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 […]
Concerning the Battle of Setauket: a tale of two churches, a minor battle in the American Revolution and the village green today
The 19th century artist William Sydney Mount came from Setauket, and would return back frequently to paint there, claiming it had the best light anywhere. The light is still there on Setauket Village Green, one of the best preserved greens to be found in New York. The Setaukets refer to the villages of Setauket and […]
Rockcliffe Mansion: A haunted house legend in Hannibal, worthy of Twain himself
They had started down the hill by this time. There in the middle of the moonlit valley below them stood the “ha’nted” house, utterly isolated, its fences gone long ago, rank weeds smothering the very doorsteps, the chimney crumbled to ruin, the window-sashes vacant, a corner of the roof caved in. The boys gazed awhile, half expecting […]
