Home for the Holidays

Rumor has it that Austin is the most haunted city in Texas. Stories and legends surround the capitol enough to warrant not one, but two ghost tours and a book dedicated to the spookiest tales.
From the Republic of Texas with its rich history to becoming the state capitol, the farm life in the surrounding areas, and business growth downtown in the early 20th century, it is easy to see how Austin is home to so many spirits of the past.

Does this place look Haunted?

Get close to these apparitions with the Austin Ghost Tours (http://www.hauntedtexas.com/ ). They provide two separate routes, The Ghosts of the Capitol tour, and the Ghosts of the Warehouse District tour. Tours begin at 8:00 or 8:30 PM and start at Moonshine’s Bar and Grill. This is the old Hofhientz-Reissig building, which is over 150 years old. Join one of the Haunted Texas tours to find out why this historic house is its starting point. Each tour also concludes at the same location, the famous Driskill hotel, home to perhaps the largest number of ghost stories in Austin.
It is said that Colonel Driskill, a cattle baron, owner and builder of the Grand hotel, lost the deed to his beloved estate in a high stakes poker game. His presence is made known through the smell of cigars throughout the lobby and parlors.

Since its Grand opening, the Driskill was the place for political figures to stay. Many presidents and congressmen mingled in the lobby while they visited Austin. It is rumored that the four year old daughter of a US Senator haunts the grand staircase from the Mezzanine level. Legend has it that the little girl fell down the stairwell while playing alone with a ball. Her laughter and the sound of a ball bouncing have been reported by guests and the hotel staff.

The Driskill offers exquisite bridal suites. Unfortunately, not all love stories of newlyweds have a happy ending. Two scorn brides are haunting the halls, or so the story goes. Suicide bride #1 (as they have been labeled) was so distraught when her fiancé called off the wedding, that she hanged herself. Some say she can be seen in her wedding gown, wandering through the halls and peering under the ladies bathroom stalls. Suicide bride #2 is a more recent account.

The Driskill Suicide Suite

In 1990, after being dumped by her fiancé, a Houston woman traveled to Austin, checked in at the city’s most extravagant hotel, and set off on a $10,000 shopping spree with her ex’s credit card. She returned late at night, drew a bath, then shot herself in the tub. With the hotel’s thick walls, no one heard the gunshot and she wasn’t found until three days later. Tour guides paint a vivid picture of two visitors in 1999 coming into contact with her ghost while the hotel was being renovated.

The Governor’s mansion houses a wedding legend of its own. In 1865, Governor Pendleton Murrah’s nephew committed suicide in a bedroom after his marriage proposal was rejected. Years later, strange noises still originated from the room, and the governor had the room sealed off for more than forty years. Sam Houston, Congressman, Senator and former governor is also said to wander around the mansion.

The most notable story from the Warehouse District Tour is the one about the “Servant Girl Annihilator,” a mass murderer who went on a killing spree in 1884 and murdered many servant girls. Some suspect this “lady-killer” later fled to London and became better known as the infamous Jack the Ripper.

Although both tours are rich in history, some critics find it less interactive than they would like. For those who are adventurous enough to find spirits on their own, they can read the Ghosts of Austin: Who They are and Where to Find Them, by Fiona Broome. Study up on Austin’s haunted history, choose a handful of the eeriest accounts, and track who’s in them yourself. Without a big group to belong to, it may be easier to play detective and unlock personal accounts or details from people who now work at these haunted locations. Be sure to bring a flashlight and to use the buddy system! Especially if trekking down ghosts means heading off the beaten path.

The Hudson Valley is one of the most haunted places in America. The Valley is  known to be me to several Indian ghosts who died at Spook Rock in Rockland  County. Several points along the Valley have become known as Spook Rock.

One story behind a ghost at Spook Rock stems from the story of a Dutch woman who regularly met her Indian lover. Distraught by this mixed-race courtship, story has it that Dutch settlers climbed up the rock by moonlight and murdered the young lovers. The legend has it that moonlight still casts the shadows of the murdered lovers, and people can hear their screams in the woods along Spook Rock Road.
Halloween Pumpkins and Ghost story’s

The story has become well-known because it demonstrates the tensions that existed between the settlers and Indians. The settlers’ punishment for mixed-race courtship is death. Shadows of the murdered young lovers along with echoing screams show how cruel and unjust this retribution was.

In another Spook Rock legend, and Indian daughter was kidnapped when a Dutch farmer cheated some Indians while trading with them. The daughter was put on a sacrificial rock and killed. Immediately following, her spirit rose up and shocked the tribe.

Today, small groups of young people gather late at night near Spook Rock. Teenagers say that if you put your car in neutral at the bottom of the hill on Spook Rock Road, it will go backwards up the hill.

For a real spook on Spook Rock Road, check out the Historical County of Rockland County’s spooky story-telling on Wednesday, October 29, at 4 and 5 pm. Storyteller Colette Guibert, portraying Naut Kaniff, the legendary witch of West Nyack, will be whispering the stories of those who never left the historical haunted houses and places of Rockland. Reservations are recommended, fee is $5 per person.

www.rocklanhistory.org

Karen Toner for ExplorerPod.com

PHILLY SPOKES
Eastern State Penitentiary Prison - Famous Philadelphia Fright
The Eastern State Penitentiary prison has been the dwelling place for an untold number of inmates who were immured in silence, cut off completely from the rest of humanity and tortured into insanity by isolation, in the name of reform and rehabilitation, throughout its 142-year history. The prison was built around the idea that being isolated from society and each other, prisoners would be forced to turn to God and repent. This new concept in penology required the construction of a large new facility for housing prisoners. The prison, the largest building in the United States at the time, contained 450 cells by the time it was completed. The prison welcomed its first prisoner in 1829.
The rule of the prison was silence and the guards were required to cover their shoes with heavy socks to muffler their tread. According to the rules of the Pennsylvania Systems, prisoners who violated the rules, by refusing to obey orders or attempting to communicate with other prisoners, were to have ‘privileges’ revoked suck as blankets or meals. However, some guards took discipline into their own hands with measures such as ‘the Iron Gag’ – the most feared torture. The Iron Gage involved a device placed over the tongue and attached to the wrists, which were bound behind the back; the slightest movement of the hands caused excruciating pain. At least one inmate died this way.
By 1913 it became impossible to keep prisoners in isolation at this facility.
Prison Haunts
Whispers and rumors of ghosts had echoed from the prison walls for many years before the penitentiary was actually closed down. Anyone who had spent any time in the place was certain that something super natural was taking place at the Eastern State Penitentiary. On the prison’s last day, the guards spoke of the sounds of footsteps in the corridors, pacing feet in the cells, eerie walls that drifted from the darkest corners of the complex and dark shadows that resembled people flitting past now-darkened doorway and past windows and cells. Those who left the penitentiary on that final day had become convinced that a strange presence had taken over the building and most breathed a sigh of relief to be gone.
First Ghost - Victim of Valentine’s Day Massacre??
The first reported ghost here was never an inmate at Eastern State Penitentiary; it was the spirit of Jimmy Clark, one of the victims of the Valentine’s Day Massacre.
The Massacre marked the end of any significant gang opposition to Al Capone but was also the act that finally began the decline of Al Capone’s criminal empire. He had just gone too far and the authorities, and even Capone’s adoring public, were ready to put an end to the bootleg wars.
Perhaps the strangest bit of history in regards to the Massacre involved the fact that Capone had not seen the last of one of the men killed on that fateful day. In May 1929, Capone slipped out of town to avoid the heat that was still coming down from the massacre and to avoid being suspected in the deaths of several of the men believed responsible for the killing of the Moran gang. While in Philadelphia, he and his bodyguard, Frankie Rio, were picked up on charges of carrying concealed weapons and were sentenced to a year in prison. They eventually ended up in the Eastern State Penitentiary. Capone soon became known as the prison’s most famous inmate as he continued to conduct business from his cell with luxurious rugs, oil paintings, exquisite decorations, and radio playing.
It was while he was here at the prison that Capone first began to be haunted by the ghost of Jimmy Clark. While in prison, other inmates reported that they could hear Capone screaming in his cell, begging “Jimmy” to go away and leave him alone.
Boo!
One of the most commonly reported specters in the prison is encountered by staff members and visitors alike among the older cell blocks. The phantom is always described as being a dark, human-like figure that stands very still and quiet. The sightings never last for long but each person has encountered the apparition state that it gives off a feeling of anger and malevolence. Could this be a prisoner who has remained behind in protest of the humane treatment that he and so many others received in his cruel and brutal place?
Another of the penitentiary’s most frequently seen spirits is a ghost that stands high above the prison walls in a guard tower. It has been assumed for many years that this is the spirit of a former guard who is still standing his post after all of these years. Maybe he is now compelled to spend eternity watching over the walls that held so many prisoners in days gone by.
Looking for a Scare?
By 1971, when the prison was closed, the edifice had been declared as National Historic Landmark, and Eastern State Penitentiary entered into its next incarnation, as an arts avenue.
Since the 1990s, Eastern State Penitentiary has hosted tours (hard hats required), arts exhibitions, theatre performances, and haunted-house events around Halloween. The site is also home to some horror and science-fiction films such as the madhouse scenes in The Twelve Monkeys.
The Eastern State Penitentiary is located at 22nd and Fairmount Ave. Tours are available Wednesday – Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm, April through November. Please see their web site for further information about special events and tours.
More Philly Ghosts?
The Ghost Stories of Philadelphia, PA, by Tim Resser, takes a closer look at the Eastern State Penitentiary ghosts and other spirits and spooks around America’s most historic and most haunted city.
This account includes some never-before-heard tales and others that have resurfaced centuries later. Stories about America’s foremother, Betsy Ross, the spiritual test of Temple University’s founder Reverent Russell Conwell, City Tavern, The Peal House, Independence Park, Washington Square, the Pennsylvania Hospital, St. Peters Church, and Mad Anthony Wayne, are highlighted. Resser demonstrates how looking at history through the lens of ghost lore brings new insights to light, giving texture to characters flattened by time and history lessons. He creates a vivid picture of a time so often overlooked for its large presence on the stage of American history.
Resser’s book was influenced by the The Ghost Tour of Philadelphia, a 90-minute, candlelight walking tour of Independence Park at Society Hill. Tours start daily at 7:30 pm in the Signers Garden at 5th and Chestnut Streets, April through November. For reservations and information, visit www.ghosttour.com.

Karen Toner for