Salem Massachusetts' Ghosts – Fact or Fiction?
New England Village Known for Witch Hysteria Has Haunters, Hoaxsters
Oct 3, 2009
Some storytellers enjoy spinning ghostly yarns to scare their audiences, claiming their ghostly tales are true. They may add false details to real hauntings or create fairy tales because a place looks like it should be haunted. Paranormal investigators believe that there are true hauntings, but Salem, Massachusetts is among the sites of many supernatural fakes.
Salem’s Hoaxsters’ Ghostly Yarns
There are bizarre fictional tales of Salem's ghosts that are intended to scare readers. Most have warnings that the ghost might try to harm those who encounter them. The ludicrous stories include:
- A female phantom with a bag strapped around her head conducting excursions, (sic) to a spectral crowd;
- A giant terrifying ghost who enjoys frightening people is regularly sighted in a house;
- The specter of a blood-soaked woman who finds scaring people fun;
- A man's spectral body with a donkey’s head;
- A shade of a female’s body with a lizard's head;
- A supernatural male with a beast’s head, and;
- An insane woman with a knife sticking out of her head.
Fictional Stories of Pennsylvania Hauntings
Eastern Pennsylvania is among the sites of a supernatural fake. There are at least two Keystone State hoaxes listed on multiple popular websites. One is the “cursed” stone couch, a rock formation that looks like the furniture. The first time people touch it, they are scratched. The second time, they will mysteriously bleed. To touch it a third time brings death.
Moravian College’s haunted Rau Dormitory is another fabrication. It’s rumored that three male students hanged themselves in its basement sometime during the 1960s and their ghosts haunt the building. Rau and its ghosts are featured in the college’s Hallowe’en ghost tours. There were no police records or news reports about the suicides. Faculty, staff members and alumni who were at Moravian in the ‘60s heard nothing about this contrived incident. A phone call to Moravian will prove the college doesn’t have ghost tours.
How to Detect Fictional Hauntings
Some tales are too bizarre to be true and it’s evident the intention of the story teller is to scare. In reality, ghosts’ purposes aren’t meant to scare people. Does it make sense that a female phantom would conduct “excursions,” whatever these are meant to be, to a crowd of specters?
The website, GhostsOfAmerica.com, that has the list of contrived ghosts in this article looks legit. There’s an invitation for people to send in their ghost sightings. It isn’t until the third page that there’s a link to Lies about Salem. The first page admits that the “hauntings” are lies that the writers invented about Salem. Could a stone couch hurt and kill people? A call to Moravian would confirm the suicides never happened and it doesn’t give ghost tours.
And while it's widely accepted that the Easton, Pennsylvania Public Library is haunted, the authors misrepresented facts. It was known and printed in contemporary newspapers that the library was built at the site of a neglected cemetery. The planners sought relatives of people interred there so they could rebury them. Unclaimed bodies were buried in a mass grave behind the building.
A book claimed that it wasn’t known that the library would be built on a graveyard site and it went on to describe the gory discovery. When one of the authors was asked why the false information was published, it was said that his eyes lit up and his face was contorted into a scary grin as he explained that it made the story scarier. He admitted on a paranormal website that he was merely a story teller who liked to frighten people. Such a revelation makes all of his work suspect.
Enjoy Fictional Ghost Stories
Scary ghost tales are akin to amusement rides – they're meant to thrill. Many people enjoy the spine-tingling chills of the stories and the excitement of these breathtaking ride. Although some argue The Amityville Horror was a true account, it has since been debunked as a hoax. The best evidence of this is the fact that William Weber, one of the perpetuators, admitted to the media that it was a fraud intended to make money. Despite this, some people who know the true nature of the Amityville Horror still get chills when they read the book.
Master of horror stories Stephen King’s books are fiction and classified as such. Who can forget the terror of reading It? The author builds suspense as the main characters encounter "Pennywise" the sinister clown, then confront It. Many parapsychologists enjoy the chills they get reading the book they know is fiction.
Articles Related to Salem’s Ghosts, Fact or Fiction
Readers who enjoyed this article might like Amityville Scamityville, along with Haunted Easton, PA Library and How to Debunk Paranormal Hoaxes.
Source:
- ESP, Hauntings and Poltergeists, Loyd Auerbach, (Warner Books, 1986).
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