HGB Ep. 663 - Haunted Astoria, Oregon

This Month in History - The Theft of Alexander T. Stewart's Body

On the chilly morning of November 7, 1878, Gilded Age New York was plunged into a macabre scandal when the tomb of dry-goods magnate Alexander Turney Stewart was found violated at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery. Amassing a fortune that ranked him as one of the wealthiest men in American history, the "Merchant Prince" had been dead just over two years when grave robbers successfully made off with his un-embalmed remains in a calculated bid for a massive ransom. What followed was a sensational, multi-year saga of coded newspaper personals, a stolen silver coffin plate mailed as proof, and erratic negotiations spearheaded by Stewart’s stubborn estate executor, Judge Henry Hilton. Though Hilton initially refused to negotiate with the criminals, historical accounts suggest that Stewart's grief-stricken widow, Cornelia, eventually bypassed the roadblocks to pay a clandestine $20,000 ransom in the dead of night along a dark Westchester road. While the true identity of the bones returned that night was never definitively verified, they were quietly reinterred in a hidden, heavily reinforced crypt beneath the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City, leaving behind a lingering mystery that continues to shroud one of the nation's most notorious body-snatching heists.

Haunted Astoria, Oregon 

Some claim that Astoria is the most haunted city in Oregon. This was the first permanent United States settlement on the west coast and with a history stretching back that far, it isn't surprising that there is spiritual residue. The Graveyard of the Pacific is right off of Astoria as well. Join us as we explore several haunted locations in Astoria, Oregon. 

The Columbia River estuary has long been home to Chinook and Clatsop peoples, whose cultures, trade networks, and relationship with the river predate the American settlement by centuries. Astoria is the county seat of Clatsop County and gets its name from a famous historical figure, John Jacob Astor, who had founded Fort Astoria in Oregon as a headquarters for his American Fur Company. He never actually visited Oregon. That fur company would be a monopoly. Astor had founded the company in 1808 and this later branched into the Pacific Fur Company with Astor sending a detachment of employees to the Pacific aboard the Tonquin. Those employees built Fort Astoria in 1811 with much difficulty. This was an area that was hell for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The group at the fort formed a corporate hierarchy of a diverse group of people from Scotland, French Canada, Hawaiians, Americans and indigenous people, particularly Iroquois. During the War of 1812, Britain took over the fort and renamed it Fort George. Later, it was abandoned and fell into ruin and became American property again in 1846 under the Oregon Treaty. Today, Fort Astoria is a small park site with a reconstructed blockhouse and historical layout markers. Astoria gained prominence with the American public after author Washington Irving stayed with Astor who asked him to write something about the success of the Pacific Fur Company. Irving referred to the fur traders as Sinbads of the Wilderness in his 1836 book "Astoria." Settlers flocked to the area and built a thriving port city, establishing the first post office there in 1847. Immigrants came from all over Europe and Asia and set up in different quadrants of the city. Indians and Chinese made up a significant amount of the population. For a time, Astoria was referred to as a wicked city with a fair share of gambling houses, brothels and saloons. And "shanghaiing" was practiced here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with dozens of sailors being kidnapped against their will and sent off to work on ships. The main culprit doing this was a man named Bunko Kelly. Several underground tunnels in Astoria were thought to be used for this purpose and there are claims that they are haunted. Major fires in 1883 and 1922 destroyed the entire downtown. Through the years, Astoria has competed with Portland and Seattle with canneries making up a bulk of its industry. But by 1980, the canneries were closed and Bumble Bee Seafoods moved out. Tourism is now its main industry.  *Fun Fact: Goonies was filmed here.*

Graveyard of the Pacific

The Carolinas on the East Coast play host to the Graveyard of the Atlantic. It has a twin on the West Coast. The Graveyard of the Pacific runs from Tillamook Bay, Oregon, northward past the Columbia River mouth and the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Vancouver Island, British Columbia. There have been over 2,000 shipwrecks here, with over 1,000 lives lost. 

The most treacherous place is the Columbia River Bar, which sits at the mouth of the Columbia River where it empties into the Pacific Ocean. This is just downstream from Astoria, so Columbia River Bar Pilots are stationed in Astoria to guide large vessels through the dangerous sandbars. The currents here are described as being focused "like a fire hose." Most rivers have a delta to moderate the currents. Not here. The conditions can change within minutes from calm to life-threatening with just a change in wind or ocean swell. Mariners and locals have long shared tales of witnessing phantom lights and glowing orbs along the river and there is the occasional strange thick river fog that forms at slack tide with shadowy figures appearing. Disembodied voices are heard calling for help and shouting "Man Overboard." 

Flavel House Museum

The Flavel House Museum is the former home of Captain George Flavel who had it built in 1884 in the Queen Anne architecture style by German-born architect Carl W. Leick. The Captain was a river bar pilot on the Columbia River who made his fortune in real estate. The Captain moved into the house with his wife Mary Christina Boelling and their two grown daughters, Nellie and Katie. The couple had married when Mary was 14 and George was 30. The daughters were musically inclined and played several instruments, so they would entertain guests in the evening. 

This gorgeous home stretches over a whole city block and has 11,600 square feet of living space in two and a half stories with a four-story tower. The exterior had decorative elements of the Stick and Italianate styles and a wraparound porch. The interior featured hand-carved Douglas Fir made to look like mahogany and burl rosewood. Imported tiles were inlaid around the six fireplaces and the high ceilings had crown molding and plaster medallions. The house was ahead of its times with indoor plumbing that included a flush toilet. But there were gaslights, rather than electric. The furnace in the basement was so large that it could burn four foot logs. George was 62 when he built the house and he wouldn't enjoy it for long, dying in 1893 at the age of 69. Mary continued to live in the house with her two daughters until she passed in 1928. The Flavel family held onto the property until George and Mary's great-granddaughter, Patricia Jean Flavel, gave the property to the city in 1934. Unfortunately, the city didn't have the money for upkeep, so they ended up giving it back to her. She turned to Clatsop County after that and deeded the property to the county with the understanding that they would refurbish it and use it for public benefit. And the county followed through, using it as a Red Cross Office, Public Health Department and a Welfare Commission until after World War II. By 1951, the house was facing demolition, so local citizens decided to make the home into a museum and gardens that is managed by the Clatsop County Historical Society. A carriage house that was built in 1887 still stands and serves as the gift shop and Visitor Center.

This house was only home to the Flavel family and they still seem to be here in the afterlife. Disembodied voices have been heard throughout the house. A Docents family members were visiting one day and took some pictures outside and they noticed in one of the pictures, three women in period dresses were in a window. There has also been a floral scent detected in the house with no known cause.

The Captain loved the tower as it provided him with a 360 degree view and he could keep an eye on the river. He still hangs out in the tower and people have heard a male voice saying, "Don't go any further." A volunteer told a story about a visitor who came running down the stairs of the tower and ran outside. He refused to go back in the house. So the Captain doesn't like company and his presence is so oppressive that the tower has been closed to the public. The Captain has also been seen in his bedroom with one guest claiming that he saw his apparition and called out for his wife to come see and the Captain disappeared by sinking into the floor before his wife got there. Katie's room is thought to be the most haunted in the house. Docents have closed curtains in the house, only to find them open later. Katie wanted her curtains open all the time, so it is thought that she is the culprit. The music room occasionally has music heard in it when no one is in there. Docents claimed to hear music coming from a music box that had been in the room, which was strange since the lid was very heavy and had to be opened to get the mechanism to start. Many times, the docent who would hear the music, would be the only person in the house. Even stranger, the music box wasn't removed from the house by the staff. It just wasn't there one day and no one knows what happened to it. 

Joanne reported on her blog "Cottage in the Making" in 2009 that during a tour of the house she was in the bathroom and "took a few photos and then felt a tap on my shoulder and heard 'Look again.' I turned around fully expecting to see one of the other people on the tour with me. Yet, no one was there. I was last to leave this room. So I clicked another photo and saw an orb was now over the tub area."

Junkero wrote in 2016, "I have been in the Flavel House twice now and both times had something interesting happen. My cute girlfriend and I were in the bathroom where you got the orb shot. She was checking out what was under the toilet cover out of curiosity. I was standing next to her close to the sink. The cupboard door under the sink sprang open with a noticeable click. I tried to get the door to pop open again several different way including jumping up and down on the floor. We felt a little spooked after that but went on with the tour. I went back a couple of times during that visit to watch the room, but nothing more. The second visit we had some of the grand daughters with us and we showed them the haunted bathroom. This second time took lots of pictures of the rooms especially focusing reflections off of things with glass. I took a picture, of a picture of Capt. Flavel that was inside the door of the downstairs south room. There looks to be an image of a woman in turn of the century cloths. You can't make out the face because it mixes with the image of Flavel. It is very interesting. The house is a must see if you are in Astoria."

Kaylene wrote in 2013, "We just returned from a trip to Astoria, OR. We toured the Flavel House and I too had several pictures with Orbs! I had an experience in Captain Flavel's room. I felt someone grip my upper right arm as if to pull me back. I also took a picture of his closet and later when I got home discovered a leg and foot silhouette behind me, yet I was the only one in the room. It was an amazing old home, with a little bit of creepy!"
 
Liberty Theater

The Liberty Theater is part of a larger complex called the Astor Building. The Liberty Theater has such a cool facade with the original ticket booth under a gold embossed canopy. Above the canopy is a hand-carved exterior featuring various designs with a blend of Italian Renaissance and Mediterranean Revival. There is an illuminated vintage marquee and vertical "Liberty" sign. The theater was designed by Portland architects John Bennes and Harry Herzog in 1925. It was commissioned by the theater chain of Claude Jensen and John von Herberg. The interior features a set of 12 oil-on-canvas murals painted by local artist Joseph Knowles that depict Venetian canal scenes. A classic proscenium arch framed the stage. As was the case with most historic theaters, this one started with vaudeville acts and eventually became a movie house. Through the years, the theater has hosted Jack Benny, Guy Lombardo, Duke Ellington and Al Capone. For a time it sat abandoned, but in the 1990s it was saved and has undergone multiple refurbishments. Today, the theater hosts various performances from comedy to music to plays to entertainment.

Like most theaters, this one has its ghosts. One of the spirits is an elderly woman nicknamed The Lady of the Liberty who likes to haunt the female restroom, of course. Another ghost people have named Handsome Paul as he always appears dapperly dressed in a white suit and Panama hat. The ghosts like to knock on doors, move objects around, rattle doorknobs and they turn on the soda fountains and popcorn machine at night when the place is locked up. Shadowy figures are seen in backstage areas. The theater hosts Ghostoria: Paranormal Investigations occasionally. 

Rogue Ales Public House/Hanthorn Cannery

Rogue Ales Pier 39 Public House had been located at 100 39th Street in Astoria. Unfortunately, this brewery that had been a real favorite of mine, with Dead Guy Ale and Batsquatch, went bankrupt in November 2025 and shut down all their pubs and brewery operations. This particular location reopened as XRogue under Floyd Holcom who had been the owner of the property and had leased it to Rogue Ales. That was for a brief time. Today, it is the Hanthorn Cannery Museum and Hanthorn Public House. The building opened as the Hanthorn Cannery in 1875 by a man named J.O. Hanthorn. Pier 39 is the oldest cannery pier on the Columbia River. The enterprise grew to eight buildings with a copper shop, butchering room, fillet room, liver picking area, net wharf, and a Chinese mess house. The cannery eventually became Bumble Bee Seafoods as a man named Andrew Hammond snatched up all the salmon canneries along the Columbia River. The early canneries mostly dealt with salmon until the salmon runs depleted the salmon by the 1920s. Local fishing companies and canneries turned to processing tuna in the 1930s. Bumble Bee Seafoods relocated to San Diego in 1981 and that left the building empty. Through the years, various businesses have moved into the buildings on Pier 39. The Rogue Ales Public House opened in July of 2007 in the former cannery. And then, as I said, it moved out last year.

There are tales of a ghost here. Tragedy struck at the Pier 39 location in 1891 when Hanthorn's daughter Hazel fell through a trapdoor in the boatshop floor and drowned. Patrons and staff of the bar have seen the apparition of a little girl. Around closing time and after hours, staff have witnessed lights turning on and off on their own and disembodied laughter of a girl has been heard as well. People claim the haunts stretch to other Pier 39 locations with the museum running cold spots and disembodied voices being heard in the coffee shop.

Norblad Hotel

The Norblad Hotel is described as being a budget-friendly boutique hotel. This downtown hotel was built in 1923 and hosted its grand opening in January 1924. It was designed by architect John E. Wicks for A.C. Miller and J.H. Jeffers of the Sunflower Dairy. The hotel was a two-story concrete and brick block originally meant to be office suites, but halfway through building, the owners decided to make the second floor 36 hotel rooms. The Bank of Commerce was on the first floor. Businessman George F. Norblad signed the first 10-year lease for the hotel space, thus the name. The building is noted for having two rare entryways with terracotta surrounds and an intricate glass-and-pressed-tin canopy that many say is one of the finest in the area. The hotel is Astoria's oldest continuously operating hotel. A major restoration was done in 2007.

Ghost Adventures investigated in 2018 and, of course, found an unholy presence in the basement. A local woman told them there was a demon down there. Must not be too bad as people rave about how great this hotel is. There are those guests though who claim to have heard loud, disembodied noises such as the sound of heavy furniture being dragged or moved across hallways and adjacent rooms throughout the night.

The Commodore Hotel

The Commodore Hotel is house in the historic Lewis Building, which was built in May 1925. Architect John E. Wicks also designed this three-story building. The top two floors were the Barton Inn and the ground floor was for businesses. There was no lobby. Guests climbed stairs from the street to the second floor and there was a small check-in area with the keys held in slots in a shelf behind a counter. There were originally 30 rooms and guests shared bathrooms. In 1928, the name changed to the Commodore Hotel. The hotel was the first hotel ferry passengers encountered when getting off the ferry, making this the perfect spot for a travelers’ hotel.  In the late 1940s, Chris' News opened as a store on the ground level and remained until 2005. In 1965, the owner unexpectedly boarded up the building and walked away, but it honestly wasn't surprising considering that the Astoria Bridge had been built in the 1960s and the ferry was no longer needed. Developers Paul Caruana, Brian Faherty, and Lance Marrs bought the dormant establishment in 2007 and gave it a new life. There are compact minimal European-style hostel rooms with shared bathrooms and standard and deluxe rooms with private bathrooms.

There are thought to be two spirits here. One is a child ghost and the other is an Asian male who was believed to be a laborer from the 1800s. And that's all we really have on the hauntings here. We need some investigating to be done.

Uppertown Firefighters Museum 

The building housing the Uppertown Firefighters Museum started as the North Pacific Brewery in 1896. Prohibition forced the closure of the brewery in 1915 and the building sat empty. The city bought the building in 1920 and decided to use it as a fire station and so it reopened the building as Uppertown Station #2 in 1928. And it housed the fire station until 1960 when a new building was built behind it. The building was unused again for awhile, but the city eventually decied to make it into a museum honoring the firefighters of the town's history. The Uppertown Firefighters Museum opened in 1990 and showcases vintage and antique firefighting equipment utilized by the Astoria Fire Department during its 150-year-plus history. Notable pieces include an 1876 LaFrance Hook and Ladder Truck, a 1911 La France Chemical Wagon, a 1921 Stutz Pumper, and a 1945 Mack Pumper Engine.

There is the ghost of a former firefighter here. Legend claims that in the 1920s, a sleepwalking fireman fell and died. Occupants of the building have claimed through the years to see the fireman ghost standing over them as they slept. The rattling of lockers and other eerie noises have been heard. Visitors and staff have heard disembodied footsteps on the third floor. 

Hotel Elliot

This hotel has glorious neon signage and sits in the heart of historic downtown Astoria. The Elliot was originally known as the Niemi Hotel Building because it was commissioned by developer Charles Niemi in 1924. The original plan was for there to be four floors with 51 rooms, but during construction, Niemi decided to expand to five floors with 68 rooms. There was a lounge on the second floor that had a large phonograph to entertain guests. Guests shared bathrooms. The exterior was craftsman in style. The Elliot family had started off in Pennsylvania, but eventually made their way to Oregon. There, Jerry Elliot and his son John ran the Angela Hotel in Portland. They eventually moved to Astoria and signed a lease to run Niemi's new hotel. And that is why it is known as Hotel Elliot. The Elliots advertised the hotel as "A Modern Hotel in a Modern City" and it ran for decades as a working-class hotel. Jerry's daughter Flora opened the Hotel Elliot Coffee Shop in 1928. That space is a wine today. The Elliots eventually bought the hotel and this was more than just their business, it was their home. The family slept in bedrooms on the top floor and had their living and cooking spaces down in the basement. Several Columbia River Pilots also lived here. The hotel remained in the hands of the Elliot family until John died in 1973 at the age of 81. The hotel then changed hands several times and underwent a major restoration in 2002. Right before that, it had fallen into the space of being a flophouse, so it needed a lot of love. The lobby was recreated to look like it had decades ago, complete with a spittoon on the floor. The room doors all still have transom windows above them with the room numbers on them. 

The city of Astoria has these unique grids of glass tiles in various spots of the sidewalk in the historic downtown. These would allow light into the underground basement areas. Hotel Elliot has one in front of it with these purple glass tiles. There is a speakeasy in the basement decorated with vintage film posters on the exposed brick  walls. Purple shimmers down into the room from the grids above.

General Manager Sue Neuer told the Oregon Coast Beach Connection in 2023, "Our hotel is definitely haunted. When I took over as GM in March, I started a guest log book for ghost encounters. There are a few entries. One guest said he felt someone sit on the edge of his bed. I have not personally encountered any ghosts, but I feel their presence sometimes." The website talks about author Jefferson Davis sharing some experiences in his book Haunted Astoria. It writes, "One man who was working the desk in its early days told Davis he had to bend down and grab something he'd dropped, and when he came back up he noticed a man sitting in the lobby chair facing the building across the way. He could see the profile of the man quite clearly, and then quickly noticed the man was transparent. At one point, the man got up, made eye contact with the employee and promptly dissipated – disappeared. The employee said he did a bit of digging and realized the man looked like Jeremiah Elliott, but talking with family members of Elliott he discovered that Elliott had a brother with an unusual habit of simply sitting in the lobby, staring out at the world. There was another incident of a woman claiming there was an old man moving around in her room. At one point, she saw the old man walk to the door and pass through it. Davis writes of one housekeeper who was about to begin cleaning a room, but heard someone talking inside. After double checking with the front desk that indeed it was vacant, she found no one upon entering. Another had a woman feel something on her leg while sitting on the bed, and although the sensation lasted for a minute or so, she could see no one. The same  room was apparently where a housekeeper found an imprint of someone having just sat on the bed. There are also tales of children being heard but not seen." We've heard that the most haunted room in the place is apparently Room 307.

Astoria is certainly not the thriving port town that it once was with dozens of canneries dotting the area around the river, but it has found new purpose today with tourism. This is a city that has preserved its history, whether that is in the pier that still hosts commerce or in the dozens of Victorian homes that still exist in the hills. Hotels still host guests. Are any of these locations in Astoria haunted? That is for you to decide. 

HGB Ep. 662 - Mort's Cemetery Critters/Ghost Animals

Moment in Oddity - The Tower House (Suggested by: Michael Rogers)

The Tower House Sanctuary in Saugerties, (saw ger teez) New York, stands as an extraordinary architectural anomaly, clashing with the traditional notions of home design through its whimsical, hand-sculpted layout. Crafted over fifteen years by late Muppets set designer John Kahn, the five-story circular tower lacks traditional flat surfaces, featuring continuously curved interior walls wrapped around a grand central column made from whole tree trunks. It is fundamentally unusual not just for its materials, which include a mix of stone, timber, slate, and copper—sought out and repurposed by the artist, but for its eccentric design choices. Including custom-engineered windows modeled after ship steering wheels, an exterior fifth-floor catwalk offering 365-degree forest views, and a master bathroom where the toilet sits on an elevated center stage facing a panoramic window view. Blending the boundary between a livable residence and a massive outdoor sculpture, this fanciful, fairy-tale fortress defies standard engineering norms to create a living space that feels entirely free of the rules of conventional architecture and it certainly is odd.

Mort's Cemetery Critters/Ghost Animals 

On this episode, we are going to share several stories that feature ghost animals or what we are lovingly referring to as, Mort’s Cemetery Critters! We're digging up tales of animals that refuse to stay dead. We've got phantom dogs, spectral cats, haunting horses, ghostly chickens and even undead camels. We often wonder if animals are more than just physical beings. Do they have a soul like we do and can they go on after death? Try not to get eaten, or pecked, or licked to death by something that's been dead for 20, 50 or 100 years as we share these stories of ghost animals.

Mort: Frankly, I have enough trouble keeping the two-legged variety in their graves. The four-legged ones are just showing off. And let me remind everyone that I work in a cemetery, not a petting zoo.

There are numerous legends of the Old West and many of these are ghost stories. There are tales of dead gunslingers, sheriffs, bank robbers, gamblers and prostitutes whose spirits remain and haunt various locations dating back to the Old West. This is true of many of the animals of that time period as well. Here are three stories featuring ghost animals of the Old West. In April of 1860 an advertisement appeared in California requesting: “Young, skinny, wiry, fellows not over the age of 18, Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred.” This was the beginning of the Pony Express. Mail before this time traveled West by wagons and stagecoach because the railroads and telegraph lines stopped at St. Joseph, Missouri. The trip could take months for the mail to be delivered. Sometimes the mail never did arrive. A new system was needed and the Pony Express was the answer. As the ad highlights, riding for the Pony Express was dangerous. The terrain was rough and there was always a danger of severe weather or Native American attacks.

One hundred and eighty-three men were hired as riders. Most of them were in their twenties and they all weighed under 125 pounds. They were paid 25 dollars a week to ride 75 to 100 miles at which point another rider would take over. The switching of riders would take place at Pony Express stations run by Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express. 

One hundred of these stations dotted the Pony Express Route, which ran 2,000 miles from St Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California. The company bought 400 horses for the riders to use. The horses consisted of Morgans, thoroughbreds, pintos and mustangs and they were saddled with lightweight saddles. Each horse would carry around 165 pounds and travel at 10 miles per hour. That weight included the rider, a special saddlebag called a mochilla that could hold 20 pounds of mail and was padlocked, a water sack and the rider's revolver. A rider would travel from one station to the next and trade out horses. The Pony Express ran for 18 months and 35,000 pieces of mail were carried for 650,000 miles. Only one sack of mail was lost. One of the Pony Express stops was located five miles northeast of Hanover, Kansas. It still stands today and is named Hollenberg Station. It was built along Cottonwood Creek in 1857 by Gerat H. Hollenberg. The station had six rooms and he set it up as a tavern, grocery store and unofficial post office. When it became a Pony Express station three years later, it was the largest stop along the route. When the Pony Express shut down after the telegraph bankrupted it, most of the stations fell into disrepair. The townspeople of Hanover decided to save their station and it is now located on a state historical park and operates as a museum and visitor’s center.

But this does not seem to be the end of the Pony Express run for riders or for the horses. Visitors and staff members claim to see disembodied riders and horses making their way along the former route. One rider still has the arrows in his back and is seen lying on the floor bleeding and in agony. Strange sounds are heard and cold spots are felt at the station. But the most prominent supernatural occurrence that has been heard time and time again is the sound of pounding hooves, followed by the call of the riders for their horses.

Then there is the legend of Stampede Mesa. There was a cattleman named Sawyer who was driving 1000 head of cattle through Crosby County Texas. He was taking the herd to the railway in Kansas. In order to get there, he had to cross over another man's land, a man who was not pleased to have a huge herd of cattle coming through his property. To make matters worse, the man had his own cattle and soon, several of Sawyer's mavericks were mixed in with the other man's cattle. A storm was cresting on the horizon and Sawyer knew he needed to get his herd to a safe place, but the man insisted that he get the cattle separated properly. Sawyer said he would take care of it the next day. The man was enraged and informed Sawyer that he would stampede the herd. Sawyer responded by pulling his gun and telling the man to run or he was dead. The man walked away and Sawyer drove the herd over to a mesa top that had water and grass. He stationed two of his men to guard the herd through the night. The angry landowner was not done with Sawyer and he slipped passed the guards. He got behind the herd and pulled out a blanket and a gun. He waved the blanket while shouting, then shot his gun into the air. The herd stampeded in terror and ran off the mesa edge. Seven hundred of the thousand cattle fell to their deaths. Sawyer rounded up the rest of the cattle and then went with his men to get the landowner.

They captured the man and blindfolded him. They grabbed one of his horses and brought them both to the top of the mesa. They loaded the man onto his horse and drove them both over the edge, just as the cattle had been driven over the edge. The mesa was called Stampede Mesa after that time. 

Barbed wire would stop cattle drives from crossing over property in the future. A forest ranger from Texas wrote a song about the legend in 1948. The song details a cowboy in Hell doomed to chase the Devil’s cattle for eternity. Fifty performers have recorded the song, putting their own twist on it. We know it mainly today as "Ghost Riders in the Sky." And it inspired the Doors to write "Riders in the Storm." Cattlemen who have taken their herds to Stampede Mesa, which is located eighteen miles southeast of Crosbyton in Blanco Canyon, claim that their cows stampede in a panic without reason. People claim that when a storm gathers over the mesa, the ghost of the landowner is seen. He is blindfolded on horseback and chasing a phantom herd of cattle across the sky. The sound of a stampeding herd is heard often and the earth feels as though it is rumbling.

The third story features camels in the Old West. Henry Wayne was the Quartermaster Major in 1848 and he suggested to the War Department that they start using camels for military purposes. They were great pack animals that could endure harsh conditions on the frontier. Camels could carry twice the weight of what horses and mules could carry. 

Two years later, Secretary of War and Mississippi Senator, Jefferson Davis, tried to persuade the Senate to look into the use of camels for the U.S. Army. They initially voted the idea down. Eventually, in 1854, the Senate passed a bill to appropriate $30,000 for an experiment using camels. Seventy-two camels were brought into the country in 1857 and they were moved out into the southwest where they carried supplies. Things were fine at first, but soon the soldiers were tired of dealing with the animals. The camels proved to be temperamental, they scared the horses and they wandered off at night. By the time the Civil War broke out, camels were falling out of use and most had been auctioned off or set loose in the desert. For years after that, people would see camels roaming in the desert, especially in southern Arizona. Along with these real sightings, a number of legends and tales began regarding these wild camels. The most popular is the tale of a camel known as the Red Ghost. A woman was found trampled to death with clumps of reddish fur next to her body in 1883. There were large hoof prints nearby too, but nobody could figure out what had happened to the woman. A few days later, a large beast burst into the tent of two miners. They didn't see the creature, but reddish fur and large hoof prints were left behind. People eventually realized that there was a camel on the loose in their area. One day, a man saw the camel running through a ravine and he could have sworn that it carried a man on its back. The rider appeared to be dead. Prospectors saw the camel too and noticed that something fell off its back. They found a human skull on the ground. People started calling the camel "Red Ghost,” and it continued carrying its headless rider. 

A farmer managed to kill the camel in 1893 and while it still carried a saddle, the dead man who had been on his back was gone now. Legend claims the rider had been a timid soldier who had been tied to the beast's back to get him to learn how to ride it and that the camel took off and the soldier being unable to free himself, had died of exposure on the animal.

By the early 1900s, the Camel Corps were almost completely gone. In April 1934, the Oakland Tribune reported: "The Last American Camel Is Dead.” That camel was known as "Topsy”  and after she trekked across the desert of Arizona into California, she was taken to Griffith Park to live. She later became crippled and the zoo keepers were forced to put her down. But camels went on to still be seen in the desert. Only these camels, were no longer alive. One of these ghost camels belonged to a prospector named Jake. He hit it big brought his camels into town, laden with gold. He sold his ore and headed to the saloon. Jake was careful not to give away where his strike was, but a man named Paul Adams followed him back to the spot. Adams murdered Jake while he slept and then one of the camels went mad and attacked him. Adams was nearly killed, but he managed to get his gun back and aimed it at the camel. The camel bit him viciously and Adams fired. The camel dropped dead. Later, Adams tried to find the mine. Jake had fooled him by camping in a different spot. Adams came running into town one night, terrified. He screamed to anyone who would listen to him that he saw a ghostly Jake riding the spirit camel and that they had come after him. Of course, once he had said that, he knew he was in trouble. Everyone wondered how Jake and the camel could be ghosts. Jake and his brave camel are said to still roam the desert.

Dogs can be pretty protective animals and death does not necessarily change this fact. A woman named Kathleen knows this to be true. In the 1960s, Kathleen's mother was a single mother struggling to raise five kids. The family needed an affordable place to live and they found the perfect place in the form of a rundown farmhouse in British Columbia. 

The history behind the house was that it had been owned by a Japanese family, but they lost it during the war when they were sent to an internment camp. The only drawback to the house was its proximity to an asylum for the criminally insane. Kathleen was twelve when they moved into the house and she and her siblings worried that someone would escape and come attack them at the house. One day, a beautiful white dog came up the road of the property. The dog's white coat was whiter than white. Impossibly white and clean is what Kathleen thought. The family already had a dog, but the children were excited to have this friendly visitor and they hoped to keep the dog. It acted somewhat odd. When the children tried to touch it, it would back away. Almost as though it were afraid to be touched. It was inquisitive and did not run away, but it never let anyone touch it. There was a collar and tag around its neck, but no one could get close enough to read it. The kids decided to leave some water and food on the porch for the white dog since it had decided to hang around. Kathleen sat up watching television alone and eventually fell asleep on the couch. She was awakened at 2am by the barking of the family dog. It was barking very loudly. The white dog was still on the front porch and Kathleen heard it give off  a deep guttural growl. Kathleen began to walk to the door to see what was wrong with the dog. She was immediately struck with fear when a large shadow fell across the front door window. She at first thought it was her own shadow, but when she moved her head, the shadow's head did not move. The moon was full and made it hard for her to see, but she knew that some strange man must be at the door. He loomed much larger than the door.

Kathleen was struck by a fear she had never known before. And what made her blood run cold was the realization that whoever was at the door could probably see her perfectly. She was frozen to her spot. She could still hear the white dog growling outside and then she heard it start barking in a ferocious manner. She could hear the dog jump forward and the shadow of the man moved abruptly. 

Kathleen ran to her mother's room and pushed aside the curtains so that she could see into the front yard. She could see the dark figure running up the walk with the white dog chasing after him. It glowed white in the moonlight.The next morning, the white dog was nowhere to be found. Kathleen searched the property and beyond, but found no trace of it. None of the neighbors owned such a dog and none of them had seen the pup. And it never returned to the house. She also noticed that it had not touched the food and water they had left out for it. It was gone as quickly as it came. Her mother remarked that the dog must have been sent by God to protect them. The family never found out who the stranger at the door was and they assumed that the white dog was either an angel or a protective ghost.

Pond Square is located on the site of a former pond in Highgate Village in London. That pond was filled in in 1864. Pond Square is within walking distance of Highgate Cemetery and the most popular pub in Highgate, The Flask, borders the square. The trees are ancient and towering and the landscaping is lush. No one would ever expect this to be home to the ghost...of a chicken!

Sir Francis Bacon was born on January 22, 1561 in London, England and would go on to become a lawyer, statesman, philosopher and scientist. Bacon is credited with being the father of empiricism because he argued for an empirical and inductive appraoch to experimentation. We know this today as the Scientific Method. Bacon eventually would go on to be knighted by King James I for his work. One of the areas of research he worked on is in the use of freezing to preserve meat. It would be this area of experimentation that would eventually kill Bacon. Chemical changes in foods like fruits, vegetables and meats causes the tissue to deteriorate and spoil. Lowering the temperature of food slows microorganism growth. In Bacon's time, scientists did not know about microscopic organisms, but they obviously understood that food spoiled over time. In April of 1626, Bacon was riding with the King's physician, Dr. Winterbourne, through the snow in Highgate. As they road along, the freezing temperature seemed to inspire Bacon to try an experiment. He reasoned that freezing flesh, might keep it from rotting and then the food could be thawed out and eaten. He asked to stop along the way so that the men could purchase a chicken. They found a peasant woman at the bottom of Highgate Hill and purchased the bird from her. The men slaughtered it and then plucked it. Bacon was just starting to stuff the chicken with snow, when the doctor pointed out that his fingers would be frozen by the snow and so some gloves were borrowed from the coachman.

According to a letter written to King James from Sir Francis Bacon, the experiment was a success. He noted the practicality of freezing in preserving food for warfare or famine. There was just one problem, Bacon had caught a horrible chill that made him terribly ill. He was taken to nearby Arundel House. He was placed in a damp bed that made his condition even worse. 

He managed to write a letter to his absent host Lord Arundel and it read, "My very good Lord,—I was likely to have had the fortune of Caius Plinius the elder, who lost his life by trying an experiment about the burning of Mount Vesuvius; for I was also desirous to try an experiment or two touching the conservation and induration of bodies. As for the experiment itself, it succeeded excellently well; but in the journey between London and Highgate, I was taken with such a fit of casting as I know not whether it were the Stone, or some surfeit or cold, or indeed a touch of them all three. But when I came to your Lordship's House, I was not able to go back, and therefore was forced to take up my lodging here, where your housekeeper is very careful and diligent about me, which I assure myself your Lordship will not only pardon towards him, but think the better of him for it. For indeed your Lordship's House was happy to me, and I kiss your noble hands for the welcome which I am sure you give me to it. I know how unfit it is for me to write with any other hand than mine own, but by my troth my fingers are so disjointed with sickness that I cannot steadily hold a pen."

John Aubrey wrote of the event in his book Brief Lives, "The Snow so chilled him that he immediately fell so extremely ill, that he could not return to his Lodging ... but went to the Earle of Arundel's house at Highgate, where they put him into ... a damp bed that had not been layn-in ... which gave him such a cold that in 2 or 3 days as I remember Mr Hobbes told me, he died of Suffocation." That's right, Sir Francis Bacon died of pneumonia caused by his experiment. And this is where our ghost chicken comes into the story.

Ever since the death of Bacon, there have been frequent reports of a phantom white bird, generally resembling the look of a plucked chicken, appearing in Pond Square. The ghostly chicken then runs around the square in erratic circles, flapping its wings.One story is told about a man named Terence Long. The year was 1943, and he was crossing Pond Square late one night. He was suddenly startled by the sound of carriage wheels rumbling along near him and the beat of several horse hooves. It was as if a carriage was riding right past him, but he couldn't see it. Then there was a weird and very loud shriek. A ghostly chicken suddenly appeared before him and ran around the square before it vanished. A motorist had a car breakdown in the 1960s near the square. He got out to look under the engine when he spotted the apparition of the chicken flapping around the square. It disappeared shortly after he saw it. A couple was sitting in the square in the 1970s for a little make-out session when they were suddenly interrupted by something dropping down onto them and then landing on the ground. They realized it was a chicken and were terribly freaked out when the chicken disappeared.

There have not been many sightings in our more recent times. Was there really a ghostly chicken running around Pond Square for a few centuries? Isn't it ironic that the Scientific Method makes it hard to prove any kind of supernatural events and this ghostly chicken seems to have resulted from an experiment conducted by the father of the Scientific Method? 

The Crescent Hotel had a resident cat named Morris and he was considered an important member of the staff. One can find Morris' grave in the garden area. There is a granite tombstone with an etching of a cat at the top that records his date of birth in 1973 and date of death in 1994. In the lobby of the hotel is a memorial plague with a tribute to Morris that reads, "In Memory of Morris, the Resident Cat at the Crescent Hotel. He filled his position exceedingly well. The General Manager title he wore, was printed right there on his own office door. He acted as greeter and sometimes as guide. Whatever his duties, he did them with pride. He chose his own hours and set his own pace. The guests were impressed with his manners and grace. Upstairs and down he kept everything nice. They might have had ghosts, but they never had mice. Due to the fact he was growing quite old, he'd doze by the fire when the weather got cold. His years were a dignified twenty and one, when at last he retired his nine lives were done. He filled his position exceedingly well, the Resident Cat at The Crescent Hotel." Based on the picture featured on the plaque, Morris was an orange tabby cat, but a woman named Laura from Kansas City, Missouri had an experience with a ghost cat at the Crescent Hotel in 2001 that was black in color. She went to the hotel with a group of college friends. They drove from Kansas City to Arkansas. She said, “I grew up an hour away from Eureka Springs, so I had been down to the Crescent Hotel several times. My high school boyfriend had an experience and freaked out and still will not go down there to this day. That was fifteen years ago.” When she told her college friends this, and they wanted to go, so they went down for a long weekend. They took Laura's dog Little Bear with them. He was a thirty-pound mutt about the size of a cocker spaniel, but looked like a Labrador.

As the group of college friends slept, the tags on Little Bear’s collar jingled, and she growled. She was a pretty easy going dog, so Laura was slightly alarmed. She looked toward the vanity where Little Bear was staring. “I saw a black cat sitting on it,” she said. “I saw her in the mirror, but she wasn’t sitting on the vanity. It was on the other side of the mirror.” 

Laura rubbed her eyes, thinking she was seeing things. She was even more amazed by what she saw next. “The cat walked out of the mirror, jumped on the seat of the vanity, and walked through the wall. As the cat stepped out of the mirror, Little Bear started barking. My dog went nuts and woke up everyone else. That’s when I realized I didn’t dream it.” Unfortunately, none of Laura's friends woke up in time to see the ghost cat. Laura said, “They didn’t see it. I saw it, so I was the one who was terrified. I’ve been down there since, but I haven’t stayed there. Since this experience with the cat I decided I didn’t want to stay there again.” Most reports of a ghost cat at the hotel feature Morris. His unseen spirit has been felt winding his body through the legs of guests. Occasionally, guests claim to feel as though a cat has jumped onto a bed or their lap. His apparition has been seen padding down the hallways. Visitors claim to see him sitting in his favorite easy chair and he walks in the garden where he is buried as well. 

A sad fact about our world is that there are many domesticated animals that have been left abandoned. Thousands of these animals are dogs. One of these stray dogs was named Brownie and he made Daytona Beach in Florida his home. He was so attached to that place that even after he died, his spirit has continued on there.

Brownie wandered into Daytona Beach in 1940. He wandered Beach Street for several days and finally picked a spot outside of the Daytona Cab Company to lay his head down at night. The owner of the cab company was Ed Budgen and he took Brownie under his wing. The friendship began with a shared sandwich. He built him a doghouse from cardboard that eventually was upgraded and expanded and Ed added a collection box to help with feeding and caring for the dog. Local business owners would share their scraps with Brownie as well and soon the city had basically adopted the animal. The police force also took Brownie in as an honorary officer. He would join them on their nightly rounds, accompanying them down dark alleys and sniffing out any trouble. It wasn't long before Brownie caught the attention of the entire country. National magazines and newspapers started writing stories about Daytona Beach's Dog and when tourists came to town, they would seek out Brownie so they could get a picture taken with him. At Christmas, Brownie would receive gifts and cards from all over the nation and Ed's wife Doris took to sending thank you cards along with a picture of Brownie after receiving the gifts. Unfortunately, as we all painfully know, the lives of dogs are far too brief and although Brownie had a long life for a large dog, he did pass away in 1954 from old age. A funeral was held and seventy-five people attended. Riverfront Park, which was across from the Daytona Cab Company provided a spot to lay Brownie to rest and his collection box had enough money to provide a headstone. It features the dates 1939 to 1954 and reads "A Good Dog" with a carving of Brownie's likeness in the granite. The entire nation mourned at his passing.

But this was not the end of Brownie's presence in Daytona Beach. His spirit seems to have continued on. Dusty Smith is the founder of Daytona Beach Psychical Research Group and he went to visit Brownie's grave. He gazed at the headstone and wondered aloud if people came to visit Brownie and if people brought him flowers or dog biscuits. 

He decided to make it a point to visit the grave. He decided to head over to a bench one day and he invited Brownie to come sit with him. He soon felt a warmth sitting next to him on the bench. Some people ran up shortly after and Dusty felt the warmth slip away. he pulled out his camera and snapped a picture next to where he had been sitting and captured an orb that had the clear head of a dog within it. It seemed that Brownie joined him on the bench. The ghosts of dogs have been caught in many pictures. A retired Scotland Yard inspector named Arthur Springer was taking a photo at a tea party in 1916 and caught the blurry image of a dog standing next to a woman who was seated at a table and holding a cup of tea. In 1926, Lady Hehir was visiting a spot that had been a favorite for her two dogs, Tara and Kathal. Kathal was a Cairn Terrier and she had passed away six weeks earlier. A friend took a picture of Lady Hehir standing next to Tara who was a large Irish Wolfhound. When the picture was developed the head of Kathal was peering over the backside of Tara. 

A boxer named Preston likes to go trick or treating. This is in the Belmont Hillsboro neighborhood in Nashville. The legend claims that Preston saved a child from being hit by a car when he went trick or treating with a group of children. Preston took the hit himself. His body was never found, but people claim to see his ghost around the neighborhood. Some people claim to feel something nudging them back toward the sidewalk if they get too close to the street.

A person on Reddit wrote, "I have a few actually. We had two dogs and two cats. One of our cats got sick, had a fever and decided he wanted to sleep in the bathtub. Probably because it was cool? Idk, but that's where he wanted to be for a weekend before I could take him to the vet. Sadly, he died in the car on the way to the vet. About a week after he died I was sitting in my office near the bathroom when I heard my dog bark. It was a happy bark like my husband was home. Suddenly both dogs and the other cat came running down the hallway and dove into the tub. They tore down the shower curtain but all 3 of them were in the tub. My dogs hate getting a bath. They have never willingly gone in the tub but they were happy and wagging. The only way I can explain it is that my cat came to say goodbye to his buddies and they were overjoyed to see him. Years later after the other cat died, I saw him and so did the dogs. I was watching TV when he ran by. It wasn't even shocking at first because that's just what he did when he had the zoomies so it didn't seem out of the ordinary until it hit me that the cat had died weeks ago. The dogs chased him into the kitchen so I know they saw him too. But of course when I went into the kitchen, all that was there was two dopey dogs. Last story might get long so I apologize in advance. My dad and stepmother had a mastiff. Dad had passed 5 years prior to stepmom. Stepmom was very depressed and wasn't taking care of things like she normally did. We found out she had cancer and she was placed in home hospice care. My sister called a "house call" vet to come see the dog. He could barely move and was in pitiful shape. The vet said that the dog had horrible hip displasia, a bad skin infection , and was in a lot of pain. We didn't want to tell stepmom, she was dealing with too much already. So the vet gave us meds to keep the dog comfortable until stepmom died. They were both in hospice care at the same time. The day after stepmom passed, the vet came back to put that poor dog out of his misery. The following day, we began the task of cleaning up the house to sell it. I washed the windows in the living room, ran the vacuum, just small things to keep busy. When my sister and I came back the next day, there was a giant paw print on the inside of one of the windows that I had just washed the day before. My sister razzed me "ya missed a spot" I laughed it off thinking she must be right. A few months later we had an estate sale at the house. I was in the back yard when a customer pulled up. She got out of her car and said "what a beautiful mastiff! What's it's name?" I was dumfounded. My sister asked "where did you see a dog?" The lady answered "laying on your front porch, cant miss it, it's huge!" When I went to look there was no dog there. My sister told the lady "oh, must have been the neighbor dog who decided to go home." But we both knew, he was there. So in answer to your question, yes, animals have souls, and do come back to visit."

WiseOldChicken on Reddit wrote, "When my black lab, Rudy, died, we had him cremated. When I went to pick up his ashes I decided to walk home. In the shop windows I noticed the reflection of a dog and it appeared to be following me. I stopped and turned around but there was no dog. As I turned to continue home I saw the reflection clearly in a glass window. It was Rudy." 

SquishyGerbil wrote on Reddit, "I got another that is my mom's story. My grandma was dying and they had to get to her to say goodbye . We live in illinois she was in Wisconsin. My mom went to pick up her brother. While she was there his dog had a seizure and passed away. (Shit timing I know ). So they had to race to Wisconsin to say goodbye. When they got there my grandma was out of it. She asked my uncle why his dog was running around the hospital room and she was laughing. She didn't even know he had a dog or that the dog passed away. She just kept saying Steve your dog is running around the room ! And she passed like an hour or so after that." 

Sir William Martyn built Athelhampton House in 1485. The family had an unusual pet, an ape. A chained ape was even featured on the family crest, paired with the motto: "If you look at Martin's ape, Martin's ape will look at you." A legend claims that a heartbroken daughter went into a secret room intending to end her life. The ape had followed her into the room and became trapped where it eventually passed away. Visitors to the house claim to hear the ape scratching at walls, and some have even seen him swinging from the ceiling. 

HGB Halloween Special 2026

Happy Halloween Spookies! Welcome to the HGB Halloween Special for 2026. In earlier specials we shared about the history of key elements of Halloween like carving pumpkins and wearing costumes and trick or treating. Then we've looked at the history of haunted attractions, vintage Halloween decor, horror hosts, and 1980s Halloween horror movies. We weren't sure what our theme was going to be this year and then we got contacted about this black comedy/horror/pseudo documentary film named Guillotine and then we had our theme: the history of the guillotine! 

The guillotine is a mechanical execution device created during the French Revolution to provide a fast, equal, and supposedly humane form of decapitation. It was proposed by Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, for whom it is named, and built by German harpsichord maker Tobias Schmidt, and designed by Dr. Antoine Louis. The first prisoner was executed with it on April 25, 1792, and remained France’s official method of execution until 1981. Guillotine is an award winning film that is narrated by legendary actress Sean Young and was co-written, produced and directed by Iranian-American Filmmaker Ray Izad-Mehr (EE-zahd Mare) and I had the opportunity to interview him, which we are going to share here. This is a great film to put on tonight. It's available on TUBI. Kelly, probably the most fascinating thing about this film is this section about consciousness after the head chop. Something I had heard years ago is that it takes 3 seconds after the head is removed for death to occur and you explore this question of how long one is conscious after the beheading. Now I know that this is considered an urban legend, but one of the sections features famous French chemist Antoine Lavoisier (ahn-TWAHN lah-vwah-ZEE-ay) who was sentenced to death by the guillotine in 1794 during the French Revolution and he decided to conduct one final scientific experiment right at the scaffold: he told his assistant or colleagues that he would try to blink his eyes for as long as he remained conscious after being decapitated so they could measure how long a human head retains awareness. There are various claims that he successfully blinked anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds.

Halloween is our favorite night of the year. We've got the garage all decorated to scare the little kiddies while we dish out the candy. We hope you all have some scary or fun or both plans for tonight. There's plenty of haunts on History Goes Bump to keep you company. Happy Halloween from the crew here at HGB: me, Diane, Barnaby the Ghost, Mort the Gravedigger and our new mascot, Poe the Raven. 

HGB Ep. 661 - History of Poltergeists

This Month in History - Orson Welles' War of the Worlds

In the month of October, on the 30th, in 1938, Orson Welles devised one of the most brilliant and notorious moments in broadcasting history with his radio adaptation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. The on air delivery came across as a series of simulated, increasingly frantic breaking news bulletins that interrupted seemingly ordinary dance music. The live performance detailed a Martian invasion originating in Grover's Mill, New Jersey. This innovative format completely fooled unsuspecting listeners who had tuned in late and missed the opening disclaimers. As fake actor reporters screamed over the airwaves about toxic gas and towering alien war machines, a wave of genuine panic rippled through communities, prompting terrified citizens to jam police phone lines and flee their homes. However, later historical accounts suggest the scale of the public hysteria was somewhat exaggerated by contemporary newspapers, the broadcast permanently cemented the twenty-three-year-old Welles as a theatrical genius and forever altered the public's understanding of the immense, persuasive power of mass media.

History of Poltergeists 

Poltergeists can be really bothersome spirits. Rather than just appearing out of the corner of our eyes or leaving a dime on the windowsill or unmaking the bed, they usually play pranks and enjoy scaring people. Poltergeist stories are always tough to believe because the activity is so intense, it's hard to believe. But even more fascinating are the evolving theories about what is behind the phenomenon. On this episode, we're traveling through centuries of strange disturbances, terrified families, baffled investigators, and some of the most famous poltergeist accounts in history. We'll explore the stories, examine the evidence, and follow the changing theories about what — or who — might be responsible for things that move when no one touches them. Because the history of the poltergeist isn't just a history of things that go bump in the night. It's also a history of how we try to explain the things that frighten us most. So turn down the lights, settle in, and keep an ear out for any unexplained noises nearby. Because this time, when something goes bump in the night, we're going to ask a different question. What if it isn't a ghost?

Imagine that you're home alone. It's late. The house is quiet. Everyone is asleep, and there's nothing to disturb the stillness. Then you hear a knock. **[Pause.]** You get up to investigate, but there's no one there. You return to bed. Another knock. This time, it comes from inside the room. And then, without warning, a chair scrapes across the floor. Something crashes in the next room. A picture flies off the wall. And somewhere in the darkness, an unseen presence seems determined to make itself known. What would you think? Would you believe your home was haunted? Would you suspect a mischievous spirit, an angry ghost, or perhaps something far more sinister? For centuries, people have reported encounters with forces they couldn't explain. Objects have allegedly flown through the air. Furniture has overturned. Walls have echoed with mysterious pounding. And ordinary homes have become the settings for extraordinary stories. These disturbances have come to be known as **poltergeist activity** — from the German words for *noisy* and *spirit*. But here's where things get interesting. What if the source of these disturbances wasn't a spirit at all? In centuries past, people might have blamed the Devil, accused a witch, or believed that a restless soul was reaching out from beyond the grave. As the world changed, so did the explanations. Some investigators began to wonder whether these strange events might somehow be connected to the living — perhaps even to a particular person at the center of the activity. And that raises a question almost as unsettling as the phenomenon itself. What if the thing making the noise isn't dead?**[SFX: A sudden, sharp knock.]**

Explanations for poltergeist activity have changed through the years. In the beginning, people blamed the activity on the Devil. Then during the Age of Spiritualism in the nineteenth century, people developed a growing fascination with spirits, séances, spiritualism, and the possibility that the dead could physically affect the living and so a poltergeist was a spirit. Moving into a more modern era in the 1960s and 1970s, individuals like Hanz Holzer and the Warrens became paranormal investigators and captured the phenomenon on camera and in recordings and began to ask themselves if these things were hoaxes or was this just inexplicable activity. And now with our scientific gadgets and psychological studies, theories about poltergeists being entirely connected to the living have become the standard explanation.

The Glenluce Devil

This is thought to be the first well known poltergeist case and occurred in Scotland between 1654 and 1656. The disturbance targeted the Gilbert Campbell family. Campbell was a weaver who was approached by a beggar named Alexander Agnew asking for alms. Campbell refused to give the man anything and Agnew spit out a curse upon the family. Shortly thereafter, the family experienced rocks and stones being violently thrown against the front door, roof, windows, and walls of the house. Household items and furniture moved or levitated on their own, including a butcher's knife flying off the kitchen table. Beds caught fire on their own. The Campbell's 10-year-old daughter, Jennet, experienced supernatural encounters at a nearby well, and family members reported hearing an invisible child's voice. Scottish mathematician and demonologist George Sinclair wrote of the incident in his 1685 book "Satan's Invisible World Discovered" after Campbell's son Thomas shared it with him. People believe that Thomas produced the phenomena fraudulently himself because he was a philosophy student. Apparently, the beggar, Agnew, was known as the Jock of Broad Scotland and he was the first person in Scottish history to publicly deny the existence of God and be hanged for blasphemy. So could this just have been a hoax? 

The Drummer of Tedworth

William Drury was a traveling drummer in the 1660s. He crossed paths with landowner John Mompesson who had his drum confiscated and saw to it he was prosecuted for collecting money under false pretenses. Shortly thereafter, the Mompesson household experienced mysterious drumming, scratching, knocking, moving objects, and other disturbances. This lasted from 1661 to 1663. Clergyman Joseph Glanvill visited the house in 1663 to investigate and he publicized the case, claiming he himself heard strange scratching noises under a bed in the children's room. John Wesley even made reference to the Drummer at Tedworth in his journal writing, "The famous instance of this, which has been spread far and wide, was the drumming in Mr Mompesson's house at Tedworth; who, it was said, acknowledged, 'It was all a trick, and that he had found out the whole contrivance.' Not so, my eldest brother, then at Christ Church, Oxon, inquired of Mr Mompesson, his fellow collegian, 'Whether his father had acknowledged this or not.' He answered, 'The resort of gentlemen to my father's house was so great, he could not bear the expense. He therefore took no pains to confute the report, that he had found out the cheat: although he and I, and all the family knew the account which was published, to be punctually true.'" Most people blame the children as the agents of the phenomenon.  

The Epworth Poltergeist

The Epworth Rectory poltergeist was known as "Old Jeffrey" and began on December 1, 1716. This lasted for several months in the home of Reverend Samuel Wesley and his wife Susanna. Their family experienced knockings, heavy footsteps, and scratching sounds moving from room to room, frequently centered around the nursery and attic. Objects moved on their own like overturned chairs, spinning handmills, and beds shook and levitated (including Emily Wesley's bed). The invisible entity reacting violently—producing loud bangs and crashes—whenever prayers were offered for King George I. The nickname of Old Jeffrey was created by the family's daughter Mehetabel ("Hetty") after a former man who had died on the property. Family letters and diaries helped preserve the account, making it an important early haunting case. The Reverend initially thought it was rats and the house settling, but eventually was convinced it was supernatural and his son John Wesley always believed it was spirits and it enhanced his belief in the spirit world. Modern theories believe Hetty was pulling pranks or stress on the family caused them to imagine things.

Poltergeist of Slawensik Castle

Slawensik Castle no longer stands but at one time it was in the Kingdom of Prussia. This story about it dates to 1806. Prince Friedrich Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen was a Prussian general and had been the resident of Slawensik Castle at the time of our story, but he had been captured by Napoleon's army during the Battle of Jena. His army had nearly been destroyed by Napoleon during that battle. Napoleon decided to keep the Prince as a Prisoner of War while he decided how best to use the man. Should he ransom the Prince or use him as a political pawn? The Prince's right-hand-man was Augustus Hahn and he had been captured too. The army gave him parole. The Prince asked his councillor, Hahn, to go to the castle and protect it. Hahn asked his old friend Charles Kern, whom had also been at The Battle of Jena, to join him at this big castle in the middle of nowhere. The two men would not be alone. There would be a couple of footmen to serve the men and the caretaker, Frau Knittel, would be there with her son. Hahn and Kern would arrive at the castle on November 19, 1806.

Things went well for the first two days of the stay. The men enjoyed intellectual conversation and good food. I imagine they discussed what happened at the Battle of Jena, also. The peace of the castle would change on the third day. What occurred first could simply be relegated to the condition of an old castle if not for all the events that would ensue. This first disturbance would be a large quantity of limestone breaking free from the ceiling and falling upon the men below.  The men checked the ceiling and found no cracks or weakness on the ceiling. As they checked out the ceiling, some more limestone fell from the ceiling. Again, they saw no damage that could have lead to this happening. So where was this limestone coming from? Kern grabbed a couple of pieces of the limestone and he remarked that they felt strangely cold. If he didn't know better, he would think they had come from outside. The men finally went to sleep. 

The next day, the two men again checked the ceiling and readied the servants to do some repairs. Only no repairs were needed. The ceiling was fine. And yet again, that evening, limestone rained down again and this was accompanied by the sound of heavy blows. Then pieces of the lime started to pelt the men as though they were being thrown. The men retreated to their rooms, but could not sleep that evening because of the loud rapping on the walls and doors. Both men thought the other was trying to scare him. Hahn decided to write everything down in his journal. He was a practical man, not given to superstition and he was convinced there was a good explanation. On the fifth night, there were again loud banging noises from the top floors of the castle, so the caretaker's son joined Kern in investigating the rooms. They found nothing. Hahn and Kern were awakened during the night from what sounded like disembodied slippered feet moving across the floors of their rooms. When they both lit candles, they found they were the only ones in their rooms. The sound of a walking stick could be heard tapping in the hallways. By the sixth evening, the group staying in the castle had to admit that something supernatural was taking place. They tried to debunk the sounds and falling lime as best they could. They could find no natural reason for the disturbances. And then, stuff started flying around. Candlesticks flew across rooms, padlocks came loose on their own and then knives, forks, brushes, soap and other items became airborne.

This all continued for three weeks and other people were asked to come and witness the phenomenon. Then Kern saw something in a mirror that made his blood run cold. Hahn found him in his room completely pale and transfixed, staring at a mirror. He shook Kern and when he collected himself, he told Hahn that he had seen a female figure all swathed in white staring out of the mirror at him. He claimed the woman was a spirit because he could see his own reflection behind the woman. He said the woman was elderly. Hahn looked into the mirror and demanded that the woman show herself. She did not. Another evening, Hahn was about to shave when the soapbox, razor, brush, and soap flew at him and fell at his feet. When he tried to sleep he was awakened by the heavy noises, and once it seemed as if someone had sprinkled water on him while he lay in bed, although he could find no water.

After a month, the story of the poltergeist experiences spread abroad. Two Bavarian officers, Lieutenant Nagerle and Captain Cornet. decided to visit the castle, o they could prove that the stories they were hearing were not true. Nagerle decided to spend the night in the room with the mirror that housed the spirit of the elderly woman. The officer hadn't been in the room long before Hahn and Kern heard him cursing and the sound of a saber whacking things. They opened the door and saw Nagerle running around the room waving his saber around. They managed to calm him down and get him out of the room. He explained that something he couldn't see had begun to pelt him with items in the room. He was a huge skeptic and could not explain what had happened to him. He was both fearful and angry. He thought that Hahn and Kern were tricking him and the other officer. But as he accused the men of fooling him, Captain Cornet said the men had never left his sight.

As the men stood talking, a lead ball rose into the air and hit Hahn in the chest. He was not hurt, but the men were startled once again. Then the poltergeist activity started up again with drinking glasses jumping off stands and disembodied footsteps being heard. After a glass slammed into a wall, the men ran outside. Hahn and Kern looked at the officers and asked, "Do you believe us now?" The officers left and Hahn and Kern continued to stay on for some reason. On another evening, Hahn wrote that their servant John and Kern had both witnessed a jug of beer slowly lift to a height of about three feet and pour into a glass until it was half full. The jug was then gently replaced and the glass lifted and emptied as if by some invisible specter. John exclaimed in terrified surprise, "Lord Jesus! It swallows!" The glass was quietly replaced. The men checked the floor to see if any liquid was there. It would seem that this spirit that was unseen could actually drink. And that leaves me with a bunch of questions. Hahn and Kern both started to suffer from sleep deprivation. Hahn begged the spirit to leave them alone for one night and a peace seemed to settle on the castle. But it didn't last long as a bowl full of water was dumped on Hahn as he slept. And then, the phenomenon just stopped. No other strange things happened. Kern left to go home and Hahn stayed on for 6 more months until the Prince was freed and came home. Then Hahn went home. He concluded his journal on November 19, 1808, two years after he started it. He wrote, "I have described these events exactly as I heard and saw them; from beginning to end I observed them with the most entire self-possesion...yet the whole thing remains to me perfectly inexplicable." Twenty years after that, he published his journal. It became a sensation in Germany.

The Bell Witch

This is probably the most famous poltergeist case in America. We've covered it in our Witches in America episode. The phenomenon started in 1817 in Adams, Tennessee and is the only story said to document a death caused by supernatural causes or by a supernatural entity. It actually says that on the death certificate! This was a poltergeist that tormented a Tennessee pioneer family by the name of Bell and the activity continued until 1821, but many believe that the hauntings related to this witch continue to the present day. The Bell Family was headed by John Bell. It was his daughter Betsy who was first attacked by this entity. She was tormented by being physically attacked and then the house started experiencing things that were poltergeist-like. There was knocking on the walls and disembodied voices. The entire family experienced all of these unexplained events, but they told no one. It was not long before neighbors started experiencing them as well. Eventually, the witch identified herself as someone named Kate and she promised to kill John Bell. And eventually it seemed that she did because John did die in 1820 at the age of 70. Now, many people claim he had a neurological disorder that wasn't understood back then, but people who have visited the Bell Witch Cave claim that this entity is still hanging around. 

Willington Mill Poltergeist

Poltergeist activity started for the Proctor family in the 1830s in Northumberland, England and lasted until the 1840s. These were Quakers who moved into the building in 1831 in the close-knit industrial community of Willington that sat near a small stream, known as Willington Gut, that emptied into the River Tyne. Joseph Proctor documented the activity in his journal and this was published in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research. The family's nursemaid was the first to report weird stuff and she was so unnerved that she quit. Activity included unexplained noises like pattering footsteps on the third floor, heavy thumping, coughing, and groaning coming from empty rooms. The kitchen chairs would move cabinets would open on their own and the beds shook violently. A room on the third floor had the most phenomenon and they called it the Disturbed Room. Now the strange thing is that the room had been sealed up before the Proctors moved in, They found it full of dust and undisturbed by anything, including mice. The windows were boarded up, as was the fireplace. There was no access to the room except the door and the Proctors didn't use the room. No one knows who sealed it up or why. Proctor wrote in 1835, "My wife and I were informed by our cousin Unthanks [who had lived in the house previously] that they understood that the house, and that room in particular in which the noises now occurred, was said to be haunted before they entered it in 1806, but that nothing they knew of had been heard during their occupancy of 25 years." By 1847 the Proctors had had enough and left the house. No one has come up with a reasonable explanation. The children had things happen to them when the eldest was only two. 

Stratford Poltergeist

The Phelps Mansion in Stratford, Connecticut became famous because of its connection to the Stratford Poltergeist. This is a poltergeist case that has intrigued people for decades and was never fully debunked. The Phelps Mansion was built for a sea captain named George R. Dowell and his wife Eliza by Eliza's father General Matthias Nicoll in 1826. This was a three-story Greek Revival home designed with a center hallway that was reminiscent of the main deck of his clipper ship. Twin staircases lead to the second floor and the interior was decorated with chandeliers, molded plaster work and carved wood paneling. The Captain died shortly after moving into the house in 1829. Eliza would live until 1851, but she sold the mansion to Reverend Eliakim Phelps in 1848.

Dr. Phelps was well known in religious circles and was seen as somewhat unusual in his thinking, often expressing an interest in mysticism, mesmerism and later, in the growing Spiritualist movement in America. He devoted most of his time to reading and exploring his unique interests. Phelps was definitely outside of the norm when it came to Presbyterian clergymen. On March 4, 1850, an old friend of Eliakim’s came calling on him at Elm Street, and after dinner and conversation, they apparently decided to try a seance. They apparently heard “intermittent, disorganized rappings” but nothing else. On Sunday, March 10, 1850, the family returned from church to find all the doors standing open and the family’s belongings were strewn across the floor. In one bedroom, chillingly, Mrs. Phelps’ nightgown was laid out on a bed, sleeves crossed over the chest in imitation of a corpse and stockings at the bottom. Nothing appeared to be stolen — his gold watch and the family silver were in view and undisturbed — so they straightened the house and Eliakim sent the family back to church for afternoon services. Meanwhile, he lurked in the upstairs of the house, waiting for the burglars to return. He heard nothing, and then crept downstairs and saw that the dining room was filled with eleven women, some kneeling, some standing, some holding Bibles, and all completely still: all of them seemed focused on a tiny demonic figure suspended by a cord in the center of the room.

The figures were made by stuffing rags and other materials into the family’s clothing. An account of the event published in the New Haven Journal said, “From this time on the rooms were closely watched, and the figures appeared every few days when no human being could have entered the room. They were constructed and arranged, I am convinced, by no visible power. The clothing from the figures were made was somehow gathered from all parts of the house, in spite of a strict watch. In all about 30 figures were constructed during the haunt.” Other events occurred during the next 6 months, such as objects moving through the air, family members being carried or pinched and slapped by invisible forces, windows breaking (some 71 windows broke, which seems like an appalling amount of money for repairs if it was a hoax), food appearing and being flung at family members, and loud rappings, knockings, and cries. In one incident, an umbrella leaped into the air and flew some 25 feet away, and smaller objects would fly from locations without any visible force to fling them.

At one point shortly after the haunting began, Mrs. Phelps begged her husband to find someone to help, so he enjoined his friend Rev John Mitchell to investigate. Mitchell decided that it must be the children having a prank, so he locked them away in the house. However, the disturbances continued, and he witnessed moving objects, among other activities, such as seeing objects appear and drop out of the air, and this convinced him that it could not be a hoax or prank. Investigators, spiritualists, and journalists began to turn up at the house to document and attempt to prove/disprove the events. No witnesses or investigators were ever able to determine a human perpetrator of the events. These included Eliakim’s son Austin and Eliakim’s brother Abner, both of whom were sober, well-thought-of professional men in the Boston environs who were none too pleased about the family notoriety and had every reason to debunk the haunting. They heard pounding on the front door that they could not ascertain the source of, despite waiting on either side of it — the pounding occurred on the door between them, with no visible source.

Anna, the 17-year-old, was pinched and slapped, generally in view of the family, bruises and welts appearing on her arms and face. Henry, the 12-year-old, got the worst of it, apparently: he was pelted by stones while driving with his stepfather, he was carried across a room by something invisible and dropped on the floor, was thrown into a cistern of water, and several times vanished, once found in a hay mound unconscious, once found outside, tied up and suspended from a tree, and once found stuffed into the shelf of a closet with a rope around his neck.

Eliakim had apparently made attempts to communicate with the spirits perpetrating these events early on, but shut those attempts down because the communications had been so blasphemous and offensive. No transcripts were published, so we only have his word for it, and the word of his friend Mitchell, who also attempted communication. The entities apparently occasionally left Bibles open to significant passages, scrawled symbols on walls, and then, in a dramatic turn, began dropping written messages on the family, generally signed “by Sam Slick, Beelzebub, or H.P. Devil. One that fluttered into existence at Mrs. Phelp’s tea party said, ‘Sir Sambo’s compliments and begs the laddyes to accept as a token of esteem.'” Now, desperate for information that the spirits had been unwilling to provide, Dr. Phelps agreed reluctantly to perform another seance in the house. This time, communication was easily resolved and the spirit claimed to be a soul in hell, enduring torment for the sins he had committed in life. Dr. Phelps asked the spirit what he could do to help and using the knocking code, the ghost asked that Phelps bring him a piece of pumpkin pie. Thinking that he had been misunderstood, he asked again and this time the spirit asked for a glass of gin. Finally, Phelps asked why the spirit was causing such a disturbance in the house and the spirit replied: "For fun."

Then, the spirit further detailed its history, claiming to be a law clerk who had done some financial work for Mrs. Phelps. He confessed that he had committed fraud and had been sent to hell when he died. He did not explain why he was haunting the Phelps home though. Eerily, Dr. Phelps later made a visit to the Philadelphia law firm where the spirit claimed to have been employed and he examined the papers in question. It turned out that a fraud had been committed and that it had been serious enough to warrant the man’s prosecution, had he lived until his arrest and trial. Later on though, Phelps would change his position about the identity of the ghost and would feel that he had been tricked using the fraudulent papers. It is unknown what made him change from his original position. He simply stated that: "I am convinced that the communications are wholly worthless, in that they are frequently false, contradictory and nonsensical.." The Phelps family had gone through just about all they could take.

After months of madness in the house, they decided to abandon the place and move back to Philadelphia. They would at least winter there and see how things looked in the spring. Following this decision, Dr. Phelps was in his office one night and a paper suddenly came from nowhere and fluttered down onto his desk. The message asked how soon the family would be leaving the house? On a nearby paper, Dr. Phelps scratched the words "October 1" and by that day, they had departed. Phelps sent his wife and family ahead of him to Philadelphia and he remained briefly in Stratford to put his affairs in order. During this period, the house was quiet and still. The spirits had apparently departed with the Phelps family. However, they did not accompany them to Philadelphia. The haunting seemed to be over at last. But was it? The Phelps family spent the winter and spring in the city and they returned to Stratford in the early summer days of 1851. The house was calm and still and over the course of the next eight years, nothing out of the ordinary occurred there. The supernatural forces, whether spiritual or man-made, seemed to have resolved themselves. According to some accounts, they stayed in the house until 1859, when Phelps sold it to Moses Beach, though they were clearly in Philadelphia in October 1858 when Mrs. Phelps died — possibly Eliakim had taken her to Philadelphia for treatment.

Apparently, there were no other reports of supernatural occurrences until it was a nursing home, at which time some staff reported strange noises and other odd occurrences,. Inevitably, Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated the house. Supernatural theories for the Phelps haunting range from spirits raised by Eliakim’s seance to the two eldest stepchildren, Anna and Henry, being conduits for paranormal energies, to there being a ghost involved, either a murdered peddler or a woman murdered for being a witch. Spiritualist and psychic investigator Andrew Jackson Davis came to Stratford and asserted his belief in the genuineness of the activity. He stated that the outbreak was caused by “vital radiations” from Henry and Anna and that when the “magnetism” was at its strongest, objects were attracted to the two of them. He also believed that they could radiate a sort of “electricity” as well, which would propel objects away from them. The non-supernatural theories tend to focus on Henry as the prankster, or on Anna and Henry as teaming up for the hoax. 

The Great Amherst Mystery

This poltergeist occurred in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada starting in 1878 and ending in 1879. This is among Canada's best-known nineteenth-century poltergeist cases and helped establish the pattern of activity focused on one person.The disturbances centered on Esther Cox, a young woman living with relatives. Witnesses claimed that objects moved or flew through rooms, mysterious noises erupted, fires appeared, and threatening messages were associated with the activity. Everything seemed to begin for 18-year-old Esther Cox after she survived a traumatic carriage ride and threat by local man Bob McNeel. Strange phenomena began inside the crowded cottage Esther shared with her sister Olive Teed's family on Princess Street that included loud knocking sounds, flying objects, self-moving furniture, spontaneous fires, disembodied voices, and physical attacks (such as pins being driven into her skin or a knife thrown at her). There was even a disturbing message scratched above Esther's bed that read, "Esther Cox, You Are Mine to Kill." Newspapers from as far away as New York documented the events. Actor and showman Walter Hubbell lived with the family in 1879, documented the events, and wrote the popular 1888 book "The Great Amherst Mystery," concluding the forces were supernatural. Esther was later convicted of arson for setting a fire in a boss's barn in 1879. She served a brief jail sentence, after which the paranormal activity largely stopped. She later married and lived out her life without further incidents. Skeptics and modern analysts attribute the case to a trauma-induced crisis, attention-seeking, or teenage prank/poltergeist hysteria.

Borley Rectory 

The poltergeist activity at Borley Rectory began in the 1920s. Harry Price became deeply involved in the haunting at Borley Rectory in Essex. It captured his lifelong obsession. He first visited the location in 1929 after hearing about the phantom of a nun appearing in the garden at the house. Other reports included disembodied footsteps, various apparitions, including the man who built the rectory, and ghost lights. He asked a local for directions and the man said, "Oh, you mean the most haunted house in England?" Price would name his first volume about Borley Rectory just that, "The Most Haunted House in England," which was published in 1940. He lived at the rectory for a year in the late 1930s. Many believe that the wife of Rev. Lionel Foyster, who lived at the rectory from 1930 to 1935, had faked the paranormal activity that Price was following up on and members of SPR claimed that Price faked phenomenon while he lived at the house. Their later studies came to the conclusion that any weirdness was caused by natural things like rats. The place eventually burned down.

The Seaford Poltergeist

The Seaford Poltergeist served as inspiration for the movie Poltergeist. These events happened to the Hermann family and began in February of 1958 in Seaford, New York. Phenomena included bottle caps that popped off spontaneously, liquids (such as bleach, holy water, and shampoo) spilled or sprayed by themselves and heavy objects like bookshelves, figurines, and a bronze horse shifted or flew through the air. To add credence to the stories, Nassau County police officers, local journalists, and neighbors personally observed items move or shatter while all family members were accounted for. It is thought that the teenaged son may have been manifesting the activity.

Beck House Poltergeist

This poltergeist case took place in 1962, at 2910 N. Delaware St. in Indianpolis. Renotah Beck, 32, a local restaurant operator who was born in Vienna, moved into the then four-bedroom, two-bathroom home, built in 1900 in the Mapleton/Fall Creek area. The house is less than two blocks from the current Indianapolis Children’s Museum She was not alone. Her elderly German diabetic mother, Lina Gemmecke, 61, and daughter Linda, 13, joined her. Renate was recently divorced, and this was a new beginning. It was a stable place to raise her daughter, care for her mother, and get on with her life. That was the plan anyway, but sometimes life is what happens while you’re making other plans. On a Sunday in March of 1962, a few minutes after 10 p.m., it started. A heavy German beer stein lifted from the kitchen sink, sailed through the air, and exploded upon the floor. Shortly after, the family heard a loud crash from upstairs. When the family returned from an overnight hotel stay around 1:30 p.m. the next day, they hoped the previous night’s events were behind them. They weren’t! Again, crystal glass objects started exploding and a cup of hot coffee shot through the air toward Renate’s mother, narrowly missing her. 

On that second night they notified the Indianapolis Police Dept. (their second call). The first call was to a family friend, Emil Nosedo, a respected Indianapolis businessman who operated the city’s Sheffield Inn. He would be over the next day. Sgt. John Mullin arrived at the house. He surmised it was the result of pranks. His theory: a pellet gun or a hi-fi stereo either in the home or area, emitting sound waves shattering the glass. The Becks scratched their heads over that summation. Patrolman Ray Patton came over that night. And relatively soon, the newspapers caught wind and the house quickly became a sightseeing tour. Nightly events began to add up, often experienced by the police department. These events included:
    Rapping from upstairs when the family was downstairs.
    One officer hearing a crash from upstairs, and when investigated found a crystal swan lying shattered below a shelf in daughter Linda’s bedroom.
    Phantom bites, punctures and bruising appearing on all three of the women, but especially the youngest daughter. Renate’s mother, Lina, claimed she had been choked.
    Renate’s purse, with $125 inside, disappeared. It eventually reappeared on March 25 at the feet of her elderly mother, and with $80 missing. Hmm?

Private investigations from Emil Nosedo and his wife cataloged a variety of poltergeist phenomena, including feathers being ripped from pillows and heavy furniture moved of its own accord. They also reported sitting in the dark of the kitchen (sounds like a seance to me… bad, bad move!) when noises from the dining room brought them to discover silverware ( knives) arranged on the floor in the shape of a cross. Strange activity continued for 16 days. Then… somewhat of a breakthrough: officers claimed to have witnessed Renate’s mother throwing objects. She was arrested and charged with making a false report. Maybe she had thrown some things, yet her daughter defended her actions, claiming she had been having a “nervous” attack due to her diabetes and all the strange things happening. On a footnote, there were a lot of occurrences, it would seem, for which the grandmother could not have been responsible. But this was a lot of activity for the grandmother to be in charge of. Was the teenage daughter causing the poltergiest? Neighbors claimed the family fought a lot and very noisily. There was an exorcism for the house and Grandmother Lina went back to Germany and all activity seemed to stop on March 22, 1962. 

Poltergeist on Nashville's 9th Avenue

This account is shared in the book "Haunted Nashville" written by Frankie and Kim Meredith Harris in 2009. They founded Nashville Ghost Tours. (pg. 73) 

The Black Monk of Pontefract

This poltergeist haunted 30 East Drive in Pontefract, West Yorkshire in England and is said to be the most violent poltergeist in history. The location was a council house and the activity started in 1966 and lasted until the early 1970s. The Pritchard family had moved in and although the street was quiet and the house was unremarkable, the family noticed strange disturbances almost immediately. Small objects disappeared and moved on their own. Big pieces of furniture moved on their own and banging noises were heard all over the house. Things began to escalate. A hostile disembodied voice started to be heard. It issued threats. Family members were mocked. The voice eventually identified itself as being a monk who had been executed centuries ago. The Pritchard's teenaged daughter was scratched and pushed. Police were called and they claimed to witness unexplained things. One officer was struck by a flying object. Journalists caught wind of the story and began reporting on it. The house was checked for bad wiring or structural problems. Clergy tried blessing the house, but only had objects thrown at them. The Pritchards eventually fled the council house. Skeptics claimed that the teenage children of the Pritchards caused the manifestations through psychokinesis, but the Black Monk seemed to act independently of the children's presence.

The Rosenheim Poltergeist

This poltergeist was unique in that it took place in the law offices of attorney Sigmund Adam in Rosenheim, Bavaria, Germany, starting in late 1967. So we don't have a residence here. The activity consisted of multiple phones ringing simultaneously, and thousands of outgoing calls were logged to the speaking clock service (sometimes six per minute), which technicians noted was mechanically impossible on rotary dial systems. The electrical system seemed to be hacked by the poltergeist as fluorescent tubes flickered, swung, shattered, or burned out rapidly, and power grid engineers recorded massive electrical surges that did not trip standard fuses. A 400-pound filing cabinet slid across the floor without damaging the linoleum beneath and desk drawers opened on their own. Investigators took note that the office secretary was a 19-year-old woman named Annemarie Schaberl. Activity reportedly stopped when she left the office or went on vacation. The men who investigated were German parapsychologist Hans Bender and Max Planck Institute physicists Friedbert Karger and Gerhard Zicha. Bender attributed the occurrences to Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis (RSPK)—an unconscious psychic or telekinetic output driven by emotional stress. Some police suspected intentional manipulation and others thought there was mechanical trickery. The activity did cease when Annemarie left her position in early 1968.

The Amityville Horror

There are many people who classify Amityville as a poltergeist case and they point the finger at the Lutz children as being responsible for the activity. In 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. Murdered six members of his family and shortly thereafter, on December 18, 1975, George and Kathy Lutz and their three children moved into the six-bedroom Dutch colonial home in Amityville, New York. They immediately experienced experience foul odors, strange noises, unexplained changes in temperature, apparitions, and other disturbing phenomena. They left after just 28 days. The story became an international sensation through the 1977 book and subsequent films. Ed and Lorraine Warren got involved and really amped up the story. The 2013 documentary "My Amityville Horror" focused on Daniel and he shared experiences that had no proof other than his word. Daniel had a reason to hoax stuff. He hated his stepfather George and he said, "I started destroying this guy’s world every opportunity that I walked into” and would “just do anything to get him” so that “we could go back home.”

The Enfield Poltergeist

This poltergeist is named for Enfield, North London, England and began in 1977. The Hodgson family moved into another council house - apparently these places like poltergeists - and then the loud knocks started and the furniture began to move and objects were thrown. Strange voices were heard and the children, Margaret and Janet, started to levitate. Paranormal investigators Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair from the Society of Psychical Research spent considerable time examining the case and newspapers reported on it. Police were witness to the phenomenon.  believed the haunting was genuine. Other researchers like Anita Gregory and John Beloff were unconvinced the poltergeist was real and the girls were caught faking some incidents, such as bending spoons or staging noise tricks for the media. Janet admitted that she did fake some stuff to test the investigators. 

The Tina Resch Case

Tina Resch was a teenager that lived in Columbus, Ohio and she came to attention in 1984. The Resch home started experiencing physical disturbances that couldn't be explained. There were little things like clocks resetting themselves and objects moving on their own and then events got bigger. These heavier objects moving on their own were documented by Mike Harden and Fred Shannon of the Columbus Dispatch. Fred Shannon caught the infamous picture of a phone flying across Tina's body. The house's electrical was checked out and seemed normal. Tina was caught by a reporter moving a lamp herself, but some researchers have thought this was because she was tired of having everybody there and thought they would leave once they got what they came for. Many people believe that Tina did have psychokinesis and investigator Bill Roll claimed that he often saw objects in motion when he was alone with Tina. She was tested and really did seem to have some abilities.  

Bromley Poltergeist

This poltergeist involved a series of violent and bizarre supernatural disturbances that began on April 26, 1973, in an allotment shed run by three retirees at the Grove Park allotments in Bromley, southeast Greater London. These men had formed The Kentish Garden Guild and were named Alfred Taylor, Tony Elms, and Clifford Jewiss. They sold gardening supplies from the shed. It was a modest little enterprise, run by the retirees mainly as a way of keeping active. On April 26, 1973, this shed began inspiring something considerably weirder than flowers or vegetables. The phenomena included powders, pellets, and bags of fertilizer hitting the ceiling or being strewn about. Heavy objects—including a 7-pound weight, a 14-pound weight, boxes of utensils, a garden fork, and weed killer bottles—flew or struck the men. Coffee was mysteriously replaced with fertilizer, and the building shook. Signs of the cross and numbers, letters, and a human face made from chemicals appeared on surfaces. The Society for Psychical Research sent out investigators Manfred Casser and Pauline Reynolds and they examined the site in October 1973 and June 1974 and  personally witnessed flying tools, disappearing security bolts, and objects moving on their own. The activity stopped just as strangely and abruptly as it began, roughly a couple of years after it started, coinciding with the completion of new garages nearby.

When it comes to poltergeists, there is a distinction between the history of poltergeist beliefs and the history of poltergeist evidence. The first can be traced through folklore, religion, literature, and changing cultural attitudes. The second requires us to examine individual witnesses, original documents, investigations, and skeptical counterarguments. What if the history of the poltergeist is also the history of humanity's changing understanding of the human mind? Why do so many of these stories revolve around families, homes, and particular individuals? And then comes the really intriguing question: What will people a hundred years from now believe about these same accounts? Were any of these accounts about true paranormal activity? That is for you to decide!

(pg. 267)