MISTER MYSTERY RESPONDS

Oh my! What a shocking case! Just thinking about it gives me the heebie-jeebies. It happened in Boston, Massachusetts, entering on the left. I am not allowed to reveal the protagonist's name under threat of being exorcised myself, God forbid! This was a man known in Boston for being able to continue playing bridge despite having fallen from the top of the Millennium Tower skyscraper. Game was his undoing. One day he bet too big, and that very night the strange phenomena began. First, exaggerated convulsions seized him in the street. Passersby thought he was dancing, until his head shot out like a rocket. Since the man continued to dance, they went to notify the parish priest of a nearby church. The parish priest had warned them: "If you see a man dancing without a head, let me know." Oh my! The parish priest! Just thinking about him gives me the heebie-jeebies. He brought a wheelbarrow from which he drew an ax and began swinging the ax till the poor demoniac was chipped. ...

Like the rest of the country, New York in the thirties suffered a terrible social scourge: unemployment. Michael Schlimazl and Jacob Schlemilh had no material ambitions, hence much of their income was donated to charities that helped the unemployed and their families. The responsible for one of these charities, Father Gregory, priest of the Church of the Nativity, was the one who told them for the first time about a case of possession that affected his parish and that he had been managing unsuccessfully for several months. A couple of exorcists authorized by the archbishop had also failed in their attempts to solve the case. So Father Gregory requested help from the two partners of ENIGMA CONSULTANTS S. L. Before visiting the presumed possessed person, Father Gregory gave them background information. Emil Gresham was a middle-aged psychiatrist, single and without a direct family. He attended the religious services of the parish, which often meet his material needs since he had few cli...

The baptism by fire for the American Society for Pchychical Research was a most talked-about event. At that time (the year was 1884), the ASPR had only five members, and all were eager to start investigating. So when the first case turned up, it was the five of them en bloc who got ready to look into it. At that time, the Society already had a small network of spies or informants. You know?, the investigation of paranormal phenomena presents similarities with criminal investigations. One needs informants in the streets, people with eyes and ears wide open to find out anything unusual that is happening. In those early times, however, the network of informants of the ASPR was very small. In fact it consisted of only one man, Jerry Bonanno, although this man was located in the right place. Bonanno was a waiter in McDermont’s Old Ale House, a Lower East Side saloon which was a kind of magnet for paranormal guys. Mediums, clairvoyants, telepaths ... all came together in that place at the e...