The Duende de Zaragoza: the voice in the kitchen stove (1934)

Zaragoza, autumn 1934. The building stood at Calle Gascón de Gotor nº 2. On 27 September, in the early hours, loud and unsettling laughter woke the residents. City accounts describe "siniestras risas, voces y chillidos de procedencia inexplicable" in the kitchen of one flat. Neighbours searched. They found nothing.

15 November 1934. Pascuala Alcocer, a 16-year-old maid, was about to light the kitchen's coal stove. A voice spoke from inside it. "¡Por lo que más quieras, no enciendas, que me quemas!" For heaven's sake, don't light it, you're burning me.

It was a man's voice, dark and cavernous. It called her name and laughed at her. It ranged from polite to insulting and threatening. A four-year-old boy, Arturo Grijalba Torre, reportedly held conversations and riddle games with it. When police asked "¿Quién eres?", it answered. "No soy hombre." I am not a man.

Police under Commissioner Pérez Soto lifted floorboards. They examined ceilings, wiring, water pipes, ventilation ducts and the roof. They found no device that could carry a voice. The voice seemed to notice them. "¡Ya están aquí los guardias!" Then, "¡cuánta policía, que cobardía!" As workers measured the chimney flue, it called out "¡mide 15 cm!" The architect measured the flues. They were 15 cm.

Judge Pablo de Pablos ordered surveillance, searches and a medical commission, and the flat was evacuated. Judge Luis Fernando Oliván took over. Forensic doctors found no illness and ruled out hysteria. Hundreds gathered outside, and newspapers in Zaragoza and Madrid followed every turn. On 27 November, The Times in London reported the case. Several accounts call this Spain's first official investigation of a paranormal event.

The voice turned darker. "¡Voy a matar a todos los habitantes de esta maldita casa, cobardes!" A medium, Asunción Jiménez Álvarez, reportedly collapsed and died during a séance meant to contact it, though only secondary sources record this. By most accounts the voice spoke for the last time on 3 December. The judge closed the case.

The civil governor, Julio Otero Mirelis, who reportedly heard the voice clearly himself, gave his verdict. The maid had produced it by "unconscious ventriloquism." She was sent back to her home village. Pascuala refused a photographer. "¡Mire usted que decir que yo llevo dentro el duende, con lo que esto me ha hecho sufrir!"

Critics saw problems. The voice was male. It reportedly spoke when she was absent, and some sources say it continued after she left. The psychiatrist Joaquín Gimeno Riera diagnosed "criptolalia." El Liberal settled on "ventriloquism by a joker." Others suggested the metal flue carried voices from elsewhere in the building. Judge Oliván's report, as quoted, called it "a psychic event occurring under specific circumstances."

The case was archived with no one found responsible. Later tenants reportedly heard voices too. The building was demolished in 1977. Its replacement is called Edificio Duende, and a painting by Emilio de Arce at the entrance shows a goblin's face when turned upside down. The Duende de Zaragoza was never solved.