First Paper Ghost
Ghosts have been reported for many centuries, but the activity of ghost hunting is a twentieth- century innovation. May 1901 was one of the earliest accounts documented. A writer for the Daily Mail newspaper in London had out of the blue decided to change his address. Ralph Blumenfeld, the paper’s editor asked the man why, and the man told Blumenfeld he leaving because the rooms in Lincoln’s Inn were haunted. Hearing this news, Blumenfeld became very interested in trying an experiment. Blumenfeld contacted the landlord of Lincoln Inn and rented the rooms for a week to investigate the stated haunting and then write up the experiences for his newspaper.
Blumenfeld and a friend, Sir Max Pemberton had all the rooms stripped of furniture and window treatments. Then had all the windows sealed and checked for hidden access. On the night of May 11th, Blumenfeld and Pemberton stayed the night in the so called haunted rooms. While there for the night, they the front door locked and sprinkled chalk powder around the rooms. Throughout the night the men reported doors opened and closed several times by themselves with no explanation. The activity died down at 2:07am, and just then the men found footprints of a large bird in the chalk.
After the investigation, Blumenfeld wrote a short article for the newspaper. A week after it was published, he received a letter from a woman named Margaret Verrall who said she was a medium. She wrote Blumenfeld, telling him the night he and Pemberton were witnessing the doors open and close, she had been receiving a spirit message in the form of automatic writing. The massage said, “Chalk sticking to the feet has got over the difficulty. You help greatly by always persevering.” Then the message ended with a drawing of a turkey like bird with a smiling human face.
