The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-01-21
HexeY"ia
Voodoo Symbol Carved
on Brow of Slain
Church Worker.
BuUnitedPress

By United Press
PHILADELPHIA, Pa, Jan. 2l.-
Il A weird symbol of voodooism
carved in blood on the brow Of a
murdered Mennonite church work.
er. may change fatal stabbine
case into a crime Of mysticism, an
other Pennsylvania hex murder. "
Evidence of hexeria," a strange
belief in signs to ward off the evil,
was discovered about twelve hours
after Norman r. Bechtel, 81, was
found dying in a roadway, his
heart encircled by stab wounds.
A careful examination Of the
body by Detective Captain Harry
Heanly revealed the mark of
"hexeria."
Two small crescents we're cut
into the flesh of the victim on
each side of the forehead. A hor-
izontal slit about an inch long was
under each crescent. Then in the
center of the forehead, extending
in a vertical line from the hair
line to the bridge of the nose was
another cut.
Extending from this one diagon-
ally up and across the forehead
toward the crescents we're two
more straight cuts. Each incision
was just deep enough to cause a
blood flow.
DECHTEL was stabbed with a
ID long, thin-bladed knife as he
sat at the wheel of his motor car
with his slayer at his side. He evil
IDENTIFY regarded the killer as his
friend, police believe
The first stroke of the knife was
delivered with such force that 1t
ripped through the victims over
coat, his coat and penetrated a
spectacle case before it plunged
into the heart.
After the first thrust the killer
opened BechteIs two coats anc
circled the heart with seven more
plunges of the knife. Then the
dying man was hurled from the
car into the street, where his
groans brought a policeman.
"HeXeria," as found in southern
Pennsylvania, is a combination of
superstitions which Negroes brought
with them from African jungles,
the teachings of Indian medicine
men and the medieval belief in
witchcraft brought from Germany
and Holland by Dutch settlers in
Pennsylvania and by Hessian mer-
cenaries hired by the British to
fight for them during the Revolt
tionary war.
TINE three schools of super
IL natural belief met in south
ern Pennsylvania where the In
dams already were established.
To that region, the Hessians re-
tired to join with Dutch settlers
after they were discharged by the
British toward the close of the
revolution. The country was just
over the boundary from the slave
holding south. Freed or escaping
came here and mingled
their superstitions with those of
the Dutch, Germans and Indians,
forming a cult found nowhere else
on earth and which has persisted
despite all efforts of teachers, the
clergy and the law to remove it.
In many towns of southern
Pennsylvania, ancient handbooks
on the black art, revised to fit the
beliefs prevalent in that region,
are on sale.
They tell how some people are
endowed with powers of witch
craft; how burial of lock of
hair will break the witches spell;
give strange lamentations to ward
off evil, to bring the blessings of
parenthood. or to win the love OF
a sweetheart.
T LITERALLY hundreds of chill
- dren in that region are given
the benefit of "powwow" doctors
at birth to insure health and hap
piness through life. A few incanta-
tions and some odd practices, such
as measuring with bits of string
which afterward are buried, uSu-
ally make up the service of the
'powwow" doctor.
Only occasionally does the be-
lief break out in violence such as
The feeling is that taking
the life does not end the spell of
the victim-that the powers merely
pass to the body of relative. But
there are cases where murder has
been done and the weird signs
carved on the victim are believed
to have some power to prevent the
flight of the evil spirit from the