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The Greenbrier Ghost that Went to Court

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The Greenbrier Ghost the supposed ghost of Zona that returned from the dead to testify that she was in fact killed by her husband and wanted to see him jail.

How do we explain unnatural occurrences that actually makes sense? This is a debate the people of Greenbrier dealt with in Victorian times when the story of The Greenbrier Ghost came about. There is something of a dissonance in the universe as well as in our minds when something like the appearance as a ghost, finds the truth no living people knew.

This is the case of the Greenbrier ghost, the ghost that went to court to testify to get her murderer behind bars. The woman behind The Greenbrier Ghost is now resting in a cemetery near Lewisburg in West Virginia, USA. And she is known as the only ghost that have testified in her own murder trial in the American judicial system.

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

Background of The Greenbrier Ghost

In the small and dull village of Livesay’s Mill in Greenbrier County, nothing much happened. Surrounded by lush green scenery of West Virginia landscape, the lives of the people living there, moved slowly along and there were not much talk about ghosts and murders.

The Greenbrier Ghost: Elva Zona Heaster was only twenty three years old when she was killed./source

Then a stranger arrived. The man was a young man, strong and muscular. The new and handsome worker at the blacksmith’s shop usually introduced himself as Edwards, but was called Trout by the rest for some reason. He was a mysterious figure in the new town, but a pretty face can hide dark secrets very well.

It was there he met a farmer’s daughter called Elva Zona Heaster, commonly known as just Zona. She was a popular girl in the Greenbriar County. Not much of her life before marriage is known, but there have been reported she had a child out of wedlock.

Normally a pretty stoic guy, Trout caught the eye of Zona and started courting her. They fell in love and married the same year as he arrived in 1896.

There marriage happened despite her mother’s disapproval. Zona’s mother really hated Trout from the get go he arrived. But from the outside, it was seemingly a happy marriage.

The Death of Zona

The marriage didn’t last long though. Three months after the wedding, it all was about to change. On that late January day in 1897, Trout was at the house of a Martha Jones for a visit. Zona was supposedly feeling sick and had stayed back home. Trout asked if Martha’s son, Anderson Jones could go and look to Zona if she needed anything.

Just a boy of 11 years, he followed his orders and went over to check on Zona. Once there, a horrific sight awaited him as he opened the door. The lifeless body of Zona was found at the foot of the stairs. Dead. She was only twenty three years old.

The local doctor and coroner was called for and when he arrived at their home, Zona was already prepared for the funeral, by Trout. He had quickly carried her upstairs and she was laid out on the bed. This was odd as according to Victorian custom it was the female family and friends who did the washing and dressing of the dead, not the husband.

Zona was dressed in a long gown with a high collar and he had wrapped a scarf around it that her husband said was her favorite, and was the reason behind her attire.

Place of the murder: The home of Zona and where she was killed and supposedly came back as The Greenbrier Ghost, near Rainelle, West Virginia/source

Dr. Knapp, as the doctor was called, did a quick post mortem exam just to have it done. He concluded the cause of death was because of ‘everlasting faint’, more known today as a heart attack. He later changed the cause of death to something completely different. Then it was said she died of childbirth, even if Zona hadn’t said to anyone that she was pregnant, although the doctor had treated her of ‘female troubles’ before her death.

No matter what the reasoning behind Dr.Knapp post mortem exam, it wasn’t a thoroughly one, and it ended up to be completely wrong.

The Grieving Husband by her side

At the wake of Zona held at their home, Trout was unconscionable, cried and cursed the world for taking his wife from him too soon. Mourners, friends and family gathered at their home to pay their respect and to send her off. But Trout didn’t want anyone near Zona’s head and watched over her, making everyone stand back. He added a veil to her and propped her up on pillows, saying he wanted her to be comfortable.

He was weeping and pacing in front of her open casket until she was buried at the cemetery before he finally calmed down. The body of Zona was brought to a hilltop near her childhood home were she was supposed to rest forever. No one that attended the wake and funeral thought it was strange of his intense display of grief, he was after all playing the part as a grieving husband that had loved his wife dearly.

Although it was a bit uncharacteristic for the stoic man the people of Greenbriar had all come to know. So no one thought it strange, except Zona’s mother, she had thoughts on her own.

The Greenbrier Ghost Appears for her Mother

Mary Jane Heaster, the mother of the deceased did not like her new son in law as mentioned before. Zona was her only daughter, and first, she had been taken away from the place she was from to move in with him all the way across the county. And now she was gone for good.

The Mother: Mary Jane Heaster never gave up on the daughter and according to her the ghost of her daughter appeared to her and told the truth about her death./source/ Wonderful West Virginia magazine

The mother knew that her daughters husband had something to do with her death and didn’t believe that she had died of the everlasting faint or that Zona had been with child. She was certain her daughter was murdered and was certain of the culprit. When she was told of the death of her daughter, she reportedly said:

“The devil has killed her!”

In desperation Mary Jane prayed for nights on end non stop, as the bible told her to find answer and guidance to what to do. She prayed that her daughter should come back to her, somehow. Either to tell things as they were, or even just to come and say goodbye.

Restless and in prayer, she stayed this way for several nights. And just as Mary Jane was going to bed one night after intense prayer, a strange light flowed into her bedroom. The light took shape into a human and just for a few moments, Zona was back as The Greenbrier Ghost. And not only did she appear before her mother, she also spoke according to her story.

For 4 nights The Greenbrier Ghost appeared again and again to explain to her mother how it all went down. According to the ghost the night before Anderson found her, she was preparing dinner for her husband.

When Trout came home he was livid. She had made apple butter, a spread and bread. But no meat. In a rage because of the lack of meat for his meal he attacked her and dislocated her neck.

Zona told this wasn’t the first time her husband had attacked and abused her. She told about a sad pattern of Trout’s terrible temper and how she was unable to reason with him when he got into these fit of anger.

On the second night The Greenbrier Ghost visited, she told her mother again how Trout had squeezed her neck and how he snapped it at the first joint and it killed her. The last night the ghost of Zona twisted her head 180 degrees to show her mother. She died, not of natural causes as Trout as well as the Doctor had claimed, she had been murdered.

Digging up the body

The towns gossip traveled about The Greenbrier Ghost. Mary Jane told the neighbors about the vision and that she was on a mission to set things straight. This was the time that the gossip about the handsome blacksmith came to light as well. Firstly it came out that he lied about his name, calling himself Edward and his shady past as a thief, and his troubling past with other women all came back to haunt him just when he thought he had gotten away with murder.

After Zona as The Greenbrier Ghost had related the tale, Mary Jane hurried to Prosecuting Attorney John Preson in Lewisburg. She told him of her paranormal visions, but he didn’t believe them, perhaps of natural reasons. But what did interest him though, was the poor post mortem exam by Dr. Knapp that didn’t make any sense. Could it be that the mother was right apart from raving about a ghost? On that grounds of the poorly exam by the doctor they exhumed her body for a second examination.

The Grave of The Greenbrier Ghost: Although they thought the mother’s visions were nonsense, they decided to dig up her body and examine the body properly. The cause of death seemed to align almost perfect with what the mother claimed that The Greenbrier Ghost had told her in her visions.

This time, Dr Knapp teamed up with Dr Rupert and McClung for a second post mortem that lasted three hours. Dr Knapp claimed it was because of the widowers distress that had made him just do a shallow examination of Zona. Also present at this post mortem was Trout, but it seemed that he had pulled himself together and he was no longer the grieving husband that he had been at the wake. He was calm a they checked her stomach for poison and her vital organs.

Then they started examining the head and neck. Perhaps as medical men they also thought the mothers talk about The Greenbrier Ghost was all nonsense. But when they saw the truth themselves, they whispered among themselves:

“Well, Shue, we have found your wife’s neck to have been broken.”

On the neck of the body of Zona, they found finger-shaped bruises and that her windpipe was crushed. And, just as the spirit of Zona herself told, the first and second vertebrae was fractured. According to their examination she had indeed been murdered and Trout was arrested.

The Greenbrier Ghost takes the Stand

Trout accepted no responsibility of his wife’s murder, and pleaded ‘not guilty’. He was nonetheless charged of the circumstantial evidence that they had found and rounded up after the exhumation. Prison didn’t sit well with Trout and the Pocahontas Times reported that:

“Trout Shue É now in jail awaiting trial for the murder of his wife, has threatened to kill himself.”

During the trial, Trout said the chargers was nonsense, nothing more than the tales of a spiteful mother in law and that he was innocent and didn’t kill his wife. During the trial, they found out that Zona wasn’t his first wife. She was his third, and the first one left him because of his beatings. Her name was Allie Estelline Cutlip.

Trout beat his wife so bad that a group dragged him out of bed one winter night and threw him in the icy water of Greenbrier River as revenge. She gave birth to a child, Girta Lucretia in 1887. She got out though on grounds of divorce four years later. But the second one was not as lucky.

In 1894, Trout married once again. Lucy Ann Tritt died eight months later. But at this death, there was no investigation, and the Pocahontas Times only stated she died ‘suddenly’. But after the death of Zona, the rumors about what really happened to Lucy Ann started circulating again.

When Mary Jane took the stand, she stood her ground, firmly believing it was the presence Zona as The Greenbrier Ghost that solved the case. She also knew stuff no one else did, like what she had been wearing and about all of her injuries. This is not the only time however the supernatural visitation has gotten a headliner in the courtroom, like with the case of the Red Barn Murder in England.

Read also

The Red Barn Murder and the Ghost in the Dreams

The murder of Maria Marten, a case called The Red Barn Murder got a lot of media coverage in England because of the strange circumstances. The murder was allegedly solved by the appearance of the ghost of the victim, haunting people’s dreams.

But it was on the circumstantial evidence he was convicted and he was found guilty of more than the testimony of The Greenbrier Ghost perhaps. He was sentenced to life imprisonment at the West Virginia State Penitentiary where he died a few years later at the age of 39 in 1900. He know rests in an unmarked grave.

The Greenbrier Ghost after the Trial

It wasn’t that the testimony of The Greenbrier Ghost was the thing that got Trout convicted. If anything, it was brought by the defense to discredit Mary Jane. Was she really seeing her dead daughter? Did she lie? She lived until 1916, and never recanted her original story about the visitations, but she did never appear again.

Read Also: The Greenbrier Ghost got killed by a partner, we have multiple stories telling the same. How about checking out The Ghost of La Faraona Haunting the Agua Caliente Hotel or The Prisoner of Château de Puymartin

Now the state remember her as a marker along the highway to The Greenbrier Ghost. The sign reads:

“Interred in nearby cemetery is Zona Heaster Shue. Her death in 1897 was presumed natural until her spirit appeared to her mother to describe how she was killed by her husband Edward. Autopsy on the exhumed body verified the apparition’s account. Edward, found guilty of murder, was sentenced to the state prison. Only known case in which testimony from a ghost helped convict a murderer.”

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References:

https://web.archive.org/web/20150111222113/http://www.prairieghosts.com/shue.html

https://medium.com/@hlemonroe/the-curious-murder-of-zona-shue-the-greenbrier-ghost-33a4058f9d13

https://wvpentours.com/about/history/articles/the-greenbrier-ghost/

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La Llorona the Mexican Weeping Woman Ghost

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Along the rivers in Mexico a wailing woman wearing white can be seen and heard as she comes up drenched from the waters. She is desperately looking for her children she herself drowned. And according to the legends of La Llorona or the wailing woman, you are next.

“The scariest part was not that La Llorona was a monster, or that she came when you called her name three times in the dark, or that she could come into your room at night and take you from your bed like she’d done with her own babies. It was that once she’d been a person, a woman, a mother. And then a moment, an instant, a split second later, she was a monster.
– Jaquira Díaz’s 2019 memoir, Ordinary Girls

This Mexican legend is one of the more well known, international as well now, as the movie came out a while back. But she has been around for centuries, a legend so well known it is now more or less an important part of the Mexican heritage and culture as well as in the Chicano Mexican community of the US.

Read Also: Check out all of our ghost stories from Mexico

La Llorona is Spanish meaning the weeping woman, or the wailer. She is perhaps a bit older than most think as well. The origin of the legend can have roots as far back in the Aztec legends and being one of ten omens foretelling the Conquest of Mexico and has also been linked to Aztec goddesses like Cihuacōātl.

Cihuacōātl was one of a number of motherhood and fertility goddesses. She was also the mother of the hunting God Mixcoatl, whom she abandoned at a crossroads. Tradition says that she often returns there to weep for her lost son, only to find a sacrificial knife. This story can help us understand why sometimes the story of La Llorona sometimes is set on a crossroad, not a long a river or some form of water.

The most common lore about La Llorona is about how she was being an Indigenous woman who murdered her own children, which she bore from a wealthy Spaniard. The villainous qualities of La Llorona have also been connected to the stories about Doña Marina, also known as La Malinche, or Maltinzin. She has been portrayed as a scheming woman who betrayed her people when she assisted the conquistadors and bore their children.

The Dangerous Wailing Woman in White

As well as finding similarities to the old Aztec mythology as well as working as an allegory about “betraying her own people”, the legend of La LLorona is something we can find similarities to all across the world. The story has also the ring of ‘White Woman’ often found in European legends as well as Greek mythology stories like with Jason and Medea, a scorned woman, killing her children when her man betrays her.

The weeping woman: A wooden cutout in the shape of La llorona. She has a white veil over her and is placed on the island la llorona in the channels of Xochimilco in Mexico.

Read Also: The Lady in White in Zitadelle Spandau or The Haunting of The House of Hohenzollern are all ghost stories featuring the trope of the lady in white haunting a place.

The difference between the European trope of the Woman in White ghost is that La Llorona are often described as being more dangerous to those encountering her than her European counterpart. This makes her more like the vengeful spirits we often read about in Asian ghost stories as with the Japanese Onryo or the Korean Virgin Ghost for instance.

The story of La Llorona takes many turns and has today many variations. The ghost of La Llorona, the wailing ghost woman appears in crossroads, by lakes or rivers, on the road and has many variations. Even if she is most well known as a Mexican folktales there are other variation of the stoghost story in other South American countries as well like in Guatemala and Venezuela.

Read Also: The Legend of La Sayona or La Descarnada of the Highway for more stories about dangerous female ghosts found in Latin American folklore.

And as the history of Mexico, with its changes and social unrest, the story of La Llorona has followed closely behind, reshaped to fit the narrative of the time. Therefore, we will relate one of these variations and one of the common one told in the modern era.

The Story of La Llorona

The most told version of the story of La Llorona is set in a small village in Mexico, were a young woman lived. As mentioned she is often portrayed as an indigenous woman. Her name was Maria and came from a poor family. She was known in the village for her beauty, but will be remembered as La Llorona, the weeping woman. A tragic club to be in.

The Curse of La Llorona: The Tragic tale of the woman who drowns her children because her man abandoned her has been made into a movie many times. Here from the 2019 movie, the Curse of La Llorona//Source IMDB

One day, a very wealthy man came passing through town. DEpending to when the story is set, he was a Spanish conquistador or a wealthy rancher. He stopped when he saw the beautiful Maria and approached her. She was charmed by the wealthy man and when he proposed, she accepted at once. Maria’s family was overjoyed that their daughter would marry into a rich family and have a chance at a better life. But the father of this wealthy man however, was deeply disappointed at his sons choice of bride and didn’t approve of their marriage.

They chose to ignore the disapproving father and Maria and her now husband built a house in her town to get away from his judgmental father. Time went by and Maria gave birth to two twin boys. A seemingly happy marriage and life from the outside.

But not everything was rosy colored as it seemed. Her husband was always travelling and almost never spent any time with the family. When he was home, he only spent time with the boys, and Maria knew he no longer loved her and she started to fear that he would leave them.

Read Also: There are many ghost stories about women being left by their lover. Like The Ghost on Emily’s Bridge, The Grey Lady of Stavern at Hotel Wassilioff or the ghost of Chaonei No. 81 — Beijing Horror House

One day the husband went away and never returned. Many years went by but they didn’t hear from him and they didn’t even know if he were living or dead. Still, there seemed to linger a faint hope in Maria, that he someday would return to them and they would once again be a happy family.

Maria and her boys was out walking along a river one day when the faint hope she had been carrying came crashing down. A carriage was pulled by and to her greatest shock she saw her once husband sitting in it. By his side a much younger and beautiful woman sat and it was clear that he had abandoned them for good.

Maria was furious and desperate as her world fell apart and she could no longer fool herself. Without thinking she picked up her two boys and threw them in the river, drowning them in a fit of rage, of desperation and perhaps even a horrible psychosis. Only after she saw the floating bodies of her now dead sons she realized what she had done. She jumped out after them to die with them. Now she spends rest of eternity on the hunt after her children along that river.

The Haunted Rivers and Dangers of her Ghost

Doomed to linger in purgatory for her sins, she haunts the place were she committed her crime. Exactly where this place is differs as the legend about her ghost now has gone into the cultural sphere and is more like an entity in itself than just a singular ghost.

It is said that is you hear the crying of La Llorona close to rivers or other forms of water, you must run the opposite way as she is known for being a dangerous ghost to encounter, still mad and filled with rage that will harm you.

In some variation of the legend the children were illegitimate children, and she murdered them so that they wouldn’t get taken away from her and be brought up by another woman the father was legally wed to. In any versions though, the legend about La Llorona invokes pity for her fate as well as fear for her actions.

The Danger of La Llorona: The story of La Llorona tells about a woman who murdered her children when her husband abandoned her. Now she haunts the rivers and are a danger to those encountering her.

According to the legends, she still calls after her children “ay, mis hijos” and is said to be on a hunt for her children like she doesn’t remember what happened to them, still unable to accept what she did. It can bring bad luck, even death if you hear her cries.

If you are pregnant, you must be extra careful of her because La Llorona is attracted to children and wants them to join her. Therefore children should not walk alone along rivers and she has become some sort of cautionary tale to keep them away from the dangerous waters.

It is said that in some versions of the story, she kidnaps kids that are reminding her of her own and asks for their forgiveness. Then she murders them to take the place of her own.

La Llorona in Popular Culture

Although the legend about La Llorona is an old one, it is still an iconic figure to feature in books, movies and songs. There she differs from being a misunderstood female ghost to a full on evil spirit that are out to harm people.

In movies there have been made stories about her since the 1930s, mostly horror movies, and it even got its own spin off in James Wan’s The Conjuring Universe in 2019.

The popular folk song called La Llorona that were popularised in 1941, was also included in the Pixar movie Coco in 2017. So it’s safe to say that the legend about the wailing woman still lingers in the Mexican and US cultural sphere and fears of her ghost doesn’t seem to fade away anytime soon.

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References:

La Llorona – Wikipedia 

Cihuacōātl – Wikipedia

The Wailing Woman | History Today

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5 Horror Movies with Kick Ass Black Characters

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Can we say that Jordan Peele with his two movies, Get Out and Us, made his mark on horror cinema? Yes, I think we really can. His fine line of horror, social commentary and comedy is so well balanced it makes us wonder what the hell we were watching before. And it also have given a voice to black people through the genre as well as killing some tired tropes of black people dying pretty fast. So, here are some other horror movies that came before with some kick ass black protagonists in them.

Night of the living dead (1968)

With: Duane Jones

Director George A. Romero’s classic, Night of the living dead, turned cinema upside down. He was a pioneer in many ways. That includes iconifying the zombies, casting a black man as his starring role, and letting him be the bad ass survivor that he was. It seems stupid by calling that a pioneer, but that is the stupid world we live in. In any case, the role of Ben, played by Duane Jones is still some of the most kick-ass characters in one of the most kick-ass movies there is.

Synopsis: A ragtag group of Pennsylvanians barricade themselves in an old farmhouse to remain safe from a bloodthirsty, flesh-eating breed of monsters who are ravaging the East Coast of the United States. Who knows what would have happened if the horror genre just continued to treat their black characters like this?

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28 days later (2002)

With: Naomie Harris

Director Danny Boyle, claims he didn’t set out to make a zombie movie, but no matter what his intentions were, he ended up with reinventing the whole genre. On the DVD commentary, Boyle explains that, with the aim of preserving the suspension of disbelief, relatively unknown actors were cast in the film. Cillian Murphy had starred primarily in small independent films, while Naomie Harris had acted on British television as a child. It is perhaps weird to think of her as a relative unknown actress today, but hey, the movie is a couple of years old, and Naomie Harries looks and kick-ass as she did back then. As the kick ass Selena, she is the one character that got the comic book spin off and that the audience follows. (Heads up: Most of the zombie-characters that are actually great and memorable are black. Remember Ben, Selena and Michonne. Whatever that is a metaphor for, I think we will leave to the reader.)

Synopsis: Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.

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I am legend (2007)

With: Will Smith

A lot of white actors were considered to play the lead role, including Tom Cruise, Nicolas Cage, Michael Douglas, Mel Gibson, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Ted Levine. It was after all what could be called: A confirmed white man. Whatever that mean, whatever, whatever. But it went to Will Smith when Francis Lawrence directed the movie, and gave way of putting many black characters in a blockbuster horror movie. As it should as Will Smith is sort of the only great thing about this movie. (Not to say I don’t like it, but…)

Synopsis: Years after a plague kills most of humanity and transforms the rest into monsters, the sole survivor in New York City struggles valiantly to find a cure in this post-apocalyptic action thriller.

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Gothika (2003)

With: Halle Berry

Yes, they did try to give Halle Berry a razzie for this role. But it is still alive and kicking on various streaming sites, and it is Halle Berry, so it makes the list. Her role was of a kick-ass, well educated black woman that saves the day and herself (of a white man’s oppression if we read into it a bit.) It is worth watching the movie if only for that fact, even if the script is a bit… well, silly…

Synopsis: A depressed female psychiatrist wakes up as a patient in the asylum where she worked, with no memory of why she is there or what she has done.

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Seven (1995)

With: Morgan Freeman

It might be more of a thriller than a horror actually, but it got Morgan Freeman in it, so hey! It is also so well received and made, it needs to be remembered. And I don’t think I need to tell anybody about how kick-ass Freeman is, it’s just the most unnecessary thing, we all know, he played GOD for heavens sake!

Synopsis: Two detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his motives.

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Dead Men Walking in Old Provost in Grahamstown

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In Grahamstown, South Africa there is a ghost story about a convict haunting the place where he was hanged by the Old Provost. His ghost can forever seen walking the last walk he ever did on the way to the gallows, still bitter about receiving the death penalty.

Today Grahamstown or Makhanda wich it is now officially known as in South-Africa is a city with a well known university town, housing Rhodes University, one of South Africa’s oldest as being a popular place for backpackers. The town on the Eastern Cape also have a big Art festival, the biggest one in the country, and is otherwise for those people that wish to live a quiet life.

The Town Under Military Law

But this wasn’t always the case however as it was founded as a frontier military outpost built after the Fourth Xhosa War in 1812. and has an old prison known as the Old Provost. A long time ago Grahamstown was better known as a place under militant law, public punishments and public hangings, watched by a lot of people. The legend is that the ghost of one of these hanged people are still haunting the place next to the botanical gardens.

Read Also: More ghost stories from Africa like Madam Koi Koi and The School Hauntings in Nigeria

Built in Grahamstown in 1838, the Old Gaol or Old Provost was a military prison when martial law ruled in the old town during colonial times. The fortress was designed as a Panopticon prison, meaning a design that allowed for constant surveillance of the prisoners.

Grahamstown: The Town, officially renamed to Makhanda in 2018 was built as a military frontier, and is today a university city. The town has many haunted ghost stories, like the ghost of the dead man walking from the military prison old provost. Pictured is the view of the city from an old fort.// Source: Wikimedia

During this time the town was seen as rather uncivilized and it was said of it in 1833:  “two or three English merchants of considerable wealth, but scarcely any society in the ordinary sense of the word. The Public Library is a wretched affair”

A few decades after this was said about the town however, Grahamstown was the second biggest town after Cape Town in the English colony.

The Haunted University in Grahamstown

The Old Provost is not the only ghost haunting the university town, as most of the faculty buildings have some sort of history and its local ghosts roaming around on the campus.

There are according to campus rumours, witnessed a young boy and girl in the journalism department haunting the halls. There is also whispers of ghosts that used to live in the small cottages the Institute of Biodiversity is now built on top over.

Read Also: Have a look at our ghost stories from the most Haunted Schools in the world like The Kong Kong Ghost

Even the botanical garden close to Old Provost has a ghost wandering in the green garden, smelling like perfume and feeling like a cold wind passing by. This is the ghost of Lady Jana Maria de los Dolores de Leon Smith.

But who was this ghost from the Old Provost, and why is he still haunting the place?

Dead Men Walking by Old Provost

The Old Provost prison was built for military offenders, and although a small building, ruthless punishments were put in place. Those who were convicted and served their time were put in these cells completely designed that you would never have a private moment inside the walls.

Those even more unfortunate and convicted to death were chained on their feet and hands, humiliated as they were lead from the fortress of the Old Provost to the plaza they were going to be punished in front of the entire population of Grahamstown. “Dead men walking”, as they were called.

The last person we know of that was publicly hung was in these parts were Henry Nicholls and is also known as the ghost that walks this final walk forever as a ghost. He pleaded guilty and was convicted for a rape happening in 1862.

The Old Provost: The military prison in Grahamstown was design for constant surveillance and is now a place were ghosts roams according to local legends.

He had already confessed to the crime, but didn’t really think it was a crime he had to pay with his life. Nicholls spent four months in the Old Provost, hoping to get of with his life as rape was not a capital punishment under English law but only prison time.

Read More: Have a look at all our ghost stories from Haunted Prisons like Ghost Stories of The Haunted Prison Alcatraz or The Ghosts From Security Prison 21 in Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

But since he was a military man, he was under military law. And according to that, the punishment for his crime was death by hanging.

The Last Hanging on the Eastern Cape

Watching a hanging like this was great entertainment for the people of Grahamstown and the rest of the surrounding areas. According to the stories, people rode for as long as seven days to behold the execution of Henry Nicholls by Old Provost. This hanging was the last execution in the Eastern Cape.

On 19 February 1862 was the last day for the convict and it was also his last walk. He was led out from the Old Provost and had to walk past the gathering crowd towards the gallows. He never got a chance for last words or prayers. He was simply strung up and hanged to his death in front of a blood thirsty crowd.

Read More: The ghost of Henry Nicholls is not the only ghosts haunting after being executed. Have a look at The Wizard of West Bow and His House of Horrors or The Pirate Haunting Burgh Island

But why is he still haunting the place? It’s perhaps difficult to answer for a ghost, but one of the theories was that Nicholls was unhappy and bitter about receiving a death punishment some only served prison time for.

The Bitter Ghost Haunting

Rape rarely got the death sentence, even back in that time and you mostly got sent away or served prison time, although being actually convicted for it was a lot harder than today.

A lot retelling the story of the ghost wandering from the Old Provos think that because of this, Nicholls meant that the punishment he received was too hard and the humiliating Nicholls ended his life, his soul can never be free.

Instead of going forward in his afterlife he is convicted of a life sentence, lasting for eternity, and must wander in all the remaining days between the Old Provost, now turned into a cute cafe, and the gallow, passing through the entrance to the now so modern university.

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References:

https://www.grocotts.co.za/2010/05/13/walking-the-dead-mans-walk/

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The Red Barn Murder and the Ghost in the Dreams

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The murder of Maria Marten, a case called The Red Barn Murder got a lot of media coverage in England because of the strange circumstances. The murder was allegedly solved by the appearance of the ghost of the victim, haunting people’s dreams.

‘”If you’ll meet me at the Red Barn as sure as I have life
I will take you to Ipswich Town and there make you my wife.”
This lad went home and fetched his gun, his pick-axe and his spade.
He went unto the Red Barn and there he dug her grave.With her heart so light she thought no harm, to meet her love did go
He murdered her all in the barn and he laid her body low
– The Folksong The Murder of Maria Marten

The year of 2004. The Place? at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. A skeleton, reassembled so many times and exhibited, used as a teaching aid in the West Suffolk Hospital. It is almost possible to forget that the people hanging there, next to the teacher, used to be a living human. What cruel fate it is, to always be on display. But then we can wonder, why? Why do you hang there? Is this your punishment? Did you do something? And who hangs beside you? The question is always asked.

“Who is that skeleton?”

Beside you is someone infamous. Jonathan Wild, the notorious gang leader in Britain, known as the great corrupter. The students might know his name, his crime. But who are you? Does anyone remember your name?

The Skeleton of the Murderer William Corder

The skeleton sitting in the classroom actually belongs to William Corder, a man that would end up in the infamous case of The Red Barn Murder.

Read Also: Another infamous murder trial involving ghosts is The Infamous Haunted Lizzie Borden House 

He was a boy like any other, born in 1804 to a prosperous tenant farmer in Suffolk, England. He was nicknamed Foxey at school and was a bright kid. He had his whole life in front of him and he had some dreams of becoming a journalist or a teacher as he had some talent for writing. But there was a darkness in Corder that eventually would devour him.

Corder’s father liked his brothers much better according to the rumours around town, and he was sent to London to find work, not wanting to fund his sons dreams. He was said to be a liar and a cheater, thereof the name Foxey most likely. He was also known for petty theft, like when he sold his father’s pig. Yes, his father’s pig.

In London, he fell into bad company and spent all of the money his father gave him. He was a well known ladies man and all around an untrusty fellow. But Corder’s biggest crime was the Red Barn Murder and being found out by the ghost of Maria Marten, the woman he murdered.

Maria Martens Life and Death

After a while, William was called back to the farm from his wild time in London. There he met Maria, daughter of a mole catcher in the same small village, two years older than him and the likes of William Corder didn’t immediately catch her interest.

Maria Marten: The young girl ended up being the victim in the Red Barn Murder/Wikimedia

Maria Marten was 17 years old with a taste for finer things with a curse on her head and would end up as the victim in The Red Barn Murder. There is the story about her that a fortune teller once said that she wouldn’t reach old age, but would have many lovers and riches.

Before getting involved with William Corder she was actually seeing Williams older brother, Thomas. He was the oldest and also the fathers favorite and the two got into a relationship that was doomed from the start.

Thomas Corder wanted to keep the relationship secret as she wasn’t regarded of the same status as himself, being poorer and of a family with a “low” status. The Corders were after all, prosperous farmers.

That didn’t stop him from getting involved with her though and Maria Marten fell pregnant with Thomas child. Thomas left her when she told him about her pregnancy, perhaps hoping it would convince him to go for her after all.

It did not, and she gave birth to his child alone, but the child died a couple of weeks later. Maria then got into a relationship with a Peter Mathews, a middle age man who also dropped her after giving him a son called, Thomas Henry in 1824.

Indeed she had some lovers, perhaps some riches. And indeed she wouldn’t be alive for long.

William Corder and Maria Marten’s Relationship

When William Corder came home from London, bad luck struck his family. His father died and his brothers got very ill, leaving him to manage the farm together with his mother. And this is were he got to know Maria and they got involved in a relationship. But it wasn’t a happy match from either of their families stands. She on her side was already left with a ruined reputation by a Corder. And from the Corder’s perspective, she was a fallen woman and not from a prosperous family like theirs.

The Red Barn Murder: The old barn close to their houses was the scene of the Red Barn Murder and later a tourist attraction. It is now burned down./Wikimedia

This didn’t stop them meeting, although they met in secret. Often at a red barn right by Marias house. It was called that because of the red tiles on the roof and would later be a tourist place as the location of where The Red Barn Murder happened. But the secret of their relationship was not to last for long, as Maria became pregnant again. Maria wanted William to marry her, and according to him, he said yes.

At the same time that winter, William’s brother and Maria’s ex-lover, Thomas was walking over a frozen lake. The ice cracked and Thomas went under, drowning. William was now the owner of the farm as the only son.

Between Maria being pregnant, the farm being in financial troubles and his brother dying, it seems that it put a toll on him. He put Maria in a lodging at Sudbury, a couple of miles away from home to have their baby. But this too should not live and died soon after. William buried the child in a field and there have been speculations that this was not a natural death and that he might have killed their love child as well. And these day, who could really tell?

The Red Barn Murder

Maria and William started to argue about some money that may have been stolen, they argued about the burial of the child and how it looked like William would not marrying Maria after all. At one point the pair made a plan, when William said they should elope to Ipswich. She would come dressed as a boy and they would meet in the Red Barn were they had met countless of times before.

Read Also: Maria Marten got killed by a partner, we have multiple stories telling the same. How about checking out The Ghost of La Faraona Haunting the Agua Caliente Hotel or The Prisoner of Château de Puymartin

Why would William Corder elope now? Now that he didn’t have a father or older brother to interfere? One of the problems the couple had was with Maria and her crimes. It wasn’t necessarily unlikely or weird that they would like to run away, as Maria had several charges on her for bearing illegitimate children. Criminal at that point in time.

The days before their plan was set into motion was the last time Maria Marten was seen alive. William began acting odd and a lot of questions were asked about her. Where was Maria? Wasn’t he going to Ipswich with her?

He told the people asking she had gone ahead to Ipswich, but then he changed the story, and told she had gone to Great Yarmouth and wouldn’t be able to return yet. Then he changed the story again, and he said he was meeting Maria and that they were going to marry. He said he felt unwell and traveled to Isle of Wight, writing back home that they were married and happy there. He said he was sorry that Maria couldn’t write herself as she had hurt her hand and wondered why some of her letters hadn’t made its way back home.

The Ghost of Maria Marten Haunting the Dreams

This vague and strange story didn’t sit well with her family though. The Marten family did not believe William and his excuses as to why they hadn’t seen or heard from her. But in a strange twist of fate, she would find other means to contact her family.

Maria had a young stepmother back in Polstead, Ann Marten. She was troubled by strange and scary dreams about her stepdaughter. Twice Ann Marten had woken from a terrible dream that she herself knew to be true. When she shared them with her husband they looked for Maria in their town and found her.

Read Also: Another ghost story about a ghost that allegedly help solve her own murder case, read about The Greenbrier ghost in The Ghost that Went to Court

The dreams to her stepmother told that Maria had been murdered in the Red Barn buried under the floor and not gone to Isle of Wight at all. Her husband, Maria’s father was sent to the barn and looked for his daughter, prodding the ground with a mole-spike. There he discovered the remains of his daughter, brutally murdered and discarded under the floor for a long time.

Maria was shot as well as stabbed multiple times to death. They brought her to The Cock Inn and, decomposed as she was, her sister Nancy identified her from the clothes, the hair and a gap in her teeth. Around Maria’s neck they found a green handkerchief. According to the witnesses it belonged to William Corder. Was she also strangled? Was she even dead before he buried her in the grain storage bin her father found her in?

The Trial of The Red Barn Murder

Back in Ealing were William had fled, he knew nothing of the mysterious dreams and the discovery of Maria under the barn. Time went by and William needed a wife. He put an ad in The Times and asked for a wife. He picked Mary Moore and they set up a young ladies school in Ealing, West London. He was moving forward in his life. But Maria wasn’t forgotten yet.

Boiling some eggs at home the police came knocking at his door and apprehended him. First he denied that he knew of this Maria Marten, but the evidence was there and he was brought back to Suffolk.

And the press was on this, coming from all across the country to behold the spectacle of his trial and the strange circumstances around it. The case of The Red Barn Murder even got a play on stage before Corder even came to trial, which they actually sold tickets to.

The Red Barn Murder Frenzie: The execution of William Corder, the Red Barn Murderer was a popular event and thousands of people attended/Wikimedia

Forensic pathology was not as advanced yet and it was impossible to determined what of the things that killed Maria. That is why he was charged with nine different murder charges, where shooting, strangling, stabbing and burying alive was a couple of them.

“By that powerful engine of the press,” he said, “I have been described…as the most depraved of human monsters,” he said of the media coverage.

Corder’s defense was articulate, but improbable, claiming Maria herself had taken her own life, but he was found guilty on the circumstantial and medical evidence, and sentenced to hang.

It was the Chief Baron Alexander that was the judged, and he added that his dead body was to be dissected and anatomized, almost like a second punishment.

The Execution of William Corder

The execution was a great play and melodrama itself, and several thousands of spectators had tickets to the show of William Corder’s last moments. During his last days the prison chaplain had tried to get a confession from William who had denied all of the charges against him. Finally, William Cordery admitted to killing MAria by accident during one of their many quarrels. What he denied was stabbing her. Perhaps it was the mole-spike her father looked for her with that made those wounds?

Hanged: The Execution of The Red Barn Murder/Wellcome Library no. 43542i

In any case, he took the punishment for all of her injuries. His last words were:  “I am guilty; my sentence is just; I deserve my fate; and, may God have mercy on my soul.” He was left hanging for an hour, most likely in agony before he died.

After his death he was transported to Shire Hall were he was left for science as the sentence was. But many of the things done to his body after death was highly unscientific. For one,his skin was removed, tanned and used as a book cover that described his crimes and live. Like the most bizarre biography.

What happened that day? Was Maria’s mother psychic? She was only around a year older than Maria, and had not exhibited similar dreams before. Perhaps it’s a bit odd that her dreams started just after news of Williams marriage to Mary Moore. And there were also some rumors that linked her as a lover with William.

What happened skeleton hanging in the lecture hall? Truth be told, it isn’t even William. At least, not all of it. After his hanging, he was chopped up, his body dissected in front of anatomy students, perhaps even used as an experiment with galvanism.

The Red Barn Murder Frenzie

Perhaps the most gruesome thing was that none of the people involved were left in peace after their death, as the story about the Red Barn Murder was a sensational tale and people flocked to the location as well as tried to get a hold of some sort of suveniers from the case.

After the execution, William Corden’s ear was sold, his skull was taken by Dr John Kilner who collected The Red Barn Murder memorabilia. Even pieces of the rope he was hanged in was cut up and sold for a guinea. Perhaps the disturbance of the dead came back to haunt the living that looked at their death as some sort of amusing spectacle?

After many strange and tragic events that happened after The Red Barn Murder enthusiast Dr John Kilner took the skull for himself to his collection, he believed that the skull was cursed and gave it to ta friend. But bad fortune kept plaguing the two men and in the end they decided to pay for a Christian burial to lift the curse of the skull of the murderer William Corder.

Maria also kept being disturbed after The Red Barn Murder. A lock of her hair was sold at two guineas and Polstead with her cottage, the Red Barn and her grave became a tourist attraction and people started chipping away at it so it completely disappeared. The grave as well as the Barn, planks, roof tiles and all sold as macabre souvenirs.

After 2004, the skeleton of William Corder, or at leas what was left of him was removed from the classroom and finally put to rest six feet under.

But the rumors still lingers about the ghost of Maria haunting her stepmother’s dreams, about what really happened that night of The Red Barn Murder. But maybe it is time William got some peace, having served over 200 years for his crimes.

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References

What really happened with the notorious murder at the Red Barn in Polstead? | Great British Life

Murder in the Red Barn—Maria Marten’s Tragic Love Story – Owlcation
William Corder, the Red Barn Killer – HeadStuff
The Red Barn Murder Revisited! – Norfolk Tales, Myths & More!

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Ju-On: Origins – a Look at the Truth Behind “the Grudge”

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The legendary horror franchise that is “Ju-On” is back, Japanese style. Please America, don’t try to make any more remakes. Enough. But is the franchise really strong enough to carry a full fledged miniseries?

Me when someone announces an origin installment of anything. Source: IMDB

Netflix Japan tries to do just this in the first-ever horror of Netflix Japan Original, “JU-ON: Origins”. We once again visits the cursed house, seeing lots of unkempt long hair and listens to the sound of a growling cat. Usually when I see a franchise installment marked “origins”, I go NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, as most of them is just. Well, just plain lazy. But here, I have to give it to them, props for making this, but not for the reasons you might think. Written by Written by Hiroshi Takahashi and Takashige Ichise, the well known story gets a new lens to be seen through.

Haruka Honjo (Yuina Kuroshima) is a rookie actress. She hears the sounds of footsteps at night in her house. When she learns of psychic researcher Yasuo Odajima (YosiYosi Arakawa) from a TV variety program, she seeks counseling from him about her problem. She teams up with a paranormal investigator to find out the truth is. Also, there are a lot of parallel stories to follow.

Classic Ju-On, Confusing the Audiences Since the Birth of the Franchise

The atmosphere is what driving the story, mentions of the Chernobyl disaster, the fashion trends together with a moody music. It is more an exploration of the psychological drives of the characters and their story more than the scares. If there is one thing that I was left with, it was that I liked it, it just didn’t scare me. Perhaps that is because I compared it to how I felt as a younger viewer in the early 2000 watching the original. Or it could simply be that the scares they did put into it, relied more on very dramatic screaming, blood and many weird and wonky film effects.

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There are some nods to the fans of the franchise, like the cats and the their screams, working like an image of the human grief, and anger the character feels. The narratives and plot is overlapping, going in circles and bites itself in the back, just as the rest of the installments. But as a six episode long series, not a movie, does this work? Jury is out!

The very polite man: e-eee-eeetoooo Source IMDB

The characters are in the first episode all over the place, with a lot to keep tabs on in what seems to be unrelated people. And they continue to be confusing to follow, at times frustratingly so throughout the series. If you want complete closure and all questions answered, you will be truly disappointed. It takes a while until the characters really cross paths except all being connected to the house. And the only connecting device they have in the start are the same news feed through the news on retro TV’s and in passing.

The violence is the worst. So graphic, so grotesque. Always coming as a surprise in the most mundane situations, lasting for so long, reminding us that humans really is the worst. Also, in addition to that, it truly have some of the more bizarre scene I’ve witnessed in a long time. Bento in prison scene I’m looking at you.

Based on a True Story

A lot of marketing for the series have been, a “based on a true story” spin. It is not uncommon for horror movies to go this route. But is this it? What is the true story?

The legend of Ju-On is based on the legend of the Onry from Japanese folklore. A vengeful ghost, most often a woman killed by the hands of her husband or another man in close relation. And although the legend may be old stories, the news stories connecting the characters in the TV, sure reminds us about some real stories.

Read Also

Onryō — the Vengeful Japanese Spirit

In many cultures, ghosts are put in different categories. Such is the case with Onryō (怨霊 onryō,) It basically means “vengeful spirit” or “wrathful spirit” in Japanese and is a mythological spirit of vengeance from Japanese folklore. They also have ghosts, called yurei, but these differ in the will of the ghost. As opposed to…

But a clever thing they did was to subtly, or nor so subtly, actually, show real cases of murders. Poorly disguised with cover up names they always makes references to real cases when the characters are sitting, watching the news. And they do that, a lot. For instances this one case her:

In the second episode they show a news footage of the body of a girl in cement. It is 17 year old Sakura found that were held captured by three peers for a month. Something that surely reminds us of the real case of Junko Furuta back in 1977.

They also mentions the Matsumoto sarin attack in 1994 that killed eight and injured 500, perpetuated by a doomsday cult that would attack the year after in the  Tokyo subway sarin attack, with the desire to kick start their apocalypse and World War 3. Mindless violence.

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This is just some of the cases they referenced. Some actually happened in the years they are telling the stories in, from 1988 to 1997. Like for instance, they show what seems to be the Kobe Child Murders where a severed head in school 1997. And the perpetrator, a 14 year old boy, was responsible for several murders.

In my opinion this is a clever way of showing the audience a more sinister truth, lurking under this low crime country, filled with politeness and pride. There is this taboo of domestic abuse, parental neglect, misogyny, rape and intense violence that seeps through the cracks of the society.

A Social Commentary on Violence

And this is were I think the series stays strongest. Not in the jump scares, but in the social commentary. It is like a well written essay were it keeps punching away criticism of being over the top. “Oh, you think this gruesome murder of pregnant women was bad? BOOM, have a look at this actual true murder case”. It is truly were the heart of the series is, and always have. Now, the showrunners are just confident enough to rely mostly on it.

It is a lesson on violence repeating itself. Of how quickly domestic violence goes away, it is just inherited to others, creating this cycle of violence and a want for revenge in death as the characters had no way of protecting themselves in life. And so the abused becomes the abuser, and the cycle continues.

And no, I wasn’t as scared as in 2004 when Sarah Michelle Gellar introduced me to the franchise, or later when I watched the original Japanese version. But I still liked it, standing on its on. It begs the question, can men and women ever live peacefully together, as well as feeling free?

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Five Murder Ballads

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What does the Appalachian range, the Scottish Highland, the Scandinavian mountains and Nick Cave have in common? Filled of the sub genre murder ballads. A strange phenomenon we don’t hear much in songs anymore. Often a man killing his girlfriend or a mother killing her children, these bone chilling songs have lasted centuries, growing and changing according to the time and place. But one thing remains, someone is murdered.

Child Owlet

Most likely Scottish. This creepy and bloody tale of a woman’s desire turned to a crime is bone chilling when you read behind the jolly tune.

Lyric

Lady Erskine sits intae her bower, a-sowing a silken seam,
A bonny shirt for Child Owlet as he goes out and in
His face was fair, long was his hair, she’s called him to come near
“Oh, you must cuckold Lord Ronald for all his lands and gear.”

“Oh, lady, hold your tongue for shame for such should ne’er be done.
How can I cuckold Lord Ronald and me his sister’s son?”
Then she’s ta’en out a small penknife that lay beside her head
She’s pricked herself below her breast which made her body bleed.

Lord Ronald’s come into her bower where she did make her moan.
“Oh, what is all this blood,” he said, “That shines on your breast bone?”
“Young Child Owlet, your sister’s son, is new gone from my bower.
If I’d not been a good woman I’d have been Child Owlet’s whore.”

Then he has taken Child Owlet, thrown him in prison strong
And all his men a council held to judge Child Owlet’s wrong
Some said, Child Owlet he should hang, some said that he should burn,
Some said they would he Child Owlet between wild horses torn.

“Ten horses in my stable stand, can run right speedily.
It’s you must to my stable go and take out four for me.”
They tied a horse unto each foot and one unto each hand.
They’ve sent them out o’er Elkin Moor as fast as they could run.

There was no stone on Elkin Moor, no broom nor bonny whin
But’s dripping with Child Owlet’s blood and pieces of his skin.
There was no grass on Elkin Moor, no broom nor bonny rush
But’s dripping with Child Owlet’s blood and pieces of his flesh.

Down in the Willow Garden

You click on an Everly Brother’s song and expect it to be a sugar sweet song about eternal love. Little did you know you were getting a well known bloody murder-ballad about a guy murdering his girlfriend.

Lyric

Down in the Willow garden
Where me and my love did meet
As we sat a-courtin’
My love fell off to sleep
I had a bottle of Burgundy wine
My love she did not know
So I poisoned that dear little girl
On the banks below

I drew a sabre through her
It was a bloody knife
I threw her in the river
Which was a dreadful sign
My father often told me
That money would set me free
If I would murder that dear little girl
Whose name was Rose Connolly

My father sits at his cabin door
Wiping his tear-dimmed eyes
For his only son soon shall walk
To yonder scaffold high
My race is run, beneath the sun
The scaffold now waits for me
For I did murder that dear little girl
Whose name was Rose Connelly

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The Maid and the Palmer

I don’t know what the deal is with mixing happy folk tunes with the grimmest of lyrics. But it does give it an extra dimension of creepiness.

Lyric

HE maid shee went to the well to washe,
      Refrain: Lillumwham, lillumwham!
The mayd shee went to the well to washe,
      Refrain: Whatt then? what then?
The maid shee went to the well to washe,
Dew fell of her lilly white fleshe.
      Refrain: Grandam boy, grandam boy, heye!
Leg a derry, leg a merry, mett, mer, whoope, whir!
Driuance, larumben, grandam boy, heye!
While shee washte and while shee ronge,
While shee hangd o the hazle wand.
There came an old palmer by the way,
Sais, ‘God speed thee well, thou faire maid!’
‘Hast either cupp or can,
To giue an old palmer drinke therin?’
Sayes, ‘I have neither cupp nor cann,
To giue an old palmer drinke therin.’
‘But an thy lemman came from Roome,
Cupps and canns thou wold find soone.’
She sware by God & good St. John,
Lemman had shee neuer none.
Sais, ‘Peace, faire mayd, you are forsworne!
Nine children you haue borne.
‘Three were buryed vnder thy bed’s head,
Other three vnder thy brewing leade.
‘Other three on yon play greene;
Count, maid, and there be 9.’
‘But I hope you are the good old man
That all the world beleeues vpon.
‘Old palmer, I pray thee,
Pennaunce that thou wilt giue to me.’
‘Penance I can giue thee none,
But 7 yeere to be a stepping-stone.
‘Other seaven a clapper in a bell,
Other 7 to lead an ape in hell.
‘When thou hast thy penance done,
Then thoust come a mayden home.’

‘SEVEN years ye shall be a stone,
      Refrain: . . . . .
For many a poor palmer to rest him upon.
      Refrain: And you the fair maiden of Gowden-gane
‘Seven years ye’ll be porter of hell,
And then I’ll take you to mysell.’
* * * * *
‘Weel may I be a’ the other three,
But porter of hell I never will be.’

Long Lankin

I mean. If you can listen to the Wainwright sister’s version of this murder ballad, I don’t know what will affect you.

Lyric

Said the Lord unto his Lady as he rode over the moss
“Beware of Long Lankin that lives amongst the gorse
Beware the moss, beware the moor, beware of Long Lankin
Be sure the doors are bolted well
Lest Lankin should creep in”
Said the Lord unto his Lady as he rode away
“Beware of Long Lankin that lives amongst the hay
Beware the moss, beware the moor, beware of Long Lankin
Be sure the doors are bolted well
Lest Lankin should creep in”
“Where’s the master of the house?”, says Long Lankin
“He’s ‘way to London”, says the nurse to him
“Where’s the lady of the house?”, says Long Lankin
“She’s up in her chamber”, says the nurse to him
“Where’s the baby of the house?”, says Long Lankin
“He’s asleep in the cradle”, says the nurse to him
“We will pinch him, we will prick him
We will stab him with a pin
And the nurse shall hold the basin
For the blood all to run in”So they pinched him and they pricked him
Then they stabbed him with a pin
And the false nurse held the basin
For the blood all to run in”Lady, come down the stairs, ” says Long Lankin
“How can I see in the dark?”, she says unto him
“You have silver mantles”, says Long Lankin
“Lady, come down the stairs by the light of them”
Down the stairs the lady came, thinking no harm
Lankin, he stood ready to catch her in his arms
There was blood all in the kitchen
There was blood all in the hall
There was blood all in the parlor
Where my lady she did fall
Now Long Lankin shall be hanged
From the gallows, oh, so high
And the false nurse shall be burned
In the fire close by
Said the Lord unto his Lady as he rode over the moss
“Beware of Long Lankin that lives amongst the gorse
Beware the moss, beware the moor, beware of Long Lankin
Make sure the doors are bolted well
Lest Lankin should creep in”

Where the Wild Roses Grow

Most of the songs on this list is older ballads. But murder ballads is not a died out genre. The king of creepy songs, Nick Cave, wrote Where the wild roses grows in 1996. He said in an interview: “Where The Wild Roses Grow” was written very much with Kylie in mind. I’d wanted to write a song for Kylie for many years. I had a quiet obsession with her for about six years. I wrote several songs for her, none of which I felt was appropriate to give her. It was only when I wrote this song, which is a dialogue between a killer and his victim, that I thought finally I’d written the right song for Kylie to sing. I sent the song to her and she replied the next day.”

They call me The Wild Rose
But my name was Elisa Day
Why they call me it, I do not know
For my name was Elisa Day

From the first day I saw her, I knew she was the one
She stared in my eyes and smiled
For her lips were the colour of the roses
That grew down the river, all bloody and wild

When he knocked on my door and entered the room
My trembling subsided in his sure embrace
He would be my first man, and with a careful hand
He wiped at the tears that ran down my face

They call me The Wild Rose
But my name was Elisa Day
Why they call me it, I do not know
For my name was Elisa Day

On the second day, I brought her a flower
She was more beautiful than any woman I’ve seen
I said, “Do you know where the wild roses grow
So sweet and scarlet and free?”

On the second day, he came with a single red rose
He said, “Give me your loss and your sorrow”
I nodded my head as I lay on the bed
If I show you the roses, will you follow?

They call me The Wild Rose
But my name was Elisa Day
Why they call me it, I do not know
For my name was Elisa Day

On the third day, he took me to the river
He showed me the roses and we kissed
And the last thing I heard was a muttered word
As he knelt above me with a rock in his fist

On the last day I took her where the wild roses grow
She lay on the bank, the wind light as a thief
And I kissed her goodbye, said, “All beauty must die”
And lent down and planted a rose between her teeth

They call me The Wild Rose
But my name was Elisa Day
Why they call me it, I do not know
For my name was Elisa Day
My name was Elisa Day
For my name was Elisa Day

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The Hook-Man

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A Moonmausoleum original based on the well known Urban Legend

A couple parks their car on the local lovers lane. It’s in a small clearing in the forest, overlooking the small town. The guy insisted to drive around for a while as he manged to borrow his dad’s old veteran car for the evening. It’s supposed to be the date. They are slurping the remains of the soda and eating the popcorn from the movie.

“Did you like the movie?” the girl asks, engulfed in the movie they just saw, having some of the popcorn. It had been her choice, and the boy fell asleep halfway through.

“Sure,” the boy said, leaning into her. She pushes him playfully away.

“Yeah right, I noticed you fell asleep,” the girl says, throwing a popcorn at him playfully. He throws it back at her, just hearing her laughter.

“I’m awake now,” the guy says, kissing her.

The song from the radio ends, the news broadcaster taking over. It is a terrible radio station, local, but the only one they get a signal from her in this small town. The guy turns to the radio speaking in its slow and monotone voice.

“We report about the manhunt still ongoing for the convicted murderer and rapist, escaping from the mental institution. There are still no leads to his whereabouts. Noticeable features is his hook hand. Listeners are asked to report-“

“Enough of that,” the boys says as the news kills the mood, turning the radio off, putting on a playlist instead. The girl look around, uneasy after listening. She buttons one of her blouse button.

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“Hey, maybe we should just-“

“Come here,” the boy says, pulling her closer, kissing her, his hands trailing down her side. But she’s had it. The moment is passed.

“No, come on. Let’s just drive home.”

“But I only borrowed the car for this evening. I don’t know if he-“

“Don’t care! It’s creepy here.”

“It’s romantic.”

The girl crosses her arms over her chest. She’s made up her mind. The boy accepts defeat.

“Fine, fine.”

“We can ask your father again for the car another time,” the girls tries to negotiate with. The boy is not biting to her offer.

“Sure,” the boy mutters, trying to get the engine to work. It doesn’t. He tries again: Same result. The girl starts to get a creepy feeling, an uneasiness as if the darkness around them swells.

“Do you need any help?”

“What? No! It just has this special way to get it started. Just give me a second.”

Still, the car won’t start. The night is coming to life. The nightlife is starting to wake, to howl. The girl inhales, trying not to intervene. The boy tried the key, but the engine just gave a small puff, not wanting to start. The headlight flickering weak before dying.

“It doesn’t work,” the girl says. The boy ignores her.

“Maybe you should just try to-“

“I know how to start a car,” the boy says, loosing his patient and snapping back at her. She raises her hand, leaving him to it.

The car finally stars and the girl leans in to fix her lipstick. She turns when a shadow glides over the mirror.

He pushed the pedals to the floor, car screeching as they bailed out from the lane, leaving their date in a pile of dust. The girl clutched the handle above her head.

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“Did you just drive onto something?”

“No”

“Didn’t you hear it right now? It was like the car pulled on something?”

“Jesus, can you at least not whine about my driving? I’m taking you home, as you demanded, alright? Can you just not?”

They drive away out from the woods onto the highway. He turns back to the news on the radio, but it’s over. Just a slow ballad to fill the awkward silence is heard.

After driving for a while, both notices something is wrong. The boy curses, knowing this date went horrible wrong.

“Sounds like the tires,” the girl comments as they park the car at the side of the road. It is still far to the town.

“Let me have a look,” the boy says, not knowing much about cars.

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Studying the back tire at the passengers side, he can’t make it out. It is as if it’s slashed. They wont be able to drive it back home. He stands up, looking both ways, no car is out on the roads, the forest on both sides is motionless in the dead wind.

He goes to the passenger door, motioning to open it to tell her they would need to call someone to come get then. That is when he sees it, that is when he freezes.

“What is it?” the girl asked, noticing his face going pale. The boy held out the arm.

“Stay in the car. Don’t come out. Lock the door,” he said, staring at the hook hanging from the car door.

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ancient, article, Ghost, Greece

The Haunted Bathhouse in Ancient Greece

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From the ancient writings of Plutarch, we can find a greek ghost story of the ghost of a young orphaned boy named Damon haunted a bathhouse in Chaeronea in Greece. According to the legend, the ghost haunted the place for centuries, perhaps even to this day?

Many of the oldest ghost stories sounds eerily alike to those of today, showing that the concept of ghost have been fairly consistent across time and place. Although most ghost stories from the ancient world is found in mythology and fairy tales, there are those ghost stories that comes from more historical records. Like this greek ghost story about a haunted bathhouse from the writings of Plutarch.

Read also: There are many ghost stories from ancient times, like Khonsuemheb and the Ghost of Theban Necropolis and Ghost of Tu-Po — The Hungry Ghost

Plutarch (AD 46–after 119), was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo. He also served his last thirty years a priest in Delphi. He also was a part of The Eleusinian Mysteries for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. They are the “most famous of the secret religious rites of ancient Greece“. So a man of the spirits, to say the least.

Temple of Delphi: This area of Greece have always been steeped in mystery and this greek ghost story happened not far from the mystical temple of Delphi.

Plutarch is known primarily for his Parallel Lives, a series of biographies of famous men from that time. Although the writings is mostly about vices and virtues and about philosophy about moral, he managed to put in a couple of ghost stories here and there as well.

Ghosts in Ancient Greece

So how did the typical ghost in ancient Greece look like? Back then it was closely linked to Greek mythology as it was the go to for explaining the unexplainable.

In ancient Greece there was two underworld goddesses the restless spirits belonged to: Melinoe and Hecate. Both were associated by wandering at night, with a trail of ghosts behind them, striking fear in anyone who saw them and their train of restless spirits following them to the underworld as their hounds barked with them. The two goddesses were also the ones that oversaw the burial rituals, something that was very important for the Greek and their ghost stories.

The Spirits of the Underworld: This greek ghost story and most other stories was deep rooted in the Greek mythology. Here depicted in: Souls on the Banks of the Acheron by Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl in 1898.

There were three main categories of ghosts in ancient Greece that restless spirits could be divided into: the ataphoi, the aoroi and the biaiothanatoi.

The ataphoi was the spirit of those who had not had a proper burial and their mission haunting was to get the living to bury them properly so they would be able to move on. This was mostly an easy fix as long as you could find the body, and after they had a properly burial they would mostly just disappear to the afterlife.

The aoroi was ghost of those that died too young and had led an incomplete life and was a bit more tricky to deal with. This type of ghost could possible become vengeful after death because of the regret of dying before its time.

The biaiothanatos however was the ghost that died a violent death, either murdered or in war. Like the two other categories it was highly important with the proper funeral rites for the dead so they would not awake as ghosts and haunt the place and possible harm the living.

A Greek Ghost Story

One of the ghost stories we find in the biography is about Cimon (510-450 BC). The ghost story is set in Chaeronea in Boeotia in Central Greece, just east of Delphi. It was also the birth town of Plutarch and it is said this was a ghost story he personally knew off as the ghost was still about in his day and age.

This greek ghost story tells the story about Damon Peripoltas, an orphan boy, living in Chaeronea. At this time, the city was ravaged by war and poverty, making it a breeding ground for violence like this story turned out to be.

Damon was said to be a beautiful boy, more so than the rest. He was a descendant of Peripoltas, the ancient seer that led his people to Boeotia. The descendants of the seer were held in high esteem, but it all changed after Damon though.

Although he was deemed to be a beautiful boy, he was also regarded as a dangerous one. He was poor, untrained and filled with rage and had no problems with violence. Something the whole city was about to know the hard way.

The Roman Commander’s Advances

A Roman commander was wintering in Chaeronea with his unit. One day, the young Damon, just past his childhood, caught the commander’s eyes and the commander decided he wanted him. The Roman commander claimed he fell in love with the beautiful orphan boy and made a pass on him. He tried to shower Damon in presents and gifts to woo him over, but Damon refused and was offended by the grown man’s advances.

This made the commander angry and his approach towards Damon changed. He threatened the boy with violence and said he would send Damon into obscurity and poverty if he did not give into him.

Damon got afraid of the repercussions he would suffer at the hands of the Roman commander and fearing exactly this, as he had seen what poverty could do to a man, Damon plotted against the man before he was the one suffering. But he had no intention of giving into the commander.

Smeared With Soot and Drunk on Wine

Damon had grown up in the rough city on the streets and a violent end was all he knew off. He gathered sixteen of his friends to help him see the plot towards the Roman through. They smeared their face with soot one night and got drunk on wine to gather the courage to get on with it.

Just before the break of dawn they attacked the Roman commander as he was sacrificing to his gods in the marketplace. The crew of youngsters killed the Roman then and there, and together they left the city before getting caught.

A Tragic Greek Ghost Story: This story ended in blood as almost everyone in the story ended up murdered. Here a depiction of the assassination of the Roman emperor, Julius Caesar who also were murdered by a group in a public place.

According to Roman law presiding in the city, this was punished by death, and this was the sentence the counsel of Chaeronea gave them. So, as the council sat to supper in the evening, Damon and his men broke into the town-hall were they were dining and slew them all. And yet again, they flew the city.

Hunted by the Romans

An investigation was done and they asked Damon to return, noticing the city also had been wrong. Damon was ravaging and pillaging the countryside with his accomplices, having fallen to poverty as he desperately didn’t want to. He was even making threats to the city that had cast him out. They lured him back by appointing him gymnasiarch, a high honor as an official, that would lead to respect and riches. He couldn’t refuse.

But when he came, he was having a vapor bath in the bathhouse and was slain. But they would never silence him as it was said that the ghost of Damon haunted the bathhouse.

His ghost roamed the bathhouse and the phantom of him appeared in it, sighing and groaning of his life that was cut short and from the betrayal.

The Haunted Bathhouse

Because of the ruckus from the ghost in the bathhouse, the citizens walled the bathhouse shut, trying to keep him inside, trying to put a lid on the past and their deeds. And it was said that still in Plutarch’s time, neighbors could still hear him inside, trying to get out again, to flew the city once more and finally be free.

Haunted Bathhouse: The greek were famous of their advanced public bathhouses. In this greek ghost story, the locals had to close up the bathhouse as the ghost of the murdered Damon kept crying and trying to escape.

Descendants of Damon’s family still lived at that time, near Stiris in Phocis. They are called Asbolomeni, or Besooted because of how Damon smeared himself with soot before committing his crimes.

What happened with the bathhouse and this greek ghost story if the place ever got quiet is uncertain, as ghost that met a violent end had a habit of holding a grudge for a long time.

 

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References:

Plutarch • Life of Cimon 

Ancient Ghost Stories from Around the World

https://books.google.no/books?id=TCFLl6fJDI8C&pg=PT208&lpg=PT208&dq=Peripoltas+the+seer&source=bl&ots=LePWgeDZ8N&sig=ACfU3U1J75_YztO03ZfddmP8WOiYCeym_g&hl=no&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjbwcbosOboAhWCxMQBHQm-A7kQ6AEwAXoECAsQNA#v=onepage&q=damon&f=false

 

creepypastas, pop-culture

Unknown Caller

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A Moonmausoleum original based on the well known urban legend

A girl was babysitting in a house in the neighborhood. It was all the way at the end of the street, but she had babysat for the same kids in the same house for years, and was used to it. It was her second home. She was sitting one evening doing her homework. The kids were already asleep and she waited for the parents to come home from their party. They had told her they would be late.

Her phone rang and she picked up, hoping it was the parents, telling her they were on their way home. She answered.

“Hello?”

Nothing. It was silent. She listened for a couple of seconds.

“Hello? Who’s there?” she asked again, annoyed now. No answer. She hangs up, getting back into her homework that is due tomorrow. It rings again.

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“Hallo? Who is this?” she asks, angry. A whispering voice.

“You should check on the children,” the voice says. She freezes.

“W-who is this?” she asks, more afraid now than anything.

There is no answer and the voice hangs up. She bolts out of the chair and runs upstairs. The kids are sleeping soundly in their beds. She goes backstairs again, shaken. She can’t focus on the homework again. She walks around the house, making sure every lock is on, every window is closed and the curtains are for. She blocks the number and sits on the couch, just listening. But the phone doesn’t ring. The screen lights up, notifying her on a mail she just received. She opens it.

“You should check on the children,” it reads. She calls her friend.

“Hello, what’s up?”

“Are you pranking me?” she asks, afraid and angry, all mixed up.

“What, no? What are you talking about?”

“An unknown caller kept calling me, knowing I am babysitting.”

“What? Have you called the police?”

“You think I should?”

“Yeah, you really should.”

“And someone sent an e-mail. I have never heard about this e-mail address before.”

“Have you checked the ip-adress?”

“What? Know, how do I do that?”

“Forward the mail, I’ll do it now.”

She forwards the mail, still on the phone. She can hear something upstairs and curses. She has woken the children. That is the last thing she needs right now.

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“Are you there?” the friend says.

“Yeah,” she answers, worried. It’s something about her friend’s voice. It’s sort of uneven, sort of. Terrified.

“You need to get out.”

“What, why?”

The sound upstairs is getting louder. It can’t be the children, they are too small.

“The IP-address. I traced it. It leads right back at your house. Were you are, right now!”

The sound is growing louder. It’s the sound of heavy footsteps down the stairs.

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