The Mammoth Book of True Hauntings

by Haining, Peter

  “Where I work, parapsychology is defined as the scientific study of the capacity attributed to individuals to interact with their environment by means other than recognized channels. The neutral term ‘psi’ is used to denote this hypothesized capacity. As yet, most mainstream scientists are not persuaded that replicable evidence of psi phenomena exists. So why research and teach a controversial subject such as parapsychology at higher education institutions? Clearly psychologists and parapsychologists should play a role in trying to understand the beliefs and experiences [of the population]. In many cases, normal mechanisms, such as a need for a sense of control over one’s environment or the misjudgement of the likelihood of coincidence, may cause people to (mis)interpret an experience. But there is also the possibility that psi phenomena are genuine. This is a hypothesis that can be put to test under controlled conditions and that is part of what parapsychologists do.”

  By putting the clock back one hundred years – as I have done in this book through the medium of newspaper reports, personal accounts and extracts – it is possible to see how the first crude attempts by the Victorians to treat ghosts and other supernatural phenomena as a subject worthy of research have developed, been refined and gained momentum in the twentieth century. Accounts of haunted houses and people seeing spirits of the dead, it will be seen, can no longer all be summarily dismissed. As recently as 1978 in his otherwise excellent book, The Paranormal, psychologist Stan Gooch declared, “There seems to me to be virtually no valid evidence for the existence of ghosts.” In the pages that follow I think the reader will discover, as I have done as a researcher of the supernatural through fifty fascinating, intriguing and often baffling years, that there most certainly is the evidence.

  Peter Haining

  1

  A Century of Hauntings

  Chronology for 1900–2000

  1900–09

  Spectres in the Fog

  Source and date: Daily Graphic, 5 March 1900

  Mr AWC Clayden read a paper before the Royal Meteorological Society on “Spectres in the Fog.” He explained that during dense fogs in February, he made a number of experiments with a view to raising his own “spectre” and disproving the validity of ghosts. This he ultimately succeeded in accomplishing by placing a steady limelight a few feet behind his head when his shadow was projected on the fog. If he breathed heavily, so that the condensed vapour drifted across the shadow, fragments of circular globes appeared fringing the head of a larger shadow than that of the fog. If he stood about eight or ten feet from the light, the outlines of the shadow were very distinct, but they became less so as he moved away, until at a distance of about twenty feet not a vestige of shadow could be seen. If a person is in a fog, he must be close to its margin, or the light will not throw a shadow. If he is on the margin, he will see the phenomena to the best advantage. If he is outside it, but not too far away for the details of his shadow to be sharp, he may be able to see the shadows of others. Again, when he is in or upon the margin of the mist, his shadow will appear enlarged and its apparent size will depend upon the density of the mist and the brightness of the light. The poet Coleridge ascended the Brocken Mountains in 1799 to see the most famous of these spectres and later saw one in England which he commemorated in verse.

  The Phantom of Lincoln’s Inn

  Source and date: Daily Mail, 13 May 1901

  On Saturday night, Sir Max Pemberton, the well-known author and director of this newspaper, accompanied our news editor, Mr Ralph D Blumenfeld, in an all-night vigil to establish the veracity of claims that a Georgian house in Lincoln’s Inn is haunted. It has been claimed that this shadowy corner of the ancient Inns of Court has been the centre of weird manifestations that have forced six or eight tenants to leave in a great hurry in less than two years. The supposedly haunted chambers were entirely empty of furniture beside two chairs and a card table. Alone in the house, the two men shared in the weirdest experience of their lives after making a thorough search of the premises. As Ralph Blumenfeld explains, “Even a black beetle could not have escaped unobserved.” The electric lights were left on in each room and powdered chalk was sprinkled to obtain footprints of any person or thing, which might have trodden the floors. At seventeen minutes to one, the door of a small room unlatched itself very audibly and swung open to the fullest extent. At four minutes to one the door of the small room to the left behaved exactly the same. Both were closed and nothing further occurred until just before 2 a.m. when the same procedure was followed. At seven minutes past two both doors again opened in the same manner precluding any possibility that a draught might have caused the mysterious openings. Hastening to the two doorways, the men found, clearly defined about the middle of each floor, footprints of a bird, three in the room to the left and five in that to the right. Both thought these imprints were such as a bird the size of a turkey might have made. All were sharply delineated. There was no trace of dragging. Whatever manner of thing had bequeathed these footprints to the chalk had done so with remarkable precision. At this point Blumenfeld and Pemberton decided to terminate the sitting and after measuring and sketching the footprints, left the haunted chambers to their ghostly tenant.

  Ghost Troubles Village Public House

  Source and date: Illustrated London News, 24 December 1901

  As the Festive Season with its delight in ghost stories approaches, there has been much talk among the customers at The George in Newington, near Sittingbourne, Kent, of a spirit that does not come from the bottle. A supernatural figure has, it seems, been frightening the customers, smashing glasses and scattering objects in the bar of the village’s ancient public house. According to a legend, the ghost may be that of the Earl of Rochester who was buried alive in the back garden of The George as a punishment for seducing a nun from a nearby nunnery [This ghost was again reported to be active in a story in the Daily Mail, 6 October 1982.]

  Investigation of Haunted Abbey

  Source and date: The Times, 14 November 1902

  A group of members of the Society for Psychical Research are to investigate reports that the ghostly figure of Lady Elizabeth Hoby who is said to haunt the thirteenth-century Bisham Abbey at Marlow in Buckinghamshire has been seen again. Lady Elizabeth who lived in the Abbey during the sixteenth century was a scholar who studied Latin, Greek and French. She devoted a great deal of time to teaching her son, Thomas, but grew impatient when he constantly blotted his copy books with ink. One day she lost her temper and beat the poor youth to death. Following her own death, the ghost of Lady Elizabeth has haunted the Abbey vainly wringing her bloodstained hands. [The Daily Express reported on 21 December 1964 that during alterations at Bisham Abbey several children’s copybooks full of ink blots had been found beneath the floor of one room lending further credence to the story.]

  Ghost of an Elephant at Luna Park

  Source and date: Brooklyn Eagle, 18 September 1903

  Visitors to Luna Park, Coney Island have been hearing stories of the repeated appearance of the ghost of an elephant who died six months ago. Topsy, who was aged 36, was rumoured to have killed a couple of circus trainers in Texas before arriving at Luna Park. Last year, she crushed one Thomas Blount to death when he stupidly fed her a lit cigarette. Then for a time Topsy got on well, doing odd jobs at Coney Island, although she would only ever obey her mahout, Willy Alt. Earlier this year, she charged some workmen and it was decided she had to go. Poisoning and shooting were considered too cruel and so on a Sunday in March, Topsy was made to step on metal plates and electrocuted. Since then, according to the keeper of another elephant, Frank Gummis, the ghost of Topsy has returned twice to warn other elephants they should leave Coney Island before they suffer the same fate. Our readers will be interested to know that the press of America has had a field day with our strange story of a ghost elephant.

  Phantom Cyclist?

  Source and date: Daily Mirror, 24 December 1903

  Reports have reached us of a “Phantom Cyclist” on the roads aro
und Brighton in Sussex. People have stated that they have been repeatedly struck by “an unknown force or thing” which cannot be explained except as a manifestation of the supernatural.

  Fighting Ghost: Midnight Struggle with a Spectre

  Source and date: Evening News, 26 January 1904

  The ghost of Tondu, Glamorganshire has reasserted itself in the most aggressive fashion. According to a correspondent, a respectable resident of the district which the uncanny apparition haunts and terrorizes was proceeding at midnight along a lonely, narrow roadway adjoining the deserted buildings and coke ovens of the abandoned Ynishawdra Colliery – an ideal spot for ghosts – when he was actually attacked by the unnatural monster. The gentleman is muscular, but the sight which suddenly met his gaze at the far end of a tunnel-like bridge made him turn hot and cold. An exceptionally tall, cadaverous figure was standing there, shrouded in white, with a death’s-head and eyes like hollow sockets. It clasped him as though in a vice. The man could not grip. There seemed nothing more tangible than air, but he felt himself held as though in the folds of a python. With a frantic effort he clutched again at this supernatural assailant and it was gone. Women and children now creep indoors when nightfall comes and bands of stalwart men sally forth to lay the terror of Tondu.

  Ghost Scare in Blyth

  Source and date: Blyth News & Ashington Post, 14 March 1904

  Our correspondent in Blyth has informed us of a “ghost scare” in the town of Blyth. After reports circulated that “something of a ghostly nature” had been reported inside a schoolhouse, large crowds gathered around the building, returning each day in the hope of solving the mystery. Stories of a white figure being seen inside one of the classrooms and a creaking noise heard in a corridor were unconfirmed as we went to press.

  Mysterious Falling Stones

  Source and date: Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, June 1904

  Mr W G Grotendieck of Dortrecht, Sumatra has written to us of an experience at one o’clock in the morning last September. He was awakened by the sound of something striking the floor and the sounds continued. “I found that small black stones were falling, very slowly, from the area of the ceiling. They appeared near the inside of the roof and all my efforts to observe the stones as they erupted from the ceiling were met with frustration because they moved with extraordinary slowness.” [This account is one of the first in the twentieth century to record the activities of a poltergeist.]

  Spectral Visitor at Kirkstall

  Source and date: Daily Mirror, 9 September 1904

  A station porter at Kirkstall, Leeds was pacing the platform at midnight recently when he noticed a spectral figure clad, apparently, in a long grey sheet, down which streamed a long streak of red. A passenger alighting at the station early in the morning a day or two later called the attention of the same porter to a weird figure gesticulating from the roof of one of the wooden sheds which lie behind the station buildings. On another night strange lights were seen flickering around the station and the neighbourhood of the goods shed and again the ghost appeared. This time a party was formed with the object of solving the mystery, but although each one took a different direction, the search was again fruitless.

  Dr Butts’ Ghost

  Source and date: Occult Review, March 1905

  Last Easter-time an undergraduate at Cambridge University reported seeing a ghost in the Old Lodge of Corpus Christi College. The youth had rooms opposite those said to be haunted. At three o’clock one afternoon he was at work there and became conscious of a curious and apparently causeless sense of uneasiness. He got up and looked out of the window and saw a man with long hair leaning out of an upper window in the opposite set of rooms. Only his head and shoulders were visible and he stood very still and seemed to fix the undergraduate with a long and hostile stare. On enquiry, the young man found the door to the rooms locked and it was quite impossible for anyone to have entered them. The ghost is believed to be that of Dr Butts, Master of the College from 1626 to 1632, who described himself as a “destitute and forsaken man”. Butts was found hanging by his garters in the room on Easter Sunday, 1632 and has haunted the college ever since.

  Unusual Haunting in Kent

  Source and date: Daily Mail, 28 May 1906

  The stables of Mr J C Playfair at Furnace Mill, Lamberhurst, Kent have been disturbed several times this month by an unseen force. One morning, the horses were found to have been turned the reverse way round in their stalls, their tails in the mangers and their heads in the stalls. One horse was missing and later found in the hay room nearby. A partition had been knocked down to get it out and the door of the hay room was barely wide enough for a man to enter. Other phenomena included the removal of some heavy barrels of lime which were hurled down the wooden stairs; a large water butt too heavy for any human being to move overthrown; and locked and bolted doors found open. Two watchdogs were on guard at all times and had not reacted to the mysterious disturbance in any manner.

  A Peculiar Parisian Ghost

  Source and date Daily Mail, 1 May 1907

  An elderly Parisian lady, Mme Blerotti, has called upon the magistrate of the Sainte Marguerite district to investigate the “something” that haunts her flat in the Rue de Montreuil. Whenever she entered her flat, she told him, she was forced onto her hands with her legs in the air. Other members of her family, including her son, had all been impelled to act in the same peculiar way. The concierge of the building told the court, “All that you have heard is true. I thought the tenants had gone mad, but as soon as I entered the room, I found myself on all fours, endeavouring to throw my feet in the air.” Our correspondent states that the magistrate has “ordered the rooms to be disinfected”.

  Ambushing a Ghost

  Source and date: Daily Chronicle, 19 November 1908

  A queer story of a nine-feet-high spook that terrorizes Galway is told by the Dublin correspondent of the Central News. It is said that two young men coming into Galway from Newcastle made a short cut by the railway line and when opposite a place called Glanville they observed coming towards them on the lines a dark object which they both agree in relating was of human form and about nine feet in height. When the object came within a few yards of them, they state that it vanished. On coming into Galway, the young men told of the weird occurrence to their friends and accordingly a party was organized to visit the place the following evening and lay an ambush for the ghost. They had not long to wait, for it suddenly appeared straight in front of them whereupon one of the party raised his revolver. But he never fired a shot. The weapon dropped from his hand, which became powerless, and he fell in a swoon into the arms of one of his companions, while the ghost vanished from view. General terror prevailed among the ghost hunters lest the case of their companion might become serious and the hunt for the spectre was forgotten. A year ago several persons stated they had seen a spectre near the scene of the present apparition and there is great terror in the district over its reappearance.

  1910–19

  The “White Lady” of Hurstmonceaux

  Source and date: Mid-Sussex Times, 20 December 1910

  Colonel Claude Lowther, the owner of Hurstmonceaux, has added to the list of ghostly happenings associated with the famous fifteenth-century castle. One night earlier this year he saw a girl he did not recognize in the courtyard. She seemed very distressed and was wringing her hands, which he noticed were white and shrivelled. He thought she might be a gypsy girl begging, but as he walked towards her, she disappeared. The Colonel now wonders if she was the ghost of a young girl who tried to resist the advances of an earlier owner of the castle by plunging into the moat in a vain attempt to escape. Thereafter Hurstmonceaux was believed to be haunted by the “White Lady”. On another occasion, Colonel Lowther says he saw a horseman in breeches and velvet jacket near the old bridge over the moat. He was himself riding at the time, and as he neared the figure it suddenly passed right through his own horse’s head and disappeared.

&nbs
p; The Bowmen: A Story of the War

  Source and date: London Evening News, 29 September 1914

  First publication of the story by Welsh journalist and author, Arthur Machen, of a company of British Expeditionary Force soldiers in danger of being cut-off by superior German troops at Mons until the intervention of ghostly archers led by Saint George. Although Machen insisted his story was a pure invention, contradictory reports by officers and men serving on the front quickly turned his piece of fiction into a fact that proved impossible to dispel for many years and haunted its creator for the rest of his life.

  A Ghostly Ring of Angels

  Source and date: Evening News, 27 May 1915

  “There is a scientific reason for the appearance of a ring of ghostly angels round a contingent of Germans, which was reported in the Press on the information of two officers.” This statement was made to the Evening News by Mr F L Rawson, a well-known authority on occult phenomena. “This case of the apparition which caused the Germans’ horses to become unmanageable may easily have been caused through one of the English being a very religious man and believing that this would take place. If it was his particular form of belief that angels would surround a man, then his thought could sufficiently intensify the matter to enable another man who was psychic to see the apparition. That person might not know that he was psychic, but seeing the ring, he would state the fact aloud. The thoughts of those around would intensify the form and all present would see them.” Mr Rawson believes that the horses would see the ghosts quite easily as animals are more psychic than human beings and can see finer forms of matter than the ordinary person could possibly see.