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Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: FFX Ghosts ()
Date: October 09, 2011 11:45AM

Ghost Stories: Edith Sprouse
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/vr/snakehill/volume2/sprouseghoststories.htm

Did I tell you the ghost story about the mean man? His name was Richard Chichester and he lived down on Telegraph Road and he was so mean to his slaves that they called him "Hard Chichester" behind his back. He had been heard walking and dropping his boots down on the floor when he takes them off to go to bed. He lives in a house called Mount Airy which is down near Fort Belvoir and he's buried across Telegraph Road in Newington subdivision. There's a little family cemetery there and his tombstone just say5 "Hard Chichester." The tombstone originally said "Richard Chichester" but there was a bad storm in the 1920's down there and the next day they went over to the cemetery to see if any damage had been done and found that lightening had struck and chipped off a corner of the stone and so it took the "Ric" off his first name and now it just says "hard Chichester." It was very muddy and there were no footprints within the little grave yard and yet they couldn't find this other part of the piece of stone and so its sort of vengeance upon the man.

He was supposed to have been so nasty he kicked out one of the slaves eyes because the slave wasn't quick enough in helping him take off his boots. When he died a red rabbit ran out from under his bed and the slaves all said that that was the devil leaving.

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: FFX Ghosts ()
Date: October 09, 2011 11:45AM

Waldron Adams
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/vr/snakehill/volume2/adams3.htm

There used to be a barn down the road where they said you could hear chains rattling. A few of us banded together and said we were going to see. We had a shot gun and anything was down there we were prepared to meet it. We heard these chains and it was as natural as it could be. They said they were chains of the slaves that early slave holders had chained up and left and they died of starvation. There was no barn down there, but you could hear the chains dragging on the floor just as plain, if your imagination was good enough.

We found out there was a man who had a couple of dogs that he didn't want to buy dog tags for, so he used to chain his dogs our there and that was the chain dragging around. They didn't look like the devil, just like mongrel dogs.

Most stories are just amusing things for children. You get around the fireplace and listen to these stories. Of course the fire was half dark and the fireplace would be the only light in the house and you could look into the fireplace with flames leaping and someone would tell you, "there he comes through the wall now!" You turn around right quick and see your own shadow or somebody else's that was reflected from the fireplace to the wall. The kids would always scream and holler and they were sure after that there was a ghost 'cause they saw it.

I knew one fellow who claimed that he had mysterious powers and voodoo power. He would chew up a clump of fat meat and you wouldn't be aware that he was chewing this fat meat, and he would tell you, "I can spit lightning!" When he had a good mouthful of the meat chewed up-and he chewed tobacco and had cultivated the art of spitting a long ways in a stright line - he'd spit the grease into the fire and she'd go up in a big blue flame. We all figured him as being a weird man that could do things.

And when he got so he couldn't get around at all, he told some of us about how he used to chew that fat meat and spit it in the fire. He said, "You chew it and it'll make you sick!"

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: FFX Ghosts ()
Date: October 14, 2011 10:12AM

Snake Hill to Spring Bank: An Oral History
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/vr/snakehill/

The mid-1970’s were a time of innovation in Fairfax County Schools, a good time to learn and a fine time to teach. At Groveton High in 1975, students could elect their English courses and teachers had choices about what to teach. That’s why it could happen: three volumes of oral history, Snake Hill to Spring Bank.

Teacher Marian Mohr was familiar with the Foxfire (magazine), student-written oral history of Appalachian customs and lore. Teacher Bev Byrne had just sent her journalism students to interview old Mrs. Popkins, owner of a former dairy farm adjacent to the school. Mohr and Byrne were stumbling onto the same idea at the same time. Unlike Foxfire’s recording of folk magic, “haints”, hog-dressings, snake-handlings and other lore, we could record memories of our own place, with historic land turned to new uses—homes, stores, roads and much more.

Groveton student interviewers guarded their own tape transcriptions as gold, with every word and sentence as spoken retained. The publication party was a proud celebration. Hands-on English had produced a book. Ms Mohr went on to oversee two more volumes of Snake Hill to Spring Bank and would be happy to know that all three are now online.

-Bev Byrne

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: Spookytown ()
Date: October 14, 2011 05:15PM

Ghost Stories Abound at Mason
By Tara Laskowski
http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/6145

If you want a good ghost story, ask folklorist Margaret Yocom. For years, she’s been the “ghost keeper” at George Mason as associate professor of English. In the Northern Virginia Folklife Archive, Yocom and her students have collected hundreds of supernatural tales sure to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

Holding tales of Ouija boards and unexplained apparitions to haunted Fairfax buildings and houses, the archive is a rich resource of more than 1,400 stories collected in the span of 27 years celebrating the culture, traditions, and folklore of Northern Virginia. And it’s not all about the supernatural—Yocom collects folklore about local people, workers in regional industries, and families, as well as ethnic and regional recipes, traditional art, and folk medicine. Around Halloween, however, the ghost stories get the most attention.

“People have a lot of interest in the supernatural,” says Yocom. “Ghost stories are journeys into a world we haven’t even imagined. Many people believe that world is out there, but aren’t sure of the boundaries. Its pathways are only glimpsed at from time to time. When you hear a ghost story from someone, it can be a touchstone that says, ‘Oh, it could be. It’s possible.’”

The archive has been a popular research resource for Mason students—whether for a folklore course, a creative writing project, or a stage performance. Members of the Northern Virginia community, as well as folklorists throughout the United States, have also used the archive. In the future, Yocom hopes to display more stories on the Internet.

Every other academic year, Yocom teaches a folklore course, Narratives of the Spirit World: The Lore of Ghosts and Fairies—”always in the fall and always at night.” From this course, and others, spooky stories like the following have been researched and documented by students and are available in the archive by making an appointment with Yocom.

Some selected supernatural tales from George Mason University and the surrounding community follow.

The George Mason Crew Team Ghost, “Old Man Johnson”

Collected by Laura Craig, BA English, ’04, in 2003

This ghostly tale is well known to the women’s crew team at George Mason. According to legend, Old Man Johnson was a man who rowed in the area years ago, some say in the 1970s, who one night found his wife sleeping with another man in his bed. He was so upset that he went out on the water and rowed and rowed all night, and never came back. Some say he rowed right over the dam of the Occoquan River, others say he jumped off. Members of the crew team have reported seeing his ghost early in the morning near the docks or the dam. Whenever something strange happens that no one admits to doing, the team says it was the work of Old Man Johnson.

The Bunnyman Bridge

Collected by Hayden Zell in 2003

The Bunnyman Bridge in Clifton, Va., is perhaps the most famous haunted site in the Northern Virginia area. Featured on television and the Internet, it was named one of the Scariest Places on Earth by the Fox Family Channel in 2001. Zell relays several different versions of the Bunnyman tale—a legendthat has been told for years and researched by Mason alumnus and Fairfax County Library historian/archivist Brian Conley, BA Psychology, ’88. One version of the tale is that in 1904, a bus transporting inmates from an insane asylum to the Lorton Prison crashed right around the bridge. The inmates escaped; however, all were caught by authorities except for one man. In searching for him, the police found many carcasses of rabbits and assumed that the man was surviving on the meat. His spirit is said to haunt the bridge and can be seen at midnight on Halloween for anyone brave enough to wait.

The Restaurant Ghost

Collected by Susan Wiedemann, BA History, ’00, in 1999

The wait staff at Carlos O’Kelley’s restaurant on Main Street in Fairfax often tell of unusual happenings after hours. According to Wiedemann,, a dishwasher named Billy who worked at the restaurant some years ago (the time varies from 8-15 years) hanged himself in an upstairs dining room area of the restaurant one night after his girlfriend broke up with him. The manager closed the restaurant for two days and told everyone the dishwasher had gotten into a car accident. Ever since then, very early in the morning or very late at night, weird things happen. Many of the kitchen staff won’t come into the restaurant unless someone else is there. They think Billy haunts the restaurant. Glasses break and fall without anyone near them, and sometimes people hear a voice when they are in the upstairs room, although no one is there.

The Haunted Mill

Collected by Joy Fairman, BA English, ’98, in 1998

In Manassas, Va., people have reported strange happenings at an old abandoned mill. According to the story, many years ago, the man who owned the mill killed a woman and her young daughter who lived nearby. The daughter was found drowned in a stream behind the mill, and the woman was found tied to a tree with her throat slit. In the archive case file, the collector, Fairman, talked with a young woman who went to the mill site with a group of friends. The young woman was spooked by many things she couldn’t explain, including a tree that changed colors depending on where she was standing and the revving of her car engine without anyone touching the gas pedal. The complete story of the haunted mill can be found on the archive web site.

The Dorm Roommate

Collected by Debra Lindenburg in 1996

A popular legend that has been around for a long time and was featured in the 1998 movie, Urban Legend, this dorm story is more chilling then supernatural. A student getting ready to attend George Mason University was told a story about some freshman students living in a dorm at a college in Pennsylvania. One of the young women wanted to go out for awhile, and her roommate decided to stay in because she was tired. The first roommate went out, came back late, and rather than disturb her friend by turning on the lights, just climbed into bed. The next morning she woke up to find the message, “Aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the lights?” written on the wall in blood. Her roommate was lying dead in a pool of blood in her own bed.

In addition to these researched and archived stories, many Northern Virginia ghost stories can be found online. This tale found online at the Shadowlands Haunted Places Index tells of a ghost story right on the Fairfax Campus. “A small gazebo bordering the [George Mason University] campus [pond] is said to be frequented by the spirit of a young man. He apparently drowned in the lake one evening. His body was found sitting in the gazebo by two females the next morning. Since that time, the man’s figure has been seen standing at the edge of the [pond], or sitting in the gazebo. He has been known to beckon young women to come sit with him, and quickly disappears when accommodated.” However, according to University Police Sgt. Judy Meade and Lt. Willie Morton, who have worked at Mason for 13 and 17 years respectively, no one has ever drowned in Mason Pond. “We have had a car end up in the pond as the result of an accident,” says Meade. “But no one drowned. There may be some interesting fish and animals in and around the pond, but no ghosts that I’ve ever heard of.”

Want more spooky tales? Grab some candy corn and hot apple cider and make an appointment to read some of the hundreds of supernatural stories this Halloween season. For more information about the Folklife Archive, visit the web site or e-mail Margaret Yocom at myocom@gmu.edu.

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: Petrose ()
Date: October 14, 2011 09:29PM

There was this place back in the day where we used to go party. It was kind of creepy...but perfect for Halloween. It was over off Route 1 near Pohick Church. I haven't been there for years and I've always wondered what happened to it. Has anyone else been there or heard about it?

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: Hollywood ()
Date: October 21, 2011 06:57AM

Petrose Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There was this place back in the day where we used
> to go party. It was kind of creepy...but perfect
> for Halloween. It was over off Route 1 near
> Pohick Church. I haven't been there for years and
> I've always wondered what happened to it. Has
> anyone else been there or heard about it?

There's a scary looking house off of 606 heading west. I think it used to be owned by the National Weather Service but now is abandoned. It even has some furniture in it.

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: Haunted Virginia ()
Date: October 28, 2011 07:31AM

Haunted Virginia , Ghost Stories
http://crazyhorsesghost.hubpages.com/hub/Haunted-Virginia-Ghost-Stories

Haunted Virginia , Ghost Stories
Virginia is supposed to be one of the most haunted states in the United States. Believe it or not but Virginia has all kinds of spooky paranormal things going on including a few ghosts and a vampire or two. If you take a few minutes to read the stories below you'll read all about the more famous ghost stories from all over the great state of Virginia.

Arlington Cemetery is supposed to be one of the most haunted locations in the state of Virginia. It is the Old Post Chapel at Arlington Cemetery that is supposed to be a hot bed of paranormal activity. Thousands of military men's funerals were held in the Old Post Chapel and it appears a few of them weren't quite ready for eternal rest. Soldiers on duty in and around the Old Post Chapel report that locked doors will be found open and open doors will be closed and locked. A woman crying loudly is often heard just inside the front of the chapel. A beautiful dark haired Spanish woman in black mourning clothes is often seen setting in the chapel but when she is approached she vanishes. Many soldiers on guard duty late at night have reported loud organ music coming from the locked Old Post Chapel. A small boy is quite often seen running through the chapel but he vanishes as quickly as he appears.

Over in Fairfax at the George Mason University there is a gazebo near the campus lake and a young man with water dripping off of him is quite often spotted in the gazebo. People who approach him say he is very sad looking and looks to be crying. There is said to also be water dripping off of him. It is reported that around 1920 that a young man did in fact leave a suicide note in the gazebo and then he drowned himself in the campus lake.

In Manassas Virginia their is a ghost called Lucy who is said to haunt the Old Town Inn and that she is both a playful spooky ghost and a ghoulish one also. It is said that she will appear to people at first as quite normal but then she will deteriorate right in front of people and look and smell like a rotting female corpse.

Colonial Williamsburg is supposedly a hot bed of paranormal activity with ghosts around every corner. Bacon's Castle is supposed to be Virginia's oldest home dating back to 1665 is home to several ghosts and plenty of mysteries. A ball of blue light is often spotted both inside and outside the house and it has been seen by many many people over the years. Some people have claimed the ball of blue light has been seen to roll across the yard , up the outside wall of the house and then it seems to perch at the highest point of the roof. A black woman's head is seen floating around the property with a white turban on. People quite often see it and freak slap out.

Items in the Bacon Castle are said to be quite often thrown around and books will be found thrown off shelf's and furniture over turned when the house is opened up in the morning. A ghost cat is said to live in the house. It is said to be a large yellow cat of around 20 pounds and its said that the cat will walk across the room , leap up on someones lap and vanish.

A horse and buggy is often heard riding up outside the house but no house and buggy is ever seen. The house has even been heard to neigh and its said you can hear the horses hoofs on the ground.


The Richmond Vampire In Hollywood Cemetery
A railroad tunnel collapsed at near by Church Hill and buried several workers alive. However it was reported that a very scary being that had its clothes hanging from it and fangs in its mouth emerged from the cave in and ran towards the near by James River.

The creature raced into Hollywood Cemetery and disappeared into the mausoleum of W.W. Pool where it vanished and it could not be found. Two men were told to stand guard overnight at the door to the mausoleum and the next morning every casket in the mausoleum was opened and searched but no living being could be found.

A small hole about 5 inches across was found in the back of the mausoleum with cold air coming from it was discovered but even though they tried they could not open up the hole any bigger. But the men searching swore that no man or even a child could have went down that hole. The hole was filled over with cement and the patch can be seen to this day. And many many times over the years the wild strange looking vampire has been spotted and reported by many different people.

In case your wondering Hollywood Cemetery got its name from the many Holly Trees that used to be all over the cemetery.

Yorktown Virginia

At the home of Revolutionary War General Thomas Nelson a young British soldier was killed and his ghost in a red coat uniform is spotted around the house. Quite often people report he is wearing a red coat uniform with a very large blood stain in the chest area.

You can enjoy a really great candle lit ghost walk most nights in Yorktown Virginia. If your into history and ghosts then Yorktown Virginia is the perfect place for you.

Monticello Near Charlottesville Virginia

Monticello was the home of President Thomas Jefferson and its said that Jefferson has never left Monticello. Many people have claimed to hear Thomas Jefferson whistling as he wonders the grounds. Other people claim to see President Jefferson walking around and he has even walked up to some people and asked them what they are doing there.

Richmond Virginia

The Richmond State Capital building is where part of the building collapsed and killed 60 people in 1870. And even though there is no sign left of the accident people often report hearing the sound of walls crashing down and people screaming and begging for mercy.

Hillsville Virginia

Here is where the historic Carroll County Courthouse is and on a dark day in 1912 five people were killed including the presiding judge and the county sheriff. Visitors to the Courthouse often report hearing gun shots and pleas for mercy. A woman dressed in a red dress is also reported here but no one knows who she is.

Lexington Virginia

The Virginia Military Institute is located here and the Civil War played a big part in VMI's history. Many young cadets from Virginia Military Institute died fighting in the American Civil War. Many of the young V.M.I. cadets died during the Battle of New Market and are buried at V.M.I. In Jackson Memorial Hall many people have claimed to see the ghosts of the young cadets who died walking around as if they are lost.

Do you know a ghost story about Haunted Virginia. Why not post the ghost story you know in the comment section below and thanks for taking the time to read my Hub Page about Haunted Virginia.
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The Ghost that Followed Me Home - A Virginia Ghost Story
Posted by: S. E. Schlosser ()
Date: October 28, 2011 07:43AM

The Ghost that Followed Me Home
A Virginia Ghost Story
retold by
S. E. Schlosser
http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/07/the_ghost_that_followed_me_hom.html

I have a fascination with genealogy, which is what started all the trouble. My next-door neighbor and I were fellow hobbyists, and we often supported each others search for long-lost ancestors. We would spend hours pouring over stacks of dusty country records, wandering through poison-ivy strewn graveyards, and getting lost on back lanes trying to find the homes of retirees who remembered what our forbearers were like way back when.

On this particular day, we were traveling to a distant graveyard which conveniently happened to contain the graves of ancestors from both of our (completely unrelated) families. Cheryl's great-great-aunt and her other kin were quite easy to find, but we had to search high and low before we found the tomb of my third-cousin-once-removed, one Samuel Beauregard Smith. I took a rubbing, recorded his information into one of my copious notebooks, and then stood examining the fancy stone for a few moments.

"No expense spared here," I said to Cheryl.

"Either someone really loved him, or someone was glad to see him go," Cheryl agreed with a grin. "Do you have any idea which it was?"

"Nope. I just found out about his existence last Friday," I replied.

We packed up our stuff after that, lunched at a quaint little tea house in the vicinity, and then went home. The early evening proceeded normally; at least, it did until I heard the squeak the front door made when it opened. I knew I had shut the door firmly when I came in, and I was pretty sure I'd locked it, but when I went into the hallway, the door was wide open, as if someone had just walked in.

Behind me Soot, my black cat, started to purr. She walked delicately toward the front door and started twining herself around and around, as if she were rubbing against someone's legs in greeting. But there was no one there. My arms broke out in goose bumps, and I hastily shooed Soot away and closed the door. The cat continued to purr and leisurely walked into the living room, as if she were dogging the footsteps of some invisible presence.

In the living room, Terry, my ancient fox terrier, huffed a greeting to a very-empty-looking spot in the middle of the room, thumping his tail a few times before settling back down in his basket to snooze. I hurried away to the kitchen to do something normal - like the supper dishes - and then went right to bed, telling myself I was being over imaginative and silly.

The next morning, some of the cabinets were open, as if someone had been searching through them, looking for breakfast food. Pretending that I must have left them open last night (I hadn't), I closed them, and ignored Soot's purred greeting to someone who just happened to be occupying the empty chair across from mine as I ate some cold cereal and got ready for work. I also pretended not to see the unfolded newspaper on the kitchen table as I grabbed my keys and I absolutely did not see one of the pages start to turn as I walked out the back door.

For almost two weeks, I ignored the invisible person living in the house with me, although he (it felt like a he) drove me crazy, leaving cabinets open, scuffling up the rugs, rearranging the furniture to suit his fancies, and forgetting to turn off lights. But when he started whistling off-key, I'd had enough.

I'd told Cheryl about my unwanted guest. She'd been reluctant to believe me, until she came over one morning and found someone invisibly reading the newspaper. After that, she gave me the name of a psychic, and I gave the woman a call.

Cheryl wanted to be here when the psychic arrived, but she was called over to her daughter's house to baby sit, and so she missed out on the grand entrance. The psychic was a nice, normal looking brunette who stiffened as soon as she entered the house and said: "Yes, you do have a ghost," before I'd even had a chance to take her coat.

We sat down in the living room, and the psychic quickly made contact with the spirit. And what do you know? It was Samuel Beauregard Smith. Apparently, he'd seen me visiting the graveyard, and decided I reminded him of his first wife, so he'd followed me home.

"I'm flattered," I said carefully, "but it isn't seemly for a widow to be sharing her home with a bachelor such as yourself."

As the psychic relayed my message to the ghost, I heard Cheryl's car pulling into her driveway, and knew she would be over any minute.

"Samuel has agreed to leave the house," the psychic said. I wondered where his spirit usually resided, but decided it would not be appropriate to ask such a personal question. A moment later, a feeling of emptiness filled the room. "Samuel is gone," the psychic told me.

After thanking the psychic and paying her for her services, I escorted her to the front door, just in time to see Cheryl hurrying up the front walk. The two women nodded to each other as they passed, and then Cheryl burst into the hallway.

"Was that the psychic? What did she say? And who was the old-fashioned man with the white mustache who came out your front door just as I was pulling into my driveway?"

My mouth dropped open in shock. Closing it, I swallowed and sat down rather abruptly.

"What is it? What did I say?" asked Cheryl, alarmed by my pallor.

"Nothing," I said, slowly beginning to grin. "You just saw Samuel Beauregard Smith leaving the house at my request."

Now it was Cheryl's turn to sit abruptly. "Samuel Beauregard Smith?" she asked incredulously. "That third cousin of yours with the fancy tombstone?"

I nodded.

"I just saw his ghost?" she said.

"You just saw his ghost," I confirmed.

For the first time since we'd met, Cheryl was speechless.

I laughed suddenly and got up. "It will be nice to have my house to myself again," I told her, and went to the kitchen to make us some tea.

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5 Bed House With Cheap Rent
Posted by: Buyer Beware ()
Date: October 28, 2011 07:45AM

5 Bed House With Cheap Rent
http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=5240

Back when I was a young, broke college student, a friend and I thought we had stumbled upon the deal of a lifetime: A huge 5 bedroom house with 2 bathrooms for dirt cheap rent. The house was in a kind of out of the way place in Virginia, but it suited our needs and the rent was unbelievably cheap. Let me preface this by saying that in the Commonwealth of Virginia, there are no disclosure laws in real estate, meaning that the buyer/renter is not entitled to know the history of the house before signing on the dotted line.

Within a month of moving into this house, odd things began happening. The electricity didn't work very well. At first we attributed this to the fact that the house was very old, built in the early 1900's and the most recent re-wiring of the house had been done in the 50's. Also, the main breaker for the house was located outside in a barn that stood about 20 yards from the house itself and was connected by several crude-looking overhead wires. Whenever the breakers tripped (which was at least 4 times a week) we'd have to get the flashlight and go to the barn to flip them back on. The electricity wasn't the only problem. We had an answering machine that never recorded any messages. Sometimes the light would be blinking and when we'd push play, it was nothing but static. This was before DVR and we worked a lot of nights, so we would try to record our shows, but it never worked. Just static and white noise. We also found it odd that pictures never turned out in or around the house. We went though 13 rolls of film before finally giving up.

The first time we realized that we were dealing with more than just bad wiring was approximately 4 weeks after we moved in. As we were heading to the garage (which was only accessible through the door in the kitchen or the heavy old automatic door outside) we came to a dead stop. There was a man standing in our garage! He just stood there and was completely oblivious when we screamed. My friend slammed the door and locked it and called out to the man that we had a gun and were calling the cops. She retrieved the said gun and we opened the door again. The man was gone. Just poof, vanished. As previously stated, there were only 2 ways in - door through kitchen or automatic door outside. The automatic door was very noisy, so we would have heard it open and we had been in the kitchen all morning so there was no way he got in that way. We were baffled, but went about life like normal. That incident seemed to open the floodgates, because after that it really became obvious we were dealing with something not of this world.

We used to hear the sound of a baby crying, followed by the sound of a rocking chair up in the attic. We investigated and found nothing. Certain spots would always remain cold. Cold is not something you come across in Virginia in the summer. Numerous times we woke up to find all the contents of the pantry on the floor. There were dozens of other odd things that happened, but I'm just highlighting some of the more bizarre occurrences.

As things began to escalate, we got more and more nervous. The pinnacle was when we were sitting in the kitchen one evening, playing cards and waiting for some guests to arrive. Naturally, the lights went out, so we went out to trip the breaker. When we came out of the barn, we saw our friend running up the steps of the porch with a baseball bat. When we asked what he was doing, he told us that he saw a man standing in our living room then walk up the stairs! Scared, we crowded behind him and searched the house with the bat and a gun. Nothing!

About 2 weeks after that, my roommates boss asked her why she never returned his call about switching a shift. She said that she hadn't gotten any messages and he proceeded to tell her about the man that answered the phone and told her we were out! Upon further investigation, we discovered that several other people had the same experience when they called! We were thoroughly freaked out by this time, so we decided to ask some of the town's resident's about the house.

We found out that the house was always vacant within 6 months of it being rented out. Although we were scared, we still stayed because of how cheap it was.

One evening, we were in the living room watching TV. When we heard a huge thud against the basement door. When I say thud, I mean the whole wall shook and the door frame came loose. The door was locked, but we were scared and put a chair against it. We could hear growling on the other side and claws on the door, so we again got the gun. We figured at first that a wild animal must have gotten in there, so we went outside to check the entrance. It was bolted shut. We even checked the tiny windows, nothing broken.

We finally went back into the house and opened the basement door. Nothing there! I've never seen claw marks like that before or since. It was as if whatever had done it only had 3 toes! Besides, nothing that was indigenous to the area was 3 toed or could have gotten in there without opening the door or breaking the window! Not to mention, none of the local animals, say a bear, could have exerted that much force to warp a door frame! We moved a week later.

We could never really come up with any idea of what happened in that house or why. To this day, it remains a mystery. And to this day, nobody lives there for more than 6 months before leaving.

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A Ghostly Forewarning At 3 A.m. - Arlington VA
Posted by: Arlington Ghost Story ()
Date: October 28, 2011 07:50AM

A Ghostly Forewarning At 3 A.m.
http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=9817

This is reprinted from last year 2010

This morning at 3 a.m. In my apartment in Arlington, Virginia, I was abruptly woken up by what seemed to be an air raid siren type of sound in my apartment. As I fumbled around in the dark, I noticed that the "siren" seemed to come from the living room. I went into the pitch black living room to determine where the sound was coming from. There, I found my land line console telephone, with a blue halo light emanating from under the number keys. I have never seen the keys light up before with a blue light. The speaker application to the telephone was actually turned on, and the DIAL TONE was blasting out over the speaker phone!

The telephone receiver was firmly in place and this was not a situation where the phone was off the hook where you get a pulsating sound. This was actually the DIAL TONE! Standing there in the dark, all I could think of was when I was a little girl growing up in Ellenville, N.Y. In the 1950's. In Ellenville, one could hear the town siren go off from the center of town, whenever there was an emergency. I never realized a DIAL TONE could sound so much like an emergency siren until I went through the experience last night. I can't imagine how it could have happened as I never use the speaker phone.

This Friday is Friday August 13th, 2010. I write this story as a matter of record in just case something weird happens and it is a forewarning from beyond.

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Crazy With Sleep Paralysis - Ghost Story
Posted by: Candy Cane ()
Date: October 28, 2011 07:53AM

Crazy With Sleep Paralysis
http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=10717


I had a question to ask anyone experienced for a while, but couldn't find time about something that I have been experiencing for around three years. I have had sleep paralysis at least two times a week and sometimes three to four times in one night. Once, when I was sleeping over my friend's house I got sleep paralysis and heard a child's laughter followed by what felt like something tickling me. Then, one time (this wasn't sleep paralysis) I had a dream about a mad lady that was very furious because of me and dreamt that she hit me with a sharp, long wooden stick, but strangely only hit my hands and I actually felt it. When I woke up, I saw two parallel marks on my hand that couldn't have been made by my nails or anything sharp because it was sort of engraved in deep then disappeared after a few minutes later at the same spot the lady hit me.

I don't sleep in my room anymore because I'm afraid of sleep paralysis and bad dreams. I sleep near my mother and didn't have nightmares or anything since. Today, when I was alone, sleeping where I usually slept I had it again. The sleep paralysis. I felt as if something were watching me, but I can't tell between the real 'being watched' feeling and me being insane. I have never seen shadows before or demonic entities, but I did once see a white floating 'thing' in my peripheral vision about four years ago at my current home.

Am I just being paranoid? Or is this something that should be taken to an expert? Should I be concerned or scared about this situation? Comments are deeply appreciated.

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Creature's Head
Posted by: Chickenasaurus ()
Date: October 28, 2011 07:54AM

Creature's Head
http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=12939

A few years ago I was separating and matching socks on my mother's bed. The feeling of being watched came to me, so I leaned over to look through the big windows and saw nothing. There was a tiny window behind me but no one could possibly be looking through that, because it's so high up, and there was an opened closet at my other side full of clothes, so no one could fit in there with out being noticed.

The same creepy feeling was present even after verifying that I was alone, I continued doing laundry. I humored myself thinking, "I wish something was on tv so I'd have something worth while to watch while I did laundry." (likely a coping mechanism to the creepy feeling)

The being-watched feeling finally got the best of me and I just had to turn my head towards the closet for reassurance.

There I stared at this floating animal-like head, no more than 2 feet from my face. I tried to get to my feet, but I was frozen in fear before I could run. It was dog-like with a long snout. It's fur was white and clean looking, with longer fur at the sides of it's face and neck area. At the sides of it's head it had long curly locks of the same fur, but the locks of fur reached passed my field of view towards the floor. The lips were very thin and pale but evident, it's nose was similarly vague, only instead of what you would expect a dog to have, this creature's nose was flat with slits like a reptile's. It just stared at me with over-sized black emotionless eyes, I don't recall seeing a reflection in them.

I finally gathered the courage to high-tail it out of the room, but my curiosity got the best of me, just as I was exiting the room I had to look back to confirm it was real. For the few fractions of a second I had to see the creature. I watched it slowly begin to turn it's head towards my direction, which only encouraged me to run even faster all the way into the living room and jump on the couch.

I informed my mother that I wasn't going back into the room - and that was that.

* I will add that this isn't my only encounter with a strange creature, but it is the most recent. I will also note that my spitz/border collie mix had gotten ran over prior to the event, roughly a month or 2 before hand, but there wasn't many similarities.

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Dead Pilot?
Posted by: Long Haul Trucker ()
Date: October 28, 2011 07:55AM

Dead Pilot?
http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=1032

I was a long haul trucker for many years. In December of 2004, I had a delivery in Winchester, Virginia and a second stop in Washington, D.C. At my first stop I was delayed and didn't get unloaded until after 2:00 AM. I left Winchester heading east on Highway 7. Around 2:30 I came to the intersection of Highway & and Route 601 near Bluemont. At a gas station, I pulled in to check my map of Washington in anticipation of my delivery. The station was closed at that hour. There was virtually no traffic going by and it was a cold, moonless night. While I was sitting there, someone knocked on my door, startling me. I jumped and turned off my interior light so I could see outside and rolled down my window.

A man was standing there in an airline flight crew uniform. He had four stripes on his shoulder epaulets indicating a Captain. He was without a jacket on a very cold morning. He climbed up on the step of my cab. He smelled like he had bathed in kerosene. When he got close to my face, I could see that his cap had the TWA insignia on it.

"Could you give me a lift?" he asked in a voice that seemed raspy. I assumed it was from the cold. I was really taken off guard. It was odd. I was in a dark, rural area on a freezing night being asked by an airline pilot wearing short sleeves for a ride. I asked him where he was headed.

"I work for TWA. I gotta get to Dulles to work a flight, please give me a ride, I'll pay you," he responded.

"Well, how about I give you a ride to the next open store where you can call a cab?" I offered.

"Okay, thank you, thank you," he mumbled. "He said that we could descend..."

I didn't know what he was talking about but I didn't want the guy to freeze out there. "Go around and get in," I instructed.

He climbed down and shuffled around the front of the truck. When he passed the first light, I was struck by the fact that he seemed to have long sideburns, a la Elvis. When he continued on to the right, he totally vanished. I don't mean faded away; he just ceased to exist.

I jumped down out of the truck and looked all around with a flashlight, even under the truck. He was just disappeared. As I continued on toward Washington, I remembered something odd. TWA had gone out of business over two years ago. What was going on, I wondered, totally perplexed and shaken by the experience.

When I got home, I did some online research. What I found has totally turned my beliefs upside down. I've always thought that ghost stories were hokum, but with what I learned, I'm no longer sure.

It turns out that on December 1, 1974 a TWA Boeing 727, Flight 514, descended prematurely through a low cloud deck and slammed into a rocky outcropping on Mount Weather,VA. The aircraft disintegrated with all 92 people on board killed. The flight had originated in Columbus, Ohio and was supposed to land at Washington National Airport. It was diverted to Washington's other airport, Dulles International, because high winds had closed National. According to cockpit voice and flight data recordings, the crew mistakenly believed that air traffic controllers had cleared them to descend to 1800 feet from their previous altitude fix of 7000 feet. This error, combined with strong downdrafts, caused the aircraft to hit the mountain at 1670 feet above sea level. At the last second they broke out of the overcast only to see the rocky and snow covered mountain looming in their windscreen. The captain's last words to his co-pilot were, "Get some power on!" just moments before the recording abruptly ceased.

The place of impact was less than a mile south of where I encountered whoever, or whatever, it was that I saw almost exactly thirty years later. I don't want to definitely say it was an ghost but the fact remains that there was someone who appeared to be an airline pilot with a very dated hairstyle wearing a uniform of a defunct business.

I no longer am a trucker, but this has troubled me for over two years. If anyone would have any insight into this, I'd appreciate your help. Thank you.

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Demon In The Closet
Posted by: Templar_ ()
Date: October 28, 2011 07:56AM

Demon In The Closet
http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=10471

After I had already been away for work for several months, my wife had to move us to Virginia. She found a pretty house to rent, almost lavish by our standards and plenty of room, very modern. Well she would call me while I was away and say she was having bad dreams and felt like someone was staring at her from the bathroom, closet area. Also our daughter was pushed so hard she fell down and thought my wife had done it. But she was sitting on the couch ten feet away. So I made the usual prescription when we had run into this before. I told her to put a very powerful crucifix in the room blessed by the Pope and told her to shield herself with white light before going to bed.

I came home about a month later and immediately felt a presence. It did not take long to figure out that the presence was in a large closet area which adjoined the bathroom and faced directly towards the bed in the master bedroom. The closet area never got natural sunlight and was extremely dark at night. I could feel that something was watching. The crucifix seemed to keep it out of the room but it still stared from the closet. So I did the usual "get out, this is my house," "I command you to leave." I felt that this thing was not going anywhere, that it was not scared at all, it was not moving. Not long after that we found a picture of our children on the floor and it had been smashed in the middle of the frame like something was thrown at it. One night while watching TV my wife left for work and I saw a rather large shadow fly out of the bedroom and out towards the car as she was leaving, almost as if it was chasing her. Not long after that she suffered a stroke and a major car accident, both of which left no lasting injuries.

I was again traveling and when I returned home I learned that the landlord was kicking us out. I was glad and realized that we had to get out quick to not be followed. But my wife severely scratched her eye while moving and that slowed us down. The last day as we were moving both my wife and I were out on the back lawn under the window not far from the closet, and we both heard a tapping on the window. No one was in the house. I knew what it was the whole time due to the strength of the presence, that it was a demon. The last night as I left, a neighbor stopped me to talk and I could see this shadow flittering around the yard.

Unfortunately it followed us to the new house, but it was full of sunshine and good karma. It opened doors and I saw it a couple of times in the hall. It also bothered my son who saw it in the basement. I told him to ignore it, do not feed it with fear and you will basically bore it into leaving. I have seen, run into, ghosts and the like. But this was different, very different. The only option is to get out so fast that it cannot follow. This thing could travel. It was crazy! So in short it has stopped bothering us and life is normal again, but it is a learning experience that there are something's that you cannot will or scare away and that will do some major damage to you if you are not aware and able to leave before tragedy happens. I would be interested if anyone had similar experiences.

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Haunted Tunnel
Posted by: Haunted Tunnel ()
Date: October 28, 2011 08:02AM

Haunted Tunnel
http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=10160

I lived in Virginia for several years as a child/teenager. Growing up in a semi-rural area, I heard many "haint" stories from family and friends, some of them revolving around Cencibal (I'm not positive on the spelling) Tunnel. The paranormal has always interested me because I started having ghostly experiences at a young age, and of course as soon as I got the chance to check out this tunnel myself, I did.

Cencibal Tunnel is nestled in between two mountains in Hawkins County, VA. It stands almost at the end of a long and narrowly winding road. Houses are few and far between on this road, but there is a house at either end of the tunnel, one of which was coined the Cencibal Mansion. Across the road from the "mansion" is a small cemetery that I believe to be a family burial place. There is a creek that runs on one side of the tunnel, and now unused train tracks that lay on top of the tunnel.

My most hair-raising experience at Cencibal Tunnel happened when I was 14. It was winter and all of the schools in the area had been dismissed early because of snow. My boyfriend, Jake, and his friend, Opie, picked my best friend, Tonya and I up from school. We went to my house for a while but, being teenagers, we were soon bored. So, as soon as the sun went down, we decided to venture out to the tunnel. Opie had never been and Jake had only been once before. We all piled into Opie's truck, which was a small Ranger-type truck with bucket seats. Opie drove, Tonya sat in between the bucket seats, and I sat on Jake's lap on the passenger side.

When we got to the tunnel, there was about a half a foot of water standing in the middle of it due to snow that had melted from an earlier snow storm. We pulled into the middle of the tunnel and Opie turned the truck and lights off. We sat there for a few minutes, joking about the ghosts. Perhaps this was a mistake, because it wasn't long before strange things started happening. The other three in the truck were talking when I noticed that something was dripping from the inside rear-view mirror of the truck. I wiped it with my finger, and noticed it was the consistency of water. I pointed this out to everyone else, and Opie said, "That's never happened before." Tonya thought it may have been condensation, but Jake pointed out that the windows weren't fogged over.

Then we heard the footsteps in the water. It sounded like someone was walking up behind the truck. We all heard it, and we all turned to look at the same time. We saw nothing. Jake rolled down his window and stuck his head out, looking down the bed of the truck, to the back, and Opie did the same on his side. Neither of them saw anything. I remember them both rolling their windows back up, and Jake looking at me saying, "That was weird." I will never forget the look in his eyes. He was definitely getting scared. I replied, "Yeah, that was weird." Tonya requested that we leave, but the rest of us weren't ready. Then something hit the truck HARD, hard enough that it rocked the entire truck. It sounded like it came from Jake's side, on the truck bed. Tonya and I screamed, and the boys came close to screaming. It was then that a white, translucent figure appeared in front of us, at a distance of about 10 feet. It appeared to me as if it were a woman in a long, flowing dress. And she was getting closer, ever so slowly. It was at this point that Opie said, "It's time to go," and he started the truck and we drove back to my house.

When we pulled into my driveway, we all poured ourselves out of Opie's cramped truck. Jake said he wanted to know what hit the truck. He and Opie began looking at the truck to see if there was any damage, or sign that something had hit it. They found what they were looking for in the form of a hand-print longer and wider than any of ours. We all placed our hands in the print, and it was much larger than ours, at least three inches longer than the boys'.

About a week later, Opie decided he hadn't had enough of the tunnel. He talked our friend Clinton into going with him to the tunnel to spend the night. They stopped by KFC on the way and bought a bucket of chicken; they were ready to post up for the night. Their vigilance would go unrewarded that night. They eventually tired of waiting and seeing nothing, and decided to go home in the wee hours of the morning. Opie took Clinton back to his truck, and Clinton followed him the rest of the way into town.

Opie totaled his truck that night. He wrecked, with no good cause, while Clinton watched helpless behind him. Opie had no memory of why he wrecked, but I have a theory. I don't want to be quick to make a firm conclusion, because I wasn't there that night, but I do wonder if Opie picked something up in the tunnel. Is that even possible? I don't know, but if anyone has any thoughts, I'll be happy to listen. I have other stories as well, if anyone is interested.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story, I know it's long!

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He's Upstairs
Posted by: He's Upstairs ()
Date: October 28, 2011 08:03AM

He's Upstairs
http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=12620

My family and I moved onto Fort Belvoir, Virginia on June 23, 2011. We were assigned this beautiful Victorian style home. It's new construction but the neighborhood has been here for quite some time so who know's what was here before us. George Washington's Mount Vernon is right down the road from the back gate by our neighborhood so it makes me wonder if this property possibly belonged to Mount Vernon at one time.

Anyway we wanted to get out of the hotel even though we had no furniture yet so we bought some air mattresses and decided to make due until our furniture was delivered. We walked through the house checking out every room, our dog was right along with us sniffing it all out. I noticed that Bandit (our dog) seemed uneasy while we were upstairs, her hackles were up almost the entire time we were up there. That's not like her at all, and her hair stayed like that until we came back downstairs. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it so I just brushed it off.

My hubby and kids decided to go run over to the store and pick up a desk for our laptop and tv we just bought. I stayed behind and decided to call my dad to let him know we got the house and were out of the hotel. We didn't have any chairs so I sat on the stairs while we talked, my dog was laying at my feet as usual. It was a pretty short call since he was working so when I hung up with him I planned to call my mom at home.

I hung up the phone and then I heard whispering coming from upstairs. My dog heard it too and she stood up, her hair went back up, and she just stared up the stairs. I sat there for a second thinking it must have been coming from outside, maybe in the neighbors back yard. But before I could get up to look I heard it again. It sounded like a little boy's voice. My dog looked at me and then up the stairs, and at this point I'm a little creeped out.

I got up and went to the backdoor and didn't hear or see anyone out there so I came in and went to the front door and checked and there wasn't anyone outside at all. The whole time my dog was right behind me, not letting me get very far from her. It made me wonder if that was why she was so nervous when we were upstairs earlier. Maybe she saw or sensed that was something up there.

We had only had the house for about an hour when the activity started. I'd never been in a place and had things start happening so fast. I didn't say anything to my family because I wanted to see if anything else happened to anyone other than myself before I told them what I heard.

Last week we were all sitting down having dinner at the table. My bedroom is directly above the dining room where our table sits. We were talking while eating and everything was good when we heard the floor up above us creak as if someone was walking around. These weren't big steps, but like a small child almost running. This time it wasn't just me that heard it, everyone did and they just looked up at the ceiling. It wasn't the dog because she won't go up there alone and we were all at the table with no one else in the house.

So I told my husband and kids what had happened the day we got the house. All of them weren't too surprised given some of the strange things that have happened over the years. We've only been here a month so I'm sure there will be more stories to come.

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Re: He's Upstairs
Posted by: Ghost stories from Virginia, United States ()
Date: October 28, 2011 08:04AM

And here are some more interesting ghost stories submitted by people in Virginia...

Ghost stories from Virginia, United States
http://www.yourghoststories.com/ghost-stories-usstates.php?state=VA&page=1

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Confederate Officer On Horseback
Posted by: markj7 ()
Date: October 30, 2011 10:58AM

Confederate Officer On Horseback
http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=11090

Being a native Virginian in Civil War country, I have been lucky to have a few encounters and this is my favourite.

It was the fall of 1988; I was driving in the northern part of Fauquier County Virginia approx. 45 minutes outside of Upper vile. I was in a very remote area where the hills rolled gently and there were no homes, barns, fences, riding trails or other motorist. I was really enjoying the scenery when I drove around a curve and there on the left side of the road about half a mile ahead was a horse with a rider. This is pretty common in Fauquier County but this was a bit different. Again, I was in the middle of nowhere. Once I drove closer to the horse and rider, I noticed what the gentleman was wearing, a full Confederate uniform with sleeve markings indicating a high rank officer. His uniform consisted of the grey in colour pants, jacket, and full belt dressing with sword, a side arm, black hat, riding gloves and riding boots. As I drove past slowly, I waved and he tilted his hat. I will never forget the expression on his face. It was one of confusion and interest.

Being a Civil War enthusiast, I was very surprised and enjoyed the sight. This person and his horse seemed as real as I am. I could not understand why someone would be dressed in this fashion in the middle of nowhere. He appeared to be dirty enough for me to notice from about 20 feet away. His beard looked unkept and his hair was longer than the hat would cover. That's when I decided it must be a ghost. This is the only thing that is logical to me. Once I found a place to make a u-turn, I drove back and there was no trace of the person.

Please give me your opinions and views on this sighting. This occurred in the middle of the week, my day off at the time was Wednesday. Weather was cool and clear.

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Figures On The Plantation
Posted by: Figures On The Plantation ()
Date: October 30, 2011 10:59AM

Figures On The Plantation
http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=6534

Until about three years ago, my family and I lived on an old plantation in Virginia. It was huge, 250 acres, and there were still buildings standing from 100 years previous, when the plantation had been active. Our landlord lived in the old 'Big house' that was huge. My family and I lived in a house further down the lane that had been added to the property when it had become a small town.

Even though the house was old, I myself never saw anything in it. The grounds, however, is a different story. The first occurrence happened one night after dinner.

My sister and I were instructed to dump the scraps outside and then do the dinner dishes, same as every evening. Usually, we dumped the scraps outside before the sun finished setting. That night, we were running behind and only got outside to dump the scraps after the sun had set and everything was black as pitch. Living in the major country prevented there from being any light other than the light spilling from the porch. My sister and I took the bowl to the weeds across the yard and started scraping everything out of it. We were halfway done when we started hearing voices. It sounded like two men and a woman talking in low, angry voices. We were too far away from the house to be hearing anything from inside, so we were freaked. We hurriedly dumped the rest, the voices becoming increasingly louder and more angrier. We turned back to the house then, starting at a brisk walk. For some reason though, we broke into a run and sprinted for the porch. Halfway across the yard, we both looked behind us and there in the weeds we had been standing not three feet from, was a pair of blood red, glowing eyes. We both screamed and ran faster into the house. When we got inside, my mom wanted to know what the problem was and when we told her, she waved it off, saying it was just a trick of the light.

A short while later, I was outside by myself, facing the house as I watched my sisters play on the porch. I was in the yard grabbing our shoes from beside the trampoline, and when I stood and looked to the right of the house, way behind it to the cow pasture, I saw a figure. It was of a soldier in Civil War gear. He wasn't looking at me. He was looking out across the pasture with an air of pride, like he was looking over his troops. It didn't scare me at the time. I didn't really pay attention to it. When I realized what I had just seen, I looked at up at the spot where he was, but he was gone.

Not long after that, two of my cousins were staying with us and they were down in the woods by our house picking blackberries. They said that they heard something and looked up the trail, expecting my sisters, or me anything except what they saw. What they saw was amazing. It was two slaves and a slave driver on a horse. All of them were wearing white, and they said it was like the three were in a bubble. Inside the bubble, everything looked different. The ground under their feet was worn bare where in reality, it was overgrown with grass. They said the slave driver and two slaves continued down the trail, across the creek, and then disappeared. Needless to say, my cousins booked it to the house and didn't go back by themselves.

Another time, we were walking down the quarter mile lane, home from the bus stop. At this time I should mention that the former owner of the plantation had died in his home and it was rumoured that he was buried on the property somewhere, probably in his beloved Boxwood Gardens, a grove of boxwood trees in the middle of an open field. Anyway, One of my sisters looked into the field to the left and gasped, "Oh my god. What is that?" We all looked in time to see a tall man with black hair and a black beard, dressed in a pair off overalls or something like that, duck into the gardens. We got brave and walked through the field to investigate, but he was nowhere to be found, and there were no footprints in the dirt around the gardens, like there would have been if anyone had been there. The man became a regular sight as we walked home. Also, my sister saw a woman with blonde hair and a long, white nightgown walk across the yard of the big house and walk into the field, but as she opened the gate, she vanished.

The last occurrence happened when one of my cousins graduated and a bunch of my family came down to stay with us for his graduation. My cousins (different than the ones before) and their parents were sleeping in my sisters room and my oldest cousin said that she felt someone watching her. She said she looked up at the window across from the bed, and saw a slave sitting in the open window. She said his face was all shadow, but he was wearing a dirty white woollen shirt and dark trousers and his feet were bare. He was sitting with one knee drawn up and the other resting on the floor, just staring at her. She said she was too scared to talk, so she just squeezed her eyes shut and put the covers over her head. When she told me what happened in the morning, both her sister and her father said they had seen the same thing.

I think whatever occupied the house and the grounds didn't mind us, but were happy when we left, because the day we were moving out, my dad was standing on the porch facing the U-Haul, and he felt someone push him in the middle of the back. Not a big push, but enough to startle him.

I don't know what really happened in that house, but apparently, our landlord's house was haunted as well, although I never saw anything. Please let me know what you think.

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Ghost Crossing
Posted by: Ghost Crossing ()
Date: October 30, 2011 11:01AM

Ghost Crossing
http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=6472

I have a sort of creepy residual haunting story I would like to share. The incident takes place near my old neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia. This is an easily verifiable location and I encourage others to check it out to see if they see the same thing I have seen.

The first time I saw the "thing" was when I was in high school. I had just gotten my drivers license and was driving home after a late event at my high school.

I have to stop for a minute to explain how my father taught me to drive. He always taught me to look as far ahead as possible to check for things that could become a problem, like kids playing on the sidewalk, pedestrians, etc. He also taught me to look for "moving shadows" when I was driving at night, because sometimes you can't see someone in the dark, but you can see their shadow moving in front of other light sources. I guess this has made me especially aware of shadows while driving at night, and probably helped me see the "thing".

So I was heading south down Brook Road (US Route 1) on the section between Azalea Avenue and Hilliard Road. As I passed the Brook Run shopping center and went through the light at the entrance to the shopping center I was looking ahead for pedestrians, etc. All of a sudden, I saw in my headlights the pants legs of a man walking across the road. I knew if I didn't stop I would run into him, so I slammed on the brakes and slid to a stop in the road. No one was there. I had clearly seen gray pants, wrinkles and all, illuminated in my headlights, and they were walking from the left-hand median into the center of my lane. Needless to say, it shook me up a little. But that's not the only time I saw it.

About 3 years later I was coming back from an event at my church and was passing the same spot. (FYI - I was in a different car) I again saw the gray pants walking from the left-hand median into my lane. This time I didn't overreact, and instead slowed down. There was no one there. Now, every time I pass that spot I look for the pants. The last time I saw it was about 5 years ago. I was coming back from an event downtown and was passing the same spot. Again, I saw the pants. This time I was with my husband and tried to point them out to him, but he didn't see them. He has really bad night-vision, so maybe that's why he didn't see it.

I have only seen the "pants" at night and only during warm months, so if you decide to cruise the area, wait until after dark. And watch your speed because police sometimes set a speed-trap on that stretch of road.

A little history on the location:

The area around the Brook Run shopping center was the location of major earthworks and trenches built during the Civil War to keep the Union army out of Richmond. There were a few deaths associated with the earthworks. There is a historical monument inside the shopping center parking lot. Also, at the bottom of the hill, where Hilliard Road crosses Brook Road, is the location where Gabriel, a famous slave had instructed his supporters to meet to begin a slave rebellion in the summer of 1800. Check out Wikipedia under Gabriel Prosser for more details about Gabriel. There is also a location in the area that is supposedly haunted by Gabriel, but I'll write that in another story.

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Jimmy, my Little Brother's Friend
Posted by: Jimmy, my Little Brother's Friend ()
Date: October 30, 2011 11:05AM

Jimmy, my Little Brother's Friend
http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=2253

When I was a child, we lived in a rented house just outside of Richmond Va, near a 2-3 story Elementary School just off of Hull Street. The house was a small two bedroom one story house. I don't recall exactly when it started but my younger brother started talking about his best friend Jimmy, which he had "made up" because he really had no other children is age to play with. My brother and I shared a bedroom and whenever I came into the room, my brother would say that Jimmy was hiding from me because he didn't like to be seen. During the time that we lived in this house, we were given a German Shepard puppy who we named "Lady", whose parents were guard dogs at the Towing Service where our father worked. My brother adored that dog and played with her all of the time.

There was one summer afternoon, when I was 5 and my brother was 3, that my brother and "Lady" left our yard and went for a walk. Sometime later, my brother returned very upset that Lady had ripped his pants. My parents were surprised by this because Lady was a very gentle dog, even for a puppy and asked my brother what he was doing and where he was when this happened. He said that he and Jimmy were going to "see the water" (there was a small pond surrounded by trees at the end of our street) and that every time they tried to go beyond the trees, Lady would bark and growl at Jimmy so much that my brother decided to take her home. Lady finally grabbed my brother by his "britches" and drug him home. Our parents reminded my brother that he was not allowed to walk down to the pond alone and that Lady was doing her job by bringing him home, but my brother was adamant that he was not alone, he was with Jimmy. My mother made the comment that Jimmy's mother probably wanted him to come home and my brother said that he was home, that we lived in his house, that he lived in the house first, that his mother went away.

I don't remember exactly when we moved out of the house, but I do know that Jimmy was not mentioned after we moved. When I was in high school years later, I was riding around with my boyfriend at the time and saw the old school. We drove down our old street and stopped a lady who was walking a dog in front of the house that we lived in. I asked her how long she lived in the neighborhood and if she knew anything about the house. She said that there was a lady who lived at the end of the street who could help me. When I asked her about that house, she grew a little pale and seemed to shiver. I told her that I lived there in the early 1970s. The only thing that she would say was that there was a mother and little boy who lived in that house and that the little boy drowned in the pond one summer. I asked if his name was Jimmy and she just looked at me and said "how did you know that?".

I should mention that my brother did not remember Jimmy until my mother retold the story, he did suddenly remember him, but he said that he was a REAL person but that he couldn't understand why he lived in our closet.

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Night Stalker
Posted by: Night Stalker ()
Date: October 30, 2011 11:06AM

Night Stalker
http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=1942

It started when I was about seven years old. It was around midnight and I was thirsty so I decided to go downstairs and get a class of water. I had just fixing to go down the stair when a hand shot out of the darkness and grabbed me by the throat. I stood there with this hand clasped tightly around my throat for what seemed like ages. Finally the hand let go and I ran right back to my bedroom and got under the covers and pulled them over my head.

The next day I told my parents about what happened and they said that I was just imagining things and shouldn't watch scary movies before I go to bed. That same night I told my parents about what happened I was being punched and prodded by the thing that had grabbed me. The next day my mother saw the bruises I got and asked my brother had he been hitting me. He said no and told her he had been seeing strange lights in front of my bedroom and would hear my name being called out at night when he went to use the bathroom.

The next day while my brother and I were playing outside in the woods we saw a row of five or six tombstones. We ran to the house and showed our parents. They believed us after that and we moved out of the house three months later.

To this day I think the ghost has followed me because I still wake up with strange bruises and her my name being called out in the night.

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No Priest Says The 15 Year Old Boy?
Posted by: In-com-plete ()
Date: October 30, 2011 11:07AM

No Priest Says The 15 Year Old Boy?
http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=11631

First, I just want to say that ever since I can remember, every time I read, talk, hear, or see any kind of ghost story my eyes water. Like when you yawn. Only worse. Like I'm starting to cry. Only not that bad. Don't know if anyone knows what that's about or not. Maybe you can tell me.

Anyway, my wife, daughter, and I moved into our house back in September. We kept our other as a rental (tell you that for a reason), but needed something bigger.

From the minute we moved in our dog was uncomfortable. Always by either me or my wife's side. Shaking a lot if not most of the time.

I figured it would pass and she'd get comfortable as time passed. But that never happened. She seemed to always be on the alert. Sometimes we couldn't even break her attention.

That was our first tip something was going on in this house. And slowly we started seeing and hearing strange things.

- Laying on the couch early one morning I heard what sounded like a small rock fall on the kitchen floor.

- Numerous times we've been in bed and heard doors shut. Often waking my wife or me up.

- Cabinet doors slamming shut.

- One night I had a shirt in front of our bedroom door when we went to bed. Next morning it was in front of our daughter's room.

- Getting out of bed one morning I heard a voice say something. My wife asked me what I said. She heard it also.

- I'm at work and my wife and daughter are in the shower. She heard my voice say "Hey honey". My daughter said "Daddy'" right after. Also hearing it.

- Our daughter has a plastic easel/desk with a bench/stool. We had it on the desk in her playroom/our office. It as there for a month. Wife in bed. Daughter in living room watching TV. I'm making coffee and the bench/stool thing somehow comes off the desk crashing to the floor.

- One night there was a middle aged man at the door to our bedroom. Looked like he was from the 20's or 30's by his outfit. Typical re-focus and he's gone.

- Just last night I'm playing with my daughter in the living room and her play-doh containers just fall off the kitchen counter.

- Tried to open the door to the garage and it felt as if someone was trying to prevent me from turning the doorknob. A weak someone. Like a kid.

- I came home the other day to an empty house. Was in and out a couple times bringing stuff in. Was downstairs taking off my shoes when I heard someone talking. The radio in our bedroom had just come on.

- My wife had knee surgery 3 weeks ago so she was sleeping downstairs on the couch since it is easier to elevate her leg there. Well she woke up when she heard cabinet doors opening and closing. Then footsteps on the kitchen floor coming toward her. She covered herself with the blanket. After about 90 seconds she said the temperature under the blanket went from like 80 to 40.

- I took my daughter to the babysitter one morning. We walked out the front door and I specifically remember locking and pulling it shut. My wife called me about a half hour later. As she was getting in the shower she heard the front door open. You can see the front door from the upstairs hall just outside our bedroom door. So after seeing it open she turns to go down the steps and it shuts on its own. She went downstairs and it was locked. Just the way I left it.

Now that's everything I can think of off the top of my head that has happened here since we moved in.

We got rid of our dog as she just wasn't the same. Eventually biting me when she showed zero signs of aggression prior to the move.

But what's crazy about all of this is that the guy that's renting our other house is into this ghost stuff big time. He and his best friend have been "ghost hunting", if you will, for a few years.

So I got him to come over. He scanned the place inside and out. He was telling us that his brother is a priest. If our ghost is demonic he can get him up here and try to get rid of it.

Anyway, he set up his recorder then pulled out his PX Device.

Ten minutes after he turned that thing on it was talking.

"Scott" (my renter's name)

"Dog pound"

"15 year old boy"

"No priest"

The were some other things I can't remember and a bunch of stuff we couldn't understand.

But he listened to the recording the other day. Said he heard two different EVP's on it. He said they sounded like a boy and a girl. And assuming there's the man ghost that was at our bedroom door, which makes 3 ghosts.

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Phone Call From Beyond
Posted by: Phone Call From Beyond ()
Date: October 30, 2011 11:09AM

Phone Call From Beyond
http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=861

I had a friend, Carol, who was dying of cancer. Her husband called to tell me she was in hospice - meaning the end was very close. I couldn't go to visit her because my car was out of commission, and also because I knew that I'd cry and Carol wouldn't like that. So I just stayed home and cried off and on all day. I didn't accomplish much of anything.

Late in the day, I suddenly experienced a lightness of mood. I felt that my life was SO BEAUTIFUL and wonderful! And my family so nice, that if I failed to cook (as I had) I could just order out for pizza. So I did. While we were eating the pizza, the phone rang. It was Carol's husband telling me she had died late in the afternoon (around the time my mood had lifted). I got all weepy again and stayed that way all evening.

At bedtime I went to bed and, although I have NEVER done this before nor since, I picked up a crystal that I had on my nightstand and fell asleep with it in my right hand. Then I dreamed that the phone on my nightstand rang, and I picked it up and said, "Hello?"

"Hello," said the voice on the phone. "This is Carol. I just wanted to let you know that I'm dead, and I'm fine. So bye..." Carol's voice had the same slightly raspy, rapid, definite, almost angry sound that it had in life.

But I apparently realized that this was weird, and woke up suddenly. When I did, I noticed that the "phone" receiver in my hand was the crystal with which I'd fallen asleep. Most people will say that this was just a dream, but I have to say that it didn't feel like an ordinary dream at all.

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Duende's House
Posted by: SummerEclipse22 ()
Date: October 30, 2011 12:20PM

Duende's House
By SummerEclipse22
http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=6379

In my neighbourhood there's an Old Catholic school and it's said to have someone or something unnatural roaming around inside it.

The people around where I live believe more in impish/evil elves then they do in ghost. Many of them say they see a small figure always running around in the school garden, little footprints were even found in the flowerbeds. Of course, everyone says it's elf, but I'm not so sure.

After hearing so many stories I've decided to do some research on the school and I did find an unusual detail. There used to be a house on the land where the school was built but part of it was saved. When the house was torn down the owner didn't want to tear that part of the house down because "it" lived in it.

The school now uses that section as storage and the students claim to hear joyful music, laughing, and dancing coming from inside it. Also things would get lost a wind up in strange places or chairs would be in the hallways and nobody would be inside not even the janitors. At first I thought it was just a bunch of high school students playing a prank, but that wasn't the case.

The high school students were the ones who dared each other to spend a night inside. None of them ever lasted over three hours because they always ran out screaming that they saw and/or heard something terrifying. One or two days later they would have the worst of luck so much so that three of them were in a terrible accident, but got away safely.

I researched again, turns out the school really isn't all that old it's just the old section of the house that goes back before 1918 and there has been no deaths near or inside the building. I was going to go inside myself, but I no longer think that's a good idea.

My classmate Noel had a horrifying experience with whatever that thing is. This is what he told us during school, "I was waiting outside the school when out of the corner of my eye I saw a dark figure, of a very short man with long hair run behind the storage building. Then it was as if I was paralyzed, it was hard to breath like there was some kind of thick odourless smoke around me. My eyesight was blurry and I had an overwhelming feeling that there was something menacing behind me. When the school bell rang it all stopped." He proved he was telling the truth by showing us bruises on his back that looked like they were done by a very strong 4 year old.

Due to all the stories of "it" the storage building has been nicknamed "La Casa del Duende" (the elf's house). I'm not sure what it is, it could be a demon because after Noel's experience and a few others I heard that were similar. Does anyone know what it could be and if it's something to be worried about?

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: Ghost Lore ()
Date: October 30, 2011 01:04PM

This is not a local story but one out of Michigan I thought worth sharing...

The Legend of Morrow Road
http://cryptic-mysteries.blogspot.com/2011/08/legend-of-morrow-road.html

The story goes that a mother and child went missing from their home on this road sometime in the late 1800's. The little boy disappeared into thin air and shortly after, the mother also vanished. It is believed she died a terrifying death while searching for her son. Locals say the ghostly figure of a mother can still be seen wandering old Morrow Road to this day.

Morrow Road is a small road in southeast Michigan stretching from Clay Twp to Cottreville. (Locals say Algonac to Marine City--the closest cities). Recently the southern half was paved, but prior it was a narrow dirt road and before that an old cow path. Sometime in the late 1800s a mother had a child and they lived on Morrow Road. Shortly after they went missing, most believe the child disappeared first. The frantic mother searched and searched and never found the boy.

Legend says the middle-aged woman died searching for her child. What is even more disturbing is that many people claim that the woman haunts Morrow Road as a ghost in eternal search for her child till this very day.

What makes the legend interesting is that there are many versions of how this story came to be. What happened to the child? What happened to the woman? How did they disappear? Why do people claim to see orbs in the woods at night? Has anyone really seen the woman with bloody hands wandering down the road? Is there a monster in the woods? Is there any validity from those who claim to hear a baby crying near the south bridge?

Unsolved Mysteries apparently believed it to be interesting enough, as they did a mini-feature of the legend in the early 90's. Detroit's Channel 4 News covered the story as well not long after.

There have been many claims to sightings of a ghost and/or a baby or child at night. Many teenagers have pranked fellow drive-by's as well by using the legend to scare their girlfriends or simply have some fun at night. They stage elements from the variations of the legend: from the hanging a dummy woman's body from a tree to lighting a fire on the bridge to see her face in the flames. Clay Township police can confirm this.

But one thing is for sure: Morrow Road is one of Michigan's oldest legends-- and like a true legend, it cannot be proven...nor disproved.

The Legend of Morrow Road, one of Michigan's oldest legends, spans back to the late 1800s and is primarily about a ghost that haunts the road to this day looking for her lost child.

Morrow Road is a southeast Michigan rural road that until recently was entirely a dirt road. The 2.5 mile road's southern portion rests in Clay Twp (on the outskirts of Algonac) and northern portion rests in Cottrellville Twp (on the outskirts of Marine City). The entire road is a straightaway and has very few citizens living on it. Recently more citizens have moved into its southern half. The road began as a cow path in the 19th century and later became a narrow dirt road, which was eventually widened. The road also has two creeks that run under it, one on its north end and one near its center-point, just south of where the only other fully intersecting road is. Hence, there used to be two small, simple-railed bridges. Both of these were tore down and converted into culverts. As with most backroads, Morrow Road started out with no electricity running to it and had one two-story house. An old house was tore down recently, although it may not have been the original house.

In the late 1800s a woman supposedly with the initials "I.C." apparently died a tragic death searching for her child boy. Many believe that the death was so tragic that her ghost spirit remains haunting the road to this day, still searching in an eternal frustration for that impossible to achieve answer of what happened to the boy.

What makes the legend more interesting and startling is the different beliefs of what exactly happened to the mother & child. Research shows there are about ten theories as to how this occurred and each has slight variations. Nearly every version of the legend has these common denominators: A middle-aged woman died in her nightgown searching for her child, and that her spirit remains as a vengeful ghost to this day-- still searching for the young boy. Here's where the versions alter: (See if you've heard any of these :)

Many believe the boy was kidnapped and that the mother searched in desperation, and died searching.

Active content removed Active content removed

Some believed the boy drowned when the mother took her eyes off him for a moment. This version is a rare version where she apparently did find the boy face down in a nearby creek. In despair, the mother hung herself.

Some believe that the two-story house they lived in was burglarized and that they were murdered.

Some believe that when the mother last saw the child not too far away from a fire...and then he was never seen again. The mother searched for the boy around the fire, fearing for the worse. Never finding the child's remains, she died searching for the boy...some believe she even died in a fire herself. (This is why you see her face in a fire if a fire is lit near the bridge--explained below).

Others believe in an entirely opposite type of death: That they both froze to death. The boy wandered out of the home, the mother unaware. When the mother realized he was gone, she searched frantically for the boy during an unprecedented winter storm, and froze to death in her unsuccessful search.

Still others believe in a simple theory: That the boy was murdered, which led to the mother to search for the boy near the bridge they lived near. The murderer (motive unknown, possibly rape) waited for the woman to search near the bridge and kidnapped and murdered her.

Early versions of the legend actually didn't involve a mother! This radically different (and unpopular today) theory involved a monster that ate babies/children! It was called "The Morrow Road Monster" by locals, and was a popular theory in the 1950s. There is no evidence to support this theory.*

Contrasting, a hugely popular theory involved local Natives. Some believe that local Natives savagely attacked the mother while she was searching for her missing child. Some believe she haunts the road to this day because a nearby Indian burial ground may have been near the death site of the mother. There is no evidence to support this theory,* but local Natives of the time included Algonquin, Huron and Erie.

Finally, one of the most popular theories was that the mother had the child out of wedlock. Simply not wanting the baby, she went to the bridge and left the boy under the bridge--abandoning him. Feeling shame and remorse on her way back home, she decided she couldn't go through with it and upon arriving at the bridge the baby was gone. This was the beginning of years of searching, until she finally gave up. Upon her early death, many believed she was cursed for her actions and her eternal punishment is to haunt the road searching for the lost child.

A startling fact is how many people claim to have seen the woman, heard the child, or witnessed other paranormal occurrences on or near the road. These include many witnesses to seeing the ghostly woman herself, always wearing a light blue nightgown (believed by many to be the outfit she wore on her death) searching with bloody hands for the child. Many claimed she has morbidly asked or screamed "Where's my baby?" as driver's drove past. Others claim she has slammed her mysteriously bloody hands on their car window in addition.

Many locals have claimed "if you start a fire on the road where the southern bridge was, you will see her face in the flames." (That is illegal by-the-way, so don't try it). This supports the theory that something tragic happened to her and/or the child on or near the bridge and their lives ended in flames. Currently this element to the legend hasn't had an eye-witness account in many years.

Many believe that if you honk your car-horn three times on the bridge you will hear the baby cry.

Also, many claim to have vehicle trouble when driving down the road. There are more eyewitness claims to seeing "orbs" on the road and in the woods than any of the above. Many other people also state the orbs went as far as to chase their vehicle. Most claim the orbs were light green, but some say they've seen them red, purple and light blue, all in small, varying sizes.

Naturally, local police have had many "false claims," that turned out to be young adults playing pranks. All accounts are claimed to have been seen or heard only at nighttime.

Channel 4 Local News with Carmen Harlan did a news report near turn of the century on the legend, and the TV Show "Unsolved Mysteries" had a filler-feature on an episode, watering down the legend to be a filler between the episode's two major features.

Paranormal research has been done many times, always with interesting results. The legend has been all over the Internet and an independent feature film based entirely on the legend is in the works. For more information on the film and legend, visit www.morrowroad.com.
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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: Mason Spirits / Students collect tales from the pond and beyond ()
Date: October 31, 2011 03:56PM

Mason Spirits
Students collect tales from the pond and beyond
By Tara Laskowski
http://spirit.gmu.edu/archives/fall05/spirits.html

If you want to hear a good ghost story, contact folklorist Margaret Yocom, associate professor of English. For years, she’s been Mason’s “ghost keeper,” who with her students have collected hundreds of supernatural tales for the Northern Virginia Folklife Archive.

With tales of Ouija boards and unexplained apparitions to haunted buildings and houses, the archive is a rich resource of more than 1,400 stories collected over 27 years, which celebrate the culture, traditions, and folklore of Northern Virginia. But it’s not all about the supernatural—Yocom collects folklore about local people, workers in regional industries and families, as well as ethnic and regional recipes, traditional art and folk medicine. Around Halloween, however, the ghost stories get the most attention.

“People have a lot of interest in the supernatural,” says Yocom. “Ghost stories are journeys into a world we haven’t even imagined. Many people believe that world is out there but its pathways are only glimpsed at from time to time. When you hear a ghost story from someone, it can be a touchstone that says, ‘Oh, it could be. It’s possible.’”

The archive has been a popular research resource for Mason students—whether for a folklore course, a creative writing project, or a stage performance. Members of the Northern Virginia community, as well as folklorists throughout the United States, have also used the archive.

Every other academic year, Yocom teaches a folklore course, Narratives of the Spirit World: The Lore of Ghosts and Fairies, “always in the fall and always at night,” she says. From this course and others, such spooky stories as the following have been researched and documented by students and can be retrieved from the archive by making an appointment with Yocom.

Mason’s Crew Team Ghost, “Old Man Johnson”
Collected by Laura Craig, BA English ’04, in 2003

This ghostly tale is well known to Mason’s women’s crew team. According to legend, Old Man Johnson rowed in the area years ago, some say in the 1970s. One night he found his wife sleeping with another man in his bed. He was so upset that he went out to row and never came back. Some say he rowed over a dam on the Occoquan River; others say he jumped off. Team members have reported seeing his ghost early in the morning near the docks or the dam. Whenever something strange happens that no one admits to doing, the team says it was the work of Old Man Johnson.

The Bunny Man Bridge
Collected by Hayden Zell in 2003

The Bunny Man Bridge in Clifton, Va., is perhaps the most famous haunted site in Northern Virginia. Featured on television and the Internet, it was named one of the Scariest Places on Earth by the Fox Family Channel in 2001. Zell relays several different versions. One version holds that in 1904, a bus transporting inmates from an insane asylum to Lorton Prison crashed near the bridge, allowing the inmates to escape. All were caught by authorities except for one. While searching for him, the police found many rabbit carcasses and assumed that the man was surviving on the meat.

His spirit is said to haunt the bridge and can be seen at midnight on Halloween for anyone brave enough to wait. (For more on the Bunny Man tale, see the profile on Mason alumnus and Fairfax County Library historian–archivist Brian Conley, BA Psychology and History ’88, who has delved into the origins of the Bunny Man legend on page 15.)

The Restaurant Ghost
Collected by Susan Wiedemann, BA History ’00, in 1999

The wait staff at Carlos O’Kelley’s restaurant on Main Street in Fairfax often tell of unusual happenings after hours. According to Wiedemann, a dishwasher named Billy who worked at the restaurant some 8 to 15 years ago hanged himself in an upstairs dining room of the restaurant one night after his girlfriend broke up with him. The manager closed the restaurant for two days and told everyone the dishwasher had gotten into a car accident. Since then, early in the morning or late at night, glasses break and fall without anyone near them, and sometimes people hear a voice when they are in the upstairs room, although no one is there. Many of the kitchen staff won’t come into the restaurant unless someone else is there.

The Haunted Mill
Collected by Joy Fairman, BA English ’98, in 1998

In Manassas, Va., people have reported strange happenings at an old abandoned mill. According to the story, many years ago, the mill owner killed a woman and her young daughter who lived nearby. The daughter was found drowned in a stream behind the mill, and the woman was found tied to a tree with her throat slit. In the archive case file, Fairman talked with a young woman who went to the mill site with a group of friends. The young woman was spooked by many things she couldn’t explain, including a tree that changed colors depending on where she was standing and her car engine revving without anyone touching the gas pedal. The complete story of the haunted mill can be found at www.gmu.edu/folklore/nvfa/new/fairman.htm.

The Gazebo Ghost

In addition to these researched and archived stories, many Northern Virginia ghost stories can be found online. This tale is posted at the Shadowlands Haunted Places Index (theshadowlands.net/places/virginia.htm) and tells of a ghost story right on the Fairfax Campus. “A small gazebo bordering the [George Mason University] campus [pond] is said to be frequented by the spirit of a young man. He apparently drowned in the lake one evening. His body was found sitting in the gazebo by two females the next morning. Since that time, the man’s figure has been seen standing at the edge of the [pond] or sitting in the gazebo. He has been known to beckon young women to come sit with him and quickly disappears when accommodated.”

According to University Police Sgt. Judy Meade and Lt. Willie Morton, who have worked at Mason for 14 and 18 years, respectively, no one has ever drowned in Mason Pond. “We have had a car end up in the pond as the result of an accident,” says Meade. “But no one drowned. There may be some interesting fish and animals in and around the pond, but no ghosts that I’ve ever heard of.”

Want more spooky tales? Grab some hot apple cider and make an appointment to read some of the hundreds of supernatural stories this Halloween season. For more information about the Folklife Archive, visit www.gmu.edu/folklore/nvfa or e-mail Margaret Yocom at myocom@gmu.edu.
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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: FixName ()
Date: October 31, 2011 04:35PM

Fixed annoying long name

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: Cool topic ()
Date: April 29, 2012 09:38AM

Thanks OP!

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: mancannon ()
Date: May 01, 2012 05:57PM

dang there are alot of scary stories about fairfax, and here i was thinking that the bunny man bridge was the only one. I love scary stories and its sorta sad that i didn't know anything about all of this stuff. i gotta get back on my game with all of these. i'm getting some popcorn and i'm gonna read all of these

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: Drop ()
Date: May 07, 2012 03:43AM

Ok, i have a story of something that actually happened to me. It's gonna be kinda long, but i'll post it for anyone who's interested in reading it.

This happened to me back when i was a kid living at my parents house....probably 8 or 9 years ago.

My dad came home from work one evening, and he wasn't really in a great mood. Something between he and I sparked a heated conversation which turned into us arguing. Well, I wasn't really in the mood to deal with his crap anymore, so i decided i was going up to bed for the rest of the evening. I went upstairs and hung out for a couple hours, just watching tv, playing a video game, and listening to music in my bedroom. Well after a couple hours of that i got tired and got ready to go to sleep. I laid in my bed for about 2 or 3 minutes when i heard a familiar sound.

The sound was coming from downstairs at the front door, which was right at the bottom of the front steps basically. Now my parents had and still have the same dog, he's a yellow labrador retriever named Jake. When i lived at home with my parents, we would let him out the front door to go to the bathroom, and when he was done he would come back to the door and hit at it with his paw to come in. The sound it made was unmistakeable, we just knew when Jake was ready to come in because he was hitting at the door. Nothing else sounded like Jake hitting at the front door.

Anyway, i heard what i believed was Jake hitting at the door to come inside. I figured to myself, one of my parents must have let him out and were somewhere else in the house right now where they couldn't hear him hitting the door to come in. So naturally, i got out of bed and went downstairs to let Jake in. Well, this is where it starts getting weird.

Now let me kind of set this up in your mind for you.....after you walk down the steps, the front door is right in front of you in a small foyer. To the right of me was the living room, and to the left was the hallway that led to the kitchen and the den. I looked outside the small window to the right of the door, just kind of out of habit, expecting to see Jake standing there. Well, when i looked outside on the front porch, i saw nothing. I opened the door to get a better look of the whole porch, but just as I did that, i was scared ****less because 3 framed pictures on the fireplace mantle crashed to the hardwood floor in the living room and shattered everywhere. The pictures were all very old, black and white photos of members of my mothers family.

It shocked me immediately, and my first thought was to walk into the living room to see what the hell just happened. Well right when i turned the living room light on....i could hear children laughing down at the other end of the hall, towards the kitchen. My dad had been in the basement, and i heard him coming upstairs. I guess he heard the pictures fall and break, and was coming upstairs too see what had happened. Well i didn't feel like dealing with him, so i quick ran back up the steps as quiet as i could and got in bed.

I didn't really know what i had just seen, and i didn't feel like my dad questioning me about something that had just scared the hell outta me. My dad thought that the other dog they had at the time, Eli, somehow had made the pictures fall off the mantle. But i knew that wasn't what had happened, because i was basically baited downstairs by a familiar noise, and then i heard 3 framed pictures crash to the floor and shatter. You know how pictures lean back in a frame right? You put up the stand behind them and they lean back against the stand for support.....well these pictures were thrown the opposite way to the floor....they were thrown forward i suppose is what i'm saying. And then i heard the giggling.

Now, in my mind, it's obvious what happened. I really believe I was baited downstairs. I was supposed to hear the glass break, and i did hear children laughing. I think some sort of young, ghostly entity, basically wanted to pull a prank. I have thought about this so many times, and i have told this story so many times....that to me, it's just like any other event in my life that took place that was worth remembering. I didn't really feel threatened....i mean i was scared but i didn't feel like something was trying to "get me". And the more i think about it, i think there was no threat whatsoever, but just a spirit having fun.

Now, something else that's interesting to go along with the story. My sister, Tammy, is one of those people who is really on some next level type ****. I mean, she has crazy dreams and weird visions and all that stuff. And to me, i think she's got something that most humans don't have when it comes to sensing paranormal activity or sensing that something isn't right with someone close to her.

Well anyway, she was in the process of moving from one house to another about 6 months to a year after my experience. She stayed up in the guest room of my parents house with her husband for like a week. Well, one night she said she heard something in her room. For whatever reason, she suspected that it was me. She said that she called out, "Andrew, is that you?" When she didn't hear a response, she rolled over, turned on the light, and saw a little girl standing in front of her. She rubbed her eyes in disbelief and then just like that, she was gone. Now of course, she could have been dreaming, but i really don't think she was, especially after my encounter. Also, my sister isn't a whack job or anything, she's very credible and she wouldn't have any reason to lie about this.

Well, finally sometime later, i want to say like 5 years or so later, my grandmother was staying at the same house one night watching the dogs while my parents were away. I wasn't living at the house anymore, and there was no one else who could take care of the dogs that evening. My grandmother said that she went to sit down and relax for a few minutes when she heard the voice of a little girl outside on the front porch.....the same place i thought i had heard Jake scratching at the door. She opened the door thinking that my sister Tammy, and her daughter, Lindsey were coming over to help her out with the dogs. However when she opened the door, she heard and saw nothing. Could she have just been hearing things? Sure, she could have, she's old. But do i think she was? Nope, not in the slightest. Not after my experience and Tammy's experience.

After all these years, nothing else has happened that i know of since then. I've always suspected that the little girl, or entity, may have been from the Civil War era....and for whatever reason was getting a kick out of hanging around at my parents house. There was obviously no house there back in the civil war, but maybe it was a land thing, who knows?

Anyway, i've always been a believer of paranormal activity.....especially since my experience. I've had people tell me that these things aren't real and that it had to be something else....but i know what i saw and what i experienced. And i believe my sister and my grandmother when they tell me their accounts. They'd have no reason to make something like this up, nor would I.

Believe me, i've thought about all the possible things that my experience could have been besides paranormal. I've thought that maybe i was just HEARING Jake scratch at the front door, and that maybe it wasn't real? We used to have bats and birds take residence in the chimney and I thought maybe it was the vibration from them all fluttering their wings that made the pictures fall off the mantle. But we've had birds and bats in that chimney forever, and they only once fluttered their wings enough to knock pictures off the mantle? That doesn't seem likely to me. I thought maybe the children's laughing was something i heard coming from a tv or somewhere.....but the timing of it, and the nature of the lauging just sounded so much like a little kid getting a kick out of doing something they're not supposed to be doing, and giggling about it. It was definitley laughter and i had turned my tv in my room off. I wasn't able to hear the tv in the basement that my dad was watching. So i don't know.....to this day i believe it was most likely a spirit of some sort, especially since my sister and grandmother have experienced similar things.....all possibly involving a little girl.

So that's my story. I'm sorry it's so damn long, but there ya go.

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The Ghost Who Wants His Ashes Back
Posted by: The Ghost Who Wants His Ashes Back ()
Date: May 07, 2012 04:02AM

The Ghost Who Wants His Ashes Back
http://www.city-data.com/forum/northern-virginia/698413-im-bored-talking-about-traffic-anyone.html#ixzz1uAWoLFoo

Following the Civil War, the land that was to become Reston was put up for auction to satisfy back taxes. It was sold to Dr. Carl Wiehle and William Dunn for $20,000. Wiehle envisioned building a new town on the site, complete with a hotel, industry, parks, and a community center. Although only a few of the streets were ever laid out, many of Wiehle’s plans were completed; unfortunately he died at the young age of 50 and plans for continuing the town were abandoned.

However, six or seven families built homes in the town. This is the story of an old man named John, who frequently visited one of these families.

During his last visit, John had an aneurysm and soon after he died. In the next few weeks, John's brother and the family that lived in Wiehle got into a bitter fight over what to do with John's ashes.

You see, John had always said that when he died, he wanted to be cremated and have his ashes spread at dusk from a canoe in the middle of the Potomac River. It had come to him in a dream that that was what he should do. But after he died, his brother fought the idea. Eventually they decided to split the ashes. The family in Wiehle took a canoe out onto the river and when they reached the middle, they tossed their half of John’s ashes into the wind.

But John's brother kept his half of the ashes in a small urn that he eventually buried in his backyard. To this day, when the tide is low, John’s ghost returns from the river to the site of his brother's house, searching for the urn that held his ashes.

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The Fortune Telling Photograph
Posted by: The Fortune Telling Photograph ()
Date: May 07, 2012 04:06AM

The Fortune Telling Photograph
http://www.city-data.com/forum/northern-virginia/698413-im-bored-talking-about-traffic-anyone.html#ixzz1uAXf8kID

Back in the 1940's on a sultry Saturday night, a family of five attended a concert at a church near Leesburg, Virginia. Someone in the audience brought a parrot, and the entire family joined the crowd watching the parrot, giving the mother a chance to take a family photograph.

Now the mother, was not a very good photographer, and her photos were often blurry or distorted. She frequently chopped off the top of people’s heads... but this particular photo had a strange flaw nobody in the family had ever seen before.

When they developed the film in a little darkroom down in the basement, they found one photo was very peculiar. One of the sons did not have a head.

There was only a black smudge where the head should have been, giving the appearance of a decapitated body. Below this smudge, the boy's shirt remained in perfect detail. The rest of his body was not visible (but this was probably because he was standing behind the others).

The family thought the photo was hilarious, and made many jokes about “our son, the invisible man.” Most of his siblings thought Matt, the boy whose head was missing, had somehow pulled a very clever practical joke (since he was famous for his pranks, and he was also the person who had developed the film). However, nobody could explain how he had done it.

Everyone found the photo amusing, and for months it was displayed on the ice box along with a collection of cartoons and fortunes from the local Chinese restaurant. Then something much stranger happened.

On a calm, August afternoon, that same boy and his father were doing yardwork at their home. The boy, whose name was Matt, had just started trimming a bush when his father stepped inside to answer the telephone. When he returned, Matt was gone. All that remained were the pruning shears and the pile of clippings.

At first, the father assumed that Matt had simply tired of yardwork or had been called away by a friend. However, as the day progressed, the family became concerned. Although Matt played practical jokes on his college buddies, he had never been known to miss dinner. They searched and questioned all around, but it was to no avail. Even the authorities couldn’t help them locate their son.

Matt was never heard from again. All that was left behind was the memory of his face and a headless photograph that foretold a chilling fate.

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Beware the Haunted Traffic Cop on Fairfax County Parkway
Posted by: HaHa ()
Date: May 07, 2012 04:06AM

Beware the Haunted Traffic Cop on Fairfax County Parkway

Every day officers ticket the speeders on Fairfax County Parkway. They target the folks driving 60 and above. So if you get a ticket for driving 51 mph, take a close look at the name on the ticket. Chances are it's signed "I. M. Aghost" and you've just met the Haunted Traffic Cop of Fairfax County Parkway!

One night the Haunted Traffic Cop pulled over VRE332 for making an illegal turn. VRE got ticked off and spent the next day protesting about it on city-data. When the Haunted Traffic Cop saw this he became very angry. "A ghost is supposed to scare people," the ghost grumbled to his spectral self. "This guy isn't scared of me at all, he's just calling me an infestation. Like I'm no more scary than a bunch of ants in the kitchen."

And so he called a meeting of the other ghosts who haunt Fairfax County Parkway. There were ghosts of drunk drivers and ghosts who had run into deer, and a ghost who got hit one day while putting political signs up and down the median.

Together they went to VRE's house and woke him up with the warning "VRE.... VRE.... you will be attacked by 100 wolves!"

But VRE simply laughed. "Ha! And ha! And ha ha ha! There are no more wolves in Fairfax County."

That made the Haunted Traffic Cop angry. Not only was VRE not scared, but he was laughing! The ghosts decided to try again. They waited until VRE was in a deep sleep. Then, as the clock struck 3 a.m. they woke him up with loud screechings. "VRE.... VRE.... you will be attacked by 100 wolves!"

VRE looked the Haunted Traffic Cop right in the eye and laughed even more. "Ha! Now that I know you're nothing more than a ghost, go ahead and write all the tickets you want. They won't hold up in court because you can't make an appearance!"

That made the Haunted Traffic Cop very angry indeed. So the next day he pulled over VRE again. VRE took the ticket and began to tear it up... and as he did the other ghosts pulled up the political signs from up and down the median and began throwing them at VRE. One sign struck his head, another hit his chest, and soon signs were hitting him all over his body.

In minutes he was up to his waist in signs...and then a few minutes more VRE was completely buried. He died in that pile of political signs, which meant the ghosts' prediction had come true. He was indeed attacked by 100 signs sayings "Vote for Frank Wolf."



Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/northern-virginia/698413-im-bored-talking-about-traffic-anyone-3.html#ixzz1uAY6Qgkb

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The Haunted Rocking Chair
Posted by: The Haunted Rocking Chair ()
Date: May 07, 2012 04:11AM

The Haunted Rocking Chair

Back in the mid 1960s, a strange man arrived at the annual Purcellville flea market. He was driving an old truck that was overflowing with colorful, yet decrepit items. There were many boxes of rusty metal goods such as springs and old irons, twenty bundles of old magazines, a coat rack that had obviously once been broken and then poorly repaired, a rocking horse, a paint-stained shelf, and a rocking chair.

The man running the flea market was named Stanley. From the moment he checked the old man in, Stanley was attracted to the rocking chair. Something about the sight of this chair surrounded by so many decrepit goods gave Stanley a deep feeling of sadness. But very few customers stopped by the booth. Finally, Stanley could no longer bear it. He purchased the rocker himself.

Soon after that the vendor packed up his goods and left the flea market. "Why is he leaving so quickly?" Stanley wondered.

Stanley took the rocker home and placed it in his family room, near the fireplace. Later that night, he fell asleep on his couch while watching tv.

He awoke suddenly when the television turned off. Startled, he looked left and right, trying to figure out what had happened. Had there been a short circuit? No, the clock was still giving the correct time. Everything else seemed to be working.

Then he heard an odd creaking sound coming from near the fireplace. The hairs on his arms prickled, and he felt a cold sensation pass over him. The rocking chair was rocking on its own.

"This is all nonsense," he told himself. "There has to be a logical solution. Maybe we had an earthquake. Or, maybe a mouse chewed through some wires." He went to bed, convinced it would all make more sense in the morning.

Later that evening, he heard the odd creaking sound again. He walked into the family room and turned on thel ight. The chair was rocking again!

“Something must be out of balance in the legs of that chair,” he decided. “I’ll deal with it in the morning.” Then he turned to go back to bed, but as he began to walk away suddenly a large heavy object struck him in the shoulder with great force. It was a large field boot that had been next to the fireplace.

“Now, a mouse might be able to chew through a cord, but there is no way a little mouse could throw a heavy boot!” Stanley thought.

Something about that chair made him very uneasy, and he realized he would not be able to sleep another wink with it in his house. He walked over to the chair, intending to put it into his truck and return it to the strange old
vendor the next day, but as he approached the chair it began rocking faster and faster. Spooked, Stanley decided to remove himself from the house instead, and he drove to a nearby motel.

The next day, Stanley tied the chair to the back of his truck and drove out to the address the old man had given when he signed up for his booth. The street was brand new, shiny new homes were still under construction--this was not at all the sort of place he pictured the old man to be living. Still, that was the address the man had given, so Stanley drove to the end of the street.

He drove the length of the street two times before he realized there was no house with such an address, only a nearby vacant lot.

With a feeling of dread, he left the rocker in the truck and returned home. “I’ll sell it to an antiques store,” he decided, “and I’ll keep it tied down in the truck until somebody buys it.”

When he got home, he got out a strong piece of rope and tightly lashed the rocker in place. Then he made himself some dinner, and fell asleep.

Sometime in the deepest hours of the night, he suddenly awoke. It was the creaking noise again! He tried to ignore it, but it was insidious. Finally, his curiosity got the better of him, and he checked the garage. There was the rocker, still tightly lashed in placed, and yet rocking away.

Stanley slammed the door shut and bolted every lock hecould find. He stayed up the rest of the night, listening to his radio with the volume turned up to drown out the rocking. Yet no matter how loud he turned the volume he could hear the creaking, and in fact, the chair was rocking faster.

A storm blew in, but even the sound of the wind and the lightening could not drown out the creaking of the chair.

Finally, he could take no more.

Stanley got in his truck and drove out to the subdivision. In the pouring rain, he stopped at the vacant lot, then untied all the ropes that held the chair in place and threw it onto the ground of the vacant lot.

Bolts of lightning struck nearby and the rain was thick. He jumped into the truck and sped away, but in his confusion he made a wrong turn and found himself at the end of a cul de sac. With dread, he turned the truck around and drove back toward the vacant lot hoping to pass it as quickly as possible.

Just as he passed the vacant lot, a bolt of lightning struck nearby and lit up the entire neighborhood, and for a split second Stanley saw an old farmhouse. The roof was falling apart, and one of the columns holding up the front porch had gone awry. On the porch sat an old woman in the rocker, knitting a long scarf.

Stanley stopped the truck, too frightened to drive. A second later it was dark again. Then, another bolt of lightning struck and lit up the street again. This time, all Stanley saw was a vacant lot. There was no sign of the rocking chair at all.

Stanley hit the gas pedal and drove home in record time. For the rest of his life, he never sat in a rocking chair again!

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Ghost Girl of Reston
Posted by: Ghost Girl of Reston ()
Date: May 07, 2012 04:12AM

http://www.city-data.com/forum/northern-virginia/698413-im-bored-talking-about-traffic-anyone-4.html#ixzz1uAZeqPTD

This one doesn't really have a story attached to it... but some people in Reston claim to have seen a young girl sitting in the old wooden swing that sits at the end of the canal off of Lake Anne. Just a few feet away from the swing is a contemporary art statue with two holes that roughly resemble binoculars. They say that if you look through these holes early in the morning you can sometimes see the girl playing around a tree. Sometimes she's been seen hiding a piece of paper in the tree.

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Walney Road - Chantilly, Virginia
Posted by: Walney Road Ghosts ()
Date: May 07, 2012 04:19AM

Walney Road - Chantilly, Virginia
http://hauntedva.blogspot.com/2010/05/walney-road-chantilly-virginia.html

The state of Virginia has numerous haunted roadways throughout the Commonwealth but none are as interesting as Walney Road in Chantilly, Virginia.

The story began back before this windy road was paved when one night, a passing vehicle ran over a man out for a leisurely night stroll, killing him instantly. Afraid of what might happen, the driver fled the scene and police were never able to determine who the killer was.

Since then, the road has been paved and homes have been built along the stretch of road. However, interesting and rather creepy sightings have been recorded for many years by those who travel this road frequently. Legend has it that if you're driving down this road at night you may see the ghost of this man, frantically seeking out help on the side of the road. If you drive by, you will see the figure twice more and if you don't pull over to help, the man will appear inside your car and force you off the road.

Perhaps this is a true story and it's definitely one worth checking out if you're brave enough to drive down this road during the night. However, to me, it sounds like a rumor that spread rapidly due to the high amount of accidents that occur on this road every year. The road is windy and dimly lit, which can cause cars to loose control if they are traveling at too high of speeds.

But who am I to say. The people who live around this area certainly believe it and I guess its best to say you should stay clear of driving on this road after the sun goes down.

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Haycock Elementary said to be haunted
Posted by: Haycock Elementary ()
Date: May 07, 2012 04:23AM

Falls Church - Haycock Elementary - Reported to be haunted by an ex-Vice Principal. The following year, on the same day of her firing, strange events occurred. People were shoved against walls; papers were thrown around, doors slamming, desks being toppled over, but all when no one else was around. That week, the head custodian reported that he saw a strange figure beckoning him to come closer, after school hours, when everyone had left.

Does anyone have any information or stories on this one?

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Falls Church - Longfellow Middle School
Posted by: Longfellow Middle School ()
Date: May 07, 2012 04:24AM

Falls Church - Longfellow Middle School - Back in the 1960's, the principal of Longfellow suffered a massive heart attack and died in his office at the school. After hours, custodians and other faculty report seeing him walk around the halls, apparently looking for troublemakers - as he would do normally as principal. They also have reported doors shutting, lights turning off, voices, and other noises, all of which have no explanations. This school, reportedly, is one of the most haunted in all of northern Virginia. In 1995, a teacher even reported hearing a moaning and screaming down the hallways, with no one else around.

http://blueridgegazette.blogspot.com/2006/10/virginias-haunted-places-d-f.html

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Annandale Hauntings - Annandale High School & Round Tree Park
Posted by: Annandale Hauntings ()
Date: May 07, 2012 04:25AM

Annandale - Annandale High School – Boy’s Restroom - Believed to be haunted by a student that committed Suicide. Reports of seeing the dead boy in a mirror in the bathroom.

Annandale - Round Tree Park - Known to many residents in Annandale and Arlington. Many sightings of a lady holding her baby who torments many people who happen to wonder in the park at night. It is said that when the fog rises then that is when she is most seen.

http://blueridgegazette.blogspot.com/2006/10/virginias-haunted-places.html

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Chantilly - Walney Road - It is said that many years ago before the windy road was paved a man was killed while hitchhiking. On Wednesday or Thursday nights at 11:30 if you drive down Walney and you see a hitchhiker, it is recommended that you stop. He ap
Posted by: Walney Road ()
Date: May 07, 2012 04:28AM

Walney Road Ghosts Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Walney Road - Chantilly, Virginia
> http://hauntedva.blogspot.com/2010/05/walney-road-
> chantilly-virginia.html
>
> The state of Virginia has numerous haunted
> roadways throughout the Commonwealth but none are
> as interesting as Walney Road in Chantilly,
> Virginia.
>
> The story began back before this windy road was
> paved when one night, a passing vehicle ran over a
> man out for a leisurely night stroll, killing him
> instantly. Afraid of what might happen, the
> driver fled the scene and police were never able
> to determine who the killer was.
>
> Since then, the road has been paved and homes have
> been built along the stretch of road. However,
> interesting and rather creepy sightings have been
> recorded for many years by those who travel this
> road frequently. Legend has it that if you're
> driving down this road at night you may see the
> ghost of this man, frantically seeking out help on
> the side of the road. If you drive by, you will
> see the figure twice more and if you don't pull
> over to help, the man will appear inside your car
> and force you off the road.
>
> Perhaps this is a true story and it's definitely
> one worth checking out if you're brave enough to
> drive down this road during the night. However,
> to me, it sounds like a rumor that spread rapidly
> due to the high amount of accidents that occur on
> this road every year. The road is windy and dimly
> lit, which can cause cars to loose control if they
> are traveling at too high of speeds.
>
> But who am I to say. The people who live around
> this area certainly believe it and I guess its
> best to say you should stay clear of driving on
> this road after the sun goes down.

Chantilly - Walney Road - It is said that many years ago before the windy road was paved a man was killed while hitchhiking. On Wednesday or Thursday nights at 11:30 if you drive down Walney and you see a hitchhiker, it is recommended that you stop. He appears up to three times to give you the chance to pick him up. If you still don’t pick him up by the third time, a car will come out of nowhere and kill you.

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Fairfax - George Mason University - Gazebo
Posted by: George Mason University Ghosts ()
Date: May 07, 2012 04:30AM

Fairfax - George Mason University - Gazebo - A small gazebo bordering the campus lake is said to be frequented by the spirit of a young man. He apparently drowned in the lake one evening. His body was found sitting in the gazebo by two females the next morning. Since that time, the man’s figure has been seen standing at the edge of the lake, or sitting in the gazebo. He has been known to beckon young women to come sit with him, and quickly disappearing when accommodated.

Fairfax-George Mason University-Gazebo-The gazebo bordering the lake has been reported to be haunted by the ghost of a young man who drown in the lake. Two young women found his body when they were sitting at the gazebo. The apparition of the man has been seen drowning and heard screaming for help. When investigated he is not found. The man seems to make his presence only known to women.

Yasmin wrote:

I go to George Mason University and under the Virginia ghost stories it says that the little gazebo along our pond (definitely not a lake) is haunted. For some reason this is a widespread rumor among people not from the area. As it turns out no one has ever died in the pond, but one time someone did drive a car into it ;)

The cottage was made in 1988 and was part of an Arts Gala.

Here is a link to an article I wrote about it in case you care: http://www.connect2mason.com/content/question-box-whats-cottage-thing-mason-pond

Yasmin Tadjdeh

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Ghost Stories in Northern VA
Posted by: Ghost Stories Abound ()
Date: May 07, 2012 04:32AM

Ghost Stories Abound at Mason
By Tara Laskowski
http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/6145

If you want a good ghost story, ask folklorist Margaret Yocom. For years, she’s been the “ghost keeper” at George Mason as associate professor of English. In the Northern Virginia Folklife Archive, Yocom and her students have collected hundreds of supernatural tales sure to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

Holding tales of Ouija boards and unexplained apparitions to haunted Fairfax buildings and houses, the archive is a rich resource of more than 1,400 stories collected in the span of 27 years celebrating the culture, traditions, and folklore of Northern Virginia. And it’s not all about the supernatural—Yocom collects folklore about local people, workers in regional industries, and families, as well as ethnic and regional recipes, traditional art, and folk medicine. Around Halloween, however, the ghost stories get the most attention.

“People have a lot of interest in the supernatural,” says Yocom. “Ghost stories are journeys into a world we haven’t even imagined. Many people believe that world is out there, but aren’t sure of the boundaries. Its pathways are only glimpsed at from time to time. When you hear a ghost story from someone, it can be a touchstone that says, ‘Oh, it could be. It’s possible.’”

The archive has been a popular research resource for Mason students—whether for a folklore course, a creative writing project, or a stage performance. Members of the Northern Virginia community, as well as folklorists throughout the United States, have also used the archive. In the future, Yocom hopes to display more stories on the Internet.

Every other academic year, Yocom teaches a folklore course, Narratives of the Spirit World: The Lore of Ghosts and Fairies—”always in the fall and always at night.” From this course, and others, spooky stories like the following have been researched and documented by students and are available in the archive by making an appointment with Yocom.

Some selected supernatural tales from George Mason University and the surrounding community follow.

The George Mason Crew Team Ghost, “Old Man Johnson”

Collected by Laura Craig, BA English, ’04, in 2003

This ghostly tale is well known to the women’s crew team at George Mason. According to legend, Old Man Johnson was a man who rowed in the area years ago, some say in the 1970s, who one night found his wife sleeping with another man in his bed. He was so upset that he went out on the water and rowed and rowed all night, and never came back. Some say he rowed right over the dam of the Occoquan River, others say he jumped off. Members of the crew team have reported seeing his ghost early in the morning near the docks or the dam. Whenever something strange happens that no one admits to doing, the team says it was the work of Old Man Johnson.

The Bunnyman Bridge

Collected by Hayden Zell in 2003

The Bunnyman Bridge in Clifton, Va., is perhaps the most famous haunted site in the Northern Virginia area. Featured on television and the Internet, it was named one of the Scariest Places on Earth by the Fox Family Channel in 2001. Zell relays several different versions of the Bunnyman tale—a legendthat has been told for years and researched by Mason alumnus and Fairfax County Library historian/archivist Brian Conley, BA Psychology, ’88. One version of the tale is that in 1904, a bus transporting inmates from an insane asylum to the Lorton Prison crashed right around the bridge. The inmates escaped; however, all were caught by authorities except for one man. In searching for him, the police found many carcasses of rabbits and assumed that the man was surviving on the meat. His spirit is said to haunt the bridge and can be seen at midnight on Halloween for anyone brave enough to wait.

The Restaurant Ghost

Collected by Susan Wiedemann, BA History, ’00, in 1999

The wait staff at Carlos O’Kelley’s restaurant on Main Street in Fairfax often tell of unusual happenings after hours. According to Wiedemann,, a dishwasher named Billy who worked at the restaurant some years ago (the time varies from 8-15 years) hanged himself in an upstairs dining room area of the restaurant one night after his girlfriend broke up with him. The manager closed the restaurant for two days and told everyone the dishwasher had gotten into a car accident. Ever since then, very early in the morning or very late at night, weird things happen. Many of the kitchen staff won’t come into the restaurant unless someone else is there. They think Billy haunts the restaurant. Glasses break and fall without anyone near them, and sometimes people hear a voice when they are in the upstairs room, although no one is there.

The Haunted Mill

Collected by Joy Fairman, BA English, ’98, in 1998

In Manassas, Va., people have reported strange happenings at an old abandoned mill. According to the story, many years ago, the man who owned the mill killed a woman and her young daughter who lived nearby. The daughter was found drowned in a stream behind the mill, and the woman was found tied to a tree with her throat slit. In the archive case file, the collector, Fairman, talked with a young woman who went to the mill site with a group of friends. The young woman was spooked by many things she couldn’t explain, including a tree that changed colors depending on where she was standing and the revving of her car engine without anyone touching the gas pedal. The complete story of the haunted mill can be found on the archive web site.

The Dorm Roommate

Collected by Debra Lindenburg in 1996

A popular legend that has been around for a long time and was featured in the 1998 movie, Urban Legend, this dorm story is more chilling then supernatural. A student getting ready to attend George Mason University was told a story about some freshman students living in a dorm at a college in Pennsylvania. One of the young women wanted to go out for awhile, and her roommate decided to stay in because she was tired. The first roommate went out, came back late, and rather than disturb her friend by turning on the lights, just climbed into bed. The next morning she woke up to find the message, “Aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the lights?” written on the wall in blood. Her roommate was lying dead in a pool of blood in her own bed.

In addition to these researched and archived stories, many Northern Virginia ghost stories can be found online. This tale found online at the Shadowlands Haunted Places Index tells of a ghost story right on the Fairfax Campus. “A small gazebo bordering the [George Mason University] campus [pond] is said to be frequented by the spirit of a young man. He apparently drowned in the lake one evening. His body was found sitting in the gazebo by two females the next morning. Since that time, the man’s figure has been seen standing at the edge of the [pond], or sitting in the gazebo. He has been known to beckon young women to come sit with him, and quickly disappears when accommodated.” However, according to University Police Sgt. Judy Meade and Lt. Willie Morton, who have worked at Mason for 13 and 17 years respectively, no one has ever drowned in Mason Pond. “We have had a car end up in the pond as the result of an accident,” says Meade. “But no one drowned. There may be some interesting fish and animals in and around the pond, but no ghosts that I’ve ever heard of.”

Want more spooky tales? Grab some candy corn and hot apple cider and make an appointment to read some of the hundreds of supernatural stories this Halloween season. For more information about the Folklife Archive, visit the web site or e-mail Margaret Yocom at myocom@gmu.edu.

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The Gazebo Ghost
Posted by: George Mason University Ghosts ()
Date: May 07, 2012 04:40AM

The Gazebo Ghost
http://spirit.gmu.edu/archives/fall05/spirits.html

In addition to these researched and archived stories, many Northern Virginia ghost stories can be found online. This tale is posted at the Shadowlands Haunted Places Index (theshadowlands.net/places/virginia.htm) and tells of a ghost story right on the Fairfax Campus. “A small gazebo bordering the [George Mason University] campus [pond] is said to be frequented by the spirit of a young man. He apparently drowned in the lake one evening. His body was found sitting in the gazebo by two females the next morning. Since that time, the man’s figure has been seen standing at the edge of the [pond] or sitting in the gazebo. He has been known to beckon young women to come sit with him and quickly disappears when accommodated.”

According to University Police Sgt. Judy Meade and Lt. Willie Morton, who have worked at Mason for 14 and 18 years, respectively, no one has ever drowned in Mason Pond. “We have had a car end up in the pond as the result of an accident,” says Meade. “But no one drowned. There may be some interesting fish and animals in and around the pond, but no ghosts that I’ve ever heard of.”

Want more spooky tales? Grab some hot apple cider and make an appointment to read some of the hundreds of supernatural stories this Halloween season. For more information about the Folklife Archive, visit www.gmu.edu/folklore/nvfa or e-mail Margaret Yocom at myocom@gmu.edu.

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The Invisible Ghost And A Dark Shadow Man
Posted by: jixxerhawk ()
Date: May 07, 2012 04:50AM

Here's a ghost story I found online, I felt like sharing. The 1st sighting was in Maryland, and the 2nd was in Reston VA.

http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=6049

Rockville, Maryland-

Once back in 2007 shortly after my father passed (8/18/2007) I had been sleeping in bed with my boyfriend when I awoke thinking my cat was sitting on my chest. When I put my hands to my chest to move the cat, there was no cat so I opened my eyes and looked around the room, when I didn't see anything I laid back down and my eyes naturally looked up at the ceiling. That's when I saw a mass of some sort. It was clear in appearance, almost like how Predator looked when he was in his invisible mode. For instance, there was a ceiling fan above the bed (which was not on) and I could see that there was something between me and the ceiling fan, no face, no image, just something there. It scared me so bad that I screamed and passed out. My scream woke my boyfriend and he asked me what happened, only thing I could say is I saw a ghost.

Reston, VA

Just about 2 weeks ago, after recently moving into my moms house after a lay off, I had been in my room watching TV for the evening with my dog Frankie. I became tired so I switched off the lights and TV and rolled over onto my right side. About 5 minutes later I heard Frankie becoming agitated, very low growling and huffing, I roll over to turn on the lights to see what is going on, and that's when I saw it. What I thought was a man standing at the foot of my bed, I didn't see a face just a shadow of what appeared to be a man. So I screamed "oh my god, oh my god!" because I thought it was a rapist or something, so I threw my blanket at the "man" to confuse him so I could run out. Well the blanket went right through it and that's when I panicked and jumped up and switched on the lights. Frankie had his head down and his tail between his legs, I personally couldn't stop shaking, nor can I now sleep with the lights off.

Has anyone ever had these experiences with you before? What does it mean?

I experience Déjà Vu all the time its ridicules. I also have a problem turning my back to the dark, for instance, I can't switch off all the lights in a room unless I am already out of it, because I am scared there is something I can't see. It is like I actually feel uneasy.

Thanks for your time

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: KW Fairfax partier ()
Date: February 07, 2013 06:47PM

Your referring to the "Crypts"..we used to party inside them back in the late 70s & early 80s. You had to climb down into them over blasted concrete & then climb down a displaced wrought irn "fence" that was used as a laddar....
REALLLLLY creepy & a perfect place to spend a Halloween.
I believe that today it has sadly been bulldozed over and filled in with dirt,
thus keeping out us "tresspassers",ie; the living.

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: KW Fairfax partier ()
Date: February 07, 2013 06:52PM

Petrose Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There was this place back in the day where we used
> to go party. It was kind of creepy...but perfect
> for Halloween. It was over off Route 1 near
> Pohick Church. I haven't been there for years and
> I've always wondered what happened to it. Has
> anyone else been there or heard about it?

Your referring to the "Crypts"..we used to party inside them back in the late 70s & early 80s. You had to climb down into them over blasted concrete & then climb down a displaced wrought irn "fence" that was used as a laddar....
REALLLLLY creepy & a perfect place to spend a Halloween.
I believe that today it has sadly been bulldozed over and filled in with dirt,
thus keeping out us "tresspassers",ie; the living.

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: Scary Larry ()
Date: May 25, 2013 04:33PM

KW Fairfax partier Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Petrose Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > There was this place back in the day where we
> used
> > to go party. It was kind of creepy...but
> perfect
> > for Halloween. It was over off Route 1 near
> > Pohick Church. I haven't been there for years
> and
> > I've always wondered what happened to it. Has
> > anyone else been there or heard about it?
>
> Your referring to the "Crypts"..we used to party
> inside them back in the late 70s & early 80s. You
> had to climb down into them over blasted concrete
> & then climb down a displaced wrought irn "fence"
> that was used as a laddar....
> REALLLLLY creepy & a perfect place to spend a
> Halloween.
> I believe that today it has sadly been bulldozed
> over and filled in with dirt,
> thus keeping out us "tresspassers",ie; the living.
Attachments:
The_Green_Lady_by_Embers_are_left.jpg

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: Civil War ()
Date: June 18, 2013 01:01PM

Any good cemeteries in the area associated with the civil war?

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: Ghostwalker ()
Date: June 18, 2013 01:05PM

Civil War Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Any good cemeteries in the area associated with
> the civil war?

Go here...

http://www.cyndislist.com/us/civil-war/cemeteries/

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: Civil War ()
Date: June 18, 2013 01:06PM

Ghostwalker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Civil War Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Any good cemeteries in the area associated with
> > the civil war?
>
> Go here...
>
> http://www.cyndislist.com/us/civil-war/cemeteries/

Nice, I meant ones that have haunting backgrounds though, but awesome link none the less

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: Ghostwalker ()
Date: June 18, 2013 01:09PM

Civil War Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ghostwalker Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Civil War Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Any good cemeteries in the area associated
> with
> > > the civil war?
> >
> > Go here...
> >
> >
> http://www.cyndislist.com/us/civil-war/cemeteries/
>
>
> Nice, I meant ones that have haunting backgrounds
> though, but awesome link none the less

I know, all of them have haunting backgrounds.

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: duped ()
Date: June 18, 2013 01:53PM

Go here....

This is a much larger thread with tons of stuff locally.
http://www.fairfaxunderground.com/forum/read/2/21188/1213110.html#msg-1213110

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The Richmond Vampire explained
Posted by: Ghostwalker ()
Date: August 12, 2013 09:15AM

Haunted Virginia Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Richmond Vampire In Hollywood Cemetery
> A railroad tunnel collapsed at near by Church Hill
> and buried several workers alive. However it was
> reported that a very scary being that had its
> clothes hanging from it and fangs in its mouth
> emerged from the cave in and ran towards the near
> by James River.
>
> The creature raced into Hollywood Cemetery and
> disappeared into the mausoleum of W.W. Pool where
> it vanished and it could not be found. Two men
> were told to stand guard overnight at the door to
> the mausoleum and the next morning every casket in
> the mausoleum was opened and searched but no
> living being could be found.
>
> A small hole about 5 inches across was found in
> the back of the mausoleum with cold air coming
> from it was discovered but even though they tried
> they could not open up the hole any bigger. But
> the men searching swore that no man or even a
> child could have went down that hole. The hole was
> filled over with cement and the patch can be seen
> to this day. And many many times over the years
> the wild strange looking vampire has been spotted
> and reported by many different people.
>
> In case your wondering Hollywood Cemetery got its
> name from the many Holly Trees that used to be all
> over the cemetery.

The Richmond Vampire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_Vampire

The Richmond Vampire is an urban legend that began soon after a collapse on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad's Church Hill Tunnel at Church Hill, a district of Richmond, Virginia, which buried several workers alive on October 2, 1925.

The story told of a blood covered creature with jagged teeth and skin hanging from its muscular body that emerged from the cave-in and raced toward the James River. Pursued by a group of men, the creature took refuge in Hollywood Cemetery, where it disappeared in a mausoleum built into a hillside bearing the name W.W. Pool.

Gregory Maitland, founder of Night Shift, a Richmond-based group that researched urban legends and oral traditions, and the Virginia urban legend and folklore expert of the Virginia Ghosts & Haunting Research Society (VGHRS), became interested in the Richmond Vampire story. His study of the disaster confirmed that after the tunnel collapsed a living being escaped from the wreckage. It was, however, a big and strong 28-year-old railroad fireman, Benjamin F. Mosby (1896-1925), who had been shoveling coal into the firebox of a steam locomotive of a work train with no shirt on when the cave-in occurred and the boiler ruptured.

Mosby's upper body was horribly scalded and several of his teeth were broken before he made his way through the opening of the tunnel. Witnesses reported he was in shock and layers of his skin were hanging from his body. He died later at Grace Hospital. It was from there that the story took on a life of its own through decades of retelling.
Attachments:
Hollywood cemetary-1.jpg
Hollywood cemetary-2.jpg

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: kindful ()
Date: August 12, 2013 03:00PM

I don't believe in ghosts.

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: Ghostwalker ()
Date: August 12, 2013 04:17PM

kindful Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't believe in ghosts.

That doesn't matter, they'll still get you.

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: Question? ()
Date: June 25, 2014 09:10AM

FFX Ghosts Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ghost Stories: Edith Sprouse
> http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/vr/s
> nakehill/volume2/sprouseghoststories.htm
>
> Did I tell you the ghost story about the mean man?
> His name was Richard Chichester and he lived down
> on Telegraph Road and he was so mean to his slaves
> that they called him "Hard Chichester" behind his
> back. He had been heard walking and dropping his
> boots down on the floor when he takes them off to
> go to bed. He lives in a house called Mount Airy
> which is down near Fort Belvoir and he's buried
> across Telegraph Road in Newington subdivision.
> There's a little family cemetery there and his
> tombstone just say5 "Hard Chichester." The
> tombstone originally said "Richard Chichester" but
> there was a bad storm in the 1920's down there and
> the next day they went over to the cemetery to see
> if any damage had been done and found that
> lightening had struck and chipped off a corner of
> the stone and so it took the "Ric" off his first
> name and now it just says "hard Chichester." It
> was very muddy and there were no footprints within
> the little grave yard and yet they couldn't find
> this other part of the piece of stone and so its
> sort of vengeance upon the man.
>
> He was supposed to have been so nasty he kicked
> out one of the slaves eyes because the slave
> wasn't quick enough in helping him take off his
> boots. When he died a red rabbit ran out from
> under his bed and the slaves all said that that
> was the devil leaving.

Is he any relation to Richard Chichester Mason?

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: Motor pool tech ()
Date: October 31, 2016 05:15PM

nice!

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: Very scary... ()
Date: October 31, 2016 05:19PM

And the President's name was...



























Trump!

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Re: Fairfax Ghost Stories Told Here
Posted by: hanging chad ()
Date: October 31, 2016 08:30PM

Very scary... Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And the President's name was...
> Hillary!

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