Hindu Mystic Told to Leave

Detroit Free Press, August 3, 1929

If you know nothing of the mystic frenzy which encompassed Detroit in the first quarter of the 20th century then you've been cheated. Anyway...here's one of the least successful fortune tellers to hit the scene.

Silva Synci arrived in Detroit from Houston in late July of 1929 and quickly got to work. Just as quickly the police department were on to his trade. Police woman Victoria Wasney paid an undercover visit to Synci to get her fortune read.

He told her that she'd get married the next year. Then he asked if she had a steady boyfriend. When she said no he informed her that a mystical man would soon make love to her. That man was him. Then proceeded to put his arms around her and attempt a purloined kiss.

Instead he was arrested and ordered to leave town by Judge W. McKay Skillman or face jail with the former part mandatory, calling Synci's business a high class call girl racket. It was a brief 3 day stay in the city of the straits. 

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

Dreams Guide Ventures of Many Detroiters: Big Business Deals Often Hinge on Occult. Women are More Fascinated by Study of Mysterious than Men, Observer Says

Detroit Free Press, April 21, 1929 (enlarge)

Occultism was alive and thriving in both notoriety and acclaim in the Detroit of 1929 but the craze of dream interpretation and practical usage in public and private decision making was taking a foothold.

Dorothy Pons, manager of a large downtown bookstore confirmed as much in this Free Press article saying that previous books on the subject were dry, grasping texts that lacked imaginative and scholarly inclination and were looked upon as novelty reading.

There was also a psychological element to these new books that spoke to the fanciful convictions of the reader and seemingly confirmed their biases while simultaneously making the publications best-sellers.

However, the biggest boon for the book industry was the willingness of the consumer to pay significantly more for the new-fangled material. Generally considered dime store reading just a few years past the consumer was ready to part with up to 20 times the previous going rate for the self-serving tomes.

While women were the primary buyers men were just as willing to embrace the fad but were often too busy to procure and disseminate the information within. Wives, female friends and relatives often served as surrogates for promulgating the message to their male counterparts, who eagerly followed the trend and suggestions.