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Subject: Unsolved Mysteries

Written By: Tam on 06/08/06 at 2:06 pm

When the show first aired, I was completely intrigued.
What are some episodes that 'Freaked' you out or made you think?

Here's one from Texas - reminds me of the movie "Poltergeist"

http://www.unsolved.com/0229-Blackhope.html

For the families who bought new houses in a subdivision near Houston, Texas, life in their dream homes quickly turned into a nightmare. When one couple began to dig a swimming pool, they unearthed two bodies and made the horrifying discovery that their homes rested atop an old African-American burial ground. Then frightening, unexplainable things began to occur.

Sam and Judith Haney bought their dream home in the upscale subdivision of Newport outside of Houston, Texas, in 1982. A year later, when they began to excavate a site for a pool, an old man, a stranger, knocked on their door and told them human remains were buried in their backyard. He pointed out a spot where he claimed two graves had been, and gave the Haneys the names of some black families living nearby who could confirm his story. Digging with a backhoe where the old man had indicated, the contractor unearthed two bodies, a man and a woman, interred in crude wooden coffins. Horrified, the Haneys were determined to find out who these people were and to give them a dignified burial.

Their search led them to an elderly black man named Jasper Norton who, as a youth, had worked as a gravedigger. Norton told the Haneys that their home and surrounding houses were built on top of an old cemetery called Black Hope, and that the deceased were mostly former slaves. The last burial had been in 1939, and as many as 60 people had been interred there in pauper's graves. Norton identified the two people buried in the Haney's backyard as Betty and Charlie Thomas, former slaves who had died during the thirties. Unable to locate any living relatives of the Thomas', and plagued with guilt for desecrating their graves, Sam and Judith made the extraordinary decision to rebury their remains in their own backyard, and resolved to live peacefully, side by side with Charlie and Betty. But, according to the Haneys, what would follow was anything but peaceful.

Shortly after they reburied the Thomas', the Haneys began to experience the unexplainable. Disembodied voices disturbed their sleep, and one night Judith was awakened when an unplugged clock in the bedroom began shooting sparks and giving off an eerie glow. The clock was only the beginning. One evening when Sam was working a night shift, Judith heard their sliding glass door open and assumed Sam had forgotten something. "What're you doing?" she heard a voice ask. But when she checked, there was nobody there and the door was locked. The next morning, Judith couldn't find her red shoes. When she finally located them, they were outside, sitting side by side on top of Betty Thomas' grave. Even more unsettling, the Haneys realized the date was Betty Thomas' birthday.

As the disturbing occurrences continued, the Haneys came to feel that something was trying to drive them from their home. They were not alone. A dozen neighbors whose houses were built on top of the abandoned cemetery reported lights, televisions, and water faucets turning on and off for no apparent reason. Many claimed to hear unearthly sounds and some even saw supernatural apparitions. And there seemed to be an increasing maliciousness to the bizarre events. Could the spirits of the Black Hope cemetery, angry at the desecration of their graves, be seeking vengeance?

Ben and Jean Williams thought so. They lived across the street from the Haneys with their young granddaughter, Carli, in the home they had built in 1980, and from the beginning nothing about the house had felt right. The house retained a clammy chill year round, and Jean and Carli couldn't shake the persistent feeling they were being watched. Toilets flushed by themselves and the garage door and household appliances seemed to operate on their own. Rectangular sinkholes opened up in the yard, and no matter how well the Williams filled them in, they reappeared within a few days, and Jean, who had always had a green thumb, couldn't get any new plants to live on the property, no matter what she did. The Williams also noticed strange markings on an old oak tree by the sinkholes, an arrow pointed downward with two horizontal slash marks beneath it. When a long time resident of the area told them he had marked the tree as a way to identify where his two sisters were buried, the Williams' were devastated.

Soon menacing presences began to invade the house. Jean and Carli were awakend from an afternoon nap by phantom footsteps in the hall, and Ben returned home from work one evening to find a threatening apparition hovering over his sleeping wife. Worse yet, six members of the Williams' extended family were stricken with deadly cancers, with three of them dying within a year.

The Haney's lives were also unraveling. Plagued with health problems and frightened of remaining in their house, Sam and Judith decided to fight back. They sued the developer for not disclosing that their home was built over a cemetery and were awarded $142,000 by a jury. However, the judge ruled on legal grounds that the developers were not liable and reversed the decision, ordering the Haneys to pay $50,000 in court costs. Exhausted and broke, the Haneys filed bankruptcy and abandoned their home.

The Williams' also explored legal recourse, but say they were told that without definitive proof of a cemetery on their property, nothing could be done. It was then that Jean made a decision she will forever regret. Desperate to prove their home was built on a cemetery, Jean began digging in one of the sinkholes beneath the oak, sure she would find a body to prove their case. When she became too exhausted to dig any longer, her daughter, Tina, took over. After digging for about a half-hour, Tina collapsed. Two days later she died, at thirty, of a massive heart attack.

Convinced their desecration of a grave had precipitated their daughter's death, Ben and Jean Williams' resolved to leave no matter what it cost them. They escaped to Montana and later moved back to Texas. Today both the Haney and Williams families are living happy, productive lives, no longer plagued by the mysterious noises, horrific apparitions and heart-breaking tragedies that marked their years in Newport. Subsequent owners of the homes in the area say they have noticed no unusual occurrences---and are completely content to live in such a lovely neighborhood. Was the "Black Hope Curse" real or imagined? It may remain an unsolved mystery.

Subject: Re: Unsolved Mysteries

Written By: quirky_cat_girl on 06/08/06 at 7:26 pm

that show always scared me when I was young...it was that eerie music that they played for the theme song that did it. I would always flip through the channel real fast to skip past it.  I like to watch re-runs of it every once in awhile...but it still creeps me out.

Subject: Re: Unsolved Mysteries

Written By: Tam on 06/09/06 at 12:01 am


that show always scared me when I was young...it was that eerie music that they played for the theme song that did it. I would always flip through the channel real fast to skip past it.  I like to watch re-runs of it every once in awhile...but it still creeps me out.


The music creeped me out too - but I watched like a feind. The episodes where they were looking for missing people or murderers I didn't bother watching - didn't interest me as much (which is sad I know) but I loved each and every one of the ghost and paranormal episodes!!!

I'll find more and post them as I go.

Subject: Re: Unsolved Mysteries

Written By: deadrockstar on 06/09/06 at 12:08 am

My favorite was the UFO episode about the guys on the fishing trip, and they see the big orb in the sky with a face. :o

Subject: Re: Unsolved Mysteries

Written By: whistledog on 06/10/06 at 3:53 am

Unsolved Mysteries was an awesome show.  The paranormal stories used to spook me out and I loved it.  There was one that showcased the story of a ghost.  This man took a picture of his wife, and upon development of the picture, you could faintly see some garbled words in smoke across the picture  :o

Subject: Re: Unsolved Mysteries

Written By: Dagwood on 06/10/06 at 9:57 am

Just hearing the theme music for that show creeps me out.  I loved it, though.

Subject: Re: Unsolved Mysteries

Written By: JohnDenver on 06/10/06 at 1:55 pm

Woah... That story is indeed creepy. It sounds like one I heard about a kid who was afraid to go into a certain room of his house because he would have things thrown at him (once a bucket full of water dumped on his head... The bucket was empty before...).

Subject: Re: Unsolved Mysteries

Written By: Echo Nomad on 06/11/06 at 3:34 pm

Actually I believe that case was made into a TV Movie. There was one scene in particular that did creep me.

As for the show itself, I loved watching it. Mainly I was interested in the Paranormal\Treasure cases. 

Subject: Re: Unsolved Mysteries

Written By: wsmith4 on 06/15/06 at 10:08 am

i always liked the UFO stories.

Subject: Re: Unsolved Mysteries

Written By: Tam on 06/20/06 at 4:11 pm

New One:

The Baker Hotel was always at cross purposes with time.
It opened at a point when time seemed to stand still, just before it jerked backwards. T.B. Baker threw open the doors of his 14 story, 450 room pleasure palace two weeks after Black Friday, the stock market crash in October, 1929.
But then, for the next 40 years or so, the hotel was ahead of its time.

The Baker Hotel was glamorous, indeed. Baker, a hotel entrepreneur, designed it in the Spanish Renaissance style after the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs, Ark., another Southern city, like Mineral Wells, renowned for the curative abilities of its water. It was only the second hotel in the United States to have its own swimming pool.

Now, even in disrepair, the regal digs evoke wonder. Even cloaked in suffocating heat during a recent visit, standing in the wasted lobby it was easy to imagine Will Rogers shuffling up to the check-in desk, Gen. John J. Pershing marching down the stairs, or Marlene Dietrich sashaying in the grand entrance. They were just a few of the rich and famous who came here to

Subject: Re: Unsolved Mysteries

Written By: twistedwarp on 07/08/06 at 1:17 pm

yEAH I remember  that .. I always use to hate it when the show ended beacuase they  put that eerie music. plus that guys voice made it worst.

Subject: Re: Unsolved Mysteries

Written By: dj454s on 07/15/06 at 7:59 pm


Just hearing the theme music for that show creeps me out.  I loved it, though.


How about Robert Stack's voice! I like that show a lot. The early theme music clips were creepy!

Subject: Re: Unsolved Mysteries

Written By: Dagwood on 07/16/06 at 9:20 pm

I don't know that his voice was creepy.  I think it was just being associated with the show that made it creepy.

Subject: Re: Unsolved Mysteries

Written By: Southern Image on 08/17/06 at 10:39 am

How about the Winchester House?

http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/birdseye.gif

Subject: Re: Unsolved Mysteries

Written By: CatwomanofV on 08/17/06 at 2:50 pm


How about the Winchester House?

http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/birdseye.gif



I would LOVE to go there someday. The house seems like a "funhouse" but yet, I know there are stories about paranormal activity there, too-double your pleasure?  ;)




Cat

Subject: Re: Unsolved Mysteries

Written By: MaxwellSmart on 10/21/06 at 9:22 pm

I loved unsolved mysteries with Robert Stack.  I didn't like the filler segments about adopted children finally finding their real families and so forth.  I liked the creeeeepy ones!

There's the Black Dahlia murder case. 
http://www.bethshort.com/
Elizabeth Short was her name.  They just made a movie about her.  I haven't seen it yet.  Any one see it?  Any good?  It's probably in one of our second-run theaters by now.

The "boy in the bag" mystery is solved.  The "boy in the box mystery" is not.
http://americasunknownchild.net/

Subject: Re: Unsolved Mysteries

Written By: Dominic L. on 10/22/06 at 12:16 am



I would LOVE to go there someday. The house seems like a "funhouse" but yet, I know there are stories about paranormal activity there, too-double your pleasure?  ;)




Cat



I've been there a few times.

Last halloween, I went on a flashlight tour where we went in darkness, except for flashlights they gave us... It's a cool place, though there was no sign of paranormal activity.


... Unless you count that guy who worked there wearing a monster mask.

Subject: Re: Unsolved Mysteries

Written By: Marty McFly on 12/23/06 at 1:47 am

I love old-school UM. When I started watching/recording it in about 1994, they had reruns of the late '80s/early '90s shows all the time. Something about the grainy filming quality made it seem scarier.

I think the murder, fugutives and missing person cases were the scariest.

Robert Stack was the man (even the way he drew out certain words, like "Perhapssss....it's you"). So sad that he's gone now. :(

Subject: Re: Unsolved Mysteries

Written By: bookmistress4ever on 12/23/06 at 3:54 am

Oh I LOVED unsolved mysteries.  My childhood friend's brother was on it once, he disappeared in the 70s without a trace, never to be heard from again.  It was sad.

I try to watch the show on the Lifetime channel when I can.  Wish they would make new ones.  :(

Subject: Re: Unsolved Mysteries

Written By: quirky_cat_girl on 12/23/06 at 5:10 pm

One of my professors in college was featured on that show a few times. She was psychic and she would help cops solve mysteries.

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