Deep in the jungle of Côn Đảo in Vietnam, there is an unfinished bridged called Ma Thiên Lãnh Bridge also called The Ghost Bridge, both because of its dark origin as well as the lingering presence still seen.
The bridge was built by 300 prisoners from the Côn Đảo Prison during the French colonization of Vietnam. The Côn Đảo Prison was a prison that the French colonists used to imprison those thought to be especially dangerous to the colonial government. The prison was used from the 1800s until the end of the Vietnam war. A number of stories of torture and abuse comes from that prison, located on an island. And some of these unfortunate prisoners were made to build this Ghost Bridge in the middle of the jungle.
Death on the Bridge
The Ghost Bridge: Several reports about paranormal happenings and ghosts comes from this bridge that were built on the labour of prisoners. Source: vetaucondao.vn
To build infrastructure on the island with the prison, they needed material. In 1930, French colonialists made the prisoners carry rocks to the Núi Chúa mountain to build this bridge. The purpose of the bridge was to make transportation of materials to Ong Dung Beach to be used as building the infrastructure of the Côn Đảo island. It is said that around 356 of the prisoners forced to build this bridge lost their life, either starving to death, poisonous drinking water, horrible abuse from the French or even the climate or the rugged terrain became too much for them.
However, in spite of how much effort that was made to build the bridge, it would never be completed. In August 1945 after the revolution, the work on the bridge was left as the French left Vietnam and only parts of the bridge were complete and stands today, now only standing as a reminder of the bloody labour the prisoners were forced to.
The Lingering Ghosts
Many encounters from the locals have been told of the paranormal kind. One villager that was drinking with his friend told about a man with long hair, white shirt and black trousers, watching him from a distance before suddenly disappearing.
A female villager saw a woman in a white dress at dawn, standing on the bridge at dawn, and as the villager told, she recognized the woman as a hungry ghost. Another female villager met the ghosts of two boys, none of them were wearing a shirt as they forced her to give them dessert.
Even the home of the priests can’t keep the ghosts at bay. And in this house, the ghosts outnumber the living.
Haunted: Many ghosts have been reported haunting this house throughout the years since it was built.
In the idyllic countryside of Sweden Borgvattnet is an old village deep in the forest. There are around 70 people living there, going about their business in the serene landscape of green trees. In this small village, the Borgvattnet Vicarage, a building from 1876, lies, used to house the priests connected to the local church. There are many residing in this vicarage, adding to the number of people in the small place, although not exactly living.
More than once has the Swedish news media as well as a number of paranormal researchers found their way up to the quaint vicarage, looking like a cute inn to relax and enjoy nature as it has been open to the public since 1970. But the rooms available for rent are not necessarily just for you. The rooms are already all occupied by the ghosts, and therefore, it has earned the name of Sweden’s most haunted house.
The Ghost Priest
The story was first only whispered among the priests living there as well as inside the church of Sweden. But one priest would break the silence and make it the most famous place in the country at the time.
When the priest Erik Lindgren came as the new priest of his area, he came alone. The furniture was still something he was waiting for to settle into the old vicarage that was to be his own home. Therefore he was surprised and a bit scared when he started hearing stuff from the second floor. It sounded like heavy objects being dragged across the floor. When checking he found the second floor to be empty. There was no furniture there, and there was no one in the house but him. Or so he thought in the beginning, but it was only the start of the paranormal hauntings he was about to experience, living in this house.
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Although it was not something that had been spoken about publicly before the haunting of the house was well known within the church. In 1947 that was about to change as a journalist heard about the haunting of the vicarage. He got the priest, Erik Lindgren to tell about his experiences and an article was published on the matter. The curiosity was overwhelming from the public and Lindgren himself had to block his phone in the end because of all the journalists trying to get to him to talk about the paranormal occurrences.
Lindgren was meticulous and noted down every strange encounter in detail he experienced. But the list got so long that he stopped when he just accepted this was just a part of his everyday life. There were a lot of different activities going on in the lonely house. Everything from light turning off and on, invisible figures “crashing” into him making it hard to work and always giving him a feeling of someone watching him, never giving him a moment’s peace. From the second floor where he had the first day of the house heard heavy stuff being dragged over the floor, footsteps when there was no one there was constantly heard.
The worst experience though, was on this particular day when he was sitting in his rockin chair, reading a book in 1945. The chair started to rock harder and harder so violently that he fell on the floor. When he sat down again, it happened once more, making it hard to stay seated. He felt a force from behind, going through him. His legs started to shake and he lost footing, falling on the ground. After this interview, the chair got famous and in the 60s, it turned up on one of Sweden’s entertainment shows before being bought back to the vicarage in the 80s.
Some of the spotted ghosts:
So many encounters of different kinds have been reported. Shadow of a man passing by, the sound of footsteps coming to the front door and music playing out of nowhere. Some of the ghosts though, have a bit more story to them.
The Gray Lady
More and more priests started coming forward with their stories. Like the priest Rudolf Tängdén who was also sitting in the great hall reading in 1930. Suddenly a gray clothed lady appears in the corner of the room. She walks towards him, taking small slow steps before changing direction, turns and walks into the office. He followed, but found nothing when he entered.
The Crying Ladies
Ghosts in the Rooms: The rooms in the vicarage each carry their own ghost legend.What makes this particular house so haunted?
In the house there is a room called ‘the cryers room’. It’s been called that since the notary for the church, Inga Flodin stayed there on a business trip in 1941. She stayed in that very room and was awoken during the night. She finds three figures sitting on the couch, watching her intently. She turns on the lights, but nothing changes, they are still sitting there, staring. Flodin pinches her arm as well as letting her alarm clock ring to check if she really is awake. But, yes, she is. She notices that they all look incredibly sad, wearing a black, a purple and a gray dress. One of them is knitting. The woman in the gray dress looks particularly sad with red circles under her eyes. In a staring deadlock, Flodin can not do anything but stare back, petrified as well as curious and confused about what is going on. However, eventually she falls asleep.
The Maid’s Baby
In the pink room there are those claiming to hear the sound of cries of a baby, even baby figures have been spotted around on the property. Story goes that at the end of the 1800s, an unmarried maid gave birth out of marriage. There were also rumours that the father was the priest in the house at the time. The maid was then locked up to the birth of the child that never grew up. Most likely the child was killed and buried on the north side of the house, outside the pink room. Now both the maid and the baby wander the house.
The Dead Priest Wife
One of the first documented sightings of ghostly activity came from the priest Nils at the start of the 1900s. Nils had grown up in the house as the priest’s son before he himself became the priest. Through the years he experienced stuff in the house he was sure was his mothers doing. Like the time when he watched all the clothes on the clothesline being ripped from the line.
His mother was Martha and died young giving birth to Nils. His father, Per, didn’t take the death of his beloved wife well. It was a cold spring and the ground was still too hard for the body to be buried. Therefore it was stored in the house as Per simply couldn’t be parted from his beloved. And it might have been a bit too long. In any case, several of the guests have also seen shadows and shapes, pulling their clothes, sitting in the bed, in none other than in the yellow room, the same room where Märta died.
In the small town in Alabama, a big thing is haunting the streets and are after the town’s children. The scary apparition of the black clad Huggin Molly is still on the prowl.
Children should be home before dark, there is no telling what hides in the shadows, emerging after the sun sets. But the people of Abbeville in south Alabama, they have a pretty good idea of what darkness that lurk in the shadows, in the streets and behind the bushes and in the dark corners.
The children of Abbeville, Alabama has been warned plenty of times to stay indoors after dark. If not, they might encounter the creature known as Huggin Molly on the streets.
The Colonial Town of Abbeville
The small place of Abbeville looks like any other small colonial towns in the south with the cute brick houses with the flag waving towards the paved street and with a population around 2000.
Abbeville Alabama: Downtown Abbeville, Alabama where Huggin Molly supposedly roams in the night. // source
The climate is hot during the summer and mild during the winters. The people can shop in the small boutiques and eat at the family restaurant, a place where people know one another. It is also why when a stranger starts to roam the street, the townspeople takes notice as they watch from hammock on their porches.
Read Also: Check out the rest of our ghost stories from all across the USA.
The town of Abbeville has seen many tragedies throughout the years. Not only the hardship of the European settlers, the surrendering of the creek nation and a town in southern Alabama also made it hard for the black people all the way up to the segregation times.
There were reported lynching and sexual violence that went unpunished, making the streets more difficult for black people than the children that was warned to stay indoors after sundown.
The southern town has also experienced tragedies that left a collective trauma so hard that legend took form. One of these being after the fire. At the start of the 1900s, an arsonist burned down all of Abbeville, and this is also at the time when it looks like the legend of Huggin Molly took form. The town was also ravage by an F2 tornado that destroyed many of the old buildings, forcing the town to build on top of the old.
Huggin Molly as The Lady in Black
But these tragedies are not the things Huggin Molly is about. Rather than one of the towns collective tragedies, this is one of the towns big mysteries.
“…..On a cold, dark, rainy night…..so bitterly cold, damp, and dark…..when even street lights won’t burn, and the striking of a match refuses to yield the tiniest flame….on nights like this, Huggin’ Molly comes out of her lair and roams the streets of Abbeville to see whom she can find.”
So begins one account of the story the people of Abbeville have told each other since the early 1900s. The local legend is known as Huggin Molly, or the lady in black. Who is this woman all clad in black, and why is she after the children of Abbeville? What does she want with them?
The local legend of Huggin Molly has it that a tall figure, around seven feet tall, started walking the streets of Abbeville, looking for victims, mostly children. She has no name other than what the townsfolk started calling her, no face to speak of and no one knows why she is after the children. She almost has this witch like status around her, although her behaviour is anything but.
Huggin Molly is said to be dressed in all black with a wide brim hat, also black, wandering through the night in the disguise of the shadows were even the streets light won’t illuminate her identity. Once she found a victim, an innocent child wandering after darkness, she attacks, hugging the person tightly as she is screaming loudly into their ears.
This is it, as there are no stories of her actually hurting anyone. She simply hugs them, although terrifying enough on its own. But are there any origin story to this local legend of a hugging ghost?
The Many Legends of Huggin Molly
Who she is supposed to have been is up for debate and changes as the story itself changes throughout times. Was she a witch or the ghost of a woman that used to live in Abbeville? Is she something completely different from a human?
The Woman in Black: Grieving women wearing long black dresses is a well known motif, especially in European ghost lore. They can also be very dangerous according to many of the legends.
Read More: One of the theories was that Huggin Molly was some sort of witch. If you are interested in stories about witches, head over to our section filled of them: Here
In some accounts when the local townspeople tells the legend, Huggin Molly was a woman living in Abbeville a long time ago. She experienced a mother’s worst nightmare when lost her own child. Her grief was too much to bare and it made her mad. She started to roam the nights and went after the local children to make up for the death of child. Like it was a way of dealing with the tragedy of loosing her own.
In other accounts of the legend, she was a woman who got murdered in cold blood on the very streets she is now haunting and are trying to fulfill something. Perhaps she was killed after dark with no one to look out for her and are now in turn looking out for others?
Perhaps the real story behind the legend is the version about her being a professor at what used to be Alabama Agriculture School as some of the variations of the legend suggests. In these versions she is only trying to keep the students safe by getting them off the streets at night.
Or perhaps it wasn’t a ghost at all that haunted the street in her afterlife, but someone or something, getting dressed up specifically for this? To walk out in the dark to scare and hug children? Somehow, this comes off as almost more frightening than a ghost who only wants a hug.
A Legend with a Milkshake on the Side
In any case, who Huggin Molly was, what her motives are and if she is still roaming the streets doesn’t seem to upset most people in Abbeville. The people of Abbeville haven’t been too concerned by the legend and there are even a 50s themed restaurant named after her, making her a part of the community and town history.
Huggin Molly Legacy: The legend of Huggin Molly is more welcome than many other ghost stories in Abbeville Alabama. Head over to the local restaurant Huggin Molly’s frozen in time in the 50s ,just like the legend to hear more about the town ghost with a meal.
Even to this day the legend is part of the town and kids today are told about the lady in black on the streets. This is like what Jimmy, an Abbeville lifelong resident had to say when the Huggin Molly’s restaurant asked him to say a few words of her:
“Anybody who grew up in Abbeville grew up knowing the legend of Huggin’ Molly,” Jimmy says. “If your mother or dad didn’t want you to be out after dark, they’d tell you Huggin’ Molly would get you. And you believed it, too.”
Because this is the thing, the legend of Huggin Molly has not once been known to have harmed anyone. So many children grew up to tell tales of what they believed must have been Huggin Molly chasing them. And who knows, maybe she really did?
Shadowy figures in the window, chilling entrance during the summer, the old and haunted church in Beijing called Chaonei No. 81, keeps its secrets close to the chest. The famous haunted house is believed to be haunted by a woman said to have taken her life inside.
Chaonei No. 81 ( 朝内81号), also called Chaonei Church as it was built with that in mind, perhaps, the records aren’t clear. The French reimagined baroque architecture from the 20th century stands out amongst the modern Beijing skyscrapers and the Ming dynasty buddhist temples.
Read Also: Check out all of our ghost stories from China
Out of place it has passed from a French manager of the railway or Christian missionaries, different governmental members of the Chinese Republic as well as the Catholic Church. But one thing remains the same, the rumours about a restless spirit that lingers, no matter who lives there.
The Mystery of the Chaonei Church Building
The story behind the supposed haunted house at Chaonei No. 81 is hard to get straight. As with a lot of buildings before the formation of the People’s Republic of China was formed, because of missing paperwork. Who built the Chaonei Church? Was it the French manager of the railway? Or it might even have been the Qing imperial family building it for the British to use as a church? However it is believed to have been built around 1910, although some claim it is even older.
Read Also: Check out the rest of MoonMausoleums Haunted Houses
Chaonei Church Building: How Chaonei No. 81 ( 朝内81号) looked from across the street in 2014, looming dark in the otherwise bright and busy street. //Photo: Daniel Case/Wikimedia.
By the neighbouring hutong, the traditional streets in Beijing, the house has always been remembered as haunted. And even during the 1970s, during the cultural revolution, the neighbours remember the Red Guard that lived in the Chaonei Church, got so frightened after staying inside of the haunted house, they had to leave after a few days.
The Woman Hanging from the Rafters
But who frightened its inhabitants, that even the red guard couldn’t handle? According to the most commonly told legend, it is to a woman that once resided in Chaonei No. 81. Or rather, a scorned woman that used to live there, as most haunted histories start with.
The woman that used to live in the Chaonei Church is said to have been a wife or maybe a lover of an officer of the Kuomintang (KMT, or the nationalist party of China) that fought against the communist party during the Chinese civil war in the 1940s. The nationalist lost, and fled to Taiwan as the communist came into power.
The woman was allegedly left behind by her officer man who fled with the army to Taiwan, and she is said to have hung herself from the rafters of the house.
The Ghost Inside of Chaonei No. 81: According to legend, the ghost haunting Chaonei No. 81 is the spirit of a woman left alone in the house by an officer who fled the country.
Whether the outcome of the war had anything to do with her death is debatable, as some suggest it was more that the officer was never at home, not paying her the attention she needed than the victory of the communists that led her to her decision of taking her life in the Chaonei Church.
Her existence at all is debatable as a lot of things during the civil war are lost, forgotten or even hidden away and a lot of documentation to confirm or deny the story is not there. What we can go by is the word of mouth however, and many that have stayed in Chaonei No. 81 knowing its history say there was never a KMT officer living there, and no woman hung herself in the rafters.
The history behind Chaonei No. 81 is clouded in mystery, and there seems that no one can really agree on one account. But ghost stories have their own way of ignoring this, and sneaking their way into the mind of those around anyway. And according to the locals, this place has always been haunted. The locals persist in their own lore that she can indeed be heard, especially on those stormy nights, screaming from the empty house during thunder.
The Vanishing Workers From the Chaonei Church
Even the construction of the house has been up for dispute with strange tales from the Chaonei Church. Like the story of a British priest who supposedly built on the property disappeared before being able to build the church. When a search party was sent, they supposedly found a secret tunnel leading all the way northeast of the premise to the Dashanzi neighborhood.
There have also been three people, working on construction down in the basement in the building next to Chaonei No. 81 that supposedly vanished into thin air. They got drunk on the job and decided to break into the house by breaking the thin wall that separated the two houses. They were never seen again according to the reports.
The House that Never Dies
A message to the entrance is put up, telling the visitors that there are no ghosts residing there, contrary to local beliefs, urging the paranormal seekers to stay away from the Chaonei Church.
Warning off people: Chalked notice on Chaonei No. 81 in Chinese, warning of ghosts in the house. Original text: “请勿相信谎言 无鬼” (Please do not believe lies, there are no ghosts)//Photo by Daniel Case//wikimedia
Especially after the horror movie, The House that Never Dies, inspired by the the haunted legends of Chaonei No. 81 and its story, the interest of it came back. And after its release in 2014, up to five hundred people crowded outside the house, causing the catholic church to close the gates, only letting a few in at the time.
The same thing happened with Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital when a movie was made about the legend and they eventually demolished the entire building because the paranormal seekers were too much and the construction of the building not safe enough.
Keeping the legend alive: The movie trailer from the 2014 movie ‘The House that Never Die’, inspired about the legends surrounding Chaonei 81.
In 2016 however, Chaonei No. 81. interior and outside was renovated and rented out. Perhaps that is what it took to get rid of the spirit and the lore seeping from the old bricks of the Chaonei Church. But there are also those claiming they have an uneasy feeling of dread when walking by the house. And even in the hot summer, with the sun scorching right at the door, the doorway of the mansion somehow always feels cooler than in the shade.
Minxiong haunted house, otherwise known as the Liu Mansion is located In the Taiwanese countryside and the old baroque mansion left abandoned and decayed by weather and time. And after being abandoned by the owners, rumours of ghosts started to be told and the mansion is one of the well known haunted places around.
On the serene countryside of Taiwan, amidst rice fields and forest, a mansion is left abandoned between the Banyan trees that have soon claimed the mansion as its own. The majestic red brick building must have been beautiful when first built, but now, it only holds the mysterious charm that old ruins have with its secrets and signs of the passing of time.
The Baroque styled house, also known as the old Lui Family Mansion (劉家古宅民雄鬼屋) is located in Chiayi, southwestern Taiwan. It’s a hot and humid climate, but the story surrounding this house is a chilling one. The Minxiong Mansion is an eerie place, so forlorn, but famous as it is considered Taiwan’s most famous haunted place. A fact especially seen during ghost month were visitors flock to the site to catch a glimt of something paranormal going on in the quiet countryside.
Read More: Check out the rest of our ghost stories in haunted houses and mansions here.
The Haunted Minxiong Mansion
So what is it about the house that make people claim it is haunted one? A lot of factors have contributed to its rumour of Minxiong Mansion being haunted. Firstly, It’s located along a road with a graveyard close on either side. This has made drivers vary about driving pass for a long time.
The house is also today in a constant state of decay as no one is really paying any attention to it, and the old and dangerous ruins of the house turns out to be a perfect setting one. Then finally, there is the local legend about the house being haunted and cursed from the start. According to this one legend, the one who built it placed some sort of a charm or spell in the house in secret, making everyone living there hear strange noises, footsteps and unexplainable sounds. Who built it though and why it was cursed never really makes it into this particular legend though.
So who used to live there when it was first built? The three storey house was built in 1929 by Liu Rongyu (劉溶裕), a local businessman and landowner. The baroque architecture the house was built in was very in style with the wealthy merchants in Taiwan at that time.
Liu Rongyu had seven children and wanted somewhere peaceful and quiet to enjoy the countryside and the grandchildren that would follow. But not long after the building was complete, the mansion was completely abandoned, and the owners never came back in the 1950s. And so, the legends about it being haunted started creeping into the once beautiful family mansion.
The Maid in the Haunted Well
Local legends have a lot to say about the reasons the family left Minxiong haunted house. Was it just because of the remote location? The building was so far from everything and an inconvenient place to commute back and forth from work that maybe the family would rather relocate to the city? Or is it something about the story that has been told about the maid?
The Haunted Well: The allegedly haunted well that can still be found on the property of Minxiong haunted house. It reminds a lot of the ghost story of Okiku who was also a maid that drowned herself in the well on the estate.// Photo: Koala0090, source.
One of the legends about the place, we find a more disturbing reason for the abrupt escape from the mansion. In the surrounding garden from the house there is an old well sealed shut that no longer is filled with water. And from this particular well, the legends of this house seeps through the cracks of the dried up well.
It is said one of the maids of the house had an affair with the man of the Minxiong Mansion. When the story came out, she ended up jumping to her death in the well that can be found outside.
Some versions of the story tell that the wife found out about the affair and tormented the maid, both mentally and in some accounts even physically, until she couldn’t take it anymore and ended her life by drowning herself in the well. But the story didn’t end with the tragic death of the young maid though, and the maid came back for revenge against the masters of the house. As a spirit she returned to torment the family who had tormented her. Every night her ghost terrorized the family until they packed up their things and left to never return.
In the following years the visitors coming at night to the abandoned building were also haunted. And so many have been rumoured to be struck by bad luck or even illness, taking their life as the vengeful ghost still haunts the grounds. Especially the soldiers of more than one army have been allegedly chased away by the ghost.
For more ghosts haunting the wells, check out some of our other stories in the MoonMausoleum:
The tale of Banchō Sarayashiki (番町皿屋敷, The Dish Mansion at Banchō) is a well known Japanese ghost story (kaidan). It was popularized in the kabuki theater tradition, and lives on in popular culture and folklore alike.
The story of the maid has been said to be nothing but gossip and false lies several times, and the Liu family themselves are tired to hear about the strange stories surrounding their old family home. But the following strange happenings after the family left the Minxiong Mansion helps keep the story of the alleged curse of the house.
During the time the Minxiong haunted house was built and the family lived there, the island of Taiwan was under Japanese rule (1895-1945) that could factor into the story. During this time business flourished after the Japanese built up the city of Chiayi after a devastating earthquake in 1906. At the time, this was the fourth biggest city in all of Taiwan. Perhaps that was not the case after the Japanese left and could that be some of the reasons that the Liu family eventually left the Chiayi countryside?
The more rational explanation would perhaps be that the Liu family simply relocated themselves for business reasons by moving downtown in Chiayi City, something that the family itself have expressed on multiple occasions although it doesn’t fit well with the rumours of the Minxiong Mansion being haunted.
There also has been stories about the Japanese army opening gunfire around Minxiong haunted house for no apparent reason when the Japanese army temporarily stayed there, ending in killing innocent soldiers in the crossfires. Who or what did they think they saw in the dark and remote old mansion? The story about the killed soldiers in the mansion have not been verified as a historical fact, and is more told as an anecdote. Verified or not, several holes in the walls from what appears to be from gunfire can be seen still to this day, making one wonder who and why they were fired.
The Strange Deaths of KMT Soldiers
A few years later after the Japanese army also left the mansion was occupied by the KMT (Kuomintang of China) the Chinese nationalist party of Taiwan, which in fact is officially known as Republic of China (ROC) came into power in 1949. By this time, parts of the Minxiong haunted house had already been damaged during bomb raids by the American army during the second world war and the interior of the house had been stripped away to build the nearby schools. You could say that the place already looked a little haunted.
Some soldiers from the KMT were stationed at the house in 1949. At this time there was no electricity and the Minxiong Mansion and the grounds around were completely left in darkness during night time, something the soldiers themselves refused to endure. There were several complaints from the KMT soldiers about seeing a ghost floating outside their window, demanding they had to put up electricity to fight the darkness they thought surrounded them in the house.
Minxiong Haunted Mansion: Entrance to the Old Liu Family Mansion still have visitors, although no one have lived there for ages. Now, it seems to belong to nature and the wild. It is now mainly visitors that are in search for the paranormal and to try to spook each other that visits.// Source/Flickr
Here, a string of deaths started to give fire to the haunted house rumours. According to the rumours of the deaths it was either that the KMT soldiers residing there got sick and died or on other accounts, thought to be suicides. All of this made the mansion get a reputation as haunted.
But also here, we have some counter intelligence that tells another story and although not haunted it is a tragic one. According to the other version many of the soldiers stationed there suffered badly from homesickness to their mainland China that in turn drove them to kill themselves on this foreign land so far from home.
Minxiong Haunted House Movie From 2022
In 2022, it was even made a movie about the place and based on the urban legends surrounding the mansion called Minxiong Haunted House(民雄鬼屋). It didn’t really do so well in the box office, but it certainly renewed the interest for the old haunted ghost mansion.
The story is set to the Minxiong Mansion where a mother goes looking for her daughter who goes missing inside the old mansion. They go there during the Qingming Festival to visits the tomb at Chiayi Minxiong Cemetery when her daughter disappears. And on her search for her daughter, she ends up encountering the ghosts within the mansion and has to deal with a haunting past as well.
Minxiong Haunted House: Poster from the 2022 movie called Minxiong Haunted House about the Liu Mansion. The movie is based on the many legends and myths that the ghost mansion has acquired over the years it has been left abandoned. Photo: Disney+
Hauntings During Ghost Month
The story of the Minxiong Mansion continues to inspire and attract visitors, especially during ghost month when people flock to try to see a ghost or two at the old Lui Family Mansion that never seems to rid itself of its haunted reputation.
Ghost Month: Traditionally, that ghosts haunt the island of Taiwan for the entire seventh lunar month, known as Ghost Month. The first day is marked by opening the gate of a temple, symbolizing the gates of hell. On the twelfth day, lamps on the main altar are lit. On the thirteenth day, a procession of lanterns is held. On the fourteenth day, a parade is held for releasing water lanterns. Incense, food and spirit paper money are offered to the spirits to deter them from visiting homes. During the month, people avoid surgery, buying cars, swimming, moving house, marrying, whistling and going out or taking pictures after dark. It is also important that addresses are not revealed to the ghosts.//Photo: mahe haroutinian on Pexels.com
Every year, especially in the seventh month of the lunar calendar, or Ghost Month, the Minxiong haunted house gets plenty of visitors. The floors of the house have long collapsed, and the red bricked walls has started to crumble, soon it will perhaps disappear completely.
Any plans to restore the haunted and decaying house have long been rejected by the Liu family as they want nothing to do with it anymore. The Minxiong Mansion will soon be taken by the forest and swallowed whole, unable to reveal the truth of what actually happened at the manor.
Marble mausoleums, famous people and haunted graves with excellent architecture. The city of Buenos Aires got more to offer than tango and good food. And in the old Recoleta Cemetery there are stories that those buried there is haunting the place. One of them is the grave of Rufina Cambacérès who were buried alive.
In the wonderful cemetery of Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, the most prominent of Argentina’s dead is laid to rest. Graves of famous people like Eva Peron, Nobel Prize winners, grandchildren of Naloleón Bonaparte and those who served as presidents have graves you can visit.
Walking through Recoleta Cemetery is an architectural wandering among the marble mausoleums with art-deco, neo-classical and neo-gothic architecture in the tombs to enjoy looking at and wondering the story of those inside.
The Recoleta Cemetery is more like a city of graves with narrow streets and cobbled ground, almost like the most quiet neighbourhood in Buenos Aires. Although the inhabitants of this city is no longer alive and the only ones roaming here are their ghosts.
Read Also: Check out all of our ghost stories around haunted cemeteries from around the world.
There are also those graves found in the Recoleta Cemetery that people got to know of the person resting there, only after the death.
Rufina Cambacérès: The Girl who Died Twice
Buried Alive: Portrait of Rufina Cambacérès that is now buried in the Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires. Photo: Source
This is the case of Rufina Cambacérès, a girl that barely reached the age of nineteen before she tragically died, twice. Although she was a well known socialite in Buenos Aires at the turn of the 1900s when she was alive, it is her death she is remembered for today and is one of the buried in The Recoleta Cemetery. Although her burial was anything but peaceful.
Rufina Cambacérès’ family rose to the upper class of society in Buenos Aires from the money they made from cattle farming in Argentina. Her father, Eugenio Cambacérès was originally from France and a sort of famous writer in the country at the time.
Her father died of tuberculosis however when Rufina was only four, giving a precedent of premature deaths in the family, like the one Rufina herself would soon suffer from.
A Temporary Death
In 1902 Rufina died for the first time in her life. Her death happened on her birthday no less. On her 19th birthday to be exact on May 31st. Her mother threw a party at their lavish house in Buenos Aires and they were all supposed to go to Teatro Colón to see a show or the opera.
Rufina Cambacérès retreated to her bedroom before they went out. She was getting ready in her bedroom for the night when something felt off. Perhaps she didn’t even get a chance to realize what was happening. She suddenly collapsed on the floor and was deemed to be dead for everyone around, even her doctors.
The reason of death the doctors gave was by catalepsy, a classical diagnosis that they have given those who were buried alive in history, especially the dramatic temporarily deaths from literature. This is the same death that Juliet was given temporarily by the poison, and in Edgar Allen Poe’s writing: ‘A Premature Burial’, also beginning with a false death that ends in a true death in the coffin.
Catalepsy: Is a strange disorder from from Ancient Greek meaning “seizing, grasping”. It really is a nervous condition characterized by muscular rigidity and fixity of posture regardless of external stimuli, as well as decreased sensitivity to pain. It has been today linked to epilepsy, parkinson or drug related.
Being declared dead before your time was not unheard of during those time at all and there are many examples of it throughout time. Sadly, Rufina became a part of this tragic statistic and before anyone could prove any different, she was buried, and first after her burial, she died.
No less than three doctors pronounced her dead before she was put in a coffin and preparation for her birthday changed into preparing for her funeral. She was placed in her extravagant final resting place in the mausoleum already the next day in la Recoleta Cemetery. This seems extremely quick as there usually is held a wake to prevent people from being buried alive, and they really should have kept to the old customs before rushing her funeral.
According to legend, she woke up in the coffin, dark and she was all alone far from her bedroom she was getting ready to go party. No one could hear her screams from outside the huge mausoleum that now was her prison. She tried to break free from her tomb she suddenly found herself in, trying to scratch herself out with her bare hands. The luxurious and sturdy coffin was sealed shut though and she had no chance of breaking free from it with her bear hands.
She was stuck inside as the air was slowly fading away. She must have lasted for a couple of days perhaps before eventually suffocating to death. For real this time.
Recoleta Cemetery: a massive cemetery that houses many famous people like Eva Peron. The supposed haunted cemetery in Buenos Aires has also been hailed as the best cemetery by BBC in 2011, whatever that entails. It is known for looking almost like a little city within the city with streets and doors to the many mausoleums.
A cemetery worker allegedly noticed the lid of her casket was broken a few days later when he was around checking the many graves. The fact her grave was disturbed could also be attributed to robbers, since she was very likely to have been buried with her expensive jewelry because of her high status and riches.
But not according to those subscribing to the more macabre version, it was worse, it was the signs of her trying to escape from the coffin when she awoke from her shallow death and took one last shot at living.
The Final Death of Rufina Cambacérès
Another legend tells that Rufina even managed to get out of the casket and ran through the cemetery at night. She managed to get to the gates, but there she died of a heart attack from the fright and had to be put back inside the coffin.
More rumors about why she collapsed in the first place have been told throughout the years, creating more drama leading up to her collapsing. Among other things, her friend supposedly told her a secret so gruesome that it knocked her out so hard that they thought she was dead. According to her friend, the boyfriend Rufina was seeing was also together with Rufinas mother, or even worse, his own. A true scandal for a Tela Novela and would certainly send everyone into a shock.
No matter the origin of the story and what really happened that day before going to the opera, the statue outside the mausoleum is solemn enough to create a number of haunted rumours as the statue really looks like she is trying to escape.
The Haunted Mausoleum: The mausoleum of the young girl Rufina Cambacérès, completed with a statue, representing her, with her hand on the door, her eyes looking, almost with a longing look, away from her tomb in Recoleta Cemetery. Photo: Source: Tim Adams
Her family spared no expense on her mausoleum and Rufina Cambacérès final resting place is the only mausoleum made of marble from Milan and is decorated with beautiful ornaments. The young girl, supposed to be the young girl with one of her hands on the door, almost escaping, never able to see her 20th birthday or the exit of la Recoleta Cemetery.
According to some, the ghost of Rufina Cambacérès can still be seen roaming in the Recoleta Cemetery, still trying to get out of her shallow death.
So many legends surround the cemetery to this day like we find in Recoleta Cemetery. Among some of the ghosts supposed to haunt the place, is a cemetery worker, destined to linger in this place forever, as well as a woman in white, roaming the place. Perhaps trying to get out?
If there is one place a haunting is taking place, it is prisons. So much regret, vengeance and the hunt for justice and despair is echoing through the walls. And the ghost of Eastern State Penitentiary is said to haunt the place, even after it closed down as a prison.
The Eastern State Penitentiary is a massive building. All stone, rising from the ground like an old fortress in Philadelphia, built to keep people inside.
The Eastern State Penitentiary has housed some of the most scary criminals, like Al Capone for example. Hard boiled criminals shut away for a long time. The people outside these walls will never know. Perhaps they are happy about it. As long as they are locked away, they say. They deserve it all, they say.
Read Also: Check out all of our ghost stories from Haunted Prisons from all over the world.
In the court system it is said that the punishment is suppose to fit the crime. One can wonder if the criminals got a punishment worse than the crime itself. This is Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia.
The Eastern State Penitentiary is reportedly a haunted prison and the location has made an appearance of many of the paranormal ghost hunting shows like Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures and BuzzFeed Unsolved.
Haunted Isolation in the Early Days of Eastern State Penitentiary
When the Eastern State Penitentiary was built it was the most expensive building in the USA. opened in 1829 they brought isolation to new heights. Not only were they to be separated from people from the outside. In this prison, the idea was that they would be separated from everything.
The Prison of Isolation: the Eastern State Penitentiary practice isolation for the prisoners because they thought it would help reform them and help them spiritually.
The prisoners that were sent there, really did everything in isolation. They lived alone, worked out alone and ate alone. Even when they were transported from place to place they were doing it all alone.
When a prisoner left his cell, an accompanying guard would wrap a hood over his head to prevent him from being recognized by other prisoners. Everything was done in isolation.
It was all done it good faith at the start as the though of reformation instead of punishment was strong in the initial prison design. The idea was that silent contemplation was meant to be helpful in the prisoners rehabilitation and road to a crime free life. Instead, it ended up as a particular form of torture. The cells were made of concrete with a single glass skylight, representing the “Eye of God”, suggesting to the prisoners that God was always watching them.
But this was a long time ago, right? It was to people in a different time. They wouldn’t do this to people today, right? Well, the prison didn’t close its doors until the seventies. They had to do something with the isolation because of overpopulation from 1913. Too many prisoners to keep them separate. But is wasn’t necessarily to the better and the prison operated all uptil 1971.
Eastern State Penitentiary Famous Inmates
Although it in the earlier days of the prison, it housed mainly petty criminals incarcerated for various robbery and theft charges like muggers and purse-snatchers. first-time offenders often served two years.
But as the prison operated for a long time, the Eastern State Penitentiary housed many of the well known prisoners that had done serious crimes and served long sentences like the bank robber Willie Sutton that served 11 years in the prison and was one of the prisoners that tried to escape after digging an underground tunnel in 1945. or the American gangster Al Capone, also known as Scarface who was known for being Public Enemy No. 1 in his time. They served her after the isolation concept of the prison stopped.
In Al Capone’s case, it can seem like the prison was a haunting experience for him as well. He spent 8 months in the prison from 1929 and had many benefits and even his cell was decorated with luxury of fine furniture, oriental rugs and a personal radio, making it a cozy room almost. Even with all of his privileges, he had trouble sleeping and was heard at night, screaming that the ghost of someone named Jimmy had to leave him alone. The guards also claimed to her him have full conversation with this Jimmy as well.
Scarface in Eastern State Penitentiary: Alphonse “Scarface” Capone got his first taste of prison life in Philadelphia. When he was arrested outside a movie theater for carrying a concealed, unlicensed .38 caliber revolver. Capone’s arrest came at a time of escalating mob violence in Chicago, and he was often accused of hiding in prison intentionally.
Even after he got out from prison he saw this Jimmy and even hired a medium to get rid of it, but according to the story and the rest of his story, it didn’t look like it worked.
It is believed that the Jimmy, Al Capone though he was haunted by was Jimmy Clark, one of the people that Al Capone had killed during the Valentine’s Day Massacre.
In the end he was even committed to a mental hospital because of his visions and mental health. Whether it was because he was really haunted, or rather because of his syphilis is hard to tell.
Place of Torture at Eastern State Penitentiary
One should think that when you get your judgement, that is it. This is your punishment. But no, once inside the prison walls, the punishment for minor offences can get you in a lot of problems, and in a lot of pain. One example of the punishments that were around was to chain the tongue of a prisoners to his wrist.
As well as their habit of isolating the prisoners, a form of torture in itself, the prisoners were also subject of being subdued in freezing water, being strapped to a chair for days and and putting the worst behaved prisoners into a pit called “The Hole”, an underground cellblock dug under cellblock 14 where they would have no light, no human contact, and little food for as long as two weeks.
Torture in the Prison: Although the initial thought of the punishments was to help the prisoners reform and grow spiritually, the fact was that many of the prisoners serving time for petty theft were subjected to harsh torture.
All of these past history and ways of life have helped to form the narrative that some of the former prisoners must surely haunt the place that put them through all of this.
Haunted Places in the Eastern State Penitentiary
There are many location inside of the prison who is said to be more haunted than others and the people that used to serve time there as prisoners or worked there as prisoners have all stories to tell. Even those working there now as staff or visitors claim to have experienced paranormal activity, everything from hearing footsteps, whispers, seeing visions or even hearing wailing from the painful past of the prison. .
On Cellblock 12 it is reported on echoing voices and cackling coming from the walls. Another common story heard from the Eastern State Penitentiary is like the ones from Cellblock 6, a place that is known for reports of people seeing the apparition of shadowy figures that flutters across the halls.
The Hauntings of Eastern State Penitentiary: Many of the locations of the prison is haunted according to old as well as new staff, visitors and prisoners alike. They talk about seeing strange apparitions in the halls and the cells and hearing strange voices and noises coming from places were no one is.
Cellblock 4 has a reputation of being haunted by the apparition of ghostly faces appearing. The most famous story about this haunting comes from the maintenance man, Gary Johnson who worked there in the 1990s. He had just opened an old lock in the block when he felt some sort of force took hold of him, making him unable to move. A horrible negative energy filled the cell and the visions of these tormented ghost faces appeared on the cell walls.
As well as the cell blocks were there were held countless of prisoners over the years, there are also reports of what look like former guards haunting the place. In the towers there have been reports about people have seen something that look like the ghost of a guard. What is strange about seeing a figure here however is that there are no physical way of getting up to those towers for a living person.
On the second floor there used to be a cellblock for women when the prison was in operation. Today there is a sighting of a woman wearing white sitting in the last cell that have been seen so often that she has gotten the name: The Soap Lady.
Eastern State Penitentiary’s History in the Museum of Ghosts
Today it’s more like a museum, were we can walk over the faith of these people on ghost trips to a few coins, capitalism at its best. The museum now also caters to the paranormal atmosphere of Eastern State Penitentiary and offers a haunted house attraction during halloween season. And although many of the prisons like Eastern State Penitentiary have started to rethink prison tourism, this is the sort that sells the tickets.
The hauntings however, is said to be there for free as well as Hollywood made and what is an actor and what is an actual ghost is said to have hazy line.
Al Capone’s Cell: Not every prisoners got to have a luxurious cell as the one Al Capone had when he stayed in Eastern State Penitentiary. According to legend though, there was something that seemed to haunt Al Capone when he stayed in his cell at night.
The most normal things we can hear at the Eastern State Penitentiary when the darkness falls is the laughter of some that isn’t there, shadowy figures sneaking over the walls. You can also hear the footsteps that never reaches you. Because even in death, the prisoners in kept in isolation. They are not to see, and not to be seen, ever again.
An online magazine about the paranormal, haunted and macabre. We collect the ghost stories from all around the world as well as review horror and gothic media.
