Just because you’re dead doesn’t mean you can’t still have a little fun. The following historical figures have all shuffled off their mortal coil, yet sightings of them have remained frequent in the years since their passing, so it seems like they might not be ready for the after(life) party quite yet.
10. The Blonde Bombshell
Marilyn Monroe has been dubbed “the hardest working ghost in Hollywood” because of the many sightings that have occurred in the six decades since her death.
The actress has been spotted at multiple spots that she frequented in life, such as the carousel at the Santa Monica Pier or the Knickerbocker Hotel where she used to meet Joe DiMaggio in secret.
But the location that has the strongest connection to Marilyn was, unsurprisingly, one of her favorite places to spend her time – the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Supposedly, she lived there for a couple of years before getting her big break and it was by the side of the hotel’s Tropicana pool that Monroe had her first magazine shoot. The hotel even provided the actress with a full-length mirror in her room and it seems that she still likes to admire herself, from time to time. Both guests and staff who claimed to have seen Marilyn’s spirit have done so by spotting her reflection in a mirror. Eventually, the hotel embraced its connection to the departed starlet and now even offers a Marilyn Monroe Suite, although it’s unclear if it is the same room that the actress once inhabited.
9. The Phantom of Stage 28
For almost 100 years, Universal Studios’ Sound Stage 28 was an iconic landmark and a big piece of Hollywood lore. Built in 1924, the stage was famously used the following year to film “The Phantom of the Opera.” The feature became one of the most famous horror movies of all time and made a star out of its “phantom,” Lon Chaney Sr. Dubbed “The Man of a Thousand Faces,” Chaney became known for his incredible make-up effects which he applied himself in order to portray ghoulish characters.
As for Stage 28, it kept being used for decades afterward, although one section of the stage permanently housed the original set of the movie. Following Chaney’s death in 1930, crewmen, security guards, and stagehands who worked on Stage 28 began reporting seeing a caped figure prowling through the rafters, oftentimes sporting Lon Chaney’s trademark smirk. It seemed that life imitated art, as the phantom of the film turned into the phantom of Stage 28.
8. The Ghosts of Père Lachaise
If you’re on the lookout for ghosts, you would think that a cemetery would be a great place to start, right? And if you are particularly searching for celebrity ghosts, then you should obviously try a cemetery where loads of famous people were buried, right?
With that in mind, few cemeteries are home to more prominent “residents” than the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Among its famous burials, there are French luminaries such as Molière, Balzac, and Bizet, as well as international figures such as Chopin, Oscar Wilde, and Jim Morrison.
Unsurprisingly, quite a few of the deceased are alleged to leave their graves, every now and then, and go for a nightly stroll through the grounds of the cemetery, but the one with the most tragic story is novelist Marcel Proust. As a gay man, Proust kept his sexuality a secret from all except his closest confidantes. His dying wish was to be buried next to his lover, a wish which was denied. Therefore, the writer’s ghost rises up at night in search of his long-lost love.
7. The Banjo of Al Capone
Honestly, is it really surprising that people think Alcatraz is haunted? It was home to some of the most vicious and violent people of the 20th century. This included Al Capone, who stayed at Alcatraz for almost five years as Prisoner No. 85.
While incarcerated, Capone tried to find his musical side and joined the prison band, playing the banjo. He had no previous musical experience, but he persevered and, even though he was only allowed to practice in the showers, he got pretty good at it. Capone even wrote one song titled “Madonna Mia” and dedicated it to his wife.
Eventually, Capone gave up the instrument and replaced it with the mandola, but the twangs of his banjo were said to still ring out through the corridors of Alcatraz, even long after the prison was closed down.
6. The Funny Man
Ever since Hollywood was in its infancy, the Chateau Marmont Hotel represented a place where celebrities could find privacy and, perhaps, an open-minded and discrete management that turned a blind eye towards their most debauched antics. Columbia Pictures co-founder and president Harry Cohn once told his stars: “If you are going to get in trouble, do it at the Chateau Marmont.” It’s where Jim Morrison leaped out a fourth-floor window in a drug-induced haze. It’s where Led Zeppelin rode motorcycles down the hallways. And, most infamous of all, it’s where Saturday Night Live comedian John Belushi died of a drug overdose.
But according to multiple people, including friends of Belushi, the comedian never left Bungalow No. 3 where he died, and he makes an appearance every now and then, looking to elicit a few laughs. Comedian-turned-politician Al Franken is among the people who claimed to have seen Belushi.
The eeriest story surrounding this supposedly-haunted bungalow involves a family who stayed there back in 1999. They had a young boy who began laughing and talking to himself several times. When his mother asked him why he was laughing, he simply replied “the funny man.” Then, later, when the family saw a picture of John Belushi in the hotel, the boy pointed at him and said again – “the funny man!”
5. The Wight House
Some ghosts are believed to appear because they still have unfinished business on this earthly plane and, realistically, who was busier than the President of the United States?
Yes, given its long history and prominence, it comes as no surprise that the White House has plenty of spectral inhabitants, and quite a few of them were once the head of the household. Thomas Jefferson can be heard playing the violin in the Yellow Oval Room. Andrew Jackson likes to stomp around, laugh, and swear in the Rose Room. William Henry Harrison haunts the attic, apparently, but no other ghostly figure has had more sightings than Honest Abe himself.
Three First Ladies have all claimed to have seen the ghost of Lincoln or felt his presence: Grace Coolidge, Lady Bird Johnson, and Eleanor Roosevelt. And so did Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, who reportedly fainted when she was greeted by Lincoln’s ghost, top hat and all, standing outside her bedroom door. And even Winston Churchill had an encounter with the president – one night, after emerging from his bath, the British Prime Minister entered his room naked and smoking a cigar and saw Lincoln’s ghost sitting by the fire. We don’t know who scared who in that scenario…
4. The Princes in the Tower
As we’ve seen, buildings and locations that used to be places of torment and great suffering serve as lightning rods for ghostly sightings. London has its fair share of such places, but few are as notorious as the dreaded Tower of London, which served as a prison and a symbol of oppression for almost 1,000 years.
Just like the White House, many of the Tower’s infamous residents are said to still haunt the grounds, including Guy Fawkes, Henry VI, and Sir Walter Raleigh. But the eeriest sightings belong to two young boys wearing medieval clothes, who have been spotted prowling the corridors while holding hands, believed to be none other than the Princes in the Tower.
Their tragic tale is a famous one, even though their fate remains a mystery. The boys were the 12-year-old Edward V and his younger brother, Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York. Edward was supposed to become king, but he was deposed by his uncle, Richard III, and the siblings were locked up inside the tower. They then simply disappeared, although it’s commonly believed that they were quietly assassinated and buried somewhere on the property.
3. It’s Good to Be the King
When Elvis Presley died, a lot of his fans didn’t really know how to react. Many preferred to live in denial and claimed that the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll faked his death and started a new life in solitude. There has certainly been no shortage of Elvis sightings. Others made their peace with Presley’s death, but just because he had gotten rid of his corporeal form didn’t mean he couldn’t still show up every now and then whenever he was feeling lonesome tonight.
Out of all of today’s spectral apparitions, Elvis seems to be the most well-traveled ghost. He has been spotted at the aforementioned Knickerbocker Hotel in Los Angeles and the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. But for the true Elvis experience, we have to travel to his home in Memphis, Tennessee – Graceland.
Presley’s ex-wife, Priscilla, claims to feel his spirit as soon as she walks through the doors of the mansion they once shared…and she’s not the only one. For the past 40 years, Graceland has functioned as a museum and millions of the king’s fans have walked through its halls, with several of them claiming to have seen his ghost. Without a doubt, the most incredible tale belongs to actress Paz de la Huerta. In her case, Elvis wasn’t happy with just a simple “hello.” Instead, he passed through her body and made her have an orgasm.
2. The Queens of King Henry
“Divorced, beheaded, and died; divorced, beheaded, survived.”
That’s the little rhyme used to remember the fates of the six wives of Henry VIII. Not a lot of happy endings there, so it’s no surprise that some of them have come back as ghosts. Two of them, Jane Seymour and Catherine Howard, seemed to have chosen Hampton Court Palace as their local haunt. It makes sense – it was one of the favored royal residences during Henry’s time. Jane Seymour died there while giving birth and now she apparently shows up once a year on her son’s birthday. Catherine Howard, on the other hand, was staying at the palace when she was arrested for treason and dragged off for a date with the executioner, which is why her screams sometimes still echo through the halls.
But the most active ghost is Henry’s second and, arguably, most famous wife – Anne Boleyn. She was also executed, on charges of adultery, and has shown up at multiple places throughout the country since then, always carrying her severed head in her lap. She has been seen at the aforementioned Tower of London, Hever Castle, Marwell Hall, and Salle Church. However, if you want to have the best chance of an encounter with Anne Boleyn’s specter, you should travel to Blickling Hall on May 19. Believed to be her birthplace, it is said that Anne pulls up to the mansion in a phantom carriage drawn by a headless horseman, every year on the anniversary of her execution.
1. The Lair of the Latin Lover
Born in 1895 in Italy, Rudolph Valentino emigrated to America and became one of Hollywood’s first male sex symbols, promoting his image as a “Latin lover.” His sudden death at the tender age of 31 due to peritonitis left his fans in utter dismay, but rumors soon started swirling that perhaps Valentino might still be around.
Unsurprisingly, most sightings were reported at his home, an estate in Bel Air Valentino dubbed the Falcon Lair. People who stayed there after the actor’s death in 1926 reported seeing strange lights and hearing otherworldly noises. This kept happening until 1930 when Western actor Harry Carey moved into the house. After he had the same experiences, he investigated and actually found the earthly source of all those bizarre happenings – a system of lights and wires strewn around a chimney and a few windows that led into a hidden basement. There, a former caretaker used to conduct séances to contact Valentino’s spirit and he used the lighting system for added effect. Although the caretaker left, the system was still on and lit up occasionally at night.
You might think that would be the end of it, but residents of Falcon Lair still reported seeing eerie things at the mansion. The last to do so was Doris Duke, the billionaire heiress who lived at Falcon Lair for four decades. Both she and her butler admitted to seeing the silent movie star multiple times during their stay at Falcon Lair.