We all love ghost stories around Halloween, but are they real? Throughout the past several centuries, there have been many tales of hauntings throughout the United States. Some of the ghosts are harmless, while others are malevolent. The following ghost stories and spooky tales have long been sending chills down our spines — and many have experienced their wrath.
Whether or not you believe in ghosts is up to you, but the people involved in these anecdotes certainly won't be taking ghost stories lightly any time soon.
The Ghosts of the Dakota
The Dakota apartment building in New York City's Upper West Side was once home to John Lennon and served as the backdrop for Rosemary’s Baby. It overlooks Central Park and is flooded with celebrities. But it may also have to paranormal residents. Lennon claims to have seen “The Crying Lady,” which some have theorized may be Elise Vesley. She was the building manager of The Dakota and super into spiritualism from the 1930s to 1950s. When Vesley’s son was struck by a truck outside in the street, she broke down due to his death. After her own death, residents claim that she roams the hallways crying and trying to protect the children in the apartment building from harm. Other residents claim to see the ghost of John Lennon himself, as he was shot and killed at the entrance of The Dakota. But that's not all. Some have said there's the ghost of a little girl who bounces a red ball and says “It’s my birthday.” ABC News reported this spirit in 2015 because many of the residents have seen her and are familiar with the entity. And, "the man wearing the wig” is another predominant entity in the building. He roams the basement and yells at the electricians of the building.
"The Watcher"
Before this horror story became a hit on Netflix, The Cut reported on the spooky happenings at the Broaddus family's house in Westfield, New Jersey. This one isn't a bonafide ghost story, but rather just a creepy tale, perhaps one involving a stalker. “The Watcher” is an unidentified person that has been watching or stalking the house and residents in it for years. They claim to have ancestral ties to the home and threaten anyone who lives there and makes renovations that they don’t approve of. The writer of such letters seemed to gain close access to the home and family — so much so that they knew the nicknames of their children and all the family secrets (this was later shared in another vengeful letter sent to them). The Broaddus’ sued the family that sold them the house, claiming the owners withheld information about “The Watcher,” but a judge dismissed the case. Unfortunately, “The Watcher” was never found, leaving people to believe it’s a shadowy figure who was haunting the Broaddus family and those who lived in the house before.
The Amityville Horror House
On November 13, 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed six members of his family at their home at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, Long Island. After confessing to the police, DeFeo claimed that there were evil voices telling him to kill his family members. Not long after the killing, the Lutz family moved into the home and quickly claimed to experience paranormal activity. They said slime was oozing out of the walls, cabinets would inexplicably close, doors were ripped off the hinges. They reported strange odors, and said they'd randomly wake up each night right around the time the DeFeo family was killed. With strange and scare occurrences mounting, the family sold the house after living there for only 28 days. The story was made into a movie, but some say the ghostly approbations was a hoax.
The Legend of Roanoke
Roanoke Colony was set to be the first permanent English settlement in the United States. Located off the coast of what we now call the state of North Carolina, the colony’s leader, John White, set sail back to England to gather more supplies for their living situation. When he returned three years later, no one was present at the place where he left them — worse, there wasn't a trace they'd even ever been there. Among those disappeared was White's infant granddaughter Virginia dare. Because the only clue that anyone had been at Roanoke was the word “Croatoan” carved into a post, some believe at least some of the English colonists were assimilated into the nearby Croatan tribe. Some have speculated that Virginia Dare survived, and because she turned a love interest down, was turned into a white deer. Legend has it that Virginia roams the forest as a diaphanous white deer searching for her man.
The Mask
This is a real ghost story — I should know because I lived it. When I was a child, my family spent summers in the Pocono Mountains, a rural area in Pennsylvania. In one of the houses we rented, there was a pink face mask in my room that was used as decor. At first, the mask didn’t bother me. But, after weeks of sleeping underneath its gaze, I began to notice that the mask would rattle and shake at bizarre times in the evening when I wasn’t even touching it. Weirder things began to happen. I got locked in the closet (it didn't have a lock on the door), I had vivid nightmares of a boy trying to awaken me, there would be mysterious stains on the walls and carpet. At first, I thought my sister was playing games on me. She wasn’t. In fact, she began to sleepwalk that summer and be in a trance at those moments. I decided to do my own research on the house. It turns out that a boy lived in my room and his mother locked him in there when she wasn’t home. He lived there until adulthood and died in the closet. His ghost was trying to communicate with me. I still get shivers down my spine thinking about the energy he left and that he wanted attention. His ghost was that of a scared, lonely boy wanting love.
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