Real Haunts

Zac Bagans’ The Haunted Museum

Las Vegas is a desert oasis that’s capable of quenching the most distinguishing of thirsts. The constant gleam of neon lights, ringing slot machines, and Vegas nightlife draws millions of visitors to the Silver State every year. Located less than one mile off the famed Las Vegas strip on the side street of East Charleston Boulevard is the Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum. It caters to a different crowd, featuring artifacts and stories of paranormal history. The museum is downright frightening and wholly exciting.

The Dark History of The Bagans’ Haunted Museum

The building itself is an older mansion that was originally built in 1938 by the prominent Wengert family. It was once the largest mansion in Las Vegas which gives Bagans plenty of room to house his objects of the macabre. The house has some darkness in its history as a former owner passed away inside the home. Over the years, the property was abandoned at one point and according to Bagans, it was revealed to him that dark rituals were performed in the basement area of the now haunted museum. In fact, he feels that the building was established with haunted spirits long before he ever took ownership. During its remodeling prior to opening, Bagans had a hard time keeping some workers on the job as many would be fine one moment and then run screamingly off the property after having a paranormal encounter inside. The now eleven thousand square foot museums boasts over thirty rooms jam-packed with some of the most haunted objects from all over the world.

Experience the Paranormal

One of the principles that Bagans tries to make known to visitors is that he is not trying to actively show a ghost or call forth a spirit. Instead, he is offering a place where if possessed ghostly objects choose to interact with a visitor or group, then they will do it because they want to. Some of the haunted objects he possesses are in fact just too dangerous for visitors to be near. One of the most terrifying is the legendary Dybbuk Box. This unassuming wooden box is said to contain the spirit of a malicious entity that is capable of haunting and even possessing a human being. Bagans acquired the box and after opening it with the help of a witch, he then claimed to see apparitions and dark shadow figures. Worse yet was the powerful growling sounds that emanated around the box. Bagans ended up sealing the box closed with a powerful combination of sage and salt to keep the dreaded Dybbuk spirit locked safely away.

What Artifacts are in the Zac Bagans’ Haunted Museum?

While the Warren Occult Museum in Connecticut has the infamous Annabelle doll, the Zak Bagans’ Museum has “Peggy the Doll”. Bagans acquired the doll from a woman in England who claimed that the doll contained the spirit of a young woman who died sometime in 1946 of a chest related medical problem. Too many people close to the former owner suffered from severe chest pains or even mild heart attacks. Bagans now has Peggy the Doll in an isolated room that is not part of the standard tour. He claims that people who come in to see Peggy have suffered chest pains or heart attack related symptoms on the spot. Other times it’s given crippling headaches and even caused some people to suffer a ghastly uncontrollable fit of vomiting! Still so, Bagans does not mistreat Peggy or hide her away but further insists, “I always want to show them respect because the things they’ve caused are quite real”.

Outwardly haunted objects are not the only thing on display in the museum. One of the more innocuous items is a cauldron formerly owned by infamous serial killer Ed Gein, who later inspired the wildly successful Texas Chainsaw Massacre film series. The cauldron was used for everyday work on the Gein farm as well as later used to render dismembered human limbs down to the bone. In the museum, people have reported a sense of dizziness and unease after staring at the cauldron too long. At other times there has been mysterious interference with electronic devices when standing near the cauldron. Gein’s not the only serial killer with property there to be seen by visitors. John Wayne Gacy’s paintings that he made while on death row hang in a hallway as does a portrait of Charles Manson in which his actual cremated ashes were used to paint his portrait eyes with!

The Bagans’ Museum does have separate rooms that contain less supernatural objects such as a room filled with many spooky puppets and dolls. Another has carnivalesque fortune-telling objects, while a nearby room displays celebrity items such as Michael Jackson’s death chair and even torture writer Truman Capote’s medication bottles. Voted “Best Museum by Las Vegas Review-Journal”, tickets and tour slots fill up fast for the museum every day. Bagans is sometimes around the museum to greet fans and visitors as a pleasant surprise. However, visitors must sign a waiver in which they affirm that they are about to see the most haunted objects in the world and must do so at their own risk! That is perhaps the best gamble in all of Sin City.

It is certainly understandable that some bed and breakfast establishments prefer to downplay any association with ghostly hauntings taking place on their property as it serves as a reminder of a sometimes violent past. However, for the Chapman Inn of Bethel, Maine they not only embrace the fact that their place is haunted but take things another step further by openly saying they are “officially haunted”.

The Haunted Chapman Inn

William Chapman built the home somewhere near the turn of the 20th Century. While he indeed had a wife and children, his daughter Abigail was born sickly and thus had to stay inside the home at all times. Because her level of care was exhausting, William hired a nanny to look after Abigail and the two were inseparable. After years together, Abigail died young at the age of 16, while her father died not long after in 1927. Because of the nanny’s dedication to Abigail, he left her the home in his will and she remained there until she herself died in 1957. Exchanging owners over the years of many renovations, the home was converted into a bed and breakfast and that’s when stories of the paranormal emerged.

Doors opening and closing at random without any force to them are the most commonly sighted activity. Sounds of heavy footsteps and that of someone running can be heard on the above floors and hallways at all hours.

But perhaps the most chilling paranormal activity at the Chapman is not seen or felt but heard. Guests and the owners of the inn have reported hearing two soft sounding female voices having full-on conversations with one another in completely empty rooms. Recently a paranormal investigator was brought in to investigate and he surmised that the two voices would belong to those of Abigail and her nanny. The belief is that their emotional bond was so strong when they lived in the home that not even death could separate their friendship making it paranormally bittersweet.

Today the inn welcomes any and all guests to freely take audio or video of any of the activity taking place at the inn thus further living up to their self-labeled “officially haunted” moniker.

Easily one of the most recognizable images anywhere, located in Griffith Park the Hollywood Sign is a beacon for those yearning to be a part of the entertainment industry. Perhaps nobody yearned more for celebrity than aspiring Golden Age stage actress Peg Entwistle.

Is the Hollywood Sign Haunted?

Originally from Wales, Peg Entwistle turned her sights on Hollywood to catch her big break in show-business. Having made a previous stopover in New York City on Broadway, Entwistle traveled to the Los Angeles area and was making a huge name for herself as a talented stage actress in the area. After appearing in only a single film to her credit, Entwistle went late one night, climbed forty-five feet to the top of the great sign and leaped off to her death. Her suicide garnered both a tremendous amount of publicity, as well as reports of her ghost being seen.

Peg Entwistle

Being a natural tourist attraction to the area, most people park and make the small hike up to the sign to snap a quick picture. The trails around the sign are also perfect spots for walking and hiking. On more than one occasion, hikers have reported a woman in a dress almost gliding towards them from out of nowhere, asking for directions on how to reach the top of the sign before slowly disappearing. Others have reported a blonde woman in a white dress on rainy or foggy evenings who is slowly walking up to the sign before disappearing.

There are also frequent reports of the overpowering scent of gardenias at the bottom of the Hollywood sign and around Griffith Park. This was a reported favorite scent that Entwistle frequently wore and made even eerier by the fact that there are no gardenias anywhere to be found in Griffith Park!

People looking to embark on careers as famous comedians naturally gravitate towards Los Angeles. Landing a gig at the Comedy Store, a landmark comedy club, is just about the best audition one can land to get that big break. So why exactly would a place that has such comedic reputation be haunted?

Is the Comedy Store in Los Angeles Haunted?

Prior to being established as the Comedy Store, the building was a famous Sunset Strip club and restaurant called Ciro’s. All of Hollywood royalty and some reputed gangsters frequented the club from 1940 to 1972. The building was purchased, remodeled and the Comedy Store opened for business.

Over the years, stories of paranormal activity have become frequently reported at the Comedy Store.

• An upstairs area of the comedy club housed a piano that was frequently heard being played with nobody there.
• Club waitresses would set and dress candles on club tables only to come back and find them rearranged.
• A former security guard once claimed to have seen audience chairs mysteriously slide across the floor unassisted, as well as lights flickering on an off. Even once, a stack of chairs left their position and were supernaturally stacked in the center of the room without a sound.
• Supposedly, the Hollywood mafia made sinister deals down in the basement of Ciro’s decades earlier and their shady dealings and possible deaths committed there have attributed to the supernatural activity in the Comedy Store today.

In the end, most people who have investigated the Comedy Store have found the activity to be from a “prankster” spirit of some kind as no real malevolent activity has ever occurred there.

Council Bluffs, Iowa is one of the more unsuspecting locations for paranormal activity. The rather small and simple city is situated on the Missouri River directly across from the Nebraskan city of Omaha. Home of Pottawattamie County, the area was named after the heavy presence of a contingent of Native Americans in the area. However, another heavy ghostly presence still remains in Council Bluffs at the old Pottawattamie County Jail, within an area of cells known as, “the squirrel’s cage”.

Is the Pottawattamie County Jail Haunted?

“Squirrel Cage” at Pottawattamie County Jail

Constructed in 1885, the Pottawattamie County Jail was actually styled as a three-story, Victorian brick building. Legend has it that the ground it was constructed on used to be a morgue that was crudely connected to an Episcopal church that was all torn down to make way for the jail. Inside, however, there was an arrangement of thirty cells that were controlled by a lever that would rotate them around in ten cell increments. This revolving jail cell setup was crudely dubbed, “the squirrel’s cage” due to its wiry and animalistic design. Operating until 1969, this jail housed local inmates who had committed mainly misdemeanors with a few felony murderers mixed in. Most were men who awaited jury trials at the nearby courthouse, while others just served out bits of sentenced prison time. Overall, a total of four people were reported to have died in its eighty-four-year history, and there are many who say these very spirits and more are what haunts it today.

The Ghosts of Pottawattamie County Jail

The most disturbing paranormal entity in the jail is that of a little girl in a tan dress. This is perhaps the most farfetched, and wildest claim anyone could make as the child was not an inmate there. However, visitors to the jail have reported seeing a girl of around seven years of age, sitting sadly both inside the cells and at odd areas around the jail. She is reported to be either spotted dashing around corners, or she sometimes tugs at the shirts of visitors in a manner of which a little child would do who wants an adult’s attention. Her spirit is thought to be there prior to the jail being built.

One of the upper floors contained the apartment dwelling of the jail superintendents who used to live on site. Both spirits of Otto Gudath and J.M. Carter have been reported as being seen on this particular floor. In fact, the spirit of Gudath is said to have fully manifested into a full-bodied apparition on more than one occasion. A pair of inmate deaths are also speculation as to be responsible for the activity. One inmate committed suicide in their cell, while another had died after falling from the top of the infamous prison cage when he attempted to write his name on the ceiling. Paranormal investigators that have toured through noted vicious cold spots along with a flurry of multicolored orbs have been felt and seen. At another time, cell doors and old worn-out guard quarter cabinets have mysteriously been thrust opened and banged shut.

Today, the old Pottawattamie County Jail is actually open for visitors. The local preservation and historical societies regularly organize tours for those who are looking to get a glimpse of this colorful jail’s history. It is indeed both an architectural marvel and a paranormal phenomenon.

Prison escapes are one of the rarest events to occur inside correctional institutions across the world. But what if there was a way to ultimately prevent escapes? It should come as no surprise that in 1934, a maximum-security federal prison called Alcatraz was opened on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. To authorities then, if inmates escaped, the raging waters would drown them. If the thrashing waves didn’t kill them, then the sharks surely would. Decades after closing, Alcatraz remains one of the top haunted prisons in all of North America.

History of Alcatraz Island

In 1861, Fort Alcatraz which was on Alcatraz Island had been fashioned into a military prison by the Department of the Pacific, where Civil War-era prisoners of war and some Native Americans were kept. By the end of the Civil War, military prisoners and those accused of treason were kept housed there. In 1898 during the Spanish American War, the meager inmate population of twenty-five ballooned to over four hundred and fifty inmates and slowly gained a reputation as a legitimate prison. The Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 caused great distress to the city’s infrastructure and prisoners were sent to Alcatraz while repairs were made. During the next twenty-seven years, the military made changes and upgrades to the site before officially selling the prison to the Bureau of Prisons.

Native American Prisoners at Alcatraz Prison

When Alcatraz officially opened on August 11, 1934, it received a large transfer of federal inmates as the prison was officially being touted as the final destination to accumulate the most violent and troublesome federal inmates. Some of the most notorious inmates to be incarcerated at “The Rock”, were Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, Rafael Miranda, and Robert Franklin Stroud. Split amongst three cellblocks with personal cells measuring 9x5x7, it was no surprise that such tight quarters helped inspire a torrent of violence that carried over once the prison was closed years later in March 1963.

Is Alcatraz Prison Haunted?

Cell Block D

Cell 14 of D Block is reputed to be the most haunted place in the entire prison. D Block was the area of the prison where the most violent and disobedient inmates were sent. This area housed what is commonly called “The Hole” in many prisons, a small concrete room with no light, a mattress on the floor, and a hole to relieve yourself in. The most popular story is that of an inmate confined to Cell 14 who screamed and shouted all night long that there was a creature with red glowing eyes in the room who was trying to kill him. Guards dismissed the claims as typical paranoia but were shocked to find the next morning the inmate laying dead in his cell from strangulation which was unexplained since the inmate had nothing in which to strangle himself.

Cell 14 of D Block

Cell 14

Haunted by the situation, until the prison’s closing, guards were reported to have an extra man in the headcount and his ghost was spotted on occasion being that extra in line before vanishing. Another prisoner was reported kept for nearly three years on Cell 14 and was finally released back into the general population and upon doing so immediately stabbed another inmate to death. He was never formally charged because his mental state was so corroded, coupled with talk of a red-eye creature had him labeled as officially insane.

Spirits rushing and disappearing were noticed firsthand by Warden James Johnston. He was giving a small tour of the facility to some federal inspectors when they heard a mysterious crying sound that followed them to all the spots they were touring. The sobs grew louder and louder until right upon Warden Johnston, an unexplained gust of wind swept past him and the sobbing ceased. As if phantom prisoners and sobbing sounds weren’t enough, banjo music has been heard.

Al Capone

Al Capone, during his time there was sickly, and to ease his time he joined the prison band playing the banjo. After a vicious altercation in the prison yard, the guards let Capone practice strumming in the shower rooms. Not only after Al Capone died, but also decades later, visitors to the prison have heard banjo music being played around the shower room areas, of course with nobody in sight.

The Lady Spirit

Alcatraz was famous for housing male inmates only, however, in 2014, a British couple taking a tour of the deserted prison took one of the most remarkable ghost photographs ever taken. It is of a woman in decidedly period dress who is staring back at them. Very hard to say who the female might have been or how she ended up at Alcatraz. Given that the island did house Native Americans at one point, there is the belief that she is a deceased former prisoner of the island. In fact, it is also believed that a portion of the Native American deaths that occurred on Alcatraz, helped contribute to the other ghostly phenomena in the prison such as glowing multicolor orbs, cold spots, phantom apparitions, and incessant banging of cell doors.

Alcatraz may have had its doors closed all those decades ago, but that does not stop it from being one of the most popular tourist attractions to those who visit the San Francisco Bay area. In fact, there are many tours to the island of both the sightseeing variety and paranormal that are in operation to this very day.

Missouri was made an official state in 1821, and by 1836 a fully functioning and surprisingly large stone penitentiary dubbed the Missouri State Penitentiary was dolefully open for business. 183 years later, the remains of the prison are more haunted than ever before. In fact, Time Magazine once referred to the prison as, “the bloodiest 47 acres in America.”

Is the Missouri State Penitentiary Haunted?

Governor John Miller was the fourth governor in Missouri’s new state history, and he was responsible for helping establish Jefferson City as the state’s capitol. In a political swerve, Miller chose the prison to be built in Jefferson City so as to fend off other small Missouri towns for claiming themselves as the capitol. The prison opened in March 1836, with precisely one prison guard, one warden, one foreman who taught brick making to the inmates, and fifteen inmates themselves.

Over several decades, inmates began flooding the prison and in September 1937, Governor Lloyd Stark officially signed a state bill that made executions, via the gas chamber, official at the prison. In totality, forty prisoners were executed by lethal gas at the prison, so naturally, the execution block is one of the most haunted places in the prison. Not one, but two spirits are said to be haunting the death row cell block area. A pair of violent lovers named Bonnie Heady and Carl Austin hall have made their presence known. The pair kidnapped and murdered a young boy in 1953, and were given a death sentence to be carried out via the gas chamber. On the day of the execution, they were both seated in the gas chamber side by side and were executed at the same time.

Today, it is believed that their spirits haunt this cellblock, and in particular Cell 14.  People have not only felt vicious cold spots and heard growling noises but also experienced a pair of unseen hands caressing the back of their heads and then shoving them in the back. Paranormal investigation groups have frequently come through and attempted to get spirit footage of either Carl or Bonnie. While no video evidence has ever been obtained, audio footage certainly has. With the help of recording equipment, numerous EVPs (electronic voice phenomenon) have captured the three most frequent and disturbing words, “stay”, “love”, and “kill”.

Ghosts of Missouri State Penitentiary

• Prison deaths at Missouri State were exceptionally violent. One inmate named John McBroom had run afoul of some inmates he was sharing a cellblock with who believed him to be an informer for the prison guards. During breakfast call early one morning a pair of inmates charged into his cell, using a pair of broken scissors as a weapon. They stabbed him repeatedly in the eyes and skull and he ended up bleeding to death before he was ever found. Years later, however, visitors to the prison have reported seeing a pale white apparition of what appears to be a man, bleeding profusely out of his eye sockets, wondering around the cell walkways.
• Hall A is considered the oldest part of the prison and is naturally one of the most haunted spots. It is in this particular building’s basement where the infamous row of “hole” cells was built. Small, narrow cells with essentially no light, it’s where the most violent and out-of-control inmates were kept. Foul smells, disembodied voices, shoves, and paranormal equipment malfunctions in this area are rife.
• Just above Hall A, in Cell 48, an inmate was supposedly bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer by another inmate. Visitors to this cell have reported an overwhelming sense of dread here and even a heavy, unseen weight being pressed into their bodies.
• Just to the top of the building in the control room, the spirit of even a former prison medic haunts this area. Known as “Fast Jack” this white-colored spirit has not only been spotted gliding past watchful visitors, but also has been responsible for opening, closing, and even locking cell doors from the control room much to the shock of paranormal investigators!

Visit Missouri State Penitentiary

This formidable and chilling prison is still standing today. A collection of paranormal, historical, and photography tours of Missouri State are available in both public and private capacities for those looking to get a glimpse inside the infamous walls. These highly affordable and guided tours are some of the best that are offered for a haunted location such as this. Private overnight paranormal investigations are available for the most discerning of ghost hunters, but beware that while they sell out regularly, not everyone makes it through the entire night before fleeing in terror!

Gold was first discovered in the Wyoming Territory in 1842 right near the Sweetwater River. Legend has it that the man who first discovered it was so envied for his find that he was murdered before he could even make it home with his new treasure. For the next three decades, the area boomed with ruthless and violent prospectors who would stop at nothing to strike it rich. With so much crime in the High Plains, it was only a matter of time before justice would have to step in and be meted out. The Wyoming Frontier Prison opened its doors in the small town of Rawlins in 1901 and was in operation for only eighty years, however, that was enough time for much bloodshed to be planted, and paranormal activity to be harvested.

Is the Wyoming Territory Prison Haunted?

By 1890, Wyoming officially became a U.S. State and a larger state and federally funded prison was built in Rawlins. Nearby inmates from the Wyoming Territorial Prison were gradually shipped here once the prison opened in 1901. By 1908 the prison had upgraded to add additional cells, cellblocks, and a women’s unit. Executions were publicly carried out at the prison via hanging until 1916 when an execution chamber was added that made the hangings private until a gas chamber was added and the hangings discontinued in 1936.

Andrew Pixley

Andrew Pixley was a cold-blooded murderer responsible for the gruesome slayings of some children whose father was a circuit court judge. He was found guilty and sentenced to die in the gas chamber and when his execution came, he took the longest to die of any inmate ever recorded by the gas chamber. Most perish under two minutes, but Pixley lasted nearly seven minutes as he laughed the entire time Not only did he physically hang on as long as he could, but spiritually he’s still hanging in. Candlelights placed inside Pixley’s cell during ghost tours of the prison have been known to flicker intensely, emit a glowing light, go out completely, then suddenly relight. Of all things, a black cat has been known to infiltrate the prison and has been spotted coming and going from Pixley’s cell and the execution chamber. This chamber is where people have claimed to hear ghostly laughing picked up during ghost hunting sessions as well as the crying of young females. This is believed to somehow be the weeping of Pixley’s victims.

Frank Wigfall and The Pie Lady

Another ghostly apparition doesn’t involve a singular spirit, but rather a half dozen. A frequenter of the prison during its early years was a local woman who brought fresher baked pies and a homespun spiritual message to the inmates. One, named Frank Wigfall in particular took a keen liking to this woman known as the “Pie Lady”, and upon his release from prison, tracked her to her home and brutally raped and killed her. Finding himself back in the prison again, Wigfall was instantly hated by all the inmates who enjoyed the pies and cheer the Pie Lady spread. This inmate was hung with a rope by a small group of prisoners over the side of an upper walkway as justice for the Pie Lady. Since then, prisoners, prison guards, and paranormal investigators have been supernaturally privy to a scene where a half dozen spirits quickly execute this Wigfall with a spectral rope in full view.

Sightings over the years have varied in their disturbing diversities. Tour guides have frequently heard footsteps in and around the gas chamber area of the prison, as well as disembodied voices calling out over the various cellblocks long after the last tourist has visited and left for the day. The ghostly phenomena of orbs have been sighted and recorded as well as EVPs (electronic voice phenomenon). The EVPs have ranged from “help me” all the way up to an unseen entity saying, “give me a cigarette”. In fact, there is no one particular area of the prison that is not off-limits for paranormal activity. One of the most bizarre and chilling places is the main prison shower room. Voices emanating from the darkened shower room have one thinking that people in there are having a conversation only to find nobody in there. Equally disturbing is the fact that wet footprints have been spotted on the tile flooring despite no water being run in the shower room at all.

Visit the Wyoming Frontier Prison

Over the decades, the prison took on many different names and stately owners before being closed in 1981. A piece of Wyoming history, in 1988, a local joint power board for preservation helped to establish the site as a prison museum that remains in operations today, where tours are given with regularity. A highly rated, historically thrilling tour it’s one of the more popular tourist experiences in the state and can almost guarantee that for some, they will be scared straight.

Castellated with turrets and battlements, the imposing Gothic-styled West Virginia Penitentiary looked every bit as intimidating on the outside as it was violent on the inside. Prison breaks, riots, and scores of executions on inmates for a prison constructed to hold 480 people before swelling to over 2,000 in the decades to follow. Even the object of a Supreme Court case in 1986, the prison was eventually decommissioned and inmates transferred elsewhere. But what still remains there? And just exactly why is this one of the most haunted prisons in North America?

Is the West Virginia Penitentiary Haunted?

In 1863, West Virginia has seceded from Virginia at what many considered the height of the ongoing Civil War. Being a brand new state with extremely limited resources, Governor Arthur Boreman began lobbying the new legislature for a spate of crucial necessities, among these was the request for a prison. It took close to three years of lobbying before the legislature afforded him $3,000 to purchase a ten-acre tract of land in Moundsville, West Virginia. At first, a makeshift wooden prison was erected while prison officials scouted out a more exacting plan. They found their inspiration in the Northern Illinois Penitentiary of Joliet. It was built in a classical, stone Gothic style that represented something of a fortress so much so that it was referred to by scouting prison officials as “a cheerless blank indicative of the misery which awaits the unhappy being who enters within its walls.” The West Virginia Penitentiary opened for business in 1866.

The prison had both cellblock areas named the North and South Halls. In fact, the North Hall was referred to as, “the Alamo” due to the violent environment and guards even had to don riot gear with flak jackets and helmets just to serve food to inmates sometimes. Over the years, it was fitted with a sizable dining hall, jail hospital, chapel, female unit, and warden and guard apartments. Industry jobs to keep inmates busy while serving out their sentences included carpentry, painting, stonemasonry, and even work release detail at the nearby coal mine. However, life inside was anything but easy.

Old Sparky

A spate of cells measured only 5×7, and the inclusion of an execution block did anything to ease tensions. Over the course of its operation, the prison executed ninety inmates by both hangings in the gallows as well as way of the newly patented electric chair which was disturbingly referred to as, “Old Sparky.” Countless other suicides and inmate on inmate prison deaths occurred with unpublicized frequency. Its violent nature landed this prison officially on the United States Department of Justice’s list of one of the ten most dangerous prisons in the United States. Together this has all culminated in a supernatural recipe for some sinister paranormal activity.

The Shadow Man of the West Virginia Penitentiary

The chief ghostly presence at the prison is what has been called, the Shadow Man. In 2004, well after the prison had been abandoned, an investigator to the site named Polly Gear took one of the more convincing and eerily profound paranormal photographs in recent supernatural history. At the end of a row of cellblocks, her photo lens captured a picture of the chilling Shadow Man. But exactly who or what is the Shadow Man? Paranormal speculations have him being the ghost of former prisoner R.D. Wall. Wall was an inmate serving out a life sentence on a rape conviction at the prison when he was cornered in a basement work area and had his fingertips cut off as well as his throat sliced open.

Visitors to this area of the prison have encountered a dark specter that appears in khaki clothing, which is what Wall was last seen in. It is also said that women have encountered the feeling of an unseen hand grip at their shoulders. While Wall had an unhealthy affinity for women outside of the prison, he was thought of as a model inmate inside it and was favored by guards and the warden but thought of as a prison snitch always looking and lurking about. This is the most popular theory on who the identity of the Shadow Man is. Watching and looking from out behind the corners of cellblocks, his foreboding presence is terrifying enough.

The Sugar Shack

One of the centrally located areas of the prison for paranormal activity is what has been referred to as, the “Sugar Shack”. This part of the prison during its operations was a hotbed of illegal activities such as gambling, drinking, and carousing. Abandoned for decades, visitors to the prison who have come across this area have spoken of cold spots, instances of slight dizziness, as well as the sensation of being watched. Some have even gone as far as saying they’ve heard disembodied voices as well as laughter. Notorious inmate Red Snyder was stabbed nineteen times to death in his prison cell where he was serving time for both arson and murder in 1992. His cell has been noted as not only a chilling place to step into, but his disembodied voice has been heard as well as EVPs captured with foul utterances demanded visitors leave his cell.

Today, the Moundsville Economic Development Council has helped to preserve the prison as a historical tourist destination. Tours vary in range from historical, photographical, group, paranormal investigations, and overnight paranormal investigations. In fact, the prison is also home to one of the hottest paranormal conventions in the country, Para-Con.

The very idea of a ghost town brings to mind the visual of an abandoned Western town, all boarded up and desolate. Thrust into solitary locations with no signs of life whatsoever, they are among the most chilling of memorials to life that once was. But what about cemeteries connected to ghost towns? Bodie, California is the site of one such lasting cemetery ghost town. This former gold mining town is tucked away within Bodie State Historic Park, just outside the Bodie Hills on the Nevada state border. However, not all is pleasant for those looking to take from the Bodie Cemetery. Be forewarned now of the curse on the cemetery, for anyone who takes something from the cemetery will be struck mercilessly with bad luck.

Like all Western ghost towns, Bodie was named after a man who discovered gold there in 1859, W.S. Bodey. The area instantly became a hotbed for gold prospecting and the small town of Bodie was erected. Bustling with saloons, railroad drifters, stamp mills, and even a Wells Fargo bank, the town was cashing in on the backing of all the gold found. However, once the gold dried out, the people slowly left the town and by 1912, the town was abandoned. Of all things though, the cemetery certainly remained active.

Is The Bodie Cemetery Haunted?

The most remarkable thing about the Bodie Cemetery is that there is a particular supernatural activity that involves children. Dwelling within the cemetery is the spirit of the “Bodie Angel.” This diminutive little entity is said to be that of a young girl named Evelyn Myers. According to legend, her father was prospecting with a pickaxe and during a vicious backswing, she stepped from his field of vision and was struck. Her death was instant and her remains buried in the cemetery with her family moving away from grief. Visitors to the cemetery have reported that if they have children accompany them on a visit, they become transfixed and communicate with a sometimes unseen spirit. One family reported their child was engaged in a giggly conversation near the young girl’s grave. The parents asked the child who they were talking to, and their reply was chilling in its truth, “the little girl with the hole in her head.” Men who have toured the cemetery have also reported that they have heard a young female voice speaking out and saying the word, “daddy.” Naturally, they look around but there is nobody else in sight. Other times, visitors report hearing a child’s laughter that’s wholly out of place considering that they’re in a cemetery and there are no living children around.

The little spirit of Evelyn is not the only female that is said to reside inside the cemetery. A fraction of the bodies in the cemetery are those of Asian railroad workers that while being employed for the railroads out West, took their chances on finding gold in Bodie. For those who perished, some claim that their spirits were not buried properly under certain Asian burial customs and as a result there is some spiritual unrest. The spirit of one such former resident, dressed solely in white has been spotted, but never photographed or filmed by visitors. She has been seen slowly walking between the graves looking lost or distraught. Other times, she has been seen sitting next to an unmarked grave and weeping. Her name and origin are unknown, but she is only referred to as the “Woman In White”, by visitors and some park rangers.

Even though there is the child’s presence at the cemetery, there is also the Bodie Curse. The popular belief is that the people who prospected in Bodie were extremely dedicated to finding and keeping their possessions. During such wild outlaw days in the heated desert, possessions were all people had. The tourist in most people have taken to slipping into their pockets a ghost town rock, or even antiquated nail. There is a very real belief that taking from this area and in the graveyard, in particular, causes the ghosts to “wake” and thus curse the individual who has taken something from them. Because the cemetery lies within the state park, it is not uncommon at all for park rangers at the station to receive in the mail an envelope or box containing a piece of something from the cemetery. Park rangers say there is always a letter accompanying the returned item with the person confessing to nothing but bad luck ever since they have taken the item. The pieces are returned to the graveyard and with no followup letters from people, it is safe to assume that the ghosts of Bodie are satisfied with the returned items and the curses called off.

Today, the Bodie Cemetery and ghost town itself are open to the public for visits, again as it resides within a California State Park. However, the park’s commission and rangers themselves advocate that any visitors be respectful and mindful of the physical and spiritual remains that are there. And above all else, do not take anything from the cemetery lest you be struck with the Bodie Curse.

It goes without saying that cemeteries and graveyards are the final physical resting spots for a loved one’s remains. Dignity, proper decorum, and an overall sedated sort of existence, these cemeteries and graveyards are not the places for noisy human behavior. As it so happens in Troy, New York, at the Forest Park Cemetery, the quiet surroundings there have been unduly violated by the ghosts who long haunt this hallowed and sacred ground.

The stretch of land that makes up the cemetery is believed to have been used as a graveyard all the way far back as 1856. However, by 1897 the land that the Troy locals were using as a graveyard was formally purchased by a businessman and named the Pinewoods Cemetery, as this particular section of Troy is referred to as the Pinewoods. Hard for one to imagine, the cemetery actually went through a formal bankruptcy in 1914 when not enough plots were purchased or paid for. A new owner came in and got as far as renaming it the Forest Park Cemetery before it was bankrupt once more and a large portion of the land parceled off. Largely abandoned with well over an estimated one thousand graves in the cemetery, it has become a chilling memorial to the dead. It is from behind these very cemetery gates that the haunting encounters and stories have emerged.

Is The Forest Park Cemetery Haunted?

Right away the atmosphere is moody and dark and backdropped against the granite tombstones and aged mausoleums is an angel statue that has been decapitated. There’s an urban legend that some teenagers years ago snuck around the cemetery at night and discovered the angel bleeding from the eyes. They were so scared they cut off the head and threw it away. Today, some visitors claim that this blood from the statue still drips from the neck where it lost its head, but this has never been confirmed. For those brave enough to make it past the headless angel, people have reported being scratched by an unseen force in the cemetery across the back of the neck and down their arms. Flurrying red orbs and spectral lights are sometimes spotted floating and streaking past some of the caved-in graves.

Sometime in the early 20th Century, a young soldier from the war in Germany named Harold Horne committed suicide at the cemetery. Paranormal visitors to the cemetery claims that Harold’s spirit has not only been spotted traipsing around the plots at night but also has acknowledged the living with an audible, “hello” in their direction.

Today the cemetery still sits on those twenty-two acres, totally abandoned to the world. Upkeep is done by those with an affinity for appreciating the sacred grounds. A formalized gate was put in to help eliminate wanton loitering about, but as the headless angel sits near the front of the cemetery, with its grisly and mutilated visage, many locals have deemed those very gates, “the Gates To Hell!”

Over the decade’s many hotels have both risen and fallen among all the countless stories of Sin City. However, one popular hotel mainstay seems to have a supernatural side that is starting to emerge, and for some, these ghost stories are rather intense. In the thick of them is the immediately recognizable and towering Luxor Hotel and Casino.

The Luxor is one of the newer hotels on the Strip, as it was constructed and opened in 1993, with a staggering cost of $375 million dollars. Housing well over two thousand rooms with an enormous casino floor spanning nearly 100,000 square feet, the Luxor opened with quite a bang. Slickly styled in an Egyptian motif complete with a replica Sphinx on-site, crowds flocked to this popular Strip destination to gamble the night away amidst all the oasis iconography it offered.

Is the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas Haunted?

To supernaturally kickstart the paranormal activities, there have been claims that a pair of workers died during the construction of the massive pyramid. Fast forward to 1996, an unknown woman leaped from the 26th-floor window to her grisly death below. Again in 2007, a man named Pilo Duarte-Herrera constructed and left a pipe bomb in the hotel’s parking garage that killed an employee. Duarte-Herrera received life in prison but to this day claims no motive in masterminding the attack. In 2010 a UNLV football player was in a physical altercation with a friend before dying of a drug overdose in a suite there. It is believed that such events have lead to the reports of ghostly hauntings in the Luxor.

Ghosts and Paranormal Activity at the Luxor

The 12th, 14th, and 26th floors, both guests and employees alike have claimed to see the apparition of a woman who appears lost. As they approach, vicious cold spots are physically felt and some who have attempted to assist the woman in finding her room have pursued her only to have her disappear. Some paranormal enthusiasts reckon that the spirit belongs to the suicidal woman from 1996. A few guests have claimed to have a sensation of dread or being followed by unseen presences as they go to their rooms. At other times, some have gone so far as to say that they have had awful nightmares and terrifying visions of spirits in the hotel after what would be considered a normal evening about the Vegas Strip.

Have the previous deaths at the Luxor somehow afflicted it? One of the most bizarre theories out there is not based on the deaths at the property, but with the appearance of the hotel itself. The black pyramid is thought to draw in some cosmic energy from the heavens down to the property’s location, thus creating a supernatural hotspot for the activity. Today the Luxor has remained unfazed by the events of the past. In fact, the Luxor is consistently ranked as one of the top hotels and casinos in all of Las Vegas, drawing tens of thousands of visitors a year who look to get away from it all and bask in this true desert oasis.

Southwestern Montana is not nearly as busy as it once was in the late 1800s. With the railroad, and gold rushes galore, the area was highly traveled by industrial workers, prospectors, businessmen, and even dangerous outlaws. For the Hotel Metlen and all its storied history and decorative stylings inside, just what exactly has caused this place to not only be haunted but also keep its entire top floor level of rooms locked and off-limits for nearly thirty years?

Is the Hotel Metlen Haunted?

The Hotel Metlen in Dillon, Montana, a three-story granite hotel capped with a Victorian style tower, was built in 1897 and by local businessman J.C. Metlen. He made sure that his hotel had the most luxurious accommodations for the bustling area which lies half an hour south of Butte. Having the most decorated hotel in town, it was natural that the saloon inside the hotel became the star attraction. As time has a way of doing, it brought about new ownership to the Metlen over the many decades as the population in Dillon began to dwindle. That’s when the first of many ghost stories related to the Metlen began to emerge.

The Ghosts of Hotel Metlen

It has been the hotel staff that has encountered the majority of the spirits over the years. A young female bartender that helped run the saloon downstairs was familiar with all the stories associated with the hotel, and even had seen an object or two levitate in midair. Unfazed by such paranormal activity, she received permission to hold a seance on the third floor, inside the Victorian tower. With her friends, they brought out a Ouija board to connect with whatever spirits were there. They never stayed in the tower and fled for their lives after the first sentence which spelled out from a spirit, “I don’t want you here”.

Oral legend here goes that a younger male had been murdered somewhere on the top floor and is haunting it. The most terrifying part of the hotel is without a doubt, the third floor. Hotel staff had multiple encounters with a dark, menacing shadow that has been spotted drifting down the hall. The cold spots and general scariness have led to it being indefinitely locked. Not all of the hotel has such a sinister presence as there have been reports of a younger female in a long flowing white dress that has been seen on the lower floors. Her ghostly spirit is said to smile at workers and visitors, giving them a certain feeling of peace upon coming in contact with her.

Today, the Hotel Metlen’s historic saloon is all that remains open at the moment to the public. As of press of time, the Metlen is actually for sale. With all it’s antique accommodations and history inside, the building’s owners hope that a new buyer with supernatural courage will come in and bring the Hotel Metlen back to life in the modern age.

The Real Entity House from the 1980’s Movie

There are paranormal and supernatural hauntings where the events are manifested in a myriad of ways. Objects may move, fly across the room, or disappear altogether. Standing in one area of a haunted location, a person can experience cold spots or a feeling of great disorientation and even dread. Physically, people have been harmed and are not immune. Bitings, scratchings, beatings of malicious nature can occur to anyone at any time in these paranormally manifested areas. Above all, there is one taboo of such paranormal activity that is rarely talked about due to its extremely sensitive and personal nature. And that is sexual assault by a paranormal entity.

Haunting in Culver City, CA

In 1974, a pretty divorced mother of four children named Doris Bither moved her family into a small, West Los Angeles home. Having one younger girl and three older boys, space was small, but the Bither’s made the best use of what they had. Doris had a long history of abusive relationships dating back to her childhood as well as suffering formerly from her own battle with substance abuse addiction. Finally free of such abuse, she was going to make the best of her new home with her children.

The Entity Paranormal Attacks

With the children in bed for the evening, Doris was in her own bedroom reading and trying to relax after a busy day. Without warning a trio of nearly invisible paranormal entities appeared to her. The smaller two branched off and grabbed her arms and held her down. The third, and formidably large entity, spread her legs and sexually assaulted her. Unable to scream and paralyzed by complete terror and fear, Doris had no idea what was happening to her. Over the next several days, at completely random times, Doris was sexually assaulted by the same trio of entities. At one instance, her eldest son saw his mother being dragged across her room, he attempted to intervene and instead was assaulted by the unseen entities and thrown completely across the room! Another son also claimed that whenever a very dark rock n roll albums were played, the activity in the home seemed to amplify. The other children were not immune to the physical assaults, as they were bitten, scratched, and slapped by what was believed to be a fourth entity in the home. In later interviews, the children described seeing the entities and said they appeared in the form of a light grey fog that could swiftly move from room to room. For Doris, nothing she did was of any relief to her almost daily sexual assaults by the trio of entities.

Where is the Real Entity House from the 1982 Movie?

The Real Entity House from the 1982 film is located at 11547 Braddock Drive, Culver City, California, USA. You can see it from the street. The paint has changed a few times over the years, but it’s easy to spot by the address running down the wooden beam near the door and the bricked sidewalk and pavement in the front yard. Do not trespass as the current owners appreciate their privacy and maintain the that the home is clean from paranormal activity.

The Lights and Dr. Taff

Desperate for any kind of help, Doris when to a local bookstore trying to find any literature on the subject and if there was a remedy. Her frustrations were overheard by Dr. Barry Taff and his associate Kerry Gaynor who were a pair of budding parapsychologists at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). They had an active parapsychology department there and were most eager to help Doris. Showing up and making a house call, Dr. Taff and his associates were ready to investigate as best they could. They noticed the home had an overwhelming feeling of pressure inside it. The children were moody and irritable at times, roughhousing in front of the group. Upon interviewing Doris at home, the investigators wanted her to call out the entities to see if they would appear. As much as Dr. Taff and his team could believe that a haunting was possible, proving spectral rape would be something entirely different altogether. Doris called out the entities and began swearing aloud when suddenly a green mist manifested in the room with the couple dozen investigators. An arc of light shot above her head as a very large man’s torso formed in the mist. No doubt that her tormentor had finally exposed himself, and in front of a scientific and paranormal community no less.

Hollywood and Beyond

With Dr. Barry Taff’s parapsychological affirmation, the activity was given the name of, The Entity. So strong and convincing was the evidence that it wasn’t before long and Hollywood came calling. In 1982 Sidney J. Furie directed the horror film masterpiece, The Entity, starring Barbara Hershey and Ron Silver. The horror film was both a critical and commercial success, so much so that even award-winning director Martin Scorsese considered it one of the scariest films he had ever seen.

At some point after the investigations by Dr. Barry Taff and his team, Doris and her children moved to a different home in nearby Carson, then San Bernardino, and finally into the heart of Texas. With each subsequent move, Doris was continually harassed by the trio of spirits, to a point where she frantically went through mental health periods of believing she was actually impregnated by the entity, only to have tests show that was not possible. Doris finally was able to get relief from her tormentors when she passed away in 1995 from pulmonary arrest. The infamous “Entity House” still stands in Culver City to this day. Many paranormal historians cannot say for certain what it was that haunted and tormented Doris Bither, but her’s is the first documented and recorded case of a paranormal haunting going to such a sexual extreme.

The Haunted Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, Alabama

The Sloss Furnaces of Birmingham, Alabama initially appears as a normal National Historic United States Landmark. Its antiquated and rich history is a testament to the will of the Southerners who helped forge its persevering success. But can this unassuming furnace landmark be paranormally active? Oh yes, it indeed can and certainly is.

History of the Sloss Furnaces

The Civil War absolutely devastated many of the locations and resources of the American South. Destroyed buildings and smaller homes, vast properties and natural resources, all were part of the sweeping carnage from the war. As the reconstruction and rebuilding began, materials were scarce and precious. Pig iron was a crude form of iron that was collected and smelted and used to aid the rebuilding process.

James Withers Sloss built and opened the Sloss Furnaces in 1881. An original founder of the actual city of Birmingham, Sloss was viewed as a wealthy industrialist who was looking to capitalize on the Southern reconstruction. In fact, the production of pig iron in the South grew by an estimated one-thousand percent within just ten years of Birmingham being founded. After only five years, Sloss sold the successful furnace. The new owner operated the furnace in name only and began recruiting new workers to join.

Tough conditions brought many work-related deaths at the Sloss Furnace

Across the city of Birmingham, at a rival furnace company, was a man named Theo Calvin Jowers. He was a journeyman of sorts who had experience in the furnace industry. Hired on with ease due to the lax regulations, Jowers thrived at Alice Furnaces, however, these lax regulations caused other problems for other employees as well. In a period of fifteen years after opening, nearly forty-seven furnace workers died on the premises. Exhaustingly long, and overheated shifts coupled with deplorable on-site housing only added to further to the worker’s woes.

The Legend of Calvin Jowers

According to local legend, Jowers was working on the late graveyard shift sometime in October of 1887. High above one of the hottest furnaces, Jowers lost his footing near some scaffolding and he fell headlong into the furnace. While slipping certainly was a possibility in the role of Jowers’s death, some employees had claimed that it appeared Jowers had been pushed by an unseen force. Either scenario was certainly valid as was Jowers sure death. There is an oral legend passed down from his family that the only part of his body that was recovered from the fiery furnace was his badly charred heart.

Is the Sloss Furnaces Haunted?

In 1897, a local painter’s body was found in the open water tank on the Sloss Furnaces property. His body had been perfectly boiled and a newspaper article from that time suggested that he was possibly murdered on site. The given reason for this was that he had been seen drinking at a bar the night before with some unknown parties and that Sloss was far from the man’s home, indicating he was taken there against his will. Shortly thereafter these events, paranormal activity began.

As the years began to pass at Sloss, workers at the reputable furnace began noticing the effects from a ghostly presence. In fact, something more unsettling was the fact that the presence was that of Theo Jowers. Even though he perished at a rival furnace company, Jowers was known to frequent Sloss for some mild odd furnace jobs. Men at Sloss who were well acquainted with Jowers had reported seeing his ghost right alongside other living workers who were furiously shoving iron ore into the furnaces.

Also, objects lying near the open water tank where the boiled man had been found, were often mysteriously moved around the site from their original resting spots. There have also been voices screaming at random times to “hurry up” or “watch the heat.” Possibly otherworldly communication from Jowers, proving his dedication to the job even from the hereafter. Other times, unsettling sensations and shadow figures are seen by the furnace wheel well.

Terrifying paranormal activity at The Sloss Furnace

One of the more terrifying tales from the Sloss Furnaces was the story from a man named Samuel Blumenthal. He was hired on in 1971 as a night watchman for the property. Late one evening while inspecting the top stairwell by an adjacent furnace, Blumenthal felt a mysterious push from behind. The sensation dug into his back and forced him up several stairs. Fighting the push, he leaped to turn around and claimed to see the physical manifestation of a half man, half demon creature. Before he had time to react, the creature struck him several times about his upper torso. Finally escaping, Blumenthal made it to a doctor who diagnosed him with several severe burn marks on his body, precisely in the areas in which he was hit.

Sloss Furnace today

In 1981, it was declared a National Historic Landmark due primarily to the fact that it contains a lot of industrial museum-worthy objects. Today, Sloss Furnaces remains standing, but somewhat aged and visibly rusted. Due to the historical significance and property size, metal art classes are held there regularly, as are outdoor festivals and concerts. Of all things, in October of every year, a haunted house tour is set up on the property for haunted attraction seekers. Given the property’s notorious past, there is plenty of real-life paranormal material to draw inspiration from.