Flatwoods

Flatwoods Monster

A hissing, glowing UFO left skid marks and flattened a circle of grass here on September 12, 1952. Eight witnesses from three separate families
who ventured to the hilltop when they saw the object land went racing back down the hill after encountering a terrifying creature. The described it
as "ten to fifteen feet tall with a blood-red face and glowing greenish-orange eyeballs." During a later investigation, additional witnesses to both the
UFO and creature were discovered in the nearby town of Sutton.

Harpers Ferry

Harpers Ferry National Park

The white haired ghost of John Brown walks alongside a black dog down the street here. They stroll past the storefronts to the door of the fire
engine house, where they disappear. Brown's ghost is so real that some tourists have asked him to pose for pictures. The Kansas abolitionist
brought his band of followers to Harpers Ferry to capture the Confederate arsenal and arm the slaves. He took hostages and held them in the
arsenals firehouse, but ninety marines under General Robert E. Lee broke into the building and overcame Brown and his followers. John Brown was
hanged on December 2, 1859, a little over a year before the start of the Civil War. Hog Alley, also part of Harpers Ferry National Park, is haunted
by one of Brown's men who was mutilated and left for the hogs. And at St. Peter's Catholic Church, the ghost of a priest disappears through a wall,
and the stone steps leading to the church are haunted by the cries of a baby who was killed by a mortar shell there during the Civil War.

Middleway

Livingston Wizard

A notorious poltergeist plagued this rural community for many months in the late eighteenth century. The mysterious presence came to be known
as the Wizard. The events started in 1797 at the Adam Livingston home, when burning logs jumped from the fireplace. The next day an invisible
rope barred carriages from passing on the road in front of their house, until the rope was "cut" with a knife. Then the incessant sound of clipping
scissors was hard inside the house, and invisible shears out holes in all their clothes and linen. Hundreds of curious people descended on the
town, which soon came to be known as Cliptown, or Wizard Clip. The Livingstons were convinced the Wizard was a ghost of a young man who had
sought shelter in their house after his wagon threw a wheel. The fellow woke in the middle of the night and asked the family to fetch a priest,
because he was dying. They refused, thinking the man was delirious. The next morning they found the stranger's lifeless body. After a priest
consecrated the man's grave behind their house, the Wizard stopped his harassment. But sometimes, on autumn nights, the specter of a man
wearing a black cape is seen disappearing into the Catholic Chapel on the old Livingston property. Tourists visiting the site have reported camera
straps, purses, clothing, and other items mysteriously cut to pieces.

Point Pleasant

Mothman

The haunting of Point Pleasant is one of the strangest cases in the history of Fortean phenomena. For thirteen

months from 1966 to 1967, this town was haunted by a bizarre creature known as Mothman. The fuzzy monster

had blazing red eyes, huge bat-like wings, and the arms and legs of a man. Thousands of people saw the creature,

as well as other demonic beings. Homes were plagues with ghostly manifestations, while mysterious UFOs

traveled silently through skies. One of the UFOs pursued a Red Cross bloodmobile filled with fresh blood for several

miles along a darkened highway. Automobiles stalled and electronic appliances ran amok. Researcher John Keel

spent a year at the site and concluded that the Mothman sightings and the collapse of the seven hundred foot high

Silver Bridge at Point Pleasant were connected to a race of "ultraterrestrials", who would do anything - even kill- to

remain anonymous. Scores of people were injured, and thirty-eight died in the December 15, 1967, disaster.

Greenbriar

The Shue House and the Greenbriar Ghost

In a great number of hauntings, the ghosts of the murdered return to finger their killers and ensure that justice is served. In some instances, such
spirits are detected by psychics or other sensitives, who may even relieve the events surrounding the murder in order to advise authorities on the
case. Sometimes, a murdered phantom torments the killer until the offender breaks down and admits to the crime. However, in most examples of
this type of haunting, the victim's ghost manifests before a relative and reveals the slayer's identity. The most dramatic of these cases, and the
only one on record in which a ghost's testimony actually appeared in a court of law, involved the Greenbriar Ghost of West Virginia.

The weird tale begins on January 23, 1897, when authorities discovered the body of Zona Heaster Shue on the kitchen floor of her home in
Greenbriar. Zona lived with her husband, Edward Shue, the local blacksmith, who was considered an upstanding citizen and a kind man. Although
family members are always suspects in a mysterious death, the physician who studied Zona's body declared that she had not met with foul play.
Rather, the doctor informed authorities, Mrs. Shue had suffered an "everlasting faint."

However, shortly after Zona's funeral, her ghost returned from the land of the dead. Mary Jane Heaster, Zona's mother, encountered the phantom on
several occasions. In each instance, Zona insisted that she had been beaten to death. Furthermore, the apparition revealed that the killer was none
other than Edward Shue, who had attacked Zona when he discovered that she had not prepared meat for dinner that fateful January night.

After conversing with her daughter's ghost at least four times, Mary was convinced of Edward's guilt and sought justice. She implored authorities to
resume the investigation, and they finally agreed. Zona's body was exhumed and subjected to an intense autopsy the revealed the woman had
endured a severe attack resulting in a broken neck and collapsed windpipe. Almost immediately, Edward Shue was arrested and forced to stand
trial.

During the proceedings, the prosecution called Mary Heaster to the stand. She was asked to publicly name anyone she felt could have murdered
her daughter. Of course, she identified Edward Shue. There was no mention of Zona's ghost during this part of the trial. However, the defense knew
that Mary was driven to find the girl by visions of her daughter. Attempting to discredit the witness and her testimony, Edward's defense team
asked Mary about her four meetings with Zona's ghost. In doing so, they inadvertently allowed Zona's own words to be introduced as evidence.
Clearly, the defense attorneys hoped that the court would scoff at any tales of the supernatural and view Zona's phantom as nothing more than a
mirage created by an unstable and possibly senile mind. However, the jury believed Mary's testimony and understood that Zona's manifestation
was only further proof that Edward Shue had savagely attacked his wife.

Bibliographies: Blackman, W. (1998). The Field Guide to North American Hauntings. New York: Three Rivers Press.

Hauck, Dennis. (1994). Haunted Places: Ghost Abodes, Sacred Sites, UFO landings, and other supernatural locations. New York: Penguin Book.

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West Virginia