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The Drummer of Tedworth

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The story of the Drummer of Tedworth has often been called the first poltergeist in England that has been reported on in writing and the mystery surrounding it stands to this day. 

In March 1661 a man named John Mompesson sued a drummer called William Drury whom he meant made money under false pretenses. Drury was a traveling showman, drumming, juggling, dancing and other forms of “hocus pocus” up and down the entire country. 

Mompesson visited Ludgershall in Wiltshire when he met Drury who banged his drums and begged for money, annoying the people in the town so much that Mompesson took the case into his own hands and turned him in.  

He accused Drury for having false documents that allowed him to drum for cash and decided to sue him. Mompesson won the trial and Drury got his drum confiscated, something that Mompesson would regret dearly after. 

Drury was believed to be a sketchy type of man according to the finer folks in town. He was thought to be hanging out with a group of gypsies and there were rumors that he was involved in witchcraft. Something he would be forever remembered as, long after the drumming ended. 

The Haunted Drumming

Mompesson traveled back home and something strange awaited him there. The drum that were confiscated from Drury, ended up at his doorsteps the following April that year. It was then the strange banging noise started to haunt him. During the night he kept hearing the sound of drums and Mompesson was certain it was witchcraft from Drury. 

The drumming came from everywhere, from the walls, the ground, even from the roof. One night, Mompesson drew his pistol, chasing the sound like a madman, sleep deprived and scared of the haunting of his house. 

“The noise of thumping and drumming was very frequent, usually five nights together, and then it would intermit three. It was on the outside of the house, which is most of it board. It constantly came as they were going to sleep, whether early or late. After a month’s disturbance without, it came into the room where the drum lay, four or five nights in seven, within half an hour after they were in bed, continuing almost two. The sign of it, just before it came was … an hurling in the air above the house, and at its going off, the beating of a drum like that at the breaking up of a guard….”

A month passed and the sound of drums seemed to move from the room where the drum was placed into the childrens bedroom. The bedframes of the childrens bed were beaten, and they kept hearing a scratching sound from under their beds, leaving them shaken and frightened in their beds. 

The Drummer of Tedworth: The devil and the drum, from the frontispiece to the third edition of Saducismus Triumphatus (1700).

The only break the family got from the alleged poltergeist was when Monpessons wife was in labor and the house stopped its drumming beat as she gave birth. But afterwards it came back, even more than before. 

It wasn’t just the drumming sound that haunted the house. Lights kept moving around without anybody touching them, staff and family members alike were lifted from their beds, and weird smells of sulfur came from everywhere and nowhere. And it wasn’t even only at nighttime the hauntings occurred either, but even in broad daylight. 

One time a servant claimed to have seen a moving board in the room. He asked the spirit to pass it to him, and the spirit listened. Then, they continued to throw it between them, back and forward around 20 times until the servant stopped after his master ordered him to. 

This continued for the next two years and the sound of drumming grew louder, not only confined to the house, but nearby villagers were woken from the spectacle from the house as well. And even visits from a priest didn’t help with the hauntings in the long run. 

The Drummer William Drury

So what happened to the original drummer, William Drury? He was arrested and sentenced to deportation in 1662. He confessed to the crimes of tormenting Mompesson and his family and being behind the paranormal stuff happening. But before he was deported and could be charged for any more, he escaped deportation and fled. 

But in 1604, he was brought back to court, this time because of witchcraft were he would once again be trialed as The Drummer of Tedworth. He was acquitted because of the lack of evidence, but because of a prior pig stealing debacle he was sentenced for theft and sent to the American colonies, never to be heard of again. 

The Book of Witchcraft

It was not only Mompesson himself that heard these drumming noises, but also his visitors claimed to have been bothered by the sounds. 

Joseph Glanvil published in 1681 a book of witchcraft after his death called Saducismus Triumphatus where the story of the Drummer of Tedworth is detailed. This was a book where he affirmed the existence of witches and dark magic and looked at any skepticism of this like blasphemy. It is also said that this particular book was a big inspiration and influenced the people during the Salem witch trials. 

In 1661 he visited Mompesson’s house in Tedworth in Wiltshire, England and heard the sounds himself. He also claimed to have heard additional scratching noises under a bed in the children’s room. 

Speculations of Fraud

There have been countless people that have tried to debunk the story of The Drummer of Tedworth since it was first heard of. Charles Mackay wrote about it all being a trick of the mind in Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds in 1841. Instead of it being a poltergeist at work it was simply Mompesson who was easily deceived by someone holding a grudge, something Drury himself confessed to. 

 In 1881 the American skeptic Amos Norton Craft said this about The Drummer of Tedworth: 

We are to remember also, that the house of Mr. Mompesson contained several servants who doubtless possessed a good degree of human nature; Mr. Mompesson had caused the arrest and imprisonment of a member of a band of gypsies, who were intensely enraged at him

Even Mompesson’s own children were believed to be behind the drumming noises and the culprit of The Drummer of Tedworth, especially his ten year old daughter as much of the mysterious sound came from her bedroom. 

“Mr. Mompesson perceiving that it so much persecuted the little children, he lodged them at a neighbor’s house, taking his eldest daughter, who was about ten years of age, into his own chamber, where it had not been a month before. As soon as she was in bed, the disturbance began there again, continuing three weeks drumming, and making other noises, and it was observed that it would exactly answer in drumming anything that was beaten or called for. After this, the house where the children were lodged out, happening to be full of strangers, they were taken home, and no disturbance having been known in the parlor, they were lodged there, where also their persecutor found them, but then only plucked them by the hair and night clothes without any other disturbance….

The Last Drumming Sound

So how did it all end for the family? Apparently it ended after Drury was sent away to the colonies and the drum burnt to a crisp. And the house, after two years of intense drumming by whoever the The Drummer of Tedworth was, go quiet again. 

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References

Drummer of Tedworth – Wikipedia 

The Drummer of Tedworth: Britain’s First Poltergeist – Burials & Beyond

The Drummer of Tedworth: a Halloween tale of witchcraft, demons and an extremely noisy ghost | Special Collections and Archives / Casgliadau Arbennig ac Archifau

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1917046?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Drummer of Tedworth | Encyclopedia.com

Curse Of The Demon Drummer Of Tedworth | Spooky Isles

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The Friendly Ghost Octavia at Den Nationale Scene

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At Den Nationale Scene theater in Bergen there is a ghost named Octavia that haunts the place. She is said to be a helping ghost, taking care of the staff and helping the actors remember their lines. 

There is a rule somewhere that every theatre needs a ghost, even if the building is new or old. In Bergen in Norway, they have Octavia at the oldest theater in Norway, Den Nationale Scene, in the beautiful art-nouveau building that opened in 1909. But as house ghosts go, she’s not so bad to have hanging around as she is said to be very friendly. 

Octavia Sperati

In the early and living days she was one of the actresses at the theater named Octavia Sperati that lived a long life as a working actress as her children did after her as well. She was born as Salmine Svendsen in Kristiansand, south in Norway, but took her middle name and married as Octavia Sperati which became her stage name as well.

Octavia Sperati was an actress who died in March 1918 in Bergen and had worked for many years at the theater in the city, dedicating her life to it and according to popular belief, she is still hanging out in the theatre, long after her death.  

She is remembered for her characters of the famous playwrights like Holberg and Ibsen where she played the character of Gina Ekdal in the first production of the play The Wild Duck and one of Ibsen’s most famous plays. 

Haunting at Den Nationale Scene

One of Octavia Speratis portraits still hangs in the lobby at Den Nationale Scene and is one of the things that are said to be haunted. The portrait has survived most things like multiple bombings during the second world war and fires that broke out in the theatre.

In a fire in 1983, her portrait was one of the only things intact after a fire at Den Nationale Scene. A man named Jørgen Fogge who worked there claimed to have heard her voice calling out in the flames. 

There have been several sightings of her over the years, most of them claiming she is in a white dress, flying around in the corridors or sitting in her kept seat in the front, watching the plays. Someone claims to have seen her with a hat, parasol and a pink ball gown in the attic.  

Before seeing her, you can hear her knocking, or her footsteps through the corridors. In some cases it is said that paintings are falling off the wall, or even the sound of her voice can be heard when the theater is quiet. 

The Helpful Ghost

Although a paranormal specter, the staff, actors and audience are not particularly afraid of her, and she is rather a dearly beloved ghost. She is said to be a helpful ghost, and her only goal is to take care of the building and the staff working there as she once did. 

She is particularly known for helping the actors to remember the lines and if they are stuck on them on stage, she will suddenly appear to help them. 

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Her er Norges mest kjente spøkelser – NRK Vestland

Octavia Sperati (skuespiller) – Wikipedia 

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The Haunted Natural History Museum in Bergen

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There is not only one ghost story inside of the Natural History Museum in in the cobbled streets of Bergen in Norway. From everything from the ghost of a former zoologist, cursed Egyptian statues and an executed revolutionary, the museum has it all to see at the price of an entrance ticket. 

The Natural History Museum in Bergen, west in Norway, was built at the end of the 1800s at Nygårdshøyden close to the city center in the cobbled streets were it only seems to go uphill. On top of it all, close to the Dragon Top, you find the place that has been operating as a museum since it opened and has several famous collections from all over the world. And some of the artifacts are said to be of the haunted kind.

There have been reports about several strange and disturbing things occuring at the Natural History Museum in Bergen, especially at night time when there is no one around for many years, even from before the museum was built. Several people working as staff claimed to have heard footsteps and seen strange shadows and the exhibitions seems to have a will of its own and moves around when the lights are off and the living has gone home. 

The Resting Zoologist Haunting the Museum

The ones that have looked into the supposed hauntings have usually attributed it to a former zoology worker working at the Natural History Museum in Bergen named James Alexanderssøn Grieg. After he donated his skeleton to the museum after his death, strange things started happening. The people working there have a theory about him needing a place to rest as he was known for working long nights at the museum and frequently sleeping there as well. 

Night at the Museum: The museum is known for having things that looks a bit unnatural outside of its contexts and for some it can get a little scary, especially when the lights are out and the ghosts are out. One of the alleged ghosts is a former worker that donated his skeleton to the museum after he died. Here is from The Whale Hall: Natural History Museum in Bergen.//Source: Adnan Icagic © Universitetsmuseet i Bergen

But there can be someone older that has taken the steps inside the museum as well. Because, even though the museum itself only opened in the 1800s, the location it is built upon has a much longer history. 

Rakkerdammen or the Swamp of the Executed

Outside in the garden belonging to the Natural History Museum in Bergen, there is a small pond known as the Rakkerdammen with only a couple of water lilies to show for its once grandeur. It was here long before the building was made and perhaps it will stay there long after, although it is much smaller now than it used to be. 

Rakkerdammen used to be a swamp that were much larger and it was also the place where they executed people. Rakke means executioner and Dammen means The Pond. Many convicts met their unfortunate end at this place. 

A long time ago, children were warned to not go near the swamp as they were told that the ghost of the executed people would drag them into it. According to the legends, there are some of the executed that are still haunting the place. Perhaps the children are not warned to go close to the pond today, and the warnings have been forgotten.

Rakkerdammen in the Botanical Garden: Outside of the Natural History Museum in Bergen you will find a small pound thought to be haunted by the people that died there when it was used as a place for executions: //Source//May Lis Ruus 29.05.2013

The last execution at Rakkerdammen took place in 1803 when Anders Lysne from Lærdal led a farmers’ revolt against the forced military service. For this he was beheaded at this place. 

Along with former workers at the museum and revolutionaries, there are also reports about the ghost of a monk haunting the church exhibition area. Who this monk is suppose to be or from were he originated from is uncertain, but the story goes that he shows himself in the darkest of nights.

The Haunted Egyptian Statues that Moves

Perhaps the strangest thing happening at the Natural History Museum in Bergen is the moving statues that are believed to be the most haunted, and the little statues even made the national news because the staff working in the museum was so freaked out by them.  

Inside the Natural History Museum in Bergen they have a huge collection of Egyptian artifacts they started collecting as soon as the museum opened. Some of them are 3000 year old statues that are concealed inside a glass case that is the location of the haunting. 

Restless Statues in the Museum: The ushabti or shabti was a funerary figurine used in ancient Egyptian funerary practices. Ushabtis were placed in tombs among the grave goods and were intended to act as servants or minions for the deceased, should they be called upon to do manual labor in the afterlife. The figurines frequently carried a hoe on their shoulder and a basket on their backs, implying they were intended to farm for the deceased. They were usually written on by the use of hieroglyphs typically found on the legs. They carried inscriptions asserting their readiness to answer the gods’ summons to work. Source// The NRK article of the Shabti at The Natural History Museum in Bergen

The Natural History Museum in Bergen opened the exhibition in 2001 and the staff noticed soon after opening that something strange was happening with the statues. When the guard at the museum came to work, he kept noticing strange things happening. Allegedly they turn and move around inside the glass, but the staff have no idea how it is happening. 

The glass the statues is locked and no one have been close to the statues at all except the staff working there. Still, they kept moving, bit by bit until it became so noticable the staff couldn’t ignore it any longer. One of the statues has moved over five centimeters and turned towards the door. Three of the total seven statues are about to turn. 

The staff at the Natural History Museum in Bergen tried to speculate how this can be explained by something else than the supernatural. 

Maybe there are vibrations in the floor, but why is it just on this floor and in this glass case they move? asked Saure, one of the staff. Perhaps someone was pulling a prank, but they knew everyone that had access to them. And when you know the history of the little statues, you know they have a rumor of being haunted.

The Runaway Shabtis at the Natural History Museum in Bergen

The statues in question are shabtis , or death helpers and had, according to legend, magic powers. They were put in the coffins together with the mummies with the idea that they would work for the dead one in the coffin when they reached the death realm. Rich people had maybe over 300 shabtis statues buried with them, while poor people had maybe one or two, if any. 

But what exactly are they? Many believe that the Egyptians used these statues to entrap souls of servants or family to make them more manageable to travel with them to the afterlife. That is why the shabtis is thought in many ways to carry the souls of servants of the rich.

Read Also: More haunted stories from Egypt like: Khonsuemheb and the Ghost of Theban Necropolis

The shabtis statues were brought up from the basement of the Natural History Museum in Bergen where they had been gathering dust for over 100 years. 

But it isn’t just the shabtier statues that are restless inside their glass cases. There is also a female God figure in wood that appears to have turned 180 degrees and facing towards the wall in the case. Specks of dust show she has moved many centimeters already, although other figures in the same glass case have not moved at all. Is this also a case of vibration of the class cage solely?

The Natural History Museum in Bergen is not the only place where the shabtis statues have exhibited strange things when left alone. Hans Frode Storaas, responsible for the Egyptian collection at the Natural History Museum in Bergen, said he was contacted by many having experienced the same.

People from all over the world contacted him about similar experiences with the shabtis. And several merchants in Egypt wouldn’t have them exhibited in their shop because of strange things happening. He told this to the NRK broadcast site in 2012. 

So if you have a look at the Egyptian collection of the museum, don’t only look at the huge statues, mummies and coffins in the collection. Have a look at the smaller ones instead and see if there is a trail of dust that shouldn’t be there.

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Her er Norges mest kjente spøkelser – NRK Vestland

Dødens hjelpere spøker – NRK Vestland

https://www.ilovebergen.net/bergen/the-most-haunted-places-in-bergen/

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The Mannequins Haunting the John Lawson House

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Sitting on the porch outside the historic John Lawson House, three mannequins sat on the porch for over a decade. No one really knew who lived there, or why the mannequins were there. And no one really saw when or if someone came and moved the mannequins’ positions, clothes and wigs. 

The old house is found in Wappingers Falls in New York and has probably seen its fair share since it was first built. It is a really old house built in 1845 by a man named John Lawson that is not known much about and were the name comes from. What is known of this man is that he is descended from the one of the first Europeans families that took over the area. But who lived in this house now, is uncertain and up for a lot of speculation.

But one day something strange appeared on the poarch that caught the curiosity of the locals and made people speculate in the haunted rumours of the house. A couple of dressed up mannequins without any explanation suddenly appeared, and to this day, we still don’t know the full story.

Read More: Check out all of our ghost stories from USA

The John Lawson House, sitting by the road and letting the paint peel therefore has an old story, and the house would by its historic architecture and age be a breeding ground for haunting house rumors and paranormal ghost stories. But it was in recent times that the house really started to be known as the creepiest house in America. 

Read More: Check out more ghost stories from haunted houses in the world.

The Mannequins on the Porch of The John Lawson House

In a span of a decade in the early 2000s, the house on 9A Main Street was known for housing a group of life size mannequins that sat on the porch of the house. In each of their rocking chairs the three mannequins sat in their vintage dresses, looking out on those passing the house. 

The Mannequins on the Porch: The John Lawson House was for over a decade a place of wonder when three mannequins camped out on the porch and started a rumour of the house being haunted. They would be dressed up in different clothes, wigs and hold onto different accessories. It was a mystery as to who or why did this.

The mannequins on the porch of the John Lawson House were of the kind you would find in clothing stores. What is weirder is that someone would change their clothes and their wigs occasionally. In pictures they wore everything from vintage dresses to normal mainstream fashion, often according to the seasons as well. 

The people orchestrating the mannequins would also get different props to hold in their hands like standard props like books opened for the mannequins to look like they just relaxed on their porch, reading as if they are taking the view in. There were however also occasions where the mannequins held onto things that made the weird sight, even weirder. Like when they held onto stuff like an empty birdcage or tool boxes. 

Whenever there was bad weather in New Hamburg, the mannequins would disappear from sitting on the porch so they would not get caught in the rain, but come back when the weather cleared up. 

Read More: Check out more ghost stories about haunted dolls like: Mandy the Haunted Doll, The Possession of Letta the Doll, The Haunted Barbie Doll in The Shrine on Pulau Ubin Island or Okiku — The Haunted Doll of Hokkaido.

What was this supposed to be? At the time, no one really knew who lived in the house, and no one really saw who changed the props or clothes of the mannequins in between sets. This of course led to people thinking the house was really haunted and people started to look to the old history of the house for an explanation. 

The Haunting Accidents near The John Lawson House

There are mainly two tragedies from the past the locals used to explain the reason behind the supposed hauntings of The John Lawson House, although the most disturbing thing yet seems to be the thing sitting on the poarch that everyone can see and touch. But can we really explain it? 

Historic Building filled with Dolls Living their Lives: The John Lawson House is thought to be one of the oldest houses in this area. According to some, this house is also a haunted one.

One of the dark legends connected to the John Lawson House comes from a terrible accident decades ago. Back in 1871 a freight train derailed close by the John Lawson House on February 6th. It ended up colliding with a passenger train that was unable to stop and it all ended in a big tragedy.

The train was carrying oil which caught fire and ended in an explosion only 200 feet from the John Lawson House. That night, 22 people were killed, and this is one of the events that are said to haunt the house. But what came first? Did the haunted legends fuel the urge to put eerie dolls on display, or did the dolls sitting there like the uncanny valley give a head start to the haunted rumours?

Another thing that is attributed to the haunting is the second fire that broke out in the neighborhood around John Lawson House. In 1877 on May 3rd, seven buildings burned to the ground and the John Lawson House was one of the few houses that survived the fire for some reason. There were at the time theories that the fire was arson and a very strategic one at that. If there were any casualties in the fire is unknown, but the ghost stories claim that there really was.  

If there was any local legends surrounding the the John Lawson House before the mannequins showed up on the porch is unknown. Or if these two tragedies have been told as a ghost story before they started hanging out on the poarch, is also unknown. Most likely the stories have been used to create the legend of a haunted house, not just the house of an eccentric.

The Haunting Mannequins

According to the legends told, the mannequins were haunted by the spirits of those that died in those two accidents. But as the article has already have stated, what came first, the hauntings or the mannequins is a bit unclear.  

There are also those that connect the dots that some of the mannequins are facing the site of the train derailing and others are facing the other historic house that survived the second fire.  Coincidence? Like most things in life, most likely. Or…

The strange house has made many theories about what really went down in the John Lawson House. The most likely scenario is of course the house was owned by some really committed pranksters or just some with a strange hobby. And although one can very easily find out who lived in the house or occasionally comes to rearrange 3 real life dolls outside on the Main Street, everyone loves a good mystery without an unsatisfying truth behind. Could this be one of the cases were the locals simply don’t want the truth and full story, as the life in these parts are boring enough?

Read Also: Another haunted case were the locals didn’t want the truth to ruin the fun local legend is the case of The Anson Lights Highway Ghost in Texas.

The Disappearance of the Mannequins of the John Lawson House

Relaxing: The mannequins relaxing with a book and a coffee mug on the porch outside of John Lawson House before they disappeared in 2016.

This strange house with its strange inhabitants started to become more than just a local legend of the quaint town of New Hamburg and the story of the weird mannequins started to draw tourists wanting to have a look around The John Lawson House and see for themselves what the thing was all about.

What outfits would they wear? What items would they clutch in their cold and stiff hands?

But if you are curious about the house and the mannequins, you are now in bad luck most likely as it seems that the pranksters got tired of the constant upkeep of the dolls. Today there are no more mannequins sitting on the front porch of the house.

One day in the summer of 2016, the locals in the town found that the porch was empty and the mannequins had simply vanished during the night. Even when the weather cleared up, they were nowhere in sight. No one really knows where they have gone or why they were there in the first place. 

Or is this simply another case of the: the story is better if we don’t know the truth? Because rumor has it they are found at a house near Route 9W, ready to create another urban legend, sitting ready in their outfits, reading a book and enjoying the nice weather outside.

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Inside The Mystery Of The John Lawson House And Its Haunted Mannequins

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The Haunted Picture of The Rain Woman

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In the 90s the Ukrainian artist Svetlana Telets painted a strange painting known as The Rain Woman. According to those seeing the painting it makes them feel uneasy as if the woman in the painting is watching them. Today the painting has become known as one of the most haunted paintings out there. 

The painting named The Rain Woman (Женщина дождя), has spurned a living legend in the later years as strange rumors about the woman in the picture has haunted the past owners according to the artist herself. 

It is a strange picture of a pale looking woman with droopy and cloudy eyes that, according to those that have seen her, follows you around. She is wearing a black hat through the rain but doesn’t really seem bothered by it. The colors are muted and dark, creating a surreal and eerie atmosphere that lingers. Where did this woman come from and why does she make the owners and those seeing her uncomfortable?

Ukrainian artist Svetlana Telets painted this picture in 1996, the same year she graduated from Odessa Art University. For six months after graduating art school, she always had this feeling of someone watching her and an uneasy anxious feeling was following her. This was the state of mind she found herself in when she painted The Rain Woman. 

It is not the only picture that are rumoured to be haunted or cursed. Read more about it here:

Read about more cursed and haunted paintings:

Cursed and Haunted Paintings

What is art is perhaps just as difficult as explaining what is a haunting. And haunted art? How can that be? Several paintings have strange occurrences, history and tragedy attached to them. From people dying to people feeling a certain way when looking at the paintings, these are some work of art that are claimed…

Keep reading

Painting The Rain Woman as if Possessed

When the then unknown and young artist, Svetlana Telets one day suddenly had the image of The Rain Woman in her head, she started to paint almost without thinking. She herself claimed that something or someone took over her, like drawing through her. 

This almost possession-like feeling made her work fast and the painting was done in 5 hours according to Svetlana Telets. And thus the Rain Woman was made, or perhaps conjured is a more appropriate wording according to the legends that were made about the woman in the painting.

After Svetlana Telets had reworked the painting for about a month, she put it up for sale and some people felt drawn to the strange and mystical painting of the pale woman. The painting was bought, then returned, then sold, then resold again. 

The buyers didn’t want it in their homes. They complained that the painting was causing them to experience insomnia and anxiety. Some even claimed that the painting was giving them headaches. A thing the past owners all agreed on though was how they all had a feeling of being watched. 

The Rain Woman Haunting the Owners

The first owner that bought the painting was a businesswoman, in some sources named Larisa, that hung the painting in her bedroom. But it wasn’t before she tried to get rid of the painting as she constantly had a feeling of someone watching her and another presence in her house, despite her living alone. She even rang to Svetlana Telets and complained to her about The Rain Woman:

The Rain Woman: The painting of the the lady is a strange and eerie looking painting that have made people feel like they are being watched.

“Please pick her up. I can not sleep. It seems that there is someone in the apartment besides me. I even took it off the wall and hid it behind the closet. ”

The painting was returned and put for sale again. It was sold again to a second buyer which was a young man, in some sources named Eugene, that hung it in his living room and wasn’t really a big believer of the strange stories surrounding the painting. But also he didn’t take long before he started to experience strange things about the painting and decided to get rid of it after a month.  

“I dream of her. Every night he appears and follows me like a shadow,” he said as he was giving it back. 

For a third time the picture was sold to a third buyer that claimed that he had seen the woman depicted in The Rain Woman somewhere and thought that they would get along without any problems. But that turned out to  be a mistake as he also felt uneasy around her. He claimed that her white eyes started to appear everywhere and he got the scary feeling that he would end up drowning in them. 

So he also returned it back to the shop and the painting hung in the salon for many years without anyone willing to buy her to have in their home. And so the years went on by and the painting was patiently waiting for the owner.

The Rain Woman Found its Owner

The Rain Woman used to hang in a furniture salon in Vinnitsa trying to sell it without much luck. Customers of the shop claim to be dreaming about the woman in the picture after visiting the shop and claim to sort of know her, but are unable to place her. 

Svetlana Telets herself has claimed that she is in no hurry to get rid of the picture and that she believes that there is an owner for the painting that is meant to have her. Perhaps today the painting has found its owner? 

After 11 years of a search for an owner, it was bought in 2007 by the musician Sergei Skachko who felt strongly that the picture belonged with him. He tracked the painting down after reading an article about it and accepted the rumors the painting had. And according to this article, the painting traveled to Russia where it was hung in his office and to this day most likely remains to this day. And according to Sergei Skachko, he is not afraid of the painting or the hauntings it is said to give off and has no plan of returning it. 

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Картина одержимая злым духом преследует свою хозяйку 11 лет – Новости на KP.UA

«Женщину дождя» купила группа «Земляне» – Новости на KP.UA

Женщина дождя » Страшные истории

Загадочная Женщина дождя | DRAWINGFORALL.RU

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Ruby the Haunted Doll

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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. 

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Ruby the Haunted Doll – Traveling Museum of the Paranormal & Occult

9 Scariest Haunted Dolls You Do Not Want in Your Home 

Meet Ruby the haunted doll with a poignant past

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The Haunted Barbie Doll in The Shrine on Pulau Ubin Island

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What would you have wanted as an offering after your death? According to this Singaporean legend, this young girl wanted a Barbie doll to appease her spirit in her afterlife. This is the story of the haunted Barbie doll in the shrine on Pulau ubin island.  

On Pulau Ubin, a boomerang shaped island in northwest Singapore, a peculiar yellow shrine still stands. Hidden away in the forest as one of the last remaining places in Singapore free from urban development, concrete buildings and paved roads, people come to give offerings and pray for their good luck in gambling to the deity of a young German girl that died and remained on the island with only a haunted Barbie doll as comfort. 

Read about: More Haunted Ghost Stories from Singapore

Pulau Ubin used to be a bigger population here, bustling with different businesses like plantations and granite mining. The very word Pulau Ubin means ‘Granite Island’ in Malay. Today, the granite quarries are empty or at least, abandoned. Reclaimed by vegetation or filled up with water.  

Pulau Ubin: The idyllic island is now a well known place to hike the trails and enjoy the nature in Singapore.
Photo: Zairon

The island used to have a few thousand settlers, but today, there are not even forty people left after the work in the quarries dried up. However, the one that still remains, is the spirit of the German girl that to this day, name is unknown. Several attempts have been made to trace the family of the girl back to Germany, but lack of public records of the family has still not been found. 

Now considered a taoist deity, the temple on Pulau Ubin is full of taoist offerings as well as more unique offerings. Most notably a haunted Barbie doll sits between the incense and the food offerings. People still pay tribute to the shrine and the haunted Barbie doll, in the form of make-up, nail polish, mirrors and small feminine things. This to appease the girl who asked for the doll beyond the veil. 

Background For The Haunted Barbie Doll

At the start of the 1900s, uneasiness spread throughout Europe and a full fledged war rippled through the rest of the world as well. Although WWI didn’t quite reach south east Asia in full force as other places, the effects were still real for many of the European settlers in the colonies. 

Singapore, being a part of the British Crown, was not very German friendly. During the 1910s, the island was home to two German families, the Brandts and the Muhlingans that ran coffee plantations according to the legend, although the proper sources for this are missing. 

In July 1914, the British started detaining Germans for security reasons as they were considered enemies to the crown. A military force was sent to Pulau Ubin to detain the two German families residing there. The Germans were, according to the story, sent to a detention barracks on mainland Singapore, mainly in the Tanglin Barracks. 

But the detaining would not go without a dramatic turn. A young daughter of one of the families became frightened and fled from the British forces into the wooded area and disappeared into the dark, never to be seen again. 

The Deity of the German Girl

Days went by without finding her body. And when she finally was discovered by Boyanese plantation workers, she was covered in ants. They concluded that she had died by falling down a cliff near one of the quarries that sustained the community on the island. The workers covered her body with sand and laid flowers on it. When they walked by the place, they said a prayer and lit incense for the girl. 

This was her resting place at Pulau Ubin until Chinese workers recovered the remains of the body and buried the girl on a hill above the quarry. Being a roman catholic, they placed her Jiangsu urn with a crucifix and a number of coins as well as a few strands of her hair.

What happened to the family is still a mystery, but during the war, all German property was confiscated and their business halted. Today only the ruins and foundation of the plantation can be seen. In some versions of the legend, it tells that the family returned to Pulau Ubin after the war, searching for the remains of her daughter, but could’t find her tombstone due to language barriers. Little did they know her remains were kept in the Chinese Taoist temple in an urn on the hill. 

Bitter and sad about it, they left Pulau Ubin and Singapore, never to return. Which is an odd addition to the legend as the family supposedly managed a business on the island before the war, and it’s weird that there suddenly were a language problem when they returned, supposedly to the same people that lived there before they were detained. 

She has since been addressed as Na Du Gu Niang, meaning Datuk Maiden. Sightings of her ghost by the local villagers at Pulau Ubin have kept the legend of the nameless girl alive as well as the peculiar offerings to the shrine that eventually were erected in her honour. 

The Yellow Shrine on Pulau Ubin Island

The Shrine: The home of the deity and the haunted Barbie doll has gone through many changes. Here as it was in 2015.
Photo: Pascal Vuylsteker

While the granite business was still alive on Pulau Ubin, a quarry company built a more permanent shrine in 1974, which is the small yellow chinese temple that still stands today. It is named Berlin Heiligtum, meaning Berlin Sanctuary. 

They transferred the lock of hair and iron cross to the new temple. But when the man who helped to place the remains in the new vase in 1974 checked in 1990, it was already gone, at least that is one of the tales this particular man told over the many years.  

When the shrine was constructed over the grave, it became associated with good luck, especially for gambling as rumours told about people winning the lottery after praying to the shrine. Therefore gamblers from Singapore as well as Malaysia came to the shrine to make offerings, in hope that the German girl would bless them with good luck.

And today the offerings are perhaps more to a young girl’s taste with nail polish, makeup, perfume and the now famous haunted Barbie doll. 

The Haunted Barbie Doll in the Shrine

Today a haunted Barbie doll is placed as an important object in the shrine to the German girl in an enclosed box. Although not haunted as many other objects are rumoured to be, as in being possessed by the soul or a ghost, the origin of the doll is quite haunting. According to legend, and this is a more recent one, the legend will have it that the haunted Barbie doll was requested by the girl herself beyond the grave. 

Pink offerings at the altar: The German girl still gets many presents, many things are of what people think would suit a young girl. Like the now very well known haunted Barbie doll//Photo: Source unknown/via Tineye

An unnamed islander from Pulau Ubin who had moved to Australia kept having these strange dreams back in 2007. He dreamt of a European looking girl for three nights in a row that led him to a specific store with a specific Barbie doll. She asked for it to be placed at her altar back in Singapore. So when he found the same store and doll as he had dreamt of for so many nights, he bought the now haunted Barbie doll and brought it to the shrine. 

And over the years, the haunted Barbie doll itself has gained its own mysteries and haunted stories, giving new life to the story about the girl still not having crossed over from the mortal world entirely.

For more stories about haunted dolls lole Okiku, Ruby or Letta:

Ruby the Haunted Doll

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.

Keep reading

The Legends of Lies?

So who was the girl? Was there ever a girl? There is today no human remains in the grave as a definitive proof of the legend. Still, many people take the legend at face value today. But that is overlooking all the different tales that have been told throughout the years. Dr William L. Gibson, is one of the people that really took a deep dive into the legend and by just comparing the sources, found many discrepancies to the story told today in his excellent and detailed research you can read here.  

Many sources point to one man, named Chia Yeng Keng, a local on Pulau Ubin. The same man that claimed to be there when they transferred the lock of hair and the cross to the new temple. He has changed his testimony about the girl several times over the years. From claiming that the girls parents were Dutch for example. But seeing that Dutch citizens were not interned as Netherland was neutral during WWI, the story changed to German instead. Could it have just been a glip of details? Or a more elaborate story? As late as 2004, he claimed to not know anything about her at all. 

Although proof that a German family ran a coffee plantation on Pulau Ubin once, it is not proven that they ran it until being detained because of the war. According to The Singapore and Straits Directory, the only plantation on the island in 1914, was run by an Anglo-Irish, with no women recorded as living there.  

The first mention of the grave on Pulau Ubin was actually in 1985, in a Malayan newspaper that told the story of a princess from Java that fled to the island and died there. She was said to haunt the hill as a hantu puteri, meaning a ghost princess, seducing the many quarry workers to meet a terrible fate. The article included a picture of the shrine today known as the German girl shrine. But also this article as well as the story itself lacks proper sourcers. 

So for now, the haunted Barbie doll on Pulau Ubin belongs to a young girl that may or may not rest here. Better safe than sorry.

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Featured image: Unknown original source/via Tineye

Unravelling the Mystery of Ubin’s German Girl Shrine

German Girl Shrine 

Mysterious Pulau Ubin German girl shrine still sees visitors after 100 years in existence – Mothership.SG – News from Singapore, Asia and around the world

The Legend of a German Deity at Ubin | Remember Singapore

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article, listicle, pop-culture, Review

Cursed and Haunted Paintings

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What is art is perhaps just as difficult as explaining what is a haunting. And haunted art? How can that be? Several paintings have strange occurrences, history and tragedy attached to them and many people that some of them is haunted paintings. From people dying to people feeling a certain way when looking at the paintings, these are some work of art that are claimed to be haunted paintings.

The Crying Boy by Giovanni Bragolin

In 1985, there were reports in the papers in England that the firefighter claimed they kept finding undamaged paintings in burnt down ruins. The paintings were all of the crying boy series, a mass produced scenario from the 1950s and onwards.

The original idea of the paintings was from the Italian painter Giovanni Bragolin that sold over 60 of them to tourists. So many rumours surrounded the painter. Like that he painted the crying boys at an orphanage after fleeing to Spain after the war. The orphanage burnt down.

After the reports from the firefighters printed in the news by tabloid newspaper, the Sun, they organized bonfires to burn the haunted paintings.

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The Hands Resist Him by Bill Stoneham

In February in 2000, a new listing on ebay appeared of a strange haunted painting. An elderly couple in California tried to get rid of a painting from their brewery. But the painting had a disclaimer on it. It was said it carried some sort of curse or was haunted.

The characters in the paintings apparently had a habit of moving during the night. And occasionally, they completely left the picture as well, crossing the frame. It sold for so much more than what it was listed for.

The haunted picture was purchased by the Perception gallery that tracked down the artist, Bill Stoneham that painted the picture in 1972. It was originally purchased by John Marley, most known for his role in The Godfather. And the strange travels of the painting and the mystery surrounding it, still lingers, even so many decades after the paint dried.

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Man Proposes, God Disposes by Edwin Landseer

At Royal Holloway University, there hangs a haunted painting. The picture must be covered every year. Or else…

It is an 1864 oil-on-canvas painting by Edwin Landseer. The haunted painting was inspired by the search for Franklin’s lost expedition which disappeared in the Arctic after 1845.

According to an urban myth a student in the 1920 or 30s. He was taking his exam when he suddendly stabbed a pencil into his eye, writing “The polar bears made me do it” on to their exam paper. He then killed himself. From this alleged incident, another legend sprung out in the 60s, claiming that anyone sitting in front of the painting during an exam would fail.

That is why everytime an exam is on, there is a college tradition of covering the haunted painting with a Union Jack flag after a student refused to take the exam until the painting was covered.

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The Rain Woman by Svetlana Telets

Ukrainian artist, Svetlana Telets painted this haunted picture in 1996, the same year she graduated from Odessa Art University. For six months after graduating art school, she always had this feeling of someone watching her.

When Svetlana Telets one day suddenly had the image of The Rain Woman in her head, she started to paint almost without thinking. She herself claimed that something or someone took over her, like drawing through her. The haunted painting was done in five hours, and the result, well… It was this strange and surreal looking woman.

The painting was bought, then returned, then sold, then resold again. The buyers didn’t want it in their homes. They complained that the painting was causing them to experience insomnia and anxiety. And there was always a feeling of being watched. One even rang to Svetlana Telets and complained to her about The Rain Woman:

“Please pick her up. I can not sleep. It seems that there is someone in the apartment besides me. I even took it off the wall and hid it behind the closet. ”

The Rain Woman used to hang in a furniture salon in Vinnitsa trying to sell it. Customers of the shop claim to be dreaming about the woman in the picture and claim to sort of know her, but are unable to place her.

Read More: Read the full story about the The Rain Woman in MoonMausoleum.

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The Dead Mother by Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch was an artist known for his inner demons, something we can see in a lot of his paintings like Scream, The Vampire and all off his paintings depicting sickness. This is the case of The Dead Mother, depicting a little child in front of her dead mother, hands up in anguish much like in Scream.

The haunted painting that he painted is probably based on his own mother’s death. Edvard Munch’s mother died of tuberculosis when he was only 5 years old and this trauma lingered with him for all off his life together with the death of his sister as well.

The haunted painting is said to be cursed, or even haunted by some that have seen it. There are several version of the painting though, but the legend never specifies which version of the motief is the cursed one. Perhaps all of them.

The eyes of the little girl is said to follow you wherever you go, and some even go as far as to claim that she sometimes disappear from the frame altogether. There are also those that claim you can hear the sheet in the mother’s bed rustling, as if someone is moving it.

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Untitled by Laura P.

This haunted painting was based on a photograph by James Kidd from 1994. A picture believed to have a headless figure some claiming to be a ghost. According to Laura P, she started painting the painting, not knowing why she did so, as if being under some possession.

After the painting was done, she herself told of things surrounding the painting that were, strange. Incidents happening to the artist, possessions missing, and objects falling and breaking are just some of them. This has led to some people claiming the painting is haunted by the spirit from the original photo.

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Картина одержимая злым духом преследует свою хозяйку 11 лет – Новости на KP.UA