Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles Page #6

We were going to go upstairs

and we were gonna be let in

on this secret part of

the shortwave fest.

So we've been led to believe

they may know

something about this.

So we are on the mission.

Over here is a very

low-power transmitting device

that is radiating a signal

around the hotel here.

He's actually performing

a shortwave broadcast

on the fourth floor of the hotel

or whatever where

the shortwave fest is at.

This is Radio Clandestine.

All right, on this broadcast

from Radio Tim Tron Worldwide

here in room 412,

we have some gentlemen

from another aspect

of an interesting

life form that have arrived.

And who do we have seated at

the guest microphonium?

Well, my name is Justin Duerr

and I'm from Philadelphia.

And we're filming

a documentary about

a mysterious phenomenon that

has been unfolding,

as far as we

know, well over a decade.

Wow.

There was a distinct

possibility that

Tim Tron might say,

"Back in the early '80s,

"I mean, everybody knew

the Toynbee tile station.

You know, we used to listen to it

all the time."

And maybe he'd even have

a tape of it or something.

This is the first time

I've ever heard of this,

so I guess putting it

out there

in shortwave radio land

we'll get it out there

and maybe somebody who has

experienced this phenomenon

can get back to you all.

There.

Colin was in and out of the room

during Justin's interview.

And he comes back in...

We have a development

downstairs, you guys.

Whoa!

The guy pulled me out of

the room and he said,

"There's someone you really

should talk to.

Here, come down

and talk to him."

"There's someone...

we've got to go

downstairs."

We go over and start talking to

this guy, John T. Arthur.

You were saying you

remembered something

about that-- the shortwave

broadcasts?

Well, they contacted me

to use my post office box

for a mail drop.

It's exactly what you describe

in the little flier, there.

When did they

contact you?

Well, I was in school there

between '81 and '83

so it was early '80s.

Mm-hmm.

- Wow.

- Do you remember any--

did you ever listen

to the broadcasts?

Do you remember anything

about those?

I never could hear them,

not from out there.

And I never saw

any reports of them.

Never got any mail for him,

either.

Just being there,

in the flesh, with someone

who had had communication

with the Toynbee tiler.

It was like, everything comes

together, everything clicks,

where you're just like,

"Whoa, like, you know...

"my head is spinning.

Like, this is

just crazy."

Do you remember any--

do you remember talking to

any other people

or just him or...

- It was all by mail.

- Yeah, okay.

I didn't talk to him,

and, no, it was just him.

And you didn't save any of the

mail or anything, obviously.

Probably not.

No, I didn't,

unfortunately.

Yeah.

Did he mention anything

about a group,

like the Minority Association?

- Yeah, I recall that name, too.

- Yeah, really?

Wow.

Do you remember

any of the names

of the people that

contacted you?

If you could

rattle off some names,

it might jog

my memory, but...

Severino?

Sevy?

- Verna?

- Verna.

Yeah, how 'bout that?

First try.

Colin throws out

the first name.

John T. Arthur

completes the last name.

We know conclusively

who the tiler was.

Sevy Verna, yeah.

After the shortwave fest,

we got together

and we had a little

round table discussion

about what our next

steps would be.

Well, stranger things

have happened.

Well...

Nah, that's not true.

Nothing stranger

has ever happened.

Well, where do you guys

want to take it from here?

I mean, what can we do

from here, you know?

We should go back to

the neighborhood or at least,

like, nail Frannie down

more into just being like,

"You've gotta talk to him,"

you know what I mean?

Because now we know something

we didn't know before.

So, yeah,

knowing more about him

is really what's important

at this point.

Right, yeah, yeah.

And just filling in

all the holes.

We go back to the

neighborhood...

Here's a man that no one sees.

Here's a man that,

if he goes food shopping,

he goes 2:
00, 3:00

in the morning.

He just put about

half-inch plywood

on the windows

and nailed it into the window.

And, like I say,

then he used to chain the door.

People like him,

they just...

they don't

want to be bothered.

They live by themselves.

I think he works

a little night work.

I'm not sure, we don't see him.

All I do know is people

used to bother him,

but he didn't bother nobody.

He used to have a car.

One side of it was--

the floorboard was out of it.

I know that because one day

I happened to look

and I went,

"My God," you know.

I said, "How can he drive it

like that?"

It only had one seat

on one side, I remember.

And I looked and I said,

"Man don't have no floorboard

in his car," you know?

The tiler doesn't have

a floorboard in his car.

It takes a second.

You're like,

"No-- no floorboard?"

Immediately, makes you

think, "Well, that's how he's

"putting the Toynbee tiles down,

is he's driving in his car,

"dropping the Toynbee tiles

through this

floorboard-less

part of the car."

No one would see a thing.

I remember seeing that tile

in the middle of the highway

and I wondered,

like, "How did he do that?"

You're on the

interstate, you drop a tile.

You're at the entrance

of the Holland Tunnel

and you drop a tile, you know?

So you can put tiles

in impossible locations.

It's brilliant, it's...

Well, I remember there

was a car up here

with a big, big antenna.

With a real big antenna.

He used to come over

on the TV screen.

Like, he used to come in

with the TV back in the day.

Like, he used to come across,

like, you'd hear--

you're watching a TV show

and you would

hear somebody talking.

My father used to complain

about it going onto the TV.

'Cause it would be

the floor model,

back in the day,

and it used to go--

You hear him talking on

the thing

and then my father

used to go out there

and scream and holler.

He's got his car, and before

he starts tiling,

he's tiling the airwaves.

He's tiling

the 11:
00 news.

You basically, you've got

this guy in a car

with the floorboards

taken out of the passenger side

of the car with no

passenger seat,

with a big Texas Flycatcher

antenna attached to the car,

transmitting a signal.

Driving down the street

in his neighborhood

and, as he passes each house,

the television in the house

goes haywire

and his Toynbee message

is coming over the speakers

on the television.

And people are coming out of

their house

and yelling at the car

because they know that it's him

that's transmitting this signal

on to the televisions.

It's a pretty intense story,

you know.

I remember, younger,

when we were kids,

we called him the Birdman

'cause he would take the birds.

Like, if there was a broken--

a bird on the street

with a broken wing or whatever,

he'll take it back and he'll

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