For your Halloween TT Pleasure I bring you 13 spooky places to visit. Some I have been to, some I would love to visit, and others I'd have to think long and hard about venturing in!

1. The Bell Witch Haunting - Tennessee
She was reputedly so scary even Andrew "Stonewall" Jackson retreated before spending a full night at Bell Plantation. The malicious entity that plagued a Tennessee farmhouse in 1817 ended in the only known murder by a poltergeist. The problems began when John Bell saw a strange animal in his cornfield dissolve into thin air. Soon, the family heard scratching at the doors and windows, then gnawing sounds started coming from inside the house. Within a year, the presence began speaking and threatened to kill John. The fame of the "Bell Witch" spread, and even Andrew Jackson came to dispel the spirit. Nothing worked. John Bell was beaten so mercilessly by the presence that his tongue swelled and he could barely eat. A doctor prescribed a tonic, but the witch bragged it poisoned it. "I've got him this time," it bellowed, "He’ll never get up." John went into a coma and died on December 21, 1820. Then, the witch promised to return to wreck havoc on John’s descendants, and it plagued the Bell family again in 1827, 1852, 1861, 1935, 1977, and 1988. Today, the apparition of a demon woman and eerie balls of light are seen gliding over the Bell farm, and the so-called Bell Witch Cave near the family cemetery is haunted by chains rattling and inhuman screams.

2. Eastern State Penitentiary - Opened in 1829 as part of a controversial movement to change the behavior of inmates through "confinement in solitude with labor," Eastern State Penitentiary quickly became one of the most expensive and most copied buildings in the young United States. It is estimated that more than 300 prisons worldwide are based on the Penitentiary's wagon-wheel, or "radial" floor plan.

Legislation specifying "separate or solitary confinement at labor" was passed.
Many leaders believe that crime is the result of environment, and that solitude will make the criminal regretful and penitent (hence the new word, Penitentiary). This correctional theory, as practiced in Philadelphia, will become known as the Pennsylvania System.
Plans are finalized to prohibit all contact between prisoners at Eastern State, the world's most ambitious Penitentiary, now nearly ready for its first inmates. Masks are fabricated to keep the inmates from communicating during rare trips outside their cells. Cells are equipped with feed doors and individual exercise yards to prevent contact between inmates, and minimize contact between inmates and guards.
Some of America's most notorious criminals were held in the Penitentiary's vaulted, sky-lit cells, including bank robber Willie Sutton and Al Capone. After 142 years of consecutive use, Eastern State Penitentiary was completely abandoned in 1971, and now stands, a lost world of crumbling cell blocks and empty guard towers.
3.Waverly Hill Asylum
Waverly Hills Tuberculosis Sanatorium was built on a mountain ridge in Louisville, Kentucky in 1910 through the efforts of several prominent Louisville residents who were concerned about the spread and treatment of tuberculosis. When the hospital opened, it had 8 patients, but it soon reached its capacity of 40. At the time, Jefferson County had one of the country's highest rates of tuberculosis, a highly contagious, sometimes fatal lung disease characterized by coughing, hemorrhaging, fever and shortness of breath. The hospital offered plenty of bed rest and fresh air as well as some surgical methods of treating the disease,and was thought to be an excellent facility. In 1924, the hospital was expanded to house 400 patients.
As the number of patients and workers grew, a community developed on the hospital grounds. Most employees lived there. Some shared large homes, while doctors had private residences for their families. A dormitory-type building was constructed for nurses.
Almost all the employees' needs were met on the premises. The doctors and staff could order groceries from the hospital's storeroom and make other purchases at the gift shop. The hospital raised hogs for a while to provide meat. A bus made daily stops, and a former patient began making taxi runs there. The hospital also held Protestant and Catholic church services each week.
Many people died at the hospital, and because hospital officials were concerned that the sight of hearses would be bad for morale the bodies were sent to the bottom of the hill through a steam tunnel, also known as the body chute. There was a morgue on the first floor that was used for autopsies but the majority of the dead were processed through the body chute to the receiving morgue off the hill.

4. Pirates House - Savannah, GA
Pirate's House Tavern - 20 East Broad Street - Now a popular family restaurant, this rambling clapboard home dates back to the 1750's and was once an inn for sailors and swashbucklers. In Robert Louis Stevenson's classic, "Treasure Island," Captain Flint died here in an upstairs room, and his ghost is said to still tread its boards - a literary figure who has taken on an (after)life of his own. Employees have also reported laughter in empty rooms and poltergeist-like activity in the Herb House, one of the restaurant's dining rooms. Although this house was once the home of famous pirate Jean Laffite, it is the ghost of another notorious pirate, known as Captain Flint, who haunts the place. It is said that as he lay on his deathbed, he kept calling to his First Mate, Darby McGraw, to bring him more rum. Today, his cries are still heard by visitors to the restaurant that now occupies the house. His scar-faced phantom has also been seen roaming in the basement tunnel. The tunnel, big enough to drive a bus through, was discovered during renovations. It leads to the river and probably served as an escape route for pirates trying to make it back to the sea. Pirate's House is at the corner of East Broad and Bay Streets.

5 . The White Eagle Tavern - Portland Oregon Kidlet and I have acutally been to the White Eagle and yes it IS haunted. Both of us have had other guests, so to speak, in the bathrooms with us.
For non-believers in ghosts, strange things happen there, unexplained sounds, doors unlocking and locking, odd noises, and toilet paper flying through the air. The tavern opened in 1905 and served as both a tavern and a brothel. The upstairs, with it's thirteen rooms was the white brothel, and the basement was the location of the black and Chinese prostitutes. Being a typical whorehouse of it's time, a number of violent, premature deaths happened there.
The upstairs portion, which was closed off until recently, when it was renovated and opened for overnight stays, is reportedly haunted by at least two spirits. One is rumored to be the ghost of Rose, one of the prostitutes who was killed by a jealous lover. Her story is interesting and will be explored in a later node. The other is the ghost of Sam, who lived a solitary existence in the rooms until his death in 1955. His spirit is seen from the street below, staring out the window. Doors in the upstairs portion lock and unlock by themselves, according to the tavern's owner, and some clothes of Sam's left in the abandoned rooms move about by themselves.
The basement ghosts are unidentified, but they have manifested themselves by strange noises, unexplained voices, physical pushes and other unexplained phenomena.
Some of the oddest occurrences in the White Eagle are the toilet paper incidents. Something in the building likes to play with toilet paper. One tavern patron engaged in a playful tp tossing fight in the women's bathroom thinking her friend was in the next stall, only to find noone there. The owner says toilet paper rolls often unroll themselves into piles on the bathroom floors.

6. The Myrtles Plantation - Baton Rouge Louisiana
General Bradford (builder of The Myrtles) had a fourteen-year-old daughter, who married Judge Clarke Woodruff. During his days as master of The Myrtles, Woodruff took one of the plantation slaves named "Chloe" as a mistress. He moved her up to the house to make their arrangement more convenient, under the guise of having her care for the Woodruff children. Chloe took advantage of this situation, however. To gain power, she began to eavesdrop on the conversations of Judge Woodruff and his guests. Although he warned her against this practice many times, she was caught on one occasion when the Judge had several influential friends in the gentlemen’s parlor. He had to punish her to save face, so he had her left ear cut off, and she was banned from the main house and returned to more harsh work elsewhere on the plantation. From that point on, she wore a handkerchief wrapped around her head to hide the defect.
Chloe reportedly longed for the comfortable work caring for the kids, and soon hatched a plan to return her to the former position. Woodruff’s nine-year-old daughter was having a birthday party, and Chloe volunteered to make the cake... but she laced the cake with a potion brewed from Oleander leaves. Her plan was that when the children got sick, she would treat them with an herbal cure and appear to have miraculously cured them. She must have misjudged the dosage, though, because two of the children and Mrs. Woodruff died from eating the poisoned cake.
The Judge had been away, so he returned home to find that he was a widower. As the slaves were questioned, those who knew about Chloe’s dark plan turned on her. When Judge Woodruff learned what had happened, Chloe was hung from one of the plantation trees. When she was dead, her body was cut down, her pockets and clothes stuffed with rocks, and her body dropped into the river.
Not long after that, stories of Chloe’s presence in the house began to circulate among the staff and family. Today, the housekeepers lock the house up at night, only to return the next morning to find chairs in the parlor rearranged, and other furniture moved out of place. During tours, as ladies pass through the doorway to the gentleman’s parlor where Chloe was caught eavesdropping, an earring is sometimes snatched by an unseen hand. The staff regularly finds earrings in the oddest places, and write it off to the fact that Chloe loves earrings, but only needs to take one, since she only has one ear.
These stories and more continue to be a part of The Myrtles Plantation, a hauntingly wonderful place to visit.

7. Marie Laveau Tomb and The Cemeteries of New Orleans
A "free person of color," Marie Laveau was the illegitimate daughter of a rich Creole plantation owner, Charles Laveaux, and his mistress Marguerite (who was reportedly half black, half Indian). Marie was probably born about 1794. At the age of twenty-five she married a carpenter named Jacques Paris, also a free person of color, who soon went missing and was presumed dead. Following the custom of the time, she began calling herself the "Widow Paris." Soon, she entered a common-law marriage with one Christophe de Glapion with whom she would have fifteen children, but as late as 1850 a newspaper still referred to her as "Marie Laveaux, otherwise Widow Paris" (Tallant 1946, 67).
The Widow Paris learned her craft from a "voodoo doctor" known variously as Doctor John, John Bayou, and other appellations, and by 1830 she was one of several New Orleans voodoo queens. She soon came to dominance, taking charge of the rituals held at Congo Square and selling gris-gris throughout the social strata. Marie worked as a hairdresser, which took her into the homes of the affluent, and she reportedly developed a network of informants. According to Tallant (1946, 64), "No event in any household in New Orleans was a secret from Marie Laveau." She parlayed her knowledge into a position of considerable influence, as she told fortunes, gave advice on love, and prepared custom gris-gris for anyone needing to effect a cure, charm, or hex.
If she did not actually save anyone from a sentence of death, she allowed such stories to flourish. "The Widow Paris thrived on publicity," observes Tallant (1946, 58). "Legend after legend spread about her and she seems to have enjoyed them all."
The legend of her perpetual youth is easily explained: She had a look-alike daughter, Marie Laveau II, who followed in her footsteps. About 1875 the original Marie, bereft of her youth and memory, became confined to her home on Rue St. Ann and did not leave until claimed by death some six years later. "It was then," reports Tallant (1946, 73), "that the strangest part of the entire Laveau mystery became most noticeable. For Marie Laveau still walked the streets of New Orleans, a new Marie Laveau, who also lived in the St. Ann Street Cottage."

8. Hammond Castle
Hammond Castle is majestic Medieval-type structure built on the rocky shores of Gloucester, completed in 1929. It was the home and workplace of a wealthy, eccentric genius named John Hammond, who was one of the great inventors of our time. During his lifetime, Hammond traveled widely, outfitting his castle with incredible centuries-old furnishings and relics. Being a consummate inventor, he also integrated somewhat bizarre features into the structure, such as indoor fog and rain devices and secret passageways, not to mention a magnificent pipe organ of his own design. He called the house his "Abbey by the Sea" and often entertained many of the notables of his day there. At night, he would sit in a monk's robe reading philosophy by candlelight, behaving as if he were in a monastery. Hammond died in 1965 and is buried with his pet cat near the castle.. Unfortunately, at his behest, the entire burial area is covered with poison ivy, so "no one can bother me."
No wonder then, that this strange place has a history of odd sights, sounds, and energies. Stories of spirit entities here mainly revolve around sightings of Hammond, his wife, and his black cat, though the staff there have confided to a select few that there are more entities here than just those three, including one groundskeeper who died there tragically, and still others who are unidentifiable.
Today, Hammond Castle is a museum, and walking tours are available. The castle and grounds can be rented for special occasions, and group tours can also be arranged. If anyone has been to this remarkable place and taken any pictures, we would love to see them. Please post to the message board below if you have further information, pictures, EVP's or stories to share about this marvelous and mysterious place.
9. The Catacombs of Paris
"Far below the city streets of Paris, in the quiet, damp darkness, seven million Parisians lie motionless. Their skeletons, long since dis-interred from the churchyard graves their survivors left them in, are neatly stacked and aligned to form the walls of nearly one kilometer of walking passage." I have actually been to the Catacombs of Paris and it is one very intense place. The feeling of being in a crowd is pretty overpowering. Even when you are in a alcove completely alone.

10.The Tower of London - Another of the places I have visited. Again there is just such an intense feeling of being in a crowd. It is of course impossible to not be impacted by the history of the place especially if like me you are a fan and student of English History. Here's a sort of who's who of Tower Ghosts:
During her long and illustrious 900 years, The Tower of London has developed a reputation as being one of the most haunted places in Britain.
She has been home to beheadings, murders, torture and hangings, as well as being a prison to Nobles. Thomas A. Becket is "the first reported sighting of a ghost at the Tower of London."
During the construction on the Inner Curtain Wall, Thomas appeared apparently unhappy about the construction, and it is said he reduced the wall to rubble with a strike of his cross. Henry III’s grandfather was responsible for the death of Thomas Becket, so Henry III wasted no time building a chapel in the Tower of London, naming it for the archbishop. This must have pleased Thomas’ ghost because there were no further interruptions during the construction of the wall.
The Bloody Tower was the scene of the infamous disappearance of the two princes; Edward V (12) and Richard Duke of York (10), who are thought to have been murdered in 1483 on the probable command of the Duke of Gloucestershire, who was to be crowned Richard the III. According to one story, guards in the late 15th century, who were passing the Bloody Tower, spotted the shadows of two small figures gliding down the stairs still wearing the white night shirts they had on the night they disappeared. They stood silently, hand in hand, before fading back into the stones of the Bloody Tower.
These figures were identified as the ghosts of the two princes. In 1674 workmen found a chest that contained the skeletons of two young children, they were thought to be the remains of the princess, and were given a royal burial not long afterwards. The story of the little princes is still to this day a heartbreaking story. They are "among the most poignant ghosts" in the Tower of London.
The most persistent ghost in The Tower of London is the ghost of Queen Anne Boleyn. The King, Henry VIII, after learning the baby she carried for nine months was a boy and still born, accused by her of infidelity. She was taken to TOWER GREEN and was beheaded on May 19, 1536. Queen Anne appears near the Queen’s House, close to the site where her execution was carried out. She can be seen leading a ghostly procession of Lords and Ladies down the aisle of the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula. She floats down the aisle to her final resting place. Queen Anne is buried under the Chapel’s altar. Her headless body has also been seen walking the corridors of the Tower.
Sir Walter Raleigh lived quite comfortable compared to others who were imprisoned within the walls of the Bloody Tower. His "rooms" are still furnished as they were in the 16th century, and can be seen when visiting the Tower today. He was executed by James I, and has been seen looking exactly as he does in his portrait hanging in the Bloody Tower.
The most grisly execution and thus haunting is that of the 70 year old Countess of Salisbury, the last of the Plantagenets. King Henry VIII had her executed for political reasons. The feisty Countess refused to put her head on the block like a common traitor. When her executioner came after her she ran, but was pursued by him, with his axe in hand hacking at her until he had hewn the Countess to death. Her ghost has been seen reliving this truly gruesome act. Also the shadow of a great axe has been seen falling across the scene of her murder.
At one time the Tower of London was home to the Royal Menagerie. Lions, leopards, bears, birds, monkeys and an elephant, that was a gift from the King of France, were kept on exhibit. On the stroke of midnight in January of 1815 a sentry saw a bear from this menagerie emerge from a doorway. He lunged at it with his bayonet, it passed right through the apparition. The Sentry was later found unconscious, it is said he died of fright within two months of this encounter.
Something unseen and very frightening is in the Salt Tower. This is one of the most haunted areas of the Tower of London complex. This is a very old section, dogs will not enter this ancient building, and ever since one of the Yeoman Warders was nearly throttled by a force unseen, they will not go in the area after nightfall.
In 1864, a soldier whose post was to guard the Queen’s House at the Tower of London, saw a apparition so real, that after ignoring the soldiers three challenges, he charged with all his might at the intruder with his bayonet, only to go straight through the figure. He was found unconscious at his post and was court-martialled for neglecting his duty. Luckily there were two witnesses who corroborated his story. The soldier was eventually acquitted.
Lady Jane Grey is another tragic story of a young life cut short at the Tower, due to the actions of others the most despicable of who was her own father. She was the granddaughter of Mary (Henry VIII younger sister) and Louis XII of France. The Duke of Northumberland would lose everything if Henry VIII’s son was to die and Mary, who was Catholic, would become queen. He and her father arranged her marriage to his son and persuaded her cousin Edward VI to name her his successor in case of his death instead of his two half-sisters. When Edward VI died she was crowned Queen of England, but the supporters of Mary overthrew her.
Her own father got scared and in hopes to save his own skin, left the Tower of London and went to Tower Hill to proclaim Mary I, as the Queen of England, Lady Jane never left the tower; she and her husband were immediately imprisoned and sentenced to death. Queen Mary carried out the execution of Lady Jane’s father-in-law but set both Jane and her husband free. Her father was involved in a rebellion against Mary I, Lady Jane and her husband were again placed in the tower. Lady Jane watched as her husband was taken to Tower Hill where he was beheaded. She saw his body being carried back to the chapel, after which she was taken to Tower Green where she was beheaded. She was only 17 years old.
Lady Jane Grey’s ghost was last seen by two Guardsmen on February 12, 1957, the 403rd anniversary of her execution. She was described as a "white shape forming itself on the battlements". Her husband, Guildford Dudley, has been seen in Beauchamp Tower weeping.
Catherine Howard escaped from her room in the Tower of London. "She ran down the hallway screaming for help and mercy. She was caught and returned to her room." The next day she was beheaded. Her ghost has been seen sill running down the hallway screaming for help.
Other strange sightings at the Tower of London have been "Phantom funeral carriages" and “A lovely veiled lady that, upon closer look proves to have a black void where her face should be."

11. Raynham Hall England
In 1713, Lord Townshend married Walpole's handsome sister, Dorothy. She was his second wife, and is reputed in the gossip of the time to have been previously the mistress of Lord Wharton, "whose character was so infamous, and his lady's complaisant subserviency so notorious, that no young woman could be four and twenty hours under their roof with safety to her reputation."
Lady Townshend was buried in 1726. But there is a tradition that she did not die in that year and that the funeral was a mock interment.
Instead, she is rumoured to have been locked up in the house by her husband. This is why the ghost of "Dolly" Townshend, the "little brown lady of Raynham," is said still to haunt the oak staircase of the house in the twilight. Currently, a famous ghost picture is said to be her, being known as the most famous picture of a ghost to date. (see above...CREEPTASTIC!)

12 The LaLaurie House
Delphine Macarty LaLaurie was the daughter of an aristocratic Irish officer in the French service. Delphine Lalaurie and husband Dr. Louis Lalaurie bought the house at 1140 Royal St. from Edmond Soniat du Fossat in 1832.The three story mansion was somewhat plain on the exterior but the inside was another matter. Delphine LaLaurie was the ultimate social "Creole Lady". She had wealth, social standing, and was regarded as one of the social elite of New Orleans society.
She threw lavish dinners with the most elegent suroundings and her slaves attended her guests every need. Delphine's invitations for dinner and parties soon became quite coveted. Her demeanor was that of a refined lady with inpecable manners and the social graces that only came with the finest breeding. At least that is what appearances were. Delphine's slaves however must have cringed at the attitudes of Delphines highly respected guests, For they knew a very different Delphine LaLaurie.
Rumors have it that Delphine kept her cook chained to the fireplace in the kitchen...and many of Delphines slaves dissappeared without explanation. House slaves came and went...and so did stable boys. In 1833 A neighbor wittnessed Delphine chasing a house slave girl on the upper balcony with a whip in hand. The slave girl was screaming and running from Delphine, no doubt she knew the wrath of her Madame. She jumped to her death rather than face that wrath. An investigation insued and Delphine was fined and her slaves were confiscated and sold at auction for mistreatment....but Delphine badgered one of her realitives into buying back the slaves at auction and soon they were returned to Delphine.
After the rumors of her harsh treatment of her slaves Delphines dinner and party invitations were polietly declined by many of New Orleans polite society...But the rumors would turn into pure horror on the night of April 10 1834. A fire broke out in the kitchen of LaLaurie MaMaison. Some say it was the cook herself who set the fire to avoid any more of the unbearable torture.The slaves of the house tried to extinguish the fire themselves but finally had to call the fire department. When the firemen arived and started going through the house ...what they found would horrify New Orleans to their very roots!
In the attic were slaves chained to the walls...some had been mutilated. Many were dead. Some were in cages like dogs, some had missing limbs, some had no limbs. There was a female who had her mouth sewn shut. Some had their eyes poked out...some had metal spikes through their heads There was another whose bones were broken and re-set in odd diections. The gruesome discovery was to horrible to imagine.
The gruesome tales spread quickly and a lynch mob soon gathered outside the LaLaurie House. They were demanding the hanging of Delphine and Her husband. Delphine and her husband fled in the middle of the night in their carriage and boarded a boat for unknown parts. There are many rumors that they lived in Europe and other places...I don't think that anyone knows for sure what happened to them.
The house sat empty for about 60 years...and then was re-built after the Civil War. But rumors of horrible apparations and unspeakable screams and noises haunted every owner since. It has had numerous uses and owners...but the one constant factor about the LaLaurie House is that "It is Haunted to this Day!! Just recently the new owner while remodeling discovered skeletons of humans under the floorboards in the back of the House...Could this be what happened to all Delphine's missing slaves?

13. Bonaventure Cemetery - Savannah
Bonaventure Cemetery, in Savannah, Georgia, is located on the site of a plantation originally owned by John Mullryne, whose daughter Mary married Josias Tatnall, Sr. The wife of Tatnall's son, Harriet Fenwick Tattnall, was buried on the plantation in 1802. Legend has it that when the plantation caught fire during a dinner party the owner had the dining room moved out of doors and the dinner continued while the house burnt to the ground. The plantation was converted to a cemetery in 1868, and was originally called Evergreen Cemetery; its name was changed to Bonaventure Cemetery in 1907. At night time legend has it you can hear the clink of glasses. It is also the home to The Bird Girl Statue made famous by Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil. We plan on visiting Bonaventure next summer!