FAVORITE HAUNTED PLACES - KINGS ISLAND

Kings Island amusement park opened in Mason, Ohio when I was two years old and it's been one of my favorite places my entire life.  (It also happens to be the location of my favorite Brady Bunch episode and my favorite Partridge Family episode and I am not obsessed.)  I had known for a long time that there was a cemetery on the grounds (specifically in the parking lot), but it wasn't until a Ghost Adventures episode piqued my curiosity that I actually ventured in there myself.

This small cemetery is maintained by Deerfield Township and is known as The Dog Street Cemetery, Union Methodist Cemetery, Dill Graveyard, and The J.D. Hoff Farm Cemetery.  The graves date between 1828 and 1869, with approximately 70 people interred and 50 tombstones still standing.  This map shows the Kings Island land in 1867, with the yellow square representing the cemetery on the Dill farm.

Missouri Jane's tombstone.

As for ghosts, stories have been making the rounds for decades.  The most prominent (and featured in the Ghost Adventures episode) concerns the spirit of a little girl in an old-fashioned blue dress who has been seen in the parking lot, around the front gate, and in the International Restaurant. She is sometimes known as "Tram Girl", as she is often seen by the tram drivers transporting patrons to their cars at closing time.  One tale says she is the spirit of a young girl who drowned in a lake located on the farm.  Some folks have made the link between the ghost and a tombstone in the cemetery belonging to five year old Missouri Jane.  Some of the Ghost Adventures investigators chose to look for her by calling out for "Missouri Jane."  If the ghost is, in fact, some other little girl it's no wonder she didn't make an appearance for the cameras.  Girls are not thrilled with people who get their names wrong.

If you see the Ghost Adventures episode, be aware there are some hefty factual errors.  At the beginning the Kings Island rep stated that there had been a munitions plant on the property and that a 1942 explosion killed hundreds of people.  Later a couple of the investigators went into the graveyard and the female stated that there was a gun powder factory on the grounds and an explosion in 1890 killed 50 people and a lot were buried there.  The Kings Great Western Powder Works did indeed have an explosion in 1890.  However, the blast killed about a dozen people and it was not located on the Kings Island property but about a mile away.  I know of no explosions which took place in 1942 in the area, let alone one that killed hundreds.  And since the newest tombstone in the cemetery is from 1869, obviously none of the inhabitants died in the explosion. 

 
In addition to the little girl in blue, there are also tales of a ghost haunting the Eiffel Tower, a spirit who hangs around The Racers roller coaster, and miscellaneous sounds, sights, and flying objects.  Kings Island has been the scene of some real life tragedies including the death of a high school senior in 1983 after a fall from the Eiffel Tower.  (Some refer to the ghost seen around the structure as "Tower Johnny.")  Other documented deaths include two men who were electrocuted in a pond, a woman who died after falling from the Flight Commander ride, and a ranger who was mauled by lions after leaving his vehicle in the Lion Country Safari.

I personally have had no strange experiences at Kings Island outside of the usual antics of obnoxious teenagers.  Well, there was one kind of strange thing.  Over the summer my brother and his family were visiting from St. Louis and we went to this cemetery.  I got out my trusty iPhone with the Ghost Hunter M2 app and turned on the EVP analyzer.  I got a number of words as I wandered the cemetery.  As I mentioned in a previous post I don't necessarily believe this $.99 piece of software is a phone to the spirit world, but...  My brother has a rather unusual middle name.  For his privacy's sake I won't reveal it, but let's say it's not your classic name like Michael or Paul or Joseph.  As I was in one corner of the fenced cemetery, his middle name appeared on my ghost meter.  If he had a regular old common middle name I'd say coincidence, but since he doesn't (and since that name never appeared on my meter before or since) I'm open to thinking somebody was trying to tell him something.  The ghost wasn't very specific, though, so I don't think my brother got the message.  He's kinda dense that way.

** Unrelated note:  I do not control the content of the ads on my website.  In particular, I want it to be known that any political ads are not an endorsement by me.  I've had candidates from both political parties show up in ads and I don't want readers to think I'm pushing an agenda one way or another.  If you disagree with a candidate shown, please don't hold it against me.  Depending on who it is, I may not like him/her either.


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* Favorite Haunted Places - Bobby Mackey's Music World

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FAVORITE HAUNTED PLACES - BOBBY MACKEY'S MUSIC WORLD

Last week I gave you three hints to this week's haunted place -- Johanna, Walling, and "Anniversary Waltz."  Can you guess it?  Oh, wait.  It's in the post title.  It's Bobby Mackey's Music World, known by some as "The Most Haunted Nightclub in the USA".

The men's room, where a patron was
attacked by an evil (and evidently perverted) ghost

 Country singer Bobby Mackey purchased the roadhouse in 1978 and turned it into his own nightclub, with live music, lots of drinking, and later the requisite mechanical bull (which my father took great pride in telling me he once rode).  Ghostly encounters began almost immediately, with Bobby's wife Janet being an early victim of an unknown presence who, among other things, pushed the pregnant woman down a flight of stairs and tried to knock a ladder on top of her.  The other most famous victim was Carl Lawson, the caretaker who lived on the premises.  He was tormented nightly by unseen voices and a jukebox that played "The Anniversary Waltz"...even when unplugged.  The ghosts' behavior escalated to the point that he was supposedly possessed and required the services of an exorcist.  (His story is told in the book Hell's Gate:  Terror at Bobby Mackay's World, a really poorly written, but thorough, account of Carl Lawson's nightmare.)

So, why would a honky tonk be haunted?  There are a number of stories floating around.  The club is located on the former site of a slaughterhouse.  In 1896 a 22-year old pregnant woman named Pearl Bryan was murdered (by decapitation no less).  Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling were convicted and hanged for the killing.  There are wild stories that the two were actually satanists who murdered Pearl inside the slaughterhouse as a blood sacrifice and dumped her head down a well that sent all the blood and entrails from the cattle into the Licking River.  No actual evidence has ever been dug up to substantiate this story, but that doesn't stop some from saying it's Pearl haunting Bobby Mackey's. 

Another story revolves around a woman named Johanna (also the name of one of Bobby Mackey's hits), who was a dancer at the Latin Quarter Club which operated inside the Bobby Mackey building in the 1930s.  Johanna lost her lover at the hands of her father and in her grief committed suicide on the property.  This story features prominently in the episode of Ghost Adventures filmed at Mackey's in 2008. 

The "portal to hell"

Is the location actually haunted?  There are a number of employees and patrons who will say it is.  I personally have not been there during actual operating hours.  I was inside, though, as part of a Haunted Cincinnati bus tour through Cincinnati Museum Center.  I can't say I experienced any ghostly vibrations, although I did find the place a bit scary.  It smelled strongly of tobacco and beer and the floors looked like they had 30 years of cowboy boot dirt embedded in the linoleum.  Our tour included the basement with its famous "Room of Faces", which features ghostly demonic and human images on the walls, and the aforementioned well.  It is speculated that when the well was uncovered after Bobby Mackey purchased the place, a "portal to hell" was opened which allowed in the evil spirits that went on to possess Carl Lawson.  (I will go on the record saying I don't believe in demonic possession or curses.  My son believes in both and when I try to argue my case against curses he pierces my poor Chicago baseball-loving heart by snarling, "Then how do you explain the Cubs?".)

We took a number of pictures, but admittedly only one showed anything unusual.  Is that an orb in the upper center of the picture?  Or one of many dust particles blown in from the busy highway outside?

The publicity doesn't seem to have done Mackey's any harm.  In fact, he seems to have embraced the ghostly spirits, at least in terms of marketing.  His official web site lists the club's signature drinks of the Poor Pearl, Hell's Gate, Johanna Bomb (with limited edition souvenir cup), and Ghost Punch. 

There's a good page on Mackey's official website with various articles, audio interviews, and video footage here.  The Ghost Adventures wiki has details of the episode here.


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MANSFIELD REFORMATORY PHOTOS

Mansfield Reformatory, a set on Flickr.