In honor of Halloween, I'm posting some photos I've taken over the years of the Halloween variety -- i.e. houses, cemeteries, abandoned buildings, Halloween costumes, etc. Happy Halloween!
My sister standing in front of our favorite local haunted house on Elm Street (yes, that was the name).
Me, circa 1990 with my crazy black Halloween cat, Murphy.
I took this photo of my friend Jim on Halloween 1992. There was a double exposure that made it look like his chest was on fire.
Me as the Morton Salt Girl, Halloween 1993.
Halloween gang, Halloween 1997. I was supposed to be the wicked queen from Snow White (left).
Halloween at The Black Cat in DC, 2004.
crows, 2007.
CVH Mental Hospital in CT, 2004.
My friend Cat in an abandoned house in Ellicot City, 2008.
Cat and my sister Lynn on the stairs leading up to the late, great Hell House in Ellicott City, 2004.
A little while later Joan Rivers talked to Larry King about the ghost who was haunting her NYC apartment, and how she had a witch come in and rid her of the ghost. She said before this happened to her, she had been a skeptic. She was one of the stars who took part in the celebrity ghost story show on Biography that I still need to check out.
Right now, Ghost Adventures is on live at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in WV. I just tuned in and already the guys watching the cameras have shown some interesting orbs of light materializing out of the walls. Meanwhile, a disembodied voice told Zak to "fuck off." You can watch the live webcams here.
Who you gonna fuckin' call?
Now Zak is working himself up into a froth over a little girl's ghost. And I heard something about fans they've invited to go into the asylum with them. Guess I'd better go watch; This is about to get good. . .
My friend sent me an interesting article by Zac Davisson about a place called Aokigahara in Japan at the base of Mt. Fuji known as "Suicide Woods." It gets its moniker because so many people end their lives there. Japanese author Wataru Tsurumui wrote a bestselling book, "The Complete Manual of Suicide" in which he describes Aokigahara as "the perfect place to die."
Bodies are consistently being taken out of the woods, some found with Tsurumuni's book. Signs that warn: "Please reconsider" and "Please consult the police before you decide to die!" are nailed to trees throughout the forest. The signs, however, do little to deter those who are bent on doing themselves in. There are also those who wander in, out of interest, and get lost, never to return.
An excerpt from the article: Aokigahara is considered the most haunted location in all of Japan, a purgatory for yurei, the unsettled ghosts of Japan who have been torn unnaturally soon from their lives and who howl their suffering on the winds. Spiritualists say that the trees themselves are filled with a malevolent energy, accumulated from centuries of suicides. They don't want you to go back out.
There's also an excellent article fromThe Independentabout it here.
I love urban exploration and one of my favorite decrepit places to visit is Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. I'm lucky enough to visit often since my sister lives in the city of brotherly love.
Recently, I experienced ESP's Terror Behind the Walls. What a good time! The absolute best "haunted house" I've ever visited. Zombie cell mates, deranged doctors, and insane prison guards chased me through the dark, fog-filled halls while I screamed my head off.
Zombies, and cell mates, and prison guards, OH MY!!
That aside, the best part of ESP is going during the day, equipped with a camera. It is a place that captures the imagination. Luckily Easter State Penitentiary Historic Site, Inc., a nonprofit org with the sold purpose of keeping ESP open for tours, has preserved the place and kept it in its majestic and crumbling state
A little history from the website:
Opened in 1829 as part of a controversial movement to change the behavior of inmates through "confinement in solitude with labor," Eastern State Penitentiary quickly became one of the most expensive and most copied buildings in the young United States. It is estimated that more than 300 prisons worldwide are based on the Penitentiary's wagon-wheel, or "radial" floor plan.
Some of America's most notorious criminals were held in the Penitentiary's vaulted, sky-lit cells, including bank robber Willie Sutton and Al Capone. After 142 years of consecutive use, Eastern State Penitentiary was completely abandoned in 1971, and now stands, a lost world of crumbling cellblocks and empty guard towers.
Inmate Willie Sutton's mugshot. Sutton managed to escape the prison, only to be recaptured on the street out front.
I went a couple weekends ago and took a bunch of photos, but I haven't downloaded them from my camera yet. In the meantime, have a look at some older pictures I took:
Naturally, with so much turbulent history, ESP is reportedly haunted. Many TV investigative shows including Ghost Hunters, MTV's Fear, Most Haunted, and my personal favorite, Ghost Adventures have visited with their cameras.
Zak and Co. of Ghost Adventures walks through ESP
Zak gets strapped into the "mad chair."This chair (in my photos above) was used as punishment for unruly prisoners.
Jason and Grant of Ghost Hunters in ESP
Ghost Hunters got some very creepy footage while investigating. Check it out:
Mike W. who is responsible for the story below, caught some orb pictures on the Gettysburg battlefields, eerily similar to the ones my friends and I caught. Check them out:
My husband's friend sent this story my way. In the 90s, two people living in a haunted house in Los Angeles began communicating with the ghost in residence named "Wright" through Polaroid photos.
Here is an excerpt of the story from the official site: On Friday, February 5, 1993, the Fox TV reality show SIGHTINGS examined what may be a landmark discovery in parapsychology: convincing evidence that ghosts exist and can actually communicate with us. Two residents of an old house in the hills of Los Angeles began receiving ghostly messages in Polaroid photographs. The pair started taking photos inside the house in the hope of obtaining a picture of the entity they believed haunted the house.
After first capturing a ghostly image on film, the men discovered that if they asked questions about the entity and why it was inhabiting their house, words and messages appeared in response on their film. So far, more than 1000 photos have captured messages – photos taken not only by the residents but by paranormal researchers and other outsiders. A photographic expert at Polaroid has no explanation for the messages. An expert at California’s Brooks Institute of Photography can suggest an explanation, but it requires a lengthy set up process and hours of lab work.
The ghost or spirit calls himself “WRIGHT”. He shows signs of erudition and intelligence, writing many of his messages in Latin. The ghost first appeared on film in March 1992 after one of the residents kept hearing unexplained noises throughout the house. After a door opened mysteriously, he took a series of photos, several of which revealed a classic ghost-like shape, including dark shadows at the eyes and mouth. The messages began to appear on film in June 1992. The first was in response to a friend’s question about the ghost, “Is he here now?” The photo revealed a barely discernible “yes” in cloudy white shapes. After that, the writing became far more legible.
There are two videos on the site, one of which I'm posting below.
My sister standing in front of our favorite local haunted house on Elm Street (yes, that was the name).
Me, circa 1990 with my crazy black Halloween cat, Murphy.
I took this photo of my friend Jim on Halloween 1992. There was a double exposure that made it look like his chest was on fire. 
Me as the Morton Salt Girl, Halloween 1993.
Halloween gang, Halloween 1997. I was supposed to be the wicked queen from Snow White (left).
Halloween at The Black Cat in DC, 2004.
crows, 2007.
CVH Mental Hospital in CT, 2004.
My friend Cat in an abandoned house in Ellicot City, 2008.
Cat and my sister Lynn on the stairs leading up to the late, great Hell House in Ellicott City, 2004.
Hell House, 2004.
My sister visits an Etruscan tomb, 2005. 
Abandoned farm house in Tuscany, 2005.
Witch in the tree.
Adrian and me, 2007.
Adrian, 2008.
Graveyard in CT
Edgar Allen Poe's grave site
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