Crime & Torture Museum in Rothenburg Germany

Ok, this doesn't really have to do with the paranormal, but if you used any of the following on me, I'd probably haunt you. But, for your pleasure (and the pleasure is that you aren't being tortured with these items) I present some selections from a crime & torture museum in Germany.
First, let's enter the ancient walled city of Rothenburg...

Without question, there is an iron maiden. She greets you in the lobby.

First, some chastity belts. Those had to be torture.....

This mask was put on a gossip or blabbermouth citizen as punishment. The two masks below it were for other crimes of the tongue.


I'm going with the don't ask, don't tell policy on these. eeeeeeeeek.

Confused? Consult your torture manual....

hmmmm.....acupuncture?

ah, the gibbet. No matter what a bad day you've had, you can always say at least you weren't tarred and put in a gibbet for crows to pick at you.

I say we grab a paddy wagon and get out of here. Hope you brought a horse.

Pere Lachaise Cemetery Paris, France

Ah, sorry so few pics. It was November. I was freeeeeeeezing. I would have loved to have spent hours here, but I have southern blood.
Have to start with this mourning statue, my favorite.

There were miles and miles of rows like this....heaven for me.


There's a famous name...


Great winged skull detail on this grave


Or maybe this statue is my favorite.....



I think this one may be bigger than my apartment.

Nearly hidden among the large masoleums and statues, Mr. Jim Morrison's diminutive grave may get the most attention of all.

Next up.....a german torture museum

Ghost Guy and creepy creature downtown

I was wandering downtown Charleston, SC on Xmas eve last year. Everything was closed and I was just snapping pictures. First, the original view..

And then I saw him, in the pic at home, looking at me, seeming to walk through the telephone pole/bush. Some people see the face and arms right away, some don't see him at all. Today I just noticed the creepy canine-type creature on the pavement in front of him. No idea what that is.


Next time, pics of the Pere LaChaise cemetery in Paris.

Circular Church Graveyard and more

The circular church in downtown Charleston, SC, is the first place I ever saw "deaths head" tombstones. These are tombstones with stylized skull faces with wings, that over the years became more cherubic than skeletal, then disappeared from cemeteries with changing tastes. As far as I know, the only spirit said to wander this cemetery is Livonia Fisher, who is buried somewhere here in an unmarked grave. Livonia (I am probably misspelling her name) and her husband ran a bed & breakfast on the peninsula in the 1800's. They had a scheme of drugging their guests at dinner, then the husband would smother the guest in bed, and Livonia would help dispose of the body. One day a guest felt suspicious, and only pretended to eat his dinner. He hid behind his bed when Liv's husband crept into the room to smother him. He heard Livonia say "do it!" and the guest fled from the inn, into town, to tell his tale. Corpses were found and after being imprisoned in the Charleston jail dungeon, the couple was hung. The husband insisted Livonia made him do it. Livonia wore her wedding dress to the gallows, showed no remorse, her last words to the crowd were that if they had a message for the devil, to tell her quick, because she was going to meet him. She lept off the gallows herself, and died with a smirk on her face. The unitarian churchyard was the only place that would accept her body. ANYHOO, here are some selected pics.




early deaths head tombstone. that's my own shadow.


later deaths head, with a more angelic face




a sad jumble of broken tombstones


the back of the next tombstone....

siblings died of the same affliction, I imagine

just old stones, ready to crumble


view of the beautiful church


that brick is not a walkway, it is a tomb sunk into the earth


another church view


most people, even locals, think the slave market is where the downtown market stands today where artisans peddle their wares, but I found the real thing. There has got to be paranormal activity here. I felt residual sadness and anger as I stood before this horrid piece of Charleston's history.



cobblestone walkway to the slave market, definite residuals here, none I felt at the time, but I shall return


took this of some neat old buildings and got this interesting rainbow/vortex effect which wasn't in any of my other pictures, even in full sunlight


the dungeon under the jail was closed, as it was 5 and it closed at five, but I put my camera to the glass of the dungeon window and got this. Either it was snowing in there, or there is a lot of activity down there. I really gotta get downtown in time for the tours.....


I don't know what this could be. I don't remember taking it.


Just for fun pic. Tourists getting a history lesson. I bet it didn't involve Livonia Fisher.....

Buried Alive - the Legare Tomb legend

So the sad story goes....in the 1800's a young girl, perhaps a teen or pre-teen, was visiting family on Edisto Island, in South Carolina. While there, the girl took ill with malaria or some other disease fatal in that time period. She died shortly after becoming ill, and since people then believed that diseases could be caught from the dead, a coffin was hastily constructed and she was interred in the Legare family tomb.
Years later, another death occured, and the tomb was re-opened for its new resident. To the shock of everyone present, a skeleton tumbled out in front of them. Seems the girl they had interred years before was only in a coma, and once awakened, fought her way out of her flimsy coffin but was too weakened by disease to budge the masoleum door. Scratch marks covered the door from her panic before she died, trapped. The tomb still stands but there is no door. Rumor has it any attempt to close the tomb, even with saran wrap, will be ripped open overnight.


cemetery with legare tomb in the distance


the infamous masoleum


me, inside the tomb. the memorials behind me did not have a female name


the first "broken column" tombstone I have seen down south, in the distance


weather makes interesting patterns on old tombstones


a small grave marker found under a pile of leaves. it provided no date, only initials


I tripped over this one, so had to take a pic


someday, I shall have a fence like this.....

Ghost cloud in Strawberry Chapel Cemetery

Too low to the ground to be moss, looks like a low flying angel if you focus on the large face close to the center, can also see other faces, as if it were a cloud made of spirits.