13 - Animal Ghosts by Elliott O'Donnell

Dive into a captivating collection of ghostly tales where the spirits come not from the human realm, but from our beloved animal companions. Each chapter reveals spine-tingling stories of hauntings featuring dogs, cats, birds, jungle creatures, and more. Join Allyson Hester as she guides you through these eerie encounters that blend the supernatural with the animal kingdom.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Part one of chapter seven of Animal Ghosts. This is
a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
This reading by Alison Hester of Athens, Georgia. Animal Ghosts
by Elliott O'Donnell, Chapter seven, Birds and the Unknown. As

(00:25):
Edgar Allan Poe has suggested in his Immortal Poem of
the Raven, there is a strong link between certain species
of birds and the unknown. We all know that vultures, kites,
and crows scent dead bodies from a great way off.
But we don't all know that these and other kinds
of birds possess an addition, the psychic property of scenting

(00:47):
the advent, not only of the phantom of death, but
of many, if not indeed all, other spirits. Within my knowledge,
there have been cases when, before a death in the house, ravens,
jack dolls, canaries, magpies, and even parrots have shown unmistakable
signs of uneasiness and distress. The raven has croaked in

(01:08):
a high pitched, abnormal key, the jackdaw and the canary
have become silent and dejected, and from time to time shivering.
The magpie even has feigned death. The parrot has shrieked incessantly. Owls, too,
are sure predictors of death, and may be heard hooting
in the most doleful manner outside the house of anyone

(01:30):
doomed to die shortly. In an article entitled Psychic Records,
the editor of the Occult Review in the August number
nineteen o five supplies the following anecdotes of ghosts of
birds furnished him by his correspondents. In the autumn of
eighteen seventy seven, my husband was lying seriously ill with

(01:51):
rheumatic fever, and I had sat up several nights. At last,
the doctors insisted on my going to bed, and very
unwillingly I retired to a spare room. While undressing, I
was surprised to see a very large white bird come
from the fireplace, make a hovering circle round me, and
finally go to the top of a large double chest

(02:12):
of drawers. I was too tired to trouble about it,
and I thought I would let it remain until morning.
The next morning, I said to the housemaid, there was
a large bird in the spare room last night, which
flew to the top of the drawers, see that it
is put out. The nurse who was present said, oh,
dear ma'am, I am afraid that is an omen and

(02:34):
it means the master won't live. And she was confirmed
in her opinion by the maid, saying she had searched
and there was no trace of any bird. I was
quite angry, as my husband was decidedly better, had slept
through the night, and we thought that the crisis had passed.
I went to his bedside and found him quietly sleeping,

(02:54):
but he never woke, and in about an hour passed
quietly away. I thought no more of the bird, fancying
I must have been mistaken from being overtired. Some months
after my husband's death, my youngest little one was born.
He lived for twelve months and then had an attack
of bronchitis. He slept in a cot in my room,

(03:17):
and I was undressing one night when this same large
white bird came from his cot, floated round me, and
disappeared into the fireplace. At the time I did not
for a moment think of it as anything but a
strange coincidence, and in no way connected it with baby's illness.
The next morning, I was sitting by the drawing room

(03:38):
fire with baby on my lap. The doctor came in,
looked at him, sound at his chest, and pronounced him
much better, as he was a friend of the family.
He sat down on the other side of the fireplace
and was chatting in an ordinary way, when suddenly he
jumped up with an exclamation, why what does this mean?

(03:59):
And took child from my arms, quite dead. For two
years we saw nothing more of the white bird, and
we had moved to another place. One day I was
in my room and my two little girls, aged six
and eight, were standing at the window watching a kitten
in the garden, when suddenly the youngest cried out, oh, mamma,

(04:21):
look at that great white bird, putting her hands as
if to catch it, exactly in the way it flies round.
One I saw nothing, and the elder child said, don't
be silly, Jesse, there is no bird. But there is,
said the child, don't you see, dear, Look there it is.

(04:41):
I looked at my watch. It was twenty minutes past three,
two days after we received the news that a niece
of mine had died. At twenty minutes past three. The
children had never known anything of the former appearances, as
we had never talked about it before them. We have
seen nothing since of the bird, but have for some

(05:03):
years had no death in the family. So runs the
article in the Occult Review, and I can corroborate it
with similar experiences that have happened to my friends and me.
Some years ago. For instance, a great friend of my
wife's died, and on the day of the funeral, a
large bird tried to fly in at the window of
the room where the corpse lay, while shortly afterwards an

(05:26):
exactly similar bird visited the window of my wife's and
my room in a house several hundreds of miles away.
If it was only a coincidence, it was a very
extraordinary one. Then again, this spring, just before the death
of one of my wife's relatives, a large bird flew
violently against the windowpane behind which my wife was sitting,

(05:50):
an incident that had never happened to her in that
house before. Undoubtedly spirits in the guise of birds. Most
probably they are the phantasms of birds that have actually
once lived on the material plane, are the messengers of death.
A case of bird haunting in East Russia some years ago,

(06:13):
the neighborhood of Orskayea in East Russia, was roused by
an affair of a very remarkable nature. The body of
a handsome young peasant woman called Marthe Popenkoff was found
in a lonely part of the road between Orsakia and Orenburg,
with the skin of her face and body shockingly torn

(06:33):
and lacerated, but without there being any wounds deep enough
to cause her death, which the doctor attributed to singape.
The people of Orskayea, not satisfied with this verdict, declared
Marthe had been murdered, and made such a loud clamour
that the editor of the local paper at last voiced
their sentiments in the East Russia Chronicle. It was then

(06:57):
that M. Durrant, a smart, young young French engineer temporarily
residing in those parts, became interested in the case and
decided to investigate it thoroughly. With this end in view,
he wrote to his friend M. Hearsint, a keen student
of the occult in Saratova, to join him, and three

(07:17):
days after the dispatch of his letter, met the latter
at the Orskaya railway station. M. Durrant retailed the case
as they drove to his house. It is a remarkable
affair in every way, he said. The woman was leading
a perfectly respectable married life. She was hard working and industrious,

(07:38):
and beyond the fact that she was over indulgent to
her children, does not seem to have had any serious faults.
As far as I can ascertain, she had no enemies
nor secret lovers. M. Hirstnett asked, No, she was quite straight.
And do you feel sure she was murdered? I do
public opinion so strongly favers that view. Did you see

(08:01):
the marks on the woman? I did, and could make
nothing of them. After supper, I will take you to
see her in the morgue. What she is still unburied? Yes,
but there is nothing unusual about that. In these parts
bodies are often kept for ten days, sometimes even longer. M.
Durant was as good as his word. After they had

(08:23):
partaken of a somewhat hasty meal, they set out to
the morgue, where they made a careful inspection of the
poor woman's remains. M. Hersant examined the marks on the
woman's body very closely with his magnifying glass. Ah, he
suddenly exclaimed, bending down and almost touching the corpse with
his nose. Ah, have you made a discovery? M. Durant inquired,

(08:49):
I prefer not to say at present. M Hersent replied,
I should like to see the spot where this body
was found. Now we will go there at once Durrant rejoined.
The scene of the tragedy was the Orenburg Road, at
the foot of two little hills, and on either side
were the sloping fields yellow with the nodding corn. That

(09:13):
is the exact place where she lay. M Durrant said,
indicating with his finger a dark patch on a little
wooden bridge spanning a stream, within a stone's throw of
a tumble down mill house, all overgrown with ivy and lichen.
M Herst looked round and sniffed the air with his nostrils.
There is an air of loneliness about this spot, he remarked,

(09:36):
that in itself suggests a crime. If this were an
ordinary murder, one could well imagine the assassin was aided
in his diabolical work by the configuration of the land, which,
shelving as it does, slips down into the narrow valley,
so as to preclude any possibility of escape on the
part of his victim. The place seems especially designed by

(09:59):
providence as a death trap. Let us have a look
at the interior of this building. The police have searched
it thoroughly. M. Durrant said, I've no doubt. M. Hearsin
replied dryly, no one knows better than I what the
thoroughness of the police means. They entered the premises cautiously,
since the roof was in a rickety condition, and any

(10:21):
slight concussion might dislodge an avalanche of stones and plaster.
While M. Durrant stood glancing round him rather impatiently, M
Hersin made a careful scrutiny of the walls. Humph, he said,
At last, as you so rightly observed, Henry, this is
a remarkable case. I have finished my investigation for tonight.

(10:42):
Let us be going home. Tomorrow I should like to
visit Mart's home. This conversation took place shortly before midnight.
Some six hours later, all Or Skayeah was ringing with
the news that Marth Poppenkoff's three children had all been
found dead in their beds, their faces and bodies lacerated
in exactly the same manner as their mothers. There seemed

(11:06):
to be no doubt now that Marth had been murdered,
and the populace cried shame on the police, for the
assassin was still at large. They agreed that the murderer
could be of no other than Peter Popenkoff, and the
editor of the local paper repeating these statements. Peter Popenkoff
was duly charged with the crimes and arrested. He was

(11:28):
pronounced guilty by all excepting M Hearsint, and of course
em Hearsint thought him guilty too, only he liked to
think differently from any one else. I don't want to
commit myself, was all they could get out of him.
I may have something to say later on. M. Durant
laughed and shrugged his shoulders. It undoubtedly is Peter Popenkoff,

(11:51):
he observed. I had an idea that he was the
culprit all along. But a day or two later Peter
Popenkoff was found dead in prison, with the skin on
his face and hands all torn to shreds. There didn't
we say so, cried the inconsequent mob. Peter Popenkoff was innocent.
One of the police themselves is the murderer? Come? You

(12:15):
must acknowledge that we are on the right track now.
It is one of the police. M. Durrant said to
his friend. But M Hersin only shook his head. I
acknowledge nothing of the sort. He said, Come with me
to the mill house tonight, and I will then tell
you what I think to this proposition. M Durrant willingly agreed, and,

(12:37):
accompanied by his friend and the village priest, set off.
On their arrival, M Hersent produced a big compass, and
on the earth floor of the mill house drew a
large circle in which he made with white chalk various
signs and symbols. He then sat in the middle of
it and bade his two companions stand in the doorway

(12:58):
and watch. The night threw darker and darker, and presently
into the air stole a something that all three men
at once realized was supernatural. M Hersant coughed nervously, The
priest crossed himself, and M Durant called out, this is
getting ridiculous. These medieval proceedings are too absurd. Let us

(13:19):
go home. The next moment, from the far distance, a
church clock began to strike. It was midnight, and an
impressive silence fell on the trio. Then there came a
noise like the fluttering of wings, A loud, blood curdling scream,
half human and half animal, and a huge black owl,

(13:39):
whirling down from the roof of the building, perched in
the circle directly in front of m her Saint. Pray, Father, pray. Quickly,
m her Saint whispered, pray for the dead, and sprinkle
the circle with holy water. The priest, as well as
his trembling limbs would allow, obeyed, whereupon the bird instantly vanished.

(14:01):
For Heaven's sake, M Durrant gasped, tell us what it
all means? Only this, M Hersen said solemnly. The phanfasm
we saw caused the death of the Popenkoff family. It
is the spirit of an owl that the children, encouraged
by their parents, killed in a most cruel manner. As

(14:22):
soon as I examined Mart's body, I perceived the mutilations
were due to a bird. And when I visited this
mill on the eve of my arrival, I knew that
a bird had once lived here, that it had been
captured with lime and murdered, and that it haunts the place.
How could you know, that, the priest exclaimed, in astonishment,

(14:42):
I am clairvoyant. I saw the bird's ghost as it
appeared to us just now. Afterwards, I inquired if the
Popenkoff's neighbors, and the information I gathered fully confirmed my
suspicions that the unfortunate bird had been put to death
in a most barbarous manner. Of the three children laid
to rest any doubt I may have had with regard

(15:04):
to the superphysical playing a part in the death of Marth. Then,
when her better half had been served likewise, I was
certain that all five pseudo murders were wholly and solely
acts of retribution, and that they were perpetuated. I am
inclined to think involuntarily by the spirit of the owl itself. Accordingly,

(15:26):
I decided to hold a seance here here in its
old haunt, and if possible, to put an end to
the earth bound condition and wanderings of the soul of
the unhappy bird. Thanks to Father Micheldoff, we have done so,
and there will be no more so called murders near Orskayea.

(15:46):
Hauntings by the phanfasms of birds. One of the most
curious cases of hauntings by the phanfasms of birds happens
towards the end of the eighteenth century in a church
not twenty miles from London. The Sextons started the rumors,
declaring that he had heard strange noises, apparently proceeding from
certain vaults containing the tombs of two old and distinguished families.

(16:11):
The noises, which generally occurred on Friday nights, most often
took the form of mockings, suggesting to some of the
listeners the inaction of a murder, and to others merely
the flapping of wings. The case soon attracted considerable attention,
people flocking to the church from all over the country side,
and it was not long before certain persons came forward

(16:34):
and declared they had ascertained the cause of the disturbance.
The churchwarden, sexton and his wife, and others all swore
to seeing a huge crow pecking and clawing at the
coffins in the vaults, and flying about the chancel of
the church and perching on the communion rails when they
had tried to seize it and immediately vanished. An old

(16:56):
lady who came of a family of well to do Yeomen,
and who lived near the church about that time, said
that the people in the town had for many years
been convinced the church there was haunted by the phantom
of a bird, which they believed to be the earth
bound soul of a murderer who, owing to his wealth,
was interred in the churchyard instead of being buried at

(17:18):
the cross roads with the customary wooden stake driven through
the middle of his body. This belief of the Yokels
received some corroboration from a neighboring squire, who said he
had seen the phanfasm and was quite positive it was
the earth bound soul of a criminal whose family history
was known to him, and whose remains lay in the churchyard.

(17:39):
This is all the information that I have been able
to gather on the subject, but it is enough to
at least suggest the church was at one time haunted
by the phantom of a bird. But whether the earth
bound soul of a murderer taking that guise, or the
spirit of an actual dead bird, it is impossible to say.

(18:00):
End of Part one of Chapter seven