Ghost Stories

Guest Hunter Josh Gates joins the TAPS team as they investigate an Hammond Castle in Gloucester, Massachusetts, minutes away from Josh's childhood home. Hammondcastle.org The castle was constructed between 1926 and 1929 for inventor John Hays Hammond Jr as a wedding present for his new bride Irene. The two secretly married in 1926. Hammond is known as the "Father of Remote Control". He held over 400 patents, more than anyone other than Thomas Edison. His home and laboratory contains his 15th, 16th and 18th Century collection of Roman, Medieval and Renaissance artifacts including the skull of one of Christopher Columbus' crewman, an eighty-five foot tall pipe organ, and the tomb of a child from Ancient Rome. Irene died in 1959 and Hammond's death came years later in 1965. Irene was buried in her family's plot in the Gloucester's Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Hammond was buried in the sepulcher until his body was moved in to the bronze vault inside the C...

The two-story, house known as the Reed Homestead was built in 1809 for Oliver Reed Jr. and his family in Townsend Harbor, Massachusetts. He, his wife and four children (the couple had five but only four reached adulthood) turned this federal-style house complete with pine floors, crown glass windows, and a mural on the second floor into a home four generations of the Reed family would enjoy. Today, the house is used as a nonprofit museum operated by the Townsend Historical Society who acquired the property in 1973. Visitors show up to witness the magnificence of the past including the mural attributed to the founder of Scientific American Magazine, Rufus Porter. It is believed of the 160 murals Porter painted in homes throughout New England the one in Reed Homestead, painted sometime between 1800 to 1835, is one of the most well-preserved still in existence. Of course, others are more interested in its resident ghost. Tragedy struck one of the Reed children. Hannah experienced the ...

How can a four-year-old girl disappear without a trace? Robert Keyes moved his family to Princeton, Massachusetts in 1751, purchasing 200 acres of land on the South-Eastern slope of the Wachusett Mountain. Four years later on April 14th, his daughter Lucy (4) followed her sisters to Wachusett Lake for some sand. This adventure in the woods would be her last. Lucy never returned home. The townspeople created search parties, drained the lake, but came up empty-handed. Lucy's mother, Martha scoured the woods, calling for her. Night after night, she searched the woods. Her grief overwhelmed her sanity. She died in 1786 never knowing what happened to her daughter. There are many theories as to what happened to Lucy Keyes. There was a letter found after Martha and Robert Keyes had died. This letter was from the Keyes' neighbor Tilly Littlejohn written on his deathbed. He had a quarrel with the Keyes over property line. and resented the family's happiness. When he spotted Lucy...

The history of the Colonial Inn extends three century. The original house was built in 1716 as a private residence for the Minot family in Concord, Massachusetts. Captain John Minot was a soldier and physician. It served an important purpose during the Revolutionary War. One of the inn's original buildings was used as a storehouse for arms and provisions in 1775. The British attempted to seize and destroy the town militia's supplies. However, the met the Minutemen on North Bridge on April 19th. This became the first battle in the Revolutionary War known as battle of Lexington and Concord. Owner Dr. Timothy Minot, also a physician tended to the wounded from the battle. In 1889, the Minot house along with two nineteenth-century buildings became an inn. Parts of the establishment were used as variety store and the town's center of commerce during the first half of the nineteenth century. It was also used as a residence. Henry David Thoreau and his family moved in to the in...

Adjacent to the shore of Town Cove in Orleans, Massachusetts sits an aging Victorian beauty. In 1875, Aaron Snow began constructing a beautiful mansion for his wife and seven children. The time and effort it took for him to build such a magnificent structure earned its past nickname, "Aaron's Folly". He ran a store on the first floor of this six-story building which included bootlegging and burying a stash in the waters of the cove. Snow's son, William H. moved the family business in to the center of Orleans where it continues to operate under by the Snow family. Aaron died on May 10, 1892, as well as his wife. For ten long years, this Victorian structure saw no life within its walls. Then in 1900, two sisters bought it and turned the beloved home in to a boarding house. A seedier side of life was introduced during the Roaring Twenties. Some of the female boarders decided to "entertain" male clients in their rooms, leading to a scandalous reputation for t...

How can a four-year-old girl disappear without a trace? Robert Keyes moved his family to Princeton, Massachusetts in 1751, purchasing 200 acres of land on the South-Eastern slope of the Wachusett Mountain. Four years later on April 14th, his daughter Lucy (4) followed her sisters to Wachusett Lake for some sand. This adventure in the woods would be her last. Lucy never returned home. The townspeople created search parties, drained the lake, but came up empty-handed. Lucy's mother, Martha scoured the woods, calling for her. Night after night, she searched the woods. Her grief overwhelmed her sanity. She died in 1786 never knowing what happened to her daughter. There are many theories as to what happened to Lucy Keyes. There was a letter found after Martha and Robert Keyes had died. This letter was from the Keyes' neighbor Tilly Littlejohn written on his deathbed. He had a quarrel with the Keyes over property line. and resented the family's happiness. When he spotted Lucy...

Built in 1903, the Cutler-Majestic Theater is one of the oldest theaters operating in Boston. Located at Emerson College, the theater was commissioned by Eben Dyer Jordan, son of the founder of Jordan Marsh, a Boston-based chain of department stores. In the 1920s, The Majestic was converted to accommodate vaudeville shows. Then later turned in to a movie house until 1983 under the name of Saxon Theater. In the mid-1980s, Emerson College purchased and restored it to its former beauty. Story goes a former Boston mayor died during a performance and is now often seen sitting at the theater. However, it's hard to determine which mayor it is. Several have died at the Majestic. There are also reports of a little girl who accepts hidden gifts and married couple who haunts the balcony. People refer to a room in the theater as "The Nightmare Room" because of a severe feeling of congestion and breathing difficulties.

Edith Wharton was an American writer of novels and short stories including Crucial Instances, The House of Mirth and The Greater Inclination. The Age of Innocence won a Pulitzer Prize in 1921, the first female to win such an award. In 1902, she designed and built The Mount in Lenox, Massachusetts. Her and her husband Teddy used the mansion as a writing retreat. Unfortunately, the marriage didn't last as she pursued a love affair in France and Teddy became mentally unstable. The Mount was also the hub for Shakespeare and Company, a theater troupe. It's now a museum dedicated to Edith Wharton. This location was chosen by TAPS for an investigation which will air on Wednesday. Several spirits are believed to reside here. Edith herself has been seen reading. Her husband Teddy and a servant girl who may have lived in one of the rooms on the top floor are also active in the house. There are also reports of a well dressed man checking his pocket watch. This man is believed to...

Longfellow's Wayside Inn was built in 1716 and is considered the oldest in the country. The Inn was an expansion of David Howe's home known as Howe's Tavern. Four generation of Howes operated and expanded as business thrived until 1861. Relatives who inherited the establish stopped overnight accommodations but rented it out for dances and lengthy visits. Henry Longfellow never owned Wayside Inn but it was renamed after him in 1892. Longfellow wrote a series of poems based on fictional characters who gathered regularly at the Inn. Published in 1863, The Tales of Wayside Inn launched it to national fame. Edward Rivers Lemon purchased the Inn in 1892, renamed it and operated it as “a retreat for literary pilgrims.” In 1923, Henry Ford, the last private owner, purchased and expanded it to 3,000 acres. He added several buildings including The Martha-Mary Chapel, Grist Mill, and Redstone School. Longfellow's Wayside Inn has had it share of famous visitors but is it haunte...

Next on Ghost Hunters: Theodores' and Smith Billiards in Springfield, Massachusetts. Resident Steve Gonsalves use to play at Theodores' with his former band Po' Boy and the Red Hats. He heard many stories about this place and approached Jason and Grant about investigating it. TAPS members and crew spent two nights proving and/or disproving what makes this tavern tick. Co-owners Keith P. Makarowski and Keith E. Weppler, Theodores' Tavern is located in a century-old five story building on Worthington street since 1999. It has come to be known as the place for Blues music, voted #1 Blues club in the country by the Blues Foundation in 2004, and BBQ but also has another reputation. Some claim to hear balls rolling on the fourth and fifth floor which use to be the home of a bowling alley 80 yrs ago (now vacant), chills in the basement, apparition of a little boy on a pool table, ghostly footsteps and whispers when the room is virtually empty. Are the stories true? Is i...

The last thing a 17 year old Bill Bartlett expected to see when driving with two friends through Dover, Massachusetts, at around 10:30 PM on April 21, 1977 was a creature from another dimension. Yet that is what he may have done, at least in the opinion of some investigators-and judging from Bill's description of what he saw, they could have a point! Driving along, his car's headlights suddenly illuminated a peculiar entity picking its way along a stone wall at the side of the road. As can be seen from the picture that Bill later prepared, which is reproduced here, the creature had a disproportionately large head, shaped like a water melon, with two big, protruding eyes that glowed orange, but it did not seem to have a mouth, nose or ears. Its body was small, its neck and limbs were long and thin, and its fingers and toes were slender and supple. The creature appeared to be hairless, but it's peach-colored skin was rough in texture. It stood about 1 meter (3-4 feet) high,...

Work began in 1848 on the Hoosac Tunnel, a.k.a. "Bloody Pit" in Massachusetts and wasn't completed until 1877. The tunnel was located at Hoosac Mountain which interestingly in the Mohawk language means "forbidden". More than 200 men died from explosions, fires, tunnel collapses and once by the hand of another worker. But the murder which occurred in 1865, is what gave the tunnel it's reputation. That year, the construction crew at Hoosac Tunnel was the first to use the new explosive nitroglycerin. Three explosive experts by the names of Ned Brinkman, Billy Nash and Ringo Kelley used the nitro to continue their work on March 20, 1865. After placing a charge, they ran back to the bunker that would shield them from the blast effects but unfortunately, Brinkman and Nash never made it. Kelley set off the charge early, burying the two men alive under tons of rock. The authorities began to believe that the "accident" wasn't an accident at all when...

Lizzie Borden. That name may sound familiar to some but others probably don't know anything about her. On Thursday, August 4, 1892 one of the most gruesome crimes ever committed in the United States occurred. Andrew J. Borden and his wife, Abby Borden were both slain. Abby was hit about 19 times in the back of the head with an axe. Her husband was hit at least 11 times. The main suspect in these murders: Lizzie Borden. Why did she kill them? I don't think anyone knows the answer to that question. No one even knows if she really did kill them. What makes this such an interesting case is the circumstances around it. Lizzie Borden was a church-going, Sunday school teacher. No one could even think that she would be capable of murder. Though some actions that took place the day before the murder says otherwise. There were reports that Lizzie had gone to Smith's Drug Store to purchase some prussic acid. Eli Bence claimed that Lizzie told him she wanted the acid to kill insects ...