Welcome to part one of our two-part exploration of some of the favorite haunted places and ghost tales supplied by you, loyal readers of the Weird Chronicles.

Columns By J. Scott Wilson Diary Of A Fat Man Ask The Cook Short Orders The Weird Chronicles

Last week, I asked you all to send me your favorite links to haunted places, and your favorite "real-life experience" ghost stories. I still need a few, so if you've had an up-close-and-personal brush with the beyond, please let me know!

Ghost In The Big House

Just about every prison has its share of ghost tales. Probably the most famous of these is Alcatraz, where the tales are as thick as a San Francisco fog. Innumerable TV shows and documentaries have spent all or part of their time exploring the solitary confinement cells and other spooky spots around the building.

Perhaps a less well-known one, however, is Eastern State Penitentiary, which was brought to my attention by alert reader Melissa Hesley. The prison is a national historical landmark, and by following the link above you can get to a page offering 360-degree views of the exterior and interior. Put on some spooky music and you can almost convince yourself you're seeing ghosts in the cell doors. Incidentally, this is one of the best full-view Webcam setups I've ever seen. It loads quickly, and the motion is silky smooth. Enjoy exploring!

Ghosts Abroad

From Karen Morse, our Weird Chronicles field agent in Great Britain, comes Pluckley, which has been recognized by Guinness as "the most haunted village in England."

There are links to stories about such haunted places as the Screaming Woods and the Dering Arms, and spectral inhabitants such as the Red Lady (location pictured, left) and the Highwayman of Pluckley. Just looking at the pictures and reading the accounts is enough to raise the hackles on your neck. The village has been settled in one form or another for almost 1,000 years, so there's been ample time for ghostly energy to build up.

No In-Room Guests

Back across the pond, we find the Buxton Inn, in Granville, Ohio, where stories come in bunches about ghostly guests and ethereal escorts.

According to the innkeepers, anyone who stays in Room 9 is subject to moving furniture, lights that turn themselves on and off, and the ghost of a woman who walks in and sits in a chair.

The rest of the inn is just as haunted, with doors that lock and unlock themselves, the scent of gardenias, mysterious messages appearing on mirrors and even a ghost cat seen to perch on the inn's front steps. You've got to love any haunted place that makes room for feline specters.

Employees believe that most of the haunting activity can be blamed on two former keepers of the inn. Major Buxton owned the place from 1865 to 1905, and Ethel "Bonnie" Bounell was the owner from 1934 to 1961.

Just like prisons, though, inns and hotels derive a lot of their ghostly reputation from the folks who have stayed there. Just look at Stephen King's Overlook Hotel.

Garden State's Dark Side

The final stop on today's ghostly gallivant is New Jersey. The site is Weird NJ, and it's brought to you by one of our most loyal field investigators and sometime quiz writer Jenna King.

I wish every state had a site like this! Here, in one convenient location, you can find a panoply of odd tidbits, many sent in by visitors to the site, and almost all with photos. Subjects covered include UFOs, weird animals (the Matawan Man-Eater and the Hoboken Monkey Man), roads less traveled (Shades of Death Road) and of course haunted places like Devil's Tower and The Tomb of the 12 Nuns.

You'd almost think there weren't any normal folk in New Jersey.

Well, come to think of it, based on the branches of my own family who live up there, there may NOT be. I'll leave it to you to decide.

Urban Legend Of The Week

If you've gotten a wicked new color lipstick to augment your Halloween costume, but you're about to pitch it in the trash because you've received an e-mail warning about lead hazards in lipstick, take heart! It's a hoax.

For one thing, the supposedly authoritative mailer describes cancer as the biggest threat from the supposed lead. While cancer IS listed as one of the possible side effects from lead exposure, there are far more dire and common consequences such as reproductive difficulties and brain damage to be dealt with.

According to my close, personal friend David Emery at the About.com Urban Legends site, the Manila Times investigated these claims and found them to be completely baseless. All the brands of lipstick listed in the e-mail were tested, and there was no measurable amount of lead in any of them.

I welcome your comments, complaints, stories and professions of undying love. Large cash grants are also accepted. Just click here, type and send.

Previous Stories:

• Oct. 1, 2004: So Weird It's Scary
• Sep. 24, 2004: I'm A Lumberjack ...
• Sep. 17, 2004: Barkeep, More Grog!
• Sep. 3, 2004: Enjoy The Ride
• Aug. 27, 2004: Fuzzy Menace IV: The Sugar Land Incident
• Aug. 20, 2004: Fuzzy Menace III: The New Breed
• Aug. 13, 2004: Fuzzy Menace II: Rogue's Gallery
• Aug. 6, 2004: The Fuzzy Menace
• July 30, 2004: The Idiot Bell
• July 23, 2004: Planes, Trains And Doughmobiles