A Ghost Followed Me Home

When I do ghost investigations, I am acutely aware I do not want the activity I encounter to follow me home.

This is why I find the following account from Britain so scary.

Bored one evening, Abby, at age seventeen accompanied several of her friends into a nearby village cemetery. The group proceeded to trample across several graves, disrespectfully.

They spent an hour making jokes about the dead, and laughing.

Abby was about to pay, for this prank.

Three days after this escapade, she awoke to see a transparent apparition sitting on a chair next to her bed. The figure appeared to be an old woman.

The next morning Abby brushed off what she had seen, as just a bad dream. But she discovered it wasn’t.

For weeks after this first appearance, Abby saw the spirit of this old woman repeatedly. This ghost would follow her throughout the house. She saw it both day and night.

At first, this did not disturb her, for she felt this presence was harmless.

But it did start to annoy her. She decided to confront this old woman, but every time she approached it, the spirit would freeze and then disappear.

Soon after this, the encounters became more threatening.

One day boiling water for tea, Abby felt an unseen force grab her hands. It was if the old woman was trying to scald her.

Then the spirit began to trip her, especially on the wet bathroom floor, or when she stood at the top of the stairs.

Now frightened, Abby decided to admit to her parents what she was experiencing. They were skeptical at first, but they quickly changed their minds, when both saw the old woman drift down the hall on the second floor.

This entity ripped the vacuum out of Abby’s Mom’s hands, and it held various doors open so firmly, no one in the family could shut them.

Loud rapping noises and bangs resulted in the family having several sleepless nights.

Water began to spill from the kitchen ceiling. A plumber was called, but this man found no leaks. The family had to put up with weeks of incessant dripping sounds.

Objects and furniture began to be moved, from their usual places.

One afternoon as Abby watched television with her father, she fell into a trance. The entity spoke through her.

Her father listened, as a strange voice described being the daughter of a French physician, in the 1800s.

The family made the tough decision to move from the home they had lived in for eleven years.

Abby had one last encounter with this ghost. Weeks after the family moved out, she returned to retrieve some posters she had forgotten, that were tacked on her bedroom wall.

She picked up the phone, curious to see if it was still connected.

Suddenly, two icy-cold hands encircled her throat. She was being choked. Terrified, she managed to break free.

She ran from the house, and didn’t return for her posters.

The Ghosts at Lincoln Park Zoo

I have written other posts, here, here, and here about what happens when cemeteries are moved but some bodies are left behind.

This disruption often results in very active hauntings.

Entrance to Lincoln Park Zoo

The Lincoln Park Zoo, located in Chicago, Illinois is a prime example of graves being disturbed.

In 1837, Chicago’s City Cemetery contained thousands of victims of several cholera outbreaks. As the city expanded health concerns arose that these bodies were being buried near the cities’ main water supply—Lake Michigan.

View from Lincoln Park Zoo.

When this cemetery was closed in 1866, it is estimated that it contained 30,000 graves. Chicago officials decided to move these bodies outside the city limits.

Families of the deceased were informed, in 1869, that they needed to make other arrangements for their dead relatives. The city then undertook the removal of those who did not have a family.

People fled to the park during
the fire.

It is said the 1871 Chicago Fire hindered this work. This fire destroyed many of the grave markers, which meant bodies were left behind.

When this land where the old cemetery was located was given to the Chicago Park Commissioner, one exaggerated rumor declared that there were still 10,000 unmarked graves in the park.

Conservatory at Lincoln Park.

Lincoln park today is a large recreation area that encompasses 1,208 acres. It hosts, formal gardens, a conservatory, nature and history museums, playgrounds, tennis and basketball courts, boating facilities, beaches, hiking paths and trails, including an 18-mile bike path along the lakefront, a golf course, bird refuge and the zoo.

A skeleton uncovered at
the Lincoln Park Zoo.

During construction in the park, bodies are sometimes dug up. Lincoln Park Zoo was built in the 1870s directly over the old cemetery site. It is in this southern area of the park where most of the paranormal activity occurs.

In 1962, one of the lost bodies was discovered. The zoo was constructing a new barn when they dug up a skeleton. Since this body could not be identified the zoo director, for legal reasons, had it placed back where it was found, then the barn was built over this grave.

Witnesses report seeing ghosts wearing Victorian clothes throughout the park, they appear out of nowhere and then they quickly disappear.

The Lion House at the zoo.

One lady from this period is observed near the Lion House. She is seen walking around, apparently oblivious to the modern day visitors that pass by.

This same ghost is often spotted in a Ladies Room near this exhibit. Many women have been unnerved when they spot her reflection in the mirror only to turn around and discover she is not there.

There are many reports of lights flickering, and doors slamming all without cause.

The Couch crypt is the only
visible grave at the zoo.

EVP’s have been recorded with mysterious voices, both male and female. Several groups have received clear one-word responses to their questions.

Thousands of photographs are taken of the animals at this zoo, every year, but many visitors discover anomalies in these pictures they did not expect.

They find they have captured, strange fogs, streaks, orbs, lights, and faces without bodies. Several have revealed full-bodied apparitions that were not in the area when the pictures were taken.

There are also areas around the zoo, which appear to randomly become infused with negative energy. When people who are sensitive hit these spots they become nauseated.

Suicide Bridge

Another part of the park’s history is pointed to as a further reason for these hauntings. A 42-foot bridge stood in this park from 1894 until 1919.

It was built to give visitors a view of the surrounding area. But it was torn down once it was nicknamed, “Suicide Bridge.” For it was here hundreds of people either hung themselves or jumped to their deaths.

The Mystery of Silver Heels

Mount Silver Heels

Located off Highway 9 near Alma, Colorado once stood a thriving mountain mining camp called Buckskin Joe.

Buckskin Joe
Courtesy of Historical Society
of Colorado.

In 1859, Joseph Higgenbottom *, an eccentric prospector established Buckskin Joe. Word spread fast about the discovery of gold in this camp and by 1861 it hosted 2,000 residents with several saloons, gambling halls, and even a traveling minstrel show.

One bright and sunny day the stagecoach brought a beautiful dance hall girl who became the talk of the camp.

Her real name is long lost, but the miners who showered her with admiration and gifts called her “Silver Heels” for the fancy heeled shoes she wore during her nightly dance performances.

After a few performances word got out that Silver Heels planned to move on. A desperate contingent of men approached her and begged her to stay, and to their relief, she agreed.

But little did she know her happy dancing days were about to end. In the Winter of 1861, an outbreak of smallpox hit the camp. The town leaders sent to Denver for nurses, but they never arrived.

The town was overwhelmed with the sick and dying. Silver Heels could be found traveling from cabin to cabin tending to the sick and caring for their families. She even helped bury the dead.

By the spring of 1862, the worst of this disease was over.

Those miners who remained wanted to show their gratitude to the merciful dancehall girl, but she seemed to have vanished. A group of miners searched the surrounding mountains when it was established she had not left Buckskin Joe by either horse or stage.

As the months passed the mystery of her disappearance deepened. The rumors began to fly. Had she contracted smallpox herself and died? Or maybe she had survived but now found herself with a pox-scarred face, so she was too ashamed to be seen.

As it turned out these rumors were not far from the truth for in the summer of 1862, a ghostly female figure began to appear in the camp’s cemetery.

Buckskin Joe Cemetery

She was seen wandering among the tombstones wearing a heavy black veil. The figure always carried flowers, which she would place on several graves. Was she still comforting those whom she had lost?

The old cemetery is the only part of the Buckskin Joe camp that still remains today. Silver Heels’ ghost has been seen for well over a century and a half in this cemetery. When witnesses approach her, they report her figure seems to just blow away on the wind.

Mount Silver Heels

After her disappearance the miners named one of the surrounding mountains-- Silver Heels, to honor her.

* Higgenbottom traded his claim, which later produced most of the 16 million in gold mined in the camp, for a revolver and a few other items and left the area.

A Loud Ghost is Kicked Out

“The whole reason my family and I moved here beside the cemetery was because it was quiet and peaceful. But it got so we couldn’t get a decent night’s sleep.”

In 2013, the Weekly World News published an article written by Margie Floori, which didn’t get the notice it deserved.

She wrote about a small town, Fuers, France where the citizens had demanded that a female corpse be removed from their local cemetery. The reason for this request was this corpse manifested as a ghost and its screams were disturbing the neighbors.

A few days after Yvonne DeLyon, 61 was buried residents who live near the town’s cemetery stated her ghost screamed and wailed all night. One family found this not only disturbing but also scary. “We moved here thinking it would be quiet.”

Many stated the noise the ghost made was incoherent ranting but others stated they heard the woman distinctly nagging her husband who had died 3 years earlier.

One male witness stated he heard her yelling, “Charles, don’t you dare leave that wet towel on the bed,” or “Why don’t we ever go out to dinner?”

This surprised people who knew Mrs. DeLyon while she was alive. She was characterized as being “quiet and retiring.”

A French parapsychologist, Dr. Yvette Colvert responded, “This happens occasionally with people who were timid and shy in life. After death, they finally get the courage to stand up for their rights. Then there’s no stopping them.”

The manager of the cemetery, Jean Vecque professed he did not believe in ghosts until this incident. When the complaints started to roll in, he investigated and was surprised when what he discovered confirmed the reports.

At first, he felt it must be someone playing a practical joke but after standing near the grave for an entire night he changed his mind. He admitted what he heard scared him.

“I heard such an eerie screeching. It was definitely coming from the DeLyon grave.”

It took 6 months of complaints before the authorities responded. The town council made the decision to exhume and relocate the body. 

Jacques DeLyon, Mrs. DeLyon’s son fought this decision stating, “I paid good money for the plot and she has the right to rest there.” But DeLyon’s bid was denied.

Yvonne DeLyon now lies in a rural graveyard, miles from the town. She no longer disturbs people’s rest or scares them.

Haunted Holland Island

This is a tale of a once-beloved town that is now underwater and the haunting that inspired a minister to try and save it.

Holland Island 1800s

Along the Chesapeake Bay lies a 400-year old island town that once was a vibrant fishing community. Now it is abandoned marshland that’s rapidly eroding.

Holland Island is Maryland’s haunted underwater ghost town.

Settled in the 1600s Holland Island was originally a Dutch colony of fishers and farmers. The island saw a resurgence of life in 1850, and in 1910 it was the largest inhabited island on the Chesapeake Bay, boasting 360 residents.

There were 70 homes and stores, a post office, church, baseball team, and medical offices.

In 1914 the climate took a turn for the worse, and the wind and tide started to quickly erode the western part of the island. This is where most of the island’s resident’s lived.

They were forced to move to the mainland. Some residents even removed their homes—board by board. The last family left the island in 1918. The island was abandoned with one exception.

The only person that remained on the island was Stephen White, a minister who established, “The Holland Island Preservation Foundation.” White sold the island to the Concorde Foundation in 2010.

This was the year the last remaining house collapsed. This house was built in 1888 and was the final reminder that the island was once home to a town.

Like most of the Chesapeake Bay islands, Holland Island is made up of clay and silt, not rock. Its western ridges were exposed to waves in the bay, making it prone to erosion.

The island’s size has been reduced by half, from 160 acres in 1915 to 80 acres in 2005.

Today the island is marshland and at high tide is completely submerged underwater.

So how is this story connected to a haunting?

Stephen White, a waterman, and former minister, first visited Holland Island as a young boy. Years later, he was inspired to save the island after visiting one of the island’s three cemeteries.

At this cemetery he spotted a gravestone that read:

“Forget me not, is all I ask.”

While he was taking a picture of this gravestone, he noticed a ghostly girl standing nearby.

Inspired to honor the gravestone inscription, and to not let the world forget this little girl or her home, White launched a massive campaign to save the island.

He hoped a wealthy donor or the government would assist him, but neither of these two things happened.

White and his wife did not give up, they made it their personal mission to save the island. They spend hours placing sandbags to stop the erosion along the island’s edges.

But despite their efforts in October of 2010, the island’s last house fell into the Bay.

Today two of Holland Island’s three cemeteries are underwater.

Here a link to the ballad of Holland Island House.

The Grim Reaper or A Prank

This past August 2014 in my hometown, Albuquerque, New Mexico a strange sight

Various photos snapped.

literally stopped traffic along I-25 near the Gibson exit.

An old cemetery, San Jose del El Rosano was divided into separate parts with the construction of this interstate years ago. Because of this sections of this cemetery are right next to this highway. One part even sits between one of the roads’ on ramps and the overpass.

During the week of August 12^th during the supermoon people saw something they described as “weird” and “scary.” Many not only stopped their cars but then got out to take a closer look.

Several witnesses snapped photographs and one person took raw video of the dark figure that stood before them. What frightened these witnesses was a very tall figure standing at one entrance to the cemetery.

Most did not know what to make of this dark figure, dressed in black its face completely obscured by darkness. Some stated it appeared to carry a bouquet of flowers in its hands, others stated it carried something green near its midsection that was glowing.

One witness that stopped, Michelle Gonzales stated she moved to approach this figure when another witness stopped her. He felt that was an unwise decision since they did not know for certain what this figure was doing there.

Several witnesses at the cemetery and many more who viewed the photos taken afterwards felt this figure was the Grim Reaper. But most after the fact stated it was obviously just a man perpetrating a prank.

Several witnesses that saw this figure with their own eyes were not so sure this simple explanation was the right one. They stated that this was something more.

Rumors spread afterward that the “man” seen standing in this cemetery that day was arrested--the authorities were called to the scene --but there is no record anyone was arrested.

Later, a local TV news team interviewed this man when he appeared again and it was determined that he was was indeed human. 

Georgia: Light in a Graveyard, Part l

The Marshes of Glynn

“…Beautiful gloom, soft dusks in the noonday fire,--

Wildwood privacies, closets of lone desire,

Chamber from chamber parted with wavering arras of leaves,--

Cells for the passionate pleasure of prayer to the soul that grieves,

Pure with a sense of the passing of saints through the wood,

Cool for the dutiful weighing of ill with the good:--…“

Christ Church Cemetery

This sad, touching ghost tale has been told for many years on St. Simons Island the largest island in the Golden Isles. 

St. Simons lies across from the “Marshes of Glynn” made famous by the poem written by Sidney Lanier above.

Most believe this is a true story.

Long ago there was a couple that lived on St. Simons Island just off the Georgia coast. They were totally devoted to each other.

The wife was terrified of the dark, so her husband every night at bedtime would bring a candle into their bedroom.

The years passed, and the wife became ill. Knowing she was about to die, she told her husband that she was afraid of being placed in a dark grave. Her husband eased her fears by promising to bring a lit candle to her resting place every night.

After she died, her husband kept his promise. For as long as he lived, he would visit the cemetery where his wife was buried at night and leave a burning candle on her grave.

After he died, the residents of the Island were shocked when this nightly light continued to be seen in the cemetery.

Christ Church early 20th century.

Most came to believe that this devoted husband’s spirit was continuing his labor of love. This light is seen in Christ Churches’ cemetery even today.

A flickering flame is seen passing through the grave markers, and then it stops at the wife’s grave--where it remains until sunrise.

Read about the St. Simon’s lighthouse another place that is haunted on this Island in Part ll--St. Simons Island Light.

Selling Salt in a Cemetery

In several Asian countries selling salt to ghosts, in a cemetery, is a practice that is told in the form of a scary ghost story. This practice done mostly by “desperate people” to get money, is considered by many today around the world to be just an Urban Legend. But…

In Singapore, it was a traditional story that was passed down from one generation to the next for many years. 

The belief was that ghosts need salt, in order to prevent the decomposition process, so they would pay the living handsomely for the salt they supply.

If one was desperate enough to do this, there were strict rules they must follow. It was believed if these rules were not followed, the seller would lose their life.

The traditional practice involved going to a cemetery at dusk. The salt seller then would have to stay until dawn--under no circumstances could they leave the cemetery until daybreak--if they did it meant certain death.

Today the legend that circulates states, the seller should go to the cemetery at midnight and stay until dawn.

There are several other traditional rules that must be followed--if they are not observed the salt seller will face dire consequences.

The seller was warned they should take enough salt to last the whole night--if they ran out before dawn, it would mean certain death. 

This salt should be equally portioned out into individual bags--the traditional way was to place these portions in tied tissue paper.

Upon entering the cemetery, the seller should find a “suitable place” and sit down. They must wait patiently. They were told to bow their heads, and to never look up the entire time, if they did it would mean certain death.

Today it is stated the seller should wear a jacket with a hood.

The ghosts would then approach the salt seller one by one. Keeping their head bowed the seller would see the outstretched hand of the ghost and pass a bag over. 

Then the seller would hold out their hand, and the ghost would place the payment in it--all the while never looking up.

These purchases would continue throughout the night. It was stated the salt seller could walk away at dawn with thousands of dollars.

Traditionally the ghosts would pay in “hell notes.” These hell notes would then turn into real money at dawn.

A more modern version states the ghosts sometimes would pay in leaves with numbers on them. These numbers were winning lottery numbers.

A final rule--the salt seller must spend the money given within two weeks or lose it.

Here is a 40-minute video where one man recently tested this “practice” in a cemetery.

Paris’ Père Lachaise Cemetery

Chopin's grave

The Cimetière du Père Lachaise located on a hill overlooking Paris is visited more than any other cemetery in the world. 

The reason for this is twofold. This cemetery is the final resting place for a large number of famous creative, talented people plus the cemetery has some of the most spectacular, beautiful, macabre and sad gravestones, tombs, sculptures and mausoleums of any found in the world.

Burials in this Paris suburb began in 1804 and today 200 years later the Père Lachaise has over 1 million graves. The cemetery still accepts new burials but it has a long waiting list. The reason for this is limited space so graves are “leased” for 10, 20, 30 years, etc. When the family stops paying the remains are removed to a different cemetery so space can be reused.

Here are just a few of the famous permanent residents buried at Père Lachaise:

Harriet Toby an American
a ballerina who was killed at
age  23 in a plane crash
in 1952.

Balzac--writer, Karel Appel--painter, Isadora Duncan--dancer, Rosalie Duthè--courtesan, Sarah Bernhardt--actress, Frederic Chopin--composer, Molière--playwright, Jean de la Fontaine--poet/fable writer.

Marcel Marceau--mime, Jim Morrison--singer, Marcel Proust--writer, Gioachino Rossini--composer, Oscar Wilde--writer, Georges Bizet--composer/conductor, Georges Rodenbach--poet, Edith Piaf--singer, Gertrude Stein--writer, Eugene Delacroix--painter.

Oscar Wilde's tomb is normally
covered in bright red lipstick
kisses left by admiring women.

People who have visited Père Lachaise often mention the ghosts they have encountered along its shaded cobblestone paths.

One story mentions Marcel Proust and Maurice Ravel. They were a loving couple in life -- it is said they rise at night from their graves and go in search of each other.

Adolphe Thiers who was the prime minister under King Louis-Phillippe in the 19^th century is said to “tug” on visitors clothes if they venture too close to his resting place.

His grave is the most
visited.

The Doors lead singer Jim Morrison is often seen roaming near his grave. 

His grave was almost the victim of the cemeteries “lease” policy when families that have deceased loved ones near his resting place gathered together when the Morrison 10 year lease was up and tried to have him moved--they did not succeed. 

The bust which was placed on the 10th anniversary by a fan was later stolen. The family pays to have the graffiti cleaned off. 

Recent photo of his grave.

There are also many other stories of visitors seeing spectral lights, translucent figures, and other disembodied spirits roaming throughout the cemetery.

The following is a 5-minute montage of pictures of the various incredible grave markers at Père Lachaise.