A West Indian Poltergeist.
Some few weeks since I received a kind letter from Father Aldhelm Bowring, O.P., telling me that he had read some of the articles published in these pages, and that he thought I might be interested to hear of a poltergeist disturbance which had taken place two or three years ago in the island of Grenada, B.W.I. The Dominican Fathers have a mission there, as they have in Trinidad, and Father Bowring was resident in Grenada at the time of the occurrence. What lent exceptional interest to the manifestation was the fact that it culminated in the burning down of the house in which the trouble had occurred, and that an official inquiry into the cause of the fire had consequently been held before the local magistrate. The occurrence, I was further told, was fully reported in the Grenada newspaper, The West Indian, which, if not quite a daily, is published several times in the week.
Father Bowring, now in this country, had not, of course, brought with him copies of the journal in question, but it was afterwards suggested to me by a friend that such newspapers were likely to be sent to the Colonial Office, and on inquiring there I was courteously informed that the files, after accumulating for a year or two, were passed on to the British Museum. This means that they are accessible in the special newspaper department which was built a few years ago at Colindale, near Hendon, ann institution which is admirably organized for purposes of such research.
The earliest notice I could meet with of the poltergeist disturbances occurred in The West Indian for Sunday, September 23, 1934. It was preceded by the usual large type heading:
Mysterious Noises Molest Lowther Lane Cottage Dwellers.
Stones rain on roof each night of past week. Eleven year old girl sees ghost.
In the account which follows it is stated that “mysterious noises occurring between the hours of 7 o’clock and midnight each night since Monday last (i.e., September 17th) at a cottage at the Botanic Station end of Lowther’s Lane, baffling the most zealous police and voluntary watchers, have attracted hundreds to the scene all the past week.” We are further told that the many persons who searched the house and the surrounding area, including “police and detectives” – one is inclined to wonder a little what type of individual exercises the functions of policeman and detective in Grenada, B.W.I. – “are satisfied that the occurrence is no hoax.” More definitely the account continues:
“Police have climbed to the roof from the windows and seen the stones dropping on the roof. Another puzzling feature of the stone-throwing is that the missiles fall as if dropped from the skies and yet remain stationary where they fall. The stones up to the present have injured no one, though crowds press thickly round the cottage each night. They vary in weight between two ounces and a pound.”
There were, however, other circumstances which pointed to the intervention of human agency working out a malicious purpose. There was an anonymous letter, or letters, containing threats and warnings against a certain young woman who at the time was living in the house. There was also a strange parcel of dirty odds and ends left upon the roof which was suggestive of Obeah practices, and there was a child, really much older than she looked, who professed to see a man dressed in white, apparently, in her belief, the agent of these disorders, but in any case a figure which no one else could see. In view of these complications, an editorial in The West Indian two days later showed a sane and cautious reserve in pronouncing upon the nature of the happenings reported. There seemed to be no explanation of the missiles, but the very fact of the presence of crowds of spectators must have hindered anything like accurate observation.
The stone-throwings seem to have continued persistently for a month or two, until the occupants, losing heart, left the house altogether. Eventually, on the night of January 14, 1935, the cottage mysteriously took fire and was burned to the ground. Thereupon in the same newspaper for January 16th we find a revival of interest in the subject. It published a recapitulation of what has already been described and went on to state that when the phenomena first began in September the house was occupied by the proprietress, who bore the curious name of Mrs Excelia Mark and was apparently a woman of colour. With her were her two daughters and a grandchild, this last the daughter of an absent son. It was upon this grandchild and upon her aunt Dolly that attention was specially concentrated. The report, after giving the name of the mother, goes on to speak of –
“Dolly Woodroffe, 20, her daughter who since her return to the colony from Trinidad on September 9th from a holiday visit, rumour had it, was the butt of the mysterious attacks on the dwelling. The stones would fall on the roof over her bedroom, and she would find notes addressed to her by supposedly strange media.
Ivy is the 11 year old granddaughter of Excelia Mark, to whom the letters also made reference.
Several weeks ago, however, the house was deserted. At times foul-looking paper packets were mingled with the stones. These would contain greasy matter, garlic, coarse salt, bits of broken glass, and a variety of other material properly associated wiwth the Obeah cult.”
In The West Indian for January 24, 1935, it is stated that “on Wednesday, 23rd, an investigation into the origin of the fire which destroyed the ‘haunted’ house in Lowther’s Lane was held before His Worship C.H. Lucas, Acting-Magistrate of the Western District.” Excelia Mark, giving evidence, stated that Ivy was her son’s daughter and was aged fifteen; her son, Ivy’s father, was in Cuba. She further narrated how she “made a sacrifice” in November; with regard to which occurrence the report summarizes a part of her statement thus:
“Some African people made prayers for three days. No stones fell during those three days. They left about 10 o’clock one Saturday, and about 12 o’clock stones began to fall on the house again. No fire was lit in the house from the time the “sacrifice” ended. She also said: “I noticed that whenever Ivy was present more stones would fall, but when she was not there everything was quiet. Besides stones such things as salt, various powders, matches and letters were picked up on the roof of the house.”
In The West Indian for January 29th we have a report of the continuation of the inquiry. Several of the witnesses spoke only of the fire and of the impossibility of explaining how it originated. Dolly Woodroffe confirmed the account given by her mother and niece of the evening in September when the disturbances began, but she stated that after two or three such experiences she had left the house and gone to stay with a friend in the town. With regard to the phenomena, interest centres in the depositions of Ivy, the granddaughter, who, in agreement with her grandmother, describes herself as fifteen, not eleven, years of age, and of the “Detective” Bernadine who long before had been deputed to investigate the mysterious stone-throwings. Ivy is reported as saying:
“One night in September last I was inside the house with my grandmosther and my two aunts Gertrude and Dolly and I heard something fall on the house. My grandmother told me to look out and see if there was anyone in the road. I looked out and saw a white man in the road about 12 feet away. He ran down the road and through the gate of the Botanical Gardens. He then stood up. I tried to show him to my grandmother but she could not see him…
That same night several stones fell on the house before I went to bed. While the stones were falling the man was there, but I did not see him throwing any. The stones continued falling for more than a moth, day and night. Sometimes stones would fall inside the house even when it was closed. Every time the stones were falling I used to see the man. I used to see the man inside the house sometimes; sometimes sitting on the bed. After a while I saw not only one man but two men and a woman standing by the Botanical Gardens. One of the persons I saw was white, but the other two were not so fair. The other man and the woman were both dressed in white. I pointed the one man out to several persons, including the police, but they all said they did not see anything.”
In confirmation of this it may be interesting to recur to the grandmother’s fuller statement which the journal I am quoting from reported more in detail in a later issue. It is difficult to see any very obvious motive which the woman could have had for concocting such a story. She apparently stuck to the house for some weeks even after the “sacrifice” had failed to relieve her of the annoyance; but in the end she could endure the disturbances no longer, and though she visited it in the daytime she ceased to sleep there. According to her account:
“The stoning began on Monday, September 17th (1934) at 7 o’clock. I reported the matter to the police the day after. I was at home and heard the stones falling on the roof. Gertrude and Ivy were with me at home. I told Ivy to look out and see if anyone was throwing the stones. She said she saw a man dressed in white running to the garden gate. She tried to show the person to me but I could see no one. The stoning continued till 11 p.m. and stopped. Every day afterwards the house was pelted. Sometimes, grave, dust and green limes fell inside the house even when all around was closed. This continued until about eight days before the fire occurred…
Furniture, tables, chairs, irons pitched all over the house without being moved or touched by anyone. Ivy always said she saw unnatural persons in and around the house, but I never saw anything. The matter was reported early to the police. They came night and day and would try to locate who was throwing the stones, but found no one. Some nights the house would be closed up and yet stones were heard falling inside. We would see them in the morning. Besides the police, crowds of people used to visit the scene, and while they were there the stones continued to fall. The crowd was so great the police had to control them at times.”
It must be admitted that the deposition of the “detective,” Bernadine, is in close accord with the statements previously made. There is nothing to show that he was subjected to any cross-examination, but he could hardly have asserted in open court that from the very beginning of the disturbances, long before the fire, he had been deputed to investigate the stone throwing, if this was not the case. The account given of his evidence runs thus:
“I remember on September 17th last a report was made to the Detective Department o f mysterious stone-throwings on a house in Lowther’s Lane belonging to Mrs Excelia Mark. In consequence I went to the house with some other detectives about 8 o’clock on the night of the 16th (sic; presumably it should be 18th) September. We went with the purpose of trying to discover who were throwing the stones. We separated and hid in the surroundings. I heard the stones falling on the house but saw nobody. These duties were continued day and night up to November. No one was seen and no arrests made. I remember on one occasion the little girl, Ivy, pointed to the Botanic Gardens gate and said there was a man standing there. Mr Knight and I went to the place pointed out by her but saw no one.
I remember one morning I went to the house and removed stones and bottles from the roof. Ivy went on to the roof and said she saw a man sitting with a parcel in his hand. I had just cleared off stones and bottles from the top of the house. I returned to the roof and I saw a paper parcel containing a sort of powder and a scrip threatening Ivy, warning her to leave the place by 7 o’clock or else she would be dead. I took these things, a bottle with some liquid, the scrip and the paper with the powder, and handed them over to the Chief of Police.
The house stands from 6 to 8 feet from the ground on one side, and on the road side about 3 feet. No one went on the roof of the house during the time I was there. (*How does this agree with the same witness’s statement above that ‘Ivy went on to the roof?’) When stones fell on the roof they remained there and did not fall to the ground. I remember one morning I was inside the house and the doors and windows were all closed. I heard a sound on the galvanized roof and a stone fell in front of me without making or leaving any hole.”
Except for certain witnesses who had been spectators of the conflagration, which, of course, was the main subject of inquiry and at which the detective Bernadine had also been present, the above appears to be a pretty complete summary of the case as presented in court. The whole affair seems to have been very mysterious, and we can hardly be surprised that after a two days’ hearing, “His Worship C.H. Lucas, Acting-Magistrate, found that there was no evidence whatever as to the cause or origin of the fire.”
Two characters in the drama abovev described particularly arrest the attention. The first is the granddaughter, Ivy, who in the early accounts is described as eleven years old, and whom the detective, after presumably having heard her own and her grandmother’s statement that she was fifteen, still refers to as “the little girl.” Poltergeist phenomena are generally supposed by the sceptical to be the work of artful and mischievous children, and I should not dream of disputing that naughty little girls have at times been extraordinarily clever in carrying out some trick which has imposed upon their elders, sometimes even upon medical men of wide experience. But in many cases which seem to have been carefully observed and reported the physcial effects are of a nature quite incompatible with child agency. A child may produce strange noises or throw an occasional stone, but the movement of heavy furniture, or the flinging of missiles which enter a room from outside when the child is in the room and actually under observation cannot be explained that way. Even if I confine myself only to cases which have been discussed here in previous articles, it seems to me that over and over again the hypothesis of a mischievous urchin playing pranks completely breaks down.
The curious fact that Ivy, who certainly is a suspicious character, professed to see ghostly shapes which no one else could see, must at once arouse misgivings. But this possible sensitiveness of a psychically endowed child or young person whose mediumistic faculty seems to be the starting-point of the disturbance, has many parallels. In fact, it is a commonplace among spiritualists to hold that this is likely to happen. In what I take to be the well-attested accordian phenomena of D.D. Home, there were several instances in which onlookers of credit professed to observe a phantom hand depressing the keys, while other witnesses at the same moment could only see the keys moving without any perceptible agency. On the other hand, the lively imagination of children under the acute stimulus of strange occurrences may conjure up a mental picture of which their more staid elders are quite incapable. The recent alleged visions in Beauraing and Banneux may perhaps be accounted for in this way without our inputing conscious deception. In any case, it is unquestionable that in many descriptions of poltergeist phenomena it often happens that children profess to see shapes invisible to the rest of the world. (See, for example, This Month, August 1928, p.158; January, 1932, p.63; April, 1934, p.340; January, 1936, p.58.).
It would also appear that the aunt, Dolly Woodroffe, was looked at askance by some of those concerned in the case. The mysterious writings were addressed to her. She also seemingly was the intended victim of some Obeah magic, while Ivy was solemnly warned that if she respected her good name she should withdraw herself entirely from Dolly’s influence. From a later notice in The West Indian we learn that among some of the residents Dolly had acquired the nickname of “Dracula,” derived from the film presentment of Mr Bram Stoker’s weird story which had been shown in the island a short time previously. This was used in a way which led to an action for defamation of character, and it is so far to the credit of Mrs or Miss Dolly Woodroffe that a verdict was given to the Court in her favour and she was awarded the munificent sum of ten shillings damages.
That the atmosphere of Voodoo and Obeah which is prevalent in greater or less measure in all the West Indian islands is a fruitful soil for the ready acceptance of stories of “duppies” and their stone-throwing propensities may readily be conceded. (See, for example, the books of Father J.J. Williams, S.J., “Psychic Phenomena in Jamaica,” New York, 1934; and “Voodoos and Obeahs,” New York, 1932.) The stories of such cases are numerous, but unfortunately they come, for the most part, at second or third hand.
[Here he quotes the story from Alva].
The Month, August 1937.