Evil Eye Witch in Chicago

Printed Saturday the 12th of October 1901 in the Washington Bee out of Washington D.C. 

CHICAGO HAS A WITCH.

Thomas Kelly Discovers a Woman with and Evil Eye and Is Arrested for Stoning Her.

The curse of Salem is on Chicago: According to Thomas Kelly, the same old witchcraft that used to cause the good Puritans of the colonial town to lie awake nights is exercised by a woman who is his near neighbor.

“Her vengeance is awful,” Kelly said to a Chicago American reparter. “Her curse is the curse of Satan. Only recently she had a quarrel with Mrs. Cohen, another of my neighbors.  Mrs. Cohen won and the witch put a curse upon her.

“First Cohen’s horse died. That was a few days after the curse was pronounce. Cohen was almost helpless without the horse. Then Mrs. Cohen became ill. There was grief in the house. No work for the man and the wife sick. To cap all Cohen became paralyzed in one side.”

This Chicago witch was acquired the city’s commercial spirit. The curse did not last forever. Mrs. Cohen finally became well. Then, according to Kelly, she offered the witch $10 to remove the curse. But the witch demanded $30.

Kelly’s blood boiled. He determined to punish the witch for her witchcraft. He made himself a martyr for the ills of the Cohnes. He could not throw the witch into a pond, bound to sink or swim. He could not burn her at the stake, according to the most approved custom. So he decided to stone her. This was a course almost as well sanctioned by precedent as burning.

The woman of uncanny powers was in the house when Kelly went to stone her, so he threw the stones through the windows. She had him arrested, and he was taken before Justice Sabath, where the story came out. 

Ghost Detector from Society for Physical Research

As many of you know “ghost hunters,” “spirit investigators” and “spook hunters” have been around for many years. Little did I know that there was a society out of London focused heading most of these investigations. This article was found on GenealgoyBank.com and was from the Trenton Evening Times paper out of Trenton, New Jersey and appeared in November of 1906. There are many names mentioned in this article and some might surprise you. 

“SPOOK” HUNTERS

WELL PAID WORKERS

They Verify Ghost Stories and

 Run Down Visitors from

Spiritland

Chicago, Ill. Nov. 23. –Surely one of the most unusual businesses is that of a ghost detector. There are hundreds of them scattered thoughtout the world. There are a few in Chicago and all of them, both in this country and abroad, work under the direction and for the power and glory of an association in England that is backed by some of the most conservative and best known scientists and thinkers in the United Kingdom.

A ghost detector is an investigator for the Society for Physical Research, which was founded in London in 1882. The society, which already has published twenty-on  octavo volumes of proceedings, in addition to bales and bales of records of investigations made by the ghost detectors, has had as its presidents men like the Rt. Hon. O.J. Balfour, late Prime Minister of England; Professor William James, the noted psychologist of Harvard University, and brother of the mystical Henry James; Sir William Crookes, of Crookes tube fame and Professor Henry Sidgwick, a philosopher, whose book, “The Method of Ethics,” is a standard.

Now, these men are not to be fooled by the ordinary or garden variety of ghost story. A ghost story has to be well ballasted and well buttressed to receive credence at their hands, and it is to sift the wheat from the chaff, to throw the bad ghost stories into the discard and place the real, genuine ones in the best possible light that there is in existence a class of workers whose work deals not with men of flesh and blood and has little to do with material tangible things.

LARGE SUMS EXPENDED

It is the business of these investigators to run down every case of apparition,  ghost walking, presentiment, materialization, ghost photographs, telepathy and the like that they hear of. Expenses is no object. Each investigation costs money, but influenced by a sincere desire to get to the bottom of every story of the other world and it knows that such inquiries cost money.  One of the men who has contributed liberally to the work of the society is Andrew Lang, the champion two-handed author of the world who writes as much in England as the Rev. Cyrus Townsend Brady does in this country.

Every time that the officials of the Society for Physical Research hear of any extraordinary ghost story or other story that has to do with the supernatural they dispatch an investigator –a ghost detector – to the scene. It is difficult to deceive this personage. He has read about all there is to read of ghost lore. He enjoys the personal acquaintance of many persons who have seen ghosts or who have thought that they have seen them. He knows mediums, trance artists, materialists, hypnotists and other artists in spiritualism and its kindred pursuits, and what he doesn’t know about the inhabitants of the spirit would isn’t worth knowing.

He investigates. It doesn’t make any difference how long it takes him. Neither time nor money is considered when the cause of truth is at stake. He stays on the ground until he has gathered every bit of available evidence, until he has interviewed everybody who by any chance might know anything about the case.

Then he prepares a long written report full of signed statements and circumstantial detail, and this he mails back to London. It is gone over by other experts and if there is anything in it worthy of preservation in the archives of the society it is filed away along with the reports made by the hundreds of other investigators.

1869 Mystery House

It might just be that time of year with but it seems articles like these are quite interesting.  We know in the world of gossip with the added media connections those whispers behind cupped hands aren't just between the few doing the gossiping.  I just can’t help but wonder in the world as we know it today what lengths the townspeople would go through to get their answers. 

Salt Lake Telegram, Salt Lake City, UT

Saturday, March 7, 1914

MYSTERY HOUSE

STILL MYSTERY

AFTER 17

YEARS

Erected in 1896 and Elabo-

rately Furnished, Mansion

has Never Been

Occupied.

(Special to the Telegram.)

Bloomington, Ill., March 7. – The

Mystery of the “house of mystery” at

Chrisman, Ill., is still unsolved after

seventeen years.  It is now the resort

of bats and owls and rapidly going to

decay.

   It was in 1896 that the “house of

Mystery” was erected. Without any

Previous announcement one spring

Morning, a gang of workmen from

Some outside point arrived in Chrisman.

simultaneously came carloads of build-

ing material. Upon a large lot on the

main street of the town there was

speedily erected the structure that was

to create so much gossip in succeeding

years. The townspeople quizzed the

workmen concerning the ownership of

the house, but learned nothing. All en-

gaged were sworn to secrecy, and none

broke faith. The progress of the struc-

ture was watched with curious interest.

It was surmised that some well to do

bachelor of the town was preparing a

home for a prospective bride, but all

such pleaded “Not guilty.”

   Decorators and furnishers followed

upon the heels of the carpenters, plas-

terers and painters. The house was

fitted up luxuriously and with every up

to date convenience. It was now felt

that the mystery would soon be solved.

   The dining room was a marvel of

luxury, with carved table and chairs

and a buffet filled with expensive china.

The parlor was equipped with expen-

sive rugs, a grand piano and silk up-

Holstered furniture. The library and

bedrooms corresponeded in magnify-

cence with the other rooms. The sleep-

ing apartments varied in color and fur-

nishings, from the palest blue and

bird’s-eye maple in rich green tones

and heavy walnut.

   After the final touch of the outfitters

and decorators the house was closed.

Time passed and no one appeared. No

blushing bride and happy bridegroom.

There were no developments of any

kind. Weeks, months and years slipped

by and the mystery deepened.

   Six years ago an incendiary set fire

 to the house before the flames were

extinguished the kitchen was badly

damaged. A few days later workmen

appeared from some neighboring city,

repaired the damage and went their

way. Although plied with queries by

The residents, no one would furnish any

information calculated to clear up the

mystery. About the time a municipal

electric lighting plant was installed

by Chrisman and electricians wired the

“mysterious house.”