I’ve gone on Seattle’s Ghost Tours twice recently so, needless to say, I’m getting into paranormal activity. I never thought of myself as a believer in ghosts, never really thought about it much at all, really. But certainly some of the stories we learned on the tour and some of the famous ghost stories across the United States are hard to dispute. Here is a ghost story from Seattle area and a bit about a few of the most haunted places in the United States. Do you believe in ghosts? See if you can prove some of these scary tales false:
Jacob. Seattle, WA. Our tour guide told us about a child’s ghost haunting a store in Pike Place Market’s indoor area called the Down Under. The boy first started haunting what used to be a bead store. The owners were always coming into their store in the morning to find their carefully organized beads strewn around the room. Sometimes the spirit, who they dubbed “Jacob,” would match a strand of beads hanging on a wall to a workers’ dress. Most convincing of all, the store owners looked up at their shop from the street one night to see two darkened windows that they didn’t recognize from inside the shop. When they went back inside, they knocked on the wall to find it hollow. Turns out that the post office that had formerly occupied the space had boarded up a huge space with a plaster wall. They knocked down the wall and inside it they found piles of beads, a pile of pennies and a pile of packaged beads that they had labelled themselves within the last few weeks. They didn't even know the room existed. Some believe Jacob was one of the children brought to the market to be quarantined during the Spanish Flu epidemic in Seattle in the early 20th century or was an orphaned boy who worked there.
Bell Witch. Adams, Tennessee. The Bell family of Tenessee began experiencing a haunting at their home in 1817. The incidents started out mildly enough--knocking and scratching sounds at the door, blankets pulled from beds. But then the unexplained occurrences became more sinister. Family members were kicked, scratched, stuck with pins. Soon, the ghost found a voice and identified itself as a neighbor of the Bells’ named Kate Batts, a still living person. Batts had bad blood with the patriarch John Bell over the sale of slaves. Her temper wasn't assuaged yet. John Bell fell ill with a mysterious illness one day. Batts' spirit voice took responsibility for his illness, but also tormented him and wouldn't let him rest. John Bell was so distressed that he drank a black liquid, killing himself.
Winchester House. Santa Clara, California. Sarah Winchester’s life was marked by tragedy and a huge, huge fortune. She first lost her baby and soon after, her husband. Her husband, the heir to the hugely successful Winchester rifle fortune, left her $20 million dollars on his death--a huge sum in the the late 19th century. After her husband’s death, Sarah consulted a spiritualist who told her that Sarah’s husband was speaking, telling her to leave Connecticut and go to the California and buy a house. Sarah followed the orders, buying a house in Santa Clara county and building it and rebuilding it for the next 36 years. Sarah kept contractors at the house 24-hours a day because she thought the house was haunted by the spirits of the men killed by her husband’s rifles.