There is one place in New England that that draws tourists from all over the country to explore a disturbing history of homicide. This infamous place would be Salem, Massachusetts. Today, it draws paranormal enthusiasts to many of its attractions, and tours. However I had theorized that if it weren't for the fact that 19 men and woman were put to death because of supposed witchcraft this town wouldn't be considered nearly as paranormally active as it is. I had always been interested in the history of Salem, and enjoyed visiting from time to time, but I always thought paranormally that is was too hyped up by media, and that most of the alleged ghost stories had lost their credibility. However one day a friend of mine (by the name of Andy), and I decided to take a trip there. Most of the attractions left us with nothing paranormal, but later that night a trip to the gallows with a few locals left both of us with a shocking experience.
 

However I would like to touch on the history of the Salem witch trials. The witch trials began in 1692 when eight young girls fell victim to strange afflictions. The first believed to fall into bewitchment was the pastor's daughter, Betty Paris along with Abigail Williams, and Ann Putnam. Soon after many other neighborhood girls started to display the same illness. This included fever, seizures, and a painful pinching sensation on their skin. Along with the physical side effects, they hallucinated deformed figures with half-human, half-animal bodies. This was strange, frightening, and alien to the town's people. With no explanation medically, they turned to the church, which was also the only form of government in this time frame. Ironically the town preacher was Samual Parris, the father of Betty Paris who was the first to be stricken with this unnatural malady. The church instantly pointed to other worldly explanations, such as demon possession, and witchcraft. The girls also claimed that it was in fact people in their own town causing their "demonic attack". Soon there after a next door neighbor of the Parrises, Mary Sibley suggested baking a rye cake with the girls urine, and feed it to the family dog. It was believed that once the animal ingested the cake he too would fall bewitched, do to the girls cursed urine. Once the dog ate the cake he did indeed act delirious and possessed. The household slave Tituba was already a suspect of witchcraft do to her overzealous story telling of voodoo with the young girls. Everything then began to fall into place as this plague began the destruction of Salem.
 

The first three accused by the young girls was Sara Good, Sara Osborne, and Tituba. Good had lost her mother as teenager, Osborne was considered a poor beggar, and Tituba was the priest's Native slave. The accusations of these three women were brought to magistrates Jonathan Corwin, and John Hathorne. Their examinations were scheduled on March 1, 1692 at Ingersolls Tavern. Hundreds of Town people had showed up forcing the examinations to be moved to the meetinghouse. During the examinations the sickly girls shouted of being attacked by the "witches" specters, as the collapsed screaming and shacking with pain. Other town people added to the commotion by stating livestock was mysteriously dead, and their rations unnaturally spoiled. The magistrates began interrogating the woman with questions such as, "are you a witch?" and "have you seen the devil?". However no plea or response pleased the magistrates.  The three women were imprisoned on March 1, 1692. While Sara Good, and Sara Osborne had pleaded innocent, Tituba apparently claimed the devil came to her asking her to serve him. She also spoke of black dogs, yellow birds, and other minions of the devil that wish the puritans extinction. She went on rambling that the devil would stay in Salem until he was some how purged out. Hundreds were imprisoned, as the hysteria grew wider. The whole town was soon in a state of destruction, with jails reaching their capacity; a desperate new form of trial was needed. Governor Phips then created "The court of Oyer and terminer" in order to organize the chaos. Five judges were appointed to the court, including a man named William Stoughton who was considered an avid witch hunter. It was in this court that spectral evidence was used in confessions of so called "witches". There was also a physical examination of the accused bodies for markings such as birthmarks. Birthmarks were considered a familiar's connection to the witch. The first woman to be tried in the new court system was Bridgit Bishop. She was around an old age of 60. Her trial was held on June 2, 1692. Many town people pointed at her and said she had stolen food, harassed them in the night, and had shape shifted into a cat many times. With all of this evidence she was brought to the gallows and hung. One of the most saddening cases was the accusation of Rebecca Nurse. She was a respected elderly woman in society. When arrested and tried she had made a statement that was disputed as a confession. However in her old age and bad hearing it was considered only confusion. Ann Putman accused her of making them sign the devils book as she poked, and demonically pinched them. Rebecca was also hung shortly after her trial. One man by the name of Giles Cory was crushed to death. He dared to question the churches system, and was known as a bitter old man. It wasn't long before he was accused of witchcraft. Giles was laid on a board and restrained while rock after rock was placed on his chest in order to get a confession out of him. However he only replied with "more weight" after hours of torture he was crushed to death, and with his last breath cursed Salem for eternity. However some of the more disturbing facts of this hysteria, was the fact that hundreds sat in prison chained to the wall to dehydrate and starve, while sitting in their own waste. Often whole families where imprisoned with children as young as 4. Those that were hung at gallows hill were often all thrown together in a mass unmarked grave. Since it was believed they were witches there was no need for proper burial.
 

By early fall in 1962 questions arose about the credibility of these accusations. Along with doubt Governor Phips wife was accused of witchcraft. Disturbed and upset at this accusation he appealed the Boston-Area Clergy with Mather by his side. Mather stated, "It were better that ten Suspected Witches should escape, than that the innocent person should be condemned." With this famous quote in Mather’s published book "Cases of Conscience Evil Spirits" the witch hysteria had unwound. People were tired of the ranting, and the lack of physical proof provided with the accused. The witch trials ended in January of 1693 less than a year after they had started. However it wasn't until the following spring that the remaining imprisoned were released. In 1711 families of the accused were paid money for the suffering they had endured, although no price could be put on the destruction that had scared the town of Salem, and those lost. In the end 19 men and woman were hung, one crushed to death and many others that passed while in prison.
 

There are many different opinions in what could have possibly caused Salem, and surrounding towns to start this witch-hunt. Some argue it was over land disputes. Others say the teenage girls were just playing a prank on the elders, and wanted to see how far they could take it, or that it was just insanity due to the long cold winters where death was prominent and food scarce. However it's the most recent discovery that interests me the most. This theory is that the young girls in Salem were actually suffering from a hallucinogenic fungus that grew on the wheat of their crops, by the name of Ergot. Wheat was one of the most popularly consumed crops by the citizens. With the fungus being tested today it shows the same symptoms that were described in the spring of 1692 on the young girls. I believe it was a combination of this sudden ailment, and the exhaustion of the long winter that aided the hysteria. However despite what caused the massive execution of the unfortunate, it left a scare on this society, which is now one of the biggest tourist areas in New England.
 

Now that there is a general idea of what happened in Salem in 1692 I will continue with my experience. It was a warm Sunday this past August. My friend Andy and I were bored, and wondering what we could do. I then thought of going to Salem. It was a nice day, and I have to admit they have some nice bookstores so I felt like exploring. On the way up there I really wasn't anticipating on anything paranormal to happen, after all I looked at Salem as a tourist trap, and that it was unfortunate the deaths of those accused were almost celebrated. Once we got there we mainly looked at all stores. Just shopping for those corny haunted New England books, and looking at merchandise. After a while we started to get trapped into the small wax museums, and historical tours. I loved the education that some of these exhibits had. As were continued to wonder we stumbled upon a store that did one of those haunted Salem tours, and as much as I wanted to resist Andy and I ended up buying a ticket any way. We prepared by purchasing two disposable cameras, so we could take pictures on the way. I also had my EVP recorder on hand (I take it most places it actually found a frequent home in my purse). Once the sunset we met with the rest of the tour group to begin our walk around Salem. The young man that was doing the tour brought us to the typical cemeteries, a "haunted prison", and told us stories of vampirism. Andy and I tried to keep from laughing and wanted to be respectful to the others. However it wasn't long till the tour guide brought up EVP recorders. Andy said I should bring him mine as a demonstration. The last thing I wanted to do is hog the spotlight, but I thought it would be neat to show the others on the tour what one looked like, plus I had a few recordings they could hear. So I walked up to the tour guide and handed it to him. From then on I was asked questions and chatted about trueghost for about a half-hour. It was really exciting, then the tour guide pulled Andy and I aside. He said he would like to show us where the gallows were so we could go. I was really excited I had always wanted to go but had no knowledge on where to look. A few locals also stayed behind to come with us. As the tour guide was looking over a map, one of the residents came up to me with his digital camera and started to explain to me his camera was working fine before the tour then during it every snap shot came out black. He scanned through the photos showing me nothing but black space after black space. He then asked me if I thought it was paranormal. I explained that often in a paranormal situation malfunctions tend to occur, like battery drainage and just a simple shut down of electrical equipment. As I continued I also said that it was a high possibility it had been coincidence (since I try to rule out all phenomena with explanation).  I told him I actually find disposable cameras the best on tours because their likeliness to malfunction is smaller than a digital camera. As we completed our conversation the tour guide showed us where to go on the map. Andy myself and the two locals then hopped in our cars and began to drive to the gallows. The female local was actually very nervous and scared. This made me uncomfortable just for the fact that I dislike going to places rumored to have activity with people that hold fear of it. I just don't want to put them in an uncomfortable situation. However after explaining to her the importance of keeping a level head she calmed down. Once we got to our destination I was disappointed. It was right behind a skateboard park where the local teens were hanging out. The last thing we needed was pranks played, or rude remarks. As we walked by nothing much was said. At first I thought the hill we walked up was "Gallows Hill", but one of the locals had said it was a large hill in the distance. Of course both Andy and myself were snapping picture after picture. This is when things started to catch me by surprise. The two locals began to walk a head of us. They were pretty much there when Andy and I started to follow. There was no way that they could hear us talking. As I descended the hill I noticed it got a little colder rapidly. Then it went back to normal temperature. Now I logically rubbed it off as wind (after all we are outside) even though in the back of my head I knew it was unusual. Immediately after that I felt kind of sick, and very depressed, so depressed that I thought I was going to cry. I tried to ignore it but I had to say something to Andy. I stopped him and said, "I know this is going to sound typical and unlikely but I feel really sad for no reason." Just as Andy was about to reply we heard crying and sobbing. It was the female local. We ran over thinking she was hurt. When we got there all we could hear her saying was how depressed she suddenly felt. She just kept saying it was an awful feeling. I was very intrigued. There was no way she could have heard me say the same thing to Andy, and even if she did she would have to be a great actress to pull this sobbing thing off. The first thing I wanted to do was tell them to take her home because actions like this make it a bad situation. Always remain level is what I go by. But the others wanted to continue. I thought I saw a few things out of the corner of my eye, but the woods are sooooooo easy to be fooled by at night so I just ruled all possibilities out. After a while we all decided to part ways and go home, it was about one in the morning after all. The next morning Andy and I developed our pictures. I was so excited. I thought for sure we would have something on film. When Andy got back with the pictures he looked at me and said, “You’re not going to believe this. Your whole roll of film came out black." I was a little upset because I knew I put the flash on! I accepted it, and asked to see his pictures. He then said, "That's the thing, both cameras film came out black," I was shocked. How could that be? We both got two totally different types of disposable cameras, and we both made sure to turn the flash on, we even helped each other do it! I was trying to logically make sense of it and the only thing I could think was one big fat coincidence. Andy then began to laugh. I asked "What's so funny?" He said, "The only picture that came out, out of all of them was the one I took of myself before the tour started." And I replied " That's weird we didn't take picture's of any people the whole time we were on the tour and those were the ones that came out black." Just then I remembered the guy showing me his pictures that came out black on the tour with his digital camera. I also remember him saying the only picture that came out was before the tour of him and his wife. Both Andy and I had to admit that this was rather strange, though I’ve seen stranger, it was something to investigate further.
 

I haven't had the opportunity to return to the gallows since. The winter made it difficult to wander anywhere outside. However I find it a little more than coincidence that three people with three different cameras had the same thing happen to them all at the same time. I also remember seeing the flash on both Andy's camera and my camera, go off during the tour. Andy actually kept some of the photos, and as we looked at them there was a background slightly visible. Which means it wasn't a total black out malfunction. I know that some may point at the place where we got the film developed and say it was their fault, but the girl at the counter could tell from the negatives that they were pretty much black before the developing process. Also the fellow tourist’s digital camera had the same problems with his photos. However despite all of this I don't think there is a "ghost" at the source. The gallows did have some weird sensations, and the emotional outburst the woman and I connected with is what I call empathy. This is when one or more people experience an emotion of another, even though they aren't in direct contact with that person. Or they feel a certain emotion at a certain place with little explanation. (this is not a specific definition, this is my opinion based on my findings). I believe we unconsciously conjure these emotions based on what we know about an area. If the gallows was considered a place of joy and happiness in the past we would connect it with joy and happiness in the back of our minds in the present. Both the local and I knew the past of the gallows was connected with the execution of innocents, much like most learn growing up in America. Physically being in the actual place where these events took place is attached with sadness and desperation. However some places have an unsettling feeling whether you know about its past or not. I believe this is attributed to physical surroundings. If a house looks creepy, we feel an eerie emotion if a house looks friendly we have a calming emotion, and so on so fourth. The camera film on the other hand is very interesting. This happens in paranormal hot spots. I don't want to point at this as the only explanation, and in order to really dissect this physically I will return to the gallows, and do my own little experiment to see if I can Prove this to be natural phenomena. The gallows is a public place, and many people do visit this area. However the gallows is surrounded by many private residents so if you do want to visit make sure to be respectful to the local people. Please don't be loud, or knock on anyone's door to ask if they have experienced anything unusual (I know you may laugh at me saying that, but some overly enthusiastic people are well known for doing this). I would suggest making a whole day trip at Salem, and sign up for a tour. Make sure to bring a digital camera and a disposable camera. I'm rather interested in seeing if others get the same results as I did. Remember to be safe, and always go to places such as this with other level headed people.

~Trisha Thibodeau                                         

Addition by Shane:

It is the belief of Trisha, myself (Shane Sirois) and other experienced investigators, that certain dramatic and traumatic events cause waves in time that can effect others in time, be it past, present or future. Some may experience empathy and others may experience paranormal activity including, but not limited to, full bodied apparitions. As Trisha wisely mentioned above, those that venture into a place like Salem and the Gallows knowing the history, already open up their emotion which could have varying effects, be it True activity or just active imagination.

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