Ghost Stories

I'm sure that most of us have heard, or even maybe told a story or two, about that "old creepy empty house" on the end of the block. Perhaps a few of us have even dared each other to go inside. Though the majority of these stories are just made up to scare each other, there are those few that are based partly on fact. In June of 2002, we were told of one such story that did actually have some basis of truth to it. We were certain that the tale had grown much larger and more macabre over the years, but here is the version that was told to us.

In the winter of 1974, the Harrison family had run into some very tough times and could no longer afford to feed their six children. Although they tried very hard, they could not qualify for any kind of assistance. Feeling that their situation was hopeless, Mr. Harrison hatched a sinister plan to keep the entire family from starving. Late that night, he went into his oldest daughter's room and slashed her throat while she slept. He then dragged the body downstairs, butchered her like an animal and froze the portions. This would be how he would feed the family for the next week.

He cleaned his mess and the next morning, reported her missing. The following week, he got to their second oldest, and their only son, and did the same. According to the story, this went on until all six children were "missing." Finally, his wife figured out what was going on and was going to call the police and tell them what he had been up to, but that night, he gave her the same treatment as their six children got. Old Mr. Harrison was finally shot and killed by the police after a neighbor had called in a tip that he had killed his entire family, and the house has been vacant ever since. The story also says that at night you can still hear the tortured screams of the distraught mother crying for her children.

We started by finding this house and checking it out in the daylight. We were immediately approached by some neighborhood kids who asked us, "You're not gonna go in there, are you? That house is evil!" We told them that it was OK, and that we wouldn't go inside. That Friday night, we returned to the house fairly late and found that the back door was gone, so we went in and carefully looked around. We weren’t sure how structurally sound the place was, so we didn’t walk in very far. We just mostly stood and listened for anything we could hear. After a few minutes, we did hear what could be described as a child screaming painfully. We next heard what sounded like a woman crying almost hysterically. We then heard what sounded like an argument and lots of yelling. After the argument, there was more crying. Once we had satisfied our own curiosity, we went home.

We did as much research on the old place as we could over the next several weeks and found out a few disturbing facts about the old house. The people who lived there WERE named Harrison, but they only had two children. One of the children had fallen down the stairs when she was very young and had suffered a broken neck. The second child was believed to have died from pneumonia. Mrs. Harrison was devastated at the loss of both children and would cry almost every night, and Mr. Harrison would get so mad at her and yell at her to move on and stop being such a crybaby all of the time. After several months of this, the best anyone can figure is that Mr. Harrison finally snapped and smothered Mrs. Harrison in her sleep one night. The police arrested him without incident and the house was put on the market, but it seems that no one wanted to live in a house that was surrounded by so much tragedy. The old place has finally been torn down and the lot has been cleaned up. The new owner is planning to build a new house on this lot, but I’m not sure that will be enough to stop the grieving spirit of a mother mourning her children.