Hauntings in America

Hauntings in America is a DVD that was released in 2013 (but was made in 1996) and is hosted by Michael Dorn and Christopher Lewis.  Experts Dr. Barry Taff (parapsychologist), Daniel Cohen (author), Arthur Myers (author), and Laurie Jacobson (author) weigh in on eleven haunted locations across America.

1. Hollywood, California: At the Westwood Memorial Cemetery, Marilyn Monroe has been seen by her grave and was caught on film by someone who was taking a picture of the grave.  George Reeves haunts his former home.  Sharon Tate was once staying at the home of then-fiancé Jay Sebring when she saw the ghost of former owner Paul Burn; as she ran down the stairs to get away from him, she saw “an apparition of a person with their throat slit ear-to-ear,” which is how Sharon died two years later. (That is so creepy!)

2. Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California: A medium told Sarah Winchester that her husband and daughter died because of “the spirits of all the people killed by the Winchester rifle and that the only way she could appease them was by building a house continuously” (according to Winchester Mystery House employee Shozo Kagoshima).  Sarah would communicate with the spirits, and they would tell her what to do with the house.

3. Alcalde, New Mexico:  The ghost of a woman who fell or was pushed down a staircase of a Los Luceros adobe during an argument haunts “the stairs, mourning the children she left behind.”  There were also many hangings right outside the adobe because it used to be a jail and courthouse.

4. Olathe Naval Air Station, Kansas: A navy pilot who haunts the Olathe Naval Air Station is known as “The Commander.”  In 1949, the pilot, flying his plane at night in the fog, crashed his plane into the administration building; a witness claimed that he saw the pilot get out of the plane and walk away, but when emergency crews were able to get to the fiery plane, they found his body still inside.  People have reported hearing voices and phantom footsteps in Hangar 21 and finding things in a different position then they had been earlier (for example, closed windows being found open when no one had been in the building).

5. The South: In St. Francisville, Louisiana, the Myrtles Plantation was the site of ten murders and is said to be one of the most haunted places in America.  Hand prints have appeared in one of the plantation’s mirrors, and no matter how many times the glass is changed, the hand prints keep showing up.  Three spirits have been caught on film: two children and a woman who is believed to be Chloe, the mistress of owner Clark Woodruff, who cut her ear off after he caught her eavesdropping on his family.  In an act of revenge, she poisoned the birthday cake she baked for Woodruff’s oldest daughter, killing Woodruff’s wife and two of their children; Chloe’s death came at the hands of an angry mob, and she now likes to roam around the plantation.  The Waverly Mansion near Westpoint, Mississippi is haunted by a little girl who is “looking for her mother.”  The current owners of the house have seen the little girl and heard her calling for her mother and found a child-sized imprint on one of the beds.  An employee of Waverly Mansion says that the girl may have been a neighbor who was brought to the mansion during the Civil War to be taken care of during illness and died in the house.

6. Baltimore, Maryland: The U.S.S. Constellation is said to be haunted by the spirits of three sailors, including Commodore Thomas Truxtun, but a naval historian refutes the rumors, saying that Truxtun never even saw the U.S.S. Constellation.

7. YMCA Locker Room in Cambridge, Massachusetts: In 1991, a YMCA employee said that he had seen a ghost in the locker room, so Arthur Myers conducted a séance to try to find out who was haunting it.  Reverend Erle Myers came along and sensed a “tall, thin man, probably in his fifties” who was often around young people (it is believed that he was a teacher who abused his students) and didn’t have any friends.  Erle told the spirit to go toward the “white light,” and there have been no ghost sightings since.

8. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: This battlefield is said to be the Civil War’s most haunted, and “Sachs Covered Bridge may be a magnet for Gettysburg ghosts.”  Author B. Keith Toney says that his wife saw ghostly wagons and soon realized that she was seeing “Lee’s retreat from Gettysburg.”

9. Delta Queen:  The boat is haunted by Mary Becker Greene, who was the owner and died on the boat in the 1940s.  Soon after Mary’s death, renovations on Delta Queen began, and a bar was added; Mary never allowed people to drink alcohol on Delta Queen, and a few days after the bar opened, a small boat called The Mary B. crashed into the boat right where the new bar had been built, and they had to close it.  A crewman who was staying in Mary’s old room woke up to see “a cloaked woman standing beside him,” and the presence disappeared when he spoke to it.  The next time the crewman saw her, he turned a light on, and every light bulb in the room exploded.  A couple who was staying (and drinking) in Mary’s old room was shocked when a pitcher of water “lifted up in the air and smashed against the mirror.”

10. Rugby, Tennessee:  Englishman Thomas Hughes started a new colony in the mountains of Tennessee in 1880, and it is believed that some of the original settlers never left.  Room 2 of the Newbury House is haunted by Charles Oldfield (who died in that room), but only when women are staying by themselves; they will often find his ghost standing over the bed.  In the Roslyn Mansion, people have heard footsteps and caught a glimpse of a ghostly female figure (sometimes holding a baby) believed to be former resident Sophie Tyson.

11. Oil fields of Oklahoma: Thomas Gilcrease haunts his former home, which he had basically turned into an art museum since he spent most of his money on art.  People have seen an apparition of Gilcrease and reported cold spots and drafts in the house.  

Hauntings in America is very informative, but I found myself not paying attention and having to rewind it multiple times because I was on the computer like I usually am when I take notes on paranormal shows, and the show wasn't keeping my interest as much as most of the others I've watched.

My rating: 7/10