He heads in. He buys a ticket, 2 shillings. An usher takes him into the auditorium and the movie is just about to start. Now, to be honest, John's not much of a movie guy. But there's a bit of a buzz about this movie. The newspapers are calling it probably the strangest film that has ever been made. Perhaps the most amazing and thought provoking story of recent years. So John's pumped. He's excited for this. The usher shines a torch at a space in the back row. John settles into the worn velvet seat. He lights a cigarette and the smoke curls illuminated by the projector. The movie is a Paramount Pictures film called the Search for Bridie Murphy. It's pretty modern for the 50s. A suave looking guy speaks straight to the camera and he explains in a very suave voice that what follows is weirder than fiction.
Narrator
Ladies and gentlemen, this is an account of actual events involving real people. The names have been changed and they'll be portrayed by professional actors.
Will Sharp
For obvious reasons, that has got John hooked. The movie plays out in Pueblo, Colorado. The suave guy then goes into character. He plays a businessman who becomes an amateur hypnotist. He then starts hypnotizing his neighbor, as you do. I told you, it's weird. Anyway, his neighbor lies back on a rather nice couch and the suave guy, his name's Mori, gets to work.
Narrator
Now we're going to drift back through time and space. Back, back as far back as your memory can go. Whatever you see, try and tell me about it.
Will Sharp
So far, so predictable. The hypnotist is straight out of central casting, but things start to get pretty interesting pretty quickly. The neighbor tells Mori that she's a little girl living in rural Ireland. Yes, she's remembering a past life.
Narrator
Her name is what? Heidi. Don't you have any other names? Heidi Murphy.
Will Sharp
John is transfixed. He lights another cigarette as the pictures flicker in front of him. On screen, a little girl in pigtails plays hide and seek in green fields by a large lake. Maury asks her what year it is.
Narrator
1806. 1806.
Will Sharp
John raises an eyebrow. And then Bridie is an old woman on screen. The audience is shown her most shocking memory. Grave diggers and mourners round a grave.
Narrator
You Mean you can remember what happened after you died? After you died, could you watch them bury you? Could you watch them bury your body? Yes, I. I watched them ditch my body.
Will Sharp
Now, remember, this is the first time that most people in the audience have even contemplated anything like this. The idea of seeing your own funeral is just bananas. And John, for one, is pulled deeper and deeper into the story. He thinks it's sensational. The woman's soul is then between lives without a body discarnate.
Narrator
Well, in this afterworld, were there such things as sickness or death? There was no death. You just passed from one existence to another.
Will Sharp
So Maury is having to work fairly hard to describe all of these ideas. Bridie is now in what Stephenson would call the intermission between lives. And then it all gets a bit dark. She's born again in America.
Narrator
Just a little baby dying. Who is dying? Me.
Will Sharp
Where are you?
Narrator
Do you have any idea?
Will Sharp
Then the climax. Mori gets spooked and worries that he's screwed up. He's worried that she'll never come back from her hypnotic state. Remember, he's just an amateur. He's playing with fire.
Narrator
Ruth, can you hear me? Can you understand what I'm saying?
Will Sharp
John's on the edge of his seat. It's all very, very tense. But I'm not going to spoil the rest of the film for you. The movie ends. The moviegoers start filing out, except John. John stays seated, staring at the screen as the image fades to black. Because John is blown away. He loves the movie. He cannot stop thinking about it. And he has an idea. An idea that grows and grows and grows. Okay, so full disclosure, we have made some of that up. We don't actually know if John Pollock went to see the movie. Sorry about that. But here's what we didn't make up and it's pretty interesting. The movie is real and it is based on a real life story. And we know for certain, 100% certain, that the movie was showing all over the UK in May 1957, even in the smaller cinemas. Our researcher Alan Sargent has sifted through all of the old newspapers and we can prove it. There's no doubt. So here's the thing. That date May 1957 is very significant because May 1957 is the very month that Jacqueline and Joanna Pollock are killed. So let's just think about this for a moment. Reincarnation isn't a thing in 1950s England. It's just not. Hardly anyone has heard of it. Then a big movie about reincarnation. One which gets loads of attention, which really gets people talking. Is released nationwide just after the Pollock girls die, and it's massive. So now reincarnation is a thing, a pretty big thing. And very soon after that, John starts going around saying that his daughters will be reincarnated. What do you make of that? I mean, okay, I'm just going to come out and say it. I mean, that's all a pretty big coincidence, right? So how's this for a thought? What if John stole the idea from that movie? What if John made the whole thing up? This is Extrasensory, an Apple original podcast produced by Blanchard House. I'm Will Sharp. Episode 6 the Two Johns so, where are we? Producer Poppy has bagged an interview with Lisa Pollock, one of John Pollock's older granddaughters. You heard a tiny bit of it in the last episode, but let's back up just a little bit, a bit of context. Poppy is on her way to record that interview. She's on a train to the northwest of England. She's a bit nervous, not sure how it's going to play out, because in one of her emails, Lisa says something rather cryptic. She says that she can't be impartial about John Pollock. Impartial, curious word. And Lisa also says something else in her email. She says that she has an older sister, seven years older, who knows more than Lisa does. The only thing is she lives in California, and getting there is obviously a bit of a mission. So first things first. To Lisa, Poppy arrives at the address in northwest England. It's on a caravan site, a trailer park, a nice one with hedgerows and flowers. This isn't Lisa's house, though. It's her mum's. Her mum's Sylvia. But Sylvia doesn't want to speak on tape. Doesn't want to speak ill of the dead, apparently. Okay, interesting. Anyway, Sylvia is lovely, so is Lisa. And Sylvia sticks around. As Poppy switches on the recorder, Lisa starts talking about the house on the coast in Scarborough where her grandparents lived in the 70s.
Lisa Pollock
We used to spend all holidays there, Christmas, Easter, summer.
Will Sharp
She remembers spending time with the twins and with their brother Bobby.
Lisa Pollock
They'd take me out. Bob would go on long walks with the dog down to the seafront, up to the church, up to the ruins.
Will Sharp
At this point, her grandmother Florence is running the bookshop. And Lisa has super fond memories.
Lisa Pollock
Spent a lot of time with her. I'd spend time in the bookshop with her. She was always in the kitchen. We'd cook breakfast first. She'd cut the rind off the bacon. I'd Eat it and get told off for it. We'd play card games. She was the instigator of Christmas. She was just very, very quiet. Timid, but, yeah, fun.
Will Sharp
But notice there's someone she hasn't mentioned yet. Yes, John. And there's a good reason for that. While Florence sounds like a pretty wonderful grandmother, John. Well, John just isn't around.
Lisa Pollock
I can count on one hand the amount of times I saw him. He never ate with us. With the house being split on three floors, he was always in the middle floor in his office. I spent most of my time with either my grandmother or Gillian. He was not to be seen. I didn't have a relationship as a grandfather, granddaughter relationship, because he was there, but he wasn't.
Will Sharp
But according to Lisa, even when John is shut away in his office, his presence is everywhere.
Lisa Pollock
It was never a nice atmosphere in the house. Whenever he was around, it was toxic because you just had to be quiet. We couldn't make any noise or you had to creep about. He ruled with an iron rod, but ruled by not being there.
Will Sharp
So John sounds a bit scary, aloof. Then Lisa tells a story about the day Joanna and Jacqueline died, something she heard from her dad, Ian, John's son. When the crash happens, ian, who is 14 at this point, doesn't know straight away that his sisters have died. So a concerned neighbour gives Ian an orange to take to the girls in hospital. Ian's clearly thinking that the girls will be sitting up in bed with just a few cuts and bruises. Anyway, Ian tells his dad that he's got this orange for the girls. But here is John's response.
Lisa Pollock
My grandfather had said, well, that's no use now they're dead. And when my dad started to cry, he was told to stop crying and have none of that. There was no compassion, there was nothing.
Will Sharp
So, yeah, as I say, John sounds kind of old school. Stiff upper lip, as we say. Doesn't like emotion. Maybe. But then Lisa tells us something else, something which kind of puts a different perspective on things you might remember. On the same day as the accident, John gives an interview to the newspapers. And in the next day's Daily Herald, on their front page story reporting the crash, they quote John saying, I have.
John Pollock
Lived in fear of this since Tuesday, when my eldest boy, Ian, told me about a dream.
Will Sharp
No. John tells the paper that Ian had dreamed of a serious accident involving the family.
John Pollock
He said it would happen only a few hundred yards from where my little girls died.
Will Sharp
Five days later, Joanna, Jacqueline and Tony are killed. And here's where things start to get interesting, because when Poppy asks Lisa about that premonition, this is Lisa's response.
Lisa Pollock
None of that was true.
Will Sharp
Yeah, none of that was true. Hold on a second. Let's just think about this. Up until this moment, no one, not one person anywhere, in any book or on the Internet has ever claimed that John is anything other than completely sincere, straight as a die, he just tells things as they are. But now here's Lisa, his granddaughter, saying that he's inventing things. And according to her, it's not just one or two things, it's everything. The idea that Jennifer and Jillian were reincarnations of their dead sisters, it was.
Lisa Pollock
Just something he made up.
Will Sharp
So Lisa is saying that John was lying, lying about everything. Lying to his neighbours, lying to the newspapers, lying to the TV documentary, lying to Stevenson, even lying for 25 years until the day he died. And that means all of Stevenson's transatlantic trips, one after the other, were, well, a complete waste of time. All for nothing, because the whole story was a hoax. The claims about reincarnation weren't some kind of prophecy, far from it. They were John's big lie. So I guess the next question is, why? Why on earth would John do that? Why would he lie?
Lisa Pollock
To be the big man, to be popular. He wanted everybody to notice him. He wanted to be like a celebrity. If it was these days, he'd be classed as trying to be an influencer.
Will Sharp
But let's just hold on a second. Lisa wasn't actually around when the reincarnation claims were first made. Remember, she learnt about this all from a VHS years later. And Lisa does say that she only met her grandfather a handful of times. They didn't really have a relationship. Sure, there was an atmosphere in the house, but in those days, maybe grandparents were just a bit strict and scary. Children should be seen and not heard and all that. So none of that automatically means that John is a liar, right? Maybe Lisa's got some of this a bit wrong. I mean, she was young, after all. It was a long time ago. Well, that's where Lisa's older sister Joanna comes in. She's seven years older, in fact, and remember, Lisa promised to put Poppy in touch with her and Lisa is as good as her word. So Poppy gives Joanna a call and asks her if she can fly over and visit her in California. And Joanna says yes. So Poppy gets on a plane and finds herself in central California, just outside the city of fresno, surrounded by 400 acres of pistachio farms. Around here, you can even smell the pistachio in the Wind. Joanna welcomes Poppy into her costume cupboard.
Joanna Pollock
This is my hobby room, sewing room, where I sew my Renaissance costumes.
Will Sharp
Yep. Joanna makes outfits for Renaissance fairs where people dress up as gallant knights, fair maidens, that kind of thing. So the room is full of hats, wigs, dresses, and a lot of shoes. And when Poppy and Joanna speak, they aren't alone.
Joanna Pollock
Oh, this is Pigley. This is my newly adopted kitten.
Will Sharp
Pigley is tucked into Joanna's shirt. So, yes, this is all quite a long way from John and Florence Pollock's home in the north of England in the 1960s, where it's dark and cold and gray and they're just, like, smoking all the time. Joanna's lived in California for 22 years now. But even all of these thousands of miles away, all these years later, the past has a way of showing up.
Joanna Pollock
I dream about the house. I mean, it was just a tall, thin row house, but it had four floors because you had the attic and then the three floors and then the basement. And I have these dreams where I've bought it. And we found secret passages and just very Narnia, like, you know.
Will Sharp
And of course, Narnia is a place filled with wonders, but it's also a place filled with dangers. There's plenty to be scared of. Now, Joanna knew the twins very well because they were pretty close in age.
Joanna Pollock
They're three years older than me. They were born, what, 58? Yeah. I'm born 61. So, yeah, it weird having a grandmother who's just given birth to twins, you know, but we were raised together, and.
Will Sharp
That happens because Joanna's parents, Ian and Sylvia, have Joanna when they're young, just 17. And it's not long after the girls died in the crash, which is why Ian decides to name his new daughter Joanna in memory of his dead sister. But growing up, all of that is kind of shrouded in mystery.
Joanna Pollock
I didn't know any of the background. I knew they died. I didn't know how they died. It was never explained, you know, and then all of a sudden, it was like, you know, oh, the twins are reincarnations. What?
Will Sharp
And like her sister Lisa, Joanna doesn't believe a word of it. She thinks John made it all up, every last detail.
Joanna Pollock
He wanted to be respected, and that's what John was all about. He wanted to be somebody big. He wanted to be important, and that's what started off the reincarnation.
Will Sharp
So, okay, John did it for the attention, and if he did, he certainly got it. But Joanna thinks something must have happened which gave John the spark of an idea. And then he just ran with it, ran with it for a quarter of a century. But what was that something? Was it that movie that we heard about at the start of the show? Or was it something else? Joanna has an idea. Remember what John and Florence told Stephenson about the dolls? Those dolls which had belonged to the twins dead sisters.
John Pollock
You know, Dr. Stevenson, after Jacqueline and Joanna passed away, we packed up all of their toys in a box and put them in the attic. Didn't we, Flossie?
Joanna Pollock
Yes, John.
Lisa Pollock
This was in Hexham. It was just too painful.
Joanna Pollock
We didn't want to remind the boys of what had happened.
John Pollock
Anyway, when we moved here, of course, we found that box and we decided to give those toys to the twins. And guess what? Completely unprompted, Jennifer claimed Jacqueline's doll, held it to her as if it was hers and always had been.
Lisa Pollock
And Jillian claimed Joanna's doll completely naturally, just like that.
Will Sharp
Now, what makes the story significant is that apparently, in so many ways, Jennifer was always seen as being like Jacqueline and Jillian like Joanna. But John's granddaughter, Joanna, thinks the whole dolls thing is just a coincidence. A coincidence which gave John his bright idea, which would bring him the fame that he craved.
Joanna Pollock
I can't say this truth, you know, I can't say it's a fact, but I can see those kids in the playroom, Gillian or Jennifer goes up, picks up a toy and says, oh, this is mine. Because any three year old in a room full of toys, you know, and it clicked with him, it bloody clicked. And he thought, well, you know, there you go, we can start on this now.
Will Sharp
But of course, the story went much further than that. There's also the claim that the twins instinctively knew the names of the dolls, the names that their dead sisters had given those dolls. Here's Lisa.
Lisa Pollock
How much of that coaching was from my grandfather going, here's Rosie, here's Sally, you know, yeah, it's. It's not believable. So, yeah, he likes to make things up.
Will Sharp
The dolls were called Susan and Mary, in fact, but you get the idea. So Lisa thinks John was coaching the twins. But there is a problem here because in a TV interview, it's Florence who says the girls knew the names of the dolls, not John. So if there was a deception, it looks like Florence was in on it. And there's another problem. Reading Stephenson's account of this whole thing about the doll's names, it's all a bit unclear, a bit hazy, and Stephenson concludes that it's unverified. Are Florence And John saying one thing to Stephenson and then something else to the media. Or are the media distorting the story? So let's take a look at the other evidence, the birthmarks. Remember this? Jacqueline Pollock is three years old. She falls off a tricycle onto a metal bucket. It causes a nasty wound above her eye, one which needs three stitches and leaves a scar. And, of course, when the twins are born, Jennifer apparently has a birthmark which matches her dead sister's scar. Exactly. And she has a second birthmark, too. That one is above her hip, which also matches a birthmark on Jacqueline.
John Pollock
Jennifer, love, come here a moment. Stand here, love. Stand in front of Dr. Stevenson. Show him your waist. Look, there it is. There's the one birthmark. And there, just above her left eye, that's the other. Can you see that? Just there.
Joanna Pollock
I never saw a birthmark.
Will Sharp
But Joanna also says this.
Joanna Pollock
I think Jillian had a scar on her forehead, but it wasn't. I think she probably ran into something or this tiny little scar. I know she wasn't born with it because there are pictures of them as babies and there's no scar there.
Will Sharp
You know, is Joanna mistaken? Is she mixing up Gillian with Jennifer? And was it in fact a birthmark and not a scar? I mean, this is all a long time ago.
Lisa Pollock
Have they got pictures of these birthmarks on Joanna and Jacqueline to prove that Gillian and Jennifer have got the same scars, the same birthmarks?
Will Sharp
Okay, good questions. Well, it seems Stevenson did see Jennifer's birthmark. And he writes, In August 1963, I.
Narrator
Made a sketch of the birthmark as it then appeared. It was then an area of hyperpigmentation about 1 centimeter long and 6 millimeters wide.
Will Sharp
And Stevenson also vouches for Jacqueline's scar. In fact, he even reproduces a sketch.
Narrator
That I made in 1967 of a photograph of Jacqueline, which showed the scar distinctly.
Will Sharp
But as for Jennifer's second birthmark, Stevenson doesn't seem to verify that one. It doesn't sound like there were any photos that showed Jacqueline had a similar mark. We only have John Pollock's word for it. So, yes, the birthmarks thing is all a bit complicated, a bit murky. And Joanna and Lisa think it's just another thing that John made up. Then there's the trip to Hexham. Remember, the twins had never lived there, never been. Yet they were able to point out their dead sister's school, which was hidden from view. That part John told Stephenson. But when he spoke to the newspapers, John added this bit.
John Pollock
But then something else even more Incredible happened. We were walking down Liz's Crescent, where our old house was, you know, before they were born, of course, And I didn't say anything to them. They had no idea that the road was in any way significant. And do you know what they both said? We used to live there? Yes, both of them said that we used to live there.
Joanna Pollock
If they ever went. If they ever went. You know, the amount of stuff he made up and made it sound credible.
Will Sharp
And what about the fear of cars? Remember, it's apparently common in cases where kids claim to be reincarnated, that they have some kind of phobia. A phobia related to how they died in a previous life. In the case of the twins, it was a phobia of cars.
John Pollock
And there's something we haven't told you about yet, something which happened close to here. The twins were playing in a little alleyway nearby. It's enclosed, a dead end.
Will Sharp
There's a car park nearby. And the driver gets into the car.
John Pollock
Well, I'm in the house and I hear this hysterical screaming. Absolutely hysterical. It was. And I go outside and the twins are cowering in the corner, holding onto each other as if their lives depended on it. They were absolutely petrified. And the car wasn't close. It wasn't very close.
Joanna Pollock
I'm really not sure how to respond to that. He can say or could say and would say anything to make this more believable. You know, a car backfires or revs an engine in an alleyway if it was revved loudly. And they're young. Yeah. They're going to squeal or whatever. I didn't see any phobias of cars at all. God, he's full of crap. Sorry. I've got to keep saying, I'm gonna have it embroidered on a T shirt.
Will Sharp
Strong words. Except there is a problem with just writing this off as John's lies. Because it isn't just John who talks about this stuff. It's Florence, too. She tells Stevenson.
Lisa Pollock
They talk about it, you know, the accident, that is.
Joanna Pollock
I've heard them discussing it more than once.
Narrator
But you've never spoken to them about it?
John Pollock
No, we're very careful about that. We never discuss reincarnation. Never. And we never discuss the crash.
Will Sharp
So what's going on here? Sure, I get that John could be doing it for the attention. Yes. He seems like a bit of a narcissist. He loves being in the spotlight. Self publicist. But Florence sounds different. She sounds very different from Lise's description. She's a lovely kind Grandmother kind of shy and timid. Not the sort of person who craves publicity. Just the opposite, in fact. Why would she lie? Well, there might be an answer to that. Because according to Joanna and Lisa, it sounds like John was more than just a narcissist, more than just an attention seeker. To his drinking buddies, John was the life and soul of the party. But that wasn't the full story. Far from it.
Joanna Pollock
That was John, the amazing John that always buy you a drink, always had a funny joke, and then at home, he was a total bastard.
Will Sharp
Wow. So, remember, Joanna grew up with the twins, so she spent a lot of time in the Pollock home. And this goes much further than John just being a bit strict and scared. No, Joanna remembers John being nasty, vile, in fact, especially towards Florence.
Joanna Pollock
He would berate her for stupid things, like his coffee wasn't hot enough or, you know, they'd run out of whiskey. Stupid bloody things. You know, you better do this. How dare you embarrass me. How dare you. All in this very, very low tone. And you knew. You knew to go to the playroom and not come out.
Will Sharp
So controlling behavior, manipulation, actually, serious psychological abuse.
Joanna Pollock
With my grandmother, it was, if she did something wrong, you would keep her up all night, cleaning, cooking.
Will Sharp
But according to Joanna, it goes even further than that.
Joanna Pollock
He was a wife beater. She'd always be covered in bruises. Her arms, her legs, I think I saw with a black eye once. But he used to kick her and kick her in her shins and punch her on the arms and stuff like that. Spiteful, very spiteful person, you know, if things weren't going his way or you didn't do what he wanted, he'd do horrible little things.
Will Sharp
So if this was all just John's big lie and Florence was in on it, in on the deception, maybe that's because she was just scared, terrified.
Lisa Pollock
I don't think she had much choice than to go along with him. If you got out of line, you'd know about it.
Will Sharp
And then Joanna tells us about a conversation that she had with Florence about the crash which killed Joanna and Jacqueline.
Joanna Pollock
And she basically said, well, you know what happened after that, don't you? I was like, no, not really. Oh, there was this whole reincarnations thing. And he said there were Joanna and Jacqueline said that was the upsetting part because it was all bullshit.
Will Sharp
Yeah, bullshit.
Joanna Pollock
That was the conversation. I didn't really know a lot about it. I know they'd been famous for some reason. And I said what he thought there were. Jacqueline and Joanna had come back. Yes. God, the amount of times we had to sit there and listen to this shit. But, you know, I had to say this to reporters. I had to say that to reporters or I had to shut up. If I didn't back him up, then I had to shut up.
Will Sharp
According to Joanna, Florence said what she said because she had no choice. So here's how Lisa and Joanna sum up the John Pollock they knew.
Lisa Pollock
Truthfully. Narcissistic, gaslighting little man.
Joanna Pollock
Pathological, narcissistic, liar, self aggrandizing, hateful, pathetic little man. You know? And he roped everybody into it. Everybody. He tainted everybody.
Lisa Pollock
He didn't care who he upset, who he hurt in the process. It was all about John Pollock. And it's to set the record straight that it was him. Nobody else.
Will Sharp
Now, for years, Joanna thinks the reincarnation thing is just a tabloid news story. But then she reads about Stevenson's work.
Joanna Pollock
I just remember being so angry because I just thought it was the newspapers. I didn't know they were in books. God, that must have just been so great for my grandad to be published in a book. You know, a pinnacle. Because it's there for history now.
Will Sharp
Well, now there's another history. Not John's or Stephenson's. This one, the one you've just heard, Joanna and Lisa's history. But there is one more history we need to hear, right? The big one. Jennifer's. Jennifer, the surviving twin. Well, guess what? Poppy has tracked her down. She's found Jennifer. But the question is, will she want to speak? If you or someone you know has been affected by domestic violence and need support, go to apple.com heretohelp. You've been listening to Extrasensory, an Apple original podcast produced by Blanchard House and hosted by me, Will Sharp. The producer is Poppy Damon. Extrasensory is written by Lawrence Grissel. Additional production by Seren Jones. Original music by Daniel Lloyd Evans, Louis Nank Manel and Toby Matimong. Sound design and mix engineering by Vulcan Kiseltug and Daniel Lloyd Evans. The part of John Pollock was played by Peter Peverly, Florence Pollock by jasmine hyde and Dr. Ian stevenson by Mark Arnold. The Pollock children are played by Francisco and Edie Pimbola and Stevie Pye. Other parts by Jasmine Hyde, Mark Gillis, Ben Fox and Saul Boyer. Research by Alan Sargent. Fact checking by Jesse Bering and Karen Walton. Our managing producer is Amica Shortino Nolan. The creative director of Blanchard House is Rosie Pye. The executive producer and head of content at Blanchard House is Lawrence Grisel.
Title: Extrasensory
Host: Will Sharpe
Producer: Poppy Damon
Release Date: November 25, 2024
Episode: The Two Johns | 6
Production: Blanchard House
Available On: Apple Podcasts
In the sixth episode of Extrasensory, titled "The Two Johns," host Will Sharpe delves deeper into the enigmatic story of John Pollock—a milkman from 1950s England who predicted the reincarnation of his deceased daughters. This episode challenges the authenticity of Pollock's claims by introducing perspectives from his granddaughters, Lisa and Joanna Pollock, who vehemently dispute his assertions of reincarnation. Through personal interviews and investigative insights, the episode unravels the possibility that Pollock's narrative may have been a calculated hoax rather than a genuine phenomenon.
The episode commences with a vivid recounting by Will Sharpe of a pivotal moment in May 1957. John Pollock attends a local cinema to watch a film titled The Search for Bridie Murphy. Despite not being a regular moviegoer, Pollock is intrigued by the film's sensational portrayal of reincarnation.
Will Sharpe [00:05]: "John's running late. He needs to hurry. It's 8:00 already and he's going to miss the start if he's not careful."
As the film progresses, it narrates the story of a hypnotist uncovering a woman's memories of her past life as a little girl named Heidi Murphy. The climax of the movie leaves John mesmerized, sparking an idea that would soon intertwine with his personal tragedy.
Narrator in Film [03:11]: "After you died, could you watch them bury your body? Yes, I. I watched them ditch my body."
Post-movie, the episode highlights the coincidental timing between the film's release and the tragic death of John Pollock's daughters, Jacqueline and Joanna, in May 1957. Five days after the movie's screening, Pollock proclaims that his dead daughters will be reincarnated, leading to the birth of twins, Jennifer and Jillian, who bear striking resemblances to their deceased sisters.
Will Sharpe [03:25]: "Reincarnation isn't a thing in 1950s England. It's just not. Hardly anyone has heard of it."
This bold claim garners significant attention, even attracting American scientist Dr. Stevenson, who embarks on a transatlantic journey to study the twins. However, the episode begins to question the authenticity of Pollock's assertions.
Producer Poppy secures interviews with Lisa and Joanna Pollock—John Pollock's granddaughters—to uncover the truth behind their family's story. Lisa recounts fond memories of her grandmother Florence but reveals a starkly different image of her grandfather John.
Lisa Pollock [10:14]: "She was always in the kitchen. We'd cook breakfast first. She was just very, very quiet. Timid, but, yeah, fun."
Contrastingly, Lisa describes John as an absent, toxic presence who rarely engaged with the family and dismissed compassion during family tragedies.
Lisa Pollock [12:00]: "My grandfather had said, well, that's no use now they're dead."
Joanna Pollock further demolishes John Pollock's credibility, asserting that he fabricated the reincarnation narrative for personal glory and attention.
Joanna Pollock [19:10]: "He wanted to be respected, and that's what John was all about. He wanted to be somebody big. He wanted to be important."
Both granddaughters label John Pollock as a narcissistic liar who manipulated his family and community for decades.
Lisa Pollock [32:56]: "Truthfully. Narcissistic, gaslighting little man."
Joanna Pollock [33:05]: "Pathological, narcissistic, liar, self aggrandizing, hateful, pathetic little man."
The episode scrutinizes the evidence that supposedly supports the reincarnation claims. It examines the birthmarks of the twins, which were said to match scars from their deceased sisters.
John Pollock [23:40]: "Jennifer, love, come here a moment. Stand here... there's the one birthmark. And there, just above her left eye, that's the other."
However, Joanna and Lisa contest these claims, suggesting discrepancies and lack of verification.
Joanna Pollock [24:04]: "I think Jillian had a scar on her forehead, but it wasn't... I know she wasn't born with it because there are pictures of them as babies."
Additionally, the episode explores the story of the Pollock twins claiming knowledge about their deceased sisters' past lives, including obscure details like their old school in Hexham.
John Pollock [26:05]: "They both said that we used to live there."
Joanna dismisses these claims as convenient fabrications by her grandfather to lend credence to his story.
Joanna Pollock [21:16]: "I bloody clicked. And he thought, well, you know, there you go, we can start on this now."
The narrative around the twins' fear of cars—allegedly linked to their past lives' tragic accidents—is also debunked by their granddaughters, who report no such phobias.
Joanna Pollock [27:31]: "I didn't see any phobias of cars at all. God, he's full of crap."
Beyond the questionable reincarnation claims, the episode unveils the darker side of John Pollock's character. Joanna reveals the abusive environment fostered by her grandfather, both towards her grandmother Florence and within the household.
Joanna Pollock [30:08]: "He would berate her for stupid things... He was a wife beater."
This portrayal suggests that the reincarnation narrative could have been a facade masking deeper familial issues and enabling John Pollock's manipulative behavior.
Joanna Pollock [32:10]: "He roped everybody into it. Everybody. He tainted everybody."
As the episode progresses, Joanna discovers Dr. Stevenson's published work on the reincarnation claims, which further solidifies her belief that her grandfather fabricated the entire story for personal gain.
Joanna Pollock [33:52]: "I just remember being so angry because I just thought it was the newspapers... it must have just been so great for my granddad to be published in a book."
The episode also highlights inconsistencies in the testimonies of John Pollock and his wife Florence, particularly regarding the names of the twins' dolls and other specific details corroborated by external accounts.
Joanna Pollock [20:12]: "He thinks... it bloody clicked. And he thought, well, you know, there you go, we can start on this now."
In the episode's concluding segments, Poppy embarks on a quest to locate Jennifer Pollock, the surviving twin, aiming to hear her side of the story. This pursuit sets the stage for future episodes, promising to shed more light on the lingering mysteries surrounding the Pollock family's claims of reincarnation.
Will Sharpe [34:13]: "But there is one more history we need to hear, right? The big one. Jennifer's."
The episode ends on a cliffhanger, inviting listeners to anticipate Jennifer Pollock's revelations in upcoming installments.
"The Two Johns" intricately weaves personal testimonies with investigative journalism to question the veracity of John Pollock's reincarnation claims. By presenting compelling accounts from his granddaughters, the episode casts significant doubt on the authenticity of the Pollock twins' existence as reincarnated souls. As the narrative unfolds, listeners are left contemplating the thin line between belief, manipulation, and the desperate need for familial recognition.
Cast Portrayals:
Production Team:
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