Ghost Stories

Kidnapping. Murder. Loss. Suffering. Yellow Fever. Suicide. Possession. Exorcisms. Seance. Parapsychologists. Poltergeist. Demonologist. All words associated with one Savannah home, the Hampton-Lillibridge. Over 50 years ago, before ghost tours or real tourism in Savannah, Jim Williams — one of Savannah’s preservation visionaries and the main character in the “non-fiction novel” Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil — “rescued” a home that some believe might have been better off being allowed to die. Beautiful and austere-looking today, and arguably on Savannah’s nicest colonial-era street, the home became the wellspring of all things haunted lore and ghost economy in Savannah. Some say it’s haunted by its past as a hospital during an epidemic in 1820, the family found dead in the home, believed to be poisoned by their slaves. Or perhaps later when a German sailor set himself on fire in the upper floor where so much poltergeist activity has been experienced. Others have offered the...

Opera House Fire Leaves Ghosts Behind? Men, women and children crowded into the third floor of the Weyant Opera House on a brisk spring evening on May 17, 1886. The local Westerville residents were excited to see the traveling theatrical performance of “ Uncle Tom’s Cabin .”  The play had been a national sensation since P.T. Barnum staged it in 1853 in New York City. The church-going folks of the town were not in the same frame of mind about theatrical performances.  They considered them sinful and warned of dire consequences for those in attendance. That warning came true on that cool evening. A four-foot stage sat along the western wall of the opera house’s large top floor.  Theatre goers ascended a long set of stairs and entered through a narrow doorway in the rear of the room. Coal-fired oil lamps lit the stage to the delight of the children who lined the front row.   The buzz in the room was audible.   Traveling actors who p...

St. Augustine’s Paranormal Places: What’s Locked Up in the Old Jail? The Old Jail in St. Augustine, Florida is listed on the Florida and National Register of Haunted Places. The Old Jail’s paranormal past has been featured on The Today Show, the Syfy Channel and the Travel Channel. These supernatural occurrences include loud banging noises, light orbs, sudden chills and even sightings of moving shadows and apparitions. The history of the jail is sordid and scary, so many tourists and locals flock to the site to experience the haunted tales firsthand. Henry Flagler, a key industrialist in Florida, built the structure in 1891. The same construction company would later go on to build the infamous Alcatraz prison. During its time as a jail, conditions for prisoners were notoriously inhumane, with poor diets and sanitation. The maximum security area housed the most dangerous criminals, and a total of 8 men were hung from the jail’s gallows. All of the violence and death led to many a...

In 1877, the original house was built in Reading, Pennsylvania. Charles W. Hendel, a financier and owner of the Charles W. Hendel hat manufacturing company, enlarged the Victorian mansion. He hired the  Muhlenburg Brothers Architects of Reading to turn the structure in to a spacious Queen Anne style family home, popular during that time period. Adelaide K. Hendel was the last of the Hendel family to live in the house. It was transformed in to a Lutheran church from 1949 to 1999. In 2000, a Marjorie Hendel-Perject "donated" the house to the Historical Society of Berks County in an effort to preserve the structure in honor of her grandfather Charles Hendel. It has since been used as office space, meetings, a space for events and storage. Hendel House is also believed to be haunted. A male spirit known as "Mr. Whitman" has been seen throughout the home and he may not be alone. Witnesses have also encountered a little girl and various other entities.  You have a c...

Graphic by Destination America Has Destination America found its hit paranormal series with Mountain Monsters? An order for a second season says possibly. A group of hardcore hunters and trappers called The Appalachian Investigators of Mysterious Sightings (AIMS) based out of West Virginia use their expertise in attempt to catch elusive supernatural beasts. Will they be successful where others have failed? Unlikely, but viewers will tune in to watch them try. When I first switched Mountain Monsters on, m initial reaction was "Oh, no. Not another Deep South Paranormal disaster". I was surprised to find it wasn't a total waste of time. They talk to witnesses, view evidence, use a combination of cameras, homemade traps and years of hunting/trapping knowledge to track their supernatural prey. White it's not completely terrible, Mountain Monsters isn't going to revolutionize the paranormal world. Allegations of fabrications have already began to make the ...

Earlier today, Lemon Press Publishing released crime novelist Mitchell Nevin's latest novel that touches on matters of law and justice, psychic phenomena, criminal investigations, and personal redemption. In Psychic Reprieve: Deception & Reality, a handful of colorful characters -- a well-liked college baseball prankster, a disgraced Chicago police sergeant, and a folksy Twin Cities identify thief -- devise a plan to market a member of the trio's clairvoyant abilities. During this venture, the lines between deception and reality blur as the motivation for monetary gain clashes with conscience and personal responsibility. Purported psychics use their talents to provide a service and earn an income. In this particular line of work, scammers abound like thieves in the night. To realists, a psychic reading is a pricey form of entertainment. To those in search of inner peace, however, the hopes of bringing a loved one's killer to justice or communicating with a relativ...

From the personal blog ( http://www.jeannicolerivers.com ) of JeanNicole Rivers: Recently, I visited my hometown of Centralia, IL. While visiting gravesites of relatives with my grandma Bunny and great grandma Joyce I got to meet Harriet. Annie Marshall. Annie was the daughter of the town doctor; she died in 1890 at the age of 11. Her mother and father were so crushed by her death that they memorialized her with a grand tombstone featuring a life-sized sculpture of Annie holding her beloved violin. As we cruised through the cemetery on the rocky paths my grandma pointed Annie out and told a haunting tale. “Every evening just as the sun sinks below the horizon leaving Centralia in the dusty shadows of twilight H. Annie Marshall begins to play her violin for exactly one hour in order to soothe the souls of the dead and the damned, keeping them from raging up out of their rotted coffins in the night and taking to the narrow streets of the time-forgotten town. Before her death, A...