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shyscyberchamber.com
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FREAKS
:
The
Human Mole |
Date
Added
NOV 2003 |
'Ordinary attractions... no longer hold
excitement for crowds. They want to see something sensational
and macabre - and Norman Green fits the bill. He's the most
spectacular freak on Earth.'
Those words, which could easily have been purloined from the peepshow
patter of Phineas T. Barnum a century or so ago, were, in fact spoken
by show business agent Bernard Wooly on Saturday 17th July 1982, the
eve of a summer fun fair in Preston, Lancashire. With a wily eye
for the outrageous Mr Wooly was drumming up customers who, for 25
pence a go, could see his latest star sitting on a settee. It
was perfect timing on Mr Wooly's part, for people all over the country
had only that day been reading about Norman Green, the Human Mole.
Father of six Norman hit instant freak appeal the day after he
nervously abandoned his home of eight years - a 21 inch deep dugout
under the floorboards of the house in Wigan where, with the exception
of his wife Pauline, his family lived in total ignorance of his
underground existence. As he clambered, blinking into the
daylight, a tangled Rip Van Winkle beard and matted grey hair hanging
two feet down his back completed his remarkable, mole-like appearance.
He had re-emerged from that tiny hole after, quite simply, vanishing
from the world eight years previously.
Norman, 43, a former travelling salesman, literally went to ground
shortly before Christmas 1974, after being questioned by police about
a serious offence. (When he finally re-appeared, it was decided
that no charges would be made against him). Aided by his wife,
who was to explain to friends and neighbours that he had deserted his
her and the children, Norman decided that his only course of action
was to 'hole-up' indefinitely in the coffin sized space under the
floorboards of the family lounge. A settee was placed over the
hiding place so there would be no clues that he was there.
By night, Norman would be given food and drink by his wife and,
occasionally emerged from the foundations of the semi-detached council
house. But by day he remained silently entombed. Pauline
Green later said: 'It was terrible when friends and relatives
came to call. I would be chatting and laughing with them, and
all the time I knew they were sitting on top of Norman.
'I had to remove all traces of Norman. I even had to give his
clothes away so people would really believe he was gone. He only
ever emerged at night or, sometimes, when the house was empty, and he
had to wear my clothes whenever he came out. One of the saddest
moments was when one of my sons said to me, 'My dad is going to come
back one of these days with a lot of money and a fast car'. I
hated living the lie. To the outside world I was a divorcee.
But every time I went back to the house I knew I was going back to the
world of deceit. The pressure just got too much to bear. I
just wanted to be like every other wife and mother. I wanted to
go out at nights with my husband. I wanted to go to the park
with him and the kids. I was envious of other wives - and I only
went through it all because I love Norman so much. It was for
his sake.'
Shopping expeditions became an ordeal for Pauline, who carefully
ensured that she did not buy too much to arouse suspicions.
Sympathetic neighbours, who believed she really had been abandoned by
Norman, even rallied round to give her hand-me-down clothes and cash.
As time wore on, Norman became a distant memory, and no one in their
wildest dreams could have begun to guess that he was alive and well
and actually underfoot whenever anyone visited the family home.
Indeed, it seemed that Norman had so perfectly slipped away into his
Human Mole role that he would never be discovered.
What Norman had not counted on, however, was the childlike curiosity
of little Kristian Coates, a three year old boy from across the road.
While he should have been playing with his pals, Kristian cheekily
wandered through an open front door and into the lounge of the Green
family home. There, the astonished youngster watched in horror
as the red-flowered carpet seemed to move by itself. Then, the
furniture began to move and the floorboards under the settee began to
creak and groan eerily. Suddenly, the floorboards were flung
open and a gaunt, hairy figure began to emerge from the darkened
hollow below. Norman must have been as shocked as little
Kristian who fled from tearfully from his creepy encounter with the
Human Mole. For it was the first mistake he had made since
burying himself away from the world.
For three more years though, his subterranean sanctuary remained
undiscovered, because nobody would take seriously what they believed
was the wild fantasy of a little boy who kept repeating "I went into
the room and saw the furniture moving. Then I saw this strange
man come out from under the floorboards. He had long hair and a
beard. He was horrible.'
Kristian's parents finally decided to keep an eye on the house over
the road when, as his father said 'I began to notice little things
that suggested Norman was still there. Pauline would go to the
shops and buy cigarettes, but she didn't smoke. She would also
buy beer from the off-license and she went to the betting shop
clutching wads of betting slips. (Incredibly, Norman managed to
maintain his interest in horse racing, following form in the
newspapers his wife would occasionally give him). I used to lie
awake wondering whether I should tell the police. But how could
I? It was such an incredible story.'
Eventually, Kristian's mother rather uncertainly did relay their
growing belief that Norman might, somehow, still be around to the
police. And, three days later, a couple of local bobbies came
knocking on the Green's door, and before long Norman, the human mole
was surfacing again after an almost unbelievable eight years.
Norman, and possibly to a lesser extent, his wife and family, now had
to face astonished friends and neighbours.
Soon, as newspapers and offers to appear as a freak show attraction
began to land on his doorstep, all he could find to say to an
incredulous world was: 'I almost got to like it down there. I'm
sure I could go back quickly to living the way I did for eight years.
In fact, there has been so much fuss I sometimes wish I had never come
out.' |
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