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Anna Nicole Smith was an American model, actress, and television personality. Smith first gained popularity in Playboy magazine when she won the title of 1993 Playmate of the Year.

Smith dropped out of high school at age 14 in 1982, married in 1985, and divorced in 1993. In 1994, her highly publicized second marriage to 89-year-old billionaire J. Howard Marshall resulted in speculation that she married the octogenarian for his money, which she denied. Following Marshall's death in 1995, Smith began a lengthy legal battle over a share of his estate.

Anna Nicole Smith died in 2007 in a Hollywood, Florida hotel room, room 607, as a result of an overdose of prescription drugs. In the months leading up to her death, Smith was the focus of renewed press coverage surrounding the death of her son, Daniel, and the paternity and custody battle over her newborn daughter, Dannielynn Birkhead.

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Using Psychic Detectives to Solve Crimes

Eight years ago, Troy Griffin predicted that a good friend of his, Diana, was going to be involved in a car accident. Troy spoke to Diana about his prediction and expressed his concern about her driving. Some months later, Diana was indeed involved in an accident; luckily, it wasn’t serious, but the circumstances were just the same as Troy’s vision. Troy is a psychic, able to make predictions about the future and see events many months or even years before they happen. He also says that he sees the dead and can communicate with ghosts to help solve crimes. Troy has put his psychic abilities to good use, reportedly assisting the police with more than 100 missing person cases and also several murder cases. This case is a great example of putting psychic powers to good use and the wonders that these types of predictions can do for improving everyday safety.

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BLACK MOUNTAIN'S HEADLESS ANNIE
It was just a coon hunting trip. Some of my distant relatives (I prefer not to publicly say their names because what happened to them was bone-chilling and disturbing, not to mention they fear being scoffed) ......these distant relatives of mine decided to go coon hunting on Big Black Mountain one August night when the air was thick with humidity and ghostly mist. I was just a child in the mid 80's, and I remember sitting in the back of my Daddy's blue Chevy truck as my distant family (all men) were taking inventory of their equipment for the all-night excursion upon the state's highest peak.

They tried to talk my Daddy into joining them, and although he was an avid coon hunter himself, something just "didn't set right" with him. He told the men "I don't reckon I want to be up on that mountain in the middle of the night." Once they were satisfied they had all the equipment they needed, they piled in their truck and sped up KY 522 toward the Tri-Cities where Big Black Mountain towers over the old coal mining towns of Lynch and Benham, as well as Cumberland, which was more of a municipality for commerce.

I went on to bed that night, saying my prayers for the poor, defenseless coons (that's just the kind of child I was) and never gave the hunting trip another thought. In fact, it wasn't until months later that I overheard another family member relay to my mother the events of that horrific night experienced by my coon-hunting distant relatives upon Big Black Mountain.

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Making A Great Scary Video To Share Online

If you’ve got a scary story you want to tell the world, you can film it on your smartphone - 52% of people make videos on their phones. It’s a simple way to make a short movie that is high quality, and perfect for sharing online. In America, 92% of people watch and share videos online; in fact, 82% of all internet traffic is video. This means that your homemade creepy video could quite easily go viral and get a mainstream following.

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Ghost Road

It seems ever town you go to has some type of scary monster or creepy ghost story to tell. I know here in my area there are several spooky tales about various locations. These areas often have a history of weird sightings or of odd things happening in them. Many times we don't know the full story as to why a certain area may have weird things going on.

Today, I want to share a story and a place I recently heard about, known as Ghost Road. It is located in Baltimore County Maryland. We all known Maryland has its share of weird tales, one of which is the Maryland Goatman.

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The story of Manzo Shepherd and the events that spawned one of the most infamous trials in Harlan County history started on Black Mountain. At 4,145ft it is the tallest peak in Kentucky and one evening in late April 1942, was the location of a brutal murder.

Within one month of the murder of Joe Christian, a taxi cab driver, Shepherd  would be shot in a crowded courtroom of 300 people and his accomplices, Sherman Clouse and Howard Hensley, would both eventually get life sentences to avoid the death penalty.

Shepherd was killed By Jack Heaton nephew of the murder victim who within 9 months would be set free. Here is a short article describing the events in the courtroom when Shepherd was shot.

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Let me start by saying Happy Halloween to everyone and be safe. I thought today, with it being Halloween, that I would feature 4 of the top haunted places in Kentucky. So here we go!

Waverly Hills Sanatorium - This building has been featured in many paranormal TV shows and is visited by thrill seekers on a regular basis. Waverly Hills was originally a tuberculosis hospital from 1910-1961. There are claims that over 63,000 people died while staying at Waverly. While that large number of deaths is disputed, no one can deny that the facility did have a large number of deaths and questionable treatment methods for patients. Waverly is among the most haunted places in the world, according to most list.



Bobby Mackey's Music World  - Located in Wilder, Kentucky. According to one legend two Satanists murdered and beheaded a woman named Pearl Bryan in 1897. Her body was found minus her head, it was never found.  Famous ghost hunter, Zak Bagans called Bobby Mackey's " the most haunted nightclub in America". There are various tales associate with this area. One such tale is that the original building use to be a slaughter house in the 19th century. There is also a tale about a pregnant dancer named "Johanna" committing suicide in the building. Bobby Mackey's is also said to feature a "Gateway to Hell", referring to the old well in the basement. The old well is said to be where the slaughter house threw all the bones and guts of the dead animals. Some say that is also where Pearl Bryan's head ended up.


 Gates of Hell - Grandview Cemetery - Grandview Cemetery, aka Kasey’s Cemetery or the Gates of Hell, contains the graves of people from the 1700s and 1800s as well as the ruins of an iron and stone gate. Some say one time an enormous green orb appeared here, hovered a short time, then shot straight up and out of sight in a second. Others say they’ve heard screams, seen shadow figures, and had car trouble while on the grounds. There are lots of reports from this cemetery and one report comes from a ghost hunting team. The team was in the cemetery conducting an investigation and discovered the remains of three dogs, a puppy, two cats, a calf and a deer scattered around the cemetery. Some believe that satanic worship is being conducted in the old cemetery. A scary place indeed.


Jailer's inn Bed and Breakfast  - A nice bed and breakfast that use to be a jailhouse back in the 1800's. It has everything a person could ask for in a bed and breakfast. It is even said to have permanent guest in the form of ghost. These ghost are said to be former inmates from the old jailhouse. Many patrons of the inn have been known to feel the haunting presence of these previous inmates. Some even report hearing the sound of chains and shackles.
Located in Bardstown, KY.

  

This is just a very small sample of the many haunted places and areas here in the bluegrass state of Kentucky. I know just here in my local area there are numerous cases of hauntings and tales of a freakish nature. I hope to feature some of them in the future.

If anyone, from any state, has experienced or captured ghostly activity, then feel free to tell us about it by using the form found here!   

If you are going out to conduct paranormal investigations in buildings or private lands, please have the owners permission.

Everyone have a great and safe Halloween!

Thanks
~Tom~


This post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto Crew. Over 20 years experience with research and investigation of unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild land firefighter and a published photographer, and poet


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The story of Devil's Garden, located in Hutch, Kentucky, is an interesting one. Growing up in this general area, I had always heard about Devils Garden and knew it was a swimming spot. As a teenager, I was told by my parent not to go there. That the area was a place were people came to party and drink. I have been by the location many times during my life.The somewhat popular swimming spot has a dark past, Here is the story.

In the small community of Hutch, in Bell county Kentucky, there is a legend that is both sad and frightful.
It seems that one summer night a group of teenagers were out having a good time at the local swimming hole. This was before the spot had earned the name Devils Garden. They were all drinking, swimming and enjoying quite a bit of playing around. One of the kids may have had too much to drink and slipped and hit his head on a rock in the shallow water. The teenagers were drinking in a dry county and they sure didn't wont their parents to know about it. So,they decided to cover up the accidental death of their friend.

They tied a rock to their friend’s body to keep it under the water and left. The next day, wondering if it was all a bad dream they went back to the swimming hole. The police had already arrived to the scene and found the body.

Come to find out, their friend had not died from hitting his head but had drowned. None of the then teenagers said a word about what really happened. Fifteen years later, the now adult teenagers, began to disappear one by one. It finally got down to where only two from the group were left. The two decided to confess about what really happened that night. They both were sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Now, as the legend goes, if you go out to the swimming area during a full moon, you will sometimes see a reflection of a skull on the water.

After this event, the area became known as Devil's Garden.


Now, it is my understanding that people still go there and swim but as for me, I think I'll pass. I think a lot of people in our area probably don't know about this tale, they may know the name but not the story behind it.

Now, the only verification I can find on this story is from several other websites, so I can't say for sure it is 100 percent the real story, but then again that is why it is called a Legend.

Happy Reading.

FOLLOW UP - Devils Garden The Real Story

Thanks
~Tom~



This post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto Crew. Over 20 years experience with research and investigation of unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild land firefighter and a published photographer, and poet



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a talkin' dog?

By reading the title of this post many people will quickly think about the numerous youtube videos where a dog is made to talk. But for me and maybe others around my age group, I quickly think about an episode of  The Andy Griffith Show titled "A man's best friend". In the episode Opie and his friend place a small walkie talkie under a dogs collar and "make it talk" to Goober. In the course of the show they or I should say the "Dog" makes Goober do silly things. It's a funny episode but not all stories about talking dogs are funny. In fact some are very serious and down right scary.

I'm sure almost everyone has heard of The Son of Sam murders. If not, here is a short over view.

 

David Richard Berkowitz, also known as the Son of Sam and the.44 Caliber Killer. He killed 6 people and wounded seven others. His murder spree started in July of 1976. He eluded the police and taunted them by leaving notes at the crime scenes promising more murders. One note read "I am a monster, I am the Son of Sam." Berkowitz was a pudgy overweight 24 year old postal worker who mostly targeted young attractive women with long dark hair for his victims.




Berkowitz was arrested in August of  1977, this is when things really got weird. He told fantastic tales of demons and get this, a talking dog. The dog was a black Labrador retriever named Harvey. According to Berkowitz, he had been commanded by Harvey (the dog) to commit murder. At this point it would be really easy just to say "the guy is a nut" and let it go, but Berkowitz had more to add to the talking dog story.

Berkowitz confessed as being the "Son of Sam" killer and offered a bizarre tale for his motivations.
He stated that "Sam" was an ancient demon that had possessed his neighbor Sam Carr. That Sam (Carr) was really a man who lived 6,000 years ago and that his dog (Harvey) had told him all of this and instructed him to kill. The dog also told him that Sam (Carr) was the Devil. 

Oddly enough, Berowitz refereed to himself as "Beelzebub" in a note left for the police, a name which most associate with The Devil. Berowitz, in prison, told stories of involvement with Satanic worship and the occult.

While some may just dismiss Berowitz's tales of Satanic cults, Demon possession and talking dogs. It should be noted that the movie The Exorcist was inspired by the actual 1949 exorcism case of Ronald Doe. Of course, this is not the boys real name but the case is well documented by Raymond Bishop, the attending priest.

Berowitz who remains in prison, was denied parole in 2014 but questions remain about his tales.
Was he, his neighbor and the dog all under or possessed by some evil, demonic spirit or did Berowitz just make it all up. The police did find Satanic writing on the walls of Berowitz apartment, but later in 1979, Berowitz, said it was all a hoax and he made it up. It seems some of his occult claims were made after the hoax confession.

Do you believe in Demonic possession?

As of 1987,Berowitz claims to be a born again christian. He is back up for parole in 2016 but like the other parole hearings, Berowitz, will most likely not attend. He does not want to be paroled and states he deserves to be in prison.

On  a side note, there is a book out that claims Hitler had or was trying to create a army of talking dogs, that could also read and write. The book is Amazing Dogs: A Cabinet of Canine Curiosities by Dr. Jan Bondeson

So there is your cup of weird for today, enjoy.

Thanks
~Tom~



This post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto Crew. Over 20 years experience with research and investigation of unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild land firefighter and a published photographer, and poet.


[Sources: Life Magazine, Wikipedia]



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Reincarnation?

This Post By TCC Team Member Dorraine Fisher. Dorraine is a Professional Writer, a nature, wildlife and Bigfoot enthusiast who has written for many magazines. Dorraine conducts research, special interviews and more for The Crypto Crew. Get Dorraine's book The Book Of Blackthorne! 






Is reincarnation real? Every once in a while there’s a story that surfaces that can make us all wonder.

The boy eventually named his murder whom authorities soon confronted. The accused man was said to have "turned white" and refused to confess to anything. But when the boy told them he knew where the body could be found, the story took a turn.

He led them all to the site where they dug into the ground, and sure enough, found the skeleton of a man with a traumatic injury to his head, which interestingly enough, greatly resembled the birthmark on the boys head. And as they dug, next to the body, they recovered the murder weapon also: the axe. And so, with that, the accused man felt he had no choice but to confess to the murder.

Cultures that believe in reincarnation believe that birthmarks someone has in their current life can be traced back to an injury from a past life. They also believe that past lives are more easily recounted by very young children, and as they grow older, these memories tend to fade. But thousands of such cases have been documented by The Division of Personality Studies at the University of Virginia. And new stories like these surface on a regular basis. *********DF

　

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SlenderMan

This post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto Crew. Over 20 years experience with research and investigation of unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild land firefighter and a published photographer, and poet.
Just who or what is The Slender Man? Some may liken the name to a super hero name like Spider-man or Batman but The Slender Man is a far cry from any kind of hero.

If you have seen the news, then you know about the recent events where two young girls, ages 12, lured a classmate into the woods and stabbed her 19 times. The girls blame it on The Slender Man, and say it was an attempt to become a "Proxy" for The Slender Man.
(Proxy is an agent or substitute authorized to act for another person or a document which authorizes the agent so to act.)
The stab victim did not die, thank goodness, and is recovering the last I heard.

The Slenderman is also sometimes spelled with a space, The Slender Man but either way it's origins are pretty traceable or so it seems.

The Slender Man was created by Eric "Victor Surge" Knudsen around June 10th, 2009 on a website forum called Something Awful. The website had started a thread in which people where to superimpose a supernatural being into photographs. This is how The Slender Man was born.

When Eric Knudsen submitted his photos, he also included somewhat of a little story snippets from supposed witnesses. Of course this caught fire and the Slender Man started burning up the Internet. The basic premise of The slender Man is that he stalks, abducts and terrorizes people, mostly young children. Eric "Victor Surge" Knudsen registered a copyright on the name "Slender Man" in January 2010. Which was a very good move for him. 

It didn't take long until other people where adding their own stories and art about The Slender Man. It got so popular that people interested in the paranormal called into George Noory's Coast to Coast radio show to ask about The Slender Man.

As the tales about The Slender Man continued to grow so did the popularity. Youtube videos started popping up and The Slender Man was even made into a survival horror video game called Slender: The Eight Pages. Several video game spinoffs were made and also a sequel title Slender: The Arrival.  There is also several independent films that are either in the works or that have been released. Once of which is Entity (View Trailer by Clicking Here), but a quick search on youtube will net you a pretty large list of The Slender Man videos. There is also a running series about The Slender Man by Marble Hornets on youtube, make sure to check it out.

The Slender Man managed to crossed over into real life, as people continue to report seeing what they call The Slender Man. Just take the recent story with the two girls and the stabbing, one of  the girls believes that The Slender Man can read her mind, can teleport and is watching her.

I'll admit I find the idea of The Slender Man very interesting and can see the massive potential for films being made about it. It does somewhat remind me of Freddy Kruger from the Nightmare on Elm Street movies but most in this current generation have not actually watch those films. The Slender Man will be their "Nightmare on Elm Street".

Eric Knudsen, creator of The Slender Man, said this:
"I just want something amazing to come of it... something that's scary and disturbing and kinda different. I would hate for something to come out and just be kinda conventional."

I'm sure Knudsen was talking about films and stories and not about real life murder attempts. I guess the question remains, is Knudsen's art created from real reports of The Slender Man?  On the forum he also posted this "I've heard there may be a couple more legit "Slender Man" photographs out there."

The original forum thread is archived and can be viewed by Clicking Here, of course most of the photos on the archive have been removed over time. Still there is some interesting reading.

The Slender Man is also on Facebook and has over 1 Million likes/followers. You can view the facebook page by Clicking Here.

Now you know some about The Slender Man ......so Beware!

Thanks
~Tom~


[Source: Wikipedia ]







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With Halloween just around the corner, one Indiana family is starting to feel like they're living in a haunted house after discovering bones, embalming tools and gruesome photos of the dead in their attic.
"I won't stay by myself," Patricia Booher told The Huffington Post. "I have an uneasy feeling. I don't know what it is. I've tried to stay here but I can't."
Booher and her husband, Richard, recently moved into their home in Knightstown, a small town about 40 miles east of Indianapolis. On Monday, they were looking in the attic of for a place to store their air conditioner when they made the first of a series of bizarre discoveries.
"There were boxes of stuff in there. We thought it was knickknacks or some old dishes someone had left," Booher said. "When [Richard] started pulling the stuff out, we found a box of empty disinfectant bottles and a wooden crate full of bottles of embalming fluid. Then he pulled out a suitcase that was full of embalming equipment -- hoses and stuff."
The more the family looked through the boxes, the creepier their finds became.
"There were knives in a case that folded out, scalpels, scissors and things they work on people with," Booher continued. "Then we found pictures of dead people -- before and after pictures of them being worked on, a projector with similar films and a skeleton."
The skeleton and the collection of morbid items concerned the family enough that they contacted the Knightstown Police Department. Officers took photos of the items and examined the bones.
"The skeleton was determined to be a model -- like you would see on display in a doctor's office or a school classroom," Knightstown Police officer Anthony Lorton told The Huffington Post.
While police examined the other items, Booher and her family got curious and began digging around in their basement and backyard.
"My daughter, son and niece found a few bones in the basement. Then we found four more pieces: a hip joint, vertebra, index finger bone and a rib bone," Booher said.
So far, the findings have been frightening -- but they haven't aroused suspicions of foul play, according to police.
"The bones found in the cellar have been ruled out as animal bones," Lorton said. "We took the others to [the anthropology department at] Ball State University to be tested to see what they are. That will be done Friday."
Booher said family members are continuing to dig in the backyard today.
"I'm not saying the person who put this stuff here was a bad man. I just want to know why it was left here. Why are there bones here? You have to honor the dead," Booher said.
Whether the most recent bones are human is yet to be seen, but Lorton said he thinks he may have some explanation for the scary discoveries.
"The story we are getting is that there was a gentleman who was renting to own the property and up and left it, along with a lot of his stuff at the house," he said. "So that is probably where all that stuff came from."
The photos of dead people appear to be from the 1970s and 1980s, the officer said, and were likely taken by the person who performed their embalming.
"Look at them from the standpoint of an individual who is keeping a portfolio of his work," Lorton said. "To the everyday person, they are going to be disturbing to look at, but for a person trying to get a job at a funeral home, they are examples of his work."
Lorton added, "Is it creepy? Yes. Criminal? No."
As for the skeleton, the officer said he may have his own plans for it if the Boohers do not want it back.
"I am half tempted to put a hat on it and have it running radar," Lorton joked.




TCH - Here is what really gets me...the Police are acting like it's a normal thing for someone to work at a funeral home and bury people in their basement and tuck them away in an attic. At the very least it is abuse of a corpse and would be totally unethical. And then to joke about it. If them are real bones then they are someones loved one. This story is sad,spooky and unreal all at once.



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