THE CHAFFIN CASE. A TEST OF THE EXISTENCE OF THE AFTERLIFE

James L. Chaffin of Mocksville, North Carolina, was a farmer. Married and father of four children. He made himself responsible for some favoritism during the drafting of his testament, in 1905: he inherited the farm from his third son Marshall, also appointing him testamentary executor. Conversely, he disinherited his other children John, James and Abner, leaving his wife without any legacy.

Jim Chaffin died on September 7, 1921 following a fall from a horse. Marshall Chaffin, after inheriting the farm, died a few years later, leaving everything to his wife and son.
The mother and the remaining brothers did not contest Chaffin's wishes at the time of the succession, and so the matter remained muted for almost four years, until the spring of 1925.
Old Jim Chaffin's second son, James Pinkney Chaffin, was troubled by strange events: his father appeared to him in a dream, at the foot of the bed, looking at him as he had done in life, but in an unnatural and silent way.

This went on for a while until, in June, old Chaffin appeared to his son wearing his old black coat. Keeping the front of the cloak open and clearly visible, he spoke to his son for the first time: "You will find my will in the pocket of your overcoat".

Jim Chaffin disappeared and James awoke with the belief that his father was trying to tell him that somewhere there was a second testament that overturned the previous one.

James got up at dawn to go to his mother's house and look for his father's black coat. Unfortunately, Mrs. Chaffin had donated the coat to her older son, John, who had moved to another county.

Undaunted, James drove twenty miles in order to meet John. After reporting the strange episode to his brother, he found his father's coat to inspect him. They discovered that, inside, there was a secret pocket cut out in the front and carefully sealed. They opened it by carefully unstitching the lining and, inside, they found a sheet of paper wrapped and tied with string.

The sheet read a note, with the unmistakable handwriting of old Jim Chaffin, which invited him to read chapter 27 of the Genesis of his old Bible.

John was too busy at work and was unable to accompany his brother. So James went back to his mother's house without him. Along the way he invited a longtime friend, Thomas Blackwelder, to follow him to check the sequence of events.

Mrs Chaffin, at first, did not remember where she had placed her husband's Bible. In the end, after a meticulous search, the book was found in a chest placed in the attic.

The Bible was in poor condition, but Thomas Blackwelder managed to find the part where Genesis was and opened it in chapter 27. He found that two pages had been folded to form a pocket, and in that pocket there was a piece of paper carefully concealed. In the text, Jim Chaffin had written the following:

After reading Genesis chapter 27, I, James L. Chaffin, intend to express my last wishes. After giving my body a worthy burial, I want my small property to be equally divided among my four children if they are alive on my death; if they are not alive, their parts will go to their children. This is my testament. Witness my hand that seals it,

James L. Chaffin
January 16 1919.

According to the law of the time, a testament was to be considered valid if written by the testator, even without the presence of witnesses.

Genesis 27 tells the story of how Jacob, the youngest son of the biblical patriarch Isaac, received the blessing of his father and disinherited his older brother Esau. In the will of 1905, Chaffin had left everything to his third son Marshall. However, in 1919 Chaffin had read and taken the biblical story to heart.

Marshall had died three years later and Chaffin's last wishes had been discovered later. The three brothers and Mrs. Chaffin, therefore, filed a complaint against Marshall's widow to recover the farm and distribute the goods equally as ordered by the father. Mrs. Marshall Chaffin, of course, objected.

The trial date was set for early December 1925. About a week before the trial opened, James Chaffin was visited again in a dream by his father. This time the old man seemed quite agitated and asked him angry "Where is my old testament"?

James reported this dream to his lawyers, saying that he believed it to be a positive sign for the outcome of the trial.

On the day of the hearing, Marshall Chaffin's widow was able to view the will drawn up in 1919, recognizing the calligraphy of the father-in-law. As a result, he ordered his lawyers to withdraw the counter-lawsuit. Finally, the two sides communicated that they had reached a friendly solution, on the basis of the conditions established in the second testament.

Old Jim Chaffin never appeared to his son in a dream again. Apparently he had obtained what he was looking for: to repair a wrong after reading the story of a sacred text.

The Jim Chaffin affair is well known in North Carolina and is widely documented. It represents one of the most striking demonstrations on the existence of the afterlife and on the possibility of communicating with the deceased.