The Slender Man Murders - 2014

 

In 2009 the internet forum known as, “Something Awful” launched an online contest. The objective of the contest was to generate the ultimate creepy photo. Many of the photos submitted were of a familiar fictional character known as “Slender Man”. The Slender Man is abnormally tall and very thin with no facial features. Often, he is depicted with extended and reaching tentacle-like appendages and is said to take and torture children. The urban legend recently took an alarming twist when several murders and attempted murders took place that were associated with Slender Man.

In early June 2014, two girls, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, both age 12, from Waukesha, Wisconsin, lured a classmate into a wooded area during a sleep over and stabbed her almost 20 times. According to the report, the girls were both heavily involved in the legend of Slender Man and were allegedly Proxies of the dark entity. According to the website, theslenderman.wikia.com, “A Proxy is the term given by the DarkHarvest00 ARG to their Unknown Proxy. The theory behind the name is that Proxies are entities or people who are under the influence or control of Slender Man (or the same force that influences Slender Man), and act based on its wants/needs- hence, Proxies serve as an in-between- a proxy- for Slender Man.”

The Wisconsin victim did survive and is reportedly making a full recovery. However, a second attack, also involving Slender Man, happened just a few weeks after that in Hamilton, Ohio. A 13 year old girl, dressed as Slender Man, attacked her mother in their kitchen. The mother only received a few superficial wounds from the attack but was ultimately very traumatized by the ordeal. 

A 3^rd case of Slender Man attacks happened again, just a short time after the Hamilton event. Jerad and Amanda Miller of Nevada, dressed as Harley Quinn and Slender Man, entered a food court in LasVegas where they shot two police officers while they were having lunch. The couple then fled and hid out in a local Wal Mart for several hours before they finally committed suicide together.

Just as UFO’s evolved from the 60’s and Cryptids from the 70’s, the Slender Man events have sent the urban legend surging into the paranormal mainstream; growing substantially into an actual entity who may oppress and possess the living. Reports similar to the Slender Man can be associated with beings like shadow people and even extraterrestrials and aliens. Websites like 4Channel.com, CreepyPasta.com and hundreds of paranormal forums all over the web have been reporting Slender Man as more of an actual entity rather than a myth and the paranormal community has definitely started to look at the legend more openly and appropriately with the recent attacks.

 

However, the establishment of Slender Man only stems from the internet source that conjured it. A simple fictional ghost based on entertainment and lucid imagination. As the paranormal community continues to look for answers regarding the origins of Slender Man, it divides us into groups; those of us who are satisfied with having an answer and those who will always be looking for some supernatural significance. It also serves as an example of what gets posted to the internet, isn’t always the truth.

Paranormal Activity at the Pauly Jail - Union Springs, Alabama

The Pauly Jail was erected in 1897 in Union Springs, Alabama
and is among the oldest surviving jails in Alabama. 

The old Pauly jail, in Union Springs, Alabama, shares some haunting history along with the rest of the town. It was built in 1897 by the Pauly Jail Building and Manufacturing Company and is arguably the oldest standing jail in the state. It was used as a film set in 2004 for the movie, Heaven’s Fall (which is still set-up inside the building). The 116 year-old jail has been renovated by the historic society and is dedicated to the prohibition era of Bullock County and it’s legacies in moonshine. Several liquor stills are on display at the museum along with other artifacts, relics, photos and newspaper articles that pertain to illegal distilling.

The three story jail consists of jailers and deputies quarters, a woman’s wing, and interrogation room on the bottom floor. The second floor general population cells are tight quarters and a separate recreation area, known as the “bull pen”, for deputies, is located in the back. The third floor cells are surrounded by twenty foot catwalks where jailers would keep a close watch over inmates and a separate cell for the insane or suicidal. Perhaps the most curious attraction at the jail is the swinging trap door and eyelet, which is also located on the third floor. The reason it’s located there is because hangings were conducted in the jail in plain sight of inmates. When the sliding sound of a heavy switch and clanking metal doors erupted from the Pauly Jail, it meant only one thing, someone met their fate at the end of a long drop and a short stop.

Death by hanging for condemned prisoners in the 1900's was carried out in plain view of inmates at the jail.

One of the Pauly Jail’s first criminal visitors was Willie Upshaw. He was arrested and sent to jail the same year it opened. He managed to escape the beast of concrete and steel but was later killed. The man who killed Willie (whose name is presently unknown) was arrested for murder and also sent to the Pauly for an undisclosed amount of time. In his confinement he hung himself in his cell upstairs. His spirit is responsible for the heavy swinging sound heard in the jail. On occasion, an eye witness account surfaces from those who have seen his ghastly apparition, wandering about the third floor with a noose around his neck.

The Pauly Jail is now a renovated museum dedicated to prohibition era and moonshine, but those aren't the only "spirits" here. 

On Christmas Eve, 1960, J.W. Mann was arrested for disorderly conduct and taken to the Pauly Jail. He was smoking in his cell and apparently fell asleep and set his mattress on fire. Before the jailer could be found to open the jail, flames completely engulfed J.W.’s cell and smoke was bellowing out of the second floor window. By the time they reached Mr. Mann, he was already dead. Since then, the spirit of J.W. Mann has spent more than a few Christmas’s haunting the old city jail. The Pauly Jail has been a hotbed of ghostly inhabitants and paranormal activity for the past decade. Its history tells the story of how the spirits came to be. Recently, a video was recorded at the jail of a “ghost box” session during an investigation by the Alabama Paranormal Research Team. In the video, voices came over the radio device saying, “Pauly” and “moonshine”. According to the investigators, more spirits at the jail are still undocumented.

- “We are just now scratching the surface of the mystery of the Pauly Jail spirits”.

The Histoircally Haunted Josephine Hotel - Union Springs, Alabama

The Josephine Hotel – Union Springs, Alabama

About 40 miles southeast of Montgomery, Alabama, just off highway 82, is the sleepy town of Union Springs, Alabama. This small community has managed to preserve some of its most historic buildings which are now serving as a spiritual mecca for the supernatural.  For years the residents of Union Springs have seen, heard and felt the presence of shadowy spirits, piano playing specters, and ladies dressed in white Victorian gowns. The days of the antebellum-era are long gone and the streets are no longer filled with horse drawn carriages, but the ghosts of that time are still very much alive and are waiting to tell their stories.

Some of the historical buildings in Bullock County include the court house, which is rumored to be haunted by several spirits, including a former sheriff named Red Williams, the Pauly Jail and the Josephine hotel. The Pauly jail has been restored to a great state of preservation and serves as a museum dedicated to the history of law enforcement during prohibition in Bullock County. The three story building is complete with a trap door and eyelet where a single noose hangs. It was also used in the 2006 movie, “Heavens Fall” and the scene for the jail on the bottom floor was kept after production for patrons to see.

The Josephine Hotel - Union Springs, Alabama.

Perhaps the most impressive building, from the aspects of stature, history and spirits, is the Josephine Hotel. This building once hosted some of the South’s most festive parties and the most charming masquerade balls held East of New Orleans. It was built in 1880 by Robert A. Fleming and was named for his beautiful wife, “Josephine”. The lavish dinners held here brought guests from all over the region. Under the careful and meticulous eye of Mrs. Josephine Fleming, the hotel hosted “bird dinners”. Wild fowl were brought into the hotel by local hunters and piled in rows in front of the hotel. The birds were prepared and served in to guests from the town’s most elite and most prominent families in the hotels formal dining room. Other splendid dinners included oysters, shipped in from as far away as Eufaula, Alabama and Orchestra’s from Columbus, Georgia serenaded the guests into the late evening hours.

Over time the hotel changed hands and was renamed the “Drummers Center” and “Commercial Hotel”. The 32-room hotel was still considered one of the finest in the region and the saloons, located on the bottom floor, hosted cards games and kept the finest whiskey in town. In 1903, the building became the property of F.F. Ravencroft, a druggist and active supporter in the campaigns of tonics or “near beers”, as they were called during prohibition. Ravencroft established his pharmacy here for many years until the building eventually became a commercial property.

The old piano, located on the second floor of this three story, historic, hotel has been heard playing a ghostly tune. 

Today the Perrin’s own the building and it has been a labor of love for the couple for many years. Extensive renovations have been done to resurrect the old hotel, and, once again, bring it to life. But rebuilding this grand hotel has come with a few spirited surprises. According to the owners and a few locals, some guests that checked in during the mid-1800’s, never checked out. It started out with an odd feeling of being watched, a cold chill in the humid and damp rooms, to seeing apparitions of people walking through the hotel. Joyce Perrin reports on some occasions, she stays overnight during renovations and she can hear the shuffling footsteps of what sounds likes several people on the upper floors. Also, the abandoned piano on the second floor, seems to play on its own. Haunting sounds of saloon music occasionally bellows through the establishment that now serves as a deli where locals come to have lunch and some of the area’s best ice cream.

The Spirits of the Josephine Hotel would like to welcome you for a ghostly visit. 

Logic, of course, plays a big part in dismissing some of the claims of the paranormal activity here at the Josephine, but ghost hunting teams, who have investigated the building, have been able to document many of the ghost sightings and sounds. During one investigation, by the Alabama Paranormal Research Team, a team member found herself in the grips of a frightening experience when a photo of the hotel literally flew off the wall toward her in the downstairs parlor. Sounds were recorded by the team that matched a sighting from a local who said he saw a woman dressed in white, mid-century, clothing appear in the 2nd floor window. The EVP recorded that night also captured a woman’s voice. When the investigator asked for anyone present to touch the electromagnetic device, the voice captured on the audio of the camera said, “Yes”. Light anomalies were also captured manifesting out of thin air on the second floor, and the sensation of being watched was very prominent among all the investigators.

The spirits of the Josephine Hotel have recently been documented in the new publication, “Haunted Alabama Black Belt” by David Higdon and Brett Talley. Other stories from Bullock County include the Pauly Jail and the Bullock County Courthouse. This 23 chapter guide to the Alabama black belt’s ghosts has an abundance of supernatural history. It’s definitely a book for the ghost story enthusiast or history buff. New stories from the region are being reported daily, and for the Josephine Hotel, lunch crowds that spend an afternoon in the deli may find more than just a great meal or snack. If your curiosity encourages you to visit, feel free to ask the Perrin’s about their personal experiences. They are more than willing to share them with you. 

The Columbus Iron Works & the Ghost of James Warner - Columbus, Georgia

In June of 1862, the Columbus Iron Works was an established foundry for steel casting during the Civil War. The foundry poured the steel castings for the ships propellers and machinery that were built in the neighboring Navy Yard. The head engineer, who oversaw the foundry and the building of many of the Confederate Navy’s iron clads and gunships built at the Columbus Navy Yard was James Warner.  He spearheaded the operations and helped establish Columbus’s Iron Works as the largest manufacture of Confederate Machinery in the South.

The Columbus Iron Works was used as a casting and machinery foundry during the Civil War.

 Warner’s contributions to the Iron Works were substantial and he was a highly respected military man in the city of Columbus. However, an unknown assailant shot him in the leg on February 12, 1866 while crossing the street in front of the soldier’s barracks. For ten days, surgeons and doctors tended to Major Warner, but their efforts were in vein. James Warner died on February 22, 1866 and was laid to rest at Linwood cemetery in Columbus, Georgia.

Since his death, over one hundred and forty years ago, a spirit has been seen in the old mill. Visitors who attend events, weddings, and community functions at the Iron Works today, report seeing a man in a blue overcoat. Often, he is seen walking through walls and hovering overhead on what appears to be ghost-like cat walks from the former foundry. Many believe this is the spirit of Major James Warner, still keeping a watchful eye over the industry he worked so hard to contribute too.

Major James Warner's grave at Linwood cemetery in Columbus, Georgia.

Other strange sightings are often reported in the form of photographs taken by patrons and guests who attend these events. Unusual human-like shapes manifest as a mist and occasionally brightly colored “orbs” (which some believe is spiritual energy), are photographed at the location. There are also reports of people hearing the sounds of working machinery in the old mill building. Are the spirits of the old mill still working in the casting foundry? Does this skeleton crew of men still haunt the building along with their superior and overseer, Major Warner? Keep a watchful eye on those actors in the new haunted house in this years “Massacre at the Mill”. That ghostly apparition of a man in a blue over coat may not be an actor at all.

You can find out more about the Iron Works haunted history in “Haunted Columbus Georgia – Phantoms of the Fountain City” by Faith Serafin visit her website: www.AlabamaGhostHunters.com and find out how you can attend paranormal investigations in Columbus, Georgia. 

Buried Treasure in Beauregard - Opelika, Alabama

The plantations and family homes of Lee County’s first settlements are mostly forgotten by today’s standards of local history. Family stories and legacies die hard in the rural south and verbal traditions of storytelling are sadly dwindling away with every generation. However, one legend from Opelika’s sleepy Beauregard community is almost completely unknown. A very old story; written by Rev. Cherry during the first fifty years of recorded history in Lee County, Alabama.

Near the Watula Creek, close to the old Watoola church, in Opelika, Alabama, there is a dense forest covering many acres of land. All private property today, the land was once the burial grounds of Creek Indians who lived in the area. Most notably, Paddy Carr, a half Creek - half Irish native who lived near Fort Mitchell during his adult hood. Carr’s history is a bit of a mystery since his father allegedly returned to Ireland just after his birth in 1807, leaving his Creek mother to care for him and his siblings. He later deferred the European traditions of Christianity and took three wives of his own. The Creek tribe, his mother hailed from, was from the Watooa area (which is today Watoola). The settlement was located near the Watula creek and the burial mounds of Paddy Carr’s ancestors were buried throughout the location.

Paddy-Car Half Creek Indian and Irish interrupter 

Somewhere, within the vicinity of the settlement and the burial mounds, there was a small hill where the chieftains were buried. Within the burials were clay pots, made by the natives, filled with silver. The silver coins were given to the town’s chiefs as partial payment for land by the American government. Of course the Native American’s had no use for American currency and instead of trading it, they buried it to avoid it be stolen by rival tribes or other white settlers.

After 1836, the location was known as “Dog Scratch Hill”. Once settlers and pioneer people became aware of the rumored buried treasure, despite the Indian curses associate with burial sites, they flocked to the mounds to unearth the clay pots in search of silver coins. Paddy Carr’s Creek grandfathers were buried on the hill, and he was particularly upset to find that the “grave of his fathers” had been disturbed, and more importantly that the deposits of silver were also missing. It was noted that certain parties, living within the areas were met with a sudden stroke of good fortune and that no one reported the removal of any Native antiquities in the area. The clay remains of the pots were reported to be visible up until 1846, but no record or indication as to where they are or were located outside of that report has ever been documented.

The last written testimony to the treasure was listed by Rev. Francis Lafayette Cherry in The History of Lee County.

“ I have referred to the above only from the fact that it is believed by some that there are still large deposits of coin hidden by the Indians in that locality, which have never been reclaimed by the depositors, and consequently the “place of their sepulture in unknown to this day.” Some lucky farmer boy may run his plowpoint into one of those long hidden Indian treasure pots when these old “clay-roots” and hollow stumps have disappeared and “left no sign”. “

Rev. Cherry lived with the Creek tribes of Lee and Russell County for more than a decade and recorded their history. Verbal traditions and ancestry were spread through generations but most of America’s Native American history is lost because it wasn’t recorded. Paddy-Carr (Patrick Carr) lived well into age and was very influential as a translator and interrupter for the Creek tribes and European settlers. As for the buried silver near the Watoola creek, one could only guess today where the treasure could be found, or if it was ever there at all. Still the story stands as part of a legend in Lee County and more importantly, one that was written down and documented by historians.

Maps and demographics of Creek territories in Alabama vary but tell little of the minor settlements that were established throughout the rural south, before removal of Native Americans in 1836

The Forgotten in Lee County Alabama

Rural routes in Lee County Alabama

Today, I took a stroll down an old dirt road in search of an abandoned cemetery I found when I was about ten years old. The first time I saw it, it looked forgotten and neglected. The tall Alabama pines shadowed the hidden gravestones on a slight incline and the straw, which fell from high in the canopy, kept the area clear and did a great job of naturally keeping the brush down. It seemed to be a sad place. No one kept it up and I could feel a sense of dying hope as I read the names aloud from each marker that was still readable. I never spoke of it until I was about sixteen. The first time I took a friend to the old place, something trotted through the surrounding woods, scaring me back into the car and locking my friend outside by accident. (A joke we tell now that she will never let me live down).

Golden Silk Orb Weaver

When I visited today, I found again, that nature is still slowly devouring this meager resting place. I’ve documented the names, birth and death dates; just in case the cemetery is gone one day. It still feels very lonely there. A glimmer of hope hanging on by a thread; that was the symbolism I gathered from the countless Orb weavers building their homes in the trees and surrounding brush. It's not unusual to see old cemeteries being forgotten but it just seems untimely. A place so small and lonely, will perhaps be gone; erased from history all together.

Abandoned family cemetery in Lee County Alabama

This sacred spot is nearly covered in vegetation. A Confederate soldier is buried here, a mother, father and child together, and many headstones are weathered to the point the names are no longer visible. The grave markers; so brittle that the slightest touch deteriorates the stone into powder. Just as the people buried here have become ash, so is their resting place. Consumed and overgrown with the Acorn and Water Oaks, Confederate Jasmine, and creatures of the Alabama forest, it’s hard to watch something sacred decompose and disappear. Soon, this place will be only a memory.

The Ghost of Hank Williams

Hank Williams
September 17, 1923 - January 1, 1953

Hiram King Williams was born in Butler County, Alabama on September 17, 1923. His parents, Lon and Lily Williams were migrate rail road workers who traveled with the progressing railway systems in the South. They lived in box cars and rail road shacks until they moved to Georgiana in 1929. A brain injury, Lon sustained in WWI, caused Lilly to have him committed to a Veterans Hospital in Pensacola, Florida where he stayed until 1937, leaving Lilly Williams to raise her family alone.

From the time Hiram was born, his parents noted that an unusual deformity was present on his back. Today, doctors would understand this condition as Spinal Bifida. This hindered him from playing sports and from being as physically active as other children and most likely contributed to his interest in music. As he grew older, his mother and sisters encouraged him to learn bible hymns and play instruments. At a very young age, while living in Georgiana, Hiram met Rufus “Tee-Tot” Payne, a street musician and one-man-band. Rufus Payne was born to slave parents in Louisiana on the Payne Plantation. Payne later moved to New Orleans where he was influenced by the soulful culture of the city. He shared his love of blues music with Hiram and taught him how to play the guitar and sing.

Hiram was 16 when he dropped his given name for, “Hank” and was playing on the streets of Montgomery, Alabama, just as his predecessor, Tee-Tot had done in New Orleans. His mother served as his agent and entered him in several of the local talent contests, which he won so frequently, he was asked not to enter in order to give other contestants a chance to win. Hank was eventually picked up by WSFA for a radio segment called the, “The Singing Kid”. His connection to Braxton Schuffert helped him establish his band, "The Drifting Cowboys". In 1938, Hank dropped out of school permanently to be a full time performer and traveled all over the south with his band preforming in shows and honky tonks.



Hank and Audrey Williams (Lycrecia - Audrey's daughter and Hank Williams Jr)

In Banks, Alabama, while preforming at a medicine show, Hank met Audrey Shepard and the two fell in love. They were married on December 15, 1944. Hank had a serious problem with alcohol; when he drank, he drank until he induced severe depression or anger, which essentially led to the constant fighting and replacement of band members. Hank had managed to stay sober for more than a year prior to marrying Audrey, but while living in Andalusia, Alabama, Hank and Audrey had a huge argument over his drinking which escalated to him throwing her out of the house. He was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct and spent the night at the Covington County Jail. When his friend and band member, Don Helms came to bail him out the next morning, Hank looked smugly over at Don and asked, “What’d ya want me to do, stand on my head?” Don paid the $30 bond and on the way out a jailer said, “Come back and see us Hank.” And Hank replied, “You can all go to hell.”



In 1946, Sterling Records released a six-song record that caught the attention of MGM. By 1947, Hank’s career went from mainstream radio to one of America’s most prominent and famous country music singers. He signed with MGM and became part of the cast of The Louisiana Hay Ride. Hank was one hell of a performer, it was rumored that while singing, women would fall faint and actually pass out. He also made a name for himself due to some of his drunken behavior. 

Hank continued to perform all over the south and abroad but his drinking and womanizing would finally catch up with him in the summer of 1952. He was denied a position at the Grand Old Opry due to drunkenness and his wife Audrey divorced him. He had also developed some dependency to morphine during that time, after a hunting accident aggravated his fragile back condition. 



Hank Williams and his second wife, Billie Jean Jones Williams

In October 1952, Hank married Billie Jean Jones, the 19-year-old daughter of a Bossier City Police Chief in New Orleans, Louisiana. The event drew some 10,000 specters who attended the wedding as a paid event. That December, Hank and Billie Jean attended the 8th annual party for the American Federation of Musicians in Montgomery, Alabama at the Elite Café, where he gave his last performance. That evening, Hank and Billie Jean had an argument and she left him. The following month, on New Year’s Day, Hank was on his way to a show in West Virginia. The Driver, Charles Carr, stopped for gas just near Oak Hill Virginia and when he turned to the backseat to check on Hank, he was dead.

According to documented history, Hank visited a doctor that week for his back and was given a morphine injection to get him through the long car ride. Coupled with heavy drinking, this caused Hank’s death. On January 4^th, 1953 the largest funeral in Alabama history took place at the Montgomery Auditorium for Hank Williams. He was laid to rest at the Oakwood Cemetery Annex where he spends his eternity with his beloved Audrey.

Hank Williams funeral January 4, 1953

Hank Williams Jr.

Shelton Hank Williams III

His grave has long been a source of legend in Alabama as a location frequented by his ghost. Music by Alan Jackson, David Allen Coe, and even Hank’s son and grandson; Hank Williams Jr. and Shelton Hank Williams III, have all written songs about this legendary spirit. His ghost has been spotted as far away as Nashville, Tennessee, where he allegedly haunts the Ryman Theater (the former location of the Grand Old Opry), his boyhood home in Georgiana and even the Old Covington County Jail in Andalusia.

The lost highways between Nashville and Montgomery are littered with the stories of Hank’s ghost. Still carrying the charismatic and charming demeanor of the man he was in life, it’s no wonder he is still so beloved and cherished today. No amount of legacy would be complete without the spiritual aspect of a man so prominent and influential to music and history. The spirit of Hank Williams lives on, in song and inspiration, somewhere between raising hell and amazing grace.

You can read more about the ghost of Hank Williams in, Haunted Montgomery Alabama by Faith Serafin

http://www.amazon.com/Haunted-Montgomery-Alabama-America/dp/1609499301