The Immortal Hour: The True Story of Netta Fornario

Product Information

Upon arriving and settling into her new abode, she promptly went about freaking everyone out with a series of odd and bizarre behavior. Back in 1929 there was just such a case, which involves the trifecta of a strange occultist, a mysterious island, and bizarre clues that have been unsolved to this day.

She secured lodging in the home of the McRae family, telling her own housekeeper that she would be gone indefinitely as she had “a terrible case of healing” to deal with.The revelation of that secret is done with technical wizardry, a marriage of film and theatre, which is a feature of the performance in this joint production between Moray-based Wildbird and Mull Theatre. Rebecca Sloyan, as Netta, could perhaps have made more of this script, and could have got away with being a bit more mad, but it’s probably better to understate this as she did, and leave us guessing, than to overdo it, or try to play for laughs.

As I’ve said before, Netta was the kind of person who would have seen signs and portents in everything, she may well have come to believe that somebody was out to get her. Not just because it is unsolved, but because of Netta’s lifestyle, and her deep involvment in Occult practices. A large cross had been etched into the turf on the ground with an ornamental knife that was found lying nearby, upon which Netta’s body was sprawled out, dressed in nothing but a thin black cloak.

Born in Cairo, Egypt in 1897, Netta Fornario was born to an English mother and an Italian father, and spent her first years in Italy before moving to London after the death of her mother in 1898, being put in the care of her maternal grandfather, a tea dealer by the name of Thomas Pratt Ling. She was 33 years of age, and the cause of her death was recorded as ‘exposure to the elements’, not heart failure as is often misquoted. Her body was found on a Fairy Mound on the South of Loch Staonaig, Iona (see map below) in mid November 1929. Obviously an ancient champion of equality) The women of the abbey builders had to stay on Woman’s Island (Eilean nam Ban).

A 1911 Census lists Nora Emily Fornario as being born in 1897, her mother English and her father Italian.Some reports noted that her feet and toes were cut, suggesting she was running, but running to where or from what? One wacky theory I found was that people are claiming Moina attacked Netta from beyond the grave by way of telepathic attacks. According to popular belief she did not especially get along with father who was a medical practitioner and Italian national. Emma tells us of the speculation around a cleansing ritual gone wrong and also of marks on the body that may suggest a more sinister end.