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- A circle of inmates set a Ouija board on the floor and
gathered around. They leaned in, and, together, prayed to the devil. At
one point, inmates said, they lightly placed their fingers on the board
and called up the spirit of a woman.
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- They asked the spirit how she died, then followed the
message indicator around the handcrafted board as it spelled out: ``I was
murdered.'' They asked how, then watched the indicator move letter to letter,
spelling out ``investigate.''
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- The inmates were spooked. But the game wasn't over.
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- According to Santa Clara County Jail officials, the inmates
went from asking a few questions to praying to Satan to three of them screaming
out loud after they thought they were possessed by demons.
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- Jail officials said correctional officers immediately
called in a priest who blessed 29 prisoners as he sprinkled them, and then
the group's dormitory, with holy water.
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- ``We have never, ever had anything like this occur here,''
said Bryan Peretti, county department of correction spokesman.
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- The Ouija board -- with the alphabet and words Yes, No
and Goodbye printed on it -- is said to have been around, in some variation,
for hundreds of years. Some sit down to the board out of curiosity, others
seek spiritualistic or telepathic messages.
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- The jail inmates, all documented gang members, said they
spent an entire night earlier this month crafting the board. They used
the underside of a Scrabble game as the base, fancily penciled in the alphabet,
and shaped a piece of cardboard into a teardrop to use as the ``message
indicator,'' which, in theory, mysteriously moves from letter to letter,
spelling out messages, after a question is asked.
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- Then, on three separate nights, four to five inmates
gathered at one time in the bathroom: It's the darkest place in the dorm,
with just a flicker shining in from afar. Before long, inmate Isaias Velasquez,
21, said he and others thought they felt a presence in the bathroom. They
asked the board if anyone was in there, and the teardrop began spinning
uncontrollably, he claimed. Everyone bolted.
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- When they went back in, Marcos Vasquez, 29, said, he
looked at the board on the floor, then turned to face the others. ``I felt
cold and bigger,'' he said. ``I was filled with anger and talked in this
deeper voice I never had.''
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- Inmates thought Vasquez was acting, but the drama continued.
By the third day, three inmates, including Vasquez, feared they may be
possessed. They tore up the board and threw it away.
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- But, on the morning of Aug. 5, two correctional officers
-- who never saw the inmates toying with the Ouija board -- said they heard
screams coming from the inmates' dorm, 2-4.
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- They went inside and confronted a chaotic scene in which
inmates were crying and flailing their arms. Peretti, the corrections spokesman,
said officers soon realized the inmates ``seriously believed'' they were
possessed.
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- After interviewing all the inmates involved, jail officials
said they don't believe the fear was feigned. They called the priest away
from his other prayer duties and asked that he bless and counsel the inmates.
The clergyman then spent two days counseling the three inmates most overpowered
by fear.
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- Marilu Edder, who has been director of Detention Ministry
of the Diocese of San Jose for about 15 years, said this is the first time
she has heard of the county's jail inmates using a Ouija board. But it's
not unusual, she said, for some to pray to the devil.
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- She said she counseled one woman who contemplated praying
to Satan because someone told her it could get her out of jail faster.
Some of the incarcerated have asked to see a minister after claiming to
have seen dead loved ones.
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- Others, Edder said, want ministers to cleanse their cell
after seeing or hearing their cellmates pray to Satan. But, in all her
years of working inside jails and juvenile halls, this is the only Ouija
board she has seen.
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- Most of the inmates involved were Hispanic, Catholic
and probably overcome by guilt, she said. ``They were doing something they
weren't supposed to,'' Edder said, ``and they were probably fearful of
what they might have done.''
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- Some did have a religious turnabout.
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- Vasquez said he was raised Christian, and before this
incident, ``sort of'' believed in God. Now, there's no ``sort of'' about
it. ``This was a sign to believe.''
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- Both Vasquez and Velasquez are awaiting completion of
their trials. Vasquez is jailed on charges of being under the influence
of drugs and willful harm, injury or endangerment to a child, and a parole
violation. Velasquez faces charges of spousal abuse, false imprisonment
and parole violation.
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- According to an internal memo about the incident, the
priest told jail administrators one thing that he neglected to tell the
inmates: That the Catholic Church doesn't believe a person can become possessed
through use of a Ouija board.
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- Edder declined to say whether she believed the board
could evoke spirits. ``It's not for me to say whether they are or are not
possessed. . . . We need to honor whatever people think is going on with
themselves,'' Edder said. The board, she added, goes into the same grouping
as tarot cards and fortunetellers. ``It's nothing to play with.''
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- Vasquez now heeds that advice.
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- The inmate, who has tattoos that run up his arms and
cover his chest and neck, said last week that he was counseled twice, and
still has a hard time sleeping. He still can't explain what came over him,
but said one thing's certain. He's never touching a Ouija board again.
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