The world is a mysterious place. The can of mystery highlights some of those mysteries. This site is a class project for Amanda Warren's English 101 class at the University of South Carolina Aiken.
Articles are uploaded once a year (on average) in the fall and/or spring.
If you have questions or tips on mysteries, please leave a comment or contact AmandaW at USCA dot EDU.
Mr Harmen. The main gate of Resurrection Cemetery on Archer Avenue in Justice, IL. September 8th, 2006.
It is said that up in Chicago, Illinois there has been sights of a pale girl with blue eyes and blonde hair on the street corners proceeding to ask for rides. She has frightened people since the early 1930’s on Archer Avenue. One night a young girl was walking home from a dance, which is now O’Henry Ballroom, alone crying after a fight with her boyfriend, when unexpectedly was hit on the side of the road as the driver drove off leaving the girl to die. Mary Bregovy who died December 25, 1932 and was buried in the Roman Catholic Resurrection Cemetery in Illinois. Some say she still walks the streets looking for a way to mend her broken heart in her white dress. Some also say she was a to-be young bride looking for a husband. Legend has that she asks for rides from taxi drivers and disappears in the back seat every time they pass the cemetery where she is buried.
Many people over the years have had different encounters with Mary they have reported. One that seems to stand out the most to people is with a man named Jerry Palus. Jerry, in the 1930’s went to the same ballroom years after Mary’s death, and noticed this beautiful girl dressed in white, who he danced with all night. Jerry that night asked if Mary needed a ride home from the ballroom as she accepted and gave Jerry her address to where her family lives. On the way to drop her off, Mary asked Jerry to stop by the cemetery. Of course, he took her, but as he tried to get out to come with her she insisted for him to stay in the car. As he followed her command, Mary walked towards the gates and vanished in the air right before Jerry’s eyes.
Rivas, Titus. “Resurrection Mary.” April 7th, 2017. YouTube.
Works Cited:
Tilstra, Elizabeth. “Resurrection Cemetery and the Ghost of Resurrection Mary.” The Lineup, 05 Jul. 2016. https://the-line-up.com/resurrection-cemetery-and-the-ghost-of-resurrection-mary
Grundy, Pamela. “Resurrection Mary & the Vanishing Hitchhiker” ParanormalPopcorn.blogspot.com 22 April 2010. Web. 17 October 2012
After
all my research on Stull Cemetery, I have learned that you do not want to go to
Stull, Kansas. There’s more to this story, but I want to get that out here in
the beginning. For over a century, Stull Cemetery has been linked to
countless legends involving witchcraft, and satanic cults. Blake Smith explains
that the people of “Stull has suffered enough from the drunken idiots who were
disappointed at the lack of supernatural activity”. The vandalism by visitors
of Stull Cemetery has taken a toll over the last one hundred years. Erwin Seba
said “Any little damage to a headstone could cost up to $25,000”. The people of
Stull are fed up with the disrespect of the visitors and journalists that
disrespect Stull and the Cemetery, and are not afraid to prosecute them, or to
get the law involved. Stull
is such a tiny town, and not even really a town based on the population, just a
collection of a few houses, a church, and a graveyard.However, the small population of residents
is not all that encounters Stull, Kansas. The place is believed to contain a
number of residents that are from beyond this earth. In addition, the town is
also home to a number of legends, and strange tales that are linked to the run
down church and Stull Cemetery itself. Taylor explains there
have been devil sighting since the 1850’s, and explains how the people buried
here at Stull Cemetery had died from painful deaths, and that that’s why this
location is so haunted. People have heard all the horrific and mysterious
things that has happened at Stull Cemetery, like sprits appearing at midnight,
and the noises heard over the years. According
to the legend, the gate to Hell was either under or next to the little church
in the cemetery. Taylor, and urban legends have tied the place, and have said
that when the Pope flew over the US he had his plane divert around Kansas to
avoid flying over unhallowed ground which, is Stull Cemetery. Some people have
even told stories of seeing Satan himself on Halloween night, at midnight. Matthews
said that even with all the hate, and horror towards the cemetery. The front
gate is still wide open for visitors of family and friends, still putting fresh
flowers that are propped up against the shiny new graves from the new burials.
Overall this research has really opened my eyes not to step foot in Stull, but
will you be brave enough to go check out Stull, and Its
haunted cemetery for yourself?
Works Cited:
Matthews, Dana. "Haunted Stull Cemetery Is America's
Most Off-Limits Portal to Hell." Week In Weird.
05 Jun 2016.
Smith, Blake “Keep the Hell out of Stull” Atlanta Examiner, 20 Oct 2010. doi:
94738bff678cda206cac3be5eb80f892634db6d4.
Seba, Erwin “Legends linger around Stull Cemetery.” Lawrence Journal- World Kansas. 01
Nov. 1999. doi:0030003905.
Taylor, Troy. "Stull Cemetery! One of the Seven
Gateways to Hell?"Apr. 2002.
Blackwood, Kendrick. “Old Tree Comes Down in Stull Cemetery”
Lawrence Journal- World
Kansas.
31 Oct. 1998. doi: 0010095081
Links for further research: Stull Cemetery Kansas study
This video is a study of people
around Kansas and what they have heard about Stull Cemetery and the church. It
goes into detail about the cemetery and why it is haunted.
This is an overview picture of the first Saint Louis Cemetery
“Save Our Cemeteries”
explains the first Saint Louis Cemetery. The cemetery was established in 1789.
New Orleans is the city where the spooky cemetery can be found. It is the
oldest cemetery in New Orleans, and is said to be the spookiest. The Cemetery
was divided into three different sections at first. There was a section for the
Catholics, Non-Catholics, and Negros. The cemetery is not divided today, it has
had reconstruction to make it bigger. The Cemetery contains some important
people to the State of Louisiana. Maria Laveau, the famous voodoo queen is
buried in the cemetery. The first black mayor of New Orleans Ernest Nathan
Morial, is also buried here. The cemetery is very important because it has a
lot of value to it. The tombs of the people buried there are fascinating. Most
tombs are decorated with something, or has drawings on it to remember the
person.
In “Maria Laveau: A NineteenthCentury Voudou Priestess” Carolyn Long, explained the importance of Maria
Laveau. She has one of the more famous tombs people enjoy looking at. A lot of
people say they do not know whether she was actually in there or not, but they
continue to visit it and decorate it. She usually has Mardi gras beads hanging
from her tomb, along with other items on the ground. Maria Laveau was the queen
of voodoo in the city of New Orleans. She was said to be a great voodoo
practitioner, and anybody who practiced voodoo looked up to her. Many people go
to Maria Laveau’s tomb to practice voodoo, the marking of the X, on her tomb is
a sign of voodoo. People mark X’s on the tomb as a sign of respect to her.
People have said they have heard the ghost of Maria Laveau, which would
absolutely creep me out, but that makes Maria Laveau’s tomb interesting along
with the X’s and items left on her tomb.
On the website French Quarter Phantoms, it
gives great information about touring the first Saint Louis Cemetery. The tour
of the cemetery looks very interesting. Personally, I would not take a tour to
the cemetery because it would be scary and weird. I would encourage people who
are interested in this type of information to take the tour. I think a lot of
important information is given throughout the tours, and it would be an exciting
adventurous trip. The tour is centered to take people throughout the entire
cemetery. It is about one mile and it lasts for two hours. There are a lot of
different tombs to look at. There are plaques located on some of the tombs to
tell their accomplishments, and how they were significant to Louisiana. A tour
would be helpful if you wanted to know about the first Saint Louis Cemetery
because you could have your own personal experience.
On the website, Find A Grave there is an article
explaining Ernest Morial. Ernest Morial was the first African American mayor of
New Orleans. He was also a leading civil rights advocate. Ernest Morial created
black history by becoming the first African American mayor of New Orleans.
Becoming the mayor may have encouraged other African American males to become successful.
Once he became mayor, African Americans probably looked at him as a role model.
Ernest Morial, also spoke up as a leader, by becoming a leading civil rights
advocate. Which means he wanted equal opportunity for minority groups. He was
fighting for everybody to have equal rights, and I would say he was successful
along with others. Today, we all have equal opportunity to do what we want, and
speak our opinion. Ernest Morial was initially buried in the first Saint Louis
Cemetery, but for spacing issues his tomb was moved. The first Saint Louis
Cemetery is not only popular because of voodoo queens, but for individuals who
created a way for equal rights.
In the article, “The Spirit
Of New Orleans Will Haunt You” by Tanya Wragg. She explains why New Orleans is
portrayed as spooky. The streets of New Orleans is said to have had its legends
of vampires, witches, and voodoo priestesses wandering them. The city of New
Orleans has a various selection of spooky tours. There is a ghost expedition
bus ride, which is a tour given to investigate paranormal activity. I think the
tour would be pretty cool, but scary. The tour is said to be intense, because a
person must be mentally, emotionally, and physically ready to experience a
physiologically experience. They say this because spirits can mess with peoples
mind. People may start to see ghost, or think they are hearing ghost after they
have been on the tour. In my opinion, that could drive a person insane. New
Orleans still has an original plantation, which can still be visited on a tour.
The tour takes people over the Mississippi River, directly to
the Laura Plantation. Visiting a plantation would be scary to me, because I
think spirits sit at plantations. I think spirits sit at plantations because
the plantation was their home. New Orleans has an abundance of spooky things,
along with the Saint Louis Cemetery tour. The tours defiantly portray New
Orleans as spooky.
In this video, the LaLaurie
mansion is explained. This portrays more about why New Orleans is considered
spooky and haunted.
Works
Cited:
“America’s
Most Haunted: French Quarter, New Orleans (Halloween 2012)”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zg3lbHge-Q.
16 Oct. 2016.
Long,
Carolyn. “Maria Laveau: A Nineteenth-Century Voudou Priestess.” Louisiana
History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association. Web. 92-262,
2005.
Do you
believe in a true ghost? After my research I now truly believe that
Resurrection Mary is an alive ghost. To being her story, she lives in Chicago,
Illinois in front of a catholic cemetery named RESURRECTION CEMETERY.
No one knows who this beautiful girl is but people know how she died. Her death
was horrible and painful, walking home from a dance at what is now O’Henry
Ballroom. When she was hit by a car and left on the side of the road to die. As
a ghost her appearance is so real like, she has long blonde hair and a white
dress that has a yellow tint to it. People say that she is so warm, but cold to
the touch (Kaczmarek).
Some of
the first encounter of her documented is in the late 1930s. The story is that
she was dancing in the middle of the road when a man pulled over to ask if she
needed a ride. She got into the car and said she needed to go to Anchor Avenue.
A soon as the man pulled onto the street, he turned to the right and she was
gone. She could not have jumped out! The car was going forty miles per hour and
he would have noticed the door opening. At the beginning of the night was that
she was in the ballroom. She was seen dancing with a man and spent the whole
night with him on the dance floor.When
the night came to an end they we’re seen walking out together when she
disappeared.
This
story has an amazing twist. No one knows who Mary was in her human life
(Chicago Quirk). Some have guesses but there is always something that does not
match up with the ghost like appearance, death time, and other things like
that. Some think that she is the ghost of Mary Bregovy who died March 10, 1934,
she was killed when a car she was in crashed into a structure (Johnson). But
there is no reason she would be in a white dress, the family of Mrs.Bregovy was
not in a white dress nor did she have blonde hair. Another possibility is that
she may be the young bride, Mary Petkiewicz who died December 25, 1932 from a
car crash (Johnson). However, no one has been able to prove who she was when
she was alive, and I do not think anyone will be able too.
Resurrection
Mary is in fact real and has been seen dancing in the middle of the road in
front of Resurrection Cemetery at night and many people have had encounters
with her (Barlow). So the question is out. Would you stop and take her to
Anchor Avenue or will you continue driving?
For many centuries’
people fear bodies being rented cause a conflict between the medical and
general population. The problem was created when body snatchers began digging
up new graves to sell to anatomy schools, or examine and dissected by medical
students In 1832 a bill was passed stating , you must have a license from the
Home Sectary to practice anatomy. Everyone couldn’t obtain a license so people
took matters into their own hands and began body snatching. When it became a
big problem there was many methods to prevent it from happening. One solution
was compacting the soul and add several layers of branches on top, to make it
hard for the robbers to get to the grave. A more effective invention was
created to stop the robbers from snatching the bodies, it was called the mortsafe.
This was an iron cage placed on top of the coffin in the grave.
People believed the
graves with large iron grates covering them were made to prevent dead bodies
from coming back to life. Coming to realization that wasn’t possible people
next fear was body snatching. Relatives became worried when they saw graves dug
up because there love ones weren’t getting to rest in peace.
The monuments standing
tall in the cemetery have engraved symbols of death and damnation. Greyfriars
Kirk is known for having a lot of tours and being haunted. There were beliefs of ghost phenomena going on
around the cemetery. It was reported people would see ghost wondering around, weird
smell, strange noises and hot and cold spot throughout the cemetery. Some
people claim they are physically attacked by the ghost, and they leave
bruises, scratches and broken bones.
This usually takes place by the Black Mausoleum.
In 1816 the first
mortsafe was made, they come many different design but the weight of them are
similar. There wasn’t that many
mortsafes because they are reusable and they would only stay on top of the
coffin for 5 to 6 weeks. They were usually made to be heavy because grave
robbers would go to the extreme to retrieve the bodies. It was reported grave robbers would build
tunnels underground leading up to the graves.
In 1620 the Greyfriars
Cemetery was built in Scotland inside a city called Edinburg. It was named for Franciscan close by. In 1696 over a 1,000 Convanters was
imprisoned here. In the 18th
century it was caught on fire because of a gun powder.
