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Key West Cemetery
The Key West Cemetery is a
19 acre cemetery situated on Solares Hill, the highest point on the
island of Key West, Florida. Many of the graves here date back
into the mid-1800's. The cemetery was established at its current
location in 1847 after an 1846 hurricane washed hundreds of dead bodies
from an earlier cemetery out of the coastal sand dunes on Whitehead
Point.
Some estimates suggest that over 60,000 to possibly 75,000 bodies are
buried in the Key West Cemetery. Many of these poor souls were
taken suddenly by the Yellow Fever epidemic that swept across the island
in 1887 and 1888, some by the great fire of 1886, and some by war
including some from the Battleship Maine disaster of 1898. Many
were killed in the numerous hurricanes that hit the island and several
souls interred here met their end at the end of the hangman's noose.
With a cemetery of this age and of such tragic circumstance it is not
surprising that many of the souls here walk the night. Although
encounters have been reported in the light of day as well.
The Bahamian Guardian:
 One
recurring, and chilling tale is of the ghostly spirit Bahamian woman who
appears suddenly to those visitors who are disrespectful to those buried
here. What makes an encounter with her so disconcerting is that it
is an "intelligent haunting" . . . meaning, she interacts with the
visitor on this physical plane.
Beware if you make light of walking across graves or sitting or standing
on the grave stones or burial vaults . . . or if you make little jokes
to your friends about ghosts or the dead while you are here. She
will suddenly appear and approach you (and whomever you happen to be
with) and with eerily cold eyes gazing into yours, she will scold
you for your disrespect. She has also been known to make threats
that will turn your insolence or mirth to fear in a hurry. When
she is done with you, she simply vanishes right before your eyes.
She has driven many a would be vandal from the cemetery and has appeared
both day and night!
Disembodied Voices:
On quiet sultry evenings just before dark, it is not uncommon for
visitors walking through the Key West cemetery to hear voices and other
unintelligible sounds.
Over the years many people have been so rattled by this frequent
occurrence that they have called the police, their clergy, the news
media. . . and paranormal researchers such as myself.
The reported accounts typically go like this "My wife and I were
strolling down the path through the cemetery when we heard voices or
whispering coming from somewhere near the vaults (or headstones)."
Thinking that it may be someone up to no good, they pick up their pace.
But as they walk faster they now notice that the voices are following
them. To their horror, they realize that these voices seem to be
whispering to them from only a few inches from their ear. Imagine
someone breathlessly whispering just an inch or so from your neck and
just behind your ear . . . that is how they describe it.
This phenomena has been reported by individuals, by couples, and by
groups of three or more people. The number of people seems not to
matter . . . they all experience the same thing.
Shadows and Apparitions:
Shadows and apparitions are known to occur day and night within the Key
West cemetery. Many visitors to the island have returned home to
later look at their photos of the historic cemetery only to find the
unexpected and unexplained shadow or apparition in their photo.
During my time here, a teenage girl walking with her parents shot a
digital picture of a shadowy figure of a man coming through one of the
old iron gates. No one saw him at the time she snapped the photo .
. . needless to say, her parents were quite shaken by this event.
After all, ghosts are not real, are they?
Dr. Von Zuko 2009 (no other
use permitted without written agreement)
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