World's Creepiest Places

by Bob Curran

  Stull did, however, have a number of factors that would later contribute to its sinister reputation. In 1970, the Emmanuel Hill Church was an eerie ruin sited above the hamlet and it did share the same postal zip code as Topeka—666, said to be the number of the Devil. Moreover, in an old map of the area published in 1905, the principal route through the village is described as Devil’s Lane. Marked on the same map is another feature described as The Devil’s House. This was an abandoned two-story stone farmhouse located at the junction of 93rd Street and Paulin Road which survived into relatively recent times. The house had been abandoned for decades, and there were stories in the area that it was badly haunted. The boarded and inaccessible upper story was said to be frequented by demons. One investigator claimed that the downstairs of the building was used for Black Magic practices and that he had seen burnt black candles and inverted crucifixes there—all alleged signs of coven activity. The reputation of the Devil’s House therefore may well have impacted on Stull.

  Nearby Lawrence had its own particularly bloody history. In the early years of the Civil War, it was a base for pro-Union guerrilla bands such as the Kansas Red Legs and the Jayhawkers under Captain James H. Lane who raided deep into Missouri. At 5 a.m. on August 21st, 1863, a group of Confederate partisan raiders under the command of William Clarke Quantrill entered the town to take reprisal for an alleged Union attack on Osceola, Missouri, in September 1861. It was Quantrill’s declared intention to “take Jim Lane’s heart back to Missouri” (Lane had to escape by running through cornfields in his nightshirt). Quantrill then gave the order to “kill every man and burn every house” and whilst his men were doing this—and slaughtering women and children as well—the Confederate officer enjoyed breakfast. The killing was horrific, and more than 120 houses were found to have been burned, many with the charred remains of occupants inside. The legacy of this terrible massacre left a blight on the entire region and may have left its mark on Stull, even though it did not feature in the killing.

  The stories concerning the hamlet really took flight around the early 1970s, at a time when America was gripped by what might be called “Devil fever.” In 1971, William Peter Blatty released his famous novel The Exorcist, a classic tale about demonic possession, which by 1973, had become a blockbuster screen adaptation that shocked the entire country and spawned countless imitations. Among such films were The Omen and Michael Winner’s The Sentinel, which centered around a gateway to Hell in the middle of a busy city. These quickly became a significant part of American culture at the time, and as in medieval days, people became obsessed with the idea of demons and the Devil.

  All this “diabolism” seemed to more or less pass Stull by. There were, of course, some old ghost and witch stories about the place, but probably no more than in any other small community. One of these tales that surfaced in the mid-1960s concerned a large tree that grew in the middle of the cemetery of old Emmanuel Hill Church. The church was something of a falling ruin, having been abandoned in 1922 when its congregation outgrew its confines and moved to a more modern place of worship. This particular tree—a massive spreading pine—had somehow managed to encompass one of the nearby gravestones in the churchyard so completely that the funeral marker seemed to have become a part of the growth itself. The stone marked the final resting place of Bettie and Frankie Thomas, both of whom had died in 1879. Somehow, an unfounded rumor began to circulate that these two had been witches and were involved in Satanic rites in the churchyard. It was further said that both of them had been killed together by witch-hunters from Kansas. Of course, there was no real basis for such stories, although older people in Topeka didn’t seem so sure—the community at Deer Creek had been a tightly-knit and rather reclusive one. So a number of old tales were resurrected around the Kansas firesides. As late as 1969, stories were circulating among local teenagers that Emmanuel Hill Church had been burned by Satanists and that its grounds were still used for their rites. Nothing could have been further from the truth, of course, but these stories were destined to have a profound influence later.

  In 1974, an article appeared in the University of Kansas student newspaper, The University Daily Kansan, concerning Stull and carrying the headline “Legend of Devil Haunts Tiny Town.” It leaned heavily on the demon-obsessed mood created by The Exorcist and claimed to have been based on regional stories and widely accepted local mythology. He claimed the recollections of elderly people in the settlement and the experiences of those who had visited Emmanuel Hill Churchyard and confronted supernatural beings. It was, said the article, only one of two places on earth where Satan appeared in his full majestic form. The article went on to state that such knowledge was “well known” in the hamlet, but that local people “kept it to themselves.” A student from Bonner Springs subsequently wrote that her grandmother had told a tale about “a mayor of Stull” (Stull has never really had a formal mayor—in 1857, the settlement only consisted of six families) who did a deal with the Devil in return for personal favors, allowing him to appear on certain nights of the year within the limits of Emmanuel Hill Church. This tale lead back to an actual incident that occurred in Deer Creek, about 1850. According to tradition, a leading citizen of the village was murdered by a stablehand who was then hanged without trial by the dead man’s kinfolk at the scene of his crime. The awful and bloody murder was said to have been conducted in a barn on the site of which Emmanuel Hill was later built. There was also the tale of a suspected witch buried within the cemetery precincts whose descendants still live in the Stull area as werewolves.

  Such tales were extremely fanciful, but by 1980, they were starting to appear in a wider press. The Kansas City Times began to publish articles about the cemetery, full of dubious detail—for instance, one of the headstones bore the name “Witch” (which appears to have been a surname, but it was said that the Devil visited this particular grave on certain occasions); that there had been Black Masses going on in the church since 1850 (this ignored the fact that Emmanuel Hill had not been built until 1867 and the burying ground had not been laid out until 1869); that it was founded by immigrants from a town in England that bore the same name and which had suffered a number of witch persecutions, or that it had been settled by sorcerers fleeing the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts in 1692.

  The most persistent legend, however, is of a flight of worn steps that lead from the church down into the darkness. These will lead those who dare to venture down them directly to Hell. It is said that these steps may exist, but that they lead to an underground vault, which was allegedly used for burials. However, the location of these steps varies with each tale. Some accounts say that they lie to the right of the ruined building; others say they are behind it; other still say that they lie behind the retaining walls of some of the family plots. One of the plots is identified as that of Geneva Stull (a descendant of Silvester?) who died in 1920. It is said that if one even goes part of the way down these steps, time will pass at a different rate, and though it seems as if only a few minutes have passed, centuries will actually have gone by. There is no evidence that these steps actually exist, but this has not stopped thrill-seekers looking for them and the accompanying gateway to Hell. In language reminiscent of the film The Sentinel, many warn of dire consequences to those who investigate.

  On March 20, 1978, a crowd of almost 150 people (mainly University of Kansas students) gathered in Stull cemetery to see if the Devil would appear. Legend hinted that those who had died violent deaths would rise up to meet him and at midnight would dance in the graveyard with Satan. However, the only spirits that appeared in the cemetery came from a bottle. But the stories continued unchecked and by 1989 the crowds in the cemetery on Halloween night had grown so large that the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office had to station special deputies around the site to discourage ghost-hunters and to charge those who were caught in the area with trespass. Graffiti, beer cans, and fast food containers were now littering the site, and the mood of locals changed from mild bemusemen
t into downright anger as they saw their community being vandalized. And although stories continue to be printed in newspapers and magazines, local people insisted there is nothing in them. There is no gateway to Hell in Stull. Or is there?

  In 1993, as part of an American Papal visit, Pope John Paul II flew to Colorado in order to conduct a Mass there. It is reported (in no less a publication than Time magazine) that the pontiff specifically requested that his plane take a detour around Kansas into Nebraska and then to Colorado. His flight path would have taken him over eastern Kansas, right over where Stull is located, and it was rumoured that the Holy Father did not wish to fly over an opening leading directly to Hell itself. This may just be a rumor, but maybe the pope knew something that the rest of us do not!

  There is now not much to see in Stull. According to a local Lawrence newspaper, Emmanuel Hill Church was mysteriously torn down on the night of March 29th, 2002, and all that remains is a pile of rubble. No one knows who demolished the building—according to the local landowner, a Major Weiss, he gave no instructions for the church to be pulled down, and no one has owned up to it. Yet another mystery. And what of the gateway to Hell? Is it still there? Does anyone want to go and find out?

  Salimgarh Fortress (Delhi, India)

  “There are Officers Quarters in Mian Mir whose doors

  open without reason and whose furniture is guaranteed to

  creak, not with the heat of June, but with the weight of the

  Invisibles who come to lounge in the chair….”

  —Rudyard Kipling, “My Own True Ghost Story” from

  The Phantom Rickshaw

  India is a land of legend and mystery. Here, the lore and traditions of ancient days seem to blend seamlessly with the modern world. Ghosts are as much a feature of Indian life as they are in the West—perhaps more so. The phantoms of women who have died in childbirth, old men who have died from starvation, and children who have perished in appalling circumstances seem to appear with a kind of regularity, begging for alms or pricking at the consciences of the more well-off. Arguably more than any other country in the world, in India the idea of the supernatural is more closely linked with a sense of justice and equanimity.

  It is perhaps this sense of unequal justice that underpins many of the ghosts that haunt the ancient fortress of Salimgarh on the Yamuna River, which flows through Delhi—probably India’s most haunted stronghold. Far older than the neighboring Red Fort, Salimgarh has been renamed Swatantrata Senani Smarak (Freedom Fighters Memorial) and is now a museum. Even so, it still retains much of its ancient atmosphere and mystery. The lore attached to the site and the feelings that many visitors have experienced there are rooted in the building’s turbulent history.

  The fortress was built on an island in the Yamuna by Islam Shah Suri (1545–1554) also known as Jalal Khan, the second ruler of the brief Sur Dynasty, which reigned over that part of India for part of the 16th century, and which expanded the town of Delhi as its capital. The Sur rulers were Islamic Pathans from Bihar who briefly overthrew the Mughal Emperors who had initially ruled Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of Northern India. The second Mughal Emperor, Humayan, had started building up Delhi, but found himself under attack from the Sur rulers and was driven out of the town. Islam Shah Suri then built a fortress on the river to protect his newly acquired capital. The name Salimgarh simply means Salim’s Fort, and the place was considered to be impregnable and well able to stand against the Mughals. Although a largely ineffectual ruler, Humayan was determined to take back the town and launched a ferocious assault against it in 1555. During the various battles, many prisoners were captured and were taken back to Salimgarh to be tortured and executed. Their wails and groans can still be heard today by visitors to the site. By this time, the Sur Dynasty was in upheaval; Islam Shah Suri was already dead, his 12-year-old son was assassinated by a rival faction, and the fortress fell again to the advancing Mughal forces. It was to become an army camp for the various Mughal Emperors.

  During the reign of the powerful Mughal ruler Aurangzeb I (1666–1707), the so-called “Conqueror of the World,” Salimgarh was once again converted into a prison and a house of torture. Although a strong monarch, Aurangzeb was a despot and many of those who rose against him were condemned to languish within its sombre walls were they were subjected to horrific deprivations and abuse. It was said that Aurangzeb instructed his warders to wash the stone walls with the blood of those whom they had beaten and maltreated as a warning to all others who would rebel against him. Thus, the misery of the prisoners was actually ingrained into the very stones of the place and added to the chilling atmosphere.

  The most frequently seen ghost within the fortress’s precincts is that of a shrouded lady who wanders across the battlements and is seen in the courtyard as well. Sightings of her state that she is always wrapped in white with glittering jewelry. According to local tradition, this specter is that of Zebunissa, Aurangzeb’s eldest daughter. She was said to be his favorite child (her name means “Ornament of the Throne”), a woman who was very gentle and a popular and accomplished poetess. In fact, 50 years after her death in 1707, her major diwan (a collection of poems) was discovered and circulated; it was said to be the most beautiful verse anywhere in India. Deeply religious, she was interested in Sufism (a mystical form of Islam) and much of her writing reflects this. She also gave up wearing grand Islamic black clothes, signifying importance at the Mughul Court, and took to wearing simple white garments, becoming known as Zaib-al-Tafari (Worthy of Praise) for her humility and devotion. However, the times in which she lived were greatly unsettled within the Mughal Empire and her despotic father had many enemies who wished to see him overthrown. One of those who conspired against him was Zebunissa’s brother Akbar to whom she was very much attached. Perhaps very unwisely, she wrote him several letters of support abhorring their father’s tyranny all across the Empire. When, in 1681, a number of elements elected Akbar as Emperor, Aurangzeb moved quickly and viciously to reestablish his authority and put down the rebellion. In the course of his reprisals, he found the letters that Zebunissa had written to her brother. Although he had killed many of those who had stood against him or had been complicit in the rising, Aurangzab could not bring himself to slay his daughter. Instead, he had her imprisoned in Salimgarh from where she wrote to him many times, begging for her release. Each time her request was turned down, and, hearing of her father’s death in 1707, Zebunissa herself passed away. However, her ghost remained to haunt her prison. According to some accounts, the phantom appears on the ramparts of the Fortress singing some of her own couplets and enchanting all who hear them.

  Somehow, however, certain accounts of her phantom appear to have been confused with some other dark Indian entity. When she lifts her veil, it is said, she reveals not the beautiful face of the Zaib-al-Tafari, but that of a hideous green-skinned creature with sharp and vicious-looking teeth. This may be the face of a rakshasa or a churel, both forms of Indian vampires (the latter being the demonic spirit of a woman who has died in childbirth—a common type of ghoul in Far Eastern lore). Such a countenance signals the doom of the viewer as the thing may well attack. The lady in white is to be avoided at all costs!

  By the 1850s, the British were well established in India, and in 1857, the powers and substantial lands of the British East India Company were transferred to the British Monarchy, in the person of Queen Victoria, ushering in a period of British Colonial Rule known as the British Raj. 1857 was also the date of a major mutiny of Indian troops often referred to as the Sepoy Rebellion or the Indian Mutiny. The causes for the Mutiny are very complex and had partly to do with relations between the East India Company and local taluqdars (rural landlords) who felt that Company agents were unnecessarily meddling in their affairs without fully understanding them, particularly the Caste system. The tipping point, however, was the use of cartridges for the new Enfield 1853 Pattern Rifle, which was used by the Company Army and contained many Indian Muslim troops or sepoys. T
he rifle barrels had a tighter fit and the gunpowder came in paper cartridges, the ends of which had to be bitten off to release it during reloading. These cartridges were coated in grease made from pig fat to protect them from dampness. Of course, no Muslim would bite into pork fat, as it would be offensive to their religion, and if the British authorities were to use beef fat, this would be offensive to Hindu sepoy brigades (because the cow was a sacred animal in the Hindu religion). Nevertheless, the British went ahead and issued some of the cartridges and, although they were subsequently withdrawn, rumors persisted among the native soldiers that new cartridges were secretly greased in both pork and beef fat. The situation came to a head in the Bengal Native Infantry, a branch of the Bengal Army in which there were already problems. The Mutiny spread across the Indian sub-continent and the British were forced to act. Using Salimgrah as a holding and interrogation center, they shipped Mutineers there for “questioning” which, it is believed, often involved physical abuse. The sense of injustice against religious beliefs and practices was overwhelming.