Real-Life X-Files

by Joe Nickell

  In contrast is the knowing statement of ghost hunter Mason Winfield (1997, 176)—referring to the allegedly haunted Holiday Inn at Grand Island, New York—that “The environment of the Inn is not the gloomy, historic sort that puts people in mind of spooks.” As one who has spent an uneventful night in that resort hotel, indeed in its reputedly most haunted room 422,1 quite agree. But apparitions can occur anywhere. The Holiday Inn’s child ghost“ Tanya” apparently originated with an impressionable maid who wascleaning the fourth-floor room shortly after the hotel opened in 1973. The housekeeper suddenly glimpsed a little girl standing in the doorway and, startled, dropped a couple of drinking glasses. When she looked up again, the child was gone. As the maid tried to flee, it was reported, “somehow her cart trapped her in the room. She screamed” (Winfield 1997, 176).Her apparitional encounter seems consistent with the typical conditions we have already discussed: at the time, she was performing routine chores. As to the cart, most likely, flustered, she merely encountered it where she had left it, blocking her flight, and panicked.

  Other sightings there—like that of a Canadian man who awoke to see a little girl at the foot of his bed (Safiuddin 1994)—were of the waking-dream variety. But why is it often a little girl (even if varyingly identified as age “five or six” or “about age 10” [Winfield 1997,176;Safiuddin 1994])? Those knowing about “Tanya” before their sighting may thus be influenced, while those who do not may, in light of sub sequent statements or leading questions from those to whom they report an incident, reinterpret a vague sense of presence or a shadowy form as the expected ghost child. To compound the problem, many of the reports are at second- or third-hand,or an even greater remove.

  Researching tales like that of the Holiday Inn’s child specter can be illuminating. In that case, there is no evidence to support claims of “a little girl who was burned to death in a house that formerly stood on the site” (Hauck1996,291). The Grand Island historian was unable to document any deadly fire at that locale. The only known blaze at the site occurred in 1963, at which time the historic John Nice mansion had been transformed into a restaurant, and there was not a single fatality (Klingel 2000). My search of the near by White haven Cemetery, where the Nice family is buried, failed to turn up any credible candidate for the role of ghost girl, least of all one named “Tanya” —which, as census and cemetery records show, was not thename of any of John Nice's ten daughters (Linenfelser 2000).

  A similar lack of substantiation characterizes many other haunting tales. Consider, for instance, the previously mentioned Belhurst Castle, located in New York’s scenic Finger Lakes region. Its colorful brochure an nounces: “Tales persist of the romantic past, of secret tunnels, hidden treasures buried in the walls and on the grounds, of ghosts and hauntings. Fact or Fancy? No one knows.” Actually the tales originated with the old mansion that previously stood on the site. No tunnel was ever found, and the stories apparently derive from a “small blind cellar” discovered beneath the old house when it was razed in 1888 to build the present “castle.” There was merely speculation that it might have served as a hidden vault for the securing of valuables. Prior to this, the dilapidated mansion “was a favorite playground of Geneva's adventure-seeking youth, who were enticed by its reputation of being haunted,” according to a knowledgeable source, who adds, “However, there is no record ‘spooks’ were ever encountered there, or ghostly manifestations of any sort whatsoever” (Emmons 1959). Nevertheless, citing some other Belhurst tales, Robin Mead states in his Haunted Hotels (1995), “a property suchas Belhurst Castle ought to be surrounded by legends like this, for they complement the atmosphere of romance and add a touch of mystery.”

  Several inns I have investigated have featured ghosts in their promotional materials. In addition to Belhurst Castle, they include the Hotel Boulderado, the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and Gettysburg’s Historic Farnsworth House Inn. The latter advertises that it is “open for tours and ghost stories” : “Descend the staircase into the darkness of the stone cellar. Hear, by candlelight, tales of phantom spectres whom [sic] are still believed to haunt the town and its battle field.” These storybook ghosts may be the only ones to inhabit the inn. The owner told me emphatically that he had never seen a ghost—there or anywhere else. “I don't believe in that stuff,” he said. However, his daughter, who manages the inn, is not so skeptical, having “felt” a “presence” there. She related to me the experience of one guest who had seen a spectral figure after having gone to bed—very likely a common waking dream (Nickell 1995, 55).

  The effect of new ownership has seemingly launched many hotel hauntings. Stories of ghostly events on the Queen Mary did not surface until after the ship became a tourist attraction in 1967 (Wlodarskiet al. 1995,13). At many other hotels, alleged paranormal events have seemedto wax and wane with changes in management. At the Holiday Inn on Grand Is land, for example, the ghost tales—beginning soon after the initial opening —were happily related by one manager. He told a ghost hunter (Myers1986,291), “Our housekeepers have stories about Tanya that could fill a book.” But a successor was “concerned with trying to improve there putation of his hotel and dispel the rumors surrounding it,” refusing “to acknowledge any paranormal happenings” (Gibson 1999).

  Ghost tales may indeed be good for business. Explained an owner of one restaurant with bar, which “had a reputation for having ghosts” (Myers 1986, 228), “It was good conversation for the kind of business we’re in. I never tried to dissuade anyone.” Other proprietors may go even further. An alleged ghost at the Kennebunk Inn in Kennebunk, Maine, may have originated with the purchase of the inn by one of its earlier owners. He reportedly told a bartender one night that he was “going to make up a story about a ghost,” presumably to promote the inn. Years later the former bartender related the story to the current owner, who in turn told me (Martin 1999). A hoax could well explain the “ghostly activity” at the Kennebunk Inn, which included “moving and flying crystal goblets, exploding wineglasses behind the bar, disarrayed silverware, and moving chairs” (Hauck 1996,198). In fact, prior to the particular change of ownership that seemed to spark the poltergeist effects, apparently “all was quiet” at the historic inn(Sit 1991). Apparently the ghost moved away when, after about fifteen years, the business was sold again. Still later owners John and Kristen Martinre opened the inn in mid-1997 and along with a tenant who had lived there for twenty years, reported no experiences (Martin 1999).

  Hoaxes do occur. For example, I caught one pranking “ghost” flagrante delicto. In 1999,1 accompanied a teacher and ten high school students from Denver's Colorado Academy on an overnight stay in a “haunted” hotel. Located in the Rocky Mountains, in the old mining town of Fair play (where an art teacher conducts “ghost tours” ), the Hand Hotel was built in 1931 (figure 45.2). In the early evening, as we gathered in the lobby beneath mounted elk heads and bearskins, the lights of the chandelier flickered mysteriously. But the teacher and I both spied the surreptitious action of the desk clerk, whose sheepish smile acknowledged that one brief hotel mystery had been solved.

  Other signs of pranking there included a “ghost” photo (displayed in a lobby album), which the clerk confided to me was staged, and some pennies placed on the back of a men's room toilet, which from time to time would secretly become rearranged to form messages—like the word “WHY?” that I encountered. This obvious running prank invited other mischief makers (like one student) to join in.

  Enter “Psychis”

  Ghostly presences are hyped at many inns when “psychics” visit the premises. One session at the Farnsworth House was part of a television production for Halloween, an indication of how much credibility should be afforded it. Brook dale Lodge, near Santa Cruz, California (which I investigated for a Discovery Channel documentary that aired May 24,1998), once invited Sylvia Browne. A regular on the Montel Williams TV show, the self-claimed clairvoyant and medium envisioned a ghost girl who she named “Sara” (Gerbracht 1998), helping to bring the
total number of entities thus far “detected” at Brookdale to forty-nine—and counting (Hauck 1996, 38). Such psychics typically offer unsubstantiated, even unverifiable claims, or information that is already known. This may be gleaned in advance from research sources or obtained by the “psychic” from persons who have such knowledge through the technique of “cold reading” (an artful method of fishing for information employed by shrewd fortune-tellers). Alternatively, the psychic may make numerous pronouncements, trusting that others will count the apparent hits and ignore, or interpret appropriately, the misses.

  Figure 45.2. Does this corridor view in Colorado’s Hand Hotel show spectral entities, or just silhouetted students? You decide. (Photos by Joe Nickell)

  This is not to say that all such pronouncements are insincere. Those who fancy themselves psychics may exhibit the traits associated with a “fantasy-prone” personality—a designation for an otherwise normal person with an unusual ability to fantasize. As a child, he or she may have an imaginary playmate and live much of the time in make-believe worlds. As an adult, the person continues to spend much time fantasizing, and may report apparitional, out-of-body, or near-death experiences; claim psychic or healing powers; receive special messages from higher beings; be easily hypnotized; and/or exhibit other traits (Wilson and Barber 1983).Anyone may have some of these traits, but fanta sizers have them in profusion. Sylvia Browne, for example, as a child had what her parents called “made-up friends,” particularly a “spirit guide” —still with her—that she named “Francine.” Browne undergoes “trances” in which “Francine” provides alleged information from “Akashic records, individual spirit guides, and messages from the Godhead.” Browne also claims to see apparitions, talk to ghosts, have clairvoyant visions, make psychic medical diagnoses, divine past lives, etc. She has even started her own religion, Novus Spiritus (“New Spirit” ) (Browne and May 1998;Browne 1999).

  The use of psychics is a stock in trade of many so-called parapsy-chologists. Among them is Hans Holzer, one of whose many books bills him as “the world s leading expert on haunted houses” (1991), while another avows that his “cases” were “carefully investigated under scientifically stringent conditions” (1993). Unfortunately, these claims are belied by Holzer’s credulous acceptance of “spirit” photos, anecdotal reports, and other doubtful evidence. For example, he “investigated” a former stagecoach inn at Thousand Oaks, California, by relying on self-styled “witch” Sybil Leek(1922-1982). In one room, Leek “complained of being cold all over ”and “felt” that a man had been murdered there. No verification was provided, and Holzer admits that Leek “did not connect” with a female ghost whose “presence” had been “sensed” by the inn s owners. Nevertheless, Holzer casually opines that “Like inns in general, this one may have more undiscovered ghosts hanging on the spot” (Holzer 1991,192).

  Fantasy Quotient

  Professional “psychics” like Sybil Leek and Sylvia Browne a side, we may wonder whether ordinary “ghost” percipients also have similar tendencies toward fantasizing. During three decades of ghost investigating I have noticed a pattern. In interviewing residents or staff of an allegedly haunted site, I would usually find a few who had no ghostly experiences—for example, a bell captain at La Fonda Inn in Santa Fe who had spent forty-three years there. Others might have moderate experiences—like hearing a strange noise or witnessing some unexplained physical occurrence such as a door mysteriously opening—that they attributed to a ghost. Often, those interviewed would direct me to one or more persons whom they indicated had had intensive haunting encounters, including seeing apparitions. In short, I usually found a spectrum that ranged from outright skepticism to mediumistic experiences. I also sensed a difference in the people: some appeared down-to-earth and level-headed, while others seemed more imaginative and impulsive, recounting with dramatic flair their phantome sque adventures. I had no immediate way of objectively measuring what I thought I was observing, but I gave it much reflection.

  At length I developed a questionnaire that on the one hand measures the number and intensity of ghostly experiences, and on the other counts the number of exhibited traits associated with fantasy-proneness. Tabulation of a limited number of questionnaires administered thus far shows a strong correlation between these two areas—that, as the level of haunting experiences rises, the fantasy scale tends to show a similarly high score. As this and other evidence indicates, to date there is no credible scientific evidence that inns—or any other sites—are inhabited by spirits of the dead. As Robert A. Baker often remarks, “There are no haunted places, only haunted people.”

  References

  Baker, Robert A., and Joe Nickell. 1992. Missing Pieces. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus.

  Browne, Sylvia, with Lindsay Harrison. 1999. The Other Side and Back. New York: Dutton.

  Browne, Sylvia, and Antoinette May. 1998. Adventures of a Psychic. Carlsbad, Calif.: Hay House.

  Emmons, E. Thayles. 1959.History of Belhurst Castle. The Geneva (New York) Times, Nov. 11.

  Gerbracht, Molly. 1997.Pre-interview notes for Discovery Channel special, “Americas Haunted Houses” (in Nickell 1972-2000).

  Gibson, Benjamin S. 1999.Report on interview with then-current manager, March 29, (in Nickell1972-2000).

  Green, Andrew. 1995. Haunted Inns and Taverns. Princes Ris borough, Buckinghamshire, U.K.: Shire.

  Haraldsson, E. 1998. Survey of claimed encounters with the dead. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying 19: 103-13.

  Hauck, Dennis William.1996. Haunted Places: The National Directory New York: Penguin.

  Holzer, Hans. 1991. America's Haunted Houses. Stamford, Ct.: Longmeadow.

  ——— . 1993. America's Restless Ghosts. Stamford, Ct.: Longmeadow.

  Klingel, Marion. 2000.Interview by author, May 3. (Also cited in Safiuddin 1994.)

  Linenfelser, Teddy. 2000.Current Grand Island historian, interview by author, May 8.

  MacKenzie, Andrew. 1982. Hauntings and Apparitions. London: Heinemann.

  Martin, John. 1999.Interview by author, June 25.

  Mason, John. 1999. Haunted Heritage. London: Collins and Brown, 60.

  Mead, Robin. 1995. Haunted Hotels: A Guide to American and Canadian Inns and Their Ghosts. Nashville, Tenn.:Rutledge Hill.

  Myers, Arthur. 1986. The Ghostly Register. Chicago: Contemporary.

  Nickell, Joe. 1972-2000.Case files for sites named in text. Except as otherwise noted, this is thesource for information in this article.

  ——— . 1995. Entities: Angels, Spirits,Demons and Other Alien Beings. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus.

  Safiuddin, Farrah. 1994.Ghostly guest refuses to check out of Grand Island haunt. Buffalo(New York) News, Oct. 30.

  Sit, Mary. 1991. Maine'sfriendly ghost. Boston Sunday Globe (Travel section), Oct. 27.

  Tyrrell, G.N.M. 1973.Apparitions. London: The Society for Psychical Research.

  Wilson, Sheryl C., andTheodore X. Barber. 1983. “The Fantasy-Prone Personality,” in A.A.Sheikh, ed., Imagery: Current Theory,Research and Application. New York: John Wiley 8c Sons.

  Winfield, Mason. 1997. Shadows of the Western Door. Buffalo, N.Y.: Western New York Wares.

  Wlodarski, Robert, AnneNathan-Wlodarski, and Richard Senate. 1995. A Guide to the Haunted Queen Mary. Calabasas, Calif.: G-Host.

  Chapter 46

  The Flatwoods UFO Monster

  In modern police parlance, a long–unsolved homicide or other crime may be known as a “cold case,” a term we might borrow for such paranormal mysteries as that of the Flatwoods Monster, which was launched on September 12,1952, and never completely explained.

  About 7:15 p.m. on that day, at Flatwoods, a little village in the hills of West Virginia, some youngsters were playing football on the school playground. Suddenly they saw a fiery UFO streak across the sky and apparently land on a hilltop of the nearby Bailey Fisher farm. The youths ran to the home of Mrs. Kathleen May, who provided a flashlight and accompanied them up the hill. In addition to Mrs. May
, a local beautician, the group included her two sons, Eddie, 13, and Freddie, 14; Neil Nunley, 14; Gene Lemon, 17; and Tommy Hyer and Ronnie Shaver, both 10; along with Lemon’s dog.

  There are myriad, often contradictory versions of what happened next, but UFO writer Gray Barker was soon on the scene and wrote an account for Fate magazine based on tape–recorded interviews. He found that the least emotional account was provided by Neil Nunley, one of two youths who were in the lead as the group hastened to the crest of the hill. Some distance ahead was a pulsing red light. Then suddenly, Gene Lemon saw a pair of shining, animal–like eyes and aimed the flashlight in their direction. The light revealed a towering “man–like” figure with a round, red “face” surrounded by a “pointed, hood–like shape.” The body was dark and seemingly colorless, but some would later say it was green, and Mrs. May reported drapelike folds. The monster was observed only momentarily, as suddenly it emitted a hissing sound and glided toward the group. Lemon responded by screaming and dropping his flashlight, whereupon everyone fled.

  The group had noticed a pungent mist at the scene, and afterward some were nauseous. A few locals, then later the sheriff and a deputy (who came from investigating a reported airplane crash), searched the site but “saw, heard and smelled nothing.” The following day, A. Lee Stewart Jr., from the Braxton Democrat, discovered “skid marks” in the roadside field, along with an “odd, gummy deposit”—traces attributed to the landed “saucer” (Barker 1953).

  In his article, Barker (1953) noted that “numerous people in a 20–mile radius saw the illuminated objects in the sky at the same time,” evidently seeing different objects or a single one “making a circuit of the area.” Barker believed the Flatwoods incident was consistent with other reports of “flying saucers or similar craft” and that “such a vehicle landed on the hillside, either from necessity or to make observations.” (At this time in ufological history, the developing mythology had not yet involved alien “abductions”)