“My uncle in Miami used to manage one of the restaurants at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables.  He told me once that Al Capone lived the ladder portion of his life in the penthouse, which was the thirteenth room on the thirteenth floor.  No one disturbed him and no one spoke to him.  Many people claimed to have seen him jump off his balcony, maybe it was an illusion but it really kind of foreshadowed his upcoming death.  That room was the last place Al Capone ever lived in.  It was a deluxe, luxurious room, but after his death, no one ever went in that room.  Decades later, the room is believed to be haunted.  When guests come into the room uninvited, supposedly the spirit of Al Capone starts to haunt them.  He turns the lights on and off, turns on the faucet and shower.  There is a spooky aura that surrounds this luxurious hotel.  Any slight event, like doors opening unexpectedly, makes people think it’s Al Capone’s ghost.  And so one summer, we were at the hotel for dinner one night and I went to use the bathroom.  All of a sudden, the doors blew open.  I know now that it was because of the wind, but at the time I was ten so I believed it was the spirit of Al Capone.”

Farbod, my brother, learned this ghost story from my uncle in Miami.  There have been many cases where guests at the hotel believe they have seen ghosts and spirits or just unusual happenings in the elevators and hotel rooms.

After doing some research I found that Al Capone, the Italian American gangster, actually died in 1947 of a cardiac arrest lead on by pneumonia. Since Al Capone lived in the time during the Prohibition, they set up a speakeasy on the thirteenth floor, which he did frequent numerous times throughout his life.  However, the actual story is that Capone’s friend, Fats Walsh, was murdered there.

The ghost story my brother was told clearly shows how a piece changes over time.  However, this ghost story is still widely believed in Miami and Coral Gables.  My uncle and cousins have stayed at Capone’s room, officially known as the “Al Capone Suite,” and they have all attested to strange occurrences, such as the shower turning on and off and strange noises at night.  It is hard to say what accounts for these strange actions, but for now, the ghost story of Al Capone is enough to explain them.

“There’s this intersection in New Jersey in the back roads so it’s not in a busy area.  It’s completely deserted but people say that if you put powder- like baby powder or something- on your windows and you drive through the intersection, handprints of spirits will appear on the windows.”

Amy heard about his ghost story in high school from her friends.  The intersection that is supposedly haunted is far from her hometown so she has never been there to test it out.  But she said she would not even do it if she could.  Even though she is scared to do it, she does not think that there are actual spirits there.  However, she says that that is a very popular ghost story that people all over New Jersey like to share.

I was thinking about this ghost story.  Since so many people in New Jersey know about this story, as Amy claims, I feel like handprints may show up, but from other causes.  Perhaps the handprints the people claim to see are their own from before; in other words, they touched their windows beforehand but forgot about it and now think they belong to the spirits.

Amy also told me another ghost story but since it is similar to the previous piece, I decided to put them together.

“In another part of New Jersey, there’s an uphill road.  People say that if you put your car in neutral on that road, spirits start to pull your car up the incline.”

Amy heard this story from her friends as well.  She added by saying that there was an actual accident on that road many years ago.  Now, the spirits who have stayed there pull the cars up, preventing them from getting into any accidents.  Amy said that she was fairly sure that the accident did actually happen.  The fact that there is an actual event in the background of this ghost story gives it more substance and meaning.

Amy told me she never personally tried this, but that she feels that it is an optical illusion.  I am personally torn in this situation; I cannot make up my mind about whether or not I believe it.  This story is the only one that I have heard of its kind; I have not heard any other versions of it.  Perhaps because it was told to me with a background story of an actual even rather than in the form of an “urban legend”, I think it could possibly have some sort of merit.  Nonetheless, this ghost story, like the previous one, is widely known throughout New Jersey and many people do attest to its validity.  For Amy and her friends, these ghost stories were a form of entertainment and in middle school and high school, they would share these and other stories in order to set a mood and scare the other girls.

Also seen in: Moran, Mark and Mark Sceurman.  Weird U.S. Your Travel Guide to America’s Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets. New York: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2005.

“So there’s this small town in Alabama where…well they are like really big on slavery in Alabama and they wanted to keep it around… So there’s this tree at the top of a hill where they would hang all the African Americans and supposedly there’s still some rope on the branches. And, I don’t know how this happens, I think it has something to do with the gravitational force or something…but apparently if you bring your car to the bottom of this hill and leave it in neutral, it is said that the ghosts of the little slave children will push the car up the hill to this tree. And legend has it that if your car is pushed passed where the rope is hanging, you will die.”

Kirby told me she heard this story in Atlanta, where she’s from, about a year or two ago from her friend who experienced this story first-hand. She said her friend told her how she went to this hill with a family friend, put the truck in neutral, and left the driver seat empty and the car started to move up the hill. She said her friend was really spooked by the situation and did not stick around very much longer to see what would happen. Kirby said that her friend is still freaked out by what happened that time at this haunted hill.

Kirby believes that the ghosts that are said to haunt this tree are of African American slaves who seek vengeance for the many unjust hangings in the South. She said that this ghost story can serve as a reminder of our country’s dark past so that we will not revert back to such violent times. She observed that this ghost story was very creepy due to the fact that in places like Alabama, it was not that long ago when these types of hangings were being held. She said it is regretful to think that such turmoil and unrest plagues our country.

I agree with Kirby’s sentiments about this story and I believe that these chilling stories are meant to scare us to create a more peaceful world to live in. As eerie and uncomfortable these accounts might make us feel, they do serve as a reminder that there are many injustices that go unnoticed. This type of story seems to be a call to not let the injustices go overlooked, to not be ignorant about sensitive issues, and to know what you can do. These types of ghost stories, which are based on historical background, paint a picture that is different from all the patriotic images of liberty and glory that is more commonly displayed as our history. This ghost story embodies an undying truth that our country will never be able to forget, no matter how ashamed or embarrassed we feel about that time in our country’s past.

“In the auditorium at high school, where all the plays were performed, we would have rehearsal everyday after school leading up to a performance. So there were two techies back stage right after school before any of the actors or any other crew members had come. So they started opening up all the doors downstairs like any normal rehearsal when they saw this little kid on the stage. They knew that the kid was not supposed to be there so they were gonna try to find out where the kid came from. One techie asked, ‘Hey, kid, are you from the elementary school? We’re not trying to hurt you but you can’t be back here so we’ll just take you back…’ and he started to walk towards the kid. But the kid ran across the stage to the opposite side, behind a curtain, and started wrapping himself up in the curtain. The techie said, ‘let’s just get you back, you won’t get in trouble or anything…’ But by the time he had reached for the curtain to open it up, there was nothing in the curtain.”

Kristen first heard this story about four years ago when she was in high school. The techies who had experienced this first hand had told her about it shortly after it happened. They were shaken up by the experience and had doubted whether or not they had really seen a little boy on the stage. Kristen said they told the story with such conviction that it was hard not to believe that they had really seen a ghost.

Kristen had also experienced similar spooky happenings in the auditorium or downstairs backstage in the costume room. She believes that there are spirits that haunt the high school and especially the auditorium area. She feels that hearing stories like this are not intended to make you feel paranoid that the place is haunted, but more of a coming to terms that there are other beings occupying the same space as the living. She said that hearing and experiencing similar ghost stories confirms the possibility of spirits and the afterlife. She believes the significance lies in coming to terms with the natural cycle of life and death, as well as the possibility that other forces are at work.

I went to high school with Kristen and was involved in the school plays as well, so I have also experienced these eerie ghost stories as well. Other than awakening a consciousness of the afterlife, or twilight zone, I feel that these experiences became more of a bonding ritual for the kids in the theatre. It was almost as if it was an unofficial initiation rite that you truly know what it means to be part of the St. Monica Catholic High School Performing Arts Department if you have seen one of the ghosts that haunt the theatre and backstage areas. It helped to forge friendships when you started experiencing these rattling incidents together.