Halloween -- Again

[L Verge]

Even though October is my birth month, I have learned to dislike it since I began working with Surratt House. We get lots of calls from paranormal investigators who want to spend the night with our ghost and their electronic equipment (and the answer is NO to each).

Also, every reporter wants a ghost story from us for their Halloween filler. Anita was kind enough to send us an article that ran in last Saturday's issue of the Hickory Reporter from Hickory, North Carolina. The journalist who supplied it visited Surratt House and evidently experienced some paranormal effects. She has also taken our Booth Escape Route bus tour and gave it a plug (so all is forgiven for mentioning "our ghost."

"...I encountered my first cold spots while visiting at the Surratt House, home of Mary Surratt, a convicted conspirator in the Lincoln assassination plot. She was the first woman ever to be executed by the federal government.

"Guests on our tour were invited to the attic space to see where some of the conspirators had hidden their carbine rifles.

“'The attic will be very hot and uncomfortable,' the guide warned.

"I braced myself, expecting stifling heat, only to be startled by a temperature that resembled a meat locker.

"There must be something about me and ghost-infested attics, but during that visit I also felt an ice-cold spot in the dining room on a day when everyone else was complaining about the heat.

"By the way, the Surratt House is part of the John Wilkes Booth Escape Route Tour, a must for American history buffs. The 12-hour tour starts at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., where Booth shot Lincoln, and ends at the site of the Garrett Farm near Bowling Green, VA., where Booth died. Participants must book well in advance through the Surratt Society in Clinton, Md. For more information, check this link: http://www.surrattmuseum.org/booth-escape-tour"