General Wayne Inn - Merion Station

The General Wayne Inn building was built on land purchased by William Penn. Originally called The Wayside Inn, this building has been continuously used since 1704, when a Quaker, Robert Jones, went into the Inn/restaurant business, with the idea to serve travelers going to and from Philadelphia and Radner, on the old Lancaster road way. The Wayside Inn became The General Wayne Inn in 1793, when it was renamed after a local Revolutionary hero. Because of its location, near Merion Station, many Revolutionary War battles were fought around the area of the Inn. Thus, this Inn has the distinction of playing host to American Patriots, such as General George Washington and Marquis de la Fayette, and to the British Redcoats and their hired, Hessian soldiers as well.

During the 1800s, many vacationing Philadelphians came to the area, and enjoyed fine dining at The General Wayne Inn, such dishes as Squirrel Ragout and Pigeon Stew. One of the famous guests was Edgar Allen Poe. Until the 1930s , there used to be a glass window that Edgar had scratched his initials on; E.A.P.

Besides being an inn and restaurant, this historical building in the past also has been used as a post office, a general store, and a social center for newly-arrived Welsh Immigrants.

After Mr. Johnson, various owners have run the General Wayne Inn. In 1996, the co-owners, Mr. James E. Webb and Guy Sileo, who were also best friends, were struggling financially. On the day after Christmas, 1996, Guy Sileo supposedly shot to death Webb in one of the third floor offices. (I'm sure the spirits residing there will give their moral support and have welcomed Mr. Webb if he had decided to stay.)

Sileo was convicted of the murder and sentenced to life in prison. Sileo claimed that it was his own hurt mistress, 20 year old Felicia, a chef at the General Wayne Inn, who shot Webb in revenge because Sileo refused to leave his wife for her. Webb had strongly disapproved of the affair between Felicia and Sileo. Felicia later killed herself.

The General Wayne Inn was purchased by Frank Cacciuti in October of 2001. Cacciuti had found great success in running the prosperous Seven Stars Inn, located in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. As of July 21, 2002, Cacciuti closed the General Wayne Inn because he wasn't making enough money. Business hadn't recovered from the effects of the murder, and the local economy wasn't supporting it.

In 2004, someone else bought the place and made a go of it, as the restaurant was being advertised on the ExperiencePA web site. For some reason this effort didn't work out. When Tom and I visited this building the summer of 2006 during our cross country road trip, the local Jewish synagogue had bought the building, renovated it into a modern building now called Chabad Center for Jewish Life. However, the words, The General Wayne Inn are still displayed proudly on the side of the building, and it is still a historical building as the sign marking it as such still remains.

Name of the Game Bar - North Philadelphia

North Philadelphia has had its share or criminality and homicide. In 1960, West Norris Street's “Name of the Game” dive bar was the scene of a double homicide. It closed down later that year only to be reopened in the early 1970's. In 1983 another horrific crime became the basis for sightings of disturbed spirits. It is said that local Joe Costano stormed into bar late one night with his girlfriend, Maria Gallanti, held hostage at knife point. As the story goes, she was having an affair with a man Costano believed to be at the bar. The unstable Constano threatened to cut her throat if the man did not out himself as her secret lover. When no one stepped forward to admit to the affair Costano cut his girlfriends throat gruesomely in front of everyone watching a the bar. Luckily someone in the bar had a gun on them and shot Costano in the temple almost instantly after he cut her throat. To this day people claim that you can still hear sounds of the altercation take place within the since-close bar. Odd apparitions can also be seen through windows or out front of the bar. No one knows if these ghosts are from the Constano murders or deaths that have taken place there previously. The location of the bar can be found at 1822 W. Norris St. in Philadelphia.

Rehmeyer's Hollow (Dutch Hex Murder) - York County

When the Pennsylvania Dutch began immigrating from Germany in the 18th century, they brought with them a tradition of folk magic and healing called pow-wowing; on November 27, 1928, that ritual would lead to murder.

John Blymire, born in York, Pa., in 1895, was by all accounts an unremarkable boy in all but one respect. He wasn't bright, popular or good looking, but he shared his father and grandfather's legacy: the supernatural. Like his forebears, Blymire was said to have healing powers. When he was just five years old, he seemed to be wasting away. We might attribute that to malnutrition; his kin blamed it on a hex and took him to the area's most renowned "hexenmeister," Nelson Rehmeyer. Rehmeyer cured the boy. Blymire worked in Rehmeyer's garden for some time, and developed his own reputation as a healer.

Yet he was periodically convinced that he was under a hex again himself, and he met others who thought they suffered the same problem. One such hexing victim was Milton J. Hess, a prosperous farmer who'd encountered recent bad luck; another was John Curry, an abused 14-year old who worked at a cigar factory with Blymire. Blymire consulted with Nellie Noll, known as the River Witch of Marietta. She told him that Rehmeyer was behind all three hexes, and that they could break them by burning Rehmeyer's copy of pow-wow's foundational book, Long Lost Friend.

Blymire and Curry visited Rehmeyer's small farmhouse. The three chatted for some time, while Blymire tried to compel Rehmeyer mentally to give him the book. Unsurprisingly, this tactic failed. The night before Thanksgiving, Blymire and Curry returned, this time with Hess's brother Clayton—and some rope. Blymire strangled Rehmeyer, Curry hit him over the head with a block of wood, and he died. They set the house on fire to get rid of the evidence, but failed to burn it down. After a neighbor discovered Rehmeyer's body, the police soon found the three perpetrators, and they each confessed, were tried and were found guilty.

Gates of Hell - Uniontown

The Gates Of Hell are located along Tent Church Road near Uniontown pa. Legend has it that a house once set further back behind from where the gates are now located, and that a man and and woman once lived in that house. There are different versions of the story, but the basic consistency would seem to be, that they both died there under some dark an tragic circumstance. A common tale is that the man was emotionally unstable, and that one day he killed his wife and then set the house on fire. After doing this he then killed himself. Today the site is said to be haunted by the two spirits. One of the spirits "perhaps that of the man" is said to be angry, while the other spirit "perhaps that of the women" is just there. The circumstances of the haunting are as follows. If you go down to the gates on certain nights and just set there parked beside or near them, you will begin to hear and see unexplained things. Some of the sounds heard would be that of little kids laughing, The sounds of several voices talking at once in a whispering sort of way, and growling noises in the air above where the gates set. Some of the sightings have been of shadows, and strange flashes of light, as well as balls of light.

Gettysburg Battle Fields - Gettysburg

The Civil War battle of Gettysburg was a 3 day fight; July 1st to July 3rd, 1863, in the countryside and farmland near the town of Gettysburg, covering 40 miles.

General Robert E. Lee was on his way to bring the war to the north, taking the pressure off Virginia, in areas where his soldiers could live off the land, perhaps forcing a settlement, letting the south become its own country.

According to legend, the confederate troops needed boots. Conveniently, Gettysburg was known for its tanning industry and its shoes. As it was on the way, General Robert E. Lee marched in and took over the town, to take boots for his troops. However, the Union Army caught up with them.

Another source said that the first stop for Lee was a small village, called Cashtown, a village located between Chambersburg and Gettysburg. After learning through a spy that the Union Troops, led by General George Meade were onto his plan to attack the north at Harrisburg, Lee sent a reconnaissance team to Gettysburg, while preparing to meet the Union troops in battle, when they were spotted. This confederate recognizance team inadvertently bumped into the Union recognizance team also sent to Gettysburg, which began the battle.

This incredibly bloody and costly battle killed 50,000 men, (almost as many killed in the 7 year war in Viet Nam). It was the turning point in the Civil War, giving the advantage to the Union forces.

Because of all the suffering, deaths and loss that go along with such a battle event, The Gettysburg National Military Park has many hauntings and entity sightings, even 142 years later. Many soldiers are still on duty, or experiencing the terrifying events leading to their deaths.

Other hauntings not related to the battle also have been reported in the National Park, because the land's history started long before 1863, and continues until the present.

Luden Bon-Air Mansion - Reading

The original, Italian Renaissance style Luden Bon-Air Mansion was built in 1914, for William H Luden; the candy maker, his wife, Anne and their two youngest children. Six of their children were up and out by this time.  This spacious, full 3 story mansion, was designed by James Vickson.  Though started in 1914, the entire mansion was finished in 1922. When this mansion was constructed, William Luden had mansions in Miami and Palm Beach, Florida. He later built mansions in Villanova, PA, & Atlantic City, New Jersey.

As Reading, PA, was Luden's home town, where he started his candy /cough drop enterprise, Luden Candy Company, it makes sense that he would build a mansion here, close to his business in Reading. He was born in Reading on March 5th, 1859, and married Anne Ritter, in 1889, the daughter of the editor of the newspaper, Reading Adler.

Though the confection treats from the Luden Candy Company were very popular among the consuming public, William found that his most profitable product was a good tasting cough drop, that propelled his company to a huge commercial success.  He sold 5 million nickel packs of these delicious tasting cough drops.

Originally built in a very ritzy part of town, this "opulent" 33-44 room,  $750,000 Italian Renaissance style mansion was a grand estate for a self-made man.   It was built over an old iron mine, that was sealed but never filled in.  The outer walls of the mansion were made of limestone & brick, with marble pillars added all around the outside of the first floor, with marble trim and lovely stonework. From the western portico, the family had a lovely view of the city.

Inside, the finished wood floors were installed on heavy, reinforced concrete, as there were old mining tunnels underneath the mansion.  There was a grand central staircase leading up to all three floors. The common rooms were on the first, the bedrooms and bathrooms for each room were on the second, and the servant's quarters were on the third.  The mansion had a ballroom, a library, a bowling alley, a living room, a dining room, and a breakfast room.

Just two years after moving into Bon-Air Mansion, William's wife, Anne died in 1916.  William remarried Kathryn Fasig.

William Luden retired in 1927, and sold his company to Food Industries of Philadelphia, in 1928.  Luden passed away on May 8, 1941, in his mansion in Atlantic City.

The Luden Bon-Air Mansion was owned by family members until 1939, when the rector of St. Paul's Parish in Reading bought Bon-Air Mansion, with the mission of transforming the building into a new Central Catholic High School.

During this transformation, the Bon-Air Mansion's original architecture and structural lines were mostly preserved. The mansion's rooms were easily renovated and adapted for use by the high school.  School office was set up in the dining room, the library found a home in the living room, and the principal's office was in the breakfast room.

Also on the first floor, the music room, with a 20,000 dollar organ, donated by the Luden Family, language rooms, commercial department rooms, home economics department, biology,  and a laboratory with adjacent lecture rooms' were found there.

The second floor bedrooms were renovated to provide five modern classrooms and a girls' rest room.  As the school grew in numbers over the years, the third floor was transformed into other classrooms and rooms for various activities.

The basement became storage, chemistry labs, and a cafeteria for the students and staff.

Throughout the years, additional buildings and facilities were built behind the mansion, and on property nearby. The first expansion doubled the size of the high school, when the mansion was connected to its carriage house.  Many other improvements to the high school took place throughout the years to keep the high school up to date, and current, in order to be able to fill the educational needs of the students.

By 2004, it was decided that a new Catholic high school was needed, so plans were drawn up, money was raised, and the new high school, Berks Catholic High School opened its doors in September, of 2011.

While the old Central Catholic High School is closed, with no one there, and its future is up in the air, its spiritual residents now have their Bon-Air Mansion all to themselves for awhile; until the living decide whether to sell it to a new owner, or find another purpose for it.

Patee Library - State College

Betsy Aardsma was a 22-year-old graduate student from Ann Arbor, Michigan who was enrolled in a Master's Program in English at Penn State University in August of 1969. She had stayed in State College, PA over the Thanksgiving Break in November of 1969 in order to work on a research paper for her English 501 class, which was an Introduction to Research. 

Betsy Aardsma was not a drug user, not a criminal, and in fact was regarded as an intelligent, well-liked girl who had recently become engaged to her fiancee, a medical student at the University. At approximately 4 pm on November 28th, 1969, Betsy and her roommate parted ways at the library after planning to meet at 7 pm that evening for dinner. 
Betsy met with a professor, Harrison Meserole, to talk about her research paper, and then she headed into the Level 2 Core "stacks" to find some materials. At some point around 4:45, she is stabbed one single time in the heart by an unknown assailant, presumably male, and falls to the floor. A man leaving the core in a hurry runs into several witnesses, stopping to say "Somebody better help that girl," before exiting the core. This man is identified by several witnesses who came forward to police, and two composites were produced from their descriptions. Aardsma is found lying on the ground shortly thereafter, but her red dress makes what little blood has spilled look as though she has had a seizure and bitten her tongue. 

Betsy is transported to the Ritenour Health Center and is pronounced dead there at 5:20 pm, 11/28/1969. Early the following morning, her death is ruled a homicide and the investigation begins -- an investigation which, after almost 40 years, has produced no good suspects, few witnesses, and no resolution. The purpose of this site is to kickstart the investigation and assist police in bringing the case to a close