How History's Most Haunted Places Actually Got Haunted

History's most haunted places, and how each one actually got its ghosts. Drawer: 15, haunted places Contents: 18 files, the Tower of London 1536 to the Island of the Dolls 2001 Status: 16 explained. One still open: the Borden murders. One with no record at all: the girl of the Island of the Dolls. Marked disputed: the poisoning of John Bell, Andrew Jackson's visit to the Bells, Chloe at the Myrtles, Al Capone's ghost, the 1936 Brown Lady photograph, Poveglia's death toll. I went through all eighteen files. The H family's ghost was a broken furnace, written up by an eye doctor in 1921. The Amityville defence lawyer said in 1979 that the story was made up over many bottles of wine. At the Myrtles, the earliest printed poisoned-cake story on record dates from 1980, the year the house became a bed and breakfast. Next to this drawer: How History's Most Cursed Objects Actually Got Cursed:    • How History's Most Cursed Objects Actually...   How History's Most Powerful Secret Societies Actually Ended:    • How History's Most Powerful Secret Societi...   Inventory: 0:00 The ghost in the basement 0:56 The H house 2:12 The Tower of London 3:23 Hampton Court 4:44 The Cock Lane ghost 5:52 The Bell Witch 7:02 The Myrtles 8:12 Whaley House 9:20 The Lizzie Borden house 10:29 Borley Rectory 11:36 Raynham Hall 12:45 Poveglia 13:55 Waverly Hills 15:00 Eastern State Penitentiary 16:16 The Queen Mary 17:20 The Stanley Hotel 18:30 Amityville 19:47 Bhangarh 20:54 The Island of the Dolls 22:14 Case closed In the folder: W. H. Wilmer, "Effects of Carbon Monoxid upon the Eye", American Journal of Ophthalmology (1921), on the H house; Historic Royal Palaces and Notes and Queries on the Tower and Hampton Court; Ernest Law, "The History of Hampton Court Palace"; Dr Johnson's House and the Gentleman's Magazine on Cock Lane; the Tennessee State Library and Archives on the Bell Witch; Joe Nickell in Skeptical Inquirer and Tiya Miles, "Tales from the Haunted South", on the Myrtles; the Journal of San Diego History on Whaley House; Douglas O. Linder (Famous Trials) and the Smithsonian on the Borden house; Dingwall, Goldney and Hall, "The Haunting of Borley Rectory" (1956); Country Life (1936) and the Norfolk Record Office on Raynham Hall; René Seindal and CICAP on Poveglia; Lynn Pohl, "Waverly Hills Sanatorium: A History"; Charles Dickens, "American Notes", and the Eastern State Penitentiary historic site; records of the Queen Mary and HMS Curacoa; Stephen King's own account of the Stanley Hotel; the Society for Psychical Research and court reports on Amityville; the Archaeological Survey of India and the Rajputana Gazetteer on Bhangarh; Vice and Chilango on the Island of the Dolls. On loan from Wikimedia Commons, credited as their licences ask: Tower of London from the Thames, Bob Collowan, CC BY-SA 3.0 Jubilee and Munin, ravens of the Tower, Colin, CC BY-SA 4.0 Hampton Court Palace, west front, Stephen Craven, CC BY-SA 2.0 Whaley House, San Diego, Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 3.0 L'isola di Poveglia (attr. Francesco Guardi), photo by Francesco Bini, CC BY-SA 4.0 Plague inscription on Poveglia, René Seindal, CC BY-SA 4.0 RMS Queen Mary, Long Beach, David Jones, CC BY 2.0 Bhangarh Fort, royal palace, Chainwit., CC BY-SA 4.0 Isla de las Muñecas, Xochimilco, Eneas De Troya, CC BY 2.0 Ofrendas, muñeca milagrosa, Px-lga, CC BY-SA 4.0 The rest of the photographs are public domain or CC0. Drawings: original to this archive. Handling note: the deaths at Amityville, in the Borden house and at Waverly Hills, and the enslaved people of the Myrtles, are told briefly and plainly. The jokes stay with the legends. Signed out by the night archivist. Drawer 16 holds the prison escapes. If a building is missing, leave a note in the margin. #history #haunted #doomscrolls