Case File 07 — June 13, 1919

TRAVELING CARNIVAL OPENS WEST OF ASYLUM
Burbank Tales Times — June 13, 1919

WHAT CAUGHT OUR ATTENTION

This newspaper introduces something entirely new to the collection.

A traveling carnival has opened beside the same land we have been following.

Its proprietors are the Coolidge family, reportedly from Salem, Massachusetts.

The newspaper never calls them witches.

But several details are difficult to overlook.

Unfamiliar symbols were reportedly carved into wagons and tent posts. Some residents believed they resembled old signs of protection or invocation.

Protection from what?

Or invocation of what?

The distinction may matter.

There is also the carnival itself. A hall of mirrors reportedly unsettled visitors by distorting more than their reflections. During heavy rain, a pale-faced clown frightened children while repeating:

“You will all drown.”

Perhaps it was simply part of the performance.

But Salem, unexplained symbols and a carnival positioned beside land already associated with the asylum, cemetery and unusual events make this page difficult to dismiss.

The smaller story is disturbing for another reason. A couple died shortly after visiting their son at the asylum, reportedly driving as though “possessed.”

The asylum is still part of this story.

But something new has arrived beside it.

And whoever was preserving these newspapers apparently believed the carnival was worth watching.

FROM THE JOURNAL