Welcome to Unexplained Extra, with me, Richard McLean Smith, where for the weeks in

between episodes we look at stories and ideas that for one reason or other didn't make

it into the previous show.

In last week's episode, The Dark Ascending, we took a trip to Changdonbury Ring in Sussex,

England, to shine a light on the many peculiar happenings that are said to have occurred

there and in the surrounding countryside over the years.

The episode focused largely on Charles Walker from the town of Worthing, who, after looking

into a number of these strange events, became convinced that a local occult group, known

as the Friends of Hecate, were operating in the area.

It was Walker's belief that this group may even have committed murder as part of a series

of rituals they were conducting.

As many people have noted however, despite Walker's claims, very little has been uncovered

to prove that the Friends of Hecate even exist, let alone were responsible for ritual murder

of humans, or indeed dogs which they have also been linked with.

As one listener of the show kindly wrote in to explain, though historically, ancient

worshipers of Hecate did sacrifice animals in the hope of gaining favours from the goddess,

the great many Hecate and practitioners of magic that exist today are fervently opposed

to violence and cruelty and are unlikely to do such a thing.

Certainly there is no evidence that such practitioners have ever made a human sacrifice to the goddess,

who is also considered to be the guardian of dogs, all of which makes this Hecate connection

or the more fanciful.

Attempts to associate the group with Satanism, a theme that was later picked up and expanded

...