The Mammoth Book of True Hauntings

by Haining, Peter

  Position re Apparitions

  Lying down

  38%

  Sitting

  23%

  Standing still

  19%

  Walking

  18%

  Riding

  1%

  Other

  1%

  Senses and Apparitions

  Sight

  84%

  Hearing

  37%

  Temperature

  18%

  Touch

  15%

  Smell

  8%

  Other

  4%

  Distance from Apparitions

  3 feet or less

  41%

  3–6 feet

  27%

  6–12 feet

  16%

  12–30 feet

  10%

  10 yards or more

  6%

  Ghost Fever Grips Village

  Source and date: Daily Sketch, 28 August 1968

  Ghost fever has gripped a tiny Welsh mining village. Every night hundreds of residents of Cilfynydd near Pontypridd, Glamorgan, rush out to Ewn Valley to watch what they call the “White Lady”. One of the eyewitnesses to the phenomenon, Mrs Violet Thomas whose husband manages the local general store, said that she had seen the apparition just two weeks previously at 10 p.m. when “a white figure rose about 50 yards away”. She says it had a human shape and those who saw it were “spellbound”. Then it disappeared. Those who have viewed the spectre are adamant in their conviction that they were actually viewing a human-shaped ghost of some kind. Mrs Thomas’ husband emphatically said, “It was a ghost.” This was in response to a touted explanation by George Graham Cox, head green-keeper of the Pontypridd golf course, who says that what the people are seeing are actually white owls.

  Film Set Haunted by Ghost Aircraft

  Source and date: Daily Express, 16 March 1968

  Filming of the new blockbuster movie, Battle of Britain, has taken a turn for the strange with reports of a phantom aircraft being seen at North Weald Airfield in Essex where many of the scenes for the dramatic wartime story starring Michael Caine, Laurence Oliver, Trevor Howard and Kenneth Moore are being filmed. The airfield, which played a major part in the defence of Britain from the German Luftwaffe, has been said to be haunted by the ghost of an airman killed there in 1940 – now a phantom Spitfire has joined the cast. Producer Benny Fisz explained, “During one of the fly-overs of Spitfires there was distinctly one more aircraft than there should have been. But nothing showed up on the negative of the film. We can only assume it was a ghost plane.”

  Phantom Stalks Theatre Rehearsals

  Source and date: Oxford Mail, 12 September 1969

  Rehearsals for an eerie new production of The Hanging Wood at the Kenton Theatre, Henley-on-Thames have been interrupted by a number of mysterious incidents, according to the playwright Joan Morgan. The play is based on the true story of local girl Mary Blandy who was hanged in Oxford in 1752 for poisoning her father. The unusual incidents began as soon as rehearsals started, says Miss Morgan. A large mirror “jumped off the wall”, lights went on and off and doors mysteriously opened and closed. The figure of a girl was reported at the back of the theatre – though she was never seen to enter or leave the building and when anyone came near she disappeared. Miss Morgan said, “On another occasion when some members of the cast were discussing Mary Blandy, a cup jumped about six inches off a table and smashed on the floor. This is not the first time strange things have happened when this play has been staged. When the trial of Mary Blandy was enacted at Henley Town Hall three years ago, a similar mysterious figure was seen by several people, myself included.”

  1970–79

  GP Says Return of Dead Spouse as Ghost “Common”

  Source and date: The Times, 19 November 1970

  Widows and widowers who sense the presence of their former marriage partner are in no way unusual. Talking to and seeing the ghost is also a common experience according to Dr W Dewi Rees, a Welsh general practitioner. He has found, however, that very few people who have these experiences disclose them even to close relatives. Dr Rees talked to 293 of his patients about their experiences after the death of their spouse and the results of his study are reported in the British Medical Journal. Nearly half the patients had had some sensation of the presence of their spouse and in many that had persisted for several years, but overall the tendency was for the sensation to become less frequent. More than ten per cent of those questioned had spoken to or heard the voice of their partner and a similar proportion had seen a hallucination. Widows of the managerial and professional group were the more likely to have illusions. Others more likely to experience this were people with long and happy marriages and parenthood. Dr Rees emphasizes that in most cases the presence of the ghost was comforting, particularly to those who spoke to the dead partner. [A decade later, in June 1983, the New York Post reported that a research project at Arizona University which consulted 300 widows in Phoenix found that more than half of them had seen, talked to or felt the touch of their dead husbands. Professor of Human Development, Arthur Christopherson, who headed the research said, “Many of them say that it is in the privacy of the bedroom where they have actually felt their late husbands touch them. Some of the widows have seen their dead husbands up to twenty years after his death and some have made up to five or six contacts.”]

  The Face on the Floor

  Source and date: ABC Madrid, 12 January 1971

  One of Spain’s most mysterious ghost stories has been puzzling experts since it first came to light in a small house in the village of Bélmez de la Moraleda near Córdoba. An old woman was busy in the kitchen preparing the evening meal when her grandchild started to scream. The grandmother turned from the oven and saw a tormented face staring at her from the faded pink tiles of the kitchen floor. When she tried to rub the vision out with a rag, the eyes opened wider, making the expression even more heart-rending. The woman sent for the owner of the house who agreed to have the tiles taken up and replaced with concrete. But three weeks later another face began to form on the floor, even more clearly defined than the first. Soon, other faces began to appear in different parts of the house. Phenomena investigators were called in and their sensitive microphones picked up whimpering, screams and voices arguing. The whole kitchen floor was finally excavated – and the remains of several human corpses who had been buried alive in 1823 were found. This time when the surface was replaced, the faces and the sounds disappeared as mysteriously as they had begun.

  Ghost on a Motorbike

  Source and date: Autocar, 21 December 1972

  It is one thing to imagine the hooded and cowled figure of a monk disappearing amid the moonlit ruins of some desolate abbey but how about hearing the full-throttle roar of a motorcycle on the still air where none is visible. This is what puzzles the residents of Clouds Hill, Dorset, the home of the legendary Lawrence of Arabia who met his death in a motorcycle accident in the 1930s. Since then, it is claimed, the distinctive roar of his big Brough Superior has been heard regularly around Clouds Hill. People who have lived in the area for years say the sounds are unmistakably those of his machine. Earlier this year, a local motorist even claimed to have been passed by a ghostly figure on a motorcycle he was felt sure was the legendary Lawrence.

  Increase in Hauntings

  Source and date: News of the World, 6 May 1973

  Canon John Pearce-Higgins, vice-chairman of the Church of England Fellowship for Psychical Studies and former vice-provost of Southwark Cathedral, gets three or four ghost calls a week. “More people are reporting hauntings because we are living in more enlightened times,” he says. “Not long ago they would be afraid they would be laughed at. Many of my calls are to modern homes and council houses or flats. I think this is because they are built on the site of ancient happenings and the spirits from the distant past are returning to the scene.” What should you do if you have a ghost? The canon adv
ises a friendly blessing. “Simply say, ‘Bless you, but please go away.’ And if often works quite well,” he says.

  Ghost in Author’s House of Death

  Source and date: News of the World, 3 February 1974

  The house in which royal biographer James Pope-Hennessy was stabbed to death was, it is claimed, haunted by the ghost of a man knifed to death there seventy years ago. The first killing took place on a staircase only yards from where a bound and gagged Mr Pope-Hennessy died. And the author had called in a Catholic priest to exorcize the spirit of the victim. Mr Pope-Hennessy died while his twenty-five-year-old valet, Mr Leslie Smith, fought with the killer. He is recovering from multiple stab wounds. Now friends of the fifty-seven-year-old bachelor writer have told of the phantoms which roamed the house of death in Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill, London. According to Mrs Dorrit Forte who lived in the house, a “little man always smiling and friendly” was seen sitting on the staircase and a second presence made itself known “roaming clumsily around the upper floors of the house, one shattering a row of shelves nailed to the wall.” Mr Pope-Hennessy’s curiosity had got the better of him, said Mrs Forte, “and he discovered that a little man, an ostler who looked after horses for a nearby inn had been stabbed to death on that staircase. The description fitted and the evil presence could have been the murderer making his getaway or entering the house.” From his hospital bed, Leslie Smith added, “Mr Pope-Hennessey took the spirits seriously and had an exorcism carried out. He was almost psychic and spoke of the murder as if he had been there.”

  The Baby-Sitter Phantom on 21st Floor

  Source and date: News of the World, 14 April 1974

  Fear of a ghost who is said to be haunting a couple to protect their eight-year-old daughter’s life has driven the family from their twenty-first-floor penthouse flat. Now, like an eerie scene from the film The Exorcist, mediums and priests have been called in to expel the unwelcome tenant. Steve Raynor, aged 25, his wife Ellen, and their little girl Karen moved to their tower block home last June. Two months later inexplicable incidents began – plates were rattled, lights and taps turned on and off and heavy furniture trundled across the floor. After talking to a medium, Mrs Carmen Rodgers, the Raynors learned they were being haunted by “Arthur”, their former landlord who had been dead nearly three years. He used to babysit for Karen and Mrs Rodgers explained that he fears for the little girl’s life if she stays in the flat at Old Ford Road, Bow, London, where she could fall out of a window or down the long staircases. The family are now sleeping on the floor of a relative’s home a mile away. Mr Raynor said, “Our lives have been made a misery. We won’t go back until that thing has gone.’

  Jumbo the Jet Age Ghost

  Source and date: Evening News, 22 October 1974

  Terrified cleaners at Heathrow Airport have refused to work on their own at night because, they say, a ghost holds them down by their throats and shoulders. An airport official said today, “We have had reports about some strange presence on the Jumbo jet planes and at present it cannot be explained. Some cleaners have said they have been thrown about by something invisible and others that they have been unable to move.” A night foreman for the cleaning company, Mr Parson Lal Palmer said, “It all started when we opened the doors one day and there was a strange smell. It went away but came back again later. Then I sat down in a chair and was horrified when I could not get up again. My eyes shut and I could not open them. It was as if someone was holding me down by the shoulders. It was four or five minutes before I was able to move.” [The Sunday People reported on 6 July 1980 that a “ghost in a light grey suit” had been seen several times in the VIP Suite in Heathrow Terminal One; while on 27 September 2007 across the other side of the world at the new Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, The Times claimed that a “frail old man with a blue face” believed to be the ghost of Poo Ming, once the guardian of a cemetery on the airport land, was now appearing regularly to workers and passengers using the terminal buildings.]

  Thumbs Down to Ghostly Hiker

  Source and date: Sunday Express, 3 April 1975

  A police chief in Germany has threatened to prosecute motorists who spread panic by claiming they have seen a ghost. Drivers who repeat the stories face a hefty £200 fine. The wave of hysteria began when a 43-year-old businessman told a local newspaper he was stopped at midnight by someone he took to be a hitchhiker. He said, “She was a weird-looking old woman, dressed in black. So I stopped the car and offered her a lift. She sat next to me and did not answer my questions, but murmured that something evil would happen. When I next looked she had vanished. The shock was so great I almost crashed into another car.” Other motorists claimed similar experiences. Some said the woman disappeared when they opened the car door. Others said she sat next to them, silent, and then vanished. An amateur photographer claims to have taken a snapshot of the woman and an enlargement showed an apparently shadowy, bent figure. Captain Siegfried Eismann, head of the local police in Greifnau, near Germany’s border with Austria, has dismissed the ghostly stories as malicious rumours. But a team of ghost hunters from Austria, armed with electronic equipment and high-speed cameras, have arrived in the town planning to track down the woman in black.

  Actress Dies after “Exorcism” First Night

  Source and date: Daily Telegraph, 4 April 1975

  Mary Ure, 42, the actress, was found dead in her Mayfair flat yesterday only hours after playing the part of a woman possessed in the first night of the West End play, The Exorcism by Don Taylor. Her part as a haunted hostess taken over by the spirit of a woman who had died of starvation centuries ago was an emotional and taxing role, but one which an actress of Miss Ure’s talent and experience could take in her stride, the company said last night. Asked if there could have been any connection between the play and Miss Ure’s death, a spokesman said, “How can anyone answer a question like that? The information I was given was that she had choked on something and suffocated.” [The subsequent inquest recorded a verdict of accidental death “caused by barbiturate and alcoholic poisoning”.]

  My Haunted Love Life

  Source and date: News of the World, 11 May 1975

  Top cabaret singer Tonia Bern-Campbell makes the extraordinary claim that she is haunted by the ghost of her dead husband, speed king Donald Campbell. The 39-year-old beauty, widowed when the world-record-buster crashed on Coniston Water eight years ago, says Donald suddenly materialises to put the chill on her love life if he doesn’t think the man is right for her. That he appears in the night to give advice in times of crisis. That his phantom constantly flits about their flat where she still lives in Dolphin Square, London. Blonde Tonia has jet-set suitors lining up to squire her around. “Really I’d like to marry again, but with this happening, how can I? Donald will reappear at the most embarrassing moments. I might be in the embrace with one suitor and I look over his shoulder to stare right at Donald. He just won’t leave me alone and I’m sure he won’t disappear until I’ve found someone he totally approves of!”

  Dead but Won’t Lie Down

  Source and date: Sunday Times, 24 August 1975

  Frank Smyth, a feature writer on the successful part-work, Man, Myth & Magic, has confessed that the story he wrote, “The Phantom Vicar of Ratcliffe Wharf” and which has subsequently been featured in several books about ghosts and a TV special, is a hoax. The story of the shady cleric who was supposed to have run a seamen’s hostel in Limehouse in the eighteenth century where he robbed drunks and flung their bodies into the Thames caught out authors, columnists and even our own Jilly Cooper who wrote, “Don’t go down there – it’s haunted. The watermen only go down there in pairs.” Frank Smyth has now admitted, “I decided to create a ghost of the old school. It struck me that a place like Ratcliffe Docks with its skeletal cranes and derelict broken warehouses ought to be haunted. After the piece was published I sat back to await developments.” The result staggered even him – but, as he has found, ghosts once invented are not so easy to
lay. He says, “I met a lighterman in Islington who said he heard about the phantom vicar from his grandfather. I told him that was impossible; I’d invented him entirely. But he wouldn’t have it. ‘There’s a phantom vicar there all right. That’s why they used to close the docks there at five every night – no one would work there after dark.’” [Kingsley Amis who also “invented” a ghost for his account, “Kingsley Amis Sees a Ghost” in The Listener, 11 January 1973, in which he described some purportedly true psychic adventures after the publication of his supernatural novel, The Green Man, also found himself being taken literally and being forced to issue a strong denial.]

  Ghost now Standing on Platform Two

  Source and date: Sunday Mirror, 30 November 1975

  The Great Eastern pub housed in a converted station at Maldon, Essex is haunted by a spirit known as the “White Lady.” Since the station closed and the track was ripped up eleven years ago, there have been scores of sightings – mainly on the adjoining platform two. Barry Anderson, co-owner of the pub said, “The place has an inexplicable atmosphere about it and there is definitely something going on.” Mrs Muriel Andrews, whose husband was stationmaster at Maldon for two years, said, “I saw the lady, a white shrouded figure, four times. She glided up the path towards the waiting room. There were also strange noises at night. My husband slept with a shotgun at the bedside just in case.” Builder Harry Jones, 48, who helped convert the station, spoke about who the ghost might be: “Under the floorboards where the bar stands we found a mummy-shaped area of damp soil. Each time we tried to shift it, it resumed its spooky shape and the soil seemed damp to the touch . . .”