The Purring Ghost

Much has been made about haunted objects recently. This kind of phenomena has been noticed for years. Minerals, and building materials are known to store what is referred to as residual energy. Antiques seem to be particularly susceptible to this phenomenon.

John Izzard in his book entitled “Ghosts” retells the story of a haunted antique desk. I really like this story because it involves a ghost cat. What I find interesting about this story is that the owner of the desk claimed that once she understood the history of the desk the activity then ceased.

I have met several people over the years that once they understood the history or knew the story behind the activity they were experiencing they then became much more accepting or even in some cases became attached to it.

This story takes place in an English village. Izzard writes that an English writer by the name of Mrs. Williams bought an antique desk from a second hand store. She was excited because it was exactly the size and shape she was looking for. She knew this desk would give her a comfortable place to write.

Once the desk was delivered Mrs. Williams started writing, she found the desk inspired her creativity. But she experienced something even more unexpected. From day to day as she sat writing she noticed she had a companion—an invisible purring cat. At first she though it must be a cat outside her window purring in the sunshine. Perplexed she heard the cat purring even when it rained.

Amazed she realized that the cat wasn’t outside at all. In fact, the sound was actually coming from under her desk. She could almost see the cat curled contently near her feet. Every time she sat at the desk it was there purring at her feet. So when it brushed against her legs it didn’t surprise her. In fact one day this ghost cat even jumped into her lap.

Curious she returned to the second hand store where she had bought the desk to ask if they knew anything about its history. The shopkeeper told her that a lady who bred and raised Siamese cats had owned it. After this she never felt or heard her furry companion again.

The two main theories that explain the presence of a residual haunting are the observer’s own emotional state or sensitivity to weather conditions, such as high humidity or barometric pressure. Whatever the cause, this kind of activity is always intriguing.

Happy Ghost Hunting!

New Mexico Legend: La Llorona

Old Spanish song about La Llorona

Don’t go down to the river, child,

Don’t go there alone

For the sobbing woman, wet and wild,

Might claim you for her own

She weeps when the sun is murky red

She wails when the moon is old

She cries for her babies, still and dead,

Who drowned in the water cold

She seeks her children day and night,

Wandering, lost, and cold

She weeps and moans in dark and light,

A tortured, restless soul

Don’t go down to the river, child,

Don’t go there alone

For the sobbing woman, wet and wild,

Might claim you for her own

In another post, I talked about how children in New Mexico are very familiar with the La Llorona story. La Llorona is New Mexico’s most famous ghost. 

If you visit anywhere along the Rio Grande river in my state, you will encounter New Mexicans who will gladly relate their version of La Llorona. This story is told in other parts of the country, but the following version is one told often in New Mexico.

In the early 1700s, there was a young woman named Maria who lived in a small village along the Rio Grande. 

As Maria matured, she began to attract much attention in the village because she was very beautiful. Her family was very poor so her mother encouraged Maria to marry one of the local men. 

Maria with the firm self-belief that her beauty would someday attract a wealthy man refused.

One day a handsome young man rode into the village. He was the son of a rancher in Mexico. He wore nice clothes and rode a well-groomed horse with a fancy saddle—all the signs of a man of wealth.

Maria started to follow him around, she tried to catch his eye, but he only noticed the better dressed young girls in the village. At night he would play his guitar for the locals, many young ladies swooned at his golden voice. Maria was sure her heart would break.

Then one day as Maria shopped the young rancher stopped near her. Maria blushed with embarrassment because she wore an old dirty, tattered dress. 

But her blush caught his eye, and for the first time, he noticed how beautiful she was. He began to court Maria. 

Within a short time, he had paid Maria’s father a large dowry so he could marry her. Knowing his family would not accept his marriage to a woman from a lower class—the couple settled along the Rio Grande.

Over the next several years Maria’s husband worked as a merchant along the El Camino Real, and Maria bore him three children. But as the years passed Maria and her wealthy husband grew apart. 

He spent less and less time at home, and he showed no interest in their children. Maria began to suspect that he was seeing another woman while he was away.

Maria’s suspicions were confirmed when she spotted her husband riding in a buggy with a young beautiful woman by his side. Her heart was broken. 

She exploded in a jealous rage. Distraught she thought that if only she did not have the children, her husband would love her once more. 

In a rage, she dragged her children one by one to the river and held their heads under the water until they drowned.

Her senses lost to reality; she approached her husband and told him what she had done for him. Horrified he ordered her out of his life. 

Numb she wandered the streets of the village for several days crying for her children. The villagers started to call her La Llorona—meaning the wailing woman.

Maria realized she had lost everything that was dear to her so she went down to the river and cried for her children. 

She then flung herself into the river. Her body was never found. 

People in New Mexico still see a woman dressed all in white walking along paths near water. They hear Maria’s desperate cries for her children and then she slowly fades away.

Many believe she is condemned to wander, weeping and searching for her children. Others believe that she is a harbinger of death—if you see her someone will die.

Haunted Hotel del Coronado

The Hotel del Coronado is a luxury resort across the bay from San Diego located on Coronado Island. This charming all wood Victorian hotel was built in 1888. In its day it was the largest resort hotel in the world. In 1977 it was designated a National Historic Landmark.

This resort has hosted many famous people over the years. It was the playground for such stars as Tom Mix, Rudolph Valentino, and Charlie Chaplin. Several American presidents stayed at the Coronado: Harrison, McKinley. Taft, Wilson, and Nixon.

 It is said that Prince Edward of Wales first met Wallis Simpson in its ballroom in 1920. Later he abdicated the throne of England for her. The movie “Some Like It Hot” starring Tony Curtis, Jack Lemon, and Marilyn Monroe was filmed at the Coronado.

The paranormal activity in the Coronado is connected to one specific spirit. In life this ghost was a young woman named Kate Morgan, who met a tragic end at the hotel in 1892. Several stories as to why she haunts the hotel have been circulated over the years—each is more tragic than the last.

The main story is as follows—Kate Morgan was traveling by train with her husband Tom Morgan who was a card sharp. They were passing through Los Angeles when Kate told Tom she was pregnant. They quarreled and Tom got off the train agreeing to meet her in San Diego for Thanksgiving.

Kate checked into the Coronado on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, under the name Lottie A. Bernard, from Detroit. She was given Room 3312 (now Room 302). Tom never showed up. Kate waited for two days complaining of pains. It is speculated that she may have induced an abortion. Frantic she rode the ferry to San Diego, where she bought a .44-caliber gun. She then left a message for Tom at his hotel and returned to the Coronado.

The next day, Kate’s body was found dead near the steps of the hotel’s north entrance. It was discovered she had a bullet wound in her head.  Her hand held a gun that had one missing bullet. 

It is not known whether this was a suicide or a murder. The latter was favored when it was determined that the bullet in her head did not match the caliber of the bullets in the gun. The mystery deepened when it was discovered that a maid who had taken care of Kate was missing. She was never found. 

Many have speculated over the years that it must have been Tom who murdered Kate and possibly the maid as well. But there were no witnesses that could state that he had ever been on the island.

What is known is that Kate did stay in Room 3312 and her body was found on the steps. One version of the story has Kate discovering her boyfriend with another lover and then in shock she commits suicide. 

Another states that she was having an affair with a hotel executive who terminated their relationship. Most versions mention that she apparently self-aborted her baby while staying at the Coronado.

Regardless of the truth of this tragedy, one part of the story is constant—there is one ghost who resides at the Coronado. Her apparition has been seen by dozens of people since her death. 

She is most often spotted in what is now Room 302. She is described as a pretty brunet wearing a long black Victorian dress with a large ornate Victorian hat, she is also seen carrying a black parasol. She appears at the window in this room and guests who have slept in the room state they have felt cold spots and a presence in the room. 

Along with whispers, guests have heard gurgling sounds coming from the bathroom. Other guests have stated they have felt light-headed and dizzy while staying in Room 302.

The Ghost of Melanie Lanier

On Georges Island in Boston Harbor stands a pentagonal-shaped fort that was built in 1833. The fort’s original purpose was to protect the main shipping channels. 

It was named after Dr. Joseph Warren, the patriot leader who sent Paul Revere and William Dawes, to alert Lexington and Concord, on the night before the American Revolution started. 

Fort Warren was completed in the mid-1860s.

During the Civil War, Fort Warren was used as a prison for Confederate military and political prisoners. 

It was during this time that Melanie Lanier’s story unfolds. Her husband, Lieutenant Samuel Lanier was a young confederate soldier when he was captured at Roanoke Island, and brought to Fort Warren as a prisoner.

The lieutenant managed to send a message to his wife Melanie, outlining an escape, in which he gave her directions, and a prearranged signal to announce her arrival. 

When she received the letter, she decided bravely to go to Fort Warren, and help her husband. She traveled from Georgia, where she lived, to Hull, Massachusetts, where she made her way to the home of a confederate sympathizer. 

It was here Melanie cut her hair and obtained a Union soldier’s uniform. She planned to use this disguise to help with her rescue.

Every day she observed the fort with a spyglass. She set out on a stormy January 1862, night. Dressed as a man, she rowed across the harbor to Georges Island. She took an old pepperbox pistol and a pick-ax. 

When she reached the island’s beach, she slipped past the sentries and gave her husband their signal—she was then hoisted through a musket hole, to where her husband and other Confederate soldiers waited.

The night Melanie arrived, Lieutenant Lanier and several other soldiers were digging a tunnel to the center of the fort that led to an open area.

Their plan was to overpower the guards and seize their weapons. Unfortunately, they choose a route that allowed the Union soldiers stationed on the other side of the wall, to hear their digging. 

These guards alerted their commanding officer, Justin E. Dimick, and as the first prisoner’s emerged from the tunnel, he and several Union soldiers were waiting for them.

Where tunnel surfaced

The rest of the escapees still in the tunnel hastily devised a new plan. They would give themselves up, and then Melanie would emerge from the tunnel, using the element of surprise, and her pistol to force the Union soldiers to surrender. 

At first, this plan appeared to work. Melanie sprang from the tunnel and pointed her pistol at Dimick. He raised his hands, appearing to comply, but as he approached her, he suddenly knocked the gun in her hand, the barrel exploded, and a bullet fragment struck and killed her husband, Lieutenant Lanier.

Melanie was arrested and tried as a spy. She was found guilty and condemned to hang. 

This tale is tragic in more ways than one if she had been tried just for her attempt to assist her husband’s escape, her sentence would not have been death. 

Her last request was to be buried in a dress. The only piece of clothing found close to a woman’s garment, at the fort, was an old black cloak that had been used in a cadet play. Melanie Lanier was hanged on February 2, 1862, and then buried in this cloak.

One witness to Melanie Lanier’s execution, Richard Cassidy described afterward that while he was walking his post, one night near the site of the hanging, he suddenly felt someone or something touch him. He turned around and saw a lady wearing all black. 

Several other soldiers during this time reported seeing a spirit dressed in black, walking the parapets and ramparts at night.

Corridor of Dungeons where Lady in Black has been seen

The ghost of Melanie Lanier became known as the “Lady in Black.” 

After these initial sightings. Several Soldiers reported shooting at a black figure that disappeared into thin air. Other soldiers over the years heard a female voice warn them not to go into the area called the Corridor of Dungeons—these warnings were taken seriously, and these soldiers refused to enter this area.

One report involved four officers, that described they had seen the footprints of a woman near the entrance to the fort, in newly fallen snow. 

Soldiers playing poker in a storeroom reported that stones were seen rolling across the floor regularly. One soldier was court-martialed for leaving his post—his defense was that the Lady in Black’s ghost chased him. 

As recently as World War ll, a soldier saw Melanie’s ghost. Legend has it this man suffered a nervous breakdown after this encounter.

Today Fort Warren is maintained by the Department of Conservation and Recreation. It is the centerpiece of the Boston Harbor Islands, which is now a public park area. 

Thousands of tourists visit this historic fort each summer. Even though there are no longer soldiers stationed at Fort Warren, people still occasionally see the ghost of the Lady in Black.

Here is one ballad about this story.