Ghosts - Paranormal Magazine

Haunted Hollywood

Friday, May 8th, 2009

Terror in Tinsteltown as John Stoker directs us towards spectres of the stars and other nightmares in the Land of Dreams.

The masked, cloaked figure of silent horror star Lon Chaney still appears on stage 28 at Universal Studios, where he starred as the Phantom of the Opera.

In 1923 a real estate company erected a sign in the foothills of Los Angeles which was to become one of the most famous symbols in the world. It consisted of 13 letters constructed in sheet-metal, painted white and standing 50ft high. Illuminated by 4,000 20-watt light bulbs it could be seen from as far as 25 miles away. It spelled out ‘Hollywoodland’ and to many it represented a place where dreams could become a reality. But where there are dreams there are also nightmares.

On Friday, September 14, 1932 a young actress called Peg Entwistle left her home in Beachwood Drive and walked up the southern slopes of Mount Lee towards the Hollywood sign.

Peg had seen her dream of celluloid stardom collapse and she was severely depressed. She took off her coat, placed a note in her purse and with the help of a ladder left by maintenance men she climbed to the top of the letter ‘H’ and jumped to her death. The following day a letter arrived at her home offering her the lead in a stage play.

The rest of this feature can be read in Paranormal issue 36.

My top 10 Old Haunts: Jason Karl

Friday, May 8th, 2009

One of the most enduring aspects of ghost hunting is the opportunity to immerse oneself in the history and heritage of our haunted past; days and nights spent in grandiose and ghoulish chambers, damp dark dungeons and remote idylls where the diseased arm of ‘development’ has yet to reach.

It is in these unique and special places that I have spent much of my life, with only the ghosts of long forgotten pasts for company.

I consider it an honour to have been
granted permission to experience the strangeness that permeates these haunted places, and I am delighted to share my top ten strangest encounters with readers of Paranormal Magazine; join me now for a spirited jaunt around my favourite old haunts…

10. Creech Hill 9. Charleville Forest Castle

8. Highwayman Inn 7. Michelham Priory

6. Whatley Hall Hotel 5. Lower Mere Park

4. ‘Margells’ 3. Hall I’ The Wood

2. My own home 1. Athelhampton Hall

For the full in-depth rundown of Jason Karl’s top ten haunted spots, check out Paranormal magazine issue 36

The Room 9 incubus

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

JASON KARL describes an extraordinary case of a sexual haunting he has spent several years investigating at an old manor house in the North West of England.

Extract - After slipping into a deep sleep, Sarah was awoken by a strange feeling which she described as a ‘muscular man pressing down upon me with great force’. Strangely, though, her reaction was from far from fear:

‘The feeling lasted for almost an hour and the experience was incredible,’ she told me. ‘It was as if a man was making love to me, I could feel the physicality of him, pressing against my skin.’

(Full article in Paranormal issue 35, available now. CLICK HERE to buy the issue and for subscription information, or CLICK HERE to download the digital issue from www.zinio.com

Familiar Spirits

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

Paranormal editor RICHARD HOLLAND re-examines the strange cases of Gef and the Pwca Trwyn, two weird entities who befriended farming families in remote corners of the UK.

In his book Invizi-kids, Michael Hallowell devotes a chapter to one of the most extraordinary stories in the paranormal records, that of Gef, ‘the talking mongoose’.

Gef was a kind of familiar spirit who took up residence in a farmhouse on the Isle of Man during the first half of the 1930s. Hallowell ponders whether Gef was an elaborate example of the not-so imaginary friends he discusses in his book. The story is often included among those of poltergeists but when I revisited the case, I was struck by how similar it was to old tales of fairies who attach themselves to families.

Doarlish Cashen (Cashen’s Gap) no longer stands but in the 1930s it was an isolated and rather bleak farmhouse built of slate and faced with cement. So exposed was it on a slope of Dalby Mountain that when Mr Jim Irving moved there in 1917, he constructed an inner frame of match-boarding to keep out the wind. The space between this boarding and the exterior wall is important to the story, because the ‘mongoose’ used it to run about the house and to hide behind when conversing with the family.

Irving lived at Doarlish Cashen with his wife Margaret and daughter, Voirrey. Voirrey was aged between 13 and 17 during the four years of the mystery; adolescent girls are recognised, of course, as typical attractors of poltergeist activity. Initially, Gef’s activities were similar to those of a poltergeist: taps, thumps and scratches coming from behind the match-boarding. This progressed to ‘a crack that shook the place and set the pictures swinging’. Animal sounds of barking, growling and hissing followed and then, most amazingly of all, the ghost started to speak.

You can read the rest of this article in issue 28 of Paranormal Magazine

English Civil War ‘ghost’ captured on film by paranormal enthusiasts

Monday, July 14th, 2008

A ghostly figure, supposedly the spirit of a dead soldier from a key battle in the English Civil War, has been captured on film by a group of paranormal enthusiasts.

The Northampton Paranormal Group caught the figure on camera during a visit to the site of the Battle of Naseby, a field between the villages of Clipston and Naseby in Northamptonshire, last month.

The visit coincided with the 363rd Anniversary of the Battle of Naseby. Members said they heard clunking noises as well as sounds like cannonball fire.

When the group then looked through pictures they took during the visit, they spotted what appeared to be mysterious figure walking out of the dark carrying something in its hands.

Emma Whiteman, leader of the group, said: “The picture was taken about an hour after we heard the noises but we didn’t see anything at the time.

“When we saw it, when we were looking back through the pictures, we were gobsmacked.

“We’re saying that it’s a soldier. Some people can see it sitting on a horse and some people just see it as a walking soldier.”

The Battle of Naseby in 1645 was a key win for the Parliamentarians over the Royalists in the English Civil War.

The battle involved more than 21,000 troops when the Royal army, under Prince Rupert, was beaten by Parliamentary troops led by Sir Thomas Fairfax.

Adrian Perkin, an author and ‘ghost detective’, said he thought the image was a soldier with a musket or pike walking through a gateway.

He said: “If this is genuine it’s a very, very, good example. It’s the best I have seen for many years.”

Sceptics said the effect was caused by the camera itself.

Anne Haddon, of The Naseby Battlefield Project, said: “I haven’t heard anything like this at the battlefield in all my association with it. It’s fair to say I’m a bit sceptical.”

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