Derby City Ghost Hunters
During the 1800s and early 1900s, America was ravaged by a deadly disease known by many as the “white death” --- tuberculosis. This terrifying and very contagious plague, for which no cure existed, claimed entire families and sometimes entire towns. In 1900, Louisville, Kentucky had one of the highest tuberculosis death rates in America. Built on low, swampland, the area was the perfect breeding ground for disease and in 1910, a hospital was constructed on a windswept hill in southern Jefferson County that had been designed to combat the horrific disease. The hospital quickly became overcrowded though and with donations of money and land, a new hospital was started in 1924.
The new structure, known as Waverly Hills, opened two years later in 1926. It was considered the most advanced tuberculosis sanatorium in the country but even then, most of the patients succumbed to the disease. In those days before medicine was available to treat the disease, it was thought that the best treatment for tuberculosis was fresh air, plenty of nutritious food and lots of rest. Many patients survived their stay at Waverly Hills but it is estimated that hundreds died here at the height of the epidemic.
In many cases, the treatments for the disease were as bad as the disease itself. Some of the experiments that were conducted in search of a cure seem barbaric by today’s standards but others are now common practice. Patient’s lungs were exposed to ultraviolet light to try and stop the spread of bacteria. This was done in “sun rooms”, using artificial light in place of sunlight, or on the roof or open porches of the hospital. Since fresh air was thought to also be a possible cure, patients were often placed in front of huge windows or on the open porches, no matter what the season. Old photographs show patients lounging in chairs, taking in the fresh air, while literally covered with snow.
Other treatments were less pleasant --- and much bloodier. Balloons would be surgically implanted in the lungs and then filled with air to expand them. Needless to say, this often had disastrous results, as did operations where muscles and ribs were removed from a patient’s chest to allow the lungs to expand further and let in more oxygen. This blood-soaked procedure was seen as a “last resort” and few of the patients survived it.While the patients who survived both the disease and the treatments left Waverly Hills through the front door, the majority of patients left through what came to be known as the “body chute”. This enclosed tunnel for the dead led from the hospital to the railroad tracks at the bottom of the hill. Using a motorized rail and cable system, the bodies were lowered in secret to the waiting trains. This was done so that patients would not see how many were leaving the hospital as corpses. Their mental health, the doctors believed, was just as important as their physical health.By the late 1930s, tuberculosis had begun to decline around the world and by 1943, new medicines had largely eradicated in the United States. In 1961, Waverly Hills was closed down but was re-opened a year later as Woodhaven Geriatrics Sanitarium. There have been many rumors and stories told about patient mistreatment and unusual experiments during the years that the building was used an old age home. Some of them have been proven to be false but others have unfortunately turned out to be true. Electroshock therapy, which was considered to be highly effective in those days, was widely used for a variety of ailments. Budget cuts in the 1960s and 1970s led to both horrible conditions and patient mistreatments and in 1982, the state closed the facility for good.
Is any wonder, after all of the death, pain and agony within these walls, that Waverly Hills is considered to be one of the most haunted places in the country?
The buildings and land that made up Waverly Hills were auctioned off and changed hands many times over the course of the next two decades. By 2001, the once stately building had nearly destroyed by time, the elements and the vandals who came here looking for a thrill. Waverly Hills had become the local “haunted house” and it became a magnet for the homeless, looking for shelter, and teenagers, who broke in looking for ghosts. The hospital soon gained a reputation for being haunted and stories began to circulate of resident ghosts like the little girl who was seen running up and down the third floor solarium, the little boy who was spotted with a leather ball, the hearse that appeared in the back of the building dropping off coffins, the woman with the bleeding wrists who cried for help and others. Visitors told of slamming doors, lights in the windows as if power was still running through the building, strange sounds and eerie footsteps in empty rooms.
It was at this time that the hospital came to the attention of Keith Age, and the Louisville Ghost Hunter’s Society. Keith was a long-time friend of mine and a representative for the American Ghost Society in Louisville. It would be his work with a television show that would bring him to Waverly Hills. Over the course of the next several years, the group had a number of unexplainable encounters in the building.
One of the legends told of Waverly Hills involves a man in a white coat who has been seen walking in the kitchen and the smell of cooking food that sometimes wafts through the room. During their initial visit, they found the kitchen was a disaster, a ruin of broken windows, fallen plaster, broken tables and chairs and puddles of water and debris that resulted from a leaking roof. The cafeteria had not fared much better. It was also in ruins and the team quickly retreated. Before they could do so though, several of them reported the sounds of footsteps, a door swinging shut and the smell of fresh baked bread in the air. A quick search revealed that no one else was in the building and there was certainly no one cooking anything in the kitchen. They could come up with no logical explanation for what had occurred.
Ghost researchers are always drawn to the fifth floor of the former hospital. The fifth floor consisted of two nurses’ stations, a pantry, a linen room, medicine room and two medium-sized rooms on both sides of the two nurses’ stations. One of these, Room 502, is the subject of many rumors and legends and just about every curiosity-seeker that had broken into Waverly Hills over the years wanted to see it. This is where, according to the stories, people have jumped to their deaths, have seen shapes moving in the windows and have heard disembodied voices that order trespassers to “get out”.
There is a lot of speculation as to what went on in this part of the hospital but what is believed is that mentally insane tuberculosis patients were housed on the fifth floor. This kept them far away from the rest of the patients in the hospital but still in an area where they could benefit from the fresh air and sunshine. This floor is actually centered in the middle of the hospital and the two wards, extending out from the nurses’ station, is glassed in on all sides and opens out onto a patio-type roof. The patients were isolated on either side of the nurses’ stations and they had to go to a half door at each station to get their food and medicine and to use the restroom, which was located adjacent to the station.
The legends of the fifth floor are many:
Stories say that in 1928, the head nurse in Room 502 was found dead in Room 502. She had committed suicide by hanging herself from the light fixture. She was 29 years-old at the time of her death and allegedly, unmarried and pregnant. Her depression over the situation led her to take her own life. It’s unknown how long she may have been hanging in this room before her body was discovered. And this would not be the only tragedy to occur in this room.
In 1932, another nurse who worked in Room 502 was said to have jumped from the roof patio and plunged several stories to her death. No one seems to know why she would have done this but many have speculated that she may have actually have been pushed over the edge. There are no records to indicate this but rumors continue to persist.
Waverly Hills Sanatorium
Iroquois Park
The Headless Woman of Iroquois Park
Iroquois Park is a 739-acre park in Louisville, Kentucky, It was designed by Frederick Law Cherokee and Shawnee Parks, at what were then the edges of the city. Located south of downtown, Iroquois Park was promoted as Louisville's version of Yellowstone, being incorporated in 1888.
The park is made up of a knob rising 250 feet, covered with old growth forest. The parks most prominent feature is a scenic viewpoint atop the hill, known to many as "Look Out Point".
However, as you hike Iroquois parks winding trails on a serene crisp night, you might start to notice the sound of a dog barking wildly. Then a thick fog will roll in from nowhere, partially obstructing your vision. It's then that you smell it, the stench of smoke and fire begins to rise in the air. The fog breaks momentarily and its then that you notice a figure approaching, By most accounts of her she appears dressed in early 1800s settlement clothes and as she walks through the park, you can she her holding her head in her hands as blood drips from the severed neck.
This tale has been passed for years from one generation to the next. Each telling no doubt makes it that much more gruesome. It is said that she is regularly seen particularly close to Look Out Point. Many also wonder how she came to spend eternity roaming the moonlit paths that encompass the park. Some suspect that she is the ghost of a farmers wife who settled with her husband in the area where the park is now located. As the story goes, one night while her husband was downtown on business, an Indian tribe attempted to sneak up on the homestead and ransack it. They first silenced the family dog, by slitting its throat. They then rushed into the house and caught the woman unawares. Grabbing her as she screamed, they beheaded her and left her for dead. The Indians promptly set fire to the house in an attempt to cover up what they had done.
Is the headless ghost that very woman? Is she seeking justice for her murder at the hands of the Indians? I would however not recommend taking that late night stroll through Iroquois Park. Numerous unsolved murders have taken place with its boundaries over the last several years.
Serial killer Beoria Simmons was convicted of three counts of murder and rape and four counts of kidnapping from the early 1980's. Simmons would abduct white females at gunpoint, rape them and then shoot them. An intended 16 year old victim finally escaped and identified Simmons, putting an end to his murder spree. Simmons, who is African-American, was sentenced to the electric chair for kidnapping and murdering the three women. After the murders he dumped them in Iroquois Park. The murder victims were Robin Barnes, 15, Shannon House, 29, and Nancy Bettman, 39.
In 2002, Michael Holloway, a former Pleasure Ridge Park high school basketball star was charged with kidnapping and murdering Stacy Flowers Dodson, 25 in 2001. He then dumped her body in Iroquois Park. The two reportedly met over the Internet. After wards she began to drive to Louisville to see him. He kidnapped her at gunpoint on June 30, 2001. He then drove her around in the trunk of his car before taking her to Iroquois Park, where he shot her and took her money, purse and car. On December 21st of 2002, he
received a life sentence for the murder and kidnapping.
Lynwood Montells book "Ghost Across Kentucky", is an anthology book containing personal accounts of dealings with the paranormal. In the book there is a story that recounts a encounter a man had with the headless lady while traveling through the park late one morning. So remember, when searching out legends, be cautious. It's not always what you might run into, but who...
Saint Andrew Cemetery was established in the mid eighteen hundreds on a hill overlooking the valley, which is now traversed by Saint Anthony Church Road. The cemetery once surrounded a church that was built in 1851.
The cemetery is maintained by Saint Paul Catholic Church and used as a burial gound by Saint Paul and neighboring parishes. The oldset markers reveal numerous German and French names. Birth dates going back as far as 1795 and deaths as early as 1858.
A new section with about 275 graves has been developed in recent years. Further expansion is still a matter to be studied.
Following the time-honored custom from the past, relatives and friends, weather permitting, gather at the cemetery on the first Sunday of November of each year for devotions. And to unite the past with the present, a new custom has been started. That is having a Mass on Memorial Day to honor the memory of our deceased loved ones.
When the present Saint Paul was built, those hand-quarried stones from the "Church on the Hill" were reused for the front walls and also for the altar and baptismal pool of the present day edifice. The large statues of Saint Paul and Saint Francis located in the present church once adorned the frame church on Dixie Highway, so in effect, the modern building in which we worship contains visible parts of our historic past.
So many stories have been told about the Crying Angel that it’s difficult to separate fact from fiction. Venturing into those dark woods at night, hoping for a glimpse of it, became a rite of passage for many teenagers. And let me tell you, it took nerves of steel to wait in the dark while a white-robed angel, with wings gently flapping in the breeze and tears coursing down her cheeks — strolled past, never making a sound. Along St. Andrew Church Road, and so it is easy to pay a visit to the Crying Angel, day or night. the Crying Angel is a granite statue, a carved figure mounted atop a high pedestal, in a long-abandoned family graveyard. The whole thing, pedestal and all, stood about eight feet high. And here’s the best part: The stone had specks of mica or some other shiny material embedded in it, so if you visited this old gravestone at night, and really that is the best time to do it. the beam of your flashlight caused the angel’s face to sparkle, giving the remarkable effect that the statue was actually crying. Moonlight flickering through the trees overhead also created the optical illusion that the angel’s wings were gently moving. I realize now that the much-feared Crying Angel sounds like little more than a stone carving. But oh my goodness, if you didn’t know this in advance, and you ventured into those dark woods at night, and came across “her” in your light, well, let me tell you that it was one of the scariest things you could ever see.And even when your pulse stopped racing, the angel still made people pause and think, when their flashlights illuminated the very curious carving on the base of the gravestone: “Three Generations of Remberts,” the epitaph began, innocently enough. And then there was this: “To my dear parents and loving sisters, and my noble, gentle, brilliant and brave brother, killed for defending home against the most envious lot of cutthroats that ever cursed the face of this earth.”Wow. Not your usual “Rest in Peace” epitaph, is it?