If parents or guardians feel their
home is haunted or that their child has encountered a ghost the supervising
adult can create a special “amulet” to protect their child.
Children are easier targets
for ghosts for several reasons. They are still innocent and have not been
programmed yet by society, television, films or their parents that they should
be wary of ghosts. * Most children do not even realize ghosts exist.
This innocence makes them
more susceptible to being visited by a ghost.
Angel made out of paper plate.
One simple way to protect a
child is to make angels with them. Gather together items such as, construction
paper, markers, glue, glitter, sequins, pipe cleaners or any other items that
can be used to adorn the angels.
Simple patterns for angels can be found here and here.
Cut out the angels--at least four angels should be made. As the adult helps the child decorate their angels talk to them about God or any “higher power”
that the family believes in.
This is not magic--it just
allows the adult to infuse the angels with good energy in order to protect the child.
After these angels are made they can be sprinkled with holy water, olive oil,
or sea salt--this step is left to the comfort level of the adult.
Paper Clip Angel
The final step is to help the
child hang these angels around the room they sleep in. One can be placed on
their headboard, another at the foot of their bed. Place one outside their
bedroom door and one on their closet door.
You may choose to make even
more angels and continue to hang them. The reason for this activity is not only
to make your child “feel safe” but also to protect them from negative entities.
Debi Chestnut in her book
entitled, How To Clear Your Home of
Ghosts & Spirits recommends the activity above. She has used these
angels to protect her own grandchildren from spirits that were bothering them
during the night.
* Not all ghosts are
negative--most are benign or neutral in nature but when it comes to children it
is always best to be cautious.
At the height of the
Prohibition era an incident of gangland violence stands out above all the
rest—the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. These murders that took place in
February of 1929 where especially brutal—even for the time. This bloody violence in Chicago resulted in two distinct hauntings. One at the location
where the murders took place and one that plagued the man responsible, Al
Capone at the end of his life.
Bugs Moran
In the 1920s violent gang shootings in Chicago were not uncommon as warring fractions battled for control
of the cities various lucrative bootlegging, speakeasy, gambling and
prostitution operations. Alphonse Capone, a rising gangster who ruled
Chicago’s south side and George “Bugs” Moran who controlled the north side where two of the most powerful gangland leaders in 1929. Capone, ever ambitious,
decided to hit Moran where it hurt so he could eliminate his only competition.
Moran operated out of a
garage, S-M-C Cartage Company on North Clark Street. Capone who had this
garage under surveillance for weeks arranged for a man, who Moran trusted, to call and tell him to expect a shipment of bootlegged whiskey on the
morning of February 14. On this date, seven of Moran’s men where inside the
garage as what appeared to be a police car drove up. Five men, three in
uniforms and two in plains clothes got out of this car and entered the garage.
Ironically, Moran who was late that morning spotted this “police” car and he
and one of his men ducked inside a nearby coffee shop.
Meanwhile, in the garage the
fake cops had informed Moran’s men that they were there for a raid.
They ordered these seven to stand facing a wall and to place their hands above
their heads. These men thinking they were caught did as they were told.
Capone’s thugs then pulled out Thompson machine guns and shotguns and brutally
shot them in the head, chest and stomach, killing them.
The bullets they used had
been brushed with garlic—a superstition that it was said ensured death. These
fake officers then led out their two buddies dressed in plain clothes at
gunpoint in order to make it look like they had made arrests. They got in their
car and drove off unchallenged. A passerby discovered the slaughtered men
inside when he heard a German shepherd owned by one of the murdered men, crying
pitifully inside. One man was found barely alive—he had fourteen bullets in
him. He was rushed to the hospital where he refused to say who had shot him. He
died shortly afterward.
At the time of the massacre
Capone was in Florida. Both he and Moran accused each other of the killings.
The identities of Capone’s five hit men have never been definitely established. No
charges were ever filed against Capone for this massacre. This violence did succeed in breaking
apart Moran’s north side operations. But ironically Capone was never to reap
the rewards of this power grab for these brutal murders caused a major public
outcry. Federal agents headed by Elliot Ness—the Untouchables—were brought in
to crack down on crime in Chicago.
The bloodstained garage where
the massacre occurred was torn down in 1967 for an urban renewal
project. Before the building was torn down countless witnesses heard screams,
sobbing, and moaning sounds coming from inside. Today what remains of the site
is a grassy area with five trees. It is said that dogs that pass by the area
whine, bark and snarl at something unseen.
Capone and one of his men
were arrested in Philadelphia in 1929. They were charged with carrying
concealed weapons. Capone was sentenced to one year in prison. When he was
released he returned to Chicago but he found the city now was much less
tolerant of crime. In 1934 he was nabbed for tax evasion and sent to Alcatraz
prison. Finding himself beaten by guards and evading threats on his life from
fellow prisoners he spent most of his time in isolation. It is said he
played a banjo his wife sent him and wept for all that he had lost.
Suffering from the advanced
stages of syphilis his guards reported that they heard him pleading with
someone in his cell. It appears that the ghost of James Clark, one of the men
killed in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre was haunting him. He claimed that
Clark would not let him alone. He was often found in his cell babbling and
crying about this ghost that tormented him. At the time he was released one of
his mobster compatriots stated Capone was, “nuttier than a fruitcake”. In 1947
Capone died of a brain hemorrhage caused by syphilis.
