Ever had an experience you can’t explain? Ever gotten an uneasy feeling without explanation? Maybe it was a ghost. This article from allthatsinteresting.com details 11 “real ghosts” in the US.

The Greenbrier Ghost: When Spirits Send You To Prison

It was the winter of 1897 and the devout Mary Jane Heaster of Greenbrier County, West Virginia had just lost her daughter. Her newlywed daughter Zona had died of heart failure according to the local doctor, but Mrs. Heaster couldn’t help but feel something more was amiss in her child’s sudden death. Needless to say, for weeks Heaster couldn’t sleep. Then the visits began.

According to The Monroe Watchman, on the first night Zona’s apparition appeared, she disappeared just as suddenly when her mother reached for her. She became known as the so-called “Greenbrier Ghost,” and appeared again in her mother’s bedroom one night and begged to climb in. Perhaps more disturbingly, Zona told her mother that she’d been murdered by her husband. Zona detailed how her husband had broken her neck out of anger over supper one night, and the apparition relayed such details of her home that Mrs. Heaster was totally convinced of the ghost’s presence and of the story it told.

The case of the Greenbrier Ghost also then set a historical precedent, namely, that it is the only documented case of a conviction made on the testimony of a ghost. While Mrs. Heaster’s encounter with the ghost of her daughter is naturally contested by many, a few things are clear: Zona met 37-year-old blacksmith Edward “Trout” Shue in October 1896. She was 23 years old. The two got married only a few weeks later, to Mrs. Heaster’s chagrin, and moved into a home near the husband’s shop. Zona was dead three months later, found by a neighbor, at the foot of her stairs.

As Zona was dressed for her burial in a high-necked dress, rumors abounded and brought previously undisclosed facts to the surface. Townsfolk gossiped that Zona had given birth to an illegitimate child, that Shue had been previously married twice, and that the latter had died mysteriously. Some said she was pregnant when she fell through the ice. Others said it was a brick to the head that did her in. Mary Jane Heaster, meanwhile, was already convinced that Shue had killed her daughter.

Mrs. Heaster promptly met with Prosecutor John Alfred Preston who agreed, after hours of convincing, to work the case. A chat with the doctor confirmed there were, indeed, heavy bruises on the girl’s neck. Shue only became more suspicious at the funeral when he prevented people from getting too close to the coffin. He also placed a pillow on one side of Zona’s head.

Ultimately, Zona’s body was exhumed for a complete autopsy. Her neck had been broken, it was found, while her windpipe was crushed. She was strangled. Shue was consequently arrested and on the eighth day of his trial, a jury found him guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison. Now, 122 years later, a marker on Route 60 reminds passersby that the Greenbrier Ghost helped convict the man who killed her. There has never been a case like it again.

True Ghost Stories: The Charitable Spirits Stalking The Pittock Mansion

London-born newspaper publisher Henry Pittock and his wife Georgiana met and married in Portland, Oregon in 1860. He went on to become one of the wealthiest men in Oregon. He was also an avid rock and mountain climber and so helped to found the Mazamas climbing club. He joined the first expedition climb of Mount Hood. His wife was just as active in society, involving herself in the Women’s Union and Ladies Relief Society. She also helped found the Martha Washington Home, a residence for working women. According to The Oregon Encyclopedia, the Pittocks soon decided to build a home in which to retire in 1909.

With the help of architect Edward T. Foulke, they designed a mansion on 46 acres atop a hill overlooking the town. The interior had a huge central staircase, marble floors, and even an elevator and dumbwaiter. It was completed in 1914 when Mr. Pittock was nearly 80 and his wife 68. Unfortunately, neither got to enjoy the mansion very long. Mrs. Pittock died in 1918 with her husband following a year later. Their grandson, Peter Gantenbein, tried to sell the house in 1958 but was unable to due to the damage a storm had caused. In 1962, Portland residents donated $75,000 to help the city purchase and restore it.

In 1965, the mansion reopened to the public as a museum — a hub of paranormal activity. Guests have reported the presence of ghosts, presumably those of its former tenants. Reported ghost stories on the premises include all the classics: the sound of footsteps, items moving around on their own, and the independent shutting of windows. Even the tour guides claimed to have seen figures shuffling about. Others have described smelling the scent of roses, which was Georgiana Pittock’s favorite flower. Visitors have reported seeing the Pittocks and their former groundskeeper.

Ultimately, no malicious intent has ever been reported on behalf of these alleged ghosts. By all accounts, they’ve behaved kindly to visitors, grateful, perhaps, that they can continue their charitable lifestyles beyond the grave. That is, if any of these supposedly real ghost stories are actually true.

The Amityville Horror: A Fabricated Ghost Story Or Something More Sinister?

The horrifying Amityville murders of 1974 have been cemented as one of the most disturbing American horror stories of the 20th century. The house in Amityville, New York, still stands to this day (though under a different address) as a potent reminder of the night when young Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered his entire family as they slept.

It was November 13 when the 23-year-old awoke around 3:15 a.m. DeFeo systematically shot each of his four siblings once, one as young as 9, and both his parents twice, before running to a nearby bar claiming a local mobster had murdered his family.

But the next day he confessed to police. He claimed to have heard voices in the house, urging him to kill his parents, brothers, and sister. This was not the first time DeFeo claimed to have heard such voices. His testimony to a paranormal force didn’t go over well in court, considering he was also a drug addict presumably in the midst of a psychotic break. He is still incarcerated in a New York Prison after being given six life sentences for his crimes.

The house remained vacant for more than a year before was then purchased by George Lutz for $80,000. The price was simply too good to be true, so Lutz, his wife Kathy, and their sons Daniel and Christopher gratefully moved in. They only lasted 28 days in the home before fleeing. The family claimed that slime began seeping out of the walls. Knives flew off kitchen counters and a pig-looking creature had terrorized them. At times when nobody was inside the house, passersby reported figures wandering about. Lutz even claimed he saw his wife floating above their bed and that he, too, began waking up at 3:15 a.m. When they called in a priest to bless the house, he allegedly heard a voice telling him to “Get out!”

Naturally, skepticism about these allegedly real ghost stories abounded. With one of the most famous massacres having occurred at the house, and the Lutz family in serious debt, it only made sense that they’d cook up an elaborate ruse to bring renewed attention (perhaps even a book or movie deal) into their orbit.Although the Lutz’s lawyer claimed the family admitted to him they’d fabricated their purportedly true ghost stories, the couple doubled down and took a lie doctor test. They passed with flying colors, making their claims all the more unnerving. Daniel Lutz, who was a child during that month his family lived in Amityville, says he still has nightmares about his time there. But whether these accounts are mere scary ghost stories, remains to be seen.

SOURCE: ALLTHATSINTERESTING.COM

Ever had an experience you can’t explain? Ever gotten an uneasy feeling without explanation? Maybe it was a ghost. This article from allthatsinteresting.com details 11 “real ghosts” in the US.

The Ancient Ram Inn

If you’re eager to experience the paranormal, there’s no better way to visit an establishment built atop a Pagan burial ground. That’s exactly what happened with the Ancient Ram Inn in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, England. A former priest’s residence built in 1145, the Inn is not only the oldest building in town but also situated precisely where two Ley lines meet. Ley Lines are believed to be supernatural lines that connect the world’s monuments in a significant alignment. Some claim that the inn’s positioning along these two Ley lines coincidentally leads directly to England’s Stonehenge and must thus be a place of strong spiritual energy. Combined with a 5,000-year-old Pagan burial ground beneath its floors, the Ancient Ram Inn certainly has the makings of a paranormal place.

The inn formerly housed slaves and workers who built the nearby St. Mary’s Church. Streams on the inn’s grounds had to be rerouted around the church’s site, and many believe this diversion of water is in part responsible for exposing the area to dark energy. As if that wasn’t enough, the inn is also purportedly haunted by a witch who sought shelter there before being caught and murdered. She was burned at the stake in the 1500s and is now said to haunt the room she once stayed in, aptly called “The Witch’s Room.”

The inn’s sole owner and occupant, John Humphries, claims he was first introduced to the inn’s noncorporeal occupants on his first night as its owner in 1968. He said he had just gone to sleep when a demonic presence ripped him out of bed by his arm and pulled him across the room. Now in his 80s, he’s committed the rest of his life to maintaining the inn rather than running away from it — which most of us probably would’ve done half a century ago. Perhaps most depressing is the fact that Humphries’ wife and three daughters decided to do just that, leaving him alone on the property.

Humphries also claims to have found evidence of ritual sacrifice and devil worship underneath the staircase where he reportedly saw children’s bones punctured with daggers. If any of these reports are true, then it is perhaps Humphries’ unwillingness to leave the inn that is truly the terrifying part of this ghost story.

The Stanley Hotel

The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado is less than six miles from Rocky Mountain National Park. Perhaps more notable, of course, is its literary, cinematic, and paranormal appeal made infamous by Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 classic The Shining. According to Colorado.com, the establishment’s true history began over seven decades earlier when the hotel’s founder, Freeman Oscar Stanley, was suffering from tuberculosis. Convinced the Rocky Mountain air would cure him of the illness, in 1907 he simply decided to build a luxury hotel there. With no shortage of lumber supply from the region’s National Park, the resourceful visionary got to work. Ever since its completion, however, people have reported dread-inducing disturbances by entities they can’t fully explain.

Most famously, horror author Stephen King was inspired to write the foundation for Kubrick’s eventual film after a terrifying night in Room 217 in the mid-1970s. According to King, his time there made him so paranoid and afraid that he couldn’t help but write The Shining when he was allegedly ripped out of a nightmare during his stay. That particular room changed to Room 237 for reasons still hotly debated by Kubrick fans and is said to be haunted by the housekeeper. Neither identical twins nor a decomposing old woman has been reported by guests, but what has been observed isn’t much easier to stomach.

Guests have reported the giggling of children, running on the fourth-floor corridors, doors inexplicably slamming shut, flickering lights, and dramatic drops in temperature. Guests have even claimed to have seen a cowboy appear at the foot of their bed in Room 428. The fact that guests can hear founder Flora Stanley play the piano at night wouldn’t be so chilling were it not for the fact that she’s been dead for 80 years. Most recently, the location has been used for the annual “Shining Ball,” horror events, film festivals, and more. For those brave enough to spend a night, the fourth floor, as well as Room 217, are waiting.

Suicide Hotel

Los Angeles might not be the first place to come to mind as far as ghost stories go. Nonetheless, Hollywood has had a long history of tragedy. The Cecil Hotel, for one, has seen a litany of disturbing incidents, most recently the mysterious disappearance and subsequent discovery of young Elisa Lam in the Hotel’s rooftop water tank. Elisa Lam was only the most recent case at the hotel. The alleged hauntings date all the way back to the hotel’s opening in 1927 and it boasts 16 murders, suicides, and countless other events stretching credulity. It’s even housed some of the most famous American serial killers of the 20th century.

In 1934, Army Sergeant Louis D. Borden slit his own throat with a razor. Less than four years later, Roy Thompson of the Marine Corps jumped off the roof. His body was found beside a neighboring building. In September 1944, 19-year-old Dorothy Purcell woke up with stomach pain — entirely unaware she was about to give birth. She threw her baby out of the window and was subsequently institutionalized.

In 1962, 65-year-old George Giannini was taking a walk past the Cecil when the falling body of a 27-year-old woman who’d lept off the hotel’s ninth floor killed him. According to the Public Media Group of Southern California, locals began calling the hotel “The Suicide” shortly after. Serial killer Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as the “Night Stalker,” used the hotel as his temporary home in the 1980s. He rented a room on the top floor. Austrian serial killer Jack Unterweger briefly lived in the Cecil, as well.

Few incidences at the hotel, however, compare to what happened to 21-year-old Elisa Lam. Her discovery and the disturbing behavior she displayed in the hotel’s elevator, are inexplicably disturbing. Guests suddenly experienced such low water pressure in early 2013 that the hotel’s management promptly checked their infrastructure. That’s when they found Canadian tourist Elisa Lam who’d been decomposing for nearly a month in the hotel’s rooftop water system.

The coroner could simply not assess a clear cause of death. The security footage is even eerier than that. With a seeming combination of fatigue, disorientation, and fear, Lam’s last moments alive only yield more questions than answers. Her story could perhaps be scarier than many other ghost stories on this list.

The Mary Celeste

The America brigantine Mary Celeste was found inexplicably deserted near the Azores Islands in 1872. Spotted by the British brig Dei Gratia on December 4, the abandoned ship had been sailing through the Atlantic about 1,000 miles west of Portugal. What happened aboard remains an utter mystery to this day. There have been theories involving sea monsters to fire. Only earlier this year was a new scenario put forth that makes the most sense thus far. According to the ship’s log, Captain Benjamin Briggs and his crew departed aboard the Mary Celeste from New York Harbor for Genoa, Italy on Nov. 7, 1872. The ship was carrying denatured alcohol, seven crew members, and Briggs’ wife and daughter. For the next two weeks, everyone aboard endured treacherous seas and wailing winds until Briggs entered his last log on November 25.

According to The Smithsonian, when the confused British crew of the Dei Gratia boarded the abandoned vessel six months later, they found everything in order. Even the crew’s clothes had been packed away, but nobody was to be found. Only a disassembled pump in the hold, three and a half feet of water in the bilge, and a missing lifeboat suggested there had been trouble. There was six months of food and water still aboard. The cargo was intact and the crew’s belongings neatly stowed away. A ship’s captain would only abandon ship in a matter of life or death, generally speaking. So what had happened here?

Some posit the crew mutinied after drinking some of the alcohol, but no signs of violence were present. Others theorized pirates raided the ship though no valuables were missing. Finally, in 2002 — 130 years after she left New York — the Mary Celeste‘s fate was potentially explained. Documentarian Anne MacGregor launched an investigation which included reconstructing the ship’s drift and found that the ship had been 120 miles off course due to a faulty chronometer. Since the captain expected seeing land three days earlier than he did, he changed course towards Santa Maria Island to find shelter.

MacGregor also found that the ship had been recently refitted and that debris from this process clogged the pumps which remove water during harsh weather. Thus, with no working pumps and being so utterly off course, the captain decided to abandon ship to try to save his men. Of course, this is merely the latest in a slew of theories. Perhaps sea monsters were to blame in the case of this real ghost story, after all.

SOURCE: ALLTHATSINTERESTING.COM