The Spirits Said Kill: The Ouija Board Murder of Clotilde Marchand

Update: 2025-10-03

Description

In 1930s Buffalo, New York, a grieving widow sat hunched over a Ouija board, desperate to hear from her dead husband. The planchette moved, spelling out a chilling message: “They killed me.” The spirit named a culprit, Clotilde Marchand, a petite Frenchwoman, mother of four, and the wife of a well-known sculptor.

Days later, Clotilde opened her front door to an accusation of witchcraft…and never lived to close it again.

Dubbed the “Ouija Board Murder,” this case shocked Buffalo’s art world, fueled public hysteria about séances and spirit boards, and left behind a trail of questions that linger to this day. Was Nancy Bowen a vulnerable woman manipulated into killing? Was Lila Jimerson a believer or a schemer? And who really wrote the mysterious letters that pointed to Clotilde as a witch?

This is the story of obsession, betrayal, and the deadly power of belief in the beyond.

Sources:

https://www.buffalospree.com/app/buffalospreemagazine/archives/2008_12/1208fearandloathing.html

https://www.nydailynews.com/2010/03/21/the-ouija-board-murder-tricking-tribal-healer-nancy-bowen-to-kill/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-ouija-board-cant-connect-us-to-paranormal-forces-but-it-can-tell-us-a-lot-about-psychology-grief-and-uncertainty-5860627/

https://journalnews.com.ph/a-ouija-board-and-a-bizarre-murder/

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