Ghostly

Is there Paranormal Activity Happening at Skinwalker Ranch?

Welcome to the Ghostly Summer Rewind! While we take a short break from new episodes this summer, we’re reaching back into the vault to re-release five of our favorite episodes.

This episode originally aired in late 2021. Quick heads-up: you may notice the sound quality and formatting aren’t quite up to our current standards — we’ve learned a lot since then! We hope you’ll excuse the rougher edges and just enjoy the story. Whether you’re hearing it for the first time or revisiting an old favorite, thanks for spending part of your summer with us. New episodes return this fall — but for now, back out to the strangest acres in America.

Is there paranormal activity happening at Skinwalker Ranch? Considered one of the strangest places in the world, Skinwalker Ranch is filled with stories of UFOs, animal mutilations, orbs, shadow people, and even poltergeist activity. Also, of course, reports of attacks by Skinwalkers, beings who transform into animals. Special Guest Jack Chavez, founder of Paranormal Chicago joins us to help explain the ufology and cryptology of this highly charged location. How real are the stories? Listen and vote!

Questions Explored in this Episode

Where is Skinwalker Ranch? How did it get its name? What are Skinwalkers? Is the land cursed? Who has owned the land and who has lived on it? How many of the legends about the history of the land are true? What are the odd readings people get on instruments on the ranch? What do the UFO sightings look like? Did they actually happen? Do people believe there are ghosts on the land? What happened with the government and research on the ranch? Is it full of paranormal activity?

Listener Mail

This week’s listener mail is about a truly haunted Scottish cottage. Have a spooky story or question of your own (or someone you know)? Send your story or question to info@ghostlypodcast.com and we might read it on the podcast. You could be on a future episode of Ghostly!

History of Skinwalker Ranch

Pat explores the history the ranch. While legends abound about the history of this place, very little is documented. With every owner, more of Skinwalker ranch’s secrets have been revealed.

The Debate

Pat and Rebecca debate the paranormal evidence. UFO sightings, Skinwalker sightings, animal mutilations, voices, paranormal activity – this place has them all.

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Sources for this Week’s Episode

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinwalker_Ranch

History.com: https://www.history.com/shows/the-secret-of-skinwalker-ranch and https://www.history.com/news/skinwalker-ranch-paranormal-ufos-mutilation

Legends of America: https://www.legendsofamerica.com/skinwalker-ranch/

Fandom.com: https://the-secret-of-skinwalker-ranch.fandom.com/wiki/History_of_Skinwalker_Ranch

Den of Geek: https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-secret-of-skinwalker-ranch-season-2-hitchhiker/

Tech Buzz: https://www.techbuzz.news/brandon-fugal-and-the-secret-of-skinwalker-ranch-on-the-history-channel/

KSL.com: https://www.ksl.com/article/50022431/supernatural-is-normal-at-utahs-infamous-haunted-skinwalker-ranch-6-essential-facts-to-know

ABC27.com: https://www.abc27.com/news/skinwalker-ranch-possibly-the-spookiest-place-on-earth/

River City Ghosts: https://rivercityghosts.com/the-terror-of-the-skinwalker-the-native-american-boogeyman/

Daily Star: https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/skinwalker-ranch-paranormal-hotspot-bigfoot-24956716

Austin Ghosts: https://austinghosts.com/skinwalker-ranch-a-paranormal-hotbed-few-know-about/

Music for this episode was performed by Michael Rivers

Intro: “III. Allegro moderato from Gargoyles”by Lowell Liebermann

Outro: “Dream Images (Love-Death Music)” by George Crumb

Bumper: “Ghost Waltz” by Lowell Liebermann

“Pat Facts” and “Ghost Story” themes by Mondo

“Time for a Debate” theme by Gail Gallagher gailgallaghermusic.com

Is Alcatraz haunted? Pat and Rebecca dig into the ghosts, dark history, and chilling cellblock stories of America's most infamous prison. A Ghostly Rewind.

Is Leap Castle in County Offaly, Ireland Haunted?

Tucked into the quiet farmland of County Offaly, just north of the small town of Roscrea, sits a castle that has been unsettling visitors for the better part of eight hundred years. Leap Castle has survived clan warfare, a brother murdering a brother mid-Mass, the discovery of a pit holding over 150 human skeletons, a civil-war burning, and decades as a roofless ruin.

This week, Rebecca dives into the legends of the Bloody Chapel, the oubliette, the Red Lady, the ghost children Emily and Charlotte, the Governess, and the bizarre entity known only as “the Elemental,” while Pat lays out the documented, true-crime-level history that makes this castle’s reputation almost too easy to believe. Is Leap Castle genuinely haunted, or is eight centuries of trauma just doing a very convincing impression of a haunting? You decide.

What We Cover in This Episode

The History

How Leap Castle got its name — and the legend of the brothers’ deadly leap that decided who got to build it

The O’Carroll succession war of 1532 and the murder of a priest at the altar of his own chapel

The 19th-century discovery of a hidden oubliette beneath the chapel floor — and the three cartloads of human remains pulled out of it

The 1922 burning of the castle during the Irish Civil War, and the fifty years it spent as a roofless ruin

How the Ryan family rebuilt Leap Castle from a ruin into the private home — and haunted-tour destination — it is today

The Hauntings

Evidence #1 — The Bloody Chapel: the apparition of the murdered priest, Thaddeus, and EVP recordings of murmured prayers

Evidence #2 — The Oubliette: the pit of forgotten prisoners, and the theory that disturbing their remains “woke” the castle

Evidence #3 — The Elemental: Mildred Darby’s chilling first-person account of a grey, sheep-sized entity with a face unlike anything else in Irish folklore

Evidence #4 — The Red Lady: the tragic spirit of an imprisoned woman, said to wander the upper floors in mourning

Evidence #5 — Emily, Charlotte & the Governess: two ghost children and the nanny who still seems to be looking after them — and after blonde-haired guests

Vote

As always, it’s not up to us — it’s up to YOU. After listening, head to our social pages and tell us: which piece of evidence convinced you, and which one did Pat manage to talk you out of? Genuine haunting, or centuries of trauma playing tricks on the imagination? Cast your vote and join the conversation.

Music & Sound Credits

Music for this episode was performed by Michael Rivers.

“Pat Facts” and “Ghost Story” themes by Mondo.

“Time for a Debate” theme by Gail Gallagher — gailgallaghermusic.com

Support Ghostly Podcast

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Sources

Leap Castle — Wikipedia

History — LeapCastle.net (Official Site)

The O’Carrolls — LeapCastle.net

The Irish Castle Where Workers Found Three Cartloads of Human Bones — Love Ireland

A Journey Through Time: The History of Leap Castle — IrishHistory.com

Leap Castle: Ireland’s Most Haunted — European Waterways

Leap Castle County Offaly: Ireland’s Haunted Fortress — Connolly Cove

The Bloody Chapel — LeapCastle.net (Official Site)

The Elemental — LeapCastle.net (Official Site)

The Red Lady — LeapCastle.net (Official Site)

Emily & Charlotte — LeapCastle.net (Official Site)

Are you ready to be spooked by Leap Castle? — Ireland.com

Leap Castle is the most haunted castle in Ireland and this story proves it — Irish Central

The Most Haunted Castle in Ireland | Irish Ghost Stories — Emerald Isle

The Ghosts of Leap Castle, Roscrea, Co. Offaly — Haunted Rooms

Leap Castle Ireland: The Oubliette, the Elemental and Five Centuries of Violence — Haunted Silence

The Governess of Leap Castle County Offaly: A Haunted Tale — Kinnitty.com

Exploring the Paranormal at Leap Castle — Celtic Elegance

The Haunting of Leap Castle: Ireland’s Most Haunted Fortress — Paranormal Case Files

Haunted History: Dive Into The Secrets Of Leap Castle — Spirit Shack

Leap Castle, Co Offaly: Ireland’s Most Haunted Castle — My Real Ireland

Ireland’s Biggest Haunt – Leap Castle — Beyond the Bizarre

Is the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia haunted?

Episode Summary

This week on Ghostly, we walk into the largest hand-cut stone masonry building in North America — the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia. Pat traces the building from its hopeful 1858 origins under the Kirkbride Plan, through the Civil War occupation, the catastrophic overcrowding, the 1949 Charleston Gazette exposé, and into the dark summer of 1952 when Dr. Walter Freeman’s “Operation Ice Pick” lobotomized 228 West Virginians in twelve days. Rebecca brings the paranormal — Lily, the little girl in Ward R whose toys still move on command; Jacob, the alcoholic patient with a real paper trail who was first contacted on Ghost Hunters in 2008; Ruth, the man-hating spirit of the Civil War wing; the lobotomy recovery room and its growling shadows; and the nurse whose body lay undiscovered at the bottom of a stairwell for months.

It is a story of good intentions, of a system that failed the people it promised to heal, and of the spirits who — by every account — never left.

In This Episode

Pat’s History Notes

Construction begins in 1858 — Black convicts from Western Penitentiary at Staunton are transferred to the build site by order of the governor; German and Irish stonemasons later cut blue sandstone from Mount Clare, West Virginia

The largest hand-cut stone masonry building in North America — over two million tons of hand-dressed stone, twenty-three years of labor, designed by Baltimore architect Richard Snowden Andrews

The Kirkbride Plan — Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride’s belief that architecture itself could heal a troubled mind; staggered wings, wide windows, open grounds as a “special apparatus for lunacy”

Doors open in October 1864, during the height of the Civil War — Union and Confederate forces both occupy the partially built structure

The crushing math of overcrowding: 250 patients by design, 717 by 1880, 1,661 by 1938, more than 2,600 by the 1950s — patients sleeping in shifts, sharing beds in rotation

1949 — Charleston Gazette journalist Charles Armentrout spends three weeks inside and reports the asylum looked “like a hogpen” and “smelled even worse”; the doors stay open another forty-five years

The West Virginia Lobotomy Project (1951–1953) — Dr. Walter Freeman’s transorbital lobotomy campaign nicknamed “Operation Ice Pick”; 228 West Virginians lobotomized in twelve summer days in 1952; nearly 900 permanently damaged statewide

May 1, 1994 — after 130 years of operation and a class action lawsuit, the asylum closes; patients are transferred to the William R. Sharpe Jr. Hospital

The early 2000s restoration — the building reopens as a historical site and museum, restoring its original 1864 name

Rebecca’s Paranormal Evidence

Lily of Ward R — the nine-year-old girl said to have been born and died of pneumonia inside the asylum, her fourth-floor room filled with decades of donated toys, the “mommy” EVP, and the rubber balls that roll on their own

Jacob the Alcoholic — first contacted by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson on the 2008 Ghost Hunters episode; admission records later turned up Jacob Ayers, admitted 1890–1892 as a delusional alcoholic “convinced everyone was hiding his beer”; still active in the Civil War wing on K2 meters and flashlights

Ruth and the Man-Hating Wing — the female patient on the first floor of the Civil War wing who allegedly throws objects at male visitors; the Ward 2 “get out” EVP; one woman’s account of severe head pain and overwhelming sadness on the women’s ward

The Lobotomy Recovery Room — disembodied growling, tall shadow figures seen by two investigators on the same night, screams from the empty electroshock room, slamming doors and hysterical laughter from locked rooms

The Nurse in the Stairwell — the staff member killed by a patient and hidden at the bottom of a stairwell for months; the third floor still haunted by “Elizabeth” and “Big Jim,” doors closing on their own, knocking from the inside of locked doors

Music Credits

Music for this episode was performed by Michael Rivers

“Pat Facts” and “Ghost Story” themes by Mondo

“Time for a Debate” theme by Gail Gallagher — gailgallaghermusic.com

Support the Show

Love what we do? Join us on Patreon for bonus episodes, early access, and behind-the-scenes content. Every pledge helps us keep digging up the dead.

Become a Ghostly Patron »

And don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts. It’s the best way to help other believers and skeptics find the show.

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Text the episode title. Add YES if you’re a believer, NO if you’re a skeptic. Then give it a haunting score from 1 to 10.

Phone: (312) 869-9929

Email us your stories: info@ghostlypodcast.com

Show Notes & Sources

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum — History

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum — Wikipedia

Explore Our History — Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (Official Site)

The Kirkbride Plan — Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

Thomas Story Kirkbride — Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum Legacy Pages

How The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum Went From A Curative Retreat To A House Of Horrors — All That’s Interesting

Weston State Hospital — Asylum Projects

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum — Legends of America

The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Then and Now — American Journal of Psychiatry

Weston State Hospital — SAH Archipedia

The Doctor Who Lobotomized 228 West Virginians in Just 12 Days — When In Your State

American Horror Story Doctor Is Real — Dr. Walter Freeman — Ghost Walks

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum — Paranormal

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum — Official Ghost Tours

Terrors Of The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum — US Ghost Adventures

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum — US Ghost Adventures

I Spent the Night in a Haunted Asylum and I Still Can’t Explain What I Saw — Washingtonian

The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum: West Virginia’s Haunted Hospital — Road Unraveled

A Visit to the Trans-Allegheny Asylum — CrimeReads

The Legend of Lily — Theresa’s Haunted History of the Tri-State

Little Lily of the Asylum — Spookt

Trans Allegheny Asylum — Little Lily and the Kitchen — Ghost Walks

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum and the Haunting Enigma of Lily — America’s Most Haunted

Ghost Adventures: Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (2009) — Fandom

Paranormal Lockdown: Trans-Allegheny Recap — Gretal’s Ghosts

Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum Ghost Hunt — What We Captured on Camera — Paraghosts

The Haunted Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum — Beyond Haunted

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum’s Famous Ghosts — Spartan Shield

The Haunting History of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum — WOWK 13 News

A Journey Through the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum — WV Ghosts

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum Reviews — TripAdvisor

Shadow Man Encounter at Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum — YouTube

Watch: Something unexplained caught on camera at Trans-Allegheny — WBOY

Is the Dead Children’s Playground in Huntsville, Alabama haunted?

Episode Summary

This week on Ghostly, we’re heading deep into northern Alabama to the oldest and largest cemetery in the state, Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville, and the small, unassuming playground tucked against its limestone bluff that locals call The Dead Children’s Playground. Pat walks us through the cemetery’s history, from John Hunt’s 1804 cabin to the autumn of 1918 when the Spanish flu carried away hundreds of Madison County’s children. Rebecca brings the swings that move on their own at midnight, the little boy in suspenders nobody else could see, the spectral carriage of Governor Thomas Bibb, the rocking chair ghost of Mary Chambers Bibb, and the silent Lady in White who drifts between the 1800s headstones.

This episode was inspired by our most recent Book Club pick — The Dead Children’s Playground by James Kaine, the first book in his American Horrors series.

Featured Book — The Dead Children’s Playground by James Kaine

A #1 bestseller in U.S. Horror on Amazon. BookLife by Publishers Weekly called it a story that “will chill readers to the bone.” Kaine based the entire novel on the actual legend at Maple Hill — and after this episode, you’ll never look at that playground the same way again.

The story centers on two sisters: Kylie (9, a cancer survivor with a quiet bravery) and Kayla (19, an angry older sister who lost herself in years of her family’s fight to keep Kylie alive). When the family relocates to Huntsville for a fresh start, something old and sinister begins to stir near the playground at the edge of Maple Hill Cemetery.

Grab your copy on Amazon »

In This Episode

Pat’s History Notes

The founding of Huntsville — John Hunt’s 1804 spring, LeRoy Pope’s failed attempt to name the town “Twickenham,” and the 1822 purchase of two acres that became Maple Hill

The first burial: infant Mary Frances Atwood in 1820

A who’s-who of Maple Hill: 5 Alabama governors, 5 U.S. senators, 10 members of Congress, Albert Russel Erskine of Studebaker Motors, suffragist Priscilla Holmes Drake, and baseball’s Don Mincher

187 unknown Confederate soldiers buried in the northern section — most killed by disease in training camps, not battle

Autumn 1918: the Spanish flu in Huntsville, the Birmingham News reports of a “desperate situation,” and the rows of small headstones with lambs carved on top

The rise of the Dead Children’s Playground next to the lower section of the cemetery

A short, careful primer on the difference between Hoodoo (a folk magic practice rooted in the African American South) and Vodou/Voodoo (a religion born in West Africa and shaped by Haiti)

Rebecca’s Paranormal Evidence

The Self-Swinging Swings — decades of reports of swings moving in rhythmic sync on windless nights, plus three first-person comments from visitors (2020, 2020, and 2023) sourced from Alabama Haunted Houses

The Boy in Suspenders — a haunting YouTube comment from @thomasplouffe1363 on FOX54 News Huntsville’s video, describing a child playmate his mother insisted was never there

Governor Thomas Bibb’s Moonlight Carriage Ride — a spectral carriage and white horses returning to a grave that should never have been moved

Mary Chambers Bibb — The Rocking Chair Ghost — buried in her wedding dress, sitting up in her rocker, and answering knocks at her crypt

The Lady in White — the silent figure drifting through the 1800s section of Maple Hill

Music Credits

Music for this episode was performed by Michael Rivers

“Pat Facts” and “Ghost Story” themes by Mondo

“Time for a Debate” theme by Gail Gallagher — gailgallaghermusic.com

Support the Show

Love what we do? Join us on Patreon for bonus episodes, early access, and behind-the-scenes content. Every pledge helps us keep digging up the dead.

Become a Ghostly Patron »

And don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts. It’s the best way to help other believers and skeptics find the show.

Show Notes & Sources

Maple Hill Cemetery — History & Overview

Maple Hill Cemetery — Wikipedia

Maple Hill Cemetery Is An Alabama Treasure — Hville Blast

9 Historic Graves in Maple Hill — The Bama Buzz

Maple Hill Cemetery Historical Marker — HMDB

A Virtual Tour of Historic Maple Hill Cemetery — Huntsville History Tours

Maple Hill Cemetery Stroll Brings Huntsville History to Life — City of Huntsville

LeRoy Pope — Encyclopedia of Alabama

Dead Children’s Playground — Legend & Hauntings

Dead Children’s Playground — Atlas Obscura

Dead Children’s Playground — Alabama Haunted Houses

Maple Hill Cemetery and the Dead Children’s Playground — US Ghost Adventures

Dead Children’s Playground: Fact & Fiction — Rocket City Now (FOX54)

Most Haunted: Maple Hill Cemetery — Our Valley Events / We Are Huntsville

At Play in the Field of the Dead — Southern Spirit Guide

The Moonlight Ride at Maple Hill — We Are Huntsville

Haunted Huntsville — The Dead Children’s Playground — FOX54 / Rocket City Now

The Startling Story of the Mary Chambers Bibb Mausoleum — Hville Blast

The Dead Children’s Playground — Book by James Kaine

Grab your copy on Amazon (Ghostly affiliate link)

Hoodoo & Voodoo — History & Origins

Hoodoo (Spirituality) — Wikipedia

Louisiana Voodoo — Wikipedia

Voodoo vs. Hoodoo: What’s the Difference? — ULC

A History of Louisiana Voodoo — Marie Laveau’s House of Voodoo

The True History and Faith Behind Voodoo — New Orleans French Quarter

What Is Hoodoo? — Louisiana Voodoo

New Orleans Witchcraft: The Legacy of Hoodoo and Voodoo — Strange & Twisted

Hashtags

#GhostlyPodcast #HauntedAlabama #MapleHillCemetery #DeadChildrensPlayground #Huntsville #ParanormalPodcast #GhostStories #SouthernGothic #HauntedHistory #JamesKaine #AmericanHorrors #BookClub #1918FluPandemic #ThomasBibb #SpiritsOfAlabama #TrueHauntings #SkepticVsBeliever