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.

October Haunting - La Isla De La Muñecas; The Island of the Dolls

The labyrinthine canals of Mexico’s ancient Xochimilco district surround a scene that is both alarming and extraordinary. Within these peaceful wetlands, 18 miles from the capital, lies a small island on Teshuilo Lake where, amid the indigenous vegetation, thousands of sinister dolls hang from the branches, all in varying states of decay.

Their lifeless limbs sway silently in the gentle wind until night falls upon the land and, the local residents claim, the dolls become empowered by the spirits of the dead and call out to unwary passersby, beckoning them to a watery grave.

In the late 1950s, Don Julian Santana Barrera came to inhabit the nameless island on Teshuilo Lake, which were then a lonely, overgrown spot and seemingly perfect for his hermit-like requirements.

But, unbeknownst to Julian, the quiet island has a dark history. Local legend maintains that in the 1920s three young girls were playing on the island, only for one of them to drown, falling into the canal’s murky waters close to a small jetty. The nearby residents claimed that the dead girl’s spirit refused to pass on and remained tethered to the island. The area soon gained a degree of infamy and few dared to venture near the supposedly haunted land, especially at night.

Now, with Julian’s arrival, the girl’s spirit once again had someone to talk to. She told him of the manner of her death and asked him to find dolls for her to play with; adding that they would also help to ward off the ancient and evil spirits that still wandered the prehistoric wetlands. Evidently, Julian listened to the girl’s appeal, and began to search the area, scouring the rubbish dumps and plucking any discarded dolls that floated on the gently lapping waters of the cloudy canals.

For many years Teshuilo Lake was forgotten by the outside world and Julian settled down, making the place his home, tilling the earth and collecting dolls. Until, in 1990 the area of Xochimilco was declared a site of national heritage. A multi-million pound program was established to clean up the canals, and soon water traffic once again passed by the island.

The hut-shrine that Julian built for the little girl.

At first Julian was thought to be something of an oddity; a crackpot who would gather unwanted dolls because he thought they were actual children that he could nurse back to life, but eventually people realized that he was simply a harmless old man with a rather peculiar past-time. In time, Julian accrued so many dolls that the island came to be called La Isla de las Muñecas (The Island of Dolls) but according to Julian, no amount of plastic companions seemed to satisfy the spirit’s thirst, and soon thousands of the toys festooned the island’s every square foot. Julian even constructed a modest hut for the purpose of housing a shrine dedicated to the dead girl’s spirit and the most special dolls he was given.

On April 21st 2001, Julian and his nephew, Anastasio were fishing on the island. Julian told his nephew that strange voices had been calling out to him from the waters of the canals, beckoning him to enter the water and join them. He explained that he had often heard weird voices, but had always been able to resist their calls. The two men carried on fishing together until Anastasio left to undertake some errands. When he returned he discovered his uncle floating face down in the canal near the small pier – at the same place that the girl had lost her life in the 1920s. Had the eighty-year-old finally submitted to the otherworldly voices and given himself up to the deathly grip of the ancient waters, never to emerge?

Despite Julian’s death the dolls remain to glare at the visitor with sinister, soulless eyes. That is if they have any eyes at all as many of them are headless or limbless and burnt and all have been discolored by the elements, in many cases creating even more unnatural and disturbing visions: curious paradoxes of neglect and loving care that gaze silently, forebodingly from their arboreal perches. Everywhere, mottled and blistered faces stare back. Even the flora and fauna have embraced the island’s plastic denizens with doll’s cavities becoming home to plant life and exotic spiders, their silken webs spun inside gaping mouths and empty eye sockets.

In spite of their obvious decay, the dolls are said to become animated at night and their voices are said to carry on the breeze. Anastasio himself claims that he has observed the dolls moving of their own accord, twisting their heads and bending their limbs unnaturally. Whatever the truth is, La Isla de las Muñecas remains an striking sight and the four hour round-trip to the island is becoming ever more popular with sight-seers, and, since Julian’s demise, La Isla de las Muñecas is set to be one of Mexico's strangest tourist attractions.

October Haunting - The Black Cat of Killakee House

Tom McAssey's portrait of the Black Cat of Killakee House

In 1968 Mrs Margaret O’Brien and her husband, Nicholas, purchased what was then a derelict building intending to turn it into an arts centre. Several workmen lived on the site during renovation, and they soon grew used to eerie sounds and uncanny happenings.

But, when a large feline appeared mysteriously before them and then suddenly vanished, the builders became decidedly uneasy and the legend of the black cat of Killakee was born.

Mrs O’Brien thought the stories nonsense to begin with, but then she too saw the creature and, as she put it, "began to understand the fear."

The first time she crossed its path; it was squatting on the flagstones of the hallway just glaring at her. Every door in the house was locked both before and after its sudden appearance and subsequent disappearance.

But it was the painter, Tom McAssey who had the most famous confrontation with the mysterious creature. In March 1968 he and two other men were working in a room of the house, when the temperature began to drop alarmingly. Suddenly the door swung wide open and a hazy figure appeared in the darkness. Thinking it was someone playing a joke he called out "come in, I can see you." But all three men froze in terror when the reply was a low, angry growl. Moments later they fled the room slamming the door behind them. But, when Tom McAssey looked back, the door was wide open again, and a hideous black cat with blazing red eyes was snarling at him from the shadows of the room. "I thought my legs wouldn’t take me away from the place," he later recalled, "I was really in a bad state."

Following this chilling encounter Margaret O’Brien had the building exorcised and things quietened down for a time.

But then, in October 1969, a group of actors staying at the arts centre decided to hold a séance for a joke and the disturbances began again. Furthermore they seemed to have raised the spirits of two nuns, who would appear before startled witnesses in the gallery of the centre.

The Killakee House

A local medium, Sheila St. Clair, visited the property and claimed that the phantoms were the unhappy spirits of two women who had assisted at satanic rituals held during the meetings of the notorious Hell Fire Club in the 18th century.

Richard Parsons had founded an Irish branch of this club in 1735 and they are said to have held their sinister assemblies, in a hunting lodge, the ruins of which can still be seen on Montpelier Hill behind the centre.

Local legend tells how Richard "Burnchapel" Whaley, a member of one of the areas richest families, had joined the society and had revelled in the debauched rituals.

These are said to have included the burning alive of a black cat on at least one occasion; the worshipping of cats in place of Satan himself; the setting on fire of an unfortunate woman stuffed inside a barrel; and the ritual beating and murder of a poor deformed boy.

At a meeting of the club in 1740, a servant is said to have spilt a drink on Thomas Whaley, who was so enraged by the accident that he had the servant doused in brandy and set ablaze.

The subsequent fire burnt down the building and killed several members of the club.

In July 1970, a dwarfish skeleton was discovered buried beneath the kitchen floor of the building and in the grave with it was the brass statuette of a monstrous demon, which gave credence to at least one of the legends. A priest was called in to give the body a proper burial and thereafter the manifestations ceased.

Today, a pleasant restaurant occupies the old house, and hellish felines seem to be very much a thing of the past. But reminders still exist of its more sinister bygone days.

Chief amongst these is Tom McAssey’s portrait of "The Black Cat of Killakee" that gazes hauntingly down from one of the walls, its eerie red eyes and almost human features enough to send cold shivers racing down the spine.

October Haunting - The Monte Cristo Homestead

You can see an alleged ghost in the window.

Monte Cristo has been plagued by many horrific incidents and deaths over the years. Not surprisingly, the homestead is known as 'Australia's Most Haunted House'. It has been featured on several TV shows including The Extraordinary, ABC TV's Big Country and more recently, the psychological gameshow, Scream Test.

The house and grounds are reported to have seven ghostly residents, although there could be more.

The most dominant ghost according to psychics is Mrs. Crawley herself, which isn't at all surprising since she was known to rule Monte Cristo with an iron fist. During the first few years she spent a great deal of time in the Drawing Room. However, after Mr. Crawley passed away she spent most of her time in the newly converted Chapel. It is here that she is seen most frequently, dressed in black and carrying a large silver cross. Her ghost has been known to order people out of the Dining Room and her presence is felt when a room suddenly becomes icy cold.

The apparition of a woman in period dress has been seen walking along this verandah. You could be excused in thinking that she was a guest at the period ball that is held annually at the estate, however when this apparition passes in front of the windows the light shines right through her! The identity of this woman is not known.

A maid fell to her death from the balcony. The blood stained steps below were cleaned and to this day, you can still see the discolouration from the bleach. Could she be the mysterious woman who still walks the balcony?

There have been at least three deaths on the second story of this beautiful homestead. A woman died giving birth on one of the beds, and Mr. Crawley himself died as a result of blood poisoning from his starched collar in what is now known as the Boys Bedroom.

Footsteps have been heard walking through empty rooms, along the hall and down the stairs which is strange in itself. However, what is even stranger is that the steps sound as though the person is walking on hard wood or lino floors even though the entire house is now carpeted!

Faces have also been seen peering through second story windows even though there is no balcony or support outside. In the Drawing Room, objects such as vases move around. A tapestry hanging on the wall was often found undamaged on the floor the next day. This strange occurance continued until Reg moved the tapestry to another wall and there is remains today, undisturbed.

One of the most disturbing accidents occurred when the Crawley's baby girl fell from her nanny's arms and down the stairs. She subsequestly died from her injuries. The distraught maid claimed that the baby had been pushed out of her arms by an unseen force (which of course was never proven). Today, young children become very agitated and unruly near or around the staircase.

The surrounding grounds have also had a fair share of tragic deaths. The Coach House/Stables was also the sleeping quarters for a stable boy named Morris, who was one day too ill to rise for work. The boss did not believe the boy, and set fire to his bedding. Unfortunately, Morris was too ill to escape and was burnt to death.

A mentally retarded man named Harold, the son of a housekeeper working at Monte Cristo, was kept locked in shackles in the Caretaker's Cottage for forty years. He was found curled up at the feet of his mothers dead body, and sent to a home for the insane where he died shortly afterwards.

The most recent death at Monte Cristo occurred in 1961 when caretaker Jackie Simpson was murdered by a local youth. After watching the movie Psycho several times, the boy made his way up to the grounds of the homestead with a rifle and shot the caretaker dead in his cottage. It is believed that he then scawled the words "DIE JACK HA HA" on the wooden door, a macabre inscription that can still be seen to this day.

October Haunting - The Bell Witch: The Only Known Account Where Paranormal Activity Resulted With the Death of a Human Being

The Bell Witch is a ghost story from the state of Tennessee. The legend of the Bell Witch revolved around a series of strange events experienced by the John Bell family of Adams, Tennessee between 1817 and 1821.

It is said that these events were witnessed and documented by hundreds of people. Among those who it was said witnessed these strange goings on was the future President of the United States Andrew Jackson, and because of that it is one of the most famous and documented paranormal events in history.

Some believed that the Bell Witch was a woman by the name of Kate Batts, a rather strange neighbor of Bell's, who had sued him for cheating her in a land deal. There is documentation of the land sale conflict involving John Bell, but there is never any mention of any connection to Kate Batts.
Many investigators over the years have come to believe that the "witch" was actually a poltergeist, and that the Bell home was built on a Native American burial ground. According to the legend, the hauntings began in 1817, when John Bell encountered a very strange animal in a cornfield on his property. The animal was described as having the body of a dog and a head of a rabbit, and it vanished when John Bell shot at it.

The incident was very quickly followed by a series of strange manifestations. Beating, thumping, and gnawing, chewing like noises started around outside the house, but eventually they made their way inside the Bell home. Then the Bell children reported to their parents that their bedclothes were being regularly pulled off and tossed onto the floor by an invisible force. The family then reported a choking voice that also made low, guttural noises. In spite of all of this, John Bell did not believe that any supernatural entity was causing these mysterious happenings, and said so. Then Betsy Bell, the family's younger daughter and the only child still living at home, was violently assaulted. Her hair was pulled and an invisible force slapped her face. But, John Bell was a proud and stubborn man and admonished his family to never tell anyone what was happening lest they be thought crazy.

These events continued for well over a year before John Bell finally broke and reported them to his neighbors, James Johnston and his wife. They both reported that they had witnessed many of the strange and frightening events. It was at this point the bizarre events that were being experienced by the Bell family became very well known in the Red River community. Especially the reports of a voice talking loudly and clearly, singing, and even quoting from the Bible and accurately describing events happening in places that were miles away.

At some point the involvement of the future U.S. President Andrew Jackson heard of the bizarre haunting and decided to observe them in person. This was in 1819. As Jackson and his entourage neared the Bell farm, they encountered an invisible presence that stopped his wagon in its tracks, until he acknowledged that the witch was responsible. The wagon was then able to proceed.
One of the men in Jackson’s group claimed to be a "witch tamer" who intended to kill the spirit. The man suddenly began screaming and twisting his body immediately after making this statement. Jackson and his entourage left the Bell farm by around noon the next day. He is quoted as saying "I'd rather fight the entire British Army than to deal with the Bell Witch."

The Bell Witch torments John Bell

Betsy Bell became engaged to a neighbor named Joshua Gardner. This apparent displeased the entity, and so it followed and taunted, teased, and assaulted them whenever they were alone together. Betsy broke off the relationship on Easter Monday in 1821.

This disembodied voice also continued to very clearly state its dislike of John Bell, and of its intentions to kill him. Bell was by then suffering frequent facial seizures, often rendering him speechless. The Bell family blamed John's affliction on the witch.

John Bell died on December 20, 1820. A strange small vial contained an unidentified liquid that he had apparently ingested by accident was found near the body. And when the remaining liquid was given to the family cat, the animal died immediately. The family said they heard a voice say "I gave Ol' John a big ol' dose o' that last night, and that fixed him." Later, at John Bell's burial, funeral guests reported hearing a voice laughing and singing.

John Bell's death signaled the end of the strange events, but Lucy Bell said a voice told her that it would return in 1828. During visit that year, John Bell Jr. said that a voice talked with him, predicting such events as the American Civil War, the Great Depression and both of the World Wars.
According to the legend, after the entity appeared in 1828, it said it would return after 107 years sometime in 1935.

Many people believe that the spirit returned in 1935, and took up residence on the old Bell property, and remains there till this day. It is reported that the faint sounds of people talking and children playing can sometimes be heard in the area and it is reported that it is very hard to take a good picture there.

Contributed by Simone Mefford and Copyright © 2007 True Ghost Tales all rights reserved.

October Haunting - The Haunting of Changi Series: The Mortuary

The mortuary is the white building on the right.

Most people who went to OCH would have asked: where is mortuary? Although they looked up and down, level by level and corner by corner in the OCH compound, they would never find it. The mortuary is not located in the main buildings but in a small timber house at the most west side of the OCH territory. There is a small road that connects to it from behind the hill. Most people wouldn't notice about it. And that is the idea. Just like we don't prominently see vehicles that deliver corpses running around the roads. With the kind permission of the security guard and our privileges from NHB, we were allowed to walk near the mortuary to take a picture. "There is nothing special there, my friends. All the fridges are now empty ones", the security guard exclaimed.

"The compound was or rather is really haunted. The spirits are especially active on Monday, Wednesday and Friday,” according to the security guard with a definite voice tone. "Usually we can only see them with their back facing us, they seldom show their front," he added. Door slamming, lady screaming in the middle of the night is already the norm for him.

On one particular incident at around 1:45 AM, a strong gust of wind blew suddenly when he was reading the paper, making his hair stand on ends. As he raised his head to take a peek at the surrounding, he saw two ladies, a Malay and the other Chinese, standing just 1 meter beside him. When asked about how he feels about his job as a night guard, he said that it was scary in the beginning but he is used to it now. Up to now, the mortuary was still well maintained. It allows accommodation up to a maximum of four corpses.

October Haunting - The Haunting of Changi Series: The Haunted Wards, Torture Chamber and the Elusive Underground Bunker

The next bit of the Old Changi series describes various areas of the hospital not covered in my previous posts. They are accounts of a group of people exploring the hospital at night and providing photos of their explorations. While they didn't really encounter any paranormal activity, they definitely could not deny the feeling of dread emanating from the area.

The Haunted Wards

Inside the OCH compound, you can see many wards with high ceilings. Notice that the wards and rooms are never closed up. This design makes air ventilation easier for the wards didn't have any air-cond but ceiling fans! Now those wards are totally left empty except some fixtures such as fans, wall-mounted switches, basins and some built-up platforms on the floor. By using a bit of imagination, one can vaguely resemble how it was like when the wards were in use. Rows of sick-beds lined up the place, wounded soldiers and ill patients suffered and mourned in pain. Doctors and nurses in white robes busy walking in and out of the wards. Many patients who could not make it had their last breath right there...

The Torture Chamber 

Perhaps this is the 2nd most scariest place in OCH after the mortuary. Out of so many wards and rooms, we found one that is remarkably different. Even for today it has a kind of emergency red-and-white plastic tape barring it off from access. It didn't seems to safe guard people from any physical danger inside the room, but may be from something else... This particular room (rather we call it a chamber) unlike the others with open wall ends on top is completely self-contained. The walls are made of thick solid concrete and unpainted. Further inside you will see some concrete built-up structure as if it was used for securing something tight on the floor. One of the horrible signs is the metal chains with one end set loose and the other end securely fixed on the wall. It seemed strong enough to tie up a tiger. And, you can see maroon colored blood stains are still left on the floor. Absolutely horrible. One would expect to see such a chamber in a prison but never in a hospital! But don't forget, this is a military hospital used by the Japanese. There are many undocumented stories saying that during the war many "important" citizens and POWs were detained at OCH. Most had never been seen again, and they were believed to be tortured to death over here.

The Underground Bunker

The tunnel that led to the alleged underground bunker.

There are rumors saying that OCH has an underground bunker under the hill that connects to the barracks nearby. We found some suspicious spots that very few people know about. The first spot is the main lift at OCH inside has a button for going underground. But the lift now is immobilized. The second and third spots are the hastily sealed up mound by simply dumping plenty of concrete at the ground floor staircase, and the exit door at the other end of the building got tightly nailed shut respectively. This clue suggested us to believe firmer that such an underground bunker exists. Throughout the 70 years of history from pre-war British occupation to post-war Japanese occupation, it would be beyond our imagination on what secret treasures may have hidden down there. Having those main entrances to the underground bunker completely sealed up on the ground floor and the fact that we were not able to break in (and we never wanted to do that), we had to look for a secret passage if there is any. A bold idea though it turned out as a failure is to try search for the secret passage from top-down. Right on the top of the building there is a small open look-out space. From there we found a chimney which we suspected is connected to the underground bunker. People who were in underground did need some air vent for breathing. Ok, true enough, this was what supported our believed. However, like a long tunnel, the chimney was so narrow that can barely allow one person climbing in and out. By using some special equipment we descended our camera deep down to the tunnel and captured some photos. We were counting the depth as the camera went down: 1 meter, 2 meter, 3, 4, 5 ... The tunnel was long and deep even our strongest halogen light could not reach the bottom. It looked as if it were leading to hell. After 20 meters or so, we had found bats resting on the wall of the tunnel for one moment, but they were gone for the next. What does this suggest? The tunnel was not dead-ended and down there may live a kingdom of bats! A thought of it made us shivered. So for our safety, we called off this exploration, and we do strongly advise people PLEASE DON'T TRY IT. If you can ever get in, there will be more likely to have another police report of man missing in OCH than you can safely walk out in one whole piece.