I have previously shared some instances of “coffin threats” in this forum, as well as writing about the lost art of “crape threats” in The Victorian Book of the Dead. Today we look at what was the early-20th-century version of a gangster sending a funeral wreath to a rival.
The Case of the Jitterbug Coal In March of 1944 a remote schoolhouse in North Dakota suddenly went mad–books and papers mysteriously combusted, a phantom attacker left threatening notes, and coal began popping like popcorn out of the scuttle. The children claimed a “pixie” was behind it all….
