Ghosts, Hauntings, and Bumps in the Night

St. Bartholomew's Church, London

2019-12-30T12:27:00.000-08:00

St. Bartholomew's Church is a place with a long history. It was founded by, of all people, a court jester of Henry I. This jester was named Rahere, and by all accounts, he was a very pious man. The ghost of Rahere is said to walk the church, and evidently, it is always seen at 7 a.m. on July 1.

A figure thought to be that of a monk has been spotted more than once in the church. On another occasion, a man saw a cloudy white object that gradually took the form of a woman in white. The man recognized the figure as his daughter, who lived in Australia. The man was horrified, believing that the apparition was a premonition of his daughter's death, even though the figure looked overjoyed to see him.

Some time later, the man received a letter from his daughter. She had been dangerously ill, she said, but was now recovering. She recounted a strange occurrence: during her illness, she had a dream that she was in St. Bartholomew's Church, and was ecstatic to see her father there. She noted the day and time of this happening (as had her father), and when they compared notes, they saw that the uncanny incident had happened to them both simultaneously.

The Amityville Hoax

2019-11-30T04:00:00.000-08:00

This is a story that simply refuses to go away, and unfortunately, many people believe that it is true.

The Amityville Horror was published in 1977, and immediately seized the interest of readers throughout the United States. An all-American family's dream home had turned out to be haunted! No, possessed! Kathy Lutz levitated in her sleep one night; George Lutz began to display violent behavior; green goo oozed from the ceilings; flies infested the house; the front door was ripped from its hinges.

Author Jay Anson was hired to write the book, and it became a best-seller. A movie was made in 1979, starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder. In the film, the house was photographed so that two windows just below the roof looked like eyes, as if the house had a personality of its own.

The Lutzes had moved out of the "cursed" house, and they profited handsomely off the book and the movie. Soon - very soon - cracks appeared in their story of horror. For example, they claimed to have called the police multiple times due to the disturbances, but the police had no record of any calls. The front door showed no signs of damage, let alone the kind of damage that would result from being ripped from its hinges. The priest who was called to bless the house (and allegedly became very ill afterwards) saw nothing unusual.

The real Amityville horror is very different, and tragic. Before the Lutzes bought the house, it was owned by the DeFeo family, consisting of Ronald DeFeo, Sr., his wife Louise, and their five children. The oldest of these, Ronald DeFeo, Jr., was a problem child, and no wonder. His father was an angry and violent man, with apparently no clue as to how to raise children. Butch was often in trouble, and his parents finally took him in for counseling.

Counseling didn't help, so the DeFeos began offering Butch cash rewards for good behavior. He promptly took the money and used it to support his heroin habit. He was expelled from school, and DeFeo, Sr. gave him a job in the Buick dealership that he (Ronald, Sr.) owned. Butch was paid weekly, even if he didn't show up for work. The money went towards heroin and a chilling new hobby - guns.

It wasn't long before Butch's job at the dealership didn't provide him with enough money, so he began a side career of embezzlement. During this time, he threatened - and even tried - to shoot his father, but the gun failed to fire.

The embezzlement was discovered quickly, and the police came to the dealership to question Butch.

Around 3:00 a.m. on November 13, 1974, "Butch" DeFeo murdered his entire family in their beds. It is thought that Louise and Allison DeFeo were awake when they were shot. Butch then showered, dressed, and went to work, pretending that all was well. The police soon focused on the sole surviving member of the family as the murderer, and Butch's story changed constantly. He was tried for the six murders and received six concurrent sentences of 25 years to life.

This is the true horror of Amityville - the slaughter of six people. Ronald DeFeo is still in prison. His attorney, William Weber, admitted that he and the Lutzes made up the story of the haunting. Many "experts" in parapsychology, including the infamous Ed and Lorraine Warren, "examined" the house and claimed that it was badly haunted.

This, despite the fact that no other inhabitants have ever had any problems there - apart, of course, from the endless gawkers who want to see the "evil" house. There's nothing to see; the owners - current and future - need to be left in peace.

Flight 401 and its Famous Ghosts

2019-11-28T08:53:00.000-08:00

Quite a few people know the story. On December 29, 1972, Flight 401 (operated by the now-defunct Eastern Air Lines) crashed into the Florida Everglades. More than half of the passengers died, while the crew suffered fewer fatalities. Two men who happened to be out frog gigging that night saw the crash and hurried to the scene, taking survivors to safety throughout the night and well into the following day.

When the voice recorder was recovered later, it revealed that Captain Bob Loft's last words before the crash were: "Hey - what's happening here?" Loft died at the scene of the crash, as did First Officer Albert Stockstill (who was killed on impact). Second Officer Don Repo was transported to the hospital, where he died of his injuries the following day.

After that, the tales began. Sightings of the late Bob Loft and Don Repo were reported by crew members on board other Eastern Air Lines planes. The ghosts were seen standing in the aisles, or in the cockpit or galley.

In 1973, one of the vice-presidents of Eastern Air Lines spotted a man in a captain's uniform on board his flight. The two men chatted briefly, and the VP simply assumed that the other man was the captain of that day's flight.

He wasn't.

A few months later, Loft was seen on another flight. Crew members spoke to him, then he suddenly vanished.

A flight engineer saw Don Repo sitting in the engineer's own seat. Repo told the engineer that he (Repo) had already done the pre-flight check. And then he vanished.

A passenger went into hysterics when the man sitting next to her suddenly vanished. She was concerned for the man, who looked unwell, and asked a flight attendant to help - and the figure then disappeared.

A flight attendant saw Repo's face looking at her from a galley oven. She brought two of her coworkers to see the apparition; all of them saw the face and heard a voice say, "Watch out for fire on this airplane." The last leg of the plane's route was canceled when engine trouble developed.

Did Loft and Repo come back to watch over other flights of Eastern Air Lines? According to many stories, they appeared on planes that had had parts from the ill-fated L-1011 fitted into them. However, that plane was thoroughly mangled in the crash, as photos show, and nothing usable was left.

Eastern Air Lines went out of business in 1991. If Loft and Repo were out to protect their former company's flights, they can rest easily now.

Haunted property

2019-11-19T12:43:00.000-08:00

Are you buying a house? Do you want to know if it's haunted, or if any deaths have occurred on the property?

Are you selling a house? Do you want to know the disclosure laws?

Just click here.

Staying in haunted places

2019-11-19T12:38:00.003-08:00

For your next vacation, are you looking for a supernatural experience?

Take a look at this blog (run by me, of course) to find a haunted place to stay.

Walsingham haunted house in Georgia

2019-11-19T08:26:00.002-08:00

I ran across this story for the first time when I read Bernhardt J. Hurwood's Ghosts, Ghouls, and other Horrors. It's alleged to have happened somewhere in Georgia, though the area is never specified.

I just found it again, in a book called True Ghost Stories, by Hereward Carrington. This book was published in 1915, and contains at least one other story republished by Hurwood. Carrington claimed that the story was originally published in The San Francisco Examiner. Edited to add: Carrington was telling the truth; the story was printed in the Examiner, on November 29, 1891. Since you need a subscription to view the story, I wasn't able to read it in full, but I saw enough to know that this is the same story.

According to the story, a family named Walsingham moved into a house that was horribly haunted. The usual supernatural occurrences were noted, such as footsteps, the doorbell ringing when nobody was at the door, and items knocked over. With time, the family found it impossible to sleep, as the visitants made too much noise. Screams, shouts, and groans were heard around the house, sometimes even from under the house.

The family dog, a mastiff named Don Caesar, hated whatever was happening in the house, and often growled and barked at something invisible to the family. One day, he tried to attack something in the hall, and fell back - dead. His neck had been broken. Weirdly, the family cat appeared to enjoy the entities, and often appeared to be enjoyed pets from unseen hands.

One evening, as the daughter of the house sat at her vanity table, she felt someone place a hand on her shoulder. She looked in the mirror and saw the hand, but there was no body. Her screaming alerted the family, but nothing (including the hand) was to be seen when they entered the room. Her father, on another occasion, watched as the prints of bare feet formed in the dirt alongside him as he walked through the garden.

One night, several guests who had been invited to dinner got much more than they had anticipated. As they sat at the table, a groan was heard from the room above. By that point, the vocalizations were so common that nobody thought much of it. Soon, though, a red liquid began to drip from the ceiling and soak into the tablecloth. It resembled blood so much that Mr. Walsingham and some of the guests ran into the room above the dining room and pulled up the carpet.

They found nothing but dust. Meanwhile, the liquid continued to drip from the ceiling of the dining room. The following day, the tablecloth was analyzed, and the liquid was found to be blood. Human blood.

That was enough for the Walsinghams, who moved out. Nobody dared move into the house after that, given its reputation. Ghost hunters galore went to the place, but not many had the nerve to stay there overnight.

One such man was a fellow by the name of Horace Gunn, who bet that he would be able to spent twenty-four hours alone in the house. Carrington's book speaks of Gunn in the present tense; for example, the book states that "he declares that there is not enough money in the country to make him pass another night there. He was found the morning after by his friends with whom he made the wager, in a swoon. He has never recovered from the shock of his horrible experience, and is still confined to his bed suffering from nervous prostration."

Gunn attempted to light a fire in the fireplace when darkness fell, but each match he struck went out; he claimed that the matches were blown out by something invisible. Gunn, resigned to passing the rest of the night in darkness, was almost asleep when all hell broke loose. A loud shout, seeming to come from under the house, was heard. Footsteps ran upstairs and down, as if one person was chasing another. Finally, the noise stopped, and Gunn dared to hope that nothing more would happen.

He was wrong. He saw a light manifest on a wall, and the light gradually turned into a human head. Just a head, without a body. The head had long, shaggy white hair, and an injury in the temple that was bleeding profusely. The eyes looked directly at Gunn, who was frozen to the spot.

When the head disappeared, the spirits began to scream and howl, shaking the house and making an incredible racket. Gunn decided to forget all about the bet and leave as quickly as he could, but the entities had other ideas. When Gunn had almost reached the door, an icy hand seized his ankle and pulled him to the floor, when other hands (or the same?) gripped him by the throat and choked him unconscious. Gunn's friends found him the following morning, his throat bruised by the marks of thin fingers with long nails.

So. What is the real story here? Did the Examiner print a fictional story for Halloween, only to have it taken seriously? If there is any truth to the story, where is the house? Was the family really named Walsingham, or was the name changed to protect their privacy? Was this simply a 19th-century hoax, like the Amityville story almost a century later?

Musical Ghosts

2019-11-14T09:27:00.000-08:00

Given the fact that so many musicians have died young, it's hardly surprising that some of them haven't been ready to let go of this earthly plane.

John Lennon has been spotted at the Dakota, where he lived the last years of his life (and where he was shot and fatally wounded on December 8, 1980). Fellow Beatle Paul McCartney has claimed that Lennon appeared while he was recording one of Lennon's unfinished works.

Elvis Presley is said to haunt Graceland, along with his mother. His face has occasionally been seen in an upstairs window. A little girl who wandered away from her parents during a tour was later found in the adjoining cemetery. She claimed that a man in a white suit had taken her around the house and then out into the cemetery, to Elvis' grave.

Buddy Holly went to his doom in a private plane, along with fellow musicians Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. A ghost plane has been spotted above a field in Clear Lake, Iowa - the same field in which the plane crashed. Strange lights have also been witnessed in that field.

Jim Morrison is said to haunt Sunset Sound studios in Hollywood. Recording artists have reported strange occurrences, including lights going on and off, and instruments suddenly going out of tune.

Hank Williams has been seen backstage at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, which once housed the Grand Ole Opry. This was a place where, in life, he performed frequently.

The Supernatural in Paris

2019-11-06T13:57:00.001-08:00

During WWII, a French woman played a dangerous game. Her husband was in the Resistance, and the woman took a Nazi lover so that she could pass on information to her husband. One night, the woman came to the Pont Marie in Paris, where she had arranged to meet her husband. The man never showed up, and his wife froze to death. Her ghost is supposed to haunt the bridge to this day, eternally waiting for her husband to arrive.

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Pere Lachaise Cemetery has enough bodies in it to account for a plethora of ghosts. Among the specters seen there are author Marcel Proust (said to search for his lover every night) and rock star Jim Morrison.

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Parc Montsouris is one for the stout of heart. It is said that when the guillotine was first coming into common use, the current park area was used to test the new device. Now, the park may be haunted by the headless ghosts of the first victims of Madame La Guillotine. These gory apparitions are joined by Isaure De Montsouris, the man for whom the park is named. Evidently, he was murdered by bandits, and remains at the site of his untimely death.

Haunted Accidents

2019-11-01T14:38:00.002-07:00

Haunted attractions - houses, asylums, hospitals, hayrides, and the like - are wildly popular in the United States (and in a few locations abroad). In October, guests flock to these places, eager to be scared out of their wits.

Some of them are scared even more than that. Haunted attractions are growing increasingly extreme, and actors often come into physical contact with the guests.

Blackout Haunted House is located in New York City. Its rules alone are frightening - guests must go through the "show" entirely alone; they must do exactly as they are told; they are not to speak unless told to do so. The website also warns that guests will encounter "sexual and violent situations".

Scare House is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Its website makes it clear that this attraction is not for those who are pregnant or have cardiac or respiratory problems. The video on the home page is pretty intense.

The Tension Experience in Los Angeles takes two and a half hours. All guests experience the attraction differently, as the story depends on the choices they make. The storyline deals with indoctrination into a cult - a frightening enough experience in real life.

Miasma, in Chicago, is an invitation-only experience. You register on the website to receive your invitation. The website has a list of physical conditions that render potential visitors incapable of attending the experience, and a much longer list of things that may happen inside Miasma. These include graphic adult content, crawling, nudity, electricity, edible content, and "clothing removal and/or destruction".

As the saying goes, those who like this sort of thing will find that this is the sort of thing they like.

I'm baaaaack!

2019-10-31T17:02:00.000-07:00

After a long hiatus - too long - I've returned for more ghostly hijinks.

I thought it appropriate, since it's Halloween.

Here are some stories to get you going. More to come!

The Unlucky Wives of Henry VIII

2015-05-27T03:00:00.000-07:00

A man as determined as Henry to have just the right wife to bear one living son after another was bound to be bad news for the women around him, and he was.

The similarities are eerie. He divorced his first and fourth wives. He had his second and fifth wives beheaded. And his third and sixth wives died of puerperal fever, a streptococcal infection that often set in after childbirth. (Granted, his sixth wife outlived him, so she was married to another man at the time of her death, but she did have that connection with Henry.)

Of his wives, only one (Anne of Cleves) rests in peace. The others have been seen many times over the centuries.

Catherine of Aragon, rejected after many years of marriage for her younger and apparently more fertile lady in waiting, Anne Boleyn, was banished to Kimbolton Castle until her death. It is there that her ghost walks, in the chamber where she spent much of her time in life. Creepily, Catherine's death occurred just a few months before her successor's.

The ambitious, sharp-tongued Anne Boleyn was no more successful than Catherine at producing even one living male heir, let alone several of them. Beheaded on the grounds of treason and adultery (including a charge that she had had an affair with her own brother), she is perhaps the most famous ghost connected with Henry. She has been seen at the Tower of London, where she was executed and buried; at Blickling Hall, her father's residence; and at Windsor Castle, among other places. She is usually seen headless, sometimes holding her head under one arm. She is said to arrive at Blickling Hall on the anniversary of her death, in a coach drawn by headless horses and driven by a headless coachman. Her own head rests on her lap.

Jane Seymour, who gave the King his much-awaited son, comes back to Hampton Court Palace on October 12, the date of the boy's birth. Dressed in white, she often carries a candle.

Silly, flighty, and fatally foolish Catherine Howard has been seen running frantically through the "haunted" gallery at Hampton Court. Legend has it that she slipped away from her guards and ran to beg Henry's forgiveness for her adultery (which, in her case, was true). The guards caught up to her at the doors and dragged her away. Evidently, she is never seen headless, unlike her first cousin, Anne Boleyn.

Catherine Parr has been seen at Sudely Castle, where she died. She wears a green dress.

Henry VIII is said to haunt Windsor Castle and Hampton Court. In 2003, a security camera aimed at one of the doors caught the image of a richly-dressed figure opening the doors, hesitating, then closing them again. Could this have been the ghost of Henry, able somehow to move solid objects?

A headless ghost in York

2014-11-07T12:06:00.001-08:00

Powerful Catholic nobleman Thomas Percy was determined to overthrow the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I. He failed miserably, having to leave England and take refuge in Scotland.

Percy was betrayed and returned to England not as a victor, but as a traitor. On August 22, 1572, he was beheaded. As was fairly common practice in those days, his head was then speared on a spike on Micklegate Bar. Eventually, someone removed the rotting (or already rotted) head and buried in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Goodramgate.

Percy, however, still seeks his head, and often rises from the grave at night and fumbles among the tombstones in an attempt to find it.

Haunted attractions

2014-10-26T09:45:00.002-07:00

I'd like to get your input, here. What's the scariest haunted attraction you've ever visited, and why? What made it stand out from all the others, especially since there are so many others?

More haunted property in the news

2014-05-24T04:54:00.002-07:00

Real estate agents across the United States have it good when it comes to property that is known - or even rumored - to be haunted.

An 1882 house in Joliet, Illinois, sold recently for less than $200,000. It's been the site of more than one death, including a murder in 2004.

Those who don't mind heat, a lack of greenery, and a Blue Devil - as well as having $5.9 million to spend - might want to invest in a house over a former gold mine in Arizona. The possibility of striking it rich (well, richer) is an added incentive.

For those who would rather stay in a haunted house short-term than buy one, here's a list of ten haunted houses in the United States, some of which are bed and breakfasts. As long as you don't mind a sudden departure in the middle of the night.

Another headless ghost

2014-03-10T01:40:00.000-07:00

Philadelphia boasts many apparitions, including one that is a contemporary of Tarrytown's Headless Horseman. This luckless fellow, another casualty of the American Revolution, rides Allens Lane on nights when the city is fog-bound.

He carries his head, of course. Why not?

Another headless spirit of the City of Brotherly Love haunts Cliveden Manor. This is the ghost of an old woman who has searched for her head for more than 200 years.

Haunted Edinburgh

2014-02-19T12:37:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting one:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2553674/Neighbours-hell-Remains-wizards-house-horrors-hidden-inside-Quaker-meeting-place.html

The Bennington Triangle

2013-12-21T07:50:00.001-08:00

This is a weird one. No ghostly activity has been reported in this area, but things are very odd here.

Between 1945 and 1950, five people disappeared in this area of southwest Vermont, most near the Long Trail. The first was Middie Rivers, an experienced guide in his 70s. On November 12, 1945, when returning from the mountains with four hunters, Rivers got ahead of his group. Nobody ever saw, or heard from, him again.

On December 1, 1946, local college student Paula Weldon went out for a day hike along the Long Trail. She never returned. Searchers combed the area, but no trace of her was ever found. One story claims that an elderly couple saw her hiking, and lost sight of her when she went around a bend. When they arrived at that same bend, Paula was gone.

The eeriest of the three disappearances was that of James Tedford. Tedford, who was in his sixties, was taking a bus from St. Albans to Bennington when he vanished. His luggage, and an open bus schedule, were found on the bus later. Witnesses stated that he was still on the bus when it left the next to the last stop (before Bennington). When the vehicle arrived at Bennington, Tedford was gone.

His disappearance occurred three years to the day after the disappearance of Paula Weldon.

The area claimed two victims in one month the following year. Paul Jepson, eight years old, wandered away from his family's truck, which had been parked not far from the area where Paula Weldon was last known to have been seen. Bloodhounds were brought out, but his scent ended abruptly on the Long Trail, suggesting abduction.

Exactly two weeks later, 53-year-old Frieda Langer went on a hike with her cousin, Herbert Elsner. Frieda slipped and fell in a creek. She asked Elsner to wait for her so that she could return to the family campsite, change clothes, then catch up with him.

Nobody saw Langer alive again. A massive search was mounted, with as many as 300 people taking part. On May 12, 1951, Frieda Langer's body was found - in an area that had already been searched. Twice.

Decomposition prevented the authorities from ascertaining a cause of death.

House for sale, "slightly haunted"

2013-12-18T06:02:00.002-08:00

Not your average Zillow listing, I think. Four-bedroom Victorian with unusual additions.

Happy Halloween!

2013-10-30T23:29:00.000-07:00

Enjoy the holiday. Have a party. Stay in and have a horror-movie marathon. Carve pumpkins. Load up on candy. However you celebrate it, have fun and be safe.

Headless ghosts

2013-10-27T14:36:00.000-07:00

Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, has not rested easily in her grave in the grounds of the Tower of London. Executed on charges of treason, as well as infidelity (with various men, including her own brother!), Anne has made her presence highly visible at times.

A sentry at the Tower was court-martialed for sleeping on duty in the 19th century, a very serious charge. In his defense, he said he was not sleeping, but unconscious. He stated that the form of a woman approached him, and when challenged, only came closer. He stabbed the form with his bayonet, and it vanished. He then lost consciousness. Fortunately for the sentry, others testified that they had seen the same figure when on night duty. He was acquitted.

Anne's ghost returns to her childhood home, Blickling Hall, on the anniversary of her execution. She arrives in a coach drawn by headless horses and driven by a headless coachman. She holds her severed head in her lap. Her brother, executed the same day as Anne, is also seen on this anniversary. Headless, he is dragged over the grounds of the Hall by headless horses.

Haunted attractions

2013-10-26T11:40:00.001-07:00

It's your turn, now. What are your favorite haunted attractions, and why? Cornfield, abandoned prison or hospital, trail, or other venue? What makes them so scary? What keeps you coming back?

Real Estate in Haunted Cities

2013-10-26T11:20:00.004-07:00

Okay, it's something of a stretch, but Zillow has posted several homes for sale in "haunted" cities (which, judging from the story, means "cities with a notoriously haunted location").

Here they are!

The Ghost of Anne Tottenham

2013-03-30T14:07:00.001-07:00

Anne Tottenham was the unlucky daughter of Charles Tottenham, a stern and humorless parent. Anne lived with her father and stepmother in Loftus Hall, a lonely and, by all accounts, ugly residence.

When a young horseman asked for shelter one rainy night, Anne quickly fell for him. Rather than marrying her and taking her away from Loftus Hall, however, the young man rode away when the weather permitted, leaving Anne behind. "Her reason gave way", as the saying was, and Anne was confined to the tapestry chamber in the Hall for the rest of her life. Looking at the case from a more modern perspective, it seems far more likely that Anne attempted to leave the Hall and join her would-be lover, or that she threatened suicide; it's hardly likely that, even for such a lonely woman, insanity would have followed her brief acquaintance with the charming visitor.

A story got out that Anne's young man was none other than the devil himself, which Anne discovered one evening when she leaned down to pick up a playing card that had fallen on the floor, and saw that her visitor had cloven feet. When she screamed, he disappeared in a puff of smoke. For some reason, Anne's father and stepmother preferred this ridiculous story to the truth, and stated that the devil was causing the disturbances in their home.

The tapestry chamber, where poor Anne spent the rest of her life, became haunted by her ghost. One guest experienced an entity jumping on his bed and growling like a dog. Another woke the house with his screams, after the bed curtains were pulled aside and he saw a woman wearing a brocade dress standing next to the bed, staring at him.

Another guest, who had stayed up late reading, saw a woman in a brocaded dress pass through the room and enter the closet. When she appeared the following night, he tried to catch her - and his arm went right through her. She continued to the closet, where she vanished.

Years later, that same guest was staying at the Hall again when another guest's valet - the one whose screams had awakened the house on a previous visit - refused to sleep in the tapestry chamber. When the guest asked the valet why he would not sleep in that room, the valet asked, "Is it not possible that you do not know that Miss Tottenham passes through that room every night, and, dressed in a stiff flowered silk dress, enters the closet in the corner?"

The guest shared his previous experience with the valet, who replied, "Yes, that was Miss Tottenham, and, as is well known, she was confined—mad—in that room, and died there, and, they say, was buried in that closet."

Anne bedeviled visitors of generations of owners of Loftus Hall. One guest found his belongings strewn around the room one morning. Another felt a growling something jump on the bed and pull off the covers (unlike the other growling victim, however, he did not fire a pistol up the chimney).

In 1868, a friend of the owners' visited the Hall, and asked the housekeeper how Miss Anne took to the changes in the tapestry room, which had been converted into a billiards room. The housekeeper, frightened, finally said, "Oh, Master George! Don't talk about her: last night she made a horrid noise knocking the billiard-balls about!"

From Ancient Greece

2013-01-19T07:25:00.001-08:00

Courtesy of Pliny the Younger:

There was in Athens a house, spacious and open, but with an infamous reputation, as if filled with pestilence. For in the dead of night, a noise like the clashing of iron could be heard. And if one listened carefully, it sounded like the rattling of chains. At first the noise seemed to be at a distance, but then it would approach, nearer, nearer, nearer. Suddenly a phantom would appear, an old man, pale and emaciated, with a long beard, and hair that appeared driven by the wind. The fetters on his feet and hands rattled as he moved them.

Any dwellers in the house passed sleepless nights under the most dismal terrors imaginable. The nights without rest led them to a kind of madness, and as the horrors in their minds increased, onto a path toward death. Even in the daytime--when the phantom did not appear--the memory of the nightmare was so strong that it still passed before their eyes. The terror remained when the cause of it was gone.

Damned as uninhabitable, the house was at last deserted, left to the spectral monster. But in hope that some tenant might be found who was unaware of the malevolence within it, the house was posted for rent or sale.

It happened that a philosopher named Athenodorus came to Athens at that time. Reading the posted bill, he discovered the dwelling's price. The extraordinary cheapness raised his suspicion, yet when he heard the whole story, he was not in the least put off. Indeed, he was eager to take the place. And did so immediately.

As evening drew near, Athenodorus had a couch prepared for him in the front section of the house. He asked for a light and his writing materials, then dismissed his retainers. To keep his mind from being distracted by vain terrors of imaginary noises and apparitions, he directed all his energy toward his writing.

For a time the night was silent. Then came the rattling of fetters. Athenodorus neither lifted up his eyes, nor laid down his pen. Instead he closed his ears by concentrating on his work. But the noise increased and advanced closer till it seemed to be at the door, and at last in the very chamber. Athenodorus looked round and saw the apparition exactly as it had been described to him. It stood before him, beckoning with one finger.

Athenodorus made a sign with his hand that the visitor should wait a little, and bent over his work. The ghost, however, shook the chains over the philosopher's head, beckoning as before. Athenodorus now took up his lamp and followed. The ghost moved slowly, as if held back by his chains. Once it reached the courtyard, it suddenly vanished.

Athenodorus, now deserted, carefully marked the spot with a handful of grass and leaves. The next day he asked the magistrate to have the spot dug up. There they found--intertwined with chains--the bones that were all that remained of a body that had long lain in the ground. Carefully, the skeletal relics were collected and given proper burial, at public expense. The tortured ancient was at rest. And the house in Athens was haunted no more.

Resurrection Mary

2012-10-31T10:37:00.002-07:00

The "vanishing hitchhiker" is a story that is told over and over, a good campfire story to have in one's repertoire.

The basic story is this: A man, driving down the street late at night, sees a young woman in a pretty dress waving at him. He stops, and she tells him that she needs a ride home. He agrees, and offers her his jacket, since it is cold outside and her dress is thin. When they arrive at the address she gave him, he is shocked to discover that she is no longer in the car. It's far too late for him to knock on the door of the house, so he returns the following day. The door is answered by a weary-looking man or woman, and the young man tells of the woman who asked to be brought home.

The homeowner tells him that the young woman was the daughter of the house. She was killed in a car accident near the place where he picked her up.

Unable to believe it, he drives to the cemetery where (he was told) she is buried. He finds her tombstone easily enough, because draped neatly over it is his jacket.

This story has a factual basis. Starting in the 1930s, dozens of men have reported picking up a young woman, wearing a fancy but thin dress, when driving northeast on Archer Avenue in Justice, Illinois. The routine was the same, every time. As the driver neared Resurrection Cemetery, his passenger asked to be let out, and promptly vanished into the cemetery. Hence, the name "Resurrection Mary".

Was Mary real? She may well have been. The popular story is that Mary was dancing at a nearby ballroom in the 1930s when she and her date had an argument. Mary stormed out of the ballroom into an Illinois winter night, clad only in her dress, shoes, and shawl, clutching her purse. She never made it home. A driver struck her as she walked along Archer Avenue, and immediately fled the scene. Mary died in the street; her parents had her buried in Resurrection Cemetery, wearing a white dress and her dancing shoes.

Mary has spent more time out of the grave than in it, according to reports. She is usually seen in the winter months; sometimes walking down Archer Avenue, sometimes hitching a ride, sometimes inside the cemetery gates, looking out. The TV show Unsolved Mysteries did a segment on Mary as part of a series of shows on the supernatural, with many fascinating stories, including one from a couple who saw her walking down the street, but could not see her face.

It's Halloween. Will Mary come out to dance tonight?