CO NT EN TS

SHOOK UP .. Nicky Alan on what might be the case, often

EDITORIAL 04 ALL
aint the case
A BELIEVER .. Justin Cowell, 30 East Drive, the truth, the
In 1977 I read a book, not just any book, but a
book about ghosts, haunted house and strange
happenings AND it never left me, the impact it
06 I’M
whole truth and nothing but the Paranormal truth
ONE FOR SORROW, TWO FOR JOY .. Vicky & James join forces to
had on me, the paranormal tattoo it left on my
brain is here for all to see today. My love for the
paranormal is not cos I want to prove that ghosts
11 investigate the Magpie Mine
STRINGS ATTACHED .. Barrie John asks if “Paranormal folk are
are real, nor do I want to prove that ghosts aren’t
real. Anyone who knows me knows how I see and
view the paranormal, whilst I respect it, I also
15 NO
puppets, muppets or real genuine people”
OF DARKNESS .. The book you can partly blame for
write about it, I take the mickey out it, make fun
of it, tell jokes about and offer a curio type of non-
expert opinion of it. I always say that I visit places
16 REPRINTS
Haunted Magazine is back from the dead
YOU WERE ERIE? .. Well now you can be as Spook-Eats
that may or may not be haunted using gadgets that
may or may not work and try to make contact with
ghosts that may or may not exist. That sums up
19 WISH
checks into and checks out The Eagle Hotel (in Erie, of course)
AND SEEK .. Jane Rowley asks whether it’s time to ask
the paranormal it to me, it’s fun, it’s exciting, it’s
a lifestyle of choice and it’s one that should be
enjoyed as much as possible.
22 GUIDE
spirits to help us communicate better
IN THE SCREAM .. MJ Dickson dons her Hazmat Suit
Now that book is back and we couldn’t let its
republishing, its reprinting pass without paying
24 ISLANDS
and visits the Island of Poveglia
ENTERTAINMENT? .. TV or not TV, that is the paranormal
homage to it, the book that inspired a generation
of paranormal lovers and deinitely one of those
books that inspired me all those years ago, so
28 THAT’S
question Morgan Knudsen asks.
ON THE HILL .. Hubert Hobux loves a castle or two, a
much so that when I created Haunted Magazine,
that book was never far away from my mind. Enjoy
this issue, it’s nostalgic, it’s spooky, it’s funny, it’s
30 CASTLE
match made in Staffordshire
ORDERS ON LOVECRAFT LANE .. DR Q is back in a HP
nasty and it’s full of paranormal pleasure.

#DontBeNormal BE PARANORMAL!!
33 LAST
Lovecraft fused story.. Saucy
AND SHIPS .. Leonard Low and the Key Largo (jumbo
Paul 37 FISH
battered) Fishing Boat
SKIP AND JUMP .. Katie Waller investigates a brutal
40 CHOP,
Brighton butchery
SHEARSMITH .. Exclusive interview with the man who
24 44 REECE
thinks Bigfoot is daft and the Loch Ness Monster is just a seal.
VERY CAREFULLY, WE WILL SAY THIS ONLY ONCE ..
47 LISTEN
Sam Bennetts writes about EVPs

48 THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT .. And the Ministry of Defence,

apparently. Penny Grifiths-Morgan and the lost village of Tyneham
PERVERT POLTERGEIST .. No jokey tagline here, just an
40 51 THE
investigation that no one forgot

53 THE PRICE IS RIGHT .. if it’s in your genes, there’s a good chance it will
be in the rest of your clothes. Meet Louise Price, great, great, great Niece
of the most famous of all “paranormal” Prices’
OF THE BLUE GHOST .. Jason Fellon writes about the
56 SPIRITS
Ghosts of the USS Lexington
56 STEP BY ESTEP GUIDE .. There’s no clowning around when
59 THE
you’re on the hunt for the spirit of a Serial Killer
666 .. Mike Covell, the Big Daddy of Hull’s
63 WRESTLEMANIA
Spooky History brings us yet another Yorkshire Ghost Story

HAUNTED MAGAZINE 03
 Nicky Alan’s

A CHUNK OF
BURNING LOVE
s I stepped out of the car, I

A breathed in the crisp fresh

mountain air accented with
the subtle tones of flowering
heather. I looked around taking
in the majestic mountains and the
stunning Scottish moor landscape.
I could hear and see an emerald
sparkling river trail past the back of
the hotel. The Inchbae Lodge hotel was
to be my base for a spiritual retreat
that I was holding for the public.
Nestled in the isolated landscape near
Inverness, this cosy cottage hotel
held no foreboding as I approached
it despite hearing the stories of the
hauntings.
It wasn’t until I passed the threshold
that the hairs on the back of my neck
prickled. I immediately looked into my
mind and found the hotspot instantly. It
was on the first floor. As I looked deeper
through my third eye, I could see a
four-poster bed and a man, he liked it in
there, I could feel it.
On speaking to the owners, I was happy
to discover that I was right, many
residents had reported being awoken in but certainly disconcerted any witnesses
the early hours by an apparition, a man with his presence. He did not look happy
who was bare chested, his legs invisible the lady reported. Ten minutes later, a
in the four-poster bedroom. I felt a thrill couple who were staying in the four-
of excitement. I couldn’t wait to meet and poster bedroom also reported the same
chat with this entity. My students arrived phenomena, a bare-chested man staring
in high spirits. I told them nothing of the at them in their beds. People were also
haunting, I wanted them to experience it reporting doors being slammed in their
for themselves. There is nothing worse faces.
than telling them what to expect as that’s
when imagination can start dwindling its During the day we visited various beautiful
way into your logical mind. locations for meditations, era blending
and dowsing. I loved every minute of my
The following morning, retreats; however, I was dying to hold
as we were sitting a séance that night to try and locate
in the conservatory this curious spirit and find out why he
taking in the stunning roamed the rooms bare chested to the
landscape one of my unsuspecting public.
students approached
me and reported being That night there were about ten of us
woken at 3 am with sitting around a solid twelve-foot table,
a bare-chested man the rest of our group sat around the table
looming over her face. behind us. This table could not be moved
I couldn’t contain unless serious effort was made by several
my excitement as I people to budge it. I lit a candle, started
explained he was the the recording device and asked everybody
resident spirit here. He to link hands. Following a short blessing
was not a nasty spirit we were good to go. It was not long before

04 HAUNTED MAGAZINE

I felt the presence
of two men. They
communicated
through my mind telling
me they had crash landed
in a small plane nearby. They
were very pleasant and interacted by
rapping on the table to questions asked.
They were not grounded and after a
short time left the ether.
The air then grew cold and people
around the table mentioned the short
gasps of air rushing past them. The
room appeared to darken even more
and then the candle was pushed over.
I immediately jumped up and placed
the candle back up. The flame had
extinguished so I left it unlit. It was then
that I sensed our bare-chested man
standing to my right.
This is when respect and practice come
into play. Every spirit has a story to tell
or they wouldn’t interact. My bug bear
is when investigators cajole the spirit or
disrespect it. I wanted to know his story,
I wanted to know why he was still here.
There was a huge crash in
the middle of the table as if
someone had landed right in
the middle of it. We all jumped
in reaction to the velocity of
the sound. The whole table
jolted with the impact.
“Hi love, “I said, “Thank you for coming to
see us, tell us your story.”
Now patrons sitting around the table
would assume that the candle being
pushed over and the loud bang was from
a menacing entity, but all I could feel was
sadness, guilt and anger, signs of a spirit
in grief.
One of the ladies then got pulled away
from the table in a violent burst of energy.
Her chair nearly fell backwards but luckily,
she managed to pull herself upright again.
I assured the sitters that this man
would not hurt us. As I said
this another huge crash
rattled through the
table. I felt the energy
pulsate and that is
when this spirit
started to move
that solid table
around like a
ping pong table.
It was shifting
in all directions,
we had to keep re
positioning to stay
in place at the table.
This was some
herculean effort the spirit
was making to be noticed. I
ascertained that his name was
Robert Moore. Every time I confirmed
what he was putting in my mind a huge
rap on the table confirmed I was right.
He would then drain one battery after
another from the camera that was filming
the séance.
AS HIS ENERGY GREW, HE BECAME
MORE CONFIDENT. I COULD FEEL HE
WAS MISERABLE AND IN SO MUCH
TORMENT.
It transpired that he had fallen in love
with the lady of the house in the last
century. The only problem was she was
married to someone through an arranged
marriage. Robert and his love started
and maintained a passionate affair which
resulted in a daughter being born. The
man of the house assumed that it was
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
his. After an eternal torment of forbidden
love, Robert decided to put an end to this
love triangle. He started a fire in the stable
block that was adjacent to the house.
He knew that his love and his daughter
were not at the house, he would burn the
husband alive and then live forever with
his true love.
All did not go to plan, however. His love
and their daughter had remained in the
house unbeknown to him. After the fire
had burned down to molten ashes, it was
then that he discovered that he had killed
the two most precious things in his life. He
stated that he had wrapped his child in his
shirt, thus explaining his bare chest.
From that day on filled with guilt and
remorse, he remained grounded at the
hotel. He needed to tell his story and
afford some sort of repentance, but no
one had listened decade after decade.
You could feel his relief as we assured
him this was all a terrible accident and
that he should forgive himself and end his
torment. It was a very emotional séance.
I tried my best with my guide Julianus to
send him over in order that he find his true
love and his daughter. To this day I have
heard no further reports of his presence,
so I hope dearly that he is reunited with
his loved ones.
Local research at Ross Shire and
Inverness corroborated all information
obtained during this séance. A recent
archaeological dig has discovered
foundations of a stable block and building
that the spirit had identified as burning
down. No one in the area knew that this
building had existed.
The evening resulted in a peaceful
conclusion, with the spirit Robert calm
in the knowledge that he had reached
through the veil and had been heard and
understood by the living.
The footage of the seance has been made
into a DVD. All the information that Robert
provided was historically correct. The
airmen killed in the plane crash were also
later validated by local knowledge and
reports.
It just goes to show, we must never
assume a spirit is menacing until we hear
their full story…
Nicky x
Nicky Alan, Psychic Medium, Spiritual
Writer and Author, International Columnist,
Angel expert & Author of M.E Myself and
I: Diary of a Psychic - out soon 
www.nickyalan.co.uk
05
 30 EAST DRIVE, PONTEFRACT
“I’ve got to record it.”
THE NIGHT WHEN
EVERYTHING CHANGED
By
Justin Cowell, Paranormal Investigator
Paranormal Truth
quickly made my way upstairs and
I placed a Tascam voice recorder in
the centre of bedroom from which,
moments earlier, repeated loud knocks
were emanating. I wasn’t remotely
worried or apprehensive about going in.
I just wanted to get in, set the recorder
down, and get out. No calling out. No
spirit boxes. There was no need. It was
happening.
I had no idea what to expect but as far
as I was concerned, I just wanted it to
continue. I knew that such activity was
incredibly rare and quite frankly, I didn’t
want it to stop. Not until we had it on a
voice recorder.
06
I made my way downstairs, back into
the kitchen where Dale Makin, my fellow
investigator from Paranormal Truth,
and our invited guests were still stood
standing, not quite believing what was
going on.
Less than fifteen minutes before, our
female guests had been sat in a circle,
conducting a séance, calling out as many
regularly do each week, trying to entice
some form of spirit activity to occur. They
reported a distinct chill around them,
and one particular guest felt she was
becoming a focus. She reported feeling
a hand grip her arm. At that moment,
they decided on a new tactic. Whatever
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
‘it’ was, they would ignore it. The ladies
joined the rest of the group downstairs
and made a conscious effort not to
discuss what had occurred, to have a
break and to chat about other matters
entirely.
Evidently, ‘it’ did not like to
be ignored.
With nobody upstairs and everyone
accounted for, a series of loud knocks
began directly above our heads. The
knocks were clearly coming from ‘Philip’s
room’, one of three bedrooms in the
semi- detached property and most
importantly, from the room furthest
away from the adjoining property.
Whatever was causing the knocks to
occur, it was clearly not being made
by Carol Fieldhouse, the next-door
neighbour.

BANG…. BANG…. BANG…
BANG….
We fell silent in the kitchen.
BANG…. BANG…. BANG….
30 East Drive in Pontefract, England
has quite the reputation for poltergeist
activity. In fact, at the height of its activity
in 1966, it was labelled the “most violent
poltergeist case in Europe.” Incidents
involved all manner of poltergeist activity
was said to have occurred, including, most
frighteningly of all, an incident in which
the youngest member of the family, Diane
Pritchard, was supposedly dragged up the
stairs by her neck, from an unseen force.
Over the years, the property had grown
in reputation as being one of the most
haunted properties in the United Kingdom
with thousands of alleged incidents
“30 East Drive in Pontefract, England
has quite the reputation for poltergeist
activity.”
that have been witnessed by numerous
individuals and ghost hunting groups.
I’ll not go into detail here, but if you’re
interested then you can pop along to
30EastDrive.com for more background
information on the property.
The goings on at East Drive were
predominantly a topic of conversation
for the locals of Pontefract for 20 or so
years and only truly came to wider public
attention in 1981 when it was included in
Colin Wilson’s book, Poltergeist. As with any
good ‘haunted’ house, in 2012 the events of
the Pritchard family also became the basis
for a film, ‘When the Lights Went Out.’ In
more recent years, the property was visited
by Nick Groff and Katrina Weidman for their
Paranormal Lockdown series and most
notoriously of all, was the location for a
particularly infamous live episode of Most
Haunted.
HAUNTED MAGAZINE 07
 Despite the huge reputation and media coverage that this
property has garnered over the years, before entering the
property last August, my feelings about the property were
clear. I was thoroughly unimpressed.

This was not based merely on the sparse furniture,

cramped kitchen or dated interior, I was unimpressed
based on at least 15 prior visits to the property both as
part of Paranormal Truth, but also as a guest and former
team leader with a ghost event company.

Although I had witnessed certain unusual incidents, such

as countless tapping noises, a door opening on its own
and a plastic ball seemingly appearing from nowhere in
the living room, as a grounded sceptic, I was confident in
my opinion that although interesting, there was nothing
that I had witnessed that couldn’t be put down to perfectly
natural explanations. Those taps? The expansion and
contraction of floorboards and wooden furniture as the
outside temperature cooled. The opening door? It had
merely not closed properly and had opened due to gravity
and the movement of air within the house. The tales of
black monks linked to the property? A fiction. If there was
any truth to the events of 1966, then that poltergeist, like
all poltergeist cases, would have been short-lived and the
phenomena would have ceased over 50 years ago.

In short, 30 East Drive was not haunted.

BANG…. BANG…. BANG... BANG!

Downstairs, I was elated. It dawned on me that this was
what myself and Dale had been searching for since we
started Paranormal Truth. Something tangible. Dare I say
it, something real. Something that wasn’t due to dodgy
gadgets so favoured by other paranormal groups and
nothing that could be easily dismissed. Dale Makin started
Paranormal Truth because he wanted to capture the para-
normal, purely and simply on camera or through the use of
audio equipment. He was sick of all the gadgets, flashing
lights and reliance on equipment such as spirit boxes and
SLS cameras to provide ‘evidence’ of the paranormal
that could be described as unproven at best. He want-
ed paranormal investigations to go back to basics.
To capture the paranormal as simply and straight-
forwardly as possible. I shared exactly the same
views as Dale. We got talking. Then we teamed
up. It was as simple as that.

The knocking sounds seemed to stop

from above us.
I quickly went back upstairs, retrieved the
voice recorder and listened back to the
recording on headphones. There they were.
As clear as crystal. We had recorded at least 9
knocking noises from within the empty room.
On headphones I could even make out that the
noises were coming from the wooden furniture in
the room. My guess was the large wooden cupboard,
which was against the far wall, a 1980s era television
set sitting firmly on top. These were no light taps either.
The volume, timing and intensity of the knocking sounds
were constant, loud and seemingly becoming louder and
incessant with each knock. I replayed the audio again and
again, a wide grin on my face. I felt like a kid in a sweet
shop. We’d finally got evidence which was hard to dispute.

08 HAUNTED MAGAZINE
 Everyone was accounted for and the noises were
clearly coming from within the room. I passed
the headphones around to Dale and to the other
guests, allowing them to listen to the recording too.
What I didn’t expect, what none of us expected, was
what was about to happen next.

From above our heads, moving diagonally across

the ceiling, across what was formerly Philip
Pritchard’s bedroom upstairs, the loudest,
stomping footsteps we had ever heard. Not
walking. In fact, not footsteps. Stamping. My mind
was racing. I quickly looked around the kitchen.
Everyone was there. We were all looking up. A
light in the kitchen diner area, directly below the
bedroom, was swinging. It was swinging due to the
energy and force of the stamping.
I looked at Dale and he looked back at me. We were
laughing, grinning, swearing. What the hell just
happened?!
I had spent years dismissing 30 East Drive. I was
secure and comfortable in my opinion that there
was nothing there. That it was a money-making
scheme with a huge reputation but little or no
evidence of the paranormal. In that moment, right
there, probably before the light had even stopped
swinging, I knew that I was spectacularly wrong.
30 East Drive was most definitely haunted. And I
couldn’t have been happier to admit it.
Since that extraordinary evening, both myself and
Dale have been back to 30 East Drive (how could we
not!), for a five-night investigation accompanied
by numerous guests including fellow investigators
and parapsychologist, Dr. Ciarán O’Keeffe. Yet
again, we were able to record unusual activity,
most notably whilst the property was locked and
empty. Unsurprisingly, there was no repeat of the
monstrous sound of footsteps this time round, but I
don’t think either myself or Dale truly expected this
to happen. What we were left with however, is the
unshakable feeling that we witnessed something
that was paranormal that night and that despite
our scepticism on countless previous visits, we
were wrong to dismiss the claims of this property.
Perhaps that should be a lesson for us all. Just
because a property doesn’t provide any evidence
of paranormal activity on repeated visits, we should
be very wary of dismissing their claims out of hand.
We need to at least remain open to the possibility
that paranormal activity could conceivably still
occur and although we should always remain
sceptical and look for alternative, natural
explanations at all times, we must undoubtedly
still be open-minded enough to visit a property
numerous times in order to try to substantiate
other’s claims. It took a combined total of over 20
previous visits to East Drive before myself and Dale
witnessed the paranormal that night in August. In
short, it took it’s time. But boy, was it worth it!

Justin Cowell

HAUNTED MAGAZINE 09
Think this is a first for Haunted Magazine, a feature
from two existing HM writers, writing together.
Vicky, Dead X Central & James, Haunted Insight
collaborating as one under the guise of Dead
Insight, (see what they did there?)

MAGPIE MINE:
The Widow’s Curse
ituated in the beautifully

S
picturesque peak district of
Derbyshire lies the remains
of what was once a fully
functioning lead mine. This
area of the peak district has been
used for mining for decades and
Magpie Mine itself began its first
production in the year 1740. The In 1833 what would seem like a harmless In that same year 18 Magpie miners would
mine was open and closed several feud between businessmen would go now be put on trial for murder although
times in its lifespan and during the terribly wrong... many of them were freed immediately
years it has generated a plethora of and later all would be acquitted due to
ghost stories.  In September of that year, The Magpie insufficient evidence on being able to
Miners would attempt to sabotage the identify the actual culprits. 
For many years the Magpie Mine neighbouring Redsoil mine which lies
would go through several disputes only a mere 100 yards east by lighting From that day, it is said that the widows
with its neighbouring mines who straw and coal tar to try and smoke out of the miners who tragically died
were all in competition with one the workers and stop production. Instead would then place a curse upon Magpie
another. It was a well-known fact
of just trying to make these miners leave Mine. Although this could be taken as
that parties from each of the
their posts this damaging act would take nonsense, it is a documented fact that
different mines in the area would
the life of three innocent miners, Thomas over the years this mine began to receive
send their workers out to sabotage
Wager, Isaac Bagshaw and Francis Taylor a lot of bad luck with flooding and other
the others at an attempt to stop
who suffocated to death from inhalation phenomena which would cease the
production from one mine and thus
resulting in stealing their business.  of the fumes.  production. 

HAUNTED MAGAZINE 11
Many of the locals would refuse to step
foot on the grounds in fear of the curse
and family members of the Magpie Miners
would plead with their loved ones to find
alternative work.  the grounds of the mine itself that is said
The mine eventually closed for production
in 1835 just a mere two years after the
incident and was eventually sold and
taken over by new owners and workers
in 1839. It would then go on to continue
its production until 1954 seeing several
different owners over its lifespan.  this location to see if we could uncover
The widow’s curse is said to remain until
this day and many workers of the mine
over the years have reported strange
‘ghostly’ activity. Some even saying that
the spirits of the three miners that were
murdered have been spotted here on
several occasions and apparently haunt
the area, not at rest as justice was never
properly served.  home. I have lived in this property for over
As well as the curse, there is also two
documented deaths on the site itself
which occurred in 1842 although no
details of how these miners died has
emerged. A lot of the deaths were not
documented, and historians believe that
more deaths would have occurred here
due to the nature of the work.  appearance directly outside of my kitchen
For the remaining years the site would see
both flooding and fires and would even
undergo a name change in the attempts to
break the curse, but it seems many owners
were never able to keep the business fully
afloat and each would fail miserably. Was
this truly the windows curse? Or simply
just a paranoia which made it all fail?
When I first started to research this
location, it was because I was drawn to its
natural beauty and it was only after that I
discovered the prospect of the harrowing
curse.  miners in 1835, at the very top of the list
The Magpie Mine is one of the most
intact mines left in the United Kingdom
12
(if not the world) which makes this a
very unusual location for us to be able
to investigate.  Although we were unable
to step foot inside of the buildings, it is
to be haunted which is what made us
become so fascinated with the area. 
After so many sightings of apparitions
here and an unsolved mystery of who
really caused the deaths of the Redsoil
miners, we knew we had to investigate
some answers to these age-old questions. 
Visitation?
James and I had known for a while
that we would be visiting the mine to
investigate and a week prior to our actual
investigation I found it incredibly odd as
I began to have a ‘Magpie’ visit me at my
twenty years and it’s an extremely built up
area with no fields or parks nearby. In my
entire time living there I have never ONCE
witnessed a Magpie on my property. This
Magpie has now become a regular visitor
since the investigation, and I see him most
days. He will sit on my fence and stare at
me from the garden, he also has made an
window. 
Coincidence?
The
Maybe? Strange all the same. But, that’s
not all that happened. After our first day
Investigation
visit, I also had a dream about the mine
and particularly remember a man called The investigation at Magpie started
“Richard” being a part of it. I’d messaged like any other that we’d done before.
James the next day to let him know I A long music filled drive with talk and
thought it was odd. A week later we found excitement of what lay ahead, not
a list of names of the men who were put to mention the small muddy tracks
on trial for the murders of the red soil that seem to be EVERYWHERE we go! I
sometimes wonder why I even bother
was the name ‘Richard Sutton’ age thirty- to clean the car…
five. I’ll leave that with you, make of it
what you will!  As we pulled up it became clear that
we were not alone. No, honestly, there
were two other cars there, one bearing
a Dutch licence plate! It was still light,
and we weren’t worried, it was evident
with the beauty that the location
possesses, that they were more than
likely just tourists taking in the views
and history that the Mine has to offer.
We still had to gather some more intro
footage and take some photos, and by
the time dark fell upon us, they had left,
and we were the only two there.
Now for anyone that wants to visit after
they’ve read this article, please beware
– it gets extremely windy!
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
We had been on one previous occasion
and decided that it was too much to
film, the audio would have been poor
and so we rescheduled. Guess what?
When we went back, despite the reports
claiming only an 8-mph wind, it was
yet again really strong! Throughout
the investigation we found ourselves
avoiding and sheltering from the
blustery conditions, luckily due to the
layout the location, it allows you to do
so, but it’s something to bear in mind.
On starting the investigation, we
decided to concentrate our efforts
on the steps that lead up to the top of
the Mine. Luckily for us they were very
enclosed, providing cover from the
harsh conditions but at the same time
giving us a sense of being boxed in.
With the Alice Box running and two EMF
detectors poised, we started calling out
to the spirits that may be present. We
didn’t really know what to expect, I’m
sure from the history that Vicky has
presented regarding the murders and
curse, it really could have produced
anything from sadness to pure anger.
The activity seemed slow at first, but I
began to hear footsteps at the bottom
of the steps. They were loud, they had
to be for me to hear them over the
whistling of the wind. As I turned to
look back at Vicky, she appeared to look
uncomfortable, and shortly after began
to feel a shortness of breath. She felt a
pressure bearing down on her, almost as
though she was feeling what one of the
miners would have felt at the time they
were murdered. I found this interesting,
the more we investigate the more I see
Vicky feel and experience more, but to
back this up, Alice produced a sequence
that completely blew us away! Firstly,
the words ‘Lost in well’ appeared. Now,
be it a mine or a well, it seems damn
close to what the miners experienced.
A feeling of being lost certainly hit
home, but this was then followed by the
word ‘Dust’. Three miners were sadly
murdered by a technique used to smoke
them out, it went horribly wrong, but was
this one of the miners telling us of his
feeling of being lost whilst suffocating?
Combine that with what Vicky personally
experienced, I can only feel that we
were in contact with one of the men
that tragically lost their lives on that
haunting day.
Magpie Mine is full of ruinous buildings
and abandoned equipment. It only felt
right to investigate one of those empty
shells that had been frozen in time. We
made our way to the top of the steps and
headed north to a stone structure that
may well have been used for storage
at some point in it’s past. Although
the roof was missing, there were three
solid walls and a grate covering another
possible entrance to the mine itself. As
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
we stood and began to call out, I had an
overwhelming feeling of eeriness. I don’t
think that it was in a negative way, but
I had a strong vision of the mine when
it was fully operational, the sounds, the
hustle and bustle, the characters that
inhabited it, yet now as we stood in this
building, there was nothing but silence.
It was a surreal feeling, and one that
we both pick up on repeatedly at the
locations we visit.
Out of the three areas that we
investigated, this was certainly the
quietest, but even so, we still had two
intelligent responses from the EMF
meter that Vicky had. Previously on the
steps, a name came through on Alice,
not once but twice. The name ‘Terry’
was what we were focusing on. From the
research that Vicky had compiled, the
name didn’t seem to fit in, especially
when it came to the murders. Yet this
spirit was constantly trying to gab our
attention, and that he did! On asking
if we were speaking to Terry, we had a
small spike in EMF. Directly after, Vicky
asked if Terry was a miner at the site to
which there was an identical spike in
answering that question. Two spikes in
EMF to questions asked, also backing up
a name that had appeared twice on Alice,
seemed convincing enough to me that
we’d made contact with a man that used
to work onsite. Did he know something
about the murders?
13

Did he have information for us but didn’t
know how to pass it? Only he will know, but
I’m sure we will return one day and try to dig
deeper in our search for those answers.
I sadly now move onto the last part of
our investigation, but easily the most
exciting for evidence captured. We always
like to try and fit in spirit box work when
we investigate. There’s just something
about it, the thought that we may be
potentially hearing the voices of the dead,
whether it be residual or intelligent, for me
personally, it’s the pinnacle of paranormal
investigating.
We’d moved to the base of the mine and
headed towards the old buildings which are
now used as offices, but I can imagine may
once have been used as living quarters.
With the spirit box on, we again started to
push and ask questions, concentrating on
the murders. Now let’s just remember, for all
the men that went on trial for the murders
of the three miners, all were acquitted. It
was seen as a tragic accident, in the eyes of
the law anyway. Yet right at the start of the
spirit box session we heard a very distinct
laughing. Now, in all honesty, coming into
this we thought that we would encounter
sadness, anger, yet at the same time, a
remorseful atmosphere. As we continued
to press, that didn’t seem to be the case.
Throughout we had the same female voice
telling us to run, as I’m writing this the hairs
are standing up on the back of my neck. She
seemed extremely concerned for us, so I
decided to ask the question “Do you really
think you can hurt me?”
The reply was harrowing as we heard the
clearest of replies saying, “You can die!”
14
Of course, this put us on edge, Vicky twice
saw three figures in the distance that
startled her to say the least, and on another
occasion, I spun around with the camera
as I felt someone run up behind me. It was
intense, in fact as Vicky stated when asking
if the murders were intentional, it was
downright “Disgusting!”
We really felt uneasy, was it the curse that
was put upon the mine by the widowers of
those killed, or was it the killers themselves
trying to warn us and make us leave as we
were finding out too much? To be honest,
there were so many replies both intelligent
and threatening that I need to watch it back
over just to take it all in again. Vicky and I
agreed that whoever we came into contact
with really didn’t want us being there,
so much so that at the end when we said
goodbye, there was an immediate reply of
“Bye!”
It was almost as if they were keeping a
secret, a pact that they weren’t willing to
break, a bond that ran deeper than the mine
they committed this horrific crime in.
Magpie Mine has instantly become one
of our favourite locations. It’s beauty
in daylight combined with its sinister
undertone at night truly captured not just
our imagination but our hearts… We loved it!
To Mr Thomas Wager, Mr Isaac Bagshaw and
Mr Francis Taylor, we are truly sorry for the
way in which you lost your lives. I’m sure
we’ll return one day and try to help you tell
your side of the story!
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
Evidence Analysis
After going through the hours
of footage from Magpie Mine we
were able to put together a small
video which you can find on our
DEAD INSIGHT YouTube channel or
alternatively search ‘Magpie Mine
Investigation Dead Insight’ 
On the footage you’ll see we
captured a strange light anomaly
which floats into shot and then
disappears whilst still visibly in
the frame. It didn’t leave, it simply
vanished! 
We also captured some amazing
responses during our spirit box
session, including two names
‘Abraham and Isaac’ — Both of these
names have a documented historical
connection to the site. 
Magpie Mine is a strange location
and certainly not what I was
expecting. There seemed to be
a lot of unrested energy and it
definitely made for an interesting
Investigation! 
If you’d like to see more photos
of the location, you can check out
James’ gallery over on Haunted
Insight. 
We hope you have enjoyed the
first joint article from myself and
James. It’ll hopefully be one of
many more to come! 
But, until next time, happy hunting! 
Vicky Grant x James Pykett
DEAD X INSIGHT
V: https://deadcentral.blog/
J: http://hauntedinsight.com
V & J: http://bit.ly/DeadInsight
E n t e r i n g t h e
Warwick Castle
C h a r i t y E v e n t
By Dave Harazny
I 
promised to do this event, not
only for the BHF (British Heart
Foundation), but also my Niece
Carla, who three years ago, lost her
dad, my oldest Brother Stefan to a
sudden heart attack at the age of 62.
The aim was to find an awesome location,
pair that with my love for ghost hunting
and organise an event that could raise
monies for the BHF. A win-win situation.
Sarah, Lee and myself (three of
paranormal team ‘Entering the Unknown)
arrived at Warwick Castle and we were
privileged to be given a private tour
around the Castle, going through every
room and area that was accessible to
us. To be honest, every single area was
breath-taking. Nearly one thousand years
of history (1068 to be precise).
To be honest, the main point of doing this
was to raise monies for the BHF, anything
else was a “Brucie Bonus”. I could easily
have wrote, we turned up, did this, did
that, raised ££££ for the charity and
went home but as Haunted Magazine
have kindly given us the platform to
write about it, I thought we’d at least
try and tell you how the night was, what
happened etc.
U n k n o w n :
J u ly 12 t h 2 019
We asked members of the public to come As it happens on a lot of paranormal
and join our event and ghost events, the night was going so fast,
hunt with the likes of some the first refreshments break was
high profile paranormal late, but much needed. During
people out there, the the break we chatted and
likes of Alex Duggan discussed what had
and Miki York happened, there was cold
(UK-Haunted), spots, drafts, the trigger
MJ Dickson ball flashed several
(Sage Paracon, times and a clear
Paranormal knock was heard in the
Captured), corner of the room. The
Gemma medium Gary also came
Leigh Drury up with a few names.
(Parasearch
Radio, the Then it was time to start
Supernaturelle again and Alex, Miki and
Show), Carl Carl took more people to
Hutchinson, and two the King Maker room and ran
mediums Garry Fields some experiments. They heard a
and Entering the Unknown’s door bang and strange knocking that
very own medium Andy Warrington- they couldn’t debunk.
Jones.
After a quick freshen up aka fag and loo
First, we welcomed the public, welcoming break, we mixed it up again and then
then to this amazing castle and then we changed around a bit. Andy, Gemma and
myself joined Alex, Miki and Carl in the
introduced our team, then the special
guests, who then introduced themselves jail and MJ and Garry went back to the
bedrooms to try to get more evidence.
to the public.
Whilst down in the jail, we conducted a
Then it was time to start the paranormal Ouija Board session a few of us heard a
investigation. We split into two teams; door bang in an empty part of the castle,
Alex, Miki and Carl took people to the this actually happened several time
King Maker room. Andy, MJ, Garry and during the night. So much so that Andy
myself went to the bedrooms to conduct and myself went to check if anyone was
investigations. there but nobody was.
HAUNTED MAGAZINE EXTRA
 Our second break took a bit longer as
we held a raffle to help raise monies for
the BHF, and we raised £117 on the night,
which would be added to the total.
It was time to swap the public around
again, so they had the chance to see a)
different locations and b) how some of
the special guests. Garry took some to
the King Maker room. Alex, Miki and Carl
took some into the Mirror Maze, where
Miki lost track of some of the guests and
couldn’t find them only for Gemma to
come to the rescue and locate them for
him.
The investigation overran by 20 minutes,
as they often do. I must thank the public
for paying to join us at an amazing
location and help raise funds for a worthy
cause.
the investigation eventually overran
by 20 minutes. after the public left, we
had change to investigate the building
until 4am. Literally, having the run of
a castle is a ghost hunter’s dream, the
team of Entering the Unknown and the
celebrities stayed on till 4am conducting
EXTRA
investigation around the building. Miki,
Alex and Carl went off with Gemma to one
part of the building as did MJ and Garry
and Entering The Unknown went into the
King Maker Room and finally we went into
the bedrooms and we managed to get
some interaction with the spirit of a lady
in the bedroom, was it the same Lady in
black who sat at the table, staring mirror?
I placed the handheld REM-Pod on the
floor and asked if there was a lady there
“could you light up the lights please”.
LIGHTS. “Are you below the age of 40?”.
NO REACTION. “Are you over 40?”. LIGHTS.
“Are you the lady sat in black?” NO
REACTION. Andy entered the room and
said that there was a lady stood at the
window, could this have been the Lady we
were interacting with?
Our last place to investigate was the
Chapel, where Andy picked up on a man
and a woman who got married there, plus
a few other spirits that were against the
marriage. He also picked up on a murder
but after several minutes he had to leave.
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
Amazingly enough on the way down to
the event Andy picked up on two German
officers at the Castle. Garry Fields also
gave me an envelope in which he had
picked up several things before his arrival
which turned out to be correct and some
of which was picked up by MJ.
The event ended at 4am and a quick
but effective tidy up saw everyone walk
‘Zombie-like’ to the main gate. If any
paranormal investigators are reading
this, you’ll know what I mean when I say
starting a ghost hunt in daylight and
finishing it in daylight is commonplace.
What a night / morning it proved to be,
the public, the special guests, the team
at Entering the Unknown worked their
ghostly socks off to make this event a
huge success and were proud to say that
£1100 was raised for The British Heart
Foundation.
I am so proud of everyone who gave up
their time to support the night and we
would like to thank everyone from the
bottom of our hearts.
Dave, Entering the Unknown
ARE YOU A PARANORMAL
PERSON OR A PARANORMAL
PUPPET?
BARRIE JOHN ASKS
“WHO’S PULLING YOUR STRINGS?”
irstly, I want to ask you, which string do you allow people
F to pull for you and why? We go through life at times and
we want others to give us that directional change or to
confirm what we are doing is right for us. But why? As
we know which direction we wish to take, so therefore
its down to us to take that route.
As we have grown into Spiritual
Beings or Adults, we have
learnt so much along the way.
I often hear that little voice
inside my head telling me
“if only I could do this again
and know what I know now”. I
suppose it’s like hearing your
mum’s voice in your head
telling you not to do something
again and yet, we still do it.
Life as we know holds many
changes and hang-ups for us,
often leading us into many
different directions and for
many good reasons. On some
of the journeys what have we
learnt? Maybe its about the
journey more than the actual
lesson or maybe its about
what we can learn and then
pass onto others in a form of
teaching.
Very often in times of need, we
allow others to make choices
and decisions for us as we are
fearful of the outcome or event
what might happen to us on
that pathway. Well how about,
maybe we just need to do it and
learn from it.
Throughout my career as
being a professional and also
a psychic medium, I’ve learned
so much from others and so
much from my own learning.
People, companies and clients
that I’ve met along the way
always help me to open my
eyes and looks at things
differently, some of these
being:
How people react to
situations – both positive
and negative reactions?
What makes people ‘tick’;
what excites them in life and
why?
Watching people ride on
others backs as they think
its ‘safe’ to do so?
How we all deal with
changes in our lives (death,
relationship break ups etc)?
I am sure that we’ve all thought
about the above many times,
BUT… what do we do about it?
Maybe, just maybe we really
need to look at ourselves in
the first instance and really
decide what we want changed
about us and then what do
we want to do with our lives
going forward. These are
questions we get asked so
many with being Psychic’s,
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
people presume that we hold
all the answers. When people
ask my advice I always say,
“so you want a strange to
make a decision for you that’s
going effect the whole of
your life?”. This often brings
about a strange reaction from
clients but would we really
ask someone in the street
about paying our bills or what
colour to paint our house and
associated rooms.
The hardest thing for any of us
to deal with is outcomes, but
we can’t deal with an outcome
until we’ve experienced
the journey but what is an
outcome? Its just a result,
something that comes from
dealing with a situation and
then it allows us to learn
from it and also pass on this
information to others who
might be going through a
similar route or pathway.
Being a Psychic Medium really
doesn’t make my choices any
easier than yours but, it does
allow to me work with the
results or outcomes and then
change my own pathway to
reflect this.
I suppose what I am trying to
say here is….
YOU are the only one that
should be pulling your own
strings and thus not allowing
others or total strangers to
make a choice or decision for
you that will affect the whole
of your like. Any guidance
given by mediums is purely
that, guidance. Its down to
you to put it into action to
allow the guidance to happen
and to take place. Be in your
charge of your own pathway
and destiny.
Barrie J x
15
 “THIS BOOK LAUNCHED A GENERATION OF PARANORMAL LOVERS, INCLUDING US!”
USBORNE
AGAIN
BACK FROM THE DEAD
Resurrecting Usborne’s ‘World of the Unknown: Ghosts’
F
irst published in 1977, Usborne’s
World of the Unknown: Ghosts was
one of the very first books from
Usborne, a brand-new children’s
publisher that set out to revolutionise
the world of kids’ books. Peter Usborne (who,
now in his eighties, still owns and runs the
company), set up Private Eye magazine before
he became a book publisher, and wanted to
bring the same lively, magazine-style format
to children’s books. At that point, books for
children were mainly readers and classics, with
some non-fiction for the educational market, but
very little for the general trade.
Usborne changed all that. Inspired by a phone call
from his wife telling him he was going to become a
father, Peter wanted to put children at the centre of
everything he did. He asserts to this day that “being
a parent has been the biggest privilege and joy I can
imagine, and everything I’ve done in publishing has
been an extension of that”. He set out to combine
high quality writing, design and production with
popular subjects – never speaking down to children
and presenting them with information that would
spark their imagination and curiosity.
The World of the Unknown and a
haunted generation
The World of the Unknown series was classic early
Usborne: magazine-sized, floppy paperbacks with
a picture-strip layout that came from comics; vivid
illustrations designed to compete with TV; the dead-
pan tone of voice that spoke directly to children
and the topics – Ghosts, Monsters and UFOs – that
16 HAUNTED MAGAZINE
captured
their imagination. There isn’t much in the way of
data going back to those early days, but we know
that 30,000 copies of each of those books were
printed in the first year, and that they stayed in print
for twenty years or so before they were retired in
the ‘90s. So, it’s fair to say they were pretty popular
with kids.
We also now know, thanks to social media, that
these books left a big impression. They lived on
bookshelves in bedrooms and libraries, thrilling
their young readers, many of whom reported hardly
daring to open the books but loving them all the
same. Readers remember – vividly – reading and re-
reading them, taking these books out of the library
so many times that eventually a librarian gave them
a well-read copy, or putting their names on waiting
lists to get hold of one. Some of those readers have
reflected with hindsight that the book itself wasn’t
even that scary: it was the way it fuelled their
young imaginations that was exhilarating. Great
nineteenth century ghost story writer M.R. James
talked about the ‘pleasing terror’ of ghost stories –
the joy of feeling a little scared but safely within the
pages of a book. A great children’s book should be
gripping, full of atmosphere and tension, and open
up a world to explore, and World of the Unknown:
Ghosts had these qualities in spades.
The gothic is central to our culture - from
film, to books and art. But for those kids
of the ‘70s and ‘80s, these illustrated
information books from Usborne were
something entirely new, created just for
them, and it’s clear that Peter Usborne
(himself a huge fan of M.R. James) and his
team stumbled on a rich vein when they
started writing about the world of the
paranormal. The World of the Unknown
series led to books on vampires, werewolves,
haunted houses and more.
Bring it back! Resurrecting
a classic
Despite being out of print for
over twenty years, Usborne’s
World of the Unknown series
lived on in the memories
of a generation. And when
the readers of the 1970s
and ‘80s grew up, they
wanted it back. Connected
via social media in a way
that they couldn’t have
dreamed of when Ghosts was
first published in 1977 (even
The Usborne Book of the Future:
A Trip in Time to the Year 2000 and
Beyond didn’t predict that), readers
began to discover that they weren’t alone in
finding this book and its series companions
deliciously and addictively terrifying. They
connected online, sharing stories of their
childhood terror – and how discovering this
book in those formative years influenced
them. Many claimed that it had even had
an impact on the careers they chose, with a
handful of fans pursuing jobs directly linked
to the paranormal world, but many more
going into the creative industries, as writers
and scriptwriters, working in books, TV and
film.
Back in the UK, fans were still connecting
The first tangible
online but the breakthrough came when
result of this
Nucleus Films, the team behind Ashley
online groundswell
Thorpe’s animated feature film Borley
was in Finland,
Rectory, called Usborne requesting an
where fans of Usborne’s
interview with the author of World of the
Supernatural World (also
Unknown: Ghosts, Christopher Maynard.
published as three separate
Almost by chance, they were put through
editions) lobbied Finnish publisher Tammi
to Usborne’s Anna Howorth, herself a huge
– who’d licensed the Finnish language rights
fan of the book, who’d been “banging on”
from Usborne in the ‘70s – to reissue their
about bringing this book back into print
childhood favourite. A Facebook group
for the almost fifteen years she’s been
dedicated to Noidan Käsikirja (the Finnish
with the company. “I’m a big fan of Reece
book title) gathered nearly 3,000 fans. The
Shearsmith so when I found out we shared
book was reprinted in August 2018 and
a love for this book, I tweeted about it. He
instantly hit the children’s book charts. The
replied to say he’d write a foreword if we
first print run sold out within a week, and a
reprinted, and it snowballed from there”.
Helsinki nightclub owner offered his venue
for a launch party. Total sales to date are
However, not everyone at Usborne was on
well in excess of 18,000 copies.
board. Anna says “some of my colleagues
just didn’t believe that this book had so
many genuine fans, who felt so passionate
about it – they thought it was a niche
group. But I understood this deep-rooted
sense of nostalgia for early Usborne books,
because I’m one of those kids who were
deeply affected by them at an early age.
And I understood how loving a book as
a kid can take you down a certain path,
because I ended up working at Usborne.”
To try to prove demand, she set up a
petition on change.org, and it quickly
gathered momentum, exceeding the target
of 1,000 signatures. Presenting that, along
with the promised foreword from Reece
Shearsmith, was the tipping point for
the publisher, and it was decided to print
quickly to get the book out for Halloween
2019. When the Amazon pre-order went
live, it went straight to number one in its
category.
HAUNTED MAGAZINE 17
Anna says “the response to the online petition, the announcement that we’re
bringing this book back, the article that The Guardian ran about it – and all
the other news that we’ve been able to share so far – has been phenomenal.
It’s been amazing to connect with so many people who shared a collective
memory of this book and satisfying to have played a part in answering their
call to bring it back. People to thank are too many to list here (but if you
played a part, thank you!) but I must mention the Borley Rectory team –
Reece Shearsmith, Ashley Thorpe and the guys at Nucleus – who sparked it
all, as well as Haunted Magazine for their help spreading the word. It’s been
a campaign close to my heart, so from a personal point of view I’m thrilled.
But from a professional point of view (as brand director at Usborne) it’s
also been fascinating to see how things haven’t really changed from those
early days at Usborne. Peter Usborne’s passion and vision for the company
is still the same; the way in-house writers and designers work together to
make the very best books for children hasn’t changed; the ethos of never
speaking down to children, making knowledge irresistible and putting
kids at the centre of everything we do is just as it was when World of the
Unknown: Ghosts was first published in 1977. Usborne is still leading the
way in creating books that spark children’s imagination and curiosity – and
for parents who grew up with Usborne books themselves, that’s a really
powerful message.”

Usborne’s World of the Unknown: Ghosts will be publishing on 3rd

October 2019. Ashley Thorpe’s Borley Rectory will be released on 14th
October 2019.
 SPOOK-EATS: PUTTING THE SOUP INTO THE SUPERNATURAL;
THE GHOUL INTO GOULASH & THE STEW INTO “YOU STUPID
MAN, YOU’VE PUT THE K2 METER NEAR A WIFI ROUTER”

EERIE ERIE
By
A m a n d a R . Wo o m e r,
Spook-Eats

W
henever someone asks
us where our favourite
haunted places are in
the States, we tend
to think of the usual:
Gettysburg, New Orleans, Salem, Key
West, Savannah. We all have a favourite
haunted place, but there is one small
section in north-western Pennsylvania
that has slipped by over the years as
a haunted destination. It is home to
witches, vampires, and a French and
Indian War fort where soldiers remain
buried beneath the city streets. This
place is (dare I say?) eerie… Welcome
to Erie, Pennsylvania.

The county of Erie, PA was founded

in 1800, but it has direct ties
to George Washington and the
French and Indian War. To some
Erie might just be the path along
I-90 to get from the East to the
Midwest, but there are a handful
of places scattered throughout
the county filled with tales of the
strange and unusual. The General
“Mad” Anthony Wayne Blockhouse,
the Brewerie at Union Station, Hotel
Conneaut, and the Cathedral of St. Paul
all have ghostly tales lurking in their halls.
There’s another thing that many of the
haunted locations throughout Erie have in
common: they are accessible to the public.
They have museums, churches, hotels, and
restaurants, all with paranormal claims that
guests can try to experience themselves.

HAUNTED MAGAZINE 19
One of the most (in)famous places lurking
in Erie is the Erie Cemetery home to
legends, folklore, and even some witches
and vampires, too.
Nestled in the lush green cemetery, lies
an unmarked tomb on the side of the
road. There is no family name, no marker,
nothing to signify who or what rests
within. But according to local legend, the
looming crypt isn’t home to any mortal,
but rather, a vampire.
Founded in 1851, Erie Cemetery has
its fair share of unique and beautiful
mausoleums covered in sacred occult
symbols, but it is the nameless blackened
vault with an ornate V over the door that
has captured the imaginations of locals,
paranormal enthusiasts, and those
merely curious about the Vampire’s Crypt.
Some say the tomb belonged to a wealthy
Romanian businessman, but after he was
interned, dead bodies were found in the
surrounding neighbourhoods, drained of
their blood with bite marks on their necks.
Wealthy Romanian businessman? It looks
like Count Dracula decided to settle in
Pennsylvania after that whole Jonathon
and Mina Harker affair.
There are dozens of legends and stories
surrounding the vault. Some have to
do with Satanic rituals summoning the
devil, which explains why this particular
20
mausoleum is blackened. Other stories
warn of trespassing in the crypt with
claims of curses and death for anyone
who shows disrespect to the vault and
what lies within.
“If you’re brave enough (or just
curious), the Vampire’s Crypt is easy
enough to find. When you enter the
cemetery at the Chestnut Street
gate, follow the road up a small hill to
Section 19. If you follow the signs, the
path will take you to the right, up, and
around a bend, and the crypt will be in
your left side. However, if you do what
I did, and get overly excited when you
see the tomb in the distance, and you
completely ignore the DO NOT ENTER
sign and go up the road the wrong way,
it will be on your right.”
You won’t find the Vampire’s Crypt
featured on the cemetery’s official
website. However, there are plenty
of spooky sites retelling the tale of
the mausoleum and the legends that
surround it. If nothing else, a (respectful)
walk through the cemetery can offer a
peaceful afternoon as the autumn leaves
crunch beneath your feet.
Speaking of spooky tales… Erie Cemetery
is home to another site that has had a
slew of legends surrounding it.
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
Nestled in the shade of the oak trees in
the oldest part of the cemetery, lies a
circle of limestone graves at the base of
a looming tree. There doesn’t seem to be
anything too out of the ordinary at first
glance. The tombstones are weathered
and worn down from years of standing in
the elements. But upon closer inspection,
you’ll notice that some of them are
blackened–scorched, even.
According to legend, in the late 1800s,
Erie was home to a coven of witches.
When the two leaders of the coven
died, they were buried in the circle. It is
said that when Satan returned for his
servants, the fires of Hell scorched their
graves, and the evidence of those stories
can still be seen to this day.
With such wild claims, it should come
as no surprise that the Witches Circle
is also home to some paranormal tales.
People have reported hearing the sound
of footsteps behind them, even when
they’re alone. And there are even claims
of a rabid black dog that runs at people,
only to disappear before it bites you.
While checking out the Vampire’s Crypt,
be sure to also stop by the Witches Circle,
situated in Section 34 by Chestnut Street.
But remember you’re in a cemetery, so
respect is vital.
But all of these
witches and
vampires aren’t the
only spooks wandering
around northern Pennsylvania.
Just a bit further south in Erie is the
small town of Waterford, home to the Fort
LeBoeuf Historical Society, housed in the
Eagle Hotel, along with Sugar ‘n Spice,
one of the best haunted restaurants in
Pennsylvania.
The Eagle Hotel (and much of Waterford)
was built on the former site of Fort
LeBoeuf, which was established in 1753
by the French during the French and
Indian War. George Washington, himself,
visited the fort before it was abandoned
in 1797. The ruins of the fort, as well as
the graves of the soldiers buried there,
acted as a foundation for the town of
Waterford. Today, the people of Waterford
live among the historic buildings of early
American history… and they are also
learning to live with shadows and full-
bodied apparitions that have begun to
plague the entire town. But nowhere in
Waterford is the activity as intense as at
the Eagle Hotel.
Built in 1826, the Eagle Hotel acted as a
rest stop for travellers on the American
frontier and was also a distribution point
for New York’s booming salt industry.
The inside of the hotel was destroyed by
a fire in 1845 but was up and running a
year later. US president, Zachary Taylor,
supposedly stayed in the
hotel in 1848 and over the
last 190 years, it has acted as a
tavern, dance hall, social hall, resort,
stagecoach stop, and today, it is home to
Sugar ‘n Spice, an Amish style restaurant
and bakery.
Sugar ‘n Spice specializes in “Amish
style cooking,” which means it is hearty,
not necessarily healthy, but absolutely
delicious, and made in-house from
scratch. Each day, they have three or four
specials as well as their house staples
that are always found in Amish style
restaurants (and for a good reason).
Unlike so many haunted restaurants, the
prices are not at all high–the priciest
thing on the menu is the prime rib and
steak for $17.99. As if that isn’t wonderful
enough, the portions are absolutely
ridiculous. Almost everyone leaves Sugar
‘n Spice with a to-go bag, and there are
enough leftovers for at least one meal at
home if not two. The only downside to
this warm and welcoming restaurant is
that it is completely dry—no beer, wine,
or cocktails are available to go with your
dinner—but there are plenty of other
spirits roaming the halls to make up for
that.
Even though the bodies of the dead still
lie beneath the Eagle Hotel, the building
feels very much alive. Guests visiting
Sugar ‘n Spice and the history museum
have claimed to hear mysterious noises
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
in the building, voices calling out their
names, silverware disappears from their
tables, and they even hear a baby crying
on the stairs leading to the second floor.
Tracy, a member of the wait staff, has had
a slew of experiences including seeing
(and photographing) a woman standing
by the checkout counter as well as a man
dressed in 1800s garb leaning against a
pillar in the kitchen watching her. As if
full-bodied apparitions weren’t enough,
one night, she heard music playing and
followed it to the third floor which used to
be the ballroom. The minute she touched
the doorknob, the music stopped. It’s an
unsuspecting haunted restaurant, but a
place where the spirits are not afraid to
get your attention.
Sugar ‘n Spice is located in the Eagle
Hotel at 32 High St., Waterford, PA 16441.
For more information on deliciously
spooky destinations that are available to
the public, be sure to follow along in our
adventures at spookeats.com.
Amanda, although US based is over in
the UK sometime in September, if you’re
sat at a table having afternoon tea,
nibbling at your cucumber sandwiches
and you happen to hear an American
voice “oh, we’d love some Fish and
Chips please, by the way, is your eatery
haunted” there’s a good chance it will be
Amanda. Look out for her UK adventures
on social media.
21
 That's The
Spirit...
Is it time for
spirit to show
u s t h e way ?
BY JANE ROWLEY
A
s Paranormal
Investigators we
endeavour to capture
evidence and to
experience some sort of
Paranormal experience.
So how far can we go with this? In my
experience, it always seemed that
previously, when I was on investigations
with guests and Teams that there
seemed to be a ‘limit’ on what people
could experience in a ‘ghost’ night.
Feeling the energies, seeing the K2’s
working and listening out for bangs
and taps, etc, etc. Having a timeslot of
several hours at a venue, never seemed
to be long enough to be able to advance
when working with Spirit. It seemed
like every investigation always started
at the same point, with the same
equipment and progress could only get
so far before the evening ended and we
all went home.
In February 2018, I was invited by
Neil Packer to join his new venture at
his newly opened Haunted Antiques
Paranormal Research Centre, As the
Team’s Medium, I was very excited to
have the opportunity to work in this
new paranormal base. I had known Neil
for about 5 years and we had worked
in several venue groups together
22
previously
so it was a real
pleasure to join the
Team.
Having been there just over a
year now, we have done a lot of work in
the building, conducting experiments,
trying out different equipment, and
working with Spirit in many different
ways. The centre is full of different
items which have interesting energies
attached to them. Having the time
and space, and no limitations or
restrictions on what we can do, I feel
we have really reached a whole new
level of working within the Paranormal
field. The centre has provided a unique
base where we can work with spirit and
really push the boundaries and explore
the many different avenues across
the paranormal. It has enabled us to
conduct experiments and progress
with new ideas.
In doing this, we have been exposed
to many different things we had not
previously encountered. Some of it
has been surprising, some of it has
generated many new theories, which
has generated more experiments,
which has then changed our
conclusions on what we thought we
knew. Over the past year it has really
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
changed
the way
we think
about some
of the myths and
legends surrounding the
Paranormal. So, who is steering us in
this direction? Who is inspiring us with
the ideas and experiments to try? Who
is pushing us to do more and more and
opening up this path in front of us?
“I firmly believe we are
being guided by spirit. I
believe we have been guided
to this unique place and we
are being allowed exposure
to a whole new level of the
paranormal. So, are we
ready to accept what Spirit
can show us?”
I do believe that everyone’s path is
unique and everyone has the ability
to access the Spirit World - whether
we chose to accept the invitation and
work with it, is up to us. We all have
the choice and free will to develop our
‘journey’ as much as we want to, or not.
Spirit will never show us more than
we can cope with and if we are alright
accepting the first steps then they will go
on the show us more. First experiences
are things like spirit visiting us in our
dreams or us sensing a presence around
us. Spirit will only allow us to progress
one step at a time and its only with our
acceptance (consent) will we move
on. Working with Spirit takes time and
patience. It is something that is not
achieved overnight and with is comes a
responsibility.

“Many people in day to day

life will simple just shut it
out and not see the signs
or the messages. Missed
communication. It is only when
we seek it out and ask for it will
the Spirit World open up to us.”

I tried for a long time to shut it out and

dismiss it but when the time was right,
I was almost compelled to do it and I
began my journey and started to work
with Spirit as it was the path I was meant
to be on. I am so grateful I finally listened
and let myself be guided. I am now
where I am supposed to be - working in
a different paranormal ‘environment’
which I believe will only advance
and expose us to more avenues and
experiences not yet encountered in the
normal paranormal field.
I believe we have made a significant
commitment to work with Spirit at the
Centre and our intention has been
acknowledged. As we ask to see more
and more, I feel we are watched and
judged by Spirit all of the time as if we
are being assessed. We have to earn the
respect from the Spirit World too and
in order to be shown greater evidence,
have better paranormal experiences
and to be exposed to new things not yet
seen in the field, we have to demonstrate
to Spirit that we are trustworthy and
respectful of what they are giving us. I
also believe that we must also have the
belief and integrity to stand by what they
show us. What is the point is sharing
something special with us if it is going
to be ridiculed and not believed? And
why should they use all that energy if
we are not going to use that information
wisely and use it to progress and bring
that evidence to others around us, who
also share a like-mindedness to push the
boundaries further? ..and we all know
Spirit never waste any energy.
I feel we are still only scratching at the
surface of the Paranormal and there
is so much more for us to learn and
observe from Spirit. We are conditioned
so much as we grow up that we are not
encouraged to fully open our minds and
work outside the confines of ‘normal’
thinking. What can our minds (and
thoughts) really do if we push it beyond
what we only think we can do? Can we
break new ground in the paranormal,
spiritually??
As each new item finds it way to the
centre, we are constantly challenged to
work with it and to experience what we
can, constantly sending up the thoughts
and being grateful for what we receive,
however subtle the response. Not every
item is supercharged with paranormal
activity. We have to keep it humble,
but as we all progress as a Team we
are rewarded for our commitment and
patience, and this also has a knock-on
effect to the Groups and Teams who
investigate the Centre too.
We also have to think of it as an
‘investment’. Not necessarily in a
monetary way, but investing our time,
effort, gratitude and integrity in the
work we do at the centre. Sharing our
knowledge and findings with people
who visit the centre. Helping young,
vulnerable people understand that
everything is not Demonic or is going to
‘possess’ or ‘overshadow’ them. Helping
with ‘attachments’ and helping people
interpret their experiences, all add value
to our investment. We are only going to
get out of this what we put in and the
Spirit World is certainly rewarding us in
many ways.
Opening the Centre on a Saturday
and providing an opportunity for the
general public to share ‘unusual’
experiences and ‘ghost stories’ over
a cup to tea with likeminded people is
a great way of collecting information
and recording paranormal material
which is clearly showing us ‘a bigger
picture’. I believe people and objects
are guided to the centre, and I strongly
believe that everything and everyone
arrives precisely when they are meant
to, in the right order, at the right time,
with the right amount of opportunity
and potential for a new experience/
level to be reached. It is not a random
jumble of events but a careful plan
set out by Spirit. So, how far down the
rabbit hole can we go? How much more
is there for us to learn and experience
and how much further can we push the
boundaries? I am sure in time….. we will
find out.
Jane x

HAUNTED MAGAZINE 23
POVEGLIA
ISLAND
By MJ Dickson
OVEGLIA ISLAND – A DUMPING GROUND FOR PLAGUE VICTIMS,
P QUARANTINE STATION, ASYLUM HOUSING THE MENTALLY
INSANE AND ALLEGEDLY THE MOST HAUNTED ISLAND IN THE
WORLD.
The island of Poveglia sits within the
Venice Lagoon off the Eastern coast
of Northern Italy. As the lagoon waters
lap its shores only two miles from the
remarkable and dazzling palaces of
the Grand Canal, it stands empty, a
crumbling collection of abandoned
buildings left to rot. Having served
many unpleasant purposes over the years,
this island is famous for its macabre
past and of course, its alleged hauntings.
Locals will tell you Poveglia is an “island
of ghosts,” and those who visit it are said
to be cursed. Its dark reputation can be
traced to a history filled with death and
despair. It’s no wonder the tortured souls
of those who died on the island are said
to linger. Legends and rumours about
Poveglia are nearly as pervasive as
the weeds, and they read like a horror
story. Over several decades, hundreds
of thousands of dead and living Black
Plague victims were brought here across
centuries, corpses piled up in pits were
24
burned in large fires. Legend has
it that the soil is 50% human ash.
Another one of the Poveglia legends
surrounds the psychiatrist who ran
the mental hospital, widely known
as a butcher and torturer. The
demented doctor who worked at the
island’s mental hospital in the early
20th century was notorious for his
experiments on patients, stories so
shocking even when told today. For
instance, he believed that lobotomies
were a great way to treat and cure mental
illness, so he performed lobotomies on
numerous patients, usually against their
will. The procedures were heinously
wicked, and painful, too. He used
hammers, chisels, and drills with no
anaesthesia or concern for sanitation.
He supposedly saved his darkest
experiments for special patients, whom
he took to the hospital’s bell tower, the
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
screams from those being tortured
could be heard across the island.
Karma eventually caught up with the
doctor, according to the story, he began
to suffer his own mental torture and
was haunted by the island’s multitude
of ghosts. Eventually, he lost his mind,
climbed to the top of the bell tower and
flung himself to his death. There are
varying accounts of his death, some
say he may have actually been pushed,
either by an angry island spirit or by some
of his furious patients. Supposedly a
nurse witnessed his fall, claiming that he
initially survived, but that a ghostly mist
overcame his body and choked him to
death.
The island is a bit of an eyesore to
the locals, the legends and stories of
hauntings run so deep that it is near
impossible to find a boat willing to take
you anywhere near it. The government

has deemed it illegal to
visit the island under any circumstances
which makes getting permission as well
as getting to it extremely difficult.
Even with its crumbling buildings, old
wooden shutters falling off ancient
hinges and ivy creeping its way into
rooms, there is a morbid beauty in the
decay. The terracotta roofs of buildings
which have collapsed, in part bringing
old reed and mud style plaster ceilings
crashing to the tiled and stone slab
floors are but some of remnants of the
old asylum. The bell tower, long bricked
up, stands imposingly over the site
including the former hospital, asylum,
prison and small chapel. On the other
side of the island a footpath leads to the
devils’ bridge and, of course, the plague
burning grounds. The ruins which
throughout history have been marked by
death and destruction are eerily silent,
the air feels thick and heavy, it’s enough
to put even the most experienced
paranormal investigator on edge.
Darkness fills the crevices of
the buildings; the pathways
and cluttered corridors of the
hospital are like a scene from a
horror movie, leaving much to
the imagination. The feeling of
eyes watching your every move
never fades. With each step
you take towards the centre of
the island, the energy becomes
more and more oppressive,
engulfing you in an intense
haze of fear and anxiety.
Approaching the island, the
first thing you see is the
looming bell tower and the
housing block. It’s the most
visible and one of the oldest
structures on the island,
the only remnant of a 12th-
century church that was
abandoned and destroyed
hundreds of years ago.
The tower was turned into
a lighthouse in the 18th
century, and now serves no short
purpose other than as a landmark. amount of time, no more than 5 hours.
Personally, I believe the fear of its
Next you see the island’s octagonal
reputation had our captain a little
battlement, known as “the octagon,”
which was built in the 14th century to unnerved and wanting to get the hell
repel Genoese invaders. In addition out of there as soon as possible.
to the countless others who are
supposed to have met their untimely Our guide led us on to the island, as we
ends on Poveglia, the octagon was crawled through a hole in the fence,
used by English soldiers during the she pointed out that several buildings
Napoleonic wars to ambush French would be completely off limits as the
commandos. Prisoners were taken ceilings could collapse at any second.
ashore and burned. Destroyed French This was not my first visit to Poveglia
ships still decorate the bottom of the and certainly will not be my last. Eager
lagoon around the octagon. to get started on investigating and
documenting as much as we could, a
As majority of the entrances to the few of us decided to try a burst EVP
island have now been boarded up,
session in one of the main asylum
we circled the island several times
prior to finding a suitable place to buildings. I grabbed my headphones,
explained to our guide what an EVP
dock and yet not the safest. Our
boat captain informed us that we session was and proceeded to live
listen to the session.
had only received
permission to be
on the island for a
HAUNTED MAGAZINE 25
 As I finished the usual location and, date
and time log at the beginning of the
recording, I turned to our guide to ask
her if she would kindly translate all our
questions into Italian, within a couple
seconds of her agreeing, a frequency
pop burst through the headphones and
a female voice asked ‘Who’s There?’.
This caught me completely off guard as
I expected any EVPs captured to be in
Italian. I played the recording back to the
group; I could see the colour drain from
our guides cheeks as the class A EVP
boomed through the small speaker. We
were off to a great start!
The group had split into two to cover
ground, whilst one group took photos
and SLS / video footage, the rest
of us proceeded to try and entice
communication using the P-SB7 Spirit
box and several burst EVP sessions. Sad
to say, perhaps on that particular day,
the spirits did not want to talk as we were
unable to document much more activity.
Other than a few strange EMF spikes and
one figure briefly captured on the SLS
camera, majority of the phenomena we
experienced was subjective. Cold spots,
chills, sudden violent mood swings,
feelings of despair and intense sorrow, I
believe several members of the group felt
extremely overwhelmed and burst into
tears for no apparent reason. Group two
managed to capture some interesting
footage of an interference affecting
their videos, was this paranormal… who
knows, it certainly was strange. In total
26 HAUNTED MAGAZINE
we had spent a few hours investigating
and photographing this extraordinary
place, but we could have easily spent the
rest of the night on the island.
As we headed back towards our boat a
look of relief swept over the captains’
face, we loaded up and headed back to
the bustling bars overlooking the Grand
Canal for an ice-cold Aperol Spritz…
when in Venice.
ISLAND HISTORY
The Italian island of Poveglia has a
history chock-full of tragic events going
back thousands of years. During the Roman
Empire, the island was used to house
victims of the plague in order to protect the
rest of the country, forcing inflicted people
to live and die in isolation.
Dead bodies quickly began to overcrowd
the island and thousands were dumped into
large, common graves. In many cases, the
bodies were burned. Some overly cautious
Italian communities even got into the habit
of shipping away anyone who showed the
slightest signs of illness, not a time you’d
want to catch a common cold. Many who
had showed any signs of being unwell were
dragged onto a boat, shipped to the island
and dumped on top of a pile of rotting
corpses. The terrifying, negative energy
that has been left in the wake of these
deaths remains, even in the island’s very
soil.
The little island was first mentioned
in print in the early fifth century as a
safe haven from invasions by Alaric
the Goth and Attila the Hun during the
decline of the Roman Empire. We were
also fortunate enough to visit Attila the
Huns throne on Trocello Island - which is
worth a visit. Poveglia had probably been
populated long before then, as historical
records indicate that a group of proto-
Italians, the Euganei, first inhabited the
Veneto region as early as 2,000 BCE.
Around 864 CE, the governor, or doge,
was killed, and two hundred of his slaves
fled to the island and presumably led
quiet lives. During the Chioggia War
with Genoa that began in 1379, officials
forced the residents of Poveglia Island to
move to a different island in the Venetian
Lagoon. They built the octagonal fort and
turned Poveglia into a military outpost
armed with naval artillery to strictly
control the lagoon.
For two centuries the island stayed
unpopulated. The government intended
to have monks from central Italy inhabit
the island in the 1500s, however there
aren’t many records surrounding this
time period. Eventually the government
finally found a use for the land, Poveglia
Island became a colony and dumping
ground for victims of the Bubonic Plague
in 1576 and 1630.
Doctors wearing Medico Della Peste
masks made numerous trips each day
back and forth to the island. Those
distinctive scary white masks with
the long hook beaks were used as
a misguided form of protection by
physicians in the 17th century to deal
with plague victims. The masks are
intrinsically linked to this area as the
plague’s toll was so huge on the local
populace it spelled the downfall of the
Republic of Venice.
In 1793 two ships entering the area were
found to have been carrying plague
sufferers, the island again became
a confinement station. Other plague
sufferers were forced to the island to
die, shipped over in some instances with
the bodies of tens of thousands who had
already succumb to the inevitable and
were now to be burnt and buried on the
island in pits. Its grounds are said to hide
the remains of more than 100,000 bodies,
overgrown blackberry bushes now hiding
mounds that were once humans.
In 1922 the 18-acre site became an
asylum for the mentally ill and it was
during this period experiments including
lobotomies were said to have been
performed by the deranged doctor. The
hospital was shut in 1968 and the island
was abandoned and has been sealed off
to the public by government authorities
to this day.
With a past like this, it’s not surprising
that Poveglia is believed to be haunted,
attracting the attention of paranormal
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
investigator worldwide. Visitors to
Poveglia have been forbidden for
decades, of course, that doesn’t stop
the occasional thrill seeker from trying
to get permission to explore the island.
However, all who venture there return
shaken. One thing all visitors report
experiencing is the sensation of being
watched, other reports include being
scratched and pushed by invisible
forces and some even claim to have
been possessed (Or was that just for
TV). Having visited this gloomy island on
more than one occasion, I can definitely
say it is one of the more fascinating
locations I have ever investigated
however I truly feel like the nearby
lagoon islands of Lazzaretto Vecchio
(Where the first plague hospital was
built), Trocello and San Servolo (Lunatic
Asylum) are commonly overlooked. To
be honest, I felt more activity, a stronger
presence of something otherworldly and
a far creepier feeling during our tour of
San Servolo Lunatic Asylum Museum
(Definitely worth a visit!) So, in my
personal opinion, I would much rather
investigate the island of San Servolo, you
can catch the Vaporetto (Water Bus) there
and spend the entire day on the island…
legally! You would probably document
way more activity than you would trying
to work your way through the dense
forestry on Poveglia Island.
MJ Dickson
27
 PARANORMAL:
ENTERTAINMENT?
Entit ysee ker Para norm al Rese arch & Teac hings
I
have had the privilege
of being a part of
paranormal research
for my entire life, and
actively participating for
nearly twenty years. I am the
descendant of a man who is
a staple in Canadian history,
Albert Durrant Watson, and
an influential member of the
scientific community as both
a physician and astronomer.
He prided himself on founding
the first paranormal research
association in Canada
(Association for Psychical
Research of Canada), and I do
not take that legacy lightly.
It is one of the reasons this
particular subject of education
is so important to me.
28
BY MOR GAN KNU DSEN ,
When I was first exposed to the world of
the paranormal, I was lucky enough to
watch and study two incredibly insightful
investigators, Loyd Auerbach and Kerry
Gaynor, and, at the time, the only shows
documenting this type of study were
“Sightings” and “Unexplained Mysteries”
(produced by many of the same individuals
as the former). “Sightings”, in the 1990s,
was hosted by Tim White, an ex-military
General who was fascinated by the subject
of the paranormal science. The original
Concept Creator and Supervising Producer
of that show, produced by Paramount
for Fox TV, was Linda Moulton Howe, an
Emmy Award-winning TV producer and
documentary filmmaker of TV specials
about science and the environment.
The journalistic approach that “Sightings”
took with this enticing and engaging subject
matter has been all but lost on the current
majority of paranormal reporting. This is
one of the reasons I am a huge supporter of
the television shows who dare to document
human experiences, rather than creating
false ones. My time will always be available
to support those willing to risk ridicule to
tell their stories, and to the producers who
step into that crucial role. Where shows like
“Sightings” allowed educated researchers
to explain evidence and demonstrate
the many hats they wear, which include
empowering families, positive psychology,
and explaining natural causes, many of
the manufactured “ghost hunting” shows
of today are not interested in an accurate
reporting of this very real phenomenon.
Often, they misuse equipment and the
teams consist of people who don’t have the
patience to bring a resume of education
to the field they claim they are trying to
advance. When engineers, physicists,
medical professionals, and psychologists
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
are needed, these teams are often made
up of the blind leading the blind: People
whose education often stems from other
misinformation on the internet. It’s such
a strange paradigm considering that psi
research in itself is steeped in mystery and
science, but the need to create the events
rather than observe or document the “real
magic” seems to have become a far greater
priority in the minds of many corporations
looking for a return on their dime. This
model makes sense when you’re developing
a show for pure entertainment and thrills,
but it takes a different turn when the public
begins to believe they are observing an
accurate depiction of the reality of psi
research, or twist the genuine experiences
of people who need a voice.
What is striking to me about the situation
that we now reside in as investigators, is
that much of the public fails to understand
and realize how the shows developed for
entertainment purposes also drive home
a dangerous misconception about how
horrifying this phenomenon truly is. As a
teacher and educator in this field, I often
get surprised responses when I tell them
that the phenomenon, more often than not,
inspires hope and joy and a reason to go
on. Specifically, this is the case in grief and
bereavement where studies have shown
that people find great comfort in perceived
paranormal experiences occurring around
them (see the works of Dr. Callum Cooper).
Can these unexplained events be terrifying?
Absolutely. But it is not the core of where
this research truly lies, nor does it represent
the majority of human experiences.
The other fallout from television programs
where ghost hunting groups are sent into
allegedly haunted places to “investigate”,
is that skeptics begin to believe that this
is paranormal research. Many are
surprised when I mention universities
such as Princeton, Edinburgh, or
Northampton actively working
in dedicated labs to solve these
legitimate mysteries. Nor do they
realize the minds at the top of their
game in this field are neurobiologists,
physicists, psychologists, the
president of the American Statistical
Association, and even senior lecturers
at top institutions such as Coventry
University. Throughout my Great
Great Grandfather’s career as both
a physician and psychic researcher,
he prided himself on accurate
information and documentation in
a way that legitimately reported the
magnificence of our supernatural
world, causing me to question the
word “supernatural” in its entirety,
as this phenomenon is more common
than not.
as researchers, are given a platform to
teach, we must decide how we want to
engage the minds who are open to this
new world. People make the mistake
of thinking that unless you have fame
and a television show, you don’t have
a platform. Your degree is a platform,
your ability is a platform, your study is a
platform, your voice is a platform. How
will you use your platform to elevate the
quality of the information the universe
continues to present to us?
This does not mean that television does
not have a purpose! Television is one of
the most accessible forms of information
available to the majority of the world
– it is a tool! We have the potential to
use this incredible media format to
present to the world a new relationship
formula, and that relationship is with
non-physical. It is the most important
relationship because it is the relationship
with which we cannot see, it is the bond
we can develop with the unknown which,
currently, scares the hell out of most
people. Getting OK with what we cannot
see and do not understand is the core
of the dysfunction in a gigantic amount
of our current problems, including the
problems with the paranormal. To have
an attitude of curiosity rather than
fear: Imagine it. Imagine the influence
we would have in politics, news, family,
science, and psi if we approached it
from curiosity. I digress, slightly, but the
importance of what we do as researchers
cannot be understated.
The question I leave you with is simple,
yet complicated:
We all have the opportunity to use
our time alive to its best form of
service, how will you choose to use
your platform?

The problem is this: The world

of entertainment is excellent
at packaging information and
distributing it in a way which
captures peoples’ imaginations.
Whether or not it is accurate is very
much a secondary thought for most
of the industry (which, again, is fine,
as long as the shows are clear the
production is “entertainment”). The
parapsychology world is incredible
at documenting and releasing
studies on the real deal, but terrible
at packaging it in a way the average
layman can access unless they are
willing to read a pile of paperwork.
Most, unfortunately, are not.

It drives home the importance for the

parapsychology community of today
to do one thing: Find a way to bring
the information to the average
person in a way that will
keep the public’s, often
short, attention
span. I have
made this a
large part of my
own career with interactive
shows and presentations, often using
fire arts and other forms of sensory
stimulation to get my point across in a
memorable way.

Education is the key to our motion

forward, but the forms of education
must change and meld. As
researchers, it is our responsibility to www.entityseeker.ca Facebook: facebook.com/entityseeker
lift this information to a higher level.
Intention is everything, and when we,

HAUNTED MAGAZINE 29
“TOO GOOD
TUTBURY TRUE?”
ONE GHOST HUNTERS EXPERIENCE AT
STAFFORDSHIRE’S MOST HAUNTED CASTLE...
“Is there anybody there...?
Knock twice for no... “

B y Hu b e rt Ho bux

dmittedly I was of jittery guests in our group

A getting a little
flustered at that
stage of the night!
Being an impassioned spirit
seeker... who’s been up and
down the country looking
for irrefutable evidence
of the paranormal... this
amazing experience was
getting intense!
The event at the historically
romantic Tutbury Castle
had been pretty interesting
anyway. Eerie sensations were
detected by bodily feelings
in the Kings Chamber and the
ruined rooms of the old castle
precincts were enveloping us
in a sense of dread.... a couple
doubly spooking us out with
several moments of blind
screaming panic, added to the
chilling intensity of the spirit
interactions. (To such an
extent that my friend Victoria,
a seasoned ghost hunter, who
had left her handbag in one
of the stone voids, refused to
go back for it... sending me
instead...)!!
Oddly we were the only team
getting a response, which
‘harrumphed` the rest of the
events crowd, leaving them
dejected, as we all met up
for tea and choccy biscuits...
we were buzzing, they were
getting nothing!

30 HAUNTED MAGAZINE

For us the night was going
fast. The mid May morn was
mild and dark as at around
One o`clock we trudged
expectantly to the most
desired location we could
access on the partially
restricted site... “The
Dungeon”... actually the castle
storeroom...during the time of
Mary, Queen of Scots captivity,
we assumed!
Now I should explain... my
friend Victoria... (she of
putting the handbag down
and forgetting it...) is a keen
historian, who had been
long hankering after a night
time visit to Tutbury... Mary
Queen of Scots is her heroine
and Tutbury was infamous
as being considered Mary’s
only proper jail. Poor old girl
developed rheumatism here
after spending a fair bit of
time, lodged in a little cruck
house near this “dungeon”
area...she understandably
detested the place! I should
also explain that we were
not with the Tutbury Castle
custodians, nor being
guided around by their local
paranormal team. We were
guests of the very professional
and seasoned Dark Soul
Event’s team... about
thirteen of us entered that
dark confine.... the energy in
that room being palpable as
we began to feel circled by
intentional energies... was
that a shadow man stood
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned four times at Tutbury
Castle between February 1569 and December 1585
guard on the steps up to the
wooden barn like door? Were
those the shades of men at
arms prowling around the
pitch-black room? The spidey
senses were working overtime
as we stood holding each
other’s clammy hands in a
protective circle of seance...
“Was that a knock...??”
A rap was heard from one of
the indeterminable corners
of the Dungeon... not a loud
rap... the knocking sounded
like it was emanating from the
depths of the stone fabric...
so we assumed, as you should,
that there was some sound
contamination encroaching
from the exterior... (there
were a horde of Viking re-
enactors encamped outside
for the weekends historic
activity event... we did hear
them snoring classically as
we crept past their tents)
but the electrically charged
atmosphere developing in
the room was building up so
dramatically we didn’t wish to
dispel it in anyway by dashing
out to catch a wildly bearded
Valhalla wannabe having
a laugh at our expense...
this wall percussion was
something different... as a
more persistent gently rolling
rap started to build up...
then.... started to drum from
out of thin air in different
parts of the confines...
31
 The jitters set in again on those
nervier members of the group as
the weirdness of the situation
sunk in... several times we calmer
sorts had to implore them not to
break the circle as the sensation
of flight or fight took hold! Even
handbag Victoria, next to me,
was gripping my hand peculiarly
tight...
As soon as we started to think
that this knocking, (as in full
blown, `Most Haunted` fashion),
might just, might just, be being
performed by an intelligent
entity, we started requesting if
the knocker could respond with
differential knocks for yes and
no.. when the knocker rapped
twice for yes several of us nearly
wet ourselves in glee!
Calling out logical questions
goes out of mind in the heat of
amazement... we ascertained that
the knocker was not a man... was
definitely not a servant... strong
knocking response to NO for that
one... was not connected to the
family that once resided within
the Castle... WAS ...a lady of noble
birth... (can you see where I’m
going...), Victoria squeezed my
hand so tightly my eyes started
to water... the question had to
be asked.. “Spirit. Are you called
Mary...?” Strong knock for YES...
Victoria audibly gasped as she
involuntarily twisted my hand,
{which at the time was connected
to my arm} into some unnatural,
professional wrestling, three
quarter Nelson manoeuvre... for
a few moments, stupid question
syndrome took over... “Are you
happy Mary? Mary, do you know
you’re dead? Mary, did your wig
really fall off after your head was
cut off?...”, fortunately Victoria
came to her senses and started
asking the spirit Mary questions
that only a Mastermind contestant
specialising in Elizabethan gossip
could answer... stuff from her
(brief) marriage to some French
royal bloke.. questions about her
kids... (no, I’d no idea either...)
Then we discovered a way to
ascertain dates by getting Mary
to rap how many numbers she
wanted to pass on to us...(in
decade decimal style)... one knock
for one, followed by five knocks
32 HAUNTED MAGAZINE
for 15, followed by four knocks
then five for 1545 example.. in the
excitement she was responding
with dates that we thought were
totally wrong... but she was
adamant in her knocking answers.
Then Victoria dropped a bit of a
bombshell when she admitted
to Mary, that she was the
descendant of the bloke who
signed Mary Queen of Scots death
warrant... Lord Chief Justice
Christopher Wray... {1524-92}
..well you could have knocked
me down with a cod-piece...
especially when she started
apologising for his actions...
that done.. the excruciatingly
uncomfortable wrestling hold
was relaxed... and Mary, started
to tire, seemingly... but not
before answering the perplexing
question... “Mary. Do you haunt
anywhere else...?” (Indignant
silence) ... “Do you VISIT anywhere
else?” (YES.) ... “Many places?”
(YES)!!
Well, this being a time restricted
public event... we reluctantly had
to wind the session down... and
as we left the musty confines
of that mind-boggling space...
(creeping joyfully past the still
snoring Vikings), we were all high
as kites...
Was this really Mary, Queen of
Scots...?? I’ve experienced some
crazy stuff in the pursuit of the
paranormal... but this was off the
scale even for me... we spent the
next few weeks debating if this
could have really happened or
not... I’ve always been sceptical,
(yes even me), to the ability of
spirits being able to communicate
in such a fashion... to open
to falsification and abuse in
the pitch dark with a group of
people you don’t know... could
the location have organised
the activity in some way.. was
there a joker in the pack...? The
atmosphere we sensed in the
room though would have been
hard to fabricate... and Tutbury
Castle did reckon that Mary has
communicated in that manner on
previous occasions!!
Then historian Victoria thought
she might have caught a ghostly
image of Mary, stood by the door
of the Dungeon, as if welcoming
us in... and as we googled the
dates and details that Mary had
knocked out for us... we found
that where we thought she was
getting her information wrong...
she wasn’t.. she was right...
it was us imbeciles that were
incorrect...!! So... to this day... I’m
still not sure if we actually were
honoured to be in the court of
Queen Mary that night... I hope
so... if we truly were, we were
privileged to have experienced
the greatest spirit phenomena
ever... so in trust, until I discover
otherwise... I’m going to believe
we did!
Oh, and one more thing... on the
long, open mouthed drive home,
Victoria being the chauffeur... I
kept sensing something unseen,
sat in the back of our vehicle...
I didn’t like to tell Victoria, so I
didn’t mention the fact!
Next morning, she messaged me
that after she had dropped me
off, she drove home, entered her
house, which was empty, climbed
the stairs to bed and suddenly felt
a few sharp blows on her neck and
base of her skull which brought
her to her knees...she couldn’t
move for quarter of an hour or so,
until the pain vanished... then she
was fine...
Perhaps Mary had taken
umbrage to the Christopher Wray
connection after all??
We were investigating Tutbury
Castle, Staffordshire as guests
of Dark Soul Events.
This event was their first
at Tutbury and was allowed
courtesy of the Tutbury Castle
paranormal team (Portal
Paranormal)
Highly recommended for an eerie
night Castle romp!!
Hubert Hobux
LAST ORDERS ON LOVECRAFT LANE Part 1

Quenin Weir Ph.D. and

Oddfellow encounter Elder
Gods from he Chulhu
Myhos on a street of ill
repute as slimy, suspicious,
slihering hings slide
soundlessly hrough a
sinful, saucy suburb.
Art by Mychailo Kazybrid.
Script, inks and leters
by Bambos Georgiou
©2019 Bambos Georgiou &
Mychailo Kazybrid

HAUNTED MAGAZINE 33
34 HAUNTED MAGAZINE
HAUNTED MAGAZINE 35
TO BE CONINUED...
FISH AND SHIPS:
THE KEY LARGO PHANTOM FISHING BOAT
rian Watson had spent
B 20 years in the Royal
navy. Saltwater ran
through his veins. But
he gave it all up for a
Wife and family, to be near
them and support them. But
the draw of the tide pulled him
back to the sea trade, when
he took the position of the
Harbour master of Pittenweem
in Fife.
With the post came access to the
Harbour, and before long he had a
30-foot Yacht as his plaything. On
good days he would sail away out
past the two Islands of the May Isle
and Bass Rock and into the deep
waters of the Forth before testing
his Maritime experience on the
treacherous waves of the North Sea.
I would occasionally drop into his
boat in the Harbour where I would
be warmly welcomed with a glass
of Whisky and beaming smiles as
he laughed away his boring land
job to regale me of stories of the
sea. He was a wealth of information
and at the time I was writing my
book on the Pittenweem Witches
and needed Sea lore and fishermen
superstitions to give the reader the
background to a story of Witchcraft
and murder in the Pittenweem
village in 1705. Brian certainly
delivered.
But he also gave me a story that
with a bit of research I managed to
piece together a very sad tragedy.
A tragedy that happened over a
hundred years ago and to some
Photo by Gautier Salles on Unsplash
BY LEONARD LOW
astonished sailors, is still happening
now!
I lived in London in 2006 and was
only up North to Fife about one
weekend a month. But I dropped in
on the old sea dog with a good half
bottle in which didn’t last long, but
in the short while I was with him, he
had a story for me, unlike anything
he had told me before.
He had been out for a sail and good
winds had given him a run out into
the North Sea. He was about 50
miles out west of the May Isle and
had started to be concerned by the
time. It was September and calm
with the usual leaden sky, but he
had ventured too far out and needed
to return before the night fell. He
knew these waters like the back of
his hand, but he knew the tide was
right for the return of the prawn
fleet to harbour and wanted to get
back before the boats took up the
best berths. He turned for home
and with a good wind on his sails he
should be back to land in over two
hours.
He was putting up the full sail when
suddenly in front of him was the
silhouette of a boat, a heavy fishing
boat. It was on a direct collision
course with the yacht not 50 feet
away, and Brian quickly pulled his
rudder to portside while his yacht
for an instant reared out the water
as the wind caught the sail and
nearly threatened to overturn the
boat. Brian screamed obscenities at
the wayward captain of the fishing
boat as it passed with inches to
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
spare seeing the registration of the
boat in bold white letters KY39. He
looked behind him to vent more fury
at the boat, but to his astonishment
-it was gone! Nowhere to be seen,
there was nothing there….it seemed
it was never there!
“This story he told in cold
sobriety; it had scared him.
The boat was as real as
anything he had seen before,
it even had a crew, but all
he could remember was
the white numbers of the
registration and that it had
two masts. He checked for
KY39 but could find no boat
with that registration today.”
I have a fantastic library of Scottish
interest books going back to 1570.
First Editions of Witch Trial records,
criminal trials and wayward local
histories. I thrive on them as an
input of my source materials on the
books I get published. I knew I had
several books on East Coast sea
wrecks from 1800s to present day,
and with the registration I may just
find if there was any boat with that
number.
I leafed through relevant books,
but nothing was to be found of
the elusive KY39. It wasn’t until I
reviewed the Kirkcaldy boat licences
of which any boat with KY as a prefix
would originate from this port. I
found that in 1884 a boat with the
registration KY197 was sold to a Mr
37
 Largo harbour around 1880

“I managed to piece together a

Gillies of Largo in which he re-registered it under his name, and
very sad tragedy. A tragedy that
it was given a new Kirkcaldy registration of KY39! It seems I had
found Brian’s Phantom boat!
happened over a hundred years
The boat was based in Largo (where I originate) Largo has only ago and to some astonished
two crab boats that work out the miserable harbour confines
today. But in 1883 there were 36 fishing boats of all sizes using
the harbour. KY39 was renamed “Brothers” and was a two-mast
sailors, is still happening now!”
schooner. It had a crew of 7 and aptly named as The Skipper
Mr Gillies had his two sons on board as did David Wishart and
another largo man John Johnstone made up the fishing crew. On the night of 30th March 1886, the fishing
It was one of two boats owned by Mr Gillies; he owned another boat “Brothers” with The Skipper Samuel Gillies
registered as KY4. It was 47-foot long, two mast fishing boat in charge was seen about 50 miles East of the
identical to KY39. The catch they were after was Mackerel. It Island of “the Bass Rock” by the boat “Jane and
was line caught. There Minnie”. Everything seemed fine and the boat
were no nets used, the Skippers excepted greetings from each other from
method of catching distance. By the 31st of March “Brothers” hadn’t
the Mackerel was to returned to the Largo harbour as was expected.
trail a line of hundreds By April the worst fears were known! The boat had
of hooks baited with gone, not a trace was found of the seven men or
muscles from the boat any debris of the fishing boat. It was to be another
and drawn the line statistic of the perils of the North Sea, where
in by hand putting many ships and lives had gone into the watery
the caught fish into depths never to be found again. It was thought
barrels. A tedious the boat had opened its two hatches to release
hard labour for sure the coils of baited hooks. The purpose was to drag
it was managing the the hooks in a line, so they could cover a bigger
tempest of the sea with area saving entanglements and maximise the
hundreds of baited catch. With the hatches down, you are acceptable
hooks going overboard to swamping the boat with any change in the
that could easily snare tides tempest. It was thought a sudden storm had
the fisherman and pull created a squall which quickly overcame the boat.
him into the depths. There were no survivors.

“A fisherman The dead were Samuel Gilles 45, his sons John 23
always had to be and Alexander 21. David Wishart was 47 his sons
fully focused, there David 22 and James 22 and John Johnstone 22.
were many unseen
dangers on a sea It seems at the right tide and right time,
boat.” “the Brothers” fishing boat still sails the
North Sea today.
Skipper Samuel Gillies in 1882

38 HAUNTED MAGAZINE
LE10 0AZ
 “Celia, you’re breaking my
heart …”
KATIE WALLER INVES TIGATES A
BRUTAL BRIGHTON
BUTCHERY iss Celia Bashford was
M
born in 1800 within
the village or Ardingly,
Sussex. She grew to only
four feet high as she
suffered with a genetic
disorder which made her appearance
very different from everyone else.
Her family moved to Brighton to seek
the fortune of an up and coming
bustling seaside town and when
she grew up, she became a working
girl. As an adult she found herself
meeting a young man by the name
of John Holloway; a once trained
butchers’ boy at the racecourse in
Brighton. Now a young man John
had become a womanising drunk
and petty criminal, but the pair
fell in love and became a couple.
After a short time, Celia became
pregnant, but John refused to marry
her. This forced her to return to
40
Ardingly where she applied for parish
relief (financial help) and John was
sent to Prison for this. It took 5 weeks
of prison life in Lewes until finally he
agreed to marry her. The couple now
reunited, returned to Brighton as they
were ordered to leave Ardingly by the
parish (due to such an embarrassing
situation.) They both got jobs in the
workhouse and Celia sadly gave birth
to a stillborn, soon became pregnant
again but unfortunately her baby girl
also died.
John was angry and bitter as he felt
smothered by the situation and became
increasingly violent towards her over the
years. She found herself soon relived of
his behaviour as he went to sea working
for the Naval Blockade Service. During
his time away he secretly courted and
married a woman called Ann Kennett
illegally. Around the summer of 1831 both
Celia and Ann were pregnant by him and
on his return to Brighton
John became a painter. He
worked on the Chain Pier
and was ordered to pay
Celia maintenance of 2
shillings per week (around
10 pence.) He was unable
to pay the demand due
to his low paying job so
instead he came up with a
plan to rid him of Celia for
good. In July of that year
John asked Celia to meet
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
him and discuss the start of a new
life together in a new home in the
centre of Brighton. That day she
left her home at 4 Cavendish Place
and they met at the ‘potential’
new home in Donkey Row, number
11 (now named North Steine Row.)
They were reported to have been
in high spirits as they ate baked
batter pudding and drank beer.
Unsuspecting Celia believed John
and as he pretended to kiss her,
he carefully placed a rope around
her neck and slowly strangled her
to death. Ann was present at the
property, hiding. It is believed that
she was the one who finished poor
Celia off as John may have been
unable to go through with it. They
hung the body from a hook in the
cupboard under the stairs and
left it overnight to ensure she was
dead.

John returned the next day
to dispose of the body and
there he used his once taught
butchery skills and cut off her
head, arms and legs. Not all
of Celia fit into the trunk he
had prepared; so, some parts
where hidden in the privy
at a house in Margret Street
and some went missing. In
the middle of that night John
took the trunk of body parts
upon a wheelbarrow and dug a
shallow grave in a place called
Lover’s walk in Preston, Brigh-
ton. It is still named to this day
although these days its ap-
pearance has changed signifi-
cantly. Lover’s walk ironically
was a well-known and popular
place for courting couples in
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
those
days.
Unfortunately for John the
weather tuned for the worse
and extreme rain began to
wash away the soil uncovering
his once loved wife.
On the 13th August 1831 two
local men named Gillam and
Maskell noticed something in
the path at lover’s walk. The
soil appeared disturbed with
some fabric poking above the
surface. After seeking help
of the Preston policeman by
the name of Elphick they dug,
leading to the discovery of
poor Celia’s butchered body.
Only eighteen inches deep
was the first portion, a thigh, followed by
another thigh and then the torso which
was wrapped in a bundle made from a
petticoat. The head, arms and portions
of leg were missing. Word quickly spread
around Brighton and large crowds formed
in order to identify the body. One of these
was a Mrs Bishop who confirmed that this
was the body of her sister, Celia.
Ann was taken into custody as the
police found her first and upon
hearing this John handed himself
in. He was found guilty and was
hung on the 16th of December
1831 at Horsham gaol. The very
next day his body was put on
display at Brighton town hall and
around 23,000 people visited
to see it. His body was then
dissected and used for research.
Ann was cleared.
The remains of Celia were interred in
St Peter’s churchyard, Preston within a
wall and pathway close to Lover’s walk.
Celia’s previous history would not allow a
churchyard burial although what portions
of her that were recovered were placed
within the wall behind a plaque; a plaque
dedicated to her and remains there today.
41
 In 1920 is had been documented that
a figure of a women was seen by two
people in the churchyard of St Peter’s. It
was seen to fade from view and the very
same figure was reported again in the
early 21st century. Could this be Celia?
How many other people may have seen
her? As I am originally from Brighton I
heard about this story from local people,
I’ve researched it and now it was my
chance to investigate it.
42
2019, some 188 years later and I am
making my way to Celia’s resting place;
well a part of it anyway. On the Journey
I’m thinking of questions I’m considering
asking her and wondering that if she is
present it’s probably due to her missing
body parts, surely? Pockets full of
paranormal equipment and Nicky (Nikon)
in hand I reached the graveyard that fully
surrounded the 800-year-old church of St
Peter’s. On arrival I realised how ancient
this place is, a classic horror movie type
of graveyard and my heartbeat increased
significantly. Tree roots cracking through
tombs, Mother Nature claiming them
within the thick opaque atmosphere.
There were graves of various types
from many an era and are scattered all
around. I was here to visit one particular
memorial though; that of Mrs Holloway.
Crows cawed at me as I searched through
the overgrown graveyard for her resting
place. They watched my every move in the
mildew like guardians of the underworld,
protectors of the very bones buried deep
here. I was alone and it was the early
hours of a spring day. The crisp air forced
my warm breath to create my very own
misty manifestations and pained my
lungs. My feet were damp from each blade
of long grass depositing droplets on me,
marking me, logging my presence as I
made progress to my destination. Out the
corner of my eye I spotted a plaque on
the wall. It blended in with the wall so well
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
you wouldn’t notice it unless like me, you
know it existed and were subsequently
looking for it. In excitement I started
yanking equipment from my person and
lost grasp of my K2. I immediately bent
down to retrieve it from the unkempt
grass and on my way, I noticed something
shiny. Coins. A selection of coins was
scattered all over a recumbent headstone,
a headstone with an unreadable name.
I’d never seen this before so I looked
closely but got a sense that I shouldn’t
interfere. I would never steal anything of
course, it wasn’t like that, but the voice
in my head said, “Do not, whatever you
do, move those coins.” And I didn’t. That
was definitely something to google later
on for sure. Sodden K2 cradled again I
made my way over to the plaque. When I
finally arrived, I took base environmental
readings with my temperature gun (A gift
from George) and EMF with the K2. I took
still photographs including full spectrum
as well as base Spirit Box 7 and digital
recordings. Once these were complete,
I introduced myself to Celia, explaining
why I was there, trying to contact her and
of course, offer any help she made need.
The wall surrounding the plaque was
on average around 13°C but the plaque
itself was a much warmer, 15°C. I put this
down to the material of the plaque as
either of the temperatures didn’t change
throughout the investigation. Talking to
Celia as if she was still alive, I enlightened
her about my harmless equipment and
how it could help her to communicate
with me if she wanted too. The K2 was
set up throughout with mostly no change
from its base, bright green light with
the exception of one small spike when
I was close to the plaque. It reached
around 2 milligauss, although after
that, nothing. I decided to try the digital
recorder as some spirits seem to only
communicate with their voice and others
only affect temperature. I’m still not sure
why, whether it’s a choice, a matter of
strength, who knows? Anyway, back to me
creeping around a graveyard in the early
hours. Respectfully, I began to ask the
questions I wanted to ask for a very long
time. I quite literally lived and breathed
this story over the last few months and
now I sort of felt like a time travelling
stalker. The stories about Celia’s murder
don’t all seem to add up and I wanted to
know what really happened and offer help
to this unfortunate soul. I wanted to know
about her murder, who really did it? John
or Ann? I asked about her dismemberment
as there are to this day still missing parts
of her body. Is she aware that John was
hung for the crime? I wanted her to know
that many people now know her story
and I will tell it further, across the world,
writing for this very magazine. Recorder
results were hazy, I believe I caught
responses to a couple of my questions
although faint whispers crumbled my
hopes of a class A. Lastly, I took out to say I will be definitely returning in the
the SB7 and proceeded to ask similar very near future. As for the coins, I’ve
questions and things got interesting. learnt that it’s a sign of respect in some
cultures, in others a sign of appreciation
“Whose plaque on the wall is this?” “It but also a payment for a safe cross over.
was John” On my return I will be bringing Celia some
“Can you tell me what town we are in?” coins and they will be worth much more
“It was John” than 2 shillings. Perhaps that may secure
her toll to the next life, in peace.
“What is the age of the person named
on this plaque?” No response
“Do you know how this person died?
“Yes”
Where they murdered?” Female scream
followed by male voice “kill”
“What was your murder’s name?” Can
you tell me, was it John or Ann?” No
response
“Celia, if your here and you need help,
can you say help?” “Help......... hello?”
On reflection I believe that Celia is present
here and that it was her communicating
with me. I feel that this certainly is not
something she is used to and seems
to want to talk, in particular about her
murder (even though it was a short
conversation.) Whether she can’t be at
rest due to her physical losses, is unaware
Katie x
of John’s justice or another reason, I’m
not sure. Either way it appears that I have
come away with more questions than
before. I’m deeper intertwined in her
story and I wish to help. I think it’s safe
HAUNTED MAGAZINE 43
 AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH
REECE SHEARSMITH
T
The REECEipe
for SUCCESS
¼ of The League of Gentlemen,
½ of Inside No. 9,
½ of Pyschoville,
Add some “special stuff”
Add some “jelly”
Add something dark
Add some “diddle, diddle
dumpling”
Stir, mix, whizz, chop, cut, bang,
fry, KILL!!
Pour into a big Yorkshire
pudding, served with a pot of
Yorkshire Tea.
44
o be perfectly honest, we
could’ve spoken to Reece for
hours and asked him so many
questions, but we had to untie
Reece and let him go. We
managed to ask him some questions
though, and when we removed his gag,
he answered them too.
What does being asked to write the
foreword for Usborne’s reprint of
World of the Unknown mean to you?
What does this book mean to you?
I was thrilled to be part of the Twitter
campaign to bring the book back.
Sometimes - occasionally, it can be a
power for good! I grew up with the book
very much as a conduit that tapped
into my love of the Supernatural, so it’s
incredible that the reprint has a little
foreword by me in it. And just in time
for Hallowe’en! My favourite night of the
year. (Although I must confess - I regard
the whole of October as Hallowe’en
these days).
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
As big fans of The League of
Gentlemen and in an age where
opinion can now pretty much result
in censorship, has there ever been an
occasion where a sketch has been so
completely awful that you thought we
can’t do this? But did you do it anyway,
or maybe you didn’t?
No. I think we have always been careful
and responsible with what we’ve
done. I think possibly we’ve got more
squeamish as we’ve got older. When
you’re young you are far more fearless.
It hasn’t occurred to you yet that you are
going to die. I think as the years roll on
you start to retreat from anything too
nasty. Although we still journey to some
very dark places with “Inside No. 9”.
But we’ve never decided we couldn’t do
something.
It emerged a couple of months ago
that you would have loved to have
revived ‘Hammer House of Horror’. We
can think of nobody better suited to do
this, especially with the likes of Jordan
Peele’s ‘Twilight Zone’. What was it that
stopped you from developing the idea
further? If Netflix threw money at the
project would you do it?
It sort of went away as an endeavour. We
were excited about it - and worked hard
on a very nasty script, but it didn’t pan
out. All writers have these casualties.
It would be interesting to look at a long
form horror anthology, but we are sort of
doing our own version now with “Inside
No. 9” aren’t we.
Who inspires you in your acting and
writing projects? Is there anyone that
you would particularly like to work
with?
We take inspiration from lots of different
places. For instance, I love Stephen King,
but equally there’ll be something from
an old “Two Ronnies” sketch that might
spark something just as sinister. People
think we’re “dark”, but you can’t get
bleaker than “Sorry” or an episode of
“Ever Decreasing Circles”.
Real life is often the bearer of some good
ideas too. Actor wise, it would belovely to
work with the Dames, Mirren and Dench,
and the Sirs, McKellen and Hopkins.
Believe or not. Aliens? Bigfoot? The
Loch Ness Monster? The Afterlife? And
would you be one of the ones lining up
to storm Area 51 if you could?
“Ok. Aliens - must be a yes.
How can we be ‘it”? Bigfoot
is just daft, and the Loch Ness
Monster is probably a seal. I’d
stay clear of Area 51. I bet it’s
just like Ikea anyway. Right
down to the meatballs.”
Going back to The League of Gentlemen,
did you, Mark and Steve ever tried to
tempt Jeremy into an acting role in it?
Well throughout the series Jeremy has
been in the League with several cameos.
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
But he wasn’t an actor, so we didn’t make
him, no!
Inside No. 9 just gets better and
better, how difficult was it to do the
LIVE Halloween special episode? Did
everything go according to plan?
The live Halloween Special was great fun
to do. We knew the biggest challenge was
always going to be keeping our true plan
a secret. But actually it went remarkably
smoothly. The only thing we had to be
mindful of was not - in the panic of it
being live, start gabbling the lines and
finish too quickly. There were points
between live sections where they ran in
and told us to either speed up or slow
down the next bit, to get back on track.
It’s 90 years ago this year since V.C.
Wall published articles about Harry
Price & Borley Rectory in the Daily
Mirror, you play V.C. Wall in the Borley
Rectory film, did you do much to
research him at all?
45
 “The only strange thing that
happened once was my wife and
I watched a glass move across
a table we were sitting at in a
busy restaurant. It was ludicrous.
It could have been CGI. I cannot
explain it.”
Photography: © Matt Crockett
There is actually very little about V.C.
Wall. I don’t even think there’s so much
as a photo of him. So really, I decided
to play him as a journalist who knew a
juicy story when it presented itself. He
certainly grabbed people’s attention with
his reports from Borley.
Those adults especially those without
kids, might not realise you were also
in a few episodes of Horrible Histories,
my kids learnt much more about
history by watching HH than learning
in school. Is it the writing, the subject,
the actors or a combination of all
three?
“Horrible Histories” was just a joy to
do. We felt like Elder Statesmen, going
in and doing our sketches with them.
They are all so lovely - and have become
good friends. They are all brilliant comic
actors and made those sketches funny
regardless of the “children’s television”
that they were making. The historical
information just sang out so vividly
because the writing and performances
were so brilliant.
How fun, if fun is the right word, was
it to play Malcolm Webster in the
Widower, naturally evil, without having
to be funny. He was a right evil so & so.
46
It wasn’t much fun to be honest. We
had a sober responsibility to tell that
story - dramatically but with a sensitivity
to the victims and all those involved
in that horrendous story. Webster was
a monster, and our story a simplified
version of the terrible things he did.
But I know the people involved wanted
the story out there. As an actor it was a
fantastic script, and the chance to play
the banality of evil.
We interviewed Andy Nyman once and
he said he doesn’t actually believe in
Ghosts, he apologised, there was no
need, so same question to you, do you
believe in ghosts, had any paranormal
experiences?
Probably not. I am endlessly fascinated
of course, but no. The only strange thing
that happened once was my wife and I
watched a glass move across a table we
were sitting at in a busy restaurant. It
was ludicrous. It could have been CGI. I
cannot explain it. It was not aquaplaning;
the table was dry. No slope. Nothing. A
ghost did it.
Favourite Ghost Story? Favourite
The League of Gentleman character?
Favourite Pyschoville episode?
Favourite Inside No. 9 episode?
Favourite Hammer Horror episode?
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
Ah, I see what you did there, five
questions in one, BUT ok, here goes:
Ghost Story: The Woman in Black.
League Character: Geoff Tipps.
Psychoville ep: Maureen and David one
take “Rope” episode that we did.
Inside No. 9: Trial of Elizabeth Gadge
Hammer House of Horror: Twin Faces of
Evil.
We wanted to end on question 13,
somehow seems apt, now just need to
make question legendary. You turn 50
this year, will it be a pivotal age, or just
a number, any regrets, or too few to
mention?
I tend not to get hung up on my
birthdays. When I was 40, I went to
Edinburgh in case anyone was planning
on surprising me with something.
(Although I don’t know anyone so I
should have realised I’d be safe). I will
let 50 slip by I reckon. I’ll be on stage in
a play anyway. I’m not that bothered.
I’m content with what’s happened so far
so don’t feel too anxious about feeling
I need to make my mark. If I don’t do
anything else ever again, I can look at the
little pile of DVD’s that we’ve created over
the years and think, “I have no memory of
doing any of that!”
 OMG, our SB has written about EVP! FFS!
ELECTRONIC VOICE PHENOMENA
lectronic Voice Phenomena, or
E otherwise known as its initials
of EVP is an exciting piece of
technology working alongside
the spirit world, offering is the
living to communicate with our loved
ones who have now passed.
EVP is the appearance of strange and
often nonsensical utterings, voices
or speech recorded when no one is
present whilst the recording was
being done. (other than those doing
the recording). Many people report of
hearing sentence’s, names and much
more coming through in the recording,
and some describe the EVP similar to a
dog, hearing things that the human ear
does not. EVP can also pick up any form
of electronic communication, such as
radio and video. EVP are ghostly voices
that appear on audio equipment or
similar items like a smartphone.
Where Do the Voices on EVP Come
From? It is a mystery. No one knows, but
some possible suggestions are:
• They are voices of the dead.
Therefore, many researchers go to
cemeteries seeking EVPs (often with
great success).
•  They are from another dimension.  to try contacting the spirit world using
• They come from the researchers’
own subconscious. It’s been
suggested that somehow the
researchers’ thoughts are projected
onto the tape.
• The voices are angelic or demonic in
origin.
• It’s a hoax. Sceptics assert that there
is nothing to EVP at all—that the
“voices” are either faked, random
noise interpreted as voices, real
voices already on the tape, or voices
picked up from radio, cell phone, or
other sources.
The Best way to use EVP is to record
silence. i.e.: in a room with no one around
and leave it to record. Then once done,
playback and see if you have recorded
anything. You may also have white noise
in the background and using a good
site like Audacity can clear this out. The
recordings can be faint, so once you have
had some practise then you can start
asking questions and then you will notice
that the voices become louder.
Thomas Edison the famous Inventor
is known as the father of EVP due
to an interview he did back in the
1920s, in which he said “that the
human personality survives after
experiencing death”, he also went
on to say “that it might be possible
to construct an apparatus which
will be so delicate that is there are
personalities in another existence or
sphere that wishes to get in contact
with us, that this apparatus will give
them a better opportunity to express
themselves rather than the Ouija and
table tipping”.
The 1st recorded EVP did not happen until
1959, when a Swedish birdwatcher was
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
on his own and when he played back his
recording he had strange voices coming
through, he also noticed that the voices
were responding to comments he had
been making at the time. Interesting!
Now that you know what electronic
voice phenomena is all about, it is time
the equipment you may have at home.
You will need a recording device with a
microphone to record sound, playback
technology like a laptop or computer and
some static which would be a source of
background noise such as a fan or radio
so that you can pick up the best signals.
A Successful EVP recording requires
patience and determination, because
you may not get results with your first
attempt.
The different types of EVP recordings you
can get are as follows -
• Class A: Easily understood by
almost anyone with little or no
dispute. These are also usually the
loudest EVPs.
• Class B: Usually characterized by
warping of the voice in certain
syllables. Lower in volume or more
distant sounding than Class A.
Class B is the most common type of
EVP.
• Class C: Characterized by excessive
warping. They are also common, the
difference being that it is very hard
to understand what is being said.
• Class D: Usually debunked as
background noise, or your mind
playing tricks on you.
What are your thoughts on EVPs? Let
us know EVP@hauntedmagazine.co.uk
send us your best ones.
Sam Bennetts
47
 NOT SO ‘ORRIBLE HISTORIES*
“Can we have our
hall back please?”
By Penny Griffiths-Morgan
am well known as a person
I 
who will get on her soapbox
about issues, especially issues
that pertain to things that I
am passionate about such as
history. That must be a record, 28
words into my latest article and I have
already mentioned the “h” word, but
it is important, what is also incredibly
vital to take into consideration when
learning about the past is taking it in
proper context of the time it is set.
For example, many people are abhorred
by the workhouse movement and to our
21st century brains, the very thought of
putting people who are poor and destitute
into a large building and making them
work for their keep is against human
rights and our ethos of what humanity
means. I read recently on social media
that someone was disgusted that
the children once a certain age (it’s
7 if anyone is interested), would be
removed from their parents and sent to
a separate boys or girls’ dorm. You do
have to however, look at this with social
48 HAUNTED MAGAZINE
expectations of the time, in industrial
areas of Great Britain in the early part
of the 19th century, children would start
work as an average rule at 8 years old,
perhaps even younger if their parents
could find employment for them. Children
were not kids in the way that we see
and treat them now, it was not until the
early 1880’s that education became both
mandatory and free between the ages of
5 and 10 which is not that long ago when
you truly think about it.
Even more shocking is the fact that the
younger generation under the age of 16
could still receive the death penalty until
1908.
Which leads me onto the premise of this
piece, the sacrifices that are made that
are historically relevant but potentially
shocking to us today. Can you imagine
giving up your home, your livelihood and
the place that your family had lived for
generations because the military told you
they needed it to play war games in.
No? Read on...
 “The residents of the village were told that their
tenancies could be maintained and that they would
be able to return to their homes once the war office
had no further use for the area.”

On June 6th 1944, 75 years ago this year,
Operation Overlord took place, the largest
amphibious invasion in history consisting
of some 156,000 British, American and
Canadian troops, 6,939 ships, 2,395
powered aircraft and 867 gliders and
the aim, to land and take the five key
beaches of Normandy which consisted
of Juno, Sword, Utah, Omaha and Gold.
I was lucky enough to spend two weeks
in that beautiful part of France in 2018
and visit pivotal historical places such as
the beaches, parts of the Atlantic Wall,
Pegasus Bridge and Point du Hoc but this
piece is not about that either.
As you can probably imagine, an assault
of this kind took more than a few days to
plan, historians believe it took years rather
than months although the bulk of the
preparation does appear to have started
around 7 months beforehand with the
training of the troops and the requisition
of a small part of the Dorset coast around
Lulworth and Kimmeridge Bay and
including the tiny hamlet of Tyneham.
As a child, my parents used to enjoy
taking my younger sister and I on annual
caravanning holidays down to the south
coast, and our regular trips to the beach
were by a 10 mile hike (ok, it felt like 10
miles at 9 years old but was less than
a mile) to the beautiful coastline at
Worbarrow Bay, but one of the areas we
used to pass by very close to was what
has become known as the ghost village
of Tyneham. I would argue that it is only
a ghost village in the most generic of
senses as it was not abandoned due to
the residents all mysteriously dying, nor
was it left to fall down due to some weird
unexplained phenomena, it was vacated
purely and simply due to an order from
Winston Churchill’s government that it
was required for the war effort as the area
it stood in bore an uncanny resemblance
to the coastline of northern France where
the taking of the beaches at Normandy, or
more commonly known D Day, was to take
place.
On the 16th November 1944, a mandatory
requisition notice was issued to those
residents within this target zone advising
them to vacate by 19th December 1944,
to provide a training area for the army
to enable them to perfect their use of
modern weapons and to facilitate the
use of live ammunition. The crucial part
of this request was that the residents of
the village were told that their tenancies
could be maintained and that they would
be able to return to their homes once
the war office had no further use for the
area. Why then is this once quintessential
part of English life, the little hamlet
that was all linked to the once great and
beautiful hall, a place that can prove
inhabitants from the Roman era and was
also mentioned in the doomsday book
as “Tigeham” now a ghost village and
somewhere that investigators sneak into
to try and find evidence of inhabitants
long deceased?
Quite simple, the War Office (now the
MoD) never returned it to the villagers
as initially promised. Many of the
buildings were damaged by the shelling
received during mock battles and were

HAUNTED MAGAZINE 49
 consequently pulled down by the army
due to the extensive work which would
have been required to restore them.
Is this what has caused unsettled
ancestors to return? Is this what
explains the claims of investigators of
hearing growls and screeching voices
on EVPs and having stones thrown at
them? The discontent of previously
proud and hard-working residents of
Tyneham seeing the destruction of their
once beautiful and quaint village?
I also wonder if some of the activity
documented could be down to the
spirits of long lost troops who have
returned to the part of England that
they trained in, in late April of 1944,
there is believed to have been the loss
of nearly 800 American GI’s on Slapton
Sands in Devon whilst on Exercise Tiger,
a mock landing in preparation of D Day.
It is highly plausible that some of these
men were stationed in Lulworth Cove
and were being trained on tank and
modern warfare in that area – it should
also be noted that Bovington is a stone’s
throw away from this area and is where
the Army’s tank regiment has been
based since 1916 (originally known as
the Heavy Branch as it incorporated the
Machine Gun Corps).
Look through copious reports of
paranormal events on the internet and
you will find accounts of things that
have been experienced in the area of
the Ghost Village, a shuck is meant to
50
prowl the woodland
just outside of the area
stopping people crossing
into the neighbouring
community, a Dairymaid is
believed to walk wistfully around
the large oak tree that she was buried
under after committing suicide and
a soldier has been seen walking the
streets around the houses. All of
these are plausible, but none can be
verified. Investigators report the name
Warren appearing on EVP and Spirit
Box sessions, perhaps fitting with the
American connections to the area or
just some kind of audio pareidolia.
I cannot say unequivocally if Tyneham
is haunted or purely haunting, many
visitors do comment on the ethereal
nature of the fact that only the church
and schoolhouse are still intact –
although that can be easily explained
away by the fact that these buildings
are maintained by the military and
National Trust and promoted as a
museum to the village and it’s way of
life as was, the schoolhouse having
closed its doors as an educational
facility some 11 years or so before
the 200 plus villagers had to leave. It
would not surprise me if something still
lingers there, after all, with hundreds
of years of habitation and the fact that
many residents of old would never have
travelled away from the village and
died where they were born, they could
quite possibly be going about their daily
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
routine.
The last
known
resident of
Tyneham, Arthur
Grant, was interred
in the church in 2010, the dying
wish of many of those who were forced
to leave in 1943.
Perhaps however, it was the note that
was left on the Church doors when the
last villager left in December 1943 that
gives the biggest clue –
“Please treat the church and
houses with care; we have given up
our homes where many of us lived
for generations to help win the war
to keep men free. We shall return
one day and thank you for treating
the village kindly”
Penny is the presenter for Haunted
Histories every Wednesday on
Parasearch Radio and is also the Author
of “My Haunted History” which is
available on www.amazon.co.uk
Penny x
*some not so ‘orrible histories might
actually be a bit ‘orrible at times.
 THE PERVERT
POLTERGEIST
* All details of the residents and team members have been kept
confidential & changed, apart from mine.
here are times when
T you get called out
to an investigation
that’s so shocking
that you know you’ll
never forget it as long as
you live.
The case I’m about to
recount was one of the
most horrifying I’ve ever
encountered during my
decade of working with a
private paranormal team
based in Norfolk. The
evidence obtained whilst at
the property was so accurate
that we were able to identify
exactly who was doing the
haunting, along with details
of his sickening crimes
and equally grisly death.
Therefore, all details of the
residents and team members
have been kept confidential,
as this investigation proved
disturbing for some. All
names except mine have
been changed.
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
By Lucy Willgress
The house looked just
like any other in the
peaceful, Nineteen-forties
Attleborough cul-de-sac.
When we arrived, the sun still
shone and the neighbours
went about their evening,
weeding gardens and
washing cars.
“I certainly couldn’t
have guessed from
outward appearances
what had been
occurring behind
closed doors, or the
disturbing nature of
what happened there
historically.”
On arrival, homeowners Dan
and Claire invited us in and
introduced themselves. I
immediately liked this warm,
open family and struck up an
instant rapport with Claire,
chatting as if we were old
friends. Meanwhile Ted, who
*
led the group, carried out
baseline tests around the
property first to establish
if there were any unusual
energy hotspots around.
Claire told myself and
another team member that
around a week before, she’d
awoken in the middle of the
night to find the bedside
unit thumping and rattling.
Her initial assumption was
that it was her youngest
daughter Sophie, who was
sleeping next to her. When
she woke the girl and asked
what she was doing, Sophie
replied that she hadn’t done
anything. Both terrified,
they ran screaming from
the room. The next morning,
everything on the unit had
been thrown off onto the
floor, and the wall still bore
marks where it shook and
slammed against it hard
enough to take plaster off.
51
 The whole family had been sleeping
in the sitting room ever since. Other
activity, such as the television
switching itself on and off – even
when unplugged - began to happen
more frequently, accompanied by
what was described as a sulphuric
odour of rotten eggs.
We began the investigation and split
into groups. Myself, Claire and another
investigator set up in the master
bedroom where the disturbance
had occurred. We talked for a while
about various things that Claire had
experienced in order to put her at ease
about the night to come.
Ted and Dan based themselves
downstairs using the Franks Box (a radio
scanner that spirit can use to make words
and sentences.) One of the names that
was given through the device was Alice.
They couldn’t have known that Claire
was, that very moment, describing the
time her deceased grandmother Alice
appeared in plain sight. Nothing much
else happened for us during this time, but
I feel it was beneficial in setting a relaxed
atmosphere and helping the family to feel
safe and comfortable with us being there.
When we reconvened for a break and
compared what we’d all experienced
so far, I heard that Mark and Shaun,
two more of the team, experienced an
aggressive male presence in the eldest
son’s room. Ted filled us in about what
happened in the sitting room using Frank
(the radio scanner, which I’ll call Frank
from this point on.)
Next, we all swapped locations. Myself,
Claire, Mark and Shaun gathered in the
sitting room with the lights off. I was
aware of a presence moving around near
the window and began to call out and
ask it to make itself known. Turning on
Frank, I handed it to Claire as whoever
it was seemed to be more willing to
communicate when held by one of the
family members. It went something like
this:
Can you tell us your name?
(Blank)
Did you live here?
Yes
Why are you here?
Revenge
What happened? Can we help?
F****d
Sodomy
(Mark asked) Were you persecuted
because you were gay?
NEVER
RAPE
I DIED
What year were you here?
*Interference* Thousand
52
It was becoming clear that this spirit
had died violently, but we had no idea
just what we were about to find out, and
this communication verified what the
family already suspected.
I asked the spirit to show himself to me,
as I could see him moving around as a
dark mass. Immediately, my vision of
the rest of the room faded away and all
I could see was a face. I recounted what
I saw: an older, non-descript male with
large, eighties-style glasses and scruffy,
greasy hair in a side parting. Claire
gasped and her hands flew to her mouth
at my description. I discovered why when
we stopped for another break.
Before I could question further, Shaun
said my face began to change into that
of a woman with long hair who wore a
hood, with prominent cheekbones but
an emaciated, white face with coal-black
eyes. She showed herself later in the last
vigil of the night. We both felt that she’d
been around for several hundred years
and was connected to the land rather
than the house, and meant the living no
harm but despised the male presence
that lingered.
“Stopping for the second break of
the night, we all met once again
in the kitchen to report back. By
this time, the couple’s son had
returned home. What the family
showed me next chilled me to the
bone.”
I was shown an online article with a
picture of a man - the same face that
had got right up to mine a few minutes
before. I was so astonished that I jumped
and I think I swore! The same face, the
same greasy side-parting, the same
glasses. Claire said she began looking
into the previous occupants after a photo
of the same chap appeared from nowhere
on her son’s bedroom windowsill.
To cut a long story short, they’d
discovered that a paedophile had lived in
the house for many years and abused his
own daughter there. He and his wife also
fostered children and one of their former
foster children, amongst others, also filed
a case against him. He served six years
and was murdered in 2008. The more I
read, the less I could breathe.
He was found with his lower clothes
removed and had been ‘interfered’ with.
In other words, everything he told us
through Frank was there in black and
white. Reading the rest of the article
later, it seemed he’d been a domineering,
abusive bully to his wife and family his
entire life and nobody dared speak out
against him until the children were finally
free of having to live under his roof.
Our last vigil consisted of myself, Dan
and Shaun in the master bedroom. This
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
same man made his presence felt, trying
his best to intimidate me so he could
feed from my fear. However, I’m scared of
very little and he soon gave up. Looking
towards the window, I realised that he
daren’t leave the house because he was
frightened of what would be waiting for
him.
Realising that he wasn’t going to get any
kind of fear response from me, the spirit
targeted Shaun, feeding off his terror
to make himself stronger. Suddenly, the
gaunt lady from earlier appeared behind
me and the male spirit retreated and
practically went from trying to intimidate
Shaun to hiding behind him.
Whoever she is (I initially got the name
Emily, but at the same time Shaun got El
and I got Elizabeth), she is formidable.
Enough to have made this other sick,
vindictive spirit cower in fear.
By this time, it was gone one in the
morning, so we turned the lights on,
packed up and advised the family to
fill their home with laughter, love and
positive stuff, as the spirit feeds on
negativity and fear. Both Ted and I also
advised on how to cleanse the house.
Unsurprisingly, we all found ourselves
back at the house the following weekend
to perform a clearing ritual. The sick
spirit caused bangs, thumps, shadows –
everything to try and stop us. This still
wasn’t the last we’d heard of him though.
A few weeks had passed, and the family
said all seemed calm. Then, the activity
began to ramp up again with footsteps
thumping in the attic. This was the only
area of the property that no-one had
thought about. We were stunned at what
we found up there.
The spirit’s wife had lived there until
she’d died, at which point the council
were supposed to go in and clear out any
remaining belongings before the current
family moved in. What they’d done
instead was thrown the rest of this man’s
belongings in an old, disused water tank
in the roof. Amongst them were an old
hatpin, racing programmes, and a leather
belt. All of it was removed and taken to
the dump.
I am still friends with Claire and Dan to
this day. I’m pleased to say that finally,
after three attempts to rid the family of
their unwelcome guest, they now live
fear-free in their own home.
Lucy x
 ’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,

I one of the reasons why I fell in love

with the paranormal is because, well
two reasons actually, no shame in
admitting: Harry Price AND Borley
Rectory, the man, the location, the story
reeled me in, hook, line, sinker. Throw
in a couple of Usborne books about the
Paranormal and the Unknown and the rest
as they say is history.
Actually, it’s true, there’d be no magazine, well
not like Haunted is, if Harry P and Borley R
weren’t on my radar, weren’t in my thoughts
as to how I view the paranormal. Say what
you like about the man, conjurer, fraudster,

FAMILY FORTUNES
magician, faker, whatever he was he was
born for the paranormal, writing a play about
a poltergeist at 15, a keen interest in space-
telegraphy, an avid coin collector. Member of
the Magic Circle and the Society for Psychical
Research (SPR), debunking mediums, whilst
endorsing others, add to that the likes of
exposing Helen Duncan, fiends with Harry
Houdini and the infamous talking mongoose
FOLLOWING in the FOOTSTEPS
and you kind of get what the paranormal was
all about back in the day, note: not much as
can’t remember a time when I didn’t have an interest in the paranormal.

changed.
“BUT add Borley Rectory into the mix, where
he lived for a year, despite dirty tricks played
on Harry by the SPR (ahem) allegedly and that
opens up a whole new can of ghost worms”
Anyways, enough of my fandom for Harry
Price and Borley Rectory, and more about this
next feature you’re about to read, but there’s
a linkage to Harry, trust me, I will get there
eventually.
So, there I was idly twitting through twitter
and lo and behold what do I see but these
words:
“Great Great Great Niece of The Harry Price”
Not Harry Price, a postman from
Peterborough or Harry Price, a butcher from
Bromsgrove, although I am sure that they’re
well respected in their own circles BUT THE
HARRY PRICE, PARANORMAL INVESTIGATOR
EXTRAORDINAIRE.
Long story short – followed her, followed me
back, DM’d her, DM’d me back, DM’d her some
more, DM’d me more back.
Now Louise Price, great, great, great Niece of
the paranormal legend that be Harry Price
writes for a part of the paranormal furniture
(leg end) that be Haunted Magazine.
Paul
I 
My passion began at a very early age and appeared to have come from
nowhere. In nursery I would sit on the carpet in the book corner and tell
ghost stories to my friends though I have no idea how I even knew about
ghosts as my family certainly didn’t talk about them.
In primary school I would persuade Fast forward to my first week of high
my friends to join me in a home-made school and we were assigned to write
Ouija board session at lunchtime using a speech on either a hobby or interest
bits of paper and a fruit shoot bottle. of ours. I stood for fifteen minutes
Again, how I even knew what a Ouija in a class full of children I didn’t
board was I’m not entirely sure. know as I came from a tiny village
primary school, talking about ghosts,
My mother was and still is, quite
how they manifest, stories local and
scared of the paranormal so scary
from afar, as well as mentioning the
stories or films were never around.
However, once my parents divorced, I famous ghost hunter Harry Price.
spied a copy of The Exorcist on video Little did I know when I was sat writing
in my Dads cabinet and begged him to and researching him, thinking in the
let me watch it. Eventually he relented childlike way you do about how cool it
with the promise I wouldn’t tell my would be if I was related to him, purely
mother, thinking within five minutes I because we shared a surname, that in
would be crying and that would be the actual fact I was.
end of it.
Only recently has it come to light that
So, there I was; eight years old, in the Harry was my father’s, grandfathers
dark in my bedroom upstairs with brother making him my great great
the curtains closed, watching a little great uncle. Unfortunately, it appears
girl spew vomit over a priest while
that my family fell out with Harry
being possessed by a demon and I
was hooked! before his career even took off as in
my father’s grandmothers’ words “he
And yes, I did tell my mother which was more interested in the dead than
went down well. the living”
HAUNTED MAGAZINE 53
 As Harry died two years before my father was
born and with the family falling out, Harry was
rarely spoken about and due to the fact I was
only informed of the link a couple years ago,
way after the passing of my father’s mother
and father, I have no one to ask for any more
information which is extremely frustrating.
Had my father twigged that the person I was
researching as a child was Harry, he may have
realised sooner and therefore I could have
spoken with my Nan before she died.
However it took the ITV remake of Harry’s
experience at Borley Rectory to jog his memory,
and in his words “my weird obsession finally
made sense, it must be in the genes” After
years of watching Most Haunted and Ghost
Adventures I finally turned eighteen and for my
birthday was given a ticket for a ghost hunting
event at a local hotel near to where I lived. The
catch was I was going on my own as no one
would come with me. My boyfriend at the time
dropped me off and I walked in not knowing a
soul. Thankfully I really enjoyed myself and got
talking to people. I don’t recall experiencing
anything, but I certainly wanted to go again.
Throughout my childhood years I never
actually experienced anything paranormal. I
desperately wanted too but never did. Most
people tend to say their intrigue began with an
experience, I on the other hand have no idea
where mine originated. So, continuing on these
public investigations I hoped would bring me
the evidence I so desperately wanted. I was
very naive to begin with and when the
table would move during table tipping
or the planchette would start flying
around on the paper it was placed
upon, I was so excited. However very
quickly I began analysing the people
and how the experiments with various
pieces of equipment were conducted
and I saw a lot of either conscious
or subconscious movement from
the guests which was disheartening.
I continued to go in the hope I could
disappear by myself to gain some of
my own evidence but unfortunately
that wasn’t possible. The passion and
intrigue remained but my impatience grew.
Thankfully I was invited one evening to a private
investigation with the Cambridge Paranormal
Society at a local venue that my
stepfather was the manager of.
“Throughout my childhood years I never actually This was the night I encountered my
first visual sighting of a spirit and
experienced anything paranormal. I desperately witnessed poltergeist type phenomena.
The phrase “you look like you’ve seen
wanted too but never did.” a ghost” couldn’t have been more apt
from my stepfather when I emerged
from the cellar. I may have looked like
a bunny caught in headlights and been
frightened, but I was also extremely
excited! Unfortunately, my knowledge of
conducting investigations was based on
television programmes so I was not aware
of the risks involved. When I finally got my
own house aged nineteen, I would spend my
evenings calling out and taking pictures in
the hope of catching orbs. I had no reason to
think the house was haunted, I just wanted to

54 HAUNTED MAGAZINE
investigate with tight funds. In doing so I
believe I enticed an energy to come into
my home as a little while after I began
doing this, activity started. It began with
catching orbs on camera (which were not
dust in my opinion) and progressed to
knocks.
Then things changed and it became
very unpleasant.
The whole atmosphere of the house
changed, to the point my partner who was
a staunch sceptic became uneasy whilst
at home. Things would move, objects
would be thrown, and footsteps would be
heard walking about upstairs. The final
straw was one evening when I was alone
as my partner was working away, I had
laid down on the sofa to watch TV when
a hard, loud thump banged on the arm
rest causing the sound to reverberate
around my head and caused my head to
bounce up. I grabbed my handbag and
fled to my mothers. Our relationship was
at a breaking point by this time anyways,
so I never actually slept in that house
again. I do so wish I had the experience
and knowledge I have now so I could have
investigated properly the spirit within my
home.
However, if I knew what I know now,
I wouldn’t have encouraged it in the
first place. After a few more years
investigating with various public event
groups I still had only had one genuine
paranormal experience, though in my
mind it was a prominent one. Whilst
conducting a planchette session I became
uneasy and refused to participate. I
honestly felt that someone was hovering
around me though I couldn’t see a thing
in the darkness, suddenly I felt long,
fingers grip my knee under the table,
but they did it one finger at a time and
finally squeezed. I jumped up sending the
chair flying and ran from the room with
the on-site medium chasing me. Outside
the tech guys were ecstatic. Everything
was being filmed via CCTV cameras and
they had the perfect shot of me looking
uncomfortable, all hands-on top of the
table and accounted for whilst a bright
orb had flown across the screen straight
into me and then through me out of my
back. The moment it went through me was
the moment I jumped up and ran. For all of
us this was amazing evidence.
I subsequently then took a break to
have my children. However, the itch to
return wouldn’t leave so three months
after my second child was born, I began
researching local groups on social media
and came across one which seemed
small and intimate. Just what I was
after. I began investigating with this
group on a twice monthly basis and was
starting to experience even more genuine
activity. I was then asked to become part
of the team and was thrilled. Over the
years my role increased until I ran the
whole operation from finding venues, to
advertising, ticket sales and organising
the entire night as well as running a
team. It became extremely successful
and from a financial point of view the
official owners were especially delighted.
With their permission I had scaled up the
events to allow more guests and therefore
larger venues.
However, they
wanted to
continue the
escalation and
investigating
eventually
became solely
about work. I
shan’t go into
detail but over
the years a lot
of information
emerged, things
were witnessed
which I wish
I hadn’t,
and general
attitudes
changed. I can
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
never take away some of the experiences I
had which at times were frightening, such
as being physically attacked by unseen
entities, one of which resulted in all the
muscles at the back of neck completely
raising up, caused by a hand yanking my
head backwards with no one physical
behind me. However, my debunking
attitude was getting me into trouble with
the owners and now I know why.
Their annoyance and phrase “here
comes the Harry in her” now makes
a lot more sense
Once I had established and gained the
proof, I needed of the fraudulent activity
I promptly left. The general atmosphere
within the rest of the team regarding the
owners was awful and they subsequently
left as well. I now investigate with my
friends whom I trust explicitly, we have
our own team and I could not be happier.
I really want to continue gaining evidence
of the paranormal whilst ensuring to
the best of my ability that it is indeed
paranormal and doesn’t have a logical
explanation. That will always be my first
port of call but then isn’t that what an
investigator should do? Debunk until you
can debunk no more? I am also very much
invested into researching into the life of
Harry and would love to return to the site
of his most famous case; Borley Rectory,
continue where he left off and find out
what really happened during those fateful
years in Essex.
Was the supposed activity an act of a
fame hungry man very well versed in
the magician’s circle, or was it genuine
activity which finally gave him the
answers he so desperately wanted? One
day I hope to find out...
Louise xxx
55
SPIRITS OF
THE BLUE GHOST
By Jason Fellon
esting in the Corpus Christi Bay,
R
along the gulf coast of Texas is
the USS Lexington. The great
ship was originally named
USS Corbat, commissioned in
1942 as a fleet aircraft carrier in Pearl
Harbour, during World War II. This new
carrier was recommissioned as the USS
Lexington in honour of the recently
sunk original “Lady Lex” in the Coral
Sea.
During it’s time of duty, the mighty ship
continuously became a target of the
enemy, more specifically Japanese enemy
fighters who thought the grey lady was
sunk. On more than one occasion the
56 HAUNTED MAGAZINE
Japanese thought that they had hit their
target and sunk the Lexington, only to
find out later that she had survived the
damage and continued in the war. This
is what has given the carrier her most
famous nickname, the “Blue Ghost.”
After the war, the USS Lexington was
decommissioned and served as a
training ship for many years at numerous
locations. Nowadays she stands as a
National Historic Landmark and is a
museum dedicated to the memory of
those who served and most importantly
those numerous sailors who made the
ultimate sacrifice during their time of
service.
The workers and volunteers who support
the living museum have, on many
occasions experienced “odd things,” while
going through their day to day activities.
The ships historian has told many people
about one of her experiences while sitting
at her desk. As she was looking down
at her computer keyboard something
caught her attention from the corner
of her eye. Glancing up, she sees a fully
defined shadow walking across her open
office area. This shadow continued into a
hallway, where it disappeared.
While the ship’s electrician was working
on a project on a lower deck of the carrier,
he also saw what he described as a
shadow man. This shadow walked right
in front of him, turned away from his
direction and disappeared through what
he thought at the time was a doorway.
Once he did a double take with regards to
what he had just experienced, he realized
that the shadow not only disappeared
in front of him, it disappeared through a
steel wall, not an actual door.
More ghostly activity within the walls of
the Blue Ghost happened in what is called
the mess hall. A couple on a self-guided
walking tour of the ship was in the mess
area when an officer in what is described
as full-dress uniform approached them.
The Navy man got in the gentleman’s face
and yell at him for wearing a baseball cap.
The man quickly removed his cap and
turned to look at his female companion,
who became as freaked out as he was.
He turned back to question the officer,
but nobody was there. They’re the only
explanation for what they experienced
was paranormal.
There are also numerous EVP’s that
were captured by the many visitors and
investigators over the years. A lot of them
are general answers to the questions
that were asked, but others are far more
meaningful.
For the last eight years, seasoned
ghost hunters, Brad and Barry
Klinge (from TV’s Ghost Lab),
have been hosting a charity
public paranormal investigation
on the Lexington. During these
investigations as well as during
their shows episode “The Blue
Ghost” (S1E12), some very
desperate Electronic Voice
Phenomenon had been captured.
Specifically, the ships engine room
has what seems to be a very horrifying
recording that answered questions from
investigators that I feel compelled to
share.
A very impressive string of EVP’s starts
like this…in the engine room, Brad states
with a firm deep voice, “This is your
commanding officer, Get Up Here Right
Now”!
Both Barry and Brad hear something, but
they can’t make out exactly what it is.
Brad then orders “Stop toying with us,
sailor. Get Out Here!”
Again, they hear something. “Is that you
talking?”
They both now hear whistling! “Are you
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
whistling?”
Intrigued and wanting to track down what
they are hearing, they both climb to the
level just above the engine room. The
brothers both ask, “Hello?”
Now they hear noises from the engine
room below them. They again hear a
substantial “Thud” from below and race
to get back down the ladder to see what it
was. Once again in the engine room, they
challenge whatever is down there with
them to show itself, but to no avail.
They regroup in the mobile “Ghost Lab” to
go over the evidence from the session and
find something!
The first EVP they capture says, “Shoot
the Plane!” Could this be relating to the
kamikaze that struck the bridge and killed
numerous sailors and injured even more.
The second EVP from the engine room
says just one word, but it is a very
significant word, “Help.”
The final EVP says it all, “I’m burning
inside the Lexington.”
There isn’t anything more that needs to
be said about the tremendous activity
that the USS Lexington still holds within
its steel walls. I am looking forward to
investigating this beautiful piece of
history again. If you have an opportunity
to investigate it, jump at the chance. I
highly doubt you will be disappointed.
Jason Fellon
57
 Richard Estep’s STEP BY ESTEP GUIDE TO THE PARANORMAL!!!
“John Wayne Gacy,
YOU MISERABLE
LITTLE PERV!”
By Richard Estep
T
he big man is not
happy. No, scratch
that. The big man is
livid. Apoplectic. As
he stares at me from
the screen on my cell phone,
I can see his eyes bugging
out of their sockets, his face
contorted in a mask of rage.
Veins stand out on the side of
his neck. As he bellows, flecks
of spittle occasionally fly from
his lips.
It’s fair to say that Brad
Klinge is pissed off.
Now, don’t get me wrong:
catch him on any ordinary
day, and the bear-like Texan
is an absolute delight, with an
infectious laugh and a puckish
sense of humour.
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
Today is no ordinary day.
“You weaselly, pathetic,
pitiful, limp-dicked little turd-
maggot—”
The string of invective
goes on and on. For sheer
inventiveness, I have never
heard its like. As an exercise in
foul-mouthed rhetoric, it was a
truly impressive performance,
comparable only to that of
esteemed actor (and U.S.
Marine Corps Drill Instructor)
R. Lee Ermey, in the movie
Full Metal Jacket. Not once
did I hear Brad repeat himself
during what turned out to be a
tirade, all of it directed at the
man he had come to regard
as something of a personal
nemesis: none other than the
notorious serial killer, John
Wayne Gacy.
“—perverted piece of filth—”
The torrent of words goes
on and on. I, for my part, am
standing alone on top of
a rickety catwalk, high up
above what had once been the
auditorium of a movie theater
in small-town Illinois. With
the lights switched off, the
cavernous room is completely
pitch-black, illuminated only by
the glowing light of my phone’s
screen.
Brad’s booming roar echoes
from the metal walls, insulting
Gacy, taunting him, daring him
to come out of hiding…daring
him to come out and get me.
59
 The catwalk itself is cluttered with
boxes, furniture, and the like, all of it
stacked on both sides. Sandwiched
between two sets of packing crates,
it’s claustrophobic as all hell up there.
Just a few inches above my head, I can
hear the rain drumming incessantly on
the roof, beating out a staccato tattoo.
Under any other circumstances, I
might find that reassuring…but not
here. My hackles are up. Gacy is
said to lurk up here on the catwalk,
watching the events that transpire
down below. It is, the psychics claim,
one of his favorite hiding places.
Thunder rumbles, and suddenly,
I’m nine years old again, watching a
Hammer horror movie from behind my
grandparents’ couch. This was the sort
of dark and stormy night those movies
always seemed to take place on. I
shudder. My sweat-stained clothes are
sticking to my body in places, mostly
because of the heat and the Illinois
summer humidity — or so I tell myself.
In reality, I’m more than a little on
edge. I imagine that I can sense eyes
on me, somewhere out there in the
darkness. Of course, that was purely
psychological, my mind playing tricks
on me…right?
Brad stops talking, pausing to draw
breath. A creak, from somewhere
off to my right. I turn toward it, my
imagination conjuring up images
of a phantom clown, watching me
silently from the inky blackness of the
far catwalk. Leering, he takes a step
toward me, and I tell myself firmly to
60 HAUNTED MAGAZINE
GET A GRIP, YOU’RE A 45-YEAR-OLD
GROWN MAN, FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE.
The creak is almost certainly another
symptom of the building settling down
after a long, hot day, its structure
contracting and making a series of
tiny little noises like that. Still, it had
sounded awfully close…
More thunder rolls. It sounds closer
this time. This is all starting to seem
more than a little surreal. Just how
had I managed to end up all alone on
a catwalk in a movie theater that was
said to be haunted — no joke — by
the spirit of one of America’s most
notorious serial killers?
Read on.
Chances are that if you’re a regular
reader of Haunted Magazine, you’re
familiar with the notion that there are
basically three broad categories of
haunting: haunted places, haunted
objects, and haunted people. There’s
a lot of merit to this argument, but I
would also point out that few cases are
so clear-cut that they would fit neatly
into just one of those categories.
One such case reached me through
my friends, the rowdy Texas-based
ghost hunters Brad and Barry Klinge
(TV’s Ghost Lab). We’re neighbors at
a paranormal convention one day,
signing books and idly discussing
our recent cases. I’d just finished the
final edits on my book about the I-70
Strangler and his haunted home, Fox
Hollow Farm.
 “Serial killer ghosts, huh?”
Brad rumbled. “We got one
of those too.”
I’m immediately interested. True crime
and the paranormal are two of my biggest
interests, and when they cross over,
well...
“What do you know about John Wayne
Gacy?” Barry asks me.
I was familiar with the case, mainly
because Gacy regularly appeared in those
top ten lists of serial killers you saw
online. He had killed more than 30 men
and boys, in and around the Chicago
area, burying most of them in the
crawlspace underneath his house, and
dumping others off a bridge into the
river late at night. Some of them remain
unidentified to this day.
Gacy was a sadist, with a penchant
for brutal sexual assault and torture.
Once he had tricked them into wearing
a set of handcuffs with the promise of
showing them a magic trick (“the trick,”
Gacy would smirk, “is to have the key in
your pocket”) the poor young men were
subjected to a horrific ordeal, before
finally being strangled to death. Gacy’s
reign of terror finally ended in 1994,
after his time on death row culminated
in his execution by lethal injection.
He went to his grave unrepentant and
in denial, insisting that he wasn’t gay
(despite having served time in prison for
sodomy) and that he couldn’t possibly
have killed any of those victims. He had
been framed, Gacy insisted, by some of
his employees.
And so, after a bucket of Kentucky
Fried Chicken and a large Diet Coke (his
insisted-upon last meal) John Wayne
Gacy was sent to his grave. And there it
should have ended.....but it didn’t.
“Hang on a minute,” I say to Brad. “I
thought Gacy’s house was demolished.”
“It was. They flattened it after all the
bodies were taken away. Somebody
bought the lot and built a new house
there.”
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
“Well, firstly, I’ve got to ask if they’re
crazy,” I shake my head. “Who builds a
house on top of a place like that? And
secondly, how the hell did you manage to
get in there to investigate?”
As so often turns out to be the case, the
truth was stranger than fiction. I don’t
know anything about the house built on
Gacy’s old lot being vacant — though I’d
be amazed if it wasn’t. According to the
Klinges, one of the world’s most depraved
serial killers was actually haunting...a
movie theater.
Owned by a wonderful couple named
Robbin and Norma, the movie theater
is located in a very small Illinois
town called Auburn. When they took
ownership of it, the place was what you
might call a ‘fixer-upper.’ Even today, it
is still a work in progress. Since moving
in, Robbin and Norma have spent
countless hours renovating the R Movie
Theater to some semblance of its former
glory.
Robbin is well-known among members
of the paranormal community, being
the owner of the infamous Ashmore
Estates. When he and Norma began to
notice strange things things happening
around their home, they brought in
some trusted psychic medium friends
of theirs. At first, the news was exciting:
the sensitives claimed to be picking
up on the presence of a male spirit
inside the theater, a man who went by
the name of John Wayne. Robbin was
ecstatic.
61
 The king of the Western, the Duke himself, was
hanging out in his very own home.
“The only thing I don’t get,” one of the psychics
said, shattering the dream with a single
sentence, “Is why he’s dressed like a clown...”
Gacy was known to dress as a clown named
Pogo, attending charity events and children’s
parties in the garish make-up. Many people
find clowns to be scary by their very nature, but
pictures of Gacy as Pogo take it to an entirely
new level, especially when one realizes just
what a monster was lurking underneath that
face paint. All clowns are creepy. This one was
pure evil.
During his time on death row, Gacy painted
several pictures, including one that he named
‘Goodbye Pogo,’ a childish daubing showing the
smiling clown waving goodbye — at this stage,
Gacy knew that his execution was imminent.
His paintings were distributed to several
people, mostly family and friends. Some were
burned. Some were sold (they fetch high prices
at auction to this day). Others were kept.
At first thought, it makes no sense. Why would
John Wayne Gacy haunt a movie theater in
small town Illinois? The answer takes us back to
the issue of haunted categories: although the
R Theater is said to be a haunted place, with a
number of other spirits supposedly walking its
halls, the Gacy connection comes in the form of
an object.
The object in question is an armoire, an
ornate wooden cabinet that once belonged to
somebody with a close professional connection
to Gacy. Inside it were stored several of the
serial killer’s paintings, locked and secured. The
armoire came into the possession of Robbin
and Norma several years ago, and immediately
after it was placed inside the R Theater, the
killer clown began to make his presence felt.
Taking into account the fact that Gacy was
a psychotically violent man by nature, one
would expect his ghost to manifest itself by
scratching, burning, and physically injuring
people. That did not turn out to be the case.
In fact, no matter how provocative an attitude
visiting paranormal investigators have taken,
Gacy’s spirit never seems to lash out at them in
return.
The R Theater turned up on Brad Klinge’s radar
after a chance conversation, which led to him
paying it a personal visit, along with a camera
crew shooting footage for his TV show Strange
Curiosity. Nobody can accuse Brad of being a
subtle man. Once all of the equipment was set
up, he set out on a loud and angry rampage,
taunting and provoking Gacy in an attempt to
get the serial killer to show himself. During
his lifetime, Gacy was known for his emotional
volatility. It turned out to be a great tactic on
Brad’s part.
62 HAUNTED MAGAZINE
Gacy is said to be most active on one of the
catwalks that can be found high up above
the floor of the garage, which was once the
R’s main auditorium, but is now home to
Robbin’s extensive collection of Scooby Doo
memorabilia. (I’m not kidding — Robbin owns
the original Mystery Machine, built by Hanna-
Barbera in order to promote the cartoon when
it first came out). Why does Gacy prefer the
catwalk? According to the psychics, he enjoys
lurking out of sight and watching the activities
that are going on down below; an invisible
voyeur.
After his tirade, Brad did a little investigative
work while the crew documented it all. Once the
footage and audio were reviewed afterwards,
a deep, gravelly male voice turned up on the
soundtrack, ominously declaring: I’ll show you
one.
With the R theater getting the Klinge Brothers
seal of approval, I just had to see for myself.
Robbin and Norma graciously allowed me to
take in a small team of fellow investigators and
spend a few days poking around there. The
place did not disappoint. After a couple of very
hot, still days, a fierce thunderstorm did a great
job of both cooling things down and stirring
the energies up. Our equipment began to act
erratically, batteries draining without apparent
cause.
Light anomalies were seen with the naked eye
that could not be readily explained; shadow
figures were sighted by multiple eyewitnesses;
some impressive talking board activity took
place in the main auditorium, and an Estes
Method spirit box session really left us
scratching our heads.
Anna, my fellow investigator, was sitting in one
of the rows of seats, surrounded on all sides
by dolls (including, worryingly enough, one of
Pee Wee Herman). With a blindfold in place and
headphones jacked directly into the SB-11, she
began to call out the voices that were coming
through the spirit box. A few minutes into the
session, she suddenly sat bolt upright.
“He’s coming.”
“Who is?” I asked, hoping that I already knew
the answer.
“John.”
Perfect, I thought to myself. “Where’s John
coming from?”
The answer came without the slightest
hesitation: “From Hell...”
The shadow figure activity began to increase. It
was time for me to head up to the catwalk and
see if Gacy would come out to play...
For the full story, Richard’s book, Gacy’s
Ghost, will be released in September of 2019.
THE PRESS, THE POLICE,
THE POLTERGEIST &
THE PILEDRIVER
W r i t t e n by Mike C ovell,
H u l l ’s Hau n ted Histo rian

H
ave you ever wondered about
whom, if anyone, you would
like alongside you to investigate
a haunted house?

Throughout the years I have had the pleasure of

visiting some lovely haunted buildings, and worked
alongside such names as Most Haunted, Paranormal
Lockdown, Paranormal Truth, and Ghosts of Britain,
but can you imagine if you did a paranormal
investigation with a champion Olympic wrestler!

That’s exactly what happened in Hull in 1908, when

a haunted house on Sykes-street, off Charterhouse-
lane, was undergoing paranormal phenomena.
Sykes-street is situated in central Hull and runs from
Charterhouse Lane, to the east, and Caroline Street
to the west. Richardson’s Buildings, which was a
small court off Sykes Street, stood between 44 and
46 on the southern side. It was here in 1908 that
Police Constable O’Kelly, a champion Olympic
wrestler, was called in to assist the family. What
happened next hit the headlines locally, nationally,
and even internationally.
The earliest report on the case did not appear in
Hull, as one would expect, but appeared in the
national newspaper, The Daily Mirror, dated
September 5th 1908, and featuring the following,
HAUNTED HOUSE IN HULL. Strange Manifestations Cease
on Arrival of Olympic Champion Wrestler. - he last case of
a haunted house was reported yesterday from Hull, where,
on account of alleged supernatural manifestations, Mr. and
Mrs. Gilson, who formerly occupied the house, have moved
out with all their furniture. It is stated that in the small hours
of Saturday morning a comb lew out of a comb box, followed
shortly aterwards by the brush; a pebble came through the
closed kitchen door, and cups and glasses lew from the table
and were smashed. Police-constable Hynes, who, observing the
commotion, arrived on the scene, declares that as he passed
through the kitchen into the inner room a box of blacking lew
past his helmet. On making a thorough search no one could be
found, but later, when other oicers arrived, including Police-
constable O’Kelly, the heavy-weight champion wrestler at the
Olympic Games, the manifestations ceased.

HAUNTED MAGAZINE 63
 The story was picked up locally, provincially, and nationally, with hundreds of reports being published on it. The most in depth report
was published locally, when The Hull Daily Mail, dated Monday September 7th 1908, featured the following lengthy report on the case;
EERIE HAPPENINGS IN CENTRAL HULL.
OCCUPANTS FLEE THE HOUSE. CONSTABLES’ EXPERIENCE,
SOME STARTLING DETAILS.
( S P E C I A L F O R T H E
he alleged supernatural has been frighten-
ing some Hull people almost out of their wits,
and the police who were called have been in-
vestigating, but have not been able to solve the
extraordinary manifestations that are corrobo-
rated by witnesses. he “Mail” has also been
investigating, and the story gathered is one of
the most remarkable that has appeared in print.
he details are given as they were related. he
house at which the manifestations are stated to
have occurred is No. 12, Richardson’s-buildings,
Sykes-street, Hull, and is tenanted by James
Gilson and his wife; but since the occurrences
no one has dared to sleep in the house and the
furniture has been taken preparatory to moving
somewhere else. When a “Mail” representative
arrived the interior was naturally in a state
of some disorder, and the neighbourhood was
still excitingly discussing the details of pots and
glasses lying across rooms without any visible
motive power, and the tit-bit, of a constable’s
helmet just being missed by a lying black box.
he story is a circumstantial one, Mrs. Gilson,
who swooned and fell on the loor during the
occurrence, was still in a state of nervous ten-
sion, and very much upset when a “Mail” repre-
sentative saw her this morning. With a neigh-
bour she had dared to enter the house again,
but all the time she was telling her story she was
illed with apprehensive fear, and the least noise
would cause her to stop and listen.
A BROTHER DYING. he conversation took
place in the kitchen, where the various inani-
mate things were said to become animate. “My
brother James,” said the frightened woman,
“had been ill with consumption, and lay dur-
ing his illness on a little bed beneath the win-
dow,” and she pointed to the inner room on the
ground loor leading from the kitchen. “He died
– we knew he was dying – and we buried him
on Friday. He died very happy, and was very
fond of me,” broke in the frightened woman
disjointedly, “and I know the spirit would not
come for me.” “It must be a haunted house,”
interrupted the neighbours reassuringly. Mrs.
Gilson proceeded: “Ater the funeral, several of
us set up in the inner room, where my bed had
64
“ D A I LY M A I L . ” )
been, for I had been watching by my brother’s
bed-side during his illness. My husband and
my brother Patrick were upstairs having gone
to bed; but there was in the inner room with
me, Mrs. Grady who had been stopping with us.
We set up talking about the funeral. “Suddenly
we heard a repeated knocking at the door, and
we got up startled. Next, there was a loud noise
as if something had fallen on to the loor in the
adjoining kitchen.” he husband and brother
had also heard it, for they with the others ran
into the kitchen, and discovered that a comb
had fallen out of a comb box on the all, and
fallen with a clatter into a [illegible]. “It was
a steel comb,” explained Mrs. Gilson, who could
not account for it falling when it was ixed in
a kind of slot. hey were alarmed; but when
the hairbrush lew out of the box in their very
presence, they were terriied, the noise as it fell
seemed to them louder than should have been
produced by a light article falling. “What is the
matter,” screamed Mrs. Gilson, and in her own
words, “a stone came through the back kitchen
door, which was fastened. It fell just where you
are standing,” she said to the “Mail” represent-
ative, “and seemed to come through the door.”
he newspaper man examined the door, but
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
there was no mark or hole, Mrs. Gilson remark-
ing that the stone was like a pebble, and not one
that could be seen ordinarily in the street.
MISSILE AT THE CONSTABLE. Meanwhile
P.C. Hynes, of the Worship-street Division, ar-
rived, and entered to investigate. He walked
across the kitchen, and was entering the inner
room when, he says, a tin of blacking whizzed
past his helmet, just missing it, and falling at
the further end of the room. he constable at
once ran into the kitchen, but he could discov-
er no one there, and was as much mystiied as
the rest as to how the tin came at him. he
next manifestation, according to Mrs Gilson,
was the “breaking loose” of some china on the
kitchen table. A couple of cups and two glass-
es, asserted Mrs Gilson, lew of the table, and
fell into the inner room, where they splintered
with a startling crash. he shock of these al-
leged eerie happenings was too much for Mrs
Gilson, for she swooned and fell in a faint on the
loor. he turmoil aroused the neighbourhood,
and the terriied woman was carried into the
house of a neighbour, Mrs Carney, where she
was brought round. he house was thoroughly
searched upstairs and down, but without any
satisfactory result, and P.C. Hynes, who seemed
to be impressed with manifestation, according
to the neighbours, could only attempt to paci-
fy the occupants. But they would not go back
into the house, and were lodged in the houses of
neighbours for the night.
P.C. O’KELLY’S ARRIVAL. A little later other
oicers arrived, included P.C. O’Kelly, the heav-
yweight wrestling champion, of Olympic Games
fame. Report has it that he remarked that he
wished he had arrived earlier; but the neigh-
bours did not put much faith in his ability to
wrestle with the unknown. his morning the in-
cidents were the sole topic of conversation in the
neighbourhood; and Mrs Gilson, who certainly
looked scared yet, remarked, “It has about killed
me.” he “Mail” man was talking to her and a
neighbour in the house, where there was a sud-
den tapping outside. “What’s that?” they asked,
startled; but a glance out of the kitchen window
showed that a young woman sweeping the
front was knocking the wall with a brush.
Mrs Gilson since the alleged manifestations
has not dared to go near the house at night,
and in the daytime she will not go inside
unless accompanied by someone. Practi-
cally all the furniture has been moved out,
and a look out was being kept for another
house. “Someone says that the spirits wants
this house,” said Mrs Gilson, and the “Mail”
representative rejoined, “Perhaps you had
better let him have it.” he neighbours all
more or less corroborated that part of the
story dealing with the frightened occupants,
and as showing how seriously one took it,
she mildly rebuked the “Mail” man, who
unthinkingly for a moment found some
amusement in the lighter side of the afair.
STRANGE INDICATIONS RECALLED.
he “Mail” representative was closely ques-
tioned as to what he thought about
it, but could not relieve the inquirer’s
anxiety. Mrs. Gilson recalled how her
brother was leaning his head against
a door in the house, when there were
knockings by his head. She seems to
associate the afair with the sad death
of her brother James. One early morn-
ing, she said, when she was lying on
the couch with a red blouse on, in
order to be near him, she suddenly
woke up and saw him resting on one
arm staring at her. He called her by
name, and she answered him, and he
murmured: “I thought it was a man
there.” He had thought it was a man
with a red shirt on, lying on the couch.
he dead brother was much attached
to the sister, who cared for him in his
dying days, and she thinks it is his
spirit at work. Here is another story related
by the sisters. On Tuesday week she went
to the grocer’s shop close by and purchased
some groceries and a custard, thinking her
brother would fancy the latter. She put it,
she said, with the rest of the things in her
apron, but when she got home the custard
was gone. hinking that she had forgotten
to bring it, she went back, and when told
she had taken it nearly accused a woman
who was in the shop of stealing it. She re-
turned again, going in again by the front
door. A little while later she went to the
back door and there found the custard in
a corner of the door. She was mystiied,
but Mrs. Gilson attaches importance to the
fact that a week that day her brother died
and that on the day of the occurrence he re-
marked, “I think I am worse.” Mrs. Gilson
also recalled that when her father died in
March a picture had fallen of the kitchen
wall and smashed the glass.
THE CONSTABLE’S STORY. NOT A “FAIRY”
TALE. P. C. Hynes told a “Mail” representative
this aternoon what he thought about it. “I don’t
believe in fairy tales,” he said; “But I am satisied
there was something we could not see through.”
Questioned as to the blacking box incident, the
oicer was convinced that no one present threw
it, and added, “I believe something supernatural
was at work.” He admitted that he felt somewhat
queer when the manifestations were made in his
presence, and especially, as, when he was depart-
ing, a cup fell on the loor and smashed, there be-
ing no apparent reason why it should fall. Hynes,
who is a smart young oicer attached to the Cen-
tral Fire Station, told an equally startling story.
It was nearly ive o’clock on Saturday morning,
he said, when, as he was walking along Sykes-
street, he met Gilson and Grady hurrying along.
“For goodness sake,” they exclaimed, “Go to Rich-
ardson’s-buildings and try to pacify the women.”
Sykes Street at the time of the incident. The school at the far end still stands.
hey added that they were going to fetch the
police and the doctor, as they thought Mrs. Gil-
son was dying. When P. C. Hynes arrived, the
place was in a turmoil. here was a good deal of
screaming going on, and the woman had faint-
ed with fright. Both the men returned, and the
oicer learned that the mysterious knocking had
been going on intermittently since 3 o’clock. At
irst these in the upstairs rooms thought it was the
others, and vice versa, but at length they could
stand it no longer, all getting up. hen the things
commenced to ly about, as stated.
DID YOU SEE THAT? he oicer searched
the kitchen thoroughly. He looked into the cup-
boards, and out onto the small yard, but could see
nothing living. Somewhat sceptical Hynes came
into the kitchen again, where everything seemed
HAUNTED MAGAZINE
all right. “But I had hardly crossed the kitchen,”
he said, “when the tin of blacking lew past my
helmet, just missing it, and hit a man in front
of me in the back of the neck. He was star-
tled, and jumped and ran out of the front door
(which leads from this front, or inner room),
exclaiming, “Did you see that.” P.C. Haynes did
see the box ly by, but he feels positive no one
threw it, for he looked around immediately. “I
expect it made you feel a bit queer,” commented
the “Mail” representative: “Yes,” rejoined P. C.
Haynes. “It was a bit mysterious.” Wondering
what his next experience be, the constable went
upstairs, and although he searched in every
nook and cranny, he could gain no enlighten-
ment. He brought down the baby, which had
slept through it all. Some of those concerned
are Roman Catholics, and about 5.30 a priest
arrived. here was still another manifestation,
for just as he was leaving a cup slipped of the
table and smashed, this striking terror once
more into the neighbours who gathered around.
Eventually they were paciied. As far as can
be gathered there have been no manifestations
since, and the neighbours are feeling re-assured.
P. C. Hynes paid another visit on Sunday night
when on night duty, and though there are re-
ports of further tappings, these later ones may
possibly exist in the minds of overstrained im-
aginations. LINNAEUS STREET AFFAIR RE-
CALLED. he Richardson’s-buildings afair re-
calls the strange occurrence in Linnaeus-street
some years ago, when windows were smashed
and coal was alleged to have thrown across the
loors. he police on that occasion watched out-
side the house for a night or two.
65
 Sykes-street is situated in Sculcoates and the road still exists
today, although many of the structures have been modern-
ized. Sykes-street was laid out in 1800 and named after the
builder, Joseph Sykes of Westella. Sykes was a merchant
who imported iron ore from the Baltic.

CONSTABLE CON O’KELLY ARRIVES: Constable O’Kelly

was known to many as George Cornelius “Con” O’Kelly, Sr.
He was born on October 29th 1886 in Gloun, Dunmanway,
Cork, Ireland, and died in Hull on November 3rd 1947. It
has been claimed that O’Kelly arrived in Hull in 1903, but a
search of the police oficers in Hull Police at the time shows
Cornelius O’Kelly joining the Hull Police Force on Septem-
ber 18th 1902, and not 1903 as previously stated.

His obituary, published in The Hull Daily Mail, dated Mon-

day November 3rd 1947, states that he came to Hull and
joined the Hull City Police Force on September 18th 1902,
where he remained until February 25th 1909. The obituary
also states that for some years he worked as a ireman with
the ire brigade.

He was assigned the badge number 249. He was well

known for being an Olympic Gold athlete, bringing the
Gold Medal home from the 1908 Olympic Games for
wrestling!

SO, WHAT ABOUT THE HAUNTING?

According to the stories the house was haunted because
of a death, and that death was either named Gilson or
Gibson. I had to track down the death and see if I could
ascertain who had died and when. August- September quarter of 1908 revealed that no Gibson’s died in
this quarter in this year. With little to go on, and press reports making
I decided to search the death registers that cover both mistakes in names and surnames, it became dificult to ascertain any
Hull and Sculcoates for the period but given that multi- facts of the matter.
ple names are given in the different newspaper accounts,
I decided to search for Gilson, Gibson, and O’Grady I also decided to search the archives of the Hull newspapers, at that
deaths in Hull and Sculcoates in 1908. time multiple newspapers were published in Hull, covering Hull, East
Investigations showed that no Gilson deaths were reg- Yorkshire and North East Lincolnshire, but after searching in the ar-
istered in Hull or Sculcoates in 1908. Investigations chives and in the digital archives, I failed to uncover a death match-
showed that no O’Grady deaths were registered in Hull ing the details in the newspaper reports about the haunting.
or Sculcoates in 1908. Investigations showed the follow-
Contemporary sketch of the alleged “Haunted House” that appeared in the
ing Gibson deaths recorded in Hull and Sculcoates, they
Hull Daily Mail, dated Monday September 7th 1908. Sketch Copyright Mike
are as follows,
Covell.
Name Age District of Registration Con O’Kelly Senior as featured in he Hull Daily Mail dated Monday No-
Alexander Gibson 54 Sculcoates vember 3rd 1947 at the time of his death.
George Gibson 74 Sculcoates
Mike Covell is a local historian and author based in Kingston upon
James Gibson 43 Myton
Hull. He has previously appeared in Most Haunted, Paranormal
Llewellyn Gibson 22 Drypool
Lockdown, Prime Suspect Jack the Ripper, and advised on the hit
Percival Gibson 58 Sculcoates
BBC 2 show The Bombs that Changed Britain. Mike writes for Hull
With ive possible names I decided to narrow the ield. Daily Mail, Hull Hub, and various magazines and newspapers, and
Using the September 5th 1908 article as a starting point, teaches, lectures, and runs walking tours covering all aspects of
it was evident that the incident must have happened Hull’s history. He is the author of the popular Mike Covell Investi-
around this date, the later articles state that the man, who
gates book series and has recently released his UFO volume entitled
it is thought haunted the property, was buried on the Fri-
day before. Narrowing the search for deaths in the July- Mike Covell Investigates the UFO Files.

66 HAUNTED MAGAZINE
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