ALABAMA:
Carrollton
Pickens County Courthouse.
No one really knew who set the fire that
burnt down the original Carrollton Courthouse on November 16, 1876. But everyone
blamed Henry Wells, a rowdy black man who lived outside of town. The sheriff
arrested him and held him in the attic of a building that was to become the new
courthouse. One afternoon in February 1878, a lynch mob gathered in front of the
new courthouse and demanded that Wells be turned over to them. As a violent
thunderstorm approached the town, Wells peered out at the crowds through the
garret window at the top of the building. Suddenly, a lightening bolt struck the
roof, killing Wells. The flash of brilliant light etched his defiant expression
into the window pane, and no amount of scrubbing or solvents in the decades
since has been able to erase it. And on those when thunderstorms roll through
Pickens County, it is said the ghost of Henry Wells stares out from the garret
window of the old courthouse. (Carrollton is 30 miles west of Tuscaloosa in
Pickens County, at the intersection of Hwys 17 and 86. The face of Henry Wells
can still be seen in lower right-hand pane in the garret window of the Pickens
County Courthouse.)
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ALASKA:
Skagway
Golden North Hotel.
There are two ghosts that haunt this old
hotel. Employees have nicknamed one of them "Mary." They believe she is the
spirit of a young lady who died of pneumonia in her room, while waiting for her
fiancé to return from a gold-prospecting expedition. She still haunts Room 23,
where ghostly images of a woman have appeared and guests have complained of
choking sensations in the middle of the night. Room 14 is haunted by a
strange "light form" that moves around in the room at night. Nobody knows who,
or what, it represents. (Skagway is 100 miles north of Juneau and is most
easily accessible by boat or plane. From Whitehorse in the Yukon, follow Hwy 2
south to the town The three-story Golden North hotel has a corner cupola facing
Main Street.)
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ARIZONA:
Jerome
Community Center.
Locals call their community center "Spook
Hall," because of the phantom of a prostitute seen there. The ghost from the
front of the building to a few feet from the Little Daisy Hotel, where
she disappears. The area used to be the site of the "cribs," small shacks used
by prostitutes to entertain their clients. One of the women, who was
accidentally stabbed during an argument between two miners, stills walks the
street. Jerome was established in 1876, and a billion dollars worth of gold,
silver, and copper were mined from the area in 77 years. There are so many
ghosts here that a monthly newspaper called the "Jerome Ghost Post" was
published for a time. But the town still offers such interesting diversions as
the "Spirit Room Bar" and the "Haunted Hamburger" restaurant. (Jerome is on
Hwy 89A, on the side of Mingus Mountain overlooking Verde Valley, at an
elevation of 5,000 feet. Follow Hwy 89A from either Prescott or Sedona for about
25 miles to the town. For information, contact the Jerome Chamber of Commerce,
Box K, Jerome, AZ 86331. Phone: 520-634-2900.)
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ARKANSAS:
Eureka Springs
Crescent Hotel.
A room in this 78-year-old resort hotel is
haunted by the ghost of Michael, an Irish stonemason who worked on the hotel in
1885. The man fell from the roof and died in the second floor area which became
Room 218. Now he plays tricks with the lights and TV, or pounds loudly
from inside the thick walls in the room. But there are other spirits here. The
ghost of a nurse dressed in white has been reported on the third floor. Another
ghost here is a gentleman in Victorian clothing who haunts the lobby. He has
been spotted at the bottom of the stairway and sitting at the lobby bar. Other
apparitions have been sighted in Room 202 and Room 424. Built in
the early 1800s, the resort hotel was used as a college in the 1920s and became
a somewhat controversial hospital/health resort in the late 1930s. The confused
ghost of Doctor Baker, the charlatan who ran the hospital in the 1930s, has been
seen in the old Recreation Room and at the foot of the first floor
stairway. (The town of Eureka Springs is in the extreme northwest corner of
Arkansas in Carroll County, near Beaver Lake at the intersection of Hwy 23 and
U.S. Hwy 62. The building used to house the Baker Hospital. Crescent Hotel,
Eureka Springs, AR 72632. Phone: 501-253-9766.)
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CALIFORNIA:
Long Beach
Queen Mary Hotel.
This ocean liner, now permanently docked at
the Port of Long Beach, was commissioned in 1936 and made over a thousand
Atlantic crossings. Many incidents of strange rapping noises, moving objects,
disembodied voices, and ghostly apparitions have been reported by staff, guests,
and investigators on the dry docked ship. The First Class Swimming Pool
is haunted by the ghosts of two women who drowned there. One is dressed in 1960s
clothing and the other wears 1930s attire. The forlorn ghost of a little boy who
fell overboard near the pool has also been sighted in the passageway there. For
some unknown reason, many psychics have had detected strongly negative feelings
in the Changing Rooms at the end of the pool. The old first class lounge,
now know as the Queens Salon, is haunted by the ghost of a beautiful
woman in a flowing white dress. Unexplainable balls of light and the apparition
of a black-haired man in a 1930s suit have been seen by tour guides in the
First Class Suite area. The Forward Storage Room, where the
ship’s archives are kept, is haunted by the sounds of children playing.
Inexplicable pounding sounds have been recorded near the Bosun’s Locker,
which is the area of the hull which sliced the British Light Cruiser Curacoa
in half during World War II. Because of her wartime sailing orders, the Queen
Mary was not allowed to stop to rescue survivors, and 338 men perished in
the cold ocean. The Tourist Class Swimming Pool is haunted by the
presence of a woman who drowned in it, and the third-level Cabin B340 is
haunted by a murdered purser and is no longer rented out because of unexplained
disturbances there. Poltergeist activity has been reported in the Kitchen,
where a cook was murdered during World War II. It is said his cooking was so
terrible that it caused a riot among troops being carried to the front. The
violence quickly got out of hand and the cook ended up stuffed inside an oven
and burned to death. His ghastly screams were somehow impregnated into the
ship's iron bulkhead and are sometimes replayed to startled visitors. The ghosts
in the ship’s Morgue could have any of a number of identities. Sixteen
crewmembers, two G.I.s and 31 passengers have died on the ship. But the most
documented sighting is the apparition of an 18-year-old crewman, John Pedder.
Pedder was crushed to death while trying to slip through an automatically
closing door in Shaft Alley during a routine watertight drill on July 10,
1966. It was hatchway Door #13. Another crewman allegedly haunting the
Queen Mary is Senior 2nd Officer William Stark. He was accidentally poisoned
in 1949, when he drank tetrachloride that the staff captain kept in an old gin
bottle. So far, over fifty witnesses have reported paranormal happenings on this
ship, and the list keeps growing. (The Queen Mary Hotel and Museum is berthed
at Pier J in the Port of Long Beach. The mailing address is: The Queen Mary,
1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach, CA 90802-6390. Call 310-435-3511 for
information or 800-437-2934 for reservations.)
Sacramento
An investigation of the Crocker
Art Museum in Sacramento in October 2002 yielded significant evidence of a
haunting. Read the full investigative report with photos by clicking on
"Pictures" below.
Recent investigations of the Sacramento Theatre Company at 1419 H Street in downtown Sacramento have documented strong paranormal activity. Several anomalous light patterns recorded on infrared film at the same time two psychics were holding a meditative séance to conjure up spirits. At 3:00 AM in secure section of the auditorium, disembodied footsteps were recorded on audio tape. The 50-year-old vaudeville stage is home to a ghost that employees have named Pinky — because of the pinkish aura it manifests. The apparition has been seen on numerous occasions and is even credited with warning electricians of the impending collapse of an overhead lightbar. Several people could have been seriously injured had they not evacuated the area because of Pinky's ghost. In the last four years, psychics have detected the presence of five other spirits in the building.
San Francisco
Clanging sounds, screams, and crying can
be heard in Cell Block B and the basement area near Cell Block A on
Alcatraz, the
former island prison, in San Francisco Bay. Disturbances in Cell Block C became
so frequent that the Park Service called in psychics to figure out what was
going on. They traced the activity to the violent spirit of Abie Maldowitz, a
mob hit man with the nickname of “Butcher,” who was killed by another inmate in
the laundry room. In the shower room, the sounds of mobster Al Capone practicing
the banjo can sometimes be heard. Over in Cell Block D, strange voices have
emanate from cells 11, 12, and 13, and even in the summer months, cell 14 feels
ice cold, and many visitors are overcome by emotion in one corner of the cell.
This was the tiny quarters where killer Rufe McCain was kept in solitary
confinement for over three years.
More hauntings are reported in the Russian Hill area of San Francisco than any other section of the city. The old cemetery there, now buried under tons of concrete construction, might be the source of the manifestations. At least a few of those lost souls seem to have found a home in the tower of the San Francisco Art Institute at 800 Chestnut Street. The monastic tower, which is adjacent to the cemetery site, has been considered haunted for fifty years. Bill Morehouse, a former student, was taking a break on the tower's third level when he heard footsteps coming up the stairs. He watched in disbelief as the door opened and closed, and the invisible footsteps went past him to the observation deck. Other students, a watchman, and a janitor have also encountered apparitions climbing the stairs of the tower. During remodeling of the tower, workers reported an evil presence that caused "breaking sounds", and three near-fatal accidents occurred. A group of psychics attempted to contact the presence during a seance, but they only succeeded in verifying the presence of many "frustrated" spirits.
San Francisco's old Fort Mason is no longer used to house military personnel, and the ghosts there are from the era before the houses were taken over by the government. Something from before the Civil War still resides in the old, two-story, white frame house known as Quarters Three. The quaint house, near the corner of Franklin Street and McDowell Avenue, was where U.S. Senator David Broderick died from a gunshot wound he received in a duel with State Supreme Court Justice David Terry. The year was 1857. Justice Terry, an influential Southerner, wanted California to become a slave state. Senator Broderick was a tireless critic of a state law that declared freed slaves as fugitives, the property of anyone who apprehended them. When the two men faced each other, Broderick's gun went off accidentally as he drew it from his holster. Terry fired anyway, striking the Senator in the chest. Three days later, Broderick died at the home of his close friend, Leonides Haskell. The Senator had spent the night before the duel at Haskell's house, where he paced about fretfully all night. The house was later confiscated by the Union Army and remains military quarters to this day. Many of the officers who lived there have seen the Broderick's ghost pacing back and forth, reliving his anguish the night before the confrontation. Capt. James Lunn's family reported disembodied shadows moving back and forth in the parlor. Colonel Cecil Puckett felt someone following him around the house, even watching him in the shower. Capt. Everett Jones and his family experienced a variety of poltergeist activity -- until they stopped joking about the ghost. According to Capt. James Knight: "There's no doubt the house was haunted."
One of San Francisco's most haunted residences is Atherton House. After the death of her husband in 1880, Dominga Atherton moved from her country estate to the city by the bay. The huge house at 1990 California Street became the residence of Dominga, her daughter Gertrude, and son-in-law George. The two ladies dominated George and ridiculed him publicly as "the weaker sex". In 1887, in an attempt to get away from his feminine oppressors, George accepted an invitation to visit friends in Chile. As it turned out, George was weaker than even the women suspected. After only a few days at sea, he died of kidney failure. Not knowing what to do with the dead body, the captain of the vessel had George's carcass preserved in a barrel of rum and transferred to another ship back to San Francisco. Unfortunately, the barrel arrived before the letter from the captain explaining what had happened. When barrel was delivered, a surprised butler discovered his master pickled in rum. The ladies became hysterical and it was weeks before they found out how George died. During that time the ladies started feeling that there were more spirits in that barrel than just rum. Eventually convinced of George's lingering presence, they sold the mansion. The house changed hands many times, but in 1923 it became a public boarding house. Today, many tenants live there unaware of the mansion's checkered past. Others have found the place most uninviting. Some former tenants have told of roaming cold spots, disembodied screeching voices, and unexplained knocking at their doors. One boarder moved out after seeing a bevy of apparitions in the tower apartment. A seance conducted by researcher Antoinette May and medium Sylvia Brown revealed four presences. One was the frail spirit of George. The others were the nagging ghosts of Dominga, Gertrude, and the lady who ran the boarding house in the 1920's.
The red sandstone building at 2090 Jackson Street in San Francisco is known as a survivor. Not only did it survive the 1906 earthquake, when other buildings around it crumbled, but some say that the spirit of its original owner survived his own death. William Franklin Whittier's residence was completed in 1896, yet something in the basement of his mansion keeps bringing him back. His ghostly form has been sighted in the musty cellar several times. Whittier was an active member of San Francisco's business community right up until his death in 1917 at the age of 85. His family sold his mansion in 1938 to the Deutsche Reich, and it became the city's German Consulate. After the war, Mortimer Adler's Philosophical Institute used the building as a retreat for scholars and great thinkers. Finally, in 1956, the California Historical Society acquired the house for its headquarters. Over the years, several people have encountered a shadowy outline in the basement or felt an ice-cold presence there. Most believe it is Whittier's ghost, but former docent Mary Dierickx says: "My theory is that the ghost is his ne'er-do-well son, Billy. The presence is often felt in the basement near the servant quarters, and Billy lived for wine, women, and song."
If you ever check into the Mansions Hotel in San Francisco, be sure to remember to tell the desk clerk that I want a Non-Haunting Room. The hotel consists of two magnificent mansions connected by a common lobby. The newer mansion is free of ghosts. The older one is haunted. If you want to get any sleep, stay in the newer one. The hotel documents its uncanny history in a display that includes affidavits of witnesses, transcripts of seances, and photographs. For years, guests have complained about strange noises, cold shadows moving about, and even toilet seats flying across the room. Last year, researcher Antoinnette May held a Ouija-board seance in a large third floor suite. Before long, an apparition appeared in front of a half-dozen witnesses. The ghost's photograph is now part of the hotel's haunted gallery. In July 1992, a scientific survey conducted by parapsychologist Loyd Auerbach discovered powerful forces in the old section. "The magnetometer went crazy," said Auerbach, "The whole building is active." The results confirmed the impressions of psychic Sylvia Brown, who has sensed numerous spirits in the hotel, especially on the third floor. "In August 1992," noted one guest, "I decided to spend a night at the hotel while attending a literary party. For the life of me, I felt as if I being plagued by spirits all night. Something kept pulling the blankets up off me, exposing my feet while I slept. Then about four o'clock in the morning, the toilet flushed for no apparent reason. It was not a restful night." Manager Bob Pritikin likes to tell the story about a man and his wife who checked into the same room a few weeks earlier. Ten minutes after checking in, the man returned to the front desk in a state of shock. His face was ashen. His whole body was shaking. Something had frightened him badly, but he refused to talk about it. Since he had already checked in, the clerk was forced to charge him. "I don't care," the man said, "I just can't be here anymore!" "That man just didn't know there were ghosts in the hotel," quipped Pritikin. "Not long ago," he continued, "another guy, a famous movie actor, saw several ghosts here. We get all kinds of weird things happening in this place."
San Jose
Sarah Winchester built her 700-room house
in San Jose, California, from plans channeled to her by benevolent spirits to
protect her from the phantoms of Indians killed by the rifle that bears her
family name. To discourage evil spirits from entering, she based much of the
construction on the number thirteen and added 950 doors and 10,000 windows, most
of which lead nowhere. She even slept in a different bedroom every night to keep
one step ahead of them. But she treated the good spirits royally. Every night
at midnight, a large bell in the bell tower rang out three times to summon
spirits to her séance room at the center of the house. She also held regular
banquets, where servants set out five-course meals on thirteen solid gold plates
and cutlery, although the only guests were Sarah and twelve invisible ghosts.
She died in 1922 and left instructions that "the ghosts continue to be welcomed
and provided for." Guided tours of the house started in 1923. Many psychics have
contacted spirits here, and witnesses report discarnate voices, moving balls of
light, and a gray-haired female apparition floating through the halls.
Hollywood
The deathstyles of the rich and
famous are part of the folklore of Hollywood. Even the hillside around
Hollywood's famous sign is said to be haunted. Peg Entwistle, a young
starlet who leapt to her death from the top of the letter "H", is still reported
walking around on the wooded hillside. The Beverly Hills area is home to
a lot of rich people (and spoiled kids), and not a few ghosts still call it home
too. In the late 1970's there were frequent reports of encounters with the
ghosts of John, Lionel, and Ethyl Barrymore by visitors to their former mansion,
high in the Hollywood hills. More recent are reports of the wandering specter of
a man who was killed in a private cable car on the property. The
Barrymore Estate is at 6 Beverly Grove, Beverly Hills, CA, 90212.
The ghost of Anne Baxter's husband, actor John Hodiak, haunts their charming hillside house. Agent Hal Gefsky, who lived in the house in the 1970's, says guests saw Hodiak's specter hovering outside a second floor window. Gefsky even received phone calls from the ghost, but all the actor could manage was a faint "hello". The house is now a private residence near west Beverly Hills at 8650 Pinetree Place, Los Angeles, CA, 90070. Several tenants of a house on Bowman Drive have reported unexplainable events occurring in the upstairs bedrooms. Beds are messed up, pillows cut open, and the impression of a body forms on unoccupied mattresses. The entity causing the disturbances has never been identified. The house is a private residence at 2320 Bowman Drive, Beverly Hills, CA, 90212.
The ghost of Rudolph Valentino lingers in his former mansion, known as Falcon Lair. Actor Harry Carey was one of several subsequent owners who encountered the silent star's specter. The ghost has appeared in his old bedroom and in the stables, where his beloved horse was kept. Passersby have reported his dark silhouette looking out over the Los Angeles skyline from his favorite window on the second floor of the mansion. Valentino's home is at 1436 Bella Drive, Beverly Hills, CA, 90210.
The ghost of actress Jean Harlow lingers in the master bedroom on the second floor of her former residence. Her husband, agent Paul Bern, beat her frequently and is said to have caused the kidney damage from which she later died. However, the actress loved him dearly and after hearing that he had killed himself with a gun, attempted her own suicide in the upstairs bedroom here. Jean Harlow's home is now a private residence in the Westwood area of Los Angeles. After Bern's death, she moved to 512 North Palm Drive, Beverly Hills, CA, 90211. She died there a few years later.
Actress Elke Sommers and her husband Joe Hyam witnessed supernatural phenomena in the dining room of their North Berverly Hills home from 1964 to 1968. The apparition of a middle-aged man wearing a white shirt and tie was seen by guests on five separate occasions. Investigators from the American Society for Psychical Research and UCLA monitored unexplainable physical events in the house and produced a psychological profile of the ghost. The Hyams moved out after being awakened one night by mysterious knocking on their bedroom door. They opened the door to find the hallway filled with smoke from a fire that had started in the downstairs dining room. The house was bought and resold seventeen times in the next few years, and over thirty people, including scientists and well known Hollywood personalities, have witnessed strange events here. This house is now a private residence at 2644 Benedict Canyon Drive in North Beverly Hills.
Pickfair was the home of silent-film great Mary Pickford, wife of actor Douglas Fairbanks. Her ghost, dressed in a ruffled white dress, was encountered in a den on the first floor by several subsequent owners, including comic Buddy Rogers. Pickfair is at 1143 Summit Drive, Beverly Hills, CA, 90210.
On June 16, 1959, actor George Reeves went into his upstairs bedroom and shot himself in the head. Television's Superman died instantly, but some say his spirit was indestructible. In the bedroom one evening, a couple saw him materialize fully outfitted in his Superman costume and then fade slowly away. They moved out of the house that same night. Superman's house is at 1579 Benedict Canyon Drive, Beverly Hills, CA, 90210.
Actor Clifton Webb lived in Beverly Hills for twenty years, and held frequent seances in an attempt to contact his dead mother. Later residents insist the ghost of the former owner still haunts the premises. Webb, who died in October 1966, was very forthright and outspoken -- traits he is said to have carried to the grave. His ghost is not at all bashful about keeping people from smoking or sitting in his old armchair. If anyone, especially a woman, sits in the chair, it reportedly bounces and makes strange noises. Clifton Webb was a firm believer in life after death and many mediums have reportedly contacted him. His ghost has also been seen standing near his crypt. Clifton Webb's house is at 1005 Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills, CA, 90210.
Hollywood's famous hotels are said to be the home to some celebrity guests who never really checked out. John Belushi died of a drug overdose in Cabin 3 at the Chateau Marmont, and comedian Divine committed suicide at the Regency Plaza. Janis Joplin leapt to her death from the Highland Gardens, and Diane Linkletter jumped from the sixth floor of the Shoreham Apartments, after she took LSD. Peter Finch had a fatal heart attack in the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel. God told Mae West to come up and see Him, while she was living at the Ravenswood Apartments. Employees of the Hollywood Roosevelt report seeing the reflections of deceased guests in mirrors in the lobby there, including Marilyn Monroe; and on the roof of the Hollywood Knickerbocker, Harry Houdini's widow held annual seances to reach her husband's wandering spirit.
Hollywood's Memorial Park cemetery is also home to a few ghosts. The form of a Lady in Black has been observed in the Cathedral Mausoleum, kneeling in front of crypt number 1205. This was the final resting place of Rudolf Valentino, who died in 1926. The ghost of actor Clifton Webb, who died in 1966, has been reported several times in the foyer of the Abbey of the Palms Mausoleum. The sound of sobbing is sometimes heard near the grave of silent-film star Virginia Rappe. She allegedly died after being forced to perform sadistic sexual acts with comic Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. After three sensational trials, he was acquitted of raping and murdering the young actress. Dozens of Hollywood's most famous stars are buried at this cemetery, located at 6000 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, CA, 90028.
Although Harry Houdini's mansion burnt down over fifty years ago, people still report seeing his dark form standing on the scorched staircase that survived the fire. Ten years after his death, his wife announced that psychic Arthur Ford had received a secret, coded message by Houdini "from the other side", but pressures from a Christian group forced her to retract her statements. Houdini's home was located at 2398 Laurel Canyon Blvd., Hollywood, CA, 90028.
The specter of TV star Ozzie Nelson has been seen in his old house by family members. The once cheerful comedian is apparently not happy in the afterlife, for his ghost is always in a decidedly somber mood. The house is located at 1822 Camino Palmero Road, Hollywood, CA, 90028.
Another ghost loiters in the catwalks above Studio 5 on Paramount Studios massive movie lot. His footsteps echo through the empty studio, and many witnesses have beheld his ectoplasmic presence. Actress Robin Tapp refused to continue working in the studio because of the disturbances. Paramount is located at 5451 Marathon Avenue, Hollywood, CA, 90028. Phone: 213-956-5000.
"Welcome to Hell" reads the graffiti written on the pink concrete wall behind the tennis court at this crumbling 148-acre estate. Built by A&P heir Huntington Hartford and later leased by Errol Flynn, all that is left of the mansion are a few brick foundations. But neighbors say that the splendid old mansion reappears on some summer nights, amid the sounds of a lavish party and multicolored lights on the second floor. The Pines Estate is located at 2000 Fuller Avenue, Hollywood, CA, 90029.
Hollywood's most recent ghost sighting is an unidentified apparition that haunts tenants at an apartment building on Beachwood Drive. Residents have reported the phantom of a very old man walking up and down the main stairway of the building. The specter's halting, deliberate footsteps can be heard during the day or late night and seem to be centered around Apartment 4. The lost spirit has yet to be identified. The apartment building is located in the 1200 block of North Beachwood Drive, Hollywood, CA, 90025.
Moss Beach
The gruesome ghost of a lady in a
blue dress, soaked in blood, haunts an old speakeasy on Highway 1 just south of
San Francisco. Moss Beach residents say she is the spirit of a young woman
stabbed to death in front of the old Moss Beach Distillery
restaurant, nearly 70 years ago. The restaurant used to be a speakeasy in the
1920's, and was frequented by a lot of unsavory and flamboyant characters. The
beautiful young lady was murdered on the beach by her jealous lover, the piano
player at the bar. Waitresses, chefs, and customers have witnessed her phantom
standing near the piano or dancing alone in deserted rooms. Once, a boy ran
screaming from the restroom, insisting that a lady covered in blood touched him.
More recently, two of the town's policemen saw her bloody figure standing in the
middle of the highway in front of the cliffside restaurant. Last year, two
waitresses saw a stool tip over and do a somersault. On average, her ghost has
been sighted once or twice every year for the last 50 years. The building has
been thoroughly studied by researchers from the Ghost Research Society and the
Office of Paranormal Investigation. Both groups found cold spots near the piano
and unusually high electromagnetic fluctuations in the old dance hall. The most
recent phenomenon occurred just a few months ago, when all the settings in the
restaurant's automatic thermostat system were changed. The complicated
reprogramming would have taken most people three or four hours. It was
impossible for any kind of malfunction in the electronic circuitry to have
changed the settings. "The company told me that there was no way it could have
been done except manually," owner John Barber related, "but I had the only key!"
San Diego
One California location recognized
by the State of California as an Official Haunted House is San Diego's
Whaley House (2482 San Diego Ave., San Diego 92110. Phone:
619-298-2482). It was built in 1857 by Thomas Whaley, who also rented out part
of the house as a county courtroom and records depository. But the $65-per-month
rent never made up for all the grief he received because of it. His beautiful
home became the center of a power struggle between people in Old Town, where the
mansion was located, and the New Towners, who wanted the county records kept in
their section of the growing city. One day while Thomas was out of town, a gang
of New Towners broke into his house, terrorized his wife and daughter, and stole
all the records. For nearly twenty years Thomas tried to collect damages from
the County for his ransacked house, but he died without ever receiving a dime.
Almost a century later, when the County bought the house and started
restoration, strange things began to happen. Workmen told of ghosts walking on
the second floor, windows that opened by themselves, and alarms which went off
for no reason. Visitors to the house have reported seeing the ghosts of Thomas
and his wife in the hallways and descending the staircase, as well as the ghosts
of his dog, little girl, and baby son (who died at 17 months). Several people
have reported seeing a man hanging in a doorway in the house. He is thought to
be the ghost of Jim Robinson, who was caught stealing a boat and sentenced to
death by a drunken judge. When he was hung on a gallows on the Wharton property,
the noose failed to snap his neck, and he hung flailing in the air for nearly an
hour, cursing and screaming, before he finally strangled to death.
COLORADO:
Colorado Springs
The Black Forest area
directly east of the Air Force Academy has seen in increase in its strangeness
index in the last few months. The haunted section is in El Paso County, 15 miles
northeast of Colorado Springs. Take I-25 north to Route 83 north for 7 miles to
the Black Forest exit. The haunting began within weeks of buying their new home
in 1992. It was like the gates of hell opened up in the Lee family home. "One
day we came home," said Beth Lee, "and it was like the Fourth of July in our
living room and in our bedroom. We had all kinds of lights flashing through, and
it sounded like people stomping across the roof. We would lay in bed at night
and hear chains rattling. One night we woke up and heard orchestra music.
Strange things started happening every day." The two boys complained of weird
lights and shadows in their rooms, lights and appliances started going on and
off by themselves, and untraceable chemical odors burned family members’ eyes
and throats. Over the next four years, they would have sixty-two unexplainable
"break-ins." The El Paso County Sheriff’s Department opened an investigation in
April 1993 and conducted forty-five follow-ups but could never find any evidence
of a "crime." After the sheriff stopped responding, the Lees hired private
investigators to try to figure out what was going on. About that time, Steve
noticed that photographs and videotape taken in certain locations on the
property had strange light streaks running through them, and sometimes,
translucent faces even appeared on the film. Determined to document the
activity, Steve borrowed or purchased every type of camera he could think to see
if the bizarre images appeared, but no matter what type of camera or film he
used, he captured evidence of unexplainable light phenomena that included
brilliant beams, floating balls of light, and glowing outlines of humans and
animals. Sometimes the mysterious lights could be seen with the naked eye,
though most often, they lasted just a split second and showed up only on film.
Steve and Beth finally agreed that something paranormal might be going on in
their home, and in early 1995, they sent some of the pictures and videotape to
the "Sightings" television show. Hollywood special effects technician Edson
Williams examined the Lee films and told the producers of the show that most of
the light images would be extremely difficult to reproduce and some seemed to
defy the laws of optics entirely. "Sightings" immediately dispatched a film crew
to the Black Forest, and once on site, were able to document some of the weird
phenomena the Lees had witnessed. In three visits to the property "Sightings"
brought along Minneapolis ghostbuster Echo Bodine and Los Angeles psychic Peter
James, who both identified powerful presences in the house. A Hopi shaman
consulted on the Black Forest hauntings said that the area is a "Rainbow
Vortex," one of only a few psychic energy spots on the planet that connect our
world with the next. Red, yellow, and white lightforms are seen and recorded, as
well as apparitions of an old lady, a little girl, a burly man dressed in 1800s
clothing, and a "flying dog," not to mention the hundreds of forlorn faces seen
floating in the Lee’s bedroom mirrors. Infrared photos of these apparitions
featured in the article "The Black Forest Haunting" in the March 1998 issue of
FATE magazine. (Copies can be ordered by calling Llewellyn Publications at
800-THE-MOON.) Investigator Dennis William Hauck recorded more unexplainable
phenomena when he visited the site in October 1996. State Senator Charles Duke
also personally investigated and confirmed the existence of paranormal activity.
Photographs he took show light beams and cloudy humanoid shapes, typical of
those taken by Lee (shown above). An FBI agent suggests that the cause of the
activity is poltergeists and not alien beings. Psychic Peter James has suggested
"alien ghosts" as a possible cause. Some Hopi Indians believe the site is
located over a "Rainbow Vortex" of psychic energy. Steve Lee so far has invested
over $70,000 in security equipment to try to capture the "presence" responsible
for the flashes of light, moving shadows, foul odors, poltergeist activity, and
loud noises that plague his family. Recently he installed ultrasonic camera
triggering devices as well as digital cameras to document the activity. So far,
there are over 3,000 photographs and 400 videotapes supporting the validity of
this case. There are only two other locations (Arizona and England) where
photographic phenomena similar to those from the Black Forest are currently
being recorded.
Denver
Cheesman Park.
This innocent looking city park is built on
top of a graveyard. The Mount Prospect graveyard, which came to be known as Boot
Hill, was created in 1858. In 1873, officials renamed the place City Cemetery
but only buried criminals, transients, and epidemic victims there. In 1893, the
city gave notice that all bodies had to be removed within ninety days. Needless
to say, most of the graves remained untouched. The city hired an undertaker to
dig up the 6,000 to 10,000 remaining bodies, put them in 1-foot by 3½-foot pine
boxes, and deliver them for burial at Riverside Cemetery. It was a horrifying
sight. Workers broke corpses into pieces to get them to fit into the
mini-caskets. Body parts littered the ground and got mixed together in the
process. Many of the graves were looted by the men digging them up. During the
work, psychics warned workers the dead would return unless a short prayer was
uttered for each casket, but no one listened to them. One worker, removing
valuable brass from the coffins, ran hysterically from the graveyard saying a
ghost jumped on his back. People in neighboring houses reported confused spirits
wandering through their homes or appearing in mirrors. A huge scandal erupted,
and Mayor Platt Rogers ordered all work halted, while an investigation was
conducted. No one was able to sort out the mess the workers left behind. The
remaining bodies were plowed under, and grass and trees planted. Today,
sensitives detect an undertone of sadness and confusion at the site, and some
say they can hear a low moaning sound coming from the restless ground. (The
Catholic section of the original cemetery was removed in an orderly fashion by
church members and is now occupied by the Botanical Gardens. The Jewish section
was also completely cleared and is now called Congress Park. Cheesman Park,
named for a prominent citizen, is in central Denver, in the Civic Center area.
The park is bounded by 8th and 13th Avenues, near University Boulevard.)
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CONNECTICUT:
Easton/Monroe
Cemeteries.
For many years, visitors to the Union
Cemetery in Easton reported having conversations with lifelike
apparitions, who walk among the tombstones and then disappear into thin air.
This type of ghost, known as a "lepke," seems as real as any other person until
it vanishes from sight. Acquaintances of people buried here say the apparitions
talk and behave exactly as they did when alive. This is also the haunt of the
infamous White Lady, observed many times over the last fifty years. The same
White Lady ghost is seen at another nearby (Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel
Cemetery ). She wears a white nightgown with a bonnet. In 1993, a local
fireman "ran over" the ghost in his pickup truck. Sometimes witnesses observe
dark, shadowy figures attempting to grab the White Lady. Investigator Ed Warren
believes she is Mrs. Knot, whose husband was murdered near Easton in the 1940s.
The woman may have been murdered too, shortly after her husband's funeral.
((Easton is in southwest Connecticut near the junction of Hwy 136 and Hwy 59.
Union Cemetery is on Hwy 59, near the Easton Baptist Church. Monroe is north of
Bridgeport in Fairfield County. Take Hwy 25 northwest to Hwy 111 and go north 3
miles to Monroe. Our Lady of the Rosary Cemetery is near the Stepney Green near
Monroe. The White Lady appears in the cemetery and on nearby Pepper Street.)
DELAWARE:
Dover
Woodburn.
Four ghosts haunt Delaware's Governor's
Mansion. The great house was built in 1790 by a Revolutionary War Colonel,
Charles Hillyard, on land given to his family by William Penn. When a Quaker by
the name of Daniel Cowgill owned the house during the Civil War, a tunnel was
dug from the cellar to the St. Jones River, and escaped slaves used the mansion
as a stop on the Underground Railway. The house was haunted for over 160 years
before it became the official home of the governor of Delaware in 1966. The
first ghost at Woodburn appeared in 1805 to Lorenzo Dow, a Methodist evangelist
staying there. He described the elderly "stranger upstairs" to the wife of the
owner of the house one day. She told him no one else lived in the house, but
later she saw the same apparition. In the 1870s, another house guest had to be
revived from a fainting spell, when he saw the ghost of an elderly man sitting
by the fireplace. The phantom could be the original owner, Charles Hillyard, who
died in the house. Another ghost is a man in a powdered wig, who has a
predilection for fine wine. Governor Charles Terry Jr. accused the ghost of
draining off some of the vintage wines in the cellar of the mansion, and one of
his servants saw the ghost help himself from a decanter in the dining room.
Earlier residents placated the dry spirit by setting out wine decanters, which
mysteriously drained overnight. The ghost of a slave kidnapper seems to stay
near an old poplar tree in the yard. It is the tree from which he was hanged,
although he was not strung up with a rope. He climbed the tree hoping to kidnap
runaway slaves, when the house was owned by abolitionist Daniel Cowgill. But as
fate would have it, the man slipped, and his head was caught between two
branches. On moonlit nights his struggling ghost can be seen dangling from the
gnarled old tree. His awful moans and chain rattling sometimes fill the inside
of the house as well. The fourth ghost is a little girl in a red-checked,
gingham dress. She was seen playing by the pool in the garden during the 1940s
but has never been identified. At the January 1985 inauguration party for
Governor Michael Castle, guests complained of an invisible presence tugging at
their clothing, and one woman saw the apparition of a little girl in a corner of
the reception room. The governor himself reported a few ghostly encounters and
even allowed a teacher and three of her students to bring their tape recorders
and Ouija boards to Woodburn. After spending the night, the children were
genuinely spooked, insisting that a portrait of a woman in one of the rooms kept
smiling at them. (Go south on State Street in downtown Dover until King's
Highway. The Governor's Mansion is at 151 King's Highway, Dover, DE 19901.
Phone: 302-739-5656.)
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DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA:
Old Stone House Museum.
Built in 1795 by Christopher Layman, this old
farmhouse is haunted by eleven ghosts. The most active has been dubbed "George."
He haunts the third-floor bedroom and has a violent hatred of women. George has
been accused of shoving, strangling, knifing, and even raping women who venture
into his room. Residents and visitors to the house, which is now a museum, have
reported encountering his malevolent presence several times. Another ghost here
is a lady wearing a brown, 1700s-style dress. She is seen near the fireplace.
The phantom of a young woman, with tight ringlets in her hair, has been seen
running up and down the staircase. The apparition of a stout woman in an
antebellum gown is seen on the staircase and in the kitchen. Also seen in the
kitchen area is the ghost of a man wearing short pants with long stockings. A
man with long, dark blond hair, wearing a blue jacket, once materialized near a
front room window. The wraith of a small boy named "Joey" has been seen running
up and down the third-floor hallway, and a little black boy has also appeared
there. A German carpenter, thought to be the ghost of Christopher Layman, has
been reported in the house. Many people observed a Colonial gentleman who
partially materialized in the master bedroom. Another unidentified Colonial man
has been seen on the second-floor. The upper floors of this house were used by
families living on the property, while the lower floors were rented out to
travelers. In the 1930s, the house became a bordello, and then it was used as an
auto shop. The National Park Service acquired the property in 1950 and restored
most of the building. (The three-story, L-shaped Old Stone House has been
restored and is now a museum operated by the National Park Service. Old Stone
House Museum, 3051 M Street Northwest,Washington, DC 20007. Phone:
202-426-6851.)
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FLORIDA:
Rockledge
Asheley's Restaurant.
The ghost of a young girl, dressed in
Roaring-Twenties clothing, haunts the ladies room here. Her likeness emerges
from one of the stalls or appears in the mirrors. Several women have reported
feeling a choking sensation when passing through the corridor to the Ladies
Room. The ghost ventures to other places in the Tudor-style building, only
to break dinnerware in the Kitchen, turn lights on and off in the Bar,
or shove customers from behind in the Dining Room. She is thought to be
either the spirit of Ethyl Allen, brutally murdered in a storage room here in
the 1920s, or the ghost of a young woman who died in a car accident on Highway 1
in front of the restaurant. Dozens of employees and customers have reported
apparitions over the years, and sightings have increased since 1979. A 1993
investigation documented a variety of phenomena, including a swirling mass of
ghostlike energy recorded on a thermographic camera. (Rockledge is on the
east central coast, 12 miles north of Melbourne on U.S. Hwy 1. Ethyl Allen's
burned and mutilated body was found at Eau Gallie, on the banks of the Indian
River. Asheley's Restaurant is at 1609 South U.S. Hwy 1, Rockledge, FL 32955.
Phone: 407-636-6430.)
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GEORGIA:
Savannah
Pirate's House Restaurant.
Although this house was once the home of
famous pirate Jean Laffite, it is the ghost of another notorious pirate, known
as Captain Flint, who haunts the place. It is said that as he lay on his
deathbed, he kept calling to his First Mate, Darby McGraw, to bring him more
rum. Today, his cries are still heard by visitors to the restaurant that now
occupies the house. His scar-faced phantom has also been seen roaming in the
basement tunnel. The tunnel, big enough to drive a bus through, was discovered
during renovations. It leads to the river and probably served as an escape route
for pirates trying to make it back to the sea. (Pirate's House is at the
corner of East Broad and Bay Streets. The address is 20 East Broad Street,
Savannah, GA 31401. Phone: 912-233-5757.)
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HAWAII:
Honolulu
Hilton Hotel
The ghost of a beautiful woman in a red dress
has been seen wandering the halls here. In 1959, an employee saw her vanish
before his eyes, as he was escorting her to a room. Some say she is the ghost of
a woman murdered in a tower room, others say she is none other than the volcano
goddess herself, Madame Pele. (The hotel is in the Hawaiian Village on the
island of Hawaii. Phone: 808-949-4321.)
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IDAHO:
Genesee
Joyce Building.
This single-story brick building was built in
1880 and used for a variety of commercial purposes, including a museum that
housed many rock crystals and Indian artifacts. Sara Joyce purchased the
property in 1974 and moved there with her daughter, Heidi, and her
granddaughter, Solara. Almost immediately, the family noticed weird happenings
and unexplainable sounds. Then one night, the ghost of a tall, thin, elderly
man, bathed in an eerie blue light, appeared in the doorway of Sara's bedroom
and asked: "Do you see me? Do you see me?" Not long afterwards, the phantom of a
huge silver-gray rat appeared in the kitchen. Sara’s son, Bill, later discovered
the mummified corpse of a large rat under the floorboards when he remodeled the
kitchen. In fact, whenever Bill visited to help renovate the building, he would
be plagued by spirits interfering with his work. He tried to exorcise the
ghosts, but they always returned. Once a visiting ballet dancer from Australia
was awakened by a female ghost with long black hair, who tried to get into a
sleeping bag with her. The experience so impressed the lady, that she stayed on
for quite some time, trying to get to the bottom of the strange encounter.
(Genesee is 15 miles south of Moscow on U.S. Hwy 95 in northern Idaho. The Joyce
Building is at 206 Walnut Street, Genesee, ID 83832. The property is presently
owned by Sara's daughter, Ms. Heidi Linehan, Route #1, Genesee, ID 83832.)
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ILLINOIS:
Chicago
Resurrection Cemetery.
The ghost of a blonde, blue-eyed girl has
haunted the district around this graveyard since 1939, five years after a young
Polish girl was buried here. Mary Bregavy, or Resurrection Mary as she has come
to be called, died in a car accident after an evening of dancing at the old
O'Henry Ballroom (now the Willowbrook Ballroom). Sometimes, her glowing,
faceless ghost is seen walking along the shoulder of the road, but most often,
her white apparition is seen hitchhiking. Sometimes her aloof ghost even dances
with a few young men at the ballroom and asks for a ride home. During
renovations at the cemetery in the 1970s, sightings of her ghost reached a peak.
In December 1977, a passing motorist saw Mary holding onto the bars of the
cemetery gate. He called police, thinking a girl was trapped in the cemetery.
Investigators found no one in the cemetery, but two bars in the gate were bent
apart. Etched into the iron were two small handprints. Supervisors had the
sections cut out to keep curiosity-seekers away, but embarrassed officials
welded the pieces back in place a year later. Dozens of witnesses, including
many taxi drivers, have seen Mary's ghost along the road. In 1989, a cab driver
picked up a girl fitting Mary's description in front of the Old Willow Shopping
Center. As they passed Resurrection Cemetery, the girl vanished from the front
seat. (Resurrection Mary's ghost appears along Archer Avenue in south
Chicago. Take I-294 to 95th Street. Follow 95th Street west to Roberts Road.
Take Roberts Road north to Archer Avenue. Resurrection Cemetery, 7600 South
Archer Avenue, Justice, IL 60458. Phone: 312-767-4644.)
Decatur
Investigator Cheri Mohr Drake, of
the American Ghost Society, undertook an investigation of the Harrold House
in Decatur, Illinois, while attending the recent Ghost Conference there. The
house is located at 746 West Wood Street in Decatur. It belongs to Amy and Tim
Patrick, who live there with their two small children. There are three known
ghosts: a small boy, a woman who stands on the front porch, and a middle-aged
man. The man is most likely Frank Harrold, who was involved in a scandal
centering around a missing $25,000 from the local bank he worked for. After the
money was discovered missing, Frank was found shot to death the next day at his
farm in nearby Clinton, Illinois. The year was 1925. The case was ruled a
suicide, but many suspected it was a murder. Amy Patrick thinks it is Frank's
ghost trying to tell her he was murdered and had nothing to do with stealing the
money. The investigation of the premises yielded several unexplainable
photographs. More information on this case is available at
http://www.prairieghosts.com/harrold.html
INDIANA:
Indianapolis
Hannah House.
The sickening smell of rotting flesh drifts
from a second-floor bedroom here, and mysterious cold spots seem to move about
under their own volition. Sometimes, the apparition of a bearded man in a black
frock coat can be seen. This Italianate mansion was built in 1858 by state
legislator Alexander M. Hannah, but it was not until 1967, after the house had
sat vacant for five years, that strange things started happening. Psychics say
the overpowering stench of death on the second-floor comes from a stillborn
child, whose birth was artificially induced after it started to putrefy within
the body of Elizabeth Hannah. The apparition of Alexander Hannah was last
reported in 1972, standing on the second-floor near the stairway arch. The ghost
of an unidentified woman was reported near a window on the same floor, and
phantom slaves have been seen hiding in the basement. Other eerie effects, such
as moving chandeliers and picture frames, and unaccountable sounds, have been
witnessed by television crews investigating the grand but spooky old house.
(Indianapolis is at the center of the state, at the intersection of I-65, I-70,
and I-74. The graves of Alexander and Elizabeth Hannah are in the Crown Hill
Cemetery. Next to them is a small, unmarked tombstone with only a single date.
Take I-465 to U.S. Hwy 31 north. The Hannah mansion is on the corner of National
Avenue and Madison Avenue. Hannah House, 3801 Madison Avenue, Indianapolis, IN
46225. Phone: 317-638-4264.)
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IOWA:
Dubuque
Barn Community Theatre Company.
Dubuque’s Grand Opera House was opened in
1890 and became a movie house in 1928. In 1986, the building was renovated and
turned into a community theater. About that time, people started hearing weird
voices and shuffling footsteps in the deserted building. Employees blamed the
unseen spirits for hiding objects, changing lighting, and playing pranks. Then
in 1991, apparitions started appearing in the back of the theater. Investigators
later discovered that after the opera house became a movie theater, cleaning
women called police several times complaining of strange voices in the building
at night. (Dubuque is on the Mississippi River at the Iowa-Illinois-Wisconsin
border. The old opera house is now the home of the Barn Community Theatre
Company, 135 Eighth Street, Dubuque, IA 52001. Phone: 319-588-4356.)
Cedar Rapids
A recent investigation of
Pleasant Ridge Cemetery, also known as Thirteen Stairs, has yielded
intriguing evidence of a genuine haunting. Thirteen stairs do indeed lead to the
entrance to the graveyard, an 1800s cemetery in the middle of the woods. Many of
the graves belong to the Lewis and Blackburn families, local farmers. In January
and February, 1997, investigators reported a "ghost dog" running by them and
were also able to take a photo of a disappearing house that is sometimes seen
over a square patch of faded grass. The photo shows a framework of lightlines
outlining the house, and photos of balls of light have also been taken over the
Lewis Family gravestone. That tombstone is even credited with healing a person's
sprained ankle after he sat on it for ten minutes. On March 5, 1998, four
investigators recorded electronic voice phenomena of the ghostly voice of an old
man wheezing and then laughing maliciously. The cemetery is located just outside
Cedar Rapids about 1.5 miles from the town of Palo in Linn County.
KANSAS:
Leavenworth
Fort Leavenworth.
A bevy of ghosts haunt this base, the oldest
continuously operated military post west of the Mississippi. Many people have
witnessed the ghost of Catherine Sutter walking among the tombstones of the
National Cemetery and on the grounds of the present Golf Course.
Bound for Oregon, she stopped over at the fort in 1880, with her husband and two
children. One day, her husband sent the children out to collect firewood, but
they never returned. The Sutters stayed on through the winter, hoping against
hope that their loved ones would be found, and Catherine spent many lonely hours
walking through the snow calling out to her children. That same year, the
distraught woman caught pneumonia and died. However, her apparition, wearing an
old calico dress and black shawl, is still seen desperately searching for her
lost children. Sometimes she is observed carrying a lantern, while other times
just her voice can be heard, calling out from the darkness. Another ghost
reported in the cemetery is Chief Joseph, a proud Nez Perce Indian leader, who
was incarcerated here in 1877. Several ghosts populate the Rookery, the
oldest house on the base. The apparitions of a busy-body old woman, a
bushy-haired old man in a white robe, and an angry young girl disturb residents
trying to sleep in the 162-year-old house. Sheridan House is haunted by
the vengeful spirit of Mrs. Sheridan, wife of General Philip H. Sheridan. In
1869, he deserted his wife on her deathbed to go to Chicago on business. A few
doors down, at the Chief of Staff's Quarters, the sounds of a tea party
can be heard coming from the empty parlor. The presence of a man with a mustache
and goatee is occasionally felt at the McClellan Officer's Quarters. His
apparition has appeared in the fireplace, and his loud footsteps are heard late
at night, stumbling through the house. The former site of St. Ignatius Chapel
is haunted by the ghost of the priest, who burnt to death in a 1875 fire that
destroyed the building. Father Fred has turned up at the fireplace, in the
kitchen, near a sewing machine and other places in the new house that was built
on the site. Houses along Sumner Place are haunted by the presence of a
Lady in Black. No one knows what she wants, but she is very domestic, and is
sometimes seen trying to calm crying children or attempting to help with the
dishes. The ghost of General George Custer has been seen roaming the first floor
of the General's Residence. While still a colonel, Custer was
court-martialed in 1867 for shooting soldiers who disobeyed him. The hearing was
held in the commanding general's quarters, where Custer was found guilty and
given a year's suspension without pay. Perhaps the stubborn general wants to
lodge an appeal against the blemish on his record. The men he sacrificed at
Little Big Horn, some of whom are buried here, have also returned. Their ghostly
figures have been reported marching on the Main Parade. (Fort
Leavenworth is 2 miles north of the city of Leavenworth on Hwy 73 in the
northeastern corner of Kansas. The Rookery is at 14 Sumner Place. Sheridan House
is at 611 Scott Avenue. The Chief of Staff's Quarters are at 624 Scott Avenue.
The haunted Officer's Quarters are at 605 McClellan Avenue. The house built over
St. Ignatius Chapel is at 632 Thomas Avenue. The Lady in Black has been seen at
18 and 20 Sumner Place. The General's Residence is at 1 Scott Avenue. Fort
Leavenworth, Leavenworth, KS 66027. Phone: 913-684-4021.)
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KENTUCKY:
Mammoth Cave National Park
Mammoth Cave.
The largest cave in the world has attracted a
number of ghosts. One is a black slave guide named Stephen Bishop, who loved the
cave so much he refused to leave it, even when offered his freedom. Another
spirit of the cave is a Southern lady named Melissa, who brought her Yankee
lover to the cave in 1843. She took the man deep within the cave to Purgatory
Point and left him there as a prank. Unfortunately, the man was never seen
again, although Melissa's ghost still searches the area known as Echo River.
The ghost of Floyd Collins, who died after being trapped for sixteen days in
nearby Crystal Cave, is also said to wander the grounds. The case became
so popular that in 1926, Collins' body was removed from his family plot and
displayed in a glass coffin at the entrance to Crystal Cave. The grisly tourist
attraction proved very profitable, until someone stole the corpse. It was
finally returned to the cave, however, for some reason the body was missing its
left leg. In recent years, tourists have reported the unidentified ghost of a
man dressed in an old-fashioned cummerbund. Others have witnessed a disembodied
pair of legs running down the hill near the main visitors' center. The legs were
wearing denim overalls and work shoes. What the lost legs have to do with the
other hauntings here is still an unsolved mystery, but most researchers agree
that Mammoth Cave is one of the nation’s most haunted locations. So far, over
150 sightings of ghosts have been reported. (Floyd Collins now rests in the
Flint Ridge Baptist Cemetery. Mammoth Cave is 20 miles northeast of Bowling
Green on I-65. Mammoth Cave National Park, KY 42259. Phone: 502-758-2328.)
Wilder
Several malevolent ghosts roam
Bobby Mackey's Music World at 44 Licking Pike in Wilder, which is across the
Ohio River from Cincinnati, about 1.5 miles south of Covington on Highway 9. The
dance hall is located just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. Country singer
Bobby Mackey converted an old warehouse into a dancehall in 1976, and ever since
he had it renovated, people have been seeing ghosts dressed in old-fashioned
clothing and cowboy attire. Last year, a customer was accosted by a ghost in the
men's restroom. The man was washing his hands at the basin when someone kicked
the trash can, and he turned around to see who it was and encountered a tall
ghost wearing a cowboy hat. He says the ghost threw him to the floor and broke
his arm, and he's suing Bobby Mackey for not getting rid of the malevolent
spirits in his building. That there are ghosts there comes as no surprise. The
building was constructed in the 1850s and was used as a slaughterhouse. A deep
well was dug in the basement to collect animal blood and body fluids, and when
the slaughterhouse closed, Satanists used this Well of Blood for rituals. In
1896, two Devil worshippers beheaded a woman and used her head in their
ceremonies. Before they were hanged, the men were offered life sentences in
exchange for disclosing the whereabouts of the missing head, but both refused,
claiming that to do so would bring the wrath of the Devil himself. The cursed
building was a speakeasy in the 1920s, and several unsolved mob murders added
more violence to the site. So far, 30 witnesses have signed affidavits
testifying to ghostly phenomena at the nightclub, and one of the employees
became possessed and had to undergo two exorcisms.
LOUISIANA:
St. Francisville
Myrtles Plantation.
Many ghosts roam the halls of this
picturesque home, built in 1796 by General David Bradford. There have been ten
murders in the house, plus at least one suicide. A frequent visitor is the ghost
of Cleo, a former slave hung for murdering two little girls. General Bradford's
son-in-law, Clarke Woodruff, cut off the black woman's ear for eavesdropping,
and she took her revenge by mixing oleander into the children's birthday cake.
Another ghostly guest is attorney William Winter, who lived here from 1860 to
1871. He was shot by a stranger on his front porch. The lawyer staggered into
the house and made it up seventeen steps of the stairway before he collapsed and
died. His ghost still plods up those seventeen stairs. Ghosts from the slave
graveyard on the property still report for chores, and the ghosts of the two
children poisoned by Cleo play on the verandah. One ghost, dressed in khaki
pants, is said to meet visitors at the gate and tell them the plantation is
closed. Jane Roberts, a psychic who investigated the house, said that walking
into the parlor was like walking into a crowded cocktail party full of departed
spirits. Frances Kerman, who now runs the former plantation as a
bed-and-breakfast inn, says the ghosts have proved to her the reality of life
after death. (The two-story, wood-frame plantation house is 3 miles north of
St. Francisville on Hwy 61. Myrtles Plantation, P.O. Box 1100, St. Francisville,
LA 70775. Phone: 504-635-6277.)
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MAINE:
Kennebunkport
Captain Fairfield Inn.
This Federal-style mansion is haunted by the
ghost of Captain James Fairfield, who was captured and imprisoned by the British
during the War of 1812. After he was released in 1815, he settled in
Kennebunkport with his wife, Lois, and built this house. He died of pneumonia
just five years later, at the age of 38. During restoration of this bed and
breakfast inn, Fairfield’s ghost was seen hovering in a dark corner of the
basement, and guests have reported sensing Fairfield’s affable presence in their
rooms. (The captain’s portrait may be viewed at the Brick Store Museum, 117
Main Street, Kennebunk, ME 04043. Captain Fairfield Inn, P.O. Box 1308,
Kennebunkport, ME 04046. Phone: 207-967-4454.)
MARYLAND:
Baltimore
USF Constellation.
This proud frigate is haunted by three ghosts
from the early 1800s. One is a sailor in an old naval uniform who is sighted on
the Forecastle Deck. His appearances are so regular, that Navy Commander
Brougham was able to take a photograph of him in December 1955. The second ghost
is sailor Neil Harvey, sometimes seen on the Orlop Deck, below the main
deck. He was strapped to a ship's gun and blown to pieces for falling asleep on
watch in 1799. His uniformed apparition appeared to a Catholic priest touring
the ship in 1964. The third ghost is the captain who ordered Harvey's grisly
execution, Captain Thomas Truxtum. The Constellation is the first ship of
the U.S. Navy, and the oldest commissioned warship in the world. It was built as
a frigate in 1797 and rebuilt as a sloop of war in 1853. Following a $3.8
million renovation in 1995, the ship ought to be crawling with newly released
spirits. (The ship and Constellation Center museum are located on Pier 1,
near the corner of Pratt Street and Holiday Street in Baltimore Harbor. USF
Constellation, Pier 1, Pratt Steet, Constellation Dock, Baltimore, MD 21202.
Phone: 301-539-1797.)
MASSACHUSETTS:
Ashland
John Stone's Inn.
The sign over the entrance to this
164-year-old pub offers "spirits, food and lodging," but it is not until you see
Captain John Stone's picture staring down from above the bar, that you know
about which kind of spirits they are talking. Daniel Webster gave speeches here,
and there are secret rooms that served as hiding places for runaway slaves, but
the inn's greatest claim to fame are the ghosts walking its halls. The
apparition of a 10-year-old girl is often reported staring out a window in a
storage room near the kitchen, and an invisible intruder likes to put his hands
around the necks of customers in the dining room. Near an ice machine in the
cellar, several employees have felt an unseen presence tapping them on the
shoulder or holding their hands under the ice when they try to fill buckets.
Other manifestations include glasses flying across the dining room, cups falling
off shelves for no reason, and mysterious $10 bills materializing in a tip jar.
In 1984, investigators held two televised séances in an upstairs lounge in front
of 150 witnesses. They claimed to have contacted the spirits of a little girl, a
woman innkeeper, and yes, old Captain Stone himself. (In Middlesex County,
take the Framingham exit off Hwy 90 and follow Hwy 135 for 5 miles west to the
town. John Stone's Inn, 179 Main Street, Ashland, MA, 01721. Phone:
508-881-1778.)
MICHIGAN:
Marshall
The National House Inn.
This brick inn was built as a stagecoach stop
in 1835 by Andrew Mann. A secret chamber in the basement indicates it was used
as a stop on the Underground Railroad before the Civil War. After 1878, the
building became a windmill and later was used as a wagon factory. In the 1920s,
the hidden room in the basement was used for the sale and consumption of liquor
during Prohibition. After that, the building was converted into apartments. In
1976, the building was completely restored and furnished with antiques. That was
when the ghost of a Lady in Red began roaming the halls. With the diverse
history of this building, no one has yet hazarded a guess as to who the revenant
might be. (The town of Marshall is 20 miles east of Battle Creek near I-94.
The 16-room inn is on Fountain Circle Park and overlooks the downtown area. The
National House Inn, 102 South Parkview, Marshall, MI 49068. Phone:
616-781-7374.)
MINNESOTA:
Minneapolis
Guthrie Theater.
This old opera house is haunted by the ghost
of one of its former ushers. Richard Miller was an awkward English boy with few
friends, when he worked here in the late 1960s. He attended the University of
Minnesota, but never seemed to be accepted by the other students there. Just
like in high school, he gained a reputation for being something of a nerd. The
taunting and loneliness slowly took its toll. On Saturday, February 5, 1967, he
strolled into a Sear store, purchased a surplus Mauser rife and shells, and went
back to his car in the parking lot. There, the 18-year-old boy put the gun to
his head and pulled the trigger. He body was not discovered until the following
Monday. He was still wearing his Guthrie Theater usher’s uniform. Within weeks
of his suicide, patrons in Row 18, part of the area assigned to Miller,
began complaining of an usher constantly walking back and forth. They described
Miller down to the large mole on his cheek. Since then, dozens of patrons,
employees, ushers, actors, singers, and custodians at the theater have seen
young Richard Miller walking slowly up and down the aisle in Row 18, in the
Catwalks, or in an exclusive section of seats called the Queen’s Box.
The ghost would follow witnesses with his eyes or head but never spoke or made
any sound. An exorcism performed in 1994 supposedly placated his restless
spirit. (Richard Miller attended Edina Morningside School in Minneapolis and
lived in Territorial Hall at the university. His body was found in the parking
lot of the Sears on Lake Street. He is buried at Fort Snelling National
Cemetery. The theater is opposite the Sculpture Garden in the Loring Park area
of southwest Minneapolis. Guthrie Theater, 725 Vineland Place, Minneapolis, MN
55403. Phone: 612-377-2224.)
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MISSISSIPPI:
Tupelo
Tupelo Seven Theater.
A strange presence that laughs, mumbles,
coughs, and makes weird noises chases employees of this modern movie theater.
Most of the activity occurs in the first two auditoriums, built in the 1960s.
Witnesses say the unidentified ghost haunts the projection booths, third row
seats, and the stage area in the theaters. (Tupelo is in northeastern
Mississippi, at the junction of U.S. Hwys 45 and 78. The movie house is on Cliff
Gookin Boulevard, Tupelo, MS 38802.)
MISSOURI:
Joplin
Devil's Promenade.
Almost every night since 1866, a strange
orange ball of light bounces along this road in an easterly direction. As the
light moves through the air, it leaves behind luminous traces of dancing sparks.
The light has been known to enter cars and buses, but paradoxically, dodges
people chasing it. Loud noises also make it disappear. It has been called the
Hornet Ghost Light, the Neosho Spook Light, and the Devil's Jack-O'-Lantern, but
scientists who studied the phenomenon have never agreed about what causes it. In
1946, a study by the Army Corps of Engineers concluded the phenomenon was "a
mysterious light of unknown origin." A 1983 investigation by the Ghost Research
Society revealed the light is diamond-shaped, with a hollow center. Legend says
it is the ghost of a pair of Quapaw Indian lovers, who committed suicide
together. Others believe it is the lantern of a ghostly miner searching for his
wife and children, who were abducted by Indians. (Devil's Promenade is in the
village of Hornet, 11 miles southwest of Joplin. The area is near the borders of
Missouri, Oklahoma, and Kansas. This tri-state region is known as the
Spooksville Triangle. Follow I-44 west from Joplin. Just before the last exit at
the Oklahoma border, turn south onto State Line Road. Devil's Promenade Road
crosses State Line Road after about 4 miles. There is an abandoned Spooklight
Museum at the site. From Neosho, follow Hwy 86 until it dead-ends before Hwy 43.
Turn right and go 2 miles to the second road on the left. Turn left and go ¼
mile to Devil's Promenade. The light is visible from any point along a 2 mile
stretch of the road here.)
MONTANA:
Bozeman
Chico Hot Springs Lodge and
Ranch. In May
1986, two night watchmen at this resort hotel came upon the nebulous form of a
young woman hovering near a piano in the third floor Lounge. Only the
upper body of the white ghost appeared, the rest tailed down to nothing. The
face of the peaceful apparition stared right at them for several minutes, enough
time for one of the guards to grab a camera from a nearby table and snap a
photograph. Only a tiny white spot on the film showed up where the ghost had
stood. The same apparition had been seen by guests several times in the past,
but this was the first time the Lady in White was photographed. In 1990, two
other security guards followed the Lady in White from Lobby to the
hallway leading to Room 349, where the presence has been reported by many
employees and guests. An antique rocker in the room always ends up facing a
window, no matter in which room it is placed. There are many other odd things
going on at the hotel, including an old family Bible stays open on a wooden
bench in the Attic and never collects any dust. The most likely candidate
for all the activity is Percie Knowles, the stubborn wife of the man who built
the hotel in 1900. After her husband’s death in 1910, she decided to change it
into a first-class healthcare center. By 1917, she had brought a doctor on the
staff, opened five more therapeutic pools, and added a hospital wing. She died
in 1941, but her stubborn spirit lives on. (Bozeman is 140 miles west of
Billings on I-90. The resort is located 58 miles southeast of Bozeman in the
Paradise Valley, just outside of the town of Pray. Take I-90 east to U.S. Hwy 89
south. Chico Hot Springs Lodge and Ranch, Pray, MT 59065. Phone: 406-333-4933.)
NEBRASKA:
Lincoln
State Capitol Building.
Visitors to the Dome Observation Deck
here report hearing the sounds of a man sobbing, usually on the southeast side
of the building. There are several likely candidates for the Capitol Ghost. One
is a prison inmate who had a heart attack in 1968, while stringing Christmas
lights on the outside of the dome. Another possibility is a 1950s man, who fell
ten floors when he leaned too far over the railing of the spiral staircase. Or
perhaps, the spirit is that of an Indian ghost sensed in the Lower Basement
of the building. The Indians believed the hill on which the capitol now stands
was sacred. (The State Capitol is at the corner of 10th Street and Capitol
Parkway, Lincoln, NE 68501.)
NEVADA:
Goldfield
Goldfield Hotel.
Built on top of an abandoned gold mine, this
154-room hotel was first opened in 1908. Since then, it has undergone extensive
renovations and added a few non-paying guests. The hotel is considered home to
several ghosts. In the downstairs employees' area at the west end of the hotel,
Room 109 is a small room with a single bed. The room is haunted by the
presence of a pregnant woman. Psychics have seen her ghost chained to a radiator
there. Rumors say a pregnant prostitute named Elizabeth was chained in the room
by George Winfield, the original owner of the hotel. After giving birth, the
woman was left to die in the room and the baby was thrown down the old mine
shaft at the northern end of the basement. Elizabeth's ghost even turned up on a
photograph taken in the room by a reporter from Las Vegas. On the first floor,
the George Winfield Room is said to be haunted by his ghost. Untraceable
cigar smoke and fresh ashes have been found there. George's presence has also
been detected near the Lobby Staircase, where the ghosts of a midget, and
two small children have also been seen. The Gold Room is haunted by a
ghost that "stabs" people. High psychic energy is been detected in the
Theodore Roosevelt Room and a southwest room on the third floor. Some
psychics say that the Goldfield Hotel is one of only seven portals to the Other
Side that exist in the modern world. (Goldfield is 26 miles south of Tonopah
on U.S. Hwy 95. Goldfield Hotel, P.O. Box 225, Goldfield, NV 89013. For
information, phone Virginia Ridgeway at 702-485-6365.)
NEW
HAMPSHIRE:
Nashua
Country Tavern.
The ghost of Elizabeth Ford haunts this
building, which dates from 1741. She was murdered by her sea captain husband,
who returned after ten months at sea to find his wife had given birth. The
enraged man is said to have buried the bodies of Elizabeth and her illegitimate
child not far from the house. Elizabeth's playful ghost has been known to
entertain children, help with housecleaning, and move small objects such as
glasses, plates and knickknacks. She also likes to lift the hair of women in the
ladies room and hide their personal possessions. Dozens of employees and
customers have sensed her presence. Elizabeth's apparition has been seen in the
upstairs dining room and staring out a window in a part of the building that
used to be a barn. She is described as about 5-foot, 7-inches tall, with long
white hair and wearing a flowing, white gown. (Nashua is northwest of Boston
on U.S. Hwy 3. The tavern is located at 452 Amherst Street, Nashua, NH 03063.
Phone: 603-889-5871.)
NEW
JERSEY:
Bernardsville
Bernardsville Public Library.
The ghost here is so active, the staff issued
it a library card. Phyllis Parker's specter was first encountered in January
1877, in a private residence that now houses part of the library. The building
had been converted from a tavern that was constructed during the Revolutionary
War. Vealtown Tavern was the scene of a tragic love affair between the
innkeeper's daughter and a tenant, Dr. Byram. Just after the two were married,
Dr. Byram was hanged by General Anthony Wayne for being a British spy, and his
lifeless body was delivered to the tavern. Not knowing what was in the large
pine box, Phyllis opened it. On seeing the bug-eyed corpse of her beloved, she
became hysterical and suffered a nervous breakdown. Her insane weeping is still
heard in the old section of the library, which consists of the Meeting Room and
the public Reading Room (where the casket was opened). After renovations in
1974, employees started seeing the apparition of Phyllis moving through the old
wing. A videotape recording of a séance, held in 1987 in an effort to contact
her spirit, can be played back by patrons in the Local History Room. In November
1989, a child saw the ghost of a woman in a long white dress in the Reading
Room. (Bernardsville is 8 miles south of Morristown on U.S. Hwy 202, west of
Newark. The library is downtown at 2 Morristown Road, Bernardsville, NJ 07924.
Phone: 908-766-0118.)
NEWARK
The energy behind hauntings is something
most of us take very much for granted, and that's our emotions. And nowhere are
the effects of emotional energy on physical reality more evident than in the
hundreds of poltergeist cases on record. One of the most documented cases lasted
only two weeks in a low income housing project in Newark. It all began in the
apartment of Mabelle Clark, when her 13-year-old grandson, Ernest Rivers, was
doing his homework on the kitchen table. To his amazement, a pepper shaker
floated over from the stove and landed beside him. For the next two weeks,
plates, cups, bowls, glasses, ashtrays, and other fragile objects sailed across
their tiny apartment and smashed to the floor. Mrs. Clark tried to keep the
unexplainable events secret, because she did not want to be evicted from the
apartment where she had lived for 20 years. But neighbors started complaining
about all the noise, and before long, representatives from the Newark Housing
Authority were knocking at her door. When the officials beheld the unseen force
wrecking havoc on the apartment, they brought in a team of parapsychologists.
Word of the case spread, and hordes of reporters and curiosity-seekers descended
on the building. There were so many people around that over 50 paranormal events
were observed by multiple witnesses. A heavy steam iron floated from the linen
closet into Mrs. Clark's bedroom, in full view of several people. A table lamp
levitated across the living room and a drinking glass rose in mid-air, broke to
pieces, then fell to the floor in slow motion. That same evening, Ernest's uncle
was attacked by a sudden barrage of small objects. The phenomena stopped when
young Ernest was removed from the apartment. He was a deeply troubled youth,
whose mother had murdered his abusive prizefighter father five years earlier.
Just before the poltergeist activity began, Ernest's mother escaped from a
woman's reformatory and was not apprehended until a month later.
NEW
MEXICO:
Cloudcroft
The Lodge.
The restaurant in this 85-year-old inn is
named after a ghost named Rebecca, and her portraits, including a stained-glass
window, are scattered throughout the establishment. Dozens of employees and
guests at this mountain resort have recognized the apparition of a woman wearing
a long dress, roaming the halls. Rebecca was a beautiful, young maid with
striking blue eyes and red hair, who was murdered by a jealous lumberjack at the
inn back in the 1930s. Rebecca is a flirtatious, mischievous spirit, who likes
to use the telephone in Room 101, the Governor's Suite. Guests in that
room sometimes receive phone calls from nowhere, and operators at the resort say
that the line to Room 101 is often lit up, even when no one is in the suite.
Rebecca's presence is also felt in the Red Dog Saloon, where ashtrays
move by themselves and flames appear in the fireplace with no logs or other
source of fuel. The psychic flames testify to the raw sexual power of this
restless spirit. (Cloudcroft is 15 miles east of Alamogordo on U.S. Hwy 82.
The Lodge is a three-story mountain inn overlooking Cloudcroft at an elevation
of 9,000 feet. The Lodge, 1 Corona Place, Cloudcroft, NM 88317. Phone:
505-682-2566. For reservations, call 800-395-6343.)
NEW YORK:
Buffalo
Holiday Inn.
The ghost of a little girl, who was burnt to
death in a house that once stood here, now haunts the modern motel built over
the ashes of her home. Guests, maids, managers, and bellboys have all witnessed
Tanya's playful spirit. People usually report her jumping on beds in empty rooms
or running through the halls at night. Manager Scott Swagler says: "Our
housekeepers have stories about Tanya that could fill a book." (Buffalo is in
the Niagara River in extreme western New York. The hotel is on Grand Island.
Take the Grand Island exit off I-190, just west of Buffalo. Holiday Inn, Grand
Island, NY 14072. Phone: 716-773-1111.)
Long Island
The active ghost at the Normandy
Inn in Bohemia has been identified as a spirit named Maria, who was
strangled in an upstairs back bedroom when the place was a speakeasy. Numerous
sightings continue to this day and include bare footprints in the carpeting
(usually in the middle of winter), a shadowy figure moving around in the kitchen
area, and strange animal (?) bones turning up in the basement. Several séances
have been conducted over the last few years, and the case is currently being
investigated by Candice Isralow of Mt. Sinai, New York. The Normandy Inn is
located on Lakeland Avenue in Bohemia and the phone number is (516) 589-9898.
The current owner (Rick) has lived there for over twenty years.
NORTH CAROLINA:
Wilmington
Chamber of Commerce.
Wilmington's official Welcome Center is home
to a ghost, who was once photographed descending a staircase in the building.
Known officially as the Price-Gause House, the place has been considered
haunted ever since it was built in 1843. Immediately after moving in, the Gause
family heard strange footsteps on the stairs and traced an eerie tapping sound
that moved along the walls. They finally decided to live with the unidentified
presence. Later residents came to the same conclusion. An investigation in
October 1967 documented several mysterious sounds and yielded the startling
photo of a misty, human form walking down the stairs. (Wilmington is on the
extreme southern tip of North Carolina, at the south end of I-40. Wilmington
Chamber of Commerce, 514 Market Street, Wilmington, NC 28401. For information,
call 919-762-2611.)
NORTH DAKOTA:
Grand Forks
University of North Dakota.
There have been several sightings of the
ghost of a girl, usually without legs, floating up one of the tunnels that
connect Wilkerson Dining Hall to five dormitories on this campus. In
1988, three students saw her apparition in the West Hall tunnel. They
described her as about 5’5" tall, with short dark hair, wearing a nightshirt. In
December 1962, before the tunnels were constructed, a young coed froze to death
about sixty feet from West Hall. It is thought she slipped on the ice while
trying to make her way to the dining hall at around 2:00 AM. (Grand Forks is
far eastern North Dakota, on the Minnesota border at the junction of I-29 and
U.S. Hwy 2. University of North Dakota, Box 8095 University Station, Grand
Forks, ND 58202. Phone: 701-777-2711.)
OHIO:
Dayton
United States Air Force Museum.
Strange things happen in this military museum
at night. Objects move by themselves, and guards report hearing unexplainable
voices and other eerie sounds. Parts retrieved from Lady Be Good,
a B-24 that crashed in the Libyan desert during World War II, are said to move
by themselves and could be the source of other paranormal activity at the
museum. Seven crewmembers died in the crash. Strange lights are observed in
another B-24, the Strawberry Bitch. The helicopter Hop-Along
is haunted by its former copilot, whose ghost is seen flipping switches, trying
to get the craft to take off. Bloodstains can still be seen on the seat where he
died. Another helicopter, the Black Maria, is haunted by a
similarly traumatized presence. He is thought to be a pilot hit by gunfire while
flying a dangerous mission in Vietnam. Military police have reported seeing the
ghost of a little Japanese boy standing next to Bockscar, the
bomber that dropped the A-bomb on Nagasaki. Some investigators believe the old
Air Force relics on display at the museum attract the spirits of departed
crewmembers. (From Dayton, take Hwy 75 or Hwy 675 south to the base. U.S. Air
Force Museum, Springfield Pike Gate 28-B, Wright Patterson Air Force Base,
Dayton, OH 45410. Phone: 513-255-3284.)
OKLAHOMA:
Waurika
Moneka Mall and Tea Room.
A gray, wood frame house is haunted by the
presence of a robber killed in the dining room. The large house was constructed
in 1892 and served as a Rock Island Railroad boarding house for many years.
During that period, a robber broke into the house during supper time and
demanded everyone’s money. But the burly railroad men got the upper hand, and
the would-be thief died in ensuing struggle. Not wanting to get into trouble
with the authorities, the men loaded the body onto a northbound train, where it
was later found by strangers and buried in an unmarked grave. Today, the
robber’s specter and other ghosts from the building’s colorful past haunt the
rooms along the east and north sides, upstairs and down. The sightings became
more frequent when Nancy War remodeled it into an antique shop with a small Tea
Room restaurant. (The site is located in the town of Waurika, which is 53
miles southeast of Lawton. Take Hwy 7 to Pumpkin Center, then go south on Hwy 65
to Hwy 70 east. Moneka Mall and Tea Room, Hwy 70 East, Wauika, OK 73573.
Phone:405- 228-2575.)
OREGON:
Portland
White Eagle Café & Saloon.
This old tavern and whorehouse was built in
1899 and is haunted by a wide variety of ghostly presences. The basement and
second floor are sites of much strange activity, such as objects tossed out of
nowhere, groping invisible hands, old coins materializing on the floors, and
teardrop-shaped apparitions. An invisible presence walks down the corridor from
the bar, enters the men's room, and flushes the toilet. The phantom flushing
continued even after a new toilet was installed. The unexplainable crying of a
woman is heard on the second floor. There are many candidates for the ghosts
here. The basement used to house black prostitutes, while the second floor
housed white prostitutes. A tough Chinese bouncer, who kept the peace among the
surly customers, disappeared mysteriously while working one night and was never
seen again. An abandoned 10-year-old boy named Sam was taken in by one of the
owners. Sam worked as a roustabout housekeeper and died in the 1930s at the age
of thirty in his second-floor bedroom. The room was sealed for many years with
all his belongings locked inside. Chuck Hughes bought the building in 1978 and
quickly became a believer in ghosts. He has already seen several
tear-drop-shaped ghosts in upstairs rooms. (The two-story brick building is
in Old Town. It was known as the Risko Brothers Soft Drink Emporium during
Prohibition. White Eagle Café & Saloon, 836 North Russell Street, Portland, OR
97227. Phone: 503-282-6810.)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Easton
Easton Public Library.
During construction of this building in 1903,
workers uncovered the graves of 514 people. Most of the bodies were moved to
other cemeteries, but at least thirty were left unclaimed. Two prominent former
citizens, Elizabeth Bell "Mammy" Morgan and William Parsons, were reburied in
graves with markers on the library grounds. Mammy Morgan is buried on the west
lawn and Parsons is buried on the front lawn. The other corpses, and any
unidentified pieces of bodies, were unceremoniously dumped into an underground
concrete vault on the property. Today, the library is haunted by the misplaced
souls. Doors slam shut and open suddenly, filing cabinet drawers swing open for
no reason, and unseen hands run through the hair or touch the shoulders of
patrons and staff. And over the years, many people have reported the ghost of
Mammy Morgan, roaming the library grounds. (The burial vault is under a
telltale depression in the northeast part of the driveway that exits the
library. The library is on the corner of Church Street and 6th Street, Easton,
PA 18042. Phone: 215-258-2917.)
RHODE ISLAND:
Cranston
Sprague Mansion.
Ghosts have been seen in this mansion since
1925, when an apparition was seen descending the staircase. Later residents told
of a ghost in the Wine Cellar and complained of an unseen force that
flung off their blankets in the middle of the night. One room in particular,
called the Doll Room because of the collection of porcelain dolls there,
is the source of many unnerving phenomena, including eerie footsteps, lights
that go on by themselves, and a ghostly presence. The house was built in 1790 by
William Sprague, who operated a cotton mill and bleachery on the property. One
evening William got a fish bone caught in his throat and died during surgery to
remove it. His sons, Amasa and William Jr., made a highly successful business
from their inheritance. William Jr. became a U.S. Senator, while his brother
tended the business. Then, in 1864, Amasa was found brutally beaten to death. A
man whom Amasa had prevented from obtaining a liquor license was executed for
the murder, but one of the accused's brothers later confessed to the crime. As a
result of the miscarriage of justice, Rhode Island passed a law forbidding
capitol punishment. One of Amasa's sons went on to become governor, and the
other became a brigadier general and U.S. Senator. After the Civil War, the
Sprague fortune dwindled and the house was sold. Séances at the mansion have
aroused the spirit of Amasa Sprague and a butler who worked there in the
mid-1890s. Both spirits accepted responsibility for the supernatural events that
take place in Sprague Mansion. (Cranston is 5 miles southwest of Providence
on Hwy 2. Take Exit 16 from I-95 and go west on Hwy 12 to Hwy 2. The mansion is
at 1351 Cranston Street, Cranston, RI 02920. Phone: 401-944-9226.)
SOUTH CAROLINA:
Cayce
Airport High School.
The tall, thin ghost of a man with his hands
on his hips is seen in the halls here. He is George Pair, the school's first
principal. The high school was built in 1958 and Pair died in 1962. He worked
hard to get the school built and is said to protect the premises from harm. Most
sightings have occurred in the "300s" corridor. Custodians, students, and
visitors have reported encountering the stern ghost. (Cayce is on Hwy 2 in
Lexington County, across the Congaree River from Columbia. The high school
serves the Cayce-West Columbia area. Airport High School, Cayce, SC 29033.
Phone: 803-822-5600.)
SOUTH DAKOTA:
Deadwood
Hotel Bullock.
The ghost of Deadwood's first sheriff, Seth
Bullock, walks the halls of the hotel he founded. Bullock was sheriff in the
1870s and died here in 1919. Since then, over thirty people have seen his ghost.
Guests, employees, and managers of this hotel have encountered the tough old
sheriff, "whose gaze could stop fights." (Deadwood is in Lawrence County near
the Wyoming border, 12 miles west of Sturgis on U.S. Hwy 85. Sturgis is 20 miles
northwest of Rapid City on I-90. Hotel Bullock, Main Street, Deadwood, SD 57732.
Phone: 605-578-1745.)
TENNESSEE:
Bell Witch
The malicious entity that plagued a
Tennessee farmhouse in 1817 ended in the only known murder by a poltergeist. The
problems began when John Bell saw a strange animal in his cornfield dissolve
into thin air. Soon, the family heard scratching at the doors and windows, then
gnawing sounds started coming from inside the house. Within a year, the
presence began speaking and threatened to kill John. The fame of the "Bell
Witch" spread, and even Andrew Jackson came to dispel the spirit. Nothing
worked. John Bell was beaten so mercilessly by the presence that his tongue
swelled and he could barely eat. A doctor prescribed a tonic, but the witch
bragged it poisoned it. "I've got him this time," it bellowed, "He’ll never get
up." John went into a coma and died on December 21, 1820. Then, the witch
promised to return to wreck havoc on John’s descendents, and it plagued the Bell
family again in 1827, 1852, 1861, 1935, 1977, and 1988. Today, the apparition of
a demon woman and eerie balls of light are seen gliding over the Bell farm, and
the so-called Bell Witch Cave near the family cemetery is haunted by chains
rattling and inhuman screams.
See more details
on the Bell Witch case at the official
Bell Witch website. A
new Bell
Witch DVD is available that chronicles the entire case.
Wartrace
Walking Horse Hotel.
This old hotel is home to a white apparition
that has appeared on the stairway. Manager George Wright reports that the ghost
has been seen by employees and at least one guest. (The town of Wartrace is
located in Bedford County in south central Tennessee, midway between Shelbyville
and Manchester on Hwy 64. The hotel is on Main Street. Walking Horse Hotel, P.O.
Box 266, Wartrace, TN 37183. Phone: 423-389-6407.)
TEXAS:
AUSTIN
The Capital City Ghost Research
Society of Austin, Texas, is currently investigating a flurry of paranormal
activity at the Peyton Colony, a 350-acre historic ranch outside Austin.
The property was settled as a slave colony in 1864 and has been in the Coffee
family since its creation. There are several buildings on the site, including an
old church and schoolhouse. Lawrence and Ellen Coffee live in a house built
about 50 years ago by Lawrence's aunt. Four different apparitions have been seen
by multiple witnesses and poltergeist phenomena are also taking place. The
poltergeist effects include weird electrical problems, faucets turning on and
off by themselves, and objects disappearing then turning up in unexpected
locations. Unexplainable voices and the sounds of drums beating have also been
reported. In an effort to document the activity, Ellen Coffee started taking
photographs and recording the strange noises and disembodied voices. The
photographs show apparitions, balls of light, and streaks of energy, and both
men's, women's, and children's voices have been recorded. In June, a group of
investigators took dozens of photographs and made computerized recordings of
anomalous sounds at the site. Investigators present included Lisa Farwell,
psychic Jill Pendleton, computer expert Todd Brower. Ellen Coffee's computer was
used to record the Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP). During one six-hour
investigation on June 27, spectacular anomalies were captured with a digital
camera, a Canon 35mm camera with 800 speed film, and a point-and-shoot Olympus
35mm camera. Most of the photos capture light phenomena (orbs, mists, and
streaks) that take place too quick for the naked eye to see.
Dallas
Mitchel Whitington
mlw@whitington.com of Dallas, Texas,
recently completed an investigation into Snuffer's Restaurant in Dallas.
The following is his report: In HAUNTED PLACES, there is an entry for Snuffer's
Restaurant, and although my wife and I have dined at Snuffer's on several
occasions, we'd never heard of a haunting there. Armed with the info from your
book, I had to go back and try to find out more. I just returned from having
lunch there, and just though I'd pass on what we found from our waiter, and a
little background information from their web page that he pointed us to. The
original Snuffer's is located at 3526 Greenville Avenue between Martel Avenue
and Longview Street in Dallas. It was opened on June 28, 1978 by Pat Snuffer. At
that time, the restaurant consisted of one room with fifteen tables and a
service bar. The menu contained the same basic entrees that it does today:
burgers, sandwiches, and the cheese-fries that are the house specialty.
Snuffer's eventually caught on with the college crowd, and the restaurant
expanded with the opening of the back area with a garden atmosphere. It was
after this new addition to the restaurant opened that the employees and
customers would occasionally see a hazy spirit walk the hallway between the old
and new sections. It would pass out of the hallway and comes a few feet into the
new section, then return to the hall. Our waiter seemed surprised that we knew
that Snuffer's was haunted. He told us that he'd never had a customer mention
it, although everyone who worked there knew about it. The answer to the obvious
question that we asked next, though, was that he had never seen the ghost
himself. We asked if there were any ideas who the spirit might be, and he said
Snuffer's had a tragedy early in its history when a woman was killed in a
scuffle in the ladies' restroom. Since that was the only incident of that kind
in the history of the restaurant, everyone seems to think that it's her spirit
who walks the hall. The restrooms are located off the short hallway between the
old restaurant and the new addition. Snuffer's now has another location in the
Dallas suburb of Addison, and the original location has added another room and a
patio. None of us saw or felt anything unusual, but from now on when I go back
I'll be looking for something other than their great cheese-fries! Thanks again
for writing a wonderful resource book!"
Waxahachie
Catfish Plantation Restaurant.
The sign at the entrance to this quaint
restaurant reads: "If you have a ghostly experience, please tell us!" The quaint
Victorian house was built in 1895 by a farmer named Anderson. He had a daughter,
Elizabeth, who was strangled to death on her wedding day in the 1920s. She died
where the Ladies’ Room is now located and became one of the ghosts of
Catfish Plantation. There two others. One is a farmer named Will, who died in
the house in the 1930s. The other is an elderly lady named Caroline Mooney, who
died in the house in 1970. The three ghosts are responsible for the bone-numbing
cold spots that move silently through the house, as well as flying objects and
slamming doors. Elizabeth's kindly presence is felt mostly in the Dining Room,
where she likes to reach out and touch people. Will's apparition is often seen
on the Front Porch, while Caroline's angry spirit is detected in the
Kitchen. Ever since Melissa and Tom Baker remodeled the house into a Cajun
eatery in 1984, dozens of employees, customers, and news people have witnessed
paranormal manifestations here. (Waxahachie is 40 miles south of Dallas on
I-35. The restaurant is at 814 Water Street, Waxahachie, TX 75165. Phone:
214-937-9468.)
UTAH:
Salt Lake City
Old Deseret.
Visitors and guides at this historical
settlement have reported dozens of ghostly encounters in recent years. The
buildings were part of the original colony established by Brigham Young, who led
Mormons west after their leader, Joseph Smith, was murdered by an Illinois mob
in 1844. Before Brigham Young's Forest Farmhouse was moved to the
historical park, his ghost haunted his residence for fifteen years. After it was
moved, the house was taken over by his 19th wife, Ann Eliza Webb. Her petite
apparition, dressed in black, is still seen peering out of the dining room
window of the house. After Ann Eliza divorced Young, she toured the country
denouncing him and the Mormon Church. At nearby Jewkes-Draper Home, the
ghostly sounds of children at a party are heard, and the apparition of Mary
Fielding Smith has been observed many times standing in the doorway of Smith
House. Sometimes Mrs. Smith is seen wagging her finger angrily, perhaps
because her house was set facing the wrong way when it was moved to the park.
(Salt Lake City is at the junction of I-15 and I-80 in north central Utah. For
information on the area, call the Visitors Bureau at 801-521-2822. Old Deseret
is located in the Pioneer State Trail Park, 2601 Sunnyside Avenue, Salt Lake
City, UT 84108. Take the Foothills Exit from I-80 and go west 3 miles to the
park. For information, call 801-584-8391. For tour reservations, call
801-582-2443.)
VERMONT:
Wilmington
White House of Wilmington.
This house was built in 1915, but strange
things did not occur until after it was remodeled into an inn. Manager Bob
Grinold has reported unexplained footsteps and other sounds, as well as a
shadowy presence walking the halls. (Wilmington is in the south corner of
Vermont, on Hwy 9 between Bennington and Battleboro. White House of Wilmington,
Route 9 Box 757, Wilmington, VT 05363. Phone: 802-464-2135. Reservations can be
made by calling 800-541-2135.)
VIRGINIA:
Charles City
Berkeley Plantation.
Berkeley Plantation was founded in 1619 by 38
settlers from Berkeley Castle in England. The manor house was built by Benjamin
Harrison in 1726. Both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were guests at the
plantation. During the Civil War, General McCellan's Federal troops occupied
Berkeley after retreating from Richmond. After the war, the plantation was
bought by John Jamieson, a Scotsman who served as a drummer boy for McCellan. In
1927, the estate was inherited by his son, Malcolm, and has been in the Jamieson
family ever since. Visitors to the restored mansion have reported seeing and
hearing the ghost of a little drummer boy. The apparition of a tall, gaunt man
has been seen walking along the riverbank, sometimes walking side-by-side with
the little drummer boy along the old picket fence that runs up the hill to the
cemetery. (Charles City is on the James River in eastern Virginia, 37 miles
southeast of Richmond on Hwy 5. Berkeley Plantation, Hwy 5, Charles City, VA
23030. Phone: 804-829-6018.)
A famous haunt in Charles City, Virginia, is Shirley Plantation. The stories there center around a haunted painting that now hangs in a second-floor bedroom. The portrait is of Martha Hill, daughter of the man who built the house in 1723. The painting is about all that remains of Martha, because most of her belongings went with her to England where she died. But by 1858, family descendants started noticing an unusual property of her painting. Whenever it was removed from its spot on the second-floor, the frame would start shaking violently. They moved it to a bedroom on the third floor, stored it in the attic, hung it on the first floor, but the portrait was never "happy" unless it was back in the second-floor bedroom. In 1974, the Virginia Tourist Office put the touchy painting on display at Rockefeller Center in NY, along with other items related to psychic phenomena in VA. Martha Hills’ portrait created quite a sensation. People walking by on the street reported it moving constantly. It swayed back and forth so violently that other exhibits were also vibrating, and the phenomenon was documented on the NBC Nightly News. The painting caused such hysteria that it was removed from the display, though that did not dampen Martha’s spirit. Dozens of office workers near the storeroom in which the painting was locked heard incessant knocking sounds coming from the room. When officials retrieved the painting, its frame was so badly damaged, that it had to be sent to Linden Galleries in Richmond for repair. The same eerie vibrations were reported by workers there. Finally, the portrait was returned to Shirley Plantation, where it hangs today, peacefully, above a mahogany chest in Martha’s second-floor bedroom.
Manassas
Another Virginia paranormal hotspot is the Old Town Inn in
Manassas, just outside Washington, DC. Recently, a family vacationing from
Griffith, Indiana, were caught in a violent thunderstorm one evening and sought
lodging at the inn. They were assigned Room 54 of the century-old hotel. The
thunderstorm had knocked out TV reception, so the husband, wife, and
ten-year-old son sat in their room, talking about their trip. Suddenly they
heard the sound of something crashing to the bathroom floor, but when they
investigated, they could find nothing wrong. Again they were interrupted by the
sound of breaking objects in the bathroom. Again, they could find nothing
broken. Shortly after going to bed, the wife was awakened by a strange tugging
on her mattress. The odd sensation continued, and she decided to wake up her
husband. She told him there was something strange going on and insisted they
trade beds. Before long, her husband was experiencing the same sensation. He
jumped out of bed, searched around the room, and found nothing. He told his wife
that there must be mice in the room, crawled back into bed, and soon fell
asleep. His wife lay in the dark, trying to sleep. Then, in amazement, she
watched her sleeping spouse levitate off the bed and fall to the floor. She
tried to explain to her dazed husband that some force had thrown him to the
floor, but his incredulous stare made her drop the subject and get back into
bed.They got up the next morning, hoping to get an early start. The husband was
putting his clothes on, and his wife had already dressed and was busy
blow-drying her hair. The man walked to the window and peeked out: it was pitch
black outside. He looked at his watch and realized it was only 1:30 A.M. The
bewildered couple undressed and went back to bed. Finally came the light of
morning. The family dressed and went downstairs to the inn's restaurant. After
breakfast, the husband stopped at the front desk to ask if there was a problem
with rodents at the inn. He related what had happened to manager Janie Pugh, who
smiled and said: "Oh, that's Miss Lucy up to her old tricks. She usually stays
in Room 52 but sometimes wanders into rooms nearby." Miss Lucy's antics had been
witnessed by both employees and guests alike. Meanwhile, his wife and son waited
at their table in the restaurant. A lady wearing an old overcoat and a nightgown
came up to them and asked where to get food to go. The wife pointed to the
cashier. The lady came back in a few minutes to thank her for being so kind.
Curious about the lady's odd behavior, she watched her walk away and brush past
her husband, who was returning to their table. "That old lady who just walked by
you is weird," the wife said. "What old lady," replied her husband, "I didn't
see anyone."
WASHINGTON:
Seattle
Harvard Exit Theater.
This cinema, opened in 1968, is haunted. The
movie theater is in a three-story brick building constructed in the 1900s. When
a second auditorium and screen was constructed on the third floor in the early
1970s, the ghosts of several women dressed in turn-of-the-century clothing began
to appear. Most of the sightings were on the third floor and near a fireplace on
the first floor. The encounters were accompanied by an assortment of strange
phenomena, which continued until 1987. The only possible historical connection
is Bertha Landes, the founder of the Women's Century Club, which had occupied
the building for many years. From 1926 to 1928, Landes served as Seattle's first
woman mayor. In 1988, relics of her administration and her personal belongings
were displayed at a downtown museum, which reported a number of inexplicable
incidents that some thought were manifestations of Landes' spirit. (The
cinema is located in the Capitol Hill area of Seattle. From I-5 north, take the
Olive Street exit to Broadway East. Go north to East Roy Street and turn west to
the theater. The address of the theater is 807 East Roy Street, Seattle, WA
98122. Phone: 206-323-8986.)
WEST VIRGINIA:
Harpers Ferry National Park
Harpers Ferry.
The white-haired ghost of John Brown walks
alongside a black dog down the street here. They stroll past the store fronts to
the door of the Fire Engine House, where they disappear. Brown's ghost is
so real that some tourists have asked him to pose for pictures. The Kansas
abolitionist brought his band of followers to Harpers Ferry to take the
Confederate Arsenal and arm the slaves. He took hostages and held them in the
arsenal's fire house, but ninety Marines under General Robert E. Lee broke into
the building and took Brown and his followers prisoners. John Brown was hanged
on December 2, 1859, a little over a year before the start of the Civil War.
Hog Alley is haunted by one of Brown’s men who was mutilated and left for
the hogs. At St. Peter’s Catholic Church, the ghost of a priest
disappears through a wall, and the stone steps leading into the church are
haunted by the cries of a baby who was killed by a mortar shell there during the
Civil War. (Harpers Ferry National Park is located in Harpers Ferry at the
far eastern tip of West Virginia. The site is located off U.S. Hwy 340, near the
confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. Harper’s Ferry National Park,
P.O. Box 65, Harper’s Ferry, WV 25425. For information on private ghost tours of
the park, call 304-725-8019.)
WISCONSIN:
La Crosse
Bodega Brew Pub.
The ghost of a former poolroom owner haunts
this building. Paul Malin operated the Malin Pool and Sample Room in the 1890s.
After his death in 1901, his ghost started to appear regularly to new owners. No
one knew why the building changed hands so many times in the five years after
Malin died, but the truth surface in 1907, when A.J. "Skimmer" Hine, a popular
German immigrant, confided to friends that he was giving up his Union Saloon in
the building because it was haunted by Malin’s ghost. Hine said the ghost
appeared to him each night and kept him from sleeping by running amok and making
strange noises. (A man named George Ritter purchased the Union Saloon from
Hine, but he also could not make a go of it. The saloon was later replaced by
the Bodega Restaurant. Currently it is known as the Bodega Brew Pub. La Crosse
is on the Mississippi River in southwest Wisconsin at the junction of U.S. Hwy
53 and I-90. The two-story brick building is at 120 South 4th Street, La Crosse,
WI 54601. Phone: 608-782-0677.)
WISCONSIN:
Kewaunee
Karsten Inn. This historic inn
near Green Bay is known to be haunted. In owner Roswitha Hauer's words: "Before
I acquired this property I as contacted by one of Green Bay's most prominent
psychics. She told me that the place was haunted and by three spirits. One of
them is named Agatha and is well know by customers and former owners. Agatha is
very active and wants to stay in the building until it's torn down. She won't
pass over until that building is dust. This is was the psychic told me. We had a
few incidents happening with in the past couple of weeks where my employees
called me at home and wrote me e-mails about the happenings in the evening."
(The Historic Karsten Inn, 122 Ellis Street, Kewaunee, WI 54216. Phone:
920-388-3800. Fax: 920-388-3808. Web:
www.karsteninn.com. Contact:
karsten@itol.com.)
WYOMING:
Sheridan
Sheridan Inn.
This inn is haunted by the spirit of Miss
Kate Arnold, a housekeeper who lived here for 65 years. The inn opened in 1893
and was once owned by Buffalo Bill Cody. Miss Kate's presence is felt strongest
in her former room on the third floor, near the front downstairs windows, or in
the ballroom. Sometimes, she is detected as a moving cold spot, at other times
only her soft footsteps are heard. The owners have preserved her room just as
she left it and interred her ashes in the wall above her favorite chair. (The
town of Sheridan is in northern Wyoming, at the junction of I-90 and U.S. Hwy
14. Sheridan Inn, Sheridan, WY 82801. Phone: 307-674-5440.)
