Haunted Magazine Issue 35: The Feminine Macabre

BATTLING THE DEMONS

Over the years I have had the pleasure of meeting many people from the paranormal bubble that I seem to find to myself so passionately involved and invested in. Yes, some come and go, some are just fleeting exchanges, ghost ships that pass in the night, but a lot become friends, mates, people you can turn to for help and advice, people you can have a good natter, gossip and chat with and even if you haven’t communicated with them for a while you know that when you do end up it will just be as fresh and as interesting as before AND LONG MAY THAT CONTINUE.

Anyone that knows me well enough knows that I am not normally lost for words which is why I normally leave the editorial to the very last minute just in case anything pops up just before the issue goes to the printers that I can have a take on BUT for the first time in a long time I am actually struggling with knowing what to write. After the first paragraph above I have been staring at this word document on my laptop for over an hour now and it’s not because there is nothing to say, far from it, there’s not many times I struggle to convey my thoughts, share my opinions or just have a good old chat with others about all things paranormal and nonparanormal.

We heard some sad news just before going to print, a husband of a close friend of ours passed away suddenly and in unexpected circumstances last week. We met him a few times over the years. He was a kind, good natured man, we always got on and had a laugh and a good time when we were in his company. He will be missed .

You’ve probably looked at the title of my editorial ‘BATTLING THE DEMONS’ and let out a little moan and said to yourself ‘oh no, another person going on about Demons in the paranormal world’. However, whilst the title lends itself to the paranormal world it’s a title that reaches and stretches further than that, or it should do.

The Demons I refer too are not the TV ones, not the fallen angel ones, not even the ones some people often get in a tizz about when they’re mentioned in the supernatural realm. They are our own.

No-one can really know what inner demons someone is battling within themselves and no-one can really know what is in the mind of someone going through extremely difficult and challenging times. Most people in this situation put up a front, try not to be a burden and try to carry on as normal BUT please, if you or anyone you know needs to talk, to be heard, or are struggling please do reach out. Don’t be afraid to reach out to family, to friends, to strangers even. It may just be that someone needs a chat or someone to talk with.

We can all try to help. We can all try to start the ball rolling if someone needs more than just a chat as there are many brilliant organisations, locally, regionally and nationally that can also give help, advice and guidance should that be what is needed. Paul

CONTENTS

04 A ROCKY ROAD

Erin N. Taylor’s Ghostly Nuggets from Colorado’s Gold Camp Road.

07 APPY DAYS

Is ITC easy as 1-2-3? The Alice App has finally arrived in the App Stores

09 GET YOUR ROCKS OFF Liz Cormell wonders if some paranormal careers lie in ruins.

10 A YORKSHIRE MONSTER Does Whitby harbour its very own Nessie?

14 WHAT KATIE DID NEXT She went to a haunted boarding school, that’s what she did.

17 TURN AROUND, LOOK AT WHAT YOU SEE Why do haunted dolls create such a buzz?

19 THE STEP BY ESTEP GUIDE Richard Estep takes no prisoners as he investigates HMP Shepton Mallet.

22 READ ‘TIL YOU BLEED Lucy WIllgress with a bite size guide to Vampyres through the ages.

25 THE FEMININE MACABRE *EXCLUSIVE* Six terrifying tales from Six talented writers.

39 MOVE OVER DARLING Claire Davy looks into a moving and macabre moving tale literally.

43 THE STABILITY OF ABILITY Do we already possess extra sensory perception? Kate Ray investigates.

46 THE CREATIVITY MONSTER Morgan Knudsen ponders if we have helped spread the legend of Vampires.

48 IN CONVERSATION WITH:

Barri Ghai. Talking about his paranormal life and much more. There may be ghosts involved.

53 IN ODD WE TRUST Charlie Hall investigates the spooks & surroundings of National Trust’s Belton House.

57 THE PIPES OF PEACE Greg Bakun writes about the 1992 ghostly gamechanger that was Ghostwatch.

63 THE ALEXANDRA HOLZER FILES Saddle up for a strange tale of an animal spirit interaction.

65 IT’S ALL RELATIVE Sam Baltrusis on his strange family connection to Lizzie Borden.

68 BLOODY HELL NIGEL Nigel Higgins investigates the incidents and implications behind the evil in Room 6-11.

74 PHANTOM OF THE HOSPITAL

Cindy Phan explores the abandoned St. Ignatius Hospital.

77 CRASH BANG WALLOP

75 years on and Philp Kinsella offers his expert view on The Roswell Crash of 1947.

83 THE DARKNESS BENEATH THY SHINING SKIES

Brian baker investigates a shocking Canadian cover up.

87 THE STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Sarah Stream looks into the moment of death.

89 PERSONAL PARANORMAL PILGRIMAGES

The travels of a paranormal investigator.

CHRONICLE OF THE HAUNTED VOL. 2

2 STAND AND DELIVER Mike Covell, so sick of easy fashion, traces the haunts of Dick Turpin

5 DEMON HUNTER Jane Rowley wonders what King James the First would make of the paranormal now?

7 SEALED WITH A CURSE When a witch blames a strange family pet it’s not going to end well.

8 NOT SO ‘ORRIBLE HISTORIES Penny checks out the haunts and history of Scott County Jail, Tennessee.

11 21ST CENTURY BLUES

Do the trials and tribulations of modern life impact the paranormal?

12 COULD IT BE MAGIC Nicky Alan and the Ghost Bride. Does an Angel contemplate her fate?

13 GOING UNDERGROUND Eli Lycett’s tale of a grave mistake in spooky Staffordshire

16 SCARE DINKUM Sarah Chumacero shares Australia’s spookiest spectres. BONZA!!

19 ALEHOUSE HAUNTS Shiver me timbers. Lorien Jones explores the Pubs of Execution Dock.

23 THE GHOSTS OF JAMAICA INN Karin Beasant delves into what lurks in the shadows of this famous coaching inn.

28 THE LURE OF THE LORE Amy Boucher’s strange and weird tale of Mad Jack Mytton.

Photo Credit: Annie Spratt, Unsplash

THE HISTORY AND MYSTERY OF GOLD CAMP ROAD

By Erin N. Taylor

Weaving through the Colorado front range of the Rocky Mountains, Gold Camp Road has quite the colorful history of life and death. Amateur paranormal enthusiasts flock to the mountain road at night to try to make contact with the dead children from a legend. I’m going to explore the history for evidence and try to crack open some of the secrets of Gold Camp Road.

During the gold rush of the late 19th Century, the mountain mining towns of Cripple Creek and Victor transported precious ores to Colorado Springs by train. The Midline Railway would curve throughout the mountains, the path including 9 different tunnels. By 1900, the Short Line train would start to take tourists on the scenic route along the rails. As Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt took in the vast and incredible sights, declaring as ‘the trip that bankrupts the English language’ (Summer, 2011) The rail was eventually sold, and turned into a dirt toll road in 1923, called the Corley Mountain Highway. Cars and horse drawn wagons would make the trip instead of trains. By 1939, the roadway became free to travel and was renamed Gold Camp Road. Only part of the road remains for travel today. On August 21, 1988, the third tunnel collapsed due to loose rocks and rotting timbers and was never reopened. The tunnels were sealed off with gates to keep people out. The forest service closed 8.5 miles of road; estimating would be too costly to fix the tunnel (Ellis, 2004). The road remains dirt once you get past Point Sublime, an almost 90 degree turn that has sent automobiles to a vehicle graveyard down below. About a dozen shells from vehicles are still at the bottom of the hill, as it would have cost too much to get resources to haul them out. A guard rail was put up in the beginning of this century to prevent any further accidents.

Colorado Springs’ own Homicide Hunter, Joe Kenda (2017), described the road:

suddenly hit. The entire tunnel collapsed, killing everyone on board. Stories spread of the spirits roaming these roads restlessly, not wanting anyone else to be hurt in the tunnels. If you are to stop your car in the middle of the tunnel, turn off the engine, put in neutral and wait, you can feel your car starting to move forward. Others say you need to blare your horn to call the spirits. Once you get out of your car, you will see the handprints of the children on the back of your car, as if they tried to push you out.

While investigating up in the area in 2013, my former team had caught an EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon, voices caught on recording but not heard to human ear) at Tunnel number 2 of “that’s charming” when a team member was rattling on about something the spirit must not have found interesting. I’ve witnessed a pacing shadow man at Tunnel number 1, and rocks seemed to have been thrown at us, almost on command, when there was no known living creature about. What about Tunnel number 3? I haven’t been able to catch anything I would call paranormal there. Only drunk party kids trying to break behind the gate, that clearly states “DANGER KEEP OUT,” to find a glimpse of phantoms. Flashlights reflect on the shiny rubbish in the tunnel and people insist the legend must be true, “part of the bus!” I was told. I should LOUDLY emphasize that trespassing is illegal. The racing of cars at the first two tunnels causes concerns for safety, having to yell “CAR!” every few minutes, along with the inevitable dust from the road contaminating any picture. The kids driving through would yell at us to watch for the “ghosts!” instead of watching for their own safety. More than once the police were called up to the empty parking lot at the trailhead for Tunnel number 3 due to bonfires (during fire season, no less) and substance use. It’s not a place we aim to investigate anymore due the safety concerns.

Murder victims and suicides are discovered at least once a year along the road and trails of the mountainous valley. Fatalities occur when hikers take that accidental step or tumble down the ridge. Reckless individuals drive that poorly maintained dirt road too fast, which could (and has) cause a roll over on the sharp turns. Gold Camp Road has claimed many victims, ghosts of different ages and backgrounds. The most popular story is that of the school bus crash in the tunnel:

Many years ago, a school bus full of kids traveled up into the mountains on an old, dusty stagecoach road towards the ghost town of Victor, Colorado. As they drove through the third tunnel, tragedy

So where did the story of the school bus come from? I grew up with this story in Colorado Springs, a short drive from the historic Gold Camp Road. It seemed everyone knew about this story, children haunted Gold Camp Road. I think I was twenty years old the first time I attempted to go up there. I went with three of my girlfriends wanting to see “some ghosts.” Two of my friends chickened out. In the end, we didn’t make it up to the tunnels, and I would believe the school bus story until I joined a paranormal team in 2013. I became the historian and researcher for the team and in my research, learned that the story wasn’t true. I didn’t believe it. No way, this had to be true. Everyone talked about it. This couldn’t be just an urban legend like Loch Ness Monster or Big Foot (fun fact, we have that legend also in the nearby mountains). Stubbornly, I looked more into this blatant lie. I was about to have my mind blown.

“it has long been a hangout for teen parties and ghost hunters prowling abandoned rail tunnels along its path… if ever an old dirt road deserved to be haunted, Gold Camp Road was it”

Ibecame aware that a similar incident had occurred in San Antonio, Texas when there was a bus-train accident in the 1930s. The locals started to park on the railroad tracks outside of the city, trying to get pushed across the tracks by the dead children. They claimed they would start to see handprints on their windows. This incident initiated their own urban legend, but the crash didn’t happen here either (SBG, 2020). The real event occurred almost 1,300 miles away. In 1938, a school bus of twentythree high school students and their driver were tragically killed by a train, when trying to cross the tracks during a terrible fog in Salt Lake City, Utah. Fifteen students survived with physical and emotional trauma (Salt Lake Tribune, 2013). San Antonio residents might have read the headline in their newspaper, possibly misunderstood it to have occurred in their city, thus relating it to local railroad tracks. But nothing happened in Texas. Like nothing happened in Tunnel number 3 on Gold Camp Road.

Are you seeing a pattern here? Zak Bagans and the Ghost Adventures crew investigated the San Antonio case while investigating a nearby hotel in Seguin, Texas (Season 9, episode 13). They attempted to verify the legend of “school bus full of little children were all instantly killed when a speeding train sliced through the middle of it.” Wanting to test the reports of the child handprints, the crew put baby powder on the car. Then, the driver put the car into neutral and waited. The car moved and handprints appeared. However, the team was able to determine that the San Antonio Road had a slight incline that gave the cars movement. They also noted that oils from hands caused handprints on the cars. Debunked. It is unclear how the cars might move on Gold Camp, although the road is

uneven due to flooding and poor grading. There is also minimal evidence to support any direct stories of cars moving- or being pushed - in the tunnels. However, we can look at the handprints. Guess what Gold Camp Road has? Dust from the roads. Lots of dust. You have oils in your hands, and likely touch the back of your car from time to time. Not children. Not ghosts. Bummer.

This still does not explain how the story of the bus crash made its way to Tunnel number 3. With San Antonio, the legend took off once the Utah case hit the newspaper. However, the tunnel collapsed fifty years after the initial accident. Colorado residents know the legend, but no one knows how it started. The internet has many links of the legend of the tunnels, but there is no origin story anywhere to be found. Mere speculation. I inquired on social media, asking people when they first heard about the haunting, and if they had any experiences. I received experiences from the 1990s to as recently as last year. Not one person stated they interacted with a bus-crash victim, everything appeared word of mouth. Stories online appear to be of someone who knew someone who had something happen. Isn’t that how the game of telephone goes, the story will change and evolve? The great mystery of Gold Camp Road.

What is it with urban legends that we love so much? The thrill of the idea that dead children are pushing our car? Cryptids such as Big Foot creeping around our woods? The fear of the unknown spiking our adrenaline, when it’s right around the corner? The stories travel through word of mouth (and now the internet) like dust in the wind, dust from a gravely road weaving through the

mountains. Through my research of Gold Camp Road, I was able to learn more about the magnificent history of life and death. The legend of the bus crash will continue as long as people continue to tell the story. Paranormal enthusiasts will swear that they made contact with someone up there. The spirits of Gold Camp Road may or may not ever tell.

Erin Taylor lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She is one of the co- founders and lead investigators for Cheyenne Mountain Paranormal Investigators. When she’s not out searching for the paranormal, she enjoys traveling, spending time with her family, attending concerts or the theater. By day, Erin works in a community based mental health agency as a licensed clinician.

References

Ellis, Don. (June 24, 2004) “Trains to cars to hikers: Gold Camp Road charts colorful past.” Westside pioneer. Retrieved from https:// www.westsidepioneer.com/Articles/062404/ OldGoldCamp.html

Ghost Adventures. (Season 9, episode 13). “Texas horror hotel.” Travel Channel.

Kenda, Joe. (2017). I will find you: Solving killer cases from my life fighting crime. Center Street: Ebook.

Salt Lake Tribune. (2013). “Memorial to mark 1938 crash that killed 23 students.” Salt Lake Tribune. November 24, 2013.

SBG San Antonio Staff Reports. (2020). “24 killed in horrific bus-train crash that inspired ‘ghost tracks’ legend in San Antonio.” December 1, 2020. Retrieved from www.msn.com

Summer, Danny. (2011) “Ghostly Gold Camp Road”. October 5, 2011.

Zubeck, Pam. “Local group urges repairing tunnel on Gold Camp Road: Cave-in blocked 10 years ago.” Gazette [Colorado Springs, CO]. 30 Mar 1999: News3. Business Insights: Global.

Picture Credit: YouTuber Cassandra Ann explores the Gold Camp Road Tunnels

Alice

The Alice box, computer software borne out of the mind of Joanne Saul, a software engineer whose work didn’t initially lend itself to the paranormal. After becoming an avid fan of Most Haunted in the early days like so many of us, she became captivated by the Ovilus. For the uninitiated, the Ovilus is an Instrumental Trans Communication device, a slightly sketchy concept of encouraging intelligent entities to purposefully interact with electronic equipment. I say sketchy because I will tell you right off the bat that it is unlikely to stand up to scientific scrutiny or study. And yet, why should it become such a useful tool for an investigation?

“The prototype Alice code was written during some extended downtime whilst I was posted overseas in my day job” Joanne explains, “and this threeweek period proved to be the strangest I`ve known. Each day I`d begin my work on the computer, steadily building and adjusting the routines within the code. Time slowly seemed to become detached, meaningless. Hours would whizz by in what felt like an instant. I hardly ate very much, preferring instead to get back to the job in hand. It was as if I was being driven, or possibly influenced, by someone, or something, to accomplish this. And things became stranger. I would look back at the lines and lines of data that I`d previously written just to check for any errors or inconsistencies. Some of it just seemed alien. I didn`t recognise it, and certainly didn`t fully understand it. This seemed like stuff that was ten levels above my own in terms of technical ability! I doubted that it would even compile and run, never mind perform as intended.”

As an investigator with HauntedLive, I’ve used the Alice box though many of its iterations. First as a Windows based program often yielding remarkable results on tablet PC or laptop. Whether revealing accurate place names or a complex series of words forming an apparent narrative of events from the probing questions asked of it, there just seemed to be something different about Alice. She WAS unpredictable; sometimes the sound would just fall silent of its own accord; sometimes she would just freeze forcing you to re-start the program, frustratingly losing the transcript of the night so far… Although it’s fair to say you allowed for these quirks as the software really did seem to justify its existence. In a quiet investigation, you found yourself in moments of relatively clear and intelligent conversation, sometimes with often quite moving responses.

Initially Jo was reluctant to make an App based version. When engineer and HauntedLive favourite Andy Bailey approached her to make a standalone version of the software in a project box without the need to lug a laptop or Tablet on an investigation, it seemed the next logical step. We are fortunate to own one of the initial concept boxes and whilst you can’t save a transcript of its words from the night’s investigation, it more than makes up for that in useability, often switching the dynamic of an investigation. After many minutes of calling out into “dead” air at a

location with very little activity, Alice can inject a bit of life and energy into the night prompting discussion and conversation. And that is when Alice is in its element. Those fleeting moments where the words seem to connect either to an environment, a person or a life event. After several investigations using the hardware, it really did become a weapon of choice. Yet even after the hardware had been developed and produced, Jo was still receiving many requests for an App based version of the software. Significantly though, the app stores now have several alternative apps and being mobile based they are somewhat more convenient to use.

Jo made a promise to herself that if an Alice app version was in any way inferior to the original program, she would simply shelve the project and acknowledge that it was not the right platform for the software. After working with a software developer, the beta version was released early 2022 and confidence in the project quickly ensued. The polished version subsequently hit the app stores at an extremely affordable price of just £4.99.

Loading time is quick and the app gets to work from the moment the power button is toggled. The display is clear – the familiar typewriter graphic now has animated mist, and this can be toggled for a simpler list display.

As a fan of Alice, the app I am pleased to say does carry on the mantle of its original counterpart.

through the App Store

The perfect ghost hunting gizmo or just another rabbit hole?

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

ThePrototypeAliceDNABox

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As it’s using your cell phone’s speech, the words are enunciated clearly, and this could be enhanced with a Bluetooth speaker if required. There are still some quirks… On many occasions you will have a burst of 3 words in quick succession; after discussions with Jo we found that words not in its internal dictionary appeared and were recorded. The app is robust and has never failed and unlike the PC’s original software – sound is constant, and the program has not once stopped working. It is slick, well made and of a professional standard. You can save all the night’s words into a notepad document which you can than import into Microsoft Excel if you want to check the frequency of communication. I may be biased here but I do prefer the Alice DNA box, it just feels that little bit more “gadgety” and in keeping with the night’s investigation. But the app is sooo convenient and ready to go in seconds that you can pretty much try it anywhere on your travels if the mood takes you!

Plans are afoot for some improvements. An online user portal where users can download and share their word banks and the ability to rate first-hand activity with their Alice Box at any geographic location. Jo explains, “This would form an activity “heat map” which could be visually represented on standard maps. Perhaps we will see commonalities in these pins – maybe they will align with the network of ley lines which run the length and breadth of the land?”

So, if ITC is your thing, Alice is definitely worthy of an investment. It’s a resounding YES from me! Is it perfect? No. But name any area of the paranormal that is!

Alice is available from the App Stores

...........UPDATE...........

Alice has been picked up by Barri Ghai.It’ll be on Help My House Is Haunted and the Celebrity special.

https://youtu.be/IpXooEpkfSc

Is Your Paranormal Career in Ruins?

Are Archaeologists THE REAL ‘Ghost Hunters’?

26 years ago, I had just embarked on a BSc in Archaeology, at The University of Birmingham. The reasons I chose this particular archaeology degree course, as opposed to any other, were twofold. Firstly, the BSc hinted at a scientific methodology. I had wanted to be a Forensic Scientist since I was about 12 but the thought of spending all day, every day, in a closeted laboratory really didn’t appeal when push came to shove. Secondly, we had to spend at least 9 weeks actually excavating archaeological sites in order to qualify. As my wildly fluctuating ‘A’ level grades proved, I am very much a “learn by doing” person as opposed to a “spend hours learning facts by rote” person.

There were 14 of us who started that course. Half were those who had spent years on the ‘digging circuit’ learning the practical side, who now wanted the academic back-up of theoretical learning. A quarter were fresh faced 18-year-olds, straight out of school, with all the enthusiasm of youth. The quarter into which I fell, were those of us who blundered around, trying to find something in academia, that held our attention and happened to stumble into archaeology. We were all misfits, led by some “hiraeth” or spiritual need to find a link to our past, not through kings or the powerful, but through people like ourselves.

The process of an archaeological research excavation may sound strangely familiar to paranormal investigators. Firstly, you need to find your site, by carrying out what is known in the trade as a ‘desktop survey’. Winding your way through urban legends, long-forgotten notebooks of antiquarians, half-remembered facts from long-dead generations, you find your way into archives. Back in my days at university, this involved spending many hours trawling through dusty academic journals and site records, and even visiting county museum storerooms to dig around in boxes of uncatalogued finds. Putting all these pieces together might give you an indication of somewhere on a map that might just give you a glimpse into the past.

Having arrived at your chosen field, carpark or building site, you then have to make a decision on the best way to proceed. Nowadays this is inevitably a geophysical survey, but back in the mid 90’s geophys’ was in its infancy; there was an element of gut instinct, finger in the air, calculated guess work. Then you actually put spade to ground. You are digging down from

the present day, through layers of time, decade through decade. Some layers are precisely dateable due to the finds present, some are just smears of loosely guessed at activity, but if you’re lucky, something tangible, a wall, part of a building, or a pit or burial.

This is where you’d expect science would take over and be able to tell you exactly what it is you’re looking at, but no, very rarely is this the case. There are scientific methods which can give you more clues, such as dendrochronology, radioisotope analysis, soil and pollen sample analysis etc but it isn’t often you can directly relate what you are looking at in the ground to a recorded event in time. Archaeology, by its very nature, is looking at the detritus left by everyday life, very often not recorded in any other way. Interpreting what you’re seeing is a mixture of experience, knowledge, and a weird spiritual, or some say almost psychic, link to the past. Anyone who has watched a few episodes of ‘Time Team’ will have heard the vague “it must be ritual” explanation.

Archaeology is by its very nature destructive. Once you’ve dug up the layers of time they no longer exist in their context and have no relationship to each other. This means that meticulous recording must take place to ensure future generations can ‘read’ the information provided by the excavation. Photography is always deployed and, these days, 3D laser mapping is quite often used.

So, how is this like being a paranormal investigator then? Some of you will have already noticed the research similarities. In order to gain the most of your chosen investigation site, someone has to research the history of the site, along with any known ghostly experiences over the years; records need checking and witnesses need interviewing to correlate any findings. Then, the investigation itself is a mixture of using gadgets and gut feelings, or personal experiences, to build a picture of what shadows of history may remain.

The next time you investigate a castle, or other equally historic place, cast a thought to those archaeologists who’ve spent hours painstakingly looking for evidence for the same people that you are.

ABOUT LIZ

Liz Cormell has known since a very young age that she can communicate with something that not everyone can. She comes from a long line of sensitives and psychics; this gift has been passed down the female line for many generations. Prior to developing this gift Liz admits that it used to frighten her but now she acknowledges most spirits are just people without physical bodies. When Liz was 17, she dated a guy whose mother was a Romany gypsy. This lady taught Liz to read tarot, using standard playing cards. This is a skill Liz practices, using multiple packs, and she provides readings for many people on a regular basis. From 2005 Liz has worked with many paranormal investigation groups and undertaken close to 1000 investigations at locations all around the UK, Ireland and even the USA. She would love to investigate overseas with Poveglia Island high on her bucket list. Liz has also been a practicing witch since her 30’s and works mainly with elemental energy and the moon goddess. Recently, she has felt called by Morrigan and is doing more spell work using Morrigan as her guiding goddess. Despite this spiritual angle to her life, Liz is a trained Crime Scene Investigator and Forensic Archaeologist so likes to search for rational and logical explanations before calling something paranormal.

A MONSTER IN THE FAMILY

By Jenny Pugh

The Loch Ness monster is universally famous as a terror from the deep and is one of the best-known cryptids. But could there be other strange aquatic lifeforms lurking beneath the waves in the murky depths of rivers, lakes and seas around our beautiful blue planet? Water covers approximately seventy-one per cent of the Earth’s surface, and more than eighty per cent of the oceans remain unexplored. This vast expanse of water could provide numerous places for Nessie and her cohorts to hide from prying eyes. But on rare occasions, the public does encounter such ‘mythical’ beasts. My maternal grandfather, Robert Millington, was such a man, witnessing a ‘Nessie’ like creature.

As a young man, back from the horrors of WWI, my grandfather enjoyed fishing and spending his spare time near water. He’d been injured during the conflict, fighting ‘for King and Country’ in the fields of France. As the enemy’s shells

had rained down upon the battlefield, one exploded nearby, throwing up a mountain of soil which fell on him, burying him alive. As the battle raged on, my grandfather was left for dead, not believing he would live to see another day, never mind a whole lifetime.

Three long days later, during a lull in the shelling, a Canadian soldier noticed his eyes moving and rescued him. After being dug out and dragged to safety, he was evacuated on a hospital ship across the North Sea and back to ‘Blighty’. As he travelled home across that stormy sea, my grandfather couldn’t have known that he would soon be face to face with one of the secrets hidden below the ship’s metal hull.

As part of his recovery, my grandfather used to go fishing, which drew him to Whitby harbour early one morning, rod and reel in hand. Although relatively small, the little port of Whitby was already famous. Bram Stoker, the author of ‘Dracula’, was inspired to write his bestseller in the coastal resort while recuperating from stress. In Stoker’s novel, Whitby is where the greatest literary vampire sets foot onto English soil for the first time, in the guise of a gigantic hound. James Cook also sailed from the port as an eager youngster, long before becoming a captain.

Leaning on Whitby pier’s cold, metal rail, my grandad had been staring out at the greenish-grey swelling water as it flowed from the sea into the port’s small harbour.

The quayside had small, brightly painted fishing boats moored to it that bobbed up and down with the incoming tide. Apart from the waves, the only sound was the occasional cry from the gulls wheeling overhead in the breaking sunlight.

Suddenly, my grandfather spied movement in the water below him. The head of a strange creature broke the water’s surface, rising as if to gulp in the early morning air. It was darkly coloured, with a long thin neck standing proud of the rippling water. Grandfather stared in disbelief. He had seen many things during his young life, but never a sea monster. As the creature swam past him, it began to sink once more below the surface, becoming hidden from view.

“Did you see that?” my grandfather shouted to a gentleman who was cycling past at that very moment. The man shook his head in confusion and peddled away, obviously oblivious to what granddad had just witnessed. My grandfather rushed home to tell my grandmother about his strange experience, but he didn’t dare tell anyone else for fear that they thought he had lost his mind. He later heard that an off-duty policeman, probably on his way home after a night shift, reportedly also spotted the creature.

According to old newspaper reports, my granddad wasn’t the only one to encounter such a cryptid. Back in the 1920s and 30s, there was a spate of sightings of strange, long-necked monsters in the UK’s coastal waters, especially along the east coast where my grandfather fished.

In late February of 1934, a coastguard, Wilkinson Herbert, filed a report about a terrifying night-time encounter with such an aquatic leviathan.

Herbert had been walking at Filey Brigg, a long, narrow, steep cliff peninsula situated less than thirty miles south of Whitby and my grandfather’s cryptid sighting.

“Suddenly, I heard a growling like a dozen dogs ahead walking nearer. I switched on my torch and was confronted by a huge neck, six yards in front of me, rearing up eight feet high!” The coastguard also stated that the creature was around thirty feet in length, its eyes akin to giant saucers and its cavernous mouth a foot wide. Scared at being alone with such a thing on that isolated shore, Herbert began to throw stones at the fearsome creature, driving it back into the water.

“It moved away growling fiercely, and I saw the huge black body had two humps on it and four short legs with huge flappers on them. I could not see any tail,”

“It moved away growling fiercely, and I saw the huge black body had two humps on it and four short legs with huge flappers on them. I could not see any tail,” he told the press. The creature moved quickly out to sea, and the last Herbert saw of the monster was “two eyes like torch lights, shining out to sea.” The coastguard remarked that it had been “a most gruesome and thrilling experience.”

Yorkshire folklore tells of ‘parkin’, (a local type of sticky cake,) loving dragon having lived around Filey Brigg, and the rocks of the Brigg having been formed from the bones of such a creature. One hundred and forty million years ago, plesiosaurs roamed the oceans where Filey Brigg now stands as part of the Jurassic Coast, and in 2001 a nearcomplete skeleton of an elasmasaur, a long-necked plesiosaur, was found nearby.

In the same year that Herbert chased his creature from Filey Brigg, the Atkinson family reported a dark creature with eyes ‘the size of portholes’ swimming in the Humber River, near Hull, just a little further south of Herbert’s sighting. Could plesiosaur sightings have inspired the tales of the dragons of old? Now believed extinct, could plesiosaurs or their successors somehow have managed to survive to the present day, hidden beneath those cold, dark waves? It would explain how rational people such as

the Atkinson’s keep reporting sightings of such fantastic beasts.

In early August of 1936, another sea monster was spotted in the sea off Withernsea when a local magistrate, Mr Twig, was out walking by the shoreline with his young grandson. While they were taking the air, the boy drew his grandfather’s attention to an unusual dark shape moving at great speed across the water. “It looked like a sea serpent,” reported Mr Twig to the Aberdeen Press and Journal, who covered the story. “Another man who was near us also looked out sea, and we saw some strange thing moving something like 100 miles an hour!”

The magistrate went on to say that the creature had been seen about two miles from the shoreline. The cryptid was travelling so fast that it was soon out of sight. “I am not an imaginative person,” remarked Mr Twig, “and there is no doubt about what I saw with my own eyes. It was

not a speed boat!” There was also another witness that day. Mrs Ethel Foster, taking a day trip from the nearby port of Hull, was also reported in the press to have spied the same creature.

Sightings of such watery beasts weren’t occurring just at sea either. In the same month, Alderman A.J. Richards was spending a pleasant summer’s day with his son and a friend, boating on Loch Oich in Scotland. This freshwater loch in the highlands comprises part of the Caledonian Canal and isn’t far from Loch Ness and its famous resident monster, Nessie. As the party enjoyed the scenery, a huge, dark-skinned beast suddenly rose from the water, less than ten feet away from their boat. They described its body as being two-humped and coiled like a snake, and as the head broke the water’s surface, they saw what looked like “the face of a large, unearthly dog.”

Only days l ater, on Thursday, 20th August 1936, the Dundee Evening Telegraph carried news of another strange sighting, also on the east coast. Two ex-MPs and a local chairman

reported witnessing a “snake-like creature” swimming in the water just off Eccles beach in Norfolk. The men claimed that it was around forty feet in length and “skimming the surface of the water with a worm-like movement.” They also approximated it to be travelling at about one hundred miles an hour.

Could this have been the same creature spotted by people in Withernsea only a couple of weeks earlier? Could it also be the identical aquatic monster my grandfather experienced in the harbour at Whitby, also on the east coast of England? How can we say with accuracy that there are no monsters in the deep until we have explored much further? As a clairvoyant medium, I have

personally experienced entities believed to only exist in mythology and have learned to keep an open mind to other possibilities. Fox Mulder once said, “The truth is out there,” and we should strive to uncover the truth, whatever that may be the case.

So, the next time you dip a toe in your local lake, paddle in a nearby river, or swim in the sea, you might want to take a slice of sticky cake along to placate any dragons you might meet…

Jenny X

They say, ‘The dead don’t speak’...but they DO to JENNY PUGH! Naturally psychic since childhood, Jenny has encountered countless spirit visitors and ethereal entities

in that time. As a talented clairvoyant medium with over 45 years of experience, she communicates with the spirit world by lifting the veil between us, proving that there is life after ‘death.’ Jenny is also a psychic artist, able to produce portraits of her spirit contacts. She demonstrates her clairvoyant abilities on stage, does private readings via her website, and has been featured in the press. Her memoir, ‘Why Do Angels Have Wings?’ is the captivating true story of her lifetime of supernatural experiences and is available at Amazon. www.

jennypughpsychic.com

@JenPughPsychic on Twitter & Facebook

@JennyPughPsychic on Instagram

George Jarvis (1704-1793) was born in the beautiful village of Staunton-On-Wye, Herefordshire in England. He was an intelligent man who made his fortune from selling cattle and cutting leather. Upon George’s death he gifted around £75,000 to charity, equating to around £14 million today. However, within his will Mr Jarvis stated that his money must not be used to erect public buildings.

Built in the late 1850s, the main school building is comprised of 4 floors and over 40 rooms. Gothic in appearance, made from red brick along with a number of other buildings funded by George Jarvis, the school was purpose built as a boarding school for children of impoverished families. Within its long history it was also used to house members of the American army and could have potentially served as a hospital, accommodating injured soldiers. The property was also used as a hostel from the 1960s but has been disused since 2010 and is currently undergoing restoration.

The school is said to be haunted, with some reports by pupils who attended many years ago. These include the figure of a man seen in a top floor window, disembodied legs seen walking the corridors and objects moving on their own. When the army stayed within the building there was reportedly a room in which none of the soldiers would sleep which they called ‘the haunted room’. This was located on the top floor. Strange sounds were heard and there were even accounts of the old warden’s dog howling inexplicably and refusing to enter the room. As if these curious reports weren’t interesting enough, it’s also claimed that clothes are tugged, babies are heard crying, and there have been distinctly audible footsteps throughout the building.

Iwas invited by Martyn Goodfellow of The UK Paranormal Adventure Society (UPAS) to join in a group investigation of the school and naturally, I couldn’t resist. UPAS networks with other experienced groups periodically, on this occasion we worked with Wednesbury Paranormal. It has been years since I joined a group for an investigation, so I absolutely jumped at the chance. A magnificent location I have never set foot in before so there was absolutely no way I would turn this opportunity down! After reading Lorien Jones’ brilliant feature of her walkthrough of the building in issue 29 of Haunted Magazine I was thrilled to be visiting myself. Our group comprised of seasoned, like-minded investigators and between us we had an arsenal of equipment including Ouija Boards, Tipping tables, Digital Voice Recorders, K2 Meters, Mel Meters, Motion/Vibration Detectors, SLS cameras, Full spectrum

THE GEORGE JARVIS BOARDING SCHOOL

By Katie Waller

cameras, Night vision cameras, Alice Box, K2 Trip Wire and a Paratek Box. We began around 7pm on a freezing cold April night and planned the evening methodically, breaking our group up into 3 smaller groups in order to tackle this vast location. The sky was clear, and millions of stars twinkled over the gothic turrets, made eerier still by the absence of even the faintest breeze. It was a chillingly still night.

The Middle and Top Floor

The large top floor housed a multitude of rooms including the clock room, classroom and what appeared to be dormitory bedrooms. Here we had some success with the Paratek box again with it saying the words “class” “term” and “dismissed.” This was interesting given the correlation of those words as it was previously, an educational setting. We also received words in particular relation to finances which was intriguing considering

Mr Jarvis’s will. Furthermore, we smelt tobacco in this area and heard whistling and footsteps. One group felt a presence and captured an interesting photo of what looked like the figure of a man. The clock room was particularly active for one of our groups who caught great footage of the motion detector balls responding to questions relating to a young boy and again we received confirmation of this via the Paratek box, further consolidating our findings.

The Ground Floor

The ground floor was impressive with bathrooms, two large halls and various other rooms including one which was used for séances. We had mixed results with our investigators experiencing motion detectors being triggered. These were in response to questions in a side room we didn’t expect to be active as well as in the séance room. The séance room proved active, using the motion detector balls with the Paratek device

saying “ball” which seemed to corroborate this fantastic evidence. In here I also captured some very foggy, misty looking photographs which was really odd. Knocking sounds were also heard by one of our groups in addition to footsteps in the corridor that were strikingly audible.

The Cellars

The main building has a large basement which is split into two dark, atmospheric cellars. The highlight was a figure captured on the SLS camera. A very slender person appeared next to me. I was knelt down on the floor at the time. The figure moved further away when I put my hand out towards it and then it seemed to move between two team members which was

strange. Suddenly as quickly as it appeared it disappeared and did not return. In the same area, the Alice box gave us many words, some which appeared to make sense to us considering the questions we asked. Sounds were heard down here including knocking in response to some of our questions, and most shockingly (and rather disconcertingly) we even heard growling and what sounded like a hiss type noise. Perhaps an attempt to scare us off, deter us from further investigation or get our attention?

The Outbuilding

Used as a social club, the outbuilding was large enough to accommodate with its own maze of rooms going off in every direction. It looked like an old-fashioned working men’s club. I can just see the bar full of merry locals, sinking pint after pint, throwing darts, and gathering around the now vacant pool table. Paint peels from the walls and the ceilings crumble to the floor. The air in here was thick and you can literally still feel the energy that once bustled here. Some members of our team experienced some physical reactions including pain within their body. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to investigate this area but next time I’d be very interested in prioritizing it for sure!

In summery this location absolutely lived up to my expectations from the research I completed. I would highly recommend this to any investigators wanting to visit a stunning and genuinely haunted location with a complex variety of rooms and a rich history. One night simply was not enough and I cannot wait to return. The highlight for me has to be the activity we got from our motion detectors, our physical feelings and the unexplainable sounds we heard during the night. A huge thank you to Martyn, Nat and of course all the other fantastically talented investigators that were part of our team that night. We captured some incredible evidence, and it was a privilege to be part of it.

If you are interested in privately hiring out the George Jarvis School you most definitely should contact Nat Lawrence on: thegeorgejarvisschool@gmail.com and check out The UK Paranormal Adventure Society on Facebook here: https://www. facebook.com/groups/459491310878204/?r ef=share Check out Wednesbury Paranormal here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ wednesburyparanormal/?ref=share

THE NEVER-ENDING TOY STORY

By Philip Barron

Every few months we see another ‘haunted doll’ appear in social media or in the papers with reports of negative activity or spirits attached to them but are all haunted dolls bad?

We very rarely get reports of possessed dolls with happy positive spirits attached to them - is it because they just don’t make headlines or is it just that there isn’t any? And if so, why not?

Dolls have been reflected in cultures for many centuries with the early Greeks sculpting dolls from stone and the Egyptians making rag dolls and stuffing them with papyrus leaves, but we never hear of any ancient dolls being ‘haunted’ or being confined behind glass due to reports of their dangerous behavior. The only

imprisonment these dolls seem to get is to be behind glass in a museum for people to look at and admire.

SO, WHEN DID DOLLS BECOME HAUNTED?

The phenomenon of possessed dolls didn’t really become an attraction until the early 1900’s when we started to see them appear in films such as the 1936 film ‘Devil Doll’ or the 1945 film ‘Dead of Night’ where dolls and puppets were added as an additional scare factor to horror films.

The most famous dolls of course are Annabelle, who was given as a present in 1970 and is said to be possessed by a demonic spirit, and Robert the doll, who was also given as a present in 1904 to Robert Eugene Otto who is said to be the possessor of Robert, both of which have gained notoriety in their own film franchises.

It is said that if you are disrespectful or bang on Annabelle’s box bad things happen as reported in Ed and Lorraine Warrens book

“The Demonologist” where it is described that after some visitors who were brave enough to do just that, found themselves in traffic accidents and even a priest wasn’t safe from Annabelle’s wrath.

Robert the Doll too is said to have the ability to cause harm to those who do not treat him with respect or ask before taking his picture, with many incidents reported after people have visited him.

There are so many reported and documented first-hand reports of doll possession that we just can’t ignore or dismiss them especially when a lot of these reports are from what we would consider credible sources

SO WHY DO SPIRITS CHOOSE TO POSSESS DOLLS?

Some say the spirit inside the doll is that of the original owner of the doll and because it was a cherished possession during life they feel anger towards other people having their most precious possession, while others claim that as dolls are the closest representation to the human form,

brains apparently see dolls as human but subconsciously we know they are not which is where the apprehensiveness and fear begins to creep in (a phenomenon known as pediophobia).

So, did dolls become scarier after the 19th century when makers began to make dolls more lifelike and human?

I am certainly not an expert in haunted dolls or even the paranormal, no one really is and I’m not here to try to influence your thoughts or beliefs, so we go back to our original question ‘are dolls haunted’ or could there be another force at play?

I have had my own experiences around ‘haunted dolls’ within the paranormal world and many of those experiences

I still can’t explain and have created more questions than answers, but the subject is definitely thought provoking, and some may say is the reason we investigate the paranormal, to shed light on these unsolvable mysteries and I would absolutely agree.

mind that I would like to share with you all is at the infamous 30 East Drive in Pontefract where is it said that an entity resides within the house that has been named as ‘The Black Monk of Pontefract’. Over the years a small number of dolls have been donated to the house by visitors and it is with one of these dolls that I had my experience.

I have always had a feeling of apprehension towards this specific doll despite there being other dolls in the house and in reality, there is no specific reason apart from a feeling I get when I’m around it and it’s a general feeling of unease and impending trouble.

On the night in question, I had decided to do a Facebook live and despite never having touched the doll I thought that it would be a good idea to sit in the parents’ bedroom and hold it for the first time during my live stream and see what would happen because that’s what all us Paranormal Investigators do, right?!

Well as soon as I sat with the doll on my knee people were commenting that they thought they had seen its head move and its face change which I hadn’t noticed myself, so I decided to call out that if there was a spirit in this doll to make itself known.

Within moments of me finishing speaking there was

through the floor as well as my feet, followed by Diane’s door opening and at that point I was trying to keep my composure despite a million questions running through my mind, and my fight or flight reaction urging me to run.

As I began to speak again, I felt the doll move on my lap and that was it, I couldn’t take anymore and threw the doll onto the bed and left the room as quickly as I could.

On further visits to 30 East Drive I believe I have communicated with the spirit within the doll using an “Alice” box where nothing but dark, negative and religious words were produced.

So, the next time you go to give that precious doll a squeeze or pick up a doll in an antique shop just remember it might not just be the doll you are giving a hug to!

Phil

Phil Barron is a Paranormal Investigator and has been involved in the paranormal world for nearly 20 years. FACT: HE IS AFRAID OF THE DARK. He has been involved in several media projects over the years and was most recently featured on ITV Sweden. The Island of Poveglia is on his paranormal bucket list.

We always like to push our boundaries when trying to understand the paranormal, but on that night, I had pushed too far.

SHEPTON MALLET

A HAUNTED HOUSE OF CORRECTION

It seems as if every prison has its ghost story, and Britain’s infamous Shepton Mallet is no exception. Dating back to the early 17th century, “the Mallet” (as many of its inmates and prison officers once called it) has a claim to being the UK’s oldest prison. It should therefore come as no surprise that many believe it to also be the most haunted.

The Mallet has a long and colorful history, locking up prisoners for crimes ranging from murder and robbery to practicing witchcraft. Many have died within its walls over the years, some from natural causes, others from suicide – and a surprising number were executed. The human remains of several prisoners who were put to death at Shepton Mallet are buried inside the prison grounds, as was customary in the days of capital punishment, in a row of unmarked graves just inside one of the outer walls.

Tragedy struck in the early morning hours of Saturday, December 14, 1940, when three soldiers died while sleeping in an uncertified cell. An inquest would later determine that the men had been overcome by carbon monoxide. A fourth occupant, though rendered extremely ill by the fumes, would go on to recover. The prison officers who oversaw this awful incident were heavily reprimanded following an inquiry.

The biggest continuous string of deaths to take place at the Mallet did not happen

until the United States military took over administration of the facility in 1942. Before the end of World War II in 1945, eighteen American servicemen met their deaths at the Mallet. Sixteen were hanged in a purposebuilt execution chamber, and two were shot dead by firing squad outside, close to the wall where the civilians are buried. The Americans were all rapists and/or murderers, the worst of the worst. They are not buried inside the prison. Their remains lie in a segregated burial ground in the US military cemetery located in Oise-Aisne, France. Each executed man was stripped of all rank insignia before being hanged, and was then re-interred in a plot marked only by a number – there are no gravestones to record their names, or dates of birth and death. The US military considers this to be a cemetery of shame.

One is forced to wonder whether the restless souls of these executed men may still wander the halls of the place in which they met their deaths. Yet other spirits are also said to haunt Shepton Mallet Prison. Claims of a lady in white prompted such fear among the prison officers decades ago that the Home Office ordered an investigation. Needless to say, no evidence of ghostly activity was documented, but several guards told stories of chilling encounters with the phantom woman.

When the opportunity arose for me to spend four nights investigating the Mallet in the early summer of 2022, I jumped at the chance. Along with

fellow investigator and medium MJ Dickson, and a small team of British paranormal investigators, we set out to discover everything we could about this infamous house of detention.

Wandering the cell blocks and hallways of Shepton Mallet can be an unnerving experience, even during the hours of daylight. British readers will almost certainly be familiar with two of the prison’s most notorious inmates, the East London gang lords, twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray. They served time at the Mallet during their period of national service in the British Army, after demonstrating a penchant for unruly behavior and punching non-commissioned officers.

Exploring on my own, I come across a cell which has photographs of the actor David Tennant posted on the door.

Our guide wrote the incident off with a casual “Oh, strange things happen here all the time…” As if to prove her point, the following day, she sent photographs of unexplained bruises which had appeared on her arm.

Tennant portrayed serial killer Dennis Nilsen in the TV drama “Des,” and scenes of Nilsen in his prison cell were filmed at Shepton Mallet, which is a popular shooting location for movies and television shows. Over the course of the next four nights, we are treated to a multitude of interesting anomalies and subjective personal experiences. Some are eminently debunkable, of course, but others leave us scratching our heads. There are the ubiquitous unexplained battery drains across multiple devices, something with which every field investigator is familiar. A little stranger was the behavior of Carl’s hatchback, which decided to raise and lower itself several times for no apparent reason. The car hasn’t malfunctioned in this way before or since, and we were unable to explain it. “Eh, eh, peel me a grape,” exclaimed an astonished carl.

Our guide wrote the incident off with a casual “Oh, strange things happen here all the time…” As if to prove her point, the following day, she sent photographs of unexplained bruises which had appeared on her arm.

To add to the atmosphere, we were treated to thunderstorms with lightning and heavy rain. There was also a Blood Moon on the night of May 15, in which the moon turned an angry crimson before being fully eclipsed. Unfortunately for us, the great British weather refused to cooperate, hiding the spectacle behind a ceiling of low-hanging cloud.

The vast, empty cell blocks begin to feel very sinister when you’re sitting there late at night. That’s probably a purely psychological phenomenon, in my opinion,

although sensitives might take the view that hundreds of years of negative energy can leave something akin to a “psychic scar,” which some people are able to pick up on. More difficult to explain away are the shuffling sounds we heard on multiple occasions, and at different places throughout the sprawling prison complex. The same could be said of the knocking on a window some three stories above the ground. I kept a close eye out for rodent droppings, and didn’t see anything to suggest we might have been dealing with nocturnal critters. Birds do make their way inside the cell blocks on occasion, however, and that’s something I tried to bear in mind for some of the sounds which came from up above our heads.

On more than one occasion, team members saw what they were convinced was a dark figure, standing on the upper landing of a wing staircase. A thorough search of the floor in question revealed nothing but a row of empty cells.

It made sense to focus a lot of our time on the execution chamber. The room in which hangings took place was surprisingly small. The trapdoor through which sixteen American servicemen fell to their deaths, was fenced off with a wooden railing. It was a sobering thought to imagine the chamber packed with American military officers, all gathered to witness the end of a human life. Hangings were conducted by an officially sanctioned British government executioner, such as the famous Albert Pierrepoint, who were appointed by the Crown to travel the length and breadth of the British Isles, carrying out statemandated capital punishment.

Adjacent to the execution chamber can be found the condemned man’s cell, in whose narrow confines the prisoner would spend the final hours before their death. Unbeknownst to them, the room on the opposite side of the narrow hallway was set aside for use by

With Alex and MJ waiting for Weirdness

the executioner, who would typically arrive the day before the hanging was set to take place. The hangman would arrange with the prison guards to size the prisoner up without his knowledge, sometimes spying on him in the exercise yard, and adjusting the length of the rope to the condemned man’s height. There was a formula to be followed.

On the day of the execution, the prisoner’s arms would be pinioned tightly, and he would be marched onto the trapdoor. In his autobiography, Pierrepoint expressed his distaste for the American military’s method of execution. When he hanged a Brit, the executioner recalled, the entire process took just a minute or two from the time the prisoner arrived in the room. During a US execution, however, the condemned was forced to stand there on the trapdoor, while the entire litany of charges against him was read aloud to the room, followed by any comments the presiding officer might be inclined to make. This could result in a delay of eight or ten minutes, something that Pierrepoint (who was a consummate professional) considered to be somewhat inhumane.

Gathering quietly around the trapdoor above which the gallows would once have stood, we carried out a series of hushed and respectful EVP sessions. Once again, we clearly heard the sound of movement from

out in the corridor that led to the execution chamber and its adjoining specialist cells. After a few basic questions, we played back the audio recording and were astonished to hear a male voice gruffly declare: GET BACK. It certainly wasn’t the voice of any male investigator present in the room. Additionally, none of us had spoken those particular words. MJ had mentioned earlier in the evening that she believed we were being followed by the spirit of an inquisitive prison officer as we made our rounds throughout the prison. Could this perhaps be his voice, or alternatively, was it a residual phrase, something that was paranormally imprinted on the environment during the days when executions still took place here? GET BACK would be reasonable thing for an official to say if somebody happened to be getting too close to the trapdoor, for example.

Nor was this EVP capture a fluke. A few minutes later, a similar male voice would turn up on playback, asking the words WHAT’S THAT? Yet again, none of the males present spoke these words. This was confirmed by other voice recorders we had position around the room.

The following evening, I took the opportunity to Facetime my sister. As I was wandering between C and D wings, chatting away and giving her a good look at the place, there came a loud boom from one of the floors directly above my head. I peered up through the suicide prevention netting, strung across the cell block in an attempt to deter inmates from jumping to their deaths. Nothing seemed to be moving up there.

“Tell me you heard that,” I asked her, suddenly feeling a little disconcerted at being all alone on the wing. She confirmed that we had, and, laughing, signed off by wishing me good luck for the night ahead.

Naturally, many of the occupants of the prison were not nice individuals. We were reminded of this during an EVP session at the intersection of A and D wings, when a male voice aggressively growled F*** YOU. This was followed moments later by an extremely loud slam from somewhere on the top floor of the cell block, as if one of the big, heavy doors had been slammed shut. (Of course, when we went to check, none of them had). MJ was uncharacteristically shaken after the encounter, and had to go outside to get some fresh air –code for having a cheeky smoke.

It was then that arguably the most remarkable experience of the entire investigation took place. Parked in front of the gift shop, not too far from the main gate, was a van. Just as I approached MJ, we could both hear the sound of footsteps on the far side of the vehicle.

“Alex,” she called out, “is that you?”

Except the heavy, measured tread coming toward us didn’t belong to our fellow investigator, Alex, at all. He was still inside the prison, not taking in the night air as MJ had initially thought. Still the footsteps kept on coming, circling around the front end of the van.

My first thought was that it had to be an intruder, somebody local who had gotten in through the gate or over the wall somehow, and was trespassing inside the prison – perhaps with a view to breaking into our cars. There was no way I was having that. Picking up the pace, I stormed around to the far side of the van to confront whoever it was – and found nothing. There was nobody there.

I circled the vehicle several times, looking underneath and all around, just to rule out the possibility of it having been a fox or a badger – but MJ and I both knew that the footsteps we had heard were much too hefty to have belonged to an animal. So much more happened at Shepton Mallet than I can relate in this article. Interested readers will be able to read the full story in my forthcoming book, SPIRITS BEHIND BARS, which will be published in September of 2022. I would like to thank my fellow investigators and guides at HMP Shepton Mallet for making the adventure such a memorable one

When we think of vampires, the imagination immediately summons the archetypal images of the fiendish Count Dracula, with his aversion to sunlight, garlic and religious iconography. Such lore about all things vampiric appears to have been launched into popular culture with the widespread popularity of Bram Stoker’s classic novel and propagated through the years with portrayals true to Stoker’s vision in films, books and television shows.

Our fascination with vampires didn’t begin with this particular novel though – some of the earliest recorded accounts go back as far as 4000 BC. Ancient Sumerian and Babylonian mythology describe a vampiric creature known as ‘ekkimu’ or ‘edimmu’ that was once human, but due to lack of a proper burial, became a type of demon that inhabited the body in order to feed from the energy of the living. Belief in supernatural beings and forces has always been part of the historic human worldview and vampires are no exception, with accounts and reports recorded down the centuries. Similarities between the circumstances described in these ancient tales and the one recounted below are quite striking.

The Berwick Vampire

The tale of the Berwick vampire was recorded during the reign of Richard the Lionheart in the twelfth century by an Augustinian Canon named William Parvus, or William of Newburgh. Plague ravaged the country during this period, and fiscally poor areas such as Northumberland endured considerable hardship. The king himself was absent for

By Lucy Willgress

most of his reign as the crusades seemed to be more of a priority than the suffering in his own kingdom, although due to the religious fervour of the time, appeasing god through crusading was viewed as a way of making a personal sacrifice in order to put an end to disasters and diseases such as the Black Death.

According to Canon William, a wealthy, well-respected merchant in the town of Berwick fell victim to the plague. Described as religious and thoughtful in life, it was only after his demise that evidence came to light that the unnamed man had, in reality, been a wicked and nefarious man by nature. His burial within consecrated ground was refused and soon afterwards, strange and frightening occurrences began to take place.

It was said that the merchant began to emerge from his grave at night accompanied by the eerie howling of a pack of dogs in his quest to feast on the flesh and blood of the living.

A later version of the story states that the cursed man ran through the streets shouting that “until my body is burnt, you folk of Berwick shall have no peace!” Although this isn’t mentioned in the translation into modern English from the original account, what is interesting is that when the townsfolk gathered to decide what to

do about the monstrous occurrence, ‘…the wiser (amongst them) shrewdly concluding that were a remedy further delayed, the atmosphere, infected and corrupted by the constant whirling of the pestiferous corpse, would engender disease and death to a great extent; the necessity of providing against which was shown by frequent examples in similar cases.’

It’s interesting to note that the last line in this paragraph suggests that the above was not an isolated incident, but also that fearing a further spread of plague, no doubt believed to be caused by undead corpses roaming the streets and spreading infection, the townsfolk using the scapegoat of a supposed vampire hounding the community would have made a great deal of sense to people whose physical reality went hand-in-hand with seemingly supernatural elements that could not be explained. So, what happened to the Berwick Vampire?

Sources say that higher and middle ranking town officials got together and employed ten farmhands, noted for their bravery, who were employed to disinter the carcass, dismember it and destroy it by burning. Sadly, not long after, the Black Death returned to the town and wiped out around half the residents. As the disease-wracked corpses were laid to rest, those that were left began to hear the heart-stopping screams of the vampire, accompanied by the howling of hounds once more. With the original supposed cause –the vampiric merchant, now burned to ash, perhaps it was assumed that tragedy on such a large scale had produced more supernatural creatures of the night?

The Curious Case of Arnold Paole

The next example takes place against the background of the AustrianOttoman wars of the early eighteenth century. War had raged for the best part of twenty years after the Habsburgs of Austria annexed large swathes of Serbia and Northern Bosnia, which had previously been part of the Ottoman Empire. Remaining under direct Austrian military control until the Treaty of Belgrade in 1739, the captured lands were then forcibly granted back to the Turks. During the two decades of Austrian rule, authorities in Vienna encouraged German speaking Serbs to relocate to the areas particularly hit by the devastation of war in order to focus on agriculture and cattle farming, in order to help generate a better economy. Many Ottoman Serbs were lured by the promise of being given ‘unalienable lots of land’ in exchange for serving as Hadjuks – or militiamen, recruited for the purpose of protecting borders in peacetime and serving in times of war.

Arnold Paole was one such Hajduk, who relocated to Medveđa from Gossowa (thought to be present-day Kosovo) in the part of Serbia controlled by the Turks. Reports of the time say that Paole often spoke about being targeted by a vampire in his hometown but had managed to cure himself by smearing himself in the blood of the vampire and consuming dirt from the grave. No doubt this would have made for a fascinating tale, maybe told over a drink at the end of the day. That is until Paole suddenly died by breaking his neck falling from a haycart, around 1725.

Poor Arnold was duly laid to rest, but a few weeks later, four villagers began to complain that they had been ‘plagued’ by him – it’s interesting to note the choice of word here! Shortly after, all four passed away themselves. It was only then that people began to recall Paole’s story of being relentlessly pursued by a Turkish vampire and began to wonder if he himself had been cursed to stalk the living in a state of living death? And so, forty days after Paole’s death, he was disinterred in order to find out whether the unfortunate man was responsible.

What they found was enough to convince the villagers present that Paole had turned into some kind of arch-vampire.

His corpse showed no signs of decomposition and was noted to be bloated and full of fresh blood, which had recently flowed from every visible orifice, covering his clothes and the inside of the coffin.

In addition to his hair and beard growing since the time of his death – we now know this to be a fairly common thing – the nails on his fingers and toes had fallen off, but new ones grew in their place. All these were evidenced as proof that the dead man was now stalking the living as an undead man.

A stake was driven through Paole’s heart, at which point the bloated corpse appeared to react with a blood-curdling shriek, followed by groaning as the blood flowed from the body. After this, they cut off his head and burned the entire body.

Certain similarities can be seen with regards to how vampires appear in popular culture in the case of Paole. It’s here that we start to see a tradition emerge of staking through the heart and beheading, which likely was a tradition imported with the Turkish migrants that then fed into the growing fascination with vampires over the following centuries.

Vampires Strike Again!

Interestingly, another outbreak occurred five years later. Yet again, an epidemic hit the area, killing ten people in the course of a few weeks, and seventeen in total over three months. Once again, locals sought an explanation as to why this happened.

Two of the first women to die were named Milica and Stana – both originally from the Ottoman Empire, just as Paole had been. Villagers recalled that whilst both had been good neighbours and well liked, they recalled Milica saying that while still in her homelands, she had eaten two sheep supposedly killed by vampires and that Stana had admitted to smearing herself in vampire blood as a form of protection against them. According to locals, all the above would put you at risk of becoming one, rather than protecting against them.

The villagers complained of the new deaths to the Austrian Military Commander. Concerned about the possibility of an ‘epidemic of pestilence’, he immediately sent for Glaser, an infectious disease specialist, who concluded that the deaths were most likely down to malnutrition and adverse effects of severe fasting in the Eastern Orthodox traditions. However, the locals were not having any of it. Banding together in families of two or three for safety, they were adamant that the epidemic was down to vampires infecting the living and that if the authorities wouldn’t take proper action by digging them up and executing the offending creatures, then they would

all abandon the village in order to spare their own lives. In his report to the Commandant’s office, Glaser advised it best to do as the villagers wished and ‘execute’ the vampires. A second commission was sent directly from Belgrade, comprising military surgeon Johann Flückinger, two officers by the names of Lieutenant Colonel Büttner and J. H. von Lindenfels. Together with some local gypsies and town officials, the graves of the deceased were dug up and opened on January 7th, 1732. It was discovered that whilst five of the bodies were already quite decomposed, the remaining twelve appeared plump and undecayed, with organs filled with fresh, rather than coagulated blood. The report was summarised by the surgeons present as the bodies being ‘Vampyrenstand’ or in vampiric condition. Once the investigation was complete, the gypsies cut off the heads of the suspected vampires and burned them along with their bodies and scattered the ashes into the Morava River.

Commentary on a Belief in Vampires in Europe

Such an unwavering belief in vampires spreading disease and death among the living across Europe can also be corroborated from a text written around the same time as the Serbian Vampire plague, but not published until around a decade later. ‘The Travels of Three Gentlemen, from Venice to Hamburg’ was written as part of a ‘Grand Tour’ in 1733-4, and forms part of The Harleian Miscellany, 1745. The following extract comes from pages 348-9 and provides an insight into the worldview of people in Eastern Europe:

“We must not omit observing here, that our landlord seemed to pay some regard to what Baron Valvasor has related of the Vampyres, said to infest some parts of this country. These Vampyres are supposed to be the bodies of deceased persons, animated by evil spirits, which come out of the graves, in the night-time, suck the blood of many of the living, and thereby destroy them.

Such a notion will, probably, be looked upon as fabulous and exploded, by many people in England; however, it is not only countenanced by Baron Valvasor, and many Carnioleze Noblemen, Gentlemen, &c. as we were informed, but likewise actually embraced by some writers of good authority. M. Jo. Henr. Zopfus, Director of the Gymnasium of Essen, a person of great erudition, has published a dissertation upon them, which is extremely learned and curious, from whence we shall beg leave to transcribe the following paragraph:

“The Vampyres, which come out of the Graves in the Night-time, rush upon People sleeping in their Beds, suck out all their Blood, and destroy them. They attack Men, Women, and Children, sparing neither Age nor Sex. The People attacked by them complain of Suffocation, and a great Interception of Spirits; after which, they soon expire. Some of them, being asked, at the Point of Death, what is the Matter with them, say they suffer in the Manner just related from People lately dead, or rather the Spectres of those People; upon which,

their Bodies, from the Description given of them, by the sick Person, being dug out of the Graves, appear in all Parts, as the Nostrils, Cheeks, Breast, Mouth, &c turgid and full of Blood. Their Countenances are fresh and ruddy; and their Nails, as well as Hair, very much grown. And, though they have been much longer dead than many other Bodies, which are perfectly putrefied, not the least Mark of Corruption is visible

Those who are destroyed by them, after their Death, become Vampyres, so that, to prevent so spreading an Evil, it is found requisite to drive a Stake through the dead Body, from whence, on this Occasion, the Blood flows as if the Person was alive. Sometimes the Body is dug out of the Grave, and burnt to Ashes; upon which, all Disturbances cease.”

The accounts recorded all seem to be pretty consistent in their description about what constitutes a corpse being in a vampiric state and belief in demonic entities possessing the dead in order to spread infection, death and feed from the living seems

to have been entrenched in the belief system of not only poor villagers suffering hardship, but well-respected members of society, too. So, did vampires really exist, or were they just a symptom of a society going through hardship and upheaval?

Alas, wherever you find social, economic or religious upheaval, people will naturally find some kind of scapegoat to blame, attack and destroy in order to end the chaos and set the world back in good order once more. Epidemics such as the various cases of plague, random, unexplained illness, or even just the introduction of migrants over changing borders could create suspicion and therefore, blame. It’s easy to see how uncorrupted corpses of the recently deceased would have been seen as the cause of death and disease, especially when settlers from the Ottoman Empire brought tales of vampire attacks with them. As Glaser seemed to observe, allowing people to carry out the ritual of destroying the ‘vampire’ at least gave them a sense of control over an existence which was often chaotic, fragile and hard.

Whether we believe that some of these cases could have been bona fide vampiric attacks, humanity’s belief in them has lasted at least six thousand years and our fascination with them continues in popular culture to this day.

COURTNEY M. BLOCK

KJERSTI BETH MARIA HOGAN

FISHER TANYA M. FLYNT VICTORIA S. JAYE

MICHELLE

In 2020, an idea was planted in my brain after noticing that many people within the paranormal community did not know about the history of women in the paranormal, trailblazers like Catherine Crowe, Eleanor Sidgwick, and Zora Neale Hurston were relatively unknown by the masses. As the months passed, I began to notice the lack of female representation not just of historic researchers but contemporary ones as well.

The idea took root and blossomed into the all-female (and nonbinary) paranormal journal, The Feminine Macabre. We released our first volume in March 2021 and we’re about to release our fourth volume this fall. Our hope is to shine a light on the research, writing, and theories of women from the paranormal community. From tarot and witchcraft to cryptids, folklore, and ghosts, The Feminine Macabre covers everything within the occult, metaphysical, and paranormal fields… with a feminine twist. We present Volume 3.5, just a small taste of what you might see in our journal of all things strange and unusual.

Amanda R. Woomer, Creator and Editor of The Feminine Macabre

By: Courtney M. Block

A Love Letter to Haunted Libraries, the In-Between & Liminal People

Strange things happen at my library. Before you conjure the image of an old, creaky-floored library backlit by the moonlight, let me point out that my library isn’t very old. It was built in 2004. My library is situated on a university campus. When they heard that I was gathering stories for a haunted campus walking tour, most people expressed skepticism that I would find very much given the young age of both the library and the campus. Of course, those of us who have spent enough time enmeshed in the paranormal will know that age is not a requirement for strangeness to occur. In no time, I had a wealth of personal stories, and archival documents that formed an impressive portfolio of weirdness surrounding my little campus tucked into the hills of southern Indiana. One of these stories involved the library.

A campus police officer recounted that one December, they were called to investigate after janitorial staff spotted someone in the library after-hours. The officer who arrived scoured the first and second floors to no avail, but once they entered the library’s basement level, they reported feeling a sixth sense that convinced them someone was lurking and watching. The officer said they didn’t feel anything supernatural or strange and were convinced that a living person had somehow snuck into the library and was now hiding.

Upon searching every nook of the lower level, though, the officer found no one. Perplexed, they decided to hit the elevator button. Instead of hopping in, they sat quietly at a desk in the corner, hoping that the sound of the elevator doors opening, and closing would lure the person from their hiding spot. After a few moments, the officer’s efforts paid off when the lights in one of the study rooms suddenly came on.

The officer jumped up from the desk, rushed into the room, and found.... nothing. Confused, the officer spent the next 15 minutes trying to recreate what had just happened. Could the HVAC trigger the motion-activated lights in the study room? No. Would headlights from passing cars trigger anything? Again, no.

The only thing that activated the lights was when the officer physically walked past the sensor.

The officer never did find anyone in the library that evening. Still, they concluded their encounter by telling me that, since that evening, they

often feel that same uneasy feeling when they make their rounds of the library each night.

My library isn’t the only spooky library, of course. A much more well-known haunted library is the Willard Library, located two hours west of me in Evansville, Indiana. The library, which opened to the public in 1885, is said to be haunted by a ghost known as the Gray Lady. The first report of the Gray Lady occurred in the 1930s when a custodian claimed to see her, and since then, numerous sightings and strange happenings have occurred at the Willard Library. Others who have seen the Gray Lady include local police officers, university professors, library staff, and even library patrons. Some have reported seeing her peering into water, while others smell perfume, or feel their hair and earrings being touched. Other strange events include water mysteriously turning on and off and objects being moved or randomly appearing in the library.

Fortunately for those interested in the paranormal, the Willard Library seems to embrace its haunted attributes and even hosts paranormal tours every October. In fact, if you’re interested in seeing the Gray Lady herself, check

out the series of “ghost cams” accessible from the library’s website and make sure to view the PDF that illustrates the locations in which the Gray Lady is most often seen.

Spooky libraries aren’t just limited to Southern Indiana, of course. You can easily find information about many others.

In fact, librarians at the Illinois University Library created a guide highlighting the haunted happenings of libraries across the United States, inspired perhaps by the strange activity that is said to take place in their own library.

in earnest in the 1950s and that staff would hear strange voices and see unexplained lights. The library’s haunted reputation followed it and eventually attracted the attention of paranormal investigators who, through their investigations, claimed that the spirits of two women occupied the library. Most interesting to me, however, is the fact that the library’s haunted reputation revived interest in the local institution. As the director said, “It all changed with the ghosts.”

I have a theory of why libraries seem to be attractors of strange phenomena. There’s a reason why the silent, dark, or empty library feels particularly creepy. I think it’s because there is something lingering in the library— something perhaps best intuited after-hours. Let me explain.

For example, on this site, you can read about the Deep River Public Library in Connecticut and the multiple spirits that seem to haunt that location. You can also read about the Ramona Convent Secondary School library in California, which is said to be haunted by the ghost of a nun. One of my favorite stories is that of the Old Bernardsville Public Library in New Jersey.

In December 2021, I sat down with the host of Paranormal Patio, Jason, to discuss paranormal research and libraries. During that conversation, we chatted about the vibe that libraries give off after-hours. We are all probably familiar with that feeling of being in a space that is otherwise bustling, busy, and full of people. When empty, a particular vibe lingers within these spaces. Jason and I continued chatting about this lingering energy and remarking on the liminal nature of libraries.

Let me put it this way. What place, other than the home, can people be without the expectation of buying anything? Wandering through a park, maybe, but what physical buildings exist for people to simply be in? Librarians don’t expect you to purchase your right to be in a library or to sit at a table, access computers, apply for a job, use a bathroom, get research assistance, dig through archival materials, drink water from a fountain, read books, newspapers, or magazines, attend events, or even take a nap. In fact, we don’t expect you to have any reason at all to be within the library. It is enough to simply be. In a capitalist society, libraries are an act of rebellion. Their very nature is liminal—from the physical spaces to the materials within them to your reason for being there, and to the fact that since the advent of online databases, you don’t even need to set foot in the library building to technically be using the library—these institutions thrive in the in-between. Of course, strange things are happening in libraries.

Before serving as a library, the building was once an inn during the Revolutionary War and is said to be haunted by the ghost of Phyllis Parker, the owner’s daughter. The ghostly activity and the lore surrounding Phyllis eventually prompted the staff to give Ms. Parker her own library card, which leads me to wonder, “Why haven’t I given my library ghost a card yet?” If you’re curious to know more about the haunting of the Old Bernardsville Public Library, you can ask your library for a copy of the 1991 book titled Phyllis—The Library Ghost? written by Eileen Luz Johnston.

Speaking of the Deep River Public Library in Connecticut, American Libraries Magazine published an article in October 2012 that provides a more comprehensive overview of the mysterious happenings at that library, built in 1881. In the article, then-director Ann Paietta tells readers that the haunting began

Liminality within libraries manifests in a variety of ways. There are people constantly coming and going, some you see every week (or maybe every day), and others you see only once. Library materials themselves are liminal because they cycle through various hands and homes where readers pour their energies and thoughts into them, only to return them again to their place on the shelf where they wait for the next visitor to whisk them away. Library materials are further liminal because many contain the thoughts, research, ideas, and words of authors who, though long dead, still linger on in the minds of readers—and isn’t that, after all, a particular form of life-after-death? Libraries on university or school campuses, like mine, are particularly liminal spaces because students only stay on campus for a handful of years before moving on.

So, yes, all sorts of things are lingering inside the library. And when these spaces are quiet, you can pick up on the echo of that constant flow of energy. I think, too, that if you listen hard enough, you can hear the books whispering to you like ghosts on parchment. The lingering energy of the authors who created them and the years of students pouring their energies into them seem to leave an energetic imprint. Maybe I’m just too romantic about libraries—too philosophical about what it means for something to be a ghost. But as I have reflected since that conversation with Jason, I have also realized that the same spooky, romantic feeling I get when I walk through the empty library is the same feeling I get when looking at old houses. The similarity they share is that both are places where people can simply be.

In much the same way that libraries are liminal and rebellious, so too is the act of engaging with the paranormal. Just like places can be liminal, so too can people. When we engage with the paranormal, we rebel against the materialist status quo. Opening your mind to paranormal questions and wondering “what if” to the concepts of consciousness, energy, and life-after-death place you firmly in a liminal space. For me, the liminal is both familiar and comfortable. Maybe it’s because I’m also a librarian who works in (and helps others in) the in-between spaces. Whatever the reason, I know many others find comfort in these spaces—others who are fellow liminal people just like me. I know that existing in the liminal can sometimes be uncomfortable, though, and I want to remind you that your weirdness has a place in this world. And if you’re ever looking for a spooky story, a spooky place to be, or simply don’t know where to go, just find your nearest library.

Courtney M. Block

Courtney M. Block is the Instruction, Reference, and User Engagement Librarian at Indiana University Southeast. She is also the author of Researching the Paranormal: How to Find Reliable Information about Parapsychology, Ghosts, Astrology, Cryptozoology, NearDeath Experiences, and More (Rowman & Littlefield: 2020). Her current project is an encyclopedia of parapsychology targeted at those just starting to learn about the topic. When Courtney isn’t staying up all night to meet writing deadlines, she likes to tour cemeteries, chat about Bigfoot, or join friends for paranormal adventures.

Disembodied Places

By: Kjersti Beth

2020 was the first year of my life that I did not spend a single holiday in my childhood home with my family. The world was in the throes of a pandemic: work was limited, gatherings were virtual, and everyone was ordered to “stay at home.”

The order, however, did not specify which home. So, with an ironic twist and a stretch of creative interpretation, I found myself in someone else’s childhood home on more than one occasion and on more than one holiday.

Indeed, these homes were abandoned—some for a decade, some for half a century.

I’ve never felt unwelcome.

I’ve never felt uncomfortable.

Some abandoned houses have stronger personalities than others. Some are ridden with grief, while other houses are as cozy as Grandma’s cooking.

Whether abrasive or charming, they all have stories to tell and deserve a seat at the table.

Join me as I share their voices.

They say home is a place you can never leave behind, but plenty of people do. Just take a back-country drive, and you’ll see what I mean.

A crumbling foundation of what was once a thriving farmstead.

An old house with its paint weathered away, its windows gone, its porch caved in.

A patchwork graveyard in ruins, headstones toppled, many partially consumed by moss.

Each of these places once represented a home for someone: be it cattle, a family of five, or a place to remember a loved one lost.

Each of these places experienced a creation and a demise, their slow decomposition maintaining a macabre charisma which, to me, is more beautiful than when they were alive.

Maybe hauntings are just the residual memories of the natural environment, remembering what took place within their walls. Just as a spirit form resides in each of us, an energetic imprint exists within a homestead.

HAUNTED MAGAZINE PRESENTS THE FEMININE MACABRE

You can hear stories everywhere, but do you truly listen with all of your senses?

My heart is a tangled mess that will heal only after it fully decomposes.

“As all partings foreshadow the great final one... so, empty rooms, bereft of a familiar presence, mournfully whisper what your room and what mine must one day be.”

Bleak House by Charles Dickens, 1853 Kjersti Beth

Always on the lookout for the next weirdest thing to add to her obituary, Kjersti (Instagram: @kjee83) goes through life with her heart on her sleeve, her head in the clouds, and her spirit guides on her shoulders. Her essays and photos pay respect to some of the abandoned houses dotting the rural Wisconsin landscape and have appeared in The Feminine Macabre: A Woman’s Journal of All Things Strange and Unusual and The Quarterly Press: Myths, Fables, and Folklore. With a foot in both worlds, Kjersti advocates for the continued research of the paranormal and leaving the world a little weirder than she found it.

HAUNTED MAGAZINE PRESENTS THE FEMININE MACABRE

A Witch, a Faerie, or a Wife?

By: Maria Hogan

Superstition and exploration of the paranormal can perhaps be traced back to our most ancient ancestors. Whether you believe there to be merit behind some of these beliefs or believe them to simply be uninformed explanations of the unknown, you must recognize the significance the supernatural plays in our societies. Being from Ireland, I’m familiar with its many mystical and frightening tall tales, whether that be of the banshee, the little people, or even the devil himself paying a visit. Despite the ingrained Catholic beliefs, the Irish can be as superstitious as they come, especially in isolated rural areas. Between superstition and dangerous speculation, tragedy often unfolds, as in the case of Bridget Cleary.

1895 was a contentious time in Irish history. Not only did home rule continue to be debated, but the British occupation of Ireland had not yet relented. While massive social unrest raged in the country, it was often the unknown rural areas where the most was happening. Ballyvadlea, a small townland located between the villages of Cloneen and Mullinahone in deeply rural Tipperary, was no exception. Bridget Cleary, believed to be around 26 years old,

had been married for eight years to then 35-year-old Michael Cleary. In the local area, they were known as being quite “well to do” as Bridget herself owned a sewing machine, and she was often spotted selling eggs to local parishioners.

The chain of events that would ultimately lead to Bridget’s murder began innocent enough. The local doctor, Dr. Crean, was summoned to the house on March 13, 1895 to see Bridget, who he treated for a mild case of bronchitis and was satisfied she would make a full recovery. Despite this, a rumor had been circulating that Bridget’s illness was not as unassuming as initially thought. Some spoke of seeing her walk through a local faerie ring and pointed to this as a possible cause of her illness. Although frowned upon by the Catholic church, there still existed a relationship between older generations and the old mythology of Ireland. This led to some clinging to beliefs of the Fae or changelings. The common idea was that

these changelings would take children or sickly women and replace them with supernatural clones that would eventually die. Locals believed that perhaps by stepping into the faerie ring, Bridget had become ill and been replaced with one of these changelings. There were also superstitious “ways” believed to bring the kidnapped victim back, and tragically, Bridget would soon come to experience these methods herself.

The order of events seemed to escalate quickly as rumors of changelings being involved spread. Locals began to gather outside Bridget’s home in a supposed effort to save her soul from the changelings.

There are conflicting reports on what happened next. Some report that Bridget was put on “faerie trial” for nine days. During that time, friends and family of Bridget confined her in her house while they doused her in urine and hen dung and force-fed her herbs and potions. They threatened her with fire branding to make the changeling release the “real” Bridget. After these efforts did nothing but upset and anger Bridget, in the early morning in

March, Michael dressed Bridget in her best clothes, took her to the hearth, doused her in oil, and set her on fire.

Other accounts of her murder forgo the “trial” and state that Michael force-fed her bread while questioning her about her identity. When she did not reply the third time, presumably because she had bread in her mouth, he stripped her, doused her in oil, and burned her alive. It later becomes evident that Michael was not alone in this murder, as several men later go on trial, including Bridget’s brother.

Later that same day, many people gathered in the house to assist in the cover-up of the murder. A local neighbor wrapped her in a sheet, and the group would go on to bury her in a shallow grave near the cottage. It was five days before her body was found, and a coroner’s inquest was held. In the days after, Michael Cleary and nine other men (the majority of Bridget’s family) were arrested and put on trial. The trial quickly turned political as Home Rule

was a hot topic at the time. Those opposed to Home Rule used this trial as an example of how the Irish people were savages and how the church was utterly incompetent. In the end, Michael received 20 years of hard labor, 15 of which he served before being released. He then moved to Liverpool and ultimately to Canada.

The other nine men who were arrested and tried, served sentences of six months to around five years.

Unfortunately, even in death, Bridget was not served with the dignity she deserved.

air of mystery and supernatural surrounding the story and brings a real human factor to it. Bridget did not die because a mythical faerie or changeling possessed her. Bridget was killed because she was a woman with no children and a little bit of independence. Unfortunately, the actual reasons why Michael decided to murder Bridget remain buried with him. Although those involved in the murder received punishment, I would argue justice was not dealt. Bridget’s name joins a long list of women accused of supernatural abilities and murdered for it. Bridget’s story is just one of many highlighting how ignorance and fear of the supernatural can lead people to justify heinous acts.

The people of the village were still superstitious, and many still believed her to be possessed by a changeling. For this reason, the church refused to have an association with her death, and she did not receive a funeral. Instead, she was buried late one night by two constables in an unmarked grave in Cloneen believed to be beside her mother’s. Rumors persist about this site as it is thought that concrete and stone were used to bury her to protect the village from her coming back to life.

Bridget would later become known as “the last witch burned in Ireland.” Whether this is true or not doesn’t matter. The fact remains that her murder is the most well-documented case of a witch-burning. Reading the court records dismantles the

The death of Bridget is steeped in mystery and controversy even today as many twist the story’s facts as an element of superstition is added to it. As years went on, the death of Bridget became a scary story the children of the area told one another, although most of the time, the story was incorrect and full of exaggeration. The rhyme known by many locals, including myself, was likely coined by these campfire stories: “Are you a witch, or are you a faerie, or are you the wife of Michael Cleary?”

Maria Hogan

Maria completed her leaving certificate in 2021 and has since decided to take a year off before furthering her education. Currently, she works five days a week in a clothing shop but hopes to do a BSc in Molecular Biology and Biopharmaceutical science. Despite the main focus of science, history and the supernatural have always been interesting topics for her, especially how closely they often relate to one another. When she’s not busy, she can usually be found manifesting a Taylor Swift concert in Ireland.

THE HISTORY OF

CANNIBALISM

BY: MICHELLE FISHER

When we think of cannibalism, our minds think of pathological cannibals— Hannibal Lecter-type figures who enjoy the act with a steely determination. We may recall notorious figures such as serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer who enjoyed cannibalizing many of his later murders, or know of controversial cases such as Armin Meiwes, who placed an advertisement on The Cannibal Cafe (a blog for people with a cannibal fetish) for a “young, well-built man who wanted to be eaten.” Meiwes would be found guilty of love cannibalism after meeting with Bernd Jurgen Armando Brandes, who had an equal desire to be consumed.

The fact is that cannibalism has existed in different forms for centuries. It can be something viewed symbolically as part of religion or culture. Catholics, for example, are taught to believe that they are consuming the literal body and blood of Christ. This process of transubstantiation is an element of religious magic, with the wine and bread being imbued with the Spirit of Christ. You see similar acts in early Greek and Roman civilizations with animals filled with a spirit of a particular god that is then torn apart and eaten by the masses to take in part of that god.

Tribes in Brazil and Canada would eat the corpses of the warriors they defeated in battle to obtain their courage. To keep part of their soul amongst the community, tribes in Papua New Guinea up until the 1960s would consume their own. As appalling as this may seem, they were equally disturbed by Westerners burying the dead, allowing those they loved to be consumed by maggots and insects. To them, death and the consumption of flesh was a highly ritualized expression of grief whereby the men of the community would often consume parts of the muscle to take their strength and women and children parts of the brain and other organs.

Other forms of cannibalism could be classed as agreed cannibalism. Seafaring records document something known as a “custom of the sea” that continued well into the middle and late 1800s by officers and crew drawing lots to see who would be killed and eaten so that others could survive. Historical examples of this include the sinking of the whaling ship, The Essex, from Nantucket in 1820 and the shipwrecked English yacht The Mignonette in 1884. Stories from these events parallel more recent examples, such as the Andes plane crash of Uruguayan Airforce Flight 571 on October 13, 1972.

When we look at the cannibal through history, familiar images are those of degradation and deviation. They typically follow these groups or individuals: the lunatic, the insane, the diseased, the savage, the uncivilized, the outcast, the starved, and the cursed. Generally, they defined boundaries and marginalized a group into a social “other.” The truth is that we decide all too often what is right and what is wrong—what is forgotten or pushed to the background of history where it is essentially not talked about. The reality is that cannibalism has been a means of persecuting and subjugating groups for centuries while simultaneously engaging in the practice ourselves. According to history, witches, werewolves, prostitutes, and sexual deviants all partook in flesh and were condemned for it.

When we consider fundamental characteristics of the image of the witch in Western culture and consciousness, it is rooted in cannibalism. It is something we perpetuate with our children by telling stories such as Hansel and Gretel by the Brothers Grimm.

“Hansel, stretch out your finger, that I may tell if you will soon be fat enough,” is a dark reminder of the associations in art and literature with this group and its macabre otherness.

“I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”

Accounts are prolific, demonstrating accusations of witches sucking human blood or cutting up human flesh (usually innocent children) to cook and eat it for the Sabbath. The murder of children—someone innocent and free of all sin through the lens of the church—is particularly noticeable and firmly places the witch into the category of destroyer of “pure good” and herself into the group of “pure evil.”

We see this type of persecution and subjugation of groups of witches as cannibals in witchcraft trial accounts, art images, and the stories written and passed down from generation to generation. The witch was something to be feared and considered grotesque and outside normal society.

The witch was demonized, represented as an evil mother, a savage figure who killed and ate children.

According to the Malleus Maleficarum, when asked about the method by which infants were captured, a certain sorceress replied:

“We prey on babies, especially those not yet baptised but also those baptised… With our ceremonies, we kill them in their cribs or while they lie beside their parents, and while they are thought to have been squashed or to have died of something else, we steal them secretly from the tomb and boil them in a cauldron until all the flesh is made almost drinkable, the bones having been pulled out. From the more solid matter, we make a paste suitable for our desires and arts and movements by flight, and from the more runny liquid, we fill a container… Whoever drinks from this container is immediately rendered knowledgeable when a few ceremonies are added and becomes the master of our sect.”

Examining historical records from witchcraft trials is just as revealing of this dark association with cannibalism. The Lancashire Witch Trials of 1612, for example, record a young child named Grace reporting that she accompanied Jennet and Ellen to the graveyard the night after a child had been buried. The body was removed from the ground and carried back to the house, where it was boiled in a pot and roasted on the fire. Grace told the court that both Jennet and Ellen ate some of the flesh and attempted to persuade others to do so. Grace informed the court that she also witnessed them boiling the bones of the child, Thomas Walshman, in a pot so that they could anoint themselves with the liquor oil and thus enable them to change into other shapes.

While witches may have been feared for the damage they could cause to crops or corruption within their communities, werewolves were feared on a more primal level. Their danger came not from their insidious scheming but their brutal ferocity in attacking, maiming, and devouring the flesh of any unsuspecting victim that found themselves alone at the wrong time. The werewolf was a predator—a creature that lurked and stalked from the shadows— striking fear into the hearts of communities of Europe for over 200 years. To the modern observer, they may be considered something of the imagination. But for many, they were once as real as the bloodied corpses they left behind on the ground. In Europe, throughout the 16th and 17th Centuries, the werewolf mythology crossed over into the everyday landscape and saw rural communities terrorized by beasts that were better left as whispered folktales.

From Salem to East Anglia, Bordeaux to the Black Forest of Germany, there seems no end to the number of infamous witch trials that took place in history. They spanned hundreds of years and thousands of miles. Somewhat less known are the hundreds of werewolf trials that took place alongside them. Originating on the Swiss border and spreading as

far as the western coast of the Pyrenees, the number of werewolf trials is relatively unknown. While modern publications have put a figure on that number ranging from 200 to 30,000, it is likely to be significantly smaller. Discrepancies in figures lie with the political atmosphere of the day as well as the sensationalist publications being printed. Demonologists and witch hunters from this period were keen to fill French prisons with religious heretics from the Basque region. So, they were enthusiastic about spreading the dangers of witchcraft throughout France and impressing on people that the trials they undertook were legitimate, justified, and necessary. They were not just a form of religious, political propaganda. Numbers were inflated and misrepresented to help with this agenda. The crossover with witchcraft trials also makes identifying actual numbers difficult. Many of the earliest accounts of witch trials stem from a witch’s ability to shapeshift into numerous creatures at will—cats, dogs, and, of course, wolves. Accounts of witches traveling through the night on wolves’ backs also helped blur the lines of who were tried as a werewolf or witch. Those that ran with wolves were seen as demonic, and social and religious deviants that played with the black arts and made deals with the Devil—thus cementing them as an icon of fear.

English historian, vicar, and folklorist Sabine Baring-Gould was one of several historians that documented such cases of werewolf trials—one of the most famous being the trial of Gilles Garnier, convicted in 1583 and executed for being a werewolf.

The trial of Gilles Garnier was not unique. If we look at information derived from Boguet’s Discours de Sorciers, we learn how an entire family was subject to accusation and persecution. The Gandillon family were undoubtedly poor—often seen with matted hair and dirt-covered bodies. Pernette Gandillon was known in the community as howling like a wolf and constantly running around on all fours, believing she was a wolf.

Just as witch trials often persecuted women who fell outside of societal norms, so too did the werewolf trials—focusing all too often on those who existed on the fringes of society, such as the poor and the destitute. Let’s also not forget that many of these confessions came after periods of extended torture in both kinds of trials.

Cannibalism served as a tool to enforce social order on these disordered individuals. With discoveries of the New World, images and literature began moving away from the witch and the werewolf to depicting the remote and uncivilized savage. Cannibalism gave imperial powers compelling justifications for their colonial endeavours:

Compendium Maleficarum by Francesco Maria Guazzo

indigenous Americans and Australians were barbaric and backward, and their ritual cannibalism was proof that they needed a civilized and guiding hand.

Remember that the word cannibal first entered the English language through Spanish explorers. Serving from the Spanish word canibales, Columbus would use it in his diaries to describe indigenous people of the Caribbean Islands rumoured to eat human flesh. When Europeans— “the civilized world”—was casting their critical eye over indigenous people and their cultures, they too were engaging in cannibalism.

Corpse medicine was rife in Europe until the early 20th Century and is a clear example of this hypocrisy. Essentially consumption of the dead and occasional usage of live bodies extends far back into history. Roman gladiators, for example, lying dead or dying on the sand of the amphitheatres, would have members of the crowd stand over their bodies and drink their blood to remedy conditions such as epilepsy. Medieval medicine would see a revival of blood consumption. Doctors believed in the alchemical properties of blood and would distil it to administer to people on their deathbeds. The magical properties of blood were essentially a cure-all and given to treat all kinds of afflictions and maladies.

By the 16th Century, medical science had progressed, and we saw Egyptian mummies smuggled in great numbers from Cairo to be powdered up for their medicinal properties and administered in several ways, such as on plaster for wound care or in a drink. Ambroise Pare (one of the most notable surgeons of the European Renaissance and regarded by many as the father of modern medicine) advocated strongly that mummy should be physicians’ first and last remedy against wounds and haemorrhage. In 1424, Cairo authorities discovered a hoard of cadavers within the city limits. The suspects, under torture, would confess that they had stolen the corpses from tombs to boil them. The oily substance that would gather on the surface of the water was something they could sell to Europeans for 25 gold pieces per hundredweight. With high demand for mummy, they would become increasingly harder to source and smuggle out, leading to an increase in counterfeit goods such as dead camels, leopards, and even beggars being sold for profit.

During the latter part of the 16th Century, a new medical movement based on the theories of Paracelsus began to develop. Paracelsianism was based not on whether you should eat people for medicine but on what type of person you should eat. With the belief that a person’s soul stayed in the body for a few days after death, the reasoning

was that by consuming that body, you were swallowing the power of their soul. And so we saw the next evolution in the supply of corpse medicine. Having moved from blood consumption to using mummies, the market now moved into fresher flesh sources from executed prisoners or recently buried dead.

Paracelsianism believed that the ideal specimen was that of a young male around the age of 24 with red hair. Ideally, they met a sudden and violent death through strangulation or drowning to keep as much of their vital youthful soul from being lost. Brains, skin, heart, fat, skull, and much more were used for different purposes. Human blood would be consumed fresh and hot seconds after the beheading of criminals. Eyewitness accounts from Austria, Germany,

needed. Graverobbing to aid the supply was prolific—if necessary, people were not opposed to murder to gain what they needed. Famous examples include Elizabeth Bathory—a Hungarian noblewoman and serial killer. As a child, she had epilepsy and would have human blood rubbed on her lips as treatment. Skull would be given to her towards the end of epileptic seizures. She would torture and kill between 80 and 650 young girls to use the blood from her victims to retain her youth.

Pope Innocent VIII would, on his deathbed in 1492, bribe three youths with money in exchange for being bled. The boys—aged around 10—would all die, followed by Pope Innocent VIII days later.

The case of Mercy Brown—whilst, not a murder—is just as macabre and tragic and another example of the usage of corpse medicine. Mercy Brown lived in Rhode Island and died in 1892, aged 19. Cases of illness within her family were attributed to influence from the undead. Suspected of being a vampire, Mercy Brown would have her heart and liver cut out months after her death and used in a tonic to try to cure her brother. It, of course, did not work as a treatment and her brother died.

Denmark, and Sweden detail fresh blood consumption at the scaffold up until 1865. In Sweden, where executions were much lower in number, crowds would gather eagerly and rush to stuff the bloodied earth into their mouths. Recipes would be made to suit different palettes for those that preferred their blood to be cooked before consuming it—they could, for example, use a Franciscan Blood Marmalade recipe created in 1679 or a blood wine recipe made with myrrh.

The remedies and treatments were vast, with an almost homeopathic idea that human flesh could cure. Fresh corpse flesh was used in tinctures to stop internal bleeding, aid coughs, and treat women suffering from menstrual cramps. Dead skin could be placed around a woman labouring to aid her contractions. Human fat would be removed and used to treat wounds, rheumatism, and gout. Flesh would be ground into a paste and used to aid bruises. The human skull would be ground up to relieve headaches and dizziness or treat epilepsy.

Nobility would incorporate this into their daily lives. King Charles II, for example, would add skull to alcohol and consume this daily—they were known as the King’s drops. King Francis I would always keep powdered skull on his person in case it was

Interestingly, when we consider medicinal cannibalism used in the West, we can see similarities with ritual cannibalism of indigenous groups—much of it was for therapeutic reasons, such as reproductive organs consumed to redistribute reproductive abilities and muscle consumed to share strength and virility. Something akin to people consuming human placenta today.

Few would believe that the Europeans were the real cannibals—operating on a far more widespread, pro-science-based format of eating the human body while continuing to persecute others.

It leaves us with the question: Who were the real savages?

Michelle Fisher

Michelle Fisher is a teacher living in Oxfordshire in England. With a lifelong passion and interest in the paranormal, Michelle created Haunted History Chronicles Podcast in October 2020 to combine and share her passions and connect with other like-minded individuals.

Michelle’s website offers a community for different writers and access to the podcast. www.podpage.com/haunted-historychronicles

The first known depiction of cannibalism in the New World. Engraving by Johann Froschauer for an edition of Amerigo Vespucci's Mundus Novus, published in Augsburg in 1505.

Visitation Dreams

We all dream, whether we remember it or not.

Everyone has three to six dreams each night, which are usually at least five minutes long but may last for up to 20 minutes. Dreams are a part of our subconscious, often helping us deal with things in life that we are trying to work through, and sometimes they are just downright wacky and make no sense whatsoever. One type of dream, though, is genuine and significant—a visitation dream. In visitation dreams, spirits come to visit us, bringing messages they need us to hear. It’s easier for spirits to visit us while we sleep because our brains are between the rational world and the spiritual realm. Did you ever notice how when people see a spirit in the physical world, it is just for a second or two, but, in dreams, the visit is much longer? Rather than use energy to materialize, spirits come while we sleep because it takes less energy and effort for them. We are also much more likely to accept a visit while dreaming rather than in the physical world, making it a more welcoming place for a spirit to contact.

While visitation dreams often occur for the sole purpose of bringing the dreamer comfort, that is not always the case. I have had a few visitation dreams during my lifetime thus far, and while a few of them did bring me comfort, a couple of them brought me information. These spirits of family members were bringing me knowledge of future deaths to come. Whether it was to help me prepare for the deaths so I could help others when the time came or just because they could,

I don’t know. I like to think it’s the former. Either way, I will say that these particular visitation dreams were correct.

Does everyone have such dreams? Since most people forget the brunt of their dreams, I suppose it would be impossible to state yes or no for a fact. Since visitation dreams are so lifelike, I would venture to say that you would remember it if you had one. The person attempting to contact you wants you to remember, so they will ensure that their visit isn’t the same as any ordinary dream.

There are ways to tell if a dream is a visitation. Visitation dreams are incredibly vivid and lifelike, so much so that they will feel like they are actually happening. These dreams will also be quite detailed, and you will remember them without a problem. Whoever visits you will be healthy, whether a person or an animal. Illnesses and injuries do not follow us after we pass away, so spirits will be well, healed, and often younger than they were when they died. Visitation dreams also tend to be logical rather than chaotic or unnatural. You will awaken with a sense of calm and a firm grasp on the message they were sending. There will be no question in your mind as to whether or not it was a visitation or “just a dream.”

While the medical community still doesn’t take visitation dreams seriously, grief counselors and psychologists do—to an extent. They understand that the brain has ways of helping you cope with the deaths of loved ones and also that the brain and dreams are still vast realms of unanswered questions. While it is

uncertain whether or not psychologists accept the idea of spirits legitimately visiting during sleep, they acknowledge that the brain needs a way to bring itself a sense of comfort after loved ones have passed. People often have dreams of those who have moved on, bringing messages stating that they are okay, at peace, and happy. Whatever you want to call it, it is agreed upon that these dreams are helpful for the well-being of those experiencing them, as they are always positive in some way.

Next time you have a dream, pay attention to it. Write it down in a dream journal and reflect on it later when you are fully awake. Even if your dreams are not visitations, they are often important and are worth looking into. If you have visitation dreams, consider yourself lucky and thank whomever it was that took the time to visit.

Tanya M. Flynt

The paranormal has been part of Tanya’s life since her first ghost sighting at the age of six. Thirty-eight years later, she has become more active in ghost hunts and exploring places of supernatural activity for fun. As an English teacher, Tanya has wanted to join the writing world for years. Her experiences throughout her life with ghosts, dreams, and even premonitions continue to spark her curiosity, and she is always looking for more.

THE MONSTROUS & RITUAL IN MIDSOMMAR (2019)

By Victoria S. Jaye

Monsters are a construction of the imagination that represent conceptualizations of humanity, boundaries, and socially accepted behavior—they are often seen as grotesque in appearance. Cultural differences among groups become exaggerated, as do their supposed monstrous qualities due to fear of the unknown mixed with distrust. Monsters are then also used to label other cultures different from our own, making eradicating them heroic and just. This difference of belief relates to Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s Thesis IV in monster studies because “the monster dwells at the gates of difference.” Monsters are an old-world concept, much like the nature of folklore itself—we still employ them regularly, and more often lately, within the genre of horror movies. Some monsters are not monstrous on the outside but on the inside, making them more difficult to identify, but monstrosity is a matter of opinion cross-culturally.

MIDSOMMAR

Midsommar (2019) centers on a group of Americans: Dani, Christian, Mark, and Josh, brought to a traditional Pagan Midsommar festival by their friend, Pele, who is from the Hårga community holding the festival in Sweden.

Dani is the main character, who has been through a very traumatic experience where her sister killed both her parents and then herself through carbon monoxide poisoning. Dani’s only support is her boyfriend, Christian, who is quite often unsupportive—she frequently suffers panic attacks over the tragedy causing Christian to become frustrated with her.

The four friends travel to Sweden for the festival, unaware that something is wrong. On the surface, Hårga is quaint, beautiful, and an interesting place with traditions that are different from those the Americans have ever seen. Slowly, the movie begins to reveal that what is going on in the Hårga community is much darker than a festival: human sacrifice is part of the festivities so that the community can reap the benefits of giving back to the earth.

The Midsommar festival happens every 90 years, and everyone except Dani is murdered and sacrificed (spoiler alert)—she becomes a part of the community after being crowned May Queen after a drug-fueled dancing competition. Christian is murdered at Dani’s command (it was her choice since she was May Queen)—burned alive in a hollowed-out bear because she witnessed him cheating on her with one of the locals. Mark is skinned after accidentally peeing on the ancestral tree, not knowing it was special. Josh is murdered

when he sneaks into a holy place without permission to take pictures of the Hårgas’ holy book, the Rubi Radr, for his dissertation on Midsommar traditions. Two other notable deaths are people the leading group met, Simon and Connie, also outsiders who were lured into the community.

All the dead victims’ bodies are preserved and stuffed for the ritual at the end, where a yellow triangular building is set on fire with the bodies inside along with three people burned alive: Christian in the bear suit and two people from the community. In the end, two other sacrifices from the Hårga community are included in this ritual, preserved and stuffed for the event—nine total sacrifices. Dani smiles as the building burns down with her ex-boyfriend inside… it is implied she becomes a permanent part of the community after that.

RURAL VS. URBAN DIVIDE

Almost 34 minutes into the movie, we see how isolated this location is—it’s literally off the beaten path, deep in the woods (33:3634:07). This shot explains how disconnected these people are from the outside world, which is why movies like Midsommar are so popular because they are playing off the rural vs. urban divide. This simply means that urban dwellers think it’s weird to live in and be so close to nature—it makes us deeply uneasy. There’s an association of such people having twisted ideals because they exist outside of the norms of society.

Robert Romanyshyn thinks this is due to having boxed ourselves into houses, bringing walls and screens between us and the outside world to protect us from its randomness and uncertainty in the elements.

Through this fear people have of nature, barriers were built between us to close off this fear, which makes us feel as if we have control over nature (even though we don’t). Technology then takes the place of nature and becomes how we perceive what is true and real. Romanyshyn has a concept he calls “homecoming,” where people take away the barriers and screens to come back face to face with that fear of nature to build stronger connections with each other again. The Hårga community willingly exists in the period before technology. In contrast, the visitors all live behind barriers and screens, imprisoned by their creations while not close to each other at all. The folk horror genre concerns itself with a forced “homecoming,” making the outsiders exist in nature once more, usually against their will in some way.

THE LOVE RITUAL

The love ritual is explained as a “love story” by the character Ingemar, who also lured people into the community like Pele (45:29-45:31). A woman, depicted through a textile quilt image story, infatuated with a clueless man, bakes her pubic hairs into his food and places menstruation blood into his drink, which leads him to fall under her spell, and ends in marriage between the two (45:31-45:54). It is unclear whether this man was an outsider to the community. However, Maja, a young woman from the community, does the same ritual to get Christian—one of the prominent outsiders—to have sex for procreation. First, she places a love rune she carved under his bed (1:16:34-1:17:09), then she bakes her pubic hairs into his meat tart (1:24:36-1:24:43); his drink is also somewhat redder than everyone else’s at the table (1:27:26-1:27:37).

It’s explained that outsiders are brought in so that the small community does not commit incest to sustain itself (1:23:03-1:23:30). This “love ritual” and the way Christian is treated explains that consent is a gray area to the Hårgas—they need something from the visitors, viewed as outsiders, and they take it whether the drugged/raped/sacrificed have opinions about it or not.

To modern society, especially for the Americans in the movie, rape discourse tells us that Christian was not able to make decisions about having sex with Maja. It appears consensual, yet he is heavily drugged—his eyes are as big as quarters (1:58:25-1:58:40). As with forcing love, is it consent if it’s from peer-pressured drug usage and then more drugs added to the mix? To me, it doesn’t seem like Christian understands what is happening to him—we as an audience have no idea what he was given to drink and breathe in “for his vitality” (1:58:04-1:58:19). Christian is villainized for cheating on Dani, but druginduced consent isn’t consent.

RECIPROCITY RITUALS

When blessing the crops, it’s shown that the Hårgas believe in giving part of themselves, like blood and other resources (seen buried are grain, meat, and eggs) back to the earth as a sacrifice (1:56:44-1:57:09). Dani sees this idea of giving back to the earth depicted earlier in the movie when she cannot sleep and looks around at the decorated walls of the house she is staying in (the walls are covered in Hårga art)—a man is pictured stabbing himself willing to give a sacrifice of his own blood back to the earth (50:53-51:06).

The last significant ritual of the movie is during the day of reciprocity, where a final victim for that day is chosen by the May Queen (Dani) to burn in the previously forbidden yellow triangle structure (2:10:14-2:14:06). Four Hårgas are present: two dead and two still alive (Ingemar and Ulf) (2:17:43-2:18:16). Dani chooses the last sacrifice to be Christian—she had to choose whether to sacrifice her boyfriend or one of the Hårga community (2:10:14-2:14:06). Christian is placed in the gutted suit of a real bear (which was seen alive earlier in the movie) (2:16:232:17:25). Then Christian, unable to move, is also placed in the building along with the corpses of his friends/acquaintances: Mark, Josh, Connie, and Simon (2:15:05-2:17:25). The building is burned down as part of the ritual with the three surviving people still inside it, and the community keens together to mourn the loss of community members (2:18:392:22:11).

It is shown through a story that the Hårga do believe in the concept of evil, existing as “The Black One,” a Satan-like figure who forced the Hårga youth to dance themselves to death, which is told in the form of a legend (1:38:401:39:10). In defiance and through mimicry of this supposed event in their history, the women dance competitively until they fall of their own accord (1:38:40-1:39:11). We also see that the bear as an animal has associations with evil for the Hårga. They see the bear burning as “purging of their unholy affects” and banishing this evil from their community (2:17:23-2:17:41). It is generally thought that nature is not evil or monstrous, yet we see this community giving parts of it an evil role to play in life.

There is also a difference in the way the Hårgas treat sacrifices than is traditionally seen because it isn’t entirely outsiders being murdered—they offer a person from their own community for every person from the outside they sacrifice, explained: “as Hårga takes, so Hårga also gives” (2:10:35-2:10:37).

This shows that sacrificing people themselves has to do with their belief system of reciprocity, making the issue of sacrifice a matter of perspective, though to the Americans, a rather horrifying one. Either that or it is a way for the Hårga to enact violence on others, using the sacred as the reason, when it is a human trait to desire violence. However, the Hårga view death as a matter of cycles and believe

in reincarnation, that people will be “reborn in the great cycle...[to] be joined in harmony with everything” (2:11:03-2:11:38). This means that the Hårga do not view what they are doing as monstrous at all but as a beautiful thing that must be done that eventually pays off for both insiders and outsiders. “The surrogate victim dies so that the entire community, threatened by the same fate, can be reborn in a new or renewed cultural order.”

The rebirth in Hårga folk belief is literal—they believe in reincarnation, so they feel the new order for everyone will be in nature, including those asshole outsiders.

ARE THEY THE MONSTERS?

The Hårga do not see themselves as monsters—our culture judges them to be the monsters for the atrocities witnessed by and enacted on the Americans. To the Hårga, it is simply tradition through ritual. Some people kill their own turkeys or pigs at Thanksgiving and Christmastime—the Hårga kill people instead because they believe in reincarnation and reciprocity. For them, this is a wholly rationalized folk belief. To us, it sounds like insanity because our cultural values are entirely different. “Don’t murder people” is widely accepted in modern society, but Midsommar shows that it depends on your perspective.

Victoria S. Jaye

Victoria S. Jaye is a supernatural folklorist who specializes in the demonic. She graduated from USU with a Master’s in folklore— she wrote her thesis on a classification system of demonic phenomena through the experiences of sight/sound/smell/feeling. Her interests include demons, folklore/mythology, and horror movies.

CHANGING TOMBS

Written by Claire Davy

For some people the tumult of life is such that they actively look forward to a rest ‘when I’m dead’, most of us have joked about looking forward to the eternal reward of a rest in the afterlife and for some of course, the moment of decease is an escape, a relief from pain, fear or sadness. But one thing remains fairly constant - the idea that the deep eternal slumber that ‘rounds our lives’ as the Bard said is one of peace and undisturbed tranquillity, an unbroken stillness. So, what if, for some, their rest is not undisturbed? Suppose the grave or tomb that holds their mortal remains betray them and do not allow them the rest they were assured?

That this does happen is indisputable. Stories appear from time to time, even in todays age of medical advancement, telling of how unfortunate individuals have been disinterred for one reason or another, only to be discovered by distraught family members and incredulous pastors, to have attempted to claw their way out, screaming in terror as the last of the air in the coffin was depletedonly to finally accept their dreadful fate and succumb, for real this time, perhaps mere days before realisations were made and the coffin thrown open in fevered hope….

But for those who are buried at the right time and are ‘really gone’ - why on earth would their sleep be disturbed (grave robbery and body snatchers thankfully a thing of the past now) …. surely the dead can rest in peace then?

Not always… The Island of Barbados is a true tropical paradise. Set in the Caribbean seas

whose azure waters lap white sand beaches and where friendly locals welcome visitors with a bigger smile and an even bigger rum punch, it is possibly a contender for least likely setting on Earth for a dark and malevolent mystery but whether it wants to or not, this beautiful island stakes that claim.

For a few years in the mid-19th Century an ordinary family tomb in a churchyard above the southern cliffs of the island played host to a mystery that initially spread throughout the servants quarters, out into the sugar cane fields and local towns and from there, out into the wide world. The legend goes that whenever new coffins were added to the Chase Family Vault in the Christchurch Churchyard in Oistins, they would not remain in place for long.

Interments gathered crowds of gawkers dispersed among the grieving, eager to see if the phenomena had happened again- and

it invariably had, on at least five occasions ranging over intervals of a couple of months to a few years.

Coffins and caskets, place reverentially on the floor of this crypt would be found when the tomb was next opened, thrown around as if by a violent force, often damaged, smashed open or standing upside down in the corner.

“Terror and awe reverberated through the community and no amount of earthly safeguards seemed to be able to quell the happenings. Fine sand was sprinkled liberally on the floor to eliminate flooding as a cause as well as to expose footprints made by human intrusion and the walls, ceilings and earth were checked thoroughly to ensure there were no ’secret passages’ by which man may make his way into the tomb.”

Despite all of this, the coffins continued to be wrenched from their resting places upon there floor and upended or even damaged, once to the point of exposure of the inside of the coffin and the sight of an arm within.

Photo credit: Atlas Obscura

The tomb itself lies in the west end of the churchyard which is built into the cliffs overlooking Dover Beach. Part of the tomb is situated above ground and is comprised of a solid mass of concrete formed as one piece and topped with marble. The majority of the tomb lies 6 or 7 steps down under the earth and is hewn from the limestone and coral that forms the bedrock of most of the Island and is covered by an arched ceiling.

In 1807 the vault was briefly owned by the Goddard family and the only incumbent of that year was a Mrs Thomasina Clarke, an in-law of the Goddard’s. Prior to that, the tomb contained a solitary coffin, that of the Honourable James Elliott who had died in 1784. When the tomb was opened to allow the burial of Ms Clarke, the body of James Elliot had entirely disappeared, coffin and all! So, Mrs Clarke was to be somewhat unexpectedly alone in the tomb until 1808.

Her eternal slumber was peaceful for a year, then the tomb was sold to the Chase family. The head of the Chase family, The Honourable Thomas Chase was a wealthy but evidently malicious and cold man. A plantation owner, he didn’t differentiate much between his slaves and his children when it came to handing out physical and mental abuse. The family had (fiscally and materially at least) access to everything that their hearts could desire but because of Thomas and his fiery reputation, they were not well liked in the small island community.

Tragically, the first member of the Chase family to require a berth in the tomb was young Mary Anna Maria Chase, (usually known as Ann Maria), aged just 2 years old. Of course, high infant mortality at the time meant that the death of children at a tender age was a sad fact of life but even by those standards, Ann Maria’s death was sudden and heart-breaking and, rumour at the time had it, had almost certainly came about

at the hands of her wicked father Thomas.

As if that wasn’t sad enough, what was to transpire in 1812 compounded the tragedy of the family’s situation. That year, on a blisteringly hot day, the heavy marble slab that covered the door to the tomb was opened again, this time for the accommodation of Ann Maria’s older sister Dorcas, aged 12. The somewhat sparse information we have about this case suggests that Dorcas, grief stricken at the loss of her little sister, and helpless at the cruelty now being handed out to her by her father stopped taking food and over the course of a few weeks, faded away and died of starvation.

So, was Thomas guilt stricken about the deaths of his daughters? Perhaps he was, as his own health failed, and he did not live out the year before he himself joined Dorcas and Ann Maria in the cold dank tomb. Or did he commit suicide, and if so, were the fact that there were two suicides now interred in the vault (Thomas and Dorcas) responsible for the unnatural events that were about to transpire? That was certainly the view of one Arthur Conan-Doyle who examined the case himself in the latter half of the 19th Century.

Some say Chase’s brutality of his treatment towards his slaves may also have had more than a passing hand in his death, (of which more later)!

Either way, up until this point, the story (although deeply sad and somewhat unusual), was nothing more than that. The few friends and neighbours that were so inclined would come and visit the tomb, perhaps running their hands over the smooth marble slab and feeling out the stone carved Chase family crest on the capstone at the entrance. However, on the day the mortal remains of Thomas Chase himself were laid to eternal rest in 1812, everything changed. A relatively small, unprepossessing tomb on the grounds of a parish church in the parish of Christchurch in Oistins was to become the centre of a mystery which would spread first through the slave fields and into the Bajan townlands then across the Island before finally

Lord Combermere

being borne across the ocean in missals, telegrams and letters. However, with all its postulations, proposed scenarios and closely examined theories, it is no closer to being solved than it was on that late autumnal day on which the really strange events began…

For a more contemporaneous account of the events that followed and indeed the first mention of the mystery outside of the island of Barbados we turn to the words of James Edward Alexander who writes the following in his ’Transatlantic Sketches of 1933

Alexander

writes…

“When the vault was opened again in late 1812 for the burial of their father Thomas Chase, the caskets of the Chase girls were said to be found “in a confused state, having been apparently tossed from their places. When the vault was later opened “to receive the body of another infant, the four coffins, all of lead, all very heavy, were much disturbed” and that similar disturbances were found when opening the vault for burials in 1816 and 1819. Each time that the vault was opened the coffins were replaced in their proper situations, that is, three on the ground side by side, and the others laid on them. The vault was then regularly closed; the door (a massive stone which required six or seven men to move) was cemented by masons; and though the floor was of sand there were no marks of footsteps or water. The last time the vault was opened was in 1819, with the Governor of Barbados Lord Combermere present, when opened the coffins were found confusedly thrown about the vault, some with their heads down and others up. What could have occasioned this phenomenon? In no other vault in the island has this ever occurred. Was it an earthquake which occasioned it, or the effects of an inundation in the vault”?

So, what was it that greeted the eyes of the mourners as the pallbearers hoisted up the extremely heavy lead lined coffin of Thomas Chase and prepared to descend the 6 or so steps down into the gloom? Well apart

from the coffin of young Dorcas, nothing much really.

Thomasina Clarke and Ann Maria Chase’s coffins were largely as they had been left. However, the coffin of Dorcas had now been moved out of its original position, turned fully upside down and placed against a wall to balance it.

Slightly curious but quickly, (perhaps TOO quickly) attributing it to the work of vandals, the group laid Thomas Chase’s big lead coffin down on the floor and Mrs Clarke’s wooden receptacle was laid abreast of him. The lead coffins of the little girls, Dorcas and Ann Maria were then laid on top of the adults’ coffins and the metal gate was quietly closed and the huge marble slab cemented back into place on top of the tombs entrance.

This strange situation was only going to get stranger however.

In 1816 the funeral took place of Samuel Brewster who had been murdered during a slave revolt on a nearby plantation. Once again, the coffins were in disarray, tumbled about the tomb as if by a violent earthquake. By now people were extremely fearful of what they saw as a malicious voodoo, a black magic which had invaded their island, and their dead and which was intent on evil.

In a letter written by Mrs Eleanor Daily to Mr Roger Senhouse, she states “Many people have been inclined to attribute them to poltergeists or other supernatural agencies”

Two Years later in 1818- the final coffin - that of a young 11-monthold infant, one Samuel Brewster Ames who had sadly passed away, was taken to the vault for burial. Again, the tomb was opened, and despite the fact that 6 years had now elapsed since the shocking events that had commenced at Thomas Chases funeral, one can imagine that

perhaps the mourners for young Mr Ames pushed eagerly forward and craned their necks to get a look inside the tomb. Those who did have ringside seats must surely have recoiled in shock and terror at the sight that now greeted them.

The coffins, all 5 of the then incumbents, (who were soon to be 6) were in varying states of disarray and scattered throughout the tiny tomb.

The coffins had been tossed ‘violently’ about the tomb and the only wooden coffin, that of Mrs Clarke, the first resident of the tomb, was broken nearly open on the floor. The other lead coffins of the children were moved or shoved out of position leaving a baffling sight for the onlookers.

When the confused murmurings and gasps of dismay had abated, the tomb was reset. This time the Coffins of Samuel Brewster and Thomas and Dorcas Chase lay on the bottom while those of Thomasina Clarke (by now suitably recombobulated), Samuel Brewster Ames and little Ann Maria Chase were placed on top.

Fine sand was then sprinkled liberally about the ground and all around the coffins and when the heavy marble slab was replaced and cemented in place, the Governor of the Island, Lord Combermere stepped forward and placed his own seal of office on the entrance to the tomb. Lord Combermere was interested in the case as a citizen as well as in his official capacity as governor and in 1819, a year after its last entombment, he hired a group of strong workmen and headed across to the Vault to check on its status.

The seal was intact, the concrete fixings on the slab were untouched and the gate was closed. The sand was undisturbed, and no water had entered the tomb since its closure. But the coffins were everywhere. Upside down, leaning against the stone walls of the tomb and in some cases, heavily marked. This was the final straw for the governor and the families of the dead. It was arranged that all of the coffins would be removed forthwith and reinterred throughout the graveyard. Nobody has lain in the Chase vault since those disinterment’s and the mysterious tomb remains alone, unloved, unmaintained and a silent sun-baked witness to the strange events it played host to over two centuries ago.

So, what really happened at the Chase Vault all those years ago?

Ithink it’s important to bear in mind that this story is unfortunately tainted with a sense of ‘fiction’ in that there is very little in the way of first-hand accounts available. A Mr Nathanial Lucas who claimed to have been at the opening of the tomb and subsequent reinterment of the bodies in 1819/1820 was an unsubstantiated source and a very unreliable (and possibly dishonest) correspondent so his account, though never officially published was rather superfluous even if it had appeared in print.

Perhaps nobody even thought to make a written record of it, until travellers from the east arrived, (the first account being given in a missive by Sir Algernon Aspinall called ‘An Unsolved Barbados mystery’). Then of course there was the account we have already heard by James Edward Alexander and yet another by Andrew Lang who actually managed to get hold of the death and burial records from the time. Not even the Governor at the time Lord Combermere, (who from all of the accounts that DO exist was actually present at the vault on the last couple of times it was opened and resealed after use, apparently with many interested onlookers - I mean you would, wouldn’t you?), has committed the story at the time of it happening to paper that I’m aware of.

Another interesting theory introduces the possible involvement of a masonic ritual angle to this story.

US sceptic paranormal investigator Joe Nickell who has looked in-depth at some very famous paranormal cases including the Mothman of Point Pleasant, the disappearance of Ambrose Bierce and The Turin Shroud investigated the case of the Chase Vault as part of his role as a full-time researcher with the Committee for Sceptical Inquiry in 1982.

He pointed to several structural features of the vault suggesting that the events were part of a somewhat complex masonic allegory, as opposed to historical fact.

For example, the idea of a secret or mysterious ‘vault’ is a central tenet of Freemasonry as being symbolic of death and as such, the only place where divine truth is to be found.

The arched ceiling of the tomb refers to the Royal Arch Degree and the sealing of the tomb in cement of course points back to masons again.

Perhaps the story was somewhat ‘buried’ (excuse the pun) because of the god-fearing nature of the Islanders and their reluctance to acknowledge what would after all be tantamount to a direct challenge to many of their steadfastly held Christian beliefs, or maybe they were scared that some form of voodoo magic had emerged from the seething resentment of the toiling slaves in the sugar cane field which had occasioned the ominous events.

So, could the slaves themselves have done it? Did the slaves do it? Looking at the facts, it was the only vault to ever be affected. The slaves hated Thomas Chase and his cruel treatment of them, and rage is known to be an emotion that can elevate mortal passions into superhuman strength, but how did they remain undetected, replace the sand, the governors seal and the massive marble slab undetected over a total of 8 years if you count the Chase, Clarke and Brewster burials (or about 30 years if you include the earlier burial and disappearance of James Elliott)?

Could it be that a heady mixture of folklore, class division and racial tension, together with freely available rum and Island ghost stories and anecdotes (at least some of which were proven to have come directly from the then Rector of the parish of Christchurch himself ) colluded to create this wonderfully spine chilling tale which has somehow spilled onto the fertile mind of the intrepid travellers like Alexander who visited the island and was then carried away across the wind and the waves to arrive in the ears of those suggestible and hungry for proof of the existence of life after death in any form?

One of the intriguing things about the case for me personally was a very recent discovery made by Benjamin Radford who travelled to the island and the tomb on a couple of occasions and examined the interior of the walls and ceiling in 2011.

Despite heavy lead-lined coffins supposedly having been flung against these brick walls like children’s toys, there was no marks or damage of any sort on the walls, save for the ceaseless march of age and time leading to a steady but very natural erosion of the structural integrity. With that in mind, one of two things must surely be the case.

We already know that the Church itself had to be rebuilt 5 times in order to get to its present form, having been destroyed by flood (when it was on lower ground and closer to the beach), and subsequently by fire, earthquake hurricane.

A few factors make the natural disaster narrative unlikely, however. There were no notable hurricanes or earthquakes between the vaults ‘active years’ of 1812-1820.

In addition, although an excess of flood water in a tomb could potentially cause the movement of coffins, especially wooden ones, it would be very hard to imagine how much water would be required to lift an incredibly heavy lead coffin that had taken between six to eight men to put in place.

As well as that, the island itself sits on a limestone stratum which means that any floodwater that managed to enter the tomb would quickly have been absorbed through the stone and back into the earth. So natural solutions are probably not going to provide our answer here.

Perhaps then and most simple of all (and for me the saddest explanation for the lack of evidence for these accounts) - is that it simply didn’t happen?

That the story is a fabrication from beginning to end, intertwined here and there with some truisms, some island history and some mischievous elaborations over the course of the years OR that whatever or whomever moved those coffins had massive strength (conservative estimates say it took at least 6 strong men to move even the coffin of 12 year old Dorcas), some might say inhuman strength and a capacity for unearthly stealth and capriciousness that it is simply not possible to find - not in human form anyway.

Such an anomaly, strange as it undoubtedly is, could at least be expected to be confined to one area geographically and historically surely?

Not so, there have been similar if not as well established tales of moving coffins and unquiet tombs from areas as disparate as the Baltic and the leafy churchyards of Gretford in Lincolnshire and Stamford in Suffolk UK but those relocation remains remain a story for another day.

Claire Davy is a paranormal enthusiast from Ireland, currently living in the UK. She is a member of the Ghost Club, SPR and sits on the executive committee of ASSAP. She has given talks on the paranormal for the Ghost Club and ASSAP which can be found on their respective You Tube channels. She has also written for Fortean Times and Spooky Isles. You can contact Claire at clomalley@ yahoo.co.uk or on Twitter @Tipsywitch78.

Could a natural disaster be responsible?

By MIKE “THE DANDY YORKSHIREMAN” COVELL

For many years on my ghost walks here in Hull I often laugh and joke about the story of Arthur Lucan, alias “Old Mother Riley,” who died in the wings of the Tivoli Theatre on Paragon Street and was rumoured to haunt the property. In later years, the property was demolished and, in its place, modern post-war concrete blocks were dropped and called “offices.” Part of this modern brutalist concrete monolith was a tax office, which was rumoured to be haunted by Arthur Lucan, on account of his falling out with the taxman! It was later rumoured that he also haunted Eastern Cemetery, where he was buried shortly after his death. It made him just as busy in the afterlife as he was in life.

Nothing, however, could prepare me for the many hauntings linked to Richard “Dick” Turpin in the Yorkshire region.

According to local legend Dick escaped from the south and headed up north, crossing the Humber Estuary on a ferry and initially landing at Brough, before making his way further north to Welton, before he was arrested and taken in custody to Beverley, where a short trial was held, and he was sent to York for the Assizes. As such all of the above have locations linked to ghostly activity that has been blamed on Dick Turpin.

BROUGH - THE FERRY BOAT INN

Brough stands to the west of Hull City Centre, approximately 12 miles (19 km) away, and was home to British Aerospace, (BAe) which was established by Robert Blackburn in 1916. The town has a long history and was known as Petuaria, during the Roman period, and also served as a settlement and capital of the Celtic tribe of the Parisi. Petuaria stood at the end of the Roman Road

known as Cade’s Road, which ran north for a hundred miles to Pons Aelius, or present-day Newcastle upon Tyne.

son, so Turpin threatened to shoot him too. It was claimed that the cock was the property of the landlord of The Green Dragon, and he wasn’t too happy about the affair.

Depending upon which source you consult he was either arrested at the Ferry Inn, Brough, or the Green Dragon, Welton, for his criminal deeds.

It is, however, claimed that Dick haunts the Green Dragon with drinkers hearing him, and his horse, Black Bess, in the pub and in the stables.

The Ferry Boat Inn, at Brough, is said to be a haunt of the notorious highwayman, Dick Turpin. It is claimed that when Turpin fled London, after a skirmish in Whitechapel, he fled to Lincolnshire, before making his way across the Humber, presumably on the ferry, and into Brough, where he settled, and called himself John Palmer. In 1739 the Justices of the Peace had tracked him down after a spate of horse and cattle thefts, and threats to shoot a local, and arrested him. Some sources state that this took place at the Green Dragon in nearby Welton, other sources state that it was the Ferry Boat Inn, but in all cases, it is said that his ghost now haunts the site, with phantom hooves from his beloved horse, Black Bess, heard outside the pub running, as if still trying to escape the law.

WELTON - THE GREEN DRAGON

At the trial it transpired that on March 1st, 1739, Turpin had been at Welton when he stole a mare, a foal and a gelding, but it later transpired that the horse theft had been at Hecklington, not Welton. It was whilst he was in the district that he shot a man’s game cock, a chicken used for cock fighting. He was reprimanded by John Robin-

BEVERLEY - THE BEVERLEY ARMS HOTEL

Beverley is an historic market, minster town, and civil park which stands in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and is home to Beverley Minster, which dominates the skyline. The town stands to the north-west of Hull and can be traced back to the 7th Century when the first structure, a church dedicated to St. John, was erected here.

Beverley stands approximately 12.69 km / 7.88 miles to the north-west of Hull, approximately 15.45 km / 9.60 miles to the west of Market Weighton, approximately 17.84 km / 11.08 miles to the south of Driffield, and approximately 44.17 km / 27.45 miles to the south-east of York.

COR

CHRONICLE OF THE HAUNTED 2

plethora of ghosts, from a noisy male spirit to a phantom lady in red. Some have also claimed that this is where Dick Turpin haunts.

When Dick Turpin, alias Richard Palmer was arrested in 1738 it was stated that Turpin’s horse was stabled at the Blue Bell, which was the old name for the Beverley Arms Hotel. A popular myth is that Turpin appeared before the magistrates at this property, but this appears to be false with no record to support it.

BEVERLEY - THE BEVERLEY HOUSE OF CORRECTION

The House of Correction at Beverley still stands and is today a beauty spa! The property is situated to the north of Beverley, along a beautifully laid out street named New Walk.

The story goes that Dick Turpin has been seen on horseback riding through the streets of Beverley on his way to York. It is unknown why this apparition would be seen doing this, as he was under arrest when he visited Beverley, however, the sighting remains in the folklore of Beverley.

It has always been my belief that this sighting was mixed up with a sighting that dates back much earlier, and was described on Saturday April 21st, 1883, when The Beverley and East Riding Recorder reported that:

The headless ghost of Sir Josceline Percy drives four headless horses nightly above its streets, pausing over a certain house, of which I can say nothing more by way of identification that that it was tenanted a few years back by a Mr. Gilby. This house was said to contain a chest with 100 nails in it, one of which dropped out every year. Tradition avers that this nocturnal disturbance is connected with Sir Josceline once riding on horseback into Beverley Minster. There is in the Minster a Percy shrine.

YORK - THE FOUR ALLS

which occupies the entire breadth of the front of the building, has the royal arms, and those of the city above the fireplaces. There is also a full-length portrait of William III, which was originally presented in 1757 by Charles, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, K.G., to the Rockingham Club, and placed inside this property on February 3rd 1783.

A ghostly man in black has been seen at the property, in the alleyway that leads up to the site, accompanied by the sound of metal clanging, which it is said is a broken spur on his boots. For many years the ghost was said to have been Dick Turpin, but it is claimed that some years ago a bricked-up body of a large male was discovered nearby. When the body was recovered, it was found to be wearing riding boots, one of which had a broken spur. Over the years the same stories have been attributed to the Judge’s Lodgings on Lendal.

YORK - RED LION

It was stated that Turpin refused to pay the surety and was committed to the House of Correction at Beverley. He was escorted by Carey Gill and made no attempt to escape.

Whilst at the House of Correction at Beverley the trip of Justices made enquiries about the man they had in custody and they soon discovered he was wanted for sheep stealing, horse stealing, and various other deeds. Fearing that Turpin was too serious a criminal to be tried at Beverley he was removed to York Castle, where he would appear at the York Assizes which began on March 22nd

BEVERLEY - STREETS

Situated on the A64 on the York to Malton Road the Four Alls Inn is said to be haunted by a highwayman, but at the time of writing the pub was earmarked for demolition after dwindling customer numbers.

According to reports a driver was driving home from work one evening when he was passing the inn. As he looked out across to the pub, he saw a figure outside on horseback dressed in highwayman’s clothes. As he passed by he looked into the rear view mirror, but the highwayman had vanished.

Several versions of the story link the sighting to that of Dick Turpin.

YORK - MANSION HOUSE - CONEY STREET

The Mansion House stands off Coney Street and is a four storey building that was erected in 1725, and with its furniture became the property of the Corporation, and became the official residence of the Lord Mayor of York during his mayoralty. The front of the building is a grand imposing frontage with four pilasters of Ionic order, and a rusticated basement. The supporting pediment is complete with the city arms. The state room,

The Red Lion, which is situated at number 2 Merchantgate, claims to be the oldest building in York functioning as a pub, and the foundations date from the 13th Century, while their official social media pages state that the pub dates back to the 15th Century. The original name of the pub was The Three Cups. Situated between two bedrooms and behind a chimney is a priest hole, and it is said that Dick Turpin hid in the pub.

Activity at the pub includes guests reporting activity in the bar, after hours at night, and also upstairs in the private living area. It seems highly unlikely that this is Dick, however, as he was under arrested when he was brought to York.

YORK - THE RIVER OUSE

The River Ouse is classed as a North Yorkshire River and is a continuation of the River Ure, with the combined length of the two measuring approximately 129 m / 208 km, and making it the sixth longest river in the United Kingdom.

The River Ouse is approximately 52 miles / 84 km in length but over the years this measurement has been debated and disputed. The river flows through York, Selby and Goole, and joins the River Trent at the Trent Falls. It continues downstream and enters the Humber Estuary.

It has been claimed that eyewitnesses have witnessed a man on horseback riding along the River Ouse, with many claiming that this man is none other than Dick Turpin.

ST GEORGE’S FIELD

St George’s Chapel was erected during the 12th Century as a chapel for York Castle and was granted to the Knights Templar in 1246. It was later reverted back to the Crown in 1312, but by the mid 15th Century it had fallen into disrepair. In 1447 St. Christopher and St. George’s Guild were based here and continued to use it as a guild chapel until the suppression of the guild in 1549. In 1566 the upper part of the chapel was dismantled, and shortly after that a timber building was erected on the surviving walls. Later the property was used as a house of correction from 1576, and by the 1630’s the site was used as a workhouse. During the 18th Century it became a private workhouse, and it utilised paupers that were paid to work in the cloth trade. During the latter parts of the 18th Century, it became a public house, and by 1856 the site was demolished. In 1990 archaeological excavations on the site uncovered the remains of the medieval chapel and evidence of the restoration work that was carried out in the 16th Century.

The church is said to be haunted by a phantom rabbit that has been seen at night, or during the early hours of the morning, and it has been seen scampering across the aisles inside the church. On several occasions parishioners have witnessed this phenomenon, and tried to actually capture the rabbit, albeit without success. Another story about the church is that of a man, who was involved in an illegal duel, but who lost it and since then has been witnessed staggering around the church. Those who have seen him state that he looks alive, until they approach him, then he vanishes.

Another spectre with links to the area is that of Dick Turpin. It has been claimed that he has been seen on horseback nearby. According to local legend, Turpin was buried in the church cemetery. Folk-Lore Publications of Yorkshire and Elliott O’Donnell in Haunted Churches talk about the sighting.

The Ghosts of York, by William Cammidge, which was printed by the Yorkshire Gazette, and published in York in 1899 features the story of a haunted York cemetery where

eyewitnesses have reported seeing a ghost ghostly cat and a white ghostly rabbit. I believe they are referring to St. George’s Churchyard and the story connected with Dick Whittington and quotes heavily from S. Baring Gould’s Yorkshire Oddities

later reported in The Sunday News, dated Sunday June 1st 1823, The Hull Daily News, Saturday May 25th 1867, The Leeds Times, dated Saturday May 25th 1867, The Stamford Mercury, dated Friday May 31st 1867, The Bury Times, dated Saturday June 1st 1867, The Reading Mercury, dated Saturday July 6th 1878, The Bristol Times, dated Saturday October 1884, The York Herald, dated Saturday October 20th 1888, and The Northern Weekly Gazette, dated Saturday September 27th 1930.

As such The Blue Boar claimed to be haunted by Dick Turpin with visitors claiming to have seen a man in the attire of a highwayman, and guests hearing cries of anguish as if in pain.

Ghost Walks Around York, by David Shaw, which was published by Sigma Leisure in 2012, featured St George’s Field and claimed that a phantom man on horseback has been seen riding along the riverside pathway. The man has been described as wearing black clothing with a tricorn hat. It is claimed that the man is none other than Dick Turpin.

The York Archives holds a fascinating unpublished typewriter written manuscript by R. Hawkins. The manuscript, reference number 7.133.1 features two manuscripts, but several copies of each, making it difficult to read as it appears to move back and forth. The manuscript includes a story regarding St. George’s Cemetery, stating that eyewitnesses had reported seeing either a phantom white cat or a phantom white rabbit. Many have claimed, according to the manuscript, that this is the ghost of Dick Turpin.

YORK – ST GEORGE’S PARK

St. George’s Park is said to be haunted by a phantom male, who has been seen riding a horse, dressed in dark material, and wearing a tricorn hat. It is said that he dates back to the 18th Century leading many to believe that the apparition is that of Dick Turpin.

YORK – THE BLUE BOAR

Regardless of the mistakes made during the trial, on April 7th, 1739, at the age of 33, Richard “Dick” Turpin was hanged at York. The accounts state that Turpin was killed by slow execution, and was left hanging until late afternoon, before he was cut down and removed to a tavern in Castlegate. On Thursday April 26th, 1739, The Stamford Mercury reported that at three in the afternoon his corpse was cut down from the gallows, and that it was removed to the Blue Boar in Castlegate, where it remained until ten o’clock the next morning, when it was placed in a neat coffin, and buried in the St. George’s Church Yard, Fishergate. The claim was also

In later years the pub became known as the Robin Hood and Little John Inn, and after that The Robin Hood Inn, with the pub today being a popular spot a short distance from Clifford’s Tower.

Curiously, there has been some debate regarding the claims. Whilst the story of Dick Turpin’s body being left in the cellar of the pub after his execution cannot be denied, there are some who believe that the current Blue Boar, is not the same Blue Boar that was standing at the time of Dick’s demise, and that the original pub stood opposite!

DICK OR NOT

There are so many legends and myths surrounding the case, and so many venues eager to cash in on stories of ghosts and phantom activity associated with Dick, that’s it has become a nightmare sifting the truth from the falsehoods. It seems that many of the locations linked to alleged hauntings by the notorious highwayman, are locations where spirits of a different kind are frequently drunk, and as such these stories appear to be traditional fireside stories, told on dark, wet stormy nights, by the fire, to keep drinkers entertained....and more importantly drinking!

It seems highly unlikely that eyewitnesses have seen Dick on horseback riding through Beverley or York, given that he was under arrest when he visited both, and highly unlikely that he had any connection to any of the pubs in York with the exception of the Blue Boar, but even the current Blue Boar’s claims have been questioned and stand on shaky ground.

One thing is for sure, for those interested in searching for Dick, I would certainly recommend visiting Brough, Welton, Beverley and York. Just be careful you don’t get the willies put up you!

KING JAMES 1 DEMON HUNTER

BY JANE ROWLEY

In September 2021, I had the opportunity to have a stall at the first Witches and Pagans Festival, held on the Heart of England Centre, Meriden, Coventry. It was organised by the Coven of Gaia and ran for the whole weekend. Selling my hand made Witches Workshop items, I had a great time and met a lot of new people. Being in an environment with like-minded people really feeds the soul. There were so many stalls selling so many things that it really was an ‘Aladdin’s Cave’ for any witch or pagan seeking to buy things which matched their interest or path. There was a main arena with many activities and displays, going on throughout the different days and alongside this there were many speakers and workshops running too. Seeing many people in pagan attire and people dressed as fairies, witches and Vikings was great fun. I very much felt at home in this environment, and I very much looked forward to the next event.

In May 2022, the next event came around and it was bigger and better than the last. My stall was twice as big, and my sales exceeded my expectations. With the added addition of the Viking Feast on the Friday night, it was a fantastic night with amazing food. I also attended the Hekate Ritual Supper on the Saturday night in the woods, which was a great experiencebeing advised that I would be shown a sign over the next few days, it only fuelled my enthusiasm for the rituals the witches were conducting. I did get my sign and it opened my eyes and changed a lot of things in my life. The event had over 2000 people attend, and it really was encouraging to see people following a way of life that feels right for them. Paganism and Witchcraft is certainly gathering a momentum in this modern age, ancient beliefs outside of Christianity are allowed to be openly displayed and enjoyed without the consequences of being condemned for it.

Arriving on the Thursday and setting up my stall on the Friday, ready for the opening ceremony on the Saturday morning, I sat outside of my stall and watched the sunset and just looked out across the field. I felt so blessed to be part of this event. I contemplated how much things had changed over the last 400 years. I felt a real sense of gratitude and how much we should appreciate the freedom we have in this present time. Being able to organise, hold and participate in such events is a blessing. To be able to openly display, advertise and sell our witchy goods in this beautiful setting without the fear of persecution, imprisonment or the terror of trials and execution is a wonderful

But I could not help thinking……. What would King James make of this?

Reflecting on King James 1 and the religious changes he made to our country really makes you think a lot about how one powerful person’s beliefs, can ruin and devastate the lives of so many others….

In 1603, England had a new ruler – James Charles Stuart became King James 1st of England. As Queen Elizabeth l had no children, he was her successor to the Throne. Born on 19 June 1566 in Edinburgh Castle, when only an infant, in 1567, he had also inherited the title of King James Vl of Scotland. He became the first King to rule over England and Scotland.

King James was a monarch, but he also had a fascination for demon hunting, witch hunting and witchcraft. From early childhood he had been attracted to religion, demons, witches and the supernatural. He had experienced the brutal death of his mother, Mary Queen of Scots and went on to develop an obsession with magic and the occult. He believed that due to his devotion to God and his good writing skills that the Devil took offense to his very existence and therefore had him as a target. Because of his devout religion, he believed that his interest in witches and witch hunting came from the belief that those who engaged in witchcraft were an abomination and showed contempt to a moral society as well as to God himself.

He wrote detailed scientifically ordered papers on Demonology and Witchcraft, He interrogated witches and experienced an attack on his ship which was blamed on witchcraft.

He married Anne of Denmark and sailing back to Scotland with his new bride the ship was caught up in an immense storm. It was believed that a coven of Witches in league with the Devil, performed a ritual and used sorcery to conjure up the storm to bring about the death of the King and his new wife. The storm was supposed to be so violent that’s the Kings ship nearly capsized and another ship in the fleet was lost completely. The King and his wife did reach home and landed in Scotland on 1st May 1590. It was said that at the same time the storm was raging, on the Auld Kirk Green in North Berwick, a coven of witches worked with the Devil to bring about the storm in an attempt to kill the King and his new bride.

King James believed witchcraft was to blame for the storm and that witches had cast evil spells to harm the king, his wife and the royal fleet. He ordered that the witches be rounded up and brought to justice. Over seventy suspected witches were taken from the coastal town of North Berwick for interrogation to identify the guilty parties. This started the North Berwick Witch Trials. Many were violently tortured until they confessed their part.

It is documented that a Doctor Fian ‘had all his fingernails pulled off with a pair of pincers and then two needles were thrust in up to their heads. He then had the torment of enduring the ‘bootes’. He did abide so many blows in them that his legs were crushed and beaten together as small as might be and the bones and flesh were so bruised, that the blood and marrow spouted forth in great abundance, whereby they were made unserviceable for ever’ He was of course found guilty and executed. He was strangled and his body was then thrown on the fire to burn. The pain and suffering he must have experienced during his torture and execution is unimaginable. Death must have been a welcomed relief.

In 1597, King James published his book Daemonologie, encouraging the practice of persecuting those believed to be witches. The book was written in three parts, describing magic and sorcery, witchcraft and all kinds of spirits that torment the living. It encouraged Witch Hunters to up their game in the pursuit of identifying witches, and with him being King, it also perpetuated the ongoing obsession to end witchcraft practice and to punish those who participated in it. How many innocent lives were cut short because of the Kings obsessions and beliefs?

The publishing of this book Daemonologie, gave people like Matthew Hopkins, Witch Finder General (1620 – 1647) a flourishing career as an English witch-hunter who along with his associates were responsible for more people being hanged for witchcraft than in the previous 100 years. He is believed to have been responsible for the executions of over 100 alleged witches between the years 1644 and 1646. He was paid very well for each witch he brought to the gallows, and he too wrote a book called ‘The Discovery of Witches’ in 1647.

In 1604, soon after James became king, it was suggested by a high-level group of church officials that the English Bible be revised due to changing conditions and the need to increase the popularity of the protestant faith across England.

King James was keen to appreciate the wide scale benefits of the proposal and immediately made it his own mission to complete the project. By June 30, 1604, James had approved a list of over 50 scholars to begin the work. Organised into six groups, two each working separately at Westminster, Oxford, and Cambridge on sectors of the Bible allocated to them.

Richard Bancroft (1544–1610), Archbishop of Canterbury, served as the administrator of

the project and established contracts for the translators. The new Bible was published in 1611. King James Died on 27 March 1625. The King James Version Bible (KJV) is still the favoured biblical translation for many Christian followers and there are many copies still around today.

The Witch hunts that took place between 1450 and 1750 mark a period of time that saw over 100,000 people tried for witchcraft. Just under half the people who were tried and convicted of these unholy crimes were put to death. Many of the court records and documentation regarding witch trials still exist and the interest and focus on the subject of witches, demons and their practices was due to King James.

So, sitting in the field, watching the sun set over this new festival was a privilege to experience. It would seem that King James did fail in his quest to rid the country of demons, witches and witchcraft. Paganism, witches and the practise of witchcraft appears to be very much alive and flourishing and the fact that there are now festivals where we can celebrate meeting up, buy and sell goods and openly practice the craft is a testimony to the people who felt the urge to follow their natural path was far greater than the urge to conform to someone else’s religious ideals. That inner calling is a powerful thing that cannot be ignored, and through these festivals, we can celebrate who we really are, in our own way without fear of ‘Gods work being done’.

The Witches and Pagans Festival is Saturday 17th - Sunday 18th September 2022. Information can be found on.

https://covenofgaia.co.uk/

A SEAL OF DISAPPROVAL

Ireland for such a religious country, never had the passion for hunting Witches like the Scots or English. Although a handful of burnings are reported some as far back as 14th Century. Included in this is the first of its kind in any records I have of a Black man being accused and burnt, and one of the very last burnings taking place in Clonmel as recent as 1895 (the repeal act for Irish witchcraft was 1821).

Witch trials are never an easy read, man’s ingenuity for hurting his fellow man is all to see. Thumbscrews breaking fingers, to feet put in “the Boots” where wooden wedges hammered in, split the flesh showing the marrow of one’s bones. Only to be beaten in cruelty, by the method of hanging a victim using ropes tied to the thumbs to lift above a fire and let the fire do its damage on the victims’ feet…. until the footbones so burnt separate and fall while the accused Witch still screams!

This following story is horrible and sadly reported by those writing it in 1832 as true…

Clew bay. A beautiful beach and gateway to the Atlantic Ocean on Irelands west coast in the county of Mayo. Its history is ingrained in the troubles of the O’Malley clan who controlled this area. The original housing was distributed far too near the seas reach so building projects from 1750 moved the high street inland and from here a population arose to around 500 by 1800 when our story starts.

One of those sea troubled mansions had its kitchen doors adjacent to the beach. Great for pulling in sea timber fuel and letting the household fishing crews straight to their boats.

One day hidden amongst the furrows of the stony beach, were seen a pair of huge black eyes. It was a baby grey seal, lost hungry and with those pleading eyes it was hard not to give it some attention. The masters’ children to their delight fed it scraps of fish tails and guts from previous catches and leftovers from the kitchen. The men left the wee seal with them and took off fishing for the day. Arriving back later, with a fresh catch the men were thoroughly amused to see the little fellow was still pleasing the master’s children. Sometime later he was resting enjoying the warmth of the kitchen fires like any other master’s hound. In time the little fellow was named and became as tame as any puppy. It pleased all and became a favourite around the household.

Many visitors saw it play ball with the children, heading it back to them as they threw it. After 4 years it used to spend its nights lazing like any dog around the fireplace and to the owner’s amazement it was taught to actually hunt fish and it regularly brought flounders to the kitchen straight from the sea. Honking its approval at his owner’s joy. It loved nothing more than to bask in the sun on the beach all day and at night share the fire indoors. It was a delightful creature which was completely domesticated and loved by the family.

In the mainland on the pastures something was troubling the villages cattle. They had become lame and listless, emaciated with a sweating sickness then dropping dead. They called it “the crippawn”. Prayers and remedies did nothing. The cattle were used as milk and meat in the winter when the fishing was disabled due to the weather. This was a tragedy in the making as a potato blight was already on the land, whole fields were rotting, and starvation was a possible certainty in the coming winter months.

W hen prayers never worked, the fear of actual starvation made the desperate towns folk look to wise women and Witches for advice. One blamed the cattle illness on …

“Keeping an unclean beast about the habitat!”

Now wicked eyes cast themselves over the family’s unusual friendly pet. With a fishing family the traditions of fear and

superstition was never far away, but it was deemed unlucky to kill a seal. Pestered by the minister the family took the seal by boat out to the vicinity of Clair Island where they thought the seal at 4 years old may settle with his own kind on the shores of the island. He was encouraged to land on the island and befriend the seals. And so, the boat made it back home.

By dawn next day the big bright glossy black eyes met them at the fireplace as normal, honking for his breakfast excitedly. More cattle died as the disease spread, and more forceful requests were turned to demands to get rid of the seal. The seal once again was placed in the boat and sailed this time 5 miles out where it was dropped in the sea to fend for himself.

Two days later he was back honking hungrily at the fireplace of the kitchen once more!

The problem was the seal was easily finding his way home! The local Witch cried, “the cattle’s sickness was because of the beast, which was invited to live unclean with the family”. The parish debated what to do. “He is finding his way back home because he can see the house from the sea.” A decision was then made …….

They then held the seal down as they burned out the seals beautiful bright eyes, with iron pokers taken from the fire!

Again, the seal was taken 5 miles out by boat and thrown into the sea…

That night a huge storm descended on the village, and strange unnatural screams were heard in the night from the

outside. The family hid in their terror of the darkness. As the storm blew and the screams echoed for hours. It was thought an ancient Banshee had now awoken to terrorise the family…. Eventually, the storm subsided.

To the family’s horror in the morning when they opened the kitchen doors… there lay the seal. Although completely blinded! with both his eyes burned out. But once again, somehow it had made its way home, to the only family it had ever known.

Not understanding how he had upset his masters. But for the little seal, it had been howling all night to be let into his favourite spot by the fireplace, with the storm raging. The door had been barred to him, friendless and betrayed so painfully and in the process, overnight the seal had died from a broken heart! The Cattle continued to die; starvation came to Clew Bay in a cruel way killing half its population. The fishing family had nothing but bad luck. Servants died from hunger, none of the master’s children lived to adulthood. The Master of the property survived but went blind and had a miserable life and as for the hag, the Witch who brought the doom to the pet seal, then killed her own granddaughter to save feeding her, to give the chance that her daughter would live from the starvation blighting the country. She herself would be found guilty of the child’s murder and was hung.

Anyone who thinks history is dull, boring or not as interesting as anything that a Netflix scriptwriter can conjure up in their imagination has not “done” it right in my mind. Just a little subtle digging can throw up all manner of true accounts and facts that make you sit up straight and look shocked at what your computer screen has just shown you. I genuinely do not think I am alone in that view, raise your hand if you agree with me. You say no? Well keep reading and be prepared to be both shocked, surprised and possibly a bit enticed to learn more. As most of you know, I also put together a podcast called “Haunted Histories” every month, and I do try to vary the guests who come onto the show and get to talk about either the history or the hauntings of a venue…and this is when my eyes can get really opened. So, I was preparing for an episode on the Historic Scott County Jail with Dr Kristy Sumner of Soul Sisters Paranormal and Miranda Young of Ghost Biker Explorations (https://www.historicscottcojail.com/ about-us) and was doing my customary ridiculous amounts of research and reading. Starting with the normal kinds of details. The jail was constructed out of sandstone (quartz anyone?), built in 1904, and was originally two floors. In 1922, after a fire destroyed the second floor, a third floor was added to house the maximum-security inmates. By adding the third floor, the jail’s capacity rose from thirty-two to fifty inmates. These were the official numbers; however, overcrowding was an issue and at times the jail held more that it was equipped for.

n my quest for information on the real accounts, the people, the social side when researching the show, I came across a horrific tale of lynching that took place in the area of Scott County, and the victims were two young men who were being held at the jail awaiting trial. The more I delved into the accounts, the more shocking the details became, and they just kept on coming.

Scott Co. is a rural county in Tennessee and is part of the Appalachian Mountains. That area, especially the southern region, has always been rich in coal and not a particular affluent area for the inhabitants. Where there was coal, there was business and where there was business, there were people being employed (exploited?) to mine it. Scott County was no different. On 21st April 1933, in nearby Byrdstown, Sheriff George Winningham and his deputised son Floyd - a Great War veteran - were called to a possible disturbance of which a young man from a place called No Business, Jerome Boyatt (sometimes spelled Boyett) was involved. He had supposedly got into a heated disagreement over moonshining with his uncle at a local

logging camp. The box car he was traveling in had been held at the station until the Sheriff arrived. What happened next is open to debate, but some witnesses said that Floyd shot into the box car unprovoked, others say that Rome (as Jerome was known) opened fire first, but whatever the case, poor Floyd died and his father George was fatally injured, losing his life twenty-four hours later in hospital. Unsurprisingly, Rome was being blamed for murdering a popular law man and his son and went on the run. He was able to evade capture for quite some time due to the wild terrain of the area, and the ability of people in No Business to hide him and stop the posse’s finding a man that many felt would not get a fair trial. To perhaps “encourage” Rome to give himself up, his father Ranse, mother Poppie and some of his younger siblings, were taken to Byrdstown jail; the authorities were very careful to say they were not under arrest, but that it was for their protection as tempers were running high and retribution was likely.

farm they went to investigate and found him dead, hanged by the look of it – the first of the lynching’s that were to pervade this awful tale. Shortly after the discovery of Ranse Boyatt’s remains, Rome surrendered on the 22nd May 1933 – a common belief is that he saw what happened to his father, and did not want the rest of his family to suffer a similar fate - taken to Scott

communities were small, made up of a few homes, a single room school and a church. Everyone knew each other and when neighbours had not seen Ranse outside of his

County Jail to await trial, it has to be stressed that at this point he had still not been found guilty by a court of law. He was placed in a shared cell with a teenager, Harvey Winchester, who himself had been arrested for murdering two men; one of whom was a police officer’s son. The two young men are believed to have struck up a friendship, and although it was unusual to place two suspected killers in the same cell, they were at least able to support each other, and one can only wonder what kind of conversations they had over the next few weeks.

Whether this was the case or not, I cannot comment, but in mid-May, Ranse was released and allowed back to his farm, and this is where a shocking murder took place.

These

On the evening of 9th June 1933, the Jailer, Ethan Laxton (brother of Scott County sheriff Esau Laxton) was closing the facility up for the night when a large group of masked and armed men burst through the doors and beat him severely. The mob was then witnessed dragging out Rome and Harvey, with sacks over their heads, and the two inmates were never seen alive again. I cannot begin to imagine how terrifying it must have been for them, when their bodies were finally found, the damage that had been done to them showed evidence of extreme torture. According to newspaper reports at the time, Harvey’s body was discovered first, and his time of death was calculated earlier than Rome’s. Witnesses believed they were dragged - stripped of their clothing - behind vehicles, there were rope marks around their throats, multiple bullet wounds with a tell-tale execution type shot in the back of Rome’s head, either he had been told to run so they could gun him down or had chosen to after seeing them murder his cell mate in the most brutal way.

The thing to remember about this incident, is not only that lynching’s were not always on a racial basis, the newspaper reports from the time were very quick to mention that both Harvey and Rome were white men, but also that nobody was ever arrested for the killings of any of the victims of this incident, including the murder of the father Ranse Boyatt. You may be surprised, knowing how opinionated I can be about some things, that I am not spitting vitriolic comments out about the lack of justice and fairness, but I do not feel that is the right thing to do. There are many people living in this area who are related to the various parties in what is a tragedy and who still have to face each other on a daily basis. I am sure there are still descendants who have information, who know what happened to Ranse at his farm in No Business, are aware of exactly who decided to dispense some kind of mountain justice on Winchester and Boyatt by abducting them from the jail, and subsequently murdering them, but they are staying very silent.

What of Historic Scott County Jail however? Since Kristy and Miranda have taken it over, they are running regular paranormal events and research studies there to help fund its continuation. Many have experienced what they believe could be spirit activity related to Rome and Harvey – as well as many of the other inmates that were held during its operation from 1904 to 2005. Should you wish to visit this historic landmark, book a tour and tell them Penny sent you…. Penny

*The history might actually be ‘orrible, it’s just a tagline

Interview with Miranda and Kristy of History, Highways and Haunts LLC

Hi Miranda and Kristy, and welcome to Haunted Magazine. Readers will have been able to find out all about Historic Scott County Jail - a place we can say has links with moonshining, ridge running, unsolved murders, lynching’s, mountain mob justice and Mexican cocaine trafficking! - in this issues’ “Not so ‘Orrible Histories” feature, but what about the two people behind bringing this fascinating location into the paranormal domain.

So, tell me, how did you first hear about the jail?

M – I was born and raised in Scott County, and the jail has always been a local landmark. There are not many buildings that look like a stone castle in East Tennessee! Growing up, when we would drive by, you would often see inmates looking out of the windows, and from a young age I always wondered if it was haunted and what it looked like inside.

K – I was made aware of it due to my friendship with Miranda, she was the first person allowed to investigate it in 2014.

I understand that it closed down in 2008, what kind of state was the building in when you guys took over?

K – even though it was built in 1904, it was physically in decent shape for what we were looking to do with our business. In 2017, the state of Tennessee gave the county grant money which allowed the inside of the jail to be painted, and new windows installed. Miranda and I sought out historic items and newspaper articles that we could display.

M – The building still maintains its rustic charm, however these improvements really helped restore it to a comfortable state for paranormal investigators and history buffs that are looking to spend some time learning about Scott County’s true crime history

K – The two of us have spent a lot of time hanging articles, arranging exhibits, and creating an audio guide that will allow visitors to receive an immersive tour of the jail, rather than just walking through an “old” building.

Wow, it sounds like a lot of time and dedication are going into this venture, you must have learned some interesting information along the way, what has been your favourite fact?

M – That there have been only two escapes from the jail, and those occurred from the outside recreation yard. One day, two men found a way to lift the fence and escaped over the hill from the jail. The terrain is rough, and there is a river that runs behind the jail. When they were caught about four hours later, they were surprised and thought that had gone further than what they did because they believed they had climbed several hills and crossed three rivers – transpired they had crossed the same river three times and not gone very far from the jail

I would bet that was infuriating for them, what about favourite ghostly tale? After all, this is Haunted Magazine…

K – Besides myself as Soul Sisters Paranormal, and Miranda as Ghost Biker Explorations, we have had many paranormal teams investigate here, but I think my favourite is that of Sheriff Ellis who, in 1925, was killed by an unknown assailant directly in front of the jailhouse door. Whilst he was the sheriff of Scott County, he was also a Baptist preacher and whenever religious music is played inside of the jail, it seems to elicit some sort of response.

M – This is a tough one, but my favourite experience would be when I was locking up after an investigation and was the only person in the building. Around 3.30am after walking out of the office, I heard a very deep voice at the top of the third-floor stairwell humming. The “man” literally hummed for about three seconds,

clears his throat, and then continues on for another three seconds, I was literally frozen. On my way, home, I called Dr Sumner (Kristy) and asked if she would check the security footage, we did not capture the hum, but we did capture two male voices when I went back into the office to grab my laptop. One male voice says, “there she is” and the other says “not so loud next time”

That sounds pretty amazing, but what makes this building so special?

K – It is a community building, and it has been since 1904

M – nearly everyone in the community has ties to this building, they either have family members that have worked at, served time inside or they themselves have worked at or served time there.

K – Yes, the Historic Scott County Jail has spirit- both literally and figuratively – and it is exciting that we get to help preserve it for future generations

There must be a lot of tales told by the locals.

M – I love seeing the locals come in because they always have such great stories about their connection to the building or they will point out names/pictures of their relatives in the exhibits.

You both have unique skills that you are bringing to this over and above your paranormal side, Miranda as a Marketing Executive and professional photographer, and Kristy’s PhD and ability to put together business plans and strategies, what is your goal for History Highways and Haunts LLC?

K – There are three, the first goal is to make the Historic Scott County Jail a destination location for tourists interested in the historic significance of this unique building. We feel that that the jail and its historic narrative with Scott County TN is important and should be preserved for all to enjoy. Additionally, the paranormal element within the jail allows it to be a location that can serve as a true paranormal research center, allowing investigators to advance the science of the paranormal through various studies and experiments. The second goal is to use the expertise that we have gained from this to help other locals with marketing, business planning, community partnership building and historic preservation efforts. Our third goal? To build a female owned company that is known for its professionalism and quality of service along with a focus on historical preservation and promotion of paranormal tourism

M - Exactly, our mission is to preserve history, further paranormal research and promote tourism while enhancing and encouraging community pride in this historic location. The jail is located in the Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee, in a the very small and rural community of Huntsville. I think that the smaller and more rural locations may be overlooked or passed over, for the larger more well-known places. The Historic Scott County Jail may be small, but it has a very large history. Thank you both for your time, and if you want to check out more, try www.historicscottcojail.com

MODERN LIFE, MODERN EXPERIENCES…

Written by Barry R Frankish

It’s a question many in the paranormal field have asked and that question is “Did I really see that?” That question is more relevant today than it has ever been simply because modern life is so stressful.

Every day, people are up at the crack of dawn; not because they want to but because they must. They make that journey to work and once there, for many, it’s more stress - for some physical, for others its mental, and for others it’s both; long hours, short lunches, it all takes its toll on the body.

Don’t get me wrong: work isn’t always at fault, but it does contribute to life’s stresses. Life is never easy at the best of times, be it one hundred years ago or modern times. All that changes is the format that stress arrives in, and some handle stress better than others. Once they acquire a bit of free time, many spend it wisely by channelling their energies into creating something that pleases its creator, whereas many relax by reading or doing the simplest and cheapest way to downtime and go out for a walk or hike, whatever or however an individual chooses to relax in their free time is totally up to them even at that time means doing absolutely nothing: we all need to find ways to de-stress.

So how does that same stress affect a ghost hunter or paranormal enthusiast/researcher? Long days lead to long nights because as well all know most ghost hunts and events are conducted at night and those nights in many cases follow a working day where the participant hasn’t been able to find the time to recuperate or relax before their chosen event. So, to subsidise their energy levels they may turn to caffeine in the form of coffee or even turn to stimulation drinks such as Red Bull or Monster. These types of drinks may be fine as a one off but how do they affect an individual on a long-term basis? The human body needs its rest, experts recommend we get between seven and nine hours a night but some can manage six hours a night, but for a ghost hunter that becomes two or three hours rest and even though we may get what we think is enough sleep deep down, our senses and mental wellness gradually suffers not just by the brains natural chemical imbalances, but also the chemical ones we ingest in the form of those drinks we trust to keep us active and alert. But as we all know what we gain in one hand something gets taken away by the other and if our senses do indeed deteriorate due to modern life can we really trust what we believe we are experiencing and just maybe what we think is paranormal is, in fact, a result of no more than a tired body and mind?

Barry R Frankish is a Yorkshire born paranormal researcher, writer and first-time author. A childhood experience <as well as an adult one> still remains fresh in his memory and it is these memories that fuel his quest for answers.

A WILLIAMS, A WEDDING AND A WTF MOMENT

There is nothing more frustrating than when you spend at least eight hours at a paranormal investigation and get zilch. It has happened to me many times but what keeps you going in the early hours is the promise of a morsel of spirit phenomena or at least a little blip on the monitors. You end up taking your mind back to a night when things did kick off, so this keeps you up, bleary eyed and freezing at some haunted location, waiting, just waiting for a golden nugget.

It comes as no surprise that the following story that I am about to share was a ‘WTF?’ as it happened right in front of my eyes, and I was on nothing like a ghost hunt! It was when Take That were steaming it along and being joined by Robbie Williams at Wembley arena in London. I and a group of girls including my sister and sister-in-law decided to make a night of it and booked a hotel nearby to the arena.

Unbelievably I found an amazing deal on a most beautiful manor house, the Grove Hotel. This stunning palatial house sits on the most emerald green grounds boasting majestic fauna and woodlands surrounding a lake. Now a days it is almost unrecognizable to how it looked when we stayed due to major upgrades and extensions. The hotel was only twenty-five minutes away from Wembley

so was ideal. We came back somewhat tipsy and euphoric after shouting and singing at the top of our voices from a very wet and rainy concert. Next plan, the bar. The bar stayed open for us which was an absolute result. After about twenty minutes I needed to go to the toilet. I walked out of the bar, up a wide wooden staircase onto the landing that led to the toilets. The whole staircase, lower foyer and halls were well lit, so I know exactly what I saw. As I came out of the toilets and looked down the staircase I froze.

There standing in the lower hallway was a fully manifested spirit of a bride as solid as you like. She was standing in a well-lit up area smiling holding a bouquet of wildflowers.

I could see that she was from the Victorian era as she wore a fulllength simple dress of an ivory colour with a lace shift over her narrow shoulders. She had an almond shaped face and blonde hair coiled up with some tendrils let loose. My eyes stung as I did not want to blink and find her disappeared. I could not believe the irony of this situation. I had spent years on ghost hunts and here I was standing looking at a spirit bride with no camera, no phone, absolutely nothing. I contemplated shouting out to the girls but was worried I may startle

her, Startle her! Oh my God how funny, me startle a spirit! Lol.

She then started to walk slowly forward. It was so surreal to see her glide with no shadows following her. I tried to blend with her energy, but it was like a brick wall I was feeling nothing from her nor sensing any information from her. I then said, “Hello there!” as she continued to walk forward. I needed full contact with this spirit, so I ran down those stairs like my life depended on it. She was completely oblivious to me so I suspected she may be a ghost imprint, a replay of an event that had been recorded in time rather than a live sentient spirit person. I could feel nothing from her, I could not sense anything about her, so I feel like it was a simple human sees ghost scenario.

As I reached the last few steps the ghost (which I had now established as she wasn’t interactive) turned to her right into the breakfast room. I jumped the last two steps and sharply turned into the room which was in darkness. I followed her in where she then turned right again and melted into the darkness through what looked like to be a solid wall.

I have never seen such a long play out of a ghost manifested in this way. To just watch as she smiled and fidgeted around in the hall, to her then slowly walking towards, no doubt, her

groom was just amazing. It is something I will never forget. I have only seen one other ghost like this at a hunting lodge pub, but she was a fair distance away. This little beauty gave me time to take in every inch of her fully manifested. It sometimes makes me ask myself if I had of had all of the equipment and had been set up ready to catch her on camera would it have all happened? Do these imprints wait for the ether to be calm and free of all of our digital interference? Either way it is a sighting that I will always cherish. I was so elated and excited. I sat in that darkened room begging for her to come back only to tell myself after ten minutes it was a replay of an event and not someone I could interact with.

It didn’t stop us however moving our vino bottle into the breakfast room and wait for another half an hour to see if she popped in again, perhaps for her reception! But alas it was not to be. We

I went back to the bar screaming with excitement, even more than when Robbie turned up on stage! The bar man did confirm that there had been some odd unexplainable happenings in the hotel but knew nothing of the ghostly bride.

always learn something when we are exposed to the paranormal, we all have something to add to our spiritual utility belts. So, what did I learn from this experience? I now always like to identify if I am potentially looking for ghost phenomena or a live spirit who can communicate with me. If I feel or sense nothing, it’s a ghost.

There were no cold spots, unusual lights, smells or anything that gave a hint that this beautiful ghost had just roamed through the hall and the breakfast room. I should therefore not expect the usual signs to take place before or after a manifestation.

I would love to return to The Grove. It is steeped in history and there are some ghostly tales but there are none that have documented my beautiful bride. Staff or guests must have seen her surely, as her manifestation was so blatant and prolonged. I also vow that from now on I will take my phone everywhere I bloody well go!

THE BOY WHO WAS BURIED ALIVE

BY ELI LYCETT

Amongst the folk tales and legends that have grown up around our English villages and settlements, there are sometimes to be found stories that not only serve to shock and fascinate us, but that also have a firm and evident footing in recorded history. For me, these are the real gems of our local lore. The tales that are true. Those that can truly haunt us. This is one such tale.

time of Christ, and before a headstone that is facing west, in the opposite direction to all those around it. This is the grave of Thomas Meakin, the boy who was buried alive.

Born in Rushton Spencer around 1760 to Mary and Thomas Meakin, the road ahead would likely have played itself out much in the way that most local lives in such rural spots did, were it not for the new and exciting options now available to a young man like Thomas, courtesy of the recent employment opportunities that had developed in his surrounding region. Although country labour was the most common living on offer, there was now the chance of peddling buttons around the local area, in a trade that had become increasingly popular in recent years thanks to the button production industry found in nearby Macclesfield.

Nicky X

www.nickyalan.co.uk

Psychic Medium and Tutor

Author of M.E Myself and I: Diary of a Psychic

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The Staffordshire Moorlands village of Rushton Spencer can be an eerie place. It’s a rural landscape, with many of its buildings scattered about various lanes and trackways, some of which have been in use for more than a thousand years. And if you were to walk around them today, you’d pass by totems of the stories that have been tethered to the folklore of Rushton Spencer for just as long. There’s the holy well, said to run dry when ill fortune is bound. Ancient burial chambers, as yet unchartered, doubling as grazing grounds for the local sheep, and, on the pathway across the hill that leads to St Lawrence’s Church, ancient bolder stones said to have been left by the Devil as he tried to prevent Christianisation of a once proud and pagan ritual site. It’s a place, where on summer nights as the fading light plays tricks in the trees, it’s very easy to feel the eyes of the past upon you.

For us though, this tale begins in the churchyard of St Lawrence’s itself, beneath the Yew Trees that have stood since before the

There was a danger to that life though, as the reputations of those involved seemed somewhat tainted by the slightly more nefarious inclinations a pedlar’s life could attract. The emerging silk industry was worth considering too, with Charles Roe having built the first silk-throwing mill, again in Macclesfield, in 1743. Such changes in the surrounding area meant that the idea of moving to a new town for employment no longer held quite the same sense of risk that it had in Meakin’s parents’ youth. There were plenty of success stories out there, but there were still horror stories too.

Perhaps most importantly in his ultimate decision-making process though, was Meakin’s natural aptitude for the maintenance of rural life. He was good with horses. He understood them and had something of a natural affinity. So, when the opportunity arose to take the position of stable groom to a wealthy apothecary in the town Stone, just 16 miles to the south, Thomas and his family knew that it was his big chance. Meakin soon proved more than capable tending to the horses of his master, and popular too. The town of Stone, although tiny by modern standards, would have seemed like a virtual metropolis to Meakin and a confident young stranger from the north of the county would have proven a font of intrigue no doubt. It would be a life he enjoyed for only a short while though, as barely three months after his arrival, young Thomas mysteriously took ill and died.

There were questions, sure. But this was a world in which servants and stable boys, particularly those away from home, were deemed somewhat expendable. Word eventually reached Meakin’s parents back in Rushton...as did the news that there would be no need to collect his body. He’d already been buried. How efficient; well, efficient service was part and parcel of the situation for those that died in mysterious circumstances in the town of Stone during the latter part of the 1700s. The man responsible for his inquest, and indeed the signing his death certificate, was one and the same, his master, the towns apothecary, Jeremiah Dickenson. A man whose daughter had apparently taken a real interest in Thomas since he arrived in service at their home.

where he would kick away at the dirt of the grave. After more than two weeks of such behaviour, sufficient attention had been drawn that word of the pony’s antics reached all the way back to Meakin’s parents in Rushton Spencer.

Gathering in the half-light of the spring morning, a group of Meakin’s friends and family raised his coffin from the earth and prised it open to discover the shock of their lives. The lining of the coffin lid was scratched and torn and Thomas himself, contorted, half turned over, his mouth frozen wide in eternal mid-scream. The implication was clear. When Meakin had gone into the ground, he was not dead.

That the apothecary, Jeremiah Dickenson, had the ability to poison Meakin, is of little doubt.

Prior to the publication of the first official Medical Register in 1779, the medical nourishment of eighteenth-century England was a patchwork of duty and care primarily overseen by a system of private enterprise that largely catered only for those who could afford it. The hospitals for the poor established in earlier centuries were still a going concern, but for both middle-class and high society, a more personal process was preferred. At the top of that tree sat surgeons & physicians, with apothecaries just below, offering a range of services to the lower middle-class and working population.

A solid staple of their business was the creation and sale of their own medicines, manufactured on-site and advertised through attractive storefronts filled with colourful jars.

We’re probably just a little too early for cyanide, with arsenic seemingly the most likely means. The odourless and tasteless properties of inorganic arsenic compounds such as arsenic trioxide made for an ideal poison in the latter eighteenth century, particularly given the fact that it would be 1835 before anything like a reliable test for arsenic poisoning was invented.

As a recommended treatment for syphilis, Meakin’s master was bound to be quite the expert in its administration too.

communities. It was only natural therefore, that as the victim of such a despairing end, precautions should be taken to ensure Meakin’s sprit be unable to rise from the earth and haunt his local community; they would bury him facing west instead of east, as was Christian tradition, in the belief that should he rise again, his spirt would become confused and return to its spot in the earth...his sad story recorded for eternity on his headstone; ‘As a man falleth before Wicked men, so fell I’.

There have been three recorded sightings of a ‘confused’ young man wondering around the lanes of Ruston Spencer, the most recent coming in 2017 when a family of Japanese tourists, driving back from the Alton Towers theme park to their hotel in the Staffordshire Moorlands town of Leek. The figure, said to be dressed in breeches and a white shirt, was reported to have suddenly crossed the road in front of them, bringing their car to a screaming halt. The young man looked at them, then slowly turned and began walking along the road in front of them before ‘dissolving like paper in the rain’ in full view of the family.

Those questions, from locals and too from the family back in Rushton, just wouldn’t go away, and in fact, they would soon intensify, courtesy of the dead stable groom’s favourite pony. Throughout the spring of 1782, locals would watch as each night, a pony from the stables of the apothecary would make his way into the center of the town and up to Thomas’ grave in the churchyard of Saint Michael’s,

And so, much as with the elixir of death created by an apothecary in the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet that leads Romeo to believe Juliet is dead, so passed Thomas Meakin. His only crime, falling in love with his master’s daughter. Proving such an act would have been impossible, and the prosecution of Jeremiah Dickenson, unthinkable. As apothecary, coroner and magistrate, he was well placed to commit the perfect crime. And so, Thomas was returned for reinterment in his home village of Rushton Spencer.

During the late 1700s, old country superstitions were very much still alive in such

Whatever the detailed truth of Meakin’s life and death, his story occupies that unique place between life and legend that is a prized rarity in local history. Thomas Meakin existed. He lived and died. And we know the manner of that death to be extremely contentious. He has become part-man, part-legend, but in honour of the there being no doubt as to his tragic death, perhaps our last thought should be for Thomas Meakin to be back home, atop that gentle hill in Rushton Spencer. Hopefully, for the most part at least, resting in peace.

HAUNTED HISTORY BC

First Canadian paranormal magazine Evenings&Avenues –HauntingsintheOutskirts

nter the world of the first Canadian paranormal E magazine, Evenings&Avenues - Hauntingsinthe Outskirts!

This beautiful coffee table book is brought to you by two of British Columbia’s award-winning historians, authors, and paranormal researchers, Gina Armstrong and Victoria Vancek.

The sister team and co-founders of Haunted History BC, take you to some of Canada’s spookiest heritage sites. Both ladies being avid photographers, the book showcases their stunning original photos accompanied by stories of eerie hauntings, riveting true crime, and terrifying creatures. Join the sisters as they go back in time to bring you a unique and engaging look at Canada’s fascinating history.

Gina Armstrong (left) & Victoria Vancek (right), sisters and co-founders of Haunted History BC

In Banjo Patterson’s historically iconic ballad Waltzing Matilda, he sings about a ‘jolly’ Swagman who drowned himself by the Billabong he was camping by, to avoid being caught by police for stealing a Jumbuck.

“And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong, You’ll come a waltzing Matilda with me”

While the swagman’s tale was merely a symbol for the Australian ‘spirit’, we still have our fair share of Ghost Stories to tell by campfire.

Here are 10 of Australia’s spookiest ghosts to get your billy boiling!

AUSTRALIA’S SPOOKIEST SPECTRES

By Our Wizardess of Oz SARAH CHUMACERO

Charles Ebden

Black Rock House, Black Rock, Victoria.

In the lush seaside suburb of Black Rock sits the heritage listed Black Rock House. The house was built in 1856 for Victoria’s first Auditor General Mr Charles Ebden. The very rich and very eccentric Ebden built the property to entertain Melbourne’s Elite while using it as a holiday residence for him and his family. Ebden died years later at the Melbourne Club, however his spirit is said to roam the halls of his beloved holiday home. The house still stands today restored to the former glory Ebden had intended where he has been spotted many times over the years in the doorways and in the main hallway of Black Rock House, keeping a watchful eye on his beloved house.

Picton in NSW is widely considered as Australia’s most haunted town, so it is no surprise they would have a few resident spooks. The most famous with locals is the ghost that haunts the Redbank Tunnel. The popular spot for ghosthunters is said to be haunted by the spirit of Emily Bollard. As a young woman, Emily was hit and killed by a train after walking in the tunnel late at night. With the train line no longer in service, locals often visit the tunnel with many reporting seeing the ghostly image of a woman in white with no face as well as black shadows, sudden drops in temperature and lights above people’s heads.

Mrs Crawley

Monte Cristo, Junee, New South Wales

One of Australia’s most famous haunts: Monte Cristo, was built in 1884 by Christopher Crawley. He passed the house onto his wife Elizabeth upon his death in 1910. The grieving wife was never able to get over her husband’s death, becoming a recluse and only leaving the house twice before dying of a ruptured appendix. She was a hard woman said to ‘rule with an iron fist’ and may be connected to some of the other traumatic events that occurred during her occupancy. Her spirit is said to keep a firm and watchful eye on the house expecting guests to dress and act appropriately. During sleep overs, people often do not last night with some reporting seeing Mrs Crawley standing at the foot of the bed. The house itself has gained the reputation as one of Australia’s Most Haunted houses.

Emily Bollard Redbank Tunnel, Picton New South Wales

FREDERICK FEDERICI

Princess Theatre, Melbourne, Victoria

In March 1888 at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre during the opening night performance of Gounod’s opera Faust, Frederick Federici cemented his fame for all eternity. After singing the very last note of the opera, the trap doors opened, and he descended in what would be his final exit. As Federici reached the bottom, he died of a sudden heart attack. His ghost has since been spotted by actors, crew and patrons in the many years that followed. He is often seen in the centre of the third or second row in the dress circle of the theatre critiquing the performance of his fellow actors before he glides away down the stairs behind the royal box. It has now become custom every opening night at the theatre for a seat in the dress circle of the Princess Theatre to be left empty for the theatre’s resident ghostly critic. If Federici’s ghost appears, it is considered a sign of good luck.

CAPTAIN LOGAN

Penal Settlement, Moreton Bay, Queensland

In what is said to be Brisbane’s oldest Ghost Story, controversial local figure Captain Patrick Logan of His Majesty’s 57th Regiment of Foot, the Commandant of the Penal Settlement at Moreton Bay is remembered for more than his tyrant reputation of being cruel to convicts. After being attacked and killed during an expedition, residents of Ipswich claim to see his ghost in the very spot he was found at Logan’s Creek. In an ironic twist, Logan once was said to be confronted by the ghost of the one of the convicts who had died of a lashing. After returning from an expedition, Logan saw a convict he thought had escaped. As the convict approached him, he seized upon Logan’s stirrup who was sitting on a horse at the time. As he traded blows with the convict it seems his efforts went straight through the spectre who eventually disappeared into what appear to be thin air!

THE PHANTOM HITCHHIKER

Noraville Central Coast, New South Wales

One of Australia’s most famous Urban Legends takes place along a stretch of road on the NSW Central Coast. As people drive along Wilfred Barrett Drive between Magenta and Noraville during the darkness of night, a young woman in a white dress with long flowing hair is said to appeared on the side of the road. Putting her thumb out, she tries to get a lift. Once picked up she sits in the backseat and isn’t much for conversation. As the car then drives past Noraville cemetery, she is mysteriously gone. The young woman in white is said to be the ghost of a young woman who was hitchhiking home from work back in the 1970’s. She got into a car with five young men who took her to Jenny Dixon Beach where she was assaulted and left dead. For over 40 years, locals have heard tales of her appearing on the stretch of road where it is said she swore vengeance on those who hurt her. All 5 men associated with her death were said to have later died under mysterious circumstances.

FRANCIS CLUNEY

Operating since the mid 1800’s Adelaide Arcade remains one of Australia’s oldest shopping arcades. Former caretaker Francis Cluney was so fond of the arcade, his spirit is said to remain there today. Many shoppers, staff and security guards have claimed to see Cluney’s ghost at the site where he met his untimely death. His mangled body was found in the engine room in 1887. While his death was ruled accidental, some speculate it was murder. Video footage from security cameras in 2008 captured what was claimed to be his ghost walking through the premises. Others have reported hearing strange noises from the roof and footsteps throughout the building.

Adelaide Arcade, South Australia

HEADLESS HORSEMAN

Kenwick Pioneer Cemetery, Western Australia

Constructed by convicts in 1855, Kenwick Pioneer Cemetery houses over 200 people who are buried there, however few gravestones remain. Around midnight each night on the flyover on the train to Armadale, passengers have spotted what is said to be a man riding a horse and holding his own head. Dubbed ‘The Headless Horseman of Kenwick’, he is rumoured to be an English Soldier.

FREDERICK BAILEY DEEMING

Hosier Lane, Melbourne, Victoria

Tourists and locals often descend on the trendy urban artistic spot at Hosier Lane in Melbourne’s CBD where they report seeing the silhouette of a man who disappears as soon as he is seen. Some men who have used the laneway to relieve themselves late at night have also reported feeling ice cold hands wrapped around their neck. Many believe it is the spirit of criminal Frederick Bailey Deeming who was executed at the nearby old Melbourne Gaol for murdering his second wife in Windsor. It seems Deeming also murdered his first wife and their children back in Britain. His movements at that time also make him one of the top suspects for being the infamous Jack the Ripper!

ALBERT OGILVIE

The Ghost of Parliament House, Hobart, Tasmania

Premier of Tasmania, Albert Ogilvie died after a game of golf while still elected in office back in 1939. It appears to those who work at Parliament House in Tasmania that he is still hard at work strutting down the halls like he owns place! While they haven’t seen Albert’s ghost, his presence is often felt in the House of Assembly Chambers, in particular the speaker’s chair where he makes himself known with cold spots and eerie feelings. Others have had experiences in the parliamentary library where they have heard papers and books shuffling around only to find no one else is around.

The Pubs of

Execution Dock

Pirates are synonymous with Cornwall. The county is scattered with old stone and slate alehouses, nearly every one with a tale of smuggling and skulduggery to tell.

There are other port cities in other counties with similar history such as Southampton and Portsmouth but nowhere tells it quite like Cornwall. The county effortlessly transports the imagination back to a time of brigs and booty with its hidden coves and ancient inns, having served ale and rum to the types of people long left to history. There is one city in southern England which doesn’t instantly conjure up images of swashbuckling and piracy, and that’s London. Much of the city was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, as well as a result of the bombings of World War II. Fortunately, much history remains providing us with an eclectic mix of many eras and events gone by. But the piracy, not so much.

The borough of Wapping is now a bustling area with bars and restaurants surrounding St Katherine Marina. Walking away from the crowds, along Wapping High Street, the cobbled lanes become quieter and the tall wharf buildings tower around you with their old painted wall signs still clearly visible. It’s a pleasant area, the road hugging the curves of the River Thames, and despite being miles from the sea, you immediately begin to feel the effects of the nautical winds. As with most of central London, ancient history lies in complete

juxtaposition with the modern day. And whilst here is no different, to get a real feel for how things were in the past, we need to travel back to the 17th century.

The differences that strike you are tremendous, perhaps the biggest impact comes from the overwhelming stench, you immediately pull your t-shirt up over your nose. The cobbles are gone, and the dirt roads are a swampy mess of horse manure and human waste. It’s an offence to dispose of your toiletry waste from the windows of residences, however, the practice occasionally continues. For the most part, human waste is deposited in cesspits shared between houses, but this doesn’t dispel the smell. The filthy images of London and the ‘Big Stink’ in the Victorian era are yet to come into fruition. The factories haven’t been built, the steam trains haven’t arrived, and the dense smog doesn’t yet spoil the air.

London was recovering from the Great Fire, during which many buildings were entirely destroyed. On Sunday 2nd September 1666, a spark from a fire onto dry flour and floorboards in a bakery in Pudding Lane started the devastating fire that raged for four days, the city was largely destroyed. With the main building materials of the time being wood, the fire spread fast, and destruction was at a maximum. Businesses, an estimated thirteen thousand homes and eighty seven churches were destroyed over the course of the four day inferno. The

loss of life was great, and even more people were left homeless. Fortunately for today’s explore, the area of Wapping wasn’t affected by the flames. By day four, the fire had reached the edges of the Tower of London where it was finally extinguished. Unfortunately, St Paul’s Cathedral was gutted in the blaze.

From this point, London began to recover and thrive, the areas along the river were developing docks to manage the import and export trade. It has been said that it was possible to have walked the length of the Thames aboard boats, the area was so congested. Some vessels were waiting weeks to be dealt with, trade was that busy. Being able to walk the Thames on boats would have been useful, for up until 1750, the only bridge crossing the river was London Bridge. It was completed in 1209 and therefore was the only means of crossing the river on foot for over five hundred years, with Westminster Bridge only being constructed in 1750 when the wealth of the city was booming. And London Bridge is extremely different to the one in modern times. It is entirely built up, and contains many shops and even several hundred homes which teeter precariously over the edges. It is a hugely busy area, bustling with people, as well as livestock crossing for market or slaughter. At the entrance to the bridge, dismembered heads of the recently executed are displayed on spikes, pictures of horror and anguish twisted on their faces until the crows finally strip them down to the bone.

The Town of Ramsgate

Tucked away between the taller surrounding buildings on Wapping High Street is the unassuming pub, The Town of Ramsgate. There has been a pub on this site since the mid-1400s, and was originally known as The Hostel. The name then changed in the Tudor period and was called The Red Cow, allegedly after a barmaid who worked in the pub. I’m not sure how she felt about that…

But if we move forward in time to the 12th December 1688, we witness one of the key moments in the history of the pub. The country was in the height of the Glorious Revolution which saw King James II flee to France, and his daughter Mary II take over the country with her husband, William of Orange. A notorious magistrate, who’s endeavours were so terrible that his name is remembered still, was very much in favour with King James. Overseeing the punishments following the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, during which the Duke on Monmouth raised the flag of rebellion after the coronation of James II, Sir George Jeffreys, made it his mission to see countless people executed for treason. For his loyalty to the crown, he was made Lord Chancellor to the king.

The country was not a happy place with James as the monarch, and the arrival of William of Orange and his army from France roused spirits and bolstered bravery amongst the Protestant population. James, knowing his end was nigh, planned his escape but kept it from everyone, even his closest confidents. His wife and son, the Prince of Wales, had departed two days prior and James followed them in discretion on the 11th December 1688. Waking up to the news of his King’s departure would have been of utmost concern to Jeffreys, unless he had already been privy to the plans, something we will never know. He attempted to follow James to France and headed to the docks with the plan to board a boat bound for Hamburg.

Wapping was a densely populated area, teeming with sailors, pirates and of course, prostitutes. The stories say that Jeffreys was recognised whilst in the Red Cow, despite being dressed as a common sailor and having shaved his distinctive eyebrows, and the military Red Coats were called. Adjacent to the pub is a narrow passageway which leads directly to the banks of the Thames. On 12th December 1688, Jeffreys was seized on the Wapping Old Stairs, probably simply called Wapping Stairs back then, behind the Red Cow and taken to the Tower of London, just up the road. Here Jeffreys died on 18th April, 1689 of kidney disease and is forever remembered as The Hanging Judge.

The pub didn’t change it’s name to that which we recognise it by today until 1766 when it became known as Ramsgate Old Town. This is believed to be a result of the fishermen of Ramsgate landing their boats with their catch at Wapping Old Stairs instead of further into the city. This was done as a means of evading the taxes which would have been applied further along the Thames at Billingsgate Fish Market, which is still a thriving market to this day. ‘The Town of Ramsgate’ as a name came later in 1811 and has remained ever since.

So what of Execution Dock? The name is given to an area along the bank of the Thames which saw the execution of hundreds of pirates, a watery grave being the fitting end to men, and occasionally

women, who committed their crimes at sea. It is not known exactly where the execution site was, it could even have been at several places along the river, for the Town of Ramsgate and our next pub, The Prospect of Whitby, both suggest that they were the site of the executions. And who’s to say either are wrong?

The Prospect of Whitby

Another strange name for a pub, and another nautical explanation is behind this one. A ship with the same name remained docked outside the pub for so long, that people began to refer to the pub by that name and it stuck. A simple explanation and a tradition that goes way back through the history of pubs. A pub named The Bell Inn would have been in close proximity to a small church or chapel, whereas a pub called The Ten Bells would have been near by to a much larger church or cathedral. The pub was originally known as the Pelican Tavern in its Tudor origin, but it was during the 17th and 18th centuries that the name reflected the reputation the pub had.

Let’s again go back in time, when life seemed much more colourful, and the pub was referred to as The Devil’s Tavern. If that doesn’t conjure up images of the clientele who frequented the inn, I don’t know what else would. As I previously mentioned, the area was a hot-bed of undesirables, depending on what side of the fence you sat on. It was also said to be a favourited area with the likes of Samuel Pepys and Charles Dickens, perhaps they drew inspiration from the atmosphere and aesthetics of their surroundings, as well as the characters they encountered.

It takes less imagination in The Prospect of Whitby to picture times gone by. The sign outside the inn, bearing an image of the namesake ship, suspended from a replica bowsprit, sets the standard for what you are about to experience upon entry. A sign above the inn states that the inn is the oldest riverside tavern in London, and it’s not hard to believe. As you walk inside, the bright outdoors is left behind and you feel as though you have entered the bowels of a ship. There is the ambience of a themed pub, but there is no gimmick about the place. The flagstone floors you walk over are four hundred years old, the dark wood surrounding you is authentic and oozes with history.

Despite being almost entirely destroyed by a fire in the early 1800s, the internal fittings are early 19 th century and likely originated from shipping timbers, as was the tradition in many pub builds. Barrels are lined up beneath the bar top and lanterns glow dimly throughout. Walking up the stairs to explore further, the steps creak and groan under your weight, you imagine the long boots of Georgian rogues walking the same path that you now take.

held in Newgate Prison which was adjoined to the courts. In 1904, Newgate was finally demolished, and an extension of the court built over the site in 1972. However, most prosecuted for crimes at sea were sent to wait out their execution at Marshalsea Prison, which was situated just south of the river in Southwark for just short of five hundred years. Prison was not a form of punishment before the 1800s, but simply a means of holding condemned until they faced their punishment, in whatever form that took, whether it be execution, transportation or a lesser punishment.

On the day of execution, prisoners were removed from their cells and bound on a cart to begin the procession through London. Many were taken to Tyburn, the famous hanging point in London which was situated where Marble Arch now exists. But for those mutineers and pirates, they were bound for Wapping. They would pass over London Bridge, unless they were the rare few who were held at Newgate Prison, with huge crowds watching them pass by, jeering and shouting their encouragement or their sympathies. The cart was led by a marshal carrying a silver oar which represented the Admiralty who were responsible for trying those charged with sea crimes. Stopping at either of the aforementioned pubs, they partook in their final refreshment to steady the nerves before being led to the banks of the Thames. A priest would encourage them to admit to their sins, and then the time was upon them.

There was no gallows from which to drop if you were charged with piracy. A noose was attached to a post, which was reached via a ladder. With their feet on the ladder rungs and the noose around their necks, one last glimpse of their surroundings was taken, at the people gathered about to watch their demise, in the pubs and on the boats on the water.

You would be well advised to take caution before entering these pubs, for you might not be prepared for who you may encounter. As well as both pubs being popular drinking establishments for the shadier side of society and beyond, they were also the places for the condemned to visit. Tradition entitled those on route to their execution to stop for one last quart of ale before they departed this world. As Execution Dock was the place where pirates met their end, the pubs would be the place to experience pirates breaking their journey for this very reason. After being tried at the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court for England and Wales, the convicted were occasionally

Gallows were predominantly used for hanging the condemned. Large trees were originally used before the introduction of purposebuilt gallows, with large frames such as the Three-Legged Mare being used in places such as Tyburn, it was a triangular device which allowed for up to twenty hangings at one time. The rope was measured to suit the body, the drop would be long, and the death would hopefully be quick, the neck being broken on impact. However, with piracy proving so problematic, and very few actually being caught and made an example of, a deterrent was used in the hopes of preventing future endeavours by those perhaps watching the demise of a friend or associate. The pirates were given a short rope, so all hopes of a speedy death were eliminated.

It is even said that Judge Jeffreys had a favourite seat in The Prospect of Whitby, for he lived not far away, from which he would sit and take pleasure in the spectacle of the hangings. A dying speech could be made, a confession of crimes was anticipated by the officials, but rarely came from such folk. The ladder was then kicked from beneath, a method known as ‘turning the prisoner off’. No necks would be broken, instead a slow and painful death ensued. As slow asphyxiation took hold, the dying body performed what was called the ‘marshal’s dance’, as it struggled and gasped for air. The limbs writhed, the eyes and tongue bulged from the face, deepening in colour to a dark purple. All bodily control was lost, and waste was passed for all to see, all dignity now lost.

The hanging body was surely a horrendous sight to witness. What came next was punishment still, for the bodies were traditionally left for three high tides to pass over the heads of the dead men.

Picture: The Capture of Judge Jeffreys

Over the space of around thirty six hours, much bloating and deterioration would have occurred to the body, especially with crabs and other creatures dining on the water-logged flesh. Every low tide would reveal a more gruesome sight than the last, for all passing on the busy river to see, until it was time for the body to be cut down. For those charged with lesser crimes such as sodomy, or those less known by the masses, the bodies would be buried in an unmarked grave in sights such as the Crossbones Graveyard, which can be visited in Southwark today, or they were passed over to doctors for study.

Those who could be made an example of were tarred and hung in a gibbet and displayed on the Thames further along the river as a warning to all entering London.

Captain William Kidd is perhaps the most famous privateer turned pirate to have been hanged at Execution Dock. There is much debate as to whether he was rightfully charged with piracy, he stated upon his sentence, “My Lord, it is a very hard sentence. For my part, I am the innocentest person of them all, only I have been sworn against by perjured persons.’ But sentenced he was, and was duly executed on not only that charge, but for murdering one of his crew. Unlike many others, Kidd was held in Newgate Prison and on the 17th May 1701 he was transported to Wapping for execution, aged 47. Following the same routine as those who had gone before him, Kidd was led to the noose but at the time of death, his rope snapped, and he had to repeat the ordeal for a second time. He was finally hanged, and having such a name for himself, was one of the men to be tarred and displayed on the Thames. Kidd was gibbetted at Tilbury point in Essex for all to see and remained there for three years, tarred black and creaking in the wind, hollowed eyes watching all who passed him by.

Both pubs are said to be haunted by the spirits of many of those condemned men. Both staff and customers have been terrified after being confronted by the spectral men who suddenly vanish before their eyes. The landlady at The Prospect of Whitby told me how she had witnessed a strange shape, which she described as being like a torch light but black, moving across the wall. The pub is also said to be haunted by a ‘moll cutpurse’, a female thief who would cut the coin purses from the belts of drunken men. She is seen wearing breeches and smoking a pipe in dark corners of the pub.

A friend recently told me that his dad once lived nearby to the Prospect of Whitby. One night, when passing by, noises of men singing sea shanties could be heard emanating from the pub, despite it being in darkness. Other stories claim to have seen a phantom man sitting in a window seat, gazing out of the window which has given people the idea that he may be George Jeffreys himself, enjoying the seat as he once did in life, although the view has now changed somewhat. In a nod to its past, a replica gallows can be seen on the banks outside the pub. The Town of Ramsgate is also believed to be visited by the spirit of the Hanging Judge, perhaps attached to the place where his life changed forever. Captain Kidd is also rumoured to haunt The Town of Ramsgate, perhaps it is he who knocks drinks from a particular table, regardless of its position in the pub.

Perhaps next time you pass through Wapping, you’ll look at these pubs in a different light. Consider all those who have passed before, think of the beer and the blood that has soaked into the foundations of many lost to time. Raise a drink to them and remember them, for history is all around us, if only we take the time to look for it.

Lorien x

Alehouse Haunts is an endeavour by Lorien Jones of The Ghost Book and past articles titled ‘The Haunting of….’She explores the history and hauntings of the British pubs and is currently writing her first book, ‘The History of The Haunted Pub.’ You can follow her explores on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

https://townoframsgate.pub/ https://www.greeneking-pubs.co.uk/pubs/ greater-london/prospect-of-whitby/

Picture: Captain William Kidd

Jamaica Inn

A tale of intrigue, smuggling & ghosts!

Written by Karin Beasant, assisted by Kate Cherrell

It is rare for a well-known haunted venue to trace their hauntings as far back as the Jamaica Inn is able. In 1911, an article appeared in the press of a strangely dressed man sat on the wall outside the inn. He ignored any attempt at conversation, or acknowledged any greeting by those passing by. It was said that this man was not rude, but not of this world.

But first, let us go back in time to around 1760, where a man called John Broad, (possibly a sea captain) and James Scawen (esquire of Maidwell), allowed John Broad to build a dwelling house and hedge twenty acres of adjoining land.

John called this new beginning ‘Bold Venture’, which later became the hamlet of Bolventor that we see today. What makes the foundation of the Jamaica Inn so unusual is that it seems to have been a gentleman’s handshake, rather than a written agreement. There are many theories as to how John Broad acumulated enough money to buy the land, let alone build a dwelling, which was certainly not cheap. As such, rumours of smuggling continue to this day.

Becoming the Jamaica Inn

Bodmin moor was a dangerous place to be during the 18th century. From bogs to missing roads and footpads trying to steal your coins, danger was around every corner. Even the magistrates who would dispense justice in Launceston wouldn’t cross the moor and would travel around it to reach Bodmin’s assizes courts.

Around 1754, a local innkeeper in Bodmin paid to improve the track and install marker stones, all from his own pocket. However, it was the toll road that came around 1769 that really made the difference in safety. With more people travelling through Cornwall, coaches especially, John Broad must have seen a golden opportunity to enlarge the current building and, in approximately 1778, added accomodation to cash in on the new footfall.

The Name

There have been a few suggestions of how the Jamaica Inn gained its name. One such theory is that it was named after a member of the local Trelawney family, as Sir William Trelawney had died in Jamaica while he was governor in 1772. The other is rather more sweet. It is said that the innkeeper was smuggling fruit in barrels and as the fruit was going off, he boiled it, adding suger and turned it into jam, so the Inn became the quite literal, ‘jam-maker’ Inn.

Standing at over 900 feet above sea level, an isolated building rises from the desolation of Bodmin moor in Cornwall. This is the Jamaica Inn. Made famous by Daphne Du Maurier with her 1936 book of the same name, it was later brought to the silver screen by director by Alfred Hitchcock, whose blockbuster would star Charles Laughton and a young Maureen O’Hara. Major films stars, celebrities and royalty have all visited this smuggling Inn because of their love of the novel and film, but Du Maurier and Hitchcock barely scratched the surface of this fascinating palce.

By 1801 when John Broad senior died, the Jamaica Inn was well established and, if some theories are to be believed, part of the smuggling trade, although we cannot be certain. Alhough smuggling in Cornwall had been present in a small way for centuries, by the time of the 1770’s, it had become a huge industry. From tin miners, to farmers and even nobility, all classes were involved in nefarious business, with the whole underground movement deemed ‘the Cornish Free Trade.’

At this time, England was suffering from the cost of the war of independence in America and other wars in France. Subsequently, taxation was particularly high on goods such as tea and brandy. One estimate puts a staggering 50000 gallons of French brandy being smuggled into Cornish coves, before slowly making its way up through Cornwall, Devon and onwards across the country. The Jamaica Inn was perfectly placed for such deeds.

Upstairs at the Jamaica Inn, there is a small, square window. It may seem unremarkable, but has a fascinating history. This window is the back of the orginal building and it is said a candle would be lit and placed beside it to give the all clear if it was safe from the custom men to come and load off their contraband.

The Inn may have thrived with its smuggling connections, but was not so popular with guests! In

He goes on to descibe that the bread hadn’t been delivered, they were out of cheese and the potato crop had failed. Only a mug of decent beer could be procured.

In 1834 a new landlord walked along the corridors of the Inn, one Thomas Dunn, a married man. It is thanks to Thomas, his wife Annabella and children that the stories of the ghostly weeping woman and crying baby may have been born.

the sounds of a baby’s cry have been picked up in rooms 3 and 7, both heard during private investigations.

In 2018, a paranormal team staying in room 3 had one member complain that from 5am, she was unable to sleep due to a baby’s endless crying, although the other members heard nothing. After checking with reception, no babies were staying at the Inn that night…

Temperance Movement

The Temperance Movement, being an abstenance from alcohol, was instigated by a Church minister called John Edgar who, in 1829, poured his whiskey out of his window. With the growth of industrial city factories and drinking amongst the working classes, this movement gathered strength across the country and filtered its way down to Cornwall.

it was called Jamaica Inn & West Country Club, a crafty way to get around the no achohol ban.

Daphne du Maurier

There is no doubt that the Jamaica Inn owes it fame to one person, a young author who happened to stay at the Inn in 1930 and 1931. Many of you will know the story, but it is always worth telling again, and not many will know what happened on her second visit.

Cast you mind’s eye back to November 1930. Winter is always a bleak time on Bodmin moor, where many a mist will rise up unexpectedly and the Jamaica Inn disappears like a candle flame suddenly extinguished.

Mary Downing, who was quoted as a ‘singlewoman’, went on to have Thomas Dunn’s child. While the father of her son, Thomas Dunn Downing, was not registered on the birth certificate, but was acknowdged by the innkeeper.

We have no information as to whether this was a great love affair or a man making promises of wedlock to a woman in order to have his wicked way with her, but her life would not have been an easy one. For many years, reports of a weeping woman have emerged from room 3, having been heard by many guests over several decades.

Other reports cite a great sadness felt by female guests, as though they pick up on the grief of the weeping woman.

In other instances,

By 1880 the Jamaica Inn was a full Temperance House. It took four applications after the second world war to finally get its achohol licence back in 1950. It is interesting to note the slight name change from the beginnning of the 20th century.

In 1910 it is referred to as the Temperance Hotel, then by 1946,

Daphne and her friend, Foy Quiller Couch, were staying overnight at the Jamaica Inn (some reports say she stayed in room 4). They went out in the afternoon and returned late in the evening, but lost their way as darkness fell and it started to rain. They found a derelict barn to rest in, before Foy suggested that they trust the horses to find their way back to the Jamaica Inn.

The horses instinctevely slowly made their way across the moor and in the distance, the lights of the Inn shone bright.

“Bold Venture alisa the Jamaica Inn where good entetainment is falsly promised to man and horse inside I never beheld.”

Allen Jackson

Many think that was the beginning of the story, but it was the following year, when she returned to the Inn that creativity took hold. On this visit, the local vicar, Charles Percival Triplett of Altarnun church, came to afternoon tea at the Jamaica Inn, and told the young writer stories. The seed had been sown and in 1936, her book was published.

‘Jamaica Inn stands today, hospitable and kindly, a temperance house on the twenty-mile road between Bodmin and Launceston. In the following story of adventure, I have pictured it as it might have been over a hundred and twenty years ago; and although existing placenames figure in the pages, the characters and events described are entirely imaginary’.

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier, 1936.

World War Two

As an investigator, the importance of recording oral history cannot be emphasized enough. If we do not record history from the older generation, valuable knowledge will soon be lost to time.

When I first began visiting the Jamaica Inn, many years ago, there was an old gentleman who used to tease me with titbits of information. Foolishly, I never recorded his stories. He claimed that the Jamaica Inn was a secret meeting place during the second

world war, and there could be some truth in this. For a tiny hamleet, it certainly had a lot of home guard soldiers. Local historian, Jim Edwards, once said that General Montgomery came to the Inn for a meeting with General Patton. Landlord Claude Finnimore also claimed that Patton stayed at the Inn in June 1944. I have read Patton’s diary during this time, and it could indeed be true, however Allen Jackson, the owner of the Jamaica Inn hot on fact checking, so all of these histories must be taken with a pinch of salt.

In recent weeks, I received a report from an investigator staying at the Inn, that she was woken with the sensation of a dog lying across her legs. As she tried to brush it off, there was nothing there!

The former landlady, and mother of the woman born at the Inn, would state that in in daylight, the Inn felt fine, but when darkness fell, she hated being there.

Curiously, there seemed to be a very helpful spirit to would tidy up and fold the laundry of residents. As the perplexed guest would rise in the morning, they would ask the landlady who had been in their room while asleep!

Those of us who investigate or research the paranormal will be familiar with the names of Peter Underwood and Michael Williams. Both investigated the Jamaica Inn and wrote extensively of their experiences. Combining these reports with our knowledge of the Inn’s changing layout, we can add more depth to these paranormal claims.

An account in ‘Ghosts of Cornwall’ by Peter Underwood describes a couple staying in room 5, who see a man standing by the bedroom door, wearing a tricorn hat and long overcoat, who slowly walks through the wardrobe.

We now know that room 5 and room 6’s bathroom was another adjoining bedroom. Does this explain the ‘Big Man’ shadow who stands in the doorway of room 6’s bathroom, staring at those who are sleeping?

After then end of the war, the Inn was sold many times, concluding with a sale to the current owner Allen Jackson, who bought the Jamaica Inn within an hour of his first ever visit in 2014. In recent years, Allen has enlarged the Daphue du Maurier museum to include many of her personal letters, with some written from royalty and friends.

Ghosts!

Following the 1911 sighting, there is little written about the paranormal goings on of the Inn until the 1950s. At this point, a man in a green cloak was seen during the day walking through the bar while the building was closed to the public. This figure left through the door, exiting towards the generator room.

I was fortunate enough to interview a woman who was born at the Jamaica Inn in 1955. Her bedroom was the now infamous Room 5.

Her family soon realised the only way for her to sleep through the night was to put the family German Shepherd in the room, otherwise they would be up at all hours.

In 2018, a team called Haunted Britain Investigates had hired the Inn and were keen to tell us of their experiences a few years prior. While ascending the staircase, the investigatos glanced at the far right corridor, and standing outside room 5 was a man dressed in a hat, white shirt and black coat. Is this the same man who, in 2018, sat at a table observing a woman with a look of merriment on his face? He also had dark curly hair, a beard, and was dressed in a white shirt, high boots and trousers.

Another interview I conducted was with a lady, now in her retirement, but who stayed with her husband in room 6 in the 1970’s. The bedroom doors then had an old fashioned catch and lock to enter the room. She was awoken around 2am with an intense feeling of cold and the sound of someone trying to open the bedroom door. Someone was catch repeatedly trying the lock. She tried to wake her sleeping husband, but to no avail. There was a small gap under the door, and soon, a black blob emerged from beneath, rising to height of a person, but with no distinguishing features.

She reported coloured lights flickering as this shape slowly moved forward toward the bed.

Altarnun Church

Daphne Du Maurier

Room 23 Today

Bolventor Home Guard

She still could not wake her husband and was utterly terrified. Yet as quickly as it emerged, the shape went back and under the door. She was shocked and confused as the room quickly became warm again.

Although she still visits and stays at the Jamaica Inn, she still refuses point blank to stay in room 6 ever again, perfering the new block of bedrooms built a few years ago. I didn’t have the heart to tell her the stories from room 23.

As we head to the 1980’s and 90’s, the most common reports are of footsteps along the corridor of the famous haunted bedrooms, a man on horseback in front of the inn, and a coach coming into the courtyard. This is curious, as there were no cobbles for a long time at the Inn; they came up from Plymouth in the 1950’s. Others claim to hear men talking in a strange language, which may be Cornish.

Many teams and event companies have enjoyed investigating the Inn and some have experienced great paranormal activity. But be aware, the Jamaica Inn spirits can be devious and not show up every night! The ghosts are in charge and respect is paramount. If they don’t like you, you will know it.

grey dress, white oversmock and the beautiful long blonde curly hair. Tommy is seen as a small shadow figure darting through the lower restaurant area towards the Gift Shop, to which guests hear the running of tiny feet.

Footsteps are reported all over the Inn, even inside the newer extension. This raises an interesting point for investigators - do spirits see the Jamaica Inn in its modern form? How can taps be made on bedroom doors that didn’t exist before their time? Why did books get thrown off shelves in the Gift Shop? When

The children are encountered in all of the famous haunted rooms, especially room 3, where they enjoy putting their handprints on the mirror after housekeeping have cleaned them, much to the annoyance of the staff. However, room 5 is the most notorious for childish paranormal reports. Here, I have experienced the footsteps around the bed, while guests report of gentle touching of the lower leg. One soldier was so peterfied, that he slept in his car after an encounter, while another guest accused the staff of planting wet children’s footsteps on the carpet.

In the musuem, sightings of the Victorian child are common, as are tappings on command during investigations. To me, they are like family and love being naughty, but it’s such fun when they want to interact.

Jack

This spirit, whether he really is the man who was lured out on the moor and murdered, is such a fun ghost!

Is he the one who lifted up the phone in the bar?

The ChildrenGhostly

There may be more child spirits, but the two most commonly reported ghosts are Tommy and Elizabeth. I have personally witnessed both, seeing Elizabeth with her Victorian

staff would enter, they would hear childish giggling, and the pulling of female staff’s pontails was a common feature. In the 1990s, a little girl was coming out of the ladies toilets with her mother and innocently asked if the little boy would be there when they came back. This is not uncommon.

See below: QR CODE: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ZDHx1rTdZ9c

With glass jugs being thrown off the bar, glasses off shelves, he likes to make his presence known.

Since March 2022, the reported spirit of ‘Jack’, being a young man lured out and murdered

on the moor, has been reported several times. On multiple occaisons, he has grabbed the right buttocks of men and a lady on command, while they were blindfolded in either the upper restaurant, or Mary’s bar.

Haunted Areas

I could write page after page of the hundreds of paranormal accounts from this spectualar Inn.

However, I will condense them down to some lesser known examples, and some new spirits that have appeared over the last few years.

Stable Block & Musuem

Here, the ghost of a huge dog has been seen, being the size of a labardor, but appearing more like

Haunted Corridor where ghostly footsteps are heard outside the famous haunted rooms

Main bar where Jack sits next to the fire.

Museum where the 'Big Man' stands

a small Irish Wolfhound. Other human spirits have been seen, including a US Airman, which is a surprise for all of us.

This spirit has been ‘picked up’ by mediums and, just three years ago, a sixteen year old girl saw him walk out of the kitchen and into the bar.

This area would have been a walk-way during the second world war. After checking with staff in case anyone was in costume, save for a few Jack Sparrows, no one was found to fit the description, and the teenager also claimed he had not made a sound on the flagstones as he walked by. A Victorian man dressed in tweeds for a shooting party is another rare sighting.

Main Bars

One of the most unusal sighting was from a lady staying with her husband on a dark Friday night in December 2019.

It was around 9.30pm, where only her and another couple were in the bar. A young lady of about nineteen was walking towards her carrying a tray. She was dressed in a mauve high collar long dress, mop cap and a dirty apron. The guest was excited at seeing a staff member so authentically dressed up and lifted her empty glass to pass it to the waitres. However, as soon as she did, the woman vanished in front of her.Totally stunned, with her mouth agape, she turned to her husband and simply said, ‘I think I have just seen a ghost.’

Owner Allen Jackson recalls how one night while chatting to one

of the Inn’s locals, they watched a woman dressed in Victorian clothes and shawl walk past them, through the bar, out of the main door, and up around the corner!

Lower Restaurant

Again the question raises its head, why are there ghosts in the modern extension of the Jamaica Inn? The wooden beams are reputed to have been brought up from Devonport Dockyard in Plymouth, a historic port of Britain’s navy for hundreds of years.

Is there a connection? That I cannot answer, but research is ongoing.

A large shadow figure was once observed gliding from the farm shop to the Gift Shop corridor, plus a Victorian lady with her hair in a bun has been seen in the Gift Shop.

Just a few months ago, the ‘hooded’ figure - not a monk, more of what one night manager called a ‘Gandalf’ figure – was seen in the cellar behind the bar. This image was also seen by a young waitress standing by the fireplace in the lower restaurant. We have no idea who or what this is, but it has also been reported in room 4 on four occasions.

The Courtyard

Aside from the wordless man in the 1911 report, there have been few recorded paranormal instances in the churchyard. However, I was recently contacted by a lady who still remembers the encounter she had as a child. As a young child in the late 1970’s, she sat in the back of her family’s car, parked on the road outside the Jamaica Inn.

After a little while, she asked her parents why the funny dressed man on the wall was being ignored by everyone. To say I was excited by this report is an understatement! Perhaps he is still sat there, waiting for someone to see him and try and converse with the lonely spirit. Though many concentrate on the famous haunted rooms in the old block, the rest of the bedrooms also carry paranormal tales.

• Room 7 – A baby has been heard crying during an investigation in real time.

• Room 8 – Tapping on the bedroom door was reported. When opened, no one was outside and the motion activated lights hadn’t come on. There has also been the sounds of walking boots above the ceiling, when there is only a crawl space.

• Room 9 – Just this year, a paranormal investigator was staying in this room. He had just walked past the door a few minutes earlier and as he walked back soon afterwards, the televison was blaring from his room.

• Room 10 – There have been many reports of taps and sounds.

• Room 11 – Similarly, there have been ghostly knocks on the doors.

• Room 12 – Here, there are more knocks on the doors, but interestingly, rooms 10. 11 and 12 were orginally the Inn manager’s flat.

New Block of Bedrooms

Room 23 is a beautiful downstairs room with a veranda. The first report emerged within the first year of the build. A couple were on one of our paranormal weekends where they had just eaten dinner and returned to their room. As they opened the door, they saw a debit card was placed on top of the mirror when it had been in the drawer, while cotton buds were spread on the floor.

The couple believed that someone had gone into their room and deliberately made a mess. After checking with reception, they joined the rest of the investigators for the rest of the night. At around 2am, the woman was awoken to see a lady standing in the doorway entrance, wearing a long dress. Still sleepy, she thought to herself ‘why are housekeeping in the room so late?’ Then, the ghostly woman turned and walked silently into the bathroom and never came out.

Allen Jackson has also had

knocks on his bedroom door in the new block, on one occasion at around 5am in the morning. No living person was observed on the CCTV.

Photo 17

But what causes these ghostly encounters, and why does the Jamaica Inn have such a plethora of paranormal reports? As an investigator, it has been such a privilage to study and research this venue for over seven and half years now.

Every year a new discovery is made, whether historical or paranormal, the Inn continues to fascinate me.

I strongly believe that the Jamaica Inn paranormal team have a duty to catalogue as many paranormal reports as possible. We are simply the paranormal custodians, as the Inn is the star. Myself, Lisa, Rachael and Gemma, have such a strong and sincere team who adore this place and give to both the public and teams as much information and help as we possibly can.

Karin

& Kate

**UPDATE** The Inn has recently been sold and new owners are expected to take over in the Autumn of 2022. Looks like the ghosts will have new owners to spook. The Jamaica Inn team <plus the ghosts> will still be in residence.

References:

• Launceston Then

• Ancestry

• National Newspaper Archives

• Interviews

Daphne du Maurier, famous author of Rebecca, Jamaica Inn and Frenchman’s Creek

The Jamaica Inn Team.

THE FLAMBOYANT ECCENTRIC LIFE, DEATH AND AFTERLIFE OF MAD JACK MYTTON

WRITTEN BY AMY BOUCHER

Ilove it when Folklore and history entwine, creating a composite story which isn’t quite either, a tale which dwells in the margins between what we know to be true and what we wish could be. Such stories are powerful and seem to take on a life of their own, inexplicably entwining with the paranormal.

Indeed- in the following account the paranormal events make for more realistic reading than the tales of this man’s life! If you know a little about Shropshire, you may know who I am talking about- ‘Mad Jack Mytton’. Interestingly Mytton’s spirit is unlike many ghost stories in the region, (including some I’ve explored previously) in the sense that we already know a lot about the person he was before he died. To be honest with you all, with as much information as we have- it’s hard to know where to start in recounting the associated mayhem!

the Byronic ‘Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know’ archetype. His exploits are daft and daring and even slightly disturbing, with his behaviour breaking the boundaries of acceptable conduct. So, what made Mytton circumvent societal and behavioural expectations? Perhaps the toxic combination of money, madness and excess left him without any understanding of the real world. It would be easy to allow Jack Mytton to become the caricature, but it’s important to note that much of his behaviour, though comical really shows the fragility of his mental state. Though one of history’s great eccentrics, he was a human being too. Mytton is a divisive figure, and I want to unpick his legacy, with the help of his ghost. That’s the wonderful thing about ghost stories, they serve as conduits for the past- and through them we can further the narrativewe can understand.

Much of what we know about John Mytton was from the accounts of James Apperley (another regency rake and early sports journalist) who wrote under the pen name ‘Nimrod’. Nimrod was a good friend of Mytton’s and was actually present during some of Mytton’s more outrageous behaviour. In fact, in his work ‘The Life of John Mytton’ written in 1877, Nimrod had to state that though unbelievable, he’d witnessed these events, and he wasn’t even covering the true extent of the behaviour.

Thus, I have been unable to cover every moment of eccentricity, rather focusing on a few. Mytton has certainly become a quasi-folkloric figure, who fully embodies

Mytton was a larger-thanlife figure as we shall soon see- so why does his ghost manifest in such a tame way? I think that it provides an insight into the regret and unhappiness that coloured his life.

The life of this ‘extraordinary man’ began on 30 th September 1796 at Halston Hall, Whittington (just outside of Oswestry). His family was of noble origin, squires whose lineage dated back over 500 years. Their estate was well over 132,000 acres and included a home worth 4.3 million by today’s standards. It produced an annual income of £10,000 (£716,000 in today’s money) all of this- John Mytton was set to inherit.

“…yet I might hazard an imputation on my veracity were I to recount all the extraordinary deeds of this most extraordinary man, in various situations with hounds.”

the regiment in France, as part of the army of occupation after the defeat of Napoleon I. Mytton’s military career mainly involved gambling and drinking before he resigned his commission. He re-joined the North Shropshire Yeomanry after returning to England and was promoted to Major in 1822. Astonishingly, he was still on the regimental strength at the time of his death 12 years later, despite his periods abroad and in prison. Mytton really came into his own after returning to his country seat and taking up the duties of a squire. The life of a squire afforded him time to indulge in his passions of horseracing, drinking, hunting, and gamblingamong other things, but we will get to them shortly. However, in 1819, he entertained the idea of running for Parliament, as a Tory, which would follow his family tradition. What a better vocation for a noble young man with too much time on his hands? And Mytton proved successful in his venture due to the fact that he secured his seat by offering voters £10 notes (spending more than £750,000 of today’s money). Due to his clever bribery- he became MP for Shrewsbury. However, this was perhaps John’s most short-lived endeavour, as he lasted just 30 minutes in the House of Commons in June 1819 before leaving. He was said to find the debates incredibly dull and boring, and there is some cause to believe that he found it physically difficult to follow due to his incipient deafness. He didn’t stand in

To say he was ill suited for matrimony would be an understatement.

In fact, Nimrod states ‘that Mr. Mytton’s conduct in the marriage state is in great part indefensible, and can only be palliated by a due allowance, which must not be denied him, for that sort of insane delirium under which he so frequently laboured…”

Mytton’s behaviour to the women in his life was incredibly abusive, which makes it easy to understand why Caroline ran off. He is rumoured to have thrown his first wife Harriet’s lapdog into the fire during a jealous rage, because poor John was not getting enough attention. However, Nimrod states that “he merely took it up in his arms, threw it halfway up to the drawingroom ceiling, and caught it, without injury.” Hmmmm…

n 1806, Mytton was sent to the prestigious Westminster School to begin his education, which was certainly a worthy institution for a child of such dignified birth. Here he would learn the fundamentals of life and become an educated young noble. Well, that would have been the case if Mytton hadn’t got expelled after 3 terms for fighting a schoolmaster. As you can see, his erratic behaviour started early. After this minor discrepancy, Mytton found himself Harrow bound. However, this too was short-lived, as he got expelled not long after. He managed to complete his education with the help of a string of tutors, who he tormented endlessly with his ‘practical jokes’ which included leaving a horse in one of their rooms (you know, the obvious schoolboy stuff).

After managing to scrape an education, Mytton joined the army at 16, and managed to make it to Cambridge. However, he found university life boring, and was said to have taken an allowance of 2,000 bottles of port to sustain him during his studies– he finished them off in his first term. Mytton left without a degree due to him lacking in the academic department and embarked on a grand tour.

After his grand tour, he took a more full-time position in the army, joining the 7th Hussars ( partly due to the apparent fabulousness of the uniform) as a cornet; he spent a year with

the next election but did become High Sheriff of Shropshire for 1823–24, and various other political roles in his life, though I am sure he gave these as much enthusiasm as his political career.

Mytton married for the first time in 1818 to Harriet Emma Jones, who was the daughter of Sir Thomas Jones. She unfortunately, died in childbirth in Clifden, Somerset on 2nd July 1820. Mytton married a second time to Caroline Mallet Giffard from Chillington Hall in October 1821 at Brewood, Staffordshire. This marriage was far from happy, and as Mytton’s erratic behaviour escalated, she ran away in 1830 and lived the rest of her life estranged from him.

He is also charged with attempting to drown Harriet. Though Nimrod makes light of that too, suggesting that ‘He merely, one very hot day, pushed her into the shallow of his lake at Halston, a little over her shoes.” Regardless of the truth, the unpredictably of the man would have been enough to push anyone over the edge. His children did not escape their father’s bizarre interactions, he is said to have enjoyed tossing them into the air as babies, then as they grew, he ignored them for long periods at a time, only to pelt them with oranges- I’m not sure what we can say about that one really…

Like I had mentioned previously, Mytton’s true passions were gambling, hunting and horse racing. Mytton appeared to have an aptitude for cruelty and had hunted foxes proficiently with a pack of hounds from the age of ten and did so in any kind of weather. He was remarked to have the constitution of a bull, wearing only a light jacket, thin shoes, and linen trousers in winter (complete with silk stockings of course). But with the thrill of the chase, Mytton frequently cast off his troublesome clothes and hunted naked, thrashing his way through the Shropshire countryside in snow or storm undeterred. He once continued hunting after breaking his ribs. It is said that Mytton would hunt anything- and used to lead his stable boys on rat hunts, which I suppose is one way to pass the time.

He kept numerous pets, including up to 2,000 dogs, a pack of harriers, a giraffe, and a bear. His favourites were fed on steak and champagne; he was said to keep 15-20 horses in training at any given time, and he also let his favourite horse Baronet have free range inside Halston Hall.

aronet was often found to be lying in front of the fire with Mytton, as the two enjoyed each other’s company. He was also an enthusiastic dogfighter and gambled on the outcome of fights between bulldogs, mastiffs, and terriers. He also apparently beat his own fearless bulldog with his bare fists and was said to have bitten fighting dogs with his own teeth, even standing upright with a mastiff held in his own jaws without using his hands to support the weight. This is appalling by today’s standards, but during a time when dogfighting was an accepted mode of entertainment, Mytton’s apparent fearlessness would have shocked spectators, and furthered belief in his instability.

Apart from hunting, Mytton frequently indulged his love of horseracing and gambling, often at the same time. He spent large sums of money on his passions (though there wasn’t much that he didn’t spend money on) he undeniably had several successes in the gambling and horseracing world. He also trained horses and invested heavily in broodmares and young stock. Mytton took his gambling very seriously; indeed, there was little he would not do for a bet. He even involved the local children of Dinas Mawddwy to gamble, holding contests and tests for them, with cash prices ranging from half a crown to half a guinea. Such contests included testing their bravery, to see who would roll down the whole of Moel Dinas, a local hill. It seems like Mytton was constantly looking for a source of amusement or entertainment. In 1826 he rode a horse into the Bedford hotel, (near the Leamington spa town hall ), up the grand staircase and onto the balcony, then jumped from it over the terrified diners and through the window as a bet. He won, and one can imagine was also the talk of the town.

Mytton was also a drinking man and could drink eight bottles of port wine a day with a helping of brandy. He managed to kill one of his horses, Sportsman, by making it drink a bottle of port. Certainly, by now you may be getting a picture of Mytton as a man who lacked basic sense or understanding of fear – and you may be right. He frequently got into accidents- he was already erratic and suffering from poor mental health, so the eight bottles of port a day would have merely amplified this. Nimrod describes him as ‘positively liking accidents’ and frequently threw himself between the hooves of dangerous and nervous horses. Perhaps this was why his life was described as “a series of suicide attempts”. He often rode high speed around the local area and did anything he could to put himself or others in danger.

As one can imagine- polite company ostracised Mytton for his scandalous conduct. He even had a period of

house arrest, whist his mother was trying to get him committed for his erratic behaviour. However, this just seemed to encourage him more. He spent a lot of time with his tenant farmers and local people, and once picked a fight with a tough Shropshire miner who just so happened to disturb his hunt. The bare-knuckle fight lasted 20 rounds before the miner gave up. Another time, he arrived terribly late to his own dinner party, at his own hall, riding a bear. Unsatisfied with its speed, he kicked the bear in an attempt to make it go faster, but it bit into his calf. Mytton didn’t seem to mind too much- he kept the bear as his pet and lovingly christened it ‘Nell ’. Like his horse Baronet, Nell had free reign- until it attacked a servant, so Mytton reluctantly had it killed.

Nimrod describes an incident occurring whilst Mytton was staying in Calais (to avoid his creditors no less). He came down with a terrible bout of hiccups just before bed. But Mytton knew exactly what to do to rid himself of such an ailment.

“’Damn this hiccup!! ’ -He declared, in a thunderous way.

‘I’ll frighten it away’; -he announced and quickly grabbed a lit candlestick, bringing the flame to the tail of his shirt, and setting himself on fire. The shirt was fine cotton, so he was almost instantly enveloped in flames. In shock and sheer panic, a servant and another guest beat out the flames. Eventually putting Mytton out.

Mytton smiled and declared - ‘The hiccup is gone, by God!’, and then got into bed naked as if nothing had happened!

Money appeared to have little value to Mytton. Nimrod excellently described him as ‘a perfect stranger to the science of economy’ an uncontrollable spendthrift; Mytton had spent his inheritance in a mere 15 years and fell into deep debt. He spent large amounts of money on fine clothing, food, Brandy, and Champagne, as well as exhibiting more bizarre behaviour, such as burying large amounts of money on his estate, or merely dropping it and forgetting where it was. His long-suffering agent suggested reducing his expenditure to £6,000 a year for six years to keep his estate, but the stalwart Mytton declared “I wouldn’t give a damn to live on £6,000 a year!” and sold his estate at Dinas Mawddwy to John Bird. After this, he fled to Calais to avoid his creditors.

Mytton’s end came in 1834. He had returned to England the previous year, and the creditors had caught up with him. Unable to pay, he ended up in King’s Bench prison in Southwark. He is described as being reduced to a “round-shouldered, tottering, old-young man bloated by drink, worn out by too much foolishness, too much wretchedness and too much brandy” The death certificate read Delirium Tremens - and his body was interred in the private chapel at his ancestral home. Mytton’s last journey, from the prison to his ancestral home was said to spread grief across the county. Afterall, he’d been generous to many of his tenants. Church bell’s tolled, and people lined the streets to watch their squire come home. Interestingly, the ode at Mytton’s funeral was read by another future ghost ‘Tom Moody’ (who’s ghost story is interesting in itself) who lamented -

“Mourn! But no tears – they honour not the grave of such as Mytton was, the kind, the brave. His was a restless soul – too wildly prone to wear the show of vices not his own.”

Though Mytton’s body had returned to the earth, a man like him doesn’t rest easy. His ghost is said to haunt the ‘The Mytton and Mermaid’ (known then as the Berwick arms) the place his body spent its final night before being interred. His apparition appears frequently but is strongest on his birthday (30 th of September). One might think that such a spirit would embody the decadence and debauchery of his life, but this is far from the case. ‘Mad Jack’ cuts an impressive figurein his bold riding coat and high boots, but stands silently, looking out the window, towards the River Severn, and the Atcham Bridge- the route his funeral procession took. The whole image is incredibly sad, and the prevailing mood in the room is one of melancholy. Visitors have also reported shadows moving in the darkness, low moods, and low sounds of crying as well as

seeing Mytton staring out, as if full of regret.

The juxtaposition between the life he lived, and his ghost is important. In life he rode bears and fought Miners- his life was a thunderous roar tearing across the pages of Shropshire’s history, yet his end seems like a quiet whisper. Perhaps his ghost is enduring to demonstrates this- to remind us that this ‘half mad hunting creature’ was in fact a man, plagued by poor mental health and sadness. Though it makes for good storytelling, Mytton’s life demonstrates a very unhappy individual, beset by dissatisfaction, and chasing after temporal pleasures, trying to find meaning or enjoyment in a life. One can imagine there were times when Mytton felt very lost and knowing what he was reduced to and how he died alone is very sad. Perhaps there were times when he wondered what his life meant. Mytton’s ghost gives us a great insight into the man behind the stories- and though unlikeable, to witness that melancholy figure silently watching as the world shifts and changes, would be an incredibly poignant visitation.

J.B. Rhine, a psychologist at the parapsychology lab at Duke University USA, believed that ESP (extra sensory perception) could not be taught. At the time Rhine was a leading expert in the field of the scientific research into parapsychology. Rhine undertook many lab-based tests that examined the ability of the human brain to be able to work outside the normal senses. He is noted for his experiments with Zenner cards, asking participants to say what they thought the next symbol on the card is from a random sequence, without seeing the card. This experiment threw up some interesting results. Through his extensive lab work and research, it was his belief that this, ESP, was a capability that people were born with and only then could it be developed. His ideas were challenged by a radio repair man from a Texas with a soft Mexican accent. During the 1950s and 1960s Jose Silva changed the way not only he, himself saw life and how to live it, but changed the mind of Rhine and many others around the globe. It was from the perspective of the mind of an engineer that Jose developed, almost by chance, what would later be know as the Silva Mind Control Method.

E.S.P, extrasensory perception, is the ability of a person to access information beyond the normal senses of touch, taste, sound, and sight. It is unclear exactly how this happens, and many still disputes that it a valid phenomenon, but many believe that it is accessed through the state of the mind. There have been countless experiments conducted with in the field of parapsychology, including military interest in the development and implementation, thus proving its importance.

Such was and is the interest in the development of the psychic mind that the US government set up what was to become collectively known as project Stargate, which operated between the 1970’s and 1990’s. This US military project employed people to “mind read” the enemy during the cold war, as well using other techniques such as remote viewing to gain information. The project was abandoned with the government stating that it was of no use, yet it had been heavily funded in monetary and time.

This does highlight the importance governments hold in the research of ESP and psychic development. This notion of the energetic self, the state of operating beyond the sensors grew with traction amongst the masses during the late 1950’s and 1960s, so not only was it the government, and scientists that were paying attention, but these concepts were on the raise in the public’s consciousness.

It is important to understand the basic brain wave patterns to understand how and why Jose Silva began to change the scientific notions of ESP being a birth condition that was unteachable.

The brain has several waves lengths that it uses to process information.

Betas wave runs at 12-32 hertz and is the busiest of the frequency, this state is used to process the loud everyday information we are bombarded with, there is a high chance that as you are reading this your Beta wave is working away processing other ideas and taking in the senses around you.

Gamma is a wave that operates at 32-48 hertz. This is a quick, quiet frequency that allows information to be passed around the brain. To be able to access the Gamma state there must be a degree of quiet in the mind, light meditation is useful for this. When we want to be truly present in the moment, we access the alpha waves, 8-12 hertz, this state brings about awareness, calmness, and clarity.

When we are in deep meditation, and asleep the brain switches into theta mode, this is the place of imagination. At 3-8hertz the brain produces vivid images.

Delta operates at 0.5-3 hertz and is the healing state that the brain generates, this is the place of either the deepest meditation or the deepest sleep state.

o, what are Hertz and why did Jose understand them? Hertz can be measured via an EEG machine; this machine measures the electrical activity in the brain and can relate which is the dominant wave at any one time; this is then relayed to a computer for analysis. The electrical activity in the brain creates wave formations, theses are fixed and related to the aforementioned states. As an electrical engineer, Jose would have been very familiar with wave frequencies, electrical currents and how these could be altered into different states. Simply put if you have the basic understanding of electricity in any device that method can in principle be applied to the bio electrical currents of the brain. He used this knowledge base to apply theories to his notion of how to improve the brain, and how to gain mind control.

Jose Silva’s method tapped into these brain wave states to train people in taking control of their lives, with the unexpected development of evolving ESP.

Jose became preoccupied with mind development techniques to help aid his own children with their ability to concentrate and retain information to increase their school grades, with an unexpected twist. After a period training his daughter, Jose sat down with her to train her in retaining historical timelines, he set to placing her in a meditative state, in that state he would read

out the information she needed.

After this he began to ask her questions, and to his delight she was able to answer correctly and with depth. This is where things got interesting, as he formulated the question in his mind to ask, his daughter would answer before he could verbalise it. She had “heard” his question in her mind. She had never shown any signs of clairvoyancy prior to this period, and it sparked a new curiosity in how Jose progressed his techniques. He seemingly had gone beyond the current parapsychological thinking that this kind of state couldn’t be trained and was though an anomalous element of very few individuals. When I came across the work of Silva, I had a moment of ease, here was someone else who, and not in new age terms, but in a scientifical sense, caught on to the notion that we all have ESP. We can all tap into the “other” senses outside our material ones. People will often say to me that they have no ability to meditate, to remote view, to use telepathy, to perceive the non-material realms. I believe everyone can, that it is not a gift but simply part of our biological make up. I was born with a limited sense of smell, my spectrum of sniffing out odours is limited; however, I find I can readily detect the faintest whiff of certain aromas. I know with diet and sniffing training I could improve this, but it doesn’t mean I don’t have that sense. Those who are born blind will say they can perceive the world and can describe objects through touch. They still have the ability to convey the world even though they have never had sight. Some people, I believe are born more in tune with this ESP sensors, just as there are people born with super sensitive hearing, or taste. We are all different, it just means if we want to access the senses that aren’t our strongest, we may need training or aids to help. Children especially are more likely to retain their ESP capabilities, they are less likely to dismiss their feelings and having the space to remain in an imaginative state, the lower and slower end of the brain wave hertz spectrum, could be one reason why.

Jose was aware of the work of Rhine and opened a channel of communication, and I presume he

was aware of Rhines stance in terms of ESP wasn’t teachable. Jose said about his communications with Rhine

“I wrote Dr Rhine and explained to him that I had developed a clairvoyant (his daughter). His answer was that there was no such thing as developing a clairvoyant. He said I had probable been working with a natural clairvoyant, one who was born with a gift. He said I had most likely had fooled myself by thinking that I had developed the subjects’ extraordinary faculties.

If she had been displaying any “natural” clairvoyant abilities, I felt sure I would have noticed it.

Anyway, I decided to work with others to prove to myself that I had developed the ability to function as a clairvoyant”

Jose worked hard in a scientific data gathering exercise to prove his point. Between 1953 and 1963 he had successfully trained 39 men, women and children in this technique and kept meticulous records on each stage of development and outcomes. He was later invited to universities to lecture about his findings and to assist in lab experiments looking into the brain waves at various stages of his techniques, using EEG machines to examine brain waves. One such finding was that his method could place the brain into two separate states, which had been previously thought not to be possible

“According to past beliefs, it is said that a person cannot visualise and produce alpha at the same time and that a person cannot work on a maths problem and produce alpha at the same time”

Jose proved that this could be done by teaching the brain and this extended further than reported lab success.

The Silva effect went further in the development of simple memory retention, it leaped into the subjects developing ESP abilities but the claim that this method can bend reality may be to far for most, but it is something I believe in.

On a personal level I have experienced aspect of the effects of the Silva method throughout my life, by researching and implementing similar techniques. However, It is a difficult thing to explain, but for me it is like stepping into myself, or stepping into my life when synchronicities, and serendipity are at work. It is like the universe is at play with you and for you. This comes about in patches for me, and I feel it, I become excited

about the process and hold amazement at the outcomes. One such event came from a YouTube advert. I always skip the ads, I have a short enough attention span for things on screen as it is, but this add started off talking about how a women became known as the luckiest women in the world, I kept watching but I wasn’t sure why. The women in question had not failed to win a competition and had gathered press interested. She was put to the test and without fail would win anything, she had been trained and was using the silva method. The guy on the ad talked about how the baseball team the Sox had players using the method, with outstanding results. What really piqued my interest was the mention of a book I had been given as a teenager.

Jonathan Livingstone Seagull by Bach was a book that changed my perception of life, it is short, really short in words, but I still now mull of the content, it was a book that was a cog in changing who I was and how I approached life. Apparently, the manuscript for the book had been sat in the basement of the author for five years, he was unable to find an appropriate ending. The author, Richard Bach, had received training in this technique and within a short space of time had not only complete the book but had it published, and it became a global best seller. Only after a few minutes of the ad I was researching the method, the people attached to it as I carried on listen, and I knew I had to write this article

and it has given me the intuitive sense that I am not only meant to do this, but it will open the door to synchronicities. I can’t fully explain the physical sensation, other than it’s a controlled excitement. Jose Silva noted that this was another effect of his teachings, that people were starting to bend their lives to their will, sounds like magic. In its basic core it is exactly that, magic, the ability to clearly visualise reality and to full step into it.

I realise that these are far from new ideas, and the techniques Jose promotes are closely related to the timeless meditation techniques of say the Buddhists, the Yogis etc. What truly captivated me, other than the link to Rhine, the prospect of gaining the ability to bend reality, was his simple, straightforwardness that can only be found with an engineering mind. He was never a guru, in the 1960s with his ideas this must have been a very conscious decision, and by all accounts he was a humble man, from simple beginnings who went on to develop straightforward and humble techniques.

The Silva Mind Control method was, and still is highly successful, it has now developed further under the banner of Mind Valley, which is lead by the guy I saw in the advert; his name is Vishen Lakhiani.

Jose’s original book “The Silva Mind Control Method” still sells extraordinarily well, decades after its first publication, as do his other publications, and Mind Valley is thriving as a successful business that continues to develop the minds of all those who are willing to expand it.

The ability to tap into the deeper recesses of the mind and to have complete control of it is a concept that is globally and historically apparent. Why is it important then that we reach this state of being, and why do people spend their lives dedicated to its pursuit?

Just as we would morn the loss of our other senses, if we could no longer see, touch, taste, or hear, do we experience that same sense of loss that our other sense, the extra sensory perception. When I consider the possibilities that ESP knowing and abilities would allow, it makes me believe that this little used sensor is equally as important as all the others. Who wouldn’t want to be able to remote view, have powers of telepathy, reach instant states of calm and meditation; beyond that who wouldn’t want to step into the life they imagine and truly live it? The Silva method seemingly offers all these things, a door to the world of extrasensory perception and all that has to offer.

Photo Credit: Peace,love,happiness, Pixabay

Vampyre What Creates a Monster?

BY MORGAN KNUDSEN

It’s difficult to make a single, definitive description about the folkloric vampire, though in Europe, there are some common elements: Bloated, ruddy, purple – fat from the recent drinking of blood from victims. Not exactly the suave and sparkly image that we have today, is it? They sure weren’t sweeping the ladies off their feet or yearning for undying love. Blood was often seen seeping from their mouth and nose, their left eye open, and it was usually clad in linen, not tuxedoes. Its dirty fingernails, teeth and hair were elongated, and usually fangs weren’t a feature. While some folks described them as the ‘undead’, many described them as living beings. In Slavic and Chinese traditions, if an animal of any kind jumped over a corpse, it had the potential of being one of the undead. A body with an untreated wound which had not been cared for with boiling water was also a potential hazard, and, in Russia, if you rebelled against the Orthodox Church, odds are: You would probably be a vampire when you died. Why? Because you must have been a witch in life, of course!

The typical vampire we see depicted in films is not the only place we see elements of blood drinking monsters. In cryptozoology, a strange animal known as the Chupacabra (or goatsucker) is a constant and persistent

risk to chickens, sheep, and other livestock. Animals are regularly found with puncture marks in their neck and the blood drained from the body, with no evidence of blood in the area. People have reported seeing a four-foot-tall creature with large eyes hanging around chicken coups which they believe is the culprit, although descriptions vary wildly and in the recent years, a strange hairless unidentified canine has donned the name. It is now photographed regularly and has been seen on police dash cams, as well as physical bodies recovered and stuffed.

No matter what lore or description you subscribe to, an age-old question appears from this muddle of legend: What creates a monster? Is it their frightening appearance? Their ability to come back from the dead? Their deadly attacks? Or does it have more to do with the innate fear of losing our own mental functions to something over which we have no control?

Many cases of similar creatures – The Leyak of Bali, the Asasabonam of Ghana, the Ekkimu of Mesopotamia, the Asema from Suriname and others – not only cause others to turn into otherworldly creatures, but in the case of the German Neuntoter (nine-tuter), it kills by spreading its own disease. Its name translates to “The Killer of Nine”, because it is believed it

takes 9 days to die once you see the creature. In a similar fashion, the First Nations Wendigo or Witiko is feared for the same reason: If it attacks you, you not only risk death but risk becoming another Wendigo. Your family becomes your target and the sense of ‘home’ you once trusted becomes a battlefield.

The Asema is known to seep through walls as bright balls of blue energy, draining the victim’s blood while they sleep. Seeds, nails and garlic are the only hope of defending yourself against this energetic monster.

Many of the features we see in the vampire lore blanket the fear of losing our faculties and giving in to our most frightening primal ways: Eating one another and having no choice in the matter. It also highlights another fear: The fear of an attack we can’t see coming.

Whether it be a vampire that takes on the appearance of a ball of light, or a seductive lover, or a family member turned vicious: the attacks all come from places we don’t expect and from people we trust, when we are at our most vulnerable and where we offer trust.

The idea of feeling uncertain regarding what happens to us after we die also plays a role here. The vampire or the victims are stuck in some kind of “purgatory”: a living hell they can’t seem to escape without the relief of another person’s actions, such as killing them in some specific way or ritual. In the Bayou, the Rougarou falls to the same traditions: a werewolf curse that holds a person captive until someone cuts them and causes blood to spill. Only then, it is said, can they be cured.

Although there are plenty of Rougarou tales and stories about how it came to be, the idea of a curse that someone cannot control is a theme through many.

Isee a similar stream of thinking in the world of hauntings and as a researcher, I am often surprised at how many still adhere to the idea that spirits ‘get stuck’ and need to be crossed over, a line of thinking going back to the days of the church where parishioners were required to pay the church money to get their loved ones out of purgatory. Despite there being no parapsychological evidence that this is the case, the trope persists in television, media, and popular thinking.

The fear of these vampire monsters has been so great over the years that people have become desperate to recognize these traits before they get hurt. Nowadays, we tend to reach out to psychology: seeking books on narcissism, psychopathy, or sociopathy to avoid potential human predators. We fear running into monsters that we simply don’t see coming; being frightened our instinct might fail us and we might miss a critical warning sign. We translate this same behaviour into our mythos as well: How do we stop the thing we can’t see from sneaking up on us when we are unawares? One method of finding a vampire’s grave involved leading a virgin boy through a graveyard or church grounds on a virgin stallion—the horse would supposedly balk at the grave in question. Generally, a black horse was required, though in Albania it should be white. Holes appearing in the earth over a grave were taken as a sign of vampirism. Corpses thought to be vampires were generally described as having a healthier appearance than expected, plump and showing little or no signs of decomposition. Even poltergeist or psychokinetic activity has been blamed on the possibility of a vampire lurking about. Things, again, that we now know are often generated by the human themselves. So perhaps, that is a clue.

The fear of other humans has been a long-held issue amongst the human race. We fear other cultures, other races, other belief systems, strangers, neighbours… and especially dead bodies. The fear of dead bodies is come by honestly: we learned early on that bodies emit diseases and deadly gasses upon decomposition. They bring rats and bugs and plagues. We feared corpses for good reason, and couple that with a general fear of other humans hurting us in some way, it isn’t hard to see how the psychology of the vampire begins to come together.

During the 18th Century, there was a frenzy of vampire sightings in Eastern Europe, with frequent staking’s and grave diggings to identify and kill the potential revenants. Even government officials engaged in the hunting and staking of vampires.

Despite being called the Age of Enlightenment, during which most folkloric legends were quelled, the belief in vampires increased dramatically. This resulted in a mass hysteria throughout most of Europe.

This controversy spread like wildfire and began when there was an outbreak of alleged vampire attacks in East Prussia in 1721 and in the Habsburg Monarchy from 1725 to 1734, which spread to other localities. Two infamous vampire cases, the first to be officially recorded, involved the corpses from Serbia. One man was reported to have died at the age of 62, but allegedly returned after his death asking his son for food. When the son refused, he was found dead the following day. He supposedly returned and attacked some neighbours who died from loss of blood. In a second incident, an ex-soldier-turned-farmer who allegedly was attacked by a vampire years before, died while haying. After his death, people began to die in the surrounding area, and it was widely believed that he had returned to prey on the neighbours. The two incidents were well-documented. Government officials examined the bodies, wrote case reports, and published books throughout Europe. The hysteria, commonly referred to as the “18thCentury Vampire Controversy”, raged for a generation. The problem was exacerbated by rural epidemics of so-called vampire attacks, undoubtedly caused by the higher amount of superstition that was present in village communities, with locals digging up bodies and, in some cases, staking them.

“Dom Augustine Calmet, a French theologian and scholar, published a comprehensive treatise in 1751 titled Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants which investigated the existence of vampires, demons, and spectres. Calmet conducted extensive research and amassed judicial reports of vampiric incidents and extensively researched theological and mythological accounts as well, using the scientific method in his analysis to come up with methods for determining the validity for cases of this nature.”

“The controversy in Austria only ceased when Empress Maria Theresa of Austria sent her personal physician to investigate the claims of vampiric entities. He concluded that vampires did not exist, and the Empress passed laws prohibiting the opening of graves and desecration of bodies, sounding the end of the vampire epidemics. Other European countries followed suit. Despite this condemnation, the vampire lived on in artistic works and in local folklore.”

https://mythpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Vampire

Although these creatures are still present in theatrical works, movies, and books today, the vampire begs bigger questions than simply an option for a Halloween costume. They are an opportunity to glimpse the deepest fears of humanity. For wherever vampire fears lurk, exists a people who tread on unstable ground. The fear of the unknown and the willingness to believe that what we do not understand will ultimately kill us or destroy us in some way, gives way to beliefs that can do far more damage than a fanged monster sneaking into our rooms at night. It is the same fuel that causes accusations, isolation, a lack of critical thinking and invested understanding, and the closing of minds.

Perhaps the greatest damage a vampire can do is not to show up at all, but rather the fear of the vampire itself is enough to begin to create a disease in the mind.

If we fear thy neighbor, the plague of the vampire begins to seal doors, close windows, and shut down hearts. Strangers become threats and potential monsters with no evidentiary basis other than the rumor mill. Conversation stops, and a new plague begins without a vampire ever setting foot on the ground.

So: What creates a monster? Perhaps it is a lack of garlic, superstition, or not burying a body in the right direction. Or, perhaps, it is fear. Perhaps it is our own innate fear of the unknown looking back at us in the mirror that makes vampires a unique type of horror.

BARRI GHAI

We’ve had the pleasure of knowing Barri Ghai for many years now, he has been in the magazine several times, he has taken part in festivals that we’ve attended or been involved with, he’s joined us on a live stream where we all witnessed a table move on its own that still baffles us to this day and he has always had time to chat to us as and when available.

What we wanted to do with this interview is to kind of take away the TV image, strip away the social media image that people may or not have of Barri and ask what makes him tick, what makes him tock and ask him what events, happenings and life situations have transpired to make Barri Ghai the way he is today.

It’s great to finally get the opportunity to get to know what makes you tick! I note from the bio on your website that you were exposed to many horrific personal experiences as a child and that they could only be described as “Demonic attacks”. Could you tell us a little more about this if it’s not too traumatic please?

From the age of 10 to around 15, I had a spirit in my family home. It was a demonic entity masquerading as a small boy which I inadvertently conjured whilst on a school holiday to the Isle of White. It followed me home and caused me great suffering and anxiety for years.

"The entity would taunt me by whispering my name, move objects, walk around the house at night, open doors, turn on lights, throw objects at me, scratch me, taunt me and physically hurt me!"

One night my bedroom door opened, and nobody was there. I heard the shag pile carpet crunching under invisible feet as this thing slowly walked towards my bed. I had my back to the door and tried not to breath or make a sound. I felt it behind me and was petrified. Whatever it was then punched me in the back and I lay there crying myself to sleep. The next morning, I explained what happened to my mother who lifted my pyjama top and saw a small fist like bruise in the centre of my lower back.

After enduring many years of fear, I finally confronted this thing. I was 15 and had just received a black belt in Karate after 7 years of training. I felt more empowered and confident in myself and more importantly less fearful. I remember sitting at my desk in the middle of the day. Both parents and my sister were out and I heard my name whispered again in my right ear. I jumped up and started shouting at it. I asked it to show itself and fight me. I stood in a fighting stance in the middle of my bedroom floor for about 5 minutes waiting for the entity to appear or do something else, but nothing actually happened. In utter frustration I sat on the edge of my bed and started to cry with my hands over my face. After a few moments I felt a tingling sensation and my room became charged with what I now know is static electricity. I had an immediate wave of fear come over me and I looked up to see a black mist forming in my doorway. I slowly stood up and took one step towards it when I was lifted off my feet and thrown back onto my bed hitting the wall hard. I curled up into a ball and protected my face expecting to be attacked, but nothing happened.

After a few seconds I looked up and it was gone. I remember running out of the house and waiting for my parents to get home from work. The entity didn’t bother me again, but to this day I feel it around me when I’m at a low point or sick.

What was the first instance of paranormal activity that you experienced and how did it change your perception of your reality?

The first experience I can vividly remember occurred when I was around 4 or 5 years of age. I was sat on the bedroom floor of my cousin’s house playing with some of his toy cars. A man dressed in light blue denim jeans and a bright white crew neck T-Shirt came into the room and turned to look at me. I think he was a young man, he had dark short straight hair, pale skin and was quite tall. The man was also solid and looked very real to me. As he stepped into the room through the open bedroom door, I remember thinking he must be a friend of my uncle’s or a family guest. The man turned his head, looked down at me for about 3 seconds, and then turned his head back and walked towards the wall where he simply walked straight through it like he just entered through another open doorway.

At the time I was confused and knew it was not possible or normal, but I didn’t consider it to be a spirit or ghost. I just couldn’t understand what had happened, but I do remember feeling intense fear and ran downstairs to be with my parents. I never actually said anything though and always wonder why. Upon reflection, I don’t think this early encounter changed my perception of reality, but it certainly made me question things in my young mind and provided me with an experience which helped shape my future.

My mother is very spiritual as was her mother before her. Both taught me a great deal about spirits, energy, divination, and psychic abilities. I remember having long conversations with my mum about her own paranormal experiences whilst growing up, and although they terrified me, I loved hearing about them and asked questions always wanting to know exactly what happened and how she felt.

My nan used to read palms and was said to be able to tell people who or what they were in a previous life just by looking at their ankle area. I was always fascinated by her and spent many nights sat talking to her about spirits and fortune telling before her death in 2011.

I used to tell my mum and nan all about the experiences I had whilst growing up. They believed me and always tried to help me understand. At home, we had a very good collection of books and old literature and most of them were all about the supernatural and unexplained. I probably read them all cover to cover before the age of 12 and then used to visit my local library just to take out new books on the supernatural to feed my curiosity further.

Tell us a joke?

How did you prepare yourself for your first paranormal investigation and what (if any) equipment did you use?

My first proper investigation was in a local cemetery. I went alone at night and took with me a digital camera, a torch, Olympus digital voice recorder and a K2 meter which I had purchased online from none other than Chris Fleming of all people. It was an interesting experience and I remember being followed around by the sound of shuffling feet in the fallen leaves.

My mum told me this when I was about 8 or 9 and it stuck with me. Perhaps the reason I feel so in tune with spirit now is because I have a strong connection to them that has been passed down to me through my family line.

I’d like to explore a little more of the entity that you continue to encounter. Could you describe how you came into contact with this and what impact it has on your current investigations?

The entity was the attachment I had from the age of 10. Although I confronted it and seemingly banished it from my home, it never stopped making its presence known to me and my family.

Are you from a family of believers? How did they respond to your initial early experiences?

When I was born, my nan held me for the first time and apparently told my mother, "This boy has a blue light around his head. He is spiritual and very gifted."

"Why do ghosts hate the rain? It dampens their spirits."

At times when I was unwell, I felt it and heard it. It seemed to come to me only at my most vulnerable, but I have always been able to keep it away and prevented it from latching on again. I do recall my sister having an experience which I believe was the same entity when my niece was only a baby. My sister moved across the road from where we grew up and rented a place in the same street. She recalls that one night in front of her and her husband, their daughter was picked up by an invisible force and dropped onto the bed where she actually bounced off onto the floor. The experience scared them both so much she called me and my mother to try and remove whatever it was that had attacked her daughter. My mother heard and felt the evil presence who mockingly laughed as it rushed out of the house during some powerful prayers and cleansing.

The entity has not made its presence known to me for many years, and I’m glad, but it must be there lingering in the ether. Thankfully I believe I have evolved and protected myself and loved ones well. Perhaps one day we will meet again face to face for a final showdown!

Were you ever harmed in the early investigations? What made you continue your journey into paranormal investigating?

I was never actually harmed during my early investigations, but I did have some very scary encounters which made me question what I was doing and why. In the past 20 years I have been shoved, pushed, touched, scratched, slapped, choked, punched and even bitten by invisible forces but the more serious physical attacks have come much later on in my career. I must say to those reading this, that physical attacks are rare, and I have potentially put myself in some very dangerous positions which have greatly increased the risk of these attacks occurring.

I shared a large converted Victorian house with 7 others and we had a great time together. In my last year however, I watched a movie with three of my housemates upstairs before heading to my bedroom located on the ground floor at around 2am. I got into bed and turned out my bedside lamp before wrapping the duvet around me. Within seconds of me settling down, I felt like someone was shaking me by the left shoulder. It felt like someone was trying to get me up in a hurry.

It was a few years after graduation and I couldn’t forget what happened. The image of her remained firmly engrained in my mind and I had so many questions. I soon decided to take my interest and experiences and create a website and forum to share with others. It took a while but eventually the Ghostfinder Paranormal Society was born and I started investigating all of the UK.

What areas of the country have you investigated with GPS?

I believe that I have a job to do and a purpose to help spirits and those afflicted like I once was.

You saw a young female entity during your final year at university. Could you tell us what happened and why it became the driving force for your plans to create the Ghostfinder Paranormal Society (GPS)?

I studied at the University of Sunderland from 1997 to 2000. I majored in Media Studies but also took a minor in American History.

She looked around 7 or 8 years of age, had blonde hair, blue eyes and was smiling at me while playing with her hair. I could see all of her but she was transparent and made of light. It only took me about 3 seconds to realise it was a spirit. In pure shock and panic, I kicked out and launched myself back against the wall. I didn’t kick anything, and she was still there for a few seconds before the apparition dissipated into the dark room. Nobody believed me and my housemates thought I must have dreamt it or something, but I knew what I saw and it was very real.

I graduated a few months later and returned to London. The little girl made herself know to me again on two separate occasions. I have no idea who she is, why she wanted me to see her and what she needed, but If I could experience her again, I would definitely find out more.

Since 2006, my team and I have travelled everywhere in the UK. We’ve investigated all manner of properties from museums, castles, family homes, mansions, flats, farmhouses, hotels and even cliff tops. Many years ago, the GPS team was made up of around 20 members all located across the country. We had opportunities in the Southwest, Northeast, Yorkshire, Southeast, London and Wales. The majority of cases were private residences, but we did also investigate the more famous haunted hotspots like the HellFire Caves, Ancient Ram Inn and Tutbury Castle.

Help! My House is Haunted seems to be like a real team effort, both in front of camera and behind the scenes too. Can you tell us more about it? What’s it like working with Jayne Harris and Ian Lawman.

Working with Ian and Jayne is incredible. Both are extraordinary people with experience, knowledge, and compassion. The series has always been a massive team effort and people need to recognise the hard work that goes on behind the scenes also. We have a team of brilliant researchers,

"My passion for the paranormal keeps me going and despite the risks I soldier on with a commitment to my duties."

"I recall pulling the duvet off my face and shouting "What?" expecting g to see one of my drunk housemates, but instead I saw a young girl stood there next me."

producers, co-ordinators and executives that make the series come to life on screen.

Jayne is brilliant. She is clever, professional, and driven to do a great job. I couldn’t ask for a better teammate and friend. Ian Lawman is also amazing. He adds a level of experience, power and confidence that makes our work so much more fun and interesting.

He also looks cool as hell! Both are funny and we have such a laugh when we’re together on and off screen. It’s this team spirit that makes the show so good and allows us to help all the wonderful homeowners and lost souls.

We also have our defined roles on the team. Nobody is the team leader, and we always work together as a team. Having worked with them both for a while now we know each others strengths and weaknesses. We help each other, support each other and look after each other.

places affect people differently and I’m sure that I will have more encounters in the future which are potentially dangerous.

There is still so much to learn and experience and I feel grateful to have the opportunities to learn more.

Having been very fortunate to have investigated with you, it’s apparent just how you earned the rightful title of ‘EVP King’. How did you learn this craft and what is it that you think gives you such aptitude in the identification of this area?

You’ve worked with Chris Fleming who really does broaden the spectrum of what it means to investigate the paranormal with the fae, imps, pixies, elementals and demons all on his radar. How much of these beliefs do you share and have you ever come across a spirit you have been unable to fully identify?

Having worked with Chris for a few years, I have embraced the notion of different supernatural beings.

I was called the ‘EVP King’ online by some followers and eventually the title just stuck and became a bit of a trademark. It’s not a self-proclaimed title by any means and I actually felt a little embarrassed by this statement because there are so many excellent ITC practitioners in the field, and I’m simply one of many.

However, I am lucky to have recorded some incredible responses over the years and do seem to attract spirits who like to communicate with me via this method of ITC. My unique ability to hear faint spirit voices during investigation is also a bonus. It is perhaps a form of clairaudience but commonly described as Direct Voice Phenomena or DVP. After several years, I decided to give in to the rather flattering ‘EVP King’ label and just go with it. I am able to record great EVP’s and have trained and taught others to do the same.

I don’t recall ever being on an investigation where I have felt it was too dangerous to continue although I have come close. There have been times I have left a building or taken someone out to protect myself or them from possible harm, but those situations are very rare.

I remember having to walk out of 39 De Grey Street in Hull because of the way it made feel. I have also left the HellFire Caves a few times during a public event due to an overwhelming sadness and also an intense feeling of fear. During a private case, I once felt like I was being overtaken and had to walk away for fear that I may not be strong enough to prevent a walk-in. I think that some

This includes IMPS’s angels and demons, but also the world of the elemental. Before working with him, I never truly appreciated this and it was only during filming of the Old School House episode in Devon during season 2 that completely altered my perception and changed my mindset. We both saw what we believe was an elemental creature in the garden. It ran into the house through a wall and I still to this day can’t explain it. I have never seen anything like that before or since this event but have encountered them many times during investigations.

My interest in Electronic Voice Phenomena grew as my curiosity into the paranormal developed. Today, I find that a clear mind, thought projection, being polite and clear helps me to record some amazing electronic responses. There is no trick, just clarity of thought and connection. Perhaps I do have a psychic gift that allows me to communicate better. Having had so many encounters over the years, It is possible that I have just honed my skills and been able to harness this form of electronic communication to a higher standard.

What scares you the most?

Ha ha ha ha!!! Well as many people know already, I hate clowns, spiders and most dolls…Need I say more. They scare the hell out me and I seem to be encountering them more and more on and off screen.

Have you ever been on an investigation that you felt was too dangerous to continue on?

"I guess my scariest experience came recently when we investigated Toyah Wilcox's home. I was choked by a spirit in her attic room and genuinely felt fear."

"There are occasions where I am left scratching my head and don't fully understand what we are dealing with."

"I first stated recording for EVP's when I was young using a cassette recorder in my bedroom. It all started when trying to record songs from the radio and hearing disembodied voices coming through upon playback."

Yes, my mother, sister, and some of my children seem to be spiritually connected. They all have occasional experiences and I think that some of them have a psychic gift that has increased the number of encounters.

When will we next see you on our TV screens?

Series 4 of Help! My House is Haunted is coming very soon to Discovery Plus. We’ve just finished the voice over and the episodes are simply brilliant. I think it’s the best season yet. Also keep an eye out for a new series of Unexplained Caught on Camera and next year you’ll see a lot more of me as I’ve got a very busy year ahead with a potential new TV project and more Help of course.

How do you think the paranormal has changed over the last ten years?

The world of the paranormal has evolved and it is apparent that more and more people have jumped on the bandwagon to try and get into this exciting field. In terms of popular culture, the paranormal seems to have made a comeback with hugely successful films and several new TV shows.

genre does equal more followers, more subscribers, and ultimately more money. Popular TV networks have also grown and commissioned many more paranormal shows, and with their soaring popularity, I do feel that this will continue for a few more years to come.

• Bruce Lee would be wise, philosophical and entertaining.

• J esus Christ…Well imagine talking to God, ‘okay the son of God’. I would ask everything and anything.

• M organ Freeman to narrate the whole evening in that iconic voice.

• Alan Turing as I’ve always been fascinated by his intellect, problem solving abilities and logical mind.

• M arcello Bacci to discuss more about ITC and investigate ways to enhance my connection to spirit.

I think I would serve a selection of tasty canapes followed by a starter of halloumi with grilled vegetables followed by a main course of roast duck breast with figs, rosemary and garlic fried potatoes. For my dessert an elegant chocolate and vanilla sundae with sprinkles of popping candy lol. I’m not a huge fan of cocktails, so I would serve a 20-year-old mature single malt Irish whiskey after dinner.

What’s on your paranormal bucket list? Three locations that you’ve not had the chance to go to but would love to at some point

• The Queen Mary

• Alcatraz

• E astern State Penitentiary

Will the paranormal ever be proven 100% or will there always be differences of opinion, disagreements and discussions in this weird and wonderful niche we find ourselves in.

I think Help! was the first paranormal show in recent years to really have an emphasis on helping everyone including the spirits. Many shows have now followed in our footsteps to replicate what we do as this form of paranormal investigation seems popular and very much needed.

It’s not just about running around in the dark screaming and looking scared. The modern investigator needs to be more inventive and empathetic. Paranormal investigations have changed dramatically over the past decade with more online streamed content available to everyone. I think social media and video streaming platforms like YouTube and TikTok have seen a huge growth in content and not just from paranormal investigators but from content creators with massive followings that post paranormal content. These young online celebrities are the new A list movie stars and some of them have embraced the fact that the paranormal and horror

I’ve also noticed that so many people who love what they see on screen, simply buy equipment online and just go out and investigate. I have seen hundreds of amateur paranormal enthusiasts set up a new team and start investigating. The field has definitely grown in positive ways but also in bad ways. It seems to me that it has become a little messy at times with controversy, poor ethics, poor practice and less respect. Having said that, I’m pleased to see that this once taboo field has a more mainstream existence and the world of the paranormal is becoming more exciting and diverse.

The Barri Ghai dinner party. You can invite up to 7 guests, alive or not, real or fictional, who would you invite & why. What would you serve, we want starter, main meal and desert please, you can even include a cheeky cocktail if you wish.

I would love to host a dinner party for the following guests:

• S uperman because the character is just legendary and it would be so damn cool.

There will always be different opinions and those who simply won’t accept it. Through advancements in modern technology and science, perhaps we will come to a stage where the paranormal becomes a mainstream part of physics and psychology. I estimate that in around 500 years’ time, perhaps in the year 2500 the world may embrace that the human consciousness exists infinitely in a multi-dimensional universe. Spiritual communication will be as easy as talking to your best friend on a mobile phone. I expect that technology will have even created a way of allowing people to connect to their deceased loved ones and other beings through some form of God like helmet or built-in device. It’s a shame we all won’t be around to see this though. However, I plan to try and come back and help others in the afterlife!

Have any other members of your family discovered that they are closely connected to spirit?

"People are bored of watching just a ghost hunt, they want explanation, they want real evidence, they want resolution and I think that's why Help! My House is haunted is so popular."

"I don't think we will ever prove it 100', well not in my lifetime anyway."

THE GHOSTS OF BELTON HOUSE

MOONDIAL &

By Charlie Hall The Musical Medium

From a very young age the National Trust’s 16th century Belton House, has always been a place of great personal importance to me, especially after seeing it as the location in my favourite ghostly BBC TV series Moondial, written by BAFTA Award winning author Helen Cresswell. At the time I did not know where it was but knew I had to get there one day, as tiny me believed it to be a magical place with a portal to other dimensions that would help me to see and meet spirits. A charming grade 1 listed, country mansion in Lincolnshire, that is home to several apparitions, with various accounts of unexplained happenings such as sightings, sounds and manifestations being reported there.

Sir John Brownlow built the current Carolean house in parkland between 1685-1688 and lavished it with opulent interiors, including fine architecture, majestic décor and a vast array of over 19000 collectable items. The house contains an impressive accumulation of family portraits from the 16th-20th centuries, a prized porcelain collection and a striking 1640’s deep blue lapis lazuli cabinet from Rome. The library is the second largest of the National Trust with 11000 titles and encompasses an amazing 400 years of collecting.

THE BEAUTIFUL GROUNDS FEATURE ITALIAN GARDENS, AN 18TH CENTURY STATUE WALK, MAZE, AN EXOTIC ORANGERY, MIRROR POND, AND ST PETER AND ST PAUL’S 12TH CENTURY NORMAN CHURCH.

The church’s splendid surviving monuments depict 500 years of history in memory of the Brownlow and Cust families.

Entering through the courtyard by a lovely clock tower, I started recognising where different scenes of the programme had been filmed and could not wait to get inside the house. There is a large marble hall and a great staircase with stunning chandelier, where it is said that the ghost of Sir Brownlow’s great niece, Alice Sherard still roams. People have claimed to see a being surrounded by a

radiant light appear here, who they call ‘The bright lady’. Bizarrely as I write this, I am startled by seeing flashes of white light like from a camera in my peripheral vision in my kitchen, I jumped up to try and see what it was but to no avail, very odd indeed!

Stories tell of ‘The grey lady’, who haunts the long gallery, being seen to slowly drift along then sink through the floorboards and vanish. A few superstitious cleaners were apparently left bewildered and uncomfortable after seeing a female in old fashioned attire and a male in a long black cape wandering around the house and insisted subsequently that they work in pairs.

THERE IS A MYSTERIOUS SPECTRE WHO HAS ALLEGEDLY MADE NUMEROUS APPEARANCES IN THE QUEENS BED CHAMBER OVER THE YEARS, THEY SAY HE IS A TALL FELLOW, WEARING A HAT AND CLOAK, KNOWN AS, ‘THE GENTLEMAN IN BLACK’.

Some even stated that they have heard him humming a tune near her room.

The strangest story I have come across was about the Brownlow’s family tree that hung in a dim hallway, whereby a female shadow in period clothing, supposedly manifested

Photo Credits: Belton House - @National Trust Images/Andrew Butler Inset: The Moondial - @National Trust Images/Mark Fiennes

beneath a protective plastic sheet that covered its surface and could not be wiped off. What baffled them more was that the next day a neck with a pearl necklace materialised and gradually the phenomena expanded, revealing shoulders and hands but with no head. People again speculate the phantasm to be Alice Sherard, (the bright lady).

I read online that a visitor some time ago, took a snapshot from outside of the saloon and captured what he described as an Eastern figure by the door, he was confused by the picture and wanted to see what others thought. Someone responded saying that they had further investigated it and felt there was clearly something there and another person replied suggesting it may be who they had seen in a tweed jacket by a fireplace, then recognised him as an Earl from a painting in the drawing room. Other recorded sightings in the house include a man in grey, a lady in black and that of a former housekeeper.

I disappointingly did not get to see any of the documented ghosts whilst there but feel that was due to my mediumship getting overshadowed as I was positively distracted by reliving my childhood in the various rooms of Moondial. I was running around, excitedly reciting the words from the show in the kitchen and bedroom, goodness knows how I remembered after all these years!

IT HAS BEEN NOTED THAT BELTON HOUSE HAS A WEALTH OF HISTORICAL GRAFFITI THAT HAS PROVIDED AN IMPORTANT WINDOW INTO THE PAST. HISTORIANS HAVE DISCOVERED NUMBERS, DATES AND IMAGES, INCLUDING AN OWL, AUSEKLIS CROSSES, COMPASS DESIGNS, WINDMILL, VV SYMBOLS AND PENTANGLES, MOST BEING FOUND IN THE STABLES.

Many of the early inscriptions and markings are thought to be apotropaic, for protection of the place and person. It was believed that the motifs and words were purposeful and had the power to avert evil and bad luck. Demons and witches were seen as a threat by past people due to the belief systems of that time.

Walking down the grand stone steps at the back of the house I rushed over to the statue walk where there stood some attractive Italian sculptures and a little further down were Gothic stone planter pots that I absolutely loved, with eerie faces on them, most likely to also ward off evil. This led to the big water fountain that was part of a Halloween scene from the show where creepy masked children, encircled it chanting . Then I saw it...what I had been waiting for my whole life...The Moondial!

Photo Credits: The Saloon - @National Trust Images/Andreas Von Einsiedel

I became overwhelmed and my bottom lip started to quiver, I was tiny me again and I had made it to the magical sundial.

Don’t cry, I said to myself and walked mesmerically over to the magnificent limestone carving, admiring the elaborate winged, time keeping figures, Eros the god of love, son of chaos and Cronus, the god of time, ruler of the cosmos. It was quite an emotional moment for me, I have much to thank Helen Cresswell and Belton House for as they have been huge contributing factors to my love and fascination of ghosts, this was where my paranormal journey properly began.

The manor has been a popular filming location for adaptations such as 1995 Pride and Prejudice, 2006 Jane Ayre, crime drama Bleak House and currently as per the website, there is filming over the summer, but by far the most famous was for BBC’s 1988 kids classic Moondial. A haunting story about present young girl Minty and 1800’s kitchen boy Tom, who believed each other to be ghosts and time travelled on the Moondial to help other spirit children and defeat evil.

I was ecstatic and honoured to be able to catch up with leading cast member, Actor and Writer Tony Sands, who has previously appeared in UK soaps EastEnders, The Bill and The Krays movie. Whist having a giggle chatting about our life adventures, Tony who is also of Irish heritage, informed me that Santa’s buried in Kilkenny, What?! Puzzled me squeaked, as I tried to suss out if he was winding me up or not, google it he said and sure enough according to Irish legend and historians, Saint Nicholas is evidently buried in a church there, I couldn’t believe I never knew of this intriguing fact on my home turf so thanked him for enlightening me! We proceeded to talk re Moondial and I asked Tony some questions regarding his time at Belton House and the spooky things he has been up to -

C: When you were asked to play a leading role in Moondial, were you a believer of ghosts?

T: I was. Never actually seen one, but I believed. I think you have to at least be open to the possibility. I mean, that’s more fun, or scary, or both.

C: In your part as kitchen boy Tom, did you gain much knowledge about the beliefs and ways of the people in that era of our past?

T: I could tell you that upon signing on for the role I threw myself into intense research to better understand the world that Tom inhabited, but that would be a lie, no search engines back then, the eighties I mean, not Victorian times! It was a bit of an eye opener playing a role based in that era. The production created a very realistic and atmospheric representation of the period. It was incredibly dour for some people at the time, even Tom’s ambitions are limited. The way Sarah is treated is horrific, yet I don’t think history has changed much as we still see horrible things happening. Some people are incapable of learning. How much scarier can a ghost be than what the living are capable of?

C: In Moondial, as you said your co character Sarah, was not treated kindly by some, due to superstition re her birthmark, which in those days, was sadly thought by some people to be the mark of the devil or a witch, do you have any superstitions?

T: I’m not sure I do now, but I used to. I had a lucky scarf in the 1992/93 football season that contributed to Arsenal winning the domestic cup double. I have no scientific evidence of this, but I know it was the real reason for the team’s success.

C: If you could go back in time, what era would you go to, who would you meet with and what would you get up to?!

: Oooh…umm...the late 1920s, early 30s. I love Laurel & Hardy, so it would be incredible to meet them in their prime and try to nab a part in their films! What an era that was with an array of comedy geniuses that have influenced generations. I’d also find good places to people watch, see sights...and wonder if Biff Tannen from Back to the Future was onto a good idea before Marty Mcfly interfered.

C: When filming at Belton House did you see or experience anything supernatural?

T: Unfortunately not, it was an amazing experience and Belton House is an incredible place. Lincoln is very nice too, the cathedral there is worth a visit.

C: In the story your friend and fellow time traveller Minty, used a lovely old cross shaped mirror as a talisman to rid an evil spirit, what talisman would you have and for what would you use it?

T: I have an old boxing glove that my late dad brought home when I was a young kid, Only the left-hand glove. I still have it, its a tattered brown leathery thing that would be my talisman. It would fight off evil.

Photo Credit: Great Staircase - @National Trust Images/Dennis Gilbert

Inset: Queens bedroom - @National Trust Images/ Dennis Gilbert

C:

T: I haven’t, not as such. There have been times when I’ve felt like I have had an Angel on my shoulder, letting me know that no matter what I faced I would get through it.

C: You have since written and starred in paranormal short film, ‘Echoes of the passed’, what inspired you for this spooky screenplay?

T: I went through something that really crushed me. When you suffer, you need to talk to ease that pain. Writing ‘Echoes’ was my way of talking. Each of the characters are elements of me. Incidentally, relating back to the previous question, the house we filmed ‘Echoes’ in has a scary history. Two sisters lived there, one of them sadly hung herself from a beam in the room we shot the final scene in. That was decades before us, but it was a spooky place.

C: Most recently you have co conceptualised and written in two brill Horror anthologies, ‘Castle Heights: 18 storeys 18 stories’ and ‘Sweet little chittering’, please tell us more about the concepts behind these chilling tales.

T: I was asked to write a contribution to a charity book called ‘It Came from The

Darkness’. That was great fun. From that, I chatted with a film maker friend called MJ Dixon about an idea I had for an anthology. We battled ideas back and forth and then we pitched ‘Castle Heights’ to the publisher. They liked it, then it was a matter of gathering the writers. ‘Sweet Little Chittering’ and more recently ‘Unceremonious’, were formed in a similar way. They are great fun, though a lot of work. We try to encourage writers to connect stories and cross over to give a grander and more rewarding experience for readers.

C: What other paranormal and horror awesomeness have you been up to that you would like to share?

T: Hopefully there will be more books. There is a comedy horror short called ‘Eat Me Out (of house and home)’ which will surface online at some point. I co-wrote that with Damon Rickard who also joined me to make a segment for an upcoming feature film anthology called ‘Horrorscopes: Volume 1’. Twelve segments, each one a different star sign, we got Aries. Luckily I had a brilliant cast, James Wren, Liz McMullen, Elena Mazon, Julia Messina along with me and Damon. Was a great shoot, I won’t say what it’s about but do keep an eye out for the film sometime next year all going well - www. tonysandsofficial.com

Moondial is a must see for anyone who loves ghost stories and the paranormal, it also has an unforgettable ethereal theme tune by David Ferguson, a beautiful moving piece that I still listen to as it triggers childhood memories of wanting so much to see ghosts and here I am now...a medium and paranormal writer! I hope to revisit the wonderful Belton House to investigate further and try to communicate with its otherworldly inhabitants and like Tony says, Moondial will always have a special place in our hearts.

To find out more about visiting Belton House, Grantham, Lincolnshire NG32 2LS, go to www.nationaltrust. org.uk/belton-house Contact 01476566116 or email belton@nationaltrust.org.uk

The Medium and The Magician - Join Charlie Hall and Chaos Magician Mark Vincent on 19 th October 7pm, to discuss spirits, rituals and manifestations, for further information see

www.treadwells-london.com/ events-1/the-medium-and-themagician-in-conversation

Have you in your own life experienced anything paranormal?

30 Years After

There was a time that there was nothing on TV that showcased the paranormal. No paranormal heavily tattooed TV teams wearing all black, no night vision cameras and no countless locations that now base their revenue on people watching their locations on television. In 1992, anything paranormal was very fringe. People who believed in the science of documenting any sort of ghostly activity was not common.

Of all national mainstream networks, the BBC would air something that has truly gone down in history as one of the most distinguished paranormal specials of all time. In 1992, BBC ONE aired the “LIVE” paranormal investigation of a woman and her two daughters house in Northolt in Greater London. This live investigation culminated into the broadcast of Ghostwatch.

go, this was a big one. From the start of the broadcast, we see a number of television trucks with cables strewn all over the place to hook up the multitude of not only cameras fixed to walls but also the cameras that were used to interview the family plus the other members of the neighbourhood. It’s easy to take for granted how small cameras are now with greater definition but back in 1992, the cameras were much larger and would record footage to digital video tape in Standard Definition. For a house to be kitted out in cameras in such a way is certainly a forerunner to how the shows do it today. From the live feed on location, the action for the broadcast would switch to a studio where we had commentators, Parapsychologists and a team to take phone calls during the live broadcast. For the BBC, they brought out some of their most talented and trusted presenters such as Sarah Greene, Mike Smith along with Craig Charles from Red Dwarf for comic relief, and Dr. Lin Pascoe, a paranormal expert who has worked with the troubled family. Leading the whole live show was Michael Parkinson, a trusted TV presenter who many of watched for decades on his talk shows on the BBC.

“What we saw during the live show was nothing short of shocking and disturbing.”

We saw children who were the targets of some angry energy that would “possess” them on both prerecorded footage as well as live on the broadcast, with this angry energy pounding on walls and pipes, lights going on and off as well as the disturbing sounds of cats in hysterics any time something malevolent was about to happen. Television viewers would never have seen anything like it on live television! What was the cause?

A dark entity that the kids named “Pipes” because of the constant sounds of the spirit hitting the water pipes

in the house. If this wasn’t unnerving enough, through callers who lived in the area during the 1960s, new information came to light that that Dr. Pascoe didn’t even know. “Pipes ” may have been a child killer named Raymond Tunstall. In fact, many had said that if you watch carefully, you may get a glimpse of “Pipes ” a few times throughout the live broadcast which brought some viewers to hysterics.

“This was an incredible piece of live television that would certainly show that ghosts are real and that things happened in the afterlife that were inexplicable. Except for one thing. Ghostwatch wasn’t broadcast live and none of the programme, not one bit of it, was real. The entire broadcast was a piece of fiction.”

Now in 2022, Ghostwatch is considered an important piece of television history. It is truly groundbreaking in many ways and has made way for films like The Blair Witch Project and definitely the Paranormal Activity franchise where the programme cuts between cameras to pick up the ghostly activity they want you to see. This is truly a forerunner to paranormal television today as well. Paranormal investigators going into the location with cameras set up everywhere. They have people who need help and “experts” who help them understand the problem. Even concepts that are accepted in paranormal investigating game a name check in the programme such as the Ganzfeld Method. Even if the producers of Ghost Hunters never saw Ghostwatch when they started production, the similarity in approach is astounding.

“The idea for Ghostwatch was loosely based on the Enfield Poltergeist that Ed & Loraine Warren’s name was attached to and was originally going to be a six-part drama with the finale of the series culminating to all out paranormal hell breaking loose in the last episode portrayed as a fictional live television broadcast.”

It was very similar to the ending of another well-known BBC series from 1958/59 Quatermass and the Pit. The decision to make a drama series from it was dropped and instead re-tooled as a mainly the sixth episode taking all the action as a “live broadcast”.

Ultimately, the series was broadcast as part of the BBC Anthology series Screen One which produced drama programmes. When it was broadcast on October 31st, it was implied that Ghostwatch was a drama and the events that were about to unfold was all fiction but it seemed like few viewers were aware of that fact. There was a lot of credibility that followed Ghostwatch where it could be forgiven if someone thought this was a live broadcast. First, Ghostwatch ran like many other live BBC broadcast of the day. The fact that it was running on the BBC which, at the time, still had a immense reputation of being an excellent source for reliable reporting and ethics; even the name Ghostwatch is a riff from an extremely popular crime programme called Crimewatch which ran for 33 series on the BBC.

Then there are the presenters. Often when these types of “mockumentaries” are made, the people who present them are not familiar news anchors or reporters. If you see Wolf Blitzer in something, it’s usually in a movie and it’s already understood that it is in a fictitious setting. Ghostwatch is presented by well-known and trusted BBC presenters. Michael Parkinson was a very trusted name with his talk show Parkinson that lasted for decades. Sarah Greene was known for presenting children’s series such as Blue Peter, Saturday Superstore and Going Live! while her husband Mike Smith was an extremely wellestablished television presenter. As mentioned earlier was Craig Charles who was well-known as Dave Lister from the BBC comedy series Red Dwarf.

An illustration of Pipes by Paul Draper

AN INTERVIEW WITH LESLEY MANNING

30 years on from filming Ghostwatch. What memories do you have of the experience and its subsequent backlash?

Making GW was the most fascinating and testing experience in fiction making. It was a major challenge to bring together two monolithic BBC departments, the film department (who commissioned it) and the studio department. I insisted we should not shoot on film (as they expected) and we should embrace the medium for which it was written. This in itself needed weekly meetings and sometimes daily to make sure we were all pointing in the same direction. I was constantly hearing the phrase – “we have never done this before” - my reply was “but can we technically do this”. “We think so” was the answer. The innovation, inventiveness and willingness to bring it together was exceptional from both departments.

The immediate backlash or feedback was very confused. Reactions varied - “it was obvious it wasn’t real”; “It was obvious it was real”; “It was obvious it was fake till the police arrived” etc.

The public and press didn’t know what to think and what to do. We had broken the language of drama as the world had understood it at that time.

Was there anything that you didn’t feel comfortable with / change from the original script?

Stephen Volk and I work closely together. We would discuss anything either of us didn’t feel comfortable about way before the shooting schedule. (And we are working together on another piece now)

Did you think that the show would be so influential on paranormal television shows?

Absolutely not. I had no inkling it would be so influential, no idea at all.

If you were tasked with reinventing the show today, how would you approach it and what changes would you make.

I think it would be difficult to reinvent GW. It is of its time. However as technology expands there are different languages available to frighten a new audience. Take the wonderful HOST for instance.

How surprised were you of its success?

Very. I hadn’t predicted or anticipated any reaction – my entire focus was on making the piece as true and authentic as the script demanded.

Do you believe in ghosts?

I don’t believe in ghosts (I think) but I do believe in other people’s ghosts. The vox pop in GW were not actors and their experiences were very real.

With regards to the casting were Parky, Sarah Greene, Mike Smith and Craig Charles in your mind from the start?

For fun, every draft Stephen would write another celebrity in the key roles. But seriously, I worked closely with Michelle Guish the casting director. We were thrilled to get Parkinson and Sarah Greene. Mike Smith muscled his way in after reading Sarah’s draft! He asked to be considered as the presenter on the phone ins. Michelle and I thought it was a great idea – we put it to Stephen who jumped at it and produced the Mike Smith draft. Craig was the perfect casting for joshing and joking while inside the house, mayhem ruled.

Camera shots would swerve as the action increased to give the impression of chaos in the studio. Tape playback would be flawed, audio issues and general miscues. Those mistakes in itself are impressive but what is even more impressive is that in the “chaos” was in fact a very acutely choreographed camera script that actually gave us more information in the mistakes that only the eagle eyed were meant to see. Remember some viewers reported seeing the ghost “Pipes ” during broadcast? It’s because they did. Multiple times. The production was very shrewd with how much we saw “Pipes ”. Sometimes, it was a reflective window in the background of the shot and you might notice one extra person in the window reflection than were in shot or a camera panning a crowd outside and there is a very shadowy, creepy person in the background seen very briefly. Some viewers must have been terrified by these very quick glimpse of some creature that clearly was missing an eye with blood coming from its socket.

His role in the programme was clear, he was comic relief who managed to get on the nerves of the Sarah Greene as he wasn’t taking it as seriously as she was during broadcast. Dr. Pascoe was a character played by actress Gillian Bevan. The whole thing had an added layer of realism because of a call-in number to use if you see anything during broadcast or wanted to share your own experience. In reality, this phone number was one of the only ways to find out that the broadcast was

fiction (as stated in the voicemail) and asked for the caller to leave a message if they experienced a ghostly encounter. It is believed that the broadcast garnered over 100,000 phone calls. Many times, callers got a busy signal.

To give the impression of a live broadcast, Director Lesley Manning, needed to employ camera moves and techniques to give the impression it was live through the normal types broadcast mistakes that happen during any live production.

A ground breaking fictitious live broadcast like Ghostwatch is going to garner controversy and, in this case, unforeseen tragedy. There were a number of people who complained to the BBC about the programme since they felt they were duped into believing that this was a live broadcast. Viewers were angry and frightened including Michael Parkinson’s own mother! Plus, the broadcast ended in total chaos as all the forces of darkness were piling down on the house and in the studio. We are left wondering about the fate of two of the presenters: Michael Parkinson and Sarah Greene. Greene is locked under the stairs on location where “Pipes ” took the children with no way for her to get out and Parkinson seems to be possessed in studio reciting the same children’s rhyme “Pipes ” was said to use. Viewers were concerned for these two presenters’ safety where, of course, they were perfectly safe.

Mike Aiton (sound recordist) before being hit on the head by the mirror

Left to Right: G illian Bevan (Dr Pascoe) - Caroline Noble (make up) - Charlotte Blair (continuity) Lesley Manning (Director) pointing to white elbow of Keith Fe rrari (Pipes) on wrap of the last day of the shoot.

Imagine any of your favourite television personalities perishing on live television with no explanation whether they were safe or not.

The broadcast took a tragic turn. An 18-yearold man, Martin Denham, who had the mental age of 13 committed suicide 5 days after the broadcast. Denham took his life as he linked a faulty central heating system in his house to the activity at the home seen in Ghostwatch. In his suicide note he says, “if there are ghosts, I will be ... with you always as a ghost”. His parents blamed the BBC and claimed their son was “hypnotized and obsessed by the programme.” Ghostwatch’s producers argued that since this series was part of the Screen One series and broadcast on at a later time usually scheduled for Drama productions it was clear it was a fictitious drama. The Broadcast Standard Commission saw it differently. They took on the complaint by Martin’s parents and ruled, “The BBC had a duty to do more than simply hint at the deception it was practising on the audience. In Ghostwatch there was a deliberate attempt to cultivate a sense of menace.” They ruled that the programme was excessively distressing and graphic – referring to the scratches on the children and the reference to mutilated animals – and that it had aired too soon after the 9pm watershed. They further stated that “the presence in the programme of presenters familiar from children’s programmes ... took some parents off-guard in deciding whether their children could continue to view ”Wikipedia

From Ghostwatch in 1992 we jump forward 30 years. Can a programme like Ghostwatch be made in 2022? Some may argue that not all Paranormal television series are portraying the events of their investigation truthfully as they occurred on their investigation but that’s not the question. Can a fictitious documentary on paranormal investigation ever be convincingly broadcast again? In the view of this author, no. It is much easier to manipulate imagery now than in 1992. The techniques used for producing Ghostwatch was barely a step away from using analog videotape. Perhaps the biggest reason there will never be a programme like Ghostwatch again is because of Ghostwatch itself. The BBC learned from the mistakes of how Ghostwatch was promoted. Yet, was the promotion wrong? In the listing for the BBC’s version of the TV Guide known as the Radio Times, it clearly states it as “A Screen One Special Drama” and it included a special article discussing the broadcast. Was the real issue that viewers just didn’t pay attention to all of the warnings about what Ghostwatch was really all about?

In the intervening years, Ghostwatch has become respected as ground breaking television noticed by places like the BFI (British Film Institute). Although not broadcast on the BBC since its original broadcast, it has been seen all over the world and for many it’s a Halloween tradition to look for “Pipes ”.

AN INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN VOLK

It’s so hard to believe that Ghostwatch is hitting 30 and continuing to find new audiences. What do you make of the seminal nature of its success?

Tell me about it! It seems like only yesterday I borrowed my friend’s car to visit the set, and it broke down three times en route. The AA man thought I was taking the piss! (“Maybe your poltergeist, eh, Dr Pascoe?”)

I suppose Ghostwatch was “seminal” in that nothing like it had been done television before, though one obvious precedent was Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds broadcast on radio. Possibly its ongoing success in continuing to find new audiences is due to the mythology that has grown up around it, largely by word of mouth by people (especially children) who saw it on the night. It was never repeated, as you know, so if you didn’t see it on Halloween 1992 you had to find a bootleg VHS or wait ten years for the BFI DVD to come out in 2002. Essentially, because it was effectively “buried” by the BBC, it acquired the status of a Found Footage film – literally “found footage” before Found Footage movies existed!

It’s clear that arguably the biggest of all UK paranormal shows Most Haunted borrowed heavily from the concept. How did you feel when you saw what was essentially your blueprint used ‘for real’?

Truthfully, I never saw Most Haunted because I never got Sky! I was (and am) violently anti-Murdoch, so it was on principle, really. But obviously I heard about it, though I had no interest in seeing it; it sounded like flim-flam. Also, I refuse to be held responsible for anything pertaining to Derek Acorah, who, to my mind, sits alongside the most celebrated of spirit mediums. Your mileage may vary as to whether you think that means he had genuine, remarkable, and unique paranormal gift, or was simply a charlatan.

Either way, Ghostwatch was not the blueprint for Most Haunted. In fact, I’d say we set out to do the exact opposite.

“Most Haunted was simply entertainment churned out for the gullible and superstitious.”

Ghostwatch, deep down, as a drama, was trying to ask you to challenge what you are told to believe, question the messages you are given by TV experts, even question what you see with your own eyes.

It’s always been annoying to me that, because we didn’t send

out screeners in advance (for obvious reasons), almost nobody reviewed it at the time, so nobody asked the obvious question – why did you write it? Luckily we got the chance to talk about that on the BFI DVD commentary, but it wasn’t until a decade after transmission.

Why do you think new audiences are still so captivated by it?

I don’t know, but I’m really glad, and rather astonished. Of course, it is a bit dated for current Blumhouse or A24 movie-going tastes, but, gauging by the audiences I’ve watched Ghostwatch over the last 20+ years, I think it largely still works on the scare level, because it is not told in the structure of a conventional drama – the back story is a drip fed, there are no obvious character arcs, and the rooting interest isn’t flagged, so its effect creeps up on you. The “gags” like the figure against the curtains is still a pretty good one (he says modestly), and could only work on TV because the audience does the work in their heads. As Billy Wilder said, give the audience 2 plus 2 and they will make 5.

People who were about 12 in 1992 seem to be the ones who were most affected by it – negatively and positively; sometimes in the same individual! I can’t tell you how many times someone has told me they were traumatised, but in the next breath they tell me it was the best piece of television they ever saw, and that Ghostwatch made them want to make horror films of their own, which is immensely gratifying, as you can imagine! For example, the recent Zoom-horror sensation Host was a direct result of an

interview I did with its co-writer Jed Shepherd, during which I kind of challenged him to make a Ghostwatch of his own! And he did!

Reboots and re-imaginings are de rigueur at the moment. If a budget was thrown at you, what changes would you make for a Gen Z audience?

I wouldn’t make any changes. I am not sure it would work now, in anything like that form, so you’d be on a hiding to nothing. Besides, to be honest, I like the fact that Ghostwatch is a thing of its time – of 1992. It has the BBC technology of 1992 and the TV stars of 1992. Also, to be honest, it was never about budget. Ghostwatch came in under the normal budget for a BBC 90-minute film in 1992. I am not sure what a “Gen Z” audience is, or what they would want, though I do still like a good found footage film when it hits me. A really good, unusual, recent one is the movie Spree. That had something different to say, I think. And that is the key. Jump scares alone are so boring.

With the benefit of hindsight, what changes would you have made to the original show?

Only to find more members of the public to tell their own ghost stories. I think that was a little under-exploited. In retrospect, I’d have used a different phone number than the one people recognised from Saturday Live, as we got flak for that. It was a shame they couldn’t do my idea of a high pitched sound that humans wouldn’t hear but that would make dogs go crazy in people’s homesapparently the director, Lesley, looked into this, but they couldn’t do it, technically –imagine if we had!

In my heart of hearts, I would have liked to have done the original ending in the script - which is literally the ghost in the machine – Pipes literally coming down the line to your TV sets in your home. Parkinson telling you whatever you do, don’t switch off, don’t switch off, then the screen goes to black. When I told Ruth Baumgarten, the producer, that idea, she said with characteristic bluntness: “There is no way on earth the BBC will do that!”

It’s been too long since the brilliant Midwinter of the Spirit aired (Anna Maxwell Martin was absolutely incredible in that), do you have anything in the pipeline for TV?

Thank you! It was perfect casting. Anna was wonderful. They all were. I was gutted we didn’t get the chance to adapt any more of the superb Merrily novels by Phil Rickman, but Midwinter went out against BBC1’s big hitter Doctor Foster and ITV didn’t get the ratings to justify doing more.

But, yes, I have lots of projects on the go, always - most at the interminable waiting stage, which seems to be the norm for TV, and ever was. For instance, my paranormal

show starring Lesley Sharp and Andrew Lincoln, Afterlife, was written in 1998 but wasn’t made by ITV until 2005! There’s nothing I can announce at the moment, sadly, although I can tell you I am writing a novella about Alison Mundy, the main character from Afterlife, picking up on her in the present day of 2022. The production company, Clerkenwell Films, have given me permission to do that, and I’m finding it very exciting to write. Touch wood, that’s planned to appear at some point in a book made up exclusively of ghost stories written by me, to include “31/10”, my short story sequel to Ghostwatch.

What scares you?

The great suspense director Alfred Hitchcock was asked that question and he answered: “Everything”! I think most writers of horror and the uncanny are scared of most things and we get that fear out of our systems by writing about it. We are essentially all neurotic of temperament. Much of horror, I think, is about loss of control. I often say it is the only genre where death isn’t the worst thing that can happen. Losing one’s identity terrifies me far more than death. Seeing my mother succumb to dementia over a period of years – her memory eroding to literally nothing – is beyond anything I have experienced in horror.

Andy Nyman infamously told us that he doesn’t believe in ghosts despite his remarkable Ghost Stories play. Are you a believer?

I don’t think it is incumbent on a ghost story writer to believe in ghosts any more than you have to believe in vampires or aliens. It’s more that the metaphor of the ghost is a wonderful symbolic thing that amplifies something in your story or theme, and that is what is exciting.

Most writers of the supernatural I know are sceptics by nature: I count myself as an atheist and I am a patron of Humanists UK. I don’t think there is anything after death and we don’t get our reward anywhere – our bodies go to feed the worms, and the only thing that persists is love. More and more of my stories are about that – including the ones in my recent collection, Lies of Tenderness (PS Publishing), and the new story featuring Alison Mundy that I’m writing at present is about that, too.

When you were writing GW did you have Parky, Mike Smith, Sarah Greene and Craig Charles in mind for the roles?

No, not at all. In the early drafts I’d write STUDIO INTERVIEWER and REPORTER and COMEDIAN and PHONE-IN PRESENTER, but that got boring and read very coldly, so in each draft I’d write in a different casting idea, just for fun… DAVID DIMBLEBY, NICK ROSS, ANNEKA RICE, JOANNA LUMLEY, LES DENNIS, that sort of thing – I don’t remember all the names, but you get the idea!

ALEXANDRA’S HOLZER

FILES:

ANIMAL INSTINCT

The Ghost of famed New York Racehorse — HAMBLETONIAN

Nestled off in the Hudson Valley, New York is a tucked away place called Museum Village. Many of the structures on the huge property are recreations of the buildings that would’ve been there in the 1800s. There does remain a couple of the original structures on the property.

The little buildings have original artifacts with personal effects of the people during that time including a third-generation pharmacist who’s family was very proud of their store offerings.

There have been sightings of two sibling children with white blonde-ish hair running about as well as the general stores bells ringing when nobody has opened the door. The ghosts of Museum Village have been around for some time and there’s even a fossil of a dinosaur affectionately known as Harry, after being unearthed in the town of Harriman, New York as he too lives on the property.

It seems that although many of the structures aren’t the original, the people’s personal belongings and work-related items seem to be attracting their previous owners to hang about the place.

Some residents don’t feel to leave while others seem to come and go like the children.

What makes my case so unique and interesting, is that the grave marker of the famed racehorse named Hambletonian — haunts one of the buildings.

Upon one of my investigations with several different people including our tour guide who is born and raised in the area, has never experienced what we were about to one evening. This certainly classified as a special … Night at the Museum. Had Harry come to life as in the movie with that title, that certainly would have been quite the event!

We were trying to contact one of the spirits who had been known to roam about a structure housing old horse carriages awaiting restoration.

They were dark, dishevelled and very off-putting in appearance yet iconic and therefore, classic vintage. When you enter the structure, your greeted by a large replica of a horse popping out to your right side! If that doesn’t frighten you, you must be dead!

Along the wall, our attention was drawn to a piece of stone, a grave marker actually after a very unusual EVP session. It dawned on me afterwards why we were able to receive such an unusual message.

Aware of this story, I felt at the very least to give it a go and experience for myself, is this viable for inclusion for evidence? Personally, I have witnessed my own two dogs visiting shortly after they passed. It was a gut wrenching feeling deep within that I just knew; I wasn’t going crazy. How could I begin to describe what I had just witnessed? Who would believe me? Did it even matter who would as that experience was for me and was intended to let me know that they were ok? That’s all there’s too it.

Had one member of the surrounding investigators not been well-versed in the horse track racing industry, I do believe the communication would not have occurred.

We believe we experienced the ghost of Hambletonian himself as we started to ask yes and no questions to which the sound of a hoof replying — with either one or two clonks lead us on his tail so-to-speak. It was then that I concluded we were indeed speaking with the ghost of the famous horse which was the only horse to have had a proper burial. Many do not believe or take into account, animal communication from beyond the grave.

They cannot use our language therefore easily are dismissed as proper evidence of

We had asked the horse some very basic questions like if he was happy and our session continued, surmounting with some interesting results.We consisted of a local group, my second oldest daughter and some attendees as we split up into a few groups to rotate around the buildings as evenly as possible.

For my daughter, it was amazing to experience her emotional reactions to hearing the audible playback of faint hoof sounds! Not to mention the unsettling noises we all experienced in the corners of this building surrounded with such nostalgia of the recent past.

After establishing contact with the famed racing horse Hambletonian — the line of questioning began like something out of the film Dragnet with Dan Ackroyd!

I asked if he was trapped there. One hoof for yes, two for no.

life after death or a purported Grade A haunting. Yet, there are those who do.

My own fathers deceased white cat followed him home when he was a young boy in Austria.

I asked if he was happy, and the answer was yes. So, I was perplexed. Why then, was he communicating in this building and what did he want us to understand? We realized in that moment, that his original headstone lay against the wall off to the side behind the large horse statue. I asked our history guide there why it was there and not at the grave site?

It turns out that the town wanted to do a new thing in honor of Hambletonian and to spare no expense!

However, it was not as poignant or classy as the headstone which was once placed on his grave ten minutes away from us. So, the headstone was moved into the building while his grave sat without it for some time. Then, the new statue was placed and that was that.

Here we have a similar ghost scenario where if you move or change something of the past, the spirit may come back around to let you know of their displeasure. In some cases, the opposite can occur, but they usually don’t create a ruckus as much as it’s more of an affirmation of pleasure and gratitude.

We regrouped in conversation in the centre of this building before starting back up again with recording. I asked if he was happy about the new headstone. The reply was no. From what I could ascertain was happening, was that he just wanted to let us know he’s ok, stays around in the area but the new statue has got to go! I asked our lovely historian what it would take to make this happen and she said there would be too much red tape. When several individuals of different backgrounds, environment, age can all experience the same occurrence— one must take pause and process the data coming in from the ether.

I reached out to one of the attendees, William T HelmsFounder of Catskill Area Society for Paranormal Education and Research (CASPER,) at my event to further touch on what he experienced and about his background with horses.

Alexandra: Can you describe to me what you encountered while running the evp session with me during the Hunt with Holzer event?

William: While performing an EVP session the responses we were getting sounded like clomps from a horse, since we were in a stable. I proceeded to ask a question that would require a yes or no response. So I stated please answer once for yes and two for no. After asking numerous questions and getting clomps for answers one of the tour guides mentioned that there was a horse’s headstone in the back corner and it so happens that’s where the clomps were coming from. She said it was Hambletonian and I recognized that name immediately.

I proceeded to ask the question if he liked the statue that replaced the headstone at his monument, and he answered “no” then I asked if he would like the Headstone back instead of the statue and he replied “yes”. I did ask if we were speaking to Hambletonian, and he replied “yes”. Never did I ever think that I would be talking to a spirit horse which was a night to remember and a pleasure to share it with everyone that was present.

AH: What is yours and your family’s background in terms of horse track racing and betting?

WH: Growing up, my Dad had race horses at Monticello Raceway. We used to go to the barn every weekend, so I am familiar with the smells and sounds of horses. Some of the trainers trained their horses to clomp once for yes and two for no.

talked to in a certain way which I learned a lot at Monticello Raceway barn area. Drivers and trainers all spoke the same language which all horses understand. Do not underestimate our animals as they often times have a more heightened intellect and awareness touching thru the veil that even the most experienced level psychic — cannot penetrate.

canter is a cure for every evil” — Benjamin Disraeli

They were once considered Gods in many cultures and oh my, how far society has tragically fallen away from that ideology and truth.

“A man on a horse is spiritually, as well as physically, bigger than a man on foot” — John Steinbeck

He connected to our particular group of individuals with connections to his people.

It provided the prefect recipe and energy for him to communicate because he already knew we’d understand and believe.

AH: Do you believe or think that this helped the connection for Hambletonian to come through? And if so, why?

WH: I think by having a background with horses It did help with connecting to Hambletonian. Horses are used to being

The answer was no.

Hambletonian wasn’t haunting the building nor was he there for anyone else over the past years as groups of people and staff move about.

“A

Photo credit Chester Historical Society Firemen pulling hose cart at 100th Hambletonian Anniversary Parade, May 5 1949

RELATED TO EVIL

By Sam Baltrusis

It was early February 2021, and the sinister childhood rhyme was on a continuous loop in the back of my mind. The bloodred sunset in Fall River, Massachusetts alluded to a fortuitous nightmare of mine that was about to become a reality and chronicled by a film crew. I held my breath as I slowly walked up the creaky wooden stairs frequented by my distant relatives.

In an unexpected twist that was uncovered by my mother’s research into our fractured family tree which includes ties to the accusers during the Salem witch trials of 1692, my maternal Hughes bloodline is connected to the former owners of one of the most notorious crime scenes in America. It’s a family secret that has been hidden from me for most of my life. I’m related to Lizzie Borden twice through the Earle family. “Lizzie took an axe? Not exactly. It was more like a hatchet,” I mumbled to myself as I was about to confront my greatest fear during an improvised TV séance for the Discovery+ “shock doc” at the Borden family murder house.

Why a séance? I’m a strong believer that investigators should be time-period appropriate when connecting to the spirit realm. We were exploring the horrific double homicide of Andrew and Abby Borden on August 4, 1892, so it made complete sense to me to use a technique that was commonplace during the turn-of-the-century spiritualism movement.

As The Curse of Lizzie Borden production crew was setting up a table in what was my distant cousin’s second-floor bedroom in 1892, I started to hash out a plan of attack with psychic-medium Chris Fleming known for his work on Spooked Scotland and Help!

My House Is Haunted

At this point, the cameras weren’t rolling. Behind my right shoulder I spotted something odd along with my colleague that continues to baffle me. It was a grayish, foam-like cloud hovering over the bed. It appeared out of nowhere. I immediately took it as a sign.

“What is that?” Chris said to me pointing out the harbinger of the wicked things to come.

“Is that ectoplasm?”

I was in shock. I had never seen this sort of phenomenon before, and I strongly felt like we were about to face

Old Snatch himself. It then disappeared. It was as if it wanted to scare us off.

I quickly placed my supplies on the table which included my trusty dowsing rods and two selenite harmonizers and left the room. I felt compelled to cast a circle of protection outside of the house before starting the séance.

Our mission was much more dangerous than I had originally anticipated. We were confronting an entity that was original to the property or had been brought into the murder house from the various paranormal investigators who had left their negative baggage all over the Lizzie Borden House over the years. Not sure of the entity’s backstory, I strongly believed it was attached to one of my fellow castmates.

The spirits were in chaos.

Both Dave Schrader from The Holzer Files and our client, Luann Jolly, seemed to have become influenced by this dark energy hidden in the bowels of the property. In hindsight, we were preparing for battle, and it was up to our small team to combat pure evil.

“Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one.”

Outside of the 1800s-era crime scene, I raised what my Wiccan high priestess friend Dana Masson calls a “crystal shield of protection.”

I also cast a “magic circle” around the property by lighting Palo Santo and spreading the smoke with a white feather. I then chanted the following three times:

Earth my body, Water my blood, Air my breath. Fire my spirit. I cast this circle of protection in perfect love and perfect trust.

After casting the protection circle, I slowly headed upstairs. The stage was set for an epic showdown. Maneuvering my way past the camera crew from Atlanta, I sat at the makeshift séance table in what was Cousin Lizzie’s bedroom. As soon as I got comfortable, I was notified by the producers that we needed to take a dinner break. Because of COVID protocol, we were told to find a spot so we could safely take off our masks. I grabbed my food and headed to Bridget Sullivan’s room on the third floor. In addition to Lizzie, the Borden’s maid was the only other person in the house when the horrific double murders happened that fateful August morning in 1892.

I’ve spent many sleepless nights in the room with one eye open and the other shut. In the past, I’ve been pushed by an unseen force in Sullivan’s room and was shocked one night to find the children’s rocking chair had been moved next to

my bed as I slept. Even though I had multiple encounters in the attic area, I felt like it was my safe space that night.

Long before I knew that I had family ties to the Borden’s, I had recurring nightmares about the murder house. Sullivan reached out to me for years when I was asleep. Her specter was pinning me to the bed, showing me what had unfolded that infamous August morning.

According to Sullivan’s court testimony, she was taking a nap in her third-floor room after allegedly cleaning windows when Lizzie’s stepmother, Abby, was savagely murdered in the second-floor guest room. Sullivan, nicknamed “Maggie” by Emma and her sister, ascended a separate stairwell, avoiding the crime scene in the presentday John Morse room.

In the dream, Sullivan kept pointing to the closet in her bedroom on the third floor. She was trying to show me that there was a well or cistern in there,

At 11:10 a.m. on August 4, 1892, Bridget heard Lizzie call from downstairs, “Maggie, come quick! Father’s dead. Somebody came in and killed him.”

and, for some mysterious reason, the closet was significant. I’ve had spirit communication dreams in addition to the recent nightmares about the location that began long before I finally visited the haunted crime scene and ultimately learned about my bloodstained family lineage.

In another nightmare, I saw a man wearing 1800s-era clothing and facial hair walking into a house with flowery wallpaper. He removed his hat and sat on an old-school couch. The dream looked like a black-and-white 35mm and unfolded slower than the typical silent-era film. Before the man could rest his head, he looked at me, and subtitles appeared, as if I was watching a movie scene from the early 1900s. A woman emerged from the dining room holding a hatchet behind her back.

The subtitle that appeared in the dream has haunted me for years. It read: “Diablo did it.” Then

I woke up.

I didn’t figure out the correlation between the house and my terrifying dreams until my first visit to the Lizzie Borden House while on assignment for a magazine in 2009.

At that time, I was more interested in trying to solve the murder and was less focused on the cryptic messages sent from my subconscious.

In hindsight, my spirit communication dream seemed to be implying that the murderer whether Lizzie, Bridget Sullivan or the uncle John Morse was possessed by an extremely negative entity.

During my first day of filming the Curse of Lizzie Borden shock doc, I channeled the spirit of a woman who was not related to our family by blood, but through the marriage of Lizzie’s great-uncle Lawdwick. In an unexpected and deeply moving deep-trance session led by Dave Schrader and validated by Chris Fleming, I psychically tapped into the horrific murder of Eliza Darling Borden’s two children in 1848. The infanticide in the house that was literally next door to the Borden murder house was even brought up in Lizzie’s highly publicized trial. It’s believed that Eliza drowned her children in the cellar’s well and then, possibly suffering from postpartum depression, took her own life

by cutting her throat with a straight razor.

The children, who died forty-four years before Abby and Andrew were murdered, are rumored to haunt the land next door to the Lizzie Borden House. Guests leave dolls and other toys for the ghost children who are believed to inhabit the guest rooms. Child-like laughter has also been heard throughout the murder house.

I can say without hesitation that Eliza and her son Holder were in the room with us during The Curse of Lizzie Borden seance held on the final night of filming the shock doc in February 2021. Without giving too much away about the scene, I witnessed my friend and colleague Dave Schrader completely get taken over by what we believe was a negative entity that may have inspired my distant cousin to murder her father and stepmother.

It was during pre-production of the documentary that I learned that our family lineage was stained with even more blood. Armed with my mother’s Ancestry.com research, my producer friend Kay Rothman worked with me to uncover some additional ties that link the Borden family to other crimes.

It turns out that we are all related to Innocent Borden, the daughter of a man who was accused of murdering his mother, Rebecca Briggs Cornell, by pushing her into a fire. Thomas Cornell Jr. was hanged in May 1673 for a crime he likely didn’t commit.

We also have blood ties to Sarah Maria Cornell, a mill worker whose corpse was found hanging from a stack pole on the farm of John Durfee just outside of Fall River on

The list of horrific crimes within our family tree doesn’t stop there. We’re also related to Aileen Wuornos, a sex worker turned serial killer who murdered seven of her male clients after soliciting them along the highways of Daytona Beach, Florida. Wuornos was executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002.

With this new knowledge that I’m tied to some of history’s more notorious murders, my goal is to somehow lift what I believe is a bloodline curse. My newfound purpose in life is to right the wrongs of these horrible crimes my family has committed or endured.

Is there a way for me to bury the hatchet and help the spirits of distant family members find postmortem peace? I pray that I can.

December 21, 1832. It’s believed that Cornell was murdered by a Methodist minister, Ephraim Avery, when she told him that she was pregnant with his child.

THE EVIL IN ROOM 6-11

It all began on Oct 20th 2021; I am seated in my usual spot, headphones on, with this open-mouthed look of total astonishment on my face. I’m listening to a podcast called Uncanny; it has just taken me from a comfy sofa in rural Norfolk to a concrete tower block in 1980s Belfast called Alanbrooke Hall. Where someone called Ken had just uttered the phrase, “I felt as if this evil was specifically against me, this thing wants to do absolute harm to me”. Danny Robins, the podcast host, responds with three words destined to become a catchphrase for the entire series “Bloody Hell Ken” In this instant, I am hooked. I just have to know more.

I stopped listening and hunted down a notebook and pen. Then, I returned to the podcast’s beginning and started listening again, making careful notes. Why the hell am I doing this?

Because I want to know more, I want to look at this more deeply. I want to research and investigate to try and find the answers. By making a few notes, I can dive into google and start hunting down details, information, images, and anything that will help me find out more…

I’m getting a little overexcited here, and at this rate, the article will end up a complete mess. Time for me to put a little bit of order into the swirling mass of thoughts and ideas that fill my head.

Let’s go back to where we started and look at the podcast series that set off this chain of events.

I have to say, I am pretty confident that most of you will have heard of the Uncanny podcast. Hosted by Danny Robins, it features spooky stories shared by ordinary people who don’t believe in ghosts but have strange experiences that they simply cannot explain. With a couple of experts, one more sceptical and one believer, offering their own opinions about what was going on.

Each episode discusses a specific case, focussing on one story, and as the series rolls on, some of the cases get revisited as more information or witnesses come forward.

Just another podcast? Well, actually, no, it’s not. Strangely, Uncanny has rebooted the paranormal field and generated considerable interest in all things spooky. One of the best things about this particular podcast is the #UncannyCommunity that has grown alongside it on Twitter. A place where you are not

judged, where your opinion is valid whether you believe or tend to be more sceptical. Where you can discuss your views without being shot down in flames. Joining in the fun, and it is fun a lot of the time, I have met some fantastic new friends and had the chance to interview some amazing people for our “What’s Out There” podcast channel.

I have been investigating the paranormal since 2005 and have seen the worst the field has to offer, bickering, fighting, backstabbing and some plain awful practices that make you cringe. It is refreshing to find a group of people who want to discuss but don’t want to fight. Long may it continue Preamble over and done with, time to get down to the nittygritty part. As I mentioned earlier, I was fired up. This case intrigued me, and after listening to the three episodes in question, the experiences of the occupiers of this one room seem genuinely paranormal to me. Listening to the expert opinions being given to try and explain the causes made me shake my head just a little because they did not sound entirely feasible. The sheer volume of witness accounts that mentioned similar experiences, and the strangeness of the events themselves, all split over three very engrossing podcasts. I thought it might be a good idea to put them together in one

place and try to make sense of it all.

So, what follows is my attempt to run an investigation based on the personal eyewitness accounts from the episodes, backed up with as much supporting information as I could gather. All here, all together, for you to all mull over and make your own decisions.

As Danny Robins would say, are you in team sceptic or in team believer?

Before we begin our investigation, there are a few things I need to point out before we go any further.

Time to don our investigator hats, look into the story, study the evidence and put together our investigation case.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, we are taken back to 1980s Belfast and a nondescript 1960s tower block called Alanbrooke Hall. This particular building just happens to be one of the halls of residence for Queens University. When undertaking an investigation, I like to understand the environment where the anomalous phenomena took place, so let’s take a more in-depth look at Alanbrooke Hall, especially the 6th floor and Room 6-11

Alanbrooke Hall was a 10-storey tower block situated at Beechlands on Malone Road in Belfast.

It was one of five purpose-built halls of residence for Queens University in a development called Queens Elms. The other halls are Sinton, Ogilvie, Hamilton and Livingstone.

Alanbrooke Hall was named in tribute to Field Marshall Viscount Alan Brooke, who served as the chief of the Imperial General Staff and the professional head of the British Army during World War Two. He was one of Sir Winston Churchill’s closest advisers during the war. Alanbrooke also served as chancellor of Queens University Belfast.

Alanbrooke Hall opened its doors to students in 1968 and was demolished in 2004.

It is at this point that we hit the first obstacle. The building has been demolished, so Room 6-11 no longer exists. We cannot, therefore, visit the location or hold our own investigation there. All we have is the descriptions from our witness accounts and any images we can find.

To help us visualise the location, I asked Ken what the building was like, and he replied.

“The hall itself. It was actually very solidly built. It was spartan, designed in the late 1950s, but otherwise very solid. All wood was solid oak, heavy – not a sign of chipboard anywhere. The walls were substantial. If someone was playing music beside the room or above or below –you could not hear it.”

Picture: 6th floor plan

This is the layout of the 6th floor itself. As you can see, Room 6-11 is tucked away in the corner. A heavy fire door led to the staircase in front of the room’s entrance; opposite, there was a small toilet room and a small shower room. Each floor had its own kitchen.

You may wonder why he is telling us all of this. As the story unfolds, you will understand why it’s essential to have some clarity concerning the floor layout. Ok, so we have the basics of the building. We have the layout of the 6th floor. So now we need to look at Room 6-11 itself. I returned to Ken and asked what he could recall about the room’s layout and general appearance. Bear in mind here that it’s 40 years since Ken was there. Some of his recollections are a bit hazy, but you get a good idea of the space.

Room 6-11 floor plan

On the left was a small alcove with a sink and a mirror above it. Two sizeable heavy oak desks were underneath the large window facing the door in the room. The window covered most of that wall but started at about waist height. On the left was James’ bed. Beside his bed, there were wardrobes and, above that, cupboards. All heavy oak and built into the wall. At the bottom of my bed was a small bookshelf attached to the wall at about shoulder height. There may have been a small coffee table below it, but I am not sure. I also don’t remember if there were bookshelves on James’ side. The beds were wooden with a thin mattress and a blanket, like a military dorm. Not much else. I don’t remember the floor covering. I think it was a hard-wearing but thin carpet you often find on office

floors. Not much else to add as there wasn’t much there.”

Apologies for heading off on a tangent. I wanted to set the scene for you because, as I mentioned earlier, I think having a good understanding of the environment will help. So place yourself in this environment as later on, we will be looking at how environmental factors can attribute themselves to a haunt experience. In other words, if it’s a dark spooky place or somewhere that makes you feel uncomfortable, you are perhaps primed to experience something scary or out of the ordinary.

I thought the best approach would be to work our way through the Uncanny episodes first and then look into the possible explanations.

“The room was Spartan, and I don’t remember the details. As you entered, my bed was on the right.

Alanbrooke Hall was a 10-storey tower block situated at Beechlands on Malone Road in Belfast.

That way, you will have all the necessary evidence to put your investigation together and see what conclusions you reach.

We begin with the episode that caused all the excitement. Case number one. The evil in Room 6-11.

Case One; The Evil in Room 6-11

Danny Robins, the podcast host, introduces us to Ken, a well-respected geneticist who, at the time, was studying microbiology at Queens and living in Alanbrooke Hall in Room 6-11. A number he says is etched into his mind.

I have been incredibly fortunate because I’ve been in contact with Ken in person, and he has been massively helpful, sharing his story in much more detail than the podcast itself. So we have several firsthand accounts shared by Ken to help us with our investigation.

So, here we are in 1980s Belfast on the 6th floor of a modernist tower block, in Room 6-11 with Ken, a microbiology student and his roommate James. It’s their first night in their new accommodation, and they are settling down to go to sleep. Danny, the host, has set the scene for us all, and Ken will tell us his story. Now I could just repeat everything from the episode ad verbatim, but remember, I have Ken himself helping me out. So instead, we are lucky enough to have a complete first-hand account from the man himself to share with you, and it’s a genuinely riveting read.

“We both went to bed probably around 11 pm. The curtains were closed, but the lights from outside on the campus meant that you could see everything in the room but in shades of grey, of course. I lay down flat on my back, pillow slightly raised and for some reason, just looked towards

the window facing me at the bottom of the bed. This was immediately after lying down. A few seconds passed before I saw this substantial dark figure, an oversized silhouette. I squinted to make sure I was seeing this correctly. I first thought this was much larger than a man, but I felt it was male. And the second thing that struck me as just how black it was – you could see no features at all. I had, and have never seen, a black that was so black in my life. At that time, I felt nothing. I knew it was not my roommate James and I knew it was too large to be human. This lasted maybe one or two seconds – not more than that. Then, I think whatever it was became aware of me. At that moment, everything started – loud white noise and the sensation of pure evil coming from this thing. Of everything that happened, this is what I remember the most. The evil. It is challenging to describe. It felt like a powerful force of nature, something natural. I had no feeling of anything to do with religion. This was just a force of nature, like gravity. It exists, and I was feeling its full effect. What was it like? - imagine sticking your feet into an electrical plug, and the waves would pulsate through your body. It was exactly like that –except it was evil. It flowed through every part of my body, from my feet to my scalp – wave after wave. My body was moving with each wave. I felt this evil was focused explicitly on me .. … so whatever it was seemed to be aware of me. I felt this thing wants to do absolute harm to me. I looked down at the blanket covering me and saw the ripples or waves in the blanket coming up to my head. These ripples corresponded to the waves I felt going through my body. I looked up, and this thing – still incredibly black was moving towards me – gliding, not walking and immediately bending and looming over my face. That is when I

lunged at it, and everything stopped immediately. There was dead silence in the room. I was stunned. The whole thing maybe lasted 10 seconds – certainly no longer, maybe less. I told James something incredible had happened and asked him if he saw something – no, he didn’t experience that- but he mentioned seeing a young man’s face in his mind’s eye. I told him then what happened to me. We thought about it for a while, but maybe 30 minutes later, I could sleep soundly and didn’t wake up until the morning. I found it strange that I didn’t have nightmares about it that night (nor at any time), and I never had a nightmare about that (but I do have nightmares in general). I also found it strange that I didn’t wake up at night to check if anything was in the room.

That is a summary of the first night, a Thursday night. This happened 40 years ago. Until 10 years ago, if I thought about it, I could relive the feeling of evil going through me. Now I can describe it, but I can no longer relive it. Of all of 6:11, I think this sense of evil as a force of nature had the most prolonged effect and was the most prominent aspect for me of the entire series of events.”

After this part of the podcast, Danny calls for a break, and I suggest maybe you should all take 5 minutes, grab yourself a drink and then come back. Because if you think that was a hell of an experience, just wait to read what comes next!!

As before, I’ll let Ken tell you the next part of this story because the account he told me contains more detail than the podcast episode.

“Second night –Friday

“I don’t think we were that bothered by what had happened the night before. I remember everyone from the floor (and most of the building) had left for the weekend. The lone

Englishman was there, but he had gone for a party (he did this often), and I would not expect to see him until the next day. I was lying on my bed, reading, back resting against the wall. As you entered the room, my bed was to the right of the door. So standing up, I would be at the door itself. There was nothing in the room except silence. At that time, there were no phones, and we did not have a TV or radio (there was a TV room on the ground floor), so the halls were usually relatively quiet.

There was no feeling of anything in the room, no sensation of being watched, just a typical dorm room. I was a bit anxious about what had happened the night before. I could not explain it. I didn’t think I had dreamt it, but anything is possible. Sometime between 9.30 and 10.00, I heard the movements of the lift (because the halls were quiet and the lifts were very noisy). I didn’t think much of it. Listened to the lift move and then stopped at my floor. I thought maybe someone was coming to see me… when suddenly, without any warning … the sensation of extreme evil that I had felt the previous evening started again.. this time coming from the direction where I knew the lift was located.

Furthermore, it was going through my body like electricity in waves. Not something you can ignore! Then the steps began coming from the lift. Someone in a hurry, not quite a run but almost. It was the sound of old shoes with nails on the soles. It was loud and fast coming towards the door. Then the footsteps stopped. There was silence (but the evil was still going in waves through me). Then the battering on the door started. It sounded like wood on wood – mallets hitting the door very hard and fast, many of them. The battering seemed focused on the top and bottom of the door (which, even at

that time, I thought was curious).

I thought the door would break, so I jumped up – the door was not locked – put my hand on the handle – the door was still being battered, and I could feel the strong vibrations in my arm. I jerked the door open – nothing – no one there, and impossible for anyone to run anywhere. The sensation of evil vanished. I checked the floor immediately and then a while later to see if anyone was around, but there was no one. Back in the room, it was again a perfectly standard dorm room. No feeling of a presence or anything. I was shaken up, unsure if I would be beaten up. I was back in the room – locked the door, and settled for the night. Again (and I find this strange) –After about an hour or so, I had a good night’s sleep. I remember thinking in the morning that it was weird that I didn’t have a nightmare about this or wake up during the night to check the room.”

After these revelations, Danny calls in the experts for their opinions. For this episode, we have Caroline Watt, a highly respected parapsychologist. A founding member and the current chair of the University of Edinburgh’s Koestler Parapsychology Unit. Who is taking the more sceptical viewpoint, and Reverend Peter Laws, an ordained Baptist minister, author and podcaster who just happens to have a taste for the macabre, is there to offer us an alternative view. It’s not my intention to reel off everything the experts said but to pick out the salient points.

Caroline Watt is asked to give an opinion first, and she points out how brave Ken is to actually open the door, a sentiment I think most of us would agree with 100%!

When questioned about the shadow figure, Caroline replied that he saw something in the room, a black figure. She could not rule out the possibility that he saw a ghost of some sort but stated it did make her think it could be something

to do with hypnagogic sleep hallucination. A kind of image you experience between the borderlands of being asleep and waking. You can hear loud noises, see things, and feel a presence and fear. I’m not going to go into any great explanations here as we could get very bogged down.

We will approach hypnagogic sleep later in this article, see how it relates to this experience, and question its validity.

it’s evil, but the absence of good which is actually very interesting because that’s a way some theologians have described hell itself. So as Ken describes it, it’s almost imagining something has punched a hole in the world, and he has seen through to something that is anti-good or if you are religious, antigod.”

We are straying dangerously close to using the D word here. If I had been a particular presenter on a specific TV paranormal show,

education that may point to more rational reasoning, it’s difficult to switch off that side of your being if it’s in your DNA.

An indicator perhaps that we can be primed at an early age to believe in spooky stories, especially when they are the norm and told to us by our parents as part of our everyday life. So maybe we are more ready to accept when we come across something out of the ordinary that could be related to these stories and that we are experiencing something along those lines.

They now touch on the second night experience, the incredibly intense door banging incident. Peter Laws goes first this time. He says this is where the story gets a little more persuasive for him. He points out the possibility that Ken may have fallen asleep whilst reading but says it’s a lot less likely than the scenario from the night before.

This event is a lot more physical. Ken is hearing noises that are coming from actual objects in his room and from the lifts.

Pointing towards what could be poltergeist activity which he finds to be the most convincing evidence in these cases, and that Ken is experiencing something supernatural.

Danny brings in Peter Laws next. Peter talks about the dark figure at the end of the bed. He finds it particularly sinister that this figure has chosen that room on that night and comments “that this adds a sense of menace because you’ll think, hang on, there are hundreds of other rooms here. Why this one? Why me?”

Danny asks how he feels about Ken describing evil as a physical force. Peter says, “What I find really fascinating about how Ken describes this apparition is that he doesn’t just say

I would have played the Demon card. Still, thankfully, Peter and Danny did not go any further down this particular route.

Danny goes back to Caroline and touches on the fact that Ken uses the word evil instead of fear. It made him think of the ghost and fairy stories that Ken’s parents shared with him. Caroline mentions that our irrational side does lurk, and sometimes it comes out more in the middle of the night, that our fears can get magnified. Even with a scientific

Caroline gives her opinion next. She applies the principle of Occam’s Razor to the event, pointing out that the simplest explanation is usually the best. We heard the lifts and then the footsteps. It could simply be someone coming out of the lift and walking along the corridor. We know most of the students are away, but there could still be others, like Ken, who are still there.

Back to Peter again, and Danny asks if there could be something really evil or wrong with Room 6-11. Peter replies that you have to leave that possibility open. First, however, we must see what happens next and need more information before making our decisions.

Painting by Bethan Briggs-Miller

We are now back to Ken.

Following the odd experiences both himself and his roommate, James, have had (James had a strange dream that featured the face of a young man, coupled with the same feeling that this person wanted to harm him), Ken decides to find the two students who had been in the room the year before., They were both living in individual rooms on the 6th floor of Alanbrooke Hall. On the Monday evening after the two strange events, Ken is passing the communal kitchen, and he spots the two students there and another couple of guys. Ken goes in and says, it’s a strange thing to ask, but is there anything unusual about that room? The four students look at each other, and Ken realises that they all know something that he does not.

Ken asked them what they had experienced, and he got a list of more strange events, primarily poltergeist style activity, books being thrown, and cutlery being moved around. Ken and James are not alone in having weird experiences in Room 6-11.

Fast forward to the start of the next academic year, Ken and James have escaped from Room 6-11, and two new students have moved in.

Ken tells us those students left on the 6th floor who had

previously stayed in the room got together and decided not to say anything about their experiences to the new people in the room!

Two to three months after this, Ken is stopped in the kitchen by the new occupiers of Room 6-11. They ask Ken if there is something bad about the room. Ken questions them about what they have been experiencing. They tell him about strange nightmares, regular nightmares that were very dark and kept them awake at night. They also had poltergeist activity revolving around cutlery.

For three years running, there has been some unusual activity in Room 6-11. Ken said that if it had been one singular event that he had experienced alone, he could have put it down to a hallucination, but you now have 6 individuals who have had strange experiences, some of which have been shared.

Winding down this particular episode, Danny returns to his two experts. He mentions that poltergeist activity is sometimes associated with young people, especially teenagers. Peter Laws goes down the route that poltergeist activity can often be connected to the stress or trauma of living in a particular place, and going to university for the first time can be associated with stress. So

whatever spiritual element is in that room could be feeding off this type of energy. Peter also mentions the room could have stored up some of the energy associated with the past stress and trauma.

Danny points out from a more sceptical view that the room’s occupants are away from home on their own for possibly the first time, feeling unsettled and more likely to be prone to fear and anxiety.

Back to Caroline for the last time, Danny points out that these experiences cannot all be sleep-related. How else could they be explained? Caroline suggests that there could be something in the room environment that is affecting the occupants. She puts two suggestions, electromagnetic energy or infrasound, forwards. Low frequency sounds in the environment can create emotions in people, a sense of presence and sometimes a sense of fear. Caroline puts forward the lift as the possible source of Electromagnetic energy and infrasound. The lift motors produce the electrical fields whilst the actual motion of the lift could produce the infrasound. These factors could deliver a haunt experience.

Caroline points out that if she was investigating, one thing she would want to find out is the location of the power source for the lifts.

Ken and James talk to their cleaner and ask if she knows anything unusual or untoward about Room 6-11. The cleaner replied that she wondered when they would ask her, as she felt uncomfortable cleaning the room. The cleaner felt as if there was a presence in there, which had been going on for years. So they asked her what she thought was going on. The cleaner told them several people with a link to the room had died. Someone had fallen out of the window, believed to be a suicide, but rumours went round that they were pushed. Another student was shot dead going to mass and mentioned a third person who had died in the room.

After all this excitement, Danny throws the case open to the audience. He wants to hear our theories and questions. he also wants to hear from anyone else who stayed in Room 6-11.

END OF PART ONE…

Next issue: THE RETURN TO ROOM 6-11

Painting by Bethan Briggs-Miller

HISTORY

The St. Ignatius Hospital opened in 1893 and was the first hospital in Whitman County. Patients were treated in a wooden building on the property until construction was complete in 1894. The hospital boasts six floors, and relied on cash payments from patients, as well as donations, instead of government assistance. It was owned and ran by Rev. Jachern, a Roman Catholic priest, and the Sisters of Charity, who moved up from Portland, OR to help improve healthcare in the area. St. Ignatius Hospital costed $8000 to build, with $5000 of that coming from the Chamber of Commerce. The first patient was treated for pneumonia, which was still a new disease at the time.

A couple decades later, the St. Ignatius School of Nursing was established on the property, with its first class of nurses graduating in 1911. Washington state’s first two male nurses, Archie McClintic and Philip Kromm, earned their nursing degrees here in 1941. Unfortunately, in 1964, the hospital closed its doors due to lack of funding, rising healthcare costs, and declining population. A newer hospital in Fairview, WA opened.

In 1968, the St. Ignatius Hospital reopened as an assisted living facility, but kept its original name. The assisted living facility eventually shut down and was left abandoned in 2000. It was boarded up in 2003, but thrill seekers still find their way in. The building, or what’s left of it, was added to the Most Endangered Properties List in 2015.

A Not So Saintly Spiritual

Cindy Phan’s first Phantastic feature!

THE HAUNTINGS

The St. Ignatius has seen a lot of births and deaths during its time of operation as a hospital and continued seeing deaths when it served as a home for the elderly. In the late 1800s and early half of the 1900s, no mortuaries existed in the county, so the St. Ignatius held a morgue underneath the hospital. Today, adventurers and paranormal investigators often report doors opening on their own, footsteps when no one else is there, whispers, growls, shadow people, and the sound of brooms hitting the floor. They also report being touched, pushed, and hearing an unseen entity say “boo.”

Haunts at the St. Ignatius Hospital consist of former employees, as well as patients who suffered sudden and fatal deaths. One of the popular haunts is a former patient named F.E. Martin, who was crushed between two railroad cars in 1893. Some of the ghosts here are psychological patients, since the hospital had a large focus on mental health and developmentally disabled adults. There are also rumors of morbid suicides, such as a patient throwing herself down a stopped elevator.

Whispers travel up and down the hallways, wheelchairs move on their own, footsteps run towards you then disappear, and full-on conversations can be heard in nearby rooms, only for you to walk in and find it empty. The Chamber of Commerce’s executive director, Valoree Gregory, was even kicked in the shin by an unknown entity, and some ghost hunters have gotten so emotional and nauseated that they had to end their investigations early.

Guided ghost tours started in 2015, then ended in 2018 due to poor conditions and battles with the owner at the time. He lived in Los Angeles, CA and planned on turning the building into luxury apartments. These plans fell through during the coronavirus pandemic. Tours were being overseen by the Colfax Chamber of Commerce, who rented the building to cater to tourists and adventurers.

In 2019, the St. Ignatius Hospital was featured on an episode of Ghost Adventures, where a misty, white apparition was caught on camera. The TV show’s host, Zak Bagans, was viciously attacked by supernatural forces during his investigation here. A man who was being interviewed inside the hospital also appeared to have a panic attack.

THE PRESENT & FUTURE

In April of 2021, what’s left of the St. Ignatius Hospital was sold to Landlock Holding for $115,000. Landlock Holding is owned by a local couple, Austin and Laura Storm, who believe in preserving this piece of early Eastern Washington history. They started working with the Whitman County Historical Society in an attempt to restore the building to safer conditions.

Austin Storm:

As soon as we purchased Saint Ignatius we immediately began work to preserve the building. The biggest challenge the location faces are holes in the roof of the west wing of the building that have caused significant damage to the structure underneath. Repairing the roof requires leveling the floor in strategic locations to make structural repairs. Old buildings are challenging - full of inefficiencies & idiosyncrasies but they are irreplaceable, and because of that they are priceless. They tie us to the past and the future, providing tangible connections to ways of life which are gone and inspiring us to pass that gift on to the next generation.

You can follow our progress on Instagram @stignatiuscolfax and/or book tours, both haunted and historical via our website https://stignatiuscolfax.com/

Cindy Phan is an ice skater, inline skater, and outdoor adventurer. She prides herself in being that one friend you’ll never get bored around, as she’s full of ideas, and always tries to get people out of their comfort zone. Photography, horror, heavy metal, wine, and animals are a few of Cindy’s interests, which are ever-expanding because she literally aspires to do everything. Cindy’s only fears in life are losing the people she loves and leaving this world without satisfying all her curiosities.

In the early part of July 1947, something highly controversial crashed in the desert of Roswell, New Mexico. It was to be an event which would rage on for decades between ‘believers’ and ‘sceptics’ alike among those within the UFO community. Did an extra-terrestrial vehicle suddenly plummet to Earth, casting an enormous trail of strange debris in its wake, (along with several alien bodies and of which, one was meant to have survived) before finally being taken to a secure location at the Roswell Army Airfield where all evidence was thus buried? Or are we to believe the Army’s conviction that what had been recovered was none other than a top-secret Mogul weather balloon - period? As with any fantastic event, there will always be rumours, speculation and even those willing to lie, whether for the mere sensationalism of it all or, (and if true) to protect a secret the military establishments did not want revealed to the world because of the enormous ramifications which would surely follow. Roswell is considered one of the most famous UFO events of all time. Although steeped in controversy, the case has sadly sunk into the depths of legend and hearsay, and nothing on ‘Earth’ will give us any clarity now because of the long passage in time since its inception, along with an incredible plethora of apparent new leaks and data being found each year by researchers who say, ‘they’ve finally got more leads to the mystery.’ But we have nothing in terms of physical evidence, only witness testimony, and something always prevalent within the UFO field of investigations. If there had been any physical evidence whatsoever that a UFO had crashed in Roswell back in the day, then all confirmation of this fact had been meticulously and painstakingly recovered, and where public contamination would no longer be a threat surrounding this highly controversial occurrence. Yet, there are a few ‘grey’ areas we need to examine, and which can be proven, nonetheless in our search for this somewhat illusive truth.

As we carefully analyse the case as it transpired all those long years ago, we find some startling contradictions which may concede to the fact that there had been a deliberate cover-up of international proportions, and no less from higher officialdom within the military core itself. That ‘something’ which subsequently crashed, leaving an expanse of unusual debris over a wide area of the desert region of Roswell, was believed to be a Flying Saucer. However, the question remains as to why this event had caused so much controversy to begin with. If this object had simply been terrestrial in nature, why the continual objection to what has been promoted as the official narrative of the object being a balloon in the first instance? We also have facts which indicate that the Air Force had changed the events on several occasions throughout the prevailing years to squash any suggestion that they may have indeed been in possession of what was first thought to be through the Roswell Daily Record as a ‘Flying Disc!’

How It Started

A rancher by the name of William Ware ‘Mac’ Brazel had discovered small pieces of unusual debris scattered over a wide expanse of his property at Foster Ranch in Lincoln County, New Mexico in the early part of July 1947. Brazel had been puzzled as to why his sheep were frightened to cross a certain area of his pasture due to the odd reflective metal strewn about. On closer examination, he found the material consisted of small, wooden beams with strange markings on them, rather like hieroglyphs, and

which could not be scratched or broken and appeared extremely pliable. He also noticed some type of heavy gauge monofilament fishing line which appeared translucent, and which again could not be damaged. The last of the material was something which Brazel found the most bizarre. This consisted of a thin-like substance, rather like tinfoil, but the likes of which could not be torn, burnt or impaired in any way. Equally fascinating was the material’s ability in reforming its original shape when crushed in the hand.

He’d never seen anything like it. The night before, there’d been a violent storm, and he’d heard an explosion in the distance and thought that, perhaps, these had been parts from some form of exotic, or even secret technology which belonged to the military. There had been reports on the radio of flying saucers being spotted by folk, and Brazel wondered whether the debris could, perhaps, belong to just such a craft having met its fate through the thunderstorm.

Brazel had been used to retrieving two crashed balloons, along with his son in the area which he’d return to the Army for a small payment, but this material confounded him.

n the previous month, on June 24th, private pilot, Kenneth Arnold had been flying his small aircraft past Mount Rainer to locate a crashed transport airline with the promise of a $5000 reward. The sky had been clear and offered Arnold an excellent view of the mountains. At roughly 3pm, he suddenly caught sight of nine, bright objects which were moving exceedingly fast past the mountains, at an estimate of roughly 1,200 miles an hour, and which would occasionally give off flashes of light due to the sunlight reflecting upon the surfaces of these strange crafts. Arnold reported that each object seemed to be flying in a long chain and appeared convex in shape, occasionally flipping erratically, and performing what he considered to be extremely fast manoeuvres. This had been the first sighting during the PostWar era within the United States. Arnold described that the objects flew rather like a pebble when skipped across water, and thus was born the acronym ‘Flying Saucer’, although his description of the objects was slightly at odds with the media’s interpretation. His encounter had made the headlines, and Brazel must have been aware of such stories being narrated through the limited media outlets within the day. Such accounts were being sighted within the next three weeks and directly after Arnold’s sensational claims.

Brazel decided to report his findings to Sheriff George Wilcox of Chaves County in Roswell. Wilcox was a much respected and fine officer within the town and known as a no-nonsense but fair man. After examining the box of debris Brazel had presented to the sheriff, Wilcox must have been concerned that what he’d handled was totally foreign in origin. He’d had first-hand familiarity with every manner of balloon which frequently fell on rancher’s land within the county.

While Brazel had been at the station, he’d spoken to a news reporter from KGFL radio who’d got wind of the growing speculation that a crashed saucer of unknown origin had come down in the region

of Roswell. Other witnesses, (and many which Brazel and Wilcox had not been privy to during this time) began to talk. It was evident that townsfolk were heading to the scene to collect the mysterious materials, secreting them in the most obscure of places, even Brazel’s neighbours, so it turned out! The question was, why would remnants to any apparent earthly device be stored away in this manner? It was clear that the composition of said materials was unique in nature, and that, perhaps, significant emphasis to the alien hypothesis and possible subsequent arrival of the military heralded most of the residents seeking out such exotic items which they saw as valued souvenirs before the area was cleaned up.

He also felt that someone had to be responsible in cleaning up the mess on his ranch. This prompted the host to advise Brazel that he had to notify the Roswell Army Airfield located south of town. After all, this was their department, and they may have known more about what had occurred. No one, however, would have believed that this would lead to the biggest cover-up of all time. On the 7th of July, the authorities were called and two intelligence officers from the Roswell Army Airfield were despatched to the police station to assist Brazel in a further examination of the debris out in the desert. These had been staff intelligence officer, Major Jesse Marcel, and Captain Sheridan Cavitt

Such rumours were indeed beginning to circulate quickly, and the radio commentator listened, shocked as Brazel clarified the material held incredible properties and even mentioned that ‘They weren’t human!’

of the counterintelligence corps. Although Captain Cavitt remained discreet in spilling the beans about the events many years later, and when the truth to such allegations emerged, Major Jesse Marcel would go on to confirm that the debris was something he’d been sworn never to reveal. However, his admittance that the remains were not terrestrial in nature fuelled speculation that the UFO story had been the official narrative to begin with.

On the 8th of July, the ‘Roswell Daily Record’ released a story which dominated the headlines, announcing that the ‘RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region.’ This came at the behest of the military who had been candid about the discovery. RAAFB Public Information Officer, Lt. Walter Haut issued a press release revealing that personnel from the field’s 509th faction had seemingly recovered a ‘flying disc’ through the orders of Colonel William Blanchard. As soon as this hit the media, papers and news flashes across the world followed suit with the incredible revelation that an actual craft of seemingly extra-terrestrial origin had been discovered. Unbeknown to the unsuspecting public, a new strategy of operations was being orchestrated behind the scenes, even while both Marcel and Cavitt had been out

in the desert retrieving more of the wreckage. In less than a day, it is believed that Colonel Blanchard had received orders from the Pentagon to issue a new press release, debunking the ‘flying disc’ story in favour of something more terrestrial. During the minor time lapse of events, it is clear to assume that higher officials realised they were dealing with something which had to be kept secret at all costs.

and was now utilising his efforts in securing the rest of the debris, along with apparent bodies now discovered at the scene of the craft’s final resting place. A press conference at Eighth Air Force headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas was hastily organised, and a brand-new strategy was implemented to cover a startling reality which, on the face of it, would have changed the world forever! While the Pentagon had released orders that the news outlets should be cleaned up, so too was the wreckage. A tight rope of security was administered and executed on an apparent ruthless level of integration. The ‘disk’ story had to be quashed, and at any cost.

There is every reason to speculate that Blanchard was removing himself from public attention through the erroneous press release he’d authorised

Brazel would pose a problem to the Army. They knew that the press would seek him out, so the only way in securing a complete black-out was for the military to arrest him and take him out of the picture immediately before any further revelation to the new claims could be counteracted on his behalf. Sheriff Wilcox was someone who could also be threatened, seeing as he was conditioned to follow orders from those who superseded his authority. On the 9th of July, officers from the base located Brazel and took him back to their headquarters for questioning.

As soon as the new, revised explanation of events became public through the papers and radio, calls started coming through to talk to Colonel Blanchard for him to explain this sudden turn of events. All they got back was that ‘no further details were available.’

hat’s bizarre is that Brazel had been seen in town with several troops by his side, entering the ‘Roswell Daily Record’ where, it is assumed by many witnesses, he was forced to give a new and sanitised version of events during his military custody. While this was going on, other officers in town were recovering all Haut’s original press release. This is a clear indication that new orders from high up was adamant to sweep aside any suggestion that a flying

The Mortuary

Another key figure which clarified that bodies had been recovered from the crash site and who also found himself at the very base where the wreckage was being stored was Glen Dennis. Dennis had been employed as a mortuary assistant for the Ballard Funeral Home in Roswell, and which, incidentally, had a long-standing contract with the Roswell military base in providing ambulance and mortuary services. Around 1.15 pm, he’d received an urgent phone call from someone at the base, asking whether they had any child-sized, hermetically sealed coffins.

Thinking there’d been an accident of some kind, Dennis asked the person to hold on while he checked to see how many they had in stock. There seemed urgency in the caller’s voice from the other end of the line, and this alarmed Davis slightly. Child-sized coffins? Had there been an accident? He wasn’t sure. The man on the other end gave no clues as to why they were needed. The conversation ended when Dennis informed the man that they didn’t have enough but could order them, ready for the next day. Roughly fortyfive minutes later, the same caller from the base rang back, enquiring how they went about implementing certain preservation techniques for bodies that had been exposed to the elements – namely the desert. Dennis explained that the chemicals they used were mainly strong solutions of formaldehyde and water, but that this would inevitably change the body’s chemical composition. He offered to come up to the base, but the officer stated that the information he sought was for a probable future scenario. Dennis also explained that they could freeze the bodies in dry ice for storage or transportation.

In a twist of fate, Dennis found himself being called out roughly an hour later to transport a local serviceman who’d suffered lacerations to the head and possibly a broken nose from a minor accident back to the Roswell Army base. After administering first aid, both he and the serviceman arrived there around 5pm. Although Dennis was a civilian, he usually had free access to the headquarters because most of the officers knew that he and his team were invaluable assets to the community.

disk had been recovered. Once Brazel had finished his business at the newspapers, he was then escorted to Radio Station KGFL where he retracted any notion that the debris had come from an alien craft and related an earthlier version of events which, undoubtedly, had been script-written by the military. Indeed, the owner of the radio station was threatened by the Army that, should any further broadcasts be made about a ‘flying saucer,’ then his licence would be

revoked – indefinitely. Most folks noticed a change in Brazel. He’d become subdued, angry, and fearful. The only other means to keep someone quiet and who may also talk was to offer some reward. This, it is believed, is how the Army got to him. Not long after the change in the story, Brazel was seen in a new pick-up truck. Money buys anything, so they say – even loyalty. Folks knew that Brazel was, to a degree, living on the breadline, and this was something they found strange.

After parking the ambulance around the back of the base infirmary, Dennis could make out what looked like strange wreckage through some open shutters which he described as appearing like the bottom of a canoe and roughly three feet in length, resembling something like stainless steel which carried a purple hue, as though exposed to high temperature.

sick. She asked him what he was doing here and that he had to get out, because if he didn’t, he’d be in a lot of trouble. Dennis then watched as she hurried into another door where a Captain stood, eyeing him suspiciously. The captain then quizzed Dennis as to what he was doing on the base. After explaining, he then enquired as to the crashed material, at which point the captain ordered him to remain put.

Two MPs (Military Police) were also present, as though guarding the material.

After Denis checked the serviceman in, he then proceeded towards the lounge area to get some refreshments. He also had the intention of looking for a nurse he knew, a new recruit who was a 2nd Lieutenant and had been commissioned roughly three months earlier straight from college. He suddenly caught sight of her quickly departing one of the examining rooms with a cloth over her mouth. Puzzled, Dennis noticed the nurse appearing shocked at seeing him, while all along trying to stop herself from being

Two MPs approached Dennis with orders to escort him from the building and back to the funeral home. It was during this point when they’d literally stepped fifteen feet or so from the room when a coarser voice came from behind from another Captain which Dennis described as being the meanest man he’d ever seen in his life, to the point that the guy scared him. This red-haired Captain informed him that there was no crash, and that if he spoke about anything he’d seen, he’d be in a whole lot of trouble. Dennis retorted by reminding the captain that he was a civilian, and there was nothing he could do if he wanted to talk, at which point the captain warned him that, should he disobey his order, then they’d be picking his bones out of the desert and that he’d make good food for the dogs. He was then marched unceremoniously off the base, where the MPs followed him back to the funeral home.

Dennis could make out strange-looking writing on the material which reminded him of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

However, things took another strange twist when Dennis tried to call the nurse much later. She returned his call, sounding distraught and wanting to meet, telling him that she’d explain everything, but that her name was never to be disclosed.

He had to swear by oath that her wishes were to be carried out. They agreed to meet at the Officer’s Club for a light lunch, but on their meeting, both ate little. Dennis noticed the nurse seemed physically and emotionally upset, and what she was just about to describe was something Dennis would never forget.

The nurse continued by stating that she’d gone into a room to get some supplies in the base when she suddenly found two doctors performing a preliminary autopsy. She was surprised when one of the doctors asked that she take notes, but the stench reaching her nostrils was the worst she’d ever smelt in her life. She saw figures, the likes of which horrified her laid out on examining tables. The nurse proceeded to draw a diagram of the bodies for Dennis. There had been three of them in total, and she was sure that one of them had displayed signs of life. Two of them looked burnt, mangled, and dismembered, (especially the one they had been working on) and appeared black, perhaps due to exposure from the elements. She noted that these beings were roughly

Considerations

There is no way of truly ascertaining what had occurred which led to the downing of the Roswell UFO. We can rule out that the military knew anything about the craft in the first place, because they apparently didn’t know anything about it until Brazel brought it to the attention of the authorities, and after some considerable time. This may account for the alien bodies to have become so badly decomposed. There has also been the suggestion that during the storm, the lightening had, perhaps, struck the craft, and this led to its downfall. Again, it is doubtful that a highly advanced, extra-terrestrial craft which material could not be bent, burnt, or marked in any way had been compromised due to adverse weather conditions. An advanced piece of machinery which could, (theoretically speaking) traverse time, space or even dimensions would be strong enough to deal with such hostile environments, surely? Perhaps something had gone wrong inside the vehicle itself, and this is what led to the crash. And let’s not forget either that had this been a secret, Mogul Weather Balloon, the Army would have been monitoring its position from the time it was launched and up to the moment it crashed. Perhaps another element to such confusion

three and a half to four feet in height and had no hair.

She also noted that one of the doctors who was examining the burnt creature explained that the beings had heavy cartilage, as opposed to teeth and that their anatomy was like nothing registered within any medical journals. The nurse felt nauseas, as did one of the other doctors, and they appeared concerned that the air conditioning within the theatre would seep out into other areas of the hospital base. This is when she exited the room and was surprised to see Dennis there. The nurse proceeded to draw these for Dennis and handed him the sketches.

What’s strange is that after Dennis had driven her back to the officer’s barracks, he

decided to call her the very next day to see how she was coping but was told that the nurse wasn’t available. Puzzled, Dennis tried repeatedly to call, but each time told the same thing. Eventually, he got hold of another nurse who’d informed him the Lieutenant had been transferred out, along with some other personnel. He found this strange, knowing that she would have at least contacted him due to these sudden changes. Around two weeks later, Dennis received a letter from her with an APO number, indicating that she was safe and that they could discuss the matter they’d spoken about through letter. After sending another correspondence to his friend, the reply he received stated: ‘Return to Sender – Deceased.’ Another nurse from the base informed Dennis that the rumours circulating was that she, along with five other nurses had been on a training mission and had all been killed in a plane crash.

Dennis had filed away the sketches at the Ballard Funeral Home but discovered that they’d disappeared. Through the prevailing years, Dennis’s testimony had been in question with regards to the nurses’ identity, but the calls which had come through to Dennis has been confirmed. There were many rumours with what happened to this mysterious nurse, but Dennis had promised under oath that he would not betray his friend’s identity.

can be cleared up when researchers further speculate that two entirely separate UFOs had accidentally collided with one another, when all along it could have been one of the same. Looking at the facts surely indicates this is as near to the scenario as one can get. The situation had been so serious, the Pentagon got involved, and all, supposedly, over a mere experimental high-altitude weather balloon.

Author, Ronald Kinsella, however, speculates in his book ‘The Digital Demon’ and published by Philip Mantle’s ‘Flying Disk Press’ that such UFO crashes are Trojan Horses, and that nefarious beings (or force) are basically hand-delivering technology which they know will be discovered by certain military factions and thus, back engineered to advance humanity.

Their heads were bulbous, having large, black eyes and a small slit for a mouth. The nostrils and ears were hardly visible. The creatures only had four fingers, at the ends of which protruded small suction pads.

This troubling outcome does not, he concludes, offer betterment in aid of civilization; rather, some wicked agenda we may not be able to conceive yet. His argument is that if it was an unintentional crash, then help certainly would have arrived in the form of extra-terrestrial backup. None apparently came. It’s no good people stating, for the record, that there were lights spotted within the region days or weeks later, as this is too weak an analogy to make fit a preferred outcome. Other crashes, he goes on to suggest, were reported in varied regions across the world, stating that the ships and pilots differed. This would be a contrived method in not raising eyebrows with the military, he states, with the same species having the same problem in reaching Earth repeatedly. To seal this hypothesis, the crafts are ‘always’ downed away from populated areas, thus securing covert operations.

There are also most notable members within the military faction who have stepped forward in claiming they’d been involved in clandestine UFO clean-up operations immediately following a crashed saucer anywhere across the world.

bodies, (one of which was meant to have survived for a short period of time and long before anthropomorphic dummies were created to test parachutes in 1949) had been discovered is startling within its revelation in the prevailing years. I believe this had been the first incident of a wellpublicised UFO crash, and the authorities had almost let slip this fact which would have surely changed the world as we know it today. There is no doubting that UFO crash retrievals occur, and that such operations are carried out right down to the last detail, but the question begs as to why rare occurrences of this kind happen within remote areas and away from public contamination, and why it is the public at large are continuously side-tracked into the acceptance that it’s all fiction.

One such notable, (who shall remain anonymous for the record) even went so far as to reveal that he’d helped an ET escape while under US military jurisdiction and, using wire-cutters, got the being out in the open where a light emerged and, thus, the ET was transported up to the awaiting UFO. In the event of humans being abducted by ‘Greys’ in the dead of night, along with their amazing methods of transporting an individual through the walls to their house) one wonders why the captured alien’s rescue team didn’t simply employ the same method in getting ET home instead of someone having to get him out using security cards and cutters! Maybe the aliens had problems with their ‘tractor beam?’ It is quite clear to see that the ‘ET’ involvement is far more complex and puzzling than the mere tracking and observation of their supposed UFOs. This is where we find ourselves going too deep down that ‘Rabbit Hole.’

Regarding Roswell, it seems strange that the military first announced they’d had a ‘flying disk,’ and that an immediate retraction of this fact was implemented within no less than twenty-four hours. Also, the admittance of it being nothing less than a weather balloon, then from that to a ‘Mogul’ weather balloon along with test dummies used to conceal any notion that a UFO, along with dead alien

This had been conducted under secret contract and directed by no less than WrightPatterson Air Force Base – the very place where the wreckage had been flown to.

Another fine point in detail is the press releases. In order that the Army retract its mistaken version of events, Major Jesse Marcel who’d been witness to the Roswell material was forced to appear in a new photoshoot, proving to the world that the so-called ‘Flying Disk’ was nothing less than the remnants to a weather balloon. One wonders why the military went to such lengths to finally hammer the last nail into the coffin of deception. Marcel knew immediately that the material had been switched, and something which haunted him for the rest of his life.

Another bombshell took place through the release of ‘The Day After Roswell’ by Colonel Philip J. Corso and William J. Birnes. Under the Freedom of Information Act, Corso blew the lid of secrecy regarding his involvement through the distribution and examination of said alien hardware, along with the non-terrestrial bodies recovered. Corso had himself been a member of President Eisenhower’s National Security Council and former head of the Foreign Technology Desk

at the Army’s Research and Development department and spearheaded the program to back-engineer extra-terrestrial technology for the military core. There appears to have been a serious consideration that such aliens pose a threat to the human species, and this, in turn, was one of the reasons the ‘Star Wars’ project had been implemented.

With all aspects surrounding the Roswell UFO crash, things become muddier, and that’s perhaps how the ‘System’ we serve wants it. No transparency will maintain a 75-year-old secret, and something which, in my opinion, is so deeply buried that the truth of the matter will NEVER be revealed. One thing is for sure, there is no smoke without fire, but it appears that flame will not go out for those researchers willing to keep the Roswell case alive.

Philip Kinsella is the author of numerous UFO/Paranormal books. His latest, ‘You, The Public Deceived: The Grand UFO Deception’ was published through British Ufologist, Philip Mantle under his ‘Flying Disk Press.’ He was also credited back in 1996 for releasing a revolutionary new speculation surrounding the ‘alien abduction hypothesis.’ Philip, along with his identical twin brother, Ronald, had both been presented with ‘The Outer Limits Magazine’ award in 2022 for their dedication to ‘The Truth’ within the UFO field of investigations. He is currently working on new books surrounding UFOs.

It seems the United States are the gobetween in the event of alien hardware being discovered.

It is no secret, either, that parts to the Roswell craft had been sent to the Battelle Memorial Institute for its exotic materials, and most notably something termed ‘intelligentmetal’ and known today as ‘Shape Memory Alloy.’

In May 2021, the First Nation of Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc announced that 215 bodies had been discovered in unmarked graves on the Kamloops Indian Residential School grounds in British Columbia. Undocumented gravesites at former Canadian residential schools would be discovered throughout the country, challenging many citizens’ beliefs that Canada was without a dark past, and resurrecting sorrow within First Nations communities.

During the height of residential schools, from the 1870s to the 1990s, there were 139 institutions managed by various church organizations. The last federally funded school to close was Kivalliq Hall in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. It was shuttered in 1997. The horror behind the schools was the abuse endured by First Nations children at the hands of various church officials. Attendance was mandatory for children from 1894 to 1947. The goal of the government and organizations was to separate children from their culture, religion, and livelihood, as well as to assimilate them into Euro-Canadian culture.

As of June 9, 2022, the number of estimated bodies buried in unmarked graves is 2,301. First Nations organizations have estimated that the number of bodies could be more than 10,000. The most recent, Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba, identified 190 ground anomalies at Fort Alexander (Pine Falls) Indian Residential School on June 6, 2022. The prevailing reason children’s bodies weren’t returned to their families was based on the Indian Affairs policy, which did not pay for the transportation of bodies. Residential schools would be responsible for their burial.

That separation from the way of life, even in death, has contributed to gaps in spiritual knowledge, admitted Dakȟóta and Anishinaabe paranormal investigator, and cohost of “The Other Side”, Erin Goodpipe.

“I’m the first generation in my family who didn’t attend residential schools. So, it’s hard to not find somebody who isn’t impacted,” Goodpipe said, during a February phone conversation. “There are the intergenerational impacts that are still being experienced in our families.”

“And the spiritual aspect is so significant because as Indigenous people, we do so much believe in our worldviews. It’s just this integral spiritual dimension of everything. And it was taken from us.”

Goodpipe is in Saskatchewan for a sweat ceremony and feast. She was recuperating from COVID-19 and felt the fatigue that lingers with that recovery. She grew up within various institutions

and with various family members. And then she was adopted by her spiritual family through a hunka ceremony in Saskatchewan.

“I was fortunate enough to be in a space of privilege. For me, as a young person, I was exposed to a lot of ceremony, stories, and knowledge and that wasn’t a part of my immediate family,” she recalled.

That making of a spiritual family helped her connect to her spiritual roots. Many of the holders of spiritual knowledge had to go into hiding to avoid Indian agents who would burn down lodges and interfere with sun dances.

“Anybody who retained the culture had to go underground,” she recalled. “The fact that it’s still alive today is in great part for the generations before me, who sacrificed a lot to try to keep that alive.”

For her, the root of the residential schools was the policies enacted during Canada’s early days.

“It was to steal the Indian out of the child,” Goodpipe said. “The reason for that, in large part, was to assimilate the Indigenous people into the body politic,

Written by Brian Baker

which was Euro-Canadian culture. It was to separate people from their identity which was tied to the land.”

The connection to the land, which is a part of the spiritual identity of First Nations was severed. And those gaps are still very present.

“Many of our elders are passing away and we say, when an elder passes away it’s like losing a library because our culture is an oral culture,” she said. “It has to stay that way. It’s something you can read in a book and understand.

“The reason why we keep (our beliefs) experiential and oral-based is so that people come out and do learn the knowledge.”

One of the challenges Indigenous people faced coming out of residential schools was the lack of support upon graduation. And if someone wanted to attend university, they would be deemed enfranchised. Enfranchisement would be part of the Indian Act of 1876 until 1961.

The Pass System kept Indigenous people on reserves without written permission from the appointed Indian agent. It was enacted in 1885 after the Northwest Rebellion had slowed down immigration to Saskatchewan. Oftentimes, the agent took advantage of the system.

Goodpipe has been able to learn the spiritual values of the Dakȟóta and apply them to her paranormal investigations. However, she admitted she does not feel comfortable investigating the institutions that have claimed the lives of so many Indigenous children.

“That was quite a sticky topic this last year,” she said. “There was a lot of talk with my production company, our team, and are we going to pursue these things?

“Honestly, I felt hesitant. I was like, ‘I don’t know that this is a wound right now that we should touch’. These are people’s families, and these are my family,” Goodpipe added. “I was trying to be empathetic. I would wonder how these communities feel. Like I said, respect has to be paramount to the work we do.”

Adhering to the traditions of Dakȟóta, as well as other First Nations who investigate alongside Goodpipe, is part of the aspect

THE SIXTIES SCOOP

Tee Sock lives in Prince Edward Island and is one of the founding members of Mi’kmaq Paranormal.

February conversation. “It impacted our lives to the point where it impacted my children’s lives as well, especially with our language and our culture.”

Sock was part of the Sixties Scoop. It was a point in time when child welfare would take the children from Indigenous people and place them in foster care, to have them adopted by white parents.

There’s a hint of tremulousness in her voice as she discusses the effects of both residential schools and the Sixties Scoop on her family. And it caused complex trauma and PTSD for her and her sister. Child welfare came for her and her sister Cora when she was eight. Child welfare placed them in the car with no shoes or coats.

“They didn’t even give us the reason why they were taking away from her. At the time when they walked in and took us from our mom, were on her lap on this big recliner. She was reading us a book.”

Sock said there was no abuse at home. They were fed and taken care of. Their hair had just been braided. Their mom went to court to fight for her children to be back with her for about six years. But the damage had been done. They went to an emergency foster home and attended a federal day school on Lennox Island.

She founded the paranormal investigation group in 2016 with friends Sheri Bernard and Julie Pellissier-Lush

Her mother, Mary “Katherine” Knockwood Archer, had attended Shubenacadie Indian

Her older sister ran away after their foster mother broke her arm. They were then placed in a group home and then went back to their mom. Sock admitted she had been on her own since she was 14.

Sock’s sister died in 2018.

“It left such a horrible ripple effect,” she recalled. “I’m glad my children and I are back into our culture. Being taken away from my mom and living with a non-Indigenous family

inside my mom still,”

founded the

that is commonplace for Indigenous paranormal investigators.

They were physically and sexually abused at both the foster homes and the day schools.

organization Aboriginal Survivors for Healing with her mom, and it provides healing programs for students that were affected by Shubenacadie Indian Residential School.

“With that in place, I needed actual survivor documentation for the creation of the nonprofit organization, and that’s when I learned the truth for the first time. It was traumatizing,” she recalled.

Her visit to Shubenacadie in 1997 with her mom was something, looking back on with more clarity, was a revelation. The paranormal is a normal part of being Indigenous to her and her mother.

“To say we saw a spirit, another Indigenous person would not look at you strange, or like if you were non-Indigenous, you would cock that eyebrow and say, ‘Really?’” Sock said. “We’re brought up to believe in paranormal activity.”

The paranormal activity for her and her mother was palpable from 15 feet from the car.

“She froze in place ... and she whispered something that I didn’t catch. I moved closer to her. I was holding her hand, you know, she looked at me with sad eyes and she asked me if I could hear children crying,” Sock recalled. “The day we were there, it was so quiet. There was nothing in the air.”

After remaining quiet and listening to her mom, she heard the sound the of children. Sock couldn’t determine if it was playing or crying, but she heard it.

“I was standing there completely dumbfounded that I even heard it to begin with,” she said, adding that the grounds were still littered with the debris from a 1986 fire that gutted the building.

Sock’s description of the experience was that of a residual haunting. The trauma of witnessing her mom walk along, sharing where the pump house was, and how Indigenous babies were handled. Her mom held out her hands out as if to take the hands of small children. Admittedly, Sock knew her mom was sensitive.

“I’m not going to lie to you, I was a little creeped out,” she said. “The sun was starting to go down, and to be honest I just wanted to get in the car and go. I was not comfortable at all.”

But it was an experience that started her fascination with the paranormal. Years later, Sock and her team would travel back there with all the gear to investigate. She felt gentle tugs on her hair, all while the EMF meter would reach its peak. The pandemic, however, hindered any further investigation as P.E.I. was shut down.

Healing period

In the aftermath of the residential schools and the Sixties Scoop, victims and their relatives are on a healing journey.

“You could decide to use it as a weakness or a strength,” Sock said. “I decided to use it as a strength because I have a legacy that I have to leave my children … The

abuse has to stop somewhere, and you have to cut off that blood supply.”

Her three children are all pursuing careers, all while being “fiercely entwined” with their cultural ways. Sock’s one son is pursuing a career in police foundations, another son is a dancer, and her daughter is at university for wildlife conservation. Sock continues with the paranormal investigations of locations across Prince Edward Island. The impetus is to show that life does exist on the other side.

The discovery of unmarked graves at residential schools has also changed Goodpipe’s approach to paranormal investigations. The team still offers the places to tobacco before investigations and performs smudging. They will state their intentions because, as Goodpipe said, they don’t know what they’re going to open up.

“Paranormal investigations are totally shaped by respect and reciprocity, and that special relationship that we’re building every time, we do an investigation, I always see that as I’m strengthening my bonds to the spirit realm and I need to honor those relationship bonds,” she said. “Everything that a spirit could potentially communicate with me is seen as a gift, and never anything more than that.”

Baker Journalist, editor and photographer

Website Address: http://www.brianrbaker.com

Brian

IN ARTICULO MORTIS

THE STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS: THE MOMENT OF DEATH

By Sarah Stream

Much of the paranormal field is focused on what happens after a person dies. This question has haunted so many throughout history and we are still researching to find answers. There is another question that has fascinated me though: what happens at the moment of death?

We are all going to die, it is a part of the natural cycle of life. We are taking our last adventure into the unknown and fearing this is a part of human nature. Researchers through history have asked this same question and the results are interesting, to say the least.

faced extreme scrutiny from the scientific community about his results.

In the early 20 th Century, Dr. Duncan MacDougall was curious if the soul had physical mass and if it did, could it be detected at the moment of death. Dr. MacDougall devised a way to measure a person’s mass directly before and after death. He created a patient bed that was equipped with a very sensitive set of beam scales to monitor changes in mass. He then recruited six patients that were fighting terminal illness over the course of 5 years to take part in his experiment. These patients resided in The Cullis Consumptives’ Home in Roxbury, New York where Dr. MacDougall volunteered his time.

He spent many hours meticulously observing the patients and collecting data. After his 5-year experiment, he came to an interesting conclusion. He observed a reduction in weight from one of his six patients, “supporting” his hypothesis that the soul had a mass of 21 grams, and it could be measured. This experiment became known as the 21 grams Experiment and a popular movie is based off it. Dr. MacDougall

As a study goes, Dr. MacDougall had a great hypothesis and methods, but he was lacking study size. Two of his participants results had to be taken out of the observations due to technical issues, so that leaves four patients in the study, one of which experienced the loss of 21 grams at the moment of death. This result is very interesting to think about, but the sample size is not large enough to support a statistically significant outcome.

Four years later, Dr. MacDougall announced that he wanted to continue his experiment by attempting to photograph the soul as it was departing the body at the time of death. He claims to have captured “a light resembling that of the interstellar ether” around the patient’s head at the moment they died. Another interesting result to think about, although I could not find the experimental parameters for his second attempt to measure the soul as a physical form.

Dr. MacDougall’s questions on the physical aspects of the soul stuck around and have played into many aspects of popular culture since the early 1900s. One thing he didn’t measure was the experience a person goes through when they die. This has been measured in other, more recent studies though.

“...the soul had a mass of 21 grams, and it could be measured.”

Dr. Duncan MacDougall

ear death experiences are subjective and often reported by those people that have died and been brought back to life. A study that was published in 2001 collected reports of near-death experiences in 344 cardiac patients that had been pronounced clinically dead and then were successfully resuscitated. These patients, most of whom were over the age of 60, were interviewed about their experience during the time they were no longer living. Researchers assessed the reported depth of their neardeath experience and whether or not the patients experienced 10 of the most common elements of an experience like this.

During this study, 18% of the study group reported a near death experience. There have been other studies looking at this same thing and the correlation with age and a near death experience seems to be strong. These other studies reported 85% of children, 48% of those aged 37 and 43% of those aged 49 experienced something while they were clinically dead. There also seems to be a more prevalent experience in women than men.

An interesting note in the near-death experience studies that I reviewed is that many blind people have an experience in which they can see the world around them. You might think that this only happens in those that became blind during their life, so they have memories of when they can see, but this isn’t true. Blind individuals that have never been able to see have reported near death experiences that correlate with seeing their surroundings at the time of death. How is this possible? Research into near death experiences opens door into human consciousness and what happens to a person when they die.

Near-death experiences are a subjective measure, this means a person reports what they have experienced but there isn’t any data or observations to back up their claim. Actually, being able to observe and collect data on a person at the moment of death, like Dr. MacDougall showed us, is difficult. With the advancements of medical technology over the years, we are well equipped to make these observations, but the opportunity has not presented itself until very recently.

Late in 2021, an 87-year-old male patient was admitted to the emergency room after he fell. Medical treatment left him in critical condition and after a couple days an electroencephalography (EEG) test was ordered to further assess his condition. During the EEG, the patient passed away. This occurrence gave medical professionals a once-in-a-lifetime look at the functions of the brain at the moment of death.

During the 30 seconds before and after the time of clinical death, researchers noted that there was an increase in gamma oscillations. These are the brain waves that we typically experience during dreaming and memory retrieval. What does this mean for our understanding of what happens at the moment of death? Do we experience our best memories? Does our life really flash before our eyes? Dr. Ajmal Zemmar, lead author of the study that resulted from this patient’s death said, “These findings challenge our understanding of when exactly life ends.”

This amazing, first of its kind study offers us a unique chance to understand what a person experiences when they die. A jump in brain activity that correlates with memory retrieval and dreaming gives me hope that the moment of death might be a pleasant

experience. If I were able to remember the past, the good times and the love, taking the leap into that last great adventure wouldn’t be so bad.

Are the near-death experiences people have something that translates to everyone at the moment of death? Unfortunately, at this time, we don’t know. There is so much opportunity to research these events but finding subjects to observe at the right time is challenging. Science is a field that is continuously growing and embracing new techniques, ideas and technology. We can do the same in the science of the paranormal, learning from these studies as they are released and incorporating that knowledge into what we do. I know I will start adding questions about the experience of death to my EVP sessions in the future.

References:

The Scotia News. (2019). Dr. Duncan MacDougall and the Weight of the Soul.

Thomas, Ben. (2015). The Man Who Tried to Weigh the Soul.

Van Lommel, Van Wees, Meyers, Elfferich. (2001). Near-death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A Prospective Study in the Netherlands.

Vicente R, Rizzuto M, Sarica C, Yamamoto K, Sadr M, Khajuria T, Fatehi M, Moien-Afshari F, Haw CS, Llinas RR, Lozano AM, Neimat JS and Zemmar A (2022) Enhanced Interplay of Neuronal Coherence and Coupling in the Dying Human Brain. Front. Aging Neurosci. 14:813531.

THE CONTINUING (ANN)VENTURES OF A PARANORMAL INVESTIGATOR

We get sent so many stories, ACTUALLY, stories is the wrong word, that sounds like they are made up, we get sent people’s personal paranormal encounters and we are sometimes blown away with their experiences. We do not judge, we do not pour scorn on their words, why would anyone do that? We will feature more of these in the future but what is sometime refreshing is the back story to their experience(s), the background and their development and their journey that they find themselves on.

One such lady is Ann Morris; and over the course of a few issues, we have been hearing about her journey into the paranormal, from the beginning to the fascination with a certain location and in this part her fondness for gadgets. In this issue she picks up her passport and ventures further afield.

As I’ve mentioned already, I’ve been incredibly lucky to have been able to record at many other locations too. Most of them presented themselves on trips away, such as Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Oranienburg, Berlin.

This was actually on the second last day of our honeymoon and when my new husband was running the Berlin Marathon in 2019. You can’t say it’s not romantic! After three weeks touring the Peloponnese in Greece we were plunged into autumnal drizzly Germany, and naturally we headed to Sachsenhausen.

I had not planned to record – in such a sensitive environment with a history like that, I wasn’t sure that it was appropriate. Yet as I entered the long silent corridors, I found myself totally alone.

The urge to record was like a throbbing pulse. It felt not

only right, but necessary. The presence of a location like that is almost indescribable, and with a dry mouth and shaking hands, I took out my phone and began short bursts of recording. There were few other visitors. If I came across anyone else (naturally I did, but I was very lucky particularly early on) I ceased recording.

breaking audio coming from the concentration camp were the following very clear ones:

- A child’s sad mumbling in the linking corridor used to store bodies as an overflow.

- A man loudly declaring “Ich bin Paul” (I am Paul)

- A man singing in the medical laboratory

Overall, I managed around twenty minutes, and within that time it turned out that I captured no less than thirty-eight EVPs.

Amidst the heart-

Any guilt I may have had over recording in Sachsenhausen camp was totally obliterated when I read on returning home, the diary of a survivor. He quoted a barrack 38 inmate as saying “We are the murdered of this war. Do not leave this place without hearing our voices. We do not want to be forgotten.”

I feel that I’ve not only heard their voices – but that because of the magic of EVP, I have the ultimate privilege of sharing the wishes of these lost souls.

I hope that they know that I’ve tried to help them.

FRENCH CONNECTION: NORMANDY..............................

In 2018 Jack and I camped for several days on the bluff behind Charlie sector of Omaha beach in Normandy. We stayed with Omaha Camping and were blown away by the proximity of our pitch to the track down to the beach. Just fifty yards from our tent was the first pill box overlooking Omaha, and down on the sand itself we could see the beach stretching on and on. The sensation

of where we were was overwhelmingly sad, but we felt enormously privileged. I wanted to do these souls justice.

Naturally I recorded in our ‘local’ bunkers, successfully. Further trips to Pointe du Hoc and various other sites yielded incredible results in both French, German, and English. Sitting alone in the corner of an enforced concrete bunker in Pointe du Hoc in the

pitch dark was a rather special experience. It was one of those moments whereas an investigator, you just know that something’s kicking off even if you can’t see or hear it! I got out, goose-bumping all over. Again, results did not disappoint. “Allumer…,” said the voice. “Turn on the light.”

Ann became intrigued in the paranormal hearing about her mother’s experiences that both captivated and terrified her in equal measure. She intends to write a book about her paranormal adventures in the meantime check out Ann’s website:

https://www.lostvoicesevpresearch.com/ Would you like to share your personal paranormal journey in Haunted Magazine? If so, please feel free to email us at personalparanormal@hauntedmagazine.co.uk

EDITOR Paul Stevenson

@hauntedmagazine paul@hauntedmagazine.co.uk

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HAUNTED MAGAZINE ISSUE 35: THE FEMININE MACABRE