In the years since his retirement as CEO of Kockums (previously Soderhamm) forestry products factory, Tom Richardson has taken up painting as a hobby. He’s pretty good, too. He even won first prize at an arts fair in Florida, best of show out of about 300 pieces entered in the event.But another experience he had in Florida crosses his mind from time to time — a post-World War II tragedy that has inspired books, television programs, movies and a catalog of unexplained phenomena theories that have found a place in the national lexicon under the “Bermuda Triangle” heading. On Dec. 5, 1945, Richardson was assigned the role of duty officer at the Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station, where that assignment fell to him once or twice a year. And in that capacity, he became a witness to a tragedy that has become legend. It was one of his last duties in the Navy. With the war over, he had less than a month remaining in the service. He spent the rest of his days in the Navy flying missions in a massive and fruitless search for any sign of the lost aircraft and airmen. Just months after the Japanese surrender and the end of the war, Lt. Charles Taylor led a formation of five Grumman Torpedo Bombers with a combined crew of 14 on a routine training mission and disappeared without a trace. Less than an hour after their disappearance, a rescue plane sent out to try to find them exploded 13 minutes after takeoff, killing 13 more men.

An aeronautical engineering student when the war began, Richardson had enlisted with a desire to be a Navy combat pilot. As most of his class of pilots was being sent to the Pacific, Richardson was sent for additional instrument training. Instead of being sent into combat, he was assigned as a flight trainer to prepare other pilots for war.

The young ensign was assigned to the Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station as a flight instructor at the time — the same job Taylor held. Richardson had been stationed at Fort Lauderdale for a little over a year when the incident occurred, training pilots and flying the same type of torpedo bombers, also called TBFs or Avengers, as Taylor. Richardson had flown thousands of miles over the Atlantic from the base.

According to an article on the Naval Historical Center’s Web site, Taylor was late for his flight briefing that day, and when he arrived he told the training duty officer he didn’t want to take that flight out, and asked that another officer take over. No other training officer was available, the novice pilots were anxious to make the flight — the final part of a three-flight sequence for that phase of their training.

The men were scheduled to fly a route called Navigation Problem 1, which ran as follows: (1) depart NAS Fort Lauderdale 26 degrees 03 minutes north and 80 degrees 07 minutes west and fly 091 degrees distance 56 miles to Hens and Chickens Shoals to conduct low level bombing and, after bombing, continue on course 091 for 67 miles, (2) fly course 346 degrees for 73 miles and (3) fly course 241 degrees for a distance of 120 miles, returning to NAS Fort Lauderdale. In short, a triangular route with a brief stop for some glide bombing practice on the first leg out.

To view the rest of this article, please visit the source

Source

I once did a column on the origin of Easter.
Easter descended from a Pagan holiday. In that column I made some disparaging remarks about Pagans, which didn’t go over very well with the local Pagans.
Are there local Pagans? Yes there are. Trust me on this one.
Anyway, I apologize again to any and all Pagans for [...]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SAN DIEGO, CA – JUNE 28, 2007 – MYSTERY OF THE GHOST OF THE HOTEL DEL CORONADO - NEW EVIDENCE REVEALED, LEGEND BUSTED.

Twenty people executed. Nineteen hanged and one pressed to death by stones.
Historian Mary Beth Norton knew the outcome of the Salem witchcraft crisis and trials of 1692, but she didn’t buy the story of how it all came about.
Her inquiry would result in a prize-winning book called “In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem [...]

Full bodied apparitions, people walking up and down the stairs, are just some of the things night custodian Jacques Benoit has seen.

Two years ago a member of our group came to me with a report he prepared on ITC or more commonly known as Spirit Comm. I was intrigued and began to look a little deeper, which led me to the work of Frank Sumption and his creation, Franks Box.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SAN DIEGO, CA – JUNE 28, 2007 – MYSTERY OF THE GHOST OF THE HOTEL DEL CORONADO - NEW EVIDENCE REVEALED, LEGEND BUSTED.


YouTube Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlbfLHjTeVQ

Researchers use a new process called “Interdimensional Communication” to separate fact from fiction on the internationally famous legend of Kate Morgan, the Hotel Del Coronado’s most longstanding guest.

The “Legend” would have you believe that Kate Morgan was under the assumed name of Mrs. Lottie A. Bernard when she checked into the Hotel Del Coronado on the afternoon of November 24th, 1892. She is accused of being a swindler and a cheat, using her charms to cheat men out of their money. She is married to a gambler and pregnant and riding the rails. She is also ruled a suicide when she is found dead on the steps leading to the beach on the morning of November 29, 1892. Not only is this legend completely untrue for Kate Morgan, it is even more wrong when the legend is not even about the correct person. Mrs. Lottie A. Bernard is not Kate Morgan.

Bonnie Vent ( Research Medium located in San Diego, CA) spoke with the famous spirit. Vent said; “The first thing she wanted to make clear is that she is not Kate Morgan and her real name is Mrs. Lottie A. Bernard, the widow of John Bernard”. “This is the main reason why Lottie stays at the Hotel Del Coronado”. “She is waiting for her true story to be told”.

There have been several books written about this case, but her identity was never questioned until now. With this new information in hand, provided by Mrs. Lottie A. Bernard herself, research into the facts of the case were initiated.

According the San Diego Union December 2nd, 1892, Mrs. Lottie A. Bernard was seen on a train in Denver, CO heading to Coronado, CA. Kate Morgan was under the assumed name of Katie Logan in Los Angeles, CA. To quote the San Diego Union: “A bell boy of Hotel Del Coronado said yesterday that he was told by Joseph E. Jones of Boston, who came to the hotel on Thanksgiving Day, that the latter was a fellow passenger in the same car from Denver with the young woman.” “Mr. Jones said that he had not mentioned the fact as he was averse to being called to testify before the coroner’s jury”.

Mr. Jones was never called to testify, even though he was a key witness. His name is listed directly after hers on the hotel register. Mr. Jones is the same person who saw Mrs. Lottie A. Bernard arguing on the train in Orange, CA. This argument is a corner stone to the legend. Some of the newspaper account was used for the legend but not all of it. If Mrs. Bernard were on a train heading from Denver to the Hotel Del Coronado she cannot be Kate Morgan. Kate Morgan under the name of Katie Logan left her employer’s home the day before Thanksgiving and said she would return the next day to make a Thanksgiving Dinner, she never returned, but she could not be on a train in Denver several days before leaving her employer’s home.

This is just an example of the facts given by the famous spirit at the Hotel Del Coronado. Research is ongoing and additional funding is needed.

Media Contact: Bonnie Vent - bvent@sdparanormal.com
Website: www.sdparanormal.com
Sample Footage of actual communication from the documentary “Conversations with the Dead”:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid959009698

"These incidents took place over a three-year period, from 1986 to 1989 in Northumberland, England," writes Jessy. "My family moved into a three-bed rented house, and right from the start...

FIREFIGHTERS are renowned for their valour, but they have been left unnerved inside their fire station in Drove Road.
Poltergeists are said to haunt the building, which lies on the route of the old canal, in which people are thought to have drowned.
Ghostbusters examined the station’s poltergeist trouble spots on Saturday to unearth the truth.
And evidence [...]

Camden County Tribune, GA -... as a science educator, I am somewhat disappointed by the half-page article by Ashley Smith regarding Ms. Loretta Johns' "Psychic Reading" business. ...

::

Top story: Interview with the Ghost Hunter, Hans Holzer
Plus:
• "God" spelled out inside an eggplant!
• No evidence for survival of consciousness after death
• Newest crop formation in Wiltshire, England
• Some...

Although Western witchcraft was not taken into consideration when the Mpumalanga department of local government and housing started drafting the Mpumalanga Witchcraft Suppression Bill 2007, the draft proposal has caused uproar in Pagan circles since it was leaked in June.
Pagans believe the bill will force them to abandon their religion. The bill aims to suppress [...]

Join Chicago Hauntings' Ursula Bielski, Chicago's most respected paranormal researcher, and Ed Shanahan, Gatekeeper of The Unexplained World, as they usher you Beyond the Veil.

Britain's native toad is at risk from a deadly infection that has driven many amphibians to extinction, say scientists.