A History of Cruelity, Anguish and Sorrow Haunts King's Tavern

The following email was forwarded by Robin in which she details her experiences at the King's Tavern in Natchez, Mississippi. I have also included some photos, history and insight by our spiritual adviser...Lon

"The first time that I went there, I got a chill to the bone. Now I am drawn there. I want to be there. I get the same feeling now that I use to get when I lived out of state and would cross the State Line...I feel so at home there. I can't see anything when I take the pictures but once I upload them on my computer, I can see the images. I see images at my home, now in pictures and mirrors. Most people say its my imagination, but I know it is not. I can feel a warm tingling touch on my back throughout the day...this has happened since my first visit to Kings Tavern. I feel like something is wanting the truth to be known. I feel there is a baby that was not known about. I can see images in pictures of a young beautiful girl with long hair. I thought I saw a image of a baby in my mirror. I said GO TO THE LIGHT and the baby disappeared and the face of this beautiful girl appeared smiling at me. The lady at Kings Tavern told me that I get pictures that nobody else has captured. Why am I so drawn there? What are they trying to tell me?"

Thank you,
Robin

The following images were taken by Robin:






Comments by 'SW' clairvoyant / medium...who looked at the photos only and was not given the identity or history of the location:

"After looking through the photos and analyzing the face in the window, I get the sense that there is the spirit of a big, nasty-tempered man, with a letter "H". I also get the feeling of being closed in, when I looked at the fireplace. It seems like faces and hands pushing through the walls. Several people were murdered there? I sensed violence, hatred.

I don't get that picture with the woman with the blacked out face. It's like a void.

I don't think I would want to go there. Is that place publicly active/open for business?"
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THE KING'S TAVERN - NATCHEZ, MISSISSIPPI

The King's Tavern was built in the year of 1769 and is the oldest building standing in the town of Natchez. This tavern carries the look of most seventeenth century buildings; built with sun-dried bricks, beams that came from scrapped sailing ships originating from New Orleans and barge boards that came from flat river boats once they made their way down the Mississippi and were dismantled.

In 1789 a man named Richard King, bought the old house and moved his family into it. He named the building, The King's Tavern, and turned it into an inn and tavern.

There is a notorious side to the restaurant, though. In the 1930s, workers were expanding the fireplace and tore out the chimney wall. They found a space behind the wall that contained the skeletal remains of three bodies: two men and one woman. Laying on the floor was a jeweled dagger, which was assumed to have been used in their demise.

The woman is thought to have been Madeline, Richard King's mistress. As the story goes, when his wife found out about the affair, she had Madeline killed and bricked into the fireplace in the main dining room. Who the two male skeletons are is anyone's guess... much of the supernatural mischief today is blamed on Madeline, however.

Workers report hearing a baby crying in the restaurant - specifically, from rooms that were supposedly empty. The story behind the infant's cry goes back to the 1700s when the building was not only an inn, but also the post office and one of the centers of the city's commerce. A young mother was trying to comfort her fussy infant, when a man named Big Harpe - one of the notorious Harpe brothers - walked over from the bar. She thought that he was going to assist her, but instead, he grabbed the baby by its feet and slammed the infant against the wall. As the distraught mother crumpled to the floor to gather the child's lifeless body, Big Harpe strolled back to the bar and ordered another drink.

Upstairs are rooms that travelers along the Natchez Trace used to rent. The staff there at the restaurant told us a couple of stories about the upper floors. The first is about the mirror - we were told to always keep watching it, because sometimes out of the corner of your eye you will see the reflection of someone standing there. Not in the room... just in the mirror!

Many people have claimed to see shadowy apparitions pass through staircases. The sounds of a baby crying have been heard coming from the attic area. Doors here have been witnessed to open and close on their own. Water faucets and lights turn on and off without any help from living hands. Jars have fallen off of shelves for no apparent reason. Water has actually been seen pouring from the ceiling area to the floor below, leaving no sign of a leak in the roof or the floor above. The chairs that are hanging on the wall are said to rock and move of their own accord. And perhaps the most odd report of all; the fire places are said to emit quite a bit of heat when no fire is burning in them!

The another story concerns the bed. Even though no one's used it for many, many years, we were told to run our hand just a few inches above it. Many people report feeling warm spots on it, as if someone had just been lying there. Whether this is legit or just a tavern tale, the upstairs bedroom was a curious place to visit.

The apparition of a man dressed in period clothing has also been seen wandering about the building. This man has also showed up in photographs taken by visitors standing near the fire place where the bodies of the two men were found, therefore, it is believed that he may be the restless spirit of one of these unfortunate men.

Some of the other, more aggressive happenings at the inn include: a sudden tightness or pressure in the neck, shoulders or chests and dishes being thrown at guests and staff members.
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THE KING'S TAVERN AND THE NATCHEZ TRACE

The King's Tavern site is located at the end of the historic Natchez Trace Parkway. A stretch of historic road that runs from Natchez all the way to Nashville, Tn. To venture along the Natchez Traceway was to journey into a wilderness of darkness and sometimes death. For 500 miles the passageway twisted through matted forests, boggy swamps and broken valleys where dangerous animals, wilderness and most frightening of all bandits and wild Indians were encountered.

Crude taverns were erected sporadically along the Traceway, where one might find a greasy meal, a soggy cot or a lukewarm bath. Many preferred to rest in the open for fear of being robbed while they slept. Burying their money and belongings in the dirt, sleeping with their guns under their arms and lighting fires to ward off wild animals, hundreds of people died on the Traceway from exposure.

Bad weather and frequent flooding of small creeks and rivers turned into torrents and flooded the trails, turning open passages into soggy bog land. Frequently stalling horses and wagons in the muck.

But the greatest danger on the Traceway walked on two feet. The lonely roadway was a favorite for bandits and thieves. Bands of renegade Indians and Whites alike set up ambush along the Traceway looking to loot and plunder possessions, valuables and horses. Month after month, people disappeared on the Traceway, never to be seen or heard from again. It was not uncommon when a well known individual disappeared, that it was assumed or taken for granted that they had become a victim on the Traceway.

Merriweather Lewis, a well known explorer was only one of thousands who met death by treachery on their travels of the passage. Throughout the years skeletons have washed to the surface from shallow graves or hunting parties have come across nameless corpses rotting on the edges of the bogs.

At the King's Tavern, travelers told tales of ambush and horror on their journeys of the Trace. With drink in hand, new arrivals to the Tavern told stories of outrage and savagery, like stories of The Harpe Brothers, Mason and Murrell. (read Killers of the Natchez Trace)

At the head of the tales was Little Wiley Harpe and his brother Big Macijah Harpe. Notorious murderers and theives, who had little regard for human life and frequently killed for pleasure. Their deeds were so outrageous that even their allies in crime detested them. Originally from North Carolina, the Harpe Brothers were sons of a Tory. Their father was rumored to have sided with the British during the Revolution and was a frequent victim of barn burning and retaliation.

The name Harpe acquired fame all along the Trace from the Tennessee Valley to the Natchez Bluffs. In the 1790's the Harpes also had a reputation as far north as Kentucky and were rumored to have used the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky as a hide out. They traveled with their women in tow, frequently interchanged partners with each other when the mood struck. They joined with bands of Indian outlaws from time to time to burn farms, loot, murder and steal horses. The Harpes took lives for the sheer fun of it, sometimes killing their victims, gutting them and loading the abdomens with rocks in order to sink them in rivers and bogs. They moved from one state to the other, killing and robbing as they went. They not only killed for fun , but took great delight in torture and mutilation of their victims by cutting off fingers, poking out eyes with sticks and gutting their victims. They once tied a naked man to a horse and sent him reeling off a cliff to his death, for the fun of it.

The Harpes also were no strangers to child killings. In my research I read accounts of the Harpes having killed a small child by cutting them into one inch pieces, On one occasion Big M. Harpe, exasperated at the crying of his own child, grabbed the child by the ankles and proceeded to bash the child's head into a tree until it shattered. Big Harpe claimed it was the only murder he ever committed that he actually regretted.

On one occasion The Harpes were staying with friends. They were given a cot next to a mild mannered surveyor who snored to loudly while they slept, so they crushed in his head with a hatchet. Going down to breakfast, they offered to watch a woman's child so that she could get their breakfast made quicker. They quieted the child by slitting its throat in it's crib. When breakfast was served, the poor woman met her fate in the same way, with a butcher knife. After breakfast the Harpes burned the house down. Authorities offered a heavy reward for the pair. A vigilante group overtook Big Harpe, while Little Harpe managed an escape. Wounded and paralyzed Big Harpe was confronted by the husband of the woman and child they had savagely murdered. Big Harpe dieing too slowly for his taste was met with a butcherknife by the husband who slowly and methodically, cut and hacked at Big Harpes neck until he was decapitated. His head then stuck in the fork of a tree as a warning. It is said that the white skull of Big Harpe remained in the tree for many years.

Little Harpe eventually returned to Natchez and joined forces with another criminal by the name of Sam Mason. A Virginian of higher breeding and class, but also a notorious thief and murderer. He was organized and planned his crimes, unlike the spontaneous, hot headed Harpes. He had served in the Continental Army and some claimed he was a descendant of a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Sam Mason was also a frequent patron of the King's Tavern, frequently meeting with his accomplices and discussing his plans over a drink at the Tavern. Cutthroats and criminals of all kinds were patrons of the The King's Tavern, from horse thieves and pick pockets, to slave runners, to murderers and rapist, and con artists. The King's Tavern was known for it's wild and rowdy patrons.

It has been reported that Little Harpe was eventually captured and hung for his crimes on the Traceway.

Sources:
www.ghostinmysuitcase.com
www.associatedcontent.com
Ghosts! Personal Accounts of Modern Mississippi Hauntings, by Sylvia Booth Hubbard; Copyright, 1992, by Sylvia and Robert Hubbard
www.history.mississippi-spi.com
www.time.com

CLICK & VOTE...THANKS!

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Alien Contact / MIB - Tonopah, Arizona

Tonopah, Arizona - July 1, 2009 - 10:30 PM (report unedited): While in the desert near the Palo Verde Nuclear Plant, the main witness and some friends saw a very large triangle shaped UFO. They were driving down a dirt road and saw a bright flashing light. They had seen objects in the area before and their intentions were to look for UFO’s. According to the witnesses, people that live in this area have been chased in their cars and seen objects on a regular basis. They went off the road behind some mountains, and no sooner had they come around the mountain they saw the large flashing light. All of them were scared but, at the same time, curious.

The main witness friend’s girlfriend was crying and telling them to turn around; they got within 2 to 300 yards from the light. It was the size of three football fields, triangular in shape, and had windows around it. It was about 3 stories tall, and about 30 feet off the ground, they flashed their lights and it flashed back, in the same sequence of flashes. The main witness and his friend, James, got out of the car and walked closer. The closer they got, the better they could make out what was standing in the windows. They could see small big headed aliens, and then 7 to 9 foot tall aliens, they based this on the size of the windows. Some of the windows they could see through, the other windows were dark, but then the dark windows, cleared up one by one, and as they went clear more and more aliens appeared on the windows. James was supposedly videotaping the whole time. The main witness was terrified but excited at the same time.

They walked closer and had to stop because the heat coming from the craft was so intense. The craft hovered and then landed. A large panel at the bottom of the craft opened and two aliens proceeded to walk out. This absolutely terrified the witnesses, but they couldn’t move or talk. The main witness remembers trying to scream and run but they couldn’t move or talk. Two others were in the car honking the horn, and screaming for them to come back, but they couldn’t respond or move.

The aliens walked up to within 20 feet of them. One of them was very thin and tall, about 8-9 feet, the other one was about 3-4 feet tall. The witnesses stood there in amazement, shocked because they couldn’t move or speak. Then calmness came over them and the aliens began speaking to them telepathically, they were saying not to be scared that they were not going to harm them. This “conversation” went on between the 4 of them for 15-20 minutes. They said they were here to help us, so that we would not destroy our planet, and that there was a horrible event coming soon, that it had to be stopped. One of the witnesses asked if it was something like ‘9/11’ and they said that it was bigger and that it would come from the Middle East. The main witness then thought to himself that he had been in this situation before and the tall alien heard his thoughts and repeated his name and said that yes, he had been visited before when he was 6 years old in Deming, New Mexico. He had been in the desert exploring and they had talked to him then. He had blocked that out, but it all suddenly came back, they said they knew they were coming and wanted them to warn people about global warming and what was to come if they didn’t take start taking care of our planet. Visions of disaster then entered their heads, as if to show them what was to come.

The taller alien then walked closer, and held his hand. He was no longer scared, neither was his friend, James. They said that they would see them again soon and to warn people about ‘saving our planet’. Supposedly James was recording the whole time. The aliens then returned to the craft and it was gone in a split second. When the craft left they both felt weak, but managed to make their way back to the car, when they got there the occupants of the car, Heather and Jamie, were not crying anymore they just hugged the witnesses.

For a minute the car would not start and suddenly it just turned on by itself. As they started to drive away three military helicopters appeared and began shining their lights on the witnesses. Then two military Hummers showed up and chased the witnesses. They tried to avoid the Hummers but were told over a speaker to pull over or they would be forced to shoot at them. They pulled over and military personnel surrounded their vehicle.

Two men dressed in black opened the door and asked them to get out. One of them looked familiar to the main witness. He asked the witnesses to get out and both questioned them, while the military personnel searched the car. They asked them what they had seen, how long they had been there and if they had had any contact with the alien ship. One of the soldiers then found the video camera. The men in black reviewed it and told the witnesses they were not to speak of this, they then confiscated the camera and took the main witness with them. The other 3 witnesses asked where they were going and they told them not to worry about it. He left with them and they questioned him further. He kept staring at one of the men since he looked familiar. They then dropped him off on the I-10 highway near Tonopah Joe’s restaurant. There he was later picked up by his friends.

Source: NUFORC

NOTE: this area is in western Maricopa County, Arizona, approximately 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix off Interstate 10. The community of Tonopah is near the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, the largest nuclear power plant in the country. There have been considerable UFO/alien accounts from this general area including rumors that an underground facility is nearby...Lon

Italians Spend $7.8 Billion Per Year on Fortune Tellers and Astrologers

telegraph - Superstition is widespread in Italy. Many people use centuries-old hand gestures to ward off evil and believe that plaster statues of Jesus and Mary can weep blood.

Amid rising unemployment and general gloom over the state of the economy, Italians are spending billions of euros a year on astrology and fortune telling, according to a report by the European Consumers Association.

Tarot card readers and pavement fortune tellers are doing a roaring trade, with about 30,000 Italians paying between 20 and 600 euros a day looking for advice to help them out of their financial woes.

"Italians are very susceptible to trying their luck on anything esoteric and they're extremely superstitious," said Carlo Climati, who wrote a book on superstitious beliefs.

Southern Italy has a reputation as the most superstitious part of the country but it is the north and centre where most money is spent – a reflection of those regions' wealth compared with the underdeveloped south.

The inhabitants of Lombardy, the region which includes Italy's financial capital Milan, spend the most on fortune tellers and card readers, splashing out 90 million euros a year. Next comes Lazio, the region which encompasses Rome.

Women account for about 53 per cent of those weighing financial decisions on a roll of the dice or the turn of a tarot card, with an average age of 42. Less than 20 per cent have a university education.

The report was produced with research from Telefono Antiplagio, an Italian voluntary service that helps the victims of con artists.

Italian wages are among the lowest in the industrialised world, about 20 per cent below the average for the 30 countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

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Cougar Sighting in Cayuga County, NY

auburnpub - A close encounter with wildlife on a road in Mentz startled a driver last week, and she's sure it wasn't a deer that had dashed across the road.

Just south of Port Byron, at about 1:20 p.m., an animal that the driver believes was an Eastern cougar, an endangered species commonly referred to as a mountain lion, surprised the driver and her passenger as they were on their way to the village in the vicinity of the Mentz water spout on Route 38.

Cougar sightings are rare in New York, but Cheri Emmi-Stebbins said she just saw one.

Emmi-Stebbins, a real estate broker, was heading north on Route 38 with her agent, Amanda Rossbach, to meet with a client when something leapt across the road from the east side about 50 feet ahead of her car and disappeared into the swampy wooded area to the west.

“We both saw it and thought ‘What was it?'” she said. “It was just as clear as could be.”

She described it as very muscular and a grayish color with short hair and estimated its weight between 100 and 120 pounds by comparing it to her 90-pound Rottweiler.

“It was as if it had springs on its feet,” she said, describing its motion as pouncing or leaping rather than running. The creature didn't look at the car but straight ahead.

“It was on a mission,” Emmi-Stebbins said. “We had clear vision. It went straight across, and it was moving.”

She slowed down the car and saw that it went into the gulley, but she continued on as there was traffic and she had an appointment in Port Byron.

She said if she had been alone she probably wouldn't have reported the incident because no one would have believed her.

Emmi-Stebbins called her father and reported it to Cayuga County Sheriff's Office Undersheriff James Stowell. She also called New York state police.

Stowell said he contacted state Department of Environmental Conservation officer Chris Nielsen.

Nielsen said that when big cats are spotted, it's usually because they escaped from captivity on private refuges.

Nielsen said people didn't necessarily have to take photos before the department would investigate a reported sighting of a wild animal.

“If it was immediate and fresh and we had somebody nearby, we would go and investigate,” Nielsen said.

In the case last week, though, the agency wasn't able to get someone to the site in time to investigate, so the siting could not be confirmed. Cougar sitings have been a challenge for wildlife officials.

Kurt Armstrong, an environmental biologist at the DEC's Wildlife Office in Cortland, said, “We try and secure verification of any sightings. Documentation is woefully non-existant.”

For people who believe they've seen a cougar, Armstrong suggested providing his department with photos of the animal or animal tracks to determine just what kind of animal it was. He said in his whole career since 1980, there have been only 3 or 4 cougars confirmed, none in this area. Among them one animal was an import from South America, he said, so it was probably kept on a private game preserve, while a couple were found in Region 5 in the Adirondacks.

One was shot by a hunter who thought it was a bobcat until he saw its tail. It was a young mountain lion of South American origin. That was determined by DNA analysis, Armstrong said.

The Eastern Cougar Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides public education on the animal, said its common for people to mistakenly believe they've seen a mountain lion when they had actually spotted the more common bobcat, which in the east can have faint spots or none at all.

One method for securing evidence of a siting would be to find the tracks and put something down to indicate the measurement. Cougars have big feet, and if it was springing, the distance between the tracks could possibly be six feet. Pictures should contain a ruler or something to indicate the scale. Footprints could be between 3 1/2 to 4 inches in diameter.

Armstrong said if there really was a cougar spotted in Mentz, in all probability it escaped from captivity. If so, it will show up in the area again.

“Somebody probably turned it loose or it escaped. It wouldn't stay alive long,” he said.

Lady in Blue, Tortured Souls Haunt Victorian Hotel

peninsuladailynews - Sorrow lies buried in the basement of the Tibbals Building on Water Street, said the Port Angeles star of Mystic Radio.

Robin Alexis said that the halls of the former brothel -- now a popular hotel and restaurant -- echo with the cries of prostitutes who became pregnant and delivered their children into this world, only to see them dispatched to the next.

She and a team of investigators from PIHA, Paranormal Investigations of Historic America of Monroe -- spent Friday night at what is now the Palace Hotel at 1004 Water St., which is believed to be haunted by the Lady in Blue.

Tiny bodies in basement

Alexis, who has a radio talk show and a Web site on psychic phenomenon, said that the tiny bodies were buried in the earth-floor basement, where a priest walks, believing that the baptisms he performed for their souls were inadequate because he was a sinner.

Now, after Alexis chanted Friday night, there is one less tortured soul, she said.

Investigators discovered not just one lingering spirit, they said, but a whole host.

"There is so much life here, so much death here," Alexis said. "This place is rich with life."

The building known as the Palace Hotel was built in 1889 by a retired sea captain Capt. Henry Tibbals, and was restored between 1976 and 1988.

No bodies have been reported found in the building, but guests have reported seeing a woman in Victorian dress, the Lady in Blue, whose portrait hangs in the hotel.

Alexis, who lives in Port Angeles, volunteered to help the PIHA team with the investigation -- which asked to bring its equipment to the hotel -- as did a man whose avocation is scientific analysis of electronic voice phenomena and who gave his name only as Dave, saying that he does not provide his full name for professional reasons.

Kathy Gavin, president of the Lewis County Historical Museum, led the investigation for PIHA, assisted by the nonprofit's founder, Vaughn Hubbard.

Hubbard's grandson, Christian Wells, operated an infra-red camera, and Debbie Knapp, manager of the historical museum, used earphones and a parabolic dish to capture spirit voices.

Cheryl Heller, the hotel's head housekeeper, was invited to participate, as was the hotel manager, Gary Schweitzer.

Arriving in town in the PIHA Command Central vehicle, the PIHA team set up a Web cam in Room 3, considered one of the two most haunted rooms in the hotel.

Then they did a sweep of the building, including the basement.

In the basement

Going down to the basement on Friday evening, Alexis said she encountered a spirit who said he used to sleep in the basement, and knew about Katherine, the famed Lady in Blue.

Until last week, when Alexis made a preliminary visit to Port Townsend, she had never been inside the Palace Hotel, or seen the painting.

When she did, however, she said she recognized the figure in the painting as the woman she saw in the window when she was standing outside the hotel.

"I saw her image in front of a window," Alexis said. "She had her hands pressed against the window, and said 'Please help me.'"

On Friday, Alexis said she also encountered a priest in black robes wearing a large cross in the basement, and a Native American woman, who said her name was Grouse Women.

Mysterious chairs

Returning to the basement later that evening, Alexis and Gavin found two chairs placed in the passage near the front foundation wall, farthest from the basement entry in back of the building.

The chairs, next to an old dresser and broken mirror, had not been there before, they said.

Taking it as invitation, they sat down.

Once the rest of the team joined them and set up the equipment, the lights were turned out.

Dave, the electronic voice expert, asked questions, while Alexis relayed answers.

Asked if there were any infants who the priest was not able to baptize, Alexis said, "He said he felt his blessing wasn't adequate because he was seeing a woman living there, "and that one of the children that was born was his."

Alexis said the priest's name may have been Patrick, and began to chant to invoke healing and forgiveness, she said.

Afterward, she said she saw two priests coming to get him, a church glowing red with stained glass windows and a dazzling bright image of Christ on the cross-- and felt that he had accepted he had been forgiven, and was at peace.

Knapp, wearing the headphones, said that while Dave was asking for the ghost of Katherine to speak, she picked up a voice saying, "It's me."

When Dave asked "How many of you are here?" Knapp said she picked up a voice say "eleven."

Second floor lobby

Back on the second floor lobby, the team set up the monitoring equipment, including motion sensors, on the staircase between the second and third floor.

Alexis said that Capt. Tibbals, whose family originally lived in the building, was there, describing him as a stately gentleman.

She said she had also seen a boy between 6 and 8 years old at the top of the stairs looking through the railing. She knew he could see her. He asked where his mother was, she said.

Dave invited boy to come down the stairs, stooping down so the recorder could pick up his voice.

"He's here," Knapp said.

Knapp said she picked up a voice saying "nice," and sensed a curious spirit around her.

Dave said that, while Knapp can listen to what is said and respond, he has to wait until he gets home to see what his recorder picked up.

He downloads the sounds onto a computer using a program that charts the sound waves. Most are whispers, he said.

"There is a lot of breath, and very little volume," he said. "You don't get more than three or four words."

Heller said everyone who works in the hotel, along with many of the guests, have experiences that can't be explained. She has had many, she added.

She said her granddaughter has also seen and felt spirits, including those of children, and also seen a shadow on the third-floor wall. None are frightening.

Ghosts are friends

"I enjoy it," she said. "I consider them my friends."

Once the film and recordings have been edited, Hubbard will create a compact disc which he will present free to the hotel owners, who are free to make copies and sell them. The investigation also is free. Investigators pay their own expenses.

The idea is to encourage people to travel to historic sites in Washington state, creating revenue for the site and the community, Hubbard said.
________________________

PALACE HOTEL HAUNTED - Witness Account


When I took the family up to Port Townsend for the Wooden Boat Festival I had booked two nights at the Palace Hotel, a beautifully restored Victorian Hotel in the the Captain Tibbals Building. Well, as soon as we checked in everyone was starting to feel intensely uneasy about the place, despite the excellent service from the friendly innkeeper. My daughter became very anxious, and said that the place was "creepy" and that she didn't want to stay there (I guess it didn't help when I suggested that a little girl probably died from scarlet fever in the tiny bed she was going to sleep in, ha ha). Other than the decor which was a cross between junk store chic and Disney's Haunted Mansion the place didn't bother me a bit, but then again my wife says that I'm "about as psychic as a rock".

They had free WiFi at the hotel so we immediately got online and discovered that the place used to be a brothel. In fact, the rooms are named after some of the women who worked there! It's haunted too: people have reported seeing the ghost of woman dressed in a blue Victorian dress on the second floor, especially rooms 3 and 4. In fact, one of the guests reported to have a conversation with her, and thought that she was all just part of the Victorian hotel experience like she was some Disney castmember!

That night my daughter had a nightmare about people chasing and trying to kill us. I slept like a log, but apparently no one else got much sleep that night. Later on the next day they said that they absolutely refused to stay another night. After a lot of discussion (meaning me trying to convince them it was silly to leave when we already paid festival rates for this room, and saying "what bad things could possibly happen? Besides, we've stayed in plenty of old haunted hotels before so I don't know what was so different about this haunted hotel") we just checked out that evening and drove home.

Sources:
dashpointpirate.typepad.com
www.peninsuladailynews.com
www.komonews.com

USO Still Mystery to Taiwan Navy

etaiwannews - The Navy said Monday the unidentified object spotted under water near its top base last week was not a Chinese submarine or a sea mammal.

A newspaper reported Sunday that an anti-submarine helicopter found a submarine within Taiwanese territorial waters near the naval base of Tsoying during military maneuvers on January 27. As soon as the Navy called on the submarine to identify itself, it fled out of the area without responding, leading to suspicions it came from China, the reports said.

The Navy denied the report, saying sonar showed up an unidentified object which could not have been a submarine.

On Monday, 168th Fleet Commander Lee Tung-fang said the object did not dive rapidly to escape detection, but continued on its course at a speed of 2 nautical miles an hour. The data told the Navy that there were no submarines, whales or dolphins involved, Lee said.

The 168th fleet had originally been patrolling off Taiwan’s east coast, but was called to the area off Kaohsiung’s Tsoying base to participate in anti-submarine drills, he said.

The area in the Taiwan Straits was difficult terrain for finding submarines, the senior officer told reporters. His unit had previous experience with locating underwater objects inside Taiwanese territorial waters which later turned up not to be submarines, according to Lee.

Over the past few years, Chinese spy ships have often appeared around Taiwanese waters. Taipei has requested to buy diesel-electric submarines from the United States, but they were not included in a US$6.4 billion weapons package for Taiwan announced by the Obama Administration last Friday.

Poor Women in Nepal Subjected to Horrific Witch Hunts

google - Kalli Biswokarma was tortured by neighbours in her village in Nepal for two days and forced to eat human waste before she finally gave in and confessed to practising witchcraft.

Those who beat, punched and kicked the 47-year-old mother of one accused her of casting evil spells on a schoolteacher who had fallen ill.

"I was victimised because I am a poor woman," said Biswokarma, who belongs to the Dalit community -- the "untouchables" on the lowest rung of Nepal's rigid Hindu caste hierarchy.

"Around 35 people came to my home and took me away. They trapped me in a cow shed and forced me to eat faeces and drink urine," she told AFP in the village of Pyutar, 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Kathmandu.

"The next day they cut my skin with blades. I could not bear the torture and I confessed to being a witch just to save my life."

Hundreds of Dalit women are thought to suffer a similar ordeal every year in Nepal, where superstition and caste-based discrimination remain rife and where most communities still operate on strict patriarchal lines.

Human rights campaigners say the perpetrators of such crimes are rarely brought to justice, with police viewing the persecution of Dalit women as a matter for the community to sort out itself.

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has pronounced 2010 the year to end violence against women as Nepal makes the transformation from traditional Hindu monarchy to modern secular state.

But authorities in the impoverished South Asian nation admit they face an uphill struggle.

"Superstitions are deeply rooted in our society, and the belief in witchcraft is one of the worst forms of this," said Sarwa Dev Prasad Ojha, minister for women and social welfare.

"Such traditional practices cannot be wiped away overnight."

The Women's Rehabilitation Centre (WOREC), a local pressure group that campaigns for women's rights, says it has documented at least 82 cases in two years in which women who were tortured by neighbours on charges of witchcraft.

But coordinator Sarita Dahal believes this was only the tip of the iceberg.

"We believe many more women are going through the physical and mental pain that these superstitions cause," she told AFP.

"Many don't come to our attention because the women fear they will be abandoned by their families and ostracised from their communities if they come forward."

Nepalese law prohibits violence against women, but Dahal said it was rarely enforced, particularly when the victims were from marginalised groups.

Experts say superstitions about witchcraft are often merely a pretext for victimising women, and sociologist Suraj Kafle points out that it is almost always low-caste women who face such accusations.

"It is always socially and economically vulnerable women who suffer," said Kafle.

"This is simply an excuse to torture poor women who lack support from the rest of the community. Poverty and lack of education make them an easy target."

Nainakala Thapa, head of the government's National Women's Commission, called the practice a "national shame".

"Women who belong to low-caste groups are made scapegoats because they cannot defend themselves," said Thapa.

Thapa pointed out that when a person dies or falls sick it is often spiritual healers looking for someone to blame who are the first to make accusations of witchcraft.

"It is easy to identify a low-caste woman and brand her a witch," she said.

For Biswokarma and her family, now back in their home village after a stay in a women's refuge in Kathmandu, the stigma of being accused of witchcraft persists.

"I am still afraid because some of the people who tortured me are still in the village," she said.

"I have lost my dignity, but I have not given up hope. I will fight for justice."

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The Thetis Lake Monster Legend

As we have seen in some movies, the deep lakes are sometimes the home of some ghastly and terrifying creatures. Thetis Lake in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada is not an exception. Many cryptozoology advocates have claimed that the mentioned lake houses a man-sized, silvery-scaled, gill-bearing humanoid.

The Victoria Daily Times reported that the creature attacked two teenagers on the lake on the 19th of August, 1972. The two boys, namely, Robin Flewellyn and Gordon Pike, were standing next to the recreation center on Thetis Lake when they saw a scaly creature emerge from the lake and move unto the shoreline. It was, as they had described, roughly triangle shaped, with dark, large, bulging fish-like eyes and mouth, and a razor-sharp spike on the top of its head. Its weight is estimated to be 120 lbs, and measures around 5 feet tall, and 5 feet wide. The two teens were terrified at the sight of the huge scaly amphibious monster and they ran for their lives.

With its sporting webbed extremities, the creature chased the two teenagers until a few distance from the lake. The voracious predator was able to catch up with one of the young men, lacerating his hand with its razor-pointed head.

The two lads, still filled with terror after narrowly escaping the grisly creature, rushed to the nearest Royal Canadian Mountain Police station and told the officers about the incident on Thetis Lake. They showed them the cut that was claimed to have been caused by the razor-sharp fin of the lake monster. The authorities felt sincerity on the story of the two boys, hence they immediately launched a manhunt, or should I better say, “monsterhunt”, on the said lake. However, nothing turned up during that time of investigation.

The case was almost taken for granted until four days after, August 23 of the same year, at around 3:30 in the afternoon, Russell Van Nice and Mike Gold claimed to have seen the same creature from the opposite side of the Thetis Lake. But unlike the report of the two teens that were pursued by the creature, this time, it only emerged from the lake, looked around, and submerged itself back into the water.

Gold and Nice described the monster-faced creature as having a human-like body, of at least 5 feet tall. It has silver-colored scaly skin, a sharp point protruding on its head, and very big ears and horrifying eyes. Today, even if there were no more sightings reported since the 23rd of August, 1972, many cryptozoology fans still consider the Thetis Lake Monster as a real Canadian Cryptid.
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SIMILAR THETIS LAKE MONSTER ACCOUNT

First brought to international attention in the early 1970's, this grisly aberration of natural selection has been described as being nearly 5-feet tall and weighing approximately 120 lbs., with an epidermis consisting soley of silver scales. This animal's horrifying visage is made complete by the six, razor-sharp spikes - connected to one another by a thin, membranous webbing - which are said to protrude from its amphibious skull.

With it's dark, bulbous eyes, fish-like mouth and webbed hands, feet and ears, the Thetis Lake Monster bears more than a passing resemblance to the iconoclastic image of "The Creature From the Black Lagoon". What lends credibility to these reports however, is the fact that for centuries North Americans natives have reported numerous - and oft times fatal - encounters with various creatures which they describe as being carnivorous, aquatic-humanoids.

These man-like anomalies purportedly lurked in the mist shrouded lakes and rivers of the Pacific northwest. One of the beasts chronicled in these Native American legends was the Pugwis, which reputedly tormented the Kwakiutl Indians of the Puget Sound region for years. These accounts, of course, vastly pre-date the Thetis Lake Monster as well as its cinematic companion.

On August 19, 1972, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police launched a brief investigation into this phenomenon after two teenage boys - Robin Flewellyn and Gordon Pike - claimed to have been attacked by the creature on the shores of Thetis lake. According to the two witnesses, as they were standing on the beach near the Thetis lake recreational center when they both saw a spontaneous surging of water just off the shoreline.

Suddenly, the monstrous head and silver-scaled, torso of the creature rose from the lake and - with an almost preternatural speed - shot from the churning surf. According to their reports, this vicious creature pursued the young men almost back to their car.

Narrowly escaping this voracious predator, Flewellyn and Pike made their way to the nearest RCMP station, where one of the teens displayed a laceration across his hand, which he claimed was the result of contact with the spike-like fin that adorned the monster's skull. The officers on duty were so impressed by the sincerity of the boys' tale that an immediate manhunt (or monsterhunt, as the case may be) was Launched.

Nothing was turned up on that occasion, but just four days later, at approximately 3:30 pm. on the 23rd of August, the monster reared its head again. This time the creature - which perfectly matched previous descriptions - was seen by Mike Gold and Russell Van Nice on the opposite side of the lake.

Unlike the Flewellyn and Pike encounter of the previous week, these witnesses claim that the creature merely rose out of the water, looked around, then submerged. The men further claimed that they did not linger long enough to see whether the beast would manifest its previously displayed tendency towards aggressive behavior.

HOAX?


On 26 August 1972, The Province received a call from a man claiming to have lost a pet Tegu lizard in the area the previous year. Tegus, indigenous to Latin America and mostly carnivorous, can grow up to four feet in length. They are commonly kept as pets. The investigating police officers believed the lizard matched the description the creature and the case was closed.

Despite the sensational claims, repeated in some cryptozoology literature which portray it as a genuine cryptid and relative of the Loveland Frog, no other sightings have been reported since leading the monster sighting to be "a fact widely unknown among swimmers." Local historian Ross Crockford remarks that the advice given in Haden Blackman's 1998 Field Guide to North American Monsters to carry a flaming torch to defend oneself from the monster is probably more dangerous than any monster, given the tinder-dry nature of the park.

One of the original "witnesses," Russell Van Nice has said, "it was just a big lie," his friend [Mike Gold] was, "trying to get attention." According to Van Nice, his friend was "famous" for being a habitual liar.

Sources:
www.unknown-creatures.com
www.americanmonsters.com
en.wikipedia.org
forum.paranormalborder.com
www.pararesearchers.org

Owner of Ghostly Racton Ruins Seeks Permit to Restore as a Home

portsmouth - Plans have been submitted to turn a 238-year-old ruin into a modern-day home.

The proposals seek renewed consent to transform Racton Ruins, which is a striking tower that was built on a hill in 1772 and close to the village of Funtington, near Emsworth.

The tower was built as a folly as part of the Stansted Estate and many believe was used by the then owner to see his trading ships berth at Emsworth, then a major port.

Mark Talbot, who has owned the tower for 30 years, has applied for planning permission to turn the tower into a home.

He has already been granted planning permission before, but wants to renew the consent to keep the refurbishment plan alive.

He said it would cost in excess of £500,000 to convert.

'It's just a renewal of permission which you have to do every three years, if you have not done the work,' he said.

'It's going to take an awful lot of money. We could start next year, or this year even, we just don't know. We just have to keep the planning consent.'

Mr Talbot said he has no qualms about living in the building if it is haunted as rumours suggest.

'I don't believe in it being haunted,' he said.
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THE RACTON FOLLY


Click for video

Near the village of Walderton in West Sussex stands an 18th century ruin known as Racton Monument or Racton Folly. Completed in 1772, it belonged to the Stansted estate of the Earl of Halifax and is thought to have been designed by Henry Keene, an architect who was involved in the building of Uppark, a large country house nearby. Little is known about the building's history or its purpose, it may have been intended as a summerhouse or viewing point — the story goes that from the top of the tower Lord Halifax could watch the return of his merchant ships in the Solent.

Constructed of brick and flint, the monument consists of a two-storey, triangular structure with a tower at each corner and a large tapering, circular central tower rising to approximately 25 metres. The three floors of the central tower and its original conical roof are no longer extant.

IS RACTON FOLLY HAUNTED?

The spooky tower of Racton Monument may or may not be haunted but it's certainly one of the spookiest places in Sussex. Some referred to the folly disparagingly as Stansted Castle, assuming it to be an act of grandeur, rather than just a celebration of individuality.

Others went further, deriding the style of the Tower for its undoubted ugliness. But many other people love Racton Tower.

Many think that Racton Ruins is one of the most frightening haunted places in West Sussex. Others disagree.

Let's consider the evidence.

The myths surrounding the use of the tower by smugglers and the general decay of the ruins add to the Blair Witch project type feel of the place. Graffiti adds to the sinister atmosphere.

But the ruins have been a well known place for raves, drinking and drug taking and many of the reports of ghosts come from people who were, by their own admission, not exactly sober at the time of their brush with the undead. Practical jokes are probably not unknown for the same reason. That's not to say that everyone who has ever reported ghostly goings on at the tower was as high as a kite, but it certainly weeds out a few accounts from the ghost hunters' case book.

From a birds eye view it looks like a triangle symbol (that was used by devil worshipers) The folly has been reported to have been used by cults and devil worshipers for over 100 years. The last report we found of this was in 2009.

There is also found reference to it being used as a brothel back in the 1800's.

There are many reports of paranormal activity at the folly. There have been reports of bricks being thrown from the top of the tower and a ghostly woman walking around the building. Also of a ghostly face looking out through a window of one the top floors. And the most disturbing of being physically grabbed and pushed. But oddly the most popular story is that of a ghost tractor in the fields that comes right up to you then disappears.

Racton has also been a place for suicides.

What isn't in doubt is that the site is evocative, atmospheric and definitely spooky, if not actually haunted.

There are plans afoot to restore the Monument - it badly needs it as the brickwork is in a very precarious state.

Sources:
www.portsmouth.co.uk
www.westsussex.info
totallyhaunted.co.uk