HGB Ep. 153 - The Ghosts of the 1871 Infernos

 
Moment in Oddity - Giant Statue of Man Eating Bag of Babies in Bern
Suggested by: Michael Rogers

There is a very peculiar 500 year old statue that sits atop a fountain in the town of bern, Switzerland. The statue is called the Kindlifresser or in english, the Child Eater. The statue features a giant holding a baby in one hand with its head in his mouth and in his other hand, he clutches a bag filled with three other very alarmed looking children. The scene is quite startling and no one is sure just who made it or why. Some claim that the giant represents the Greek god Kronos and as students of mythology know, Kronos ate his own children. Others theorize that he represents the older brother of the founder of Bern who went mad with jealousy because his younger brother was greater than he and so he ate many of the town's children. But this is just a legend. It could just be some giant from a fairy tale. Whatever the case may be, this fountain is not only disturbing, but it certainly is odd!

This Day in History - Second Opium War Begins

On this day, October 8th, in 1856, the Second Opium War begins. This war had the Qing Dynasty coming against the British and French Empires. The First Opium War had ended in 1842 with western powers signing treaties with the Chinese that the Chinese referred to as unequal treaties. This was suppose to enhance trade, but it really enhanced Western imperialism. The British really wanted to legalize the Opium trade, send Chinese people as indentured servants and open up the ports with no taxes on foreign imports. Many conflicts arose and finally came to a head on October 8th when the Chinese boarded a ship called the Arrow. The ship had been Chinese owned and was supposedly committing acts of piracy and smuggling and the Chinese arrested the crew of twelve. The British were angered because they had just purchased the ship and had it sailing under their flag. They demanded that the prisoners be released. The Chinese refused and the British attacked the forts on Canton. The French joined the British and the Americans and Russians offered support. The war ended in 1860 after several more treaties and battles, with the ratification of the Treaty of Tianjin. In the end, opium was legalized, the Chinese paid France and Britain 8 million taels and freedom of religion was granted in China.

Ghosts of the 1871 Infernos (Suggested by Ellen Martin)

This episode is dropping on October 8th because this day in history marks the 145th anniversary of a day when terrible fires wiped out cities and took the the lives of thousands of people in 1871. One fire, the Great Chicago Fire, is well known, but there were other big fires, including one that not many people know about that actually claimed more lives and that was the Peshtigo Fire. The summer had been abnormally dry and it did not take much for the fires to spark and spread. The stories about these disasters are tragic, leaving behind emotions and turmoil that seem to fuel paranormal activity. And then there is the odd twist that these deadly fires occured on the same day. Join us as we share the history and hauntings of the 1871 Infernos!

Port Huron is a city in Michigan and lies at the southern end of Lake Huron, from which it takes its name. The city was incorporated in 1857 and drew people to work in the thriving timber and shipbuilding businesses. It grew to be one of the biggest villages in the area. The city of Holland is in Michigan as well. It grew out of a settlement of Dutch Calvinists in 1847. Other churches came to the area and soon Holland was known as the "City of Churches." Manistee is yet another Michigan city and it is located on the Manistee River, from which it takes its name, off of Lake Michigan. It began as a Jesuit Mission. The city was established in 1841 when a saw mill was built there. These three Michigan cities are located far apart from each other, but they all share something in common: The Great Michigan Fire of 1871.

The city of Chicago was a nexus of industry in the late 1800s. The grand city sat between the agricultural west and the manufacturing east. The Chicago River that divided the city into three parts was bustling with commercial traffic and the city was expanding. The downtown had the courthouse and the chamber of commerce. Money and people were flowing into the city. A city built from wood. Both structurally and economically. Timber businesses left stacks of lumber in yards along the South Branch of the Chicago River. Sidewalks built from wood wound for 561 miles and 57 miles of street were paved in wood. A very dry city full of wood led to a horrible tragedy: The Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

Peshtigo is a town in Wisconsin situated on the Peshtigo River, from which it takes its name. The word Peshtigo is Native American and means either "snapping turtle" or "wild goose." The area was first settled in 1838. It was incorporated as a village in 1887 and as a city in 1903.  White pine forests nearby were used to not only build the settlement, but as a means of commerce. Logging and wood products were the main business in Peshtigo.This proximity to the forest and the large amounts of wood in the city made this a dangerous place to live in the unseasonably dry year of 1871 and the result would be one of the worst natural disasters in US history: The Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871.

October 8th in 1871 was a Sunday.  The summer had been hot with only about one-fourth of the normal precipitation. A great wind was blowing across the Midwest, literally. Wind gusts topped 100mph. And almost as though the stars aligned in a most perfect and macabre way for the Fire Elemental, on this one day, thousands would die in enormous fires. This is the kind of record that not even Guiness would want to record. It's the kind of coincidence that causes people to stop believing in coincidences. These great fires would destroy and forever change cities. Chicago would arise from the conflagration greater than it had been before. The other cities, particularly Peshtigo, would be affected for years to come and even build an entire cemetery for the vicitms. The elemental fire demon would have his day in a major way. This was the day that America burned.

G. Van Schelven of Holland, Michigan described what he witnessed as fire came to his town: "At 2 o’clock in the afternoon the wind turned southwesterly and began gradually to increase. The fire alarm was rung, and from this time on the fighting of the fire all along the timbered tracts south and southwest of the city, was kept up uninterruptedly. As night advanced the wind increased in force, until at midnight it blew a hurricane, spreading the fire and the flames with an alarming velocity toward the doomed city. The huge bark piles at the Cappen & Bertch tannery in the western and the Third Reformed Church in the southern part of the city, were among the first points attacked; from thence on, the devastating fire fiend had a full and unmolested sway."

This is an account from Manistee: "A bright light came up out of the south, directly in rear of the town, and the fierce gale bearing it on directly toward the doomed city. Those who resided in that part of town, including the writer, rushed to the new scene of danger, the full extent of which few comprehended. The fire had originated two miles south of the city, on the lake shore. It first came upon the farm of L.G. Smith, Esq., which it devoured. Eighty rods north the extensive farm and dairy of E.W. Secor shared the same fate, with all his barns and forage. Another quarter of a mile, and the large farm buildings of Mayor R.G. Peters were quickly annihilated. Here the column of fire divided, the left hand branch keeping to the lake shore hills, and coming in at the mouth; the other taking a northeasterly course and coming in directly south of the town, as before described. Here a small band of determined men, fighting with the energy of despair to protect their homes, kept it at bay till past midnight. But all was vain – at 12:30 o’clock the gale became a tornado, hurling great clouds of sparks cinders, burning bark and rotten wood through the air in A Terrific, Fiery Storm. Every man now fled to his own house. The fire now came roaring through the dead hemlocks south of the blocks included between Maple and Oak Streets, in the Second Ward. The flames leaped to the summits of the great hemlocks, seventy, eighty or ninety feet high, and threw out great flags of fire against the lurid heavens. The scene was grand and terrible beyond description. To us, whose homes and dear ones and all were in the track of the fire, it was heart-rending."

People had finished dinner and were getting ready to go to bed unaware that across the city of Chicago, a small fire would ignite in a barn that would change their lives and the city of Chicago forever. No one is sure exactly how the fire started, but it believed that the origin of the fire came from a barn behind the home of Patrick and Catherine O'Leary at 13 DeKoven Street. The O'Leary's lived with their five children in the cottage less than a mile from town and the barn housed Mrs. O'Leary's milking business. The theory that has developed as to the cause of the fire involves one of those milking cows. Many believe a cow knocked over an oil lamp that set the straw ablaze. A song even was written about this being the cause. But a newspaper reporter admitted in 1893 that he made the cause up. Possibly this was a rumor started as an anti-Irish slur. We'll never know exactly what the cause was, but we do know the result.

A man in Chicago wrote:  "I jumped out of bed and pulled on my pants. Everybody in the house was trying to save as much as possible. I tied my clothes in a sheet. With my clothes under my arm and my pack on my back, I left the house with the rest of the family. Everybody was running north. People were carrying all kinds of crazy things. A woman was carrying a pot of soup, which was spilling all over her dress. People were carrying cats, dogs and goats. In the great excitement people saved worthless things and left behind good things. I saw a woman carrying a big frame in which was framed her wedding veil and wreath. She said it would have been bad luck to leave it behind."

There was an early confidence in the city that the fire would be contained. The Great Fire of Chicago captured the imaginations of newpaper reporters and stories spread across the nation. Victims all had their own stories to tell, making sorting out exactly what transpired very difficult if not impossible. The fire apparently leapt across the south branch of the river and destroyed Conley's Patch. The Court House bell rang out the fire alarm, but was silenced as the building was engulfed and the bell fell from the tower. The fire moved to the north. The pumping station was burned, halting firefighting efforts. The offices of the Chicago Tribune were consumed. Only rain falling the next day, helped to put out the fire.

There were many contributing factors to the fire that raged through Peshtigo. There was the drought, but it was aggravated by the practice of Slash and Burn that farms were using to clear land. This same slash was being used by railways that left the debris along the track to dry out. Logging companies left timber in piles. The practice of burning this debris was being used and it is believed that several of these smaller fires were fueled and spread by the great wind blowing through the Midwest. There are some who believe a comet or meteorite started the fire. Robert Couvillion, a Peshtigo historian, is someone who holds to the Impact Theory and he claims that survivors described a horizontal tornado, with tremendous winds blowing fire everywhere. Could that be a meteor blast? Or could it just be the regular nature of fire blowing upward? The fire started around 8:30pm and by 10pm, the air was completely unbreathable. Peshtigo completely burned in 90 minutes. Whatever the cause, the Peshtigo Fire was the deadliest fire in American history.

When the fires were done with these cities, the devastation was unimaginable. Chicago had lost 300 residents and nearly 90,000 were homeless. Holland and Manistee were completely leveled. No one is sure how many died in the Great Michigan Fire because it was based on families reporting lost loved ones and there were hundreds of lumberjacks out in the forests of which 3,900 square miles were burned. Most historians estimate around 500 lives were lost in Michigan. Peshtigo was hit the hardest. Estimates of dead are hard here as well, but the number lies somewhere between 1,200 and 2,400 people. The area burned was about twice the size of Rhode Island. All of the cities rebuilt. Chicago obviously recovered in a big way and came to be known as the "Jewel of the Midwest."

And in times of tragedy, it would seem that human nature is generally good as reflected in an article written in 1871 in the Mainette and Peshtigo Eagle: "Thank God! even this dire calamity is net without its valuable lessons. Amid the corruptions of society and the callous selfishness of humanity, the good there is in human nature is strikingly apparent in a disaster like this. Car-load after car-load of provisions, clothing, sanitary supplies and medical supplies are pouring in, and after the first few days of suffering form want there will be plenty to relieve the sufferings of the homeless."

Ellen has visited the Peshtigo Fire Cemetery and she shared her thoughts:  "I found only sadness in the Peshtigo Fire Cemetery, almost as if the place itself was sucking any happiness out of me.  I made myself look at all of the special markers in order to honor and remember those that lost their lives in such a horrible way.  I recently found out through geneology that my Great great great grandparents and their family were survivors.  I do not know any details about their experience.  I do not know if this is haunted or not, but I would think that their must be some kind of activity with so much horror and death going on at the same time in the same place." She also recounted the story of one family, "One such is that of a young man who grabbed two of his siblings and rushed to the river.  He spent the entire night pouring icy water over their heads to prevent them from catching fire. In the morning, both siblings had died of hypothermia."

As we research and study haunted history, it would seem that most tragedies have ghost stories connected to them and there are tales of ghosts from these 1871 infernos. There are ghost towns left in the wake of these fires as well. We could not find any ghost stories directly connected to the Great Michigan Fire, but there is a ghost town. The town of Singapore had been established in 1836. It sat at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River along Lake Michigan. Once the fire ripped through, Singapore was completely burned and left. No one rebuilt and the town now sits beneath the sand dunes of Lake Michigan. An interesting twist of Fate in connection to this town occured in 1843 during a huge blizzard. The people of Singapore might possibly have starved if not for the shipwreck of the Milwaukie. They survived off its food stores.

The Holy Family Church in Chicago was clearly in the path of the great fire, but somehow it was spared and no one knows how or why. It is a mystery. Father Damen supervised the building of the church in the 1850s and he loved it. He was away on a mission when he heard about the fire breaking out and legend claims that he prayed to the Virgin mary to protect the church. A wind seemed to blow the fire in a different direction. Was this some kind of supernatural occurence and miracle? The church thinks so and they continue a practice to this day that father Damen promised to the Virgin mary. he said he would light seven candles in front of her statue in the sanctuary. Today, those candles are electric. Father Damen is reputed to haunt his beloved church and is seen walking through the nave.

On our 2015 road trip, we went through Chicago and saw the great water tower that was the only structure in the city to survive the massive fire. It is built from limestone and is just a magnificient design. It is also haunted. People ran to this building for refuge not realizing that smoke inhalation kills more people than actual fire. Many died in this structure and soon after rebuilding began, there were reports of phantom figures in the tower. Faces are sometimes seen peering from the windows of the empty building. And one man chose a quick and painless death and hanged himself on the upper floor. That hanging man is still seen sometimes to this day in an upper window. It shocks people before it disappears.

In Peshtigo, it took over a year for all the bodies to be recovered and buried. People who took refuge in the icy river died of hypothermia. Residents of the town report paranormal activity in many locations. Most experiences are with shadowy figures both during the day and night and they are usually seen along the streets. Our infamous Lady in White hangs out on a park at S. Ellis Ave. Apparently, she has long flowing hair and the kids have nicknamed her the Floaty Lady. She appears just before midnight and seems to be disoriented. Then she just disappears.

The Midwestern Paranormal Investigative Network conducted an investigation in Peshtigo. Here is what they found: "During our review of the evidence, we were pleasantly surprised with what we were able to capture.  Numerous EVP’s were recorded during the investigation.  Due to the circumstances of this location, in which an entire town was burned to the ground, much of the investigation was conducted outside.  Because of this, many of the EVPs are unable to be cleaned up to the point of presentation, as the EVP itself is difficult to distiguish for the untrained ear from the ambient noise. Video evidence can only be interpreted as inconclusive, although there was some very interesting audio captured both on an SB7 Spirit Box and an Ovilus which were quite telling and beyond the scope of coincidence.

Some of the EVP evidence captured: Vicky alone in the Fire Museum.  Vicky is heard stating she is going to set her audio recorder down while she walks downstairs  when a very breathy “Hello” is clearly heard. Vicky sitting alone at the mass grave in the Fire Cemetery.  In the beginning of the following audio clip you can hear a gust of wind, and then immediately following is a whisper, stating, “I assumed you’d come here.”  A few seconds later, Vicky is heard telling those buried there they have not been forgotten. Vicky sitting alone along the river at a spot where many of the victims died, either by drowning, hypothermia, breathing in scalding ash, or simply burning in the water.  Vicky is heard initially in this clip, and after a few seconds, and a strange hissing sound, a female voice clearly introduces herself, saying, “I’m Rachel.” (We played the last two EVPs on air)

Tori relates her Peshtigo experiences:  "Me and my mom where driving through Peshtigo, we got by the cemetery and saw an all black figure walking across the street. We stopped and they soon disappeared. I have not seen this since that day. I had seen a lot of ghost experiences while living in Peshtigo, Wisconsin. In the Brook View Village Trailer Park a lot is haunted. There seems to be little kids running through there."

Wannabe also has had experiences in Peshtigo:  "My friend and I were staying the night at another friend of ours house on Oconto ave. The day was seemingly normal but when we walked in her house a feeling terror overcame us. Later that night while we were sleeping I was awoken to a strange black figure hovering over our friend. I quickly woke my other friend up and showed her the apparition. We tried to wake her up but as soon as we did the apparition disappeared. This encounter was very unexplainable and probably paranormal. We have lived in this town our whole life and without a doubt in our mind Peshtigo Wisconsin is haunted."

Did these great fires all start on the same day and wreak havoc just by chance? Did the earth pass through the tail of a comet and these cities were hit with bits of debris? Do the spirits of those lost in these fires still walk the earth? Are the cities of Holland, Port Huron, Manistee, Chicago and Peshtigo haunted by the victims of these fires? That is for you to decide!

Show Notes:
The Comet and the Chicago Fire Article: http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2006/arch06/060206chicagofire.htm

HGB Ep. 152 - Tower of London

 
Moment in Oddity - Painting with Dead Hands
Suggested by: Bob Sherfield

Norwegian artist Morten Viskum is holding his first solo exhibition in the UK, November 18th to December 18th 2016. Viskum is a unique artist and he sees himself as a performance artist. What makes Viskum unique is the tool he uses to create his artwork. He uses the hands of dead people. He doesn't think of the hands as just tools. He believes the hands are a link to an immortal personality. He owns several hands and each has its own style. He creates the artwork with spontaneous and vigorous sweeps and drips of paint. The paintings will be joined by another piece in this exhibition. The "Hand with the Golden Ring" is a dead hand with a golden ring on its ring finger. Viskum won't reveal who this hand once belonged to, just as he won't reveal the former owner's of any of his dead hands. Painting with dead hands, certainly is odd!

This Day in History - Soviet Union Launches Sputnik into Space

On this day, October 4th, in 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched the first satellite Sputnik into space. Sputnik was the world's first artificial satellite and measured about the same size as the average beach ball. This event would forever change the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States. Sputnik got its name from the Russian word for satellite. It circled earth once every hour and thirty-six minutes. The satellite transmitted radio signals back to earth as it traveled 18,000 miles an hour. Amateur radio operators could pick up the signal and Sputnik could be seen with binoculars at sunrise and sunset. All of this came to a halt in January of 1958, when Sputnik's orbit fell apart and the spacecraft burned up. The United States would launch its first satellite Explorer in January as well. The Soviets had already launched a dog into space and they would continue to beat America in the Space Race until the US landed astronauts on the surface of the moon in 1969.

Tower of London (Suggested by Bob Sherfield)

In London, located on the north bank of the River Thames, stands a tower that the mere mention of the name inspires feelings of dread and the macabre and that is because this structure’s thousand-year-old history is full of imprisonment, torture and execution. Many famous names in history met their final demise at the Tower of London. The Great Tower was not always a prison. It served as a royal residence for a time and is officially known as Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London. Control of this piece of property usually signified control of the country. Because so much mystery, intrigue and death is associated with the structure, it is reputed to be quite haunted. Our infamous Lady in White is only one of the many spooks people claim to have seen or felt. Join us as we explore the history and haunting of the Tower of London.

In September of 1066, William the Conquerer and his Normans were invading England and as we have discussed in other episodes, the Normans built castles in areas that they conquered. The typical castle was built from wood in the Motte and Bailey style. As a refresher, these are the castles that had a keep built up on a tall dirt hill that was manmade known as a motte and then a fence-enclosed area was below the keep with various buildings and this was called the bailey. Originally on the area where the Tower of London now stands, the Normans built one of their castles. William the Conquerer decided to build a more substantial structure from stone in 1078. He called it the Great Tower and it would come to be known as the White Tower. It was completed in 1097.

The Tower would serve as a prison for the first time in 1100. The first prisoner was Ranulf Flambard who was the Bishop of Durham.  The name Flambard means torchbearer. He was the son of a priest. He helped compile the Domesday Book we discussed with Alana in the Haunted Pluckley episode. He was imprisoned after the death of King Rufus under whom he served. Rufus extorted many funds and Flambard was arrested for that and thrown into the Tower. He not only was the first prisoner, but he also became the first escapee.  The Tower would suffer its first siege in 1191. William Longchamp had become Bishop of Ely and he served as regent to Richard the Lionheart when he left to conduct the Crusades. Prince John, who was Richard’s brother, opposed the rule of Bishop Longchamp and attacked the Tower. Longchamp had been ruling from there and had expanded the Tower after seizing land. John drove Longchamp into exile.

In 1210, King John took up residence in the Tower. He ordered that a moat be dug outside the city of London’s wall. The Crown Jewels had not been brought to the Tower yet and were kept at Westminster Abbey at this time. It is believed that King John lost the Crown Jewels to quicksand. King John has long been thought the worst Monarch of England and this debacle is only one reason. The loss of Normandy being a major one. Anyway, apparently John loaded the jewels and some of his belongings on a baggage train, which then got caught up in a tidal estuary somehow, and the jewels were sucked in by a whirlpool of quicksand. He died of dysentery shortly thereafter. King Henry III took over in 1216 and he reinforced the Tower. The White Tower was heavily rebuilt at this time and a new Great Hall was added along with kitchens. By 1236, ten new towers were added as were drawbridges and gateways. The moat was extended and flooded with water from the River Thames. The Welsh Prince Gruffydd was imprisoned in the Tower from 1241 – 1244. He would attempt an escape in 1244 and fall to his death. King Edward I would become monarch and he would move the Crown Jewels to the Tower of London.

King Edward II began his reign in 1307 and he used the Tower as his point of authority. He had a bad relationship with the barons who would stage a rebellion against him in 1324 led by Roger Mortimer, the first Earl of March. One of the main reasons the barons disliked Edward was because of his relationship with Piers Gaveston, a man who joined his household and was given leadership and preferential treatment. The rumor was that the men were lovers. Gaveston was exiled for a while two separate times. After returning from the second exile, Gaveston was executed by the barons. Mortimer, who led the rebellion, was imprisoned at the Tower. He escaped and fled to France with his lover, who just happened to be the Queen, Edward II’s wife. Eventually, Mortimer was caught and hanged at Tyburn. As the 1300s moved into the years of the Black Death, the Tower was further fortified with new towers and a gatehouse. Whitewash was added to the Tower and it officially came to be known as "La Blanche Tour" or the White Tower. The Tower came under siege from peasants in 1381 under the rule of  fourteen year old King Richard. The peasant leaders Wat Tyler and John Ball were killed.

King Henry VI ruled in the 1400s. He was literally nuts and a vile man who eventually ended up imprisoned in the Tower with wife Margaret of Anjou from 1465 until 1470. He was restored to power for a time in 1470 and he then resided in the non-prison part of the Tower. He was murdered in the Wakefield Tower, while he was praying. Most historians believe that Edward IV ordered the assassination. This ushered in the War of the Roses, which was a period of civil unrest and political instability. Edward IV was a bad guy himself. He liked the women and got many of them pregnant. There were claims of illegitimacy of his sons and eventually the princes were murdered in the Tower. The princes were 9 and 12 and under the care of their uncle, Richard III. He seized the throne in 1483 and the boys disappeared. Most historians believe that Richard murdered the boys to keep them from the throne and it is believed he smothered them to death right there in the Tower. It’s a murder mystery to this day. The bones of two small boys were unearthed on the grounds in 1674 by workmen.

King Henry VIII comes to power in the 1500s and he decides to add gun emplacements to the roof of the White Tower, which had to be reinforced to take the weight. The Royal Lodgings were refurbished under him and he added the onion-shaped domes on the turrets along with weather vanes. The Tower would come to be known as the Bloody Tower under King Henry VIII. During this time, Henry would break from the Church and declare himself the head of the Church of England, so that he could divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and marry his mistress Anne Boleyn. Henry wanted a son that Catherine had not given him. The divorce happened in January 1533 and shortly thereafter, Anne was married to the King. Her coronation would come in May of that year, but the male heir would never come. In 1536, Anne was arrested on trumped up charges of heresy, adultery and treason. She was thrown into the Tower to await execution. She was executed on Tower Hill. Henry VIII also imprisons Sir Thomas Moore and Bishop Fisher of Rochester in the Tower and they are executed because they refused to acknowledge him as the head of the Church of England. Many people are arrested under his monarchy due to religious and political reasons. One of those more famous prisoners would be Thomas Cromwell who is also executed on Tower Hill in 1540.

The Tower also had a torture dungeon and Anne Askew was tortured here on the rack for heresy. She was an English poet and is the only woman on record that was tortured at the Tower and then burned at the stake. She had to be carried on a chair to her execution because her body was destroyed by the torture. She was chained to the stake on a chair and burned slowly. Usually burning at the stake was done quickly and sometimes the condemned were strangled first. Not Anne. She died a slow painful death. What was her heresy? She was a Protestant and she would not give up the names of other Protestants. Henry VIII died in 1547, but his son Edward V would keep the blood flowing. Thomas Seymour is imprisoned in the Tower and later beheaded on Tower Hill by Edward. The young king’s protector and his men meet their end at the Tower as well. Edward dies of tuberculosis and Lady Jane Grey becomes Queen. Her reign lasts for just nine days and she is imprisoned and executed. Princess Elizabeth, Bishop Latimer, Bishop Ridley and Archbishop Cranmer are all imprisoned in the Tower, condemned to die for heresy and burned at the stake in 1556. Queen Elizabeth I takes the throne and the Earl of Essex, Robert Devereux is executed on Tower Green by decapitation. He had been accused of plotting to overthrow and kill the Queen. It was more than likely a falsehood put forward by the Catholic Church because the Earl supported religious dissent.

The imprisonments and deaths would continue into the 1600s. In 1613, Sir Thomas Overbury, who was a poet and courtier, was poisoned in the Tower by his political rivals. Sir Walter Raleigh was beheaded in Old Palace Yard in 1618 after being held in the Tower. Raleigh was a soldier, poet and explorer. *Fun fact: He is also well known for popularizing tobacco in England.* Before his beheading, he told the executioner, “Let us dispatch. At this hour, my ague (fever) comes upon me. I would not have my enemies think I quaked from fear.” He also added after inspecting the axe, “This is a sharp medicine, but it is a physician for all diseases and miseries.” He also yelled, “Strike, man, strike,” after he put his neck out for the axe. In 1625, Charles I becomes King, but Parliament rebelled and they take the Tower during the Civil War that ensued from 1642 to 1649. A permanent garrison was installed at the Tower during this time and Charles was beheaded on a scaffold outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall, London in 1649. In the late 1600s, the Tower would be used less as a prison. But there were still deaths. In 1689, Hanging Judge Jeffreys died in the Tower. They called him the Hanging Judge because he had sentenced 320 to be executed or transported to the Penal colonies.

The Tower lost its importance as a royal residence in the 1700s. The Tower would have its only American prisoner in 1780, Henry Laurens, former President of the Continental Congress. Laurens was imprisoned for treason. He had been captured aboard the ship Mercury after negotiating with the Dutch to get support during the Revolutionary War. He had the evidence in dispatches that he had thrown overboard, but the British retrieved them. He was released in 1781 in exchange for the freedom of General Lord Cornwallis.

The Tower also had a section called the Lion Tower and it held The Royal Menagerie. It left in 1834 to become the London Zoo. The Lion Tower was then demolished, but the Lion Gate still remains. In October of 1841, a sentinel noticed a fire break out near the Jewell Office.  The Grand Storehouse burned down and much of the armoury was lost. The fire reached the Clock Tower as well and there was fear that the Crown Jewels would be lost. A main issue that hampered the taming of the fire is that the tanks below the Tower had very little water in them. The fire ended at 4am on Halloween of all days. The Tower was repaired and later refortified during the 1848 Revolution of the Chartist Movement. The Movement asserted the rights of ordinary people and the Crown feared that a mob would attack the Tower. A Victorian architect named Anthony Salvin was appointed in 1851 to 'restore' the Tower to a pseudo-medieval form. It was then opened to the public.

World War I brought more damage and death. A bomb fell into the moat of the Tower. Eleven German spies were shot in the Tower. World War II would bring even more damage to the Tower and several buildings were destroyed. Corporal Josef Jakobs who was a German spy was held at the Tower and he was executed in 1941. Hitler's Deputy Fuhrer of Nazi Germany, Rudolf Hess, was imprisoned in the Kings's House for 4 days in 1942. And some of the last prisoners at the Tower were the Kray twins in 1952 because they failed to report for national service. The Tower then stopped serving as a place of imprisonment. Today, the Tower of London is a popular tourist spot and is managed by the charity Historic Royal Palaces. It is classified as a World Heritage Site under the charge of the Constable of the Tower. Tours of the Tower include visiting the Crown Jewels, an interactive exhibit of the Royal Mint, Yeoman Warder (Beefeaters) guided tours, visiting the White Tower, visiting the Ravens and exploring the history of the tower as a fortress.

The peculiar legend of the ravens in regards to the Tower began during the reign of Charles II. He insisted that the ravens be protected because he believed that if the six ravens that lived there were to die or leave, then the castle would fall. And he believed that even the kingdom would fall. The Royal Astronomer, John Flamsteed, was not keen on this idea as he believed the ravens were in the way of his observances of the cosmos. But the ravens have always been protected. Today, there are seven ravens at the Tower, one is referred to as a spare. They live in the Wakefield Tower and are fed 170 grams of raw meat a day and bird biscuits soaked in blood.

With all the death and misery associated with the Tower over one thousand years, there is little doubt that it would be a breeding ground for spectral activity. The Tower of London is one of the most haunted locations in the UK. Many of the spirits seen and felt here are famous people in the history of England. They were tortured, imprisoned and executed, usually for reasons that we would not consider punishable today. That means innocent blood was shed. Emotions soaked into the stones of the Tower as did blood. It seems to cry out from the past. Only seven people met their end via execution within the walls of the Tower, but countless others were executed on Tower Hill, just outside the Tower of London. Those seven people executed inside were all beheaded, explaining why so many ghosts here are seen minus their heads.

Five of the more famous people held and executed are reputed to haunt the property. The ghost of Lady Jane Grey is one of them. She was executed at the age of 16 after watching her husband's decapitated body being carried away. Her full-bodied apparition is seen on the anniversary of this event. The last recorded time she was seen was by two guardsmen on the 403rd anniversary of her death in 1957. Many people claim to have caught a glimpse of the ghost of Anne Boleyn. She appears close to the site where she was executed. She likes to appear in the chapel as well and is usually leading a procession in a residual type of haunting. Her headless apparition has been seen walking the corridors of the Tower. One guard even attempted to run her through with a bayonet when he saw her figure walking towards him with a bonnet on her shoulders that was empty, meaning the figure had no head. He was quite shaken.

The Countess of Salisbury was sentenced to death in 1541 for criminal activity. The Countess professed her innocence and ran from the butcher block. The executioner chased her down and hacked her to death with his axe. This event is re-enacted in a residual and gruesome way on the Tower Green. Those who witness it are greatly disturbed. Both the ghosts of Henry VIII"s wife Catherine Howard and her Lady in Waiting Jane Rochford are seen at the Tower. Catherine was executed for adultery and Jane was executed for helping Catherine commit adultery. Jane had been driven insane by the torture she underwent as she was interrogated about the affair of Catherine. Henry VIII had a special law passed, so that he could execute people deemed insane because he wanted Jane executed. It would seem the injustice done to these women within the walls of the Tower has left them walking the corridors in the afterlife.

There are those who were murdered in the Tower and their ghosts are reportedly seen. These include Thomas Becket, King Henry VI and the two little Princes in the Tower. Becket was one of the first ghosts seen in the Tower. He had been very unhappy about the construction of the Inner Curtain Wall. He made appearances on two consecutive St. George Days and both times he touched the wall with his cross and the wall was reduced to rubble. A chapel was built in the Tower to appease Becket and it was said that he must have been pleased because he did not disrupt any more construction.

Arbella Stuart married the nephew of Lady Jame Grey without the permission of King James I. Arbella was put under house arrested and her husband was imprisoned at the Tower for this infraction. She plotted to help her husband escape, but her husband never made it to their rendevous point. She was captured and sent to the Tower. She was murdered in the castle in 1615 in the Queen's House. Her ghost is seen at the Queen's House.

The Tower also has its Lady in White and there is the Gray Lady as well. The Lady in White has been seen standing at a window of the foreboding White Tower waving to little children at the building on the opposite side. There is also the scent of her cheap perfume near the entrance to St. John’s Chapel on occasion. The Gray Lady is described as a woman who is wearing mourning clothes, but no one can see if she is crying because her face is a black void. A garrison of ghost soldiers is seen occasionally marching on the grounds. The rattling of chains and disembodied groans are heard in the corridors. Smoky apparitions are seen amongst the battlements. Spectral animals from the former Royal Menagerie have been seen and sometimes animal sounds are heard. The Salt Tower has what seems to be an evil presence inside of it. Dogs refuse to enter.

Henry VIII’s armor is on display in the Gallery and many security guards are reluctant to go in the room because of a crushing sensation they feel in there sometimes, The horrible feeling leaves them when they exit the Gallery. One stormy night, a guard was patrolling through the room when he claimed to feel as though someone had thrown a heavy cloak over him. He struggled to free himself from the unseen garment only to feel it close around him tighter. It tightened around his throat. He managed to break free and run to the guard room where he showed the other guards the marks on his neck. Henry VI haunts the area near the Clock Tower and he usually appears around midnight. His specter is reported to appear to be quite sad.

Sir Walter Raleigh haunts the Queen's House near to where he was held as a prisoner. According to legend, he has been seen looking exactly as he does in his portrait hanging in the Bloody Tower where he was kept. The ghosts of the missing and more than likely murdered princes have been seen as spirits wearing nightgowns clutching each other in terror in the rooms of the castle. They are also heard throughout the Tower playing, running and giggling. Particularly around the battlements. Lily Power reported on the Tudor Book Blog, "Me and my sister have heard the children's laughter that is supposed to be of the princes. A few years ago I was visiting the tower. There was only me and a random guy reading the plaque and my sister was standing just behind me, waiting to read it. There were no children at all. I don't really trust my ears, so I didn't believe it until a couple of mins went by...and I asked my sister if she "had heard that" and she said 'yes.' I asked one of the staff at the Tower if they had any motion detected sound effects like I'd heard at the wax works at the Isle of Wight and told her why and she looked very nervous and said 'no.'"

The stories of hauntings at the Tower are numerous. Many of them seem to be residual in nature as though the emotions and energy of that past time have been caught in this space. Do these people who were imprisoned and executed here, still walk the corridors? Is the Tower of London haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Anniversary Special 2

Wow! It's hard to believe we have been at this podcasting thing for two years! What started out as a fun side hobby has turned into a second full-time job and so much more! Thank you for putting up with our growing pains as we learned our way. The thing that has been the biggest plus and a wonderful surprise for us, is the community we have had grow around this podcast. We've become a family really, where everybody is accepted. You just come as you are. We try to keep the show at a PG13 level so that young people can hang out with us too. And we learned that you guys really have our back. We've only ever had one major issue and it really was cool to have people step up to defend us. We're happy to report that the last little thing that happened with this issue in regards to a review that was left, was taken care of. We contacted iTunes and they removed the review.

We have lots of people to thank for helping us get where we are today. First and foremost, we thank the listeners! If you guys weren't listening, there would be no show. In our first few months, we rarely got a suggestion for a location. Today, we have over 100 suggestions not on the calendar yet and the calendar is filled through December. You have shared your personal experiences - both regular and haunting - you've shared your pictures, you've co-hosted episodes and helped with research. You have helped shape the show. You have shared the show. And many of you are helping us on the financial end of things. We've met many great podcasters as well. Thanks to Chris and Joe at the Curioso Podcast, Sam and Jake at Just a Story, Dan Foytik at The Lift, the podcasters at Society 13 Podcast Network, Patrick Keller at Big Seance Podcast, Erik at Most Notorious, P.S. McKay and Eliot Gladstone at Entwined Podcast, Tanner and Eric at Legends, Myths and Whiskey for their support this last year!

To expand on the research topic, we are very grateful to all those that stepped up to help us out on the Research Crew this last year. That group of people helped us as we slowly transitioned to a place where Diane can spend more hours researching. If not for them, we would not have been able to consistently bring you six episodes every month. Now that group is defunct because you guys have all pitched in to help out with research and many of you have made the scary jump into being on air with us. It's not easy. We are very rare in the podcast world. There are not many podcasts that will invite their listeners on to co-host and be guests. So thank you to Sharon Spungen, Bob Sherfield, Steven Pappas, Philip Childers, Ann Student, Lianna Sapien, April Rogers-Krick, Lana John, Freya Porter, Dianne Moores, Lynsey Smith, Richard Schaffer, Jessica Bell, Kristen Swintek, Ren Davenport, Mariessa Dobrick, Jessie Harms, Amy Connor, Rachel Hore, Whitney Land and Jenni Watt for being a part of the Research Crew this past year.

To expand on sharing the show, we have growing by leaps and bounds. Let's look at some numbers. In October of 2014, when we launched, we had less than 1,000 downloads for the whole month. As of the end of September 2016, we will have hit a total of over 830,000 downloads. In two years, you guys have helped us reach nearly 1,000,000 downloads and we have no doubt that Diane's goal of hitting that at the end of December will be achieved. Last October, iTunes featured us along with several other paranormal type shows in a collection called Scary Stories that remains on the front page of iTunes to this day. So thank you to iTunes for plucking our obscure show out of the shadows. Also, a huge thank you to the podcast Bizarre States and Jessica Chobat for continuing to keep us out of the shadows when November rolled around. After being recommended on that podcast, we rose to number 7 out of all the history genre podcasts and made it to 162 out of all podcasts on iTunes in November of 2015. Being in the top 200 is no easy feat with thousands and thousands of podcasts out there.

To expand on the financing of the podcast, you guys have just been amazing. When we started, we made the decision to not allow ads or sponsors on our show. We believe in the indie spirit that podcasts initially started with. Podcasts are so much better than radio, but nearly every podcast that finally gets traction and gets popular has gone to being like radio and running ads. We have turned away many inquiries because our audience is not for sale. What do any of the ads you hear on other podcasts have to do with the topics of those podcasts? Now, hosting a podcast costs money. Putting on a quality production costs even more money. We knew that if we started this thing, we had to stick to a budget because we don't make much money in our full-time jobs. We went with the cheapest hosting we could find and shared a mic using an old program to record. And we went with a new start-up called Patreon to help us earn some money. We've been with Patreon since we started two years ago. Slowly, we were able to buy more equipment - not top quality (We got 3 mics for $50) but what we needed to help make the show a little better - as people started donating to the show. After several months, we were able to move up to the next tier of storage so we could do more shows that were longer. Through the one-time donations and recurring monthly donations of our Executive Producers, we now have hit our next goal of $600 a month. That means we will now produce an extra episode a month. The free feed will now have 7 episodes a month. Not many podcasts bring that much content to you a month. Our next goal is $1200 and then we move up to 8 episodes. And full disclosure on those amounts - we came up with those because that is what it will take for Diane to quit some of her housecleaning to work more on the podcast. It's about paying the bills, while not working to death. Currently, we have 90 Executive Producers. Thank you so much for making an incredible difference in our lives. Not only helping us get paid to do what we love, but this last year was a tough financial year with Diane's surgery and loss of work and Rafiki's various health issues. We spent about $12,000 just on medical stuff last year. And then there was the totaled car. So thank you. That missed coffee for you every month is a huge gift to us!

Other fun numbers: 600 members in the Spooktacular Crew and nearly 1100 likes of our fan page. Special thanks to Heather Williams and Josh Wood for helping as Admins of the Spooktacular Crew! We've produced 151 episodes, 9 BonusCasts in the free feed, 6 Road Trip episodes and 5 Specials!

Now, we decided to celebrate launching into our third year by holding a little contest. A flash fiction contest for the listeners. We have our three winners! We will be reading those winners in just a bit, but we had some runners up that we wanted to share as well. And we have saved a few of the runner-ups to share on our Christmas Special when we share scary ghost stories around the campfire! We had sixteen entries! Thank you to Candace Russell, Marc Shoemaker, Lindsay Morse, Hollie Lemons, Anthony Collado, Atticus WolfGramm, Shelby Labrie, Michelle Tackett, Brandi Bledsoe, Heather Iseri, Michael Schultz, Lark Arrowood, Leslie Pollock, Kathy Webb-Thomas and Lauren Dunn for your entries!

The winners of the 2016 Flash Fiction Contest are:

3rd place winner receives medal and exclusive design t-shirt: Hollie Lemons

2nd place winner receives medal and exclusive design long sleeve t-shirt:  Lindsey Morse

1st place winner receives medal and exclusive design hoodie sweatshirt:  Shelby Labrie

HGB Ep. 151 - Hotel Galvez

Moment in Oddity - The Petrifying Well of Knaresborough

The Petrifying Well of Knaresborough is England's first visitor attraction. Sir Charles Slingby had bought the land where the well was located from King Charles I in 1630. The Petrifying Well was so well known at that time that the enterprising Slingby started charging people to visit the natural oddity. The earliest reference to the well dates back to 1538. King Henry VIII's antiquarian John Leyland wrote at that time that the well was considered to have healing properties in its water and people would shower in it hoping for healing. People began leaving trinkets and gifts by the well and were astonished when these items would become petrified over time. This caused people to declare that the well was cursed by the Devil. No matter what the water touched, it eventually turned to stone. The well also started taking on the look of a skull. Rather than rushing to the water for healing, people were afraid to go near it because they thought they would be turned to stone. The cause behind the petrification is scientific. The well has been tested and the mineral content is extrmely high. The water flowing over objects has an effect like what happens in the creation of stalactites and stalagmites. But while that process takes centuries to happen, the petrifying at the well takes as little as 3 to 5 months. So you could leave a teddy bear there today, and in six months return to find it made of stone and that certainly is odd! 

This Day in History - Spanish Flu Hits Philadelphia

On this day, September 28th, in 1918, the Spanish Flu Epidemic hits the city of Philadelphia. The Spanish Epidemic of 1918 would hit worldwide and reveal just how deadly influenza can be for humans. The origin of the flu was believed to be farm animals in the Midwest. The flu traveled through various animal populations and then mutated into a form that could live in humans. The flu spread slowly through the US and then hopped to Europe aboard soldiers headed to World War I battlefields. For Philadelphia, it was the Liberty Loan Parade that gave the Spanish Flu its foothold. The parade featured floats, bands and soldiers marching up South Street. The crowds were thick as people came out to celebrate. By October 3rd city officials had closed all schools, theaters, churches and places of amusement. One of the largest clothing stores in the city, Strabridge and Clothier Department Store established an emergency telephone switchboard to field calls about the flu and reports of deaths. Everyone fell ill from residents to city officals to service workers. The city had one morgue and it was overflowing with bodies. There were 500 bodies there when it was built to handle 36. Bodies were stacked in the hallway where they began to decompose. Convicts were ordered to dig graves and five other morgues were opened. When the Spanish Flu was done wreaking havoc, 30 million worldwide had died.

Hotel Galvez (Suggested by Kathleen Shanahan Maca)

Galveston Island is a beautiful setting on the Gulf side of the state of Texas, south of Houston. People flock here as a vacation destination. The island was originally settled by Native Americans and then explorers came who set down roots. The city of Galveston was chartered in 1839 and the rich came to build their mansions along Broadway. The city grew to be one of the largest in Texas in the late 1800s. This would all change with the Great Storm that hit on September 8, 1900. Thousands were killed by the hurricane and two thirds of businesses and homes were destroyed. Bodies were buried quickly wherever a spot could be found. The aftermaths of this storm and the countless bodies buried beneath the island seem to have opened a portal into the afterlife. Galveston is quite haunted. Many locations on the island claim to have ghosts. Historical Researcher and Author Kathleen Shanahan Maca has just published "Ghosts of Galveston" and she is going to share the history and hauntings of Hotel Galvez.

Are the spirits of the tragic victims of the storm still walking the island? Could Galveston be one of the most haunted island in the world? Is the Hotel Galvez haunted? That is for you to decide!

Show Notes:
Kathleen's author page at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Kathleen-Shanahan-Maca/e/B00V2HCL3E

HGB Ep. 150 - St. James Hotel

 
Moment in Oddity - Daisy and Violet Hilton
Suggested by: Jill Phenix

Daisy and Violet Hilton were a couple of remarkable ladies and what makes them odd is that they were conjoined twins who managed to find a way to make a living from their difficult circumstances. The twins were not identical and they became fused to each other at the base of their spines in vitro. They were born in Brighton, England in 1908. Their mother was a barmaid and their father was a soldier. No one knows their names and it seemed that the mother died shortly after their birth and their father was killed in World War I. The midwife who delivered them was Mary Hilton and she would care for the twins and give them her name. Mary realized that displaying the girls could make her some good money, so she started touring them around to circuses and carnivals. She heard how well freak shows and vaudeville was doing in America, so she traveled to the US with the twins in 1916. Mary was a heartless woman and treated the girls horribly. They were malnourished and forced to participate in sideshows. The twins met Harry Houdini in the 1920s and he taught them how to do self-hypnosis, so that they could create their own solo spaces. It helped them to get rid of each other in their minds. The girls also decided to rid themselves of Mary and in 1929 they went to court and they were free. Once they could keep their earnings, the girls enjoyed the world of freakshows and vaudeville. They even appeared in the 1932 film "Freaks." They became headliners and their fame grew until the 1950s brought television and vaudeville went into the dustbin of history. They moved to Florida and worked in a grocery store. They were found dead at their home in 1969, having succumbed to influenza. Conjoined twins no longer are treated as bizarre oddities, but as an unique mutation and we can't help but think that the Hilton sisters had something to do with that.

This Day in History - The Beast of Gévaudan Killed by Antoine de Beauterne

On this day, September 21st, in 1765, the Beast of Gévaudan was killed by Antoine de Beauterne. The Beast of Gévaudan was a man-eating wolf that terrorized the former province of Gévaudan in France between the years 1764 and 1765. The wolf would kill its victims by ripping their throats out. The beast was reported to have an immense tail and massive teeth. Most reports have the wolf attaching 210 people and killing 113 of them. Over ninety of the victims were partially eaten. Antoine de Beauterne was employed by the King Louis XV as Gun-Bearer and Lieutenant of the Hunt and it was his job to hunt the animal. On September 21st, an announcement was made that the wolf pack had been spotted in Pommier Woods. Antoine gathered his hunting party and he positioned himself at a place where the hunting hounds would scare the beast towards. It worked and Antoine encountered the wolf. He fired his musket that was loaded with no less than five charges of powder, a ball, and thirty to forty pieces of shrapnel known as "wolf shot." The blast knocked him off his feet and hit the beast in the right eye and shoulder. The wolf struggled to its feet and lunged at Antoine. Antoine's cousin fired his musket and hit the wolf again, which struggled for twenty-five more yards before falling over dead. The Beast of Gévaudan was dead.


St. James Hotel (Suggested by listener Richard Cutshall)

When one thinks of the Old West in America, cowboys and Native Americans, along with all varieties of gunslingers from sheriffs to outlaws come to mind. It was a time when a man could die in the streets with his boots on or at the poker table holding the Dead Man's Hand: a pair of aces and a pair of eights, all black. Cimarron, New Mexico was in the middle of all this and the St. James Hotel built there in 1872, exudes the faded Wild West. This was a wild town that played host to a veritable who's who of old west gunmen, lawmen, gangs and famous performers like Buffalo Bill Cody. The hotel itself was witness to at least twenty-six deaths. And now the hotel seems to be playing host to spirits. The hotel is reputed to be quite haunted with at least seven identified spirits. Our listener Richard Cutshall has stayed there and hunted for some of those ghosts. Join us as we share the history and hauntings of the St. James Hotel!

There are many buildings and markers in Cimarron, New Mexico that reflect upon the town's heyday during the Old West days of the 1800s. Cimarron was originally home to the Native American tribes of the Ute, Jicarilla Apache and Anasazi. The town sits along the Cimarron River and before it was established, it was a place along the Mountain Route of the Santa Fe Trail, which was established to avoid confrontations with the tribes in the area. A fur trapper named Lucien B. Maxwell came to northern New Mexico and stayed at a ranch there where he fell in love with one of the owner's six daughters. He eventually married her and inherited the ranch and built a mansion on the land. He built the Aztec Mill nearby. This area that would later become Cimarron and several other towns was known as the Maxwell Land Grant. It incorporated a total of 1.7 million acres. In 1870, Maxwell sold the land grant to a group of English financiers. Such a large holding is hard to keep squatters off of and by 1873, a range war known as the Colfax County War had broken out between Maxwell and squatters. It would continue until 1888.

Henry Lambert is the man who built the St. James Hotel and pinning down details on him is difficult as there are differing opinions and accounts on his life. Most agree that he was born in October of 1838 in Nantes, France and moved to Bourdeux as a child. He came to the United States in 1858 and joined the Northern Navy during the Civil War. Some accounts have him working as a steward  and then he was employed by Ulysses S. Grant as a field cook. This employment lasted for one month according to some reports. President Lincoln heard about Lambert's cooking, either from General Grant or through the grapevine and he became the White House Chef for Abraham Lincoln. But there is no official record that Lambert was a White House Chef. There is a story that he owned a restaurant in the area. Perhaps he cooked for the President, but not in an official capacity? The family passed down the story and the hotel maintains it, so maybe it is true. There's just no official proof.

Henry named the hotel after himself and called it The Lambert Inn. It opened in 1872 and the saloon became a big draw. Fur traders, miners, cowboys and explorers visited the saloon on their travel down the Santa Fe Trail. Bar fights were a regular occurrence in this rough and tumble place and there are claims that as many as 26 people lost their lives in the saloon in shoot-outs. The reputation for violence sparked expressions around town like, "It appears Lambert had himself another man for breakfast." Henry added rooms in 1880 and fashioned them in such a way that The Lambert Inn came to be known as one of the most elegant hotels west of the Mississippi. Many famous names stayed at the hotel including, Bob Ford who killed Jesse James, Jesse James himself, Buffalo Bill Cody, Annie Oakley, Doc Holliday, Billy the Kid, Pat Garret, Black Jack Tom Ketchum, General Sheridan and Wyatt Earp and his brother Morgan.

Henry was married twice, first to a woman named Anna who died in 1881 and then to Mary in 1883. He had five sons with Mary: William, Frank, Johnnie, Fred and Eugene. Fred went on to become sheriff in Cimarron and he always told people that Buffalo Bill Cody taught him how to use a gun. Fred was also a member of the tribal police and a territorial marshal. Cody even gave Fred the nickname “Cyclone Dick” because he was born during a blizzard and he became his godfather. Cody loved Cimarron and he loved staying at the hotel. He met Annie Oakley at the hotel and invited her to join him in performing the Wild West Show. When the two took the show on the road, an entire village of Native Americans from the area joined them.

The roof was replaced in 1901 and more than 400 bullet holes were found in the ceiling above the saloon. Guests were prevented from being killed with an errant shot by a double layer of wood in the ceiling. There are still 22 bullet holes in the ceiling of the dining room to this day. The hotel did really well while the Santa Fe Trail was being used, but when the railroad came through, the trail died and soon the precious minerals that brought miners also dried up. The population moved out of Cimarron. Henry died in 1913 and his sons tried to maintain the hotel. Mary died in 1926 and the hotel fell into disrepair. The St. James passed through numerous owners and was occasionally closed.

In 1985, restoration was begun on the St. James and it was brought back to its former glory complete with antique chandeliers, brocade wallpaper, velvet drapes, mounted deer and buffalo and original furnishings. Old hotel ledgers are also available to peruse. As you will hear Richard share, the hotel is separated into two parts. There is the historic area where 14 rooms have been kept to their rustic, former nature with no televisions, phones or radios and then there is the Annex with 10 rooms that have all the modern amenities. The historic rooms are named for certain people who had stayed or owned the hotel at one time. For example, there is the Mary Lambert Room and the Annie Oakley Room. The old saloon is now the dining room and the original antique bar is still there.

The St. James Hotel staff are not shy about their ghosts as you will hear from Richard. The sightings and reports are numerous about the ghosts at this location and it is considered one of the most haunted places in New Mexico. There are at least seven identified ghosts here. The second floor is the most haunted area. Nearly all the senses are affected from the scent of roses and cigar smoke to the feeling of cold spots to the sound of disembodied voices and haunting music to seeing full-bodied apparitions. Ghost Adventures has been here and the hotel has been featured on A Current Affair and Unsolved Mysteries.

Mary Lambert gave birth to all her children at the hotel. Her son Johnnie was born in 1889 and tragically, he was killed in an accident in 1892, inside the hotel. His spirit has been seen in the hotel. Mary died at the hotel as well and she seems to have remained behind to watch over Johnnie. The two are seen together often. The epicenter for hauntings by Mary seem to be in her room, Room 17. Her rose scented perfume is smelled in the room. If a guests open the window in the room, they will hear a tapping on the window until the window is closed. Her apparition is seen in the room and in the hallway outside the room and she usually has a milky white appearance.

Sometimes Johnnie’s ghost is witnessed playing with two ghosts of little girls who are said to have died at the hotel as well. The girls were 8 and 10 when their family stopped at the St. James Hotel. They had been traveling along the Santa Fe Trail and the girls became ill. Unfortunately, both died from their illness. They are most often seen playing in the hallway by the Governor’s Room. The spirit of a prostitute has been identified as Melissa because EVPs have been recorded of a female voice saying her name was Melissa. She probably died at the hotel. Ladies of the Evening were not really allowed by Mary, but they would sneak in late at night through a side door and then slip out in the mornings before Mary made her rounds. Melissa is playful and enjoys tugging at men’s hair, sitting in their laps and tickling their necks.

There is a room at the hotel that is so haunted and by such a negative entity, that no one is allowed to rent the room. The room is actually padlocked. That is Room 18 and it was a room that was rented by a Thomas James Wright, who was known as T.J. on March 31, 1882. He liked poker and he was playing a game in the poker room with Henry Lambert and a couple of other men. The game got heated and a legend about the game claims that Henry ended up putting the hotel into the pot. T.J. won the pot and the hotel. Another story just claims that T.J. won everybody’s money. Whatever the case, somebody was not happy about losing and shot T.J. in the back as he walked down the hallway to his room. He threw himself into his room and locked the door. He succumbed to his injuries during the night. No one was ever convicted for the murder. And now his angry spirit has remained in Room 18. T.J.’s ghost has violently pushed and shoved people, including an owner who decided to put the padlock on the room. She claimed to see an angry orange ball of light in the upper corner of the room once, also. None of the staff is brave enough to enter the room to clean it and the room is staged as though a gambling, drinking cowboy is still in the room. When guests were allowed in the room, they would report seeing a cowboy popping up in the window and one couple told a security guard, "A cowboy ghost was rocking, watching and grinning at us!"
   
Another peculiar entity may not be a ghost at all. This thing is called The Imp or Little Imp. He is a dwarf-like man who is very mischievous. He moves objects around and likes to take things and then return them later. He laughs at the staff and plays tricks on them as well. Other unknown entities are here and some think that spirits come and go because of the nearby Santa Fe Trail. It seems to be some kind of energy highway. These spirits knock things off the check-in area, pictures fall of walls, lights flick on and off and cold spots are felt. Cameras malfunction often inside the hotel. A college student named Kody Mutz worked at the hotel during summer breaks. In 2002, he was working the front desk when he was startled by a loud shriek coming from a far corner. His eyes darted about, looking for whoever who had screamed. There was no one in that corner. And guests on the other side of the lobby seemed to not have heard the noise.

Do members of the Lambert Family still remain at the hotel after death? Are some of the cowboys of old still here, roaming the halls? Is the St. James Hotel haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep.149 - Ghost Lights: Bragg Light Road and Paulding Light

 
Moment in Oddity - Ma'nene Festival in Indonesia
Suggested by: Bob Sherfield

The Torajan People of Indonesia live in the mountains of Sulawesi and they conduct a very unique festival every three years called the Ma'nene Festival. The name means "The Ceremony of Cleaning Corpses." The ritual has been carried on for over a century and entails exhuming dead relatives, washing their mostly mummified bodies and dressing them in new fine clothing. Family photographs are then taken. Death is treated very respectfully and many members of the tribe save money their entire lives for their funerals. Funerals are elaborate and can last a week. It is very important to the villagers for them to die in the village and family members will carry a loved one back if they die elsewhere. After death, a villagers body is wrapped in cloth to help prevent decay. Coffins are repaired when the bodies are exhumed to help prevent decay as well. We're not sure if there is a limit on how many times a body is exhumed, but there was one villager exhumed in the latest ceremony that had been dead 30 years. Exhuming and redressing a dead relative is meant to be a sign of respect in Indonesia, but for us, it certainly is odd!

This Day in History - Okeechobee Hurricane Hits Okeechobee in Florida

On this day, September 16th, in 1928, the Okeechobee Hurricane devastates the area around Lake Okeechobee in Florida. The storm formed near Africa and intensified as it traveled west. It was the first recorded hurricane to reach Category 5 status on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale in the Atlantic basin. Landfall was made first in Puerto Rico and it is the only recorded hurricane to strike Puerto Rico at Category 5 strength. One thousand people were killed there. The storm then hit West Palm Beach and is one of the ten most intense hurricanes ever recorded to make landfall in the United States. Winds hit 125mph. Buildings splintered as if made from matchsticks. The final and most vicious blow was saved for the community around Lake Okeechobee. This is inland and not many expected it to cause more deaths here than Puerto Rico. The lake crested and the humble muck dike broke releasing a tidal wave of water. At the same time, winds were blowing homes off their foundations. Nearly 2,000 people perished. The Army Corp of Engineers would build a new dike leaving the flow of water in the hands of man rather than nature and the Everglades were forever changed.

Ghost Lights: Bragg Light Road and Paulding Light (Suggested by listener Summer White)

There are desolate roads in America that inspire sweaty palms, goosebumps and fuel the imagination with images straight out of a horror flick. These are roads where no sane person would want to have a breakdown in a car occur. Some of these roads have inspired tales of ghost lights. These are lights that seem to move of their own accord, always staying just out of reach. Legends have spawned about headless ghosts swinging lanterns as they search for their heads. Some people believe that these lights could be attributed to UFO activity. The Bragg Light in Texas and the Paulding Light in Michigan, are two of these ghost lights. The roads where they are seen are walled by thick forests. Both have haunting tales that claim that a ghost or possibly something worse, are responsible for the lights. And both have had skeptics claim that it is nothing more than swamp gas or light reflecting from something else. Are these natural phenomenon or is something supernatural going on here? Join us and our special guest, listener Summer White, as we explore the history and haunting of these ghost lights!

Bragg, Texas is named for Confederate General Braxton Bragg. The town is located on Farm Road 1293, ten miles west of Kountze in northwestern Hardin County. The Colorado and Santa Fe Railway started running through the area in 1901. Bragg became a major stop along that railway and soon a small community grew in the area. John Henry Kirby came to Bragg with the railway and decided that because of the rich forested area, building a sawmill here would be quite profitable. That sawmill was completed in 1901. The success was short-lived when the sawmill burned down in 1903. It was not rebuilt. A post office was built, along with a hotel and train depot. The post office closed in 1914. What kept Bragg thriving was the oil boom going on in the town next to it named Saratoga.

J.F. Cotton was exploring in the area that is now Saratoga and he discovered a spring there in the 1850s. A settlement was established and it was called New Sour Lake. An enterprising man named P.S. Watts thought he could use the spring to make money and he built a hotel there and promoted the medicinal qualities of the spring. He changed the name of the town to Saratoga, which he took from Saratoga Springs, New York. Cotton realized there was oil in the ground and spent several years in the 1860s drilling for the oil until he ran out of money to buy more machinery. The Saratoga Post Office was established in 1884. Large scale drilling started again in 1901 and the railway was built to help transport lumber and oil. The town got serious about platting out a formal plan in 1903 and the population grew. The Saratoga trunk line was abandoned in 1934 and this helped turn Bragg into a ghost town and today it is thought of as a ghost town, despite the small farming community there.

The path that the Colorado and Santa Fe Railway ran between Bragg and Saratoga became a dirt road when the tracks were dismantled. That road remains today. It runs 8 miles and is wide enough for two cars across. The road is lined with thick forest that is made up of Loblolly pine, oak and magnolia trees in the upland that forms a canopy. Yaupon and Waxmyrtle form understory cover. The thick forest adds a creepy factor to the road, but what makes it even more unusual are the carnivorous plants that line the road. These plants are bladderworts and there are around 233 varieties of these plants throughout the world. They use small hallow sacs to capture bugs and they digest them. They are usually found in or near water and when an animal triggers the bristles on the outside of the plant, a trapdoor opens and sucks the animal inside.

But Bragg Road is not known for its forest. It's known for its ghost light. The stories about this light go back to a time when horses and wagons were still traveling the road. One man claimed his team of horses were spooked by the light and that he was dumped on the side of the road. The light comes in a variety of colors and appears to be a circle of light in the distance. Some people claim that it approaches them on the road. One young man claimed that the light came down on his car and made odd noises. National Geographic even captured the light on film.

What is the cause of the light? Skeptics claim that it is swamp gas or headlights. Those who believe that the light is a paranormal light have other reasons. Many tell a tale of a train brakeman who was decapitated while checking over the train one night. They believe the light is coming from his lantern and that he is either walking the line as if checking a train or he is looking for his lost head. There is folklore that claims a Spanish treasure was buried and next claimed and somehow it is giving off the light. Others claim that it is a residual fire from a time when the Confederates camped here or possibly a ghost fire from when the Union tried to burnout the Confederates.

The Paulding Light does not go back as far as the Bragg Light. Sightings of it began in the 1960s. It's name for the nearby town of Paulding in Michigan that was named for John Paulding, a militiaman during the Revolutionary War. He was captured during the war and held at Sugar House Prison in New York City. He escaped by jumping from a window and swiping a Hessian coat that he used as a disguise. He received the first military decoration awarded in the United States, the Fidelity Medallion. The first recorded sighting of the ghost light was in 1966. A group of teenagers had been out near the meadow when they noticed a bright orb of light in the distance, at the end of the road. It startled them and acted so unusually that they reported it to the local sheriff.

There are claims that the Paulding Light appears nearly every night. The story behind this ghost light mirrors Bragg Light's railroad brakeman story. Same decapitation, same search with a lantern for the head. So is this just an urban legend that has spread? There are videos that feature the light and it has undergone scientific study. Engineering students from Michigan Technological University made the trip out to the Robbins Pond Road. They did find that the light was a real phenomenon, but they think they proved it was just reflecting headlights from nearby Route 45. They documented cars driving by and even found that the first report dated back to when the road was rerouted.

But SyFy Network's Fact or Faked went out and they found that the Paulding Light was unexplained and they did many of the same tests using headlights and even a flying light. The light continues to attract many thrill seekers though and most would like to believe that the cause is supernatural. The Forest Service supports the visits and even places a sign where the best spot for viewing the light is reported to be. It would seem though, that the mystery has been solved. But we do wonder if the urban legend is borrowed from somewhere like the Bragg Light Road.

Is there something supernatural behind the ghost light on Bragg Road? Are there ghosts wandering this dirt road? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 148 - Vicary Mansion and Beaver County Legends

 
Moment in Oddity - Herophilus Dissected Live Humans

Herophilus was a Greek physician who lived from 335 to 280 BC. At a young age, he moved to Alexandria and spent much of his life there. He was fasinated with the human body from an early age and was a pioneer in anatomy. Most consider him the father of anatomy. In his time, he wrote nine works ranging in topics from childbirth to blood flow. All of those works would be lost. Dissections had been banned throughout Greece, but in Alexandria that ban had been lifted and Herophilus was the first to perform dissections on human cadavers. He would perform these in front of masses of people who all came to learn from a man who had become famous for his anatomy knowledge. Herophilus felt that it would be even better if he could show people the parts of the body actively working. Meaning that live specimens would need to be used. And since some prisoners were already condemned to die, why not use them as subjects? And that is what he did, vivisected living prisoners who were tied down to the table. There are claims that 600 prisoners were vivisected by Herophilus. Though his work dispelled many myths the ancient world believed about the human body, the fact that he dissected live humans, many aware of what was happening, not only seems immoral, but quite odd!

This Day in History - Massacre at Drogheda

On this day, September 11th, in 1649, the Massacre at Drogheda, Ireland occurred. The Massacre of Drogheda was headed by Oliver Cromwell, who was a Protestant representing the English Parliament. He was sent into Catholic Ireland to subdue it. The plan was to offer fair terms and keep violence to a minimum. Arthur Aston represented the Irish Catholic patriots and they were not about to surrender. Cromwell ordered attacks on the walls that protected the town. Six thousand Parliamentary troops rushed through the walls and the irish fell back easily. Drogheda had been taken. What happened next is debated in historical circles. Some say that Cromwell ordered the massacre of the soldiers and people here, others claim that the Parliamentary troops went through slaughtering people of their own accord. Aston and about 200 of his men took cover at Millmount Fort. Cromwell told them that if they surrendered that they would not be killed. They surrendered and an hour later, they were all killed. Aston was beaten to death with his own wooden leg. Roughly 2800 soldiers died that day, along with 800 civilians.

Vicary Mansion and Beaver County Legends (Suggested by listener Heather Marie)

Freedom, Pennsylvania has the Ohio River flowing next to it and on a hill above the river stands a mansion built by Captain William Vicary. The mansion was built in a unique style and has stood on this spot since 1826. The home remained in the family for nearly one hundred years and was saved from demolition by the Beaver County Historical Research and Landmarks Foundation. Today, it is a museum that can be toured. The Foundation claims there are no ghosts at this location, but rumors and legends claim there is some kind of activity that is unexplained happening at the mansion. And Beaver County, where the mansion is located has many legends of its own. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the Vicary Mansion and explore the legends of Beaver County!

Beaver County was created in 1800 near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Ohio and Beaver Rivers flow through the county. The Harmony Society moved to Beaver County from Indiana where they had been harrassed for their abolitionist views. They founded Old Economy Village in 1824. The Harmonist Society were a group of  Christian Theosophists and Pietist that had fled Germany because of persecution. The Harmonists took their campaign of abolition of slavery along the Ohio River and placed signs with the word "Freedom" on the banks. The borough of Freedom located in Beaver County gets its name from those signs because people began to identify the area with the word freedom. Stephen Phillips and Jonathan Betz were owners of a steamship building business and they formally established Freedom as a borough in 1832. It consisted of 100 acres that were platted out by Simon Meredith. The town grew fast alongside another borough named St. Clair, which eventually joined with Freedom as Greater Freedom. St. Clair was founded by Captain William Vicary.

Captain William Vicary was a retired merchant sea captain out of Philadelphia when he purchased 604 acres of land in Beaver County in 1826. Vicary had served in the Navy during the War of 1812 and the government had given him 500 acres in the Northwest Territory, which was land northwest of the Ohio River. Vicary met members of the Harmony Society and he liked the sound of Old Economy Village, so he decided that he would build his mansion and establish a village near Economy. That village came to be known as St. Clair. The mansion was built on a hill overlooking the Ohio River. Vicary hired John Moore to head the project. Other men were hired as workers and they mined sandstone from the local area. Captain Vicary had a very specific vision for his house and this created disputes with his foreman. He was unhappy with the lack of progress. Early contractor issues?

Vicary fired Moore and hired another crew of men, but Moore was not about to go away without a fight. He claimed that Vicary owed him money. The dispute went all the way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Vicary would win after many years, but he would already be dead by then. The house was finally finished in November of 1829. The mansion had red oak floors and hand hewn beams. The outside walls were two feet thick and built from sandstone. The inner walls were brick with plaster over them. The mansion boasted twenty rooms. Vicary died in 1842 and the house passed to his wife who died in 1853. The couple had only one living child at that time named Hannah. She had married a doctor and they moved into the mansion. They made some changes and added a mausoleum for their daughter Leonora who had passed away at four years of age. The vault was made of stonework and covered in the back with earth, so that it was mound shaped. Inside the mausoleum were two benches. The outside was encircled in an iron gate and there was an urn decorated with a kneeling woman, wringing her hands in sorrow, and an angel hovering over the grieving woman.

Hannah's other daughter inherited the house in 1880. When her husband died, she remarried and she and her new huband added the porch to the mansion. They later moved to California and rented the house in 1912 to the Bischoffberger family. This family made improvements to the house in hopes of buying it eventually, but it was never sold to them. The Daily Times reported a fire in 1916 at the house in this way, “Fire at the residence of E.J. Bischoffberger in East Third avenue , Freedom, Saturday night about 9 o’clock resulted in damage to the structure and furnishings estimated at from $500 to $600. The family was away from home at the time and the fire which is thought to have originated at or near the furnace in the basement was discovered by an engine crew in the Conway yards who gave the alarm by blowing the locomotive’s whistle. The fire ladies responded with their big motor fire truck and by good work confined the fire to the main hall on the first floor to which it had eaten its way by the time they arrived. Mr. Bischoffberger arrived home from Erie about one o’clock Sunday morning and could not be censured if he regards the happening in the light of a rather costly “house warming”.”

Joseph Nannah bought the mansion for $10 in 1924. He had the mausoleum removed and the bodies interred at Oak Grove Cemetery in Freedom. His daughter Hazel inherited the property and turned it into apartments in 1948 and ripped up the wood porch, replacing it with concrete. In the 1960s, the state government decided to run Route 65 through and they appropriated the property. The mansion was set for demolition. And it would have happened except for one woman who took a stand. Mildred Pappas wrote a letter and then she got other organizations on board to stop the destruction. The state built a retaining wall to save the mansion and the home was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Beaver County took ownership of the property and it is now the official home of the Beaver County Historic Research and Landmarks Foundation. The mansion is being restored and is open to the public.

The main spectral presence at the mansion is Captain Vicary himself according to local legend. There are claims that the chandeliers swing of their own accord. They are too heavy for it to be wind blowing them to and fro. The lights flick on and off by themselves as well. And then there are the disembodied voices and whispers that seem to indicate that there is more than one spirit here or that the voices are a type of residual haunting. Members of the Foundation say that claims of hauntings are just legend. No paranormal investigation group seems to have found anything haunting the property. So is this just an urban legend?

Never fear our faithful paranormal lovers! We decided to look into Beaver County itself to find some other haunts and we found a few gems! There is Mudlick Hollow. Here a newlywed couple was riding home in their buggy when something spooked the horse and caused it to rear up. In a story we have heard at other locations, the bride fell and broke her neck. The groom himself was pinned under the horse and he soon died as well. There are claims of strange noises in Mudlick Hollow. The clippety clop of a horse's hooves, the crack of a whip and the sounds of a crash and scream. The fog rolls in almost setting off the residual haunting to occur. A young woman writing an article about this area claimed that she would run cross-country through this place and that often felt creeped out and thought she heard noises.

There are a couple of our infamous bridges here with the white lady as well. One bridge is called Summit Cut Bridge and it is in Beaver Falls and the other is Independence Bridge in Hopewell Township. One starts to realize that perhaps there was one true story that has just been adopted across the country. In the tale about Summit Cut Bridge, a young woman drove her car off the bridge, hitting the train tracks below. She is seen both on the bridge and the tracks below as a lady in white. Independence Bridge's tale is about yet another young couple in a carriage that were riding across the bridge and were killed when their spooked horse turned over the carriage. They fell to the creek below. The young woman is seen walking along the creek.

John T. Anderson Cemetery is located in Beaver County in the Independence Township. The cemetery served Service Creek Church, which was built along the banks of the Ambridge reservoir in the 1700's. The graveyard was officially named for Dr. John Anderson, the pastor of the church from 1788-1810. Weather gets weird around this cemetery. It is found at the end of the lane and when one reaches the cemetery, thunderstorms roll in as if on cue. Heading back out the lane leads the storm to dissipate. As if the lane itself triggers the weather phenomenon. Strange voices are heard on the air and people claim to feel that they are being watched. A soldier from the Civil War is buried here and some claim to see a ghostly vision of him still lying in his coffin above the grave.

Old Economy has a legend as well. The Harmony Society was like most religions and they expected chastity. People were to remain celibate until they were married. Melinda was a young follower of the religion who found herself in the very precarious position of being pregnant without being married. Melinda gave birth to the baby and the legend claims that it was more of a miscarriage. But reports that a baby haunts the basement where she buried it in the wall with a pair of gloves seems to indicate that there is a disturbed soul here. More than likely the result of murder. Melinda seems to have been so tormented that she haunts the building herself as well. An attempt was made to see if the remains of the baby could be found to help bring peace. That attempt went sour when a strong wind blew through the basement. Screen windows were blown out and the excavators ran out, leaving the search uncompleted to this day.

The borough of Baden is home to the Calvin Blazier House on State Street. Blazier was a captain of a riverboat and people referred to him as “The Patriarch of the Mississippi.” The home was built in the 1870s and Blazier moved into it in 1890. He lived in it for 50 years. A financial planning firm eventually ended up using the house for its offcies and that is when the reports of hauntings started. Gaylin Katterson was the office manager and she claimed that many odd things would happen. She was working late one night and had her children with her. She saw a child go streaking past here, making quite a commotion and tearing around. She was tired and exasperated as she hollared at her children to stop. The only problem was, this child was not her's and she realized that when he obeyed her order to knock it off and she turned to look at him. She was stunned to see a young boy dressed in knickers and a shirt with a stiff white collar. Then, he disappeared. Other poltergeist-like activity has been reported, but whatever it is, it seems playful.

The 1810 Tavern in Bridgewater is a popular pub and eatery in Bridgewater. They feature live music inside and poutide depending on season. A French Martini here is reported to taste like Gummy Bears. Sounds unusual, as do the reports of the resident ghost here. Employees report hearing disembodied footsteps and claim that doors and cabinets open and close on their own. Occassionally, the chandeliers can be seen swinging of their own accord just like at the Vicary Mansion. Apparently, this is another friendly ghost just looking for some fun at a pub.

Is the Vicary Mansion haunted? That is for you to decide!