Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-09
IMAGINARY PICTURE
Of VICTIM CARRIED
BY WITCH DOCTOR
AIieniSt Says Defendant Be-
Iieved Likeness Was in
Palm of Hand.
TRY TO SHOW INSANITY
AT YORK, Pa, "HEx" TRIAL
Father of Blymyer Says Son Was
"Pow-wowed' and He
Believes in It,
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
stan Correspondent of The Star.


YORK, Pa, January "a wrinkled
simple American peasant with matted
grav hair and wind-worn face stood
before a jury this morning and told OF
the malevolent witchcraft which has
pursued his family and particularly his
oldest son, who is on trial here for
beating to death an aged recluse farmer
in order to get lock of his hair to
break magic spell.
Emmanuel Blymyer, who has Lived
all his life on farms within a few
miles OF York. testified to rearing the
boy in an atmosphere of witchcraft in
which he himself is firm believer
When John Blymyer. the confessed
slayer of Nelson D. Rehmeyer, was Is
years old, his father told the court,
there came a time when he "couldn'
work nothing" So the father certain
that the youth was "hexed," took him
to a witch doctor and had him pow
vowed" IL times. He also had his other
children "pow-wowed" and was pow
vowed" himself.
Believes He Is ''Hexed."
Following him on the stand came an
other American primitive, pale, anaemic
Milton D. Hess, shivering in the hot
courtroom in spite Of a heavy overcoat,
in which his lean body was wrapped.
Hess. father of Wilbert Hess, charged,
with young Blymyer, with the murder
of Rehmeyer, is the victim of wasting
disease. He believes he still is ''hexed.'
He told of meeting young Blymyer,
who claimed to be witch" doctor
himself, and of being assured that Reh-
meyer was responsible for his condition.
Then he made arrangements with Bly,
myer to get lock of the old mans
grey hair and bury it eight feet under
ground.
mysterious book, 1.-THE Long Lost
Friend" which is supposed to contain
anti6otes to the witchcraft incantations.
Two York physicians, DR.. Joseph H.
Eonroe and DR.. G. II. RidgeWay, this
morning testified that Blymyer was be-
low average intelligence and that he
seemed a border-line case between
feeble-mindednes and definite insanity.
DR.. Ridgeway said that he was able
10 distinguish between right and wrong
only to the extent that a small boy can
distinguish.
Doctor Tells of DelusionS.
DR.. Con1roe said that Blymyer has de-
iusions of prosecutions, hallucins tions
and delusions, and that he apparently
was led to kill Rehmeyer after seeing a
photograph of the recluSe appear in
the palm of his hand after it had been
''pow-wowed over" by another witch
doctor. The other witch" doctor, how
ever, had not suggested Rehmeyer. The
hallucination came out of Blymyer's
own mind
Oscar Altlanti, superintendent of the
York County AlmshouSe, where Blymyel
was confined for time, said that dur
ing his confinement he was always talk
ing about the witches being after him.
An element of comedy was added tC
the case when Altland testified that
Blymyer told him he was taking Lydia
Pinkham'S pills to thwart the witches
All three witnesses believed that Bly,
myers witchcraft hallucinations were a
social inheritance, becoming fixed from
his childhood environment.
Judge Ray P. Sherwood refused tc
permit testimony on an intelligence test
which had been applied to Blymyer by
a York social worker and which. &C
cording to his attorney. showed child
ish mentality.
Mother Says Son Was "Bewitched."
A vivid picture of an impressionablt
boy born into an atmosphere of black
magic in a lonely farmhouse among
country people obseSsed with an abiding
belief in the visible Vaccinations o.
the devil, and of an arrested menta
development in his eighth year by which
the childhood hallucinations became
fixed. was outlined to the jury yester-
day afternoon by Herbert B. Cohen, at
itorney for Blymyer.
The accused youths father, mother
and sister had driven into town In ar
old rig drawn by a skinny horse to helI
fill in the details of this picture. They
were walking symbols of a witch-riddeT
family which might have stepped out
Of distant past into the bewilderlne
surroundings Of this twentieth century
courtroom.
Parents are Types.
The old folks. especially, were types
They were frail, frightened and poorl!
dressed. The mothers gray head was
wrapped in a black silk scarf such a
might have been brought from German!
in the chest of some ancestor 200 year
ago. They came prepared to testify a.
to the potency of witchcraft in thei
own lives. They presented striking
contrast in appearance to their neatly
clad son, who sat handcuffed on tn
other side Of the rail.
John was bewitched," the old lad,
told reporters.
There was spell over his family
He had three children and two OF then
died"
The State, whose case rested earl
yesterday afternoon, had striven to ex'
clude all reference to witchcraft and Z
prove that the object of the murder wa
robbery. The black magic angle wa
introduced, however. and Cohen ha
stressed it in all his cross-examinations
Declared Escaped From Asylum.
The defense attorney, in outlining
his case, stated that he was in posi-
ton to prove that Blymyer was tn
victim of a specific type of insanity
but at the same time he will try t
show that the witchcraft hallucina
tions, which played so great a part II
the lives of the people among whom
he was reared, became so much a par
jof reality in his life that he had n
other alternative than to act upol
them. Blymyer, he said, belonged il
the insane asylum, but had escape,
five years ago, after a few months O
observation, and had remained ava
for a year, at the end of which tim
under the Pennsylvania law he wa
automatically discharged. While tn
asylum authorities were looking fo
him. it was brought out. he was in tn
scontinea;sse4 1e;s4 q 2 lIgs lPsgs 1, 2sH9 Column -
e.