Our 5 Favorite Real Ghost Stories: A Haunted Friday Flash Blog

Halloween is officially the favorite holiday of the Complete PR team. Even bigger than St. Hubbins Day.

With that in mind, we have completed a new list of Halloween favorites in 2025. In the past, we have shared our favorite scary movies, favorite Halloween songs, our picks for most underrated horror films, favorite macabre turns by comedic actors, and even our lists for the films that scared us the most.

But this year, we are getting real.

Here are some of our favorite true horror stories. (True being a very subjective word).

JOHN'S PICKS

The Bell Witch: We did a short play of the Bell Witch when I was in junior high and I played the part of John Bell. The part of the witch (or the witch’s offstage voice) was a girl in my class who hated my guts. Not she hated my guts because she secretly liked me. She loathed me. No like. Just hate. Which made her performance and my performance that much better. Who needs to act when the leads out to battle each other on the stage really couldn’t stand the other? I will say I gained a new respect for her after. Alas, she still hated me. Such is life. Anyway, here is the story of the Bell Witch, for those who don’t know about this Tennessee ghost tale.

Dudleytown, Connecticut: A buddy of mine in college had a book entitled “Famous New England Ghosts.” We basically read it daily during Halloween. Most of the stories (there were maybe 10) were rather benign, but the story of the abandoned settlement of Dudleytown, Connecticut. This story included all kinds of strange tales and unexplained phenomena that terrified residents of this small enclave that had to do with an alleged curse. Murders, mayhem, monsters in the woods!  At some point, the town was abandoned and the woods swallowed up the town from history. Or at least that is what we read in this book that came out at some point in the 1970s. The real story was Dudleytown was technically a part of Cornwall that farmers settled. When the land proved pretty much useless for farming, the settlement was slowly abandoned in the 1800s. A conservation group bought all the land in the 1920s and made it private property. That, of course, fueled people’s imaginations of what was happening there, and soon the story of the “cursed town” entered the minds of people across Connecticut.

The Suscon Screamer: A childhood favorite since these were the woods a few miles from where my grandparents lived. We heard all kinds of legends of a supposed monster/demon/ ghost who lived in these woods who would let out a blood curdling scream before attacking you. The story was amplified because my dad would tell a story about waiting for his father (my grandfather) in what he thought was an abandoned church one time while in Suscon. The story made no sense (it was something about a woman in black), but he told it with such dread that we all believed it. Here is a fairly detailed report of the history of the Screamer and many of the legends told around it. My dad's tale is not in there.

The Winchester House: Who doesn’t love a story about a house built to confuse ghosts from finding the owner? Apparently not many. They now have a website and have festivals around the legends of this spooky mansion. This story is more bad architecture than scary ghost story, but I still like it.

Converse University Ghosts: I learned about these when I moved to South Carolina many years ago. I made some friends with some Converse grads who filled me in on all of the tales told there including the ghost of Hazel Abbott, the white lady and the little boy living in Pell Hall. These were often told in hushed tones…my sources didn’t want anyone to know their beloved alma mater was haunted. Decades later? Now they have ghost hunting clubs on campus.

 ANNA'S PICKS

The Gray Man: I grew up going to Pawleys Island on family vacation every year, and the first thing my uncle-who-loved-to-scare-me informed me of was The Gray Man. According to the most popular version, the ghost is the spirit of a young man who died in the marshes while trying to reach his fiancée. Since then, he is said to appear along the beach, dressed in gray, to warn residents of approaching danger. I never saw him. But I did see my friend eat nearly four pounds of crab legs at a Pawley’s seafood restaurant while in a gray shirt.

Elizabeth Wilson at the Stanley Hotel: I came across this ghost story after reading trivia about The Shining; Stephen King was inspired to write the book after a stay in Room 217 of the Stanley Hotel. That room is said to be haunted by Elizabeth Wilson, a housekeeper who was killed in there by a gas leak explosion in 1911. She’s believed to haunt the room, folding guests’ clothes or packing their luggage. Some stories claim she may rearrange belongings for unmarried couples, believing they shouldn't be in the room together (judgemental).

Jean LaFitte: When I lived for a year in New Orleans, my favorite bar was LaFitte’s Blacksmith Shop. Not because they had the best frozen daiquiri in the French Quarter (they did), but because the bar was haunted by the Pirate Jean LaFitte. I was told on a ghost tour that he used the building as a front for his smuggling operations in the early 1800s, much before they put the daiquiri machines in there for him to enjoy. With no electricity in most of the building, many visitors have reported seeing Lafitte as a full-bodied apparition in sailor's gear who stares from the dark corners before disappearing. And you know what they say, there is no witness more reliable than a near blackout drunk Mardi Gras attendee in a dimly lit bar. 

Old City Jail and Lavina Fisher: While living in Charleston I learned about the Old City Jail on a ghost tour, which is considered to be one of the city’s most haunted locations. Many former inmates are said to haunt the jail now, but the most interesting one in my opinion is Lavina Fisher. Lavina is a notorious serial killer who, along with her husband, operated a Charleston inn and murdered guests. Allegedly? Even though I immediately pictured someone bearing striking resemblance to Helena Bonham Carter, she was supposedly beautiful. 

Alice Flagg: Another beach ghost! I have to talk about Alice Flagg and her gravesite on Murrel’s Inlet. I know of Alice because visiting her grave at All Saints Episcopal Church was my parents’ idea of quality time with a child obsessed with ghosts. Her long and detailed story can be read here, but visiting her grave is a common thing as well as leaving small gifts as a way to connect to her spirit. I would like to think she found my rhinoceros Beanie Baby particularly meaningful.