Phantoms and Monsters

A Bloody Past Haunts The Jerome Grand Hotel
Ghostly Apparition, Activity Probed at Northern Virginia Firehouse
Villagers Remember Descendants of a Bigfoot
Research Reveals Apollo 13 Crew Would Have Burned Up In Earth's Atmosphere

A Bloody Past Haunts The Jerome Grand Hotel

Posted: 12 Apr 2010 12:18 PM PDT

latimes - The bedcovers provide false security. People died on this floor, on the ones above and below. The Jerome Grand Hotel's history has chapters written in blood. Souls at unrest loom, folks say.

Pulling the sheets over your face won't hide the questions that hit seconds before slumber: Is the darkness empty, or is someone there?

The caretaker who hanged himself in the boiler room. The handicapped man who wheeled himself off the balcony. The executive who shot himself in Room 32. The unfortunate maintenance man, Claude Harvey.

Of Jerome's supposed spectral residents, maintenance man Harvey is perhaps the noisiest. The 1926 Otis elevator killed him -- came down on his head in 1935. Accident, murder, suicide? Still unclear. But visitors say strange noises emanate from the shaft where he was found.

The cab moves, unbidden, at all hours. "They say he plays with lights too," said front desk clerk Debra Altherr.

As haunted hotel legend seems to dictate, there's also a "Lady in White." A guest reportedly woke one night to see her standing at the end of his bed, waving her finger.

In a book at the front desk, guests report these and other paranormal testimonies: footsteps, moaning, heavy breathing and untouched doors flying open. But the devoted hunt for digital proof on the hotel's ghost tour, which provides an electromagnetic-field meter, infrared thermometer and a camera.

"Most hotels are down 20-30% in the area," said Bob Altherr, Debra's husband and co-owner of the Jerome Grand Hotel with his brother, Larry. "We were down only 2% last year." Of approximately $500,000 in tourism the town of 450 receives annually, Mayor Al Palmieri figures the ghost-hunting crowd deposits a sizable chunk that is still expanding.

Film crews hoping to catch ghosts materialize often, and lately have been trespassing in the cemetery or in supposedly possessed buildings. "That's starting to become an issue," said Police Chief Allen Muma, who owns the Ghost City Inn Bed and Breakfast.

Ghost-hunters' favorite spot in town is the Grand, which sits 5,200 feet above sea level, edged into Cleopatra Hill, watching over the town and the Verde Valley.

From its high perch, the five-story, Spanish Mission-style building brings to mind the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining." (One half-expects a hedge maze and a deranged man pounding a typewriter: All work and no play . . .)

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THE HAUNTED JEROME GRAND HOTEL

The Jerome Grand Hotel on Cleopatra Hill was originally opened as the United Verde Hospital in 1927. It was constructed by the United Verde Copper Company to treat injured and sick miners. As the copper deposits played out, the local population dwindled and the hospital was closed down in 1950.

The building had always had a reputation for being haunted as ghostly sounds of coughing, moaning and labored breathing could be heard throughout the wards. In addition, a man named Claude Harvey was killed when he was caught underneath the hospital elevator in 1935. Since that time, lights have been seen in the shaft and during a period when the building was vacant, the elevator could be heard slowly traveling up and down... even though it had been parked at the top of the shaft and no power was connected to it.

After the hospital closed down, the spooky old building remained vacant for 46 years, until it was re-opened in 1996 as the Jerome Grand Hotel. Accounts still say the place is haunted! In July 1997, a guest claimed that the bathroom door in his room opened by itself. He was so frightened that he remained in the lobby for the rest of the night! Other guests and staff members have reported doors that open and close, footsteps heard in empty halls, ghostly cries, lights that turn on and off, and of course, the groaning sound of an elevator that continues to operate on its own!

AN OBSERVATION

The minute you walk into this historic building you can feel its ominous past all around you. Like stepping back into days gone by. As you walk through the corridors of the hotel you can't help but feel the essence of those long gone. The hotel and the town itself have been featured in several paranormal television programs and magazines. If ever in Arizona this hotel is a must to visit and the town Of Jerome and the story of the men and women who once worked this old mining town is a wonderful tale indeed. You can't help but feel their presence all around you when you enter the Jerome Grand Hotel. We caught quite a few apparitions with our cameras while in the hotel and also on its balcony which over looks the valley below. The one above is of an apparition in the hotel bar which was vacant at the time we were in it not to open for a few hours later on that night.

Sources:
www.latimes.com
www.prairieghosts.com
paranormalphotos.tripod.com
www.jeromeghosthunting.com
www.jeromegrandhotel.com

A Bloody Past Haunts The Jerome Grand Hotel

Ghostly Apparition, Activity Probed at Northern Virginia Firehouse

Posted: 12 Apr 2010 10:50 AM PDT

nvdaily - Continued ghost sightings and paranormal activity has prompted an investigation at the Toms Brook, VA Fire Hall.

There don't seem to be certain times or circumstances that prompt the strange happenings, such as lights turning on and off, doors opening and closing and pots and pans flying off of shelves. But several people can attest to the fact that these things do happen -- and they attribute them to a ghost they call George.

Richard Funkhouser, who was fire chief at Toms Brook for 14 years, says he has seen George twice.

"But there's been a couple of other people that have actually seen him, and we all describe him the same way," he says. "Floppy hat, little square glasses, with a riding coat."

George has been around awhile, too, Funkhouser says, as there were some sightings at the old fire hall, which was built in the early 1900s. Funkhouser believes George followed them to the new facility when it was built in 1983 -- and so does the Virginia Independent Paranormal Society, a local team of paranormal investigators who are very familiar with the Toms Brook Fire Hall.

Shenandoah County-based Vips was formed in 1996 by Toms Brook residents Rusty Edmondson and his wife, Sharon, and their friend, Wade Ross, of Edinburg. All three are Civil War re-enactors and historians. They believe that George and many of the other ghosts they've encountered were Civil War soldiers.

During their investigation of the fire hall last year, Vips found some mists, orbs and energy balls, Edmondson says, referring to terms used in the paranormal world to describe images and the like that are detected using various equipment. In one picture, they captured "almost the form of a body getting ready to go up the steps," he says, and they picked up some "energy streaks in the bathroom."

"He has a fetish for the bathroom," Edmondson says of George.

"This ghost likes water," Funkhouser agrees.

When he was fire chief, Funkhouser says he had several volunteers leave the building and not come back until the next day after strange things occurred when they were sleeping there overnight.

"A lot of them are scared to death," he says. "One of them, it likes to mess with him in the bathroom. It shakes the stall door."

Funkhouser got a call from one of the volunteers one night, he recalls, who said, "Some creepy stuff is going on down here."

A soda pop fell out of the machine and onto the floor, the fire hall's office door opened and closed, and the door to the radio room, which Funkhouser says takes a lot of force to open, was opened on its own.

"I'm getting the hell out of here," Funkhouser says the volunteer told him, and he did -- even leaving his coat behind.

And then there was Christmas night three years ago. Edmondson says he was in the fire hall waiting for his wife to pick him up when he heard the commode flush. He thought someone else was there, but couldn't find a soul. Lights proceeded to turn on and off and doors slammed. Edmondson says he had finally had enough.

"I said, 'That's it pal. If you don't want me to be here, I'll leave.'"

But George is only one of the spirits Vips has encountered over the years. There have been many men, women, children and even animals they say they've seen, heard or captured on film or audio recordings. Most of them are from the Civil War era, but not all, Edmondson says.

"I guess I had seen stuff for years, but didn't believe in it," he says.

All that changed in 1996. Edmondson says he was living in Middletown when one night he heard cannons going off. The next day, he noticed that the pictures on his walls were crooked. He asked his neighbors if they had heard it, too, but only three houses out of 15 had. From that point on, "a lot of other things started happening," he says.

In 1999, Edmondson was working at Crystal Caverns in Strasburg. He was working during one of the cavern's haunted cave tours, when he fell down on the ground to play dead. He was wearing a Confederate uniform.

"Something grabbed me by the arm and shook me and said 'Are you all right?' And I realized I could see right through him," he says, adding that it looked like a Civil War Confederate soldier.

Edmondson and Ross have had other paranormal encounters over the years, which started with their pastime as Civil War re-enactors.

"At re-enactments we'd just take off and start looking around," Edmondson says, "listening for funny sounds."

They have a spooky story about Gettysburg, and one from Harper's Ferry, W.Va., where Edmondson says they captured "10 full body apparitions" in a picture. There was one modern-day soldier in Air Force dress blues among all the Civil War images. All of them were misty, "but it was wicked," Edmondson says.

Vips has since grown from its three founding members and some old equipment. They now boast about 36 members, with six of those being the core team. A year and a half ago, Vips decided to invest in new equipment. They bought wireless microphones, digital recorders, camcorders, gas meters, a ghost box, a geophone and more, Edmondson says. The ghost box is a radio that scans all the time "and the [spirits'] voices will come in on it," he says. "We've got thousands of dollars invested in equipment. [We did it] for the credibility of the team."

Mrs. Edmondson says the investigations are not done to prove a haunting, however, and each one is performed using a skeptical approach.

"We go in to prove it's not haunted," she says. "There's a lot of explanation for a lot of things."

"If it is not found on technical equipment, it is not there," her husband adds. "It's just a personal experience."

Still, Vips gets calls from all over the United States from people who have seen their Web site, or have heard about them on Facebook or by word of mouth. Edmondson has played parts in various videos and TV shows, including a PBS video documentary called "Things That Go Bump in the Valley," the Travel Channel's "Haunted Road Trips" and History Channel's "Haunted Battlefields." He also has been quoted by a couple of authors of books on the paranormal.

There's been a recent trend about paranormal activity in TV, books and movies, but Edmondson and Vips co-founder Ross both say they were into ghost hunting before it was considered to be cool.

They offer an explanation as to why they've had so many encounters with ghosts over the years when other people may not have: "Who's to say that paranormal stuff wasn't going on 150 years ago?" Ross says.

"But with the onslaught of Hollywood and TV shows ... there's more interest now," he says. "Plus, technology has finally caught up. You can take a digital recorder into a room and get something. You don't have to be so sensitive anymore. You used to have to be psychic [to see these things]."

For some, there is a fear of admitting they see or hear paranormal activity.

"There's a stigma around stuff like this," Ross says.

Other people see a chance to cash in on the popularity of the subject, says the Vips team, but they insist they aren't in it for the money.

"We don't charge. That's against our religion," Edmondson says. "That's just wrong."

Edmondson adds that there are no plans to turn Vips into a business in the future and says they only want to help people understand the paranormal.

"We need to get the word out," he says. "We need the credibility."

And to all the skeptics, the Vips team says all it takes is one experience to become a believer.

"We all had to see it to believe it," Ross says. "We saw it, and now we believe it."

Ghostly Apparition, Activity Probed at Northern Virginia Firehouse

Villagers Remember Descendants of a Bigfoot

Posted: 12 Apr 2010 07:36 PM PDT

pravda - 35 year ago, the skull of the first Bigfoot was excavated for the first time in history. People residing in the area for years still remember meeting it when it was still alive.

Local residents who buried a mother and a son indicated location of their graves. A rubber shoe branded 1888 was removed from the woman's burial (a mirror at the head indicated it was a female). Approximately the same time Zana, a Bigfoot, died.

The researcher's heart was beating with anticipation of the unusual find, as never before scientists laid their hands on a Bigfoot, alive or dead.

The excavation was conducted by Igor Burtsev, at the time, a young scientist, and today a leading Russian cryptozoologist. He spent several years trying to obtain the right for graves excavation in the Abkhazian village Tkhina, where Zana used to live. As luck would have it, his old college friend, an Abkhazian, became a local official upon his return to the motherland from Moscow.

"I could not have seen Zana myself, she passed away 50 years before I was born," says Apollon Dumava, former chair of the local Council. "But my older relatives remembered her. How could you forget her? She was 6.6 feet tall, had long strong arms covered with hair, curvy hips that inspired the desire of local men, large hanging breasts, flat forehead and huge red eyes.

Zana was very strong and easily carried 110 pounds sacks with grain to the water mill with only one hand.

Apollon said his father told him that Zana was caught in a gulch of the Adzyubzha River.

She was hunted down by a local merchant. Zana was incredibly smart and could disappear a second before she would be caught. Yet, the hunter outsmarted her. He left red male underwear at the meadow frequented by the hairy creature. She was caught while trying to put the underwear on her head and hips.

The captive was named Zana (zan means black in Georgian) and placed in a ditch enclosed with a fence made of sharpened logs. She was growling, throwing herself at kids who bothered her with sticks and dirt clods. Only a few years later, when Zana was slightly tamed, she was moved to a woven hut. She slept on the ground in a cave she dug out. She never learned how to use a spoon and a plate so she ate with her hands. She was always naked. She never learned to speak, but recognized her name. Zana could take boots off her owner's feet. She was also great at imitating the sound of squeaking gate, and it made her very happy every time she did.

Zana was not surrounded by angels. Locals made her drink wine, it did not take her long to get drunk and become sexually aggressive. There were always those willing to entertain themselves with a monster. They say during drunk orgies her owner would establish a prize for the one who "mounts" Zana. The prizes would always find their winners.

When Zana gave birth to her first child, she took it to a creek and washed it in ice cold water. The baby died. The same happened to her second child. After that, the locals decided to take babies from the silly mother. Her next children survived. There were four of them, two boys and two girls. People had no idea who their fathers were. Years later, before a census, children were assigned to a local resident Kamshish Sabekia, who acknowledged "playing" with Zana before he got married.

Photo of Khwit

Locals remember Khwit the most. He was 6.6 feet tall, had grayish skin like his mother's, thick curly hair and full lips. He had lived in Tkhina all his life and passed away in 1954 before he turned 70. Apollon remembers him well. Like his mother, Khwit did not like children who used to get into his garden to steal grapes and pears. Once Khwit had a fight with his relative and jumped him. Defending himself, his opponent hit him with a mattock and cut his arm along the elbow. The arm had to be amputated. Apollon has a memory of this incredibly strong person plowing his lot with one left arm.

Khwit was a human being, he could speak, got married twice and had two daughters and a son.

I was looking for his daughter in Abkhazia, but she was electrocuted a year earlier. I met with her son, Robert Kukubava, and asked him for permission to take pictures of his family album.

Faces of Khwit and his sister bear resemblance to Zana's. Khwit's older daughter Tatyana does not look like her grandmother apart from her eyes. Raisa and her brother Shuliko are undoubtedly Khwit's children. They have similar lower jaws, protruding cheekbones, full lips and dark skin.

Within the last 30 years Igor Burtsev found nearly all Zana's descendants. His main goal, however, was to find Zana, or, her skeleton and skull, as well as Khwit's remnants.

Once, 35 years ago, a female skull was excavated at the Tkhin cemetery. Yet, the anthropological analysis provided evidence that the skull belonged to a black woman who somehow got to the Caucuses.

The skull of Khwit that Burtsev and I were looking at for a long time was only partly human.

NOTE: there is more information on Zana and her descendants at The Story of Zana

Villagers Remember Descendants of a Bigfoot

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Research Reveals Apollo 13 Crew Would Have Burned Up In Earth's Atmosphere

Posted: 12 Apr 2010 03:53 PM PDT

dailymail - It has long been believed the crew of the near-doomed Apollo 13 mission would have frozen in the infinity of space had Nasa failed in its dramatic rescue to bring them back to Earth.

However new research has revealed the vessel would probably have burned in the planet's atmosphere, debunking the theories noted in the history books.

Scientists have always thought that the stricken capsule would have drifted on a never-ending journey billions of miles through space as a tomb, carrying the frozen bodies of the crew.

But computer simulations now show the spacecraft and its astronauts would have been pushed back to the Earth's atmosphere.

Andrew Chaikin, a space historian and author who worked on the investigation into the theory, told the Times: 'For so long it was assumed that Apollo 13 would be an everlasting monument to the space programme just circling forever in space.

'Now we know it would have been a very different story.'

Calculations by Philadelphia-based company Analytical Graphics Inc (AIG) started 10 years ago have now been published on a video to mark the 40th anniversary of the mission this weekend.

The research was also verified by using data provided by Apollo 13's flight controller Chuck Dietrich, who was based at Houston's mission control as Nasa launched an operation to get the stranded astronauts home.

Mr Chaikin, author of A Man On The Moon, added: 'He had all this stuff in his basement that he came up with, facts and figures of his analysis back then that supported the simulation.'

The famous Apollo 13 mission in 1970 would have been the third of Nasa's lunar landings, nine months after Neil Armstrong and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon.

However two days - and 200,000 miles - into the voyage an oxygen tank exploded, ripping a hole in the capsule's exterior, causing the astronauts to drift off course.

It took four days for Nasa to get the spacecraft back to Earth - with no cabin power, dwindling water supply and restricted oxygen - as part of a delicate operation.

The incredible real-life rescue was turned into a Hollywood film of the same name in 1995, starring Tom Hanks as Captain Jim Lovell.

Mr Lovell will return to Cape Canaveral in Florida today with fellow Apollo 13 crew member Fred Haise to mark the 40th anniversary of the mission.

Research Reveals Apollo 13 Crew Would Have Burned Up In Earth's Atmosphere

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