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. 

Washington DC Demon Cat

 Washington DC Demon Cat

By Cole Herrold

There are always cases that stick with you; for me, there are some cases that I would rank as one of my top 10 favorites. Most of these cases are the very first ones I've ever read, such as Mothman, Flatwoods Monster, and Oscar, the Colossal turtle of Churubusco. One of these early cases Id stumbled upon is perhaps my favorite spectral apparition case, but its importance in Fortean lore is primarily founded on the location in which the entity was said to reside. This location is none other than one of the most important historical buildings in the United States, the Capitol Building. Yet while this hallowed hall is well known as a haunted hotspot, the apparition in question is not John Quincy Adams or Abraham Lincoln, but a shapeshifting black cat known as the Washington D.C. Demon Cat, the Demon Cat, the Grimalkin, or more affectionately D.C.

Rumors of the Demon Cat can be traced back to before the mid-1800s, yet the first documented report allegedly occurred in 1862. As with all hauntings and ghostly apparitions, there is a beginning point to such occurrences. The Demon Cat came about allegedly when, in the early 1800s, the Capitol Building began to be overrun with both rats and mice. The pest problem in the building became so rampant that cats were brought in to be "mousers ."These cats were primarily loosed in the lower halls and the basements and, as time went on, proceeded to die out as the need for them began to lessen. The feline death count, however, would see a slight rise when on August 14, 1814, during the War of 1812, when several British soldiers proceeded to light the Capitol Building on fire. Many of the cats in the building were burned alive, especially those that were on the second floor, due to the material being used. After the conflict during the prospect of rebuilding the Capitol, the masons upgraded the original wood floors with concrete ones, which they then covered in marble and tiles. This is where the first inkling that some supernatural entity now resides in the structure. After the Masons put the floor together, they noted a strange pattern had emerged that was not there when they initially put it together. The pattern which spread from one stairwell on the floor to the next was a series of pawprints. The men had no rational idea as to how these prints got there, and they served as the beginning of a calling card from a being who would make itself known in the years to follow. Now by the mid-1800s, cats utilized for mousing were down to only a handful, and instead, guards and police officers were put in their place to protect the ground from assault or break-in. Once this replacement occurred, tales started to spring up about a spectral black cat with bright yellow eyes that seemed to of been pulled from the writings of Edgar Allan Poe or from such cinematic delights as Tales from the Darkside the Movie or Lucio Fulci’s The Black Cat. Yet, unlike other cases of freaky felines, this black cat had one important and horrifying aspect as those who encounter the apparition will state it will as soon as it sees the guard begin to run towards them, and as it does this, the animal's eyes begin to change color from yellow to red, and it begins to swell this swelling goes to every part of the body causing the animal to grow. The size of the spectral feline has been reported to grow from the size of a tiger about 10ft to the size of a small elephant and as it gets within a few feet of the witness proceeds to pounce claws out toward the guard or officer. The animal usually would unleash a hideous hiss, and as it sprung in mid-air, it would seemingly disappear before making contact with the witness.

Sightings of this colossal apparition seem to serve a supernatural purpose. Many of those who encounter this apparition feel that it is a warning or an omen of doom and not some sort of residual haunting. This apparition allegedly has been sighted before major problems and conflicts in the country. While many of these precursor to tragic events sightings appear in literature and newspaper articles, there is not really any more information on them. Some of these events the cat was said to of prognosticated were the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln, JFK, the crash of the Stock market, the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the night before we first sent men over to Vietnam during the war, 9/11, and even Hurricane Katrina. Also, there are some conflicting reports that the cat was seen before the assassination of James Garfield and William McKinley, but most sources try to say that it was not.

The first documented report of the Demon Cat occurred in 1862. Not much is known about this early sighting, and it usually appears as a precursor to later sightings, which made their way into the papers in 1898, 1899, and the early 1900s. Yet what can be gleaned from the newspapers of the time is that a watchman, while prowling the lower corridors and catacombs of Capitol Hill, encountered a small black cat which the witness at first thought was one of the last surviving mousers yet as he called out to the animal. The animal began to run towards him and proceeded to grow in size with each bounding step that it took. The papers and assumedly the witness would claim the creature stopped growing once it reached the size of a small elephant. The watchman, in this case, was well-armed and, taking his weapon, proceeded to shoot at the apparition to no noticeable effect; the animal continued its stampede towards the man and proceeded to spring up into the air jumping at him with its long claws out. The man, completely terrified, attempted to cover his major extremities and waited for the final blow from the creature. The creature, however, never made contact with the man, and it seemingly vanished in mid-air.

In 1898 another guard who was working in the lower corridors of the building also encountered the demon cat. This officer, however, proceeded to stop the creature from assaulting him by way of brute force. The officer proceeded to take his gun and shoot at the creature, which upon doing so, dissipated from view as if made of mist. Now during this time frame as well, the Capitol Building was damaged by a gas explosion, and in some of the sections of the area where the masons were working on, there are now small cat footprints that appear near the Rotunda. The clearest of these prints, which there are 6-8 of them, appear along the Old Supreme Court Chamber. Some feel that these footprints could have been caused by a traditional cat, but in many ways, it would be very difficult for a cat to do so. In another section, a less compelling piece of evidence for the cat is claimed where a patch of concrete had the letters D.C. imprinted in this. Some argue that this is merely some human at work and not the supernatural, and while in this case, Id have to agree it is something that needs to be included.

Photo of alleged Demon Cat prints- photo from Atlas Obscura 

On December 7, 1941, a police officer was found dead of a heart attack. Now, this would have been left as an unfortunate accident except for the fact that the officer was found in one of the main areas where the Demon Cat was said to run and vanish. This secondary lair of the Demon Cat was not the basement near the Catafalque Storage Room, but the hallways connects the senate to the house meeting rooms. This encounter which occurred 7hrs before the bombing of Pearl Harbor began, and so knowing the legend of how the Demon Cat is said to appear before a national disaster, as well as the fact that this guard died in one of the creature's major path that the guard had suffered a heart attack after this creature's traditional manifestation behavior. This sighting was almost forgotten about assumedly in part because of how soon the national tragedy occurred but was put together after another sighting that occurred in 1981.

In the 1975 book Ghosts: Washington’s Most Famous Ghost Stories by John Alexander, there is a reference to what at the time was an increasingly fresh encounter with the Demon Cat, which the author claimed took place in January, sometime before the publication of the book. This encounter which echoed many of the older sightings involved a policeman who, upon prowling the area, sighted the small black cat that appeared to be made of shadows in the lower halls of the capitol building. The officer rubbed his eyes as he could not believe what he was seeing as not only was this cat seemingly formed from shadow but also that it seemed to be swelling. Upon relooking at the animal, he could tell that it truly was swelling in size and that now he felt seemingly paralyzed by the creature’s glistening eyes. The animal in this encounter proceeded to walk steadily toward the officer, and the creature had begun to purr. As the creature continued to grow larger, however, the purring began to change as well; it deepened and bellowed and became almost like the roar of a lion. The creature, which now grew to the size of a large tiger, began to get into a crouching position, and as the paralyzed officer looked on in horror, the animal pounced with its claws extended. He watched as the animal got within a mere couple of inches of him, and just as he uncurled a scream, the creature disappeared right in front of him. The officer then, having looked around the area, refused to finish his rounds of searching and inspecting the halls and went straight to his desk and did not leave it until daybreak.

Another sighting of the Demon Cat would show up in one of the most unassuming pieces of literature out there, an edition of Boy’s Life Magazine. In the July 1982^nd issue of the magazine, there was an article discussing the idea of the Capitol Building's haunted reputation and, surprisingly enough, featured the only named witness to the Demon Cat in any media. The sighting, which occurred in the Spring of 1977, was witnessed by a Fred Twoby, who during the time of the encounter was a guard at the Capitol Building. Twoby was walking along an upper corridor and had just entered a side hallway when he noticed a dark figure peering at him from the end of the hallway. Fred stopped dead in his tracks as the glinting yellow eyes of this would-be trespasser caught his attention, yet as he looked, he saw a small black cat leave the surrounding darkness and slowly begin to approach him. He watched certainly more curious than anything else at the cat, but as he watched the animal, he soon noted that with each thudding footstep, the creature seemed to get bigger. The animal proceeded to then pick up its pace, almost sprinting as it kept growing, and with each motion, the growth also increased till the creature was the size of a tiger, some 10ft long. Once the creature got relatively close to him, the creature proceeded to spring at the now petrified night guard, and Twoby, in a terror-induced sense of flinching, lifted his arms up above his head as though his arms would protect him from the creature's assault. Yet as he waited, arms overhead, eyes closed, an eerie quiet and stillness rung out throughout the halls, and time seemed to drag on as he waited for some sort of blow, yet it never came. Mustering up the courage, he opened his eyes and put down his arms and, looking around the halls, noticed that the colossal phantom was nowhere to be found.

A sighting I had mentioned earlier was the next documented sighting, and it appeared in the October 29, 1999 issue of the South Idaho Press. This encounter was written by Idaho senator Larry Craig for Halloween and discussed the classic legend of the Demon Cat. Yet instead of doing just a classic rehash as other newspapers had done going back to 1898, he added an encounter he had heard about from a friend who was told by the police officer who witnessed the apparition. This officer was patrolling the capitol building and was beginning to head to the second floor. As soon as he had wandered up the staircase to the floor, a large black cat proceeded to wander out of a room on the same floor. The cat proceeded to approach the officer, who was so perplexed as to how it got there that he barely noticed that the animal was growing in size. Once the creature was within 3ft of the officer, the officer realized that the creature was the size of a tiger with burning red eyes. The creature then proceeded to run and jump at the officer, which disappeared a mere 2-3" from the officer's chest. The man looked and realized where he was at, for this was the same hallway that bore the spectral pawprints that appeared in the concrete when the building was under construction in 1814. The officer proceeded to leave the area screaming and began to run out of the building and ran to the Police headquarters, where he reported what he had encountered to the police chief. He half expected the Chief to laugh him out, but that is not what happened. The officer looked as the Chief turned to a safe nearby and, upon opening it, pulled out a black leather-bound book that was covered in dust. He opened it up, and taking a pen, he began to write down the bare bones of the officer's encounter, stating that he was the 58^th encounter to be included in the book. The police chief then, upon placing the book down, proceeded to reach over and grab the phone on his desk and began to call both the White House and the Pentagon and told both of those who answered the phone about the encounter with the Demon Cat and that they needed to be on high alert. Yet no one believed him, but within the next couple of hours, they would. This encounter which occurred on March 30, 1981, at 6 in the morning, was a precursor then to the assassination attempt of Ronald Reagan, which occurred precisely 8hrs after the officer had his sighting with the entity. The officers involved in this sighting, both the police chief and the officer who witnessed the entity, then proceeded to look through the black book of sightings and, out of a morbid sense of curiosity, proceeded to search for sightings of the cat in other historical events. They found that sightings occurred during Kennedy's assassination, the night before we first sent men to Vietnam, yet curiously they found no sighting before Pearl Harbor, but upon investigating, they found that 7hrs before pearl harbor was bombed, an officer died of a heart attack in the same area as where the demon cat had frequented. They found this to be a smoking gun and the only time the creature seemed to of been responsible for the death of a person.

Now there have been no Demon Cat sightings since, but the legend was so prominent that in 2018 and 2020, both Atlas Obscura and the Washingtonian wrote articles wondering as to whether the spectral feline might return due to both the incoming election at the time as well as the rise of Covid. Yet officially, nothing has been reported. It is claimed, though, that in-between the 1981 sighting and now that other members of the staff of the Capitol Building and members of Congress having seen a glowing red-eyed shadow cat in the corridors and hallways, few have chosen to come public with their story due to the possibility of public ridicule at best and a chance of losing their job at worst. Yet unfortunately, further details on these encounters are nonexistent and so too ends any further encounters at least documented of the Demon Cat.

Now the Demon Cat is one of the most beloved paranormal entities in regard to Washington D.C., and in doing so, it has garnered a love/hate relationship with many who work within the Capitol building. Its from this, when trying to rationalize the encounter, a lot of interesting bits of information in regard to the history of the building can be found through these individuals. Going skeptically first, Steve Livengood of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society was one of the first to bring forward the idea that the Demon Cat was nothing more than an optical illusion caused by a drunken worker. Livengood feels that during the original 1800s encounters that the witnesses of the entity were relatives of more important political figures who, in turn, because of their relative's status, did not take the job as seriously as they should have. They resulted to drinking on the job, and it is from here where the legend he feels begins. Livengood proposes that on one such occasion, one of these early witnesses was drunk, lying on their back, and was awoken by one of the still-functioning mouser cats who was licking his face. Upon waking, the drunkard would not see a small tabby but a colossal cat, and in the state, he was in would still believe he was standing. It's from this point that once this account came out that other less willing workers would utilize the story in the same or similar way to get out of working. Then the story simply exploded from there with the idea of the cat being involved with misfortune. Another possibility in regard to the creature’s changing voice from a meow to a roar came from the March 02, 1913^th issue of the Washington Herald, which hypothesized that during the winter, cats from the city would find a way into the basement or lower halls of the Capitol and would when yowling or meowing have these sounds be amplified by the overall acoustics of the building. Thus, creating the illusion that they are from a much larger beast than a small cat.

Another possibility for the answer to the Demon Cat is unsurprisingly natural cats and shadows. According to the History, Art, and Archives: The United States House of Representatives article “The Haunting of Capitol Hill's House, Debunked," cats, aside from being brought in specifically for mousers, were allowed in and welcomed all the way till the late 1920s. The article stated that "At one point, guards reported bands of cats roaming the Capitol in 1892. "At about 10 o'clock every night, they begin a mad racing through the empty corridors,” and that “The acoustic effects produced (by the cats) are astonishing…Let a single grimalkin lift up his voice in statuary hall, famous for its echoes, and the silence of the night is broken by a yell like that of a damned soul, as loud as a locomotive whistle.”. In 1927 two of the last remaining cats, known as Dirty and Mary, were written about in an article due to their incredible skill at depopulating the mice in the building. Yet by the 40s such cats were long gone, and they were instead replaced by dogs and B.B. Guns. It's from this that, much like Livengood's hypothesis of a cat licking a drunkard's face, that theory arose that drunkards hearing the cats and seeing the shadows of the cats rose to the idea of a more spectral shapeshifting apparition.

Now for those of a more skeptical mindset, that would be the nail in the coffin for the Demon Cat and added that over the 200 years since the cat footprints appeared in the concrete on the second floor that there’s only been one witness who came forward with a name whereas all the other witnesses were anonymous or told from a friend who knew the individual who encountered the creature that is enough for firmly place the Demon Cat as a piece of folklore, but I think there's enough to it to warrant not only an official investigation but also a possibility of something more real. I say this because of primarily the encounters which took place in the 70s and 80s, as this is the first time we do have someone coming forward without being anonymous, as well as the strange set of tracks forever apart of the Capitol Building. Another piece that supports the existence slightly of the entity comes from Captain Allen P. Powers, a night supervisor at the Capitol who worked there for more than a decade, said "We have men on the force who are so uptight about the Demon Cat that they won't patrol the building alone at night. The more superstitious ones consider the cat an evil force that desperately stalks its victim, making sure they are alone. No one, however, has ever been harmed; nevertheless, many of the Capitol force are certain the building is haunted".

Now clearly based on the nature of this entity, it is not a cryptid or alien. It does not fit in the physical Fortean category at all, and Id have to argue that the main if not only possibility is some sort of paranormal entity, either a demonic apparition or the transmogrified spectral apparition of a cat. The demonic identity of the entity clearly is the one that most would point to with this being, and obviously, earlier witnesses felt the same. Yet if this is a demon, then the origin story of a dead mouser cat does not make much sense, but that opens up another possibility that is involved with the creation of the Capitol Building itself. Engineer John Lenthall, who worked on the construction of the capitol building, was crushed under a collapsed archway in September 1808. He ended up in this scenario after he pulled out a support arch to show to the supervising architect that the arch was unnecessary; this proved to be his undoing, however, and as the structure collapsed on him, it ultimately cost him his life. Yet before he took in his last breath as he was slowly crushed to death, he cursed the Capitol Building, and it is possible that in doing so unleashed the demonic feline into the walls of the home. In many ways, this could also explain why there seem to be at least 14 other apparitions said to be in the building; some of these apparitions include John Quincy Adams, a wounded Union soldier, and William Preston Taulbee, who was shot to death by a reporter for The Louisville Times as well as the general arguments and general negativity that seems to emanate from that location. 

Now another possibility is the transmogrified cat spirit. There have been several cases over the years of ghosts of humans and animals that seem to change form. There's a famous case of a spectral white tiger that behaves much in the same way as the Demon Cat, including with lunging at victims before disappearing, except that the White Tiger was, if the legend is to be believed, a human who upon death came back to seek in revenge as a leprosy carrying spectral white tiger. This account occurred in Elliot O’Donnell’s Animal Ghosts, so there are legends or at least a history of spirits becoming super-powered or super-charged after death.

Now, as stated earlier, I've loved this case since I was a child; it was one of the first paranormal cases I ever heard of, and so it holds a special place in my heart. Now in many ways, I wish there were more sightings and more information on this case since, to me, this is the political representative of the "American Monster" since almost every state has a state cryptid or monster, it would seem only fitting that while there’s plenty of human monsters in D.C. that there would have to be some supernatural one that even still would not be so terrible as the human ones. The Demon Cat mystery is one that will not go away; its something that is ingrained in the local lore and history, and I'm sure for years down the line, whenever its an election year or in the middle of some skirmish that people won't look towards the Capitol Building and wonder if D.C. was seen or will be seen during this time.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Supernatural Entity

Location: Capitol Building, Capitol Hill, Washington D.C.

Sighted: 1862-at least the 1980s.

Works Cited:

America’s Very Own Monsters By Daniel Cohen

Ghosts: Washington’s Most Famous Ghost Stories By John Alexander

Monsters of Virginia: Mysterious Creatures in the Old Dominion By L. B. Taylor Jr.

Phantom Animals By Daniel Cohen

Weird Virginia: Your Travel Guide to Virginia's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets By Jeff Bahr, Troy Taylor, Loren Coleman, Mark Moran, Mark Sceurman

Boy’s Life Magazine July 1982

Grundhauser, Eric “Why the U.S. Capitol’s ‘Demon Cat’ Legend Is So Persistent” Atlas Obscura. March 13, 2018. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/is-there-a-demon-cat-in-the-us-capitol. Accessed June 24, 2021.

History “The Haunting of Capitol Hill's House, Debunked” History, Art, and Archives: United States House of Representatives. October 29, 2019, https://history.house.gov/Blog/2019/October/10-29-Haunting-Debunked/. Accessed March 24, 2021.

Buffalo Courier December 04, 1898

The Akron Beacon Journal January 11, 1899

The Washington Post March 24, 1908

The Boston Globe July 04, 1909

The Washington Herald March 02, 1913

Home Talk the Star August 10, 1928

The Dispatch October 31, 1981

The Times October 31, 1989

South Idaho Press October 29, 1999

The Marrtown Banshee

 The Marrtown Banshee

By Cole Herrold

Banshees are traditionally only associated with Ireland, but their range is far greater than just the Emerald Isle reports of a female spectral omen of death or washerwoman are common throughout Scotland, Wales, France, and England and goes by several names other than Banshee such as Lavandière de Nuit, Lavandière, Laveuse de Nuit, Kannerez Noz, Cannerez Noz, Gannerez Noz, Bean Nighe, Bhean Nighe, Caoineachag, Nigheag Bheag a Bhroin, Washerwoman, Night Washerwoman, Washer of the Ford, and Little Washer of Sorrow. When many of these European countries with Banshees immigrated, they either brought their tales of Banshees with them or the vast ships that carried these travelers also brought several faeries aboard with them for while this may seem like a purely European phenomenon beginning by the early 19^th century America too began having reports of Banshees.

One of perhaps the most famous American Banshees is the Marrtown Banshee. Now before we get into the old girl, let's set the scene with the family that the Banshee seemed to align itself with. For while the name is slightly misleading as one would think that this Banshee is actually associated more with a place than a person, this is not to be the case and that this entity is, in fact, associated with one particular family. Thomas Marr, a Scottish immigrant and founder of Marrtown, came to the area in 1836 and, along with several other Scotts, developed the community as best they could in the hills of West Virginia. Marrtown today is a small community that is only almost a mile and a half away from Parkersburg, the scene of another famous West Virginia Case in 66'. At the time, Thomas Marr, as his community grew, came to fall in love with a local West Virginia gal by the name of Mary and eventually got married. The pair was happily married and had several children, but as was the misfortune of the time out of the nine, she gave life to only three survived to live to marry and have a full life. These trials, however, were simply steppingstones and elements that made Thomas and Mary enjoy their life to the best of their ability and to succeed as best as possible. Then the Civil War hit. The war between brothers caused a great stir all over the nation but especially in West Virginia as the state seemingly created itself after breaking out of the Confederacy as the land was a part of Virginia. Times were tough, and Marr attempted to raise his children as best he could until the conflict was resolved. He succeeded in this, but after the war, he suddenly realized that he now was struggling financially and needed to find a better way to gain some finances; from here, he took a job as a watchman.

As a watchman, the now 66-year-old Marr would have to protect the borders of the town at a given time in the evening at the nearby bridge that gained access to Marrtown. As he took this position, he soon began to notice a bizarre figure that would appear around the bridge as he was on his way to and from work. The figure was a cloaked person who road a bright white horse. Marr was never able to officially make out the gender on his time as a watchman but strongly felt that whoever this person was, was most definitely female. He had seen this figure and its mount on more than one occasion and several times came surprisingly close to her, but whenever a time would come that he would approach the figure, it suddenly would disappear before his eyes. Seeing this on almost a daily basis disturbed Marr, and eventually, he broke down and told his wife about the bizarre apparition he kept seeing near the bridge. His wife was unsure of what to make of the story her husband told her that is until the date of February 5, 1876. On this particular day, Thomas left to work like any other, and as the time for him to return was about to approach, a bizarre figure began to approach his property. His wife seeing that someone was coming, came out to see just who it was and noticed that it was a woman wrapped in dark-colored clothing and that she was approaching the house on top of a pure white horse. The figure remained quiet and seemed frozen to the spot for some time before finally speaking and said, "I am here to tell you, Mary Marr, that Thomas Marr has just died. Say your prayers, lady. I bid you well". The figure then turned and rode off until it disappeared into mist. A short time later, a coworker of Thomas arrived at Mary's home and confirmed what the being had said. Just how Thomas had died is varied; some claim he was shot by an assassin's bullet, others claim he drowned into the river, but the State Journal and Parkersburg Examiner would go in their obituary of Thomas to say that he was that he fell from a ladder of a distance of ten feet at his job site and upon impact died most likely from a broken neck and that he was found near the platform of the freight drop. Regardless of the method, the Banshee did come at the exact moment of when her husband had shuffled off this mortal coil. Some years later, Mary too would be prognosticated by the Banshee as cries would be heard around their property, and these cries would be heard by many upon when she too passed away at the age of 90 at her viewing in her home. The Banshee wailed, cried outside of the property as the procession went on, and also dropped and rattled spectral chains in the attic all while the procession went on.

While it is unknown whether the Marrtown Banshee prognosticated or appeared before or during any of their children or descendants' deaths, it is rumored that the apparition does still appear. There are claims that people to this day will see the faerie woman riding on horseback out in the hills and fields or into the woodlands of Marrtown very close to the bridge and home where both Mary and Thomas had lost their lives. Yet no one at least has reported any similar encounter with this kind of oracle of demise in the same way as Thomas and Mary did in the area.

When looking at Banshee cases, typically, there are two possibilities as to the identity of the entity; the first is that the entity is the classical fairy woman that appears in the traditional tales, and the other variety would be that of a spectral apparition, in this case, there are a lot of factors that seem to point towards a fae version of the Banshee than an apparition. The entity riding a horse is very similar to other accounts of the fae, but this is very different than almost every Banshee account I've come across as Banshee, at least from the research I've read, do not ride or have mounts. Banshees frequently will appear near rivers and streams and will be seen with washing basins and blood-stained clothing from those who are about to die, so the fact that this entity is seen very near a river is interesting, and the same goes for the fact that the entity also later appeared at the home of Mary and Thomas both during and after both of their deaths is indicative of traditional Banshee behavior. The fact that the figure was also described as being robed is a feature that has also been described in the crone version of Banshees, and of course, the fact that this entity appeared to a Scottish family and seemed to be connected to them specifically seems to indicate that it is a familial fae.

While the overall description and behavior of this entity do appear to be that of a fae, one cannot remove the possibility off the table that the entity observed was a traditional ghost. There are countless cases of apparitions of typical ghosts appearing before family members of death. Many times people will claim to have experienced ghosts of this variety tend to simply be ways of guiding the about to be deceased to the afterlife, but on occasion, they warn or tell of a family member's death. These cases, however, are particularly rare in the realm of classical ghost encounters but do, in fact, happen.

Ghosts associated with animals are rather frequently reported the ghost of Anne Boleyn for example, the most famous of King Henry the VIII's wives is said to be the most traveled Ghost in all of London was said to at Blickling Hall appear with a set of headless spectral horses and a headless horseman that pull her carriage. These accounts of Headless horsemen and headless horses are an ancient spectral tradition that, much like the Banshee, can be traced back to another fae known as the Dullahan. The Dullahan is an incredible figure in Irish folklore, and he is the original Headless Horseman; he is seen usually as a male figure (though females are reported) riding a horse and in one of his hands is his severed head, and in the other a whip made from a spinal cord. The Dullahan, much like the Banshee, was an omen of death but unlike the Banshee seeing a Dullahan was not a guarantee of death; in fact, one would be more likely to get their eyes whipped out of their skull by the skeletal whip or have a basin of blood thrown in your face by the fae than be killed by the entity. If someone was being chased by a Dullahan or sees a Dullahan, if they had a piece of gold on their person and showed it to the entity, they would be safe from impending doom as the entity has an intense hatred for gold. The Dullahan also is associated with leading a spectral procession of the dead and is at times known as the coachman to the afterlife, which includes a spectral cart with wheels made from human thighbones and skulls that are filled with fire to help light the way and that features headless horses and a headless rider. Much like Banshees, Dullahan also are both described as fae and spirits of the dead, and Headless Horsemen, similar to the Dullahan, are seen in other countries such as Ewen of the Little Head from Scotland, who also is an omen of death. Even the fact that the horse is seen as white is something that has appeared in many cultures; a pale or white horse was the mount of one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, specifically the rider Death. So, the horse riding apparition is something that is heavily associated with similar types of cases.

There are also cases of people seeing spectral apparitions of themselves known as Doppelgangers traditionally, these copycat ghosts are in almost every case an omen of death as there are several legends that simply seeing a Doppelganger instantly leads to death in the same way as seeing a black dog three times or hearing a Cu Sith's bark three times instantly causes one's demise. It is important to point that in this case, there is no definitive description of the apparition aside from the fact that it was conceivably female and that from this lack of description, perhaps the figure might have been the Doppelganger of Mary or some other family member. Many times, in Doppelganger cases, members of the family will report seeing duplicates of their family members even though they could be in alternative places of the country or right next to them, and just as seeing one's own Doppelganger these cases usually lead to death.

While just what the Marrtown Banshee is, we can only speculate. I do think that it is particularly interesting that this case is one of the closest to a classical encounter with a faerie Banshee in America. Faerie encounters in America, while not particularly uncommon from a native standpoint, are particularly rare when it comes to faeries typically associated with European folklore and fairy lore. I had discussed the idea that faeries do have connections with people and will follow them to new locations, such as in the Trolls of Sorenson's Woods Case, where several reported Trolls seemingly followed Norwegian and Swedish immigrants over to a Minnesota community. Banshees typically, when one reports them in America, they seem to be more apparition-like and less like what one would expect from a traditional fae. I think again that this is overly interesting and something that the Fortean community needs to do more research on. The fact that such accounts exist is mind-boggling to me as the fae seem like something from before the dawn of technology, and while the late 1800s is not exactly modern, it is interesting that in a time where the world was seemingly developing away from the old ways and traditions that such beings were still being reported. Is this evidence of their existence? I can only stand to guess, but I hope so for who wouldn't like to have a being with you as a kind of lookout or warning something that not only could prepare oneself but also their family that something bad would happen. Until the day that this case and the phenomenon is either validated or debunked, I'll definitely keep an eye out for any bizarre figure and an ear open for any cries or sobs that might permeate some dark mist-filled night.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Faerie, Ghost, Supernatural Entity

Location: Marrtown, West Virginia

Sighted: 1875-1876

Works Cited:

Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits by Rosemary Ellen Guiley

Haunted West Virginia By Patty A. Wilson

The Magick of Faeries: Working with the Spirits of Nature By Cassandra Eason

Monsters of West Virginia By Rosemary Ellen Guiley 

Ghost Gorilla of the Moon

 Ghost Gorilla of the Moon

By Cole Herrold

When it comes to the paranormal, there are countless facets that tend to flow interchangeably. We see this time and time again when a phenomenon that should be wholly separate and most times is, has come together; the infamous Bigfoot-UFO sightings are one such case variety. The same can be said for this case; it is a mixture of astral projection, spirits of the deceased, and it was recorded via automatic writing. This hodgepodge of various phenomena may not seem as unique now, especially since these three topics had interconnected on the silver screen with the Insidious franchise, but the account in question was written long before James Wan rewrote the haunted house film structure as the account appeared in written form in 1913 just three years shy of 100 years before the film's debut. While the almost one-hundred-year gap from film to this account is indeed impressive, there is another element that makes it unique and its that the disembodied entity that would become the unlikely antihero in the case was reported not to haunt some ancient, dilapidated house or crumbling castle ruins as ghosts are known to do but in a place that seems impossible for even such an encounter to happen.

The account was recounted by the infamous Irish paranormal investigator and spiritualist Elliott O'Donnell. It was given to him by his friend and fellow spiritualist, a man named Mr Supton, who received the account one night while using a planchette. Now for those familiar with the term planchette, they no doubt will think of the small, holed piece that is used with Ouija boards. This is not the tool he utilized. A planchette is, as described by Encyclopedia.com, "a simple instrument designed for the purpose of communication with spirits. It consists of a thin heart-shaped piece of wood mounted on two small wheels that carries a pencil, point downward, for the third support. The hand is placed on the wood and the pencil writes automatically, or presumably by spirit control operating through the psychic force of the medium”. This apparatus which is very different from the modern interpretation of what is commonly referred to as a planchette for the Ouija board but serves a similar purpose in communication with the spirit world.

One night while operating his planchette Supton began receiving several sprawling messages as the pencil began to operate each writing paragraph after paragraph of the last memories the spirit had and how it became disembodied. Supton was amazed at the fluidity of the spirits communication and waited till the end of the spirits writing to read the full account. What he read would shock him even further and make him question more about what happens after we die and what happens in the unseen world that is around us.

The spirit's tale began with one of the most relatable moments in a person's life. The spirit whose name was revealed to be a man named Hugesson began his tale at the day of his dishevelment. Hugesson recounted that he was sitting in his favorite chair in the warmth of a roaring fire in his one-room apartment. He was stressing out, for as a struggling writer, he had been running low on funds and had not made any money in the past twelve months. The apartment was bare, and Hugesson took the sight in with much sorrow as this certainly was not how he wanted to be. He was seeking freedom, freedom from all his troubles and freedom from this structured plane of existence. He stared out of his window at the moon and had wished it would give him either the freedom he so longed or some form of inspiration for his writing, yet it did nothing of the sort; instead, the soft glow simply illuminated the room even more showing the emptiness and shabbiness of his home. He stared out the window and thought even more of escape, thinking of how wonderful it would be to go to the moon or some other celestial body. It was in this moment he had remembered a conversation he had with a member of the New Occult Society about how if one concentrates enough, one could remove the soul to wander aimlessly and in doing so travel to anywhere, he so chooses. Hugesson had tried this several times but never managed to succeed, but there was something about the moon and this night that he felt as though he had to try even if it was just for a short while he had to see if it was possible.

He stared in his chair at the luminous body in space, focusing on the mountainous craters that were just mere specks on the surface. He watched in awe as the craters seemed to grow larger and larger and noticed that finally, he had managed to leave his body and travel out to some ethereal plane of existence. His spectral form was floating and gliding through the air and out into space; he looked at the passing clouds as they slowly changed to the inky blackness of space and the burning light of stars. The moon grew larger and larger as he approached, and soon he had entered its orbit and proceeded to boldly go where no man had gone before.

As Hugesson landed on the rocky surface, his awe, however, was replaced by sheer terror. The moon had nothing similar to earth, no wind, no green, or water; it was a desert world of darkness and death as clearly, no life could ever have been there, and shadows crept over every surface, making it difficult even for his spectral form to see. Hugesson, in his horror, soon began flailing around, waving his arms and flapping them like a madman as he wished to return to the normality of his body and the earth it walked upon. Yet no motion or prayer or thought he uttered redirected his course back from where he came, and so he remained on the rocky terrain of the moon.

As he stood and stared around at the featureless world, his fear grew only more as he wondered how and if he would ever return home. As he began to walk on the surface, he soon felt a strange sensation creep across the bottom of his legs, and he seemed to notice a strange shuffling on the surface of the moon. He looked down, adjusting his eyes to try to make out what this sensation was since there appeared to be no wind to move the dirt and rock of the moon. As he looked, he noticed that there on his legs were strange creatures slowly scuttling up his legs. In a scene reminiscent of Creepshow, he realized these forms were herds of insects of indiscernible varieties crawling up and down his body and littering the surface of the moon.

Some of these scuttling things seemed like hybrids of scorpions and beetles, whereas others seemed to be long centipedes, as well as other bizarre bugs and creepy critters that seemed to claw and pinch and bite Hugesson as they crawled on him. Hugesson tried to get the swarm of critters off him with only slight success; they seemed to be everywhere scuttling and littering the face of the moon. The insects, however, even though they attempted to bite and pinch and claw him, never seemed to physically make contact with his form, and the insects seemingly unsatisfied with this eventually managed to unleash a choir of hisses before traveling to a strange circular pit or crater not too far away.

During this entomological incursion, Hugesson noticed a large dark form in the distance. It seemed to be coming closer towards him, and Hugesson waited in hopes that perhaps this shadow was some other weary traveler who had managed to astral project out of his body and travel to this barren bug-infested wasteland. Hugesson, however, soon realized that as this form grew closer, it was not the movements of a human but some creature walking on four legs. Fearing the worse, he wanted to run, but for some reason, he could not, and so all he could do was wait in horror as the form came closer and closer to him.

Hugesson's eyes widened, for as the figure came closer, a feeling of dread ushered over his body, for he knew who and what was coming near him; it was quite literally a ghost from his past. Hugesson, before being a writer, had worked at the Berne Zoological Gardens. While there, one of the most troubling animals in his care was a young gorilla named Neppon. Neppon to him was an absolute nightmare to work with, and so he proceeded to hate the animal. This hatred ultimately led him to essentially torture the poor animal. He, in his time there at the zoo, pinched and poked Neppon, pulled his hair, wore all sorts of terrifying masks to frighten the gorilla and made horrendous noises at it, but the finale of his torture was ultimately the poisoning of the poor animal. Yet there in the darkness, its eyes gleaming with satisfaction, was Neppon.

The ghost gorilla grinned and seemed to recognize Hugesson. It began doing all sorts of acrobatic antics while his murderer stood in front shaking in fear as he now felt that he was the quarry in this twist of fate. However, his frozen state would not last for long, for soon as he soon managed to regain control of his faculties, he proceeded in turning and apparently, with a regained superhuman strength and abilities, he managed to jump over huge boulders and do record-breaking sprinting across the moons cold surface. Neppon, however, seemed to be unsurprised by this and continued to chase the man until he reached an exceptionally high pillar of rock. Hugesson started to crawl and climb up the rocks as Neppon stared up at him, its lips unfurling into a sinister smile.

This crawling or climbing was fruitless, however, and in turn, Hugesson soon began to bleed from his fingers as the flesh had apparently been ripped to ribbons. The gorilla stood by, watching the man try to climb up the rock and seemed to sniff the air as it apparently could smell the blood that dripped from his fingers. As Hugesson still tried to climb the wall of rock, he soon had the realization that the figure behind him had begun to do something he never in all of his life would have expected that the creature behind him had started to talk.

Hugesson said that this creature communicated through the language of scents; this communication seemed to of been registered from his olfactory nerves and that it was the language of all animals. The blood splattered onto the crevices and cracks as he slowly turned his head as he continued to gain a grip on the surface of the rocks; as he was turned, he could make out what the creature was saying in a cruel and mocking tone.

"Reach a little higher, there are niches up there, and you must stretch your limbs. Do you remember how you used to make me stretch mine? You do! Well, you needn't shiver. Explain to me how is it that I find you here." The creature unleashed a burst of slight laughter in this questioning. Hugesson, in both horror and confusion, could only mutter, "I cannot comprehend". The gorilla came closer to the man and began to laugh in his face How so? You used to quibble me upon my dull wits; must I now return the compliment?" the creature laughed once more at the man before looking down at his hands and the dripping crimson which plopped onto the surface of the moon. "There’s blood on your hands. Blood! I will lick it up". The creature proceeded incoming even more closer, laughing all the while.

Hugesson started to disbelieve that what he was seeing was real and perhaps he was still at home in the comfort of his chair by the fire and that this was simply a nightmare. Yet as the creature grew closer, he couldn't help but cry out, "keep off! Keep off! My God will this dream never cease".  The creature seemed particularly amused at this and replied, "The dream, as you call it, has only just begun; the climax of your horrors has yet to come. If you cannot tell me the purport of your visit I will tell you mine. Can your lordship spare the time to listen?". Hugesson gave no reply as he simply began grabbing at the wall and uttered cries that simply sounded like a distressed animal. The gorilla grabbed its hairy arms and seemed to feel its muscles, all the while smiling at the man.

"Come you haven't yet guessed my riddle; you are dull tonight. That old wine of yours made you sleep too soundly. Don't let me disturb you. I will explain. This moon is now my home- I share it with the spirits of all the animals and insects that were once on your earth. And now that we are free from such as you- free to wander anywhere we like without fear of being shot or caught and caged, we are happy. And what makes us still happier is the knowledge that the majority of men and women will never have a joyous after-state like ours. They will be earth-bound in that miserable world of theirs, and compelled to keep to their old haunts, scaring to death with their ugly faces all who have the misfortune to see them. There is another fate in store for you, however. Do you know what it is?”

Hugesson remained silent, and this silence remained unbroken until he bumped a certain section of soil. The creature solemnly looked at Hugesson again and began again, "Do you know? Well, I will tell you. I'm going to kill you right away, so that your spirit- its all nonsense to talk about souls, such as you have no soul- will be earth-bound here- here forever- and will be a perpetual source of amusement to all of us animal ghosts”. The gorilla soon unleashed several grunts and howls and began to crouch down on all fours with the sole purpose of sprinting on the spectral man. All Hugesson could cry out was “For Heaven’s sake, for Heaven’s sake!” but this creature knew no mercy for him and intended in showing none.

The gorilla began to laugh once more and said, "What a joke- what a splendid joke. Your wit never seems to degenerate, Hugesson! I’m wondering if you will be as funny when you’re a ghost.  Get ready. I'm coming, coming". The stars seemed to burn brighter, and the sky began to turn into an infinitely deeper black. A blood-red mist rose before his eyes, and a loud singing rang in his ears. This was then followed by the cries of millions of souls screaming and crying. The faces of men and women whose faces seemed to be cast in evil appeared in the boulders and rose up from the crags and seemed to spit and tear at him. He saw what he would describe as creatures as all this was going on as such damning ugliness that all he could do was scream in absolute terror. There seemed to be no end to this until a mountain peak on the moon seemed to erupt, and all the spirits were swept away in the wind that came down from the mountain, and they came upon him, crushing him. He could feel their weight upon him to the point he could experience every moment of suffocation, and through the strained gasps of breath, he could feel his lungs being pulled from his body and his legs being wrenched from their sockets and rotated around his feet, swirling in the air by the various spectral hands of man and animal. This excruciating torment and pain went on for some time until, for the moment, he knew no more.

This was the end of the writing from the spirit of Hugesson and his horrendous ordeal on the moon and its spectral inhabitants. Supton was in awe at this ultimately bizarre tale and had more questions than answers. The first thing Supton felt he had to do, however, was to verify the spirit's identity, and so he began to do some digging; he did find that a man named Hugesson had, in fact, been only for a short time the head keeper at the zoological gardens and had been found dead in bed by his landlady with a look of agonizing pain and terror carved onto his frozen face. The death was after a medical doctor was brought in attributed to syncope, yet from the automatic writing, if it was from Hugesson seemed to show something more bizarre was the cause of his death.

With this case, it is extremely fantastical. It seems so easy to point to it being some piece of fiction that was made by some spiritualists trying to advocate their beliefs that it almost can't be true. However, there is a chance that what occurred actually did. I had written about Elliott O'Donnell before in a similar spectral simian case known as the Serial Killer Orangutan that he covered in the same book and had written about how he is a very complicated figure in paranormal circles. There have been people on both sides who have argued that he was a hoaxster writing about fictitious accounts, and then there are those who swear that every account is authentic. It is difficult to for sure know the truth, so with these accounts, it is best to take them with a grain of salt, especially with one as completely insane as this one. There are no other true accounts of ghosts on the moon, at least that I've found in my research, and the fact that travel to the moon is, as of right now, almost impossible proves that further research is basically impossible. Now it does seem very much improbable that the moon is haunted it as far as we know, has zero deaths, so that doesn't hold much water for a celestial haunted location, but if our spectral forms are more mobile than what we currently think they are who knows how haunted our universe maybe it could be that some individuals at the point of their death had decided to travel out and spend their eternity on Jupiter or Neptune or Mars in pure Dr. Manhattan fashion.

This perhaps is the most difficult case to verify or deny since it really comes down to whether it's authentic or not, and there's not much further research that can be done. My personal opinion is even though it seems extremely unlikely, there might be something to it. Maybe Hugesson stumbled into some purgatory of his own making or built this scenario in his mind, which ultimately led to him destroying himself. Yet this is all just speculation. I do not claim to know all the answers and offer this tale up to the readers to decide for themselves what they think. All I can say is that maybe it's best to not shoot for the moon in some cases.

Works Cited

Animal Ghosts, Or Animal Hauntings and the Hereafter by Elliott O’Donnell

“Planchette” Encyclopedia.com. May 21, 2018. https://www.encyclopedia.com/places/africa/gambian-political-geography/planchette. Accessed August 14, 2021. 

The Serial Killer Ghost Orangutan of La Rue Croissante

by Cole Herrold

When people are attempting to find places to stay, most of the issues people concern themselves with are the price of stay, cleanliness, the view and other features many would consider necessary for their decision to stay in such an accommodation. For those of a more Fortean mindset, there is another element that can confirm a booking into that locale, and that is the building's haunted history. A haunted location is often extremely sought after as a place to stay for those with the mindset of communicating with the spirit world. Hotels such as the Shanley Hotel in New York and the similarly named Stanley Hotel have people who come in droves to stay in the most haunted rooms, some of which are booked for months without an opening. These individuals hope to have an experience with the unknown and, in some cases, to prove to themselves and others that such phenomena do exist. However, while most believe spirits to be innocent lost souls who have not passed on to the next plane of existence, there are those who have such violence associated with them that even a spectral encounter is something not to wish to experience.

Elliot O'Donnell, in his book Animal Ghosts, Or Animal Hauntings and the Hereafter, describes several encounters with bizarre ghosts, but one of the most terrifying and violent hauntings would appear in this little-known tome. This violent encounter was given to Elliot O'Donnell by his spiritualist friend and colleague Martin Tristram. Martin Tristram, one dark night arrived at O'Donnell's house. It was late, and Martin did not seem like himself as though he was an entirely different person; the pair proceeded to sit down in his study, and Martin began to discuss the various updates in the occult circle. While sitting, Martin looked over at Elliot and said, "I need to tell you an encounter I had.”