The Vitriolic Asylum - Apparitions

Below are a few pictures and accounts of apparitions that I've collected.. Some have no explanation..

The Burning Girl

This photo was taken on 19th November 1995 in Shropshire, England as Wem Town Hall burned to the ground. As this took place in the middle of the night, there would have been nobody in the hall. Nobody, including the man who took the photo, saw the little girl standing in the doorway.

The image was sent to the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena for analysis. It was then forwarded to the former president of the Royal Photographic Society, Dr. Vernon Harrison. He concluded that the negative had not been tampered with in any way.

History revealed a possible explanation, the hall was burned to the ground before, in 1677. Records indicate that the fire was started by a young girl named Jane Churm. In more recent years, the ghost of a young girl has been reported to haunt the site where the hall was rebuilt.

The Sailors

December 1924, two young crewmen suffocated in the cargo hold of the S.S. Watertown and were buried at sea according to tradition. The next day, numerous officers and crew saw the recognisable faces of the two dead men in the waters along the sides of the ship. The faces followed the ship all the way to its destination in Panama.

When the ship set off for home, the faces reappeared. It was then that the photo was taken. The photo and negative were tested for tampering. The only possible explanation for the sightings is mass hysteria and paranoia on the part of the crew, although the photo, if genuine, is hard to discredit.

Boot Hill

This photo was taken on the site of Boothill Cemetery in Tombstone, Arizona. Both the photographer, and the person posing declared that there was nobody there when the photo was taken. The man, dressed in a black hat and pale shirt, appears to be coming out of the ground.

Toys 'R' Us

This picture was taken with an infra-red film during an investigation into paranormal activity at the Sunnyvale, California, Toys 'R' Us store. Photos taken with non infra-red cameras revealed nothing. An article in the June 1991 edition of Adweek tells the story in some detail;

"The children have left, and the din has subsided. Another hard day's shopping is history at the Sunnyvale, California, branch of Toys 'R' Us. Yet there might be activity inside the vast, silent emporium this midnight, none of which has to do with the straightforward business of retailing.

Inside, it is said, toys topple from the their shelves. A skateboard rolls down an aisle, clanking aimlessly into a wall. But nobody is in this Toys `R' Us this midnight. Or anyway, nobody alive. In the heart of high-tech Silicon Valley, could there really be such a thing as a haunted retail outlet? "I'm a skeptical person," says Toys `R' Us assistant store director Jeff Linden. 'But something's definitely happening here.'"

In the past few years, store management has tried to get to the bottom of several curious developments. Linden recounts stories of objects flying 20 feet through the air and hitting employees. Shelves left neat in a locked store have been found in disarray the next morning. And then there was the talking doll that cried "mama" over and over-- but would only do so when put in a locked box...But that doesn't mean that store workers laugh off the matter. "Some of our employees are spooked," Linden says. "They won't go into certain parts of the store alone." He hastens to add that the "ghost" hasn't affected day-to-day store operations in any tangible way. Yet the incidents were taken seriously enough that management let a local psychic visit the store."

It is unknown whether the photo was submitted to be tested for authenticity, and historical records have yielded no possible explanations.