Cleveland Top 10 Creepiest Legends?

I was interviewed by John and the gang at Type 3 TV last night. In honor of Halloween, I hosted a poll on the site and presented the results of the top 10 creepiest legends in northern Ohio.

While there was initially some technical difficulties, the interview lasted about 90 minutes and covered the following legends:


Gray's Armory
South Bay Bessie
Squire's Castle
Rider's Inn
Witch's Ball
Helltown
Gore Orphanage
Mansfield State Reformatory
Franklin Castle
Melonheads



You can stream the entire show at the Type 3 TV website (it's in two parts, owing to the aformentioned technical difficulties), or you can grab my mp3 copy from here (Note: it's a 20.3M file) I want to thank John and the guys from Type 3 TV for having me on (again) and look forward to working with them in the future on some (possible) on-location haunts. Stay tuned, kids.

NOTE: It only took six years, but I finally got around to putting this interview on Youtube (with a static image of the ad for the show).  Easier than downloading (and mobile friendly!)

The House of Wills

Contributed by Ben

In Cleveland, Ohio a large three story manor stands as testament to a bygone era . This former funeral home was once a meeting place for grieving families. Some claim that the dearly departed still roam the labyrinthine halls searching for a way to break their mortal coils. Others believe the edifice to be the location of a portal to the other side. Do the souls of the dead inhabit this location? Do phantoms remain, searching for eternal salvation?

During its run as a hospital the mansion was the site of quite a few deaths and suicides. The last death to occur on the property was recorded in 2006 when a man was shot and bled to death on the front doorstep. Visitors to this location have reported seeing shadow people as well as hearing disembodied footsteps. Walking the halls of the building, one may hear someone call out their name only to find that there is no other person around. A former owner of the home passed away on the premises. There have been several sightings of a figure wearing a suit, with some speculating that it is this same soul. We have come across one account from a witness who claims to have seen some sort of vortex. While in the ballroom/casket display room the witness claims to have seen a swirling vortex appear for several moments.

Monsters near Ashtabula

Contributed by Tim

Hi

I heard a unique story from a woman living in the Northeastern Ohio area. She insists that animals resembling Yeti or Bigfoot have invaded the back of her property at dusk.

The area where she lives is in Ashtabula county, its enclosed with woods and remote compared to most towns. According to her, the creatures show up on a dark nights from the woods right next to her yard. There’s a short clearing between the end of the house and the woods, probably not too much more than 50 feet. The few times that it’s happened, they remain close by the edge of the woods, but one time they came through the tree line and into the yard.

She said that they usually make a kind of yelling noise. When she tried describe it, she said they yell in short bursts, breaking out suddenly and then stopping. It’s only happened a handful of times, and they don’t stay long, probably for less than an hour.The reason she knows what they look like is that one time they actually came up onto the porch.

One time in the fall, she was working in the kitchen at night with the screen door open in the dining room. As she was working, she heard a whispering noise out on the porch, and she stopped and listened for a bit to figure out what it was. She realized the sound was coming from the porch, so she moved to the screen door to unlatch it and look outside, but when she got to the door, she realized the source of the noise was very close to house, and she didn’t want to open the screen in case it was a wild animal.

Instead, she went to the kitchen window alongside the dining room to get a better view, and when she looked out, there were two figures standing on the porch right next to the screen door. They had been standing next to her, right outside the screen door in the dark making the whispering noise! She got pretty freaked out at this point, but was able to make out that they had fur and were the very tall Bigfoot animals she had seen before.

She stayed there by the window, watching them in the dark for a bit, but they eventually moved off the porch and went back into the treeline. They haven’t come back since then, but the experience creeped her out, and she wants to move to a more populated area if she can sell the house. The fact that they actually were right outside the screen door watching her was a lot more frightening than having them stay in the woods outside the yard line. She feels like they were whispering to her for some reason, since it’s the only time she’s heard them make that noise instead of their usual yells.

Other people have mentioned seeing bigfoot type figures in Northeastern Ohio so I thought that I should contribute this.

Rehabilitation Center in Chardon

Contributed by Anonymous

I've heard a lot of stories about a rehabilitation center in Chardon OH. According to a few nurses I know who worked there, a ghost of what appears to be a small child haunts the place. People say that there may have been an orphanage that burnt down around there, and this ghost is someone who died in the fire.

I've heard three stories about manifestations of the ghost. First, some staff members have seen a small child standing outside the doors at night. The person who told me this story had not heard of the ghost before, so she didn't think much of it when she first saw the apparition standing outside. But when she asked a more senior staff member there about it, the person became very uncomfortable and didn't want to go into too much detail. When she went back to see if the thing was still there, it had left.

The second story comes through a few different people who passed it along, so it's hard to be sure on accuracy. Basic gist of it is that a janitor or cleaning person was working alone one night when she heard a small child's voice in the hallway. She had a garbage setup on wheels with her, and when she walked down the hall away from the cleaning cart, she heard the noise behind her again. The story I heard was that she turned around, and saw a small child's head peaking around cleaning cart, watching her. The person I heard the story from didn't have many details on what she did at this point, but anybody who knows more should comment.

Third story is just generally that older residents will complain to the staff about a small child interrupting their sleep at night. The way the story was told to me, the elderly residents live on a floor where no children have access. I'm not familiar with the setup of the center or how accurate this is. There's a few other stories about hearing the ghost calling out late at night outside. If anybody has similar stories please comment!

Experiences in the Kirtland Chardon Area

Contributed by Anonymous

Hi,

I found your site when I searching the internet for paranormal stories about the Kirtland/Chardon area. I wanted to relate this story that I heard from a friend about strange stuff that's happened in that area.

A friend of a friend lives in a house where the backyard borders the tract of land between Kirtland Chardon and Mitchell Mills Road. From what he told me, a group of people were having a bonfire one night, when they were interrupted by a strange noise coming from the backwoods. They didn't break up the party right away, but as the night went on and people left and things died down, a small group of remaining people decided to investigate.

From my friend's description, it sounded like very large drums playing an off time kind of rhythm. They put out the bonfire and headed out into the woods to try and find the source of the noises, and they took a few guns with them just in case there were trespassers on the property. The noise sounded kind of far away, but his family owns a great deal of land behind the house, which was why they were concerned about someone being on their property.

Once they got a mile back into the treeline, the drumming stopped for a maybe thirty seconds or so, and then started again. After this point, the sounds would continue for a minute or two, fall off, and then start up again. My friend admitted that everybody was a little unsettled at this point, which is a given when you're out in the woods late at night. Eventually they came through a clearing and into a small ravine area where the trees thinned out a bit. I guess at this point, everybody really started to get the shakes, although my friend's description of what happened is kind of hard to understand. He said that everybody became real unsettled and the noise became more sporadic. At one point, it sounded like they were in front of the source of the sound, but after brief silence, it stopped and started from behind them. This threw everyone off a bit, so they decided to turn around and head back to figure out if their ears were playing tricks on them.

Once they headed back, it almost seemed like the sound shifted to the right of where they were standing. But when they started to move right to chase it, the noise cut off and didn't start up again. They stayed out there for a few minutes to see if it would resume, but everybody in the group began to get really frightened. They all said that the quiet in the woods at that point seemed threatening and the dark open spaces in that clearing was messing with their heads. They went back pretty quickly and the sound didn't come back that night.


My one friend has only heard the noise a few times since then, but he hasn't gone to check it out. People have all kinds of vague stories about indian burial grounds and witches and whatnot in that area, but it seems pretty ridiculous. Still some people have had real experiences, and this one seemed pretty credible to me. Most of the other ones I've heard are about lights over the woods in the area.

Please comment if you or anyone else has had similar experiences!

The Palace Theater (Canton) Ghost

Hi! I would like to submit a haunted place for your website. Here's the info:

Palace Theatre
Canton, Ohio

On the opening night in 1926, patrons of the Palace Theatre were treated to the sounds of the Kilgen Wonder Organ at the hands of the famous Banks Kennedy. In the 1930's, he was shot and killed in the basement of the theatre by the order of a mob boss. Banks had been dating the mob boss's daughter against his wishes. There have also been reports of a little girl seen in the balcony.

Thanks,

Ben

From writer Charles Cassady

Although it is not a Cleveland subject matter, I have written another book containing many a creepy thing, PARANORMAL MISSISSIPPI RIVER. My longest work yet, more than 300 pages. So if one is buying ghost stories by weight, this makes the best deal yet.

You might want to at least feature the book trailer online because I feel it's quite amusing. And made entirely in a camera tower at Northfield Park harness track in between laps!