PLATO ZORBA
Real
Name: Plato
Cyrus Zorba
Occupation:
Parapsychologist
Known
Relatives:
Cyrus (nephew), Hilda (niece-in-law), Medea (grand-niece), Benjamin (“Buck,”
grand-nephew), Jean (grandniece-in-law), Robert (“Bobby,”
great-grandnephew), Kathy (great-grandniece),
Base
of Operations:
Los Angeles, California
First
Appearance:
Thirteen Ghosts (1960/2001)
History:
Plato Zorba was a prominent psychologist in the early 1940s, but in the heyday
of Hollywood, he traveled to California from the East Coast to make horror
movies. His interest in the paranormal however shifted him into investigating
true accounts of the paranormal and he became one of the first known experts in
parapsychology. Many of his colleagues and fellow scientists began to soon cast
doubts on his professionalism as Zorba began incorporating and mixing legendary
occult mysticism and supernatural belief with traditional parapsychological
methods. He created a sophisticated pair of glasses that reportedly helped him
to see ghosts and even tampered with movie making sound equipment to record
sounds inaudible to the human ear. He also made several attempts to contact the
heirs of Thomas Edison as well as the ghost of Edison himself in order to get
the plans to a machine to contact the spirit world, which the great inventor was
supposedly working on before his death. With psychic Elaine Zacharides and his
assistant Dennis Rafkin, Zorba traveled the world visiting haunted houses as far
away as Europe and the Far East. One location that always fascinated him was
Vannacutt Sanitarium near Los Angeles where Dr. Richard Vannacutt experimented
on his patients and later burned to death in an incredible fire in 1931.
In the later years of his life, Zorba
became a recluse in his home and sometimes babbled to his lawyer Benjamin Rush
that he had stumbled into secrets that he was not supposed to know. Believing
the ghosts he had spent years chasing were haunting him, he confined himself up
in his home. Whether it was his own doing is a matter of debate, but Zorba had
brought to his California home a relic, possession, keepsake or detached body
part that had supposedly belonged to every spirit he had explored. He allowed
visits from virtually no one, but filmmaker William Castle sometimes came to him
to get inspiration and ideas for the horror movies he was creating. Just before
his death, Zorba became irrational and didn’t trust anyone anymore. He
converted all his accounts into cash and concealed the money throughout hidden
and inconspicuous parts through his house. In November of 1960, he passed away
peacefully in his sleep of what was believed to be a heart attack, but a year
later, speculatory evidence proved he might have been murdered and suffocated by
Ben Rush.
Zorba’s
family inherited the house after his death and confirmed the existence of the
ghosts haunting the old edifice afterward. Their story was made into a
sensationalistic movie in 2001 although much of the actual names, motivations
and facts actually ended up altered and embellished.
Comments:
F. Murray Abraham portrayed Plato Cyrus Zorba in the 2001 movie, 13 Ghosts
(Thir13en Ghosts).
Vannacutt
Sanitarium
from House on Haunted Hill (1958/1999)
William Castle (1914-1977)