The Secret of Churchill’s Anthrax Island

REDACTED: Declassified Mysteries with Luke Lamana

Wondery | Ballen Studios

True Crime, History

4.3 • 668 Ratings

🗓️ 10 June 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Towards the end of WWII, Winston Churchill decided it was time for Britain to develop deadly bioweapons. He chose a remote island off of Scotland where experiments could be carried out away from human contact. But toxic secrets often have a way of resurfacing. Years later, a group of environmental activists called ""Dark Harvest"" would force Britain to confront its contaminated past. The story of Anthrax Island is one of toxic government secrets and environmental reckoning.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wonderry Plus subscribers can listen to Redacted, declassified mysteries early and ad-free right now.
0:06.9	Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:19.1	A little after sunset on the night of March 26, 2022, a mother and daughter were finishing
0:25.1	dinner at their home in a small fishing village in northwest Scotland, when suddenly they both
0:30.8	smelled smoke.
0:33.0	Once they were sure it wasn't coming from inside their house, the mother stepped outside to
0:36.7	look for the source.
0:38.4	The smell was distinctly stronger outdoors. She noticed something else too in the distance,
0:44.4	a soft glow in the sky to the west. She hurried back inside, grabbed her car keys, and told
0:50.3	her daughter to put on a coat. They going to investigate the road was empty as they
0:55.4	drove through the village towards the coast the light on the horizon grew brighter in the back of the
1:00.4	mother's mind old stories and memories began to stir she did her best to push them away and focus on
1:06.8	the road as they crested a hill and curved toward the water. At the bay, the mother
1:12.6	parked and got out, astonished by what she saw. Her daughter came close and held her. They
1:18.8	both stood there for a moment, staring in shock. Less than a mile across the dark water
1:24.3	of the bay, the uninhabited Grunyard Island was an inferno.
1:29.6	Everything that was visible from the coast rippled with flames, and clouds of black smoke
1:34.3	rose upwards.
1:35.8	The daughter pulled out her phone to document the fire.
1:38.8	But the mother's gaze remained set on the smoke.
1:41.4	The wind was shifting, and it was now drifting towards the mainland. The mother's nerves tightened. Even with the bay between them and the smoke. The wind was shifting and it was now drifting towards the mainland. The mother's
1:45.5	nerves tightened. Even with the bay between them and the flames, she felt too close. She wanted
	...

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