Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I Heart Radio and

Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book,

all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. When we picture someone in a dark suit and sunglasses with a badge on their hip, right?

They talk fast and ask a lot of questions in search of the truth.

Well, one British organization in the early 20th century did ask a lot of questions,

but whether it found out the truth or not is still up for debate.

It was formed in the 1920s when author Bernard Slay

published his novel The Gates of the Horn.

The actual title is a lot longer than that, but it's not the part that caught people's eyes.

It was the subject matter inside it.

Within the pages of Sla's book were ten short stories, each one, the written testimony of a

member of a clandestine organization known as the Ferry Investigation Society.

Slay had written the stories as though they'd been real reports from people who'd come into contact with fairies,

and they aren't whimsical childlike tales of wonder either.

They dealt with death and loss, as well as themes of a sexual nature, and they were apparently

so convincing readers started to believe that the society was real. Pretty soon life began to imitate art.

A man named Quinton Crawford who'd served in the British Navy had fallen down the

rabbit hole of spiritualism and paranormal science, popular topics at the time.

In 1927, he'd been tinkering with a wireless radio that he designed when he started hearing

...