Phantasmal Crime

(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...