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Wolf Messing – the true story of Russia’s greatest psychic – Tatiana Lungin

I always governed my life by two principles. First, my help had to be truly essential. Second, the situation had to be of some personal interest to me.

In Poland, almost everyone knew the famous family of Czartorysky counts. Besides appreciable wealth, they possessed a royal genealogy.

In this family a banal event occurred: a diamond brooch that had been handed down as an heirloom from one generation to the next had disappeared. Eminent jewellers estimated its value at 8oo,ooo zlotys- a fantastic sum for that time. All the efforts of private detectives proved to no avail, and hope dwindled with every passing day. Soon the most unbelievable rumours were circulating.

Count Czartorysky flew to Krakow in his private plane to see me, just at the end of my performances there. He was very elegant and fashionably dressed. In spite of what happened in his house, he was in a good mood - not at all stressed. He was a true, mannerly aristocrat. He told me about the brooch and urged me to help if I could. We few back to Warsaw that day.

I should stop for a moment and describe how I looked. It will bear on the events that followed.  I had long, curly, blue-black hair that fell almost to my shoulders. My face was pale. I wore a black suit, a wide, loosely cut cloak, and an imposing top hat.

The castle, an enormous building made from red stone and built in the old style, had two high floors with endless halls, rooms, and corridors. Each room and hall had different coloured walls and carpets, and was decorated with beautiful French furniture. A garden surrounded the castle; a fountain flowed in the middle of the park. Everything was very well taken care of.

You couldn't imagine a better setting for either work or pleasure.

"The next morning I set about examining the evidence. Things were arranged so that everyone who lived permanently in the castle, or came there every day to work, passed before me.

The Count readily introduced me as a fashionable artist from the capital to several people in residence: I met his wife, a beautiful Polish woman who was very proud of herself, and his daughter, who was also very attractive. I also met the maids and castle workers, dressed in special uniforms that displayed the family insignia. They all struck me as honest and decent people.  I placed everyone beyond suspicion.

There remained, however, one person about whom I could not say anything definite. He was a feeble-minded little boy and a completely inoffensive creature, the son of one of the servants.

No one paid any attention to him; he had never been caught in any wrongdoing. No one suspected him at all, for it didn't seem he could appreciate the beauty or value of a diamond. He enjoyed total liberty within the castle and freely entered all the rooms. Although I couldn’t pick up the boy's thoughts or moods, he made me apprehensive, and the feeling stuck in my mind.

After some reflection, I decided to rely on my instincts.

This case didn’t require my sixth sense; I knew I could solve it rationally and psychologically.

I remained alone with the child in the nursery pretending to sketch in my notebook.  I pulled a gold watch out of my pocket and twirled it around on its chain. Then, as if I had remembered something, I 'carelessly' placed it on a table and walked out.

Through a window, concealed behind a potted palm ,I observed the little boy alone.

He immediately ran over to the table, grabbed the watch, swung it on the chain as I had, and shoved it in his mouth. He played with it like an ordinary toy for no less than half an hour.

Then, suddenly, and with amazing agility, he leaped upon the neck of an enormous stuffed bear and opened its mouth. My gold watch glittered in his hand for a moment, then disappeared into the beast's open jaws. My instincts were right. I had not only found the thief, but his silent accomplice - the keeper of the stolen goods!

Now it was only a matter of performing an operation on the stuffed bear, and the mysterious disappearance of the diamond would be solved. When we cut the bear open, a pile of shining objects fell into our hands. There were gold-plated teaspoons, Christmas tree ornaments, and pieces of broken coloured glass - as well as the Czartorysry family jewel.

According to our verbal agreement, I was due twenty-five percent of the total value of the found treasure. Because the total value of all the things found in the bear exceeded a million zlotys, they owed me about 250,000 zlotys.

I refused to accept this sum, but in exchange requested that the Count use his influence in the Seym to revoke their resolution limiting the rights of Jews. The Count gave his promise, and within two weeks the Seym abolished the statute.