Majanka Verstraete's Blog, page 4

Urban Legends Investigated: Clown Sightings of 2016

Some people are terrified of clowns. They don’t usually do much for me, but I’m pretty sure if I would run into a creepy-looking clown in an abandoned parking lot, that I would run the other way too.

Considering a lot of people’s fear of clowns, it is no wonder that a lot of scary movies and books revolve around clowns. Think IT by Stephen King, for example.

Remember back in 2016, when it seemed as if creepy clowns were popping up all over the place in the United States, and eventually the entire world? Newspapers from all across the globe were featuring articles depicting scary clowns roaming the streets, and it seemed like the stuff of nightmare.

But what really happened?

The Clown Sightings of 2016

The sightings were first reported in Green Bay, Wisconsin, but this turned out to be a hoax – apparently, it was just a marketing stunt for a horror film. Regardless, the pictures of the creepy clown roaming a vacant parking lot went viral. USA Today and Fox News showed pictures of the clown and discussed it.

Numerous other incidents popped up across the United States at the end of August 2016. By early October 2016, incidents were reported in Canada, the United Kingdom and even Australia. For an almost complete list of all the sightings, check out this list.

On October 25, 2016, several news outlets reported on an alleged clown-initiated “purge” or “attack”, which would supposedly take place on Halloween Eve of 2016. While there was no widespread attack (thankfully), one family from Florida was attacked on the fateful evening by a group of approximately 20 people wearing clown masks.

Were the Clown Sightings Real?

While no massive clown purge happened on Halloween 2016 and the clown sightings died out after October 2016, the weirdest part about the whole story might just be that no one can seem to figure out if the alleged clown sightings actually happened, or if they were a hoax.

The clown sightings expired riots, such as the Penn State Incident, but the question remains: did people actually see clowns, or was it more because they wanted to see them so they could tell a tall tale to their friends, and the story spiralled from there?

It is probably a mix of both. The Greenville clown sightings were real, but it was a marketing stunt. Likely, it inspired some people to dress up as a clown, and this was witnessed by a handful of others, and from there on, panic spread and the story quickly became overblown.

With the news of clown sightings going viral, it is entirely possible that people began to dress up as clowns as a prank – although it is unlikely that they were kidnappers or serial killers in disguise. What is also interesting to note, however, is that “Phantom Clowns” have been terrorizing the U.S. for much earlier than 2016. They have actually been witnessed as far back as 1981, and they keep on popping up every few years.

The Verdict

Killer clowns are a popular urban legend, but they’re just that: an urban legend. Most people dressing up as creepy clowns do so for marketing stunts, elaborate pranks, or Halloween. Even the clown sightings of 2016, partially based in truth and the panic resulting from it, had no real victims – all that happened was that people saw clowns.

And were terrified.

Urban Legends Investigated

Previously in this series:

Twenty-one-year-old Kaelyn has spent half her life hunting ghosts and killing them. But she’s not like the other ghost hunters who have to rely on spells and curses to banish ghosts back to where they came from, hoping that they don’t come back. When Kaelyn kills a ghost, they stay dead.

But in Mortimer Hall, a behemoth of a house, Kaelyn is about to face the most powerful and life-threatening ghost she ever met, and what she doesn’t know is that the ghost has been waiting just for her.

Release Date: June 6, 2018

Format: eBook, paperback

Price: $3.99 (eBook)

Buy eBook from Amazon.

Buy paperback from Amazon.

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Published on October 08, 2022 17:43

Real Haunted Houses: Cedarhurst Mansion

The Cedarhurst Mansion was built in 1823 by Stephen Ewing. It is a two-story, brick-walled construction. Just a little over a decade after the mansion was built, in 1837, a relative of Ewing, Sally Carter, died of illness at the age of 16 while she was staying at the mansion. Her spirit is said to still haunt the house until this very day, but it took a few decades before the haunting seemed to become active.

In 1919, a young boy was staying at the Cedarhurst Mansion, and he claimed to have been visited by Sally’s ghost, who asked him to fix her tombstone since it had been knocked over in a storm. When he told his family, they thought he was making the story up, but when they then went to check the tombstone the next day, it had indeed fallen over.

Since the initial report, there have been numerous reports of Sally’s ghost. She seems to be a benign spirit, watching over children while they sleep. Sometimes furniture moves on their own accord, and guests can sometimes hear disembodied voices in empty rooms.

Sally’s grave has reportedly been moved from the family plot in the estate to the nearby Maple Hill Cemetery – along with the graves of her other relatives, but some sources say that Sally’s grave could not be moved because it could not be located.

The Cedarhurst Mansion is closed to the public, as it is currently used as a clubhouse for the adjacent gated community, so it is difficult to investigate whether it is haunted or not, or if Sally Carter ever truly existed. Regardless, it is a beautiful historical home with a fascinating history.

Real Haunted Houses

Previously in this series:

When Piper discovers an old antique mirror on the attic of her new home, she has no idea what terror she unlocked.

Eerie shadows lurking in the night and estranged voices crying out for help are only the beginning. As Piper’s world comes crumbling down, she realizes everything that she believed was imaginary, might have been real all along.

Something is very wrong with that mirror. And if she doesn’t find out what, the mirror might end up killing her.

With some help of old and new friends, Piper tries to get to the bottom of the mystery. One thing is for certain: the mirror preys on the guilty. But what exactly is she guilty of?

Release Date: September 16, 2013

Format: eBook and Paperback

Price: $3.99 for eBook and $13.99 for Paperback

View more on Majanka Verstraete's website »

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Published on September 15, 2022 17:00

Urban Legends Investigated: The 67 Exorcisms of Anneliese Michel

If you’ve watched The Exorcist, then you know that exorcisms can be scary. But in real life, they’re about a thousand times as frightening as in movies, especially when they have disastrous consequences, like in the case of Anneliese Michel.

Who was Anneliese Michel?

Anna Elisabeth “Annaliese” Michel was born on 21 September 1952 in Germany. When she turned 16, she experienced a seizure and was diagnosed with psychosis caused by temporal lobe epilepsy. Shortly thereafter, she was diagnosed with depression and was treated in a psychiatric hospital.

By the time she was 20, she was intolerant of various religious objects and she also claimed to hear voices. This could partially be because of her devout upbringing: her parents were strictly religious, and because her mother had a child outside of wedlock – Anneliese’s older sister, who died during surgery – it was imposed upon Anneliese that she should suffer for her mother’s sins.

Despite medication, her condition worsened. Anneliese and her family became convinced that she was possessed by a demon. As a result, her family contacted the Catholic Church and requested an exorcism. Although rejected at first, the local bishop granted permission in 1975 for two priests to conduct an exorcism.

The Exorcism

The priest tasked with the exorcism, Arnold Renz, performed a first exorcism on Anneliese on 24 September 1975. 67 exorcism sessions followed, one or two each week, lasting up to four hours, and this during the course of ten months in 1975 and 1976.

Death and Aftermath

Eventually, Anneliese died in her home on 1 July 1976. The autopsy report stated the cause of death as malnutrition and dehydratation resulting from almost a year in a nearly-starved state.

In 1976, the state charged Anneliese’s parents and priests Ernst Alt and Arnold Renz with negligent homicide. The state recommended that no involved parties were to be jailed, but they did request a fine from the priests. The parents were exempted from punishment as, according to the state, they had “suffered enough”.

The trial started on 30 March 1978. Doctors testified that Anneliese was not possessed, but only suffered from epilepsy and depression. The priests gave the names of the demons who allegedly possessed Anneliese – Lucifer, Cain, Judas Iscariot, Belial, Legion, Hitler and Nero, among others – and also played tapes recording the exorcism sessions. You can listen to the tapes yourself, but beware that they are quite unsettling.

Eventually, the judges convicted the accused of negligent homicide and gave them suspended prison sentences.

Was Anneliese possessed?

The answer will depend on whether you believe in demonic possession or not. The facts are that Anneliese Michel was a person who really existed, and who tragically met her faith in a gruesome way, dying from malnutrition and dehydratation, that the Catholic Church ordained an exorcism on her, that she believed to be possessed by demons, and that she certainly was troubled.

Anneliese might have been possessed by demons. Considering that a lot of people believe in demonic possession, and that the Vatican recently had to step up their game, with some 500,000 cases requiring exorcism in Italy each year – and that is just Italy! – it is one plausible answer. Or she might have received an incorrect diagnosis when the doctors found she had epilepsy, and the medications she received (in particular Tegretol) could have aggravated her mental state and intensified her hallucinations.

Ultimately, we may never know the real answer, but we can only hope that Anneliese is now at peace.

Urban Legends Investigated

Previously in this series:

Twenty-one-year-old Kaelyn has spent half her life hunting ghosts and killing them. But she’s not like the other ghost hunters who have to rely on spells and curses to banish ghosts back to where they came from, hoping that they don’t come back. When Kaelyn kills a ghost, they stay dead.

But in Mortimer Hall, a behemoth of a house, Kaelyn is about to face the most powerful and life-threatening ghost she ever met, and what she doesn’t know is that the ghost has been waiting just for her.

Release Date: June 6, 2018

Format: eBook, paperback

Price: $3.99 (eBook)

Buy eBook from Amazon.

Buy paperback from Amazon.

View more on Majanka Verstraete's website »

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Published on September 10, 2022 17:05

Real Haunted Houses: Jemison – Van De Graaff Mansion

The Jemison – Van De Graaff Mansion is one of the most beautiful homes in the state of Alabama. It was built between 1859 and 1862 by Senator Robert Jemison Jr. The mansion was still unfinished when the Civil War started, causing many of the finishing touches to be left undone. The majority of the building materials came from Jemison’s other plantations, and the construction was mostly odne by skilled slaves. The Jemisons lived in the mansion from 1862 to 1936.

The mansion was then used as an apartment building for a brief period, until it was purchased by J.P. and Nell Burchfield in 1945. The Burchfield’s renovated and revitalized the mansion. From 1958 until 1979, the mansion was used as the Tuscaloosa Public Library. When the library moved to another building, the mansion was sold to a local magazine owner who utilized the mansion as a publishing house and office space until the late 1980s.

In 1991, the mansion was purchased by the city and deeded to the Jemison Mansion Foundation. Nowadays, it is a historical museum that can be toured by the public. You can visit the museum website here.

If you visit the museum, be wary of the ghosts lingering around on the property though. Visitors have reported cold spots and strange presences. The ghosts haunting the property are believed to be Cherokee, the daughter of Robert Jemison Jr. and her husband, Andrew Coleman Hangrove. Hangrove has suffered from a persistent headache after surviving a gunshot wound in the head, and according to the stories, he eventually shot himself in the home’s library to finally be rid of the pain. There are also reports of a little girl appearing on the grand staircase, and disembodied voices hosting conversations in empty rooms. Is the Jemison – Van De Graaff Mansion haunted or not? That’s up for you to decide for yourself.

Real Haunted Houses

Previously in this series:

When Piper discovers an old antique mirror on the attic of her new home, she has no idea what terror she unlocked.

Eerie shadows lurking in the night and estranged voices crying out for help are only the beginning. As Piper’s world comes crumbling down, she realizes everything that she believed was imaginary, might have been real all along.

Something is very wrong with that mirror. And if she doesn’t find out what, the mirror might end up killing her.

With some help of old and new friends, Piper tries to get to the bottom of the mystery. One thing is for certain: the mirror preys on the guilty. But what exactly is she guilty of?

Release Date: September 16, 2013

Format: eBook and Paperback

Price: $3.99 for eBook and $13.99 for Paperback

View more on Majanka Verstraete's website »

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Published on August 18, 2022 17:50

Real Haunted Houses: Redmont Hotel

Perhaps not an actual house, but rather a hotel, but the Redmont Hotel is alledgedly one of the most haunted buildings in the state of Alabama.

It opened in 1925 and is one of the oldest operating hotels in the region. The original hotel counted some 200-rooms, with private baths which was quite unusual at the time. In 1946, it was purchased by Clifford Stiles, who did some renovations on the property. Thereafter, it was purchased in 1983 by an investment group of NBA players, and there was a grand re-opening in 1985. The hotel underwent another restoration in 2014 and re-opened in 2016 with 120 guest rooms.

The ghost sightings include a woman in white, who has been spotted on the ninth floor, and the apparation of a small dog. The spirit of Clifford Stiles, one of the previous owners of the Redmont Hotel, is also rumoured to haunt the hallways and in particular the penthouse suite, which he had renovated into an apartment for his family when he moved into the hotel. Then there’s your stereotypical doors opening and closing on their own, furniture being shuffled around, which can scare the living daylight out of anyone.

You might also encounter the ghost of the legendary musician Hank Williams Sr., who spend the last night of his life in the Redmont Hotel, before he died of a heart attack while driving to one of his shows the day after. Guests and employees have reported hearing guitar sounds and a voice uttering his nickname, “Old Hank”.

The hotel is still operating today, so if you decide to stay there overnight, you might have a chance to see one of the resident ghosts.

Real Haunted Houses

Previously in this series:

When Piper discovers an old antique mirror on the attic of her new home, she has no idea what terror she unlocked.

Eerie shadows lurking in the night and estranged voices crying out for help are only the beginning. As Piper’s world comes crumbling down, she realizes everything that she believed was imaginary, might have been real all along.

Something is very wrong with that mirror. And if she doesn’t find out what, the mirror might end up killing her.

With some help of old and new friends, Piper tries to get to the bottom of the mystery. One thing is for certain: the mirror preys on the guilty. But what exactly is she guilty of?

Release Date: September 16, 2013

Format: eBook and Paperback

Price: $3.99 for eBook and $13.99 for Paperback

View more on Majanka Verstraete's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on August 16, 2022 02:08

Urban Legends Investigated: The Ghosts of Versailles

Have you ever been to Versailles? I visited the famous Palace of Versailles and its magnificent gardens a few years ago. While it was amazing to wander through the Palace and imagine how the Kings and Queens of old lived in the sprawling estate, it was the gardens that really drew my interest.

Which is peculiar because I’m usually not that fond of gardens. Don’t get me wrong, I like spending time in a garden, and I find it relaxing, but when visiting castles in Belgium or abroad, I usually spend most of my focus on the castle and its interior, and not on the gardens.

But with Versailles, it was different. I don’t really know why, but there is something mysterious about the gardens of Versailles.

Something… haunting.

About a century ago, two women felt the same, and much more, when they toured the gardens of Versailles.

Moberly and Jourdain

In 1911, Charlotte Anne Moberley and Eleanor Jourdain published a book entitled An Adventure. They did so under two pseudonyms: Elizabeth Morison and Frances Lamont.

The book describes a visit Moberley and Jourdain made to Versailles – in particular to the Petit Trianon, a small castle on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles, where they claimed to have seen the gardens as they had been in the late eighteenth century. They also claimed to see ghosts of people who lived on the castle grounds during that time, including the ghost of Marie Antoinette.

The incident that gave rise to the claims of these two women is also referred to as the Moberly-Jourdain Incident.

Background

Moberly became the first principal of a hall of residence for young women, St. Hugh’s College, in Oxford. Jourdain was asked to become Moberly’s assistant, and that is how the two women met. Jourdain was the author of several textbooks, ran a school of her own, and was asked to become the vice-principal of St. Hugh’s College: because it was decided the two women should get to know each other better, Moberly went to stay with Jourdain in the latter’s apartment in Paris. Jourdain lived in Paris at the time, where she tutored English children.

10 August 1901

Modern-day picture of Petit Trianon

On the day of the women’s visit to Versailles, 10 August 1901, they fist visited the Palace of Versailles itself. Thereafter, they wanted to walk through the gardens to the Petit Trianon. They became lost after missing the turn for the main avenue, Allée des Teux Trianons, and entered a lane, where they bypassed their destination. Moberly reported she saw a woman shaking a white cloth out of a window, while Jourdain witnessed an old deserted farmhouse.

They passed by some men who looked like palace gardeners, who told them to pass right on. Both women felt the atmosphere change: everything suddenly looked unnatural.

Moberly noticed a lady sketching on the grass, wearing a light summar dress and a shady white hat. The dress appeared to be quite old-fashioned. Moberly believed the lady was Marie Antoinette.

Eventually, they were redirected back to the Palace, and met up with a group of tourists. Things seemed to be back to normal, and according to both women, neither of them mentioned the incident to one another until a week after leaving Versailles, when Moberly, in a letter to her sister, wrote about the incident. She asked Jourdain if she thought the Petit Trianon was haunted, and Jourdain told her she thought it was.

An Adventure

Three months later, back in Oxford, the women compared their notes and decided to write seperate accounts of what happened. They believed they had seen events that took place on 10 August 1972, only six weeks before the abolition of the French monarchy.

Both women claimed to visit the Trianon garrdens many times afterwards, but were unable to trace the path they took on that fateful 10 August 1901. Various landmarks were missing.

They published their story in their book, An Adventure under pseudonyms. The book caused quite a sensatation, but many critics did not take it seriously because it contained many inconsistencies.

The identity of the authors of An Adventure was not made public until 1931.

Jourdain died in 1924 and Moberly died in 1937. Both women claimed to have several other paranormal experiences throughout their lives.

A movie was made about the incident called Miss Morison’s Ghosts in the 1980s.

What really happened on 10 August 1901?

A lot of debate has been held about what exactly happened to Moberly and Jourdain on 10 August 1901. Some people believe it was a slip in time, an incident of time travel that temporarily transported the women back in time to the 1700s. It would not be the first or only time someone claimed to slip back in time: in 1935, RAF pilot Victor Goddard claimed to have seen the Drem airfield, then long abandoned, bustling with activity while on a routine flight.

Other people believe what the women saw was a haunting of some kind; specters from the past that lingered at Versailles to this day. However, given that the women interacted with some of the people they encountered while they traveled to the Petit Trianon, it seems unlikely they saw ghosts of the pasts, because how would those ghosts have been able to interact with them?

If you don’t believe the explanations of a time slip or a haunting, then there are three possible answers: either there was a re-enactment party going on, although this could never be proven, the women suffered from a folie-à-deux (which seems unlikely considering they did not suffer from any other shared delusions afterwards), or the women were lying.

Or, a softer response, perhaps they were both mistaken. Perhaps they saw some things they considered baffling, they were annoyed because they got lost, and they misinterpreted what went on around them. The accounts of the women do slightly differ – for example, only one of them claimed to have seen Marie-Antoinette, and they did not witness the exact same thing. This can either be considered as proving they were lying or misinterpreting things, or it can actually serve as proof that they were not lying. Because if they were lying, and they went so far as to publish a book about it, why not get their stories straight first?

In 1903, an old map of the Trianon gardens was found, which showed a bridge the women claimed to have crossed that had not been on any other map, and that no longer existed in 1901. During their trip, the women claimed to also have spotted a small circular building with pillars and a low surrounding wall, which no longer existed in 1901-Versailles, but which had existed in the 1700s.

The Verdict

We will probably never know for sure whether Moberly and Jourdain traveled back in time on 10 August 1901, if they witnessed a residual haunting, stumbled upon a fancy historical party, or simply misinterpreted what they saw, or made the whole story up.

I’m inclined to believe they didn’t make the story up, simply because they chose to initially write their book under pseudonyms, and because although their accounts were conflicting – which, both being educated women, I am sure they must have noticed – they chose not to ‘get their stories straight’ before publishing it, which I assume they would have done if they were making all of this up.

Having visited Versailles myself, and having witnessed paranormal events myself, I am leaning towards believing that for a brief period during that fateful 10 August 1901, Moberly and Jourdain did slip back in time.

Of course, that’s just a personal opinion, and like I said, we will never know for sure. It will remain one of the eerie mysteries of this world, and perhaps that’s for the best.

Urban Legends Investigated

Previously in this series:

Twenty-one-year-old Kaelyn has spent half her life hunting ghosts and killing them. But she’s not like the other ghost hunters who have to rely on spells and curses to banish ghosts back to where they came from, hoping that they don’t come back. When Kaelyn kills a ghost, they stay dead.

But in Mortimer Hall, a behemoth of a house, Kaelyn is about to face the most powerful and life-threatening ghost she ever met, and what she doesn’t know is that the ghost has been waiting just for her.

Release Date: June 6, 2018

Format: eBook, paperback

Price: $3.99 (eBook)

Buy eBook from Amazon.

Buy paperback from Amazon.

View more on Majanka Verstraete's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on August 13, 2022 17:31

Real Haunted Houses: Bragg-Mitchell Mansion

The Bragg-Mitchell Mansion, with massive double parlors and a majestic circular staircase, is one of the most-photographed buildings in Mobile, Alabama. The house was built in 1855, and is a perfect example of Greek Revival architecture that was popular in that era. The mansion was built on request of Judge John Bragg.

During the Civil War, all the live oak trees on the property were cut to give the Confederate defenders of Mobile free range to shell any approaching Union troops. All the furnishings from the mansion were removed during the war and transported to Bragg’s plantation in Lowndes Country. Ironically, that plantation was later burnt down, whereas Mobile itself never became a battleground during the Civil War, contrary to all expectations.

John Bragg died in Mobile on 10 August 1878 and was interred in Magnolia Cemetery.

The Bragg-Mitchell Mansion remained in the Bragg family until 1880. It was then bought by William H. Pratt. The property passed through several families – Upham, Davis, Wingate – before it was purchased by A.S. Mitchell. The Mitchell’s lived in the house until 1965. The mansion was then abandoned for several years, and it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. It was opened to the public in 1987.

The ghosts occupying this impressive mansion include a ghostly cat, and a ghost with some type of allergy, because he or she is constantly sneezing. On top of that, you also have the run-down-the-mill signs of an ordinary haunting: doors opening and closing, disembodied voices, … The most peculiar ghost of the mansion though, is the woman who can be seen staring out of the upstairs window.

Nowadays, it is a museum offering guided historic tours. You can visit the website if you’d like to join a tour, and possibly get a view on the ghosts roaming about in the timeless halls of the Bragg-Mitchell Mansion.

Real Haunted Houses

Previously in this series:

When Piper discovers an old antique mirror on the attic of her new home, she has no idea what terror she unlocked.

Eerie shadows lurking in the night and estranged voices crying out for help are only the beginning. As Piper’s world comes crumbling down, she realizes everything that she believed was imaginary, might have been real all along.

Something is very wrong with that mirror. And if she doesn’t find out what, the mirror might end up killing her.

With some help of old and new friends, Piper tries to get to the bottom of the mystery. One thing is for certain: the mirror preys on the guilty. But what exactly is she guilty of?

Release Date: September 16, 2013

Format: eBook and Paperback

Price: $3.99 for eBook and $13.99 for Paperback

View more on Majanka Verstraete's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on July 21, 2022 17:26

Urban Legends Investigated: NoEnd House

NoEnd House is a CreepyPasta story that was published in June 2011. In the story, the narrator is told about the existing of a haunted house so scary that you win $500 if you make it to the last room. It’s called “NoEnd House” simply because no one has ever reached the final room.

The narrator, in this version called David, goes to NoEnd House and accepts the challenge. The first room he enters turns out to be not scary at all. Room two is slightly scarier, but still doesn’t phase David.

Room three is different. Inside, David finds only shadows, but he starts to feel unsettled. As he progressed through the house, each room is more terrifying than the next. One of the rooms even leads him to a simulated version of the outside, so you should take the word “room” later loosely in this context.

Opening the door to room seven, David finds himself outside – the actual outside, not a simulated version. He’s so freaked out that he doesn’t care about the price, he just drives straight home.

But as you might have guessed… Room seven is just another room. Home isn’t home. One room follows after another, and it’s doubtful that David might ever make it out of NoEnd House…

And even if he does, he probably won’t even realize he’s outside of NoEnd House.

A reality check

Of course, NoEnd House is just a CreepyPasta. No house without an end actually exist, at least not that we know of. But it did spawn the question if any haunted houses exist, be it haunted house attractions, that are so terrifying you will get a reward if you make it to the exit.

Presumably, in that scenario, there is an actual exit, and not the hellish room-upon-room nightmare that David found himself in, in the original CreepyPasta story.

There’s been quite a few investigations, but the bottom line is that no such haunt has ever existed. The claim that somewhere in the U.S. exists a haunted house so scary no visitor has ever completed a tour of it, has been debunked.

It might give inspiration to a haunted house attraction in the future, though, as I’m sure it would be an incentive for people to enter the attraction and prove they are not easily terrified. However, I assume most people make it to the end of a haunted house attraction, no matter how scary you make it – since in the end, it is all an attraction, and reality cannot possibly be so terrifying as the fictional NoEnd House – so I doubt it would be lucrative.

The Verdict

NoEnd House is just a story, an urban legend that is not based on an actual haunted house attraction. However, it is a chilling story and it was the basis of Channel Zero : NoEnd House, which I highly recommend for fans of the horror genre.

Urban Legends Investigated

Previously in this series:

Twenty-one-year-old Kaelyn has spent half her life hunting ghosts and killing them. But she’s not like the other ghost hunters who have to rely on spells and curses to banish ghosts back to where they came from, hoping that they don’t come back. When Kaelyn kills a ghost, they stay dead.

But in Mortimer Hall, a behemoth of a house, Kaelyn is about to face the most powerful and life-threatening ghost she ever met, and what she doesn’t know is that the ghost has been waiting just for her.

Release Date: June 6, 2018

Format: eBook, paperback

Price: $3.99 (eBook)

Buy eBook from Amazon.

Buy paperback from Amazon.

View more on Majanka Verstraete's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on July 09, 2022 17:45

Real Haunted Houses: Oakleigh House

Oakleigh is a historical house turned museum that is located in Mobile, Alabama. It is the centerpiece of the Oakleigh Historic Complex, a group of buildings that contain a cottage, Union barracks, and an archives building.

In 1833, James W. Roper, a brick mason, dry goods merchant and cotton factor, built Oakleigh. During the building phase of the house, Roper unfortunately lost his fire wife and a child. He remarried in 1838 after the completion of Oakleigh, to Eliza Ann Simison. The couple had four children.

Roper fell upon even more bad luck, as he could not pay back his loans, and Oakleigh was repossessed by the bank. Roper’s brother-in-law, Boyd Simison, bought Oakleigh back and allowed Roper and his family to live rent-free in the home until 1850.

The house was purchased in 1852 by Alfred Irwin, a treasurer of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad. During the Civil War, Irwin’s wife, Margaret Kilshaw Irwin, defended the home against Union soldiers by proclaiming the house to be neutral territory based on the fact she was a British citizen. Irwin’s sons were both veterans of the Civil War and gained local prominence in the late 19th century. Oakleigh remained in the Irwin family until it was sold in 1916.

The front parlor room of Oakleigh House is reportedly haunted by a female ghost. There have been reports of poltergeist-like activity around the mansion, such as disembodied voices, furniture that moves on its own, and so on. The ghost is nicknamed “Miss Daisy”, and there have also been reports of a male figure in a tail coat roaming about.

If you want a chance to see these spectral entities, you can visit the Oakleigh Historical Complex from Tuesdays to Saturday. More information about the Oakleigh Historical Complex, including address and up-to-date visiting hours can be found here.

Real Haunted Houses

Previously in this series:

When Piper discovers an old antique mirror on the attic of her new home, she has no idea what terror she unlocked.

Eerie shadows lurking in the night and estranged voices crying out for help are only the beginning. As Piper’s world comes crumbling down, she realizes everything that she believed was imaginary, might have been real all along.

Something is very wrong with that mirror. And if she doesn’t find out what, the mirror might end up killing her.

With some help of old and new friends, Piper tries to get to the bottom of the mystery. One thing is for certain: the mirror preys on the guilty. But what exactly is she guilty of?

Release Date: September 16, 2013

Format: eBook and Paperback

Price: $3.99 for eBook and $13.99 for Paperback

View more on Majanka Verstraete's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on June 16, 2022 19:09

Urban Legends Investigated: The Clock Man Video

Are you familiar with The Clock Man Video? It is a rather well-known meme, and originated from an animated Czech short video that aired on Nickelodeon’s Pinwheel show.

The short film follows a young girl who is taken on a trip by a mysterious man who crawls out of her clock. She is returned to her room just before sunrise by the mysterious man.

The movie was strange and unsettling, but before a long time, it was also thought to be a hoax, or possibly just a nightmare imagined by someone on the internet who recalled having watched this video, but who could not find it again.

It seemed to have vanished, but this scary image of a man climbing out of a clock was forever burned in the minds of several people who had watched it during the Nickelodeon’s Pinwheel show. So it had to be real, right, if several people recalled it?

Turns out that it is real.

The video

The video was created in 1976 by AAA Studio in conjuction with a Czech film production company Kratky Film. It is only seven minutes long, and centers around a young girl named Sally. The video is aptly named “O Parádivé Sally”.

Sally receives a new pair of gloves from her mother, but she manages to lose one. After searching for her missing glove, she asks the town wizard for help. The wizard conjures up a new glove for her, but under the condition that she needs to tell her mother exactly what happened when she comes home. Sally agrees, but since this is a cautionary tale, of course she does not tell her mother the truth when she arrives home. That night, the wizard crawls out of the clock in Sally’s bedroom, snatches her up from bed and takes her back to this house. The wizard gives her the task of crocheting stars out of magic yarn, which she must complete in one night. Sally completes the task, and the wizard warns her that she must always tell the truth, or the stars will fade.

The story itself seems rather harmless, and it has a nice message. But when you watch some stills from the cartoon, well…

You see what I mean. The wizard looks horrifying. Stuff of nightmares, y’all.

The Internet Search

A user on the Flood Forums in 2012 submitted a thread for a search for this short film, which he remembered watching as a child while he was ill and feverish. The haunting images were so burned in his mind that he wanted to look for it, years and years after seeing it.

Some users thought it was a hoax, like the Candle Cove Creepypasta, but Lost Media Wiki – a website associated with the research and seeking of pieces of media considered ‘lost’ due to the difficulty in finding them, started searching for the Clock Man Video as well.

And they found it.

The short itself actually couldn’t be found on the internet until 2017 when the original creators, AAA Studio uploaded it to their Youtube channel. They also uploaded an English dub in January 2018, if you are interested in seeing the full video.

The Verdict

The Clock Man Video is real. Whether is a terrifying cartoon, or a cute little video, I’ll leave up to you to decide for yourself.

Urban Legends Investigated

Previously in this series:

Twenty-one-year-old Kaelyn has spent half her life hunting ghosts and killing them. But she’s not like the other ghost hunters who have to rely on spells and curses to banish ghosts back to where they came from, hoping that they don’t come back. When Kaelyn kills a ghost, they stay dead.

But in Mortimer Hall, a behemoth of a house, Kaelyn is about to face the most powerful and life-threatening ghost she ever met, and what she doesn’t know is that the ghost has been waiting just for her.

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Published on June 11, 2022 17:20