Ghost child in the hallway

Trying to get back into blogging regularly is hard after having slowed down so much. It drives me insane because I want to get back into it so badly, but I have a hard time trying to get going again. As I type this I have several blog posts just waiting to be finished and published sitting on my hard drive, but I digress.

My main reason for writing this post is not to complain about my over abundance of blogging procrastination, but to share a tale of otherworldly proportions that happened roughly two weeks ago.

Our two story apartment, which is more town home than apartment, has a fairly large landing/hallway section upstairs. It's roughly 6x8 feet or within a foot or two of that and has three bedrooms and a bathroom on that floor.

On that night about midnight I woke up to my youngest daughter crying, so I got up and went into her room which is directly across the hall from mine, calm her down, close her door, and head back to my room. As I started to lay down I clearly saw a child about my sons height (3 1/2 to 4 ft) run from where my sons room is to the bathroom. Sitting up in bed I expected to see the bathroom light turn on and to hear my son using the facilities, neither of which happen and so I sat there perplexed for a second then proceeded to get up to check on him.

As I walked into the hallway I noticed that both my son's and daughters' doors are closed. Turning the light on in the bathroom and checking behind the shower curtain revealed no on in there. Upon checking both the my son's and daughters' rooms I find all three sound asleep.

Fearing a possible break in I decide to check downstairs where I find everything secure, with no intruders. At that point my wife and I are a bit freaked, but not horribly so. We've had other weird experiences here in our apartment which was built around 1979. While we don't think it is truly haunted we on occasion have heard sounds and seen other things that have no explanation. Usually we pass them off as typical apartment noises, thin walls and what not, but when you hear someone running down the stairs and see them run into your kitchen only to find nobody there, something strange is going on, but what exactly remains a mystery.

What happened in Caronia, Italy in 2004?

Oregon is now well on it's way into summer with the daily temperatures now reaching into the mid 80s. Now, ordinarily that doesn't bug me one bit, but here in my section of Oregon it gets humid and uncomfortable during the summer months, only getting worse as they drag on. Bizarrely this time of year in Oregon, everyone loves. They spend all winter complaining about the rain, or in the case of this last one, the snow, but love it when they are able to go outdoors without coats or umbrellas during the summer. However, this is accompanied by "Oh it's such a nice day, but to hot." which in my opinion completely defeats the concept of "Nice day." All that pales in comparison though to what happened in the early months of 2004 in Caronia, Italy, where for no apparent everyday items would catch fire.

At first they were electrical items and many began to search for reasons, such as power surges. However the phenomenon, as reported by some witnesses, even affected items that were not plugged into walls, including unplugged items, battery operated items, and possibly even standard non-electrical furniture.

Throwing another twist into it all cars and cell phones began having issues as well. In particular, car alarms would go off for no reason, or as reported in one case, the engine turned on when all the doors were locked and no one was in it. And all incidents ranging from the fires to the unusual car and phone behavior only seemed to occur when people were present to witness it.

So what was happening there in Caronia? No one really knows. Many blamed it on supernatural causes, such as demons or aliens. Others thought some bizarre natural phenomenon such as electric charges released from the Earth. And some thought someone was playing a game with Tesla style inventions. Till this day however no satisfactory answer has been found.

Sources and Further Reading:
Investigating Mysterious Fires in Italy - Unknown Country
Spontaneous Fires Break Out in Italy UPDATE: It Happened Before - Unknown Country
Caronia - Wikipedia
The mysterious fires of Canneto Di Caronia - Everything2

A Monkey and man named Jack

Mass hysteria has been blamed for countless weird events over the centuries. Recently it was blamed for sightings of a “Monkey Man” in India, who apparently randomly attacked people over a period of a few days in May 2001. There were even confirmed animal bites by the 4ft to 5 1/2ft tall Monkey Man.

After a few days of panic caused by this Monkey Man, who was described as either a naked man sized monkey or a man sized monkey wearing a helmet and jumpsuit with glowing red eyes, no more reports came in. That is of course if you don't believe that he boarded a plane to Moscow. I doubt any sane Monkey Man would do that when he could have just as easily hopped over to neighboring Tibet to chill with the Dalia Lama. It's what I would've done, either way though, the authorities wrote it off as mass hysteria, case closed, except for two brief appearances in 2002 to keep his fans happy.

All monkey business aside however, a even more interesting case of possible mass hysteria spread through Victorian era England. Instead of a jumpsuit wearing helmeted monkey however this was a man, devil, or perhaps some dashingly brilliant scientist guy from the future trying to act out his steampunk fantasy. I am of course talking about the awesomely named Spring Heeled Jack.

Jack made his first appearance sometime in 1837 hopping over a cemetery wall, afterward landing in front a passer by who described him as appearing muscular and devil like.

Later on in October, Spring Heeled Jack made his second appearance. Feeling a bit amorous Jack decided to accost a young woman. Immobilizing her, he began to kiss her neck and face while ripping her blouse and feeling her flesh with his claws that felt “cold and clammy as those of a corpse.”

He apparently enjoyed scaring the ladies, and continued with this activity. Also one for showing off, he would commonly leap in front of oncoming carriages when going after a victim. This of course caused even more chaos when he appeared, spooking the carriage drivers who would often wreck, while Jack jumped over or onto (the behavior that earned him his name) walls that were 9ft or higher, cackling like a true madman.

Another difference between India's monkey menace and Spring Heeled Jack was that Jack never fully disappeared. Sightings and encounters with Jack continued on into 1938 and even later, becoming even more bizarre as his presence remained. In two cases he even had flames coming out of his mouth, while wearing something that in this day and age would be considered “kinky”. He was also apparently bullet proof and to make things even crazier, the key suspect, the Marquis of Waterford, married and moved to Ireland, all while the sightings continued in England.

Eventually with all the media coverage, Jack became something of a folkloric character, as well as a villain and a hero in the Penny Dreadfuls, which were Victorian Era pulp fiction magazines. He was even used in place of the Devil in some plays at the time and was cited as a possible cause for the “Devil's Footprints” which appeared in Devon England. Eventually, just like the Monkey Man, he was written off as nothing more then mass hysteria, thanks in part to the media. However, on occasion, similar characters have made their appearance across the world, including Texas, Czechoslovakia, and of course in jolly old England.


Sources and Further Reading:
Monkey-man of New Delhi - Wikipedia
Monkey Man on CNN article 1 & article 2
Spring Heeled Jack - Wikipedia
Spring Heeled Jack - The Shadowlands
The Legend of Spring Heeled Jack - The Cobra's Nose