Tex Willer’s comics, with Mephisto and some others like him, have accustomed us to mixing the West with ghosts, but this point of view has remained rather isolated; therefore the book “The mysteries of the Far West” by Gian Mario Mollar finds itself telling the myth of the West from an unusual angle for most, collecting “unusual, macabre and curious stories of the American frontier”. Among its pages you will encounter monsters, ghosts and mysterious apparitions that concern both Native American folklore and that of the settlers. In short, a sort of “frontier border” that borders on the mystery and the unknown.
The book is composed of twenty essays, divided into four sections, which recreate the feeling of being in a Wunderkammer, a room of wonders full of oddities and in which everything is possible.
The first section deals with the dark side of North American folklore. Here you will meet legendary and frightening characters such as, for example, the Wendigo, a cannibal monster who, according to the beliefs of the Algonquin Indians, haunted the icy forests of the north. Moving to the fiery southwest, however, we meet the Skinwalker, a shape-shifting sorcerer who, according to Navajo folklore, could transform into a coyote.
Among the legends analyzed there is also that of the Ghost Riders, made famous by a song by Johnny Cash, which tells the appearance of mysterious ghost knights. Deepening its mythological and symbolic contents, the author leads it back to the Wild Hunt of European folklore.
In the second section of the book the focus shifts to the sightings of winged creatures and mysterious objects in the skies of the West, forerunners of the most modern UFOs. Among the mysteries investigated could not miss the “Aurora Incident” of 1897, in which, according to the newspapers of the time, a strange flying object crashed into the mill of a small town in Texas. Not only that: among the pages you will also encounter the fascinating mythology linked to the thunder birds, divine beings for Native Americans and linked to fascinating traditions such as that of the “opposites”.
The third section houses a gallery of unusual characters: instead of the usual gunslingers, you meet wanderers who wandered on foot in the West, gamblers, snake oil sellers and even famous gravediggers. A place of honor is reserved for the house of Mrs. Winchester, widow of the famous arms manufacturer, who built a mysterious labyrinth, perhaps with the intent of trapping the ghosts that haunted her.
Finally, the fourth and last part of the volume is dedicated to some portraits of serial killers of the Frontier, violent characters in a violent world, whose stories still scare today. Here you will meet the brutal Harpe brothers, river pirates and merciless killers, the disturbing Queho, considered the first serial killer in the state of nevada, and Boone Helm, the “cannibal of Kentucky”, who had the bad habit of transforming his companions. travel in “snacks”.
Strange as they may be, the facts described have precise historical references and are rigorously investigated. The reader is given the opportunity to choose between different interpretations and to personally confront historical facts that sometimes challenge the most daring imagination.
The text, published by Il Punto d’Incontro Editions, is embellished with an erudite preface by Marco Maculotti (Director of the Axis Mundi website) and a rich photographic apparatus and represents a stimulating reading not only for fans of the genre, but also for lovers of mystery and the unknown who are beyond the veil of reality.
Luigi Grassia, author of this review, was a cowboy in Arizona, is an honorary citizen of Texas and published the book “Italians to conquer the West” (Mimesis Edizioni).
