Charleston, South Carolina has a colorful history related to pirates. The pirate with the main claim to fame would be Blackbeard, who once held Charleston Harbor for several days. But Charleston has latched onto one of Blackbeard’s lesser captains, the gentleman pirate, Stede Bonnet. This isn’t surprising. Charleston is working hard to project a genteel […]
The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen
The Great God Pan, a novella by Welsh born Arthur Machen (3 March 1863 – 15 December 1947), was cited by Stephen King as maybe the best horror story in the English Language. Originally decried for its strong sexual and horror content, it is almost tame in comparison to today’s literature of the same genre. […]
The best haunted hotels and inns: Lemp Mansion – A house built on beer, brought down by suicides and debauchery makes for a great ghoulish destination
Ann Barrett: What did he do to make this house so evil, Mr. Fischer?Benjamin Franklin Fischer: Drug addiction, alcoholism, sadism, beastiality, mutilation, murder, vampirism, necrophilia, cannibalism, not to mention a gamut of sexual goodies. Shall I go on?Ann Barrett: How did it end?Benjamin Franklin Fischer: If it had ended, we would not be here. Richard […]
The Haunted Lemp Mansion in St. Louis: Dining and sleepovers with the ghosts of the upper crust
We’ve all heard of railroad tycoons and oil barons, but beer barons? St. Louis was ripe with those by the turn of the twentieth century, and foremost on that list was the Lemp family. Lemp beer became the first mass produced lager in the United States, and created a fortune for the family. Yet the […]
Hiking Rockefeller State Park Preserve: Looking for Spook Rock, Hulda the witch and the non-headless horseman origins of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow
At last she came to a little house, and an old woman was peeping out of it, but she had such great teeth that the girl was terrified and about to run away, only the old woman called her back. “What are you afraid of, my dear child? Come and live with me, and if you do […]
The real mystery of Long Island’s Shep Jones Lane
Shep Jones Lane is notorious for being considered one of Long Island’s most haunted spots. The road begins paved before petering out, leaving one seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and actually passes through the Avalon Preserve in Stony Brook, as well as property belonging to the Nature Conservancy. Hikers and strollers alike are common […]