Spookiest Stories Ever
It is with the "spirit" of this season that authors Roberta Simpson Brown and Lonnie E. Brown prove that chilling tales and ghostly accounts are without season -
and are entrancing whether told over a summer campfire or winter's crackling flames in a fireplace. Relating their own encounters with the supernatural and those handed down through the generations, they tell of comforting spirits -
as in Roberta's tale of her first ghost experience where a kindly spirit lead her to safety from a raging storm.
In the story of Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, history is well served as readers discover that it was built in 1910 as a tuberculosis ward and enlarged in 1924 to accommodate the growing number victims of the dreaded disease. The treatments often included leaving patients outside in bitterly cold weather in an attempt to provide them the fresh air believed to be a cure. The suffering and death within the walls were well known. By 1950 the disease was wiped out by the discovery of streptomycin and the facility closed. Reopened in 1961 as the Woodhaven Geriatric Sanitarium, the history of suffering was resurrected, and the state of Kentucky closed the institution later due to patient abuse. Opened recently for tours, the authors encountered what seemed to be the pleas of tortured souls as they wandered the halls of the cursed buildings. Stories compared reveal that many on the tour saw the same vision of apparitions drifting among the rooms -
and the haunting feelings they left are captured in "Spookiest Stories Ever."
Described as "Four Seasons of Kentucky's Ghosts" these authors offer a year round storytelling treasure that is sure to become part of Kentucky's folklore.
Tales of Kentucky Ghosts
Author William Lynwood Montell, professor emeritus of folk studies at Western Kentucky University, continues his series of collections of spirited narratives, which includes "Haunted Houses and Family Ghosts of Kentucky," with "Tales of Kentucky Ghosts" -
a collection of over 250 hair-raising recounts of supernatural encounters.
From light hearted to terrifying, he relays stories that not only entertain and fascinate, but preserve the storytelling legacy of Kentucky. With extensive research from the archives at Western University, Berea, BCTC, as well as from personal interviews, Montell imparts the haunting tales that bring to action the spirits of lives past: The ghost of a murdered wife, reburied under a creek to hide her grave, reroutes a creek to reveal her hiding place, only to have the stream reroute itself to its original location after her body's discovery; a man who had killed a child in a hit and run incident had his car horn blow on and off every night thereafter, even though he had the horn disconnected; even the harmless foot-tickling ghost.
Entertaining, frightening and yet thought evoking Montell's collection of stories is a wonderful offering of the rich heritage Kentucky has handed down to its citizens.