Mary Roff, a gentle, unassuming 19 year old girl, died suddenly on the night of July 5th, 1865, in the town of Watseka, Illinois. Her death was strange, but her life had been stranger. For several years she had been subject to sudden, unaccountable "fits" - sometimes horrifically violent, sometimes so chilling in their effects her parents had thought her insane: she would speak in German, or in a man's bass voice, as if possessed...But death brought to an end her sad and disturbing case...

Thirteen years later, in 1878, Mary Roff reappeared-in the living body of Lurancy Vennum...