(Source: angelsghosts.com)

Australia’s Most Haunted House

The house and grounds of the Monte Cristo Homestead in New South Wales are reported to have several ghostly residents.

• The most dominant ghost according to psychics is Mrs. Crawley herself, which isn’t at all surprising since she was known to rule Monte Cristo with an iron fist. During the first few years she spent a great deal of time in the Drawing Room. However, after Mr. Crawley passed away she spent most of her time in the newly converted Chapel. It is here that she is seen most frequently, dressed in black and carrying a large silver cross. Her ghost has been known to order people out of the Dining Room and her presence is felt when a room suddenly becomes icy cold.
• The apparition of a woman in period dress has been seen walking along this verandah. You could be excused in thinking that she was a guest at the period ball that is held annually at the estate, however when this apparition passes in front of the windows the light shines right through her! The identity of this woman is not known.  Some believe this particular spirit may belong to a maid who fell to her death from the balcony. The blood stained steps below were cleaned and to this day, you can still see the discolouration from the bleach. 
• One of the most disturbing accidents occurred when the Crawley’s baby girl fell from her nanny’s arms and down the stairs. She subsequestly died from her injuries. The distraught maid claimed that the baby had been pushed out of her arms by an unseen force (which of course was never proven). Today, young children become very agitated and unruly near or around the staircase.
• The Coach House/Stables was also the sleeping quarters for a stable boy named Morris, who was one day too ill to rise for work. The boss did not believe the boy was truly sick, and set fire to his bedding. Unfortunately, Morris was too ill to escape and was burnt to death.
• A mentally retarded man named Harold, the son of a housekeeper working at Monte Cristo, was kept locked in shackles in the Caretaker’s Cottage for forty years. He was found curled up at the feet of his mothers dead body, and sent to a home for the insane where he died shortly afterwards.
• The most recent death at Monte Cristo occurred in 1961 when caretaker Jackie Simpson was murdered by a local youth. After watching the movie Psycho several times, the boy made his way up to the grounds of the homestead with a rifle and shot the caretaker dead in his cottage. It is believed that he then scawled the words “DIE JACK HA HA” on the wooden door, a macabre inscription that can still be seen to this day.
• In addition, A woman died giving birth on one of the beds, and Mr. Crawley himself died as a result of blood poisoning from his starched collar in what is now known as the Boys Bedroom. 
•   Footsteps have been heard walking through empty rooms, along the hall and down the stairs which is strange in itself. However, what is even stranger is that the steps sound as though the person is walking on hard wood or lino floors even though the entire house is now carpeted
•  Faces have also been seen peering through second story windows even though there is no balcony or support outside. In the Drawing Room, objects such as vases move around. A tapestry hanging on the wall was often found undamaged on the floor the next day. This strange occurance continued until Reg moved the tapestry to another wall and there is remains today, undisturbed.

(Source: paranormalaustralia.com)

Resurrection Mary

In 1934, sixteen-year-old Mary was a regular at the O’Henry Ballroom, which still stands today (although it is now the Willow-brook). She got into an argument with her boyfriend on the dance floor, and left the ballroom. She was walking home along Archer Avenue, and right about the time she was passing Resurrection Cemetery, a car swerved out of control, and struck and killed her. Her family was heartbroken and had her buried in the cemetery she lost her life in front of, still in her dancing gown and shoes. And that is how this story ends. Until five years later, at least….

It was now 1939, and Jerry Palus was yet another regular at the O’Henry. He spotted a beautiful blonde girl across the room, and asked her to dance. They danced the entire night, with the young lady barely uttering a word. He offered her a ride home when the night was through, and she accepted. When they were passing Resurrection Cemetery, she quickly told him to stop and let her out there, instead of taking her to the address she had given him. She disappeared at the gates.

The next night, Jerry went to the address that was supposed to be her final destination. The woman said there was no girl that lived there, and he was mistaken. He spotted a picture on the mantlepiece of the young lady he had danced with the entire night. The woman explained that she was her daughter, and that she had been dead for five years.

To this day, people see the girl walking along the road. They give her rides, only for her to disappear from the vehicle. Some say they have danced with her, others claim to have even kissed her. On one memorable event, in 1977, somebody even claims to have seen a girl behind the cemetery gate, grasping the bars in what can only be described as a death grip, and screaming in pure terror. The man who witnessed this traveled to a police station. When the authorities arrived, there was no sign of anybody. But the two metal bars she had appeared to be gripping were bent and twisted, with what seemed to be finger marks embedded in them. The bars were removed, and it was determined that such distortion could only be achieved through extreme heat and pressure. They eventually reformed and replaced the bars, but they consistently revert back to the charred and mangled state.

(Source: watchmojo.com)

The Ghosts of St. Augustine Lighthouse

The lighthouse and surrounding buildings have a long history of supposed paranormal activity. Allegedly, visitors and workers have seen moving shadows, heard voices and unexplained sounds, and seen ghostly figures.

Reportedly, the figures of two girls have been spotted on the lighthouse catwalk.  Three young girls did die during the construction of the lighthouse. Two were the daughters of the superintendent of construction of the tower - Hezekiah Pittee.

Since the construction was taking so long, Pittee moved his family down from Maine. They lived in a house on-site. There was also a rail car that went from the light station to the ocean. The workers used this to bring the supplies from the beach to the work site. The children, Pittee had five, used to ride on it for fun. On July 10, 1873, while playing on the rail car, five children fell into the water. Workers were able to save two, a boy and a girl. Two of Pittee’s daughters, Mary (15) and Eliza (13), and a young black girl, either a servant or the daughter of a worker, drowned.

Other reports are of a woman seen on the lighthouse stairway or walking in the yard outside the buildings.  Some believe this is the wife of Head Keeper Rantia who died here on Sept. 21, 1894 under unknown circumstances.

Also spotted is the figure of a man who roams the basement. The male figure is said to possibly be that of Civil War hero and former lighthouse keeper William A. Harn who died of tuberculosis on April 1, 1889 .

The Mystery of the 13 Souls

The mystery of the 13 souls is the result of a massive fire in the now incredibly haunted Joelma building in Sao Paulo Brazil which claimed 148 lives, injured hundreds more, and left a lasting scar in the community ever since.  The incident in 1978 is still remembered as one of the most devastating high rise building fires aside from 9/11 to ever occur.

The building was originally built on the grounds of an old house where a 26 year old chemist named Paul Campbell lived with two sisters and his mother.  The family’s life ended in tragedy, however, as Paul murdered the sisters and his mother and buried them in the back yard before killing himself.  The motive is still unknown to this day, but many locals came to refer to the land itself as cursed.  As the bodies were being recovered, so an unverified part of the legend goes, a firefighter became infected by something from one of the corpses and himself died.

After the house was demolished, the Joelma building was erected, standing as a proud 25-story reminder of mankind’s ability to recover from tragic losses.  The building, however, suffered its own tragic loss as an air conditioner fire burned quickly, aided by the fact that insulating fire retardant material wasn’t sufficient enough to stop the fires, fueled by the eager to burn materials installed throughout the building against the recommendations of fire safety officials.  As the fires blazed, they consumed everything and everyone in its path.  Because there was only one stairwell, and some flammable materials had been packed into them, the fire traveled up the stairwell, and made it impassable for those attempting to escape.  As a result, the elevator was used to help many occupants of the building flee.  Fire safety officials strongly recommend against using an elevator in the event of a fire, but these people were certain they had no alternative.  None of the people escaped the fire by this method, but 13 in one elevator were discovered dead.

These 13 were never identified, and no one came forward to say who they were.  No identification was discovered on them that wasn’t destroyed.  As a result, the 13 were buried in St. Peter’s cemetery next to one another.  Those visiting the site have reported that the 13 can grant miracles.  The 13 souls and their 13 graves are the enduring mystery of Joelma, but the building itself certainly has no shortage of paranormal entities that seem to roam the hallways.  Sensitives who visit the building report seeing many figures wandering around.  Meanwhile others report a sense of unease in the building’s vicinity or a sense of friendly presence.  Reports range widely, as most certainly did its occupants in personality.

Many say that had the building been equipped with fire alarms, sprinkler systems, had multiple avenues out of the building, and been equipped with more fire retardant material, this incident would have likely never happened quite this way.  Still, others say the land at Joelma is simply cursed.

(Source: unexplainable.net)

Highgate Cemetery, London

(Source: flickr.com )

(Source: chainsawsandjelly.com)

(Source: nightmareonchatstreet.com)

ghostsinside:

House of Blue Lights | Indianapolis, Indiana.

Since torn down, the “House of Blue Lights” was originally built  in the early 1900s by Skiles Edward Test, a wealthy Indianapolis real estate tycoon. At this time, he owned much of the land that now makes up northeast Indianapolis. In addition to being extremely wealthy, he was also known for being a bit of an eccentric. As such, a number of rumors concerning him floated around. While many were undoubtedly false, he did do some rather odd things. One year, in the late 1940s, Test hung some blue Christmas lights all along the house and in the surrounding trees. He enjoyed them so much he decided to leave them up permanently and turned them on each night for decades. Thus the house’s infamous nickname.

Test also had a three story guest cottage with an elevator and a two story bath house, complete with a diving board attached to the top level of the building. The diving board hung over an olympic size solar heated swimming pool. He was a noted animal lover and owned dozens of cats. Rumor has it that he once owned 150 cats at a time.

There was also a series of tunnels running from the house to various locations on the property. One such tunnel led to the cellar of his mansion. Another tunnel connected the mansion’s cellar to the detatched garage and care taker’s house about 200 yards away. 

Some of the legends of the house included his wife being buried in a glass coffin and interred beneath the swimming pool. The legend goes that when his wife died, he placed her in the glass coffin and kept her in his living room, surrounded by, yes, blue Christmas lights. After a period of time, he buried her in the back yard and installed the pool over her grave. This particular legend, however, proved to be false. 

One other legend is that a curse supposedly hung over the property. If you trespassed, Test’s spirit would haunt you until the day you died. Another legend describes the frequent appearance of blue Christmas lights in the windows of the mansion, even long after it has been abandoned.

In 1932, Dr. Louis LaLaurie and his wife Delphine moved into their lavishly decorated three-story mansion in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. Delphine quickly became one of the most influential Creole women in the city known for her wealth, beauty, intelligence and style. 

The LaLaurie house was attended to by dozens of slaves.  Delphine was brutally cruel to them. The neighbors were the first to notice the strange activity amongst the slaves. They came and went frequently and many would disappear, never to be seen again.

Then, one day a neighbor was climbing her own stairs when a scream rung out. She looked up and saw Delphine on the roof of the LaLaurie mansion chasing a servant girl with a whip.  The girl was chased to the edge where she jumped to her death into the courtyard below.  

Stories of Madame LaLaurie’s cruelty began to spread.  The LaLauries’ status plummeted.   

In 1834, the household cook (who was reportedly kept chained to the stove) set fire to the house, reportedly because she could no longer endure Delphine’s cruelty.  

After the fire was put out, a terrible discovery was made.  Behind a secret door in the attic, firefighters found more than a dozen slaves, both male and female, in a horrible state.  Some were chained to operating tables and others were caged like dogs.  Body parts and organs were scattered about and kept in buckets and grisly souvenirs were stacked on shelves next to a collection of whips and paddles. Mouths had been sewed shut and hands had been sewn to various parts of the body.

 The men had endured even further torture: their fingernails had been ripped away, their eyes poked out and their genitals sliced away.  One man had a hole drilled in his skull out of which a stick protruded - it had been used to “stir” his brains.  

Many had been dead for some time, but others still lived and begged the firefighters to kill them and put them out of their misery.  Of the ones who lived were a woman whose legs and arms had been removed and another woman whose limbs had been broken before she was stuffed into a small cage so that her arms and leg bones set at odd angles.

The LaLauries fled from their home and were never seen again.  However, her victims are said to still walk the grounds.  Their cries are heard and many have reported seeing the apparitions of slaves and even Madame LaLaurie.  

(Source: lalaurie.denisesdreams.com)