Yda Hillis Addis

Born in 1857, Yda Hillis Addis was the first American writer to translate Mexican oral stories and written histories into English. Addis published these stories in The Argonaut but also wrote original fiction that included ghost stories, love triangle stories and feminist stories. Her work was also showcased along side work by Ambrose Bierce and Mark Twain in various publication but unlike some of her other contemporaries, her work has been mainly lost.

Yda was the daughter of photographer Alfred Shea Addis. Alfred was born in Philadelphia and moved to Lawrence, Kansas in the 1850s where he became an assistant for Thomas Short, a photographer. He soon married Short's daughter, Sarah and they had two children, Yda and Judge (born in 1862). The Addis' and the Shorts were Confederate sympathizers and when the situation in Lawrence grew too violent, they moved to Leavenworth, Kansas under the protection of Fort Leavenworth. Soon after Missouri seceded from the Union, both families fled to Chihuahua, Mexico where Alfred soon began photographing Mexican landscapes and the people. The Addis' stayed in Mexico until after the Civil War and then moved to California.

Yda was a young writer in her twenties when Argonaut founder Frank M. Pixley introduced her to his good friend, former California governor John G. Downey. The two got engaged but when Downey's sister realized the two got engaged, they shanghaied him to Ireland, leaving Yda to sue for breach of contract. Before the trial however, Yda left for Mexico City to write for the bilingual newspaper and where she met editor Theodore Gesterfeld. Gesterfeld's wife, Ursula, who suspected her husband of cheating on her, sued for divorce and named Yda a co-defendant. Amidst the scandal, Yda moved to Santa Barbera to publish a book of biographies. During one of the interviews, she met and soon married Charles A. Storke.

Yda was treated badly by both Storke and his teenage son Tommy, and she accused Storke of some peculiar intimate behaviors and violence toward her. Storke retaliated with a divorce complaint on the grounds that Yda was insane. During the divorce Yda discovered that her attorney, Grant Jackson, was in duplicity with Storke. She shot Jackson, who survived, but she spent eight months in prison. When she was released, the divorce was not final and Yda requested alimony. At this time Clara Shortridge Foltz stepped in briefly to defend Yda. Storke refused to pay the $500 a month that she requested and instead had Yda committed to an insane asylum. Yda later escaped the asylum, and disappeared.

Oak Island

Near the coast of Nova Scotia, in Mahone Bay, lies a small island dubbed the Money Pit and it is believed to have a massive treasure buried on it. Numerous excavations have taken place trying to find the treasure but so far, nothing has yielded any results. In 1795, 16-year-old Daniel McGinnis discovered a circular depression in a clearing on the southeastern end of the island with an adjacent tree which had a tackle block on one of its overhanging branches. McGinnis, with the help of friends John Smith (in early accounts, Samuel Ball) and Anthony Vaughan, excavated the depression and discovered a layer of flagstones a few feet below. On the pit walls there were visible markings from a pick. As they dug down they discovered layers of logs at about every ten feet. They abandoned the excavation after 30 feet. About eight years after the 1795 dig, according to the original articles and the memories of Vaughan, another company examined what was to become known as the Money Pit. They continued the excavation down to approximately 90 feet, finding charcoal, putty and coconut fibers at 40, 50 and 60 feet. At 80 or 90 feet, a large stone was found bearing inscriptions of symbols. Several researchers are said to have deciphered the symbols, one translating them as saying: "forty feet below, two million pounds lie buried." The pit subsequently flooded and the excavation was abandoned.

Another attempt at mining occured in 1849 but nothing was found. Yet another attempt was made in 1861 by the Oak Island Association which resulted in the collapse of the bottom of the shaft into either a natural cavern or booby trap underneath. The first fatality during excavations occurred when the boiler of a pumping engine burst. The company gave up in 1864 after their funds were exhausted. Further excavations were made in 1866, 1893, 1909, 1931, 1935, 1936, and 1959, none of which were successful. Franklin Roosevelt was a part of the excavation team in 1909 and kept up with the Oak Island developments through most of his life. Gilbert Hedden purchased the southeast end of the island. He began digging in the summer of 1935, following excavations by William Chappell in 1931. In 1939, he even informed King George VI of the United Kingdom about developments on Oak Island.

Around 1967, Daniel C. Blankenship and David Tobias formed Triton Alliance, Ltd. and purchased most of the island. In 1971, Triton workers excavated a 235-foot shaft supported by a steel caisson to bedrock. According to Blankenship and Tobias, cameras lowered down the shaft into a cave below recorded the presence of some chests, human remains, wooden cribbing and tools; however, the images were unclear, and none of these claims have been independently confirmed. The shaft subsequently collapsed, and the excavation was again abandoned. The shaft was re-dug 181 feet but was stopped due to lack of funds and the collapse of the partnership. In the mid-1960s an account of the excavation of the money pit was featured in Reader's Digest and in 1979, the island was featured on an episode of In Search Of....

During the 1990s, further exploration was stalled because of legal battles between the Triton partners. As of 2005, a portion of the island was for sale for an estimated US$7 million. A group called the Oak Island Tourism Society had hoped the Government of Canada would purchase the island, but a group of American businessmen in the drilling industry did so instead. It was announced in April 2006 that partners from Michigan had purchased a 50% stake in Oak Island Tours Inc., for an undisclosed amount of money. The shares sold to the Michigan partners were previously owned by David Tobias; remaining shares are owned by Blankenship. Center Road Developments, in conjunction with Allan Kostrzewa, a member of the Michigan group, had purchased Lot 25 from David Tobias for a reported $230,000 one year previous to Tobias selling the rest of his share. The Michigan group, working with Blankenship, has said it will resume operations on Oak Island in the hope of discovering buried treasure and the mystery of Oak Island.

It is unknown who, if anyone, occupied the island prior to the first excavation or if there really is any treasure buried there. The stone supposedly reading "forty feet below lie two million pounds" disappeared around 1912 and it's whereabouts are unknown. The treasure is rumored to be pirate treasure, specifically either Captain Kidd's or Blackbeard's treasure. Other theories say that the treasure is either from a Spanish galleon or from British troops during the American Revolution. Another theory says that the treasure is really Marie Antoinette's jewels and even stranger, some theories say that Oak Island is hiding proof that Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare's plays or that the pit contains the Holy Grail. Of course, all theories remain undocumented and in dispute.

The most common belief now is that the money pit is just a sinkhole and that there is nothing special about it.

The location of Oak Island, just off of the coast of Nova Scotia.

The Devil's Tree

Standing alone in the middle of a field just off of Mountain Road near Martinsville, New Jersey is a solitary oak tree with a few dead limbs. Looking at the tree there is nothing special about it except that local legend says that the tree is cursed and is owned by the Devil.

One of the first stories about the tree is that a farmer who owned the land way back in the day killed his entire family and then hung himself from the tree and according to the locals there have been other murders and suicides around the tree. There is evidence around the trunk of the tree that people have went out there and tried to cut it down and it is said that anyone who tries to cut it down will meet an untimely end.

The tree is supposedly a gateway to Hell and that a sentinel guards it at night. The sentinel apparently drives a black pick-up truck and will chase you down if you come near the tree, damage it or even talk bad about it within earshot of the tree. There is a better explanation that says that the KKK used the field for their meetings and the tree for hangings of African-Americans. The area was more secluded than it is now so it was away from the prying eyes of the police.

The tree continued to stand, at the intersection of Mountain Road and Emerald Valley Lane, although it has been damaged enough to require the erection of a chain link fence around the trunk of the tree to prevent more damage. Bernards Township planned to develop the area and cut the tree down but decided to preserve the tree instead despite neighbors in the area saying it is a nuisance. The township even went so far as to post hours for the tree. In May of 2009, the tree's branches were trimmed or cut down so the tree doesn't look the same.

The Devil's Tree in 2006.


The Devil's Tree in the summer of 2009, after getting it's branches trimmed.

Summerwind Mansion

Summerwind was built in the early 20th Century as a fishing resort for West Bay Lake in Vilas County, Wisconsin. In 1916, Robert Lamont renovated the building for use as a summer home for his family. Lamont would actually serve as Secretary of Commerce under President Hoover but life was not simple at Summerwind for the Lamont family. Legends of the house say that Lamont actually fired a pistol at a ghost that he believed was an intruder. The bullet holes in the basement door from the kitchen remained for many years. Upon the death of Robert Lamont, the house was sold ... and sold again. It seemed that nothing out of the ordinary really happened there, save for Lamont’s encounter with the phantom intruder, until the early 1970's. It was in this period that the family living in the house was nearly destroyed...supposedly by ghosts.

Arnold Hinshaw, his wife Ginger, and their six children, moved into Summerwind in the early part of the 1970's. They would only reside in the house for six months, but it would be an eventful period of time. From the day that they moved in, they knew strange things were going on in the house. The Hinshaws, and their children, immediately started to report vague shapes and shadows flickering down the hallways. They also claimed to hear mumbled voices in darkened, empty rooms. When they would walk inside, the sounds would quickly stop. Most alarming was the ghost of the woman who was often seen floating back and forth just past some French doors that led off from the dining room. On one occasion, Arnold walked out to his car to go to work and the vehicle suddenly burst into flames. No one was near it and it is unknown whether the source of the fire was supernatural in origin or not, but regardless, no cause was ever found for it. The Hinshaws decided to do some renovations and hired a crew to do them, unfortunately the workers stopped showing up because of the strange occurrences. The Hinshaws decided to do the work themselves.

While painting a closet, they found a shoe drawer built into the wall and pulled it out to paint the drawer. Arnold found a large, dark space behind the drawer. Upon searching the dark hole, they found a human corpse. Instead of telling the police, the Hinshaws apparently left the body where they found it and things just got worse for them. Arnold soon had a mental breakdown and Ginger tried to commit suicide. Arnold was sent away and Ginger and the kids moved to Granton with her parents, where she soon divorced Arnold and married a man named George Olsen. Things were going well for Ginger when her father announced that he was going to buy Summerwind.

Raymond Bober was a popcorn vendor and businessman who with his wife Marie, planned to turn the old mansion into a restaurant and an inn. He believed that the house would attract many guests to the scenic location on the lake. Ginger hadn't told him what had happened at the house. Bober announced that he realized the house was haunted, but this would not deter him. He claimed that he had spent time at the house and knew the identity of the ghost that was haunting the place. According to Bober, the ghost was a man named Jonathan Carver, an eighteenth century British explorer who was haunting the house and searching for an old deed that had been given to him by the Sioux Indians. In the document, he supposedly had the rights to the northern third of Wisconsin. The deed had supposedly been placed in a box and sealed into the foundation of Summerwind. Bober claimed that Carver had asked his help in finding it.

When Bober and his family, including Ginger and her new husband, went back to Summerwind, they began exploring the house and Bober began pulling out drawers to see if anything was in them (which is weird considering his daughter and former husband were the previous owners and inhabitants). Ginger finally told everyone about finding the body and Bober went to investigate but the space behind the drawer was empty.

The plans to turn the house into a restaurant did not go smoothly. Workmen refused to stay on the job, complaining of tools disappearing and feelings as if they were being watched. Marie Bober agreed with their complaints. She was always uneasy in the house and frequently told people that she felt as if she was followed from place to place whenever she was inside. Most disturbing to Bober however was the apparent shrinkage and expansion of the house. Bober would measure rooms one day and then find that they were a different size the next day. Usually, his measurements were larger than those given in the blueprints of the house...sometime greatly larger. At one point, Bober estimated that he could seat 150 people in his restaurant but after laying out his plans on the blueprints of Summerwind, he realized that the place could seat half that many. Finally the Bobers abandoned the house and it has remained empty ever since.

After that, many people have come forward trying to poke holes in the Bober's stories. The big one being that Jonathan Carver died more than 130 years before the house was built. In 1986, the house was bought by an investment firm hoping to renovate the house but again, that was not to be. In June of 1988, Summerwind was struck by lightening during a storm and burned to the ground. All that remains is the stone fireplace, foundation and stone steps.

Boston Corbett

On April 14, 1865 President Abraham Lincoln was shot in Fords Theatre by John Wilkes Booth. Booth then leaped onto the stage below and shouted "Sic semper tyrannis" then escaped despite having a broken leg. Booth escaped on horse back toward southern Maryland and across the Potomac River into Virginia. Pursuers of John Wilkes Booth tracked him to Richard Garrett's farm in northern Virginia. The soldiers found Booth in the Garrett's tobacco barn. The soldiers set the barn on fire and Boston Corbett, saying he saw Booth raise and aim his gun, shot Booth through the neck piercing three vertabrae and partially severing his spinal cord. John Wilkes Booth died three hours later.

Corbett was born in London, England in 1832 and migrated to New York in 1839. Following his wife's death in childbirth, Corbett moved to Boston where he became a born-again evangelical Christian and changed his name from Thomas to Boston. In 1858, in order to avoid the temptation of prostitution, Corbett castrated himself with a pair of scissors. Corbett joined the Union army at the start of the Civil War and re-enlisted three times eventually being promoted to sergeant. In 1864, Corbett was captured by the Confederate army but was exchanged and send back to his unit. In 1865, after shooting and killing John Wilkes Booth, Corbett was arrested for not obeying orders but the charges were dropped.

Shortly after being discharged from the Army, Corbett went back to his original trade of being a hatter in Boston, then Connecticut then New Jersey. In 1878, he moved to Concordia, Kansas where he lived in a hole dug in a gully. In 1887, he was appointed assistant doorkeeper at the Kansas House of Representatives in Topeka. Overhearing a conversation where the opening prayer was mocked, Corbett rushed in brandishing a gun. Corbett was arrested, declared insane and sent to the Topeka Asylum for the Insane. In 1888, Corbett escaped the asylum and went to Neodesha, Kansas and said he was going to go to Mexico.

It is said that Corbett instead took up residence in the woods near Hinckley, Minnesota. In 1894, the Great Hinckley Fire broke out due to a dry summer . The fire burned 420 square miles and it is known that Corbett was last seen in the area although it hasn't been proven that he died in the fire. "Thomas Corbett" is listed among the dead and missing. In Concordia, a local boy scout troop constructed a roadside monument to Boston Corbett and erected a sign marking the location of the hole Corbett once occupied.

Thomas "Boston" Corbett, circa 1860-1865. Picture from the Library of Congress.

The Samlesbury Witches

The featured article on Wikipedia was the Samlesbury Witches. I'm not going to do my own research on this because it's all right there so I'm kind of phoning it in with this entry. I should have a more in depth tale late next week. If you would like to submit something or if you have something that may be of interest for the "Chronicles" then send me an email.

Just don't reference sexy, flirty married woman like so many of my other emails do.

Helltown, Ohio

In 1974, the federal government began buying up property near Boston, Ohio to develop a national park. According to a number of people in the area, the government began buying the property to cover up a massive radiation spill. So goes the legend of Helltown.

The town of Boston, Ohio was settled in 1806 making it the oldest village in Summit County. The town was a mill town most notable for several paper mills and the area became collectively known as Boston Mills. In 1974, the government began buying up property for use as a national park. They used eminent domain to force the people out of their homes and people left in droves. What these people felt were summed up by a statement scrawled on the wall of an abandoned home: "Now we know how the Indians felt".

Once the government obtained the houses, they typically boarded them up, nailed "Property of U.S. Government" signs on them and then the house stood until the government could get around to demolishing it. Sometimes the house would be intentionally burned to help the local fire departments train. Soon, the government fell behind on demolishing the houses and the abandoned and foreboding houses left standing were an odd sight to see in what was essentially the middle of a National Park. And that is how the rumors began.

The first legend is the government cover-up of a chemical spill in the area. There has never been a chemical spill in the area and this was most likely made up as an excuse for all of the "Property of U.S. Government" signs posted on all the houses. In a nearby cemetery, rumors of a ghost, moving tree and a high number of children buried in the cemetery abound. The ghost is said to always be sitting on a bench--the cemetery, Boston Cemetery, does not have a bench. As for trees moving, it's probably just ghost hunters, unfamiliar with the area and the cemetery, who originally thought a tree was at one spot, only to see the tree in a different spot. The children buried in the cemetery are said to be victims of a bus crash and while, like any cemetery, there are the graves of children there, their cause of death is not from a bus crash.

As for the school bus, prior to the 1974 buyout, a family bought a house. Since the house, at the time, was unlivable and needed dire repairs, the family needed a place to live so they parked a school bus in their yard and lived in that until the house was ready. When the government bought the land, the family had no use for the bus and left it behind--just like with other useless farm equipment and automobiles. Also, the local churches are used as cover-ups for cults and other Satanic rituals. The churches are never open for mass, hang upside down crosses, angry men live in the basements and there are always candles burning in the windows.

The are two churches in the area that this rumor is a part of. The first is Boston Community Church. The church uses its basement to house offices and classroom so any man in there was probably an employee and got angry because a group of teenagers were spying on him. The other church, Mother of Sorrows, is reported to have the upside down crosses which is actually true but the "crosses" are part of the church's gothic revival design. And candles being lit in the windows could actually be true as many churches allow people to light candles and keep them lit in honor of a lost loved one.

Another legend is about the House in the Woods. It reportedly has a light on on the top floor all the time. The house is actually a local hostel, for weary, young travelers. The light stays on because the hostel accepts people 24-hours a day. Signs throughout the area show the direction to the hostel. Interestingly, shortly after the signs were erected, the light started being referred to being in the "school bus house".

There are also a lot of rumors about the many dead-end roads in the area. People note that even though the road is a dead end, the road still continues into the woods. While this is true on Stanford Road, the road is closed for a reason--the townships that are required to maintain it didn't want to spend the money or take responsibility if someone did get hurt on the road, so they closed it. The other dead end is on Main Street but Main Street dead ends at the cemetery.

Helltown is another example of urban legends gone wild. The police presence in the area has been increased and the cemetery and people's property has been vandalized repeatedly. Remember that if you do decide to visit any place mentioned here or on any other websites, obey any posted signs, leave only footprints and take only pictures.
The best picture of the "school bus house" I could find. Located near Boston Mills, Ohio.

Bobby Dunbar

Bobby Dunbar went missing on August 23, 1912 in St. Landry Parrish, Louisiana and was found after eight months. Dunbar died in 1966 and in 2004 DNA discovered that Bobby Dunbar was not Bobby Dunbar.

Four-year-old Bobby Dunbar went missing in a Louisiana swamp in 1912. He had wandered away unnoticed and no trace could be found of him. Searchers found a set of solitary bare footprints in the mud nearby and came to the conclusion that young Bobby Dunbar had been taken. The citizens of Opelousas pledged a $1,000 reward for Bobby's return, "no questions asked."

Bobby was the oldest son of Percy and Lessie Dunbar and had "large round blue eyes, hair light, but turning dark, complexion very fair with rosy cheeks, well developed, stout but not very fat". Percy, a well-respected real estate and insurance man, had a detective agency print up postcards with a picture and description of Bobby, and mail them to town and county officials from east Texas to Florida. The card also mentioned that Bobby's "big toe on left foot badly scarred from burn when a baby".

In April 1913, a wire arrived from the little town of Hub, Mississippi. A drifter named William Cantwell Walters had been taken into custody there. He had a boy with him who matched Bobby's description. The Dunbars rushed to Mississippi, but they were not immediately sure this was their boy. The youth had a scar on his left foot. He had a mole on his neck where Bobby had one. But he refused to answer to the name Bobby, and when the mother tried to hold him, he would have nothing to do with her. Mrs. Dunbar asked to see the boy again the next day. After stripping and bathing him, her uncertainty left her.

Kidnapping was a capital offense in Louisiana, and Walters knew his life hung in the balance. In a letter to the Dunbars from his jail cell in Columbia, Mississippi, Walters insisted the boy was actually Bruce Anderson, the son of a woman who had cared for his aged parents back home in Barnesville, North Carolina. He scrawled a letter to the Dunbars from his jail cell.

"I know by now you have Decided you are wrong it is vary likely I will Loose my Life on account of that and if I do the Great God will hold you accountable"

A New Orleans paper offered to bring Julia Anderson to Mississippi but the Dunbars and the people of Opelousas made up their minds. Julia Anderson arrived in Opelousas on May 1. It had been more than 15 months since she had given Walters permission to take Bruce. She, like Mrs. Dunbar, had trouble identifying him as her son, and the boy -- who suddenly found himself in a nice home with a pony and a bicycle -- wanted nothing to do with her. After her initial wavering, Anderson declared that "her mother's heart" told her the boy found with the tinker was indeed her son. But her uncertainty was not easily forgiven.

Walters was convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to life in prison. Walters spent two years behind bars before being granted a new trial on a technicality. But the town of Opelousas decided that Bobby was where he belonged, and enough had been spent on the case. Walters was released and soon faded into obscurity, but Bobby would never know such peace. Whenever there was a sensational kidnapping, such of the 1932 disappearance of the Lindbergh baby, reporters would return to the home of "that little lost boy."

Growing up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Margaret Cutright heard the stories of her grandfather's disappearance and sensational recovery. She had never had any reason to question them -- until the family lost another boy. When her brother Robbie died in a plane crash in 1999, Cutright's father gave her a family scrapbook chronicling the kidnapping case. Leafing through the crumbling, yellowed clippings, she came across an editorial cartoon from 1913. In the drawing, titled "Fifty Years From Now?", a bearded old man sits in a chair, his right hand cupped behind his ear as a boy, kneeling on the floor over a newspaper from the kidnapping trial, looks up and asks: "Grandpa, do you think we'll ever know for certain what our right name is?"

Cutright's search has taken her from the cypress swamps of Louisiana to the woods of Mississippi and finally to the hardscrabble Carolina pinelands where Bruce Anderson was born. Her wanderings eventually led her to the house where Walters' defense attorney once lived. To her shock, the man's granddaughter still lived there and, from a closet, she produced the original 900-page defense file. She spent months scanning and transcribing the telegrams, letters and depositions. Witnesses had placed Walters and the boy he called Bruce miles away from Opelousas the day Bobby went missing.

Cutright's findings have given the hope of closure to a family she has only recently discovered. Julia Anderson settled in Mississippi after the trial, married and raised eight children. Those children grew up believing they had a half brother who had been stolen from them. Cutright, who is working on a book about the case, has tracked down Bruce's two surviving siblings and shown them her evidence. One of them, 80-year-old Hollis Rawls, has expressed a willingness to submit a DNA sample to help prove whether Cutright's grandfather was really Bruce Anderson.

Cutright's father, over the objections of his siblings, agreed to give a DNA sample earlier this year. It was compared to a sample given by a son of Bobby Dunbar's brother, Alonzo. The samples didn't match. The DNA test proved that Bobby Dunbar was not Bobby Dunbar and that William Walters was innocent of kidnapping. Cutright opines that Bobby Dunbar probably fell into Swayze Lake, the swamp his parents were fishing at, and was eaten by an alligator. However the fate of the real Bobby Dunbar is unknown.
"Bobby Dunbar", left, with unidentified people shortly after his return to Louisiana.

Treece, Kansas

The earliest mention of Treece, Kansas (located in extreme southeast Kansas in Cherokee County) was in 1917 when the government established a post office there. In 1930, Treece had a population of 749, that number has dwindled to around 14o. The population began to decline when the output of zinc and lead were declining. In the 1960s, production stopped completely and the miners who populated the towns of Treece, Galena, Kansas, Baxter Springs, Kansas and Picher, Oklahoma left for other opportunities in the area leaving all of the towns virtually abandoned.

Treece lays just off of U.S. Highway 69 right on the Kansas-Oklahoma border. The city is now surrounded by huge chat piles and the years of mining has caused sinkholes to spread into the city causing buildings, road and people to collapse suddenly. Across the border in Oklahoma, the city of Picher was recently given to okay to evacuate--which stunned the people of Treece. Without Picher, Treece now has to drive further for groceries and gas and they are left defenseless in a fire or other emergency, their services came from Picher. Now they have to wait for vehicles to get there from Baxter Springs or Columbus, the next closest towns. Cave-ins at the sites have been occuring for years, water is polluted, there are great risks to one's health in the area and Treece is near the Tar Creek Superfund site which covers Cardin and Picher, Oklahoma but not Treece. The government has declared Picher one of the most toxic sites in America.

Senators Sam Brownback, Pat Roberts and Lynn Jenkins have urged the state and federal government to take over the area, buy out the residents and begin cleaning up the area but currently everything is just at the talking stage. The saddest part are the children living in the area who have a higher rate of disabilities both physical and mental. The state has determined that it would cost $8 million to buyout the people and close the town. The Enviromental Protection Agency has spent $80 to 90 million since the 1980s cleaning up around Treece but there's still $50 to 70 million and many years still to go. When Picher was bought out, property values in Treece plummetted so the people can not just move--who would buy a house in a town that could collapse at any moment?

Very few of the mining companies that operated in the area are still in existance. The ones that do still exist only pay $1 for every $9 in restitution. On August 20th, three high-ranking EPA officials will be visiting Treece with Senators Brownback and Roberts with the plan to get them to buy out the town so the people can be relocated.

Photo of a baseball field in Picher, OK. By Thad Allander, Lawrence Journal-World.

Elizabeth Bathory

Elizabeth Bathory was a Hungarian countess from the renowned Báthory family. The family is famous for defending Hungary against the Ottoman Turks. She is possibly the most prolific female serial killer in history and is remembered as the "Blood Countess" and as the "Bloody Lady of Čachtice", after the castle near Trencsén, in the Kingdom of Hungary where she spent most of her adult life.

I did a massive high school report on vampires and vampire lore, I did extensive research on it and after writing nearly thirty pages, I condensed it down to a 15 page report featuring Vlad the Impaler, Incubus and Succubi, Dracula and Elizabeth Bathory. It was one of the best research papers I've ever done.*

Elizabeth Báthory was born on the family estate in Nyírbátor, Hungary, and spent her childhood at Ecsed Castle. She was highly intelligent, and as a young woman learned Latin, German and Greek. She was also interested in science and astronomy. At 15, Báthory was engaged to Ferenc Nádasdy and moved to Nádasdy Castle in Sárvár. She married Nádasdy in Vranov in 1575. Nádasdy’s wedding gift to Báthory was his home, Čachtice Castle, situated in the Little Carpathians near Trencsén, together with the Čachtice country house and 17 adjacent villages. The castle itself was surrounded by a village and agricultural lands, bordered by outcrops of the Little Carpathians. She kept her name because her family was more powerful than her husband's.

Báthory's husband was a military leader and therefore traveled a lot. Nádasdy died in 1604 at the age of 47. His death is commonly reported as resulting from an injury sustained in battle. Bathory had five children, two dying at a early age.

Janos Thurzó went to Čachtice Castle on December 30, 1610 and arrested Báthory and four of her servants. They were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of virgin girls and young women, with one witness attributing to them over 600 victims. Thurzó's men reportedly found one girl dead and one dying. Another woman was found wounded and others locked up. It was determined that a trial or execution would be damaging to the nobility so a trail was postponed indefinitely and Bathory was sentenced to house arrest. Bathory's four servants were tried and convicted. Two had their fingernails ripped out and their bodies thrown in a fire; another was beheaded before being thrown to the flames and the last was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Bathory was walled up in her castle until her death. She was found on August 21, 1614 but since there were several plates of uneaten food, her actual date of death is unknown. She was buried in the church cemetery of Csejte but upon villager outrage, her body was re interred in Nagyecsed, Hungary in the Bathory family crypt.

The case has led to legendary, but false, accounts of the Countess bathing in the blood of virgins in order to retain her youth. These stories have led to comparisons with Vlad III the Impaler, on whom the fictional Count Dracula is partly based, and to modern nicknames of the Blood Countess and Countess Dracula.


Suggest a story for "The Stull Chronicles".

The Carroll A. Deering

The Carroll A. Deering was built in Maine in 1919 as a cargo ship. It was a five-masted commercial schooner set to go to Rio De Janeiro when it mysteriously wound up aground on Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in 1921.

On August 19, 1920, the ship was ready to set sail from Norfolk, Virginia to Rio De Janeiro with a cargo of coal. On August 22nd, the Deering left Newport News with William H. Merritt as captain and his son, Sewall, as first mate. Merritt soon fell ill and he and his son were left at Lewes, Delaware and Captain W. B. Wormell was hired to replace Merritt. Charles B. McLellan was hired as first mate and the ship once again set sail for Rio on September 8, 1920, arrived and delivered it's cargo without incident.

Captain Wormell apparently complained to another captain in the area about his crew, save for one--the engineer, Herbert Bates. The Deering left Rio on December 2nd and stopped for supplies in Barbados where First Mate McLellan got drunk and complained about Captain Wormell--specifically having to do all the navigation due to the aging captain's eyesight. He even openly threatened the captain to himself and was arrested. On January 9, 1921, Captain Wormell forgave McLellan and bailed him out of jail and set sail again.

The ship was next sighted by the Cape Lookout Lightship in North Carolina on January 28, 1921, when the vessel hailed the lightship. The lightship's keeper, Captain Jacobson, reported that a thin man with reddish hair and a foreign accent told him the vessel had lost its anchors. He noticed that the crew seemed to be "milling around" on the fore deck of the ship, an area where they were usually not allowed.

On January 31, 1921, the Deering was sighted run aground on Diamond Shoals, an area off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, that has long been notorious for its reputation as a common site of shipwrecks. The ship was not boarded until February 4, and it became clear that the ship had been completely abandoned. The ship's log and navigation equipment were gone, as were the crew's personal effects and the ship's two lifeboats.

The U.S. Government launched an extensive investigation into the disappearance of the crew of the Deering. On April 11, 1921, a man named Christopher Columbus Gray claimed to have found a message in a bottle floating in the waters of Buxton Beach, North Carolina; he swiftly turned it over to the authorities. The text of the message goes as follows:

DEERING CAPTURED BY OIL BURNING BOAT SOMETHING LIKE CHASER. TAKING OFF EVERYTHING HANDCUFFING CREW. CREW HIDING ALL OVER SHIP NO CHANCE TO MAKE ESCAPE. FINDER PLEASE NOTIFY HEADQUARTERS DEERING.

The handwriting in the letter was matched to that of the ship's engineer Bates by the widow of Captain Wormell, and the bottle was proven to have been manufactured in Brazil. Yet this caused some controversy—if a crew member did manage to get hold of paper, pen, and bottle and write a letter, why would he request that the company be notified, as opposed to the police or Coast Guard?

The following theories were considered by the U.S. Government in its investigation:

• Piracy: It was believed that a group of pirates were responsible for the disappearances; however, no real evidence of this theory emerged.
• Communist Piracy: During an FBI raid, agents found papers that supposedly called on members of the organization to seize American ships and sail them to Russia. Though it is an intriguing suggestion, no definitive proof that any of these activities were actually carried out has surfaced.
• Rum Runners: A similar theory to the above speculates that a group of liquor smugglers working out of the Bahamas stole the ship to use as a rum-running vessel. This theory is believable and certainly plausible, but as with the above, no definitive proof has ever been found.
• Mutiny: Wormell's known conflict with his first mate and derisive comments towards his crew while in Rio De Janeiro suggested that something may have been amiss between the captain and his men on the voyage. Captain Jacobson at Cape Lookout certainly thought it odd; the man who hailed his vessel was definitely not Captain Wormell, and he was not an officer by all accounts. Discontent with the captain could certainly have caused a mutiny of the crew, but once again, nothing definitive has ever been proven.

It has also been suggested that since this ship sailed through the area known as the Bermuda Triangle, that explains the crew's disappearance.

The investigation remained largely fruitless, but it did take an interesting turn when Christopher Columbus Gray admitted the letter he had recovered had been forged. When an Italian inquiry into the disappearance of the vessel Monte San Michele revealed that there indeed had been heavy hurricanes in the vicinity, most of the conspiracy theories were dropped and mutiny was generally accepted as the answer to the riddle. The investigation finally wound down in late 1922 without an official ruling on the fate of the Deering. No explanation for the disappearance of the crew of the Carroll A. Deering was ever officially verified, though all of the genuine evidence seems to point to mutiny.


Suggest a story for "The Stull Chronicles". Just send a suggestion and I'll look it up and research it.

Who Put Bella In the Wych Elm?

Sir George Lyttleton was born in January 1709, he spent many years and a fortune developing Hagley Hall and the surrounding park side. There are many strange landmarks in the park, The Temple of Theseus--which looks like a Greek Doric temple, and an old hill fort and the Wychbury Obelisk.

The Wychbury Obelisk was built in 1758 and can be seen for miles around. The obelisk is standing, nearly collapsed and badly damaged. The obelisk is famous for not only being a weird tribute to a forgotten person but for also asking the question: "Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?"

On April 14, 1943, four teenage boys from nearby Stourbridge--Robert Hart, Thomas Willetts, Bob Farmer and Fred Payne--were in nearby Hagley Woods poaching. They came upon an old hollow wych-hazel and decided it would be an ideal place to search for birds' nests. Farmer attempted to climb into the tree, but as he glanced down inside the hollow trunk he suddenly saw the empty eye-sockets of a whitened skull, staring up at him from among the twisted branches. Horrified at the discovery and knowing they were in the woods illegally, the boys decided not to tell anyone about it. They put the skull back in the tree and quickly made their way home.

Back at home, Willetts felt uncomfortable about keeping such a secret and decided to tell his father what they'd found. His father then told the Worcestershire County Police Force who went to the site the following morning. Inside and around the old tree they not only found the human skull, but an almost complete skeleton, a crêpe-soled shoe and some fragments of rotted clothing. During a careful search of the surrounding undergrowth, a severed hand from the body was also discovered buried nearby. Professor James Webster was assigned to examine the skeleton and ascertained that the woman was probably about 35 years old, five feet tall, with mousy brown hair and irregular teeth in the lower jaw. She had also given birth at least once. He also estimated that she had been dead for at least 18 months before she was found. That puts the time of death sometime in October 1941.

There were no marks of disease or violence on the body, but her mouth had been stuffed with taffeta. The coroner declared it murder by asphyxiation, and stated that the woman was probably murdered and then pushed into the hole while still warm, as the body would not have fitted into the hollow trunk after rigor mortis had set in. Among the items found with the body were a cheap rolled gold wedding ring, which had been worn for about four years, crepe shoes and various scraps of clothing. With these Professor Webster was able to reconstruct almost exactly what the woman had been wearing at the time of her murder, and it was then possible for the police to issue a description which must have been very close to the actual appearance of the mystery woman.

Surely it would only be a matter of time before the woman was identified but she didn't show up on any missing person register and uncertainies of war caused more women to go missing and frequently change addresses. But the most unusual detail was that despite exhaustive searches through dental records, no trace of the woman was found. Even after a description of the woman and the specific irregularities of her lower jaw were published in dentists' journals, and despite the fact that she'd had a tooth taken out from the right side of her lower jaw within a year of her death, there was no response. The only thing that the police were fairly certain of was that the woman was a stranger to the area, there were no local missing persons whose description matched that of the victim and only one clue came from anyone in vicinity of Hagley.

This clue was in the form of a report from the executive of an industrial company. In July 1941, he had been walking to his lodgings in Hagley Green, when he heard a woman's screams coming from Hagley Wood. A couple of minutes later he met a schoolteacher walking in the opposite direction who had also heard the screams. The men phoned the police who arrived and searched Hagley Wood, but found nothing. This incident was exactly 20 months before the body was discovered, and, considering the pathologist's estimate that the woman had been dead for at least 18 months before she was found, seemed extremely promising. However, as with many clues associated with this case, it was to lead nowhere.

If no real identity was found for the murdered woman then at least a nickname surfaced. Around Christmas 1943, graffiti began to appear on the walls of empty buildings in various parts of the West Midlands area. The first--"Who put Luebella down the wych–elm?"--was followed by many other slight variations, such as 'Hagley Wood Bella' found on a wall in Birmingham. As time passed the messages took on what was to be their settled form for years to come: 'Who put Bella in the wych–elm?'. It was thought that the original messages, carefully written in chalk in three-inch-deep capital letters, were probably written by the same hand, working at night. Though the graffiti seemed to be the work of a hoaxer, there was the slim possibility suggested by the slogans that somebody knew something about the crime. But appeals for the mysterious graffitist to contact the police proved futile, though the messages continued to appear. However, the immediate result at the beginning of 1944 was that the unknown woman was given a nickname that even the police adopted.

There have been many theories put forth on the identity and reason for death of "Bella" including a black magic murder and an animal killing the woman and dragging her into the tree. Another theory was that the woman killed was a go-between for a British officer and a trapeze-artist who would then relay the messages to the Germans. Somehow she had learned too much and was consequently killed by the officer and the trapeze-artist. The letters received mentioned the officer by name but it turned out the officer died in 1942. More down to earth theories include that Bella had gotten pregnant by a GI and was brought to Hagley Woods to be disposed of, that she was a gypsy--although gypsies rarely murder their own kind and her clothing were unlike what gypsies wore, and that she was a prostitute. The police offered a simpler theory that "Bella" had ran from an air raid on Birmingham--as many people did when the Germans bombed--and the murderer was there for the same reason. The killing had been spur of the moment--possibly during an attempted rape.

However, if Bella was a local woman sheltering herself from the blitz, then some clues should have turned up to her identity by now, either from relatives attempting to locate her or from relevant dental records, but nothing has ever been found, and it seems no one knew anything about her. The case is still ongoing...


Got a weird, mysterious or just plain strange story you want to see featured? Let me know and I will attempt to research it.

Mud House Mansion

Located at 4730 Mud House Road in Lancaster, Ohio, the Mudhouse Mansion has stood vacant since 1892. The house has held up well despite this. Legend has it (and you know good stories always start out that way) that a government official used to own the house and owned slaves (which at the time were illegal plus this was a northern state). Apparently he mistreated the slaves and one of the them finally had enough and tried to escape. When he did, he went into the house and killed the entire family. Since all the slaves were now free, no one was ever charged for the crime. The house remained empty for years until 1892 when a family of five moved in. They moved in, neighbors saw them move in and then they saw nothing. Finally, someone called the police to investigate and discovered all five family members hanging from the ceiling on the second floor. The house has been empty ever since.

Since I've never seen this place firsthand or even really know much about it, I'll let the professional people over at Forgotten Ohio tell you about it.

To reach Mudhouse Mansion you should take Route 22 east out of Lancaster to Lake Road. Go left on Lake Road, which winds around for about a mile, and then turn left onto Mudhouse Road. You'll be able to see the place off to the right if the corn is low and it's daytime. Otherwise you'll have to find the gated-off driveway. When I visited Mudhouse the first time I went down the driveway and parked near the house, but there's no way anyone can do that now; due to its increased popularity among local explorers, the driveway is heavily gated and plastered with bright warning signs from the Sheriff's Department. You used to be able to park behind the also-abandoned white house next to the driveway, but that burned down recently, so you'll have to be more creative than that. Be aware that if you leave your car anywhere, you'll probably regret it.

If you believe the local tales, you can take your pick. One legend tells of a government official who lived there after the Civil War and still kept slaves (in the North, even), locking them in one of the outbuildings at night. One night the slave dug his way out, entered the house, and slaughtered the entire family. Some say a more modern family was massacred there; their ghosts haunt the house. Others say it's home to the original "Bloody Mary," the ghost lady who's supposed to appear in your mirror if you say her name three or five or ten or a hundred times. Some kids in Lancaster grew up calling it the House of Mary. According to traditional American folklore, Bloody Mary's childred were killed, either by her husband or by her, and she's pissed about it. This one is tough to believe, since Bloody Mary is known all over the world, and it's pretty much a given that she never existed in the first place, much less in Fairfield County, Ohio. Then again, it's all just folklore, so you can believe just about anything you want to about Mudhouse.

So, please, check out this site and if you want, go check out the actual house if you are in the area. I don't condone trespassing or vandalism but looking at the house from a public road is definately all right. And if you have any further stories or pictures of the Mudhouse Mansion, send them in and I may post them if they're really good.

Centralia, Pennsylvania

I'm going to use this forum to write about the various abnormalities in the world. First up, the town of Centralia, Pennsylvania had a population of over 1,000 people in 1981. Recent census data puts that number at 9 in 2007. So where did all the people go in just 26 years? In 1854, Alexander Rea moved to the area and began developing roads and lots to sell. The town was known as Centreville until 1865 when the post office rejected the name Centreville as there was already a Centreville, Pennsylvania. Rea decided to rename his town to Centralia. Anthracite coal was the largest employer in the city and mining in the city took place until the 1960s when most of the businesses went out of business. In 1868, town founder Alexander Rae was murdered by the secret order of Molly Maguires who were very active in the area. While coal was be produced, Centralia always had a population in excess of 2,000.

In 1948, United Airlines Flight #624 crashed in the area killing all 4 crew members and all 39 passengers on board. This crash would be the worst plane crash pre-1950 and rescue efforts were based out of Centralia. Sometime in the early 1960s, a mine fire broke out in a nearby coal pit. There are two theories as to how the mine fire began. One is that during a yearly clean-up, firefighters did not extinguish a controlled fire set at a landfill and the burning ash seeped into the mine; another is that trashmen dumped hot ash or coal from coal burners into the pit and the city, who was supposed to cover each layer with fire-resistant concrete, fell behind in this duty. Some think the fire had always been there, it just grew.

The fires continued burning through the sixties and into the 1970s when in 1979, the citizens realized how big the problem was when the area under the streets of Centralia were revealed to be 172 degrees. In 1981, a sinkhole suddenly opened up in a backyard that a child fell into. In 1984, Congress spent $42 million for relocation efforts, most people taking the money and moving to other communities. In 1992, Pennsylvania declared eminent domain on the town and comdemned all of the buildings in the town. In 2002, the United States Post Office revoked Centralia's ZIP code.

Today, most buildings in Centralia have been demolished but it still has a small population. The fire is still burning underneath the town and the town now just looks like a field with paved roads criss-crossing it. The four cemeteries are well-kept despite one being completely surrounded by the mine fire. There are no plans to extinguish it and it's estimated that there's enough coal under the town to burn for 250 years.

A time capsule, buried in 1966, is expected to be opened in 2016.

Got a weird, mysterious or just plain strange story you want to see featured? Let me know and I will attempt to research it.