Mirror Inexplicably Stuck to Table After Man’s Death
A newspaper article telling the story of the cursed mirror of Jeffery Derosier. Image: Strange Company
A newspaper article from 1936 reported that a dying man, after seeing himself in a hand mirror, somehow caused it to be fused with the table it was placed on. No one was able to lift the mirror after the man’s death until it was removed violently with an ice pick.
Jeffery Derosier and the Cursed Mirror
The Case of the Dead Man Mirror
In Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan in 1936, there was a man named Harvey Davenport. He was in a hospital, and his roommate, Jeffery Derosier, was on his death bed. Derosier told Davenport that he wouldn't be able to take a mirror off a table after he looked into it and saw his own dying face.
The strange thing was that the mirror was stuck to the table. They tried to remove it for more than 24 hours, but it wouldn't budge. Finally, a nurse used an ice pick to get it off. This scared Davenport so much that he fled the hospital.
The nurses and doctors didn't want to talk about it, and they wouldn't show the mirror to anyone.
Lewis Descheneau, an elderly resident of Brimley, who was there when Derosier passed away, somberly described what happened during the death:
"Davenport took him the mirror. and we all heard the sick man exclaim that his face looked terrible and his eyes wild. I was alarmed when he cried 'My God, I'm dying.' I saw him toss the glass onto the table, where it lay near the edge.
"I watched Davenport go toward the door as though to call a nurse. But he stopped when Mr. Derosier asked him to come back and give him the mirror again. As Davenport reached for the mirror, which was at the edge of the table, Derosier told him in a voice that was not loud but which we could all hear 'You won't be able to pick it from the table'.
"Davenport seemed frozen to the spot for an instant. Then the sick man started hiccoughing and we could see he was dying. A nurse came but he died right away. Then Davenport and others tried and tried to take the looking glass from the table. It wouldn't move. And that's all. I know. I'm sure I can't say what supernatural power or other cause is responsible. But that's the way it happened."
Possible Explanations for the Cursed Mirror
The Saint Joseph Herald Press interviewed several professors at the local University to get their theories on what could have happened.
Professor George W. Carter from Wayne University suggested that it's possible the mirror and the table were incredibly smooth, pushing out all the air between them. This, he thought, could make the molecules on the table's surface attract the molecules on the mirror strongly enough to keep them stuck together, even when people tried to remove it.
Professor Peter Harbecht from the University of Detroit had a different idea. He thought that the patient's sweat from their hand might have caused a chemical reaction with the mirror's material, making it stick to the table.
Dr. Albert M. Barrett, who directs the state psychopathic hospital in Ann Arbor, had an even more unusual suggestion. He thought that hypnosis might be involved. He believed that the dying patient could have convinced his roommate, through hypnotic suggestion, that the mirror couldn't be lifted. This hypnotic belief could have spread to other people who heard about it.
Regardless of how the mirror stuck to the table, the fact that Derosier was able to predict that it would be stuck is mysterious in and off itself.
What do you think happened with Mr. Derosier and the cursed mirror? Let us know in the comments.
If you enjoyed this article you might be interested in other cursed objects such as the Cursed Painting by Svetlana Telets or Rudolph Valentino’s cursed ring.
