Origin of Witch's Ball Superstition - A Theory

The Witch's Ball is a well-known tombstone located in Myrtle Hill Cemetery in Valley City, Ohio.  The folklore surrounding the cemetery itself includes several eye-witness accounts and re-tellings of appearances of the "Witch" buried beneath the oddly shaped marble headstone.

The truth behind the legend is especially vague and buried in layers of stories passed down for generations.

I first heard of the Witch's Ball in the mid 1980's.  Since starting the Creepy Cleveland website I have received more than a dozen stories each proclaiming to have heard the story, know of a first-hand account or offer an explanation.

Recently I've been reading John Stark Bellamy's excellent series of books detailing "Tales of Cleveland Woe".  In the book "The Maniac In The Bushes" there is a story called "Medina's Not-So-Merry Widow - Martha Wise's Deadly Crying Game 1925"

To summarize the story:  Martha Wise was weird. 

Born in the mid-1880's she led a hard life in a section of Medina County named Hardscrabble.  Growing up with a most likely undiagnosed case of epilepsy and weathering spinal meningitis in her teens, Martha had a reputation for "never missing a funeral".  Her first husband beat her and treated her poorly until his death in 1923.

Martha would go on to frighten the townsfolk with strange behavior, acts of arson and foaming at the mouth.  Martha also admitted to seeing spirits.

She would also go on to poison nearly her entire family with arsenic.

After what, for the time, was a sensational investigation. Martha was arrested and convicted of murder in the first degree.  All told she had poisoned 17 family members.  Three victims died from the fatal dose of arsenic.  Martha spent the rest of her mostly uneventful life in Marysville Prison and died in 1971.

But how is Martha connected to the Witch's Ball? 

The obvious connection, to me, is that Martha's family, including her victims, are all buried in Myrtle Hill Cemetery.

While John Bellamy never uses the word "witch" in his story of Martha Wise, I find it an easy reach to assume someone over the years referred to Martha as such.  With documentation of Martha "seeing spirits" and at one point confessing that the Devil coerced her into setting ten mysterious fires in the township, connecting Martha with witchcraft seems obvious.

So there's a story of a backwoods widow embodying everything you'd expect in a children's fairy-tale of a witch poisoning innocent people with her toxic brew.  Throw into the story the location of her unfortunate victim's graves and lastly add a most unorthodox tombstone in the shape of a three-foot marble ball.

Now add over 60 years worth of embellishments and re-tellings. 

Ta-Da!  You've got a good ghost story.

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Today I had the occasion to visit Myrtle Hill Cemetery and thought I might try to locate the graves of Martha's victims.  Surprisingly, they were very easy to find.  The families having plots right off the main road a mere 200 feet from the infamous Ball.  More fuel for the folklore fire?

Sophia Hasel, Martha's mother and victim of fatal arsenic poisoning

Fred and Lillian Gienke, Martha's Uncle and Aunt.  Both victims of Martha's arsenic.

  

Zoinks! Another Scooby-doo adventure.

I arrived for an actor training class offered at Regal Vineyards. It is on County Line Rd in Madison OH. Just off Route 20. There is a house there that looks like it was built before the last century began. I am told that the place has been locked up for the last 40 years.

The home was one of the first wineries located in Ashtabula County.  Established by immigrants from Lithuania, I have been told.  In the 1970’s, the vineyards were abandoned due to family tragedy.  That brings us to the new owners of this property.

Remember, this place has been closed off from human contact for over 40 years. Now they have cracked it open and there is some kind of rock labyrinth there. That may be some kind of spiritual tool. Several local Paranormal research groups have been out to the property, confirming suspicions that the building may be haunted. It seems that real spirits may roam these halls. On another note, I have heard employees there laugh nervously about some kind of vortex, when they think no one is listening. I heard one of them say, “It came from beyond the vortex.” It gave me chills.

I tend be skeptical when it comes to haunt stories. I hate to tell you that I think I saw something there. After the class was over and everything was closed up for the night, a few of us remained in the lot talking. That is when I noticed a face in the window looking at me. I know it sounds dumb, but as soon as it noticed me see it, the face vanished. At that moment I felt as if a friend was sad to see me go. I know this all seems weird. We checked inside, but found nothing. I just needed to share this with someone. It is always strange when you come in contact with the other side. I have to go back there some more, just to check it out.

House at Borromeo in Wickliffe

Hello,

I came across your sight while searching for information about the abandoned house on the grounds of Borromeo.

It IS haunted, I am quite sure of it. We used to walk by it when I was a kid. This was between 1981 and 1983. Images of the place flash in my memory from time to time and I have nightmares about the grounds of All Saints. Something very strange happened to me there which I still cannot explain and I suspect something latched onto me and has bothered me for my entire life. The story is that I was found walking around the grounds of the school in a state of shock. I don't remember walking around, I just remember waking up in the nurses office. I thought I had been knocked out because I opened my eyes on the cot. None of the other kids knew what happened to me. I have flashes of memories of dark figures standing above me and there being tall brown grass around me (I think it was at the top of the hill where the statues are). I've wanted to go back to the grounds to try to recall what happened since it's bothered me for my entire life, but at the same time, it might be something I don't want to know.

Anyway, yes, it is haunted and there is something terribly evil about that place. Be careful if you go there.

Since this is along your lines, look at the grounds of the seminary from above on google maps. Note the significance of the owl in occult symbolism.

That is all.

Be well.

-Paul

Unsettling Swamp Area

Contributed by E Er

There’s a section of the bike path in Chardon, Ohio where the land slopes down to a swampy section on the right side. A friend told me that if you jump the fence and work your way down into the middle of the watery area, you’ll be able to see a clearing a ways off from the trail. I guess a few high local kids in high school found it one afternoon while they were exploring and now everyone knows about it. They said the clearing has a lot of trees around it and seems like its hedged off from the rest of the area. Everyone who goes into the clearing gets a real uncomfortable feeling like they are being watched. It’s become a popular dare to go there at night and spend 15 minutes there, after dark. I had a few friends who did it, but they didn’t stay the entire 15 minutes because the shadows their flashlights made in the trees began to creep them out. My friends said the shadows seemed to move a lot even when they weren’t moving the flashlight, so there may be a weird optical illusion or something.

Offerings for the Dead?

I received a few photos with very little details...  all I know is that they were all taken in the same cemetery during a full moon.  Since they were sent to me - I presume them to be from a local cemetery as well, but I'm not sure.

In any event - the subject matter is the objects left at the tombstone.  I know there are many odd and not-so-odd traditions regarding offerings in cemeteries, but does anyone have any idea what these mean?



A candle. Simple enough, but what's it made of?


Blue hair braid over a loaf of bread, two cups of coffee and what appears to be an entire pack of cigarettes.


...there's also a suspicious hole next to the tombstone.


So what do ya think? Someone remembering a buddy with whom sandwiches, coffee and smokes were shared, or something more subtle? What kind of graveyard magic is this?

Heritage Hall on Prospect

Hey CreepyCleveland,

I found your site by accident, but I am glad that I did. I was trying to find historical information on Heritage Hall located at 2200 Prospect Ave in Cleveland. It is currently a property of American Campus Communities/YMCA and it serves as studio dorms for CSU Students.

I have several friends that live and work at the security desk in Heritage Hall. They report some strange phenomena that cannot be easily explained.

For example, and I am not exaggerating anything, there were two strange occurrences affiliated with Room 720. The first occupant was a young man of around 25. He was at first quiet, but sociable. He dressed well, bathed, and was relatively upstanding. I know this because he was in my section in Law School. Over the course of the semester, he became progressively withdrawn and ominous. His movements became slow and lethargic, his eyes sunken, words reduced to mumbles. He wore the same dirty hoodie day after day, pulled over his head to obscure his eyes. He used to leave and return at all hours of the night, and he started stalking girls in my section. Eventually it was so bad that he was dismissed from law school. He was evicted, and I haven't heard about him since.

The second occupant, a girl, moved in for the start of that following semester. She was social and outgoing. She even had RAs called on her for a party that got too loud. About a month into the semester, she stopped walking around. Eventually people lost track of her and nothing was heard until her family called the building wondering if anyone had seen her. She was missing for two weeks.

Beyond that there are other sorts of phenomena. Security desk workers report lights that turn off and on in the middle of the night. In the offices immediately behind the security desk, there is a two way switch were both must be turned off in order for the light to go off. These lights, and the lights in the mail room all turn off on their own from time to time. The current occupant of 512 reports incessant banging and voices from one corner of the room. It is interesting because his immediate neighbors next to him are his friends or the rooms are vacant. The rooms above and below are vacant as well. It is strange to say the least.

I know that the studios were used as lodging for the YMCA and then they were repurposed into a homeless-transitioning type housing. The building was built in the early 1900s, so it is plausible that there is some history. I wonder if anyone else in your community has heard about the goings on at Heritage, if there are any.

Any help on digging up some info on Heritage Hall would be great.

Thanks,

T

Black Eyed Beings

Ok. This is a new one for this area, and quite different from all stories of similar nature that I've been able to find. Has anyone ever encountered a black eyed man in Cleveland? I mean all black. Whites of eyes and all. The man usually wears sunglasses, and hangs out at local West side bars. I met him at the bar I worked at, about a dozen of times, only the last time I seen him was when he finally showed me his eyes!!!! Like all the stories I've read on the Internet, every girl that worked there was completely creeped out by him, and uncomfortable. But I wasn't. It was the opposite. I was drawn to him. He was a very strange man, and we had some out of this world conversations. He wasn't good looking at all either. Walked hunched and funny, with a cane. But anyway, even still to this day I think about him a lot, and regret not hanging out with him. Wish I could find him. He had this strangeness to him, like he knew something we didn't. Something big. When I seen his eyes, I have to admit I was in shock. It was very scary. But things we talked about were weird, and it's like when you figure out the meaning of life, like everything makes sense, for only a moment, then it's gone! That was how everything was that we talked about. I'm sorry this is long and probably all over the place! But there's so much I have to this story, and bits and pieces come back as I write this! But please reply if you know of this man! All I seem to find is of black eyed kids, and overwhelming sense of dread when they are around.

Sincerely,

Ana C. From Cleveland.

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!

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

Fox 8 Ghost Video. Indisputable proof?

Have you seen the video?

Fox 8 has disabled embedding, so you'll have to go there to watch it.

Well.

What do you think?

What *is* that?

A friend of mine allowed me to post these two photos of her son's kindergarten graduation party this past spring. She wants to know what you think that white, tornado-looking thing is near the door.

She attests that there was nothing like that in the room at the time and she has seen similar phenomena is other photos. I'm trying to convince her to send me the other photos, too...

Her explanation:

It was in like 5 other pics [...] at different angles...He's had them in tons of pics since he was a baby. His aunt and I think it's his paternal grandma who passed a month before I met his dad...

Well, what do you think?

---

*Obviously, I masked the identities of the other kids.

Twin City Opera House - McConnelsville, Ohio

On Saturday Jan 23rd 2010 we did our investigation at The Twin City Opera House and let me tell you it was an awesome experience. We would like to thank COGS for hosting it for us, they are a great bunch of guys very friendly and well informed on the history of the Opera House. We had access to the entire place. Some of the ghost we encountered were a 10 yr old lil girl named Elizabeth and a gentleman named Robert who enjoyed red wine. After we got set up we started out on the catwalk with and ghost meter and our new piece of equipment the k2. We also set up some trigger objects a bottle of red wine and some candy for Elizabeth. All setting on some baby powder. So we began asking questions and almost immediately we got some activity the EMF started to go off and the k2 was going nuts. We asked questions like if you are here plz light up all the lights on the k2 and within a few seconds they lit up, and we do have this on video. So we left for a little bit to explore other areas and we returned about an hour later to find a lil finger print in the powder now during this time we were gone no one else was on the catwalk, we have this on a picture, unfortunately it didn't show up on video. Out in the auditorium we got some hits on the ghost meter which COGS said they never had before. In the basement we got a pic of the black mist which we are very happy about, We got a ton of EVPs and pictures that we will be posting soon, Later in the evening me and my lil sister were in the catwalk alone and we got some serious activity from red wine Robert which we do have on video. Come to find out Robert likes the ladies, lol. With two ladies up there he was very active we got some responses on the k2 when questions were asked and on the ghost meter, we even got touched a few times. I have a part on video where someone was tugging on my pants and you can see on the video my pants moving. This place was awesome and we had a great time meeting new friends and catching awesome activity, I would have to say The Shadowseekers will return to The Twin City Opera House again to do another investigation. My husband who is a skeptic actually got touched and was amazed and now he believes. In the basement we did have some technical difficulties but it was all good in the end. Once again a huge Thanks goes out to COGS for hosting the hunt.
Thank You
Tammie Mccourt Founder Of The Shadowseekers



Hi, these are the pics of the black mass that lurks in the basement of The Twin City Opera House, if you look close it looks like it is moving out of view of the camera.They are in correct order that they were taken.

Woodland Cemetery, Cleveland

Here are a few pics we caught while doing our investigation at Woodland Cemetery, now while on our investigations I absolutely do not allow anyone to smoke so what you see is actual mist that we can not explain and if you look closely at the one pic it almost looks like a woman standing there and in the very next pic it looks like she is swooping away.Also our website is up and running it still needs a lil work but it can be checked out... www.shadowseekers.moogo.com let us know what you think.

Thank You
Tammie Mccourt - Founder of The Shadowseekers

Old Hospital in Broadview Hts

I don't normally create a new post just to post a link to somebody else's content, but I wanted to point out that Erin O'Brien's Owners Manual for Human Beings has posted a nice photo-essay on the old VA hospital in Broadview Hts. Rumored to be haunted for most of the years after it's closing and subsequent abandonment, Erin shows us some great photos of the inside of the hospital before it was torn down. She also includes some informative links to other sites with more info.

Check it out: Old Hospital

Pics of Fir Ave Cemetery

On Sept 13, 2009 Our group did an investigation at The Fir Ave cemetery, these are pics from there. We grew up in front of this cemetery on Wakefield I am the one that submitted that story I finally got the chance to investigate it I was so excited we caught some very creepy EVPs as well.

Well enjoy the pics.

Tammie McCourt - founder
The Shadowseekers

Canal Visitors Center in Valley View Ohio

A month or so ago, we had my stepson for a few weeks. He is 15, so we tried to find some cool things to keep him entertained and decided to go to a few things that were rumored to be haunted. One of the places we went was the Canal Visitors Center or Hell's Half Acre in Valley View. We went there around 12:30 or so on a Friday night and just took a bunch of random pictures. Well, one of the pictures, we were trying to get pictures of the inside of the building. The picture that was taken, was taken just out front of the house while standing on the front porch on the outside looking in. Me, being the complete retard that I am, didn't realize what the flash would do. So basically, you see the camera's reflection and my lovely finger nails. Then, when you look closer, on the camera lenses, on the lower left part of the lens you see a face. I see a man with a cowboy hat and a bandanna on his face. What do you think? I have zoomed up on it, so you can see the image. I also got a few more pictures with "things" on it, however, no where nearly as obvious as this. The next day, we went into the building, looking for pictures, anything that may have explained this...a possible reflection of something? We weren't able to find anything. Hmmm.....

Have a good one!

Michael-Anne Cox

Haunted Movie Theater (Parmatown Mall)

From the Creepy Cleveland Archive
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Contributed by Russ

Webmasters Note: Russ sent me this interesting tidbit on July, 22, 2001. Check this one out - verrry creeepy!!

I worked at a five-screen movie theatre located in Parmatown Mall for four years until is was permanently closed on May 28, 2001. The theatre opened its doors 1967 as the first two-screen movie theatre in the Cleveland area. It has since been renovated into a 5-screen plex. Throughout the duration of my employment, I have witnessed, along with many other coworkers, an extraordinary amount of paranormal activity at the theatre. Most activity took place at night, after close between 10pm-midnight. There were usually two staff members present during this time, a manager and a staff lead. The manager stayed upstairs completing closing issues, while the staff lead, myself, cleaned and stocked the concession stand. These are just a few of the hauntings that come to mind:

• Various nights after close, I witnessed blurred images of a person or a mist heading towards cinema 5’s hallway and a figure of a teenage boy wearing a baseball hat near the photobooth.



• I twice felt a negative presence approach me at the concession stand while cleaning. It felt like something was about to strike me, so I recall jumping back instantly while my heart pounded profusely.



• On at least two occasions, I heard my named called by some unknown voice -- once at the stands after close, and a second time while I was taking pictures of an upstairs’ room on the last day the cinema was open.



• It was quite common for the staff to observe the doors in cinema 5 frequently opening and closing by themselves and the faucet at the concession stand sink turning on when no one was around.



• While popping corn years ago, I remember hearing the sound of footsteps going up and down the stairs and the hall door opening and closing. I would look and nobody was there.



• One night after lock-up I discovered a knife in the men’s restroom. I walked away to inform the manager, but when I returned it was gone. Nobody was in the theater.



• We had a Disney Store promotional tie-in for the movie, "Dinosaur." We displayed Disney merchandise above our concession stand for about two months without any strange occurrences, except for one instance where the merchandise started to rock back and forth and before we knew it, it came tumbling down near some patrons.



• We have reasons to believe that cinema 5 is the most haunted. Despite numerous attempts to adjust/fix the heat/ac, cinema 5 always remained cold. When the theatre was empty, we would often hear loud noises coming from that auditorium. Generally some nights when business was slow, auditoriums would sometimes remain empty for the entire evening. On one of those occurrences, one of my coworkers perceived a child around the age of ten wearing blue Adidas pants and a white t shirt in cinema 5. When she turned around, the child was gone. On a separate occasion, during her first summer working there, this same coworker was cleaning cinema 5 after a movie emptied and noticed a big man by the left exit doors in the theatre. The man had an older, yet scary appearance. He disappeared when my friend looked away. Also, one night after lock-up when my manager was exiting the theatre by herself, she felt and presence and heard breathing directly over her shoulder. My manager thought it was one of us playing a joke on her, but soon discovered that there was nobody in the auditorium. She ran out.
  I have no doubt that my manager is inclined to this sort of paranormal activity. She frequented the ghost more than anyone, witnessing the office radio turning on by itself and a projector turntable rotating at an unordinary rate while the machine was turned OFF. She also heard the sound of footsteps, doors opening and closing, and somebody calling her name upstairs. Whenever I would visit her after I completed my staff lead duties, she always jumped when I knocked on the door. She was never comfortable upstairs in the office. Also, while sitting in the office one evening, my manager and another employee heard a woman’s scream originating from cinema 2. When they investigated, there was nobody in the theatre and the movie was off.
  


• One time about a year before we closed, a mysterious bare footprint appeared in the floor dirt outside the office door. We tried duplicating the print with our own feet and some water and cleaning solution, but we had no success. My manager said the print disappeared soon after and then reappeared the next morning. The following day we mopped and scrubbed the print and it never returned.
  


• We took a few pictures of cinema 5 on the last day of business. The prints could not be developed.
  

After 30 years of business, the cinema was closed on May 28, 2001 because the mall wanted to bring in another company that was willing to pay a higher lease. It currently lays abandoned and untouched since our departure. Three weeks after we closed, myself and a friend re-entered the cinema with a spare key. The power breakers were all turned off with the exception of cinema’s 2 and 5. I never told my friend about the hauntings at the cinema, but after we walked around cinema 5, my friend told me that she felt a great negative presence in that auditorium. She felt like somebody was watching us and she could not believe that I didn’t feel the same energy as her. I told her that I must have grown used to it after four years of paranormal activity. I have no doubt that if the new theatre opens at Parmatown the hauntings will prevail -- specifically in cinema 5.

Sincerely,
Russ from Parma, Ohio

Webmasters Note: I emailed Russ and thanked him for the great submission...and I got this response on July 23, 2001

Actually, it's interesting that you asked me if I had any more stories. Yesterday, I was at the mall and was inspired, by my recent submission to your site, to re-enter the cinema with my spare key. I took a walk upstairs after turning on some of the electrical breakers. While walking through the long hallway upstairs near the projection booths and manager's office, I heard a noise in the wall as I walked. It seemed like it was following me down the hall. It sounded like a scratching and like somebody was hitting metal with a screw-driver. Like i said, I worked there for four years and I've never heard anything like that before inside the wall. I never heard anything about anybody dying at the cinema, but I wouldn't doubt it. It's been open for over 30 years and it had its share of renovations and expansions. If anything, it could just be an old person who had a heart-attack while watching a movie. But like i said, I'm not certain if anybody has ever died at the cinema -- at least not in the last 15 years (that's when my manager first started working there and she would have told me if somebody was killed/died).

Tombstones in the Woods?

From the Creepy Cleveland Archives
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Berea, Ohio - Contributed by Patrick

Hello, I stumbled upon your webpage 'Creepy Cleveland', and think it's pretty cool. I've read through most of the stories. I currently reside in Austin, Texas, but grew up in Brookpark, Ohio. I know a place in Middleburg Hts/Berea, that you may find interesting. Friends and I used to hang out in woods surrounded by trucking warehouses and a marshy lake. If you look at the map below, you can see the area. Basically the borders were Eastland Rd, Sheldon Rd, Engle Rd, Bagley Rd. I hung out here in the late 80s/early 90s, but people had partied there since at least the 70s. There's a big clearing where people used to ride dirt bikes and stuff.
Anyway, there was always a rumor of tombstones hidden in the woods. We spent a lot of time searching for them, but I always figured someone had seen the 'St. Adalbert's cemetary'(see map) from the woods, and mistaken this as the hidden graveyard. One of the tombstones was also rumored to be the grave of Daniel Boone. I didn't really think it was a true story. Especially since a few friends and I had been to virtually every nook and corner of these woods, and knew them well. Most of the woods along Bagley and southern Eastland Rd eventually would meet with private property(usually fenced), as there are houses along these streets. I believed if the tombstones did exist, they were someone's private plots or something. Anyway, over the years the land has been developed. Lots of crappy businesses popped up. I came home for the holidays a few years back. My friend Bob told me that "They found the tombstones". They as in the developers. Weird part is that the graves were very close to a section we'd hang out in often. We probably walk within 50 feet of them many times. These tombstones are from the 1800s, and were found as the land was leveled for a strip mall/movie theater. I've included a map.

The star is '17840 Bagley Rd', the nearest landmark (Kmart). If you get off of I-71 and drive west on Bagley you will pass the Kmart and St Adalbert cemetery. Soon after that look for a movie theater on your right (north) side. Drive into the lot, and you'll see the graves enclosed in a fenced off area. Pretty weird to see these century old graves surrounded by strip mall hell. Sadly, almost all Abrahm's Lake woods has been developed. It was a pretty creepy place in itself. Even in daylight. I'm not sure what part of town you live in. Maybe you've been there already? Anyway, I thought it might be worth seeing, if you're ever in that neck of the woods.
Take care
Patrick