The ghost of Dr. Frank Wolbert

On August 15, 1967 the body of Dr. Frank Wolbert was found at his home at 200 North Union Avenue. He had been strangled with the cord of an electric razor. There are claims of paranormal activity in the building.

Just Pick It

This EVP was recorded at Moore's Seafood in Norrisville ... rural Harford County. At the time, I was alone in the building with BJ Moylan from PHPRS. There was no noise contamination other than the chirping of a cricket and an occasional passing vehicle.

BJ, who had previously investigated the site a number of times, made a game of asking a resident ghost, named "Harry," to move things or make sounds.

In this recording, BJ asks permission to play a game. The whispered response is direct, intelligent and nothing short of astounding.

A ghost who likes to repeat

This is one of my favorite EVP and, like the others, it was recorded at the Rodger's House Tavern. Some readers may not know that the Rodger's House Tavern survived the British attack of the town in 1813 making it one of the oldest surviving buildings in Havre de Grace.

Robbin and I were interviewing a young man who had witnessed an apparition in the building. I record all interviews because it's easier and more reliable than taking notes. The conversation changed topics to an experience the young man had elsewhere involving a big mirror which he describes as 8 foot tall by 8 foot wide.

Towards the end of the audio clip you can hear a disembodied voice repeating the words " 8 foot wide" in a whisper. It's almost playful.

Big Bertha

This EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) was recorded at the Rodger's House Tavern. Only Robbin, another lady I'll call anonymous, and myself were in the room at the time.

Robbin was telling us about a notorious Havre de Grace madam named Big Bertha.

Robbin can be heard saying: "they arrested her several times, it was Big ... Big Bertha."

The two feminine voices that follow don't belong to anyone in the room at the time.

Note added Aug. 8, 2010: There's a second EVP on this audio clip. Robbin says "big" ... pause ... "big Bertha." During Robbin's pause, a disembodied voice repeats the word "big."

I'll bet it's fun to fish on the river?

This EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) was captured a couple of weeks ago at the Rodger's House Tavern. Only myself and Robbin Van Pelt were present at the time. We were asking probing questions in hopes of receiving a direct response from a disembodied voice. This EVP corresponds with a spike on a meter that measures electromagnetic fields and a personal experience by Robbin. She heard a man speaking behind her.

In the recording, I ask the question: "I'll bet it's fun to fish on the river, isn't it?" You then hear a man say something that sounds like a response to my question and then you hear Robbin's voice.

Again, there were just the two of us present when the recording was made and the man's voice responding to the question is not mine.

A Place Forgotten: Johnson-Hill Cemetery

Click here to read an article I came across a while back.

It raises the possibility that there are one or more abandoned cemeteries on the hill above Havre de Grace. It seems hard to believe considering the saturation of residential development in the area. A friend who grew up in town convinced me that there could be any number of lost burial grounds from the Civil War era located between Havre de Grace and Darlington.

In a little patch of brush on the side of Chapel Road, in the comfort provided by some old trees, sits the place I believe to be Johnson-Hill Cemetery. Some of you are familiar with it, possibly from your youths. Others would be as surprised as I was to learn that abandoned burial sites lie, hidden from view, in the shadows cast by one of the county's most prized communities.

The burial ground is marred by the eerie depressions formed when wooden caskets decay. Some of the grave sites are marked by etched tombstones, some are proudly distinguished by natural stones of varying sizes, most are recognizable only by sunken earth. A fair number of people are buried there.

A tall tree, possibly a source of shade and peacefulness in the past, now encroaches upon the grave of Civil War soldier Luis Hill. Luis rests next to his father James. Josephine, the young bride of Freeborn Curtis, was barely 21 years old when laid to rest in the little cemetery on Chapel Hill. She died in the year after the Civil War ended. We can only imagine the dignity felt by a black man named Freeborn during that ugly time. It says much about the people who lived here then.

The Ghosts of Havre de Grace began as a project to collect haunted stories about the area. It still is with one important distinction: I've leaned that the real ghosts of Havre de Grace are the remarkable people and places whose memories have regrettably faded in time, but are not entirely forgotten.

The Most Gruesome Night

Gravediggers working with shovels in darkness to unearth caskets, disrupting the sleep of the dead: Could it be the faint memory of a distant childhood nightmare? Could it be the faded recollection of a horrific tale heard long ago?

It happened during the early morning hours of June 25, 1929 at Angel Hill Cemetery in the quiet town of Havre de Grace.

In the dim light cast by a full moon behind low clouds, M. H. Andrews, superintendent of Angel Hill Cemetery, his son, Clifford and two laborers carried out the grisly task at hand. To avoid frenzied crowds of townsfolk, 3 AM was the designated hour to exhume the bodies of Edward Stone and Edgar Stone, the deceased husband and son of Hattie Stone.

Hattie, in the custody of authorities at the time, was the target of a murder investigation that pointed to the intentional poisoning of her 15 year old son, George, who had died a couple of weeks earlier. Edgar had passed away two years before his brother; Edward had been dead just a year and a half. All three, at the time of their deaths, presented symptoms suggesting they had been poisoned with strychnine. The authorities wanted to know if the rumors circulating around town were true: Did Hattie Stone murder her family?

As might be expected, the bizarre case drew the intense focus of media attention.

The caskets were taken by undertakers George and Robert Pennington, father and son, to their funeral parlor in town. George Pennington was then the mayor of Havre de Grace. The viscera (internal organs) were removed from the corpses to be delivered to Baltimore for chemical analysis.

The caskets were swiftly returned to Angel Hill where they were placed back in the earth, next to George's grave, while the town still slept.