04/30/13

Reader Submissions: Six True Tales of Ghosts and Ghouls

haunted cemetery

Here are a few short ghost stories I’ve received from readers. Do any send a chill down your spine?

Princess Seraphina
“I’m pretty sure my daughter is ‘friends’ with St. Seraphina. She talks about her and Seraphina all the time and tells us that Seraphina is a princess. What an odd name for a four year old to randomly come up with. I didn’t know anything about Saint Seraphina until I Googled it. The only thing I came up with was Ben Affleck’s daughter’s name and this Saint. No cartoon characters generated on the web search. So where did she get the name? Also, she twirls around talking to “Princess Seraphina.” not kidding here. It’s uncanny.

Last night, I opened my master bedroom door and sitting in front of my daughter’s door (we have hardwood floors) was a crumpled up piece of paper – a receipt – that was spinning by itself on the ground. FAST. When I stepped  forward, the paper abruptly stopped. When showing this spinning act to my wife, the paper wouldn’t spin at all. It’s almost like the floor was greased up. Just spinning. I understand that Saint Seraphina was a “spinner?” Before the spinning incident, my wife and I had a huge fight. It was almost like something was telling me to chill out. I’m not crazy, but this is a very true story.”

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04/8/13

Ghosts at the Lizzie Borden House?

Photos of Lizzie Borden House, Fall RiverOn August 4th, 1892, someone took an axe to Andrew and Abby Borden inside their Fall River, MA home. Abby died in a guest bedroom, her skull crushed by 19 blows, while the murderer pulverized Andrew’s face with 10. The gruesome story made international headlines and inspired the now-famous rhyme:

“Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one.”

Though police suspected Andrew’s daughter Lizzie, a jury acquitted her of the crime, and she remained in Fall River until her death in 1927.

Over 120 years later, the site of the infamous murders still stands and is now the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum (above). Visitors can tour the old home or spend a night in the room where Abby was brutally murdered. Photos of the crime scene adorn the walls and visitors can purchase bloodied Lizzie Borden bobble heads or view replicas of the Borden’s crushed skulls. Classy.

Given the gory history of the Borden home, it’s hardly surprising the building has a haunted reputation. Strange events at the property include the sound of a woman weeping, muffled conversations in empty rooms, and shoes moving across the floor. An icy-cold breeze overtook one visitor as he stood at the spot of Abby’s demise. Another tale speaks of a maid who quit after seeing the indention of a body on the bed in Abby’s room.

Ghost Adventures and Ghost Hunters both investigated the home, as have several other paranormal investigation teams. The GA crew declared the building haunted, while the Ghost Hunters guys weren’t so sure. A local investigation team, Mass Most Haunted, claims a spirit attacked their camera while they were out for a smoke.

Haunted or not, the history of the Lizzie Borden house should be enough to give anyone creeps. Would you stay there overnight?

Photo: TripAdvisor.com

12/22/12

Creepy Wiki: 70 Spooky Articles from Wikipedia.com

creepy_tree

Looking for creepy reading? Here are 70 Wikipedia articles that will keep you up at night. We’ve got ghosts, ghouls, monsters, and urban legends. Enjoy!

  1. The Bell Witch – “The Bell Witch or Bell Witch Haunting is a purported poltergeist legend from Southern folklore, centered on the 19th century Bell family of Adams, Tennessee.”
  2. The Amityville Horror – “The Amityville Horror: A True Story is a book by Jay Anson, published in September 1977. The book is said to be based on the real-life paranormal experiences of the Lutz family.”
  3. Bridgewater Triangle – “The Bridgewater Triangle refers to an area of about 200 square miles within southeastern Massachusetts claimed to be a site of alleged paranormal phenomena.”
  4. Crybaby Bridge – “Crybaby Bridge is a nickname given to some bridges. The name often reflects an urban legend that the sound of a baby can be, or has been, heard from the bridge. Many are also accompanied by an urban legend of a baby or young child/children being killed nearby.”
  5. The Weeping Woman – “Maria is forced to wander the Earth for all eternity, searching in vain for her drowned offspring, with her constant weeping giving her the name ‘La Llorona.’”
  6. Bloody Mary – “Bloody Mary is a legendary ghost or spirit conjured to reveal the future. She is said to appear in a mirror when her name is called multiple times.”
  7. Greenbrier Ghost – “The events surrounding the haunting have led to it becoming a very late instance in American legal history when testimony of a ghost was accepted at a murder trial.”
  8. Lincoln’s Ghost – “Lincoln’s Ghost is said to have haunted the White House since his death. It is widely believed that when he was president, Lincoln might have known of his assassination before he died.”
  9. Kate Morgan – “Kate Morgan is an American who died under mysterious circumstances, and is thought by locals to be a ghost at the Hotel del Coronado in Coronado, California.”
  10. Red Lady of Huntingdon College – “The Red Lady of Huntingdon College is a ghost said to haunt the former Pratt Hall dormitory at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama.”
  11. Resurrection Mary – “Resurrection Mary is a well-known Chicago area ghost story. Of the ‘vanishing hitchhiker’ type, the story takes place outside Resurrection Cemetery in Justice, Illinois.”
  12. The Chase Vault – “The Chase Vault is a burial vault in the cemetery of the Christ Church Parish Church in Oistins, Christ Church, Barbados best known for a widespread legend of “mysterious moving coffins.”
  13. Anneliese Michel – “Anneliese Michel was a German Catholic woman who was said to be possessed by demons and subsequently underwent an exorcism.”
  14. Yurei – “Yurei are figures in Japanese folklore, analogous to Western legends of ghosts. Like their Chinese and Western counterparts, they are thought to be spirits kept from a peaceful afterlife.”
  15. Krasue – “The Thai krasue is a nocturnal female spirit of Southeast Asian folklore. It manifests itself as a woman, usually young and beautiful, with her viscera hanging down from the neck, trailing below the head.”
  16. Brown Lady of Raynham Hall – “A ghost which reportedly haunts Raynham Hall in Norfolk. It became one of the most famous hauntings in Great Britain when the image of the Brown Lady was captured by photographers from Country Life magazine.”
  17. Borley Rectory Hauntings – “Borley Rectory was a Victorian mansion which gained fame as ‘The Most Haunted House in England,’ before it was destroyed by fire in 1939.”
  18. Haunted Highway – “Streets, roads or highways which are the subject of folklore and urban legends, including rumors and reports of ghostly apparitions, ghostly figures, phantom hitchhikers, phantom vehicles, or other paranormal phenomena.”
  19. Banshee – “The banshee is a female spirit in Irish mythology, usually seen as an omen of death and a messenger from the Otherworld.”
  20. The Spooklight – “A mysterious visual phenomenon allegedly experienced by witnesses in a small area known locally as the ‘Devil’s Promenade’ on the border between southwestern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma.”
  21. Moon Point Cemetery – “A memorial site located south of Streator, Illinois. It has been the subject of ghost folklore for generations of Streator area residents.”
  22. Ouija – “Mainstream religions and some occultists have associated use of the Ouija board with the threat of demonic possession and some have cautioned their followers not to use Ouija boards.”
  23. Doppelganger – “A paranormal double of a living person, typically representing evil or misfortune.”
  24. Electronic Voice Phenomena – “Electronic voice phenomena (EVP) are electronically generated noises that resemble speech, but are supposedly not the result of intentional voice recordings or renderings.”
  25. Unusual Deaths – “This list includes unique or extremely rare circumstances of death recorded throughout history.”
  26. Teke Teke – “Japanese urban legend about the ghost of a young woman, or school girl, who fell on a rail way line and was cut in half by the oncoming train. Now a vengeful spirit, she carries a scythe or a saw to slice victims in half, mimicking her own disfigurement.”
  27. Hairy Hands – “The Hairy Hands are a pair of disembodied hands that appear suddenly, grab at the steering wheel of a moving car or the handlebars of a motorcycle, and then force the victim off the road.”
  28. Ghosts in Polynesian Culture – “In many Polynesian legends, ghosts were often actively involved in the affairs of the living. Ghosts might also cause sickness or even invade the body of ordinary people, to be driven out through strong medicines.”
  29. Shubin – “Shubin is the mythological spirit of the mines. The legend of Shubin is distributed mainly in the mining towns of Donbas, Ukraine.”
  30. Japanese Urban Legends (Supernatural) – “Japanese urban legends are enduring modern folktales of paranormal creatures and their attacks on (usually) innocent victims or non-supernatural, widespread rumors in popular culture.”
  31. Nightmarchers – “In Hawaiian legend, Nightmarchers are the ghosts of ancient Hawaiian warriors. They are said to come forth from their burial sites to march out to past battles or to other sacred places.”
  32. Jersey Devil – “The Jersey Devil is a legendary creature or cryptid said to inhabit the Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey, United States.”
  33. Pope Lick Monster – “A legendary part-man, part-goat and part-sheep creature reported to live beneath a Norfolk Southern Railway trestle over Floyd’s Fork Creek, in the Fisherville area of Louisville, Kentucky.”
  34. The Devil’s Footprints – “After a heavy snowfall, trails of hoof-like marks appeared overnight in the snow covering a total distance of some 40 to 100 miles. The footprints were so called because some people believed that they were the tracks of Satan.”
  35. Shadow People – “Supernatural shadow-like humanoid figures that, according to believers, are seen flickering on walls and ceilings in the viewer’s peripheral vision.”
  36. Waverly Hills Sanatorium – “Waverly Hills has been popularized on paranormal television as being one of the ‘most haunted’ hospitals in the eastern United States.”
  37. Devil’s Tramping Ground – Legend has it “the Devil ‘tramps’ and haunts a barren circle of ground.”
  38. Ghosts in Tibetan Culture – “Ghosts are explicitly recognized in the Tibetan Buddhist religion as they were in Indian Buddhism, occupying a distinct, but overlapping world to the human one.”
  39. Flying Dutchmen – “The Flying Dutchman is a legendary ghost ship that can never make port, doomed to sail the oceans forever.”
  40. Silverpien – “Silverpilen (‘The Silver Arrow’) is a Stockholm Metro train which features in several urban legends alleging sightings of the train’s ghost.”
  41. Boy Scout Lane – “Boy Scout Lane is an isolated road located in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. A number of ghost stories and urban legends have become associated with the road, including the fictional deaths of a troop of Boy Scouts.”
  42. Ardvreck Castle – “A ruined Scottish castle dating from the 16th century.” Legends of ghosts and mermaids surround the ruins.
  43. Phantom Vehicle – “A supposed ghostly or haunted vehicle.”
  44. The Curse of Little Bastard – “A series of accidents that mysteriously occurred from 1956 to 1960 involving James Dean’s car, Little Bastard.”
  45. The Ghosts of Flight 401 – “Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was a jet that crashed into the Florida Everglades on the night of December 29, 1972, causing 101 fatalities. Over the following months and years, employees of Eastern Air Lines began reporting sightings of the dead crew members.”
  46. List of Ghost Ships – “A ghost ship, also known as a phantom ship, is a ship with no living crew aboard; it may be a ghostly vessel in folklore or fiction, such as the Flying Dutchman, or a real derelict found adrift with its crew missing or dead, like the Mary Celeste.”
  47. Clinton Road – “Clinton Road and the land around it have gained notoriety over the years as an area rife with many legends of paranormal occurrences such as sightings of ghosts, strange creatures and gatherings of witches, Satanists, and the Ku Klux Klan.”
  48. The Nain Rouge – “French for ‘red dwarf’ or ‘red gnome,’ the nain rouge is a mythical creature that originated in Normandy, France. In the United States, it haunts Detroit, Michigan and is feared by its residents as ‘the harbinger of doom.’”
  49. Mothman – “A mythical half moth half man from Point Pleasant, West Virginia described as a large humanoid with moth features on its face and large wings with fur covering its body.”
  50. The Cock Lane Ghost – “The Cock Lane ghost was a purported haunting that attracted mass public attention in 1762.”
  51. Spring-Heeled Jack – “Spring-heeled Jack is a character in English folklore of the Victorian era who was known for his startling jumps.Sightings were reported all over England and were especially prevalent in suburban London, the Midlands, and Scotland.
  52. Melon Heads – “Melon Heads is the name given to legendary beings and urban legends in parts of Michigan, Ohio, and Connecticut generally described as small humanoids with bulbous heads who occasionally emerge from hiding places to attack people.”
  53. Sayona – “La Sayona is a legend from Venezuela, represented by the spirit of a woman that shows up only to men that have love affairs out of their marriages.”
  54. The Ghost Ship of Northumberland Strait – “A ghost ship that can be seen sailing ablaze within the Northumberland Strait. This phantom ship has been reported for over 220 years with numerous eyewitness accounts.”
  55. Maco Light – “A supposedly anomalous light, or ‘ghost light,’ occasionally seen between the late 19th century and 1977 along a section of railroad track near the unincorporated community of Maco, North Carolina.”
  56. Poltergeist – “In folklore and the paranormal, a poltergeist is the apparent manifestation of an invisible but noisy, disruptive or destructive entity. Most accounts of poltergeist manifestations involve noises and destruction that have no apparent cause.”
  57. Aokigahara – “Aokigahara has a historic association with demons in Japanese mythology and is a popular place for suicides.”
  58. List of Reportedly Haunted Locations in the World – “This is a list of locations in the world that are reportedly haunted by ghosts or other supernatural beings.”
  59. Haunted Locations in the United Kingdom – “A list of the United Kingdom’s notoriously haunted locations.”
  60. List of Reportedly Haunted Locations in the United States – “There are numerous reportedly haunted locations in the United States.”
  61. Reportedly Haunted Locations in California – “Reportedly haunted locations in California.”
  62. Reportedly Haunted Locations in Pennsylvania – “Reportedly haunted locations in Pennsylvania.”
  63. Reportedly Haunted Locations in Kentucky – “The following are reportedly haunted locations in the U.S. state of Kentucky.”
  64. Reportedly Haunted Locations in Alabama – “There are many reportedly haunted locations in the U.S. state of Alabama.”
  65. Reportedly Haunted Locations in Washington D.C. – “Washington, D.C. has been the site of military battles, deadly duels, assassinations, untimely deaths, and associated tragedies.”
  66. Reportedly Haunted Locations in the San Francisco Bay Area – “Over 100 sites in the San Francisco Bay Area are reported to be haunted.”
  67. Demon – “A demon is a supernatural, often malevolent, being prevalent in religion, occultism, literature, and folklore.”
  68. List of Cryptids – “A list of cryptids and alleged relicts, which are animals and plants studied under the field of cryptozoology. Their presumptive existence has often been derived from anecdotal or other evidence considered insufficient by mainstream science.”
  69. Zombie – “A zombie  is an animated corpse resurrected by mystical means, such as witchcraft.”
  70. Witch – “Witchcraft is the use of alleged supernatural, magical faculties. This may take many forms, depending on cultural context.”
12/4/12

Are You Scared?

girl_looking_in_mirror

“After what I have learned to call The Lennox Haunting, a haunted house that I lived in terror in for 38 days total, we vacated the property and moved to a different home on the outskirts of Lennox.

I thought the hell was over, but I was dead wrong. Sometimes hell does not leave, it just lays dormant, waiting and watching for that exact slice in time when you’re vulnerable. That’s the moment it comes again and lets you know that you are human, and it is not. Here is part of my story.

I had walked upstairs to retrieve something from my bedroom when I heard a commotion in the bathroom. It was impossible. I was home alone. I had left the bathroom door open with the light out, but the door was now closed and I could see light filtering out from beneath it. I slowly approached the door.

I laid my hand on the door knob, not sure if I had the guts to actually open it. My heart was beating so hard by then I could hear it echoing in my ears. I paused there a moment. I slowly took my hand back off of the door knob and crept back to the hall closet.

My ex-husband had left his old set of golf clubs in the closet for our son, Dominick, to use. I opened the closet door as slowly and as quietly as I could. I reached in and quietly pulled out the first club I felt. I was still watching the bathroom door, never taking my eyes off of it, fearing it would suddenly open and some stranger would come charging at me.

I retrieved the club and quietly closed the door. I felt so much better from the feel of the cold metal of in my hand. I headed back down the hall to the bathroom door. I stood beside it, listening for any movement.

I could not hear anything in there, not so much as a breath. I was actually starting to get angry. I felt I had been through enough of this shit. I took a deep breath and turned the handle, pushing with enough force that I knew the handle would dent the wall. The door banged loudly as it did precisely that, leaving a round imprint. The pressure was so great from the door that the shower curtain blew away from the tub; its movement startled me.

“Who’s in here?” I asked in a very unfriendly tone, raising the golf club into the air, ready to strike if I had to.

My voice echoed loudly throughout the bathroom. I heard a bit of a sound, like wind escaping or maybe it seemed more like a long, deep breath. I held mine. I wanted to hear everything. I was getting tired of the fear, of the seemingly endless games. I just knew in my heart that something was there, and whatever it was, it was definitely messing with me.

I saw the shower curtain flutter again, as though there was a breeze passing through it, even though there were no windows in the bathroom. I stood my ground even though my heart was thumping so hard I could feel it moving my chest with each beat.

I walked over to shower curtain. It was almost completely drawn closed. I slowly reached for it, grabbed the edge of the curtain, and then quickly pulled it completely open. The tub was empty. I let out a long sigh of relief and then took a couple more long, deep breaths, exhaling very slowly. It helped to slow my heartbeat down to a more comfortable level.

I stepped in front of the vanity to look into the mirror. My eyes looked like those of a crazed maniac holding a golf club in the air. I stared at myself, just shaking my head.

“What is your deal today, Jolene?” I said sternly to my reflection as if it could actually answer me.

Then I heard a raspy, very loud whisper directly into left my ear as though someone was standing very close, right next to me.

“ARE YOU SCARED?”

The voice came from seemingly nowhere. I could see from my reflection in the mirror that no one was standing beside me. It startled me so much my knees buckled. Had I not grabbed the edge of the vanity to steady myself, I would have certainly fallen to the floor. The voice I heard had such a mean tone that it had chilled me to the bone. I felt a cold rush of air on the side of my head, as though someone was breathing icy breaths on my cheek. I could even feel the pause between breaths. The suddenness of it had startled me so much I had dropped my golf club. I quickly bent down to retrieve my precious weapon even though I could not see anyone to use it on. The club still felt very good in my hand.

I straightened back up and saw myself in the mirror. I knew my reflection was telling me that I was standing there by myself, but I still couldn’t help glancing directly beside me and all around the room. I was alone. I laid my hand to my cheek where I had felt the breaths. My cheek was very cold to the touch.

I glanced back at my reflection one more time and for a moment, just for a thousandth of a second, I thought I saw another face looking back at me. It was not the face of a normal person. It was distorted, as if I were looking into one of those weird mirrors in the fun house at a carnival, and then it was gone again.

It was so quick I could not be absolutely sure if it had been there at all. I continued staring into the mirror. I was in too much shock to move right at that moment. It finally dawned on me to move my feet and get myself away from the mirror. I really did not want to see anymore if I could prevent it. I was shook up enough.

I ran out of the bathroom, pulling the door shut behind me. I headed for the stairs. I didn’t know where I was running to at that moment; all I remember was that I needed to get some distance between myself and that bathroom.”

Note from original poster, Jules V Ness:  If you would like to read more, check out the “look inside” section of BEYOND THE LENNOX HAUNTING, The Haunting of Me (Volume 2)on Amazon. This is based on a true story that began in a home I had lived in a few years beforehand in the town of Lennox.

Have you had a brush with the paranormal? Share your story here!