The bright blue water in the Venetian Lagoon turns gray in the night. In the fog you can hardly see anything. But beware, look out for a small child coffin with four little candles lit on it. It is the hauntings of the young girl who drowned and trying to warn people that she is still there.
Fog crept over the lagoon in Venice. Just off St. Michele Island on the 29th of November in 1904, nighttime and the fog made it dark to be on the water.
All of the transportation in Venice happened and still happens to be on the water and a water bus known as a vaporetto and a gondola was passing. Francesco Quintavalle was the captain on the vaporetto, or water bus called ‘Pellestrina’, and knew he couldn’t see much. Still, he had his passengers from the Fondamenta Nove he had to transport to the island of Burano, known for its colorful houses across the lagoon. The colorful houses were all gray tonight.
When passing the cemetery of St. Michele, the captain gave orders to change course. But a gondola was right behind them and had no chance of stopping in time before crashing with the vaporetto. The gondola was wrecked, but some of the passengers managed to cling onto the gondola. However, five passengers ended up in the dark water and never came up alive.
All night they searched for the rest of the passengers that disappeared into the lagoon. They were all women. Thosa Mary Bull was the first to be found, dead of hypothermia and it wasn’t looking good for the rest.. In the morning hours the bodies of Lei, Thoso of Borelli and Amalia Padovan Vistosi were found as well. But two of the girls, Teresa Sandon and Giuseppina Gabriel Carmelo were not found for a while.
It wasn’t until the sister of Teresa Sandon had a dream of her sister in September 1905 another of the bodies were uncovered. The ghost of the drowned woman asked her to pray for her and free her soul. Ten days later two fishermen found the body of Sandon.
But Giuseppina Gabriel Carmelo, just a little girl, wasn’t as lucky, and she was never found.
Now to this day, just off St Michele, which is one of the big cemeteries in Venice, you can sometimes see a small floating coffin with four burning candles lit on the lid on foggy nights. This is the spirit of Giuseppina, signaling that she is there and to stop other ferrymen and people on boats to never collide with her again.
Scratching sounds from the chimney, plague victims left for dead and floating heads, the haunted underground of alleyways known as Mary King’s Close haunts under the city.
Today much of what you see of Edinburgh is an old town built on top of an even older town. Right opposite St Giles Cathedral you will find The Mary King’s Close or alleyways which are said to be haunted.
It used to be a normal street in the old town by the Royal Mile with narrow alleyways and cobbled streets. It was named after a successful business woman named Mary King working as a fabric merchant in the 1630s.
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So first off, what is a close? A close was a private area that got locked up at night to keep unwelcomed out. The richer lived on the top floors, away from the stench of the sewer and where most light came through the claustrophobic streets.
The Plague
During the 1645 plague the city became overrun with rodents carrying diseases and it hit the Mary King’s Close pretty hard. They would hang out white sheets to show they were infected and in need of food and a plague doctor. Only the bravest plague doctors, one named Dr George Rae dared to venture into the close filled with plague ridden people.
Victims of the disease were quarantined and left for dead to die in the streets. One by one the residents either died or left the Close and were relocated to Burgh Muir, and they didn’t return until almost 40 years after the plague hit its peak. When they returned however, everything seemed to have changed. Since then there have been reports about strange things going on in the underground narrow streets.
Plague Doctor: On the 13th of June 1645, Dr George Rae was appointed as Edinburgh’s second Plague Doctor. During the plague he went around to treat the plague victims. He cut open and cleaned out the puss from the swellings caused by the bubonic plague. He would then burn the wound to catheterize it. He was considered to be one of the more successful doctors during the plague.
What was it that made people see ghosts during this time? Was it the plague victims that were left behind? Or could it be the methane gas from the polluted march right by that caused everyone to see things?
Many tell the tale that it was to cover up the corpses of the plague victims that they built another street on top of it. The true story though is that they built the new street on top of the decaying old one in the 17th century to make a place where tradesmen could be.
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Life continued to go on underneath the surface though as not everyone wanted to leave. The last residents didn’t leave Mary King’s Close until 1902. And if we believe the legends, the last resident named Andrew Chesney never truly left as he is said to be one of the ghosts that haunts the place.
The Hauntings of The Colthearts
Back to the aftermath of the plague. Decades had passed since the plague had reached its peak and people started to return to the Mary King’s Close. But as mentioned earlier, the place had started gaining a notorious rumour of being haunted. And that was according to the residents themselves.
Claustrophobic: The narrow streets of Mary King’s close.
In 1685 a well respected lawyer named Thomas Coltheart moved into the close together with his wife. But their stay was not a happy one at all times.
The maidservant ran off claiming the house was haunted. And it was not long until Coltheart and his wife also noticed strange things. According to them when the Mrs. Coltheart sat reading her bible, she saw a head without a body float in the house, causing the wife to faint.
First, Thomas Coltheart didn’t believe her when she tried to explain. But It returned later that night with the spirit of a child and a floating severed hand beckoning them to come towards them. They tried to pray the spirits away, but to no avail.
Lastly they saw the spirit of a dog running after a ghost cat, creating a chaos of spectres and noises that night. And according to them, that was not the only time they were bothered by the spirits.
Apparently they claimed that the dog returned again and again, not leaving them in peace,
Surprisingly, the couple chose to never leave the Close and stayed there until their death. Needless to say, it turned them mad according to some sources. Or did the madness create the visions?
Abandoned Annie
One of the ghosts that are suppose to haunt the place is that of Abandoned Annie. She is the ghost of a little girl that is allegedly reaching out to grab your hand in the darkness.
She was named that by the Japanese psychic Aiko Gibo who visited the Mary King’s Close in 1992 and found the child ghost crying in a corner of a room. Aiko claimed that Annie was a plague victim who was abandoned by her parents. According to the psychic Annie wanted a doll to not feel so lonely.
Today she has her little altar in what is now known as Annie’s Room with thousands of dolls, toys and money left by her visitors. They are all collected by the city council to donate to and help sick children.
Visit the Underground
The Close was mostly forgotten after the last residents moved out and they didn’t really remember the old place until they once knocked through the walls during construction.
The place was not opened for the public until 2003, but is now perhaps more busy than it was before they closed it up. Today you can access the underground alleyways from the Royal Mile as a tourist attraction. You can now experience the uniquely preserved cobbled streets as it would have been before the 1800s.
The metal bar called the Banshee Labyrinth is located in parts of the haunted underground vaults of Edinburgh. And today the place has some haunted stories to tell as well. Everything from ghost children, accused witches, irish folklore creatures and an annoying ghost in the ladies toilet, this pub houses them all.
What can be a more haunted place than a rock and metal bar located in the haunted old town of Edinburgh? Today it is a family run pub that promises a good drink and music all week.
The Banshee Labyrinth bar is located on Niddry Street it is close to the Royal Mile as well as the haunted underground of Edinburgh.
They are also catering to the more macabre with movie nights mostly showing horror movies. But are we to believe legends about this pub you can also expect a couple of ghostly guests as well.
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The Haunted Underground Vaults
It is located near The South Bridge Vaults where several businesses, workplace and taverns were located. However, it was built on a low budget and never waterproofed. The place eventually flooded and only the poorest people stayed there, making cheap brothels and pubs flourish instead and crime and murders were not uncommon.
It was allegedly also here the infamous serial killers Burke and Hare haunted victims to sell to the medical schools. The underground vaults have become notorious as a haunted place.
The Wailing Banshee
Part of The Banshee Labyrinth is in one of these vaults and the name the pub has comes from the legend of a banshee haunting the place. Banshee are female spirits and creatures that are an omen of death with their terrifying screams.
The Banshee: It is a female spirit in Irish folklore who heralds the death of a family member
Once when the pub was having some restoration work done, the workmen experienced something strange. The story is that a group of workmen heard this wailing scream of death and right after. According to some sources he also saw a woman in a gray dress who cried into her hands before lifting her head to show off her pale face with rotted teeth and no eyes.
After this they were terrified, but it didn’t stop there. Right after the incident, one of the workers got a call about the death of one of their family members just moments later.
There is also Molly, a six year old girl that are said to haunt the place. She is named Molly after they found a child shoe with the name written on it in one of the old bricked-up chimneys. She apparently disappeared in 1814 according to some sources.
People also report on the ghost they have named Ole Jock, who is said to haunt the ladies toilet. He keeps slamming the doors and is even said to be the one turning the hand driers on and off.
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The Witch Hunter
Since its heyday as a part of the criminal hotspot of the city, the people who once walked the vaults are said to have been of the more unsavory characters, and perhaps the ghosts can be seen as the same.
Witches: More than 3000 Scottish people who were accused of witchcraft between the 16th and 17th century. Many of them were burned at the stake in Edinburgh.
One of the neighbors of the building of The Banshee Labyrinth for instance once upon the time belonged to a man named Lord Nicol Edwards. He was a lord Provost and known to be a cruel man, especially to his wife. He is also said to have had a personal dungeon under his house he used to torture accused witches before their trial.
Many pub goers to The Banshee Labyrinth have claimed to have spotted one of these tortured women, and the story of the banshee is often linked together with these women.
There are also stories about inside the pub with some strange things happening. Classical haunted pub things like drinks flying off the tables and crashing in the walls. So bottoms up, The Banshee Labyrinth have spirits for all, both the drinkable and haunted type.
A paranormal investigator’s dream, the South Bridge Vaults in Edinburgh have been investigated for its hauntings on many occasions and many have left with a feeling of having experienced something paranormal and ghostly in the dark.
In the late 18th century Edinburgh was a growing community with a limited space in the Old Town nicknamed Old Reeky because of the bad smell and old buildings. The city is built around seven different hills and there are five main bridges connecting the slopes and hills of the town. That is also the reason for the high rise buildings of Edinburgh were they chose to build on top of the old to utilize the uneven location of the city.
The people of Edinburgh started to utilize the spaces under the South Bridge in the Old Town to make more room for business. The spaces within the archers under the bridge are also known as the Edinburgh Vaults or Niddry Street Vaults as well as just the South Bridge Vaults.
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They look like a series of chambers next to each other and are actually of the 19 archers underneath the South Bridge. It was supposed to be a place with respectable businesses, but ended up becoming some of the more haunted corners of the very haunted city.
The Cursed South Bridge
According to legend, the place was cursed already from the start. The South Bridge that was built to connect the old town with the new town was completed in 1788, and already at the opening of it the locals deemed it as cursed.
The South Bridge: The largest arch of the bridge, seen from the Cowgate.
It was seen as a grand opening and one of the respected Judge’s wives had been selected to be the first resident to cross the bridge as she was the city’s oldest resident. However, she died before the opening. To keep their promise to the elderly woman though, they decided she after all would be the first person to cross the bridge, although it was in her coffin.
The locals in Edinburgh were scared, now thinking that the bridge was cursed because of the unusual opening of the bridge. And looking back at all that happened on the bridge and in the vaults beneath it, perhaps it indeed was.
In the start, the South Bridge Vaults underneath the bridge were mostly used as taverns, workshops and as storage space for merchants. However it wasn’t long before the well respected businesses started leaving the area because of the poor facilities. The building of the bridge and the vaults underneath had been constructed on a low budget and even the construction itself had been rushed. Therefore they had taken no precaution to seal the surface against water and built it with porous limestone and the place became a damp and dark place which constantly flooded.
The Damp and Dark Underworld of the Vaults
No later than 10 years after the bridge and the vaults opened, respectable businesses like shoemakers, goldsmiths started leaving the area and those that could afford it relocated elsewhere as the murky vaults flooded and the sunlight never shone inside the South Bridge Vaults. It was a place no one wanted to be, and only those that had no other choice remained.
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There was also a slum where the poorer people in town started to take over as the surrounding Cowgate area had developed into a slum during the industrial revolution. Crime, filth, poverty and murders were key words to explain the place as no sunlight came through.
More illicit businesses started to pop up in the area like brothels, shady pubs, gambling dents and illegal whiskey distilleries, turning the place into the red light district of the town.
The Legends of the Serial Killers Burke and Hare
A lot of horrible things happened inside these vaults during this time. Most of it, we will never know for sure. Legends however will be told. The South Bridge Vaults were where the body snatchers Burke and Hare were supposedly finding their bodies as well as killing them to sell them off to medical schools.
The Burke and Hare murders: The serial killings were sixteen murders committed over a period of about ten months in 1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were undertaken by William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses to Robert Knox for dissection at his anatomy lectures. Here depicted in an etching of Burke murdering Margaret Docherty (also known as Margery Campbell) by Robert Seymour.
Although this legend is often passed down as fact, there is no actual evidence that the South Bridge Vaults was the exact place they got their bodies from, although very likely. The place to find poverty struck people and those that no one would miss if they suddenly ‘disappeared’ was inside the dark and damp vaults.
The Rediscovery of the South Bridge Vaults
At one point during the 1800s, exactly when is unsure, they emptied the vaults for people and started to dump tons of rubble in the vaults, sealing them completely off and making them inaccessible for the public and were kind of forgotten for a long time.
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It wasn’t until the 1980s the tunnels to the vaults were rediscovered by a former Scottish rugby player named Norrie Rowan when he found one of the tunnels while he was renovating his flat. He spent the rest of his days excavating the vaults and rediscovering its history to make it accessible for the public once again.
The Ghosts of the South Bridge Vaults
There are many stories about who haunts the place today as the vaults have reopened and daily groups of tourists and paranormal investigators are taken down to the vaults to uncover the dark history.
Many people met their tragic fate on a daily basis down there in the vaults as well as suffered from horrible tragedies that affected the entire town. Like the Great Fire of Edinburgh that lasted for five days after it started in 1824 and took the lives of at least 13 people. There are many stories about victims that were trapped inside the chambers and suffered horrible consequences from then. Although there is no paper trail on this tale though.
There are many tourists that claim to have captured evidence of something paranormal going on, and they even make the newspapers from time to time. The same reports comes from the paranormal investigators that go down into the vaults and come back with what they see as proof of hauntings going on.
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Here are some of the ghosts that are said to haunt the vaults until this date and have gathered enough reports to be a part of the haunted ghost tour in Edinburgh:
The Aristocrat
One of the first ghosts that people have reportedly seen over the years is that of the Aristocrat. He is said to be a rich gentleman with a tall black hat and a beard. He is not seen as the most angry spirit as he is known for grinning at visitors while leaning against the wall. People do have a tendency to feel uneasy in his presence though, according to those who claimed to have seen him.
The Happy Shoemaker
There is also a room that is believed to belong to a shoemaker from that time that is said to still practice his profession as a shoemaker.
He is described as a man in his 50s and is one of the ghosts that are said to be friendly and are often seen smiling and laughing by visitors while he happily carries on with his shoemaking while wearing an apron.
The Veiled Woman
In the room with the shoemaker known as The Room of the Cobbler, there is a meaner spirit though and is known as the veiled woman. She is believed to throw small stones at visitors as well. She is seen as a young woman dressed in black while wearing a veil in the north west corner of the Cobbler’s Room.
Women have also reported about feeling an intense rush of grief, anger and a sudden and unexplained abdominal pain, which has left many to believe it is a woman that lost her child in a horrible way and she is still grieving.
The Caretakers Room
In one of the chambers there are reports of a man sitting by the fireplace. He apparently looks like one of the more chill spirits in the place as well with a drink in his hand and legs stretched out. By his side he has a dog that is reported to brush up against people’s legs or sniff them.
Little Jack
Then there is the small boy named Jack or James that are often spotted in the Wine Vault. He is mostly seen as a blonde curly boy around 6 or 8 years old, wearing a blue suit with the classic knickerbocker trousers. Some sources want to connect him to a missing child case from 1810.
He is often playing with a red ball at times and is known to try to hold the hands of female visitors and likes to play around if there are children around. Allegedly, if he spots a person he doesn’t want to enter the South Bridge Vaults he will tuck their sleeves or coat when entering the Blair Street Corridor.
According to the guides down in the vaults, he is afraid of one of the more well known ghosts wandering the narrow alleys and small chambers. And that is that of Mr. Boots or also known as The Watcher.
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The Watcher
Perhaps the most well known ghost in the South Bridge Vaults is that of The Watcher. There is a theory that he was a watchman and that is the reason he is known as The Watcher. Or maybe it’s because he always looks as if watching over something.
There are also alternative legends over the years that have tried to explain his presence, and many are also claiming him to be one of the slum landlords or even one of the body snatchers that hid his stolen bodies in the chamber known as The White Room. Today we can only speculate.
He is also called Mr Boots because of how many people in the vaults have experienced him. They can hear loud footsteps in The White Room or in the Niddry Street Corridor which is known as the most active place in all of the vaults.
His face has never been seen as it is hidden, blacked out or he is showing himself to the public with his back. He is supposedly this tall, slim and dark figure with a long flowing coat with his long hair in a ponytail. Sometimes he wears a hat and long boots. Sometimes he carries rattling keys and his breath smells disgusting of rotten teeth and whiskey.
People experiencing stuff within the vaults often get the feeling that he is trying to get them out from the narrow and claustrophobic spaces. Batteries on cameras die or malfunction when he’s present and he is known to push or pull people towards the exit as well as the phrase ‘Get Out’ has been heard on several occasions.
The Stone Circle
There are also rumors about an evil demon trapped inside one of the stone circles in one of the chambers. This is were the late Wiccan High Priest, George Cameron known as The Hermit set up his temple in the 90’s. It was in one of the vaults that have historic connection to the torturing of witches somehow.
According to him, he was trying to rid it from evil and built the stone circle which still stands today. He failed, however, to remove the evil that were supposed to be in the vaults and Cameron abandoned the room after he recommended to seal up the room to protect people from the evil within it. It is not sealed though as it is one of the stops on the tour through the vaults.
The Experience of the Hauntings
No matter the real story of the ghosts in the South Bridge Vaults and the true horror the people living there went through, the vaults itself are an interesting walk through time and history. And perhaps if you choose to go down into the dark chambers you too will hear the same that many claim to have on recordings and etched into their memories. The eerie sound of what can sound like children yelling and crying along with hushed voices and shuffling footsteps.
Described as the ‘doll from hell’, Letta the Doll in Australia is the cause of strange things. But although a scary one, the owner will never part with the possessed doll and has today a very strong social media profile and is travelling the country.
Haunted dolls have long been the subject of fascination and fear throughout time across the globe. These eerie objects made in our image are believed to be inhabited by restless spirits or possess supernatural powers. What is it with dolls, originally made for children to play with that taps into something so scary? With their lifeless eyes and unsettling presence, haunted dolls have captured the imagination of many and have become the stuff of nightmares.
Stories of dolls moving on their own, whispering, or causing inexplicable occurrences have been passed down through generations, fueling the belief in their paranormal existence. Whether these accounts are true or merely urban legends, one thing is certain: haunted dolls continue to both terrify and intrigue those who dare to encounter them.
This is the case with the curious Letta the Doll in Australia that have captivated the country on the account of being creepy and allegedly haunted.
The Haunted Story of Letta the Doll
The owner of Letta the Doll, Kerry Walton claims he found the doll under the floor of the porch in an abandoned house in Wagga Wagga in New South Wales, Australia. He was going there for his grandmother’s funeral, and decided to go exploring the neighboring house that always had haunted him when he visited.
The doll is of wood and is child sized with a peculiar face, dressed in green with a long braid. When Walton first saw the doll, he was as terrified as we are when seeing the doll.
Read also: Check out all of our ghost stories from Australia
That was back in 1972 and Letta the Doll came back to live with Walton and his family in Brisbane were the doll has lived ever since.
The origin of the name Letta the Doll came about when he was transporting it to its new home. When he put the doll in the trunk of his car to drive home, he heard movement and a scream:
“Letta me out,” he heard from the back of his trunk where only the doll was. And ever since then, the doll was called Letta the Doll. And since then, the doll has apparently been the cause of many strange things happening in the home in Queensland.
Letta The Doll: The doll is a peculiar one, with a grin that will stay with you for a long time. According to the person that found her and so called carer, the doll is haunted by the spirit of a drowned boy. //Photo: Facebook.
Together, Letta the Doll and Kerry Walton have appeared on numerous television shows where he claims there is something paranormal over the doll. He says more than one person has seen the doll move right in front of them. There are also signs of the dolls moving on its own as it left visible marks around the house as well as under the shoes of the doll.
The children living with the doll were also understandably terrified of the strange new addition to the household, and said they could hear the doll move around.
The Doll With a Strong Media Profile
You can get the opportunity to meet with the doll, however, there are reports of having nightmares as well as feeling nauseous after an encounter with Letta the Doll. The owner of the doll is traveling around with it when not in their home in Warwick and charges money to get a picture taken. The doll is so famous now, it even has its own facebook account.
Walton himself has vowed to never get rid of the doll, although he has tried. Once, to get his family out of a financial situation, he tried to sell the doll for 400$. But when it got to him taking the doll out of the car, he physically couldn’t do it, as if a force of some sort was stopping him.
As well as the Facebook account as a true influencer, Letta the Doll also has gotten an Instagram profile where they post family like pictures like this:
Letta the Doll Possessed by the Restless Spirit of a Drowned Boy
Another claim that Walton has is about the origin of the doll and why this particular object is haunted. He apparently had the doll examined by a professional and found that the doll itself was around 200 years old. And the hair of the doll was made with real human hair allegedly, specifically from Eastern European gypsies.
On further examination in some way or another, he found that the doll was haunted by a restless spirit of a drowned boy. The doll is supposedly possessed with the spirit of this boy, and in some variation of the origin of the doll, it was the gypsies that placed the soul of the boy inside the doll. And according to Walton, he thinks the drowning is the reason why it always rains when they go traveling for their shows.
The look of the Yongma Land Abandoned Theme Park in South-Korea has made it a popular place for a photoshoot during the day. But an abandoned place like this also comes with haunting rumors about a little girl that tragically died on one of the rides and that haunts the empty place as a ghost to this day.
Abandoned amusement parks are one of the most beautiful haunted places to exist. Yongma Land (용마랜드) opened in 1980 as a family friendly amusement park and was a popular destination for the local families the first decade after it opened in Seoul in South Korea.
But then, bigger and brighter amusement parks like Lotte World opened in 1989 and people turned to that instead and they closed down in 2011. But was it only because of poor business that the park decided to shut down the rides, or was it because of a tragic death that the legend will have it as?
The Ghost in Yongma Land
The hauntings of the place are not only the close down rides and eerie mood that surrounds the place after dark according to popular rumors and legends. Reports of the voice of a little girl is something more than one visitor has heard among the silent amusement rides and 80s nostalgia. This is supposedly the voice of a little girl that allegedly died on a ride back in 2011.
This is the very incident that is said to have been the reason that the park closed down back in 2011, though no evidence of this incident to have ever occured has been provided and is most likely the rumor the atmosphere creates. And the official statement is that Yongma Land closed down due to poor business.
Even so, a handful of people still claim that the voice of a girl like this is exactly what they heard in the supposedly abandoned amusement park.
K-Pop and Showbiz
This reportedly haunted place is not only for the paranormal interested either and the main attraction is not for paranormal seekers but rather people looking for a good location for a photoshoot.
This abandoned theme park has in the later years been the site of music videos of iconic K-pop groups like Twice’s ‘Like OOH-AHH’ and Crayon Pop’s ‘Bar Bar Bar’ used this place to shoot.
It has also been featured in numrous of K-Dramas and famous idols photoshoots and therefore tourists visits not only for the ghosts, but also for their favorite idols music videos sites and to relive scenes from their drama series.
It has a certain rustic charm to it in daylight for a beautiful backdrop in photos and videos. Even today you can walk around in the 80 nostalgia of Sailor Moon statues and vintage looking posters and rides.
But when the darkness befalls the silent joy rides and the rest of the park, the mood changes to a slightly more haunted one, even when the caretaker of the place turns on the lights for your night shoots.
Although a closed down park, the place still has its entrance fees at around 10 000 KRW for an adult to behold the wonderful magic of decay and nostalgia all in one, and perhaps take a moment to listen for the sound of a little girl among the silent and closed down rides.
Many of the patients spent most of their lives inside of the walls of the old and overcrowded asylum then known as Weston State Hospital as well as the Trans-Allegheny Asylum. Some even say that some of the souls will spend the rest of eternity in this old asylum.
The asylum was first built in the period between 1858 to 1881. During the Civil War it was used as a base for soldiers and the completion of the hospital happened first after the war.
It was back then known as the Weston State Hospital, although it best known by its original name today: The Trans-Allegheny Asylum.
It opened the doors in 1864 with nine patients and was supposed to be a fresh start to cure the insane? But after it closed the doors, it became known as one of America’s most haunted places. How was it possible? For that we have to go back to when the now haunted asylum opened its fresh coated doors.
The man behind the building that is now filled with rumors of ghosts and ghouls was Thomas Story Kirkbride who is considered to be one of the fathers of the modern American practice of psychiatry. The building was built after what was known as the Kirkbride plans which was the golden standard for mental hospitals in the 19th century.
The architecture was supposed to be spacious and receive a lot of direct sunlight to comfort the patients. The hospitals were usually built out in green and lush places. The very word asylum used to mean a place of comfort. The idea that they would remove the inflicted person from the environment, would supposedly help cure them.
But although the base philosophy was moral care and kindness, the reality turned out to be something completely different as the spacious rooms became overcrowded with patients that never recieved their cure.
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The Patients Haunting the Asylum
Although it was seen as an innovative and modern way of dealing with the mentally ill back then, today we look at it as quite barbaric. For instance the patients were admitted with diagnoses like hereditary, menstrual and even masturbation, as they thought this habit caused mental illness.
Some of the more unusual listings but still accepted as diagnoses were: “novel reading,” “doubt about his mother’s ancestors,” “marriage of son,” “Salvation Army,” “seduction and disappointment,” among some of the reasons we today would consider just silly.
And the supposed cure they promised was reported as being at only 26 percent. Many succumbed to the horrible conditions at the hospital, suicide or even murder. Even the methods that were put in to cure your affliction could end up killing you. It is estimated that around 50 000 people died in the hospital while it was operating from 1864 to 1994.
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Horrible Conditions
When the asylum was first built it was supposed to hold up to 250 people. It was built with a lot of space as the idea was that the patients should be able to roam about the premise free as part of their cure.
But soon the asylum got crowded, at most it had ten times more patients than it should have. By the peak in the 1950s, the asylum housed over 2400 patients. They were sleeping maybe up to five people in dirty rooms on the floor in freezing rooms. The windows were almost blacked out by the dirt and mold with the wallpapers peeling in the decay.
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The care for the patients also declined. And although the hospital philosophy was to use as little restraint as possible, it became increasingly more difficult as the overcrowding kept happening and only getting worse into the new century. And the use of straightjackets, cuffs, bed straps and cribs were frequent.
It wasn’t only for the patients that the condition was bad. The staff also had its problems. There are several records of female employees being raped on duty. There is also a story about a nurse who went missing. They didn’t find the rotting body at the bottom of an unused staircase before two months passed.
Lobotomies, Electroshock and Ice Baths
It wasn’t only the rooms and amounts of patients that were a problem at the asylum. It was also the treatments. When it was at its worst, the asylum was also a place where they began experimenting with some experimental lobotomies in the 1930s.
These lobotomies left the patients, some even perfectly healthy before the procedure, with brain damage and hemorrhages. It is estimated that over 4000 of these experiments were performed at this asylum.
There was also a spread of electroconvulsive therapy and hydrotherapy. Hydrotherapy was widely used in the first half of the 20th century and was a cold bath where the patient had to sit for hours, sometimes even days.
Electroshock Therapy was given up to several times a day and some also suffered permanent brain damage from it in the long run.
The End of the Asylum
Although some were considered cured and helped during their stay at the hospital, many patients held great resentment towards the place and the staff. One even tried to burn it to the ground in 1935.
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The asylum closed its doors for patients first in 1994. In 2007 it opened its doors for tourists and was renamed to Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum which was the original name when it first opened its doors. Here they host tours and overnight stays to tell the story, both the medical and the supposed paranormal ones.
Ghosts Reported of in the Asylum
Lily
One of the most talked about ghosts in the old asylum is the little girl, Lily. The story differs slightly from who tells it, from her being a patient from the Civil War era that died from pneumonia when she was 9. Some even say that she was born in the asylum.
She usually plays in a room on the 4th floor in Ward R. This was once a place for violent women. She is often seen in her playroom, where you can hear her both crying and laughing.
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There have been several claims to exactly who she is. In one paranormal investigation series, she featured in one of their episodes. There the psychist Tammy Wilson met a girl around nine years old wearing a white dress. Her mother started with the letter E came to the hospital already pregnant. Her parents died though and both her and her daughter had to live their remaining days at the asylum.
According to the producers, they actually found records of a woman beginning with an E and gave birth in the 1920s. Could it be Lily?
Big Jim
One of the more scarier ghost is Big Jim, said to have murdered another patient with a bedpost. He is said to haunt the third floor together with a murdered man who was bludgeoned to death after the murdered failed to hang him.
James
A ghost who is said to have died of a heart attack in the bathtub.
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Ruth
On the first floor of the building you can find the ghost of former patient Ruth. She haunts this place which is called the Civil War Wing. Apparently she hated men and used to throw things at them, someone says she still does it to this day.
Nurse Elizabeth
Another ghost that is haunting the third floor is that of Nurse Elizabeth. Not much are known of her.
Civil War Soldiers
From its story stretching all the way back to the civil war, there wouldn’t be a story complete without a soldier ghost. Although not specified as being from the civil war in all the sources, there is a ghost named Jacob who are haunting the hallways of the fourth floor.
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Slewfoot
One person nicknamed Slewfoot is said to haunt the upper floors. He is said to have committed many of the murders in the upstairs bathroom and supposedly haunts the area.
Other Ghosts
In Ward 2 on the second floor there is a room where a man was stabbed 17 times by another patient and still haunts it. In another room there were two patients that hanged themselves from the curtain rods and have been seen as shadowy figures.
The haunted Poveglia Island has always been a place for the unwanted. It has been a place for plague victims, a psychiatric hospital and burial ground. Today it’s known for being one of the most haunted places in the world.
Today, even fishermen avoid the Poveglia Island, not only because it is forbidden to go there. On clear days you can allegedly see skulls and bones under the surface. If a skull is caught in the fishing net, the fisherman will just dump it all back into the sea. There are no fish that are worth taking from the cursed plague island.
The Plague Island
Most of the legends started when the government closed off the whole island because of cases of the plague. There have been found numerous plague pits of dead bodies. Over the years it turned into a dumping ground of the undesired to isolate them from the rest of the population. According to locals there have been over 160 000 deaths on the island of no return. According to the legends, the ground on Poveglia Island consists of half dirt and half human ashes.
The Plague Island: Plague mask and tools for disinfecting letters discovered on Poveglia island by Theodor Weyl in 1889.
People with the plague were shipped off to this island, both the dead as well as those still alive. From 1776 it was used as a quarantine station for ships that were coming and going from Venice, although it had been used as a quarantine station way before that as well. Most notably in 1348 when Venice was hit with the Bubonic Plague, more commonly known as the Black Death. It is said you had to stay on the island for 40 days to see if you would die or survive. The word quarantine comes from the Italian quaranta, meaning 40.
The Vampires on Poveglia Island
Because of the death toll the island saw, the locals started calling it the Island of Ghosts. But it wasn’t the only fear the Venetians had of the dead that had their final resting place there. They were also afraid of Vampires living on the Poveglia Island.
When people rediscovered these mass graves of the plague pits, they noticed something strange about some of the skeletons. Some were found with large rocks between their jaws, and it is believed that the Venetians did this because they believed they were vampires.
A scientific explanation of this of course is the decomposition gasses that caused internal organs to rupture. Sometimes, blood came out from these organs and out from the dead bodies mouth. So when the Venetians opened up the plague pits to put more people into it, they were sometimes met with dead bodies with bloody mouths, looking like they had just been feasting on human flesh. That is at least what we hope happened, as the paranormal explanation is so much worse.
The Mad Doctor in the Belltower
In 1922 the whole Poveglia Island turned into an asylum to hide away the mentally ill. Because a cursed island is not complete before having operated as an asylum. The patients supposedly reported seeing ghosts of the plague victims all the time, but who would take a pshycriatic patient’s visions of ghosts seriously in an asylum?
But it wasn’t only plague victims from the past that were torturing the patients. Their doctors were as well. According to legends, there was this one doctor who took to experiment and torture his patients in the bell tower. Apparently he used to do these crude lobotomies with a hammer and a chisel into the patient’s brain.
Cursed Asylum: View of Poveglia in the Lagoon of Venice. Closeup of the Hospital and the belltower.//source//Chris 73
Exactly what happened in the bell tower with the patients, we will never really know. He himself died when he fell from that very same tower sometime in the 1930s. Some say he went mad and threw himself off, some say it was the angry spirits of those he tortured and killed who drove him to it.
The fall from the tower itself didn’t kill him immediately, but he died from the wounds not long after. Together with his victims, he now haunts Poveglia Island that no one returns from.
The mental hospital closed down in 1968 and Poveglia Island has been vacant ever since. Or has it?
The Ghost of Little Maria
Although the fishermen in the lagoon try to stay away from Poveglia Island, it is impossible not to hear the screams and the moans coming from it at times. Even the bell from the bell tower can be heard at times, even though the bell was removed from the towers years ago.
One of the more known ghosts is called ‘Little Maria’. she has been spotted on Poveglia Island for more than 400 years now and is considered to most likely have been one of the plague victims that never returned. She is forever doomed now to walk along the beach on Poveglia Island as she cries for help to get away.
The Forbidden Island
Getting there is hard as Poveglia Island is off limits and its remaining buildings in desperate need of repair. This is fuelling the legends of the island being haunted. But does anyone really want to stay on the island themselves? It is said to be a haunted place by the locals, believing that the very soil, mixed with the ashes of people laid to rest there, made the very ground cursed.
This porcelain doll named Ruby will give the people playing with her an instant sorrow and sense of sickness, just by holding her. Family legend has it that the doll is haunted by a little girl that died with Ruby in her arms.
Ruby the Doll had a special talent when she was living with her family. That talent was moving from room to room, all on her own. No wonder her owners didn’t want to play with her as she was so cursed that she made the people holding her feeling sick, sad and sometimes, even nauseous.
Even with the cutesy blue eyes and golden locks, she is definitely not the scariest looking doll there is out there, but there is still something about the way she watches you with her porcelain eyes. The family that originally owned her certainly seemed to think so and thus kept her hidden away.
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Instead the doll was passed down from generation to generation and put away in attics and basements, but they would constantly find her in other rooms than they put her in.
Haunted Porcelain
She is a porcelain doll from the early 1900s from Southern Ontario in Canada and belonged to a young girl of the same family that always had her in their possession, who passed away while she was holding Ruby in her arms allegedly.
The family even contacted a psychic medium once to get rid of the spirit that seemed to have attached itself to the doll. But it seemed to have failed as the strange occurrences around the doll kept happening.
Ruby The Haunted Doll: This little doll is said to be of the haunted and cursed kind. Visitors claim they feel unwell and get a sense of overwhelmingly sadness when being close to the doll. // Photo: Traveling Museum of the Paranormal and Occult
Since then she’s been creeping out every generation that inherited her. Not only by disappearing and appearing in different rooms, but also because of the strange sounds that seem to be coming from the doll.
Traveling Occult Objects
She is currently traveling with the Traveling Museum of the Paranormal and Occult that collects strange, occult and haunted objects, just like Ruby. Together they travel to places curious about the rarities of the occult. Thank God Ruby seems to always have enjoyed traveling.
She was given to the museum from a friend whose family had Ruby hidden away in a cardboard box.
And according to the owners, Greg Newkirk and Dana Mathew, visitors often get a feeling of sorrow from the doll, but also a sense of maternity and an urge to rock the little doll back and forth for comfort.
On the cliff overlooking the blinking blue ocean of Portugal, a young blind girl fell to her death while playing by the Castelinho de São João do Estoril. She is now forever haunting the place.
A well tended garden by the bright blue seaside in Portugal looks more like an interior design story than a ghost story. There are the goth-like towers in the new-medieval style of the grand house that can allude to something more than a sunshine story.
The Castelinho de São João do Estoril, in Estoril, is said to be haunted by the ghost of a little blind girl who accidentally fell to her death in a nearby cliff.
The Dancing Girl
The house is called Castelinho Nossa Senhora de Fátima and sits at the edge of the cliffs, overlooking the beautiful Cascais bay and the Atlantic Ocean. This house has gone for as much as 3 million euros. But there are also legends about potential buyers that have turned the house down based on some ghost stories surrounding the place.
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Locals tell a story about a girl that was dancing at the edge of the cliff and fell to her death in the sea by the Castelinho de São João do Estoril. They say that ever since, you can sometimes spot a dancing girl at the very edge, always dancing.
But who was this girl? Some say that she was the daughter of the owners of the house. But one story that is told the most, is that she was a blind girl from one of the neighboring houses, and that the parents of the house gave their house as a support center for the blind.
The Truth Behind the Legend
It is true that there was a support center for the blind, however, it wasn’t a house gifted from the parents of a blind girl that fell to her death.
In fact, there was no house there, until 1913 when Instituto de Cegos Branco Rodrigues was built and used until the 70s. First 14 years later, the Castelinho Nossa Senhora de Fátima was built. And a story about a blind ghost, must have been a student at the school for instance if we are to give credit to the paranormal sightings.
By the Sea: The house of Castelinho de São João do Estorilwere the supposed haunting is right by the bright blue sea //Photo: Observador
One of the potential buyers in 1983 was José Castelo Branco, a Portuguese reality star, but when he got to the place, he gave up any plans of buying the place. At arrival he saw a girl playing with other children by the cliff and suddenly felt the urge to throw himself into the sea. Not buying a bad omen, he left without buying.
And although today, the story of the little girl on the cliff is mostly brought up when the house is put up for sale, it still persists to be told, again and again. And reports of a ghost of a little girl with a doll in her hand comes in as she dances on the cliff or goes through the walls of the house.
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.
