HGB Ep. 650 - Brownella Cottage

Moment in Oddity - Parachuting Tylenol Mice

Shortly after WWII, invasive brown tree snakes arrived on Guam. The snakes hitched rides in shipping cargo and military planes moving through post-war Pacific locations. This species of snake originates from eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and northern Australia. The island of Guam has no native predators to check the population growth of the brown tree snakes, leaving the populations of native forest birds and lizards in jeopardy. The snakes quickly multiplied into millions across the island with all the ample native food supply. In 1995, research and development began using acetaminophen as a toxicant to reduce the brown tree snake population. By September of 2010, early field trials and small-scale airdrops of Tylenol mouse baits took place on Guam. Each neonatal pre-killed mouse was laced with 80 mg of acetaminophen. Brown tree snakes are scavengers, making the method of administration feasible, with little impact on the native wildlife. The mice were dropped by helicopters using a parachute system to snag the released mice in the forest canopy. The jungle canopy is where the snakes naturally hunt. The mouse parachutes were constructed of biodegradable streamers and cardboard. During the first test in 2010, a mere 250-280 mice were dropped. In 2013, a major operation dropped 2,000 mice into Guam's jungle canopy. Additional targeted drops occurred in both 2016 and 2018. The unusual method of invasive snake control has proven to be a highly effective, targeted tactical tool for reducing brown tree snake populations in specific, hard-to-reach forest canopy areas on Guam. Although they have not completely eradicated the massive island-wide population, the control method certainly is odd.

Brownella Cottage (Suggested by: Josh and Sarah Kitchen)

Brownella Cottage in Galion is said to be one of the most haunted locations in Ohio and has stood for nearly 140 years. While this is not a small house, it definitely has the appearance of a cottage and it has the distinction of having only the couple that built it, live in it. Bishop Brown was a controversial figure and he and his wife Ella are believed to haunt their former home. Join us for the history and hauntings of Brownella Cottage. 

Benjamin Leveridge and his two sons came to the future Galion in 1817. They would have found Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking groups like the Wyandot and Delaware who used this as a hunting ground. They would have a strong presence here through the 18th century. William Hosford and his sons Asa and Horace would arrive on the outskirts in 1820 and they would move more into the town center after Colonel James Kilbourne laid it out. A post office was opened in 1824 with the name of Goshen. This was changed to Galion after it was discovered that Ohio already had a city named Goshen, No one is sure how the name Galion came to be. Early settler Asa Hosford became a state legislator and he was integral in getting a rail line to come through. People call him the "Father of Galion." He built a home here in 1892 and it still stands. A dark mark in the town's history was the lynching of a black man in 1882 after he was accused of raping a white woman. Lustron homes are a rarity, but Galion has four of them. Lustron homes were prefabricated, all-metal homes that were produced after World War II. They were low-maintenance and durable, fashioned from enameled steel panels. Production ended in 1950. President Hardings wife came from Galion, which remains a fairly small town today. It was here that Bishop Brown would marry his wife and pastor Grace Church.

William Montgomery Brown was born on September 4, 1855 in Ohio, the son of a tenant farmer. The family moved to Michigan in 1858. When the Civil War started, William's father enlisted in the Union Army and served in Tennessee before becoming ill. He went back home and died on August 1, 1862 and William's mother decided to take the family back to Ohio. The family needed money and so William went to work for a farmer who was unkind.

Things would change for William when he turned 15 and the county placed him at another farm owned by a man named Jacob Gardner. Gardner was very religious and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, so he influenced William to follow this way of life. That was put to the test when William became ill with typhoid and close to death. He begged God to spare his life and in return he would devote his life to the ministry. Apparently, the bargain worked and William recovered. The farmer he had been with had given him money for his work and he used that to leave Ohio when he turned 21-years-old. He ended up in Omaha, Nebraska in 1876. His main job there was driving a carriage for a judge who was alarmed that William had no real education. The judge got William into school and he did well, graduating a couple years later. He moved back to Ohio after that and got a job in a tannery. William had a desire to go to seminary, but he didn't have the money for it. A Cleveland philanthropist named Mary Scranton Bradford agreed to underwrite his education at the Episcopal Seminary, Bexley Hall, at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, but first he had to do preparatory course work. This took him several years. He attended Seabury Divinity in Minnesota from 1879 to 1880 and then attended Bexley Hall, but never finished all his course work. He never received a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Bexley, but despite that, he became vicar of Grace Church in Galion, Ohio in 1883.

Shortly before that, in December 1882, William Brown married Ella Scranton Bradford, who was the adopted niece of Mary Scranton Bradford. So, the listeners can see why Mrs. Bradford was willing to foot the bill on William's education. She would pay to have Brownella Cottage built as a wedding present for the couple. 

The cottage was situated across the street from Grace Church. There was another brick structure on the property that had once been St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church. It was built back in 1866 and William would use this as his study. The cottage was built from 1885 to 1887 and was designed by Cleveland architect Clarence O. Arey in a mix of Queen Anne Victorian, Stick and Shingle and Gothic Revival. No expense was spared and reflected Mrs. Bradford's love of high style. There were 15 rooms and the most unique feature was added in the 1920s, a glass-enclosed hallway that connected the study to the main house. In 1891, William became the archdeacon for missionary work in the Diocese of Ohio and set about writing a book. This book would be named "The Church for Americans," which explained the beliefs of the Episcopal Church. The book proved to be very popular and gave him a bit of good renown. This spotlight on him later wouldn't be a good thing. Although he was vicar of Grace Church, the church consecrated him as assistant bishop of the state of Arkansas in 1898. He and Ella would live in Arkansas, but but they still spent several months of the year at Brownella Cottage. In the same year that he became assistant bishop, William received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Kenyon College. Shortly thereafter, the Bishop of Arkansas, Henry Niles Pierce, died and William became Bishop Brown over Arkansas. 

It was at this time that Bishop Brown started getting more vocal about more controversial views. He had some racist beliefs that supported segregation within the church. The Bishop didn't believe that blacks should be able to elevate in the church hierarchy of mostly white churches. He wrote in his 1907 book "The Crucial Race Question," that the only way for Black church members to go up in the ranks was to have their own church. This angered Northerners who had supported his church in Arkansas financially. And it seems so strange since he started his religious life in Ohio. 

Bishop Brown denounced these views later in life. There would be other stances that he would take though, that would get his own denomination to excommunicate him. The Bishop had written another book called "The Level Plan of Church Union" and this book rejected many practices of the Episcopal Church. Not surprising, this angered church membership and supporters. A conflict started brewing between Trinity Cathedral in Little Rock with the Bishop. The dean there refused to support this new book and didn't like the control the Bishop was wielding over the cathedral. Voices rose up against him and he was asked to leave, so he returned to Galion, Ohio in 1911. In 1912, he resigned as the bishop of Arkansas, citing poor health, but asking that he still be a member of the House of Bishops. This meant he could still vote in the House, but he never attended the House again. People started referring to him as the "Wandering Bishop" because he was a bishop without a diocese. He would make it even harder to get a diocese with more contentious views. With the free time on his hands, he started reading books written by Charles Darwin and Karl Marx and he started to watch what was happening in Russia. His mind started to be swayed and he would soon be on his way to the moniker he would be most famously known as, "Bad Bishop Brown."

By July 1913, the Bishop was announcing that he had converted to science.  He wrote to several Episcopal bishops, letting them know that he was changing his mind on several core tenets of not only the Episcopal denomination, but of the Christian faith. The key one being that he didn't believe that Jesus was the Christ and even more, he wasn't sure the man ever existed. He maintained that he still believed in God, but Christ was a myth to him. He wrote, "I no longer believed in a personal God, nor in a six-day creation, nor in a literal heaven and hell." The bishops reacted with strong hostility to his views, but they left him to be until he started promoting these ideas. 

In 1920, he published the book "Communism and Christianism: Banish Gods from the Skies and Capitalists from the Earth." And that did it. The House of Bishops charged him with heresy and then decided not to try him. They hoped he would just go away, but he remained a thorn in their side and in 1924, the Bishop of Vermont, the Bishop of Indianapolis and the Bishop of West Virginia brought heresy charges and a trial was conducted under Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Alexander Charles Garrett. Bishop Brown tried to prove to his fellow bishops that they believed like he did because they did not believe in a strict interpretation of the Bible. The Bishops had to make an example of him as 125,000 copies of his book had sold. And the book did, indeed, repudiate much of the tenets of the Christian faith. The Presentment cited twenty-three quotations from the book. An example from Pg. 90, "The one God of the Jews and the triune god of the Christians; if taken seriously, are superstitions." The bishop finally asked, "Is it my theology or my economics that is being attacked?" A 1924 article in Time Magazine ended a story about the event with "And thus, for differing reasons, every normal American objects to the aged and mentally warped Brown of Galion, Ohio." And that is what most of the bishops believed. That Bishop Brown was deranged. The trial found him guilty of heresy and he was deposed and excommunicated.

There were attempts to get him reinstated, but that never happened. The Russian Orthodox Church was connected to the Soviet authorities in Russia and they were open to the Bishop becoming part of them. The Old Catholic Church was also open to him. He chose the Catholic Church and they consecrated him as an Old Catholic bishop. Thus, many Old Catholic churches count Bishop Brown in the line of succession of their bishops.

Ella had inherited her mother's entire estate, so the couple were extremely well off with lots of real estate holdings in Cleveland. The land that the Terminal Tower was built upon was owned by Mrs. Bradford, so Ella and Bishop Brown got a large windfall from that. They would use some of the money to travel, but Ella was careful with the money. The Bishop had a real heart for the working class and when the Great Depression hit, the Browns bought truckloads of food for the poor. The Bishop was known for passing out nickels to the children. Ella passed away in 1935 and now that she wasn't around holding onto the purse strings, the Bishop started living extravagantly. When he traveled into Cleveland, he would stay in the most expensive hotels. And he would get there in his brand new Packard automobile. He also bought a plane eventually. The Bishop also kept up his writing on Communism and he hosted the head of the communist party in America, Earl Browder, on several occasions. His latter years were spent ill as the Bishop suffered from diabetes that took his eyesight. He died in 1937, on Halloween, at the age of 82 in Brownella Cottage. Both he and Ella are buried in Galion's Fairview Cemetery. The cottage sat empty for the next 50 years with a caretaker watching over it. 

The Galion History Center started in 1955 with six individuals and they bought the property and opened it as a museum. The property includes Brownella Cottage, the Historic Grace Church and the Galion History Museum that is housed in the carriage house. The house contains many of the Browns belongings and furnishings. 

The Center offers tours, ghost tours and public and private paranormal investigations. They are not shy about their ghosts. Staff, volunteers and visitors have all claimed to have experiences ranging from hearing disembodied footsteps and voices to doors opening and closing on their own to images caught on camera to full-bodied apparitions. The ghosts of both Ella and William Brown are purported to haunt Brownella Cottage. Stories claim that every Halloween night, the ghost of the bishop is seen walking the glass causeway between the house and the study. People on tours have reported the scent of pipe smoke even though there is no smoking allowed. Psychics have claimed that there is a young ghost named Patrick here, even though the Browns never had any children. Barry Moneysmith and his wife Cathy were members of the Galion Historical Society and they helped to host the paranormal investigations. They told the Heart of Ohio Magazine in 2014, "We have recorded some amazing EVPs (Electronic Voice Phenomena) that are direct answers to questions. K-2 meters measure EMF, or electro-magnetic fields, and we have communicated with spirits for long periods of time using the flashlight as a means of asking and answering questions. The dowsing rods are another way to make a connection. I’ve heard my name on EVPs, and I personally saw a full body apparition in the hallway just a week ago. Our communication has been constant and positive with the spirits. We find contact is divided into two parts, upstairs and downstairs. Upstairs we find the spirits who had the right to be upstairs in life — Ella, Mary and the family members. In the servants quarters we find the spirits of the servants are willing to talk to us. Downstairs we often make contact with family, friends and certain servants as well. EVPs recorded in the dining room often have the sound of dishes and silverware clinking in the background, and we’ve recorded what we believe is the Bishop whistling. The activity moves from place to place in the house, but it ends rather early. Generally by midnight or one o’clock, the house is still. I’ve spent the night at the house alone, and by 2 a.m. the house is as quiet as any house I’ve ever been in. We think the Browns were quiet, early-to-bed type people.” 

Season 2 Episode 10 of My Ghost Story on A & E featured the property. Parapsychologist Dr. John Douglas Gruber was interviewed on this episode and he snapped an interesting daylight image with a white shadowy figure that had a shape that looked like it was wearing something a bishop might wear. Upon seeing a picture of the Bishop in his coat and hat, we can say that the figure definitely looks to be wearing the same kind of hat. 

Doulgas captured an EVP of a man saying, "I'm fine, son." Douglas also asked, "Were you ever aware of spirits while you were alive?" The response was, "I believed in souls." He also asked the Bishop about his work and if he still had the same opinions and the response was, "My work is everything." A deacon named Greg Kirk was also on the episode and he was a caretaker who stayed at the cottage. The minute he moved in, he had an overwhelming feeling that he wasn't alone in the house. On his fifth night, he heard the sound of an old-fashioned bell. Kirk followed the sound down through the reception area and to a closed door. He opened the door and found an antique phone hanging on the wall inside of this closet. The phone wasn't hooked up. 

Skulls and Kittens investigated in 2021 and they used a Spirit Box. They asked, "Did you used to live here?" And a female voice came across the box and said, "Yes I did." They heard some knocking and the box said the name "Nick" twice and one of the investigators is named Nick. They also got a Max to come through and seemed to indicate he was nine-years-old. There was also a clear "Hi" from a child-like voice. They had a lot of equipment issues too.

Also located in Galion is the Gill House. Boomer Gill was born in 1859. He married Nellie Stewart in 1883 and they had four children. Gill became an automotive mogul and he became very wealthy. He built the Gill House in 1903 with architect Louis Kamper designing it in the neoclassical style. The house had a unique oval dining room and an intricate main staircase. They filled the home with the finer things, like a piano and a Victrola, and they hosted the likes of Thomas and Mina Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone. The Talbot family were the next owners and they had it from 1924 to 1956. The mother of Mr. Talbot came to live with them at the house and she died there. Preserving Galion, Inc. owns the house and paid off the debt on it in 2025. The city helped raise funds to put a new roof on the house. The house is said to be haunted and several groups have come though to investigate.  People believe the basement has the spirit of a Native American who is usually seen as a shadow figure. The spirit of a young girl is in the house and an older gentleman hangs out in the attic. There have been disembodied footsteps, phantom voices doors open and close on their own and people have been touched or had their clothes tugged. Travel With Austin was using a spirit box in the basement and they got the word "suffering" to come through. Later, he got his name to come across the box. There was mostly a female voice coming through the box. Paranormal Quest investigated the house 11 years ago. A caretaker of the house told them, "We have this recurring, and I don't know how to describe it other than to say this swirling mist kind of thing and it's about this far off the ground. It darts from room to room, that kind of thing." While investigating, two of the guys felt something fly in between them.

Galion is a cute small town with lots of historic treasures. There is a historic local train depot that hosted whistle-stop campaign speeches from U.S. Presidents including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Richard Nixon. And we have these two historic homes that could be haunted. Are they haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 649 - Haunted Abingdon, Virginia

This Month in History - The Birth of Louis Armstrong

In the month of August, on the 4th, in 1901, legendary trumpeter, singer and bandleader, Louis Armstrong was born. Armstrong was born into severe poverty in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a child, Louis worked odd jobs for a local family who loaned him money to buy his first cornet. He learned formal cornet playing at the Colored Waif's Home for Boys after a New Year's Eve arrest in 1912. Armstrong had the fortune to be mentored by local jazz pioneer, Joe "King" Oliver before he began playing professional gigs on Mississippi riverboats. In 1922, Armstrong moved to Chicago to join King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. He popularized scat singing with his 1926 hit "Heebie Jeebies". Scat singing is a style of vocal jazz improvisation where the singer uses wordless vocals and nonsense syllables instead of actual words. After World War II, manager Joe Glaser officially disbanded Louis Armstrong’s big band. It was then that Louis Armstrong began touring with his band 'Louis Armstrong and His All Stars'. In 1964, he recorded the most famous version of "Hello Dolly" which became a Billboard number-one hit and won Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Male Vocal Performance. Louis Armstrong was one of the most foundational and influential figures in jazz history. He died of a heart attack on July 6, 1971, at his home in Queens, New York. 

Haunted Abingdon, Virginia 

The small southern town of Abingdon in Virginia oozes charm with its large maple and dogwood trees lining the brick sidewalks of Main Street, which had once been a pioneer trail through the Blue Ridge Mountains. Quaint shops and eateries fill the 20-block historic district here and there are several haunted locations that make this one of America's most haunted small towns. Join us for the history and hauntings of Abingdon, Virginia. 

Main Street was once the Great Road that Native Americans and bison had traversed through the Blue Ridge Mountains before Thomas Walker arrived in 1748 to survey the area for the Loyal Land Company. The spot was known as Wolf Hills because a story claimed that Daniel Boone had camped here with his dogs in 1760 and that they had been attacked by wolves. Several pioneering men bought plots from Walker in 1765 and began to set up a town. In 1774, Joseph Black built a fort to protect the settlers from attacks by the Cherokee Nation and the town would take on the name Black's Fort. An act of the Assembly of Virginia would incorporate the Town of Abingdon in 1778 and then it would have a very important role in the Revolutionary War. In 1780, militias from North Carolina and Virginia gathered at the Muster Grounds in Abingdon and marched 300 miles to fight in Kings Mountain, South Carolina and this would be a turning point in the war. The name Abingdon is thought to have come from Abingdon-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, England, which was the ancestral home of Martha Washington's family. The railway would bring prosperity and the Civil War would bring destruction in December of 1864 when Union General George Stoneman’s cavalry forces raided the town, tore up railroad tracks, burned buildings and destroyed military supplies. The modern era brought the Theater District and the Market District. There are over 145 buildings in the historic district and they have played witness to most of this history and a few of them just may have spirits.

Barter Theater

There are two buildings that make up the Barter Theater. There is the Gilliam Stage at 127 W. Main Street and the Barter's Smith Theater across the street at 110 W. Main Street. The building in which the Gilliam Stage resides was constructed in 1831 for Sinking Spring Presbyterian Church. 

Eventually this was owned by the Sons of Temperance and they transferred the title to the Town of Abingdon in 1890. The building was then used as a town hall and later as a fire hall. Even after this is no longer a fire hall, the siren still sat on the roof and would sound when there was a big fire. This was there until 1994 and would occasionally interrupt performances. Barter’s Smith Theatre's building was constructed in 1829 as a Methodist church. Speaking of fires, a big one burned up the out buildings of the church in 1914, leaving only the main building. Martha Washington College used the building as a gymnasium and a storage area and in 1961, it became part of Barter Theater. Robert Porterfield was an out-of-work actor when he moved from New York City to Virginia in 1932. He was looking for a new beginning and he convinced 22 of his fellow actors to come with him. They founded the Barter Theater in 1933 in what would later be the Gilliam Stage. Their first show opened on June 10, 1933 and was a three-act drama called "After Tomorrow." The theater was packed because Porterfield had implemented an interesting system. The Great Depression had left most people without extra spending money, so patrons could barter crops and livestock for tickets. Hence the name, Barter Theater. This also gave the actors something to eat as they were poor too. That made this the longest-running professional equity theatre in the United States. Life magazine would call this system a "booming success" in 1939. This was a little tough on the actors who boarded at the theater because they had to deal with chicken and pigs running around the back of the theater.   

Porterfield heard that the Empire Theater in New York City was going to be demolished in the 1950s and he was given a weekend to get to the theater and pull everything out of it that he could. So he and the actors headed north and they salvaged $75,000 worth of seats, lighting fixtures and system (originally installed by Thomas Edison), carpeting, paintings, and tapestries. That lighting would be used in the theater until the 1970s. 

Both buildings have undergone several renovations through the years. The Smith Theater has 167 seats, making this an intimate theater. It was named Smith Theater in 2019 for Steve and Debbie Smith for their loyalty to the theater. The Gilliam Stage has seating for 506 patrons and features a traditional proscenium style theater. The Lounge was opened in 2018 for events. A couple of notable actors connected to the theater are Gregory Peck and Ernest Borgnine. Peck acted in five plays at the Barter Theatre during the 1940 season and Borgnine spent four and a half years performing with the Barter Theatre company. There is a secret tunnel under the theater and some lore claims that a Confederate soldier was killed in the tunnels while transporting some ammunition and he roams the property and if you see him, specifically his wound, you will die in two days. That tunnel also harbors a malevolent entity that was once said to have scared some carpenters working in the theater at night. They dropped their tools and wouldn't return. And the founder of the theater seems unable to let go of it. People have claimed to have seen him sitting in the audience or watching from his favorite opera box during live performances.

The Tavern 

The Tavern is located at 222 E. Main Street and is the oldest building in Abingdon and said to be the oldest pub in Virginia. The building was erected in 1779 to serve as a stagecoach stop for people on their way to Kentucky. This is a two-story Colonial style building constructed from hand-cut local limestone and logs. 

The tavern served as the first post office west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Some famous people who stayed here include Pierre Charles L’Enfant, Henry Clay, President Andrew Jackson and the King of France. The building would serve as a hospital during the Civil War and then a variety of things like a bank, a bakery, an antique shop, a general store, a private residence, a barber shop a cabinet shop and today as a fine dining restaurant. The wife of the founder of the Barter Theater, Mary Dudley Porterfield, bought it in 1965. Up to that point, from 1858 to 1964, it had been owned by descendants of Thaddeus Harris, who was a freed black man. Local attorney Emmitt F. Yeary owned the place next and then sold to Max Hermann in 1994. Josh Fuller worked for six years as general manager under Hermann and in 2019, he bought the restaurant from him and owns it still. Josh Fuller believes that the building is about 70% original and the interior features wooden beams across the ceiling, original fixtures and uneven brick flooring. And there is this glorious outdoor terrace. There are several spirits here. People hear disembodied footsteps and objects move on their own. This is one of our favorite nicknames for a ghost: The Tavern Tart. Obviously, this is a female apparition who is believed to have met a violent fate at some point in the tavern, although there is no specific evidence of this story. At least if you don't count getting a little pinch on the tush if you are a man. Men seem to get most of the attention from this ghost. Not only do they get pinched or grabbed, but they see her face in the window. What makes her haunting compelling is how similar stories are about her and these stories are coming from people who haven't heard of the ghost before. And there have been many of these experiences, so they are hard to ignore. 

James Wyatt's Horse

Some people claim to hear the galloping or clip-clopping of horse hooves on Main Street when there is no horse on the road. The ghostly horse is said to belong to Union Captain James Wyatt who was part of Stoneman's Raid. Major General Stoneman had a force of 6,000 men and their only job was to destroy stuff, which they did over 2,000 miles through six states. This would be one of the longest cavalry operations in military history. Wyatt decided to exact revenge in Abingdon because he had grown up there and he held a grudge over run-ins with authorities there as a youth. He set fire to the courthouse and this ended up burning the homes near it as well. Nearby Confederate cavalry soldiers went after Wyatt and they shot and killed him and his horse. And now that horse, and perhaps Wyatt atop the horse, still ride Main Street. 

The Valentine Baugh House

The Valentine Baugh House is located at 129 Main Street. The home started as a log house in 1798 that was built by Robert Dukes. A Federal-style expansion was added in 1807 by new owner, surveyor Valentine Baugh. The house encompasses the original log cabin built on the site. The house passed on through the family to Valentine's granddaughter Minnie Baugh who added a retail space on to the western side of the house. She operated it as an apothecary shop for ladies. Minnie and her sister Ethel organized the Washington County Historical Society. 

A story claims that Ethel fell in love with an intern at the hospital, but her father didn't want the two together. Ethel planned to elope, but before she could leave, her father locked her into her room on the second floor of the house. She never left the house and now people claim her spirit is still there. Cheré Dastugue Coen (shuh-RAY das-TIG-oo KOH-en) wrote on the Weird South website in 2020 about an experience a tour guide had at the house while dog-sitting. She wrote, "The current owner once asked Hietala to house-sit her dog for a week. The Assistant Haint Mistress would not pass up a chance at a haunted house, she told us, so she eagerly agreed. However, Hietala is more easily scared than she thought. She woke at 3 a.m. with the sound of a door creaking downstairs, right where the house opens to the store. 'I didn’t sleep that night,' she admitted. The second night she again woke at 3 a.m. with the same noise. About 30 minutes later, she felt as if someone was in the room with her, watching her. 'I felt every single hair on the back of my neck go straight up,” she said. “And it (the haint) did not want me there.' The next night Hietala moved to the living room where she left on all the lights as well as the TV. 'I binged watched ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’ and felt that if that can’t protect me, nothing will,” she related with a laugh. Guy Fieri let her down, however. The dog began barking in the dining room and wouldn’t stop. Hietala scooped up the pooch but the dog kept returning to the spot, looking at the door leading to the shop and barking. That was enough for our Assistant Haint Mistress. She grabbed the leash, the dog and her stuff and spent the rest of the week dog-sitting in her apartment."  

Martha Washington Inn

Across the street from the Barter Theater is the Martha Washington Inn at 150 West Main Street.  Most people call it simply The Martha. This started as the private residence of General Francis and Sarah Preston and their nine children. The General was a hero of the War of 1812 and he was retiring to Abingdon. 

The two-story house was completed in 1832 in the Federal style and built from brick. The porch has a one-story Ionic portico with massive double doors topped by a large fanlight. The interior featured a grand staircase, high ceilings and formal parlors on the first floor, with bedrooms on the second floor. The house was bought in 1858 by the founders of the Martha Washington College. This was an all woman college and was open for 70 years, closing during the Great Depression because it was no longer financially stable. During its tenure as the college, the Civil War started and a Confederate unit called the Washington Mounted Rifles trained on the college grounds. The school also served as a hospital and both sides brought their wounded here. The Victorian era brought the updates of another floor with a mansard roof and dormers. The valedictorian of the Class of 1880 was Nellie Nugent Somerville and she would go on to become the first woman elected to the Mississippi Legislature. Her daughter would also be elected shortly thereafter. Nellie was described as "a major liberalizing force in Mississippi for forty years." An expansion in 1913 brought brick wings to the east and west with front porticoes supported by Doric columns. The college closed in 1932 and sat vacant until it opened as the Martha Washington Inn in 1935. The main lobby of the inn is the former living room of the Preston family. The East Parlor holds a 9-foot Dutch-baroque grandfather clock that had been shipped over from England by a Preston daughter. Notable people who stayed at the hotel through the years include First Lady  Eleanor Roosevelt, President Harry S. Truman, Lady Bird Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and Elizabeth Taylor. 

The United Company bought the inn in 1984 and a multi-million dollar renovation was conducted. The Camberley was the next owner in 1995 and they rehauled everything, adding a spa, pool, tennis and pickleball courts and renovating guest rooms and they opened the Sisters American Grill. This is now part of their historic collection. And apparently, has several ghosts.

There are claims that slaves were kept down in the basement and that the basement is haunted with some of their spirits. The tunnel from the Barter Theater connects to tunnels at the house as well, so the malevolent entity that hangs out at the theater could be wandering around here too. Actors who used the tunnel to go from the theater to their rooms at the inn in the 1930s and 1940s, claimed to run into this spirit. Since the hotel had served as a hospital for a time, it isn't surprising that there might be a wounded Confederate soldier wandering around. He is usually seen hobbling along using a crutch for support and the strange thing about him is that he always leaves a trail of mud behind him. There was also a Union soldier who had been wounded and was at the hospital. He fell in love with one of the nurses while he was recovering. He was sent back to his regiment and then returned a while later to bring the nurse home with him. Confederate soldiers heard he was in the hospital and they shot him dead. A large pool of blood formed under him, leaving a bloodstain that no one can get out of the wood. Another version claims that it was two Union soldiers who killed a Confederate soldier whose girlfriend was attending the college. He had come to tell her goodbye and was shot and killed and he left behind the bloodstain that never goes away. Even when it is cleaned, it returns. Carpets over the area often develop mysterious holes over the stains. The most famous spirit here is Beth with her violin. She was a young lady at the finishing school who had volunteered to stay on and help tend wounded soldiers. Beth had a violin and she played it in the evenings to calm the nerves of the injured. One of these men was Captain John Stoves, a Yankee officer. He caught her eye and she played most often for him and the two fell in love. He actually asked her to marry him and she accepted. Unfortunately, his injuries were grave and eventually he succumbed to them. Beth was heartbroken. She herself caught typhoid fever and died a few weeks later. Now she has returned to the inn and is seen as an apparition in Room 403, where it is thought the Captain died. Female students at the college claimed to hear a ghostly violin playing and this has continued with employees and guests at the inn. 

Abingdon historic district has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1970 and seems like a great place to experience history going all the way to the Revolutionary War. Do we have some spirits going back to this time too? Are there other ghosts here? Are these places in Abingdon haunted? That is for you to decide! 
      

HGB Ep. 648 - Haunted Cheltenham

Moment in Oddity - Poop Chisel Rescue

There is a legend about a famous Arctic explorer, anthropologist and author named Peter Freuchen (FROY kuhn). He was a large Danish adventurer, standing at 6 foot 7 inches. He spent years mapping uncharted areas of Greenland and helped establish the well-known Thule trading post. However, one thing Freuchen (FROY kuhn) is most well known for are his stories of extreme survival. In 1923, he was traveling with his Arctic sled dog team when a terrible storm demobilized them. He took shelter under his sled and remained there for 30 hours. Once the storm passed, Freuchen (FROY kuhn) discovered that he was unable to escape his icy shelter with his bare hands. Thinking swiftly, he made a BM deposit and shaped it to form a chisel. Once frozen, Freuchen (FROY kuhn) used the turd tool to tear through the solid ice to free himself of his tomb. In addition to this terrifying tale, after hiking 3 hours to safety, he used a pliers and hammer to remove three of his toes that were frost bitten beyond repair. In 2019, a study from Kent State University was released, covering experimental archeology. They wanted to see if frozen feces could really prove to be a valuable tool in emergency circumstances. I for one would NOT wish to be a conductor of this experiment. To simulate a close excrement dietary match, one of the experimenters consumed a high protein and fatty acids diet for 8 days. Fecal samples were molded to replicate knives and chisels. They were stored at -20 degrees Celcius. Unfortunately, despite their best effort, the anthropologists' experiences with the turd tools simply deteriorated upon usage. One scientist said, "It was like a brown crayon". Nothing came close to the capability described by Freuchen (FROY kuhn). Was this legend supplied by a larger-than-life man true, or was he just full of....cough, well, you know. either way, this story certainly is odd.

Haunted Cheltenham (Chelteh num)

Cheltenham in Britain is a wealthy, historic spa town that is a renowned center of cultural activity featuring wonderful Regency architecture. The town has been described as an unspoiled Cotswold town and it lies in the center of the Cotswolds. The very first major investigation by the Society for Psychical Research took place in Cheltenham and the results inspired the story of The Woman in Black. This is a very haunted place with stories of poltergeists, banshees, phantoms, headless horsemen and ghosts of military men and monks. Join us for the history and hauntings of Cheltenham, Britain. 

A church was in Cheltenham as early as 803, probably from Celtic origin with an early name referring to being a settlement on a steep hill. Documents reveal a substantial settlement with markets and fairs in 1223. The Cotswold area was known for sheep herding with cot meaning "sheep enclosure" and wold meaning "hills." The land was unsuitable for farming. Three mineral springs were discovered in 1716 and Cheltenham became a health and holiday spa town, under the direction of Captain Henry Skillicorne. He had inherited the property through his marriage to Elizabeth Mason. He built a pump to regulate water flow. A billiard room and ballroom were also built. Horse racing is popular here and started in 1815. King George III visited in 1788. The United States Army Services of Supply used Cheltenham as its primary headquarters and this became a giant storage depot for countless trucks, jeeps, tanks and artillery pieces for the D-Day invasion. Several cultural festivals are held here annually. And many locations apparently have ghosts. During the English Civil War that was fought from 1642 to 1651, there were numerous skirmishes around Cheltenham. The town was involved in the Siege of Gloucester and the Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold. Roundheads supported a constitutional monarchy with a Parliament holding supreme control and the term started as a form of derision since they kept their hair closely cropped. Oliver Cromwell and his Parliamentarians won the Civil War and King Charles I was executed in 1649. The Cavaliers had supported King Charles I and supported an absolute monarchy. Roundhead and Cavalier apparitions are seen all around the area. 

Ellenborough Park

What would become Ellenborough Park started with a tenant farmer named Thomas Goodman who built a house block by block in 1485, carting much of the supplies from his former home in Southam. The ancient Great Hall contains remnants going back to this time with Goodman's original coat of arms on the front door and there are bullet holes left over from the Civil War. 

Goodman didn't finish the house before he sold it in 1520 to Sir John Huddleston and he dedicated himself to finishing the place. His granddaughter, Eleanor De la Bere, became the next owner in 1554 and she lived there with her family for many years and then the house passed to her son Richard. Each of these owners has a crest still representing them in the manor house. The De la Bere family would hold the house for over 200 years and in 1788, King George III would stay here when he visited the spa waters in Cheltenham. Edward Law bought the house in 1833. He was said to have been a brilliant orator, which may be why he was quite vain and apparently had a tumultuous marriage to Lady Jane Digby. Lady Jane was 17 when she married the 32-year-old Law in 1824. She was the most famous debutante in London and highly sought after, so one would think Law would pay her a lot of attention. That wasn't the case. Remember, he was vain. His political career was everything to him and he ignored Lady Jane and cheated on her multiple times. So, she retaliated against him by having affairs, the first with her cousin Colonel George Anson. She got pregnant and had a son and Law accepted the child happily even though it probably wasn't his. She caused a huge public scandal by having an affair with Prince Felix Schwarzenberg of Austria. There was no secrecy to this affair and she was quite boisterous about it. She also got pregnant again and there was no chance that it was Law's child because they hadn't been around each other in months. Law, who was also known as Lord Ellenborough, divorced Lady Jane in 1830 and she became a social outcast. Jane had an amazing life. We encourage listeners to look her up. She went on to be married three more times - the final time to a sheik, she had affairs with two kings, gave birth to five children, and lived a life that would have scandalized any woman on earth, but she was happy to be free to live as she wished. 

Ellenborough added towers to the house to make it look more castle-like. He brought back relics from Indian Palaces and they still are a part of the building. In 1871, Ellenborough died and Mrs. Ratcliff and her daughters Lilian and Phyllis lived in the home through the World Wars. They held parties in the manor and nursed soldiers back to health. 

In 1947, the manor became a high school for girls and remained that until the school closed in 1972. The house became a hotel in 1973 named De la Bere and was open until financial difficulties caused its closure in 2008. A three-year refurbishment took place at that time. The hotel officially became Ellenborough Park in 2011 and featured 61 rooms on 90 acres of grounds. There is a bar and restaurant here as well. Guests and staff have reported seeing the spirit of a former matron of the girls' school. She was a harsh woman who terrorized the pupils. The matron was dismissed from her position and she was unable to cope with that and herself in her bedroom. The hotel bar is now where that room had been and her spirit haunts the bar, appearing as a distinct figure. Guests have reported waking in the middle of the night and seeing the figure of a woman hovering over their beds. One of the stories goes back to the De La Bere Hotel era. A businessman was attending a conference in Cheltenham and he checked into the hotel late. He told the front desk the next day that he awakened around 3am with an overwhelming sense of being observed. When he opened his eyes, he saw a woman in a period dress standing at the foot of his bed. He was frozen in bed until she vanished a minute later. He checked out and went to another hotel. A maintenance worker also saw the woman during an early morning shift. He was walking in a hallway when he noticed a woman at the far end of the hall, wearing a period dress. At first he thought it was a guest because it entered a room, but this was the room he needed to fix a plumbing issue in and no one answered the door. He opened the locked door and found the room empty. The worker later checked with the front desk and was told that no guest was registered in that room. 

People claim to have a feeling of being watched and cold spots are felt throughout the building. Now this is Britain where cold spots throughout an old building seem normal, but these cold spots move around as if something unseen passes through the space. A former bartender recalled an evening when she felt an intense cold pass through her body that lasted several seconds. She was left shaking. She turned to see if the door was open, but it was sealed tight. 

The Ivy Montpellier Brasserie (mawn-pel-yay brah-suh-ree)

The Ivy says on its website, "Since 1917, The Ivy has been synonymous with refined dining in the heart of the West End. Today, that legacy continues at The Ivy Montpellier Brasserie (mawn-pel-yay brah-suh-ree) - celebrated as one of the best Cheltenham restaurants, blending timeless British classics with impeccable hospitality." The restaurant is located in a beautiful Victorian building on the town's Promenade and is known for its high-end cuisine. Henry Thompson opened the original Montpellier (mawn-pel-yay) Spa on this spot in 1809. A new building was built to replace the original in 1817 and this was designed by George Allen Underwood. J.N. Papworth bought the building and added the rotunda dome in 1825 and continued running this as a spa until people weren't interested in the waters anymore. The place was transformed into a concert and dance hall and the rotunda proved perfect for that. A bank moved into the building in 1882 and became Lloyds Bank in 1926.  Abel Giandolini opened the original Ivy in 1917. He was joined by Mario Gallati a few years later. There are several locations and this one in the Montpellier (mawn-pel-yay) Rotunda was opened in 2017.

There are some lingering spirits here. Staff and patrons have claimed to hear disembodied voices and whispers and there are unexplained chills in parts of the building. The lights flicker and turn off and on by themselves. No one is sure who she is, but a female ghost in a period dress has been seen a few times on the upper level of the restaurant. 

The Old Courthouse

British architect Thomas Charles Sorby designed the old courthouse in the Italianate style and built it between 1869 and 1871. The building had a large public waiting area on the ground floor and there was also a clerk's office and the Counsel and Solicitors Room. The first floor had the court chamber with public benches and the court room separated by Corinthian columns. There was also an office for the judge. The basement was the jail. The courthouse was built in response to changes being made in the local civil court system. This was an effort to nationalize the recovery of small debts and set up 60 districts with a judge over each district. Juries were made up of five people and they had to rule unanimously. This courthouse was open until the beginning of the 21st Century, closing in 2005. The reason for closure was that it had fallen into considerable disrepair. One judge said of his time in the courthouse, "We rarely had a jury in court. However, I recall one case that lasted five days that required one. They sat each day in hats, scarfs, coats and gloves with electric fan heaters warming their feet. Such was the design and disrepair of the old building that it was either freezing cold or tropically hot due to the large glass feature in the ceiling. When it rained the water would dribble down the electric cables that the lights were suspended from and drip onto my chair." An Italian restaurant moved in for awhile and then the gastropub Brunning and Price moved in and did a proper remodel to the building, retaining its historic charm, but upgrading everything. A bar now replaces the judge's bench. The original Court Chamber is still here with marbled columns and wood-paneled docks. The old prison cells are still in the basement. The gastropub opened in 2018. They feature over 130 types of gin.

Patrons and staff claim to occasionally hear the banging of a judge's gavel. A shadowy male ghost in period dress is seen in the jail area and some think he might be a former inmate there. Slamming doors are heard as well as disembodied footsteps. People claim to have the unsettling feeling of being watched as well.  

The Cheltenham Theatre

The Cheltenham Theater is on Bath Road and fittingly, is started out as a bathhouse. Henry Thompson built it in 1806 and named it Thompson's Baths. This was a small bathhouse with six baths and a small laboratory for pulling the salts out of the water to be sold for medical use or for people to add to their own baths. These were called The Real Cheltenham Salts. The selling of the salts was very successful and Thompson enlarged the lab in 1818. Two years before that, in 1816, author Jane Austen visited the baths. Thompson died in 1820 and his son Pearson took over management and he added to the building, installing more wash baths and a large swimming pool in 1847. A mill and bakery would be added as well. The Great Flood of 1855 came through and did quite a bit of damage. The insurance company foreclosed on Pearson and he lost the bathhouse. The Cheltenham Montpellier Gardens Company took over the property and made renovations in 1862. In 1898, the Corporation of Cheltenham bought the property and they closed the bath for two years. This reopened as the Montpellier Baths in 1900 with a refurbished swimming pool that was covered over in the winter for indoor cricket and dinners for soldiers during World War I. In 1940, it was covered over for good. The medical baths were still open through all of this. Local civic theaters were being opened in towns and Cheltenham didn't want to be left behind so they started looking at the bathhouse as a possible place to open a temporary theater. In 1945, this opened as the Civic Playhouse. In 1954, it was decided to make the playhouse permanent under the Cheltenham Theatre & Arts Club. Today, this runs as an intimate 186-seat theatre, with a wide range of performances and events.

Several people died in the building over the years. A Captain William Layman was found in the bath with his throat cut. Josiah Jessop had lived here and managed the baths and he suffered a short illness in 1881 and died. Lillian earl Davies was 11-years-old and at the baths with her school mistress who left her unattended. The girl pulled the two supporting pins out of a gymnasium vaulting horse and it fell on her, killing her. 

The ghost of a little girl is seen and people believe that this is Lillian. After one play, a patron went to the front office and said they had liked the play, but couldn't understand the point of the little girl who sat on the edge of the stage through the whole second act. The person in the front office had no idea what this patron was talking about. One evening, the man working the spotlight reported to the stage manager that a little female actress was sitting cross legged on the side of the stage, far enough out that the audience could see her. The stage manger radioed back, "What little actress?" She didn't see her. An adult female ghost is seen on one of balconies. It is thought that this was Florence Hudson, the wife of the superintendent of the Baths, who died in 1948. Her disembodied voice is also heard. The theater's website reported, "An electrician was carrying out testing throughout the building in 2009 and, on returning to the main office, reported that while on the top floor he kept feeling as if someone was behind him, watching him, enough that he turned around several times to check. He realised after the third time, he said, that it was merely his brain playing tricks on him and he was responding to the noise of someone moving furniture around in the room below. There was, of course, no one in the locked room below and no furniture to be moved around."

Ross Andrews wrote in his book Paranormal Cheltenham:

The Bottle of Sauce

The Bottle of Sauce is one of several pubs owned by the Dodo Pub Company and is located on Ambrose Street. This was the third pub they had opened and the largest. The name is cockney rhyming slang for horse. There had once been a railway station nearby named the Great Western Railway Cheltenham Spa Station and this was the Railway Tavern. We couldn't find a date for when it was built, but there seems to have been a smaller building on the site going back to 1848. The hotel would become the Railway Hotel in 1883 and was owned by the Stroud Brewery from 1891 to 1903. It would later change its name to the St. James Hotel because it was located in St. James Square. This probably happened in the 1970s. The building went through a series of owners through all these years with Dodo Pubs acquiring in and opening The Bottle of Sauce in 2016 after a major renovation. 

This is said to be Cheltenham's most haunted pub, although the activity here seems to run the same cycle as all the others with cold spots, flickering lights and disembodied voices. There are stories of two ghosts here. One is the apparition of a man in period clothing and the other is of a small boy and this one was caught on the pub's CCTV back in 2018. To us it just looked like a secondary reflection on the glass of the entrance doors. The child ghost is often seen walking across the garden late at night and making his way to the games room in the building.

Yates

Yates is a lively sports pub located at Promenade House on Crescent Terrace. This was the former Gloucestershire Echo Building. That was the local paper. It moved in 1997. Before that it was a private residence built by Charles Henry Hale in the first half of the 19th century. Yates is Britain's oldest pub chain going back to brothers Simon and Peter Yates from Preston. In 1994, it became a public company and has 70 locations today. Patrons and staff have seen a spirit that looks like a man in old-fashioned clothing wandering the upper floors. He is thought to be a guest who died in the hotel. Objects have been known to move on their own and glasses have mysteriously shattered.

Cheltenham General Hospital 

The Cheltenham Hospital was originally opened in 1813 as the Cheltenham Provident Dispensary. It moved to the Seward House in 1839 and changed its name to Cheltenham General Hospital, which is what it remains today. A new building for it was built in 1848 as designed by D. J. Humphries and the hospital is still in that building today. It joined the National Health Service in 1948 abd features 16 wards and a number of specialist departments. The ghost that haunts this location is nicknamed "The Gray Lady" and is seen both dressed in an old-fashioned nurse uniform or wearing a grayish shroud. She is generally seen standing directly outside the mortuary entrance. Several employees have gone running when they have seen her. 

The Cheltenham Ghost

And then finally we have the most famous ghost in the town and one that probably all the listeners are familiar with and that is the Woman in Black. She's technically known as The Cheltenham Ghost. This particular haunting came onto the radar  for the Society for Psychical Research in London because one of the members' mothers lived in Cheltenham. This member was Frederic Myers and the investigation into this haunting would be the first for the SPR. One could say that this was the birth of ghost hunting. The SPR was founded in London in 1882 by Henry Sidgwick, Frederic Myers, and Edmund Gurney. The SPR went forward with the purpose of "investigating mesmeric, psychical and ‘spiritualist’ phenomena in a purely scientific spirit." These weren't people who automatically believed in ghosts. Leaders of the group created a framework with which to go forward with study and they started a scholarly journal for reporting their research. Most members were prominent figures in science and philosophy and they wanted to be respected. Coming from this scientific basis, the group became adept at spotting fake mediums and were not misled by tricks. Investigations were conducted into all varieties of psychical phenomenon from hypnotism to mental telepathy to apparitions to haunting activities. The first volume written on this research, "Phantasms of the Living,"  was published in 1886. Seven hundred personal experiences were cataloged in the book and Edmund Gurney concluded that most were a form of telepathically-generated hallucination caused by life-threatening situations. So definitely something paranormal, but not necessarily spirits. 

This case involved the Despard family who had moved into a house on Pittville Circus Road. When Frederic Myers published the story, he changed the name of the family to Morton, so in some places it is referenced as The Morton Case or The Morton Ghost. 

Before the Despards moved in, the house had been empty for several years and was the subject of many ghost stories. A former market garden had been on the site at the corner of Pitville Circus Road and All Saints Road, so the house that was built here was named Garden Reach. The house was built in 1864 in the Victorian style and was four-stories tall and sat on a large acreage. Henry Swinhoe, a solicitor from Calcutta, bought the house and he moved into it with his wife Elisabeth Francis Higgins. The couple had five children. Elisabeth died at the age of 35 in 1866. Four years later, he married Imogen Hutchins of Clifton, Bristol. The couple fought often with the fact that Henry had hidden his deceased wife's jewelry in a secret hiding place under the drawing room floor being a source of consternation. Imogen wanted that jewelry, dammit. The couple were alcoholics on top of that and separated in 1876. Henry died a few months later and left the house empty for awhile. Benjamin Littlewood moved into the house in 1879 and renamed the mansion "Pitville Hall." And then, he was dead in a month. 

The house sat empty again until 1882, when Irishman Captain Frederick W. Despard moved his family into the house and named it Donore. His first wife had died in 1858 and he had remarried to a woman named Harriet. The couple had six children together and Henry had an older daughter from his first marriage, but she was already off and married. 

The eldest child in the home was named Rosina and she is apparently the first one to see the ghost.  Rosina was 19-years-old when the appearances started and she wrote a friend about these sightings. That friend was Miss Catherine Campbell and she shared details of the haunting while not giving the actual letters to SPR because they contained private and personal details that some have surmised might mean the women were lovers. In June 1882, Rosina wrote, "The figure was that of a tall lady, dressed in black of a soft woolen material, judging from the slight sound in moving. The face was hidden in a handkerchief held in the right hand (...)on further occasions, when I was able to observe her more closely, I saw the upper part of the left side of the forehead, and a little of the hair above. Her left hand was nearly hidden by her sleeve and a fold of her dress. As she held it down a portion of a widow's cuff was visible on both wrists, so that the whole impression was that of a lady in widow's weeds." Rosina saw this apparition six more times over the next two years and she only told Miss Campbell about this. She didn't share any of these sightings with her family. Frederic Myers would obtain pictures of both of Henry Swinhoe's wives and asked Rosina if she recognized either woman and she said the apparition looked like Imogen Swinhoe. Now, Rosina goes on to become a medical doctor, so she was given to flights of fancy. And she should have said something to her family because she wasn't the only one seeing the woman. The eldest sister who was married, Freda, saw a figure across the hallway one night and thought it was a guest. A nun to be exact since the figure appeared to have a veil. A housemaid saw the figure in the house and though it was an intruder. A few months after these sightings, a young son named Wilfred was just outside the drawing room on a terrace, playing with a friend, when he saw a woman near the window he didn't recognize. She appeared to need help and he went inside and found the drawing room empty. When he asked a maid if she saw a woman leave the drawing room, she told him that they were the only ones home. So now, several family members have seen this figure over a couple of years.

The sightings would continue from 1882 to 1889 with them being at their height in 1886. Another sister, Edith, felt something she couldn't see pass her on the stairs. The only people who hadn't experienced anything were the Captain and his wife Harriet. Rosina finally told them what she had been experiencing. The Captain believed her and asked the landlord if anyone else in prior years had seen a spirit. The landlord wasn't forthcoming with information. 

In total, 17 people would report this woman in black, so there was something to the stories. Frederic Myers' report said that the woman in black was not seen after 1889, but people still heard disembodied footsteps in the house for a while after that and then the haunting just seemed to stop. A solicitor named George Gooding wrote to the SPR in 1944 that he had been friends with one of the Despard boys and he remembered two haunting experiences of seeing the woman in black. One time, he saw the figure during the day in the garden. No one in the house was wearing a black mourning dress. The second time was in the drawing room and he and the Despards tried to make a ring around the figure and "she appeared merely to walk out between two people and then disappeared." The house then became a boys' boarding school and a few of the boys said that the would see a woman in black in the corridors. Then the house was St. Anne's and a diocesan house for the diocese of Gloucester and there was only one sighting during that time. In 1973, the diocese sold the house and it was turned into apartments and that is what it remains today. We haven't heard of any experiences in the apartments. There are those who hypothesize that the Captain had a mistress and this woman was concealing herself as she left the house. Other people wondered if the family was just hallucinating the haunting. It seems pretty tough to debunk 17 people all seeing the same thing. 

Cheltenham is a fascinating and unique town in that it was founded as a spa town. Water and minerals help to feed paranormal activity. Is it possible that this is why the town seems to be so haunted? Are these locations haunted? That is for you to decide! 

HGB Ep. 647 - Haunted Lithuania

This Month in History - Boris Yeltsin Elected

In the month of July, on the 10th, in 1991, Boris Yeltsin became the first popularly elected president in Russian history. Prior to Boris Yeltsin, the country's leaders were not chosen by regular citizens. Instead, they were appointed by the Communist Party. Before the Communist Party, hereditary Tsar Rule had governed the country for centuries. In 1990, the system began to change. Russia held its first competitive, multiparty election for a new legislature. When Yeltsin ran as an independent, he had been up against five other opponents. His main rival was the official Communist Party candidate, Nikolai Ryzhkov (RIZZ-kawf). Other challengers included Vladimir Zhirinovsky and three independent candidates. Yeltsin won in the first round. During the 1991 Presidential speech, Yeltsin broke from Soviet tradition. He did not address the crowd as 'comrades' and began his speech by declaring that the presidency was not a god-like role, but a responsibility to the people. He was also blessed by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, marking a symbolic return to pre-Soviet cultural roots. In 1996, Boris Yeltsin ran for reelection. On the initial ballot, Yeltsin faced 10 choices, but because none of those candidates won a majority in the first round, the race went to a run-off between Yeltsin and the top rival, Gennady Zyuganov (Guh-NAH-dee ZSHOO-gah-nauv) with Yeltsin winning the final vote by 53.8%. Boris Yeltsin's time as President lasted eight years, with his unexpected resignation on New Years Eve in 1999, paving the way for Vladimir Putin to take over the presidency. 

Haunted Lithuania 

Human settlement goes back thousands of years in the region of the Baltics that would become Lithuania. Like so many Baltic states, it went from being a significant regional power to one that was subjugated by the Soviet Union for decades. This is a proud land that has its own legends and haunted locations. Join us for the history and hauntings of Lithuania. 

Lithuania is in Northern Europe on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. It shares borders with Latvia, Belarus, Poland and Kaliningrad.The first written record of Lithuania dates back to 1009 AD. Settlements here obviously go back some 10,000 years, but the Baltic people known as Lithuanians show up about that time. They would conquer neighboring lands and establish a Kingdom of Lithuania and a Grand Duchy of Lithuania. They were a formidable power and eventually became the largest state in Europe in the 15th century. Their lands ran from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. A dynastic union would be formed with Poland and this Polish-Lithuanian state lasted through to 1795. The dissolution of this was because the Russian Empire had conquered this area and Lithuania would remain under Russian rule until the 20th century. Lithuania became its own democratic state in 1918, but was occupied by the Soviet Union during World War II, then the Nazis for a bit and again by the Soviets. Lithuania remained under Soviet control for almost 50 years after that, but regained its sovereignty in 1991. Lithuania joined NATO and the European Union in 2004. Many of its beautiful historic buildings are rumored to be haunted and there is a legend or two embraced by this land. 

The Black Ghost

Klaipeda (kluh pay duh) is a quaint seaside town in Lithuania that was founded by the Teutonic Kings in the 7th century and is the country's third largest city. Much of the architecture dates back to the 13th century, so it makes for a great walking tour. 

As one walks along the waterfront in the city's Old Town near Memel Castle, they are sure to be startled by a bronze sculpture that appears to be emerging from the water and leaning over the dock. The creepy figure holds a lantern in one hand and his other hand grips the dock. This thing is cloaked with no face and seems to be slithering. The sculpture is nearly 8 feet tall and was sculpted by Svajunas Jurkus (SVAH-yoo-nahs YOOR-kooss) and Sergejus Plotnikovas (SUR-gay-us PLOT-nee-kov-ahss). The story behind the Black Ghost is that the village of Klaipeda (kluh pay duh) was facing an impending famine that would be so devastating, the entire village would surelu be wiped out. In walks this mysterious hooded figure who made an appearance to a castle guard that was walking the docks in 1595. This figure asked the guard about the town's grain and timber supply. The ghostly presence said that they needed to make sure it was adequate. The guard responded that they had a good supply. The figure wanred that their stocks would run low soon and that they needed to prepare. the town was saved and they give credit to the Black Ghost for helping them.  

Hill of Witches

The Hill of Witches isn't really a haunted location, but it is an interesting area for people of our ilk. This is a forested sculpture park in the village of Juodkrantė (ywood-KRAHN-teh) located on a forested sand dune that was begun in 1979. Over the years it has grown to 80 wooden sculptures that line a series of trails. There is a tradition of woodcarving in the region and artists drew inspiration from this, carving figures from Lithuanian folklore and pagan traditions.

Hill of Crosses

The Hill of Crosses is steeped in legends of ghosts, miracles and heroic acts of defiance and is located about 7 miles outside of the town of Siauliai (show lay) in northern Lithuania. This old earthen mound has become a site of pilgrimage for local people because of the thousands of crosses that have been placed upon it. These crosses and crucifixes are laden with rosaries and other holy relics and are constructed from wood and metal. The tinking of these items gives the hill an eerie sound. The Soviet Union wanted to crush any religious overtones in the countries it conquered and so they made an attempt to level the hill with bulldozers and they burned the wooden crosses and removed the metals one. They threatened anyone who put crosses on the hill with fines and jail time. But this didn't dissuade the locals who would put crosses on the hill in the dead of night. The Soviets gave up after a while. A local historian named Vilius Puronas (VEE-lyus poo-RAWN-as) said of the hill, "The Hill of Crosses doesn’t really belong to anyone, and thus belongs to all. Neither church nor government has any claim to it, and people bring crosses here not because they are told to, but because they feel inspired to. For some people, the Hill of Crosses is a place of contemplation and prayer. For others, it symbolises defiance and resistance in the darker times. And for others still, it’s an extraordinary occurrence in the humdrum of the ordinary life. None of them are wrong." He added, "The hill has many secrets. According to folklore, there was once a church where the hill now stands. During a terrible storm, lightning struck the church and the tempest buried it under sand and rock with everyone still inside. Locals say that you can glimpse a ghost procession of monks at the foot of the hill at sunrise. Throughout the ages, magical appearances, visions of saints and sightings of ghosts have been a part of the hill’s history."

That is a more pleasant legend than another told about the hill. This one claims that there had been a wooden castle here in the early 1300s that was held by a pagan group. This castle was destroyed by the Order of the Brothers of the Sword who were German warrior-monks that were bringing Chrisitianity by the sword. Members of the group who survived the onslaught, piled their dead comrades on top of each other and buried them like that, so that it made a mound. It is said the souls of the fallen pagan warriors haunt the hill at night.

And there is a third legend. There was a young girl who was gravely ill and her father kept watch at her bedside. He had a vision of a woman and this woman instructed him to fashion a cross from wood and to place it on a nearby hill. Now this sounds almost like he is being told to prepare a grave,  but the woman said the daughter would recover if he did that. The next morning, he made the cross and placed it on the hill and when he got home, his daughter greeted him at the door and she was all well. When the town heard about this, they all started leaving crosses on the hill in order to get their prayers answered. 

Villa Anapilis (ah-NAH-pih-lis )

Villa Anapilis (ah-NAH-pih-lis) is a famous historic resort villa that was built in 1898 for the Countess Sofija Tiškevičienė (tish-keh-vee-CHYAH-neh), who was the mother of the last Count of Palanga. The villa was originally named for her. 

After World War I, the Lithuanian Agricultural Bank bought the property and the President of Lithuania used it as a vacation spot, as did other dignitaries. The building was nationalized after World War II and used as residences before becoming the Jūratės (YOO-rah-teh) sanatorium club, which was a recreational club. After the Soviet occupation, the building was transferred to the Palanga Cultural Center and became a famous Anapilis Music Club. There are some interesting legends connected to this villa. First, the name Anapilis itself means "the other world" or "the afterlife." The reason that nickname probably came around was because the Countess who was the original owner, enjoyed a seance or two. She had her own summoning room, which had mirrors all around it, up in the attic. The mirrors were strategic because she wanted to trap the spirits she summoned, so they couldn't return to wherever they stay on the other side of the veil. Towards the end of her life, she was quite ill and had wind chimes installed inside the villa because they made her feel better. People claim to hear these ghostly wind chimes when passing by the outside. The spirit of Sofia is said to haunt the premises too. People have claimed to see her full-bodied apparition. The mournful sounds of trapped spirits are also heard. 

Norviliškės (nor-VEEL-ish-kays) Castle

Norviliškės (nor-VEEL-ish-kays) Castle is located in the southeasternmost part of Lithuania on the external border of the European Union. The castle was built in the 16th century for a rich merchant from Marienburg, and his wife who was a Countess. 

When he died, she invited the Franciscan ‘little brothers’ from Vilnius to come and spread Christianity in the region. She signed over the castle, outbuildings and land to them by a founding act signed in 1617. Now the castle was a friary and the monks set out to build a church on the estate. The Franciscans would stay until 1832, when Poland and Lithuania broke away from the Russian Empire. The Russian government took over the property and they shut down the friary. The church was dismantled and the manor house became a barracks. Soldiers would stay here until the early 20th century. The military moved out in 1904 and the castle became a girls’ school that operated until the First World War. The castle was abandoned at that time and deteriorated until it was rescued from demolition and renovated into a hotel and restaurant. Many of the offerings are from medieval recipes and there are tours offered that are hosted by a monk who shares about the history of the castle and Medieval eating habits. The legend here is that a monk fell in love with a local woman and he decided to annul his vows at the Vatican. He brought his love to the castle for safety, especially since she was pregnant. She gave birth to a girl while the monk was gone and she named the child Emilia. Some time had passed and Emilia grew to be at least a toddler. The monk returned after the Uprising and he found that his love and daughter had both died during that and he was devastated. The apparition of Emilia has been seen riding on a wooden horse in a room of the castle. The mother is also said to haunt the castle.

Siesikai Castle

Siesikai (Sye-sye-kye) Castle was built in the early 16th century on the southern shore of the lake of the same name. This is one of the few Renaissance-styled castles that remain in Lithuania. The castle was heavily fortified with a deep water filled moat on three sides and openings for shooting. Over the years, the castle has been added to and renovated, so that elements of Baroque and Classicism have been added. 

The 17th century brought wall paintings inspired by ancient mythology that were done by Italian engraver Antonio Tempesta. The castle seems to have pagan origins as well because the windows and doors are oriented in such a way that during the solstice and equinoxes the Sun creates a unique spectacle within the castle. Some believe that the Italian cultural movement of Renaissance Neoplatonism inspired the construction in this way. The castle passed through the Radziwiłłs (rah-JEE-veev) and Daugėla (DOW geh lah) families through the 18th and 19th centuries until the Soviet occupation. In 1940, the manor was nationalized and then abandoned in 1980. In 1992, officials saw that they needed to save the castle for its archaeological, historical and architectural significance. Restoration efforts have been ongoing and it runs as a museum. Locals tell a story about a young wife of one of the Daumantai dukes who fell deeply in love with a knight from a foreign country. She would sneak away at night to meet her love by Lake Siesikai (Sye-sye-kye). The duke discovered the infidelity and he had his wife bricked away in the tower walls. Now people who pass by the castle say that they see the ghost of the duchess walking by the lake at night and waiting for her beloved knight.

Rokiškis (RAW-kish-kiss) Manor

Rokiškis (RAW-kish-kiss) Manor seems to date back to 1499 as that is the first time it was mentioned. It was the property of Grand Duke Alexander Jagiellon (Yah-gell-awn) of Lithuania and was built from wood and stood on a hill. This was along an important trade route and was needed to help keep order. 

A few years later, it was in the estate of the Grand Duchess of Lithuania and Queen of Poland Helena of Moscow. Then three other noble families ruled from it before its destruction. In 1801, a new manor house was built in the style of classicism. This manor house was remodeled several times through the years moving it from one-story to two-storys. The architecture today is a mix of Baroque Revival, neo-Renaissance and Art Nouveau. One of the owners had been a military officer and a renowned ornithologist who turned the manor into a hub of science and his ornithological collections amounted to some three thousand specimens. The Soviets nationalized the manor and its valuables in 1940 and the Red Army looted it. Shortly before this, the manor had been turned into a museum and when the curator tried to save the works of art, he and his family were arrested and deported to Siberia. When Lithuania became independent again, the manor was restored and was reopened as an art mjuseum featuring woodcarving works, paintings and a collection of musical instruments.

There is one spirit here and it is said to be the mischievous ghost of 16-year-old Jasius Pšešdzieckis (YAH-syus psheh-ZHETS-kees) who was the son of a well-known Rokiškis (RAW-kish-kiss) Count. One of the things he likes to do is tilt the paintings to the right or left and the staff have to straighten all of them in the morning. One or two might be normal, but all the pictures moved? 

Paežeriai (pah-EH-zheh-rye) Manor

Paežeriai (pah-EH-zheh-rye) Manor is a great example of Classicist architecture and was built from 1795 to 1799. In 1877, a water mill, a brickyard, and an agricultural machinery repair workshop were operating on the estate. A distillery brought the main income for the property. In the first half of the 19th century, a Romanesque style manor was added as an administrative building and also a Gothic Revival Belvederis Tower. By 1914, the manor was a private home and the widow who lived there opened a primary school in the administrative manor. She sold the property in 1939 and moved to Warsaw where it is believed she unfortunately ended up in a concentration camp. An agricultural school had moved into the manor, but it closed in 1942 under occupation of Nazis. They looted the property when the Red Army was advancing towards it and was then occupied by Russian personnel. A construction company used it from 1952 to 1994. In 1995, it was entrusted to the Lithuanian National Museum of Art and later opened as a cultural museum. People refer to the site as the Pearl of the Sudovia region. 

There is a legend about an innocent white maiden who worked at the manor and became pregnant by the wealthy landlord. To avoid conflict with his wife, the landlord sent the young woman away to another manor. The young maiden returned after she gave birth and she placed the baby at the door and then walked over to a nearby lake and drowned herself. The ghost of this woman wanders around the manor at night and is seen as a white shadow in the mornings in the park around the manor. 

Kretinga (KREH-ting-ah) Manor

The manor dates back to 1566 and initially belonged to a couple of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania before a noble family owned it in 1572. This family built a church and school in the village, as well as a monastery. Several other families owned it and then in 1806, the Counts Zubov became the proprietors of the manor and they created an English-style manor park and built a brick palace. In 1875, a new Count decided to change the style to French and built Europe’s largest private winter garden at that time. The German army occupied the manor during World War I and part of the manor was damaged in the war. After the wars, an agricultural school was established at the manor. Much of the property has survived and this includes 24 buildings and beautifully groomed park. The manor house hosts a museum.

The ghost of Bishop Ignotas Masalskis is said to haunt this manor. He had not only been the Bishop of Vilnius, but also the Clerk of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Chairman of the Educational Commission. His restless soul seems to have refused to leave the property. It is seen walking the halls of the manor. 

Kaunas (kah nuhz) Dungeons

There are dungeons in Kaunas, or so they say. Stories claim that under the pavement of Kaunas lies an underground labyrinth of tunnels connecting several buildings. One of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania escaped from the Crusaders by hiding down there. The sounds of chaiuns are heard coming from below and people say ghosts roam the tunnels.

Trakai (TRAH-ky) Island Castle

Trakai (TRAH-ky) Island Castle is a major tourist attraction and was built in several phases, starting in the 14th century. This was built for Grand Duke Kęstutis (keh-STOO-tis). While this was meant to strengthen his position, it did little to repel an attack by the Teutonic knights in 1377 and they assassinated the Duke. A truce was established with the Teutonic Order and the second phase of the castle was commenced and the Order's stonemason supervised. Most of the construction was done with red Gothic bricks and stone blocks with glazed roof tiling and stained glass windows. This made the castle mainly Gothic in style with some Romanesque features. A third phase added a moat. Frescos were painted on its walls and some have made it to the present. In 1905, the Imperial Russian authorities decided to partially restore the castle that was then in partial ruins. After the World Wars, another reconstruction effort was begun and this was finished in 1961. 

Reports say the ghost of Grand Duke Witold walks the towers, bringing good fortune to those who see him. He's easy to see as he glows at night. Makes sense because the Duke is considered a superstar of medieval history because before he died in 1430 he brought Lithuania to its greatest military power.

Radviloniai (rahd-vee-loh-NYAY) Manor

The manor dates to 1800 and after Lithuania gained its independence, the manor house buildings and their groups were sold out to shareholders. These buildings include a two-storey brick manor with an attic (19th century), a brick servants’ residential building, a cow-house, a stable, an icehouse, a barn, the ruins of a chapel and a park. There have been many strange and unexplained things that have happened here. One of the landladies was Irena Rainčė (RINE-chay) and she said, " I wonder if these premises were ever consecrated, as many spirits are living here up to this day. Although we get along quite well, I do notice that when I lay down at night, they would sometimes come asking for something. For example, to grow a plant in the garden upside down. It took me a while to understand that the spirit meant that the plant would need to lean toward the ground rather than grow upward. And once their wishes are fulfilled, they no longer come back. I can only say I never get to feel alone."

Pakruojis (pah-KROO-yis) Manor

The first building here was wood, but was replaced with the brick manor house in 1817. Additions were made up until 1840, which included an English-style park. A man named Theodore von Ropp had owned the manor and he liked to travel around Europe collecting gtreasures and fine art and he brought back many pieces, leaving the manor full of art treasures. A commercial farm developed on the land to generate income and it did really well. In 1866, a manor pharmacy was established as well as a twelve-bed hospital. By 1909, a brewery and steam mill had been added. Land reforms in 1922 diminished the Ropp farm and in 1940, it was all nationalized and sent to other museums. As with the other sites, this had German occupation and then Soviet with the Soviets at least renovating the property and they opened their own farm. Today, this is a hotel, restaurant and a tourist attraction with the main manor being a two-story palace with a portico and Doric-style columns, pilasters, capitals, arches, and vases in the corners of the balconies. There are several buildings on the property with seven of them being restaurants, there are two hotels and a campground, a manor farm and several buildings for manufacturing like beekeeping, wool felting, dressmaking, photography and perfume. The park is adorned with 24 species of trees, including grey willows and balsam willows, larches, small-leaved lindens, limes and maples. 

The restless spirit of Baron Herman the Cruel is here. This was a rich man known for his wealth and cruel deeds who liked to torture the serfs. He had a dungeon built in the manor for this and the museum even features a torture chamber because of these stories. For centuries, disembodied footsteps have been heard in the palace, lamps go out or turn on by themselves and doors and windows open on their own. The museum also has a collection of oddities and items telling the dark side of the life of the rich.

Salos (SAH loss) Manor

The King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania owned the land beneath the manor in medieval times. Several noble families owned the land until a patriot named Liucijon Moriconi (LOO-see-yon MOR-ee-CON-ee) inherited the land. He was one of the richest men in the Kaunas province, but he sucked as a landlord. He lost his property quickly and he took part in the 1863 Uprising. That got him arrested. He was jailed in Vilnius and his second wife, Elizabeth Munday, pleaded for his release, so he was sent to Kaunas where he spent a year in jail. Whatever funds he had left before this, were gone when he got out. Moriconi was forced to sell Salos. He moved to Warsaw and worked as a teacher until he died. This property had been in his family for generations, so it was a big loss. Now the Tyzenhauz (TIE-zen-howz) family had it. The last owner was a diplomat and writer, but a point was made about him that was a serious drawback apparently. He couldn't dance. When asked why this was the case he would answer that he was brought up in the Vatican. He left the property during World War II and died in Sweden in 1966. The Soviets set up agricultural engineering at the manor. In 1977, art historians began renovations. After Lithuanian independence, the manor house functioned as a school, which closed in 2003. This property now hosts cultural events and can be rented for private parties. 

Now the landlord who lost the property, Moriconi, is said to have been cursed and after he died, his spirit returned to the manor and is most often seen on moonlit nights with his spirit shimmering. His ghost also wanders the rooms of the manor.

Lithuania is a country that has seen turmoil, war and occupation. But it is also a beautiful land with grand manors, palaces, castles and it would seem, a ghost or two. Like so many of these countries, there are many legends and it is hard to verify if any of them are real. Are these locations haunted? That is for you to decide!  

HGB Ep. 646 - The Life and Afterlife of John Wayne

Moment in Oddity - Pizza Welfare Check (Suggested by: Chelsea Flowers)

Hurricanes can be devastating storms. In 2016, Hurricane Matthew battered the coast of Florida, leaving large areas without power along the coast. A man named Eric Olsen who lived in Omaha, Nebraska, had been on the phone with his grandmother, Claire Olsen, a Palm Coast, Florida resident, when she lost power. She said, "This is a nightmare". After that contact they did not hear from the grandmother for two days following the storm. Eric tried calling the police department and the sheriff's department but nobody was answering. Emergency services were overwhelmed due to the storm and with communication lines down, the concerned grandson had to get creative. Eric Olsen decided to order his grandmother a Papa John's pizza. The plan he hatched was not just to make sure his loved one had something to eat, however. Eric's pizza order had very specific instructions included. He asked that the delivery person have a cellphone with them and to call Eric's phone if they were able to successfully deliver the pizza. When Papa John's driver Lance Tyler called Eric Olsen, the cellphone was then handed to his grandmother. Eric felt relief hearing his grandmother's voice and the confirmation that she was just fine. Eric Olsen joked, "Police and fire couldn't do it, but Papa John's got there in 30 minutes and put the cellphone to her ear!" Heros can come in all shapes and sizes, but a pizza delivery person performing a welfare check, certainly is odd.

The Life and Afterlife of John Wayne

The actor John Wayne oozed tough. He was a man's man who was not only tough in his movies, but he was rugged in private life. Wayne's acting career began in 1939 and lasted for 40 years with the actor appearing in more than 100 movies. He won an Oscar, fathered seven children, loved multiple women, battled cancer twice and left behind an amazing legacy. The actor may have also left behind his spirit. Join us for the history and hauntings of John Wayne.

There is no doubt that John Wayne had an image that was larger-than-life. His life started rather modestly though, in the state of Iowa. He was born as Marion Robert Morrison on May 26, 1907 in Winterset, which is a small town of rolling farmland, south of Des Moines. There is some confusion as to what his middle name was because he claimed his parents wanted to name their next son Robert, so they changed his middle name to Michael. No legal change was ever made. Obviously, the most interesting thing is that he had what today is used 98% of the time as a female first name. (Johnny Cash's song "A Boy Named Sue" comes to mind.) It was a family name, his grandfather's, who was a Civil War veteran. Marion's ancestry was Scottish and Irish and he would eventually get to visit Ireland in his later years. In 1914, his parents pulled up roots and headed west to California, settling first in Palmdale and then moving to Glendale in 1916. Marion had been a big baby, 13 pounds at birth, so it only seemed natural he would get into sports, especially football. He was well rounded though, not just becoming a sportsman in high school, but he also enjoyed the debate team, writing for the school paper and he was president of the Latin society. 

A constant companion for Marion was his Airedale Terrier that he had named Duke. This pup went everywhere with him, including walking him to school, and a local fireman took to calling Marion "Little Duke" since he always saw him with the dog. The nickname of "Duke" would stick for the rest of his life and that is what we will call him from now on.  

While Duke did well in sports in school, his grades were another matter. When he made the decision to go to the US Naval Academy, he was left disappointed because his grades weren't good enough, claiming later it was one of the “greatest disappointments of his life.” So he opted to attend the University of Southern California (USC) instead. He decided to major in pre-law and the football team snapped him right up with his 6 feet 4+1⁄2 inches tall frame. A future in football looked promising until he broke his collarbone. It wasn't from football, but rather bodysurfing. Not only did this mean he was off the team, but he was paying for school with an athletic scholarship. Without that money, he had to quit the university. Howard Jones was the legendary coach of the USC football team and he really liked Duke. He hated to see him leave the university without any prospects, so he hit up silent Western film star Tom Mix and director John Ford to hire Duke. Ford gave him a job as a prop boy and used him as an extra. Tom Mix had a good friend who would come around on occasion, Wyatt Earp. Earp was a consultant in Hollywood on their Westerns, in his later years. When he died, Mix was one of his pallbearers. 

Duke studied Earp and watched everything he did. He modeled the man's walk and talk and presented that persona later when he started staring in Westerns. Director Ford really liked Duke and started giving him bit parts for which he was credited as "Duke Morrison." 

Duke continued to work as a prop boy as well and one day when he was moving studio furniture, the director of the 1930 movie The Big Trail, Raoul Walsh, hired him as the leading man. We guess he liked the look and size of him. Duke wasn't sure what name to use for his screen name, so Walsh suggested "Anthony Wayne", after Revolutionary War General "Mad" Anthony Wayne. The head of Fox Studios at the time, Winfield Sheehan, didn't like Anthony because he felt that was an Italian name, so he suggested the first name of John. And so, Duke became John Wayne on screen. He was given a pay raise to $105 a week. The Big Trail was a stunning film for the time. It was filmed in widescreen and the opening scenes were said to be the greatest filmed in Hollywood to that point. The 70mm wide screen process was experimental. The story is about a caravan of settlers traveling on the Oregon Trail with some action and romance thrown in for good measure. Filming was done in seven states and took four months. Timing was bad for this film as the Great Depression made it so movie theaters wouldn't invest in the widescreen technology to play the movie and the film was a box office failure. Critics today herald the film and Rotten Tomatoes has it at 100% and it's listed among his top 25 films. Duke was relegated to poverty row, Z-grade westerns. For those who don't know, Z-grade movies are lower than B-grade movies - very campy.

In 1933 when Duke was 25-years-old, he would marry his first wife, Josephine. Josephine was the daughter of the Consul General of Panama in the U.S. and met Wayne in 1929. They were together until 1944, when they separated, divorcing in 1945. The couple had four children: Michael, Mary Antonia, Patrick and Melinda. Josephine had called it quits because of multiple affairs on Duke's part, one of which was with Marlene Dietrich. 

John Ford really liked Duke and he was determined to cast him as Ringo Kid in his upcoming 1939 film Stagecoach. Studio executives weren't interested in having Duke cast, they wanted Gary Cooper. Ford insisted and wouldn't back down and Duke's film career would never be the same. "Stagecoach" launched the Western genre out of B-grade entertainment into one of the greatest American genres. It was a critical and financial success. Ringo Kid in the film is a wanted murderer who joins a motley group of passengers in a horse-drawn coach. Duke would be launched into superstardom. And John Ford would be a life-long mentor and friend to Duke. Duke was also mentored by stuntmen who taught him how to ride a horse properly, how to rope and how to fight. Duke worked with stuntman Yakima Canutt to develop fighting techniques for the screen that are still used today. He said, "Before I came along, it was standard practice that the hero must always fight clean. The heavy was allowed to hit the hero in the head with a chair or throw a kerosene lamp at him or kick him in the stomach, but the hero could only knock the villain down politely and then wait until he rose. I changed all that. I threw chairs and lamps. I fought hard and I fought dirty. I fought to win".

Duke appealed to audiences because he was an everyman. When World War II started, Duke wanted to enlist, but the studio he was signed to at the time, Republic Studios, didn't want to lose him because he was their only A-list actor under contract. He was threatened with a lawsuit if he walked away from his contract. So he set about touring with the USO. Duke would always feel guilty that he didn't fight. 

Duke would finally get into the technicolor business in 1941 with his film "The Shepherd of the Hills." The next year he made a film with the great Cecil B. DeMille, "Reap the Wild Wind." Duke would do some radio work in the early 1940s as well, even starring in his own radio adventure series, "Three Sheets to the Wind." In 1946, Duke married his second wife Mexican actress Esperanza Baur, whom he called "Chata." The couple had no children and it was a rocky and volatile relationship. They divorced in 1954. In 1949, Duke would get his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor for the film "Sands of Iwo Jima." In 1952, Duke started made ads for Camel cigarettes. Can you image our superstars today doing cigarette ads? Duke loved cigarettes. He would smoke from 3 to 5 packs a day and he it would eventually come back to bite him. That same year he started his own production company named Batjac. The name came from a fictional shipping company in his 1948 movie "Wake of the Red Witch." 

Although he was mainly known for his Westerns, Duke made a bunch of military movies including "Flying Tigers," "Flying Leathernecks," "Island in the Sky," "The Wings of Eagles," and the aforementioned "Sands of Iwo Jima" among others. Duke made nearly two dozen films with of John Ford over 20 years, three of which he starred in with Maureen O'Hara. The two became lifelong friends. 

I loved 1952's "The Quiet Man" with them. Duke played the rugged Sean Thornton and he rides up to the village square where Maureen O’Hara, playing the spirited Mary Kate Danaher, is standing with her hands on her hips and fire in her eyes. “You think you can just waltz back into my life after all these years?” Mary Kate challenged, her voice sharp. Sean tipped his hat, a mischievous smile on his face. “I didn’t come all this way to argue, Mary Kate...just to prove I’m here to stay.” They had real chemistry in this and hours of long takes and the unpredictable Irish weather didn't dampen their professionalism or the fun they had. (Share story about when he is dying.)

 Right after Duke's second divorce was official in 1954, he married his third wife Pilar Pallette. The couple married in Kona, Hawaii and they had three children together. They would remain married until Duke passed away, but they separated twice and the second time, in 1973, was long term. 

The best film of his career was also with John Ford and that was 1956's "The Searchers." This film was when he called someone "Pilgrim." He also repeatedly said, "That'll be the day," which inspired the Buddy Holly song of the same name. "The Searchers" is said to be the best Western movie of all time. Duke played Ethan Edwards, an angry Civil War veteran who hated Native Americans. Natalie Wood played his niece who was kidnapped by a band of Comanches and he sets out to find her. He doesn't want to rescue her, but rather to kill her because she has become "contaminated" by the Native Americans. A hero's journey with questionable morals. Martin Scorsese said it inspired his movie "Taxi Driver." In the end, Ethan finds his niece and takes her home where the family reunites, leaving Ethan outside. There is a profound isolation in the final shot and Duke played it perfectly. Duke also made an unscripted tribute in that final shot as he grabbed his right elbow with his left hand. This was for one of his acting idols, Harry Carey. It was a move Carey did often.

And then there was "The Conqueror," also in 1956. Duke wasn't great with money and had to continuously work to pay bills and he started taking roles he never should have. In "The Conqueror," Duke plays Genghis Khan. That was pretty ridiculous and critics panned the portrayal and the movie. Outside of that, the location where it was filmed, Snow Canyon, was downwind of a nuclear weapon testing ground and was radioactive. The crew and actors were exposed to fallout and many ended up with cancer, including Duke, Susan Hayward and Agnes Moorehead. 

Duke made his directorial debut in 1960 with the movie "The Alamo." Duke portrayed Davy Crockett in it. The movie was so expensive to make that even though it did well in theaters, it barely made enough for Duke's production company to make its money back. It did, however, cement his legacy as a producer and director. He was nominated for an Oscar as the producer in the Best Picture category. Another great John Ford movie was 1962's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." Duke co-starred with James Stewart and both men give brilliant performances. All the cigarette smoking would catch up with Duke in 1964 when a hacking cough turned out to be lung cancer. It was decided to perform a massive operation that entailed removing his entire left lung and several ribs. The surgery was successful and he was declared cancer free five years later. He would live another 15 years, pretty amazing considering that lung cancer is usually an automatic death sentence. And he had that radical surgery back in the 1960s! Duke would direct again as a co-director with Ray Kellogg in 1968's "The Green Berets." This film was heavily criticized as it was a film made in support of the Vietnam War. Roger Ebert called it "cruel and dishonest." The depiction of the war was said to be unrealistic. The Degar people of Vietnam's Central Highlands were fierce fighters against communism and they gave Duke a brass bracelet that he wore in the film and pretty much wore the rest of his life. 

The year 1969 would get Duke his Oscar. He starred in the movie "True Grit" playing the character US Marshal Rooster Cogburn. Cogburn is joined by Texas Ranger La Boeuf (lah BUFF), played by Glen Campbell, in an effort to capture the man who killed the father of a young girl who has hired them. 

Cogburn is rough and an alcoholic who wears an eye patch and he and the Ranger get into a gunfight with an outlaw gang and eventually manage to kill the guy they are pursuing. The movie did well in the theaters, making almost $12 million in its first year and has an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film won a variety of awards, including Duke's Best Actor Oscar. He said when accepting the Oscar, ""Wow! If I'd known that, I'd have put that patch on 35 years earlier." This was an award he had wanted for a long time. He was a perfectionist in his acting and expected a lot from his directors and fellow actors. Many directors didn't like working with him because of his demands and critiques. Duke wasn't a fan of Method Acting either. He frequently criticizing its introspective and emotional nature and blamed Marlon Brando for inspiring a wave of inferior imitators he called "T-Shirt Actors." The irony is that some would say that the persona of John Wayne was Duke Method acting his public life. Immersing oneself for so long in a character that fact and fiction get blurred, seems to be the definition of John Wayne. 

And now we come to the place of our 6-degrees-of-separation with Duke. Kelly's dad, Larry, had moved from California to Louisiana to do some micro-processing for a company he worked for in California. When he first got there, one of the manager's at the company asked a woman at the company to give Kelly's dad a tour of the city. This woman was Pat Stacy, the woman who would be by Duke's side as he died. The last woman Duke would love. 

Pat had just gotten divorced and the marriage had been volatile. Larry was a single, good-looking man. The two toured the city and hit it off, so Pat suggested they get some drinks and do some dancing at a local bar. Shortly after they arrived, Pat noticed that her ex-husband was there and he was giving the two of them the evil eye from across the bar. Larry suggested the two do some close dancing and so they did. Pat's ex-husband slammed down on his table hard enough to get the notice of the bar and stormed out. Larry and Pat got a good chuckle. They decided to start dating. Larry eventually came back to California and Pat decided to come with him. They had separate apartments, but still spent a lot of time together until Pat decided she would rather date an upper management guy at their work. She left for a trip to Hawaii with that guy and asked Larry to watch her Mustang car because she didn't trust leaving it on the street. And it was in that car that Larry picked up Kelly's mom for their first date. Her name was also Pat. As they say, the rest is history, but had Larry not brought Pat Stacy to California, Duke would not have had his final love. (Pat's Book)  

In 1973, Duke took on the role of a detective in John Sturges's crime drama McQ. Shortly before this, Pat had been hired by Duke's secretary to take over her position that she had held for over 25 years. In the first few months of working together, Pat fell in love with Duke and started sleeping with him while they were in Seattle for the shooting of McQ. Duke was still living with Pilar at the time, but they would eventually separate for good. 

Pat and Duke had an interesting relationship as they were completely professional in public and even behind the scenes, it took some time before they officially declared their love and became a couple, although Pat would live in a trailer on Duke's property to quiet the wagging tongues. They would eventually go public after it was obvious to everyone around them that they had feelings for each other. There was a 34 year age difference between them. Pat shared many things about Duke that people may not have known. He wore a toupee in public, but generally left it off in private, choosing to wear a cap instead. He was a man who loved the sea and while he had a cattle ranch and horses, he rarely rode the horses. He was more boat captain than cowboy, in other words. Duke had to carry oxygen when they traveled because some climates taxed his one lung too much. He was a classical liberal. Many people think he was conservative because he supported Republicans, but he supported things that would be more liberal too. His second wife, Esperanza, was in a drunken rage one night shortly before their divorce and she attempted to shoot him as he walked through the front door. He and Katharine Hepburn adored each other and she would often say he reminded her of Spencer Tracy. Duke loved to play chess and he loved literature. He had a wicked sense of humor. 

In 1976, Phil Donahue interviewed Duke and we about died when Donahue asked him about posing in male nudie magazines and Duke said it wouldn't be a good idea because of "too many callouses." Duke made an appearance on there to promote his final film, The Shootist. The film also starred Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart and John Carradine. 

The Shootist was one of his best performances. Duke played something pretty close to life as a cancer-ridden gunfighter hoping to die with dignity. The opening montage comprised a bunch of clips from some of his earlier westerns. The film grossed $13,406,138 domestically and it was named one of the Ten Best Films of 1976 by the National Board of Review. The film was nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA film award, and a Writers Guild of America award. It was Duke's final film. In late 1978,Duke went to the hospital for gallbladder surgery and his stomach was discovered to be riddled with cancer. While he was on the table, the surgeon went to his family and told them that he needed to remove the entire stomach, which the family agreed to. A later pathology test revealed that the cancer had spread to nearby lymph nodes. Radiation was started, but it was no use. Duke was going to die. Duke made his final public appearance at the 51st Academy Awards on April 9, 1979. He presented the Oscar for Best Picture. It was clear that he was very sick and frail, even though he wore a wet suit under his tuxedo to make him look beefier. He had lost a lot of weight. A standing ovation was given to him as everyone knew that the end was probably close. (Wayne Oscars) He would only live for two more months. Duke was angry and frustrated as his life wound down. The pain was so bad, that several times he asked his son Patrick and Pat Stacy to bring one of his guns to the hospital so he could end it all. Duke died on June 11, 1979 at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles from complications of stomach cancer. He was 72-years-old and was laid to rest at Pacific View Memorial Park in Corona Del Mar, California. 

Such a big personality and legend couldn't possibly go to the grave quietly. It isn't surprising that there are stories of Duke's spirit haunting various locations.  

Back on the Halloween Special in 2014, a friend of mine named Colleen joined me to tell a story about a possible sighting of Duke's spirit at a house she lived at. (Colleen John Wayne) Duke did indeed live in several homes in Glendale as that is where he grew up. The possibility of him visiting a childhood home, in spirit, on the day he died seems real.

One of the main locations that Duke is said to haunt is his beloved yacht, The Wild Goose. The actor purchased The Wild Goose, a 136-foot converted minesweeper in 1962 for $116,000, which is over a million dollars today. 

The ship had served as a Navy mind sweeper during World War II. She was originally put into service in 1943 and served in the Aleutian Islands and then was decommissioned in 1946. Harold Jones bought the ship and named her La Beverie in 1948 and held onto it until his death in 1956. A millionaire named Max Wyman bought it at that time and he renamed it the Wild Goose II. When Duke acquired the yacht, he changed the name to just Wild Goose and did major renovations to it. He loved the military heritage of the ship and kept some original elements like the old-fashioned swivel wall fans, the bell, and the brass wheel in the wheelhouse, which the captain wasn't allowed to touch because it smudged easily. The captain had to use the inner spokes. An article described the changes Duke made as, "A master stateroom, which wrapped around the ship’s funnel, was added just aft of the wheelhouse; interior bulkheads were removed to give the yacht a more spacious feel, and overheads were raised to accommodate Duke’s height. A wood-burning fireplace, poker table, and built-in wet bar were added to the saloon to make the boat a comfortable, family-friendly cruiser." Duke took his yacht to Catalina Island most often, but he also cruised the Mexican Riviera in the winter and Alaska in the summer. He loved to fish from the yacht. He would entertain three presidents on it and numerous movie stars. The yacht itself made an appearance in the 1968 movie Skidoo, starring Groucho Marx. 

Duke had the yacht for 16 years and may still be hanging out on it. The next owner of the yacht was attorney Lynn Hutchin and to claimed to have interactions with Duke's ghost several times. The first time, he was walking from his master bathroom back into the bedroom and when he got tot he bedroom, he saw the shadowy figure of a cowboy perched near the wall with his head hung low. Hutchins approached the figure and it disappeared. 

On another occasion, Lynn was sleeping in his bed when he was awoken by a noise. He blinked his eyes several times and realized he was looking at the shadowy cowboy again. He called out to it and it disappeared again. The next day, Lynn mentioned to the Captain that he thought he had seen the ghost of John Wayne a couple times on board the yacht. The Captain nodded his head and told Lynn that he had seen him too. He said that he was on one side of the boat and saw John Wayne walking on the other side of the boat, clear as day. Some time later, Lynn was sitting at the bar and reading a book when he got the feeling that someone was in the room with him. he turned around and saw that no one was there, but then he suddenly felt a gust of wind so strong that it clanked together Duke's old drinking glasses. At that moment, Lynn glanced into the mirror behind the bar and there he saw John Wayne, no doubt about it. He spun around again and nobody was there. Lynn eventually sold the yacht, which gets chartered for special events. People have been locked into bathrooms - this usually happens to women. A captain of another boat reported a light being on in the itself even though no one was supposed to be on it. He called out the deck crew to make sure there wasn't anybody on board who shouldn't be and they found the ship locked and empty. Another time, several lights in the yacht turned themselves on and off repeatedly and the crew again found the ship was empty. The crew claims to hear the distinctive sound of an old ice machine, even though the ice machine was removed years ago. A man who sometimes captained the ship thought he would go ahead and sleep in Duke's room one night. he was awakened in the middle of the night when he was tossed off the bed by something he couldn't see. But by far, the strangest story is that the yacht sailed itself one night to the dock close to Duke's old home.

And finally, a couple who had rented a home near Duke's final home in Newport Beach were taking a walk and as they walked past the tall iron gates, they swore they saw the faint outline of a man standing in the window who was very tall and had broad shoulders. Then they felt a sudden chill and smelled the scent of cigarette smoke. Duke lived at the Newport Beach house for 16 years. We found an Architectural Digest article about it from 1977 with photos of the interior. Here you can see the 1970s decorating by the Duke himself. There's a picture of his awards and Oscar. He called it the "50 Years of Hard Work Wall." The house sat empty from 1980 to 1988 when new owners moved in and remodeled. Duke's beloved waterfront home was demolished in 2002. 

John Wayne found fame, success and love in California. He lived most of his life there and he died there. It took 20 years before there was a headstone on his grave because of privacy concerns. It's a bronze plaque embossed with Duke on a horse with scenes of Monument Valley and The Alamo in the background. It has his stage name of John Wayne and is inscribed with "Tomorrow is the most Important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." Is the ghost of John Wayne still hanging around? That is for you to decide!