Buried Alive!

Being buried alive is a fear which is as old as the custom of burying the dead. Writers such as Shakespeare and Edgar Allen Poe have written of it. Horror films starring Vincent Price and Boris Karloff have frightened viewers for years. Folklore is full of tales of narrow escapes and of exhumed coffins containing corpses with broken stubs of fingers, hair pulled out by the fistful  and faces frozen in screaming terror as some poor unfortunate soul was buried prematurely and woke up to realize the horrible fate to which they were doomed. Most of these tales are simply that, tales of imagination, tales told from people's fear. But in one case, one woman's fear of being buried alive became a horrific fact.

In the early 1700's, Edinburgh had become known around the world for the advanced medical studies of the human anatomy being conducted there. Doctoral students were assigned one body each to dissect and practice their studies upon. There was also a constant need for bodies to be used by teachers as visual aids. At first, the bodies were of executed criminals and there were enough to fill the demand, but as more and more students were enrolled in the physician program, the demand for bodies became more than the supply. Soon, enterprising individuals began the lucrative business of filling that need by "body snatching" - the illegal digging up and stealing of the reasonably fresh bodies of the recently dearly departed. And if the body happened to have been buried with valuables, well, the ghouls who made a career of body snatching were certainly not above adding grave robbing to their "resurrectionist" resume.

Shankill Graveyard

In 1705 a lady by the name of Margorie McCall lived in Lurgan. She was the wife of John, a successful surgeon, and lived the rather privileged life her husband's profession afforded. Then one day, Margorie contracted a fever and after several days, despite her husbands best efforts, her condition deteriorated and she died. As was common during that time in an effort to curb the spread of the fever, a wake was quickly arranged and burial arrangements were made. During the afternoon wake, a number of people commented on the very expensive ring she wore on her finger in the coffin, but her husband explained that due to her illness, her finger had swollen making it impossible to remove. She was buried in the Shankill Graveyard that evening.

After darkness fell that very same night, just several hours after internment, by the dim light of a small sliver of moon, 2 grave robbers began their grizzly task of digging up Margorie's body. The dirt was still loose so the digging proceeded quickly. Upon uncovering the coffin and prying open the lid, the robbers were happy to see the body was indeed fresh and the expensive ring was still on Margorie's finger. The thieves tried to pull the ring from her finger, but due to the swollen condition, it wouldn't budge so, figuring the dead wouldn't mind, they decided to simply severe the finger. Producing a knife from his pocket, one of the men made a deep cut into the ring finger. With that first drawing of blood, Margorie revived from her coma, sat straight up in her coffin, opened her eyes wide and while staring at the astonished would-be thieves, screamed like a hound from hell!

It was later rumored that 2 very frightened, dirty, stinking men entered a bar several miles from the graveyard. Nobody would go near them as it was obvious by sight and smell their bowels had failed them and the pants they wore were destined for the trash heap. They told their story to the barkeep and after several strong drinks which they gulped down, hastily left and were never seen in the area afterwards.

(BBC photo of Margorie's grave)

Back at the cemetery, Margorie climbed out of her grave and walked back to her home several blocks away. Her husband and children were gathered around the fireplace, together in their sorrow, when they heard a knock at the front door. John, wracked with grief, said, "If your mother were still alive, I'd swear that was her knock." Upon opening the door, he found his late wife standing there in her burial clothes, blood dripping from her cut finger, but still very much alive. Unfortunately, the shock was too much for his heart and he dropped dead on the spot. Two days later, he was buried in the grave that was originally intended to forever hold his wife.

Margorie survived her ordeal, eventually remarried and had several more children. When she finally died for good, her body was again buried in the Shankill graveyard. A tombstone reads, "Margorie McCall - Lived Once. Buried Twice"

Haunted Hotel Del Coronoda

 Built in 1888, the Hotel Del Coronado is located just a short way down Coronado Beach from where the U.S. Navy trains its SEAL warriors outside San Diego, California. With its iconic red turrets rising into the blue sky and with Victorian splendor throughout the complex, it has long been proclaimed as one of America's most beautiful resorts. Through the years, movies such as Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Monroe, Cry for Happy with Glenn Ford and Donald O'Connor, Moon Over Miami with George Raft, Ida Lupino, Edward Kennedy and John Barrymore and Coronado with Jack Haley and Andy Devine and many others have used the Del as their setting. A large book could be filled just with the names of movie stars, politicians and moguls of industry who have stayed here  

The mysterious "Lottie" about 1886 (historical photo)

Few who stay in this five-star hotel however, know about the eternal guest who lives here until they run into her late at night. Lottie A. Bernard, a beautiful lady in her mid-20's checked in alone on Thanksgiving Day in 1892 and was given room 302 (renumbered to 3312 afterwards and then renumbered again to 3327). Hotel employees who had interactions with her stated she always seemed to be sad or despondent and ill. She reported to them she was waiting on her brother, a doctor, but he never showed up. 

Five days later, poor Lottie was found in an exterior stairwell leading to the beach. She had died with a gunshot wound to her temple. The San Diego coroner declared it to be a suicide, but there were a number of clues which indicated she had been murdered instead. When her room was searched, there were no personal belongings. In fact, there was nothing on her body or in her room that identified her in any way. It was soon discovered there was no Lottie A. Bernard in Detroit where "Lottie" had told people she was from. Police broadcast a picture of the dead woman trying to find someone to identify and claim her body, but nobody ever did. News that "Lottie" was pregnant at the time of her death leaked out and it was said the bullet removed from her brain was a .38 caliber while the gun she owned and was found beside her body was a .44 caliber. The sad case of the "Beautiful Stranger" became a sensation in local and national newspapers for many weeks afterward until "Lottie" was finally identified as Kate Morgan from Iowa, wife of the gambler Tom Morgan who made his living playing card games on trains. One man claimed he had seen Kate and a man (presumably Tom,) arguing on the train and that the man had gotten off the train at the stop in Orange, but Kate had stayed on until arriving in San Diego. Everyone assumed Kate was actually waiting for Tom to join her at the hotel, but when he had not arrived after 5 days, in her despondency, she killed herself.

The Hotel Del Coronado as seen from the beach

Apparently, Kate is still at the Hotel Del Coronado, waiting for her husband, or perhaps she is waiting for the truth to be revealed. Guests staying in her room have reported swinging light fixtures, flickering lights, telephone calls with nothing but hollow-sounding static on the other end when the call is answered. One man became so frustrated by numerous phantom phone calls one night that he finally shouted, "Kate Morgan, enough! Leave me in peace!" The alarm clock immediately buzzed three times and the calls stopped. There have also been numerous reports about the TV coming on by itself. Repairmen can find nothing wrong, but though the hotel has replaced a number of televisions in the room, even brand-new right out of the box sets often come on in the middle of the night and cannot be turned off until all of a sudden, it turns off by itself. Perhaps most frightening, there have been several guests who demanded to be given a different room after awaking to see a dark figure pulling the sheets off them in the night. When they screamed, the figure immediately disappeared. One time, a female guest stopped to unlock her room late at night and saw a pretty woman mirroring her actions a few feet away next door. The woman smiled at her. She didn't realize she’d seen a ghost until she went inside and recalled that the woman was dressed in turn-of-the-century period clothes. The cleaning staff has reported seeing the window drapes move and be pulled back when they go outside right after cleaning the room and they know nobody is in there.

Room 3519 has also been reported to be inhabited by a spirit. Ashtrays and other objects fall off tables and have even flown across the room and the noise of footsteps and loud voices can be heard from the floor above. The problem is the only thing above this room is the roof. In 1983, an unnamed Secret Service agent staying in the hotel on assignment with then-VP George Bush complained of voices and noises above the room so loud that he couldn't fall asleep. When he was finally able to drift off, he awoke to find the drapes standing straight out even though the windows were closed and neither the air conditioning or heat was on. When he jumped up and turned on a light, they slowly drifted back to hanging down perfectly still. He turned off the light to see if it would happen again only to find the room bathed in an eerie greenish glow. He turned on every light in the room and immediately demanded to be moved elsewhere.

Manifestations have been recorded in other rooms as well, but they seem to be confined mostly to the third floor where the hallways are much narrower than on the floors below. A center of activity not on the 3rd floor is the hotel’s gift shop. Hotel management reports that weird things started happening when they started selling Marilyn Monroe merchandise. Marilyn stayed in the hotel while filming Some Like It Hot and several paranormal investigators have said that Kate got jealous when attention was taken away from her. Gift shop workers have seen books fly off shelves, shadow figures in the place after it is locked up, and souvenir mugs jump off a ledge with nobody near them. The store manager once found an entire row of books in her office tuned around so the spines were facing the wall and occasionally  upon first entering her locked office in the morning, will find one or several books turned upside down or thrown onto the floor.

The tree on the grounds of the hotel which
was made famous appearing in a scene from
the movie, "Some Like It Hot"

The Hotel Del Coronado is indeed a beautiful place to spend a romantic weekend or a few nights of vacation or even longer if you can afford it; rates are generally $500 - $800+ per night. Maybe those moans and murmuring voices heard in certain rooms and hallways are just the waves of the ocean rolling onto the nearby beach. Maybe that unexplained chill in the air, those strange cold spots you encounter as you walk down a hallway or enter your room is from the ocean fog. Maybe that's all it is. But if you wake up in the middle of the night with unseen hands pulling the sheets off you, you'll know who it is. You'll know.

The garden area of the Hotel Del Coronado