Witch Watch: From a legacy of death this father glories in life

Redford Observer, June 17, 1982

I did not expect to find this biography of Gundella's second husband John Kuclo in an 1982 Witch Watch column written by her son John but here we are. 

It tells an amazingly harrowing tale of living through the Russian Revolution, being in a Nazi concentration camp as a POW and then transferring into an American displaced person's camp after WWII before finally emigrating to the United States in 1949, having lost all of his family. 

He would later meet and marry Marion and father two children with her. He became partially disabled in 1965 after falling off a platform on the top floor of an apartment building but having lived through far worse setbacks he persevered and amazingly lived another 40 years.

I had no clue about any of this and was a bit shell-shocked after reading it, having suspected that he was just your normal everyman Detroiter. 

A sad footnote to the story is that John and Marion divorced sometime in the early 1980s.

Witch Visits Bay Area

Bay City Times, July 16, 1970

This article coincides with Gundella's visit to Delta College for an interview on Channel 19's show Face to Face with host Andy Rapp. A program which featured controversial guests such as the Grand Dragon of the Michigan Ku Klux Klan and a member of the White Panthers. She also had friends and former students on the faculty at the college.

There are also mentions of her Scottish witch ancestry and dying of the skin. In her case it was green due to her lineage of nature witches. She usually performed this way in her children shows as she told fairy and folk tales and other fantastical stories on witchcraft, charging $100. Adult shows were $50 and included card and wax readings.

There is also an important mention of her first joining the Au Sable coven, to which her mother was a long time member, in 1948 and later transferring to the Ann Arbor sect when she moved south to the Metro Detroit area. There is a mention of a member of the Ann Arbor coven travelling from Butler, New Jersey, which I had not seen mentioned before in my rather scant expose of the three so-called Michigan Gundella covens. She states that witches do not get involved as a group with social issues, though her mother's coven "they do things for each other - like catching a man."

While the article butchers her name, spelling Kuclo as Kutslow, it does provide some additional information on her then second husband John. He was of Ukrainian descent and spent some time in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II cleaning the showers which the Jews were gassed in In this article she provides that he taught her about Ukrainian witches and her usage of some of those chants in her witchcraft practice. John was a practicing Catholic and their children grew up in that faith but also practiced witchcraft as they grew older. He and Marion divorced sometime in the early 1980s.

Gundella Brews Small Hubbub in Waterford

The Pontiac Press, March 2, 1972 (enlarge)

A decade before her highly publicized visit to Plymouth-Canton schools in 1985 Gundella was riling up parents and local clergy with an appearance at Waterford Mott High School. 

Her talk that day was the typical positive energy message she routinely gave which seemingly irked protesters more than if she had come out in support of the Devil.

Unlike the later protests, the rebukers were allowed to ask questions of the guest. One posited the gotcha question, "But have you been saved?" to which Gundella responded, "I was never lost."

 

Afro Tarot Cards

Here are two cards and explanations of them from Wayne May and Madilynne Mulleague's Afro Tarot Card deck which appeared in the 1978 "The encyclopedia of tarot Vol. 3" by Stuart Kaplan. I ran the black and white shots through a colorizing app to give an approximation of what they look like. 

I believe that Madilynne passed away a year or two ago and probably was one of few people who actually owned a deck.

SRO for Witch's Visit

 

Halloween! There's something in the coven

Amid Gundella's controversial appearance at the Plymouth-Canton High School around Halloween of 1985 she was still going about her perfunctory witchy duties. I've mentioned her involvement in one of the three witch covens in Michigan during the latter half of the 20th century and this article from The Bay City Times gives some more details about those coven meetings and the inner workings during the Sabbats. Not to mention that it confirms her mother was the high priestess of the Au Sable coven. 

Oscoda resident, 71-year-old Fritz Lockhart, remembered at the time those very meetings. He claimed to have seen the witches going to their meeting near a cemetery where one of the host witch's family resided and that they flew a lit jack-o-lantern on the tail of a kite over the graveyard. Now, I'm no physics expert but that must have been one hell of a sturdy kite.

The Gundella Letters #550

April 2, 1972 

Dear Gundella, 

I read the article about you in the Detroit Free Press and I am very interested in your offer of a free spell. I'm trying to become a witch right now, but it very hard to start since no one knows anything about witches, except by reading books (which aren't always true). I think it's fantastic that you only cast good spells.

If you could I would like a love potion spell for my non-believing boyfriend. Although we like each other, we have some differences (like our ages; I'm 18 and David's 15). Oh well, I'd really be happy with any spell you can give me and any information you would have could help a lot. I am sincerely interested in becoming a witch.

Thanks for reading my letter and I'll understand if my spell doesn't come right away. I'm sure your [sic] very busy with a lot of other requests. Thanks again. Sincerely Cathy ______