A poltergeist, or a noisy spirit, is capable of all sorts of tricks: it can move objects, throw stones, pour water on the floor … Usually this phenomenon occurs in one house, without leaving its limits, sometimes pursues this or that person. But one day the entire city, from the business center to the outskirts, was targeted by the poltergeist.
In the midst of trouble
Chico, California, was an unremarkable shopping center and transportation hub. Not far from the railroad tracks were warehouses for grain, which came in abundance from the fields of the Sacramento Valley. By the beginning of the 1920s, over 10 thousand people lived there.
In November 1921, John Charge, the owner of one of the warehouses, turned to the chief of police, Ted Peck, with a complaint. John insisted that someone invisible was throwing stones on the tin roof every day, distracting the workers. Peck thought it was teenage pranks.
Over time, the workers got used to harmless blows to metal and were not distracted from their work. But on March 8, 1922, the invisible man turned to action. A hail of stones of various sizes, from a pea to a baseball, fell on the warehouse building. The stone rain fell all day, stopping only for a short while.
Huge cobblestones smashed boards and shattered glass. The roof, crumpled with thousands of blows, leaked. John had to cover all the bags of grain with a tarp.
The stones were rounded, as if they had been rolled in water. Some of them fell warm and dry, while others, on the contrary, cold and wet. Geology professor Charles Studley confirmed that these are not meteorites, but ordinary stones from the valley of the river flowing through the city. The next day the rockfall continued.
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“Fire chief Charles Tuvey and the patrol officer had perhaps the most embarrassing moments of their lives, wanting to see where the stones were falling from,” wrote the Chico Record newspaper. a large boulder crashed with terrible force into the wooden wall above their heads and, bouncing off, fell to the ground near the men's feet. A large pothole remained in the wall."
The police searched all the houses around, but found no jokers. The cordon off the block also did not stop the rockfall. On March 11, the phenomenon increased its radius for the first time. Now the stones fell not only into the Chardzha warehouse, but also into the neighboring buildings.
The rockfall continues
When news of the rockfall hit the front pages, dozens of curious people came to Chico. On March 13, Vincent Jones, vice president of the California Society for Parapsychological Research, visited the city.
Looking at the warehouses from a safe distance, he said that people were not involved in what happened. The rocks start at least two blocks from the target and are launched by something more powerful than a human hand or a catapult. Jones decided that behind the events was a "disembodied entity", or a spirit acting through an unconscious medium.
On the same day, Chico was visited by the African sorceress Rachel Nelson, an expert in voodoo magic. She promised to drive away evil spirits for a good fee. The owners of warehouses and houses (by that time the area of falling stones had expanded even more) willingly chipped in. Rachel made a whole show with shouts and dances, sprinkled the walls with the blood of a sacrificial chicken. The performance entertained people, but did not bring any benefit.
The famous explorer of the unknown, Charles Fort, asked Miriam Allen de Ford, his acquaintance from California, to go to Chico and tell him what was happening there.
“Talking to a passer-by, I looked at the cloudless sky and suddenly saw a stone falling vertically downward, as if it had become visible only when it got close enough,” Miriam Allen de Ford said in her letter. “He crashed into the roof with a thud and bounced off onto the pavement.”
Another stone fell smoothly right at the woman's feet.
On March 15, the match factory, the largest enterprise in the city, was in the radius of destruction. The warehouses and workshops of the Diamond Match Company were showered with strange green stones. They fell with such force that they pierced the bags of chemicals. Geologists said it was a mineral called serpentine, also known as serpentine. It is not found in the vicinity of Chico.
Disappearing house
The next day, the "ghost" began to take apart the empty building on the corner of Eight Street. His owners moved to the nearby town of Oroville, but did not sell the property. People were most struck by the fact that an unknown force broke fragments of the building in places where it was impossible to reach without a fire escape. The police tore the lock from the door of the house and went inside. Everything was upside down there, although the owners left the house in perfect order. The police were surprised that the valuable items were intact.
The police took the building under 24-hour security, but the presence of law enforcement officers did not prevent the disappearance of part of the porch. Officer Harry Guerin, who was on duty near the house, saw the door open by itself at three in the morning. He immediately rushed to the door, but there was no one there. Onlookers, watching the "disappearing house" at night, once fled because of the screams and wheezes coming from there.
On March 18th, the phenomenon shifted to other subjects. Electrician Thomas Johnson got a nut on his leg. She left a dent in the bootleg and tore off a patch of skin from her leg. Johnson became the first resident to receive, albeit minor, but still injured. On the same day, a Japanese chauffeur was nearly wounded by an iron washer whistling near his head.
On March 22nd, stones began to fall in the Chico business district. Now most of the city was under the threat of shelling. Many women and children did not leave their homes in order not to become victims of the rockfall.
Inventor's letter
Police Chief Peck received an offer to send a large reconnaissance aircraft accompanied by two light aircraft for aerial surveillance. The next day, an anonymous letter arrived.
“I spent seven months trying to get a patent for my invention, but only today I received documents and an offer from a company in the east of the country. I'm going to go there to sell it. I had intended to spend a couple more days in the city to have some fun, but I read in the newspaper that you are going to hunt me from the plane, so I suppose I will have to give it up.
This is the only way you can find me. My invention allows you to shoot from a distance of 550 meters from targets, and most of the trajectory is at a height of 180 meters, so the stones seem to you falling vertically.
I fired from a car for a while, but it turned out to be too risky. Tell Charge that I will pay all damages when I return. I don't think I hit someone, and if I did, I apologize."
The police checked all the typewriters in the industrial area and found the one with the letter. The author of the prank was arrested, but this did not help stop the spreading devilry. Soon there were no safe places in Chico.
Under siege
Years passed, but nothing changed. After weeks or months of inactivity, another period of abnormal activity ensued, frightening people.
“The people of Chico still live like a besieged city,” the United Press Association reported on January 28, 1924. - Every now and then rockfalls make you hide under high walls and in other shelters. The last incident is as follows: someone with a force threw a rotten apple, which hit a newly arrived in the city and shattered into small pieces."
In 1925, Charge revealed that his warehouse is still the center of the anomaly. One day he told his people that tomorrow some of the bags of rice need to be moved to another part of the warehouse. At night, 85 bags were carried by someone and neatly folded in the place shown by Charge.
Another time, one of the warehouse workers was busy with heavy sacks and realized that he could not cope with it. While he went for help, the "ghost" managed to complete the task for him. He pinned a note to the bag: "Mr. K., you are too lightweight for this job."
The "ghost" rarely showed concern for the workers, mostly dragging and dropping the contents of the warehouse for his convenience. Charge discovered that passages appeared among the bags through which a person could move. Many workers were suspected of portraying a "ghost", but each time they had an alibi, and an outsider could not remain undetected for so long. The "Ghost" was only seen in the form of a black, obscure figure of a man in the shadows behind the bags.
One day Charge saw that the glass of his car was broken. The owner attributed this to another "ghost" trick and did not report it to the police. A few hours later, a letter appeared on his desk.
The envelope contained money and a note:
“Here's five dollars for the rear window. You said that I broke it. Although I did not do it, I am sending money. I saw who broke the glass and maybe one day I will name him. You weren't there and I was using your typewriter. Ghost.
At the moment when the letter was on Charge's desk, the owner of the neighboring warehouse, John Prial, saw a piece of brick rolling on the ground. Thinking that someone was hiding behind the mountains of sacks, he shouted to the loaders that the "ghost" was nearby. Of course, they did not find anyone, but the invisible man found a way to express his displeasure. An orange came from somewhere and struck Prial in the chest, nearly knocking him off his feet.
Only the Great Depression was able to stop the "ghost". The warehouses were abandoned and soon burned down. Together with them, the last hope to unravel the mystery that once worried the whole world disappeared.
Mikhail GERSHTEIN, magazine "Secrets of the XX century" №21, May 2017