poltergeist – Good Nightmare

30. Harry Price

July 25, 2019December 4, 2018 Good NightmareLeave a comment

A photograph of Harry Price, taken by paranormal hoaxer William Hope in 1922.

Today’s blog is an introduction of sorts to a case that will follow on, focused on the Borley Rectory. Be sure to subscribe to make sure you catch the next case.

Today, we look at the controversial investigator who made the case famous.

Harry Price was born on January 17, 1881, in London. He was a fairly exceptional child, and at only 15 years old, he founded the Carlton Dramatic Society, for which he wrote plays about his experiences with poltergeists and the paranormal. He had had an interest in the supernatural from a very early age, and this would drive him further in his career, as well as shape his life and legacy. He would also come up against heavy, and often warranted, scrutiny throughout his careers.

In 1908, Price pursued archaeology while working as a salesman and writing for the West Sussex Gazette and Southern Weekly News. His discoveries of “clean antiques” were often questioned in terms of their authenticity. For example, his discovery of an ingot stamped around the time of the Roman Emperor Honorious, who ruled from the year 393 – 423 was queried. An expert in Roman history declared that the ingot was indeed a fake, determined by its shape and lettering, which had been altered to make the ingot appear genuine.

In 1920, discovering what would be a lifelong passion for conjuring, stage magic, and the paranormal, Price joined the Society for Psychical Research and in 1922, joined the Magic Circle. He would be involved in debunking multiple cases of fraudulent mediums having come to know various tricks of the trade by his involvement in stage magic and conjuring. Some of his more notable cases and movements in the spiritualist field follow:

In 1922 Price and his colleagues, James Seymour, Eric Dingwall and William Marriott exposed spirit photographer William Hope. Price had marked Hope’s photographic plates without his knowledge, having etched them with a logo that would transfer to any images produced with them. Hope went on to produce several photographs of spirits claiming to have used these plates, however, none of those photos developed with the logo of the plates that had been provided to him. It was through this that Price was able to conclude that Hope had been substituting his regular plates for others which would allow him to print upon them images of spirits.

In 1923 he exposed medium Jan Guzyk as faking events, stating that “man was clever, especially with his feet, which were almost as useful to him as his hands in producing phenomena.” in his book “Search for Truth: My Life for Psychical Research. It appeared that the medium had been using a very common trick in creating sounds and phenomena throughout his psychic readings using his feet. In 1925, he exposed Maria Silbert for the same. She would use her feet and toes to move objects during seances.

In 1926, Price formed the organisation the National Laboratory of Psychical Research as a rival to the Society for Psychical Research. The two organisations would butt heads over years, each disputing each other’s findings. Price claimed that he had been attacked and bullied by Arthur Conan Doyle, a spiritualist, and yes, the same famed author who created Sherlock Holmes, who was frustrated with the damage Price had done to the spiritualist society in publishing a pamphlet that exposed Hope as a fake. Price wrote that “Arthur Conan Doyle and his friends abused me for years for exposing Hope.” Doyle had threatened to have Price removed from his laboratory should he continue to write such, quote, “sewage”, about the spiritualist movement. In other notable names, Price was friends with Houdini, the great magician, who also worked to debunk or expose fraudulent mediums and therefore had similar tensions with Doyle.

These attacks on his character, albeit some likely very warranted given his controversial career involving the Borley Rectory especially, did not stop or slow Price’s momentum.

Price made an offer to the University of London to provide and equip a Department for Psychical Research. The response was a positive one and the University accepted by the Board of Studies in Psychology. The Department was named the University of London Council for Psychical Investigation with Price acting as Honorary Secretary and editor. It was kept on as an unofficial board of the university.

By 1940, Price’s career moved to focus heavily on writing. He produced several books, including The Most Haunted House in England, and The End of Boreley Rectory. Be sure to subscribed to this podcast to hear the strange and controversial tale of The Borley Rectory.

Price’s death came swiftly on 29th of March, 1948 when he suffered a massive heart attack and died almost instantly at his home in Pulborough, West Sussex. He was 67. His archives were deposited with the University of London by his widow, including his correspondence, drafts of publications, press cuttings, photos, investigation notes and papers relating to libel cases.

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26. The Chase Family Vault

June 27, 2019December 4, 2018 Good NightmareLeave a comment

Episode 26. The Chase Family Vault.

The Chase family vault.

Today’s blog is a listener suggestion from the lovely Casey. This is a story I was vaguely aware of but had never really taken time to investigate or look into. I’m glad that I did, and I think you will enjoy this one as much as I did.

This is the story of the Chase family vault, and it takes place in Barbados, an area in the Lesser Antilles in the Southern Caribbean Sea. Supernatural activity at this site has been recorded as far back as 1802, when this story begins.

The Chase family vault was originally constructed in 1724 for James Elliot. It was built on a hill overlooking the Christ Church Parish Cemetery and was half sunk into the ground. The vault could be accessed by stairs and was sealed with a heavy blue marble slab. The Chase family purchased the vault in 1808 to be used as a family tomb. At the time of the purchase, there was already one occupant – Thomasina Goddard. Thomasina had been buried in the vault in a wooden coffin where the family allowed her to remain, undisturbed.

Coincidentally, the purchase of the vault resulted in its immediate use.

In 1808, Thomas Chase’s infant child died under mysterious circumstances. The child was buried in a heavy lead casket that took several men to carry.

In 1812, Dorcas Chase, Thomas’s daughter, also died under mysterious circumstances. It was rumoured that she had starved herself to death as an escape from the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father, though both the abuse and the cause of death were not confirmed in any records I could find.

One month after Dorcas Chase’s death, Thomas himself died of an alleged suicide. Along with his children, he too was buried in a heavy metal casket that took several men to maneuver and was laid to rest in his tomb.

It was while burying Thomas Chase that the first supernatural occurrence was discovered. The coffin of Dorcas Chase had been moved and was stood upright against a wall of the vault, as had the infants coffin. The bodies themselves remained undisturbed, however, there was nothing stolen, nothing removed. It was put down to a case of vandalism, and once the caskets where returned to their original positions, the vault was again sealed.

The vault remained sealed until 1816, when 11 year old Charles Brewster as to be buried. Upon opening the vault, it was found that the coffins again had been thrown into disarray. Just to reiterate, the vault was sealed by a marble slab that itself would take several people to move. The caskets themselves were said to require six to eight men to maneuver. The state that the caskets where found in was as though they had simply been picked up and tossed about the room.

Again, the vault was put back into order and resealed.

By this time, however, rumours of haunting, black magic and curses were beginning to surface. If animal death makes you uncomfortable, please skip the next 15 seconds or so as there is a brief mention. The accuracy of this claim is not proven, however, so may not have been any more than a story.

A woman claimed that while passing the tomb on horseback, her horse had gone into a frenzy and had thrown her off. It was bucking, wild, and frothing at the mouth. Others in the area reported that their horses had been overtaken by the same wildness – they escaped their stables and fields and ran into a nearby river, where they subsequently drowned.

1816 and 1819 brought the burials of Samuel Brewster and Thomasina Clark. Again, upon opening the vault, the iron and heavy metal caskets were found in disarray. The wooden coffin containing Thomasina Goddard, however, was again left undisturbed.

It was decided that the vault would be examined, to determine how these events could possible occur, let alone occur repeatedly. Was it vandalism or something more? The vault was examined and it was determined that there was no other point of entry besides the descending stairs. A fine white sand was laid across the floor within the vault and it was then sealed with a mortar marked by a signet ring. It was closed and let be for eight months before being checked for signs of tampering. When reopened, there was no sign that the marble seal had been removed, and there wasn’t so much as a single footstep in the fine white sand. The caskets, however, were again, tossed about the room. Thomas Chase’s casket had been pushed up against the entrance, as though in an attempt to block entry, or perhaps in attempt to escape.

Nathan Lucas, a member of the Barbados House of Assembly, and an eye-witness to the disarray, ordered that the coffins would each be removed from the vault and buried separately around the cemetery. There has been no activity since the bodies were separated.

This definitely begs the question, who was Thomasina Goddard? For her coffin, the only one light enough to be affected by flood or lifted by fewer than six men, was always left undisturbed. Was this the makings of a restless spirit, desiring to be left alone in her afterlife? Was it vandals, or, perhaps, was it all a lie?

There has been no explanation given in the 200 years since the haunting details were reported. It is, however, considered by some to simply be no more than a tall-tale. Similar stories of disturbed vaults and graves have been told among the Freemasons, who claimed that the casket of the deceased founder of the Freemasons was often found tossed about in it’s vault. Even if it is simply a tale, you have to wonder why this was the particular family chosen for this rumour, and how so many people claim to have experienced it for themselves.

Surely they can’t all be lying?

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22. The Bell Witch

May 30, 2019December 4, 2018 Good NightmareLeave a comment

Episode 22. The Bell Witch

William Porter Attempts to Burn the Witch (Illus. 1894)

If you’re a fan of horror, you’ve definitely heard of or watched The Blair Witch Project. Today’s blog looks at a legend that inspired this and many other films: the case of the Bell Witch. Stay tuned until the end where I’ll also include some interesting trivia about the film.

The Bell Witch Haunting is a notable legend originating in Southern America in the 1800s.

John Bell Sr and his family claimed to have been haunted by a terrifying and very active entity between 1817 and 1821. Note quite a poltergeist, not quite a ghost, this entity could speak, shape shift and affect the environment around it. It was also said to possess super human speed, allowing it to travel long distances in a very short time. An example of which you’ll hear later on in the story.

The first reports of the haunting were from 1817, where John Bell Sr claimed to have witnessed an entity that resembled a large dog. Not an unusual sighting, one would think, except that when Bell attempted to shoot at the dog, it simply disappeared. John wasn’t the only one to witness this disappearing dog. An enslaved servant of the Bell family, Dean, also reported that he had seen this unusual dog on multiple occasions when he would travel to visit his wife. Normally, you wouldn’t find a dog to be much of an odd sighting, so we can only assume that there was something strange or ominous about this particular being. Black dogs, in lore, are said to represent a demonic entity. Often they are said to be shape shifters, in league with the devil, they may be described as ghosts or even hell hounds. Their appearance is often an omen of death.

Bell’s son, Drew, also claimed to have seen an extraordinary and large bird perched on a fence which flew away upon being approached. Birds are generally associated with endurance, freedom, talismans for weary travelers or even messengers to the gods. The opposite end of the spectrum to the black dog.

It seems that the haunting began on the outskirts of the property before moving toward and inside the house, and it certainly wasn’t limited to just one person. The haunting became more intense over time as the entity gained strength and energy.

The Bell family often reported hearing the sounds of fighting dogs, chains being dragged along the floors and knocking on the walls of the home throughout the night. Bed sheets would be pulled away from Bell’s sleeping children and the children themselves would be dragged from their beds. Betsey, Bell’s daughter, was especially targeted by the entity. She would be pinched, scratched and slapped as well as being stuck with pins.

After dealing with these occurrences within the family for some time, John Bell confided in his friend James Johnston. Johnston came to stay in the home, to experience the haunting for himself. Upon spending the night, Johnston exclaimed to Bell that the home was haunted by a spirit, like those of the Bible. It was confirmed that this was indeed an evil and mischievous entity.

The spirit was willing to communicate with the family, giving several reasons for its presence and several stories of its origin. It claimed to be a spirit that had been at rest but that had since been disturbed. The spirit appeared to be clairvoyant, able to glean and report information about families from surrounding homes back to the Bell’s. John Bell doubted the spirits abilities, however, and asked it to tell him something no one outside of his family would know. He asked what his grandmother would say to the slaves when they had done something wrong. Not only did the spirit answer correctly, it responded in the same Dutch accent that Bell’s grandmother had. This solidified his belief.

The Bell Witch, as it came to be known, was capable of great and disturbing feats. It was once reported to have recited two sermons that were taking place simultaneously, 13 miles away and seemed to enjoy religious discussions. This theme of religion being a focus in haunting cases is not uncommon. It shows up again and again in cases of demonic possession and sinister haunting.

One skeptic visited the Bell home but soon changed their mind about what they had thought to be a ruse.

While in the Bell house, the spirit relayed messages of the man’s family, speaking in an English accent. He later heard from said family, who were living in England at the time, that they had been visited by the spirit on the same night, again giving credit to the theory that this spirit could either travel at speed or could be in two places at once.

In an attempt to reason with the spirit, the family once asked what would make it leave. The spirit claimed that if Betsey, John’s daughter, who was heavily affected by the haunting, were to marry a man named Joshua Gardner, the spirit would leave. There were rumours, of course, that Betsey could be the one behind all of this. It was even suggested that she had learned ventriloquism, and was attempting to encourage Joshua to marry her through the will of the spirit. Whether or not this is true, it didn’t work. The two were not to be wed and the spirit died away shortly after this was decided.

If you’re like me, you’ll be finding it hard to believe that this was anything more than a disturbing prank or a kind of shared hysteria among the family. Though I do believe in ghosts, or spirits, a lot of this tale is a little too convenient. Many others are also skeptical and have been throughout the centuries, though often skeptics find themselves at the mercy of the spirit.

A troop of soldiers, for example, had been visiting the cave on the property which is now a popular tourist spot. One of the soldiers sat down to rest on a rock outside the cave, and exclaimed that they did not believe the haunting was real. It was at that moment that he felt phantom arms wrap around his chest and pull him backwards.

To this day, people still visit the area, in hopes of experiencing the haunting for themselves, or perhaps just out of curiosity. The tale of the Bell Witch has inspired five films since 1999 when The Blair Witch Project was aired.

While The Blair Witch Project is similar to the Bell Witch tale, the legend behind the movie was entirely fiction. The cast, however, were not aware of that at the time of filming, they were led to believe that the legend of a haunting and mysterious deaths in the area they were exploring in were real.

A lot of the film’s audience also believed the legend and film to be real. Heather Donahue’s mother actually received sympathy cards from strangers who believed that her daughter had died during filming. Ironically, when taking on the role, Heather had asked the director if he had intended to make a snuff film. If you’re unsure what a snuff film is, it’s a film in which a victims death or murder is actually recorded for entertainment and these films are then sold on the black market or the dark web. There may be room for an episode about these somewhere on Good Nightmare. As a note on what a strange and disturbing experience the filming of this movie was, Heather actually brought a knife to sleep with, to keep herself safe when sharing a tent with the two men in the movie. Honestly, I think I would have done the same.

To make the found footage film more believable, and to add tension, the actors were given less and less food to eat each day over the eight days of filming, making them more irritable and less energetic. They stayed in character even while not filming, only breaking character all together and never alone, using their safe word, taco. The filming and constant anxiety was so intense that Heather claims to have been crying and hyperventilating long after her final scene was complete.

It took me a long time to get around to watching this movie, as when it came out, I was one of those people who believed that it was real, that the actors had gone missing, and that the Blair Witch truly did exist. Though, I also took years to watch The Ring because of that whole “seven days” thing. Call me superstitious but I’m not going to be taken out by a haunted film or a haunted anything.

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10. Myrtles Plantation

March 7, 2019December 3, 2018 Good NightmareLeave a comment

Episode 10. Myrtle’s Plantation.

Bogdan Oporowski

Myrtles Plantation was a topic recommended to me by my dear friend Abbie. You can find her on Twitter.

Built in 1796 in Francisville, Louisiana by General David Bradford, Myrtles Plantation is known as one of America’s most haunted homes.

Bradford born in 1972 was a rebel, a lawyer and deputy attorney-general and a fugitive at different points in his life. He built the first house on South Main Street, Washington, Pennsylvania in 1788 and later went on to build Myrtles Plantation in 1794, which was then known as Laurel Cove. He was living alone at Myrtles Plantation as he had been on the run from the government for being associated with the Whiskey Rebellion. He was later pardoned and returned to his original home in Pennsylvania to live with his wife and five children.

While Bradford did move away from the plantation, he didn’t abandon it. When he passed away in 1808, the plantation was left to his wife, Elizabeth, who ran it until 1817 before passing it’s management to Clarke Woodruff, a former law student of Bradford’s and his wife, Elizabeth and Bradford’s daughter, Sarah Mathilda.

The couple would have three children, however Sarah and two of her babies perished due to yellow fever.

Elizabeth Bradford passed in 1831. Clarke and his only remaining daughter moved away and left a caretaker to look after the plantation. In 1834 the plantation was sold, including the slaves and land. Stirling and his wife Mary would be the new owners. They undertook a renovation of the house, doubling its size and importing European furniture to fill the new space. They changed the name to The Myrtles after the trees that grew around it. Stirling passed away in 1854 leaving the plantation to his wife, Mary.

Mary hired William Drew Winter to assist in managing the plantation. Winter married Stirling’s daughter, Sarah, and they had six children together, one of whom passed away at home from typhoid at three years old.

The family lost their fortune after the war and were forced to sell the plantation in 1868, though they bought it back two years later.

William Drew Winter was murdered on the porch of the house by alleged suspect E. S. Webber. Mary later died in 1880, leaving the plantation to her son who sold it on in 1889. From here, the home goes from hand to hand, being sold and altered, and accumulating stories of strange occurrences and possible haunting.

In what would seem like a classic horror story-line, the plantation is rumoured to have been built on an ancient Tunica Indian burial ground. It is apparently home to at least twelve ghosts and while there are reports of at least 10 murders at the house, there is only the murder of William Drew Winter on the porch that has been confirmed.

Winter, as mentioned, was shot by a stranger while on the porch. He then staggered inside the home and attempted to climb the stairs for help or safety. It was on the 17th stair that he perished. Visitors and employees at the now Bed and Breakfast claim to be able to hear his footsteps as he eternally staggers upstairs for help. Others claim that they have seen his ghost, staggering and crawling up the stairs and collapsing on the 17th step.

It is claimed that a young girl who died in 1868 in the plantation home still haunts the room in which she died, and often practices voodoo on sleeping people.

During the Civil War, the house was ransacked. This is confirmed. However the idea that three people were killed in the house during this event, is not. There is apparently a bloodstain in a doorway, the size of a human body that cannot be cleaned or removed.

And there is one very detailed story and haunting though it is one of the most contested. I’ll let you decide what you believe.

Chloe was a slave owned by Clark and Sara Woodruff during their ownership of the plantation. It is said that Clark had forced Chloe into becoming his mistress. Chloe would listen at keyholes, apparently, to learn the news of the business and family and when caught one day, either by Sara or Clark, they had one of her ears cut off as punishment. Since that day, she would wear a green turban to hide her scars.

Chloe apparently baked a cake containing an extract from extremely poisonous oleander leaves. Her motive is unconfirmed, though some believe it was to rid the home of other maids or to poison and then nurse Clark and Sara to regain their favour. Either way, her plan didn’t work. Sara and her two daughters ate the cake and subsequently died of the poisoning. It is said that Chloe was then hanged by other slaves and her body thrown into the Mississippi river.

The strangest thing about this tale is that no one knows where it came from. The Woodruffs are not recorded to have been slave owners and while there is a claim that Sara and her two daughters were killed, Mary, a supposed victim, actually lived a long life. Sara and her family actually died from yellow fever. Regardless of these unconfirmed rumours, visitors still claim to see a woman in a green turban walking the plantation. In addition, it is rumoured that Sara and her children’s spirits were trapped in a mirror in the house when it was not covered after their deaths. It’s claimed that their hand prints appear on the glass.

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