Gypsy Switch
Anthony Riniti on Saturday, March 15th, 2014 Comments Off on Gypsy Switch
Gypsy Switch
Loaned Cash for the Burning
Key West, Florida — A man was held and authorities were searching for a “psychic” in connection with a plot to charge a wealthy Swiss woman of $200,000 for taming her evil spirits. Louis George, 61, was held on a $1 million bond at the Monroe County jail. Authorities are still searching for 41-year-old self-described psychic Paula Marion.
Marion, who ran a Tarot card and palm reading shop in a small house on Key West’s historic Duval Street, and George were alleged to have used counterfeit money to fool Yvonne Cavin, 52 into paying over $200,000 to “appease the bad spirits around her.”
In the summer of 1995, Marion lured Cavin through free psychic readings. She eventually convinced Cavin to come up $15,000 in cash to tame the spirits plaguing her. In this scam, the psychic “loaned” Cavin the phony cash, which was burned in a ceremonial bowl druing a ritual. Cavin later wired money to the psychic to reimburse her, police said.
A few months later, Marion beguiled Cavin into putting up another $160,000 to appease the spirits. Marion and George again “loaned” Cavin $160,000 in phony bills in a briefcase left on the steps of a Miami church. Marion instructed Cavin not to look in the case “or it would invalidate the ceremony.” Again, she wired money to reimburse the pair. During the course of her dealings with Marion, Cavin lost a total of $200,000 in various scams, police said.
Cavin began to see the light when she saw Marion’s husband driving a new Mercedes sports car shortly after one transaction.
“This certainly is a major fraud case as far as we’re concerned,” Monroe Sheriff’s spokeswoman Becky Herrin said. “But this fraud or type of fraud happens all across the country.”
Mother’s Curse
A beautiful 24 year-old bartender named Constance in Greensboro, North Carolina, goes to a local fortune teller’s home/office with the typical neon palm sign on the front porch.
The woman who invites her in and offers her tea explains how the sitting is usually ten dollars, but that if she has special problems or questions and needs more than can be offered in ten minutes, the price will be higher, depending on what is involved.
The reading begins, but very quickly, as it is apparent that the lady bartender is very distressed and having a rough time financially and in her love life, and is seriously seeking some answers and is “open to the spiritual world,” the reader becomes more and more concerned.
Finally, she explains to the young lady that there is a lot of strange and ominous indications in her palm, and that was very unusual and out of her experience.
The psychic tells the girl to please wait for a few minutes, while she goes and wakes her mother. She insists that only her mother–a renowned mystic and powerful witch–would be able to figure out the meanings, and that it is extremely important to wait and see the old woman.
Shortly after, the reader returns with an ancient old woman, obviously sleepy and dressed in a bathrobe. The old woman is disgruntled and impatient, but she sits down next to the bartender and takes her hand gently. She studies the palm with a professional and calm manner, and then suddenly looks up at her daughter in real alarm, and back to the young lady, “I must speak with my daughter for a few minutes in private. Please wait here.”
When the pair return, it is the daughter who speaks, while the old lady just stares at the bartender with concern, almost fear.
“My mother is convinced that you are living under a curse or oppression of spirits. This can make life unbearable and impossible. The evil and misfortune that seems to always come your way is a result of this terrible force. We will not charge you for tonight. My mother wants to help you. She will burn candles and meditate on your situation. Please give us your address and phone number. We will call you in a few days, and Mother will give you her advice on ending this spiritual malevolence.”
A few days later, the young bartender picks up the phone. It is the psychic.
“My mother has been praying for you nonstop. She is very worried for you. She has burned many candles, and has to ask you to help her. She wants you to buy an orange, an apple and an egg. The egg should be carefully hard-boiled, so that there are no cracks in it.
“The orange and apple should be free of pits or tears or holes, and have no visible blemishes. These you must wrap in a piece of white linen that has never been used before. Please put them under your pillow when you go to bed tonight.
“In the morning, please take them out from under the pillow still wrapped in the linen, and do not open the linen or touch the items at all. This is very important! It could be very dangerous…Tomorrow afternoon, come to my house, and bring the linen package with you. Remember, after you have dreamed upon these items, you MUST not touch anything in the linen bundle with your bare hands…Do you understand what I am saying?
“Please do not worry. My mother is a great lady, and very powerful. She will deal with this matter for you.
“You are in loving and knowledgeable hands.”
The young bartender does as she is told.
She returns to the psychic’s home with the items asked for the next afternoon. The psychic reader calls in her mother. The old lady places the linen bundle on the kitchen table and carefully opens it.
She stares coldly at the three items, and passes her hands slowly over each item in the linen. When she places her hands over the orange, she shrinks back as if burnt.
She says some strange verses in an unknown language, and then picks up the orange and reaches into a drawer and picks up a knife. She slowly cuts through the orange and breaks it open. The entire inside of the orange is filled with a black, oozing waxy mass that smells horribly of sulfur.
“This is what I feared! This is the evil that is within you. The sweet fruit drew it out of you during your dreams. This will eventually choke you and destroy you! It is a spell of great power, placed on you or your family by a powerful witch.”
The younger witch turns to Constance. “You must leave now. Do not worry. My mother will not charge you for any of this. She apologizes for those who use the great work for evil such as this…It disgusts her. Now you must go home and try not to worry. My mother will find the source of this evil, and will break it like a reed. We will be your friends. You owe us nothing. Don’t speak to anyone about this matter for now. Those that do not understand and do not believe can actually put themselves in danger by interfering or trying to help. You must keep silent for the time being for the sake of the others in your family and among your friends…When my mother has found the path, she will have me call you. Now please kneel down, and let the old one give you a blessing of protection that will seal you from further attack from the dark ones.”
Constance receives a phone call a week later, and the younger psychic urges her to come over immediately. They have good news! When Constance arrives, the two are very excited.
“Much has been revealed! We know where this is coming from. Your grandmother or grandfather cheated a witch at business, or else she thought she was owed money by one of them. She laid on your ancestor a curse of great evil and power. You have inherited money or objects that are under that curse.”
Eventually, after much prayer, burned candles and meditation, and much discussion about the money and properties that could possibly be involved in the curse, the Old Woman is able to “discover” the amount of money that must have been involved in the original curse. The witch who made the curse is dead, and is demanding the debt be paid from the grave. She will not be satisfied until the $3,000 she believes she is owed is sent to her.
Only by sending the ancient dead witch the money will she be mollified and leave Constance and her family alone.
“You must bring the money, all of it, here at 11:00 on the night of the full moon. Wrap it in this napkin I have blessed.”
When the girl returns a few days later with the beautifully embroidered linen napkin, filled with $3,000 in new bills, the three walk for miles to a deserted bridge over a dark wooded river. The Old Woman tells Constance that she must fling the bundle as far as she can downstream while chanting, “Take what you are owed, ancient one, and leave us all alone.” The two explain how she is to hold the bundle for the ceremony and how it should be thrown. They demonstrate. In the process, the bundle is switched for an identical bundle with an identical embroidered napkin, but this one is filled with newsprint cut to the size of bills.
Constance takes the linen wrapped money and flings it into the river. It is quickly lost in the darkness.