By LIZ SURBECK
VOICE CORRESPONDENT
Published Tuesday, October 31, 2006
The eighth-period bell rings.
Chemistry students rush into their seats just as their teacher, Scott Maruna, finishes looking into the sink on his front desk. Facing up, a large computer monitor rests in the sink?s basin.
A junior male cheerfully asks what he?s working on, and Maruna replies that it?s nothing much. Though they remain silent, his students couldn?t disagree with him more.
Maruna, a chemistry, physics, geometry and religion teacher at Routt Catholic High School in Jacksonville, is a writer of the paranormal and ?just plain weird? stories around central Illinois. His latest book is called ?Unexplained Mysteries of Jacksonville and the Surrounding Areas,? published by Swamp Gas Book Co.
?He?s really in-depth about everything and he created a really good learning atmosphere ?,? says Justin Coop, a Routt sophomore. He paused for a moment and added with a smile, ?Plus he?s really smart.?
Ghosts haunting college campuses, large birds trying to carry off small children and human sacrifices ? all supposedly occurring in the area ? are just a few of the unusual tales Maruna tells in his book.
?When we?ve lost our weirdness, we?ve lost a significant color within the palette of life,? he says.
Maruna?s interest in the paranormal dates back to his childhood. As a teen, he wasn?t fond of reading many subjects except the paranormal, though with time, that interest began to fade.
Later in college, as he was earning his degree in biology, he began to study parapsychology, which involves phenomenon such as telepathy, telekinesis and ESP. That re-ignited his desire to approach the paranormal, but this time he did so with a scientific mind.
Five years ago, Maruna began investigating the ?Mad Gasser,? a ?phantom anesthetist? who targeted young women in his hometown of Mattoon during 1944. Originally, science classified the incident as a case of mass hysteria.
Through his research, however, he learned of a local man named Farley Llewellyn, a chemistry graduate from the University of Illinois who had the means to manufacture and use the gas with his own equipment.
With his research in tow, Maruna published his first book, ?The Mad Gasser of Mattoon.?
A short time later, he wrote ?The Curious Person?s Guide to the History and Mystery of the Piasa Bird,? a book on the Native American legend, the Piasa bird ? a monstrous, mythical beast in Alton. While working on ?Piasa Bird,? Maruna also began his recently released work.
For that book, Maruna figured the most interesting part to his readers would be the ghost stories around central Illinois, such as old and recent reports from both MacMurray College and Illinois College, and from houses and old buildings in the surrounding areas. His favorite part is the section on cougar, ?black panther,? Big Foot and giant bird sightings.
To find his stories, Maruna asked around and read old documents. The ghost stories were the easiest, he said.
?The students know all the stories,? he said, indicating the Routt student body he teaches. As he asked them what stories and legends they knew from older siblings and parents, almost all of them recalled tales about places like an old haunted road called Magical Mystery Lane and cemetery sites like Jacksonville?s stone ?witch?s chairs.?
Most of his research involved tracking down people referred to him by another person. The rest come from Maruna?s hobby of looking through old articles in the local archives and other written sources at the libraries surrounding the Jacksonville area. He accumulated articles of one certain subject, he said, until there was enough good information for a book.
So, what?s next?
?There are always more stories than there are in my book,? Maruna said with a smile. ?It always comes to me. I keep getting this stuff.?
He pointed to the array of articles and notes on his desk. Some were old looking and others just printed off of the computer. He promised that whatever will come next, it will be about Illinois and it definitely will be weird.
Elizabeth Surbeck is a junior at Routt Catholic High School. Send feedback to voice@sj-r.com or leave a comment at www.sj-r.com/voice.
http://www.sj-r.com/voice/story.asp?SID=3543
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