PARANORMAL PUB: A Saint Patrick's Day Story

This story truly happened a while ago in Dublin, and on Saint Patrick's Day.

John Bradford, a Dublin University student, was on the side of the road hitchhiking on a very dark night and in the midst of a big storm.

The night was rolling on and no car went by. The storm was so strong he could hardly see a few feet ahead of him.

Suddenly, he saw a car slowly coming towards him and stopped.

John, desperate for shelter and without thinking about it, got into the car and closed the door... Only to realize there was nobody behind the wheel and the engine wasn't on. The car started moving slowly.

John looked at the road ahead and saw a curve approaching. Scared, he started to pray, begging for his life. Then, just before the car hit the curve, a hand appeared out of nowhere through the window, and turned the wheel.

John, paralyzed with terror, watched as the hand came through the window, but never touched or harmed him.

Shortly thereafter, John saw the lights of a pub appear down the road, so, gathering strength; he jumped out of the car and ran to it. Wet and out of breath, he rushed inside and started telling everybody about the horrible experience he had just had.

A silence enveloped the pub when everybody realized he was crying... And wasn't drunk.

Suddenly, the door opened, and two other people walked in from the dark and stormy night. They, like John , were also soaked and out of breath. Looking around, and seeing John Bradford sobbing at the bar, one said to the other....

"Look Paddy....there's the damn idiot that got in the car while we were pushing it!"

PARANORMAL PUB : The Silk Dress

Excerpted from Spooky New York

Retold by Marion Pellicano Ambrose

Liza worked in a box factory, and her salary was not large. She made just enough to cover the cost of food, shelter, and the clothes on her back. So when she received an invitation to a fancy-dress party from an old friend, she did not know what she should do. Here was her chance at last to shine a little, to experience how the other half lived, but she had no money to buy a dress, or even the material to make one.

She mentioned her dilemma to a woman at the box factory. “Why not rent a costume?” the woman suggested. “It shouldn’t cost much for just one evening. Try your local pawnshop.”

And so she made her way to a pawnshop near her home after work. At the rear of the store, she found a beautiful satin gown, complete with matching accessories. The owner of the shop was willing to rent the gown to her for a reasonable fee. After paying the fee she took the beautiful gown home with her on the night of the party.

She dressed carefully for the occasion and peered at her reflection in the tiny mirror in her bathroom. She looked radiant, her blue eyes glowing with the excitement of an evening out. As she turned away from the mirror, she thought she heard a whisper: “Give me back my dress.” She froze in the doorway, looking around uncertainly for the speaker, but saw no one. She shrugged, went downstairs, and splurged on the cab fare into Manhattan.

When she arrived, she was quickly inundated with dance partners. She felt like Cinderella at the ball, and the first hour of the party quickly slipped away.

She slowly became aware of growing nausea when she paused between dances. She felt light-headed, and the room was spinning for a moment. Once again Liza heard a ghostly whisper in her ear: “Give me back my dress.”

PARANORMAL PUB -THE VISIT: A TRUE IRISH GHOST TALE

Marion Pellicano Ambrose

This week’s Paranormal Pub is dedicated to our friends in the UK!

From the time I was a little girl, I remember my father’s relatives talking about “visits”.  These visits were appearances of relatives or friends at the time of a death or shortly after. Apparently, this is not unusual in Irish families.

A tale is told as a  personal experience by the Archdeacon of Limerick, Very Rev. J. A. Haydn, LL.D.
"In the year 1879 there lived in the picturesque village of Adare, at a distance of about eight or nine miles from my residence, a District Inspector, with whom I enjoyed a friendship of the most intimate and fraternal kind. At the time I write of, his good wife was expecting the arrival of their third child. She was a particularly tiny and fragile woman, and much anxiety was felt as to the result of the impending event. He and she had very frequently spent pleasant days at my house, with all the apartments of which they were thoroughly acquainted—a fact of importance in this narrative.


On Wednesday, October 17, 1879, I had a very jubilant letter from my friend, announcing that the expected event had successfully happened on the previous day, and that all was progressing satisfactorily. On the night of the following Wednesday, October 22, I retired to bed at about ten o'clock. My wife, the children, and two maid-servants were all sleeping upstairs, and I had a small bed in my study, which was on the ground floor. The house was shrouded in darkness, and the only sound that broke the silence was the ticking of the hall-clock.


I was quietly preparing to go to sleep, when I was much surprised at hearing, with the most unquestionable distinctness, the sound of light, hurried footsteps, exactly suggestive of those of an active, restless young female, coming in from the hall door and traversing the hall. They then, apparently with some hesitation, followed the passage leading to the study door, on arriving at which they stopped. I then heard the sound of a light, agitated hand apparently searching for the handle of the door. By this time, being quite sure that my wife had come down and wanted to speak to me, I sat up in bed, and called to her by name, asking what was the matter. “I must go” I heard. “Go where ?” I asked, still believing it to be my wife. “Farewell, farewell” was the last sound I heard. I struck a match, lighted a candle, and opened the door. No one was visible or audible. I went upstairs, found all the doors shut and everyone asleep. Greatly puzzled, I returned to the study and went to bed, leaving the candle alight. Immediately the whole performance was circumstantially repeated, but this time the handle of the door was grasped by the invisible hand, and partly turned, then relinquished. I started out of bed and renewed my previous search, with equally futile results. The clock struck eleven, and from that time all disturbances ceased.
On Friday morning I received a letter stating that my friend’s wife had died at about midnight on the previous Wednesday. I hastened off to Adare and had an interview with my bereaved friend. With one item of our conversation I will close. He told me that his wife sank rapidly on Wednesday, until when night came on she became delirious. She spoke incoherently, as if revisiting scenes and places once familiar. 'She thought she was in your house,' he said, 'and was apparently holding a conversation with you, as she used to keep silence at intervals as if listening to your replies.' I asked him if he could possibly remember the hour at which the imaginary conversation took place. He replied that, curiously enough, he could tell it accurately, as he had looked at his watch, and found the time between half-past ten and eleven o'clock—the exact time of the mysterious manifestations heard by me."


Adapted from True Irish Ghost Stories, by St. John D. Seymour and Harry L. Neligan, [1914],

PARANORMAL PUB - "Tar & Feather"

Robert T. Rothschild. Jr.

Tar and Feathering of Charles Kelsey:

The Kelsey Outrage in Huntington, is a scar on the towns name. Was it justified, you be the judge!
the time in history was back in 1873 where men on the north shore of LI was all about whaling. So the townsfolk found the likes of Charles Kelsey as a quirky, odd fellow. Charles was an avid gardener, poet, and Sunday School teacher. One Sunday school meeting with 20 year old Julia Smith, is all it took for Charles to be smitten with the perky Julia.

On September 5th in 1873 the newspaper read that a funeral was held for the lower torso of Charles G. Kelsey. The 2nd Presbyterian church on Main Street was packed with patrons regarding the funeral for half of a man. The horrific events leading up to that point is one of the most sensational trials ever held on this ground. It had elements with sex, mutilation, spurned love, Tar and feathering, and half of a missing body...

PARANORMAL PUB

 

GHOST STORIES FROM NEW YORK

Marion Pellicano Ambrose

While Saint Augustine, Florida is my favorite spot to visit and experience haunting adventures, there are many other places I’ve been that have their own spooky tales to tell.

I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and have heard many stories of ghosts and hauntings close to home. One such tale is that of the young girl in Marine Park. It is said that the girl was walking through the park one evening, enjoying the crisp fall wind blowing through the leaves of the tall trees that surround the park. Behind one of these trees lurked a strange man who grabbed her from behind. He brutally raped and murdered the girl. Her screams echoed throughout the surrounding neighborhood, yet no one came out to rescue her. Instead, they hid behind closed doors and drawn curtains. The murderer was eventually caught and put to death, but the girl’s spirit could not rest. She continues to roam the park waiting for someone to come to save her. On nights when the air is crisp and clear, people sometimes hear screaming and crying coming from within the park. Many years have passed and most of those living there at the time of her murder are dead themselves, but still she wanders and screams in the night. Screaming for someone to help her!