tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35495083742043627722024-03-18T22:43:21.688-07:00American GhostsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549508374204362772.post-79717011759919920992019-03-06T14:23:00.000-08:002019-03-06T14:32:48.108-08:00The black robed entity from the murder house <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Twelve years ago <i>The Anomalist</i> issue 13 published my story about the Black Flash that haunted Provincetown in the 1930's. I added an appendix of similar horrors. </span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One never left my mind: what emerged from the house where 15-year old Mabel Mayer was murdered in 1927, a crime that after decades is still unsolved? Let's see what stories began to circulate at the time. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Under the heading of 'The Horrible Experience Of Mr. John Smith", a California newspaper reported: "The people of Oakland are pretty well convinced that a house where a murder was committed last week is haunted. The experience of a certain electrician as recounted by the worthy A.P. was terrifying enough. John Smith, electrician, said he passed the murder house recently and a tall, heavy set man, garbed in a gown like a black kimono and wearing a 'strange looking thing on his head', walking out and started after him. Smith said he ran as fast as he could."[1]</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Who wouldn't? But there's more. Who was the mysterious, distraught and mentally unhinged woman who appeared out of nowhere, approached two families that stood in the front of their homes talking and that knew nothing of the murder at the time? She could not remember where she lived but muttered that 'May' lived across the street from her, saying: "Oh why did they do it? I told them not to". When questioned what she meant, she abruptly left.[2]</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And what exactly was that 'strange looking thing' on the head of the black garbed, heavy set man?</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another newspaper from Nevada, admittedly far away from the crime scene, described the strange looking thing as being 'about his head'. At least here we learn more from Smith: "He declared that a few days before the murder a hold-up was staged in front of the house." But the weirdness didn't stop there. Something seemed to be not quite right with the murder mansion the newspapers noted, and it became branded as a 'spook house'. "The house seemed to fall into the depths of disrepute today. Mrs. Ruby Swain, clerk, declared she was the last tenant of the place and moved out recently because she could not stand the strain of wierd (sic) noises and the oppressiveness of the place..."[3]</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Notes</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. Modesto News-Herald, 7 July 1927.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Modesto News-Herald, 6 July 1927.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3. Reno Gazette-Journal, 5 July 1927; </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Modesto News-Herald, 6 July 1927.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549508374204362772.post-21663274808743770422013-10-14T13:46:00.000-07:002013-10-14T14:00:48.848-07:00The Black Flash of Cape Cod<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">
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</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">In
the late 1930s, a frightening and phantomlike creature plagued Provincetown,
Massachusetts. One October evening in 1938, so tradition speaks, a bizarre
entity emerged from the dunes, "dressed in black – all in black..."
The visitations of the phantom were to last seven years. Then, in 1945, its
activity stopped abruptly and the entity disappeared without a trace, never to
be seen again. It was named ‘The Black Flash’ because of its supernatural
agility. Today, the legend of ‘The Black Flash’ that terrorized Provincetown in
the 1930’s is remembered as a haunting tale of the bizarre. Several websites
mention it, and they are more or less consistent in their summaries. Perhaps
not surprising, as there are so few sources and with anecdotes sensational
enough, that there is no room nor need for distortion or embellishment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"> The
tale of The Black Flash can be traced back to a small publication by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ellis_Cahill" target="_blank"><span style="color: #265353; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Robert Ellis Cahill</span></a>,
folklorist and untiring Massachusetts collector of oddities. Cahill gave the
Black Flash a second life with his retelling of the events that so plagued
Provincetown in the 1930’s in his <i>New England’s Mad and Mysterious Men</i>,
that was published in 1984. Vermont writer <a href="http://josephacitro.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #265353; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Joe Citro</span></a> masterfully retold the
strange affair in his <i>Passing Strange: True Tales of New England
Hauntings and Horrors</i> (1996), thus keeping the tale of The Black Flash
alive. In fact, were it not for Cahill and Citro, we would probably have never
learnt of the capers of that strange phantom that in behaviour, as well as
outfit, so echoed another dark phantom from our past: Spring-heeled Jack. Famous
author of anomalies <a href="http://www.johnkeel.com/?p=317" target="_blank"><span style="color: #265353; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">John Keel stayed in Provincetown in 1963</span></a>; yet he did not come to learn of that local
legend.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">But
that’s how I came to know of it’s existence; by reading Mike Dash’s <a href="http://www.mikedash.com/extras/forteana/shj-about" target="_blank"><span style="color: #265353; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">paper on Spring-heeled Jack</span></a> that initially appeared in <i>Fortean
Studies</i> no. 3, published in 1996, and who based his account on Cahill.
I was so intrigued by this story that some years ago I decided to bite my teeth
into this case and engage in some serious research concerning what had happened
in Provincetown in the late 1930’s. I wanted to get a clearer picture of that
series of weird events that, according to Cahill, lasted until 1945. My first
step was to acquire both the Cahill and the Citro publications. Citro, with
whom I corresponded in the course of my research, is an excellent writer and
one who is well versed in Fortean events. To Cahill goes the honour of having
written about the case first – and what a tale it is!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">From
Cahill we learn that The Black Flash was a 'a giant monster,' a phantomlike
creature dressed in black, 'black hood, black cape, black face but his fierce
eyes and long pointed ears were a glowing silver.' A woman had a frightful
evening encounter in Provincetown in the second week of November 1938.
Afterwards she described the Black Flash as: </span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">"black, all black, with eyes
like balls of flame, and he was big, real big... maybe eight feet tall. He made
a sound, a loud buzzing sound, like a June bug on a hot day, only louder... he
disappeared like a flash."</span></blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Other
encounters would follow. Writes Cahill:</span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">
</span>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">"Within
the next three weeks, four other people had similar experiences in downtown
Provincetown. The Black Flash either jumped out at them from behind a tree, or
dropped down before them from a rooftop. Two of his victims were husky men, and
although one man reported that he chased him, he said he was no match for the
speed and agility of the Black Flash."</span></span></blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Those
who had had their luckless encounters with the elusive phantom agreed on its
height, black cape, almost superhuman agility, and (sometimes) silver ears. In
one instant, when it was cornered by the Provincetown police in a schoolyard
surrounded by a ten foot fence, a flashlight shining on its face revealed
"a mask, which looked like an old flour-screen without its handle, painted
silver and strapped to the phantom’s head." The Black Flash then escaped
over a fence. During another encounter one teenager alleged that the phantom
had spit blue flames into his face. Then there is the farmer who allegedly
emptied his rifle at The Black Flash, whereupon the phantom merely laughed and
leaped over an eight-foot hedge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">My
second attempt at getting to the bottom of this incredible tale, was to learn
about the sources that Cahill and Citro had used. Citro had used Cahill, as it
quickly turned out, and Cahill had used the retellings by several people living
in Provincetown at the time of the events. As such, Cahill is an important, if not
the sole source for the local oral tradition involving The Black Flash. But as
I became none the wiser in regards to any sources that went before Cahill, the
next logical step was to search for a local newspaper. To my joy I found one
actually online: the <a href="http://advocate.provincetown-ma.gov/" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: #265353; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Provincetown Advocate</span></i></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">In
its October 26, 1939 issue I found the first reference on The Black Flash. So
Ellis had been right, after all, although his retelling marked more the
recording of the next stage, that of an unusual event having entered local
folklore with all its embellishments and distortions. Something strange had
indeed visited Provincetown, but not from 1938 till 1945. The weirdness began
in 1939 and lasted only a few weeks. The <i>Provincetown Advocate</i> was
unusually reticient in reporting about the weird occurrences. So much so, that
none of Cahill’s sensational anecdotes are to be found in that paper. Which, of
course, may not say anything. There is always the possibility that the local
newspaper did not record, for a variety of reasons, all the tales spun by its
local inhabitants. That would include any possible, actual encounter. But
judging from the newspaper, and this is the closest source in regards to the
unusual occurrences that we can get, there was something going on and the name
‘Black Flash’ was already in use from the start. Aside from that there are
other small but problematic oddities that I noted and were included in my essay
on The Black Flash that was published in 2007, in <a href="http://www.anomalistbooks.com/ta13.html" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: #265353; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Anomalist 13</span></i></a><i>.</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Having
developed a keen interest by now into the development of Spring-heeled
Jack-like activities in the United States, in the course of extensive
researches I was able to compile a list of thirteen cases of incidents ranging
from 1885 to 1927 that I included as an appendix.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Suffice
to say that in the 1930’s a strange phantom had actually plagued Provincetown.
During my researches I discovered that the neighbouring village of Wellfleet
encountered a similarly strange and brief visitation by a howling something
around the same time. So I not only found that Cahill’s tales had a basis in
fact, but also that another weird entity or pranxter had displayed some
activities nearby. A conclusion is that it is always necessary to revisit these
old – but not entirely cold – cases, with sometimes surprising results.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">As
to the Black Flash, who was he? Was he, as Cahill learned, an invention of
some bored Provincetown men? Cahill was told by Francis Marshall, who became
Provincetown’s Police Chief in 1959, that he knew who The Black Flash was, but
he refused to identify the culprit:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">"I
will tell you this though... The Black Flash wasn’t just one person. He was
four men, who sometimes played the part alone, and sometimes together. Two are
dead now, but the others have a hell of a time when they get together, reminiscing
about the times they scared the hell out of their friends and neighbors in
Provincetown."</span></blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Be
that as it may, but the original source in the <i>Provincetown Advocate</i> already
mentions the uncanny agility of the Black Flash:</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">
</span>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">"...grabbing
women, jumping over ten foot hedges with no trouble at all. "Chair springs
on his feet" is the explanation."</span></span></blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">A
description that coincides with the behaviour of that other bizarre prowler of
the dark, Spring-heeled Jack. Did something entirely different emerge from the
dunes one night, to begin its reign of fear? This question I am sure would have
amused Robert Ellis Cahill. As for myself, I am deeply puzzled as to how an
England bogyeman of a distant past would become a kind of template for whatever
haunted a little town in Massachusetts, hundreds of miles away and a century
later.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549508374204362772.post-88184347368215964212013-10-08T17:16:00.005-07:002013-10-08T18:03:06.081-07:00The Petrified Cornfield<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">One of the interesting
problems in assessing how far back in time the crop circle phenomenon stretches
is to find old tales suggestive of the phenomenon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">America has produced such
crop-related folklore. In 1885 a newspaper in Georgia printed this intriguing
anecdote: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;"><i>“I heard a truthful,
religious old lady say, that when she was a little girl she was sent to pick up
corn stalks with the child of a reputed witch. Growing weary of the work, the
child of the witch mother proposed to collect the stalks without further
labour. A few minutes later, the wind began to rise, furious whirlwinds made
their appearance in different parts of the field, the stalks were lifted in the
air, but my informant, becoming frightened, begged that it might be stopped.
The witch child waved her arms, the wind subsided and the stalks fell back in
their places. These stories might be multiplied by scores; they were
sufficiently well authenticated and corroborated to produce conviction of
their truth, if only within the bounds of reason and common experience.” [1]</i> </span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">While the above
points to a widespread belief linking crop and field anomalies to the work of
the Devil and his minions, that fascinating detail of 'furious whirlwinds' in
the American tale connects to a brief letter to the editor of <i>Nature</i>. It
was published in 1880, and it is often cited as a precursor to the crop
circle phenomenon. Entitled 'Storm Effects', the letter describes how violent
storms rocked parts of Surrey, England, producing effects considered as: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;"><i>“in some instances curious.
Visiting a neighbour’s farm… we found a field of standing wheat considerably
knocked about, not as an entirety, but in patches forming, as viewed from a
distance, circular spots. </i></span></blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;"><i>“Examined more closely,
these all presented much the same character, viz., a few standing stalks as a
centre, some prostrate stalks with their heads arranged pretty evenly in a
direction forming a circle round the centre, and outside these a circular wall
of stalks which had not suffered.” [2] But just how unusual is it to find
stalks flattened or bent in various figures after a severe storm? Two years
before the letter in Nature was published, a Wisconsin newspaper
remarked on how an “unusually severe wind and rain storm, coming up from the
southwest… flattened the grain and twisted it into all conceivable directions
and shapes. The grain was very tall and heavy, and the damage of having it
completely flattened can well be appreciated by all who have harvested lodged
grain.” [3]</i> </span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Are there then no
genuinely weird tales involving crops and anomalous impressions or phenomena?
I’ve been scouring digitized newspaper archives for almost a decade now, and,
apart from the examples cited here there seems to be a dearth of tales
possessing motifs truly similar to the current crop circle phenomenon.
Surprising, when we know that those 19th- and early 20th-century newspaper had
no qualms in publishing even the most outlandish yarns. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">During my searches I
did, though, find one very curious story that might rank with that of the
Mowing Devil. It has all the hallmarks of a tall tale (and was generally
referred to as 'the yarn of the season', and 'a marvellous story' in those
American newspapers that published it), but is laudable in its inventiveness.
It offers us a strange aerial phenomenon manifesting itself as a green cloud, a
radical temperature drop and some fireballs – and this weird atmospheric
manifestation has, in turn, a decidedly strange influence on a field of corn.
The tale was published between August and October 1890, and so far I have
located it in four different American newspapers: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">The people in the eastern
portion of Claiborne County, Tenn., are excited over a remarkable occurrence
which took place there not long ago. It is one of the most marvellous
occurrences ever heard of, and it will prove to be a problem over which
scientific minds may wrestle for some time to come. </span></i> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;"></span></i><i><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Edgar Ramsey is a farmer
who lives five miles from Lick Skillet. He arrived in Middlesboro recently. The
story he told would not find believers at first, but since then it has been
proven that he has told nothing but the truth. His statement is thus reported
by a correspondent of the St Louis Globe-Democrat: “Last Sunday afternoon I
noticed what appeared to be a large green-looking cloud coming from a westerly
direction toward my house. It was a long distance off, and the rain was falling
heavily. Shortly afterward It became very cold, in fact so cold that I went
indoors, lit a big fire and put on a big heavy coat. When I came out again, the
big green cloud was almost over the house, and the air was as cold as on a
winter day. The wind howled and the hail fell in stones as big as eggs. All
this lasted 20 minutes, and then the sky cleared up and I felt more like myself
again. “An hour after, I was sitting with my wife near the fire when I heard
a horse galloping at full speed, and when I went out to see who it was there
stood Jake Warren, a neighbour farmer who lives about a mile and a quarter from
me. He was as pale as a ghost and was trembling all over. It took him over 10
minutes to commence to tell me what he had to say, and as he was talking I
thought he was crazy. </span></i> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;"></span></i><i><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">“He stated that a big
green cloud had come over his place, and that something which looked like balls
of fire had fallen all around his house. He had five acres of corn growing in a
field next to the house. After the storm had cleared away, he went to see what
damage had been done. He saw that some corn had been blown down, and, entering
the field, he found every stalk turned to stone. There were two fine hogs in
the field, and they, too, were petrified and standing there as if cut out of
solid rock. Myself and wife thought the man was raving mad, but induced him to
remain over till morning, when we promised to visit his place with him. That we
did, and what we saw will be remembered so long as we both live. There was the
corn blown down, but every stalk of it was petrified. It was not as hard as
granite, but it appeared to be more like soft stone. I took my knife and cut
it, and it became powder. The ears were very hard, and they could not be broken
with the hand. The leaves were brittle, and if you struck them they would break
like glass. The hogs were there, too, looking natural enough, but they were as
hard as stone.” </span></i> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;"></span></i><i><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">George E. Henry, of this
city, John Rogers, Captain John B. Hull, ex-deputy marshal, and several others
rode over the mountains into Tennessee to see for themselves if the things were
really there as represented. Captain Hull, ex-United States deputy marshal,
makes the following statement: “We went over this morning. I doubted the
story on starting, but thought I’d try it, anyhow. We found Warren’s farm about
seven miles from the Gap, and there, sure enough, was the cornfield completely
petrified. The stalks were somewhat blown down, but they seemed completely
turned to stone. The two hogs were there also, and they looked like they were
carved out of rock. It was the strangest sight I ever saw and I can’t begin to
describe the thing. There were a number of men guarding the field with
Winchester rifles and they wouldn’t let us go into it. They only let us go to
the fence. We could touch some of the corn stalks and could see the hogs, but
the men refused positively to let us go any further than the fence. The women
wouldn’t say why they would not let people go into the field, but I presume
they were afraid people would break the corn stalks to pieces. There was quite
a crowd there looking at the thing, and every one was thoroughly dumbfounded
with what they saw.” </span></i><i><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">This statement is vouched
for by a number of others, and naturally there is considerable excitement</span></i><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">. [4] <o:p></o:p></span></span></blockquote>
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Times 264, July 2010 </span></i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Notes </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">1</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;"> “The Obedient
Whirlwind”, <i>Telegraph and Messenger</i>, Macon, Georgia, 29 Jan 1885.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">2</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;"> “Letters To The
Editor, Storm Effects”, <i>Nature</i>, 29 July 1880. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">3</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;"> “Wind And Rain.
Severe Wind and Rain Storm West of Here. Fields of High Waving Grain Lodged
Flat to the Earth. Effects of the Recent Hot Spell. General Influence of the
Weather on the Crops.”, <i>Oshkosh Daily Northwestern</i>, Oshkosh, Wisconsin,
18 July 1878. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">4</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> “Turned To Stone. A
Strange Story from Claiborne County, Tennessee. A Big Green Cloud Passes Over
the Lick Skillet Country and Petrifies Hogs as Well as a Field of Corn – The
Yarn of the Season”, <i>Reno Evening Gazette</i>, Reno, Nevada, 4 Oct 1890. I
also located the story in the <i>Daily Journal and Journal and Tribune</i>,
Tennessee, 16 Aug 1890; <i>Bradford Era</i>, Bradford, Pennsylvania, 26 Aug
1890 and <i>Syracuse Standard</i>, Syracuse, New York, 7 Sept 1890.</span></span></div>
</div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549508374204362772.post-15649506566014489172013-10-08T15:00:00.000-07:002013-10-08T15:02:02.441-07:00Sentient Fireballs and Biting Lights
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">At the fringes of
luminous phenomena ranging from spook lights to freak lightning, there are
strange accounts for which there is no ready explanation. These involve lights
that show a particular interest in human beings – and not always to their
benefit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Take what befell
12-year-old George Campbell and his father, E.W. Campbell. They were riding along
the ‘Eighty-foot Road’, north of the city of Sherman, Texas, on the night of 4
October 1898. Somewhat after nine o’clock that evening, the boy was witness to
a startling phenomenon: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">He is a bright,
intelligent little fellow, who said he didn’t believe in ghosts; that his
parents had never scared him with spook stories, and he is one of the best-
behaved scholars in the fourth grade at the Franklin school building. His story
as told to a News reporter to-day is as follows: “Last night papa and I were
riding along the ‘Eighty-foot Road’, about two and a half miles [4km] north of town,
when all at once everything got very bright. We saw a great ball of fire coming
down toward the ground. It got within about three feet [90cm] of the ground and
seemed to rest for a while and then it went back up until it got clear out of
sight. There was a buzzing sound all the time.” George describes it as being
about 10 feet [3m] in diameter and that it hurt one’s eyes to look at it.
Although they were very close to it, he says that he did not feel any heat.</span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;"> [1]<o:p></o:p></span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">It’s a puzzling tale, one
which nowadays might be interpreted as a UFO account. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Another encounter with a
mysterious fireball did not have such a fortunate outcome. Twenty-two years
previously, also in Texas, near the town of Palestine, another “intelligent
boy” appeared, out of breath and “as pale as he could be”. His story was that
he’d been trudging along a highway at night. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">There was a negro woman
riding a horse in the direction the little coloured boy was going. The boy
appeared that night in Palestine… He said he saw a ball of fire come out of the
sky and strike the woman and set her ablaze. The horse ran away with the woman
afire on his back, and he ran to town to tell the people what had happened. The
people went to look after further particulars concerning this curious incident,
and they found the woman lying on the ground, her clothing burned off, but
enough of life in her to tell that she had been struck in the breast by a ball
of fire. She died the next day. The horse was afterwards found with his mane
singed. People here think that she was struck by a meteor.</span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;"> [2] <o:p></o:p></span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">In contrast, there are
also numerous instances of death from above by freak lightning manifesting as
balls of fire. These incidents are no less outré, but in such cases we might
console ourselves with a natural explanation. In 1866, Miss Addie Murray, a
schoolteacher in Ross township, Vermillion county, Illinois, met her untimely
end in this way: “She was sitting in the schoolhouse with two pupils, when the
house was struck, and she was found sitting in the chair dead, with her
clothing nearly burned off, and the children severely stunned. The children
describe the scene as a ball of fire falling into the room.” [3] Something
similar struck John Whitton, a driver for a telegraph construction train in
Leavenworth that same year. “He had occasion to lift the telegraph line off
the ground, when a flash of lightning struck the line at that point, tearing it
into small pieces, and instantly killing him. The men who saw the accident
state that they saw a ball of fire as large as a man’s fist issue from
Whitton’s breast.” [4]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">An unfortunate death by a
fireball in 1933 was accompanied by a curious premonition on the part of the
unfortunate victim. “In San Rocco, during a thunderstorm, a cleric was killed
by lightning. The priest was involved in a discussion with several of his
congregation in the village street, when quite slowly a one metre [40in] big,
orange-coloured fireball came floating through the air straight towards the
priest, which then erupted in his vicinity. The incident made quite an impression
on the superstitious farmers, more so, as the day before the priest had
presaged his own demise that was soon to come.” [5] <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">A different kind of
strange light, again attracted by the presence of a human being, was experienced
by Alec Campbell, working as a game warden in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).
One night, Campbell was walking by an old burial ground when suddenly a bright
light appeared beside him. “The light turned into a ball of fire about the size
of a softball and moved along at Campbell’s speed, he said… he turned and
stared at the mysterious light. Immediately, the ball started advancing on
him.” Campbell remembered the tales that said that if one encountered such a
light, the best thing to do was to close one’s eyes, which would cause the
light to disappear. He did so, and the light vanished. [6] <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Could there be lights not
only possessed of some sort of intelligence but which are capable of forming a
unique rapport with a person and even delivering painful stings when they so
choose? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">This seems to have been
the case in Richmond, Indiana, in 1978. The bizarre incident involved local
resident Martha Grieswell, 46 at the time, whose house had been plagued by
“flashing pinpoints of light” ever since one had come into her bedroom one
night in early January that year. Grieswell described how it appeared to her
that she and the light were watching each other. The little light approached
her: “I said ‘No,’ and it stopped about one and half feet [45cm] away. Then I
held out my hand and it came right over and sat in my hand and turned my whole
hand a psychedelic purple. It glowed for a while, then shut down to a point of
light, then rose from my hand – then the others started to come in…” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Over the following nights,
dozens of the “floating, flashing lights”, mostly white and pinhead-sized,
entered her bedroom through the closed window; after that, they became her
constant companions as soon as evening fell. Grieswell also began to note some
of these lights during the daytime, although then they seemed less active. She
moved out of the upstairs bedroom, where the lights continued to manifest, and
began conducting experiments to try to ascertain what the lights might be. She
captured several in containers, including an aluminium cigarette case, and saw
them shining through the container walls. Grieswell also immersed the lights in
water, keeping them submerged for two days: “The lights were observed to ‘swim’
freely, and when released, to ‘fly’ free, their lights undimmed.” She got the
same results when she locked them up in a freezer. She was only able to conduct
these experiments when the lights were willing participants, since at other
times they simply escaped through the walls of the containers. Radiation tests and
an attempted chemical analysis turned up nothing. She did find out, though,
that one thing had an effect on the lights. When she touched one with a burning
cigarette, the light made “a crackling sound, as if you had wadded up
cellophane very rapidly in your hand”. She was unable to replicate that
experiment: “You can’t burn them any more. They move away too fast,” she
explained. It dawned upon Mrs Grieswell that the lights might learn from
experience and therefore might possess some kind of intelligence. When asked
why she wanted to get rid of them, she gave the unnerving answer: “Because they
bite.” At times, when the lights became more bright, they would sting or bite,
giving off a sensation like “the sting of a sweat bee”, and leaving a very
small welt. “They go through a tapping motion… When they land, they raise up,
then light again… they feel like bugs when they sit on you and that’s when they
burn.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">One night, a light got in
her eye, which was a painful experience. The next day, she noticed that the eye
was bloodshot and the corner crusted. When the lights were not stinging her,
they had a tendency to land and crawl over her during the night. They also
stung her husband, who wasn’t able to see them. This might be a significant
detail; some of the many curious people who visited her house were able to see
the lights, yet others were not. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Trying to escape the
lights for a while, Mrs Grieswell went to her mother in Decatur, but on the
third night after her arrival the lights came in through the window and were
also seen by her mother. Perhaps, she reasoned, they had been able to follow
her or had hidden themselves in her clothing or luggage. She got the impression
that the lights meant to say that she could not flee from them. She sought
help, and consulted scientists, ufologists and psychic researchers, but to
little avail. As she said to the reporter who visited her (he wasn’t able to
see the lights): “I’ve just made up my mind that I’m not going to get rid of
them.” [7] <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">One of the psychic
researchers whom Grieswell contacted offered as explanation that she might be
“experiencing a stage of consciousness preliminary to becoming a psychic
medium”. A plausible suggestion, coming from a psychic researcher, as puzzling
luminous phenomena manifest themselves often around mediums, and are well known
in the field of parapsychology. It is said that Helène Smith experienced the
manifestation of mysterious globes or lights in her studio where she had taken
up painting, long after her association and ensuing break-up with Theodore
Flournoy: “The visions were accompanied by luminous phenomena. They began with
a ball of light which expanded and filled the room. This was not a subjective
phenomenon. Helène Smith exposed photographic plates which indeed registered
strong luminous effects.” [8] <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Then there is the case of
Ada Bessinet, a Toledo medium of the 1920s. Denounced as a subconscious fraud
by Professor Hyslop, who had investigated her during 70 sittings between 1909
and 1910, she clearly made more of an impression on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He
wrote, describing a séance with her: “Brilliant lights are part of the medium’s
power, and even before she had sunk into a trance, they were flying up in
graceful curves as high as the ceiling and circling back on us. One nearly
rested on my hand. It seems to be a cold light, and its nature has never been
determined, but perhaps the cold, vital light of the firefly may be an
analogy.” [9] Hereward Carrington was another who was not impressed, but he did
state that he observed some very curious lights at a 1922 séance which, “on
request, hovered for a few moments over exposed photographic plates and that
the plates, when developed, showed unusual markings which he failed to obtain
by artificial means”. [10]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Originally published in </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Fortean Times 266, September 2010</span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Notes <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">1 “Aerial Phenomena in Texas”, <i>Dallas
Morning News</i>, Texas, 5 Oct 1898; “Aerial Phenomena In Texas”, <i>Galveston
Daily News</i>, Texas, 6 Oct 1898. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">2 “Burned To Death By A Meteor”, <i>Burlington
Hawk-Eye</i>, Burlington, Iowa, 23 Mar 1876; “Burned To Death By A Meteor”, <i>Ohio
Democrat,</i> New Philadelphia, Ohio, 30 Mar 1876; “Burned To Death By A Meteor”,
<i>Decatur Daily Republican</i>, Decatur, Illinois, 11 April 1876. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">3 <i>The North-West</i>, Freeport,
Illinois, 23 Aug 1866. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">4 <i>Bangor Daily Whig And
Courier,</i> Bangor, Maine, 26 June 1866. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">5 “Vuurbol Doodt Een
Priester”, <i>De Gelderlander,</i> ed. Nijmegen, Netherlands, 18 Aug 1933. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">6 Sanford Spillman: “Strange To
Relate”, <i>Winnipeg Free Press,</i> Canada, 2 Aug 1969. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">7 Barry Wood: “What Lights Through
Yonder Window Broke?” and Barry Wood: “Others Say They’ve Seen The Lights At
Mrs Grieswell’s House”, both in the <i>Palladium-Item</i>, Richmond, Indiana,
20 Aug 1978; also summarised in the <i>Logansport Pharos-Tribune,</i>
Logansport, Indiana, 28 Aug 1978. An account of Martha Grieswell’s ordeal was
also published in <i>Wonders</i>, Dec 1995, as “Life As We Know It Not”, by
Mark A Hall, pp109–118. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">8 Nandor Fodor: <i>Encyclopedia of
Psychic Science</i>, University Books, 1966, 3rd printing 1969, p350. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">9 Walter B. Gibson: “Human Enigmas
That Still keep the World Guessing, No. 14 – Ada Besinnet”, <i>Lethbridge Daily
Herald,</i> Lethbridge, Canada, 13 Jan 1925. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">10 Fodor: Encyclopedia of Psychic
Science, p30.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549508374204362772.post-7109254943826323522013-10-08T14:42:00.000-07:002013-10-08T15:51:49.504-07:00The Devil of Bracken County<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">
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</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">For the greater part of 1866,
various American newspapers[1] printed a letter written by one Nathaniel G
Squires and dated 17 February, chronicling the terror the inhabitants of
Bracken county, Kentucky, found themselves in. It had all begun on the Monday
night previous to his writing the letter. As Squires told it: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">… after myself and family had
retired to rest, we were suddenly aroused by a great outcry from the negro
quarters – which are immediately to the rear of the house – in which prayers
vied for supremacy with blasphemies, men, women and children screaming “fire!”
and “murder!” at the top of their voices, all conspiring to create a scene
worthy of a pandemonium. Terribly startled, my wife and I sprang from our bed.
The room was illuminated as brightly as by a flood of sunlight, though the
light was of a bluish cast. Our first and most reasonable conclusion was that
the negro cabins were being consumed by fire. We rushed to the windows and
beheld a sight that fairly curdled the blood in our veins with horror, and
filled our hearts with the utmost terror. My daughter, shrieking loudly, came
running into my room, hysterical with fear. This is what we beheld: </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Standing to the right of the upper
cabin, near the fence that separates the negroes’ garden from the house yard,
was a creature of gigantic stature, and the most horrifying appearance. It was
nearly as high as the comb of the cabin, and had a monstrous head not
dissimilar in shape to that of an ape; two short very white horns appeared
above each eye; its arms were long, covered with shaggy hair of an ashy hue,
and terminated with huge paws, not unlike those of a cat, and armed with long
and hooked claws. Its breast was as broad as that of a large sized ox. Its legs
resembled the front legs of a horse, only the hoofs were cloven. It had a long
tail, armed with a dart-shaped horn, which it was continually switching about.
Its eyes glowed like two living coals of fire, while from its nostrils were
emitted sheets of bluish coloured flame, with a hissing sound, like the hissing
of a serpent, only a thousand times louder. Its general colour, save its arms,
was a dull, dingy brown. The air was powerfully impregnated with a smell of
burning sulphur… I do not know how long this monster, demon or devil, was
visible after we reached the window – possibly some three seconds. When it
vanished, it was enveloped in a spiral column of flame that reached nearly to
the tops of the locust trees adjacent, and which hid his horrid form completely
from view. The extinction of the flame was instantaneous, and with its
disappearance we were relieved of the presence of this remarkable visitor. </span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></blockquote>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Squires would have been willing to
believe that he and his family had experienced a horrible nightmare, but for
the fact that all were awake at the time. Even so, he claimed, he might still
have convinced himself that it had been some kind of hallucination – and wouldn’t
have written the letter – save that the creature was sighted at other places
and by other witnesses: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">… precisely the same apparition
made its appearance at my neighbour’s, Mrs Wm. Dole, appearing there in
precisely the same shape in which it presented itself to us, save the head,
which appeared to those who witnessed it at Mrs D.’s to resemble that of a
horse. At Mr. Adam Fuqua’s, another neighbour, its head was that of a vulture.
On Tuesday night it appeared at Mr Jesse Bond’s, there wearing the head of an
elephant. At all these places it made the same appearance as at my house –
excepting only the changing of the head – and disappeared in the same manner</span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">.[2] <o:p></o:p></span></blockquote>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The letter vouched for the
reliability of the witnesses. As a postscript, a declaration drawn up by John G
Finley, Justice of the Peace, was added, in which all the witnesses declared
that the contents of Squires’s letter were true and the persons involved
certified by Finley as credible and reliable persons “and their statements
entitled to full faith and credit”. Every fortean, though, knows that these
declarations are often found attached to all kinds of weird stories found in
19th-century newspapers and cannot be taken as any guarantee of the
truthfulness of the tale. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Devil of Bracken County,
however, was just the start of a minor flap of similar devil sightings across
the United States. Some two months after the events in Kentucky, something not
unlike the Bracken County demon appeared in Brighton, a suburb of Chicago,
Illinois: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It will doubtless be recollected
that a veritable devil, with cloven hoofs, tail, flaming nostrils, and all the
other traditional appurtenances of his Sable Majesty was produced a few weeks
since in Kentucky, where he was ‘seen of many men’. Our Chicago friends, not to
be outdone in any other part of the globe, have secured the services of a
first-class devil, who, if the following account, from the Post, is to be credited,
first appeared in the suburb of Brighton: </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“The demon was sitting on a fence
by the roadside, not far from the Brighton race course, smoking a short clay
pipe – at least, he saw smoke issuing from his mouth and nostrils, and is
disposed to believe it was tobacco smoke, although there was certainly a faint
smell of brimstone in the air, and every whiff of smoke seemed to be accompanied
by a little tongue of bluish flame.” The creature was further described as “extremely
hideous; his body, of Titanic size was covered with mail like the hide of a
rhinoceros, full of great seams and scoriated like a field of lava, which it
resembled in colour.” No feet or hoofs were seen, but, as the horse shied away
from the creature and nearly overturned the buggy, the rider did not have time
to take a close look. When he did look back, the thing had vanished. “If it was
not Satan, our friend is at a loss to imagine what it was.” That the
description did not exactly match that of what was seen at Bracken county, was
explained as follows: “it is known – if it is not known it is believed – that
the demon has power to assume a variety of shapes, or, as he seems to have done
at Brighton, to divest himself of any shape or substance. We do not choose to
vouch, however, for the verity of the Brighton devil, whose actuality rests
upon the testimony of a single witness.</span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">[3] <o:p></o:p></span></blockquote>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I found a brief mention of
something similar seen at Missouri during this time, and a larger account of
the appearance of a devil-monster in Middletown, New York State: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">… It appears that he has gone to
Middletown, New York. He is a terrible monster. A contemporary says: “Amid
electric, phosphoric and other red and blue lights, he suddenly appeared,
entered the house, the doors and windows of which were quickly and violently
thrown open, and presented to the affrighted natives a form which was ‘neither
man nor beast, but bearing, in huge, and distorted proportions, the shape and
form of the upper extremities of the one, and the lower parts terribly elongated,
and reeking with mire and filth and emitting a smell of phosphorous of the
other.’ He lifted his scaly wings, brushed them in the faces of the terrified
mortals, and with a yell left through the back door and disappeared in the
woods. – His course was tracked next day by the sulphur that he shook from his
horrid hair. Doubtless he will [turn] up in jail one of these days.”</span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">[4] <o:p></o:p></span></blockquote>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">As can be seen from the last
remarks cited above, we leave the realm of the unexplained with the suggestion
that a human agent was involved, and this seems to have been the case in
regards to the devil of Bracken county. In April, several newspapers reported
more news from Kentucky: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">… the old-fashioned Satan with
horns and tail is no longer at large… The ‘Squier’s family’ and Mrs. Dole, and
the rest of the Bracken county people, who were scared out of their wits and
their moveable effects by this monstrous visitor, may rest in peace. The
luminous eyes, the gnashing teeth, the scaly hide, the cloven feet, the horrid
horns, the terrific tail, will trouble them no more forever. Satan is bound,
and his name is Oden. </span></i></blockquote>
</div>
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<blockquote>
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A man bearing the name of Oden, a
resident of Carlisle, Nicholas County, Kentucky, procured a horsehide, with
which he clothed himself, and having furnished himself with a phosphorous
substance, to imitate the devil’s eyes of fire, started forth to alarm the
timid. He would approach a dwelling, making a strange noise, causing the
inmates to leave hurriedly. He would then enter the house and appropriate what
valuables he could find. He was shot at repeatedly, but being protected by a
coat of mail the shots failed to take effect. Finally, a number of persons
surrounded and succeeded in lassoing him and he is now confined in the narrow
walls of Carlisle jail, to answer to numerous charges for theft, which will be
arrayed against him.</span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">[5] <o:p></o:p></span></blockquote>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Imaginative as Oden’s ruse was, he
certainly was not the first to hatch such an elaborate scheme. Mike Dash has
noted in his study of Spring-heeled Jack that in the 1840s a Georgia man had
disguised himself as the Devil in order to rob a wealthy woman, but paid for it
with his life,[6] and I have found several other cases. There was the ‘demon’
captured in Moscow in the 1800s who wore “horns, tail, fiery eyes and all” but
turned out to be a rather creative thief.[7] There was the similarly dressed
burglar in Maple Grove, Wisconsin, who was fatally shot in 1877 by the boy in
the house he intended to rob.[8] And there was the thief dressed as the Devil
who was again fatally shot by two boys in Huntsburg, Germany, in 1897.[9] <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">All of which explains nothing
about some of the other sightings. Middletown, especially the Mount Hope area,
was plagued by unusual occurrences the year before.[10] In 1868, Prince William
county in Virginia suffered an outbreak of nightly visitations of what was
described as “an immense figure… with large horns and terrible claws, which it
contracts to a sort of hoof” that was estimated as “three times as large as a
man”. It was of a “pale bluish colour when first seen, but upon being irritated
by the near approach of any person becomes a deadly white, and issues from its
surface a small volume of smoke, accompanied by a sickening smell”.[11] And in
1876 Douglas County, Missouri, was visited by “a real devil… a horrible monster
– a creature beyond human ingenuity to describe; he was girdled about with
chains, and his breath when exhaled, was a blaze of ignited brimstone; he was
of immense size and seemed to travel with perfect ease and without noise, save
the rattling of his chains.”[12] <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I have many more accounts of
sightings of horned, fire-spitting demonic creatures on file, but cannot list
them all here. It’s unlikely that even a very enterprising guild of thieves
would have wholeheartedly embraced this particular disguise. If not
embellishment, yarn or hoax, some of these devil sightings may indeed have been
cases of something very odd indeed. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>Originally published in Fortean Times 276, 2011</i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Notes</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">1</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> I collected 34 reports, all with the same wording, in
newspapers from various states. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">2</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> “Extraordinary Excitement in Bracken County, Kentucky”,
<i>Republican Compiler</i>, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 19 Mar 1866. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">3</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> “The Devil In Chicago”, <i>Milwaukee Daily Sentinel</i>,
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 23 Apr 1866; <i>Racine Journal</i>, Racine, Wisconsin, 25
Apr 1866. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">4</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> “The Devil Again”, <i>Macon Telegraph</i>, Macon,
Georgia, 14 May 1866; <i>Little Rock Daily Gazette</i>, Little Rock, Arkansas,
18 May 1866. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">5</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> “The Devil Caught And Caged”, <i>Macon Daily
Telegraph</i>, Macon, Georgia, 4 Apr 1866; <i>Georgia Weekly Telegraph</i>,
Macon, Georgia, 9 Apr 1866. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">6</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> Mike Dash: “Spring-heeled Jack: To Victorian Bugaboo
from Suburban Ghost”, <i>Fortean Studies</i>, vol. 3, 1996, p117. Aside from
Dash’s source, I found the account in all instances headed “The Devil Killed”,
in: <i>Cleveland Daily Herald</i>, Cleveland, Ohio, 20 Nov 1841; <i>Indiana
Journal</i>, Indianapolis, Indiana, 26 Nov 1841; <i>Pensacola Gazette</i>,
Pensacola, Florida, 4 Dec 1841; <i>Wabash Courier</i>, Terre-Haute, Indiana, 4
Dec 1841. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">7</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> “Arresting A Ghost. A Spook That Set A Whole City
Wild. Captured And Unmasked By A Brave Policeman”, <i>Laredo Times</i>, Laredo,
Texas, 27 Nov 1891. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">8</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> “Killed The Devil”, <i>Galveston Daily News</i>,
Galveston, Texas, 3 June 1877. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">9</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> All accounts headed “Killed The Devil”, in: <i>Waterloo
Daily Courier,</i> Waterloo, Iowa, 11 Mar 1897; <i>Atchison Daily Globe</i>,
Atchison, Kansas, 4 Feb 1897; <i>Hornellsville Weekly Tribune</i>,
Hornellsville, New York, 12 Feb 1897; <i>Edwardsville Intelligencer,</i>
Edwardsville, Illinois, 19 Mar 1897; <i>Cambridge City Tribune</i>, Cambridge
City, Indiana, 8 Apr 1897; <i>Daily Nevada State Journal</i>, Reno, Nevada, 18
Apr 1897. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">10</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> “Diabolism – Satan on the Rampage”, <i>Brooklyn Daily
Eagle</i>, Brooklyn, New York, 4 May 1866. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">11</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> “A Ghost – or Something – in Prince William County,
Va.”, <i>Petersburg Index</i>, Petersburg, Virginia, 18 Dec 1868. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">12</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> “Douglas County Devil”, <i>The Phelps County New Era</i>,
City of Rolla, Missouri, 1 July 1876.</span><span lang="NL" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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