HAUNTED
PLACES REPORT
Bimonthly Newsletter
Archives Vol. 1 (1998)
(Note: HAUNTED
PLACES REPORT was originally the HAUCK REPORT.)
Vol.1 No.1 1998
http//www.haunted-places.com
***************************
THE HAUCK REPORT
***************************
<HauckReport@theglobe.com>
Contents
- CURRENT PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (Breaking cases from
throughout
- TRUE LIFE ENCOUNTERS (Accounts of true
experiences with the paranormal)
- NEW RELEASES (Review of new books and videos on
the paranormal)
- ORGANIZATION SPOTLIGHT (A look at popular
research organizations)
- LECTURES/MEDIA EVENTS (Upcoming public events and
programs on the
paranormal)
_______________________________
CURRENT PARANORMAL
ACTIVITY
_______________________________
COLORADO - DELTA (March 1998 UFO Sightings)
Seven enormous, octagon-shaped UFOs have been
reported in the clear night skies above this rural community. The hovering,
silent objects have multi-colored, non-blinking lights on them, though on one
of the UFOs, the lights were all amber-colored. Their altitude has been
estimated at 1,000 feet. So far the gigantic craft have been reported hovering
over private farm acreage, the golf course, a school, a county road, and over
the deserted hills of Cedar Ridge. There appears to be some government interest
or involvement in the sightings, since four drab (olive-colored) helicopters
have been seen flying over the town of Delta flying eastward toward the town of
Crawford. Such aircraft are not normally seen in the area. The case is being investigated
by Davina Ryszka ofSkywatch International, who has taken out an ad in the Delta
County Chronicle asking for witnesses to come forward.
COLORADO - COLORADO SPRINGS (March 1998 Update)
In my recent conversations with Steve Lee, owner of
the log cabin referred to as the Black Forest Haunting on "Sightings"
and numerous other television shows, it is obvious that the phenomena there
continue unabated. Steve so far has invested over $70,000 in security equipment
to try to capture the "presence" responsible for the flashes of
light, moving shadows, foul odors, poltergeist activity, and loud noises that
plague his family. Recently he installed ultrasonic camera triggering devices
as well as digital cameras to document the activity. So far, there are over
3,000 photographs and 400 videotapes supporting the validity of this case.
There are only two other locations (Arizona and England) where photographic
phenomena similar to those from the Black Forest are currently being recorded.
For those of you not familiar with this case, the following is a brief synopsis
Within weeks of buying their new home in 1992, the gates of hell opened up on
the Lees. "One day we came home," said Beth Lee, "and it was
like the Fourth ofJuly in our living room and in our bedroom. We had all kinds
of lights flashing through, and it sounded like people stomping across the
roof. We would lay in bed at night and hear chains rattling. One night we woke
up and heard orchestra music. Strange things started happening every day."
The two boys complained of weird lights and shadows in their rooms, lights and
appliances started going on and off by themselves, and untraceable chemical
odors burned family members’ eyes and throats. Over the next four years, they
would have sixty-two unexplainable "break-ins." The El Paso County
Sheriff’s Department opened an investigation in April 1993 and conducted
forty-five follow-ups but could Never find any evidence of a "crime."
After the sheriff stopped responding, the Lees hired private investigators to
try to figure out what was going on.
About that time, Steve noticed that photographs and videotape taken in
certain locations on the property had strange light streaks running through
them, and sometimes, translucent faces even appeared on the film. Determined to
document the activity, Steve borrowed or purchased every type of camera he
could think to see if the bizarre images appeared, but no matter what type of
camera or film he used, he captured evidence of unexplainable light phenomena
that included brilliant beams, floating balls of light, and glowing outlines of
humans and animals. Sometimes the mysterious lights could be seen with the
naked eye, though most often, they lasted just a split second and showed up
only on film. Steve and Beth finally agreed that something paranormal might be
going on in their home, and in early 1995, they sent some of the pictures and
videotape to the "Sightings" television show. Hollywood special
effects technician Edson Williams examined the Lee films and told the producers
of the show that most of the light images would be extremely difficult to
reproduce and some seemed to defy the laws of optics entirely.
"Sightings" immediately dispatched a film crew to the Black Forest,
and once on site, were able to document some of the weird phenomena the Lees
had witnessed. In three visits to the property "Sightings" brought
along Minneapolis ghostbuster Echo Bodine and Los Angeles psychic Peter James,
who both identified powerful presences in the house. A Hopi shaman consulted on
the Black Forest hauntings said that the area is a "Rainbow Vortex,"
one of only a few psychic energy spots on the planet that connect our world
with the next. Red, yellow, and white lightforms are seen and recorded, as well
as apparitions of an old lady, a little girl, a burly man dressed in 1800s
clothing, and a "flying dog," not to mention the hundreds of forlorn
faces seen floating in the Lee’s bedroom mirrors. (Infrared photos of these
apparitions that I took on site during my own investigation are featured in an
article I wrote about the case in the March 1998 issue of FATE magazine. Copies
can be ordered by calling Llewellyn Publications at 800-THE-MOON.)
ARIZONA- PHOENIX (October 1997 - March 1998)
A bizarre UFO that seems to materialize out of
hyperspace has been reported over the central Arizona skies since last October.
Sightings have been averaging two per month. The brightly-lit object has been
described as up to twenty times larger than the apparent size of a typical
star. It streaks through a curved path in the sky equal to three times the
diameter of a full moon. The object does not behave like a meteorite and seems
to start and stop very abruptly. It appears from nowhere and maintains uniform
brightness
with no trail. No photos have been taken since the
object appears for only a few seconds then disappears only to reappear
somewhere else. Most sightings have been between 1000 PM and 1200 PM PST. I am
accumulating reports on this case now and will issue more details at my
website. One of the first sightings (by a security guard) is documented at the
National UFO Reporting Center website at
http//www.nwlink.com/~ufocntr/DP971005.html .
NEW YORK- BOHEMIA, LONG
ISLAND
The active ghost at the Normandy Inn in Bohemia has
been identified as a spirit named Maria, who was strangled in an upstairs back
bedroom when the place was a speakeasy. Numerous sightings continue to this day
and include bare footprints in the carpeting (usually in the middle of winter),
a shadowy figure moving around in the kitchen area, and strange animal (?)
bones turning up in the basement. Several seances have been conducted over the
last few years, and the case is currently being investigated by Candice Isralow
of Mt. Sinai, New York. The Normandy Inn is located on Lakeland Avenue in
Bohemia and the phone number is (516) 589-9898. The current owner (Rick) has
lived there for over twenty years.
______________________
TRUE LIFE ENCOUNTERS
______________________
"My former wife and her former husband used to
live in a hundred-plus year-old triple decker brownstone in South Boston. It
was an old house that sat at the end of a dead-end street. Many mornings she
would wake up to hear teacups and saucers clinking and barely audible conversations
going on in the parlor. She describes the sounds like those you might hear when
you are just starting to wake up and you can hear a conversation in the other
room but can’t quite make out the works. She would often hear these morning
‘tea sessions’ in her house but avoided mentioning them to her husband, until
one morning when they were both lying in bed and the ‘party’ started up. She
warily asked him ‘Do you hear that?’ To which he answered ‘Yes, I hear that a
lot but never wanted to mention it to you because I thought you’d think I was
crazy.’ One night when her husband and her sister’s boyfriend had been out for
the evening, she and her sister were lying in bed, almost asleep. They heard
the front door bang open and footsteps coming up the stairs. They turned to
each other and said, ‘Oh, sounds like the boys are home.’ But when they both
went out in the hallway to welcome their men home, there was no one
there!" - submitted by JSold@blackwellpub.com
_________________________
ORGANIZATION SPOTLIGHT
_________________________
WHITE CROW SOCIETY The White Crow Society provides
investigation and support for people experiencing paranormal events through
information packets and bibliographies, at-a-distance consultation with
experienced members, and field investigation by trained researchers. They also
publish a newsletter "As the Crow Flies" and maintains a
Parapsychology Speakers Guide. Incidentally, the name for the group comes from
a quote by psychologist William James "If you wish to upset the law that
all crows are black, you mustn’t seek to show that no crows are; it is enough
if you prove one single crow to be white." White Crow Society, 314 West
231st St., Suite 465, Riverdale, NY 10463. Phone/FAX
718-543-4183. Website and email http//www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/1533
and white_crow_soc@hotmail.com.
_______________
NEW RELEASES
_______________
GEORGIA GHOSTS by Nancy Roberts (Blair Publishing,
Winston-Salem, NC 1997)
Veteran folklorist and ghost researcher Nancy
Roberts has made an important contribution to the documentation of true ghost
encounters and a change in her previous anecdotal style of reportage ¾ in her
latest book. The fifty-four cases presented in this book span the entire state
of Georgia from the colonial coast and islands to the historic heartland and
classic south all the way to the northern mountains. Each case is a real place
with addresses and directions on how to find it, and reading this book is like
having a personal tour guide to the Peachtree State’s most haunted places. The
section on Savannah, one of America’s most haunted cities, contains such noted
paranormal spots as the Pirate’s House, the 17Hundred90 Inn, the Hampton
Lillibridge House, and Jim William’s House (from "Midnight in the Garden
of Good and Evil"), as well as lesser known hauntings such as the Shrimp
Factory restaurant and the Keyhoe House inn. In Atlanta, Roberts introduces us
to the ghost of the Uncle Remus House, the cantankerous spirits at Dunwoody
House, and the Pink Lady, an apparition encountered by the Roberts family when
Nancy was a teenager growing up in the Little Five Points section of Atlanta.
An interesting tale from Fayetteville recounts the fate Doc Holliday’s
persistent ghost, who still waits outside the home of a lost love there. One
recent case that Roberts reveals is taking place at the Big Canoe Resort near
Jasper in the northwest mountains of Georgia. For the past few years, the tall
ghost of an Indian has been appearing to employees at the Sconti Clubhouse. "He
is most likely to appear when the place is quiet and nobody else is
around," said witness Billy Howard. "On Wednesday mornings, when I go
in to work about three or four o’clock in the morning, he is at the clubhouse.
He’s always curious about what I’m doing and wants to watch everything."
Recently, the ghost started making noises for the first time. While
straightening up a banquet room, Billy heard a clicking sound and found the
ghost sitting at a table knocking two sugar holders together. The apparition has
also been seen by housekeeper Gail Jones, and ever since, she utters a
courteous greeting whenever she enters the clubhouse to clean. So far the ghost
has been spotted in the men’s locker room, the downstairs banquet room, the pro
shop, the kitchen, and in the double doorway at the entrance to the clubhouse.
It is thought that the spirit is of a Cherokee Indian, possibly buried under
the clubhouse, who does not realize he is dead. When the apparition appeared in
the outside doorway, he took off running when a golfcart drove towards him. It
was a reaction one might expect from someone living, who had never seen a
golfcart and was frightened by it. The Indian apparently thought he was about
to be run over.
__________________________
LECTURES / MEDIA EVENTS
__________________________
FATE MAGAZINE The March 1998 issue of FATE magazine
offers two articles Written by me. The first, as mentioned above, deals with
the Black Forest Haunting. The second is a review of the most important books
in the field of Ghosts and Hauntings in the last fifty years.
CAPTIOL CITY GHOST RESEARCH SOCIETY of Austin,
Texas. On Friday, April 24, at 700 PM, I will be holding a lecture and
discussion for members and interested parties. For more information, contact
Lisa Farwell (ghostly@texas.net).
ANCIENT MYSTERIES CONFERENCE On Saturday, April 25,
at 200 PM, I will present a slide lecture on "The Emerald Tablet," an
ancient and mysterious document which showed philosophers and alchemists how to
access paranormal states of consciousness. There will be a Question and Answer
period, as well as handouts documenting my research into this fascinating
topic. The three-day conference will be held at Scottish Rite Temple in
downtown Austin, Texas. For further information, contact Bill Reeves at wtr@io.com.
BOOK EXPO AMERICA at McCormick Place in Chicago,
Illinois. I will be attending this conference and will appear at local
bookstores and media events from May 28 through June 2. Organizations or
individuals may request lectures or meetings by contacting me at
DWHauck@poetic.com .
HISTORY CHANNEL A&E’s History Channel begins an
interesting new series called "Haunted History" in August 1998. The
series views history from the perspective of ghostly events that have taken
place in various cities across the United States. I am featured in the segment
on San Francisco.
AMERICAN GHOST SOCIETY CONFERENCE in Decatur,
Illinois, from August 7 to 9. I will be presenting two slide lectures
("America’s Most Haunted" and "Alchemy of the Paranormal").
Conference registration is $50 (before June 30) and includes all lectures,
tours and investigations of local haunted sites, informal discussions, and a
round-table reception. For more information, contact Troy Taylor at
TTaylor@q-com.com or visit http//www.prairieghosts.com/confer98.html .
LEARNING EXCHANGE in Sacramento, California. I will
be presenting 3-hour workshops about the reality of paranormal phenomena in
August and October 1998. For more information, call 916-929-9200 or check their
website for updates at http//www.learningexchange.com .
1998/1999 BOOK TOURS National tours to promote my
latest book from Penguin, THE EMERALD TABLET, as well as the bestselling
HAUNTED PLACES THE NATIONAL DIRECTORY, will take place in major cities across
the United States. Please contact me at DWHauck@poetic.com to schedule lectures
or booksignings in your area.
********************************************
To unsubscribe from THE HAUCK REPORT, send email to
DWHauck@poetic.com with
the
word "unsubscribe" in the subject line.
New case leads, personal accounts, and
organizational information are always welcome!
Write to Dennis William Hauck,
P.O. Box 22201, Sacramento, CA 95822-0201.
********************************************
Vol. 1 No. 2 1998
http//www.haunted-places.com
***************************
THE HAUCK REPORT
***************************
<HauckReport@theglobe.com>
Contents
- CURRENT PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (Breaking cases from
throughout North America)
- TRUE LIFE ENCOUNTERS (Accounts of true
experiences with the paranormal)
- NEW RELEASES (Review of new books and videos on
the paranormal)
- ORGANIZATION SPOTLIGHT (A look at popular
research organizations)
- LECTURES/MEDIA EVENTS (Upcoming public events and
programs on the
paranormal)
_______________________________
CURRENT PARANORMAL
ACTIVITY
_______________________________
IOWA -- CEDAR RAPIDS
A recent investigation of Pleasant Ridge Cemetery,
also known as Thirteen
Stairs, has yielded intriguing evidence of a
genuine haunting. Thirteen stairs
do indeed lead to the entrance to the graveyard, an
1800s cemetery in the
middle of the woods. Many of the graves belong to
the Lewis and Blackburn
families, local farmers. In January and February, 1997,
investigators reported
a "ghost dog" running by them and were
also able to take a photo of a
disappearing house that is sometimes seen over a
square patch of faded grass.
The photo shows a framework of lightlines outlining
the house, and photos of
balls of light have also been taken over the Lewis
Family gravestone. That
tombstone is even credited with healing a person's
sprained ankle after he sat
on it for ten minutes. On March 5, 1998, four
investigators recorded
electronic
voice phenomena of the ghostly voice of an old man
wheezing and then laughing
maliciously. (The cemetery is located just outside
Cedar Rapids about 1.5
miles
from the town of Palo in Linn County. For more
information visit
http//www.comic.net/users/strahd/index.html. A wave
file of the recording on
March 5 is included on
the multimedia version of THE HAUCK REPORT. See
ordering
info below.)
CALIFORNIA -- ROSAMOND
A large hovering UFO,
octagonal in shape, was spotted hovering over
Albertson's
Supermarket and the Taco Bell in Rosamond, CA,
between 915 and 1100 PM on
April
22, 1998. The object had yellow and orange lights
around its outer edge, and
witnesses estimated its size to be up to 200 yards
across. Many witnesses in
this 7,500-population called authorities and
newspapers, and the object caused
traffic jams as motorists parked and rubber-necked
at the sky show. Both Air
Force and police denied knowing of anything in the
skies that night that could
have explained the sightings. Most of the reports
were received by copy chief
Jane Treece of the Antelope Valley Press newspaper.
The incident was reported
over the by Skywatch member Bill Hamilton.
CONNECTICUT -- MERIDEN
Another odd-shaped UFO, this time triangular
shaped, was also reported this
month between Meriden and Middletown, Connecticut.
A 39-year-old man was
driving east on Route 147 at 9 PM when he spotted
the unusual object hovering
over the Mount Higby Reservoir. The Mount Higby
reservoir is approximately
four
miles west of Middletown, a small city about 17
miles (27 kilometers) south of
Hartford, the state capital. The witness saw the
silent object hovering over
the water and observed its reflection in the water.
There were three lights in
triangular formation, which were very bright. The
witness said the lights on
the object were slightly bluish-white, closer to
florescent light than
halogen.
Similar shaped UFOs are currently being reported in
Geogia, Florida, and North
Carolina. The dozens of North Carolina sightings
are centered around Pilot
Mountain outside
Winston-Salem. The North Carolina cases are being
investigated
by Barbara Thompson of MUFON. The Connecticut
report was investigated by MUFON
members Mark Cashman and Bruce Tilden, who said the
UFO "was about 50 feet
above the reservoir."According to their
report, the object was
approximately 100
feet (30 meters) across; it was estimated that the
pine trees around the
reservoir are between 30 and 40 feet high.
______________________
TRUE LIFE ENCOUNTERS
______________________
"I grew up in a small town directly across the
Delaware River from Trenton,
NJ.
I had a girlfriend who lived in a very old house,
supposedly built by Robert
Morris during the Revolutionary Era. It is situated
right across from the
Soldiers' Barracks in Trenton. Us kids would always
joke about an underground
tunnel that ran from her house, under the river to
the barracks where the
American soldiers were housed during the war. When
I was in the fifth grade,
over 25 years ago, I spent the night at her house.
She, her sisters, and I all
bunked in this huge room that served as both
playroom and bedroom for the
girls. That night, for whatever reason, I could not
fall asleep all night; and
the next morning I was very unsettled, glad to go
home. It was not until I was
sixteen, that my mother told me what happened. My
girlfriend's mother heard
noises in the middle of the night coming from the
room directly above our
bedroom and went up there to check what was
happening. She opened up the door,
and toys, games, -- you name it -- were all torn
apart and still moving in
mid-air! She promptly locked the door and no one
was allowed in there again.
She later called on our parish priest to come over
and bless the house and end
the ghostly activity. I know my mother did not make
up this story; she's not
the kind of person to do that. My girlfriend and
her husband still live in
that
house to this day. They have remodeled, though I
have not seen the house.
But I
still remember that strange room and mom's story
and just wonder what really
happened that night." - Linda Birch
<lbirch@alcnet.com>
_______________
NEW RELEASES
_______________
CALL TO PURPOSE by Richard Solly (ISBN
1-56838-045-3, $11.95 QP, Hazelden
Publ.)
Are men more reluctant to talk about paranormal
experiences than women? In
1987, Richard Solly
became critically ill and had to undergo five major
surgeries within a few months. During his recovery,
he developed an abdominal
infection which led to severe blood poisoning and
two near-death experiences.
On both occasions, he saw his dead father and
sister standing at the foot of
his bed assuring him everything would be all right.
Solly’s spiritual
encounter
profoundly changed his outlook, and he began to seek
out others who had had
similar experiences. Immediately, he discovered
that while women were open and
willing to share their spiritual moments, men were
reluctant to discuss them
for fear of being misunderstood, patronized, or
labeled as crazy, weak, or
religious fanatics. This book eloquently
demonstrates the profound effect that
acknowledging a sacred experience has had in the
lives of eight very different
men. Solly details how the men determined the
meaning of their experiences and
the impact on their lives, what choices they made
in living out their
revitalized spirituality, and how they integrated
their new belief systems
with
their daily habits and routines, as well as how
their general outlook on life
changed. Above all, this book reminds us that
vulnerability can be one of our
most important strengths. Contrary to popular
belief, men are not less
sensitive than women when it comes to experiencing
and interpreting their
feelings, especially those that surface from
unusual encounters; they are just
less likely to discuss them.
_________________________
ORGANIZATION SPOTLIGHT
_________________________
SKYWATCH INTERNATIONAL
INC.
Skywatch is a non-profit membership organization
based on the Internet. It is
made up of an international group of paranormal
investigators and case
compilers who primarily are interested in UFO
phenomena. Administrative
offices
P.O. Box 900393, Pasadena, CA 93590. Membership
offices P.O. Box 801, Leander,
TX 78646. Visit their homepage at
http//skywatch.itlnet.net.
__________________________
LECTURES / MEDIA EVENTS
__________________________
BOOK EXPO AMERICA, McCormick Place in Chicago,
Illinois. D. W. Hauck will be
attending this conference and will appear at
booksignings from May 28 through
May 31. For more information, visit
http//bookexpo.reedexpo.com.
AMERICAN GHOST SOCIETY CONFERENCE, Decatur,
Illinois, from August 7 to 9. D.W.
Hauck will be presenting two slide lectures
("America’s Most Haunted" and
"Alchemy of the Paranormal"). Conference
registration is $50 (before June 30)
and includes all lectures, tours and investigations
of local haunted sites,
informal discussions, and a round-table reception.
For more information,
contact Troy Taylor <TTaylor@q-com.com> or
visit
http//www.prairieghosts.com/confer98.html .Credit
card holders may register by
calling 1-888-GHOSTLY.
LEARNING EXCHANGE,
Sacramento, California. D.W. Hauck will be presenting
3-hour
workshops about the reality of paranormal phenomena
in August and October
1998.
For more information, call 916-929-9200 or check
their website for updates at
http//www.learningexchange.com .
Cable channel American Movie Classics (AMC) is
producing a paranormal special
entitled "Hollywood Ghost Stories." The
1-hour program will include interviews
with experts in the field and stories of Hollywood
hauntings illustrated with
current video and scenes from old movies. If you
can contribute, contact Hope
Kaplan <hopejay@earthlink.net>.
A&E’s History Channel
begins an interesting new series called "Haunted
History"
in August 1998. The series views history from the
perspective of ghostly
events
that have taken place in various cities across the
United States. D.W.
Hauck is
featured in the segment on San Francisco. For
filming information, contact
producer Ronnie Grofdial at (818) 762-2900, ext.
260.
A News Conference covering the People's Rally at
Area 51 will take place in
Rachel, NV, on June 6,
1998, at 1200 noon. Phone (702) 729-2515 for
information. The rally begins that morning at 600
AM and will take place at
the
at the restricted boundary line on Groom Lake Road
in Lincoln County. From 400
to 800 people are expected to attend. There will be
speakers, entertainment,
and a 3-hour hike to Tikaboo Mountain to observe
the Groom Lake facility on
Sunday morning, June 7.
For directions and rally information, check out
http//eagle-net.org/groomwatch/maps.htm.
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
Message: 3
Date: Fri,
04 Dec 1998 09:15:28 -0800
From: Dennis William Hauck
<alchemy8@xxxxxxx.xxxx
Subject: Hauck Report Vol.1 No.3
Vol. 1 No. 3 1998
<http//www.haunted-places.com>
***************************
THE HAUCK REPORT
***************************
<HauckReport@theglobe.com>
Contents
- CURRENT PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (Breaking cases from
throughout North America)
- TRUE LIFE ENCOUNTERS (Accounts of true
experiences with the paranormal)
- NEW RELEASES (Review of new books and videos on
the paranormal)
- ORGANIZATION SPOTLIGHT (A look at popular
research organizations)
- LECTURES/MEDIA EVENTS (Upcoming public events and
programs on the
paranormal)
_____________________________
CURRENT PARANORMAL
ACTIVITY
_____________________________
CALIFORNIA - GLEN ELLYN
(Investigative report submitted by Richard Senate
<ghostlamp@msn.com>)
The massive pile of stone is now moss-covered
giving it an ancient forlorn
feel. Tall trees almost hide the ruins of the huge
and hollow structure.
People
come from all over the world to visit this
place--the monument to one man's
broken dream. This was Wolf House, the builder the
great American Writer Jack
London. My wife Debbie and I had driven to The Jack
London State Historic Park
in Glen Ellen, California to view the ruined house
to determine if the site
was
really haunted. For years I had read that visitors
had seen the troubled ghost
of London wandering the remains of the house. One
psychic researcher even
claimed that the ghosts of the characters created
by Jack London haunted the
place. The drive though the wine country with its
many picturesque wineries
and
stone villas made the trip almost a second
honeymoon. But upon reaching our
destination we got down to work trying to discover
if the ruins were
haunted or
if it was just so much hype. The place, along with
several other buildings,
including Jack London's grave site, are part of a
Historic Park dedicated to
the life of this California Author, the creator of
such masterworks as "The
Call of the Wild"
and "White Fang." It is the ruin that attracts so many
visitors each year. It was a house that cost over
80,000 dollars to build in a
time when such sums were astronomical. Sadly, no
one ever lived at Wolf House.
It burned to the ground one hot august night in
1913 just before Jack London
and his wife were to move in. The loss of his dream
house, so reported his
wife, seemed to have destroyed something in the
man. In three years he was
dead, passing away at the age of forty. She was the
first to start the stories
of a ghost at the place telling relatives that
visitors heard the sounds of
boots on wooden stairways that had burned! When it
burned the workmen can in
tears because they could do nothing to fight the
flames--there was no water.
The house was a massive structure of stone and
thick redwood with a Spanish
tile roof. It was thought that the building was
fireproof. A stoic London
watched the mansion burn, leading his workers to
keep the flames from
spreading
to the trees and causing a forest fire. He vowed to
rebuild the place but he
never did. Debbie and I made our way to the site
after a short visit to the
simple grave site of the man who moved millions
with his stories. He
selected a
large stone from the house as his grave marker
before he died giving some
speculation that he knew that he was soon to leave
this world. Kidney failure
was blamed for his untimely death but some believe
that he may have taken his
own life. At Wolf House we joined the other
tourists as they walked around the
place taking pictures. The place is huge--a rustic
palace. The center court
had
a reflecting pool like a Roman Villa. We walked to
an overlook to better see
the ruins. Debbie was silent, reflective, trying to
tune in on the site. I
knew
better than to intrude on her at this time.
"I feel like we shouldn't be here,"
Debbie whispered at last, "There is
something here, something old and very sad."
"Who?" I asked, "Is it Jack, Jack
London?" "I don't know," she replied
closing her eyes. I gave her some time
and
walked around the building taking more pictures
with a special camera. Perhaps
some ghostly image might come out in the pictures.
When I got back Debbie was
gone! She had vanished! Worried, I began to search
the site. In a trance or
meditative state she might do anything! I had seen
her stumble into all sorts
of places in the past. She could be inside the
ruins, in a place that may
prove
dangerous! I cursed myself for leaving her. I half
expected to discover her
walking along the high, crumbling walls following
some psychic impression. I
found her sitting on a bench rocking back and
forth, her eyes closed.
"There is
someone here," she said hearing my footsteps
as I approached. "I felt him, for
just a moment, we communicated." "Is it
Jack?" I asked using my tape recorder
to get her comments. "People see him and they
think its Jack but it isn't,"
she
explained, " he knew Jack, he felt he had
betrayed him, let him down. He is in
limbo now. I feel he was a Catholic, an Italian, an
artist, a builder. He
built
this house, it was his dream too and he blames
himself for its loss." "So it's
not Jack London?" I asked again for the tape.
"No, It is a man who died years
after Jack but this is his place, Wolf House, and
it was his greatest defeat."
"Why does he blame himself?" I asked,
"Wasn't the fire an accident?" "No, it
need not have happened.He wasn't where he should
have been that night. He
failed." "Did he set the fire?"
"No, but he could have prevented it if he had
only tried," Debbie said, still with closed
eyes, "he believed it wouldn't
burn, couldn't burn. It was like the TITANIC,
everyone said it was unsinkable
until people got to thinking it couldn't possibly
sink--but it did. The house
burned and burned completely. He let Jack down but
jack never said a word."
The
historic record indicates that an Italian named
Forni was the builder could he
be the ghost that walks Wolf House and not Jack
London.It makes sense. London
never lived in the house, he never worked here. The
Italian built it with his
own labors and infused it with his own dreams. The
shade that wanders here is
suffering from a case of mistaken identity! If you
ever travel to the wine
country, visit Glen Ellen and tour the ruins. I
believe you too will come away
with the feeling that something sad walks those
crumbling halls.
TEXAS - PEYTON COLONY
(Investigative report submitted by Lisa Farwell
<ghostly@texas.net>)
The Capital City Ghost
Research Society of Austin, Texas, is currently
investigating a flurry of paranormal activity at
the Peyton Colony, a 350-acre
historic ranch outside Austin. The property was
settled as a slave colony in
1864 and has been in the Coffee family since its
creation. There are several
buildings on the site, including an old church and
schoolhouse. Lawrence and
Ellen Coffee live in a house built about 50 years
ago by Lawrence's aunt.
Four different
apparitions have been seen by multiple witnesses and
poltergeist
phenomena are also taking place. The poltergeist
effects include weird
electrical problems, faucets turning on and off by
themselves, and objects
disappearing then turning up in unexpected
locations. Unexplainable voices and
the sounds of drums beating have also been
reported. In an effort to document
the activity, Ellen Coffee started taking
photographs and recording the
strange
noises and disembodied voices. The photographs show
apparitions, balls of
light, and streaks of energy, and both men's,
women's, and children's voices
have been recorded.
In June, a group of
investigators took dozens of photographs and made
computerized recordings of anomalous sounds at the
site. Investigators present
included Lisa Farwell, psychic Jill Pendleton,
computer expert Todd Brower.
Ellen Coffee's computer was used to record the
Electronic Voice Phenomena
(EVP). During one six-hour investigation on June
27, spectacular anomalies
were
captured with a digital camera, a Canon 35mm camera
with 800 speed film, and a
point-and-shoot Olympus 35mm camera. Most of the
photos capture light
phenomena
(orbs, mists, and streaks) that take place too
quick for the naked eye to see.
Currently, paranormal phenomena are occurring
almost every night. Photographs
and sound files pertaining to this case will be
posted next month at
<http//www.haunted-places.com>.
______________________
TRUE LIFE ENCOUNTERS
______________________
A few years ago ( three to be exact) my grandfather died. We were very close