Deep River Public Library

In Connecticut, USA things are supposedly quite interesting at the Deep River Public Library. It was the home of a prominent man in Deep River over 100 years ago. The house was built in 1881 by Richard Spratt Spencer, he owned a manufacturing company that dealt in the ivory trade and served as both treasurer and president of the Deep River National Bank, and was a state senator. He lived in the house until his death in 1910 with his second wife and their three children. The Library brought the property in 1930 and remains essentially the same minus some additions, it has the original windows and wood mouldings and the ghosts are only found in the old original sections.

A staff member had shut down all lights for the night, leaving only the one on at the circulation desk where she was standing and she had the feeling that she was not alone. The experience is one that she is not alone in either…

Since 2004 various ghost hunters and mediums have been over to the Main Street library in an attempt to investigate strange goings on. Some of those investigating feel that they have experienced such things and amongst the presences they have felt those of two females, one in their teens and one in their 50’s. The library was once the residence’s kitchen and the original wood-burning stove from 1877 is still in there, where local investigators feel they captured two spirits.

The library’s assistance director was eating her lunch one day and was the only person present, she heard someone in another room, like that of someone clearing their throat. She went to check and found no one was there.

Michael Dionne, founder of Full Spectrum Ghost Hunters explained in an interview that I found online, only one percentage of investigated cases are paranormal. They plan to investigate it using measures like Electromagnetic field sensors, it has been established that interference in the fields can bring on paranoia, nausea, skin irritations and hallucinations and may not necessarily reflect paranormal activity. (So he seems a rational investigator I hope.)

If nothing else it attracts visitors to the library, which this blogger thinks is a good thing. Libraries are a ‘haunt’ of mine, they have books! I don’t mind the digital age but there is still something very appealing about opening the pages of a book and sitting down to read.

Wicklow Goal

The jail in Wicklow, Ireland was built at the beginning of 1702 conditions for prisoners were harsh, appalling and compared to modern facilities would likely frighten even the most hardened of men. The original gates to the prison are still in the building, known as the Gates to Hell,
In the 1840’s to 50’s the Irish Potato Famine struck, the number of inmates swelled to around 780, prisoners were crushed into cells with 17 people saying to be said sharing. Those starving on the outside would commit petty crimes to get put in there just to get food, with supposed accounts that there were rotting corpses in the road and cannibalism being a thing just for people to try to survive. Over the centuries the dark history includes starvation, disease, and mistreatment.
One story of the jail is about and old and sick man put into solitary confinement, the cell meant no food, or even straw and he was found dead because the staff had forgotten about him. In the main cell blocks visitors and workers have witnessed seeing blood on the floor, a remnant from the early days of the prison when torture was implemented.
An addition to the prison finished in 1843. In the 1900’s the prison closed, it re-opened again in 1918 during the Irish War for Independence. In 1924 it once more closed and was partially demolished in 1954.
A woman saw a picture of Mary Morris, a matron at the jail. The woman said she had seen her, in the 19th century dress and was younger. So had she actually seen her? Another ghost is that of a little girl, she haunts the schoolroom and pokes the visitors or pulls their clothing. The young child is said to be dressed in rags and visitors from young to old, across the history of the tours being given have reported her sporadically.
There are reports of people being touched by unseen hands, of hair being pulled, at some point a staff member was shoved out of the gates. Quite a few times a mist has been seen on the walkway to the second-floor cells.

Paranormal investigators have been in and out of the place and alongside general public reports they also have their own to add. Season Two, Episode 1 of Ghost Hunters International filmed there.
If you should like to visit the jail it is open for tours.

Wicklow Jail Website

Wraith RPG – Tea Break Musing

I have a copy of the first edition published of the game Wraith, it is battered and showing its age but it is still sat in my collection. It was published in 1994 by White Wolf and is part of the World of Darkness setting. The World of Darkness is an alternative world, a fictional setting using our world events and accepting that supernatural events and creatures like vampires, werewolves and mages exist.

I remember the rumours about this when I was more heavily into following the Role Play Gaming scene and thought I might do a tea break read on it.

So rumour had it that the game setting was being worked on and that play testing is a part of this, so during the first play test and in talks with the designers they all had instances where they were falling ill When they tried to prepare the book for its original publication the printing factory burnt down.

So this is really what seems to be nothing more than a rumour circulating at the time, there was no twitter to hashtag it out and a look online only had one other person that had posted about it. So it was a rumour mill that may well have not gone all that far outside of small circles or in chat rooms now very out of date or defunct. So was there any basis to this? Most likely not, it was more likely down to the fact that the game was just selling poorly.

The game itself meant that before you even started the game you had to conceive characters that had been traumatized enough to become these angry/tormented spirits. This was not just hard for players to work with but also the storyteller. I am quite sure the concept and development was hard work, the subject of things like murder, suicide and horrific accidents are going to drag the most positive of folk down over time.

Ultimately I don’t consider this a case of cursed gaming more a case of concept that didn’t sell well in reality. After two editions Wraith: The Oblivion was shelved and now appropriately haunted a space in my collection like it does many other people’s shelves.

Does any one else recall this?

By Source, Fair use, Link

 

Fairfield State Hospital

It was a psychiatric hospital located in Newtown, Connecticut, that was open from 1931 50 1995, and at it’s peak had 4000 patients. It was built to ease overcrowding, another common factor of the time, for two other hospitals in the area. It’s original plans had 16 buildings which also had a network of roads through large farm meadows and a forest.  It was closed due to de-institutionalization, the hospital patients were moved and in 1995 the doors to the hospital were finally closed.

It used typical treatments for its day, including the use of hydrotherapy, the now controversial shock therapies and frontal lobotomy. Much like other institutes of the scale and time it employed an architectural use of tunnels for staff to move around under the complex and also for the disposal of corpses.

The town acquired the land and building from the State and there are calls to preserve the main buildings at the very least.

It was used for an episode of MTV’s Fear and whilst I could see numerous mentions of hauntings etc… I could find nothing for a basis even anecdotally. other than rumours due to what it was I drew a blank, so perhaps someone else can give me some more concrete stories for the blog?

Farm Road 511

Brownsville, Texas boasts a fairly unique story about ghostly cows!

The locals may well warn you about driving down Farm Road 511 at night, as you might well encounter the ghostly subjects.

As you drive along you might find your headlights illuminating a large cow right in front of your eyes. Swerving to avoid the bovine you’ll probably pull up to see if you can find it, or you might even drive through it, either way upon investigation you won’t find the elusive creature.

Whilst is sounds comical there have been accidents on the roads reported to have occurred so don’t take it lightly!

Weird US has their story on the site here.