Recent history is full of some of the funniest ghost discoveries. It was a time when people were becoming more brave in the face of superstitious beliefs and were making attempts to find out for themselves whether or not ghosts were real. Here are some of the most amusing, but least known, ghost stories from the past.
No Fooling This One
A newspaper article out of Indiana, 1865, reported that a group of young women and men decided to take a walk near the local cemetery. Someone overheard the group talking about their plans and decided to prank them.
As the group walked by the cemetery, a ghost in white appeared and began to run towards them. Everyone screamed and ran except for one young woman of the “strong minded class.” She held her spot until the ghost came up to her. She grabbed him, thrashed him about, and pulled the cover off of him.
When asked why she did not run from the ghost, she replied, “Can’t fool me, I’ve seen too many men in sheets to get frightened at them.” [SOURCE 1]
Unlawful Disguise
Thomas Medal was walking home in May of 1896 when a ghost in white approached him. “Thomas Medal, I claim you!” said the ghost. Not missing a beat, Thomas replied, “Take me, then!” Thomas clobbered the ghost with his walking stick and the two scuffled. The white cloth was pulled from the ghost and revealed a man named Rudd.
Rudd was taken to the Adelaide Police Court and “was charged with unlawfully disguising himself with a piece of white cloth.” The former ghost was fined and released. [SOURCE 2]
Fire Breathing Ghost
A group of fishermen got quite a scare when they saw a lady in white at a cemetery in Seneca Falls, New York, 1902. Shortly afterwards, a bicyclist was riding past the cemetery when he saw a ghostly figure with fire coming out of its mouth.
The ghost sightings caused great concern and a group of people visited the cemetery to see if they could locate the ghost. Instead of a ghost, they discovered a young woman dressed in white. She was hanging out at the cemetery with a married man, and for some strange reason the two of them were lighting matches and throwing them into the air. [SOURCE 3]
The Lantern That Wasn’t
The year was 1896 and cabmen were finishing up for the night in Ballarat, Victoria. As they sat in their cabs beside a cemetery, one of the cabmen looked out and saw a ghostly figure carrying a lamp. He called out to the others to have a look and a number of the men jumped back into their cabs and drove off in fright. A few of the men, however, decided to go and discover the ghost.
As the men began to approach the ghostly lamp, the light seemed to widen. The men stopped in their tracks and decided that the next best thing to do was go wake up the sexton.
The sexton was annoyed at being woken up at such a late hour and had to walk the men out to where they saw the ghost light. There the sexton pointed to a brand new, highly polished marble headstone that reflected the light of a street lamp. [SOURCE 4]
No Monkey Business
For a week in 1901 there were strange sightings and sounds coming from a cemetery in Wisconsin. On one particular night, three young women were walking past the cemetery and saw a small, white figure that cried like a baby. The women became hysterical, believing they had just seen the ghost of a small child.
The community was very upset over this and went to investigate. Upon their search they found a monkey dressed in a red hat and a white jacket. Efforts were being made to capture the runaway monkey and end the ghostly baby scare. [SOURCE 5]
Just A Stone’s Throw
The young man was walking back to his camp around midnight in Walcha, NSW when he reached the Catholic cemetery. He heard strange noises coming from a gorge at the cemetery. Frightened into fierceness, the young man picked up stones from off the ground and started throwing them towards the unearthly sound. After all, we all know that ghosts hate being pelted with stones.
One of those stones made its mark and hit the ghost on the forehead. The ghost had to go to a nearby doctor for stitches. [SOURCE 6]
Lasso Practice
A trolley operator on Staten Island was having problems with a ghost on his midnight run. The ghost would only appear as the trolley was passing by the Concord cemetery.
Determined to get rid of the ghost, about three-hundred people decided to watch over the graveyard in 1921. The group waited until 1:30 AM before going back to their homes, leaving behind a group of nineteen young men.
About an hour later, a one-man trolley came to a screeching halt. The operator claimed to have seen the ghost. Another hour passed and another trolley started to pass the cemetery when the young men thought they heard some ghostly sounds. The men threw rocks and bricks, breaking windows and destroyed the trolley, but the ghost was not caught.
The men were arrested and it was decided by a committee that those who wanted to catch the ghost could only do so with rope and would have to lasso the ghostly being into submission. [SOURCE 7]
Ghost Light Panic
There was a time when people had nothing better to do than stare out their windows at night, such as in this case of the ghost light panic in Brisbane. As it was, a man noticed a strange light coming from the cemetery near his home. Dressed in his pajamas and a coat, he, a police constable, and a reporter bravely headed into the cemetery only to discover the light came from a candle lit on a grave. Beside the candle was an offering of cooked rice and flowers.
No doubt relieved, the men made their way back, but caused a panic among other neighbors who, again, called the police about mysterious ghost lights in the cemetery. This time, the lights came from the flashlights of the original search party. As one neighbor said, “it was the first time in 20 years that he had seen a light in the cemetery at night.” The year was 1947. [SOURCE 8]
Out From Dante’s Inferno
A North Dakota gentleman decided to cut through the cemetery one night in 1906. He was on his way home when he heard sounds “as could only come from some soul frozen in the icy lake of Dante’s inferno.” The man froze in absolute fear. More strange sounds came, but this time they were nearer.
The man looked across an open grave and saw a figure coming towards him. The figure appeared to be stumbling out from the depths of Hell, but all of a sudden the figure disappeared. The man tried to force him limbs to run, but nothing came of the effort.
The figure rose again and stumbled directly towards the terrified man who was silently saying a prayer. The ghost came within plain seeing distance and to the relief of all, it was a drunk who had a bit too much and was himself terrified of being alone in the cemetery at night. [SOURCE 9]
Hand Rises From The Grave
A group of people from Perth stood around a grave in 1932 to pay their last respects to a friend when one of them said that he saw a hand rise up from a grave near them. He was accused of having a bit too much whisky and was told that it was a trick of the light. A few moments later, other people saw a hand come up from the grave. Then, it was two hands waving from the earth. A white head appeared above the ground and seemed to groan before it disappeared again.
By now, the mourners were ready to take off running in fear of their lives, but they held fast. None of them wanted to admit to the possibility of ghosts.
The hands were seen above the ground once more and this time they seemed to grab a good hold of the earth. A man pulled himself up and out of the hole. A grave digger, he had went into the hole to fix the webbing of the lowering equipment and had problems getting back out of the gravesite.
The man who was the first to see the ghost hand swore he would never again drink whiskey before a funeral. [SOURCE 10]
