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- NEW YORK -
Maybe you're sick
and tired of all the Halloween hoopla - the
commercialism, the Darth Maul
costumes, the smiling, cheery pumpkins.
Isn't this holiday supposed to
be scary?
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- Beyond the plastic masks and
candy corns is the other
side of Halloween " the place where
things truly go bump in the night.
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- In the interest of the true
spirit of Halloween, we've
assembled a list of places where the ghosts
don't carry glow sticks.
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- Hull House
Disappoints; Crow House Gives Good
Scare
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- The Hull House was
built in 1856 in Chicago as a shelter
for immigrants. Now a museum, the
first reported paranormal activity was
experienced in the early 1900s
in the form of the Devil Baby.
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- According to the legend, this baby was cursed with a
Satanic appearance due to his atheist father. It is said the child appears
in the house as a ghostly light. A ghostly, devilish light.
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- But according to one
museum worker named Barb (who requested
her last name be withheld), no
one has seen anything creepy at Hull House
for years. And Barb is one
person who ought to know, because, she says,
"I used to live in a
haunted house."
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- Barb used to live in The Crow House, a well-known
residence
in the Crystal Lake area of Illinois. Her parents still live
there.
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- "That's the oldest house in town," Barb says.
"We know of a woman who died there in the 1970s, Mrs. Davy. You can
smell lilacs when she's around. We can see her " she's just always
around. Other people can sense her too."
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- Barb says you can often hear
people having a party downstairs
in the house, but "when you go to
check, no one's there."
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- Corbis -
Signs of a suburban haunting?
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- According to Barb, there's also
the ghost of a man dressed
in an 1800s costume, with a walrus mustache.
She says he just stands on
the steps and stares. "The upstairs
master bedroom used to be used
as a sick room," Barb explains.
"People died there. That's where
this man died."
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- Generally, she says
it's not too scary: "We're used
to Mrs. Davy."
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- But, as far as Hull
House goes, Barb confides it's a
real disappointment that nothing scary
has happened, since that's why she
took the job. "It's really
sad," she says.
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- But Barb perks up when you ask her about Chicago's other
supernatural hot spots.
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- "The Biograph Theater was the last place Dillinger
was before he was killed in the alley out back," she says.
"People
say you can see him sometimes, running down the alley
before he disappears
in a purple light. I know for a fact dogs will
not go in that alley."
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- The site of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, now a
parking
lot, is also rumored to be visited by the spirits of the dead,
once again
attested to by the apparent agitation of dogs forced to
enter the premises,
according to Barb.
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- Amityville Horror Gets Erased from Local
Memory
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- And then there's Amityville, N.Y., arguably the site
of the most famous haunted house in the United States.
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- On November 13, 1974, the
now-infamous house in Long
Island became the scene of a brutal multiple
murder when Ronald DeFeo,
Jr. killed six members of his family with a
shotgun as they slept in their
beds.
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- Folk legend has it DeFeo was
possessed by the spirit
of a Native American chief whose tomb had been
violated around the turn
of the century.
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- And everyone remembers the 1979
film The Amityville Horror,
based on Jay Anson's 1977 book of the same
name, which purported to tell
the horrifying "true story" of
the Lutz family, who bought the
house in 1975. The Lutzes claimed a
series of terrifying supernatural events
drove them from the
home.
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- Some
believe the part about the haunting is a hoax, while
others buy the
story.
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- But
if the folks at the Amityville Chamber of Commerce
had their way, the
whole thing would be erased from county records by now.
According to
Marsha Bessman, "Those events never happened. That's
not an image
we want people to have of our town."
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- And yes, according to Bessman,
a "normal" family
now lives in the house, leading a
"normal" life. "Tourists
don't come to see the house
anymore," she says. And to make sure,
the street is now one-way,
and there's no parking.
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- Fort
McHenry? Ain't no Ghosts Here
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- On a less sensational note,
Baltimore's Ft. McHenry,
the fortress that guarded the city throughout
history, is rumored to be
the site of some supernatural goings-on.
Stories have been told of a shadowy
figure who marches along the
parapets, an evil spirit in a hallway and
floating furniture. Tour
guides have reportedly been surrounded in an otherworldly
light, and it
is rumored voices have been heard after the fort has been
closed to
visitors.
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- But try getting any of the park rangers to admit that.
One
ranger, a 20-year veteran who declined to give his name, would only
say, in the terse small-town dialect that Hollywood's made us expect in
these situations: "I don't repeat ghost stories." When pushed
to
reveal where he heard said stories, he cryptically responded,
"Visitors."
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- Perhaps he was too frightened to speak. Or maybe he
was a ghost himself ... Only one way to know for sure: check out Fort
McHenry
and see for yourself.
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