In St Augustine’s Florida was a protestant burial ground from 1821 to 1884. Prior to American occupation the Spanish city of St Augustine was mainly Catholic and the only cemetery, Tolomato Cemetery, was reserved for that religion only. A protestant burial ground was needed so the new one was opened.
It was opened just before an outbreak of yellow fever, which claimed a lot of lives. It has around 436 recorded burials for the period and though named the Huguenot Cemetery it does not likely have anyone of the sect buried there.
In 1882 Judge Stickney made a business trip to Washington D.C. and was not feeling too well. 5 days later he died, most likely from typhoid and a brain haemorrhage, his body was sent to St Augustine for burial, it amassed quite a crowd. He was then buried at the cemetery.
In 1903 his children then had his body exhumed to be reburied in D.C, George Wells was employed to carry out the task. He had quite the crowd around him as he opened the coffin lid. After 21 the judge was in excellent condition for a dead man. The crowd heard a noise, two drunks were singing and making a scene. They then sprang upon the dead man, Mr Wells managed to get order restored but in the fracas someone had stolen his gold teeth.
Rumour has it that Judge Stickney wanders the cemetery still trying to find either his teeth or the culprits.
Discovery Island is an 11.5 acre island at the Walt Disney World attraction, Bay Lake, Florida and was once open for guests from 1974 until April 8th 1999 when it was closed to the public.
From the early 1900’s it was known as Raz Island and Disney brought it in 1965, it opened up as Treasure Island in 1974 as a place to observe wildlife. It was later renamed Discovery Island and was recognized as a zoological park. 8th April, 1999 it closed but was operational until 9th July whilst they relocated the animals into other Disney areas like their Animal Kingdom.
Once closed Disney considered teaming up with Myst game creators to make it into a living game island. It never got past the concept stage, a shame as having played Myst that could have been something pretty awesome.
In 1990 the dusty seaside sparrow was declared extinct as the birds were last recorded on the island in 1987 and they seemingly died off entirely.
Online information states that the power was cut in 2009, but before that the illusion was that it was fully operational. Someone in 2009 on a blog mentioned the eerie sounds of the Disney theme music still playing. From most sources that I could find it seems that it more likely the place is operating with power as security would need it; the island is still patrolled with security so this would make sense.
As of this year it is also reported that the buildings and the attractions are still on the island. It is pretty much a given that they will have suffered through the ages, that hurricanes and weather patterns have meant that the usual toll has been taken and it is possible to see it from the Disney Wilderness lodge, the Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground and there are boat trips that mean you are likely to spot them as you head around on that trip. If you have been or seen it would you let me know?
The tiny village of Nyack in New York State was park of a court case that has become known as the ‘Ghostbuster’ ruling. It means that when selling a property there must be a declaration if it is haunted in the sale information.
The building was constructed around 1900, an imposing Victorian home which was purchased by the Ackley family in the 1960’s. She shared the house with her children and grandchildren and had reported to neighbours that the property was haunted. There were footsteps, doors slamming and beds shaking but she said they lived peacefully with the two spirits. Helen Ackley said they were Sir George and Lady Margaret both of which were a revolutionary war era couple and despite the neighbours scepticism she told the local media about it.
It most likely wasn’t anything too material, but again who knows, and yet the stories took hold either way. They rose in heat when a young and healthy guest at the home came for a dinner party only to collapse and die of a brain aneurysm.
In 1989 she decided to sell the home to Jeffrey Stambovsky, the sale fell through after he made the deposit only to find out that the property was on a local ghost tour. The court case was ruled in his favour as she had not mentioned this in the details. It’s worth noting that subsequent owners have not reported any strange goings on.
After the court case the disgusted Ackley left for Florida, she then declared she was taking the ghosts with her? Whatever the truth this seems like one hell of an odd statement to make…
Carl Tanzer, Feb 8th 1877 to July 3rd 1952, was a German-born radiologic technologist in Key-West, Florida, USA who developed a particularly morbid obsession for Elena Milagro de Hoyos, a tuberculosis patient. During his childhood and later in Genoa, Italy, he claimed he had been visited by a dead ancestor who revealed the face of his true love, her face was one of an exotic dark-haired woman.
22nd April 1930, de Hoyos came to the hospital for an examination, she was brought in by her mother. He recognised her as the woman from the visitations of his ancestor. De Hoyos was diagnosed with TB, a fatal disease at the time and eventually despite Tanzler’s best efforts she succumbed to the disease.
Tanzer paid for her funeral, with the permission of the family he then commissioned the construction of an above ground mausoleum. It was constructed in the Key West Cemetery and he visited there pretty much most nights. To be honest this already seems to rate high on the WTF list, but it gets more bizarre.
April, 1933 Tanzer crept into the mausoleum and stole her body, taking her home and here he said her spirit would visit. He claimed she often asked him to take her from the grave, and so it seems he did. What he did to preserve her sounds like a work of horror fiction. Her bones were attached together by wire and coat hangers, her face was fitted with glass eyes and as the corpses skin decomposed he would replace it with silk cloth, soaked in wax and plaster of Paris.
Her hair was replaced by using Hoyo’s wig hair, who gave him the hair? Well her mother had collected her hair for a wig and gave it to him after her death. I am still wondering why but at this point the story continues…
Tanzer filled her chest and abdominal cavity with rags to keep her in her original form, then dressed her, put on stockings and jewellery and kept her body in his bed. He then used a lot of fragrances, detergent and preserving agents to mask the msells. Yes I am still going, I did say it was morbid.
October 1940 (Seven years later) her sister visited Tanzley, she had heard odd rumours, Florida authorities were notified when she saw the truth for herself. He was found to be mentallyl competent, he was charged with destruction of the grave and theft of the body. Bizarrely he never had to defend himself because the case was dropped, the statute of limitations for the crime had expired. Even more upsetting for her family the body was put on display at the Dean-Lopez Funeral Home and around 6,800 ish people came to see it.
Eventually she was reburied at the cemetery but to prevent tampering it was an unmarked grave. Strangely it seems the public mood was that sympathy for a hopeless romantic should be given to Tanzler. I can’t help but think that’s not quite the reaction I’d have had… later there was a claim that he had inserted a tube into her vagina too but this evidence has been met with scepticism, mostly because other than the rumour there appears to be no evidence…
Separated from the woman’s body he then used a death mask to create a life-sized effigy of Hoyos, the effigy lived with him until he died 3rd July. 1952. He was found on the floor three weeks after his death and died under the name Carl Tanzer.
Ripley’s Believe It Or Not museum in Key West, Florida has an exibit that recreats the caring he did to her body. And Svbway to Sally have a video themed around it.
Jacksonville, Florida, is home to an odd brown, brick school infamously known as the ‘Devil’s School’. It’s original and official name is/was Duval Country’s public school No 4. The hauntings allegedly began when a furnace exploded back in the 1960’s, it killed half the students, some faculty members and the janitor.
It was said it’s victims were very active in their haunts, teachers refused to work there and it was forced to shut for a brief time. A priest was called in to exorcise demonic presences but that wasn’t enough, and it seems to have secured it’s grizzly place in history.
The principal was a cannibal, if students fell asleep in class they were sent to him and never seen again. He had a closet in the office he had converted into meat lockers.
Let’s not forget the janitor, a janitor supposedly went on a rampage and slaughtered a number of children.
In reality what can be found out is that it has had more than one name, it was a vacant building that could be used by local transients and kids would hold “initiation” rights there for their various clubs.
A fire did occur, in 1995, most likely due to it’s homeless visitors and not due to anything paranormal. There seem to be no documents to support the deaths, or strange occurrences, just a lost of hearsay. It’s been marked for destruction as part of a local development plan. I put this one down as a series of local tales and urban legends.
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Investigations into the unknown and weird 