Preservation Online: Today's News Archives: Historic or Haunted?

From Preservation Online, the online magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation

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Historic or Haunted?
A Day in the Life of a New England "Ghostbuster"

Story by Arin Greenwood / Oct. 27, 2006

Thomas D'Agostino, a Rhode Islander who works as a paranormal investigator, totes a small briefcase that holds his tools of the trade: a digital recorder, a thermometer, a compass, and a carpenter's level.

These are the objects Tom uses when he's looking for ghostly things, he explains: The digital recorder captures voices, both human and otherwise. The thermometer identifies unexpected cold spots, which indicate the presence of ghosts. The compass detects electromagnetic activity-ghosts seem to alter electromagnetic fields, and when ghosts are present, they cause the compass to spin. And the carpenter's level allows Tom to find some explanation other than ghosts to explain what might seem like paranormal activity; a gently sloping floor, for example, may cause a door to mysteriously swing open and shut.

"We look for logical explanations," says Arlene Nicholson, Tom's wife and fellow investigator.

Tom tells the story of a homeowner who thought the house was haunted because he'd heard banging in the walls. "When they tore the house down it turned out there was a set of keys in the walls. Every time the wind blew, it was rattling the keys," he says.

Tom's book, Haunted Rhode Island, lists almost 90 places in Rhode Island where paranormal activity takes place, including graveyards, historic taverns, swamps, parks, hotels, castles, streets, carousels, theaters, restaurants, libraries, and a former psychiatric center. Since the book came out in December 2005, Tom and Arlene have been asked to investigate many other places around Rhode Island and elsewhere in New England.

Today's destination—the Nine Men's Misery monument in Cumberland, Rhode Island—is said to be haunted. We're not talking about rattling keys; we're talking about reports of a dark, running phantom horse, a measurable chill, and moans and screams that no live person in the area is making.

The Nine Men's Misery monument marks the place where on March 26, 1676, nine Rhode Island colonists were murdered by Native Americans loyal to King Philip. (King Philip is the English name for the sachem—chief—of the Wampanoag tribe in southeastern New England; his Wampanoag name is Metacom.) It's located in a quiet place in the woods, near a former monastery that is now a public library. The monument—piles of stones cemented together and adorned with a plaque—rests on top of a large mound.

The murders took place during King Philip's War, a war between colonists—and some Native American allies—and Native Americans loyal to Metacom. During the one-year war, which lasted from 1675 to 1676, nearly 4,000 people died. It also ended more than a generation of previously harmonious relationships between colonists and Native Americans, says James Drake, author of King Philip's War: Civil War in New England, 1675-1676 and history professor at the Metropolitan State College of Denver.

Nine Men's Misery was a grisly scene: nine colonial soldiers who had escaped an attack that killed their captain and most of their fellow soldiers were ambushed and executed; they are thought to have been tortured before being killed, but there isn't conclusive evidence on that point, Drake says. The nine men's unidentified bodies were buried together in a mound on the spot of their murders. (The unidentified bodies were then dug up repeatedly over the ensuing years; one such disinterment in 1790 resulted in the identification of Benjamin Bucklin, who had a double set of teeth.)

In 1928, monks living in a monastery neighboring the site of Nine Men's Misery erected the stone monument to the nine men (the monastery burned down in 1950). The Nine Men's Misery monument is said to be the oldest monument to veterans in the United States. And today, anyway, it's free of paranormal activity. Tom uses his tools but doesn't get any suggestive readings, nor do any phantom horses show themselves.

There are many different kinds of paranormal activity, says Tom, including orbs (circular balls that mysteriously appear in photographs), unexplained smells, disembodied voices, and apparitions. Paranormal activity can be active, like ghosts that interact with people. Nine Men's Misery has passive paranormal activity, Tom says. When a traumatic or unexpectedly violent event occurs in a place, Tom says, the earth "records" the scene, and then sometimes "replays" it like a videotape recording. By definition, passive paranormal activity doesn't interact with people just like a videotape doesn't interact with people.

(Incidentally, the couple says most ghosts aren't malicious. Tom and Arlene say they've rarely encountered unfriendly ghosts; most people who ask Tom and Arlene to investigate paranormal activity don't even want the ghosts to leave. Usually, when Tom and Arlene are called in to investigate paranormal activity, the callers "just want to know they're not crazy," Tom says.)

Nearby, at the library abutting Nine Men's Misery, there's an active kind of ghost. The library is thought to be haunted by the ghost of a monk that used to live in the monastery. The monk's ghost closes and reshelves books when library patrons get up from their tables. A librarian says she hasn't seen the ghost, but wishes it—or someone—would close and reshelf books because it would make her job easier.

Based on their research and investigations, Tom and Arlene believe that Rhode Island has more paranormal activity per capita than any other state. They attribute this high-level haunting to Rhode Island's violent colonial history. It's also the nature of the state's residents, who aren't inclined to pick up and move, even when they're dead. "Stubborn Yankees," says Arlene. "Hell, no, we won't go."