Prologue

The dark realm that houses all things that have ever been or will ever be lies just on the other side of our reality.  Whether an individual believes in such a place or not depends mostly on their level of exposure.  It’s understandable to be skeptical of that which you have not experienced.  For those who have known the fear of having something from a place beyond this world wreak havoc on their lives, all doubt has been erased.

These true tales, which focus on hauntings in various forms, will chill your bones and leave you wondering just how many unseen entities inhabit your world.  Although some may scoff at such a notion, others will agree that just because they don’t show themselves, doesn’t mean they’re not there.

Prepare to indulge in a bit of fear as the time to peruse these pages grows near.  I hope you enjoy these spine-tingling true terrifying tales.  For your own peace of mind, it’s probably best to leave the lights on for this one.  And now, let the scares begin.

Chapter 1:

On Sacred Ground

Most of you have probably seen the movie Poltergeist, the premise of which revolves around a family that moves into a subdivision, blissfully unaware of its history.  It’s only when their young daughter is whisked away to the dark realm that they learn that their home was built on top of a cemetery.  The famous line You moved the cemetery, but you left the bodies is used to explain why the wrath of the dead rained down upon the innocent family.

The events that transpired in this real-life story come terrifyingly close to those depicted in the aforementioned film.  This particular nightmare took place in the early 1980s when families who purchased homes in a newly-developed community began experiencing strange phenomena that escalated into something more frightening than anything Hollywood could produce.

The Newport Subdivision is located in Crosby Texas, just outside of Houston.  The tranquil setting boasts over a thousand homes, each of which is an ideal place to settle down and raise a family.

Sam and Judith Haney were one of the first couples to purchase a house in the new development. Not long after moving in, they decided to have an in-ground pool installed in their backyard.  When word of their plans leaked out, a mysterious stranger paid them an unannounced visit.

The couple would later say that an elderly man had appeared at their door one afternoon with a bit of news that had sent them reeling.  He told Sam that he had heard they were planning on digging up the yard to make room for a pool.  He then stated, matter-of-factly, that they shouldn’t be surprised if they found something besides dirt and rocks when they began excavating.  According to their uninvited guest, there were bodies buried on the property.  He explained that he knew this because he was the one who had dug their graves nearly fifty years prior.

Sam wasn’t sure what to make of the man’s story.  He had been too stunned by the claims to ask questions.  He knew that there was only one way to find out if the man was telling the truth and that was to carry on with the pool installation.  As work got underway, they soon had their answer.

The dirt movers had barely begun to break ground when they hit something hard buried a few feet beneath the soil.  Sure enough, the object turned out to be an old wooden casket.  Not wanting to further disturb what was obviously a gravesite, the Haneys phoned the coroner’s office.

By the end of the day, two bodies had been exhumed from the couple’s backyard.  Judith Haney would never forget the moment when a county worker handed her a set of antiquated wedding rings that had been found among the remains.

The Haneys took it upon themselves to find the identities of the bodies they had inadvertently unearthed. No proper headstones had been present, but enough information was available to set them on a path of discovery.  A search of public records led them to believe that the graves had been those of Charlie and Betty Thomas.

It seemed that the couple had died in the 1930s and had been interred in what was then the Black Hope Cemetery.  The area had been established in the 1800s as a mass graveyard for former slaves and indigent African-American residents.  The last known burial was said to have taken place there in 1939.

Harris County had not, to anyone’s knowledge, ever officially legitimized the site as a burial ground.  As a result, the land could be sold ‘as is’ with no regard for the people who had been laid to rest there, which is exactly what happened.

A land developing company, Purcell Corporation, purchased the property that would later become the Newport Subdivision.  Although many residents of the area had heard rumors that a cemetery was located nearby, they would all later claim that they were never informed that their houses were sitting on top of graves.

The Haneys felt terrible about having accidentally desecrated the resting places of the Thomases and tried their best to make things right.  With no family left to claim the bodies, Sam and Judith decided to return them to the locale in which they had been interred for decades.

Two graves were dug, side-by-side, in the Haney’s backyard.  Charlie and Betty Thomas were then laid to rest for what those involved hoped would be the last time.  Judith took it upon herself to tend to their plots as though they were members of her own family.  She even planted flowers in the area as a token of respect to the parties that lay beneath the soil.  Her efforts would not, however, be enough to turn a wrong into a right.

Thinking that these unforeseen events were behind them, the Haneys moved on with their lives.  It wasn’t long, however, before strange phenomena began to plague them.  Judith claimed that one night her electric alarm clock suddenly blazed bright blue as sparks flew everywhere.  Fearing that it was about to catch fire, she hurried to unplug the device only to find the cord lying on the floor nowhere near the outlet.

On another occasion, when Sam was working the late shift, Judith heard the sliding glass door in the kitchen open and close.  She listened as a voice called out, What are you doing?  Assuming that it was Sam returning home early from work, she waited for him to join her in the living room. 

After a while, when he failed to make an appearance, Judith went into the kitchen to look for him. 

She could find no sign of her husband, or anyone else for that matter.  A quick search of the house revealed that she was alone.

The following day, as Judith was getting dressed, she couldn’t find the red shoes that she normally kept in her closet.  They were her favorites and she wore them almost exclusively which made it all the more puzzling that they were nowhere to be found.  At the time, she made no connection between this incident and the one from the previous night.

Later that afternoon, the shoes turned up in the most unlikely of places.  Purely by accident, Judith and Sam found them lying neatly on top of Betty’s grave.  The significance of the date had not been lost on the couple; it had been the dead woman’s birthday.

The Haneys believed that it was Charlie who Judith had heard entering the house in the middle of the night.  In need of a gift for his wife, he had rummaged through their belongings until he found what he was looking for which happened to be the red shoes.

After enduring months of lights flickering on and off, appliances running on their own and apparitions manifesting in their home, the Haneys had finally had enough.  With no end in sight to their troubles, they decided to sue the land developer for nondisclosure.

The Haneys argued that they would never have knowingly bought a home built on a cemetery.  In their minds, they had been deceived by the company’s silence.  Initially, the court agreed.

After hearing the case, an award of $142,000 was allocated to the Haneys.  They were ecstatic. It would be enough to allow them to start over someplace far away from Newport and the spirits who had laid claim to the land.

Unfortunately, the ruling was overturned when an appeals court determined that the land developer was not obligated to inform them of the existence of the cemetery.  To make a bad situation even worse, the Haneys were ordered to pay $50,000 in legal fees.  Their efforts to be free of the property had backfired.

Unable to come up with the money to pay off their court costs, much less relocate, the Haneys had no choice other than to declare bankruptcy.  After losing everything they had, they left the ghosts of Newport behind them to begin their lives anew.

Ben and Jean Williams were another couple that paid dearly after moving into the quiet subdivision.  They, along with their daughter Tina and granddaughter Carli, thought that they had found paradise, but it would turn out to be a beautiful lie.  One tragedy after another would, over the years, leave the family broken in more ways than one.

Much like the Haneys, the Williams’ nightmare began slowly.  They first noticed two depressions in the earth behind their house that refused to be filled.  The sinkholes had appeared out of nowhere, much to Ben’s dismay.  He would pack the spaces with dirt only to find that they had returned to their sunken state within days. It wasn’t lost on him that the areas were in the shapes of coffins.

Jean had always had a green thumb and loved nothing more than to plant and tend to flowers.  All that changed when she moved into the house at Newport.  There, no matter what she planted or how much attention she showered upon it, nothing grew.  Where once her projects flourished, now everything withered and died by her hand.  She soon realized that, for whatever reason, the earth had gone sour.

The Williamses also noticed a putrid smell that welled up inside of their home with no obvious source.  Voices with no obvious source would often be heard in the house.  Shadows began moving independently across the walls as the family watched in stunned disbelief.

The couple’s granddaughter Carli claimed that the toilet would flush by itself.  She told them that when this occurred, voices would rise from the water as it swirled in the bowl as if someone deep in the pipes was trying to communicate with whoever was listening.

Jean