The Trevor Silverwood Postcards were sent by an unknown individual over the course of more than a decade.
| Trevor Silverwood Postcards | |
|---|---|
 None | |
| Background | |
| Type | Phenomena |
| Continent | Europe |
| Country | England |
| One-Time? | No |
| Theories | None |
Description[]
Trevor Silverwood
Trevor Silverwood was a British politician who served as a local councilor in his hometown of Bridlington in Yorkshire, United Kingdom. Beginning in 1967, he was subject to a campaign of harassment that lasted for over a decade. Someone - or a group of someone's - began sending him hundreds of postcards. While the postcards were never overtly threatening, the knowledge of Silverwood's life displayed by the writer was unnerving, as the postcards made reference to meals he had eaten, programs he had watched on tv, and articles of clothing he had worn. All of the postcards were written in shorthand, a somewhat antiquated method of speed writing which replaces common words with symbols, and all were signed with the matchstick figure of the saint. Simon Templar, aka the saint, is a fictional character in a series of novels by British-Chinese writer Leslie Charteris. The saint is an anti hero, robin hood like character, who battles with arms dealers, warmongers, drug dealers, and corrupt politicians. While some of the postcards bore postmarks from nearby cities like Rotherham, Silverwoods stalker also sent cards that had been postmarked in such far away locations as India, America, and Canada.
In the late 1970s, Silverwood decided to confront his stalker by placing a personal ad in a local newspaper begging the writer to identify himself. Days later, he received a card postmarked in the canary islands off the west coast of Africa, which read "Don't be naughty. What a nice photograph of you the newspaper published!" Some time after this, Silverwood was questioned by police over a minor driving matter, and later received a card containing a detailed description of his interview, as if the writer had been standing within mere feet of their conversation, thought it took place on an empty stretch of road.
Due to the intimate knowledge displayed of Silverwood's life, some suspect that Silverwood himself was responsible for sending the postcards, but this theory fails to explain how Silverwood could send himself postcards from faraway locations. Silverwood gained nothing from the affair except a slightly diminished reputation.
Due to the signature of the saint, a character who battled with corrupt politicians, some believe that Silverwood was targeted by an individual or group who were angry with him over decisions he made during his political career.
According to a poster on Unexplained Mysteries forums who claimed to be Silverwood's son, the postcards finally stopped coming in the 1980s. The identity of the writer, or writers, why they targeted Silverwood, and how they were able to know intimate details about his life, all remain unknown.
Trivia[]
- similar cases have been reported elsewhere, most famously the Westfield Watcher.