The Swamp Lady – Columbia, SC

ghost-lady-swamp A well-dressed woman has been reportedly seen walking down a dark highway in the middle of the extemely dense Congaree swampland near Columbia, SC. A couple riding by passed the woman and stopped to offer her a ride. The young woman accepted the ride explaining that she was on her way to Columbia to visit her sick mother.

The couple resumed driving and talking. The wife asked the young woman a question and when she received no response she turned around and discovered that she had vanished into thin air, leaving behind a eerie vapor mist in her seat.

Hysterically, the couple drove the rest of the way to Columbia. The wife was so upset that her husband had to take her to the hospital. Remembering the address of the young woman’s destination, the husband made his way to Pickens Street. An older lady answered the door and knew immediately why he was there. He was one of many people to have picked up the woman in the swamp only to have her disappear. As it turns out, the lady from the swamp and the woman on Pickens Street were sisters. The disappearing lady from the swamp was killed in an auto accident. Every year on the anniversary of her death she appears on the swamp road where she lost her life, still trying to find her way back home.

Layman Avenue House – Harrisonburg, VA

A ghost named max stays in this house to protect it from his evil sister, who altered his will so she could inherit the building. The German’s guttural voice, groaning sounds, and shuffling footsteps have been reported by tenants for many years. Max explained his motivation at a seance arranged by the current owners.

Directions: Harrison is in north-west Virginia, at the junction of I-81 and U.S. Highway 33. The house is a private residence, at 537 Layman Ave., Harrisburg, VA 22801

Additional Links:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~varockin/HRHS/cem/dovel_stephens.htm

Source:

http://www.penguinputnam.com/Book/BookFrame/0,,,00.html?id=0142002348

The Bell Witch – Adams, TN

In the early 1800s, John Bell moved his family from North Carolina to the Red River bottomland in Robertson County, Tennessee, settling in a community that later became known as Adams. Bell purchased some land and a large log home for his family. The Bells quickly made many friends and gained prominence in the community. John Bell acquired additional land and cleared a number of fields over the next several years.

One day in 1817, John Bell was inspecting his corn field when he encountered a strange-looking animal sitting in the middle of a corn row. Shocked by the appearance of this animal, which had the body of a dog and the head of a rabbit, Bell shot several times to no avail. The animal vanished. Bell thought nothing more about the incident–at least not until after dinner. That evening, the Bells began hearing “beating” sounds on the outside walls of their house.

These mysterious sounds continued with increased force each night. Bell and his sons often hurried outside to catch the culprit but always returned empty-handed. The noises were soon followed by more problems. The Bell children began waking up frightened and complaining of sounds much like rats gnawing at their bedposts. It wasn’t long until the children began complaining of more terrifying things–having their bed covers pulled and their pillows were tossed onto the floor by a seemingly invisible force.

As time went on, the Bells began to hear more strange noises. Only this time, they sounded like faint, whispering voices–too weak to understand–but sounded like a feeble old woman crying or singing hymns. The encounters escalated, and the Bells youngest daughter, Betsy, began experiencing physically brutal encounters with the entity. It relentlessly pulled her hair and slapped her, often leaving visible prints on her face and body for days at a time. The evil disturbances escalated over the next year to the point it was time for John Bell to share his “family trouble” with his closest friend and neighbor, James Johnston.

Johnston and his wife spent the night at the Bell home, where they were subjected to the same terrifying disturbances that the Bells had been. After having his bedcovers repeatedly removed, and being slapped, Johnston sprang out of bed, asking, “I ask you in the name of the Lord God, who are you and what do you want?” There was no response of any type, but the remainder of the night was peaceful.

As word of the Bell disturbances spread throughout the community, so did the entity’s antics. Over time, the its voice strengthened to the point it was loud and understandable. It sang hymns, quoted scripture, carried on intelligent conversation, and once quoted, word-for-word, two sermons that took place at the same time thirteen miles apart. During none of this time did anyone know who or what the entity was, or its purpose for tormenting the Red River Settlement.

Word eventually spread outside the settlement, even as far as Nashville, where one Andrew Jackson became interested.

John Bell, Jr. and Jesse Bell fought under General Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans, and had developed a good rapport with him. In 1819, Jackson got word of the disturbances at the Bell home and decided to pay a personal visit. Jackson and his entourage, consisting of several men and a large wagon, journeyed from Nashville to the Bell home. As the entourage approached the Bell property, the wagon suddenly stopped. The horses tried pulling but to no avail–the wagon simply would not move.

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Third Eye Man – Columbia, SC

The “Third Eye Man” was first spotted on November 12, 1949, on the campus of the University of South Carolina. According to school records, a strange man dressed in bright silver was sighted opening “a manhole cover on the corner of Sumter and Green Streets, directly opposite of the historic Longstreet Theatre.” At 10:43 p.m., two male students watched as this man entered the sewer portal, and diligently pulled the manhole cover into its proper position. One of the students, Christopher Nichols (class of 1953), wrote for the Gamecock and immediately spread the news of this “Sewer man” — as he was called in the article. After a few weeks, any interest in the “sewer man” died down.

Almost six months later, on April 7, 1950, this “sewer man” was spotted again. A university police officer on patrol came across two mutilated chickens behind Longstreet Theatre. Feathers and chicken parts were strewed all over the loading dock of Longstreet. Believing that this mess was left by fraternity students or some other pranksters, the officer walked back to his car to report the scene. After calling into the station, the officer returned to the loading dock only to discover a silver man huddled over the chicken pieces. Immediately, the officer turned his flashlight on this man who looked up at the cop. In the beam of the light, the officer could make out a very disturbing face, grotesque in color and shape, and in the middle of this man’s forehead, a third eye! It wasn’t a large eye, but nevertheless, there was a third eye starring back at the cop! The policeman retreated from the scene and called in back-ups. When other officers arrived on the scene, there was nothing left on the loading dock except a few scattered feathers and bones. Of course, the cop who witnessed this “third eye man” was in hysterics, and was never able to convince the other officers of what he saw.

In the late 1960’s, the “catacombs” or underground tunnels at the University, were a favorite place for students. These tunnels connect most of the University. One night in early October, a group of fraternity guys decided to take three pledges down to the tunnels for a challenge. Entering the tunnels from the basement of Gambrell, the group of guys headed west towards the horseshoe. As they rounded the first corner, they were met by a “crippled looking man dressed all in silver” (according to police reports). This bizarre looking man charged at the students with a lead pipe, and suddenly the frat boys realized that this was no prank. One of the pledges, Matthew Tabor, was knocked to the ground by the creature, and suffered “minor cuts and minor shock.” Two of the older boys immediately went to the police department, and that evening, the first “third eye man-hunt” took place. After hours of searching the tunnels, the police came up with nothing. However, they did take precautions by sealing off most of the entrances to the catacombs, and by declaring the tunnels off-limit to any person, student, or faculty member.

According to one of the maintenance men who still works at the University today, “we don’t use the tunnels unless it is absolutely necessary.” There have been several sightings in the late 80’s and early 90’s, though most were dismissed by the University Police force. Those who are adventurous enough to climb down into the tunnels risk being suspended from school. Students WILL find a way into the catacombs from time to time, but there is always the possibility that they will come face-to-face with the ominous third eye man.

Fletcher Church Ghost – Fletcher, NC

Our story begins in the mountains of North Carolina, just south of Asheville in the town of Fletcher. Two young lovers had just gotten married when the War Between the States broke out, and the young man went north with a small band of Confederates to join the army.

Late one night soon afterwards, the new bride received a knock on her door. Dread filled her heart as she opened the door, and her worst fears were realized as she saw on her doorstep one of the young men her husband had gone off with to war, now barely recognizable through his bandages. The soldier handed her a letter her husband had written just a few days previously, as well as the Confederate cape that her husband had worn into battle, her husband’s sole possession at his death. Inconsolable, she took to wearing the cape where ever she went, and died of a broken heart just a few months later.

Calvary Episcopal Church, Fletcher, NC

Her spirit made its first appearance back in 1865, when she led a troop of yankees into an ambush near the town. The yankees had followed her along the road near the Calvary Episcopal Church, which was known to be used as housing by the Confederate soldiers. Though the yankees were soundly routed from the town, the retreating union soldiers were given orders to locate the young woman in order that she might be prosecuted for her treachery. While they had no luck, the soldiers may not have searched all that long, as the survivors of the ambush reported that the woman in question just vanished in front of their eyes as soon as the Confederate troops opened fire.

Townspeople said she acted in revenge of her husband’s death, and they say that she can still be seen out on the road near the church, her Confederate cape draped around her shoulders.

Directions: Take Exit 50 off of I-40 in Asheville, so that you are headed South on Highway 25, AWAY from the Biltmore House. The exit for 25A (to bypass Skyland), headed south, will work too, but I forgot to write that exit number down, sorry. Anyway, about 8.5 miles south on Highway 25, also called Hendersonville Road, you’ll cross over into Henderson County, and you’ll see a traffic light just ahead. The Calvary Episcopal Church is on your left just before you get to the light. The light is at the intersection of Hendersonville Road and Old Airport Road, and as you’ll realize if you go, neither road is a terribly good place to try riding a horse these days….

Fletcher Church, Fletcher NC

The Story of the Fletcher Church Ghost

Additional Links:

http://ncghosts.batcave.net/fletcher.htm

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Legend of Payne Road (Edwards Rd) – Rural Hall, NC

There are many different versions of this story with some differences in the names and so on. However these are some of the more popular versions of the tale.

The first tale relates to the Payne Plantation, one of the largest home sites in the area. The plantation owner, Mr. Payne built the place on a valley with steep hills on all sides, and the mansion was situated on the north hill so that he could overlook the entire plantation. Slave shacks scattered the hillsides, and a creek ran through the center of the valley supplying water to the entire plantation.

A small chapel was located 250 yds and 45 degrees to the right of the mansion, and the main field was located 900 ft directly in front of the mansion. The slave shacks were located about 100 degrees to the right of the mansion, and then 200 yds in front of the house lay a small bridge, just large enough for one carriage.

This first story goes that Payne, the father of four girls, was an extremely racist man. The girls grew up isolated from the outside world due to Payne’s over-protectiveness. They grew to despise their father as well as to despise his cruelty to his slaves. Payne eventually learned that his oldest daughter was pregnant by one of his own slaves, and Payne quite literally lost his mind. He cursed the Lord and turned to devil-worship, brutally sacrificing the slave to the evil now within him. Then just a few months later, he learned that his youngest daughter was also pregnant by one of his slaves, and he then cracked once and for all. Payne brutally sacrificed that slave and began to storm through the shacks with anything he could lay his hands on, everything from sticks to muskets to farm tools. Then, in his maddening rage, he murdered his own family. Soon afterwards he burned just about his entire plantation, killing almost all of the remaining slaves. This is supposedly why the trees on Payne Road are so young and the grave stones are charred.

The second story is that of a 1933 or 1936 Ford, 3-window hot rod. The driver wrecked on Payne Road on the second to last curve, the sharpest, at almost 180 degrees. The curve is also located 45 degrees to the right of the old mansion site, in the same spot of the chapel (where Payne once worshipped Satan) stood. The driver is said to have died a slow death as bystanders stood by helplessly, watching the flames consume his car.

Many people today claim to see the rounded lights of the Ford following their car on Payne road all the way to the old chapel site, only to disappear as they cross over the bridge.

Another story simply tells of a man who lived in an old farm house on the site with his wife and four children back in the early 1800s. Yes, yes, obviously this story conflicts somewhat with the aforementioned Payne plantation.

One night, after once again arguing bitterly with his wife, the husband decided that the root of all his marital problems stemmed from his children. So he bound his wife to a chair in front of the fireplace and gagged her. He selected his biggest carving knife, then brought the oldest girl downstairs. “Kiss your mother goodnight” he told her, and as she did he went behind the girl with the knife. He then dispensed with his children one by one in this manner, finally going upstairs to get his last child, his infant daughter. But as he looked down at the little girl, he realized he couldn’t bring himself to slit her throat like he had done the others. So he decided instead to throw her down the well in back of the house. As he walked out the back door, the mother finally worked her way free of her restraints. She jumped up and ran out the front door, down the road, and grabbed her baby daughter from her husband’s grasp. Unfortunately, however, her husband managed to catch up to her at the bridge and neatly lopped her head off with his knife. Then did away with his daughter as he’d planned and finally grotesquely, he hung himself at the bridge.

Supposedly, if you go to the bridge, stop your car and whistle “Dixie” (you’ve got to love these North Carolina ghost stories), you will soon make out the shape of the murdered woman’s ghost approaching your car, holding her head in her hands. And your car will not start when you try to restart it. Plus, if you walk up to the back of the house, you can hear the cries of a baby coming from the old well.

The last story involving an old barn where kids used to go to “watch the sailboat races” (I mean this figuratively!! and if you still don’t get it, come back when you’re older, dang it!). One prom night two kids didn’t come home after the party, and friends told their folks that they’d gone out to the old Payne Road barn. The parents drove down and saw the boy’s car parked outside. When they went in, they found the teenagers hanging from the rafters, still in their formal attire.

Directions:

You’ll need to get to Rural Hall, a small town just north of Winston-Salem. In the middle of Rural Hall, Route 66 intersects with Route 65. From that intersection, begin traveling North on Route 66. You won’t go 2/10ths of a mile before you cross the railroad tracks, and immediately after the tracks you’ll see Edwards Road on the right (a little further up 66 you’ll see the new section of Payne Road on the right as well, but, like I said, don’t bother with it). Once you’re on Edwards Road, just follow along with the story above, but drive carefully! The roads are steep and with plenty of curves.

Additional Links: http://ncghosts.batcave.net/payne.htm

The Lights of Ravenel

As the story goes, three teenage boys were ran over by a logging truck on an empty stretch of road about twenty miles south of Charleston. The boys were buried behind a Baptist Church located along the same road. It is said that if you knock on the church door three times, and say “We want to see the lights” then repeat this process three times, the lights will appear to you on the stretch of road.

A newcomer to the area was told of the lights, and became curious to see them for himself, or to see if there was any truth in the story. So one night he went to the church with some friends at about 11:30pm. He went through the whole knocking procedure, and then they all went back out to the road to wait for the lights. There were several cars already parked on the side of the road, and a few came out of the church-yard after they did. About 12:30am, his friends in the car, all started freaking out. At the same time, the cars in front of them all took off. He looked up the road, and saw only what appeared to be a car (from a distance, the two headlights of a car appeared to the one light – this “one light” was what he saw). He yelled “It’s just a car”. His friends were visibly shaken. The guy in the passenger side just pointed down the road toward the light. He looked again, and this time almost wet his pants. The light had separated, not into two lights, but into three lights. The were lined up side by side, like three motorcycles getting ready to race. After that, they got out of there quick!

Additional Links:

http://www.hauntedamerica.com/ghost/sc/sc_ravenel.htm

Savannah Georgia – America’s Most Haunted City

In 2003, the American Institute of Paranormal Psychology named Savannah America’s Most Haunted City.  And Savannah is able to support the title.  Ghosts, apparitions or paranormal activities have been reported at many of Savannah’s inns, restaurants, private residences, and of course, cemeteries.

There are many magnificently restored buildings nestled around Savannah’s twenty-one squares.  Many of these buildings are stately homes supposedly still occupied by former owners.  James Habersham has been known to roam around the Olde Pink House, now a restaurant, but formerly his home.  Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts, was born and raised in Savannah.  Her parents, long deceased, are said to still roam Juliette’s childhood home.

Savannah’s Sorrel-Weed House, visited by The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) in 2005 as part of their SciFi Ghost Hunters Halloween special, is supposedly haunted.  The story goes that Mrs. Weed caught her husband in a compromising position with one of the Weed’s many slaves.  Mrs. Weed, very distraught, ran back to her second-floor bedroom.  After a long argument with her husband, she either threw herself (or was thrown) to her death from a second floor balcony.  Soon after Mrs. Weed’s death, the slave found with Mr. Weed was found hung in her slave quarters.  Both women are said to be still roaming the grounds.

The Hampton-Lillibridge House was said to be so haunted, that Jim Williams (of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” fame) had an exorcism performed at this former boarding house.  On countless occasions, residents and passersby have heard the sound of jazz coming from inside the home.

The Kehoes were a very prominent family in Savannah, as Mr. Kehoe owned the ironworks on the riverfront.  The Kehoes built this fireproof, all-iron home and lived there with their 10 children.  The Kehoe’s heirs sold the house in 1930 and the property changed hands many times to include use for 65 years as the Goette Funeral Home.  It is now a beautiful bed and breakfast where many of its visitors report supernatural occurrences such as a woman screaming, a nurse shushing visitors, the Lady in White making appearances, and several instances involving ghosts of children.

The list goes on and on!

So, what is it about Savannah that makes it so attractive to ghosts and ghost stories?  Many people start with the fact that Savannah is literally built on its dead.  Savannah was the first city in Georgia founded in 1733.  It was established in the same location as the Creek and Choctaw maintained their burial grounds. 

As the colony began to grow and thrive, it needed more room.  Buildings were erected on the burial plots of the original colonists.  Tombstones in cemeteries were moved to make room for sidewalks and roads.  Places of worship were erected on the graves of slaves.

Second, Savannah has a very violent history.  Many bloody battles and skirmishes were fought in Savannah.  One of the bloodiest battles of the American Revolution, the Siege of Savannah, where about 1200 men lost their lives in one hour, was fought in Savannah.

Also, the city has been victim to many city-wide fires, at least two yellow-fever epidemics and several hurricanes.

Third, Savannah has been a major port city since the days of King Cotton, so many a sailor has ventured through Savannah spinning a romantic tale or two.

Fourth, Savannahians are (proudly) an eccentric bunch, as were their ancestors, which adds history and volume to the ghost stories.  Take the

Lastly, I blame the large amounts of Spanish moss hanging from the majestic oak trees.  The blankets of moss look like ghostly shrouds and give the entire region an eerie look.

Whatever the reason, the ghost stories are endless, earning the Savannah the right to the title of America’s Most Haunted City.

 

Deb Bunting is an accountant who makes her home in Oklahoma City. She is an avid traveler with special interest in historical places. Visit her site at www.loveofsavannah.com.

The Vanishing Hitchhiker

The Vanishing Hitchhiker

(The ‘vanishing hitchhiker’ legend is a reported strange and mysterious occurence in which people travelling by vehicle met with or are accompanied by a hitchhiker who subsequently vanished without explanation, often from a moving vehicle without leaving a trace.)

The questions asked over and over again – was it possible for a person that was seen and heard one minute and then totally disappeared within a flash, never to be seen or heard from again?

It was additionally weird that it only happened during the dark of night. It usually occurred to a driver driving through the loneliness of the hour through an equally quiet roadway. The figure was sighted with the hand sign of a hitchhiker in need of a ride to a certain destination. The motorist with good intentions then stopped and asked the man or woman to where he or she is headed. “Hop in, going that way..”, as the driver offered the figure a lift. The journey proceeded, sometimes in total silence, and at some subsequent point the passenger appeared to have vanish while the vehicle was in motion.

Throughout the annals of history, legends and stories had been told of strange figures that are picked up along roadsides and then vanished without a trace from the interiors of automobiles, from carriages and even from the backs of horses!

This mysterious legend in various forms has been with us for many years. Tales of these spectral passengers (usually young and rather beautiful women) are often attached to bridges, dangerous hills and intersections and cemeteries, especially those grounds in lonely spots. There were stories of “vanishing hitchhikers” being told as far back as the late 1800’s, when men would tell stories of ghostly women who appeared on the back of their horses. Those spectral riders always disappeared when they reached their destination and would often prove to be the deceased daughters of local farmers. Very little has changed from those days in the stories about the ‘vanishing hitchhiker’ that are still told today, outside of the preferred method of transportation.

Stories of phantom hitchhikers have been a part of ghost lore since ghost stories began to be told to rapt

listeners. In the old days, before automobiles, people told of picking up passengers in carriages and buggies, only to have them vanish before reaching their destination. Many of these stories exist as nothing more than urban legends that have been handed down from one generation to the next, but there are others that appear to be disconcertingly real… stories with reliable witnesses and strange facts which cannot be disputed

According to folklorist Jan Brunvand, the legend of the vanishing hitchhiker legend evolved from earlier European stories, usually about travelers on horseback. He states that in Hawaii, the hitchhiker became associated with the ancient volcano goddess Pele, travelling the roads incognito and rewarding kind travellers.

And along the East African coast the hitchhiker in their version of the legend takes the form of a beautiful girl who is picked up by cross country truckers: At some point the truck driver looked over at his beautiful passenger and discovered to his horror that she is a ‘jini’ and has goat’s legs. At this point the girl or jini laughed and disappeared into the void.

The phenomenon of hitchhikers that had been vanishing in the U.S. and throughout the world had been going on for many years, till this very day. What could be the reasons for this strange happening? Actually there might be quite a few reasons for these occurrences. It could be an illusion seen by the driver or perhaps the driver was in his cups. Other theories abound from extraterrestrial beings, or an actual ghost and spirits that neared his or her place of rest, usually near a cemetery.

Are these stories simply “urban legends” with no basis in truth – or is there more to the enigma than meets the eye?

Could any of them have a basis in truth? What if a somewhat true incident to a vanishing hitchhiker like one of many that actually happened somewhere and then was told and retold to the point that it lost many of the elements of truth if any? As the story spread from one locale to another, it was embraced by people all over the country and became a part of their local lore.

Time and time again there have been sober witnesses to a ghost of a beautiful young girl who had been appearing along the road near Greensboro since 1923. She stood (and probably standing) in the gloom of the coming dusk next to the US Highway 70 Underpass in a white evening gown and waved frantically for someone to stop and pick her up.

Those hapless motorists who stopped were introduced to a young and pretty young girl who says her name is Lydia and she always asked them to please take her to an address in High Point. She always related to them that she has spent the evening at a dance in Raleigh and was anxious to get home. She said that her date had gotten mad when she stopped his advances and had made her get out and walk.

She didn’t say much on the way. When drivers approached the house the girl always vanished from their car, never opening the door and getting out…. just simply she was there one minute and gone the next!

Those drivers who went to inquire at the house were always told the same thing… that Lydia died in a car wreck many years ago, coming home from a high school dance in Raleigh and perishing at the US Highway 70 underpass.

A similar story was told that along Highway 48 in South Carolina. Concerned motorists who claimed that they had seen a vanishing hitchhiker in the form of a young comely girl carrying a suitcase walking along the road signaling with her thumb. They stopped and offered her a ride and she told the driver that she is going to visit her sick mother in Columbia. As she entered the vehicle she gave the address of her destination, but throughout the journey she remained quiet, not uttering one word.

Then suddenly at the outskirts of the city she vanished from the auto; nor was her suitcase found. One motorist who picked her up went to the address and described the girl to a man who lived there. He said that it was his sister and that she was killed by a hit-and-run driver while walking to visit their sick mother. This happened to several independent witnesses over a three-year period in the 1950’s.

One hitchhiker story from Arkansas involves a girl in a formal dress standing by the side of the road who was picked up by two college boys on their way to their annual prom. One of the youths noticed she was shivering from the cool of the night air and he gave her his coat to wear. The girl was silent throughout the trip, only pointing out the house where she said she lived. When they had stopped they found that the girl had vanished.

The youth forgot to get the coat back, and when he and his companion returned to the house to retrieve the garment a woman dressed in black met them and said the girl was her daughter but she was dead and buried. At a later period they went to view the grave and there, draped across the tombstone, was the young man’s coat.

Another type of legend pertaining to the vanishing hitchhiker comes from a tale haunting the Green Mountain Cemetery south of Bellville in Illinois. As the story goes you can pick up a ghostly rider if one would drive around the cemetery three times on a stormy night with door to the car opened. The legend goes on to say that on the third trip, a ghostly woman will appear, soaking wet from the rain, will appear dressed all in black in the passenger seat. By the time one has finished making the third round, the spirit will have vanished, but to one’s horror a pool of water on the passenger seat will remain..

These legends would not be baffling enough, but consider the biblical text of a “Vanishing Hitchhiker” story in the New Testament in which the Apostle Philip baptizes an Ethiopian who picks him up in a chariot, then disappears. “When they came out of the water, the Spirit snatched Phillip away….” (see Acts 8:26-39)

The spirit of religious evangelism continues this very day.

New Zealand’s Christian community was abuzz with reports of a mysterious hitchhiker who had been thumbing rides on the North Island. The bloke they’ve picked up will say something like, “did you know the Lord is coming back?” and that’s the only thing the fellow said. Then he vanished from the speeding car. He’s appeared on several main roads, always to young Christian couples. Some had said the stranger was wearing immaculate white clothes, although no one had been able to describe his exact appearance.

The same story came from small towns around Natchez, Mississippi, that people were riding on the Traceway highway when they saw a man hitchhiking. When they stopped and he got in the back seat, he explained that he was Jesus and then disappeared. One couple said that they never pick up hitchhikers but they felt compelled to at that time only to have the same experience. They went to the park ranger station and reported it, only to be told that they were the sixth ones to stop and tell them the same story.

There are several versions of this story that was seen and heard throughout the world by motorist traveling on a road in the dark of the night hours. This ethereal person, usually dressed in white, usually fascinated the motorist. At some point, the hitchhiker would say something like “Jesus is Coming soon” then disappeared. And such reported incidents continue to be told till this very day….

Another version of the ‘vanishing hitchhiker’ legend is one of prophecy of a natural disaster. According to the reports in the Tacoma Washington News Tribune following the Mount St. Helens eruption on May 18, 1980 many drivers swore on oath that they saw a woman dressed in white with her skin matching the color of the garment, thumbing a ride by the side of the road near the mount. She would get into the car and would eventually say in a ghostly whisper, “The volcano is going to erupt again between October 12 and 14.” Then as suddenly as she appeared she would vanish. Sure enough lava flowed from the volcano on October 12th.. It was a talked about urban legend at the time, though. Some people even swore they had picked up the woman in white before May 18th, and that she predicted the big one. Then the question asked would be the truism of drivers’ experiences – Still it is quite spooky…

One story of such the frightening aspects of the ‘vanishing hitchhiker’ happened to a group of Australian teenagers on the prowl for lonely girls for a bit of fun. They went cruising together every weekend looking for excitement when one night they saw a beautiful girl hitchhiking by the side of the road. They stopped, and offered her a ride, which she accepted. She got into the backseat with the boys sitting on either side of her and away they went. When they neared the lonely intersection she asked, “to be let out here please”. They refused to stop and drove through the intersection. She started screaming and suddenly disintegrated before their very eyes. The story ended with screeching brakes, car doors flying open, screaming boys diving out of the car, and a slightly teed off father who has to sell the car because he couldn’t get the faint but nagging smell of decay out of the vehicle.

The appeal of vanishing hitchhiker stories lies in the nature of the encounter — an interaction with a ghost occurs not because the main character went looking for the supernatural, but because it came to him. Such tales and legends underscore the belief that representatives from the spirit world can be encountered at any time and by anyone. Adding to the horror factor was the phantom’s passing for a living person. That the driver could not recognize it as a ghost during their time together makes it all that easier in the belief we won’t recognize such a ghost when we meet one either.

There are those who would want to relate in their claim to be witnesses to just such a phenomenon. But where do those vanishing hitchhikers go? How is it time and time again when they are seen they seem to defy the very basic laws of nature, which we are familiar with. Sometimes logic cannot explain the very nature of the event, so it is labeled an unexplained mystery. Perhaps one day in the future we’ll have the answers, perhaps.. But for now we are only shrouded in questions to the ‘vanishing hitchhikers’.

NOTES:

1) Vanishing hitchhikers appeared in numerous songs and in the 1951 Orson Welles’ short film ‘Return to Glennascaul’ the 1985 movie Mr Wrong, and the 1824 Washington Irving novel “The Lady With the Velvet Collar”. (www.snopes.com)

2) The Stephen King short story, “Riding the Bullet” is an example of an opposite version of this story, in which case, a dead man picked up a young hitchhiker, that told him of his mother’s upcoming death, and subsequently disappeared.

3) The Twilight zone television series aired an episode entitled ‘the Hitchhiker’, based on a variation of the tale, written by Rod Sterling and based on a radio play by Lucille Fletcher.. And in South Africa in 1992 there was a cult film ‘Dust Devil’ by Richard Stanley that featured a vanishing hitchhiker..

4) One must be aware that these tales of meeting ‘vanishing hitchhikers or seeing ghostly phenomenon’s in varied cemeteries are tales referred to as ‘urban legends’. They are stories that have been told and told, either in ballads or related as somewhat true experiences of the present day and have no real basis in fact… or do they?

5) The first proper study of the story of the vanishing hitchhiker was undertaken in 1942-3 by American folklorists Richard Beardsley and Rosalie Hankey, who collected as many accounts as they could and attempted to analyse them.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1) Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia.- ‘en.wikipedia.org’

2) Peake’s Commentary on the Bible – H.H. Rowley, Old Testament Editor, Matthew Black New Testament editor, Nelson Publishers, England.

3) The Vanishing Hitchhiker – Jan Harold Brunvand – W.W. Norton, New York -1981.(excerpts in Wikipedia Encyclopedia)

4) Big Book of Urban Legends, Paradox Press – New York – 1994

5) Encyclopedia of World Mythology, Forwarded by Rex Warner, Octupus Books, Ltd, London 1970-71

SIDEBAR:

One of the Midwest’s, and America’s, favorite ghost stories is the tale of ‘Resurrection Mary’, the vanishing hitchhiker. The cemetery, located in Justice, Illinois has been home to this famous spirit since the 1930’s.

The story of ‘Resurrection Mary’ is considered one of “the most famous ghostly legends in the city of Chicago. “The story began on one cold Winter night in 1934 when a young girl was killed in an auto accident while on her way home from the O’Henry Ballroom (now the Willowbrook Ballroom) on Archer Avenue in Justice, Il., a southern suburb of Chicago.

She rested peacefully for the next five years, but in 1939 a cab driver picked up a young girl on Archer Avenue wearing a white gown, her face as white as her garment. It was a snowy January night, but the girl was not wearing a coat. She jumped in the front door of the taxi and sat demurely by the driver. She gave him instructions to get her home, saying that he needed to go north on Archer. Suddenly, she told him to stop and the driver looked out the window to where she had pointed. He turned to the passenger seat and saw that the girl had simply vanished from the cab…and the door had never opened. The taxi was directly in front of Resurrection Cemetery, where the girl had been buried after the accident.

Over the years, sightings of Mary have been frequent. Many eager young men even claim to have picked her up and taken her dancing with them. Some very reliable witnesses say they have kissed her and found her lips chilled with cold. As they take her home, she always disappeared when they reach Resurrection Cemetery. Those stories were taken with a grain of salt, as they might have been spoken in the dregs of drink.

One night in 1977, a passing motorist saw Mary holding onto the bars of the cemetery gate. He called the police, thinking a girl was trapped inside of the locked cemetery. Investigators found no one inside when they arrived but two of the bars in the gate were bent apart and small handprints were etched into the iron. Supervisors at the cemetery had the sections of the gate cut out to keep the curiosity seekers away. They were embarrassed into welding them back into place a year later as the handprints reappeared. Between the time they were removed and then replaced, the bars were analyzed by a lab for trickery. It was determined that on one would have made those handprints without applying extremely high amounts of heat. The indention can still be seen in the gate today. Over the years, sightings of Mary have been frequent.

As the years have passed, sightings of Mary have continued. Taxi and truck drivers, motorists, reputable witnesses like police officers and ministers, and ghost hunters of all callings have reported the spirit as she walks along the side of the road or vanishes from the interior of moving automobiles. She has become one of the most famous ghosts of all time. Does she still haunt the gates and roadsides near Resurrection Cemetery?

Note: Resurrection Cemetery is located along Archer Avenue in Justice, Illinois. Follow 95th Street to Roberts Road, which goes north to Archer. The cemetery is located at 7600 South Archer Avenue. This street will also take you to Mary’s favorite haunt, the Willowbrook Ballroom, formerly the O’Henry ballroom.