Although this house was once the home of famous pirate Jean Laffite, it is the ghost of another notorious pirate, known as Captain Flint, who haunts the place. It is said that as he lay on his deathbed, he kept calling to his First Mate, Darby McGraw, to bring him more rum. Today, his cries are still heard by visitors to the restaurant that now occupies the house. His scar-faced phantom has also been seen roaming in the basement tunnel. The tunnel, big enough to drive a bus through, was discovered during renovations. It leads to the river and probably served as an escape route for pirates trying to make it back to the sea. (Pirate's House is at the corner of East Broad and Bay Streets. The address is 20 East Broad Street, Savannah, GA 31401. Phone: 912-233-5757.)
Asheley's Restaurant - Rockledge,Florida
The ghost of a young girl, dressed in Roaring-Twenties clothing, haunts the ladies room here. Her likeness emerges from one of the stalls or appears in the mirrors. Several women have reported feeling a choking sensation when passing through the corridor to the Ladies Room. The ghost ventures to other places in the Tudor-style building, only to break dinnerware in the Kitchen, turn lights on and off in the Bar, or shove customers from behind in the Dining Room. She is thought to be either the spirit of Ethyl Allen, brutally murdered in a storage room here in the 1920s, or the ghost of a young woman who died in a car accident on Highway 1 in front of the restaurant. Dozens of employees and customers have reported apparitions over the years, and sightings have increased since 1979. A 1993 investigation documented a variety of phenomena, including a swirling mass of ghostlike energy recorded on a thermographic camera. (Rockledge is on the east central coast, 12 miles north of Melbourne on U.S. Hwy 1. Ethyl Allen's burned and mutilated body was found at Eau Gallie, on the banks of the Indian River. Asheley's Restaurant is at 1609 South U.S. Hwy 1, Rockledge, FL 32955. Phone: 407-636-6430.)
Cheesman Park - Denver,Colorado
This innocent looking city park is built on top of a graveyard. The Mount Prospect graveyard, which came to be known as Boot Hill, was created in 1858. In 1873, officials renamed the place City Cemetery but only buried criminals, transients, and epidemic victims there. In 1893, the city gave notice that all bodies had to be removed within ninety days. Needless to say, most of the graves remained untouched. The city hired an undertaker to dig up the 6,000 to 10,000 remaining bodies, put them in 1-foot by 3½-foot pine boxes, and deliver them for burial at Riverside Cemetery. It was a horrifying sight. Workers broke corpses into pieces to get them to fit into the mini-caskets. Body parts littered the ground and got mixed together in the process. Many of the graves were looted by the men digging them up. During the work, psychics warned workers the dead would return unless a short prayer was uttered for each casket, but no one listened to them. One worker, removing valuable brass from the coffins, ran hysterically from the graveyard saying a ghost jumped on his back. People in neighboring houses reported confused spirits wandering through their homes or appearing in mirrors. A huge scandal erupted, and Mayor Platt Rogers ordered all work halted, while an investigation was conducted. No one was able to sort out the mess the workers left behind. The remaining bodies were plowed under, and grass and trees planted. Today, sensitives detect an undertone of sadness and confusion at the site, and some say they can hear a low moaning sound coming from the restless ground. (The Catholic section of the original cemetery was removed in an orderly fashion by church members and is now occupied by the Botanical Gardens. The Jewish section was also completely cleared and is now called Congress Park. Cheesman Park, named for a prominent citizen, is in central Denver, in the Civic Center area. The park is bounded by 8th and 13th Avenues, near University Boulevard.)
The Black Forest area - Colorado Springs,COLORADO
The Black Forest area directly east of the Air Force Academy has seen in increase in its strangeness index in the last few months. The haunted section is in El Paso County, 15 miles northeast of Colorado Springs. Take I-25 north to Route 83 north for 7 miles to the Black Forest exit. The haunting began within weeks of buying their new home in 1992. It was like the gates of hell opened up in the Lee family home. "One day we came home," said Beth Lee, "and it was like the Fourth of July in our living room and in our bedroom. We had all kinds of lights flashing through, and it sounded like people stomping across the roof. We would lay in bed at night and hear chains rattling. One night we woke up and heard orchestra music. Strange things started happening every day." The two boys complained of weird lights and shadows in their rooms, lights and appliances started going on and off by themselves, and untraceable chemical odors burned family members’ eyes and throats. Over the next four years, they would have sixty-two unexplainable "break-ins." The El Paso County Sheriff’s Department opened an investigation in April 1993 and conducted forty-five follow-ups but could never find any evidence of a "crime." After the sheriff stopped responding, the Lees hired private investigators to try to figure out what was going on. About that time, Steve noticed that photographs and videotape taken in certain locations on the property had strange light streaks running through them, and sometimes, translucent faces even appeared on the film. Determined to document the activity, Steve borrowed or purchased every type of camera he could think to see if the bizarre images appeared, but no matter what type of camera or film he used, he captured evidence of unexplainable light phenomena that included brilliant beams, floating balls of light, and glowing outlines of humans and animals. Sometimes the mysterious lights could be seen with the naked eye, though most often, they lasted just a split second and showed up only on film. Steve and Beth finally agreed that something paranormal might be going on in their home, and in early 1995, they sent some of the pictures and videotape to the "Sightings" television show. Hollywood special effects technician Edson Williams examined the Lee films and told the producers of the show that most of the light images would be extremely difficult to reproduce and some seemed to defy the laws of optics entirely. "Sightings" immediately dispatched a film crew to the Black Forest, and once on site, were able to document some of the weird phenomena the Lees had witnessed. In three visits to the property "Sightings" brought along Minneapolis ghostbuster Echo Bodine and Los Angeles psychic Peter James, who both identified powerful presences in the house. A Hopi shaman consulted on the Black Forest hauntings said that the area is a "Rainbow Vortex," one of only a few psychic energy spots on the planet that connect our world with the next. Red, yellow, and white lightforms are seen and recorded, as well as apparitions of an old lady, a little girl, a burly man dressed in 1800s clothing, and a "flying dog," not to mention the hundreds of forlorn faces seen floating in the Lee’s bedroom mirrors. Infrared photos of these apparitions featured in the article "The Black Forest Haunting" in the March 1998 issue of FATE magazine. (Copies can be ordered by calling Llewellyn Publications at 800-THE-MOON.) Investigator Dennis William Hauck recorded more unexplainable phenomena when he visited the site in October 1996. State Senator Charles Duke also personally investigated and confirmed the existence of paranormal activity. Photographs he took show light beams and cloudy humanoid shapes, typical of those taken by Lee (shown above). An FBI agent suggests that the cause of the activity is poltergeists and not alien beings. Psychic Peter James has suggested "alien ghosts" as a possible cause. Some Hopi Indians believe the site is located over a "Rainbow Vortex" of psychic energy. Steve Lee so far has invested over $70,000 in security equipment to try to capture the "presence" responsible for the flashes of light, moving shadows, foul odors, poltergeist activity, and loud noises that plague his family. Recently he installed ultrasonic camera triggering devices as well as digital cameras to document the activity. So far, there are over 3,000 photographs and 400 videotapes supporting the validity of this case. There are only two other locations (Arizona and England) where photographic phenomena similar to those from the Black Forest are currently being recorded.
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