Sunday, August 23, 2009

When The Ghost Screams

True Stories of Victims Who Haunt





By Leslie Rule
Published by Andrews McMeel Publishing
© 2004
ISBN: 978-0-7407-6175-1
222 Pages

In this book, author Leslie Rule presents stories of spirits who died due to such tragedies as accidents, murder and war. Interestingly, there is a forward by her mother, Ann Rule, who is a crime reporter and writer, wrote the book’s forward and is mentioned in some of the stories.
I preferred this effort to her previous book, Ghosts Among Us, because the author also includes some of her own paranormal experiences while researching and investigating various haunted sites. It really gives her work a personal touch that adds to the overall authenticity of the stories.
I also discovered an unexpected tale toward the end of the book on Dundas District Public School in Dundas, Ontario. Built in 1929, it sits at the end of the main street in town just below the railway tracks. Back in the 1934, there was a terrible accident when two trains collided there. The town folks came running to find that most of the 397 passengers had died. In an effort to quickly clear the site, the bodies were moved to a makeshift morgue in the basement of the school.
My younger daughter used to attend this public school in the 1980’s and rumors abounded that the site was haunted. It comes as no surprise to me that the ghosts of former train passengers have been seen inside the school, pacing has been heard along the hallways and the voice of an old woman has also been heard saying, “Help me.”
What I didn’t know about the site is that there are other, seemingly unrelated ghosts roaming there as well. Back in the ‘50s, five custodians made a pact that whomever died first would return to haunt the others. The first to go was Russell, who kept his word to his co-workers. Some years later, a school employee placed a pail of soapy water down in a hallway on the third floor, as he planned to wash it. He first left though and went for supper. When he returned, the floor was washed! This employee also saw the tall ghostly figure of a man smiling and heard the sound of keys jingling – all on the third floor.
To get your copy of When The Ghost Screams go
Here. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find a ghost story or two from your hometown.

1 comment:

Dianne G. Sagan said...

This sounds like a very interesting book. I don't read a lot about the paranormal, but this one catches my attention. I've had the experience a few times in my life when I saw a door open without anyone visible and could hear the rustling of skirts as well as smell a perfume I'd never smelled before. I believe that if people are sensitive enough to pick up on it we are visited sometimes and it can be very comforting or unsettling.Thanks for sharing this book review.