Daily News from New York, New York • 30

SUNDAY NEWS, MARCH 9, 1958 30 MAMMY MOM vv a JLlJJ Tk-'S-'i (NEWS fotoa by George Mattson) i v- ft MASSAU COUNTY has had baf Tilings haTe been jumping also flying and popping in this once quiet house (A) Seaford, L. for a month now and nobody knows why. Cap on chimney failed to drive off spook, or whatever it is. Man with the haunted look in his eye is Nassau County Detective Joseph P. Toni, who has been investigating the strange goings on.

Tozzi displays broken or battered objects which got that way by sailing through the air and making crash landings. He hopes scientists will come to his aid in solving this whatdunit. in I iiiwimM 11 mmmmm Wi iiimwiMia fling cases in recent months, the most publicized being the still unsolved murder of flight engineer Clyde Rose. But even Chief of Detectives Stuyvesant Pinnell, with the Rose murder on his hands, has taken -a personal interest in the Herrmann case. Tozzi is under orders to stick with the Herrmann investigation.

"The brass doesn't like anything to happen around here they don't know about," Tozzi explains. The detective still doesn't know what is happening but he has seen it happen. On duty at the Herrmanns' one night, he saw a sugar bowl whirl through the air. (Other objects which have taken flight include a 75-pound bookcase full of books, a dresser, a phonograph, religious statuary and a pair of ceramic figurines in colonial dress. The little man, who looked like George Washington, took off twice, and the little woman, who resembled Martha Washington, soloed once.) The only near casualty amid all this zooming miscellany was Hermann's boss, who dropped in for dinner a few nights ago and almost got conked by a piece of crockery.

He was very understanding when Herrmann did not come to work next day at his job as an airline liaison man for Air France. The boss just about madt it to the office himself. By TOM ALLEN DETECTIVE JOSEPH P. TOZZI, faced with the weirdest mystery he or any other cop has ever tackled, is just about where he was a month ago when he was first ordered to find out why bottles werebouncing in a house on his beat in Seaford, L.I. The case began on Feb.

3 when bottles began popping their tops in a six-room ranch style house at 1648 Redwood Path in Seaford, where James Herrmann lives with hia wife, Lucilie, and their children, Lucille, 13, and There, on of ieial AEC ttation-ery, waa an essay on poltergeists. Tozzi and Herrmann are experts on poltergeists by this time. They know all about these legendary spirits who, for centuries, have been blamed for mischief such as has been going on at 1648 Redwood Path. In the murky history of the occult, poltergeists are frequently reported where there are adolescents. And, with two adolescents in the Herrmann household, many poltergeist buffs thought they had the solution.

Herrmann has been advised to spank Jimmy, put the two kids in exile and make Jimmy stare at an object to "make it move." Jimmy comes in for most of the suspicion, because he is a boy and also because he has been around when many of the objects blasted off. to this suggestion in language that would make even a poltergeist blush. Tozzi, a cop since 1949 and a detective since 1953, quietly looked into the boyish-prank theory himself. "The family's clean," he says succinctly. The detective squad of which Tozzi is a member has explored every conceivable angle of the case to determine whether a person or persons are deliberately harassing the Herrmanns.

Though such pranksters could be arrested for nothing more than a misdemeanor "malicious mischief" the Herrmann case has been upgraded in police files from the classification of M. I. (miscellaneous investigation) to D. D. (which stands for Detective Division and means that the case is considered a major one).

Jimmy, 12. Since Tozzi began his investigation he has officially recorded 42 events which, for want of a better word, he Washington 25, D. C. Tozzi and Herrmann had been wondering about the possibility that the mysterious forces at work had been loosed by the AEC's Brook-haven National Laboratory in Upton, L. I.

Would this letter contain a clue? Herrmann, an ex-marine, reacts Mrs. James Herrmann, who first P- fj i experienced baffling happen- i I mgs in her house when bottles 'yt 1 started popping, points to 1 i''- i I broken phonograph which ymih-Ji: iiimifli wo -j wkincd across basement vv- j- i (). Herrmann and 12-year- Vv k. jiJF' old son, Jimmy, check Tibration CjsW5'Jf 1 I i I I machine set up to track down f.HTJ Hrl I I- I spook scientifically (. Ma- WLI I I 1 chine found nothing.

1 I i I 7 LJ Ik A- i lists as "occurrences." Now, with his report nearing 170 pages, he says wearily: "It's the damnedest case I've ever worked on. I'm beginning to think it's going to go on forever." He is getting plenty of unsolicited help from amateur detectives, many of whom are as eerie the ease itself. Their theories scrawled, printed, typed are contained in more than 300 letters written to the Herrmanns. Urged Kill House And Unfold Third Eye Fach letter is turned over to Tozzi, who dutifully checks it out. That is to say, he does the best he can, with such suggestions as: "Kill your house." "Buy a horse." (Horses are supposed to have mysterious powers.) "Burn sulphur in every room.

If it's will go away." "Unfold your Third Eye." "Glue all the furniture." "Wave a white silk hanky in every room." "Put a pad and pencil in each room and write across the top of the pads: 'Who are you? Can we help?" No, I'm not off my rocker," this letter said defensively. One promising looking letter bore the return address of the Atomic axEnergy Joijimission,.