Creepy Ghost Stories From New York City (Part 1)

One of the most interesting buildings in Manhattan is certainly a landmark, though it doesn’t come up as often as many of the others. Possibly because this building is a landmark not for its height, or its grandeur, but because of the darkness that surrounds it. Built between 1880 and 1884, the Dakota started off as a building alone in what was, at the time, an empty area of the island of Manhattan.

Years after John Lennon was shot dead in front of his Central Park West apartment building, the Dakota, his widow Yoko Ono saw his ghost sitting at his white piano. She claims he turned to her and said, “Don’t be afraid. I am still with you.”

Even before his death, John Lennon claimed to have his own paranormal experiences in the Dakota. Lennon told tales of seeing a spirit he called The Crying Lady walking the halls of the building. The going theory is that Lennon, and others who have seen this Crying Lady, are seeing the ghost of Elise Vesley, who managed the Dakota through the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. Elise, who was way into the paranormal herself, believed that she had psychokinetic powers and was a major player on the Vedantist movement.

A mysterious little girl has also been spotted playing with a ball. The Young Girl has been a resident of the Dakota for ages. First seen by painters, it is reported that the Young Girl wears a yellow taffeta dress that nearly matches her blonde hair, white stockings, and black leather shoes with silver buckling. She bounces a red ball down the halls and often is seen entering or exiting closets. When the painters first saw The Young Girl, she looked at them and proclaimed “It’s my birthday” before disappearing down a hall. Not long after, one of the painters died when he fell off a scaffolding and down a stairwell. Everyone decided to blame The Young Girl.

The most frightening possible spirit at the Dakota is the one with the most ominous name – The Phantom of the Dakota. Sometimes called the Mad Slasher, this possible spirit never hurt anyone, though not for lack of trying. It started when people noticed that someone was vandalizing the newly-installed elevators. The elevators were being attacked with what seemed to be a knife – giant slashes ran through the paneled walls too high to have been done by a child and so deep that whoever was doing it had to be very strong. Every week, the panels would be replaced, only to be slashed up a few days later.

Kreischer Mansion is a historic home located at Charleston, Staten Island, New York. Built by Bavarian immigrant Balthasar Kreischer for his son, Edward, in 1885. After living, seemingly happily, in the house for nine years, Edward shot himself. Reports vary as to the cause, but either Edward had fought with his brother, Charles, or he was left distraught after the Kreischers’ brick factory burned to the ground.

Edward’s ghost is reportedly still hovering around to this day. Others say that his widow, left alone in the wake of Edward’s suicide, is the one haunting the premises, searching for her husband. Subsequent residents said they experienced a series of hauntings following the Kreischer deaths, with creepy spirits including both Kreischer sons, a German cook, and some small children who were locked in closets.

As if the mansion’s reputation wasn’t bleak enough, one of the house’s caretakers used it to commit a grotesque murder. In April 2005, Joseph “Joe Black” Young was hired by the Bonnano family to take out Robert McKelvey, who owed money to Bonnano patriarch Gino Galestro.

Joe Black, accompanied by three other men, managed to get McKelvey into the mansion, where he stabbed the unsuspecting man with a knife. This became murder attempt number one, because McKelvey didn’t die. Instead, the bleeding man bolted for the door. The other men grabbed him, and attempted to strangle him; this, too, was unsuccessful. It took all four of the men to eventually drown McKelvey in a shallow pool in the front yard. The killers then took the body to the basement, cut it into small pieces, and disposed of each piece—one at a time—in the coal-burning furnace.

Today the Kreischer Mansion is back on the market and the ghost stories continue. With any luck the next tenants will have better luck than the last century’s worth of ill-fated inhabitants.

This famed “Garden Cemetery” is admired for its beautiful grounds and spectacular mausoleums, many designed by New York’s most famous architects. Established in 1863, it is the final resting place of 300,000, including Duke Ellington, Fiorello LaGuardia, Miles Davis, and Celia Cruz.

One specter that has been seen by multiple people is that of an unknown man with a flashlight who appears to be crazed and yelling, but no one has ever heard what he’s saying. They only see him.

Another spooky legend is that of 5-year-old Johnny Morehouse, who fell into a canal and froze to death while his dog fought wildly to save him. After Johnny was buried, the dog laid down at his grave and wouldn’t leave. It soon died of starvation and sadness, but now the two are reunited and can be seen roaming around the cemetery at night. In 1861 a commemorative stone was even made to honor this devotion between the boy and his dog. Since then, it’s become common practice for people to leave toys and candy offerings on the stone.

Additionally, a mysterious blonde girl dressed in jeans and white tennis shoes has been seen sitting on a stone in the cemetery. Sometimes she radiates an eerie blue light, while other times she looks so solid that the passersby she talks to don’t realize she isn’t a real person.

Also worth noting, many of the RMS Titanic’s passengers were laid to rest at Woodlawn and there is a commemorative tour available to the public.

A New York City outpost of clothing store COS has a 200-year-old well tucked into its men’s department. The structure is a remnant of the building’s 18th-century past … and it’s where a woman’s strangled body was discovered in 1799.

Elma Sands lived in a boardinghouse at 208 Greenwich Street, run by Catherine and Elias Ring. In December 1799 there were six other people living in the house, among them Levi Weeks, a carpenter who shared a room with his apprentice. During his stay at the boardinghouse Levi Weeks was noticed paying attention to both Hope Sands and Margaret Clark, but he was also seen entering Elma Sands’s room late at night. On Sunday, December 22, 1799, the last the last day Elma was seen alive, she told Hope Sands that she and Levi Weeks planned to secretly marry that night.

The evening of December 22, Elma planned to go out with Levi and Mrs. Ring helped her dress. Though Mrs. Ring did not see them leave, she heard the door shut at around 8:00 and believed that Elma and Levi had left together. At 10:00 Levi returned to the boarding house. He expressed surprise that Elma was out so late alone and denied that she had left with him that evening.

Eleven days later, some boys playing near the Manhattan Well at the intersection of Greene and Spring Streets, found a ladies muff floating in the well. It was identified as a muff Elma borrowed from a neighbor the night she went out. The well was probed and the body of a young woman was pulled out. The body was identified as Elma Sands. A coroner’s inquest was held and an autopsy performed, primarily to determine whether Elma was pregnant— she was not. The jury ruled that Elma was murdered and indicted Levi Weeks.

Legend has it that the well is haunted. Angela Serratore, deputy Web editor for Lapham’s Quarterly, wrote that there were of couple of ghost stories of “Elma’s slim figure haunting the streets of Soho, condemned for all eternity to reside at the bottom of the well as a reminder to girls not to sneak out with their sweethearts in the middle of the night.”