I love a good Ghost Story. I’ve had, what I consider, a few encounters of my own over the years. We had some “strange happenings” while growing up in our home on Bruce Avenue. From time to time.
But as an adult, we bought a couple of homes down in Charleston, SC. We lived down there for several years. Both of the houses had some interesting occurrences. In our first home, we found out that a woman had committed suicide on the second floor. We often heard her walking about, up there on the second floor. But only when we were down below.
That particular house has quite a few more odd stories and happenings.
The other house had an extra resident too. A cigar-smoking dark fella who like to hang around our staircase. Previous owners of the house stopped by once. They wanted to know if he was still around.
The other world. The other energies. Universal movements. Frequencies. The unknown.
But the thing of it is, every once in a while, a ghost makes a real difference. This story comes from West Virginia, specifically a place called Greenbrier. It was January 23, 1897. A man named Erasmus (Eddie) Trout worked a Blacksmith Shop in that town of Greenbrier. He decided to check on his wife, to see if she needed anything from town. So he sent a young boy, from the Blacksmith Shop, out to his house to call on his wife, Zona. The boy arrived at their home, and found Zona. She was dead as a doornail. Lifeless on the floor. Of course, the kid freaked. I imagine.
So, the little dude went back to town, told Eddie, and then Eddie went back to the house. And here is what he did. He carried his wife Zona upstairs, dressed her, and summoned the doctor. Eddie cradled her head, and acted very erratic, and odd. The Doctor performed his autopsy, right there, and determined the cause to be an “Everlasting Faint.” That is one doozy of a faint, I’ll tell you.
So Zona’s body was transferred to her parents’ home. It was about 5 miles away or so. Eddie had dressed her, supposedly in her favorite high-necked dress, which he complimented with a very nice scarf. All wrapped up. Snug as a bug in a coffin.
During the entire viewing, that hubby Eddie held his wife’s head. Zona’s mother, Mary, thought Eddie was acting peculiar. You see, she never liked that old boy, and even protested their marriage. But, Zona married the guy despite her mother’s advice.
The end of it. Zona was buried there in the cold West Virginia soil. Or was it?
No, it was not. That Mother Mary prayed. Night after night. She asked Zona to come back and tell her all about this “Everlasting Faint.” Finally, Zona’s ghost appeared, and flat-out… I’m talking FLAT-OUT… told her Mom, “Eddie did this. He crushed my neck. He squeezed the life right out of me.” Per Mary.
It begs the question. Why did he kill her? The ghost didn’t say, as far as I know. The attack was for no good reason, I am sure. They were probably arguing over butter, or laundry, or something. Anyway. The haunt went on for several nights to follow.
Mary convinced the authorities of her encounter, and actually got them to exhume Zona’s body. Eddie protested, saying, “You will never prove I did this.”
The examination showed that her neck was broken, her throat was crushed, and her windpipe smashed. Bluto. Now Eddie was really saying, “You will never prove I did this.”
The case, went to trial, of course. The matter of Zona’s ghost was brought up in court. By the defense. They wanted to make Mary look like she was loony. Insane. But it backfired. The jury believed every word of her testimony. They found Eddie guilty and he was sentenced to life in prison. He died 3 years later, there in jail. Some undisclosed illness.
Zona’s ghost was never seen again. She was buried. Again. And Zona Heaster Shue is forever known as the Greenbrier Ghost. Remarkably, it is the only court case in which the testimony of a ghost helped to convict a murderer.
I think this is a pretty good ghost story, whether it is true or not. But the fact still remains, that many great minds have questioned the unknown. On every level. Like, Nikola Tesla. He gave us a lot of incredible profound ideas, including this one:
“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.”
Maybe all we have to do is tune in to the right frequency.
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“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”
― Albert Einstein, The World As I See It
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“The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.”
― Anaïs Nin
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“Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.”
― Max Planck, Where is Science Going?
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