The young couple sat across from each other as their hands joined on the planchette of a Ouija board. Tim Hess began using the board after his girlfriend moved into his Pennsylvania apartment, not realizing what it would invite.
“We had been doing this almost every evening for about a month and had been talking to an entity that claimed to be a man who died at about the same age I was,” he said. “He claimed to have died in an accident ... apparently he was working on this vehicle and it fell on him, crushing him.”
Although nothing bad had happened to Hess and his girlfriend while using the Ouija board, they were still cautious.
“We always used it together because we heard you should never use one alone,” he said.
But one night, when Hess sat in a bar up the hill from his apartment, his girlfriend, who wasn’t yet 21, broke the rule.
“As I was walking home one evening I found a bottle jack lying along side the road and decided to take it home because I work on cars a lot,” he said. “When I walked in the door with the jack in my hand my girlfriend’s face turned white as a ghost and she was screaming at me telling me I had to get rid of the jack.”
After she calmed down, she told him why.
“She had been using the Ouija board while I was out,” Hess said. “She told me she had been trying to talk to our friend but he wouldn’t say anything except ‘Tim’ and ‘No Jack’ over and over for about 15 minutes.”
Finally, after numerous requests, the board spelled out that Hess would find a jack walking home from a bar June 14. That night was June 14. But it’s what the entity then claimed that threw the girl into hysterics.
“(The entity said) I would use the jack and a car would fall on me killing me,” he said. “I told her not to worry because nothing was going to happen to me.”
She pleaded with him to get rid of the jack, but he refused; it was in good condition.
“I took the jack down to the basement and tried to forget what happened,” he said. “But every time I saw that jack I got a very uneasy feeling in my stomach.”
Exactly a month later, Hess’ brother-in-law asked if he’d help replace the clutch in his car – and he didn’t own a jack.
“I proceeded to tell him the story of how I got the jack and the warning my girlfriend received,” Hess said. “I told him that if he waited a few days I would help him but there was no way I was going to crawl under a car on the 14th.”
The men waited two days and, using a jack Hess’ brother-in-law bought, repaired the clutch.
“We fixed his car without incident,” Hess said. “I don’t know if this was because we waited or the fact that my brother-in-law purchased a jack for us to use.”
Hess has not touched a Ouija board since.
“This incident made me realize that there are truly other entities out there. Some may be good and some may be bad. I just got lucky enough to not get mixed up with a bad one. Something has always bothered me about what happened though. Do you think I would have even found the jack if we weren’t talking to our ‘friend?’”
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 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.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
More Encounters With Shadow People
For centuries, Shadow People – darker than night, human-shaped entities – have stalked the lives of people across the globe.
But they’re becoming more common. Are encounters with these two-dimensional, looming figures on the rise, or are more people willing to talk about their experiences because they know they’re not alone?
It knocked
TK first saw the Shadow Man standing in the doorway of his parents’ house.
“I was laying in my bed trying to fall asleep,” TK said. “Out of nowhere a big Shadow figure, about 6-foot, 6-inches tall, walked in.”
TK wondered about his sanity – but it was too real.
“The figure began to lean into the bed and stare at me, it would then lean back and look out the window,” TK said. “It went back and forth doing this for maybe a minute or two.”
Then fear draped TK.
“I wasn’t sure if it was an actual person or possibly a ghost,” he said. “From a spur-of-the-moment decision I leaned forward and kicked at the figure while kind of yelling. I kicked right through it.”
His parents ran into the room seconds later, and nothing was there.
“I was very creeped out but I pretty much convinced myself that my mind had played a trick on me,” he said. “I soon moved out … for college and never encountered anything like it again until I came back and stayed in the same room.”
At about 12:30 a.m., a knocking at his door roused him from sleep.
“I was sleeping on my side facing away from the door,” he said. “When I woke up to the sound, I turn around to look at the door and right next to my bed was the same Shadowy figure.”
TK is convinced it was the same entity he’d seen before.
“When I saw it, it completely scared the (crap) out of me,” he said. “I thought for sure it was a person. I am thankful to find so many people who experienced the same Shadow People as I did. I felt a little crazy.”
Red eyes in the night
Jayna was four the night her eight-year-old sister saw the Shadow Man.
“One night she was awake as our parents came up the stairs and she listened to their chatting and footsteps,” she said. “Then she listened and watched the light disappear as they entered their room and closed their door for the night.”
A few minutes later Jayna’s sister heard another set of footsteps walking up the stairs. But her parents were still in their room; she could hear them talking.
“After the footsteps, she said she saw a Shadow, and it had red eyes, standing in the hall and looking at her,” Jayna said.
But it wasn’t a normal shadow created by a difference between light and dark. It was something physical.
“She seemed more upset about the fact that it was more solid, off the wall, than about the red eyes,” Jayna said.
The red-eyed Shadow Man eventually walked away, but whatever it was, it never left Jayna’s sister.
“For the next 10 years it seems she believed something was ‘following’ her in some way or another,” Jayna said. “Strange, inexplicable things happened throughout those years. Some of those things were even witnessed by others around or near her although she said that she only saw that Shadow with red eyes that one time.”
The Hat Man
Tauni hasn’t seen the Hat Man since she was a child. But that was enough.
“My parents thought I was having nightmares and that I was seeing things triggered by television,” Tauni said. “But I know that I was very awake.”
Tauni was cuddled in bedding draped on the floor of the den watching her parents in the living room when something caught her attention.
“As I was trying to sleep, I suddenly heard the blinds from the window behind me hit the glass, back and forth,” she said. “I started to panic, and although I couldn’t look behind me, I could see the reflection of the window in the glass in front. In the reflection, I saw the blinds slowly lift, and behind the window there was a man with bright, glowing red eyes.”
Fear threatened to smother Tauni.
“I was terrified, but I had seen him before,” she said. “He was dark – completely black, like a shadow – wearing a fedora hat, in a trench coat of some sort, and had long hair falling around his face. He did not look human, but like deep darkness in human form, which accentuated his bright red eyes.”
Frozen, Tauni lie still, staring at this entity, when she found her voice.
“Finally, I was able to scream, and my parents ran into the room, trying to console me and tell me it was just a bad dream – my imagination,” she said. “I know that it was not my imagination, and I believe this entity does exist, although I am not sure exactly what it is.”
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 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.
But they’re becoming more common. Are encounters with these two-dimensional, looming figures on the rise, or are more people willing to talk about their experiences because they know they’re not alone?
It knocked
TK first saw the Shadow Man standing in the doorway of his parents’ house.
“I was laying in my bed trying to fall asleep,” TK said. “Out of nowhere a big Shadow figure, about 6-foot, 6-inches tall, walked in.”
TK wondered about his sanity – but it was too real.
“The figure began to lean into the bed and stare at me, it would then lean back and look out the window,” TK said. “It went back and forth doing this for maybe a minute or two.”
Then fear draped TK.
“I wasn’t sure if it was an actual person or possibly a ghost,” he said. “From a spur-of-the-moment decision I leaned forward and kicked at the figure while kind of yelling. I kicked right through it.”
His parents ran into the room seconds later, and nothing was there.
“I was very creeped out but I pretty much convinced myself that my mind had played a trick on me,” he said. “I soon moved out … for college and never encountered anything like it again until I came back and stayed in the same room.”
At about 12:30 a.m., a knocking at his door roused him from sleep.
“I was sleeping on my side facing away from the door,” he said. “When I woke up to the sound, I turn around to look at the door and right next to my bed was the same Shadowy figure.”
TK is convinced it was the same entity he’d seen before.
“When I saw it, it completely scared the (crap) out of me,” he said. “I thought for sure it was a person. I am thankful to find so many people who experienced the same Shadow People as I did. I felt a little crazy.”
Red eyes in the night
Jayna was four the night her eight-year-old sister saw the Shadow Man.
“One night she was awake as our parents came up the stairs and she listened to their chatting and footsteps,” she said. “Then she listened and watched the light disappear as they entered their room and closed their door for the night.”
A few minutes later Jayna’s sister heard another set of footsteps walking up the stairs. But her parents were still in their room; she could hear them talking.
“After the footsteps, she said she saw a Shadow, and it had red eyes, standing in the hall and looking at her,” Jayna said.
But it wasn’t a normal shadow created by a difference between light and dark. It was something physical.
“She seemed more upset about the fact that it was more solid, off the wall, than about the red eyes,” Jayna said.
The red-eyed Shadow Man eventually walked away, but whatever it was, it never left Jayna’s sister.
“For the next 10 years it seems she believed something was ‘following’ her in some way or another,” Jayna said. “Strange, inexplicable things happened throughout those years. Some of those things were even witnessed by others around or near her although she said that she only saw that Shadow with red eyes that one time.”
The Hat Man
Tauni hasn’t seen the Hat Man since she was a child. But that was enough.
“My parents thought I was having nightmares and that I was seeing things triggered by television,” Tauni said. “But I know that I was very awake.”
Tauni was cuddled in bedding draped on the floor of the den watching her parents in the living room when something caught her attention.
“As I was trying to sleep, I suddenly heard the blinds from the window behind me hit the glass, back and forth,” she said. “I started to panic, and although I couldn’t look behind me, I could see the reflection of the window in the glass in front. In the reflection, I saw the blinds slowly lift, and behind the window there was a man with bright, glowing red eyes.”
Fear threatened to smother Tauni.
“I was terrified, but I had seen him before,” she said. “He was dark – completely black, like a shadow – wearing a fedora hat, in a trench coat of some sort, and had long hair falling around his face. He did not look human, but like deep darkness in human form, which accentuated his bright red eyes.”
Frozen, Tauni lie still, staring at this entity, when she found her voice.
“Finally, I was able to scream, and my parents ran into the room, trying to console me and tell me it was just a bad dream – my imagination,” she said. “I know that it was not my imagination, and I believe this entity does exist, although I am not sure exactly what it is.”
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 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.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
The Haunted Parlor: Part 2
Author’s note: This is the second of a two-part story on a haunted bed and breakfast.
Voices whisper in the night at The Parlor Bed and Breakfast in Ironton, Mo., and, when people turn to see who’s there – no one ever is.
Jeannette Schrum, co-owner of The Parlor since 2000, said disembodied voices speak to guests, a little boy playing in the main parlor smiles at those who see him, and a man wearing a white shirt stands in a window.
But the most common activity at The Parlor are shadows. Shadows of people often walk the porch of The Parlor, and sometimes wander the interior of the building.
“I see shadows all the time,” Schrum said. “The shadows are just unbelievable. They’re day and night both.”
Belinda Clark-Ache, founder of Haunted Missouri Paranormal Studies, has investigated The Parlor and knows the bed and breakfast is haunted. When her paranormal team stayed at The Parlor, members felt dramatic changes in temperature; taps on the shoulder and one man heard someone whisper his name – even though he was alone in the room.
“We were woken up at 5:30 a.m. hearing our names called in the hallway,” Clark-Ache said, going through the experiences of the evening. “Two different doors on the second floor hallway opened at the same time. There was the smell of fresh bread baking – she didn’t make us fresh bread that weekend.”
The most compelling evidence she saw was in a room called “The Brass Bed.”
Tim Harte MA, LCPC, University if Illinois-Springfield, was with Haunted Missouri Paranormal Studies that night, and had set up in The Brass Bed a computer system he developed with Dave Black, also of the university, that is designed to measure energy frequencies associated with haunt phenomena. Included was an infrared video camera with microphones.
“When he turned in for the night, he left the machine recording,” Clark-Ache said. “About 20 minutes later, you hear what sounds like him coming through the room. Then the bathroom light comes on. You hear bathwater and splashing. You hear draining and the bathroom light goes off. The rest of the recording is silent.”
No one took a bath in that room, or slept there during the investigation – and no one was visible on the video.
“Anyone going from the bedroom to the bathroom would have been discernable on the tape,” she said. “We could not reproduce the event. That’s got to be the most excited I’ve ever been about a piece of evidence and it wasn’t even mine.”
Although Schrum doesn’t embrace the ghosts of The Parlor, she doesn’t want to hide the fact that the home is haunted.
“I’ve had couples get up in the middle of the night and leave,” she said. “I put (the haunting) on the Web site because I didn’t want anyone to come in here and be frightened. That’s not fair. That’s not what they bargained for.”
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.
Voices whisper in the night at The Parlor Bed and Breakfast in Ironton, Mo., and, when people turn to see who’s there – no one ever is.
Jeannette Schrum, co-owner of The Parlor since 2000, said disembodied voices speak to guests, a little boy playing in the main parlor smiles at those who see him, and a man wearing a white shirt stands in a window.
But the most common activity at The Parlor are shadows. Shadows of people often walk the porch of The Parlor, and sometimes wander the interior of the building.
“I see shadows all the time,” Schrum said. “The shadows are just unbelievable. They’re day and night both.”
Belinda Clark-Ache, founder of Haunted Missouri Paranormal Studies, has investigated The Parlor and knows the bed and breakfast is haunted. When her paranormal team stayed at The Parlor, members felt dramatic changes in temperature; taps on the shoulder and one man heard someone whisper his name – even though he was alone in the room.
“We were woken up at 5:30 a.m. hearing our names called in the hallway,” Clark-Ache said, going through the experiences of the evening. “Two different doors on the second floor hallway opened at the same time. There was the smell of fresh bread baking – she didn’t make us fresh bread that weekend.”
The most compelling evidence she saw was in a room called “The Brass Bed.”
Tim Harte MA, LCPC, University if Illinois-Springfield, was with Haunted Missouri Paranormal Studies that night, and had set up in The Brass Bed a computer system he developed with Dave Black, also of the university, that is designed to measure energy frequencies associated with haunt phenomena. Included was an infrared video camera with microphones.
“When he turned in for the night, he left the machine recording,” Clark-Ache said. “About 20 minutes later, you hear what sounds like him coming through the room. Then the bathroom light comes on. You hear bathwater and splashing. You hear draining and the bathroom light goes off. The rest of the recording is silent.”
No one took a bath in that room, or slept there during the investigation – and no one was visible on the video.
“Anyone going from the bedroom to the bathroom would have been discernable on the tape,” she said. “We could not reproduce the event. That’s got to be the most excited I’ve ever been about a piece of evidence and it wasn’t even mine.”
Although Schrum doesn’t embrace the ghosts of The Parlor, she doesn’t want to hide the fact that the home is haunted.
“I’ve had couples get up in the middle of the night and leave,” she said. “I put (the haunting) on the Web site because I didn’t want anyone to come in here and be frightened. That’s not fair. That’s not what they bargained for.”
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.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
The Haunted Parlor: Part 1
Author’s note: This is the first of a two-part story on a haunted bed and breakfast.
The doorbells of The Parlor Bed and Breakfast in Ironton, Mo., ring at odd times. Jeannette Schrum, co-owner of the bed and breakfast since 2000, is used to it. It’s probably ghosts.
Flying curtains, falling clocks and strange shadows on the walls are common occurrences in the bed and breakfast that, for a short time in the 1960s, was a funeral parlor. But Schrum said there has been unexplained activity in the home much longer than that.
“The place had been haunted since the ’20s and ’30s, as far as we can trace back,” she said. “When we bought the place they told us it was haunted and I said ‘bull.’ I really don’t believe in that sort of thing.”
Schrum purchased the building with her husband, Robert Halket, mayor of Ironton, and her sister and brother-in-law, Dana and Moody Campbell
Architect Charles J. Tual built the home between 1901 and 1908 for he and his wife; the exterior constructed of concrete blocks made on site. A mortician purchased the home in 1960 and turned it into a funeral home. Although the building served in that capacity for only a short time, that time has a close connection to Schrum.
“My great grandfather was one of the few bodies that was laid out here when it was a funeral parlor,” she said. “And my grandmother worked here.”
And she may still be there. Although Schrum, who was raised not to believe in the paranormal, said the spirit of “a lady” – possibly her grandmother – follows her around the house.
“I have a woman friend,” she said. “It’s something you just know it’s there. It’s a woman and it’s always a warm, friendly feeling. My grandmother and sister and I were all very close. I’d like to think it’s her, but I’m a non-believer.”
Even to a non-believer, too many unexplainable events happen in the bed and breakfast. The new owners began renovating the home when they bought it in August of 2000 and immediately noticed something wasn’t right.
“When we first started working on it, things would disappear,” she said. “I kept it to myself because I knew the guys were going to make fun of me.”
By that time, Schrum had met her lady. Then her family began experiencing things, too. On a hot night, Schrum went to the porch to check on guests who sat talking in the evening breeze, when her sister called to her.
“She was standing with her back to the kitchen and pretty soon my sister’s at the door saying, ‘come here, come here,’” Schrum said. “She said, ‘did you walk up behind me a few minutes ago?’ I said, ‘she got you, she got you, she tagged you, she got you.”
Schrum could talk about it now; someone else had experienced her lady. Some time later, her husband received a more formal introduction.
“He was reared back in the recliner and had a pizza in one hand, a Diet Pepsi in the other,” Schrum said, “and he said, ‘oh my God. She just walked across there, stopped and looked at me and kept on walking.’”
The woman Halket saw wore a long, gray period dress, her hair pulled up in a bun on the back of her head.
“My husband hates it,” she said. “He just hates it.”
Next week: Paranormal research.
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 find 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.
The doorbells of The Parlor Bed and Breakfast in Ironton, Mo., ring at odd times. Jeannette Schrum, co-owner of the bed and breakfast since 2000, is used to it. It’s probably ghosts.
Flying curtains, falling clocks and strange shadows on the walls are common occurrences in the bed and breakfast that, for a short time in the 1960s, was a funeral parlor. But Schrum said there has been unexplained activity in the home much longer than that.
“The place had been haunted since the ’20s and ’30s, as far as we can trace back,” she said. “When we bought the place they told us it was haunted and I said ‘bull.’ I really don’t believe in that sort of thing.”
Schrum purchased the building with her husband, Robert Halket, mayor of Ironton, and her sister and brother-in-law, Dana and Moody Campbell
Architect Charles J. Tual built the home between 1901 and 1908 for he and his wife; the exterior constructed of concrete blocks made on site. A mortician purchased the home in 1960 and turned it into a funeral home. Although the building served in that capacity for only a short time, that time has a close connection to Schrum.
“My great grandfather was one of the few bodies that was laid out here when it was a funeral parlor,” she said. “And my grandmother worked here.”
And she may still be there. Although Schrum, who was raised not to believe in the paranormal, said the spirit of “a lady” – possibly her grandmother – follows her around the house.
“I have a woman friend,” she said. “It’s something you just know it’s there. It’s a woman and it’s always a warm, friendly feeling. My grandmother and sister and I were all very close. I’d like to think it’s her, but I’m a non-believer.”
Even to a non-believer, too many unexplainable events happen in the bed and breakfast. The new owners began renovating the home when they bought it in August of 2000 and immediately noticed something wasn’t right.
“When we first started working on it, things would disappear,” she said. “I kept it to myself because I knew the guys were going to make fun of me.”
By that time, Schrum had met her lady. Then her family began experiencing things, too. On a hot night, Schrum went to the porch to check on guests who sat talking in the evening breeze, when her sister called to her.
“She was standing with her back to the kitchen and pretty soon my sister’s at the door saying, ‘come here, come here,’” Schrum said. “She said, ‘did you walk up behind me a few minutes ago?’ I said, ‘she got you, she got you, she tagged you, she got you.”
Schrum could talk about it now; someone else had experienced her lady. Some time later, her husband received a more formal introduction.
“He was reared back in the recliner and had a pizza in one hand, a Diet Pepsi in the other,” Schrum said, “and he said, ‘oh my God. She just walked across there, stopped and looked at me and kept on walking.’”
The woman Halket saw wore a long, gray period dress, her hair pulled up in a bun on the back of her head.
“My husband hates it,” she said. “He just hates it.”
Next week: Paranormal research.
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 find 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.
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