Real-Life X-Files (30 page)

In 1997, several instances of the scam were reported in New York State alone. In one case, a Romanian native and“psychic astrologer” pled guilty to grand larceny for bilking a Massapequa resident of $2,000 out of an intended $20,000. Police secretly videotaped the “exorcism,” which involved candles and chanting, followed by the breaking of an egg that the victim, a widow, had kept under her bed. A“chicken embryo” report
edly emerged, whereupon the psychic screamed, “You have to sacrifice the money. All of the evil that is in your body is in there” (“Jail” 1997).

Later that year, an Aurora resident was defrauded of $9,600 and an Elgin woman was cheated of cash and jewelry totaling $14,000. Police warned Hispanic residents about the“group of gypsy con artists posing as Spanish-speaking fortunetellers and palm readers,” who had absconded with almost $30,000 the previous year. Renting an apartment for a week to ten days, the scam artists asked clients to bring an egg or tomato. “When the item is broken or cut open,” a newspaper reported,“either a worm, a skeleton or a spider is found inside, symbolizing bad luck” (“Fortuneteller” This was a prelude to having the clients bring their valuables to be blessed. Later they would return for them only to find instead an empty apartment or, alternately, the victims would open a bag to find only scraps of paper.

Interestingly, somewhat ironically, and perhaps predictably, while I was working on this historical sketch, a Buffalo, New York, Roma woman using the name “Sister Ana” was arrested for allegedly stealing over $3,600 from a twenty-eight-year-old single mother. According to her, the mystic performed a ritual to remove“an evil curse” from her, employing lighted candles and incantations and passing an egg over her body (Michel 1998). She was then directed to step on the egg and saw therein an ugly mass. It was so repulsive she did not examine it closely, but she told the arresting officer it resembled a mixture of chicken parts, hair, and the like (Rinaldo The officer, Detective Tom Rinaldo, a friend of CSICOP, is a fraud expert and author and a member of the Board of Directors of Professionals Against Confidence Crime. He said of the mystic, “She acted in disbelief when we came to her house. I told her, ‘You’re a psychic. You should have known we were coming.’”

Given that it is useful for the fortune-teller to demonstrate and dramatize the “evil” that attends the unsuspecting client, why are eggs and tomatoes specifically employed? One reason is the symbolism and lore associated with them. For example, eggs are obvious symbols of fertility and continuing life. The ancient Greeks and Romans exchanged colored eggs at spring festivals, a custom later appropriated by Christians and—eggs being emblems of resurrection—associated with the Easter season. Many popular superstitions are linked to eggs. For example, small, yolkless eggs supposedly bode ill, especially if brought into the house, whereas two yolks in a single egg represent good luck for the one who received it.

And dreaming about spoiled eggs supposedly foretells death in the family. Eggs have also been used in divination, one approach being to read the shapes of the white dripped into water (much like tea-leaf reading), and in other occult practices. Reportedly the Mayan Indians used the yolk of an egg to undo the spell of an “evil eye.” The medicine man repeatedly passed an egg in front of the bewitched person’s face. He then broke the shell and stared at the yolk as though it were the actual Evil Eye, before burying it in a hidden place (DeLys 1989; Hole 1961).

Tomatoes are also the subject of superstitions.“Some Italians,” reports
The Encyclopedia of Superstitions,
“put a large red tomato on the mantel to bring prosperity to the house. When placed on the windowsill, or in any opening, it wards off evil spirits, and protects the occupants of the house” (DeLys 1989). Eggs and tomatoes are also common objects that can be brought to a session by the client himself, thereby dispelling any suspicion that the object is specially prepared. Of course, that is exactly what happens. As already indicated, the usual method is to prepare an egg or tomato in advance and then switch it for the client’s, using“misdirection” (as magicians say) or an even simpler method, as I demonstrated for a Discovery Channel special.

Titled “The Science of Magic,” the documentary was hosted by Harry Anderson, star of the TV series Night Court and a magician in his own right. The day before the film crew arrived to tape the segment (which aired on November 30, 1997), I prepared an egg in the small laboratory connected to my office. I used an awl to poke a hole in the end of the egg and then, inserting the tool, scrambled the contents. Through the small opening I worked a hairball, added some ink with an eyedropper, and finally squirted in some theatrical “blood.” I then covered the opening with a small piece of tape and dabbed over it with some white correction fluid. With the cameras rolling, I had my “victim”—Center for Inquiry Library Director Tim Binga—select an egg from a bowl. I passed the egg over his body, as if to draw out any evil influences, then turned him around to repeat the procedure. As he was facing away, I took the opportunity to place the egg in one of my coat pockets, while simultaneously withdrawing the prepared egg from another. When I broke it into a dish, Tim responded to the repulsive mass with a look that may earn him a nomination for“Best Performance of an Eyebrow.”

Skeptics wishing to make such a demonstration can follow a similar procedure. Alternately, depending on the desired effect, an egg may be
emptied by making a hole at each end and blowing out the (scrambled) contents; the shell may then berefilled with blood (as in the London postman case) or other material. Or a tomato can be prepared by making a slit in the bottom and inserting objects (like the rubber lizard “Sister Bella” produced). Magicians can produce these and other effects very convincingly, even without using a prepared egg or tomato or making any switch.

Magical entertainment and pretended soothsaying aside, it seems predictable that “the great trick” will be repeated again and again. It is to be hoped that a detective like Tom Rinaldo will, in each instance, also be in the practitioner’s future.

References

Delgado, Martin. 1995. Police powerless as voodoo con girl makes thousands.
Evening Standard
(London), July 6.

DeLys, Claudia. 1989.
What’s So Lucky About a Four-Leaf Clover?
New York: Bell, 247-50.

Fortuneteller scam returns …1997.
Daily Herald
(reprinted in CON-
fidential Bulletin,
Oct., 15).

“Gypsies.” 1960.
Encyclopaedia Britannica
.

Gresham, William Lindsay. 1953.
Monster Midway.
New York: Rinehart, 113-15.

Hole, Christina, ed. 1961. The
Encyclopedia of Superstitions
. New York: Barnes and Noble, 149-50.

Jail may be in cards for psychic. 1997.
New York Newsday
June 20(reprinted in
CON-fidential Bulletin
, Aug. 1997, 6).

Michel, Lou. 1998. Self-proclaimed west side psychic didn’t predict own arrest.
Buffalo News
, Oct. 11.

Popp, Christine. 1997. Rescuing rich gypsy tradition (article reprinted in
CON- fidential Bulletin
,Dec., 13).

Rachleff, Owen S. 1971.
The Occult Conceit
. Chicago: Cowles, 172-76.

Randi, James. 1995.
The Supernatural A-Z
. London: Brockhampton, 148.

Rinaldo, Tom. 1998. Interview by author, Nov. 11.

Woman, 62, claims fortune teller swindled her out of $9,300.1971.
Toronto Daily Star
, Oct. 20.

Chapter 29

Located in eastern New Brunswick, near Moncton, is Magnetic Hill, Canada’s third most-visited natural tourist attraction (after Niagara Falls and the Canadian Rockies). Nineteenth-century farmers going to market noticed a mysterious stretch of road where a wagon going uphill would run against the hooves of the horse pulling it. In 1933, an icecream stand with a gas pump opened at the top of the hill, sparking more interest in the site (then known variously as Fool Hill, Magic Hill, and Mystery Hill). Sightseers were invited to drive down the slope, place their vehicle in neutral, and experience being drawn back uphill! Truckers said the place must be magnetic, and the name stuck (Cochrane 1998; “Magnetic” 1997).

Visitors to Magnetic Hill—the drivers and passengers of up to seven hundred vehicles daily during the peak summer season—offer priceless quotes: “Do you stay in your car, or does it go up the hill by itself?” “I have an expensive watch. The magnet won’t hurt it, will it?” And “Do you leave the magnet on all the time, or does it get turned off at night?” (Cochrane 1998). Souvenir magnets are sold in the gift shop of the adjacent theme park. In fact, of course, the place is no more magnetic than various similar sites—including two each in Ontario and Quebec (Colombo 1988), as well as one in central Florida (Wilder 1991). As the very helpful staffers at Magnetic Hill are quick to admit, the mysterious effect is essentially due to an optical illusion. This is created, says one source, “by a hill on top of a hill, which makes people believe that they are actually travelling uphill when they are, in fact, going downhill” (Cochrane 1998).

Figure 29.1. Magnetic Hill. Driver proceeds from point A along an apparently continuous downhill course to B, places vehicle in neutral and removes foot from brake pedal. Vehicle seems mysteriously drawn backward, but in fact the distance from B to C is a slightly downward incline, and momentum propels the vehicle back toward A (but never higher than B, due to the law of the conservation of energy).

A more precise explanation is obtained by using a simple carpenter’s implement. I was permitted to “walk” my four-foot level along the route, observing the bubble frequently. This demonstrated that the course is not a straight incline but a dipped one, although higher at the top. In other words, proceeding downhill, after the initial incline the course seems to almost level off, continuing in a gentle downslope, but in fact it actually turns gently upward. (See
figure 29.1
). Therefore, from the point designated for vehicles to stop and be placed in neutral, they will begin to roll backward. The effect seems quite mysterious, since the driver is conscious of having driven downhill, and trees on either side of the road help hide the true horizon.

But myths die hard. One Torontonian returned annually, claiming the magnetic force helped relieve his arthritis, and an American tourist insisted he could feel the magnet pulling on the nails in his shoes. One visitor insisted, “If it was only an optical illusion, my car wouldn’t actually do it!” (Trueman 1972)

References

Cochrane, Alan. 1998. 65 years of magic.
Times & Transcript
(Moncton, N.B.), Aug. 8.

Colombo, John Robert. 1988.
Mysterious Canada: Strange Sights, Extraordinary Events, and Peculiar Places
. Toronto: Doubleday Canada.

Magnetic Hill
. 1997.Advertising flyer, Moncton, N.B.

Trueman, Stuart. 1972.
An Intimate History of New Brunswick
.1970; reprinted Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 109-14.

Wilder, Guss. 1991. Spook Hill: Angular illusion.
Skeptical Inquirer
16.1 (fall):58-60.

Chapter 30