Haunted Locations

Awesome Friday, everyone! *waves* My topic today is haunted locations. Before I get to that, I have a personal experience I wanted to share first before I delve into my topic. My best friend’s mother passed away this past Sunday. It was sudden and this time last week, she was babysitting my friend’s children. I went to my friend’s home on Tuesday to help her go through a box of documents left by her mother and grandmother. We were in search of life insurance policies. The computer, cow box was full of bills dating back to the 1930s and straight through to her grandmother’s time of death in 2004. It was fascinating to look at the rate of inflation for a vehicle from 1939 to today; $300 was the amount of the new Chevrolet Sedan her grandmother purchased. But, I veer off course. We even found her grandfather’s original social security card where his name and number were etched into a metal card. It was awesome to see the difference between then and now. And again, I veer off course.

We didn’t find the insurance policies. So, giving up, we left her home to eat lunch. When we returned, her door mat had a section torn off of it in the design of a cross on her stoop. It wasn’t there when we left as I have a tendency to watch my feet when descending stairs. It’s a habit after falling on a flight of stairs and injuring myself in my teenage years. Upon spying this cross, I immediately insisted that it was a sign from her mother, saying everything was okay. Later, we found a folder of documents titled “Bev’s stuff” located on the table near the box of stuff we had gone through. That folder was NOT present when we went through those documents in the box. We spent several hours in the same spot, only for the folder to appear after we left and returned. No one else was present but the two of us.

You can think I’m crazy, but I don’t care. To me the cross was like a calling card from Bev, saying she was taking care of her daughter, the important insurance folder had been located and placed in a visible location. It was a strange, somewhat eerie moment for us both. Even stranger still, as we left for lunch my friend asked me if I had felt a presence with us while searching through the box.

Okay, now on to my topic….

The Winchester Mystery House

This home was built by Sarah Winchester, who was the sole heir to the Winchester rifle fortune after her daughter and husband’s death. Sarah consulted a medium and was told that her family was cursed because of the people who had died as a result of the Winchester gun. Through this seance, Sarah's husband, John, told her that the only way she could break this curse was if she moved to California and began to build a home for the spirits. There was one strange catch, however. If she ever stopped building on the house, the curse would reappear and take her life.

Sarah did exactly as instructed by her husband, building an oddly designed home where doors joined to windows and the number 13 prevailed. There were staircases with 13 steps, but they would lead to the ceiling and nowhere else. The thirteenth bathroom had 13 windows, while the kitchen sink had 13 drain holes. Most of the windows had 13 panes of glass, while there were 13 cupolas in the greenhouse and the walls had 13 panes as well. Aside from her fascination with the number thirteen, doors opened onto brick walls or dropped off to the landscaping below. Needless to say, Sarah Winchester's mental stability was in question.

There is haunting evidence of pages in books turning by themselves, organs playing when no one is present, doors banging, spots of light, cold spots, voices and fog-like sightings of people.

I’ve seen a documentary on television about this house, and “oddly designed” is putting it mildly. Fascinating story. It was said she had a seance room and she would hold seances there at will. Maybe by doing so she was inviting spirits the freedom to come into this realm at will. What do you think?

The Alcatraz Hauntings

Once home to some of the worst criminals, it is also rumored to be haunted. Moreover, it is rumored that the Native Americans believe it is a portal where malevolent spirits are permitted to enter into this world. There were reports of “The Thing” that had glowing eyes, witnessed by inmates and staff. There were further reports of shrieks, banging metal doors, rancid smells, weeping and ghostly figures.

Alcatraz was sometimes called “Hellcatraz” because it was sometimes the last stop before entering Hell. Death was a common occurrence at Alcatraz, from prisoner-on-prisoner murder, to guard beatings, and failed escape attempts. The first reported death was in 1857, wherein Daniel Pewter and Jacob Unger were excavating between the guard-house and wharf and were buried beneath a landslide.

It is believed that ghosts are caused by a life cut too short, typically in some traumatic way or because of some unsolved business. Alcatraz would certainly qualify for this type of residual afterlife.

There is still an unexplained event that transpired in the wee hours of the isolation block of Alcatraz, which was known as “The Hole” or the “Strip Cells”. It was located at the bottom of the prison, Cell Block D, and the most serious offenders of Alcatraz’s rules were kept here. As a punishment, they would be stripped of their clothing, held in a cold cell with a mattress that was removed each morning and given only the basic necessities, sink, lavatory and a small light. It was reported by guards that a figure from the 1800's haunted Cell Block D. The apparition was seen repeatedly and inmates asserted that they had been assaulted by a man with glowing eyes.

One evening, a prisoner shrieked throughout the night that the man with glowing eyes was assaulting him. Finally he fell silent. When his cell door was opened the next morning, he was found dead, a grimace marring his face and handprints on his neck. It was determined that the handprints were not self-inflicted. Whether this inmate died at the hands of “The Thing” with the glowing eyes or by an irate guard no one knows. It is believed that the murdered inmate became a ghost of Alcatraz. It was reported that this man showed up in a line-up with other inmates and then immediately dissipated to the astonishment of everyone in attendance.

Cold spots, along with impulsive emotional outbursts, apparitions alleging cruelty, vibrations and innumerable other ghostly traces have been reported by numerous psychics. These areas of ghostly encounters range from the hospital, Cell Blocks C and D, the Warden’s House, the therapy room, the lighthouse and the utility rooms.

If Alcatraz is indeed haunted to this extraordinary extent, one can only imagine the horrific atrocities committed against mankind there in order to create such a ghostly vortex. Tell me what do you think?

These are only two of the haunted places I researched. There are so many out there that if you are interested in this topic, I would encourage you to research it. It’s there free for your viewing on the world wide web. Share with us your haunted research or experiences.

Wish my boys luck as they are going to a karate tournment tomorrow! Have a great weekend everyone! *waves*

P.S. If you get a chance, don't forget to check out my post entitled Nominated for Night Owl Romance's Best Erotic Paranormal Romance where Terry Spear and I were nominated for Awards!!!

Please Welcome Guest Author...Marilu Mann

I'd like to share a ghost story with you. Unlike many of the things I write about, this one is real…

There's a lovely Victorian home in a small town in Arkansas. Built in the 1920s, it has a wrap-around porch, rounded corner rooms, and the carriage house still stands in the back yard. There's also a gazebo where you can almost hear a band playing while men and women stroll around the backyard - the men in their high collars and the women in their long dresses carrying parasols. On certain nights, you really CAN hear music coming from the backyard…no, it's not the neighbors--it's some of the ghosts.

The house belonged to a friend of mine - I don't know if she still owns it, so I'd rather not reveal her name or the town itself, just to protect the privacy of whoever does own it now. I first saw the house at Christmas time. My friend, let's call her Barbara, had put a lighted tree on the porch on the second floor and another one in the front room (to the right as you faced the house). The front doors had oval glass fronts, and when you drove or walked past the house, you could see the staircase leading to the second floor. She'd wrapped greenery around the newel posts and had a small votive candle on every other step going up. All in all, it was a gorgeous house and I loved going by it.

One year, in the fall, I tried out for a play at the local little theater. The play was Blythe Spirit by Noel Coward. For those not familiar, the main characters are Charles (a writer), his second wife, Ruth, their friends the Bradmans, Edith (the maid), and Madame Arcati - a spirit medium. Madame Arcati has been invited along to the dinner party as a research subject by Charles. He doesn't believe in spirits, so when a séance is proposed, he goes along willingly. Little does Charles know that a real ghost will be raised…the ghost of his first wife, Elvira. Complications ensue…but I won't spoil it for those who aren't familiar with the story. J (There were several movies made of this play - Rex Harrison plays Charles to Margaret Rutherford's Madame Arcati (Remember her? She starred as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in many BBC productions.) in one of them.)

Anyway…I was cast in the play as Ruth, the second wife. Barbara was cast as Madame Arcati. We spent many nights at the theater, talking, becoming friends, practicing our lines. One night Barbara asked if anyone wanted to come to her place for a glass of wine. I took her up on it - being a poor college student in a 'dry' county, it was a good way to actually GET a glass of wine!

So, imagine my surprise when I followed her home and found that she lived in the Victorian house that I had to pass twice a day on my way to and from college classes, and that I secretly adored. Barbara introduced me to her husband who then excused himself to go work in his shop - the converted carriage house. She gave me a tour of the house - pointing out the curved glass windows on the first floor and the antiques in each room - including a baby grand piano in “the music room” (the room where the downstairs Christmas tree had been).

We went into the “family room,” no antiques in this room, just Barbara's cats - all four of them. The family room adjoined the kitchen where Barbara's collection of Carnival glass adorned shelves above the kitchen windows. We sat talking, sipping our wine and relaxing. Suddenly, from the kitchen, I distinctly heard the sound of glass breaking. I looked around, seeing all four cats in the room with us, one of them staring into the kitchen. There wasn't anyone else in the house, but Barbara didn't react to the sound. I just waited to see what she would do…eventually she got up and asked if I wanted more wine. When I agreed and followed her into the kitchen, we both looked around.

Barbara asked if I'd heard anything and I told her I had - we couldn't find anything broken anywhere, and Barbara shrugged it off as “the ghost trying to get some attention.”

Of course, I HAD to hear more about 'the ghost,' and here's what she told me. The house was haunted by three distinct spirits, an older woman, a younger woman (the daughter), and a little boy. The older woman was the wife of the man who built the house, the younger woman was their middle daughter, and the boy their grandson. Both the daughter and her son died tragically in the house, the daughter by suicide, the grandson by a lung infection possibly caused by influenza. The older woman died of a heart attack in her 80s, and not in the house.

The music from the gazebo is attributed to the younger woman - she loved the parties her parents would throw for all their friends and frequently hummed around the house. The breaking glass was an activity of the boy, as was the moving of some small objects (keys, shoes, glasses) from room to room. The older woman was a bit more direct - once overturning a glass case built into a table that was filled with knives belonging to Barbara's recently deceased son. Apparently the older woman didn't approve of any type of weapon in the house.

A medium who visited my friend told her about the two women and the child, even going so far as to tell Barbara that the older woman was very pleased with the renovations Barbara and her husband were doing to the house, and that the stain in the upstairs bedroom (the medium had not been upstairs at all) was caused by a leak in the dormer window in the attic, and the rattling in the pipes upstairs was nothing more than air in the pipes. Seems the older ghost wanted my friend to know about those two items specifically since one of them could be easily fixed and the other was going to take some time and effort.

I should mention here that my friend Barbara would NEVER read her lines in the house - you need to remember that she was playing a medium and many of her lines revolved around the séance in the play - she definitely didn't want to increase the ghostly population of her own home! There are more 'adventures' I could share from my visits to her home, but I'd like to hear about some of your 'ghostly visits/sightings/experiences.' Won't you leave a comment and share your experiences with everyone?

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Disclaimer (because we don't have a choice): The views expressed by the guest blogger do not necessarily reflect those of The Deadly Vixens.

Sarah Mäkelä on Haunted Houses

Would I stay in a haunted house? You bet! I agree with Sierra about not wanting to be near a maleviolent ghost though. I wouldn't want it to start trying to hurt me.

I watched Supernatural last night and they were dealing with the haunted house topic. (I love Supernatural, and if Sam and Dean were there in the haunted house with me, I would certainly go stay wherever they were. LOL) The ghost they dealt with was freaky, and I would not stay in that house by myself! I have been on ghost tours, and I've heard from others who have seen ghosts, but I'm not really afraid of them though I haven't been able to see anything firsthand.

Earlier this week in some of the comments, some of us were talking how much fun it would be to stay in a haunted house together, but then again, we'd probably end up having so much fun that we would miss the ghost altogether! I think I'd end up going just to see if there was a ghost in the haunted house, and to see if I could see it.

Well, make sure to leave me a comment! I hope y'all have a great weekend.

Gracen Miller's ramblings on Haunted Houses

We’ve all grown up with stories of haunted houses or haunted dormitories or haunted areas—something haunted anyway. The city I grew up in had a local legend about a bridge. If one went to it at night, the ghosts of those that had driven off the bridge would haunt the place. Personally, I went necking down there with my boyfriend and I didn’t see anything. Nope, nothing! So much for a legend, huh? Or maybe I was too consumed with kissing the boyfriend to notice any ghosts had they been haunting the place. =)

The term “haunted houses” brings to mind my personal experiences though. I’ve mentioned before that I grew up in a house that, while not necessarily haunted, it had a spirit of some sort living with us in perfect harmony. A lot of times I often felt protected and loved by that spirit. I mentioned my father’s house where the spirit of what I believe to be my great-grandfather haunts the place. I really believe that was a haunting. The feeling was so intense, so vile and aggressive, whatever was there wanted us gone. Or that was the way I interpreted it.

I have a girlfriend (I’ll call her Nicole) who bought a home with her husband. It was a beautiful piece of property, twenty-five acres, with an older fixer-up home. The home was so old it had a well built on the corner of the front porch. It was cool, a neat little piece of history with the way things once were done. I can’t even imagine having to draw my water out of it just to meet the basic necessary needs. But after having kids I see the danger in it too. The place had oodles of potential and best of all it was away from the big city. It was so quiet and peaceful.

My first visit there, I came home telling my husband the place had a ghost. Everywhere I went, I felt like I was being watched. I never felt any hostility, but more curiosity. Daytime or nighttime, it didn’t matter, some unseen presence was watching. From inside the home to the shed in the backyard, something was always watching. The only time I could truly get away from the presence was when we would ride the four-wheelers across the back part of the property and woods.

I didn’t realize until we visited for a Halloween party a couple of months later that Nicole had purchased the home from an estate after the previous owner, an elderly woman, had passed away in it. It was like the light-bulb went off in my head—a V8 moment—where I thought ‘that is why I’m feeling those hidden eyes’. Another weekend I was there goofing off with Nicole and her mother, Jill, when Jill started talking about her conversations with the spirit of the woman who once owned the house! I got chills!! My eyes even watered! To have my feelings and thoughts confirmed was exciting. I went home that night and told my husband, “I told you so!” His reply was that I wasn’t the only crazy person in the world. ;-)

I’d love to hear your comments. And we’d love for you to come by the The Deadly Vixens Yahoo Group and tell us about your own "haunted house" experiences and stories! =)

Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for special guest author, Teresa D’Amario!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week! And wish my boys good luck this weekend; they are competing at a karate tournament! – Gracen Miller

Would you stay in a haunted house?

This week we’ve been discussing on the yahoo group whether or not we’d be willing to stay in a haunted house. I think I’d have to say, it depends. I think if the house wasn’t haunted by a mean ghost and I had someone to stay with me, then yes, I would spend the night. But… if it was a mean ghost, then I’d definitely not stay.

Some people wouldn’t be willing to stay at all, but I think it would be fun. My nephew and I were just talking about this a few weeks ago. He watched a show on television that told about a haunted hospital or something that you can pay to spend the night and he said he would like to go do that. I told him I’d go stay with him sometime.

My niece, on the other hand, said no way would she go stay there. So she and my daughter decided they would stay in the hotel while my nephew and I stayed at the haunted hospital. Hopefully, some day we’ll get to do that.

I think that it would be fun to see a ghost, as long as it’s a friendly one. So what do you think? Would you stay in a haunted house? Come join us at The Deadly Vixens Yahoo Group and let us know what your opinion is. We’d love to hear it.