The group of friends walked through Vandalia Cemetery, tombstones dotting the ground glowing yellow in the moonlight. This cemetery in Porterville, Calif., called Scranton Cemetery by the locals, has a troubled past.
“The legend that I have heard since I was in high school is that there used to be a home for wayward girls in the middle of the cemetery,” Porterville ghost chaser Tammy Heston said. “And the head mistress of the school was extremely abusive and also was into devil worship and some of the girls were used in that practice as sacrifice.”
A girl who is said to have escaped this home was captured, killed and buried somewhere in the cemetery, but Heston tends to think that part of the story is urban legend.
“I have not found anyone who actually knows this for a fact, but the kids around here seem to believe it,” she said.
A run-down building “with an old sink and bathtub” near the center of the cemetery lends some credence to the “home” story, but part of the legend Heston is convinced is true – the cemetery is haunted.
“From the moment we arrived at the cemetery, we started feeling weird things,” said Heston, who has seen spirits since she was young and is able to sense their presence.
The group decided to separate into pairs and investigate the cemetery. They were equipped with a camera and a compass.
“When a spirit is present, the compass needle will spin like crazy,” she said. “And it was going nuts that night.”
Heston chose to walk the perimeter of the cemetery, her niece by her side.
“We were together walking around by the side of the cemetery where the headstones date all the way to the early 1800s,” she said. “And I got the feeling that someone was walking along side me with their hand on my shoulder.”
Heston didn’t mention this to her niece because she didn’t want to alarm her – but the feeling alarmed Heston. Then she saw something dark and sinister.
“As we walked I would see a black figure hiding behind the headstones,” she said. “It wasn’t human and it didn’t walk or run ¬¬– it floated from headstone to headstone.”
After wandering Vandalia Cemetery, the group met back at the cars and discussed what they’d experienced.
“Everyone had seen the black figure that I had seen,” Heston said. “Then we saw it again as it darted behind a tree. So we started walking toward it to see what it was.”
As the group got closer to the figure, the black thing peeked from behind the tree and saw them approaching.
“When it saw that we were near it, it let out a blood-curdling screech and flew up into the tree,” she said. “We got a fairly good look at it and it was definitely not human but it wasn’t spirit either.”
The entity appeared to wear a long black dress or cape and a hat.
“It looked like a witch’s hat,” Heston said. “That was one of the freakiest things I have seen.”
Although Heston doesn’t belong to a formal paranormal research group, she does explore the unknown.
“I have done some ghost hunting on my own as I have had many experiences and I’m interested in the paranormal,” she said. “I have investigated a few reported haunted places and have taken some interesting pictures and things like that. I haven’t gone on an investigation in awhile but have some pretty freaky stories to tell about some of my experiences. But I thought the one with the humanoid thing was about the scariest.”
Copyright 2009 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 c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
You can get 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 www.amazon.com.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Encounters With The Hat Man
George was about 10 years old when a friend’s mother spoke of a vision she’d had. A man with a tall black hat and trench coat approached her in the darkness.
“She referred to him as ‘Death,’” George said. “That was his name for whatever he represented. It wasn’t good.”
The image that story implanted in George’s head manifested itself into his life a few years later.
“I had my own vision of this same man,” George said. “He was pure evil with a very cold deep look in his eyes. I had to rebuke him in the name of Jesus to go away. It was very frightening.”
But it wasn’t until George’s family moved from Alaska to Texas that he discovered he wasn’t the only member of his family who had seen this entity.
“Years later, my mom started to tell me of a vision that had woken her up in the middle of the night of a man standing at the foot of her bed,” he said. “I was in shock. It was so chilling we were talking about the same old man.”
But George had never told his mother of his encounter and he doesn’t want to have another one.
“I haven’t seen him since that one time in Alaska,” George said. “I wonder, what does it mean? Who is this man many people see? Whoever he is he is pure evil and nothing good. Maybe he’s a worker for Satan to test us.”
George and his mother had seen an entity many have dubbed The Hat Man. This being is generally a shadow-black, slightly out-of-proportion, sometimes two-dimensional entity that often wears a trench coat, cape, or long out-of-date suit, and can appear and vanish without a trace.
This usually-threatening entity has been labeled a ghost, a Shadow Person or a demon – such as this explanation from an anonymous reader of “From The Shadows.”
“The men of darkness – or men of old, or men of perdition – do not reveal themselves. They are revealed by another to warn those that they come to discourage of their presence,” Anonymous wrote. “They have no fear of men. They only fear the One that has the power to send them to the abyss before the time. They flee at the mention of the Name that is above all names.”
Denise lounged on the sofa in her grandmother’s house one day when she was 17 and saw something at the window.
“I didn’t care about that because I did think it was just an impression,” she said. But it wasn’t. “I got up and went to the kitchen to drink water and was coming back, and I had the clear impression of a man in the window with a very long hat and a long coat. It was possible even to see the contour of his face, but it was not a human face, (it was) a horrendous one with a bad smile.”
Then the image vanished quickly enough Denise doubted she had seen it – until she spoke with her grandmother and aunt who were chatting in the next room.
“I told my aunt what I saw, it was black, like a shadow, well-defined contours outside of the window,” she said. “It was like he was trying to hear something, you know?”
Both women looked at Denise, terror painting their faces.
“She asked me to describe it,” Denise said. “Both said to me they saw the very same thing.”
Delta Elise, now in her 50s, was 11 or 12 and living in Austin, Texas, when she met the Hat Man.
“I came home after being out running around in the neighborhood with my friends,” she said. “I went to bed very tired and since I was the oldest girl, I got the bigger side of the bedroom with my own bed which faced the window with the curtains.”
As she lie there, looking at the curtains, the curtains moved.
“The top right hand side of the curtains moved aside as if someone was moving it with their hand,” she said. “And then there appeared to me a very tall man in a long black cape or trench coat with what I call a witch’s hat with the top cut off just standing there. Even though his appearance was dark and I couldn’t really see any eyes, I knew it was staring right at me.”
Delta Elise pulled the covers over her eyes and eventually fell asleep, but woke up shaking in fear.
“The house we lived in was definitely haunted but this was the scariest part of living there,” she said. “I always see Shadow People. It never stops and I always feel a presence in my back seat. I also always feel something touching me or calling my name.”
Copyright 2009 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 c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
“She referred to him as ‘Death,’” George said. “That was his name for whatever he represented. It wasn’t good.”
The image that story implanted in George’s head manifested itself into his life a few years later.
“I had my own vision of this same man,” George said. “He was pure evil with a very cold deep look in his eyes. I had to rebuke him in the name of Jesus to go away. It was very frightening.”
But it wasn’t until George’s family moved from Alaska to Texas that he discovered he wasn’t the only member of his family who had seen this entity.
“Years later, my mom started to tell me of a vision that had woken her up in the middle of the night of a man standing at the foot of her bed,” he said. “I was in shock. It was so chilling we were talking about the same old man.”
But George had never told his mother of his encounter and he doesn’t want to have another one.
“I haven’t seen him since that one time in Alaska,” George said. “I wonder, what does it mean? Who is this man many people see? Whoever he is he is pure evil and nothing good. Maybe he’s a worker for Satan to test us.”
George and his mother had seen an entity many have dubbed The Hat Man. This being is generally a shadow-black, slightly out-of-proportion, sometimes two-dimensional entity that often wears a trench coat, cape, or long out-of-date suit, and can appear and vanish without a trace.
This usually-threatening entity has been labeled a ghost, a Shadow Person or a demon – such as this explanation from an anonymous reader of “From The Shadows.”
“The men of darkness – or men of old, or men of perdition – do not reveal themselves. They are revealed by another to warn those that they come to discourage of their presence,” Anonymous wrote. “They have no fear of men. They only fear the One that has the power to send them to the abyss before the time. They flee at the mention of the Name that is above all names.”
Denise lounged on the sofa in her grandmother’s house one day when she was 17 and saw something at the window.
“I didn’t care about that because I did think it was just an impression,” she said. But it wasn’t. “I got up and went to the kitchen to drink water and was coming back, and I had the clear impression of a man in the window with a very long hat and a long coat. It was possible even to see the contour of his face, but it was not a human face, (it was) a horrendous one with a bad smile.”
Then the image vanished quickly enough Denise doubted she had seen it – until she spoke with her grandmother and aunt who were chatting in the next room.
“I told my aunt what I saw, it was black, like a shadow, well-defined contours outside of the window,” she said. “It was like he was trying to hear something, you know?”
Both women looked at Denise, terror painting their faces.
“She asked me to describe it,” Denise said. “Both said to me they saw the very same thing.”
Delta Elise, now in her 50s, was 11 or 12 and living in Austin, Texas, when she met the Hat Man.
“I came home after being out running around in the neighborhood with my friends,” she said. “I went to bed very tired and since I was the oldest girl, I got the bigger side of the bedroom with my own bed which faced the window with the curtains.”
As she lie there, looking at the curtains, the curtains moved.
“The top right hand side of the curtains moved aside as if someone was moving it with their hand,” she said. “And then there appeared to me a very tall man in a long black cape or trench coat with what I call a witch’s hat with the top cut off just standing there. Even though his appearance was dark and I couldn’t really see any eyes, I knew it was staring right at me.”
Delta Elise pulled the covers over her eyes and eventually fell asleep, but woke up shaking in fear.
“The house we lived in was definitely haunted but this was the scariest part of living there,” she said. “I always see Shadow People. It never stops and I always feel a presence in my back seat. I also always feel something touching me or calling my name.”
Copyright 2009 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 c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
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