Ocotober Haunting - Rookwood Cemetery

Victorian Rookwood necropolis in Sydney, but it is the grave of the notorious Davenport Brothers, famous spiritualists. Rookwood Cemetery (officially named The Necropolis and named when it opened as The Necropolis, Haslams Creek.) is the largest multicultural necropolis in the Southern Hemisphere, close to Lidcombe Station in Sydney, Australia. It is also thought to be home to one of the lost or hidden gates to hell.


Located in this huge cemetery is also one of the many Devil's chairs. a supposed seat where the Devil is said to appear sitting on when someone wishes to make a deal with him. the actual cemetery is said to have several Devil Chairs and one special wishing bench.


The wishing bench of Rookwood is said to be very special and if you sit and pray on it your prayers will be heard in heaven and answered immediately. There is also an old tale that tells that between midnight to 3am An angel appears and sits on it. They say this is to ward off and guard it against the devils from hell that would come to destroy it.

The name Rookwood came some 20 years after the establishment of the actual great necropolis, it was a means to differentiate the local village of Haslams Creek from the association of the burial ground, the village changed its name to Rookwood, and naturally the cemetery was soon known as Rookwood, the village changed its name again in the early 20th Century to "Lidcombe" (a combination of two Mayors names, Lidbury and Larcombe - Larcombe was also a Monumental Stone Mason). The actual haunted cemetery retained the name Rookwood.

Approximately one million people have their final resting place within the boundaries of its almost 3 km². The "Friends of Rookwood Inc" raise public awareness of the cultural and historical value of the cemetery and also the need to ensure its preservation.

Some older sections of Rookwood are overgrown with a riot of plants, early horticultural plants, some now large trees or groves, as well as an interesting array of remnant indigenous flora. This results in quite an eclectic mix of flora to be found within the necropolis. Many say that since so many are interred here it can't just help being one of the most haunted places where the dead are buried.

Many ghost photos, EVP's and actual documenting of what many call the most real encounters of actual paranormal activity in the world occur here daily. Many say that the ghost are more restless here in this down under haunted city of the dead then any other location documented.

October Haunting - The Coliseum

At the height of Rome’s power the Coliseum represented everything that was Imperial to the citizens of Rome. Gladiators would fight to the death here for the amusement of Caesar and the mobs; thousands of prisoners of war and victims of religious persecution met their end in the jaws of lions and tigers in the sandy arena of the Coliseum; and even those animals were decimated, for in its time the Coliseum consumed tens of thousands of animals, some reportedly driven into extinction by the Roman lust for blood and gore.

The workings of the Coliseum, the place where the real grit of life took place, were in the vaults beneath the sandy floor. Now long ago exposed by the ravages of time, there is still a pervasive feeling of awe associated with the lingering presence of a power so mighty it once encompassed the entire known world.

In the pits beneath the Coliseum, gladiators waited to fight, prisoners waited to die, and average Romans placed bets on the outcomes of myriad competitions. Such a fabric of life can’t help but wrap itself around the pillars and posts that make up the foundation of this ancient charnel house, and it is no surprise that many reports of ghostly activity have been associated with the Coliseum over the years.

Tour guides and visitors alike have reported cold spots, being touched or pushed, hearing indiscernible words whispered into their ears; security guards with the unenviable task of securing the ancient edifice have reported hearing the sounds of swords clashing, of weeping in the more remote areas, and, oddly enough most disconcerting, the sound of ghostly animal noises such as the roars of lions and elephants. Ghostly citizens have been seen among the seats of the Coliseum, and the sight of a Roman soldier standing guard, silhouetted against the night sky, is a common one.

With such ancient history and such a legacy of death and bloodshed, there is little wonder why the Roman Coliseum is one of the most haunted places in the world.

October Haunting - The Nottingham Road Hotel

The Nottingham Road Hotel is situated an hour from Durban and half an hour from King Shaka International Airport in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.  Notties, as the hotel has been fondly known by several generations, has been part of the little village of Nottingham Road since time immemorial.  It could even be said that the entire village sprang up around the beautiful old Hotel.  Within easy access to the Midlands Meander and its many attraction, with the beautiful Kamberg and Sani Pass close by, and the Nottingham Road Brewing Company only a stone’s throw away, this is a destination definitely worth visiting for a couple of days.

The Nottingham Road Hotel is an incredibly old building, so naturally it has to have a ghost.  Although no record of her death can be found, Charlotte was apparently a prostitute at the turn of the century.  She was either murdered or committed suicide when her love for a British army officer went unrequited.  Either way, her death involved a tumble over the balcony outside her favourite boudoir, Room 10.  The story of the ghost cannot be traced as records from the 1800’s were not completely accurate.  The hotel used to be a popular stop for British soldiers on their way to the interior during the Boer War.  Charlotte was allegedly a very beautiful prostitute but she was in love with one particular soldier.

One story says that she was told that her lover was killed in a battle skirmish and she was so heartbroken that she threw herself over the balcony and died of her injuries.  Another version says Charlotte was entertaining a client who refused to pay, a vicious fight ensued and she was beaten and flung over the balcony and died.

Charlotte has very particular tastes and is known to rearrange flowers to her own liking.  She also likes to move mirrors around, some say in order to show herself off to her best advantage.  Those who sleep in Room 10 will often find their clothes neatly folded the next morning and are often wakened by Charlotte having a lengthy conversation with an unseen friend.  She is also a bit of a tease and loves to ring the bell for room service to be brought to room 22, even though there is no such room.

Nottingham Road has the oldest pub in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands and over the years, many who have consumed copious quantities of beers and spirits in this cosy watering hole have seen strange sights as they have stumbled to bed.  Sightings of the beautiful ghost Charlotte have been consistent throughout the years.  She has often been seen in the hotel that was once her home and has become part of the legend that is the Nottingham Road Hotel.  Clive Foss, owner of the hotel, said that guests have reported having their bags unpacked and the taps turned on and off during the night.  Some have claimed that the pictures have been taken off the walls and laid on the floor.  Foss said that many visitors know about the ghost and some have unwittingly caught a glimpse of her in their photographs. “She is totally harmless and we think she likes it here,” he said.  “It’s a family hotel with traditional values and our customers think she adds a homely quality to the place.  When a building is this old, it is likely that somebody has died here.”

Charlotte is well known in the village, some folks have heard her, and some have seen her gliding round the corridors and down the stairs, just keeping a watchful eye.  Paranormal investigators believe that unquiet spirits have a reason for coming back.  The only way to find the truth is to sleep in Room 10.  This is no marketing gimmick, there is a ghost roaming the hotel.  Come and find out for yourself.  Spiritualists have seen her, children have chatted to the “nice lady”, but most people will only hear about her if they visit this rustic old hotel in the Nottingham area.

October Haunting - Bannack Ghost Town‏

Grasshopper Creek

Bannack, Montana was born in 1862 when gold was found along Grasshopper Creek. Like other gold rushes, miners rushed to the settlement in search of their fortunes and before long the hills around Bannack were filled with as many as 10,000 miners. With that many men during the era of the rough and tumble days of the Old West, there was bound to be violence.

Henry Plummer

Not long after the settlement was formed, in walked a man named Henry Plummer. Handsome, well dressed and charismatic, he gained the trust of the area miners and was soon elected sheriff of the burgeoning community. However, little did the unsuspecting citizens of Bannack know, but their new sheriff led a secret band of road agents called the "Innocents", who began to terrorize the travelers between Bannack and Virginia City, robbing and killing more than 100 men over the next several months.

In December 1863 the miners formed the Montana Vigilantes and during the next forty two days, the Vigilantes hanged 24 of the gang members, including Henry Plummer. Later, historians questioned the authenticity of the outlaw tale, suggesting that the whole story was only a cover for the ruthless vigilantes themselves. Today, many say that the ghost of Henry Plummer haunts this old settlement, which has long since become a ghost town. Perhaps he wants to avenge his name.

At the Hotel Meade, which was originally built as a courthouse in 1875, there are numerous stories of ghostly activity. When Bannack lost its county seat status to nearby Dillon in 1881, the building sat vacant until 1890 when it was remodeled into a plush hotel. The hotel opened and closed sporadically through the years with the ebb and flow of mining activity. At one time the building acted in the capacity of a hospital.

Cold spots, the apparition of a teen-age girl, and sounds of crying children are often reported by those who visit this old building. The first sighting of a young girl was well over a hundred years ago. The teen is said to be that of a girl named Dorothy Dunn who drowned in a dredge pond along the creek long ago. Shortly after her death, she made her first appearance to her best friend, who was with her at the time of her death.

The second picture that Judith had taken.

Since then there have been multiple sightings of the teen-age girl wearing a long blue dress on the second story of the old hotel. These reports often come from children, one of which reportedly stated that the ghost of Dorothy Dunn tried to talk to her. The seven year old could see Dorothy’s mouth moving but no sound came out. Dorothy has also been sighted standing in an upstairs window by passersby on the street below.

Judith of Ghosts, Poltergeists and Hauntings took this photograph at the General Store in Bannack, Montana. Judith actually took two pictures, the first of which turned out perfectly clear.

Yet more sightings have been reported throughout the town of ghostly women dressed in their best finery.

When mining played out, Bannack became a ghost town in the 1940s. However, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks saved the town from the elements and vandalism by making it a state park on August 15, 1954.

Today, over sixty structures remain standing, most of which can be explored. The staff preserve, rather than restore the buildings of this old town allowing visitors an opportunity to relive the American West.

October Haunting - Ghostly Photography

The Tulip Staircase Ghost 

On 19 June 1966, Reverend Ralph Hardy visited NationalMaritime Museum in Greenwich, England. When he went into the museum, Reverend Ralph was fascinated by an elegant spiral staircase known as the "Tulip Staircase". Therefore, he took a photo of the corridors to make memories. However, when he had his photos developed, he was stunned to see a shrouded figure clinging to the banister with both hands. The photo was taken immediately to experts and council members in both technical staff of leading Kodak ones. They examined the original and concluded that it had not been tampered with.

The Brown Lady

“The Brown Lady” is considered as the most famous ghostly photo that was taken at Raynham Hall in Norfolk, England by a Captain Provand in September, 1936. The ghost is thought to be Lady Dorothy Townshend, wife of Charles Townshend in the early 1700s. According to records, Dorothy died in 1726 but local people believe that her husband had lied about this. Indeed, Dorothy lived many years later under the tunnel and her husband had locked her in order to punish her for treason.

 The Back Seat Ghost

In 1959, Mrs. Mabel Chinnery spend one day-off visiting the grave of her mother. After snapping a few shots of her mother's gravestone, she took an impromptu photo of her husband who was waiting alone in the car. And Mabel met a miracle, her dead mother appeared in the photo.



 Lord Combermere’s Ghost 

In 1891, when Mr. Lord Combermere in Combermere Abbey died for having been struck and killed by a horse-drawn carriage, his family hired a photographer to capture the funeral. At the time Sybell Corbet took the above photo, Combermere's funeral was taking place some four miles away. The figure of a man can faintly be seen sitting in the chair to the left. His head, collar and right arm on the armrest are clearly discernable. It is believed to be the ghost of Lord Combermere.

The Spectre of Newby Church

This photograph was taken in 1963 by Reverend K. F. Lord at Newby Church in North Yorkshire, England. And this picture has become one of the most famous ghostly photo in history. Many people viewing this photo confirmed this is the face of Death. Immediately the picture was brought to experts and the photographers had to admit that this picture is not completely false. And so, this is the first photo shoot of Death’s real face.

October Haunting - The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall‏

The Brown Lady - She is allegedly the subject of
one of the most controversial ghost photographs
that will be in tomorrow's October Haunting entry 

According to legend, the Brown Lady of Raynham is the ghost of Lady Townshend who was married to Charles Townshend, a man known for his fiery temper. When Charles learned of his wife's infidelity, he punished her by imprisoning her in the family estate at Raynham Hall, located in Norfolk, England. He never allowed her to leave its premises, not even to see her children. She remained there until her death, when she was an old woman.

Over the next two centuries Lady Townshend's ghost was repeatedly sighted wandering through Raynham Hall, suggesting that she never left its premises even after her death.

For instance, in the early nineteenth century King George IV saw her while he was staying at the hall. He said that she stood beside his bed wearing a brown dress, and that her face was pale and her hair disheveled.

In 1835 Colonel Loftus sighted her. He was visiting the house for the Christmas holidays and was walking to his room late one night when he saw a figure standing in the hall in front of him. The figure was wearing a brown dress. He tried to see who the woman was, but she mysteriously disappeared.

The next week Colonel Loftus again saw the figure. This time, however, he got a better look at her. He said she was an aristocratic looking woman. She was wearing the same brown satin dress, and her skin glowed with a pale luminescence, but, to his horror, her eyes had been gouged out.

Colonel Loftus told others of his experience, and more people then came forward to say that they too had seen a strange figure. An artist drew a painting of the 'brown lady' (as she was now known), and this picture was then hung in the room where she was most frequently seen.

A few years later the novelist Captain Frederick Marryat was staying at Raynham Hall. He decided to spend the night in the room in which she was most frequently seen. He studied the painting of her and waited to see her, but she never appeared that night.

However, a few days later he was walking down an upstairs hallway with two friends when they suddenly saw the brown lady. She was carrying a lantern and glided past them as they cowered behind a door. According to Marryat she grinned at them in a 'diabolical manner'. Before she disappeared, Marryat leapt out from behind the door and fired at her with a pistol that he happened to be carrying. The bullet passed through her and lodged in a wall.

Raynham Hall

The brown lady continued to be sighted by various people over the next century. However, the most remarkable sighting of her occurred on September 19, 1936.

Two photographers, Captain Provand and Indre Shira, were on assignment at Raynham Hall for the magazine Country Life.According to Shira, this is what happened:

"Captain Provand took one photograph while I flashed the light. He was focusing for another exposure; I was standing by his side just behind the camera with the flashlight pistol in my hand, looking directly up the staircase. All at once I detected an ethereal veiled form coming slowly down the stairs. Rather excitedly, I called out sharply: 'Quick, quick, there's something.' I pressed the trigger of the flashlight pistol. After the flash and on closing the shutter, Captain Provand removed the focusing cloth from his head and turning to me said: 'What's all the excitement about?'"

When they developed the picture they found that they had captured the image of a ghostly woman, apparently the famous brown lady, drifting down the stairs. The picture was published inCountry Life on December 16, 1936.

Skeptics, however, argue that the picture is a fake. The photo analyst Joe Nickell examined the photograph and concluded that it was nothing more than two images composited together.

While the picture of her might be a fake, there is nothing to prove that the brown lady of Raynham herself isn't real, although she has rarely been sighted since 1936 (although the late Marchioness of Townshend told Dennis Bardens in the 1960s that she had seen the figure several times).

The absence of Lady Townshend from Raynham Hall may be due to the fact that she reportedly also haunts Sandringham House, and so it could be that she is simply choosing to spend her time there instead. At Sandringham she appears as her young, happy self, whereas in Raynham she appears as the eerie, aged brown lady.

October Haunting - The Blood Countess

The Blood Countess Elizabeth Bathory

Elizabeth was born in August 1560, into one of the richest and most powerful families in Hungary, a family that had more than its fair share of scandalous members, including an uncle who was believed to be a worshiper of Satan, a bi-sexual aunt, Klara, with a penchant for torturing servants, and a brother, Stephan, who was prone to bouts of heavy drinking and lecherous acts. That, combined with the witness of a gyspy being sewn into a horse and left for dead at a very young age, may have played a part in the vile lady she was to later become.

At the tender age of 15, Elizabeth married Ferenc Nadasdy, a union though to have been arranged by both families as a political power move. Nadasdy was besotted with his young bride though, and as a wedding gift, he presented her with Csejte castle, and as he was often away at battle, Elizabeth was left with the task of disciplining the servants, a job she attacked with unbridled glee.

Among the punishments doled out were, beating with a heavy club, sticking pins into the lips, flesh, and under the fingernails, and, probably most brutal of all, taking the girls outside, laying them in the snow and pouring cold water on them until they froze to death. It is believed that Elizabeth had some help when it came to carrying out these acts, in the shape of her manservant Ficszko, Helena Jo, who helped look after the Bathory children, Dorka, and washerwoman Katarina. In the early 1600’s, Elizabeth befriended a woman named Anna Darvulia who was believed to have been both a lover and teacher of new torture techniques.

After the death of her husband in 1604, and the passing of Darvulia a few years later, Elizabeth’s levels of depravity and torture reached their peak. Not content to punishing her sevants, she picked young women from the surrounding area, as well as some supplied by her aunt Karla, and performed barbaric acts of cruelty and sexual abuse upon them. The blood flowed freely and legend says that Elizabeth would bathe in the crimson offal in an attempt to keep her beauty, an act that led to her receiving the moniker of the blood countess.

The Countess' Ruined Castle Cachtice

It is believed that Elizabeth and her gang of accomplices were involved in the murder of more than 650 young women during their reign of terror. That ended in 1610, when Gyorgy Thurzo was dispatched to investigate the alleged crimes, and collect evidence that would lead to arrest and trial. Thurzo and his men went to Cjeste Castle in December of that year and discovered one dead girl and another dying. The arrests were made, and the trial set for January, 1611; Helena, Dorka and Ficszko were sentenced to death by burning, the two women having their fingers cut off, and the manservant beheaded, before they were cast into the flames.

Elizabeth was never convicted, but was condemned to a single, walled-in room in her castle where she lived out the remainder of her days, passing in 1614 at the age of 54. The legend of the blood countess has continued to grow over the years, with the total body count and the blood bathing being brought into question, but what cannot be questioned is that Elizabeth Bathory may go down in history as the most brutally sadistic woman to have ever lived.