In 1917 John Van Valkenburg, a Salt Lake City inventor, announced that he had conquered the laws of gravity and had an aircraft that could fly from Salt Lake City to the Pacific Coast and back in a night. It was reported that he had taken it to Washington and then turned it over to the US government for use in the War effort. Then, suddenly, Van Valkenburg found himself on trial.
A Suffolk witch story from 1877, involving a spell meant to be cast on a man, but transfered to his wife, who suffered for years under the bewitchment. In a series of ill-spelt letters, the witch confesses and suggests a transfer of the spell to its rightful owner.
The narrative of a clergyman of the Church of England who exorcised a man haunted by an unearthly creature; what he believed to be an “unclean spirit.”
Post-mortem Patent – An Inventive Spirit Patents a Chopper Introducing Mrs. Ellen Graddon, Spiritualist medium, and inventor–or maybe just channeler of her late husband’s mechanical ideas.
The Girl Who Married a Ghost This excerpt from The Ghost Wore Black: Ghastly Tales from the Past, tells the story of a haunting love affair: a woman married to a ghost.
In this Valentine’s week, let us take the pulse of early 20th-century witchcraft and look at the power of the heart in enchantments. The hearts of lambs, moles, and humans–all had mystic powers.
Abby Warner’s Christmas Rappings Christmas Eve at St. Timothy’s Church in Massillon, Ohio was anything but a silent night when “rapping medium” Abby Warner and her friends came to admire the Christmas decorations.
