Let's have some fun! Below is a sampling of haunted courthouses, haunted jails and even haunted libraries. Some of the ghostly apparitions were caught on security cameras or web cams!
Haunted Courthouses
- Lincoln County Courthouse, NC. Charlotte News (after clicking on the link scroll down to read the article and see the video from a surveillance camera). Possible explanation and a better quality video is found here .
- Pickens County Courthouse, Carrollton, Alabama has the famous face in the window. Background story here and more pictures here.
Haunted Jails
- Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield is included on most lists of haunted jails. Story here. Sign-up for ghost walks and ghost hunts or visit the Reformatory for Halloween.
- Alcatraz Federal Prison, now a national park, with history here and Alcatraz ghost stories here. YouTube video interview and ghost photographs. Judge for yourself!
Haunted Libraries
- The Willard Library, Evansville, Indiana, has had a ghost cam for years. Software allows users to click and post images from the library’s three cameras. The fun is looking at postings by others to see if you see the ghost. Make sure to click in the bottom of each frame to “get a better look.”
- Here is a listing of more haunted libraries in the Midwest and Ohio.
Buying a Haunted House?
Can you back out of a deal if you bought a home but then discover it is haunted? Can you get your money back? Well, in New York in 1991 there was such a case, Stambovsky v. Ackley, 572 N.Y.2d 672 (NY App. Div. 1991). It seems that Helen Ackley owned the home and knew that it was haunted. In fact, so did everyone in the neighborhood. Helen enjoyed the ghosts but the new owner, who was from New York City, did not know about the house’s reputation, did not enjoy spending $650,000 for a haunted house and wanted out of the deal. In the end, the court let the potential buyer out of the contract. More information with picture of the home here and here.
The judge had great fun writing the opinion, sprinkling references to ghosts, hauntings, paranormal phenomena, and even the Ghostbusters movie. The opinion begins with…”Plaintiff, to his horror, discovered that the house…” The judge also stated that the “as a matter of law, the house is haunted.” The court opinion is fun to read, is only 6 pages long and can be found here. More about the story here.
Happy Halloween!
