Ghosts and Boos – I ain’t afraid of no ghost. Unless they’re invented by Stanley Kubrick.
Since life met death, humans have pined for their dearly departed. Every culture believes in an afterlife and every major religion passes down ghostly tales. But did you wonder where our modern perception of ghosts came from? We’ll look at several historical pieces showcasing apparitions many forms.
Welcome skeptics and true believers!
Ghosts and Boos – The cloaked figure.
Let no man say the Bible is a dull read. War, famine, witchcraft, thee’s and thou’s – it reads like a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Here’s an Old Testament passage they won’t share in Sunday School.
Many westerners are vaguely familiar with the exploits of King David. Before Israel’s iconic king slew giants, God sent the prophet Samuel to anoint his predecessor, Saul.This worked out fine until Saul decided to forego God’s instructions. In time, Samuel dies.
Desperate to reclaim God’s favor, Saul consults the Witch of Endor, whose practice he outlawed! He approaches in disguise and instructs the witch to summon Samuel’s spirit.
The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid. What do you see?” The woman said, “I see a ghostly figure coming up out of the earth.” “What does he look like?” he asked. “An old man wearing a robe is coming up,” she said. Then Saul knew it was Samuel, and he bowed down and prostrated himself with the face of the ground. 1 Samuel 28:13-14.
Samuel’s visage likely inspired western lore. Charles Dickens introduces The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come 
as draped and hooded in A Christmas Carol. His appearance is in turn said to be inspired by the scythe wielding Grim Reaper. The hood motif became common in 14th century England and still persists.
Ghosts and Boos – The figure in bondage.
But The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is not Dicken’s only character with historical parallels. Jacob Marley’s ghost is “bound and double-ironed” with chains forged by his misdeeds in life.
The Roman historian Pliny the Younger recalls that a similar figure haunts philosopher Athenodorus.
A calamity occurs in a home and devalues the property. Intrigued, the philosopher becomes its tenant. What transpires contends for the first recorded haunted house tale.
The first part of the night passed with usual silence, then began the clanking of iron fetters; however, he neither lifted up his eyes, nor laid down his pen, but closed his ears by concentrating his attention. The noise increased and advanced nearer, till it seemed at the door, and at last in the chamber.
The philosopher tries in vain to put his thoughts to parchment. He can ignore the spirit no longer.
He looked round and saw the apparition exactly as it had been described to him: it stood before him, beckoning with the finger. Athenodorus made a sign with his hand that it should wait a little, and bent again to his writing, but the ghost rattling its chains over his head as he wrote, he looked round and saw it beckoning as before.
Athenodorus must have been on the cusp of philosophical enlightenment. Rather than lose his mind, he pleads with the ghost to give him 5 more minutes. Deterred, he follows the ghost into his courtyard and marks the spot where it vanishes. Athenodorus has the spot dug up which reveals a skeleton intertwined with chains. He properly inters the remains and is haunted no more.
Ghosts and Boos – The figure which lost its head!
As we’ve seen, all good literature is ripped off by Disney. That literature in turn rips off folklore. It’s called ‘inspiration.’
Author Washington Irving borrowed the Headless Horseman myth to write The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The story goes that a Dutchman leaves a pub late one night and passes by Sleepy Hollow cemetery. A headless Hessian soldier arises from an unmarked grave and pursues him on horseback. According to local superstition, ghosts hate water and the Dutchman runs towards the bridge. He stumbles down an embankment onto melting snow and the soldier passes by.
Great Britain has its own headless ghost story. Queen Elizabeth I is considered one of England’s greatest monarchs. But her family history is a sordid affair. At age 2, Elizabeth’s mother, Anne Boleyn, was sentenced to die amid what are believed to have been false charges. Anne Boleyn was beheaded in the Tower of London on 19 May 1536. Numerous sentries are said to have witnessed her ghost.
Ghosts and Boos – Why do ghosts wear sheets?
Nobody is certain why cartoonists depict ghost as floating sheets. It is speculated that the sheets are burial shrouds Ghosts and Boos. Developed countries bury their dead in coffins, but few had this luxury until recently. The poor would instead wrap their deceased loved ones in linen cloth. Even Jesus was wrapped in cloth after crucifixion (You’ll recall the Shroud of Turin).
The ‘bed sheet’ ghost may have theatrical origins. In Hamlet, the titular hero’s ghostly father appears before him in armor. One wonders if the creaking, clumsy armor conveyed the terror Shakespeare intended. In time, robed actors separated living from dead. Charlie Brown’s lackluster Halloween costume took the wind out of the, perhaps literal, sail. But once upon a time the gimmick got serious respect. Historian Owen Davies reports that Westminster Abbey residents pursued a ghost throughout St Paul’s churchyard. The impersonator was Old Man Jenkins wore a pale muslin robe and covered his legs in chalk.
The ghosts of racial division.
So why did the KKK have to ruin a fun costume? KKK historian Alison Kinney explains in her book, Hood, that members originally wore garish uniforms based upon folklore.
Klansmen wore gigantic animal horns, fake beards, coon-skin caps, or polka-dotted paper hats; they imitated French accents or barnyard animals; they played guitars to serenade victims. Some Klansmen wore pointed hats suggestive of wizards, dunces, or Pierrots; some wore everyday winter hoods, pillowcases, or flour sacks on their heads. Many early Klansman also wore blackface, simultaneously scapegoating and mocking their victims.
Post Jim Crow implementation, the Klansmen had little reason to disguise their identity. The public perception of Klansmen exclusively wearing white robes comes from popular culture – and we use the term very loosely. Thomas Dixon Jr.’s The Clansmen (1905) depicts members in matching white hoods. The novel was adapted into film 10 years later as The Birth of a Nation and became the KKK’s staple attire.
A nation of haunted homes.
Surprisingly, America’s first for-profit haunted house, The Edge of Hell, was established in 1975. This Kansas City treasure laid the roadmap for commercial haunting Ghosts and Boos. Amber Arnett-Bequeaith, haunted house heir and overseer, recalls discussing new ways to terrorize patrons over the dinner table. She is not big on gore, and prefers entertainment over shock value. Phobias were her family’s specialty.
Allegedly ‘real’ haunted houses have existed for centuries. Every small town has a derelict house which the citizens deem haunted. Some realtors jokingly list real haunted houses on the market! Sure, murders devalue property value, but haunted houses have a certain je ne sais quoi. Naming all of them is an impossible task so we’ve narrowed it down to those with grisly backstories.
Let’s start with ax murders. Iowa’s Villisca Ax Murders remain the state’s largest unsolved mass murder since 1915. Josiah and Sara Moore, their 4 children, and 2 guests were slain in their sleep. Marshall Henry “Hank” Horton remarked that “somebody [was] murdered in every bed.” The victims’ skulls were crushed beyond recognition. The killer, or killers, left a 4-pound bacon slab next to the murder weapon, Josiah Moore’s ax. Garments were draped over the mirrors.
It’s debatable whether the house is haunted. Some report hearing children laughing and crying or objects moving. On November 10th, 2014, paranormal investigator Robert Laursen Jr. purposely stabbed himself while touring the house. Current owner Martha Linn often hosts investigator and tells Vice.com that, “Very few of them go away without experiencing something.”
The Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast in Fall River, Massachusetts, boasts modern amenities and an unnerving history. On August 4th, 1892, residents Andrew and Abby Borden were found dead by ax wounds the Ghosts and Boos. Their daughter Lizzie Borden became the primary suspect after giving contradictory reports over her whereabouts and burning evidence. Investigators could present no physical evidence linking Lizzie to the murders and she was acquitted. Despite this, a clean hatchet was found with its handle broken, allegedly, by Lizzie.
Far from being ashamed, the owners sell Lizzie Borden bobble head dolls with ax in hand. The room in which Abby Borden was murdered is frequently requested.
When you build over the home of a man named Sheriff George “The Stranger” Corwin, the construct is bound to be haunted. Yet that’s what Joshua Ward did – in Salem, Massachusetts of all places! Ol’ Strangler used brutal interrogative techniques to draw confessions from suspected witches. His favorite was tying neck to ankle until blood rushed to the victim’s head. Corwin oversaw the death of 19 individuals. To give you an idea how much locals despised Corwin, his family buried him in the basement. When it was certain his corpse could lie undisturbed, it was interred in the Broad Street Cemetery.
Visitors to the Joshua Ward House report experiencing asphyxiation during sleep. Corwin victim Giles Corey haunts the offices according to legend. Employees find books and paper thrown across the room, lampshades adjusted, and wastebaskets turned upside down. Corey allegedly cursed Corwin and all succeeding sheriffs. Until the sheriff’s office was moved in 1991, each suffered blood or heart problems while serving.
In 1980, Carlson Realty bought the Joshua Ward House. Realtor Dale Lewinski took Polaroids of his co-workers to give their new home a welcome touch of Ghosts and Boos. A female colleague recalls an astonished look on Lewinski’s face after her Polaroid developed. Her likeness had been replaced by a crazy-haired black silhouette! However, Lewinski instructed his colleagues to stand in front of a Christmas wreath. The wild hair was likely an aberration.
Finally, we come to the Amityville Horror House. Its brief history has spawned more profit than the 3 aforementioned locations combined. On November 13th, 1974, Ronald “Butch” DeFeo systematically shot his parents and 4 siblings with a .35 caliber Marlin 336C rifle. Suffolk County Police report the family was found lying face down in their beds. The weapon was not silenced yet neighbors failed to report gunshot noises. The proceeding perplexes investigators to this day.
Young couple George and Kathy Lutz moved into the house on 112 Ocean Avenue nearly a year from the incident. They would not even stay for a calendar month. Jay Anson recounts their (admittedly embellished) paranormal encounters in his book, The Amityville Horror: A True Story. Subsequent owners have not reported bizarre occurrences.
Putting haunted houses to rest.
Critics explain away paranormal occurrences as natural sound, confirmation bias, or hallucinations. Toxicologist Albert Donnay speculates that gas lamps caused the latter during the Victorian era. Carbon monoxide induces symptoms reported during haunted house visits before gas was phased out.
Perhaps the fun is in the mystery. We leave it for you to decide, dear reader. For as Stanley Kubrick intimated to a friend, “…anything that says there’s anything after death is ultimately an optimistic story.” You know, even if it’s a film about possessed, ax wielding psychopath fathers. Or creepy twin girls that want you to play forever.
Ghosts and Boos – You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?
By which we mean the end of our article! But that doesn’t mean your undead encounters end now. Do you have any ghost anecdotes worth sharing? Please take a moment to do so in the comment section below. Halloween Events USA wishes you and yours a safe and Happy Halloween. Just remember to keep your sugar consumption in check. Children are not easily fooled by the “it was a ghost” excuse.
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Ghosts and Boos – Ghosts and Boos – Sources
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