The White Warlock

I. A Haunting History

I looked at the headline, "Murderer of the Massacred Magicians Caught." Reading my home address in the article made me shiver. I had been told that a family was killed in my house but the real estate agent was careful to trivialize the whole thing. Actually, the house history had no bearing on my purchase of it. But that real estate lady was quite a character! She told a lot of dirty jokes and -- though hearing street descriptions of genitals come from a lady in business clothes was in itself startling enough -- the way her nose whistled every time she laughed completed the daily requirement for making the day officially surreal.

As she introduced me to the property, she finished some joke about a ghost with blue balls and steered the conversation towards how idiotic people can be believing in ghosts and other such "nonsense." It was only when I said I didn't believe in ghosts that she mentioned the murdered family.

In the 1880's the house was inhabited by a family of four. The father was a magician called the White Warlock at San Jose's Stanton Theater. His specialty was disappearing acts. In fact, according to the real estate agent, the local critics said most of his tricks were amateurish but when it came to his disappearing acts, they were stumped. The magician held hands with volunteers from the audience and, without any curtains or visual obstacles, he vanished. Sometimes he called out from the back of the theater before vanishing on stage, and then walked to the front of the stage; as if for a split second there were two of him. Similarly, his wife dabbled in witchcraft and was known to occasionally charm the neighborhood children with magic tricks. Their two sons, 9 and 14 years old, were quiet, but kind.

Then, one day, when there was some question about where the family was, a curious neighbor found their bodies in the house. Each one had been stabbed and died from loss of blood. The police were baffled because although there were no indications of the bodies being moved, there was no blood found in the house. How could the victims have died in the house from loss of blood without any trace of blood in the house?