© D O'Donnell 2006

Montpellier in 1981: Shortly before midnight a two-door Renault pulled over to pick up a woman. Four people were already inside the car, so the hitchhiker’s unexpected presence necessitated some rearrangement of seating. Eventually, she settled in the rear seat. The car continued on its way, loud music blaring from its cassette player. As it approached a sharp curve the hitchhiker suddenly shouted, ‘Mind the bend. You are risking your life!’ The driver slowed up and safely negotiated the turn. Then everyone realized that their passenger had vanished! So shaken were the four that they called at the Montpellier police station and reported their experience. Inspector Lopez was impressed and later told researchers, ‘Their panic wasn’t put on and we soon realized they were genuine. It worried us, ‘But there was little that could be done after the event.

Resurrection Mary: This cemetery is home to a well known ghost story. It's the story of Resurrection Mary. Her name is Mary Bregavy, a young Polish girl that was killed in a car accident in 1939 while going home from a dance at the O'Henry Ballroom, now the Willowbrook Ballroom. Her ghost makes appearances all along the cemetery roads and at the Willowbrook Ballroom. She has been known to dance with men at the ballroom and ask them for a ride home only to disappear from their cars as they pass the cemetery. She's been seen hitchhiking on the nearby roads by many creditable witnesses. A taxi cab driver saw young girl walking one evening in 1989 and picked her up. The two of them were talking and driving but as the cab passed Resurrection Cemetery the girl, (Mary), disappeared from the front seat of the cab. In the summer of 1976, the Justice police received a phone call from a man who said that he saw a girl locked in the cemetery after hours. It was 10:30 PM when Sergeant Pat Homa responded to the call. Homa shined his flashlight through the cemetery bars into the darkened burial grounds. He didn't find any girl. He did find two of the bars on the gate were bent apart at a weird angle. They appeared have been bent apart by human hands...

By Kathy Weiser
Legends of America, © December, 2004

Eight miles north of Decatur, Nebraska, on the Omaha Indian Reservation, is a hill overlooking the Missouri River.  At its summit is a mound of dirt nearly 45 feet high marking the burial place of the great Omaha Indian Chief Blackbird.  The honored Indian Chief was buried here sitting upright on his favorite horse.  Back in 1804, Lewis and Clark visited this gravesite, leaving behind decorations to commemorate him. Blackbird Hill is said to be haunted and every year dozens of people gather at the site, on October 17^th.  However, it is not the ghost of Chief Blackbird who lingers here, but rather, that of a young woman who was murdered upon this hill more than a century and a half ago.

 The story begins with a young couple back east who had fallen in love in the early 1840s.  When the boy finished his schooling, his plans were to travel abroad for a time and then return to marry the young girl.  However, the boy never returned from his trip abroad.  The devastated young girl waited for several years, but she finally gave him up for dead and married another man.  Soon, the newlyweds headed west, eventually settling in northeast Nebraska, atop Blackbird Hill. On October 17, 1849, the young girl was astounded when she saw her old fiancé walking up the winding path from the Missouri River to her small cabin.  He too was surprised, having no idea that she lived there. Overjoyed to see him, she confessed that she had never stopped loving him and only married the other man because she thought he was dead.  He then began to convey the tale of his previous years.  When traveling abroad, he was shipwrecked but managed to survive.  However, it took him almost five years to get back to America.  When he arrived home he was saddened to find that his mother had died and his fiancée had married another man and moved west.  Setting out to find her, he joined a wagon train and headed for California, searching everywhere along the way for his long lost love...

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 Church Street Café – This 18 room hacienda, nestled in the heart of Old Town, dates back to 1709.  Originally built as a residence by the Ruiz family, it was referred to as the Case de Ruiz for nearly 200 years.  One of the oldest structures in the State of New Mexico, it remained in the Ruiz family until the last family member, Rufina G. Ruiz, died in 1991 at the age of 91.  After Marie Coleman purchased the property and began renovations for the Church Street Café, it was found that the building continued to be inhabited by the spirit Rufina Ruiz’s mother, a woman named Sara Ruiz.  Known to be a “curandera,” or healer, Sara was obviously not happy with the renovations as she once yelled at Marie when she brought in a contractor, “Get him out of here, now!"  Once a contractor was finally hired, buckets began to mysteriously get kicked around.  These types of antics continued until Marie began to talk to the spirit.  Employees have seen Sara’s spirit in the café dressed in a long black dress and a number of customers have felt her presence.

Haunted Hill - Located at the end of Menaul Boulevard in the foothills, allegedly visitors have heard the sounds of screaming, phantom footsteps and bodies being dragged.  According to the legend, an old man once lived in the caves at the top of the hills, sometimes bringing prostitutes there and killing them.  Other reports tell of the apparition of an old man walking and the swinging of a lantern by unseen hands. Kimo Theatre - The Kimo Theatre, a Pueblo Deco picture palace, was opened on September 19, 1927.  No institution stands through time without something bad happening and the Kimo is no exception. In 1951, a six year old boy named Bobby Darnall was killed when the boiler in the basement exploded, demolishing part of the original lobby.  It is this boy, wearing a striped shirt and blue jeans that is often seen playing on the lobby staircase.  But he is also known to play numerous impish tricks, such as tripping the actors and creating a ruckus during performances.  To appease the spirit, the cast hangs doughnuts on the water pipe that runs along the back wall of the theatre behind the stage... 

By James Donahue

If ever there was a ship with a curse on its haunted decks, it had to be Isambard Brunel’s colossal steamship Great Eastern. Although not considered large when compared to the super tankers and luxury liners plying the oceans today, Brunel’s steamship, launched on the Thames River at London in 1858, was 680 feet in length. Thus it was a monster for its time, an estimated six times larger than any ship ever built.

Although steam powered ships were a relatively new innovation in its day, The Great Eastern boasted amazing engineering that is still being used. For example, the steamer was given a double iron hull, attached to a girder frame. It was driven by both paddle wheels on its sides, and a propeller. Construction of such a massive ship involved millions of hand-driven rivets. An estimated 1,000 workers were hired to comprise 200 “rivet gangs” to get the job done. Because someone small had to squeeze inside the narrow space between the double hulls, young “bash boys” were hired to do this work. These boys spent 12-hour days in the confined space between the hulls, the only light furnished by a candle, and enduring the deafening thunder of the riveters’ hammers.

Some of them never came out. Their skeletal remains were found when the ship was dismantled for scrap. Boys fell to their death while working at deadly heights. Other gruesome accidents took the lives of other workers. Brunel built his ship facing parallel to the river and planned a side launch. When the hull was at last finished and the great launch day arrived in November, 1857, the people of London gathered to watch. This is when the curse first made itself known. One written account of events that day told of how the workers removed the massive blocks holding the ship in place. “Just after noon there was a cry of ‘She moves, she moves.’ The multiplying winch that was to control the launch spun out of control throwing the men operating it into the air. John Donovan, aged 74, died from severe internal injuries, and a further four men were injured. The ship had moved just three feet.”...

Apart from inspiring Richard Wagner to write an opera on the subject, The Flying Dutchman is a name that has come to be feared by mariners across the globe. It represents bad luck and is often considered to be a portent of doom. This is the reason why...

Vanderdecken's Mistake: In the year 1729, a Dutch ship called the Flying Dutchman, captained by the infamous Vanderdecken, set sail towards the Cape of Good Hope, Africa's southernmost tip which has long been associated with difficult sailing conditions and shipwrecks. Vanderdecken was a violent and disturbed captain who feared nothing and refused to back away from any situation. As the ship approached the Cape a violent storm broke out. The fierce winds, gigantic waves and terrible lightening threatened to sink the Flying Dutchman, but the twisted and fearless captain had a threat of his own. There and then, Vanderdecken swore an oath to the Devil that he would round the Cape even if it took him until Doomsday (the day that the world will come to an end). This foolish act brought a terrible curse down upon the captain, his crew and his ship. From that moment forth they were forced to roam the mighty seas for all eternity as a ghost ship.

 From that fateful day to the present, many sailors claim to have seen the Flying Dutchman haunting the seas. It is believed that anyone who sees the ship will have misfortune fall upon them. So powerful is this belief that King George V of England himself, as a young prince during his naval days, purported to have encountered it, although a prince is not someone who immediately springs to mind when considering unfortunate people. One method used by mariners to ward off the curse of the Flying Dutchman was to nail horseshoes to the masts of their ships, as this was supposed to bring good luck.  Many people would be skeptical of the existence of a 'ghost ship' and quite rightly so. No conclusive evidence for any type of ghost has ever been gathered and most scientists refuse to believe that they exist at all. To this end they have come up with an explanation for the supposed sightings and even those people who do believe in ghosts would have to admit that it is quite a good one...