Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Clark Meets the Hat Man

Clark’s grandfather died in 1977 and his grandmother moved to a small apartment leaving her old house empty. Shortly after, 10-year-old Clark’s family moved in. Although the house was nice, the basement always bothered Clark.

He soon discovered the reason.

“My first friend in the new neighborhood was my next-door neighbor, Jim,” Clark said. “We are good friends to this day.”

On a day in 1979, Clark invited Jim to his house to play Ping Pong – and it’s haunted him for 31 years.

“I had always been a little wary of going into that basement,” Clark said. “There were lovely treasures there; first edition Wizard of Oz books, some old Playboy magazines in the wine room, and boxes of old comic books and pulp magazines in an alcove in the back.”

The basement was, as basements tend to be, home to spiders “and an unshakeable eerie feeling.”

That day after school, Clark and Jim had about two hours before Clark’s parents came home from work, which meant Ping Pong, Playboys, and something they didn’t expect – something paranormal.

“During our game, I was facing the alcove,” Clark said. “At a certain point, something caught my attention.”

Standing in the alcove was the shadow of a man wearing a fedora.

“It was creepy, and I had to pause,” Clark said. “I could not figure out how any combination of the boxes could cast such a shadow. Then it moved.”

Clark stood at the Ping Pong table, staring at the alcove. He then quickly looked at Jim who was looking at him.

“He realized I had seem something,” Clark said. “I was struck by the realization that no man was casting a shadow on the wall, the shadow was solid and was not attached to any object. I turned and scrambled up the stairs with Jim right behind me.”

At the top of the stairs, their breath coming fast and heavy, Clark slammed and latched the basement door, then “looked at Jim with wide eyes.”

“What was it?” Jim asked Clark. “What did you see?”

Clark didn’t understand how Jim missed the Shadow Man.

“Didn’t you see it?” he asked.

Jim shook his head.

“A man,” Clark said to him. “A shadow of a man with a hat. You didn’t see it?”

Jim shook his head again.

“I began to feel silly, foolish, embarrassed,” Clark said. “I got over it, as did Jim. It took a while before we felt secure enough to travel down there again. I would only go down when my parents were home.”

Clark could never make logical sense of what cast that silhouette.

“Try as I might, I could not identify any source for the shadow,” Clark said. “Though I knew it must have been something that did it.”

Although the memory would stay with Clark, he filed it with other childhood memories and went on with his life. It didn’t resurface until decades later.

“I was browsing the Internet and heard mention of a Shadow Man and Shadow People,” he said. “I had to shudder at the memory of my experience. I wondered if what I saw might be a more common experience than I thought, but I knew one thing for sure, if my sighting wasn’t unique, I bet mine was the only one with a hat.”

As he surfed the Internet for more information on these Shadow People, he found the hat was more common than he thought.

“I saw (a drawing of) the Hat Man,” he said. “My jaw dropped and I got goosebumps over my entire body. I was fascinated and scared, yet grateful that such an odd mystery from my childhood should be so unexpectedly validated.”

His memory soon became further validated by an unexpected source – Jim. Clark moved to Oregon in the 1990s and didn’t see Jim until 2008. The two talked and relived their childhood – and Clark mentioned the Shadow Man in the hat.

“Jim sunk into his chair and spoke in a whisper, ‘I’ll never forget that hat.’ I was stunned,” Clark said.

Clark then asked the same question he’d asked three decades ago, did you see it?

“Yes, I did,” Jim told him. “I was scared.”

Clark almost couldn’t believe what Jim had said.

“For almost 30 years, I thought I was the only one who saw this thing,” he said. “Then I find a bewildered (Internet) community that has also experienced this. Then I discover my friend who was present also saw it.”

The Hat Man is out there. People have reported seeing the Hat Man from the United States to Brazil to Europe to Australia. And Clark’s childhood basement isn’t much different from theirs – or yours.

Copyright 2010 by Jason Offutt

Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason’s latest book, “What Lurks Beyond: The Paranormal in Your Backyard,” is available at amazon.com.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

The Harlequin Visits Another Child

Author’s note: This is the second of a two-part series about encounters with an entity known as the Harlequin. The entity began visiting Dan Mitchell of Wisconsin when he was five years old. He’s found he’s not alone.

Karen Davis didn’t talk about her childhood experiences much, just to a few people close to her, like her best friend.

She was surprised when her friend’s husband told her about the Harlequin.

“Her husband listens to (a paranormal radio talk show) and he called me and said I had to go check out this story,” she said. The story was Dan Mitchell’s Harlequin encounters posted at From the Shadows – and the story mirrored hers.

“I was stunned,” she said. “When I was a kid I never even associated anything with the word ‘harlequin.’ In my mind I always thought of him as a jester or joker, like from a deck of cards, but you’re right, it’s a harlequin.”

Like Mitchell’s experiences, Davis’s began when she was young.

“I was probably about five or six the first time I remember him,” she said. “I woke up to someone bouncing on the foot of my bed.”

An entity sat there, staring at her.

“It was all white, no color, abnormally long limbs, empty eyes, but not exactly expressionless,” she said. “I don’t remember being scared, I remember thinking ‘not again,’ and ‘it’s back.’”

Like Mitchell’s Harlequin, this creature communicated with her.

“I know he told me stories, or shared information with me somehow, but I don’t remember him actually talking,” she said.

Although she does not know the entity’s gender, she assumed it was male, and it visited often.

“This happened several times, that I distinctly remember, I can recall specific details,” she said. “I even have the feeling he took me somewhere, but this I don’t remember, just a feeling.”

Although Davis hasn’t seen this entity for years, the memories still follow her.

“A friend of mine suggested hypnosis, but honestly the thought of that freaked me out, although, he never scared me, I was never afraid,” she said. “Besides this incident, my life was pretty normal, still is I guess. I have not seen it again since I was a kid.”

Davis grew up in an Irish/Italian family outside Boston.

“I was raised Catholic, but I have since realized that was not for me,” she said. “I guess the closest thing I could call myself now is pagan.”

Davis enrolled in a Catholic college, however, and enrolled in an early Celtic literature course when childhood memories flooded her mind.

“These, I think are the stories he shared with me, somehow,” she said. “I started this class and was freaked out at how familiar these stories were, especially the Tuatha De Danann, or fairy race.”

Davis feels her Harlequin may be from this race.

“The word ‘harlequin’ has a lot of history and legend attached to it, not just the clown thing,” she said. “The word itself is said to be a form of Erl King, a spirit that preys on children.”

Mitchell also places the roots of his Harlequin encounters in mythology, but in Scandinavian mythology and the Norse god Loki.

“My grandmother was Scandinavian and heavily into Vikings and Norse culture so I am very familiar with Norse mythology and legend,” Mitchell said. “What a lot of people also don’t realize is that Loki is often seen as both male and sometimes female. He did come to my mind, but the thought of relating the two seemed almost unthinkable.”

As with his own Harlequin encounters, Davis’s Harlequin contacted her, she didn’t summon it.

“My only curiosity is how exactly does one talk to it?” Mitchell asked. “I am of the opinion that if I were to go out for a walk alone one night that I would be able to call it and see it, but to be very honest, the thought, at present, is incredibly terrifying.”

Copyright 2010 by Jason Offutt

Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason’s books on the paranormal, “Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us,” and “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Harlequin Encounter in Kansas

Author’s note: This is the first of a two-part series about encounters with an entity known as the Harlequin. The entity began visiting Dan Mitchell of Wisconsin when he was five years old. He’s found he’s not alone.

The woman walking in the street seemed odd.

Laurie Smithmeyer of Topeka, Kan., and a friend visited nearby Lawrence (home of the University of Kansas) for lunch and shopping in early 2000.

“We both enjoy art and all types of cultural events so it was common for us to go hang out there, eat lunch and shop,” she said.

They ate at the Free State Brewery, although they didn’t partake in Free State’s microbrews, and walked south down Massachusetts Street enjoying a late spring day. Then they saw the woman.

“We were approximately in front of an old bank that had been remade into a restaurant named Teller’s when we saw her,” Smithmeyer said.

The person “seemed to be a female figure,” Smithmeyer said. The individual wore a short ruffled skirt, similar to a ballet tutu, and a vest that looked like a red, purple and black velvet bustier. The figure wore long gloves and tights; her hair a dark, unkempt, wild tangle.

“Her clothing was oddly theatrical and reminded me of a carnival or circus in a way,” Smithmeyer said. “I recall dark eyes which may have been makeup or something. I did not get a very good look at her face at all, just a glimpse from the side.”

The figure went toward a park bench that sat across the sidewalk from the entrance to Teller’s Restaurant.

“As we passed her on the sidewalk, I got the impression she was going to sit on the bench and we kept on walking,” Smithmeyer said. “As we got to the curb to cross the street, we both looked at each other and said, ‘Wow did you see that girl?’”

The women both turned around to look at her and she was gone.

“Gone from the bench, gone from the sidewalk, gone from the street,” Smithmeyer said. “She just disappeared. In the space of us taking three or four steps, on a bright sunny clear day, she had vanished. Not just from the bench but from the entire area.”

Only a few people wandered the streets, so Smithmeyer is certain the figure couldn’t have gotten lost in a crowd.

“The street is level with no changes in elevation or terrain that would make it hard to see her,” Smithmeyer said. “She was not on either side street. As far as we could see, she had disappeared.”

The women looked at each other and said, “Fey,” which means elf.

“That was the impression we were left with,” Smithmeyer said. “We have both studied myth and folklore and are familiar with stories of the Sidhe (the elves of Ireland) and that was basically our feeling about that figure; unworldly and very strange.”

Smithmeyer, who read the stories of Dan Mitchell’s Harlequin encounters at “From the Shadows,” thinks she and her friend saw something similar.

“Could this have been a harlequin-type apparition?” she asked. “I remember the impression I had of the figure was not entirely human. She … it was just so bizarre and scary, ethereal at the same time. It is really hard to describe. The closest that comes is a fairy. Extraterrestrial never crossed my mind.”

Smithmeyer said she’s familiar with alternative cultures and this entity was not one of those.

“This was way beyond anything a mere costume could be,” she said. “I have seen Goth people, street performance artists, and all kinds of role players and I am very familiar with that subculture, as is the friend that was with me. There was a quality of unearthliness about her that is hard to describe.”

Next week: The Harlequin visits a woman named Karin when she was a child.

Copyright 2010 by Jason Offutt

Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason’s books on the paranormal, “Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us,” and “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.

Friday, March 05, 2010

Something Haunted My House

Shadow People walked into eight-year-old Justin Wirth’s life and he’s been fascinated by the paranormal ever since.

“I was never the over-imaginative child,” Wirth said. “I had grown up in a Christian family and had heard of demons but never thought anything of them until weird things started happening.”

The Wirths had recently moved into a house in a new neighborhood. It wasn’t long until they discovered they weren’t alone. Something wicked resided in their home.

“It started off (slowly), as most demonic hauntings do,” Wirth said. “I remember as clearly now as I did back then, I was sitting in the living room during the mid afternoon and looked into the dining room/kitchen area and saw what looked like a pure black figure of a man come out of nowhere.”

This Shadow Man did a “bizarre crouch and walk maneuver,” as Wirth imagined a thief might do if he were trying to go through a house undetected. It then leapt under a table and disappeared.

“I remember that although it was black, it was also transparent, like looking through a black light bulb,” Wirth said. “This was the first time I saw anything paranormal and I brought it up to my mother who went on to tell me it was just nothing.”

A few days later, she admitted she was wrong.

“My mother retracted her previous statement and told me I might have seen something after all because she had seem something similar,” Wirth said.

Then the haunting began to grow more invasive.

“The next event I remember is my brother running very quickly up the stairs, faster than I had ever seen him run before and since,” Wirth said.

His brother screamed he’d seen the “decapitated and bleeding” head of Christ, eyes rolled up into its head, laying under his bed. However, when the boys convinced their parents to look under the bed, they found nothing.

“On a separate occasion, my sister, who is 10 years my senior, was brushing her hair in the downstairs bathroom and while looking at herself in the mirror saw two red eyes form behind her in the shower stall. Just floating there,” Wirth said. “She immediately took off and ran up the stairs, the whole time watching behind her as these eyes followed her and then disappeared as she got to the top of the stairs.”

Shadow People began appearing to every family member and visitors, standing at the top of the stairs, or running from room to room.

“My brother one night woke up to see two of them walking around in our room with one of them reaching up the wall as if to grab something,” Wirth said. “But then he fell back to sleep.”

Although whatever was there had not harmed anyone, the Wirths were frightened of their own home.

“The most terrifying thing I remember was when (my brother and I) were both in the bedroom,” he said. “I was on the bottom bunk bed and he was on the top. He got down to leave the room and I was immediately afraid of being alone, then almost instantly I saw a white mist begin to form in the center of the room.”

Lying in bed, alone in the room, Wirth watched the mist solidify and it took the shape of his brother.

“This thing took on my brother's form, except it had black eyes, very black, like coal,” he said. “And it floated a few inches above the ground. It looked disfigured, not really a perfect representation of my brother, but it got the point across.”

Then it spoke to Wirth, taunting him that he was afraid to be alone. After less than a minute, the thing dissipated and his brother returned.

“I am a skeptic. I think science first and never believe anything unless it's tangible and there is evidence for it,” Wirth said. “But I can't explain these things. Yes it could be true that these things are our minds playing tricks on us or anything else, but paranormal activity has never happened to me since.”

The Wirths eventually moved, but kept in contact with two families who moved into that house – they all experienced the same phenomena.

“People never stay there long,” Wirth said. “I remember having a highly religious friend of the family come to the house to bless it on several occasions and nothing she ever did seemed to have any effect.”

Well, any positive effect. The blessings seemed to anger whatever was in their house.

“The atmosphere, it felt thick at all times,” Wirth said. “I can only best describe it as like walking under water at all times, and when you felt the presence close to you, it was especially thick. I have faced death and never have I been more afraid then when I was dealing with these things.”

Copyright 2010 by Jason Offutt

Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason’s books on the paranormal, “Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us,” and “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.