Yet Another Ghost App Ghost!

Hey, ya'll! Here we are, halfway through 2023 and fraudulent ghost app photos are still popping up on social media. Apps that have a database of ghostly images, which one can easily pop into any of their own photos, were popular ten years ago...and apparently are once again fooling paranormal enthusiasts. 

The image above was recently posted on the Facebook page, Disbelief Paranormal Official, noting that the source credit goes to the site, Ghosts of London. According to the caption: This photo was emailed to me by my son, who took this whilst standing in my living room. There is nothing in this corner other than the picture on the wall. I took some more pictures of that corner but I do not see anything in them at all. Now I’m a little freaked out! I truly do not understand this.

As soon as I saw this come across my scrolling, I recognized it immediately. This particular photo, including the living room background, goes back to at least 2017, but the 'ghost' is a bit older. It can be found prominently on display on the opening screen of one of the OG ghost hoax apps---Ghost Capture, by Ghosts Aren't Real. I've included a photo of the menu screen with the image in question circled in red. 

The closer we get to Halloween, the more and more these fraudulent ghost photos will appear on various social media platforms. Remember to stay vigilant, do your research, and when in doubt, seek it out! And, as a quick reminder, remember to be kind. Many people who post these types of photos are being fooled by friends/family, or see it posted, and share it without doing their due diligence. Be kind and TACTFULLY educate them. If they refuse to accept the truth, at least you tried. 

Happy Haunting, friends!

Ghost Photo: The Boy in the Abandoned School

 

If you spend as much time as I do perusing the internet and social media for paranormal content, you may have seen this photo before. It's been floating around since at least 2014, but has recently popped up in my news feeds a few time. And, since it's been a hot minute since I covered any sort of ghost photo here on the blog, I thought, "eh, why not?"  According to Reddit user Inthelionsmane:

“I grew up in a small, rural town in between mountains. A couple of years ago, they were tearing down an old elementary school. A guy my mom knew went in and took pics with his cell phone. When he uploaded them, this was one of the pics. I don’t believe in stuff like this at all. I just really don’t know how to explain it since it was a cell phone pic and I’m pretty sure that no one in my Podunk hometown knows how to make fake pics.”

More info from the Reddit post stated that the cell phone camera photo is a few years old at the time it was posted to the site, and commenters threw out ideas such as a CPR dummy or even just a piece of furniture that, through the magic of pareidolia (matrixing), resembled an armless child. I think I have a better explanation. I think it's a digitally altered image that used a phone app that was becoming really popular at the time. It was a free program available for I believe both iPhones and Android phones called Ghost Capture, and essentially it was a database of spooky images of 'ghosts' that you could insert into photos you already had on your phone. I had to go back and check, but the first time I blogged about this specific app was back in October of 2013, so it was definitely around when this was posted to Reddit! (See my post, FaceBook's Most Famous Ghost Girl). Also, never buy into the whole "I don't know how to technology!" excuse. Even us hillbillies from podunk towns know how to download free apps and use them, but that might not even be the issue here. As I've discussed in previous posts on these types of apps...sometimes people use them to try to trick others, and well, they fall for it. 

 Anyway, below is a screenshot of the app's home screen menu with some of the spooky selections. I've circled the image I'm convinced was used. Although it looks slightly different due to the poor image quality, you can clearly see the diagonal hairline and lack of arms. But, if you have a different idea, please let me know in the comments below, or find me over on Theresa's Haunted History Facebook! 

The Electric Chair Ghost

Happy Weird Wednesday! Today, we'll be looking at an alleged ghost photo with a REALLY WEIRD story behind it. I mean, all alleged ghost photos are inherently weird, but there's just something rather intriguing about this one and the potential explanations behind it. Without further ado...

In the autumn of 1983, Watford, UK resident, Karen Collett, took a daytrip to London with her family. While traveling the Bakerloo Line of the London Underground, her young nephew asked her to snap a photo of him. She complied, and thought nothing more of it, until several months later. When she finally got that roll of film developed, she didn't even take a look at them before handing them off to her father and her sister's boyfriend to peruse. As the two men were going through the photos, Karen says she heard her dad say something along the lines of, 'well, that isn't very nice.' She asked what he meant, and he showed her the photo in question. 

Behind her nephew was the VERY clear image of a man in an electric chair, complete with little blue lightning bolts flying from his fingers. Obviously, Karen nor her family remember seeing the image in or outside of the moving subway train while the photo was being taken, and could not explain how the image got there. In an effort to uncover the mystery, the photo and negatives were sent to a couple of different people for analysis. 

Maurice Grosse of the Society for Psychical Research examined the photo and made a rather...shocking...discovery (see what I did there?).  The image in the photo was an exact replica of an exhibit in Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors, located in the wax museum's London location. The man portrayed in the exhibit is Bruno Hauptmann. Hauptmann was found guilty in the kidnapping and death of the Lindberg baby. Hauptmann was sentenced to death for these alleged crimes, and was electrocuted by electric chair on April 3, 1936 in Trenton, New Jersey. 

The question then arises as to WHY would a man executed nearly 50 years before in another country show himself to a young family on the London Underground? Robert Cox believes he has the answer. Cox, who worked for the National Museum of Photography, Film, and Television, examined the photo and the negatives and concluded that the amateur camera was so cheap and so simple that any sort of photo manipulation or trickery could be ruled out.  However, Cox believes the answer behind the 'ghost' in the photo is a simple misidentification. He believes that the image is a poster or advertisement of some kind!

Hauptmann Wax Figure

Mystery solved, right? Maybe, but maybe not. When Maurice Grosse investigated the matter further, he found that advertisements would have only been located in various stations, not in the trains themselves, nor along the line. Also, when Madame Tussaud's was contacted, they claimed that they never had any advertising campaigns featuring that particular image. To me, that doesn't necessarily rule out the possibility of a poster/advertisement. My first thought was that a local band used the altered image as a flyer to advertise an upcoming show. If something like that was the case, Madame Tussaud's wouldn't know about it and it could have been put up in the train or outside of it without the permission/knowledge of the Underground. 

There's an interesting postscript to this story that may offer further insight. Karen states later on, she accompanied a friend to a psychic reading. After the friend's reading, the psychic came out and said that he had a message for Karen. She was flabbergasted, since she wasn't there for a reading, and didn't know of anyone on the other side that may have a message for her. The psychic stated that the message concerned her photo and that there was a man who wanted to say, "I'm accused of something I didn't do." Interestingly, recent investigation into the Lindberg kidnapping case suggests that Hauptmann might actually be innocent. 

This isn't your typical photo with a 'ghost' in it. It's a photo seemingly with the ghost of a wax figure in it, or perhaps even the ghost of a poster of a wax figure??  And further, what's more mysterious than HOW the image got into the photo is WHY. If the spirit of Bruno Hauptmann wanted to clear his name, why use an image of his wax likeness to communicate to a seemingly random woman in another country? Why not manifest as himself...his non-wax self? Anyway, if you have any insights on this weird photo, let me know in the comments below, or join us over on Theresa's Haunted History Facebook.  Stay spooky, ya'll! 

Want MORE ghost stories from the London Underground? Check out the awesome 2005 documentary, Ghosts on the Underground, available to view free at YouTube. Most of the information for this post came from this documentary!

Ghostly Face Appears on Porch Column

This is such an interesting lil' historic article from the Charleston, WV area.  Back in 1945, a family noticed a strange image on the stucco of their porch column.  The image looked like the silhouette of a girl's face...but not just any face.  The family who owned the home claims the face resembled that of their daughter, Peggy Sue, who died two years previously on April 4, 1943.  I really wish the picture I found showed a clear image of the silhouette, but I'll keep looking!  Here's the text from the article:

'Face' Appears on Porch Column
The appearance of the profiled silhouette on a stucco porch post at the home of Mr. and Mrs. J.J. Weaver of Rand, said by the family and neighbors to resemble the Weavers' deceased daughter, has attracted widespread attention.

Late yesterday, Mrs. Weaver estimated that since Tuesday, several thousand persons have stopped to look at the framed silhouette, which she says started forming in the stucco last January.

According to Mrs. Weaver, she first noticed a light-colored ellipse over a foot in diameter.  Near the center was a dark spot about the size of a cup.  The dark surface grew larger, which she says she took notice of from time to time.  Last Saturday Mrs. Weaver says she asked her husband if he could make anything of it.  After examining the spot, he reluctantly agreed that it was the shape of a child's face.

Word spread that the silhouette resembled the Weavers' daughter, Peggy Sue, who died at the age of 12, April 4, 1943.  Since Tuesday afternoon the silhouette has been the talk of the nearby communities, and yesterday crowds grew to such proportions that Greyhound buses on U.S. Highway 60 running in front of the house were stopping briefly to permit passengers to look. Shown right is Robert Lee Weaver, student at DuPont High School, son of the Weavers. [Gazette photo].

It wasn't until the 1960's that the strange story was widely told. The Miracle of Peggy Sue appeared in the Charleston Gazette's State Magazine on March 17, 1968. This article provided much more information than did the original newspaper clipping (which unfortunately, I cannot find a source for). On April 1, 1945 (Easter Sunday), the pipefitter J.J. Weaver and his wife were at church, talking to friends and acquaintances after the Easter service and brought up a strange image that had appeared on one of their porch columns, about five feet up. It looked like the silhouette of a young girl. The family believed it was the likeness of their daughter, Peggy Sue, who had died two years previously of pneumonia, just shy of her twelfth birthday. 

Peggy Sue had been buried near the Elk River where the family lived at the time of her death, but after her mother had a dream in which Peggy was drowning, her body was exhumed and reburied at Witcher Creek, closer to the new house in Rand. It was shortly after she had been moved that the ghostly image had appeared. 

Curious, the church folk decided to follow the Weavers home to see for themselves. Indeed, there was a strange image that resembled the Weavers' deceased daughter. Word spread quickly, and looky-loos came by the literal busload. There were so many visitors that the Weaver's porch collapsed from the weight, and a fence was put up to keep people out. That wasn't much of a deterrent, though, so the column was removed altogether. When the family later moved to Texas, the column went with them.

A local insurance salesman by the name of Earle Stephens dabbled in photography, and took a picture of the strange image. He then sold prints for a quarter a piece, making over $500 when it was all over. Of course, there were plenty of skeptics out there with explanations as to why a stucco-covered column may have a dark patch on it, and even why it may RESEMBLE a silhouette, especially to a mourning family, but many in the Rand area still believe that they witnessed a miracle on that little front porch.

  

Beckley Post Herald
30 June 1945

2016 Keenan House Ghost Photo

Photo by Kim Miller

Hey, everyone!  I apologize---I need to start this blog off with a bit of bad news.  As many of you already know, my paranormal investigation group, HPIR, has spent the past 10+ years giving FREE ghost tours of downtown Guyandotte, WV.  Unfortunately, there will be no Haunted and Historic Guyandotte Walking Tours for the 2018 season for either Halloween or Guyandotte Civil War Days.

We have absolutely loved sharing the history of this community in a fun and spooky way, and have met so many great people along the way.  This is not a permanent end, but just a break to reassess how we can best serve a changing community.  For now, I encourage you to hop on over to the Haunted and Historic Guyandotte Tours Facebook page where our President and Founder, Melissa, is busy sharing plenty of stories, articles, and pictures in the interim.

And, for today's blog, I wanted to share with you ANOTHER spooky photo taken by one of our tour guests!  This photo was shared with us by Kim Miller.  The photo was taken during our 2016 tour season during one of our Civil War Days tours.  The home in question is the historic Keenan House, built in the early 1800s.  Over the years, the Keenan House has served as a home for several prominent citizens, acted as a historical society headquarters, and suffered a devastating fire that destroyed much of the interior.  It's biggest claim to fame, however, is the purpose it served over the course of November 10 through 11, 1861.

Close-up 

That year, a small Union recruitment camp and training center was set up in the then-bustling town of Guyandotte, Va., much to the chagrin of the local citizens who were largely made up of Confederate sympathizers. Late Sunday evening, on November 10th, the camp was raided by Confederate troops under the leadership of Captain (later General) Albert G. Jenkins. Surviving Union recruits and Union sympathizers throughout town were rounded up, tied together two-by-two, and held overnight at the Keenan House.  The next morning, those surviving the night were marched to Richmond to be imprisoned.

With 200+ years of life and death, combined with a good deal of suffering contained within its walls, could there be spirits still present at the Keenan House...and if so, could this photo show some of that energy?

One of the biggest things I'll miss about tours this year is the infectious excitement of our tour guests when they have an experience they cannot explain or capture a photograph they can't debunk. It's so fun to share that excitement with them and give them the opportunity to explore the haunted history of their own community...or even to introduce them to the haunted history of a new location for them!  We've actually had guests come from as far away as Israel enjoy our tours!  Keep an eye on our Facebook page, linked above.  I think we'll be back before you know it, stronger than ever!  Happy Haunting, ya'll!

Eleanor Cooper's Ghost

On January 28, 2012, Stuart Cheveralls and his partner Natalie visited London's Dominion Theater. They were there to see the We Will Rock You show, and after settling into their seats to wait for the show to start, Stuart used his iPhone 4 to snap a quick selfie of himself and Natalie.

While going over the pictures the next day, Stuart noticed that he and Natalie weren't alone! At the time of the photo, the couple was sitting at the end of a row of seats. The two seats directly behind them were unoccupied---they'd be filled later on by two men who arrived late to the show. But what showed up in the photo was definitely not an empty seat, nor was it a dude arriving late to the show!

What Stuart saw made the hair on his arms stand up. What showed up directly between him and Natalie was the ghostly pale image of a young girl! Intrigued, Stuart began doing some research on the theater, and found that it had a haunted reputation.

The Dominion Theater was built atop the site of the old Meux Brewery. On October 17, 1814, tragedy struck when a vat of beer burst. Over 3500 barrels of liquid were released, collapsing a wall and part of the roof, and reigning terror among the nearby citizens.  One of those citizens was a 14 year old girl named Eleanor Cooper who was a servant of Richard Hawes.

According to the British Library's Untold Lives Blog, "Richard Hawes gave evidence at the coroner’s inquest held on Wednesday19 October that he was in the tap room of the Tavistock Arms at 5.30pm on the previous Monday when he heard a crash. The back part of his house was beaten in and everything in his cellar destroyed. Beer was pouring into his pub and across the street. Eleanor Cooper was in the yard washing pots and her body was dug out from the ruins nearly three hours later. She was found standing by the water butt."

In total, 8 people lost their lives, many of them children. It's no wonder that staff and visitors to the Dominion Theater have reported the phantom sounds of a giggling child and the apparition of a brew-master! But the big question is...

Does this photo really show a ghost and if so, is it the ghost of Eleanor Cooper? Although Stuart claims that there was no trickery involved, many people don't agree. What about you? Do you think this is the real deal, or not?


Source:
Matthew Tucker: 'Theatre Ghost Picture Is Real' Insists Photographer Stuart Cheveralls - Are You Convinced?  (HuffPost, 31 October 2012)

Photo Fright Bite: Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthplace

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! Today is a day to reflect on the words of Dr. King, and a day to remember how his message of peace and equality is still being fought for today. However, I'd like to take a brief moment from the serious tone of the day to share a fun photo!

The photo on the left was submitted to the Angels and Ghosts website by a contributor named Miya and became that site's Ghost Photo of the Month for February 2006.

It depicts the birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and seems to show a strange, unexplained light anomaly in front of the home where King spent the first 12 years of his life.

The home, located 501 Auburn Avenue in Atlanta Georgia, was originally built in 1895. In 1909, the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church bought the property and moved his family in. Rev. Adam Daniel Williams, along with his wife, Jennie Celeste, raised their young daughter, Alberta Christine, in the home.

On November 25, 1926, Alberta Christine married Michael Luther King. She and her new husband continued to live in the family home, raising three children there, including Martin Luther King, Jr., originally named Michael Luther King, who was born in 1929. The family stayed in the home until the deaths of both Williams and his wife.

Today, the home is part of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site. Guided tours are available of the home, free of charge, and from what I can tell there are no ghost stories or paranormal activity associated with the home itself, despite several documented deaths occurring in the house. At least, there are no published reports of a haunting.  So, what could this anomaly be? Is it simply a camera malfunction? A reflection? Or did the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. reach out to a visiting family?

Theresa's Note: I personally don't think this photo is indicative of paranormal activity. There are a number of natural explanations that could account for the light anomaly, including the photo being taken through glass, such as car window, or it being a reflection from taking a photo of the original photo. There's also a noticeable finger or other object that creeped in front of the lens; the rest of the light anomaly may also be something physical that got too close to the lens, such as fiber or plant fluff. Either way, its a fun picture of an important subject matter...I just don't think it's paranormal. But, if you disagree, let me know why in the comments. I'd love to hear your thoughts! 

More Info:
Angels and Ghosts
Martin Luther King, Jr. National Park

2017 Ghost Tour Photo

Original Photo by Melissa Stanley, HPIR

Last Saturday, Huntington Paranormal hosted Haunted and Historic Guyandotte's Cemetery, River and Rail Tour. Despite the bad weather, we had a great turnout! Plenty of people braved the cold and the rain for a chance to learn a little about Guyandotte's haunted history and to possibly see a ghost!

Unfortunately, I don't believe anyone saw anything paranormal that night...at least with the naked eye. However, when our President and Tour Creator, Melissa Stanley checked through her photos from that night, one in particular caused her to do a double take! Behind one of our historic re-enactors there appears to be a hazy white humanoid shape. If you look closely, the shape seems to be walking behind our 'soldier,' almost in the same posture even. 

Below the original, (which is property of Melissa Stanley and may not be used without express written permission!) is a more zoomed in view. We're pretty sure our anomaly is nothing more than a combination of pareidolia and a light reflection from a nearby streetlamp....but I'd love to hear YOUR opinion!  Let me know down in the comments what you think. Is this photo easily explained away, or do you think it may actually show an otherworldly being wanting to be a part of the show?

This isn't the first strange photo that has been captured on our tours---and hopefully it won't be our last either! If you're interested in the chance to experience your own ghost and potentially capture some photographic evidence, make sure you keep up with the Haunted and Historic Guyandotte Tours Facebook page!

Cropped version, property of Melissa Stanley, HPIR

The Ghost of Curtis Johnston

When Corey Carlsonn uploaded a photo of himself to Instagram, he was shocked to see that there was an extra...person?...in the photo with him. Standing behind his right shoulder, it appears that there is a woman in a white nightgown with long, black hair. This transparent, ghostly image obviously wasn't noticed when the photo was being taken.

Corey, however, believed he recognized who the ghostly woman was. It seems that in 2001, a woman named Curtis Johnston went missing from the house in which the photo was taken. An added insert of the woman in question is provided for comparison, and sure enough, she is clad in white and does have similar long, black hair.

Unfortunately for the paranormal world, both the ghostly image and the mysterious back story can be completely debunked.

Often the old adage of 'if its too good to be true, it probably is,' applies to these types of full body apparition photos. A quick search of any number of the great ghost app databases (I used Ghost App Ghosts) showed that the ghostly image is a pretty popular image that can be found as a part of several of these hoax apps. Here's our culprit in the menu of one such app known as Ghost Cam by AlonsosSOFT for Android devices.

Now, to be fair, there are times when people believe they have a legitimate haunting. To try to 'prove' that haunting they might fake a ghost photo. Or, a friend or relative might try to prey on their gullibility, and try to trick them with a hoaxed ghost photo, building on the belief of a haunting, or a spooky past incident. But, as I've already mentioned, that just wasn't the case with this story.

The woman referred to as Curtis Johnston is actually named Girley Riley, and she didn't go missing. She simply passed away. The photo used of her to illustrate the similarities to the suspected ghost was taken from the Well Spring Ministries 'In Loving Memory' page. So where did the name Curtis come from? Apparently, someone named Curtis Johnston also passed away and was featured in the church's memorial section. However, since a photo wasn't available, only his named appeared beside the photo of Girley.

Mexican Airport Haunted by...a Ghost App

Last November, DailyMail.com ran a story about the hauntings at Mexico's International Airport. It seems that staff was being spooked by the apparition of a little girl, who appeared to be about seven years old, and was often spotted in what was described as Victorian clothing. She carries with her a small ball, and has perpetually untied shoelaces. Although the girl roamed the restricted areas of the airport at all hours, she was most often spotted at night in an area known as the 'graveyard of planes', a section where unneeded airplane parts were stored. A photo of the young girl was even captured, showing her through the window of an abandoned plane, dressed all in black and with long black hair.

But, its another photo that I'm more concerned with, because this photo has recently been posted in a couple of different Facebook paranormal group pages I belong to. This next photo shows a stark contrast to the girl in the first photo...and for good reason. The girl below, shown outside the terminal in a shot allegedly taken by a tourist, is nothing more than the product of a popular ghost photo app! I was easily able to track down the exact image, with the help of the handy index over at Ghost App Ghosts. Check out the photos below: the image is in the app menu in the right hand column, third down from the top. I can't stress this enough---if you are a paranormal investigator, researcher, or just someone who owns/operates a paranormal Facebook page for other para-enthusiasts, take some time to familiarize yourself with the photo albums over at Ghost App Ghosts. As long as people are still being tricked by these images, people will keep putting them out there.  And as for the photo above, depicting the little girl through the window of a plane...well, I'll just let you decide on what THAT is for yourselves!

Close up of Ghostly Little Girl

Original Image

App Menu

Kith Haven Wheelchair Ghost

Today's ghost photo is sometimes referred to as either the Wheelchair Ghost or the Nursing Home Ghost.  It first appeared a couple of years ago on About.com's Paranormal Photos page and according to the person submitting it, it was taken on November 23, 2012 in the basement of the Kith Haven Assisted Living Facility in Flint, Michigan.

Allegedly, an employee working in the basement actually saw the apparition with her own eyes, and the ethereal gentleman was kind enough to stay put long enough for her to grab her cell phone and take a picture.  Unfortunately for the paranormal world, this is another image that is just too good to be true.  It is simply one in a long list of spooky photographs created with the help of a cell phone application that adds in a fake ghost image to one's own pictures.                                                                                                     

This particular ghost app is the Ghost Cam, published by Nightinart and is available for Android phones and devices.  The awesome website, Bust That Ghost, which is working on a comprehensive database of ghost app images has provided the image and app information.                                                                                                                     

Obviously, this image pulled from the menu of the Ghost Cam app is pretty proof-positive that the image was fraudulently created...but seriously, just the description that accompanied the photo on About.com is enough to cause serious doubt: 

"This photo was sent to my friend and co-worker. He received it from his ex-wife. Her cousin took it. She said she was working in the basement of the home and was walking quickly between rooms when she noticed something from the corner of her eye.  She stepped back and it was right there---and stayed there---while she took the photo with her phone! She was amazed to see the image in the center of the hall---could not believe it was real!"

So, you've got the photo being shared by someone who is three times removed from the actual photographer and the revelation that a cell phone camera was used.  I'm guessing this case follows the same pattern as so many other ghost app images---someone was playing a prank on someone else and sent them the altered photo with a bogus story.  That person, in turn, shares it with all of his/her friends who share it with their friends, each time adding a little more to the back story and not realizing that this was a simple joke.

The Brocken Spectre

It's Wednesday, so I thought I'd try a theme post today!  To celebrate Weird Weather Wednesday, today's photograph is definitely pretty creepy, maybe even a tad spooky, but completely explainable by a natural, atmospheric phenomena.  Today's photograph is...

The Brocken Spectre

This particular photo is just one of many wonderful examples of the Brocken Spectre Phenomena out there.  This one was taken in Poland's Tatra Mountains, and as you can see, features a shadowy human figure with notably long limbs floating in the sky, shrouded with a rainbow colored aura.  But, what appears as a ghostly spirit is actually the product of being in the right place at the right time.

According to Wikipedia: 

The "spectre" appears when the sun shines from behind the observer, who is looking down from a ridge or peak into mist or fog. The light projects their shadow through the mist, often in a triangular shape due to perspective. The apparent magnification of size of the shadow is an optical illusion that occurs when the observer judges his or her shadow on relatively nearby clouds to be at the same distance as faraway land objects seen through gaps in the clouds, or when there are no reference points by which to judge its size. The shadow also falls on water droplets of varying distances from the eye, confusing depth perception. The ghost can appear to move (sometimes suddenly) because of the movement of the cloud layer and variations in density within the cloud.  The head of the figure is often surrounded by the glowing halo-like rings of a glory—rings of coloured light that appear directly opposite the sun when sunlight is reflected by a cloud of uniformly-sized water droplets. The effect is caused by the refraction of visible light. -Wikipedia

First described in 1780 by Johann Silberschlag, the name comes from the Brocken, a peak in Germany's Harz Mountain range, noted for its misty mountain banks and low-altitude accessibility.  Legend has it that at least one mountain climber was so startled by the sudden appearance of a huge, shadowy humanoid that he fell to his death.  Since then, it has become a widespread superstition that any climber unfortunate enough to witness a Brocken Spectre, or Brocken Bow as its sometimes called, is doomed to meet his/her demise on the mountain. If you think THAT'S spooky---apparently you don't even need a mountain OR the sun to create a similar phenomena.  Check out this ghostly looking image, courtesy of Harald Edens:

Seat J-47 (Hibbing High Phantom)

Hibbing High School in Minnesota is a HUGE fortess of a school, currently serving grades 7-12.  It was originally built between 1920 and 1922 by the Oliver Mining Company, shortly after the mine moved the town to a new location in order to expand the steel mine. It was built at a cost of $3.9 million and was designed by Jacobson  Brothers Construction.   As part of this monolithic giant of education, a vast auditorium, seating 1800, was built...modeled after New York City's former Capitol Theater.

The photo above was taken by Chuck Perry, stage manager of the opulent theater.  It features seat J-47 being occupied by something not of this world.  Or does it?

The story that is being passed around the web, and in Jeff Belanger's The World's Most Haunted Places, is that this phantom is none other than the school's first stage manager, Bill Ratican.  Supposedly, Bill came to Minnesota from New York in order to take over the position of stage manager for the auditorium that also hosted many forms of entertainment for the community as well.  The legends vary greatly, but the general story goes that the auditorium is haunted...and that its main ghost is that of Bill Ratican.  It all started shortly after Chuck Perry started the job in 1979...a visiting psychic, there to see the school where Bob Dylan made is first public performance, stated energy around seat J-47.

Indeed, there had been other legends around this seat, as many claim that this seat is often in the down position, as if someone is sitting there, despite the surrounding seats being in the "up" position.  So, Chuck Perry, now a professional photographer, snagged a prop camera from the prop room (a Polaroid), set it up on a tri-pod, and began snapping.  Allegedly, six photos out of the roll contained anomalies, including the most famous, featured aboved.

It was Chuck Perry who researched the history of the auditorium and concluded that the ghost in question was none other than Ratican, although it is confirmed that a physically disabled student did actually pass away in the auditorium.  Some legends state that Ratican was killed by a falling chandelier while sitting in the infamous seat, but the general consensus seems to be that he died of an ordinary heart attack.  The date given for this event generally tends to be in the early 1940s, with at least one source, an interview with Mike Finco, principal, narrows it down to 1942.

Unfortunately, while this is a great story, it doesn't add up with the known facts.  After going through tons and tons death certificates, I found no indication of a Bill Ratican dying in 1942, or anything close to that data.  I did, however, find on Ancestry.com a listing for a William Ratican who died in April of 1967, which does coincide with ONE online account I found on this subject.  Luckily, this information was further reinforced by an article I found from a 1961 paper talking about a play at the auditorium, and giving credit to William Ratican, stage manager.  If this is the same Mr. Ratican, which I expect it is, he was actually a lawyer by day, and originally from Minnesota, NOT NYC.

It has been theorized by many, and even explicity stated in that same interview with Mike Finco, that the mystery of this photo, and the others in the series, has been solved.  It seems that the photos were staged as a way to scare the students and play up the "true" paranormal events that plagued the auditorium.  The model for the ghost was long-time head custodian, Bob Kearney, who raided the theater's costume department for old-timey clothes.  Bob Kearney has a long history with the auditorium as well, giving both Bob Dylan and "ghost tours."  The video below features some of the other shots from this roll of film that shown anomalies, and also interviews both Perry and Kearney.  I invite you to watch it and see if it helps you decide...FACT OR FAKED?

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