AMERICA’S OLDEST HOUSE IS HAUNTED!

Tap Vann — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 02:48:38 +0000

DEDHAM, MA - The oldest timber frame house in America, lived in for generations by the same family is haunted!

The house in Dedham, Massachusetts, was built between 1637 and 1641 by English settlers Jonathan and Grace Fairbanks.

Today the house is a museum, but it could very well one of the most haunted houses in America.

Justin Schlesinger, one of the museum directors whose ancestors built the property, said: ‘There’s always been weird things happening in the house, from the doorbell going off a million times to flashlights never working.’

He added that there are sometimes footsteps heard on the stairs when no one is there. Also, a newly-installed alarm system went off every night for several weeks with the alarm company unable to offer an explanation.

If there are such things as ghosts, he said, ‘this would be the logical place for them to be.’

For decades now, throngs of visitors from all over the world, from school children to distinguished architects, have toured the house, entranced by its authenticity.

Over the centuries, there must have been some deaths in the house, museum business manager Lee Ann Hodson said.

There’s even been a shocking murder. In 1801, one of the Fairbanks sons, Jason, was convicted in the killing of his girlfriend, Elizabeth Fales, in a nearby pasture. She had apparently spurned his marriage proposal.

He was hanged from the gallows on Dedham Common in one of the most sensational murder cases of the time.

On a whim last year, Mr Schlesinger, 25, asked a ghost-hunting group, The Atlantic Paranormal Society, or TAPS, to come in and see what they might find.

He spent a a night in the house with the TAPS investigators.

‘We heard footsteps in the beginning,’ he said. ‘Up where the children used to sleep.’

The TAPS group made audio recordings all night in an effort to detect anything out of the ordinary.

They told him after reviewing the tapes that they did record some sounds.

‘They thought it was kids, because they got some laughter on the recordings.’

Schlesinger admitted that he didn’t get much sleep that night while the group camped out on sleeping bags in the house’s tiny parlor, especially when his cell phone went off in the middle of the night and began playing organ music.

‘I don’t know if scared is the right word,’ he said.’Maybe startled or confused.’

The ghost hunters told him not to worry, that if there were spirits in the house, they were likely his own family and wouldn’t harm him, thebostonchannel.com reports.

He said the TAPS team told him spirits like to ‘mess with electronics,’ which might explain why tourists’ cameras often stop working as well.

‘There is so much history living in this house,’ he said.

The TAPS group returned last weekend for a second round of testing armed with their electro-magnetic field detectors and audio recorders.

Team leader Traci Boiselle, 38, described the outing as ‘awesome.’

‘This time, the house had a very different feeling,’ she said. ‘We had lots of knocking and moving sounds.’

‘My take is that definitely there is some paranormal activity in the house,’ she added.

But Lesley Haine, one of the house’s tour guides who was raised in Dedham, said that while it’s hard to keep flashlights working there, she’s never personally noticed anything too odd.

‘If there are spirits out there, they are good spirits,’ she said.

‘There’s nothing bad. They’re happy spirits.’

FIVE OF AMERICA’S MOST HAUNTED HOUSES

Lizzie Borden House, Fall River, Massachusetts
The ghosts of Andrew and Abby Borden are said to roam this house, now run as a bed and breakfast, where they were killed in 1892.

Mr Borden’s daughter, Lizzie, was accused of hacking him and her stepmother to death with an axe.

Now she is remembered by children across U.S. with the skipping rope rhyme ‘Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks’.

LaLaurie Mansion, New Orleans, Louisiana
This house became famous in 2007 when it was bought by actor Nicolas Cage.

It’s reputed to be haunted by the victims of Madame Delphine LaLaurie, a socialite who inflicted horrific punishment and torture on her slaves.

The horrendous truth was uncovered when a fire ripped through the house in 1834. Rescuers discovered slaves who had been whipped, mutilated and imprisoned wearing spiked iron collars.

Franklin Castle, Cleveland, Ohio
This Gothic house couldn’t look more haunted if it tried, with its tower, turrets, balconies and gargoyles.
It was built in 1860 for a German immigrant, Hannes Tiedemann.

But soon after he moved in, four of his daughters died in as many years, including three babies, leading to speculation Tiedemann had a hand in their deaths.

Visitors say they have heard footsteps, doors slamming – and the sound of babies crying.

Sprague Mansion, Cranston, Rhode Island
Two ghosts are said to haunt this house, once owned by one of the town’s most prosperous families, the Spragues, who owned a textile mill.

In 1843 Amasa Sprague was found shot and beaten on the road from the mansion to the mill. According to lore, his ghost returned to the house and can be spotted prowling the wine cellar.

Visitors say they have also spotted ‘Charlie the butler’ descending the main stairway.

Myrtles Plantation, St Francisville, Lousiana
This spooky-looking plantation home is populated by a whole family of ghosts. In 1808, a young slave named Chloe, jealous of the plantation owner’s family, baked a birthday cake for one of his children, filled with poisonous oleander leaves.

His wife, Sara, and two of his children died. Chloe confessed to the murder – but her fellow slaves hung her and threw her body in the Mississippi.

Now she is said to haunt the garden, where she tends her plantings, while the spirits of Sara and her children are said to be trapped inside a large mirror.

Oil Drill Opens Hole Into Hell

Marge Floori — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:27:37 +0000

PRUDHOE BAY, AK - Something is emerging from Hell!

That is the horrifying warning of more than 60 eyewitnesses who have seen the monstrous shape roaring out of a mile-deep Alaskan oil well amid stinking clouds of sulfur.

“If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would not believe it,” said John Merritt, a foreman with BP, which operates the oil field.

“The giant demon head of Satan has already escaped and his body has been slowly coming out for weeks.

“White-hot flames are billowing out of the well, the skies have been darkened by strange clouds and the area is full of an evil stench so oppressive and overpowering that most people can only stand to remain there for a few minutes.”

The oil field, about 400 miles north of Fairbanks, has been ordered shut down by the government and the area has been cordoned off. Only military and clergymen who have been called in by the oil company to aid in the crisis are admitted to the area, and Alaskan officials have slapped a tight lid of secrecy over the story.

Many are looking to politicians for a response; Alaska’s reserves have been a source of this year’s presidential debates over energy independence.

Alaskan Governor and Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin immediately downplayed the incident, stating, “This is nothing to worry about! It’s just the Devil playing tricks on us! He wants to see our country run out of oil, just like the terrorists. We gotta stand up for ourselves and keep on drilling!”

Delaware Senator and Vice-Presidential candidate Joe Biden was far more concerned. “I have consistently voted against exploration in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve, and this is the perfect example why. We don’t yet know the long-term environmental effects, let alone Biblical ones.”

As for the hole? “No one is allowed within 50 feet of the oil well,” said foreman Merritt. “We’re just waiting to see what happens next.”

Weekly World News » fairbanks

AMERICA’S OLDEST HOUSE IS HAUNTED!

FIVE OF AMERICA’S MOST HAUNTED HOUSES

Oil Drill Opens Hole Into Hell