Chris Eboch

If you think about a city the size of New York, it's not surprising that there are ghosts there. I mean, if you believe in ghosts at all. I wouldn't expect to see a ghost myself, because I never have. But my sister Tania does. You can read about our New York City ghost encounter in The Knight in the Shadows -- click the link to the right to read the first chapter. And here are a few other little ghost stories from the Big Apple.

Apartment Ghosts
The Bay Ridge Apartments in Brooklyn is supposed to have a whole bunch of ghosts. The family that lives there, the Makutas, seems to attract ghosts. A ghost named Otto moved there with the family, and an old lady ghost followed them home one day. Another lady ghost keeps waiting for a letter to come. Maybe the most interesting one is a ghost named Eileen. She keeps wanting people to call the police, because she thinks someone murdered her. That's the kind of ghost Tania and I have seen, mostly -- ones who have unfinished business, so they can't move on. Check out our books to see how we help them.

The Central Park Ghosts
Not all ghosts stick around because they have unfinished business, I guess. These two old ladies -- Rosetta and Janet Van der Voort -- just want to keep having fun. In the 1800s, the sisters lived in a mansion in Manhattan. They spent all their time together, and in the winter they went skating in Central Park a lot. They both died in 1880. Now people still see them on the Central Park skating rink. They do figure eights -- but their skates float above the ice! They wear old-fashioned dresses, the kind with the big lumpy bustles in the back -- one wears red, and one purple. Wouldn't that be something to see?

Houdini's Ghost
You've heard of Harry Houdini, right? The great magician? He used to live in Manhattan. Before he died in 1926, he promised some people he would contact them “from beyond the grave.” I don't know if he got his messages through, but people have claimed they've seen him in the apartment where he used to live.

Haunted Museum Artifacts
Maybe you think we're just making up all that stuff about a haunted sword in The Knight in the Shadows? How can a thing be haunted? Well, people say that the Museum of the American Indian, in Manhattan, has a whole bunch of haunted pieces in its collection. One of them is a sacred buffalo horn, donated by an Indian from Montana. You're supposed to be able to use the horn to have visions and feel the power of a buffalo. I know what you're thinking, but no -- they won't let you try it. Too bad.

You can find these ghostly stories, and more, in Haunted Places: the National Directory, by Dennis William Hauck.