Indiana: Cry Baby Bridge

This story is told about an old bridge located on County Road 675 near Anderson, Indiana. Anderson is located in the middle of Indiana in Madison County.

Crybaby Bridge near
Anderson, Indiana.

It is said that at midnight, people for years have heard the sounds of a baby crying below this bridge. Some witnesses state that they hear the sounds of water splashing after the baby's cries.

One familiar backstory states a baby was thrown from the backseat after a car accident on this bridge. The impact killed it, and ever since, people have claimed to hear this baby crying.

Another story told in the late 1950s, states that a teenage unwed mother delivered her baby in the backseat of a car—she then threw it over the railing of this bridge.

This story becomes even darker when it mentions this baby did not land in the water but instead landed on a bank, where it was severely injured at impact.

Its cries horrified the mother, and she left in a panic. Several other cars passed, and they heard the screams, but they did not stop to investigate.

This baby finally died several hours later, from exposure and its injuries. When the body was found, the authorities could not identify it.

The mother's guilt drove her to return to the bridge several more times—each time she heard her baby’s cries.

This legend then caught on, and others began to claim they heard the baby crying as well.

This backstory has drawn many people to this bridge—be forewarned, the residents call the police if there is activity on this bridge late at night. This is because there has been considerable vandalism in the area.

Cry Baby Bridge stories are common in America. South Carolina has a bridge with a similar tale connected to it, like the one above.

On this blog, there are two other Cry Baby Bridge stories shared here and here. 

The Ghost of Chicken Alley

Asheville, North Carolina’s early history like many towns was bawdy and violent.

In the early days a narrow alley located in downtown Asheville was named after the many chickens that would congregate in this area--it is still called Chicken Alley * today.

Recent residents of this alley claim to see a ghost that has made appearance in this area for over 100 years.

A violent bar fight in Broadway’s Tavern in 1902 resulted in the death of one of Asheville’s prominent citizens-- Dr. Jamie Smith. It is said his spirit is the one that haunts this alley.

Dr. Smith wore a distinctive wide-brimmed black fedora hat along with a long duster style coat. He was always seen carrying his black medical bag and a stylish cane topped with silver.

Sightings of him always are similar and these descriptions always include the specific clothing and accessories mentioned above.

A Rowdy Town

Asheville at the end of the 19^th century was filled with loggers who came in from the surrounding camps. The town provided flowing whiskey and brothels to keep these men happy on the weekends.

It is said Dr. Smith also enjoyed the delights Asheville provided. He spent most of his time treating aliments caused by the sins of the day--sexually tranmitted diseases and injuries from drunken bar brawls.

Bad timing and bad luck led Dr. Smith to Broadway’s Tavern located in Chicken Alley. He stumbled upon a rowdy fight and when he tried to break it up he was stabbed through the heart--he died instantly.

His assailant was never caught and this tavern burnt down a year after the good doctor’s death.

A Shadowy Ghost

Since Dr. Jamie Smith’s death in 1902 reports of seeing an odd dark figure walking along Chicken Alley has become common. This ghost is seen most often late at night.

People report hearing his cane tapping along the pavement as he makes his way through the alley.

The locals speculate why his ghost still lingers in this area. The obvious and most common reason stated is because he died in this area.

Some state the doctor is still trying to stop the fight, others state he just wants another drink.

The only chicken left in the alley today is on a brightly colored mural in the entrance to the alley. It is here the doctor’s ghost is seen between Carolina Lane and Woodfin Street in this short alley.

* The Alley hosts many alternative artists today, which is reflected in the alley’s interesting graffiti.

Washington State: Lady of the Lake

Lake Crescent

Lake Crescent, located within Olympic National Park, has a reputation for “rarely giving up its dead.”

The following ghost story is an exception to this rule. Olympic Peninsula citizens often share this gruesome, tragic tale about a murder and a body that turned to soap.

The Discovery

One summer morning in 1940 two fishermen boating on Lake Crescent spotted a large object floating on the surface. When they drew near, they realized it was a human body wrapped in blankets and hogtied with rope.

The coroner who then took charge of the body discovered a corpse in an unusual condition.

The body had not decomposed or decayed, and it had no apparent odor. The flesh was hard and waxy. It was found the body had gone through a process known as saponification--this is where fatty acids convert to soap.

The cold deep waters of the lake had preserved the body, and the salt and calcium had slowly converted the tissue into a material similar to Ivory soap called adipocere.

The coroner noted this 36-year old female victim had been murdered for she had discoloration and bruises on her neck and evidence of an extensive hemorrhage on her chest. She had been beaten and strangled.

Her Identity

Despite the well-preserved state of the corpse, the authorities had a hard time determining who this woman was. The body was missing a face, fingertips, and toes.

The preserved corpse.

The locals quickly dubbed the mystery corpse--Lady of the Lake.

Her dental records were sent to over 5,000 dentists. Finally, a dentist in South Dakota came forward in 1941 stating the upper dental plate belonged to a former patient of his--Hallie Latham.

Hallie Latham Illingworth

Hallie Lathan Illingworth

Hallie was born to a hard-working farm couple in Greenville, Kentucky in 1901. As a young adult, she had moved slowly across the west in search of a better life.

By the time she reached Port Angeles in Washington in 1936 she had ended her second marriage and was working at the Lake Crescent Tavern --today the Lake Crescent Lodge--as a barmaid.

She met and married her third husband Montgomery “Monty” J. Illingworth, a beer-truck driver and known ladies man in Port Angeles on January 16, 1936.

The marriage was a turbulent one. Hallie often would show up to work with bruises on her arms and face. At one point the police were called in to break up a pre-dawn fierce fight between the two only five months into their marriage.

The Disappearance

After almost one year of marriage, Hallie suddenly went missing shortly before Christmas in December of 1937. Monty told her family and friends that she had run off with a fisherman from Alaska.

Hallie’s close-knit family though became alarmed when she did not contact them over the holidays.

In the meantime, Monty seemingly unconcerned about his missing wife moved to Long Beach, California with a woman he had been romantically connected to in Port Angeles before Hallie’s disappearance.

By 1938 Monty was granted a divorce from Hallie.

Three years after her disappearance on July 6, 1940, Hallie reappeared as the Lady of the Lake sending the citizens of the Peninsula Coast into shock.

Apprehending a Killer

In October of 1941, Monty Illingworth was arrested in Long Beach. He was brought back to Port Angeles and was put on trial for Hallie’s murder in Clallam County Superior Court in February of 1941.

Monty Illingworth during the trial.

This 9-day trial’s sensationalized headlines competed with news about the Second World War around the U.S.

Throughout the trial, Monty maintained his innocence. Stating that the body that was found was not his ex-wife. He even said that she was still “gallivanting around with her lover.”

But the evidence against him was overwhelming. The Dentist from South Dakota was a very credible witness--he insisted the dental plate belonged to Hallie.

A friend of Hallie's who testified identified the clothing found with the corpse as belonging to her.

The critical evidence turned out to be the heavy rope the corpse was hogtied with. Monty had borrowed 50 feet of rope from the storekeeper at the lake. The store still had remnants from this rope--the fibers matched precisely.

After four hours of deliberation the jurors found Monty guilty of second-degree murder * he was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla.

Illingworth served nine years of this sentence and then was paroled in 1951. He died in 1974, in Los Alamitos, California.

* The murder was not considered premeditated -- it was believed instead to be just one more of the couple’s violent fights-- but this time it had escalated out of control.

The Haunting

Since this murder, a legend has grown about Hallie's spirit still haunting the area where she worked and died.

Lake Crescent Tavern
The Mid-1930s.

Tourists that stay at the lodge have seen her ghost. She is spotted sitting at a table smoking a cigarette. Some unsuspecting visitors have reported she spoke to them.

Staff at the lodge report hearing her clatter up and down the stairs in the early hours of the morning.

Other reports include lights flickering, doors slamming, and music playing loudly in the lounge. Some state this makes sense since Hallie liked to drink while alive.

She is also seen walking along the lake’s shore. She is described as a dark, pale translucent figure. More legendary reports mention she is sometimes seen gliding across the water.

One first-person account mentions seeing Monty in a rowboat and him carelessly dropping Hallie’s weighted body into Lake Crescent. 

Anne Naylor’s Ghost

This is a true story about two grisly murders, one resulted in a haunting that still occurs today. 

Children at London Workhouse
18th Century

The Naylor sisters, two orphans were residents or inmates * at a workhouse in 18^th century London. It was common practice at this time for children once they reached the age of 12 to be apprenticed out to a local business. 

Anne Naylor, ** and her younger sister were given into the care of a local woman who ran a millinery shop. A Mrs. Sarah Metyard and her daughter Sarah “Sally” Metyard ran this establishment. These two women had five young girls apprenticed to them, but what they provided would not be characterized as “care.”

The girls under the Metyard’s care were often beaten and starved. Both women had hot tempers and enjoyed inflicting pain. Anne unfortunately, was often their primary target for she was sickly and could not keep up with her assigned work. 

At one point Anne managed to escape the Metyard’s house, but they sent a boy, who found her and forcefully returned her to their shop. As punishment Sally beat Anne and then locked her in the attic where she was given only bread and water.

Anne now desperate once more escaped the Metyard’s home. This time Sally brought her back. She viciously beat Anne with a broomstick, and then Mrs. Metyard tied Anne to the Attic door where she was forced to stand for hours during the day. 

She was tied to this door for three days without food or water. Mrs. Metyard pointed her out to the other apprentices warning them that this would happen to them if they ever tried to escape, or disobey her.

On the fourth day, the other apprentices noticed Anne was not moving. They called for Sally. She beat Anne about the head with a shoe, but when she didn’t respond, she called for her mother. Mrs. Metyard tried to revive Anne with smelling salts, but when this didn’t work, the two women realized Anne was dead. 

They locked her body in a trunk in the attic. They made a show of taking food to her for days so the other apprentices would not suspect anything was amiss. They even left the attic door open and the shop door ajar, claiming Anne had run away yet again.

However, Anne’s sister did not believe them. She managed to tell a lodger in the house that she suspected Anne was dead. Furious, the Metyards murdered her as well. ** 

After two months had passed, the two women started to worry the neighbors would wonder about the smell for Anne’s body was still in the trunk in the attic. 

On Christmas day they dismembered the body and wrapped each piece in cloth. At first, they tried to burn these pieces in their fireplace but realizing this caused an odor—they instead took the fragments to Chick Lane and dumped them in a mud puddle near a sewer.

When these human remains were found, it was assumed that it was a body that had been snatched and then dissected by medical students. 

Soon after, witnesses started to see the ghost of a young girl dressed in white in the area where the body had been dumped. 

Other witnesses heard a young girl’s scream. So many people saw and have listened to this apparition that eventually most of this London parish felt Chick Lane was haunted.

The Metyards might have gotten away with this murder if it had not been for Sally confessing. Four years after they disposed of Anne’s body, the two women had a big fight, which prompted Sally to move out and live with a man who was her lover. 

When he mentioned the ghost of Chick Lane, Sally told him what she and her mother had done. Naively, he informed the authorities—downplaying Sally’s role in the belief she would not be accused.

But both the Metyard women were arrested, tried, and found guilty. The judge, when sentencing both women to hang, announced that justice would not be complete unless both their bodies were dissected after death. 

When Mrs. Metyard was walked to the scaffold, she collapsed. Her jailers were not able to revive her, so she was hanged while still unconscious. Sally cried as she took this final walk. Both bodies were put on public display after they were hanged, at Tyburn on July 19, 1768. Their bodies were then dissected at “Surgeon’s Hall.”

Here is a link to the official record.

Farringdon Station

Chick Lane is now called West Street. Many of the 18th-century buildings in this area have been torn down—new ones have replaced them. Despite these changes, the neighborhood is still haunted. 

One hundred years after Anne’s death, in 1758, a prominent London ghost hunter investigated—he experienced the same activity everyone else had—so the site was pronounced authentic. 

Today, near the area where Anne’s body was dumped, stands the Farringdon Station—a stop on the London Underground. Countless witnesses have heard Anne’s screams as they stand on the platform, after the last train leaves. Several people have caught these screams on their recorders.

* People who lived in workhouses were called inmates—this is fitting because these Poor Law institutions were similar to prisons. This is probably why we call prisoners inmates today.

** Anne Naylor was 13 years old when she was beaten and starved to death.

*** It is not known how the Metyard’s killed Anne’s sister or what they did with her body.

The Haunted Bohemian Hotel Chelsea

The Chelsea was built in 1884 on 23^rd Street in New York’s first theatre district. It was built originally with 100-units as a co-op apartment building with soundproof walls and fireplaces. 

It is a ten-story red brick structure, in the Victorian Gothic style, with wrought-iron balconies on the front. Its roof is crowned with turrets and gables. Its grand wrought-iron staircase still stands proudly in the center of its interior.

In the Hotel Chelsea’s halcyon days, its stain glass windows and ornate woodwork gleamed. 

Today this woodwork is covered in several layers of paint. Its plate-glass mirrors that adorn its walls have reflected some of New York’s most creative residents-- artists, actors, writers, and musicians. 

These same mirrors have reflected some of New York's worst vises—drug use, alcoholism, and crime.

Staircase

By the 1900s, the Chelsea was turned into New York’s version of a hotel. Its original 2 and 4 bedroom units were split into 400—100 of the rooms became hotel rentals, while 300 of them remained homes for long-term residents. 

The rooms at the Chelsea, though stayed unique, in the sense that each has its own features. 

Most of Chelsea’s long-term residents have always been considered counter-culture or creative artistic types. 

One recent writer described Chelsea as “The Tower of Babel of creativity and bad behavior.” But there has always been a mixture of residents. 

After the Titanic sank, several survivors of this disaster stayed at the Chelsea. During and after World War ll, many refugees moved into the Chelsea.

By the late 1950s, when the son of an owner, Stanley Bard, became the resident landlord, the Chelsea became "the place" for people in the counter-culture to live. 

Bard became apart of the artistic crowd that surrounded him. He often let tenets’ rent slide and would take art pieces instead of payment. Many of these resident art pieces still adorn Chelsea today.

It is said people did not stay at the Chelsea for peace and quiet—they lived there instead because of its innate sense of “excitement.” 

Through the years, many famous people have taken up residence at Chelsea. Eugene O’Neil, Thomas Wolfe, and Arthur C. Clarke—who wrote “2001: A Space Odyssey” while living at the Chelsea.

Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Jack Kerouac, Frank Zappa, Andy Warhol, Jimi Hendrix, and the poet Dylan Thomas, all stayed or lived at the Chelsea. 

Madonna shot her Sex book at the Chelsea Hotel.

Dylan Thomas actually died at the Chelsea in room 206, in 1953, after going on a drinking binge that led to alcohol poisoning. 

Dylan’s last words are said to have been, “I’ve had eighteen straight whiskeys, and I think that is a record.” 

Charles R. Jackson— who wrote “The Lost Weekend,” committed suicide in his room in 1968. 

Charles James, often referred to America’s first couturier, died in his apartment in 1978 after living at the Chelsea for fourteen years.

Another death to take place at the Chelsea in 1978 in room 100, was that of former Sex Pistol musician Sid Vicious's girlfriend Nancy Spungen. They were living at the Chelsea after Sid’s career took a plunge. 

After a drug binge on October 12, 1978, Nancy was found stabbed to death. Sid had no idea if he did it, or someone broke in and killed Nancy. Before he stood trial, Sid died of a heroin overdose. Some think his mom gave it to him because he told her he couldn’t go back to jail.

Because of this strange and violent history, many feel the Chelsea is haunted. 

There is an interesting blog entitled “Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog,” about the Chelsea Hotel and the ghosts people have reported feeling, hearing, and seeing. 

Some say that amidst the various residents, and bugs, that reside at the Chelsea today that the resident ghosts outnumber them.

Nancy Spungen and several others mentioned above, haunt the Chelsea to this day. 

But one of my favorite stories is about a long-standing ghost named Mary. She was one of the Titanic survivors who came to live at the Chelsea in 1912. 

Mary, who lost her husband when the Titanic sank, lived on the eighth floor of the Chelsea. Not able to adjust to her loss, she hung herself in her room. 

Since her ghost has always been seen looking in mirrors. Especially one on the west side of the building, where a hall archway is located now--this area once was an apartment’s entryway. 

She is known as the “vain” ghost because she is forever checking out her appearance. She is described as wearing a hat with a plume, her hair is swept up in the Gibson girl style. 

Some witnesses have reported that her demeanor sends a strong message to the living, that she thinks they are just a bother.

In a future post, I will write about another one of my favorite ghosts who haunts the Hotel Chelsea.

The Archduke’s Cursed Car

It has been said over the years that the June 28, 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie at the hands of a Serbian nationalist secret society known as the “Black Hand” started World War l. 

This is not entirely true the reason being that the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef and most of the Austrian people, admitting it was a tragedy, were not exactly saddened by this event. The Archduke was not popular so actually no one cared. What really started World War l were events that occurred after the assassination.

Austria-Hungry had been looking for an excuse to engage in a war with Serbia in order to weaken or destroy them so they could take back territory in the Balkans that they had lost during the Balkan Wars. 

They needed Germany’s support in order to do this and with the assassination they were able to secure a promise from Germany that they would aid them with a war against Serbia and possibly Russia in the off chance they entered the war because of a treaty they held with Serbia. 

The Austro-Hungarians didn’t think this would occur, in fact they thought it would be a small war that would end quickly. Unfortunately, Russia did enter the war. World War l escalated into one of the bloodiest wars in human history. By the end, 15 million people had died.

So what does all this have to do with a cursed car? 

A Graf and Stift was the most luxurious automobile in the early 1900s. One of their most prestigious customers was the Austro-Hungarian court. When Archduke Franz Ferdinand went on that fateful state visit to Bosnia with his wife he took his new red Graf & Stift limousine. 

While driving through the crowded streets of Sarajevo, a Black Hand gunman approached the open touring car firing the shots that killed the two passengers.

The archduke’s car is called “the automobile that started World War I,” but as I discussed above it wasn’t the assassination—so this is a misnomer. 

The deaths of the archduke and his wife were just the beginning of a series of tragedies connected to this automobile. Some say that Ferdinand and Sophie left a ghostly imprint on the car. Regardless of whether this is true or not the car is truly cursed.

This is the archduke's Graf & Shift with a double phaeton body.
It is powered by a 4 cylinder engine with 32 HP.

The first owner after the Archdukes’ death was a General Potiorek. He developed mental problems and later died in an insane asylum. 

An army captain, the next owner; died in an accident after hitting and killing two peasants on the road. 

The governor of Yugoslavia bought the car, he had four accidents in four months while driving the car; the last resulted in the amputation of his right arm. 

The governor sold the car to a doctor, who lost his life when the car overturned and crushed him.

With each successive owner the tragedies continued. They were either injured or killed in accidents while in possession of the car. 

In all, thirteen people associated with the car died—it was then taken out of service. 

Today this supposedly haunted Graf & Stift automobile is displayed at the War History Museum in Vienna—the bullet holes from the assassination are still visible.