HGB Ep. 516 - Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst

Moment in Oddity -  Montenegro Tree Fountain

In the village of Dinosa, Montenegro, there is a unique tree that streams water after heavy rainfalls. Apparently, there is a cavity in the tree that reaches its base and when groundwater from the local springs increases, the water is forced up through the trees' trunk. After hard rainfalls it occurs at quite a rapid rate approximately 5 feet high from the ground, creating quite a spectacular natural fountain. The species of tree is a mulberry and it is estimated to be approximately 100 to 150 years old. The rise in groundwater that helps cause this phenomenon usually occurs in spring or autumn, typically happening once a year. The people of Dinosa have witnessed the tree fountain since the 1990's. Although this isn't the only tree fountain in the world, it is a rare phenomenon which certainly makes it odd.

This Month in History - Premiere of Playboy Magazine

In the month of December, on the 1st, in 1953, Playboy magazine debuted with Marilyn Monroe on the cover. Also known by her given name, Norma Jeane, she didn't actually pose for the 'Sweetheart' centerfold in the inaugural issue as many people believed. The first issue of the men's lifestyle and entertainment cover read, "Marilyn Monroe Nude". Hugh Hefner never paid her a single cent, nor did Marilyn give permission for the then four year old photos to be used. As it turns out, the photos were not acquired legally. Back in 1949, Norma Jeane needed money to pay her bills. Lacking a job and cash she posed for Tom Kelley, a pinup photographer. She was paid $50 and the photographer promised that he would make her look unrecognizable. She signed the photos release documents as Mona Monroe. She stated that the reason for her signature and request was, "I don’t know why, except I may have wanted to protect myself, I was nervous, embarrassed, even ashamed of what I had done, and I did not want my name to appear on that model release." Regardless, the photos were sold and just a year after her photoshoot Marilyn Monroe started experiencing her breakout success as an actor appearing in 'All About Eve', 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' and so many other films. Playboy's Hugh Hefner quickly tagged along on Monroe's dress tails (as it were). Hefner maximized his investment after purchasing the rights to her photos and using them in his premiere magazine release as the first Playboy Sweetheart, later to have the moniker of 'Playmate of the month'. Sadly, Marilyn was never paid more than the original $50 for her shoot, never received a thank you or any other compensation while many made millions off her photos. Norma Jeane was urged to deny that the photos were actually of her, but despite the warnings, she confirmed the photos were indeed her and she stated later that they surprisingly helped her career. Ironically, despite not having any real connection with Marilyn, Hugh Hefner was said to have purchased the burial plot next to her for $75,000 back in 1992, stating that "spending eternity next to Marilyn is too sweet to pass up".

Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (Suggested by: Samantha Napier)

Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst in Trenton, New Jersey is a very unique military base in that it is the only tri-service base in the United States Department of Defense. All six armed forces branches have units stationed there. The name is derived from the United States Air Force's McGuire Air Force Base, the United States Army's Fort Dix and the United States Navy's Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst. This location was the scene of the horrific crash of the Hindenburg in the 1930s. Several buildings on the base are said to be haunted. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the place most commonly known as Fort Dix!

The Lakehurst Naval Air Station is located in Manchester Township in New Jersey. This began as Lakehurst Maxfield Field, which was a test range for ammunition being manufactured for the armed land force of Imperial Russia. This was in 1916. During World War I, the United States Army acquired the field and reopened it as Camp Kendrick. In 1921, the United States Navy purchased the property. The Navy decided to use it as an airship station and that is when the name changed to Lakehurst Naval Air Station. This would become the center of airship development in the United States. This work would continue until it was deactivated in 1962 and surprisingly, airship operations were resumed in 2006. In the field behind the large airship hangars is a memorial to a famous disaster that took place here: The Hindenburg Disaster. 

The LZ 129 Hindenburg was a German rigid airship that carried passengers. This class of airship was named for Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, who was President of Germany from 1925 until his death in 1934. The Hindenburg class were the longest class of dirigibles. The LZ 129 was the largest airship at that time and was designed by the Zeppelin Company, which was named for German airship innovator Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. The airship was a great success and made ten trips to the United States in 1936. This attracted the attention of American Airlines and they contracted with the Zeppelin Company to have the Hindenburg shuttle passengers from Lakehurst to Newark for connections to airplane flights. On May 6, 1937, the Hindenburg was making a landing at Lakehurst when things went terribly wrong. There had been a storm, so the Hindenburg took a bit of a detour. At 7pm, the Hindenburg made its way back to Lakehurst and was coming in for its final approach. The airship was half full with 36 passengers and 61 crew members and running off of highly flammable hydrogen gas. 

A special flying moor was going to be rigged in which the ship would be winched down to the mooring mast. The Hindenburg made a sharp turn because the ground crew wasn't ready, the wind shifted and another sharp turn was made. Water ballast was dropped and six men were then sent to the bow to trim the airship. Mooring lines were dropped and the port line was overtightened and then it seemed as though gas started leaking, there was some static electricity and flames burst out. Eyewitnesses all saw different things, so it's hard to know exactly what happened. The flames spread quickly and the bow lurched upwards and the ship's back broke. The tail crashed to the ground and flames burst from the nose killing 9 crew members. The fire burned for hours. In the end, there were a total of 35 deaths out of 97 people on the airship, including 13 of the 36 passengers and 22 of the 61 crew. Many survivors were badly burned.

Herbert Morrison was broadcasting for WLS radio and here is part of that famous coverage, "It's burst into flames! Get this, Charlie; get this, Charlie! It's fire... and it's crashing! It's crashing terrible! Oh, my! Get out of the way, please! It's burning and bursting into flames and the... and it's falling on the mooring mast and all the folks between it. This is terrible; this is one of the worst of the worst catastrophes in the world. Oh it's... [unintelligible] its flames... Crashing, oh! Oh, four or five hundred feet into the sky, and it's a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen. There's smoke, and there's flames, now, and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring mast. Oh, the humanity, and all the passengers screaming around here! I told you; it – I can't even talk to people, their friends are on there! Ah! It's... it... it's a... ah! I... I can't talk, ladies and gentlemen. Honest: it's just laying there, a mass of smoking wreckage. Ah! And everybody can hardly breathe and talk and the screaming. I... I... I'm sorry. Honest: I... I can hardly breathe. I... I'm going to step inside, where I cannot see it. Charlie, that's terrible. Ah, ah... I can't. Listen, folks; I... I'm gonna have to stop for a minute because I've lost my voice. This is the worst thing I've ever witnessed."

The Air Station later hosted the U.S. Navy's first helicopter squadrons and today is used for Naval Aviation programs with two runways that are still in use. Base Realignment and Closure merged the Naval Air Station with two neighboring military bases. One of those was Fort Dix, which started as Camp Dix in 1917 in Wrightstown, New Jersey. This was named in honor of Major General John Adams Dix who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Buchanan. He actually had a long list of accomplishments. Dix was a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Civil War, and a former United States Senator and Governor of New York. After May 1918, Dix was used as an embarkation camp and then as a demobilization center. This became one of the largest camps in the Northeast and had a history of mobilizing, training and demobilizing soldiers. It was renamed Fort Dix in 1939. This was an all-male base until 1978 when the first female recruits entered basic training there. Dix ended its active Army training mission in 1988 due to Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommendations. It began a new mission of providing training for Army Reserve and Army National Guard Soldiers. 

McGuire Air Force Base was originally known as Fort Dix Airport. It was established in 1937 in Burlington County near Wrightstown in New Jersey. The airport opened to military aircraft in 1941. Seven years later on January 13, 1948 the United States Air Force renamed the facility McGuire Air Force Base. This was in honor of Major Thomas Buchanan McGuire Jr. whom died during World War II in 1945 as he was engaged in an aerial dogfight and giving aid to his wingman. He was given the Medal of Honor and was a second place American flying ace of World War II. McGuire Air Force Base became the Air Force's "Gateway to the East." In 1954, the Military Air Transport Service took over jurisdiction of McGuire AFB and in 1992, the base became part of the newly reorganized Air Mobility Command.

The largest building on Fort Dix had been Walson Army Hospital. We say "had been" because it was dismantled over years and finally demolished in 2018. The hospital opened on March 15, 1960 named for Brigadier General Charles M. Walson and had been built to replace the wooden buildings built during World War II. The hospital was two 9-story ward wings and a 9-story service wing with a 500-bed hospital that could be expanded to 1,000 beds. Medicines and messages were whisked to all floors through pneumatic tubes. Surgical facilities included eight fully equipped operating rooms, X-ray, dental, eye-ear-nose-throat, childcare, neuro-psychiatric, and therapy clinics and an emergency operating room was located near the ambulance entrance. Nurses quarters were completed in 1963 and in June 1965, a $1.3 million construction program began on a two-story addition for clinics and a one-story Air Evacuation Section. During the realignment of 1992, Walson Army Hospital was transferred to McGuire Air Force Base and was renamed Walson Air Force Hospital. In April 2001, the Hospital was closed and as we said, it was demolished by 2018.

There are several locations on the base that are reputed to be haunted. One of the main locations was the  Base Medical Building or Walson Hospital when it still stood. There were reports of people hearing disembodied voices and the lights turning on and off by themselves. Visitors claimed to see floating orbs and experienced sudden temperature drops. The morgue was one of the more haunted areas. At the admittance station on the Dental Floor, a woman was talking to another employee when she saw a figure float behind the employee and she knew they were the only people there. It floated away and disappeared. Another woman saw an apparition and she ran to a door that shouldn't have been locked and it took several tries before the door would finally open and she could run away. She was terrified. 

Dameyon Beamon was a member of the 305th Medical Group at Walson from 1995 to 1997 and he claimed to encounter unexplained things. He said, "I worked nights at the primary care clinic. On many occasions when we would do security checks, the front door that used to be the pharmacy entrance would be unlocked, even if only an hour ago it was locked tight." One night, Beamon and a co-worker went to the ninth floor, which was the former psychiatric ward and they noticed an open window in one of the rooms. Beamon said, "At the precise moment Clark closed the window, the light in the room flickered, turned off and then came back on." There was also an experience for Beamon when he was exploring the old morgue. He was looking at some pictures there when he heard "the sound of a grown man crying."

Username grydberg wrote, "I have a great story from Ft. Dix haunted hospital. I was stationed at Ft. Dix from late 1997-mid-1999. One summer day in 1998, my friend and I decided to go check out the top 5 floors. We took the freight elevator, because the patient elevator stops after the 4th floor. We went to the 9th, then 8th floor with nothing abnormal, as soon as we stepped off the elevator on the 7th floor, the psych ward, things got strange. First of all, the temp dropped, not enough to see our breath, but there was a drop, the lights were flickering like crazy, and my friends brick walkie-talkie was going crazy. He thought someone was trying to get a hold of him, but no one responded, then we heard the patient elevators close, and we jumped back in the elevator. We went back to the 7th floor about 45 minutes later, and everything was normal. The lights were lit, and the temp was normal. We checked things out, and did not see anything abnormal. There are stories of babies crying, and a real neat story of the floors on the OB floor being freshly mopped. There is a mop and bucket that was left up there, and the floor will be wet, with foot steps across it, and the mop and bucket are dry. I also worked with a girl, and she was in the back of the lab, and she saw an image of a person walking behind her in the computer screen, when she turned around, no one was there. The last is an inquiry. I heard that there was a "super-soldier" being created in the sub-basement. Supposedly right after Vietnam War, the basement was quickly cemented in, and to this day, there is a crawl space, and the suspended ceiling is still there. I would like more information if someone can find it. The last story is of the morgue. I had keys to the morgue, so we would go down and check things out. The lights never work, they continuously flicker, and you can feel a presence when you lay down in the cooler. We would lay down on the morgue table, and be pushed back into the cooler. I did this only once, because I felt like someone was lying next to me."

The Garden Terrace had once been a Teen Center. A boy aged around 15-years-old has been seen walking around the Garden Terrace and people know that he isn't human because he fades away. He is usually seen wearing jeans, a blue jean jacket and a red hat. He has blonde hair. Username Stubbly Dooright wrote, "One night, on a late Friday night, another friend and myself were pulling out of a street, and at the intersection of that street into another, noticed a young man in blue jeans and a blue jacket with a red cap, walking across. I remember pointed out to my friend how I thought that the cap didn't go with his outfit. My friend was driving and so when she slowly pulled to a stop, after the young man crossed the street we were driving on, I looked at the young man, to see if he would turn his head to see if we were too close. I would have. Anyways, I noticed that he didn't and I thought that was strange. I then turned my head, where my friend looked at him and then she told me she saw him fade away. I didn't think that happened, and said that being dark and woods around the area, he must have ran into the woods. She accepted that explanation, but with reluctance."

The Airfield where the Hindenberg crashed and burst into flames is also haunted. The dead were taken to the nearby Hangar 1, which may be one of the reasons why the hangar is said to be haunted. At the Airfield, people feel creepy and sad. Some people have claimed to hear disembodied voices shouting, “She’s afire!” outside the hangar. The Second Deck in the hangar is a place where people have experienced unexplained activity. On one quiet weekend, there was only one person in the hangar and he heard voices coming from a corner of the Second Deck. He walked over and could clearly make out music and voices speaking a language he believed to be German. They seemed to be coming from the other side of a door, so he opened it and all the noise immediately stopped. The hangar is said to create its own weather conditions sometimes. One time there was a ground mist that was about four feet tall around three o'clock in the morning. There was only one employee in there and he saw two heads bobbing above the mist on the far end of the hangar and it gave him chills and sent him running out. He locked up and went home. A nightwatchmen was on duty and he heard someone call his name in Hangar 1. There was no one else there and he saw a figure moving towards him and he noticed that this figure had an ashen face. The spirit called his name again and then walked right through him. He ran out of the Hangar and never returned. 

Ghost Hunters visited on Season 5, Episode 26. In the Hangar, Dustin Pari was investigating with Britt and Dustin heard something walk above him. They also saw a figure in the Hangar in the far right corner where most of the activity is alleged to happen. Kris and Amy investigated in there after them and they went into some upper offices that the guys didn't go into and they got a very oppressive feeling in there that caused them fear. Then they felt like something flew over the top of them. A light went off and the ladies heard noises like a man grunting or clearing his voice. Kris said she had never been that freaked out on an investigation before. Grant and Jason saw a figure that looked like it was going up some stairs and then they heard what sounded like 15 people making noise together. They called for the figure to come on down and then they saw the figure look over the railing and then it was gone. In the Medical Building, Amy and Kris kept seeing a light turn on and off at the end of the hallway.

There have been stories that people have seen the Jersey Devil around the base. Most of these reports came in during World War II. Housing units have reports of weird sightings. One that is called Kennedy Court had residents who reported glowing red eyes that peer at them from the nearby woods at night. The trails near the housing units are said to have no wildlife and no sounds are heard. There definitely seems to be some weird stuff going on at this base. Is Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 445 - Ringwood Manor

Moment in Oddity - The Giant's Playground

We think it's safe to say that most of us enjoy a friendly game of Jenga. Trying to keep the blocks balanced CAN be a challenge. Now picture that game but with boulders that range between 3 and 10 meters! These formations are why a location near Nambia Africa is labeled The Giant's Playground.  This location was believed to be formed around 180 million years ago during the separation of Pangea which resulted in some hectic disturbances on the lands surface. This area is thought to have had molten magma push through cracks in the ground which in turn surrounded dolerite boulders. After a couple of million years, the sedimentary rocks eventually eroded leaving behind the rock formations known as dolerite dykes. In addition, there were thousands of years of wind, heat and water which smoothed and polished these rock formations to give them the very clear appearance of Giant Jenga games in progress. Although there are a variety of natural wonders in this world to enjoy, seeing perfectly stacked and balanced boulders from millions of years ago that are reminiscent of a giant's family game night, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Hiram Bingham Visits Machu Picchu For First Time

In the month of July, on the 24th, in 1911, American archeologist Hiram Bingham arrives at Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu means "Old Peak" and a farmer who lived nearby, told Bingham's team that there were ruins at the top of the mountain. This was in the Urubamba Valley northwest of Cuzco in Peru. Archeologists believe that this megalithic ruin was once an Inca settlement, probably one used as a summer retreat. The Inca had no written language, so there are no clear records about them or the places they built. Radiocarbon dating has the site inhabited from 1420 to 1532 and research from recently here in 2022 seems to indicate that the Inca called it Huayna Picchu. Archeologists named the three main structures on the site: The Temple of the Sun, The Room of the Three Windows and Intihuatana. The Inca died out in the 16th century after Spanish invaders arrived. The site is a network of stone terraces with 3,000 stone steps that stretches over five miles. Machu Picchu has been under continuous restoration since 1976 and is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a popular tourist destination that hosts around 300,000 visitors every year.

Ringwood Manor (Suggested by: Todd Bouverot)

The Ringwood Manor that stands today was constructed over a period of a hundred years and features a variety of architectural styles. This was a country estate for a number of industrialists who spent their summers in Passaic County, New Jersey. The Ringwood area was sacred to Native American people and one has to wonder if digging into the earth and pulling out resources from an area like this can cause supernatural activity. Is that why there are spirits here? Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of Ringwood Manor!

The area where Ringwood State Park now sits was occupied by Native Americans for years. For a long time, the Munsee-speaking Lenape peoples hunted and farmed here along the Ringwood River Valley. They had a belief about this land. That it held a certain energy and this energy fed supernatural forces. The Ringwood area was sacred for them. Beginning in the Colonial Period and running through the early 20th century, ironmasters came to collect the rich magnetite iron deposits. These iron veins not only jutted up out of the ground, but also ran thousands of feet into the ground. On top of having all this ore available, the land was richly forested and there was water available, so this was a perfect place for the iron industry to set up shop. A Welsh miner named Cornelius Board was the first to come to the area and mine for ore. The first structure on this site was an ironworks built by the Ogden family who founded the Ringwood Company. A German named Peter Hasenclever founded the American Iron Company and the company purchased the Ringwood property in 1764.

A Scottish engineer named Robert Erskine was hired in 1771 to run the ironworks. Erskine was born in Scotland in 1735 and was an engineer, ironmaster, land surveyor and inventor. His inventions even earned him a Fellowship in the Royal Society of London. It was through this group that he met Benjamin Franklin. He immigrated to America to manage the ironworks, which had over 500 employees. The house that was on-site for him to live in was unimpressive to him. He said of the Federal style and clapboard-sided house that "it was patched together at different times creating an awkward architecture." Erskine continued his work through the Revolutionary War. He not only managed the ironworks to make sure the American cause was supplied, but General George Washington appointed him as his first Geographer and Surveyor General of the Continental Army. In that position, Erskine drew more than 275 maps and Washington visited Ringwood several times to discuss roads on those maps. Erskine also manufactured that Hudson River Chain that we talked about in the last episode that featured West Point. He was given a commission to Captain a local militia and those troops drilled on the Ringwood property. Death would bring Erskine's career to an early end on October 2, 1780. He was only 45 and had apparently caught a cold with a fever, so probably died from pneumonia. History claims that General Washington was at his bedside. Erskine was buried at the cemetery at Ringwood and Washington planted an oak tree by the grave. Eventually the cemetery would be filled with Revolutionary War soldiers, early pioneers to the area and iron workers.

Erskine's wife stayed on at Ringwood until 1782 when she remarried to a man named Robert Lettis Hopper, Jr. and they moved to Belleville, NJ. The American Iron Company maintained the running of the ironworks and later sold it to a Pennsylvania business group in 1795. We're not sure what kind of group this was, but they their business savvy with the ironworks didn't go well and they declared bankruptcy. James Lyle acquired the property in 1804 and he sold it to Martin J. Ryerson. Martin J. Ryerson was born to a Dutch immigrant family in 1751. They had traveled over from Amsterdam in 1646 and arrived in Hackensack, eventually making their way to Long Island. Martin was born and raised on a farmstead and left in 1778 when he married Frouche Van Winkle. They moved to the Pompton area and Ryerson got involved with the ironworks business, purchasing the Pompton Ironworks in 1797. With the wealth he was building, he opened up forges in two other towns. The Ryersons had three sons that were also involved in the ironworks business. Ryerson purchased the Ringwood property in 1807 for $27,500. The records about the house that was on the property are murky, but the Ryersons didn't move into the house Erskine had lived in. They either tore that down or it had burned in a fire. 

The family began building the first section of the manor house that stands today in 1810. This section was two-stories, had ten rooms, an attached kitchen wing and was built in the Federal and Dutch Colonial styles. Typical of the style at the time, the floors were set up with an entrance hall stairway off to the side and two rooms to the left. There were two parlors, separated for men and women by an elaborate screen made from a large set of pocket doors and pantries. Ringwood was a headquarters for Ryerson and his sons as they ran several forges in the area. During the War of 1812, the Ringwood Ironworks was called upon to keep the war effort supplied. Martin Ryerson died in 1839 and the business began to struggle. Jacob was running the iron business on his own as his brother John had died even before their father. He finally came to a point where he was going to have to sell the ironworks and property.

Peter Cooper was an inventor and industrialist who learned from his father that a trade was better than an education. He married Sarah Bedell in Hempstead, NY in 1813 and they had six children. Only two would live to adulthood. Many of his inventions were ingenious and grew from necessity. He came up with the self-rocking cradle after many nights of rocking his own baby after a long day of work. He also made a machine for shaping hubs of wheels, a rotary steam engine and a way to siphon power from ocean tides. And probably the most important invention he created was made with his wife. This was the first widely-used package table gelatin in America now known as "Jell-o." He purchased Ringwood Manor in 1854. He paid $100,000 for the 19,000 acre site and ran the ironworks under Trenton Ironworks. This business was managed by his son Edward and his son's business partner, Abram S. Hewitt, who eventually married Cooper's daughter and Edward's sister, Sarah Amelia. The Cooper & Hewitt iron business was one of the largest iron businesses at the time and supplied the Union side of the Civil War heavily. 

Cooper built a large addition in the Romantic Revival style in 1864. There was a cupola in the center of the roof and gothic trefoil carvings. Carved trefoil designs were also added to the interior. Abram Hewitt would be the last ironworker to live in the house. He hired architect Edward JM Derrick in 1878 to modernize and enlarge the 1864 wing. Derrick liked the Queen Anne style and he added many of those elements to the house. An expansive living hall replaced the side-hall-with-stair arrangement and the back of the house was expanded to include a kitchen and dining room. Lots of wood was added to the house and the floors with accents of cherry, maple, chestnut and walnut. The columned porch was added as was an oriel window at the front of the Federal wing. An oriel window projects out from the wall and is a bay window. Cooper died in 1883 at the age of 92 from pneumonia. The Hewitts took over the manor as a summer home and made more changes. Abram got involved in politics and helped shut down Boss Tweed and reform Tammany Hall. He gave the dedication speech for the Brooklyn Bridge and eventually was elected mayor of New York City.

In the 1880s, toilets were added to the manor, along with coal fired furnaces and outbuildings were expanded. The 1900s brought more changes under the hand of Stanford White, of the firm McKim, Mead and White. This was a firm that specialized in the Beaux-Arts style. The name Stanford White might be familiar to you as we've mentioned him on the podcast before in regards to his murder at Madison Square Garden at the hand of  Harry Kendall Thaw. White had drugged, raped and started an affair with his wife, Evelyn Nesbit, before the two had married. The trial was one of those "Trials of the Century" and Thaw was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Although his firm specialized in a different architectural style, White was embracing the neoclassicism that was becoming popular in the beginning of the 20th century. The clapboard walls were covered over in stucco and an Ionic-columned veranda was added. A gambrel roof was added over much of the manor and an east wing was added with a symmetrical 2 and 1/2 half story gable-roof. All of these changes were meant to make the house look more uniform and get rid of the quirks, but it didn't completely work, which is good because the Victorian style would have been lost. 

In 1910, a piazza replaced the Victorian porch on the west side of the Manor and the chimneys were simplified. The woodwork and trim on the interior were painted white and French styling was brought in with furnishings and decor. By the time the Hewitts were done renovating and adding to the manor, there were 51 rooms. The house was full of many collections the Hewitts had put together over the years and they had enhanced the gardens with sculptures. Ringwood's iron mines eventually closed and the Hewitt family decided to donate the manor to the state of New Jersey in 1938 and this included its contents. The state turned the manor into a museum and opened Ringwood State Park. The property was listed as a National Historic Landmark District in November of 1966. There is a carriage barn on the property and these were signs at the time that the property owner had great wealth. It's kinda like having a really large garage, clearly you have several horses and carriages if you have a large carriage barn. This barn would be the first thing visitors saw when they arrived at Ringwood Manor. Sarah Hewitt had more than 40 horse-drawn carriages and nearly all were custom made. She owned hundreds of additional reins, bridles, blankets, saddles, whips, and tack and all of this was donated to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. This barn was fairly luxurious with heated grates to keep the horses warm, twelve regular-sized horse stalls and three double-sized rooms for the thoroughbreds. 

Tours are offered of the manor, including Enchanted Evening Tours, and one of the people to visit was none other than ghost hunter Hans Holzer. He said that it was one of the most interesting haunted houses he had ever visited. He brought a psychic named Ethel Johnson Meyers with him and she claimed that she had contacted three separate entities. The first was a man named Jackson White who was both Native American and black and was a 19th century servant at Ringwood Manor. Legend claims he was beat to death by a white worker who caught him stealing from the pantry. The second spirit was also a servant, but he had served the Erskines and was named Jeremiah. He told the psychic that he had been abused. The final spirit was Mrs. Erskine and she spoke through Ethel and told Holzer he needed to get off her property. Holzer concluded that the area of the manor that had the most activity was Mrs. Erskine's former bedroom from the house that had stood there before. The bed in here is often rumpled.

Someone else that experienced Mrs. Erskine was said to be Martin Ryerson. He told people that someone kept opening locked windows and he felt cold spots. Ryerson would make sure to check every window and door at night to make sure things were locked up tight. It never mattered. He would find the windows and doors opened in the morning. Visitors to the house felt as though they are being watched in the upstairs and downstairs hallways. Cold spots are also felt by people in these areas.

In a New York Times article in 1986, the museum curator at the time, Elbertus J. Prol, said of one of the ghosts, "He or she - we don't know the identity of this particular person - is said to pass through the door, slam it, bound noisily through the hallway and up the stairs, where it vanishes atop the second-floor landing. If you ask me, whatever it is certainly is going nowhere in a hurry. It kind of falls in the realm of a poltergeist, since it's always heard but never seen." A Superintendent of the Manor named Alexander heard disembodied footsteps and they sounded as though they came from two different spirits. He also would lock everything up at night and then come back in the morning to find all the doors opened wide, just like Martin Ryerson. 

It's not just Mrs. Erskine who is here though. Her husband is said to be here as well. Curator Prol said of this spectre, "Legend has it that Erskine sits upon his tomb, and he also has been known to escort travelers late at night to the wooden bridge at Drink Brook. It has been said that he appears carrying a pale-blue lantern that smacks against his shinbone. Upon reaching the bridge, he vanishes." Erskine isn't the only one to rise in the cemetery. A group of French soldiers who fought under Rochambeau during the Revolutionary War were buried here. People have claimed to see the spirits of these soldiers rise at night and they walk around the pond. Disembodied whispers in French are also heard, not just near the pond, but also in the house. 

A female spirit enjoys the pond as well. She likes to be alone there and will chase away anyone who encroaches on her solitude. Several fisherman who have come to the pond claim that their fishing tackle and rods will mysteriously disappear and then reappear some time later or in a different spot, usually their vehicles. It's like she is packing up their stuff and telling them to leave. A fragrant perfume is smelled here as well. An old mining road is near the house called Margaret King Avenue. Near the road is a large rock nicknamed "Spook Rock." Another unknown female spirit rises from this rock and she wails and moans. Then she vanishes back into the rock. People call her "Mad Mag" using the road name for inspiration. 

The Native Americans called the forest here the Haunted Woods. This land is a place of iron and water. It's no wonder that there may be some supernatural activity here. The Manor played host to many families. Are the spirits trapped here? Are there ghosts that have chosen to stay? Is Ringwood Manor haunted? That is for you to decide! 

Martha wrote: "I used to work as a housekeeper once or twice a week at an older refurbished home built in the early 1900s called Nehapwa. Located on rt 23c, in Tannersville NY. One day, after I cleaned the dining room, I took a picture of it. There, leaning against the table is a ghost of the original houseboy, with his haircut parted in the middle, a red tie, white shirt and light brown pants. He just loves that home, and you'd love it to, because it’s beautiful."

Ep. 264 - Haunted Asbury Park

 
Moment in Oddity - Napoleon Attacked by Bunnies

In July of 1807, Napoleon decided he wanted to celebrate the signing of the Treaties of Tilsit with a rabbit hunt. The treaty ended the war between the French Empire and Imperial Russia. The job of organizing the hunt fell to his Chief of Staff Alexandre Berthier. Berthier collected a group of hundreds of rabbits and invited the military's biggest brass to an outdoor luncheon followed by the hunt. The rabbits were kept in cages along the grassy field. When Napoleon announced that he was ready to begin the hunt, the bunnies were released. The hunt was on! But it wasn't on for Napoleon and his band of merry military men. It was on for the rabbits. Rather than fleeing for their lives, that pack of bunnies turned on their aggressors. The main target was the Emperor himself. The pack of bunnies swarmed his legs and started to climb up his jacket. The little furballs started attacking other members of the party and despite the mens' best efforts to beat back the demonic bunny horde with crops, sticks and muskets, the attack would not stop. Retreat was called and Napoleon ran to the safety of his carriage. The rabbits continued after him and started to breach the carriage. This called for a full on retreat. Napoleon's carriage pulled away and the bunny attack stopped. Apparently, the issue was that Berthier had bought farm rabbits rather than capturing wild ones and these tamer bunnies associated people with food instead of danger. The idea that Napoleon may have faced his greatest defeat resulting in retreat, from a group of bunnies, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - Jacques Cousteau is Born

In the month of June, on the 11th, in 1910, undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau was born in France. He graduated from France’s naval academy in 1933 and was commissioned a second lieutenant. Cousteau served in World War II as a gunnery officer and later joined the French Resistance where he did espionage work, which eventually saw him awarded the Legion of Honour for his espionage work. He began conducting experiments with underwater filmmaking during WWII. He loved the ocean and underwater diving. In 1943, Cousteau and French engineer Émile Gagnan developed the first fully automatic compressed-air Aqua-Lung, which was a scuba apparatus. Cousteau also helped to invent underwater cameras and the diving saucer, which was an easily maneuverable small submarine for seafloor exploration. He is best known for his Emmy Award winning television series, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, which premiered in the U.S. in 1968. He died in 1997 from a heart attack.

Asbury Park (Suggested by and Research Help: Melissa Edwards)

In honor of Pride Month, listener Melissa Edwards suggested featuring Asbury Park in New Jersey. This is a hot spot for the LGBTQ community and is one of the smaller cities located on the Jersey Shore. This beach is ranked the sixth best beach in New Jersey and began attracting the gay community in the 1950s. In 1999, a gay discotheque called the Paradise Nightclub, opened near the beach and The Empress Hotel, which opened in the 1960s, is New Jersey's only gay-oriented hotel! The music scene in Asbury Park is thriving and a place that has launched the careers of  rockers like Bruce Springsteen. There is a paranormal underbelly here though, with a history of tragedies and spirits stuck in place. Join me and Melissa as we share the history and hauntings of New Jersey's Asbury Park.

New York brush manufacturer James A. Bradley developed the Asbury Park area in 1871 and the city was named for Francis Asbury, the first American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. Bradley paid $90,000 for the property. The development of the town was progressive for the time. Electrical lighting, rather than gas, was installed by the Atlantic Coast Electric Company. There were trolley systems, an artesian well and pavilions along a boardwalk. The setting was perfect for tourism and people flocked to the shore area. More than 600,000 people vacationed there every year arriving via the New York and Long Branch Railroad from New York City and Philadelphia. One of the things that tourists got to enjoy were Steeplechase amusements that were built in 1880 by Coney Island impresario George C. Tilyou (Tilly you). One of the remnants of this bygone era is the Tillie face, which is a somewhat creepy iconic image. *Rabbit Hole* Tillie is a large male face with a really broad smile and black period-styled hair. He is the mascot of Asbury Park. His origins can be traced back to Coney Island and is said to be based on George's brother Edward. No one knows for sure if the face is suppose to represent a leering sexual face or just a fun smile. Leslie Worth Thomas was the artist who painted the original Tillie in Asbury Park. The Palace Merry-Go-Round was installed by Ernest Schnitzler at the corner of Lake Avenue and Kingsley Street in 1888 and other attractions were added through the years. This all became known as Palace Attractions.

The Convention Hall and Casino building was built in 1929 in the Beau Arts style by architect Warren Whitney of New York and drew visitors for shopping, gambling, movies, theater, and concerts. And the concerts that were held here featured an array of jazz and blues and rock entertainment from John Philip Sousa and Arthur Pryor in the early days to Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Southside Johnny, The Clash and The Ramones in the modern era. This wasn't the only place music was making history. There were clubs all along Springwood Avenue on the city’s Westside and this is where Count Basie, Lionel Hampton and Billie Holiday performed.

Not all of Asbury Parks history is flashy fun and great music. Disaster would come with the wreck of the ocean liner SS Morro Castle on September 8, 1934. The fiery wreck beached itself just yards away from the Asbury Park Convention Hall. As hard as it is to believe, the city turned the wreck into a tourist attraction. The SS Morro Castle was a luxury cruise ship named for the Morro Castle fortress at Havana Bay. The ship launched in 1930 and it would not sail for for very long. On the night of September 7, 1934, the captain of the Morro Castle, Robert Willmott, had dinner in his cabon, complained of stomach problems and died of what appeared to be a heart attack. In the early hours of the next morning, a fire was detected in a storage locker within the First Class Writing Room on B Deck. The fire was strong and had the entire ship engulfed in 30 minutes. A single SOS signal made it out before the wires were burned through and the wheelhouse lost the ability to steer the ship shortly after that. Passengers and crew abandoned ship when the only choice was to jump or burn. Only six of the ship’s twelve lifeboats were launched. The lifeboats could hold a total of 408, but only 85 passengers made it into them. Many people died from impacting the water as they jumped. The abandoned Morro Castle drifted ashore and stopped in shallow water off Asbury Park.

The fire had burned the hull out and continued to smolder for two days. The ship was declared a loss and 135 passengers and crew had lost their lives. While the ship sat waiting to be scrapped, it became a tourist destination. They even sold stamped penny souvenirs and postcards. An inquiry followed the disaster and Chief Radio Operator George White Rogers was declared a hero for sending out a distress signal even though he had no order to do so and his life was in danger. Later, however, Rogers came under suspicion for having started the fire. This happened when he came under suspicion of having tried to kill a police colleague with an incendiary device. His crippled victim, Vincent ‘Bud’ Doyle, spent the better part of his life attempting to prove that Rogers had set the Morro Castle fire as well. Rogers was later convicted of killing some neighbors for money and he died in jail. The cause of the Morro Castle fire was never determined.

From Melissa: "I can say the word TITANIC and mostly if not everyone will immediately know what I am talking about, even it is just a scene of Jack and Rose on the bow of ship but very few people will have any clue what I am talking about when say the name Morro Castle. The SS Morro Castle is the Titanic of the Jersey shore that came ashore in Asbury Park as a towering inferno on September 7, 1934.  The SS Morro Castle is just not your run of the mill shore shipwreck, it is an intriguing story of murder, arson, rum running, cowardice, heroism and possible psychopath thrown in for good measure.
 
In 1934 The USA was in the throws of the Great Depression and Prohibition was still in full effect. Rest and relaxation was not at the top of anyone’s list, nevertheless, the Asbury Park was still an obtainable haven for those looking for a brief escape. For those that were better off there were opportunities for a more luxurious escape. As mentioned previously Prohibition was still effect, however, there was a loophole and those with the financial means would take advantage of this would be to board a luxury passenger liner like the SS MORRO CASTLE and take advantage of freedoms that international waters provided just a few miles offshore.

In 1934, the SS MORRO CASTLE was a 4-year-old luxury passenger liner that would shuttle the elite from New York to Havana Cuba. With lessons learned from the Titanic disaster that occurred a mere 22 years earlier safety was paramount in the construction of this ship. The Morro Castle was not only practically sink proof but all fire proof. On September 7, 1934 she, her 538 passengers, and their return cargo of tanned and treated animal hides were approaching their final destination on their return from such a junket. As was customary on the last night prior to docking in their homeport, there would be a grand party for all those aboard, on last hurrah before returning to everyday life.

How could a state of the art 4 year old ship could burn barely six miles off shore, it actually has to do with a lawsuit. Just a year to prior to the ship’s demise, during a routine fire drill, water leaked from a fire hydrant. A passenger slipped on the water, injured her ankle, and was awarded a settlement of $25,000.00. During this time the yearly salary for a dentist was $1000, this left the ship line in quiet a predicament. No one knows if the Captain or the ship line that gave the order, but from that point on there were no more fire drills or lifeboat drills aboard the Morro Castle. As mentioned previously there was a cargo of treated leather hides aboard that gave off a foul odor that would trigger the fire alarms and the air ventilation systems would circulate the smell, since passengers complained therefore the fire detection system on the ship was shut off.

Much like a modern day cruise, passengers would don their finest for the Captain’s that evening, however prior to the commencement of the evening’s events the beloved Captain Robert R. Willmott, was found dead from an apparent heart attack in his cabin. I have actually heard his cause of death was listed as “indigestion,” which at that time was one of the catch all phrases for a death of an unknown origin. Due to this the events for the night were cancelled and guests retired to their cabins for the evening.

It is said that upon his death the captain’s body was placed in a refrigeration unit, however, when the wreck of the Morro Castle was cleared and the Captain’s remains were brought ashore they were located in a different area and all that was left could be contained within a small box the size of a suit case. Speculation surrounded circulated that the Captain’s body may have been moved or tampered with in an attempt to cover a potential murder or poisoning. Due to the nature of the Captain’s remains an official autopsy could never be conducted so we will never really have an answer to the actual cause of death.

Chief Officer William Warms became the acting captain for the remaining length of voyage.  It is said that William Warms did the best he could given the circumstance. As if the recent events were not enough a full-blown gale or what we would now refer to has a nor ‘ester or tropical storm began to pick up. Thus, making the task of guiding the Morro Castle to port even more daunting for Barnes.
This tragedy is truly incident after incident of bad luck or Murphy’s Law. The Morro Castle’s cabins and most of the interior was built entirely of wood, picture the same style as the Titanic, with would deck floors, wood paneled walls and décor. We think about it today and it doesn’t seem to make any sense but it is because incidents like the Morro Castle tragedy we have learned.

It was also customary at the time for the crewmembers to constantly paint the ship’s hulls and decks. They would start at the bow and go to the stern and work their way back at fourth. They used paints that were oil based. In the sun the paints would sometimes melt or soften due to the heat we can kind of see where this is going. In the late night / early in the morning on September 8th, William Warms was alerted that a fire had broken out in a hidden storage area in the library of the ship. Not knowing the actual extent of the fire due to the location and the lack of training the crew received Warms sent a small staff to deal with the fire the lack of sufficient response would ultimately prove to be fatal. Due to the construction of the ship and the presence of many different accelerants the fire ripped through the ship, leaving the staff with little more choice than to run through what parts of the ship they could access, yelling for passengers to put on their life jackets and make their way to the deck. Many passengers were dead before they were even made aware of the fire as they were trapped below decks or overcome by heat and fumes.

Here is where things take another bizarre turn. Chief Engineer Ebon Abbott, became the right hand man of the now captain William Warms. Minutes into the rescue effort he was observed hoping aboard a life bottom and ordering it lowered with only 8 other passengers aboard. He would later be prosecuted and jailed for his actions.

Now William Warms was left to depend on Chief Radio Officer George Rogers as their only hope for assistance and rescue. These radio officers were outsourced at the time and the background checks where not done the way they are now a days.  George Rogers had an extremely questionable past included incidents of pyromania, assault, and severe anti social behavior. Despite hi talents as a radio operating crew claimed that Rogers was difficult to work with and would fight regularly with coworkers. It is thought that George has been given noticed that this would be his last voyage when he docked due to his inability to work well with others. This decision would have been that of Captain Willmott, therefore leading many to believe that perhaps his death was not an accident and the incidents that surrounded the Morro Castle Disaster was not just an ill fated series of unfortunate events but rather a cold and calculate mass murder.

George Rogers was given the order to issue an SOS on behalf of the ship. Rogers waited an entire 38 minutes before sending out the plea. This would prove to the death sentence for the Morro Castle. You can look at pictures of the wreck and get a sense of actually how hot and intense the fire was. It twisted metal and the decks. The paint was completely burnt away and even the glass that provided the porthole windows melted in the blaze. The heat from the blaze warped the deck cross beams emitting a haunting moaning sound that would come to haunt the area until this day.

Staff and crew members worked tirelessly to fight the blaze in an attempt to save the ship and its crew while they waited for assistance that was mortally delayed by George Roger. Crew members would pass hoses from one deck to another to try and quell the flames. However it would all be in vain, because once the fires reached the engine room, the engine ceased to operate. As a result the ship lost its ability to pump water and its ability to fight the fire. As mentioned earlier there was a nor ‘ester that was coming at the ship from the north and for whatever the now Captain Warms continued to steer the ship directing into the storm and gale force winds. This only fueled the blaze. Some say that the Captain was still trying to make port in New York on time; others still remained puzzled to this day. The temperatures onboard the deck of the ship became so hot that it was melting the soles on the shoes of the crew and passengers leaving those onboard with very little option other than to jump from the ship and swim towards shore.

Due to the ongoing storm authorities struggled to send out rescue boats, local fisherman took it upon themselves to make their way to the struggle vessel and ended up saving more lives than official could. A local family, the Bogan’s, (I went to school with a Bogan who was a member of this family) who still have a marina in Brielle voluntarily went out and saved 67 people in their boat the Paramount. These actions were what responsible for saving most of the passengers the lifeboats that came ashore where launched either half full or chock full of  crew members, in shame many crew members tried to mask their identify but their white and black clothing gave them away.

The wreckage trail for the Morro Castle stems from Spring Lake about 6 miles away to its final beaching area in Asbury Park. Original salvage efforts were made by attempting to tow the Morro Castle to New York. These efforts failed when the tow lined snapped cause the ship to drift to its final resting place in Asbury Park beached right outside of Convention Hall.
The bodies and the victims started washing up along the shore. While the crew that escaped were labeled as cowards as they came ashore. The crew that stayed aboard including George Rogers were hailed as heroes.

Despite it being the end of the tourist season, 100s of thousands of people came to Asbury Park to see this burring ship. Bodies were laid out in the convention center as a makeshift morgue. People would pay to come in a view the bodies as they waited to be identified. The city tried to cut a deal with the ship owners to keep the ship at the shore because it was great for business. However, as the cargo of hides in the hull began to rot it was decided to have it removed because the stench was simply overwhelming. The loss of the SS Morro Castle and those that perished was not in vain. Due to this tragedy the law was changed that in a disaster an SOS had to be sent out immediately. Guidelines were also put into place limiting the amount of wood and flammable materials including oil based paints that could be used on ships.  Mandatory fire drill and lifeboat drills were also introduced.

As the dust and fanfare settled authorities searched for answers and suspicions immediately fell on George Rogers. Despite his checkered past and his failures through the ordeal, his role in the death of the Captain and the fire were never proven. Rogers used his role in the Morro Castle incident to further his career. He was hired by the Bayonne Police department to help set up their wireless communication systems between headquarters and their patrol vehicles. He then had a problem there where he was not getting along with members of the force. His supervisors found him odd and when questioned about his role and involvement in the disaster would often give replies and statements that were synonymous with that of an arsonist who may have set the blaze. It was said that George may have felt that he said too much and he ended up rigging a heating element to his supervisor’s fish tank to explode when it was plugged in. As a result the police supervisor broke his leg, lost part of his arm and received other injuries. George Rogers was charged with attempted murder and was jailed for his actions. When he was released George got in an argument with his neighbor over money that the neighbor had lent George. Instead of paying the neighbor back George decided it was easier to bludgeon the neighbor and his daughter to death.  George Roger was sentenced to prison where he died taking his answers and insight with him. The mystery of the Morro Castle may never be solved, therefore making it one of the Jersey Shore’s most infamous shipwrecks.

I have heard many tales of people experiencing different types of paranormal activity in this area. There is even a local paranormal store that runs regular ghost tours of the area. I myself have several experiences in several different locations in the town but one of the striking really didn’t hit home until much later. This was before I really knew anything about the Morro Castle. I look back on it now and it was probably a stupid idea but one night in the summer my friends and I went down to the beach to watch an epic summer lightning storm. We started out sitting in the care and we got braver and ventured out to the sand. It was intensely hot, there was that weird stillness and electricity to the air that often accompanies these time of heat/electric storms. We watched as there were those flashes of lightening that turn the sky purple and for a brief second make it look like noon time. After a few of these, I began to smell the scent of smoke. I asked one of my friends if they smelled it. It didn’t smell like cigarette or cigar smoke and the area of the beach that we were on was further away from bars and crowd area. My friend said maybe it was a grill or bonfire. I shrugged it off as the storm began to intensify we made our way back to the car. I kept looking over my shoulder at the balcony area of Convention Hall that juts out of the water and kept seeing these strange shapes my mind almost like when you see shapes in the clouds, kept trying to make logical sense of what I was seeing because I was not even sure of what I was seeing. I kept trying to tell myself it was a large bird or a flag or kite or something from a concert attached to a wire blowing it the wind and water. I didn’t think of it too much after that.

It wasn’t until many years later when I was visiting the boardwalk with my adoptive Family Peter and Ginny.  When they were dating they would take summer trips to the boardwalk and thought it would be special to bring them down there again. Peter has a gift to tell stories and I enjoyed hearing him tell stories of the shops and rides as they were in the 30s and 40s when he was child. We walked down to Convention Hall stopping by the monument that now stands commemorating the Morro Castle disaster. Peter starts to tell us the story of how he came to see the ship when it was still burning explaining how it was mere feet from the shore. He watched as they attached cables from the balcony area of the convention hall to the ship to secure the ship in place and shuttle fireman and crew people to and from the ship. As he continued his story my jaw fell further rand further to the floor. He mentioned that smoke was still billowing for days and that is all you could smell up and down the boardwalk and far inland. He said that the people would swing from these pulley chairs like a kite stuck in the wind. Just like that I got this cold chill that ran down my spine and instantly all the experience from those years ago came back and hit me like a ton of bricks. In a few seconds Peter was able to make sense of one of the strangest experience of my life. I am convinced that the smells and shadows I saw that day were shadows of the Morro Castle Disaster.

Science tells us that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; energy can only be transferred or changed from one form to another. I believe that with an area like Asbury Park, one that has seen and hosted so much, it would only be likely that the energy of past events has been absorbed into the foundation of the  area and show themselves on occasions when the time and atmosphere are right." 

Palace Amusements closed in 1988 and it was demolished in 2004. Much of the town fell into disrepair. Asbury Park has been reinvigorated in recent times, but there are many remnants from the past still here and it would seem that there are spirits from the past still here as well. We will look at several locations.
  
The Stephen Crane House

The Stephen Crane House belonged to the author who wrote “The Red Badge of Courage” and is located at 508 Fourth Avenue. Something people may not know is that he also wrote an article called “Ghosts on the New Jersey Coast” for the New York Press in 1894. This story was inspired by his experiences at Asbury Park and features a tale of the ghosts of two lovers on a beach in Deal, an angry Revolutionary War-era Brit looking to kill fishermen on Long Beach and an elderly laughing woman in Barnegat Light. Crane was born on Mulberry Place in Newark in 1871. He came to Asbury Park with his family when he was twelve and his father died shortly thereafter in 1880. In 1883, his mother would move them all into a home called "Arbutus Cottage." It was a wooden framed home and took its name from the little blue flower groundcover known commonly as mayflower.

Crane went off to school, but he spent every summer since he was a teenager gathering news stories in and around Asbury Park for his brother’s news service. He left Asbury Park in the summer of 1892 for a bohemian life in New York City, after he wrote his first novel, “Maggie, a Girl of the Streets”, a dozen short stories, called “The Sullivan County Tales”, and scores of newspaper articles. He returned to the family house and Asbury Park in 1896, but eventually left to write for several news syndicates, covering the Greco Turkish War, and then the Spanish American War. He died of tuberculosis on June 5, 1900. He was only 28 years old. Arbutus Cottage remained in the Crane family until 1899 when it was sold to a man from Newark. The home has seen several owners and incarnations, from private home to boarding house. Through the 50s, 60s and 70s, Archie and Florence McCorkindale owned the house and named it “The Florence.” It fell into disrepair after that time and was set to be demolished in 1995. Tom and Regina Hayes saved it when they bought it for $7,500. They restored the house and turned it into a museum.

The house is reputed to be haunted and TV’s Ghost Hunters even investigated the location for one of their episodes. Grant and Jason recorded what sounded like disembodied singing during their 2010 visit. People who have visited the house claim to see full-bodied apparitions and to hear ghostly voices, mostly of children laughing or crying. There are also claims that a poltergeist is here and it has been known to hit visitors on the head with fireplace tools. A legend claims that a woman lived in the house alone and allegedly went mad in the dilapidated home. People said that the spirits made her go crazy. When she was moved out, people found that every available inch of wall space was covered with angry writings and phone numbers of politicians. It is in this room that a disembodied voice has been heard saying "hello" more than once. Kathy Kelly wrote, "Asbury Park's Ghosts and Legends" and she describes experiences from a ghost hunt as, "The third story of the house, currently unfinished and uninsulated attic storage space, had actually been used as some rather sad living quarters for later residents of the faded "hotel"—and rumors have long circulated of deaths that have occurred up there. One of the most often told stories of the Crane House is of a ghostly woman who has been seen gazing from the window of the attic 'tower'."

The carriage house is also said to be haunted. Workmen tell stories of feeling threatened by mysterious falling objects while working in there. A visitor claimed to see a full-bodied apparition brandishing a gun once. Doors have mysteriously opened and closed on their own in both houses and are found to be either locked or unlocked without anybody remembering having done either to the doors. Chairs scrape across floors in the middle of the night, pictures fall off walls and a cat that has lived in the house has been intrigued by an antique closet door that's creaked open when she stopped and stared at it.

Asbury Lanes

Melissa shares some haunting experiences people have had here.

Paramount Theater and Convention Hall

The Paramount Theater and Convention Hall has its own ghost described as an African-American naval officer who hangs out on the boardwalk right outside. Kelly claims that, “I’ve had three different people, three different times of year, come in an describe the same thing. He glided through the crowd and nobody seemed to notice him and nobody looked his way.”

Synaxis

Synaxis is a restaurant located at 660 Cookman Ave. This location was the scene of the disappearance of a young girl in 1910. Ever since that happened, strange things have been reported at this spot, even after becoming the restaurant. Asbury Park police officers had viewed the figure of a young girl in the windows of Synaxis long after the eatery had closed for the night. Police found the building to be empty. Employees who worked in the joint when it was known as Harry’s Roadhouse recalled apparitions prowling in the liquor cabinet. Melissa shares her own personal experiences. One former bartender said she witnessed a small girl weakly voicing her desire to go home. After fainting, the bartender awoke to find only her boss in the building. The structure was once a boarding house that likely served as a hideout for the killer and the young girl during her final hours and that may be why she is haunting this location.

Interesting Historical Event with Shark Attacks on Jersey Shore
Between July 1 and July 12, 1916, during once of the hottest summer’s on record for the time, five people were attacked along the coast of New Jersey by sharks. The first major attack occurred on Saturday, July 1 at Beach Haven, a resort town established on Long Beach Island off the southern coast of New Jersey. It was there that Philadelphian vacationer Charles Vansant, was fatally mauled while swimming. Fellow beachgoers originally believed that he was calling for his dog but lifeguards would soon discover that Vansant had has his thigh torn off. He died soon thereafter at a local hotel. Despite the tragedy the public remained virtually unaware of the incident and no efforts were taken to warn or protect the public despite countless reports from sea captains of large sharks spotted off the surrounding coasts.

Five days later, on July 6, 28-year-old Charles Bruder, who worked as a bellhop for the local Essex and Sussex Hotel was attacked while swimming in Spring Lake and died in the lifeboat as he was rowed to shore. His legs had been bitten off. It was still believed at this time that sharks were not dangerous and suggestions were made that giant sea turtles and killer whales were to blame. Experts at the time remained skeptical that another attack could take place, and due to concerns for local business and the tourism dollars that could be lost if there was mass hysteria did very little to discourage bathers.

Four days later two more deaths would take place 30 miles north of the second attack in an area known as Matawan. 11 year old Lester Stillwell was swimming with his friends off a steamboat dock; in a brackish creek about 8 miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean, when he disappeared. His friends ran from the water to get help. Stillwell suffered from epilepsy, it was originally assumed that he suffered an attack. So townspeople rushed to the water’s edge and began a search. 24 year old Stanley Fisher, was one such person who dove in and located little Lester’s body at the bottom of the creek. As Fisher attempted to bring Lester’s body to the surface, he too was attacked. Stanley Fisher was rushed via train to Monmouth Memorial Hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries.

However, the tragedy of the day did not end there.  Less than 30 minutes later, 12 year old Joseph Dunn was swimming off of Wycoff dock when he too was attacked. Joseph was pulled from the jaws of the shark by his older brother and a friend, Dunn was rushed to a hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey where he recovered. Dunn is the only survivor of these 12 days of terror on the Jersey Shore.
These final incidents spurred a massive shore wide shark hunt, beach waters were roped and caged off in efforts to protect the swimmers. A $100 reward was offered to the fisherman who landed the “man eating shark.” Locals took to the waters with boats, poles, shotguns, and even dynamite in an attempt to reclaim the beaches. During this time several large sharks were landed, and even some that authorities claimed contained human remains in their stomach contents.  Although there is no concrete evidence to support that the shark guilty for the five deaths was ever actually caught.

Popular belief at the time was that the Great White Shark, was guilty for the deaths, these assumptions have gone on to spur the public’s obsession with the dubbed man eater, even going on to influence movies such as the 1975 blockbuster film JAWS. It is now believed that the shark was more likely a bull shark due to its ability to survive in ocean and brackish waters. However the public’s obsession has never waned.

Melissa said, "I have always considered myself a history buff first and foremost. I appreciate the art of storytelling but get the most enjoyment out of a story if it is true.  I consider myself lucky to have grown up in an extremely historic area on the Jersey Shore, I am proud of my hometown and take any chance to let inquiring minds know that we are more than just Bruce Springsteen and nightclubs. We have a history stemming back to the prerevolutionary eras, even prehistoric with which fossil deposits all over. I also consider myself an extremely spiritual person and find myself to have empathic tendencies and am sensitive to feelings and energies around me. The story and my experience that I want to recant has personal and sentimental importance to me. It was one of those situations whose importance and reality didn’t really hit me entirely until much later."

Asbury Park has some great stories and history. Have tragic events at the Jersey Shore location led to hauntings? Is Asbury Park haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 238 - Emlen Physick Estate

 
Moment in Oddity - Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley Die on Same Date
Suggested by: Lindsey Sutton

In the mid 1980s, a musical subculture started in the Northwest that came to be known as Grunge. Two prominent voices arose during that time, Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley. Kurt Cobain was the lead singer of the band Nirvana and Layne Staley was the lead singer of Alice in Chains. The details of Cobain's death are mysterious. Officially, his death was ruled a suicide by shotgun and he had high levels of heroin and diazepam in his system. There are some who believe that his death was staged to look like a suicide and that he actually was murdered. Staley died of what was officially ruled an accidental overdose of cocaine and heroin, known as a speedball. What is odd about both of these men's deaths is the fact that they both died on the exact same day, April 5th, eight years apart. And they both were found days after they died. Cobain was discovered three days after his death by an electrician at his house. Staley was discovered two weeks after his death. Was it just a coincidence that two of the most influential voices in Grunge died on the exact same date? One thing is for sure, it certainly is odd! 

This Month in History - First Car Number Plate Issued in England

In the month of December, on the 24th, in 1903, the first car number plate was issued in England. In the beginning of the 1900s, more and more people were becoming owners of cars in Great Britain. With more cars on the road, auto accidents began to increase. The Motor Car Act of 1903 made it compulsory for every motorcar to be registered with a number plate to make it easier to identify cars. Registration began on January 1, 1904. The first car plate number issued was, of course, A1. It was registered to Earl Russell who had camped out all night to ensure that he received the first plate. The registration system has changed four times since then to accommodate all the vehicle registrations through the decades. Numbers were initially made up of a local council identifier code of up to 3 letters, followed by a random number, like ABC 123.

Emlen Physick Estate (Suggested by Becki Fleming)

 Cape May in New Jersey is considered to be America's oldest seaside resort and while the word "cape" is part of its name, Cape May is actually an island. Dr. Emlen Physick, Jr. built his home on Cape May at the age of 21 and he spent his entire life there. The estate is gorgeous with a unique "Stick-Style" Victorian architecture style. The doctor clearly loved the home that he shared with three other family members. They all died here and perhaps that is why it is believed that all of their spirits have remained here as well. Join us and Deana Marie of the TwistedPhilly Podcast as we discuss the history and hauntings of the Emlen Physick Estate!

The Kechemeche Indians of the Lenni-Lenape tribe were the first people in the Cape May area. Sir Henry Hudson discovered the island in 1609 and Cornelius Jacobsen Mey explored it in 1621. English colonists settled and built the island into a prosperous fishing and whaling colony. By the mid 1700s, Cape Island, as it was called at the time, became a popular place for vacationing. Visitors were brought in from Philadelphia by sloops, schooners, horse-drawn wagons and stagecoaches. There were no official inns at the time, so guests were housed in residential homes and taverns.

By 1834, there were six boarding houses and people were coming from many east coast big cities. Bigger hotels were built, like the New Atlantic, and by 1852, the Mt. Vernon Hotel was under construction. The plan was to accommodate 3500 guests at the hotel, making it the largest hotel in the world. It was consumed by fire in 1856, before it was completed. The Cottage Era began in the 1860s. This was a time when land was parceled out for Philadelphia families to build summer homes. A devastating fire broke out in 1878 and destroyed 35 acres of the heart of the island. Cape Island was rebuilt in a scaled-down version with architecture following the Gothic, Queen Anne and American bracketed styles. One of the new homes built at that time in 1879 was the Emlen Physick Estate.

The 18-room home was built for Dr. Emlen Physick, Jr. He hired renowned architect Frank Furness to design the home and is thought to be one of the best American examples of the Victorian style of building known as "Stick Style." The style was influenced by Tudor-style construction that featured exposed half-timbering and heavy oak framing. Decorative facades were used in stick-style to emphasize the basic wood frame structure underneath. The Emlen Physick features this style through decorative structural overlay, steeply gabled roofs, extended rafters with brackets to support the overhanging roof, decorative brickwork panels and large brackets that form curved diagonal braces along the porch. The interior features dark, ornately carved wood, Victorian wallpaper and a broad staircase.

Dr. Physick lived with his widowed mother, Mrs. Frances Ralston, and his Aunts Emilie and Isabelle, at the mansion. He never married. The Physick family's roots ran deep in Philadelphia and his grandfather was Dr. Philip Syng Physick, whom is referred to as the father of American surgery. He was also the inventor of the stomach pump in 1812. Dr. Emlen Physick studied medicine to carry on in the family tradition, but he actually never practiced. He enjoyed being a country gentleman and loved his dogs. His mother would not allow the dogs in the house, but her sister Aunt Emilie would sneak the dogs in whenever Mrs. Ralston was away.

Dr. Emlen Physick was 58 when he died on March 21, 1916. His Aunt Emilie was the last family member left and she stayed in the house until her death in 1935. The house was willed by Emilie to the neighbor who took care of her, Frances Brooks. Drs. Harry and Marian Sidney Newcomer purchased the house around 1946 from Frances Brooks. Marian died in 1949 and her husband remarried and stayed in the house until his new wife could no longer bear the haunting activity going on in the house. They moved to an apartment  and sold the house to Cape May Inns, Inc. in 1967. The Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC) was formed in 1970 and it saved the estate from demolition and restored it. The city of Cape May eventually purchased the estate and MAC leases it from the city.  The organization operates the Victorian historic house as a museum and offers guided tours year-round. The entire estate covers four-acres and features not only the main house, but a Carriage House,  the Carroll Gallery, a museum shop, the Carriage House Cafe & Tearoom and Hill House.

The mansion is thought to be the most haunted location on Cape May. There are claims that Dr. Physick, his mother, his aunts and his dogs all haunt their former home. The paranormal hot spot in the house is Mrs. Ralston's room on the second floor. She died an agonizingly slow death in there from cancer in 1915. The bed there belonged to her. Dr. Newcomer would tell his friends that even though he was a man of science, he believed there were ghosts in the home. He heard footsteps and noises that he could not explain. Cleaning crews would complain about noises and disturbing events that had many of them leaving the house and not returning. Isabelle had been sickly and in a wheelchair and the family is said to have hid her away from the public for this reason. She died in 1883 in the house and it is believed that feelings of sadness in the house could be attributed to her. *Fun Fact: Isabelle was so hidden, that the house tours used to not even mention her.*

Craig McManus is a psychic who leads ghost tours and seances in the home and he has interacted with all of the family spirits and claims that other spirits show up on occasion as well. Craig's first visit to the house was not by his choice. A friend who loved history dragged him along and he says of that, "I am so glad I listened to Kathy! My experiences with the old house, from that day onward, have been some of the best paranormal times of my career." Craig claims that there is also a spirit in the carriage house that might have been Dr. Physick’s driver. Dr. Physick had the first automobile in Cape May. Guests claim to be touched during ghost tours and many have seen the apparition of a woman in vintage clothing wandering around the house.

The author of The Blog on the Borderland website attended a seance at the estate and wrote, "At some point, in the midst of all this, a woman to my left asked, 'Did anyone hear that sigh?'...I realized that I had indeed been hearing a sigh for some period of time—a beat, a few seconds, a moment—but it took a bit longer for my brain to catch up to what was happening. And then I thought, 'Yes, I did hear that sigh. I have been hearing it.' (but for how long?) And it wasn’t just any sigh, either. It hung in the air, just off my left shoulder. It was not a typical, weary sigh, not an exasperated or wistful sigh, but a long, breathy, drawn out sound. Sort of like wind, or the opening of an air lock. Or like the spooky respiration of some unnamed person on the other end of the phone line. It had a physical quality that pricked my skin. It seemed to occupy both a space in the room and some other void. I looked around and try to figure out if anyone around me could be doing all that sighing, but I couldn’t tell for sure. Then, the sound moved. It migrated up and to the rear, and I heard it just behind and above my head, near the door. And there was definitely no one standing back there."

Many people claim to have had experiences at this historic home. Have they really experienced something or is it just the power of suggestion? Has the psychic Craig McManus actually made contact with the former residents of the home in their spirit forms? Is the Emlen Physick Estate haunted? That is for you to decide!