Haunted Towns and Villages

Dark, creepy and scary covers will draw readers into the six-title “Haunted or Hoax?” series which features unexplained paranormal forces at work in various parts of the world. Many of these stories stem from legends which have been passed down from one generation to the next while others are sightings of ghostly figures or strange lights which cannot be proved by scientific means. The “evidence” is purely anecdotal. For some seemingly paranormal activities or sightings there is a logical explanation- weather, wind, fog, marsh gas, or lights from airplanes and satellites, but for others there is none, and the mystery remains unsolved. Several of the places featured in the series have become tourist attractions due to the ghostly presence there, and residents are eager to perpetuate the myths because of the financial gain from tourism.

The stories featured in each title offer a brief description of the phenomenon or haunting as well as a possible explanation. “Look at the Evidence” text boxes invite readers to consider all of the options and to make their own decisions as to whether or not this particular story is a hoax. There are also examples of famous hoaxes, such as P. T. Barnum’s mermaid that was allegedly caught by a naturalist off the coast of Fiji. Both the naturalist and the mermaid turned out to be fakes (to create the mermaid, Japanese fishermen had stitched together the head and torso of a monkey with the tail of a fish). The final chapter in each of the books is entitled “What Do You Think?” and provides a conclusion as well as some questions for readers to ponder with respect to scientific evidence and the paranormal.

Illustrations consist of maps, black and white and colour photographs. Some of the photographs have been staged, and several of them have been doctored to appear more frightening, with images of ghostly figures- a few of them menacing- superimposed on them. A table of contents, a glossary, an index and a list of books and websites for further exploration into the topic are included.

The stories in Haunted at Sea read more like mysteries than hauntings. Superstition, myths and legends play heavily into the perpetuating tales. One area with which most readers will be familiar is the Bermuda Triangle where ships and airplanes have vanished without a trace. Theories abound: the area is a portal to another time and place; ships’ crews were abducted by aliens; a crystal from the lost city of Atlantis zapped them. Analysis of the disappearances shows that the percentage of ships lost in that area is the same as any other part of the world, and so poor weather and human error are to blame. Other areas discussed in this title include the Sargasso Sea, the Palmyra Atoll in the South Pacific, and Poveglia Island off the coast of Italy. Much of Poveglia’s soil is composed of human ash from the burned bodies of thousands of people who died from a plague there. Visitors and locals alike report ghostly visions and hearing a church bell even though the bell is no longer in the church tower. The movie Pirates of the Caribbean was based on the curse of the Flying Dutchman, a ghost ship that has haunted sailors around the world for more than 300 years.

With so many people dying violent deaths in battle, it stands to reason that there would be a great many hauntings and ghost sightings on former battlefields. One of the featured places in Haunted Battlefields is Gettysburg where people claim to have seen ghost soldiers, heard gunfire and smelled gunpowder. In addition, some have reported that their cameras and video equipment stopped working in this area. Fields, homes, inns, hospitals and lighthouses have been the sites of paranormal activity, everything from the sounds of voices, footsteps, slamming doors and moving furniture to sudden drops in temperature. Other places featured in this title include the Plains of Abraham, Cold Harbor, and Montana where the Battle of Little Bighorn took place.

Czech Republic’s Houska Castle was built over a deep hole from where it is said that half man-half beast creatures emerged. Moosham Castle in Salzburg, Austria, where many witch trials were held, is known as the Witch’s Castle. A hunchback vampire once lived in Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, England. (Incidentally, this castle is where Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was filmed.) These and other castles from around the world are highlighted in Haunted Castles and Forts. Visitors have reported seeing mysterious white mists, strange creatures and wandering ghosts. Some angry apparitions have even been known to poke and shove at visitors and to throw rocks.

Churches and cemeteries are other likely places for hauntings. In Haunted Churches and Graveyards, readers will learn about a cathedral in New Orleans which is haunted by one of its beloved priests, Captain Tony’s Bar in Key West, Florida, which used to be a morgue, a church in Key West whose graveyard was strewn with bones and bodies, even in treetops, after a hurricane unearthed them, and the Stull Cemetery in Kansas where legend says no rain falls. Even Manitoba’s St. Andrews-on-the-Red, located just outside Winnipeg, is mentioned. Besides the usual ghosts, visitors have claimed to see a pair of glowing red eyes, and many people have reported having the same dream in which unseen hands are shaking the cemetery gates. But most interesting, perhaps, are the catacombs beneath Paris which hold the remains of more than 6,000,000 people (the author does not give an explanation for this other than to say that the bodies were moved from cemeteries around the city), the burial tombs in Valley of the Kings in Egypt, and Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini in Rome. At Santa Maria, the walls of the crypt are decorated with thousands of bones and skulls which the monks brought with them. Surprisingly, there are no reports of apparitions at the crypt.

Haunted Towns and Villages begins with a description of the tools of the trade used to track ghosts- an EMF meter, digital voice recorder and cameras, including infrared. Readers will be introduced to the term “confirmation bias” which refers to someone who already believes in something- ghosts, for instance- and forces the evidence to prove that it is so. Featured among other places are Alton, the most haunted town in America, a stop on the Underground Railroad; the English village of Bramshott, site of several murders attributed to highwaymen; Kuldhara, India, where an entire town of 1,000 people was abandoned in one night and its villagers were never seen again; and Jatinga, India, where a strange phenomenon- bird “suicides”- has occurred for 100 years. On moonless nights in September and October, birds just fall from the sky in a certain part of the village from 6-9:30 p.m. Stories of curses, hauntings, and clairvoyance round out this title.

Strange things happen in Haunted Woods and Caves. Sightings of rusalki (marsh nymphs), Pukwudgies (violent troll-like creatures), UFOs, Bigfoot, werewolves and headless horsemen have been noted. In Epping Forest near Essex, England, cars driven near Hangman’s Hill will slowly roll uphill towards an ancient tree where legend has it that three witches were hanged, while no birds are heard nor animals seen at Suicide Pool. Locals entering the Hoia-Baciu Forest in Transylvania have reported rashes, burns, scratches and a general feeling of unease. Legend has it that a five-year-old girl was lost in the forest. When she was found five years later, she hadn’t aged a bit and was still wearing the same clothes. This title also mentions orbs which sometimes appear in photographs of haunted locales. It is unfortunate that there is no photo of orbs in this title to demonstrate.

Though the authors of the titles in the “Haunted or Hoax?” series are careful to present a balanced view, neither claiming nor denying that ghosts exist and always stressing the need for solid evidence, there are enough eerie and frightening stories and illustrations to keep a child up at night.