THE BERKELEY BEAR TERROR... STORY OF LIFE & DEATH FOR INNOCENT IDA URSARI
The Story Begins At Her End:
1889: Ida "Disappeared"
Now "THE BOX" (Her Time Capsule)...Tells Us A New Story
THe Bear Leaders (AKA URSARI) are a sub-sect of the The RomA Peoples (More Commonly called "Gypsy" peoples). They travelled and entertained.
The purpose of this project is to clear Ida's innocent name.
To do so, my crew & I have been contracted (by a philanthropic family that wishes to remain anonymous) to create a body of research that tells the story of a late 19th century Roma Woman (commonly referred to as the "Gypsy" peoples).
The story of the woman, whose name is recorded as "Ida Ursari" begins as she is an unlikely immigrant to 19th century Appalachia. Immigrating from Romania, her Roma (AKA Gypsy) family was from the "Ursari" sub-clan of the Roma population, known as traveling bear & animal trainers & entertainers. Eventually leading to her being called "The Bear Enchantress"...but there's much more to that story.
According to the story we are piecing together from contemporaneous journals and letters, Ida's father booked passage to the States seeking a better life for his son. The son, Ida's Brother had a rare congenital diseases that caused extraordinary hair growth all over the child's body, a condition called Hypertrichosis (AKA "Werewolf Syndrome").
The persecution of Roma in parts of Europe was widespread, but the associated risk of having a child with the appearance of Ida's Brother was extra-dangerous. There were reportedly several near-death instances in Europe where townspeople formed mobs demanding the "cursed" child leave their town.
The exact mechanism of the family's emigration journey remains unclear. One source states that:
"I came to reckon the boy-child was secreted-in, being counted as one of the exotic beasts in their menagerie for which the Gypsy traveler man had booked right passage".
However they arrived in the States, it's clear they had a very specific destination in mind: The small Appalachian town of Bath WV (AKA Berkeley Springs, WV). And we believe that our ongoing research is slowly but surely helping us to discern why they were so focused on Bath. It appears to have held some sort of esoteric or almost mystical significance to Ida's Father.
One thing that is very clear is how Ida came to be in the care of the local family...it was after her father died, very shortly after making it to Bath, WV with his family and trained animals, as related in an entry from a journal that had been sealed into the box that was effectively a time capsule "meant to be opened a full century hence" (pictured to right...with more picture in photo gallery below). The Journal writer was a young woman was a part of the Bath, WV family that eventually took-in the orphaned Ida after her father died protecting the journal writer:
"I too much recall that day near the foothills of Capon Mountain. The mustachioed tall dark one was chivalrous and got right between me and that fearsome and angry rattler. The man swayed and grunted musically like to distract the monstrous thing, giving me leave to retreat to safe quarter.
As he made to back away real slowlike the serpent made its first attack with him adodging out the way. But there was the problem, there being a big tree root in the path of his stumble. Leading to him falling prostrate like at the revivals and the serpent seizing it's chance to strike the dear man's left frontarm and give him such a bite that my protector would be expired by sunset, part of his arm having rotted to a putrid looking black in the waiting. I wept and tried to comfort his girl. I never before now owed my own life to no one. To thank the dead man, my dear uncle announced they'd care for the girl as a ward. I fancied teaching her to read but never did".
The same philanthropic family now anonymously funding this research, state that they are the distant relations of the family that took-in Ida back then. That family never even knew of the existence of her brother. The father seemed to have pre-identified a place for his Son to be safe. It appears that he may have placed the boy, likely around 12 at the time, along with the family's trained bear in a nearby cave up on Cacapon Mountain. Another excerpted from the source materials states that there was "a secret cave fort in the mountain, where shunned ones can live in peace". It's not clear that the child was placed in a cave, but it is highly likely.
It's also likely that once Ida had been "taken-in" by the family, she secretly brought food and necessities to her brother up near the caves by the summit. If other passers-by came near the cave, the boy's bear would promptly see them off.
For over 100 years, this philanthropic family has "sat on" this information. All the while Ida had been accused of being a kidnapper/murderess/enchantress. Even though it may have been clear the was none of those things, the complexity of the events made the family feel embarrassed and uncomfortable. This was because the stories in the letters & journal (if true...many are likely embellished/some aspects made-up) were so disturbing that "they seemed like the script for a horror show", according to the family member that inherited the box.
While they tentatively shared the contents with some other filmmakers in the 1990s, they elected not to move forward with sharing the story as it was thought that it may reflect poorly on their great-great-great relatives. It does not. In fact, the family's ancestor was a hero, quietly aiding a vulnerable woman, Ida, and her equally innocent brother, from some hateful men who wanted to use them as scapegoats. The men were locked into a secret but all-consuming campaign to "take control" of certain properties overlooking the Potomac River, with which they were zealously obsessed. These men were an offshoot of a late 19th century secret society called the American Protection Society (APA). They were trying to blackmail the property owners into ceding them the land so they could use it create a valley of fear, stopping peoples they found unworthy from "following the river to the west and fouling our lands and stealing our futures." They planned to use these "overwatch" properties to harass, terrorize and even "cause to disappear by means of the most fearsome end".
The family funding this film wishes to remain anonymous. They have only authorized me to convey that they have roots in the area of the small West Virginia Town of Berkeley Springs (formerly called Bath, WV). Their late 19th century ancestor left the equivalent of a "time capsule" for the modern family members, asking that it "be not opened for 100 years", a request the family honored, only breaking the intact seal on the box in the 1990s. While the box was opened and its contents explored in the id to late 90s, the family kept the contents entirely private until now. Some are still being held-back by the family, for now. There were two sealed envelopes in the box, both with their original intact was seals (as shown in photo gallery below).
This was because the stories in the journal & letters (if true) were so disturbing that "they seemed like the script for a horror show", according to the family member that inherited the box. While they tentatively shared them with some other filmmakers in the late 1990s, they elected not to move forward with sharing the story publicly as it was thought that it may reflect poorly on their great-great relatives. It does not. In fact, the family's ancestor was a hero, quietly aiding a vulnerable woman, Ida, and her equally innocent brother, from the APA men who wanted to use them as scapegoats in an attempt to "take control" of those properties on Cacapon Mountain overlooking the Potomac River, with which they were zealously obsessed. These men were an even more secret, insular & radicalized offshoot of the supposedly public-policy-focused APA (e.g. their support for eugenics etc.) which never acknowledged their affiliation. While the APA posed as intellectuals in suits, the faction that came to Bath were wholly delusional, rogue, ruthless and violent. And yet they also seem to have been extremely careful that their crimes were never prosecuted (or even reported it seems) for fear of their brutality and nothing else.
Their stated intention was to:
"Create an Appalachian chokepoint for western migration following the river...such that papo-roman interlopers be forced to face the gauntlet like Ottomans in the Forrest of the Impaled...till they flee in terror."
The time capsule (AKA "The Box") is actually an old, sealed box containing photos, letters and a journal all of which are the basis for the content on this website, and soon our research footage compilation to be titled "The Berkeley Bear" (AKA "The Berkeley Bear Terror"). Due to constraints put in place by the family for the use of the source documents including the journals and the letters, I'm limited by a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) in terms of what I can and can't share and say about the project/materials.
The plan is for my crew and I to capture live footage on the same property where the 1889 tragedy occurred (the owner has approved all this). Beyond that, the property owner/host agreed to integrate my filming into a social event they hold every year. Their annual event is a kind of high-end haunted house party.
They're holding the event again this year, and allowing us to "put on the show". Specifically, I will be capturing culminating footage for "The Berkeley Bear" research footage compilation as the "entertainment" at the haunted house event itself. The entire haunted house experience will be a form of loose "reenactment" of the terrifying situation that surrounded Ida Ursari exactly 134 years ago.
Each retelling/reenactment will be based on some of the most harrowing extant journal entries. Being able to be at the ACTUAL SITE where Ida was driven to is invaluable to the project.
Presumably, because of shame associated with having anything to do with these events, the journal-keeper hid their account away in the "time capsule" (though they did not call it a "time capsule" specifically). But there was no need for shame, because the journal-keeper (who will remain nameless as part of my NDA with the family) was actually a hero. In the end though, they could not save Ida (and the fate of her brother remains unknown to this day...as does his name).
After her father's death & Ida being "taken-in" by the local Bath family, they clearly gave her a stable and loving life. Until the dangerous gang of men showed-up in their small town and tried to intimidate or terrify a few property owners (with property overlooking the Potomac River) into signing over their properties.
Their plan required them to identify, frame and "punish" a local scapegoat who they could frame for an atrocity. Their plan then called for them to "apprehend the fingered culprit and be heroes to the town". Their goal was to win-over a few key property owners..."by including them as willing players on our stage, or striking them down with righteous vengeance".
In order to achieve their awful intentions, Ida was treated like a disposable pawn in their scheme. She was framed, scapegoated as a "gypsy-enchantress" and ultimately "disappeared" by these men.
Despite their framing her, she was neither an enchantress, nor any other kind of monster. She deserves to have her name cleared!
Our story, Ida's Story, is the explanation of the contents of this "Box". While the journal emplaced into the box was not written by Ida, some of the contents of the box very clearly were her own prized possessions, including some drawings she made ...she was an instinctively talented artist, though not able to read or write. The box itself was of European origin and almost certainly made the journey to America with Ida. There were other contents that I've not yet been given approval to photograph.
The photos below (of the box, and SOME of it's photo contents) are the full extent of information allowed to be shared (for now) by the NDA I've executed with my gracious benefactor family that provided me the box. As such, I can do no media or promotional work associated with the project aside from capturing the film's contents for now. As noted, the culminating event of my production schedule will be the live reenactment of a few key "scenes" from Ida's life...and death.
Also, there were two other separate sealed envelopes that had been placed in the box. There was one marked "One of Two - Must Only Be Opened By Family - Only After the Year 1989...on Pain of The Curse" which was still sealed last I saw it...even though the family opened the box, apparently no one wanted to break the wax seal on that envelope first of the 2 envelopes. And to my knowledge, they still have not opened that first letter...that's completely up to them as their family business. I'm just so grateful they made a commitment on exactly when they'd share the envelopes.
The second envelope was marked "Two of Two - Open Only AS Instructed In Letter One of Two...on Pain of The Curse" (images coming soon...per NDA). The contents of those letters are know only to my benefactor family (for now) and my NDA as those envelopes and (and presumably their contents) are also under review by the family's lawyers...but they have committed to me that they will allow me to read (for the first time) the contents of these two mystery letters "live" as part of the live reenactment on the 134th anniversary of Ida's demise.
This is "The Box" from which the insight for this projecis derived. Pictures of contents are below.
SEE THESE FIRST PHOTOS FROM "THE BOX" (More to Come Later, Including The Journal & Letters Once Approved For Release)
The Box - almost certainly brought from Europe on Ida's Journey. Was used as a time capsule.
The Native American headband pictured here was clearly very important to Ida, for it to have been in this box. It was also apparently part of the reason Ida was able to be framed (more research ongoing to nail down that part of her story, but it seems quite important, also relating to her brother and his life in the woods/caves).
This is likely Ida's Father who transported her & brother (along with their performing animals) to the US. He died shortly after arriving in WV while defending a lady from from a rattler attack. This grateful lady's family ultimately "took-in" the man's now-orphaned daughter. The family was unaware of the existence of Ida's brother, as his father kept him "safe & hid away in the crates or caves"
These are the journals/personal books found in the box. They contain some of Ida's drawings (she did not read/write) as well a journal of one of the family members, which provided many of the insights for our research. There are zero other historical accounts of this, obviously, given the secret nature of the intimidation campaign of the APA and the fact that the families did not speak of it (at all it seems) until now.
The Home where Ida may have lived
Baby Luccette being held by her mother with Ida standing to their left. Ida was Lucette's caretaker and was pictured here with the family. To the right of Baby Lucette is Helen, Lucette's Sister.