Cropsey- The real-life Boogeyman

The Boogeyman does exist and he lived in Staten Island, New York City. Now he remains locked up.

Many moons ago, the parents of Staten island and I’m sure elsewhere, would warn their children of the Boogeyman. It was a tactic used to scare the kids into not straying too far from home. Siblings would torment the young ones with stories of the Boogeyman kidnapping children and taking them to a faraway land. That was the general storyline, shared across the world. But Staten Island had their version. They would say that a homicidal man, an escaped mental patient with a hook for a hand, would hunt children. Drag them to the tunnel system under the abandoned Seaview hospital and keep them there. However, it was always known as a campfire-type tale until…1987, when a man made the story come to life.

Andre Rand (photos below) was a janitor at the Willowbrook State school, Staten Island. It was a school for intellectually disabled children. In the 1970’s it turned into a nightmare institution, it was eventually closed down in 1987 after it came out that the children there had been abused. They were sexually abused and practised corporal punishment and there was a major overcrowding issue; the school was also generally unsanitary. The janitor was too busy doing other things… Willowbrook was home to one of the most unethical medical experiments- Hepatitis research. The staff would inject healthy children with the virus, making them extremely ill. The public was not aware of the torment the children were going through, for a while. Most of the children were abandoned by their parents or the foster system. In 1972 the institution was exposed by Geraldo Rivera, a journalist, leading the school to be shut down fifteen years later. The year it closed down for good was the year Andre Rand, the former janitor was arrested in connection with a disappearance.

Jennifer Schweiger was a twelve-year-old girl with down syndrome. She went missing in 1987 and was suspected to have been kidnapped by Andre Rand. She had last been seen with him. At the time, Rand was living in a makeshift campsite on the abandoned school property, not far from the Seaview hospital. There’s a connection to the original urban legend. A month after Jennifer’s disappearance, a body was found in a shallow grave on the desolate school grounds. Rand was charged with murder. There’s a second SNAP with the Boogeyman tale. By this time Rand had a long list of offences against children on him. A few years prior, Andre Rand was sentenced to sixteen months for attempted sexual assault against a nine-year-old. That’s one of his offences, from a very long list of them.

Going back to the year 1987, Rand was sentenced again for the kidnapping of a bus full of children. The police force of Staten Island suspected him of the disappearances of four other people, that go back as far as a decade.

Alice Pereira was a five-year-old girl who went missing in 1972.

Holly Ann Hughes was a seven-year-old girl who went missing in 1981, she was last seen with Rand.

Tiahease Jackson went missing in 1983.

Hank Gafforio was a twenty-two-year-old man with a learning disability, he was last seen with Rand in a diner before he went missing.

These four people have still not been found.

The jury did not have enough evidence to charge Andre Rand with the murder of Jennifer Schweiger, the girl with down syndrome, but they did manage to send him down for the kidnapping of her, for twenty-five years. This real-life Boogeyman was eligible for parole in 2008 but in 2004 he was convicted of a second kidnapping, the kidnapping of Holly Ann Hughes. He was sentenced to another twenty-five years in prison. An inmate noted down a conversation with him where Rand was discussing the abduction of Ann Hughes in much detail, this is how he was charged again.

So there we have it. A harmless urban legend to spook kids turned into a real-life tale of evilness. The photos below show you what Andre Rand looked like at the time of his convictions, missing posters, the abandoned school grounds and a shot from inside the abomination of a school.

The hauntings of Hampton Court Palace

Let's begin with some background history of this royal palace. Hampton Court is located in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, United Kingdom. The building of it first began in 1514 by a man named Cardinal Wolsey. He was the chief minister of Henry VIII. This same Henry took over the beautiful palace and proceeded to marry six women. In order, they go, Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and lastly, Catherine Parr (Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived).

The first ghost story I came upon; was the figure in the Queen's gallery. One night, several staff members were patrolling the palace after close and began preparing for an evening function. Some colleagues were huddled together in the Queen's Gallery when they heard one of the grand doors open. The palace was shut and only a few employees remained. They then heard footsteps approaching them, but no one was there. Well, no one in a physical form at least. They ran out of the room in fear but when they returned, still no one was to be seen. Who knows who this could have been? Maybe Queen Elizabeth I having a stroll through her gallery.

Catherine Howard is said to haunt the palace too; Henry the 8th's "rose without a thorn". Catherine Howard was executed, by Henry's request, in 1542 at the Tower of London. She was named an adulterer and Henry wanted her head. Howard broke free when she was caught by guards and ran to the Chapel Royal to seek her husband's help and appeal her case. Just outside the chapel is where her pleading ghost can be seen, 470 years later. They named this area, the Haunted Gallery in 1918. Visitors of the palace have reported seeing apparitions, and feeling chills and strange sensations when they pass along the corridor. In 1999, two female visitors fainted in the same spot in the haunted gallery within thirty minutes of one another. Maybe you're overcome with the feelings that Howard felt when she knew there was no persuading her husband to clear her name and soon her head would be gone?

In the winter of 2003, every night for three days, the security staff of the palace were alerted that a fire door by the Clock Court had been opened. CCTV footage showed the doors being swung open with a mighty force. You can watch it on youtube, just search "Hampton Court CCTV ghost". On the second night, a figure can be seen. It appears to be a larger man wearing period dress, he comes along and shuts the fire doors. Later that day a visitor had left a description of the same figure in the visitor book, stating that they had seen this man walking around the castle. He could have been a worker, dressed like Henry VIII for a show, or it could have been the spirit of Henry VIII closing the doors to keep the heat in. Watch the video or check out the image below and let me know who you think it is on my Instagram @allthingshorror111.

Sybil Penn; the nurse of Prince Edward and Elizabeth I. She is also known as the Grey Lady and sightings began in 1829 when the tomb she was buried in was desecrated and her remains scattered. Sybil Penn died from smallpox after caring for Elizabeth I while she had the same disease. Penn allegedly haunts the Clock Court and State apartments. The first account was from the Ponsonby family who lived at the palace. They were constantly disturbed by the sound of a spinning wheel. A legend roamed the palace, it was said that a small sealed chamber was discovered close to the family's apartment, and when it had been opened, a spinning wheel was found.

These few stories are all that have been publicly mentioned however, I have some of my own. My dad and I used to visit Hampton Court every other weekend, we were members. One Saturday we were having a hot chocolate in the member's room. We were the only people in the room. Nature called and we both needed to use the WC which was located upstairs but the stairs were roped off. We snuck up there anyway, my ten-year-old self nervous about the dim lighting and whistling sounds of the wind. As we were climbing the Tudor stairs a small black ballbarian rolled down the stairs. I can see it now. It was almost like someone threw it down the stairs from the top. My dad shrieked and so did I so I hid behind him. He hesitantly made his way up. I wanted to go back downstairs but he needed to spend a penny. We took turns to do our business when all of sudden we heard faint whispers. I can hear them now, man and woman laughing and whispering. It sounded like what I imagined the servants of the palace to sound like, sharing the secrets of the castle. My dad and I have always been interested in the supernatural so we put on our big boy pants and wanted to investigate. Maybe it was the actors of the palace in their dressing rooms? We searched the four rooms that were upstairs. One was locked, the others filled with dusty furniture. Not a soul was seen. The whispering stopped once we began searching. Maybe it was other members downstairs. Still, no one had entered. So who knows what that could have been?

When I turned thirteen we went back to the palace with a family friend. A photograph was taken of me in the barrel room. This photo, seven years later, I have still not seen this. My dad never let me see it, he said it was like death was standing behind me. It was taken on our family friend's camera. Years later, a photo came out, the one I wrote about at the start. My dad said the figure behind me looked very similar to that in the photo. Lastly, seven years later, I visited the palace with my boyfriend. We were in the gallery and went to investigate this small room that no one was in. There was nothing there, just a roped-off staircase. My boyfriend was mocking being a ghost when all of a sudden the heavy, thick door slammed shut. There was no wind, the windows were shut and the door was heavy anyway. We struggled to open it for a few minutes but my boyfriend managed to get it open. No one was walking through the gallery at the time, the only people being a german couple far up the corridor. If you have any explanations for these personal experiences, let me know!

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The Bunny Man

This tale of a costumed killer has been around for fifty years; shared at Halloween parties, sleepovers and around campfires.

It all began in Northern Virginia, on October 19th, 1970. Robert Bennette, a cadet at the U.S. Air Force Academy, was driving back from a football match with his fiancé when they decided to pop in to see Bennette's uncle. They parked the car on the road, opposite the uncle's home. While the couple began gathering their belongings to go inside, they saw a figure in the rear window. All of sudden there was a loud crash, and the front passenger window had been smashed. After the initial shock, a man in what looked like a bunny costume began shouting at Bennette. The man beneath the eerie outfit said, "You're on private property, and I have your tag number". From sheer shock, Bennette decided to drive as far away from the bunny as possible, leaving the costumed man behind in the darkness. Once the couple arrived home, they found a hatchet laying on the floor of the car. They reported the incident to the local police. Bennett told them the man was wearing a white, stained bunny costume. His fiancé believed he was wearing a pointed white hood. Was he a kkk member or a dirty bunny rabbit?

Ten days later, on October 29th, a construction security man named Paul Phillips, was patrolling a site of half-built houses. He came across one house, that had a person in their late twenties wearing a grey, black and white rabbit costume. It was a man, around 5'8 and 175 pounds, standing solely under a flickering porch light. He was just staring at the security man, standing very still. Phillips approached the figure but before saying anything the rabbit wannabe told him that he was trespassing and that if he didn't leave he would chop off his head. Phillips ran back to his station to grab his gun but when he arrived back at the porch, he saw the white costume disappear into the woods opposite. After this, the local police received over fifty reports of the Bunny Man.

The most believed origin story of the Bunny Man was from 1904. A bus transporting prisoners from an asylum in Clifton, a town nearby, crashed and the convicts escaped. The police found all but two of the prisoners- Marcus Walter and Douglas Grifon. As investigators looked for the other two men, they came across piles of rabbit carcasses near Colchester overpass, a railway bridge. They also found Wallster's body, clutching a handmade hatchet.

A year later the Bunny Man began appearing by the railway bridge. It was said that on Halloween of 1905, three teenagers went to Colchester overpass to drink in the tunnel. When it hit midnight there was a bright flash and the three teenagers were found hanging from the overpass; their throats slit and disembowelled. Next Halloween the same thing happened but to six teenagers. The people of Virginia began avoiding the tunnel on Halloween.

A band from Northern Virginia, Mantua Finials, released a few songs that surround this legend; 'Bunny Suite' and 'All Hallow's Eve'. One of the members, Jim Waters, grew up in this area. He told Washington Post that "some of the old homesteads in the land were adjacent to Kings Park West...the likelihood was that one of the kids who lived there may have been the Bunny Man...who would want a load of new people turning up to live on your old street". On the other hand, Officer W.L. Johnson, from Fairfax County police, said that the case will be left inactive. There was no significant information that would lead to the uncovering of the Bunny Man.

In 2011, the local police spent Halloween night turning away more than two hundred thrill-seekers, some of who came from as far as Pennsylvania. The locals also began putting up no trespassing signs, just to keep people or the Bunny Man away.

However, there has been no such evidence of these murders nor could I find any news reports of them or the prisoner bus crash. There was also no asylum in the area and the Bunny Man was not mentioned in the newspaper till 1970.

Let me know in the comments your thoughts on this tale. Was the Bunny Man a vicious killer? Or was he just a local kid, warning off newcomers?

Sources:

https://allthatsinteresting.com/bunny-man

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/558314/urban-legends-that-turned-out-to-be-true

(Pictures shown on my blog- allthingshorror111.wordpress.com(opens in a new tab)

Jean-Jacques Bachelier - Un Chat Angola

February will be filled with positivity.

February will be filled with love.

February will be filled with trust.

February will be filled with kindness.

February will be filled with miracles.

February will be filled with hope.

February will be filled with new beginnings.

The history of the eerie, Cane Hill hospital

Cane Hill hospital was opened in 1883, in Croydon, London, United Kingdom. It was the third Surrey county pauper lunatic Asylum to be built as the other two were becoming overcrowded. The other two hospitals were located in Tooting and Woking, Surrey, UK. 

The Asylums motto was 'Aversos Campano Animos', meaning 'I bring relief to troubled minds.' A nice motto if you ask me, however the way this place ran, wasn't so nice. 

In 1889 it became Cane Hill Asylum, later changed to Cane Hill mental hospital in 1930 due to the new mental health act that was developed. In 1948 the hospital joined the newly established NHS. The Asylums peak time was the year 1954, where they had over 2400 patients. In 1992 Cane Hill was put to an end due to societal changes. Cane Hill kept up with the outdated methods of helping people. Well, they thought they were helping people. For 16 years the building was left there, empty, quiet and holding a long history. Pictures of it are below! The brave would go to the no longer running building and explore the old blocks and land. Many said that it was haunted. People would see heads peering out of shattered windows or they would hear footsteps in rooms that were left still and desolate. In 2001, the building suffered two arson attacks which destroyed blocks V and C. Due to many trespassers and these attacks security was put on. 

A documentary called Cane Hill: From the inside, was filmed. This brought light to many ghostly going on’s that had been occurring. One of the security members said that he was patrolling the grounds with a guard dog one night and came across something odd. The guard dog was relatively aggressive and brave as a guard dog usually is. The security man saw a figure lurking in the trees that surrounded the building, so he let the dog off to have a search. The dog ran in the opposite direction, round the corner. He must have seen someone or something that he didn't want to get involved with. The security man decided to go over to where he saw the figure, in hopes of scaring off, what he thought was an explorer or a group of teenager's. When he arrived at the said spot, underneath some weeds and dead flowers laid a gravestone. It was the grave of the hospital's first superintendent, Sir James Moody. Do you think the dog got spooked off by Moody or by an explorer?

The director of the documentary was going around the building with his wife, searching for filming locations. Allegedly, his wife saw a figure scatter across the corridor ahead of them. Imagine seeing an unknown person, ghost or living, run across one of the corridors pictured below. 

Finally, the creepy looking building was renovated into housing. I wouldn't fancy living in an old Asylum, would you? It then came to the time when Cane Hill hospital would eventually be destroyed, only leaving the spirits that rest there. Between 2008 and 2010, a housing estate was built on the land. 

When Cane Hill hospital was still a thing, it hosted home to a few famous patients. The first one is David Bowie's stepbrother, Terry Burns. Burns was admitted, in the 80′s after he tried to kill himself. Bowie wrote several songs about his stepbrother a few being, 'All the madmen' (1972) and 'Jump they say' (1985). Burns died in 1985 after being hit by a train during an attempt of ending his life. 

Michael Caines half brother was also admitted to this hospital. Caines mother kept his half brother a secret for over 50 years, due to his brother being an illegitimate child. Caine once said, 'He suffered from epilepsy when he was young and in those days they used to lock him in the cellar, with a stone floor. And of course, he’s bouncing about on that, and he was probably quite intelligent, but he’d bashed himself into a bloody brain abnormality. (Michael Caine, Parkinson 30 November 2002) His half brother died eighteen months after Caine began to get to know him. 

Lastly, Charlie Chaplin's mother was admitted to Cane Hill Asylum in 1903. She suffered from an undiagnosed mental illness. During her stay at Cane Hill, she would be given shock treatment of icy showers which lead to her face becoming blue. Her family noticed and moved her to private care which on the first try they could not afford. Thankfully, at a later date, they were able to afford to give their mother private care. 

So that's the history of Cane Hill hospital. The building held a lot of history but all that is left now, are the spirits of the people that once lived there. 

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The Whistler (El Silbón)

This Venezuelan urban legend originated in the nineteenth century and it truly is a gruesome tale, so if you feel queasy towards gore, just brace yourself. This legend is very popular around certain towns in Venezuela and it's lead character is a young, spoilt boy who would constantly complain that he was hungry. He also pestered his father for entrails of deer. His father gave in to his whiny son and so went hunting for deer in the local woods. The father was out hunting for several hours when the bratty boy became impatient and decided to go searching for his selfless dad. When the two crossed paths, the son realised that his dad had yet to hunt any deers, this threw the son into an absolute rage. With anger clouding his better judgment, the son took his dad's hunting knife and stabbed him in the chest, killing his father. He really was a spoilt boy! He then proceeded to rip open his father's abdomen and yanked out his innards... a slight overreaction to not getting what you want for dinner. This psychopathic boy decided to take his fathers entrails home to his oblivious mother and demand that she cook them. In some versions of this story, the mum doesn't realise it's her husband who she is cooking for dinner until she takes a bite and realises the meat is too tough. She asks her son where he found the meat and the son admits to killing the man of the house. The mother curses her murderous son for all eternity before calling her dad for help. The dad (the son's grandfather) ties the boy to a tree and whips him until blood pours from his body, he then let him loose. The whipped boy runs into the nearby field while his grandfather shouts “Eso no s le hace a su padre… Maldito eres para toda la vida!” In translation "you shall not do that to your father, you are damned for all eternity". The grandad then let some cooped up, rabid dogs loose, to chase his cruel grandson into the woods and make him their next dinner... In other versions of this urban legend, the grandad condemns the boy to carry the bones of the father in a sack on his back. Or the old man rubs lemon juice and hot peppers in the boy's open wounds. Allegedly, the boy was devoured by the wrathful dogs and got the nickname 'The Whistler' from his torturer (his grandfather). Once the stories are told, many continue to say that the boy's spirit brings death and destruction to all who cross him. The spirit is described as tall, extremely skinny and wears a straw farming hat. He is known to whistle the notes 'do, re, mi, fa, so, la, si, the musical notes c, d, u, e,f,g a, b. The ghostly boy scrapes his feet along the floor while carrying a large sack of bones. Some tellers say that it's the bones of his father or the bones of his victims. In Venezuela, he is known as the omen of death. If you see him, your journey may be coming to an end. Over the years there have been a few sightings of 'The Whistler'. There is a video, which I will link below, that is supposed to be the sound of the boy whistling. He is said to be a trickster spirit. When 'El Silbon' is nearby, he will sound far away, but when he is far away he sounds nearby. People say that if you hear him, then it's too late to run. You've just got to accept your fate. The people of Los Llanos mostly see him in the summertime. He perches in trees and gathers dust. On rainy days, he looks among the plains for victims. These souls tend to be drunks, womanisers or the odd innocent passerby. So if you're ever visiting Venezuela, keep your eyes and ears peeled for 'The Whistler', and if you do hear him, then that's just tough luck.

(The video of 'The Whistler' whistling his tune) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9OLi6A2rzU

The mermaid of Zennor

The village of Zennor (Cornwall, UK) holds a very eerie and well-known urban legend- the legend of the Mermaid.

A quick anecdote, I have visited this quaint village and it is famous for this creepy, yet almost romantic, tale. I saw the carving (which you will find out about further down) and spoke to some locals about the story. I was young so I don't remember what they said but still.

The church that sits in this little village, named the church of Saint Senara, has a wooden bench with a strange carving on the side of it. It is said to be over 600 years old. People say it is a mermaid holding a mirror in one hand and a comb in the other. The 'thing' had long locks of hair too. The figure in the carving is known as the mermaid of Zennor.

Legend has it many, many years ago a rather wealthy looking, beautiful woman once appeared in the local church, on one Sunday morning. She was not known and no one had ever seen someone quite like her. The village was very close-knit so everyone knew everyone, but no one knew her. Instantly, her good looks and her unknown appearance drew in attention. Young men gawped at her, the elderly locals baffled at the sight of her. She had many suitors, many men tried to speak to her. Every Sunday she would appear, standing alone at the back of the church. Until one Sunday, a man named Mathew Trewella decided to follow her home, in hopes of speaking to her. Not the best way to speak to a lady but ok. Trewella was known to have the most beautiful singing voice in the village. On that Sunday morning, a love-struck Trewella followed this unusual woman out the church and towards the cliffs of Cornwall. He never returned to Zennor again...

Years passed, conspiracy's about Trewella's disappearance were made around the village but there was never any solid report of his whereabouts. Until, one Sunday, a captain was chillaxing on his boat when he heard a lovely, soft voice call him from within the deep dark sea. He peeped overboard and saw a stunning blonde woman swimming next to his boat. Allegedly, she asked him kindly to move his anchor as it was blocking the entrance to her home. Maybe the Captain had too much rum this Sunday or the floating woman was legitimately living in the blue water below. She expressed her eagerness to get home to her husband Mathew and their children. The captain was fear-struck. He moved his boat aside and headed to the small village of Zennor. He told the townsfolk what had just happened out there in the pool of salt and they came to the conclusion that this woman was a mermaid, the daughter of Llyr (the king of the ocean), her name was Morveren. This was quite an assumption to make. 

This local legend became a warning to young men of the village, a warning to not fall in love with mysterious women I suppose. As time went on, several fishermen and sailors would hear melodic, calming singing, almost like a mermaids siren, echoing out from the depths beneath. Could it be Mathew and Morverne and their children?

So this is the tale of the mermaid of Zennor. Was Mathew lured in to live deep down in the sea for eternity, with this magical being and any other unknown creatures that lurk in the waters? Or was Mathew a man in love that wanted to leave his dry life behind, to live with this elegant mermaid under the sea?

(Dedicated to my dear friend Gabe, who asked for a spooky mermaid tale.)

The vanishing hitchhiker

This tale is different from the others on my page. There are no known dates or locations, it seems to be a story that has been passed along, almost like the game 'Chinese whispers.

The story goes, a lone man was driving home one night and decided to take a shortcut he had never used before. It was a long and deserted road (this doesn't smell too good already). As he was zooming down this lonely road, he spotted a figure standing at the side. As the man got closer he realised it was a young woman, in a summer dress, holding her hand out. The man picked her up, as he didn't feel threatened by a random young lady who was simply asking for a ride home. She hopped into the back of the car, hand on her throat. She told the driver that she needed to go home, her house was blue and only down the road. The unknown teller of this story said that she looked cold, she wasn't wearing a jacket so the driver gave her his brown leather jacket (remember that). He tried to make conversation with the mysterious woman but all she did was stare with emptiness out of the rain-drop covered car window. An awkward silence filled the air so the driver turned on the radio, all that played was static. The blue house came into eyesight, as he pulled up onto the side of the road he looked in his rearview mirror and the girl had vanished.

The now panicked man searched the car, but this woman had disappeared without a trace. A single light flicked on in the blue house and an elderly woman stepped onto the driveway. She said "it's okay. My name is Mrs Williams. I'm guessing you've seen Heather." The elderly lady told the story of Heather to the confused man. It is said that this hitchhiker was a girl named Heather, who died in the spot where drivers pick her up. Heather was walking home from a party one night and was hit by a car full of drunk teenagers, and died instantly at the spot where this man picked her up from. Ever since her death, her ghost appears where her life came to an end, trying to get home but never making it. The mother tells the man that Heather was buried in Evergreen cemetery, twenty-five years ago. This cemetery is a real place, in Los Angeles California. So we have some sort of location which makes this story more liable. Back to the story-telling, the man was restless all night, his mind racing. The next day he went to this cemetery in search of Heather's gravestone. He spent hours going from headstone to headstone, reading over the names of lost souls. On one headstone he noticed a familiar-looking jacket. Remember it? The brown leather jacket he had leant to the cold, eerie hitchhiker. He read the name on the grave, it had 'Heather Williams' etched onto it.

This story appears to be years old. To me, it sounds like a fictional horror story but there is some sort of an origin story to it. There is even a version of this tale in the bible. However, in the two versions of the stories, the main cast is different. It is either a vanishing hitchhiker trying to get home or a doomsday prophet wanting a lift.

In the '70s and '80s, this story of Heather Williams was spread around at sleepovers, in books, in the newspaper, in magazines and around campfires. It is said that on some occasions this vanishing hitchhiker story caused some chaos. People who had heard it would feel so frightened when driving home alone in the dark, that they would crash as their mind would replay this story over and over in their head.

There was a story going around some time ago about a hitchhiker nun. Allegedly a driver picked up a nun from the side of the road and during the drive she spoke in an ominous voice. She said that the eruption of Mount St.Helens, in the '80s, was God's warning to the area. She chatted on and on about how, if people did not repent their sins, they would be obliterated in the next volcanic eruption. She would then disappear. 

This story became so well-known and so told that people began putting on their twists to the story, so who knows what is true or fabricated? At one point in time, people begun purposely trying to pick up this vanishing hitchhiker, it became a trend. These horror fans would drive up and down desolate roads hunting for these phenomenons. However, there is no definite road where Heather or the nun was spotted, so these people would have been driving down whatever road was used in the story they were told at the time. Another form of this story was being told over time too. It is said that a woman pulled into a gas station and was approached by a man who would then say that his rental car was dead and needed a ride for an important appointment. His desired location was just down the road from where the woman was heading so she said yes. He put his briefcase in the back of her car and headed to the men's room before they set off on the journey ahead. The woman waited and waited for him but there was no sign of him. She had to leave as she was in a rush. When she arrived at her destination she saw the mans briefcase in the back of her car. She looked inside the briefcase and found a knife and duct tape. I don't think this man was a ghost, more like a murderer but it's still a very creepy hitchhiker story.

The moral of this tale is never pick up hitchhikers as they could either be the ghost of some unlucky person or a murderer. So do you think Heather was a ghost who was just trying to make her way home or was this story made up for telling to friends at sleepovers, in the dark?

The Big Grey Man of Scotland

This is the urban legend of a 'big, grey' man, that roams the highland mountain in Scotland called, Ben Macdhui. This mountain is 4296 feet tall and not only, allegedly, homes this 'man' but is also said to be haunted. Hikers of this area say that this large humanoid creature, with the nickname 'Fear Liath More' (meaning 'big grey man'), stalks people who cross his mountain. Eyewitnesses say that it is 10 feet tall, very hairy with long arms and legs. So he's a big guy.

The first known sighting of this Scottish beast was from a professor, who was exploring the misty mountain. He said, "I began to hear the sound of noises in the loose rock behind me coming down from the natural cairn on the high plateau. Every few steps I took, I heard a crunch, and then another crunch as if someone was walking after me but taking steps three or four times the length of my own." He dismissed this as a hallucination, so he continued on his travels, but so did the steps behind him. The professor was seized with terror and fled the mountains until he reached the nearby forest. He saw nothing but was left with the image of being stalked but something inhumanly big. The professor quoted "there is something very queer about the top of Ben MacDhui." He promised he would never roam that mountain by himself again. However, sometime later the professor received a letter from a man who detailed his own experience, he saw a giant figure approaching him, while he was trying to enjoy his hike.

This story drew in lots of media attention, so other takers of this mountain had come out with their stories. Were they just trying to follow the latest trends or did they genuinely have their own experiences with this 'big grey man'? Many people that sent in their stories, said that they felt sensations of uncontrollable fear and pain.

One story that stood out, was the story of the man who camped on top of this mountain in 1940, where he suddenly was overcome with the feeling of morbidity and the sense of unreality. Either he had taken a tab of acid or he was being watched by the 'fear liath mor'. He woke up hours later and saw something brown lurking outside his tent. He estimated it to be around 20 feet tall, with broad shoulders.

Another experience that was brought to light was from an author. She was roaming the mountains and heard a voice, she described it as having a 'gigantic resonance' and a reminiscent of Gaelic. She hunted the grounds for any sight of civilisation but instead, she realised she was all alone, left with whomever or whatever was the owner of that voice.

Sometime in the 1990s, three mates were walking along the countryside in Aberdeen, where they spotted a dark human-shaped figure running about the fields. They felt a random, sporadic sense of terror. The three chums described the figure as "human but not-human". One of the friends threw a stone at the figure but it disappeared into the deep, dark woods. Weeks later the same trio said they were chased by the same figure while in their car, it soon gave up and just stood and stared. Maybe this figure was trying to start a fight with the friend that launched a stone at it weeks before?

Overall, this 'big grey man' is usually seen on the mountain or in the surrounding area. It usually gives off strong feelings of panic, distress and frightfulness to anyone that comes across it. Some people have said that they feel hypnotised or drawn to jump off dangerous ledges nearby. As well as this, ghostly laughs and eerie music has been heard in the mountains, almost like it is being carried in the wind.

So, do you think a large hairy beast lurks these lonely, desolate mountains or is it just the explorer's wide sense of imagination?

My website

Hello all, 

I have moved my posts on here onto my own website that I created. I will still post on this tumblr blog but I now have a website too, so check it out if you like!! 

https://www.allthingshorror.online

hello horror fans! 👁 please reply to/reblog this post with the names of (or links to) your favorite short horror stories! 👁 I'm looking for stories to do audio readings of. they can be creepypastas, campfire stories, published works, or any other kind of short story within the realm of horror. I'm also open to reading original stories as well (& of course all works will be properly credited!). boosts are appreciated, ty! 💀

Liminal Spaces in Witchcraft

First of all, what is a liminal space? A liminal space refers to a place or time that is in a period of transition between two phases. These are usually places where reality feels altered because you are neither moving forward or backward, like a rest stop. The word liminal originates from the Latin word limens, meaning threshold. These places often give off a sense that time stands still and that you are experiencing some sort of reality shift. 

        In magic and witchcraft these spaces are considered to be the boundary between our world and the other, it is known as “the in-between”. These places are considered areas of great magic because it is believed this is where the veil is thin. These places are great for divination, spirit work, meditation and astral travel; they are ideal for hedge witchcraft.

Times & Spaces of Liminality:

crossroads manmade or natural

river, creek or lake shores/ beaches

hallway/corridor/stairwells/landings/doorways

graveyards

dawn, dusk, afternoon, midnight

valleys

forest glades

many more!

      Samhain/Halloween is considered the best time to communicate with spirits and faeries because of its liminality, it is a time of transition between autumn and winter. Irish folklore tells that this is the day faeries and ghosts come out to play because of the veil thinning. The equinoxes and sabbats like Beltane and Imbolc are also days of liminality because the time of day and night are equal (equinoxes) or it is a transition between seasons.  

       Mental states of liminality are also times of spirit communication. While being in a meditative state we are in a state of transition between our concious and sub-concious minds, this is where we sometimes experience astral projection or messages from spirits. People often experience spirit while falling asleep because this is another state of liminality. 

     In my craft I often practice in liminality in order to connect with the faerie realms.

-Moonlight 🌙

I love your stuff!!! It’s really interesting and was wondering you could write about something from Scotland??

Hey, thank you very much and of course, I can!!