5 very spooky places in the USA

43% of people in the USA and 52% of Britons believe in ghosts. 18% of Americans say that they’ve actually seen a ghost and 27% claim to have experienced something “paranormal.”*

There are hundreds of haunted places around the world with more than 200 spooky places reported in the United States.

If you are interested in the mysterious and have a taste that trends towards the macabre then these following 5 spooky places will give you the goosebumps you crave.

1. The Mütter Museum

The Mütter Museum in the College of Physicians of Philadelphia is one of the most morbid journeys that a person can take.

If you can stomach it, two floors worth of preserved human specimens are on display. There are also a number of medical tools to gaze upon – most of which can be confused for implements of torture – and the Soap Lady corpse is an absolute must see.

One section is called “Broken Bodies & Suffering Spirits,” which is self explanatory.

The Mütter Museum is one of only two places in the world – and currently the only place open to the public – where Albert Einstein’s brain can be viewed.

Mütter Museum – Broken Bodies & Suffering Spirits

2. The Winchester Mystery House

Located at 525 South Winchester Blvd. in San Jose, this house got its start as a project for Sarah Winchester, a mother who lost her infant daughter to marasmus (a form of undernourishment which causes a child’s weight to be significantly low for their age.). To make matters worse, she also lost her husband, gun magnate William Wirt Winchester, to tuberculosis 15 years after the initial tragedy took place.

Winchester was only 43 when he passed away. Mrs Winchesters built the house 3 years later, in 1884.

The house is said to be the home of spirits who were killed by Winchester rifles and Sarah said she received confirmation of this fact from a trusted medium.

Secrets lurk in the dark

There are roughly 160 rooms, including 40 bedrooms, in the Winchester house. But there’s only one working toilet; all the other restrooms were decoys to confuse spirits. This is also the reason why Sarah slept in a different room each night.

The number thirteen and spider web motifs, which carried spiritual significance for her, occur throughout the house.

Every Friday the 13th, the large bell on the property is rung 13 times at 13h00 hours (13:00 PT, 1:00 PM) in tribute to Winchester.

Strange sights and sounds have been reported on a consistent basis, so enter if you dare!

Winchester Mystery House. Img via Wikipedia

3. Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery

Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery is a small, (almost) abandoned cemetery in Bremen Township, Cook County, Illinois in Chicago’s southwest suburbs. It contains only 82 plots.

Since the 1950s, there have been multiple reports of a two headed ghost, a monk dressed in a robe, strange noises and more.

According to the related Wikipedia article you might bump into:

1. The white lady (or “white madonna”) walks the grounds carrying an infant during the full moon.
2. Phantom farmhouse – a ghostly farmhouse which is purported to shimmer, float, and then vanish; this was most often reported during the 1950s. There are also reports by witnesses of the house shrinking as they approach it, then disappearing altogether.
3. A farmer and his plow-horse – both victims of a plowing accident, dragged to their deaths into the nearby slough.
4. Religious monks – as late as 1984, witnesses reported seeing numerous figures dressed in monk’s robes throughout the cemetery.
5. The “woman sitting on the grave”– a notable photograph which ran in the Chicago Sun-Times, purportedly showing a transparent woman sitting on a tombstone; the apparition was not visible when the photograph was taken.
6. Phantom cars – many visitors have reported hearing and seeing ghost cars on a nearby road.
7. A black dog crossing your path.

Bachelor’s Grove cemetery, infrared image. Ghosts live here.

4. The Grave of the Female Stranger

The grave of the Female Stranger is just east of Hamilton Ave. at St. Paul’s Cemetery, Alexandria, Virginia. She is said to roam the area.

Back in 1816, a young woman allegedly passed away and was buried by her own husband, never to be heard from again. Her identity was always protected and no one has ever claimed to have seen her face when she was alive.

There are a lot of theories surrounding her death. Reading the inscription on her grave, her husband could possibly be ruled out as suspect.

The inscription on her grave reads:

To the memory of a Female Stranger
Whose mortal suffering terminated
on the 14th day of October, 1816
Aged 23 years, and 8 months

This stone is erected by her discon-
solate husband in whose arms she
sighed out her latest breath, and who
under God did his utmost to soothe the
cold dull hour of death.

How loved, how honor’d once avails thee not,
To whom related or by whom begot,
A heap of dust remains of thee
‘Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be.

Grave of the Female Stranger.

5. The Museum of Death

The Museum of Death is a museum with locations in Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles and New Orleans.

Visitors with a taste for the darker side of life venture to these museums but it is certainly not for the faint of heart.

There are photos of Charles Manson’s crime scenes on hand, as well as the artwork of serial murderers, a collection of coffins and body bags.

To darken the mood even further, there is a big collection of the Black Dahlia gruesome murder scene and morgue photos.

The body of 22-year-old Black Dahlia, Elizabeth Short, was found sliced in half by the waste on January 15, 1947 in a vacant lot near Leimert Park on South Norton Avenue, Los Angeles. It is one of the top 10 unsolved murders in the United States.

The museum also displays the Thanatron, one of the original suicide machines built by “Dr. Death,” Jack Kevorkian.

Who know what spirits dwell around here?!

The Museum of Death was established in June 1995 by J. D. Healy and Catherine Shultz with the stated goal being “to make people happy to be alive.”

*Pew Research: 18% of Americans say they’ve seen a ghost.

Edited from the original story by Sam Rimini, Discountrue.