Category: Weird News

Vampire Stories, 1884

On: By: Romeyn

(The St. Charles Herald, Louisiana, September 06, 1884)
A physician of local fame in an Eastern city said to the writer recently: “This is an age of queer mental and bodily delusions, despite its enlightenment. One of the oddest cases that I ever saw I was called on to treat the other day. A man came in to complain that his ankles were wounded, found that the wounds were scratches, and expressed my surprise that he should have consulted a physician about a trifle. He said he often found the skin of his ankles broken in the same way on rising from bed. I suggested that he smooth the foot board, and not kick it so much. Then the real object of his visit came out. What do you think it was? With bated breath he whispered that he was the victim of a vampire—

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Mysterious Attacks, 1917

On: By: Romeyn

FATE PLAYED THIS GIRL GRIM TRICKS IN MYSTERIOUS ADVENTURES OF NIGHT

Miss Arline Coldwater. Victim Mysterious Attacks

Salt Lake City, Jan. 12.

In what weird web of fate has Arline Coldwater, 16, become entangled?

A grim, whimsical nemesis has three times sought out the girl in her bed in the dead of night and two times the hunt has been successful. There followed a most terrifying experience, the fearsome operation being exactly the same on both occasions.

All Salt Lake is agog trying to solve the riddle of these peculiar attacks.

Recently the girl was awakened at 4 in the morning to find the dark forms of two men at-her bedside. Before she could scream’ a hand closed over her lips. A gag was placed roughly between her teeth and bound around her head. In spite of her struggles she was carried to a granary in the rear of the Coldwater home.

Then came the intensely fiendish feature of the mysterious assault. The men bound her ankles, tied her wrists together with a rope, throwing the loose end over a rafter. The rope was tightened slowly. The girl was drawn upward until her toes barely touched the floor. The entire procedure was carried out in silence. The two men looked at each other, broiled and disappeared.

Four hours later the girl managed to work the gag loose. Her cries attracted her father. She was hysterical and half conscious when released. This was the second visit. A few nights before the mysterious pair had attempted to capture her, but she escaped, her screams arousing the neighborhood.

A week or so later she endured a similar experience. Her room was entered again at 4 in the morning. She was awakened by a man at her bed side. Again a hand stopped her cries. Again the gag was put in her mouth. Then the “unscrupulous assailants carried her to the granary and left her hanging by the wrists, her body, covered only by a night dress, exposed to the cold weather.

Hours later she once more slipped the gag from her mouth. Her screams attracted a neighbor. She collapsed when she was cut down.

The police are puzzled. The nature of the knots and the peculiar way in which she was drawn up from the floor preclude the possibility of the girl having tied herself. No violence beyond that necessary to subdue her struggles has been offered her. Robbery is not the motive of the attacks Nothing was touched in the house, except the girl.

The Coldwater home, which stands in a lonely spot beyond the edge of Salt Lake, is now being carefully guarded.

Spaghetti With Al Capone, 1930

On: By: Romeyn

“Mr. Alphonse Capone” Is Host At Good-Will Spaghetti Dinner
Identity of Guests at Palm Island Estate Carefully Guarded Secret.
Evening Star, Washington DC, May 29, 1930.

Capone was released from a Philadelphia prison three months prior on March 17, 1930 after serving nine months of a one year sentence for carrying a concealed weapon. Continue reading “Spaghetti With Al Capone, 1930” →