In 1911, witchcraft hysteria spread across central Pennsylvania, with dozens of superstitious citizens swearing out complaints against men and women accused of being hex or "pow-wow" doctors, but one bizarre story of Schuylkill County made newspaper headlines across the commonwealth. Alleging that her father, Howell Thomas of Tumbling Run, died as the result of a hex placed upon him, Mary Isabelle Thomas went to the press with a long list of peculiar incidents which she believed would prove that her father succumbed to the effects of black magic. Mary claimed these mishaps began immediately after a black cat showed up on the Thomas farm-- a cat that assumed monstrous proportions, growing to four feet in height before magically returning to its previous form.
