Frances Kermeen - Ghostly Encounters: True Stories of Americas Haunted Inns and Hotels

GHOSTLY

ENCOUNTERS

TRUE STORIES OF

AMERICAS HAUNTED INNS

AND HOTELS

FRANCES KERMEEN

Copyright 2002 by Frances Kermeen

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

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ISBN: 0-7595-9781-2

First eBook Edition: October 2002

First of all, I would like to thank my wonderful agent, Jodie Rhodes. Id also like to thank my editor, John Aherne, and his assistant, Megan Rickman, for all their creative genius.

A special thanks for all the hotel and inn staff who, like I, find themselves searching for a meaning to their ghostly encounters; and all those who gave help and encouragement along the way: Aldine West, Mike Scheck, Greg Proffit, Sharron Gammel, Marina Rosario, Dr. Larry Montz of the International Society for Paranormal Research (ISPR), psychic Peter James, Ghost Tours of St. Augustine, David Sloan and the Key West Ghost Tours, the Nebraska Office of Tourism, and all the many many people Ive had the pleasure to meet along the way.

Contents

viii

CONTENTS

GHOSTLY

ENCOUNTERS

On April Fools Day, 1980, I bought an old mansion in St.

Francisville, Louisiana, known as the Myrtles Plantation. It was my dream to live in this magnificent southern mansion, furnish it with period treasures, and turn it into a wonderful romantic inn. Little did I know my first guest would be a ghost.

I certainly did not really believe in ghosts and tried to convince myself my eyes had deceived me. But more and more ghosts appeared. Wondering if someone was trying to play a nasty trick on me, I went to the local sheriff with my problem. He and his men came and checked the house out.

They saw ghosts too. Police Chief Larry Peters ran out of the house and vowed never to return. I went to respected people in town and heard frightening tales about the old mansion. In the local library I found stories about the ghosts at the Myrtles dating back over one hundred years. So why hadnt someone told me before I purchased the place and moved in?

The next thing I knew, national media picked up the story from the local paper, and I was big news. My haunted plan

tation made the front page in the Wall Street Journal, earned a cover story in Life magazine and the Star, and was featured in USA Today, Time magazine, Playboy, Glamour, GoodHousekeeping, the Robb Report, US magazine, the NationalLaw Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and almost every other major newspaper in the United States.

I was interviewed on the Today Show, the CBS MorningNews, A Current Affair, Ripleys Believe It or Not, CBS

Nightly News, NBC Nightly News, PBS, Eye on L.A., the Discovery Channel, and TV shows in Australia and Japan, just to name a few.

It was the worst thing that could have happened, I de-spaired. My inn would be avoided like the plague. No one would ever book a room, or host a wedding. My dream would be crushed. Id go bankrupt.

How wrong I was. Rather than hurting the business, as I feared, stories of the hauntings brought people by the droves. Thousands of people overwhelmed me with room requests. Ghosts turned out to be the greatest possible attraction. People came from all over the world, hoping to experience the ghosts at the Myrtles. And experience them they did. Over the years I collected more than one thousand personal ghost accounts from the guests.

Over time, I learned that people seek a haunted hotel for many different reasons. Many, of course, go for the thrill and sensationalism. However, there are more profound reasons. More and more people are seeking a deeper meaning to life itself. The Myrtles is a spiritual vortex. Still others seek out a haunted inn because they lost a loved one, and they desperately want proof that life transcends death. Encountering a ghost gives them that proof.

I began to hear from other inn owners from all over the country who also had ghosts. Most of them harbored the same fears. I was fascinated by their stories, and I began to visit other haunted inns. Wanting to share this information, I wrote a travel guide of haunted inns for people whod love to have a ghostly encounter. But this, I promised myself, would not be any ordinary travel guide. Haunted places have very special personalities and unusually fascinating histories. What was needed was a travel guide that gave a personal narrative about these places, along with the essential information about location, prices, amenities, and so on.

Since I now felt I owed ghosts a lot, I promised that I wouldnt allow any fakes to creep in. So I spent over two years traveling the country and personally researching each and every haunted inn and hotel in this book. Did I meet any ghosts along the way? You betcha.

The Myrtles Plantation

St. Francisville, Louisiana

Ididnt always believe in ghosts. But you cannot live at the Myrtles for long before you encounter the unimaginable.

My experiences at the Myrtles deeply affected me, and changed me forever.

Multiple visits or an extended stay at the Myrtles Plantation will almost guarantee some sort of paranormal experience. The site of at least ten murders (and many more deaths), this antebellum mansion is host to literally hundreds of ghosts, at least one of which is bound to manifest on any given day. Dubbed Americas Most Haunted House

by various sources, including the Wall Street Journal and the National Enquirer, the Myrtles harbors a multitude of spirits.

Ethereal parties keep guests awake until the wee hours. A servant carrying a candle makes her way from room to room at night, tucking in little boys and girls. A beautiful Indian maiden sits naked beside the pond. Two little girls, poisoned in 1824, romp and play outside, stopping occasionally to 6

E N C O U N T E R S

chat with an unsuspecting guest. The ruthless overseer, brutally murdered in the 1920s, confronts visitors and brusquely orders them away.

A warning about the ghosts at the Myrtles was found in a book published in 1882. The lights are never extinguished at the plantation, it admonishes. When the lights are all out, something always happens. To this day, a light is always left on inside the mansion at night.

Lights, however, are no guarantee. As the sun drops and the shadows beckon, voices from the past call out your name; and a disembodied candelabra floats up the stairs; or you hear a tapping at your door; or the bone-chilling sound of a child calling, Mommy, Mommy. These things always make your heart beat a little faster and the long night ahead seem even more foreboding. Darkness looms larger than life at the old plantation.

The Myrtles Plantation sits gracefully among ninety-one century-old oak trees, ten crape myrtle trees, and dozens of pink and fuchsia azalea bushes, a deceptive setting for what lies inside. With lacy French ornamental ironwork encompassing its hundred-foot galleries, the rococo home is the antithesis of the massive, austere Greek Revival architecture so prevalent in that era.