Wife is Kept in Italy By "Witch"

Detroit Free Press, September 20, 1914

It's difficult to know whether the superstitions of old Europe which came to the new world were a byproduct of ignorance or just a predisposition against husband-husbandry. In this case it's likely a bit of both as a matter of convenience. 

Peculiar Plea Brings Husband Divorce in Circuit Court.

Because a "witch" told her not to cross the ocean, Mrs. Vito Basirico refused to join her husband in America, and the disappointed spouse sorrowfully received a decree of divorce Saturday from Judge Hosmer.

Giuseppi Basirico, the husband, said he wrote her that a much more potent American witch predicted dreadful things if she did not come, but Vito probably thought the ills he wished her to fly to might be worse than those she would not fly from. She would not leave sunny Italy, despite the three crosses Giuseppi placed on his last letter to her, which were to assure her of his undying love.

Separated From 'Hexed' Parents

Detroit Free Press, July 24, 1929 (enlarge)

So you've got a plague, eh? Well, at least you're not being pursued by a witch. Detroit of the 1920s was a mystical malaise of voodoo, occultism, cults and mob murder. Not that Detroit was alone in such incidents, as the last article shown here attests to, concerning the Burgess murder in Kalamazoo not long before this incident, as well as the Evangelista cult slayings in Detroit where the entire family was decapitated.

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In the summer of 1929 Roy and Della Tomlin went to Detroit police with their 5 children (Alec, 9, Elvina, 4, Evelyn, 16, Clice, 1 and Leona, 8) begging for protection from a witch and were promptly placed under psychiatric care at Receiving Hospital.

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According to their 16-year-old daughter Evelyn the episode started with a hex from an old Livonia woman with an evil eye near their previous home at Plymouth and Farmington Rds. She was capable of moving tables and making a broomstick dance and had warned them that perhaps she was a witch, PROOF!.

Apparently there was a ghost, too. After the family moved to Detroit a white visage appeared at a window in their home at 15016 Bramell Avenue. Roy chased the ghost down the street and struck at it but his hand went through the white figure to the astonishment of the afflicted family. Or so they said.

Detroit Free Press, July 26, 1929

Hospital officials thought otherwise and Delia was later adjudged insane, having previously suffered mental failings. I could find no determination upon Roy but his wife destined for the asylum at Eloise or Pontiac, though I can find no record of which she was eventually sentenced to.

Detroit Free Press, July 25, 1929

The Big Hill

Detroit Free Press, March 30, 1890

This story of a treasure found and lost on the "Big Hill" by supernatural means on the outskirts of old Detroit Village as foretold to three men--one later became a prominent County official--by a soothsayer, guided by a rubber ball and recounted here by Luke Sharp ("look sharp" AKA novelist Robert Barr) is probably bunkum but who can know for sure.

I included the full page below for the excellent Wonderland advert featuring the "Mammoth Hoosier Boy" Chauncey Morlan, esquimaux, Col. Fisher the prize package midget and Zip (Barnum's What-is-it?) and Ash (The Spotted New Zealander), noted freaks who made their first appearance in Detroit in a Burlesque Boxing Bout. The two semi-human, semi-savage, semi-civilized beings. Their words, not mine.

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Wormer & Moore's Almanack & Le Loup Garou

Detroit Free Press, March 7, 1926 (enlarge)

Gundella wrote of Le Loup Garou (were-wolf) as did Marie Caroline Watson Hamlin in her classic Legends of Le Détroit but Wormer & Moore, in the February 1926 issue of their Almanack, claim to have written the definitive text of the half man-wolf skulking Grosse Pointe. Gimme!

Mystic Animal Famed 2,600 Years is Traced to Detroit

Detroit Free Press, June 5, 1920 (enlarge)

Black Cat, With Jade Eyes and Three White Hairs in Tail, is Dancer's Quest

Trace of a mystic animal said to have been famed more than 2,600 years ago is reported to have been found in Detroit. It is expected tha antiquarians, bibliologists and those who delight to delve into the occult and ancient will conduct exhaustive researches if the report is found to have substance.

In the sixth century B. C. there appeared in a large Semitic city in the Euphrates valley a cat. It was jet black. Its owner was Loof Lupa, a youth of common lineage. As it has been found engraved on a cobbled tablet in the code of Hammuraki, this feline was possessed of strange powers. It brought to Loof great riches and honors. So wondrous was its mystic ability to ferret out precious stones and metals that its eyes turned green to match priceless jade and upon its tail tip appeared three hairs of silver white. About the time King Cyrus the Great paid an uninvited visit to the town, the cat disappeared and Loof was out of luck.

On numerous occasions in varying ages there have been mentions in chronicles and legions of the cat. Sinbad the Sailor records having met it on a desert island while bringing a carload of beans from Lima. About the year 1750 Baron Munchausen recounts an encounter with the jade-eyed feline. And, more than a century later, the original Bosco is said to have carried it a season with Barnum.

From that date until several months ago the silver-tipped tabbie has been invisible to mortal eyes. At the above mentioned time, it appeared to a short-story writer just as he was sampling the second quart of home brew. Only the fleeting glimpse brought him luck in form of a check in which jade eyes played a prominent part.

This week this cat of 900 lives is said to have been seen for a second as it whisked around a rubbish pile in a Hastings street alley. Again it brought good luck. The alley was cleaned a few minutes later.

This latter materialization came to the attention of a certain dancer filling a Detroit engagement. She had heard of the peculiar pussy and its strane powers while studying the rhythmic movements of the Akkadians. She must have it. So at once--only stopping to powder her nose and interview her manager of publicity--she inserted an advertisement for said cat.

Remember: it must be black; have jade eyes; three white hairs on tip of tail. If you find it, just take it to The Hotel and make a dancer wriggle with joy. Or, better still, if not as gallant, give it to Hughey Jennings--he certainly needs it.

Ernest Vegesack: Expert Occultist

Detroit Free Press, December 26, 1897

When the time finally comes for me to write a book it will be under the nom de plume of Ernest Vegesack (pronounced veggie-sack) because Ernie Meatsack sounds profane and unseemly for such an upstanding voice as my own.

Vegesack was an expert occultist, gave correct life readings according to the art of palmistry, did horoscopes, advice on everyday affairs and phrenology.

He held court at both 200 Woodward Avenue and 158 Lafayette Avenue.

Detroit Free Press, February 11, 1898

World To Burst; John D. Blamed

Detroit Free Press, November 17, 1910

Detroit mystic Jacob Forlow held the belief--he considered it a seismic theory--that the Earth's mantle being so compromised from the boring of oil, would collapse in upon itself.

Chiefly to blame for this cataclysmic event was none other than oil tycoon John D. Rockerfeller.

The veracity of his claims held widespread sway over the general public despite their reticence to openly tout or bemoan the postulation.

The only caveat to this universal claim to truth was that it would take centuries for the "bursting" to occur. Further complicating the equation is the prospect for a Green New Deal. But surely Forlow considered that feeble attempt into the mathematics. Cross cancel and divide, I say, because oblivion awaits us either way.

Forlow's foray into predictions had only ripened to doom and gloom when he mastered the taming of the weather. Meteorological ascents being the barometer which differentiates the mere mystic from the sage.

Detroit Free Press, June 29, 1911

Fooled: Conan Doyle vs. Houdini: Who's Right?

Detroit Free Press, February 10, 1926

See Mystic Spencer produce Spirit Paintings on the stage of the Fox Washington Theatre this week.

While I was hoping that Mystic Spencer was a local psychic & crystal gazer it seems that he was a regional performer, oft in Ohio and the Midwest.

The Coshocton Tribune, September 14, 1922

Hereafter, The Raczkowskis Are Off Psychic Strangers

Detroit Free Press, December 20, 1919 (enlarge)

This story isn't exactly a spiritualist wet dream but more for the huckster in every psychic. As such when George Boudreaux scammed George and Mary Raczkowski, 799 Riopelle Street, out of a cool $820 via a sleight of hand and eventually through the wooing of their daughter Isabel it was only a matter of time before the police got involved. But not until Boudreaux was arrested for the innocuous crime of alleged operation of a Ouija board did justice find him. At that point the Raczkowskis jumped into the fray and further charged the besmirched occultist with theft.