Mansion fire tied to occult intruder?
Investigators find evidence of possible seance in vacant Tampary house
By MIKE PERRY
Staff Reporter

MALBIS -- Evidence indicates that the early Sunday fire that damaged a
78-year-old mansion here may have started from candles used by people
trying to communicate with the dead, an investigator said Monday.
Baldwin County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. John Murphy said that
partly burned candles -- indicative of a "seance" -- and graffiti were
found in the attic of the Tampary Mansion, near the intersection of
Alabama 181 and U.S. 90.
Murphy said the Tampary family had been contacted recently by someone
who claimed to have studied the occult. He said that person also knew
that the mansion was frequented by people who went there to attempt to
commune with a purported "ghost of Malbis."

The Tampary Mansion was constructed in 1928 and served as the home of
C.P. and Alexandra Tampary. They came to Malbis at the request of Jason
Malbis, a Greek immigrant who helped found the community at the turn of
the 20th century.
Alexandra Tampary died about two years ago, and Murphy said the home had
not been occupied since. Since her death, looters have stolen paintings,
light fixtures and other antiques worth thousands of dollars from the
home, he said.

"It was a fully furnished home two years ago," Murphy said. "People have
even gone in and tried to steal the wallpaper from the house."
The Alabama Fire Marshal's office and the sheriff's department are
continuing their investigation of the fire, first reported about
midnight Saturday. It burned several hours Sunday morning before being
brought under control by Daphne and Spanish Fort area firefighters,
Murphy said.
Murphy said the fire apparently had a manmade origin. "There was no
electricity in the residence, and no lightning had occurred in the area
around that time," he said.

Tony Tampary, the grandson of the home's original inhabitants, said his
family had not been able to maintain the mansion since his grandmother
died.
Tampary said his Greek grandfather and Romanian grandmother moved to
Malbis to help Jason Malbis build the farming community. He said it's a
shame that intruders had looted and partly destroyed the home where he
and his brother, Constantine, were born.

"It was more than just someone coming in and doing random damage," he
said. "Somebody has been going in there and systematically stealing all
of what was left of the antiques. There were some things of great value
in there."
Tampary said the mansion also was under contract to be sold. The buyer
planned to restore it into a tourist attraction or a bed-and-breakfast
establishment, he said.
"We don't know how this is going to affect those plans. It will probably
make it that much more difficult to sell," he said.

An adjacent building that once housed bachelor's quarters, which served
as the residence for men who lived and worked on the historic
plantation, also was damaged and sprayed with graffiti recently, he
said.

"These are historic buildings, and the people who are doing this should
not be in there," Murphy said. "We are doing close patrols in efforts to
catch these people, and when we do, they will be charged with whatever
crime they are committing."