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This Australian tale of a strange--and possibly deadly--light appeared in the "Kingston Whig-Standard," April 12, 1966:

MELBOURNE (Reuters) Police are studying a motorist's claim that a mysterious "magnetic" column of light in the sky may have led a driver to his death. 

Ronald Sullivan, 38, a steel constructor, claimed he was driving one night when his headlights suddenly swerved right, as though drawn by a magnet. 

"I braked as hard as I could and glanced over to the right," he said. 

"There in the middle of the field was a column of colored light about 25 feet high and shaped like an ice cream cone." 

The column rose from the ground without a sound but at tremendous speed and the car's headlights returned to normal, focusing back on the road, he said. 

Three days later, last Thursday, Gary Taylor, 19, died when his car swerved sharply at the same spot and crashed into a tree.

As far as I can tell, this was the last word about the story.  I assume the police's "studying" of the mystery amounted to them shrugging and saying "We dunno."

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This week, let's talk Weird Things in the Sky.  The "Washington Times," March 6, 1922:

LONDON. March 6--A winged, mystery, visible only at night, that is said to emit a light "like a bicycle lamp" is haunting nearly to distraction the village of Rushall.

"An illuminated bird that shrieks and whistles and sheds a light on haystacks and trees," "an owl with a bright star on its head," "a bird with phosphorescent eyes"--"I have visited the eerie haunts of this phenomenon so eerily described to me," says a correspondent in the London Dally News. 

"That there is 'something doing' in spectral luminosity in this village of 200 inhabitants there seems to be no possible doubt. Personally I offer no explanation of the winged light, but merely report the result of my impartial investigations."

"George Saunders, who lives In a row of thatched cottages near the church, told me his story as follows: 

"It was a dark night and raining. The bird seemed to fly from its usual clump of trees some 300 or 400 yards away. It flew up and down the hedgerows and along the church wall. In the last few weeks we have seen it many times. We have watched it from the bed room window, and have left it perched high on the neighboring trees and gone off to sleep. 

"I have seen it as close as twenty or thirty yards. It has flown round a straw stack, and the light from it has shown plainly upon the straw." 

The light is said to follow the motion of an owl in flight, skimming the hedges and ditches as if on the prowl for prey. It is noiseless, but on nights when it has been invisible people have heard weird screeches, and Mrs. Saunders and her granddaughter have stood and listened to what she described as "a rough whistle." rather loud. It comes at all times of the night. It was seen in the early autumn. 

In the same row of cottages live Mr. and Mrs. Newby, simple old folks, who give the impression that they are not equal to inventing yarns about will o' the wisps or nocturnal phenomena. 

"One Sunday night quite recently," said Mr. Newby, "I saw the bird, and I said to my wife that I thought it was someone coming across the meadow with a lantern. The light has come quite close while I have been in the backyard, and it has settled on a tree in the orchard." 

Not all the eye witnesses can testify that the outline of the bird has been visible to them at the same time as the light. George Newby, however, a cowman at the Hall, a big house which appears to be in the zone of the winged mystery, said: 

"I was going to the cow house one night when I distinctly saw an owl fly from the trees and past the house." 

Somewhere near its head it had a light, which shone out like a bright star." 

All these good people indignantly reject the idea that they are being bamboozled by a practical joker.

I wasn't able to find anything more about the story.

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This account of strange doings in Teddy Roosevelt's neighborhood appeared in the "Washington Star," August 2, 1907:

OYSTER BAY, N. Y. August 2--The inhabitants of the summer capital are trying to fathom the meaning of two mysterious portents which appeared here yesterday. While many are sure that the occurrences are symbolical of disaster, others, on the contrary, are sure that they foretell good luck. At any rate, whatever the meaning of the phenomena, the village has been furnished with fresh food for gossip. 

The first of the happenings came to light yesterday morning, when Miss Louise Denton, the librarian of the Oyster Bay Public Library, opened that institution for the day. Miss Denton noticed that a large mahogany chair presented to the library by Theodore Roosevelt when he was governor of New York state and often used by him, which has been a highly prized possession ever since, was split down the center of the back. The chair is built in cathedral style and is elaborately carved and upholstered in leather. At the top and furnishing a portion of the back is a large American eagle exquisitely carved. 

It is the eagle that is split directly in two. How it happened no one apparently knows. Miss Denton says it was all right when she left the building the day before, and no one had so far as is known, entered the place in her absence. The split occurred where the two parts of the eagle were joined together, and some of the trustees of the library say it was the heat that caused the wood to crack. The superstitious, however, are of the opinion that the severing of the eagle foretells he breaking up of President Roosevelt's good fortune, and that from now his star of good luck will be on the wane.

The other portent that is disturbing the minds of the villagers and furnishing food or thought was seen by many last night.  It was a light, considerably larger than a star, that seemed to hover directly over Sagamore Hill, the President's home.  It first made its appearance about 9 and was distinctly visible about three hundred feet the air until 11 o'clock, when it slowly faded to a spark and went out altogether. Many persons witnessed the phenomenon, but no one could explain what it was. The light was intensely white, and seemed to remain in a fixed position. So far as is known the light was not visible anywhere but from Oyster Bay, and the President's admirers proclaim that it is a sign that Mr. Roosevelt would continue to lead the destinies of the nation for another four years. 

Mr. William Ainsworth, a retired business man of South street, vouches for the occurrence. He says he saw the light distinctly, and it was different from any light he had ever seen. It seemed, he said, to show with the dazzling intensity of an arc light.

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It’s time for Mystery Lights!  The “Montreal Gazette,” November 29, 1938:

Esterhazy, Sask., November 28. Tabor Cemetery's mysterious light which threatens to give Esterhazy folk the jitters, tonight still challenged efforts to find its source. An attempt to unravel the mystery Saturday night failed because the eerie beam did not maintain its usual midnight schedule. 

During the last few weeks, the pinkish light appeared suddenly each night. It moved with terrific speed towards watchers, residents said, then quickly disappeared. Saturday night at 10:30 o'clock, a group of men trooped to the cemetery. Within half a mile they huddled in groups and smoked and talked quietly until after midnight but they trekked home disappointed because the ghostly glare did not appear. 

"This thing is giving everybody the jitters around here," one resident said later. "A number of men are now organizing to go on watch in the graveyard to see if any explanation can be given for the weird light." 

Some of the superstitious residents expressed fear "something awful is going to happen." Religious minded mothers daily reminded children to pray that no harm came to any one and the children are sent early to bed with windows covered with papers.

Subsequent reports stated that the eerie light continued to be seen by “hundreds” of people over the next several weeks.  (The crowds around the cemetery became so large that one enterprising fellow spoke of setting up a hot dog stand at the site.)  One woman suggested people were merely seeing “marsh gas,” but an investigation by the R.C.M.P. failed to find the source of the light.  About six weeks before the Tabor light was first noticed, a pilot named David Imrie reported seeing what seemed to be “navigation lights of a night-riding ghost plane” as he was flying the night mail between Regina and Moose Jaw.  That plane--if it was a plane--was never identified.

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This little oddity appeared in the “St. Louis Globe-Democrat,” January 17, 1876:

A thrilling affair occurred a few evenings since near Sheridan. Our informant, who has not heretofore been a believer in ghosts or hobgoblins and who is a man of strong and steady nerve, was so unstrung by the horrid vision presented to his view that he is rather disinclined to converse on the subject. The following facts, however, were gleaned from his account of the occurrence: 

He was on his way home, on a rather dark and misty night, on horseback, and, as usual, without any thought of danger or of supernatural things, and, when some distance this side of Sheridan, he was astonished at the terror of his horse, which endeavored to turn back, and seemed wild with fright. On looking ahead, a little to one side, the rider was stricken first with astonishment, then with fear, at beholding a bright light on the bank of the lonely creek, at first gleaming brilliantly, and then gradually decreasing in intensity, until it almost disappeared, seeming to recede as if borne backward with incredible rapidity.

Stimulated by curiosity, he endeavored to approach it more closely, but his terrified horse refused to go forward, vainly struggling to turn and rush away. As the light almost disappeared in the distance the trembling animal was urged forward, and was already past the place where it had first appeared, which was some little distance from the road, when far up in a field of rising ground the light again appeared, borne by what appeared to be a human figure, clothed in white, approaching with amazing rapidity, while as it advanced, silently gliding along the ground, the light, which it seemed to carry in one hand, blazed forth with fast increasing brilliancy.

What it was like he could not exactly say, but it was something shadowy and indistinct, and yet horrible and ghastly in the extreme. Horse and rider were motionless with wonder and curiosity, but when the horrible phantom had approached within about 100 yards, terror became master, and the frightened horse sprang forward with a burst of speed that almost unseated his master, and stopped not until he was at his own stable-door, when he was quickly put within, and the man, without mentioning the matter even to his wife, hastened to bed and spent a sleepless night. 

His haggard appearance next day caused inquiry. and he was induced to give his account of the matter to an Eagle representative. It is hinted that a horrible tragedy once occurred near the haunted spot, and that the phantom is seen once every fifty years. How much truth there is in this latter statement our informant was unable to say; but he intends to leave the investigation to someone else, having had enough of ghosts for a long time to come.

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Ghosts! Mysterious lights! Missing treasure! Cryptids!

Truly this is a spook story that has just about everything. The "Akron Times-Democrat," August 14, 1902:

There are those who believe in supernatural appearances and those who scoff at such things, but there are awesome happenings in Norton township, one mile south of Johnson's Corners, which silence the most skeptical when they have once seen the thing with their own eyes, for no explanation of the phenomena along natural lines has yet been suggested by those who have viewed this spectre.

Mysterious lights and strange animals animals figure in the hair-raising tales told by those who claim to have seen the things related and there are those residing in the vicinity whom it would take a great deal to entice from their homes alone after dark.

Those who have oftenest seen the unquiet spirit, as many are inclined to call the strange visitor, are Mr. John Breitenstein and his family, though Mr. Peter Shaffer and his family have also seen it and there are men who were formerly employed in Mr. Adam Kiehl's coal mine who could not be induced for love or money to enter the mine again.

To the visitor at the scenes where the ghostly visitation is made nothing could seem more improbable than that such a place would be the chosen spot of ghostly habitation. It is not a deserted community with old houses and neglected-gardens, but on the contrary has fine farm houses with carefully kept lawns and is surrounded by rich, beautiful fields of grain. Yet for a decade past strange events have taken place in this garden spot.

More than ten years ago a man named Shaneman resided in a small house across the road from Mr. Breitenstein. This man and his wife lived alone and though they possessed a fine farm and were supposed to be financially able to enjoy all the comforts and many of the luxuries of life, they were economically inclined and lived very frugally. Beside the farm on which he lived, Mr. Shaneman owned another fine tract of land which a short time before his death he sold to the Carrara Paint company, of Barberton, and is said to have received a large sum for this property.

Ten years ago, soon after the sale of his farm, Shaneman died, and though every nook and cranny in the house was searched, $150 was all the money that could be found and it is said that from that day to this no trace of the fortune Shaneman was supposed to have possessed has been discovered. It was thought by many that the money was buried. Shaneman died very suddenly and there are those who say that the strange spectre about this place is the spirit of the old man trying to show where the money was hidden.

The story of the supernatural appearances as told by Mr. Breitenstein is as follows.

"We never saw any of these strange things before the death of Shaneman, and the first time I saw anything supernatural was the night after Shaneman's death. Peter Shaffer, John Mong and myself were sitting up with the corpse. Mong was smoking, and Shaffer and I had been talking. All of a sudden Shaffer gave me a little nudge and directed my gaze to the ceiling at the corner of the room where the corpse lay, when I saw a sight that fairly made my hair stand on end. What seemed a ball of fire had started from the corner of the room and was traveling slowly around the ceiling of the room.

"Did you see it?" said Shaffer. "Yes," said I. "Let's get out of here," were Shaffer's next words, and we made for home as fast as we could.

"And since that time the strange light has haunted this vicinity with the most unpleasant regularity. I have seen it many times, as has every member of my family and many others. It is more often seen in the winter than at any other time, but I have seen it twice this summer, the last time only a few weeks ago, when the thing looked into my bedroom window making the room as light as day, waking me up with the glare.

"We see this strange light at many times and places. Sometimes it rises out of the fields behind the Shaneman house, other times it rests upon the roof of the house. One night not long after the death of Shaneman, I, with my family, the family of Peter Shaffer, Shaffer, and other neighbors were sitting on the veranda of my home when suddenly a bright light as large as a street lamp rose out of the fields behind the Shaneman house, came up the lane, passed my home where we were sitting and went on up past my barn. Every one on the porch was silent, but as soon as the light disappeared, by common impulse, all were on their feet making for the barn behind which it had disappeared, but nothing could be seen.

"Then my son, Harry, who was married, moved into the house and he and his wife often saw the light. One night Harry came running over in breathless haste crying that our house was on fire. We rushed out to the back where a brilliant light was to be seen for a few moments, and then passed away into nothing.

"At one time we had an old apple tree which had blown down. One evening my son Milton came home late. He put up his horse and then came to the house. As he stepped into the door we saw that he was the color of death and whispered breathlessly, 'Oh, ma, come here!' My wife stepped to the door and there, playing about that old tree, were what seemed to be thousands of lights. They were about the size of candle flames and seemed to be of all colors of the rainbow. After a time they resolved themselves into balls of fire and rolled away down the orchard path.

"Peter Shaffer has told me of seeing the light many times and he isn't a man to lie," went on Mr, Breitenstein; "and this is the tale he told, me: Shaffer, with his wife and two daughters, were passing .through the fields back of our house one night, bound for a neighbor's house. The women were walking ahead, when suddenly Shaffer saw the mysterious light moving along beside him. Then one of the girls looked back and with a scream started to run and soon the entire family was running for dear life over the fields. They came to a fence, but stopped not for a moment and how they ever got over the fence not one was ever able to tell. When they reached the road the light disappeared."

But strange lights are not all that is said to be seen in this locality, The Misses Louise and Minnie Shaffer, when returning home late one night, are said to have seen a strange animal walking along in front of them, creeping between their feet, plainly visible but of no substance, disappearing when they attempted to strike at it, but again walking with them a moment later. The girls took to their heels and arrived home almost dead with fright and now no money could hire them to go out late at night alone.

Mr. Shaffer also claims to have seen the strange animal and the tale of its appearance runs thus: It was just before the abandonment of Adam Kiehl's coal mine, and some coal was still being taken from the mine. It was about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when Shaffer saw someone going up the incline at the shoots, and as he wanted to get some coal he thought that would be a good time to go and order it. As he got near the mine, he saw the object hop up onto the platform on four feet. He thought, however, it was someone "acting the fool,'' as he expressed it, and went on. As he approached he saw the object was not a man, but some kind of a grey animal, which a moment later disappeared into the mine. He did not investigate, but made fast tracks for home.

A few days after this, Jean Cady, of Barberton, and George Conrad, of Sherman, who were working in the mine, claim to have seen the strange animal in the mine, and their description of it coincides with that of Mr. Shaffer. They immediately took after after it with picks. They would strike at it and it would fade into nothingness, but a moment later would be seen in another part of the mine. After a few fruitless attempts to approach it the men became frightened, and Cady, it is said, quit work and could not be induced to enter the mine again.

This coal mine is just at the rear of Mr. Breitenstein's land. Mr. John Winkleman and family now reside in the Shaneman house and deny ever having seen anything supernatural; but Harry Breitenstein's family claim that there is a room in the house in which no one could sleep as the bed would be shaken by unseen forces.

For six years after the death of Mr. Shaneman, Adam Kiehl resided in the Shaneman house. Mr. Kiehl says that he never saw anything unnatural, but his wife claims to have seen the strange light in her room one night.

In telling the story, Mr. Breitenstein said: "Folks may laugh if they will, but it is no laughing matter with us who live here and see it. What it is I do not know, but I tell you what I have seen, and this is gospel truth."