Crop Circles

Like I've made well known in a previous post, I believe that there are other lifeforms out in the vast universe besides us. There is NO way that we can be the "only" 'intelligent' life forms around.

With that said, I think I feel like touching on the subject of Crop Circles, which coincide with the topic of aliens.

Crop circles are detailed "pictures" that are made in fields on farms. Let's take more of a gander in to this Paranormal phenomenon, shall we?

The following is provided by Wikipedia.

"A crop circle is a sizable pattern created by the flattening of a crop such as wheat, barley, rye, maize, or rapeseed. Crop circles are also referred to as crop formations, because they are not always circular in shape.

While the exact date crop circles began to appear is unknown, the documented cases have substantially increased from the 1970s to current times. Twenty-six countries ended up reporting approximately ten-thousand crop circles, in the last third of the 20th century, and 90% of those were located in southern England. Many of the formations appearing in that area are positioned near ancient monuments, such as Stonehenge.

Formations usually are made overnight, but have also been made during the day. The most widely known method for a person or group to construct a crop formation is to tie one end of a rope to an anchor point, and the other end to a board which is used to crush the plants. More recent methods include the use of a lawn roller.

Some crop formations are paid for by companies who use them as advertising. Other formations are sometimes claimed by individuals or groups without any evidence to support their assertion, usually after undesirable legal repercussions become unlikely." (Read more at the link provided)

One of the most famous "crop circle" movies has to be SIGNS (2002, Touchstone Pictures).

Spontaneous Human Combustion

Information provided by Wikipedia..

*NOTE: Not to be confused with spontaneous combustion.*

**WARNING!! Pictures at the bottom of this post may be too graphic for some readers. Viewer discretion is advised.**

Spontaneous human combustion (SHC) is a name used to describe alleged cases of the burning of a living human body without an apparent external source of ignition. While there have been about 200 cited cases worldwide over a period of around 300 years, most of the alleged cases are characterized by the lack of a thorough investigation, or rely heavily on hearsay and oral testimony. In many of the more recent cases, where photographic evidence is available, it is alleged that there was an external source of heat present (often cigarettes), and nothing occurred "spontaneously."

There are many hypothesized explanations which account for the various cases of human spontaneous combustion. These generally fall into one of three groups: paranormal explanations (e.g. a ghost or alien caused it), natural explanations that credit some unknown and otherwise unobserved phenomenon (e.g. the production of abnormally concentrated gas or raised levels of blood alcohol cause spontaneous ignition), and natural explanations that involve an external source of ignition (e.g. the victim dropped a cigarette).

Objections to natural explanations usually revolve around the degree of burning of the body with respect to its surroundings. Indeed, one of the common markers of a case of SHC is that the body — or part of it — has suffered an extraordinarily large degree of burning, with surroundings or lower limbs comparatively undamaged.

*Unverified natural phenomena*

* Since every human body contains varying strengths of electrical field and the human body also contains flammable gases (mainly methane in the intestines), an electrical discharge could ignite these gases.

* SHC victims are sometimes described as lonely people who fall into a trance immediately before their incineration. Heymer[3] suggests that a psychosomatic process in such emotionally-distressed people can trigger off a chain reaction by reacting nitrogen within the body and setting off a chain reaction of mitochondrial explosions. This hypothesis has been criticized on the basis that Heymer "seems to be under the illusion that nitrogen exist as gases in the blood and are thus vulnerable to ignition, which is, in fact, not the case."[4] (Mitochondria are organelles found within cells.) The hypothesis also fails to take into account the fact that nitrogen is an inert, non-flammable gas.

* Another hypothesis suggests high-energy particles or gamma rays[1] coupled with susceptibilities in the potential victim (e.g. increased alcohol in the blood) triggers the initial reaction. This process may use no external oxygen to spread throughout the body, since it may not be an oxidation-reduction reaction. However, no reaction mechanism has been proposed, nor has a source for the high-energy particles.

* The victim is an alcoholic and has been smoking while drinking or shortly after drinking a strong spirit. There are claims that this raises the blood alcohol level to a point where it ignites; however, this theory is implausible, since ethanol typically burns only if the concentration is greater than about 23%, whereas a fatally toxic level is about 1%.[5] However, this does introduce the probability that the victim will fall asleep while holding a lit cigarette.

*LIST CONTINUES*


**Natural explanations**

* Cigarettes are often seen as the source of fire in valleys. Usually, it is thought that natural causes such as heart attacks may lead to the victim dying, subsequently dropping the cigarette. Embers from cigarettes and pipes may also ignite clothes.[3] Additionally, cigarette steam at a temperature too low to trigger a flare up of most otherwise combustible materials. Typically if a person drops a lit cigarette on an article of clothing, it will create a burn-hole, but not ignite into an open flame and spread.

* The "wick effect" hypothesis suggests that a small external flame source, such as a burning cigarette, chars the clothing of the victim at a location, splitting the skin and releasing subcutaneous fat, which is in turn absorbed into the burned clothing, acting as a wick. This combustion can continue for as long as the fuel is available. This hypothesis has been successfully tested with animal tissue (pig) and is consistent with evidence recovered from cases of human combustion.[6][7]

* Scalding can cause burn-like injuries, including death, without setting fire to clothing. Although not applicable in cases where the body is charred and burnt, this has been suggested as a cause in at least one claimed SHC-like event.

Deaths...

* Robert Francis Bailey : United Kingdom, 1967
* Polonus Vorstius : Italy, 1470
* Cornelia di Bandi : Italy, 1731
* John Irving Bentley : United States, 1966
* George I. Mott : United States, 1986
* Mary Reeser : United States, 1951
* Helen Conway : United States, 1964
* Nicole Millet : France, 1725
* Phyllis Newcombe : United Kingdom, 1938
* Anna Martin : United States, 1957
* Jeannie Saffin : England, 1982
* Henry Thomas : Wales, 1980
* Janice McCall : United States, 2009 < not a SHC - surgical flash fire.
* Ginette Kazmierczak : France, 1977


Read more on the subject at the link provided for this subject that is posted at the *top* of this blog piece.

Who has a HAUNTING read?? (Blog Hop/link up)

With the holidays now past us, I can once more concentrate on BOTH blogs. It was looking like a ghost town around here...Get it? "Ghost" town?? Yeah...That went well.

Apparently, we are still having odd things happening. Mainly where the attic is concerned. My oldest was kept up a good portion of the night by what she said was "something" being dragged, steps and the "rolling" noises I have mentioned before in a previous post.

But enough with that {for now}...

Below I will be placing a LINKY TOOL for others that write about the Paranormal *ONLY*, as to gain exposure, readers/followers and to add to our reading lists.

As long as it is Paranormal in nature, you can add your link to the link up tool (below).

If I see a NON-Paranormal blog linked up, it will be DELETED from the blog roll. Only PARANORMAL blogs are permitted for this blog linking.

Have a great Monday and a wonderful week.

More Stars, ET & Creationists. Oh My!!

This morning, after checking my emails over on Yahoo I'd decided to click over to MY YAHOO and check out the latest stories of the morning.

This is what I had found... Evidence for ET is mounting daily, but not proven.

Pretty interesting read, if you ask me. Oh.. You didn't. But I'm saying it anyways.

So the run down is that Astronomers have found evidence of more stars in the universe than they had previously thought. Three times as many as a matter of fact. And that is A LOT... Many more galaxies and suns as well, if you sit and think about it, seeing as suns are just huge stars themselves.

Also, the scientists have found that a microbe can actually LIVE and thrive in ARSENIC. Which has had lead them to think that they can live in some pretty harsh conditions that us humans very well cannot.

From the article... "The evidence is just getting stronger and stronger," said Carl Pilcher, director of NASA's Astrobiology Institute, which studies the origins, evolution and possibilities of life in the universe. "I think anybody looking at this evidence is going to say, 'There's got to be life out there.'"

In *my* humble opinion, I agree. We as THE leading and MOST intelligent species of our planet would be completely naive and all-out stupid to believe that within this vast and (seemingly) unending universe that we are the ONLY life forms out there.

We will NEVER (in my mind) know truly how many life forms that there are out there beyond the reaches and outer fringes of our galaxy.

Now, in the Christian texts of the Bible, within Genesis, it states... (via BIBLE GATEWAY)

"1:31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

2:2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done."

What many Creationists (those that solely believe in what the Bible states word for word, and that God made the earth and it is NOT *millions/billions* of years old, but only *thousands* of years in age) believe is that Evolution and Astronomy Sciences were just made up nonsense to have some other "explanation" than a god/deity forming everything out of nothing. They do not believe in the "Big Bang" theory or take stock in anything regarding the "Evolutionary Scale". And being that the Bible does NOT state that there are other forms of life BEYOND us, then it can't be true.

Most (but not all) Astronomy Scientists are Atheists. They do not feel that there was a deity design to the universe, let alone believe that ANY gods exist.

Now some are said to be Agnostic, where they cannot prove, nor can they prove the existence of a deity. Nor can they prove or disprove that an intelligent being such as the Christian God made the planets and the universe.

Then, you do have a small handful of people that work within the various fields of Science that do believe in the Christian God.

One thing that they all do have in common is that they ALL rely on the evidence presented to them, theoretical measures, probability measures and anthropology to have gotten as far as they have in the fields of Astronomy, Biology and Evolution.

It just amazes me that people can sit there and FLAT OUT deny the REAL possibility of life on other planets within our very own solar system, let alone outside of the galaxy that we call "home".

To the Creationists, how can you be SO sure that those "six days" were not actually 6 million/billion YEARS? So someone said days in the Bible. Man had written and *REWRITTEN* that Book so many times, who HONESTLY knows for sure what God ACTUALLY said at this point? Do you not think that one second to God is a THOUSAND YEARS to us? Remember that saying? I was told that many times over.

So, take that second in "our" time and expand it out to those six days, put those six days in to God's version of "days"/time and see what you come up with... I suck at math, but I can safely say that it's WAAAAY more than "thousands" of years, my friends. You are looking at more along the lines of the millions or even the *billions* mark.

I myself am a Christian. I believe in God and Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave, only to ascend to Heaven and that one day, He will return as it is written within the Book of Revelations.

BUT!!...Yeah, I have one.

I cannot sit here in good conscience and claim that science is wrong and that indeed there is NO OTHER life out in our vast galaxy and in the outer reaches of space. For me to do so would be just plain ignorant. Nor can I state that the earth is only *thousands* of years old. If that was the case, then we should be walking with dinosaurs, having volcanoes going off and earthquakes shaking all around us.

It took MILLIONS, if not BILLIONS of years for our planet to cool down, fill with water, and for the continents shape and shift. Plus species had to start somewhere, right? And no I do *not* believe that it started with Adam and Eve of the Bible. We started out as microbes, bacteria and from there evolved over those millions/billions of years in to what we are today. Homo Sapiens.

So as far as Extra Terrestrials, Astronomy, Cosmology and other sciences go for this Christian woman, I love it, love learning about it all, and truly believe that YES there *IS* other life out in the universe and that we are *NOT* alone by any means.

It's not shameful, ridiculous, or even hearsay to go beyond your belief system (be it Christianity or otherwise) to look at things on a larger, broader scale. Science (in any form) is NOT perfect or exact. But neither is religion.











Please watch the rest of this 5-part series via YouTube.

Two Times In Two Weeks..

Strange. For being (for the most part) a skeptic, he certainly is having a time of explaining away the last couple weeks of instances.

My husband is kind of like an Agnostic. He can't prove that God exists, nor can he prove that God doesn't exist. And he won't completely deny His existence. But is on the fence about the existence of God.

Same thing concerning my husband in regards to ghosts/spirits and paranormal activity. Yes, he DOES believe that there are other life forms (aliens) outside our universe and that it's a real possibility that they have visited our orbit. But the notion that there are some people that still "hang around" after this life is over is a bit of a hard pill to swallow for him.

Whereas for me, the subject of ghostly paranormal things is a no brainer. Ghosts/spirits DO exist, and yes, I believe that there is something beyond THIS life in our shells.

For many years, the subject of ghosts was a bit of a battle ground between the two of us. But after experiencing a few times what had happened for those first three weeks that I ever left him and the kids on their own to tend to family matters across the country, that battle ground seemingly got a bit smaller. And over the years, smaller than that.

So, in the last couple of weeks, including last night, it got even tinier. Though, with him, there will always be doubt I think, until something drastic happens (apparitions). Last week, I had told of his hearing what sounded like a pencil being rolled playfully by someone in the attic. To read about it, CLICK HERE.

That time, even though myself, the kids, and my husband were all either in the living room or the dining room (seeing as it was dinner time), it was only my husband that had heard the sounds coming from the attic, which spans the entire length of our home.

Last night, the kids were all asleep. And one cat was sleeping with the girls, while the other was not even in our room at the time of the occurrence. We heard no one (kid or cat) come down the stairs.

Out of the blue, my husband gets really still and he is obviously startled. Then, he asked me if I hear any wind outside our bedroom window. Nope. Still as can be. He claimed he saw the light that comes from the security light in the backyard brighten and dim as if someone or something was walking back and forth. But no apparent shape (human or animal).

Then, he bolted his upper body (waist and up) from the bed a bit, but not in a fully sitting position to look towards the foot of the bed. This is when he asked me if I felt "that". I asked him what THAT was. He claimed he felt someone was sitting on the bed, and even poking at his foot area. Seemingly by his description, in a playful manner.

Oddly, nothing that HE experienced did I notice, feel or see. It was as if whomever or whatever it was, only wanted my husband to notice them for whatever reason. And normally (then again who said that myself, this family or this house was normal??) it is me that gets all the crazy, weird things happening, without any others in the house seeing/hearing/feeling it at the time.

With what is happening upstairs, the experience from last night, and by other things that I have seen myself as of late, it is looking to be very much a child-like haunting behavior. He or she isn't trying to scare us. But they ARE trying to be playful, get noticed and are very observant of the happenings within the house. Especially with my basement stairs...

Two Experiences/Encounters and an Award.

First of all, I shall thank the Academy for this prestigious...Oh wait, wrong award. My bad! Seriously though, I have been bestowed my FIRST EVER award for my ParanorMel blog. It's nice to have it recognized, even though my follower base is under twenty. But who's counting?

I have been given the Paranormal Community Leadership Award by Jessica Penot over at GHOST STORIES & HAUNTED PLACES where Jessica blogs about different places, buildings and homes that are (supposedly) haunted. I highly suggest you give her blog a look-see for yourself. You will NOT be disappointed. I guarantee it.

Thank you SO much, Jessica!  But other than you, I have no other bloggers to pass this along to that have not already received it, seeing as I cannot find many good blogs of Paranormal interest. If you know of any, shoot them my way, would ya?

Now, on to the next...As Jason and Grant from Ghost Hunters (which I missed last night, due to crashing from exhaustion last night) like to say at the end of every episode.

On November ninth (I wrote about this the next day on ParanorMel's "Like page over on FaceBook) my husband made all of us go eerily quiet. He heard something coming from the attic. After seeing that all three cats were downstairs or outside, and all of us humans were accounted for, he KNEW it was not a sound that was man or animal made. Especially seeing as the windows were worked on last year to no longer be opened or to let drafts in.

After he mentally figured out what was going on, then my husband finally admitted to me that it was NOT the first time that he had happened upon the sound. Mainly made during the three to five o'clock hours of the very early morning, before he leaves for his differing shifts at work.

Strangely though, this apparent reoccurrence was never even heard by myself or the kids when it happened as we sat at the dinner table. Only my husband had heard the sound. Then he went in to explaining about it and he grabbed a pencil. He started to move it back and forth in a playful manner. The wood could be heard rolling as it went between his fingers.

This is when I admitted about sometimes hearing the footsteps outside the bathroom, in the main upper hallway as I shower, with no other people in the house. And I also admitted to seeing once again, the little boy of about my son's age, and my oldest daughter's height standing the basement foyer's landing.

Now, for the most recent thing to happen to me.. And it was just this past Tuesday.

For the first time ever, since being in the area of  Central Virginia, I had gone to Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest. You can take pictures of the outside grounds and in the discovery rooms. But there are no pictures allowed to be taken within the retreat home. If you wish to take a gander at the inside of the mansion and learn more about Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest retreat, CLICK HERE.

All was well and good with me. That is, until our first stop for within the home was the basement. The wine cellar was also located down there. You can no longer go down in to it, seeing as the stairs had long rotted away and had to be removed. But the original brick is still on its floor, though it is pulling up and the bricks also have now started to rot.

Looking at the old Wine Cellar, I got struck with a "feeling". A feeling of being watched. I knew then, that on this Fifth Grade trip, we were not alone with the Tour Guide that was appointed to us. Even looking across the way, to the other side of the basement, it felt uneasy. I didn't SEE anyone or anything. But I could certainly tell that the energy was static-like. We were being watched. By whom, I cannot say.

Was it by Thomas Jefferson himself? Or could it have been Or could it have been Hannah? She was one of Jefferson's most devout slaves of their time. It could have possibly been even James, who was the "overseer" to the fellow slaves, who was entrusted as the headmaster above the other slaves of the Plantation.

While I cannot say for sure, all I know is that I felt that "someone" was keeping a close eye upon me, the children that were in our class and watching that the homestead was not being abused in any way that would tarnish the look and feel of Poplar Forest.

Haunted History Tour... Lizzie Borden Home

"Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks.
When she realized what she done, she gave her father forty-one."

Remember that little saying? I certainly do! I used to repeat that diddy all of the time as a child. I never knew the truth and history behind the poem. But now that I am an adult and have watched documentaries, as well as have read the history behind the condemnation, I have "seen the light" as to why and how the rhyme came about.

Lizzie Andrew Borden was born in New England on July 19, 1860. A "spinster" of sorts, who later on in her adult years would be pegged as the prime suspect in the double homicide of her mother and her father. They were killed on August 4, 1892. This would have placed Lizzie to be age forty-two at the time. Plenty old enough to "know better", if you get my drift.

When all was said and done, Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the heinous murders. And no other people were ever brought forth for the crimes. To this day, the murders are unsolved.

What led to the murders of Andrew Borden and his wife, Abby? Could have been very well over the fact that arguments often ensued over property and possessions that were to be divided amongst her and Lizzie's sister, Emma, BEFORE their father's demise? Or could it be that they were mad that Mr. Borden planned on having the the homestead sold to their stepmother's (Abby) relatives, and were afraid that they would literally be left out in the cold?

Whatever the true intention was for the killings, the stage had apparently long been set. Between anger, jealousy and the "not knowing" of what will happen after their Daddy keeled over, it made a perfect recipe for murder.

On August 4, 1892, Andrew left the house and went in to town, in to Fall River, Massachusetts to the bank. And then the old boy went to the post office. Which all were of his normal activities. Mr. Borden returned home at approximately 10:45 that morning, only to have Lizzie "find" her father dead upon the couch.

During the court trial for Lizzie, it was told, by the family's maid, Bridget Sullivan that she was laying in bed, within the confines of her room at around eleven, she heard Lizzie call up to her and stated that someone had killed her father.

Not long after the doctor and some neighbors had come to the home to help Lizzie, the gruesome discovery of her stepmother, Abby was made by the unsuspecting maid. Abby had died in the geust bedroom upstairs.

Abby and Andrew both had suffered a very brutal end to their lives. Both of them had skull-crushing blows to the head with a hatchet. Mr. Borden's left eyeball was literally split in two.

It came to light later, that not too long before the murders, all in the home became ill. Knowing her husband was a tight-fisted, not too well liked man, she feared that someone was out to seek revenge upon her husband, and take his entire family with him. They suspected poisoned  milk. After the murders, right there in the home, the autopsies were performed. With it, the stomachs of the couple were removed and set on the table to seek out their contents. The contents were then sent for "tox screenings" over at Harvard Medical School.

Lizzie Borden was arrested for the double killing. She was placed in a cell on August twelfth. With her stories determined to be inconsistent through various interviews, she became the town's prime suspect.

On November 7, 1892, a Grand Jury trial was under way. A Bill of Indictment came down on her on December second, almost a month after her arrest. The trial its self didn't start in New Bedford, Massachusetts until June of 1893!

Lizzie's Defending Attorneys were Governor George D. Robinson and Andrew V. Jennings. One "rising star" Prosecutor at the trial happened to be William H. Moody, who would later become a United States Attorney General and Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

During the investigation, a hatchet was found within the basement, and assumed to have been the murder weapon. It was clean, but the handle had gone missing. Later in the trial, by word of the Forensics Specialist, there was no time to have cleaned the hatchet after the murders had taken place.

Also on Lizzie's side was the fact that no blood-stained clothing was ever found. Although, there was a blue dress that was torn apart and thrown in to the stove. Lizzie claimed that the dress had fresh paint that was smeared on it, after she accidentally brushed up against a baseboard.

Lizzie was finally acquitted for the crimes on June 20, 1893, after deliberations by the jury that took them a mere hour and a half of their time.

After the dust had settled, Lizzie and her sister Emma had moved and named their new home "Maplecroft".  It is located on French Street , which at that time, was within a posh neighborhood of Fall River. The home included all of the (then) latest amenities a home of it's stature could have. Including indoor plumbing.

Later on though, Emma and Lizzie began to develop a strained relationship. Their lifestyles did not mesh and were apparently like night and day. Complete opposites. So, twelve years after hell had reined upon them, the sisters had parted ways. Emma moved from the home in June of 1905.

On June 1, 1927, Lizzie Andrew Borden had passed away. She required gallbladder removal surgery and she was pretty sick for the last year of her life. She had died basically alone, with only her staff as her 'comfort' in those final hours. Her cause of death was Pneumonia.

The details of her funeral were never brought to light to the public, and only a handful of people attended the services for her. Lizzie is buried at Oak Grove Cemetery in Fall River.

Nine days later, Emma too passed. She contracted Nephritis.

Today, the home in which the murders had occurred is now a Bed And Breakfast. As far as the hauntings go, there have been reports of a woman's voice softly crying, seeing ghostly shoes appear, and even an older woman in period dress for Lizzie's time show.

Also, it seems that video equipment messes up, lights have been known to flicker on and off, and Andrew and Abby supposedly wander the home.

Links...

Haunted Hamilton 

History of Lizzie Borden

Haunted History Tour...New Mexico State Penitentiary

For our next stop (and possibly our final, depending on how this post does for viewership), we once again will travel to a prison. And this prison was the gruesome scene of one of the worst riots ever recorded, where prisons are concerned.

New Mexico State Penitentiary sits about 15 miles from Santa Fe, New Mexico. The prison opened in 1956, and closed it's doors for good in 1998. But not before a severely violent riot had occurred in 1980.

The riot had taken place between February 2 and February 3 of that year. Now mind you, this is a maximum security prison. So extreme force and security measures are used daily. During the two-day riot, thirty-three prisoners had died. And more than two-hundred inmates had to be treated for injuries. None of the security staff were killed during the ordeal, but seven of them had to be treated for their injuries and for rapes.

NMSP was overcrowded, to say the least. The treatment from guards were not always "kind". The night that the riots started, there were 1,136 inmates placed on a cell block made to house only 900. Also they were not separated properly, as to help with any possible violent possibilities.

Another cause, they say for what transpired to be the worst riot in prison history, was the fact that programs such as educational, recreational and other rehabilitative programs were cut off, that had been started in 1970, but ended in 1975. In those five years, violence and mayhem was at a minimum.

There was also a severe shortage of Security Staff. So, those that were "fortunate" to work there, made a game with some of the prisoners called "The Snitch Game". This is where the inmates that were chosen would go and tell the guards of fellow inmates that were "uncooperative".

Those named would receive abusive treatment. And the abusive treatment came in the form of being from their fellow inmates. In the end though, this "game" was an epic fail, seeing as most of the information passed along was pretty inaccurate and minimal at best.

On the morning of February 2nd, it started. Hostages began to be taken by those that felt that enough was enough. Two prisoners in the South-side Dormitory E-2 had grabbed an officer who had been caught by them drinking a homemade liquor. Minutes later, four more officers were taken hostage.

Not too long after E-2 Block was under the control and leadership of the prisoners. And things were soon to become much, MUCH worse.

Before noon, the violence started to escalate to extreme proportions. And the "snitches" were beginning to be gathered up, along with the prison security staff members.

Within twenty-four hours after the riot began, Negotiators were starting to try and get demands of the prisoners and talk them down from their so-called power trip. At one point, eleven demands were made clear. Including, but not limited to inmate discipline, educational services and improving food. They also demanded to be able to speak with the media.

After the inmates were able to speak with the reporters, the officers that were taken as hostages were let go. Not all of them got out unscathed unfortunately. Some were severely beaten. Others had been raped. Seven of the guards had suffered severe injuries, but did live to tell of their ordeal.

There were also eighty prison inmates that had fled, seeing as they wanted no part in the riot, or wanted no further part in it. They had ran to the baseball fields to get away. Sunday morning, even more came out and fled the prison.

During the ordeal, thirty-three prisoners perished. Some were raped and beaten. And in all honesty, that was the EASIEST of the deaths that had occurred during the stand off. Some had their genitals burned off wit blowtorches. Some had their eyes gouged out, or even scooped out. While they were still very well alive, mind you. Also, some of the prisoners that had died were found to have overdosed on drugs as well.

Within thirty-six hours, on Sunday, February 3rd, things were finally calming down and coming to a stand-still. State Police officers and National Guard servicemen entered the charred remains of the prison.

Even after order was restored within the prison walls, gang fights, racial tensions, and fights had continued. But of a much smaller scale.

As I had earlier stated, the prison was formally closed in 1998. But since then, it has been opened as a Tourist Attraction, as well as used in the making of the 2005 remake of "Longest Yard" (featuring Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and the original film's Burt Reynolds).

Former employees of the prison and cast/crews from film have themselves reported to have heard disembodied voices, cell doors opening and/or closing of their own volition, sightings of apparitions.

If there was ever a haunted prison in the United States, New Mexico State Penitentiary has wonderful potential to be a hotbed of supernatural activity for obvious reasons. Violence, violent deaths, anger, resentment, unfinished stories of the inmates killed, seeking of justice and of justification.

Links...

Ghost Tour of Old Albuquerque

New Mexico State Penitentiary

History of the Riot that took place




The next video that I had wanted to show you was disabled to embed, so please CLICK HERE to view PART 1, and then click on the following parts to view the entire episode.

Haunted History Tour... Borely Rectory

Borely Rectory was built over near Borley Church in 1862. It's creator was Reverend Henry Dawson Ellis Bull. The building's architecture was inspired by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. And at one point in time, the Rectory had housed fourteen kids.

The church, which sets close to Borley Rectory dates back to the Twelfth Century.

In 1863, the first reported haunting of the Borely Rectory had supposedly taken place. In 1900, on July 28th, a ghostly nun was reported to be seen about forty yards away, by four of the rector's daughters. As the girls enclosed upon this apparition to speak to the lady, the nun simply disappeared in to thin air.

Also reported from time to time is a phantom coach that has two headless horsemen driving. Bells ringing, footsteps that were heard and lights appearing in windows ended up being common place as well, mainly after the Rector's son, Harry Bull (whom had taken over as caretaker after his father's death). The rectory had at that point, sat in silence with no one to care for the place.

A year after Bull's death, the home was moved in to by another couple. Reverend Guy Eric Smith and his wife. Not long after, as Mrs. Smith was cleaning, she happened upon the skull of a female. Not much time after the discovery, odd things started up once more.

On June 12, 1927, a Paranormal Researcher by the name of Harry Price, along with the news paper reporter that hired him from The Daily Mirror had made their way to the home to see what all the hub-bub was about.

No sooner did Mr. Price enter it's doors, did Borely Rectory and it's spirits come to life. New occurrences had started to happen. Such as stones and vases being thrown by unseen forces, messages being tapped out within mirrors. But then no sooner that Harry Price had left the home after investigating, these strange things suddenly ceased. At that point, Mrs. Smith felt that Price himself was the one haunting the home and was trying to pull the wool over the couple's eyes.

In July of 1929, the Smith's decided to move on, and moved out of Borley. In 1930, a new person moved in to it's walls with his adopted daughter, Adelaide. The father's name was Reverend Lionel Foyster.

At one point, the phenomena started up once more. And it was to a point that Reverand Foyster tried to perform an Exorcism. But to no avail. Once more, Harry Price was contacted. And he suspected that the house came back to life again. Only this time, the happenings were more sinister and malevolent.

In 1948, Harry Price had passed away. Two of his colleagues had pieced together, the best that they could of Price's findings of Paranormal Phenomena within Borely Rectory. But mix in the fact that much of what was "experienced" within the Rectory's walls was mostly due to Price's own making, along with some other man-made "haunting" that is noted within the piece I am using as a research tool (link below), the two men could NOT definitively indicate that Borely Rectory was indeed haunted. "The Haunting of Borley Rectory" was published in 1956.

So all in all, it is a case of believe what you wish. And disbelieve what you will. This one is a case of "it's up to the reader to decide". Is Borley Rectory truly haunted, or have human hands tainted the home so badly, that we will never truly know fact from fiction?

To read more, please CLICK HERE.

Haunted History Tour... Waverly Hills Sanatorium

Let's venture to one of the most prolific, well-known, and most actively haunted places in the United States. Waverly Hills.

Waverly Hills Sanatorium sits in Louisville, Kentucky. The current owners are Charlie and Tina Mattingly. At the end of the post, I will list the link to the site where I am getting the information and history about the Waverly, along with Tourist Hours.

In 1883, the land was initially purchased by a Major Thomas H. Hays. He wanted a school for his daughters to attend. Upon that land, he had built up and had a one-room school for his girls. He had hired Lizzie Lee Harris as the school's teacher. She adored the school so much that she named it "Waverly School", after falling in love with Scott Waverley novels.

Construction on the Sanatorium had started in 1908 and then had opened its doors on July 26, 1910. At the time, it could house up to fifty Tuberculosis (which was also called the "White Plague") patients at a time. Before antibiotics were produced, TB was a top killer. Those that contracted the disease were placed in to isolation.

Over in Pleasure Ridge Park, Kentucky, Tuberculosis was hitting Pandemic proportions. The clinic was seeing as many as one hundred and forty patients, and they knew that there was a great need for a much larger building to house the sick.

Construction began in March of 1924, and was completed on October 17, 1926. There were enough rooms to house four hundred TB patients. Waverly operated as a Tuberculosis Hospice until 1961. Then, was reopened in 1962, after mass cleaning and disinfecting. It's new name was then, WoodHaven Medical Services. It was now a Geriatrics Facility at this point, and remained as such until 1980. The state had shut it's doors.

To learn more about the treatment of Waverly's patients, CLICK HERE!

Meet the Waverly Staff HERE.

Now, one of the most popular areas of Waverly Hills Sanatorium is... The Body Chute! Pretty creepy looking, if you were to ask me. This was the hall where those that had died from their illness were transported through to awaiting hearses. It is also called the Death Tunnel. A wench-type of apparatus was used to cart the bodies to the end of the tunnel, where they met the hearse at the bottom of the hill.

If you travel about thirty feet down the Chute, it becomes completely dark. Not a speck of light is coming in. There is much echoing also if you talk while in there. The Body Chute is about five hundred feet long, has vent shafts about every one hundred feet.

Many inhumane experiments had also taken place at the Waverly.

There have been reports of a man in a white coat, who seemingly wanders through the kitchen, and at times, you can smell food cooking. Also, the fifth floor, which housed two nurses’ stations, a pantry, a linen room, medicine room and two medium-sized rooms on both sides of the two nurses’ stations, is said to also have activity of seeing shapes moving within the windows and/or have heard disembodied voices that order trespassers to “get out”. In Room 502, it is rumored that two people had jumped to their deaths.

To read more about the Fifth Floor, GO HERE (scroll down about half way).

If you wish to tour Waverly Hills Sanatorium, please note...

(TOUR INFORMATION)

Tour information – (502) 933-2142

All of our 1/2 night and full night paranormal investigations / ghost hunts are Sold Out for the remainder of the 2010 season. Thank you to everyone who has scheduled, we appreciate your support.

Our 2 hour paranormal and historical tours are now sold out.

We will begin scheduling for 2011 on January 3rd, 2011.

The office is open M, T, W, F 9am – 5pm and (closed 1pm – 2pm for lunch) and Thursdays 9am – 1pm.

Links to sites used for this post...

OFFICIAL site for Waverly Hills

Prairie Ghosts

Haunted History... The Towers of London

The Towers were erected in 1078. It stands out from all of the surrounding landscape. It's creator was William the Conqueror. And it is more than likely the most haunted place in England to date.

The Wakefield Tower houses Henry VI. He was murdered, after people became enraged over his weakness to rule in the manner that they felt that a king should "take charge". It happened on May 21, 1471, as he knelt in prayer. On the king's anniversary of death, Henry VI is said to appear as the clock strikes midnight, which is said to be the hour of his killing. He paces back and forth up until the last stroke of midnight, then just fades.

Within the White Tower is the oldest of all of the Towers of London. It also houses the "White Lady", who at some point of time stood at a corridor and waved to children that were in an opposing tower adjacent to the one that the spectral was spotted. In the gallery, Henry VIII's armor is on exhibition. Many guards have stated that they get a feeling of crushing in their chest as they enter the armor's area, but leaves them almost as sudden after leaving the room.

Over on the Tower Green, there is a memorial, that remembers those that were executed on the grounds. It is said that an Anne Boleyn and a Lady Jane Grey both come back from their ethereal realm. Where as Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury returns to the spot where her life ended in a very uh... attention-grabbing way.

Speaking of Margaret, her mother/son relationship was strained, to say the least. See, her boy, Cardinal Pole was on a major power trip. He sealed the king's claim to rule. And in the end, got the King Henry VIII to place Pole's mother's head upon the chopping block. She was executed on May 27, 1541. When told to kneel, dear old Mom refused. “So should traitors do and I am none” were Margaret's last words...The executioner raised up his axe, hacked her head off as she ran around the scaffold like a chicken trying to save it's head. Since her death, the residual haunting, replaying the scene over and over like a broken record has been witnessed many times since on the anniversary of her demise.

Now, let's go a CUT above the rest, where names are concerned. How about we travel to the Bloody Tower? Edward IV had died suddenly in April of 1483. Due to his death, his son, who was twelve years old at the time was to succeed him as Edward V. But before Edward V could take the reigns his younger brother had been declared to be an illegitimate child by the Parliament. So instead, their uncle, Duke of Gloucester had succeeded and taken to the throne as Richard III. In the end, the two boys were placed in the Tower of London. They could more often than not be spotted playing on the grounds.

Around June of 1483, the boys just suddenly vanished. Nowhere to be found. It is believed that Richard III had them killed and buried in an unspecified place. Two skeletons were found many, many years later. They were located beneath the White Tower's staircase in 1674. They were believed to be the remains of the two young princes that never got to see a day of ruling upon their father's throne. After the discovery, their bodies were interned in at Westminster Abbey with a Royal Burial.

Once in a while, there will be sounds of crying and whimpering of two children, dressed in period clothing from the days of the Fifteenth Century. They are shown to be extremely frightened and cling on to one another in terror. Most people that get to see this scene are mostly with pity and sorrow for the children that never got to grow up and rule in succession of their father. Some even go as far as to literally reach out to them, as to take them in to their bosom and console the frightened boys, only to have them slowly back away from their mournful witnesses and fade in to the wall.

To read more, please visit Towers of London.

Haunted History.. Eastern State Penitentairy

Prison. No one likes the thought of being in prison, caged like an animal. Just the thought alone is unbearable. Think of how it is for those that really are incarcerated. Some, for the rest of their natural lives.

Prisons, for the most part want to reform their prisoners. Not just punish them for their misdeeds. Some prisoners do turn from their life of crime, and even find new found faith in the deity of their choosing. Sad though, that it takes being locked away from the rest of society for them to rethink things. Often, when it is too late.

But for today, we shall concentrate on one specific of the Penal System's prisons that sadly went wrong and lost sight of the true reasoning behind their "mission".

Eastern State Penitentiary.

It was not too long after the Revolutionary War. Finally, the United States of America was no longer under British Rule's thumb and being lead by King George III.

Most prisons back in those times were geared to reforming the prison populous in many of the ways that we wish to do so today. They reformed the prisons educationally, medically and also in governmental standards. Democracy in the newly recovering country was at the time, of most importance, as well. But their "democracy" was a far cry of how it is in the treatment of today's prisoners.

For the most part though, most of the prisons of that time were just "holding" cells. They incarcerated men, women, and yes, even children. Petty thieves were not uncommon types to be found behind their bars. Sadly, abuse and even mutilations were not uncommon to take place.

During the year 1787, in Philadelphia, powerful men had met within Ben Franklin's home. This group was named "The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons". Long name, if I don't say so myself. These men felt that the way prisoners of their time were being treated had to change. And for the better.

Dr. Benjamin Rush, who was apparently the Society's 'spokes person', stated that the goal of the group was to build a "true penitentiary, a prison designed to create genuine regret and penitence in the criminal's heart".

After thirty years of pushing this radical idea of reform among the prison population, a brand new prison building was being constructed with the reform ideals in mind.

Eastern State Penitentiary opened it's doors to let in it's first prisoners in 1829. It was one of the most expensive construction projects of its time. There would be no corporal punishment brought to it's charges. But instead, spiritual reflection, as well as change.

The Quaker-type methods were used (as many Americans of the century were of that Religious faith). Isolation and heavy labor was the norm for prisoners at Eastern State.

They felt that giving these two proponents would instill the wanting and the need to change. Also, when the prisoners were being moved from their cell, the guards would place hoods over the person's head, as to keep them from socializing and to continue in their solitude and reflection.

The only light that came in to the prison cell was from skylights that were built in. They were deemed "Heaven's Light", to let the prisoner look up to God, and let God see them. Their only literature was the Bible.

Other than these things, prisoners at Eastern State in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania had no other outside contact. They were not allowed to have socialization with fellow inmates. Nor were they allowed visitors from the outside world. To do so, would interfere in the prisoner's time to reflect, repent, and turn from their ways.

In 1971, Eastern State Penitentiary had its doors closed for good. One hundred and forty-two years after the doors opened, and they had encased Prisoner Number One, Charles Williams. The closing was mostly due to the fact that the elderly prison was in desperate need of major repairs. But, the additions that were done over the previous years left the prison with not enough dough to work with.

Now, remember earlier, I had stated that horrendous abuse had occurred while the prison was open for the first many years? No human contact was allowed. Beatings, floggings and other atrocious acts were brought upon the prison's unfortunate souls that had been forced to reside there. Some were chained to the walls, half naked. Some placed in complete darkness, with no food. Even the "iron treatment" was allowed. Many became completely nuts and driven to permanent insanity, due to their "living" conditions.

Willie Sutton, Al Capone and even Pep, the dog (that killed the Governor’s cat) were just a few of the more "famous" inmates that reportedly had spent some of their time in prison at ESP.

Now, on to the reported haunting activities that have supposedly happened..

Over in Cell Block Twelve, there is a disembodied laugh. There is no specific location of exactly what cell it is emanating from.

Cell Block Six has people abuzz in regards to having the most shadowy figures and forms. But these shapes form pretty much everywhere within the prison.

Many reports from tourists of Eastern State Penitentiary state that they feel like they are being closely watched and some, even followed around.

Tour Information...

Hours

Every Day, Twelve Months A Year:

10am to 5pm
(last entry: 4pm)

Summer Twilight Hours:

June through August

Wednesday evenings until 8 pm

Last Entry: 7 pm

No reservations necessary.

**Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Day.**

***Children under the age of 7 cannot be admitted.***

Ticket Office (215) 236-3300

Links!...

ESP History

America's Most Haunted Prison

Haunted History...The Winchester Mystery House

 I personally have been fortunate to take a tour at the following home. It does indeed live up to the name of "Mystery House". There have been reports from staff and visitors alike, especially after the sun has gone down to hearing strange noises, seeing things from the corner of your eye to only take a full look and the apparition is gone.

Personally, I had seen (during the daytime tour) what I had thought was an indentation in one of the beds. In fact, it was supposedly in the same room that Sarah Winchester was said to have passed away in. I also had feelings of being watched and followed. Also, there were cold spots. Especially in the Blue Room.

Come and take a virtual tour with me through the history of one of the most famous, and reportedly haunted places in the United States... The Winchester Mystery House, in Santa Clara, California (the area that I originally hail from).

The Winchester Rifle. One of the first rifles to be mass produced in the United States. And one of the deadliest of its kind as well. The gun had made it's way in to America's hands in 1866. It's creator, Oliver Winchester.

After Mr. Winchester's death in 1881, as well as the death of their only daughter, Annie, in 1866, Sarah Winchester had set out to see a Psychic Medium in Boston. This Medium, preying on Sarah's grief, claimed that the deaths of her only child and one and only husband were brought upon by a curse from the spirits of the dead American Indians that were shot to death during the Civil War.

What was the only way to appease these poor souls? Why, to build a home, of course! And to NEVER stop building. For if Sarah Winchester stopped construction, then her death was surely to happen. But, if she kept on building for all time, twenty-four hours a day, every single day, with not a single break, then death would not touch her. But, this home of the spirits was to be built out West.

After moving West, as told, Sarah Winchester had found a beautiful spot of land in Santa Clara, California. She knew then, that this would be where her great mansion was to sit.

By the time that the 1900's came around, already, the eight-room home became a sprawling seven-story mansion. Her monetary status was unscathed, seeing as she had unlimited amounts of money from the on-going sales of the Winchester Rifles at her late husband's company to spend to make the spirits happy. What began as an unfinished farmhouse, that came along with the land, was completed to be one of the grandest Mansions of our time.

 For thirty-eight years straight, twenty-four hours a day, with not a single break in the construction, Mrs. Winchester made the spirits happy. She would go nightly to the "Blue Room", which was her Seance Room to converse with the ghosts and to ensure that what was being done was up to par with them.

There were also stair cases and doors that were built in the oddest of places. Stairs that lead to the ceiling. Doors that opened to a wall behind it, or to a hole where if you step through, you either end up on the pavement, after falling from two stories up, or you land in the kitchen sink.

Also, Sarah had an odd fascination with the number 13. Everything from the window panes, to the holes in the sink drains had no more than thirteen pieces to it. Even the chandelier glass.

Sadly, Mrs. Winchester's promise of eternal life never came to pass. After suffering with ailing arthritis for several years, on September 22, 1922, having had heart failure. She passed away peacefully in her sleep. At the time of her death, the home had engulfed six acres of land.

Construction ended with... 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 stairways, 47 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms, and 6 kitchens. The carpenters had even left nails half driven when they learned of Mrs. Winchester’s death.

All of the original furnishings were sold off, via auction, through a niece. Today, with turn-of-the-century-like furnishings in place to show the beauty of what it once was, the Winchester Mystery House is now a museum dedicated to the life and legacy of Sarah Winchester. As well as to her devoted servants and employed construction workers.

                                           (The door that leads to a two-story drop, outside)

                                                         (Front view of the mansion)


Links...

The Sarah Winchester Mystery House

The Winchester Rifle

The Bell Witch Legend

Again, we are touching upon the subject of witches. This one seems to be the true basis behind the movie, "The Blair Witch Project" (1999), which is a fake documentary about three teens that go in search of the Blair Witch and her "haunted cave" in Blair, Maryland. Needless to say, in the movie, the kids got more than they had bargained for.

This time, we are traveling to the Red River, which is located over by Adams, Tennessee. And this story is also the ground-base story for the movies "An American Haunting" (2006) and "The Bell Witch Haunting" (2004).

In the year 1817, John William Bell, Sr. had reported that he had come in to contact with an animal that was not of "normal nature", so to speak. This had happened in a cornfield on his farm in Robertson County. The animal that the older Bell had described was as follows..

It had the body of a dog and the head of a rabbit. Mr. Bell had claimed to have shot at it.

Later on after this strange creature happened upon the Bell's land, the family had started to hear strange rapping and gnawing outside of their home. At one point, these noises moved to within the home.

Eventually, the youngest daughter of the Bell family, Betsy, had started to claim that she was assaulted by something unseen.

As time went on, other things supposedly took place within the confines of the Bell Family's abode. Including poltergeist activity. Things like spirits moving various objects, their (the ghosts) speaking with and having conversations with the family and guest alike.

John Bell, Sr. had died on December 20, 1820, after suffering for a while after being inflicted by facial seizures, which rendered him unable to speak. Laying beside him, was a vial filled with a liquid that no one knew its contents. This liquid was fed to the family's cat by force, killing it.

In the latter 1800's, the Bell Family's home was torn down. The cave is said to be haunted by the witch that supposedly haunted, taunted and tormented Betsy Bell for years. Those walking through it's hollow passages have reported different sounds coming from within the cave's depths, such as laughter and footsteps. Also, there were reports of eyes watching it's visitors and just plain "creeped out" feelings.

Who is this Bell Witch, though?? She is reported to be (thanks to folklore) the spirit of a woman named Kate Batts. She was supposedly a tyrannical, mean-spirited old lady, and the Bell Family's neighbor. Miss Batts came to believe that John Bell, Sr. had cheated the old lady out of some land when he made his purchase.

As she had laid on her deathbed, she cursed Bell and swore that she would haunt him, his family, and the future generations of the Bell's descendants.

Is any of the legend true? Maybe so. Does Kate Batts still haunt the cave where the Bell Family's home once stood? It's possible indeed. I guess the only way to find out is to take a trip to Adams, Tennessee and find out for yourself.

Reference links to read more about The Bell Witch are as followed...

The Bell Witch Cave

Bell Witch History

Skeptic?

The Bell Witch Haunting

Bell Witch the Movie

Reader Request... The Blair Witch

The following delves in to two different categories of the paranormal. One of course being of a haunting/ghostly type nature. The other being of Black Magic and Witchery.

Most of my generation has at least heard of, if not have actually watched a movie from 1999 called "The Blair Witch Project", where three students make a fake documentary about the Blair Witch of Blair, Maryland.

According to legend, this ghostly 'witch', who's real name was Elly Kedward, was pegged to be a witch who had cast evil spells amongst the townspeople of the 1780's.

Elly was found guilty and was banned to the deep forest in the middle of winter. About a year later, many children just simply went missing. Of course, the witch, Elly Kedward was the first suspect.

The following are some excerpts from "The Blair Witch - The Facts"...

"In the 1820s, the abandoned property of Blair, MD was brought to the attention of a man by the name of Burkitt.  He purchased the property from the government, renovated the abandoned buildings, and rechristened the town after himself.  Burkittsville was founded in 1824, and still stands in Maryland today.

Just four years after the founding of Burkittsville, there was an incident involving a young child named Eileen Traecle.  This small child was wading in a very shallow stream.  Allegedly, before the eyes of at least a dozen eyewitnesses, a ghostly white hand reached up from underneath the water and pulled Eileen Traecle into it.  The water was reportedly less than a foot deep, yet the body of the little girl was never found.   For weeks afterward, several wooden stick figures mysteriously appeared in the creek bed, and the water itself became oily and contaminated for several months...."

"...However, after the little girl returned alone, the search party that had gone out after her had not returned.  So a second search party was organized to find them.  Their search ended at Coffin Rock, near the creek where Eileen Traecle had met her death less than fifty years before.

The second search party claimed they found the first search party stripped of all their clothes and belongings, and their bodies were tied to Coffin Rock.  Their intestines had been removed and their reproductive organs had been mutiliated.  On their chests, hands, feet, and foreheads, strange cryptic symbols had been painstakingly carved into their skin...."

"...Outside the shack and a small distance away they found seven graves marked with piles of stones.  When the graves were dug up, the children's bodies were recovered.  Their bodies had been treated in much the same way as the accounts of the victims at Coffin Rock.  Symbols had been cut into their faces, chests, hands and feet.  They had been disembowled...."

"...Rustin Parr, it was reported, admitted to the murders, saying the voice of an old woman told him to do these horrible deeds.  After the seventh death, the old woman's voice told him he was finally free.  He was sentenced to death by hanging, and his house was burned to the ground...."

To read all of the article in it's entirety, please scroll back up and click on the provided (highlighted) link from which these excerpts were obtained. The Blair Witch is an intriguing legend, to say the least. Some people still go to Coffin Rock and step inside the cave.

Those that dare to tread within, both during the daylight hours, as well as in the still of the night, claim to at times hear odd noises no sooner that they set foot on the grounds at the mouth of Coffin Rock. Some even tell of hearing an elderly woman's disembodied voice come from the depths of the seemingly endless cave dwellings. Sometimes, even a manic chuckling or all-out maniacal laughter.

This legend, and it's legendary namesake is of a story where you, the reader must decide for yourself. Is this a tale of a woman of the 1780's done wrong, and wrongly accused, as was the case back in the period of witchcraft, only to pay for the town's mistake and bring forth her wrath to following generations for eternity to come? Did a man claim insanity and admit to murders that he himself committed, only to blame it on a dark fairytale?

Or is The Blair Witch legend just that, a legend? Maybe it is a story to tell around the campfire and make all the children run to their tents and hide in fear of the possibility of something coming to get them?

Only Elly Kedward and Rustin Parr know the REAL truth behind whatever fiction lies behind the story.