The Tape Library - Archive of the Paranormal & the Unexplained - America's First Poltergeist: The Mystery of Wizard Clip

Episode Date: January 24, 2024

Unveiling the Disturbing Legend of Wizard Clip - America's Original Poltergeist Haunting! Take a deep dive into the chilling mystery steeped in Appalachian folklore. Follow the Livingston family's unsettling experience as they contend with an unseen entity, exploring the religious contexts and diverse versions of this eerie tale passed down through time. Witness the family's earnest pursuit of aid in their struggle against the unexplained terror of Wizard Clip. My main source for this episode - https://www.amazon.com/Appalachian-Legend-Wizard-Clip-Poltergeist/dp/1467153818 Do you have a supernatural story to share? A case to suggest? Or just a general question? Drop me an email at [e-mail] You can check out The Tape Library in audio form on all of your favourite podcast providers. Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@thetapelibrary Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Tape-Library/100094332411836/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thetapelibrary Archive of the Paranormal, the strange and the unexplained. The Tape Library brings you the creepiest stories, to keep you horror junkies up all night. True scary stories of ghosts, cryptids, UFOs and true crime. Additional footage and audio from Evanto, Singularity, Midjourney and Pexels. All other footage used under fair use. Chapters 00:00 The Wizard Clip 04:44 The Stranger 07:11 The Haunting Begins 12:53 Cliptown 16:50 Seeking Help 21:55 The Voice 27:48 Wrapping Up Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The exact date has seemingly been lost to time, but there was an evening in the late 1700s, where an event would take place that would not only alter one family's lives, but potentially frame how many of us viewed a topic of the paranormal. Even if most will have never heard this story. It happened in the southern part of Jefferson County, West Virginia, a tiny village named Middlewester. named Middleway, although it would be given the peculiar nickname of Wizard Clip around this time. The Livingston family had gotten themselves all warm and cozy for the evening. It was a cold, rainy night, and in such an isolated area, the word dark would do it a disservice. The family

huddled around their fire to keep warm as they ate. When out of nowhere, they had, they had. They heard three loud bangs on their door. They all froze. Who could it be at such a late hour? Cautiously the father, Adam Livingston, stood up and slowly approached the door and opened it, bracing himself for whoever, or whatever, might be waiting on the other side. There stood a man in well-worn clothing, unshaved, winds swept and soaked. to the bone. In an Irish accent he spoke to Adam, telling him he had gotten lost and was simply looking for somewhere to stay for the night. The wind and rain had come on so suddenly and ferociously he hadn't been prepared for it. Adam Livingston had a reputation of being a kind,

generous and hospitable man, and he welcomed the stranger into his home. Little did he know what that simple act of kindness would unleash upon not just himself and his family, but his entire community. Welcome to the tape library. And a happy new year to you all. On the note of the new year, I've got a little request for you all. Is there a paranormal story you would really like me to cover in 2024? If so, please leave a comment below telling me what you want to hear me tackle. I've got a pretty big list already, but I'm super curious what you all want to hear about.

We've got a fun one tonight, and a story I wasn't familiar with myself until recently. This story predates the infamous bell witch haunting, and is referred to by some as America's first poltergeist. This is a bit of a tricky story to tell. Much of the story of Wizard Clip was passed along as oral history throughout the area. although there are multiple written accounts that come later. The order of events is pretty hazy, and I would have had no chance of turning this into a cohesive narrative without Michael Kishbuchar's fantastic new book,

The Appalachian Legend of the Wizard Clip. It's been my main source for this video, so I'll include a link to that below, if people want to learn more about the case. What I think is so interesting about this one is the similarities to so many other more modern poltergeist-style cases that we've covered already on this channel, such as the Enfield Haunting, and what happened in Helvanoch. The mystery of the wizard clip is at its heart a ghost story.

But as it is often the case, it's about so much more. It's a story of immigration, of rival religious institutions, of slavery, of superstition. It's a story about the very creation of the United States of America and how so many deep-rooted belief systems bled together to create a new society. It also asks the question, would you go against your beliefs for a stranger? So get yourself a warm drink, dim the lights, and get comfortable. It's time to return to that rainy, night at the Livingston house. The stranger entered the Livingston home. Mary, Adam's wife, instructed their children to help make a bed up for the stranger. They gave him dry clothes and let

him warm himself by the fire, as Mary gave a stranger food. While he was clearly appreciative, the journey had taken a lot out of the stranger, and he was notably quiet. It didn't take long before he retired to his temporary bedroom for the evening. Mary noted to Adam that the man did not look well, but Adam was sure after a night of good rest and warmth, he would be okay. This was not the case. The family were woken in the middle of the night to sounds of hoarse coughing. Adam knocked on the door before entering, and found the stranger sat on his bed in a much worse state them before. The stranger knew he was dying. No doctor lived close by, and even if they did, he did not believe they could help him. The stranger didn't ask for a doctor, however.

Knowing his situation was past this point, he requested that Adam go and get a Catholic priest. There are two possible explanations for Adam's response to the stranger's request. One being the Livingston property was close to 40 miles away from the closest camp. Catholic priest, and with the storm raging, and at such a late hour, the journey to get them would have been extremely dangerous. The other more widely reported reason, though, is that the Livingstons were a Lutheran family, and at the time the idea of inviting a Catholic priest into his home would have been unthinkable. One retelling of the events from 1907 refers to the opinions of Catholic priests at the time as follows. He had never seen one. He had never seen one,

and probably held very extraordinary ideas of Catholic priests. Many of his class believed priests were Satan's living emissaries, with horns like their master, and other equally enlightened fancies. This wasn't an act of cruelty on the behalf of Adam Livingston. It was simply a request to his deep-seated beliefs would not allow him to accept. The stranger continued to beg for a priest, but it wouldn't last long. Just after midnight the stranger passed away, as Adam stood at his bedside. In one version of events, the strange occurrences began almost immediately.

It is said that for the remainder of the night, Adam employed a man named Jacob Foster to sit with the corpse overnight. I'm a little unclear if Foster was a neighbour of some kind, or one of the slaves that the Livingstons had on their property. the family are listed as having had four slaves, a possible reason for their move to the area to begin with, as they had previously been living in Pennsylvania, where attitudes were changing towards keeping enslaved people. Either way, Foster lit candles around the chamber and stood vigil over the strangers their body at night. Almost immediately the candles blew out, leaving Foster in complete darkness. He relit them several times. But each time the candles produced a dim flickering light

and then quickly burnt out. After several attempts, Adam brought out new candles. He lit them outside the room with no issue. But as soon as he approached the stranger's body, the candles extinguished. If it was simply the candles or something else that took place is unclear. But at some point during the evening, Foster became so terrified of being in the same room as the stranger's body. He left and refused to return to his vigil.

The following morning, Adam Livingston buried the stranger's body in unconsecated ground on his farmland. To this day, a grave of the stranger is maintained at this location, although no body has ever been found. That night, Adam found himself awoken multiple times to the sounds of what. horses galloping. Each time he would get up, look out his window and see, the sounds would stop and he would return to his bed, only for it to happen all over again shortly after. What was most weird is that after some time, it became apparent to Adam, but it didn't sound like the horses were running around outside his property at all. It sounded, as if they were inside its walls. The following evening, something would happen that couldn't be so easily dismissed.

Hot coals started to shoot out from the family's fireplace throughout the evening as they sat around it. They were repeatedly forced to put out small fires that began erupting throughout their home after each attack. Eventually it happened with such frequency that the family were forced to put out the fire entirely. They were left with the choice of either facing the freezing coal. or have their home potentially burned down. This wouldn't be a one-off occurrence, and the family quickly had to become accustomed to wrapping themselves up tightly as they could.

The fireplace had become too dangerous to light. It seemingly wasn't a totally fault-proof way to combat the fires, though. On several occasions, various members of the family would retreat to their bedrooms for the evening only to find their bed engulfed in flames. The family running around. around in terror each time, desperately trying to put it out.

The nocturnal sounds became a consistent visitor as well. More common than the horses was the banging. Loud knocks would be heard on the home's door late at night. When Adam would get up to investigate, he would find no one there. Then the knocking began to appear elsewhere. Most commonly coming from inside the walls of the house, with seemingly no source. The banging would keep the family awake, sleep deprived and terrified about what could possibly be tormenting them.

The activity wasn't just left to the evening zone, and a possible source for the banging sounds was identified when the family claimed that before their very eyes, in the middle of the day, they would see their furniture move across the room, bash into the walls, and sometimes return to its original place. Dishes would seemingly be thrown from the shelves, crashing to the floor around the children who would scream in fear as they sat in the kitchen. The trouble wasn't just happening inside the property though. A road ran alongside the Livingston's land.

They repeatedly found angry men banging on their door, demanding to know why the family had set up a rope across the road that was blocking their carriages from getting through. The Livingstons had no idea, why it was there and would take it down, but it would keep appearing day after day. Around four miles from the Livingston property lived an Irish Catholic family called the McSherrys. They too would be witnesses to the events taking place at the Livingston's home. One day two of the daughters of both households were bleaching a new piece of linen and left it out on the grass to dry.

when they turned away just for a brief moment. The linen vanished. A costly mistake. A piece of linen this size was worth a decent amount of money. And the girls likely got into a lot of trouble with their families for letting it go missing. Strangely, after three weeks it was found. Neatly folded on top of a bush.

In perfect condition. It was around this time Midway Village got the strange nickname of Clip Town, and the apparent haunting started to gain a sense of notoriety in the surrounding area. The family would begin to hear the strange sound of shears opening and shutting around their home, yet again with no apparent source. Soon they began to notice what was happening. Small crescent moon-like shapes were being cut into any fabric items around their house by these seemingly invisible scissors. Clothes, bedding and tablecloths were all found with the strange shapes cut out of them. Word of the haunting was spreading, and visitors began to flock to middleway to see the strange phantom clipping.

Many reported taking handkerchiefs out of their pockets to discover them cut up. A tailor was due to deliver an expensive new suit to one of his clients, but he unfortunately took a route that took him past the Livingston's home. When he arrived and unveiled the outfit, the customer was not impressed to find it had been cut to ribbons. Another visitor of the house took off her hat as she entered and placed it in her pocket. When she went to leave, she pulled her hat out, only to find it had been cut into dozens of pieces. In another almost comical incident, a group of young men brought their dates up to Livingston property one night to show off how much brave they were on this haunted land. While dancing, one of the men heard the familiar

slipping sound. He was mortified to discover. His clothes had been cut, and his bare ass was now on show to his girl and their friends. But the clipping wasn't just a mischievous act. It took on a bit of a darker tone when it came to the animals living on the property. I will keep this brief, but if you're at all sensitive to accounts of animal cruelty, I would skip ahead a little. It is said that one afternoon Mary Livingstone was stood in the garden with a few friends, watching a family of ducks swaddled through the garden,

when they heard the familiar sounds of the snipping, and chillingly, before their eyes. The ducks were cleanly decapitated. This also was not an isolated incident. The family were not able to keep any birds, on their property. Each time they tried, the phantom shears would cut them to pieces. This obviously explains the clip element of the nickname, but what about the wizard part? Well, what was responsible for the incidents in Middoway, depending on what side of the Christian

fence you sat. The Catholics in the area believe that ghosts or possibly demons were responsible for what was going on. The Protestants, however, believe that they were, witchcraft to be the cause. Somehow the Livingston family had invoked a wrath of a witch. Interestingly, if you look at the sort of events that were often blamed on witches back in these days, they are often very similar to what from the 1970s onwards, people would often explain a way as being the work of a poltergeist. While we may have moved on from placing the blame on witches,

it's simply the paranormal culprit that has changed, rather than their drastic change in attitudes towards it. The family dealt with the haunting for seemingly years and mostly referred to it as a nuisance. That was until one night when the fires returned. This time their barn caught fire, killing all the livestock inside. It was at this point Adam Livingstone realised

he needed to get help. His family was in serious danger. Adam decided to contact multiple Protestant priests in order to get help. First he spoke to his Lutheran pastor, but was told that he did not have the power to exercise in his favour the power he had received from Jesus Christ, to expel the dark forces from his home. The pastor told Adam that this power only existed in the old times. He tried a few other pastors, but it suggested they didn't think it was a case of the paranormal at all.

and instead suggested that even mental health was an issue here, or that someone was deliberately messing with the Livingston family. Next, Adam sought help from an Episcopalian minister and Scottish immigrant, named Reverend Alexander Balmain. Reverend Balmain did actually attempt an exorcism on the home. It was a total failure, however. The spirits reportedly took the reverend's prayer book and threw it into a chamber pot. After this, several Lutheran pastors did come to try to help, but were chased away by rocks and bricks being thrown at them, from an

invisible force. After being failed by his church, it's at this point that Adam seemingly attempted to work with folk magic practitioners. Although again this wasn't successful, in different versions of events, the folk magicians either denied Adam's request, or gave him some tools to perform a ritual, only for the Clip Town Ghost, to throw them all once again into the family's chamber pot. As I've stated, there are multiple retellings of the events in the Wizard Clip story depending on your source. The Protestant or secular retellings of events and the Catholic one tend to diverge a bit here. So keep in mind the majority of the following events come from a Catholic viewpoint

and what was supposedly happening to the Livingston family. Depending on your interpretation of what could be residing in their home though, it is very interesting. After the failed attempt to get help, Adam had a peculiar dream. In it he saw a man dressed in robes. He did not recognize either the man or the clothing he wore, but a voice said to him, this is the man who will bring you relief. After talking about the dream with others, either Adam's wife or the McSherry's, the family's Catholic neighbors, convinced him that it was in fact a Catholic priest he saw

and that he should finally invite a Catholic priest into his home to help him. A father Cahill visited the home. He was skeptical of the events that took place, but nonetheless was happy to come and see if he could help. Weirdly, a small bag of money that had vanished from one of the Livingstone's trunk sometime before was found on the floor, the moment the priest crossed the threshold of the home. The priest blessed the house and used holy water throughout, as we've seen in many such cases. This calmed the activity for a while, but didn't stop it. Within a week, the Livingston family were contacting Reverend Cahill again.

Seemingly the fact that he was able to stop the activity, even for a short time, gave Adam and his family hope that he would be able to help them put a stop to it for good. The formerly skeptical Reverend seemingly changed his tune when he saw how terrified the family was the second time they contacted him. The church approved an exorcism to take place in the family's home. it was to be performed by Reverend Bradley, but he apparently became so terrified of the activity that was taking place inside the house as he attempted to read the exorcism riots, that he then sent for Reverend Cahill to assist him. The exorcism was successful, at least in the eyes of the Catholic Church, although when you consider what comes next, I have my doubts. In a letter from Mary Livingston printed in a local newspaper, she claimed the exorcism had in fact not been successful. and that their home was still being plagued by strange activity.

Others, many of whom were connected to the church, began to blame Mary, claiming she was in fact behind the whole thing and had been playing a cruel trick on her husband for many years. Not long after the exorcism, a second unnamed stranger apparently appeared one day at the Livingston's door. He was a poorly dressed, barefooted man who claimed to be on his way to visit family. When offered a pair of shoes, he said he did not need them.

As where he was from, it was neither hot nor cold. He then said he was there to teach the family the way to his father. He stayed with the family for three days and during this time spoke at length with them about the Catholic faith, seemingly in an attempt to convert them, which appeared to be successful. The man then left, disappearing off into the distance across one of the films. Adam later referred to this encounter as a visit from an angel, but that man leaving seemed to bring about the next chapter of the story. A few weeks later, Adam was startled to see a strange glowing light in the corner of his room. He became even more surprised when the light began to talk.

It too claimed to be there to teach him about the ways of his new faith. It told Adam that it was once alive, just like him. like him, but it would not allow Adam to see what it looked like until towards the end of Adam's life. In many Catholic centre takes on the story, the voice is seen as a positive figure in the family's life, one to offer support and protect them. But when you look into exactly what it did and said to the family, it doesn't sound like a caring protector at all. It would bark orders at them to pray day after day, waking them up multiple times in the middle of the night to do so. It told them it was vital they fasted for 40 days on multiple occasions.

When the family grew tired of this, the voice began to scream in a mixture of pain and fear. It claimed to be channeling the voices of those in purgatory, and that the family's prayers were the only way to help those lost souls suffering. On occasion, the sound of the voice would completely change. apparently also at times claiming to be dead relatives of the family. It also, much like the poltergeist, seemed to have the ability to control fire. At one point it burnt a cross onto a goat-skin vest, and another time did the same with a handprint on a shirt,

which apparently happened right before the family's eyes. It wasn't just the Livingston's that were at the mercy of this new entity, though. The McSherry family was starting to encounter activity in their home too. One night in an incident that feels very much like a reversal of the stranger story. A Protestant priest turned up at the McSherry home, seeking refuge from a storm. The family were kept awake all night by the sounds of loud clanging footsteps around the house. Weirdly, the priest claimed to have not heard anything, and there he slept soundly all night.

Shortly after the priest left, Adam Livingston was knocking on the McSherry's door. He told them, the voice had told him. God had disturbed them last night, harboring a minister of the devil. On another occasion, Miss McSherry was placing her sleeping baby's son into its crib, when the crib started violently rocking, from side to side, all on its own. Yet again, the voice gave Adam a message to pass on. It claimed that the devil was trying to destroy the child, as it knew it would become its enemy one day.

sure enough the boy grew up to become a reverent himself although now the devil was planning to destroy the child by rocking it is unclear the voice became increasingly cruel to the family hiding food and at one point seemingly turning a meaty soup into water before chastising mary livingstone for not bow into the catholic church's rules it lectured the family about sins such as vanity breaking mirrors if they were to look into them too long. The voice then started being blamed for inflicting physical pain on the family. When one of Adam's sons refused to do his reaping chores on the farm,

his knee almost instantly became inflamed, an infection that kept him stuck in his bed for a year and a half. After the time had passed, the voice declared the boy had suffered enough, and he miraculously became better. One day while outworking the fields, Adam claimed he was overcome with the pain of the souls trapped in purgatory and was found doubled over in pain, as white as a sheet by his family.

On another occasion, the apparition of an arm manifested before Adam's eyes and struck him across the face, seemingly for no reason other than to harm him. The voice also appeared to know things. It revealed family members' secrets and sins. It spoke of forthcoming death. It spoke of forthcoming death. deaths and even seemed to know of events that were taking place miles away to people they knew before news could travel to them. At one point the voice claimed that Mary would die in her home, so any time Mary fell sick, she would quickly take herself off to her friend's house. This worked for a few years seemingly, until Mary finally passed in their home. In one account, a Catholic man who lived nearby had a Protestant wife. She became gravely ill and once again, much like the stranger, requested a priest to visit her.

A messenger rode to middleway to the McSherry residence where priests often stayed. However, when the priest went to get his horse, he could not find it anywhere. The voice later confessed to Adam that it had made the man's horse disappear, to punish the woman for attempting to convert to Catholicism so late. Adam Livingston's conversion to the Catholic faith seemingly lasted throughout the remainder of his life and saw him donate the majority of his land to the church he remained there for several years living on the edge of the land

before finally moving back to Pennsylvania in his final years what happened to Adam over that time has not been recorded although some have said that he claimed the voice remained with him for 17 years before leaving him Why it decided to leave, we do not know, but just five years later, Adam was dead. We will never know if the voice presented its true form to him before it vanished for good. The events that took place at Wizard Clip will always be a mystery.

What we have here is an account of a haunting that took place over decades, but it has inevitably been warped through time. retold by many who have put their own religious or superstitious spins on it. I've tried to present something resembling the most widely reported version of events, but there are so many different variations. I strongly recommend checking out the book I mentioned at the start. If you wish to really delve into this further, I'd love to know what you'll think of this one. As a story, it feels like a fascinating mixture of paranormal events,

urban legends, folklore and religion, all in one scissor world in creation. If you want to, please leave me your thoughts on the case in the comments below. And as I mentioned earlier, if you have a topic you want me to cover, then please suggest that as well. I don't always get to respond to everyone, but I do read every single comment that gets left. Also, if you want to support the channel, you can do that really simply by clicking like and subscribing if you haven't already. I mentioned at the end of the last video I might struggle.

to get as many episodes out this month, but once February hits, I should be fully back into the swing of things and be bringing you a new episode every couple of weeks. As long as things go to plan, the next one is going to be a big one. So hopefully I'll see you then. Thank you for sticking with me through this strange story. Until next time, pleasant dreams.