Now You See Him, Now You Don't
The Strange Case of David Lang
by Merlyn
September 23, 1880 was a warm sunny day, in Summer County Tennessee.
The afternoon had become quite pleasant and the Lang Family had moved out of doors to enjoy the weather.
Mrs. Emma Lang stood with her multi-task maid, servant, cook and nanny and watched the children playing in the front yard.
The children, George and Sarah, were cavorting about as children would do and Mr. Lang was across the road working in the fields.
A buggy was seen coming from the direction of the town of Gallatin and as it drew closer Mrs. Lang recognized the occupants.
Judge August Peck and his brother in law (who's name I forget at the moment), were close friends of the Lang family. They had made the short journey to the Lang farm to spend a quiet evening of conversation and companionship.
Hearing the buggy approach, David Lang turned from his work and waved at the Judge and his brother in law. And dusting himself off he began to walk towards the farmhouse.
He had only taken several steps when he suddenly vanished into thin air.
Emma Lang screamed and began to run to where she had last seen her husband. The startled Judge and his brother in law left the buggy and also ran to the spot.
There was no trace of David Lang. Where he had once stood was nothing but grass, no hole for him to have fallen into. There was no stone for him to have tripped over, or gopher hole to have caught his foot in, nothing.
The Judge sent his brother in law to a neighboring farm to get help and a search of the field began in earnest.
Helpful friends, well into the night, searched the field and its surrounding grounds but to no avail.
Not one bit of evidence was ever found in the disappearance of David Lang.
It is said though that a ring of discolored grass some fifteen feet in diameter marked the spot of the vanishing and that once, about a year after the incident, the children heard the voice of their father coming from the center of the circle of grass.
I first read about this strange event in a book written by Frank Edwards called, "Stranger Than Science". I am not sure of the publication date but it must have been the late 1950's or early 60's.
The story had everything a young lad could want in a story of the paranormal.
A totally unexplainable incident witnessed by reputable people, a Judge and the wife of the man involved. No explanation offered could ever satisfy the question of "what happened to David Lang".
Now I am older, and having been involved in the Criminal Justice system for the whole of my working life, I seek harder to find solutions to things that mystify me.
I began to research the story and found that a Mr. Palmer first printed it in Fate Magazine in 1953. At that time it was accompanied by a deposition signed by Sarah Lang, the daughter of the man.
Mr. Palmer had apparently met Miss Lang and interviewed her getting the facts, "straight from the horse's mouth" as they say.
I also found from this original article, that Frank Edwards had left a great deal of the story out.
In later years Sarah had tried every possible way to contact her father and mother (who had died by then). She visited mediums and held seances and meditated, she tried every metaphysical method available.
She eventually turned to automatic writing and with some little success.
She claimed to have received a message from her father saying that all was well. When she compared the writing on the note pad with her fathers family Bible, in which he had written, the script was the same.
Photos of the affidavit, the bible inscription and the note from her father were included in the publication.
I was elated. Nothing spells a good story of the paranormal like documentation and facts from one of the key eyewitnesses.
My good humor did not last very long as my research began to find claim after claim that the story was a hoax.
I came across another story about a man named Orion Williamson that took place in July of 1884. The details of the case were almost identical to that of David Lang.
Further digging resulted in the finding of letters written to the town of Gallatin requesting a search for the names of David Lang and his family. The responding letters stated that there was not, nor never had been, a Lang family residing in the area of the town around 1880.
I also found an article written by a man who claimed to have had the hand writing analysised. It appeared that yes the hand writing of the note and the Bible were the same but it was also from the same person who had signed the affidavit.
I found to my great dismay, a retraction and apology published by Fate Magazine in 1959. In which they explain that the whole thing was a hoax perpetrated by Mr. Palmer.
What was to be a wonderful article on a well-documented case of a disappearance now became an article about a little known hoax.
The moral to this story is; "Check and recheck your information before you publish. It is better to be disappointed than thoroughly embarrassed.
