Since becoming acquainted with the genius of Marcello Truzzi, the late Eastern Michigan University sociology professor and friend of Gundella, I've touted his name to anybody who would listen. He studied and wrote about the paranormal and supernatural on top of his sociology work and was instrumental in bringing Gundella to minor national prominence via his connections both in Florida and Michigan. He published several academic texts but also delved into subjects such as chess in literature, the circus (of which his father Massimiliano Truzzi was a famous Russian juggler; the family, including young Marcello, toured extensively with Ringling Bros in the 1940s through to the 1960s) and my favorite, Caldron Cookery, a supposed book of ancient witch spells and potions which was published in 1969.
Among the Truzzi collection at EMU are several boxes of letters written to Gundella in the early 1970s by fans desiring spells, planchettes and any other witchy trinket you can probably think of. Truzzi had planned to do a psychological study of the letters but apparently never got around to it. I underwent the insane task of driving to the Halle Library and photographing every letter with the intention of posting them on my Gundella blog. I've done a poor job of doing so but I still hopefully have time to do so.
One folder which I finally got around to requesting after the COVID hiatus is entitled Gundella's Daughter Homicide, Box: 37, Folder: 19. A topic that I have been very reticent to delve into for the reason that Veronica's children are not only still alive but probably don't wish to relive the horror of their young childhood loss. Furthering that reticence is the fact that my daughter Veronica was born a year or so before I accidentally discovered Gundella and you can fully understand my squeamishness with the seemingly purposeful coincidence.
Amber from the Halle Library kindly scanned the few documents in the folder and I was greatly surprised to find among the perfunctory news stories of the murder a business card for Gundella's Witch Ways and Wares which Veronica started in honor of her mother's legacy. One thing that instantly struck me was the -6666 in the phone number. Veronica, who openly stated that she took a lighthearted approach to both the occult and witchcraft itself seemingly wasn't trying to diffuse the matter of Satanism being confused with witchcraft that her mother painstakingly fought against as she faced hecklers and protesters numerous times during her career as a public practitioner.
My heart literally dropped when I scrolled down the pdf file and found the last item, an advert for the Halloween party Twas the Night Before Halloween Gathering of Kindly Spirits from October 30, 1999. The party Veronica and Peter Raub had attended at the Maplewood Community Ceneter the night of her stabbing death at his hands. At the party there was "a seance to raise Gundella's spirit." A fact that I had never heard about but which has kind of shaken me up since, despite not being a practitioner of the occult, I am a strong believer in so-called signs and coincidences being of the same nature, whatever that means. Draw your own conclusions from it but I don't like what it portended.
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