BY ROBERT MURCH
Did E.C. Reiche really invent the Ouija board? Yes? No? The board's still mum on that, but in 1891 Reiche convinced the directors of the Kennard Novelty Company he did.
Wait, What's that? You thought Charles Kennard invented the Ouija board? In order to wrap your head around Ouija's birth you have to understand that not everything is as it straightforward as it seems and the truth is only the truth of the person giving it.
Claim: Both Reiche and Kennard claimed to invent Ouija.
Fact: Talking Boards, which looked and worked just like the board which would become Ouija, popped up in Ohio in early 1886.
Fact: By mid-1886, a Massachusetts company by the name of the W.S. Reed Toy Company manufactured a "Witch Board" and sent it as a wedding gift to President Grover Cleveland who received it at the White House.
Fact: In 1919, Charles Kennard, through two letters to the “The Baltimore Sun” and the “Baltimore American,” claimed he invented the board that very same year.
So who the hell is E.C. Reiche and why should anyone care?
Reiche is a ghost who's been haunting me for over two decades. A few times I thought I'd had him, but then he'd slip through my fingers leaving me with nothing more than rumors and legends. At times I dismissed him and other times I believed.
That all changed a few months ago, when I tracked down his great-great grandchildren who heard the same stories I'd caught whispers of and, after digging, turned up this photo.