EPIC PARA-BLOG

As a former resident of Rockaway Beach, NY, I was captivated by an episode of Ghost Adventures, featuring the fearless and always easy on the eyes Zak Bagans and crew.  This episode featured Long Island’s Execution Rocks Lighthouse, which up until that point, I surprisingly had never heard of.  Intrigued by not only the episode itself, but the fact that it was within driving distance of my old neighborhood inspired me to research it further.

Located 1650 yards northwest of Sands Point, sits a small lighthouse and keepers quarters.  While the rocks themselves are foreboding, there is something very charming about the mere sight of this lighthouse that instantly draws you in.  Perhaps it is the reminiscence of what life might have been like back in the 1800′s.  What many of us today often assume to be as “simpler times.” However, according to local lure, that assumption could not be more false.

There are two stories as to just how this lighthouse acquired its intriguing, yet ominous name.  The first dates back to Colonial times, it is said that in opting for a private place in which to carry out execution away from the public eye, the British carted their prisoners out to the lighthouse and chained them to the rocks.  Leaving them at the mercy of the tide to endure the agony of a slow drowning fate.  It is also rumored that the corpses of the demised where left shackled to the rocks as a visual for the next round of victims as to what was in store for them.  Can you imagine the mental anguish that must have befallen these prisoners as they lay amongst the skeletons, hearing the sounds of an otherwise comforting lull of the tide? Laying there staring out in to the sky, one can only imagine what these men were thinking with no one around to hear their screams except their fellow condemned men and the skulls of those who where no longer left to endure this barbaric tragedy.

While the validity of the first story has yet to be proven, the second story tells of the British pursuit of Washington in his travels from Manhattan to White Plains.  It is said that the British vessel met its demise upon the rocks of the dangerous reef, leaving no survivors.

Associated with this seemingly stigmatized location, is serial killer Carl Panzram.  In the late Summer of 1920, Panzram had made a name for himself as an arsonist and a thief.  While in Connecticut, he robbed the home of former President Taft, taking a .45 Colt Revolver. He then moved on to Pirating ships and yachts in the New York area.  It is said that he often scouted out his victims in bars where sailors frequented, getting them drunk, sodomizing, torturing and finally killing them.  He claimed to have commited 21 murders both in the US and abroad.  He would take the lifeless bodies of his prey, tie them to rocks and dump them in the sound, approx 100 yards from where the Execution Rocks Lighthouse sits to this very day.

Arrested in 1928, he was sentenced to 25 years in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.  During his stay, Panzram murdered prison laundry foreman Robert Warnke by bludgeoning him with an iron bar in 1929.  This act awarded him death by hanging.

It is quite obvious, at least to me, that Carl Panzram was the embodiment of Evil.  Upon the questioning of his taking the life of a 12 year old boy, Panzram replied,”…I am not sorry. My conscious doesn’t bother me. I sleep sound and have sweet dreams.”
It is worth noting that this is a partial quote, the quote in its entirety can be found online for those interested, I personally found it so disgusting, that I have decided not to include it.
In his autobiography “Killer: A Journal of a Murder,” Panzram writes, “In my lifetime I have murdered 21 human beings, I have committed thousands of burglaries, robberies, larcenies, arson’s … For all these things I am not in the least bit sorry.”
Upon the carrying out of his death sentence, a gleeful Panzer is said to have spat in the executioner’s face and yelled: “Hurry up you Hoosier bastard, I could kill ten men while you’re fooling around!”

So is there paranormal activity here? The reports range from odd sounds, voices, whispers and footsteps to apparitions.  These claims have come from passers by as well as US Coast Guard Personell.  While the last retired lighthouse keeper has stuck to his claim that he has never witnessed the paranormal, it is interesting that the contract given to lighthouse keepers stationed here was very unique indeed. Instead of any set amount of time required for stay, the contract allowed for the lighthouse keepers ability to leave at a moments notice for any reason and a transfer would instantly be granted.

By: Brianna Williams