The Headless Dog of the Susquehanna Valley

 The Headless Dog of the Susquehanna Valley

By Cole Herrold

Now it isn’t often that I stumble across a legend or entity that occurred literally in my general area that I hadn’t heard about before, yet I recently got a book entitled The Headless Dog: and Other Extraordinary Far-Fetched True Tales of Central Pennsylvania By Beverley A Conrad and Gregory T Burgess. The title caught me instantly as I tend to investigate Central Pennsylvania more than any other part of the state mainly because of how close to home it is. I also strive to point out that Central PA is just as active in phenomena as say Westmoreland County or Lancaster County which are known for areas like Gettysburg and the Chestnut Ridge. Central PA has a ton of incidents and events that are associated with major phenomena Williamsport was for example one of the way-stops of the Jersey Devil during the 1909 flap. Williamsport a couple months back was the site also of several square UFOs. Harrisburg the state capital was hit with a major UFO flap over the course of several days and sightings of UFOs are reported all over the state to this day. Northumberland County where I live is home to a variety of legends many of which I have covered previously like the Ghost Werewolf of Northumberland, the Northumberland Mystery Beasts, and the Susquehanna River Monster. Sunbury where I grew up also was a major Fortean landmark as UFOs were reported in the area during the 70s, bigfoot sightings were reported in the wooded game areas outside the city limits, a case of Spontaneous Human Combustion occurred on Race St, A large home located by the Mansion hospice and nursing center was an incredibly haunted location involving violent poltergeists who harassed the crew of Herrold and Son Masonry as well as the resident and were so violent that they pushed the owner of the home down the stairs crippling him. The most famous haunted location in Sunbury however would have to be the Edison Hotel and its resident ghosts. Needless to say, the area is seething with phenomena yet very few focus on the area as a Fortean hotspot.

Now with all that said in the area of Snyder County which lies just north of Selinsgrove there is an area known as the Bloody Triangle. This area starts at the High Hill of Penn Township a mountain ridge that runs along RT 204 to Fair Oaks and from this location it connects to the ridge south of it. This area forms a wedge-shaped valley which leads to the triangle title. This area is home to several strange reports often associated with the ghosts of Native Americans many who feel cursed the area or put some sort of spell on the land. Yet of all the apparitions and phenomena associated with the area the one that intrigues me the most to the point I’m planning an investigation into the case is that of the Headless Dog. The origin of this dog is unknown it simply seems to of just materialized to haunt the area. Something that is common in ghost canine reports, particularly of the shuck or hellhound variety as these entities tend to manifest in areas known for tragedy or high strangeness. Reports of this canine are few and far in between however reports do occur one of the oldest accounts comes from Foster Kreamer who told local historians about his experiences with the dog. Foster experienced the dog back when he was a boy at the Fisher’s School House which was west of Rolling Green Park. He and another boy were standing at the front of the building by the main doors when suddenly a huge coal-black dog without a head manifested in between them. The spectral animal did not make any noise but simply began to walk through the doorway and into the school. Kreamer’s fellow schoolmate ran terrified away from the building to his home which was within reasonable running distance. Kreamer realizing that such a run for him was impractical proceeded to bravely enter the school whereupon he did not see any evidence of the animal. Kreamer walked around the building and searched for some other verification and asked the teachers and students if any of them had seen something strange or a big black dog yet all of them responded in the negative. This sighting happened many years ago and by 2017 the old school was then an Ice Cream Parlor and as far as what was known no one had reported seeing the dog.

The headless dog is reported in other locations within the Bloody Triangle however and one of the more recent reports is also one of the more violent ones. In the area around Fair Oaks, there is a crossroads that is north of the Village of Salem and it is here that the Ghost Dog is said to frequently haunt. Motorists and those who choose to walk or bike the area often report seeing the headless dog crossing the road and ascending the bank of High Hill which is a 70-80 degree climb. In the area around this location, there is also an old oak tree that the Ghost Dog is said to manifest in. The dog in these situations typically is violent and will shake the branches and make terrifying noises. Maria Stahl was one such person to experience this side of the ghost dog's behavior. Maria was an elderly woman who lived in a house that would later be owned by Mrs. William Bingaman and was returning home from a visit with friend Hiram Smith. The steps to her house led her past the old oak tree and as she passed under the branches she suddenly felt a heavy weight fall on top of her. Unable to get a good look at what this being was she was even more terrified but what she could make out was that the creature was awkward in appearance and that it had furry hands or paws that were now tightly wrapped around her throat. This black shapeless entity continued to hold on to the woman until she managed to get to the border of her property. The woman finally losing strength and out of breath collapsed and touched the gate of her house. Wherein the beast removed itself from her back and throat and disappeared. The woman could not describe the creature clearly but knew the legend of the ghost dog and felt that it was just what she experienced. For some reason, she felt that if she could not have made it home that she would have been killed by her supernatural assassin.

Another sighting that occurred in the area of the oak revolved around a man bicycling at night. As he reached the area of the tree and the hill he suddenly saw that there in the center of the road was a colossal black dog that was preventing him from going any further. The man saw that this spectral dog was different from the legend as in this case it did have a head but was nonetheless terrified. The dog however did not harass him and instead proceeded to continue across the road and up the nearby hill without making a sound even as it entered the leaf-littered hill.

Now, this is all that has been reported seemingly about the ghost as attempting to find any further information on the apparition has been fruitless. This might be a very localized story and so a huge thanks to Gregory Burgess and Beverly Conrad to collecting the sightings. Oft times these localized ghost stories are more urban legends than anything else and are told to entertain or to deal with boredom in places where not much happens. The Headless Dog stories can be interpreted in a variety of ways the first account could very easily be a true encounter there’s not much outside of an outright fictional story to explain that case. The case of Maria Stahl however could be explained away as a natural animal attack or even a child in a costume pulling some sort of shenanigans. A large cat could easily have dropped on her back and with her flailing the animal could have held on for dear life or a child could have dropped down to scare the old woman. Granted the latter if true is extremely malicious and dangerous. These explanations are justified as possibilities as Maria did not get a good look at the creature and because of that it honestly could be just about anything. Then when we get to the bicycler we could just be dealing with a large dog crossing the road and a person associating a legend with it as there’s nothing exactly supernatural with what he witnessed outside the quietness of the animal.

Now while I may seem to be dismissing most of this phenomenon there is that first case which clearly seems to indicate something Fortean. Classically headless dogs are associated with a few different Fortean phenomena that sort of overlapped. The first is the faerie hound these large dogs were reported in Celtic countries and these dogs typically were believed to be omens of death and that hearing their baying three times no matter how close or how far away you are is enough for them to kill you. Not all faerie dogs were malicious however and some served faerie folks in the same way humans would earth-oriented hounds. The other type of phenomenon is the hellhound or shuck these entities traditionally were savage killers of people either by supernatural means such as appearing three times or as in a case where one attacked members of a congregation, physically with its teeth and claws. These entities can burn victims and there are even scorch claw marks on an old church door claimed to have been caused by one. These legends extend and mirror those of black dogs which again are omens of death yet they are not as violent as the case of the Black Dog of Hanging Hills of Connecticut which states that if you see the dog once it actually gives you good luck and is always described as being playful and not malicious in the slightest.

Now I bring these three options up as they tend to fit the appearance of the ghost reported. If the Maria Stahl sightings are accurate then the first two types are also possibilities of just what type of creature this would be. This area of Pennsylvania is filled with Irish and German descendants and often it does appear that phenomena from other countries like fae folk or family ghosts will follow those they attach themselves to and in doing so will haunt the area. An interesting point to these sightings is that this dog haunts both crossroads and an old oak tree so while it does seem to have some mobility in its reach it is very much localized to certain points something we see in Hellhound reports. Yet the Kreamer and bicyclist sightings could fit in that what was witnessed was just a ghost dog. Often in cases of headless ghosts, there are reports of ghosts such as say Anne Boleyn who will alternate in appearance from headless to having their head and so perhaps this is the case with this dog if all the sightings are authentic and not misidentified.

Ghost animal cases are so difficult to peg down because they mesh into all sorts of other phenomena outside of just ghosts. Witches are said to take the forms of animals that are almost spectral in their ability, familiars are said to appear as animals, then there are faerie animals, there are ghosts of humans who now appear as animals, there are ghost animals, and then there are supernatural animals either demonic or heavenly that cause and do all sorts of different actions. Needless to say, trying to rationalize the phenomena becomes difficult when there are so many other similar and identical types of entities out there. My personal thoughts on this is based on historical cases that this is something more than a traditional ghost yet without a back story I can't be certain. The roads of PA are desolate and dangerous and its entirely possible some pet was killed along the road and it now haunts the location. Yet until someone comes forward with an origin to explain this hound haunting we're left to mere speculation.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Ghost Animal, Paranormal Entity, Faerie

Location: Bloody Triangle area of Monroe Township, Penn Township, Fair Oaks, Snyder County, Pennsylvania

Sighted: Unspecified

Works Cited:

The Headless Dog and Other Far-Fetched Extraordinary Tales By Beverly Conrad and Gregory Burgess

The Phantom Ferret of Middle Village

 The Phantom Ferret of Middle Village

By Cole Herrold

This case I came across years ago as a kid in the book Encyclopedia Horrifica which was a great book aimed for juvenile readers but was inclusive of all areas of fortean phenomenon including faerie folk, cryptozoology, ghosts, and other phenomenon. I remember as a kid being pulled to it like a magnet I don’t remember if I bought it at one of the Scholastic book fairs or through one of the book ordering catalogs that used to be sent to us through school. My taste was always into the paranormal and fortean and the vampire skull on its moving cover called to me like a lighthouse beacon. In one section of the book, they dive into the weird world of ghost animals some of which I’ve covered such as the Frozen Ghost Chicken of Highgate. One of the entries in the book revolved around a case of a haunted taxidermied ferret. I forgot all about the case until I started relooking into other animal ghost cases and that was one that I remembered and started doing some digging.

Ghost Hunter Dominick Villella began investigating ghost encounters in 2003 specifically in New York. His group called the Paranormal Investigators of NYC have looked into countless bizarre cases. On March 2005 he received a call from a family located in the middle village which can be found in Queens, New York. The family contacted him because they were experiencing a variety of paranormal phenomenon the family claimed to hear voices and see apparitions in the apartment Dominick and the other members of his crew were under the impression that what the family was experiencing was deceased family members visiting the family’s son. Yet there was a portion of the phenomena that seemed to indicate something more animal oriented. As the family would hear a bizarre kind of panting that did not seem connected to the other phenomena. Dominick entered one room to find that amongst the typical home décor was a stuffed ferret. Dominick whipped out his handy dandy EMF detector and surprisingly got high readings from the ferret specifically. Dominick decided this would be the ideal room to do an EVP session in and upon listening to the tapes he discovered he could hear a strange panting which he could identify. Dominick had at one point owned pet ferrets and after listening to the tapes he could hear the types of sounds these animals would make namely a kind of strange panting noise. Dominick got a hold of the family and told of his finding and stated that the family had best cremate the taxidermied ferret as it may be behind some of the phenomenon and suggested that to stop the phenomenon they cremate the animal. Villella hypothesized that perhaps the taxidermied ferret took in some of the electromagnetic energy coming from a nearby electric clock radio which in turn allowed it to manifest in some ways. If this spirit was trying to communicate what its purpose was, was never stated.

 There was no follow-up as to whether this ended the phenomenon at Middle Village or even for that matter if the taxidermied ferret was cremated. Dominick Villella was a carpenter and a stay at home dad before the subject of the after life got ensnared in him. It was while getting some wisdom teeth removed that he experienced an out of body experience and this totally changed the course of his life. This change led him into investigating any paranormal experience that came his way. Its from this that we can gage that he is investigating this phenomenon not for some fame but for an authentic interest into the phenomenon which is something I can surely appreciate. This added a quick google search of Dominick reveals about four articles involving his work so this adds to this hypothesis of a genuine researcher as he clearly has not been seeking major fame or attention from the wider public. I must say that it is a pity that we have to resort to this to gage his credibility yet with the Fortean it is almost mandatory now adays as there are those big names who seek the paycheck through fraudulent claims or as one particular infamous researcher who shall not be named who proceeds to use a drug overdose as evidence of Close Encounters of the Sixth Kind/Abduction case even after the family has reached out to cease such allegations.

Ghost encounters of this type are difficult to debunk or validate because they come from one group and practically nothing was written about the case. My initial thoughts are that there is very little to instigate a hoax. Frankly I had never heard of Dominick before or after the Encyclopedia Horrifica book and even then I had never seen his work extensively published or mentioned. So the purpose of him attempting to profit off this phenomenon is unlikely. Plus the events of this case frankly are boring if he was to milk this case for money we would expect him or even this case to be in the same vein as the Warrens or Zak Bagans or TAPS. The mundanity of the case seems to indicate a more truthful interpretation of the phenomenon and not that seen over and over at more “popular” paranormal researchers.

It’s from this that it would appear that this case is told exactly as it appeared it happened, and the theories told as what was felt. This is not some case that was generated into a demonic entity sent to tear the family apart or some other life altering event but told almost matter of factly. The phenomenon never became some bigger than life story that seemed to spiral out of control like what we’d see in Amityville or the Haunting in Connecticut case. It was a mere phenomenon is occurring; a simple investigation was conducted; this was the anomalies, and this is what they recommend. It’s from this I tend to believe that this is a real encounter. There was no fanfare or even major interest in the case, and it was just one of many accounts included in Encyclopedia Horrifica.

Ghost Ferrets or animals of a similar kind are not unheard of for those curious. Animal Ghosts of all sorts are claimed yet perhaps the most famous and more animated of them was a ghost mongoose known as Gef. A mongoose is not too dissimilar to a ferret, yet Mongoose are members of the Herpestes genus, while ferrets are members of the Mustela genus. Mongoose tend to be larger and thicker in form to Ferrets yet as carnivorous mammals they bear may features that are similar to each other.

Another thing I feel that I need to bring up is haunted or living taxidermy. There are several reported cases of this over the years and many legends exist about taxidermy suddenly returning to life but unable to hunt or do the things that it feels the need to do. In Pennsylvania there are countless legends of this sort the most famous of which being the Spook Wolves. A series of taxidermied wolves that came to life and are reported from time to time however these entities are now unable to hunt or hurt anyone. There is also the story of a taxidermied mountain lion that came to life. In this legend a mounted mountain lion was kept on the roof of a building only for its mate to drag the carcass back to the woods where it came back to life and is now occasionally seen. In ghost lore ghosts frequently are either attached to or seek out their original bodies or forms that would be similar to what they were when alive. This is where the countless cases of haunted dolls and toys came from as well as how cremating remains can end a haunting in a location. So what Dominick was describing, and the family was experiencing does have a background of similarly occurring accounts and phenomenon.

With all that said the Phantom Ferret of Middle Village is an interesting case of a taxidermied oriented spirit and I would love a follow up to the case as some of the phenomenon described by the family appear to be something more human than animal so one has to wonder if cremating the remains helped the family at all or if they are still experiencing phenomenon. I think the importance of this case and others is that animals are indeed an important part of our world and that they need respect as well especially after their own demise. Now Id love more of a back story on the ferret and how the family acquired it for something that many who know me know I was a hunter, and my family owns taxidermy and I own ethically sourced taxidermy of organisms like an octopus that hangs in my bathroom and several bats yet of all the taxidermy that I owned I’ve never experienced phenomenon associated with them and that’s even with them being in close proximity to electrical devices. Was this ferret a pet, killed by a previous owner, or killed to be taxidermied we will probably never know and so its from this that I wonder just how the animal passed and if that had something to do with its choice to hang around in spirit. The concepts of how a spirit works or how it connects to the flesh is something that has been debated about for centuries yet were no closer to finding an answer and I personally don’t think we ever will and so the same goes for this case. Is there something in all of us that keeps our spirit or even a fragment or partial piece intact or alive and that it can be re-animated through energy I’m not at liberty to say. Perhaps if someone invents some serum like what Herbert West had in Re-Animator we may come close to answering that but until that day arrives all we have at best is speculation.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Ghost Animal

Location: Middle Village, Queens, New York City, New York

Sighted: March 2005

Works Cited:

Encyclopedia Horrifica Book by Joshua Gee

Dan Barry “That Noise? That Stuffed Ferret? Sounds Out of This World”.  New York Times. Nov. 1, 2006. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/01/nyregion/01about.html. Accessed February 28, 2023. 

The Frozen Ghost Chicken of Highgate

 The Frozen Ghost Chicken of Highgate

By Cole Herrold

Ghosts appear in a variety of forms but most appear in the stages of their last moments on earth. Interestingly a variety of these apparitions tend to be headless or feature the instruments of their death plunged into them or floating near them. Typically we see this only in cases of human ghosts which make up the majority of spectral reports. Ghost animals however do occur and they usually appear in a form one would expect and are often mistaken for living organisms until they do something such as walking through a wall or vanishing in plain sight. The manner of a ghost animal's death is never usually reflected in the apparition however with almost all rules of the paranormal there are exceptions. I recently covered the apparitions of headless animals that escape the slaughterhouses that ended their lives to haunt the cities and fields nearby. It's interesting that processed animals do make an appearance in haunted locations and that this could extend to even those processed animals that are done so on a minor scale than a slaughterhouse. In Highgate, England there is allegedly a semi-processed ghost chicken that runs around almost completely featherless, flapping its wings, shivering, and noticeably terrified.

The story of the Highgate Ghost Chicken is a surprisingly old one and allegedly intertwined with Sir Francis Bacon. Sir Francis Bacon was a philosopher who wrote several books on religion, and the judicial system, and is considered one of the pioneers of the scientific method. Now one might ask how a man of such esteem would be associated with a spectral chicken and the answer is experimentation. Back in the 1600s food preservation was incredibly difficult and Bacon wondered if there might be some way to preserve food through the cold and ice. It was in March of 1626 that Bacon and his friend Dr. Witherbone were driving around in Bacon’s coach in the frozen snow-covered area of Highgate which would in the future be Pond Square. During this time the area was not as urbanized and several small farms and homes darted the fields. While out in the area, Bacon saw a chicken farm and commanded his coachman to stop and purchase a chicken. Bacon seeing the frozen landscape was struck with curiosity about his theories of meat preservation and decided to conduct an experiment. The coachmen returned with a large chicken and with the sharp blade of a knife proceeded to gut the bird and pluck albeit not entirely the chicken. Bacon then began to open the bird's cavity and fill it with handfuls of snow. Seeing it perfectly stuffed he went and grabbed an old bag and proceeded to put the bird in it and fill up the bag then in snow and then went to the nearby field and buried it into a pile of snow. Upon seeing that it was entirely covered he was pleased. This unknowingly however would be his doom and Bacon would not know the outcome of his experiment. The philosopher at the beginning of the day was not feeling that well and felt nauseous and after performing this experiment he began to feel even worse. Bacon on April 9, 1626, would succumb to Pneumonia which many feel he developed while out in the snow conducting this experiment.

A little bit after this and as development overtook the area there were suddenly strange disturbances reported in the area of Pond Square in Highgate. Residents in the area soon began reporting that they would see a ghost chicken that would be noticeably terrified and cold running around ofttimes in a circle in the area. The witnesses would describe the bird as being bright white, large, and often devoid of feathers or with a few feathers clinging to its body. Sightings of this bird occurred typically during the winter months with a ton of sightings being documented that occurred in the 1940s. in 1958 reporter Leslie Thomas of the London Evening News extensively covered the ghost bird and its from this that the bird became more of a real phantasm than an urban legend which many animal ghosts tend to be. He managed to talk to some of the locals and eyewitnesses of the ghost and included them in an in-depth article on the haunting. The most prominent witness of the ghost which occurred in December of 1943 by Aircraftman Terence Long is not the most famous but one of the most reliable reports of the ghost. It was in that brutally cold winter that Terence late at night was walking across Pond Square. The area was pitch black and not a light was lit due to the fact that Britain and the rest of the world was still involved in World War II and that the surrounding homes and businesses were blacked out the point of this was to help make a potential targeted air bombing from the enemy forces more difficult. Terrance walking in the pitch black of this time was certainly familiar with the variety of city noises that occurred at night but on this particular occasion, he would hear something he was unfamiliar with. Terrance claimed that as he walked he suddenly heard “hoof beats and then the sudden pulling up of a carriage and a frightened shriek”. This strange cacophony of sounds frightened him and quickened his heart and he stopped in his tracks and peered into the darkness looking for some answer to the sound. As he looked into the darkness he soon however saw a glowing white form begin to approach him. This figure was short and was picking up speed as the man’s heart beat even harder. It was then that he saw in front of him a half-running, half-flying, shivering ghost chicken that was doing this running flying motion in circles. The bird was clucking and had hardly any feathers and the man in an attempt to calm himself down proceeded to close his eyes and take “a deep lungful of the air” whereupon once he exhaled and opened his eyes the bird was gone. The man looked around and realized that the bird was gone and that there was no place it could have vanished to except thin air. The man realizing that what he witnessed was some sort of apparition then decided to run for his life in terror. As he ran into the square Long ran almost headfirst into another figure which startled him as he thought that this too was another of London’s ghosts instead he was greeted by a caped fire-walker. Long proceeded to tell this man of what he had just witnessed and expected him to laugh at him. The fire watcher did not however and seriously said to Long that his sighting was not unique. The fire-walker explained to him that while he had never personally seen the apparition he did say that a month or two prior to his sighting the bird was seen by multiple witnesses. On this occasion a man noticed the bird strutting in the area and decided to capture it and cook it as a way to help his meat ration. The man in front of several other witnesses proceeded to chase the bird in a benny hill style fashion. The bird stayed away from the man and would engage in getting slightly airborne as chickens are able to do but realizing that it was not going to get away from the determined man decided to finish the chase by running headlong into and through a brick wall where in it disappeared altogether. Leslie Thomas in his article would also interview Mrs. John Greenhill who lived in the area of Pond Square. She would state that the ghost bird would frequently appear and perch in the lower branches of the tree opposite of her house and that many members of her family would claim that on moonless nights the bird would appear. She would describe the ghost as a large white plump apparition and that it would always appear in the boughs of the tree.

In 1969 and 1970 sightings of the ghost bird continued to be sighted albeit these sightings were vague at best and sighted during a time in London’s history when the Highgate area was accosted with paranormal investigators, claims, and dubious sightings. This was during the period of the infamous Highgate Vampire incident and so these Ghost chicken sightings some researchers take with a grain of salt. The first which occurred in January 1969 happened when a motorist whose car suddenly broke down on the side of the road in South Grove proceeded to abandon the vehicle and walk into Pond Square. He was searching for a home where there was evidence of someone still being awake and so that he could ask for help without disturbing some sleeping resident. He in the Square saw a house whose downstairs window was full of light and proceeded to walk towards it when his attention was caught by strange movement on the other side of the square. He looked towards a particular wall and was surprised to see a large white bird flapping its wings and running in circles. The man saw the bird and noticed that it seemed hurt and proceeded to walk towards the bird. The man’s first instinct upon seeing this bird as he also noted it was featherless was that this bird was accosted by some cruel youths or some other immoral individual and looked around for the possible perpetrators but could see no one. After looking around and turning to look back at the animal the creature completely vanished from sight.

In February of 1970, the ghost chicken was seen once more. This time the bird was reported by a couple who were returning home from a date. One of the couple had reached their home in the square and was wishing their significant other good night when suddenly they saw a large white bird suddenly drop to the ground near them. The couple watched the bird and noted that it was seemingly naked of feathers and that it proceeded to flap around in a big circle a couple of times before disappearing into the darkness. The couple watched the bird the entire time and said that it made no noise.

Sightings of the Highgate Ghost Chicken seemed to drop off after that and as far as what has been written and reported no one has since reported seeing the ghost chicken. The ghost however does live on as it is perhaps one of the most famous ghosts in the Highgate area and is still mentioned by ghost tours as they travel the area. Yet none of these tours have since claimed to of witnessed, heard, or seen the ghost since the 70s.

This is perhaps one of the best ghost stories I’ve ever heard. Its got the classic tragic and yet historical backstory of the apparition, there’s been documented accounts and interviews by witnesses, and the appearance of the ghost is both comical and unique. Yet while I have a fondness for this case what are we to make of it. The story of Bacon and the Chicken can be traced to Prickett’s History and Antiquities of Highgate and so there is a historical origin to the story. The addition of a ghost in writing first appears in the article by Thomas in 58’. With sightings primarily occurring in the 40s and 50s with witnesses. It's from this that it would seem something did occur yet just what we can only speculate.

One's first thoughts about this is that this could be a hoax or some urban legend yet interestingly if this was to be the case one has to wonder why the story of a ghost chicken would pull people during times of war or even for that matter at all. There’s no logical reason for a story of a ghost chicken to exist let alone to remember some obscure experiment Bacon did some 300 years prior unless it was done by some sort of animal activist to show the cruelties of animal processing which while not impossible is unlikely. Also if this was a hoax or urban legend why wouldn’t you use Bacon as the ghost he’s a famous historical figure that one could then confabulate some story where the ghost returns to see the results of the experiment but will never know the answer or something similar. It’s a very niche story that makes the hoax angle unlikely plus there are multiple decades of witnesses to take into account.

The next possibility is that people could be seeing an escaped chicken and that it had taken up residence in the area of the square. The fact that this bird was seen hanging out in low branches and behaving in ways very much like a traditional chicken in most cases seems to indicate that what people were seeing was nothing more than a very living animal. This can be added to when one looks at the sighting in 70’ or Long’s sighting where the bird did not vanish in front of the witnesses or was seen to do so it could be just that the animal got out of view. Now there are problems with this namely looking at images of the location there’s not much that could obscure one's view outside of the buildings themselves so it's not like the bird had bushes to hide in or deep forested areas. So again, unless the bird is hopping fences and walls or doing more Spring Heeled Jack-like maneuvers this is unlikely at least for most sightings. Another possibility though too, is a misidentified known species with some sort of mange. England is home to a variety of large birds such as the Cormont, the Canadian Goose, the common Crane, Grey Heron, Gannet, and the Whooper Swan. All of these birds are aquatic or semiaquatic in nature and while there’s no direct water source in the area of Pond Square at least that I can see on a map view of the location a visiting bird with such a disease could be mistaken for a featherless chicken at night.

Now with all that said there is the chance that what witnesses were seeing was indeed the spectral form of a ghost chicken. As at least with one specific sighting we can rule out misidentification.. at least of a living bird. This sighting while told four individuals back was claimed to have been witnessed by multiple individuals and was fresh enough at the time of Long’s sighting to at least entertain the idea of it being legitimate based on the reaction of the firewatcher in Long’s testimony. In this case, the fact that the apparition did pass through a wall to avoid being captured is something that totally puts this being a misidentified animal as an impossibility. Living organisms do not pass through solid objects and if this was a living organism with that ability it would be a Fortean phenomenon in its own right. Yet the fact that people for at least three decades reported consistently during the winter months encounters with this ghost that match in description seems to imply that this is a reoccurring haunting.

Some might point more towards a misidentification or misinterpretation of this case as the ghost seemingly stopped manifesting after 1970 if not before. Yet something that I feel needs to be re-brought up and which is something that we see over and over, especially in animal ghost cases is that over time the phenomenon seems to dispel and ultimately stops appearing. Some state that this is due to the stone tape hypothesis which basically states that ghosts are like recordings contained in the very stones and environment and that after a while they suddenly stop manifesting as though the tape is erased or worn. Sometimes apparitions will seem to lose their form becoming wispier as time goes on or people will notice that the apparitions lose their color from when they first started manifesting to how they appear now. For example, a red dress on a ghost in the 1700s is by the late 1800 to 1900s grey in color and then by the 2000s, the ghost is completely white and wispy. With animal ghosts there is a ton of examples of this occurring rather quickly or that the phenomenon suddenly just stops for no reason with no signs of slowing. Perhaps that is the case here as there is inclination to believe that the apparition of the chicken was common and existed well before the sightings of 43’ and the time between that and 70’ and only after that did the apparition suddenly dissipate. However, with as with a lot of this research, this is mere speculation.

This case has easily grown into one of my favorites as who does not love the maniacal behavior of chickens and geese. Sure there is an underlying fear of anything with wings that have been ancestrally passed down to us after our ancestors experienced the colossal titans the Teratorns and our place in the food chain because of them. The same can be said today with Harpy Eagles and their predation on children. Yet chickens have become comical jesters of their ancestors and something that rarely strikes fear outside of salmonella so for people to be terrified of an apparition that appears or is a ghost chicken it is to me at least hysterical and a fun addition to a menagerie of specters that make up the Necronomicon Ex Mortis of ghost cases.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Ghost Animal

Location: Pond Square, Highgate, London, England, United Kingdom

Sighted: Post-1626-Pre 1943, October-November 1943, December 1943, January 1969, February 1970

Works Cited:

Haunted England: The Penguin Book of Ghosts By Jennifer Westwood

Haunted Highgate By Della Farrant

Haunted London By Peter Underwood

Haunted Pet Stories: Tales Of Ghostly Cats, Spooky Dogs, And Demonic Bunnies By Mary Beth Crain 

True Ghost Facts And Hauntings Real Tales About Places And Things By Granger T Barr

The Masturbating Ghost Chimp of Athelhampton

 The Masturbating Ghost Chimp of Athelhampton

By Cole Herrold

Before I even start diving into this case, yes, you read that correctly. In the stately Athelhampton Manor, there is indeed, allegedly, the ghost of a chimpanzee that even after death is subject to self-indulgence although most sources tend to euphemize or totally ignore this behavior. Athelhampton Hall located in Dorchester, Dorset, England was built in 1485 by Sir William Martyn and has had a rich history which ultimately led it to being one of the most haunted locations in England and some would argue the world at least as far as homes go. The home housed the Martyn family for four generations until 1891 when it was sold to Alfred Cart de Lafontaine and then sold in 1957 to Robert Victor Cooke whose family had owned the property until 2019 when it changed hands to Giles Keating who made the grounds open to the public.

Now back to the Ape. The Ape which would appear on Martyn’s Crest sitting on a tree stump, and included in his  estate’s motto which was ‘He who looks at Martyn’s ape, Martyn’s ape will look at him’ was a creature kept as a family pet. The animal was allowed to wander freely through the halls, and it was this freeness which ultimately ended his life. This however gets into the more folkloric aspect of the tale. The Martyns were Catholic during the Tudor times which led into a religious turning of hands and in so to be faithfully Catholic led to a variety of problems. During this time one of their daughters in love with someone outside the catholic faith and wanting to marry this individual and seeing the denial from her family as this was forbidden proceeded to hide in a secret room behind some paneling in the Great Chamber however in her haste she did not notice the silent slinking form of the ape also entering the room. This is where the story enters two versions in one version this disheartened daughter proceeded to slit her throat in front of the started ape in the other she merely waited for a period of time still not seeing the ape in the hidden room and leaving the room with the ape behind ultimately trapping it. Another legend states that the Martyn Ape had entered the room accidentally when the house was under construction of the room and that the oblivious construction crew proceeded to in Edgar Allan Poe’s Cask of Amontillado fashion, wall the ape up. The outcome however in either version is the same the poor animal became trapped inside the secret room and became trapped therein to suffer the slow and terrible death by starvation. The family had heard the strange sound of scratching on the walls for some time, but none could place the sound and they soon stopped and then the smell came. They tracked the smell to the area of the secret chamber and upon opening it found the rotting mummy-like remains of the animal.

While this tragic end to the animal seemed to be just that to Martyn and his family it would not be the case. Soon reports of the apparition would arise and it would both mimic the estate motto and re-enact its final moments with a sexual twist. The ghost of the animal is said to do a variety of actions the most active of which is when it is claimed to swing from the Great Chambers rafters where it masturbates or “scratches itself” as it moves. Its also said to occasionally stay still and masturbate in front of any who enter the chamber whereupon it fulfills the motto specifically about it looking at whoever looks at him. Yet most of experience the ape when stationary state that it does make eye-to-eye contact as it indulges itself. Outside of this the ghost at night seems to return the hidden room that ended its life and proceeds to instead of “scratching” itself scratches the paneling as a constant reminder of the past.

This story was picked up by the Sun in 2015 and ran an article on the case entitled “the Ghost of a Masturbating Ape Haunts the Hallways of a Grand Country Estate in Dorset” the article on the site is now defunct yet the Express has since reprinted the article and with it the thoughts on one would-be ghost hunter to the location who said the following “One tourist who visited recently, 41-year-old dad-of-three John Morrison, of Derby, said "We heard that the monkey which haunts the house loves to scratch his privates while swinging around…"We didn't see him, which is a shame, because it would have been a real sight. Apparently he's not terrifying - quite friendly is what we heard" added John, a printer, who visited with wife Helene, 38, and their children while on their summer holidays in Dorset”.

Now it is important to note that Athelhampton Hall is not just the haunt of this Ghost ape but also that of a pair of spectral duelists, a grey lady, a phantom black monk, and a phantom cooper so paranormal phenomenon is not subjected to one specific type or form. Its all of these various apparitions that have led the house to being considered one of the most haunted homes in England as well as the veracity of the sightings. Typically, in haunted locations, there is this mass collection of apparitions reported and usually what we see is that one of the entities amongst the group is an animal of some sort. In many locations spectral horses are reported with riders, ghost pigs are fairly common, yet the most famous types typically tend to be ghost dogs, cats, or horses ridden or otherwise. The existence therefore of reported ghost ape or ghost monkey as some reports state are not impossible or even uncommon as Elliott O’Donnell described a case involving a ghost baboon and cat in a haunted location. However, he was quick to also hypothesize that this may have been the ghost of a human and horse as in ghost lore there is a ton of cases of ghost animals which witnesses and folklorists claim are the souls of transmogrified humans. Some famous examples being the Fiery Turkey of Kampa, The Roaring Bull of Bagbury, and The Leper Tiger.

Tying Cryptozoology to cases that seem to be entirely spectral in origin seem to be an impossibility yet interestingly in Nick Redfern’s book Three Men Seeking Monsters he does just that. The ghost Chimp of Athelhampton as well as the Ghost Ape of Marwood yet another ape ghost from England are all stories generated to explain sightings of a bigfoot-like cryptid known as the Man-Monkey said to roam in England. Redfern states that these shadowy ape-like figures were easier to explain away as ghosts than some flesh and blood local fauna or some supernaturally empowered mixed between the two, however, and while I do not want to outright dismiss this possibility with such cases as the Marwood ape. A bigfoot-like creature that regularly masturbates inside the Grand Chamber of an estate is a stretch unless it is some spectral or egregoric entity which again is a whole new animal and not the simple deluge into the hypothesis that is proposed in his book.  The same goes for if this is some interdimensional or spectral version of a sasquatch to what point would this creature need to masturbate or even appear in a building when in most cases these entities are the alternatives of what humans are/ are interested in. There are those cases of Sasquatch peering in cabins/ trailers or even entering in, but those cases end with them either wrecking the cabin or leaving prompted or unprompted. None of which typically vanish or decide to masturbate. Plus, I think there’s something off-putting in general to explain every phenomenon or every seemingly ape or human-like phenomena into a bigfoot-like camp and not its own unique phenomenon. 

Alternative explanations to the masturbating chimp seems to be an impossibility. Outside that is of either a hoax or a legend. I’ve never come across a first-person account of someone saying they seen the ape as opposed to say the Highgate ghost Chicken or other animal ghost cases reported by Elliott O’Donnell. It's from this that it's hard to garner a rating on this phenomenon. People do want and expect to witness this entity yet so far no one has seemingly in the modern century come forward and claimed a sighting. To me, this would garner an immediate place into the urban legend category but as with all legends perhaps there is something to it or that there’s something to animal ghosts that causes them to manifest less than other types of ghosts. Its come to my attention while researching the phenomenon that animal ghosts usually have a few major documented accounts and then suddenly they drop off the earth as though that was enough for them to manifest or that their mission was completed or whatever else would cause an apparition to appear. Experts or those familiar with ghost animal lore seemingly have no effect in manifestation rate and so further sightings if they occur are rare and seemingly not an example of the Egregoric creation something commonly associated with hauntings.

Its from this that if reports of the ghost chimp are accurate that I am led to believe that what was seen was a genuine ghost and that due to environmental constraints or that its mission was achieved that it now either no longer haunts the location or has no need to appear as common as it did previously. The legend of this apparition lives on as many classic British ghosts which have been rehashed over the years and like them we have no new sightings and while I do not dismiss Egregores or Tulpas its safe to say that the Athelhampton Ghost is not one of those especially since it shines above the other apparitions said to haunt the location. Yet all of this has yet to be tested perhaps the ghost will return and some brighter minds will decipher whether we are seeing some specter from the past or some manifestation created from seemingly the most intelligent forces on this planet. All of which is currently to be debated and if so one has to wonder if this is the result who has the dirtier mind.

Species/Potential Species: Ghost Primate/Paranormal Entity

Location: Athelhampton Hall, Dorset, England, United Kingdom

Sighted: Unspecified/Modern Times

Works Cited:

A Ghost Hunter's Handbook By Peter Underwood

Three Men Seeking Monsters: Six Weeks in Pursuit of Werewolves, Lake Monsters, Giant Cats, Ghostly Devil Dogs, and Ape-Men By Nick Redfern

Haunted Pet Stories: Tales Of Ghostly Cats, Spooky Dogs, And Demonic Bunnies By Mary Beth Crain

“The Ghosts of Athelhampton” Athelhampton. https://www.athelhampton.com/copy-of-history. Accessed 2/25/2023.

“THE GHOSTS OF ATHELHAMPTON HOUSE” Haunted Rooms. https://www.hauntedrooms.co.uk/athelhampton-house Accessed 2/25/2023

“SPANK the Monkey Does Just That While Haunting English Estate” 95.7 The Hog Rocks. July 23, 2019. https://www.957thehog.com/spank-the-monkey-does-just-that-while-haunting-english-estate/. Accessed 2/25/2023

“Ghost of rude masterbating monkey shocks visitors to stately home in Dorset” Express. August 5, 2016. https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/696974/Ghost-rude-monkey-shocks-visitors-stately-home-Dorset. Accessed 2/25/2023. 

The Fiery Turkey of Kampa

 The Fiery Turkey of Kampa

By Cole Herrold

When people think of the Czech Republic and the Fortean they often think of the Golem of Prague. Which to be fair is perhaps one of the most important stories to come from the region due to the cultural importance of the figure. Yet the Czech Republic is a place full of history and legends. In fact, the capital Prague is perhaps one of the most haunted places on earth. The area has countless legends from vampires to werewolves and colossal begging skeletons to River Spirits and sprites. There are several books dedicated to the subject yet perhaps the masterwork of cataloging all the paranormal entities in the city is Prague Full of Ghosts by Miloslav Svandrlik in which he cataloged 140 unique entities claimed to reside in the city. All of these apparitions and entities are interesting but of them, all one stands out due to the comical appearance of the entity. This bizarre entity is known as the Fiery Turkey of Kampa. While stories of this bizarre bird were recorded albeit rarely in sources I first came to find out about it through an unlikely source namely a reprinted book of Hellboy Artist and Creator Mike Mignola’s Sketch Book which appeared in the back of the Hellboy The Troll Witch and Others graphic novel. I instantly became drawn in by the design of the creature and had to find out more. Unfortunately, Prague Full of Ghosts by Svandrlik which Mignola cites as the book which he got the story from is out of print and decently expensive for someone with a limited paycheck. PDFs are rare yet screenshots and some of the illustrations have made their way online. It's from this as well as other online sources that recounted the tale that I was able to get the full story.

The story of the ghost begins in an old mill on Kampa Island which is located in Prague’s Malá Strana district. It was getting close to Easter and the miller was a huge fan of eating roast turkey on holidays it was here that the man to prepare for the day acquired three turkeys for the sole purpose of raising them and fattening them for a bountiful Easter feast. The man was certainly salivating at the thought of the glorious banquet and it was well known that even without a holiday the man loved the taste of turkey. Now the day was approaching closer, and the man grew more impatient as the last time he had a nice drumstick or piece of breast meat was on Christmas. This maddening craving finally reached a crescendo on Good Friday. Now Good Friday is a day that practicing Christians are told to refrain from consuming meat of any kind as on this day Jesus allegedly offered up his flesh as a sacrifice for all of humanity so long as you believe. This proved however to be too much for the miller who proceeded to kill one of the turkeys secretly. The man while the rest of his family were preoccupied with other Good Friday traditions proceeded to cook the bird and then took the feast to his mill where he ate the whole bird in secrecy. The man completely full and seemingly content was sitting on the floor when suddenly he felt an incredible pain in his chest and stomach. The man proceeded to run out the door where he stumbled and fell to the ground dead. When his body was found it was discovered that his gallbladder burst and people joked that this was because of the gall it would take for someone to violate fasting on Good Friday. The fact that he died in such a mysterious way on the day associated with the death of Jesus led many to believe that there was indeed some mysterious force that was at work. The miller's family simply cleaned up the turkey bones from the mill and never spoke about it again. Those of a less religious mindset felt that the man’s gallbladder bursting so suddenly was unlikely and that he probably just choked on a bone. After the holiday the family buried the miller and that was seemingly the end of the story until the next Good Friday came about.

On the next Good Friday, the town was surprised to hear and see at the mill a strange sight of the supernatural. There running around and making countless gobbles was a large turkey that was engulfed in flames. The entity was noticeably angry and would chase people around the area seemingly protecting the mill. The entity also had a physical effect to its nearby surroundings for as it moved it left burning footprints. For fear of what would happen to buildings and people, there were then several attempts to remove the turkey. Many tried to grab the bird but whoever tried only got burned in the process, but the bird was seemingly physical in form. The citizens then tried to get dogs to chase the bird away but the bird in turn ended up attacking the dogs causing them to turn and run with their tails between their legs. These attempts to capture the bird then were upgraded as men tried to snare and cage the entity however the ropes the bird would become entangled with would singe away. Seeing that this was fruitless and that it was just making the bird angrier some townsfolk sent for members of the military to come and try to shoot the bird dead. Several snipers showed up and they proceeded to take shots at the bird however again there was no noticeable effect and that they refused to get closer to the animal for fear that their gunpowder would ignite and explode.

Mike Mignola's take on the Fiery Turkey as well as some of the other ghosts of Prague

Realizing that conventional methods would not work the frightened towns folk proceeded to get the local priest to see what he could do. The priest seeing the flaming bird decided that he would attempt to exorcise the creature. The priest tried every incantation in the book and rang bells all in the attempt of making the apparition leave yet none worked. The flaming apparition however would soon disappear on its own. For as Good Friday ended the apparition suddenly disappeared. The priest and the people soon realized just what this being truly was. It would seem that this angry fiery bird was the condemned and transmogrified form of the miller. Its appearance is both evidence of his afterlife fate and also a warning for anyone else willing to break the holy laws. The ghost turkey would make its appearances over and over for years and would occasionally be heard gobbling on days other than Good Friday. Reports of this entity according to the article by Magic Bohemia seemingly started to die down after the Vatican II reform which occurred in 1965 which they noted changed many of the rules and laws regarding fasting and rituals with holidays. The turkey of Kampa, however, is still a focal point for many of the Prague Ghost Walks and many still claim that while full-on manifestations of the bird are nonexistent the gobbling of the bird can still be heard coming from the mill.

Fiery Ghost Turkeys are not the usual types of entities one thinks about when it comes to the Fortean but this just shows how incredible the Fortean truly is and that it knows no bounds. While this story is truly based on Christian mythology and serves as a warning for those wishing to break its dogmatic practices there are elements of this case that could point to it being an authentic encounter. In Fortean circles, ghost birds are incredibly common many of these apparitions are similar to Banshees as they are reported to warn or cause the deaths of those who encounter them. Yet less supernaturally significant ghost birds are also reported such as the Highgate Ghost Chicken or the Ghost Chickens of Chicken Alley, Wisconsin, or the Ghost Goose of Yorkshire that ghost hunter Elliott O’Donnell described. So, ghost birds are not unheard of in the Fortean and therefore something like the ghost turkey of Kampa is not unique in that way.

Something I else feels need to be brought up is the fact that this apparition while heavily believed to be the ghost of the miller could also be the ghost of the turkey killed on Good Friday. This animal was killed on a “holy” day and could be because of this damned to wander the earth or could even seek revenge on the community or the millers family. Obviously the overly supernatural qualities of this apparition kind of point against this it is still a possibility. Perhaps the roasting could have caused it to garner some supernatural fire in the same way that the Highgate Chicken ghost is constantly reported to be shivering and cold due to how it was stuffed with snow in its legend. The preparation used on the remains could explain the form it takes this could be why cremation is supposed to release ghosts and stop them from manifesting there may be some sort of link. An eerie thought too, is that perhaps the miller’s death was caused by the ghost of this bird as a form of revenge either granted by some higher power or through some supernatural rage of its own. Of course, all of this is mere speculation but it's something that in each telling of the story that never seems brought up and that most of the focus or identity is pointed to the miller. 

Another more direct similarity to the fiery turkey and other Fortean cases is the story. Transmogrified ghosts are surprisingly common. In plenty of older ghost books and in myths and beliefs from around the world once a person dies depending on the quality of their character they can become either through some religious damnation or through a curse or preset condition an animal ghost with strange abilities. There are two entities that I can think of that are extremely similar to the Fiery Turkey. The Roaring Bull of Bagbury is a large malicious and angry spectral bull from Bagbury, England. This apparition was in life a farmer who was exceedingly cruel and down right evil in life (the details however are sketchy as to just what he did) yet after he died the ghost would enter the farmhouse in its colossal bull form and stampede and throw objects around with its horns and kick furniture. Things got so bad that 12 parsons were called who led the bull to Hyssington Church where in they were able to shrink the bull through prayers to fit inside a snuff box. They then sent this box to the Red Sea for 1,000 years. Alternatively, there also was the spirit of a blind leper that was extensively covered in the works of Elliott O’Donnell. This leper who was killed by a tiger later would come back as a ghostly white tiger who had the ability to spread leprosy to whomever he scratched or bit. The ghost sought revenge for its death as the blind leper’s fate could have been prevented but more on this case in the very near future. The point of these other accounts was merely to demonstrate that similar ghosts to what the Fiery Turkey is have occurred at least in legends and Fortean literature.

The question we have to ask ourselves as well is that does our dogma cause phenomena to fluctuate. With the Fiery Turkey it is claimed that sightings and manifestations were rampant until the rules regarding meat consumption and fasting were changed. Is this an example of some sort of spell in action as many of these traditions and rituals could be something akin to that and by changing this all phenomena associated or bound by this are either released or forced to change behavior or simply obliterated from existence. One has to wonder such things if this is not some sort of parable or folk tale. There over the years have been countless cases of animal ghosts or strange supernatural entities that suddenly vanish or as some of the witnesses to hauntings claim to apparitions seem to fade over time. Some ghosts seem almost physical when first sighted then as the years go they turn into that grey or white or see-through apparition that is so associated with the phenomenon and then suddenly the ghost is seemingly gone with only maybe noises left. Some associate this with the stone tape hypothesis and that ghosts reflect the home conditions or environments in which they are reported. Yet it seems that now these less defined more ethereal ghosts are more common than the bizarre cavalcade of entities reported from the 1500s-1800s. It makes me wonder just what happened. Yet Im certain we may never find the answer and the same goes for the truth about the Fiery Turkey.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Transmogrified Human Spirit

Location: Kampa Island, Prague, Czech Republic

Works Cited:

Hellboy The Troll Witch and Others By Mike Mignola, Richard Corben, and P. Craig Russell

Prague Full of Ghosts By Miloslav Svandrlik

“The flaming turkey of Kampa” Magic Bohemia. November 17, 2016. https://magicbohemia.com/the-flaming-turkey-of-kampa/. Accessed February 22, 2023.

“Free Ghost Tour Of Prague’s Famous Mala Strana District” The Creative Adventurer. September 24, 2020. https://thecreativeadventurer.com/free-ghost-tour-of-pragues-famous-mala-strana-district/. Accessed February 22, 2023

“The Fiery Turkey” Prague Stay. https://prague-stay.com/lifestyle/review/176-prague-legends-myths-and-ghosts/177-haunted-prague-and-czech-legends/852-the-fiery-turkey. Accessed February 22, 2023. 

The Headless Cow of Johnstown/The Headless Pigs of Adamstown

 The Headless Cow of Johnstown/The Headless Pigs of Adamstown

By Cole Herrold

Spectral animal cases are perhaps my favorite type of paranormal encounters. They to me are much more interesting than the common human ghost report. Ghosts are in general are a historian's forte as when one delves into ghost lore it deals more with the history of the location that the ghost is said to roam and the history of the believed identity of the apparition witnessed. A lot of this is very interesting and ofttimes depressing or romantic. When it comes to ghost animals there usually is an underlying tragedy that calls into play the reason of why they are earthbound much like their human spirit counterparts yet often they tend to behave or appear in forms more bizarre than just the dislocated spiritual form of say a dog or cat. One of the most common forms is typically that of a headless animal. Often these can be linked to accidents or direct death of the animal via slaughterhouse or as in the case of entities like Black Shuck evidence of their supernatural origin. One such case which comes from my home state of Pennsylvania, and which is a mere hour away from my home is a strange apparition of a ghost cow that is both headless but is still seen with a head nearby.

The best way to describe this apparition is the bovine equivalent of “Nearly Headless Nick” of Harry Potter fame except that unlike Nick whose head is basically still attached this paranormal entity’s head is reported to fly through the air disconnected from its spectral body. This spectral cow was first reported in literature through a newspaper article entitled “Ghost of a Cow with Severed Head-The Frightful Spook that has Alarmed Residents of Cambria County PA- Fearful Noises Issue From Its Throat” With a Second title reading “Terrifying Ghost Cow seen near Johnstown, PA. With head separated from the body the apparition cavorts over the country with greenish fire shining from its eyes and mouth”. While this may sound like the call of a carny barker trying to pull would-be customers into some old obscure freak show tent this was indeed the titles published in the August 9, 1896 edition of The World newspaper along which the paper created a magnificent rendition of the spectral steer.

The paper stated that the sightings were cataloged by an Elmer Person an editor of the Pennsylvania Grit claimed to be a paper run through Williamsport, Pa. A city not too far from both myself as well as Johnstown. Person claimed that he had spoken to several witnesses in the area of Johnstown who all claimed to witness the ghost cow running as fast as a train from the abandoned slaughterhouse that had seemingly taken its life. The apparition is described to follow a particular fence and stone wall and upon reaching a specific spot it will turn around and head back into the slaughterhouse. The area of which is known as Climber’s Hill.  The description of the ghost is always the same according to Person who states that the ghost seems to hover along the course of the fence or above the stone wall and that its head which is dislocated from the body floats above the ground away from the torso on its own accord. The ghost apparently releases several haunting bellows which both come from the mouth and the body of the ghost as its throat is still slightly attached to the torso. The severed floating head of the ghost also is claimed to release a greenish fire from its mouth and eyes and the severed portion of the cow's neck and torso. He claimed that the area was avoided by many including even the bold attempt of curiosity by children, he even quoted a man who said that during the day the cow was something of a joke yet at night it was a haunting reality that few would want to experience. This elderly man who offered this advice claimed that even he had witnessed the apparition and will not venture into the area during the night.

Headless Animals in Pennsylvania especially those of the barnyard variety are fairly common in Pennsylvania. One case I had stumbled upon which unfortunately had barely any information for its own entry was the headless pigs of Adamstown, Pennsylvania, yet I am captivated by it enough to make it essentially a two-for-one article. The legend states that the Adamstown Abattoir was exceedingly successful and that it led to the deaths of countless pigs who were extremely large in stature. The reason for these pigs getting larger was that the farmyard in which the abattoir and home of the pigs was located was buttressed up against Echtenanch distillery. The grain remains from the distillery viewed as waste was dumped into the nearby barnyard and in doing so became a meal for the pigs. These pigs grew and fattened to an incredible size and of course, gave the slaughterhouse plenty of business. So many hogs were slaughtered that the town almost became blotted by the death and the result was that these now headless swine are reported to litter the streets of the town. They allegedly are reported regularly by locals as they traverse around Adamstown.

Headless Ghosts have always been in the realm of folklore and many could easily peg these entities into just that corner. Yet one must understand that there needs to be a reason for the folktale or folklore to exist be it the dark history of a location that involves some need for a vengeful ghost or a romantic end to the tale. Animals unfortunately do not seem to fit this category. One would be hard-pressed to find a need to express a haunting by farm animals outside of one's creative outlet or some propaganda unless the haunting actually occurred. Which, while it may seem cruel the vegetarian propaganda in Pennsylvania as native is something that practically was nonexistent until recently so the need to express animals as something other than food in the 1800s and early 1900s was unheard of. If this was to say something to show the horrors of the food processing industry it truly would be well beyond its time. I’m of the opinion based on this that if these stories are folklore or hoaxes they are simply creative stories to be different from the countless human ghost stories that exist. Or that what was described was exactly what people were reporting. For me, there are no other options. People do not mistake a cow ghost whose head goes flying along with its body unless someone sees a cow with a piece of black fabric in-between its head and assumes its headless which is possible but truly idiotic or exaggerated than in the telling. This of course only applies to the Johnstown Ghost Cow.

The Adamstown Ghost Pigs are a totally different story as there can only be two true possibilities outside of one of the most complex hoaxes I ever heard. Either this account is pure folklore to tell of the horror of mass pig slaughter or some way of commemorating history or that people really did report headless swine. The option of a hoax of that magnitude seems to the point of impossibility for if someone was to put countless pigs into some sort of harness to give the appearance of headlessness it would require more than one person and that there would need to be pig wranglers and all sorts of other accouterments that would be listed in some of our greatest hoaxes and not a case that we are still debating and talking about today.

One thing I find interesting as I grow older is the lack of animal ghosts. The only animal ghost cases I seem to come across anymore are those of cats and dogs. Yet back in the day farm animals and wild animal ghosts are incredibly common. It was normal to come across ghost apes such as the Serial Killer Orangutan of La Rue Croissant (see entry for more info), or the semi-plucked Ghost Chicken of Highgate or the Phantom Bear of The Tower of London, or even Gef the mongoose though he seems to be more complicated than any of these apparitions. So, I have to ask where have all the ghost animals gone? Is it that with such more positive movements like veganism and vegetarianism or more humanistic zoos that it put the need for these spectral species to rest. I doubt it since one can argue with industrialization we are finding more ways to process animals and at times in ways that some would consider it a holocaust. Its from this that I wonder if there was something in the human essence or the world’s structure that allowed such apparitions to exist. Is it that we created these entities from some suppressed guilt, or that the apparitions were showing that they were just as sentient as us which lead to the whole movements we see now and therefore a lack of need to manifest their spectral forms or is it something that the earth put forth herself as a way of showing how extreme and cruel to our fellow co-dwellers we are? With these possibilities I’m unsure yet it’s interesting that as I searched I could find no further encounters as those. These hauntings winded down farther than what we're used to. Ghosts do have a habit of seemingly abandoning their haunts or their behavior over the years loses their potency. Perhaps with animals, this is lessened or whatever meaning their hauntings were meant to convey was understood and therefore the hauntings need not happen anymore. This is all speculation for a field that has less of an understanding than say cryptozoology or ufology and I say that as there is no noticeable hard science outside of maybe chemistry or physics behind but none of which can truly explain hauntings or ghosts in an academic peer-reviewed research sense.

Ghost animal cases are clearly a mixture of a lot of phenomena and philosophies. Many will point to folklore and many will point out that the existence of animal ghosts will be evidence that we all have souls and that there is electrical and chemical existence of life after death even in species we view as inferior. Others will view this as some earth-oriented or human-oriented phenomena created by our own or by some higher intelligence. My thoughts are the following life and death are the only truths of life. It makes sense that once things die be that for a little or a long while that they remain. This can be either through memory or stories. Sometimes this is enough. At other times we may need to push beyond and if your something so removed from what is dominant you’ll find all sorts of ways to do so and not necessarily to convey some sort of message. Some will call these psychic impressions entities that do not “exist’ but are recorded in the environment. What though if there was something in-between that something that is trying to reach out through where it once was in life but only able to re-enact what it previously did. This seems to be the case in many hauntings as they venture between intelligent types and recordings. Yet again this is mere speculation and that we have no true idea as to why such phenomena occur.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Spectral Bovine (Johnstown Ghost Cow) / Spectral Swine (Adamstown Ghost Pigs)

Location: Johnstown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania/ Adamstown, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Sighted: 1896/ undated sighting reports

Works Cited:

The World (New York, New York) August 9, 1896

Pennsylvania Dutch County Ghosts Legends and Lore By Charles J. Adams III