Boo! Scariest Movie

Oh my friends.  Let’s do a twist today.  Let’s see if you can scare me for a change.  Mom/dad were sitting the living room last night with us anipals.  The room was dark except for the flames of the fireplace.  They were talking about movies they have seen over the years that scared them silly.  Conversation went back and forth until they settled on two.

Dad’s Movie Pick – 1408.  This movie came out in 2007 and started John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson.  You see John Cusack’s character was a so called ‘ghost hunter’.  He went to famous places and would spend the night in haunted rooms.  Most of the time, nothing happened and the places were debunked.  But then while writing his latest book, he travels to New York to stay at the Dolphin Hotel in room 1408, a haunted room.  In fact, it was so haunted that the hotel would not rent the room to anyone.  Through lawyers, he finds out that if the room is vacant, the hotel has to rent it so he makes a reservation to stay.  He checks in and meets with the hotel manager, played by Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson tries everything he can to persuade Cusack’s character not to stay in the room – a room upgrade, expensive booze and even will allow Cusack to look at a book he has made showing over 50 deaths in room 1408.  But in the end, Cusack stays in 1408.  Let’s just say that 1408 is everything you can imagine it to be.

Mom’s Movie Pick – House on Haunted Hill.  This movie came out in 1999.  Mom/dad will usually go to the movies to see comedy’s but for some reason, they saw this movie in the theater.  Don’t ask me why because it’s not like them.  Mom actually watched part of the movies with her hands covering her eyes.  At one time, she even told daddy that she might have to leave – that’s how scared she was.  The entire movie is about a millionaire who offers a diverse group of people $1,000,000 to spend the night in a haunted house with a horrifying past.  “nuff said before I make water from being scared.

So my question to you my friends, what is the one movie that you saw that scared your pants off?

 

Boo! 17 Hundred 90 Inn and Tavern

Today mom and dad helped me by reminding me of a story at their true love – Savannah, Georgia.  One of the must things to do in Savannah if you have never done it is to take a stroll through downtown at night on a haunted ghost tour.  There are walking tours, horse and buggy tours or even a hearse tour if you dare.

Many moons ago, mom/dad went with my mom’s sister and her daughter, my little niece Savannah.  Nice name huh?  Savannah must have been about two and they decided to do a night time horse and buggy haunted ghost tour.  It must have been scary too because little Savannah stayed camped out inside of mom’s hoodie the entire horse and buggy tour.

One of the last places on the tour was a little house called the 17 Hundred 90 Inn and Tavern.  It’s a quaint little place, not so scary during the day but a night – chills.  The 17 Hundred 90 Inn and Tavern is located at 306 East President Street, Savannah. The bottom floors have a restaurant and bar area while the upper floors have 14 suites in the inn.  It has a long history of untimely death and ghosts.  It was originally built in 1820 and is one of the oldest buildings in the Savannah area.

The most paranormal activity revolves around poor sweet Anna who fell from the window of room 204.  There are many stories about poor Anna – we really don’t know which one is the truth.

One story states that she was married to the designer of the home, Steel White, who died in 1790 in a tragic riding accident.  Anna fell in love with a German sailor who went off to sea and promised to return but never did.  Anna found out that she was pregnant and realized that the German sailor never meant to return.  In despair, she jumped to her death from room 204.

Another story similar to the one above with Anna has Anna being a servant at the inn instead of being married to the designer of the home.  The end is the same result though, her untimely death.

People have reported the ghost of poor Anna leaning over them while they sleep in room 204.  Other stories are of Anna caressing men’s cheeks and as they wake they see Anna crying and then jumping to her death out the window.  Items are also often reported missing – wallets, jewelry, keys – all of which are later found mysteriously in a planter or behind a shelf.

Stories were so rampant at one point in room 204 that the 17 Hundred 90 Inn and Tavern required any patron staying in the room to sign a waiver stating they would not request their money back should they not stay the entire night.  Nowadays, it is no longer required because most people wanting room 204 are hoping for a little ghost sighting of poor sweet Anna.

So this story was told on horse and buggy ride late at night through the streets of Savannah.  Mom, Dad, my Aunt Tina and two year old niece Savannah who was taking up shop under mom’s hoodie.  The mood was set.  It was dark, a little misty.  All you could hear was the clickey-clack of the horses feet, an occasional snarl from the horse and the soft tale of Anna coming for the tour guide.  That’s when my niece Savannah decided to poke her head out to the world and say in her little child like voice, “Poor Anna”.

So do you believe in ghosts, spooks and things that go bump in the night?  Do you have a little adventure still left in you?  Want a weekend trip at a haunted inn – I’ve heard that the 17 Hundred 90 has open reservations…. if you dare my friends.

 

Boo! H.H. Holmes

I know you are asking yourself who in the world is H.H. Holmes and why is he being featured on my 31 Days of Spook?  The name sounds so plain and innocent.  But I assure, it is not.  You see H.H. Holmes is the common name of Dr. Henry Howard Holmes (who was actually born Herman Webster Mudgett – try to figure that out huh?)  H.H. Holmes is considered America’s First Serial Killer.  Does the name sound innocent now?

Most people that want to become a doctor go into the field hoping to prevent death. H.H. Holmes went to school to become a doctor to help him out more in causing death and destruction.  Let’s start from here and let me explain to you what H.H. Holmes actually did.

It starts out in 1886 in Chicago.  H.H. Holmes built a hotel right in town near all of the fair activities.  In the time that he was building it, he often brought in different construction crews to add things and then fired that crew afterwards.  Again the next day hiring a different construction crew to work on something else at the hotel.  That way, not one construction crew or person knew of the intricacies of the hotel.  What intricacies?  Well like 100’s of windowless rooms, doorways that opened into brick walls, stairways leading to nowhere, doors that opened from the outside and don’t forget the fun rooms.  The rooms that had soundproof walls and gas lines in them to asphyxiate the guests.  Or rooms that had walls covered with iron plates and blowtorches to incinerate guests.  Or the secret hanging chamber… or the basement where he would dissect, strip the flesh off guests and then sale their bodies to medical schools.  What a host huh?

The hotel was nicknamed the Castle by the people of the area and it was three stories and a block long.  The name of the actual hotel was called the World’s Fair Hotel.  Yep, you guessed it.  The hotel was right there in the same area of the World Fair in 1893.  Just think of all of the innocent people coming to  Chicago for the World’s Fair.  They see this nice, new hotel and check in thinking they are safe… and then they are never heard from again.  Thus in the end, the hotel was then called the Murder Castle.

In the end, justice was given to H.H. Holmes.  He was eventually caught and although he claimed to have killed 27 people, it is actually thought the count could be well over 200 people!  What’s even more interesting is that H.H. Holmes is even linked to the likes of Jack the Ripper.  Some people even think that they may be one and the same.  H.H. Holmes was actually in London during the killings of Jack the Ripper.  And of course, Jack the Ripper was actually a very clean cut killer – some believe that he had a medical background.  With all of the killing that H.H. Holmes did, I would think he would fit that bill.  Do you?

Picture Mugshot from Wikipedia

 

31 Days of Spook – Scariest Movie

Oh my friends.  Let’s do a twist today.  Let’s see if you can scare me for a change.  Mom/dad were sitting the living room last night with us anipals.  The room was dark except for the flames of the fireplace.  They were talking about movies they have seen over the years that scared them silly.  Conversation went back and forth until they settled on two.

Dad’s Movie Pick – 1408.  This movie came out in 2007 and started John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson.  You see John Cusack’s character was a so called ‘ghost hunter’.  He went to famous places and would spend the night in haunted rooms.  Most of the time, nothing happened and the places were debunked.  But then while writing his latest book, he travels to New York to stay at the Dolphin Hotel in room 1408, a haunted room.  In fact, it was so haunted that the hotel would not rent the room to anyone.  Through lawyers, he finds out that if the room is vacant, the hotel has to rent it so he makes a reservation to stay.  He checks in and meets with the hotel manager, played by Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson tries everything he can to persuade Cusack’s character not to stay in the room – a room upgrade, expensive booze and even will allow Cusack to look at a book he has made showing over 50 deaths in room 1408.  But in the end, Cusack stays in 1408.  Let’s just say that 1408 is everything you can imagine it to be.

Mom’s Movie Pick – House on Haunted Hill.  This movie came out in 1999.  Mom/dad will usually go to the movies to see comedy’s but for some reason, they saw this movie in the theater.  Don’t ask me why because it’s not like them.  Mom actually watched part of the movies with her hands covering her eyes.  At one time, she even told daddy that she might have to leave – that’s how scared she was.  The entire movie is about a millionaire who offers a diverse group of people $1,000,000 to spend the night in a haunted house with a horrifying past.  “nuff said before I make water from being scared.

So my question to you my friends, what is the one movie that you saw that scared your pants off?

 

31 Days of Spook – Ellis Hotel

Buckle up my friends… it’s going to be a bumpy ride today.  Today we are focusing on the Ellis Hotel that is located in downtown Atlanta, right in mom/dad’s backyard if you will.

The Ellis Hotel used to be called the Winecoff Hotel.  On December 7, 1946 it had over 260 guests checked in for overnight.  Around 3:00AM (the witching hour some say), an elevator operator smelled smoke near the fifth floor and notified other employees.  Unfortunately by that time, the third, fourth and fifth floors were already on fire. The hotel was suppose to be fireproof and it turned out that night that it wasn’t.  Due to being ‘fireproof, there was no fire escapes, no fire doors, no sprinklers or alarm system.  Over 119 guests perished that night.

The hotel was reopened in 1951 as the Peachtree Hotel on Peachtree.  It passed through multiple ownerships and in 2007 it was named the Ellis Hotel.  There are rumors of items being moved, voices, children running and woman screaming down the hallways.  One time, two weeks in a row, the current alarm system went off at 2:48AM – the same time each week.

Mom/dad felt festive one day about a year ago.  It was during their monthly date night and they spent the night at the Hotel Ellis.  It doesn’t take much to spook dad but mom on the other hand is a hard one to crack.  They stayed on the third floor in a very nice room.  Dad woke mommy up around 2:30AM complaining about the activity in the hallway.  When mom checked it out, there was nothing.  She didn’t hear it or see anything but dad said it woke him up.  Around 3:30AM, mommy woke up smelling smoke.  She’s very sensitive to the smell and she said it was overwhelming.  Again, she woke daddy up and he didn’t smell anything.  And for some reason, the elevator door went up and down a lot that night.  They could hear the doors opening and closing but no foot steps.  Needless to say, they didn’t get much sleep that night.

 

31 Days of Spook – 17 Hundred 90 Inn and Tavern

Today mom and dad helped me by reminding me of a story at their true love – Savannah, Georgia.  One of the must things to do in Savannah if you have never done it is to take a stroll through downtown at night on a haunted ghost tour.  There are walking tours, horse and buggy tours or even a hearse tour if you dare.

Many moons ago, mom/dad went with my mom’s sister and her daughter, my little niece Savannah.  Nice name huh?  Savannah must have been about two and they decided to do a night time horse and buggy haunted ghost tour.  It must have been scary too because little Savannah stayed camped out inside of mom’s hoodie the entire horse and buggy tour.

One of the last places on the tour was a little house called the 17 Hundred 90 Inn and Tavern.  It’s a quaint little place, not so scary during the day but a night – chills.  The 17 Hundred 90 Inn and Tavern is located at 306 East President Street, Savannah. The bottom floors have a restaurant and bar area while the upper floors have 14 suites in the inn.  It has a long history of untimely death and ghosts.  It was originally built in 1820 and is one of the oldest buildings in the Savannah area.

The most paranormal activity revolves around poor sweet Anna who fell from the window of room 204.  There are many stories about poor Anna – we really don’t know which one is the truth.

One story states that she was married to the designer of the home, Steel White, who died in 1790 in a tragic riding accident.  Anna fell in love with a German sailor who went off to sea and promised to return but never did.  Anna found out that she was pregnant and realized that the German sailor never meant to return.  In despair, she jumped to her death from room 204.

Another story similar to the one above with Anna has Anna being a servant at the inn instead of being married to the designer of the home.  The end is the same result though, her untimely death.

People have reported the ghost of poor Anna leaning over them while they sleep in room 204.  Other stories are of Anna caressing men’s cheeks and as they wake they see Anna crying and then jumping to her death out the window.  Items are also often reported missing – wallets, jewelry, keys – all of which are later found mysteriously in a planter or behind a shelf.

Stories were so rampant at one point in room 204 that the 17 Hundred 90 Inn and Tavern required any patron staying in the room to sign a waiver stating they would not request their money back should they not stay the entire night.  Nowadays, it is no longer required because most people wanting room 204 are hoping for a little ghost sighting of poor sweet Anna.

So this story was told on horse and buggy ride late at night through the streets of Savannah.  Mom, Dad, my Aunt Tina and two year old niece Savannah who was taking up shop under mom’s hoodie.  The mood was set.  It was dark, a little misty.  All you could hear was the clickey-clack of the horses feet, an occasional snarl from the horse and the soft tale of Anna coming for the tour guide.  That’s when my niece Savannah decided to poke her head out to the world and say in her little child like voice, “Poor Anna”.

So do you believe in ghosts, spooks and things that go bump in the night?  Do you have a little adventure still left in you?  Want a weekend trip at a haunted inn – I’ve heard that the 17 Hundred 90 has open reservations…. if you dare my friends.

 

31 Days of Spook – H.H. Holmes

I know you are asking yourself who in the world is H.H. Holmes and why is he being featured on my 31 Days of Spook?  The name sounds so plain and innocent.  But I assure, it is not.  You see H.H. Holmes is the common name of Dr. Henry Howard Holmes (who was actually born Herman Webster Mudgett – try to figure that out huh?)  H.H. Holmes is considered America’s First Serial Killer.  Does the name sound innocent now?

Most people that want to become a doctor go into the field hoping to prevent death. H.H. Holmes went to school to become a doctor to help him out more in causing death and destruction.  Let’s start from here and let me explain to you what H.H. Holmes actually did.

It starts out in 1886 in Chicago.  H.H. Holmes built a hotel right in town near all of the fair activities.  In the time that he was building it, he often brought in different construction crews to add things and then fired that crew afterwards.  Again the next day hiring a different construction crew to work on something else at the hotel.  That way, not one construction crew or person knew of the intricacies of the hotel.  What intricacies?  Well like 100’s of windowless rooms, doorways that opened into brick walls, stairways leading to nowhere, doors that opened from the outside and don’t forget the fun rooms.  The rooms that had soundproof walls and gas lines in them to asphyxiate the guests.  Or rooms that had walls covered with iron plates and blowtorches to incinerate guests.  Or the secret hanging chamber… or the basement where he would dissect, strip the flesh off guests and then sale their bodies to medical schools.  What a host huh?

The hotel was nicknamed the Castle by the people of the area and it was three stories and a block long.  The name of the actual hotel was called the World’s Fair Hotel.  Yep, you guessed it.  The hotel was right there in the same area of the World Fair in 1893.  Just think of all of the innocent people coming to  Chicago for the World’s Fair.  They see this nice, new hotel and check in thinking they are safe… and then they are never heard from again.  Thus in the end, the hotel was then called the Murder Castle.

In the end, justice was given to H.H. Holmes.  He was eventually caught and although he claimed to have killed 27 people, it is actually thought the count could be well over 200 people!  What’s even more interesting is that H.H. Holmes is even linked to the likes of Jack the Ripper.  Some people even think that they may be one and the same.  H.H. Holmes was actually in London during the killings of Jack the Ripper.  And of course, Jack the Ripper was actually a very clean cut killer – some believe that he had a medical background.  With all of the killing that H.H. Holmes did, I would think he would fit that bill.  Do you?

Picture Mugshot from Wikipedia

 

31 Days of Spook – Sheraton Read House Hotel

Happy hauntings my sweet friends.  Today I have a story for you that was sent to me by Lexi’s mom, Amy.  Amy told me to look into a haunted place in Chattanooga, Tennessee called the Sheraton Read House Hotel.  This sounded just like the place I needed for my 31 Days of Spook so I started my research.  I was *not* disappointed at all my friends.  So if you need to, grab someones hand, paw or hoof and get ready for a bumpy ride.

The Sheraton Read House Hotel is located at 827 Broad Street, Chattanooga, Tennessee.  The most haunted room in the hotel is room 311.  Room 311 is rumored to be haunted.  You see back in the day there was a lady named Annalisa Netherly who lived at the hotel with her husband.  One day, her husband came to the hotel and let’s just say caught Annalisa Netherly in a compromising position with another man.  Well, the husband lost his mind – was it momentarily or was it already lost – and killed Annalisa.

Now if you talk to some of the workers of the Sheraton Read House Hotel that have been there for years and know about the history, they will tell you that room 311 isn’t really the room that this death took place.  They remodeled the hotel and sealed off the room the murder actually took place.  They then moved the room number down one door.  Now the murder room is still there and you can see the barred window but yet the room remains empty… or is it.

And also a side note that I found out during my research.  When Al Capone was awaiting trial, he stayed in the murder room.  Can you imagine that?  And let us not forget of the story of a soldier ghosts that walks around the 4th floor of the hotel.

And if that murder room and soldier ghost isn’t intriguing enough, there are also secret corridors throughout the hotel.  Some that even the longest employees haven’t even found yet.

So my friends, are you ready for a field trip to spend the night next door to the murder room?

---

AND A SIDE NOTE:  This is a personal story that happened to Lexi’s mom, Amy.  Shivers to mergatroid!

Long before Lexi was born, this actually happened. At that time, I lived in a house just north of Cleveland, Tennessee. I had three pictures hanging adjacent to each other on two walls. For a while, when I would get up in the morning, I was sure they had been rearranged. (They were very similar.) So one night when no one else was home and no one else was going to be home before morning, just before retiring for the night, I said out loud, “If you can hear me, I want this picture (pointing) over here and this one over there.” The next morning they had been rearranged, and instead of hanging on the walls, they were propped on the floor in the order I had specified. The spirit wanted to be sure I noticed.

 

31 Days of Spook – Scariest Movie

Oh my friends.  Let’s do a twist today.  Let’s see if you can scare me for a change.  Mom/dad were sitting the living room last night with us anipals.  The room was dark except for the flames of the fireplace.  They were talking about movies they have seen over the years that scared them silly.  Conversation went back and forth until they settled on two.

Dad’s Movie Pick – 1408.  This movie came out in 2007 and started John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson.  You see John Cusack’s character was a so called ‘ghost hunter’.  He went to famous places and would spend the night in haunted rooms.  Most of the time, nothing happened and the places were debunked.  But then while writing his latest book, he travels to New York to stay at the Dolphin Hotel in room 1408, a haunted room.  In fact, it was so haunted that the hotel would not rent the room to anyone.  Through lawyers, he finds out that if the room is vacant, the hotel has to rent it so he makes a reservation to stay.  He checks in and meets with the hotel manager, played by Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson tries everything he can to persuade Cusack’s character not to stay in the room – a room upgrade, expensive booze and even will allow Cusack to look at a book he has made showing over 50 deaths in room 1408.  But in the end, Cusack stays in 1408.  Let’s just say that 1408 is everything you can imagine it to be.

Mom’s Movie Pick – House on Haunted Hill.  This movie came out in 1999.  Mom/dad will usually go to the movies to see comedy’s but for some reason, they saw this movie in the theater.  Don’t ask me why because it’s not like them.  Mom actually watched part of the movies with her hands covering her eyes.  At one time, she even told daddy that she might have to leave – that’s how scared she was.  The entire movie is about a millionaire who offers a diverse group of people $1,000,000 to spend the night in a haunted house with a horrifying past.  “nuff said before I make water from being scared.

So my question to you my friends, what is the one movie that you saw that scared your pants off?

 

31 Days of Spook – H.H. Holmes

I know you are asking yourself who in the world is H.H. Holmes and why is he being featured on my 31 Days of Spook?  The name sounds so plain and innocent.  But I assure, it is not.  You see H.H. Holmes is the common name of Dr. Henry Howard Holmes (who was actually born Herman Webster Mudgett – try to figure that out huh?)  H.H. Holmes is considered America’s First Serial Killer.  Does the name sound innocent now?

Most people that want to become a doctor go into the field hoping to prevent death. H.H. Holmes went to school to become a doctor to help him out more in causing death and destruction.  Let’s start from here and let me explain to you what H.H. Holmes actually did.

It starts out in 1886 in Chicago.  H.H. Holmes built a hotel right in town near all of the fair activities.  In the time that he was building it, he often brought in different construction crews to add things and then fired that crew afterwards.  Again the next day hiring a different construction crew to work on something else at the hotel.  That way, not one construction crew or person knew of the intricacies of the hotel.  What intricacies?  Well like 100’s of windowless rooms, doorways that opened into brick walls, stairways leading to nowhere, doors that opened from the outside and don’t forget the fun rooms.  The rooms that had soundproof walls and gas lines in them to asphyxiate the guests.  Or rooms that had walls covered with iron plates and blowtorches to incinerate guests.  Or the secret hanging chamber… or the basement where he would dissect, strip the flesh off guests and then sale their bodies to medical schools.  What a host huh?

The hotel was nicknamed the Castle by the people of the area and it was three stories and a block long.  The name of the actual hotel was called the World’s Fair Hotel.  Yep, you guessed it.  The hotel was right there in the same area of the World Fair in 1893.  Just think of all of the innocent people coming to  Chicago for the World’s Fair.  They see this nice, new hotel and check in thinking they are safe… and then they are never heard from again.  Thus in the end, the hotel was then called the Murder Castle.

In the end, justice was given to H.H. Holmes.  He was eventually caught and although he claimed to have killed 27 people, it is actually thought the count could be well over 200 people!  What’s even more interesting is that H.H. Holmes is even linked to the likes of Jack the Ripper.  Some people even think that they may be one and the same.  H.H. Holmes was actually in London during the killings of Jack the Ripper.  And of course, Jack the Ripper was actually a very clean cut killer – some believe that he had a medical background.  With all of the killing that H.H. Holmes did, I would think he would fit that bill.  Do you?

Picture Mugshot from Wikipedia