Personally, I love everything scary and creepy. Haunted houses, scary movies and ghost stories give a certain thrill like nothing else does. I watch a lot of those silly ghost shows on television, even though I know they probably aren't going to catch anything groundbreaking, I still get a kick out of it. But the ghost hunting teams visit a lot of interesting and historical places with awesome stories. So, I'm just going to have my own little Halloween in April and tell you about my top five favorite most haunted places in America!
1. Villisca Axe Murder House, Villisca, Iowa.
The entire family of Josiah Moore, and two other over-night guests, were bludgeoned to death in the house in 1912. The murderer was never caught. Paranormal investigators have caught many events of paranormal activity. Some of these terrifying events include hearing children's voices, objects moving on their own and things being thrown at people.
2. Ghost Town, Jerome, Ariz.
Jerome was once the fifth largest city in Arizona around 1882. Copper mines attracted hundreds of people to the city. Once the Great depression hit, the town slowly started declining in prosperity and population. The mines closed in 1950. Today the town only has about 400 residents, other than the ghostly inhabitants. The town's community center is locally known as "Spook Hall" because of the reported ghost activity that takes place there. The ghost that haunts this building is thought to be the spirit of a prostitute who was stabbed to death by a miner.
3. Moon River Brewery, Savannah, Ga.
The Moon River Brewery is one of the oldest buildings in Savannah. It was originally built in 1821 and served as the towns first hotel and post office. As tensions grew between the North and South, a large amount of violence took place in the building. The hotel and post office was closed in 1864 when Gen. Sherman led the Union Army through Georgia. Since the brewery opened in the 1990s, many visitors and employees have encountered many unexplained and violent events. Bottles have been thrown and people have been pushed and slapped by unseen hands.
4. Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, Penn.
Many people have reported paranormal happenings at Eastern State Penitentiary. Since the 1940s, officers and inmates reported having visions and seeing creepy things. The penitentiary was abandoned in 1971 but people still have strange things happen to them today. More than 1,200 inmates died here, killed by disease, at the hands of their fellow inmates or suicide. If the building itself isn't haunted, it certainly has a haunting past that emanates from the walls.
5. Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Weston, W.Va.
Originally known as Western State Hospital, it served as a residence for the mentally ill from the mid-1800s until 1994. The building was designed to hold only 250 people, but over 2,400 mentally-ill people were crowded into the building to live. It was closed in 1994 due to mistreatment of patients, who were often kept in cages if doctors and nurses couldn't control them. Many ghost hunting groups have investigated the asylum and a lot of "activity" was captured including voices and EMF readings. A place with such an emotionally charged past is bound to be haunted.
