Fearless Evatima - “a woman without feelings” and her unusual abilities (8 photos)

For her, snake bites were painless pinches, serious injuries were a gentle stroke. Even the crucifixes, before which the most courageous and fearless bowed, meant nothing to this woman.





The small group of doctors, journalists and friends who had gathered for the demonstration that morning in 1898 leaned forward, eager to get a look at what the New York Times called "the strangest woman in the world."



Entering the room, Evatima walked up to the cross and shook it, testing its strength before getting down to business. As she thrust her hands into the low drawer, the hiss of rattlesnakes echoed through the hall. One of them sank its teeth into her bare arm, and the doctor exclaimed, “Oh my God!” Evatima was not taken aback, pulled out three more and smiled blissfully as they sank their fangs into her flesh.

She then pulled out the cobra, which bit the girl fiercely. Evatima just smiled again. No blood came from her wounds, only tiny blue puncture marks remained. One of the doctors said that 20 people should have died from these bites. Evatima, however, was quite alive.

The snakes returned to their boxes, Evatima approached the cross, and one brave medic took an iron spike and drove it into the artist’s raised hand, a few centimeters below the fingers.

Evatima hung there for an hour, asking the doctors to inject her with more pins. One went through the tongue, the other through the biceps. When she came down from the cross, the wounds were white and gelatinous - something like fish fillets.

Mystery Girl



The exhibition before a small crowd in Chicago was just one of several that Evatima Tardo staged in doctors' offices, Masonic temples, lecture halls and museums.

Crowds of people came to see the woman who said she felt no pain, for whom snake venom was like wine or whiskey, who claimed she could stop her own circulation and dislocate her own neck. Which was obviously protected from poison and disease.

“I really like being crucified,” she once said. “It amuses me to see the faces of my viewers distorted with horror. There are up to ten fainting spells at each session, but they never stop coming back to see me again.”



Evatima (real name Eva Kennedy) was born in Trinidad in the 1870s. At the age of five, the girl was bitten by a large cobra, which shocked her parents. But instead of ending the baby’s life, the bite had the effect of a strong sleeping pill. She fell asleep for 30 hours and woke up looking like new.

Since then, she has been bitten by all kinds of poisonous reptiles, but to no avail. She did not have a single attack of illness or even mild discomfort.

Milk theory



Harry Houdini

In his 1920 book The Miracle Workers and Their Methods, Houdini wrote about the performer: “For the simple reason that I was working 12 feet from her, my statement that there was absolutely no falsehood in her astonishing performance can be taken with with all seriousness."

Houdini believed in dairy products: “After many years of research, I became convinced that this immunity to snake venom was the result of an absolutely empty stomach, into which, soon after the wound was inflicted, a large quantity of milk was taken.”

Medical version



Some doctors in Minneapolis believed that she used a combination of anesthetic and willpower, after which they concluded that there was no anesthetic strong enough on earth. Others believed that she had somehow hypnotized herself.

The explanation of Dr. William J. Byrnes, who examined the artist in Minneapolis, was more logical than others. "Ms. Tardo is certainly what she claims to be - a woman with no feelings," he wrote in a press statement. “I attribute her current abnormal condition to the cobra bite she received when she was a baby. This bite paralyzed the sensory nerves and infected her body with poison.”



He explained that the cobra probably had only a small amount of venom in its system - enough to paralyze but not kill. And this small dose made the girlimmune to poison, just as some vaccinate their bodies against poison in small doses over time. Another doctor compared this situation to vaccination against smallpox.

Perhaps Evatima had a genetic mutation that would affect her ability to experience pain. Although this doesn't explain her ability to tolerate poison or how she seemed to be able to control her blood circulation.

Killing feelings and an unexpected sad outcome



Although the newspapers wrote that she could be an angel or a demon, Evatima was quite an earthly mortal woman. Beautiful, witty, fluent in several languages, she attracted many fans. In the end, it was feelings that turned out to be more deadly for the girl than any poison or nail.

She was drinking at the Arcansaw Club saloon with owner Hal B. Williamson when it happened. A railroad special agent named Thomas McCall fell in love with Evatima, but on that day in May 1905, a fortune teller told him that another man was standing in his way. Enraged and drunk, McCall shot and killed Williamson and Evatima, putting a bullet through her heart. Five hours later he committed suicide.

In a chest in the saloon, while sorting out Evatima's belongings, statements were found from George Middleton, manager of the Chicago coin museum, where she performed with Houdini. One statement read: “We had a standing offer of $20,000 to anyone who could replicate Evatima's performance. She was the brightest and most attractive pearl that has ever performed for us.”

Evatima Tardo has gone down in history as one of the most charming and mysterious artists of the 19th century. Whether her talents were due to a genetic anomaly, hypnosis, or a well-timed snakebite, she gave performances the likes of which the world had never seen before or since.