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.