Scotland’s Green Lady Ghosts

A traditional ghost found in many Scottish homes and castles is the Green Lady. Most Green Lady Ghosts are benevolent in nature. They are similar to Irish Banshees in that they protect a specific home and family. But unlike the Irish Banshee which

moves with the family Green Ladies stay in the home and protect the next family that moves in. Green Ladies are unique to the United Kingdom since they are not seen in other parts of the world.

Green Lady ghosts are considered “lovely”. They are described as young slender women who wear long green gowns that reach the ground. They also have long golden hair. Sometimes they are associated with water. One legend states that “water” is connected to how they become attached to a home or castle. For they often arrive at a home dripping wet asking for shelter in order to warm up and dry off. If welcomed, they stay and become that home’s protector.

Over the years many Scottish farmers claimed to have Green Ladies as protectors. It was often stated that Green Ladies would protect their cattle, herding them into barns or shelters when a storm was about to hit. It was also stated they protected cattle from being stolen by enemies during conflicts.

Because of their long hair Green Ladies are often called, "Gruagach", which are similar to brownies, both of these are household spirits. Unlike brownies Green Ladies are rarely considered evil in nature. * It is said they do tend to enjoy practical jokes like brownies but any mischief they may cause is always negated by all the good they do. 

One famous Green Lady is connected to Crathes Castle located near Aberdeen City. This Green Lady ghost appears by a fireplace in the castle. She is seen picking up a ghostly infant--then they vanish together. Centuries ago as the castle was being renovated, her bones, and those of a baby were found buried beneath where she is seen.

Another famous Green Lady ghost story is connected to Skipness Castle near Loch Fyne. This ghost has protected this castle and its family for hundreds of years. One story about this ghost recounts how she helped the castle while it was under attack. It is said she cast a state of “confusion” over the enemy as they attacked the castle. Because of this, they had to retreat. Once they regained focus they tried to attack again but as they marched toward the castle, they became confused once more. 

In the ruins of Caerphilly Castle just north of Cardiff in Wales yet another Green Lady has been seen. This ghost hides in the ivy that surrounds the castle. The legend states that if you watch closely you can see her move ever so slightly. Once this Green Lady knows she has been seen, she will emerge and extend her hand if she likes you--then she just vanishes.

As stated above many castles in Scotland have Green Ladies. Dunstaffnage, Fyvie and Huntingtower Castles all have their own Green Ladies. A couple of castles that have been converted to hotels still have Green Ladies in residence as well. One of these, Tulloch Castle Hotel states their Green Lady is connected to a portrait that hangs in the castle.

*  There is one darker legend about a Green Lady being a demon. It is said her green gown covers her hairy goat-like body. In other stories, she is cursed with hooves for feet, and her long gown covers them.

The Haunted House and Other Spooky Poems and Tales

This Scholastic book, The Haunted House and Other Spooky Poems and Tales published in 1970 includes 80 pages of pure delight for the reader. It has some of the best poems written about death I have ever read. They all are very creative plus many of them are scary which makes it even more fun. This book is great entertainment for the whole family. It is no longer published so some copies in good condition are going for a high price. I think this is because so many people remember this anthology with such fondness from their childhood. But you can still find paperback copies on Amazon for a reasonable price.

In 1970 when the book was published a companion album and then later a cassette was also released with the book under the same title. This recording is also really well done. I have included links to this recording at the bottom of this post. Both the book and recording are mostly poems but it also includes two traditional scary stories, which I have shared in other posts--The Black Ribbon and The Cradle That Rocked By Itself.

Here are just three samples of the quality of poetry that is included in this book:

The Haunted House

Not a window was broken,

And the paint wasn’t peeling,

Not a porch step sagged.

Yet there was a feeling,

That beyond the door

And into the hall

This was a house 

Of no one at all.

No one breathed,

Nor laughed,

Nor ate,

Nor said I love,

Nor said I hate.

Yet something watched

Along the stair,

Something that was

And wasn’t there.

And that is why weeds

On the path grow high.

And even the moon

Races fearfully by.

For something walks

Along the stair,

Something that is

And isn’t there.

It isn’t the cough that carries you off,

It’s the coffin they carry you off in.

Dust

Agatha Morley all her life

Grumbled at dust

Like a good wife.

Dust on the table,

Dust on the chair,

Dust on the mantle,

She could not bear.

She forgave faults

In man and child,

But a dusty shelf

Would set her wild.

She bore with sin

Without protest,

But dust thoughts

Preyed upon her rest.

Agatha Morley

Is sleeping sound,

Six feet under

The moldy ground.

Six feet under

The earth she lies,

With dust at her feet

And dust in her eyes.

Here are links to Part One and Part Two of the recording of this book.

China: Chiang-Shih

The traditional Chinese Chiang-Shih folklore legend is about dead bodies that were according to ancient belief able to come back to life because of improper treatment at the end of life or during or after the burial process. One common reason given for the soul or po returning was because the person experienced a very violent or painful death. Another reason given was they became angry because their family members failed to give them the proper respect due to them after their death. Yet another reason for their return was because they were buried in the wrong spot * or their grave was disturbed or moved.

The Chiang-Shih were sometimes known as a “hopping ghosts” because of the tradition of burying bodies dressed with their feet bound together--the result when they came back to life they had to hop to move about. These corpses were considered very dangerous when they became reanimated. Attributes assigned to them included the fact they were blind so they relied on their ability to sense the breath of their prey to track them. In traditional Chinese belief the Chiang-Shih could suck the breath out of their victims, they were described as having gale force breath. In modern Chinese stories they are just as likely to suck the blood of their victims--for this traditional legend has evolved, today Chiang-Shih are sometimes considered vampires.

Other legendary supernatural powers that are attributed to the Chiang-Shih include sword-like fingernails, incredibly long eyebrows that they can use to lasso or bind their enemies. They also have the ability to shape-shift and they can fly. Despite their evolution today into more scary creatures, I prefer the traditional stories about the Chiang-Shih--for they are also scary. The following story is one of my favorites.

The corpse in this story was not buried in a timely fashion therefore it became a Chiang-Shih because evil spirits were able to enter it.

Four male travelers in Shantung arrived at an inn in the middle of the night. The innkeeper told them no rooms were left but taking pity on them he led them to a little shack in the back of the inn. Early that day the innkeeper’s daughter-in-law had died but he being very busy had not arranged her burial. The four weary travelers bedded down not realizing her corpse lay on a plank behind a curtain in the same shack.

Three of the men fell asleep immediately but the fourth feeling a sense of impending danger couldn’t relax. He froze as he saw a boney hand draw the curtain aside. A monstrous corpse emerged surrounded by a green mist. It had glowing red eyes. He watched in terror as this apparition bent over each of his sleeping companions and breathed a foul stench of death upon each of them. All three now lay dead.

The fourth traveler pretended to be asleep and held his breath as the Chiang-Shih breathed on him.  As soon as the corpse returned to its plank he ran out of the shack. Hearing him leave the apparition chased him. The man in a panic hid behind a willow tree. But the Chiang-Shih found him.

She lunged at him shrieking. Overcome with fear the man fainted. This saved him once more for the Chiang-Shih missed him and her claw like nails became embedded deep within the tree. She couldn’t extricate them. The next morning the innkeeper found her lifeless corpse no longer animated by the evil spirits. The traveler lay still unconscious nearby.

*  This notion comes from the belief in feng shui.

Andrew Pixley: Takes Longer to Kill Evil

On an August night in 1964 Andrew Armandoz Benavidez, aka Andrew Pixley brutally killed two young girls in a hotel in Jackson, Wyoming. His crime is considered the worst ever committed in the state. He was the youngest prisoner, 22 years old to be executed in the Wyoming gas chamber. It takes the average condemned prisoner 3 minutes to die after the pellets hit the acid; Pixley lived twice as long, it took him 6 minutes to die. The Wyoming Frontier Prison or Wyoming State Penitentiary is considered to be very haunted. Pixley’s ghost is just one spirit that haunts this former prison. Tragically, it appears his two young victims also haunt the building.

Pixley born in Las Cruces, NM was a misfit. He dropped out of high school and never held a job. He served two years in the U.S. Army after a warrant for his arrest for passing bad checks was issued. After his short stint in the army he mostly worked as an itinerate dishwasher in the Pacific Northwest. Just two weeks before the murders he was arrested for possession of a stolen car--he was cleared of these charges.

Judge Robert McAuliffe’s family from Illinois were vacationing in Jackson on the night of August 5/6 when he and his wife Betty left their daughters in their motel room to watch a show put on by the resort. Pixley broke into the hotel by climbing a stack of firewood in the back and breaking a screen out of a window. When the couple returned they found Pixley lying in a drunken daze on the floor. Mr. McAuliffe grabbed and pinned him down. His wife found two of their three daughters dead in their beds.

The girls Debbie 12 and Cindy 8 had been sexually assaulted, Debbie was bludgeoned with a rock, and Cindy was beaten and had been strangled. Their youngest child Susan 6 was unharmed but she witnessed the assault on her two sisters. Some sources also state that Pixley cannibalized the two young girls as well. When arrested he told police despite being covered in blood, “ I didn’t do it.” An angry mob outside the motel called for him to be lynched so he was taken to Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlings, Wyoming where he could be held securely. Later and up until his execution he claimed that he didn’t remember anything.

At his trail Dr. William Karn Jr. who had examined Pixley stated he was sane but an “incurable sociopath”. When he mentioned “that it meant a lot more to Pixley to kill the girls while they were awake” Robert McAuliffe flew at Pixley at which point he was restrained. As the judge announced that Pixley was to be executed on December 10, 1965, he laughed. He did not allow an appeal to be filed to commute his sentence to “life imprisonment”. The McAuliffe’s divorced and the judge remarried and had a son. Both parents have passed. Susan their youngest child married and has five children.

The Wyoming Frontier Prison closed down in 1981. Today it is run as a museum. Many paranormal investigations have been conducted in this former prison. Before Pixley was executed he was considered a very violent prisoner. Today many have picked up his very “angry energy. One lit candle that sits under his photo in his former cell never flickers but when tour guides mention him the ones around it do. Some wonder if his ghost is trapped in his former cell. Many EVP's have been recorded in this cell and in and around the gas chamber.

One female sensitive who joined an investigation sat in the the gas chamber chair. She asked the spirits she sensed if they knew how they died. She didn’t hear a response but later in a recording she was disturbed to hear the voice of a young female child wail and reply to her question, “no”. Other witnesses have heard the sounds of young girls crying coming from this gas chamber. Another spirit that is seen is that of a ghost cat. This black cat was executed in the gas chamber as a “test run” to make sure the chamber had no leaks before Pixley’s sentence was carried out.

The following video has interviews with several people who work at the museum who have encountered both the cat and Pixley’s ghosts.

The Swamp Fox and the Ghostly Sentry

To look at Francis Marion no one would have guessed that he would be one of the heroes of the American Revolutionary War. He was small of statue standing at only five feet tall and he had malformed legs. History has viewed him in two very different lights. Americans view him as the crafty “Swamp Fox” who won the war in the South for America. The British viewed him as a cruel butcher who killed Indians for fun during the French and Indian War and raped the female slaves he owned. The truth lies somewhere in the middle of these two views.

Francis Marion never claimed to be noble he instead was a product of the times he lived in. He did own slaves and he was a vicious fighter during the French and Indian War in 1760. It was during this fight that Marion learned valuable lessons in warfare that would help America. He observed the Cherokee Indians use the surrounding landscape to their advantage. They would conceal themselves in the Carolina backwoods and then ambush the unsuspecting colonists. Decades later Marion used these same tactics--that would eventually become known as “guerilla warfare”-- against the British.

In 1775 Marion was newly elected to the South Carolina Provincial Congress when the Revolutionary War started after the battles of Lexington and Concord. He joined the fight as a Patriot and for the first few years he was in charge of guarding Fort Sullivan. Which he did successfully. In 1780 while attending a dinner party Marion suffered through the traditional toast after toast. The host had locked all the doors in the home and Marion never one to over indulge managed to escape the house by jumping from a second story window--he broke his ankle in the fall. As he was recuperating in the country the British took Charleston--Marion laid up evaded capture. As fate would have it this changed the course of the war in the South.

Recovered, Marion took command of his first militia where he and fifty men--both white and black-- raided a large British encampment by hiding in dense foliage--they attacked from behind and managed to rescue 150 American prisoners. Often outnumbered Marion's militia continued to use guerilla tactics to surprise the British. This strategy was very successful for the British never knew where he would attack next. Marion was able to both constantly needle the enemy--he was particularly adroit at disrupting British supply lines-- and inspire patriotism among the locals.

By November of 1780 Marion earned the name. “Swamp Fox” which he is remembered by today. A British Lieutenant Colonel gave him the name after he chased him for seven hours over 26 miles at which point Marion managed to escape into the swamp. The Colonel stated, “As for that damned old fox, the Devil himself could not catch him.” The story spread and the locals who loathed British occupation now cheered the Swamp Fox.

Francis Marion never commanded a large army or led a major battle but his efforts after the devastating defeat at Charleston helped keep the cause for American independence alive in the South. After the war ended Marion serving in the South Carolina Assembly was opposed to punishing Americans who had remained loyal to the British during the war. This is another reason Americans admired him. *

The Swamp Fox had an interesting ally during the Revolutionary War. William Wragg who owned Wedgefield Plantation near Georgetown was a staunch Tory--meaning he was a Loyalist who supported the British. His home was often used to keep Patriot prisoners that were captured. But unbeknownst to him his daughter was a staunch Patriot who became a spy for the Swamp Fox. She communicated with Marion by leaving notes in a crack in a tombstone in Prince George Churchyard.

One note she left for the Swamp Fox resulted in a haunting that continued for over 130 years. Wragg’s daughter told the Swamp Fox that the father of one of his men had been captured along with several other Patriots and they were imprisoned in her home. She informed him that the entire household including all but one British sentry were to attend a party at a neighboring Tory Plantation the following Friday.  Marion quickly planned a rescue.

As the Swamp Fox and his men entered Wedgefield’s yard the one remaining sentry did not suspect foul play, in fact in greeted the group. As legend has it Marion or one of his men took out their saber and chopped off this man’s head. Morbidly, it is noted his decapitated body fell to the ground and continued to twitch like a chicken without its head. The prisoners were released and Wragg finding them gone was incensed. He had no idea his daughter had aided their freedom.

Late one night, several weeks later Wragg’s daughter was awakened by the sound of pounding horse hoofs. She flew to her second floor bedroom window to see who had entered the yard. Curiously, she spied no horses below. But what she did see horrified her. She saw a headless figure dressed in a British uniform stagger up onto the veranda and then just disappear. She was just the first witness to see this odd apparition. Many others saw this headless figure at Wedgefield over the years. The most recent sighting happened in the 1930s just before the old house was torn down.

*  After the war General Marion was a National hero second only to George Washington.

The following eight-minute video is a nice overview of Francis Marion’s life and role in the American Revolutionary War.