Waverly Hills Sanatorium- Kentucky

Facts

In Louisville, Kentucky, perched high upon a massive hill sits Waverly Hill Sanatorium. This reigning fortress of doom, in its decaying state, cast an eerie feeling upon the city below. The atmosphere surrounding Waverly creates a sense of foreboding and is further darkened by a chilling history.

Waverly Hills Sanatorium was built in 1924 to replace an existing hospital, built in 1910, that became over populated due to the rapid spread of a plague like disease, tuberculosis. Although Waverly hills was considered the most advance tuberculosis sanatorium in the country, hundreds of adults and children still perished at the peak of the epidemic. Ultimately the deaths occurred because of lack of medicines. A cure for tuberculosis wouldn't come until 1940 and although treatments were performed to help alleviate the condition of the patient, most times they were just as horrific as the disease itself and most patients did not survive.

By the late 1930's a decline in tuberculosis occurred and then in 1943 a cure for the disease was made available worldwide. Patients were treated accordingly and when healthy were released. Then in 1946 after tuberculosis was under control Waverly Hills shut down. Yet, that was not the end of the story, it was later re-opened as Woodhaven Geriatrics Sanatorium in 1961. During this time there were many stories of patient mistreatment and unusual experiments . By 1982 Waverly was shut down indefinitely . Today it sits abandoned, ravaged by time.

Hauntings

With 64,000 deaths under its belt its no wonder why Waverly Hills is considered to be one of the most haunted insane asylums haunted insane asylums in the country. As if death wasn't enough to cause a haunting it has also been speculated that satanic rituals have taken place with in it's walls. Shadow people lurk with in its corridors accompanied by disembodied voices and slamming doors. Here are a few well known occurrences at Waverly:

Main Entrance

An elderly women is often seen, in spectral form, crying for help, bleeding with her wrist and ankles chained.

The Third Floor

It is said, depending on who is speaking, that either a ghostly little boy (Robert) or girl (Mary) haunts the third floor. Often times people report seeing this ghostly apparition playing with a ball; others have only heard the ball bouncing on the floor or down the stairs.

The Roof

The faint voices of Children are often heard singing "ring a round the rosie" on the roof.

The Fifth Floor & Room 502

Stories say that in 1928, the head nurse in Room 502 was found dead in her room. She had committed suicide by hanging herself from the light fixture. She was 29 years-old at the time of her death and allegedly, unmarried and pregnant. Her depression over the situation led her to take her own life. It’s unknown how long she may have been hanging in this room before her body was discovered. Then in 1932, another nurse who worked in Room 502 was said to have jumped from the roof patio and plunged several stories to her death. No one seems to know why she would have done this but many have speculated that she may have actually have been pushed over the edge. There are no records to indicate this but rumors continue to persist. It is reported that people have seen her full body apparition on this floor. Feelings of despair are often times felt in this area as well as voice growling "get out"!

The Fourth Floor

The fourth floor is regarded as one of the most creepy, scary and "active" areas in the hospital. Doors are reported to slam for no apparent reason in an area of the fourth floor that is off limits to human occupants due to the unsafe nature of the area. Ghostly shadow like silhouettes are also said to be seen lurking the halls in this area as well.

 

Annabell The Haunted Doll

Annabelle was the focus of a case that famed paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren took part in during the early 1970's and is highlighted in the book The Demonologist. It has been stated that this is one of the most unusual cases of a possessed object on record.

This is the true and terrifying story of a Raggedy Ann doll named Annabelle.

In 1970 a mother purchased an antique Raggedy Ann Doll from a hobby store. The doll was a present for her daughter Donna on her birthday. Donna, at the time, was a student in college, preparing to graduate with her nursing degree and resided in a tiny apartment with her room mate Angie (a nurse as well). Pleased with the doll Donna placed it on her bed as a decoration and didn't give it a second thought until a few days later. With in that time both Donna and Angie noticed that there appeared to be something very strange and creepy about the doll. The doll apparently moved on its own, relatively unnoticeable movements at first, like a change in position, but as time passed the movement became more noticeable. Donna and Angie would come home to find the doll in a completely different room from which they had left it . Sometimes the doll would be found crossed legged on the couch with its arms folded , other times it was found upright, standing on its feet, leaning against a chair in the dining room. Several times Donna, placing the doll on the couch before leaving for work, would return home to find the doll back in her room on the bed with the door closed.

The Message

Apparently the doll not only moved but could write too. About a month into their experiences Donna and Angie began to find penciled messages on parchment paper that read "Help Us" and "Help Lou". The handwriting looked to belong to that of a small child. The creepy part about the messages was not the wording but the way they were written. At the time Donna had never kept parchment paper, on which the notes were written, in the house, so where did it come from?

The Medium

One night Donna came home to find the doll had moved again, this time it was on her bed. Donna had come to find that this was typical of the doll but some how she knew this time it was different, something wasn't right. A sense of fear came over her when she inspected the doll and saw what looked like blood drops on the back of its hands and its chest. Seemingly, from no where, a liquidity red substance had appeared on the doll. Scared and desperate Donna and Angie decide it was time to seek expert advice.

Not knowing where to turn they contacted a medium and a seance was held. Donna was then introduced to the spirit of Annabelle Higgins. The medium related the story of Annabell to both Donna and Angie. Annabelle was a young girl that resided on the property before the apartments were built. She was a young girl of only seven years old when her lifeless body was found in the field upon which the apartment complex now stands. The spirit related to the medium that she felt comfort with Donna and Angie and wanted to stay with them by moving into the doll. Feeling compassion for Annabell and her story Donna gave her permission to inhibit the doll and stay. They were to soon find out however, that Annabelle was not what she seemed.

Lou

Lou was friends with Donna and Angie and had been with them since the day the doll arrived. Lou had never been fond of the doll and on several occasions warned Donna that it was evil and to get rid it of it. Donna had a compassionate tie to the doll and not giving much credence to Lous' feelings kept it. Donnas' decision, it turns out, was a terrible mistake.

Lou awoke one night from a deep sleep and in panic. Once again he had a recurring bad dream. Only this time somehow, something seemed different. It was as though he was awake but couldn't move. He looked around the room but couldn't discern anything out of the ordinary and then it happened. Looking down toward his feet he saw the doll, Annabell. It began to slowly glide up his leg, moved over his chest and then stopped. Within seconds the doll was strangling him. Paralyzed and gasping for breath Lou, at the point of asphyxiation, blacked out. Lou awoke the next morning, certain it wasn't a dream, Lou was determined to rid himself of that doll and the spirit that possessed it. Lou, however, would have one more terrifying experience with Annabell.

Preparing for a road trip the next day Lou and Angie were reading over maps alone in her apartment. The apartment seemed eerily quiet. Suddenly, rustling sounds coming from Donna's room aroused fear that someone had possibly broken into the apartment. Lou determined to figure out who or what it was quietly made his way to the bedroom door. He waited for the noises to stop before entering and turning on the light. The room was empty except for Annabell whom was tossed on the floor in the corner. Lou scoured the room for forced entry but nothing was out of place. But as he got close to the doll he got the distinct impression that somebody was behind him. Spinning around he was quick to realize that nobody else was there. Then in flash he found himself grabbing for his chest, doubled over, cut and bleeding. His shirt was stained with blood and upon opening his shirt there on his chest was what looked to be 7 distinct claw marks.

Paranormal Investigation: The Warrens

Donna finally was willing to believe the spirit in the house was not that of a young girls but inhuman and demonic in nature. After Lou's' experiences Donna felt it was time to seek real expert advice and contacted an Episcopal priest named Father Hegan. Father Hegan referred their case to Ed and Lorraine Warren.

Ed and Lorraine Warren immediately took interest in the case and contacted Donna concerning the doll. The Warrens, after grueling over the case facts for hours came to the conclusion that the doll itself was not in fact possessed but haunted. Spirits do not possess inanimate objects like houses or toys, they posses people. A spirit will attach itself to an object and this is what occurred in the Annabelle case. The spirit moved the doll around and created the illusion of it being alive. Truly, the spirit was not looking to stay attached to the doll, it was looking to posses a human host.

The spirit or in this case an inhuman demonic spirit, was essentially in the infestation stage of the phenomenon. It first began moving the doll around the apartment by means of teleportation to arouse the occupants curiosity in hopes that they would make the predictable mistake of bringing a medium into the apartment to communicate with it. Which the girls did. Now able to communicate through the medium, the entity preyed on the girls emotional vulnerabilities by pretending to be a rather harmless young girl with which, during the seance, managed to extract permission from Donna to haunt the apartment. Insofar as demonic is a negative spirit, it then set about causing patently negative phenomena to occur; it aroused fear through the weird movements of that doll, it brought about the materialization of disturbing handwritten notes, it left a residue of blood on the doll, and ultimately it even struck the Lou on the chest, leaving behind claw marks. The next stage of the phenomenon would have been complete human possession. Had these experiences lasted another 2 or 3 weeks the spirit would have completely possessed if not harmed or killed one or all of the occupants in the house.

At the conclusion of the investigation the Warrens felt it appropriate to have a recitation of an exorcism blessing by a priest to cleanse the apartment. "The Episcopal blessing of the home is a wordy, seven page document that is distinctly positive in nature. Rather than specifically expelling evil entities from the dwelling, the emphasis is instead directed toward filling the home with the power of the positive and of God." (Ed Warren). At Donna’s request, and as a further precaution against the phenomena ever occurring in the home again, the Warrens took the big rag doll along with them when they left.

For the next few days, after the Warrens arrived home, Ed sat the doll in a chair next to his desk. The doll levitated a number of times in the beginning, then it seemed to fall inert. During the ensuing weeks, however, it began showing up in various rooms of the house. When the Warrens were away and had the doll locked up in the outer office building, they would often return to find it sitting comfortably upstairs in Ed’s easy chair when they opened the main front door. Although the phenomenon was the same as that which had occurred in the apartment neither Lorraine nor Ed were ever physically attacked.

 

Mary Shaw Poem

Beware the stare of Mary Shaw
She had no children only dolls
And if you see her in your dreams
You must not scream
For she is taking revenge upon all
Who had silenced her and made her fall
Sending out 101 dolls to rip out their tongues
So none of them will utter a single word again
Beady little eyes, turning every way you go
Leave them in the dark and you never know
Forever they wil place you down, in eternal sleep
With a picture of horror, your own blood will seep
And gone forever, she will take
All your loved ones and family
Beware of Mary Shaw
She's very angry
And whatever you do, don't appear scared
For she will murder you and leave your blood there
Her ghost is kept inside one doll
Dug from her grave, you will lose it all
Just don't say her name
Don't ask her why
She'll take your loved ones and she won't cry
Beware of the stare of Mary Shaw
Her spirit lives on

Ghost Handprints

My wife Jill and I were driving home from a friend's party late one evening in early may. It was a beautiful night with a full moon. We were laughing and discussing the party when the engine started to cough and the emergancey light came on. We had just reached the railroad crossingwhere Villamain Road becomes Shane Road. According to local legand, this was the place where a school bus full of children stalled on the tracks. Everyone on the bus had been killed by an oncoming freight train. The ghost of the children were reported to haunt this intersection and were said to protect peoplefrom danger.

Not wanting a repeat of the train crash, I hit the gas pedal, trying to get our car safely across the tracks before it broke down completely. But the dad-blamed car wouldn't cooperate. It stalled dead center on the railroad tracks.

As if that weren't enough, the railroad signals started flashing and a bright light appeared a little ways down the track, bearing down fast onn our car. I turned the key and hit the gas pedal, trying to get the car started.

"Hurry up, Jim! The train's coming." My wife urged, as if I didn't hear the whistling blowing a warning.

I broke out into a sweat and tried the engine again. Nothing.

"We have to get out!" I shouted to my wife.

"I can't." Jill shouted desperately. she was struggling with her seat belt. we'd been having trouble with it recently. She'd been stuck more than once, and I'd had to help her get it undone.

I through myself across the stick-shift and fought with the recalcitrant seat belt. My hands were shakingand sweat poured down my body as I felt the rumble of the approaching train. It had seen us an was whistling sharply. I risked a quick glance over my shoulder. The engineer was trying to slow down, but he was too close to stop before he hit us. I redoubled my efforts.

Suddenly, the car was given a shark shove from behind. Jill and I both gasped and I fell into her lap as the car started to roll forward, slowly at first, then gaining speed. The back end cleared the tracks just a second before the train roared passed. As the car rolled to a stop on the far side of the tracks, the engineer stuck his head out the window of the engine and waved a fist at us; doubtless shouting something nasty at us for scaring him.

"Th..that was close," Jill gasped as I struggled upright. "How did you get the car to move?"

"I didn't," I said. "Someone must have helped us."

I jumped out of the door on the driver's side of the cara and back to the tracks to thank our rescuer. In the bright moonlight, I searched the area, looking for the person who had pushed our car out of the oath of the train. There was no one there. I calledout several times, but  no one answered. After a few minutes strugglewith her seatbelt, Jill finally freed herself  and joined me.

"where is he?" she asked.

"There is no one here." I replied, puzzled.

"Maybe he is just shy about being thanked," Jill said. She raised her voice. "Thank you, whoever you are." she called.

The wind picked up a little, swirling around us, patting our hair and shoulders like a soft touch of a child's hand. I shivered and hugged my wife tightly to me. We had almost died tonight, and I was greatful to be alive.

"Yes, thank you." I replied loudly to our mystery rescuer.

As we turned back to our stalled vehicle, I pulled out my cell phone, ready to call for a tow truck. Beside me, Jill stopped suddenly, staring at the back of our car.

"Jim, look!" She gasped.

I stared at our vehicle. Scattered in serveral places across the back of our car were several glowing handprints. There were small handprints; the kind that adorned the walls of elementary schools all over the country. I started shaking as I realized the truth; our car had been pushed off the tracks by the ghost of the school children killed at this location.

The wiind swept around us again, and I thought I heard an echo of childish voices whispering 'You're welcome' as it patted our shoulders and arms.Then the wind died down and the handprints faded from the back of the car.
Jill and I clung together for a moment in terror and delight. Finally, I released her and she got into the car while I called the local garage to come and give us a tow home.

Skinned Tom

IN LIFE, Tom was a good-looking guy who liked the ladies. Once he'd dated all the available girls in the area, he started seeing a girl in the next town -- not knowing she was married. Eventually her husband got wind of what was going on and vowed revenge on the two of them. He told his wife he was going out of town for the weekend, then hid in the woods behind their house. As he'd guessed, that evening Tom showed up to take the lady out. The husband followed them to the nearby Lovers' Lane.

Things were getting pretty hot and heavy (if you know what I mean) when all of a sudden the car door was jerked open and Tom came face-to-face with one very huge, very angry-looking dude wielding a hunting knife.

"Oh no!" screamed the girl who had started all the trouble in the first place. "It's my husband!"

"That's right, you cheating @#%&*!" yelled her husband. "And I'm about to teach you a lesson you'll never forget!" He pulled her off Tom, rammed the knife into her stomach once, and tossed her aside. Then he turned back to Tom, grinning maniacally.

"Don't hurt me!" Tom begged. "I swear to God I didn't know she was married!" But the wronged husband didn't listen. He dragged Tom out of the car and skinned him alive with the hunting knife. Then he went to town and turned himself in to the police.

When the police arrived at the crime scene, they found the woman, who was miraculously still alive. But Tom was nowhere to be found.

They say he's still hanging around Lovers' Lane, waiting to catch a couple and "teach" them the same lesson his girlfriend's husband taught him. He's described as a bloody skeleton in '20s clothes, carrying the knife he himself was skinned with. All the teenagers around here grow up hearing "Don't go to Lovers' Lane if you don't want to be Skinned Tom's next victim!"

The Body in the Bed

A NEWLYWED husband and wife went to Las Vegas for their honeymoon, and checked into a suite at a hotel. When they got to their room they both detected a bad odor. The husband called down to the front desk and asked to speak to the manager. He explained that the room smelled very bad and they would like another suite. The manager apologized and told the man that they were all booked because of a convention. He offered to send them to a restaurant of their choice for lunch compliments of the hotel and said he was going to send a maid up to their room to clean and to try and get rid of the odor.

After a nice lunch the couple went back to their room. When they walked in they could both still smell the same odor. Again the husband called the front desk and told the manager that the room still smelled really bad. The manager told the man that they would try and find a suite at another hotel. He called every hotel on the strip, but every hotel was sold out because of the convention. The manager told the couple that they couldn't find them a room anywhere, but they would try and clean the room again. The couple wanted to see the sights and do a little gambling anyway, so they said they would give them two hours to clean and then they would be back.

When the couple had left, the manager and all of housekeeping went to the room to try and find what was making the room smell so bad. They searched the entire room and found nothing, so the maids changed the sheets, changed the towels, took down the curtains and put new ones up, cleaned the carpet and cleaned the suite again using the strongest cleaning products they had. The couple came back two hours later to find the room still had a bad odor. The husband was so angry at this point, he decided to find whatever this smell was himself. So he started tearing the entire suite apart himself.

As he pulled the top mattress off the box spring he found a dead body of a woman.

The Knife in the Briefcase

ONE SUMMER day in Southampton, New York, a woman pulled into a gas station. As the attendant pumped gas, the woman told him she was in a hurry to pick up her daughter, who had just finished an art class in East Hampton.

A very-well-dressed man walked over to her car and started talking to her. He explained that his rental car had died, and he needed a ride to East Hampton for an appointment. She said she would be happy to give him a ride. He put his briefcase in the backseat and said he was going to the men's room quickly.

The woman looked at her watch and suddenly panicked. She drove off quickly, having forgotten that the man was coming back to the car for a ride.

She thought nothing of him again until she and her daughter pulled into their driveway. She saw his briefcase and realized she had forgotten him! She opened the briefcase looking for some form of identification so she could notify him about his belongings. Inside she found nothing but a knife and a roll of duct tape!