![]() We were informed that Frank died a horrific death in that bedroom, a likely mob hit, stating he had “screwdrivers to the back of the elbows, to the knees, to the back of the head. Our guide told us that after Lugosi died, a man named Frank Saletri had rented Lugosi’s home, and the mirror behind the curtain hung in Frank’s bedroom. At best, there were vague references to Lugosi “delving vaguely into the occult, more specifically voodoo, in Victor Halperin’s White Zombie” (Scovell 2012) and “leaving behind an occult-obsessed cinema” (Turley 2015) but these comments were in reference to film themes, not his personal life. This made me wonder: If this claim was incorrect, what about the claim Lugosi was highly into scrying and the occult? After an extensive search across the vastness of the internet for sources that documented the life of Lugosi, including (run by his son and granddaughter), I could find no references to him being involved in any sort of occult practices at all. Hope passed away forty-one years later in 1997 at the age of 77.Ĭuriously, none of Lugosi’s wives died while married to him, and therefore he was not a widower and was not trying to contact his recently-deceased spouse. Finally, in 1955 he married Hope Lininger, and they remained together until Lugosi’s death (1956).In 1933, he married nineteen-year-old Lillian Arch and divorced in 1953.In 1929, he married Beatrice Woodruff Weeks, and they divorced just four months later.In 1921, he married Ilona von Montagh, but they divorced in 1924.Lugosi married Ilona Szmik in 1917, but they divorced in 1920.Being a curious chap, I decided to do a little bit of research and find out which of Lugosi’s wives had passed away and had been the object of his attempts to contact through supernatural means. I later learned Lugosi had been married five times. This stuck out to me and got my “skeptical spidey sense” tingling. We were never told the name of Lugosi’s wife, who he was trying to contact. Just in case you were worried, my skeptic team did not require emergency services (nor did anyone else). All of us-Donna (my wife), Susan Gerbic, Mark Edward, and myself-didn’t hesitate. We were then offered the chance-if we dared, after having signed waivers in the event we were physically harmed or psychologically scarred in some horrific Lovecraftian way-to gaze into the mirror ourselves. Our guide then related how they have had to call 911 after guests have gazed into the mirror and how she had personally witnessed people physically get sick while encountering the looking glass. Our guide went on to claim that Lugosi used this mirror for scrying and that “he did this after his wife died, trying to contact her.” The guide mentioned that this occult practice may have opened a “portal” to the other side. Scrying is the practice of looking into a suitable medium, such as a crystal ball or mirror, in the hope of detecting messages from spirits or visions of the past or future. The guide informed us that Lugosi was obsessed with the occult, particularly the practice of scrying. We finally came to the star object of the room: the Bela Lugosi Haunted/Cursed Mirror (they used both terms to describe it). For a well-researched article that examines Crying Boy paintings, look up “Curse That Painting!” by Massimo Polidoro (2012) in Skeptical Inquirer magazine and the work of British folklorist David Clarke in the May 2008 issue of Fortean Times. Our guide pointed out two “Crying Boy” paintings (a third was in the gift shop), “believed to be cursed” and according to our guide “known” to mysteriously start fires. The room contains several paintings/prints, including a screen-used movie prop painting from the film Silent Hill. Once all the guests were inside, our tour guide began pointing out the various items around the room, building up suspense before the main event. The boredom of having waited in long lines finally gave way to something interesting: a mirror hanging on the front wall, hidden behind a thick, black curtain. The atmosphere was set as my intrepid companions and I entered the room. ![]() In this column, we will be investigating the first of the “big four” cursed objects in Zak Bagans’s Haunted Museum (see the previous column): the Bela Lugosi cursed mirror.
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