“I call him the Hannibal Lecter of Staten Island”

The Story of the urban legend “Cropsey”:

Just who is Cropsey, you ask? Cropsey is the creature that lurks at the end of your block. It’s the shadowy figure that prowls the edge of the playground. Cropsey is Staten Island’s personal boogeyman, and it gained national attention in 2009 with the documentary, Cropsey.

   The movie is very creepy outlining the origins of the homespun nightmare – where, according to lore, an insane man with a hook for a hand terrorized neighborhood boys and girls, dragging them into the crumbling ruins of Staten Island’s abandoned Seaview Hospital. Parents used the tale to spook their little ones at night – go to bed, or Cropsey will get you. But as the doc points out, Cropsey turned frighteningly real in the 1970s, when a local drifter named Andre Rand allegedly began attacking the children of Staten Island.

Throughout the ’70s and ’80s there were quite a few children who went missing on Staten Island. No one knew what happened to them, until the police finally was able to track down the man who was responsible for all this (or the person they think). That man was Andre Rand, he was a vagrant and a former employee at the Willowbrook Mental Institution.

Rand, born Frank Rushan, worked as a janitor at the Willowbrook State School, an institution for mentally disabled children not far from the ruins of Seaview. During its 40 years of operation, Willowbrook repeatedly came under fire for the mistreatment of its students. A young Geraldo Rivera revealed the institution’s horrid conditions to the public in a 1972 exposé. By 1987 the school was shuttered for good.

Andre Rand left Willowbrook long before it closed. But many who believe in his guilt also believe his tenure at a facility notorious for abuse later influenced his crimes against children.

5-year-old Alice Pereira was the first child to go missing in 1972. She was playing with her brother . The next was 7-year-old Holly Ann Hughes, who according to witnesses, was spotted with Rand on the day of her disappearance in 1981.  he third was 11-year-old Tiahease Jackson, who disappeared shortly after Rand was released from prison in 1983. The fourth was Hank Gafforio, a 22-year-old with a low IQ who was last seen with Rand at a diner in 1984.

The bodies of these children were never found. 

The final child was Jennifer Schweiger in the summer of 1987. A 12-year-old with Down Syndrome, Jennifer told her parents she was going for a walk but never returned.

A massive search party commenced. Neighbors combed the empty lots and wooded parks of Staten Island. By this time Rand was homeless and living in a series of makeshift campsites. One of his outposts was built in the woods behind his old stomping grounds – Willowbrook State School.

While searching for Jennifer near the shuttered school, a firefighter uncovered a small foot in the earth, which ultimately gave way to Jennifer’s body buried in a shallow grave. Rand’s camp was discovered shortly thereafter.

Authorities quickly arrested the man and charged him with murder.

In the court of public opinion, the case was open and shut. Rand was an ex-con with a record of crimes against children. In 1969, he was arrested in the South Bronx after attempting to rape a young girl. In 1983, while working for a Staten Island school bus company, he kidnapped 11 children, bought them lunch, and drove them to New Jersey’s Newark International Airport for no apparent reason.

Yet there was very little concrete evidence that linked Rand to the actual murder of Jennifer Schweiger. In 1988 he was ultimately convicted of kidnapping in the first-degree and sentenced to 25 years in prison. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the murder charge, and so it fell.

In 2004, just four years shy of becoming eligible for parole, Rand was put on trial once more – this time for the 23-year-old case of Holly Ann Hughes. Prosecutors presented new evidence in the proceedings and a jury convicted Rand of kidnapping the little girl. He was sentenced to another 25 years.

The cases of Tiahease Jackson, Alice Pereira, and Hank Gafforio all remain unsolved. In each, Rand is a prime suspect. But with the bodies still missing, they remain lost youths who fell victim to the Cropsey legend.

There is still speculation that Cropsey is still out there.   Movie Trailer

Jack Or Jill?

Let me first say that these findings may or may not be real, All i know is that there are tons of documentaries and articles about this. Of course we still don’t have much information on Jack The Ripper anyway. (I apologize in advance for if my info is a little jumbled up considering i had go through so many different articles and documentaries for this)

 

 

Now as we all the story of Jack The Ripper, He killed five prostitutes in London in 1888, He was never caught. All his victims were slashed and parts of their bodies were laying next to them. There were only a few actual suspects which were- Winston Churchill’s Father, Lewis Carol (Author of Alice In Wonderland) Sir John Williams (a surgeon) and Prince Albert Victor (grandson of Queen Victoria and In line for the Throne)None of which were taken into custody for the gruesome murders.

So with all this being said all my research I’ve done have came up with two possible ladies that could or couldn’t be Jack The Ripper Or should I say “Jill” The Ripper. But before I get into who they were I’ll tell you guys the findings that have been found.

There was a strand of hair found at one of the crime scenes they scientists did DNA testing on, now the DNA didn’t come back perfect with who this person was But the DNA tested that there were female characteristics, (they couldn’t find too much from this because the hair didn’t  have the shaft which is needed for that type of info).  They also did research into the letter that were found, They say with all the research they have into crimes and everything that that could determine the letter was =written by a female due to the way the font and letters were written.

Dear Boss,
I keep on hearing the police have caught me but they wont fix me just yet. I have laughed when they look so clever and talk about being on the right track. That joke about Leather Apron gave me real fits. I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand work the last job was. I gave the lady no time to squeal. How can they catch me now. I love my work and want to start again. You will soon hear of me with my funny little games. I saved some of the proper red stuff in a ginger beer bottle over the last job to write with but it went thick like glue and I cant use it. Red ink is fit enough I hope ha. ha. The next job I do I shall clip the ladys ears off and send to the police officers just for jolly wouldn’t you. Keep this letter back till I do a bit more work, then give it out straight. My knife’s so nice and sharp I want to get to work right away if I get a chance. Good Luck.

Yours truly
Jack the Ripper

Dont mind me giving the trade name

PS Wasnt good enough to post this before I got all the red ink off my hands curse it No luck yet. They say I’m a doctor now. ha ha

The evidence claims that the Ripper was able to hide fairly well because {s}he wore the victims clothing which is also why witnesses claim they saw the last victim walking around even though she was already dead. They also have said that the victims were posed in a “feminine manner”.

 

Moving on to the women who are the “new suspects”

 

Mary Pearcey –

“Mary Eleanor Wheeler was born in 1866 and little is known of her early life, except that when she was fourteen years of age her father Thomas Wheeler was hanged on the 29 November 1880 at St Albans prison, for the murder of a local farmer Edward Anstee. In his prison cell Thomas had written a letter to the farmer’s widow apologizing for what he had done, and asked for forgiveness and her prayers that his sins would not be visited upon his wife or daughter, sadly as future events were to show this was not to be.

Mary, in her late teens, had a relationship with a carpenter named John Charles Pearcey and although they never married she took his surname and continued to use it after they parted. Mary was known to suffer from depression and also drank quite heavily, she never worked and spent much of her time in the company of wealthy men, one of these gentleman friends, Charles Creighton rented rooms for her at 2 Priory Street, Kentish Town, North London. She then began an affair with Mr Frank Samuel Hogg, a furniture remover, who was married with a daughter named Phoebe. On the morning of 24 October 1890 Mary asked a young lad to run an errand for her and deliver a note to Frank Samuel’s wife, who was also named Phoebe, inviting her round for tea.

At 7.00pm a women’s body was found lying on the pavement in Crossfield Road by a man returning from work. The woman’s head was wrapped in a cardigan, which a policeman removed to reveal the blood stained face of Phoebe Hogg. At the morgue it was discovered that she had suffered a fractured skull and a large wound to the throat, the wound was so severe that it had almost severed the head. An examination of the location where the body was found indicated that the murder had taken place elsewhere. Later that evening a heavily bloodstained pram was discovered in Hamilton Terrace, about a mile from where the body had been discovered. The following morning the body of an infant was found, the child had died from suffocation. Frank Hogg and his sister Clara, on hearing of the discovery of a woman’s body, went to the police station to report his wife missing. Frank then sent Clara to see Mary to inquire if she had seen Phoebe. Mary denied having seen Phoebe, but agreed to accompany Clara to the morgue to see if the woman’s body was in fact Phoebe. Mary’s behaviour at the morgue was strange, and she tried everything possible to stop Clara identifying the body. Clara, despite Mary’s attempts to stop her, identified the body as that of Phoebe Hogg, and also identified the pram as hers. A neighbour told the police that she had seen Mary pushing the pram with a large object in it on the evening of the murder. When Frank was informed that the body had been identified as that of his wife, he confessed to having an affair with Mary. The police, now suspicious of Mary, searched Priory Street and found bloodstains in the kitchen, along with a bloodstained poker and carving knife, two broken windows in the kitchen provided signs of a struggle. When questioned to what use the bloodstained poker and knife had been Mary replied, ‘Killing mice, killing mice, killing mice’. While her house was being searched, Mary sat at the piano playing popular tunes.

Mary was arrested and charged with the murder of mother and child, and when searched, bloodstains were found on her clothing and she was found to be wearing Phoebe Hoggs wedding ring.

Mary was tried at the Old Bailey, found guilty and sentenced to hang. On her final evening she asked her solicitor to place a personal advert in the Madrid newspaper, the message read, mecp last wish of mew, have not betrayed mew. Mary refused to elaborate on the meaning of the message, and was hanged on 23 December 1890, the hangman was James Berry.

Madame Tussaud’s subsequently commissioned a wax model of Mary Pearcey, and also purchased the pram belonging to Frank Hogg.

Mary was described as 5ft 6″tall, 9 stone, with lovely russet hair and fine blue eyes. Sir Melville Macnaghten said of Pearcey, ‘I have never seen a woman with a stronger physique’.

William Stewart, in his book Jack The Ripper – A New Theory, suggested Pearcey as a possible Ripper suspect, when he noticed the similarities between the murder of Mrs Hogg and the Whitechapel murders. He noted the savage throat cutting, the killing in private and later dumping of the body in a public place, which he also believed was the Ripper’s M.O, and would explain why no witnesses heard any of the Ripper’s victims scream. Stewart’s theory however completely contradicts all the medical evidence, which shows that all the victims were murdered where they were found.”

Lizzie Williams-

“Mrs. Williams was the wife of Sir John Williams, who was a surgeon and a possible suspect in the Ripper murders. In Jack the Ripper: The Hand of a Woman, Morris posits that Mrs. Williams’ inability to have children drove her so mad with rage and jealousy towards other women that she actually killed a bunch of women with (presumptive) working uteri. Five such women were killed over a period of 10 weeks in 1888: Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly. Three of them were found with their wombs cut out of them.” (makes a lot of sense huh?) Mrs. Williams was never questioned in connection to the murders, but suffered a nervous breakdown not long after the murders. She died of cancer in 1912. ”

Like I said all of this may or may not be true- just what was found, I thought all of this is extremely interesting also  to me this makes absolute sense. After all this info I truly believe Jack The Ripper Was really a “Jill”

What are your thoughts???

 

 

“The boogeyman took him.”

Think back to when you were little, remember all those times we asked our parents to look under the bed or the in closest for the boogeyman? We were so scared to be taken by him. But what is the real story behind this? Is it real? is it a myth? 

Well to answer that question, its very real, the man was definitely a monster but not what we pictured as children. This monster of a man was named was known as Albert Fish- the real life boogeyman in our nightmares, who preyed on children like they were food. 

In Washington D.C. there was a a boy born on May 129, 1870 who was named Hamilton Fish But went by Albert which was the name of a dead brother. ( umm weird). 

Albert’s father was 75 years old when he was born, his mother being 32. Albert spent his early childhood in am orphanage until the age of 10 when his mother got him out, No one knows why he was in the orphanage. Once out of the orphanage, two years later Albert started to experience his dark side. 

Around the age of 13 Albert began a secret relationship with another boy who introduced Albert to paraphilia (sexual perversions involving human experiment) By the age of 20 ALbert moved to New York and started working as a prostitute, Albert sexually assaulted young boys in his free time. 

In the year 1898, his mother arranged a marriage for him, forcing him to have to try and be a normal man. Albert and his wife had 6 childern, But the working man could not keep the dark side at bay, he craved it. 

Around the 1910s Albert got into a sadomasochistic relationship ( characterized by or deriving sexual gratification from both sadism and masochism) with a 19 year old boy named Thomas Kedden. Didnt take long for Albert to take things to far, He brought Kedden to an abandoned barn and proceeded to torture him for two weeks.The culmination? Fish tied up Kedden and cut off half of his penis. Albert recounts: “I shall never forget his scream, or the look he gave me.” Albert had planned to kill Kedden and cut his body into pieces, but the fear of being caught overtook him. Instead, he disinfected the wound, covered it with petroleum jelly, gave Kedden a kiss, and fled. Whatever became of Kedden is unknown.

“In 1917, Albert’s left him for another man! This sent Albert into a tailspin. The now single parent of six childern wandered the house and took to self harm. He would press multiple needles into his abdomen, whack himself with a nail-studded paddle, even stuff wool drenched with lighter fluid into his anus … and set it ablaze.

It was at this time that Fish developed a taste for raw meat, often preparing it for dinner. The bloody meals opened the door to Fish’s final perversion – cannibalism.

He selected victims he felt no one would miss. They mainly included mentally handicapped and African-American children, whom he tortured with his “implements from Hell.”

By this point, Fish was a full-blown psychotic, believing that God demanded he torture and mutilate his victims with meat cleavers and handsaws. Many escaped Albert’s grasp, but others did not.

In 1928, a 58-year-old Fish answered an ad in the paper from a young man named Edward Budd, who was looking for work in the country. Fish visited the family home in Manhattan. He introduced himself as a farmer and asked for Edward – whom he planned to lure away and slaughter. Fish quickly changed plans, however, when he met young Grace Budd.

 

The little girl was just 10 years old. He told the Budd family that he would love to take their daughter to his niece’s birthday party, and they obliged.

Off went Grace with Albert. She was never heard from again.

Six years later, the Budd family received an anonymous letter riddled with spelling errors that detailed a man’s descent into madness and cannibalism. The letter’s author spoke of a seaman he once knew who traveled to China. It was there that this man claimed to have encountered famine-stricken people killing and consuming children to survive. The sailor developed such an appetite for young flesh that upon his return to New York, he abducted two children, killed them, and cooked them.

 The letter’s author became curious, as well. In the letter’s disturbing final paragraph, he graphically recounts abducting Grace Budd, killing her, and consuming her flesh.

The letter bore no signature – yet its details clearly proved the author was Grace’s killer. Police traced the stationary back to a boarding house, where they found Albert Fish.

It didn’t take long before he confessed to the murder. The Boogeyman was busted.

Although no one doubted his insanity, Fish was deemed mentally fit to stand trial. He was handed the death penalty and executed in 1936 by electric chair at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. He boasted of having “had a child in every state.”

It’s believed that Fish had between three and nine victims total, including 8-year-old Francis McDonnell, who was found in Staten Island, and 4-year-old Billy Gaffney, of Brooklyn, whose body was never found. Of Billy’s disappearance, his friend said, “the boogeyman took him.”

 

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La Llorona:

The ghostly woman who wanders along canals and rivers crying for her missing children, called in Spanish La Llorona, “the Weeping Woman,” is found in many cultures and regions. Her story includes some strong similarities to that of Medea. She is perhaps the most widely known ghost in Texas. Her New World history goes back to the time of Hernán Cortés and links her with La Malinche, the mistress of the conquistador. As tradition has it, after having borne a child to Cortés, La Malinche, who aided in the conquest of Mexico as a translator for the Spanish, was replaced by a highborn Spanish wife. Her Aztec pride plus her jealousy drove her, according to the story, to acts of vengeance against the intruders from across the sea. Sometimes the story is told about a Spanish nobleman and a peasant girl. Some years ago, the story goes, a young hidalgo fell in love with a lowly girl, usually named María, who over a period of time bore him two or three children. She had a casita—a little house—where the young man visited and brought his friends, and in almost every way they shared a happy life together, except that their union was not blessed by the church. His parents, of course, knew nothing of the arrangement and would not have allowed him to marry beneath his station. They urged him to marry a suitable lady and give them grandchildren. Finally he gave in, and sadly he told María that he must marry another. But he would not desert her, he promised—he would still take care of her and the children and visit them as often as he could. Enraged, she drove him away, and when the wedding took place she stood veiled in her shawl at the back of the church. Once the ceremony was over she went home, and in a crazed state killed the children, threw them into a nearby body of water, and then drowned herself. But when her soul applied for admission to heaven, el Señor refused her entry. “Where are your children?” He asked her. Ashamed, she confessed she did not know. “Go and bring them here,” the Lord said. “You cannot rest until they are found.” And ever since, La Llorona wanders along streams at night, weeping and crying for her children—”Ay, mis hijos!” According to some, she has been known to take revenge on men she comes across in her journey. She usually dresses in black. Her face is sometimes that of a horse, but more often horribly blank, and her long fingernails gleam like polished tin in the moonlight.

The story of the Weeping Woman is told to youngsters as a “true” story of what might get you if you’re out after dark. But the most frequent use of the story is to warn romantic teenage girls against falling for boys who may have nice clothes and money but are too far above them to consider marriage. The Cortés variant is said to be used in the late twentieth century to express hostility to European culture. La Llorona’s loss is compared to the demise of indigenous culture after the conquest of Mexico by the Spanish.

These are some legend type facts I found:

• Sometimes she kidnaps childern
• In some stories she murders her children in a jealous rage
• Some say her husband killed her childern
• Her heart was broken after her husband cheated on her
• She can walk into your house
• she was barred from heaven
• She is part of a popular children’s game

 

This is a video i found showing her on camera. 

“I’ve been waiting for you. You are special”

Anne Hamilton-Byrne, seemed to be a sophisticated woman wearing pearls and expensive perfume. She played the hard and sang soprano. Anne had beautiful blonde hair styled to perfection.

Anne believed she was Jesus Christ reincarnated in the female form. She created a cult she called “The Family”. She kidnapped babies from their mothers and raised them, feeding them LSD , and routinely abused them. “All the children were blonde, they all looked the same. They had a strictly vegetarian diet, lots of yoga and exercises. They were trying to bring them up as perfect and to be the people who would take over when the world collapsed, which they thought was imminent.”

This cult went on for two decades before the police were involved. The children grew up thinking they were all blood related, and that the police were evil. They never knew who they really were, There were birth records but they were all faked.

Anne Hamilton Byrne, a woman who indoctrinated, abused and drugged children ended up in jail, right?

Wrong.

“What she did was totally evil and wicked,” says Ben, thirty years after his time in The Family.

“She promised things as the reincarnation of Jesus to people; that time has shown she could never deliver on. Things that the real Jesus has proven he can deliver on. That is where the wickedness is.

“Everyone will say, ‘a $5000 fine for what you did?’ We go, ‘I want the person who did this to pay the price and be called to account’.”

But at the time of the raid, Anne was overseas, a Royal Commission never got off the ground and police didn’t trial Anne on abuse, Ben says.

Instead, Anne’s fine was for falsifying the documents of three of the children.

Anne is still alive, living in a nursing home suffering from dementia. She never did recognize the damage she did.

 

“In The Sanatorium The Patient Is Isolated”

During tthe 1800s and the early 1900s, America was engulfed by a deadly diease which would be  tuberculous also known to many as the “White Death”.

This terrifying and very contagious plague, for which no cure existed, claimed entire families and sometimes entire towns. In 1900, Louisville, Kentucky had one of the highest tuberculosis death rates in America. Built on low, swampland, the area was the perfect breeding ground for disease and in 1910, a hospital was constructed on a windswept hill in southern Jefferson County that had been designed to combat the horrific disease. The hospital quickly became overcrowded though and with donations of money and land, a new hospital was started in 1924. The new structure, known as Waverly Hills, opened two years later in 1926. It was considered the most advanced tuberculosis sanatorium in the country but even then, most of the patients succumbed to the disease. In those days before medicine was available to treat the disease, it was thought that the best treatment for tuberculosis was fresh air, plenty of nutritious food and lots of rest. Many patients survived their stay at Waverly Hills but it is estimated that hundreds died here at the height of the epidemic.

In many cases, the treatments for the disease were as bad as the disease itself. Some of the experiments that were conducted in search of a cure seem barbaric by today’s standards but others are now common practice. Patient’s lungs were exposed to ultraviolet light to try and stop the spread of bacteria. This was done in “sun rooms”, using artificial light in place of sunlight, or on the roof or open porches of the hospital. Since fresh air was thought to also be a possible cure, patients were often placed in front of huge windows or on the open porches, no matter what the season. Old photographs show patients lounging in chairs, taking in the fresh air, while literally covered with snow.

Other treatments were less pleasant — and much bloodier. Balloons would be surgically implanted in the lungs and then filled with air to expand them. Needless to say, this often had disastrous results, as did operations where muscles and ribs were removed from a patient’s chest to allow the lungs to expand further and let in more oxygen. This blood-soaked procedure was seen as a “last resort” and few of the patients survived it.

While the patients who survived both the disease and the treatments left Waverly Hills through the front door, the majority of patients left through what came to be known as the “body chute”. This enclosed tunnel for the dead led from the hospital to the railroad tracks at the bottom of the hill. Using a motorized rail and cable system, the bodies were lowered in secret to the waiting trains. This was done so that patients would not see how many were leaving the hospital as corpses. Their mental health, the doctors believed, was just as important as their physical health. By the late 1930s, tuberculosis had begun to decline around the world and by 1943, new medicines had largely eradicated in the United States. In 1961, Waverly Hills was closed down but was re-opened a year later as Woodhaven Geriatrics Sanitarium. There have been many rumors and stories told about patient mistreatment and unusual experiments during the years that the building was used an old age home. Some of them have been proven to be false but others have unfortunately turned out to be true. Electroshock therapy, which was considered to be highly effective in those days, was widely used for a variety of ailments. Budget cuts in the 1960s and 1970s led to both horrible conditions and patient mistreatments and in 1982, the state closed the facility for good.

The legends of the fifth floor are many:

Stories say that in 1928, the head nurse in Room 502 was found dead in Room 502. She had committed suicide by hanging herself from the light fixture. She was 29 years-old at the time of her death and allegedly, unmarried and pregnant. Her depression over the situation led her to take her own life. It’s unknown how long she may have been hanging in this room before her body was discovered.  And this would not be the only tragedy to occur in this room.

In 1932, another nurse who worked in Room 502 was said to have jumped from the roof patio and plunged several stories to her death. No one seems to know why she would have done this but many have speculated that she may have actually have been pushed over the edge. There are no records to indicate this but rumors continue to persist.

 

“Keep away. The sow is mine.”

Demonic Hauntings

Hands down the most terrifying and taxing haunting in existence is the demonic haunting. This is a haunting in which an evil or dark spirit haunts a family or person. Sometimes these entities can be waiting in the shadows of a home or building, waiting for the right person to attach themselves to. While other times these entities are already attached to a person when they move into a home that they believe is haunted (when in fact the person was haunted before the move).

A demonic haunting can further be classified into two sub-types: demonic attachment and demonic possession. I have never known anyone who was possessed, though I have met quite a few people whom I believe had a demonic attachment haunting. The difference between a demonic haunting and a poltergeist haunting is that the demonic entity literally haunts a person’s body and soul, whereas the poltergeist usually haunts a building first and then targets a person within that building. Demons are characterized by Christian faiths as being the helpers of Satan, while in other belief systems they are simply some of the most ancient entities on Earth. Whatever they may be, they can present themselves as very violent and possessive entities that seek to devour the person to whom they attach or possess.

The difference between a demonic attachment and a demonic possession is that the attachment is usually the first phase of demonic possession. The demon hasn’t fully taken over or inhabited the body of the person being haunted, though they plan to. After the demon has gained full control of the person’s body, this is then known as a demonic possession. They have moved from being attached to a person to literally owning the person’s body and mind.

There are theories as to how an individual experiences a demonic attachment or possession haunting, though no one knows for sure. Many times the person who is haunted has opened him or herself up to the entity in various ways. One way is to play with divination such as spirit boards or seances without knowing how to protect or guard oneself against invasive entities. Another cause of attachment/possession is if the person literally calls upon the entity…just associating with these entities opens a person up to attachment/possession.

Here are some signs of a demonic haunting (be it attachment or possession):

• the person becomes withdrawn from his/her life (socially, mentally, spiritually, etc.)
• the person becomes angry, hateful, vengeful, and violent towards people whom they used to be close to for unknown reasons
• the person becomes seemingly mentally ill when they’ve yet to have mental illness before (they may act schizophrenic or paranoid). They may show signs of hallucinations or delusions.
• the person becomes seemingly bipolar of sorts, going through extreme highs and lows within days to even hours or minutes.
• the person doesn’t want to hear about getting help or anything about God or the Divine.
• the person may develop an extreme addiction that they never had before, and usually the person will have had no bouts of addiction before this time.
• the person may show signs of unnatural physical abuse on their body: scratches, bruises, bite marks, etc.
• the person has no regard for their own body, soul, or mind (they may express suicidal or homicidal tendencies/thoughts)

The Simpson House Haunting

Source: Facebook

The Simpson House is situated in Hanover, Pennsylvania, on Maple Avenue. Tom and Deanna Simpson lived in the house for seven years until they decided to get help for the hauntings. According to them, there were at least five ghosts and one demonic entity in the house. When Fox 43 reporters arrived at the property to interview the family, the cameraman was scratched violently. As the interview was ongoing, a motion-triggered camera captured a dark shadow in the basement.

Deanna claims that the start of the hauntings was when she had a dream of two men standing above her in her sleep. Only she woke up to find it real. She also witnessed reflections of a blonde woman lying on the floor in the bathroom mirror. Afterwards they experienced weird incidents such as doors shutting on their own and strange crying noises from the bedrooms. She also witnessed a 7-foot shadow which she believes was a demonic entity. Numerous attempts from paranormal investigator and priests were futile and the house remains haunted to this day.

Brownsville Demon House

Source: Post Gazette

The Brownsville Demon House is located on 3406 Brownsville Road. Bob Cranmer have a first-hand account of the hauntings that took place in there. The history of the house extends all the way back to the early 18th century. According to the local legends, a mother and her three children were slain by Native Americans near Fort Pitt. The killing itself occurred on the land on which the house was later built. As if that was not enough, a later tenant named Dr. James C. Mahan was fabled to perform illegal abortions in the house. The series of dark events that eventually fueled violent paranormal events which the Cranmer family experienced when they in by the 1980s.

 

Bob Cranmer described the place as his “dream house.” On the family initial visit to the house, their oldest son, Bobby Jr., walked down to the basement and was later found hyperventilating on the stairs. Bob’s wife, Lesa, also stated that the house was making her uneasy but she was unsure why. When Bob inquired if anything abnormal had taken place on the property from the realtor, he was told that a Catholic mass had been performed in the living room multiple times. Bob later discovered a buried box in the front yard which contained Catholic relics. When he called up the previous owners, they simply informed him to put the items back in the ground.

Soon the family began to experience moving furniture, flickering lights, bad dreams, unknown footsteps and even strange noises. A presence was felt around the house accompanied by an odd rotten smell.  Religious artefacts were bent and destroyed around the house. Upon seeking help from the local church, the family noticed the walls oozing blood. It was not long before they realized the house was possessed by a demonic presence and not in fact haunted.

Cleansing the house from the evil spirits took two years to complete. During this duration, Bobby Jr. and Lesa were hospitalized for mental instability. By 2006, the house was completely cleansed.

Sallie House Haunting

Source: Sallie House

One of the most cases of hauntings in Kansas is the Sallie house haunting. Located in Atchison on 508 N Second Street, the house is said to house evil spirits as well as lost souls. The house’s name even comes from the ghost of a young girl named Sallie. She can be frequently seen warding visitors away from the horrors that dwell within.

Originally built by Michael C. Finney in 1867, it remained occupied by the family until the mid-20th century. It was opened up for boarding by the 1950s, but few people stayed for long. Then Ethel Anderson moved in and stayed until she passed away in the early 1990s. Tony and Debra Pickman bought the house after. However, soon after the couple moved in they started experiencing supernatural incidents.

From unknown noises and sounds to dark shadows, floating objects and furniture moving about, the couple even started noticing physical abuse marks on their bodies. Following the birth of their child, the activities increased and they sought the help of paranormal investigators. However, everyone who tried to exorcise the house or ward off the demons was attacked in the house. In 1992, the Sallie House haunting appeared on Sightings and made national news. The crew was even attacked while filming the place.

 

After an investigation, it came to light that other than spirits, demons also resided in the house. Tony and Debra moved out in 1994 as they were unable to stay any longer. The house remains haunted till today.

The Possession of Latoya Ammons

Source: Ghost n Demon

In Indianapolis, a resident reported being attacked by forces within her home. Captain Charles Austin of the Gary Police Department thought it was all a hoax at first. But, it was soon discovered that there was truly something sinister about the Ammons home. In fact, the Department of Child Services wrote down 800 pages of official record on the incident. This comes alongside first-hand accounts by police officers, priests, family members and psychologists.

The Ammons family moved into their new home in November 2011 on Carolina Street in Gary, Indiana. However, they noticed large black flies swarming around the screened porch despite the cold winter. Soon they began to hear unexplained sounds in the house. Doors could be heard opening and closing despite being locked and footsteps were heard around the house. They even witnessed shadows and footprints. On March 10, 2012, the family were woken up early morning by their daughter’s screams – her friend who was sleeping over was found unconscious and levitating above the bed.

Local churches were called to cleanse the property but no one stepped forward. Being financially unable to shift, Latoya constructed an altar in the basement with Jesus, the Bible, Mary and Joseph figured. She also burned sulfur and sage in the house, drawing smoke crosses. It did not help. Witnesses describe the possessions as children’s eyes bulging, their faces spreading into grins and their voices deepening. The doctors left it all to hallucinations and delusions. A medical check-up on the children found the children of sound mind and health. But, that all changed when a nurse witnessed the eldest son climbing up a wall on all fours backwards.

Inspection of the house by police officers led their equipment to malfunction – audio devices stopped recording, cameras captured odd anomalies. In April 2012 Reverend Michael Maginot was requested to exorcise the 9-year-old boy. It was the first ever exorcism to be authorized by a bishop of the Catholic Church’s Diocese of Gary. After performing the ritual followed by months of assistance from psychologists, the family was finally freed from the possessions and torment. Latoya was also restored full custody of her children.

In 2016 the house was demolished and since then no further reports of paranormal activity have surfaced.

The Bean Family Haunting

Source: YouTube

Patricia and William Bean moved into their new home in Maryland with their 3 children in 1970. However, they were not the only inhabitants. Strange noises could be heard during the night, doors opened and closed on their own and shadows could be seen entering and exiting rooms. They even decided to name the spirit “Henry” to reduce the horror it embodied in them. But the incidents just kept getting more violent in nature.

At one point, their daughter Patti, felt someone gripping her foot and she had red marks around her ankle. Patricia woke up one night to the feeling of hands choking her. Sometimes she would even be thrown around violently or levitated off of the bed. The paranormal incidents led William to develop a drinking problem which broke up the marriage. He soon left the house and his ex-wife and kid were now at the mercy of the spirits.

By 1975, as Patricia’s health faltered she was advised to leave the place. Instead, Patricia had a medium perform a séance. Turns out there were four entities living side by side in the house and they even left a message: “join us or die”. By the end of the session, the medium as terrified to the point of fleeing. Following the destruction of a family portrait, Bill, the son, sought the help of an evangelical relative. They attempted to use faith to ward the spirits off but it only calmed down the activity for the time. A priest was then called to bless the house and urged the family to leave. They insisting on staying.

Then the paranormal activity resurfaced and the family finally left. However, creepily enough the demonic presence followed them until Patricia’s death of kidney failure in 1981. Today, the house is open for visitors and is a popular destination for paranormal tourists.

 

STAGE 1

Have you ever been all alone at home and then suddenly heard someone call your name though you know no one else is around?

Have you ever seen a shadow from a skewed angle of your eye, but when you turn, there’s nothing? Have you ever heard unexplained sounds? These are possible clues that you’re experiencing a haunting. Below describes the most typical and known types of hauntings and the signs and symptoms of paranormal activity.

The 6 Types of Haunting Activity:

Residual Haunting
This is among the most common type of haunting and occurs when something traumatic happens such as a ra*e or murder any sort of tragic event leading to death.

The negative energy that is created leaves behind an imprint of that particular event. Similar to a recorded tape, the events will be played time and again always repeating. The entities that are involved in residual haunting are not aware of their surroundings. This is not an intelligent type of haunting as there is no reaction between the entity and you.

Interactive or Intelligent Haunting
These can be quite frightening, though generally the spirit does not intend to cause any harm to anyone. In this kind of haunting activity there is a spirit who tries to interact with the living. At times, the spirit might not even know they have passed, and at times they might be aware of it but have come to convey a message to someone.

These types of hauntings often are the result of a spirit needing some sort of help and wants you to help them. Signs of intelligent haunting can include hearing voices and seeing an apparition. Generally apparitions are seen wearing clothes they were in when alive, and at times they are seen in those clothes that their dead bodies were dressed in.

Poltergeist Haunting
A very popular type of haunting, in which the spirit or poltergeist, at times, is malevolent(not friendly), and makes its presence felt by moving objects, creating noises, and assaulting animals and people.

Some of the poltergeist activities includes throwing or moving of objects like huge pieces of furniture, vile smells, shrieks and loud noises. Poltergeists can also cause disturbances in telephones and various electronic equipment, and can turn appliances and lights on and off.

Do not limit the interruption of electronic equipment to just a poltergeist though. A poltergeist, at times, also hits, bites, and attacks a person intimately. Activity from a Poltergeist can start and stop suddenly. Its duration can last for seconds, minutes, hours, months and even years.

Demonic Activity
Demons are those entities which never had any human form, they are completely energy entities. A demon’s main purpose is to create chaos and destruction and cause stress or even death.

Demonic cases are less common than other types of hauntings, unfortunately they are occurring though – they can be described in three following ways:

• Horrific and evil looking. People say they have seen demons that look extremely hideous.

• Angelic and beautiful that can compel a person to do something that is evil.

Consisting of black smoke and are black and shadow like or black and mist like as well as black and fog like. Each of these varies in transparency.

Shadow Haunting or Shadow People

This type of haunting activity is different from ghosts, with no real explanation. You generally will get to see them through you peripheral vision as shapeless dark masses. They do not have any human features, wear no clothes, and can easily pass through walls.

There are two types of shadow haunting person, a ‘hat man’ who looks like is wearing a fedora hat, and the other, a ‘hooded figure’, who looks like a shadow person with a hood over his head.

Doppelganger Haunting:

This is among the rarest haunting activity. Doppelganger in German means ‘double walker’.

In this type of haunting a person gets to see his exact double, mostly wearing the same clothing as he/she has on. Generally, only that particular person will be able to see the spirit and others around will not even be aware of it. This generally signifies that something tragic or traumatic is going to happen to the person who has seen the doppelganger spirit.

Now that you know about the different types of haunting, you should also learn about the various signs and symptoms which suggest that a house is haunted.

Signs and Symptoms of an Haunting:

Mild psychokinetic occurrence – If your home is haunted you might hear doors being closed or opened, you might even see it happen when actually no one is standing close to the door. Seeing lights turning on and off all by themselves is yet another symptom.

If you witness windows and doors locking and unlocking on their own, or your child’s power toy moving on its own, something is surely wrong and often points to that of a haunting. A feeling of being touched – you might suddenly feel something has touched your hand, shoulder, arm or legs; Most often the same sensation felt by that of a living person or animal.

Whispers and cries – Sudden crying and whispering can be heard. All of a sudden music is heard from an unknown source, and you might hear your name being called. If more than one person hears such thing at the same time, this helps to know you’re not going crazy!

Known voices – Sometimes people hear voices of someone they know, but when the voice is heard that particular person is not present in the area.

Cold or hot spots – Cold spots are one of the most common haunting symptoms, and if any sudden variation in temperature is felt without any cause, this can be evidence. It’s more common that a cold spot is felt whether than a warm spot however.

Unexplained smells – The sudden smell or fragrance of cologne or perfume which is not present in your house.

The smell comes and goes without any cause and can be accompanied by other occurrences like hearing of voices, seeing shadows and so on. Foul smell like that of a rotten egg can also be one of the symptoms of a poltergeist haunting.

Physical assault – One can experience sudden hard shoves, scratches and even a slap. This type of physical assault is quite rare, but is definitely very disturbing.

Levitating or moving objects – You suddenly will be able to see pictures flying off from the walls, dinner plates moving on the table on its own, furniture moving on the floor and doors opening and closing with great force with no logical explanation.

Physical illnesses with no relief from medication – on shifting to places that are haunted, people suddenly are diagnosed with rare illnesses. They also experience fatigue, sleep disturbances, stress and get no relief until they leave the suspected haunted area.

Frequent nightmares – Nightmares keep on increasing, sleep walking and sleep disturbances also are experienced.

Objects missing and found in unexpected places – At times, objects like jewelry, car keys and money disappear from where they are kept and are then suddenly found in unexpected places like on kitchen stove, beneath the burner and other unusual places.

STAGES OF A HAUNTING

There are several types of hauntings. Please read through the stages to determine which type of paranormal activity you are having. This information can help us during our investigation.

Stage 1 usually revolves around your basic five senses. Cold (or hot) spots, strange noises, odd odors, hearing footsteps, unusual animal activity and the feeling of being watched are common at this time. The odds are very good most people will chalk these experiences up to their imagination and not recall them unless the cycle increases and moves forward. Referred to as a Senses Attack because in the early Cold spots,a poltergeist the activity mainly revolves around the human body’s basic senses. 

• Cold spots Strange noises
• Odd odors and smells
• Hearing footsteps
• Unusual animal activity (dogs/cats running from rooms, etc)
• Feelings of being watched..

STAGE 2

Much of the same activity as stage one may occur with an addition of one or many of the following: Whispers, laughs, giggles, moans or shrieking, moving shadows, breezes in closed areas, base apparitions appear as mist, fog or vapor, strong static electricity, marks on floors or walls that are not writings. You may still be writing this off as imagination at this point. This level is where the noises and smells begin to turn into something more direct. Everything is still at its basic level but turned up a few notches.

• Whispers, Laughs or giggles
• Moans or shrieking
• Moving shadows
• Breezes in closed areas
• Visible clouds (base apparitions)
• Strong static electricity
• Marks on floors or walls (Not writings)

STAGE 3

Most haunting fall into this category. Up to stage 2, you may have been able to pretend this is your imagination. At stage 3, you are going to have to admit you have a haunting. At this stage the poltergeist begins to make it’s presence felt. The difference is, in the first two levels it could be said that it was the mind playing tricks. But now, it’s hard not to notice something real is happening. This is the level that the classic haunting falls into. 

• Lights and other electrical appliances turning on/off
• Unseen hands grabbing or touching people
• Writings on walls or pattern markings
• Doors that open/close or lock/unlock
• Hearing voices or words clearly
• Full apparitions or dark figures
• Showing levels of communication with living people

STAGE 4

Advanced poltergeist activity is now moving toward the danger level. It is picking up a clearer consciousness. Object disappear and reappear, move by themselves or appear to fly, furniture may shake or move, people may be shaken or moved, things may be broken for no reason (mirrors, dishes etc). At this stage is when levitation may occur. This is where an advanced poltergeist begins to gain momentum. Moving closer to the danger level and picking up a clearer consciousness. 

• Flying/moving objects
• Objects disappearing and reappearing elsewhere
• Shaking furniture
• Pushing or shaking people
• Windows, mirrors or other household objects breaking for no reason
• Levitation

STAGE 5

This is the stage when people might be able to be hurt by the tremendous energy being exerted by the poltergeist. Dangerous activities could be noted like; bites, scratches, objects animating, hair pulling, and heavy objects falling. The other events from the earlier stages may or may not have ceased. The people involved may be becoming sleep deprived and terrified. There is no set time frame for any of these stages and it will vary from one case to another. After this stage there is normally a dormant stage and then the cycle would repeat at its own pace, and this activity would no doubt be occur over again. There can be a lot of dangerous activity at this stage.

 

• Biting, Slapping or punching
• Animating objects
• Use of household electrical systems
• Hair pulled
• Heavy objects falling

 

If you have experienced any such thing in your home, do not waste time and hire a paranormal investigator to help you immediately.

“Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid”

“Jim Jones was best known as the cult leader of the Peoples Temple who led more than 900 followers in a mass suicide via cyanide-laced punch known as the Jonestown Massacre.”

 

Born on May 13, 1931, in Crete, Indiana, Jim Jones was a notorious cult leader. As the self-proclaimed messiah of the Peoples Temple religious cult, Jones promised his followers utopia if they followed him. On November 18, 1978, in what became known as the Jonestown Massacre, Jones led more than 900 men, women and children to their deaths in a mass suicide via cyanide-laced punch.

 

 

Early Life

Cult Leader James Warren “Jim” Jones was born on May 13, 1931, in Crete, Indiana, and was responsible for the deaths of roughly 900 o

f his followers in 1978, in what became known as the Jonestown Massacre. He was the son of James Thurman Jones, a disabled World War I veteran, and Lynetta (Putnam) Jones, who worked a variety of jobs. Jones was largely left to himself as his mother was often working and his father had little interest in him.

For years, one of his neighbors often took him to visit her church. Jones began his own religious quest around the age of 10. He visited churches in the small town of Lynn where he lived with his family and befriended a Pentecostal minister for a time. An observant child, Jones began taking what he learned at these different houses of worship and started preaching to other children in the community. He was a strong student, especially in public speaking, but he had few friends. His overpowering religious zest turned off some, and he, in turn, disliked many typical teenage boy activities, such as sports, and objected what he believed to be sinful behavior, such as dancing or drinking.

After his parents split up, Jones and his mother moved to Richmond, Indiana. There he had a chance to reinvent himself. He worked at a hospital as an orderly where he met Marceline Baldwin, an older nursing student. After graduating early from high school in December 1948, Jones started at Indiana University the following January. He married Marceline after his first term on June 12, 1949. The couple eventually adopted several children.

 

The Peoples Temple

After years of struggling to find his way, Jones announced that he was entering the ministry in 1952. He got a job as a student pastor at the Somerset Methodist Church in a poor, predominantly white neighborhood in Indianapolis. By the following year, Jones was making a reputation for himself in the state as a healer and evangelist. He was interested in holding racially integrated services, but this interest was not shared by his church. Soon Jones branched out on his own, forming the Wings of Deliverance church in 1955. The church soon became known as the Peoples Temple. To help build his following, he bought time on a local AM radio station to air his sermons.

In the mid-1960s, Jones moved his religious group to Northern California. More than 100 church members accompanied Jones to California. They lived in the remote, small towns of Ukiah and Redwood Valley. By the early 1970s, Jones had expanded his recruitment efforts. He started preaching in San Francisco, opening up a branch of his church there.

With his trademark dark glasses, suits and slicked-back black hair, Jones was an impressive figure at the pulpit. His fiery rhetoric and remarkable “healings” continued to draw new members into the fold. Not only did they fall for his talk of a better life, many surrendered what they had to Jones. What they thought was for the common good actually ended up in Jones’s pocket.

As part of his teachings, Jones discouraged sex and romantic relationships. He, on the other hand, had several adulterous relationships, including one with a church administrator, Carolyn Layton, with whom he had a son. Jones also claimed to be the father of Grace Stoen’s son John Victor. Jones also sought to disrupt familial bonds, positioning himself as the “father of all.”

Trouble at Jonestown

In 1974, Jones bought land in Guyana to develop into a new home for himself and his followers. He had become increasingly paranoid and disturbed by this time and soon moved to the Peoples Temple compound there with about 1,000 people. The compound was known as Jonestown, and it wasn’t any tropical paradise. Jones ran the site like a prison camp. His followers received little food and weren’t allowed to leave. Armed guards stood at the compound’s perimeter. Jones often preached over the loudspeaker system at Jonestown. Fearful of a plot against him, he started conducting suicide drills. His followers were woken up in the middle of the night. They would receive a cup with a red liquid that they were told contained poison, which they were ordered to drink. After 45 minutes or so, the members were told that they were not going to die, that they had just passed a loyalty test.

In September 1977, Jones threatened mass suicide to force the Guyanese government from taking action against him. Former Peoples Temple member Grace Stoen had been asking the government to help her regain custody of her son John Victor. Another ex-member of the group, Deborah Layton Blakely, had been speaking publicly against Jones as well. Finally, in November 1978, Leo J. Ryan, a congressman from California, decided to investigate Jonestown for himself.

Murder and Mass Suicide

On November 18, 1978, Ryan toured Jonestown with a television crew in tow. He invited anyone who wanted to leave the compound to come with him, but his rescue operation did not go as planned. That afternoon, Ryan, some leaving Peoples Temple members, and the rest of visitors were driven to an airstrip in Port Kaituma. There they were attacked by Peoples Temple gunmen sent by Jones.

By the time the shooting stopped, there were five people dead, including Congressman Ryan, NBC correspondent Don Harris, NBC cameraman Bob Brown, and San Francisco Examiner photographer Greg Robinson. One of the defectors, Patricia Parks, was also killed. Two more defectors were seriously wounded, shot by Larry Layton, brother of ex-Peoples Temple member Debbie Layton Blakely, who joined the group under the pretense of wanting to leave.

Meanwhile back at Jonestown, Jones launched what he called his “revolutionary suicide” campaign. Cyanide and Valium were mixed into a batch of powdered drink mix to make a toxic punch, and cups of this lethal beverage were distributed to the members. The first to die were the children and those who refused to drink were forced to by armed guards. In all, more than 900 people died at Jonestown—276 of them were children.

Jones, on the other hand, chose a different way out. Surrounded by his inner circle, he either shot himself or was shot in the head. He was later found on the floor of the Jonestown pavilion, the camp’s main gathering area, with his wife Marceline, nurse Annie Moore, and other top group members.