One form of ghostly attacks involve the throwing or dropping of rocks by seemingly invisible assailants. An instance that attracted national attention happened in March of 1922 in Chico, California. Actually, sporadic attacks occurred since the previous November. For the most part, stones fell on the roof of a grain warehouse. "At almost any hour one can hear the impact of rocks striking the warehouse roof and they may be seen bouncing from the eaves to the ground." Despite massive police and volunteer searches, no one was ever caught throwing the stones, and the entire occurrence ended after three weeks of ardent activity. Parapsychologists associate this type of activity with spirits and poltergeists. However the late D.Scott Rogo, who wrote and investigated such cases, noted they were usually unaccompanied by the usual signs of poltergeist activity: rapping on walls and throwing of housewares. These types of instances have some considerable historical lineage. As early as 530 A.D., the king of the physician to King Theodoric of the Ostrogoths was said to have been befallen by a demonic plague: the continuous pelting of his roof by stones. In the West Indies in 1934, a case where the resident of the house at which the rocks were targeting were recorded, "The stones continued to fall for more than a month, day and night. Sometimes stones would fall inside the house even when it was closed." In many cases the fall of stones are reported to defy the laws of gravity with their slowness, and they feel warm to the touch soon after they have fallen. They have other peculiar characteristics as well in many cases. Around the early 20th century a Dutch traveller in Sumatra, W. G. Grottendieck recorded this experience: |
I put on my bullsack and mosquito netting on the wooden floor and soon fell asleep. At about one o'clock in the morning I half awoke, hearing something fall near my head outside of the mosquito netting on the floor. After a few minutes I awoke completely and turned my head half way round to see what was falling. They were black stones, from 1/8 to 2/3 of an inch long. I got out of the curtain and got the kerosene lamp that was standing on the floor at the foot of the bed. I saw then that the stones were falling through the roof in a parabolic line. They fell on the floor close to my head pillow. I went out and awoke the boy ( a Maylay-Pelambang coolie) who was sleeping on the floor in the next room. I told him to go outside and examine the jungle to a certain distance. He did so whilst I lighted up the jungle a little by means of a small "ever ready" electric lantern. At the same time the boy was outside the stones did not stop falling. My boy came in again and I told him to search the kitchen to see if anyone could be there. He went into the kitchen and I went back into the room to continue watching the stones falling down. I knelt down near the head of the bed and tried to catch the stones while they were falling through the air toards me, but I could never catch them. It seemed to me that they changed direction in the air as soon as I tried to get a hold of them. I could not catch any of them before they fell to the floor. Then I climbed up the partition - wall between my room and the boy's and examined the roof from which the stones were flying. They came right through the "kadjang" but there were no holes in the Kadjang. When I tried to catch them there at the very spot they were coming out, I also failed. |
Grottendieck said the stones fell with an unnatural slowness, yet hit the floor with a loud slam as if they were being thrown very hard. In December of 1983 Rogo investigated an in progress stone throwing episode in Arizona. The target was a home being constructed on the outskirts of Tuscon, in an essentially rural area. The events had begun in early September, and by December had become a constant barrage. In the beginning the rocks merely landed on the rooftop but soon events escalated in a frightening manner. According to Rogo: |
The missiles would start striking the house in brief flurries, five or so rocks would strike the front of the house or the [family's] van at two to three second intervals. Then there would be a brief hiatus of about five to fifteen minutes, and then another flurry would begin. Sometimes these rock barrages would be somewhat sporadic and brief, but on other occassions the attacks would go on for two to three hours. |
In early November the family contacted the sheriff's office, and in the next month several police agencies carried out a variety of different surveillances, including under cover. Not even the effected family were aware of the hidden observers. There were also repeated aerial searches. Nothing could stop the pelting of stones though, and professional trackers, law enforcement officers, reporters and their cars and trucks were stoned with uncanny accuracy even in total pitch darkness. The rocks appeared to be eminating from the brush around three sides of the house, but as Rogo discovered when he tried, the stone thrower could not have thrown the rocks through the brush itself, which was too thick. The thrower would have to stand and throw them. Yet even though the areas were closely scrutinized as the rocks hit their targets, no one was ever seen. After December 7th the stone throwing stopped. The police were stumped but the family was merely relieved. |
