Legless Ghost Story In An Old Fortean Times

[MOSUGOJI]

HI,
I've been trying to track down a ghost story that a friend told me about. Allegedly it had a small blurb written about it in a Fortean Times from the late 80's/early 90's. I'm not even sure where the story takes place. Maybe Maryland. But the story goes something like this. There is a cemetary in a wooded area with a dirt path winding through the trees. A person that is walking down the path hears a sudden noise behind them. They turn to see a rather solid looking and ghastly legless woman running along on the palms of her hands towards the person screaming "Give me back my legs!!" She is bald, a bleached white color with a horrific face and moves along pretty fast on just her palms. At the pace of a fast jog I've heard. I've been trying to get more info on this story. We made a short film of this story,well as best we could based on what we knew anyways. I'd appreciate any more info on this. Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Whoaa, now I'm going to have nightmares. That is one of the most frightening stories I've heard in ages.

Can't give you more info, obviously, but would like to join your plea for someone who can to contribute.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go turn on every light in my house, and hide in the closet.
:eek!!!!:

 

[Anonymous]

There was a story about ghosts after a war, possibly in Bosnia, it was a long time ago that I read it. One was a report by a sentry that was guarding a bombed out site, where a pretty young legless woman appeared and screamed "Where are my legs?". Your story might be a misremembered verion of that.

 

[evilsprout]

There's supposedly a spook in Sheffield which is only a pair of feet. Maybe they could hook up...

 

[MOSUGOJI]

Funny how ghosts go wandering about searching for absent body parts. We have a Revolutionary war ghost at nearby FT Ontario in Oswego NY that wanders the shore of Lake Ontario searching for his head supposedly. His head was blown off by a cannonball during a naval battle between the fort batteries and the British warships in the bay according to the story. No idea of it was incoming from the warships or "friendly fire" from his own cannon emplacements. Not that it matters either way or that there would be a head left to find after taking a hit from something like that.

 

[Pete Younger]

Beware of ghosts shouting "I want head".

 

[naitaka]

Funny how ghosts go wandering about searching for absent body parts. We have a Revolutionary war ghost at nearby FT Ontario in Oswego NY that wanders the shore of Lake Ontario searching for his head supposedly.

Another New York fort also has a ghost looking for his head. Fort Niagara is haunted by 'Headless Henry', Henri LeClerc, who was murdered and then decapitated "so that it would look like Indians had done it". His body was thrown down a well and his head into Lake Ontario.

http://www.horrorseek.com/horror/drlarry/niagara.htm

 

[Mike_Pratt33]

There is another legless ghost story in the latest issue.

 

[Anonymous]

OOh, Ooh! At last I can tell someone my dad's ghost story. No one ever believes me when I've told them before.

We used to live in Brazil in Rio in the seventies when my dad was working for the Mining companies and we had this huge house that we borrowed off another ex-pat who was away. There were six of us altogether and my mum says that no one liked the hall. It was really big and light and like a courtyard that fed off into all the other rooms and none of us kids would dawdle there for long - running through it, and never playing there (it was perfect for it) and then one night my dad was coming down the stairs and he saw a perfect image of a womans slender hand on the stair tread near the bottom of the stairs. He said the hand was the right one but it was placed against the wall such that the body would have been through the wall and into the room beyond. He said it was very white with neat nails and it didn't move. Apparently he said 'Jesus Christ, I've been working too hard!' and went back to bed! He didn't tell anyone until we'd moved out in case we all had hysterics as he knew we hated the house and said it felt creepy. He said a house full of hysterical females would've been harder to bear than disembodied hands on stairs!

As for the original post - thanks a bunch. I'm not going to sleep for WEEKS now! I'd be tempted to lop her arms off an' all if I saw anything as scary as that. Then she'd be mad, eh?

 

[Anonymous]

It's worth noting that some Indians (not sure which religion) believe that the soul can't move on unless the entire body is dealt with. Maybe a missing body part keeps some ghosts Earthbound.

 

[rynner2]

It's worth noting that some Indians (not sure which religion) believe that the soul can't move on unless the entire body is dealt with.

Most Europeans felt that way at one time, when the catholic religion reigned supreme. Then, the conception of the afterlife was of a bodily resurrection from the grave, when the Last Trump sounds at the end of the old (wicked) world.

So people wanted all their body parts buried in the same grave, whether or not attached to each other.

 

[Anonymous]

So that's another reason that traitor's hacked up bodies were separated and scattered about:hmm:

Does C of E think the same then or was it a publicity stunt? I was brought up Catholic myself (tho lapsed a tad, now - its the only one that makes sense to me as I believe in spirits, etc.) and have never been sure what the others believe as I went to a Catholic school with real-life nuns and everything, yes!, who fairly spat at the idea of their students being exposed to other religions beyond what they had to know to pass their RE exams!

They were very very nice ladies. But we did have ONE. She was a teeny-tiny Irish lady called Sister Button and WOE BETIDE ANYONE WHO DARED TO THINK THEMSELVES ILL! (What about all the starving children in the third world? And the people on the streets? What about Jesus Christ our Lord himself who died fer yer sins and ye DARE be tellin me ye've a broken arm?)

 

[carole]

Beware of ghosts shouting "I want head".

:laughing: :laughing:

 

[Anonymous]

Then, the conception of the afterlife was of a bodily resurrection from the grave, when the Last Trump sounds at the end of the old (wicked) world.

It will be a sad day indeed, with no more trumps.

 

[Pete Younger]

It will be a sad day indeed, with no more trumps.

And so it came to pass that god farted and the earth was blown asunder.

 

[CALGACUS03]

There are these legs at Houndwood House in the Scottish borders who (that?) are possibly looking for a body:

An extract from 'Scottish Ghost Stories' by James Robertson. Taster sections of the book can be found online here.

...this ghost may in fact be an adult, the victim of a murder committed at Houndwood by a party of soldiers in the 16th century and reenacted ever since.
In Victorian times the haunting by Chappie o' Houndwood made the place notorious. In 1856 the then owner, Mrs Sarah Coulson, recorded the strange noises, which her servants also heard. Chappie would stride up and down certain rooms, and the stamp of his boots would be accompanied by the sound of steel scraping on steel, and by the heavy breathing and groans of a dying man. Yet though Chappie was never seen inside the house, in the grounds it was a different matte: his lower legs, clad in riding-breeches at the knee, and bloodstained riding-boots, were seen there, wandering trunkless in the half-light. But quite what poor Chappie had done to be severed by the soldiers in this was will probably never be known.

On a personal note; I remember as a child visiting Houndwood and can recall that the 'ring' that's mentioned in the account I linked to was in fact a bracelet that only barely fit around my eight year old wrist. I also remember the bones that were sticking out of the walls in the cellar; when I was there they were being used, quite prosaically, to hang dish-cloths and washcloths from.:reap: