Thailand: The Ghost of Mae Nak

This is by far the most popular and well-known ghost story in Thailand. 

Because of the Thai traditional belief about spirits, this story is considered by many to be true. Mae Nak’s story has been the subject of film, T.V. and opera productions. 

It has all the elements of a classic tragic love story. The story takes place during the reign of King Rama IV one hundred fifty years ago in the mid-nineteenth century.

Mae Nak was a beautiful young woman who lived with her husband, Tid Mak, in the Phra Khanong district in Bangkok. The couple lived near the Mahabut temple. 

Just as these two lovers found out they were expecting their first child, Mak is called to fight in a war in northern Thailand. Tragically, Nak dies in childbirth along with her baby son. 

As the two are buried, Tid Mak fighting so far from his village does not hear of their cruel fate even after he returns home.

Returned from war Tid Mak is greeted by the ghosts of his wife and baby son. They appear solid so, he is unaware that they are not real. 

Several neighbors try to tell Mak that his wife and son died and were buried. They try to warn him that he is living with ghosts, but he does not listen to them. 

These neighbors for their efforts, meet the wrath of Mae Nak’s ghost who condemns each of them to a grisly death.

Tid Mak does eventually discover the truth by accident. 

One day as Mae Nak makes a meal she drops a lemon that falls between the floorboards of the raised house.  Startled, Mak sees his wife’s arm extend and go right through the floorboard as if it were not there. 

Mak runs from the house in terror. Mae Nak follows him, but he takes refuge in the Mahabut temple where ghosts cannot enter.

Nak grief-stricken at the loss of her husband becomes enraged. She turns against the villagers of Phra khanong, terrorizing them. 

A monk is finally able to capture and entrap her within an earthen pot. He then flings this pot into a nearby river. 

All is well until a couple of fishermen catch this pot in their net. Curious, they unwittingly open the container letting the vengeful spirit of Mae Nak loose. She once again terrorizes the villagers and Tid Mak along with his new girlfriend.

A young monk stops Nak’s ghost this time. He binds a piece of her exhumed skull within his waistband. 

The story ends with Tid Mak becoming a monk and living happily with his new family. 

But as it turned out this was not the end of Mae Nak’s ghost. Over the years many Thai have encountered her ghost, and there are even recent reports of her activity.

Mae Nak's Shrine

Today the Wad Mahabut temple, built in 1762, is a favorite tourist destination, for it was here where Tid Mak took refuge from his wife’s ghost. 

Nearby is a shrine that is dedicated to Mae Nak. Today the Mahabut temple is located in Suan Luang district because of a boundary change. 

The people of Phra Khanong are fighting for the boundary to be switched back so they can once again lay claim to the temple. 

Another interesting note about this story is the young monk’s waistband that held the bone of Mae Nak’s skull supposedly still exists today. 

Maine: The Witches Curse

Buck's monument.

The following story is part truth and part legend. 

Many tourists have visited Bucksport Cemetery because of a curse. The man who was the victim of this curse actually lived and died in Maine. Colonel Jonathan Buck fought in the American Revolutionary War. He formed the Fifth Colonial Regiment. 

Later he founded “Buckstown,” which became known as Bucksport, Maine. He died in 1795, but not before, according to legend, his mistress cursed him. Some state there is visual proof even today that this curse lives on.

The Bucksport curse was first mentioned in an article in The Cambridge City Tribune written by J. O. Whittamore, over a hundred years later, in 1899.

As the story goes, Colonel Buck had a mistress by the name of Ida Black. * The two were happy until Ida’s looks began to fade. At which point, the Colonel found himself a new younger mistress. During the mid-1700's Maine was in the grips of Witchcraft Hysteria. Buck decided to use this to his own advantage.

To get rid of Ida, he accused her of being a witch. Buck was believed because he was a leading citizen of the community. Ida was found guilty of witchcraft and sentenced to burn.

Depiction of Ida--the witch.

It is said as she burned, she placed a curse upon the Colonel. She warned that she would haunt his grave. As the crowd and Colonel Buck watched, she proclaimed that she would “dance upon his grave” at his death.

When Jonathan Buck died in 1795, evidence of Ida Black’s curse was noted. Shortly after the colonel’s death, a “bloody leg print” appeared upon his large grave monument. 

Many people over the years have tried to remove it, but it always reappears. 

Descendants of Colonel Buck have replaced the stone twice, but the bloody print always returns. Reports state that the print always appears more pronounced on the anniversary of the Colonel’s death.

Some state this story is true, others state that it was actually just a fabrication of J. O. Whittamore’s imagination. 

Regardless, tourists still flock to see the Colonel’s large stone monument in Bucksport Cemetery. 

 The print is still very much in evidence in recent photos.

* I have not found any evidence that an Ida Black lived in Bucksport. But as with most good legends this story has elements of truth, which keeps it alive.

Bucksport Cemetery is located off Maine Street/ Highway 1 in Hancock County, Maine. 

Errol Flynn: Haunted Mulholland Farm

Errol Flynn grew up in Australia-- he did not like school and had a strained relationship with his mother. So Flynn left home at an early age and took odd jobs. Ironically, he had his best luck as a “slave trader” in New Guinea.

Flynn by the age of 25, was in Hollywood. Within months he was cast as the star of the first pirate epic, “Captain Blood.” 

Flynn became a favorite action star and romantic lead as he adroitly made his way through a series of classic swashbuckler films including Sea Hawk, The Adventures of Don Juan, and what is considered his best, The Adventures of Robin Hood.

In 1941 at the age of 33 Flynn built his dream home high above the glitzy Beverly Hills homes that were owned by most famous stars of the time. 

He bought eleven and a half acres on top of a ravine off what was at that time a dusty dirt road named Mulholland Drive. 

He built a two-story colonial-style ranch house. The grounds also included a pool, tennis court, barn, and even a casino. He called his home “Mulholland Farm.” His personal name for his home was "playhouse."

The publicity that surrounded Flynn was rarely about his films. He routinely made headlines for his carousing and mischief, which included fistfights, paternity suits and a story about him and Raoul Walsh snatching the body of John Barrymore. *

Flynn was known about town as a “wicked” ladies-man. His girlfriends made up a list of starlets and stars of the time. 

True to his bad-boy image, Flynn had secret passageways installed with peepholes and two-way mirrors at the farm so he could spy on his lady friends as they ** changed into their bathing suits or used the shower in the bathroom. 

The parties he threw were the scandalous talk of Hollywood. They included “live dance bands, nude divers, fencing exhibitions, and plenty of girls.”

The phrase “in like Flynn” was a crude double entendre used to describe Flynn’s success in getting women into bed. ***

One year after Flynn built Mulholland Farm in 1942, two young girls accused him of statutory rape. His trial lasted a month and made newspaper headlines all over the country. 

The phrase “in like Flynn” which had once flattered, now made him the brunt of many cruel jokes.

Flynn was acquitted of the rape charges, but his credibility as an artist was lost. Finding the damage was irreversible, Flynn at one point even considered suicide. 

Within a short ten years, Flynn fled the U.S. owing half a million in back taxes and alimony to two ex-wives. 

To ease his pain, he started to drink and use drugs. 

He continued to work as an actor in Europe, but he never regained his early success. 

He died in Vancouver B.C. in 1959 of a massive heart attack at the relatively young age of 50.

After Flynn’s death Stuart Hamblen, who was one of America’s first singing cowboys, on the radio, purchased Mulholland Farm. 

Over the twenty years, he owned the farm, several unusual occurrences were reported. 

When singer-songwriter Ricky Nelson, who was a big fan of Flynn, bought the farm in 1980 the activity became even more pronounced. 

Nelson’s daughter Tracy experienced several unexplained events.

Tracy often felt a presence in the house. One night when she arrived home late from work, she spotted a male figure standing in the dining room. Nelson thought it was her father, but his car was not in the driveway. 

Another time she thought burglars had broken into the house. She heard people throwing things at the walls and breaking chairs and glass as she hid in her bedroom. 

Surprised the next morning, she found everything untouched except for one room which had been locked from the inside. When she spoke to her father about what she felt and heard, he replied, “Oh, that’s only Errol.” 

Tracy moved out of the house after this. 

Months later her father called her and described that he and his girlfriend had heard the same smashing of glass and furniture in the same room--they too had thought that someone had broken into the house. When they inspected the area only the door was locked from the inside, nothing else had been touched. 

After her father died in a plane crash, Tracy stated that she felt all the unexplained activity at Mulholland was Flynn’s ghost trying to warn them of an impending disaster.

Tracy's brother Gunnar also had an experience with Flynn's ghost. He saw Flynn's reflection in one of the mirrors in the home. 

Character actor Harv Presnell (he sang the song "Mariah" in Paint Your Wagon) was married to one of Stuart Hamblen's daughters. He and several Hamblen family members encountered Flynn's ghost. 

The Hamblen children and their friends felt the Casino building was haunted and would not enter it. 

The Hamblen's and Nelson's agreed that most of the activity in the house centered around the wing of the house where the den was. In this wing, both the first and second floors were active. This area was where Errol spent most of his time when he lived at the farm.

David Niven and Olivia de Havilland both were close to Flynn when he was alive. Both stated that after his death, they felt his presence near them. 

Niven even mentioned that he and Flynn conversed after Flynn's death. He said that Flynn helped steer his career in the 1960s. Flynn was restless in life, and it appears his spirit remained active after death.

In 1988 Flynn’s notorious farm was torn down after a group of homeless squatters set a fire that burned part of the house down. 

Another home stands in its place and is owned by Justin Timberlake today.

*  Some researchers do not believe that Flynn and Walsh could have actually snatched the body of Barrymore and taken it to Mulholland Farm where they supposedly propped it up in Flynn’s favorite chair, drink in hand. Others state the two were just crazy enough to do it.

** Flynn’s two-way mirrors were an “open secret.” As for his female visitors, most knew about his wicked ways and wanted his attention. But it still leaves one to wonder how many of these women were unknowing victims of this voyeurism.

One biography about Flynn speculates that his behavior was a result of the fact his mother instilled in him at an early age that sex was sinful, and that his genitals were nasty. She was known to beat him. 

At the same time, she flirted with her various boyfriends openly, craving their attention. This sent a confusing mixed message to her young son.

*** Some debate the phrase “in like Flynn” would have been too risqué for the 1940s but it was actually the phrases double meaning that allowed it to become apart of the common vernacular of the time.

I place this video here because it has images of Mulholland Farm--it reflects Flynn's movie persona, not his real-life...

Arizona Ghost: Red Feather

Arizona is a land of beautiful canyons. In one northern canyon surrounded by the Navajo Nation resides a female ghost that has haunted the area for 150 years. 

The Navajo’s believe that the deceased come back as either animal or human spirits. One such spirit lingers because she was from two worlds, neither of which accepted her when she was alive. 

Her tragic story starts with her mother and father.

John Martin was not a likable man. He was a white trader, who one late afternoon accepted a young Navajo girl, as payment for gunpowder and whiskey. 

Martin married the young Indian and built a house for them to live in. It was a unique structure for it mixed the traditional eight-sided Navajo Hogan with a more traditional European style. This house remains standing today, but it is in ruins.

In 1870, John Martin’s young bride gave birth to a healthy baby girl. It was a long labor, and unfortunately, the mother died soon after her daughter was born. 

John named the baby Anna, and then quickly forgot about her. Anna grew into a beautiful young woman. She had her mothers’ dark eyes and hair. She also had red highlights in her hair that were her fathers.

Growing up at a white man's trading post--Anna tried to ignore her cruel father. She preferred being called “Red Feather” and she always wore traditional Navajo clothes. 

Her father’s white friends shunned her, so she spent most of her days in isolation. One early summer day, she decided to run away.

She made her way to her mothers’ Navajo village. Disappointed, she found that she was also considered an outcast in the Indian world. 

From the day she arrived, she was forced to work and eat alone. The only place she felt at peace was in a canyon the Navajo’s called “Spirit Canyon.” 

This canyon was adorned with magic drawings.* Therefore, it was considered a sacred place by the Navajos.

Red Feather took comfort in looking upon the many drawings that her ancestors had left upon the windswept walls and rocks. 

One wall depicted the story of a young warrior who endeavored to join the spirit world. The pictures showed how he took his life to achieve this by leaping off a cliff to join the spirits. 

Red Feather was drawn to this scene, every time she entered the canyon. Some state her fascination with this scene inspired Red Feather to join the young warrior. 

Having no desire to remain in a world that had no place for her, Red Feather in the spring of 1887 tragically leaped to her death off a canyon cliff. 

Shortly after this, the Navajos began to see a strange vision of a young maiden in and around Spirit Canyon. This apparition looked just like Red Feather.

Over the years, Red Feather has been seen numerous times. This story could have followed the path of most legends if it were not for the fact that there are many corroborated sightings of Red Feather by witnesses. 

The dates and witness names, including recent sightings, have been recorded. Here are just three of these reports.

“When I was a little girl I often went out to Spirit Canyon—which is a sacred place for the Indian people. One morning while in the canyon just after sunrise, I saw a woman standing on the edge. 

She was wearing traditional clothes; she looked like you could see right through her. I couldn’t see her face because it looked like it was all black. Then she was gone—just like that---and I couldn’t believe it. I was terrified, and after that, I never went out there again.”

                                      Sarah Najiua, Navajo Native American

“We like to hike a lot, my husband and I. We take a tent and a little food and camp out for a couple of days. We were out in the Painted Desert. We found this great canyon with Petroglyphs on the walls. 

We decided to camp the night there. We had a pretty good fire going, I felt kind of funny all of a sudden. I looked up, and there was this thing, this woman or girl, she was kind of glowing. Her face I couldn’t see. It was glowing all white. I’ve never seen anything like it, then she just faded away, vanished. It scared the living daylights out of both of us."

                                               Debra Pennington

“We were on vacation with our grandchildren, we like to take the back roads a lot. We really feel you see much more that way—especially with the kids. We’d been to the National Monument north of Window Rock—on (Highway) 191 headed back down to the Petrified Forest. 

I saw a strange girl walking on the side of the road—dressed in Indian clothes. I’m not sure what it was, but something made me stop. I looked at her, and she just vanished. I am not the kind of person that believes in this weird stuff. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. She just disappeared."

                                                 Howard Coleman

* These “magic drawings” are Petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are rock carvings done by prehistoric people. They are found all over the world.