Washington, D.C., August 15, 2013 –
                                On 21 February 1955, Richard M. Bissell,
                                a senior CIA official, wrote a check on
                                an Agency account for $1.25 million
                                dollars and mailed it to the home of
                                Kelly Johnson, chief engineer at the
                                Lockheed Company's Burbank, California,
                                plant. According to a newly declassified
                                CIA history of the U-2 program obtained
                                under the Freedom of Information Act by
                                National Security Archive senior fellow
                                Jeffrey T. Richelson, the Agency was
                                about to sign a contract with Lockheed
                                for $22.5 million to build 20 U-2
                                aircraft, but the company needed a cash
                                infusion right away to keep the work
                                going. Through the use of "unvouchered"
                                funds — virtually free from any external
                                oversight or accounting — the CIA could
                                write checks to finance secret programs,
                                such as the U-2. As it turned out,
                                Lockheed produced the 20 aircraft at a
                                total of $18,977,597 (including $1.9
                                million in profit), or less than $1
                                million per plane. It was all "under
                                budget," a miracle in today's defense
                                contracting world.
                                
                                What the CIA released in response to a
                                2005 Freedom of Information Act request
                                is a substantially less redacted version
                                of a history of two key aerial
                                reconnaissance programs. Written by
                                agency historians Gregory Pedlow and
                                Donald Welzenbach, and titled The
                                Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead
                                Reconnaissance: The U-2 and OXCART
                                Programs, 1954-1974, the study was
                                published in classified channels in
                                1992. Subsequently, a heavily redacted
                                version of the U-2 portion was
                                published, in 1998, by the agency's
                                Center for the Study of Intelligence as
                                a book, The CIA and the U-2 Program,
                                1954-1974, in conjunction with a CIA
                                conference on the U-2. The full study,
                                in redacted form, had been released in
                                response to FOIA requests.
                                
                                The latest release is notable for the
                                significant amount of newly declassified
                                material with respect to the U-2 — with
                                regard to names of pilots, codenames and
                                cryptonyms, locations, funding and cover
                                arrangements, electronic countermeasures
                                equipment, organization, cooperation
                                with foreign governments, and
                                operations, particularly in Asia. In
                                addition, the release also contains
                                newly declassified on one manned and two
                                unmanned aerial reconnaissance efforts.
                                Specifically, newly declassified
                                material on:
                                
                                The CIA's declassified map of Groom
                                Lake/Area 51.
                                
                                    Numerous references
                                to Area 51 and Groom Lake, with a map of
                                the area.
                                    Names of all the
                                pilots who flew the U-2 missions that
                                are discussed in the history
                                    A table (Appendix D)
                                which provides key data on all U-2
                                flights over the Soviet Union — date,
                                mission numbers, pilot, airfield,
                                payload, and route. Maps show all the
                                routes.
                                    Cryptonyms and
                                codewords such as KWEXTRA-00,
                                KWGLITTER-00, OARFISH, HTNAMABLE,
                                KWCORK, MUDLARK (the project to gather
                                all available information about the
                                downing of Francis Gary Powers' U-2),
                                and HBJARGON (the U-2 base in Pakistan).
                                    More than three pages
                                (pp. 153-157, previously deleted in
                                their entirety) on British participation
                                in the U-2 program. The authors note
                                that President Dwight Eisenhower viewed
                                British participation "as a way to
                                confuse the Soviets as to sponsorship of
                                particular overflights" as well to
                                spread the risk of failure.
                                    An account (pp.
                                231-233, previously redacted in its
                                entirety) of U-2 operations from India,
                                between 1962 and 1967, triggered by the
                                1962 Sino-Indian war.
                                    An account (pp.
                                222-230 ff., almost entirely deleted in
                                the previous release) of U.S.-sponsored
                                Chinese Nationalist U-2 operations,
                                including tables of the number of
                                overflight and peripheral missions each
                                year.
                                    Details of Operation
                                FISH HAWK (pp. 249-251), the employment
                                of a U-2, launched off an aircraft
                                carrier in May 1964, to photograph the
                                French nuclear test site in the Pacific.
                                    Discussions of a
                                manned low-altitude reconnaissance
                                program, STPOLLY, consisting of flights
                                over China during the 1960s by Chinese
                                Nationalist pilots.
                                    An account (pp.
                                211-216) of U-2 operations in support of
                                CIA covert operations in support of the
                                1958 Indonesian rebellion and the
                                Tibetan rebellion against China.
                                    Accounts (in Appendix
                                E) of two unmanned aerial reconnaissance
                                programs — AQUILINE and AXILLARY.
                                
                                The many books and articles written on
                                the aerial reconnaissance programs,
                                particularly the U-2 and the OXCART (and
                                its Air Force variant, the SR-71),
                                include much information about these
                                topics, often with significant
                                accuracy.1 However, the newly released
                                material provides a combination of
                                significant new material, official
                                confirmation of — or corrections to —
                                what has been written, and official
                                acknowledgment that permits researchers
                                to follow up the disclosures with FOIA
                                or Mandatory Declassification Review
                                requests that may produce even more
                                information.2 Moreover, like any
                                historical study, the CIA history may
                                include errors that will require further
                                scrutiny by researchers in the field.
                                
                                You can read the entire document online
                                at: 
                                
                                  
                                  - HEARING THE
                                      HA'NTS DEPARTMENT -
                                    
                                    Poltergeist
                                        Communication  
                                    By Lon Stickler  
                                  
                                  
                                  Several years ago, a reader asked me
                                  about poltergeists and if these
                                  entities had the ability to use
                                  audible communication. There were a
                                  few modern reports, but I wasn't sure
                                  if these were exaggerations produced
                                  by the witnesses. So I decided to look
                                  over some of the prominent historical
                                  cases and post a few that exhibit
                                  authenticity even though the
                                  commentary may be a bit folksy.
                                  
                                  John Arnason, in his Icelandic Legends
                                  gives an account of "The Devil at
                                  Hjalta-stad" as written by the Sheriff
                                  Hans Wium in a letter to Bishop
                                  Haldorr Brynjolfsson in the autumn of
                                  1750.
                                  
                                  "The sheriff writes: “The Devil at
                                  Hjalta-stad was outspoken enough this
                                  past winter, although no one saw him.
                                  I, along with others, had the
                                  dishonour to hear him talking for
                                  nearly two days, during which he
                                  addressed myself and the minister, Sir
                                  Grim, with words the like of which
                                  ‘eye hath not seen nor ear heard.’ As
                                  soon as we reached the front of the
                                  house there was heard in the door an
                                  iron voice saying: ‘So Hans from Eyrar
                                  is come now, and wishes to talk with
                                  me, the ------ idiot.’ Compared with
                                  other names that he gave me this might
                                  be considered as flattering. When I
                                  inquired who it was that addressed me
                                  with such words, he answered in a
                                  fierce voice, ‘I was called Lucifer at
                                  first, but now I am called Devil and
                                  Enemy.’ He threw at us both stones and
                                  pieces of wood, as well as other
                                  things, and broke two windows in the
                                  minister’s room. He spoke so close to
                                  us that he seemed to be just at our
                                  side. There was an old woman there of
                                  the name of Opia, whom he called his
                                  wife, and a ‘heavenly blessed soul,’
                                  and asked Sir Grim to marry them, with
                                  various remarks of this kind, which I
                                  will not recount."
                                  
                                      “I have little
                                  liking to write about his ongoings,
                                  which were all disgraceful and
                                  shameful, in accordance with the
                                  nature of the actor. He repeated the
                                  ‘Pater Noster’ three times, answered
                                  questions from the Catechism and the
                                  Bible, said that the devils held
                                  service in hell, and told what texts
                                  and psalms they had for various
                                  occasions. He asked us to give him
                                  some of the food we had, and a drink
                                  of tea, etc. I asked the fellow
                                  whether God was good. He said, ‘Yes.’
                                  Whether he was truthful. He answered,
                                  ‘Not one of his words can be doubted.’
                                  Sir Grim asked him whether the devil
                                  was good-looking. He answered: ‘He is
                                  far better-looking than you, you
                                  ------ ugly snout!’ I asked him
                                  whether the devils agreed well with
                                  each other. He answered in a kind of
                                  sobbing voice: ‘It is painful to know
                                  that they never have peace.’ I bade
                                  him say something to me in German, and
                                  said to him Lass uns Teusc redre
                                  (sic), but he answered as if he had
                                  misunderstood me."
                                  
                                      “When we went to
                                  bed in the evening he shouted fiercely
                                  in the middle of the floor, ‘On this
                                  night I shall snatch you off to hell,
                                  and you shall not rise up out of bed
                                  as you lay down.’ During the evening
                                  he wished the minister’s wife
                                  good-night. The minister and I
                                  continued to talk with him during the
                                  night; among other things we asked him
                                  what kind of weather it was outside.
                                  He answered: ‘It is cold, with a north
                                  wind.’ We asked if he was cold. He
                                  answered: ‘I think I am both hot and
                                  cold.’ I asked him loud he could
                                  shout. He said, ‘So loud that the roof
                                  would go off the house, and you all
                                  would fall into a dead faint.’ I told
                                  him to try it. He answered: ‘Do you
                                  think I am come to amuse you, you
                                  ------ idiot?’ I asked him to show us
                                  a little specimen. He said he would do
                                  so, and gave three shouts, the last of
                                  which was so fearful that I have never
                                  heard anything worse, and doubt
                                  whether I ever shall. Towards
                                  daybreak, after he had parted from us
                                  with the usual compliments, we fell
                                  asleep."
                                  
                                      “Next morning he
                                  came in again, and began to waken up
                                  people; he named each one by name, not
                                  forgetting to add some nickname, and
                                  asking whether so-and-so was awake.
                                  When he saw they were all awake, he
                                  said he was going to play with the
                                  door now, and with that he threw the
                                  door off its hinges with a sudden
                                  jerk, and sent it far in upon the
                                  floor. The strangest thing was that
                                  when he threw anything it went down at
                                  once, and then went back to its place
                                  again, so it was evident that he
                                  either went inside it or moved about
                                  with it."
                                  
                                      “The previous
                                  evening he challenged me twice to come
                                  out into the darkness to him, and this
                                  is an angry voice, saying that he
                                  would tear me limb from limb. I went
                                  out and told him to come on, but
                                  nothing happened. When I went back to
                                  my place and asked him why he had not
                                  fulfilled his promise, he said, ‘I had
                                  no orders for it from my master.’ He
                                  asked us whether we had ever heard the
                                  like before, and when we said ‘Yes,’
                                  he answered, ‘That is not true: the
                                  like has never been heard at any
                                  time.’ He had sung ‘The memory of
                                  Jesus’ after I arrived there, and
                                  talked frequently while the word of
                                  God was being read. He said that he
                                  did not mind this, but that he did not
                                  like the ‘Cross-school Psalms,’ and
                                  said it must have been a great idiot
                                  who composed them. This enemy came
                                  like a devil, departed as such, and
                                  behaved himself as such while he was
                                  present, nor would it befit any one
                                  but the devil to declare all that he
                                  said. At the same time it must be
                                  added that I am not quite convinced
                                  that it was a spirit, but my opinions
                                  on this I cannot give here for lack of
                                  time.”
                                  
                                  
                                  In another literary work where the
                                  sheriff's letter is given with some
                                  variations and additions, an attempt
                                  is made to explain the story. The
                                  phenomena were said to have been
                                  caused by a young man who had learned
                                  ventriloquism abroad. Even if this art
                                  could have been practiced so
                                  successfully as to puzzle the sheriff
                                  and others, it could hardly have taken
                                  the door off its hinges and thrown it
                                  into the room.
                                  
                                  **********
                                  
                                  Donald Ban and the Bocan - Scotland:
                                  An 18th Century ‘Talking Poltergeist’
                                  Case
                                  
                                  A similar account titled "Donald Ban
                                  and the Bocan” by W. A. Craigie, M.A.
                                  was added to "Folk-Lore: A Quarterly
                                  Review of Myth, Tradition, Institution
                                  & Custom Being The Transactions of
                                  the Folk-Lore Society and
                                  Incorporating The Archaeological
                                  Review and The Folk-Lore Journal" in
                                  1895 and later published in The Book
                                  of Dreams and Ghosts:
                                  
                                      "It is fully a
                                  hundred years since there died in
                                  Lochaber a man named Donald Ban,
                                  sometimes called “the son of Angus,”
                                  but more frequently known as Donald
                                  Ban of the Bocan. This surname was
                                  derived from the troubles caused to
                                  him by a bocan—a goblin—many of whose
                                  doings are preserved in tradition."
                                  
                                      "Donald drew his
                                  origin from the honourable house of
                                  Keppoch, and was the last of the
                                  hunters of Macvic-Ronald. His home was
                                  at Mounessee, and later at Inverlaire
                                  in Glenspean, and his wife belonged to
                                  the MacGregors of Rannoch. He went out
                                  with the Prince, and was present at
                                  the battle of Culloden. He fled from
                                  the field, and took refuge in a
                                  mountain shieling, having two guns
                                  with him, but only one of them was
                                  loaded. A company of soldiers came
                                  upon him there, and although Donald
                                  escaped by a back window, taking the
                                  empty gun with him by mistake, he was
                                  wounded in the leg by a shot from his
                                  pursuers. The soldiers took him then,
                                  and conveyed him to Inverness, where
                                  he was thrown into prison to await his
                                  trial. While he was in prison he had a
                                  dream; he saw himself sitting and
                                  drinking with Alastair MacCholla, and
                                  Donald MacRonald Vor. The latter was
                                  the man of whom it was said that he
                                  had two hearts; he was taken prisoner
                                  at Falkirk and executed at Carlisle.
                                  Donald was more fortunate than his
                                  friend, and was finally set free."
                                  
                                      "It was after this
                                  that the bocan began to trouble him;
                                  and although Donald never revealed to
                                  any man the secret of who the bocan
                                  was (if indeed he knew it himself),
                                  yet there were some who professed to
                                  know that it was a “gillie” of
                                  Donald’s who was killed at Culloden.
                                  Their reason for believing this was
                                  that on one occasion the man in
                                  question had given away more to a poor
                                  neighbour than Donald was pleased to
                                  spare. Donald found fault with him,
                                  and in the quarrel that followed the
                                  man said, “I will be avenged for this,
                                  alive or dead.”
                                  
                                      "It was on the hill
                                  that Donald first met with the bocan,
                                  but he soon came to closer quarters,
                                  and haunted the house in a most
                                  annoying fashion. He injured the
                                  members of the household, and
                                  destroyed all the food, being
                                  especially given to dirtying the
                                  butter (a thing quite superfluous,
                                  according to Captain Burt’s
                                  description of Highland butter). On
                                  one occasion a certain Ronald of
                                  Aberardair was a guest in Donald’s
                                  house, and Donald’s wife said, “Though
                                  I put butter on the table for you
                                  to-night, it will just be dirtied.” “I
                                  will go with you to the butter-keg,”
                                  said Ronald, “with my dirk in my hand,
                                  and hold my bonnet over the keg, and
                                  he will not dirty it this night.” So
                                  the two went together to fetch the
                                  butter, but it was dirtied just as
                                  usual."
                                  
                                      "Things were worse
                                  during the night and they could get no
                                  sleep for the stones and clods that
                                  came flying about the house. “The
                                  bocan was throwing things out of the
                                  walls, and they would hear them
                                  rattling at the head of Donald’s bed.”
                                  The minister came (Mr. John Mor
                                  MacDougall was his name) and slept a
                                  night or two in the house, but the
                                  bocan kept away so long as he was
                                  there. Another visitor, Angus
                                  MacAlister Ban, whose grandson told
                                  the tale, had more experience of the
                                  bocan’s reality. “Something seized his
                                  two big toes, and he could not get
                                  free any more than if he had been
                                  caught by the smith’s tongs. It was
                                  the bocan, but he did nothing more to
                                  him.” Some of the clergy, too, as well
                                  as laymen of every rank, were
                                  witnesses to the pranks which the
                                  spirit carried on, but not even Donald
                                  himself ever saw him in any shape
                                  whatever. So famous did the affair
                                  become that Donald was nearly ruined
                                  by entertaining all the curious
                                  strangers who came to see the facts
                                  for themselves."
                                  
                                      "In the end Donald
                                  resolved to change his abode, to see
                                  whether he could in that way escape
                                  from the visitations. He took all his
                                  possessions with him except a harrow,
                                  which was left beside the wall of the
                                  house, but before the party had gone
                                  far on the road the harrow was seen
                                  coming after them. “Stop, stop,” said
                                  Donald; “if the harrow is coming after
                                  us, we may just as well go back
                                  again.” The mystery of the harrow is
                                  not explained, but Donald did return
                                  to his home, and made no further
                                  attempt to escape from his troubles in
                                  this way."
                                  
                                      "If the bocan had a
                                  spite at Donald, he was still worse
                                  disposed towards his wife, the
                                  MacGregor woman. On the night on which
                                  he last made his presence felt, he
                                  went on the roof of the house and
                                  cried, “Are you asleep, Donald Ban?”
                                  “Not just now,” said Donald. “Put out
                                  that long grey tether, the MacGregor
                                  wife,” said he. “I don’t think I’ll do
                                  that to-night,” said Donald. “Come out
                                  yourself, then,” said the bocan, “and
                                  leave your bonnet.” The good-wife,
                                  thinking that the bocan was outside
                                  and would not hear her, whispered in
                                  Donald’s ear as he was rising, “Won’t
                                  you ask him when the Prince will
                                  come?” The words, however, were hardly
                                  out of her mouth when the bocan
                                  answered her with, “Didn’t you get
                                  enough of him before, you grey
                                  tether?”
                                  
                                      "Another account
                                  says that at this last visit of the
                                  bocan, he was saying that various
                                  other spirits were along with him.
                                  Donald’s wife said to her husband: “I
                                  should think that if they were along
                                  with him they would speak to us”; but
                                  the bocan answered, “They are no more
                                  able to speak than the sole of your
                                  foot.” He then summoned Donald outside
                                  as above. “I will come,” said Donald,
                                  “and thanks be to the Good Being that
                                  you have asked me.” Donald was taking
                                  his dirk with him as he went out, but
                                  the bocan said, “leave your dirk
                                  inside, Donald, and your knife as
                                  well.”
                                  
                                      "Donald then went
                                  outside, and the bocan led him on
                                  through rivers and a birch-wood for
                                  about three miles, till they came to
                                  the river Fert. There the bocan
                                  pointed out to Donald a hole in which
                                  he had hidden some plough-irons while
                                  he was alive. Donald proceeded to take
                                  them out, and while doing so the two
                                  eyes of the bocan were causing him
                                  greater fear than anything else he
                                  ever heard or saw. When he had got the
                                  irons out of the hole, they went back
                                  to Mounessie together, and parted that
                                  night at the house of Donald Ban."
                                  
                                      "The bocan was not
                                  the only inhabitant of the
                                  spirit-world that Donald Ban
                                  encountered during his lifetime. A
                                  cousin of his mother was said to have
                                  been carried off by the fairies, and
                                  one night Donald saw him among them,
                                  dancing away with all his might.
                                  Donald was also out hunting in the
                                  year of the great snow, and at
                                  nightfall he saw a man mounted on the
                                  back of a deer ascending a great rock.
                                  He heard the man saying, “Home, Donald
                                  Ban,” and fortunately he took the
                                  advice, for that night there fell
                                  eleven feet of snow in the very spot
                                  where he had intended to stay."
                                  
                                  
                                  **********
                                  
                                  The Bell Witch: An American Haunting
                                  
                                  Tennessee is home to one of the most
                                  disturbing ghost stories of all time:
                                  The Bell Witch: An American Haunting
                                  which was one of the earliest American
                                  versions of a talking poltergeist. As
                                  with all traditional American folk
                                  stories there is modification and
                                  exploitation in the media. There are
                                  several books about the witch, but
                                  many Americans heard the story for the
                                  first time in the film An American
                                  Haunting, which was released several
                                  years ago and based on actual events.
                                  After reading the some of the original
                                  accounts of the haunting, I was
                                  surprised on how accurate and detailed
                                  the production was.
                                  
                                  The Bell Witch is a story about John
                                  and Elizabeth Bell and their children,
                                  who lived in Adams in Robertson County
                                  in the early 1800s. Some of the
                                  original commentary from one of the
                                  children follows:
                                  
                                      "Kate Bates was a
                                  member of our small community. One
                                  day, she and my father argued over a
                                  business deal. Over time, she became
                                  more and more displeased with my
                                  father, and legend has it that she
                                  cast a spell over my family, cursing
                                  us to be haunted for life.
                                  
                                      "From then on, our
                                  family was visited by an apparition or
                                  ghost. She wasn't a friendly ghost, so
                                  we referred to her as a witch. She
                                  became known as the Bell Witch.
                                  
                                      "At first, the Bell
                                  Witch couldn't speak, and she
                                  communicated in soft, whistlelike
                                  sounds. Gradually, her voice
                                  developed, and she felt free to
                                  communicate with us verbally. In the
                                  meantime, she was torturing our
                                  family. At night, my sister and I
                                  would lay in bed gripping our covers
                                  tightly because she would be pulling
                                  them off from the end of our bed.
                                  
                                      "Occasionally, she
                                  would hit us or scratch us, and she
                                  wouldn't stop even when we cried. She
                                  teased and tormented everyone in my
                                  family except for my younger brother,
                                  John Bell Jr. She liked John and would
                                  protect him from harm and would harm
                                  those who were cruel to him.
                                  
                                      "Eventually, the
                                  Bell Witch killed my father by
                                  poisoning him. She put black,
                                  poisonous liquid in his food. The
                                  curse of the Bell Witch continued for
                                  years, so my brothers, sisters and I
                                  were forced to leave home. Our friends
                                  and neighbors would often come and
                                  stay in our home to experience the
                                  haunting for themselves. We even had
                                  visitors from other cities who
                                  traveled to Adams just to see or hear
                                  the Bell Witch. My parents would feed
                                  and house our visitors, hoping that
                                  the visitors would experience the
                                  haunting, too.
                                  
                                      "The people living
                                  in Adams were so tired of the Bell
                                  Witch and her trickery that they
                                  excommunicated her from the town and
                                  ordered her to live in a cave on the
                                  outside of the city, where she still
                                  lives today.
                                  
                                      "If you are brave
                                  enough, you can go to Adams, Tenn.,
                                  and visit the cave where the Bell
                                  Witch was sent to live. However, I
                                  want you to be very careful!
                                  
                                      The Missing
                                  Headstone
                                  
                                      The latest chapter
                                  of Middle Tennessee's famed Bell Witch
                                  story could be titled "The Tale of the
                                  Homesick Headstone."
                                  
                                      It begins in 1860,
                                  when the 22-year-old
                                  great-granddaughter of John Bell died
                                  and was buried in the family cemetery,
                                  her rest undisturbed until the
                                  headstone disappeared about a century
                                  later.
                                  
                                      It ends earlier
                                  this month, when the missing marker
                                  turned up in Nashville, upside down
                                  and broken in two.
                                  
                                      "The stone was
                                  found in Madison," said Tim Henson, a
                                  local historian and curator of the
                                  Adams Museum in the Robertson County
                                  town. "It was used as a stepping stone
                                  in someone's yard for at least 41
                                  years."
                                  
                                      Now the marker is
                                  in its rightful place. Getting it
                                  there had its spooky moments, which
                                  seems fitting for a member of the
                                  family at the center of one of the
                                  South's most celebrated ghost stories.
                                  
                                      In 1817, an angry
                                  spirit took up residence on the Bell
                                  farm in Adams, about an hour's drive
                                  northwest of Nashville. Some people
                                  identified her as Kate Batts, an
                                  eccentric woman who believed John Bell
                                  had cheated her in a land deal.
                                  
                                      She tormented the
                                  family, slapping, pinching and pulling
                                  the children's hair. She sang hymns,
                                  preached and plagued their father, who
                                  fell into recurring bouts of illness
                                  until he died in December 1820, a
                                  terrible smell on his lips and a
                                  mysterious bottle of black liquid
                                  nearby.
                                  
                                      The tale has been
                                  the subject of books and movies,
                                  including An American Haunting (2006).
                                  And townspeople and tourists say Kate
                                  still haunts today, throwing salad
                                  spoons and blue balls in the air.
                                  
                                      The supernatural
                                  Bell mystique may extend to the
                                  headstone of Mary Allen Bell Coke, if
                                  the story its finder tells is any
                                  indication.
                                  
                                      The marker had made
                                  its way to a trash bin in Madison,
                                  where a homeowner found it years ago
                                  and added it to the lawn.
                                  
                                      "A contractor from
                                  Springfield, working on that house,
                                  brought it home," Henson said. The
                                  contractor, Janie Hudgens, was
                                  intrigued and went online to research
                                  the dead woman. That led to funeral
                                  director and Bell descendant Bob Bell
                                  in Springfield, who called Henson.
                                  
                                      Hudgens said that
                                  after she and husband Sparky found the
                                  stone, she made it her mission to find
                                  out where it came from.
                                  
                                      "I'm from Alabama,
                                  and we respect the dead there,"
                                  Hudgens said.
                                  
                                      "When we found the
                                  headstone, that bothered me. For three
                                  nights straight, I was on the computer
                                  till 3 or 4 in the morning looking for
                                  where the tombstone belonged."
                                  
                                      The night before
                                  they were to give Henson the marker,
                                  they were in bed with the room dark
                                  when the screen came to life, static
                                  crossing its screen. Not long after
                                  she turned it off, "it came on again,
                                  and it was on the page about the Bell
                                  family."
                                  
                                      Then there was the
                                  wind, which she said "blew the
                                  deadbolt-locked door open."
                                  
                                      As she told Henson,
                                  "I think this stone wants to get
                                  home."
                                  
                                      Henson recently
                                  took it to the cemetery and placed it
                                  on the grave, but that was just for a
                                  brief visit. It'll remain in storage
                                  until it can be safely and securely
                                  displayed.
                                  
                                      "We just want to
                                  place it back in the Bell cemetery
                                  that it belongs in," he said. "We know
                                  within a foot or two where it's
                                  supposed to go. We want to put it back
                                  so that it can't be taken away again."
                                  - tennessean.com
                                  
                                  NOTE: These cases, in particular 'The
                                  Bell Witch' incident, were
                                  manifestations of self-created
                                  entities. The vast majority of
                                  poltergeist hauntings are actually an
                                  unconscious genesis by a living human.
                                  These entities do not 'talk'...though
                                  communication through writing and
                                  physical will have been well
                                  documented. For example, the movie
                                  Poltergeist depicted, for the most
                                  part, a severe haunting. The entity
                                  was not created by anyone in the
                                  family...but gained energy through the
                                  family's fear and anxiety. It was a
                                  very entertaining film, but most of it
                                  was simply conjecture. The San Pedro
                                  Poltergeist - Jackie Hernandez and the
                                  'The Entity' Investigation - Culver
                                  City, CA - 1974 are good modern
                                  examples of poltergeist hauntings. The
                                  infamous Enfield Poltergeist case was
                                  most likely a possession where the
                                  victim somehow channeled an actual
                                  spiritual entity. Unfortunately, many
                                  Georgian and Victorian writers used
                                  'poltergeist' as an incorrect
                                  descriptor for most hauntings...Lon
                                  
                                  Source: Pulse of the Paranormal
http://www.phantomsandmonsters.com/2013/08/poltergeist-communication.html
                                  
                                  - ALIEN ANIMALS
                                      DEPARTMENT -    
                                    
                                    From MIB to ABC
                                    By Nick Redfern
                                  
                                  
                                  During the early part of 1998, the
                                  British Government’s House of Commons
                                  held a fascinating and arguably
                                  near-unique debate on the existence –
                                  or otherwise – of a particular breed
                                  of mystery animal that is widely
                                  rumored, and even accepted by many, to
                                  inhabit the confines of the British
                                  Isles: the so-called Alien Big Cats,
                                  or ABCs, as they have become
                                  infamously known.
                                  
                                  It scarcely needs mentioning that
                                  Britain is not home to an indigenous
                                  species of large cat. Nevertheless,
                                  for decades amazing stories have
                                  circulated from all across the nation
                                  of sightings of large, predatory cats
                                  that savagely feed on both livestock
                                  and wild animals and that terrify,
                                  intrigue and amaze the local populace
                                  in the process. And, of course, the
                                  media loves them, one and all.
                                  
                                  As history has demonstrated, there now
                                  exists a very large and credible body
                                  of data in support of the notion that
                                  the British Isles do have within their
                                  midst a healthy and thriving
                                  population of presently unidentified
                                  large cats – such as the infamous
                                  Beast of Bodmin and the Beast of
                                  Exmoor that so hysterically dominated
                                  the nation’s newspapers back in the
                                  early-to-mid 1980s. But never mind
                                  just the 1980s – reports continue to
                                  thrive to this very day.
                                  
                                  There is, however, an aspect of the
                                  ABC mystery that doesn’t always get
                                  the coverage it should: the strange
                                  connection to the mysterious Men in
                                  Black and “government officials” that,
                                  allegedly, at least, are intent on
                                  keeping any and all hard evidence of
                                  the existence of the beasts under
                                  wraps and out of the hands of the
                                  public and the media. It might seem
                                  strange that there could be a cover-up
                                  of the ABC phenomenon in the UK, when
                                  the media is practically reporting on
                                  them – somewhere in the land – at
                                  least a couple of times per week.
                                  
                                  But, there’s a vast chasm between (A)
                                  the press titillating and exciting
                                  their readers with tales of large,
                                  predatory cats on the loose and (B)
                                  actually presenting hard evidence of
                                  such creatures in the nation’s midst.
                                  The stories of the big cats of the UK
                                  undeniably entertain and intrigue the
                                  British public. That, however, is very
                                  different to – hypothetically -
                                  someone finding a dead mountain lion
                                  by the side of the road and the story
                                  then becoming a stark and serious one
                                  of potential man-eating proportions.
                                  
                                  Clearly, we don’t see evidence of
                                  sinister, black-garbed characters
                                  popping up, and silencing witnesses,
                                  every time an ABC is seen in the UK.
                                  But, they have surfaced on more than a
                                  few occasions when claims are made
                                  about ABC corpses being found or seen
                                  (by the side of a country road, for
                                  instance).  Merrily Harpur’s
                                  book, Mystery Big Cats, includes a
                                  number of cases that suggest the
                                  British Government’s DEFRA – the
                                  Department for Environment, Food and
                                  Rural Affairs – may have played a role
                                  in confiscating the evidence that
                                  large, unknown cats really are
                                  prowling around the British landscape.
                                  
                                  Then there is the story of Maureen
                                  Abbott. She saw, when she was in her
                                  twenties, what she describes as a
                                  large “black panther” [in reality,
                                  black panthers are simply melanistic
                                  big-cats, such as cougars and
                                  leopards, whose bodies contain an
                                  over-abundance of dark pigmentation],
                                  late one Winter evening in either 1954
                                  or 1955. Astonishingly, it was doing
                                  nothing less than racing along the
                                  track as she stood, alone, awaiting a
                                  train on the Bakerloo Line of the
                                  London Underground.
                                  
                                  Describing the animal as running very
                                  fast, she said that as it passed her,
                                  it quickly looked in her direction,
                                  with a menace-filled frown on its
                                  visage, before vanishing into the
                                  darkness of the tunnels. Although
                                  Abbott did not see the creature again,
                                  she has never forgotten her brief,
                                  terrifying encounter with the unknown,
                                  deep below the city of London.
                                  
                                  And there is a very curious sequel to
                                  Abbott’s encounter: two-days later,
                                  she was visited at her home by a
                                  government official who, while the
                                  pair sat and drank cups of tea,
                                  advised her, in fairly relaxed tones,
                                  not to talk about the experience. Of
                                  course, to a degree, this aspect of
                                  Abbott’s story inevitably conjures up
                                  and provokes Men in Black-style
                                  imagery. If true, it suggests that
                                  elements of the British Government may
                                  wish to keep exceedingly quiet the
                                  fact that wild animals are on the
                                  loose in the heart of London’s old
                                  tunnels.
                                  
                                  Aside from visits by MIB types and the
                                  confiscation of corpses – before the
                                  truth comes tumbling out – there is
                                  another angle of MIB lore that plays a
                                  role in the ABC puzzle: that of
                                  telephone interference. On many
                                  occasions, witnesses to UFOs have
                                  received strange and unsettling phone
                                  calls in the wake of their encounters.
                                  Strange, slightly foreign sounding,
                                  voices warn people not to talk about
                                  their encounters. Weird and unsettling
                                  electronic bleeps and screeches, and
                                  unintelligible rapid chatter, are
                                  commonplace.
                                  
                                  And that applies to the ABC issue too.
                                  I can’t say that my records are
                                  bulging on this angle, as they
                                  certainly are not. But I do have seven
                                  reports on file where witnesses were
                                  on the receiving end of what can only
                                  be described as telephone harassment.
                                  
                                  Notably, in two of those seven cases,
                                  the witnesses claimed to have seen the
                                  bodies of dead ABCs: one was seen by
                                  the side of a road near the English
                                  village of  Blakeney in 1986, by
                                  a shift-worker on his way home, around
                                  3.00 a.m. The other body was almost
                                  literally stumbled upon, in October
                                  1987, in  an area of woodland
                                  near the English town of Bradford on
                                  Avon, during the early afternoon.
                                  
                                  In both cases, the cats were very
                                  large, powerful-looking, and
                                  completely black in color. Neither
                                  witness told anyone – outside of their
                                  immediate family – anything about
                                  their encounters, chiefly because they
                                  had nothing to back up the claims. In
                                  the first case, the witness returned
                                  to the site at daybreak, around 7.00
                                  a.m., and the body was gone.
                                  
                                  In the second case, precisely the same
                                  thing happened: when the frightened
                                  witness told her husband what she had
                                  seen, he accompanied her back to the
                                  site, around 3 or 4 hours later, after
                                  he returned home from work. That body,
                                  too, had curiously vanished.
                                  
                                  In both instances, however – and
                                  despite neither party having made an
                                  official report or having informed the
                                  local press – the witnesses were on
                                  the near-immediate receiving end of
                                  curious phone calls, filled with what
                                  can only be described as classic
                                  MIB-type interference and
                                  intimidation.
                                  
                                  So, what’s going on? Do certain
                                  elements of the British Government
                                  know – with absolute certainty – that
                                  the ABCs are 100 percent real? And, if
                                  so, are they doing their very best to
                                  prevent what is seen as an
                                  entertaining mystery by most, from
                                  mutating into something that could
                                  provoke widespread concern, and
                                  perhaps even hysteria, among the
                                  population? Or, do the undeniable
                                  MIB-like overtones to such cases
                                  suggest the ABCs are less than flesh
                                  and blood and far more
                                  paranormal-themed? Maybe the truth
                                  lies in a combination of both realms.
                                  
                                  Whatever the answer, I can say for
                                  sure that while the MIB-ABC angle does
                                  not appear to be a major part of the
                                  overall  controversy, it is 
                                  one that should be treated seriously.
                                  Someone, deep within the heart of
                                  officialdom, may very well know
                                  something that they don’t want the
                                  rest of us to know…
                                  
                                  Source: Mysterious Universe
http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2013/08/from-mib-to-abc/