It is one of York’s best known ghost stories originating from one of its most haunted pubs.
But many of the details have been shrouded in myth and mystery. Until now.
For years, the tale has been told of the Canadian airman who fell to his death from an upper storey window of the Golden Fleece pub on Pavement – and has since haunted the pub.
Now two paranormal sleuths have tracked down the real story – and found key details, including the airman’s name and nationality – are completely wrong.
Mackenzie Crompton, who runs the award winning historical ghost walk Shadows of York, and York Ghostfinder General Rachel Lacy are working on a book aimed at myth busting some of York’s spooky stories.
The Golden Fleece airman has long been referred to as Geoff Monroe. But during their research, they discovered that… he doesn’t exist.
“There’s many variations of the story. But I started to just be a bit suspicious of it, because I couldn’t find any actual record of him,” Mackenzie told YorkMix.
They scoured through Rachel’s file of paranormal news stories and trawled through newspaper archives.
Then they discovered that an American woman supposedly visited by the ghostly airman while staying at the Golden Fleece literally ‘dreamed up’ the name Geoff Monroe.
“She woke in her sleep and wrote on a bit of pen and paper, ‘Geoff Monroe fell from the window Golden Fleece’,” Mackenzie said.
“Then she rang up the Golden Fleece from America and said, ‘I’ve got a name for him’. And that’s where it started.”
When they could find no trace of airman Geoff Monroe, Mackenzie and Rachel vowed to determine the truth. Did the tragedy really happen? And if so, what was the real name of the man who died?
Mackenzie was drawing a blank until she searched under the pub’s more formal name, “The Golden Fleece Hotel”.
“I thought, I wonder if that’s it – I typed it in, and it came up! I was ecstatic. I was grinning about it for a day.”
It turns out that a man did die after falling from a Fleece window. It happened in 1944, and the airman involved was British, not Canadian.
Mackenzie went on: “Following on from this, I tracked down the coroner’s report and also looked in newspapers which are not published online. They revealed the full story, while further online searches uncovered his address, other occupations he’d had, and where he was buried.”
They have kept his true name a secret. But they are going to reveal his identity at a special live streamed event tomorrow (Thursday, 10 October) at 8.30pm. You can join via this link.
Mackenzie and Rachel are looking for a local publisher for their book, which they are planning to launch early next year – with a second book already in the pipeline.
They are also looking at resurrecting York Ghost Festival, which Rachel had stopped running after the other founder moved away.
