Phantasmal Crime

Murder is a ghastly matter. At the hands of a loved one, it truly becomes heinous. Most murder victims are murdered by someone they know and a high percentage are killed by either a lover or spouse. This is not a new statistic. History proves that to be a fact. Polstead, Suffolk, England was not a place where one would expect a murder to occur, particularly in 1827. But a crime of passion did take place here and a young woman was left dead. The horrifying murder was nicknamed the "Red Barn Murder" because of the location of the murder. The paranormal takes center stage in the solving of this case as the victim's stepmother was visited by her spirit at night, three times. And then there is the cursed skull of the murderer and his spirit. Thomas Marten was a molecatcher in Suffolk, England. While molecatching doesn't sound very glamorous, it was a lucrative business at the time, making more money than a teacher and about the same as a police officer, and it t...

(Suggested by: Boyd Wright) Many a murder case has been won in court on just circumstantial evidence. This is true of present day cases and it was true back in the 1840s when a man named David Sheely lost his life at the end of a hangman's rope. Many believe he was an innocent man. And perhaps that is why his ghost haunted people for decades after his hanging. Sheely certainly isn't unique. Through the centuries, many wrongly convicted people have been put to death. It's one of the reasons why many people don't support the death penalty. There are many stories of murder victims coming back as spirits to find justice. Is it possible that wrongfully executed people have ghosts that return as well? And what of the truly guilty? Do they not make the transition out of fear? Do their spirits stay as they seek penance? Or were they just so evil, even Hell won't have them? The city of Cynthiana is slightly northeast of Lexington in the state of Kentucky. It was here that Da...

The Black Donnellys were an Irish family looking for a new start across the Atlantic Ocean in the early 1840s. James and Johannah Donnelly had lived in poverty and strife and they hoped that Canada would bring a new start for their little family. So they packed up what little they had, along with their son James, Jr., and migrated to Forest City, Canada from Tipperary, Ireland.  They would find a new life in this new world, but they would not gain it in the right way. They would take what was not theirs and this would lead to strife for their family. It would eventually lead to a lot of death as well. And now spirits roam the former Donnelly homestead. James found work in Canada and Johannah gave birth to their second son William, who was nicknamed “Clubfoot Will” because he was born with a clubfoot. They were happy for a while, but they really longed to have their own land and their own farm. Around 1845, the Donnellys moved to Biddulph, Ontario, which was in the Ca...

Salem, Massachusetts' Gardner-Pingree House was the scene of a horrific murder. In 1830, this had been one of the grandest houses in Salem and was owned by Captain Joseph White. On the night of April 6th, he was bludgeoned and stabbed to death. This event and the ensuing trial featured some prominent names. Daniel Webster was the prosecutor and writers like Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and H.P. Lovecraft were all inspired by elements from this true crime. Such a horrific murder can lead to rumors of hauntings. And several ghosts seem to be at unrest in the aftermath.  The Gardner-Pingree house sits at 128 Essex Street and was built in 1811. Salem native son Samuel McIntire designed the house in the Federal architectural style. McIntire was a self-taught woodworker and architect, and he built these beautiful and phenomenal mansions. His specialty was creating wonderful pieces of woodwork that included these ornate mantles for fireplaces. McIntire even entered a proposa...

The McCormick Ranch is located in a remote part of the Eastern Plains in Stratton, Colorado. Mike McCormick and his father worked the property with the help of homeless men they hired during the 1980s. No one can be sure if these homeless men were actually paid for their work because many of them ended up dead. The ranch was the perfect place for serial killers to do their dastardly deeds as no one would hear the victims scream. Several bodies were found on the property, but not all of them, and that may be why this ranch is crawling with paranormal activity.  The town of Stratton in Colorado was incorporated in 1917 and was named in honor of the gold miner and philanthropist Winfield Scott Stratton. This has always been a tiny agricultural community and it was here that a twisted family laid down roots with a farm. I don't know the name of the patriarch who established the farm or when he bought the land, but it was bordered by the state of Kansas and spread out over more than 2,0...

The Novel "To Kill a Mockingbird," written by Harper Lee, has been translated into over 40 languages, sold more than 30 million copies, been made into a movie and won a Pulitzer Prize. The story was set in a fictional southern town in the state of Alabama and tells the story of a black man, Tom Robinson, living in the South during the Great Depression and what happens when he is accused of rape by a white woman. A prominent white lawyer named Atticus Finch defends him masterfully and yet, Robinson is convicted and eventually killed when he tries to escape custody. It was as though Harper Lee had heard the true story of Robert Milton. Milton was a black man accused of rape by a white teenager in 1920s Mississippi. He was convicted and executed and most people believe he was an innocent man. Perhaps that is why he haunts the courthouse where he was hanged, the Old Tishomingo County Courthouse. Join us for this compelling story of how rape was treated in the 1920s, ...