Classic Mysteries

A Maine Haunting

By Brent Raynes

Today ghost hunting is popular sport and people are much more open about the subject. Television carries different programs about “ghost hunters” who visit haunted houses, haunted hospitals, and even people. But back in 1972, when I was a young man 19 going on 20 living in Maine, it wasn’t such a popular thing to do. However, one thing I found out real quick: There are countless haunted houses out there to investigate! I’d visit a family, for example, to talk with them about their unusual experiences and in the course of my investigation learn about someone else they knew or heard about nearby who was having spooky occurrences. This kind of work soon evolves into a kind of bottomless pit. There’s no end to the cases and assignments that will come your way.

Here’s one of those ghost reports I typed up from one of quite a number of my own field investigations that year. I’ve deleted the full names of those concerned as I don’t have their permission for such disclosure.

Here’s the report:

On Sunday afternoon, April 2, 1972, the following information was recorded from an interview with Laura & Larry D. of Woolwich, Maine. Their home is apparently haunted.

Larry has been having unusual psychic oriented experiences with apparent spirits for some 15 years. It was back then that he seemed to be in some form of contact with a being who he now believes was his father’s grandfather. He has since had many weird spirit or ghost related experiences.

Laura did not have such experiences until after they were married. She didn’t believe such things, but it started happening to her some three years ago.

The spirit or entity which they feel is manifesting itself in their home is a deceased Harold G., who lived in the house three owners back, and died around the early 1950s. Separately, after a period of acquiring individual impressions, Laura and Larry related to each other what their mysterious visitor looked like, and their descriptions tallied! He was tall, thin, stooped posture, medium brown hair, in 40s, and wore a red plaid shirt. Later they asked a neighbor for descriptions of previous owners, not mentioning their sightings of Mr. G., and the Harold G. description matched perfectly!

Laura has been highly successful with automatic writing, but neither she nor her husband feel that it should be encouraged further because of what Harold Sherman (famous ESP expert) has written on the subject (i.e., dangers of spirit possession!). Her hands become very heavy and she loses control.

Both are school teachers and have experiences at their school with ghosts too. For example, last Friday someone invisible tried to push Laura down some stairs. Larry once saw G. standing in the light of a large school window, seeing him in “Technicolor”, as he jokingly put it. Also last Friday Laura had another experience when someone tapped her on the shoulder and nobody was to be seen when she turned. So physical sensations accompany these events, and one day, at their home, Larry was sitting on the floor with his daughter Jennifer, 2 and a half years old, when suddenly he felt himself kicked in the rear end, as he was picking up some toys. He turned around quickly, expecting to catch his wife, but it was not her! They have had accidental collisions (or so they seem) with the ghost, Mr. G., as he is slow and in poor health.

A neighbor made an interesting comparison once between Laura D. and the late Mr. G.’s wife, who is still living in Kittery. Anyway, both wore red a lot, and had the first name of Laura. But apparently it was when the D’s started work on the house that G. got curious. It was in the summer of 1971. As Larry would ascend a ladder, he would see this man on the ground in a plaid shirt. But at first he thought it was his mother’s grandfather, who worried about people getting on high structures and such.

They have not discussed the ghost with the daughter, but they are sure (from various experiences) that she has seen it. Laura first noticed the ghost in the bathroom. Particularly when looking into the mirror when it would therein stand behind her. She also sees it in windows.

G., they noted, seems to keep away from spooky spots like the basement and the attic. And if you really look at him hard, he vanishes! Laura and Larry are fearful about attempting communications because of the possible implications involved regarding dangers of mind manipulation.