Steven Lee was an over-the-road truck driver from Louisianna who had driven through the Black Forest area several times on his cross-country hauls. He fell in love with the serene and natural beauty of the Colorado landscape, and often visited with his wife, Beth, and their two young sons. After a while the family decided to relocate there and over four years leased a couple different homes. In 1991 the Lee’s rented the beautiful log cabin at 8325 Swan Road, and one year later purchased the property. Although they had’nt nticed any previous activity, within weeks of owning they began being tormented-daily and nightly- by a medley of constantly flashing lights, stomping on the roof and pounding walls, shadows and electrical interference, an even the sound of an orchestra playing all around them. Beth described one incident as “the Fourth of July” going off in her living room. Their sons woke during the night and cried in fear of shadow people in their rooms. Bright lights and faces in the mirrors were the most common claims, as well as phantom animals and poltergeist activity. The Lee’s were also subjected to a strong chemical odor causing them extreme skin and eye irritation from the smell. Over the course of time the couple reported over 60 break ins but no traceable evidence to who or what it could have been was ever found. The El Paso Police Department began an investigation in 1993 but were at a complete loss as to what was causing the peculiar events. Steve Lee has purchased over $70,000 worth of security devices, cameras and video recording equipment; each one capturing white trails of lights , glowing orbs, translucent outlines of people and animals, and other anomalies, but no physical intruders. The collection of evidence found in the Lee home is the largest and by far the most stunning array found in any reportedly paranormal location. Angry faces fill the mirrors and windows of the home, psychics and mediums claim multitudes of long lost spirit bodies dwell here, visitors are routinely physically attacked.

In 1995 the couple contacted the paranormal television program “Sightings,” where producers confirmed the evidence Mr. Lee presented could not easily have been hoaxed or reproduced in any way whatsoever. “Sightings” decided to immediately investigate the home further with the help of Psychic Peter James, who attested to the presence of “powerful forces” inside the home. Mr. James was also able to channel the son of a family friend who had reportedly died of an overdose, only to confirm that he had been murdered, something James could never have known. “Sightings” producers also brought in Echo Bodine, a paranormal expert who immediately felt the presence of a dominating male spirit in the living room, along with over 20 more active spirits throughout the house. She deemed the paranormal activity inside the house “monumental” and told the Lee’s the closet in an upstairs bedroom contained a portal to the other side. During Mrs. Bodine’s visit, cameras and other equipment repeatedly flew off of tripods and malfunctioned, as well as an electronic pulse that began emanating from Mr. Lee’s police scanner on his bedside table. At the same time Mrs. Lee became overwhelmed with anxiety and exclaimed that she was being ‘held down’ as she sat at her kitchen table. A female crew member felt she was being violently physically attacked and only calmed down after being completely removed from the property. Several more strange and unexplained phenomena occurred while “Sightings” remained in the home, including a photograph taken of Mr.Lee which showed a white bolt of light shooting out from his forehead. The next morning he was awaken by a splitting headache and large welt on his head, and was rushed to the ER where a CAT scan could prove no cause for the injury.

Many different apparitions have been reported here including men and women in 19^th century clothing, ghostly soldiers, and a flying dog. Steve Lee believes the dog is actually a beloved pet of his who passed several years earlier. Hundreds of weary faces captured in the mirrors of the home were documented with infrared camera and published in the March 1998 issue of FATE Magazine. Even the state Senator confirmed the presence of active spirits within the home, after witnessing and photographing orbs, spectres of light and human shapes on film. The activity has been so overwhelming for Steve Lee that he has now begun to believe that there is nothing paranormal behind it, that no matter how outlandish it may all seem he is convinced there is some sort of government conspiricy involved. He believes undercover agents are ‘messing with his family’ and has become all out paranoid. He has been tortured to the point where it seems he has completely lost his mind, surrendering to delusions of granduer and full bodied panic attacks. Despite everything they’ve been through, the Lee’s have stayed put. For a while they renovated the property, adding magnificent tree houses, guest houses and other such structures. As of last year the property had been put up for private sale, but only to those interested in and highly respectful of it’s extreme paranormal activity. It is being advertised as a “paranormal retreat” or “great place for a paranormal training camp” WOW

The Burlington County Prison’s young architect Robert Mills later went on the design the Washington Monument, US Treasury Building, Patent Office and first US Post Office. The prison is a 2 story, stone, brick and mortar building with basement. Originally meant to hold only 40 prisoners, the jail eventually came to house over 100. The “Death Cell” is located on the third floor and served as a means of solitary confinement. It is here where prisoners were deterred from digging or escape and were held naked and chained to an iron ring upon the floor. Unlike other cells, it was without a fireplace and therefore held no warmth come winter. Both male and female prisoners were jailed alike, for crimes ranging from homicide and prostitution to failure to pay debts. At one time the Warden’s quarters were located on the second floor, with a small home later constructed outside the prison with access via an underground tunnel.

During the early days of the 19th century, laws were in place which required that all criminals guilty of capital crimes were to be executed in their convicting counties. In the prison yard here in Mt. Holly, gallows once stood where public hangings often took place and drew tremendous crowds. The two earliest convictions of murderess Eliza Freeman and murderer Joel Clough were held nearby on public land. Eliza Freeman was a poor drunken woman and former slave who cut her sleeping husband’s throat one night in 1832 with a razor blade. History claims she was somewhat mentally unsound and when asked if she had any regrets she exclaimed “I’m sorry that I spoiled my uncle’s floor.” It is estimated some 5,000 people were in attendance for her hanging, which was held nearby on the Mt. Holly road as the Sheriff was unable to find any land owner willing to let the execution take place on their property for fear of superstition. It was also exceedingly difficult for him to find any workers to erect the gallows nor was he able to arrange a burial plot for the same reason. Eliza Freeman’s body was buried in the prison yard late one evening in secret after protests from the inmates stemmed from the same superstitious beliefs. Was Eliza a witch woman? A conjurer of sorts? Perhaps she has something to do with the prison’s vibrant spiritual activity.

Joel Clough, Burlington County’s most infamous inmate, was a jilted lover and at the age of 27 was convicted of stabbing Mary Hamilton to death in nearby Bordentown. Joel rented a room in a boarding house from Mary’s father and quickly fell madly in love with the woman. He showered Mary with gifts, wrote elaborate love letters and tried in every way to please her, but to no avail. Although Mary was always polite to Joel, she did not return his feelings of romance and twice denied his proposal of marriage. After refusing to accompany him to a local ball, Joel went away to New York on business. He spent his time there drinking and galavanting around the brothels, and ended up being arrested  for stealing jewelry from a prostitute. He returned home to New Jersey broke and in a state of depression, only to learn that Mary had become engaged to another man in his absence. After hearing this he confronted her, stabbing her to death and claiming all the while “If I can’t have you no man will.”  Joel Clough was sentenced to execution and although he managed to escape the prison, he was caught within a matter of days and spent the last day of his life on the upper floor in the “Death Cell.” He was hung on July 26th of 1833 and was buried on the prison grounds alongside Mrs. Freeman, the only woman ever executed at the prison. Shortly after his execution, prisoners and guards alike reported hearing disembodied moaning sounds, sobbing and screaming as well as the rattle and clanking of chains. It is for these reasons Clough is considered to be the primary haunt of this location. Other incarcerated alumni include Albert DeSalvo, a visitor to the Garden State arrested on lewd charges of indecent exposure. Mr. DeSalvo would later come to be known as “The Boston Strangler.”

Many violent murders and other deaths took place at the Burlington County Prison. More than one guard was strangled and stabbed or beaten to death by raucous inmates in their attempts at escape. Upon extensive research of this location, I have found literally HUNDREDS of cold hard EVP’s (digitally recorded Electric Voice Phenomena.) They are widely available for your listening pleasure on several websites across the net. Many photographs of orbs, anomalies and other light spectres as well as pages and pages of documented first hand accounts are also easily found. Burlington County Prison & Museum welcomes paranormal groups, and is no stranger to the goings-on behind the walls. The Prison is located at 128 High Street, Mount Holly, NewJersey and is open Thursday through Sundays for tours, $4 for adults and $2 for students, children and seniors. During the month of October the Burlington County Prison extends an extra-special treat of a haunted house and is widely accepted as the best around. Happy Haunting!

Often employed by witches and dark magicians are the entities most often called, in this context, black dogs. They are often associated with practitioners of magic as familiars. Whether the Black Shuk of Norfolk, the Pooka of Ireland or the Booger Dogs here in the Ozarks, they are a mainstay, a staple of occult literature.

One such tale comes from Somerset where they have the Curt Dog. This account comes from “The Rough Guide to Unexplained Phenomena” by Bob Rickard and John Michell: “Twas awful. It has four legs, and it was black, and had great fiery eyes as big as saucers. It ran on until it came to where the water crosses under the road, and they things, of course, can never abide running water. So it just couldn’t get across, and it went up in the air like a flash of fire.” Those things which cannot abide crossing running water include some werewolves and vampires, which was always peculiar to me. I mean, how did they cross the oceans to arrive in the New World, or for that matter, beyond any water-locked region?

But I digress. In Patricia-Dale Green’s book titled simply “Dog,” published in 1966, comes this account. A farmer from Dartmoor heard footsteps approach him. He turned and saw a black dog. He went to pet it, but his hand passed through it. A “stream of vapor issued from his throat” and the creature departed. The farmer chased it to a crossroad, where it exploded in a blinding flash.

Black dogs have a habit of frequenting certain old roads or old tracks. Bob Trubshaw’s “Phantom Black Dogs” of 2005 has folkloric scholar Jeremy Harte listing no less than 24 such routes.

Black dogs are also attached to sacred places and said to be guardians of the dead or escorts to and from the underworld. In this capacity, they are most often referred to as Hellhounds. Sightings of these dogs often have left scorched ground and the lingering scent of sulphur or brimstone in their wake. At Hatfield Peverel, a waggoner nearly hit a black dog obstructing his path in a country lane. According to witnesses, he caught fire and was burnt to ashes along with his horse and wagon.

A sighting of this creature in many cultures is interpreted as a death omen. A black dog was haunting a road from St. Audries to Perry Farm in England in 1960. Two of the witnesses to the Beast’s appearance died shortly after their sightings. In “The Rough Guide to Unexplained Phenomena” a relevant entry is explored: In “the Suffolk volume of the Folklore Society’s county series, the local black dog is described in the words of an old writer and historian, ‘old Shock is a mischievous goblin in the shape of a great dog, or of a calf, haunting highways and footpaths in the dark. Those who are so foolhardy as to encounter him are sure to be at least thrown down and severely bruised, and it’s well if they do not get up.’ ” So, of course, I feel the foolish compulsion to seek out such encounters.

The most prolific outbreak probably was the dual event occurring on a Sunday in 1577. Reverend Abraham Fleming supplies us with an account. Between 9 and 10 a.m., while attending church, an extremely violent thunderstorm beset the people of Bungay, Suffolk. The sky became dark and the church shook. A parishioner cleaning the gutters was struck by lightning and fell to the ground.

By the flashes of lightning, the whole congregation saw a gigantic black dog running down the church aisles. It passed between two people praying on their knees and both were “instantly struck dead.” Another victim survived but was injured as his body seemed to fold in on itself. The machinery of the church clock was examined after the event and was found to be “torn up – severely twisted and broken”.

Many others were “blasted” by the creature as it made its way through the church. They are more rarely reported today. “A survey of all our black dog material suggests that these apparitions belong to a side of nature which was better recognized in the past than it is today. There is a pattern in the peculiar association of black dogs with water, bridges, underground streams, buried treasures, old churchyards and certain lengths of road.” This could be the most compelling example of environmental archetypes manifesting, the sightings of Hellhounds are tied to locations, not individuals

While researching this subject for the book I recently re-read John Keel’s “The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings” and was rewarded with this gem: In the 8th century, a “great black beast” was prowling the dark and mystical forests of Germany. It was particularly active near the region of Darmstadt, it “outsmarted” and killed “many men” as well as the prime target of women and children. A brave local Baron battled the beast successfully and vanquished it. However, he was mortally wounded and died a short time later. We’ll let Keel spill the beans: “A statue was erected to him in the tomb of this castle, both of which are still standing. He was the Baron of FRANKENSTEIN” (my emphasis –B-). In a possible connection, we know that the literary and movie versions of Frankenstein charge Dr. Frankenstein with being a body snatcher, which would again fall under the jurisdiction of our canine guardian/escort. ‘Round in circles, in a nod to the mover of that befuddling synchronicity, three days after completing this chapter, my wife told me about “Paul the Hellhound” sightings reported on a local radio station, Power 96.5 FM

Paul the Nixa Hellhound
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Paul the Nixa Hellhound is labeled as such mostly by association; in my mind Paul entered the classification of “flap activity” around April Fool’s Day. There were sightings before this, but none in which I could contact a witness and follow up.

The date shouldn’t automatically scare off investigators, but obviously we should be extra vigilant in examining these reports. We would do well to remember why April Fool’s Day is a “holiday” to begin with. In the Old World, especially in Earth religions, it was observed that this period of time brought a disproportionate amount of anomalous activity, or simply strange happenings. Fortean falls (frogs, worms, fish, etc) occur more frequently, the spring months have the most “ghost/apparition” activity, and are typically among the top three periods for UFO reports and monster/cryptid sightings.

That said, around this time, the Fotsch & McClain morning show on Power 96.5 FM were discussing sightings of a “strange” canine creature. My lovely wifey was listening to their program (I’m strictly a talk/news AM type and rather boring as my wife points out) and they received enough calls to fuel days of speculation. When Chini brought it to my attention, I dropped them a line and they graciously invited me into their studio to discuss the creature.

Since then we have had a consistent flow of reports. Over a three-month period we collected 12 reports (this is an ongoing investigation) that we deemed very credible. These 12 reports came from Nixa (2), Republic, Ozark, Bois D’Arc, Marshfield, Camdenton, Rogersville (3), Branson (2) and Mincy. This covers an area of approximately 125 miles in a straight-line. It follows US-65 nearly the whole way (which is consistent with the literature on the “beast” this is historically, as well as currently been the case in these sightings. However the sightings DO NOT follow a migratory pattern. The animal will be sighted at one locale along this stretch then seemingly double back to be sighted in the opposite direction, where it appeared to have come from. We will further examine this zigzagging pattern later.

Of the 12 reports, we have eight that would be considered descriptions of what is likely a “flesh and blood” creature. The composite of these eight sightings would be a dog a little shorter than a Great Dane, with a slim body but large shoulders, and short to medium hair that is tan/brown/black color. It is very skittish, taking off when approached by people.

Now the other four cases really seem to represent something entirely different; something more exotic but something that has an established presence in local folklore. Starting from its physical description, it is said to have the “face of a fox, the ears of a bat (proportionate to its body) and the tail of a monkey.” This was the initial description put out. The composite of this creature is a very large dog with short black hair (thought this was never reported as tangled or mangy as you would expect with a wild or feral dog), extremely stocky with larger than normal eyes. The most cited descriptions claim the creature is the “size of a deer.” I heard this on separate occasions, and I also heard it described as “big as a buck.” These statements were made by witnesses that experienced daytime sightings and were within 15 to 50 feet of the animal. It is hard to misjudge the size of an animal at this distance in good light. The behavior of the animal was also marked: It is confrontational almost to the point of aggression.

Now let’s take a moment and address some of the arguments posed by the skeptics. The area the sightings cover and the sporadic locales of sightings would be problematic in blaming a single flesh-and-blood animal; it would require the creature to double back and cover long distances (along a major highway no less) in a short time without producing any sightings on its journey. We fielded one call from a person who believed they had solved at least the flesh-and-blood version of our canine cryptid, labeling it as either a “Scottish Deerhound” or an “Irish Wolfhound,” and those breeds do share some features with the reports of the flesh-and-blood animal. But there were no reports in the area’s largest newspaper that any dogs of these breeds were missing at the time. Because they are most often bred as show dogs, I also checked AKC registration and found only one of the 12 sighting locales had a registered member of that breed within a 25-mile radius.

Finally, if this was a flesh-and-blood animal sighted over and over, then one of two options seems logical: Either the dog is a lost pet and/or feral, or it is a naturally wild animal. If the first is true, a lost pet let’s say, how does it get sighted regularly along a state highway and never get picked up or even approached by agents of animal control? Why would it keep popping up in the same places, not only recently, but in folklore accounts overlapping successive generations? In other words why do these creatures get sighted in the same places sometimes decades apart?

The generic answer is that Hellhounds aka Devil Dogs, Black Dogs, Old Shuck, Demon Dogs or Booger Dogs (our charming regional title) have been said to be the guardians of highways, roads, portals to the spirit world, ley lines, and buried treasure from antiquity on. Sometimes seen as harbingers of disaster, they are also very often associated with the underworld as guardians (such as Cerberus) or as psychopomps (guides for souls) to the “other side.” This is true in MANY cultures, and the stories are very consistent. In many cultures a dog is buried near the entrance of cemeteries to guard the graveyard, otherwise the most recently deceased (newest resident) has to stand guard until the next resident moves in.

Now we move onto the origin story attached to our not-so-friendly neighborhood Hellhound, the Booger Dog. As the story goes – and we received the same basic story from three different sources of local folklore in Stone, Taney and Greene counties – back when the area was first settled, there was an old man who was something of a hermit (in two accounts the man’s name was Wolf/Wolfe). The community was, by necessity, much closer to one another and fairly religious (we are home to the Holy-Rollers). If one family was having a bad year with their crops, their neighbors made sure the family didn’t starve. If a family needed to raise a barn, the community would come together, usually as a church function, and have a barn raisin’ party. There was one man whom did not follow this “Good Samaritan” code. The man did not attend Sunday services and never helped his neighbors, he was something of a hermit and regarded as a blasphemer. He had the suspiciously apt last name of Wolf(e).

As the story goes Wolf, grew old and sick, as all MEN do and finally was on his deathbed. His kindly neighbors surrounded him trying to give the dying man comfort one brave soul even attempted a deathbed conversion. Just as the man attempted to save Wolf’s soul a great fire broke out. This is the one point of contention in the 3 stories, 2 claimed it started when lightning struck the roof, the dissenting opinion cited an errant spark from the fireplace. Whatever the cause, the end result was the same. The house was burning down around the neighbors ears.

While most of the crowd ran outside to safety 4 men remained to try and save Wolf. We are talking about big strong hay-chucking farm boys. First they tried to raise old-man Wolf from his bed and couldn’t, then tried to push his bed outside and couldn’t budge it. Finally they had to retreat outside to safety. Just as they cleared the threshold, an extremely large dog pushed past them and ran off into the woods. The fire burned out and the neighbors searched the ashes to give Wolf a decent, if not a Christian, burial, but there were no bones or remains to be found, the implication being that he had transformed himself into the great beast.

Ozarks historian/folklorist extraordinaire Vance Randolph has documented a number of eye-witness encounters. In “Ozark Magic and Folklore” he wrote, “One of my best friends told me seriously that as a little boy in McDonald County, Missouri, he once met a spotted hound that was bigger than a cow, and made tracks in the snow nearly two feet across.…. When I first heard this tale, I suspected the man had invented it for my especial benefit, but on checking with his relatives I learned that he had told the same story more than 20 years previously, and that it was known to everybody in the neighborhood.”

Another tale from the small town of Bunker, MO, evokes another Hellhound, this one with a water connection. A “Dr. J. Gordon….Crossing a little stream on horseback, near the Bay Cemetery … saw a figure like a dog, but very much larger. This thing apparently walked on the water without a sound or a ripple. Dr. Gordon saw it many times, once in bright moonlight.”

One last Randolph story, related by Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Mahnkey, details how “a fiddler named Jake Lakey was killed at a dance in Taney County, Missouri, about 1900. (Mahnkey’s) neighbor young Lewis Blair and another boy were sent on horseback to break the news to Jake’s wife, who lived several miles away. Blair told Mrs. Mahnkey that a great black dog ran beside their horses all the way, and when one of the riders struck at the creature with a quirt, the quirt slashed right through it. And when they got to their destination, Mrs. Lakey said calmly; ‘You’ens have come to tell me that Jake is dead.’ In this case, the dog is clearly not a flesh-and-blood creature, but a psychopomp, escorting the boys to tell the widow of her husband’s death.

Now these stories, new and old, were all very similar in events, but the tales themselves are distinct. These events were either perceived as a real by the people relating them, or had a common source, with the language of the story adapted by each story-teller. Either way it represents a rationalization, a story that, if devised, was told to explain a creature that was indeed encountered and blamed for horses being “spooked” and running off and for causing several wagons to catch fire (once even supposedly killing the driver although I’ve yet to verify this in any way). And there are strong elements of fire and electricity we must keep that in mind. One last digression, 3 of the 4 times I was contacted by these witnesses were not familiar with the stories. When I was on the radio it was at a time when they were at work or school.

Finally onto our case, the first report I classified as a “case of interest” was reported to us four days after our sit-down with Fotsch and McClain, this would be around April 11, 2009. Two boys were walking to be picked up by the school bus in Rogersville, MO as they did everyday. This required them to walk a relatively short (though I doubt the boys would agree with this assessment) distance to get to the bus stop.

As they walked past their neighbor’s yard, they observed that there was a new dog in the neighborhood. They walked over, stopping about 5 feet from the chain-link fence surrounding the yard. The dog was around 10 feet away. The boys described it as having short black hair and being the “size of a deer, and not any yearling.” After two or three minutes, one of the boys decided to walk up to the fence to get a better look.

Something in the dog’s demeanor must have changed, because as quickly as the boy announced his plans to put a scare into it, he felt intimidated and stopped. About a half minute later, the dog turned nonchalantly and walked THROUGH the fence. Understandably this upset the boys, and they ran and told the owner of the house what they had witnessed.

At first the woman thought they were “funnin’ her” but she quickly changed her mind as they seemed genuinely “shook up.” She later told me she had known one of the boys (the one who hadn’t approached the fence) all his life and that he “couldn’t lie to save his life.” Upon examination of her backyard she found nothing. The area inside the fence was grass-covered so no prints were visible. However, just outside the fence was a patch of dirt/mud. In this patch was a single, very big paw print. It was the size of a hand curled up into a loose fist, which is slightly suspicious to me, but it would be hard to place by leaning over the fence and there were no footprints in the area.

Our second sighting occurred about a week and a half later. The first occurred in Bois ‘D’ Arc a small community just outside Springfield, MO, which is our base of operations. A local farmer was repairing a piece of his cattle fence that was damaged by the wind in a storm the night before.

The man was going about his repairs when about 15 minutes into his project he felt the sensation of being watched. The man looked up and saw a black dog that was stocky and “big as a buck” staring him down. The witness estimated he was 15 feet away from the animal. It was then he experienced a tingling sensation “like when you get shocked with static electricity. ” This lasted maybe five seconds, and when he pulled his hands off the fence he smelled something burning, but his hands had no visible marks. He looked up again and the dog was entering a patch of woods nearby.

Upon interviewing the man, we discovered that his digital wristwatch stopped working; the thing was as dead as a doornail. This happened right after his encounter, as he discovered when he checked his watch to note the time. Could the mild shock he received have been responsible for shorting out his watch?

The third event we relate here is not directly connected, but if you’re around this field long enough, you look for other anomalies that are not always visibly linked to the central phenomenon. Also because the proximity of this encounter with water.

It occurred on the same day as our previous story at a local Ozark, MO, teen hotspot, although we didn’t receive the report until a week later. At a certain reputedly haunted bridge, three teens were drinking beer and carousing. (Right here I must say I do not condone this activity; underage drinking is horribly dangerous.) This group consisted of two girls and one boy, one of the girls was the sober designated driver. As they lounged around the base of the bridge they kept seeking some “very dark form” moving, they couldn’t make out the shape or size but they all saw it, the sober girl first, and when they saw a pair of “red eyes” floating in the dark they wisely decided it was time to beat feet.

Over the next week, two of those in attendance, as well as other family members, experienced paranormal activity. The sober girl had an outbreak of Poltergeist activity. The family heard numerous loud “poundings” that awoke them in the middle of the night, salt and pepper were spilled when everyone was in bed (the family has no household pets or children under the age of 17) and a toaster caught fire twice.
The boy of the group also seemed to have brought something home with him that night.

The night after they visited the bridge, the boy woke up and went to the bathroom around 3 a.m. After he finished, as he was washing his hands, in the bathroom mirror he observed a black form hovering behind him. The boy turned and it was gone. The next night around 8 p.m. the boy’s 9-year-old sister was about to climb the stairs to her bedroom when, on the landing at the top of the stairs, she saw a “blob-looking thingy” that “hung” there for around a minute and then “walked through the wall.”

The last sighting was witnessed by both the 9-year-old and her older brother. The two were in the dining room clearing the table when they saw the black mass standing at the sliding glass door, either just inside or just outside. It was there for around 15 seconds, and then it seemed to “melt into the darkness.” That was the last encounter we documented related to the bridge incident.

Our last documented encounter of this creature was about three weeks after these events; right back where it began near Logan/Rogersville (the name Logan has an association with hidden and lost structures). An older couple – the woman in her 50s and the man in his early 60s – contacted me with this amazing tale.

The couple was out gardening when their dogs, which were kept in a dog run, went wild. The couple looked up and saw a “black dog, much bigger than a St. Bernard,” pacing along the fence of their dog-run, obviously distressing the dogs. The black dog was around 50 feet from where the couple was gardening. The two approached the dog, the woman brandishing her rake and the man his walking-stick. There was a well established path to the run, and the dog was visible to them at all times … until it vanished. The man put it this way: “It just kind of blinked out, you know. There one minute, then just gone.” After a couple of perplexing seconds, they relocated the animal next to a tree near the edge of their property. Their curiosity piqued, the couple approached the dog cautiously. The animal seemed unconcerned, and the couple walked to within 10 feet of the dog before it let out a “loud and low growl, almost like thunder rumbling,” then it slowly walked around the tree out of sight.

This tree stands in the middle of a field with no cover of any kind for 100 feet – nowhere to run to baby, no where to hide. But it would seem that the creature had neither of these options on its mind. After waiting almost 15 minutes, curiosity again got the better of the couple. Slowly, weapons raised, they each circled the tree, meeting up on the opposite side. The dog was gone. It had left behind a sizable area that looked similar to a large, quadruped (four legged) creature’s bed down area. Near this we found a piece of wood that was slightly burnt and an oval-shaped patch of scorched earth about 18 inches by 12 inches.

Further investigation on the couple’s property revealed a burnt picture and a dead bird next to one another in a nearby wooded area. This suggests an attempt at some kind of a dark magic ritual. Could this be connected to this encounter? Perhaps, since summoning the beast is a fairly common occurrence in the folklore.

Finally, we have one last common denominator in these cases, one that has ties to the history: all four of the more bizarre sightings occurred within 24 hours of a thunderstorm. We had a particularly ripe storm season; could that have been behind the sightings flap?

Elements of fire and electricity play a role in the stories of the past and the sightings of today, which recur along the same routes over extended periods of time. The sightings follow a major highway system as well, which tends to be the case in most cultures.

There are some schools of thought (in paranormal studies) that say that between 36 degrees and 38 degrees longitude, high strangeness and monster-sightings are much more frequent. Missouri in general, and specifically the areas of these sightings, are located in this sector. There is also a strong oral tradition that holds that the area of the Ozarks holds many “doorways and entrances” to other dimensions. Just the sort of thing a Hellhound would guard. We will keep you informed.

Founded on the shores of Yamacraw Bluffs, Shawnee Indian Territory and believed to have been a sacred burial ground, British General James Oglethorp first settled his Savannah in February of 1733. His settlement flourished and by 1750 the towns original cemetery, Colonial Park Cemetery, was full due to the Yellow Fever epidemic. A mass grave was dug and several buried under what stands today as a park and playground! A new cemetery was built a few hundred yards south, where the Independent Presbyterian Church now stands. Cemeteries were built rapidly and over time homes and businesses expanded over-top of them. While some graves and remains were relocated over the years,many more were not. Bodies are still ‘turning up’ all over Savannah today.

Chippewa Square once gave way to the 1779 ‘Siege of Savannah’ where 1200 men lost their lives in less than one hour, the second bloodiest Revolutionary War battle next to the Battle of Bunker Hill. During this time many of the victims were buried alive due to being ‘without hope’ of survival. The year of 1820 was also particularly unkind to Savannah,with the city suffering 464 deaths due to fire & most of the town went up in flames. Due to the closely packed wooden houses, Savannah was mostly destroyed with only the brick buildings remaining. During the 1950′s a series of underground tunnels were discovered and many residents remembered their grandparents telling stories of how they held the bodies of Yellow Fever victims during 1876. Perhaps the most famous of Savannah’s ghostly tales is of The Pirate House, the oldest remaining building in Savannah. Now a restaurant, it once served as an inn and tavern for some of the worst pirates on record. It’s no secret that years ago unconscious drunks were taken out to the ships during the night via the underground tunnel that runs from the basement out to the coast. Many men went missing and ended up with a life at sea they never wanted! It is claimed today by employees and patrons alike that the Pirate House is definitely home to some of those pirates who never left. Throughout time and history slaves and servants in Savannah have practiced what is known as Hoodoo magic and Voodoo. Tales of the paranormal are so great that many houses, doorways and trim were painted blue, apparently a color that drives away spirits. Brooms were crossed over doorways to protect against witches and salt was laid around beds. Many believe the city is cursed and in one case the story of young Mathius, a slave who aided in protecting 12 others along the Underground Railroad, was jailed for murder and was reportedly hung or killed upon his attempt to escape. Mathius practiced Hoodoo and is claimed by many to be the one responsible for opening the door the almost omnipresent spirit activity in Savannah.

The city claims dozens of haunts, from the ghosts of soldiers and nurses, young men and women saddened by loss, and even phantom animals. Psychics and mediums agree the former people of Savannah are still carrying on their daily duties, rich and poor, young and old, all trapped in time. At Pest House on Hwy 17 a busy Nurse paces the property, repeating that ‘I have to stay here, until they all get well or die.’ At a busy River Street restaurant a young man ‘s spirit is in the cold cellar, weeping, left for dead with pnemonia & a too thin blanket. 432 Abercone Street is haunted by a little girl who’s upper class father wouldnt allow her to play with the common school children across the street. When he caught her disobeying him, he tied her to a chair In the living room, facing the window so she could watch her friends but do nothing. She died from sunstroke in the days later in the sweltering Georgia heat. Pictures taken at this address reveal the mysterious face of the angry man on the posterior walls of the house. Orbs and other anomalies have also been photographed. In 1973 ectoplasm went running down the walls & the apparition of a lady in bustle dress was seen. She has been spotted here several times. Most people claim a bad feeling of terrible negative energy surrounding the house. In 1940 a tenant there comityed suicide and there’s also a story of the murder of three little girls there in 1958, (however I can’t find much information on this.) The house has been abandoned by the owner (same owner since ’73) and it has been said she is trying to ‘starve the house of any and all energy.’

Strange noises are heard in the rooms at the historic Pirates House Restaurant. At Davenport House a phantom cat is seen. The Kehoe house 4 star Bed & Breakfast was a morgue for most of the 20th century. It is also haunted by the twin children of Mr. & Mrs. Kehoe who died while playing in the chimney. Perhaps this is why they have been sealed off and painted with angels. Guests often hear footsteps and laughter on the second floor, one woman woke up to a young girl brushing her hair away from her face as she slept. Lady Huntingdon still walks the grounds of her orphanage from 200 years ago, James Habersham Jr. still haunts the Pink House Restaurant & Planters Tavern, his original homestead from 1779. Phantom patrons appear in the bar as well as the ghosts of several servant children who like to play tricks such as throwing bottles & locking doors. A home at Lincoln and State Street reports the spirits of two young boys who’s poltergeist activity laid dormant until two blue marbles were discovered under the homes floorboards. A cold or psychic ‘chill’ pervades most residences and Inns of the Historic District. One psychic claims there is a man there who tripped down a staircase to his death. His spirit is there, repeating those last steps, over and over. In 1963 an exorcism was performed at the Hampton Lillibridge House on East St. Julian Street. The house which had been moved, has a strong paranormal history. Restoration work on the house was delayed due to workers leaving due to strange sounds and occurrences. Jim Williams, the owner of the house was later tried 3 times for the murder of his associate Danny Hansford and that story was the basis of the bestseller ‘Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil.’ At the turn of the 20th century a young author, Conrad Aiken prosed the poem ‘The Coming Forth by Day of Osiris Jones’ ‘…The house in Broad Street, red brick with nine rooms, the weed grown graveyard with it’s row of tombs, the jail from which imprisoned faces grinned, at stiff palmettos flashing in the wind. The engine house with engines and a tank, in which young alligators swam and stank, the bell tower, of red iron, where the bell gonged of the fires in a tone from hell…’

Later, Conrad’s father, a well respected and brilliant man, would suffer from intense paranoia only to murder his wife and take his own life in the home. Conrad wold reminisce on the times he spent with his father outdoors and how they would pull apart the bricks in the homes foundation and crawl down into the crypts and dig up a ‘brown bone or two.’ Ew. All I know is I’m headed to the Savannah beaches this summer & I’ve just got to know what is going on down there!

It is known that on the day the Lutz’s moved in, George invited Father Ray, a Catholic Priest, to come and bless the house on the advice of a close friend. Father Ray has stated he did not feel well in the back upstairs bedroom (he had heard an ominous voice telling him to ‘GET OUT’ – but kept this to himself) he continued with the blessing and asked the Lutz’s non-chalantly that they not use the room for a bedroom. They weren’t put off by this in the least, having planned to use that room as a ‘Sewing Room’ anyhow. (The next day blisters appeared all over Father Ray’s hands and his Dr. speculated it was due to overwhelming anxiety.) The Lutz’s complained often that they just couldn’t rid that particular room of all the flies- even in the dead of winter, and after killing them all, repeatedly, they  just came back the next day.

Neither George nor Kathy were very religious or superstitious at all, claiming if they had been, they wouldn’t have had any interest in the home with its recent tragic history. They even bought the Defeo’s furniture right down to the bed frames and headboards, Ronnie had murdered his entire family as they slept, on their stomachs, all in a sort of deep sleep, no struggle indicated. George and Kathy later realized that the children and Kathy herself had begun to sleep this way as well. George never did however; he just couldn’t sleep much at all. On two occasions the Lutz’s tried blessing the house on their own, walking from room to room rebuking the evil in the name of Jesus Christ…to which a voice responded ‘Would you stop!’ Father Ray counseled the Lutz’s during this time but refused to return to the home. In desperation Kathy phoned him several times from the house to which the call would be cut short or unintelligible due to static on the line.

Eventually on January 14, 1976 George and Katherine would take their 3 young children and pets and remove themselves from the home. To this day they refuse to speak of what finally drove them out, stating it would be like reliving that experience over again, something they physically and mentally cannot near to do to themselves. They fled to Katherine’s mother’s house, where they both claimed to have levitated the next night, however it was a peaceful, almost transcendental experience that put them both at ease. George and Kathy studied spiritualism and meditation and later believed these practices to be the reason why they were so susceptible to the houses ‘powers.’

They would later relay their experiences to Ed and Lorrain Warren, paranormal investigators and demonologists. Lorraine, being a psychic/medium claimed to feel very saddened and depressed upon investigation of the house, receiving several ‘messages’ from the other side, Ed felt an ominous presence as well as extreme pressure – something he compared to standing beneath a powerful waterfall – while in the basement. The Warrens also invited psychic Mary Pascarella to join them in their investigation of the house. Before entering, Mary took a stroll around the property and looked up to the Sewing Room to see a little girl staring back at her. As she proceeded into the home she felt at ease and had a strong sense of the protective nature of George, and the innocent loving spirit of Kathy. Nothing out of the ordinary. As she moved upstairs however, she started to sense a dreadful uneasiness. She shouted down to the Warren’s that she wasn’t feeling well and  was going to lie down and rest in the girls’ room- the only room she felt ‘safe.’ As she ly in bed, an assistant had come to ask if she needed anything, water etc. and as she looked up to him saw 4 black and evil entities surrounding him. She immediately grabbed the bottle of holy water, bible and cross she had brought with her and lashed out at them in prayer, scaring the Bejesus out of the young man. She went on to say the house was purely evil, and was holding onto many trapped souls, not allowing them to leave. She was unable to make it up to the third floor where the Sewing Room was, due to the overwhelming negative energy that was holding her back. Mary still believes to this day the Amityville house is a place of sinister evil, and in time when the owners are a bit more receptive, such as the Lutz’s were, the world will know about it.  The Warrens also invited a photographer friend who took several photos, one turning up the image of a young boy peering out from a bedroom doorway. Missy remembered him as the little boy she used to play with. George’s sister in law claims to have been woken up by the same boy as she stayed over one evening around Christmas. In 1977 the Lutz’s met with Jay Anson, who quickly authored the book ‘The Amityville Horror’ based on over 35 hours worth of recorded cassette tapes the two had made in an attempt to document and release their fears. The book gave birth to the story of the most infamous Haunted House in American History, and the rest, is history!

Time passed and the Lutz’s moved to California and on with their lives. A handful of families have since owned the house and not one has complained of paranormal activity. Perhaps this is due to the fact that George and Kathy finally had the house cleansed and blessed to the extent a Doctor and psychic-medium confided in them the house was safe. They never whole-heartedly agreed. Rumors abound about the manuscript of the story itself, as Jay Anson handed early copies and drafts to friends and colleagues, within day’s one recipient and her 2 children died in a fire, one man totaled his car with the book on the passenger seat, and several others were the victims of fire and loss.

UPDATE 10-31-10

Oddly enough, two days after writing this story I stumbled upon a television program Halloween night called Amityville. It was a recent interview with Ronnie Defeo Jr. and a psychic he had contacted over one year ago. He became aware of her through a program he had seen and immediately asked for her help through several letters, which led to phone conversations and finally she went to visit him in prison. She claims that shortly after their telephone conversations, she and her husband also became tormented at home by an evil entity. Ronnie too claimed something has been following him since the murders and its recent attacks were having a direct effect on his health. The psychic went on to investigate a New York graveyard, Cypress Hill Cemetery, where Ronnie claimed his father, being involved with the Mob, forced Ronnie to help him dispose of several bodies. The psychic confirmed this. She also went on the investigate the home at what used to be 112  Ocean Drive, and relayed what she felt, the same story Ronnie confessed to at the beginning of the program. After years of violent physical abuse from his father, Ronnie turned to drugs as an escape from the reality of his home life. That fateful November evening, a demonic force convinced him to take his father’s life. His younger sister Dawn, wanted to help. As the two entered their parents’ bedroom, they argued over who would do it, passing the rifle back and forth. The scuffling awoke Mr. Defeo and Ronnie immediately shot him. His mother awoke and as he was under the influence of drugs, he shot her as well. After realizing what he had done, he took some money hidden in the house, hopped in his car and fled to Brooklyn.  Ronnie returned later that evening to find that his sister Dawn had shot and killed his 3 remaining siblings. She put the rifle in his face; he took it back from her, shoved her face down in her bed and shot her. His psychic friend believes he was possessed by Satan himself, and claims after visiting the Defeo graves, was able to exorcise the entity and free the family from their possession. Ronnie claims he has no longer since been disturbed.

The original story was told by Brian Bethel, a freelance writer who has had numerous pieces published in Texas papers. He really laid the groundwork, so we want to credit him appropriately. He relates an experience he had in Abilene, TX and one of a colleague in Seattle, WA. The tales are fairly typical in nature to most follow-up stories I’ve read and had submitted to me. They almost always pop up at night and most frequently near dusk and dawn. Generally one night you are alone in your home or car when a group (usually two or three, occasionally an individual) will attract your attention by knocking on your door or car window.

You are inevitably startled, and at first you feel silly for being spooked by a couple of kids, usually teenagers and often of a Lenny and George “Of Mice and Men” dynamic. The bigger one seems slower and quiet, while the smaller one is more vocal, obviously in charge, and seems somewhat manipulative in his behavior. Invariably, they will ask you to let them in; this is one of the only constants in the reports I have come across. Sometimes this request is communicated telepathically, but more often asked aloud. At this point your average person is feeling increasingly anxious. You offer to call their ride or direct them to a nearby pay-phone, but they are PERSISTENT. “Just for a moment” is what they tell you. Sometimes they claim to have had an accident and those they “just need to inform the authorities.” As the story goes, if you allow them entry … THEY GET YA! This smacks of Urban Legend with a rehash of qualities found in demon and vampire lore.

Their most striking feature is their totally black eyes – iris, pupil, the “white” of the eye, the whole shebang-a-bang. This is reminiscent of “The Children of the Corn,” or the eyes of the aliens in “The X-Files.” Of course the seeking permission for entry is a very common theme in vampire lore. They have a tendency to disappear when pursued, even when there is no place they could have gone or hidden. This same behavior is reported in Men in Black/Vampire/Ghost Hitchhiker encounters. This seems to just be a composite of elements ascribed to other demonic type entities in supernatural literature. This has to be fake, right?

Not so fast there, Quick-Draw McGraw. There are other features that are either VERY obscure or that have not been raised in association with any phenomena I am familiar with. For one thing, they dress as you would expect a normal teenager to dress (contemporary) with one exception; they seem to have a definite fashion statement in the wearing of checkered shirts or pants. We see this to be  recurring theme with the ”Grinning Man” and bridge walkers in the ”The Mothman Prophecies.” We will also point out the checkered shirts worn by Bigfoot in the ‘70s, the checkered robes in some higher Masonic and magical rituals and the Phantom Clowns (which we will discuss in a future article). This indicator is a piece of information rarely known to the general public. It is a little more familiar in the circles I travel in, but not much. So this is a consistency that your average hoaxer would have very little awareness of, at best.

The images that most of us would associate with vampires, as well as “The Children of the Corn” motif, are of people with pale, pasty complexions. This is an understandable preconceived notion, but incorrect. In 60 percent of the cases I’ve received, these young-uns were described as “dark” in skin-tone. I have heard Brazilian, Samoan, Indian (Hindu) and Dominican from witnesses attempting ethnic categorization. In 30 percent of the cases, the witnesses described the eyes as having a subtle but defined slant. They are often described as having foreign or exotic facial features. When we look back to Keel, this description seems to be close to descriptions of MIB types who look like “Gypsies, Oriental and Persian” in appearance. So, again if these are hoaxers, they’ve done their homework.

They have been reported in 23 states to date throughout the country but the most reports come from the cities. They seem to be a metropolitan/cotemporary manifestation versus the MiB of Rural WV; hot spots at Boston, NY and Philadelphia in the East and Portland and Seattle in the West.

They sometimes wear dark colored long sleeved shirts with the hoods up or stocking caps. The hood is evocative of the Grim Reaper. I had a case where a thin, almost “sickly” looking 14-year-old was dressed all in black. His face was very gaunt and his eyes seemed almost sunken into his head. He asked permission for entry while learning on a large “walking stick.” So, those of you who have a functioning imagination can visualize this and see the obvious connection. The next observation is a subjective one, but very common. There is a feeling that these children are “predatory,” as I am often informed. The majority of the witnesses felt compelled to “stand their ground” or to “not show fear” because this would result in their “being marked.” I know it’s hard to hang your fact-checking hat on a “feeling,” but I also know that in investigating these matters it is important to note any and all patterns, be they statistical corroborations or intuitive assessments. Another one of these is that when they are observed in a public place, no matter how crowded, they have no one seated at the tables next to them. I have also been informed that when they walk about, people seem to make a clear path for the, even in a crowd; again subjective but interesting.

The last aspect we will touch on is that, for some reason, Black-Eyed Kids seem to have an affinity for coffee houses. I have three cases in my files of encounters at Starbucks (which seems appropriate considering one of the first reported sightings occurred where this company originated in Seattle, WA). Two were outside a Dunkin’ Doughnuts and another two were at an unnamed coffee establishments. Maybe it’s an exhausting, late night gig being a damned soul and they need their caffeine fix. They also show up outside convenience stores with some frequency.

Just so the reader can have a feeling of the texture of these experiences, we are going to relate a couple of cases from the SPOOKS archive.

This BEK tale comes from Ken who is the head of security (loss prevention) at a large retail store in Michigan, this was at the end of October in 2007. Ken was walking around his store and kept noticing a couple of young men around the age of 15 one large one short. He did not recognize the pair noting “they looked like some of those Goth kids” dressed in dark clothes (he couldn’t recall the specifics).

The big one seemed nervous glancing over his shoulder every time Ken passed them. To Ken this was a sign of a guilty conscious, a few minutes later he approached the pair. The bigger boy seemed nervous but not “oh shoot i’ve been caught” scared. Ken had the pair empty their pockets and the boys obliged. They indeed had several items from the store with the pricetags still affixed. Ken then took them back to his office to call the police, he began by questioning them the smaller of the two done all the talking and seemed “amused” by the situation. Ken thought they were on drugs because their pupils seemed fully dilated.

While waiting for the police to show up, the head of security began to review the tapes of the boys. And upon viewing the tapes, he got his  first real indication that something out of the ordinary was going on here. While the boys were on tape almost every second in the store, they were never “caught in the act”. So Ken was faced with a peculiar situation, with cops on the way, he had these kids on possession of stolen property but no other evidence.

The Head of Security then locked them in his personal office, other than a steel door the only other exit was a window with wire embedded in the glass. He went to talk to the night manager about the situation (as he didn’t want to talk over his radio) and when the two of them returned to his office the two boys were gone and the window had been shattered (inward) but the WIRE WAS STILL IN PLACE. And while the video was still in the main office the whole system was ruined in a way that would be consistent with a “magnetic rinse” (where you take a magnet and run it over computer, tv etc) leaving Ken with only this fantastical story and circumstantial evidence at the scene.

Our next BEK account comes to us from Gerald in Ohio. Gerald is a trucker doing long hauls. After making a delivery around midnight, he decided to drive back home to see his daughter. He did this about half the time, especially when he was within 200 miles of home. Otherwise he would bed down at a weigh station or occasionally a cheap motel. He had been on the road for a little over two hours and decided to stop and get an early breakfast. He pulled into a truck stop diner that was still open, with that charming promise of “Eat Here, Get Gas”, always worth a chuckle. Gerald entered the restaurant and noticed the lights seemed to be especially dim. The sign said “Open” but he saw no-one. Finally a waitress came from the back. She greeted him and the two spent a couple of minutes in “light conversation.” She seemed “very bright” and knowledgeable, so much so that Gerald inquired if she was from a trucker family, since she had an “extremely good understanding of routes”, but she told him no, that she was an Army brat and had done a bit of traveling “in her day.” This from a girl who “looked 17 in a bad light.”

She took his order and went back to the kitchen. At this point, the driver realized that the situation was a little peculiar; a teenage waitress being the only person in the restaurant? He said he waited around 20 minutes, trying to think of a slick way to ask her for her number. She was unlike anyone he had ever met. Not only was she just smart in general, but he felt that they “connected, that she knew me.” She guessed his birth day and year, and she seemed very intuitive. This wasn’t what bothered him; what kept nagging him was how, when he ordered a chicken fried steak, she informed him “you can’t have that it’s fried in peanut oil.” Gerald was deathly allergic to peanuts but he never told her that. The more he thought about it, the more perplexed he became.

Finally he decided to go back and ask the young lady how she could possibly know about his allergy. And here I will let him tell the story in his own words.

“So I got up, went to the back where there was a little office for the manager, ya know? I knocked on the door, kind of soft at first, then harder. I knocked three different times, but I got no answer. I kind of nudged the door open just a bit – I didn’t want to catch her changing clothes or nothing – and she was standing with her back towards me. ’Missus.’ I say, and then she turned around. I freaked. Her eyes were totally black; I mean no white at all. Her skin was so dry, her OLIVE (my emphasis –B-) complexion was full of cracks, not wrinkles, mind you but cracked skin like you see on chapped lips, ya know? She was all dried out like a mummy, and her mouth was stretched. I mean more than anyone I’ve ever  seen. It was way too wide to be normal, seemed like she was grinning ear to ear, literally. Then she left out this, like, inhuman sound. Kinda like a coyote’s yip, but deeper sounding, ya know? I took off so fast that I forgot to pick up my keys. They were sitting on top of my logbook. But when I got to my rig, they were sitting right there on the front seat. I know for damn sure I never leave my logbook in the cab. I looked up at the diner, and I could see her moving from one spot to the next. It was so fast that she seemed almost blurry, like when a hummingbird flaps its wings, ya know? I think she had that same look on her face, like it was frozen. I decided to get the hell outta there. I started my rig and rolled to the exit. I looked into the sleeping area, and there she was, that smiling devil girl. I tried to take off, but I forgot to look. Nearly hit a state trooper, and then she was gone.

The trooper seemed, uh, doubtful about my story, and it didn’t help that there was no one in the diner. It had been closed since midnight. I know what I saw; can’t no-one tell me different. The things she knew, the way she moved: It wasn’t human. But the worst of it is, when I close my eyes at night I see her grinning that really evil grin. I ain’t been able to sleep right since.” Understandably so.

So what are these BEK’s? The growing number of encounters suggests they are either a new phenomena or, as i suspect, new stage dressing behind a phenomena that has been experienced since the beginning of recorded history. Whether it’s Green Children, Men-in-Black or the Black Eyed Kids there is a history of mysterious folk who pop up from time to time, place to place and maybe the next time might be in your neck of the woods. Trick or Treat.

History of the Spirit (Talking) Board

(selected sections from Wikipedia)

The first mention of divination —called planchette writing—was in China around 1100 B.C. The first undisputed use of spirit boards came with the Modern Spiritualist Movement in the mid-19th century. Elijah Bond and Charles Kennard obtained a patent in 1891 for a spirit board. William Fuld named the boards “Ouija” and started production in 1901. The boards enjoyed a heyday from the 1920s through the 1960s. In 1966, Fuld’s estate sold the business to Parker Brothers, who holds all trademarks and patents. Ouija has become a trademark that is often used generically to refer to any spirit board. See the William Fuld website for a history of the Ouija board discussed in OUIJA – For the Record.

Explanations – The so-called scientific explanation is that users subconsciously direct the path of the planchette to produce a word that is in that person’s subconscious, known as automatism or ideomotor action (coined in 1882). Spiritualists claim the board has no intrinsic power, but is used simply as a tool to aid a medium while communicating with spirits.

Criticisms – Although Ouija boards are sold as simple toys, many believe they are harmful. Harry Houdini wrote in 1924 that five people were driven insane by using a board. That same year, Dr. Carl Wickland said “the serious problem of alienation and mental derangement attending ignorant psychic experiments was first brought to my attention by cases of several persons whose seemingly harmless experiences with automatic writing and the Ouija board resulted in such wild insanity that commitment to asylums was necessitated.”

In 1944, Manly P. Hall, the founder of the Philosophical Research Society and an early authority on the occult, said “during the last 20-25 years I have had considerable personal experience with persons who have complicated their lives through dabbling with the Ouija board. Out of every hundred such cases, at least 95 are worse off for the experience.” He went on to say that, “I know of broken homes, estranged families, and even suicides that can be traced directly to this source.”

In 1965, parapsychologist Martin Ebon (Satan Trap: Dangers of the Occult), stated that it starts harmlessly when the board reveals startling information, establishes credibility, or identifies itself as someone who is dead. It is common that people are told they were chosen for a special task. Quite often the Ouija turns vulgar, abusive or threatening. It grows demanding and hostile and sitters find they are using the board compulsively, as if possessed by a spirit.

http://www.ouijafortherecord.com/index.php/site/history

Believe

When dealing with the paranormal you have to take into account everything that might trigger a haunting.     How could something so simple as a board with a planchett be harmful.

Looking back at the history of the Ouija we could see that not only is it dangerous but addictive.    Addictive because if you are not careful, you will continue to use it and it will have a hold on you.

Who plays with the Ouija board?  The Ouija board is a divination tool.   It is sold at toy stores in the board game section.   It is believed that the Ouija board will open doors to the unknown; doors that if not closed will have consequences that may affect your life.  Evil spirit can come through the open door and cause harm to those toying with it.

Who are these spirits that come through? Are they departed loved ones or something more sinister?   Many beliefs regarding the spirits that come through, is that they are demons.  They will pose as a good spirit and many times when the person has tired of them they will haunt them or their home.

M y viewpoint

In my opinion, the Ouija board is not a toy; it is a dangerous and misleading game and should not be in a toy store.  Although it has evolved from different types the game is still the same.    By using a Ouija board one could open doors to the unknown, and if you don’t know how to close these doors you could be in really big trouble once the spirits come through and stay.     If anyone is going to use a Ouija board they should use caution.   If you don’t know how to send whatever spirit you have invited in, you should not be using it.

Before you go out and play with a Ouija board, think about, do you want a haunting in your home?  Do you want something evil coming through causing havoc on you and your loved ones?  It is better to be safe than sorry.   Don’t want to cause unwanted things coming into your home simple out of curiosity.

As depicted in the major motion picture ‘An American Haunting’  this Witch is a force not to be reckoned with.  Historian Albert Virgil Goodpasture wrote in his 1886 book ‘History of Tennessee’ “A volume might be written concerning the performance of this wonderful being…that all this actually occured will not be disputed, nor will a rational explanation be attempted.” According to local lore, The Bell Witch is still active today. As a young girl growing up in east Tennessee, we were often warned NEVER to venture out to Adams, or to make any attempt to seek out this evil entity. The tragic curse of the Bell family wasn’t something anyone dared bring home with them. Several men have tried, but NO ONE has ever spent an entire night in the Bell cave. Although not much is mentioned about the old cave on the former Bell farm, it is believed today the Witch now resides here. Tours are given and anyone who is brave enough may venture in. Visitors are often attacked, shoved off of their feet, slapped or pinched. Over the years hundreds of tourists have taken small rocks and other items out of the cave as a souvineir, only to mail them back to the farm, claiming to have been cursed and begging the item be returned. Cameras and video equipment have been known to malfunction. Flashlights stop working. Many claims of a misty white figure have been seen. Orbs and other specters of light as well as a disturbing, disembodied female voice is often heard. The current owners, Chris and Walter Kirby, claim there is definately something amiss in the cave, as well as the old Bell farmhouse, which has been rebuilt to accomadate tours.

So let’s get down to it. This story begins in 1804 when John Bell, a prosperous North Carolina farmer, moved his family west to Tennessee’s Red River Valley in search of literally greener pastures.  Over the next 13 years the Bell family would prosper and their land grow to expand over 320 acres. It was during this time John disputed with his neighbor Kate Batts over their adjoining property line. She felt he cheated her out of her land and swore on her death bed she’d have her revenge on ol Jack, as she affectionately called him. Mrs. Batts was an eccentric, proud woman and not very well liked in the community. Her vain and crude nature made many uncomfortable in her presence. Until his death John believed she was a powerful witch and the one responsible for the torture and grief brought upon his family.

The activity first began in 1817 as John and his sons were followed in their fields and crops by frightening beasts they could only describe as wild dogs with what appeared to have the heads of rabbits. From the first sighting of these creatures, ‘beating’ sounds would begin to occur outside of their home at night. Terrified, these sounds would continue, nightly, and eventually started to be heard inside the home. After retiring to bed, their four sons, sharing a room, began to hear the scratching and gnawing of rats at their bedposts and walls. Night after night they searched for the pests, but never found any trace of them. The room was rearranged and inspected, high and low, with no marks or evidence of how they were getting in. As soon as the children were back in bed, the sounds would commence and continue until 3 in the morning. No one slept. Next, the children would complain of their sheets and pillows being torn from their beds each night. As they pulled tight on their blankets, they were slapped across the face and their hair pulled, violently. Eventually they began to hear the disembodied sound of someone clearing their throat, smacking their lips and heavy breathing. They were frightened and confused.

John Bell had to do something. While he first confided in his family to keep these occurances secret, he soon started documenting the activity with his friends and council. He invited his neighbors, the Johnston’s, to stay overnite and witness these attacks. Low and behold the Witch made herself known to the couple, attacking them as she had the children, pulling their sheets and slapping them violently. Mr. Johnston shouted out to her repeatedly ‘Stop in the name of the Lord!!’ but to no avail. Over time, almost every member of the community had come and beared witness to these attacks. Several neighbors invited the Bell’s youngest, Betsy, to spend the evenings with them, only to find the Witch’s torment followed her. At this point many speculated that Betsy was somehow the mastermind behind all of this. As days, weeks and months passed, The Witch would continue her reign of terror, finding her voice and speaking aloud. Her presence was reported

almost daily, was known to often sing hymns and once, quoted two seperate church sermons, word for word, from two local churches at the same time on the same Sunday. Many times over the spirit was asked to identify itself, first responding ‘I am a spirit, once very happy but have been disturbed.’ Later she would reply ‘I am the spirit of a person, buried in the woods nearby, my bones have been disturbed.’ It had been known to the Bell’s at the time, that an old Indian Burial mound was located on their property over the entrance to the cave. While farming they had uncovered it, and a curious farmhand had disrupted the graves, searching for valuable artifacts. Upon learning this John Bell protested, demanding everything be returned from whence it came. The spirit later cackled and claimed to just have been fooling with Ol Jack. The entity would in time, also claim to be ‘Nothing more than Kate Batts’ Witch.’

The Bell’s three eldest sons, John Bell Jr., Drewry Bell and Jesse Bell had previously fought in the Battle Of New Orleans under then Major General (future President) Andrew Jackson, and invited him and his men to experience the phenomena themselves. As the men arrived with their horses and wagon of supplies,  the wagon stopped abruptly, the wheels unable to turn. As accounted in Martin VanBuren Ingram’s 1894 book ‘An Authenticated History of The Famous Bell Witch’,   “The driver popped his whip, shouted to the men and the horses pulled with all their might- but the wagon wouldn’t budge. General Jackson commanded the men to dismount and push, but all in vain. The wheels were then removed, one at a time, and found to be alright, revolving easily on their axles. The General threw up his hands and exclaimed ‘By the eternal boys! It is the Witch!!’ Just then from the bushes came a sharp, shrill voice saying ‘Alright General, let the wagon move on. I will see you again tonite.’ The men, frightened, searched in every direction for her, as the horses started unexpectedly and the wagon rolled smoothly along.” As promised she returned to them that evening, tormenting the men and even forcefully kicking one soldier right out the front door, protesting he was a fraud. She also told the General in time she would call out two more of his ‘frauds.’ Again, the Witch slapped the men and pulled their hair, removing their blankets as they slept and tormented them throughout the night. Scared out of their witts, the men retreated, making it halfway to Nashville by dawn. General Jackson is quoted as saying ‘I’d rather fight the entire Britsh Army than face the Bell Witch.’

Unfortunately, The Bell’s ‘Witch’ took a certain dislike to Betsy. Over these four years Betsy would become the victim of violent physical attacks, being thrown from her bed, hair pulled, slapped, kicked, bruised and beaten. Could you imagine the emotional trauma this poor family was subjected to? In time Betsy would begin dating, and chose her Beau, schoolmate Joshua Garder. Almost at once the Witch protested their relationship, forbidding Betsy to see him. She followed them anywhere they may have traveled, the cave being a popular hiding spot. By Easter of 1821 poor Betsy had had enough. She called off the engagement, she just couldn’t take the abuse. I feel it is worthy to note the children’s schoolteacher, Mr. Richard Powell, had made several advances toward Betsy, requsting permission to take her as his bride. It is said Mr. Powell practiced black magic, the Bell and Johnston children claiming they heard their schoolteacher often reciting strange incantations from many books in the schoolhouse, after hours. Mr. Powell was secretly married to a prominent Nashville socialite, Esther Scott, who passed away in 1821. Three years later in 1824 he would marry Betsy Bell and the two would relocate to nearby Nashville.

For four years, The Witch never let up on her attacks on the family. Night after day after night, thousands of encounters were filed. John, a clergyman at the local church, was asked to step down and banned from the property. They wanted nothing to do with the demonic force. The Witch often accurately predicted future events, she also teased and playing cruel tricks on the family. Once she claimed to be the spirit of a wealthy man, whose fortune was buried along the nearby riverbank under a  large rock. She sent out whom she trusted, Mr. Johnston, to oversee the Bell sons dig and chisel at the rock for an entire day. Much to their dismay, no treasure was ever found. For weeks she recalled this story to visitors, laughing aloud.

Eventually this cruel and evil entity would accomplish what she had set out to do, taking John’s life. He had fallen ill, possibly from a stroke, and in October of 1820 was confined to the home. The Witch continued to abuse him, kicking, slapping, and pushing him around. She even attempted to remove his shoes as he walked, tripping him wherever he tried to go. On the morning of December 20th, 1820, the family became worried when John didn’t wake at his usual time. As they sent for the Doctor, a strange vile of poison was found in the kitchen cupboard, and was tested on the family cat, who died immediately. The bottle was thrown into the fireplace and erupted in a blue ball of light, straight up the chimney. The Witch then cackled aloud, ‘I gave ol Jack a dose last night, sure fixed him!!’

John’s funeral was the largest Robertson county had ever seen. Throughout the service, The Witch laughed and sang, apparantly a little ditty about a bottle of Brandy, frightening the mourners, until each and every one had left the graveyard. Her spirit subsided after this, as if her purpose had been served. The following April she returned to Ms. Bell, warning she would return in seven years time. Sure enough, she kept this promise, returning to the family for two weeks, and spoke to John Bell Jr. on several subjects such as spirituality, religion, Christianity, the origin of life and the need for a mass spiritual awakening. She also accurately predicted several future events to come, such as the Civil War. She also told Mrs. Bell she would return 107 years later to the Bell’s next of kin, however no evidence exists to support this claim.

Just who is the Bell Witch? A powerful evil spirit? The sorcery of old Kate Batts? An evil energy generated from the hatred of this old woman? Perhaps a poltergeist associated with Betsy Bell? Or maybe the Indian Burial mound at the foot of the cave has something to do with it. It has also been speculated the schoolteacher, Robert Powell was responsible for the disturbances. After everything you’ve read, would you dare venture to Adams Tennessee and take a tour of the property? Or perhaps the cave? The cave and replicated Bell homestead are open for tours May thru October 31st. Maybe you would dare spend a night alone in the Witch’s lair? Good luck and Happy Haunting

Several books have been written on these accounts. Said to be the better and most thorough of these is Martin VanBuren Ingram’s 1894 ‘An Authenticated History of The Famous Bell Witch’ which you may read, in it’s entirety at http://bellwitch02.tripod.com/the_red_book.htm
I found and related a great deal of this information here, and I would recommend  reading to any of you who would like to know more.

Copies of this book are said to be non-existent, stolen from local archives and claimed to have ‘mysteriously disappeared’ from the libraries of private collectors.