The Mammoth Book of True Hauntings

by Haining, Peter

  Headless Ghost in Pre-fab

  Source and date: Sunday Dispatch, 28 March 1948

  The ghost of a headless man is causing considerable alarm to people living in prefabricated bungalows in Page Road, Bedfont, Middlesex - so much so that the police have been called in. The bungalows, which are detached, were built by the Feltham Council on land which once formed part of the notorious Hounslow Heath, one-time haunt of highwaymen. For weeks past strange “things” have been happening in the house, No 42, occupied by Mr Joseph Wilkinson, a coach driver, his wife Mary, 27, and Patricia, their four-year-old daughter. They have been haunted by a headless figure. One night the little girl screamed to her parents, “There’s a man sitting on my bed.” Then when the Wilkinsons’ dog Dusty went hysterical with fear overnight, the family sought refuge with a neighbour who sent for the police. The family are now thinking of asking psychic research investigators to visit the bungalow.

  Ghost Hunter Accused of Fraud

  Source and date: Daily Mail, 30 March 1948

  The ghost hunter Harry Price who died earlier this month has been accused of fraud by another investigator who went with him on several visits to Borley Rectory in Suffolk, “the Most Haunted House in England”. Journalist Charles Sutton visited the Rectory in 1929 and believes that Price “fraudulently manufactured phenomena” to support the ghost stories surrounding the house and his books on the subject. Sutton says that during a visit “an apported pebble hit me on the head”. He adds, “After much noisy phenomena, I seized Harry and found his pockets full of bricks and pebbles. This was one phenomenon he could not explain.” The claim has been supported by Mrs Mabel Smith, who lived in the Rectory with her husband, Reverend G Eric Smith from October 1928 to July 1929. “I was in residence for some time at Borley Rectory and would like to state that neither my husband or myself believed the house haunted by anything else but rats and local superstition.”

  1950–59

  Evil of the Epsom Ghost

  Source and date: Daily Mail, 17 July 1950

  An evil spirit is terrifying the Sargent family of Epsom in Surrey. The ghost has physically attacked Mrs Betty Sargent several times and she is now afraid it is trying to kill her. She says, “One night I felt something trying to strangle me. I woke up my husband and we left the bedroom and went into the lounge to get away from whatever it might be and tried to sleep on the couch. But in a few minutes the thing tried to choke me again.” On another night she was struck by a lamp which rose up from a small bedside table, hit her on the head and then landed on Mr Sargent’s head. He continued, “One night, Betty was sitting up in bed when something began pulling her shoulders. It dragged her towards the window, lifting her body so that only her legs and thighs were touching the bed. She cried out for help – I grabbed her by the legs. But whatever it was had very great strength. At first I couldn’t hold it, I felt myself being pulled towards the window, too. Then all at once it seemed to lose its power and Betty fell.” Mrs Sargent said, “If my husband hadn’t been there, I could quite easily have been dragged out of the window and it would have been written off as suicide.” The ghost has recently taken to disarranging Mrs Sargent’s night clothes, upsetting her cosmetics and even removing a pair of nylons from their cellophane packet and leaving them hopelessly laddered. “If ghosts have a sex,” says Mrs Sargent, “it makes me think it must be a woman. It was such a catty sort of thing to do!”

  Ghostly Monks Walk Again

  Source and date: Daily Graphic, 14 November 1950

  The ghostly monks who have haunted St Duncan’s Church in East Acton for centuries have walked again. After reports of the return of the phantoms by the vicar, Rev Hugh Anton-Stevens, a Daily Graphic reporter was sent to establish the truth – and reports an astonishing encounter. Rev Anton-Stevens told this paper, “There is no doubt that on many evenings up to a dozen monks can be seen walking in procession up the central aisle and down into the chancel of St Dunstan’s. They wear golden brown habits and are hooded. Apart from myself, three other people, unknown to each other, have seen the figures from time to time.” Graphic reporter Kenneth Mason writes, “I spent some hours in the church in an attempt to establish whether or not the ghostly monks walked. At one point I dropped off to sleep in the quiet of the church but soon found myself awake again – and absolutely certain I was not dreaming. There, walking towards me, were six monks in grey hooded gowns. I stood up to bar their way – and to my astonishment they passed right through me!” Psychic investigators are being called in by Rev Anton-Stevens.

  Mystery Figure Slaughters Pigs

  Source and date: Sunday Graphic, 27 December 1953

  A mystery “thing” has systematically killed 53 pedigree pigs belonging to farmer Harold Crowther of Runcorn. The events at the fifteenth-century farmhouse occupied by Mr Crowther and his wife began on 10 August when Mrs Crowther suddenly saw the ghost of her dead father. “He was dressed as usual,” she said, “wearing spectacles and smoking a cigarette with a long ash, which was characteristic of him. I saw him very clearly and then he vanished. The next day the first of the pigs died. I saw him again after the last pig had died while I was clearing out one of the sties.” Five veterinary surgeons were called in to examine the bodies of the pigs, which all died within a fortnight. The cause remained a mystery – but Mr Crowther himself had an even more frightening experience. He explained, “Two days after the loss of the last pig, I saw a large black cloud about seven feet in height, shapeless except for two prongs sticking out at the back moving about in the yard. The shapeless mass approached me, stopping about four or five feet away. Then it turned in the direction of the pig sties, passed into an outhouse and disappeared.” Mrs Crowther believes she has seen the same thing. “It was much smaller and more sprawled out. At no time did I see the prongs. It just travelled like smoke when drawn by suction.”

  Belief in Ghosts is Dying Out

  Source and date: Evening News, 9 March 1954

  “Belief in ghosts, like belief in the devil, is dying out,” Dr Margaret Murray, the well-known writer on the supernatural told a meeting of the Folk Lore Society last night. “This is attributed to our better methods of illumination,” she added. Dr Murray was giving her presidential address to the Society. “Ghosts are notoriously fond of darkness, but now every town and most villages have street lamps, houses are lighted by electricity, vehicles have headlamps which illuminate the dark lane, and pedestrians no longer carry a lantern with a flickering rush light, but can flash the ray of an electric torch on any uncanny-looking object they see – or fancy they see.” Dr Murray told the Evening News after the meeting: “If you think there is something in the room, all you have to do is to put on the bedside light. Either it was all imagination, in which case the light ends one’s fears, or else the ghost disappears – because no ghost is seen in the light!”

  The Stone-Throwing Ghost

  Source and date: Perth Weekend Mail, 22 June 1955

  Gilbert Smith and his family who live and work for flax farmer Bill Hack at Mayanup have become the talk of Australia this week after mysterious showers of stones fell on his shack for several nights running. Mr Smith, who is part Aboriginal, reported the phenomenon to his employer and asked for help as he, his wife Jean and seven children were terrified of being driven from their home. When local people heard of these occurrences they called and offered assistance. Some thirty men with spotlights and torches hid in the bushes only to be peppered with stones: some falling very gently and others with great force. No one was hurt and for eight days and nights the showers of stones varying in size from the head of a match to a hen’s egg continued. Some of these stones have been taken to Perth for examination but no fingerprints have been found. There is a belief amongst Aboriginals that when a person is dying his spirit leaves the body and lingers until he either dies or recovers. Mrs Smith’s father collapsed and died while digging a posthole near their house. She saw a small, round, bright light suspended about five feet above the groun
d during one of the showers of stones. It had then moved away from her and vanished.

  The Flying Dutchman Seen Again

  Source and date: Cape Times 16 May 1955

  A Mrs E Peace writing to us on stationery of the mail ship Cape Town Castle has seen the Flying Dutchman again off the South African coast. She writes, “On 4 May, Mr Ingle, a fellow passenger and I were sitting on the bench about three o’clock in the afternoon outside the café at the Table Bay Docks, which faces the Breakwater, waiting for a bus to take us into Cape Town when, nearly touching the quay, I saw the most wonderful sight: a brown sailing ship, lying in a white vapour, a sort of mist, brilliantly and very clearly lighted up in a red glow, with all the masts raised but not a sail showing. So lovely was the spectacle, like some stage effect that I cried out ‘Look at that beautiful boat.’ Mr Ingle looked and then said, ‘But it is an old boat and there are no men on her.’ I had bent my head towards him, to hear what he said, and then looked again at the boat – but in that second it had gone. Together we ran to the end of the pier, our eyes searching the sea in vain in every direction. Returning to the seat, I asked a woman sitting there and a man beside the bench, had they seen the ship? They had and hurried with us to scan the water once more. We were joined by another young woman who said she too had seen it while travelling in the bus towards the café. Mr Ingles said, ‘We have had an experience which I think we should report to the Cape Town Press. I believe we have seen the Flying Dutchman.’”

  Tapping at the Window

  Source and date: Evening Standard, 8 July 1955

  Mr Frances Cole, groundsman at the Mid-Kent Golf Club, Gravesend, declares that he is being driven out of his home at the Overcliffe, Gravesend, by a poltergeist. There were tappings on his bedroom window and he heard shuffling footsteps. He was unable to sleep at night; doors opened of their own accord; he saw as he sat up, sleepless, in bed, his black cat spitting with fear and fury as the doors of a built-in cupboard began to open and close. The house is reputed to have been the scene of a murder during the nineteenth century.

  The Council House of Horrors

  Source and date: The People, 17 July 1955

  The council house that was allocated to Frank Pell and his family in Coxwell Road, Birmingham, looked like the answer to their prayers after years in rented rooms – but proved to be a house of horrors. Soon after the family of seven moved in, their lives were made a misery by banging doors, loud thuds and a strange smell. In June tragedy struck when the Pells’ month-old baby was found dead in bed. After the baby’s funeral, the noises and smells continued. Then one evening, Alan Pell, 4, said: “Did the baby go with the little white dog?” Frank Pell asked his son, “What dog?” The child replied, “The little white dog that comes and sits on my bed sometimes. I saw him sitting on the baby’s face the night baby left us.” The Police were alerted, the house searched, but nothing has been found. The Pells have quit the council house and will be rehoused while surveyors of Birmingham Council carry out a full investigation.

  Actor’s Ghost in the Underground

  Source and date: Sunday Dispatch, 15 January 1956

  The ghost of the famous Victorian actor, William Terriss, has been seen at Covent Garden Underground Station by several members of the station staff. A four-page report has been sent to the London Transport Executive divisional headquarters concerning the statuesque figure of a man wearing a grey suit, old-fashioned collar and white gloves. Foreman Collector Jack Hayden, one of those who saw this tall, distinguished-looking spectre more than once, eventually rang the headquarters in Leicester Square. “We have a ghost here,” he told them. Foreman Eric Davey, a spiritualist, was sent down and held a séance in the anteroom. Davey said, “I got the name ‘Ter . . .’ something and a murder nearby. That evening somebody suggested Terriss.” Pictures of the actor were found. They resembled a psychic sketch made by Davey. When Jack Hayden was shown these he said, “That’s him!”

  I Took a Ghost for a Ride

  Source and date: Sunday Express, 15 January 1956

  A woman said yesterday that she had seen a ghost near Borley Rectory which Harry Price, the famous ghost hunter, claimed was haunted by a nun and a headless coachman. She is Mrs Jean Clarke of Fobbing, Essex, who said, “I never met Mr Price, but I once gave one of his ghosts a lift in my car.” Mrs Clarke, who was a British spy in Germany before the war, said she saw the ghost on a winter’s night six years ago. “I was driving my shooting-brake alone, except for Buff, my cocker spaniel, on the Suffolk-Essex border heading for Bury St Edmunds. I got lost and pulled up to look at my map by the light of the dashboard. Suddenly Buff, sitting in the back, began to howl. It was then I saw sitting beside me, a man dressed in a long, out-dated, cloak-collared fawn coat. I thought it strange that I had not seen him or heard him enter the car – but I had been deeply engrossed in the map. The man pointed forward. I thought perhaps he was a simpleton. But I noticed the atmosphere in the car had become very cold. I assumed the man wanted a lift and started off again. I had not gone more than 40 yards when he motioned me to stop. Then he just floated through the door. Shortly afterwards I discovered I was in the village of Borley – though at the time it had no significance to me for I was in Germany before the war when Mr Price was investigating the hauntings.”

  Bishop Exorcizes Ghost

  Source and date: New Zealand Herald, 21 March 1957

  The “haunting” of Mr and Mrs Norman Dixon began when they saw “something strange and quivering like a vibrating coil of wire” on the wall of their sitting room in Sunderland, Durham. The couple had only been occupants of the house for a fortnight, they told reporters. The first time they had slept in the upstairs bedroom the sheets were suddenly ripped from the bed and Mr Dixon felt fingers being pressed into his chest. A few nights later, both he and his wife felt something clammy on their backs. Leaving the bedroom, they went downstairs where they found an eerie zigzag line on the living room wall. Following several more visitations, the Right Reverend J A Ramsbotham, the Bishop Suffragan of Jarrow, was called in to exorcize the ghost, and so far the exorcizing ceremony has done the job.

  Clayton Family Haunted

  Source and date: Los Angeles Examiner, 28 August 1957

  The home of Elmer Gomez and his family at Clayton, CA is being plagued by a poltergeist. Since late July, the family have become accustomed to nerve-wracking events almost every night. Around nine p.m, three sharp knocks have been heard on the back wall of the house – with nothing found to explain the noises. The property has also been subjected to flying objects and breaking windows. Mrs Gomez’s mother was cleaning up in the kitchen one night when a one-pound box of salt flew off the kitchen table and struck her in the back. A fountain pen made a regular habit of dislodging itself from its pocket in the kitchen calendar and flying about the house – its longest flight being 28 feet, to a landing in an adjacent room. After weeks of sitting out the problem, the Gomez family have appealed for help and the local police are also involved. Constable Vic Chapman who has observed the falling stones believes that the house was once owned by a man who was murdered – not in Clayton, though, but San Francisco.

  Ghosts Who Always Come Up Roses

  Source and date: News of the World, 4 March 1958

  Researcher Edith Case of Brampford Speke near Exeter is convinced that ghosts often appear in the form of a phantom scent in the air. She advertised for evidence in a magazine and hundreds of people all over the country wrote of their experiences. A woman in Freshwater, Isle of Wight, said she and her daughter caught a smell of roses all over the house as they discussed recent deaths in the family. It was winter and there were no flowers there. The woman called in a medium who gave her a spirit message from her dead husband. Whenever she smelled roses, she would know that he was near her. Another woman wrote that she was amazed that months after her uncle died she could still smell his tobacco, Harris tweed suit and a particular brand of whisky, in their house at Oxford. She brought neighbours in when
the house was suddenly invaded by a fragrance of carnations. Then she remembered it was the anniversary of her uncle’s death. A mother in Ross-shire said her baby son died after falling into a sheep-dip. At least once a week afterwards the whole house was pervaded by the smell of the chemical dip. Similarly, a Northampton couple reported that they often smelled aviation fuel after their son was killed in an air crash. They complained about it and the smell was replaced by a strong scent of violets, their son’s favourite flowers.

  The Most Dogged Ghost in Britain

  Source and date: Daily Mail, 4 May 1958

  The Black Dog, otherwise Black Shuck, the Galleytrot, Old Snarleyow, the Hellbeast, the Shug Monkey, the Ghostly Hound of Dartmoor, the Barguest, Trash, Padfoot, Skriker or Hooter, is the most widely spread country ghost in England, James Wentworth-Day writes. It is derived from the Viking hound of Odin, the mighty dog of war, whose legend came to East Anglia a thousand years ago. Where the Black Dog appeared, the blood of dead men stained the earth. It is probably the most authentic ghost in all England. Learned men, parsons, antiquaries, squires and farmers, inshore fishermen and scared housewives have testified to its haunting presence. I had heard no legend of a Black Dog in Essex until William Fell, who was a gamekeeper on Old Hall Marshes, told me he had seen The Dog, “as big as a calf with eyes like bike lamps” when driving home with another man in a horse and trap from Peldon. The best of the lot is undoubtedly the Black Dog of Blythburgh on the Suffolk coast. I went to see its burned and blackened footprints on the inside of the church door not long ago. This is what happened. On 4 August 1557, the parson was reading the lesson on a bright Sunday morning. Then thunder crashed and a spear of flame struck through the church wall into the chancel. A score of worshippers were struck down and a great bell clanged to the floor, bringing down tons of masonry. In the midst of it all, with smoke in the air, a great black hound bounded through the church, mangling the people with its teeth, and vanished.