Zaragoza Poltergeist: Spain’s Infamous Case
What scares the hell out of you?
Aliens? Ghosts?
Bending over to pick up your dog’s mess and finding out that the baggie has a hole in it a little to late?
There are two mythical (or not so mythical in some places) creatures that scare me. Zombies and Goblins. I can go on and on about the traumatizing effect that Zombies have had in my life, but what’s a bit more terrifying to myself are the “wee folk” or Elves, Elementals, Sylphs, Goblins whatever you want to call them. They are terrifying to me. It sounds silly that a grown man can say that he is scared of these little creatures, but the terror is legit.
Growing up in Mexico, I was always told stories of people running across these “Duendes“, which is spanish for Elves/Fairies/Goblins. The definition of a Duende to me was associated with the image of goblins. Small (usually around 18 inches) creatures that at times are described just like a human, or described to look like gargoyles whose sole purpose is to wreak havoc and scare the “dog mess” out of you.
I’ve written about them before, but it really is rare that I do mention them. I don’t believe that they exist. At least not in the typical form that many have told me about.
You guys want to know a secret?
When I was 13 or 14, I was a very impressionable (i.e. gullible) kid. You could have sat down and told me that a way to hide money is to bury it in a secret place, while eating anything that you had with you on hand and repeating over and over these words: “Eating <whatever food> I bury you; Eating <whatever food> I will take you out…”. With this, my Grandfather told me that in his time, this was what people would do. Bury their valuables to prevent anybody else (especially the Mexican Army and bandits during the Mexican Revolution) from digging them out. It had to be while you ate something, and said that particular chant that would essentially work as an invisible lock.
Eating ‘JuJy Fruits’ I buried a Piggy Bank. Something like $18.00 was lost. My brothers and sisters hated me for a while. Isolation.
So it was with this “impressionable” mind that I first laid my eyes on the infamous “Gnome photograph” of the Cottingley Fairies set.
This was the photograph that sent chills down my back. I was so scared when I saw this picture for the first time. I knew that it had to be real and what I was looking at was an authentic duende photographed. I feared it.
I’m not ashamed to admit that I was scared. After all, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was considered an intellectual and renaissance man, had been tricked into thinking that these fairy photos were real.
So the Cottingley Fairies case was a frightening ordeal for me to read and research. I dove into the case and read books on it. I really knew in my young heart that these girls had actually managed to capture gnomes and fairies in a photograph. So by that logic, the stories that were told to me when I was younger had to be true. These things did exist. Oh god!
I really believed that I would encounter these creatures at least once in my life. I was really terrified. So then I grew up (or did I?).
Now I know the truth behind the Cottingley Fairies. What these girls had done to fool Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the rest of the world. Clever girls.
But what about the rest of the stories about these creatures?
The stories that exist about duendes that have been extensively covered by investigators and various other people, only to find no form of trickery or natural explanation?
Do these stories actually exist?
Take the infamous “Zaragoza Duende” case of September 27, 1934 in Zaragoza Spain.
The Palazon family, residing in an apartment complex on the “Gascón Gotor” street, encountered a frightening ordeal when they started to hear maniacal laughter and voice coming from inside their home. The family did not know what or who was causing this. As the neighbors started to hear these strange sounds coming from the residence, word started to spread about the strangeness that surrounded this building.
Original building on Gascón Gotor st.
As it is often the case, the phenomenon or poltergeist quickly turned its attention to the young maid named Pascuala Alcocer. She had reported that the voice was tormenting her and coming from the wood stove. The family realized that she was not making this up. The voice was coming from the stove and seemed to have an intelligence behind it. It would interact and answer questions at times. As the news of this poltergeist spread, thousands, and I do mean thousands, of people took to visiting the building. Standing outside and blocking the streets, the spectators all came interested in hearing this so-called “duende of Zaragoza“. The word spread so fast and so wildly that the London Times had made a report on the case. Taking it upon themselves to “put an end to this circus”, local police and judges personally investigated the home and brought with them a few psychiatrists to analyze Pascuala. Informally putting the blame on her from the beginning.
While investigating, many found more and more evidence to prove that this was turning into a difficult hoax to uncover. The entity was reported to not only speak, but also to be able to see what was going on around the home. It would guess the number of people that were in a room at a time, it would interact with police officers directly when they asked it what it wanted. The police men would ask:
“Do you want money?”
No!
“Do you want a job?”
No!
“man, than what do you want?”
I’m not a man.
It was said that when someone turned off the light in the room as a test, the entity would scream “Light! Light! I cannot see!”
With no real answers to the strange events, the judges, police and psychiatrists assumed that Pascuala was using ventriloquism to create this hoax. They were in extreme pressure to come up with a solution to this hysteria, that blaming the girl was the best way they could think of quieting the situation. Their theory of ventriloquism did not survive.
Pascuala Alcocer
Soon, all the tenants in the building were evacuated. The whole block was quarantined and Pascuala was removed from the premise. An architect was called to examine the whole building, corner to corner. Even the army was called in to investigate the issue and cut all communications (radio/telephone) from the outside. The maniacal voice continued emanating from the wood stove, but now with a different attitude. It started yelling and insulting everyone in the room. Telling them that it would kill them all!
The investigators and architect were dumbfounded. Pascuala was nowhere near the neighborhood.
When the architect called a skilled mason in order to take some measurements of the kitchen, something else happened. The voice showed them it had knowledge of the building. While the man was measuring a certain part of the kitchen the voice said: “Don’t worry, it measures 75 centimeters.”. Of course when he measured, it was exactly 75 centimeters. The mason got up and left the building never to come back. Leaving his tools behind.
Arturo Grijalba was only a kid when the entity spoke to him. He was the building owner’s son and the only remaining witness alive to this story. While the investigation was taking place, he had wondered into the kitchen to take a look at this infamous voice. He noted that there were no residents in the building. Only police men were next to the stove and around the building, guarding the perimeter.
When Arturo turned to his dad and said: “Let’s go dad, this thing is crazy” the voice then replied: “Not crazy little one..” in a guttural response. Everyone heard it and were scared.
After two months of insults and threats, the maniacal voice suddenly stopped. Like in all poltergeist cases, it manifested quickly and without warning and vanished the same way. Never to be heard again. The only victim….Pascuala.
Judges and Police investigate
Pascuala was stigmatized with being the hoaxer. Since the judges nor police could ever solve this case, they blamed the girl and her ability to “throw her voice”. Even though skeptics had retorted with the argument that Pascuala was not ever near the neighborhood when these voices occurred during some of the investigations, the police and judges closed the case with blaming Pascuala.
She lived a very reclusive life after this whole ordeal had ended. Never fully recovering from the blame what was put on her, she refused to socialize with the people of the city. In old age, she gave an interview about this incident. When asked where the voice was coming from, Pascuala answered: “From the wall.”
Today, the building no longer stands. It was demolished in a draconian effort to shut that maniacal voice once and for all. In its place, stands a modern building with many residents which none have reported any strange occurrences. The name of the new building?
Edificio Duende. Duende Building.
New building called "Duende"
So then what do we make of this strange case? It was investigated by the government and various people of credibility. None of which came up with an answer. Was it a hoax? was this just an expensive and poorly investigated case?
Whatever the case may be, the truth, much like the rubble that was once a fully occupied building, is long gone. Turned to dust. Many took it to their graves claiming that what haunted the people of Zaragoza was real.
Was it a duende? can they really exist?
I don’t know. I’m torn between the credible witnesses of this case and the fear of being labeled a gullible individual like sir Doyle was once labeled.
Today, I know I’m far from being gullible. As a kid, was I really tricked by my grandfather?
All I know that exactly 18 steps away from a distinct tree I buried the piggy bank in a small whole in the ground. Eating the candy and chanting.
A week later I had ran out of the ‘JuJy Fruit’ candy. 18 steps away from that same tree I dug a 7ft wide and 2 ft deep whole. Never to find the money again. Isolation.
Written by Javier Ortega - javier@ghosttheory.com
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Wow, that was fantastic Javier. The personal anecdote combined with a fascinating case I have never heard of! It makes me think there must be a bunch of good cases in the Spanish speaking world that I’m oblivious to. I’m definitely going to try and find out more about this case. One final thing, regarding the Cottingley Fairies, you might already know this but Frances maintained that there were fairies and the fifth photo was genuine. For me, I don’t see it as an open and shut case of outright fraud.
Hey Javier, finally some more wee folk stuff. I’ve been waiting for another entry since the previous ones had sent chills down my back.
Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find any further readings on the “duende of Zaragoza” in english. Got any links or recommendations?
Javier,
I have an interesting question about this case. Was there ever any recorded warning give to the duende that the building was going to be destroyed? If so, maybe it moved on to another building. Since there have been no reports of this happeneing again, I have to believe that some of the reports have to be true. If it were a poltergeist, it wouldn’t matter what structure was built in the area it inhabited for it to cause chaos.
Wreaks of hoax, but the reports you quoted tell otherwise. It just goes to show, there’s still more that goes on under our noses than we realize.
Nice shift from the usual article…thanks!!!!
@Michka:
No such warning that I read about. I know that the threats were directed to the persons around. No other building near the area ever reported this phenomenon.
@BC:
Thanks! yea, I heard about the “5th picture” in the Cottingley case. It’s still so clearly fake to me. I mean, the pictures, although transparent, clearly look like cut-outs.
@Glen:
Unfortunately, I only know of resources in Spanish. Glad you enjoyed it!
BC was kind enough to forward me this Spanish documentary on the case. Although it’s in Spanish, it has good archival footage:
I’m glad you all enjoyed this!
-Javier
Then in my opinion, there is something to the duende story. What else gould it have been?
@Michka
Can’t say for sure what it was, or ever begin to speculate.
This case does remind me of “Gef, the talking mongoose” case.
Anyone else familiar with that case?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gef_the_talking_mongoose
-Javier
Yes, Gef was what I thought of when reading this.
Only difference I would see with Gef would be the sightings. From what I remember the family in the Gef case actually saw a creature, and at one point his claws in the ceiling.
Interesting case, makes me wish my spanish covered more than just ordering at the local tienda mexicana.
Javier, I’m curious, did you also grow up with stories of La llorona?
Pinky,
Funny that you mention it. I did grow up with those stories.
I think it’s a guarantee that if you’re Mexican, you will.
-Javier
From what I can gather there were lots of officials and police around but it would seem that nobody tore the wall open or the floor up. Furthermore, what is hooked to a stove? An exhaust of course. Who knows how many units were tapped into the main chimney pipe. Did they even bother to check? Or see if they could duplicate the sound via the main pipe?
1. It was either someone that found a way into a crawlspace in the wall or under the floor.
2. It was someone speaking via the stove pipe. In fact they could have one person at the window watching to see who came into the unit while the other would use the info to work the crowd in the room.
I think it had to be another tenant in the building that knew it very well (like the entity knew it).
jbondo,
According to the reports, everyone was evacuated from the building and block.
I figured it would be someone doing a prank through the pipes/Chimney.
The police and army investigated all the pipes and internal workings of the building.
No idea.
-Javier
Javier,
After reading this article I never once heard of any such thing as a duende(only elementals and zombies) but thanks for the heads up. I’d be interested in discovering more about this though for sure.
Javier,
What the article says is an Architect was called in to examine the building from corner to corner and he called in a mason who fled after one measurement. This doesn’t tell me anything about how thorough the Architect was. It says nothing about the Army or anyone else checking the “pipes” or “internal workings”. As for evacuations, I imagine if someone knew the building as well as the voice then that person could easily avoid detection.
Maybe I missed something or you read some other info on this case that verifies a thorough digging thru the building. IMO, things were more lax and informal than is gleaned from this article. Furthermore, the press could have taken some liberties when writing.
jbondo,
From the various articles that I read and the video documentary that BC provided this is what I gathered:
The architect was called to explain and lead the army on investigating all the rooms and passages in the building. They isolated the incident to be a trickster yelling down some air duct or something, but efforts to evacuate the whole neighborhood seemed useless. They never found who was doing it. Even stranger, the voice would talk as if it could see the people who were in the kitchen at all times.
Spain’s government had stepped in to put an end to all this “nonsense”; they were afraid of international ridicule since the London Times had made a story on this case. So their only suggestion was that Pascuala was using ventriloquism to pull this hoax. They eventually left it as that and tore down the building.
The only witness to the case is the son of the building’s owner (at the time). He testified that all reports that he’s read are true.
This case is one of the strangest I’ve read or heard about.
-Javier
OK, so you have read quite allot about this case. I thought I was going crazy because I couldn’t find the statements in the article.
Thanks for clearing up my confusion.
jbondo,
I wish I had documents to show.
Look at the video that BC provided, it shows some.
Maybe I should work on a piece about this incident….
-Javier
Well Javier, logic would tell me that there’s more out there if I would only look and I usually do. Unfortunately I haven’t had time in recent weeks to do any personal research on anything.
Not to say I wouldn’t appreciate you doing a piece on this story. It does have a certain intrigue.
jbondo,
I agree.
I don’t take stories like this as true, just because the amount of people who were involved in the investigation. Or the caliber of people, does not point to it being a “duende” or poltergeist.
My mind will have me think that this could have been a big hoax. A product of bored engineering students maybe?
Either way, the story and events took place and have been reported over the years the same. No new witnesses or pieces to this puzzle have been discovered.
-Javier
Very well written article and a fascinating story. This was make an awesome flick btw.
I have a friend who is in the Phillippines right now for the holidays; her name is Nora. She is in her fifties, and will be retiring from State service where I work, and moving back there this year 2010. She owns a printshop there and a home. Her (female) compadre also owns a printshop. Years ago, when Nora lived in the Phillippines it was well known that her friend had a duende living in her home; underneath. It’s believed that if you keep their privacy and don’t speak of them, and if they like you, they will help you financially. One time, Nora was teaching at the local school, and her friend had someone fetch her immediately. Her friend was having a section of the basement floor laid with cement, and each time the worker smoothed over the cement with the Trowel, you could see the impressions of little feet forming right before your eyes, as if a little tiny person was hopping all over the wet cement. When Nora arrived, she could see the little impressions, and her friend had the worker smooth it over again to show Nora what happens, and sure enough Nora’s told me that she saw the little footprints of someone walking along the cement appear! She’s very Catholic and doesn’t like the paranormal, but says she has to admit she saw it. They let them dry, and they’re still there to this day, and Nora’s friend ended the project; realizing that her little duende was telling her that he didn’t want his space invaded. Interestingly, this friend of Nora’s was born with a unique deformity. Her feet stopped growing when she was a small child, and while she is about Nora’s age, she has these terribly small feet. So, since before all this happened, everyone had always presumed that the duende felt pity or similarity with her and thus befriended her. Nora also noted that when her compadre opened her printshop, that in no time she had big contracts with hotels and her profits left Nora’s business in the dust. Nora did the taboo thing and said to her once, “I wish I had a duende of my own.” But her friend, in honoring her duende’s wishes, said not a word; making no comment. So I have to say that this lends truth to some tales of leprechauns and knomes who’ll take residence with families they favor. In my opinion, I think very strongly that of course these little creatures exist. And yes Javier, I am afraid (for you lol), along with them, a goblin or two ! sorry. : ( p.s. If you want to talk to Nora Javier, email me and I’ll try to persuade her to personally recount her story to you. It’s not something she favors talking about, but I can try).
Hi there,
I’ve been reading the ghosttheory forums now for several months and would like to say that it is writing like this that has made ghosttheory my 1st stop on the web everyday.
Thanks for an awesome site.