Halloween Experts

In 1883, Major Thomas Hays had a one room school house built for his daughters’ education, in the rolling hills of Kentucky, near Louisville. The teacher he hired, loved the peaceful setting so much, she named it Waverly School, after her favorite novel by Sir Walter Scott. Major Hays approved, and named his entire property Waverly Hill. In 1908, when the property was purchased by the Board of Tuberculosis Hospital, they kept the name.

Tuberculosis is a very serious disease, and, before the discovery of antibiotics, a very contagious one. The treatment included seclusion from the rest of the population, rest and fresh air. Many Sanatoriums, as tuberculosis hospitals were called, were built on hills in rural, wooded settings, believing that the peaceful surroundings would be beneficial to the patients. Waverly Hills Sanatorium opened in 1910, and was built on top of a hill, to safely accommodate 40-50 patients. In the years following it’s opening, tuberculosis reached epidemic proportions in the area, and in 1926, a new, larger structure was opened, that could house 400 patients. It served as a tuberculosis hospital until 1961, when it was closed, renovated and reopened in 1962 as a geriatric care facility called Woodhaven Medical Services. This facility was closed by the state in 1981.

Waverly Hills has been called one of the most haunted places in the world, one of the top ten most haunted places in America, and the world’s most haunted hospital. Over it’s long history, Waverly Hills treated thousands of patients. Most did not survive the “White Plague”, as tuberculosis was called, prior to the use of antibiotic treatments. It is estimated that, in its 50 year history as a tuberculosis hospital, somewhere between 6,000 and 8,000 deaths occurred there. In addition to the spirits of the many patients that are said to haunt the site, Room 502 has it’s own ghost. Legend has it that a nurse on the hospital staff learned that she had contracted the disease. Knowing the lengthy, futile battle she was facing, she chose instead to hang herself in room 502.

At the height of the epidemic, many patients died every day. To keep patient morale up, the hospital administration needed a discreet way to remove the dead. A tunnel, used also to receive deliveries of supplies and as a walkway for employees coming up or going down the hills to work in the winter months, was used to transport bodies from the hospital to hearses and trains waiting below the hill. The tunnel, called the Body Chute, or Death Tunnel was built before electricity was available, so, after descending about 30 feet, there is total darkness, except for whatever sunlight filters through the small circular vents that are spaced every 100 feet. Despite popular legend, bodies were not “dumped” into the Body Chute and allowed to bounce and roll down the hill to be disposed of at the bottom. Gurneys on rails were used to lower the bodies down the 500 foot tunnel. Paranormal investigators claim to have encountered many spirits on the long, dark walk.

The hospital has been featured on SyFy channel’s “Ghost Hunters” during their regular season, and they returned to Waverly for their Halloween live special in 2007. The movies “Death Tunnel” and “Spooked” were both filmed there. The French comic book series “Pandemonium” is based on the paranormal legends of Waverly Hills. Both French and British television Halloween specials have featured the Sanatorium and its history.

Waverly Hills is now privately owned, and public tours, both historical and paranormal, are offered daily. Arrangements can even be made for amateur ghost hunting nights. Special events are held at Halloween. Proceeds from the tours and other donations are used in the ongoing restoration of this historic site.

This is an excellent Halloween project to try with your kids. It’s fun and easy, and it is a great way to recycle some of your plastic milk jugs! We love to make these and hang several with different expressions from a big old tree with low hanging branches, then watch them dance in the breeze!

MATERIALS:
8 – 9 clean plastic gallon milk jugs per Skelly
String
Scissors & craft knife
Glue gun (for the adults to use)
One-hole punch

SKELETON HEAD
Turn a milk jug upside down
In the corner opposite the handle cut out a large pair of eyes, the mouth and two holes for the nostrils. If you have the kind of jugs that have 2 circular indentations opposite the handle, these make perfect places for the eyeholes.

Make two small slits in the top of the head and tie a loop of string through them to hang the finished skeleton.

SKELETON CHEST
Slice down the centre of a jug – opposite the handle.
Cut the plastic to make a rib cage.

Glue the head and chest together with hot glue.

SKELETON SHOULDERS
Cut off two jug handles leaving a small collar on each end. Use hot glue to attach them to the chest section.
Punch a hole at the outside end of each shoulder.

SKELETON WAIST
Cut out two spouts, leaving a 1/2 inch collar on each.
Hot glue the spouts together.
Glue to the bottom of the chest.

SKELETON HIPS
Use the bottom 4 1/2 inches of a jug.
Cut into a pelvic shape by cutting arch shapes from 2 opposite sides.
Glue to the bottom of the waist.

SKELETON ARMS & LEGS
Cut the bone shapes from the jugs.
Tie to the shoulders and hips.

SKELETON HANDS & FEET
Trace the kid’s hands and feet.
Cut these shapes out of the jugs.
Punch holes into the hands and feet and tie them onto the arms and legs.

You can paint your Skelly a neon color with “glow in dark” paint so that he will glow as he greets your Halloween guests. Another option is to outline all the edges with red marker, as in the illustration.

(Since your Skelly will probably be hanging outdoors in the wind, we recommend that you reinforce all the joints by threading silver florist wire through the holes and twisting it together.)

In the classic, early American tale, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving, we encounter the fearsome Headless Horseman, who frightens our hero, Ichabod Crane, nearly to death. Even though we know the specter is fictional, the idea of a decapitated Hessian soldier riding toward us waving his rapier and hoisting the Jack O’Lantern that substitutes for his own missing head, sends a shiver up the spine. Mr. Irving created a truly memorable character. Or did he?

The legends of headless horsemen actually date back centuries earlier, when beheading was a common form of capital punishment. One of the original stories is probably a German legend, and reports of sightings of this horseman date from the 1600’s. Again in the late 18th century, a headless horseman reportedly roamed the countryside of France, frightening travelers and residents alike. This unfortunate soul was very likely the victim of the guillotine, the invention that turned the French Revolution into a frantic and hysterical bloodbath.

The United States, aside from being the fictional location of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, was also the site of another frightening tale, that had it’s origins in fact. The brush country of south Texas in the 1800’s was a dangerous place. Prior to statehood in 1849, it was the frequent hideout for notorious western murderers and thieves. Lawmen who lost track of their prey would often mark their files “GT” for “Gone to Texas”. Raids on homesteads and ranches were frequent, from these lawless men, as well as Indians and Mexican bandits. It was the Texas Rangers, established in 1823 by Stephen Austin, that stood between citizens and the bad men. Rustlers and horse thieves were dealt with particularly harshly, because their targets were the livelihood of Texans.

It seemed that no amount of public punishment or swift justice deterred these thieves, and the Rangers were frustrated in their efforts to put an end to them. One such group of horse thieves was led by a Mexican bandit named Vidal. When Rangers Creed Taylor and “Big Foot” Anderson caught up with him and his band of raiders, they killed them on the spot. With Taylor’s blessing, Anderson severed Vidal’s head, and lashed it to the horn of the saddle of a charcoal colored mustang. He secured Vidal’s body upright in the saddle, and turned the horse loose to roam the countryside as a warning to other would-be thieves and raiders. Little did they realize that the corpse would ride the brush country for many years, until finally, captured at a watering hole, the horse gave up the shriveled body, bullet riddled and full of Indian arrows.

It would seem, however, that burying Vidal’s body did not end his torment. Soldiers and scouts from Fort Inge reported seeing the headless horseman on his endless ride up until the Fort closed in 1869. At the turn of the century, a headless rider reportedly passed through a wagon team near Old San Patricio, and a headless horseman is still said to travel the road to Dead Man’s Lake near the Texas community of San Diego. “El Muerto”, the Dead One, was spotted by a posse on a modern day manhunt in 1969. Rumors still abound of sightings in the lonely brush country, making this a living legend of terror in Texas.

She was bigger, faster and more powerful than the Titanic. She was the undisputed Queen of the luxurious North Atlantic cruise ships. The Queen Mary was launched, and made her maiden voyage in 1936, and for the next three years, she hosted the wealthy and famous on their travels from New York to England and Europe. Considered by the upper class as the only civilized way to travel, The Queen Mary’s passenger list, in those first years, included the likes of Sir Winston Churchill, Clark Gable, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. She was beautifully appointed, and she held the record for the fastest North Atlantic crossing. It’s no wonder that some of her guests just didn’t want to leave her decks, even in the after life.

When World War II broke out, in 1939, all luxury travel ceased. The Queen Mary was refitted, painted grey, and pressed into service as a troop ship. The “Grey Ghost”, as she became known, carried more than 800,000 troops across the Atlantic, and was part of almost every major campaign of the war, including the D-Day invasion. She was originally fitted to carry about 2400 passengers, but her refit increased her capacity to 5500. She holds the record for carrying the largest number of people ever on a floating vessel, when she carried 16,683 troops. She carried the wounded home, and she served as a transport for thousands of German prisoners of war. In 1942, while carrying 11,000 Allied troops, The Queen Mary collided with one of her escort cruisers, the Curacao. She was under orders not to stop, and was unable to save any of the 338 men who lost their lives.

After the war, in 1946, The Queen Mary made thirteen voyages to transport war brides and their children to be reunited with their GI husbands in the United States and Canada. These were nicknamed the “Bride and Baby Voyages”.

In 1947, she was refurbished and returned to service as a luxury cruise ship with weekly service from New York to Southampton and Cherbourg. In the 1960’s, transatlantic cruises lost popularity, as air travel became more affordable. The Queen Mary began occasional cruises to the Canary Islands and the Bahamas, however, she had no central air conditioning, and no outdoor pools, which made her ill-suited to this route. Finally, in 1967, she was withdrawn from service. In that same year, she was sold for $3.45 million to the city of Long Beach, California, where she has become a floating museum and hotel.

Alleged paranormal activity aboard the ocean liner began almost immediately from the time she docked at Long Beach. To date, staff and guests have reported hundreds of encounters with ghosts and other unearthly experiences, making the Queen Mary one of the most haunted locations in the world. The psychic hotspots on the ship seem to include the now-unused swimming pools, where ladies in 1930’s swimming costumes still leave wet foot prints from the empty pool to across the deck. The most active spirit of all the hundreds attributed to the Queen Mary, is Jackie, the spirit of a 6 year old girl who reportedly hugs visitors, plucks at their clothing and pockets, and who sometimes speaks, or sings audibly in the 1st class swimming pool area. A young woman in a beautiful white evening gown is often seen dancing alone in the dark corners of the Queen’s Salon. A young sailor who was crushed during the test of the watertight doors, is sometimes seen below decks, and many of the staterooms have their own permanent ghostly visitors. The voices of German prisoners, the cries of spectral infants and ghostly lights and orbs are common reports of both guests and staff on the ship. The staff offers a “Ghosts and Legends” tour of the ship daily, and a special paranormal tour on Friday nights.

At Halloween, the Queen Mary, and it’s immediate surroundings, host a series of haunted mazes and attractions, each with it’s own theme, from pirates to crazy clowns and a vampire village. The Shipwreck, as the Halloween attraction is called, advises that the mazes will each take 8-20 minutes to go through, depending on if you’re walking…or running! The haunted attractions run for 15 days of terror during the month of October and are attended by hundreds of visitors every year.