In the late 1960s, the United States Junior Chamber, known nationally as “The Jaycees,” began a Halloween tradition that continues today: Charity Haunted Houses. These attractions were cheaply built and staffed by volunteers, but they raked in thousands of dollars per attraction. It was estimated in 2016 that charitable organizations operated 80% of all haunted attractions in the US, raising some $250 million annually. Haunted attractions were–and remain–inexpensive ways to generate money for charities. Although most people think of the Jaycees, many charities look for ways to scare up extra ..read more

You can visit the world’s oldest haunted house attraction* in Liphook, England. Built in 1915 by fairground engineers Orton and Spooner, the “Ghost House” (aka the Haunted Cottage) featured steam-powered effects to scare visitors. The ride has been restored and is part of the Hollycombe Working Steam Museum (https://www.hollycombe.co.uk/), a large traditional fairground museum. *Possibly the oldest but certainly the oldest surviving ..read more

Join me with Ghost Education 101 as I discuss the history of haunted houses as attractions and why you don’t want to install one for your charity. FaceBook Live at 9 pm ..read more

Tune in to Tubi’s free documentary Scariest Places in the World. The movie highlights the 10 most scariest places in the world. You’ll also see me chatting about several of the locations. More soon ..read more

Walpurgisnacht is a German night of the witches. Here are 9 facts about the Second Halloween holiday and the English nun who helped transform the holiday: The pagans welcomed spring and fertility rights at the end of April. They held ceremonial festivities to celebrate the end of winter. In Germany, these locations were remote to avoid detection. Mount Brocken is the highest peak in the Harz Mountains where the Witches’ Sabbath took place. In medieval times, a wild party was held to celebrate the devil Wotan’s marriage to Freya. An English nun named Walpurgis (sometimes spelt Walburgis or Wa ..read more

Postcard Collection Spook Hill became a tourist attraction in the 1950s when Barney’s Restaurant in Lake Wales, Florida published a leaflet describing the “facts” associated with the gravity hill. A gravity hill is an optical illusion whereby someone places a car in neutral on an undetectable downhill slope and the vehicle rolls uphill. In reality, the vehicle is rolling downhill, but the occupants don’t realize this because they do not have a true horizon line to focus on. Instead, they feel like they are being pulled uphill. Gravity hills are also called magnetic hills, for some believe ther ..read more

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My True Crime Hauntings lecture scheduled for this Wednesday has been re-scheduled for March 1st ..read more

Cartomancy Cartomancy was an early form of fortune telling using a deck of playing cards and is still used today. No one knows for certain who or when playing cards were created. Scholars believe playing cards originated in China, and by trading routes through the Mamluk Empire (1250-1517) in Egypt, they turned up in Europe by the 1370s. Each European country used their own unique images representing the four suites. For instance, German cards used acorns, bells, hearts, and leaves. The French simplified the suites to shapes, and the English continued with this as a standard with clubs, diamo ..read more