Since ancient times, humans have been intrigued by supernatural phenomena and ghosts.
Various myths and legends are based on stories of spirits hovering among the living: some seem true and others have been disproved.
But one thing we do know is that we will always live with uncertainty about the existence of true ghosts.
Some people don’t believe in ghosts, but if you are not a skeptic and believe that supernatural beings live among us accompany us on this tour.
The ghost of the tulip stairs
In Greenwich, east of London, is the Queen’s House, whose construction was commissioned in 1616 by Anne of Denmark.
The lobby was magnificent and had a beautiful spiral staircase, known as the Tulip.
One day in 1966, the old Reverend Ralph Hardy was in the Queen’s House and, like every tourist, he wanted to immortalise the beautiful staircase.
Everything seemed normal, but the real terror started when the photo was revealed.
In the photograph, a left figure dressed in a shroud was seen climbing the staircase and holding the railing with both hands.
Most agree that this is the ghost of a domestic worker who lost her life when she tripped and fell down the large stairs.
Great experts of Kodak’s house examined the photograph and declared that it had not been altered, even though many people doubt the true identity of the portrayed ghost and the reason for his death.
But if one thing is certain, it is that photography will always be a mystery.
The hotel nicknamed Suicide
Hollywood is the birthplace of many dreams, but it also has its share of nightmares.
The Cecil Hotel, for example, seems to be a magnet for suspicious deaths.
Since opening in 1927, it has been the scene of 16 murders, suicides and other macabre events.
In 1934, Sergeant Louis D. Borden cut his throat with a razor in his room.
Less than four years later, Marine Roy Thompson jumped off the hotel roof. The body was found near a nearby building.
In September 1944, Dorothy Purcell, who was only 19 years old, woke up with abdominal pain without knowing she was going into labour. She threw the baby out the bedroom window and ended up in a psychiatric hospital.
In 1962, George Giannini was walking near Cecil when he was killed by the fall of the body of a 27-year-old woman who had jumped from the ninth floor.
Shortly after this case, the hotel earned its infamous nickname of “Suicide”.
In 2013, guests started complaining about the lack of water pressure.
To the surprise of the hotel management, it was discovered that the cause of the problem was the body of a 21-year-old Canadian tourist, Elisa Lam, who had been decomposing in the water system for almost a month.
The coroner was unable to determine the official cause of death and the security footage only makes the situation worse. In her last moments, Elisa seemed tired, disoriented and frightened.
The hotel also hosted two serial killers: Richard Ramirez (the Night Stalker) and Jack Unterweger.
The ghost of the castle of Fumone
In the archive room of the Castle of Fumone rests in a corner, the little Francesco Longhi.
Tradition has it that the wicked sisters, envious and unwilling to lose their wealth, decided that the hated little brother had to die.
They killed him day after day, in an atrocious way, putting tiny pieces of glass in his bowl every day.
In a short time the first pains appeared and became more and more atrocious, until they turned into a slow and terrifying agony: he died at the tender age of five.
The mother, torn by the pain caused by the loss of her long-awaited and beloved son, ordered his remains to be embalmed with wax, as was customary with popes, and kept in a crystal case.
According to the legend the castle is haunted by the ghost of Emilia Caetani Longhi: it seems that every night the woman, with a restless and echoing step, goes to find her little son, takes him in her arms and starts swinging him between nenie and groans.
But it seems that even the marquis himself has not abandoned the castle, and that his spirit delights in hiding or moving small objects.
The ghost of Fredy Jackson
Freddy Jackson was an engineer during the First World War, belonging to a British Air Force military squadron.
In 1919 the team took a photo and Victor Gordar, the photographer and commanding officer, noticed that right behind it was the smiling face of Freddy, who had died two days earlier from a terrible accident while repairing an aeroplane propeller.
This extraordinary fact was discovered 56 years later, when Gordar decided to write his memoirs and began looking for photographs to illustrate the book.
The inspiration of The Shining
The Stanley Hotel has become extremely famous for Stephen King’s literary work and Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation, The Shining.
During the mid 1970s, the author stayed in room 217 (in the film, the room number was changed to 237).
King said that his stay there made him so paranoid and frightened that he was forced to write the book.
None of the guests said they saw the iconic twins or the rotting woman, but many said they heard the children laughing, people running around the fourth floor, doors closing without explanation, flashing lights and sudden drops in temperature.
Some even claimed to have heard Flora Stanley playing the piano, which would not be so bad if she hadn’t been dead for 80 years.
Currently, the hotel is used for an annual opera inspired dance ( Shining Ball ), horror events, film festivals and more.
For the curious, room 217 and the fourth floor await you.
The story of the ghost of the Brown Lady
In Raynham Hall, England, one of the most famous ghost stories has happened.
In 1935 two photographers for a major magazine were immortalising the central staircase of the building when the ghost of a woman named Dorothy Walpole, wife of Charles Townshend, appeared.
The couple lived quietly in this large villa until one day, Charles, who was known as a man of violent temperament, discovered his wife’s infidelity with Thomas Wharton, a Marquis and former suitor of Dorothy.
Charles condemned her to be locked up in Raynham’s chambers without being able to see the outside world or any of her children.
Mel 1726 Dorothy died, although the cause of her death was never clarified.
Some say it was a natural cause, others say it was smallpox.
But there are those who doubt Charles’ temperament, so they believe he finally decided to throw her down the stairs.
From this day on, many have said that this woman appears around the villa wearing a brown dress: the last garment she wore at the waist.
