Niccolo Paganiniwas possibly the greatest violinist of all time. In Italy he was known as the "wonder-child" by the time he was only 13 years old. Thirty years later, he had reached legendary status across Europe.”1
“As a child in Genoa, Niccolo's father forced him to learn the violin at a very early age. His father dreamt that someday, Niccolo's violin playing would make him wealthy. His father savagely would not let Niccolo rest or play; he was constantly practicing. The relentless lessons and practice gave him rapid progress.

The almost supernatural or magic art of Nicolo Paganini was often speculated upon, never understood. The sensation he produced upon his audience was marvellous, overpowering. The great Rossini wept like a sentimental German maiden, upon hearing him play for the first time. The Princess Eliza of Lucca, sister of the great Napoleon, though he was in her service as the director of her private orchestra, was for a long time unable to hear him play without fainting. In women he produced nervous fits and hysterics at his will; stout-hearted men he drove to frenzy. He changed cowards into heroes, and made the bravest soldiers become as nervous girls. Thousands of dreary tales.

He had experienced great difficulties in refuting certain rumours of his having murdered his wife, and after her, his mistress, both of whom loved him passionately. Their unquiet souls, it was whispered, had been made through his magic art to pass into his violin—the famous “Cremona:” superstition not utterly ungrounded in view of his extraordinary facility in drawing out of his instrument the most unearthly sounds, and positively human voices. These effects well-nigh startled his audiences into terror; and, if we add to it the impenetrable mystery connected with a certain period of his youth, we will find the wild tales told of him in a measure excusable; especially among a people whose ancestors knew the Borgias and Medici of black art fame.

What seemed to reinforce the rumors of Paganini forming a pact with the Devil(or being the son of the Devil) was his countenance. One description of his features says: "his pale, long-drawn face with its hollow cheeks, his thin lips that seemed to curl into a sardonic smile, piercing expression fo his eyes which were like flaming charcoals, gave him a diabolic appearance...". The "nail in the coffin", so to speak, was that Paganini refused to see a Bishop that had come to give him the final sacraments when he was on his deathbed. Paganini shooed him away, insisting he was not dying at all. When he did die, the church refused to allow him to be buried on holy ground. Instead, he was buried in a pauper’s grave outside of the city limits in the middle of the night in an unmarked grave for fear that witches would try to unearth his body in an attempt to ‘steal’ his magic powers.It wasn’t until five years after his death, Paganini's son managed to convince the Pope to allows his father's body to be buried on holy ground