Yorkshire Vampires?

Could there have been vampires in Iron age Yorkshire?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/iron-age-burial-yorkshire-chariot-grave-skeleton-warrior-archaeology-dig-pocklington-a8672331.html

It is certainly the case that Eastern Europeans would use sharp objects to pierce the bodies if suspected vampires or revenants. The piercing allowing gases to escape, making the bloated corpse deflate and look more ‘dead’. Which, obviously, led to the ideas in Vampire stories about a stake through the heart. The story here seems to suggest something similar in the UK during the Iron Age.

The Eastern European belief is that plagues and bad luck in an area were linked to the restless dead feeding. So, to end the bad luck they would dig up the last person buried (as the most likely candidate) and perform various rituals to lay them to rest – including using iron nails and even fence posts to impale them. Most of the time they would find a corpse that looked like it had gained weight and was showing signs of hair and nail growth*, which added to the evidence that they were still alive and feeding on the blood of the living. Piercing of any form would release the gases and the corpse would look more like you would expect it to. If the bad luck didn’t go away, they would go back and do more rituals that went up to cremating the body.

Is this case an example of the same thing? This is certainly a bizarre burial. The corpse was found pierced with 9 spears – some bone, others iron. There are theories. One being that it was because he did not die in battle – the postmortem injuries inflicted as a way to ensure a warrior’s death. Though this does not explain the head injury described in the article. Another theory is that it was a ritual killing similar to the bog burials, where the victim is knocked unconscious or killed with a blow to the head before being ritually murdered.   However, the theory that is catching the imagination of most people is the vampire one – that there was some reason they feared his return as a revenant. Or even went back to perform the stabbing ritual after he was buried due to some bad luck or plague, the same as the Eastern European folklore. This, along with the sacrifice option, may explain why the spears were left in place – to ensure he did not get up.

We may never know the real reason why this bizarre ritual was performed but it does highlight some interesting parallels in folklore. Similar ideas appear in different cultures. Obviously, the conspiracy theory answer to this is ‘Vampires are real and many cultures encountered them’ but more likely this was because there was actually more travel and communication between cultures than used to be considered possible. Briton at this point may have been primitive but Rome (due to invade in another 250 years or so) was already a Republic and starting to form an Empire. Burial could in theory spread over Europe. It is, however, very likely too much of a stretch to link this practice with that of Eastern Europeans in the 1800s.

Instead, let us consider the coincidence of an iron age vampire being found in the same county as Whitby – the place where Bram Stoker had Dracula’s ship land on his journey from Transylvania.

*Due, as we now know, to the skin shrinking back from the hair follicles and nail bed rather than any actual growth.

The Demon Of Facebook?

Browsing social media I could not help to notice that reports of clowns had died down and in its place for the newly minted year were demons.

Yes, demons.

Rather one particular demon (or angel if you think that is what this image is), which has been making the rounds across social media and tons of news outlets since it was posted on Facebook on Sunday.

So what the hell is it?

An angel?

A demon?

A hoax?

Well, one thing is for sure it is one odd image but there are other possibilities…

The Winchester Mystery House

 

The tale of the ‘Winchester Mystery house‘ is an intriguing one that plunges into the heart of the mythology of the Old West. It is also unusual in that the subject of this article is not just in itself haunted but rather was built (allegedly) because of a haunting.

Sarah Winchester was the wife of William Wirt Winchester, widowed when her husband fell victim to Tuberculosis in 1881 and therefore heiress to his vast fortune and a significant number of shares in the company that manufactured the Winchester rifle. The story goes that the grief of losing both her husband and daughter (who died in 1866) led to her consulting a medium who informed her that her family was haunted by the ghosts of all the Native American and Civil war soldiers who had been killed by the Winchester rifle. The medium’s advice was to travel to California and build a house ‘to house the spirits’ in order to appease them. So long as the house kept being built they would leave her in peace.

Haunting Tales: The RMS Queen Mary

The RMS Queen Mary is an interesting paranormal site to study. Listed as one of the top ten most haunted sites in the US, it is intriguing to see such a quintessentially British artifact inhabiting a site in California. But, of course, being a trans-Atlantic vessel, she has always been a daughter of two worlds and I suppose it is fitting that a ship born in the UK should end her days in the US.

For those who are not aware of the history, the Queen Mary was one of two cruise ships (the other being the RMS Queen Elizabeth) built by Cunard and launched in 1934 to make trans-Atlantic crossings. She did this with style and elegance for several years, with a brief spell painted gray for military service as a troop carrier in WWII (renamed the Grey Ghost), before finally being retired in 1967. Another ship (the QM II) took over the name in 2004 when that ship replaced the now retired QE II (launched in 1969) as flagship of the Cunard fleet.

After retirement, the Queen Mary was converted into a hotel and tourist attraction in Long Beach, California where it is still permanently moored and has played host to holidaymakers, museums, the Walt Disney Corporation (who owned it in the 80’s)* and even a Roller Derby team (Long Beach Derby Gals who used it as a venue but now seem to have moved elsewhere).

And, if the rumors are to be believed, ghosts…

Stayin Alive: Last Remaining Bee Gee Claims Former Bandmates Have Returned as Ghosts

The pop/disco group the Bee Gees were among the most popular music groups in recent musical history.

Formed in 1958 by Manchester natives Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb, the group would not only eventually be inducted into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 but also are one of the best-selling groups in history, surpassed only by such superstars as Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Paul McCartney and McCartney’s former band, The Beatles.

Along the way, they endured not only huge successes but also drama and tragedy as well, with many line-up changes, substance issues and eventually, illnesses that would lead to the deaths of both Maurice and Robin Gibb, leaving Barry the last remaining Bee Gee alive today.

The Daily Star recently published an article that claims that both Barry Gibb and his wife  have seen the spirits of two his former bandmates and family members since their deaths…

Nigerian Murderer Pleads For Forgiveness From Victim’s Ghost (Video)

Kingsley Agbaire of Warri, Delta State in Nigeria murdered his friend and business associate, Lawrence Okoh, on August 4th of this year after a botched sale of auto parts that turned into murder.

Suspicions were raised by Okoh’s wife after he did not return to his home in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Friends and family tried to reach Okoh after he stated that some of the parts he brought out to Agbaire were now missing and Agbaire was nowhere to be found.

Okoh was warned to leave Warri after this incident but Agbaire convinced Okoh to stay in the area, which has a dangerous reputation.

On the evening on August 4th, Okoh’s wife tried to reach him by cell phone but the person who answered told Okoh’s wife that she had reached the wrong number.

A police investigation revealed that Okoh had been murdered.

When Agbaire was taken into custody he pleaded to Okoh’s ghost for forgiveness and it was captured on video…

Crowdfunding Campaign to Buy ‘Amityville Horror’ House

The house at 108 Ocean Ave in Amityville, New York has become an infamous icon in both fictional horror circles and with those with an interest in true-life stories of paranormal phenomena.

Over the years it has also become an unofficial tourist attraction as well, with people stopping to gape at the house and pose for photographs with the house as a backdrop.

Many times it has even been suggested that the dutch colonial home should be converted into a tourist attraction such as a bed and breakfast style lodging accommodation or a paranormal museum.

Add those ideas to others including the intense desire by paranormal investigation teams to have access to the house and conduct the first known investigation of the property since the Warrens in 1976 and you have a lot of people who would like to see such a plan come to fruition.

One individual took this idea and ran with it straight to the crowdfunding website ‘Go Fund Me‘ in June of this year.

Although the idea of being able to actually walk into the Amityville Horror House and see the locations where not only a brutal multiple murder occurred but also the site of one of the most famous haunting cases in recorded history seems like a dream come true, don’t pack your bags just yet.

There are many factors that scream ‘get out’ at any potential investor in such a scheme.

Does Video Prove Life After Death?

Reported by both  The Daily Star and The Indian Express,, a recently uploaded YouTube video claims to show a spirit rising from a recently deceased person in a hospital in China.

Uploaded on August, 2nd, 2016 by the ‘Crazy Worldvdos’ channel, it has quickly reached nearly one-hundred and eighty views and has begun to circulate around the usual paranormal news and discussion sites on the internet.

In the video, a ghostly shape can be seen rising from the hospital bed and moving towards a doorway at the top of the screen as purportedly caught by the CCTV cameras at the hospital.

It’s (Not) Official: Yoga is Satanic

Yoga, Harry Potter, and Twilight are the causes of an upsurge in demonic possession, according to Father Cesare Truqui, successor of Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican’s chief exorcist for some 25 years.

Twilight I can believe – but yoga?

Okay, so it’s not solely Twilight he calls “Satanic”; it’s anything that portrays vampires or demons as something desirable or in any way sexy. Let’s hope he’s never read Vampirella!

The ‘Other’ Amityville Ghost Photo

If you read about or investigate the paranormal for a hobby, you probably have come across the story of the Amityville Horror, where a family in Amityville, New York spent twenty-eight horrific days in one of the most infamous haunted houses in the world.

The house, which is located at 108 Ocean Ave (formerly 112 Ocean Ave before the gawkers and tourists became too much to bear after the original film’s release in the late seventies and the street number was changed), also was where Ronald Defeo murdered six of his family members while they slept in November 1974.

Later the Warrens would come in to investigate the house in 1976, leading to one of the most chilling and controversial ‘real’ ghost photographs of all time, The Amityville Ghost Boy.

There is another photograph connected to the ever growing and confusing Amityville legend that has never really been brought to light.

It is said to have been taken in 1922 in the house that stood on the same property on which the Dutch Colonial the Defeos and Lutzes both lived in later stood.

And the figure within the captured image was claimed to be conjured during a seance no less…