Okay, it's that time of the year...

[dalesys]

15 years ago (1998) my dad's sister was in home hospice care. My parents were over, taking care of her, when she said, "There's a young woman waiting for you. She says her name is Catherine Diane, after her mother."

I have a sister, stillborn in 1956. My parents had never told anyone what they were going to name her. But her name was going to be Diane.

[celticgrl]

This one happened just the other day. As I walked out in the yard after dark to get in my car to go to the grocery store I started hearing faint drumming noise the longer I stood there the louder it got. At first I thought it was some car off in the distance with the bass up high but when no car came bye I closed my eyes to concentrate on the sound it got more vibrant and started to sound like drums from a pow-wow. It didn't freak me out or anything since I have been sensitive since i was little. After I got back from store that is when i remembered my grandmother telling the story years ago of going outside one night and seeing an Indian on a white horse sitting in the yard.


Since moving back home I have seen my grandma, had my grandpa walk the property with me, seen my great grandfather staring out of his bedroom window as I walked by his house. I use to have a picture from in front of my granpa's house standing right buy a giant oak in their yard was a civil war solider plain as dad but sure as hell hadn't been standing there when I took the picture.

When I lived down in Louisiana my friend Rose and I went to and old fort site in Harrisonburg I was snapping pictures of the prison cells the watchtowers and such all of a sudden the back of my arm started to burn I called Rose to come look and I had four gashes down the back of my arm like something had swiped at me.

[AccountingDrone]

Hubby's - he was working as a police officer on Long Island, and one of his duties required him to check out an old abandoned hospital. He'd been warned by his supervisor that occasionally "weird things happen there". Once, when he was with his supervisor and they were standing at one end of a LONG hallway, they noticed two swinging doors at the end of the hallway moving back and forth - when they got to the end, the doors were chained and padlocked shut - no way they could have been swinging.

.

Pilgrim State?

Friend of mine worked there as a nurse in 81/82 and she said the damnedest stuff used to happen in the tunnels between buildings.

[Jester]

The most famous ghost story in Key West history involves no ghosts, but is creepy as hell. One version of it can be found here.*MOD EDIT - NSFW pornographic video ads on the site being linked to. Also, some extremely disturbing and graphic images. Click at your own risk!

The version I am familiar with, the one most usually told in Key West, is the one documented in Ben Harrison's book "Undying Love." In which sexual activity is hinted at, but is not actually documented, as the above version seems to imply is factual. Also, after the charges were dropped, the Count, seeing nothing wrong with what he had done, asked the Court for Maria's body back. His request was denied.

[AccountingDrone]

The most famous ghost story in Key West history involves no ghosts, but is creepy as hell. .

What about that nasty doll? <shudder>

[Jester]

Yes, Robert the Doll. Well known creepy ass doll residing in one of Key West's museums, occasionally broken out for the creep factor or ghost stories. Much attributed to this odd-looking doll.

But still less well known and, more importantly, less real than the Count Von Cosel story.

[dalesys]

... Count Von Cosel story.

Is that where Howard inherited his... oddity?

[Ree]

Is that where Howard inherited his... oddity?

HUH????

Yes, Robert the Doll....
<snip>
...But still less well known and, more importantly, less real than the Count Von Cosel story.

Ah...but Robert the Doll is an actual "ghost" story that gets shared around, while, by your own admission, your tale of the Count is not actually a ghost story, but more of a creepy, sick and twisted tale of fetish and indignity to a corpse.

It seems that ghost stories are a popular topic. I did a search and there have been a lot of threads started along this very same line.
Great minds think alike, I guess. LOL

[Jester]

I'm with Ree....I don't get the Howard comment.

And Ree, you are correct that Robert the Doll is the true ghost story of the two, but you've gotta admit, the Count von Cosel story is pretty damned creepy. The annual haunted Fort here often has people playing both the Count and Elena.

[Ree]

And Ree, you are correct that Robert the Doll is the true ghost story of the two, but you've gotta admit, the Count von Cosel story is pretty damned creepy.

Oh definitely!

It was really quite disturbing.

[Jester]

It's more disturbing when you see Robert on a semi-regular basis, as we do living down here.

[dalesys]

I'm with Ree....I don't get the Howard comment.

Think: Famous (busted) sportscaster...

[Jester]

That was a stretch, even for you.

And in case you didn't know, the Count's last name was pronounced KAH-sill, as opposed to the broadcaster's ko-SELL.

[Ree]

It's more disturbing when you see Robert on a semi-regular basis, as we do living down here.

Robert comes in for drinks? Cool. LOL
(I have a friend who is obsessed with Robert. He bought me a T-shirt with Robert's picture on it, and forwards any links to stories he finds about it.)

[firecat88]

From my own observation, the university I went to is chock-full of ghosts. Three of the buildings in particular (H Hall, LH Hall, and the Library) are extremely active.

1) H Hall was, at one point, the only building on campus. It has housed faculty offices, classrooms, and even the library. Most of the hauntings that go on there are harmless. It's a lot of 'stuff wandering from point A to point B'. However, there are two permanent ghosts I've noticed in the building. And both of them reside in the elevator.

* Sarah is the ghost of a little girl who, as far as I can tell, was killed in a car accident. She's very shy and doesn't like to go wandering too far from the elevator.

* Jason is slightly less easy to read. He's one of those types of entities that just...lurks. He reeeeeeally doesn't like me because I kinda kept poking at him to tell me who he is (I was very stupid and inexperienced and didn't consider that pestering ghosts might piss them off).

2) LH Hall now houses the financial aid and registrar offices, as well as some faculty offices. Like H Hall, though, it once had classrooms and the library (noticing a pattern here?). To me and to several other people I know, this building has always felt...wrong. It's old, it's poorly-lit, and, once you step inside, all outside noise pretty much just dies. Especially on the upper floors.

* The stairwell is the home of Roger. I've encountered him a few times. He's very angry and very much one of those 'I hate the world and everyone on it' types. There's something about him and his life involving fire, I think, but I've never stuck around long enough to chat with him. >.>

* I don't know what's on the 4th floor, and I really don't want to. It's one of those places where, the second you set foot in it, there's just this unsettling feeling. This overwhelming feeling of 'There is something up here that wants to hurt me'. Thus, I try to avoid the area as much as possible.

3) The library is a building that I sorta have a love-hate relationship with. I spent a lot of time in there studying, reading, having lunch (they have a 'no food or drink' policy, but I don't know anyone who actually adheres to it), and generally just hiding from the world. And, yet, it creeps me the frick out sometimes. Especially the third floor. The third floor is where all of the oldest books are kept. It's rarely occupied unless it's around finals week but, even at its emptiest, it always feels like there's tons of people there. I've picked up on one woman in particular who roams about the place, and a friend of mine has felt what we both refer to as an 'It' (something that lived and died as a human, but deteriorated over time to become something considerably less-than-human).

Of course, all that is just what I've felt personally. That doesn't even account for the one known ghost story I've heard on campus- In one of the dorms, a girl apparently hung herself manymanymany years ago. Now she's said to haunt said dorm.