Fort Worth Museum Hauntings

In February of 1982 my folks and I went to helping my ailing uncle with his property that sat between Elmira NY and Ithaca. I was 14 at the time going on 15. Lots of wooded area at the time in the area. The small chicken farm we were on was encircled with woods. We were there for several months. One day my mom sent me to the store to get some milk and stuff. There was snow on the ground and the streets were just icy. It was bitter cold. That's kind of cold that bites at your bones and if you take in a deep breath it stung. The second way to get to the store outside of walking the winding roads was to cross through a wooded area and a couple of fields. I liked taking this route because I always saw deer and other wildlife.

I got all the way to the country store and was heading back. In the one field there was some old cut and abandoned trees scattered around and shattered limbs no one wanted to pick up. The ground was covered with snow and there were tracks about from deer, raccoons, rabbits and whatever else. Just animal tracks that cut cross the field. I stopped to lean against one fallen tree to warm my hands, blowing on them. The truck of this fallen pine was long, about 30' long. I was at the one end of it just leaning and doing all I could to warm up.

Just then the tree trunk started to rock and then roll. I jumped back and turned about. Thats when I saw. A hairy TALL, human figure. One ran was extended out and up, holding a thick limb of the tree and the creature was looking under where the trunk was.

I was scared so badly I started to urinate in my jeans which was rolling down my legs into my fleece lined boots. And I was tearing up for fear it was going to attack me. It was no more than 20 feet from me at the other end of the fallen tree trunk. It just kept that tree truck rolled back enough to see what was under there. I think he was looking for a rodent or something to eat. But he was holding it with one hand. Had he let go, the trunk would have moved back in place. I am not math wise when it comes to size and weight comparison but figure a trunk that was 20 foot long and about 4' in diameter. It was an old trunk and rotting but it was still heavy. I know I could not move it. If what I was looking at was a man in a suit looking to scaring me from crossing the field, he would have had to have sat for hours, if not days attaching hair to his skin. The wind was blowing and so I saw skin under the layers of hair. There were skin blemishes where there was no hair. I guess like pimples or warts or something like that. Its eyes were yellowish and pupils were dark, like brown. The hair varied in length around its body and head. On its face and neck it was very short and sparce. If this was someone in a suit, they did extensive research on how hair would lay throughout the body. Also his toes moved individually in the snow with tendons or veins that were moving under his skin. So, if this was someone in a suit, he was walking around barefoot with huge feet. Not wearing fake boots. I have seen people wearing monkey ape suits in movies and at Halloween. And this was NOTHING at all like that.

I am not sure if I made a noise or not but it looked at me. Then looked back under the tree. It was more curious what was under the tree. I have no idea how long I stood there just staring. Then there was a noise from across the field that startled me and when I looked there were two others along the tree line walking. They were much too far to make out details. Just two ash-brown hairy human figures walking along the tree line. Walking just like a person would but the snow was no hamperment at all for them. They never went down on all four and one even reached out and moved part of a branch that was in his/her way like a hunter or hiker would. Bears do not do that. The one close to me stopped looking under the tree, let it roll back in place and just walked off into the trees that was to the left of where I was facing. The two in the back of the field, I have no what happen to them. My focus was on the one near me. When I gain some courage (a good 2 minutes of not moving) I slowly walked up to where it was standing before, wiping the tears from my face and saw its footprints in the snow. And they were almost twice the size of mine, which at the time was size 8-9. I stood there shaking for a bit till I felt it was safe. I did not run but walked fast till I got close enough to home where I felt safe to run. Then I bolted like a bat out of hell. I remember the terror I had in my heart and praying "Please don't come back" over and over.

Mom was angry and not believing a word I said. I also got a butt tanning from my father later on. I lost my gloves and the groceries, and my pants and boots were "stained" That's all my folks cared about. I kept saying it was a "hairy caveman." No one would believe me. I lived in fear for two months after that, for fear of running into them again and I never crossed the woods and fields again. I never heard of bigfoot or sasquatch or anything like that before. Years later I learned what I saw when I was working at the library back on Long Island and found a book on Bigfoot (The Big Foot Casebook). To date I still get nightmares if I dwell on the topic too long. Being I am an artist, I have tried to draw it/them countless of times and yet my renderings never come close. The closest depiction I have ever seen to what I saw was the costumed actors on the documentary "Manbeast: Man or legend" with Peter Byrne. Just taller and a bit more wide. I remember the first time I saw the special and the whole encounter came flooding back to me and the nightmares increased. Today I volunteer at the Woodland Park Zoo here in Seattle. I spend some time with the gorillas, siamangs, colobus, patas monkeys, orangs and other simians but I can state that what I saw was none of these species.

You win. This was INSANE to read. First, I’m really sorry your parents reacted that way. If my kid came home sobbing with pissed pants, I’d at least think something happened. That’s pretty old for a spanking, too. And the nightmares that followed? Have you tried trauma therapy? If this is triggering I’m really sorry, but it sounds a lot like the most famous picture of Bigfoot, patty. The photo is still not explainable, for reasons I do not know because I haven’t looked them up… I believe in Bigfoot 100%. My mom saw it in the woods in Missouri (and ran the hell away) and sometimes when I’m out in the woods on my ranger, I hear things. The other night I heard a huge noise in the woods. It could have been a cougar or a black bear, but it sounded a lot bigger. There are Sasquatch sightings in Missouri, as well as all around America. Is working with primates kind of therapeutic for you? I hope, and I’m sorry you had that experience, though it’s very valuable to have and share with the Sasquatch community.

The Crimes of Kate Webster & Murder of Julia Thomas

June 19, 2023

In a two-storey villa in Richmond, London, a former teacher named Julia Martha Thomas lived. Having been widowed twice, she had lived on her own at 2 Mayfield Cottages in Park Road since 1873, after her second husband died. 

At the time, Julia was about 54 years old, and was described as well dressed and eccentric. She would often leave and travel around, and her friends would have no idea where she was for periods of time. These periods could last for a couple weeks or even months. 

Though Julia was not extremely wealthy, it is said she would often wear jewellery to make people believe she had money. It was also said that Julia was not the nicest employer, often making it hard for her to keep a live-in domestic maid for long periods of time. 

On January 29, 1879, a woman named Kate Webster was employed as Julia’s servant. Kate was born around 1849 in Killanne. There is not much information known about Kate’s life, but it was believed that she had claimed to have been married to a sea captain called Webster and had 4 children with him. Kate said that both her husband and all of her children had died.

Kate had also spent time in prison in Wexford in December 1864 for larceny (stealing) around the age of 15. Kate came to England in 1867, and was sentenced to 4 years of penal servitude for larceny in Liverpool in February 1868. 

It is often hard to know much about Kate’s life because it appears her reputation is one full of deceit. Kate claimed to have been released from prison in January 1872, and later became friends with a family named Porter. On April 18,1874, Kate gave birth to a son, but the father is unknown as she named 3 possible men that it could be. 

Kate moved around quite a bit and used a number of aliases, including Webb, Gibbs, Gibbons and Lawler. She was again convicted of larceny in May 1875, facing 36 charges. Again, in February 1877 she was convicted and sentenced to 12 months in prison for larceny. Her son was taken care of by her friend Sarah Crease during the times Kate was in prison. Sarah worked as a charwoman for a woman named Miss Loder.

In January 1879 Kate took over for Sarah when she became ill and while working, Miss Loder who knew Julia was looking for a servant, recommended Kate. It is believed that when Julia met Kate she did not ask any questions about her past. 

It didn’t take long for the two women to begin despising one another. Julia would often complain that Kate’s work was not satisfactory, and it got to the point where Julia would try to get friends to stay in the house with her because she did not like being alone with Kate. About one month after beginning to work for her, on February 28, Kate was fired. 

However, Kate had convinced Julia to allow her to work for a few more days until March 2. 

On March 2, Julia and Kate got into a big argument as Kate had made Julia late for her service at the local church. When Julia returned home from church around 9pm, Kate later confessed that they had fought more and Kate ended up throwing Julia from the top of the stairs to the bottom. Kate then choked her.

Julia hitting the ground made a large thud, which neighbours did hear, but they ignored it as they believed it to only be a chair falling over. Kate then began to dismember and boil and burn Julia’s remains. 

Within the next couple of days, Kate cleaned Julia’s house and clothes. She also began packing the remains into a black Gladstone bag and a corded wooden box. There was not enough room for the head or one of the feet, so Kate threw the foot into a garbage heap and buried the head under the stables, close to Julia’s house. 

On March 4, Kate went to see her old neighbours, the Porter’s, who she had not seen in 6 years. She was wearing Julia’s clothes and was carrying the black bag that she had put some of Julia’s remains in. Kate called herself “Mrs. Thomas” and told the Porters she had married, had a child and was widowed. She also told them she had been left a house in Richmond. 

Kate asked Porter and his son if they wanted to go to a pub, and while doing so she assumingly dropped the bag of remains into the River Thames, where it was never found. She also asked Robert, the son, if he would help her carry a heavy box to the station. Kate then dropped the box into the Thames. 

The next day, on March 5, the box was washed up next to the river bank. The man who found it originally believed there to be items of a burglary and when opening the box he found what appeared to be body parts wrapped in brown paper. A doctor was called immediately to determine the remains appeared to be that of a woman. 

Around this time, a foot and ankle were found in Twickenham, where Kate had thrown the foot that wouldn’t fit. The remains were all believed to be from the same person but there was no way to identify said person. The remains were burned on March 19 and there was speculation that the remains had been used for anatomical purposes. 

Kate kept living at Julia’s house, posing as her, and on March 9, she made an agreement with a man named John Church to sell Julia’s furniture to him for his pub. 

By March 18, neighbours suspicions kept raising as they realized they had not seen Julia around for almost 2 weeks. Julia’s neighbour asked who had Julia’s furniture removed from the property and they replied that it was Julia herself, indicating Kate. Kate, now knowing that her charade was up, fled back to Ireland. 

Police were called to the property and found blood stains, burned bones and a letter left by Kate that had her home address on it. A wanted notice was put up and detectives soon found Kate and her son back in Ireland. 

Kate was arrested on March 29, after the head constable in Wexford recognized her to be the same person they had arrested 14 years prior for larceny. 

Kate’s trial began on July 2, 1879 at the Central Criminal Court. The case was huge – people from all over were very interested in Kate and her crimes, with the trial attendance being crowded. Kate had actually tried to implicate John Church and her friend Porter, though both men had solid alibis. 

She pleaded not guilty, and the defence argued she could not be capable of murder due to her having a young son. After only an hour and 15 minutes of deliberation the jury decided that Kate was guilty of murder and it had been premeditated. Kate actually pleaded and said she was pregnant, trying to avoid the death penalty. 

Kate was taken in for an examination to determine if she truly was pregnant, and it was said that she was not “quick with child” though that meant she could still be pregnant. 

Right before she was executed, Kate made a statement stating that the father of her child was the one who participated in the murder of Julia and was the reason she had lived a life of crime to begin with. On July 28, the night before her execution, she recanted the statement, taking responsibility, and also stating that John Church, Porter and her child’s father were not to blame. 

On July 29, 1879, Kate Webster was hanged at 9am at Wandsworth Prison. She was buried in an unmarked grave in one of the prison’s yards. The crowd waiting at her execution cheered when a black flag was raised over the prison, meaning the execution had gone through. 

Julia’s property was auctioned off, the day after Kate had been executed. John Church managed to still get Julia’s furniture, as well as the knife that she had been dismembered with. Julia’s house was unoccupied until 1897, and even then, servants did not really want to work there given the history. 

There have been folktales of a “ghostly nun” that has been seen over the place where Julia is buried. 

In 1952, Sir David Attenborough and his wife Jane bought a house by the Mayfield Cottages and the Hole in the Wall pub. The pub had closed in 2007, but was going to be redeveloped. On October 22, 2010, workmen doing an excavation at the rear of the old pub uncovered a woman’s skull. 

It had been buried underneath the foundations and was immediately believed to be the skull of Julia Thomas as her head was never found. Carbon dating estimated the skull to be from sometime between 1650 and 1880, though it was on top of a layer of Victorian tiles, suggesting it was from the end of this estimate. 

The skull had fractures that matched with someone being thrown down stairs, and also had low collagen levels, possibly from being boiled. In July 2011, it was confirmed that it was the skull of Julia Thomas, 132 years after she had been murdered. 

De Loys’ Ape This creature was killed on the Venezuela/Columbia border in 1917 by Francois De Loys and his party.  This creature appears to be a very man-like ape.  It has never been identified as a known species.  De Loys group was attack by these creatures and they shot and killed one of them.  The creature was about 5 ft tall and had a very human like appearance and movements.  The size and shape of the creatures forehead show that it isn’t even closely related to known primates of South America.    Could this creature be the missing link between man and ape ?  Is this creature or one of it’s relatives responsible for the bigfoot/yeti sightings ?

Grave of Dr. Timothy Clark Smith

In New Haven, Vermont lies a unique grave. Because of the prevalence of accidental burials in the 1700s & 1800s, many people used preventative measures such as bells should someone find themselves buried alive. Dr. Smith decided that wasn’t enough, and deemed that a window be installed on his grave in the event of his death. When he did eventually die, a secret vault for his wife was also built under his grave. Today the window is blurry with condensation and mold, but if a person shines a flashlight down into the grave at night, the body is still visible. Tales of hauntings also follow this grave, and the surrounding cemetery. People have made reports of an eerie green light within the grave at night and peering into the window and seeing a living face staring back at them. An old urban legend also says if you knock upon the window three times, you will hear screams and the doctor himself will appear.

Photos by J.W. Ocker

Cattle thief hanged in effigy, Custer County, Montana, USA, 1939 - by Arthur Rothstein (1915 - 1985), American

This picture belongs to Jewel, "I have written in the past concerning the image of my 9-yr old twin's caught w/ the digi cam. This is no joke and there has been no tampering with the photo. The spooky thing is...she swear's she was alone when this image was captured and I for one believe her because My Camera is off limit's and I know who’s in my house. The camera is new and there's no way she would use it around someone. We have tried to figure out who the image is...guess what, were still trying. My family and I are all really spooked. It's just really phenomenal that it's real & we know it's real because when thing's happen none of us are the cause. TV's come on by themselves, thing's move & there is no one near them to touch them."

Source

The Puzzling Case of Mateusz Kawecki

January 02, 2023

Mateusz Kawecki was a 30 year old man from Poland who had been working in Hanover, Germany as a construction worker. He lived with his father who also worked in Hanover. 

On March 28, 2018, Mateusz went to Poland to see his pregnant fiancé, who he was in a long distance relationship with at the time. His fiancé was about to give birth, and lived in a village called Lipia Góra, Poland. Mateusz began driving his 1998 BMW 525 around 11:30 pm to make it to the village. He was supposed to arrive there between 8-9 am the next morning, March 29. Mateusz never made it. 

Mateusz’s father spoke to him on March 29, around 10:30 am, and Mateusz told his father there was really bad traffic jams on his route and he was currently stuck in Szzecin at the time, which is a town on the Polish-German border. Mateusz had about 133 miles to go before he would reach Lipia Góra. Around this time Mateusz sent his fiancé a text message saying he would arrive in about 2 more hours. 

However, after not hearing from him, and several missed phone calls, his fiancé became worried and tried to contact Mateusz’s sister, Katarzyna Piotrkowicz around 5 pm, but could not get a hold of her either. 

Later in the evening Mateusz’s mom went to the police to let them know no one had any contact with her son for quite some time, but the police discouraged her from filing a missing persons report, claiming it was too early to do so. 

A few more days went by and in early April 2018, Mateusz’s family officially reported him as a missing person in Germany and Poland. The Germany police refused to investigate, claiming the Polish police were on the case. His family asked Polish police if they could locate Mateusz’s cellphone, but they were unable to do so as his sim card was German. It was also said that his cellphone had been on for a couple of days after he stopped having contact. 

The German police eventually began investigating but could not locate the cellphone either, as Mateusz had gone missing in Poland. Polish police later said that Mateusz’s phone was never connected to any networks so no one was sure how he had spoken to his father earlier on March 29.

Katarzyna, Mateusz’s sister, said that officials believed her brother had never crossed the German-Polish border as CCTV monitoring at the border showed Mateusz had never entered Poland. Mateusz’s family became frustrated with police efforts, and began their own search, including putting up posters with Mateusz’s picture around. The family spoke on TV several times in Germany and Poland claiming the police were not doing enough. 

However, the case took a strange turn on September 12, 2018, almost 6 months after the last known contact from Mateusz, when a neighbour went to Mateusz’s mothers house to ask about her barn, claiming that a horrible smell was coming from their barn since July and neighbours were starting to complain. 

The neighbour asked if he could check the barn and she agreed. Half of the barn was walled off, which created a room. There was an attic level on top of the room. The neighbour climbed up and saw a pile of clothes in the attic space. When the neighbour checked more thoroughly he found a severed head and torso. The remains were too decomposed to be identified. 

It was discovered that there were two rope nooses hanging from the roof and a backpack on the floor which was later identified as belonging to Mateusz. DNA evidence eventually determined that the remains were indeed that of Mateusz Kawecki. Some of his teeth had been knocked out and stuck to his clothes which had bloody patches on them. 

Inside the backpack were a Polish water bottle with cigarette butts inside and an orange juice box. Mateusz’s family claimed he never drank orange juice. A cellphone was also found in the backpack and showed there had been one call made to Mateusz’s uncle on March 30, 2018, but it appeared to be an accidental call as it lasted for less than a second and never actually went through. 

There was no DNA of another person found on any of Mateusz’s items. The police believed that this was a suicide and refused to investigate further, despite the families pleas. It was believed that Mateusz had planned his death and there was no evidence of foul play. 

Four days after Mateusz’s body was found, his family found his shoe in the barn with his detached foot still inside. This determined that the police hadn’t even searched the barn properly according to his family. 

Prosecutors gathered lots of evidence, including DNA, and an analysis of Mateusz’s cellphone. German police got security camera footage and searched Mateusz’s apartment in Hanover. All of this evidence was reviewed by experts in Warsaw. 

Prosecutors believe that Mateusz lied to his family on the day he disappeared. He had not been in Szczecin when he’d spoken to his father and was not driving at the time the phone call happened. According to them, Mateusz had still been in Germany according to the receipts found with his belongings. 

It is believed that Mateusz took a train to the German border, in Frankfurt an der Oder and walked over a bridge to the Polish town of Slubice about 24 hours after telling his family he was in Poland. Prosecutors believe he checked into a hotel in Slubice with another person. 

Mateusz then took a train to Warsaw the next day, followed by a bus to Zamość, which is the largest town close to his home village, Hutków. He arrived in Zamość around midnight, but it is unknown how he got to Hutków. 

Mateusz’s car had never been found despite a search for it, and there was never any evidence found indicating it had been bought or driven by a new owner. They keys to his BMW were also never found, but his wallet was in the backpack that was found in the barn. 

The attic where the body was found was visible from the ground, so it didn’t make sense that Mateusz had been there for months without his family noticing. Mateusz’s family also said that they had used the barn in the summer of 2018. 

Mateusz’s cousin, Edyta Dabska claimed the family does not think Mateusz was hanging in the barn because no one had seen him. 

To this day it is unknown how Mateusz got to the barn from Zamość and if he was in the barn for months how would his family not notice? There are so many unanswered questions in this case and hopefully someday it will make more sense. 

Woman says she was kidnapped by gnomes and goblins for nearly a week

Speaking to a Nicaraguan TV station Canal 10, the woman, named as Jasmina, said that as a kid, she had been playing outside her family home in Monte Oscuro, west Nicaragua, when she was approached by gnomes.

Jasmina insists that they convinced her to go with them to a hillside cave where she was holed up by her captors for five days and six nights.

She said: "They appeared one day when I was playing and they took me away."

cdn.jwplayer.com

Mysterious 'evil goblins' capture woman and keep her in a cave for five days and six nights

Mysterious 'evil goblins' capture woman and keep her in a cave for five days and six nights

disarticulation of the four fingers and metacarpals.

Jean-Baptiste Léveillé, from Précis iconographique de médecine opératoire (A text book of operative surgery), by Claude Bernard & Charles Huette, Paris, 1848.

(Source: archive.org)