When the Ghost Screams
Page 8
It was probably Harvey, he figured, still helping out at the hotel that had made him a multimillionaire.
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OMNI PARKER HOUSE
60 School Street
Boston, MA 02108
(617) 227-8600
Ghosts of Salem
When most folks think of Salem, Massachusetts, they conjure images of witches in tall, crooked hats, riding brooms against a full moon. It is an image that the city has done little to discourage.
It was 1692 when teenaged girls began acting silly and sparked a hysteria that burned through Salem Village. The little town (now known as Danvers) was near today’s city of Salem.
The teenagers’ odd behavior was blamed on the devil, and soon neighbor was accusing neighbor of witchcraft. Many residents were jailed as accused witches, including a four-year-old girl.
In the horrific end, nineteen people were hanged and one was crushed to death.
The murder of twenty innocent people may very well account for the paranormal activity that swirls around the area today, including some of the following places:
First to Die
According to the managers of the Lyceum Restaurant, the classy eatery was built atop Bridget Bishop’s old apple orchard. The very first villager hanged for witchcraft, Bridget was a colorful character who managed to annoy her neighbors with her flamboyant dress and her tendency to speak her mind.
It is Bridget’s spirit who is responsible for the odd noises heard at the Lyceum, say employees.
When my friends Anne and Hilary Ferraro and I visited the restaurant, the manager invited us to explore the unoccupied upper floors. We were tired after walking around town all day, so after we had ventured up to the second floor, Anne turned to her daughter, twenty-one-year-old Hilary, and said, “Go up to the loft and tell us if there is anything worth seeing.”
Some employees refuse to venture upstairs in the Lyceum Bar and Grill. This view is from the loft, where strange noises often emanate. (Leslie Rule)
Hilary obediently started up the stairs. She was three-quarters of the way up when an ominous creak sounded from above, and suddenly Hilary was flying back down the stairs.
We all headed up to investigate. What could have caused the creak? It was so loud that we had all heard it. It had sounded like the creaking door in a scary movie. I tried all of the loft doors but could not duplicate the sound.
According to the manager, a film crew had visited recently to document the haunting and was baffled when the batteries were inexplicably deleted on every piece of their recording equipment, a common occurrence in haunted locations.
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LYCEUM BAR AND GRILL
43 Church Street
Salem, MA 01970
(978) 745-7665
Web site: www.LyceumSalem.com
Ghostly Witch
A formidable brick house, erected in 1784, may be home to the ghost of Sheriff George Corwin. The Joshua Ward House, which today houses offices, was built on the foundation of the home of one of Salem’s most detested people.
George Corwin was a cruel man who orchestrated the arrest of villagers accused of witchcraft. Many hated him after he tortured the accused in his home. He also stole the victims’ belongings after they were executed on Gallows Hill.
When George Corwin died, he was buried in his own basement to prevent his enemies from desecrating his grave. He was later exhumed and buried elsewhere, but many believe the despicable man’s spirit remains.
Who peers from the windows of the Joshua Ward House? (Leslie Rule)
It is a woman’s ghost, however, that has been spotted in the house. One witness saw the pale woman sitting in a chair in the home, while others have spied her peeking from the windows, or floating down the stairs. It is said that she is one of the accused witches who died as a result of Sheriff Corwin’s actions.
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JOSHUA WARD HOUSE
148 Washington Street
Salem, MA 01970
(The Joshua Ward House is not open to the public.)
Derby Street Haunting
Some believe it is the proximity to the city’s oldest graveyard that stirs up the ghosts in Roosevelt’s Restaurant. Owner Henry McGowan told a reporter for the North Andover, Massachusetts, Eagle-Tribune in October 2001, that he realized the place was haunted when items began moving around on their own.
An artist sculpted ghostly figures emerging from the wall outside of Roosevelt’s Restaurant. The wall supports one end of the old graveyard. (Leslie Rule)
The owner of Roosevelt’s Restaurant in Salem met the ghost of a woman here. (Leslie Rule)
He spotted an apparition when he was working alone in the building until three a.m. “I was on the second floor,” he said. “I actually looked up and saw somebody looking down at me. It was a woman.” He looked away for an instant, and when he looked back, she had vanished.
The building’s outdoor courtyard showcases a bit of whimsical and eerie art. A stone wall stops the graveyard next door from tumbling onto his property. Henry hired an artist to sculpt the images of ghosts, climbing through the wall, as if they were escaping from the cemetery.
According to legend, a casket once broke through the wall and fell into the building. Employees insist it really happened and point to part of the wall that obviously has been patched.
No one knows the identity of the ghosts who wander through the restaurant, but some wonder if they may indeed have escaped from the cemetery next door.
Known as the Burying Point, the graveyard is the final resting place of a judge from the Salem Witch Trials.
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ROOSEVELT’S RESTAURANT
300 Derby Street
Salem, MA 01910
(978) 745-1133
Gallows Hill
Mollie Stewart, a well-known paranormal researcher who leads the Vampire and Ghost Tour and owns the Spellbound Museum, was conducting an investigation on Gallows Hill one night when she encountered a presence.
Gallows Hill, a few miles from Salem, is infamous as the spot where nineteen accused witches were hanged.
As Mollie ventured up the hill, she at first didn’t think too much of it when she heard voices. She figured it was just a few other people, out exploring. But then she spotted a hooded figure. As she stared, it vanished before her eyes.
The voices grew quiet, and she found no sign that other living beings had been there that night.
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SPELLBOUND MUSEUM
190 Essex Street
Salem, MA 01941
(978) 745-0138
Web site: www.spellboundtours.com
Evil Avoided
While hunting for ghosts, I not only found my roots but discovered an enemy.
If Cotton Mather had had his way, I would not be here today. Not only did the self-righteous Puritan oppose Margaret Rule, from my father’s side of the family, he proposed selling my ancestors on my mother’s side into slavery.
William Penn first landed in Old New Castle, Delaware, near the site of this dock. When I stood on this dock, I had a profound sense of connection with the area but did not yet know that my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather Thomas Stackhouse had been herewith William Penn. Not only did Cotton Mather want to execute my relative, Margaret Rule, but he also wished to sell William Penn and my ancestor into slavery. (Leslie Rule)
My great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, Thomas Stackhouse, traveled here via ship with William Penn in 1682. When Cotton Mather heard that twenty-three ships carrying Quakers were on their way from England, he proposed kidnapping the passengers and selling them into slavery. His bright idea came a decade before he stirred up the Massachusetts witch controversy.
But destiny had its own plan. Both the Stackhouse and the Rule lines survived, and here I am, seven generations later, researching the ghosts of those who died at the hands of Cotton Mather.
“I wonder how many people he k
illed?” said my mother, Ann Stackhouse Rule, as she pondered the evil deeds of the Boston minister.
I have walked the paths that Mr. Mather walked, and have spoken to those who have encountered the ghosts of his victims. I’ve stood on the dock in Old New Castle, Delaware, where William Penn and my ancestor arrived on October 27, 1682.
It is here, on the Delaware River, where headless apparitions have been witnessed. I did not see the ghosts, believed to be Dutch soldiers, but could almost hear the sound of their whispering beneath the rush of the waves.
History’s harsh lessons and the ghosts they have wrought make me acutely aware of the fragility of life. From the murder of accused witch Bridget Bishop in Salem to Quaker Mary Dyer hanged on the Boston Common, the deaths were cruel and ugly.
While the unjust killings silenced the heartbeat, they did not stop the spirit.
Survivors carry family names. Ghosts still wander their old homesteads. And, despite Cotton Mather’s objections, William Penn founded Pennsylvania.
Cotton Mather is buried in Boston’s Copps Hill Burying Ground. I won’t be putting flowers on his grave.
five
The Enemy Within
When I stayed at the Heathman Hotel in Portland, Oregon, in 2001, I did not ask for a haunted room. In fact, I did not yet know the hotel was haunted.
I had checked in to meet with Diana Jordan, who has a syndicated radio program called Between the Lines.
My first ghost book, Coast to Coast Ghosts: True Stories of Hauntings Across America, had just come out, and she had scheduled an interview.
My room was 702. I thought it odd when the bedside lamp turned itself off and on but figured it was just a short in the wiring.
Diana taped the interview in my room and picked up a background static that was so bad that she almost couldn’t air it.
“I decided to use it and play up the fact that the disturbance might be from the hotel’s ghost,” she told me.
We had learned that it was common knowledge among the hotel staff that all of the rooms ending with two were haunted.
I soon discovered why when I searched Portland’s newspaper archives. In December 1965, a man who had worked long years at a nearby restaurant had been promised a promotion when new management took over the business. Instead, he was fired.
Devastated, he went to the top of the Heathman and jumped to his death.
My guess is that his fall took him past the row of windows that belonged to the rooms ending in two.
One of the saddest things about suicide is the fact that depressed folks don’t have to suffer or die.
Not anymore.
Chemists have figured out how to balance the human brain so that many who are depressed can feel calm and hopeful again. All types of drugs are now available, and with a little patience and persistence, those who suffer from mental anguish often can find the medication to set their brain chemistry right.
Depression is not a weakness. It is a physical imbalance in the brain that affects millions of people. The medicine helps makes the depressed person’s brain function as it is supposed to.
When they are in the grips of depression, however, people cannot believe that they will ever feel better. Some take drastic measures, and sadly, find themselves forever trapped in the gloom.
The following are examples of people with no hope, who are now truly stuck in a hopeless place.
In Uniform
The theatergoers at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, had had enough.
How could they enjoy the movie when the usher kept walking in front of them?
Finally, one woman got up from her seat and went out to the lobby. There, she found the head usher and complained about the disruptive usher. He listened as she described the teenager who kept blocking her view. A chill went through him.
Her description certainly matched one of their employees. But he no longer worked at the theater. He was dead, buried in his usher’s uniform, weeks before. The eighteen-year-old had shot himself in the head.
It was early spring 1967, and the ghost sightings were both frightening and sad. Some of the boy’s coworkers wished they had been kinder to him. They hadn’t realized how lonely he was.
The kid with the English accent had seemed out of place with others his age. Gawky and shy, he did not make friends easily. Few went out of their way to include him.
According to Minneapolis residents, the ghost of the lonely boy was seen long after his death, usually patrolling row 18. It had been one of his regularly assigned areas.
Eventually, the theater was “cleansed,” and no sightings of the ghostly usher have been reported since.
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GUTHRIE THEATER
725 Vineland Place
Minneapolis, MN 55403
(612) 311-2224
Still Pining
The Carneal House Inn in Covington, Kentucky, is home to the melancholy spirit of a woman scorned. Constructed in 1820 in the center of the city’s historic Riverside district, the huge, antebellum-style house was originally named Southgate House.
Legend has it that Marquis de Lafayette attended a party there and was unresponsive to the batting eyes of a young lady who fell for him. Rejected and distraught, she took her own life in an upstairs bedroom.
Visitors to the bed and breakfast have glimpsed the spirit of a woman in a gray silk dress. She has been witnessed floating down the carved wooden staircase and seen pacing on the second-story balcony. When the rocking chair rocks on its own, many believe her ghost is present.
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THE CARNEAL HOUSE INN
405 E. Second Street
Covington, KY 41011
(606) 431-6130
Troubled Waters
The remnants of a century-old railroad bridge straddle White Lick Creek in Danville, Indiana. The mournful howling heard here is believed by many to be the disturbed spirit of a young woman who met her fate on a bleak night.
According to one version of the legend, she was a young mother with a babe in arms whose family had turned her away. In her day, unwed mothers were shunned. The girl did not know where to turn. She found herself alone and began to wander along the railroad track. As she stumbled over the bridge, she hugged her baby close, wondering how in the world she would support the infant.
Her choices grew even grimmer when she heard the train barreling toward her. There was no time to run. She could stay and be plowed down by the train, or jump off of the bridge to almost certain death. She leapt from the bridge, but it was not the end, for her confused spirit still clings to the concrete structure.
Yet another story says that the ghostly screams belong to a worker who fell into the wet cement during construction of the bridge. His body has been entombed there ever since.
Skeptics say the sound of the screams is nothing more than the wind whistling through the arches of the bridge, but others insist it is the cries of a frightened woman.
Vestiges of the Danville Interurban Bridge are located at the north end of Ellis Park.
Bridge to Death
Earthbound spirits roam the Washington Avenue Bridge in Minneapolis, according to students of the University of Minnesota. Four traffic lanes wide with an enclosed heated walkway, the double-decker bridge spans the Mississippi River. It connects the east and west banks of the Minneapolis campus, and, for some, life to death.
Sadly, this bridge is the site where so many depressed people have jumped to their doom that it has been deemed “one of the most popular suicide spots in the city.”
On a Friday morning in 1972, acclaimed poet and University of Minnesota professor John Berryman climbed over the railing of the bridge and leapt into the cold, calculating arms of the Grim Reaper.
The Pulitzer Prize—winning poet had wrestled with alcoholism for the previous six months, and in the end, a bottle of whiskey won the match. Not quite sixty years old, the sensitive soul whose words had moved so many simply could not take the pain of his
life any longer. The irony is that, now, he may be trapped in that agony.
Some who linger on the bridge say they have heard the sound of footsteps moving toward them when no living person is in sight. The phantom pacing is attributed to the dead poet and others who died there.
The University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities Campus is east of downtown Minneapolis.
(612) 625-5000
Fatal Step
It took seven million man-hours to construct the most famous building in our country. And it takes 1,860 stair steps to reach the top. Yet, it takes just one step to end a life.
Since the completion of New York’s Empire State Building in 1931, nearly three dozen troubled people have taken a fatal step off the building.
In one irreversible step into empty sky, they believed they were saying good-bye to their pain. Unfortunately, nothing is that easy, for the ghosts of suicide victims have long been seen in the 102-story building.
If they had only let time take care of their woes, their hurt may have eventually vanished. But because they could not bear to wait it out, they are stuck in their torment indefinitely.
Photographers have gotten fascinating anomalies in shots taken from the top of the building, including spirit-like streaks that appear to be exiting the structure. Among the wraiths that are said to be wandering the Empire State Building is that of a broken-hearted young woman in 1940s fashion.
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THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING IS IN MIDTOWN MANHATTAN BETWEEN 33RD AND 34TH STREETS AT:
350 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10118
(877) 692-8439