One of the most Haunted Cemeteries in the United States

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Has only 82 plots, but that certainly hasn’t stopped it from becoming one of the most haunted cemeteries in the United States.

Established in 1840, the small area surrounding the cemetery was soon abandoned by the English homesteaders who relocated from Chicago to New England, leaving the graves behind. Originally named the Everdon Cemetery, the property belonged to Samuel Everdon, and even though there is 82 plots many of them were left unused. During the 1920’s, 1930’s Bachelor Grove was rumored to had been infamous dumping grounds for Chicago’s organized crime families. It was so isolated lagoon near the back of the abandon Cemetery that supposedly drew the mob’s attention. According to Legend it soon became the perfect place to fit hitmen, snitches, and people owning money with a pair of concrete permanent concrete shoes. Bachelor Grove is the most famous for the ghosts stories that surround the plot of land at the end of the long gravel road. One of the most famous images of a spirit was captured at the cemetery the “lady in white” or Madonna of Bachelor’s Grove is rumored to be the spirit of a woman who is buried next to her child. Often times she is seen wondering the cemetery with her holding her baby in her arms.

Lady in white is of course just one of many ghostly things eyewitnesses have seen at Bachelor’s Grove have come across an phantom farmhouse. The house appears as a picturesque white farmhouse in perfect condition before disappearing completely before your eyes. In 1870 a farmer died after he and his horse plowed to close to the Water’s edge. They both been spotted in spirit form years to come, continuing to plow the area of the lagoon. To this day, only when you call out to him he dissipates into nothing. Many paranormal experiences at Bachelor’s Grove peaked in the 1970’s-1980’s, people reported in 1984 reported seeing the ghostly of a monk walking slowly across the cemetery towards the road.

There is still reports of people seeing orbs of light, strange shadows, and the sound of arguing voices coming from the lagoon.
Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery is a classic haunting and an iconic part of Chicago’s land history.





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Jesse Pomeroy……14 Year old Serial Killer

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Jesse Pomeroy……14 Year old Serial Killer.

Jesse Harding Pomeroy was the youngest person ever convicted of ‘Murder in the First Degree’ in the history of Massachusetts, having been found guilty by a jury trial held in the Supreme Judicial Court of Suffolk County in December 1874.

At the age of 12 he was arrested for brutally mutilating seven boys – all of whom survived, but less than two years later he was arrested for two counts of murder.

Jesse Harding Pomeroy was born on 29 November,1859, in Charlestown, Massachusetts, to Thomas J. Pomeroy and Ruth Ann Snowman. He was the youngest of two children, his brother Charles Jefferson Pomeroy was two years older. His mother was a dressmaker.

Due to having a bad hair lip and one eye which was completely white, he suffered some degree of bullying whilst at school.
When Jesse turned 11 however, he started bullying others, and taking it onto a completely new level. He would take small children into the woods and would demand they take their clothes of. He would tie them up and beat them, poking them with sharp objects, cutting them etc. After hurting seven kids, he was arrested and sent to the WestBorough Reform School. The Boston Globe covered this story… the last line of the article stating “It is generally concluded that the boy is mentally deficient.”

A year and a half later he was released, due to good behaviour. It seems that he formulated a better plan while he was in Reform School, which was basically that he couldn’t get into trouble with the police if the kids he hurt were dead.

Ten year old Mary Curren disappeared in March 1874. She disappeared without a trace, and the police had no leads.
One month later, four year old Horace Mullen also disappeared. His body was found though, in the marshlands on the outskirts of the city. His body had been slashed with a knife and he was nearly decapitated.

When his body was found, Jesse’s name, as having a record as a child torturer, was at the top of the list. Jesse was 14 at that time. The police found a bloodstained knife in his trousers. While Jesse was locked up in preparation for trial, his mother moved house, to escape the press and censoring of her neighbours. Once she had vacated, the landlord decided to renovate. The basement was dug up, and the body of the missing Mary Curren was found. Her remains were hastily and carelessly concealed in an ash heap.
When police asked Jesse about her body, he admitted to killing her, as well as 27 others, 12 of which he claimed he buried around his mother’s house.

At the trial, Jesse was found guilty of the two original murders, and despite the fact that he was a 14 year old boy with mild mental retardation, he was sentenced to death. This sentence was eventually over an 18 month period reduced to life in prison, and he was to be kept in solitary confinement for the rest of his life.
Jesse Harding Pomeroy spent a total of 41 years in solitary confinement. He tried to kill himself many ti

mes, without success, and repeatedly tried to escape.
In 1917, Pomeroy’s sentence was commuted to the extent of allowing him the privileges afforded to other life prisoners. At first he resisted, wanting nothing less than a pardon. He eventually adjusted to his changed circumstances and appeared in a minstrel show at the prison. In 1929, by this time an elderly man of 70 in frail health, he was transferred to Bridgewater Hospital for the Criminally Insane, where he died just 2 years later on September 29, 1932 at the age of 72.


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The Legend Of Lucy Keyes – Princeton, Massachusetts

The Legend Of Lucy Keyes. Robert Keyes moved his family to Princeton, Massachus

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The Legend Of Lucy Keyes.

Robert Keyes moved his family to Princeton, Massachusetts in 1751, purchasing 200 acres of land on the South-Eastern slope of the Wachusett Mountain. Four years later on April 14th 1755, Martha Keyes had sent her eldest daughters, Patty and Anna, to collect sand from the…

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The Curious Grave Of Dr Timothy Clark Smith

Evergreen Cemetery is placed within the West River neighborhood of New Haven, Vermont, and at this cemetery you will find the very odd, yet very intriguing grave stone of Doctor Timothy Clark Smith.

Prior to ‘death’, Dr. Timothy Clark Smith was very concerned about being accidentally buried alive, so much that he had a very unique crypt created as his final resting place. You see, Dr. Smith was deeply afraid of contracting sleeping sickness, a disease that gave the illusion of death until the unfortunate individual woke up buried alive.

Upon his death on on ‘All Hallows Eve’ in 1893, Dr Smith was placed into the Evergreen Cemetery in New Haven, Vermont within the confines of his unique crypt. The crypt had a very odd slab of granite, which was placed upon a grassy mound. This granite marker was fixed with a small 14″x14″ window that he had installed at the surface of his grave, six feet above his tomb. The small window was fixed squarely on Dr. Smith’s face so that people could check on him to ensure that he himself had not been buried alive.

Cemetery records show that there is a second room within the burial crypt which houses Timothy’s wife. A set of stairs lead into the crypt, capped by the stone in the lower front of the mound.

The marker’s glass window is now weathered, stained and typically hazy with condensation, which makes it essentially impossible to see Dr. Smith’s remains. However some people in the past have claimed to have seen the skeletal face of the Doctor looming just beneath the surface, along with a hammer and chisel lying on his chest to aid in his escape in the event of him being buried alive. There is also a breathing tube that flows to the surface and a bell, just in case the Doctor happens to wake up.

Grave of Doctor Timothy Smith
The window is weathered and stained with some type of green growth.

The Mystery of Phelps Mansion – Stratford, Connecticut

Stratford is similar to a lot of towns in New England. It has a scenic sea front, a busy central street and at one time had a haunted house.

It was referred to as the Phelps Mansion, and was initially owned by George R. Dowell, who was a rich captain of a clipper ship. Starting from 1826 to 1849, Dowell and his spouse resided there happily until they passed on.

At this juncture the Reverend Phelps purchased the sophisticated mansion and shifted here with his family. Mrs. Phelps came from Philadelphia and was somehow taken aback at Stratford. She found it hard to get used to life in this small town.

Old Photo of Phelps Mansion Exterior
Old Photo of Phelps Mansion Exterior

However, despite this, everything was very peaceful. That is, until 10th March, 1850.

Strange Happenings

On this specific Sunday, Reverend Phelps and family came back from Sabbath and found their house in total disarray. Furniture was thrown helter skelter and lay in broken pieces. Cutlery lay scattered all over the floor.

The most disturbing discovery was different articles of women clothes in the main parlor which had taken a human shape. News spread fast and hoards of reporters and spiritualists set up camp in the exterior of the house, hoping to catch a glimpse of the apparitions.

Interior Stairway inside of Phelps Mansion
Interior Stairway inside of Phelps Mansion

In the months that followed, voices and knocking was heard throughout the house and weird writing appeared on walls mysteriously. Objects also flew from one end of the room to another.

Different Theories

Theories on what was happening thrived. One spiritualist stated that important radiation coming from Phelps’s son who was 11 years old, made things fly across the room.

Reporters were doubtful even at this time and concluded that the haunting was a big hoax set up by Mrs. Phelps and the kids, as they were all disappointed with Stratford’s slow pace.

Even the history of the city describes it this way. In October of the same year when Mrs. Phelps and her children returned to Philadelphia, the haunting continued.

However, the story continues…

Years Later

Many years passed, owners changed and everything was calm on Elm Street. Then, about a century after the horrifying events, Carl Caserta and his spouse bought the Phelps’ mansion in 1947 and transformed it to a convalescence home. It was while they were owners that the supernatural came back to Stratford.

Mrs Caserta was carrying out chores in the basement one evening, soon after putting her baby son to bed, when the buzzer sounded. After the Casertas carried out renovations on the house, they installed buzzers on every floor to enable the residents to call for help.

Drawing of Phelps Mansion
Drawing of Phelps Mansion

When she heard the buzzing, Mrs. Caserta ran upstairs and did not find anyone who had rung for her on the initial two floors which were occupied by residents.

When approaching the third floor however, which was occupied by her and her family, she smelt smoke and rushed into her son’s bedroom. She found a blanket ablaze, which she had put over his bed.

Fast, she put out the flames and was overcome by emotion. But, who had rung the buzzer. The staff was with her, the patients, who were elderly, were all sleeping in their beds and it was not possible for her son to reach it.

Some years later, a similar occurrence took place when her son who was sleep-walking tried to leap from the landing on the third floor. He would have done so, had the phantom buzzer not sounded, prompting Mrs. Caserta to stop him.

The Casertas were unable to discover why the buzzer sounded, saving the life of their young son two times. Maybe the answer was hidden inside those walls, but it will never be available to us.

In 1972, this house was a victim of the wrecking ball. Nowadays, a parking lot encompasses the plot where the Phelps’ Mansion once stood.

However, the mystery continues…