Marion, Ohio - What they find is open to interpretation, and they’ve answered the skeptical questions from naysayers time and again.

But six friends who started a paranormal investigations group about four months ago believe in otherworldly phenomena, and they believe they’ve found haunting evidence at a couple of Marion spots.

Eerie Paranormal, who describe themselves as professional paranormal investigators, are self-taught and inspired from television shows and Internet research about how to detect signs of spirits.

It started as a simple hobby. They purchased similar equipment that the Ghost Hunters on the Syfy channel use, read up on how infrared light and digital recorders work, among much other research. Then they put it all to work investigating a home that one of the group members said his mother suspected was haunted.

Rusty Beard talked to his mom about checking out her house on South Seffner Avenue for the white nurse that she had sensed.

“No one really knew what to do,” he said. They had the equipment and had done the research, but this was the first time out.

They had digital recorders, camera, camcorder, and other sensory equipment. They tried to eliminate factors that could have caused the sensations, like ventilation and drafts.

When they finished their searches and recordings, they thought the effort was a bust. No one had heard any voices or felt anything out of the ordinary.

Only after sorting through hours of audio recording did they come across three five-second clips they thought sounded like a child asking to play, and telling them he was ready.

It wasn’t the kind of evidence they were expecting to find. Beard asked his mom about it, and she wasn’t surprised.

She thought she had told him about how she would wake up and feel like there was a child jumping on her bed.

It was a promising find for the group, who has made Eerie Paranormal an official hobby outside of the members’ full-time jobs. Beard and three others, Bob Lawhun, Ben Meade and Gary Hunley, work together at North Central Ohio Rehabiliation Center. Meade’s wife, Terri, and Hunley’s wife, Darcy, also are part of the group.

They’ve since done two other residential investigations, and then decided to approach Marion Cemetery Superintendent Jim Riedl about doing research there.

“I’m very protective of this property,” he said. “You won’t find a business that’s any more vulnerable than this.”

He often shoos people out of the cemetery as dusk approaches.

“There’s no reason for anybody to be in a cemetery at night. It draws suspicion,” he said.

But when Darcy Hunley approached him with the group’s proposal, she was prepared with a plan for the investigation. She’d done research and drawn up liability waivers.

“It sounded like a legitimate inquiry, and it certainly didn’t hurt in any way,” Riedl said.

After about two weeks of sorting through the evidence they had gathered the night they spent about four hours in the cemetery, they shared four short recordings collected at the receiving vault, where bodies used to be kept until their graves were prepared.

It was in that same spot, sitting on the step of the receiving vault, that Lawhun swears he was tapped on the head - with two gentle, successive touches.

“I just started talking,” he said.

He asked any spirits, if they were around to give him a sign. He suggested a tug on his shirt, to push over one of his teammates, anything. When he said, “Tap me on the head,” it happened.

It’s moments like that, he said, that make people believers in the paranormal.

A black, cast-iron gate was behind him, the space behind the gate enclosed by the stone walls of the vault. A bush was to his right, and the space on the step to his left was empty.

“If you can come up with a way to explain that, I’m all ears,” he said.

In the area to the west of the vault the group says they found the audio evidence they shared with Riedl on Tuesday.

Referred to as an electronic voice phenomenon, Hunley said the digital audio recorder picks up sounds on different wavelengths not distinguishable by the human ear.

The group sorted through 16 hours of audio, four hours taken from each of their four recorders during their investigation from about 11 a.m. one evening to 3 a.m. the next morning.

Hunley’s voice is distinguishable on the few-second recording.

“These mosquitos are crazy,” she says.

Then, she said, a voice that sounds much louder says something like, “I’ve come home.”

Though Hunley didn’t hear the sound during the investigation, she remembers talking about the mosquitoes, and jumping because she thought she heard something behind her.

That clip and the three others from the investigation had to meet the approval from all six group members before being presented as evidence of paranormal activity, she said.

They’re still sorting through photographs from the night that they believe are orbs.

“It’s hard to differentiate between orbs and dust balls,” said Angie Yazel, office manager at the cemetery, who is a full believer.

She’s worked at the cemetery for 14 years, and the second week she was there, she swears someone tapped her on the shoulder when she was working. But nobody was there.

Now and again she hears shuffling across the wood floors and recalled a co-worker saying he came face-to-face with a black shadowy figure for a few seconds when he was alone there one day.

“There’s just a lot of experiences that come with the business that we’re in,” she said.

During their investigation, the group checked several areas of the cemetery, including the Merchant Ball on the northeast side of the cemetery that has attracted national attention because of theories about how the 5,200-pound granite sphere shifts about a quarter of an inch a year.

But the evidence they’re presented so far is from around the vault. They plan to work out parameters for a second visit in the future.

Riedl was impressed with the group’s professionalism and presentation, but wasn’t sure about the recordings.

“I definitely believe in spirits, not that I’ve come across them here,” he said. “… out walking in the evening, I live in a cemetery, sometimes, you just feel, like a presence.”

“Whether I agree that I heard what they heard, that’s another story,” Riedl said. “Whether I hear it or not, I don’t know. My hearing’s bad anyway.”

For now, Eerie Paranormal can do about two investigations a month, with plans to do a residential investigation in Bellville, another at Brownella Cottage in Galion, and possibly the Monnett Schoolhouse.

“It’s open to interpretation,” Gary Hunley said. “We just know it’s not us.”

When doing an investigation, the group is looking for explanations for moved objects and strange sounds, whether it’s from placement of an odd air vent or a ghost.

Ben Meade joked that maybe the group could get its own television show.

“We’re funnier than the guys on Ghost Hunters and way better looking,” he said with a chuckle and a grin. - Jessica Cuffman

The Eerie Paranormal group stands outside of the President Warren G. Harding receiving vault in Marion Cemetery

Source - http://www.marionstar.com/

Melissa Watson at the faucet on the sink that sometimes seems to move all by itself

Seattle, Washington - The Heartland Cafe has a ghost. That’s the report from multiple witnesses and while this isn’t new (a brand new ghost might be creepier) the haunting continues as it has for years now. The Heartland Cafe, at 4210 Southwest Admiral Way, is a Wisconsin themed restaurant that moved into the space once occupied by the long time West Seattle landmark, the Admiral Benbow Inn. Their motto is “Serving Midwestern Comfort food like mom used to make.”

But it’s doubtful that your mom had a ghost in the bathroom.

Jeff Loren, a co-owner said, “I’ve heard from two of our waitstaff that they’ve seen the faucet actually move while they were standing there. I haven’t seen the ghost but I’ve been told the ghost is a long time story.”

Waitress at the Heartland, Melissa Watson said, “For the longest time we’d go up into the bathroom and the faucet would be on and we just figured it was someone being lazy or maybe somebody who had too many drinks but it has happened since this place opened. Rosemary, she went in one night (it’s always the hot water on the left hand sink) and she turned it off and then she went to the other sink and she was rinsing her face off and the faucet that she was using turned off and the faucet next to her turned back on.”

Jay Wergin Co-Owner of the Heartland had this to say about the ghost: “There have been some odd happenings around the Heartland Café. I’ve been told about flying spoons in the dish pit, beer cans that move on their own in the Benbow Room, but more importantly, the running water in the ladies room. As the story is told, the ghost had a thing about turning the water on in the ladies room. So without ever telling my employees about this story, suddenly they are recalling incidents of running water. In one case, it was our late night server Nicole who works until 4:30am on weekends. Well she is the only female working during this time and she would enter the ladies room and find the faucet running. In another more recent occurrence the faucet moved on it’s own.

“I’ll tell you, speaking for myself, that it is down right spooky to be alone in that building late at night. Maybe it’s just the age of the building, or maybe the fact that it was a building full of haunted soles for so many years as the Admiral Benbow, Chart Room? You can only imagine over the course of 50 years what might have transpired in there? After all, Frances Farmer once drank there.

“Taking into account that the building is made up of so many rooms, plus an attic space and a unfinished basement. There are plenty of hiding places for a ghost or whatever you might dream up, to be hiding behind. I see shadows casting across the floor all the time when I’m up there alone, not to mention sounds that I can’t identify too.

“We first realized there was something unusual going on when I had my office upstairs and I’d hear footsteps and walking around. I thought it must be crows on the roof or something that were walking around. I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of noise. I better go up and take a look to make sure nobody’s up on the roof.’ There was no one there. So I thought maybe it was coming from next door.

“But I finally realized that it had to be somebody walking around up there that I wasn’t seeing, but I was hearing. So, one Sunday we were closed and I came back down to work and was here in the back where the safe was. And I heard somebody out in the hall. I thought I had left the door unlocked and maybe a customer had walked in. And so I called out, ‘Who’s there? We’re not open.’

“And I came out in the hall and I saw this long skirt. I didn’t see a head, but I saw the shoulder. I saw the long skirt. Long dress, black shoes, just go around the corner. And I thought, ‘Well, my goodness, who in the world is that?’ So I hurried real fast to look and she had disappeared. I thought, ‘Well!’ So I went to the back door and looked up and down the alley. Nobody there. I thought, ‘Well, must have been the footsteps I heard upstairs walking around. There’s somebody in here that’s not here when we’re around.’

“So another Sunday I came down here and the cleaning man was here. I said to him, ‘Will you quit turning the water off and on in the restrooms.’ He was out front cleaning where the coffee shop was and he says, ‘I’m not in the restrooms, what are you talking about?’ I said, ‘Well, why is the water going off and on all the time?’ He said, ‘I don’t know. Is someone in there?’ So he went down and looked and there was nobody there. He said, “There’s nobody in here. What are you talking about?” So I thought, ‘Well, I’m losing my mind.’

“Pretty soon, the water starts again, off and on, off and on, off and on. Finally he said, ‘What’s going on?’ I said ‘Well, we’ve got a ghost around here. Evidently it is playing a game with us.’ The cleaning man was Lithuanian and he was from Europe. He finished his cleaning and didn’t stay around. He got out of there real fast. It bothered him quite a bit. The girls who work here have heard it too and one of the girls swears up and down that the ghost pushed her down the stairs because it doesn’t like her.

“Sometimes on Sundays when I’m here all by myself, I try very hard to be quiet to see if she won’t come around again. Nobody’s ever seen her from the head up. All that we’ve seen has just been part of the long skirt and the legs. So we don’t know whether she’s young or old. I’ve kind of wondered if on this space that the Benbow Inn sits, back in the early days, none of this was here. Did somebody die or were they killed or was there a house here? Maybe they just never moved on from this place so they’re still around here.” - Patrick Robinson

Source - http://www.westseattleherald.com/

The Copper Queen Hotel has a reputation for being haunted.

Bisbee, Arizona - Many hotel guests would complain if they were awoken by bumps in the night or if they found their things had mysteriously disappeared from their dressers. But not visitors to the Copper Queen Hotel, a rustic old place that is considered Arizona’s longest continuously operated hotel.

The Copper Queen is haunted, or at least that is what the owners claim and what numerous guests have affirmed over the years with stories about mysterious voices, odd sounds and smells, and even levitating objects. For many, a quiet, uneventful night at the Copper Queen, which dates to 1902, is a dire disappointment.

“Oh, oh!” a non-ghostly woman exclaimed in surprise when she rounded a corner on the fourth floor one recent evening. When she realized she had encountered another non-ghost, she seemed disappointed. “Have you seen anything?” she asked.

The front desk clerk’s voice grew low as he told how he heard a female voice one evening while riding the elevator between the third and fourth floors, even though he was the only physical being inside. And he swore up and down that he once saw a room key floating in the air.

At his side were the ghost journals, accounts left by guests over the years of their encounters with the hotel’s resident spirits. So compelling are some of these tales that they have been compiled into a book that came out this month. Adding credence to the hotel’s claim of three resident ghosts, at least for those who believe in the paranormal, was the hotel’s appearance in an episode of the Ghost Hunters show on the Syfy Channel.

One Copper Queen guest. Tina Lavon, wrote about how she had tried to take a photo in the hotel but the camera said it had no memory card. The scary part is, she insists it did have a memory card.

Others wrote of hearing whispers, of the remote control for the television not working or of a cellphone battery mysteriously losing power. A child wrote of losing her stuffed animal only to have it mysteriously reappear later.

Nine-year-old Devan heard breathing over his shoulder when he was reading the ghost book. Other guests said coins disappeared from the desk in their room, which legend has it is the handiwork of Billy, a young ghost, who died long ago in the nearby San Pedro River and supposedly now has the run of the Copper Queen.

Southern Arizona’s Most Haunted, a book on Bisbee and other reputedly haunted locales in the southern part of the state, recounts how Billy has been seen jumping on the leather couch in the lobby.

“The Copper Queen Hotel is haunted by over 16 spiritual entities,” said the book’s author, Renée Gardner, who has been named by the local Chamber of Commerce as the official ambassador to the ghosts and spirits of Bisbee. She conducts walking tours of ghostly spots around this old copper mining town, as well as a special driving tour in a secondhand hearse.

All the spirits supposedly roaming around the Copper Queen, and some guests perhaps pretending to be spirits themselves, mean a lot of potential for mischief.

A guest named Roxana wrote of a ghostly incident that occurred when she showered.

“My husband and daughter left our room and I got in the shower,” she said. “When I was in the shower I heard the bathroom door shake. When my husband and daughter returned I said, ‘Very funny.’ They swore they hadn’t returned to scare me.”

Another guest, Natasha, wrote about something that may or may not have happened as she and her stepfather were dining one night. He had locked the door to their room, No. 401. She had seen him. But when they got back, their door was wide open.

There have been rooms that got phone calls with no one at the other end of the line, a photograph on the wall that moved, a shaving kit that fell to the bathroom floor and mysterious taps on guests’ shoulders by invisible beings.

“My husband and I are believers but skeptics at the same time,” wrote a woman who heard strange sounds in Room 316 at 2 a.m.

On Thursday nights, ghost experts lead guests through the creaky old building in search of mischievous Billy, a former prostitute named Julia Lowell (who is said to have taken her life in the hotel and now pays particular attention to male guests) and a mysterious bearded man in a top hat and black cape who smells of cigar smoke.

Not all guests have ghostly encounters. On a recent night, the old elevator did make some groaning noises, but they seemed more mechanical than supernatural. From the hallway on the fourth floor, one could hear sounds from guest rooms, although they seemed to be CNN. Nothing appeared to have moved in Room 404 from late one night to the next morning.

Yes, for some guests, the Copper Queen is not the least bit scary, offering little more than a good meal, a lively bar scene and an uninterrupted night of slumber.

“Absolutely nothing happened to us of a ghostly sort,” a guest named Crystal wrote in the journal. “The only sounds we heard were from the noisy people upstairs.” - Mark Lacey

Source - http://www.nytimes.com/

Source - http://www.carthagepress.com/

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - As a full moon rose over Laurel Hill Cemetery on a sweltering July night, Frank Cassidy took his place in front of a crowd of about 100.

“I am a medium,” he said, clicking through a slide show of photos from his paranormal investigations, as attendees swatted at mosquitoes. “We see the dead, we speak with the dead.”

The audience nodded attentively, straining to see orbs and ectoplasmic mists in the photos as Cassidy talked about staying positive on the job. He warned attendees about negative energy forces called “psychic vampires,” then paused.

“No, Edward Cullen will not be here tonight,” he deadpanned.

Not long ago, claiming to speak with the dead might have gotten Cassidy, the co-founder of the 2-year-old ghost-hunting group Free Spirit Paranormal Investigators, laughed off the stage.

But these days, with no fewer than 11 paranormal reality shows on cable and legions of curious fans flocking to supernatural-themed events, ghost hunting is drifting into the mainstream. And although several 1980s movies featured paranormal professionals - hello, Ghostbusters and Poltergeist - it is now the real-life dramas that are giving ghost hunters a new found cachet.

Cassidy and a half-dozen Free Spirit members were on hand at Laurel Hill in East Falls to guide guests through the cemetery’s bi-annual ghost hunt, a 5-year-old event that typically draws more than 100 participants.

That night, attendees were just as serious as their guides about searching for evidence of the paranormal.

Toting an electromagnetic field meter (electromagnetic disturbances can signify that an otherworldly presence is nearby) and a voice recorder, Kerry Michael Urda, 45, of Overbrook, paid $30 to wander the graveyard after hours. He conducts paranormal investigations in his spare time.

Trudging toward the grave of Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas, Urda hadn’t seen or heard anything yet, but his spirits remained high.

“It’s never too early for ghosts,” he said - it was only 9:30, hours before the proverbial “witching hour.” Ten minutes later, near Civil War general George Gordon Meade’s grave, he paused.

“Did you feel that? I thought I touched a cobweb, but there aren’t any cobwebs here,” Urda said, examining his hand.

Next to him, his longtime friend Steve Dibartolomeo, 46, of Springfield, laughed. He’s gone on several expeditions with Urda, but labels himself a skeptic. “I just like the history,” he said.

Standing with a group of about 15 around Kalas’ grave, Free Spirit investigator Rami Livelsberger, 35, placed a voice recorder on the ground.

“Harry, are you here with us?” she asked. “The Phillies won today! What do you think of that?”

There was no response - at least none that human ears could hear.

Amazingly, lack of evidence does not discourage anyone - in Laurel Hill or elsewhere.

Popular demand prompted Ghost Tours of Philadelphia to expand its offerings of a ghost-story tour to include a weekly $22 ghost hunt that takes people inside the historic Powel House. The 25-person tours, offered since last summer, have been filling up regularly, said Eileen Reeser, a tour manager.

“They’re hoping that something will happen. Of course, we let them know that some nights we’ll get absolutely nothing odd happening,” she said. “It’s not Hollywood. It’s not like the TV shows.”

Once, though, Reeser said, a group heard footsteps in the empty ballroom of the Powel House. And sometimes ghostly images show up in pictures from the tours. “You have to wonder - is it a ghost? That’s the intrigue,” she said.

Ghost hunting isn’t generally a full-time profession. The members of Free Sprit Paranormal Investigators are electricians and small-business owners, college students and insurance agents.

L’Aura Hladik, who founded the New Jersey Ghost Hunters Society in 1998, heads an organization of more than 700 members but maintains a day job - like most paranormal groups, the society doesn’t charge for house calls.

“I would say the popularity for ghost hunting has always been there, but I think there’s an increase in the ease at which one can broach the subject,” said Hladik, 46, of Hackettstown, N.J. “There’s so many shows on television - it’s made it easier. Back in the day, you did everything incognito.”

And the number of homeowners willing to phone in a bona-fide haunting is increasing, too. In 1998, Hladik and her team fielded three or four calls for help per month. Now, they get 50 to 100 calls a month.

Some, of course, aren’t exactly Amityville Horrors.

“Sometimes it’s just a shot of WD-40 and the squeaky ghost is gone,” Hladik said, laughing.

But some hunts really are bone-chilling. On one expedition, Hladik and her team spent the night in a house where, she said, they saw no evidence but inhaled what smelled like rotting flesh for hours.

When they finally left, they discovered that their equipment would no longer work - the handiwork, Hladik suspects, of an elemental spirit.

“That thing was tracking us as much as we were tracking it,” Hladik said.

Even traditional ghost tours that don’t involve a hunt aren’t immune to the occasional haunting, said Steve Sarachman, founder of the six-member Philadelphia Area Paranormal Society.

On a ghost tour with his 6-year-old daughter and a few society members, the group stopped in a cemetery near a grave.

Almost immediately, Sarachman said, his daughter began to complain about feeling cold.

“I look to my right and see what looks like a little girl bending over a headstone. When I turned around, she was gone,” he said. “We went to the headstone, and sure enough, it was for a girl, 11 years old.”

While they might sensationalize paranormal investigations, television shows such as A&E’s Paranormal State and Syfy’s Ghost Hunters (and maybe even Animal Planet’s The Haunted, which focuses on, yes, hauntings involving animals) can lend credibility to the ghostbusting set.

But a few late-night viewings of Ghost Hunters do not a ghost hunter make, investigators stress. Maureen Carroll, the public relations coordinator for South Jersey Ghost Research - which traces its roots back to 1955 - said her group requires new members to take six months of in-class and practical training before they’re sent out on an investigation.

“People watch the shows, buy equipment, and think they can go out without training,” Carroll said. “I say that’s like watching ER and thinking you can perform surgery.”

And, investigators say, there’s something to be said for having a skeptic or two on a ghost hunt.

“They make much better researchers and investigators,” said Hladik.

Skeptics weren’t out in force for the Laurel Hill investigation, though. Even parents toting their kids said they were open to an encounter with a ghoul or two. - Aubrey Whelan

Image: About 100 people turned out last month for Laurel Hill Cemetery’s biannual ghost hunt

Source - http://www.philly.com/

Mobile, Alabama - Firefighters in Mobile are trying to come up with a logical explanation for a mystery at the central station downtown.

Something weird caught the attention of a firefighter passing through the museum room of the Central Station early Monday morning.

That’s when Steve Huffman got a call.

“He said, ‘We’ve got a little unusual situation downtown that you might be interested in.’ And I said, ‘Okay what would that be?’” Huffman said.

The alarm system was lit up.

“The number four, which is a blue light, and the number ten, which is a red light,” he explained.

There’s just one little problem.

“The old alarm system, the Gamewell Alarm System, hasn’t been used in over 40 years, and far as we know it’s not connected any longer,” explained Huffman.

The batteries to power the panel were taken out 40 years ago, and the wires which ran through another panel on a different wall were ripped out years ago.

So where did the power for the light come from?

“Some say it’s the ghost of Laz Schwarz which was the city commissioner and mayor in the early 1900s,” Huffman explained.

Huffman said the stories of a ghost haunting the central fire station have been around as long as he has.

“In some cases, they actually thought they saw someone walking around the building. In other cases, things would move,” said Huffman.

Huffman admits firefighters are notorious jokesters, but he said one of the ghost stories came from someone who never joked.

“We were joking, saying he didn’t have a sense of humor, and when he said he saw a ghost, out of all the ones I’ve heard over the years, he’s the one I would believe,” added Huffman.

Schwarz served as mayor and commissioner of Mobile from 1911 to 1917. The fire station was dedicated in Schwarz’s honor in 1925, the same year he died.

“Some people seem to think that maybe his spirit still walks this building. Now, why he would be in this building, I don’t know,” Huffman said.

Of course, the lightning strike that knocked out the computers at the central station on Sunday might have something to do with the mysterious lights, but we kind of like the ghost story better. - Renee Dials

Image: The Central Fire Station in Mobile Alabama

Source - http://www.fox10tv.com/

New South Wales, Australia - It could be one of the most bizarre reasons ever offered by a speeding driver - “A ghost made me do it.’

But that is exactly the story being put forward by superstitious motorists hitting speeds of up to 180km/h on a road north of Newcastle, supposedly to conjure a ghost.

Port Stephens police have issued a warning to drivers after it emerged that young people were driving at dangerously high speeds along a stretch of Lemon Tree Passage Rd to conjure the spirit of a 20-year-old motorcyclist killed in a crash with a speeding driver in the area three years ago.

A handful of videos have been posted on YouTube, allegedly showing a ghostly bright light appearing in the rear windscreen of cars that start driving at dangerous speeds.

Some locals are convinced the light is that of the motorcyclist’s ghost, in pursuit of people who drive dangerously.

It might sound far-fetched but speeding to summon the ghost has become such a concern that police have issued a warning about the behaviour.

“It’s alleged that if you drive at speed in a manner dangerous, a bright white light comes in behind you and that’s what they are calling the Lemon Tree Passage ghost,’’ a police spokeswoman said.

“There have been several phone calls that people are going out there and while attempting to get footage for YouTube these cars are travelling at excessive speed.’’

The YouTube videos posted so far do show a bright light clearly visible, sometimes close to the car and other times in the far distance.

But the source of the light is unclear.

“We want speeding drivers to know that the only bright light they’ll be seeing in their rear windows will be the red and blue lights of a police car,’’ the police spokeswoman said. - Neil Keene

Source - http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/

Columbia, South Carolina - A 34-year-old cold case murder in Sumter got a new look earlier this week, and it is from an unexpected source.

A group called the Sumter Ghost Finders visited the graves of a couple who were found shot to death in August of 1976.  Their goal: to find out who they were and who killed them.

“Are you here with us, honey?” asked the human voice on the recording.  The response?

“Yes.”

It is a voice from beyond the grave, according to Elliott Davis and his band of ghost finders, one that they are trying to help.

“We’re not adventurers or thrill-seekers, we don’t go out at midnight trying to scare up ghosts,” he reassured, “We’re in it to find out why, what happened to them, who shot them and at least their names.”

They are working the case of a couple murdered in Sumter County, two people that have never been identified and their killer never found.  “The couples’ bodies were found August 9, 1976,” explained Davis, “We’ve been working on the case since 2008.”

Descriptions of the couple were put out across the United States and Canada, where authorities thought they may have been from.  Even their dental records were released in the hopes a dentist would recognize the work.

But all these years later, they still do not have a clue as to who they are.  That is where the Sumter Ghost Finders enter the picture.  They are not going through the evidence to get their information - they are going directly to the source.

Through Electric Voice Phenomenon recordings, they say they have captured the voice of the woman, and Davis has brought in two women who say they can communicate with the dead.  “When we first walked into the cemetery, all you feel is confusion,” explained one, Lacy Thompson-Harper, “When you actually get up to the woman’s grave site, it’s just sorrow.  It’s complete and utter devastation and loneliness.”

She and the other woman do not call themselves psychics, but say they are sensitive.  Thompson-Harper described the victim by saying, “She went from being really happy to watching what was happening to her.”

Davis asked questions too - in French, the language the couple may have spoken in order to get answers.  On an earlier visit, they say they recorded the woman referring to the man as Jean-Pierre.

But, they have not been able to get any further.  For the Ghost Finders though, it is just a step closer to gaining the spirits’ trust and learning their fate.

Even though they did not get complete names or find out who killed them, the group says they did not walk away empty-handed.  Both women say they saw an orange in color, rusty El Camino with a blue interior associated with the murder, and saw that the woman may have had a Native American background.

If you have any information that could help with the case, call the Sumter Crimestoppers at 803-436-2718.  Sumter Ghost Finders are also looking for people who can speak French to converse with the victims.

Sydney Cummins & Lauren Eleazer

Source - http://www.wltx.com/

Queensbury, New York - If you have some things that go bump in the night, there’s a new company that may be able to help you figure out just what it is.

Jim Berkowitz and Eileen Higgins have recently opened Queensbury Paranormal Investigation Team and will investigate any potential paranormal activity free of charge.

Berkowitz works for the post office, and Higgins is a nurse, and the business is the pursuit of a hobby. Both have had personal experiences with the paranormal, and now have the equipment to discover and record this activity.

“Like most people, my interest in the paranormal began with personal experience, and it got me curious,” Berkowitz said. “We can help someone validate what they’ve seen or heard, or discover a natural event that’s causing it.”

Berkowitz said his first experience with the spirit world was when he was 10.

“My dad had a friend with a huge house on Lake George, and whenever we’d go there, I always saw a woman staring at me from a window across a courtyard,” Berkowitz said. “My mom was very sensitive and somewhat psychic, but my dad didn’t believe in this stuff. One day, the woman, in a Victorian-style dress, appeared and chased my father and brother out of the house shaking her fist.

When he got home, he was white as a sheet, and my mom said, ‘You saw her, didn’t you?’”

Higgins said her first experience was a little less dramatic, but frightening nonetheless.

“As a teen, my mom bought an old house in Glens Falls, and I had just gone to bed one night when I heard footsteps on the stairs,” Higgins said. “I thought it was my brother, but he wasn’t there. The footsteps got closer and closer to my bed, and I ran out the door and didn’t sleep well for a while.”

A couple of years ago, the pair ran a janitorial company and were cleaning an old building on Warren Street at night.

“I always felt we weren’t alone in that building,” Berkowitz said. “On our third night there, a woman in a black dress walked by the bathroom.”

He asked the staff who worked in the building the next day about the woman, and some of them confirmed that they had also seen a woman in a black dress.

“One employee quit her job after she saw the woman float through a wall,” Berkowitz said.

Queensbury Paranormal Investigation Team has four investigators along with Berkowitz and Higgins. Two of them recently spent time with a crew from SyFy Network’s Ghosthunters at the Mount Washington Hotel in New Hampshire.

“Since shows like Ghosthunters have been around, there have been a lot of paranormal groups popping up,” Berkowitz said. “We started ours to do things the way we want to, when we want to.”

The group has equipment that includes digital cameras and voice recorders, electro-magnetic field detectors and other meters used to detect and record any paranormal activity.

“A lot of what we do is ruling out more conventional causes,” Higgins said. “Very often what people are hearing can be banging pipes or other natural things.”

Having a ghost in your home is not necessarily a bad thing, Berkowitz said.

“A lot of people are afraid of what’s going on, but a spirit is not necessarily something to be afraid of; the ghost on Warren Street is benevolent,” he said.

“Sometimes the spirit doesn’t want you there, or they are trying to send a message to someone. It’s easy to misinterpret, since they can’t speak directly to us.”

Higgins said there are a lot of theories of why a deceased person’s spirit remains behind.

“It could be they really liked a place when they were alive, or maybe they misbehaved and are afraid to move on,” she said. “My sister died very suddenly while she was doing laundry, and for awhile, the cellar light near the washer kept coming on. I think she didn’t know yet that she was dead, and kept on doing her work.”

Berkowitz said there was another old house on Warren Street that had burned in a fire and was boarded up when he was a teenager.

“We were in that house in August. It was sweltering outside, but it was freezing in that house,” he said. “They say a woman and her baby died in that fire.”

After the house was demolished, a nursing home was built on the spot, and residents often hear a crying baby.

“They called the police once, because they couldn’t find the baby,” Berkowitz said. - Nancy O’Brien

Image: Theresa and Misty of Queensbury Paranormal Investigation Team on a ghost hunt with Jason Haus and Grant Wilson from SyFy Channel’s Ghost Hunters

Source - http://poststar.com/

United Kingdom - The pen is mightier than the sword – an iconic proverb coined by Victorian novelist, poet and playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839.

It’s a phrase which makes regular appearances to this very day; just like its creator, the ghost of whom is said to haunt the gothic Times Territory stately home where he once lived.

Lord David Cobbold, the great-great-grandson of Bulwer-Lytton, made the revelation about Knebworth House on the BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs.

The 73-year-old told how he hears the whispers of his ancestor and other spectres on the estate, which has been home to the Lytton family since 1490.

“I hear them and feel their presence but my wife sees them,” he said.

“I have the feeling that Bulwer-Lytton is still there.”

Lord Cobbold, who established Knebworth’s tradition of hosting rock concerts back in the 1970s, added: “It’s the spirit of the house.

“You just feel that this is a rather special place to be.”

Born in London in May 1803, Edward Bulwer-Lytton attended Cambridge University before becoming a Member of Parliament and a prolific novelist.

His many popular books include The Caxtons and The Last Days of Pompeii.

He was created Baron Lytton of Knebworth in 1866 and died at Torquay, in Devon, in 1873. - Chris Richards

Image: Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Source - http://www.whtimes.co.uk/

Katrina Pierce, owner of the Riverfront Bar and Lounge

Wrightsville, Pennsylvania - Katrina Pierce was writing the daily specials on her menu board as she had done every day since Feb. 19 when a man behind her whispered, “What are you doing?”

Pierce turned around. No one was there.

She dropped the marker and ran into the back kitchen.

It wasn’t the first instance in her restaurant that she can’t quite explain, so she called in the professionals at Ghost Hunters Inc., a group of Pennsylvania residents who investigate paranormal activity.

A team of eight Ghost Hunters investigators will attempt to contact the spirits Pierce believes are present throughout her restaurant.

“Right before we opened, I came in to make sure the fridges were conditioned,” she said. “I walked into the kitchen and heard loud, organ music coming from the bar. I looked out in the bar and it stopped.”

She has also heard bathroom stall doors whipping open and shut, but stop when she walks into the bathroom. And then there’s the walking and mumbling the barmaids have told her about—sometimes when the bar’s empty.

“I do believe,” Pierce said. “I don’t know if I’d call them ghosts, but I believe there’s something out there.”

Pierce, a real estate agent for 17 years, was curious about the building’s history. She collected anything she could find to give her a glimpse into the past. Neighbors from the block had given her pictures of the building, one of which she hung out in the bar area.

The picture is from sometime between 1890 and 1920, Pierce guessed. It’s of some men standing in front of the bar, then called Abel Brothers Storefront.

Pierce pulled paperwork from York County and discovered the Abel brothers—Samuel, Milton and Albert—owned the building and sold beer, ice cream and milk. In 1937, they petitioned to sell beer, sandwiches and light lunches.

The picture of the brothers, secured by a picture hanger, constantly falls, Pierce said. But it doesn’t fall to the floor and break. It falls straight down, onto a ledge.

Allen Phillips, the founder and lead investigator of Ghost Hunters Inc., examined the picture and the hook. He said it’s impossible for the picture to fall the way it does without breaking.

“Someone has to physically pick it up and place it on the ledge,” he said. “We’re thinking it’s the Abel Brothers.”

An old picture of the buildings original owners routinely falls without breaking

Phillips started the ghost hunting service in 1974 with his brother and best friend. To this day, it’s still just a hobby. The investigators all have full-time jobs and don’t charge a fee to their clients.

“We want to get evidence that there is life beyond the grave and to debunk any other kinds of sounds,” Phillips said. “We do scientific research in a paranormal world.”

The group did a preliminary investigation Wednesday night and said they found heavy activity throughout the building. Investigator Scott Wise said he could immediately feel a presence as he walked up to the second floor.

“I just felt, like a heaviness, then it lifted up,” he said. “It’s all over.”

The group will split up into teams of two on each floor. They will use tools to attempt to contact the spirits during the four-hour investigation. An electronic voice phenomenon tool will record a spirit’s response to the investigators’ questions. The recorder can replay any noise.

The electromagnetic field detector will indicate if there is a spirit in the room. On a scale of 0.1 to 50, 50 indicating the most activity, the investigators said the Riverfront Bar and Lounge exceeded the scale during their preliminary investigation.

“I kept it to myself until the barmaids said they were hearing things,” Pierce said. “I just want to know I’m not hearing things.”

Pierce will be part of the investigation Saturday. She said she doesn’t want skeptics to write her off as crazy and encourages people to experience what she has.

“They have to come see for themselves I guess,” Pierce said. “Just come here and hang out.” - Amanda Dolasinski

Source - http://www.yorkdispatch.com/

A group of ghost hunters walk along the shore of the Androscoggin River

Dixfield, Maine - Shards of brown beer bottles and the sun-bleached white carapace of a long-dead crawdad competed for the attention of Mike Watts and Jennie King on Saturday on the rocky shore of “Island No. 10” in the Androscoggin River.

However, Watts, a Farmington iron worker, and King, a college student from Brewer and the newest member of the Bucksport Chapter of the Bangor Ghost Hunters Association, were looking for the remains of Kimberly Ann Moreau.

The 17-year-old Jay teenager was last seen leaving her Jewell Street home on the night of May 9, 1986, with an unknown person who was driving a late-model, white Trans-Am.

She was wearing a white blouse, blue jeans, white high-top sneakers, and a man’s class ring engraved “Mike 1987” and “Mike Staples.”

Images of human bones and white high-top sneakers exposed to the elements for 24 years weighed heavily on the minds of Watts and King as they slowly waded through poison ivy and brush to a woody debris field about 40 feet inland.

They paused long enough to poke the ground with long, thin metal rods used to find bodies buried underground.

“If a body’s been underground for years, there’s going to be a hollow down there,” Watts said.

They left a metal detector near the crawdad, 7 miles downriver from the Mexico boat launch where they and other members of the Ghost Hunters set off at 3:40 p.m. Friday in canoes on the search.

“My daughter was dead within four hours, I’m going to say, of when we last saw her,” Dick Moreau said.

“So, it’s never been any hope we’d find her alive,” he said. “It’s finding her remains and putting her to rest down there at the Holy Cross Cemetery. We got a stone there for her last year, with her picture right on it.”

Kim was declared legally dead in 1993. Her case remains unsolved.

Dick Moreau, who has spent the past few decades searching in vain for closure, mentally gripped a slim ray of hope at a Route 2 pullout along the river a mile east of the Dixfield police station.

“No one’s ever searched the river to my knowledge,” he said, standing near Ghost Hunters team leader Harold Murray, its psychic Felicia Woodbury, paranormal investigator Tamra Terry, and King.

He’d trucked their gear and canoes to the launch after they drove in from Bangor. Watts, a gold prospector, joined them there to help during the four-day search.

Previous psychics who’ve helped Dick Moreau told him that Kim was within a 5- or 6-mile radius of his house.

The Ghost Hunters, a team of volunteers who search for lost Maine towns, signs of paranormal activity and unexplained phenomena, began helping him in June 2009, searching land within that radius in Jay, Livermore Falls and Canton.

This weekend, they’re searching islands and river banks from Mexico to Livermore Falls. By 11:30 a.m. Saturday, they’d searched eight islands.

An hour later, Murray, a self-taught archaeologist, Terry and Woodbury, a self-professed psychic and ghost whisperer, searched Island No. 9 while Watts and King did Island No. 10.

“The psychics have pinpointed where she is, they just can’t give me a road map to get to her,” Dick Moreau said.

“I’ve had them say, ‘She’s on the side of a brook, and there’s some big rocks and big trees,’ and I said, ‘You know what? I live in the state of Maine. I mean, how many rocks and big trees and brooks can I find? Give me something that is very, very unique that I can find, and now you give me something to go by.

“Like if you told me I’m going to find her and there’s going to be a big white birch and there’s a gray granite rock there, or there’s a black granite rock. Now, I’ve got something to look for,” Moreau said. “That makes a heck of a lot of difference. But that’s what it’s always been: ‘She’s over there and that’s what you’ll find.’”

They’ve never had that missing specific until now with the Ghost Hunters sleuthing for Kim, he said.

“Harold has something specific to search the river, but I don’t know what it is,” he said.

Murray said he was keeping mum on the detail so as not to disappoint Moreau if it doesn’t pan out. He said they have information of possible activity on the river.

Prior to launching on Friday, he pointed out islands on the river in Dixfield on a DeLorme Maine Atlas and Gazetteer opened to pages 18 and 19, while sharing search plans with Watts and the team.

“We’re going to start searching the islands right down here, because this is what we had, that she was brought to Dixfield,” Murray said. “We saw it in a report that someone said she was thrown in the river right in the next town, so I said we’re going to do it. We came up here, to Mexico, just in case someone was wrong with the location.”

It’s the team’s first missing person search; an experiment, Murray called it. They’ve searched the Meadow View area of Canton, which is 4.3 miles by air from the Moreau home, and where Woodbury and other Ghost Hunters psychics may have found a lingering spirit.

“Ever since my great-grandmother died in 2000, I’ve been able to see ghosts, and I’m considered a psychic,” Woodbury said.

“I see ghosts and speak with them and they speak to me,” she said. “There’s one spot, in Meadow View, that I picked up on something, but I don’t know. I know the other psychics on our team did pick up on something, too, but they didn’t confirm what it was. So, I don’t know if it’s Kim or not.”

“We do investigate the unexplained and Kim’s unexplained,” Murray said. But this weekend, they’re looking for Kim’s bones and not her ghost.

It’s renewed hope for Dick Moreau, who has taped more than 10,000 missing-child fliers to telephone poles in the search radius since Kim went missing.

“We had a lot of things indicating other places, like the party scene in Canton down on Meadow View, and I still don’t rule that out, and that’s the hard part,” he said.

“At least this will give us answers and eliminate another possibility,” he said. “But I’ll be honest with you. The only way we’re going to find her is with God’s hand guiding us, because after 24 years of not looking for much, we’re looking for elbows, knees, those kinds of things. That’s what we’re looking for and it will take God’s help to locate it.

“I said a long time ago, this isn’t about any revenge. It isn’t about anything else, just bringing Kim home, whatever needs to be done.” - Terry Karkos

Source - http://www.sunjournal.com/

Lufkin, Texas - A Lufkin woman claims she saw the ghost of her mother-in-law standing behind her dancing daughter this week.

Dezarae Smith’s 6-year-old daughter, Ivy, and husband, Corey, were on the front porch of their home on Wednesday when a young boy took a picture of the two with his cell phone.

“They were going fishing, and my daughter asked this little boy to take a picture of her while she was dancing,” Smith said. “There were only three people on the porch at the time. I was at work when the picture was taken, but when I saw it, my mouth just dropped. I don’t believe in ghosts, but it made a believer out of me.”

A form stands behind the little girl in the picture, and Smith said you can see the outline of a woman’s face, nose and eyes, as well as a hand.

“I know it’s not Ivy’s shadow,” Smith said. “It’s almost like the figure is facing the person who took the picture and waving ‘Hi.’ Kind of like making itself known. You don’t see that in a shadow.”

Smith’s mother-in-law passed away on July 13, 2007 - three years and one day before the picture was taken. On Tuesday, other relatives had been pressuring the 6-year-old to move forward from memories of her beloved grandmother - a suggestion that upset her.

The young girl and older woman had a very close connection, Smith said, and the two loved to dance together.

“It makes me more sure that it’s Ivy’s grandmother standing behind her, because she asked the boy to take a picture of her dancing,” Smith said. “When she died from a massive heart attack it really affected everyone pretty bad. It was very unexpected and no one knew she was sick or even had heart problems. For the first two years of her life, Ivy would live with her grandmother off and on. They had a very special bond. Even now, Ivy will sit in her room talking to herself and no one knows who she is talking to.”

Neighbors and co-workers agree the form is a ghost, Smith said, but husband Corey was slightly skeptical.

“When I show it to people, they get chills on their necks and arms,” Smith said. “My husband wasn’t sure it was a ghost, but when I pointed out the details, he came to agree it was a ghost.”

If anything, Smith said this experience is helping her family gain peace.

“We think that Ivy’s grandma is still there and protecting her and telling her that everything is going to be fine,” Smith said. “It’s just confirmation that her grandma is watching over her.” - Melissa Hayes

Source - http://lufkindailynews.com/

Portland, Maine - A group of volunteers who normally search for signs of paranormal activity and unexplained phenomena are joining in the search for a woman missing since 1986.

Kimberly Ann Moreau went out with some friends on the night of May 9, 1986 and never returned home.  Her family and police have spent the past 24 years searching for answers.

“There was a mention that she might have been thrown into the Androscoggin River at a location, so we are going to go down there because no one has searched the river,” explained Harold Murray, the founder and lead investigator with the Bangor Ghost Hunters.

“Kim’s case is the first case for Bangor Ghost Hunters being a missing persons.  There are a lot of unanswered questions, a lot of unexplained things.”

The group has met with Dick Moreau, Kim’s father, numerous times over the past year.  They have searched forests and fields in the area and followed leads developed by looking through information gathered by the family and investigators.

“I’m not saying we are going to go out there and we are going to find her,” said Murray.  “The odds of us finding her are pretty astronomical.  We might come across something that might help Richard and his search.”

“At this point we haven’t been successful finding her anywhere else,” said Dick Moreau.  “Another set of eyes says how come nobody has ever looked down the river.  We’ve gone through and thought okay, what are the things that have not yet been done, and searching the river was one of them.”

A group of about 20 volunteers from across the state will meet on Friday in the town of Mexico, Maine, to launch their canoes loaded with gear.  They are hoping to search islands in the river throughout the weekend for any trace of Kimberly Ann Moreau.

“I’m a father.  I have a daughter.  I would be doing the same thing that Richard Moreau is doing, too,” explained Murray.  “He wants closure.  If it was my little girl, I would be doing the same thing.”

“There is a hope that we are going to come across something, somebody will finally speak, I mean how much longer can you hold it?” questioned Moreau.  “We are going to be there until she comes home.”

“If anybody does know what happened to Kim, if this was your daughter, wouldn’t you want to know?  Please come forward and give us the information,” added Murray.

If you have any information related to the disappearance of Kimberly Ann Moreau, you can remain anonymous and contact the Bangor Ghost Hunters at 1-207-659-4053.  You can also find more information about the group by clicking here to go to their web site.

The group is also welcoming more people to join their search and are looking for some logistical support for their effort, like places along the river to stop and recharge their gear.  - Chris Marine

Source - http://www.wcsh6.com/

Abingdon, Virginia - To the naked eye, the caretaker’s home is all that is left of the Washington County poorhouse on Walden Road.

But the property’s owner believes that more than just the building remains.

“Everybody always says, ‘Oh, the house has spirits, the house is haunted,’” owner Donna Bise said.

The home, built in 1865, is now the Maple Spring Inn, a four-bedroom bed and breakfast that hosted its first guest in January.

Bise said the property has been in her family for several generations, and she has been salvaging the dilapidated house since 2004.

Contractors working on the building have come across some strange stuff, she said, including water that runs on its own, doors that slam shut of their own accord and other phenomena.

So Bise called the Haunt Masters Club, a Tri-Cities area paranormal investigation team. Club members conducted an initial investigation of the area and returned to check out “hot spots” Saturday night.

The group spent several hours in the inn, conducting electronic voice phenomenon sessions, or EVP, checking temperature and electromagnetic radiation with a gaussmeter and videotaping rooms with infrared cameras. They will analyze the footage and report the findings to Bise.

“It’s not like you see on TV but just like you see on TV,” investigator Maggie Ryan said, explaining the groups’ technique.

Justin Guess, one of the group’s founders, said that June 19, when they first investigated, they isolated two audio messages: “I’m over it.” and “You shouldn’t have slept around.”

But before the club even goes to an allegedly haunted place, they research the area. Guess found deeds to Bise’s land dating to the 1700’s when King George II owned it. He also found records of other owners, an old map of the property and old pictures of the house and the poor farm house.

“What makes us different is we’re also a folklore investigation group,” Ryan said. “We use a more scientific approach and keep weeding out things until we come to the things you can’t explain.”

Bise said she wasn’t concerned by the possibility that her inn might be haunted.

“Not only have I wanted to know if there are any paranormal activities here, but I was interested to learn the history,” she said. “Just the history has been intriguing to me, if we don’t find anything else.”

Ryan said she feels that this area is home to paranormal activity in part because of the area’s history.

“Look at the history of this area,” she said. “We had the Civil War, the building of a nation. You can’t not have some sort of something left behind.”

One of the group’s founders, Jacob Denton, said one of the main things about the Haunt Masters Club is the group’s dedication to research.

“We have learned a lot about history through ghost hunting,” he said. - Allie Robinson

Source - http://www2.tricities.com/

United Kingdom - She was the last woman ever hanged in Britain and she could still be haunting a churchyard in Penn. Or so a paranormal researcher believes.

Author and photographer Eddie Brazil, 54, has been researching for his book about haunted churches around England.

His work has led to him to the idea that the ghost of Ruth Ellis – who was executed in 1955 – may be returning to the site where she murdered her lover David Blakely.

The first tale of ghostly apparitions comes from a Penn farm worker who was killed when he fell from his horse in the 18th century.

His ghost was said to appear up in the churchyard.

In 1980s the figure of a woman in white was seen to leave the churchyard by the east gate and walk down the hill which runs by the side of the churchyard.

Hazlemere resident Eddie explained: “Nobody knows the identity of the apparition but the Crown Public House across the road - they have a woman in white.

“We found out that David Blakely, who was murdered by Ruth Ellis, is buried in Penn churchyard, – and they used to drink in the crown pub.

“She told Blakely’s parents that she loved him and ghost identification is a weird business.

“We thought could it be the ghost of Ruth Ellis still pining for Blakely?”

Eddie said he is a believer in ghosts and thinks eventually science may prove their existence.

“It’s my opinion that ghosts do exist. There’s a theory gaining ground on the scientific table in the last few years called non-locality theory which suggests mind and brain are separate, that the mind acts through the brain, but when you have bodily death the mind or consciousness can carry on in some from.

“The analogy would be like a television or radio signal which requires the nuts and bolts of the television to convert the sounds and pictures.

“If you were to destroy the TV or radio i.e have bodily death you wouldn’t destroy the signal or consciousness.”

Eddie, who had his first paranormal experience at age of 10 in London, wants to hear from Buckinghamshire residents about their own sightings and stories – not just about churches – but all paranormal activity.

Eddie’s book, including the tale of Ruth Ellis, will be published next year.

Eddie co-wrote recently published The Borley Rectory Companion, the complete guide to the most haunted house in England, with colleague Paul Adams and veteran British ghosthunter, Peter Underwood. - James Nadal

Source - http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/

Tarrytown, New York - On June 26, 14-year-old Rachel Lambert saw something a bit unusual in a photograph she took earlier during her trip to Washington Irving’s Sunnyside.

After seeing Tim Burton’s film, “Sleepy Hollow,” Rachel pursued her interest in the paranormal and convinced her family to take a trip from Rotterdam, N.Y. to see what the town of the horseman is really like.

They ended up wandering the estate of Tarrytown’s Sunnyside and as they did, Rachel saw something strange in a window of Irving’s cottage. She snapped a picture and moved on, as not to miss any of their tour guide’s fascinating historical speech.

When Rachel got home the next night and viewed the picture on the 27-inch screen of her computer, she found that the creator of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow had not let her down.

She and her family were able to make out a figure that looks like the head and upper body of a ghost holding a quill pen. Rachel determined that before her eyes was a picture of the ghost of Washington Irving.

Rachel’s father Ed believes that his daughter’s sighting of the spirit may not have been a sheer streak of luck. Just before the family stopped outside the cottage, they were having a conversation with the guide about Rachel’s achievements as an English honors student and her dream of becoming a writer.

They additionally spoke about her interest in Sleepy Hollow and how she had planned out sights to see and goals for the trip, which included stopping at Washington Irving’s grave in the Sleepy Hollow cemetery beforehand.

The family thinks that Irving’s spirit may have overheard this conversation and acted. Perhaps Irving’s thoughts were, “I’m gonna let her see this and do this for an aspiring author,” as Rachel’s father put it.

When Historic Hudson Valley, the organization entrusted to maintain the estate, was contacted, spokesperson Rob Schweitzer said he was “unaware” of any ghosts at the estate.

But some ghost enthusiasts maintain the Sunnyside is known for holding the spirit of Washington Irving.

“The legend says he still haunts the house,” said Donna Davies, of Haunted Hudson Valley. “He passed away in the house. If he was going to haunt any place he would haunt Sunnyside.”

Another ghost hunter, Linda Zimmermann, has written many books on the hauntings in the Hudson Valley and agrees with Davies’ assessment in her book Ghost Investigator: Hauntings of the Hudson Valley, Volume 1: “Irving made his home at Sunnyside in Tarrytown. Some people claim that to this day, he still resides in his beautiful mansion. That are reports that Irving’s spirit walks the halls and rooms of Sunnyside, and that he particularly favors the tower know as the Pagoda. It seems to be poetic justice that the man most know for his ghost story would pass on and create one of his own.”

Rachel was certainly excited by this sighting and claims that she is now even more interested in Sleepy Hollow, Irving and ghost stories. As for her parents, Rachel’s mother emphasized that they have always been open about the paranormal with their children and allowed them to explore its possibility rather than fear it.

Ed however, stated that he always thought there could be a potential for the spirit world, but that there are also other scientific ways to explain such mystical events. “Do we make these things up in our minds or are they there?” he initially thought. But after taking several close looks at the photograph he said, “I think it’s there.”

Many family members and friends that were shown Rachel’s photograph were similarly shocked by the image and questioned their ideas about the spiritual world.

“I think it made some people believers,” said Ed Lambert.

Some even said that it looks like there are several ghosts in the image, besides Irving’s spirit. The Lambert family believes that some kind of paranormal investigation should be done to determine what is really in the photograph and at Sunnyside.

The Lambert family plans to return to Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown in the fall to see the scenery of the season, and perhaps to further explore the possibility of the supernatural in the villages.

Although Rachel is likely to also pursue her interest in the paranormal elsewhere, her recent experience and haunting souvenir caused her to admit, “I think there’s something special about Sleepy Hollow.” - Madeleine Dopico

Source - http://tarrytown.patch.com/

Janice Cohee in the basement of the Chisholm Trail Museum

Wellington, Kansas - A second group of ghost hunters is taking a closer look at Wellington’s Chisholm Trail Museum after they claim to have found evidence of paranormal activity.

Wichita League of Paranormal Investigators Jan Cohee of Wellington and Brendan Brannan converged on the museum, Friday night, setting up night vision cameras, voice recorders and electronic field radiation testers to see if their ghostly lightning might strike twice.

About a year ago, the group was in the museum and says they captured voices, thumps, heaving breathing and responses to questions.

“We had a lot of personal experiences,” said Cohee. “When I was down in the basement, I had my camera in my lap and my legs crossed and it was picked up and put on the other side of my leg,” said Cohee.

“We heard footsteps,” said Brannan. “but it was kind of a cat and mouse game. You’d go in one room and hear it on the other end,”

The two investigators aren’t the only ones who have felt something odd in the museum.

Patty Hatcher, a regular volunteer at the museum claims she saw a man appear in a doorway and then suddenly he was gone.

“I started to say hello and then he was gone - he was just like a tall gentleman,” said Hatcher. “I can hear little footsteps upstairs,”

The two were hoping not only for sounds, but for more visual evidence of spirits in the museum.

As Cohee started her journey into the depths of the basement, she told of her first time in the museum’s lowest level. Traveling to the right of the staircase, Cohee said she not only heard a ghost, but saw one.

“I turned to the right and I had seen something peek around this wall at me and then when I was walking up to it, I heard two taps and I was telling one of the other investigators to come here, that I had seen something around the corner at me and when I went back to listen to the recording, there was a ‘help me’,” said Cohee. “The tapping was a ‘look here’ and you can clearly hear the ‘help me’ - it was a white-looking mass - but you could see the facial features. You could see the eyes and nose, the mouth.”

Feelings of electricity or soft touches are common, Cohee says, and she says she’s experienced some before in the museum, but mostly the spirits come through audio capture.

Brannan related his story from last years hunt as he traveled to the third floor - the former surgical area of the former hospital - in search of ghosts. Near a room filled with old toys, the Wichita man said he got responses to a question asked in the dark.

“I said, is the fire truck your favorite toy, if it is could you please knock loudly twice and then there were two loud bangs in here,” said Brannan. “I was just talking with the people downstairs and they said the guy that owned the santa suit (which is on display in the toy room) was a firefighter, so it’s all coming together now,”

The two ghost hunters traveled in the darkened rooms, asking questions and waiting for responses, all as voice recorders and camera equipment rolled. The two still have to go over footage to make sure they didn’t miss anything, but say more than likely that they will be back.

Museum volunteer Richard Gilfillan of Wellington has seen groups of ghost hunters come to the museum before, but says he wants solid answers.

“People are curious and so am I,” said Gilfillan. “I want to see something, seriously. I want to see something concrete. I want solid evidence that they are here.” - Teresa Lee

Source - http://www.dodgeglobe.com/

The Alexander Inn

Knoxville, Tennessee - Oak Ridge’s historic Alexander Inn is well-known not only for the scientists who once stayed there, but for those who some say are still inside.

Saturday night, investigators with the Office of Paranormal Studies put all the ghost stories to the test.

“We’re ghost hunters. We go around to places where paranormal activity is claimed. We’ll check it out for ourselves and see what we can find,” said Office of Paranormal Studies Co-Founder Clint Ferguson.

“There’s a lot of rumors that it’s haunted. We’d like to find out if it’s haunted or it’s not. If there’s activity here, we’ll find it,” Investigator Pete Fransen said.

Requests to track paranormal activity at the old hotel aren’t rare.

“I get a call probably every week to either take a tour to see the ghosts or somebody wants to come look for ghosts,” Oak Ridge Revitalization Effort Executive Director Kate Groover said.

This time, the Oak Ridge Revitalization Effort decided to say yes.

“A month ago, I took it to my board and said, ‘Look, what are we going to do about this?’ And they said, ‘Let them go. It can’t hurt us,’” Groover recounted.

ORRE, which bought the Alexander Inn last December, has faced consistent challenges with fund-raising efforts to restore the old hotel.

“We’ve been a little disappointed with our fund-raising efforts and so we thought, maybe this will help us do something, maybe it’ll bring us more attention, maybe we’ll get some more national exposure out of it,” Groover said.

Investigators spent six hours studying the deteriorating, graffiti-filled rooms and hallways.

“Sometimes we catch stuff, most of the time we don’t,” Ferguson said.

They used electromagnetic field detectors and night-vision cameras, as well as radios to open up potential lines of communication.

“Capture disembodied voices, voices of the dead,” Ferguson said.

Investigators also checked temperatures throughout the night with thermometers because they believe paranormal activity typically brings with it a drop in temperature.

When studying a room, the team would often ask questions out loud such as, “Is there anyone else here?” or “Would you please make yourself known?”

Towards the end of the evening, some investigators believe they picked up audio on one of their radios.

However, they say more conclusive results won’t come for another few weeks until after they’ve been able to review all the data, including audio and video recordings.

If anything abnormal shows up, the paranormal may become a more normal piece of Oak Ridge’s history.

“We’ll start having ghost tours I guess and charging money for it,” Groover laughed. - Alison Morrow

Source - http://www.wbir.com/

Pontotoc, Mississippi - Lochinvar Plantation is a true part of the old south, steeped in the lore of the southern states and drenched in the traditions of long ago.

Built in the late 1830’s, the mansion was home to the Gordon family for many years and watched over by an old caretaker. The Gordon family is long gone now - but the old caretaker still watches over the place.

Lochinvar was built by Robert Gordon, a Scottish adventurer, in the late 1830’s as a gift for his wife. At the time, Gordon owned a strip of land which stretched all of the way from Pontotoc to Aberdeen, sixty miles away.

Aberdeen was Gordon’s own town. He had founded a trading post there in the early 1830’s and named the place Dundee in honor of a town in Scotland. He later changed to the name to Aberdeen.

It was near Pontotoc where Gordon found the land where he wanted to build his home. The location that he chose had been the land of the Choctaw Indian chief, Chinubi and once the Indians were gone from the area, he began building the new house.

After moving into the grand mansion, the Gordons would have one child, a son named James. His earliest memories of Lochinvar included magnificent parties and his personal servant, named Ebenezer. He could not remember a time when Ebenezer had not been a part of his life. He taught James to hunt and fish, told him stories, supervised his manners and when he was old enough, packed his trunks and watched him leave for the University of Mississippi at Oxford in 1851.

As the years passed, the beloved slave grew older and became known by the respectful name of “Uncle Eb”. He remained particularly close to James Gordon and their relationship went far beyond master and servant.

In February of 1856, James married Virginia Wiley and in December of that year, their daughter Annie was born. From that time that she could walk, Annie was attached to Uncle Eb. She followed him everywhere and begged him to push her on the swings and to tell her stories.

Delighted, Uncle Eb took under his wing a new generation of Gordons.

Then came the Civil War. Robert Gordon, now too old to be involved, gave his support and advice to James and they raised a company of Confederate cavalry, the first from northern Mississippi.

Before James Gordon left for service, he called Uncle Eb to see him. “Take care of my family and the plantation,” he told his mentor, “My father needs your help and I need to know that you are here with my family. Don’t let anything happen to them and I’ll be back home soon.” He embraced the older man and told him goodbye.

This began Uncle Eb’s role as the caretaker and guardian of Lochinvar. Every afternoon, he would begin his rounds of the property, making sure the gates were closed, the doors to the house were locked and that there were no strangers lurking around the plantation. He moved his bed to the hallway outside of Annie’s door, where he slept from that night on. He took to roaming the grounds at various times throughout the night, carrying an oil lantern and making sure that everything was secure.

As time passed, he learned other skills and began making repairs on the house and the farming equipment. He learned to cook and prepare the meals and even to darn socks and make repairs on clothing.

Night after night, the light from Uncle Eb’s lantern circled the house, the barn, the garden, the pasture and the orchards, reassuring himself that nothing was amiss and that the people he loved were safe.

One night, while Uncle Eb was on his rounds, a rider approached. It was Captain James Gordon, home for a brief stay at Lochinvar. A few days after he left, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel, returning to combat with the 2nd Mississippi Cavalry Regiment, Armstrong’s Brigade.

Colonel Gordon and Uncle Eb would never meet again.

One rainy night, Uncle Eb was roused from his sleep by a strange sound. He took his lantern outside and crossed the grounds in the storm. He was soaked to the skin before he was sure that everything was secure. A day or so later, what seemed to be a cold developed into pneumonia. In less than a week, old Uncle Eb was dead.

It was a long time before Colonel Gordon received word of his friend’s death. He was in England at the time on a mission for President Davis. On his way home, he landed in North Carolina and was captured and imprisoned. He soon escaped and made his way to Canada. There, he met and befriended an actor named John Wilkes Booth. This casual friendship with Booth later pointed suspicion to Gordon when President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Luckily, Gordon was able to prove his innocence.

After the war, Gordon finally learned that Uncle Eb had passed away while carrying out his duties to the plantation.

Many believe that since Uncle Eb died before the war ended and before his guardianship of the Gordon home came to an end, he has not rested in peace in the years since the Civil War.

As the years have passed, his oil lantern is still seen roaming the grounds of the Lochinvar estate. It has been seen for decades and locals believe that the light belongs to the spirit of Uncle Eb, watching over his beloved family throughout eternity.

Lochinvar is a private residence north of the town of Pontotoc. The town is located about 20 miles west of Tupelo on Highway 6. - Kristina Stancil

Source - http://www.allvoices.com/

Beckley, West Virginia - Strange footsteps, voices and even mysterious music sound through the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Building when no one can be found making them. Could the historical Beckley building be haunted?

The president of West Virginia Paranormal Inc., Thomas Moseley, says he wouldn’t call it a “haunting,” but he thinks paranormal activity is going on.

A team of six people set up night vision cameras, digital voice recorders, hand cameras and electro-magnetic field detectors and got to work June 13-14.

“We started setting up at 7 p.m., and with all the problems we had, we didn’t get completely set up till midnight,” Moseley said. “We then left at 5 that morning and we did come across some interesting things.”

Problems included everything from cameras not being set up right to battery-powered hand-held cameras going off completely. Moseley said it could have been paranormal, but some of it was not.

“When the battery-powered cameras went out, we did see a couple of orbs appear,” he said. “When something is trying to manifest, it can draw energy out of things like that to make it go off.”

The building was built in 1931 to honor World War I veterans and housed the theater and arts center. Theatre West Virginia has plans to take over the building in August to set up a year-round performing arts facility.

The team came across the building in an attempt to find local “haunted” places. Upon its research, it came up with the Wildwood House, which it plans to investigate in August, and the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Building.

West Virginia Paranormal hasn’t been the only one to investigate the alleged ghostly activity. About four years ago, Soldiers Memorial Theatre director Kathy Zirckle says, a seven-member team from World Paranormal Investigations of Ohio went in the building and took a picture of what it believed was an apparition in the basement.

Although Moseley says the team wasn’t lucky enough to find it, it did find a few things that were strange in that area.

“We did get a couple of electronic voice phenomena on our recorders,” he said. “We had another EVP of a Civil War cadence in the auditorium where they sang something like ‘two soldiers going to die.’ It was strange.”

Moseley says something is indeed there, but they have not finished going through the evidence yet. What they have found is that a lot of claims have been debunked.

“A lot of people talked about a ghostly moan, but there are pigeons living up there and their coo could have been confused with it,” he said. “People also talked about seeing orbs, balls of light believed to be from the beyond, and we did see a few, but to be honest, the place was dusty and there’s a fine line between an orb and a dust particle. Orbs emit their own light. They don’t reflect it.”

For that reason, Moseley says, judging by evidence so far, the building looks to be a “residual haunting.” In this type of haunting, Moseley says, leftover energy from another point in time goes on whether someone is there or not.

“I believe there is paranormal activity at Soldiers Memorial, but there isn’t enough evidence right now to say that it’s haunted,” he said. “I think it’s residual because the EVPs were not responding to our questions, which leads me to believe that it could happen at the same time every night whether someone is there or not. The apparition found earlier, though, would imply an intelligent haunting, so we’re not sure.” - Andrea Lannom

Source - http://www.register-herald.com/

Douglas Myers and his son David

Wooster, Ohio - Whether it’s in his quest to learn more about the city he grew up in and its people, or learn more about spirits lurking around, Douglas Myers is sure of one thing: Don’t believe it until you see it.

It’s what propels him in his hobby as a lover of history and a researcher of the paranormal—otherwise known as ghost hunting—outside of his day job as the sole civilian employee of the Wooster Fire Department.

“Like the elephant’s child, I’m just full of insatiable curiosity,” Myers said of his love of history. “I grew up with a family that never threw away anything, so we were surrounded by family antiques and collectibles, so it’s just part of my nature.”

A Wooster history buff, Myers has a fascination for the unusual, like his research of Ralph Henderson, the first Wooster police officer killed in the line of duty. Harry Glick, who while in prison for the crime, went on to build Ohio’s first electric chair.

“When it comes to local history I have a fascination for the unusual, the everyday man versus the noble pioneer and Founding Father, because there’s lots more everyday men and women in our 200-plus-year history than noble pioneers,” Myers said.

He said he researches the everyday man in hopes of “giving him credit for his sacrifice, that’s a real satisfaction in bringing these people to light, and their stories.”

Wayne County Probate Court Judge Ray Leisy said Myers’ attention to detail and love of research makes him a great historian.

“When you discuss history you sometimes fall into the habit of repeating not rumors, but popular history about what people say actually took place, but when you start checking the detail at that time, it’s been embellished,” he said. “Doug never falls into the trap. He spends a lot of time going back and checking his sources.”

When writing Broken Banks of the Wayne County Frontier, Leisy passed it on to Myers for a quick review to make sure nothing was amiss.

“I’m glad to say I had it right, I try to do the research he does,” Leisy said.

In addition to local history, Myers is a Civil War history fan. On one notable trip, he and his son, Daniel, went to Gettysburg, Pa., to view battlefields, but also to try and see what they could find at night.

“I kept a very open mind, I didn’t particularly believe in ghosts. I kept a skeptical mind. You needed to show me for me to believe it,” he said.

But walking the field one night with his son, he said they heard a replay of part of the battle, cannons and all.

“In the middle of the field, in the middle of the night, as clear to our ears as it could be—Fire! and boom-boom, boom-boom—and dead silence,” Myers said.

It was one of the more “awkward, bizarre and surreal moments of my life,” Daniel Myers said, but helped to give him “new perspective on things.”

“He is a good person, a wonderful father, as a friend he’s there when you need him,” he said of his father. “He’ll help anyone out.”

So that sparked his interest, and now Myers researches sites of hauntings, even local spots, to see what he can find. He said photographing “death curve,” the 90-degree curve near Wooster Memorial Park, produced three orbs in his photo—signs of possible spirits.

Coincidentally, he said, he came across information about a crash there and three out of four family members died at that site.

Some day, Myers said, he’d love to set up a ghost tour in Wooster. “There’s enough stories to really fill an evening of haunted Wooster as there is in Gettsyburg.”

A lover of theater, Myers has performed in local plays and dinner theaters, including a performance of The Philadelphia Story, where he met his wife, Shelly.

“She played the upstairs maid and I just couldn’t resist a woman in uniform,” Myers said.

Both had auditioned for the play at the insistence of two friends.

“It was just one of those things,” she said. “We met and just kind of clicked I guess you could say.”

Myers said his wife of more than 13 years is “very supportive of all my interests ... tolerates my collection, is extremely, mercifully tolerant of my collections and my outings.”

“He’s just eclectic,” Shelly Myers said with a laugh. “He likes whatever he can find.”

That would include collections like “Death Dirt”—soil samples he collected from historical sites, like the ambush site of Bonnie and Clyde, the area of East Liverpool where Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd was killed, or the site of the wreck of the USS Shenandoah.

“I always wanted to see that site,” he said of where Bonnie and Clyde died.

“And what a thrill, it really was. I got there and I am there all by myself, and this abused memorial people had chipped souvenirs off of. I go, I have to bring a souvenir home with me. I thought, oh, how about some dirt?”

Sometimes those collections will be turned into gifts. Like the sample of sand in a Smucker’s jar from Ponte Verda Beach, Fla., where a German sub came to shore given to his daughter, Lauren Chitty.

“He’s all over the place. He likes being funny ... He’s quirky, I’m just lucky he’s the way he is,” Chitty said. - Chris Leonard

Source - http://www.the-daily-record.com/

Tupelo’s Lyric Theater

Tupelo, Mississippi - Tupelo has a rich history that lends itself to the paranormal activity that has been reported around the area.

The town was originally called Gum Pond due to the numerous black gum trees in the area. However, it would be renamed in honor of the Battle of Tupelo that happened during the Civil War.

The area is such a hot spot that Jumpin’ Gene Simmons (not the KISS Front man) the co-writer of Tim McGraw’s hit song Indian Outlaw, wrote a song in 1964 entitled, Haunted House.

A little known fact that also lends itself to the possibility of paranormal activity is that Tupelo was used as a hiding spot for members of the Mafia.

According to Dexter Babin, a life long student of the Mafia, “Although the group, Dixie Mafia, wasn’t a member of the Kosa Nostra. It was actually an association of criminals with different backgrounds.”

Even just being criminals, the possibility that murders were not in the group is small. Murders tragically end lives shortly and lead to the possibility that some paranormal researchers believe lead to ghostly phenomenon.

One of the paranormal hot spots is The Lyric Theater, a historic landmark that is still being used to this day.

The story of particular interest, at least to enthusiasts of the paranormal is the tornado in the 30s that leveled the town. According to Tom Booth, Executive Director of the Community theater “The information about the use of the Lyric during the tornado that occurred on April 5, 1936 is true.”

Many sites have reported that the dead and dying of Tupelo were brought to the Lyric. Surgeries were performed by using the popcorn poppers to sterilize the instruments.

Local legends say that the theater is still haunted to this day. Probably the best time to visit the theater, if you want this kind of experience would be during the annual “Haunted Theater” event in October. - Kristina Stancil

Source - http://www.allvoices.com/

Devon and Tony Bell

Eau Claire, Wisconsin - The first time Devon Bell had a paranormal experience, she thought her husband, Tony, was playing a joke on her.

After investigating the Charlotte Mills Bridge near the small Clark County community of Christie, the couple played back sound recordings from a recorder they had used.

They could hear their voices, which was normal. But there were three separate phrases on the recording they could not place.

One was of a man yelling for help. The second, Devon said, was an order to “Take them,” with the third voice asking if they felt nervous, with a whispered “no” response.

Devon told her husband to fess up to his prank. He told her the added sounds were no joke.

“We could feel like there was something behind us,” Tony said. “I could feel the hairs rise against the back of my neck.”

Devon and Tony Bell are the co-founders of The Haunting Experiments, a local group that researches legends of paranormal activities in Wisconsin. The five-person group is currently working on season one of their webisodes, the most recent of which was released two weeks ago on their website and on YouTube.

Devon said the project process works like this: She researches and writes the stories about the legend while Tony does the video work and occasional special effects. Then she, or another group member narrates the video.

However, these are not necessarily paranormal investigation videos. Devon described most of the webisodes and videos they have produced as “travel videos” of the legends. The Charlotte Mills Bridge project was one of the few paranormal investigations they have done.

“We get more into the ghost lore part of it,” she said.

Ghost legends aren’t in short supply, according to Chris Weiner, the lead investigator of the Chippewa Valley Paranormal Investigators. The Chippewa Valley is rich with paranormal activity, he said, describing the area as a “virtual paranormal investigator’s playground.”

Even with the rich supply of lore in the area, The Haunting Experiments has traveled beyond the Chippewa Valley to pursue ghost lore, traveling as far as Clark County, Devon said.

The group itself began in 2008 as a way for the self-proclaimed “legend trippers” to delve deeper into paranormal lore, which Devon has been interested in since childhood. She said she chose the name, ‘The Haunting Experiments’ because it was different from other groups she had heard of, and because she did not want to be known as the Eau Claire investigators.

“I knew that’s not what we wanted to specialize in,” she said in an e-mail.

The video work started on a whim in 2009 when Tony decided to record footage while they were at the Soo Line Bridge, or the “S” bridge in Eau Claire, with their digital camera. Since then, they’ve upgraded equipment, Tony said.

To date, the group has released about 12 videos, and there will be 12 webisodes at the end of season one, Devon said. The idea for a season of webisodes stemmed from a friend at Eau Claire Public Access who told them about the increasing popularity of the medium.

“We had already made other ghost lore videos, so why not launch something brand new for our group?” Devon said.

The couple said they plan to make a second season of webisodes as well. For now, the couple is pursuing their affinity for paranormal activity as a hobby, Devon said, although someday she and Tony could see themselves pursuing film for a living.

Along with the videos and season one of their webisodes, the group is working on a documentary focusing on the paranormal lore in Caryville, which Tony said will be completed by next spring.

For the documentary, they interviewed Weiner, who said working with the couple is a joy.

“They don’t just go in looking for a thrill,” he said. “They’re in it for the research, the history, and of course to make their documentaries, which is a job in and of itself ... the viewers of these documentaries can live vicariously through those episodes.” - Breann Schossow

Source - http://www.leadertelegram.com/

Culpeper, Virginia - In an unconfirmed report, Bigfoot visited the town of Culpeper last week, leaving a massive dent on the top of the town manager’s work car.

On a more serious note, someone - or something - flattened the top of the 2000 Ford Contour as it sat parked in the lot at town hall.

Culpeper Town Manager Jeff Muzzy, contacted Monday, was at a loss as to what happened.

“It looks like something fell or jumped up and down on it for several minutes,” he said. “I do not think this is personal. In fact, I had not even thought of that as a possibility.”

Though the older model car is assigned to him for work use, Muzzy said he rarely drives it. Instead, the car is more often used by other town hall staff members, he said.

The car is parked farthest out from town hall and closest to Main Street - within a stone’s throw from 7-Eleven. It sits not far from the back entrance to the law offices of Monica Chernin as well.

The car is not identifiable as the town manager’s work car and is parked in a spot reserved, more generally, for town staff.

Muzzy said the town filed an insurance claim for the damage, but he doubted it would result in much money due to the vehicle’s age. The Contour, is still drivable, he said, and was away from its parking spot and in use Monday morning.

“To me, someone just wandered over there and said, ‘Boy, wouldn’t it be fun to jump on that car?’ I hate to even give them credit for it,” Muzzy said.

He acknowledged town staffers are still talking about the strange incident. Many theories - including the Bigfoot one - have been tossed around.

Or maybe it was a bear, some have jokingly speculated.

The damage was reported to police, and the incident is being investigated as vandalism. - Allison Brophy Champion

Source - http://www2.starexponent.com/

United Kingdom - A retired Royal Navy officer who has spent years studying ancient texts, believes he has at last solved the mystery of the disappearance of the Holy Grail.

For millions of believers, the Holy Grail is the most precious object on earth.

The chalice, which Christ drank from at the Last Supper and was later used to collect some of his blood at the Crucifixion, is a priceless Christian relic.

Faithful have searched in vain to find it. Finally it has been discovered, overlooked and unrecognized, in the corner of a cathedral in the heart of England.

“I never intended to start out on a search to find the Holy Grail. I was interested initially in researching the links between the Crusaders, England and the medieval saints,” the Sunday Express quotes E.C. Coleman, as saying. Coleman believes that the artifact is the Holy Grail

“However the more I read the more I was led along a trail that explained the extraordinary journey this lost relic has taken.

Historians and academics will be astonished by the revelation that Christendom’s most prized historical object has been under their noses for decades.

In 1889 Lincoln Cathedral was undergoing repair. A group of workmen lifted a large Portland marble slab and revealed the tomb of Bishop Oliver Sutton, who died in 1299.

Inside the grave, archaeologists found a chalice next to the skeleton; it was still standing where it had been placed almost 600 years earlier. It was made of silver, four-and-half inches high and completely without decoration.

“This was the Holy Grail but no one acknowledged it. Subsequently it went on show on a shelf in the Cathedral’s treasury where you can see it today but there is nothing there to say what it really is,” says Coleman, who has just published The Grail Chronicles describing his quest.

“Finding such artifacts in the tomb of a bishop was not at all unusual and putting them there may well have been normal practice in the Middle Ages but this chalice was different,” says Coleman.

Coleman further says: “Previously discovered examples were richly engraved but this one had a simple elegance rendered slightly homely by the use of plainly visible rivets to join the different parts of the stem. I have never touched it but it has been very nice just to be near it. In my own mind and in all good faith I am confident that the chalice recovered from Bishop Sutton’s tomb is the Holy Grail.”

Source - http://www.24masti.com/

Victoria, Texas - An elderly woman was crushed to death and two others injured when they were mowed down by an out of control golf cart.

Also injured in the accident was golf cart driver Amelia Robbins, 72, of Port Lavaca, who lost control when the cart malfunctioned on a steep hill.

The runaway cart picked up speed as it careened down a path, slammed into the side of a golf pro shop and crashed into employee Tyler Bannister, 27, before running down golfer Samantha Bailey, 43.

Ernie Travis, 67, was about to tee off in a tournament at the Guadalupe Crossing Country Club, south of Victoria, when he was struck be the cart, dragged a few yards, and crushed when the vehicle rolled over on top of him.

“It happened so quickly,” said Jackson, who suffered a leg injury. Jackson and Mrs. Robbins were transported to a hospital in Victoria where they were treated and released.

“She (Mrs. Robbins) told us she lost control of the cart when it was suddenly taken over by an evil spirit,” an investigator was quoted as saying. “She claims she was driving the cart when she could feel an evil presence come over her, and then the cart began to malfunction.”

The tragedy occurred as approximately 30 spectators crowded around the club’s pro shop waiting for a nine-hole tournament to begin.

No charges have been filed against Mrs. Robbins, but the horrifying accident is still under investigation.

Police said the district attorney’s office now has possession of the golf cart and will be examining it for possible equipment failure.

James Iseton for Our Strange World

United Kingdom - Mathew Donegan was just another face along a residential street - until he exploded in a ball of fire.

Shocked motorists and pedestrians rushed to aid the stricken Donegan, 26, who in a split second, was turned into a human torch.

Coming to his aid, several citizens rolled him on the ground to extinguish the flames, but not before he suffered second and third degree burns on half of his upper body.

Police who investigated the scene say it’s possible Donegan may have been somewhere, previous to the accident, where his clothing may have absorbed flammable vapors.

“But we have no real idea why a man walking down the street should suddenly burst into flames,” said officer Malcolm Simmonds of the Westbury police department.

Horrified witnesses told investigators that Donegan had just struck a match, to light a cigarette, when the entire top half of his body was engulfed in flames.

“I couldn’t believe my eye,” said Geoffrey Tyson, who was across the street from Donegan. “You couldn’t see anything from his waist up except fire. He was screaming for someone to help him. He was dashing about the road in a ball of flames.”

Several people ran to help and rolled him on the ground to put out the fire.

Donegan was taken to Frenchay Hospital in Bristol in serious condition.

“There is no evidence at this time that the young man intentionally set himself on fire,” said Simmonds.

The accident is still under investigation.

Arthur Ellis for Our Strange World

Canberra, Australia - With a few strokes of her pencil, psychic Karen Knightley sketches incredible images of men and woman she’s never seen before - faces that come to her from beyond the grave.

Knightley’s uncanny portraits have stunned and bewildered witnesses throughout New South Wales and Victoria.

During a recent demonstration for the Canberra Times, the seer startled photographer Justin Knowles by conjuring up visions of loved ones who had passed away.

Moments after she sat down to draw, Knowles recognized the face on Knightley’s pad as that of his grandfather, William Charles Knowles, who died in 1969.

Knightley, 60, then talked of three brothers and said she felt one them died of a heart attack.

William Knowles, it turns out, had three sons. One of them was Justin’s father - who died of a heart attack in 1993.

Minutes after that, the soft-spoken psychic sketched the wrinkled image of Knowles beloved grandmother, who pass away in 1972.

“I keep getting the word Rosie,” she said. “And she seems to be very fussy about her garden. I see her woman wearing a straw hat and surrounded by flowers.”

The photographer’s grandmother was called Minnie-Rose.

Knowles said his grandmother was indeed very finicky about her garden, which she spent hours a day tending.

Knightley then drew Knowles a picture of his mother, Emily, as a young woman and told him that “Fred” was with her.

“I feel as if he’s coughing up blood,” she said.

Emily’s brother, Sgt. Frederick Lambert, was killed in Afghanistan three years ago.

Knightley also sketched a startling likeness of Knowles’ great uncle.

The psychic insists she deserves little credit for her mysterious abilities. “Sometime I close my eyes and get a mental picture of the person I’m drawing, but usually I feel I have become the person I’m going to draw.”

David Staples for Our Strange World

Vic Barker and some of the model trains at the Brunswick Railroad Museum.

Frederick, Maryland - When an elevator was being installed at the Brunswick Railroad Museum last spring, workers and staff reported strange noises, voices and unusual activity

Supplies were being moved around. Several elevator workers even claimed they saw a woman in a white dress walking around the second floor.

The reports led a former museum board member to call the Mason Dixon Paranormal Society, a Gettysburg-based group that investigates claims of paranormal activity.

The group agreed to investigate on June 5.

Curator Rebecca O’Leary, who has been with the museum since last June, was caught by surprise when group members called and said they would be coming out to look for ghosts.

She said they arrived around 8:30 the night of the investigation with equipment valued at about $30,000, including electrothermal monitors, infrared cameras and audio recording devices. After setting up the equipment around the building, they started their investigation at around 11 p.m. and were in the museum until about 3 a.m.

“We had everything set up from as simple as a digital voice recorder to wireless audio and thermal imaging,” Paranormal Society founder Darryl Keller said.

O’Leary said while she was unfamiliar with the earlier reports or the call to the investigators, several staff members told her that they were uncomfortable being alone in the basement where the offices were moved after the elevator’s construction.

Museum board member Walt Stull said there have been reports of strange noises in the 1904 building over the years, but those noises intensified with the construction of the elevator.

Stull said he has heard unexplained sounds as well, but had never given them much thought.

“I always thought it was the building shifting or something like that,” Stull said. “But we’ll see what they come up with.”

According to Keller, his group goes into an investigation trying to debunk the claims of paranormal activity, which he said happens more often than not. He estimates 70 percent of the society’s investigations outside the Gettysburg area end up revealing no sign of anything out of the ordinary.

However, Keller said that likely will not be the case with the Brunswick Railroad Museum. He said the investigation is nearly complete and he should be contacting the museum this week. He said he was unable reveal the extent of the group’s findings until he reviews the evidence with museum staff, but he said investigators had unexplained experiences.

“There were some things that happened Saturday we were not able to debunk,” Keller said. “We do have evidence.”

Keller also said Frederick County is a frequent location for investigations by the Mason Dixon Paranormal Society.

“We could open up a branch office in Frederick County,” Keller said. - Brian Englar

Source - http://www.fredericknewspost.com/

Sun House General Manager Chris Fielder, co-owner Angela Rodocker and psychic Rosemary Altea

Bradenton Beach, Florida - With all the odd things he has witnessed, Justin Norton, assistant manager at the Sun House Restaurant & Bar in Bradenton Beach, almost expects that every week he will experience something at work that he cannot explain.

He hears voices at night. The conversations are often so loud he steps outside his office to see if people have wandered into the restaurant after hours. And yet, no one is there and the doors are locked.

He sees shadows move. Although appearing only for a second or two, the shadows move distinctly away from where light is shining.

“After four years, I’m kind of used to it now,” Norton said. “There have been a few times I’ve been a little freaked out.”

Other employees claim to have experienced similar phenomena, such as locked doors opening on their own, burglar and fire alarms sounding for no reason and, most memorably, a strange fog enveloping the dining room.

Owner Angela Rodocker often jokes it was the ghost of “Key West Willy,” which was the name of the bar before it was leveled and replaced by the Sun House.

But the ghost stories took on a more serious tone this week.

Local paranormal author Kim Cool and internationally known psychic Rosemary Altea, both residents of Venice, toured the restaurant Tuesday to seek spiritual clues to explain the strange stories.

Almost immediately, Altea said she perceived a “really disturbed energy” attached to the Sun House property.

“I think someone connected to this building killed themselves,” Altea told a group of employees gathered in the restaurant’s second-floor private dining room on Tuesday.

“There was a family who owned this place before,” she said. “I’m seeing two partners and a lot of cheating going on, a lot of issues going on.”

Altea said she was able to “transport” herself into the bar as it existed in the past, describing in some detail the furnishings, patrons and even smells inside.

The British-born psychic has used that technique during investigations into several local hauntings. She claims to have talked to the ghost of John Ringling during a recent walk through the John & Mable Ringling Museum.

Rodocker was instructed not to give away many details during Altea’s questioning. But Altea’s description of the old bar – and its owners – matched what Rodocker remembered of Key West Willy’s, which operated at least back to the 1970s.

Very few historical records exist for the property, although the history of that area of Anna Maria Island stretches back to Ponce de Leon’s arrival in the 1500s.

Betty Yanger, director of the Anna Maria Island Historical Society, said that before Key West Willy’s, the business was called The Wreck and contained a unique bar made out of silver-dollar coins.

In 2000, Rodocker and her mother purchased the bar and four adjacent apartments and an abandoned convenience store. They leveled the buildings and built the BridgeWalk Resort and Sun House restaurant in 2001.

The resort was named for its close proximity to Bradenton Beach’s bayside pier, which is what remains of a wooden bridge built in 1921 to connect Anna Maria Island to Cortez on the mainland.

Altea deduced that the property’s historical connection to the bridge and adjacent waterways may explain the problems with constantly leaky water pipes and damp conditions inside the restaurant today.

No one told Altea about any such problems beforehand. “Now you are really freaking me out,” Rodocker said. - David Ball

Source - http://www.heraldtribune.com/

The Otsego Lake Inn

Gaylord, Michigan - Do you believe in ghosts? The Mid-Michigan Paranormal Investigators do, but only if they can prove it scientifically.

Using “state-of-the-art” equipment such as split screen monitors, infrared cameras and high-tech audio recorders, the team works to capture the sights and sounds of apparitions at locations reported to be haunted.

According to Matt Moyer, lead investigator, if they can’t record it, it didn’t happen.

“We probably have the most equipment of any investigators in the state,” said Moyer. “We don’t talk to each other during an investigation. If we hear or see something we write it down and discuss it after as a group. That’s to avoid the power of suggestion or mass hysteria. Sometimes we hear or see the same things but if we don’t capture it on the equipment, we don’t consider it proven.”

The most recent haunting they’ve investigated is at the old historic Otsego Lake Inn, 7441 1st Court St., one block off Old 27 South. The inn was once the Otsego County Courthouse when the Village of Otsego Lake was the county seat. Research suggests the building also has been a community center, dance hall, restaurant, tavern, funeral home and brothel at different periods.

Rumors have circulated among neighbors for years about the ghosts at the old inn. One of the most prevalent is that an influenza epidemic swept the county when it was a brothel and some of the girls died. The speculation is that it is those young women who haunt the inn.

“I have a very good researcher and he could find no record of the epidemic,” said Moyer. “He did locate information that the Inn had been a brothel twice, during World War I and again during World War II.”

Moyer, and his wife, Melanie, co-founder and also a lead investigator for the team, have been in the paranormal business for seven years. Their interest in haunting was motivated by frightening phenomena they experienced in a home they’d bought downstate nine years ago.

“The lights and stereo kept coming on and going off by themselves,” Moyer said. “The motors on appliances kept exploding. I’m an electrician and I had new transformers installed outside and the entire house rewired because I thought it was an electrical problem. It still kept happening. A washer motor spun out and it was empty; we weren’t running it. Then the children started to be affected. Their sliding windows would shake and start to open and close. They saw shadows outside their windows that scared them. We loved that house, but we had to give it up.”

The team that investigated the Otsego Lake Inn were composed of Moyer, his wife; Steve Allen of Vanderbilt, investigator and cameraman; Lynn Hays, an investigator from Holly; and psychic Tammey Schuster of Traverse City. Herald Times photographer, Bill Serveny, was invited along to document the investigation.

“A few things happened in the upstairs that we can’t explain,” Moyer reported. “We heard the voices of two different women. One of them chuckled, like she was laughing at us, but in a calm, friendly way. Another said ‘Yeah,’ when I asked a question. But we didn’t capture it on our equipment so, as far as we’re concerned, it hasn’t been proven. I’d like to go back and try again to see if we can capture it.”

The voices were confirmed by one of the other investigators. Allen, a stained-glass artist and postal worker, was upstairs with Moyer at the time.

“We were on the second floor, which has multiple rooms,” Allen said. “Matt did a ‘call and response,’ where you call out a question to see if you get a response. Everybody in the hall heard the voices. We all said, ‘Did you hear that?’”

One mysterious occurrence which, no doubt, has a logical technical explanation, is a photograph taken by the Herald Times photographer that day. Serveny took three photos of Moyer sitting in the dark, recording something on his laptop. Two of the photos turned out fine, but one looked like a double exposure of Moyer with a strange swirl of light connecting the two images.

A professional photographer for 40 years, Serveny is adamant he did not take a double exposure, which can’t be done accidentally on a digital camera, but requires the changing of settings. Although he can’t explain what did happen, he insisted it wasn’t anything he’d done on purpose.

The Otsego Lake Inn is owned by Tracy and Charles Booth. They live downstate but spend extensive time at the inn with their extended family.

Tracy and her husband were outside the inn during the investigation. She found the idea of having the paranormal team there to be “fun,” but thinks many of the old rumors about the inn are exaggerated.

“Do I think the house is haunted?” Tracy asked, rhetorically. “No. But I certainly have had spiritual experiences there with loved ones who’ve passed; my mother, my father, my grandparents - the sort of things that happen to a lot of people - you’re thinking or praying about someone who is gone and suddenly a bulb burns out or something and you think it might be a sign from them.

“The psychic told me that she picked up a lot of happy feelings as she went through the inn,” Tracy continued. “My family has been connected to Otsego Lake for seven generations. My great-grandmother played piano everyday until she died, back when the inn was a community center. We’ve owned it for 21 years, and we’ve been very, very happy there.”

Although they’re not taking reservations now, as they are in the midst of extensive renovations, the Booths sometimes rent out the inn for events like family reunions.

According to Moyer, Mid-Michigan Paranormal Investigators do not charge for their services or accept donations, wanting only to help spare others from the activities they experienced in their haunted house.

To learn more about the investigators and to see and hear the sights and sounds that Moyer believes are of apparitions captured by the team at haunted locations in several states, visit their website.

The Otsego Lake Inn also has a website. - Lorene Parshall

Source - http://www.gaylordheraldtimes.com/

Maybe someday we will know if they exist

Fort Myers, Florida - As Honey Archey stood in the Buckingham Cemetery, the scent of leather mixed with tobacco wafted through the night air. A chain-link fence surrounding the headstones began to rattle. Suddenly, Archey and her friends spotted a man walking out of the bushes.

The three women were frightened by the presence of what they thought was another human in the cemetery so late at night - but the image of the man quickly vanished.

It was eight or nine years ago, but the incident - which Archey, 33, believes was a paranormal sighting - is still vivid in her mind. As founder of the 11-year-old nonprofit Southwest Florida Paranormal Investigations (formerly Lee County Ghost Hunters) the North Fort Myers resident spends her nights monitoring video cameras, testing electromagnetic fields and collecting sound evidence in local homes and businesses that may or may not be haunted.

During the day, Archey teaches gardening and birdhouse building classes - as well as a Ghost Hunting 101 class - through her job as an environmental recreation specialist for Cape Coral Parks and Recreation.

During the Ghost Hunting class, which is open to those 16 and older and attracts people of all ages, Archey explains the equipment used to record activity, discusses the different forms spirits take - some look transparent and others appear as clear as a living person - and gives tips on how to investigate paranormal activity.

“A lot of people come to our classes because they have experiences of their own,” she said. “They not only want to learn about it, they want to share their experiences with someone who believes.”

Archey’s foray into paranormal research stems from her childhood in Westland, Mich., where, she said, a ghost sang her lullabies at night. A female spirit often stood watch over her bed, but as a young child, Archey never felt afraid.

“I didn’t know any better because I grew up with it,” she said. “It wasn’t until later in life that I realized it wasn’t normal.”

After moving to Southwest Florida with her family at the age of 8, Archey eventually began researching the history of her old childhood home. She believes a woman died of some type of allergic reaction in the house and that American Indians who died in her hometown may have also lingered on the grounds.

Although she was fascinated as she continued her research, Archey didn’t share her ghost tale for years. When she finally did, several people she spoke with shared paranormal stories of their own. Archey realized just how frequently hauntings seem to occur.

“Most everyone I’ve talked to, if they haven’t had an experience themselves, they know someone who has,” she said.

In the last decade, SWFPI has grown to include 16 investigators from all walks of life - including nurses, a former firefighter and an attorney - who live between Tampa and Naples. When people call producers of the TV show Ghost Hunters, which airs on the Syfy channel, and the TV show decides not to film the case, they sometimes refer people to the SWFPI group.

The local investigators rule out many cases over the phone, but if they believe there’s possible paranormal activity - there are multiple witnesses who’ve seen apparitions and reported unexplained scents, for example - the investigators might stake out the site.

Even when they do set up their equipment, however - recording sound and picture using infrared lights or black lights and monitoring things like temperature fluctuation for hours into the night - they often don’t find evidence of paranormal activity.

“Spirits aren’t always willing to participate in our fun and games, I guess,” Archey said. “They’re not always around. Maybe 10 to 20 percent of the time we get something.”

At Capt’n Con’s Fish House restaurant on Bokeelia, Archey said the paranormal investigators captured audio of child spirits speaking and she was pushed although no one was around her. Despite odd activity, the group ruled the case as “inconclusive” on its website but noted the location suggested possible paranormal activity and warrants further investigation.

SWFPI members have experienced numerous unexplained events at the Buckingham Cemetery - car headlights flashing on by themselves, voices and apparitions - as well as strange happenings on the train car at the Southwest Florida Museum of History in Fort Myers, where, Archey said, a table flew through the air and the group captured electronic voice phenomenon (EVP).

They heard voices at Clewiston Inn in Clewiston, where staff members tell stories of ghost sightings and guests often ask to stay in the “haunted” rooms.

Although she personally believes in ghosts, The SWFPI founder - who experiences fear during investigations and says she’s the “biggest chicken” in her group by far - doesn’t know if she’ll ever be able to fully explain phenomena behind the mysteries she’s encountered.

“I have more questions than I started with,” she said. “When I started doing this, I thought we would never be able to scientifically prove spirits exist. With the technology that keeps evolving, someday maybe we will know if they exist for sure.” - Lindsay Downey

Source - http://www.news-press.com/

Wellfleet, Massachusetts - The season started on Memorial Day for Bob Morrill and Judy Pihl, owners of the Inn at Duck Creeke. They’ve been so busy opening up the rooms and taking reservations that they haven’t seen any of the usual unusuals yet.

But it’s just a matter of time, they say, before they or one of their guests see something extraordinary.

Morrill and Pihl say they’ve both seen ghosts since they bought the property in 1980. The inn includes the Captain’s House, the Carriage House, Sweet Seasons Restaurant and the Duck Creeke Tavern Room.

Judy saw her first ghost, a small diminutive woman in white, in the entry way to Sweet Seasons. Bob still recalls the night he went into the kitchen in the basement of Sweet Seasons’ kitchen, and watched as an aluminum cup was hurled across the wooden floor with great force. It was not shaken down from the storage shelf, but thrown from it, and it moved in a gravity-defying way across the floor, he says.

The couple doesn’t tend to tell guests a lot about the ghosts. But if you ask them, they will talk about it.

Two guests in adjoining rooms in the Captain’s House told them they saw a woman’s face at the window. One woman told them she saw two little girls in her room, and then went down to the desk to ask if any little girls had been looking for anything.

Apparently, Pihl said, the captain who owned the house had two little girls, and they died of smallpox.

One guest, who worked for an airline, had booked to stay for several days. But that guest left after one day with no explanation.

“We were wondering what we did wrong,” Pihl says. “But she came back that afternoon and explained that in the middle of the night she had seen a woman by the window and the woman came over to her and said ‘Sleep well,’ and she went to sleep. She said she had the best sleep in her life, but when she woke up and remembered what had happened, she checked out.”

They both think the woman in white that Pihl sees is the ghost of Eulalia Price, who owned the property with her husband, Joe Price, when it was the Holiday House. Eulalia, who had her husband committed when he ran after her with a machete, “was a very powerful woman,” Pihl says. “I was not at all frightened the first time I saw her. I thought I saw something in the corner of my eye, but nothing was there. Then I took three steps backwards, and I looked again, and she was there, in a long white dress in what was like dense cigar smoke, and she kept moving and then she was gone.”

Morrill said Sweet Seasons “was Eulalia’s kingdom. She ruled it, and she would count the peas on the dinner plates” that were sent from the kitchen to guests in the restaurant at the Holiday House. Three people died while performing in the Tavern Room, and musicians performing there have seen or experienced spirits.

“I’ve been told that when people die away from home, that possibly their spirits are trapped where they died,” Morrill says. “They don’t know that they’ve died so they keep trying to do the last thing they were doing.”

One room has a strong scent of a turkey dinner in it, another a strong smell of flowers. In one room Pihl several times has heard the sound of walking and beads falling to the floor, as if from a broken necklace.

One pianist heard a flute accompanying him as he played, although no one else heard the flutist.

Ten years ago, Pihl and Morrill held a séance with four men and four women. A sensitive Irish boy who worked for them stood watch as they opened the séance to invite the spirits to talk with them. “We didn’t know that we should have invoked God’s name if we were going to talk to the dead,” says Morrill. - Marilyn Miller

Source - http://www.wickedlocal.com/

United Kingdom - She was a member of one of the biggest landowning families in Scotland - but more than a century after her death her name is said with fear, not reverence.

Talk of Lady Anne Speirs still sends shivers down the spines of the people of Linwood, who blame her “curse” for 30 years of economic misfortune.

And now superstitious locals are warning that soon-to-be-approved plans to move the remains of five people from a mausoleum and reunite them with their descendants in North Berwick will bring tragedy to the Renfrewshire town.

Linwood legend maintains that Lady Anne Speirs pledged a curse on anyone who disturbs the crypt.

That is unlikely to stop supermarket giant Tesco however, which is planning to move the remains to the East Lothian town to make way for a new supermarket and community facilities which it believes could regenerate the area.

The origin of the curse is shrouded in mystery, but the “wrath” of Lady Anne was first said to have been incurred in the early 1980s with the closure of the nearby Rootes Car Plant, Linwood’s main employer. The plant ceased operations in 1981.

The crypt was recently rediscovered by contractors working for Tesco.

It immediately moved to have the bodies disinterred, but a court order stalled the development after a judge ruled that the supermarket chain must wait 42 days for representations to be received from the local community.

Some locals said it is further evidence the remains should not be removed.

Iain Wilson, secretary of Linwood Community Council, said of the curse: “It’s a bit of a joke for most people but there are those that do believe it, and are keen to ascribe all sorts of misfortune to it.”

However, historians have now debunked the curse as the product of mistaken identity.

Renfrewshire historian Derek Parker said: “The remains are definitely not of Lady Anne Speirs, who is buried in Houston Cemetery.

“Either way, the Speirs family were God-fearing people, devout Presbyterians who also gave a lot of support to the Houston and Killellan Church of Scotland, and probably wouldn’t have been inclined to put a curse on anyone.”

The genealogist discovered that the mausoleum contains the remains of the Speir family of Burnbrae House, no apparent relation to Lady Anne Speirs, whose stately home was situated in the grounds.

The Speir family later moved out of Linwood and their descendants are now scattered around the world.

However, the family now regard North Berwick as their main ancestral home. Eight members of the family are buried in Whitekirk churchyard.

A Tesco spokesman said: “We are concluding a lengthy and sensitive legal process and have no further comment at this stage.” - Mark McLaughlin

Source - http://news.scotsman.com/

Parkersburg, West Virginia - Virginia Lyons felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. A man’s laughter echoed in the dark lobby of the Colony Theater in Marietta where she felt a gentle tug on her hair, but when she turned around, no one was there.

At the time, Lyons was a 16-year-old concession worker cleaning at the Colony Theater after closing time. The experience was one of several in her childhood that sparked her interest in paranormal activity.

Today, Lyons is a member of the Mid-Ohio Valley Ghost Hunters, a group that explores paranormal activity and frequents historical places in search of a spiritual presence.

“I would describe ghost hunting is a hobby of mine, but I like to joke that it’s my second life,” said Lyons. “I enjoy being able to talk about this stuff without people looking at me like I’m crazy.”

The group has become more popular since its formation in 2000, even catching the interest of the television show Creepy Canada, a program about hauntings in Canada and the United States. In 2007, members of the Mid-Ohio Valley Ghost Hunters were filmed by the Canadian television crew during an all-night ghost hunt in Moundsville.

Tom Moore, the group’s founder, said the Mid-Ohio Valley is full of historical buildings, cemeteries and houses that have shown signs of paranormal activity. continued below

Tom Moore, founder of Mid-Ohio Valley Ghost Hunters

The group has traveled to the Twin City Opera House in McConnelsville, Silver Run Tunnel in Cairo, the old West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville, Eaton’s Tunnel near Walker, Trans Allegheny Books, the Van Winkle Mansion, Quincy Hill, Fort Boreman Park and Riverview Cemetery.

Most places of interest allow ghost hunting groups to conduct hunts and all-night outings for a small fee or donation.

“This area is full of historical places with interesting stories behind them,” said Moore. “When I go to a new place, I like to go in open-minded, without having too much knowledge about the history of that place. That way if I experience something, I know I haven’t been influenced somehow.”

Moore said people are drawn to ghost hunting for the thrill, the excitement and a curiosity about the spiritual world.

“Once you start ghost hunting and you have a personal experience, it’s hard to stop,” said Moore.

Cameras, recording devices, boom microphones and night surveillance equipment are used by the group to capture sounds and movement. Disturbances in electromagnetic fields are measured and infrared thermometers capture dramatic temperature changes.

“We use various pieces of equipment to gather evidence,” said Moore. “We’ve picked up background voices, shadowy figures and temperature changes of around 30 degrees in just a few minutes.”

The group plans two or three ghost hunts each month, usually scheduled around full or new moons.

Some outings are uneventful. Others are filled with strange happenings.

The most memorable paranormal experience for Moore occurred nearly five years ago at Prospect Place Mansion in Dresden, Ohio. The house is on the National Register of Historic Places and was a stop on the Underground Railroad.

“I saw a girl walking around the staircase wearing a dress down to her ankles. She looked like a normal person, but as she walked around the stairs, she disappeared right before my eyes,” said Moore.

Later, he learned that in the 19th century, a young girl fell to her death from the top of the staircase.

“Ghost hunting is a lot about personal experience. I think in this type of field, it’s so easy for people to fake it. So for me, I need to actually experience something myself to believe it,” said Moore. - Natalee Seely

Source - http://www.newsandsentinel.com/

Bangor, California - Firefighters are a pragmatic group who learn to assess a situation objectively and make reasoned decisions based on training and judgment.

So discussions of the supernatural aren’t usually part of their working world, except at Butte County Fire Station 55 in Bangor.

Sitting on the northern edge of what was a Gold Rush boomtown, the Bangor Fire Station is an aged, decrepit combination of structures that over the years have been remodeled into a single facility.

In the past, the county had to dispatch exterminators to the station to attack a rat population, but it wasn’t rats that became a brief topic of conversation at a recent Butte County Board of Supervisors meeting.

The Bangor station is No. 1 on the county’s priority list for capital improvements. At the meeting, the supervisors were asked to approve $1.6 million to tear down and replace the station.

That’s when Chico Supervisor Jane Dolan commented that the old station has floors that sag and other structural problems. She said the condition of the building and the passing wind were behind the tales of the ghost of Station 55.

Chico Supervisor Maureen Kirk laughingly asked Rich Hall, county director of general services, if he could arrange an “exorcism” at the station.

“That is not included in the proposal,” responded Hall with a smile.

In a later telephone interview, Hall explained, “It seems that the firemen up at the Bangor station have the idea that the residence that they are in now is occupied by the ghost. It was mentioned to me in a rather jovial way after some of the people came back from a meeting with the fire department about what we were going to do up there.”

Janet Upton is deputy director for communications at Cal Fire headquarters in Sacramento, but before taking that job she worked in Butte County for 22 years, and the Bangor ghost was something she heard about from almost her first day in the county.

While the station is owned by the county, it is staffed under a contract with Cal Fire.

“It is just part of the Butte County Fire Department lore,” said Upton.

“I think that Jane Dolan is on to something. It is an extremely old building that creaks and groans, and things go bump in the night fairly regularly,” she continued.

While saying there are at least some entirely mundane explanations for the Bangor “haunting,” she noted there are some perfectly rational people who are convinced this ghost is absolutely real. continued below

Cal Fire-Butte County Capt. Scott McLean looks inside the
volunteers room where the ghost’s activity tends to center

One of those is Cal Fire-Butte County Capt. Scott McLean. For nearly 10 years, Station 55 has been his working home. For him there is no debate or discussion: The station is haunted.

“Yes, there is a ghost. Many of us have dealt with it,” said the captain in a matter-of-fact tone.

There isn’t a hint of humor in McLean’s voice when he makes the statement, and it isn’t an “I believe” comment but a simple “I know” reality as far as the veteran firefighter is concerned.

“All of the people at the station have experienced it one time or another. It just happens. You just work with it,” continued the captain.

In years past, before McLean was assigned to 55 and when the engine stationed there was gasoline-powered, the ghost allegedly liked to pull the engine’s ignition wires on a regular basis.

The current diesel-powered fire engine hasn’t been the target of any spectral pranks, but objects are moved, doors opened, and noises are heard.

Even resident animals have had contact with the phantom, according to McLean.

“There used to be a station dog for a while that was freaked out. Currently there is a station cat who doesn’t care,” he said.

Except for an occasional fleeting shadow, nobody has actually seen the ghost and nobody knows whether it is male or female, an adult or a child.

McLean called the resident specter more mischievous than malevolent, but one of its reported behaviors is disturbing.

Firefighter Anthony Brown, who was assigned to Station 55 a year ago, was a mild believer when he arrived.

“When I first came here I told the ghost, ‘I’m here to work. I’ve got no problems with you. I don’t want you to have any with me. I’m only here for three days out of the week.’ Yeah, I mean everything was good up until that morning,” said Brown.

“That morning” came at 1:05 a.m. April 10 of this year.

Brown recalls he had just rolled over in bed and, “I was pinned down.” Brown said it “absolutely” felt like somebody was holding him down.

Brown desperately tried to call out to his partner, who was sleeping in an adjacent bedroom, “but it was all pretty much mumbles.”

“Then I felt this blast of wind for 20 or 30 seconds, and then it passed. I was able to get up. I sat up for a few minutes, gathered my thoughts and bearings, and turned on every light possible. “

Brown said he was absolutely “wide awake” during the encounter. Since that morning Brown has become a devout believer as far as the Bangor ghost is concerned.

“Definitely! He let me know he does exist.”

McLean said he has had almost precisely the same experience that Brown described.

The captain said there are firefighters who will not work at Station 55 or if they do, they sleep in their cars or don’t sleep at all, opting to sit up and watch television all night.

Brown has no problem sleeping at the station. He says, “I’ve come to accept it.”

The ghost’s activity tends to center in a bedroom/storage room called the “volunteers room.”

The door to that room is never closed. McLean said when the door is closed, the ghost tends to become more aggressive.

While he was taking photos in the room, photographer Bill Husa watched as the door slowly and silently closed. It was a windy day. Husa said he tested the door and found it would swing with the slightest touch.

None of the firefighters has any real information on who the ghost might be. McLean said there is a rumor that the entity could have been a local mayor, sheriff or the madame who allegedly killed one of them, but that is nothing more than speculation.

Even with the times when somebody gets pinned to the bed, McLean said, “I enjoy it,” and he doesn’t want the ghost dispossessed.

He said when the station is torn down and the replacement erected, “I’m sure somehow I will figure out how to bring the ghost along to the new facility so everybody is happy.” - Roger H. Aylworth

Source - http://www.chicoer.com/

The Club Forest Bar as it appears today

Plover, Wisconsin - Notorious gangsters like Al Capone and John Dillinger considered the Club Forest Bar a favorite stop in the 1920’s and 30’s. The bar is filled with stories and legends, but none of them have managed to live on quite like the story of Melvin.

Melvin was an original employee of the bar, and employees today are convinced his ghost is still there.

The Club Forest Bar was used for a time by its original owners as a ‘house of ill repute’. “Helen and Mac [McCabe] brought a man with them named Melvin, and they called him a coachman”, said Pam Booth, who owns the bar today. “His job was to go to the train station pick up the girls bring them back and watch over them.”

Legend has it Melvin served as a faithful guardian to the Club Forest girls. So much so, it would cost him his life.

“He fell in love with one of the girls and one night she had a customer who didn’t treat her very well, and Melvin confronted him”, Booth said. “The confrontation turned into an argument and then a fight and eventually his death.”

When Booth’s family bought the bar from the original owner decades ago, they were warned Melvin’s ghost was still there. And over the years, employees say they’ve seen plenty of evidence.

“Many times the machines would turn on and off, the jukebox would turn on and off, certain things would fall off of tables”, said Karen Krings who has worked at the bar for 16 years.

She and other employee say they’ve seen bar stools fly off of tables and into walls, seen things move, and heard footsteps right behind them when alone in the bar.

The stories go on and on, and employees say Melvin makes himself known on a regular basis.

The bar’s owners wanted more answers, so they got in touch with the River Cities Paranormal Society.

“We searched for evidence of his existence, for proof that he still lingers about,” said Jonathan Wood, who founded the RCPS. He and some other researchers spent a night at the Club Forest, researching and recording their every move.

It wasn’t until they reviewed their footage that they started to notice strange things, like what appears to be a face appearing in the ceiling tiles for one second, before vanishing. They also discovered a couple of EVPs (electronic voice phenomenon.}

“We also had that chunk of audio that happened down in the basement that we couldn’t for the life of us explain”, Wood said. “And there was a voice of a person that was not in the building, that we didn’t know, that didn’t match any of the voice templates for any of the members that were investigating.”

That was enough to peak the interest of the RCPS, who says they’re planning to investigate the bar again. “We exhaustively try to find out a logical answer to whats causing the phenomena, and some of that we couldn’t figure out, so that’s why we feel this place would warrant another investigation”, Wood said.

In the meanwhile, employees say it doesn’t bother them. In fact, they believe Melvin is still carrying out his original job - looking out for the Club Forest girls.

“Melvin’s here and hes still taking care of the girls, we’ve never employed more than two men at a time, its basically women who have worked here for 20 years”, said Booth.

“If you believe, you believe, if you don’t, you don’t”, said Krings. “I believe.” - Mikel Lauber

Source - http://www.wsaw.com/

Galveston, Texas - An unmanned ghost ship named The Warwick, seen in the past only by men of the sea on the verge of death, has claimed another victim in the early morning fog-shrouded waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Just as has happened so many times for over a century, a lone survivor was allowed to live only long enough to tell of his doomsday encounter with the evil four-masted messenger of death.

Ruben Alvaro was one of 12 crewmen aboard the salvage vessel Robin Thorn, on it’s way to help with the oil spill disaster off the coast of Louisiana. He told rescuers that he witnessed a sleek, old-fashioned clipper ship slip silently out of the mist with all sails set.

“We all saw it,” Alvaro said from his bed at the Galveston Medical Center. “It was big and black, I could hear the sails flapping in the wind, and other sounds like thunder from a far-off storm. The ship looked in perfect condition, but we saw no one aboard. It sailed only a few yards off our starboard beam for a few minutes, then it just moved ahead like we were standing still.”

That’s when Alvaro said he saw the name on the stern of the mysterious vessel - The Warwick.

Alvaro then told of the frightening events which followed: “All of a sudden the ship vanished. In an instant, the wind began to scream and the sea became like mountains.” he said.

“There was a thundering roar and a wall of water crashed down on us and our ship was smashed to bits. That’s all I remember.”

Just a day after relating his story to authorities, the 42-year-old deckhand succumbed to his injuries and joined his lost shipmates in death.

For over a century, fishermen and shrimpers along the Texas Gulf Coast have heard the same tale from the lips of doomed seaman from other ships that went to the bottom after sailing in The Warwick’s wake.

A log book dated 1879, found on Matagorda Island near the remains of an unknown sailor, told how his merchant ship exploded in flames minutes after its crew saw “a great black ship with sails of alabaster glowing in the night.”

At the bottom of the page, in large letters, the sailor had scrawled the word Warwick.

Dean Terry for Our Strange World

Mike Freebury of the Animal Pathology Field Unit
say sheep may be the target of alien invaders

United IKingdom - A Walsall man has told the BBC that aliens and UFOs are responsible for a string of animal attacks in the UK.

Mike Freebury, a member of the Animal Pathology Field Unit, has investigated the mystery of ‘cattle mutilations’ for a number of years.

The phenomenon, first reported in America in the 1970s, involves the unexplained deaths of rural animals.

The bodies are often discovered with missing limbs and organs, removed with surgical precision.

Mike says that the illegal attacks are also happening in Britain - and UFOs are responsible.

“Certainly, in my opinion, the UFOs are something that relates directly to the animal mutilations,” he told BBC WM presenter Brett Birks.

“They’re often seen around the areas where mutilations are taking place. I think that the animal mutilations are possibly some sort of sampling program being carried out by the entities that are propelling these crafts.”

Mike is part of the Animal Pathology Field Unit (APFU), an organization dedicated to researching animal mutilation in the UK.

“We have carried out a number of surveillances on Dartmoor,” he said.

“We were never able to catch the perpetrators in the act but we have seen some very strange craft of unknown origin. UFOs. We have them on film. We’ve managed to get frame-by-frame analysis of them done. It appears that these things were appearing literally within a second and then gone.”

In rural Britain, dead sheep are being found by farmers with mysterious - and gruesome - injuries. Mike says a “highly active” area in the UK includes Shrewsbury, Dartmouth and parts of Wales.

“We’re talking about some fairly remote areas,” he said

“These injuries to the animals - the animals are invariably killed - are very specific. If you’ve seen some of the bodies that I’ve seen, it’s just absolutely incredible.

“The flesh appears to have been cauterized indicating some sort of thermic lance or micro-sonic wand has been used. We’re talking incredible technology. There is never any blood.”

Mike says they’re have been 40,000 estimated cases in America since the 1970s. The number in the UK remains unknown.

“You do have to question - how is it that somebody has not been identified?” he said.

“How is it that somebody has not been arrested or charged with these crimes? There’s never been a single prosecution. And it’s the same in this country.

“It’s plainly evident that these attacks are not carried out by natural predators.”

The APFU are currently conducting a survey called Project Corridor, an attempt to quantify the number of attacks in Shropshire. Mike explained:

“The attacks are a crime. They’re a crime under the Criminal Damage Act. I would say to you that the farmers themselves seem to accept that not only is there a problem but in many cases they are describing what appear to be craft of unknown origin flying over their land and they are pointing the finger at them for carrying out these attacks.”

Source - http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Thornburg, Virginia - Billy Willard says he’s on the verge of a major discovery that could change the way humans think about the natural world, not to mention their need for a creature-proof home security system.

Here in Spotsylvania County, in the forests around Lake Anna, Willard contends there have been 14 sightings in the past decade of that most fabled of cryptozoic beasts: Bigfoot.

Or Sasquatch, as the elusive, apelike brute is referred to in other circles - and on the side of Willard’s blue pickup. The decal on the truck reads Sasquatch Watch of Virginia,’ of which Willard is chief pooh-bah (when he’s not earning a living installing and removing underground home oil tanks.)

Go ahead, call him a loon, a flake, a huckster. He’s heard it all. But Willard knows what he knows, which is that three people from this area - a woman, her husband, and their granddaughter - told him they saw a shaggy, super-sized figure on two legs gallivanting across their wooded property.

Last month, Willard led a week-long expedition to the site, where he installed five motion-sensor cameras that will snap photos if and when the big galoot wanders by again.

Willard, 41, says he’d like to lead a tour of the property and introduce the witnesses, really he would. But the woman who says she saw what she believes could have been Bigfoot fears an avalanche of ridicule, which is why Willard is left to deliver his version of what happened a few miles away, in the parking lot of a Dairy Queen.

“We believe we may be close to some kind of major discovery,’’ he said. “All the things they would need are here, fresh water, shelter in the woods. The high concentration of sightings tells me they’re here.’’

He interrupts his monologue to answer his cellphone, the ring-tone to which is the country tune People Are Crazy.’

Ever since humans began telling stories, they have spun yarns involving life forms that tower above mere mortals, whether it’s the giant of Jack and the Beanstalk’ fame, or Goliath, or Frankenstein.

Bigfoot has been a perennial for generations, with hundreds of purported sightings (many of them of supposed footprints), most prevalent in the Pacific Northwest but also popping up in states as disparate as Rhode Island, Illinois, and Alabama.

The myth grew in popularity in 1967, when two men in California filmed what appeared to be a huge and hairy biped walking into the woods, at one point turning its head to glance dramatically at the camera.

In Bigfoot circles, the footage is referred to as the Patterson-Gimlin film,’ named for its makers.

In less admiring circles, the short, fuzzy clip is cited as nothing short of poppycock.

Willard knows about the film, and most everything else Bigfoot-related, all of which he’s happy to share at any time, sometimes to the annoyance of his wife, Jeanean, who is prone to blurt out, “Okay, the conversation will have to change.’’

For all of Willard’s certainty about Bigfoot, the buzz has not exactly caught on in the rural hamlets around Lake Anna, where many residents work at the nearby nuclear power plant or in construction or commute to Richmond or Washington.

Behind the grill at Tarheel Pig Pickers barbecue, Mark Lane, 54, giggled.

“When I see Bigfoot water skiing, I’ll believe it,’’ he said. “If they catch him, we’ll put him on the rotisserie and invite everyone in the community.’’

Ron McCormick, president of a home-building company, said people have more pressing concerns, such as plummeting property values and paying bills. “On the other hand, it could bring in tourists,’’ he said as he sat at his desk, playing solitaire on his laptop.

Craig Petrie, 55, mowing grass a few miles away, volunteered that he sometimes hears voices calling his name from below as he tends the cemetery adjoining Wallers Baptist Church, where he holds the titles of head deacon and chief groundskeeper.

But Bigfoot sightings? “Never happened,’’ he said, although he’s open to the possibility, particularly with all the new subdivisions in the area ripping out trees and kicking up dirt.

“If anyone’s going to see him, it’s me, because I’m always on this mower. And if he kills me, they’ll just have to walk a few feet to bury me. It’s convenient.’’

The small but avid universe of Bigfoot enthusiasts includes self-styled investigators who pursue their quest during off hours from their day jobs.

Willard, for example, hosts an Internet radio show and maintains a website from his home in Manassas; he also monitors his Bigfoot hotline for reported sightings (a recent caller announced “I just saw Bigfoot in Reston,’’ before exploding in laughter and hanging up.)

More dispassionate scholars are fascinated by the unflagging interest in bogeymen.

“People have a need to think about something like ourselves, something scary, using them as a cautionary tale,’’ said Robert Michael Pyle, whose book, Where Bigfoot Walks, explores the history of Sasquatch.

Willard spends countless hours in the woods listening for footsteps, always with a camera, ready to snap a picture.

He brings a set of knives and a hatchet. If he finds a dead Bigfoot, he intends to walk away with the ultimate trophy, DNA evidence, to send a message to those who ridicule the believers: “To give them the final ‘Aha! I told you so.’ ’’ - Paul Schwartzman

Source - http://www.boston.com/

The radio belonged to Marie Paton’s father

United Kingdom - A 70-year-old radio at a Scottish heritage center has been picking up vintage broadcasts featuring Winston Churchill and the music of Glen Miller.

The Pye valve wireless at Montrose Air Station, a heritage center that tells the story of the men and women who served there, has no power and is not connected to any source of electricity.

The aerodrome has been a source of paranormal sightings and sounds for almost a century, with reports of ghostly figures, eerie footsteps and door handles turning, but the mysterious wireless broadcasts have had even the most skeptical staff at the station searching for a rational explanation.

The vintage radio set is kept in a recreation of a 1940s room. Several people have heard Second World War era broadcasts including the big band sound of the Glenn Miller orchestra and speeches by Winston Churchill. The broadcasts come on at random and can last for up to half an hour.

Technicians who examined it removed the back, but found “nothing but cobwebs and spiders”.

Bob Sutherland, a trustee of the air station heritage center and its treasurer, said: “I have heard it playing Glenn Miller and recognized the song as At Last.

“The volume was very low but the music was quite identifiable.

“Graham Phillip, another volunteer, has heard what he was sure was Winston Churchill and others, including center curator Dan Paton and his wife, have heard it.

“I was a wireless operator with the RAF and know a bit about them. We have also had our resident radio expert, Ewan Cameron, look at it.

“If we had a powerful transmitter in the area the radio might pick up something, but we don’t.

“It is an old Pye radio which would probably explode if it was switched on.”

Mr Phillip said: “We have all heard the footsteps and seen door handles turn but the wireless is something new and unexplainable.

“It’s not just one of us who’s heard it - most of us here have. We are talking about highly educated, reliable people.

“My wife Aileen was with me when we heard the Glenn Miller Orchestra last weekend. She’s a physicist and not predisposed to believing in things like this but no-one has an explanation.

“If there was a transmitter nearby you’d think it might pick up Radio One or something, but I know what we heard. It went on for half an hour on and off. But the aerial is out anyway.

“We’ve had the back off and the technicians said there was nothing but cobwebs and spiders.”

Volunteer Marie Paton, 67, whose father Jack Stoneman bought the wireless secondhand in 1962, said: “It’s a bit scary. I thought someone was playing a prank on us but I heard it myself last Saturday.

“It plays Glenn Miller, and that’s what everyone has heard. It is very faint and you have to put your ear to it, but that’s what it’s playing. All the experts say it should be impossible.

The wireless broadcasts join a long list of mysteries at the air station, where the heritage center is in the original headquarters building. Visitors have reported strange “energies” around the airfield, phantom footsteps, doors opening and shutting, the sound of aircraft engines, shadowy figures walking in and out of rooms and even the sighting of a pilot in full flying kit.

The most notorious were the sightings of Lieutenant Desmond Arthur of the Royal Flying Corps who was killed when his biplane crashed.
He is said to have haunted the area until honor was satisfied in 1917, when a government inquiry concluded that he had not been killed by his own foolhardiness but because of poor repairs to his plane.

Peter Davis, 65, the heritage center’s secretary, added: “It is most odd and we cannot understand it. The station has a very abnormal presence. Several paranormal groups have been in to investigate various things, but the wireless has everyone including our radio technicians stumped.”

The air station was established in 1913 by the Royal Flying Corps as Britain’s first operational military airfield.

Source - http://news.stv.tv/

Florence Drake is president of the Readfield Historical Society

Readfield, Maine - When Renee Alling and her team of paranormal investigators checked out the Readfield Historical Society last fall, they found something that begged another visit to the former schoolhouse, built in 1823.

As they reviewed their audio recordings, Alling said, the investigative team detected a teacher delivering a grammar lesson and sounds of a chalkboard being cleaned.

In addition, some sort of occult force seemed to interfere with the team’s walkie-talkies.

“When we listened to our recording,” Alling said, “it sounded like footsteps walking toward us.”

On Saturday, Alling and a different group she’s founded, Everything Paranormal of New England, will return to the Readfield Historical Society, hoping to experience the same phenomena, learn more about them, and perhaps detect some new paranormal activity.

“This place is haunted,” said Alling, who lives in Sanford.

Alling and six other investigators will set up audio recorders and cameras and stake out the historical society building Saturday night.

Florence Drake, the Readfield Historical Society president, will be especially interested in the investigation’s outcome.

She and the society’s board heard a presentation of paranormal evidence last fall, but Drake said many of the recordings weren’t clear enough to discern exactly what was happening.

“Some of the spirits, or whatever they are, I’d like them to speak a little more clearly, more loudly and clearly,” Drake said, “something I could play to our members and say, ‘Here. This is going on.’ “

While Drake said she’s had paranormal experiences in the past, she’s never had those experiences in the Readfield Historical Society building.

“There’s nothing weird about this place at all,” she said. “It was a nice school for 132 years.”

Alling became interested in the paranormal when she and her family moved to Maine from Texas 11 years ago. They moved into a house built in 1900 and started noticing something was awry.

“My daughter’s seen a little girl in her bedroom, dressed in Victorian clothes,” Alling said, adding that her son has seen and heard his share of the metaphysical. “There’s voices and stuff moving and unexplainable crap,” she said.

The newfound interest in ghostly phenomena led Alling to join an investigators’ group and, later, to found one of her own. Her investigations have taken Alling and her team to towns across Maine, where they’ve investigated private residences and historical buildings.

“I think it’s great fun. It’s wonderful,” Drake said. “It lets people see a different angle, almost like parallel existences, in a non-threatening way and in a non-sensational way.”

Alling said the investigations seek to prove or disprove, and understand the spirits that might live in historical buildings.

“They’re not going to hurt you,” Alling said. “Most of the time, they’re trying to communicate with you.”

If the investigators turn up anything at the Readfield Historical Society, it will be a reflection of whatever took place in the building while it was a school.

“If anyone’s here, it’s just the kids and teachers,” Drake said. “All they’re going to get is rampant happiness, if they get anything.” - Andy Molloy

Source - http://www.pressherald.com/

Mount Clemens, Michigan - Growing up, as children, both men had an interest in some of the things that just couldn’t be explained.

Paul Chevalier, a physicist by training but a software engineer, had an interest in mysterious things but says he still couldn’t call himself “a believer.”

“I always found it as an amusing thing,” Chevalier said.

One night, when Chevalier was an adult and caring for his sick daughter, he saw something that would stretch his beliefs to accommodate the paranormal.

“I saw something that I could not explain,” he said.

Walking down the stairs he saw what he describes as a 5-foot-6-inch figure - roughly human-shaped - at the bottom of the steps. He stood and watched but when he began to approach it, it dissipated.

“There was no explanation for it being there,” Chevalier said.

Roughly 15 years later, Chevalier has teamed with Todd Hurley, a co-worker with an interest in the paranormal, in creating the Great Lakes Paranormal and Research Society as a way to research and investigate local phenomena.

“It’s something that we’re devoted to doing,” Hurley said. “We’ve both have had interest in these things - hauntings to general unexplained things.”

Beginning in 2007, the co-founders, while keeping their day jobs, have used their spare time to investigate local disturbances - a service for which they do not charge.

They strongly state that they are not clairvoyant, do not toy around with Ouija boards and are in no way associated with the occult. They use instruments and research, taking a practical approach to try to investigate sounds and other happenings, first trying to explain such occurrences.

Some, they said, were written off initially as loose floorboards or furnace noises, but have not been satisfactorily explained except by paranormal activity.

There was a recent investigation that brought them to Shelby Township and the Hurley house.

Using an electronic recorder, the pair recorded for hours inside the house and discovered over 30 EVPs (Electronic Voice Phenomena) that could not be simply written off.

From there, Hurley and Chevalier entered into conversations with entities in the house through an instrument called an EMF detector.

With the notion that some entity was in the basement, Hurley asked it to make the device flash. It did.

He asked it to make the device flash twice. It did.

Then he asked it to count the people in the room and yes-or-no questions, with all of which it complied.

“We proceeded with questions,” Hurley said. “Question after question, and it responded. We didn’t expect it to happen and it hasn’t since. Two different occasions, we had 20-minute conversations with it.”

Following an investigation, if it does yield some sort of paranormal activity, the decision lies in the hands of the customer.

Hurley and Chevalier say that many just wish to validate that there is in fact something there, a reason for previously unexplained activities. But if they should wish to get rid of it, then steps can be taken.

They first suggest forcefully asking it to leave - something with which the pair will assist and say has a great success rate - but if that should fail, a clairvoyant or clergy could be brought in.

To anyone interested, the pair can be contacted through their website, where those interested can view write-ups of previous investigations, as well as view other society members and equipment.

“Our approach is to be as professional as we can,” Hurley said.

“There are groups out there that just go by their feelings and go in with the assumption that the place is haunted. We go in thinking it’s not and try to prove it.” - Dave Jones

Source - http://www.macombdaily.com/

Wichita, Kansas - Long after the regular visitors left the Old Cowtown Museum on Saturday, an odd group of detectives gathered in the employee parking lot and unloaded its high-tech gear.

More than a dozen members of the Wichita Paranormal Research Society carried infrared cameras, thermal imagers and electromagnetic field data loggers into the museum for an overnight hunt.

“What we’re looking for is any paranormal activity,” Sherrie Curry, one of the investigators, said in an earlier interview. “Apparitions, voices, movement of items. Pretty much anything that we can’t explain.

“Mostly what we do is try to catch ghosts.”

Group founder Shane Elliott said that on most weekends, the group is invited into a Kansas home or business to see if it can explain unnatural activity.

“I’d say 90 to 95 percent we can explain away,” he said.

Often, he said, something as simple as bad electrical wiring can appear to make things go haywire.

But the group, which was formed in 2007 and has twice before conducted overnight hunts at Cowtown, can’t explain everything it has found at the museum.

Wind chimes that tinkled for no reason. Stones tossed by people who weren’t there. A candle removed from a candelabra.

“The Murdock house has the most paranormal activity,” Currie said. “The DeVore Farm - that’s where we had the wind chimes. We’ve had some unexplainable footsteps in the drugstore-dentist area. We’ve had a couple of events in the jail, but there’s not a whole lot there. And a little bit in the blacksmith shop. I’d say the most activity is in the Murdock House.”

The group will discuss the results of this weekend’s hunt when it holds its third annual Historic Haunting at Cowtown event in October.

Elliott said he was a skeptic when he got married, but that his wife was always interested in paranormal activity.

“If she was watching anything on television that had to do with UFOs or ghosts, I’d go out in the garage,” he said. “Before 2005, I never believed in any of this.”

That changed one night that year when he heard a sound on a baby monitor that became a lullaby.

“I got this strange feeling that it was my grandmother, who’d passed away when I was 16.”

He said he began paying attention to those shows his wife was watching.

Curry said she had a similar experience while staying at a farmhouse near Lawrence that was rented by an in-law. She said the house gave her the creeps. At one point, she said, she saw what appeared to be a white form floating past a bed. And the settings on an alarm clock in the house kept changing without explanation, she said.

She said she later learned that the former owner had committed suicide in the barn. She said she has since learned that most paranormal activity is attributed to the dead.

“The theory is that people who have passed away can become attached to their house, or to a particular location or to a particular item - say a favorite jewelry box or favorite musical instrument,” she said.

Cowtown isn’t the only public place where the group has found paranormal activity. The Orpheum Theater also has its share, Currie said.

“We do have recordings of voices there,” she said. “Employees who have worked there and people who have come to perform there have had experiences in the dressing room.”

Throughout their investigations, the investigators have yet to come across anything evil.

“We haven’t actually run into anything that would be considered a demon,” Curry said. “There’ve been some ornery things, but nothing I would consider a demon.” - Hurst Laviana

Source - http://www.kansas.com/

Rockport, Texas - Chances are that if extraterrestrial civilizations are monitoring earth’s radio and television broadcasts, they most likely think of us as being ignorant, disgusting and war-like beings.

If aliens are listening in, the songs we listen to on the radio, and the television shows we watch, do not speak well for us.

Rock n roll has long been cited for containing rebellious ideas and foul lyrics. Aliens, who may be monitoring our radio waves, and forming impressions of us from what they hear, may think we are a planet of sex-crazed juvenile delinquent morons.

Add rap music to the interstellar playlist, and the interpretation might become crack-smoking fifth-grade drop outs who can’t even speak our own language - a world of booty-people who respect money and violence over human life.

Consider if aliens are trying to understand our society by tapping into our television transmissions. A large number of shows they would see portray earthlings as all being special taskforce undercover agents, and earth life revolving around daily gun battles, where every character involved - good and bad - has instant access to unlimited arsenals of automatic weapons and ammunition.

Consider the alien’s confusion trying to balance those images with the remainder of earths television transmissions, which show us as a weak-minded species - obsessed with random sex with strangers, and people who are easily amused by crude references to bodily functions.

And it’s not just the interception of transmissions of modern-day entertainment which may give aliens cause for alarm.

I’m sure Sheb Wooley had no idea when he recorded One-Eyed One-Horned Flying Purple People Eater, that someday, somewhere on another planet, alien scientists may interpret the song as our total ignorance of extraterrestrial life forms.

Is it possible that after monitoring electronic signals from our planet, aliens are afraid to make contact with us?

If aliens are monitoring our radio and television transmissions, perhaps they want nothing to do with such offensive creatures.

Could our incurable love of violence - in words and images - cause aliens to someday attack us?

Could intercepted transmissions convince extraterrestrials we are no more than a planet of farting, sex-crazed war-mongering imbeciles - pathetic mistakes of nature who should be eliminated before we reach out to the stars and infect others?

Perhaps our last hope for survival may lie in the hands of aliens that are wise enough forgive us for our bad taste.

Dean Terry for Our Strange World

Moscow, Russia - A boy named Boris Kipriyanovich, or Boriska, lives in the town of Zhirinovsk of Russia’s Volgograd region. He was born on January 11, 1996. Since he was four he used to visit a well-known anomalous zone, commonly referred to as Medvedetskaya Gryada – a mountain near the town. It seems that the boy needed to visit the zone regularly to fulfill his needs in energy.

Boriska’s parents, nice, educated and hospitable people, are worried about their son’s fascinating talents. They do not know how others will perceive Boriska when he grows up. The say that they would be happy to consult an expert to know how to raise their son.

Being a doctor, his mother could not help but notice that the baby boy could hold his head already in 15 days after his birth. He uttered the first word ‘baba’ when he was four months old and started to pronounce simple words soon afterwards.

At one year and a half he had no difficulties in reading newspaper headlines.

At age of two years he started drawing and leaned how to paint six months later. When he turned two, he started going to a local kindergarten. Tutors immediately noticed the unusual boy, his uncommon quickwittedness, language skills and unique memory.

However, his parents witnessed that Boriska acquired knowledge not only from the outer world, but through mysterious channels as well. They saw him reading unknown information from somewhere.

“No one has ever taught him,” Boriska’s mother said. “Sometimes he would sit in a lotus position and start telling us detailed facts about Mars, planetary systems and other civilizations, which really puzzled us,” the woman said.

How may a little boy know such things? Space became the permanent theme of his stories when the boy turned two years old. Once he said that he used to live on Mars himself. He says that the planet is inhabited now too, although it lost its atmosphere after a mammoth catastrophe. The Martians live in underground cities, Boriska says.

The boy also says that, he used to fly to Earth for research purposes when he was a Martian. Moreover, he piloted a spaceship himself. It took place in the time of the Lemurian civilization. He speaks about the fall of Lemuria as if it occurred yesterday. He says that Lemurians died because they ceased to develop themselves spiritually and broke the unity of their planet.

When his mother brought him a book entitled Whom We Are Originated From by Ernest Muldashev, he got very excited about it. He spent a long time looking through the sketches of Lemurians, pictures of Tibetan pagodas, and then he told his parents of Lemurians and their culture for several hours non-stop.

As he was talking, his mother noticed that Lemurians lived 70,000 years ago and they were nine meters tall. “How can you remember all this?” the woman asked her son. “Yes, I remember and nobody has told me that, I saw it,” Boriska replied.

In Muldashev’s second book, In Search of the City of Gods, he looked through pictures for a long time and recollected a lot about pyramids and shrines.

Then he claimed that people would not find ancient knowledge under the Great Pyramid of Cheops. The knowledge will be found under another pyramid, which has not been discovered yet. “The human life will change when the Sphinx is opened, it has an opening mechanism somewhere behind the ear, I do not remember exactly,” he said.

Boriska is one of so-called indigo children. They start to appear on Earth as a token of the forthcoming grand transformation of the planet.

The boy says that the displacement of Earth’s poles will cause two catastrophes. Only a few people will survive, he said.

“No, I have no fear of death, for we live eternally. There was a catastrophe on Mars where I lived. People like us still live there. There was a nuclear war between them. Everything burnt down. Only some of them survived. They built shelters and created new weapons. All materials changed. Martians mostly breathe carbon dioxide. If they flew to our planet now, they would have to spend all the time standing next to pipes and breathing in fumes,” Boriska said. “If I am in this body, I breathe oxygen. But you know, it causes aging.”

Specialists asked the boy why man-made spacecraft often crash as they approach Mars. “Martians transmit special signals to destroy stations containing harmful radiation,” Boriska replied.

The boy has deep knowledge of space and its dimensions. He is also aware of the structure of interplanetary UFOs. He talks about that like an expert, draws UFOs on slates and explains the way they work. Here is one of his stories: “It has six layers. The upper layer of solid metal accounts for 25 percent, the second layer of rubber – 30 percent, the third layer of metal – 30 percent, and the last layer with magnetic properties – 4 percent. If we give energy to the magnetic layer, spaceships will be able to fly across the Universe.”

Boriska has a lot of difficulties with school. After an interview he was taken to the second grade, but soon they tried to get rid of him. He constantly interrupts teachers and says that they are wrong. Now the boy has classes with a private tutor.

Source - http://english.pravda.ru/

Tour guide Brenda Berger in front of the the old Clay County courthouse

Liberty, Missouri - Sometimes late at night after the cleaning crews have left and most office workers are long gone, an elderly man and woman have been seen walking with arms linked along the hallways of the Depression-era Clay County courthouse on Liberty Square.

At other times in other buildings, water runs, doors open unexpectedly, tools disappear, a shadowy presence is felt or a baby cries - all with no explanation.

Are these sounds of someone’s overactive imagination, or are there ghosts hanging around town?

Megan Garrison, manager of the Corner Bar, said she believes the place where she works is haunted.

“We get weird things happening,” Garrison said. “The men’s toilet will flush, the back door will open and there’s no one there, and the water turns on by itself. I don’t like to be here alone, especially on a Sunday.”

Beth Meyer is owner of Ghost Tours of Missouri, a company that specializes in paranormal investigations and ghost tours. Meyer said her company plans to do an investigation of the bar in hopes that the ghost will reveal it self.

“Liberty has so much history and so much has happened here,” Meyer said.

Meyer said there are several haunted places in the older sections of downtown - the Henry Routt house, Stone-Yancey Bed & Breakfast, William Jewell College and Fairview Cemetery.

The college, which was established in 1849, is a treasure trove of ghostly tales, Meyer said. A student who drowned in the pool can reportedly be heard shouting “mom, mom;” a tall, lanky man wearing overalls appears in the theater, as does a glowing woman who sits in the same seat, Meyer said.

Jewell Hall served as a hospital for Union soldiers during the Civil War and a mass grave is located on the campus grounds. Meyer says her tours include a short stroll through Mount Memorial Cemetery at the college and at Fairview Cemetery.

Brenda Berger of Liberty, a tour guide, has been doing research about places where ghosts have been seen or felt in structures open to the public.

Berger said her family settled here in the 1820s and she is fascinated by the area’s history. Liberty was established in 1822.

“There is so much to be learned by those who have gone before us,” Berger said. “Being part of the ghost tours is a great way to share these stories, since we believe that without the history, there are no haunts.”

Berger said one of her favorite stories is about Dr. Goodson, who had a medical office on the Square, now preserved upstairs at the Clay County Museum.

“When he would operate, the doctor used to throw body parts out the window,” she said. - Angie Anaya Borgedalen

Source - http://www.libertytribune.com/

United Kingdom - The first owner of the number 0888 888 888 - Vladimir Grashnov, the former CEO of Bulgarian mobile phone company Mobitel – died of cancer in 2001 aged just 48.

Despite a spotless business record there were persistent rumors that his cancer had been caused by a business rival using radioactive poisoning.

The number then passed to Bulgarian mafia boss, Konstantin Dimitrov, who was gunned down in 2003 by a lone assassin in the Netherlands during a trip to inspect his £500 million drug smuggling empire.

Dimitrov, who died aged 31, had the mobile with him when he was shot while eating out with a model.

Russian mafia bosses – jealous of his drug smuggling operation – were said to have been behind the killing.

The phone number then passed to Konstantin Dishliev, a crooked businessman, who was gunned down outside an Indian restaurant in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia after taking over the jinxed line.

Dishliev, an estate agent, had secretly been running a massive cocaine trafficking operation before his assassination in 2005.

He died after £130 million of the drug was intercepted by police on its way into the country from Colombia.

Since then, the number is understood to have been dormant while police maintained an open file on Dishliev’s killing and his smuggling ring.

Now phone bosses are said to have suspended the number for good. Callers now get a recorded message saying the phone is “outside network coverage.”

A Mobitel spokesman would only say: “We have no comment to make. We won’t discuss individual numbers.”

Source - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Sauk Centre, Minnesota - The legendary Palmer House Hotel is one of the most haunted hotels in the nation.

“It operates today as it did in 1900,” Owner Kelley Freese said.

The Palmer House stands today as it did more than a century ago.  As the first building in Sauk Centre to have electricity, it was a destination for many, and Freese said some of those guests haven’t left.

“The activity has really been intense in the kitchen, and there’s a man that walks around in the dining room that several of us have seen,” Freese said.

The man she sees isn’t real.  He’s an apparition.

“You go there only to find nobody’s there,” she explained.

Paranormal investigators come from all over to investigate this haunted hotel.  As we walked up the stairs it got colder even though no windows were open and there’s no air conditioning.

“There’s just no way to explain it,” Freese said.

The cold turned into almost a breeze when Freese turned on the antique phonograph, playing old music.

Many experience the unexplained during their time in the hotel.  A guest took a picture which showed the an image of something floating in the window’s reflection in the mirror.

In a number of video’s taken at the hotel, a dot of light appears out of nowhere.  It’s a light anomaly, which is an unexplained source of light, dancing around in from of the same window.

“That could be a person,” Freese said as we described what we were seeing.

Freese said a light anomaly is one of the most concrete pieces of paranormal evidence caught on camera, because much of the activity comes when you least expect it.

“Books have come flying off the shelf in the pub,” Freese recalled.  “Literally off the bookshelves, over the top of the table and land on the other side of the room.”

“A lot of people get touched.  I’ve had my hair pulled and my arm yanked back,” Paranormal Investigator Lisa Lee said.

Another source of evidence is sound.

“We’ve heard voices,” Lee explained.  “We’ve heard dogs barking in the basement.”

“Could you tell me what your name is,” Sherry Johnson said, speaking to a little girl no one could see.

Johnson used a modified radio to pick up sound during our investigation.

“Spirits can use the voices and the words already in our airwaves.  They can answer our questions by pulling those words out and sending them out through the radio,” Johnson said.

While sitting in the playroom, Johnson spoke with the spirits of children.  We heard a quiet voice say one word - “nervous” - through the radio.

Johnson and Freese have heard more voices caught on tape in the hotel’s basement.

“Do you recognize anyone in the room,” they asked.  A voice from someone no one could see responded, “Kelley.”

More often than not the presence of ghosts or spirits is a feeling, but sometimes when you least expect it the guests you can’t always see in the Palmer House will surprise you; whether it’s an apparition, a moving object, or a voice telling you to leave.

Source - http://ksax.com/

Rockport, Texas - Joey died of lymphoma in 2001. Dee Dee OD’d in 2002. Johnny died in 2004. CBGBs closed in 2006. Producer Phil Spector went on trial for murder. CBGBs owner Hilly Krystal died in 2007. Ex-manager Linda Stein was murdered in 2007. Curse anyone?

Formed in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, in 1974, all members of the band used stage names with their surnames as Ramone.

After touring virtually non-stop for 22 years, the band broke up in 1996. Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone and Dee Dee Ramone all died within eight years of the break-up.

Joey did not live to see the Ramones inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he died of lymphatic cancer. Dee Dee made it to the induction ceremony in April 2002 - with Johnny, Tommy, and Marky - but died just two months later. Then Johnny lost his own battle with cancer.

Death also claimed Linda Stein, The Ramones ex-manager, and Hilly Kristal, the owner of the club where The Ramones got their start.

Joey died of lymphoma in 2001. Dee Dee OD’d in 2002. Johnny died in 2004. CBGBs closed in 2006. Producer Phil Spector went on trial for murder. CBGBs owner Hilly Krystal died in 2007. Ex-manager Linda Stein was murdered in 2007. Curse anyone?

Formed in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, in 1974, all members of the band used stage names with their surnames as Ramone.

After touring virtually non-stop for 22 years, the band broke up in 1996. Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone and Dee Dee Ramone all died within eight years of the break-up.

Joey did not live to see the Ramones inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he died of lymphatic cancer. Dee Dee made it to the induction ceremony in April 2002 - with Johnny, Tommy, and Marky - but died just two months later. Then Johnny lost his own battle with cancer.

Death also claimed Linda Stein, The Ramones ex-manager, and Hilly Kristal, the owner of the club where The Ramones got their start.

Joey Ramone (May 19, 1951 – April 15, 2001)

Joey Ramone died of lymphoma at age 49. Joey was the lanky punk legend who fronted the Ramones and is credited with starting the international punk movement.

His signature leather jacket, torn jeans, face hidden behind a pair of sunglasses and a thick shock of dark hair defined punk’s early image and turned him into a counter-cultural icon worshiped the world over.

Loey suffered from mental hardship all his life, such as severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and was known to check himself into clinics when the symptoms became unbearable.

Two years after his death, a block of East 2nd Street in New York City was officially renamed Joey Ramone Place , in recognition of his contribution to modern music.

Dee Dee Ramone (September 18, 1951 - June 5, 2002)

Dee Dee was a German American songwriter and The Ramones bass player, known for his distinctive count-in style, used to start off many Ramones songs.

Though nearly all of The Ramones songs were credited equally to all the band members, Dee Dee was the group’s primary lyricist and songwriter, penning songs such as 53rd & 3rd, Commando, Rockaway Beach and Poison Heart.

Although at first Dee Dee wanted to play the guitar, he became the bass guitarist for the group from their formation in 1974 through 1989, when he was replaced by C.J. Ramone. He left to pursue a short-lived career in rap music under the name Dee Dee King.

Dee Dee struggled with drug addiction for much of his life, especially heroin; he began using drugs as a teenager, and continued to use for the majority of his adult life. He seemed to clean up his act in the early 1990s and to remain clean for most of that decade until 2002, when he was found dead from a heroin overdose.

Dee Dee wrote two books: Poison Heart: Surviving the Ramones (aka Lobotomy) and Legend of a Rock Star, a daily journal of commentary on his last, hectic European tour in the spring of 2001. Both were released as non-fiction autobiographies, despite the fact that Legend of a Rock Star features a sequence in which Dee Dee murders a border guard.

Dee Dee also penned a novel, titled Chelsea Horror Hotel, in which he and his wife move into New York City’s famous Chelsea Hotel and believe they are staying in the same room where Sid Vicious allegedly killed his girlfriend Nancy Spungen.

Johnny Ramone (October 8, 1948 – September 15, 2004)

Johnny Ramone died of prostate cancer. He was the guitarist for The Ramones. Along with vocalist Joey Ramone, he remained a member of the band throughout their career.

In 2003, Johnny Ramone was named the sixteenth greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone.

Johnny Ramone’s fast, loud and primitive guitar work helped lead the punk revolution. He was best known for his high-energy playing style. Johnny had the guitar sound that launched a thousand bands.

While many bands tried to emulate Johnny Ramone’s buzzsaw style of playing, most never got it right.

In 1983, Johnny got in a fight with Seth Macklin of the band Sub Zero Construction, in front of his apartment in the East Village. Johnny was seeing a girl (he found out she was a drunk) who was cheating on him with Macklin. Macklin kicked Johnny in the head and caused extensive injuries which required brain surgery. Johnny had to wear a baseball cap on stage until his hair grew back. He recovered, and the Ramones next album was titled Too Tough to Die, partly in his honor.

Johnny was infamous in the punk community as being one of a few conservatives.

Hilly Kristal (September 23, 1931 – August 28, 2007)

Hilly Kristal held a prominent place in New York City night-life after opening the doors to the CBGB nightclub in 1973.

A popular haunt amongst New York musicians the CBGB served as a venue for up and coming artists such as The Ramones and Blondie to establish a footing in the competitive American music scene.

Notable performances from Patti Smith and The Ramones helped elevate CBGB to cult status as Mr Kristal addressed New York’s changing music scene by allowing new wave and punk rock music to be performed at his club throughout the 1970s and 80s.

Linda Stein (1945 - October 30, 2007)

Stein was found dead in her apartment in Manhattan. Stein’s death was ruled a homicide and attributed the cause to “blunt impact trauma to the head and neck.”

A former personal assistant to Linda Stein was charged with second-degree murder in the death of the ex-Ramones manager.

The assistant said Stein treated her poorly, “just kept yelling at her” and made her sick by blowing pot smoke in her face. She also claimed her boss had verbally abused her.

Linda Stein began her career as a teacher, but left teaching to, along with Danny Fields, manage the Ramones.

She was formerly married to and advised Seymour Stein, president of Sire Records and vice president of Warner Bros. Records, who was instrumental in launching the careers of Madonna, The Ramones, Talking Heads and The Pretenders.

In the 1990s, Stein left band management and became a ‘real estate agent to the stars.’

Also, another person who was instrumental in nurturing the talents of the early Ramones, Joey Ramone’s mother, affectionately known as Mama Ramone suffered a heart attack in her home in 2007 and passed away.

The Phil Spector Connection:

Phil Spector produced The Ramones1979 album End of the Century. The Phil Spector sessions remain a turning point in Ramones history.

Legend has it that Spector was obsessive in the studio, making them play the opening chord of Rock ‘n’ Roll High School for eight hours straight. He locked the band in his house for hours, and he pulled a gun on Dee Dee.

Another time, Phil pulled a gun on the group and forced them to play his 1963 hit by the Ronettes, Baby I Love You.

In 2003, Spector was arrested on suspicion of murder after the body of 40-year-old nightclub hostess and B movie-actress Lana Clarkson of Los Angeles was found at his mansion.

After a 2007 mistrial, Spector was convicted in 2009, and given a prison sentence of 19 years to life.

Wearing tattered jeans, T-shirts, black leather jackets and disaffected expressions, the Ramones created a raw, energetic style of music that emanated out of New York’s underground and affected millions of fans all over the world.

Considered by many to be one of the most influential rock bands in America, the Ramones produced 21 albums and played more than 2,200 shows. Over the years, the group’s line-up also changed to include bassist C.J. Ramone, drummer Marky Ramone and drummer Richie Ramone.

But despite the acclaim (much of it belated) punk’s pioneering Ramones hold the dubious distinction of being the least acknowledged and least compensated of the heavyweight influences in rock music.

The Ramones never achieved the commercial success they so deserved. So bleak was the band’s journey, that a curse seems a plausible explanation.

Constant touring, accidents, feuds within the group, management problems, personal demons and unappreciative audiences have all helped fuel rumors of a curse.

Even no-nonsense Johnny Ramone had to wonder: “I don’t believe in curses, but it sure looks that way,” he said in an interview. “There are always disappointments on the road to success. We had more than our share of bad luck.”

The band called it quits in 1996 with not a single radio hit, top 40 album or Grammy on its track record.

The Ramones never played Madison Square Garden.

Sales of their final album, Adios Amigos, was extremely disappointing.

Was there a curse surrounding The Ramones?  Or is it just a rock ‘n roll legend found in the twisted lyrics of a song playing on a battered old jukebox - somewhere on the outskirts of Our Strange World?

It’s low tide on Rockaway Beach. Rock n’ Roll Radio is off the air and I feel like I Wanna Be Sedated. Tragic. I’m done.

Dean Terry for Our Strange World

Moscow, Russia = Lately, Russian media has been reporting on unidentified flying objects seen in Moscow skies. Recently a video was posted online showing a huge triangle 1.5 km wide soaring above the Moscow Kremlin. It was sitting above Red Square and shot by amateurs twice.

The video was widely discussed in foreign communities interested in ufology. According to a former UFO analyst of the British Defense Ministry, this is the most bizarre and unusual video of a UFO he has ever seen.

On October 7, 2009 a strange round cloud resembling a saucer was shot above Moscow Ring Road. At first it was noticed above Leninsky Prospect metro station, which is in downtown Moscow.

According to employees of the independent group “Heritage,” the object probably wanted to provide encoded information that Earth is threatened by asteroids.

On October 27, two days after the researchers presented at the 14th Ufology Conference, the media, referring to NASA, released belated information about a meteorite explosion above Sulawesi Island.

In the evening of December 21, 2009, a reporter of Komsomolskaya Pravda who was shooting the panorama of Red Square unexpectedly shot something that looked like a stick with six wings. He did not see anything while he was shooting and only saw it on his pictures, as it often happens with UFOs.

The hero of the shoot was identified by the chair of Ufology committee with the Russian Geographical society Michael Gernstein. “This is a skyfish, flying rod, or solar entitiy. Ufology websites are filled with similar pictures.”

Some hot heads stated that these are live beings unknown to science. Others think these are creatures that came from plasma world inhibited by souls and ghosts.

UFOs above Moscow are not a frequent event, but not exclusive one either. In winter of 1584, a cross-shaped object with a lit up bubble in the center was seen in Moscow sky in day light.

Ivan the Terrible, who was then the Tsar, came outside as soon as he heard about it to “see the miracle with his own eyes.” The witnesses said he watched it for a while and then said, his face pale, that it was a sign of his death. It was indeed his last year.

Fireballs are also frequently seen in downtown Moscow. On August 5, 1977, three fireballs were seen. One came down on Ivanovskaya square, another one disappeared in Tainitsky garden, and the third one flew into the Archangelsk cathedral.

It moved along an S-shaped trajectory because the entrance to the cathedral consists of two pairs of doors. From the entrance the fireball moved to the altar, banged against the Tsar gates and exploded. A black spot remained on the altar from the explosion. It is hard to believe that this was an accident.

Some scientists believe such phenomena to be signs of the future. But what do they indicate? Some extraordinary future events? Or, maybe, aliens are trying to tell us that they support us in tough times? We shall see. - Margarita Troitsina

Source - http://english.pravda.ru/

Alexandria, Minnesota - There are many stories out there about strange things that have happened inside the former Old Broadway restaurant in Alexandria.

Past employees like Shannon Chan said she’s heard many of them.

“I was one of the last ones upstairs, and one of the cooks actually shut the lights off on me.  I don’t know if it was just my subconscious taking over, you know, I kind of just go the chills.  It just seemed really chilly up there,” Chan recalled.

Chan said many of her co-workers talked of unexplainable things happening in the historic building.

“One of the managers was telling me this story.  Her and another manager were here late at night.  they were doing their work, and they looked up at the security camera. They saw a woman wiping down the bar on the main level,” Chan said.

She said no one else was in the restaurant at the time.

“Then she (the manager) looked up at the security camera again, and the person was gone,” Chan went on. The managers went to check the bar only to find the doors locked.  “That was always the one story that kind of stuck with me.”

The building standing now on the 300 block of Broadway Street in Alexandria dates back to the early 20th century.  In 1926 it was a funeral home.  Before that it was a private residence for many.  In the late 1980s it was Bronc’s on Broadway, a popular restaurant that transformed into Old Broadway in 1992.

“Old Broadway’s been here forever.  It has that history,” Chan said.

With a history like that, employees don’t doubt the possibility of ghosts.

“I don’t doubt the existence of things like that,” Former bartender Jeff Bergs.

Bergs tended bar at Old Broadway for about six years.  He doesn’t have his own experiences but has heard plenty from others.

“Silverware moving, pots and pans in the kitchen flying off the counter tops,” Bergs said.

The ghost of the woman Chan described wiping down the bar has been seen in mirrors upstairs. “You could see the reflection of the ghost,” she said.

The ghost has also reportedly turned lights on and off in the upstairs closet. “I was always told that was her favorite room,” Chan explained.

No one knows who this woman is or was.

“I think it’d be kind of cool if someone could figure out who she is or why she’s still here,” Chan said.

For now the stories will remain unexplained.

The building is still empty, and it is for sale. - Megan Matthews

Source - http://ksax.com/

United Kingdom - Gin, vodka, whiskey and rum aren’t the only spirits to be found in John Sutton’s pub.

Several ghosts have been making their presence felt at the Rose & Crown in Bulford.

John is hoping a medium or a paranormal investigation group will help him get to the bottom of the strange goings-on.

“I reckon there are five or six different ghosts,” said John, who took on the pub 14 weeks ago.

For starters there’s a dog upstairs – and it’s not John’s pet, Taffy the Staffie. “From the back it looks like a labrador,” said John. “It vanishes into thin air. We regularly hear a sound like a dog gnawing at a bone.

“In the evenings Taffy often sits staring into space, and you can see he’s watching something moving.

“We’ve also heard someone running up and down the passageways upstairs. It sounds like a child. My daughter’s jewelry has been moved in her bedroom.

“My wife Lisa and I have seen shadowy figures moving along the corridors.

“I always lock up last thing, but several mornings I’ve come down and found the bar door wide open.

“The kitchen door shuts when we’ve propped it open with a fire extinguisher. We find the extinguisher’s moved.

Other staff at the pub have witnessed strange occurrences and a ghostly presence in the cellar, where Taffy won’t venture, has been fondly nicknamed Billy.

The gas taps on the barrels switch themselves off, and once when John was alone in there, he says a plastic bag was thrown at him.

“There’s another walled-up cellar behind it that was part of an older pub that was demolished. Maybe it’s something to do with that,” he said.

“One of my regulars, Eric, who’s 78, doesn’t believe in spooks but he will tell you how a paintbrush flipped off the top of a paint can and a screwdriver moved across the cellar.”

Another regular, ‘Pops’ Fitton, says the pub’s restaurant has a ghost he calls Fred - a rascal who switches off the vacuum cleaner and lights, and moves chairs.

John is adamant that his eerie tales are not just a publicity stunt. He said: “I think these ghosts are just winding us up. I’m not scared. But I’d love a medium to come and tell us what’s actually going on.” - Annie Riddle

Source - http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/

Rockport, Texas - Joshua Harrisburg had fallen madly in love with Rosita Trujillo the moment he met her.

In spite of her somewhat strange manner, the dark-eyed beauty with, what Joshua called ‘dark-as-midnight’ raven hair, had captured his heart and they were soon wed.

In the autumn of 1839, Joshua Harrisburg brought his new bride home to the cabin he’d built for her.

That was the same night the black wolves came to the small settlement of Mud Lake, Texas.

Their guests were celebrating with music and dancing when some of the children rushed in from outside to say they had seen wolves - hundreds of them.

Joshua snatched a rifle from the wall, but was stopped in his tracks when Rosita braced herself against the door.

She told her husband, before he killed any of the wolves, she must go and talk to them first.

From outside the cabin, the guests first heard the clapping of hands. They then heard Rosita’s voice saying, “You have done wrong! You must never annoy us on a feast night! Go away at once!”

The wolves turned and fled into the deep forest and, although several men rushed outside and began to shoot at them before they were out of sight, no carcasses were ever found.

This incident weighed heavily on Joshua Harrisburg’s heart as he felt there may be a connection to the strange stories which had recently started circulating in the area.

Hunters had reported seeing packs of black wolves, and in their midst, a different kind of predator - a black-haired giant, fully seven feet long, and who led the wolves like a queen in command of her troops.

That winter, a hard freeze settled on Mud Lake, and the black wolves in the forest became bolder in their search for food.

Three miles south of Harrisburg’s homestead, two settlers, and 23 head of cattle, were slain in a carnival of blood.

The next day Joshua told Rosita that all the settlers were taking their silver to the schoolhouse, to be melted down for bullets. Many people had come to believe the black, four-legged killers were werewolves, and silver bullets were the only things that could be used to kill them.

That night, Joshua took what silver he had and went to the schoolhouse. Everyone in the village was there and the one-room structure was ablaze with activity.

Suddenly, outside the school, someone screamed, “The wolves!”

The wolves were milling and snarling around the building, anxious for the attack signal from their leader.

Joshua rushed out of the schoolhouse, unarmed, and ran in the direction of the wolves. Quickly the black-haired queen moved towards him, snarling - her huge fangs exposed.

One of the other settlers, Virgil Black, had just gotten his rifle loaded and ran outside when he saw Joshua confronting the savage she-wolf.

Black swears he heard Joshua speaking to the wolf, saying: “If it is you Rosita, go back! Oh, God, go back to our home!”

As the huge beast leaped at Joshua’s throat, Virgil Black fired his rifle. The wolf spun in mid-air, and collapsed in a spray of scarlet.

As more men poured out of the schoolhouse, rifles loaded with bullets made of silver, the howling wolves were shot down in droves.

After the shooting stopped, and the smoke from the gun powder finally cleared, Joshua looked down at where the dead she-wolf lay.

As he slowly bent over and began brushing back the matted, dark-as-midnight hair, the face of Rosita emerged.

It seemed to him that the dead face pleaded for forgiveness and understanding.

Joshua Harrisburg forgave, but he could never understand.

He died a lonely, haunted man a few months later.

Dean Terry for Our Strange World

Rockport, Texas - The strange tale began in 1948 when the curator of the old Houston Museum of Antiquities caught a glimpse of his wife slipping into one of the museum’s supply rooms.

It seems Dr. Leland Stovall’s wife, Janice, was having a frolic with the building’s young janitor. Silently checking on what his wife was up to, Dr. Stovall saw her making love with the custodian.

He waited until the janitor left on his rounds, and then he rushed in and beat his wife to death with an antique bronze statue.

The killer curator was afraid he’d be spotted if he tried to sneak his dead wife’s body out of the museum, so he spent the night embalming her and bandaging her from head to toe. By the next morning, his dead wife was a mummy.

He did her up in the same manner as the ancient Egyptians. On the outside he used bandages from some of the authentic mummies at the museum to give her just the right look.

A couple of days later he placed her in the mummy exhibit, along with a plaque describing her as a princess from the period just after King Tut.

For the next six months, throngs of Houstonians viewed the exhibit. The corpse of the curator’s wife lay there, in a glass case, and thousands of people walked by and looked at her. Museum visitors were convinced they were viewing the remains of a 3,000-year-old Egyptian princess.

The wily widower reported his wife missing and the police were convinced she’d run away.

Unfortunately, Dr. Stovall’s pride in his work was to lead to the discovery of his bizarre crime.

Stovall was so proud of his creation that, after a night of heavy drinking, he boasted to a colleague that he’d committed the prefect crime.

The colleague notified the police and told them where to look for the body.

The whole thing was so weird that, at first, the police though it had to be a joke.

But when the mummy was examined, underneath the bandages, they found Janices’ body.

Dr. Stovall pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

At his sentencing, Dr. Stovall told the court, “I don’t understand why I should be punished at all. My wife was just an ordinary woman - and I made her immortal.”

The Houston Museum of Antiquities, stigmatized by events surround the ghastly murder, finally closed it’s doors in 1952.

Dean Terry for Our Strange World

Rialto, California - The original handcrafted pews line the chapel and the same stained glass windows shed light on some spooky stories.

“You’re being watched.”

Floating around…

“You could see objects behind her, they said, and no feet.”

Parapsychologist Tom Hagman believes the kitchen of the church is the portal for the ghosts, where they come and go.”

“I feel about three entities are here right now—one man, two women.”

Neighbors have had their own encounters.

“There’s a girl with her hair down to her shoulder.”

Perhaps the most popular reported paranormal sighting is the one about Kristina Hendrickson.

“We’ve had three séances to try to get her released.”

Kristina’s father bought the church so it wouldn’t be torn down. In 1967 at age 12 Kristina died of Leukemia. The building is named after her.

“He brought her ashes here, displayed case in her memory.”

Decades after her death, there have been reported sightings of a girl ghost fitting Kristina’s description.

“A young girl about 11 or 12.”

There is a photo of a staircase inside the church, next to Kristina’s belongings.

“There was an image, some kind of ghostly shape or something on that picture that wasn’t there when I took it.”

A group of children touring the church saw something on the same stairs.

“Couple little girls started screaming and said they had seen a ghost.”

But the kids had never seen the photo before the tour.

Those who visit the church religiously say Kristina’s spirit hasn’t been seen since her father passed. But some believe the church’s eerie elegance will always attract ghostly gatherings.

“There is a long time energetic environment that has been built here from the years and years and years of people praying; people praying for souls. So they find their way here.” - Suzie Suh

Source - http://cbs2.com/

Paul Reed photographed the phantom when it appeared behind a park bench

United Kingdom - The father of two was walking thought Kelsey Park in Beckenham, Kent, when he spotted the phantom appear behind a park bench.

The 46-year-old said he was walking pet pooch Harry in the park this week when the spook - a woman wearing Victorian-style dress - suddenly materialized.

He said that Harry came to an abrupt standstill the moment the spirit appeared and refused to budge.

“It was really spooky,” he said.

“Harry wasn’t his usual self. He was cowering back towards me and I must admit I was shocked when I saw the ghost appear before my eyes.”

“Another walker said the ghost could belong to a woman who was buried in the park in the late 19th century.

Local Samuel Allan said: “There was a case of a woman being buried in the park in the late 1890s because she loved walking in it so much.

“It appears she still haunts the park and comes out now and again, much to the surprise of walkers.”

Source - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Mark Graham leads a ghost tour through the streets of York

United Kingdom - I’ve never believed in ghosts. “It’s all in the mind” has always been my mantra, and I’ve never had a sleepless night because I watched a horror film or heard a ghost story.

I’m told that York, allegedly England’s most haunted city, will change my mind, and so, packing up my skepticism, I checked into a “haunted” pub and joined the city’s ghost walk.

The Original Ghost Walk of York is led by Mark Graham, a Yorkshireman with a melodious voice and a swirling black coat that reaches way past his knees. This is not one of those gimmicky stage-managed walks, I’m told, this is the real deal – a simple collection of ghost stories told in situ, and suitable for all ages.

Starting outside the Kings Arms, we walk first along the river Ouse, where Mark points out the Cork and Bottle pub and tells us how a rather randy ghost is said to have grabbed a woman with an icy hand as she dried herself after a shower. One of the group’s younger members, clearly disbelieving, pipes up incredulously: “Is this true?” Mark is swift in his response: “All ghost stories are true. Some are just truer than others.”

Feeling sure that none of them will lose me any sleep, I follow Mark and the group to York Castle Museum, where he points out the site of the old gallows and the cells, which used to house condemned criminals. The building appeared on medium Derek Acorah’s Ghost Towns program in 2006, when the film crew are said to have heard shrill voices and seen ghostly children running around.

Across from the museum is Clifford’s Tower, named after Roger de Clifford, who was hanged here in 1322 and left in a cage outside for a year and a day. This is one of York’s oldest ghost stories; soldiers from centuries ago reported seeing Roger, as people still do today.

Back in the city centre, the Jorvik Viking Centre stands on 10th-century Viking remains discovered during a dig in the late 1970s. Here are told many stories of bearded Vikings appearing, lights going off on their own and things brushing past shop assistants, but I can’t help wondering if anyone reported anything before the remains were uncovered.

Next stop is the Golden Fleece, my hotel for the night. Mark doesn’t spare my fears as he tells of the five ghosts who live here, including the Canadian airman who fell out of a window, breaking his neck. Allegedly he now haunts the place as a shadow. There’s something so convincing about Mark’s voice and I start to feel uneasiness settling in as I contemplate my lonely room for the night.

From here we head to Mad Alice Lane, where Mark tells us about Alice Smith who confessed to crimes she didn’t commit and was hanged. Also haunting this area is a ghost called Kay, a woman of loose morals who had two boyfriends and was allegedly strangled to death in the alley. Her body was never found and she is now reportedly haunting mirrors as a bedraggled, drowned-looking spirit. A clue to where her body ended up or the invention of an overactive imagination?

It starts to pour with rain so we find shelter at the back of the Barley Hall, where the city’s stocks once stood. A woman with a white face and mad laughter is said to haunt this area, appearing in the corner of people’s eyes, and the lost boy of York, a boy of 10 or 11, is also said to be a regular here.

Behind here is Stonegate, where the ghost of a Sarah Brocklebank is said to be seen often, running up and down the street and grinning wildly. Her father John was keeper of the keys, the highest post a commoner could hold, but one day he trusted her to look after them and she lost them. She and her father never spoke again. One day she is said to have remembered where the keys were and ran along here to the Mansion House to tell everyone, but dropped dead before she got the chance.

Finishing up at the Minster, it occurs to me that these are sad stories rather than scary ones.

The people involved met with horrible deaths and all we’re concerned about is catching a glimpse of their suffering. But are these glimpses real or imaginary?

Before leaving I ask Mark if he has ever seen a ghost. “I haven’t,” he replies. “I think you have to want to.”

As I turn out the light later on, I hope he’s right. - Helen Ochyra

Source - http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Buffalo, Missouri - Doors have slammed, arms have been grabbed and plastic and pool balls have been thrown, but according to Route 66 Paranormal Alliance, whatever, or whoever, is haunting Rack-it Billiards and Pub is not threatening.

When Chris Bryant, owner of the building, sat down to brief the after-hours hunting expedition on the building’s quirks, she said the majority of happenings at Rack-It Billiards and Pub is audible. She said there is a lot of whistling and a weird child-like laugh during the day and at night. Bryant said a lot of employees have heard the voices.

Bryant said she has seen long dark figures along the hallway walls and added that it seemed the spirit was a grumpy old man. And the grumpy old man made a few people a bit nervous.

In order to verify or debunk the idea of a ghost living in their business, Bryant contacted the Alliance to see if they could determine what it was.  And, like any hunter, the group showed up ready to rock and roll.

The group has five members, including three women and two men. One of the co-founders, Janice Tremear, said she grew up with the ability to sense spirits. The sixth sense seems to run in the family since her daughter, Charlene Wells, is part of the team, too.

As for non-related members, Jeanna Cruzan said she began to have dreams, or visits, of her great-grandmother at the age of 3. The vividness of the incidences sparked her interest. Cruzan said her great-grandmother helped her bake an angel food cake when she was in high school, “as if she was there.”

Andrew Muller said he and his mother always had dreams before a relative died. When they compared their dreams they were always the same. After his grandmother died, Muller said he became more interested in the paranormal world.

The group’s cynic is Dean Pestano, who said he focuses on the science behind it.

Cruzan emphasized Pestano’s point, insisting the group “relies on digital evidence, not feelings.”

The group abides by strict rules: No alcohol, if a person makes a noise they have to admit to it, and clothing can’t interfere with recordings. In a previous setting, Tremear said she heard different languages and has had spirits ask for her by name.

Cruzan said some of the most interesting hauntings they’ve investigated have led to recordings of, “Get the hell out of my house” and “Coffee rules.”

Most of the voices, said Tremear, will only be heard on a recorder; they won’t be heard at the time of the investigation.

As for what can happen during an investigation, Muller said some ghosts can move stuff, and Cruzan added that footsteps can sometimes be heard.

In order to capture all available information, certain tools of the trade are used, including: an electro-magnetic fluctuation device, still cameras, video cameras, night vision camera, voice recorders and extra batteries.

The group explained that extra batteries are a necessity since areas with a strong electric field can drain the equipment’s juice. Areas with strong electric fields have been proven to make people uncomfortable, or give individuals the heeby-jeebies.

Flashlights with red and blue lenses are used to help reduce light, said Tremear, which can affect night vision recordings.

Once the group is set, the hunt begins.

Tremear explained there are two types of haunting: residual and intelligent.

Residual is similar to a CD on repeat in that the spirit will continue to act in the same way over and over again. An intelligent haunting, on the other hand, can communicate with people and change behavior. For obvious reasons, the group prefers intelligent hauntings.

The group said they ask questions of the ghost, beginning with generic requests and moving up to specific questions.

The questions are used to motivate them, although prodding the spirits can antagonize them, which is not the group’s goal. Tremear said she has gotten pushed in between her shoulder blades, and Muller has been scratched at inhospitable locations.

As for their six hours at Rack-it, “it was an interesting night,” said Tremear.

Tremear said Jeanna and Chris’s backroom recording session was interrupted when the latched door opened. The recording of the event has a person shushing the duo.

Most of the group felt cold spots on them throughout the night; a temperature reading next to Cruzan’s cheek read five degrees cooler than the rest of the room.

Tremear said some of her recordings were difficult to decipher, but she did hear a gravelly voice throughout the tape. She also heard, “a lot of odd banging noises and someone whistling.” She added that a couple of times the recorder picked up a voice mimicking a couple of the speakers.

The group plans to meet on Wednesday night to continue perusing through footage and then call Bryant to discuss the happenings. Tremear said going through photos might take awhile because the group will have to take all the reflective surfaces into account.

“If it’s questionable we have to toss it out,” said Tremear. “And we all look at things to make sure its paranormal activity.” - Michelle Bell

Source - http://www.buffaloreflex.com/

Left - PNPI members arrive at the Old Hotel Art Gallery
Right - Denise Ottosen uses instruments to monitor movement

Othello, Washington - The Pacific Northwest Paranormal Investigators (PNPI) paid a visit to the Old Hotel Art Gallery Saturday night in search of mystic activity.

The group decided to make the trip from Moses Lake after researching an article about a ghost who may be inhabiting the building.

“When they called back in February, I told them about the strange activities going on here,” Sally Laufer, manager of the Old Hotel and Art Gallery, said. “They wanted to come out then, but I told them I would be gone for three weeks. Then, they wanted to come out during the Crane Festival, but I told then all the activity in town may scare the ghosts away.”

The group was to arrive between 7 and 8 p.m. While Laufer and I awaited their arrival, she told me about a recent unexplainable happenstance that took place earlier in the week.

“I was here by myself - it was the middle of the day and I was upstairs in my office when I heard the motion detector bell go off,” she said. “So I went downstairs and no one was there. I went back up to my office and just as I reached my desk, it went off again.”

Laufer said she went back downstairs and realized she had left the front door open, so she shut it and deduced the wind was the culprit that set the alarm off. She went up to her office thinking she had solved the mystery, but once again, the motion detector went off.

“I went back down but didn’t see anybody there,” she said. “This went on about 20 times, back and forth. I felt like someone or something was playing a joke on me. So I yelled some not-so-nice words at whomever or whatever was doing this. Finally, I had to turn it off.”

Laufer said the detector had been working fine prior to the incident in question and since she turned it back on, it’s working fine.

The paranormal investigators arrived at approximately 7:30 and Laufer took them on a tour of the building, which began upstairs in her office, to give them some addition background on the “active” areas of the hotel.

After we came back downstairs, one of the members of the group explained the methods they would use to conduct the investigation and told about the equipment they were using to detect any paranormal activity.

“We are going to do an EMF (electromagnetic field) sweep first,” Shasta Sitton said. “Then we’ll take digital pictures to see if there’s any activity when the lights are on. Sometimes, we’ll get orbs or something better. Then we’ll turn off all the lights and split up into two groups, one on each floor and do some EVP work - electronic voice phenomenon - to try to get some recorded voices and set up our digital cameras that have night vision.”

She said they also attempt to make contact with entities by asking them to knock or turn on a flashlight.

While some may be skeptical of paranormal activity altogether, Denise Ottosen said she is convinced it’s real.

“We’ve been able to pick up disgruntled voices on our recorders,” she said. “We had two men arguing with each other and have digital photos of someone looking at us through a window while we were investigating. I actually saw a full-body apparition a few weeks ago.”

Ottosen stopped short of saying yes when asked if she felt the presence of an entity in the hotel but hinted of the possibility.

“Suffice it to say, once you’ve been doing this for a while, you get a feel for where the hot spots are,” she said. “I’ve picked up a few things so far, there’s probably something here.”

And with that, the group descended to the basement.

“I do get a heavy feeling down here … don’t you?” PNPI Case Manager Heather Hindman asked her colleagues.

The basement was the place former owner Benjamin Deodies Curry was rumored to have fed disgruntled brothel customers to the pigs when he owned the building in 1974.

As the tour concluded, the group wound up in the cafe and continued to discuss how they would proceed with the investigation.

Laufer expressed concern the entities inhabiting the hotel may not reveal themselves to the investigators like they do to her because they are strangers. So, Ottosen suggested she tell them it was OK for the investigators to be there. Laufer then asked the entities to welcome the guests.

As Sitton was telling her and this reporter we had to leave the building once they started their search, she was momentarily interrupted by a noise coming from across the room

“Did you hear that?” Hindman asked the group.

And with one collective breath, all answered, “You mean the dishes rattling in the kitchen?”

The air was filled with anticipation as Laufer, the investigators and I made our way back to the front of the hotel. And as the group unpacked their equipment, we shut the door behind us and let them get to work.

We were told the results will not be available for approximately two weeks, so you’ll just have to wait until then to discover what they found out. - Bob Kirkpatrick

Source - http://othellooutlook.com/

NASA’s Voyager 2

Melbourne, Australia - A German UFO expert has claimed that a NASA spacecraft may have been hijacked by aliens - who are now attempting to contact the Earth.

Hartwig Hausdorf claims that Voyager 2 - an unmanned interplanetary probe blasted into space 33 years ago - has started transmitting strange, unintelligible signals, Bild newspaper revealed today

NASA installed a 12-inch disk containing music and greetings in 55 languages in case intelligent extraterrestrial life ever found it.

But last month the probe began sending back distorted messages from its location near the edge of the solar system that baffled NASA scientists were unable to decode, Mr Hausdorf says.

“It seems almost as if someone had reprogrammed or hijacked the probe, thus perhaps we do not yet know the whole truth,” the author of UFOs - They Are Still Flying told Bild.

The signal from Voyager 2 - which takes 13 hours to reach the Earth - broke off fully on April 22.

NASA said engineers were working to solve a data transmission fault.

The space agency has not commented specifically on Mr Hausdorf’s comments, although it says the fault is likely to be a glitch in the probe’s computer memory

Voyager 2 and its twin, Voyager 1, were launched in 1977 to explore Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Three decades on, they are the most distant human-made objects in outer space.

Voyager 1 is currently more than 8.5 billion miles from Earth. It will soon travel beyond the heliosphere - a bubble the sun creates around the solar system - into interstellar space, scientists say.

Source - http://www.heraldsun.com.au/

Jack Sim

West Ipswich Queensland, Australia - Ipswich is a very haunted place. Just ask dark historian, author and tour operator Jack Sim.

Sim’s latest book, Haunted Ipswich: Ghosts of the Heritage City, reveals 13 of the region’s most-haunted locations including The Old Flour Mill, Ipswich Cemetery and The Challinor Centre.

“Ipswich was, and still is, a Gothic little town,” Sim said.

“Locals wouldn’t really think of it that way, but it has all the elements required. Though on one level an uncomplicated, working-class town; on a deeper level there are mysteries here.

“The city has a history disproportionate to its physical size. Its origins are older than the city of Brisbane, which was its rival over two centuries ago.

“Ipswich is a very haunted place. Even as a child, before I really knew what a ghost was, trips to visit my great-grand- mother at East Ipswich made me aware that the town had atmosphere. Ipswich seemed very different to Brisbane. It was old.”

Sim said the Warwick Road cemetery was “a morbid museum of Ipswich’s past”.

“Graveyard hauntings here take many interesting forms. Silhouettes of people moving have been observed darting across the tracks, and footsteps can be heard walking on the gravel that covers the tracks,” he said.

“People say gravestones suddenly light up then continue to glow as car headlights fade. The cemetery attracts unusually large numbers of lightning strikes.

“On cold, still nights mist can be seen hanging low to the ground in the oldest section, crawling through the cemetery and moving among the graves.

“The spirits of dead soldiers are seen marching on their graves. A lady in olden-day dress and a young child are often seen across from the cemetery, on the side of the road to Warwick.

“This goes back generations, and both were said to be buried somewhere in Ipswich Cemetery.”

Lija Abelitis, owner of Inkuku Arts and Crafts in the supposedly haunted Old Flour Mill, said many customers had stopped to tell her the building was haunted.

“I’ve never seen anything myself, but it does feel a bit creepy when its very quiet. So many people have told me there are ghosts here,” she said.

Sim said other Ipswich icons and sacred sites such as Limestone Hill, St Mary’s Church, the North Ipswich Railway Workshops, Goolloowan and the Goodna Mental Asylum held the keys to the city’s past.

He said celebrated spirits included the ghost of founding father Benjamin Cribb and a touching tribute to Bertie Piper, a child who died in 1904.

“Ipswich seems to attract ghost stories. Unlike Brisbane, the pace is slower in Ipswich. Unlike busier towns, people remember their local ghost stories,” he said.

“Ipswich has grown dramatically; there is no doubt it is in the 21st century. However, interest in local ghost stories has never been stronger.” - Brad Weier

Source - http://www.qt.com.au/

Berwick, Maine - The Hackmatack Playhouse is haunted, according to a group of ghost-hunting paranormal investigators.

Everything Paranormal of New England said it detected the spirits of a singing woman and a very angry Native American on the playhouse property.

The good news? “They’re not going to hurt anybody,” said the group’s founder, Renee Alling.

She and her team, which has investigated several historic homes across New England, scoured the playhouse with infrared cameras, electromagnetic detectors, and audio equipment last month.

She recently presented the evidence to playhouse owner Michael Guptill.

He wasn’t surprised by the findings. He said the playhouse property, which has been in his family since the early 1600s, was the site of the “Salmon Falls Massacre” where a group of Native Americans burned down a home, killing several of his ancestors.

Alling said an audio recording in a former slaughterhouse next to the playhouse picked up a Native American spirit. The group asked if the spirit burned down the home during the massacre, instructing it to knock once for “no” and twice for “yes.” Alling said the recording picked up two knocks.

“It was the strangest thing,” she said.

The voice of a singing woman was also recorded; Guptill said it likely belongs to his now-deceased grandmother.

Another piece of evidence was a photo taken inside the playhouse. Alling said the photo contains an “orb” of energy indicating a spirit trying to manifest itself.

Guptill was enthralled. When the paranormal group contacted him about collecting evidence, he agreed because he said it sounded fun and reminded him of the movie Ghostbusters.

He said he has an “open mind” and “believes in things you can’t see.”

He is currently preparing for the playhouse’s season opener June 24 - a performance of Cinderella.

There’s no word from the spirits if they will be in attendance.

Everything Paranormal will conduct its next investigation at the 1802 House Inn in Kennebunkport. - Jason Claffey

Source - http://www.fosters.com/

Manaus, Brasil - Pilgrims are flocking to worship a tiny baby because of an astonishing claim that his mother gave birth to him six months after she died.

Faithful followers say the newborn infant was delivered by the ghost of his mother, Lùcia Umariz, who returned from the grave to give her beloved husband the son he longed for.

Church leaders in Manaus - a city along the Amazon near the baby’s birthplace - are investigating reports of the infant, who has become the center of a new religious cult.

They admit they are astounded about the child’s unexplained origins.

The child was born 12 miles outside of Manaus in an isolated district,” said Catholic priest Joâo Cremacâo, member of a church committee charged with evaluating the miracle baby.

“His father, Hernando Umariz, swears that Lùcia - who had been three months pregnant when she suffered a fatal brain hemmorrhage - came back from the dead to deliver their baby, then disappeared.

“The child does look remarkably like his mother, he has her unusual green eyes. He is the proper age, having been born when the dead woman would have given birth. Right now we have no rational explanation for his appearance,” said Cremacâo.

According to reports from the village of Vivande Verde, where the baby lives, 36-year-old Lùcia Umariz and her husband longed for children. But it was more than 10 years after their marriage before the woman finally learned she was expecting.

Neighbors say the mom-to-be was overjoyed and the couple had begun elaborate preparations for the baby’s birth.

Then Lùcia died. A grieving Umariz buried her in a simple ceremony and became a recluse.

“We were worried about him,” said neighbor Marina da Silva. “He was torn apart by grief. As the day his dead child would have been born grew closer and closer, his behavior became even more worrisome.”

But Umariz’ anguish came to an end earlier this month when litttle Domingo Umariz arrived.

No one can explain where the newborn infant came from, but the story his father relates is a spine-tingling tale.

“He told us he was sitting alone in his darkened cottage when he saw a brilliant figure in the next room,” Mrs. da Silva said.

“He went toward the spectre and recognized Lùcia, very heavy with child.

“She told him, ‘I have come back to give you our child - I don’t want you to be alone.’ He says she stayed with him long enough to give birth, then bid him goodbye and vanished.”

Authorities say they have examined the baby and interviewed its father at length.

The child is a normal 10-month-old infant, and Umariz appears rational and fully capable of caring for his son.

Trinity Duzentos for Our Strange World

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the President of the republic of Kalmykia

United Kingdom - A senior Russian politician claims to have met aliens on the balcony of his Moscow apartment, prompting critics to question his suitability to head up the World Chess Federation and run an internal Russian republic.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the President of the republic of Kalmykia, made the extraordinary comments on Russian state TV last week, claiming he spent several hours in the company of aliens in 1997.

He said he was relaxing at his Moscow apartment when he heard his balcony door being opened and someone calling him. “I went there and looked. There was a semi-transparent pipe. I went into this pipe and saw people in yellow spacesuits.”

He claims to have communicated with the aliens/humanoids through brain waves. “I was shown around their spaceship,” he said with no apparent sign of irony, adding that the aliens explained that they were collecting samples. “I would probably have not believed this if there had not been three witnesses – these were my driver, a minister and my assistant.”

The eccentric politician has made similar claims before but his repeating them on prime time state TV at a time when he is standing for re-election as President of FIDE (the World Chess Federation) has caused consternation.

Andrey Lebedev, a Russian MP, has even demanded that the Kremlin investigate the incident.

“I was surprised by those remarks and believe it would be worth while the president familiarizing himself with them in order to be able to make his own assessment of the situation,” Mr Lebedev said.

Bizarrely, Mr Lebedev said he felt it was necessary to check whether Mr Ilyumzhinov had revealed details about his job or state secrets during his unusual encounter. - Andrew Osborn in Moscow

Source - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Rockport, Texas - On a cold night in late December, on the south side of Chicago, a taxicab travels along Archer Avenue as rain and sleet beats down on the road.

As the car rolls past the Willowbrook Ballroom, a pale figure, blurry though the wet and icy windshield, appears along the roadside.

The driver cranes his neck and sees a young woman walking alone. She is strangely dressed for such a cold and wet night, wearing only a white cocktail dress and a thin shawl over her shoulders.

She stumbles along the uneven shoulder of the road. Concerned for the girl’s well-being on such a miserable night, the cabbie pulls over and stops the cab.

He rolls down the window and the young girl approaches the taxi. Through the rain and sleet, and despite her disheveled appearance, the cab driver can see the young girl’s wet blond hair is plastered to her forehead, and her light blue eyes are the color of ice on a winter lake.

He offers her a free ride, and she opens the back door and slides across the seat. The cabbie looks into the rear-view mirror and asks her where she wants to go.

The girl replies that he should keep driving down Archer Avenue, so the cabbie puts the car into gear and pulls back onto the road.

In the mirror he notices that the girl is shivering, so he turns up the heater. He comments on the weather, making conversation, but she doesn’t answer.

The young girl finally does say a few words - in a low wavering voice she says she is so very, very cold. The driver is unsure if her whispered words are directed to him or if she is speaking to herself.

After another attempt to make small talk with the young girl, the cabbie realizes that she is not interested in conversation.

Suddenly the girl cries out, telling the cabbie to pull over to the side of the road - this is where she needs to get out!

He guides the cab to the curb and stops in front of two large, metal gates. He looks up and realizes where they have stopped. “You can’t get out here,” he says to the young woman, “this is a cemetery!”

When he turns to look in the back seat, he realizes that he is in the cab alone - the girl is no longer there. He never heard the back door open or close. The young girl had simply disappeared.

......  ......  ......

Sometime in the 1930s, a young woman was tragically killed while walking home from a dance. Since then, she has become the most famous ghost in Chicago history - a hazy vision of beauty known as Resurrection Mary.

Through the decades, she has often been encountered walking along Archer Avenue, a major thoroughfare that slices diagonally through Chicago’s Chinatown and into the southwest buburbs.

In was on that street that she was struck down by a car. Her death came not far from the graveyard that gave Mary her eerie nichname - Resurrection Cemetery.

The story goes that Mary had spent the evening dancing with a boyfriend at the Oh Henry Ballroom in Willow Springs. At some point, they got into an argument and Mary stormed out. Even though it was a cold winter’s night, she thought she would rather face a cold walk home than spend another minute with her boyfriend.

She left the ballroom and started walking along Archer Avenue. She had not gotten very far when she was struck and killed by a car, driven by someone who quickly fled the scene, leaving Mary to die.

Mary was laid to rest in Resurrection Cemetery, wearing a beautiful white dancing dress and matching dancing shoes.

Since then, there have been many claims of motorists who have seen the girl walking along the road. Those offering her a ride have been startled to witness her vanishing from their car.

These drivers could describe the girl in detail and nearly every single description precisely matched the previous accounts. The girl was said to have light blond hair, blue eyes and was wearing a white party dress.

Some more attentive drivers would sometimes add that she wore a thin shawl, or dancing shoes, and that she had a small clutch purse.

There have been numerous attempts to authenticate the story of Ressurection Mary. Research indicates the ghost may be that of Mary Bregovy, a young girl who died March 10, 1934 - not along Archer Avenue but in downtown Chicago.

The number of sightings through-out the decades has given the story of Ressurection Mary a prominent place in American folklore - and the strange tale is considered a classic example of unexplained phenomena.

Dean Terry for Our Strange World

Rockport, Texas - I’d like to take the time to say thank you to someone who has been a special friend of Our Strange World over the years.

Bobby Elgee is a writer and a top-notch paranormal investigator. Born in the Midwest, he moved to the Northeast, primarily for a change in scenery.

After moving into an old funeral home, he heard the sound of a little girl humming and experienced the occasional unexplainable smell of roast and potatoes. When the gas stove turned itself on several times, Bobby became concerned and joined one of the first ghost hunting team in the Monadnock region of New Hampshire.

Bobby eventually struck out on his own, and in 2008 co-founded Sights Unseen Paranormal, Bobby brings a background in cognitive psychology, research, and writing to the group.

One of the most knowledgeable people I’ve come across in the field of paranormal investigation, Bobby has written some outstanding articles on the subject:

• New Hampshire Gothic
• Intentional Manufacturing and Exaggerating of Evidence by Ghost Hunters
• Ouija Boards: Dangerous or Not?
• Hallucination or Apparition?
• I Used My EVP Machine!
• Intentional and Unintentional Manufacturing of Evidence in Paranormal Investigations
• Conscious Spirits: Paranormal Groups, Intelligent Hauntings, and Anthropormorphization

Bobby is a prolific writer and has just started a new website called Paranormal Fail.

After announcing we were considering shutting down this website, we received a staggering amount of email offering encouragement, and urging us to keep the site active. It was those emails, along with a thoughtful and much appreciated offer from Bobby, which convinced us to “keep fighting the good fight.”

I think it fitting to bestow a bit of recognition on a tireless and dedicated paranormal researcher - one who has over the years proven himself to be a true friend. Thanks Bobby. - Dean Terry

Rockport, Texas - One of the world’s unsolved mysteries began a few years after the death of the great novelist Charles Dickens.

A young printer from Brattleboro, Vermont, named Thomas P. James made the incredible claim that he was talking to Dickens’ ghost.

When Dickens died suddenly in 1870, it was a catastrophe for his publishers. The had already serialized the first six installments of his final work - The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Now millions of fans on both sides of the Atlantic were expectantly waiting for the rest of the story, which had grown more mystifying with each installment.

Trying to capitalize on the situation, half a dozen writers rushed into print with their own version of Edwin Drood. But their solutions all left loose ends dangling, and no one was able to successfully match Dickens’ style.

Young James made his extraordinary claim at the very peak of the excitement, on Oct. 3, 1872. He told newspapers there was no need to despair about The Mystery of Edwin Drood because Dickens was writing the final installments from beyond the grave - and would dictate them to James.

Thomas James seemed an unlikely medium since he claimed no previous contacts with spirits.

Newspapers had their fun with the story, and then let the matter drop. But on Oct. 31, 1873. the story exploded into a world-wide sensation.

An amazed published read James’ complete manuscript - grudgingly at first, then with growing excitement.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood, in book form, was published “as dictated by the late Charles Dickens” to the unknown printer.

Critics in the US and England were stunned. Not only did the book unravel the Drood mystery, but it was written in Dickens’ unmistakable style.

To publishers, what followed was even more incredible.

Convinced the young man was a literary genius, publishers rushed to sign Thomas James to a writing contract. His signature on any of them would have brought him instant wealth.

But James declined any offers. He claimed he was no writer, and never had been.

“Now that Dickens has finished his book,” he said, “I won’t be writing another line.”

Five years after the book hit bookshelves, James disappeared.

Later, after attempts to locate him proved futile, some came to the conclusion that the strange young man had at last met Charles Dickens face-to-face.

Dean Terry for Our Strange World

Selby mayor Coun Steve Shaw-Wright

United Kingdom - A mysterious man dressed in old-fashioned clothes has reportedly been seen stalking the rooms of Selby Town Hall - and for once it is not the mayor.

The ghostly figure was seen by a member of the town council’s staff who was locking up the town hall, a former Methodist chapel, last Tuesday afternoon.

The employee did not wish to be identified, but Selby mayor, Coun Steve Shaw-Wright, told the story on her behalf.

He said: “She heard a noise in the lobby, which is not unusual as people stand in the lobby waiting for lifts home.

“When the staff member went through to the lobby it was empty, though she thought nothing of this assuming the people had left.

“She checked the toilets for stragglers and finding them empty she locked them up. But on returning to the main hall she saw a man in the balcony of the arts center and asked him what he was doing up there. He said nothing, but moved across the balcony to the staircase - the only exit.

“The staff member went to unlock the downstairs door so he could get out, but no one came down the stairs. She went up and no one was there.”

Coun Shaw-Wright said the man was described as having dark hair and wearing a long, velvet jacket.

He said the building dated from 1862 when it was a Methodist chapel with a house also on site for the minister. Since then it has had various uses, including being a health clinic and a tire depot.

He said: “When we first bought the building many moons ago there was a gentleman who was a rough sleeper who sadly died in a fire, but the figure looked more Edwardian or Victorian according to the member of staff.”

Following the ghostly experience, other staff members said they had heard footsteps on the first floor when nobody was up there and had noticed electrical equipment turning itself on and off.

Coun Shaw-Wright said: “The council will be looking into this, asking for information from past users of the building to see if anything else similar had happened. We will also be looking into the past residents of the former chapel.” - Richard Harris

Source - http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/

Satu Mare, Romania - A used car salesman shot his brother-in-law through the heart with a silver bullet because he thought the man was a werewolf who had killed dozens of people - including his sister.

Thomas Masaryk has been charged with first-degree murder in the bizarre case, but he plans to plead innocent under a 500-year-old Transylvania law that says it’s not murder to kill a werewolf.

“We’ve obviously got to prove the victim was a werewolf to take advantage of the law,” Masaryk’s attorney told reporters. “My client and I feel sure we can do that. We’ve got his personal testimony and the eyewitness account of a priest to back us up.”

Masaryk doesn’t deny shooting Dumbrava Serghiescu, 42, on the lawn of his home on the outskirts of Satu Mare.

In fact, he called on father Martin Batistei to witness the shooting that, he claims, took place just seconds after Serghiescu transformed himself in a werewolf.

Father Batistei told reporters, “It’s true. I heard the man threaten to kill Mr. Masaryk and saw him change before my eyes. Hair sprouted on his face and hands and fangs grew right out of his mouth. His eye glowed fiery red - and he began to grown and moan like a caged beast.”

Masaryk put a stop to the horrifying transformation with a single shot from a .38 caliber revolver.

The bullet he used to kill Serghiescu had been made from a silver crucifix that reportedly had been blessed by the Pope.

A police statement confirmed that both Masaryk and the priest were waiting by Serghiescu’s body when officers arrived.

“Unfortunately for Mr. Masaryk, the body we found was that of an ordinary man, not that of a werewolf,” a police spokesman said. “We had no choice but to charge him with the murder of his sister’s husband.”

Masaryk contends that Serghiescu returned to normal form after he was shot through the heart and hopes a court will believe him when he goes to trial early next month.

“Serghiescu was a brutal, inhuman killer,” he said. “Even if I am found guilty of murder, I will not regret killing him,” said Masaryk.

Godfroi Buillon exclusive for Our Strange World

Baker Maurice Piner has been working alongside the ghost of a Chinese immigrant

Wellington, New Zealand - The tragic tale of a Chinese thief may explain the ghostly goings-on at a West Coast bakery.

Baker Maurice Piner has been bothered by mysterious voices, creeping shadows and things going bump at Phil’s Bakery in Greymouth.

“When I was working on my own in the morning, I would see shadows going around the bakery and ovens and that,” Piner said.

“Sometimes you could hear banging and crashing upstairs, and sometimes you can hear whispering and talking in the bakery.

“You look around to see if there’s anyone there, and you can’t.”

However, a Greymouth tourist operator believes he can shed some light on the mystery.

Paul Schramm, manager of Wild West Adventures, has been researching a new tourist attraction where visitors are guided around the town by an audio device that uses GPS positioning to tell stories as they enter different areas.

During his research, Schramm came across the tale of Ah Shing, a Chinese miner, who hanged himself in the boarding house that used to stand on the site of the Gresson St. bakery.

On October 17, 1891, the Grey River Argus reported that Ah Shing’s body was found early in the day hanging from a rafter in the boarding house.

It said Shing had earlier pawned a “silver lever watch and chain” that he stole from a friend, Bernard Gallagher.

Julia Bradshaw, author of a book on the history of the Chinese on the West Coast, said it was likely Shing was driven to the crime by debt.

“When the Chinese came out here, they would usually have a debt from the journey and sometimes run up a debt in stores or take out loans to send money home,” she said.

The area around Gresson St. became known as Chinatown in the 1890s because of the many Chinese living there, she said.

Bradshaw believed Shing may have been overcome by guilt after stealing from his friend.

Piner said it was interesting to have a theory to explain the whispers and shadows, but it would not put him off working alone. - Giles Brown

Source - http://www.stuff.co.nz/

Norwich, Connecticut - Ghost Hunters the renowned paranormal investigation reality series spooked the Norwich State Hospital.

Ghost Hunters, the unknown phenomenon inspectors featured the Norwich State Hospital in their last episode.

The team behind the series received news regarding ghost sightings and unexplained paranormal activity at the hospital.

The neighboring people claimed to have witnessed bizarre scenes and heard loud and eerie noises. Some people also reported to have experienced strange incidents.

After a lot of complaints, the word haunted felt engraved with the name of the hospital. So the ghost hunting team of the series took a trip to the scene to find any related evidence and to investigate whether the said reports were true or just rumors.

The paranormal investigators use many electronic gadgets like Electro Magnetic Frequency reader, night vision cameras, IR cameras and DV Cams.

They use different scientific methods to spot any signs that could prove the existence of a possible ghostly activity.

Back in March 2010, the Ghost Hunters stayed four days at the Norwich State hospital. Though the team members did not find any actual ghosts but they experienced strange sightings of creepy figures and also heard regular barking of a dog.

Their investigation of the hospital proved to be a success as it revealed that the place contained positive signs of a haunting.

The Norwich Hospital was built in the year 1904. The building was abandoned but the neighboring occupants suggested that the place was haunted as they had heard noises of children playing, vicious screams and howling animals.

Source - http://news.puggal.com/

05/08/2010 - The decision has been made to continue Our Strange World with the following changes:

• Content formally found in The Odditorium will now be posted on Twitter.
• In place of content which can be found elsewhere on the web, Our Strange World will concentrate on publishing articles from our contributors - content not published on other sites and which will be exclusive to Our Strange World.
• Due to problems with spam, comments and The Forum will remain disabled. Any comments or feedback you may have can be sent to

Many thanks for the massive amount of email I received in support of keeping the website active. - Dean Terry

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05/03/2010 - Because of the amount of spam messages, the comments and the forum have been disabled.

The time spent dealing with problems caused by spammers is restricting the time
needed to maintain the site - but mostly it has taken the fun out of the whole process.

We are considering closing the site completely.

More on the state of Our Strange World later. - Dean Terry

The Wintern Day Center

United Kingdom - A council has inspected one of its day centers following claims it is haunted.

A maintenance team was sent to the Wintern Day Center in Fishguard to look for structural faults or anything that may explain strange events there.

A newspaper reports staff are afraid to work after hours as items have flown off walls, furniture has moved and unplugged printers have burst to life.

Pembrokeshire council said following Wednesday’s inspection the building was given a “clean bill of health.”

The council said members of staff at the center had reported “some strange activity” and “unusual noises.”

A spokesman said a maintenance team went to look around the building but found nothing amiss.

“We had a few reports and had to take them seriously,” he added.

“The last was five to six weeks ago so hopefully the problem has gone away.”

The Western Telegraph reported some staff were so afraid they were concerned about working there after hours.

It states unexplained events include printers printing when not plugged in, keyboards turning upside down overnight, furniture being moved and items flying off walls.

It also said staff reported a “haunting smell of bluebells wafting through the rooms” and said there had been calls for an exorcist to be called in.

Source - http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Sydney, Australia - A photograph of a ghostly figure weeping in a hotel mirror has been dubbed a fake by News.com.au readers.

The image of a young girl was reported to have been taken by “hysterical” guests at the Ramada Hotel in Watford in England, who immediately reported the sighting to hotel staff.

The room was said to have been locked by hotel bosses after seeing the spine-tingling image, so no one else could stay there, The Sun reports.

But News.com.au readers say the photo was created by an iPhone application, which allows users to place ghostly images into photographs taken by the phone.

“This is fake - it’s the ghost creation program on the iPhone,” Gary posted.

Another post by Damian said: “Okay, that picture’s been made using an iPhone application. Second time I’ve seen photo’s from that application being used on news stories.”

Others said the image was part of a publicity stunt by the hotel.

A hotel guest was reported to have seen the couple flee from the hotel after photographing the ghost.

“The couple went to reception and were hysterical,” the guest said.

“They were upset and said the image of the child was crying and crying and it was moving in the mirror. The guest was properly shaken.”

An investigation has been launched and hotel staff are being interviewed to see if the have witnessed spooky occurrences in room No 307.

A spokesman for the hotel group said: “We have to be careful because we do not want to upset people, so we have closed off the room to check that there is nothing untoward there.

“We have to investigate it. Anyone coming in is not given that room until we have done our full investigation.

“We are speaking to housekeeping to see if there is anything that would support what has been said by the guest.”

He added: “We are quite confident there is nothing untoward.” - Lee Taylor and Vince Soodin

Source - http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

Rockport, Texas - I first met Ralph Stuart, a somewhat restless British fellow with a questionable sense of humour, through mutual friends while working for the Polish news service Fakt. We shared similar backgrounds, and Stuart and I became good friends right away.

Time moved on, as it often does, and we lost contact. But eventually, I received a telegram from Stuart explaining that he had moved to New Guinea and offering an open invitation for me to visit and spend time at his estate, should I ever be in that part of the world.

In January of 1989 I found myself between assignments. Needing a rest I decided to accept Stuart’s offer.

The timing of my visit was not the best, for just after my arrival an unfortunate trajedy struck Stuart’s family - a trajedy that culminated in a most bizarre occurrence.

Stuart had a young daughter who was engaged to be married. But death unexpectedly robbed Francine of her fiance.

In her grief, she made the decision to go ahead with the ceremony as planned - with her husband-to-be lying stone-cold dead in his coffin.

In a truly bizarre ceremony, the heart- broken bride was united in holy matrimony with the corpse of the man she loved.

Two days after my arrival, Cornelius Hawking was killed when a truck he was driving went out of control and plunged off a mountain road.

“Francine wanted to bear Cornelius’ name, and she felt he would have wanted that too,” explained Harold Hawking, the groom’s grieving father. “We could see no reason to refuse her request. We though it would help in dealing with the terrible mourning over her tragic loss.”

The wedding took place in the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Port Moresby, where the couple had first met and worshiped together.

The young bride wore a full gown and veil, and stood next to the coffin in front of the pulpit.

As weeping relatives and friends looked on, Francine repeated her vows and slipped a gold wedding ring onto the grooms cold stiff finger. She then lovingly kissed her corpse groom, whispered a few words of love, and closed the casket for eternity.

After the wedding, my friend escorted his daughter from the church to the small cemetery outside, where the newly-married Cornelius was laid to rest in a touching funeral ceremony.

“I have never heard of a marriage such as this, but I couldn’t refuse when the bride and grooms family asked me to perform the services,” said pastor Rutchie Mendenez. “It was a memorial to the deep love these two young people had for one another. It was a symbolic way of demonstrating that love can conquer death.”

Some of the guests who attended the macabre ceremony didn’t know of the grooms death until they arrived at the church. A few were so filled with horror over the proceedings they left the chapel immediately.

But most of the people who watched Francine repeat her vows felt deep sympathy with the grief-stricken bride.

“She and Cornelius were inseparable in life, so I see nothing wrong with honoring that bond after his death,” a close friend of the family said.

Francine stated she had no plans of marrying again, saying she had loved Cornelius ever since she met him ten years ago.

She couldn’t conceive the notion of death coming between them - and said she is convinced that now it never will.

Francine arranged with the pastor to leave the phrase until death do us part out of her marriage vows.

Godfroi Buillon exclusive for Our Strange World

The Colorado Street Bridge

Pasadena, California - The Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena, California, has earned the unwelcome reputation of suicide bridge, and urban legend has it that the bridge is haunted.

Since its completion in 1913, more than 150 people have committed suicide by leaping from it.

Maybe it’s the year it was built, 1913, or the fact that 14 years later the country was thrown into the Great Depression, taking many with it.
“The bridge has a reputation,” said Pasadena police Lt. Tom Delgado. “It’s known nationwide.”

While the vast majority of jumpers were in the Depression Era, officials estimate that 79 people jumped from the bridge in the early 1930s, and people who are bent on suicide are still attracted to the site.

According to Hometown Pasadena’s Insider’s Guide, silent star Charlie Chaplin was responsible for bringing the Colorado Street Bridge to national attention in his movie The Tramp. In the film, Chaplin’s Tramp character saves a young lady from jumping from the bridge.

The most recent incidents occurred within the last week, just four days apart, police said. A 25-year-old Covina man jumped on April 17, and a 49-year-old Altadena woman dove to her death on April 21.

Legend has it that the first death that occurred at the bridge was not a suicide, but was the result of an accident when a construction worker fell into wet concrete and his co-workers weren’t able to reclaim his body from the thick mass.

It’s believed by many that the spirit of the worker continues to haunt the bridge.

The nearly 100-year-old bridge with its distinctive Beaux Arts arches, light standards, and railings was the terminus for the old Route 66, spans the Arroyo Seco and has magnificent views of the surrounding area.

According to the Pasadena Star News:

Delgado, who heads the department’s Homeless Outreach and Psychiatric Evaluation Team, said despite a spike-tipped, galvanized steel 8-foot-high barrier added to the bridge in 1993, its reputation may serve to attract suicidal individuals.

In spite of suicide barriers having been added to the Colorado Street Bridge, police respond to several call each month to reported impending suicides, authorities said.

Pasadena City Councilman Steve Madison, whose district includes the bridge, said Pasadena’s police and fire officials:

…are well-trained to respond to attempted suicide calls.

He noted that the bridge has a strong protective fence:

“If there is something efficacious we can do, we want to do it. We are already employing some of the best practices in terms of intervention and prevention.”

- Sandy Sand

Source - http://www.digitaljournal.com/

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Starting now - all Odditorium updates can be found here.

Our Strange World on Twitter

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Dean Terry
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The Hidden Secret
The Secrets of Ancient Symbols
Hauntings, Ghosts and Ghost Hunting

Sandro Monetti discovers ghostbusting is not easy

Los Angeles, California - It is not every day that you find yourself in a haunted hotel trying to exorcise the evil spirit of a headless hooker but that’s what happened to me when I hit upon the idea of becoming an amateur exorcist for hire.

With the economy still in a scary state, many of us are taking on all manner of unusual extra jobs to pay the bills.

A passing interest in the paranormal prompted me to advertise myself on the internet as a ghostbuster, and it was spooky just how quickly I got an assignment.

Within a few hours I was called in by bosses of the Glen Tavern Inn, a 99-year-old hotel where guests keep complaining about things going bump in the night.

The place, which started out as a gambling den and house of ill repute, was now overrun with the phantoms of people who had died there over the years, ranging from a crooked card dealer to a decapitated prostitute.

So before setting off, I gave myself a crash course in the ghostbusting essentials by doing a search on Google.

After scanning some Catholic church websites, I soon printed out instructions on how to perform an exorcism, some lines of scripture to say and then hit the road armed with some holy water and a crucifix.

I had also researched the hotel itself, located in Santa Paula, California, two hours from my LA home, and found it had recently been designated an “occupied” hotel by the International Paranormal Research Organization. Ooh-er!

On arrival at the Tudor-style building, I tried to give an illusion of professionalism by taking photographs of the hotel lobby.

Imagine the chill that raced up my spine when the images that appeared on my digital camera screen weren’t the same as those in front of my eyes.

Glowing orbs, those balls of light traditionally found in haunted houses and believed to represent ghosts, appeared only in the pictures. Crikey. I clearly had a big job on my hands.

First I inspected room 221, the most haunted in the hotel. Harry Houdini had apparently stayed there once all night but most other guests make a quick escape and ask to be moved when the sinister whispers, poltergeist behavior and phantom footsteps begin, as they do most nights.

The manageress next showed me up to the creepy third floor, which looked like something out of The Shining.

This was the focus of much paranormal activity and the hair stood up on the back of my neck as the temperature dropped sharply.

Although there was no sign of the headless hooker often seen roaming that hallway, I decided this would be the place to perform the exorcism.

So I sprinkled holy water along the floor as I began quoting lines from the exorcism prayer published on the order of Pope Leo XIII.

I wailed: “Drive you from us whoever you may be, unclean spirits, all satanic powers, all infernal invaders, all wicked legions…”

It was a very dramatic performance and the hotel staff seemed pleased with my efforts that night. I was astounded by them a few days later when I got a message to say the hauntings had suddenly stopped.

I couldn’t believe it. What had started as a bit of a laugh had become a new career opportunity.

Obviously, I had the gift for ridding occupied dwellings of evil spirits. I could imagine myself cleaning up as a ghostbuster; maybe there was a book in this or even a reality TV show.

The future had so many exciting possibilities. Then it all started to go wrong. Over the next few nights, I began to experience paranormal activity in my own house.

It was as if the ghosts had checked out of the hotel and followed me home. It started with knocks at the door when there was no one there, then knocks on the floorboards.

I saw dark shadows going up the stairs, the TV switching itself on and off, shelves shaking more severely than they had in the last earthquake and a sinister looking bald man with his face pressed up against the front window.

That last one turned out to be an odd job man looking for window cleaning work but the fact I thought he was a phantom from the pits of hell showed how rattled I’d become.

I tried to exorcise my house but it just didn’t work. So I reached out to the real experts.

Apparently, every major city in America has its own exorcist but the position in Los Angeles is currently vacant so there was no one there to help me and, no, I didn’t apply for the vacancy.

I’d decided to give up ghostbusting the second the spooks followed me home.

As the days turned into weeks and still there was no let-up in the sinister happenings, I tried everything to get rid of my ghosts, from talking to them like a medium had suggested to sprinkling red dust over my front door as a friend had once seen Kate Hudson do in a horror movie.

Another pal said I should burn sage in my house. Out of desperation I did and, let me tell you, it stank something terrible but it somehow worked.

The ghosts haven’t bothered me since and I won’t be risking their return.

I’ve learned my lesson to stay away from the spirit world. There has to be a safer way to make a living.

My exorcist days are over. - Sandro Monetti

Source - http://www.express.co.uk/

Adam Vernati of Cowboy State Paranormal Investigators

Laramia, Wyoming - About seven years ago, Laramie resident Adam Vernati’s brother was hit by a truck while riding his motorcycle in Florida.

On that day, at 7:19 a.m., Vernati felt a powerful force that took away his breath and sent him to his knees. He remembers looking at the clock at that moment because of strangeness of the experience.

When he went to Florida and collected his brother’s belongings, he found the watch his brother had been wearing at the time of the accident, smashed to preserve the time of death two time zones ahead of Laramie - 9:19 a.m.

“That one incident was just so overwhelming for me. It was, to me, life altering,” Vernati said. “It was after that I really decided I wanted to know more.”

Vernati said he thought the overpowering force was perhaps his brother contacting him at the moment of his death. He doesn’t know for sure, of course, but he knows it was something, and he pointed to that event as one inspiration for the founding of Cowboy State Paranormal Investigations (CSPI), a new organization dedicated to investigating paranormal activity in Laramie and Wyoming.

Vernati said he’s had many such encounters since he was young, including a vivid experience involving the image of a man riding a horse during his childhood in West Virginia and a cold sensation during a tour at the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site.

“Something electrical is the best way to describe it. I got this really wild feeling that something was right around me,” he said. “To me it definitely felt like there was something there, some type of energy.”

The reaction he got from his fellow visitors at the prison was one of skepticism.

“I think a lot of people don’t want to be open to the idea that there may be something else walking along with us, and we can’t see it. It’s a common reaction,” he said.

But personal experiences don’t count for much without hard evidence to back them up, Vernati said. That’s why Cowboy State Paranormal Investigations - Vernati, his wife, Giulia, and other volunteers - has gathered an array equipment they hope will allow them to shed more light on suspicious events.

“A variety of tools help us debunk, as well as prove, whether or not something may be there,” he said.

If you’re expecting a tricked-out Cadillac, proton packs, slime blowers and ecto-goggles, you will be disappointed.

Vernati, an electronics technician for Mountain Cement, said he’s interested in the scientific exploration of the paranormal through the use of infrared and full-spectrum cameras, digital voice recorders, radio frequency detectors, thermometers and electromagnetic frequency detectors.

Such equipment can capture sounds and sights that human senses can’t detect. The techniques have been long-employed by other ghost hunters, who have written books, published magazines, launched Web sites and filmed television shows about their searches and their theories.

According to an article written by the Texas Society of Paranormal Investigators, there are two main types of hauntings - residual and intelligent.

A residual haunting acts like a tape player, replaying the same scene or noise over and over again. It never varies and it can’t be changed.

An intelligent haunting, perhaps caused by a traumatic event or unfinished business, is made up of the lingering energy of a now-dead person. That kind of haunting can interact with humans.

Vernati said the equipment is also useful for inspecting “hot spots” or suspicious events and finding a logical, non-paranormal, explanation.

“I still am a balance of skeptic versus believer,” Vernati said. “We want to eliminate the logical explanations first, and 99 percent of claims are not paranormal.”

Cowboy State Paranormal Investigations does not charge for its services and is available to inspect any and all homes, businesses and other locations.

A visit usually starts with a tour and an interview with the client. Then the team works out a game plan and decides where and how to use its equipment. Much of the work is done after dark.

“The theory is that once everything is quiet and calm, and all these external energies are taken away - the lights, the computers turned off - now things are baseline, and it allows better visibility of what else may be around,” Vernati said. “If there are paranormal events happening, it’s more likely for us to be able to see that.”

Vernati then reviews the information for paranormal activity and logical explanations.

“If there’s any doubt that something natural could have caused it, we’re throwing it out, just because we do not want that doubt about our research standards,” he said.

Vernati said he has several local investigations set up, and he’s always looking for new team members as well. - Eve Newman

Source - http://www.laramieboomerang.com/

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A new month of madness starts: Beware the Ouija Portal of the Pig Demon, two near near-death experiences, and ghosts like to stay close to spirits.

In an effort to find Noah’s Ark, Jesus is outstanding in his field.

Gene silencing yer disease can be a cause for psychopathic behavior. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter, single cell intelligence, the mechanics of blood cell membranes, and yer brain sez Hallelujah!

The Monclova Monster, an up-lifting UFO, Chile’s UFO wave continues, cave-dwellers on Mars, about the Andromeda Galaxy Star Fleet, Stephen Hawkings makes a boo-boo, human-looking ETs among us, Bigfoot crosses swords with the Headless Horseman, Chupacabras in Monclova, grey abominations, Barmouth has a sea monster, and school canceled on account of aliens.

A potted burglar, come sail away, a little giddy-up, a-woof-a no gay dogs allowed, part one of a nasty bug going around, and least but not last but not least Bloody Flying Nazi Soldiers with Jet Packs!!!

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Dean Terry
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The Hidden Secret
The Secrets of Ancient Symbols
Hauntings, Ghosts and Ghost Hunting

Brandon Alvis, right, and Larry Odien demonstrate some of the instruments they use to collect data

Saugus, California - It was the dead of night and two paranormal investigators were on the second floor of the old, creaky Saugus Train Station.

The men were scouring the more than 100-year-old building, part of the historical Heritage Junction in Newhall. They gripped special recording devices to catch electronic voice phenomena, or EVPs.

They were on the hunt for anything that went bump in the night.

The investigators didn’t hear much at the time.

But when they played the recordings back, they heard her speak as a real-life train whizzed through the station and set off its whistle.

“Will that be on the train?” says a loud voice from what sounds like an older woman with a British accent.

Those six words have left the American Paranormal Research Association’s five-member team puzzled.

Where did the voice come from?

~Explaining The Unknown~

The American Paranormal Research Association’s investigations at Heritage Junction - home to the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society - date back to 2008, two years after 22-year-old Brandon Alvis of Bakersfield founded the ghost-hunting group.

People had told Pat Saletore, the historical society’s executive director, stories about the Ranch House.

There were strange sounds and apparitions that couldn’t be explained, she said.

Yet Saletore didn’t immediately give in. Because she works out of an old building next to a railroad crossing, it allows for a lot of everyday sounds to be easily misinterpreted, she said.

And when asked about paranormal activity at Heritage Junction, she’d show visitors photos and let them make up their own minds.

“You have to have a certain amount of evidence to be sure, and I haven’t had any conversations face-to-face with any ghosts,” Saletore said. “So I want to believe. I’m not convinced just yet.”

~The Investigation~

The association’s five-member team, three of whom call the SCV home, regularly hits the road with the goal of capturing paranormal activity and debunking claims at historical locations and private homes.

The investigations have taken the group up and down California and to such paranormal hot spots as the Queen Mary in Long Beach.

“All of us work so well together,” 40-year-old Bridget Odien of Saugus said.

The team is usually called in because of suspicious feelings - usually a sense of being watched.

While the team will look into the history of a home, they generally keep an open mind during investigations. “We go into these buildings to see if we can put some data behind the feelings,” 23-year-old Michael Rudie of Bakersfield said.

Each investigation brings a mix of cameras, electromagnetic detection and recording devices. The group usually splits up into teams of two and take turns examining the location.

Larry Odien recently built a new device, known as an electronic field processor or EFP that boosts what an EVP can pick up.

Once overnight investigation is completed, it’s time to review the evidence and later present it to the their clients with a memento: a certificate indicating paranormal activity.

The team realizes their evidence will not always convince the skeptics.

“It’s all subject to opinion,” Rudie said.

“No one knows,” Bridget Odien said. “And that’s why we do it.”

The team first investigated homes at Heritage Junction in 2008 where they picked up evidence like the voice of a little boy saying, “I want my mommy” in the Ranch House.

They’ve since been back to the location nearly 10 times. They’ve caught what they call a “shadow man” outside a second-floor window at the Saugus Train Station.

The association is involved with the society’s annual Heritage Haunt fundraiser, which involves tours and dinner.

The voices of the little boy and woman with a British accent loosely correspond with the history of the house.

“Martha” is the name of a woman who lived with the Del Valle family in the late 1800s.

“I have some inclination to want to think that it’s her,” Saletore said. “It’s more of a hope than a knowledge.”

Still, Saletore holds on to some hope.

“I really want to believe,” the local history buff said, “because I think it would be cool if some of the people I spend my time studying would be around.” - Tammy Marashlian

Source - http://www.the-signal.com/

Hotel Chequamegon

Ashland, Wisconsin - In a dimly lit hotel room, Michelle Kotasek calls out, “EVP session. It’s 9:16 p.m.  We are in room 312.” It’s the beginning of an Electronic Voice Phenomenon session, during which a team of investigators tries to communicate with what they call an entity.  “We’ve come to try to communicate with you,” said Kotasek.

She is part of a ghost-hunting team called Minnesota P.R.O.P.H.E.T.

“Paranormal researchers of poltergeists, hauntings, entities, and tragedies,” said Brian DeLong, the team leader, explaining what each letter stands for. The team set up their equipment in rooms 312 and 314, where the hotel staff says most of the unexplained activity occurs.

Within an hour, something triggers their equipment.  “There we go,” said Delong.  “Hello. Thank you for communicating,” said Kotasek.

“We’re not saying whether or not you have a ghost, but we investigate the events,” said DeLong.  He and his colleagues came at the request of hotel staff–members who’ve heard many stories from guests.

DeLong looks at the ceiling after hearing something.  “Investigator note,” he says. “ There’s some creaking on the ceiling.”

Carrie Suminski is the assistant general manager at the hotel and said the reports from guests are frequent.  “People who’ve heard footsteps, doors closing, people talking, things moving.” She added, during the 20 years she’s worked there, she’s witnessed several unexplained events herself.  “I was up on the third floor, people walking overhead, which it’s just the attic, no one can be up there.”

Back in the connecting rooms, “The KU meter is going off,” called out one investigator.  Hotel staff members say more things have been happening since the hotel’s spring re-modeling began.

“I know it’s haunted and I’ve seen stuff,” said Nikki Melland who works at Molly Cooper’s, the bar downstairs.  That’s where a liquor bottle suddenly cracked.

“It was loud,” Melland recalled. “It sounded like a gun going off.” She said she found no difference in temperature where the bottle was sitting, no explanation for why it cracked.

Some believe the presence there is that of Molly Cooper, Ashland’s first suspected madame.

“If you could give us a sign of your presence, that would be great,” said DeLong to try to urge the entity to communicate. “Do you want us to go away?” A second later, the light on the recorder on the bed went out.

“I make that out to be a paranormal response,” said DeLong.  “It was trying to pack us up and help us move out.”

Kotasek checked the recorder to make sure it was working properly.  “We got lots of battery,” she said.  “Why did it shut off?” asked DeLong.  “I don’t know, it just turned off,” Kotasek answered.

This structure of the Hotel Chequamegon was built in 1986, making it about 24 years old.  The team believes it’s not so much the structure is haunted, as it is the ground on which it was built.

“This area is full of history. It was a tough area to live in,” said DeLong.  “There could be a lot of tragedies here.” Throughout the night, the team’s devices reacted.

Their flashlight turned on, then off.  “That was really significant,” said DeLong.

In the morning, their recordings revealed voices that said “We are here.” And later, a soft voice asked “Reporters, where are you in investigating?”

“I believe there is a couple different entities within this direct proximity,” said DeLong, sitting inside room 312 of the hotel.

Delong emphasizes.. You have to have a belief system to understand the paranormal.- Beth Jett

Source - http://www.fox21online.com/

Source - http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/

Source - http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/

Sydney Australia - Scientists are studying an 82-year-old man who claims he has not had any food or drink for 70 years.

Prahlad Jani’s claims are being put to the test at a hospital in Ahmedabad, where he is being closely monitored and studied by India’s Defense Research Development Organisation, which believes he may have a quality which could help save lives.

He has so far spent six days without food or water under the strict observation of doctors who say his body is yet to show any signs of hunger or dehydration.

Mr Jani is regarded as a breatharian who can live on spiritual life-force alone. He believes he is sustained by the elixir of a goddess.

The research organization believes Mr Jani could hold the key to helping soldiers or disaster victims survive without food for longer periods in times of crisis.

“If his claims are verified, it will be a breakthrough in medical science,” said Dr G Ilavazhagan, director of the Defense Institute of Physiology & Allied Sciences.

“We will be able to help save human lives during natural disasters, high altitude, sea journeys and other natural and human extremities. We can educate people about the survival techniques in adverse conditions with little food and water or nothing at all.”

However, others have dismissed Mr Jani as a “village fraud.”

Leading Australian nutritionist, Dr Joanna McMillan Price, said the study was a dangerous and pointless exercise.

“What’s the point? To show spiritual strength? You would struggle to go for more than a week without water and without food, your body starts to break down muscle, eventually attacking the heart muscles needed to provide energy to the brain until ultimately you have a heart attack and you die,” she said.

Dr McMillan Price says Mr Jani’s beliefs probably helped him overcome basic survival instincts but would not physically sustain him.

“Your spiritual beliefs can give mental strength but the idea that spirituality can replace food and water is ludicrous,” she said.

“He would certainly be fighting strong physiological responses. Your body starts getting pretty strong hunger pangs after a few days because your brain is telling you that you need to eat or you’ll die.”

Dr McMillan Price said she couldn’t see Mr Jani lasting any more than a few extra days without water and she said his fasting gave the wrong message.

“The determination he’s showing is certainly a nice message but I really think it could be put to better use than to go without food and water,” she said.

Source - http://www.news.com.au/

Russia - A Russian hunter claims he has saved something that can only be described as Bigfoot from a frozen river in central Siberia.

Russian news agency Itar-Tass quoted a source in the administration of the Tashtagol district of the Perm Region as saying that the incident took place in April this year near the village of Senzaskiye Kichi. The village is located 140 kilometers away from the nearest human settlement and the only connection with its residents is by helicopter.

The latest flight to the village brought back a written report about the encounter with the so-called Bigfoot.

The letter read that professional hunter Afanasiy Kiskorov together with several other hunters was fishing when they heard a loud cracking of ice and a howl.

When they approached the source of the noise, the hunters saw an unusual creature described as “like a huge man covered in dark brown fur.”

The creature was in the river, about 10 meters from the bank and it unsuccessfully tried to get out of the water and stand upright.

Kiskorov rushed to the rescue and reached out for the drowning creature with a dry tree branch.

Bigfoot then grabbed the branch, got onto shore, and walked away.

Authorities in the Kemerovo Region have repeatedly released stories of Bigfoot sightings over the past few years.

According to them, those interested in cryptozoology could help to develop the Siberian tourism industry.

Source - http://rt.com/

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Today’s madness: The case of the haunted cell, tale of the bathrobe ghost, ghosts of the Merchant House Museum, haunted theaters, time travel for hipsters, ancient jars full of mystery, what Gary McKinnon found, chariots of light, mass UFO abduction of Russian cult, gravity waves that propels the extraterrestrial UFOs, George Adamski and the Venusians, UFOs and the enigma of the US Navy, the zoo-keeper hypothesis, a spitting sea serpent, Loch Ness Monster’s existence beyond doubt, Mothman material continues to surface, and a winged omen of disaster.

Scientists make cancer cells vanish, blocking pain at it’s source, cashing in on pain relief.

From the basement: Cats talk about UFOs, wacky wildlife in Borneo, the madness of Messerschmidt, bad foods that are good for you, TV shows ripped from the headlines, testing humans to destruction, a journey to the center of the world, , the secret story of survival town, animals saving men, and finally, cats in sinks.

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Dean Terry
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The Hidden Secret
The Secrets of Ancient Symbols
Hauntings, Ghosts and Ghost Hunting

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In today’s madness: A pilot gets a UFO scare, night terrors and the existence of aliens, something about the soul, shadows in the night, the jellybean UFO, baffling the Bud Light skeptic, on being a UFO tyro, vampire haunted Volterra. creepy old portraits, and time travel of intelligent beings in space.

A boney-skulled Texas dinosaur, finding an 11-million-year-old primate, you can’t train what you don’t have, San Francisco’s sea serpent, at the park with Bigfoot, down on the farm with clawed cryptid, Mayans gone wild, death by sea serpent, mystery of the sheep-pig, desert lines were animal traps, and a vanishing chupacabra.

Banking on invented diseases, in search of the Ikea temple, and beware a goat on a rampage, and cruisin’ with Ruben and the Jets.

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Dean Terry
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The Hidden Secret
The Secrets of Ancient Symbols
Hauntings, Ghosts and Ghost Hunting

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Ghost sightings on the rise, the ghost of Mark Twain, arguments against immortality, a kidney-eating vampire, More more haunt-hunting at Middleboro, ghost adventure returns to Bobby Mackey’s, horror of the mummy’s head, alien penile implants, crop circles, lasers and mystery mathematicians.

From the underbelly of the web: The energy of cow brains, dancing with polar bears, the world’s first full face transplant, a sudden drop in temperature kills the dinosaurs, fiber-optic speeds from copper wires, girl fights to have her testicles removed, the death of a caveman, selling your kids on Craigslist, living in a bedding store, and your new money.

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Dean Terry
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The Hidden Secret
The Secrets of Ancient Symbols
Hauntings, Ghosts and Ghost Hunting

Lebanon, Ohio - Strange things happen at the historic Glendower Mansion in Lebanon, where the Warren County Historical Society and paranormal investigators held a ghost tour with about 20 guests Friday, April 23.

The guests, and the Cincinnati-based Spiritual Historians of Paranormal Evidence Society discovered some positive signs that strange spirits lurk about in the 1845 mansion at 105 Cincinnati Ave.

“Everybody be open-minded but be skeptical,” said DaShane Watkins, the founder of the society.

The Spiritual H.O.P.E. Society arrived with cases full of equipment, including digital voice recorders, thermometers, ultraviolet lights, and electromagnetic readers, which the guests were allowed to use.

Also helping was Kodi, an 8-year-old schipperke dog who carried the batteries and who has been known to growl at strange things in the mansion, said Watkins. With them was Crystal Ayers, the director of operations, who recorded the evidence.

The mansion was ripe for discovery. Since the last tour in October, historical society staff had done a lot of work in the mansion, painting the walls and moving the furniture.

“When we move stuff around that tends to stir stuff up,” said Victoria Tappy, the executive director of the Warren County Historical Society.

Guests, wielding their various detectors, made their way from room to room as Tappy provided historical context.

In an upstairs bedroom, one of the electromagnetic detectors went off repeatedly as it sat on the bed, while Watkins asked if the spirit was male or female, an adult or a child.

Kodhi lay nonchalantly nearby as the detector flashed a red light on and off.

Guest Betsy Miller of Fairfield, who claims to have had multiple experiences with ghosts, said she experienced the unexplainable during a previous Glendower tour.

“It wasn’t what you saw, it was what you felt. I got pushed,” she said.

During Friday’s ghost tour, Miller held two dowsing rods, which crossed several times during the tour, prompting her to exclaim, “That was freaky!”

The paranormal team’s methodology is not strictly to find ghosts. They record their findings and see if they can explain it somehow, using paranormal activity as the last explanation. For instance, wires and electrical outlets can set of the electromagnetic detectors.

“Let’s find the wire under the floor, or let’s find the ghost,” Ayers said. - Eric Robinette

Source - http://www.middletownjournal.com/

United Kingdom - In a new documentary for the Discovery Channel, the theoretical physicist warns against making contact with any extra-terrestrials.

Professor Hawking, who retired as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge last year, claims such space life would only abuse Earth’s resources and move on.

“We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet,” he said.

“I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet.

“Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach.”

“If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans.”

The documentary, which begins on May 9, explores the British scientist’s vision of the universe.

While most aliens were in all probability simple organisms such as microbes, Professor Hawking said it would only take a