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A high-profile case involving the murder of a Mid-South spiritual worker occurred in 1957 in Shelbyville, Tennessee. Forty-year-old Mose M. Martin from Stevenson, Alabama, had sought guidance from spiritual worker Simon T. Warner, known for his healing and psychic abilities in the Mid-South.
Mose drove up from Alabama to seek help for digestive problems he was having with his stomach. Warner charged him sixty dollars for a spiritual treatment that was intended to remove Mose’s ailment. After leaving the healer’s home, Mose began to feel severe discomfort and fear. He began to perspire as his heart raced. His head filled with fears of dabbling with magic and thoughts of worry.
Mose could feel a spiritual rope tightening across his chest. It became difficult to breathe. He would lie awake at night, staring at the ceiling, sometimes clutching the tattered cover of an old Holy Bible next to his side. Mose worried that it was no longer the stomachache that haunted him but the insidious spirits that the “spirit doctor” had loosened on him. He could not take any more of the psychological torture from the spiritualist who had performed this mysterious operation on him. Mose reached into the bureau beside his bed and retrieved a .32 caliber pistol.
The eighty-five-mile trek from Stevenson to Shelbyville, Tennessee, seemed to take forever. Mose’s car sputtered and spurred as a cold rain began to fall across the highway. Mose could almost feel the relief that he was about to experience when he would break the spell that haunted him. On arriving at Simon Warner’s place, Mose slipped his pistol into the back of his pants. Warner met him at the door with a smile and a greeting. “Nice to see you again Mister Mose, what can I do for you today?” Mose’s heart began to race again as he mumbled, “There’s something I need to talk to you about. Something important.” Warner closed the door behind him and began to walk down a long hall on creaking wooden floors. Mose’s breathing became louder as his eyes scanned the walls of the home. Paintings of planetary symbols and strange-looking mythical animals adorned the hall. As the two entered a room, Warner turned around and smiled at Mose. “Hope you’re feeling better. Last time we met you weren’t doing so well.”
As Warner closed the door to the consultation room, Mose Martin stared at the crystal ball and tarot cards spread across a wood table. For a moment, he worried that Warner might come back to haunt him from the grave. But none of that mattered now. This crossing, this curse that Warner had placed on him was killing him physically and spiritually. Mose reached back into the
bottom of his shirt and presented the pistol to Warner’s chest. “What? What are you doing?,” Warner cried out. Mose’s eyes bulged with intensity as he felt the nose of the pistol finding resistance against Simon Warner’s chest. “I’m about to set myself free, conjure man. I ain’t no fool, I know you put a curse on me and I’m about to break it free!” Mose Martin fired five shots
from the pistol into Simon Warner.
Following the discovery of the body, local police put out an all-points bulletin to all regional law enforcement agencies. Mose Martin was stopped more than an hour away from the scene of the murder. Martin and his girlfriend, Pearl Hutchinson, were stopped by the Alabama Highway Patrol. Martin confessed to the crime. It was documented that Martin testified to police, “I shot him because he double-crossed me in voodoo. He admitted before I shot him that he double-crossed me. I would have shot anybody who double-crossed me in black magic like he did.” Warner would go on to testify in the Davidson County Jail that he believed that the shooting did not break the curse. Instead, he claimed that a magical string was being tightened across his body. He told a local reporter for the Tennessean, “The string is still around me,” as he removed his shirt to reveal that there was nothing visible around his stomach. Martin testified that Simon Warner told him that he would never get well. He continued, “I waited for it to go. I don’t think it’ll ever go now.
There’s no other way to break it. If you were killing me wouldn’t that be enough reason for me to kill you?”
Simon Warner’s legacy as a spiritual worker while he was alive was prolific. Warner discovered that he had spiritual powers at the age of ten. He soon became well known for being able to predict various incidents. When his powers of perception became known in the community, many people began to seek his assistance in finding lost materials, lost loves and financial guidance. Warner recalled one experience in which two men approached him about getting his guidance in locating a buried treasure. A group of Native Americans was said to have buried a chest of gold, and the men promised to give Warner two dollars if he could locate the gold. Warner told
the men, “Thank you” and said that if he could locate it, he would keep it and give them the two dollars.
Warner became famous in 1941, when he supernaturally located the body of a missing Chapel Hill woman. When police found the body, news about Warner spread throughout the world. He began to receive hundreds of letters every day asking for his assistance in locating objects and people as well as questions about love. Warner became known as the “Crime Doctor,” using what he called “character readings” to see into the supernatural. He developed an ability to see when someone was going to die. He would frequently work with law enforcement to provide them with
insight into when he would foresee a potential murder in the community. In 1945, the “Shelbyville Seer,” as he became known locally, helped in bringing a fugitive to justice when a local farmer had beat his seven-year-old niece with a piece of wood. Police searched for two days to locate Andrew Fagan. He turned up at Simon Warner’s residence seeking advice. Warner consulted the spirits and advised Fagan to turn himself in. The seer accompanied Fagan to the local police department, where he surrendered to local authorities.
A high-profile case involving the murder of a Mid-South spiritual worker occurred in 1957 in Shelbyville, Tennessee. Forty-year-old Mose M. Martin from Stevenson, Alabama, had sought guidance from spiritual worker Simon T. Warner, known for his healing and psychic abilities in the Mid-South.
Mose drove up from Alabama to seek help for digestive problems he was having with his stomach. Warner charged him sixty dollars for a spiritual treatment that was intended to remove Mose’s ailment. After leaving the healer’s home, Mose began to feel severe discomfort and fear. He began to perspire as his heart raced. His head filled with fears of dabbling with magic and thoughts of worry.
Mose could feel a spiritual rope tightening across his chest. It became difficult to breathe. He would lie awake at night, staring at the ceiling, sometimes clutching the tattered cover of an old Holy Bible next to his side. Mose worried that it was no longer the stomachache that haunted him but the insidious spirits that the “spirit doctor” had loosened on him. He could not take any more of the psychological torture from the spiritualist who had performed this mysterious operation on him. Mose reached into the bureau beside his bed and retrieved a .32 caliber pistol.
The eighty-five-mile trek from Stevenson to Shelbyville, Tennessee, seemed to take forever. Mose’s car sputtered and spurred as a cold rain began to fall across the highway. Mose could almost feel the relief that he was about to experience when he would break the spell that haunted him. On arriving at Simon Warner’s place, Mose slipped his pistol into the back of his pants.
Warner met him at the door with a smile and a greeting. “Nice to see you again Mister Mose, what can I do for you today?” Mose’s heart began to race again as he mumbled, “There’s something I need to talk to you about. Something important.” Warner closed the door behind him and began to walk down a long hall on creaking wooden floors. Mose’s breathing became louder as his eyes scanned the walls of the home. Paintings of planetary symbols and strange-looking mythical animals adorned the hall. As the two entered a room, Warner turned around and smiled at Mose. “Hope you’re feeling better. Last time we met you weren’t doing so well.”
As Warner closed the door to the consultation room, Mose Martin stared at the crystal ball and tarot cards spread across a wood table. For a moment, he worried that Warner might come back to haunt him from the grave. But none of that mattered now. This crossing, this curse that Warner had placed on him was killing him physically and spiritually. Mose reached back into the
bottom of his shirt and presented the pistol to Warner’s chest. “What? What are you doing?,” Warner cried out. Mose’s eyes bulged with intensity as he felt the nose of the pistol finding resistance against Simon Warner’s chest. “I’m about to set myself free, conjure man. I ain’t no fool, I know you put a curse on me and I’m about to break it free!” Mose Martin fired five shots
from the pistol into Simon Warner.
Following the discovery of the body, local police put out an all-points bulletin to all regional law enforcement agencies. Mose Martin was stopped more than an hour away from the scene of the murder. Martin and his girlfriend, Pearl Hutchinson, were stopped by the Alabama Highway Patrol. Martin confessed to the crime. It was documented that Martin testified to police, “I shot him because he double-crossed me in voodoo. He admitted before I shot him that he double-crossed me. I would have shot anybody who double-crossed me in black magic like he did.” Warner would go on to testify in the Davidson County Jail that he believed that the shooting did not break the curse. Instead, he claimed that a magical string was being tightened across his body. He told a local reporter for the Tennessean, “The string is still around me,” as he removed his shirt to reveal that there was nothing visible around his stomach. Martin testified that Simon Warner told him that he would never get well. He continued, “I waited for it to go. I don’t think it’ll ever go now.
There’s no other way to break it. If you were killing me wouldn’t that be enough reason for me to kill you?”
Simon Warner’s legacy as a spiritual worker while he was alive was prolific. Warner discovered that he had spiritual powers at the age of ten. He soon became well known for being able to predict various incidents. When his powers of perception became known in the community, many people began to seek his assistance in finding lost materials, lost loves and financial guidance. Warner recalled one experience in which two men approached him about getting his guidance in locating a buried treasure. A group of Native Americans was said to have buried a chest of gold, and the men promised to give Warner two dollars if he could locate the gold. Warner told
the men, “Thank you” and said that if he could locate it, he would keep it and give them the two dollars.
Warner became famous in 1941, when he supernaturally located the body of a missing Chapel Hill woman. When police found the body, news about Warner spread throughout the world. He began to receive hundreds of letters every day asking for his assistance in locating objects and people as well as questions about love. Warner became known as the “Crime Doctor,” using what he called “character readings” to see into the supernatural. He developed an ability to see when someone was going to die. He would frequently work with law enforcement to provide them with
insight into when he would foresee a potential murder in the community. In 1945, the “Shelbyville Seer,” as he became known locally, helped in bringing a fugitive to justice when a local farmer had beat his seven-year-old niece with a piece of wood. Police searched for two days to locate Andrew Fagan. He turned up at Simon Warner’s residence seeking advice. Warner consulted the spirits and advised Fagan to turn himself in. The seer accompanied Fagan to the local police department, where he surrendered to local authorities.
Tony Kail – https://memphishoodoo.medium.com/murder-of-a-mid-south-seer-8c3ddd37359a