The infamous Vaudeville ghost that still puts on a show at the Strand, the mischievous, piano-playing poltergeists of the Arts Castle and the bearded ghoul that speeds at a hellish pace down North Franklin Street in a horse-drawn carriage--these are the otherworldly denizens of Delaware, Ohio. Local ghost expert John B. Ciochetty's collection of haunted lore will have skeptics and believers alike looking over their shoulders as they walk down the darkened city streets. Behind the folklore and legends, readers will find the strange but hard facts of history that have given rise to tales of the city's restless spirits. Join Ciochetty as he explores the other side of Delaware to discover its spine-tingling, haunted history. John Ciochetty has been recognized in the Marquis Who's Who in America and in the Marquis Who's Who in the World for his accomplishments as an educator on the university level, author, military officer, volunteer member of the U.S. Vice President's National Performance Review under the Clinton administration and as a judicial and law enforcement officer in Ohio and West Virginia. His first publication, Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Warfare Defense, was written during his service with the United States Army Reserves. He published another book, The Ghosts of Stuyvesant Hall and Beyond, in 2007. At the present time, Ciochetty resides in Delaware, Ohio, and is employed as an officer for the Department of Public Safety at Ohio Wesleyan University. He resides in a haunted house. Ghosts of Historic Delaware, Ohio By John B. Ciochetty The History Press Copyright © 2010 John B. Ciochetty All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-60949-063-8 Contents Acknowledgements, Introduction, 1. The Three Types of Hauntings, 2. In the Beginning, 3. The Haunting of the Mansion House, 4. The Ghostly Encounters in University Hall and Gray Chapel, 5. The Dead Come Back to Play, 6. The Murder on Edwards Athletic Field: The Haunting of Cynthia Pheil, 7. The Strand: Delaware's One and Only Haunted Movie Theater, 8. Delaware's Arts Castle, 9. Blue Limestone Park, 10. The East Side Haunting, 11. The Feline Specter of Hobby Central, 12. Delaware's Haunted Northwest Neighborhood District, 13. The Haunted Mansion in the Northwest Neighborhood District, 14. The Story of John Edwin Robinson: The Pirate of Delaware, 15. The Ghost of Perkins Observatory, 16. The Spirits of the Underground Railroad, 17. A Family's Continuing Dilemma: The Haunting on Eaton Street and Beyond, 18. Oak Grove Cemetery, 19. The Haunts of the Ohio Home Cemetery, 20. The Pennsylvania Avenue Haunting, Bibliography, About the Author, CHAPTER 1 THE THREE TYPES OF HAUNTINGS What images do you conjure up when you think of ghosts? Do you visualize a vaporous form manifesting itself as you make your way through a graveyard or walk on a road toward some destination? Do you imagine a person coming toward you who is nearly translucent? Or, do you encounter a person you know has passed away, appearing just the way you knew them when they were alive? If you answer "Yes" to any of these questions, then you have just met a ghost. The first type of haunting resembles playing back a recording of an event. The apparition or spirit you encounter talks or acts the way it did before again and again without any interaction between you and it. This event manifests itself in the present at a certain time, day or night, at a certain place and at a certain date when the episode occurred in the past under the right conditions. This type of haunting is referred to as a residual haunting. The past event produced residue that has been implanted in the area of the incident. Most of the time, such residue is contributed to a situation that spawned strong emotions. There is no element of danger to you. The second type of haunting involves entities that manifest in partial or full-bodied forms or prefer to remain invisible. These spirits can think for themselves. They may not realize at first that they have separated from their bodies, or they may truly be aware that they have passed from our physical plane of existence and do not attempt to move on due to their uncertainty of what is on the other side after making the crossover to another plane of existence. Nine chances out of ten, there will be interaction between you and them. In many cases, you may hear disembodied voices, whisperings, footsteps, music, the shattering of glass, knocks and scratching on the walls. And when you investigate these noises, the activity ceases. At the same time, you may detect the odor of perfume or cologne or the scent of cigars or cigarettes in an area where no one smokes. You may feel someone patting you on the head or tapping on your shoulders, something unseen brushing up against you or encounter rooms in a dwelling that are colder than usual (e.g., cold spots in a windowless building when it is ninety-five degrees outside). There are playful spiri