IGPP-Archive #10 (20.4.2023)
from Gerhard Mayer
Witch hunt in Italy The case of Carole Compton
A young Scottish woman in love named Carole Compton followed her boyfriend Marco’s wishes and moved to his home country of Italy in 1982 with plans to marry. Marco still had military service to complete, while Carole worked as a nanny. She hardly spoke any Italian.
Transcript of a conversation between Hans Bender and Carole Compton in Livorno
(8.9.1983) (Archive of IGPP)
Carole Compton
Carole Compton
(Reproduction, photographer:in: unknown)
At her first place of work in Ortisei in South Tyrol, two inexplicable fires broke out within a short space of time in mid-July 1982, followed by three more fires and some strange haunting phenomena at her next place of work on the island of Elba at the beginning of August 1982. The grandmother of the child she was looking after accused 20-year-old Carole of being a “witch” and the parents charged her with arson. She was also charged with attempted infanticide. Carole was subsequently remanded in custody and remained in Italian prisons for a total of 17 months until she was finally brought to trial on December 12, 1983. The case quickly attracted international attention. While the press reported luridly about the young “witch”, donations were collected in Carole’s home country to cover the costs of the trial.
The British parapsychologist Guy Lyon Playfair (1935-2018) also heard about the spectacular case. He suspected a classic poltergeist phenomena and organized a campaign among colleagues to refute the accusation with a parapsychological interpretation of what had happened. Professor Hans Bender in Freiburg played a special role as an internationally recognized poltergeist phenomena expert. Bender interviewed Carole in prison in Livorno on September 8, 1983 and drew up a kind of expert report for her defense lawyer, in which he also referred to comparable cases in Italy and in Freiburg.
Newspaper clippings on the Carole Compton case
(Archive of IGPP)
Expert opinion by Hans Bender on the Carole Compton case, translated into Italian
(12.1983) (Archive of IGPP)
However, the defense decided not to present the parapsychological explanation of what had happened at the trial. The charge of attempted murder was dropped for lack of evidence. However, on December 15, 1983, Carole was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for arson and attempted arson – apparently without any evidence and disregarding the testimony of the fire experts. Carole was released from the remainder of her sentence due to the lengthy pre-trial detention. 40 years after the events, which were the subject of a book in 1990 and provided the material for a mystery thriller in 2001, the Carole Compton case is still shrouded in mystery.
Book publication on the case (1990).
Private property
DVD of the movie Superstition –
Playing with fire
(2001)
Objects exhibited at IGPP:
Transcript of a conversation
between Hans Bender and Carole Compton in Livorno (8.9.1983)
Archive of the IGPP, E/23_Fall Carole Compton (1982-1984)
(still undated)
Expert opinion by Hans Bender on the Carole Compton case,
translated into Italian (12.1983)
Archive of the IGPP, E/23_Fall Carole Compton (1982-1984)
(still undated)
Carole Compton
(Reproduction, photographer:in: unknown)
Newspaper clippings on the Carole Compton case
Archive of IGPP, E/23_Fall Carole Compton (1982-1984)
(still undated)
Carole Compton (with Gerald Cole):
Superstition. The True Story of the Nanny They Called Witch,
London (Ebury Press) 1990.
Private property
DVD “Superstition – Playing with fire” (2001)
Media collection of the IGPP, K-2004/0021
