Zania Zemona

Trollkarlen Zania Zemona/Johny Lindell (1922”“1979) var en fascinerande mytoman där gränsen mellan verklighet och fantasi var flytande. Det fick nog bl.a. Svensk Magisk Cirkels dåvarande president erfara när han skrivit på pappren för hans deltagande i världsmästerskaptävlingarna i Amsterdam 1970… Nedan lite material om Zania Zemona ur Håkan Blomqvists blogg http://ufoarchives.blogspot.com/ 

In January 1968 Gösta Johansson happened to meet the famous stage magician Johny Lindell on a parking place south of Stockholm and as he knew Johny was interested in UFOs Gösta showed his copy of the signs on the metal plate and explained that he didn´t know what was up or down in the script. Without any hesitation Johny said “you start reading here” and then he pulled out his business card and wrote down something with similar script, signing the message ZZ, which was the initials for his stage magician namne Zania Zemona. But he also said: There are a few dots missing here. Either it has been copied carelessly or there is some other fault.” According to Johny the plate was a sort of identification card and the signs represented mountains and rivers. Later Gösta Johansson showed the message written by Johny to Rickard Höglund who said: “Yes we know of this writing. We have interpreted it fairly well but there are a few dots we don´t understand”.

The signs on the metal plate given to Rickard by the aliens

The Johny Lindell business card with his stage name Zania Zemona

 

The signs written by Johny Lindell on the back of his card

Johny Lindell was not only a famous stage magician but also claimed to be in contact with aliens and working for them. He had his own metal plate received by the aliens. The Swedish psychometric medium Anna Lykke tested Johny´s metal plate in 1967 by holding it in her hand. According to Gösta Johansson she recieved such a chock that she fainted. When she woke up she said: “This was the most gruesome thing I have ever held. There is a mafia connected to this metal. If Johny tells me to work for him I will have no alternative.” According to Johny Lindell the aliens he was involved with were really a form of mafia. There were two extraterrestrial mafia groups operating on Earth, one was called Brothers of the Axe and the other Z. The ordinary eartbound mafia had to pay them money. All this was probably pure fantasy by Johny but a fascinating coincidence is that Rickard and Gunvor Höglund, for a short while in the 1960s, really worked in the home of Mr. Louis (Lou) Chesler in Nassau, Bahamas, having been hired by the Swedish businessman Hans Bratt. Chesler was the front man for famous organized crime figure Meyer Lansky.

So who was Johny Lindell? With good help from Christer Nilsson of Sveriges Magi-Arkiv (The Swedish Magic Archives) and documents from AFU I have been able to ascertain a few facts. Johny Lindell (1922-1979) became fascinated by stage magic already in school. He began a professional career as a stage magician entertaining audiences with spectacular magic tricks. For many years he regularly performed for the Swedish Royal family at Christmas. He toured in Sweden and several European countries and also showed his talents on Swedish television. Johny Lindell was married two times and had three daughters.
Johny Lindell 1963.

Johny Lindell med sin fru Maria da Conceica Dos Santos

In 1984 I interviewed one of his old partners, Ann-Marie Jönsson. She was a motorcycle acrobat and between 1958-1963 they had a show together including stage magic. Ann-Marie hired Johny for the show and for several years they travelled together and during these years she came to know him quite well. Ann-Marie didn´t know what to think of all the stories she heard from Johny. He claimed to have been in the Himalaya meditating but also having been a member of the French Foreign Legion. She believed this to be true as he showed her documents from his involvement. He told of having witnessed a UFO landing in the USA and to be in contact with aliens. Ann-Marie believed some of his stories to be fantasies or exaggerations but she sometimes experienced a nasty or wicked “aura” or radiance from him.
Södernyheterna March 22, 1973

The Swedish ufologist Christer Janson was a good friend of John Lindell. They were both members of Ifologiska sällskapet (The Ifological Society) in the 1960s and spent many evenings together where Johny told of his involvement with an alien group called Z (Zäta). When I interviewed Christer Janson in August 1986 he mentioned that Johny openly told him that not everything he said was the truth. Johny Lindell was a member of UFO-Sweden until his death in 1978. He was active in the UFO group Solna Astronomiska Förening (SAF) and sometimes performed his magic tricks during meetings. On December 1, 1976 Johny Lindell was interviewed in the local newspaper Södernyheterna as a representative of UFO-Sweden. To the journalist he stated: “There is a lot of evidence. We have no idea where they come from but they are real, that is for sure.” There were several people who were afraid of Johny Lindell and his strange tales. Psychometric medium Anny Lykke believed he worked for some mafia organization and he told one of his friends he was involved in the gambling and porn industry. Swedish contactee Rickard Höglund said “Johny was evil”. It is hard to determine what was the truth or fiction in the fantastic world of stage magician Johny Lindell. He was a fantasy prone personality and also a riddle.