The town of Warrington, located in the American state of Pennsylvania, is home to about 4,000 residents. The most famous event in its history is associated with a fiery ghost that many people claimed to have seen.
It happened in 1875 and was extensively described by a journalist from the Mechanicsburg Journal. The information was obtained from a person described as “one of our most honest, reliable, and truthful citizens.”
The story began when an unknown woman with a severely burned hand came to the house of a local resident, Mrs. Nesbit. The woman begged for shelter, but Mrs. Nesbit refused, despite the woman’s fervent pleas.
Several weeks later, during the day, Mrs. Nesbit saw in her own home “a human face with large eyes resembling balls of fire.”
Mrs. Nesbit’s reaction to such a sight is not described, but it is said that the face moved throughout the house from room to room and then moved into the cabin adjacent to the main house. Therefore, Mrs. Nesbit likely began to run through the rooms in an attempt to escape from the terrifying ghost (or whatever it may have been).
Now this terrifying face appeared in Nesbit’s house every day, and one day it caused severe rheumatism in the woman, rendering her unable to move and escape from the ghost.
Then the ghost acquired a body. It was a naked human body, but the eyes on its head still burned with fire. In this form, the ghost began to visit Mrs. Nesbit at night, and then “lifted her from bed along with the bedding and threw her into the corner,” causing the woman to either lose consciousness or “convulse.”
Mrs. Nesbit had a husband, but what he did when the ghost appeared and whether he even lived in the house at the time when the evil spirit took up residence there remains unknown.
Finally, Mrs. Nesbit called for help from her neighbors, and upon hearing about the ghost with fiery eyes, they crowded into her house, making it crowded. The ghost usually appeared at night at the same time, and when it appeared this time, all the neighbors saw two fiery eyes flying into the room.
Yes, they saw nothing more, although Mrs. Nesbit insisted that she herself saw the ghost in its full human form.
Eyewitnesses watched as two fiery balls flew back and forth around the room, sometimes approaching the bed where Mrs. Nesbit lay, clutching the blanket tightly in fear. Then she lost consciousness, after which the fiery balls flew away from her and … grabbed the baby lying in Mrs. Nesbit’s crib.
At this point, the neighbors finally came to their senses and somehow managed to snatch the baby away from the fiery balls, after which the balls suddenly disappeared, leaving very frightened people in the room.
And here begins the most fantastical part of this bizarre story. The neighbors remembered that a certain Dr. Gasler lived nearby, about whom rumors circulated that he cured witchcraft.
They called Gasler, he examined Mrs. Nesbit, listened to the story of the ghost with burning eyes, and then declared it clear witchcraft. And he gave Mrs. Nesbit advice: the next night, heat a sickle red-hot and pass it several times very close to your own hand – enough to feel its heat without burning.
After that, someone should appear, but whatever this person asks for, Mrs. Nesbit must not give him anything under any circumstances. And then the ghost will disappear.
Mrs. Nesbit did as Dr. Gasler said, but when she passed the red-hot sickle next to her hand at night, no one appeared. However, the very next morning, near her house, Mrs. Nesbit again saw the same woman with the scorched hand.
This time, the presumed witch asked her for some lard to treat the burn. Remembering Dr. Gasler’s instructions, Mrs. Nesbit refused. Then the woman asked for a rag to bandage her hand. Again, she was refused.
Then she asked for a pin, but Mrs. Nesbit refused again, and only then did the strange woman leave, and then “a complete cure took place.” Apparently, the ghost no longer appeared and left Mrs. Nesbit alone.
