Ope, A Ghost

Libraries are some of the greatest places in the world. Where else can you check out books or DVDs and listen to story time? Some let you borrow things like basic tools or a telescope. Mine has a café and will loan you a fishing pole. Still, most libraries have thing you can’t take home like reference books or ghosts. Wait . . . did I just say ghosts? You bet I did—it’s a paranormal podcast after...

In the fall of 1967, the skies over Point Pleasant West Virginia were filled with strange lights and winged creatures with hypnotic glowing red eyes. The tall, grey man with wings would come to be known as Mothman. Though sightings go back long before the Point Pleasant story, recent sightings in Chicago, Indiana, and Michigan began in 2011. Could the Mothman’s presence be a portent of impending d...

Welcome to an Ope, A Ghost Book Club mini episode. In our second foray into fiction, we read Darcy Coates’s The Carrow Haunt (2018). Meet Remy, a period-dress tour guide of the historic and haunted Carrow House. Remy accepts a position as historian on a paranormal team funded by the enigmatic Mark who intends to investigate Carrow House. Remy and Mark are joined by a psychic, a ghost hunter, and C...

What is it about famous people that draws us in? They sing our favorite songs, and they star in our favorite movies. Some fill us with nostalgia as we remember them from that show we used to watch, and so, we miss them when they’re gone. And yet, some never really leave. Come along on our very own ghostly walk of fame where celebrities linger long after the last curtain call. In this episode we lo...

Welcome to the Crescent City, Pelican City, The Big Easy. Whatever you call it, New Orleans is full of spirit. No town can send the soul over the moon with jazz and Mardi Gras like NOLA, but some souls decided to stay. Enjoy an alligator sausage Po-Boy at the Napoleon House but keep an eye out for the sweeping lady. Visit the Pharmacy Museum where a murderous pharmacists may have killed some of hi...

Welcome to a special Halloween episode. As were approach All Hallow’s Eve, we thought you might enjoy an episode dedicated to the history of Halloween and the ghost story. But that’s not all. If you ring our doorbell and say “Trick-or-Treat,” we’ll drop a few listening submitted paranormal experiences into your pumpkin. Thanks for listening and we hope you are having a wonderfully frightful spooky...

In 2009, moviegoers were enthralled and terrified by The Haunting in Connecticut. The supernatural thriller was promoted as being “based on a true story.”  We wondered how much of the “true story” made it into the film? In this episode, we look at the movie, the 1992 book, and several interviews with the family to uncover what really happened at the former funeral home in Southington, CT. What did...

Nothing screams spooky season like a good old-fashioned haunted house. Come along as we uncover the bumps in the night and the ghostly visitors in two genuine haunted houses. First, we visit the Monroe House in Indiana, today more infamously known by its sinister nickname: the Demon House. Then we take a trip to a late 1700s farmhouse in Litchfield County, Connecticut where one resident has kept a...

Welcome to another Ope, A Ghost Book Club. Today we look at Dr. Bruce Greyson’s After (2021). As cofounder of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, Greyson has studied near-death experiences (NDEs) for 45 years. His book is loaded with the stories of those who experience NDEs. Just as interesting are the conclusions that Greyson makes based on four decades of research. The book is...

When you hear the words Salem, Massachusetts, your mind undoubtedly goes to the Salem Witchcraft Trials and for good reason. Salem is steeped in history . . . and in hauntings.  In this episode, we visit the haunted Burying Point Cemetery and the adjacent Murphy’s Pub. We also stop by the mysterious Salem Inn and an eerie funeral home turned speakeasy turned liquor store named Bunghole Liquors. Th...

It just so happens that the theater has been a place for entertainment for nearly as long as humanity has existed. It also just so happens that theaters are among the most haunted places you’ll ever visit. In this episode, we look at the NederlanderTheater in Chicago and a handful of haunted Broadway theaters. The moral of this story is to pay attention the next time you take in a play. That out o...

The list of cryptids is a mile long, but when it comes to the superstars, Bigfoot is the reigning champ. In this week’s episode, Jonathan visits a 1973 Bigfoot rash of sightings in Murphysboro, IL dubbed the Big Muddy Monster. Heaven takes us down the rabbit hole by discussing some of the more unique Sasquatch specimens. Ever hear of Sheep Squatch? You have now! Big Muddy Monster Festival Creature...

On today’s Book Club Minisode we read T. Kingfisher’s What Moves the Dead, a wonderful retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Kingfisher incorporates all the characters from Poe’s original to create a mesmerizing world that is both fascinating and nightmarish. Did we mention the hares? We think you’ll love this one! T. Kingfisher website Amazon link to buy What Moves the...

What is it about dolls that creeps us out? Maybe it’s because they look a little too much like us. Maybe it’s because they were so real to us as children. Either way, when those dolls are haunted dolls, they become the stuff of nightmares. In this episode we visit two famous haunted dolls: Harold and Robert. Come play with us as we explore the history behind these legendary playthings. No tagbacks...

The things that went on at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York have become the stuff of legend. The Amityville story has spawned almost forty films and documentaries. The story begins on November 13, 1975 with the murder of the DeFeo family and ends on January 13, 1976 with the Lutz family fleeing in terror. What really happened that caused a family to flee their home after only twenty-eight...

Hospitals and asylums seem to be among the most haunted of all places. In this episode we explore one of each: Spencer State Hospital and the Old South Pittsburg Hospital. Spencer State, one of over 300 Kirkbride buildings in the nation at the time, began as an overflow for what is now known as the Trans-Alleghany Lunatic Asylum. The Old South Pittsburg Hospital was abandoned because of a need for...

This week's mini book club episode is about A Natural History of Ghosts - 500 Years of Hunting for Proof by: Roger Clarke  If you read along, visit our Instagram page or Facebook group and let us know what you thought of the book! Thanks for listening! Send us Fan Mail If you have an experience, story, or anything else you'd like to share with us, you can email us at Opeaghost@gmail.com...

We recently conducted a poll on our social media sites asking what you would like us to cover in an episode. As luck would have it, there was a tie. This episode is one of the two winners. We’ll get to the other winning topic next time, so you won’t have to wait long. Thank you to all who voted! Haunted house? Yup, heard of those. Haunted cemetery? Still, yup. But wait! Have you heard of a haunted...

Welcome to another dive down the paranormal rabbit hole where answers are vague at best but mostly raise more questions. That’s where we live. We confront the enigmas and the mysteries of the paranormal so we might better understand, inform, and maybe even entertain. Sit back, dim the lights, and enjoy! In this episode, we discuss the mystery of Shadow People. Have you every woke from a dream to f...

In the early 1960s, the bayous of Southern Louisiana became the home of the Honey Island Swamp Monster. According to local lore, this foul-smelling, grey-haired beast is a part alligator / part monkey hybrid that splashed through the swamp leaving behind mysterious three-toed footprints. A decade later in Central Illinois, the area around Lawndale hosted an outbreak of Thunderbird sightings. In on...

For our second Book Club Minisode, we discuss Corey Taylor’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Heaven . Taylor is the lead singer of the widely successful bands Slipknot and Stone Sour and is the New York Times bestselling author of Seven Deadly Sins. In A Funny Thing Happened , Taylor shares his haunted side and delivers a book packed with his spooky experiences while growing up in Des Moines,...

Haunted Springfield High & EL Paso High Who doesn’t have school spirit? These schools sure do! The spirit at these schools lingers long after the students have gone home. Join Heaven and Jonathan as they examine two haunted high schools. The first is Springfield High School in Springfield, IL. SHS is notorious for being built on top of a cemetery. Sure, they moved the bodies . . . most of them...

Knock, Knock. Who’s There? A Poltergeist! In this episode, Heaven and Jonathan talk about the poltergeist phenomenon. Is it a ghost? Is it psychokinetic? One thing’s for sure: something is making a lot of noise and throwing things around. Join us as we dive . . . well, more like belly flop . . . into one of the most bizarre occurrences in the paranormal world. Enfield House - Google Maps - In the...

Emily joins Heaven and Jonathan to talk about their experience with a ghostly little girl and shadow people at the very haunted Old Williamson Funeral Home in Jacksonville, IL. Troy Taylor’s Books – www.americanhauntingsink.com American Hauntings Ghost Hunts www.bumpinthenight.net Send us Fan Mail If you have an experience, story, or anything else you'd like to share with us, you can email us...

We do a lot of reading both for fun and for the show. So, why not share some of what we read with you? For our first Book Club Minisode, we are thrilled to discuss Amy Bruni’s book Life with the Afterlife. You know Bruni from her time on Ghost Hunters and on Kindred Spirits where she co-stars with Adam Berry. Bruni’s book is part biography, part ghost hunting field guide, and part behind the scene...