released August 29, 2023

1. Beardslee Castle

Anyone who fancies themselves a ghost hunter in the state of New York should make a visit to the Beardslee Castle one of their top priorities. I have heard of and have seen many so-called haunted places in my travels around this wonderful state of ours. I have to say that Beardslee is both one of the most fascinating and one of the most authentic that I have personally come across.

The oldest stories told of the ghosts who inhabit the Beardslee Manor, which is also known as the Beardslee Castle, involve a group of Indians. At one time, a farmhouse stood on the land Beardslee currently occupies. Beneath the buildings on the property was a tunnel that housed a large amount of ammunition. Local Indians found out about the secret stash and broke into the tunnel in an attempt to steal it. Unfortunately, during their nighttime raid, the underground stores of gunpowder were ignited, causing a massive explosion that killed the entire Indian band. Supposedly, the tunnel entrance can still be seen in the basement of the Beardslee Manor.

Since the night of that bloody explosion, people have reported unearthly hauntings troubling this land. The Beardslee Manor has been many things in its history––a private home, abandoned, and now is a restaurant. Employees have heard voices, seen lights and shadows moving about after hours, have heard footsteps, and have encountered many floating lights––most famously a red orb that follows cars along roads that ride past the Manor. A strange scream sometimes disrupts peoples’ meals, and a number of ghosts are periodically seen in the building.

Not all of the ghost stories associated with Beardslee Manor relate to the Indian raiding party that died in the catacombs beneath it. The majority of them deal with the ghosts of the Beardslee family themselves. Captain Beardslee built the manor as a home for his family, and lived there until his death in 1939. It was an incredible estate, and even included its own train station for the family’s transportation purposes. Members of the Beardslee family were buried in a mausoleum on the property. This mausoleum has long been rumored to be an incredibly haunted place. The mausoleum was desecrated in the 1960s when one of the coffins was removed and opened up and left outdoors. A Little Falls resident was later arrested after he was found in possession of a skull of one of the members of the Beardslee family. This is thought to have contributed to the restlessness of the spirits who seem to call the mausoleum home.

Many folks say that Captain Beardslee himself haunts the area surrounding his former home. Many people report seeing the ghost of a man wandering the grounds of Beardslee Manor carrying a bright lantern. They say that he is searching for his son, who died a tragic death, having been hit by a train. The ghost’s lantern has distracted motorists for decades, causing car accidents along route 5. It’s thought that this man is the Captain himself.

Another former owner of the Manor purportedly haunts its halls as well. Anton Christensen bought the building in the early 1940s along with his wife and opened it as a restaurant. Later, he committed suicide by hanging in an upstairs area. His ghost has been seen roaming the corner where he chose to kill himself by a number of employees.
Beardslee Manor has been a popular destination for those looking for scares since the 1950s. Hundreds of people have had paranormal experiences there––it is easily one of the greatest haunted places in the entire state of New York. It is located on Route 5 in Little Falls.

2. Camarillo State Hospital

Second only to the “Paul is dead” talk that followed the Beatles throughout much of their careers, rumors and legends abound about the Eagles’ 1976 hit “Hotel California.” The lyrics supposedly describe a church that was abandoned and taken over by Satan worshippers, as in “We haven’t had that spirit here since 1969.” Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan did indeed garner a lot of interest and attention in the 1960s, culminating with the admitted membership of celebrities like Jayne Mansfield and Sammy Davis, Jr. (before he saw the light and converted to Judaism). Photos on and inside the album cover purport to show the actual hotel, and people have seen everything from LaVey standing on a balcony to ghosts wandering though the halls.

Despite the fact that the song is most likely an allegory for the music industry and the hedonism of the 1970s, and that the album cover photos were actually taken at the Berverly Hills Hotel, the legends persists, and many of these stories center on the now abandoned Camarillo State Hospital near Ventura. Built in 1936, the facility housed alcoholics, the retarded, drug addicts (jazz great Charlie Parker recorded a seven-month stay in 1947), and more sinister characters such as pedophiles and violently insane criminals. Former patients often referred to the place as “Hotel California” long before the Eagles had even formed

The barbaric state of “care” at Camarillo is legendary, and seemed like something out of the Inquisition rather than a place where people were healed. Patients (some of whom were children) were routinely given electroshock treatments, immersed in tubs of hot water and then wrapped in icy towels, beaten and otherwise abused by employees, pumped full of drugs, or simply strapped to tables until they were too exhausted to resist. Residents were made to wear tan jumpsuits and any who tried to escape were easily spotted.

“You can check out any time you’d like, but you can never leave.”

Parapsychologists have often found that more strange phenomena occur in places where mentally unstable people are grouped, and experiments have borne out this theory. This legendary “snake pit” bears so many psychic scars, it would be unusual if it wasn’t haunted. Accounts from former employees tell of a man who would routinely enter the women’s restroom, only to disappear when someone went inside to look for him. One janitor saw a man’s legs in one of the stalls, but after receiving no reply when she asked him to leave, opened the stall to find it empty.

Beginning in 1999, efforts began to turn the site into another kind of institution. It is now the California State University Channel Islands. School officials would rather forget the sinister history of the buildings, but sightings of strange apparitions and moving furniture continue to plague the grounds. Most of the reported happenings seem to occur in the complex located on the far southern end of the campus, which is still used for location filming, since it is the only place that hasn’t been touched by the renovation crews as yet.

A recent visit just after sunset, with the light of the full moon illuminating the courtyard, was intense enough, but from somewhere inside the building, we could hear an intermittent banging on something that sounded like metal pipes. The faraway noise echoed through the dark hallways for many seconds afterward. A crawlspace door led to an impenetrable darkness. No apparitions were seen or recorded on film that time, but the place remains a good bet for ghost hunting thrillseekers, as well as a monument to a time when the mentally disturbed were treated as non-human by an assuredly ignorant and at times inhuman staff.

“My brother, Bill, while on a location shoot, was working out of this building at the asylum just last May 2004. He's a set builder. While there, little things like the hammers, wrenches, etc. would disappear and then reappear in other rooms. Windows would shut, microwaves thrown on the floor, the walls would knock, and cold spots happened. They would hear children laughing, but no kids were there. A couple of the crew quit—
it was too close to the other side for them.” –

3. Bird Cage Theatre

After surviving two devastating fires, the flooding of its mines and near ghost-town abandonment, Tombstone has come to bill itself as “The Town Too Tough to Die.” Despite repeated hardship, it continues to thrive after more than 120 years.

Since Tombstone's resurrection as a historic tourist stop, however, the motto has taken on a different meaning. The town's former population, it seems, just won't leave. Countless men and women, many of whom died sudden and brutal deaths during Tombstone's early decades, refuse to give up their connection to the town they so loved. Phantoms haunt the street corners where cowboys once lived and died, and practically every building in the historic district boasts at least one otherworldly presence.

Perhaps the single most haunted spot in Tombstone is the Bird Cage Theatre. Built in 1881 on the corner of Allen and Sixth, the Bird Cage quickly became one of Tombstone's hottest businesses, serving as a one-stop saloon, opera house, gambling hall and brothel. You could say it was the town's convenience store of iniquity. It wasn't the only one, but it was certainly one of the most frequented, drawing names like Wyatt Earp, Johnny Ringo and Curly Bill Brocius. Doc Holliday himself dealt faro at a card table that still sits in the saloon's corner.

According to museum supervisor Teresa Benjamin, the men of the day considered the opera house a place of neutral ground. Regardless, an astounding 140 bullet holes perforate the walls, floors and ceiling as a result of the numerous confrontations that took place here. Slugs more than a century old remain embedded in the walls, and just recently, a stiletto blade was uncovered that's been connected to the jealousy-fueled murder of one of the establishment's prostitutes. In all, 26 people lost their lives under this roof.

As a result, it's not surprising to have at least one ghostly experience a day. Most, according to Teresa, are photographic. “Ninety-five percent of our sightings in this building come from the camera,” she says. “They love having their picture taken.” For example, a mirror in one of the more expensive bordello rooms downstairs often produces the image of a lady in white. The cheaper rooms overlooking the gambling room result in their fair share of spirit images, as well. Teresa herself has caught a “floozy” or two up there. In the main hall, one visitor captured the image of two Civil War soldiers standing in front of the museum's gun case.

One particularly active spot for phantasmal photographs seems to be the poster of Fatima the belly dancer. “Ninety-nine percent of the time,” says Teresa, “you take a picture of Fatima and you will get something.” A woman once had her picture taken beneath the poster and discovered in the camera's preview screen another woman standing right beside her. When the visitor moved over to the mystery woman's spot and retook the picture, the apparition traded positions, as well.
Not only do the spirits show up for still photos, but they've also appeared on video. A family of tourists once marched into the gift shop and complained that they didn't see any ghosts, calling the place nothing more than a tourist trap. When they got home, though, they called Teresa to apologize. On their videotape, they discovered two frightening specters staring straight into the camera. The family kept Teresa on the phone for half an hour describing the images. One was of a man sitting up inside an antique hearse that was on display. The other was of a woman in one of the bordello rooms, clearly upset at their presence. “They said it was strange,” she recalled, “because they could actually see the expression on her face go from shock to rage instantly.”
Perhaps the most bizarre image was one Teresa witnessed herself while watching the security monitor. She points to a live image of the high-stakes poker room and says, “I seen a pair of boots and spurs walking down this hallway ... with absolutely no legs.” She thought she was just seeing things, but when a couple passed through that same room moments later, they asked why that room alone was kept at such a low temperature. “They said it was so cold they couldn't stand it in there. … And that room's the same temperature as the rest of the building.”

What's really unusual about the events taking place here is that they
vary so widely in nature. A manager who has since left always felt somebody shoving him out of the way anytime he walked around the card table. He also once had something buckle his legs out from under him on the stairs. During one particular week, women kept getting pinched. Teresa insists this sort of thing is uncommon, since the ghosts are typically friendly, but it does happen.
Sounds, on the other hand, occur on a regular basis. Girls giggling upstairs and the splash of poker chips are pretty common. The echoes of men's chatter frequently emanate from the main hall just as audibly as if actual people were having a conversation. Smells fill the air, as well, which include the scent of lavender perfume and the stale odor of cigar smoke, sometimes so strong it will make your eyes water. A woman once had a severe allergic reaction while visiting the museum, complaining that someone blew smoke right in her face, though she could never see who it was. “Then there's times,” Teresa says, “where the smell of death is so strong … that you actually have to leave the building for at least a couple seconds to get some fresh air. It is so nauseating and so overwhelming.”

Why so much activity at the Bird Cage? Well, despite the number of murders committed here, the opera house stands basically as it did a century ago. The original lights, draperies, stage curtains, wallpaper and furniture are all still in place. According to Teresa, the Bird Cage is the only place in town that has both its original front and back bars. Little about the place has changed. It's so well preserved that, when the building was reopened in the 1930s, original whiskey barrels were discovered still full of liquor. Perhaps these unaltered surroundings, which stand in contrast to the many renovated and brightly painted buildings up the street, are a major reason why the deceased find the Bird Cage so welcoming.

4. Midnight Mary, the Lady of the Lake

Not far from the much-haunted town of New Hope is the town of Bristol, Bucks County, near the Bordentown Road and Tullytown Lake in Pennsylvania These are the haunts of a lovely young teenager in a pink dress who sometimes walks by the roadside, occasionally hitches a ride, and has been known to walk on the waters of the lake.
Her name is Midnight Mary, and her story is a familiar one to any fan of ghost fiction. A popular and beautiful young girl attends her high school prom. She gets a ride home from a young buck with one too many beers inside him—and when he loses control of the car, her promising life is cut short. In the case of Bristol’s Midnight Mary, the car sped right into Tullytown Lake, killing both the occupants. The boy’s body was dredged from the deep, but the girl’s was never found. Now, her spirit walks the night, a flower cut down in her prime, her rosy future replaced by the frustrated longing of a spectral existence.

Right—that’s enough purple prose and overblown themes from b-list fiction. The fact is that many people claim to have seen a girl in a pink dress along Bordentown Road. A trucker once called the police after picking up a hitchhiker answering her description, only to find his passenger seat empty of everything but a large puddle. A mother walking her child in a stroller along the banks of the lake claimed she saw a pink-clad figure moving across the waters of the lake, almost as if she were dancing. The witnesses to these apparitions come from all strata of society, from matrons to middle schoolers, and many of the details seem remarkably similar.

Of course, when you look for hard evidence, there is none to be found. The nearby cemetery at St. James Episcopal on Cedar Street contains the grave of a Gertrude Spring who died in 1935, and who is believed to be the girl behind the Mary legend. Nobody can say for sure why Gertrude is associated with the ghost, or why the ghost goes by the name of Mary—but it must be said that Midnight Gertrude is a far less appealing name for a vision of loveliness on the water. My own twilight strolls and drives beside the lake never turned up any spectral visions, but there is a quality to the light on that water and something in the air that about the place that has a special quality.
So if you happen to spot a bright young thing in a pink ball gown in the vicinity of Bristol in Bucks County, only give her a ride if you have plenty of towels on board.

Recorded at Harsh Reality Music August, 2023
Chris Phinney – (Mental Anguish) – synthesizers, electronics, fx, final mix
Ced Debear – Cover Art

The Church of Noisy Goat

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