Ghost with a Sweet Tooth

Reader’s Digest has some wonderful first-person accounts of people who have encountered ghosts. Two female neighbors shared the following story.

These two women had something in common—their homes shared a poltergeist. This type of entity is known to move objects around, and these neighbors experienced this on a daily basis.

This poltergeist was very playful, and the two women named him Billy.

They often came home to find items in weird places. Milk cartons were moved to cupboards, toilet paper was found in the refrigerator, and laundry detergent was found dissolved in the bathtub.

One day the two women greeted each other on their back porches. Both were hunting for their lost milk. They discovered the gallons on the steps by their feet.

Both women joked Billy had a “sweet tooth,” for every morning they found their sugar bowls empty.

The two women would talk to Billy. When one would become frustrated, they would demand he go bother their neighbor for a while. This worked for the two would call each other to say, “Thanks a lot” because Billy had pulled some new mischief in their home.

Billy was active the whole time these two women were neighbors. No one believed them when they mentioned Billy—not even their husbands.

Their relatives and friends would often see the result of Billy’s impish ways, but they always made excuses—it couldn’t possibly be the ghost the two women knew shared their homes.

Reader’s Digest shared this story from a Reddit thread.

Doherty Hotel: Speakeasy Murder

Doherty Hotel

Located in Clare, Michigan the Doherty opened in 1924. During prohibition, this hotel was the place to be, it offered alcohol, loose women, and gambling.

With this illegal activity came two competing gangs for the profit it offered. 

Michigan’s notorious Purple Gang ran illegal booze across the Canadian border, and Carl Jack Livingston, a business associate of this organized crime family, lived in the hotel.

His cousin, Isaiah Leebove, was the attorney for the gang. These two men owned Mammoth Oil Company together. The group used this business to launder their ill-gotten profits.

The two men got in a dispute over land Leebove owned. The cousins quarreled over whether they would drill for oil or not on this 45-acre lot.

As this disagreement escalated, Livingston became paranoid that Leebove had aligned himself with the competing New York crime syndicate, headed by Meyer Lansky. He believed his cousin was working with Lansky to put a contract out to kill him.

On the night of May 16, 1938, Livingston approached the table where Leebove and his girlfriend were eating dinner in the hotel. He shot and killed his cousin in cold blood.

A newspaper report about murder.

Livingston pled “temporary insanity” at his trial, and the jury acquitted him. Despite this, he did land in a northern Michigan institution where he died of a drug overdose in 1948.

One ghost that haunts the Doherty Hotel is Isaiah Leebove. His dark entity is seen from the hotel lobby to the upper floors, he is also seen in the Tap Room where he was murdered so heartlessly.

The owners, their guests, visitors, and hotel employees all report unusual encounters. A dark figure is seen in the hallways, and guests hear knocking on their bedroom doors. When they open it, no one is there. As well as many witnesses reporting hearing unexplained noises.

Pitt Union’s Prima Ballerina

Schenley Hotel 1900

Several ghosts haunt the University of Pittsburgh located in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of these stories I find especially compelling, it is about a Russian ballerina.

Today the student union, William Pitt Union, is located in once was a former hotel called the Schenley. The ghost that resides in this building is connected to the Tansky Family Lounge or the Red Room, which is located on the first floor just to the left of the entrance—at one time it was the hotel lobby.

The Red Room is still used today as a lounge with comfortable couches and chairs. Legend states early in the 20^th century this space was connected to a tragedy.

Tansky Family Lounge once hotel lobby.

The Schenley Hotel, being one of Pittsburgh’s finest, hosted the Russian National Ballet when they kicked off their American tour in this northeastern city.

The troops prima ballerina exhausted from all the travel fell asleep in the lobby and missed the premiere performance. The furious company director announced that for the rest of the tour the young understudy whom had performed that night in her stead would have the role for the rest of the tour.

The devastated prima ballerina then took her own life in the area near the lounge. Even though this tale is tragic the spirit of this ballerina, which still resides in the Red Room is fondly known as a “helping ghost.”

If a student falls asleep in the Red Room it is stated the prima ballerina wakes them up—it is as if she knows they will be late for something important. Students state she prevented them from being late for exams, classes, meetings, appointments etc.

Now that is my kind of ghost . . .

Forbes Avenue side of William Pitt Union

The City that Lives Upon Her Dead

The title of this post is the nickname given to Savannah, Georgia. This southern city is called this because their old burial grounds were paved over without moving the graves that lay beneath.

Colonial Park Cemetery

This fact has led to reported ghostly sightings across Savannah. But many locals agree their city’s Historic District is the most haunted.

In the middle of this district is the six-acre Colonial Park Cemetery that dates back to 1750. Over 10,000 souls are buried here despite the fact there are only 1,000 headstones that remain.

The reasons for this vary. Over 700 victims of the 1820s yellow fever epidemic are buried in mass graves at Colonial. This graveyard also has many family vaults were family members were placed. Their remains turned to dust and placed in urns so the next generation of deceased could be placed on the shelves—this cycle then continued.

Gravestones displaced by Union
soldiers.

Many of Colonial’s gravestones were moved or disfigured by Union troops during the Civil War, which leads to more confusion of where the deceased are buried.

But the most compelling factor is when the cemetery’s boundaries were shortened the surrounding streets, i.g. Abercorn and Oglethorpe was paved over, and many of the graves were left under them.

One area of Colonial today is a children’s playground and basketball court. Sightings of ghosts believed to be deceased men who were killed in duels are reported here. Other sightings in the cemetery include shadow figures and a green mist that floats among the gravestones.

By far, the most famous haunting at this park is known as the “Hanging Tree” ghost. Locals and tourists are fascinated by this story, which has taken on epic proportions.

A male ghost, known as Rene Rondolier, is often seen walking through Colonial or hanging from a tree called the “Hanging Tree.” located at the back wall of the cemetery.

It is said Rondolier is easy to spot because he is almost 7 feet in height. His ghost is infamous because it is believed he murdered two young girls in this graveyard. He then was lynched either on the Hanging Tree or in a nearby square.

Footnote: There is little historical evidence that Rondolier ever existed, but this story through several generations has taken on folkloric status.

Despite this fact, there have been so many witnesses to this haunting as well as others that paranormal investigators in the area have dubbed Colonial Park “Paranormal Central” and of course ghost tours are offered.

Ghostly figure captured at Colonial