The Chancery House: The Haunted Lizzie Borden House 2005

The fun starts here.

Marie Zbytek, Derek Sullivan &

Sephera Giron do a series of

grave rubbings on the Borden

family monument.

I experienced the same psychic discomfort I do in some parts of the house and at the cemetery, so I left the area for a few moments to wander Oak Grove.

Souvenirs? A second circuit of the name markers revealed 3 red feathers on baby sister Alice's grave and two black feathers on Lizzie's which had not been there previously....she was an animal lover, and maintained several bird feeders at the French Street house.

Drat! The flash doesn't work....batteries and electronics often malfunction at the Borden House.

Imagine my surprise to discover

that a very distinct face in a red orb was captured. His friend's face (to the left) is slightly more obscure.

Click here to zoom in.

Click on the photo for a

larger view of the picture at the

left.

There is a flash reflection in the window...but that doesn't explain the blue stuff on the wall...if it were just a shadow, it would show up in more "shadowed places."

It doesn't explain the face peering in.

Click here to zoom in on the window, or on the photo for a larger view of that.

Remember, we found the mannequin (just out of camera range here) out of place 4 times that night.

This was taken in Abby and Andrew's bedroom. It has not been touched up or altered--except for size.

Note that as Eleanor, our guide, stretches her hand toward the door knob, ghostly fingers around hers are transparent. The door knob (original to the house) can be seen behind and through the fingers.

I have not ever even seen a ghost photo quite like this one.

This inset is an enlargement of the hand in the photo above. Eleanor was wearing reddish

nailpolish--it shows up in several other photos.

But it is impossible for the camera to pick up the door knob through the fingers...perhaps a ghostly hand playfully stretched fingers out at the same time (causing the blurring effect).

Click on photo to see an inverse or negative image, also clearly showing the door knob and the door "behind or under" the fingers.

Looks pretty innocuous, doesn't it? A dressmaker's form with a 19th c. outfit.

I've known a number of people who immediately reacted to Emma's room with terror. Now we know why.

The mannequin kept moving itself during our stay.

First it moved about a foot from the wall. Eleanor, our guide, put it back. Then, after the tour we discovered it near the foot of the bed--about 3 feet from its usual position. Again it was returned and again it moved.

Marie Zbytek put it in the hallway facing the corner, so that Julie Morales could sleep in Emma's room more peacefully.

About 4:30 am, Marie, Dennis Cummins and I went outside for a cigarette. A while later, I thought I heard the mannequin move. Unable to sleep I went downstairs again. The mannequin was now turned around and facing our room (and Emma's).

I asked each person--staff included--no one had moved it.

What's in that room? Look at the pictures below to see who or what haunts Emma Borden's bedroom.

Of course flash images can cause odd photo events...but I've never seen one that appeared quite like this...divided nearly in half over the face and showing a red streak in the subject's neck.

And what are we to make of the fact that the previous flash "event" in Emma's room was bluish...not yellow?

This is Abby's portrait taken when she was wearing her bridal gown. It hangs in her and Andrew's former bedroom.

Click here to zoom, click on photo for a larger version.

This photo of the reproduction sofa where Andrew was murdered shows a much more typical flash reaction on the print above the sofa--unlike the ones in Abby's room or in Emma's room.

A few orbs shimmer to the left.

We photographed orbs in and around almost every area of the house.

Marie Zbytek's photo of the side entrance of the house and the upper windows of the guest room show a huge array of orbs and ectoplasmic mist emanating from the window closest to where Abby was murdered.

Dennis Cummins' shot of the John Vinnicum Morse Room where Abby Borden was murdered on August 4th, 1892 shows even more ectoplasm emanating from the window.

The orb between the guest room window and parlor (right) seems to have a face in it when the photo is viewed at full size.

Click on photos to view enlargements.

Marie's photo of the guest room with parlor below it with orbs circling the house seems to show a face in the parlor window (bottom right) and in the guest room (top right).

While several of us were in the parlor earlier that evening, which is directly below the guest room, we heard a heavy thumping sound--as if something or someone had fallen abruptly. No one was on the second floor at the time.

Several people report feeling uneasy in the bathroom which is off the kitchen in the Borden House.

Dennis Cummins took several photos, so did I.

In this one, though, a distinct black shadowy ectoplasm is visible--you can see the moulding and ceilings and wallpaper behind and adjacent to it (top right).

Shadow ghosts are among the rarest types to be captured on film.

The back of the Borden House is undergoing extensive renovations.

From the instant I set foot behind the house, I was overwhelmed with a physical sense of dread, unease--so much so I felt faint--and very anxious.

That evening, Dennis Cummins captured this spectacular and monumental ectoplasm covering the back of the house.

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