1,001 Facts That Will Scare the S#*t Out of You: The Ultimate Bathroom Reader (113 page)

856

FACT :
Guests at the Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana should be prepared to see ghosts, a piano that plays itself, an oil portrait that becomes animated, and other unexplained phenomena. The bed and breakfast is
among America’s most haunted houses
.
By its own PR staff, in a thinly veiled attempt to drum up business.

Joe Nickell, Adventures in Paranormal Investigation (University Press of Kentucky, 2007), 2.

857

FACT :
The Tower of London is said to be full of ghosts, including that of the Countess of Salisbury, who, according to legend, was
hacked to death by her pursuing executioner
as she tried to escape.

Some claim that spirits reenact the grisly 16th century event on Tower Green.
If any place in the world has ghosts, the Tower of London is it.

Lionel Fanthorpe and Patricia Fanthorpe, The World’s Most Mysterious Castles (Dundurn Press Ltd., 2005), 184.

858

FACT :
Some residents of Taos, New Mexico report hearing a constant, low-frequency hum in the desert air. Some believe the Taos Hum is caused by unusual acoustics;
others suspect a secret, sinister purpose
. The exact source of the hum is undetermined.
People who hear the hum are called Taos Hummers, which is also the name of a local gentlemen’s club.

“Top Ten Unexplained Phenomena,” LiveScience,
www.livescience.com
.

859

FACT :
On February ii, 1859,
thousands of small fish rained over the village of Mountain Ash
in South Wales, one of several recorded instances of live fish falling from the sky.
Live until they hit the ground, that is.

John Michell, Bob Rickard, and Robert J. M. Rickard, Unexplained Phenomena: A Rough Guide Special (Rough Guides, 2000), 18.

Susan Cosier, “It’s Raining Fish,” ScienceLine, September 17, 2006,
www.scienceline.org
.

860

FACT :
In January 1877,
thousands of dark brown snakes
inexplicably covered Memphis, Tennessee for several days after a violent storm. Their origin was never determined.
I’m guessing their origin was all the outhouses that got turned over in the storm.

John Michell, Bob Rickard, and Robert J. M. Rickard, Unexplained Phenomena: A Rough Guide Special (Rough Guides, 2000), 37.

John Clark, Unnatural Phenomena: A Guide to the Bizarre Wonders of North America (ABC-CLIO, 2005).

861

FACT :
In 1891, a British sailor aboard the whaling ship
The Star of the East
disappeared while trying to kill a great sperm whale. After the whale was caught and its stomach cut open,
the ship’s crew found the missing sailor curled up inside but still alive
.
He was rocking back and forth, whimpering, and sucking his thumb.

Stephen Wagner, “Seven of the Weirdest Human Enigmas,”
About.com
,
www.paranormal.about.com
.

862

FACT :
Poltergeist events usually originate with
a prepubescent “focal person
.”
Even ghosts know not to tangle with a girl going through puberty.

James Houran and Rense Lange, Hauntings and Poltergeists: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (McFarland, 2001), 65.

863

FACT :
In 1962, a poltergeist harassed an Indianapolis grandmother, mother, and daughter by making noises, hurling objects, and biting them. The initial string of incidents stopped after two weeks, but
the poltergeist would return several times
over the following months.
Poltergeists are German, so they’re very stubborn and not easily deterred.

James Houran and Rense Lange, Hauntings and Poltergeists: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (McFarland, 2001), 65.