The Psychic Girl.
67 phenomena in one day.
The flying stiletto.
Amazing psychic phenomena associated with a little Rumanian peasant girl, Eleonore Zugun, who now lives in the flat of Countess Wassilko in Vienna were detailed by Mr Harry Price last night at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, South Kensington, of which he is hon. director. (Mr Price, it will be recalled, was one of the distinguished investigators who a fortnight ago attended the remarkable Schneider seances at Braunau-Am-Inn, Austria, fully detailed by a “Daily News” special representative who witnessed them.)
The phenomena with which Eleonore is connected mostly concern the mysterious displacement of objects, which appear to fly spontaneously, and often, dangerously, across the room. Eleonore is 13, but in most respects resembles a child of eight.
Within a few minutes of Mr Price’s arrival at the Countess’s flat a stiletto shot across the room from behind him, while the girl and the Countess were standing in another room each holding half of a celluloid ball which had at the same moment come apart. Eleonore was, he declared, quite 12 feet from the spot from which the stiletto appeared to have begun its flight. The Countess observed 67 phenomena of this description in one day, and among the mysterious incidents at the flat during Mr Price’s brief observation were:
The moving back of books in an open bookcase though no one was near; The quick-as-lightning displacement of a small hand-mirror from a table at the side of the Countess’s bedroom to the top of a bookcase; A similar happening to the top of a bottle; The displacement of a toy dog from the study to the bedroom.
Doctors who have seen her have commented that she has not undergone any physical change during these manifestations, and it has been proved she is not clairvoyant.
Daily News (London), 2nd June 1926.
A thirteen-year-old medium.
London scientists to investigate her case.
A 13-year-old girl is to arrive in London next week so that British scientists may investigate her case. She is Eleonore Zugun, who has a reputation as a poltergeist- a merry ghost – medium. Here are a few of the strange happenings which are to be investigated: – 1. Raps on furniture; 2. The disappearance and reappearance of objects which are sometimes “lost” for weeks; 3. The sudden displacement of pins and needles which are found buried in Eleonore’s hands or arms. When Eleonore’s psychical powers were first manifest a year or so ago she was taken to a home for the insane, but later released and adopted by a Countess.
Dundee Courier, 24th September 1926.
Wonder girl of 13.
Bitten by invisible teeth and attacked by stiletto.
Visit to England.
Eleonore Zugun, a Rumanian peasant child who has been the subject of strange psychical manifestations, is being brought to London. She is only thirteen, and has been sent for by the National Laboratory of Psychical Research at Teddington, reports of the phenomena having caused world-wide interest. Britain’s greatest scientists will examine her.
She has the mentality of a child of eight and sits for hours playing with toys. Suddenly she will scream as though in violent pain, and on being examined her body, it is declared, is found to bear teeth bits, scratches and other marks. These are due to no assignable cause.
She has been known to manifest as many as fifty-nine different phenomena in one day. Once, while making a dress with the Countess of Wassieko-Serecki, two pieces of the material completely vanished and were never found, despite the most rigorous search.
On another occasion, while the girl was standing in a room, a stiletto came hurtling through the air, apparently from nowhere, and buried itself in the door just behind her.
All the child’s manifestations are spontaneous. Experts have watched her while she has been at play and objects have vanished from boxes in which they have been placed, no explanation being forthcoming. At first the child will be shown privately to experts, but the public may be admitted later.
Daily Mirror, 24th September 1926.
Inky black magic by young girl.
Psychic dipping in men’s pockets.
Stiletto flies from nowhere.
A Rumanian peasant girl of 13, Eleonore Zugun, whose psychical exploits are said to outdo even Eastern fakirs and American mediums, will arrive in this country on 2 October, when her case will be examined by the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, and independent British scientists.
[… Harry Price said:] “On other occasions articles of furniture would unaccountably jump from their place. On one occasion a stiletto cane came hurtling through the air, apparently from nowhere, and buried itself in the door behind her. In fact, she is so dangerous to live with that the Countess of Wassieko-Serecki, who discovered the girl and brought her to live with her, had to keep her in the servants’ quarters.”
Describing the inconveniences of this psychic guest, Mr Price described how on the first night of Eleonore’s arrival at the Countess’, when guests were seated at dinner, an inkpot containing about half-a-pint of liquid suddenly hurtled from its place and fell on the startled diners, ruining their clothes.
Another of Eleonore’s peculiarities is that objects suddenly vanish when she is present and are never seen again. Coins have been known to vanish from men’s pockets in this way, and once when the girl was sewing with the Countess the material they were working on disappeared, and has not been found to this day. Not the least remarkable of Eleonore’s characteristics is her appetite. This, Mr Price said, was colossal. Moreover, the better Eleonore’s appetite the better the phenomena.
The experts who will examine Eleonore’s case include Dr. R.G.Tillyard, F.R.S. and Dr R.L. Urquhart, of St Thomas’ Hospital. Later she may be shown to members of the public willing to risk the chance of a stiletto missing a door.
Westminster Gazette, 24th September 1926.
The poltergeist girl.
13 year old mystic in London
First test
Clockwork toy sets her going.
By a special correspondent.
There were strange happenings at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, South Kensington, yesterday, when Eleonore Zugan, the 13-year-old Rumanian poltergeist girl (noisy spirits medium), was under observation for the first time since her arrival in London with Countess Wassilko-Serecki. In Vienna, as already reported in the “Daily News”, amazing things, vouched for by Mr Harry Price, a very sceptical investigator, happened in her presence. A stiletto flew across the room without any apparent cause, and there were other equally disconcerting incidents. As Mr Price had told me that Eleonore – who in some ways is younger than her years – is very fond of toys, and that they put her in a good humour favourable to the production of phenomena, I spent about 10s. on the way to South Kensington in a toyshop. It was difficult to know what to select, but in the end I chose a clockwork cat with eyes that lit up as it ran along the ground, a box of clever models of American cowboys, and a naval cannon which shot pellets of wood.
At the Laboratory I found the Countess, Eleonore, Mr Harry Price, and two visitors talking generally on psychic things. Eleonore sat at the table quite silent. For about half an hour nothing happened. With the idea of trying to stimulate things I then handed the parcel of toys to Eleonore. Her face broke into a smile and when she had opened the parcel she delightedly shook hands with me. It was about a minute later, when she was stooping down to wind up the clockwork cat and we were all looking at her that something happened which completely baffled everyone in the room. Suddenly I noticed a small object falling seemingly from the ceiling on to Mr Price’s shoulder and then to the ground. Mr Price picked it off the ground and examined it. It was a piece of white-painted metal, smaller than a postage stamp and shaped like the letter L. For a moment it was thought that it belonged to one of the toys, but it soon became clear that this was not so.
In the hope of solving the mystery Mr Price called Miss Kaye, his secretary, who was out of the room at the time. She suggested, what ought indeed to have occurred to us, that it was one of the letters used on the notice board on the ground floor of the building five storeys down. The typist on the ground floor was at once rung up on the telephone, and it was found that a letter L was missing from a box in a cupboard where the letters are kept. These had arrived the day before, and only two persons in the building knew they were there. No one in the laboratory at the time the L mysteriously appeared knew of them, and Eleonore, I was assured, had not been in the room where they are kept or hand any opportunity of secreting one. In any case it was quite clear that at the time the letter fell both the girl’s hands were occupied with the clockwork cat. It was very difficult to believe, even assuming that she had somehow got possession of the letter, that she could have flicked it into the air without detection. Ruling out any normal explanation it would have been necessary for the letter first to get out of the box, then out of the closed cupboard, fly up to the fifth floor and finally drop on to Mr Price’s shoulder and the floor.
Before I arrived at the Laboratory something equally baffling had occurred. At 9.30 in the morning Eleonore’s ring vanished ffrom the dressing-table of the bedroom – which she shares with the Countess. No trace could be found of it. Eleonore was carefully searched, without result. In the early afternoon, Mr Price told me, when he was alone with Eleonore in the Laboratory, and both her hands were occupied in playing with some string, he heard a tinkle on the floor by the open door, and found the missing ring there. He was satisfied that Eleonore took no part in its production and that no one was outside the door at the time.
It is hoped that still more startling things will be observed during the next month. Careful tests are to be made. The Countess told me that she finds it far too risky to carry much money about with her, as it frequently disappears. She had, indeed, handed over most of her cash to the care of Mr Price during her stay in London.
Eleonore struck me as being mentally abnormal for her age. Another unusual feature is her enormous appetite. In Vienna she eats three times, as much as other girls in the house of the Countess, and some difficulty is being found in satisfying her appetite in London. She thinks nothing of eating half a loaf of bread with a substantial breakfast. She puts down the phenomena to the Devil or Dracu, as she calls him in Rumanian – a belief to which she was led by the Roman Catholic priest of her village. “The Devil,” she said yesterday, “is very pleased to be in London and will give you good phenomena.”
Daily News (London), 2nd October 1926.
Roumanian girl and “Poltergeist phenomena.”
Dagger flung across a room.
Eleonore Zugun, the 13-year-old Roumanian peasant girl, whose abnormal psychical powers have attracted the attention of leading scientists, had an alarming introduction to London yesterday. While she and the Countess Wassilko-Serecki, an Austrian noblewoman with whom she has been living for eight months, were dressing they were suddenly disturbed by a weird, tinkling noise. It was then found that one of the young medium’s rings, which had rested on the dressing table overnight, had disappeared, and a careful search of the bedroom failed to throw any light on the mystery.
Eleonore has been brought over from Vienna, and during her five weeks’ stay in London is to be kept under close observation at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, Kensington. She is an exponent of “poltergeist phenomena,” and since the end of January has had 1,700 manifestations. These strange happenings occur at any moment of the day, but never when she is asleep.
She not only claims to have seen the devil on many occasions, but draws pictures of him, and believes that he has accompanied her to London. Before going to bed she often leaves a saucerful of nasty food “to teast ‘dracu’ (Roumanian term for the devil) into a violent temper.”
Her recent manifestations include the hurling of a stiletto across the room by invisible means; the displacement and disappearance of familiar objects, some of which cannot be traced for weeks; automatic writing by the left hand, and the appearance of the stigmata on her arms. Bites on her hands and arms leave clean-cut impressions exactly as of teeth, and writing appears on the flesh like a deep weald, and slowly turns white. Finger scratches have also been found on her chest.
Mr Harry Price, director of the National Laboratory, and one of the foremost research workers, told a Daily Graphic representative yesterday that he was convinced that much of the phenomena was genuine.
Nottingham Evening Post, 2nd October 1926.
Girl of Mystery.
Ghostly violence to be investigated.
Eleonore Zugun, age 13, the Rumanian peasant girl, in whose presence strange acts of violence and mystery occur, by some undetected influence, has arrived in London in the care of Zoe Countess Wassieko-Serecki, who secured her release from a home for the insane.
Mysterious raps on the furniture occur in the room where this girl is present. All kinds of articles disappear and reappear, and the girl herself is suddenly pierced in the arm by pins and needles. She is a psychic mystery, and is being subjected to experiments at the Psychical Research Society at South Kensington. Eminent British scientists have been invited to attend daily “seances.”
A Westminster Gazette representative found the girl at the society’s offices on Saturday. She was happy but shy in the strange surroundings. She is well built, with shingled hair, and looks older than her age. She possesses the mentality of a child of eight.
An instance of the occurrences which are said to be continually taking place happened while the Westminster Gazette representative was in the room. Eleonore suddenly jumped to her feet and held out her right arm. A deep weal had suddenly appeared on the flesh. This weal had certainly not been visible a few moments before, and yet the girl was not seen to make any movement which could account for the mark. Neither had she an instrument of any sort in her possession. “Marks of this sort are constantly appearing,” said the Countess, “and she often cries out with the pain.”
Westminster Gazette, 4th October 1926.
Test of girl medium.
Countess’s view of phenomena.
By a special correspondent.
A number of people waited patiently in the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, South Kensington, on Saturday in the hope of seeing some of the surprising phenomena associated with Eleonore Zugan, the 13-year-old Rumanian poltergeist medium. Still playing with the clockwork cat which I gave her on Friday, she sat silent at the table while we all waited for things to fly about the room. Unfortunately nothing of this kind happened. The furniture remained still and a half crown in my pocket declined to vanish.
It was apparent that Eleonore was ill at ease among so many strangers and, unhappily, I had no new toys to give her. All that happened was that weal marks appeared on her forearm without any apparent cause. It was possible, however, that they might have been due to her own unobserved action, and no importance could be attached to them. In Vienna teeth marks are said to have frequently appeared on her arm when she has been under the closest watch.
During the next month she will be medically and scientifically tested at the Laboratory, and every possible effort will be made to establish the genuineness of the various baffling incidents that happen in her presence and at no other time.
Countess Wassilko-Serecki, who has observed 1,700 phenomena in the past 12 months is satisfied of their genuineness, but can offer no explanation of them. “I am, however, strongly of opinion” she told me, “that they are nothing to do with spirits or any other world but this. The explanation will probably be found in some unknown power in the girl herself.”
If their genuineness can be established to the satisfaction of the most sceptical observers, the scientific world will presumably be faced with the reality of the passage of matter through matter, as in the case of the metal letter L which appeared on Friday to have escaped from a closed box in a closed cupboard without any ordinary human assistance. “The phenomena are at their best,” the Countess told me, “when Eleonore is either very pleased or very angry.”
I had better take her some more toys.
Daily News (London), 4th October 1926.
Wizardry by a girl.
Unseen teeth bite her arms.
Weals on the face.
Doctors to arrange long investigation.
The 13-year-old Roumanian girl, who has amazed London with her “wizardry,” is to be the subject of thorough investigation by a committee of medical men. Queer “stigmatic” markings appeared on the face and arms of Eleonore Zugun, the Roumanian poltergeist girl (says the special correspondent of the “Daily News”), when I spent about two hours, with her at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research South Kensington.
We were having tea in the laboratory – a Continental tea, with lemon instead of milk – and Eleonore was in the act of raising her cup to her lips when she suddenly gave a little cry of pain, put down her cup, and rolled up her sleeve. On her forearm I then saw what appeared to be the marks of teeth indented deeply in the flesh, as if she or someone else had fiercely bitten the arm. The marks turned from red to white and finally took the form of white raised weals. They gradually faded, but were still noticeable after an hour or so.
While Eleonore was sitting in her chair under full observation similar markings appeared every few minutes. Once she jumped in her chair and pointed to the side of her face as if she had felt an acute pain there. On immediately examining her face I found two long parallel marks, like superficial scratches, extending from the top of her forehead down to her chin. As I watched they developed into prominent raised white weals and were quite a nasty disfigurement. Anyone meeting the girl at the time would have got the impression that she had been engaged in a fight. For about 20 minutes the markings continued to appear more or less severely in various places.
The whole time the girl appeared very uncomfortable and resentful of what she considers the attentions of Dracu, or the Devil. Although I kept a close eye on her I failed to detect any self-infliction of the marks. The laboratory was brilliantly lit and i was at liberty to go as near Eleonore as I liked.
Assuming the genuineness of the mysterious markings (no one has yet, after 12 months, detected any trickery) what is the explanation? One theory – and the most attractive one – is that it is not necessary to search any further than the girl’s own mind. There have been many seemingly well authenticated cases of women who have had the power, when in an abnormal mental condition, of inducing “stigmatic” phenomena. It may be, in fact, that the queer marks I saw forming on Eleonore’s face and arms are merely the result of our old friend, auto-suggestion.
Medical men and Fellows of the Royal Society says the “Daily Chronicle”, have formed a committee of investigation into the baffling “wizardry” of this 13-year-old Roumanian peasant girl. They are Dr R.J. Tillyard, F.R.S, Mr Edward Heron-Allen, F.R.S., Dr A.L. Urquhart, St Thomas’s Hospital, and Dr. R. Fielding-Ould, F.R.S. For the next four or five weeks they will have Eleonore under observation to see if they can explain her apparent magic. They have two branches of phenomenon to fathom: – Poltergeist (or noisy devils), in which articles fly about the room in which Eleonore happens to be, and disappear and reappear in bewildering fashion; and Stigmatic, in which great weals, bruises and scratches appear on her skin without apparent cause.
Evening Despatch, 5th October 1926.
Poltergeist’s secret.
Doctors keep girl under observation.
Safeguards against possible trickery.
If there is any discoverable secret underlying the strange powers of Eleonore Zugun, the 13-year-old Roumanian peasant girl, medical men and Fellows of the Royal Society are out to find it. […]
The Countess Wassilko-Serecki, in whose charge she is, said that Sunday had produced no fewer than 15 phenomena, chiefly weals and scratches on her arms, which disappeared after twenty minutes. After a heavy day of phenomenon, she explained, there is usually a day of quiet.
According to Miss Kay, secretary of the laboratory, Eleonore, who had been busy playing with her toys, suddenly broke off and proceeded to fill several sheets of paper with automatic writing. It was in Roumanian, and when the Countess read it she turned to Miss Kay and asked, “Have you lost any keys?” “Yes,” was the reply. “Then,” said the Countess, “you will find them in the pocket of a coat in the cloak room.” She did. No explanation could be given of the affair. For two hours a party of half-a-dozen waited patiently while Eleonore played with her toys to see if the devils would take possession of her, but the devils did not oblige.
“Our object,” said Mr Harry Price, a director of the laboratory, “is to study these phenomena and see if there is any scientific explanation of them – or on the other hand trickery. We are satisfied there is nothing spiritualistic about it, and Continental observers hold the same view. One of the things we intend doing is to divide a room into compartments with fine netting and place some of Eleonore’s toys in these compartments. If during a phenomenon any of these toys is mysteriously moved to another room it will be interesting to see if the netting is broken.”
Dundee Evening Telegraph, 5th October 1926.
The poltergeist girl. This exclusive “Daily News” photograph – the first published in this country – of the mysterious “stigmatic” markings which appear on the face of Eleonore Zugun, the Rumanian poltergeist girl, now being tested at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, South Kensington.
The poltergeist girl. New puzzle. What causes face marks? By a special correspondent.
I was fortunate enough yesterday to get a photograph – reproduced on our back page, and the first published in this country – of the remarkable “stigmatic” markings which mysteriously appear on the face of Eleonore Zugun, the Rumanian poltergeist girl now being observed at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, South Kensington. All day she had disappointed a number of investigators, including representatives of the British, Continental and American Press, who waited for hours without result. It was not until they had gone and Mr Harry Price, hon. director of the Laboratory, had also left, that things began to happen.
Eleonore was sitting at the table tying up in its box the toy I had given her the day before, when she suddenly winced violently as if in acute pain. On looking at her face we found long “scratches,” which gradually developed into white weals. A few minutes later, when she was standing near the window in a corner of the laboratory to be photographed, she winced again, and pointed to her arm. What looked like teeth marks quickly formed. Other clearly defined marks, including two that seemed like attempts at the letters B and O, also appeared. Within 15 minutes Eleonore looked indeed as if she had been tatttooed all over her face and arms.
At the time the markings appeared those present in the room were Mr H.W. Seton-Karr, F.R.G.S., the well-known explorer, big game shooter, and author; Colonel Hardwicke, a member of the Council of the Laboratory and an experienced and sceptical investigator; Mr Robert Blair, Miss Kaye, secretary of the Laboratory, an American newspaper correspondent, the “Daily News” photographer, and myself.
All agreed that there was no sign of trickery. Mr Seton-Karr and Mr Robert Blair, entirely independent inquirers, both insisted that they had Eleonore under the closest observation and were satisfied that she did not cause the marks by her own physical action. It must be remembered that these “stigmatic” phenomena occur in full daylight. there is no question, as in other psychic investigations, of any difficulty of observation owing to darkness or a dim red light. Whether the marks are on the same basis as those that are said to have appeared on the hands and feet of St Francis of Assisi and on other saints when in a state of ecstasy is a question that was energetically discussed in the Laboratory yesterday. Mr Harry Price was very inclined, assuming the genuineness of the phenomena, to trace them to auto-suggestion and the action of our complicated mental processes on the body.
That some of the mental processes of Eleonore are unusual was made clear during the afternoon when she mischievously put some biscuits on a shelf for Dracu, or the devil, by whom she appears to be mentally obsessed.
It was generally felt that the “scratches” on her face may turn out to be merely the physical outward expression of an idea, whether conscious or subconscious, in her own mind. Since last Friday there have been no “poltergeist” as distinct from “stigmatic” phenomena, but it is confidently expected that during the next month there will be a number of instances of objects being moved without any apparent contact. It might perhaps be explained that the unsatisfactory word “poltergeist” (German “rackety spirit”) is used only because it has been associated for many years with the type of spontaneous daylight phenomena produced in the presence of Eleonore. It should not, however, be supposed that anyone at the Laboratory associates the phenomena with any “spirit” in the conventional sense. All the evidence points to the incidents being due – assuming their genuineness – to some unknown power of the girl.
Daily News (London), 6th October 1926.
The ‘poltergeist’ girl.
Doctors and the mysterious marks.
Leading medical men associated with the National Laboratory of Psychical Research are forming a plan for keeping continuous observation on Eleonore Zugun, a Rumanian girl, said to be the victim of a “poltergeist,” on whose face and arms mysterious marks like scratches and bites appear suddenly without any apparent cause. According to ancient belief a ‘poltergeist’ is a mischievous spirit which attaches itself to a human being or place, and plays all manner of tricks, in some cases throwing down crockery, and ornaments, and moving furniture. Accounts of similar cases of persons being mysteriously marked have been handed down. Yesterday all trace of markings which mysteriously appeared on Eleonore Zugun’s face and arms the previous afternoon had disappeared.
Mr Harry Price, hon. director of the laboratory, is striving to discover some “law” to account for the phenomena. He is convinced that trickery plays no part in the mysterious happenings, which he is inclined to attribute to auto-suggestion and the action of the complicated mental processes upon the body.
It has been definitely established that the markings, which apparently cause the girl pain, occur wherever she may be. She has the same experiences whether in the laboratory at South Kensington or at her home in Rumania. The only time she appears to be immune is when asleep.
Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 7th October 1926.
The Poltergeist Girl.
A strict watch is being kept at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research on Eleonore Zugun, the Rumanian girl. Eleonore is apparently, badly bitten and scratched by poltergeists, and painful weals appear on her face, neck and arms, save when she is asleep. It would be interesting to know if the marks described as bites appear on any part of the girl’s body, not within reach of her own teeth – for example on the face or the back of the neck. I have myself, says a writer in the “Morning Post,” seen weals which appeared from apparently trifling causes on a subject who suffered badly from nettle rash, and these lasted for a considerable time. They came up, I believe, some time after the event which caused them. I keep an open mind on all psychic phenomena, but experience shows that these should be accepted with caution.
Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 8th October 1926.
Rackety Ghost Quiet.
Poltergeist girl still shows no sign of “spirit” manifestation.
Eleonore Zugun, the thirteen-year-old Rumanian poltergeist girl, has been under strict observation by doctors since Thursday at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research. As yet there has been no manifestation of the “rackety ghost,” of which she is supposed to be the medium. Neither the public nor the Press are allowed to see the girl while she is under observation. An official at the laboratory stated yesterday that the doctors were making no statement at present, but would furnish a full report to the Research Council.
Daily Mirror, 9th October 1926.
Ghost that likes red light.
Magic “M” jumps from locked cupboard.
Scientists’ tests.
“Reynolds” correspondent.
Some remarkable phenomena have already been witnessed by the doctors and scientists who are keeping Eleonore Zugun, the 13-year-old Rumanian peasant girl, under observation at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, South Kensington. The experiments were continued yesterday, when further mysterious manifestations were recorded.
Eleonore is believed to be the medium of an unruly ghost, who is stated to have played some queer pranks before she was brought to England for the purpose of the present investigations. While in Vienna stilettos flew across a room in which Eleonore was present and articles vanished.
Nothing so extraordinary has happened in South Kensington, but I am informed that the results of the experiments so far had justified bringing the girl to London. The scientists are puzzled. While under observation she was subject to “poltergeist stigmata,” mysterious scratches and marks like weals appearing on her face and arms. In one instance six distinct teeth marks suddenly appeared on her hand. The actual cause of these strange injuries is one of the problems which the scientists are trying to elucidate.
A new line of investigation is now being followed. Hitherto the experiments were carried out in the seance room in daylight or white electric light, which does not appear to have been altogether to the liking of the “ghost.” The room was therefore illuminated with a red light, and evidently by way of appreciation the ghost did a “turn.” The observers were startled by a noise, and a metal letter “M” of the type used on the notice board on the ground floor was found under the chair of one of the scientists. Afterwards it was ascertained that an “M” was missing from a box in a locked cupboard in the ground floor office.
In another instance a marked Rumanian coin was mysteriously hurled across the room.
When these happenings took place two of the observers were holding the girl’s hands, and they are satisfied that no trickery could have been possible. Further tests on these lines will be carried out during the next fortnight, and the scientists’ reports will be awaited with much interest.
Reynolds’s Newspaper, 10th October 1926.
“Haunted” girl mystery.
Under observation by scientists.
[…] Mysterious occurrences put down to Eleonore’s “Poltergeist influence,” and vouched for by the Countess Wassilko Serecki, are as follows: Needles stick themselves into the girl’s hands, face, neck and cheeks; become smeared with the colour from red or blue pencils without visible agency. All kinds of articles fly suddenly about the room.
Her necklace broke suddenly at two points one day, and the coral beads were scattered about the room. While the girl was gathering those in one corner of the room, more beads fell in another corner. A skein of blue yarn disappeared through the lid of a workbox, returned after 10 minutes; then after an interval of another 10 minutes, disappeared once more.
Birmingham Weekly Mercury, 10th October 1926.
The “poltergeist” girl puzzle: Zoe, Countess Wasieko-Serecki, Mr Harry Price (Hon. Director of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research), and Eleonore Zugun, the Rumanian peasant who is said to be obssessed [sic] by Dracu (a devil).
Eleonore Zugun, the Rumanian peasant girl, is the subject of an inquiry at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research. She is said to be the medium of an unruly ghost, or devil, and is called the Poltergeist Girl – poltergeist meaning an ill-natured, tricky spirit. Strange marks and weals appear on her face, as though she had been bitten by something, and at times objects move without her touching them. Four doctors arranged to keep the girl under observation, in order to investigate the “stigmata” and “poltergeist” phenomena.
Photograph by P. and A.C.
The Sketch, 13th October 1926.
The Rumanian girl who is haunted by ghostly visitors, Eleonore Zugun.
The Sphere, 16th October 1926.
More magic by Eleanora.
Coins fly about in red light seance.
Professor’s report. Satisfied that there was no conjuring.
A report by the scientists who have been investigating the remarkable phenomena of Eleanora Zugun, the Roumanian poltergeist girl, has just been issued. It describes a remarkable seance at which coins moved about the room without any apparent contact. The report comes from the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, and is vouched for by Dr. R.J. Tillyard, the hon. vice-president. If the report be accepted as it stands, remarkable and mysterious phenomena are revealed. But it should not be forgotten (says the “Morning Post”) that the test took place under seance conditions, with bright red lights, shuttered windows, and a gramophone in action, which might account for a perfectly sincere self-deception. A scientific test, conducted by eminent scientists having no connection with any psychical society, would be more convincing to the impartial mind.
The seance on 12 October was supervised by Dr Tillyard, who is satisfied that small objects were transported by abnormal means. The report is signed by him and by Colonel W.W. Hardwick. Strict seance conditions were observed, states the report, a bright red light of 60 watts being used, and all doors were locked and windows closed and shuttered. On chairs from right to left round a small table in the middle of the room there were present Dr Tillyard, controlling Eleanora’s right hand; Susan Countess of Malmesbury, Mrs S. Clair Wilson, Mr Nicholi, Mrs Baggallay, and Colonel Hardwick, controlling the medium’s left hand. To relieve the tension a gramophone was played.
Before the seance began Dr Tillyard marked and placed about the room a number of foreign coins, no two of which were alike. Without Eleanora’s observance a Danish two-ore piece was put on top of an ultra-violet ray cabinet standing seven or eight feet from the medium’s chair. The coin was touching the raised edge of the cabinet, so that to be displaced it would have to be lifted, not slid.
At 4.40 p.m. the seance began, and about five minutes afterwards a sharp metallic click was plainly heard on the floor behind Dr Tillyard’s and the girl’s chair. A white light was turned up and the Danish coin from the top of the cabinet was seen to have been “displaced by abnormal means,” and to have landed flat on the floor without any rattle or rolling. Neither Eleanora nor any of the sitters had moved or broken a control.
The circle was re-formed, the red light switched on, and the gramophone again played. At 4.50 the medium started, and uttered a word sounding like “Kopf.” At almost the same moment Dr Tillyard felt a small object fell on his left knee. Asked in German what she had said, Eleanora explained that something had fallen on her head. Lights were put on once more, and Dr Tillyard searched the room. Quite ten feet from the position he and the medium occupied he found a silver Danish 25 ore piece lying between the chairs of Mrs Baggallay and Mr Nicholl. This coin had been hidden away in the farthest corner of the room, on a table. No one had heard any metallic sound or the ring of a coin.
“If,” Dr Tillyard’s report proceeds, “the object which fell on Eleanora’s head, and off it on to his left knee, were this coin, as seems reasonable to suppose, then it must have been transported silently, without rolling or rattling, right under the seance table and out between the legs of the sitters on the other side. Both coins when picked up were quite dry, thus disposing of any suggestion that Eleanora had somehow conjured them into her mouth. Both coins also showed the secret marks placed on them by Dr Tillyard. We consider that the following conclusions may legitimately be drawn:
“1. In the presence of Eleanora, under strict test conditions, movements of small objects without contact undoubtedly took place; 2. The movement of such objects in the two cases observed are attractions towards the person of the medium; 3. One of the coins being brass and the other silver, no movement can be explained as a magnetic phenomenon.”
Evening Despatch, 19th October 1926.
“Baffle chamber”
The poltergeist girl puzzles experts.
Eleonore Zugun, the Rumanian poltergeist girl, was sufficiently recovered from influenza yesterday to spend some hours at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, South Kensington. At a sitting held in the light from a 60-watt red electric lamp and ultra violet rays, a French 10-centime coin was mysteriously moved from the lintel over a closed door in the seance room and thrown to the ground.
Before the sitting four coins had been placed over the door, which leads into the “Baffle Chamber” – fitted to make it possible to enter the seance room without letting in any light. The only people in the room besides Eleonore were Mr Harry Price, hon. director of the laboratory, and Mr R. W. Bettemer, a Cambridge graduate and scientist, of Godalming. Both were satisfied that the four coins were still on the lintel when the white light was switched off and that it was impossible for Eleonore to have moved without instant detection. “It is established beyond question,” said Mr Price to the “Daily News,” “that movements without contact occur in the presence of Eleonore. The explanation is still unknown.”
At the end of this week Eleonore leaves with the Countess Wassilko Serecki for Berlin.
Daily News (London), 21st October 1926.
The thirteen-year-old Rumanian peasant girl, who is haunted by ghosts, being tested in the laboratory.
The Sphere, 23rd October 1926.
Black Magic Girl.
Lost ring drops in her presence.
After three weeks’ close observation at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, Eleonore Zugun, the Rumanian “poltergeist,” or merry ghost medium, left London yesterday for Berlin, where she is to undergo further tests in regard to the phenomena that are stated to occur frequently in her presence. During her stay in London the “merry ghost” was inactive under close observation, but Mr Harry Price, hon. director of the National Psychical Laboratories stated during the weekend that cases of phenomena had actually been observed.
“We have had telekinetic movements of small objects under conditions which absolutely precluded fraud,” he said. “Once, while she was standing in the passage and I was in a room at the end of it, we heard something fall in the seance-room. We both went into the room, and found that a marked coin had fallen from the top of a cabinet. While she was stooping to pick it up, another coin fell from the lintel of the door, which was beyond her reach. At the last seance, a ring, lost by the secretary a few hours before, dropped from a shelf while the medium was being held by Professor Thirring and Professor Rankine.”
An official report of the “phenomena” of the past few weeks is to be published in the British Journal of Psychical Research.
Westminster Gazette, 25th October 1926.
The Poltergeist Girl.
An official report on the phenomena associated with Eleonore Zugun, the Roumanian poltergeist girl who recently visited London, appears in the “Proceedings of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research” just issued. Summing up, Mr Harry Price, the hon. director of the Laboratory, claims that a case was made out for the abnormality of the manifestations. He writes:
“There is not the slightest doubt that our careful experiments made under ideal scientific conditions, have proved that stigmatic markings appeared spontaneously on various parts of Eleonore’s body; that she was not consciously responsible for the production of the marks; and that under test conditions movements of small objects without physical contact took place.”
Mr Price admits that Lord Charles Hope, a member of the Laboratory, once detected Eleonore in what was probably trickery.
Daily News (London), 14th February 1927.
Poltergeist Girl.
“Unmasked” in Munich.
Doctor’s Ruse.
From our own correspondent.
Berlin, Sunday.
The Rumanian poltergeist (unruly ghost) girl, Eleonore Zugun, who recently gave a display of her supposed remarkable powers in London has, it is asserted, been unmasked by a Munich doctor and a conjurer acting in collaboration. The girl, it may be recalled, claimed to be possessed of the Devil, who, it was stated, was responsible for the marks of bites, scratches, weals, etc., which appeared on the girl’s skin, apparently through no human agency.
Dr Hans Rosenbusch and the conjurer, Herr Otto Diehl, a German amateur Maskelyne of unusual powers of observation has, however, published a document proving without a shadow of a doubt that the Polish Countess Zoe Wassilko, in whose company the girl travelled, was the main agent of the deception. The pair were in Munich where a film is being made of Eleonore’s strange markings and the film operator adds as evidence that in the pauses the countess, under the pretence of smoothing the girl’s hair, would skilfully scratch her cheek or neck. Eleonore is one of those curious human beings whose skin reacts abnormally, on an average two to three minutes after being pinched, scratched, or even poked.
According to the document mentioned, while the girl was displaying one mark either she or the countess would adroitly manage to injure the skin and so produce the next. Often a handkerchief or a hand held before the mouth to conceal a yawn was used as a cloak; often a flutter of the Countess’s eyelids would give direction. So cleverly was this done that no complete evidence was forthcoming till Dr Rosenbusch could get both to his own house at a tea party on the ostensible grounds of discussing the film, in the success of which the Countess was financially interested. At a sitting after tea, which continued for five hours, notes were taken by Herr Diehl, masquerading as a harmless inquirer, of the most insignificant movements of the girl and the Countess.
The absolute coincidence of touch and the resultant mark proves that there is no devil in the case, but only very clever sleight of hand. The pair have now vanished from Munich.
Eleonore Zugun came to London at the beginning of October last and was examined on many occasions in connection with her supposed abnormal powers. Mr Harry Price, honorary director of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, in a report on the girl wrote: “There is not the slightest doubt that our careful experiments made under ideal scientific conditions, have proved that stigmatic markings appeared spontaneously on various parts of Eleonore’s body; that she was not consciously responsible for the production of the marks; and that under test conditions movements of small objects without physical contact took place.”
Daily News (London), 21st February 1927.
The Ghost Girl.
What happened at her London tests.
Mr Harry Price, honorary director of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, S.W., commenting on the report of the “unmasking” of Eleonore Zugun, the poltergeist girl, at Munich, in yesterday’s “Daily News,” writes:
“It does not surprise me to learn that Eleonore cheated under the conditions obtaining at the Munich seance. Eleonore has been caught “helping out” on other occasions – once when she was in London at the National Laboratory. In the official report of the girl’s visit to the laboratory, just published, we emphasise the fact that “the whole question of the possibility of fraud rests on conditions – i.e., control.”
“We also state that we were ‘genuinely surprised that Eleonore did not more often pit her wits against ours’ – a likely action on the part of a girl of 13 of peasant stock, abnormal, with a ‘young’ mentality in many ways. We stated that the girl would cheat if we let her – that is why various controlling devices, tactual and mechanical, were employed. The evidence upon which we based our favourable opinion concerning the genuineness of the phenomena was obtained under scientifically perfect conditions by a number of independent investigators.
“According to your report of the Munich seance, the Countess Wassilko was an accomplice in the alleged tricks. But at all our test experiments the Countess was not present. As for the stigmatic markings we state in our report that they are pathological – I have never heard it seriously suggested that they are due to any other cause.”
Daily News (London), 22nd February 1927.
Exit the Poltergeist Girl.
The Rumanian poltergeist girl, Eleonore Zugun, who was received with such rapturous credulity by English spiritualists when she was here, has been exposed in Munich, the Daily News reports, as a fraud. The girl, who travelled under the guardianship of Countess Zoe Wassilko, claimed that she was possessed by the Devil, and the various stigmata, in the form of scratches and weals, which appeared on her skin were ascribed to the same infernal source.
Two Germans, a doctor and a famous amateur conjuror, kept a strict watch on Eleonore and the Countess at the Munich seances, and detected them both adroitly injuring the skin under the cover of a handkerchief or a hand. Apparently, Zugun’s skin, which is probably thick enough to survive many such exposures, reacts with unusual quickness, and the Countess took advantage of this to accomplish the deception. Since the exposure the precious couple have vanished from Munich, but no doubt they will eventually turn up elsewhere to receive an admiring welcome from the faithful.
Truth, 23rd February 1927.
A “Ghostly” Affair.
Having exposed the Roumanian “ghost girl,” Eleonore Zugun, a Munich nerve specialist is now being sued for libel by the young lady’s guardian, Countess Zoo Wasilko. The girl recently underwent “spirit” tests in London.
Birmingham Weekly Mercury, 27th March 1927.
Curses that take spirit.
By A Psychic Investigator.
Another eerie case of mischievous ghosts has been puzzling the most matter-of-fact people. Not long ago it was stated that Eleonore Zugun, the “poltergeist girl,” was roundly cursed about 18 months before the remarkable events which startled her and all those about her. That marked the beginning of the manifestation around her. Poltergeist is the rather apt German for ‘racketing spirit,’ and it is the best description that can be given of something we do not understand. The really remarkable thing about poltergeist phenomena is that they occur throughout the world, while there is yet a great similarity in all the different accounts. Every report is that of an apparently intelligent, yet senselessly mischievous spirit which amuses itself by teasing – there is no other word for it – everyone within reach.
The manifestations round Eleonore started with a spontaneous shower of stones. Later her parents were violently pelted with some stored potatoes which flew, apparently, of their own volition. At another time an iron vessel and an earthenware bowl split into pieces in her presence, and a heavy chest rocketed about the room by itself. The spirit which hung around her since she was cursed even went so far as to hurl a large stone through a picture of St John with such violence that it lodged in the wall behind.
[…]
Eleonore Zugun photographed in her Roumanian home, which was partially wrecked by mysterious and violent manifestations.
Birmingham Weekly Mercury, 23rd December 1928.
The Devil Comes To London.
By Harry Price, Director of The National Laboratory of Psychical Research.
When I invited “the girl possessed of a devil” to come to London for tests concerning her strange powers, I had the belief that I might expose her as a fraud. As I explained in last week’s Sunday Dispatch, the girl was Eleanore Zugun, a 13-years-old Rumanian who was living in Vienna under the care of Countess Wassilko-Serecki. Eleanore was known as a “poltergeist” – that is, one possessed by a mischievous spirit. Her presence in any room immediately caused inanimate objects to move about, often violently, and the girl herself suffered from stigmata – marks or wounds like those of Christ – which appeared and vanished mysteriously.
The girl was not at all dismayed by her strange experiences. In fact, she told me that she was on quite friendly terms with her “devil,” to whom she familiarly referred as Dracu. When the countess and Eleanore arrived in London, they came to the Laboratory of Psychical Research, where Eleanore informed me that Dracu was delighted to be in London and was very pleased to see me. I told her that Dracu was welcome. Things had already happened to them in their first few hours in London while they were settling into a boarding-house. Eleanore’s silver ring had disappeared. They had heard a tinkle as it left the table – neither of them had been near it – but a thorough search of the room had failed to reveal the ring.
The housekeeper in the basement of the laboratory premises had an Aberdeen terrier which Eleanore saw. At once she wanted to play with it, so we had the dog up to amuse her. In the afternoon she was playing with the dog, trying to tie a ribbon round his neck while “Jock” lay on his back and kicked. I was laughing as I watched her, when suddenly I heard something fall near the door. Just inside the door, some yards from where the girl was playing, we found the lost silver ring. It was suggested that Eleanore had had it all the time, and had simply flicked it over as she played. Possibly; but I tried to flick it several times – and it always hit some piece of furniture. I could not get it to fall near the door.
Several photographers whom I had invited came in at that stage. One had brought Eleanore a wonderful clockwork black cat, with eyes that spat fire. The girl’s pleasure was delightful to see. She wound the cat up, and while we were watching its antics something fell on the girl’s head and dropped to the floor. It proved to be an “L”-shaped piece of metal which, on examination, was obviously a metallic letter “L” as used for signs. Such letters were in use on the notice board on the ground floor of the building – used for notices of meetings. I thought this must have come from there – but it hadn’t! The letters there were all intact. This had to be investigated, and, to cut a long story short, we at length discovered that the people who had put up the notices with these letters had received a set containing six specimens of each letter only the previous day. And when we checked over the unused letters, which were in a box having two fasteners, which was kept in a closed cupboard, we found one to be missing! It was absolutely proved that no one had been near the cupboard and neither the girl nor the countess had ever been in the room.
However, under test conditions, stigmatic phenomena were witnessed; the marks on the girl’s arm were such as might have been caused by a whip. Observers saw the marks form. The conditions were such as absolutely precluded fraud. Eleanore could not possibly have inflicted them herself. These – and many other – marks were witnessed again and again under the most stringent conditions. Different observers saw them on different occasions. There were teeth-marks, scratches on the arms, and a series of three long weals extending from the middle of her forehead right down the right cheek. I can state that her hands had not been near her face or head for several minutes. And I can state that Eleanore gave every sign of pain.
On another day I prepared the laboratory seance room for an observational period. Dr R.J. Tillyard, F.R.S, had brought 13 Danish, French and other coins, which he had marked and had placed about the room. I entered the room to check the coins and place them finally in their prescribed positions. Eleanore had just entered the building. I left the room and spoke to her. And at once I heard a coin drop. I returned to the room and saw that a one-ore piece which I had placed with the others, on the ultra-violet ray cabinet was missing. Eleanore was with me. Simultaneously, we saw the coin on the floor; we both stooped to pick it up, and as we did so, a French franc which, two minutes previously, I had seen firmly in position on the wide lintel of the door, fell from its place. I did not hear it roll. None the less, I found it on the other side of the room. The lintel was three feet wide. I had placed the coin. Make no mistake, nothing but an earthquake would have shifted it. I am convinced the one-franc piece was moved abnormally.
Nothing more happened while I was there, but after I had left a number of observers saw stigmatic markings rise spontaneously and quickly until they covered the girl’s face, forehead, arms, and wrists. Within fifteen minutes, according to one observer who wrote his impressions, the girl looked as if she had been tattooed all over her face and arms. There was no sign of trickery. The phenomenon occurred in full daylight. There was no possibility of Eleanore producing the marks herself by scratching or otherwise.
These phenomena continued. I had made preparations to try to photograph any poltergeist movements, but nothing happened. The next day, however, we found that one of Eleanore’s toys was missing – a squeaker dog. We searched for it, but could not find it. Two days later it dropped “from nowhere” as we were holding a seance with the girl. I was informed by the countess that Eleanore’s ring had again disappeared while they were completing their toilet in their bedroom at the boarding house. As the countess spoke to me, Eleanore began to write automatically. She wrote that the ring would be restored to her in five minutes. Exactly five minutes later it fell – and again “from nowhere” is the only source I can indicate.
Then a very interesting thing happened. My secretary had been cleaning some of the laboratory glassware, and had removed a diamond and sapphire ring from her finger while doing so. Ten minutes later, when she went to pick it up from the bench on which she had placed it, it had gone. That afternoon a number of members arrived to observe the phenomena, and perhaps hold a seance. We wanted to make an experiment with ultra-violet rays. Eleanore was being controlled by Professor Thirring and Professor A.O. Rankine. The experiment had just started when we heard something fall. It was the missing ring! When the ring was lost, only two persons were in the place – my secretary and Eleanore. When it was restored, Eleanore was under control – rigid control by the two professors. Moreover, the ring hadbeen lost in another room, and the seance room had been locked at the time. The girl could not have projected the ring. There was no sound of travelling, rolling, or rattling. It simply dropped – and there it was.
Not unnaturally, we had had some conversation with the people on the lower floors of the building regarding their metallic letters .One day, I asked them to look over their small stock again. Very kindly, they did so. They told me that the letters “C” and “W” were missing. A search was made for them, but without any success. They could not account for their disappearance. The letters that remained were securely locked up. Eleven days later, Dr. Tillyard, who was at the laboratory, fetched his penknife from his coat pocket. He keeps his penknife in a little leather case with a snap fastener. It was there, and he used the penknife and replaced it. In the afternoon, he again had occasion to use the knife. It was still – and as usual – in its little leather case. He brought out the knife, and to his utter amazement he found the metallic magnetic letter “C” tightly threaded on the metal rim of the knife case and firmly sealing it!
I can offer no explanation. As a student of deceptive methods I can see no way in which Dr Tillyard could have been tricked. One can only state the facts, and say that to affix the letter would have taken an ordinary person some time, and that no person had the opportunity.
The problem of the poltergeist girl is one of the most bewildering of the generation. There are simply no normal explanations for what was seen not only by myself but by many other observers under rigid test conditions. There is not the slightest doubt that the phenomena were abnormal. The stigmata may possibly have been due to a complicated mental process through which Eleanore imagined the weals, etc. And of this they may have been the normal effects. Expert medical opinion inclines to that view. If we take the view, then we may claim to have discovered their cause.
But we cannot make that claim over the movements of coins, etc. It would have been ideal to have made some further intensive experiments, but we had no money for prolonged investigation. So there the matter must rest.
A few months after Eleanore had returned to Vienna with the countess she reached the age of puberty – and her curious power completely deserted her. She is now happily engaged as a hairdresser, and has a business of her own at Czernowitz, Rumania. “Dracu,” the devil, is no more!
Weekly Dispatch (London), 16th April 1933.
Psychic thrills of my life.
Eleonore Zugun… the “poltergeist girl”
By Harry Price. Hon. Sec. of the University of London Council of Psychical Investigation.
In my last article I regretted the fact that Willi Schneider’s brilliant phenomena were produced under conditions of darkness and noise, which stifled those senses most necessary for investigating, viz. sight and hearing. This week, as a contrast, I will describe manifestations which occurred in daylight, or sunlight, or under the electric glare of my laboratory.
Early in 1926 my friend, Prof. Hans Thirring, of Vienna University, informed me that there was a young Roumanian girl in the city through whom the most extraordinary phenomena were alleged to occur. In broad daylight, objects in her vicinity moved of their own volition; articles suddenly disappeared and just as mysteriously reappeared; things were thrown about by an unseen something or somebody; and the girl herself was the unwilling victim of bites and scratches which produced unsightly weals on various parts of her body. The girl’s name was Eleonore Zugun, a peasant from Talpa, Roumania.
I found that Eleonore was living under the protection of the Countess Wassilko-Serecki, a well-known Viennese lady whose hobby was psychical research. Immediately she knew I was interested in her protegee she kindly invited me to Vienna to observe the phenomena. I arrived in the Austrian capital on April 30th, 1926. An observational seance was arranged for the next day.
I found Eleonore a child of nearly 13 years of age. Though intelligent, in some respects she had the mentality of a child of eight, especially in her choice of toys, which consisted of fluffy cats, balls, etc., with which she amused herself for hours. We soon became friends. Before the seance, the Countess told me something of the girl’s history. I was informed that the manifestations had centred round the child from a very early age. Her parents, simple peasants, were convinced that the phenomena were the work of “Dracu,” the Roumanian term for the Devil. This idea was encouraged by the village priest, and Eleonore herself was convinced that everything that occurred was done by “Dracu” to annoy her.
Countess Wassilko rescued Eleonore from the unsuitable environment of her native village, and decided to have her trained in the art of hairdressing, and to this end the girl went to live in the Countess’s flat, where her phenomena could be studied under more comfortable conditions. Before our experiments commenced, the Countess told me something of what had occurred since the child had been in her care. The phenomena included raps on furniture; articles transported from room to room in some unknown manner; stigmatic marks, scratches and weals on breasts, arms, and wrists; sudden movements of objects in the vicinity of Eleonore, etc.
Locked doors seemed no hindrance to the transport of objects. A brush, say, would be carefully put away in its proper place, and ten minutes afterwards it would drop from apparently nowhere into the midst of the Countess’s family who would be quietly reading within closed and fastened doors. This happened over and over again. On one occasion the Countess’s father had been playing chess with a friend, and the ivory chessmen had been carefully placed away in their case, as was the Count’s invariable custom. The next evening the Count had arranged to play a game with another friend, but upon opening the box he found that three of the chess-men were missing. There was considerable consternation, as the chess-men were valuable. The flat was searched from top to bottom. Eleonore’s box was emptied and her bed (she slept in the Countess’s room) was pulled to pieces in a vain endeavour to find the missing ‘men’. Three days later the chess-men fell from some point behind the medium as she and the Countess were reading and talking. It was never discovered where their hiding-place had been – or how they “came back.”
The above, and many similar stories, interested me for nearly an hour and then we adjourned to the Countess’s bedroom-study, where Eleonore played most of the day. The room was a large one, divided down the centre by a matchboard partition, six feet high. On one side was the bed, washstand, dressing table, etc.; on the other, a book-case (unglazed), couch, chairs, tables, etc. There were two doors (which I locked) and a large French window which looked on to a garden. I saw that the window was closed and fastened. The room was light and very suitable for observational purposes.
At 4.30 the Countess and I sat on the couch to watch Eleonore and to see if anything would happen. The girl was playing with a celluloid ball, such as is used for table tennis. After an extra hard bounce on the floor, the ball divided into its two halves. Eleonore at once ran to the Countess and asked her to mend it. My hostess and I rose from the couch, and she assisted Eleonore to fit the two pieces of the ball together. I stood close by them watching the proceedings. When the Countess had half the ball in her hand and Eleonore was holding the other half, and when I had my eyes fixed on both girl and the Countess, a steel stilleto, with handle about ten inches long, used for opening letters, shot across the room, from behind me, and stuck into the door near which we were standing.
I am not easily startled by anything that takes place at a seance as I have seen and heard so many strange things; but I must confess that, for a moment, I wondered what was going to happen next. I searched the room for hidden springs capable of projecting small objects, but found none. I was convinced that neither Eleonore nor the Countess threw the stiletto – and there was nothing in the room in or behind which a person could hide. Who, then, threw the paper-knife? Eleonore’s answer to the question was “Dracu” – and we left it at that.
We had barely expressed our interest in the phenomenon when Eleonore gave a short, sharp cry of pain and the Countess at once pulled up the left sleeve of the girl’s bodice and on the fleshy part of her forearm, some distance above the wrist, were the deep indentations of teeth-marks, six above and five below, forming together an ellipse. I must admit that Eleonore could have produced the markings herself in the brief minutes or so we were engrossed in the stiletto incident, but neither the Countess nor I saw any suspicious move on her part. Also, I examined her sleeve for marks of saliva, but found none. If Eleonore had bitten her own arm, she must have done so through her sleeve – but there was no sign of moisture. Eleonore declared that “Dracu” bit her. We watched the indentations on her arm gradually fill up, turn red then white, and finally rise above the surface of the flesh in the form of weals. It was quite a severe bite.
The Countess and I returend to the couch, and the child continued her play with the ball. We were all three on the study side of the partition. Suddenly I saw a flash in front of me at the same moment as something dropped upon the top of the low bookcase by my side. We at once investigated, and found that a small mirror from a lady’s handbag had been thrown over the partition from the bedroom side. The usual position of the mirror was on a small table beside the Countess’s bed. Again I positively state that no one in the room could have projected the mirror across the partition. I, of course, at once searched the bedroom portion and saw where the mirror had been reposing, but discovered nothing abnormal.
Immediately after, Eleonore gave another cry of pain and upon examination we again found another set of teeth-marks on the girl’s arm, close to the previous markings. Neither of us saw any suspicious movement on the part of the girl. We then returned to the study side of the room and found that, in our absence, some of the books in the low bookcase had been pushed in. We had previously carefully placed each row in exact alignment. We again evened them up. This displacement of books was a common – and very curious – form of manifestation, and many times during the day it would be found that the volumes had been disturbed. Eleonore was never seen to touch them. A singular feature of the book phenomena was that one could sit for hours staring at the bookcase and nothing would happen; but immediately one took one’s eye off the volumes, some books would be displaced.
Soon after the books incident, Eleonore cried out again and pointed to her chest. The Countess at once untied the ribbon which fastened her frock, and pulled down her camisole. Between her breasts, and extending a little on to her left breast, were seven scratches, criss-cross, six inches in length. As we watched them they gradually turned red, then white, and in a minute or so became hard, white weals, just as if a person’s nails (Eleonore said “Dracu’s claws!”) had been drawn across the flesh. While we were examining Eleonore’s chest, the Countess exclaimed: “The books are pushed in again!” and sure enough they were. While the Countess was actually doing up the girl’s frock, and while we three were in the study side of the room, a metal cap from a scent bottle was thrown from the bedroom side of the partition and fell at our feet. Its usual position was in a case by the side of the bed. I again examined the room, but found nothing.
Phenomena were happening so rapidly that I sat down on the couch, determined not to take my eyes off Eleonore – or the Countess, who was close by my side. To the right of me was a small table which had been moved for some purpose and my hostess asked Eleonore to push it up close to the wall in its usual position. While I was watching the girl do this, and when both her hands were actually on the table in the act of moving it, we heard a terrific crash on the other side of the partition. We three at once went into that portion of the room, and found that one of Eleonore’s toys, a large black cloth dog, fairly heavy, had been thrown from the study side of the room, over the partition, and had fallen upon the raised handle of the coal scuttle. It was the noise of the handle falling that had made all the clatter. I was certain that the toy in question had been on a chair situated on the farther side of Eleonore. But no one saw the flight of the dog, and the Countess impressed upon me the fact that one did not see the flight of projected objects.
I could fill pages of the “Sunday Sun” with an account of what happened during my first investigation of Eleonore. The girl was “bitten” or marked many times during my visit, and various objects were thrown about. I have stated that no one ever saw objects in flight, but I must qualify that statement as on one occasion I did actually see an object commence to move. Eleonore was sitting at the small table, drawing me a picture of “Dracu,” as she visualised him. To the left of her was a chair upon which was a cushion – 5 1/2 feet away from the child. As I gazed at Eleonore scribbling, the cushion slowly slid off the chair on to the floor. Both the child and the cushion were in my line of vision, so that both were under observation at the same time. It was not possible for anyone in the room to have touched the cushion, which was resting squarely on the chair – not on the edge. And the cushion did not “tumble” off the chair – it was a gentle slide.
This last phenomenon finally convinced me that the girl was at the centre of so-called Poltergeist manifestations, and I at once made arrangements for the Countess to bring the girl to my laboratory in London, where observations could be made under scientific conditions. The Countess Wassilko and her protegee arrived in London on September 30, 1926, and our experiments with the girl commenced immediately. What we wanted to find out was (a) whether the alleged telekinetic movements (i.e. the abnormal displacement of objects) were genuine, and if so, their causation; and (b) if the stigmatic “bites” and “scratches” were the result of Eleonore’s trickery, or were due to pathological or abnormal causes. The girl stayed with us about a month, and a number of well-known people (Mr C.E.M. Joad, Professor William McDougall, F.R.S., Dr R.J. Tillyard, F.R.S., Professor Hans Thirring, etc.) assisted at our experiments. It would be tedious to detail the various tests, or to describe the instruments we used, but our conclusions can be briefly stated.
We found that small objects placed on the lintel of the door of our seance-room, fell on to the floor, when the girl and observers were on the far side of the room. There is not the slightest doubt that our careful experiments, made under ideal scientific conditions, proved that: (a) stigmatic markings appeared on various parts of Eleonore’s body; (b) Eleonore was not consciously responsible for the production of the marks; (c) that under laboratory conditions movements of objects without physical contact undoubtedly took place. The experimenters, unless they were bereft of all human perceptions, could not possibly come to any other conclusions.
As an example of this, there disappeared from a notice-board in our rooms a magnetic, metallic letter “C.” Eleven days after, Dr. R.J. Tillyard, when many miles from the laboratory, found the “C” firmly attached to a knife-case in his pocket, although he was certain it was not there just previously, as he had used the knife, and had turned his pocket out!
As regards the “bites” of the alleged “Dracu,” it was the considered opinion of our medical experts that the markings were a normal reaction to a complicated mental process through which Eleonore imagined the weals etc. – arising out of influences radiating from the higher nervous centres as reflex responses to external stimuli. Certainly, Eleonore did not make the marks herself.
The strangest part of this strange “mediumship” is still to be told. Eleonore had just turned thirteen when the London experiments were held. A few months later all the phenomena immediately ceased. She became as normal as other girls, worked hard at her occupation of hair-dressing, and to-day possesses a salon of her own at Czernowitz, Romania, where she caters for “women’s crowning glory” and “Dracu” troubles her no more!
Sunday Sun (Newcastle), 9th June 1935.
Adventures behind the news.
A Little Devil.
By F.G.H. Salusbury.
“Of course the whole thing’s probably a fake from start to finish,” said the famous New Editor who then controlled my life, “but you ought to be able to get a good story out of it. And let’s have it early.” “What’s her name?” I asked. “Eleonore – what?” “Zugun. It’s all in the letter – Eleonore Zugun. She’s a Romanian. Says she’s possessed by the Devil. She’s a poltergeist medium, too. And this Countess Wassilko-Somebody – o yes, Wassilko-Serecki – has brought her over to show to Harry Price. Know him?” “I know him,” I said, “the chap who runs the Psychical Research Laboratory.” “Well,” said the News Editor, pushing Mr Price’s letter at me, and lighting his sixty-fourth cigarette from the stub of his sixty-third, “that’s where you’ve got to be at three o’clock. And for god’s sake let’s have your story early.”
I went out into the sunny afternoon, trying to remember what a poltergeist was; and, with some effort, I recalled it as a rackety, knock-about “spirit” – a mischievous imp – which manifested itself by throwing things about a room, overturning furniture, and generally annoying people. In the Underground, on the way to South Kensington, I read Mr Price’s letter carefully, and absoorbed the essence of Eleonore Zugun’s psychic career. She was then thirteen years old – I am writing of some twelve years ago – and had become the centre of much fearful gossip in her native village. There were such queer happenings in her presence that she was shut up for a time in a mad-house.
Things moved about apparently of their own accord. Marks appeared inexplicably on Eleonore’s skin. She would jump up suddenly with an exclamation of distress, and indicate red scratches – as if produced by claws – on her arms or her cheeks. Sometimes she was pinched; sometimes she would show the marks of teeth. The villagers were convinced that she was possessed by the Devil; so was Eleonore. She accepted his control quite calmly, and referred to him as “Dracu.” Her story got about, and serious students of psychic phenomena had her released from the asylum. The Countess more or less adopted her. She was brought to Vienna. Her case was subjected to scientific investigation. She was besieged by the curious, and her phenomena puzzled the wisest. What, for example, were you to make of a dagger that hurled itself across a room when she was there?
This, then, was the girl whom I found under observation in Mr Price’s laboratory on the top floor of a large house in Queensbury-place. Mr Price introduced me to the Countess, a pleasantly self-assured woman. I renewed my acquaintance with his secretary, Miss Kay, who looked coolly efficient as always in her white business overall, and with a rival reporter. Then I turned my attention to Eleonore Zugun, in whose company I was shortly to have an adventure which I can never explain. She was sitting at a large table, philosophically awaiting the influence of Dracu. We smiled at each other, and shook hands.
I saw a plump, moon-faced girl, who was physically very mature for her age, but mentally, I thought, somewhat backward. That may have been a wrong impression, due to her extreme placidity. She resumed playing with a clockwork cat, which was one of a number of toys spread out before her. I began to talk with Mr Price. We were all hoping that Something Would Happen – that a chair would fall over, that the clockwork cat would fly up to the ceiling, even that Dracu would pinch Eleonore. Time passed, and the Countess had to leave us for some appointment. Eleonore played quietly with her toys. We continued our chatter. I, for one, became rather bored: I was thinking, too, of the News Editor, and his hunger for early stories. And then something extraordinary happened.
A small white object suddenly materialised out of nothing, flashed in mid-air, and fell with a click to the floor. At that second, Price was busy at one of his cupboards. I was behind him. The other reporter was to my left. Eleonore was winding up her cat. Miss Kay was out of the room. The object was about four feet from the floor when it appeared, directly in my line of vision. “What’s that?” I asked. “What’s what?” asked Price. “That thing on the floor,” I said, and explained, with some excitement, how it had impishly appeared in the true poltergeist tradition.
We picked it up, and found it to be a piece of metal, enamelled white, in the shape of the letter L. But whence had it come? It was Miss Kay who had a bright idea. She suggested that it was exactly like one of the store of letters which were used to assemble notices on the board in the hall downstairs. We sought the office on the ground floor, and discovered that Miss Kay was right – also that there were two boxes of letters. One of them was in use. The other had not been opened. “Well,” said Mr Price, “may we see if any of your L’s is missing?” It was then established that none was missing either from the notice board or from the box in use. But there was one missing from the box which had not been opened, and was put away in a cupboard. Now, how do you explain that?
The unopened box had arrived in the building only the day before. No one in Mr Price’s laboratory knew of its existence. I could not see any possibility of fraud, at the time, and I can still see none. Somehow that letter L left its box, mounted to the top floor, and appeared in the presence of the placid, complacent Eleonore. She was mildly interested. She said it was simply the work of Dracu.
When I returned to the office the famous News Editor agreed that it might make a good story. And I thought I detected a chink in his armour. I thought there was a flicker of uneasiness in his cold, hawk-like eyes. He was faced with something which, for once, did not fit in with his cynical, disillusioned outlook.
Daily Herald, 9th November 1938.
[…] Harry Price tells this story in his latest book, Poltergeist Over England (Country Life, 18s.) He makes this distinction between a ghost and a poltergeist. One haunts, the other infests. He goes on to suggest that the poltergeist is noisy, destructive and cruel. Yet the thing with the single leg appears to have been soundless, destroyed nothing and disturbed no one except the investigators. The poltergeist is an evil agency. It causes things to move or break of their own accord. It may also attack human beings, as in the remarkable case of Eleonore Zugun.
She was born at Talpa, Rumania, in 1913. “At the age of twelve,” writes Price, “she went to live with her grandparents at a village named Buhai. A few days after Eleonore’s arrival, a shower of stones entered their cottage. Several windows were smashed. Then, in full sunlight, a big piece of stone and half a brick entered the house, breaking [?] windows. No one was seen to throw the missiles which invariably fell at the child’s feet. This unpleasant activity recurred time and again. Then came an extraordinary development. Sitting quietly by herself reading a book, the girl would suddenly let out a cry, and simultaneously on her arm, leg or body, appeared a weal. […]
John Bull, 17th November 1945.