While enjoying your holiday music this December, you probably won’t hear any Christmas songs relating to Krampus, a half-demon, half-goat beast who quite literally beats children into being nice instead of naughty.
With a mangled, deranged face, bloodshot eyes, horns, a furry black body, fangs, and a long tongue, the anti-Santa Claus comes with a chain and bells that he lashes about, along with a bundle of birch sticks meant to swat naughty children. He then hauls the bad kids down to the underworld.
Krampus dates back to pre-Germanic paganism. His name originates with the German krampen, which means “claw,” and he is the son of the Norse goddess of the underworld, Hel. During the 12th century, the Catholic Church attempted to banish Krampus celebrations because of his resemblance to Satan. More eradication attempts followed in 1934 at the hands of Austria’s conservative Christian Social Party. But none of it held, and Krampus emerged as a much-feared and beloved holiday force.
Hel, Goddess of the Underworld. Krampus obviously gets his good looks from his mother.
The legend goes that Krampus comes on the night of December 5, tagging along with good ol’ Saint Nick and visits houses with his saintly pal. Saint Nick puts candy in the shoes of good kids and birch twigs in the shoes of the naughty kids, but Krampus takes things to the next level. Naughty children are beaten with birch branches, or they sometimes disappear, stuffed into Krampus’ sack and hauled off to his lair to be eaten.
Saint Nick: You are the yin to my yang, Krampus.
A more modern take on the tradition in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic involves drunken men dressed as the creature. The devil, goat-men take over the streets for a Krampuslauf, or a Krampus Run, where giggling children and adults alike are chased through the streets among a din of cowbell jangles while being poked with sticks and scaring some with the realization that they were naughty this year.
Merry Krampuslauf kids! Who wants a swatting?
Krampus has been revived as of late, thanks partly to a “bah humbug” attitude. People seem to be searching for ways to celebrate the yuletide season non-traditionally. He’s even made his way over to this side of the pond. In the US, people are embracing the dark side of Christmas with Krampus movies (Krampus, A Christmas Horror Story, Night of the Krampus and more), special “Krampus” television episodes (Supernatural, Grimm, Venture Brothers, The Colbert Report, and American Dad, just to name a few), throwing Krampus parties, attending Krampusnachts (Chicago, Los Angeles, DC, New Orleans, among other cities), and running in Krampus races.
For some people the holidays are scary enough without throwing a demon with a love for physical assault into the mix. However, if you’re the kind of person who goes to extra-scary haunted houses at Halloween, take heart: That terror doesn’t have to stop just because we’ve entered a season of togetherness and joy.
WARNING: Some images are creepy and may be disturbing.
When Kuchisake-onna, the Slit-Mouthed Woman, asks you a question, be prepared to give the right answer … or else. Kuchisake-onna is one of the most terrifying Japanese urban legends out there. She is said to brandish large scissors and prey on unsuspecting victims. The appearance of Kuchisake-onna is horrific, with a jagged bloody scar resembling a smile. Disfigured and murdered by her jealous husband, Kuchisake-onna is a malicious spirit, returned from the grave who can appear anywhere, anytime. Her question is always the same… Am I pretty?
The legend begins wish a beautiful woman named Kuchisake who was obsessed with her beauty and quite vain. She was married to a samurai who discovered she was being unfaithful. Kuchisake had fallen for another man and was planning to leave her husband. Flying into a jealous fit of rage, the samurai grabbed his sword and sliced Kuchisake’s face from ear to ear, leaving her with a permanent smile.
“Who will think you’re pretty now?” he asked before slicing her head from her body. After he murdered Kuchisake, he was filled with regret and he stabbed himself to death.
The beautiful, vain woman returned as Kuchisake-onna, an angry spirit haunting paths and roadways. She was originally described as wearing a kimono and would hide her face with the long, dangling end of the sleeve.
Disfigured face aside, looks are still very important to Kuchisake-onna. An updated story describes her as an attractive Asian woman with long black hair, wearing a beige trench coat. She also dons a surgical mask over her mouth. While that may seem odd, wearing surgical masks is not uncommon in Japan because of the national level of concern over infectious diseases.
Photo courtesy of Everything at Once Wiki
The legend of the Slit-Mouthed Woman was well known in the Edo period of the 1600s, but the legend slowly faded into the shadows as the years passed. In 1979, sightings of Kuchisake-onna began being reported in Japan, returning to the public imagination with a vengeance. Most say it was mass hysteria and an urban legend run amok.
In 1979, the children in Nagasaki, Japan became terrified. Every night on their walk home from school, they would carefully watch the bottom of each telephone pole that lined the roads. They would hurry past, hoping not to see a woman standing there with long, waist-length black hair and a surgical mask covering her mouth. Although surgical masks are common in Japan now, in the 1970s it was rare.
The children then began traveling in groups for safety. The teachers became involved at some point and would usher the children from their classes to their homes. Such a panic set in that the police became involved. They increased their patrols, keeping an eye out for the woman in the surgical mask known to hide in the shadows at the bottom of phone poles. The police thought she was a crazy woman but the schoolchildren thought very differently. They saw her as a spirit they had to avoid at all costs. Eventually the sightings ceased.
The legend says the Slit-Mouthed Woman will come for you when you least expect it. She waits in the shadows as you pass and appears in front of you in an instant, blocking your path. Holding a large pair of scissors, she asks, “Am I pretty?”
Before you can answer, she takes off her mask revealing her mouth sliced into a hideous grin, exposing her teeth and tongue. “Am I pretty now?” she asks.
Photo courtesy of the Japanese film “Carved”
If you say yes, she will mercilessly slash your face so it looks like hers. Running is not an option because Kuchisake-onna is eerily fast and will cut you in half out of anger. If you say no to her question, she will walk away, but secretly follow you home and kill you in your sleep.
Some people claim they know how to escape Kuchisake-onna. Distracting her by offering candy or money may be one way to escape. Evading her deadly question may be possible by choosing your words carefully. The key is to stay calm when she asks, “Am I pretty?” Responding, “You’re okay,” or “So-so,” is one way of confusing her. Also, flipping the question and asking, “Do you think I’m pretty?” is another way to confuse her, allowing you time to slip away.
Few people live to tell the tale after seeing Kuchisake-onna, but there are a few survivor stories. One boy claimed to have summoned the devil to escape the Slit-Mouthed Woman.
The young boy, named Haruto, encountered the terrifying spirit as he was taking a shortcut through the woods. His mother had warned him to stay out of that area but he didn’t listen. He had always heard that spirits could be banished by using certain words. When Kuchisake-onna stepped out from behind a tree and confronted Haruto, he fell to the ground in terror, landing on his back. She glared down at him and asked her famous question, “Am I pretty?”
Photo courtesy of the Japanese film, “Carved”
She then removed her mask to reveal the horror beneath. Haruto grabbed his cross necklace dangling around his neck and chanted the devil’s curse: “I banish you to the Shadow of Death. I corrupt you to the netherworld from which no one has escaped. Into the dirt where no being should ever cross!”
Hoping the evil spirit would run away, Haruto was horrified when demonic hands rose from the dirt behind Kuchisake-onna, grabbed her legs and pulled her into the earth. As she sank, she screeched at Haruto, “I will be back and I will tear you to pieces!”
According to another legend, a business man named Yuto went to a bar for a drink one night. He spotted a gorgeous woman sitting alone at the bar wearing a surgical mask. They chatted for a while, then Yuto suggested they go somewhere more private. They went outside, where Yuto led the woman into an alley. Moving in for a kiss, the woman stopped him with one question, “Am I pretty?” Yuto answered yes. The woman then removed her mask, revealing a horrifically split face. Yuto was never seen again.
The story of Kuchisake-onna has evolved over time. The legend can be different depending on where you live. In South Korea, instead of the white surgical mask, the Slit-Mouthed Woman wears a blood-red face mask.
Some believe in a more modern version of Kuchisake-onna. This version tells of an unstable woman who would chase and terrify local children. The parents complained to the police and when officers found her she tried to escape, running into moving traffic. She was hit by a fast moving vehicle and was instantly killed. Her injuries included severe head trauma and facial lacerations… a jagged bloody smile.
The more people talk about Kuchisake-onna, the more powerful she becomes. She travels through time, her story sleeping for years, then suddenly appearing again to scare a new generation of people. The Slit-Mouthed Woman will never go away, unless people stop talking about her.
I dare you not to talk about the terrifying story of Kuchisake-onna.
In the last few years, the tale of the Black-Eyed Children visitations has swept the internet. Who are they? Where do they come from? What do they want? No one knows.
No matter who tells the tale, many encounters occur the same way: someone at home hears a knock at the door in the middle of the night. When they peek through the window or peep hole, a pair of children are standing on the other side of the door. As the person cautiously cracks open the door, a familiar feeling of dread washes over them. The children ask to come inside, but there is something “off” about these children. As the person looks closer, they see that the children’s eyes are completely black, an unnerving detail that causes the person to slam the door and deny the children’s pleas for entrance. Some people call the police, others grab a weapon, but they never let the Black-Eyed Children inside.
I found the following creepy account in several different places online. It comes from a woman who claims she made the mistake of letting the Black-Eyed Children into her home and she is now paying the price…
“Let me start by saying that I know how hard this all will be to believe, but now that things have taken a turn for the worse… I feel like I should share this story. I made the mistake of letting the Black-Eyed Children inside my home and now I’m worried that I might die because of it. I hope this will be a warning to everyone who is ever in the position to make the same mistake that I did.
I live just outside of a rural town in Vermont. It’s a tight knit community where everyone knows one another and people don’t lock their doors at night. There has never been any need to do so.
A little over a year ago, I woke up because I heard a loud banging on my front door. At the time my husband and I lived in a small home on a dirt road just off the rural route into town. It was the middle of a snowstorm and the nearby hills get very slippery in the snow, so I thought someone might have been in an accident or broken down. It’s happened before.
When I looked out the window I could see that our motion spotlight was on. I could also see that there were footprints in the snow that had come from our road and into our driveway, but there was no car in sight. The snow was still covering the road and no one had driven on it for at least a couple hours. Our front door was obscured from the window but I could see that someone was standing there. Frightened, I woke my husband up. While I was telling him what was going on, the banging on the door started again and my husband went to answer it while I stood in the hallway.
When he opened the door there were two children standing in the snow looking toward the ground. It was a boy and a girl and they could not have been more than 8 years old. Each were dressed strangely and had odd haircuts. The girl’s hair was very long and straight and the boy had a bowl cut. They weren’t dressed for winter and my first thought was that they must have been Mennonite children, but as far as I know there has never been a large community of Mennonites near us.
Thinking back on it now, I know that my normal reaction to seeing children in a snowstorm would have been to rush them inside and bundle them up with some blankets and hot cocoa, but that’s not how this felt. The children were very unnerving. They would not make eye contact and when my husband asked them if everything was okay, they asked if they could come in. My husband looked at me like “what do I do?” and I asked the kids where their parents were.
“They’ll be here soon,” they said.
It was around 2 o’clock in the morning at this point, so the only reasonable thought in my head was that there must have been an accident or these kids got lost. As much as my instincts told me not to bring them inside, I let them in anyway.
I went into the kitchen to make them some hot cocoa while my husband took them into the living room. While I was fixing the kettle I could hear my husband talking to the kids. He was asking them if they were okay, where the came from, how far they walked, if their parents’ car was broken down, things like that. But they always answered, “our parents will be here soon.” They spoke in a monotone, almost robotic voice. They didn’t seem afraid to be in a stranger’s home at all.
I started to notice that our cats (we had four) were all hiding except Pigeon who was in the kitchen with me. Normally our cats are very curious and friendly and we have to be careful that they don’t run out the door when we leave. This time none of them even tried to see who was here, which I thought was very strange. All the hair on Pigeon’s neck was standing up and his tail was puffed up while he looked in the living room. When I bent down to pet him and see what was wrong he hissed and started growling and backed up until he was hidden under the kitchen island. I have never seen him do that before.
When I walked back into the living room the kids were sitting on the couch as still as could be but my husband was holding his head in his hands. I asked him what was wrong and he just said that he felt very dizzy all of a sudden but that he was fine. I turned back to the children to give them their cocoa, but when they looked at me I gasped. It took everything inside of me not to drop the mugs and run away. Their eyes were completely black. They had no whites just giant black pupils.
When they saw that I was scared they stood up and asked if they could use the bathroom. I tried to be as composed as I could be and showed them down the hall. They went into the bathroom together and I hurried back to my husband to ask him if he had seen their eyes. He had seen them too and said that it looked like his brothers badly bruised eyes after a car accident. We were in the middle of talking about whose children they could be when my husbands nose started to bleed. He’d never had nosebleeds as long as I had known him. I just knew inside myself that this had something to do with the kids in the bathroom and I started crying while I ran to get my husband some tissues.
That’s when the power went out. I heard my husband yell my name from the living room and as I started to walk back through the hallway I stopped dead in my tracks. The two children were standing at the end of the hallway. They weren’t moving and I have never been so scared in my whole life. They just stood there in the dark.
After what felt like forever, the boy said “our parents are here” and they walked to the door, opened it, and walked out leaving it wide open. My husband jumped up to go close it and almost fell over. We looked out the window and saw two men standing by a black car idling at the end of our driveway. The men looked like they were wearing black colored suits and were very tall, at least 6 feet. When my husband waved at them they just stared at us, got into the car, and drove off.
Our power came on about a half an hour later but nothing was the same after that.
Over the next few months three of our cats went missing. We can only assume that they ran away somewhere and never came back. The worst thing was coming home to find Pigeon in a puddle of blood on the living room floor. He looked like he had been vomiting blood. The vet told us that he had some kind of hemorrhage.
After my husband’s nosebleeds became a regular occurrence we went to see the doctor. He didn’t know what to make of it other than “dry nasal passages” but later, my husband was diagnosed with an aggressive skin cancer. When the doctor asked us if he used tanning beds we both thought he was joking, but apparently this kind of melanoma is linked to over-use of indoor tanning. The doctors think he will recover but they don’t understand how it got so bad so quickly. My husband has never worked an outdoor job and spends relatively little time in the sun.
Since we let the Black-Eyed Children inside our home, I’ve also suffered from regular dizzy spells and nosebleeds. I have had other issues which I won’t mention here, but trust me when I say I am suddenly in the worst condition of my life and no one can do anything about it. I know that all of this is because I let the Black-Eyed Children into my home. We have told everyone we can about the strange children that showed up that night but no one else saw them. Some laugh at how scared we were of the “Mennonite kids” but we know what we saw. I wish my husband had never opened the door.”
My Thoughts
While the “Black Eyed Children” makes for a creepy story, I believe it is just that; a creepy story. In my research, I have found no credible stories to make me believe there are weird black-eyed kids walking around giving people cancer and nosebleeds. I do know, however, if some creepy kids knock on my door in the middle of the night with piercing black eyes, I probably won’t let them in. If they are real and the story about the men in black waiting for them at the end of the drive is true, then do the “men in black” that are reported around alien abductions and other odd occurrences have anything to do with them? Maybe… just maybe.
I would love to read your comments on the Black Eyed Children! Have any of you had your own encounter with the Black Eyed Children? Please share and as always, be polite in the comments. Thank you!
Despite the cheerful appearance of the Winchester Mystery House, its history is edged with tragedy, mystery, and… maybe a few ghosts. It inspired the horror movie Winchester, starring Oscar winner Helen Mirren, which in this author’s humble opinion is one of the worst movies ever made. The possibilities of how scary and chilling this movie could have been almost depresses me with what was actually made, but alas, this article is not about a crappy horror movie and is instead about the house and its history. (But, if you like crappy horror movies, then it’s the movie for you!)
Oscar winner Helen Mirren as Sarah Winchester, in “Winchester”
The Winchester House is named for Sarah Lockwood Winchester, the wife of gun magnate William Wirt Winchester, whose father created the Winchester rifle. The rifle was heralded as “the gun that won the west.” Mrs. Winchester designed and oversaw the construction of the sprawling Queen-Anne-style Victorian Mansion. Construction of the 24,000 square-foot home located in San Jose, California, began in 1886. To put the size of this house into perspective, the average US home is about 2,687 square feet.
Rumor has it that Sarah Winchester built the house out of fear. After her husband’s death from tuberculosis in 1881, Mrs. Winchester was overcome with grief. Folklore states she acquired a spiritualist, famous Boston medium Adam Coons, who could supposedly commune with the dead. Instead of finding closure or solace, she was given a chilling warning.
I couldn’t find any photos of Adam Coons, so I give you Zoltar. I’m sure he probably looked like this anyway…
Through Mr. Coons, William told his widow that their tragedies (including the death of their 6 week old baby girl, Annie) were the result of blood money the family made from the Winchester rifles. He warned that vengeful spirits would find her. In order to protect herself, William said Sarah must “build a home for herself and the spirits who have fallen from this terrible weapon.”
Mrs. Winchester was advised to leave the home she and William built in New Haven, Connecticut, and move west. There she was to build a grand home for the spirits. There was a catch: construction of the house could never stop. “If you continue building, you will live,” Adam Coons warned Mrs. Winchester. “Stop and you will die.”
In 1886, Mrs. Winchester purchased an eight room farm house in San Jose, California and began building. She employed a crew of carpenters who split shifts so construction could continue both day and night, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. The work didn’t stop until September 5, 1922, 38 years after it began, because the 82 year old mastermind behind the home died of heart failure in her sleep. It is said that upon hearing the news of Mrs. Winchester’s death, the carpenters quit working so abruptly they left half-hammered nails protruding from the walls.
Mrs. Winchester ordered several strange demands to the builders, including building trap doors, staircases that led nowhere, secret passages, a skylight in the floor, and spider web windows. Also, there are doors that open to only blank walls, and a door on the second floor that opens dangerously into nothing, except a terrifying drop to the yard far below. The room in which this door belongs is nicknamed the “mother-in-law suite.”
In 1906, the great San Francisco Earthquake caused three floors of the the then seven-story house to cave in. A 1900 postcard shows a tower that later toppled when the natural disaster struck. That tower and several other rooms that were destroyed in the earthquake were never rebuilt, but only cordoned off.
During the disaster, Mrs. Winchester was trapped, but thankfully unharmed, in the Daisy Bedroom, named for the floral motif on the walls. The entrance to the room was blocked by rubble and she had to be dug out by her staff.
Present day “Daisy Room”
The house was designed like a labyrinth and some speculate the confusing layout was meant to confuse the ghosts, allowing Mrs. Winchester some peace and a way to escape them. She was the sole architect of the extraordinary home and no building plans have ever been discovered. Mrs. Winchester was probably the only person who knew all the secrets this wondrous house holds. Movers were called in after her death and one lamented the labyrinthine design including many winding hallways. One mover stated the Winchester House was a place “where downstairs leads neither to the cellar nor the upstairs to the roof.”
Another theory about the Winchester House’s confusing design is that perhaps Mrs. Winchester was creating a puzzle filled with encryptions inspired by the work of English philosopher Francis Bacon.
Francis Bacon… aka “hot stuff”
There is also speculation that clues to the true meaning of the house are hidden in the ballroom, the Shakespeare windows and the iron gates. This theory suggests Mrs. Winchester was a member of a mystic society, such as The Rosicrucians, a world wide brotherhood claiming to possess esoteric wisdom handed down from ancient times, or a secret society like the Freemasons.
The Shakespeare Windows of the Winchester Mystery House.“Ricola!”
Another theory is that Mrs. Winchester was just plain “crazy.” Some speculate she was coping with her grief with a flurry of activity. Winchester Mystery House historian Janan Boehme paints a happier picture of Sarah Winchester. Boehme imagines continual renovations reminded Mrs. Winchester of happier times when she and her husband, William, built their New Haven home together. Boehme also suspects Sarah Winchester was just an ardent, albeit eccentric, philanthropist who used her fortune to purposefully employ the San Jose community. “She had a social conscience and she did try to give back,” Boehme said, noting the hospital Mrs. Winchester built in William’s name. “This house, in itself, was her biggest social work of all.”
There is only one known photo of Mrs. Sarah Winchester, which was taken in secret.
Only known photo of Mrs. Sarah Winchester
She was reclusive, but never alone. She had 18 servants, 18 gardeners, and the ever-present construction crew on the grounds. Every morning, Mrs. Winchester met with the foreman to discuss the always-evolving building plans. It is rumored that each night she visited the Seance Room to speak with the spirits, who weighed in on plans for the houses’ unusual design.
The Seance Room holds the only real “secret passage.” This closet door opens to reveal an exit, but there is no doorknob on the other side of the door.
Following Mrs. Winchester’s death in 1922, the house was converted into a tourist attraction. When trying to get a room count, the new owners kept coming up with different numbers. After five years of renovations, they estimated the number of rooms to be around 160.
Among the secrets Sarah Winchester took to her grave is why she insisted on so many things relating to the number 13. The Winchester House has several 13 paned windows, 13 paneled ceilings, and 13 step stairways. The Carriage Entrance Hall floor is divided into 13 cement sections. There are 13 hooks in the Seance Room, which supposedly held the thirteen different colored robes Mrs. Winchester wore during her communications with the spirits. The thirteenth bathroom has 13 windows and 13 steps leading to it. Her will might be the strangest, containing 13 parts, which she signed in 13 different places.
The Winchester Mystery House earned landmark status on August 7, 1974. The remarkable mansion is still owned by the family or families who purchased it from the Winchesters in 1922 for $150,000. The identity of the purchasers is another Winchester House mystery.
I’m sure the owners look something like this.
Thankfully, the new owners made it so tourists can explore 110 out of the approximate 160 rooms Mrs. Winchester dreamed up.
A tour guide to the Winchester House said the houses’ third floor, of which only a portion is accessible during tours, is the spookiest part of the house, “because that’s where the servants lived, so there’s been a lot of reported activity there. Also, when you are on that floor, you can never really hear any of the other tours, so you feel pretty isolated.”
Are There Really Ghosts???
I have done a lot of research on the Winchester Mystery House over the past few weeks and the odd thing is… there aren’t a lot of ghost stories. I think it’s the sheer mystery of the sprawling house that draws our attention. I came across a couple of “ghost photos” that, in all honesty, don’t look so real. I’ll let you judge for yourself.
This is laughable.“Ghostly” figure in window.
I can’t say if I truly believe the Winchester Mystery House is haunted because I have never been there. I would love to go explore and do my own research one day, and perhaps someday I will. Until then, I can only say I think we sometimes scare ourselves into believing spooky stories because it’s fun and mysterious. There is really very little evidence to lead me to believe the Winchester House is haunted, but I can’t say with 100% certainty until I go see for myself. I do find it hard to believe a woman so afraid of the spirits retaliating against her would commune with said spirits every night. If she was building the house to confuse them, then why ask their opinions on building the labyrinth? Also, if she kept building, she was told by the “spirits” she would live. She kept building and still died. So, I like to think she was just an eccentric old woman who decided to use her wealth to employ the citizens of her town. Alas, we may never know…
Thanks for reading! I would love to read your comments below. Have any of you been to the Winchester Mystery House? Please share your experiences with us! As always, be kind in the comments.
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, perhaps the most famous address in the United States, is also one of the most haunted houses in the United States. Presidents, first ladies, staff members, and guests have reported feeling ghostly presences, hearing unexplained noises and voices, and even seeing actual apparitions.
Second President of the United States, John Adams, and his wife Abigail.
The second president of the United States, John Adams, and his wife Abigail, moved to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue from the former US Capital in Philadelphia in May of 1800. At that time, Washington D.C. was only a small town built mostly on swamp land on the banks of the Potomac River.
Painting by Peter Waddell
The East Room of the White House was the warmest and driest room, so Abigail Adams used the room to have her servants hang the wash. Her ghost, dressed in a cap and lace shawl, was said to be seen by Lou Hoover, wife of Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States, walking toward the east room, arms outstretched as if carrying laundry.
Totally legit…
Lillian Rogers Parks, a seamstress and housemaid who chronicled her 30 year career at the White House in her 1961 memoir, My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House, said that unearthly cries of childbirth pain were heard in the west end near the presidential family living quarters of the “old mansion” before the Truman Administration renovation. David Burns, the man who unwillingly sold the government most of the land on which Washington D.C. sits, including where the White House was built, is also said to haunt the halls of the presidential residence. Rogers Parks related the tale of a valet who heard a disembodied voice coming from the Yellow Oval Room, the official residence of the President. The voice said, “I’m Mr. Burns.”
“I’m Mr. Burns.”
During Harry S. Truman’s administration, a guard heard a similar voice and thought it was then-Secretary of State James Byrnes. The guard looked for him only to discover the secretary hadn’t been at the White House at all that day.
In 1824, Andrew Jackson was defeated by John Quincy Adams in one of the most contentious presidential races in history.
Andrew Jackson (left), John Quincy Adams (right)
“Old Hickory” Jackson was elected four years later, and being quite crotchety, continued to hold grudges against those who supported his opponent. In the early 1860s, then First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, a strong believer in the occult, held seances in the White House to commune with her dead sons’ spirits. She told friends she heard Jackson stomping and swearing through the halls of the Yellow Oval Room. The Rose Room, Jackson’s bedchamber during his presidency, is believed to be one of the most haunted rooms in the White House.
The Rose Room
Several White House employees have claimed to hear Andrew Jackson engaged in hearty laughter or swearing violently. Reportedly, there is a cold spot on the canopy bed in the spot where Jackson slept. Andrew Jackson’s ghost was mentioned in the White House correspondence of America’s 33rd President, Harry S. Truman. In June of 1945, a few months into his first term, Truman wrote to his wife, Bess, back home in Missouri, about the spookiness of his new home: “I sit here in this old house and work on foreign affairs, read reports, and work on speeches – all the while listening to the ghosts walking up and down the hallway and even right in here in the study. The floors pop and the drapes move back and forth – I can just imagine old Andy (Jackson) and Teddy (Roosevelt) having an argument over Franklin (Roosevelt).”
It was later suggested Truman was the one to declare the childbirth cries to be the ghost of Frances Cleveland, the only first lady to give birth in the White House, to daughter Esther, in 1893.
The most frequently reported ghost sighting in the White House is the ghost of the 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, whose life was so tragically cut short by assassin John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865.
Actual footage…
In a series of American Magazine articles, Grace Coolidge, wife of 30th President Calvin Coolidge, confessed to have once glimpsed the ephemeral image of President Abraham Lincoln standing by a window in what had been his office, the present day Lincoln Bedroom.
Totally not photoshopped…
Lady Bird Johnson, wife of 36th President Lyndon B. Johnson, admitted after watching a television documentary about Lincoln, she felt the strong presence of him in the long hallway of the private quarters where Lincoln’s office was located. Lynda, daughter of President Johnson, said she saw the ghost of Lincoln’s son, Willie, who had died in the very room Lynda was sleeping.
During Queen Wilhelmina of Holland’s visit to the White House, she stayed in the Lincoln Bedroom.
The Lincoln Bedroom
Upon hearing a knock at the door, she rose to answer it only to see the ghost of Lincoln, wearing his top hat. In reaction to the surprise of his ghostly appearance, Queen Wilhelmina fainted. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was given the same suite during his visits to the White House. Churchill said one evening he emerged naked from the bathroom into the bedroom, smoking his customary cigar, and saw Lincoln’s ghost sitting beside the open fireplace. Churchill refused to stay in the room again after that night.
“Hey Winnie, spell I CUP. Hahaha!”
“Psychics” speculate the spirit of Lincoln remains in the White House to be on hand in times of crisis.
Tweeting: “Just spoke with Honest Abe. Sorry losers and haters, he said I am the smartest man alive. Not fake news. #abelovesme “
The ghost of Anna Surratt, whose mother Mary Surratt was hanged for her involvement in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, is said to pound on the White House doors, demanding her mother’s release. She is also reported to be seen every July 7, the day her mother was executed, sitting on the White House steps.
“Dude, I’ve been sitting on these White House steps for over 150 years waiting for someone to take my picture. Like, what’s the deal?”
My thoughts
While I am 99.9% sure I will never get into the White House to do any of my own investigating (nothing is with 100% certainty, I suppose), I can’t say whether I believe it to be haunted or not. It is hard to dismiss some of these tales. Some stories could be the power of suggestion. One hears a room is haunted, then everyone starts hearing noises, seeing visions, feeling strange presences. There are several photos showing what appears to be unearthly phenomenon.
Apparition in the window behind President Obama.Translucent figure standing in background of what would be the basement of the White House, during the Harry S. Truman administration renovation.
Photo of what appears to be orbs during the White House Christmas Party, 2011. Photo by Dorothy St. JamesAnother orb caught by Dorothy St. James in the White House during the 2011 Christmas Party.“Apparition” of Abraham Lincoln. Another photo captured during the renovation of the White House.
Some of these photos can be easily explained as photoshopped, while others might be harder to explain. I think a good majority of what are claimed as orbs are often dust particles. The orbs in Dorothy St. James’ photos seem quite clear and legitimate. They don’t appear to be photoshopped and I personally don’t think the orbs are dust, although I am no photographic expert.
I hope you enjoyed the article and I would love to read your thoughts on the White House ghosts. Have any of you ever toured the White House and had any odd experiences? As always, remember to be kind in the comments. Thanks for reading!
In 1954, a man appeared in Haneda Airport in Japan. He was middle aged, had Caucasian features and a beard. He was dressed professionally in a suit and tie and moving through the airport smoothly. Nothing appeared unusual about this man… until he went through airport security. Security officials asked for the man’s passport.
A snap shot of the man from Taured’s passport… supposedly.
As security looked at his passport, the man calmly waited for it to be stamped and be cleared to go. The few seconds it normally took for the stamp to be issued turned into a couple of minutes. They noticed the passport stated the man was from a country called Taured. The passport looked genuine with stamps and seals from real countries, including several from Japan, Germany, and the United States. The problem was, the man’s home country of Taured didn’t exist.
Officials escorted the man to the office of the head of immigration and began questioning him about Taured. He was quite confused and argued, in a thick French accent, that his home country had been in existence for over one thousand years. He also told the airport staff that he had visited Japan from Taured for business on several occasions, something they noted from his passport stamps. He spoke Japanese fluently along with a few other languages. Trying to validate his country, the man began showing the staff his driver’s license, which was also issued from Taured. He also showed them a check issued to him from the country of Taured, just adding to the mystery. He was also carrying currency from a few other legitimate countries. Security began to think the man was playing an elaborate hoax on them, but he did seem genuinely upset. They eventually brought the man a map and opened it on the table in front of him. He was asked to point to his country. He immediately pointed to an area on the map between France and Spain, where in reality is the principality of Andorra (although, to be honest, I had never heard of Andorra either).
Principality of Andorra, between Spain and France.Andorra, actual principality, founded January 1, 1278
Officials were left scratching their heads. The man was also very confused and frightened. Immigration officials decided to put the man in a hotel until things could be straightened out. The man agreed, because what else could he do? They told him to get some rest and hopefully things would be worked out in the morning (because, yeah, countries just have ways of disappearing and then reappearing the next day, right?)
During the night, two security guards were placed outside the man without a country’s door. It was a very uneventful night. The next morning, when officials went to check on the man, he had vanished. Both security guards were stunned. They had heard no noises coming from his room that night and his room was also several stories high so there was no way he could have escaped through the windows. Security rushed back to their offices at the airport and all of the man’s confiscated belongings had also vanished; his passport, drivers license, luggage, and the check. The man from Taured was never seen again.
My Investigation
This story, even though it happened in 1954, was not discussed for nearly forty years. The first time it was mentioned was in the book, “The Directory of Possibilities,” by Colin Wilson and John Grant, written in 1989.
The story was mentioned again in 1999, in the book, “Strange but True: Mysterious and Bizarre People,” by Thomas Slemen.
Although the story appears in both books, there is absolutely no evidence to support this is a true story and was more than likely written as entertainment.
There are a few theories about where this man came from. One theory is that he was an interdimensional traveler. Somehow, without his knowledge, he slipped from his dimension into an alternate dimension where Taured is non-existent.
Another theory suggests there was a glitch and he was accidentally placed in our universe, then he was sucked back into his own universe. All of his belongings disappeared with him because he was never actually here.
A third theory is that he was a time traveler on the same time line but in a parallel universe.
There are different ideas on time travel. One idea is a person will move back and forth between universes. There is also the belief that time travel is not actually changing universes but changing timelines.
Some people believe Taured is a place from the future. However, this man didn’t seem to realize he was in a different time. If we theorize he was a hundred years or more in the future, I think he would be able to tell.
Men circa 1918Men now… big difference
Things change drastically over time; even in a short amount of time.
Cell phone from 2008Cell phone from 2018
One more theory is that the entire story was an accident by the government officials. Perhaps they couldn’t understand the man if he was from a different country. This theory doesn’t hold much weight since they say he had published documents from Taured and could speak Japanese fluently. Also, the fact that he, along with all his belongings, vanished. I don’t think he could pull off that stunt.
My Thoughts
I think this is a pretty cool story but my call is… urban legend. I hate to be a Debbie Downer because it is a fun idea. Many people think the story is true and many “resources” say it is true. Time travel, I suppose, is a possibility (even though Albert Einstein seemed convinced it is impossible, at least how we think of time travel). I just don’t think this is a factual example. The story says it happened in 1954, but was never mentioned until the 1990s. How would anyone keep this quiet for almost 40 years?
There are other stories of people just appearing out of nowhere, claiming to be from non-existent places. These examples don’t have reliable sources either.
In 1851, a man by the name of Josef Vorin, was found wandering in Frankfurt, Germany. When German officials stopped to question him, he claimed to be from the country of Laxaria on the continent of Sakria. The authorities were baffled because they had never heard of such a place. After checking a world map, they found the country of Laxaria and the continent of Sakria did not exist. The fate of Josef Vorin is unknown to this day.
Another incident in 1905, told of a young man caught stealing bread in Paris.
“I don’t mind stealin’ bread from the mouths of decadence” -Temple of the Dog
Authorities interrogated him and realized he was speaking an unknown language. After many efforts, the man finally conveyed he was from Lizbia. Authorities thought he meant Lisbon so they brought in a Portuguese translator. It was soon discovered, however, that he was not Portuguese. Eventually he was released and was never seen or heard from again.
If the story of the man in Frankfurt and the young man found in Paris are true, although there is no evidence proving the stories are true, they could have simply been delusional or even feigning delusion to get away with a crime.
All three of these stories are definitely not verified but they are fun to ponder. Does time travel exist? Are there parallel universes? Is Taured out there? Lizbia, Laxaria?
Is it possible they fell backward through time or passed through different dimensions?
In Conclusion
My belief is all three stories are legends. If there is any validity to any of the three stories, then the men were probably perpetrating hoaxes or were mentally ill. The idea of time travel is fascinating and exciting. Someday time travel may exist and who is to say it doesn’t exist somewhere in some time? Maybe we are visited by travelers from other times or parallel universes. But if so, wouldn’t they stop the Titanic from sinking, the Holocaust, 9/11? Maybe they have tried and failed. We may never know. The Man from Taured has always fascinated me and I honestly hoped to find some evidence that the story was true.
I hope you enjoyed the article. I would love to read your thoughts and ideas on The Man from Taured in the comments section!
Ghost is the Word 