Richard Estep - Trail of Terror: The Black Monk of Pontefract, Cripple Creek Jail, Firehouse Phantom, and Other True Hauntings

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

Trail of Terror: The Black Monk of Pontefract, Cripple Creek Jail, Firehouse Phantom, and Other True Hauntings 2018 by Richard Estep.

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First e-book edition 2018

E-book ISBN: 9780738756134

Cover design by Kevin R. Brown

Interior photos provided by the author

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Estep, Richard, author.

Title: Trail of terror : the Black Monk of Pontefract, Cripple Creek Jail,

firehouse phantom, and other true hauntings / Richard Estep.

Description: First edition. | Woodbury, MN : Llewellyn Publications,
[2018].

Identifiers: LCCN 2018024773 (print) | LCCN 2018037136 (ebook) |
ISBN

9780738756134 (ebook) | ISBN 9780738756066 | ISBN
9780738756066(alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Ghosts. | Haunted places.

Classification: LCC BF1461 (ebook) | LCC BF1461 .E88 2018 (print) |
DDC

133.1dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018024773

Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public.

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Llewellyn Publications

Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

2143 Wooddale Drive

Woodbury, MN 55125

www.llewellyn.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

Dedicated to Jack Stackpool for his love and support.

Tis himself, he is. Much love, Mike Stackpool.

Contents

by Aiden Sinclair

Chapter 1:

Chapter 2:

Chapter 3:

Chapter 4:

Chapter 5:

Chapter 6:

Chapter 7:

Chapter 8:

Chapter 9:

Foreword

FOREWORD

T here are strange things in this world. Impossible things. Things we see just out of the corner of our eye. Things that go bump in the night. Things we are told as children that we should not believe in.

As human beings, we have evolved to fear such things. To be wary of the dark places and the shadows. To stay upon the lighted paths and stray not into those places that the strange things might call home. For we find safety and peace in the light, and we find comfort in telling ourselves that the strange things are not real. That there is nothing in that darkness to fear.

There are some humans who ignore this evolutionary advice, though. Where others see darkness and fear, they see the mystery of the strange things and seek to know what truly lingers in the shadows. They seek out the darkness and the things that reside within it. Some would call such people fools or weirdos, but the people who find this calling prefer to be known as investigators. For that is what they truly are. These souls seek not the thrill of the darkness and the fear it may contain, but they seek to know what truly resides there.

These people leave the places of light and comfort to wander the cold and dark places of the world in search of answers. They seek the truth to the old legends and tales of hauntings and strangeness. Perhaps by doing so they bring a light of their own into that darkness.

Sometimes that light shines back out into the world of the normal, for in visiting that dark place, they find some reasonable explanation for the strangeness and give us all the comfort of knowing that the moaning that once came from an old house was nothing more than a door creaking on ancient hinges when the wind blew. Sometimes they find that the place they dared enter had no activity at all. That whatever strangeness was said to be had long since ended.

There are times, however, when these investigators find the strange thing they are seeking, and they witness things that the normal will refuse to believe. They hold conversations with the darkness and they receive answers. They confront the strangeness, and they return again and again to seek a glimpse of a world that for most is ever unseen.

You are about to walk the trail of terror.

You are about to follow the investigations of a man who has peered into more dark places than most and sought the answers to those questions we mostly fear to ask.

What lies in the shadows? What really does go bump in the night?

I have known this man for some time and invite you to sit back and let him take you on this journey to explore the unknown. Walk those halls with him from the comfort of wherever you now are, and he will take you safely into the shadows and deliver you safely back to the light. Be not afraid, but may you wander and wonder with my dear friend Richard Estep.

Aiden Sinclair, Illusionist

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

W hen I first began to investigate claims of ghostly encounters and haunted houses during the midnineties, the field of paranormal investigation looked significantly different from how it looks today. For starters, we lacked the plethora of television shows covering the subject that are now so popular.

I drifted into paranormal field research after a lifelong interest in all things of that nature, learning investigative techniques from other enthusiastic amateurs as we went along. Our tool kit was very basic and easily affordable. A notebook and pen, a flashlight, a tape recorder with spare cassettes, and a plentiful supply of caffeinated beverages were pretty much all it took to get out there and start looking for answers. We really felt that we had arrived when we were finally able to afford a VHS camcorder and a tripod to mount it on.

Contrast that with the dizzying array of equipment available to the paranormal enthusiast today. I have friends who have spent the better part of a years salary on their inventory, stocking up on banks of remote cameras, forward-looking infrared (FLIR) imagers, and a host of technological wizardry the likes of which would turn a CIA agent green with envy. (Yes, I exaggeratebut only a little.)