I was unable to track down the key people in this Minneapolis Star story. They’ve all moved on to the great beyond.

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Ghost Hunter Begins Search

By WILLIAM MOFFETT
Minneapolis Star Staff Writer

A man who seeks proof of the existence of ghosts and other supernatural phenomena came to Minneapolis over the weekend to hear ghost stories.

	Nandor Fodor

Dr. Nandor Fodor, who calls himself a para-psychologist (a person who studies the supernatural) was here as part of a stunt to plug a new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie, The Haunting.

He personally interviewed three of “nearly 100” persons in the Minneapolis area who answered a newspaper advertisement run by M-G-M asking for accounts of experiences with the supernatural. The ad, which was run nationally, brought some 1,300 replies.

Fodor, who earns a living as a psychoanalyst in New York, has been an interested believer in the supernatural “over 40 years.” He will write his fifth book on the subject of poltergeists (mischievous spirits) and other mysterious phenomena from information derived from the nation-wide round of interviews.

The first interview in Minneapolis was with Mr. and Mrs. Charles J. Organ, 3213 18th Av. S. The couple claimed they had lived in a haunted house 30 years ago.

“The ghost had a peg leg,” Mrs. Organ said. “He’d walk from the attic to the basement at night. You could hear his peg thumping, but you couldn’t see him. Doors would open when they should have been closed. A set of long underwear appeared in the doorway one night. We saw footprints in the snow …”

Not Afraid

“The house had been owned by a man who had his leg amputated. He hanged himself one night after he told his wife he’d haunt the house if she ever sold it. People told us it was haunted before we bought it.”

“Were you afraid?” Fodor asked.

“I’ve never been afraid of anything in my life,” she said.

“Me neither,” said her husband.

	A poster for 1963’s “The Haunting”

“We cut down the rope and burned the chair he had stood on to hang himself.”

“Did the ghost stop?”

“Yep. Never saw him again.”

“Remove the props and you often remove the ghost,” Fodor advised.

Another interview was with a woman who forecasted the reception of a gift.

Another was with a man who felt his wife’s fear at the same instant her life was jeopardized miles away.

Does he consider these accounts of the supernatural genuine?

“Often these things are hallucinatory. The mind refuses to be stunted,” he said.

“They are a kind of reality because what exists in the mind is real.”

Born in Hungary, Fodor was a journalist in England and Europe 20 years. He has a law degree from the University of Budapest.

He became interested in the supernatural over 40 years ago when he communicated with his dead father in a séance. He considers this one of three occasions of his “evidential” to the existence of supernatural powers.

“There is no logic in this business,” he said.

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