The Trouble With Ouija Boards

On the day after Christmas 1919, eighteen-year-old Jennie Moro was fatally struck by a hit-and-run driver just outside her hometown of El Cerrito, California.  This tragic event would normally have soon been forgotten by everyone except the girl's grieving loved ones.  However, Jennie's death proved to be a catalyst that would give the Moros a memorable place in the annals of California Weird.

The surviving Moros consisted of Jennie's widowed mother Maria and a married sister, Josie Soldavini.  The family had, for some months, owned a Ouija board--a faddish novelty item of the era.  They had never taken the board very seriously, but after Jennie's death, the Moros began using it try communicating with the spirit world, in the hope of discovering the identity of the driver who had killed Jennie.  Shortly afterward, Josie had a dream where she pictured "a jumble of numbers."  She believed they were the car's registration numbers.  However, such a number could not be found in the automobile register.  Undaunted, Maria and Josie continued their seances, becoming increasingly convinced that they were indeed contacting the dead.  Two of Maria's nephews, Louis and Henry Ferrerio, a Mrs. Sangine Bena, and a neighboring family, the Bottinis, became drawn into these Ouija experiments.

Life became increasingly eerie for the Moros and their friends.  A grave-sized hole mysteriously appeared near the Moro home.  The family believed it was the work of spirits.  Maria Moro, who had been planning to remarry, became obsessed by a fear that her late husband's ghost would punish her for her decision.  The Bottini's fifteen-year-old daughter Adeline became convinced that she was possessed by the ghost of Jennie Moro, who "was completely in control of her body."  The climax to their spirit communications was to take place on March 3, 1920, when the circle believed a great "Passion Display" would take place.  Jennie's ghost, they declared, would cast out "the evil in all of them," and reveal the secret purpose of that hole.

As the great day grew near, the Moros, Mrs. Bena, and the Bottinis kept up a round of non-stop seances.  Twelve-year-old Rosa Bottini lost the ability to keep down food.  The others kept her alive with doses of holy water.  Adeline informed the others that the only way to save the child was to cut off her hair and burn it.  Adeline also destroyed most of her own clothes.  In a further attempt to cleanse the house of "evil spirits," the group burned $700 in cash, but they continued to feel persecuted by demons they had unwittingly unleashed.

Mrs. Bena's husband, Tony, became increasingly alarmed by what was going on in the Moro house. Not knowing what else to do, he went to the town marshal, A.W. MacKinnon, and informed him that the group had barricaded themselves in the Moro home and were "acting queerly."  Complaints were also made that neighborhood children had been lured into the house and were being held prisoner.  (It emerged that the group had shaved the children's heads and burned the hair, as part of their efforts to drive off the malevolent forces.)

When six police officers arrived at the Moro's door, they learned that this description was no exaggeration.  The residents refused to let the police inside, but they were persuaded to allow in J.J. Hennessy, a Catholic priest.  He found the group half-starved and near collapse from "nervous exhaustion."  They had not eaten or slept in days.  When the police finally forced their way in, Mrs. Moro screamed that her late husband's ghost would kill them.  Mrs. Bottini told them that "she had gone through the torment of the crucifixion, and then, being addressed by the Deity through her daughter, she had been brought back to Earth."  After a "lively tussle," the spiritualists were all hauled off to the county hospital.

"San Francisco Chronicle," March 5, 1920, via Newspapers.com

  

The next day, the County Lunacy Commission examined the group.  After hearing their story, the doctors ruled that Maria Moro, Adeline Bottini, Mrs. Bottini, and Josie Soldavini had gone insane, and the women were committed to local asylums.  (However, they were released within a few weeks.)  Their menfolk, who had "disavowed their belief in the alleged messages of the board," were set free.  Curiously, however, Mrs. Bottini's husband afterwards told reporters, "We believe in the Ouija board and our faith is unshaken.  The board will drive away evil spirits."  He rather unwisely added, "Do you think we look like maniacs?"

Ministers and psychiatrists used the incident as proof that Ouija boards were "an instrument of evil."  A mass meeting was held in El Cerrito's town hall addressing "the Ouija board craze."  It was proposed that all the town's citizens should be examined by mental health professionals, to make sure they had not been infected by the "craze."  There was also talk of barring the boards from the city limits, as a danger to public safety. 

Meanwhile, the would-be spiritualists, chastened by their frightening experience, reportedly burned their Ouija board, and life in what the newspapers called "The House of Mystery" slowly returned to a measure of sanity.  

The strange hole near the Moro home was never explained.  And the driver of the car that killed Jennie Moro was never found.