Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog

Wrong Place Stories February 23, 2016

In 1975 Jeremy Thorpe, the then leader of the British Liberal Party, lost his head. After a homosexual affair had gone wrong – and in a period where this would have lost him his job and his name – he had a friend, telephone a ‘heavy’, Andrew Newton, to go and threaten his ex-boyfriend, Norman Scott. Newton gritted his teeth, jumped in the car and drove to wait at a hotel in Dunstable (Bedfordshire) with the intention, we might imagine, of grabbing Scott’s testicles very, very hard. It was a long wait though, because Newton had been told to go to Barnstaple (Devon) on the phone line, and so driven to the wrong side of the country. The story’s denoument is depressing. Thorpe became desperate and seems to have asked for an attempt on Scott’s life. There followed an assassination attempt that saw the young man’s dog shot and the self-immolation of one of the UK’s most talented politicians in the trial that followed.

But Beach, who owes this precious reference to Chris at Haunted Ohio Books, wondered how many other times in history people have got towns mixed up like this. There is one famous example from classical antiquity. Hannibal, when he was in Italy, asked for an Italian scout to bring him and his army to Casinum (Monte Cassino), instead he was brought to Casilinum on the coast a couple of score miles away: Carthaginian pronunciation may have been a problem. By all accounts the guide was crucified. This should have been a disaster for Hannibal but the Carthaginian turned and defeated the Romans at Ager Falernus.

Beach also came across many years ago a story that he has not been able to document. When ETA wished to speak with the Spanish government in the 1970s, the two sides agreed on an international hotel in Geneva (Ginebra). ETA, though, went to a hotel in Genoa (Italy) and the representatives from Spain to the same hotel in the Swiss city: Beach wonders if there was some confusion between Basque and Spanish here? Note that Geneva has traditionally been the meeting place between the Basques and ‘Castillians’: it was in the 1970s and it was in 2005 in the last sustained negotiations with Zapatero’s government so the story could be based on something real. Alternatively it could be a bit of Spanish slander. Negotiating with ETA cannot ever have been fun.

Any other wrong town stories: drbeachcombing At yahoo DOT com There must be lots out there.

25 Feb 2016: Larry writes: ‘I’m sure you will receive many versions of the misdelivery of Fafner’s neck to Beirut rather than Bayreuth, resulting in it missing the first festival performance by three weeks. I have always suspected this to be legend, not least because I first came across it in a book of “herpic failures.” It appears that such misdelivery was quite possible. Richard Koprowski who is (or was) a music librarian at Stanford University adds the following in the “Bayreuth vs. Beirut” thread here

‘In going through some Liszt letters I discovered that for some envelopes and return addresses, in late 1876, he wrote “Bayreuth in Deutschland” (sometimes underscored). Earlier he seems to have only addressed them “Bayreuth”. While I have not done a systematic examination of all envelopes, this leads me to believe that there was some incident surrounding two “Bayreuths” (though spelt differently) and so letters were more carefully addressed.’ He adds that ” Newman thought the confusion “not at all improbable”: p.475 of his “Life of Richard Wagner”, vol.4.’
I live just west of one, Charleston, WV. Airport employees up and down the East Coast constantly mix up Charleston, WV. with Charleston, SC. At least twice a year a plane full of tourists will land here thinking they’re just minutes away from the South Carolina beaches, only to find out they’ve landed at a mountaintop airport a ten hour drive from Charleston, SC. with no connecting flights.

Bruce T, meanwhile writes, As Charleston, WV is the capital of the state of West Virginia, local political types coming home from D.C. often find themselves arriving in South Carolina in the middle of the night, also with no connecting flights. It’s been going on for decades and I suspect it will go on for decades more.

There has been one improvement in the situation in recent years. The huge beach resort of Myrtle Beach, SC. offers connecting flights to and from Charleston, WV. It’s about one hundred miles north of Charleston, SC. You can rent a car in Charleston to/from there. Two caveats, the flights are once a day during the spring/ summer vacation months, the rest of the year, it’s three times a week, one flight a day, take it or leave it. If you miss the flight, or it’s fall or winter, you’re better off getting a rental car for the ten hour drive.

29 Feb 2016: JB writes ‘Hi, just came across your post and it reminded me of a story from my childhood, and I was able to find the story online – In the mid-80s a college kid coming back from Europe was trying to catch a connecting flight from Los Angeles to Oakland, but he misheard a boarding announcement, no one caught the mixup before the plane took off – to AUCKLAND, New Zealand.