If you’re looking for a fright this spooky season, a few items in the Missouri Historical Society’s archives just might do it. They tell a chilling tale about our supernatural past. In its collection are ads for psychic services, messages sent via Ouija board, and this circular educating citizens about witches and how to identify them. The flyer was written by an anonymous man who believed that as many as 1 in 12 people practiced witchcraft, and he has some bad news for the aging among us: Those pesky vertical “11” lines in between your eyebrows are a sure sign that you are a she-devil from hell. How should you prepare for the “war against the witch”? Definitely do not let the alleged witch sleep on your bed, for starters. “I have written to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Police in many cities, stating how this powerful gang operates,” he writes in the handbill. If you’re wondering whether the FBI was around during the Salem witch trials, no, it wasn’t. Perhaps the spookiest thing about this warning is that it was published fairly recently, in the 1940s.
courtesy of Missouri Historical Society
