He told me that Boy Scouts on overnight visits to the castle often encountered ghostly activity.
“Such as?” I asked.
“They take their shoes off to go to sleep and when they wake up in the morning they may find their shoes all tied together,” Joe said.
“Wow.”
“Or the chessmen on this chessboard might be moved in different positions from where they were left the night before.”
I noted the chessboard and playing pieces set up on a small table; they seemed ordinary enough.
As Sir Joe told me these stories, his expression was more bemused than mystified and I wondered if, just perhaps, the ghostly pranks played upon the Scouts might not have some human agency behind them.
But Joe had some stories of his own to relate. One day, Joe and another Knight, “Sir” Tim, were relaxing in the castle after a long day of work there. Suddenly, the door of the bathroom off the ballroom upstairs slammed shut. The men knew that they were alone at the castle, so they raced upstairs to see who had broken into the building. There was no one there. They went back downstairs, but two more times the door slammed shut by itself.
Sir Joe thought that someone—maybe Sir Harry?—was trying to send them a message, but Sir Tim was skeptical. The next morning, Joe checked the bathroom once more and, finding nothing amiss, went outside to check the plumbing. He found that the lines running to the septic tank were about to overflow, which would have created quite a mess in the castle gardens. Thanks to the warning message from the friendly ghost the night before, the Knights were able to correct the problem in time to avert a disaster.
Despite Sir Harry’s aversion to women, the present-day Knights of the Golden Trail have included Ladies among their membership. One such Lady, Donna Jean, experienced a ghost encounter during a Boy Scout overnight. Donna Jean was supervising the event one night in 1989 and, while the Scouts were sitting around a campfire by the river, she made a perimeter check of the grounds. After finding everything secure, she sat down outside to enjoy the warm May night.
She noticed a figure on the road coming up toward the gardens. She described it as “transparent, whitish in color, and very flowing, like a woman with shoulder-length hair and a long billowy gown.” The figure approached the garden near where Lady Donna Jean was sitting and then simply disappeared.
She recalled a story that Harry had told the Knights that might explain the ghostly woman. According to Harry, a man and his wife had built a cabin, attached to a cave downriver from the castle, where they made moonshine. One day, while Harry and some young Knights were working at the castle, they heard a loud explosion and ran down to the cabin. It had been destroyed completely in the blast, and in the wreckage they found the dead body of the woman beneath a whiskey barrel.
Since Lady Donna first saw the ghost, she has been seen many times by both Knights and visitors to the castle.
Lady Christie tells of sitting in the castle one night, facing toward Sir Harry’s bedroom and the spiral staircase. A Knight was also there, but was taking a shower; they were the only people in the castle. Lady Christie noticed some movement near the staircase. A huge shadow the size of a human was slowly coming up the stairs. She was frightened and called out to Sir Ron, the Knight in the shower. The shadow continued toward the top of the staircase. Lady Christie screamed and ran to the bathroom, pounding on the door to get the wet Knight’s attention. By this time, the shadow had reached the top of the stairs and was standing in the archway of the room. Sir Ron emerged from the bathroom and also felt the presence of something paranormal, although the shadow had suddenly disappeared. The Knight and the Lady quickly retreated from the castle.
Chateau Laroche remains a work in progress as the Knights of the Golden Trail maintain not only the physical grounds but the spirit of Sir Harry Andrews as well. Make a trip to this enchanting castle and see if you can find some spirits of your own.
Spotlight On: Spiritual H.O.P.E.
Based in Cincinnati, Spiritual Historians of Paranormal Evidence Society (Spiritual H.O.P.E.) is the only ghosthunter group I know that boasts a canine member; Kodi (short for Kodiak) is a nine-year-old schipperke owned by the group’s director of operations, Crystal Ayers. The group’s founder, DaShane Watkins, says that Kodi is sensitive to paranormal activity in haunted locations, and the pooch is put to work on most investigation, carrying some of the group’s batteries, lights, and EMF meters. In addition to the Cincinnati members, the society now has 200 remote team members located in several chapters.
Spiritual H.O.P.E. Society hosts public investigations called “Ghosts in the Museums” at Glendower Mansion and the Warren County Historical Society Museum, both in Lebanon, Ohio, as well as Hillforest Mansion in Aurora, Indiana. The group donates half of the proceeds from its investigations to the museums to help keep their doors open. In recognition of this work, Watkins has been awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the Ohio Historical Society for his contributions and for teaching the public about history in an interesting manner. The group was also the first to investigate the haunted Cincinnati Observatory (see the chapter about the observatory in this book).
In addition to conducting investigations, DaShane is a film-maker and, with Crystal Ayers, cohosts a podcast called “Widespread Paranormal.”
DaShane’s favorite haunt is the James Rupert house in Hamilton, Ohio. One Easter in the 1970s, Rupert used three different guns to shoot to death eleven members of his family; oddly, no one else heard a single shot. DaShane talks about an investigation he and Crystal conducted at the house:
“I had never been actually touched by something paranormal until that night walking up to the back porch. Crystal and I were walking around the side of the house, and as we headed to the back porch, I was poked in the chest by an unseen force. It felt like the end of a broomstick being poked into my chest very hard. As I jumped back, I turned on the flashlight to see if maybe there was a stray branch poking out from the vines that had grown up the lattice that covered the whole back porch. I thought for sure that I would find a branch that had been freshly cut and was sticking out, but after careful examination, I found nothing to offer an explanation. No branches, sticks, or twigs poking out from the lattice. Nothing. So now my senses were on high alert. Heart pounding, adrenaline pumping. What poked me? Suddenly, in the midst of this, I saw two images flash in my head, a little boy and a girl on the back porch. The flash was in black and white except for the little girl’s pink bow on her hat. Then it went away. After doing research on the murders, I found out that the girl was the only one that got close to getting away. She made it as far as the back porch with her brother close behind her before they were shot by the madman.”
DaShane reports that, at the same time, Crystal asked the ghost to make the EMF meter she held in her hand record higher readings. It did and Crystal felt something slap the back of her hand, as if to knock the meter out of her grasp. Later, the two discovered that they had recorded two EVPs at that time, a man’s voice saying, I’m doing it and a growling voice that said, Get out of here. Crystal also received mental images from the porch; DaShane notes that neither of them are psychics.
For more information about Spiritual H.O.P.E. Society, go to the group’s website at spiritualhopesociety.com.
What’s in a Name? Spooky Hollow Road, Indian Hill
The Village of Indian Hill is a Cincinnati-area bedroom community with sprawling mansions and picturesque bridle trails nestled among rolling hills and leafy woods. It’s the home of the area’s wealthiest movers and shakers and celebrities, such as rocker Peter Frampton.
But Indian Hill may also be home to ghosts. How else can we explain the road named Spooky Hollow Road? An unlighted two-lane road that twists and turns downhill, Spooky Hollow Road is indeed spooky, if you drive it too fast or under the influence of spirits from a bottle.
I checked with the Indian Hill Historical Society to see how the road received its name. In the