The mystery may have been solved. According to recent research, Gallows Hill Park in Salem, Massachusetts, isn’t where the accused “witches” were hanged. It seems that the real location might have been nearby Proctor’s Ledge.
Of course, I’m chagrined that my ley line map is no longer as straightforward and tidy as it had been, before this discovery. However, I’d rather have the truth… and a genuine history to work with, for future Salem investigations.
Meanwhile, the media describe Proctor’s Ledge as “in back of a Walgreens.”
Technically, that’s true. However, the neighborhood is mostly residential, with a Walgreens store & pharmacy at the foot of the hill.
If you investigate around Proctor’s Ledge, remember that much of the surrounding area is private property.
In addition, I’m not sure you need to hike into the slightly wooded area to conduct ghost research. A quiet stroll around the neighborhood — not disturbing the residents — may provide the paranormal experience you’re looking for. (See my story, below.)
Since Halloween (Samhain) eve in 2008, I’ve been waiting for this announcement. That’s when psychic Gavin Cromwell — not related to me, as far as I know* — and I wandered around the neighborhood between Salem’s Essex Street, Boston Street, and Gallows Hill Park. [Map link]
Earlier that afternoon, we’d filmed a TV segment at Salem’s “Witch House.” Then, we’d left the film crew to pack up their gear and probably find their way to one of Salem’s many wonderful cafes, pubs, and restaurants.
Instead of relaxing over a hearty meal, Gavin and I wanted to be part of Salem’s annual Samhain celebration.The circle and ceremony at Gallows Hill Park is legendary. That evening, it was open to the public, and — as usual — attracted a very large crowd. (That year, it was hosted by the Temple of the Nine Wells.)
With nothing else to do before the gathering, Gavin and I went for a walk.
In other words — and for the benefit of skeptics — we had no audience. It was just the two of us. No audience. No cameras. Gavin had no reason to invent stories to impress anyone; I already knew he was psychic.
On that late afternoon in October 2008, Gavin and I hiked up and down the residential streets near Gallows Hill Park. Gavin felt drawn to that neighborhood, not the more famous landmark just a block (or so) away.
I’d love to claim that I was the one who first suggested that the Proctor’s Ledge area was the real gallows site.
I didn’t.
In fact, Gavin not only announced it first, he seemed absolutely confident it was where some of the accused “witches” had been hung.
After that, we walked back and forth around the area he focused on. As usual, we bounced our psychic impressions off one another, fine-tuning the history we sensed.
By the time we noticed others arriving at the nearby park, both of us were convinced that some (not necessarily all) of the victims of the Salem Witch Trials had been executed at that location.
And then we went to the Samhain celebration.
(Note: We agreed that something else — something not very nice — had happened at Gallows Hill Park, not just in the 17th century, but later, as well. So, that park is worth investigating if you’re in the area.)
Proctor’s Ledge video
The following video was filmed in 2012 and posted at YouTube by thedevilshopyard. It’s a good way to see what the ledge actually looks like, if you hike into the wooded area.
As you can see, the site is close to at least one busy street. So, especially if you’re hoping to investigate after dark, make sure you have permission. Neighbors and passing cars will notice flashlights, and call the police.
(And, if the site is open to the public and you explore that area, be prepared for poison ivy and very uneven ground.)
Sometimes, I’m more convinced by retracted “ghost stories” than those that get lots of publicity.
Here’s an example:
I was searching for fresh news reports about ghosts. I use special software to filter out the stories that won’t interest me. Then, I click on those that look interesting.
The following is a screenshot of one story that caught my interest.
However, when I clicked to read the article… it had already been removed from the WOOD-TV website.
That’s not entirely weird. After all, it looks like the story was from 2012.
On the other hand, I’m still not sure why it showed up on my feed of recent news stories. (Cue the Twilight Zone music…?)
Generally, when I see something that looks like a publicity stunt — a news reporter “locked in,” Ghost Adventures’ style — I sigh in exasperation. Really, guys, that’s become a cliche. Zak and his friends can do “locked in” investigations far better than amateurs.
What made this story different is that it’s the Titanic.
Of course the artifacts from it could have eerie energy. I’d be more surprised if this kind of exhibit wasn’t haunted.
Though this news story is old, my point is still current:
If you’re looking for creepy, haunted places to investigate, sometimes it’s better to look for reports that vanish almost as completely as the ghosts do.
Stories (and commercial sites) that shout “Look at me! Look at me!” are less likely to be the real deal.
It doesn’t take the Haunted Collector to spot a show or exhibit that could be truly haunted, and worth visiting. In fact, if you can get to a display like this one, I recommend (discreetly) carrying an EVP recorder in your pocket, to pick up any odd messages you might hear while in the gallery or exhibit.
If you’re intrigued by the idea of a haunted Titanic exhibit, you’ll have lots of choices. Check the Titanic Exhibitions list to find a site near you. (Personally, the Luxor would be my first choice. That place is pretty creepy to begin with, with its massive Egyptian statues.)
This is a long video, but I especially recommend the section starting around 8:18, through the shadow movement that’s replayed in slow motion.
Could it be confusion about normal shadows? Possibly. With a variety of light sources and multiple people in the room, it might even be likely.
However, there’s a quality to the shadows — though I’m pretty sure one part of the image is normal — that seems downright peculiar to me.
The video is long (too long, without some video notes or a good transcript) but includes other possible anomalies, as well. If you have time, watch the whole thing, since it gives you a better context for evaluating the anomalies.
The site is an office building in Harlingen, Texas and the investigators are Graveyard Shift Paranormal. (As of March 2018, their website seems to have vanished.)
In general, the lighting and reflective surfaces (glass, mirrors, etc.) at the site are definitely a problem. If that were my video, I’m not sure that I’d feel confident of any anomalies in it. I’d go back with black sheets to cover every reflective surface, and I’d have extra cameras set up behind the cameras that are filming possible anomalies. Those extra cameras would be a way of double-checking (or “debunking”) anomalous shadows, based on who was where, and what lighting was involved.
I am a little skeptical.
However, there’s something about that shadow, and how it changes shape and moves… We’re looking for “weird within weird” in many videos, and — in my opinion — that qualifies as something for further research. The shadow might be completely normal, but it’s still very, very odd, and that’s consistent with some shadow figures we’re seeing during ghost investigations.
You’ll see two possible anomalies in this video. One is an interesting orb. The other is something that might be an apparition.
The Joplin Paranormal Research Society (Missouri) don’t claim that the orb is a ghost. Of the two anomalies, I think the orb is more credible to someone who wasn’t there at the time.
The orb appears and then backs away. It’s clear and large, and the right shape and density to be interesting.
However, it might be something reflective that drifted in and was pushed back by… well, I wasn’t there. A fan could do it, a door opening and closing, someone moving abruptly enough to cause a slight breeze, and so on.
But, after my intensive research into orbs and how easy they are to fake (or mistake) with dust, moisture, reflections, etc… this orb could be paranormal.
On the other hand, the apparition looks like someone walking in front of the camera. It catches the light. It’s too solid.
That’s exactly what makes this credible. Unless the Joplin team are terrible investigators, had temporary amnesia, or are trying to promote a hoax, that figure is something paranormal.
(Yes, as the author of the popular article, Scams and Con Artists, I know that audacious lies fool us most often. Nevertheless, I’m taking this video at face value.)
Does the video show a ghost? Maybe.
I’m raising an eyebrow because — as I said earlier — it’s too solid. That doesn’t mean it’s fake, but I wouldn’t rule out other paranormal explanations.
And, for that reason, assuming this was a real anomaly, I’d be very cautious about returning to that location. It might be malicious.
All in all, this is an interesting video.
Originality (assuming it’s real)
Credibility (combined, of either anomaly – the orb or the figure)
Tennessee’s Old South Pittsburgh Hospital is haunted. I’ve investigated the site informally… enough to know that it requires a strong stomach to explore at length. However, this first video — by Cryptic Shadows Paranormal Research, from Ohio — is a little too tidy and too informal for credibility.
My initial problem is the crystal-clear EVP. The fact is, we hardly ever hear EVP like that, especially involving the exact same voice and absolutely no static or interruptions. Unless this was processed to an extreme level before adding to the sound track, almost all of this EVP sounds like it was a prank, or it was added afterwards… and by one man.
The exceptions might be real EVP worth studying.
The following videos have more credibility. They’re among a series of videos — covering a 28-hour investigation (three nights) — at that same hospital. The team members are part of Living Dead Paranormal, also from Ohio.
Update: All related videos were removed from YouTube, and I can’t find any of them on the Fourman Brothers’ (Living Dead Paranormal) website. That’s disappointing, but seems to happen often in this field. (If you find someone with a copy of that full episode, watch the investigation. It’s worth your time.)
Old South Pittsburgh Hospital looks like a normal medical facility, except that it was empty when I investigated the site. It’s not creepy-old, it’s simply creepy. Except that it lacks the usual visual cues, it could have inspired the Geoffrey Rush remake of The House on Haunted Hill.
The site’s energy is weird. It’s not your normal haunted site. It has a grisly aspect, lurking in the shadows. I have no idea what it is, but I was uneasy when I was there.
My research suggests that bodies are buried on the site, in unmarked graves.
I’d expect almost any kind of phenomena there. It’s not a site to explore with children, especially after dark.
I haven’t been inside the building (it was closed and looked abandoned, when I was there) nor have I taken part in any of their events. However, if you’d like to investigate a site that’s more than a little strange — even among haunted places — Old South Pittsburgh Hospital is probably a site to visit.
All I can say is: Something is not right at that hospital, and it’s not your typical haunted site. It feels like a gathering of shadow people… and I’m not convinced they’re actually “ghosts” in the classical sense.
I don’t think my reference to The House on Haunted Hill is misplaced.
Originality of the first video (by Cryptic Shadows) – Not much. They were having fun. I don’t think they intended it as a serious “ghost video.”
Credibility of the first video (by Cryptic Shadows) – The clear EVP raises questions about how it was recorded and filtered. If that’s raw footage, someone (not necessarily the people in the video) was probably playing a prank.
However, I think the other videos — by Living Dead Paranormal — have enough credibility to place Old South Pittsburgh Hospital on your list of places to investigate.
And, as I said, I’ve been there when the hospital was mostly deserted. No one was there to hype the ghosts or try to convince me it was haunted. My feeling was: The hospital is haunted, including the grounds around it. I haven’t been to any events there, so I can’t say whether they’re worth your time, but the site itself is good and creepy.
Of course, check accessibility to the site. I’ve heard that it’s now posted against trespassers, and under management by a group determined to keep vandals out.
In my book about haunted cemeteries, I mentioned ghost hunting opportunities at unmarked graves, and graves just outside cemetery walls.
At the time, I described many of them as the graves of “sinners,” or people whose lives (or deaths) did not allow them to be buried in consecrated ground.
During a recent Saturday investigation in Concord (NH), I discovered another explanation for those graves.
The answer surprised me. It’s Quakers (also known as “Friends.”)
Quakers and unmarked graves
Apparently, between 1717 and 1850, gravestones and memorials at cemeteries were considered “vain monuments” and – according to a decree by members of the Quaker faith – had to be removed from Quaker graves.
In other words, some (perhaps many) unmarked graves aren’t anonymous because the families were too poor to afford gravestones, or because the markers were stolen, but because the burial plots belonged to Quakers.
On the other side of the fence (literally, in this case), mainstream Christians objected to members of the Friends Church or Religious Society of Friends – generally known as “Quakers” – being buried in consecrated ground. This was because Quakers aren’t baptized, or – in Quaker terms – “sprinkled.”
This adds up to a disturbing thought, though it may explain why some homes and fields seem haunted, with no obvious explanation:
Quakers have been buried in fields, and family plots – also unmarked – near their homes. In other words, you may have walked over Quaker graves many times without realizing it.
Old North Cemetery, Concord, NH
I discovered this during some post-investigation research about the Old North Cemetery in Concord, New Hampshire. I’d been there with Lesley Marden and Sean Paradis, and we spent about two and a half hours researching the site.
Sean and I had been there before, and I’d investigated the cemetery on my own, during daytime hours. (It’s on the edge of downtown Concord, in the middle of a busy residential area.)
Though the site may be haunted after dark, and we noticed many anomalies at the cemetery, I don’t consider Old North Cemetery profoundly haunted. It is intriguing, nevertheless.
The cemetery is L-shaped and covers nearly six acres and – according to the National Historic Register application – it’s comprised of three areas: The main cemetery, the Minot Enclosure (sort of a cemetery-within-a-cemetery), and the Quaker Lot. (That’s not quite true, as I’ll explain in a few minutes.)
The cemetery was in most frequent use between 1730 and 1958.
The Quaker Lot
Though I’d been to Old North Cemetery before, I hadn’t noticed the odd, open field in the back of the Minot Enclosure. That field has just a few markers, and one of them reminded us of a bunker marker.
It’s indicated by the arrow, and the Friends’ (Quaker) marker is in the oval. That part of the cemetery is separated from the Minot Enclosure by a cast iron fence (with a break in it) and a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire.
To reach the Quaker burial lot, you’ll exit Minot and walk through the main Old North Cemetery, to where the Quaker Lot begins. (It’s not fenced off from the main cemetery.)
Once you’re standing in what looks like an open field, about 10,000 square feet, you’ll see just a few markers. The main one is the slanted memorial listing many of the people buried in the Quaker Lot. The lot was purchased in 1811, according to the terms of the will of Benjamin Hannaford. He’s one of the people buried in the lot.
At left is the memorial marker. (Due to the late-afternoon lighting, I had to increase the contrast in this photo, for the lettering to show at all.)
At the back of that memorial, you can see a metal marker for Levi Hutchins. I think it’s a military marker, and it’s just sort of leaning there. No one knows where Levi Hutchins was buried, so there’s no actual place for the marker.
On the other hand, Levi Hutchins’ wife, Phebe, does have a gravestone. Levi flew in the face of Quaker traditions and commissioned a headstone for his late wife. That’s it in the photo at the lower right.
The history of the Quakers in Concord is an interesting story.
The part that caught my attention was that the Friends (Quakers) built a meetinghouse in 1815, but in 1816 the state bought the land from them (it’s where the Concord State House is, now) . The city moved the meetinghouse to a location just east of the Quaker burial lot, fronting on North State Street. (Sean, Lesley, and I had wondered about the odd landmarks on the property.)
In those days, that was the edge of the city.
In 1845, the meetinghouse was sold and moved again, to become a school building. The land it was on was purchased by the city in 1911, for the sum of $300, because it was “in a very bad condition and a disgrace to our city.”
So, that’s an added reason why the Quaker Lot (and land near it) may be more active than other parts of the Old North Cemetery.
And, from the popular, gated entrance to the cemetery at Bradley Street, the Quaker Lot is – as you might expect – at the back left corner.
Quaker-related activity at Minot Enclosure?
We spent considerable time at the Minot Enclosure, an exclusive section of the Old North Cemetery, surrounded by an elaborate cast iron fence and containing 62 graves. There, we noticed that random gravestones had been turned so they faced slightly away from the Quaker Lot.
Those random and very slight turns weren’t consistent with vandalism. That was one of many mysteries we wondered about as we walked around the cemetery.
Now that we know about the Quaker Lot, Sean Paradis has raised an interesting question:
The Quakers in the Quaker Lot are from a time when gravestones were considered “vain monuments.” Just feet away, the Minot Enclosure is where the 14th U.S. president, Franklin Pierce, is buried. Might the activity within the Minot Enclosure be based on the mutual uneasiness of the Quakers and the upper social register in the Minot Enclosure?
That’s a stretch, but it’s fun to speculate.
However, as I was studying the cemetery records, I realized that Old North Cemetery isn’t just a combination of three cemeteries. I discovered a fourth section of the cemetery, not often mentioned.
The Prison Lot
According to the National Historic Register application, “The Prison Lot, comprised of a long 10′ x 75′ rectangular lot just west of lots #384 and #385 in the center of the cemetery, appears on all maps drawn after the 1844 western addition to Old North Cemetery.”
The report also states that the cemetery records note that there are at least a dozen graves there, but no records of the names of the deceased in those graves.
And, since the old State Prison – built in 1811 – was replaced in 1880, there’s probably no way to determine who might be in those graves. (The photo on the left shows that 1811 prison, on two acres near the Court House. It was attached to a three-story superintendent’s house.)
Unmarked graves + prisoners + no records of any kind to tell us who they were… That’s a formula for hauntings. (If anyone’s giving “ghost tours” of downtown Concord, NH, take note.)
And, in general, if you’re going to visit or investigate Old North Cemetery, I recommend reading the full National Historic Register application, linked below.
(Note: I’ve tried downloading it three times, and it consistently crashes my Adobe PDF reader. If that happens to you, notice which page you’re on when it crashes, and then use the “go to” page function when you reopen the PDF, to pick up where you left off.)
Both the main cemetery and the Minot Enclosure deserve separate articles, which I’ll write later. Today, it’s important to share what I learned about Quaker burial practices. Remember, as it says in one history of the Society of Friends, “By 1700 the Society gained considerable influence in most of the New England and middle-Atlantic colonies. Quaker migration to the southern colonies, especially North Carolina…”
In other words, unmarked Quaker graves – and even unmarked (and forgotten) Quaker burial lots – may exist throughout the eastern United States, as well as Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Canada.
What you need to know about all Quaker graves and burial lots
Expect no grave markers for burials before the late 1840s.
Quaker graves could be in Quaker burial grounds, near the person’s home, at the far corner of a family farm or homestead, or in a rural location. I found one reference that said Quakers “always regarded the physical remains of a person as spiritually insignificant.”
The burial was intended to be as inexpensive as possible, within the law. One Quaker historian commented, “Well into the 20th century, it was not unusual for a country burial to have an unembalmed body.”
In some Quaker cemeteries, especially before 1850, coffins were placed in the first available slot in the cemetery, not in family groups. Philadelphia’s Arch Street burial ground (between Third and Fourth Streets), in use until 1804, was organized so the coffins were four layers deep and none had markers of any kind.
Despite rumors and folklore, I found no evidence of any Friends (or Quakers) being buried upright. There was no rule against that practice, but no provision for it, either.
In the 20th century and later, Quakers generally chose cremation.
Quaker beliefs about death
I’ll let William Penn have the final word about the Friends’ (Quakers) attitude towards death. This is from a poem published in 1693:
And this is the Comfort of the Good,
that the grave cannot hold them,
and that they live as soon as they die.
For Death is no more
than a turning of us over from time to eternity.
References
Old North Cemetery, Concord, NH – National Historic Site application (PDF)
Sometimes, I’m more convinced by retracted “ghost stories” than those that get lots of publicity.
In 
Though I’d been to Old North Cemetery before, I hadn’t noticed the odd, open field in the back of the Minot Enclosure. That field has just a few markers, and one of them reminded us of a bunker marker.
At left is the memorial marker. (Due to the late-afternoon lighting, I had to increase the contrast in this photo, for the lettering to show at all.)
The history of the Quakers in Concord is an interesting story.
According to the National Historic Register application, “The Prison Lot, comprised of a long 10′ x 75′ rectangular lot just west of lots #384 and #385 in the center of the cemetery, appears on all maps drawn after the 1844 western addition to Old North Cemetery.”