The mysterious events in Washington Hall began shortly after Gipp's death in 1920. Students claimed to hear ghostly music playing in the building very late at night. Mysterious footsteps sounded in the halls at all hours, doors slammed when no one was around and one student claimed that he was pushed by invisible hands as he was walking down a stairway. Even the skeptical Catholic brothers were convinced that something strange was going on.
The stories of the ghostly activity quieted down for a time, until 1945, when students reported a succession of evenings when footsteps were heard up on the building's roof. The building changed in the early 1950's when it was converted to classrooms and a theater, but reports of the paranormal persisted. One claim said that a student watched light bulbs unscrew themselves from sockets before his eyes.
Washington Hall still rests on the Notre Dame campus although hall directors claim that they have yet to meet the ghost. They do admit hearing some strange sounds but despite the rumors.... they can't say for sure that George Gipp is still roaming the corridors of Washington Hall.
Highland Lawn Cemetary in Terra Haute, IN is one of the more famous haunted cemeteries in Indiana. One famous ghostly tale is that od Martin Sheets. He was a wealthy businessman who lived in Terra Haute, Indiana in the early 1900’s. One of his greatest fears was that of a premature burial. He often dreamt of being awake, but unable to move, at the moment the doctor pronounced him dead and then regaining consciousness while trapped in a coffin below the ground. Sheets decided to fight his fears by investing some of his resources in the prevention of his being buried alive.
First of all, he had a casket custom-designed with latches fitted on the inside. In this way, should he be placed inside prematurely, he would be able to open the coffin and escape. He also began construction on a mausoleum so that when he died, or was thought to have died, he would not be imprisoned under six feet of dirt. The mausoleum was well built and attractive but Sheets realized that even if he did manage to escape from his casket, he would still be trapped inside of a stone prison.
He came up with another clever idea. He installed a telephone inside of the tomb with a direct line to the main office of the cemetery. In this way, he could summon help by simply lifting the receiver. The line was fitted with an automatic indicator light so that even if no words were spoken, the light would come on in the office and help would soon be on the way.
Death came for Martin Sheets in 1910 and he was entombed in the mausoleum. I would imagine that for several days afterward, cemetery staff workers kept a close eye on the telephone indicator light in the office. After more time passed though, it was probably forgotten. Years went by and the telephone system in the area changed. Eventually, the direct line to the cemetery office was removed but thanks to very specific instructions in Sheets’ will, and the money to pay for it, the telephone in the mausoleum remained connected and active.
A number of years later, Sheets’ widow also passed away. She was discovered one day lying on her bed with the telephone clutched in her hand. In fact, she held the receiver so tightly that it had to be pried from her fingers. It was soon learned that she had experienced a severe stroke and family members assumed that she had been trying to call an ambulance when she finally died. A service was held and after a quiet memorial service, she was taken to the family mausoleum, where she would be interred next to her husband.
When cemetery workers entered the mausoleum, they received the shock of their lives. Nothing there was disturbed, they saw, except for one, very chilling item. Martin Sheets’ telephone, locked away for all of these years, was hanging from the wall.... its receiver off the hook! Did Martin make the last fatal call to his widowed wife?
Indiana is not without its monsters. One that many crypto zoologists tried to tie back to the Loveland Frogman. That is the tale of the green clawed beast. On August 21, 1955, Mrs. Darwin Johnson had a terrifying encounter with what she claimed was a hideous creature beneath the surface of the Ohio River near Evansville, Indiana. While enjoying a leisurely swim with a friend, she was suddenly clutched around the knee by a large, hairy, claw-like hand.
Only 15-feet from shore, Mrs. Johnson struggled to disengage herself and head for safety. Her friend could only stare in horror as she was yanked beneath the surface of the river. Miraculously, Mrs. Johnson managed to kick her leg free, but almost instantly she was seized again, this time from behind.
After resurfacing a second time, Mrs. Johnson lunged for her friend’s inner tube and the splash of her impact apparently scared her beastly assailant away. Once back on shore, Mrs. Johnson was treated for multiple contusions on her leg, at which point it was discovered that she bore a green, palm-print shaped stain. The stain could not be removed for several days. Could this have been one of the frogmen from Loveland?
One other monster I can’t go without mentioning is the Beast of ‘Busco as it came to be known. It was a said to be a mammoth sized alligator snapping turtle. Churubusco, IN holds the annual turtle festival to commemorate this monster that drove a man to poverty trying to prove its existence.
Indiana is full of many, many more stories of the paranormal, some rather boring, but others almost too scary to be true. If Indiana interests you, I recommend setting a game plan and visiting some of these spooky places.
