The Ghost of Boothill Graveyard

This photo is listed on many Best Paranormal Photo websites although it is one that would be easily duplicated. Yet the photographer, Terry Ike Clanton, insists the person in the background was not there when he took the photograph.

"This is the photo that changed my opinion about ghost photos," says Terry Ike Clanton, recording artist and cowboy poet. Clanton took this photo of his friend (in the foreground) at Boothill Graveyard. The photo was taken in black and white because Clanton wanted Old West-looking pictures in 1880-period clothes. Clanton took the film for developing to the local Thrifty Drug Store and was startled when he saw an image of a thin man in a dark hat among the gravestones. The man’s height seems to suggest he is either legless, kneeling... or rising up out of the ground.

Clanton believes the figure is holding a knife. "We thought this was a tie at first, but after further review, it appears to be a knife," Clanton says. "The knife is in a vertical position; the tip is located just below the figure's right collar. If you're not convinced that something is weird here, look at my friend's shadow in the photo. It appears to be going back slightly to the right of him. The figure in the back should have the same shadow, but it doesn't!"

The "Power to the People" Ghost(s)

It is perhaps the most haunted part of our downtown tour -- where bodies reportedly lie, digital recorders capture ghostly voices, and apparitions are sometimes spotted. The photo below was taken in this Hall of Spirits, more publicly known as The Presbyterian Memorial Garden. What makes it all the more tantalizing is that the horde of Presbyterian paranormal treasures is guarded by a wizened, cantankerous Keeper of the Spectral Trust.

Gee whillikers. It's a public place. Other than the occasional arse momentarily gracing one of their benches, we don't touch a thing. We're there all of 1/10 of an hour. It just shouldn't be this hard. But, for some reason, it is. As we craftily spin tales and flash our cameras, Mr. Cranky has burst forth from the church to yell at us. He's threatened police. (Pardon this show of Southern hospitality, oh esteemed guests of our fair city. Not to mention the curious lack of Christianly tolerance and niceties.)

But now it would seem the ghosts have taken sides.


He must have been lying in wait Saturday night, for as soon as one tennis-soled foot touched the garden bricks, flying from the doors he winged -- shooing us with cartwheeling arms and an invisible apron. The gate clanged shut and was locked in our faces.

It was the only lock Mr. Cranky would turn this night. The ghosts were not amused, locking Mr. Cranky out from the safer confines of his Church. Repeatedly swiping the key did him no good until, in disgrace, he had to come back through the garden and wind his way through our tittering throng.

So now we know: There's at least one ghost at the Presbyterian Church who believes in Power to the People!

Ghost Blamed for Punching Wife

There's something spooky about this excuse.

Rather than say "The Devil made me do it," a Wisconsin man arrested on domestic abuse charges told police that a ghost punched his wife, authorities said.

Police responded to the disturbance call at approximately 8 p.m., Sunday, according to a Fond du Lac County Sheriff's report obtained by The Smoking Gun. At the scene they found 41-year-old Michael West and his wife, who told cops that her husband twice attempted to strangle her and struck her in the face when she attempted to contact 911.

West told authorities that his wife sustained injuries as a result of several falls, The Northwestern reports. When an officer pressed the issue, West allegedly changed his alibi, opting instead for a supernatural excuse -- "A ghost did it."

"It must not have been Casper," HyperVocal quips. "He's way too friendly to do such a thing to a working woman with a drunk, abusive husband."

West is charged with domestic abuse, strangulation, battery, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest. He remains in custody in lieu of $1,000 bail.

The Back Seat Ghost

Fourth in a Series of Famous Paranormal Photographs.


Taken in 1959 by Mrs. Mabel Chinnery, this photo was taken while Mabel was visiting the grave of her mother. She'd brought along her camera to take photographs of the gravesite. After snapping a few shots of her mother's gravestone, Mabel took an impromptu photo of her husband who was seemingly alone in the car waiting for her. When the film was developed, the couple discovered that Hubby had not been alone in the car after all ... A figure wearing glasses clearly appeared to be sitting in the back seat of the car. Mabel immediately recognized the figure as her mother –- the woman whose grave they had visited on that day.

A photographic expert who examined the print determined that the image of the woman was neither a reflection nor a double exposure. "I stake my reputation on the fact that the picture is genuine," he testified. Altering photographs was much more difficult in the 1950s. Does anyone have any ideas as to what methods were available back then to "fool" any wannabe believers?