Newspaper Clipping of the Day

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It’s time for some Mystery Blood!  The “Sacramento Bee,” August 16, 1870:

At the Juapa, at the residence of Mr. John Baldwin, one of those phenomena occurred for which it is so difficult to account. On the 15th instant, a shower of blood fell at the dwelling of Mr. B., spattering the doorstep and the surrounding grounds. There had been only an instant before a perfect calm, without a cloud in the horizon, when suddenly a whirlwind arose, scattering everything in all directions, and leaving as the result, large clots of blood in the immediate vicinity of the house. The question arises, where did this blood come from. The circumstances are altogether different from that which occurred a few months ago at Los Nietos, where it was finally agreed that it was made by vultures who had been preying upon dead carcasses upon the plains, and from the ratification of the air, in passing over that place, gave up their gorged repast.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

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Time for the ever-popular Mystery Blood!  The “Helena Independent,” May 6, 1886:

One fine morning about five years ago a pool of blood was found in a stall of the livery stable now operated by Jos. O'Neil, then the property of two brothers named Smiley, who called it the Farmers' stable. From this blood sprang a sensation and an awful mystery. Whence came the blood could not be discovered.

No horses in the stable showed any signs of having been wounded. But the gore locked to have gushed warm and fresh from animal veins and by those deeply awed by the mystery was generally regarded as being human. No trail of blood was found leading away from the spot and Mr. Hugh McQuaid, then city editor of the INDEPENDENT, did detective work for days in seeking to penetrate the mystery. About the same time one Alfred Taillfer, a Frenchman supposed to have a considerable sum of money, disappeared without leaving a sign.

He had ridden over from the Blackfoot and stabled his horse with the Smileys and when he disappeared the horse remained in the barn. Not very long afterward the Smiley brothers sold out their business, apparently a good one, and went back to Illinois, where they had lived before coming west. Here were three mysterious circumstances--the blood. the disappearance of Taillfer and the unexplained departure of the Smileys. Dark suspicion was engendered and though the incidents have been generally forgotten, in the minds of Taillfer's friends it was not allayed.

Now, however, so far as Taillfer is concerned, the mystery is explained. A few days ago Louis Narcotte, one of his friends, received a letter from Taillfer, who is now living at La Broquerie, Manitoba. It seems that he had been out in the country and suddenly determined to go back to Montreal. He sent word to Narcotte to take the horse, but the message did not reach him and Taillfer was on the stage going eastward. He intended to come back, but never fulfilled his intention, nor did he take trouble to write, and it was almost like a message from the grave when this letter came from him to Narcotte.

But the origin of that blood is still unexplained.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

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This tale of Mystery Blood--with some extra supernatural trimmings--appeared in the “San Francisco Call,” Dec 20, 1891:

The people of the little hamlet of Milton's Cross Roads are frantic over a mysterious and ghostly occurrence of nightly frequency. This is the print of a foot outlined in blood, which has been found recently in every house in the village. Sometimes this mysterious sign is discovered on the porch, sometimes in the kitchen, again in the parlor, and even in the bed-room.

No sound nor other phenomenon accompanies it, and whoever or whatever it is that leaves the mark comes and goes unseen. Every attempt, however cunningly planned, has utterly failed to solve the puzzle, until it appears that the unknown visitor has cognizance of each move in that direction. It never seeks the house in which it is expected, but while watched for at one end of the town will appear at the other.  From this fact many of the citizens are persuaded that the thing is the work of some waggishly disposed member of their number, though his mode of operation has not been fathomed thus far. 

The more ignorant of the community attribute the singular occurrence to the agency of some supernatural being, claiming that none other could operate so secretly and mysteriously. The footprint has frequently been found in the morning in the room occupied by several persons, not one of whom was disturbed by any unusual noise or sight. The foot appears to be that of a man, and approaches the gigantic in size.

It is the left foot, and a larger stain of blood at the head seems to indicate that the wound from which it flows is there. That it is blood and that of a human is sworn to by chemists in Tucson and Tombstone to whom the dried scrapings of several floors have been sent. So great is the agitation and anger of the people that night watches have been organized, and the man, woman or child found abroad after dark must make his or her errand known, but in spite of this vigilance the bloody foot leaves its tracks somewhere every night.

I couldn’t find anything more about the story.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

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The following poltergeist tale--one more Gothic and sinister than most--appeared in the Knoxville “Journal and Tribune,” October 11, 1889:

On the outskirts of this town, says a Woodville (Tex.) letter to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, is an old house which has stood untenanted for years but was recently repaired and once more rendered inhabitable.  A Mr. Z,  who is a recent arrival in Woodville, though well known in the county as an honorable gentleman, moved into this house about six weeks ago with his family, which consists of his wife, a grown daughter, and a little boy of seven.  One night about a week after they got settled the child came running in from the hall, which was unlighted, into his mother’s room crying out: 

“Oh, mamma, somebody with their hands all wet caught hold of me.”

His mother commenced to soothe his fright, when to her horror she perceived that the sleeve of the child’s little jacket of white linen bore the mark of a bloody hand.  She called to her husband who was sitting on the porch, and told him what the child said, showing at the same time the crimson marks. The two proceeded to search the house but found only the usual occupants. Mr. Z. was certain that no one could have passed him and the servants, on being questioned, declared that they had been sitting on the back porch and had seen no one come in. The whole occurrence was dismissed as a mystery that would in due course explain itself in some natural way, for both Mr. Z. and his wife were people of strong religious convictions. besides being possessed of cool practical common sense. 

Scarcely a week, however, had elapsed when one night about ten o’clock, shrieks were heard issuing from the room of the young lady daughter, who had just retired. When reached the girl was found to be nearly insensible from fright and it was several minutes before she was restored sufficiently to be able to tell the cause of her alarm. She had been standing before her toilet mirror in her night-dress braiding her hair when, happening to cast her glance on the reflection in the glass, she perceived a hand all dripping with blood lying familiarly on her shoulder. Seeing this frightful sight and knowing that there was no living creature in the room beside herself the terrified girl attempted to run from it but was mysteriously held fast by that bloody hand. 

Her night-dress was plainly impressed with the print of a large hand outlined in fresh blood. Mr. and Mrs. Z. were now thoroughly alarmed, for these things were wholly inexplicable from any but a supernatural stand-point. However, with a courageous determination to accept none but a purely natural explanation, they resolved to remain in the house awhile longer, but sent away their children.  Mr. Z. went to the owner of the house and inquired if any thing in its history could account for the strange appearances that had been witnessed in it.  Mr. O., to whom the house belonged at that time, informed him that he had bought it from a family who had left the place suddenly--for what reason no one ever knew--about eight years before. 

For a time nothing further was seen or heard of the bloody hand, and they were beginning to congratulate themselves that it would trouble them no longer, when it began a course of persecution that finally ended in driving them from the house. Mrs. Z. would be awakened by the touch of clammy fingers playing over her face, her husband found himself struck violently over the head whenever he entered a room unlighted; the servants left complaining that their work was interfered with constantly, for the dishes were thrown to the floor, freshly laundried clothes sprinkled with blood, and gory marks defaced the white plastered walls. The door-bell kept up a perpetual ringing day and night, and occasionally there would be a fearful crash as if the very roof had fallen. Mr. Z. procured a dog which was kept in the house all the time, but one morning after an unusually disturbed night the animal was found dead with a broken neck and a look of almost human terror in its wide-open eyes. One day Mrs. Z. in broad daylight was seized by her back hair and dragged violently from room to room until she repeated the Lord's prayer aloud, when her invisible enemy relaxed its hold and a pitiful moaning or lamentation filled the air as of some lost spirit bewailing its doom. 

The climax, however, was reached one magnificent moonlight night when Mr. and Mrs. Z. were sitting on their porch quietly conversing. All at once the husband without speaking directed his attention to the floor. There was a hand, severed at the wrist, and with a faint blue light playing about it, writing with the index finger on the white plank flooring of the porch. When the hand finished its writing it seemed to wring itself in the air in speechless despair and disappeared flaming.  A lamp was at once procured and the pair read the sentence traced by the hand in blood:

“The wicked cry rest, rest, and there is no rest!”

Scarcely had they finished reading it when the lamp was snatched from the hand of Mr. Z. and flung violently to the floor, shrieks and wails, sad and terrible beyond describing, filled the air and the husband and wife, conquered at last, rushed from the accursed house and sought refuge at a neighbor’s.  In a short while the alarm of fire was given and the house just deserted by the Z.s was found enveloped in flames. The lamp in its fall had set it on fire and it was completely consumed.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

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This week, we visit a haunted house that has a bit of Mystery Blood thrown in.  The "Glen Elder Sentinel," August 20, 1903:

A remarkable ghost sensation is disturbing the serenity of St. Peter Port, Guernsey, where a local photographer has just vacated his residence on the ground that he and members of his family have been terrified by supernatural visitations. 

The photographer states that when taking his meals he has seen arms reaching over his head and endeavoring to take away his food. The pictures on the walls have moved in weird fashion, and there were sounds of rattling chains and ringing bells. 

One evening, according to a writer in the London Express, the tenant's daughter saw an apparition clad in white coming down the stairs. It possessed only one hand, the fingers of which were twice the ordinary length and streaming with blood. 

This spectral visitant, seen on another occasion by the daughter, indicated that her mother's brooch, which was missing, would be found in the range in a certain room. Here it was discovered. 

This so preyed on the girl's mind that she had to take to her bed, and finally the weird manifestations became so frequent that the photographer decided to leave the house. 

Crowds gathered nightly around the place and the authorities deputed several constables to watch the house. When one of these entered the premises a mat flew in his face. Another officer, while sitting in one of the rooms, felt his chair being lifted in midair. He fled in terror. 

After this a number of prominent residents endeavored to solve the mystery.  They chalked the stairs, locked a chocolate box in one of the cupboards and left the premises apparently secure. When they returned shortly afterward there were footprints on the chalked staircase, and the chocolate box was on the middle of a table, with a feather balanced on the top of it. Yet the cupboard in which the box was placed was still locked.

I couldn't find anything more about this particular haunting.  That is a pity, because it sounded like a particularly lively and multi-talented poltergeist.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

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It's Mystery Blood time! From the "Ste. Genevieve Fair Play," November 16, 1876:

The village of Victory is situated not far from Rochester, New York. A very mysterious event lately happened there. It was a bloody business which seems to have been without a motive so far as facts have developed. A Mr. F.S. Esmond and his wife boarded at the Covil House, and Mr. Esmond, having business at Seneca Falls, went, one day, to attend to it, leaving his wife in her rooms in the hotel. That night Mrs. Esmond alarmed the house with cries of "murder." The other boarders hurried to her room and found her shrieking and covered with blood. The bed, furniture, her clothing and nearly everything in the room was smeared and bespattered with blood. After a thorough examination it was found that Mrs. Esmond was entirely unhurt. She was not even scratched. The blood was, therefore, not hers. Whose blood it was, and how it came there are questions which at present defy solution. Mrs. Esmond's account of her awakening leaves the whole affair in mystery. She states that she felt something cold on her hand, which awakened her. She found that her hands and clothing were covered with something wet and cold. She struck a light and found it was blood. Then she screamed. Her door was locked. There were blood marks on her door outside, and the bloody print of a man's hand was on the wall near. As soon as the gory exterior of Mrs. Esmond was discovered several doctors and the coroner were summoned, but there was no work for any of them, as the woman was well and whole. Mr. Esmond on returning, thought it was a conspiracy to frighten his wife away from him, and she did immediately leave the hotel and go to her uncle's.

Unfortunately, this is all I've found about the mystery, so I can't say if it was ever resolved. I would also like to know why Mr. Esmond so readily assumed there was a "conspiracy" to separate him from his wife.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

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You don’t normally see Mystery Blood, a sinister Woman in Black, and poltergeist activity all in the same newspaper story, but I guess this is just our lucky week.  This story from the “San Francisco Bulletin” was reprinted in the New Orleans “Times-Picayune” on September 20, 1862.

A Telegraph Hill Ghostess. The Woman in Black. Allusion was recently made in the Bulletin to a Telegraph Hill ghost story, and as there really is something remarkable about the matter, we now present the whole story as received from an intelligent disbeliever in "spirits." Said he:

It is a week ago last Monday when the first visitation came to a house on Kearney street, between Greenwich and Lombard. George---- something he's an Englishman by birth and a stevedore by occupation lived there. Long ago he married a widow who already had a daughter. The widow died, and George (he's got a curious name that I can’t recollect, so I always call him by his Christian name,) married again; this time to a servant girl in my house. By the last wife George has two children; so the first girl has a step-father and step-mother, you see.

Well, on Monday week, George and his wife had gone out to a neighbor's near by, leaving the children at home.  The little ones after a while saw a lady, dressed in black, walk into the house and through the rooms, to the bedchamber of their parents. There was nothing ghost-like about the woman in black--she looked natural enough, and it was not until she entered their parents’ bedroom that the children became curious and followed her.  They saw her go in and lie on the bed.They then were frightened and ran to find their parents.   The father came in with the little ones, but as he could see no one, he supposed the visitant was simply one of the neighbors, looking, perhaps, tor his wife.

On Tuesday the mysterious visitant again appeared. The father and mother couldn't see her, but the little ones (4 and 5 years of age) could.  She again walked to the same bedchamber. "There, don't you see her?  She's going to the bed again!" cried tho children. The parents saw nothing. "Her face is all bloody!” whispered one of the frightened children. "She's lying down on the bed, and now her face is on the pillow!" As the little one spoke, sure enough, the parents saw a great blotch or wet blood appear on the white pillow, but they could see nothing else.  It was very singular.

From that time until Saturday, dishes and furniture were capsized and broken, and there was the old Harry to pay generally. The eldest girl (the step-daughter) seemed to be the most affected. George's wife, too, who didn't believe at all in spirits, was also attacked. She was sitting in a chair, when she suddenly felt and heard a rap under it. Looking under it, she could see nothing. She had heard how Spiritualists convene with spirits, so she asked: "Are there any spirits present?”   when a loud voice close to her ear exclaimed "Yes!" Yet she was alone.

"Do you want me?" she queried. 

"Yes," said the voice.

“Then you can go to the old fish," she replied; whereupon her chair seemed to be seized by hands on either side and carried all around the room as she sat in it. 

The eldest girl, too, had frequently been slapped on the face by the woman in black, and blood always appeared upon her cheek on such occasions. It was found best to leave the house, so annoying had this come to be, so the family moved to a house on Montgomery street, near Green, still on Telegraph Hill. But the singular woman in black also appeared here. On Saturday, the oldest girl went to the house of Mr. S. It was broad daylight, and, attracted by the mysterious rumor, some thirty or forty persons also went to the house to talk with the girl. While they were there she suddenly declared that the woman in black was approaching her with her bloody hand. Then she was struck again, and bloody marks of fingers suddenly appeared upon her face. The blood even ran down upon her neck. 

Mrs. S. with a damp towel removed the blood from the girl's face, and was standing beside her, talking, when all at once Mrs. S. was herself struck in the face, and blood appeared all over it!  That's about the whole story, but it may be well to add that Mrs. S. and the eldest girl believe to a certain extent in "spiritual manifestations.”

The blood discolored all the water in a basin at Mr. S.'s house, so it is believed to be genuine blood--blood of the body. Some clots of it that dried on the pillow and bed clothes have been preserved for analysis, so as to be sure that no one has been squirting blood-colored liquid at the supposed victims of spiritual assaults.

Very many persons supposed to be rational disbelievers in spiritual manifestations assert most positively that this occurred, and it is rather perplexing to account for it. The father was a firm disbeliever, but now says he can doubt no longer. He hates to talk about it. The mother firmly disbelieved, and won't believe now. although she was carried round a room, heard strange voices, and so on. The eldest girl was perhaps a believer before this happened. The two children knew nothing about such things. Mrs. S. believes in it a little, but not much. 

Part of it is accounted for in this manner: Medical books say that where the skin of the face has been diseased, then from a spasm of fear or pain it sometimes happens that the vicarous blood rushes through the skin just as though it had been brought out by a blow. And it so happens that the girl's face was affected by poison oak some time since.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to learn anything more about this first-rate ghost story.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

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This curious little tale of a haunted barn in Ohio (complete with Mystery Blood!) appeared in the “Logansport Pharos-Tribune,” January 15, 1894:

PORTLAND, Jan. 13,—Weird stories have been told for some time of the ghostly occurrences on the old Cantover farm, two miles west of Fort Recovery, O., and near the state line. Many years ago a death occurred there under peculiar circumstances, and a recent event added to the mystery. This was the suicide of Peter Fendle, an old farmer. He had fixed a rope to hang himself, but changed his mind and took poison, apparently. He was found dead in the barn, and the rope still hangs where he put it. Ever since then the barn, it is said, has been haunted. 

Not a night passes but that a light, as that of a lantern, springs up near the house and makes its way to the stable. When it gets there the doors are heard to open and close, yet do not move, and the air is full of weird sounds which no one has ever yet been able to describe. The animals in the barn show the greatest alarm, but have not yet been harmed. The most wonderful thing of all is the fact that they, as well as the hanging harness, are found every morning liberally sprinkled with fresh blood. This unaccountable spectacle has been seen by many reputable people.

A party from Fort Recovery concluded to solve the mystery. They slipped out without informing anyone of their intentions, and reached the spot at 10 o'clock. Quietly entering the barn they heard a moaning noise, but nothing happened until midnight. The interior then grew lighter, and a shadowy, bowed figure glided before them and faded from view, apparently into space. The awe-stricken watchers started to run, but were confronted by a tall figure which gave a shriek and for an instant blocked their way and disappeared. The ghost hunters got away as fast as possible, and they say they are content to leave the haunted barn a mystery.

A Bloody Good Mystery in Houston

El Greco, "The Stigmata"

I have posted a number of “mystery blood” stories--anomalous bloodstains suddenly appear, usually inside a house, and nobody can ever figure out where they came from.  The following tale is probably the strangest of the lot, and what is arguably most peculiar about it is that aside from an article in the November 1961 issue of “Fate Magazine” and brief coverage in a small local newspaper, the story has gone virtually unnoticed.

Edwin and Doris King’s journey into the world of High Strangeness began just a few days after they moved into a home in Fonville Terrace, a subdivision in Houston, Texas.  The Kings and their two young children were all pleased with their new residence, and the family expected to have a long and happy life there.

On July 3, 1961, Mrs. King was doing her usual chores when she noticed two spots of dark liquid on the dining room floor.  When she wiped them up, she saw that it was some sort of red substance.  She shrugged and went on with her day.

While doing housework the next morning, she again found two dark wet spots in the dining room.  This time, she realized the liquid appeared to be blood.

Some time later--after the strange doings at the King house became public knowledge--Mrs. King told a reporter from the “Houston Press” that on a recent morning, “both my husband and I got up at 4:00 a.m.  We both rushed over to look at the tiles.  There was nothing there.

“We both walked into the kitchen.  I got a salt cellar.  My husband was reaching in the icebox.  We walked out, and there they were again!  All the doors were locked.  I started screaming and got hysterical.”

The following morning, the blood spots returned.

Later that same day, just before he went to bed, Edwin put two small squares of plastic over the tiles where the spots had been appearing.  When he examined them at 1:30 the next morning, he found the plastic spotted with blood.

Then things began to get even weirder.

When Edwin returned to bed, he noticed that his sleeping wife had several spots on her face.  He wiped them off with a cloth.  They appeared to be blood.  The next day, he brought the plastic squares to a chemist, who confirmed they were spotted with human blood.

Understandably enough, the Kings were becoming increasingly rattled, and desperate to find some sort of reasonably normal explanation for what was happening to them.  Edwin put fresh plastic squares out, and waited up all night to see what might happen.  He finally went to bed around 5 a.m. without seeing anything out-of-the-ordinary.  While he was sleeping, Doris got up to find the plastic squares were now boasting those all-too-familiar blood spots.

The next night, King--armed with a shotgun--and a neighbor, R.L. Brown, kept another all-night vigil.  All they could assume was that for some reason, somebody was sneaking into the house at night to plant bloodstains, and they were determined to catch the bizarre miscreant in the act.

At about 4 a.m., the men heard eerie moaning sounds coming from Doris’s bedroom.  She seemed to be in a trance, groaning and twitching in an agonized fashion.  They couldn’t wake her.  And her face was covered in blood.  When Edwin wiped the blood away, more appeared on her face.

The next day, the Kings called in law enforcement, although it is hard to guess what they expected the police to do.  The two Sheriff’s deputies who came to their home observed that there was indeed blood oozing out of Mrs. King’s cheek and forehead, but they were at a loss to explain it.  The best they could do was suggest that she was being stung by mosquitoes.

Doris went to a dermatologist, who found no physical reason why she should have blood seeping through her skin.  Aside from a small broken blood vessel by her ear, she was perfectly healthy.

By the tenth day after the first blood spots appeared, the Kings were heartily sick of the whole business.  They were learning that there is something much more annoying than Fortean bloodstains: namely, people.  Word had spread about the mystery, causing the King home to be swarmed with crowds of looky-loos.  Their next door neighbors--evidently thinking the Mystery Blood might migrate to their house--were so panicked they moved away.

Blood continued to appear on Mrs. King’s face, although, oddly, never on her bedding, hands, or nightgown.  And the blood spots continued appearing on the same two dining-room floor tiles.  The Kings seemed to want to adopt a “ignore it and maybe it will go away” attitude to the sanguinary enigma, but an investigator from “Fate” persuaded them to be interviewed by David Wuliger.  Wuliger was a professor of music at the University of Houston who also took a deep scholarly interest in The Weird.

Wuliger found the Kings to be a pleasant, friendly family.  They seemed entirely normal--except, of course, for all this blood.  Doris revealed to him something relating to the mystery.

And then things got really weird.

Doris explained that before each appearance of the blood, she had the same dream, one in which she was looking at and talking with her exact double.  This psychic twin was also named “Doris,” and spoke in an identical voice.  In these dreams, the doppelganger continually reassured her that “all will be well.”  During these dreams, Edwin could hear her muttering and moaning in a very unsettling way, and was never able to awaken her.  When Doris came out of these trances, she would feel bone-chillingly cold--even in the middle of a Texas summer.

On two occasions, Doris saw her “twin” even when she was awake.  One night, after awakening from one of these nightmares, she saw the double rise from the bed and float through a closed door.  The second time happened when Edwin got out of bed in the morning and, after a quick inspection of the house, was able to bring Doris the happy news that there was no blood anywhere to be seen.  Mrs. King got up and walked towards the kitchen, where she saw her twin floating in the doorway.  Immediately afterward, the dining room floor was spattered with the usual blood.  And then the image disappeared.

The Kings could offer no explanation for what they were experiencing, although there was one curious prequel to the mystery, which may or may not have been related.  The day before the blood first appeared, Edwin was digging in their backyard.  He uncovered something he initially thought was a building block, but which turned out to be a tombstone.  There was no name inscribed on it, and the family was unable to discover why it had been buried there.  Another oddity connected to the manifestations was that Doris had long since been plagued with ulcers.  When the blood began appearing, her ulcers vanished.

When the famed parapsychologist Nandor Fodor heard of the story, he quipped that perhaps the answer to the mystery was that the blood stains were merely “a novel cure for ulcers.”

As far as I know, no one was ever able to offer a better explanation.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

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Because it’s been far too long since I’ve shared a Mystery Blood story, here’s this doozy from the “Los Angeles Times,” November 8, 1930:

LA HABRA, Nov. 7. The residence of V.J. Trueblood on Telegraph Road, near La Habra, today offered investigating officers the elements of an unsolved mystery, and the Trueblood family that eerie feeling of having met the inscrutable.

The family returned to its home yesterday after an absence of a day and a night to find that the home had been entered and that some sort of an animal conflict had taken place within the house. A door had been unlocked and on the walls of a bedroom were splotches of blood. A bed also bore blood stains, indicating, the family believes, that uninvited guests may have engaged there in a death struggle.

The small dog of the Truebloods also was found to be covered with blood stains, but bore no other evidences that might indicate participation in a bloody struggle.

Tests were being made today to determine, if possible, whether the blood is that of a human being, or of some animal that might have found its way into the house.

A story in the November 21 issue of the “Santa Ana Register” really makes me wonder what the hell was going on here:

LA HABRA, Nov. 21.—Some of the mystery concerning a blood splatter was cleared up yesterday when blood on the bedding and linens of the room was found to be that of an animal, presumably that small family dog at the V.J. Trueblood home on Telegraph road.

Mrs. Trueblood, who was sewing in an upper room, heard a gunshot near her home. She also heard her dog barking violently and later heard the door open. Later when her husband arrived and the blood splattered room was discovered, the constable’s office was notified.

How the dog entered the room, how a blood soaked bandage from the room was found near the road some distance from the house, what happened to a turkey hen, missing from her brood and who fired the shot at the dog, are mysteries unsolved.

I found no more about these sanguinary doings, which may be just as well.

And, yes, I note the irony of the family name.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

It's been far too long since we've looked at a Mystery Blood story, and this one's a pip. From the "Buffalo Evening News," March 17, 1885:

Mysterious blood stains on the door-steps of several Linwood avenue houses are creating a great excitement in the neighborhood. Dr. Appleby, who lives at 180 Linwood avenue, observed some blood stains on a neighbor's house on Sunday. Out of politeness he said nothing till he observed his own marked the same way. Others were afterward discovered all spattered with blood. It looked in most cases as though some one had taken a brush broom and thrown the drops on with it. In others it appeared as though it had dripped steadily for a few minutes and collected in a pool.

"Cats," said one.

"No, the stains are 7 feet high on my front door."

"Some one with a cut finger went along spattering it on."

"No; there's none on the sidewalk and too much on the doorstep."

"Red paint," said another.

"No, it washes off."

"Mysterious," said all.

The most mysterious part of it is that only some of the houses are marked. The ones who got the benefit are Dr. Appleby, George Lewis, Mr. Leslie, Hudson H. Parke and Mr. Howell. Mr. Howell's house was the worst marked of all. The nervousness is so great that the men are not allowed to go "downtown" nights for fear something might happen.

The police know nothing of the matter and as it has not been reported to them officially have made no investigation.

As usually is the case with these sort of incidents, I've found no follow-up stories.

As a side note, this headline makes me think I have to start a new blog post label: "Ber-lud!"

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

This story contains a bonus: mystery blood and mystery check marks! This brief, but highly unsettling tale appeared in the "Los Angeles Times" on July 23, 1912:

J.D. Smith, who lives at No. 420 East Forty-first street, returned home after a trip through the state yesterday and found that his house had been entered while he was absent. On the door was a mysterious check mark.

Smith noticed the pencil mark when he entered the front porch. When he entered the parlor he found lying near the piano was a soft, light gray hat covered with blood. There were blood stains on the carpet and blood streaks on the piano. The lid of the instrument had been cracked from one end to the other. An inventory showed that nothing had been stolen.

When Smith interrogated the neighbors he found that four other front doors had been marked with a similar check mark as that adorns his front door. No one professed to having seen either men or boys in or about the Smith house during his absence.

Detectives are investigating. They are inclined to the belief that boys entered the house and that the blood stains and broken piano resulted from a fight.

I have not found any more about this story, which is a pity. There was obviously some sort of "normal"--if creepy--explanation for all this, but I would sure like to know what in hell it might have been.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

What's the one thing better than a Mystery Blood story? A Mystery Blood story that throws ghosts into the mix, of course! The spooky travails of the Walsingham family were recorded in the "Brooklyn Eagle" on December 5, 1891:

The little hamlet of Oakville, lying seven or eight miles east of Statesborough, Ga., on this Savannah river, is much agitated at present over a ghostly sensation which appears to be more substantial than is usual with such excitement, to use a paradoxical expression. About three weeks ago the family of a small farmer named Walsingham began to be annoyed by certain disturbances in their household matters, which they at first attributed to the malice or mischievous propensity of some outsider. These disturbances generally took the form of noises in the house after the family had retired and the light was extinguished. Continual banging of the doors, things overturned, the door bell rang and the annoying of the hound dog, a large and intelligent mastiff. It was the conduct of this animal that first caused the Walsinghams to believe there was something more in these occurrences than appeared on the surface, though they were reluctant to attach any supernatural significance to them, being a family of education, practical persons and avowed skeptics on the subject of spooks, etc.

Don Caesar, the mastiff, would be seen to start suddenly from a nap and run at full tilt as if from some one, or start suddenly back while walking leisurely down a path, as if he again met with some one. But he soon lost his temper and varied these pacific proceedings by snarling at every door, as if he expected an enemy to enter, and often drawing back with a threatening bark and displaying fangs to warn his unseen annoyer from him. One day he was found in the hallway barking furiously and bristling with rage, while his eyes seemed directed to the wall just before him. At last he made a spring forward, with a hoarse yelp of ungovernable fury, only to fall back as if flung down by some powerful and cruel hand. Upon examination it was found that his neck had been broken.

The house cat, on the contrary, seemed rather to enjoy the favor of the ghost, and would often enter a door as if escorting some visitor in whose hand was stroking her back. She would also climb upon a chair rubbing herself and purring as if well pleased at the presence of some one in the seat. She and Don Caesar invariably manifested this eccentric conduct at the same time, as though the mysterious being was visible to both of them. This kept up until no doubt could be entertained that the animals saw something of a supernatural character, which was also making itself very disagreeable to the Walsinghams.

It did not long content itself with petty annoyances, but finally took to rousing the family at all hours of the night by making such a row as to render any rest impossible.

This noise, which consisted of shouts, groans, hideous laughter and a peculiar, most distressing wail, would sometimes proceed apparently from under the house, sometimes from the ceiling and at other times in the very room in which the family was seated. One night Miss Amelia Walsingham, a young daughter, was engaged at her toilet, when she felt a hand laid softly on her shoulder. Thinking it her mother or sister she glanced in the glass before her only to be thunderstruck at seeing the mirror reflect no form but her own, though she could plainly see a man's broad hand lying on her arm.

She brought the family to her by her screams, but when they reached her all signs of the mysterious hand was gone. On another occasion the girl was startled by beholding the knob of her door turn softly, the door open and then close as if someone had entered and shut it behind them. She strained her eyes trying to make out some form or the cause of the phenomenon, but nothing appeared. She vacated the room, however, feeling sure nothing was in it with her. Mr. Walsingham himself saw footsteps form beside his own while walking through the garden after a light rain.

The marks were those of a man's naked feet and fell beside his own as if the person walked at his side. After some minutes the steps left him and led toward the house, where Don Caesar was lying on the front piazza. The dog sprang up, barking furiously, but retreated as the steps approached him.

Matters grew so serious that the Walsinghams became frightened and talked of leaving the house when an event took place that confirmed them in this determination. The family was seated at the supper table with several guests, who were spending the evening, when a loud groan was heard in the room directly overhead. This was however, nothing unusual, and very little notice was taken of it until one of the visitors pointed out a stain of what looked like blood on the white tablecloth, and it was seen that some liquid was slowly dripping on the table from the ceiling overhead. This liquid was so much like fresh shed blood as to horrify those who watched its slow dripping. Mr. Walsingham, with several of his guests, ran hastily upstairs and into the room directly over the one into which the blood was dripping.

A carpet covered the floor and nothing appeared to explain the source of the ghastly rain, but, anxious to satisfy themselves thoroughly, the carpet was immediately ripped up and the boarding found to be perfectly dry and even covered with a thin layer of dust. And all the while the floor was being examined the persons below could swear the blood never ceased to drip. A stain the size of a dinner plate was formed before the drops ceased to fall. This stain was examined next day under the microscope and was pronounced by competent chemists to be human blood.

The Walsinghams left the house the next day and since then the place has been apparently given over to spooks and evil spirits, which make the night hideous with the noise of revel, shouts and furious yells. Hundreds from all over this county and adjacent ones have visited the place, but few have the courage to pass a night in the haunted house. One daring spirit, Horace Gunn of Savannah, however, accepted a wager that he could not spend twenty-four hours in it, and did so, though he declares that there is not enough money in the county to make him pass another night there. He was found the morning after by his friends with whom he made the wager in an insensible condition and was with difficulty brought out of his swoon. He has never recovered from the shock of his terrible experience and is still confined to his bed suffering from nervous prostration.

His story is that shortly after nightfall he endeavored to kindle a fire in one of the rooms and to light the lamp which he had provided himself, but to his surprise and consternation found it impossible to do either. An icy breath which seemed to proceed from some invisible person at his side extinguished each match as he lighted it. At this peculiarly terrifying turn of affairs Mr. Gunn would have left the house and forfeited the amount of his wager, a considerable one, but was restrained by the fear of ridicule and of his story not being believed in. He seated himself in the dark with the calmness he could and awaited developments.

For some time nothing occurred, and the young man was half dozing when, after an hour or two, he was brought to his feet by a sudden yell of pain or rage that seemed to come from under the house. this appeared to be the signal for an outbreak of hideous noises all over the house. The sound of running feet could be heard scurrying up and down the stairs, hastening from one room to another, as if one person fled from the pursuit of a second. This kept up for nearly an hour, but at last ceased altogether, and for some time Mr. Gunn sat in darkness and quiet and had about concluded that the performance was over for the night. At last his attention was attracted by a white spot that gradually appeared on the opposite wall from him.

This spot continued to brighten until it seemed a disk of white fire, when the horrified spectator saw that the light emanated from and surrounded a human head which, without a body or any visible means of support, was moving slowly along the wall at about the height of a man from the floor. This ghastly head appeared to be that of an aged person, though whether male or female it was difficult to determine. The hair was long and gray and matted together with dark clots of blood, which also issued from a deep, jagged wound in one temple. The cheeks were fallen in and the whole face indicated suffering and unspeakable misery. The eyes were wide open and gleamed with an unearthly fire, while the glassy balls seemed to follow the terror stricken Mr. Gunn, who was too thoroughly paralyzed by what he saw to move or cry out. Finally the head disappeared and the room was once more left in darkness, but the young man could hear what seemed to be half a dozen persons moving about him, while the whole house shook as if rocked by some violent earthquake.

The groaning and wailing that broke forth from every direction was something terrific, and an unearthly rattle and banging, as of china and tin pans being flung to the ground floor from the upper story, added to the deafening noise. Gunn at last roused himself sufficiently to attempt to leave the haunted house. Feeling his way along the wall, in order to avoid the beings, whatever they were, that filled the room, the young man had nearly succeeded in reaching the door when he felt himself seized by the ankle and was violently thrown to the floor. He was grasped by icy hands which sought to grip him about the throat. He struggled with his unseen foe, but was soon overpowered and choked into insensibility. When found by his friends his throat was black with the marks of long, thin fingers armed with cruel, curved nails.

The only explanation that can be found for these mysterious manifestations is that about three months ago a number of bones were discovered on the Walsingham place, which some declared even then to be those of a human being. Mr. Walsingham pronounced them, however, to be an animal's, and they were hastily thrown into an adjacent limekiln. It is supposed to be the outraged spirit of the person to whom they had belonged in life that is now creating such consternation.

As is common with these ghostly, ghastly old newspaper tales, it is hard to say how much of this story is true, and how much may be fictional. Oddly, a few modern-day websites and books devoted to "true ghost stories" give this family's name as "Walingham" and set this haunted farm in Oakville, Ohio. Just another lesson in being careful about trusting anything you read.

As I say, for all I know this story could very well be just another one of the colorful hoaxes that are, to the modern-day researcher, such an irritating element of early newspapers.  However, I do have a few words of advice:  If you happen to find some old bones around your house, treat them with the greatest respect.

You never know.

[Note: Many thanks to that indefatigable Fortean researcher Theo Paijmans for bringing this story to my attention.]

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Calling this one merely a "Mystery Blood" story doesn't really do it justice.  File this one under "Just Plain Freaking Weird."  From the "Statesville (N.C.) Landmark," March 15, 1928:

Mooresville Enterprise, 15th

Mr. and Mrs. Thad Lowe received a severe shock Monday evening at about 6 o'clock when they returned to their cheerful cottage home on North Main street after their day's work was done. The bath room and kitchen were bespattered with blood, and in the bath tub Mrs. Lowe found several clots of dark blood, and wash rags and towels reeking in damp splotches of blood. In the kitchen there is an arcola heater, and within fourteen inches of the door to the furnace there is a kitchen sink. On the end of the sink there were great splotches of blood. There was evidence everywhere that some one had been in the home and that something unusual had taken place. [Ed. note: You don't say.]

Mr. Lowe is associated with the Sherrill Motor Company, and his hours are from early morning till about 6 o'clock in the evening. Mrs. Lowe is bookkeeper for the Mooresville Flour Mills, across the street and within several hundred yards of her home. It is her custom to leave home for her work about 9 o'clock every morning, returning to her home after 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Mr. and Mrs. Lowe take their meals with Mr. and Mrs. J.D. Cranford, parents of Mrs. Lowe.

When Mrs. Lowe entered her home Monday evening she was greeted with a great volume of smoke, the smell of burning flesh, and the heat was so intense that she could not remain in the house. She walked through the house and opened doors and windows and passed out for a while. When Mr. Lowe returned home a short while later they were discussing the cause of the smoke and having occasion to enter the bath room Mrs. Lowe found the terrible spectacle of blood and the condition of the room as described above. Policemen and others were called in to help solve the mysterious affair. No one had been seen entering the house during the day and no one had been noticed leaving the building since early in the day when Mrs. Lowe went to her work. There were workers building a drive way within fifteen feet of the house but none of the workers had seen anyone coming and going from the house. However, there were tracks of a woman's shoe of the common sense type leading up the drive way between the Lowe house and the residence of Mrs. W.W. Rodgers.

An investigation was started Tuesday morning to unravel the mystery. Two theories are advanced. One is that some one committed murder, probably a human being, and burned the remains of the victim in the heating furnace. Another theory is that some woman gave birth to a child, either dead or alive, and destroyed the body by cremation.

W.M. Lentz, Policeman Brown, C.E. Earnhardt, and a newspaper man examined the ashes and unburned coal taken from the furnace Tuesday morning, and found charred bones that crumbled when mashed. These charred bones were not scattered among the coals, but appeared to be all in one place when the receptacle was emptied.

Is some one guilty of infanticide? or has there been a murder outright? The mystery has puzzled the occupants of the home as well as the entire police department.

Whoever the strange and unwelcome visitor was, evidently was familiar with the coming and going of Mr. and Mrs. Lowe and timed their nefarious work accordingly.

The same newspaper had a follow-up story on March 26:

Mooresville Enterprise, 22d.

While the county coroner, Solicitor Zeb Vance Long, Sheriff Alexander and the local police force, with private detective C.E. Earnhardt, have been working industriously on the mysterious blood stained bath tub incident at the Thad Lowe home on Monday, March 12th, there are no developments that gives any clue to the perpetrators of the apparent murder. The mystery is baffling to everyone, and while every suggestion that might lead to some solution of the crime have been run down, there is nothing tangible, and so far no one has been identified in connection with the affair.

Rock S. Witherspoon, a well-known citizen, says that on Sunday, March 11, while sitting in his automobile in front of St. Mark's Lutheran church, about 10 o'clock in the morning, he saw a man visit the Lowe home, pull back the screen from the door and finding the door locked, took a key from his pocket, unlocked the door and entered. Mr. Witherspoon says he did not remain there very long, and did not see the man come from the house. He described the man as being about 5 1/2 feet tall, and wore light colored hat, suit and overcoat. He did not recognize the man, but knew that it was not Mr. Lowe. Mr. and Mrs. Lowe had gone to Sunday school. All of this happened the day before the blood-stained bathtub was discovered.

All evidence points to a crime having been committed, but the solution of the mystifying incident rivals anything our local officers have ever had to unfathom.

And, as usual, that appears to have been that. I have yet to find any other references to the matter. I suppose all one can add is that borrowing a home to commit a gruesome murder, without even asking permission first, seems unneighborly to the highest degree.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

What can I say?  Mystery Blood Stories are just the gift that keeps on bleeding giving.  This latest one is found in the "Decatur Morning Review" for February 7, 1891.  It falls into the same simple-but-insane pattern we've come to know so well:

WASHINGTON CITY, Feb. 7.--Washington has a sensation over the mysteries in the house of Byron Sunderland, the pastor of the Presbyterian church which President and Mrs. Cleveland used to attend. Dr. Sunderland has been one of the characters of the national capitol for a good many years, but his church had no celebrity until it was selected as a place of worship by Mr. Cleveland because of old associations between his father and the pastor. During the period that it had a presidential pew the church was crowded regularly. Since Mr. Cleveland went away it has fallen back into obscurity.

The blood-stains, however, were in Dr. Sunderland's house and not in the church. He heard a loud noise during the night, but did not go down-stairs to investigate. Thursday morning two large pools of blood were found in the dining-room, while stains on the door and wall gave evidence of the conflict. As far as can be learned the house had not been broken into, and nobody had been in the house either. There were blood tracks from the sidewalk of the house to the square below, where they were lost. The police have not succeeded in clearing up the mystery.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

OK, friends, I think I have here the Mystery Blood story to top all Mystery Blood stories. It took place in Oklahoma in 1932.

On three different occasions that August, J.T. Gilstrap and his teenage son Andrew shot at prowlers vandalizing the family farm near Wyandotte. After all these encounters, large trails of blood led from the place where the Gilstraps saw the intruders. However, officers found not one trace of any wounded man or men. It also puzzled them that miscreants would continue to come back to the same farm after the attempted thefts gained wide local publicity--not to mention after being shot.

This already odd case plunged head-first into The Weird when samples of the blood found around the Gilstrap farm were sent to the state chemists in Oklahoma City. The scientists reported that the blood they had been given to analyze was not human.

This left local authorities completely baffled by what to do next. The last word I have found on this story stated that the Deputy Sheriff consulted with the County Attorney and they "agreed there was little to be done, although the mystery is not much nearer solution."

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

If it's Wednesday, that must mean it's time for Weird Blood Sightings!

Yup, I've got another one.  This particular sanguinary riddle is brought to us courtesy of the Virgin Islands in 1962.  A woman named Mary Maguire reported to police that one morning, she woke up to find a trail of blood in her kitchen that led to the bedroom of her young son, who was sleeping in peaceful ignorance that anything peculiar had happened.  She found blood on her refrigerator, kitchen floor, a kitchen cabinet, on her son's bed, and on his chest of drawers.  Mrs. Maguire thought she heard a gate opening around 1 a.m., but aside from that neither she nor her son had seen or heard anything during the night.  Nothing was missing from the Maguire house, and a check of local hospitals indicated that no one had been treated for any injuries that could account for all this blood-letting.

And that, as is usual with our Mystery Blood incidents, seems to have been that.

Incidentally, if you think these stories are creepy, just wait until I get around to posting some of the numerous Mystery Explosion clippings I've accumulated.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Today's creepy little tale comes to us from Xenia, Ohio in October of 1972.  My humble little blog has somehow become Grand Central Station for Weird Blood Sightings, and I for one am becoming a bit unnerved by that.

As was the case with the similar incidents I have recorded, the details are both extremely simple and completely mystifying.  A certain Bobbie C. Miller, of 1411 N. Fairfield Road, woke up one morning to find a trail of blood in the house leading from the kitchen, up the staircase, and into the second-floor bathroom. No blood was found outside the house, and there were no signs of a struggle or any forcible entry into the residence.  Miller heard no unusual sounds during the night.  The newspaper report about the mystery said that officers took samples of the "very dark" blood for analysis to see if it was from an animal or a human. The brief article closed by saying that no one knew if this was "a prank" or foul play of some sort, but "deputies were continuing to investigate today."

I have yet to find any follow-up stories about this incident, which may imply that the gruesome puzzle was never solved.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Remember that newspaper story I posted a while back about a family who woke up to find blood scattered around their house? In September 1987, an Atlanta couple was subjected to a similar sanguinary mystery.

One night, 77-year-old Minnie Clyde Winston stepped out of her bathtub to find the floor covered with splotches of blood. She discovered that blood was also in the kitchen, living room, bedroom, all the halls and the basement. Police could find no evidence that a crime or any sort of wrongdoing had been committed.

Minnie and her husband William had lived in the home for 22 years, and never noticed anything unusual about it before.  Despite Mrs. Winston's stubborn declaration that "I still don't believe it's human blood, I don't care what [the police] say," tests proved that's what the mysterious substance was, but it did not match the type of either of the Winstons. No one ever figured out where it came from. “It concerns me that we don’t have any answers,” said one of the investigating officers.

Bloody hell.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

A bloody good mystery took place in the state of New York in 1933:

The town is greatly worked up over the mysterious blood stains and spots of blood found on the premises of Arthur Wickham at North Brewster, formerly the William Liddy home, early Tuesday morning. It is all so mysterious one hardly knows how to relate it, but the story Trooper Jagoda relates is:

The five year old daughter of the Wickham’s came down stairs ahead of her parents on Tuesday and astonished them by asking why the front door was open. Mrs. Wickham states emphatically she locked the door herself. On investigation Mr. Wickham received another shock to find blood on the porch in front of the door and going on more spots on the steps and ground. Later he discovered blood spots on the front door of his car on the driver’s side, also on the steering wheel. The car had been parked all night in front of the house.

Officer Schaffer was called and he discovered a good sized pool of blood on the back entrance as if a bleeding animal or person had paused for some time, but they stated that it would have to be a large animal to lose so much blood, as a cow or horse.

This was all worked on quietly on Tuesday. A check up on all doctors was made to find if any one had come for treatment, but no one had. A quantity of blood was taken to Dr. C.W. Marshall for analysis to determine whether it was the blood of a human or animal.

At this writing nothing more has been determined and it is quite a mystery.

Mr. Wickham stated that during the night their dog barked and was restless and he called out of the window for it to lie down and keep quiet. The dog was there and they found no blood on it or any sign of its being involved in any fight or near anything that had.

Several neighbors who have dogs recall that their dogs acted restless and barked but laid it to the barking of another dog. So Brewster is quite “het” up over this affair which certainly has some mysterious facts.

This is the only story I could find about this bit of random creepiness, so I have no idea if anyone ever presented a normal explanation for the incident.  Although I'm not sure what "normal" explanation you can find for waking up to find your house and car covered with blood.