Chicago UFO

These photographs were sent to me over ten years ago along with an explanation of what happened:

"I'm always looking for an excuse to take photos, even if it means going out in my slippers at 1:30 in the morning during a Chicago snowstorm. The only source of light was from the poll in our back alley way, and I used it to capture the snow as it fell. Nothing out of the ordinary appeared as I snapped each one, hoping to get the perfect image.

Returning indoors, I began to scroll through my snowy prints, overlooking the ones featuring the light poll (they were terrible). Right before I shut the camera off, a strange bell shape near the light caught my eye. At first I thought it was another light fixture hanging from the cable wires, but it moved around as I looked back on the other photographs. That's when I realized it was a UFO! I couldn't believe that I had missed it, or that I was prompted to take as many images as I had. Despite the near foggy sky, my camera (a Nikon D3100 with 35mm lens) caught it. And that's what happened." 

What do you think? Earthly, extraterrestrial or simply a trick of the light? 

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The Thing In the Apple Tree

 Originally posted in 2013:

 It was approximately two in the afternoon. Since my sister and father worked nights and generally didn’t wake before 3 PM my mother was the only one around. At the time in question she was on her laptop in a chair facing the front window of the living room overlooking the old apple tree in their front yard. At some point she looked up from her computer and was sort of just spacing out when something in the apple tree suddenly caught her eye. There, up in the middle branches, sat a cat-sized humanoid dressed in a black-and-white, horizontally striped t-shirt. According to my mom the being’s features were somewhere between that of a monkey and your stereotypical garden gnome, but that the creature disappeared so quickly once spotted that any further details were lost. As for the disappearing act itself, my mother says she got the sense that the being chose to do so specifically because she had spotted it, like they were startled to realize that they weren’t invisible to her. However, my mother could also tell that the being, despite disappearing, hadn’t truly gone away. Whatever it was could still be observed moving about the tree by following the considerable pressure they were placing on the bows as they jumped from limb to limb. This she watched for a bit until finally movement in the tree ceased, implying the creature had finally moved on for real. 

Humanoids in miniature have been linked to a whole mess of strange phenomena, from fairy folk and their kin (gnomes, leprechauns, sprites and what have you) to extraterrestrials (such as the so-called "hairy dwarfs"). It could've been any of these, or it could've been none of these. It could've been something we haven't even begun to speculate on or it could've been a trick of the light. Unless the entity in question makes itself known again we will probably never know and hell, even if it does make itself known again we may still be no closer to knowing just what exactly it was my mother saw hanging out in the apple tree that day.

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UFO Over Excelsior Springs

          It was the middle of the day, the sun was shining bright and not a single cloud hung in the skies over Excelsior Springs MO as my mother sat relaxing on the front porch of my grandparents’ home. At one point during this down time she absently looked up towards the sky, only to discover that the day wasn't quite as clear as it first appeared. There, up in the sky, making its way slowly from east to west, was what could best be described as a giant flying metallic insect. A cylindrical craft with six "legs", three to a side just like an insect. She couldn't say for sure how close the craft was but it was definitely close enough to make out just how abnormal it really was. Her first thought was that this was some kind of avant-garde zeppelin heading to an air show, but she could tell by the extremely reflective surface that whatever this thing was it was completely metal in construction (which, you know, blimps aren't). But above and beyond its bizarre appearance, the thing that really struck my mother was the silence. Not so much as the distant buzz of an engine could be heard as this silent voyager made its way across the Missouri sky.

Mom's depiction of the incident.

Tell me, what do you make of this? Alien craft or just alien-looking? This is definitely an unusual one in terms of appearance, and I’m having a hard time remembering if I’ve ever come across another sighting like it in UFO literature.

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The Orb

If I were to compile a list of the ten strangest things to happen to people I know the following would definitely be near the top of said list. It's one of those encounters that's eerie no matter the potential explanation.

It early June 2012 and my sister Hilary was hanging out with her best friend (who we’ll call Katie) when the subject of the Midnight Man* came up. For those not in the know, the Midnight Man is one of many paranormal games/rituals popularized (or more likely invented) by the internet and the once popular creepypasta genre (spooky internet urban legends). The two had been toying for quite some time with the idea of braving the notorious horror game and were finally feeling up to the task. My sister, however, wanted to first make sure both girls were properly protected. And the best way to do this? Jesus t-shirts, of course. Stored away in our parents' basement. Whatever works for you, right?

So down into the basement the two went. However, before they could get to the bottom of the stairs my sister caught something peculiar out of the corner of her eye. At first she assumed it was an eye sparkle (you know, those glittery illusions that sometimes appear when you get up too quickly) but out of curiosity turned her head anyways to investigate. And there it was, as real as you or I: An orb. A blue, baseball sized ball of light, glowing brightly yet casting no light onto surrounding objects. My sister watched in awe as it floated away from the basement's eastern wall before promptly moving back towards that same wall and disappearing. Unfortunately Katie’s attention was elsewhere at the moment and by the time my sister was able to gather her wits the orb had already vanished. Needless to say, after that my sister was too spooked to proceed with the Midnight Man.

So, what the hell did my sister see?

Over the years Hilary and I have discussed this event quite a few times and as such have developed several theories. Our first theory is the most obvious, that in the mere act of preparing to play a game that involves the invoking of dubious entities my sister and her friend actually managed to stir something up. Perhaps it was a warning, or just a wandering ghost taken in by the two girls' openness to the supernatural. Maybe it was the Midnight Man himself, getting ready for game night.

Another theory is that my sister was visited by the ghost of a recently deceased great aunt (a nun no less). But as my sister hardly knew her it seems unlikely that the nun's spirit would reveal itself to her, unless you tie it in with our first theory.

Theory #3 is that this was a case of ball lightning. Considering that the air conditioner (a major electricity guzzler) is stationed right outside where Hilary saw this orb, combined with the old wiring in our parents’ house, it does seem plausible that this was some kind of natural, though abnormal, electrical phenomenon witnessed at a very coincidental time. This is the theory my sister most subscribes to. As an aside however  I will note that 1) the object did not behave in the destructive way typically associated with ball lightning 2) surely even ball lightning would illuminate the surrounding area which, again, this did not and 3) I have put an EMF reader up to both that air conditioner and the area where Hilary saw the orb and got absolutely no spikes. Don’t know what the weather was like that night though. Maybe the air was exceptionally charged? Hmmm…

Several other ideas we’ve tossed around are poltergeist activity (which I’ll get into at a later date) or fairies (which I will also cover at a later date).

*For those unaware, here’s how you play The Midnight Man (also known as The Midnight Game). First off, this is traditionally a single player game. Two could play but they would each need to go through the entire process separately in order for everything to work. Next, gather a candle, a lighter, a piece of paper, something to write with, a pin, salt and the location of a closed wooden door within the house. A little before midnight you will write your full name (first, middle, last) on the paper, then use the pin to prick your finger. Squeeze until a drop of blood appears and use this blood to dot the paper. After this is done go ahead and turn off all the lights. Go to the closed wooden door and lay down your paper with the candle on top. Now light the candle. Next, knock on the door 22 times, making sure that the final knock happens precisely at midnight. Open the door, blow out the candle, close the door and then relight said candle. The game has begun. With candle in hand and your matches and salt nearby begin to move about the house. You must keep moving so The Midnight Man can’t find you, and keep doing so until the game ends at 3:33 AM. If your candle goes out you must relight it within ten seconds or else surround yourself in a protective circle of salt and remain there for the duration of the game. At 3:33 AM the game is over and you may move out of the circle and turn the lights back on. Check out Youtuber Brittney Crabb to see the game in action and read more about legends surrounding the Midnight Man here on The Ghost In My Machine. Be sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram!

Where Hilary saw the orb.

Local Legends: Stull KS

 

The gateway to Hell. A little place so foul that the pope himself refuses to fly over it. Such is the reputation of the infamous Stull, KS. The legends surrounding this tiny, unincorporated town are many but the basic premise goes that a church built in the cemetery was either constructed over or beside one of the seven entrances to Hell, and that anyone who ventured past the threshold of this entrance was never heard from again. Another popular story would have it that Satan himself visits the cemetery every Halloween (or Spring Equinox, in some versions) to visit the grave of his witch wife. 

But that’s not all. Back when the church (which was razed in 2002) was still standing, rumors persisted that no rain would fall inside the crumbling remains (despite a collapsed roof), and furthermore that any glass bottles thrown against the walls of the church would not break. Allegedly there was also an old pine (which had grown through and split a gravestone) that was the site of witch hangings, and that all of this trouble can be traced back to the time when a stable hand stabbed the town's mayor to death (in a barn that eventually became the location of the church). 

And for good measure there are whisperings of Satanic and other dubious occult practices transpiring in the cemetery.

But is any of it true?

For being the powerhouse legend that it is, the true history of Stull is actually quite unremarkable. Settled in 1856 by a handful of families and named for the town’s first and only postmaster (Sylvester Stull), the only glitch in its otherwise mundane history is two slightly peculiar deaths. In one, a boy was burned to death by his father in an accident, and in the other a man went missing only to turn up later hanging from a tree. There is, however, no known incident involving a stable boy and the mayor. 

So how did these tales of Satanic intrigue spring forth? One source claims that back in the 1950s a professor at the nearby University of Kansas started rumors of a hellish gateway in Stull as a social experiment, but his story never really gained much traction until it was picked up by the student newspaper sometime in the 1970s. I can't find any more information about this alleged social experiment, but the student paper (The University Daily Kansan) does seem to be the generally agreed upon source of the legend via an article from the 1970s. After the Daily Kansan article Stull suddenly became an attraction, and kids would make a Friday night of going out to the cemetery to try and encounter the otherworldly, which in turn led to a lot of vandalism, which eventually led to the incredibly tight security the cemetery experiences today. And it is tight. If you go there you are pretty much guaranteed a run in with law enforcement (and I speak from experience). It's understandable though. After all, many of Stull's residents have relatives buried in that cemetery and they're tired of people constantly lumbering through, messing the place up and disrespecting the dead.

I have been to Stull on three occasions. First time around the cemetery was locked so all we could do was stand outside the fence but on my second visit I was surprised to see the gates open and my friends and I were actually able to drive in. However, we didn't get to see much as a cop drove up almost as soon as we made it in. Lucky for us we had decided against getting out of the car and were thus able to simply leave without having to actually deal with the police, but still...like I said, the place is very secure. Third time, which was in 2021, I was trying to get a picture of the cemetery for Instagram but there were absolutely no lights on in the cemetery, making it pointless to try even try and photograph the place. As for the otherworldly, none of us encountered anything even the slightest bit paranormal on any of these trips. It didn't even have the air of a place that might be haunted. The cemetery seems to be just that, a cemetery. Not a portal to hell, not Mephistopheles' old stomping grounds. Nothing. Just a small graveyard in a small town.

But if you’re still curious, it's located 10 miles west of Lawrence and 13 miles east of Topeka. We took Highway 40, which turns into N 1600 Rd/Stull Rd. Take that until you get to E 250 Rd and make a left. Stull should be around there somewhere (directions only valid if coming from the KC metropolitan area).  Oh, and while rumors of the Pope refusing to fly over the area or The Cure canceling a show in nearby Lawrence KS because of its proximity to Stull are both false, it is true that Ariana Grande claimed in an interview with "Complex Magazine" that she was attacked by demons after attempting to visit the cemetery.

Photo of Stull taken before security ran us off.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stull,_Kansas

Unfortunately my other source for this article no longer exists, but here are some other interesting sources for those invested in the legend:

https://www.theculturecrush.com/stull
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2488962/Ariana-Grande-encounters-demons-visit-infamous-cemetery.html (Ariana Grande's experience with Stull)