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Ghost Story
London Free Press ^ | 30 Apr 04 | Ian Gillespie

Posted on 04/30/2004 7:12:03 PM PDT by CurlyBill

Ghost story

Several unexplained phenomena at the old courthouse in St. Thomas have sent chills through many.

Ian Gillespie, Free Press Columnist 2004-04-30 03:05:48

ST. THOMAS -- Somebody calls the newspaper with a tip and I find myself clambering up the steps of the old St. Thomas courthouse, thinking I'm wasting my time on a wild goose chase. Maybe a wild ghost chase.

It's a grand old building, to be sure. First built in 1852, it burned down in 1898 and was rebuilt the following year. Situated atop the hill on Wellington Street, the three-storey structure features five arches out front and a cupola on top.

The building, which is being renovated, holds a Crown attorney's office, a land registry office and provincial and Superior courtrooms.

Maybe the courthouse holds something else, too.

Several people tell me that years ago, a husband and wife team of custodians lived on the top floor. They say the wife died in a tragic accident and she has haunted the building ever since.

I tug on the door leading to the top-floor apartments, but it's locked.

I hear that, for years, there have been strange things happening here. Most of the people who tell me these tales don't want their name in the newspaper. Not in a ghost story, anyway.

One yarn goes like this: A caretaker, spooked by a vacuum cleaner that kept mysteriously turning off, finally lost his patience and spoke aloud. "Now look," he said. "The sooner you let me finish my work, the sooner I'll be out of here."

The vacuum immediately started up.

I'm told nighttime cleaners have found all the trash cans upended. I'm told a worker changed the brand of liquid cleanser she was using; later, she found all the new cleaning bottles on the floor, tops off, spilling into a drain.

I talk to a St. Thomas police officer in one of the courtrooms. He tells me that about 20 years ago, he and his partner responded to a possible B and E -- breaking and entering -- at the old courthouse.

It was a hot summer night. But, he says, as the two men climbed a rickety staircase to the top floor, the temperature suddenly dropped.

"It got so damn cold," he says, "it was like climbing into a fridge."

Then, he says, he felt a pressure on his left side and was shoved aside with such force that he would've tumbled off the steps if his partner hadn't grabbed him.

"That was my last experience being in here at night," says the cop. He laughs, but I don't think he finds it funny.

Then I meet a couple of electricians working on the renovations. Do they know anything about the ghost? One nods.

Dave Eels tells the story matter-of-factly, almost as if I'd asked him how to upgrade a fuse box.

Eels says it happened back in February. It was dark, about 7:30 p.m., and Eels and two other men were working in the courthouse. One of the guys asked if they wanted to go outside for a break.

Later, the man explained why he'd wanted to leave the courthouse: He'd been working alone in the basement when he felt something tug his overalls.

Then the room turned suddenly cold -- so cold, says Eels, the man could see his breath.

While they were standing outside, the three men heard a loud noise -- a sort of banging -- echo from the supposedly empty building. One guy figured a sheet of drywall had fallen. They heard more noises and went back to investigate.

And this is what they found in the small basement room where the one man had been working: They found the man's drill case, where he'd left it. Atop that they found the man's sweater, where he'd left it. And atop that they found a wooden chair, smashed to pieces.

Eels says the chair had been sitting, intact, in another room down the hall.

Eels shows me the broken chair. I ask if he believes in ghosts.

"Something was going on that night," he says.

Later, I re-enter the small basement room, with its curved, brick ceiling and old stone walls. I'm a skeptical guy. It's mid-afternoon. There are at least a dozen people upstairs.

Still, it feels good to get out of there. And I do. Fast.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Miscellaneous; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: death; ghost; ghosts; haunt; haunted; lifeafterdeath; spirit; spirits; virginislands
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1 posted on 04/30/2004 7:12:04 PM PDT by CurlyBill
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To: CurlyBill
And here's another ghost story...
2 posted on 04/30/2004 7:13:55 PM PDT by CurlyBill (Democrats = John Kerry reaching for your back pocket while Barney Frank reaches for the front.)
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To: Prime Choice; The Great RJ; Ciexyz; B4Ranch; johnny7; Monty22; Badeye; Sam's Army; Viking2002; ...
Ping!
3 posted on 04/30/2004 7:14:40 PM PDT by CurlyBill (Democrats = John Kerry reaching for your back pocket while Barney Frank reaches for the front.)
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To: CurlyBill
When you hear a host story from someone who experienced it first hand, there is no mistaking it. You can see it in their eyes.

Check back next Halloween and I'll recount the one from Fallon, Nevada that an old man told me.
4 posted on 04/30/2004 7:25:27 PM PDT by ElkGroveDan
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To: CurlyBill
Thanks for the interesting post! Do you have a ghost story ping list? Please add me if you do.
5 posted on 04/30/2004 7:26:00 PM PDT by Fedora
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To: CurlyBill; Molly Pitcher; Jackie-O; MS.BEHAVIN; ride the whirlwind; prairiebreeze; lysie; ...
I love this stuff.. thanks Bill...
6 posted on 04/30/2004 7:26:55 PM PDT by DollyCali ("Trying to keep the Freepers pulling in the same direction is like trying to herd cats." Richard Poe)
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To: ElkGroveDan
Check back next Halloween and I'll recount the one from Fallon, Nevada that an old man told me.

My wife and I were helping a friend with a production she was putting on at Piper's Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada. Piper's has been around since the Comstock days, c. 1860, and it's currently being renovated to it's past glory.

Anyway, my wife and I were backstage in a wing helping setup props for the show when my wife looked up onto a loft and said, "hey, where did that come from?". I looked up and didn't see anything and asked her what she saw. She said, "that headless mannequin--it wasn't there before". I didn't see anything and went about my business.

Later, my wife was recounting the tale to some other people there that night and supposedly that "mannequin" was one of the ghosts that haunts the old Opera House.

Believe it...Or Not!!

7 posted on 04/30/2004 7:40:31 PM PDT by randog (Everything works great 'til the current flows.)
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To: CurlyBill
I'll share another one....

When I was a teenager, we had just moved into a modest 3/2 that was about 30 or so years old--nothing ancient by any means. One evening I was in the kitchen and the door to the garage opened slowly, I thought little of it figuring it was my dad coming inside. Well, when I turned back around to the door to speak to my dad no one was there. My dad then called to me from the living room (opposite direction) and the door then slammed very hard. This was immediately followed by a glass container sliding off the rear of the refrigerator and breaking on the floor.

A few years later, a girlfriend of mine was in front of a mirror applying makeup down the hall from me. I heard her call out my name in a questioning way. When I responded she asked who the guy was that was behind her in the hallway watching her in the mirror. (She thought I had let a friend in the house). Of course, no one was there!

8 posted on 04/30/2004 7:42:08 PM PDT by Sam's Army
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To: ElkGroveDan
Come on Dan...let's hear it!

Everybody is up for a good ghost story, anytime.

9 posted on 04/30/2004 7:50:30 PM PDT by Planet
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To: randog
When I was a teenager, I was walking through the alley to go to a friend's house. It was nightime and windy. I happened to look in a backyard and saw a headless woman's form in a white gown. My first reaction was that it was so beautiful and sad.

My second reaction was realizing the house belonged to an artist who had painted my family's portrait. She had the mannequin set up for a garden scene for some newly wed.

10 posted on 04/30/2004 7:51:40 PM PDT by Shooter 2.5 (Vote a Straight Republican Ballot. Rid the country of dems.)
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To: CurlyBill
I experienced a "cold spot" once, while out walking late on a hot, humid summer night. It was in the center of a crossroad in a dark suburban neighborhood. I was about 20 years old.

It was really cold, in an area about 15 feet across. I lingered there for a few minutes, criss-crossing the area to convince myself it was real. It was too dark to see if my breath was condensing.

(steely)

11 posted on 04/30/2004 7:53:52 PM PDT by Steely Tom
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To: Fedora
Thanks for the interesting post! Do you have a ghost story ping list? Please add me if you do.

Just started one... and you are now on it.

12 posted on 04/30/2004 8:23:40 PM PDT by CurlyBill (Democrats = John Kerry reaching for your back pocket while Barney Frank reaches for the front.)
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To: Sam's Army
Oooh - spoooky! Those of us that have experienced something like this seem to have that same scenario. Casually think someone is there, but when you find out no one was, chills down the spine, man.

That said, have to share mine! I lived in Cripple Creek, CO back in the '80s for a bit. It was one of those gold rush mining towns gone bust. My very first job was at this ice cream parlor on the bottom floor of an old hotel, the Sarsaparilla Saloon. They were renovating the hotel part so it was full of junk, basically. They sent me up there to get some TP for the bathrooms. Of COURSE it was summer and a nice thunderstorm was brewing. So I go up there all by myself and at the END of the hall was the TP. Grab as many as I can carry and start heading back. Then I hear high heal footsteps behind me. Thought it was one of the other workers so I turned around. No one there, footsteps stopped. All my hairs stood on end and I raced down the hall, flew down the stairs and my stack of toilet paper went all over the place.

I read in some book somewhere that there is a long history of hauntings in that hotel. I get chills thinking about it...brrrrrr

13 posted on 04/30/2004 8:32:15 PM PDT by momfirst
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To: CurlyBill
Thank you!
14 posted on 04/30/2004 8:37:20 PM PDT by Fedora
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To: zip; BOBWADE
ping
15 posted on 04/30/2004 8:43:38 PM PDT by zip (Remember: DimocRat lies told often enough became truth to 42% of americans)
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To: CurlyBill
Ohhhhh, can I be on your ghost ping list, too?
16 posted on 04/30/2004 8:46:04 PM PDT by MaeWest
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To: ElkGroveDan
I've had a three unrelated encounters with spirits myself. Only one will I relate. The others are too personally sensitive in nature to talk about with any less than a close friend and plenty of drink.

While staying in a cabin in Michigan, I neglected to empty an overfull garbage can from the kitchen.

When my wife arose that night at 3 AM, she screamed. The garbage can had been moved to block entry through the bathroom door.

No one could have come into the cabin that night and done that. I stared at the ceiling till dawn.

Not all spirits have physical bodies.

17 posted on 04/30/2004 8:51:40 PM PDT by Barnacle (Refuse to speak Leftist.)
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To: MaeWest
Absolutely... you're in!
18 posted on 04/30/2004 8:52:30 PM PDT by CurlyBill (Democrats = John Kerry reaching for your back pocket while Barney Frank reaches for the front.)
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To: CurlyBill
No it was a courthouse. With lawyers and judges

I know. They're the ones that did the hanging.

19 posted on 04/30/2004 8:55:00 PM PDT by Tribune7 (Vote Toomey April 27)
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To: Tribune7
Like you, I was hoping that Toomey would beat Arlen Specter, who is nothing more than a watered down DemocRat. I'm disappointed in the Republicans up there (I'm in Maryland) who voted for him. I was more disappointed in his comments following the election. Not to worry .... I smell a reckoning!
20 posted on 04/30/2004 9:00:45 PM PDT by CurlyBill (Democrats = John Kerry reaching for your back pocket while Barney Frank reaches for the front.)
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