Monday, June 28, 2010

Phantoms and Monsters

Phantoms and Monsters


Westall 1966: A Suburban UFO Mystery - Video

Posted: 27 Jun 2010 08:59 PM PDT



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NOTE: I'm going to repost (below) my article on this incident - originally posted 6/4/2010. I have been waiting for this documentary to be posted on the internet since the program aired on SciFi Australia...Lon


The following is in reference to the April 6, 1966 UFO incident at Westall High School, in the Melbourne suburb of Clayton South, in Victoria, Australia...Lon

heraldsun - Flying saucers, crop circles, missing film, disappearing files, denials, military cover-ups, threats and shadowy Men in Black.

It couldn't happen here?

Most people would say it couldn't happen anywhere!

But more than 100 witnesses to one of the world's biggest UFO mysteries are adamant that it did, in broad daylight in Clayton South on April 6, 1966.

And 44 years after the event, many are still fuming that the military they say were swarming around the scene for days have offically denied the incident and no record appears to exist.

They say they spent their lives being doubted and want some official acknowledgment that something weird happened above and behind Westall high and primary schools that morning.

London's Telegraph newspaper rates it as the fifth-greatest UFO mystery of all time, but another mystery is how little-known the episode is here.

A documentary - Westall '66: A Suburban UFO Mystery - premieres on Austar and Foxtel's Sci-Fi Channel at 8.30pm tomorrow.

Producers hope it will flush out an official who can say what the military were doing and what they found.

Researcher Shane Ryan has spent five years tracking 110 witnesses, many found through an appeal in the Herald Sun in 2006, but could find no military officials, and no record of a military response.

But locals remember it vividly, saying it lasted days.

The 110 Mr Ryan has found who say they saw saucers include professionals, tradies and a Ministerial Adviser, but not one military official of the time.

He says time is running out for them to come clean.

"Whatever security concerns there were at the time, they are redundant now,'' he says.

A TV crew covered the incident and it screened on the 6pm news, but the film canister from the job was recently found empty in the station archives.

Several witnesses say they were warned off speaking by sharply-dressed men in dark suits, in the principal's office and at home.

Others recall school threats of detention for UFO talk.

But talk there was, and coverage.

The Dandenong Journal reported the incident on its front page for consecutive issues and ran interviews with witnesses.

Many were school pupils who say they saw flying saucers from their school yards. Some ran to Grange Reserve, where the craft appeared to have come down.

Terry Peck, 56, was among them. She says she was playing cricket on the oval, saw the saucer and chased after it to Grange Reserve.

"Two girls were there before me. One was terribly upset and they were pale, really white, ghostly white. They just said they had passed out, fainted. One was taken to hospital in an ambulance,'' she says.

Ms Peck says she saw a silver, classic-shape saucer rise up.

"I was about 6m away from it. It was bigger than a car and circular. I think I saw some lights underneath it.

"We all got called to an assembly ... and they told us all to keep quiet.

"I'd absolutely just like someone to come forward from the services just to say 'yes, it did happen, and it landed and there was a cover-up'.''

Jacqueline Argent, 58, in Form 3 then, says she saw a UFO from the oval and was one of the first three kids over the fence looking for where it came down.

"Originally I thought it must have been an experimental-type aircraft, but nothing has emerged like that after all these years,'' she said.

She says she was called into the headmaster's office and interrogated by three men: "They had good-quality suits and were well spoken. They said, 'I suppose you saw little green men'?


"I spoke to my parents about it at the time and they were pretty outraged.''

Retired engineer Kevin Hurley, a Monash Uni student then, missed the saucers but saw the aftermath.

"There were army or air force people in the area,'' he said.

"I'm pretty sure they were going around the area with geiger counters or metal detectors.

"I'm not a freak that thinks Martian people are coming. I don't think that kind of stuff, but it's bugged me.

"After 44 years, I reckon they need to come clean on this.''


Here is a link to the documentary website: Westfall 1966 trailer


Click for video


Click for video
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CLAYTON SOUTH, MELBOURNE UFO INCIDENT


Over 200 students and teachers witnessed an unexplained flying object on Wednesday 6th April 1966 around 11.00 am. They reported it descended into a nearby open wild grass field adjacent to a grove of pine trees in an area known as The Grange. The object then ascended in a north-westerly direction over the suburb of Clayton South.

Shane Ryan is a researcher looking for eyewitnesses. "It happened on the Wednesday before Easter, April 6, 1966, about 11 0'clock in the morning.

Around about 200 people, most of them students at what was then called Westall High School, were out for morning recess", says Shane. "Many saw the strange object descend behind pine trees in The Grange Reserve, and then later ascend and fly away at great speed.

The people who ran over to the reserve found a huge ring in the paddock where the object had been seen.

Some people reported five light aircraft following or chasing the object.

Academic throws light on 40-year-old UFO mystery


Just what did flash out of the sky and into the lives of hundreds that April day? Stephen Cauchi reports.

A Canberra academic is investigating one of Australia's most compelling UFO mysteries, a sighting by hundreds of people in the Melbourne suburb of Westall on April 6, 1966.

More than 200 students and staff from two schools watched as the object landed in a nearby paddock, lifted off and vanished.

Shane Ryan, an English lecturer at the University of Canberra, is interviewing dozens of witnesses for a book he hopes to publish on the 40th anniversary of the sighting.

Mr Ryan, 38, was alerted to the events in the 1980s by a housemate who was there. Unlike most UFO sightings, the Westall object had a large number of credible witnesses. It was viewed in daylight and attracted a forceful response from police and the RAAF.

"It had these rather interesting elements which indicated to me that, unlike some other so-called UFO stories, there was some substance to this," he told The Sunday Age.

"I knew the 40th anniversary was coming up next year, so I thought it was timely to do some research on it."

Mr Ryan has interviewed about 30 witnesses, mostly former staff and students from the Westall secondary and primary schools. He has tried obtaining police and RAAF reports, but so far with little luck. The story was covered then by Channel Nine, The Age and local newspapers.

On the UFO, everyone seems to agree, Mr Ryan says. It was a low-flying, silver/grey shining object, either of classical flying saucer shape or close to it, "a cup turned upside down on a saucer". The students were familiar with light aircraft because the schools were close to Moorabbin Airport. Although the UFO was of similar size, "everyone said straight away that they knew it was not a plane", Mr Ryan said, nor a weather balloon.

The object was in view for up to 20 minutes, and many saw it descend. Most agree it landed behind pine trees at the Grange Reserve. Dozens of students ran across what was then an open paddock to the reserve to investigate, but the object had lifted off and vanished.

Other details are sketchier. The UFO appears to have left a circle of scorched grass; others say several circles were left in paddocks bordering Grange Reserve.

Many witnesses, not all, report seeing aircraft, up to five, trailing the UFO. Some say it made no sound, others say it did.

Many reported that police/air force/military personnel inspected the site; some (not all) say the authorities burnt the site. The Dandenong Journal, for which the story was front-page news two weeks in a row, reported that "students and staff have been instructed to 'talk to no-one' about the incident". Nevertheless, one teacher, Andrew Greenwood, gave the paper a detailed account.

"It was silvery-grey and seemed to thicken at times," he said. "The thickening was similar to when a disc is turned a little to show the underside."

One of the closest witnesses was a boy whose family leased land at Grange Reserve for horses.

Shaun Matthews (not a student at Westall) was on holidays and spending time on the land.

"I saw the thing come across the horizon and drop down behind the pine trees," he told The Sunday Age this week. "I couldn't tell you what it was. It certainly wasn't a light aircraft or anything of the like …

"I saw the thing drop down behind the pine trees and saw it leave again. I couldn't tell you how long it was there for, it was such a long time ago."

Mr Matthews, 51 and now living in Greenvale, said the object "went up and off very very rapidly".

"I went over and there was a circle in the clearing. It looked like it had been cooked or boiled, not burnt as I remember," he said. "A heap of kids from Westall primary and high school came charging through to see what had happened — 'look at this, look at that, we saw it as well', that sort of thing. It was a bit of a talking point for a couple of days."

Mr Matthews said the object, about the size of "two family cars", passed him at a distance of about "four football fields". "It was silvery, but it had a sort-of purple hue to it, very bright, but not bright enough that you couldn't look at it," he said.

"I saw that it dropped down behind the trees, and I thought, 'hello, hang on'. A minute or so later, it went straight up, just gone."

He said police and other officials interviewed his mother. But he cannot remember them burning the landing site, as others have alleged. And he did not see any light aircraft trailing the object, as others did.

"The way this thing moved there is no way it could have been a weather balloon or a light aircraft," he said.

"A helicopter? No way — no noise, wrong shape, and it didn't move like it. It came out of the distance, stopped, and then just dropped.

"It didn't just sort of cruise and then slightly descend at an angle. It just stopped, dropped, and then went straight up."

The Victorian UFO Research Society investigated the incident. VUFORS secretary Tony Cook said Westall remained one of Australia's major unexplained UFO cases.

The top one was the case of Frederick Valentich, a 20-year-old Melbourne pilot whose light plane disappeared while flying over Bass Strait in 1978.

In the last minutes of radio communication, Valentich reported seeing a UFO hovering above his plane. He and his craft were never recovered.

"It's pretty well documented," Mr Cook said. "That's probably the most important one because it involves the disappearance of a person."

Mr Cook said the society's stance on UFOs was that, "there are people out there seeing unusual things in the sky at times and they can't be explained. But it's a very big leap to go from unexplained things in the sky to extraterrestrials."

Most witnesses, including Mr Matthews, say the UFO was not an aircraft or helicopter. But Westall is only six kilometres from Moorabbin Airport, and the object was roughly headed in that direction, travelling north to south.

"It sounds to me like some sort of experimental craft, very much Earth-based," Steve Roberts, of Australian Skeptics, said.

"It is an interesting event with lots of witnesses and what we now call a crop circle.

"Accounts are confused. Some have the object landing and taking off again, others say 'a paddock over which the object seemed to hover'."

As well, "if there was a whole swag of officials investigating it, there must be an official report in RAAF archives somewhere".

But Mr Ryan said that no one at the RAAF knew of the incident.

But given the history of the case — the way students and staff were told to keep quiet from the start — that was not surprising, he said.

"As I got a little bit older, I got a little more interested in the social and historical aspects of the story, how something like this could have happened and how it reflected society at the time, and how authorities responded to it," he said.

"There's been a layer of secrecy that was very, very prominent in this story from the beginning."

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From 4/2006

Polaroid photo of UFO over South Clayton taken 4 days before reported Westall High School incident

Shane Ryan is a researcher looking for eyewitnesses to the 1966 Westall UFO incident, on the Wednesday before Easter, April 6, 1966, about 11 0'clock in the morning.

Say the name Roswell and 774's Breakfast presenter Red Symons immediately thinks of metal objects shooting through the sky landing in the desert, and little green men coming out of them. But when you say the name Clayton South, you probably think pork buns, unless you were around in 1966 and were one of 200 people who witnessed the Westall UFO incident.

Shane Ryan is a researcher looking for eyewitnesses. "It happened on the Wednesday before Easter, April 6, 1966, about 11 0'clock in the morning. Around about 200 people, most of them students at what was then called Westall High School, were out for morning recess", says Shane. "Many saw the strange object descend behind pine trees in The Grange Reserve, and then later ascend and fly away at great speed. The people who ran over to the reserve found a huge ring in the paddock where the object had been seen. Some people reported five light aircraft following or chasing the object.

"It's an interesting case because there was this trace left behind which not only those kids saw, but a whole number of people who came afterwards, after school and adults and so forth came down to have a look at it as well."

A crop circle perhaps? "Some people call it that," continues Shane, "I'm not sure that it was, but it was certainly a ring left behind in the grass. And the other fascinating aspect of the story is that some people talk about the area being cordoned off by people in uniform."

Several witnesses reported being spoken to by the RAAF or military, including the school's science teacher, who was apparently threatened by two RAAF officers under the Official Secrets Act, if he spoke in public about what he had seen. The high school authorities dealt very harshly with both students and staff in the wake of this event, and forbade any discussion about it.

Shane has now established an email discussion group to encourage people to come forward and tell their stories about that day. About 45 people have made contact thus far. A lot of former Westall school students and two or three of the teachers. This group is dedicated to those people who were involved in, or have an interest in the incident at Westall High School, in the Melbourne suburb of Clayton South. He is especially keen to hear from people from "the other side", that is from the side of the authorities who may have been involved that day, such as RAAF, police or army.

Sources:
www.onlymelbourne.com.au
www.heraldsun.com.au
theufologynetwork.freeforum.ca
www.abc.net.au
www.muiss.org.au


The Day the Earth Stood Still in Clayton South

Westall 1966: A Suburban UFO Mystery - Video

Fortean / Oddball News - 6/27/2010

Posted: 27 Jun 2010 10:31 AM PDT


Human Ashes Used to Create 3-D Art

hearaldsun - A Dutch artist is using the ashes of dead people to create common household objects using a 3D industrial printer.

The donated remains funnel into the unit - usually used to create solid prototypes of manufacturing parts - and come out as a bizarre memorial.

Artist Wieki Somers said the project demonstrates the fragility of life and questions our attachment to inanimate objects.

"We may offer Grandpa a second life as a useful rocking chair or even as a vacuum cleaner or a toaster," she said. "Would we then become more attached to these products?"

More than 465,000 litres of human ashes are produced every day worldwide and Somers' experiment is the latest in a growing list of alternatives to the traditional scattering.

In recent years cremated remains have been used to create memorial diamonds, ink for commemorative tattoos and even paint before it goes on the canvas.

Other items include "remembrance spheres" - glass globes that contain a tablespoon full of a freshly cremated body.

Somers 3D ash models are on display as part of the "In Progress" exhibition held at gallery space Grand-Hornu Images in Belgium.

She has previously won Denmark's prestigious Golden Eye design award and her projects include the quirky Merry-Go-Round Coat Rack featured in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

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Arizona Wiccan Gets Five Days in Jail For Expressing Free Speech

In a scrap with her next door neighbors that drove both sides to seek relief in court, Stacie Brown was ordered to stop bothering them with vulgar or inappropriate words or pictures on the back of her barn.

She thought she was still well within her First Amendment rights to display an upside-down pentagram, a five-pointed symbol familiar to Masons, magicians, Wiccans, Satanists and others.

The judge, however, was not amused, nor was he interested in debating the limits of Brown's free speech and religious freedom rights. In a May 26 hearing on Brown's injunction against harassment on her neighbors, Superior Court Judge Pro-Tem Craig A. Raymond told her, "this isn't a free speech issue ... . What we have here is a continued and repeated series of harassing acts by you culminating in a violation of a specific order."

Raymond sentenced Brown, 25, of Cactus Forest, to five days in jail for contempt of court. She was further ordered to pay $550 in incarceration costs no later than July 30.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arizona commented that the judge's decision was probably correct:

"Without reviewing court transcripts, it's difficult to assess whether Ms. Brown raised legitimate First Amendment concerns, especially considering the allegations involve disputes between neighbors. However, we're a nation of many religions and political perspectives. I'm sure the judge took this into consideration before ruling on whether her constitutional rights were being threatened," according to Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the ACLU in Phoenix.

But Brown has no doubt her constitutional rights were violated. "If it was a cross, this would've never come up," she said this week. Continued at trivalleycentral

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Witches and Miracle Healers Still Rule Roost in the Balkans


novinite - It might sound weird, but even in 2010 the brooding Balkan countries can't shake their addiction to psychics, clairvoyants, soothsayers and assorted 'white witches', all of which are still doing a roaring trade, from Bulgaria to Translyvania.

Clairvoyants and soothsayers ply their ancient trade around hospitals in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, reassuring anxious relatives with visions of a rapid recovery for their loved ones. They market 'miracle cures' and love potions, and in newspaper columns advise lovelorn women on how to land a man.

Some claim to be able to read, from coffee grounds, the fates of their fearful customers, while others predict the future from the stars. Their clientele pay handsomely for every divined word. Old women from the countryside tout herbal cures for everything from frigidity to erectile dysfunction and cancer, and claim that their healing craft extends well beyond traditional medicine. Credulous Bulgarians are the world's biggest spenders when it comes to the miracle cures market.

Every second Bulgarian who took part in a survey for the Sofia television channel BTV said they believed in supernatural powers, and especially feared a curse being put on them. Professor Ljubomir Halachev confirmed in the programme that "trust in psychic powers and second sight is widespread in Bulgaria".

At the upmarket end of this booming business, savvy younger 'practitioners' use state-of-the-art tools – internet websites, blogs and chatrooms – to spread their psychic messages, and give their readings a techy edge. Soothsayers' most sought-after services include the lifting of curses, countering havoc wreaked by an evil eye and turning bad luck to good.

The apparently unchallengeable claim by Bulgarian clairvoyants and psychics to paranormal powers rests on the world-renowned reputation of their late peer, the seer Baba Vanga.

Born Vangelia Pandeva Dimitrova in 1911, this blind clairvoyant and herbal healer is claimed to have predicted, before her death in 1996, a number of world events, including the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the death of Princess Diana, the break-up of the Soviet Union, the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US – "two American brothers would fall under attacks by birds of steel" – and the sinking of the Russian nuclear cruise-missile submarine Kursk.

Then there was her 'chilling' prophecy of the date for the outbreak of the Third World War – December 2010. Enigmatically, she said this would be the result of "attempts on the lives of four leaders following a conflict in Hindustan".

Of course, 'Hindustan', in the parlance of an illiterate Bulgarian village clairvoyant, could well have covered the entire Indian sub-continent. And, as the slayings of Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh among others bear witness, the sub-continent is no stranger to political assassinations.

Asked, when she was quite elderly, about her psychic sources, she became shrewdly vague. Her words were ­especially difficult to decipher because she had spent her entire life in the Rupite region of the Kozhuh Mountains, and spoke with a heavy local accent barely comprehensible to outsiders. Her television interviews were always supported by subtitles.

She spoke of "creatures invisible to people with ordinary sight", who told her about the fate and future of many people.

In the good 'white witch' stakes, Romania has the edge on the rest of the Balkans – even on Bulgaria. While keeping their ancient craft traditional, Romanian white witches use websites, blogs, email messaging and chatrooms to reach their clientele.

To judge by the claims of her website, Rodica Gheorghe is the leading 'white witch healer' in the country. Her credentials are based on her family tradition of witchcraft. She is the daughter of the witch Mama Omida and granddaughter of the witch Sabina. Some joke that her family are well on their way to having enough for their own coven.

But in the competitive cut-throat witch business, nothing is lasting, and in Romania's Transylvania province, 'black witches' have muscled in on the lucrative evil eye and funerary markets. Proven spells to keep a newly widowed man from remarrying, and thus depriving his children of their inheritance, are especially well paid for.

After any death in the village of Camarzana, a witch is called in to smear the udders of cows with garlic to prevent 'revenants' – vampires returning from the grave – stealing their milk.

As long as the ancient Balkan superstitions rule ordinary lives, witches, clairvoyants and miracle healers will do brisk business, with or without the internet.

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Ohio Paranormal Group Prays to Christ For Support in Investigations

If Christian methods are not used to chase away demons, members of Shield Investigations believe the fix is only temporary.

Founder and investigator Mark Robey, 27, said the goal of the Mansfield-based paranormal group is to rid areas of demonic presence. But their methods may not be traditional.

"There are a lot of groups who don't mess with demonic things in the home because of the repercussions," Robey said. "We're all Christians and the Bible says we have authority over demons. We use our authority in Jesus' name."

Robey said there are different explanations as to why a home or area may become demonically possessed, including generational curses, misuse of a Ouija board and Satanic worship.

"The ghost side of it, that's still up in the air," he said. "There could have been a tragic death causing a spirit to stick around. Either way, we go in and try to figure out what's in the building. We want to know if what's in there is demonic or angelic."

The next step is a lot of communication with the home or building owner.

"We have constant phone calls with the client," Robey said. "We're counseling and ministering to them any way we can -- before, after and during the time we're there."

The rest is mostly dealt with through prayer and fasting.

Robey said the company's 12 investigators come from all over Ohio. He said they will travel just about anywhere and charge nothing for their services.

"There is no real qualifications to do what we do," he said. "It just takes anyone with an interest who is willing to learn. As long as they have integrity and they're a Christian, that's about all it takes. Demons will go after the weakest link, so a strong faith is so important."

"We feel like a lot of people are afraid to share what's going on in their homes," Robey said. "What we're doing is a ministry and we want people to know that we're here to help."

NOTE: Personally, this opens up a big can of worms. First off, I don't have any association with organized religion....but, I do consider myself as a spiritual person. Now...I have been on investigations where individuals have used prayer. Honestly, I don't have a problem with that. There are some cases that involve possession by malevolent spirits that require other means to rid them from a victim or residence. I have been on cases where priests and demonologists have been present and used...successfully, I might add. I'm not saying that a divine being was responsible for removing a malevolent spirit but I feel that the suggestion that a divine being may somehow have an affect on the victim and/or spirit (or demon, if that is what you feel it is) on a psychological or 'belief' level. That begs the question...Do spirits have a 'mind' or psyche? Perhaps that's a question that needs to be discussed...Lon


Fortean / Oddball News - 6/27/2010

Wisconsin Paranormal Group Gathers Evidence and Lore

Posted: 27 Jun 2010 09:26 AM PDT



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leadertelegram - The first time Devon Bell had a paranormal experience, she thought her husband, Tony, was playing a joke on her.

After investigating the Charlotte Mills Bridge near the small Clark County community of Christie, the couple played back sound recordings from a recorder they had used.

They could hear their voices, which was normal. But there were three separate phrases on the recording they could not place.

One was of a man yelling for help. The second, Devon said, was an order to "Take them," with the third voice asking if they felt nervous, with a whispered "no" response.

Devon told her husband to fess up to his prank. He told her the added sounds were no joke.

"We could feel like there was something behind us," Tony said. "I could feel the hairs rise against the back of my neck."

Devon and Tony Bell are the co-founders of The Haunting Experiments, a local group that researches legends of paranormal activities in Wisconsin. The five-person group is currently working on season one of their webisodes, the most recent of which was released two weeks ago on their website and on YouTube.

Devon said the project process works like this: She researches and writes the stories about the legend while Tony does the video work and occasional special effects. Then she, or another group member narrates the video.

However, these are not necessarily paranormal investigation videos. Devon described most of the webisodes and videos they have produced as "travel videos" of the legends. The Charlotte Mills Bridge project was one of the few paranormal investigations they have done.

"We get more into the ghost lore part of it," she said.

Ghost legends aren't in short supply, according to Chris Weiner, the lead investigator of the Chippewa Valley Paranormal Investigators. The Chippewa Valley is rich with paranormal activity, he said, describing the area as a "virtual paranormal investigator's playground."

Even with the rich supply of lore in the area, The Haunting Experiments has traveled beyond the Chippewa Valley to pursue ghost lore, traveling as far as Clark County, Devon said.

The group itself began in 2008 as a way for the self-proclaimed "legend trippers" to delve deeper into paranormal lore, which Devon has been interested in since childhood. She said she chose the name, 'The Haunting Experiments' because it was different from other groups she had heard of, and because she did not want to be known as the Eau Claire investigators.

"I knew that's not what we wanted to specialize in," she said in an e-mail.

The video work started on a whim in 2009 when Tony decided to record footage while they were at the Soo Line Bridge, or the "S" bridge in Eau Claire, with their digital camera. Since then, they've upgraded equipment, Tony said.

To date, the group has released about 12 videos, and there will be 12 webisodes at the end of season one, Devon said. The idea for a season of webisodes stemmed from a friend at Eau Claire Public Access who told them about the increasing popularity of the medium.

"We had already made other ghost lore videos, so why not launch something brand new for our group?" Devon said.

The couple said they plan to make a second season of webisodes as well. For now, the couple is pursuing their affinity for paranormal activity as a hobby, Devon said, although someday she and Tony could see themselves pursuing film for a living.

Along with the videos and season one of their webisodes, the group is working on a documentary focusing on the paranormal lore in Caryville, which Tony said will be completed by next spring.

For the documentary, they interviewed Weiner, who said working with the couple is a joy.

"They don't just go in looking for a thrill," he said. "They're in it for the research, the history, and of course to make their documentaries, which is a job in and of itself ... the viewers of these documentaries can live vicariously through those episodes."

NOTE: I looked over the website...very nicely categorized. Take a look at Haunting Experiences website...Lon

Wisconsin Paranormal Group Gathers Evidence and Lore


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Sunday, June 27, 2010

Phantoms and Monsters

Phantoms and Monsters


Ghosts of Tupelo, Mississippi

Posted: 26 Jun 2010 10:48 AM PDT

allvoices - Tupelo, Mississippi has a rich history that lends itself to the paranormal activity that has been reported around the area. The town was originally called Gum Pond due to the numerous black gum trees in the area. However, it would be renamed in honor of the Battle of Tupelo that happened during the Civil War.

The area is such a hot spot that Jumpin Gene Simmons (not KISS Front man) the co-writer of Tim McGraw's hit song, "Indian Outlaw" wrote a song in 1964 entitled, "Haunted House."

A little known fact that also lends itself to the possibility of paranormal activity is that Tupelo was used as a hiding spot for members of the Mafia. According to Dexter Babin, a life long student of the Mafia, "Although the group, "Dixie Mafia" wasn't a member of the Kosa Nostra. It was actually an association of criminals with different backgrounds."

Even just being criminals, the possibility that murders were not in the group is small. Murders tragically end lives shortly and lead to the possibility that some paranormal researchers believe lead to ghostly phenomenon.

One of the paranormal hot spots is "The Lyric Theater," a historic landmark that is still being used to this day. The story of particular interest, at least to enthusiasts of the paranormal is the tornado in the 30s that leveled the town. According to Tom Booth, Executive Director of the Community theater "The information about the use of the Lyric during the tornado that occured on April 5, 1936 is true."

Many sites have reported that the dead and dying of Tupelo were brought to the Lyric. Surgeries were performed by using the popcorn poppers to sterilize the instruments.

Local legends say that the theater is still haunted to this day. Probably the best time to visit the theater, if you want this kind of experience would be during the annual "Haunted Theater" event in October.

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HAUNTED TUPELO

Just south of Tupelo is a sign that was placed by the National Park Service which reads WITCH DANCE..

The old folks say the witches once gathered here to dance and that whenever their feet touched the ground the grass withered and died, never to grow again....

And the sign appears to be right. If you search around the area, you can actually find scorched spots on the earth where the grass will not grow.

These spots have been there for years, catching the interest of even Andrew Jackson, who noted the spots in his journal after a trip along the Trace on the way home to Tennessee.

The Trace is very old. It was traveled along by the explorer De Soto in 1541 and for more than 500 years before that, used by the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians as the best way to travel.... but even they avoided the scorched places in the earth.

It has been told to me that if your car breaks down on the Trace, especially in front of Witch Dance, stay with your car.

Wait for a ranger.

Do not try to walk to get to a phone...

Or you might not make it...ever.

People disappear there. They always have. - Jeff

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My high school girlfriend and I were driving down the road on Lawndale Drive. I was taking her home which was 2-3 mins from my house. As we passed through the red light at the Gliff Cookin Blvd and Lawndale crossing, we saw an old man with a hat on, long coat. He was walking along the side of the road and as we got near him, my girlfriend asked if I had the AC on...said I didn't. When we passed him, I turned my head around and didn't see him again. I wonder if he died along that road or what. This was sighted on 2001 during Summer - Taylor

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On January 11, 2010, me and my friends were bored and decided to go ghost hunting which we do a lot. We wandered on to the Brewer Community Center in Tupelo Mississippi and decided to take a few pictures not expecting to catch anything. Little to our suprise we ended up cathing a green orb, a little girls face that apperared to be about 7 to 8 years old and an orb that when you looked closely had the shape of a skull floating in midair. Several reports of ghost sighting have come from the Brewer Community Center. - Patrick

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I got this one from my neighbor, a Mississipian. This incident occurred near Tupelo. Seems a hunter was out one evening running his coonhounds and they were up ahead of him when he heard them both yelp as if they were scared. Then all was silence. As he came out of the woods he realized he was in an old churchyard, one that had been long abandoned and overgrown. He was calling for his dogs but getting no response. Up ahead he could see the outline of the old church and then he stopped, frozen in terror. Through the broken down gate of the churchyard a woman dressed in long white flowing gown was walking. The hunter gained some composure and crept nearer. The woman walked across the churchyard and disappeared into the church, going right through the nailed shut door! The hunter turned tail and made a run for his truck and when he got to his truck made a hasty drive home, forgetting his hounds. The next day he returned to the church by an old road and found his dogs, they appeared skittish and the hunter figured the phantom had scared them first. - Z

Sources:
www.hauntedamericatours.com
www.allvoices.com
www.ghostsofamerica.com
www.haunted-places.com


Ghosts of Tupelo, Mississippi

Fortean / Oddball News - 6/26/2010

Posted: 26 Jun 2010 10:09 AM PDT

Laborer Survives With 1/2 a Head

dailymail - While helping to tear down a building without any safety training Alan Hind's life and features changed forever.

Left with half a head and brain damage, the 28-year-old laborer welcomed the conviction of of his boss who was found to have breached safety laws at the work site.

Mr Hind suffered massive head injuries, including extensive skull fractures, a badly broken jaw, a severed optic nerve that left him blind in one eye and irreparable brain damage.

He also suffered kidney damage and was left deaf in one ear following the February 2008 accident.

Surgeons carried out three complex operations and six months after his fall used a titanium plate to replace a large section of shattered skull.

Parts of his brain were so damaged they had to be removed.

At Carlisle Crown Court, a jury convicted Mr Hind's supervisor Eric Murray, 63, who allowed him to work on the roof of a building at Watt's Yard, off London Road, Carlisle, without safety equipment or training.

Murray's older brother Robert, 65, admitted two health and safety breaches at an earlier court hearing.

Following the trial, Mr Hind, recalled waiting for the plate to be inserted in his skull saying: 'That was a frightening time.

'There was nothing to protect my brain - just skin. I was worried to go out.

'I didn't like to be around lots of people in case I bumped my head.'

Mr Hind, of Lockerbie, Scotland, has been unable to work since his accident. He welcomed the guilty verdict but warned other young workers: 'If it's not safe, it's not worth it.'

**********

Psychics Duke it Out in Connecticut

thehour - The owner of Psychic Tea Room on Washington Street will see what the future has in store for him on Monday at Norwalk Superior Court when he answers to the charges he is facing for his alleged role in a fight with another psychic.

Steve Cola -- a 38-year-old Norwalk resident -- is charged with third-degree assault, second-degree threatening and harassment.

Also facing misdemeanor charges for their alleged roles in the incident are Nino Miller -- a 22-year-old Southport resident who runs Psychic of Norwalk on Connecticut Avenue -- and a 17-year-old male, whose name is being withheld because of his age.

All three men were released on promises to appear in court

The fight began when Cola and the 17-year-old confronted Miller in a parking lot at 187 East Ave., where Miller was looking to rent an office, police said. Miller was accompanied by Sabrina Demetro at the time of the incident, police said.

Miller told police that Cola had been following him around all day and when he saw Cola, a heated argument began, police said.

According to police, Miller alleges that at one point during the argument, Cola asked him: "Do you want your children to grow up without a father?"

A physical altercation ensued and Miller claims he was pushed to the ground and kicked by the 17-year-old and Cola, police said. Miller said he hit his head during the fight, police said.

Miller said he saw Cola run into the building at 161 East Ave. and officers were able to locate Cola, according to police.

Cola told police that Miller had threatened to kill him and that Miller started the fight by punching him. He said that Miller and Demetro were "gypsies" and that he couldn't understand what they were saying during the verbal argument, police said.

Cola also alleged that Miller assaulted his ex-wife Janet Lee -- a Westport-Greenwich psychic -- in Sept. 2009, according to police and sources close to the case.

Lee had told Greenwich Police in September 2009 that a rival psychic gave her a black eye, police said. However, she was later charged with giving a false statement to police after police found inconsistencies in her statement, police said. The charges against Lee have since been dismissed because of her successful completion of the accelerated rehabilitation program.

In addition to the three people arrested for their roles in the fight, Demetro was arrested on a warrant for failure to appear in court.

Cola said his lawyer advised him not to comment on the incident.

Lee told The Hour that the incident "is kind of proof that I was right" about the Greenwich incident but she would not comment any further on the case.

Miller could not be reached for comment.

**********

Woman Set Office Ablaze So She Could Go Home Early


A Florida woman accused of starting an office fire to get sent home early with pay pleaded guilty to criminal mischief.

The Pasco County Sheriff's Office said Michelle Perrino, 40, drew suspicion during a meeting of Bayonet Point Oxygen employees when she mentioned the May 12, 2009, fire had started in a filing cabinet before workers had been informed of the fire's origins.

Investigators said a friend of Perrino told them she had admitted to tripping the main circuit breaker and adjusting phones to block incoming calls in bids to go home early without sacrificing the day's pay.

Perrino was sentenced to 9 months imprisonment followed by 5 years of probation. She was also ordered to pay Bayonet Point Oxygen $4,800 in restitution and banned from contacting the company or its employees.

**********



911 CALL: Brother Killed Brother, Buries Body in Backyard



Click for video

A frantic 911 call made by the sister of a brother who murdered his brother and buried him in the backyard. While she is talking to a very dim and annoying 911 operator, the brother DIGS UP THE DEAD BROTHER'S BODY in the backyard.

Police say Stanley Elias Eckard admitted to strangling his brother Sean and burying the body next to his parents' home. The family discovered the body in the ground.

Phantoms and Monsters - Fortean / Oddball News - 6/26/2010


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Yvette Fielding Leaving 'Most Haunted'

Posted: 26 Jun 2010 09:09 AM PDT

digitalspy - Yvette Fielding has announced that she is leaving Most Haunted.

The presenter made the announcement in a statement posted on the website for the show's production company Antix Productions, which she set up with her husband Karl Beattie.

"It has been a great ten years. However, after a lot of thought and soul-searching over the past year, I have come to a decision. It is now time for me to hang up my long black coat, move on and leave Most Haunted as its presenter in order to pursue other projects."

Fielding said that she is proud of what her "baby" had achieved including being "watched by royalty" and parodied by shows like Saturday Night Live.

"At the start I wanted to bring paranormal investigations to a wider audience, making them more acceptable and with the ever growing amount of investigation groups that have started since Most Haunted began, I feel that this has been achieved."

The 41-year-old confirmed that she intends to continue working in the field.

"As well as continuing with ITV2's Ghosthunting with... - which grows from strength to strength and with some great celebrity guests coming up, it is must-watch TV - I will be carrying on my quest to find paranormal activity on other channels taking investigations further than ever before and extending on what I have already done."

Living has yet to confirm if the show will continue with a new presenter but Fielding expressed her hope that it would.

"I hope that the brand will continue for years to come as it will always be dear to me."

NOTE: Other than the history information that the show provides, it's rarely real probing of paranormal phenomena. Statements made by Dr. Ciarn O'Keefe as well as insight I received from staff and crew while 'Most Haunted' spent time in Gettysburg, Pa. a few years ago led me to come to the conclusion that the show was more geared to entertainment value than actual paranormal investigation. Besides, all the damn screaming and crying got on my nerves...Lon

Yvette Fielding Leaving 'Most Haunted'

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