Phantoms and Monsters

The Strange History of the Culbertson Mansion and Carriage House
The Toronto Tunnel Monster - Toronto, Ontario - August 1978
Calling the Dead at the Borden House
Mystery 'White Cat' Reported Roaming Cincinnati

The Strange History of the Culbertson Mansion and Carriage House

Posted: 27 Mar 2010 01:42 PM PDT

news-tribune - Joellen Bye admits she was not the best student growing up. But, after accepting a job at the Culbertson Mansion in 1977, she read everything she could get her hands on about New Albany's most famous landmark and those who occupied it.

"It sparked my interest," she said of spending her days in the mansion. "It turned on my switch. I've learned more here than I could ever learn in school."

The history lessons can be found on every floor of the Culbertson Mansion, which was built in 1867 by William S. Culbertson for $120,000.

The house has seen many owners and changes since Culbertson and his family roamed the hallways. The house sold at auction in 1899 for $7,100. During the course of the past century, it belonged to the American Legion, was almost torn down in favor of a gas station and eventually became a state historic site in 1976.

Bye has been working at the mansion for 33 years and knows it as if it was one of her children. She became site manager of the facility in 1995.

The house will open April 1 for public tours. Recently Bye spoke about the mansion, its history and the ongoing restoration.

QUESTION: What do you love about the Culbertson Mansion?

JOELLEN BYE: It's hard to explain. I've seen it change over the years and have been part of that. Before the restoration, everything was really plain. There is something about this place. It has its own personality. It's more than a house. It gets to you.

Q: Do people take this place for granted?

BYE: I hear it from people who visit the house. I would say 90 percent of them say they have lived here all of their life and this is the first time they have toured the home. They don't think about it.

Q: What do you love about your job?

BYE: There is so much ... but I would say the ongoing restoration project. Some things we kind of stumbled into. We had no idea the painted design was under all of that wallpaper. Just to be part of it and see it happen, that's been exciting.

Q: What frustrates you about the job?

BYE: I guess lack of funds. If it wasn't for the friends' group, none of the interior restoration would be done. All the money they raise with the haunted house and other projects goes right back into the house. The friends' group is so important.

Q: What is left to renovate in the mansion?

BYE: The first floor is completely finished. We are currently on the second floor and it is partially complete. We haven't started the third floor yet. I think the worst part is behind us. The state recently paid for a new copper roof, repainted the exterior and put in new walkways. In 2000, they put in a new climate control system.

Q: What is it that people might not know about the mansion?

BYE: If they came as third-graders, the ceiling was painted white, and the restoration project had not got going. The house has changed through the years.

Q: OK, is the house haunted?

BYE: That has always been a hot topic. I have seen and heard things that I cannot explain. We are not ghost hunters or ghost crazy people. We have ghost hunters who approach us about setting up cameras at night and doing their thing, but we always have to tell them no for insurance and liability reasons.

Q: So, you have seen things you can't explain?

BYE: Yes. There are the typical things ... maybe you hear a door shut or it may sound like someone is walking upstairs when there is no one up there. My office is in the basement and at night, if I am here alone, I can hear things. We know something is here, but we have never confirmed it.

Q: What about the future of the home?

BYE: I hope we can start being open year-round. Last year we were scheduled to, but had funding cut at the last minute. We hope all third-graders continue to come to tour the mansion [as part of studying Indiana history]. And we will continue to focus on the ongoing restoration.
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THE CULBERTSON MANSION & CARRIAGE HOUSE

Culbertson Mansion State Historic Site is located in New Albany, Indiana by the Ohio River. It was the home of William Culbertson, who was once the richest man in Indiana. Built in 1867 at a cost of $120,000, this French Second Empire-style mansion has 25-rooms within 20,000 square feet (1,900 m2), and was completed in November 1869. It was designed by James T. Banes, a local architect. Features within the three-story edifice include hand-painted ceilings and walls, frescoed ceilings, carved rosewood cantilevered staircase, marble fireplaces, wallpaper of fabric-quality, and crystal chandeliers. The tin roof was imported from Scotland. The displays within the mansion feature the Culbertson family and the restoration of the building. The rooms on the tour are the formal parlors, dining rooms, bedrooms, kitchen, and laundry room.

In its heyday, a railroad ran behind the house (Culbertson had sold land to the railroad), and a streetcar ran from his house towards downtown New Albany.

The Culbertson Mansion's Carriage House originally served a dual purpose in the 1800's: to house the Culbertson's horse and buggy below and servants in the quarters above. One autumn night in 1888 lightning struck the Carriage House, causing a fire that torched most of the interior and killed all living things inside.

The new servants refused to live in the Carriage House, claiming the place was haunted by the souls of those who perished in the fire. The tragic building remained an empty shell until the early 1930's when it was reconstructed and transformed into a rental property by the McDonalds. The Webb family moved into the house in the spring of 1933. Dr. Harold Webb, a well established doctor and dentist from out of state wanted to settle down in a smaller town and start his own in-house practice, using the Carriage House as his home and office.

Business was great and life had returned to the once unfortunate building. Little did they know something dark and sinister lurked below. The Webb children started to tell stories of a dark man entering their rooms at night through the walls.

Noises were heard underneath the house. Sounds of clanging chains, screams and horrible smells would come up through the floor. Dr. Webb and his wife dismissed the children's stories at first, but they could not dispute the sounds and smells coming from the rooms downstairs.

Although Dr. Webb investigated the lower level repeatedly, he claimed to find no evidence of anything unusual, assuring the family everything was as it should be. But the children's stories of a nightly visitor continued, as did the horrible sounds and odors. During this time the strange goings-on began to take their toll on the good doctor's mental state. Webb became increasingly agitated and angry, losing most of his patients because of the unpleasant experiences they had in the office. Several of Dr. Webb's patients went missing and an investigation of the Webb office was initiated by the local police.

On September 29th, 1934, one of Dr. Webb's few remaining patients arrived for an appointment but found the doors locked and the place abandoned. After a few days of no activity a police warrant was issued to investigate. What the police found was horrendous; the Webb family had been slaughtered.

Each room of the house was littered with the remains of victims who suffered unspeakable deaths; a daughter was found repeatedly stabbed, his son was skinned, and his wife brutally beaten. Perhaps, the most shocking of all was what lied beneath the living quarters. A full search of the house revealed an even more macabre and mysterious scene.

The basement level of the house held secret passages and hidden rooms. Webb used these areas for his own evil practices, torturing patients and using them for his twisted experiments. The bones and remains of the patients were everywhere, some so disfigured the police began to question if they were even human.

After the investigation the house was boarded up and remained vacant for nearly three decades.

During the days of the American Legion ownership from 1946 to 1964, the Carriage house was restored then reopened for parties and musical events. The staff and attendees reported several unusual occurrences: electrical problems, missing items, strange sounds after hours and mysterious figures moving from room to room.

Even current staff and volunteers of the Mansion have reported strange happenings in the Carriage House over the years. A few have even refused to work in the building.

In 1987 the Friends of the Culbertson Mansion started using the Carriage House for an annual haunted attraction. Every year thousands of visitors pass through those ill-fated doors. Some never make it to the end.

Sources:
www.hauntedculbertson.org
news-tribune.net
www.culbertsonmansion.us
www.indianamuseum.org

The Strange History of the Culbertson Mansion and Carriage House

The Toronto Tunnel Monster - Toronto, Ontario - August 1978

Posted: 27 Mar 2010 12:45 PM PDT

A sketch of the creature based on the description provided by Ernest which appeared with the original Toronto Sun article

A reader forwarded this account printed in the Toronto Sunday Sun on March 25th, 1979:

It was a warm summer's day in August of 1978 when a Toronto area man had an experience with a strange creature that would forever change his life.

Ernest (he would only allow his first name to be used) was a soft-spoken 51 year old at the time of his harrowing experience. He and his wife of 19 years had been raising a litter of kittens. One of the kittens apparently disappeared and Ernest decided to search for it in the vicinity of their Parliament St. apartment. Closeby he stumbled upon the opening to a dark "cave" and crawled approx.10ft inwards. This is where he said, "I saw a living nightmare that I'll never forget."

Armed only with a flashlight Ernest encountered a creature of unknown origin. He described the monster as "long and thin, almost like a monkey, three ft long, large teeth, weighing maybe 30lbs with slate-grey fur." However it was the eyes that truly stood out, "orange and red, slanted."

Ernest spoke reluctantly with reporters as to what occurred next. The creature spoke to him. "I'll never forget it," he said. "It said, 'Go away, go away,' in a hissing voice. Then it took off down a long tunnel off to the side. I got out of there as fast as I could. I was shaking with fear."

Ernest never approached the media with his story. He was afraid that people would think that he was "drunk" or worse "crazy" and felt that no one would ever believe him. "The (Toronto area newspaper) Sun found him after hearing about his experience from a reliable contact who worked with a relative of Ernest's, one of the handful of people to whom he had confided the experience. He would agree to talk only if his last name was not revealed."

"I believe Ernie saw exactly what he says he did", said Barbara (Ernest's wife). "He was terrified when he came back to the apartment and he doesn't scare easily. Look, he's been known to to have a drink in the past - like most people, and to occasionally tie one on, but he's not a drunk and he wasn't drinking at all that day."

The Toronto Sun did question some of Ernest's relatives and neighbourhood acquaintances. They found that all agreed with and supported Barbara's evaluation of her husband.

Ernest accompanied by Sun staff returned to the location of his strange sighting in March of 1979. The cave's entrance was located at the bottom of a narrow passageway between the building where he lived and the one next door. Together they found the corpse of a cat, which was "half-buried in the tunnel." The sad discovery reminded Ernest of 'strange noises, like animals in pain," that he had heard emanating from the tunnel prior to his frightening encounter.

Ernest showed the Sun reporter exactly where he saw the strange being. He stated, " The last I saw the creature it was heading off into the dark." The passage seemed to drop down very quickly and go a long way back.

It was speculated that the the tunnel in fact led to the sewer system and that the entranceway beside Ernest's apartment was "an access point used by the creature to the surface." Safety concerns promoted Toronto's Sewer Department to thoroughly inspect the tunnel as it was feared that area children may in fact try to enter it.

Ernest's story was very strange, however sewage employees did not ridicule or scoff at it according to the report made by The Toronto Sun at that time. One worker who was quoted in the paper stated, "People who work on the surface just don't know what it's like down there. It's a whole different world. Who would have thought a few years ago that people would live in sewers, and yet that's what they found in New York a few years back. Another was quoted as saying, "I don't know what he (Ernest) saw down there." He also stated, "I'll tell you one thing. If we could get in there, I sure as hell wouldn't want to go down alone."

The Toronto Tunnel Monster - Toronto, Ontario - August 1978

Calling the Dead at the Borden House

Posted: 27 Mar 2010 12:30 PM PDT

southcoasttoday - It's midnight, and Christopher Moon is hunched over his laptop computer in the cold, dark basement of the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast.

He says he is listening to the voices of the dead.

Initially, there are no surprises. Moon first heard the voices earlier that night, two floors up, in the bedroom where Abigail Durfee Gray Borden was hacked to death with a hatchet in August of 1892. Now, he is playing back the audio of that session so he and a room of paranormal investigators can hone in on not only what was said, but who said it.

The words are choppy and abrasive to the ear as they are blasted from a set of speakers, but everyone is in rapt attention. The group hears static, white noise and occasional fragments from local radio stations, all picked up by a wooden, cigar box-like machine adorned with knobs and packed with wires — a device Moon calls the Telephone to the Dead.

But every few seconds, between and over all the noise, throaty voices, almost urgent in their clarity and speed, spout specific answers to direct questions. The voices are distinct, consistent and almost jolting in the way they stand out from the clatter.

A few minutes into the playback, Moon picks up on something no one heard during the real-time recording: a woman's voice, seemingly soaked in fear and desperation, making a plea.

Moon widens his eyes and scratches his red beard, realizing what he has captured. Then he rewinds the tape a few seconds back and plays the voice again. A couple of people gasp and nod their heads; one woman covers her mouth. By the time Moon plays the clip for the fifth time, the message is clear to all in the room.

"Help me," the voice implores. "Help me."

'DON'T TURN YOUR BACK'

Moon — editor of "Haunted Times," a widely read paranormal magazine — and his Colorado-based team have amassed a rich collection of photos, videos and audio recordings during dozens of investigations that they say prove the historic Borden home is filled with spirits.

Ranked by the Travel Channel as the world's creepiest destination, the Borden home continues to attract ghost seekers and history buffs more than a century after the gruesome ax-murders of Andrew Borden, a wealthy city businessman, and his wife, Abigail. Lizzie Borden, Andrew's daughter and Abigail's step-daughter, was brought to trial for the killings. She was promptly acquitted and the case was never solved.

Out of all the supposedly haunted locations Moon says he has investigated in recent years, 92 Second St. ranks "easily in the top three." The 36-year-old former heavy metal musician uses technology to prove, as he puts it, the existence of ghosts, including electromagnetic field detectors, white noise machines, digital cameras and voice recorders.

Like many people who work or have stayed overnight at the house, Moon also claims he has experienced other unexplainable things without the aid of electronic equipment.

His first night as a guest, Moon was resting in a second-floor bedroom when he says he heard a voice warn, "Don't turn your back." Several hours later, he was jarred awake by a choking feeling, as if someone was trying to strangle him. In the morning, he discovered what appeared to be a rope burn around his neck. Moon attributes the attack unequivocally to Andrew Borden. And although he still investigates regularly at the house, he goes elsewhere when it's time to sleep.

"I believe he died not only angry, bitter and evil, but so brutally, that when he was released from his body, he attracted more negativity," Moon says of Andrew Borden, who sustained 11 blows to the head.

Andrew Borden, the miserly, affluent patriarch of the Borden family, is the dominant spirit in the house, Moon says. His energy turns up in photos of the sitting room sofa, an exact replica of the one on which his body was found. And his deep, stern voice, tinged with a slight Fall River accent, frequently interrupts Telephone to the Dead sessions, often with swears and warnings to "get out."

Moon says his evidence suggests that Andrew Borden was not only tightfisted, but cold and abusive to his daughters.

"Andrew Borden was one of the most sick, disgusting men who ever lived," Moon tells a group gathered in the home's basement for Ghost Hunter's University, a two-day crash course into the world of paranormal investigations.

Moon and his crew — including his parents, Dennis and Paulette Huff — return to the Borden home several times a year. The seasoned investigators claim the strength of Andrew Borden's spirit is unmatched by any other they know. They are drawn to the home.

"It's rare that a spirit has that much energy and ability," Moon tells The Fall River Spirit. "Aside from the obvious question, which is why, the bigger question is how does Andrew have the power when 99 percent of the spirits we encounter don't?"

CRACKING THE CASE

Lizzie Borden didn't do it. At least, she wasn't directly responsible for the deaths of her father and step-mother, according to the "Haunted Times" group. Moon claims he learned that with help from his telephone to the spirit world, which souls on the "other side" speak through by manipulating radio waves. Thomas Edison started work on such a device before his death, Moon says.

Investigations at the house have led Moon's team to conclude that William Borden, believed by some to be Andrew Borden's illegitimate son, committed the crime. Fall River native Lewis Peterson, who knew Lizzie Borden in his childhood, professed the spinster's innocence to Hathaway Publishing in 1997, suggesting that William Borden was not only related to Andrew Borden, but guilty of his murder. The story was later reprinted in "The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies."

"One of the advantages of our technology is that we can hear out of their own mouths what took place," Moon says. "Some of that information is cryptic in ways, but we have found out that Lizzie never swung the ax."

Lizzie Borden wasn't entirely innocent, Moon says. She planned the killings, securing her freedom by having someone else do the dirty work. She was determined to seek an end to the "hateful things that had happened to her."

Other conclusions the "Haunted Times" crew has drawn raise more questions than answers. Evidence collected from the spirits suggests that Andrew Borden might have been killed outside the home and that his body was later moved to the sofa, says Dina Everling, director of marketing for "Haunted Times."

Andrew Borden still forcefully stands watch over his home, but Moon claims to have found evidence of other spirits in the dwelling, including Abby Borden, Bridget Sullivan — the Bordens' maid — and a few children who are believed to have died in a well down the street.

Lizzie Borden has "moved on," Moon says.

"She comes back from time to time, though."

SKEPTICS WELCOME

While on a break from the most recent investigation at the Borden house, someone shows Lee-Ann Wilber a photo he took in the room where Abby Borden was slain. The photo is filled with orbs — little white circles that some believe are the energy of spirits.

"OK, I know that's not dust because I just Dysoned in there," says Wilber, owner of the bed and breakfast.

Sometimes, orbs simply are dust or moisture and nothing more. Moon says he encourages people to think sensibly when they delve into the paranormal and rule out all possible explanations before assuming something is of another world.

"The only thing worse than a hard-headed skeptic is the true believer," he tells the Ghost Hunter's University class crowded in the basement one recent March evening. "Be rational."

Moon knows that paranormal investigations can be hard for some people to grasp. Skeptics regularly attend his seminars and investigations, and he's fine with that, so long as they are open-minded.

Wilber, who believes there has been legitimate spirit activity at the house, enjoys hosting the "Haunted Times" crew every few months. "I wouldn't invite them back if I didn't," she says as Max, her black cat, darts under the dining room table.

As for the team's conclusions about what really happened 118 years ago?

"Everyone who comes in seems to find something different," Wilber says, acknowledging with a smile that she has heard some "out there" theories. "I always stick with the facts. If people do ask for experiences, I can only offer my personal ones."

NATIONAL ATTENTION

Lizzie Dickson wasn't named after Lizzie Borden, but she is reminded of Fall River's most infamous woman quite often.

"There's a guy at work who sings the song to me every week," Dickson says with a groan.

By song, Dickson means the well-known rhyme that pins Lizzie Borden down as the killer.

After arriving at the Borden home for the first time on a Friday afternoon, Dickson and her boyfriend, Joe Samalis, both of Shrewsbury, wait in the sitting room, not knowing what to expect from Ghost Hunter's University, which they have heard so much about. Their spur-of-the-moment trip has landed them in the John Morse bedroom, where Abby Borden was killed. Visitors usually book rooms well in advance, but there happened to be an unexpected vacancy when the couple called earlier in the week.

"It was something we always wanted to do," Samalis says.

Dickson's thoughts turn to spending the night in a purportedly haunted bedroom and she says she is nervous.

"She's going to stick to me like white on rice," Samalis says of his girlfriend.

"No, like super glue," Dickson clarifies. She breathes in, smiles and shakes her head, motioning to Samalis. "I hope nobody tries to poke me tonight — except him."

Later that night, Dickson volunteers to stand in the spot where Abby Borden was killed. Moon stands in front of her, asking her to breathe deep, close her eyes and tell him how she feels.

"Anxious," Dickson says, before becoming light-headed and stumbling backward. Huff, Moon's mother and a psychic, comforts Dickson and tells her to "let go" of the energy.

Samalis, an electrical engineer, says he is skeptical, but after receiving what he calls a sign from his late father several years ago, he believes in something more. He contends that the afterlife probably isn't as spooky or outrageous as Hollywood portrays it, though.

Other investigation attendees come from farther afield. Two men and two women from Saratoga, N.Y., on a return trip, say they have no doubts that the house is haunted. And Kris Bronson of Chicago brought along a pink suitcase full of her own investigative equipment, having experienced activity in the house before.

"The whole place makes me feel kind of nervous," she says.

The Borden home certainly isn't the only place to find spirits, says Moon, who spends most of the year on the road, conducting similar investigations at homes and historic sites.

"Everyone has a ghost story," Moon says. "There's paranormal activity throughout the country and the world. As long as people have been alive, there have been ghosts."

Calling the Dead at the Borden House

Mystery 'White Cat' Reported Roaming Cincinnati

Posted: 27 Mar 2010 12:00 PM PDT

kypost - The Phoenix Community Learning Center in Avondale is on spring break this week, so their courtyard should have been deserted. But, several people on their way to work Thursday morning say they saw one big, hairy intruder, possibly a lion in the courtyard.

"I looked across the street and I saw something sniffing the fence," said Rodney Meeks. "He was just standing there and he leaped over the fence."

One of Meeks' co-workers from the Glencare Center was walking down Glenwood Avenue.

"I stopped him and I said, 'Charles, do you see that?' And we looked, we both looked and he got up on his hind legs and looked into a window of the school, and me and him both said, 'That's a lion.'"

Several calls were made to 911. Cincinnati police, fire and members from the SPCA and Cincinnati Zoo responded. "Everywhere we looked there was nothing," said Mike Dulaney, Curator of Mammals for the zoo. "If there was an animal, it somehow got out before we got there."

Dulaney personally counted all the big cats at the zoo to make sure they were accounted for.

That doesn't assure Avondale resident Larie Andrews. She lives across the street from the school. "Yeah, I'm very concerned, You come out your door, there's a big lion, what you gonna do?"

She and her friend Latrace Horne are worried the animal may have been living in the neighborhood for a while as a personal pet. "That could be a protector of a house that you definitely ain't gonna go in," added Horne.

While that might sound a little far fetched, consider this statistic from Mike Dulaney. "There are actually estimated to be more tigers in private hands in the United States than there are left in the wild. And that estimate goes anywhere between 5,000 and 10,000."

NOTE: Cincinnati Bengal?

Mystery 'White Cat' Reported Roaming Cincinnati
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A Louisiana woman had to call in a beekeeper after a standoff with bees swarmed her car Wednesday. The woman came out of a shopping mall to find thousands of bees covering her car.

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