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.

Police Guard Girl Said To Be Witch: Five Bluecoats Needed to Keep Curious Crowd Back From Her House

The Detroit Free Press, January 25, 1917

Five policemen from the Vinewood avenue police station stood guard Wednesday night at the home of Miss Celia Wrobleski, at 260 Twenty-eighth street, to protect her from the curioisty of more than 500 persons who had been drawn there by a report that the young girl was a witch and of late had been transforming herself into lions, bears and so on down the zoo.

Practically all of the curious who gathered in front of Celia's home Wednesday night were foreigners. Many had been there the night before, and, not seeing the rumored witchery then, they returned last night, bringing credulous friends.

The girl, much embarrassed by the report circulated widely in the west side foreign colony that she was endowed with extraordinary powers, remained in her home, with the blinds closely drawn, and would see no one.

Celia's parents blame spiteful relatives for her trouble. They say that they "started the talk" among people who did not know her.