MrRING
Android Futureman
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2002
- Messages
- 6,053
Anybody ever hear of this fairly "Poltergeist"- type haunting? I just got through seeing a movie called "Grave Secrets" that is based on the book "The Black Hope Horror".
This site is the best report on it that I've read, and I'll quote from it:
whatwasthen.com/black_hope.html
Link is dead. The MIA webpage (quoted partially below) can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20031211115006/http://www.whatwasthen.com/black_hope.html
Considering the date (this occured in 1980), did this mean Spielberg's Poltergeist is based on this event?
And what about the story? I hadn't heard of it before, but I wonder if it's because the racism in thes tory makes it less palitable to audiences?
This site is the best report on it that I've read, and I'll quote from it:
Link is dead. The MIA webpage (quoted partially below) can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20031211115006/http://www.whatwasthen.com/black_hope.html
In 1980 Ben and Jean Williams brought a new home in Newport a subdivision just outside Houston, Texas. They moved in with their young granddaughter expecting to have all the satisfaction of living in a house that was built to their specifications. The neighborhood was beautifully designed and the house roomy and comfortable with the entire modern convinces they could want. But almost from the first day they began to have experiences that one would expect more in a drafty castle than in a brand new suburban house in southeast Texas.
The family began to have other more serious problems. Poisonous snakes began to find their way onto the property and into the couple’s home. Their daughter became seriously ill. Their neighbors reported similar incidents and problems with their own homes, but none of them could offer any explanation.
The frustration was exacerbated by a nagging doubt they could not put their finger on. When they moved in they had noticed that a tree in the back yard had strange markings carved into it. The terrain in the subdivision seemed oddly dotted with what looked like sinkholes. They could not shake the feeling that some clue or history of the area was being withheld from them. Unintentionally a neighbor discovered the horrible truth. Workers digging a swimming pool in the back yard unearthed the remains of two people.
Facts began to slowly emerge. They were able to locate an elderly man named Jasper Norton who as a youth had worked as a gravedigger. Not only could he help identify whom the graves belonged to, but he also told them how they came to be there. The subdivision was built over the graves of an abandoned cemetery that had been called "Black Hope." Buried in pauper and often unmarked graves were the remains of at least 60 people most of whom had been former slaves.
Considering the date (this occured in 1980), did this mean Spielberg's Poltergeist is based on this event?
And what about the story? I hadn't heard of it before, but I wonder if it's because the racism in thes tory makes it less palitable to audiences?
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