A witch Story: Newell, W.V. man accused of using occult powers to seduce women.

By Michael D. McElwain

Note: Special thanks to the author and The Review for granting me permission to reprint.

They came from all over the country. Reporters descended upon New Cumberland and Newell in November of 1969 for a trial long thought to be outdated and unnecessary-- a witchcraft trial.

It still appears in some textbooks today as one of the last witchcraft trials in the United States-- and it all started in Newell.

A then 34-year old horse trainer from the community, Frank A. Daminger Jr., sued 10 neighbors because they accused him of being “a male witch who used occult powers to seduce young girls,” according to court records.

Those record, now in a Hancock County District Cout storage facility, are in a thick packet of papers documenting charges and counter charges among neighbors.

While Daminger did admit to being interested in the occult, he would later testify and maintain that he was neither a male witch nor a warlock.

Daminger had a wife and two children at the time and carried on his business in Hancock County of thoroughbred horse racing including the training of his own horses and, for a fee, the horses of other, local, horse owners.

Daminger insisted that the 10 people in his lawsuit intentionally ruined his business and his reputation.

According to civil the civil complaint filed September 27, 1968, by Daminger, it all started in May of that year when the 10 defendants “entered into a conspiracy” and they declared they would continue indefinitely in the conspiracy to destroy Daminger.

The group was said to be falsely informing Daminger’s friends, neighbors, business associates and others that he “is a male witch--a warlock-- the devil’s consort….”

The complaint goes on to say the 10 accused Daminger of allegedly plying his craft by the “possession and use of the evil power of casting spells-- hexing-- over female persons generally to cause them to suffer physical injury and illness and force them to commit adultery and promiscuity, and over infant and teenage girls, particularly to cause them to become submissive to his sexual assaults on them….”

Some of the events, whether it was alleged sexual redezvous or occult practices, happened at Nessly Chapel Cemetery off state Route 2 near the backwaters.

In fact, court record show Damingfer did admit to studying witchcraft for about 15 years prior to the trial “purely as an academic pursuit combined with curiosity.”

Daminger admitted playing a “hoax” on the women who went to the cemetery with him for a “Black Mass” demonstration.

According to accounts at the time and court records, Daminger ma have been a little too convincing.

One of the women who went to the Black Mass fell the following day and hurt her ankle. Daminger was blamed.

Daminger claimed in his complaint that several of the women said Daminger “puts little girls under an evil spell and then rapes them,” and he “is not fit to be allowed to walk about the streets and to live in the neighborhood.”

Daminger was accused of having cast a spell to seduce women into having sex ith him.

Court records show the 10 defendents-- six women and four men from Newell--were said to have entered into a plot to run Daminger out of town.

The plots included:

-throwing a “witch” in the Ohio River.

--hiring a black belt karate expert from Youngstown (Ohio) for $5 to take care of the witch without leaving marks on his dead body.

Pinning a murder on Daminger.

The plots did not go through--if they were ever attempted--but the lawsuit did.

Some less drastic techniques were also alleged to have been used to force Daminger out of town including throwing stones, erecting a cross in a neighbor’s lawn, putting up hex signs, burning torches, and even trying to poison the horses that Daminger trained at Waterford Park.

So the stage was set.

Daminger, with his attorney Frank A. Pietranton, got a trial date of November 3, 1969.

Meanwhile the 10 men and women named as defendents made a counterclaim and, through their attorney Edward A Zagula, demanded $10,000 in punitive damages.

One of the claims made by the defendents was that Daminger “publicly on at least one occasion in the Nessly Cemetery after performing a nocturnal ritualistic ceremony…..advised two of the defendants to tell all the nonbelievers of his power.

The jury was called and a journey was made to the Nessly Cemetery.

IN PART TWO: An interview with one of the court officials who attended the proceedings and will explain how the “witchcraft trial” of 1969 came to an end.