About Real Estate: Of haunted castles, a UFO hotspot and a ghost who ‘hangs out’ in a doorway
With Halloween just past, it#146;s time to answer a few spirited questions about some famous haunted places.Q. What do you know about Franklin Castle in Cleveland? My grandmother, who lives nearby, says she has heard several ghost stories about it since she was a little girl.
A. The Gothic-style castle on Franklin Boulevard, built by wealthy but mysterious German immigrant Hannes Tiedemann in 1865, is indeed considered one of the most haunted homes in America by experts on the paranormal. Replete with a tower, turrets and stone gargoyles, it#146;s sometimes called Tiedemann Castle.
Tiedemann had a large family and, reportedly, a very bad temper. He was also rumored to have had sexual relations with several servants inside the castle#146;s stone walls and hung, strangled or hacked to death some of those who rejected his advances. The large number of trap doors, secret passageways and even hidden rooms inside the castle would have made it easy to commit the heinous acts and dispose of the remains.
Four of Tiedemann#146;s own children, his wife and mother also died inside the castle #8212; some under mysterious circumstances. Countless newborns from his illicit affairs also may have been quickly disposed of.
The alleged paranormal activities began even before Tiedemann died in 1908. A long string of successive owners and visitors have since described frequent occurrences of doors inexplicably being slammed shut by unseen hands or even blown off their hinges, chandeliers beginning to suddenly spin wildly out of control, and ghostly mists creeping throughout the property.
Tableware, lamps and other items sometimes fly through the air, which some experts suggest are being hurled by the spirit of the hot-tempered Tiedemann himself.
One common sight described by individuals through the years is the lifelike image of a beautiful woman in black, who appears for a few moments and then disappears into thin air. She#146;s believed to be the ghost of a woman named Rachel, one of the servants who the original owner is believed to have hacked into pieces.
More unsettling, visitors say, are the ghostly images of the faces of the young women and children who sometimes suddenly appear on hallway walls before fading away #8212; and the chilling din of unseen babies wailing.
Q. We passed through a little town called Elmwood in Wisconsin recently, and there were signs all over the place saying that it#146;s the #147;UFO Capitol of the World.#148; What#146;s it all about?
A. The humble folks in Elmwood (population 850) don#146;t proclaim to live in the UFO Capitol of the World, but they proudly call their little burgh in the northwest corner of the state the #147;UFO Capitol of Wisconsin.#148;
Sightings of strange lights and metallic objects in the sky above the tiny town are so frequent that guests at the popular Black Bear Inn often recount their evening sightings over breakfast the next day. Residents have seriously discussed construction of an alien landing strip.
Not all of the encounters have been friendly. When local police officer George Wheeler was called to investigate a flaming red object hovering about 100 feet over central Elmwood in 1976, his car battery died as he pulled under the craft, and he was then rushed to the hospital in a semiconscious state after claiming to have been hit by a painful red ray that shot from the UFO through his windshield.
Wheeler#146;s health rapidly deteriorated in the coming weeks. Doctors couldn#146;t find a reason for the decline, but the veteran officer swore he was dying from the mysterious effects of the blast from the spaceship.
He passed away within six months of the incident, due to unknown causes.
Q. We are very interested in the paranormal, and recently received an invitation to visit the Whaley House in San Diego, which bills itself as #147;the most haunted house in America.#148; What do you know about it?
A. Several places lay claim to the #147;most haunted#148; title. But the Whaley House, which is now owned by the County of San Diego and is operated as a museum, is legitimately near the top of the list.
The two-story brick home in the city#146;s historic core was built by businessman Thomas Whaley in 1857. He and his family proceeded to rent out part of their property to county officials for use as a courtroom and records depository.
One day while Whaley was gone, an angry mob that wanted the records moved to their own part of the fast-growing town ransacked the home, terrorized his family and stole all the documents. He spent the next two decades trying to get the county to pay for the damage, but died without collecting a cent.
Some say the spirit of the Whaley family grew disturbed a century later when the county purchased the house and began to restore it. Several restoration workers quit after claiming to have seen ghosts, or grew frightened by windows that would open and slam shut by invisible hands. Visitors reported seeing the ghosts of Mr. and Mrs. Whaley, their children and even the family dog wandering the halls or descending the stairway.
Even more eerie are the sightings of a man swinging by his neck in a doorway of the old house. Some say it#146;s the ghost of Jim Robinson, who was caught stealing in the mid-1800s and sentenced to hang on the very spot where the home now stands. The noose didn#146;t snap his neck, so he flailed about for nearly an hour #8212; cursing and screaming in pain #8212; before drawing his final, angry breath.
Frequent sightings continue to be reported today.
Ÿ For the booklet #147;Straight Talk About Living Trusts,#148; send $4 and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to David Myers/Trust, P.O. Box 2960, Culver City, CA 90231-2960
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