The Legend of Azzurrina

Ugolinuccio Malatesta did not understand this poor twist of luck. He was the feudal lord of a magnificent castle, Castello di Montebello Terriana, he had magnificent holdings, envied by all far and wide... but now his newborn daughter, Guendalina, had been born an albino. She would be considered evil and burned at the stake as were all albinos in 1375 A.D. Italy.

"Do not worry, my love. I have a plan. It will work," his beloved wife told Ugolinuccio. And so it was that Guendalina's white hair was dyed with natural herbs. Unfortunately, albino hair did not hold color well, and the child's locks turned a bluish tint. With her eyes also a light shade of blue, she earned the nickname Azzurrina or Little Blue One. She spent most of her time in the castle since her pale skin did not tolerate sun well.

 

The time came when castle staff was busy with preparations for the approaching summer solstice celebration. Azzurina's father gave her a new red rag ball to entertain her and keep her out of the way. The child was enchanted with the new toy -- rolling, throwing it into the air, and kicking it. Down the stairs it rolled into a basement room with Azzurrina fast behind, laughing gaily.

Azzurrina would never be seen again. She would, however, be heard: laughing, crying, running, yelling "Papa, Papa, I'm here!" every five years on June 21st, the summer solstice.

On June 21, 1990 (the summer solstice), an investigative team came to the castle armed with ghost-hunting equipment. Not only did they capture recordings of the aforementioned sounds, but an apparition of the small girl was also seen holding her red ball. Investigations have since commenced every five years on the summer solstice with "Azzurinna activity" always being captured with paranormal equipment.

The Ghosts of Ford's Theater

Ford's Theater in Washington DC was built in 1833 as a Baptist Church. It transitioned into a live performance theater in 1861 and launched into the American consciousness when President Abraham Lincoln was assassination by John Wilkes Booth during the play Our American Cousin.

The federal government took possession of the building after threats of arson were made against the theater's owner should it reopen after the assassination. The theater was converted into a 3-story office building that housed the Army Medical Museum, the War Department, and the Office of the Surgeon General.

On June 8, 1893, the front of the building collapsed, plunging workers, desks and filing cabinets into its cellar. Sixty-five people were injured; 22 were killed. The building was largely left vacant for 60 years until Congress approved funds for restoration. The theater was reopened on January 30, 1868 as a National Historic Site and working theater. Ford's Theater today still presents live theater productions and is an organized museum of Lincoln's Presidency, assassination and legacy.

The theater plays host to many paranormal spectacles as part of the many traumatic deaths which have occurred there. Residual energy is witnessed as the events of Lincoln's assassination occasionally repeats itself by the sounds of running footsteps headed towards Lincoln's box, a gunshot, screams and shouts of murder. A witness has seen an apparition of Mrs. Lincoln at the railing of their former theater box and pointing to the stage shouting, "He has killed the President!" as she did at the time of the murder. Actors have reported experiencing an intense cold spot on stage left that has caused them to become nauseous or have uncontrollable tremors. Booth's spirit has also been seen scurrying across the stage, re-enacting his getaway.

Ghost Hunters of Asheville discovered strong indications of paranormal activity on their equipment during a recent visit.

The Pizza-Loving Ghost

In 1999 and 2000, customers and staff of the Godfather's Pizza restaurant in Ogden, Utah experiencd numerous episodes of ghost and poltergeist activity. They called Utah Paranormal Exploration and Research (UPER) to investigate. Their research uncovered:

* The sighting of several apparitions including a man, woman and two boys.
* A jukebox that played when unplugged.
* Mysterious whistling
* A tile floor that arbitrarily bulged ten inches and then flattened out
* Forty fluorescent light tubes flying from their boxes and smashing on the floor

UPER discovered that the restaurant had been built upon an old pauper's field, accounting for the extreme paranormal activity. UPER's general manager, Merry Barrentine, took a photo of this misty apparition in the restaurant in 2000. Several witnesses also saw it with the naked eye.

The Ghost of Seven Gables

Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864), is one of America's most important authors with such notable works as The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. Named for his latter work, Hawthorne's birth home is in Salem, Massachusetts, and the site of this ghostly photograph taken in 2004.

A tourist perusing the home snapped this picture in Hawthorne's former yard. Closer examination reveals the apparent apparition of a small boy in the shrubbery, peering over the wooden fence. It is believed the ghost is that of a young Julian Hawthorne, Nathaniel's young son. A comparison of the ghostly figure and a photograph of a 5-year-old Julian reveals a striking and unmistakable resemblance.

Built in 1668, the House of the Seven Gables is the oldest surviving 17th century wooden mansion in New England. It is open to the public year-round from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Ghost in the Burning Building: The Hoax

Wem Town Hall burned to the ground in Shropshire, England, on November 19, 1995. Onlookers witnessed the blaze, including local resident Tony O'Rahilly. Standing across the street, O'Rahilly took photos of the fire with a 200mm telephoto lens. One of his photos showed a partially transparent little girl in a doorway although no one could remember seeing her.

Both the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena and the Royal Photographic Society concluded the photograph was genuine. It was believed that Jane Churm was the child, a young girl who accidentally set fire to a thatched roof in 1677. Many of Shropshire's old timber houses burned as a result.

Except it wasn't Jane. It wasn't even an apparition.

The hoax came to light when someone happened to look at a 1922 postcard, noticing a striking likeness of a little girl in a doorway to that of the Wem ghost. O'Rahilly had died in 2005 and was unavailable for comment. It also uncovered that some experts from the National Museum of Photography had thought O'Rahilly's photograph was fake.


To read  more: http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2010/05/17/does-postcard-solve-ghost-riddle/#ixzz236O8IseJ

The Tulip Staircase Ghost

Fourth in a Series of Famous Paranormal Photographs.

















This 1966 photograph was snapped by retired clergyman Ralph Hardy in the Queen's House section of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. When taking the photograph of the property's elegantly spiraled "Tulip Staircase," Hardy also inadvertently captured a shrouded figure appearing to be climbing the stairs, holding the railing with both hands. Experts, including some from Kodak, have examined the original negative and concluded there had been no tampering. Unexplained figures and phantom footsteps have always been reported in the vicinity of this staircase.

This 400-year-old Queen's House has hosted many paranormal occurrences: the choral chanting of children, slamming doors, and the pinching of tourists by unseen fingers. Other apparition sightings have included the figure of a woman frantically mopping blood at the bottom of the Staircase -- reportedly from an incident 300 years ago when a maid was thrown from the highest banister, plunging 50 feet to her death.

The Ghost of Freddy Jackson

Third in a Series of Famous Paranormal Photographs.

This 1919 group portrait was taken of a WWI flight squadron which served at the HMS Daedalus training facility. Looking carefully, the face of a man can clearly be seen in back of the airman positioned on the top row, fourth from the left. Squadron members identify the face as that of Freddy Jackson, an air mechanic accidentally killed by an airplane propeller two days earlier. Jackson's funeral took place the day this photograph was snapped. It has been suggested that Jackson, unaware of his death, decided to show up for the group photo.

This picture was first published in 1975 by a member of the squadron, Sir Victor Goddard, a retired R.A.F. officer.