A Ghost a Day

by Maureen Wood

  TERRIFYING TIDBIT

  Cold spots are an indication that spirits are at hand because they are thought to draw the energy (heat) out of the air.

  JANUARY 6, 2003 HAUNTED DERBY

  Derby, England

  As reported on the BBC's website, Derby, England, with over 1,000 documented ghostly sightings, has been named the ghost capital of England. Just ask Terry, the landlord of the Dolphin Pub, about the spirits that frequent his establishment. And by spirits, he's not referring to the liquid gold behind the bar.

  The 500-year-old pub is haunted by at least four spirits. In fact, Terry's wife once felt a strong presence in the bathroom. And on another occasion was shocked when her pants suddenly levitated off of the bathroom floor! Despite this bizarre incident, it appears that Terry has little to worry about. A psychic who was called in to investigate stated that the spirits were attracted to her kind, spiritual nature.

  JANUARY 7, 1870 VIVIA THOMAS'S REVENGE

  Fort Gibson, Oklahoma

  Vivia Thomas was the daughter of a wealthy Boston businessman and attended the finest schools. One day, at a social gathering, she met a handsome army officer. After a whirlwind courtship, they announced their engagement. But shortly before the wedding, the young officer disappeared, leaving a note stating that he was going out west in search of adventure. Vivia was enraged and embarrassed by this turn of events, and she swore revenge.

  Discovering that he had been stationed at Fort Gibson in Indian Territory, Vivia devised a plan; she cut off her hair, put on men's clothes, and departed for Fort Gibson to enlist in the army. Careful not to get caught, she watched the young officer and waited for her chance. Finally, on a cold day in December an opportunity presented itself. She stationed herself with a gun behind a rock she knew her ex-fiancé would ride by, and as he did, she shot and killed him. When they found him, they assumed he had died at the hands of the Indians and brought his body back to the fort to be buried.

  At first Vivia was delighted. Then guilt set in. Each night she would go to his grave and weep. On a frigid January night in 1870, she wept no more. Overcome by grief, she lay down on the grave and cried herself to sleep. The next morning, they discovered her frozen body. The fort's doctor examined her corpse and found that the young soldier was actually a woman. A priest in whom she had confided then came forward, and her whole tragic story unfolded.

  Today, you can find Vivia buried at Fort Gibson National Cemetery in a place called the Circle of Honor. But it seems the Circle of Honor does little to quiet her restless soul, as many have claimed to see Vivia's apparition still in soldier's garb weeping for her young officer.

  JANUARY 8, 1851 THE BLOODY PIT

  North Adams, Massachusetts

  In 1851, the construction of the Hoosac railroad tunnel, which cut through the side of a mountain, was a gigantic feat and one that would be the cause of over 200 deaths by the time it was completed. In fact, many of the crew had nicknamed the five-mile long tunnel, “The Bloody Pit.”

  During its construction, there was an explosion at the site that left two miners dead. The third man involved, the one who accidentally caused the blast, Kelly Ringo, walked away unharmed. Not more than a year later, Kelly entered the tunnel to begin his workday. He was later found dead of strangulation. No living person was ever apprehended for his murder. In fact, many of the locals believed that the spirits of the two minors had returned to exact their revenge.

  Over the years there have been numerous supernatural events reported at the site. Swaying spectral lanterns have been seen in the otherwise dark tunnel. And many have heard the tortured cries of lost souls emanating from within.

  There are those that believe the men who lost their lives to the development of this railroad pass still linger in its dark cavern. And although entering on foot is not allowed, many a grown man would refuse to go in anyway, under any circumstances.

  JANUARY 9, 1979 THE RIDGES

  Athens, Ohio

  The Ridges, an asylum for the criminally insane, opened its doors in 1874. Also referred to as the Athens Mental Health Center, this 1,000-acre facility in its heyday was considered to be one of the more humane psychiatric centers. Evidently, the popularity of the Ridges grew, because during the early 1900s overcrowding issues began, causing patient care to quickly deteriorate. Rather than maintaining their stance on therapeutic treatments, the doctors and staff brought back older methods. Eventually, patients were subjected to bouts of shock and water therapy, as well as lobotomies. Physical abuse ensued. By 1993 the asylum closed its doors for good.

  It is said that all patients were accounted for except for one, Margaret Schillings, who disappeared on December 1, 1978. Although the facility was searched, she could not be found — not until forty-two days later when, on January 9, 1979, a maintenance man discovered her naked, decaying remains on one of the abandoned floors. Her mysterious death was ruled to be of natural causes. However, since then, people have heard the cries of a disembodied female voice. Shadows have been reported to linger in the empty halls. The unexplainable squeaking sound of gurneys in motion has been heard. Some have seen the ghostly image of a woman peering out one of the windows. But the oddest anomaly of all is the irremovable stain shaped like a human body on the floor in the exact spot where Margaret Schillings's remains were discovered that fateful day in January 1979.

  JANUARY 10, 2000 PHANTOM WARRIORS

  Nuwokat, Nepal

  Maoist insurgents launched a nighttime attack on a police outpost just outside of Bidur, the capital of the district. Three policemen were killed in the brutal invasion, and the station was heavily damaged. Several months later, the police station was restored and reopened. But the terror of that night still remains.

  According to the Nepali Times, since the post was reopened, it has been plagued by frightening events. Constable Tikaram Thapa told reporters that an unseen force enters the station at midnight and assaults the policemen stationed there. The men feel as if they are being strangled, and some have even fallen unconscious. Consensus among the department is that the spectral attackers are those who died in the invasion, who have come back to haunt the living. Many of the policemen are so terrified they've requested a transfer, but their requests have been denied.

  Superintendent of Police Dhiraj Pratap Singh said that all “necessary steps” would be taken to end the assaults. He went on to say that either a puja (an appeasement ceremony) would be performed or, if all else failed, “the station will be moved somewhere else.” But will the phantom warriors move with them? Only time will tell.

  JANUARY 11, 2010 TAN HILL INN

  North Yorkshire, England

  Tan Hill Inn, the highest pub in England, is located 1,732 feet above sea level. Maybe the fact that this stone structure sits closer to heaven has something to do with the reports of paranormal activity. The unexplained sweet aroma of pipe smoke lingers in the air near the kitchen, the cellar, and the rear entrance to the building. Angie McKinnell, the manager of the inn, believes the pipe smoke is connected to three cattlemen from over several hundred years ago who had smoked heavily within the pub walls. The ghostly apparition of a young boy about ten years old wearing a brown jacket and shorts has been seen several times in the bunkroom area. Each time he is seen, he waits several seconds, makes eye contact, and then vanishes into thin air. Ellen, another worker for the inn, described her encounter with the spirit of a man just outside the rear of the building. He appeared just as she began to cut up cardboard boxes. The phantom specter was there so long, she even pointed out his unwillingness to help. Seemingly unaffected by her words, he just stood there, watching. Yet, just like the young boy, the ghost disappeared in a matter of moments. Ellen's encounter only proves that even death is no cure for laziness.

  JANUARY 12, 2010 THE LOST MOTHER AT THE SKIRVIN HOTEL

  Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

  Once a speakeasy during Prohibition, this grand hotel built in 1910 has such a tale of suicide and death that it has even its
most skeptical visitors shaking in their boots. Rumor has it that the owner, W. B. Skirvin, impregnated Effie, one of his chambermaids. In an attempt to avoid a scandal, he locked the woman in a room on the fourteenth floor, where she remained throughout her pregnancy and after. The woman became so distraught that while holding her baby, she jumped from the window.

  Since the hotel's reopening in 2007, reports of paranormal activity have flourished.

  Many male visitors have claimed to have witnessed the ghostly apparition of a female who frequents their rooms and lingers in the bathroom while they shower. Other visitors of the hotel have heard the screams and cries of a mother and baby. Some have even seen the spirit of a woman who looks lost and distracted as she wanders the halls with her child in her arms.

  As reported in USA Today, certain players of the New York Knicks, after staying in the hotel, were more than happy to return home. Apparently the rumors of the hotel's ghostly inhabitants affected them so much they barely got a night's sleep, to which the Knicks attributed their defeat at the hands of the Thunder.

  JANUARY 13, 2010 THE DEMON

  Buffalo, New York

  Something strange was going on in Lisa's Buffalo, New York, apartment. Something nasty. Disembodied voices, frightening whispers, and eerie sounds struck a chord of horror within her. Although not a religious person, when her granddaughter claimed she'd seen a dark man roaming throughout the house, she knew she had to do something. That's when she called the Western New York Ghost Hunters. In order to find a source for the haunting, they launched an investigation. It wasn't long before they made contact with the entity. Using an electronic device called the “Shack Hack,” they learned its name was “Melchom,” a taker of souls. The team of investigators, realizing they needed help, contacted exorcists, Cassidy O'Conner and Michael Rambacher.

  According to Examiner.com, Cassidy and Michael had set up their equipment and had begun to chat with Lisa when Lisa's dogs became uneasy. Michael opened a bag he was carrying and placed a statue of Michael the Archangel on the table. Cassidy said that she became dizzy. She told the Examiner, “It did not like us there, and in my opinion was packing its bags when we walked through the door; for the demonic do not seem to appreciate us very much.” Burning sage in a Mayan bowl, they blessed every room and every corner of the house. Almost immediately the atmosphere lightened and the demon was gone. For the first time in a long time, Lisa was able to get a good night's sleep.

  TERRIFYING TIDBIT

  A Shack Hack is a modified AM FM radio used by ghost hunters to communicate with the dead. The scanner is disengaged so that it continuously scans the airways. The spirits then answer questions by pulling in words spoken from various radio stations.

  JANUARY 14, 1599 THE SCREAMING SKULL OF BURTON AGNES HALL

  Burton Agnes, Yorkshire, England

  Anne was the youngest of Sir Henry Griffith's three daughters. One day while returning from the village of Driffield, Anne was set upon by a band of thugs who beat her and left her for dead. Some of the townspeople found her and took her home to her family. Knowing that she was dying, she asked her sisters to promise that after her death, her head would be kept in the manor. But after she died, her sisters failed to fulfill their promise. Instead, they had her body interred in the family crypt. That night, the sound of bloodcurdling screams, slamming doors, and crashing objects echoed through the halls of the mansion. The next day, they exhumed her body and found her head detached and the flesh gone. Removing her skull, they brought it back to the Hall. Immediately all of the horrible sounds and screams ceased. Anne's will had been fulfilled. However, some of the servants grew tired of the grisly relic. One of the maids even threw the skull into a horse-drawn trash cart. As she did, the horse reeled and would not move until the skull was removed.

  Through the years, several other attempts have been made to rid the Hall of the skull and all have failed. Finally, her skull was walled up somewhere in the manor, but that was not the last of Anne. Today her ghost can be seen roaming the halls, keeping constant vigil over her skull.

  JANUARY 15, 1847 THE BLACK DAHLIA AT THE BILTMORE HOTEL

  Los Angeles, California

  Elizabeth Short was a stunning woman. She had come to the West Coast looking for fame and fortune, but it didn't quite work out that way. Her friends nicknamed her “The Black Dahlia,” because she had black hair and loved to wear black clothes. But even her beauty couldn't help make her a star. Stuck in an ordinary job, she finally gave up and decided to move back home.

  Her boyfriend, Red Manley, dropped her off at the Biltmore Hotel to meet her sister and left her in the lobby to make a phone call. That was the last time Elizabeth was seen alive. Six days later her body was found in a vacant lot posed in a seductive position, her mouth cut from ear to ear, and her torso sliced in two. The grisly crime became known as the “Black Dahlia Murder.” To this day, it has never been solved.

  Elizabeth never returned home, and it appears her spirit hasn't either. Guests and staff of the Biltmore have seen the ghostly apparition of a woman dressed in black. Each time, she appears agitated, pacing back and forth, waiting by the phones. She has also been spotted in the elevator and in the halls. Is Elizabeth looking for help or trying to find her killer? We will never know. But what we do know is that she came to California to become famous. Sadly for Elizabeth, she will forever be remembered, as the victim of the infamous Black Dahlia Murder.

  TERRIFYING TIDBIT

  If the lobby of the Biltmore looks familiar, it is because it was used in the hotel scene in the filming of the 1984 movie Ghostbusters. Who you gonna call? The Biltmore evidently.

  JANUARY 16, 1881 THE FRANKLIN CASTLE HORROR

  Cleveland, Ohio

  Hannes Tiedemann built Franklin Castle in 1865. The first of a series of tragic events to befall his family was the death of the Tiedemann's fifteen-year-old daughter, Emma. To distract his distraught wife, Luise, he began renovating their home. While he was at it, he installed numerous hidden rooms and passageways beneath this Gothic mansion.

  Within a span of three years, three more of the Tiedemann children died. Soon, Tiedemann became the subject of rumors. Was there something more sinister taking place? No one could be sure. At age fifty-seven, Luise died of liver failure, and in 1908, the heirless Hannes Tiedemann, too, met his maker. By that time, the reputation of the castle was already stained in blood, sexual depravity, and murder.

  The castle remained abandoned for some time until eventually being sold to the Romano family. Soon after moving in, they reported hearing disembodied voices and organ music, and the light fixtures would violently shake. An exorcism was performed, but it was unsuccessful. Finally, tiring of it all, in 1974, the Romano family moved out.

  Subsequent owners made gruesome discoveries. Dozens of human baby skeletons were uncovered in one of the hidden passageways. Although no proof could be found, some believe that they were the result of medical experiments. In 2003, a local land developer purchased the castle, which is now a private club to the elite. But one can only wonder if their membership includes its ghostly inhabitants.

  JANUARY 17, 1892 MERCY BROWN, THE RHODE ISLAND VAMPIRE

  Exeter, Rhode Island

  The Brown family of Rhode Island endured tragedy after tragedy when the family contracted tuberculosis. A total of three family members perished. The last to die was nineteen-year-old Mercy Brown. According to her epitaph, Mercy was laid to rest on January 17, 1892. But she wouldn't stay that way for long. After her brother Edwin contracted the disease, the townspeople grew nervous. Rumors of Mercy being a vampire surfaced after her father, George, proclaimed her ghost visited his dreams each night and she would tell him how hungry she was. Not more than a month after Mercy was buried, George's madness took over. He, along with neighbors and friends, dug up her remains. Not surprisingly, due to the time of the year, Mercy's body was barely decomposed. They took it as a sign that she was among the undead; a vampire. At George's request, a doctor drai
ned Mercy's organs of the remaining blood. Truly believing her plight was somehow afflicting Edwin, her heart was removed from her body, burned, then used as an elixir and fed to her brother. Edwin died two months later. Today, visitors to Mercy Brown's “resting” place have reported seeing her ghost. The apparition of a young woman draped in black tattered clothing has often been seen roaming round her grave in Chestnut Hill cemetery. Perhaps she doesn't have the heart to leave.

  TERRIFYING TIDBIT

  Vampires were thought to despise mirrors, as they were not able to see their own reflection.

  JANUARY 18, 1532 ROMANIAN POLICE POINT FINGER AT GHOSTS

  Lilieci, Romania

  As reported in Ananova, Romanian police cited ghosts as the source of the vandalism and havoc that have plagued the village of Lilieci. When the first reports of the ghost attack came in, the police only laughed. However, when they went to investigate, they too were assaulted with cups that sailed through the air. It appears multiple homes were involved, because scores of families living in Lilieci spoke of bicycles flying through the air, windowpanes breaking one by one, and dinnerware thrown haphazardly about the rooms.

  Two witnesses spoke of putting a match to a candle, only to have it blown out before it could be lit. One villager, sixty-eight-year-old Mircea Hadimbu, had seen severe damage done to his home.

  A spokesperson for the police was quoted as saying, “There were bottles and things flying around. I did not know what to dodge first. We can find nothing to suggest it was anything other than what the people claim.”