Posts by The Lineup

Jolly Jane Toppan was never going to have a perfect life. Surrendered to a Boston orphanage and hired out to a foster family by the age of six, she was doomed to, at best, a life of servitude. But no one could have anticipated the dark places her life would lead. Toppan grew up resenting...

Huntingdon College, in Montgomery, Alabama, is said to be haunted by the ghost of not one, but two “Red Ladies.” The first Red Lady appeared in the late 1800s, when the college was located in Tuskegee. Supposedly, a young woman, clad in a scarlet dress and bathed in a red light, wandered the halls of...

Through November and December of 1803, London was seized by pure terror. The Hammersmith district had been plagued with sightings of a macabre-looking ghost. Every night, reports of a malevolent apparition flooded the police station. According to most accounts, the specter was determined to frighten anyone nearby. It was described as wearing a white shroud...

Jim Thompson was a master of reinvention. Beginning his life as the wealthy son of a wealthy man, he worked for a time as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services before moving to Thailand to start a new life as a silk merchant. Clearly, the man never stayed in one place for long....

By 1835, Hélène Jégado had put 17 people in their graves. Her religious fervor and humble beginnings made it difficult for victims and friends to believe she was capable of such prolific murder. But Jégado wasn’t done yet. Before she was brought to justice, her death toll would reach nearly 40 souls. Orphaned at the...

One of the oldest cities in America, St. Augustine, Florida, is rich with history—and ghosts. The lighthouse that stands at the end of St. Augustine’s Anastasia Island was built in 1874, one in a long line of lighthouses that have served the city since Sir Francis Drake raided the village in 1586. St. Augustine has...

Most people know of Theodosia Burr from the beautiful Hamilton song “Dear Theodosia,” in which Aaron Burr sings to his infant daughter at the end of the first act of the musical. Few, however, know about Theodosia’s life, as well as her mysterious death. Theodosia was Burr’s only surviving child. By all accounts, she was...

From Snapped, to Deadly Women and The First 48, it’s no secret that the modern world is intrigued by murder and mayhem. In addition to TV shows, various books and documentaries seek to spill the secrets of notorious serial killers like the Boston Strangler and the Zodiac Killer. This obsession is nothing new, of course....

In a region rich with natural wonder, the San Juan Islands of the Pacific Northwest stand out. The archipelago is comprised of secluded, tree-covered isles, hemmed in by the snowy peaks of the Olympic Mountains to the southwest, and the mighty Cascades to the east. Those who reside in the San Juans operate on island...

In January of 1922, farmer Alexander MacDonald, his wife Janet, and their adopted daughter Mary Ellen fled their home in Caledonia Mills, Nova Scotia after a rash of poltergeist activity, including more than 30 unexplained fires. Though several researchers, journalists, detectives, and paranormal investigators would eventually examine the farm and house, the so-called “fire spook”...

On the morning of August 11, 1994, fisherman Mark Peterson pulled up a disturbing catch from the depths of the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney, Australia. Tangled in his net was a human-sized steel rack in the shape of a cross. Tethered to this rack was a bulky figure wrapped in black garbage bags. Wire...

On the 21st of June 1946, a woman’s body was found in her bed in Room 4 of the Pembridge Court Hotel in London. She was naked and covered with a sheet, her ankles bound with handkerchiefs. Seventeen lash marks from a leather-riding crop crisscrossed her body. Further examinations showed that some foreign object had...

On October 7, 1949, aspiring Hollywood actress Jean Spangler kissed her five-year-old daughter goodbye and told her sister-in-law she was going to meet her ex-husband to talk about his late child support payment. In a twist straight from a L.A. noir novel, she walked out the door and was never seen again. The last person...

While the most famous grave at St. James Episcopal Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia likely belongs to slain beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, the eeriest plot belongs to a woman named Mary Meinert. It’s marked by a large marble statue of a woman cradling two infants in her arms. Thanks to her unique memorial, Mary has become...

From the outside, Chaonei No. 81, an abandoned, Baroque-style mansion in the Chaoyangmen neighborhood of the Dongcheng District in Beijing, China appears to be a waste of a beautiful home. But locals know the real reason this building has lain abandoned for over 50 years: It’s a house inhabited by the dead. Legend goes that...