Or, Care To Own A New Orleans Mansion Complete With Ghost?
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Mardi Gras Landmark and Haunted New Orleans Mansion For Sale
Written by Eileen McEleney Woods in Feb. 2016
As the snow piles up, a weary New Englander’s mind can’t help but turn wistfully to New Orleans and the kickoff of Mardi Gras. Now you can own a piece of the grandeur amid the fanfare in New Orleans’ Garden District.
Magnolia Mansion, a purportedly haunted bed and breakfast, is on the market at a reduced price, $4.9 million, Top Ten Real Estate Deals reports. Businessman Alexander Harris commissioned the home for his young bride, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Johnson Thompson. The property is a popular site for weddings and features themed guest rooms that range from the elegant to the fun — Lafitte’s Hideaway, Bordello Moulin Rouge, Vampire Lover’s Lair, and Gone With the Wind, to name a few.
Folks flock to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, but this home has other draws. It’s one of the most photographed homes in the city, and in 2011, USAToday.com named it one of the “10 Great Places to Sleep with a Ghost.” Guests have reported encounters in which friendly spirits tucked them in at night and played with their phones and their shoes, according to various news accounts.
For some folks around here, another winter of shoveling is scarier.
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Or, Did Ghosts Push CNN Reporters Down The Stairs?
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Evil Spirits Attacked CNN Reporter
Written by Sandra Weyant, Apr. 2015
The “shadow man” caught on film.
While filming a live segment about a haunted house located in Hanover, Pa., a CNN reporter claimed that an evil entity attacked her and one of the crew members.
This was no ordinary spook, and it was more than hearing a strange noise in the house. The Examiner called attention to the event that occurred last summer, as the Pennsylvania family is still being haunted by unidentified apparitions inhabiting their property.
Reporter Katie Kyros said that she and her crew members were reportedly scratched and then pushed down the stairs.
The CNN reporters were in the middle of an interview with homeowner Deanna Simpson when Kyros’ photojournalist Nick started feeling a burning sensation in his arm, according to The Examiner.
When Kyros examined Nick’s arm, she found red marks and scratches, and admitted that during the interview she was “touched and pinched.”
Simpson revealed that the reporters weren’t the only ones who experienced the mysterious touches. She said that it has happened to her and her husband, as well as friends. Before Nick revealed what had happened to him, Simpson already knew, and said that the spirits harmed the reporters because they were there to expose and tell the story.
“That is their way of a warning, because you’re putting it out there,” Simpson said.
The crew members also saw strange lights cast on the walls and heard noises before even going into the basement.
Simpson believes that there are multiple negative spirits residing in her home, and because of her unrest, she placed a camera in the basement with hopes to catch the evil entity. The camera is equipped with a motion sensor feature, and it picked up a shadowy figure that she claims to have seen before.
She showed the photo of the nearly 7-foot shadow to Kyros and her crew, and explained that she will have difficulty selling the house because of the demon that she thinks is attached to the home.
“When it came on me, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t scream, I couldn’t move,” Simpson told CNN of the black figure.
The homeowner has also witnessed other strange sightings, including a creepy black hand near one of the bedrooms upstairs. While the crew was there, they allegedly filmed the basement door closing by itself upon Simpson’s command.
“If that is you, would you please shut that door?” she asked, and within one second, it closed.
The family has tried multiple ways – mediums, paranormal investigators and priests – to rid the house of evil, but nothing has worked. They have lived in the home for seven years, and Simpson said her daughters refuse to stay there.
Simpson believes that a series of “grisly deaths” occurred in her home, and she wants to prove to people what her family encounters on a daily basis.
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Or, The Strange Link Between Mold And Haunted Houses
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Seen a Ghost? Then You May Have Inhaled Toxic Mold
Written by Sophie Freeman, Apr. 2015
If you think you have seen a ghost, you may have been suffering the effects of exposure to mould, according to a group of scientists.
Researchers claim that older buildings where hauntings are usually reported, often have poor air quality from pollutants like toxic mould, which can affect our brains.
Exposure to the mould can cause mood swings, irrational anger and cognitive impairment.
‘Experiences reported in many hauntings are similar to mental or neurological symptoms reported by individuals exposed to toxic moulds,’ said Professor Shane Rogers of Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York.
‘Psychoactive effects of some fungi are well-known, whereas the effects of others such as indoor moulds are less researched.
‘Although allergy and asthma symptoms and other physiological effects are well established, there has long been controversy over the effects of indoor mould exposure on cognitive and other functioning of the brain.
‘Reports of psychiatric symptoms including mood swings, hyperactivity, and irrational anger, as well as cognitive impairment are prevalent among those exposed to moulds.
‘Other reports include depression and loss of memory function.
‘More recent work is emerging that supports brain inflammation and memory loss in mice exposed to Stachybotrys charatarum, a common indoor air mould, as well as increased anxiety and fear.’
Professor Rogers is currently leading a team of researchers measuring air quality in several reportedly haunted places around New York State.
The group will compare samples taken from several buildings where ghost sightings have been reported with samples taken from properties with no paranormal activity, to see if there is a difference in the types of fungi.
Professor Rogers said: ‘I have long been a fan of ghost stories and shows related to investigation of haunted places and have to admit to some strange occurrences in my own past.
‘Many of the places under investigation and from my own experiences may be prime environments for mould and other indoor air quality issues.
‘We would like to see if we can parse out some commonality between the mould microbiome in places that are haunted relative to those that are not.’
The team have only just begun their investigations, but have been to a handful of ‘haunted’ buildings to collect samples, as well as properties with mould, but no connection to ghosts.
‘In one historic house turned into an office building there have been reports of noises, moving ceiling tiles, moving items on shelves and desks, apparitions, and a general feeling of unease among building occupants,’ he said.
‘There have been long-standing stories of some of the original family members still occupying the place.
‘In another location, the Remington Art Museum in Ogdensburg New York, there is a long history of ghost stories involving the former occupants and others.
‘A week prior to our visit, they had a visit from a psychic who took a reading in several rooms in the museum that we then used to target our air quality studies.
‘She reported a few “folks” came to speak with her, children running in and out of some of the rooms in the house, and a woman that claimed she was “not won in a poker game”, which was related to a long-time story related to the Remington family.
‘So far, we haven’t been spooked out of a location, but time will tell.’
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Or, Take A Peek Inside Ireland’s Most Haunted House
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666 Years in the Making; Is This Ireland’s Most Haunted House?
Written by Pol O Conghaile, Mar. 2015
Loftus Hall, Ireland.
Irish Ghost Hunters (IGH) visited Loftus Hall on Wexford’s Hook Peninsula to carry out several paranormal investigations this March.
The spectre-seekers found “major temperature drops” as well as “significant spikes” in electro-magnetic fields (EMF) in some areas of the house, they say.
“Our team is scientific, we don’t work with psychics or mediums,” Tina Barcoe, Location Manager and Lead Investigator with IGH, told Independent Travel.
“We go in with our equipment and try to debunk everything before we say it is paranormal. But there were things that happened at Loftus that we just couldn’t debunk.”
Those things included mysterious footsteps, readings indicating “an energy source” close by, and responses on a K2 meter (EMF) “which seemed to be in connection to our questions,” Barcoe says.
“Our investigation left us with more questions than answers.”
Of course you might say that such reports are coincidences, unverifiable, impossible to replicate – or just plain hogwash.
But they still make a good story.
Loftus Hall cuts a desolate dash on the Hook Peninsula. And somewhat creepily, there is said to have been a dwelling on the site since 1350 – almost 666 years.
Its most chilling story concerns a dark stranger who was called to the mansion one foggy night in 1765.
Lost on the Hook, the stranger was invited into the then-Tottenham household, and soon found himself playing cards and making an impression on a daughter of the house, Anne Tottenham.
As the stakes grew higher, Anne dropped her cards onto the floor. Dipping down to recover her hand, she saw that the stranger had a cloven hoof.
Unmasked as the devil, the stranger is said to have bolted through the roof in a ball of fire.
The roof of Loftus Hall.
“The very same roof has been irreparable ever since,” says Aidan Quigley, owner of Loftus Hall.
Quigley, who acquired the house in 2011 and has been developing it into a visitor attraction on the Hook Peninsula since, revealed the Irish Ghost Hunters’ findings in advance of its seasonal re-opening for 2015 – so there’s assuredly a hint of theatrics behind the latest tales of terror.
Loftus Hall has its skeptics, and other buildings (such as Leap Castle, for instance) vie with it for the title of Ireland’s most haunted, but it continues to throw up crashes and bumps in the night.
Last year, it hit the international headlines when tourist Thomas Beavis, 21, snapped what appeared to be a ghostly apparition (below) in a window of the Hall.
A ghost caught on film in 2014.
The figure, claimed to be that of Anne Tottenham, quickly went viral.
“I zoomed in to find this girl in the window,” Beavis later said.
“I had to take some time before I showed it to everyone just because I didn’t really understand what I was looking at.”
Skeptics might wonder why the face of the ‘ghost’ appears sharper than the girl in the pink top, whether it’s a reflection, or just call it a hoax.
Quigley insists, however, that he and his team continue to notice “strange goings-on… such as light bulbs not working and frosty temperature drops in certain areas of the house.”
So is it, or isn’t it, Ireland’s most haunted?
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Or, Is This Woman’s Brother Haunting Her From The Grave?
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Woman Claims She’s Being Attacked by the Ghost of her Brother
For the past six years, Donna Ayres has been plagued by a series of disturbing supernatural experiences. The mother-of-four from England has witnessed everything from the casual levitation of spoons, to light fixtures swinging violently without any wind, and once she was badly bruised from a spirit pinning her down to a bed.
Before you jump to the very logical conclusion that Donna’s house must be haunted, we should note that she’s moved five times since these eerie instances started happening and no matter where she goes, she can’t escape the ghoul who she believes is the ghost of her brother.
“Ever since my brother died strange things have occurred in every house I’ve lived in, it’s been a living hell.”
She says that she and her brother had a very troubled relationship adding, “Perhaps that’s why he’s come back to haunt me.”
“The paranormal activity first started in 2009, around the time my brother died, when I began to hear bangs at night, and then scratches appeared on the wall. Since these first encounters I’ve had nothing but rampant paranormal activity in every house I’ve lived in, I’m just at the end of my rope.”
“I have even woke up with bruises some mornings, despite not being in contact with anyone.”
We know one thing’s for certain—someone is messing with this woman. Whether or not it’s actually a poltergeist, we can’t say.
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There’s a Place on Long Island That may be More Haunted than the Amityville Horror House
Written by Taylor Krauss, Mar. 2015
Back in November of 1974, a couple and four of their children were murdered by their oldest son. The entire family was shot while they were asleep in their beds.
This was in Amityville, New York, a little town on Long Island.
Soon after, the Lutz family moved into the home…to an unwelcome surprise: they believed the house to be haunted. They said to have experienced things such as oozing walls, apparitions, cold spots and strange odors. It was the house that inspired the Amityville Horror, one of the most iconic horror films of all time.
As terrifying as that sounds, there is a place not far away- about 10 miles- in Melville, New York, that is said to be haunted by some incredibly active spirits.
Sweet Hollow Road, running parallel to Mount Misery Road, has been subject to paranormal investigations, and plenty of people going to check it out themselves.
The road itself has the feeling of something truly terrifying. No matter what time of year you drive down Sweet Hollow Road, it always seems to feel like a chilly night in the middle of the fall. There are no streetlights, and it is a long, winding, one-lane road once you cross under the overpass.
One story is of the asylum in the woods off of Mount Misery.
A small asylum was built in the woods back where the road ends, and one of the patients, Mary, supposedly set it on fire, essentially killing almost everyone in the building. Rumor has it that you can still hear the screaming patients from the fire. Even creepier: apparently they rebuilt the asylum…and it burnt down a second time. The second fire was never figured out.
Another story is of a police officer. Supposedly if you’re pulled over on Sweet Hollow Road, take a look at the back of the officer’s head as he walks away…there won’t be anything there!
It is said that a woman driving on the overpass above Sweet Hollow (see picture above) got into a head-on collision, and now if you flash your lights where her car crashed, you will see a shadow sit up. Is it a trick of the eyes, or is it a spirit making herself known…?
There are tons of other legends that are related to Sweet Hollow Road, and each story has plenty of variations. However, each story has something in common- many Long Islanders have experienced the same things. Many have seen a “hellhound” with glowing red eyes that means imminent death, as well, so look out for that one…
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Haunted Staten Island Mansion Can be Yours for $2 Million
Written by Jennifer Keil and Sophia Rosenbaum, Feb 2015
These won’t be cheap thrills.
A 10-bedroom Staten Island mansion, which local legend says is haunted by the spirits of the former owner and his daughters, has hit the market for $2.31 million.
The 7,700-square-foot Italianate villa-style home — at 2475 Richmond Road — was once owned by Gustav A. Mayer, a 19th-century inventor whose sugar-cookie recipe later became Nabisco’s Nilla Wafers.
He died in 1918, but his two daughters stayed there until beyond their 100th birthdays and never went outside.
In fact, the Mayer girls, Paula and Emilie, never even walked down the stairs — holing up in just two bedrooms of the “Grey Gardens of Staten Island” for the better part of a century.
They used an elaborate pulley system that brought in their groceries, mail and any other outside-world needs.
Their ghosts are said to still roam the hallways — but Mark Anthony, who’s known as the “psychic lawyer,” said the family’s presence is “positive.”
“It’s the fear and superstition attached to spirit communication which makes people think that encountering a spirit is spooky,” he said.
A red-haired Mary-Kate Olsen did a chic Bohemian-themed shoot for Harper’s Bazaar inside.
Model Amber Heard felt right at home in one of the mansion’s two bathtubs, posing in a skimpy lace getup with a whip in her hands for V magazine.
The spooky tales and largely untouched interior have made the home popular for photo shoots.
Part of the house’s allure for photographers is that it appears frozen in time. Built in 1855, it still has hidden electrical outlets, a dilapidated exterior and the original marble fireplace.
The exterior, which includes a front porch, is currently undergoing an extensive, $570,000 restoration.
The listing agent writes that the renovation value will be applied to the asking price as a “bonus” for the buyer — bringing down the final cost to $1.74 million.
Owner Bob Troiano is trying to dispel any talk of paranormal activity as he looks to unload the home.
“The owner is super-touchy about people calling it haunted,” a source said.
But the source added that even Troiano admits the Egbertville estate, which sits on half an acre, is “creepy and eerie.”
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Shetland’s Most Haunted House Goes Back on the Market
Written by Gabriella Bennett in Feb. 2015
It’s rumoured to be one of Britain’s most haunted houses, but that’s something for its next owners to ascertain because Windhouse, on Yell, is back on the market.
The ruined former Laird’s house, set in walled grounds of around half an acre, enjoys an elevated position just outside the village of Mid Yell, with vistas over the surrounding countryside and to the head of the Whalefirth Voe.
A Grade C listed building believed to be built by the Neven family in the 18th century, Windhouse received restorative planning permission in 2001, which has now lapsed, but preparatory work was carried out a number of years ago to secure permission for a four bedroom property.
Understood to have been occupied until the 1920s, Windhouse comprises many original features including crowstep gable walls, a projecting porch with armorial panel and crenellated wings.
In 2003 the property was bought by Andrew Taylor and his partner Caron Reeves, from Cheshire, with plans to renovate which were not realised.
The Shetland ruin’s ghostly reputation is derived from a 1800s folklore tale. The story dictates that every Christmas Eve a great noise and whirlwind shook the house and by the morning a death had taken place. The householder of the time was preparing to leave when a shipwrecked sailor appeared and faced a trow (troll) at midnight, before slaying the creature with an axe.
Spectral occupants are said to include a servant girl who mounts invisible steps, a man in a top hat, and a ghost dog.
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Or, A Murdered Cardinal Haunts This Scottish Estate
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Scottish Castle Haunted by Murdered Cardinal up for Sale
Written by Andrew Clark, Feb. 2015
Ethie Castle in Scotland
A haunted castle near Arbroath has been put up for sale for £1.65 million.
Ethie Castle is believed to be haunted by David Beaton, a 16th century Cardinal who was brutally murdered by a group of protestant lairds.
Cardinal Beaton targeted and arrested a number of Protestant figures and when he arrested preacher George Wishart and had him burned at the stake, a group of Protestant lairds responded by entering St Andrews Castle and savagely murdering the Cardinal before hanging his body out the window.
Before his murder, Beaton live in Arbroath at Ethie Castle and, since his passing, legend his it that his ghost still roams the corridors of the historic building.
As well as the ghost of the Cardinal, guests at the castle have also heard the cries of a child – said to be the young boy whose skeleton was discovered in a secret bricked up room.
As frightening as the ghosts may be, if you can look beyond that, the castle, built in the 14th century, also has plenty of things going for it – it comes with a number of large rooms, tennis courts, outdoor swimming pool and an extensive garden.
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America’s Most Haunted College Campuses
Written by Jamie Gillespie, Feb. 2015
Cutler Hall at Ohio University
Every August, college campuses across the country are packed with families moving eager students into their new dorms. Unless you were lucky enough to move into a brand new building with state of the art air conditioning and a new mattress, you might remember the eerie feeling of taking over an empty room that has been called home by dozens of students before you. The thumbtack holes are still on the walls and the mysterious stain on the carpet will keep you and your roommate guessing until you add stains of your own to the room’s history. It’s almost like the ghosts of previous tenants still haunt the dorms they left. Once some posters of your own are up and the dorm starts feeling like home, college campuses start feeling much more like “Animal House” than a horror movie by the time Halloween parties on are on the mind, but some campuses have haunts that rival Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights. Next time you’re scared to death by that physics final, think of the five most haunted college campuses and be glad your campus doesn’t have more to be afraid of…
5. University of Virginia
Almost every college tour guide has a ghost story to tell prospective students, and the better the story the more likely it is to stick around long past the storyteller’s graduation. Of all the storytellers, however, no one tops Edgar Allen Poe when it comes to hauntings, and his old school starts off our list. A Confederate surgeon named Dr. Green is said to haunt the library to which he donated all of his books, and his ghost moved with the books when the library transferred from the University’s famed Rotunda to Alderman Library. Apart from other haunts on campus, Edgar Allen Poe left a scary note on his windowpane when he was forced to leave U.Va. due to debt…
“O Thou timid one, do not let thy
Form slumber within these
Unhallowed walls,
For herein lies
The ghost of an awful crime.”
Student loans are scary enough, but how would you like to find a note like that on your first night in a new dorm? If you want to learn more, the University Guide Service at U.Va. even offers a Ghost Tour of the campus.
4. Fordham University
Waking up to the sounds of a drunk roommate stumbling into the dorm well after midnight is pretty common in college, but students at Fordham University’s Bronx campus have to worry about something else that goes bump in the night. Students living in Finlay Hall have told of frozen hands grabbing their throats late at night—a reminder that Finlay Hall was built on top of a morgue. The ghost of a young blonde also apparently haunts the showers in Keating Hall, so freshmen have more to worry about than running into their new crush while wearing only a towel. With any old college campus, ghost stories are inevitable, but Fordham might seem eerily familiar to fans of horror because some scenes from “The Exorcist” were filmed at the university.
3. California State University, Channel Islands
When it comes to haunted campuses, it’s all about location, location, location. Cal State’s Channel Islands campus has only been open since 2002, but from 1936 to 1997 the campus was home to the Camarillo State Mental Hospital. Ghosts and strange voices apparently haven’t learned that the campus is now an academic institution rather than an insane asylum, and the signature bell tower is a regular site for paranormal happenings. If living in an old asylum isn’t cause enough to call CSUCI haunted, watch “The Ring” and keep an eye out for scenes shot on the campus.
2. Gettysburg College
Rivalries are popular on college campuses across the country, but Pennsylvania Hall at Gettysburg College was held and used as a hospital by both Confederate and Union troops during the Battle of Gettysburg. Med students know that Civil War era hospitals were more like butcher shops than modern operating rooms, so it should come as no surprise that the ghosts of bloody doctors still haunt Pennsylvania Hall’s basement. College romances can get dramatic, but men should also fear Glatfelter Hall. A young couple made a suicide pact to jump from the bell tower, but the boy bailed after the girl jumped. Her ghost—only visible to guys—haunts the bell tower, trying to lure a potential suitor to jump from the tower in her cowardly boyfriend’s place. After checking out the ghostly version of Romeo and Juliet at Glatfelter Hall, head over to the Kline Theatre at Brua Hall where the General haunts backstage.
1. Ohio University
Ohio University in Athens, Ohio has been universally dubbed the most haunted campus in the United States (if not one of the most haunted places in the U.S. period). From the girl’s basketball team that died in a bus crash haunting Washington Hall to a student named Laura who fell to her death from the fourth floor of Crawford Hall and now stops the Bob Marley song “Laura” from playing in her old building, paranormal experiences are pretty much a prerequisite for graduation. The real haunt at OU, however, is room 428 in Wilson Hall. Ohio University stands in the center of a pentagram of Athens cemeteries, and Wilson Hall just happens to stand at the very center of that pentagram. Exact explanations of the events that have occurred in room 428 are unavailable, but Ohio University officials have sealed off room 428 and dubbed it uninhabitable for students. If you never got off the waitlist for Ohio University’s freshmen class, the violent death of a student in the 1970s practicing a satanic ritual in 428 might be to blame for the lack of an extra bed. Those missing out on ghost stories while an undergrad will have to settle for OU’s killer Halloween party.
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