Early in 1981, Dr Kurt Bachseitz started receiving abusive phone calls at his dental practice in the Bavarian town of Neutrabling, in what was then West Germany. The caller, who went by the name Chopper, would shout insults and obscenties in a “staccato, robot-like monotone.”
But Chopper didn’t just phone the surgery – he was somehow able to interrupt calls with patients and subject them to his abuse.
Dr Bachseitz put up with the calls for some months – possibly in the belief that the man calling himself Chopper would get bored. But he didn’t get bored – and the calls kept coming.
During one particularly chilling call, Chopper told Dr Bachseitz that Mrs Bachseitz was about to have a violent death. In desperation, Dr Bachseith called the police, who immediately launched an investigation.
As part of that investigation, the Deutsche Bundespost, who were responsible for the telephone system, dispatched a couple of their engineers to Neutrabling. Armed with the latest technology, the technicians were confident that they would be able to trace the calls and solve the mystery.
But they failed – miserably. Even though Chopper gave them ample chances to catch him – by continuing to call the dental practice while the technicians were monitoring the phones – they couldn’t get a trace on him. They had no idea where the calls were coming from.
In an act of frustration, an engineer physically disconnected one of the phones. It immediately began to ring.
Nervously – he answered.
It was Chopper.
Following that incident, the Bundespost completely disconnected the phone lines at the dentist’s surgery.
And that’s when things got really weird.
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Chopper’s voice began to emanate from the electrical sockets and the light fittings, the spittoon, the wash basin plughole, the dentist’s chair – and even the toilet.
Freed from the shackles of the telephone, Chopper – whoever or whatever he was – appeared to have been invigorated, and he would keep up a relentless tirade of abuse while Dr Bachseitz tried to treat his patients.
Neither dentist nor patient was spared. When one female patient leaned over the spittoon to spit out her mouthwash, Chopper shouted, “Shut your mouth!” A few days later, a male patient was told, “Open your mouth wider, stupid.” And when one man made the grave mistake of sitting on the toilet, Chopper shouted from the bowl, “Move your backside, I can’t see a thing!”
Only one person was spared Chopper’s snark – and that was Claudia Judenmann, the dentist’s 17-year-old assistant.
Chopper loved Claudia. When he wasn’t verbally abusing Dr Bachseitz and his patients, Chopper was flirting with Claudia. “I love you Claudia,” he was heard to say on a number of occasions.
For her part, Claudia was the only person who wasn’t afraid of Chopper. She described him as being “a bit of a giggle,” and would happily chat with him and answer his questions as she went about her day.
But their relationship appeared to be more than just workplace coquetry. For starters, Chopper was only active when Claudia was at the surgery. And he always seemed to know what she had been doing when she wasn’t at the surgery. “Did you enjoy the disco?” he asked her one morning as she arrived at work. Claudia had indeed been at a disco the previous evening.
Was Claudia being stalked by a disembodied voice – or was something else at play?
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“Bender is there,” he cried. “I’m scared. He wants to kill me.”
Following the failure of the Deutsche Bundespost technicians, the West German police sent a specialist team of officers, along with some electronic engineers, to attempt to solve the mystery.
Chopper was more than happy to perform for this new audience. But still, neither the police nor the engineers were able to trace the source of his voice. They weren’t even able to capture a recording of Chopper – even though he would shriek quite loudly at times.
Was this all just an incredibly elaborate hoax – or was something truly paranormal behind the phenomenon? To help answer that question, Dr Hans Bender was called in.
Dr Bender was a parapsychologist and had been a household name in West Germany ever since his involvement in the Rosenheim Poltergeist case in 1977.
In that case, Rosenheim lawyer Sigmund Adam had been experiencing strange disturbances in his office: heavy furniture items would move on their own; lighting fixtures would explode; and someone was continually calling the speaking clock – even when the office was empty.
Bender investigated and concluded that the lawyer’s 19-year-old secretary, Annemarie Schubert, had the power to move objects with her mind and was to blame for the strange phenomena. Not everyone agreed with Bender’s conclusion, but the case made him famous.
When Bender arrived at Dr Bachseitz’s dental surgery, Chopper’s reaction to the 74-year-old was unexpected. Chopper was terrified of him. “Bender is there,” he cried. “I’m scared. He wants to kill me.”
Claudia tried to comfort Chopper. “Don’t worry,” she said, “the professor won’t hurt you. He just wants to talk to you.”
Later, when Bender was leaving the practice, Chopper’s feelings towards him had drastically changed. “Come back, Bender,” he shouted. “Help me! Release me!”
So, what did Bender think? Had he been hoaxed?
Bender believed that he had communicated with a genuine supernatural entity. When quizzed by journalists, he replied: “The voice sounds like that of a being in distress.”
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As strange as the events in Neutrabling were, they weren’t entirely unique.
In November 1933, Mr & Mrs Wilkie – a couple in their 80s – moved into Gateside Croft in Tarves, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, with their nine-year-old granddaughter Bunty.
Shortly after moving into their new home, the Wilkies began to hear a voice coming from the walls. They were alarmed at first, but soon made the peace with their strange lodger. They named it the “beastie.”
In addition to making small talk with the Wilkies, the “beastie” could say the alphabet and count to 90; it could recite the Lord’s Prayer; and it could sing “A Bicycle Made for Two” and the hymn “Jesus Loves Me.”
When news of the “beastie” reached the village, it brought a steady stream of visitors to the Wilkies’ home. Few of those visitors left Gateside Croft disappointed. The “beastie” was usually happy to chat, and would entertain guests with its wicked sense of humour.
While the Wilkies were convinced they were sharing their home with a genuine oddity, most of the locals believed that they were the victims of a cruel hoax.
It was one of Bunty’s school teachers that solved the mystery. The “beastie” had followed Bunty to school. And while it entertained the class, the teacher kept a very close eye on Bunty.
She became convinced that Bunty was a ventriloquist. And when the teacher questioned the girl, Bunty confessed to being the “beastie.”
And that was the last time Bunty spoke about the voice. A number of journalists travelled to Tarves to meet Bunty – the girl who had taught herself ventriloquism. Bunty was happy to talk to them – but she wouldn’t talk about the voice.
Perhaps she was embarrassed by the trouble she’d caused or was ashamed of tricking her elderly grandparents.
Maybe it was something else.
You see, Bunty’s grandparents didn’t believe she was the voice. And neither did their next door neighbour. Why? Because all of them had had conversations with the “beastie” in Gateside Croft while Bunty was at school.
A few months after the events in Tarves, a very similar phenomenon was reported in Zaragoza, Spain.
In an apartment on Gascón de Gotor Street, a voice – seemingly coming from nowhere – could be heard, night and day. While the voice would answer questions and interact with whoever was in the apartment at the time, it would also just ramble on, at length, on a variety of subjects.
When word got out about the voice, hundreds of curiosity seekers arrived and surrounded the building, with many of them trying to con their way into the apartment. Those that couldn’t make the journey wrote letters and sent telegrams to the voice.
The love for the voice ended at the entrance to the building, though. The residents were terrified and – according to some reports – some of the women had been exorcised “to prevent bewitchment.”
In an effort to solve the mystery, the building’s architect was called in to look for any secret rooms or chambers that may have been added to the building. As he took his measurements, the voice kept him company with a steady stream of chat.
A leading theory for the voice was that it was being produced by someone hiding in the apartment’s chimney. However, when the architect went to measure the chimney, the voice said, “You needn’t bother – the diameter is just six inches.
The architect measured the chimney, anyway. Its diameter was just 6 inches.
Given the level of disruption in the streets around the apartment building and the ongoing publicity, the city’s authorities were under tremendous pressure to solve the mystery of the disembodied voice.
To that end, police officers were permanently stationed in the apartment.
The police officers soon noticed a pattern: the voice only spoke when the family’s 17-year-old housemaid, Pascuala Heurte, was present.
When questioned, Pascuala admitted to being the voice.
While this appeared to be another case of ventriloquism, it was one where the ventriloquist didn’t know that she was a ventriloquist. Pascuala, who had been diagnosed with epilepsy, claimed that she was unaware that it was her who was saying the words, but admitted that “the voice seemed to be saying just what I was thinking.”
Mystery solved?
Not quite. A number of witnesses – including the family who lived in the apartment – believed that there had been an actual ghost, and though the ghost had spoken primarily through Pascuala, it had also been heard when she wasn’t present.
However, the authorities – who were quite keen to draw a line under the whole affair and get the city back to normal – were more than happy with the ventriloquist housemaid theory. And that’s the theory that stuck.
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So, was Chopper a “being in distress” or the creation of a talented ventriloquist?
In early March 1982, another team of investigators arrived in Neutrabling; and on their second day at the surgery, one of the officers caught Claudia Judenmann throwing her voice into a wash basin.
When challenged about this, Claudia admitted that she was the voice of Chopper.
Following Claudia’s confession, the police dismantled the surgery; they found tubes connected to the plumbing and the fixtures – and tape recorders hidden in the pipes. This wasn’t just a case of clever ventriloquism – it was an incredibly elaborate hoax.
So elaborate, in fact, that the police believed Claudia had to have had help in perpetrating it. Kurt and Margot Bachseitz were their prime suspects, and they were subsequently arrested.
In 1983, Kurt and Margot Bachseitz and Claudia Judenmann were put on trial for their parts in the hoax – and all three were found guilty.
Exactly why they carried out the hoax was never uncovered.
IOW
Recommended Reading
If you enjoyed this post and would like to know more, you might enjoy the following book:
Gef! The Strange Tale of an Extra-Special Talking Mongoose – by Christopher Josife
In the 1930s, an Isle of Man family were being haunted by a talking ghost that was trapped in the body of a mongoose. By all accounts it was a very strange case – but may ultimately have been just another case of ventriloquism. Read Christopher Josife’s excellent book – and make up your own mind.