Anna Le Guillon Mitchel-Hedges

1907 - 2007  (100 years)

• Name	Anna Le Guillon Mitchel-Hedges
  Born	1907	, Ontario, Canada
  Gender	Female
  Famous	owner of crystal skull
  Interesting	owner of crystal skull
  Supernatural	skull
  Name	Sammy Mitchel-Hedges
  Residence	121 Massey Ave, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-66884
  Died	11 Apr 2007	, Indiana
  Person ID	I66884	Generations
  Last Modified	25 Apr 2024

  
  

  Father	Frederick Albert Mitchel-Hedges,   b. 1882,   d. 1959  (Age 77 years)
  Family ID	F17452	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos

  Anna Kitchell-Hedges Anna is shown with her famous crystal skull claimed to be found in 1924.

  
  

• Notes

  The Kitchener-Waterloo Record Newspaper , Oct 30, 1996 A life size human skull, exquisitely carved from solid rock crystal, is either a 100,000 year old magic treasure from Atlantis with tremendous powers, or a recent work of art that an eccentric English adventurer tried to pass off as an ancient Mayan "Skull of Doom". Either way, a near ninety Kitchener woman wants to use the skull, which attracts people, including famous movies stars, from around the world, to reintroduce Mayans to their culture. "Peter O'Toole sat with it for four hours, over there on the carpet - he wanted to lie down" says Anna Mitchell-Hedges, 89, as she shows the photo of O'Toole towering over her to prove it. Shirley MacLaine and William Shatner also have visited to see the strange object sitting a few feet away from her knees that she calls "The Skull of Love" but her father, F.A. (Frederick Albert) Mitchell-Hedges, an adventurer and writer of travel books, called the "Skull of Doom" that could bring sudden death to those that mocked it. "That was one of my father's jokes" Anna says. New agers have adopted the skull as an icon, and Anna travels with it, allowing believers to meditate with it. "The skull seems to bring people together" saying that many friendships and romances have sprung from people meeting at sessions with the skull. Anna, who was born in Ontario and adopted by Mitchell-Hedges, says she went with him as a young girl to British Honduras (now Belize) in South America, on an expedition to find traces of the legendary lost civilization of Atlantis, where she says she found the skull on her 17th birthday in a ruined Mayan city called Lubaantun in 1924. She said the Mayans who still live nearby allowed the Mitchell-Hedges to take the skull back to England, because they believe that the local government would have confiscated it. She said the Mayans told her the skull was of one of the chief high priest of Atlantis and was thousands of years old. "It could be used to will death" she said, but not in the way her father meant, who she said made up the "Skull of Doom" moniker to scare off robbers. Anna said the Mayans told her the skull could be used to transfer the knowledge of an elder to a younger person, when the elder was ready to die. Skeptics scoff at the Mitchell-Hedges claims. "It's clear that her father bought it off a collector" says Joe Nickell, a senior research fellow with the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, near Buffalo, New York, who in his book Secrets of the Supernatural shows that the skull was in the possession of Sydney Burney, an English art dealer, ( it was even featured in a magazine article with Burney listed as the owner ) until it was sold to Mitchell-Hedges for 400 pounds sometime in 1944, according to a note in the British Museum. There is no written mention that can be found of either of the Mitchell-Hedges discovering or possessing the skull until F.A. Mitchell-Hedges published his autobiography in 1954, and Nickell says that no other member of the expedition to Lubaantun mention the skull, or even say Anna was there. No certain idea was given for the skull origin or age. A similar skull in the British Museum was found earlier this year to have been made with modern tools. None the less, Anna Mitchell-Hedges say that when she returned to Lubaantun in 1989 and 1996, many of the Mayans recognized her, and one, Leonardo Acal, named his son after her father. Acal wanted to come to Canada to tour with the skull in order to get support to start a school teaching Mayan language and traditions to natives and visitors. _______________________ A Local legend The Kitchener skull that is purported to hold alien powers and the fate of mankind has again reared its valuable head The Kitchener skull that is purported to hold alien powers and the fate of mankind has again reared its valuable head May 21, 2008 by Colin Hunter In his upcoming return to the silver screen, Indiana Jones races a group of nefarious Commies through the Peruvian jungle in search of a mystical crystal skull. Perhaps Indy should have looked around Kitchener first. Kitchener is where, for the better part of a century, the world's most infamous crystal skull resided. The skull belonged to Anna Mitchell-Hedges, who spent much of her 100-year life running a motel on Victoria Street and playing hostess to the many new-agers and curiosity seekers who wanted to bask in the skull's strangeness. The skull, which author Arthur C. Clarke dubbed "the weirdest gem in the world," is the most pristine relic of its kind and surely helped inspire the sought-after object in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (in local theatres tomorrow). In fact, it has long been suggested (but never confirmed) that the Indiana Jones character was originally inspired by adventurer F.A. Mitchell-Hedges, Anna's adoptive father. What has been confirmed is this: in 1924, Anna accompanied her father on an excavation of Mayan ruins in the ancient city of Lubaantun, British Honduras. What follows is a matter of much debate. In Anna's version of the story, she spotted something glimmering in the ruins on New Year's Day, 1924. Because teenaged Anna was the smallest among the excavation crew, she was lowered by ropes into the ruins, where she grabbed the object, a skull carved from a single mass of quartz crystal. In his 1954 autobiography, Danger My Ally, F. A. Mitchell-Hedges wrote: "(The skull) is at least 3,600 years old and . . . has been described as the embodiment of all evil. I do not wish to try and explain this phenomenon." In the eight decades since its supposed discovery, however, many have tried to explain the phenomenon. Some believe the skull to be a powerful relic of Atlantean or even alien origins; others insist that all evidence points toward more terrestrial and mundane provenance. Among the strongest believers is Joshua Shapiro, a U.S. author who has written two books on the subject. "The crystal skull will be vital for the future of humanity," Shapiro said in a 2006 interview with The Record. Anna Mitchell-Hedges said the relic possesses the ability to foretell tragedy (she claimed it turned "cloudy" before the JFK assassination). She credited her longevity to the skull, and given that she reached her 100th birthday before her death last year, that assertion is tricky to argue. But many skeptics suggest the Mitchell-Hedges Skull is a powerless, albeit visually arresting, product of a 19th century jeweler's wheel. "It's a remarkable piece of craftsmanship, but that's all it is," said Joe Nickell, a paranormal investigator. In his research for an article in Skeptical Inquirer magazine, Nickell himself unearthed an intriguing relic: a 1943 auction receipt from Sotheby's in London, which documents the sale of a crystal skull by trinket dealer Sydney Burney to Anna's father. Anna had a ready explanation for the receipt: her father had given the skull to Burney, a long-time friend, as collateral for a loan. When Burney died, his son put the skull up for auction, and Mitchell-Hedges quickly bought it back. Further doubt was cast on the skull's alleged Mayan origins several years ago when researchers found evidence of 19th-century carving techniques on a remarkably similar crystal skull housed in the British Museum. Anna, who moved away from Kitchener in the early 1990s but retained close ties to the area, seemed unperturbed by such skepticism. In an 2006 interview with The Record, 98-year-old Anna said the skull was a powerful symbol of universal love and "a reason to live." The skull is now in the possession of Anna's long-time companion Bill Homann, a former karate instructor who lives in Indiana (rather fitting, given the name of Harrison Ford's iconic character). Homann, who did not return calls for this story, has stated that the makers of the new Indiana Jones film did not consult him about the skull, though he expects a resurgence of interest in the artifact after the movie's release. As a work of pure fiction, the film will likely contribute to the ever-evolving mythology behind crystal skulls. The truth about the Mitchell-Hedges Skull, unlike the skull itself, may never be crystal clear. The Waterloo Region Newspaper 21 May 2008

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 1907 - , Ontario, Canada Residence - - 121 Massey Ave, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Died - 11 Apr 2007 - , Indiana  = Link to Google Earth