Four Places to Experience a Haunting in Connecticut

The movie A Haunting in Connecticut has once again focused attention on tales of the paranormal - especially in the state where the original story took place. The film, which stars Virginia Madsen and Martin Donovan, is based on the true story of a Southington, CT family and the strange occurrences they say they experienced in their house in 1988.

The success of the movie has brought curiosity-seekers to the neighborhood where the events supposedly took place, causing residents to complain and police to increase patrols in the area.

But the Haunting house did not receive anywhere near as much attention 20 years ago when the ghosts were reportedly scaring the tenants in the house. In fact, there are several spots in the state that are much more widely-known as "haunted."

Union Cemetery - Easton

Locals here have been talking about The White Lady for over 60 years. The cemetery dates to the 1600s, but no one seems to know what era the spectral figure belongs to. She is said to be dressed either in a white nightgown or a wedding dress, and appears to be very lifelike. One time, the legend goes, a fireman claimed to have struck her as she stood in the middle of the road, leaving a dent in the truck but no sign of a woman - injured or otherwise. Theories abound as to the White Lady's identity - from a woman who died in childbirth searching for her child, to a woman who was murdered and whose body was found in the woods by the cemetery.

West Peak State Park - Meriden

On perhaps a happier note, for well over 100 years hikers and campers in this area have been reporting the presence of a friendly black dog along local trails. The dog is said to leave no footprints. But happy ghosts - especially friendly tail-waggers - don't make for good campfire stories. So local legend has it that the first sighting of the dog is lucky, the second warns of danger, and anyone seeing him for a third time faces the risk of death. Now that's more like it.

Dudleytown - Cornwall

In the mid-1700s, Dudleytown was a well-populated section of Cornwall township. Today, all that remains are shallow foundation holes and the remains of some stonework, because the town has been abandoned since 1899. What caused everyone to leave? According to extensive local legend and some documented evidence, the residents of the area had an unusually high rate of insanity. Stories abound of whole families going mad, many to the point of suicide. The most famous case involved Mary Cheney Greeley, a Dudleytown native and the wife of 1872 presidential candidate Horace Greeley ("Go west, young man"), committed suicide just a week before election day.

Another well-documented case occurred generations later. After the forest reclaimed much of the town, a New York doctor built a summer house there. Called away on an emergency, he returned just days later to find that his wife had gone insane. She spent the rest of her life in a mental hospital.

Today, much of what remains of Dudleytown is privately owned and inaccessible to the public, though local Wiccans are said to hold occasional ceremonies nearby.

Boothe Memorial Park - Stratford

This is a site you can actually visit, as it's on the National Register of Historic Places. Two sons of the man for whom the park is named are said to haunt this park. Dozens of strange occurrences have been reported by visitors over the years. One of the area's best-known paranormal investigators, who is actually portrayed in the film A Haunting in Connecticut, calls this one of the most intriguing sites he's ever visited. Objects have reportedly moved, people claim to have been touched, and all of it has been attributed to the park's resident ghosts.