Baby Monster

by Chris Chaos

Deep within King County in Washington state there is Saar Pioneer Cemetery which is the home to a highly interesting grave with a rather unique name shrouded in mystery. The final resting places are marked by Baby Monster (1888-1889) and John C. Monster (1851-1890) .

John C. Monster
Birth: Jan. 9, 1851
Death: Apr. 4, 1890

Spouse:
Anna Marie Nelson Monster (1861 - 1920)

Children:
Christina Monster Mallory (1880 - 1903)
Baby Monster (1888 - 1889)

Stumbling across this stone unaware of the history you can only imagine the stories that go through people's heads when they first gain sight of this. Creepy? Yes, but here is some of the associated history concerning the Monster family. This unnamed baby with only a last name was born on October 23, 1888 and died on February 3rd, 1889 in its 3rd month of life. On the rare side these days
due to great strides in medical care, infant mortality was quite common during this time period. Death is greedy and will take anyone regardless of their age. The baby Monster was buried alongside her father John C. Monster who was born in 1851 and died in 1890, a year after Baby Monster passed. John's name is listed directly above baby Monster's name on the stone.

The location of this grave is also kind of odd, it is hugged by the parking lot of a Win Co Foods parking lot.

John was married to Anna Marie Nelson Monster who was born in 1861 and passed in 1920. Some state that she is also buried in the same graveyard, but in an unmarked grave. Anna, like many overs buried in unmarked graves, is honored on a public tombstone within the graveyard. There are two more members of the Monster Family buried in unmarked graves.  One is a female born in January of 1912 without a death date listed.  The other is a male born 9 months later in October of 1912 who died at the age of 2 days old.

It is unclear if Anna is the biological mother of these children due to the fact that she would have been in her 50's. Records do show that Anna and John did give birth to a child by the name of Christina in 1880, who went on to marry a man by the name of Charles Mallory, but she died in 1903.

Despite all, it is a mystery and something to speculate over as to why this Baby Monster was never given a first name on its tombstone. It is possible that the child was never baptized, or if the stone itself was installed later on well after all people passed that might have known the baby's name.

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)

The Bunny Man

by Chris Chaos

Recently this photo began circulating around the internet and immediately raised speculation on what it could be. Many state that it was an old photo of The Bunny Man kidnapping a girl and pulling her into his lair. But supposedly it was found in 1982 in a dumpster in Georgia.

THE LEGEND OF THE BUNNY MAN
Comprised of many different versions, the story of The Bunny Man is an urban legend based out of Fairfax County Virginia from 1970. The legend goes that a man will don a bunny suit and attack people with an axe. The Bunny Man supposedly stalks and hunts on Bunny Man Bridge... "Bunny Man Bridge's" real name is Colchester Overpass which is located near Clifton.

Brian Conley, the Fairfax County Public Library Historian-Archivist, has researched the legend of the Bunny man and he discovered two separate incidents, occurring one week a part in 1970, where a man in a bunny costume threatened people. These incidents occurred in Burke, Virginia. October 19th, 1970 an incident was reported by an Air Force Cadet by the name of Bob Bennett. His fiancee and himself were visiting family members in Burke and about midnight they parked their car on Guinea Road. While talking they saw something moving out the back window. A few seconds later the window on the passenger side was smashed in and a mysterious figure, appearing in all white was standing there. As Bob tried to speed off, a man yelled at them: "You're on private property and I have your tag number." As they drove away Bob's fiancee noticed a hatchet on the floor, this is what was  thrown through the window.

Bob drove to the police station so that he could report the incident and gave the description of a man in a bunny suit with long rabbit ears. His fiancee reported a description more along the lines of a man in a Klan suit with the pointy hood. The hatchet was returned to the couple once the report was filed.

On October 29th, 1970 a second incident was reported by a security guard named Paul Phillips. Paul saw  a man standing in front of a house in a construction site and decided to investigate. Paul stated that the man was wearing a bunny suit that was grey, black and white and he appeared to be in his 20's, approx 5 foot 8 inches and 175 pounds. As Paul approached the man in the bunny suit started to swing an axe into a porch and started yelling: "All you people trespass around here. If you don't get out of here, I'm going to bust you on the head."

Short video concerning The Bunny Man by Alana G.

The local police department launched an investigation but there were no leads or additional information so the cases were closed. But...after the two above mentioned incidents over 50 people claimed to have spot The Bunny Man and a few newspapers ran articles on this wascally wabbit:

"Man in Bunny Suit Sought in Fairfax" (October 22, 1970)
"The 'Rabbit' Reappears" (October 31, 1970)
"Bunny Man Seen" (November 4, 1970)
"Bunny Reports Are Multiplying" (November 6, 1970)
In 1973, University of Maryland a student named Patricia Johnson submitted a research paper that chronicled precisely 54 variations of these events.

As stated previously there were several other versions to this legend. One even named a suspect Douglas J. Grifon (who was placed in prison for killing his family on Easter Sunday) as the Bunny Man. Legend has it that back in 1904 inmates were being transferred from a shutdown prison asylum to a new building and several escaped during a crash. All prisoners were recovered except for Mr. Grifon. After the crash many locals claimed to have found hundreds of skinned, half-eaten rabbit corpses hanging in the trees. While searching the area, the police found the body of a Marcus Wallster hanging under Bunny Man Bridge.

Supposedly the police located Douglas but as they were trying to arrest him at the overpass, he gets hit by a train. Legend still goes that many years after the Bunny Man's death and around Halloween, you can find dead rabbit bodies hanging from the overpass. Also a man in a bunny suit is seen from time to time.

Brian Conley states that this story is just that due to the fact that there has never been an insane asylum in Fairfax County and that Lorton Prison didn't come into existence until 1910. He also stated that during his research he found that according to court records there never was a Douglas Grifon or a Marcus Wallster.

Due to the popularity of The Bunny Man legend, Colchester Overpass is a popular tourist destination, especially around Halloween, for people involved in the paranormal, explorers and those that like urban legends. The police discourage this due to the fact it is dangerous to wander around on an active intersection of trains and cars.

Now back to the original photo that was mentioned at the beginning of this article....this was simply a screenshot from a 2011 film entitled "Bunny Man".

THE BUNNY MAN MOVIE

Here is the unedited photo

Short Documentary on The Bunny Man
This short documentary by Joshua Vaile that explores the legend of the Clifton Bunny Man and the Bunny Man Bridge.

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)

The Atco Ghost

By Chris Chaos

Atco New Jersey.  There has been a story circulating in the area for decades, a ghost story, a fable, legend...but is it based in truth? Atco is named after the Atlantic Transport Company. Or was it named from an old Indian word for "Land of Many Deer"?

 The Atco Ghost video (Axis Video)

Legend has it that many years ago, on Christmas night, a young boy was chasing his basketball into the street and was hit by a speeding car, whose driver may have been drunk, killing him instantly. The driver decided to run for fear of what he just did, he had to perform a U-Turn since this road is a dead end. The person in the car had to pass the body of the child that he just hit. Hence why it is part of the legend that you must drive to the gate of the sewer plant and then turn around.

[1]

Alternative stories state that a truck leaving the factory at the end of the road hit the child after he ran into the street chasing his ball he just received on Christmas.

On Burnt Mill Road in Atco they say that under VERY specific circumstances, you can see the ghost of this boy playing in the street. The legend states that if you go to Burnt Mill Road in Atco NJ at midnight and park three telephone poles away from the opening in the fence of the sewer plant (where a crack splits the road from one side of the road to the other) and face the area in front of the house (approx the 500/600 "block") and honk your horn 3 times, blink your headlights 3 times and wait....and IF the conditions are right, you may just see a little ghostly boy run into the road chasing the ball in slow motion. Some say that if you turn off your car and walk about 20 feet away you might see the boy appear and look into the car to see if it was the one that killed him. There supposedly have been many eyewitness accounts attesting to this over the years, but many of the people telling the story state that they have not seen anything but...their cousin, brother, uncle, or whoever has seen the ghost of this boy.

[2]

Burnt Mill Road comes off of the Old White Horse Pike and leads to a sewer plant and then promptly fades into a dirt road (that used to be traveled by horse and wagon) and now only an ATV could traverse, finally ending into Fleming Pike near Sandy Causeway. There are many interesting sounding names in the Pine Barrens, here we have Swamp Road Wild Cat Branch and the Sleeper Branch. If you follow the various soft sanded roads you could find yourself on Rt 206, along the Mullica River or on your way to Batsto.

Google map of Burnt Mill Road, star marks location of The Atco Ghost

Atco, in the middle of the Pine Barrens...Atco Raceway [3]..people like to drive fast. Burnt Mill Road is a long straight road that cars can build speed and maybe inspired by any of the race movies of the time, people were testing their mettle along this road and set the process into motion to create the legend of the Atco Ghost.

Despite all that is contained within the legend of the Atco Ghost, there was never any record of a little boy being hit by a car (or truck) on Burnt Mill Road, and killed.

"The only ghost around here is Holy!" from the sign in front of the Atco Assembly of God [4]

For my personal experience with the Atco Ghost...in the late 90's a friend of mine familiar with the story and with the area took me to Atco one late night so we could try and experience the legend ourselves. We followed the rules and waited...and waited...and waited...and waited....but nothing happened.

Ghsthunter's video on Youtube

Uploaded on Oct 15, 2006

"On Friday the 13th 2006 I went in search of The Atco Ghost on Burnt Mill Rd in Atco NJ. I didnt realize I had caught it on film until I reviewed the tape. The ghost is a little boy that was hit by a car when he was crossing the street chasing after a ball."

 Stills supposedly of The Atco Ghost from Ghsthunter's video on Youtube

 Stills supposedly of The Atco Ghost from Ghsthunter's video on Youtube

In an interesting sidenote..when I was doing research for The Atco Ghost I was using Google Maps to track down the exact location of where you are supposed to perform the tasks to get the little ghost boy to appear....can you guess what the address is for the exact locations? ha

In the coming weeks we plan on going back and investigating further.

REFERENCES:
[1] Artist rendering of Acto Ghost boy
[2] Screenshot of the Atco Ghost location from Google Maps
[3] http://www.atcoraceway.com/
[4] http://www.atcoag.com/


(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)

Tara Calico: An Unsolved Missing Person Mystery

by Chris Chaos

Tara Leigh Calico was born February 28, 1969 and mysteriously disappeared on September 20, 1988 at the age of 19 near her home in Belen, New Mexico. Her case was extensively shown on A Current Affair, Unsolved Mysteries, America's Most Wanted, The Oprah Winfrey Show and also 48 Hours. Although still unsolved, most came to the conclusion that she was kidnapped.

Tara left about 9:30am on September 20th, 1988 for a bike ride and never returned. Patty Doel, Tara's mother began searching for her along her bike route when she failed to return home at noon like she stated that she would. After failing to find Tara, she contacted the police. In the search, police found her walkman and cassette tapes along her bike route. A handful of people did see Tara riding her bike and her bike also was never found. No witnesses ever came forward with any eyewitness accounts of her possibly being kidnapped but some did state that a 1953-54 Ford pickup was following her. This is all circumstantial and the pickup truck was never located either.

On June 15th of 1989 a Polaroid photo was found in a parking lot in Port St. Joe, Florida with two unidentified people in it, a young male (who appears to have minor bruising around his neck) and an older female thought to be Tara. Both the male and female portrayed in the photo were bound and gagged appearing to be sitting on a bed together. Many thought the the female in the photo was Tara and the boy was Michael Henley, also of New Mexico, who disappeared in April of 1988. Investigators of the case placed the time of the picture taken was after May of 1989 since that particular film was not available to the public until that time. Police state that it could not have been Michael since his remains were discovered back in 1990 in the Zuni Mountains which is about 7 miles from the campsite that he disappeared from and 75 miles from where Tara disappeared. Police speculate that Michael must have gotten lost in the mountains and died of exposure.

Patty, Tara's mother, does believe that it is Tara in the photo due to the scar on her leg which Tara acquired in a car accident. Also V.C. Andrews' My Sweet Audrina, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Sweet_Audrina) which was Tara's favorite book, appeared in the photograph. Further analysis of the photo came back with mixed results. Scotland Yard stated that the woman in the photo was indeed Tara, the Los Alamos National Laboratory stated that it was not and the FBI claimed that it was inconclusive.

Over the years supposedly two other Polaroid photos surface of Tara, but they have not been released to the public. In 1988 and 1989 there were several supposed sightings of Tara in the southern United States but nothing confirmed or proven.

In later years, about 20 years after Tara disappeared the Sheriff of Valencia County, Rene Rivera, stated that he knew what occurred to Tara. Rivera claims that two schoolmates followed her in a pickup truck and an accident occurred causing her death. The two boys then covered up the crime and the rest is history. Knowing the names of the people involved, Rivera states that without a body, a case cannot be made. No evidence supporting this conclusion has ever been released. There has never been an arrest made and the case is still open. John Doel, Tara's stepfather disputes these claims made by Rivera stating that these claims should not have been made if he was not able to arrest anyone. He also contends that strong circumstantial evidence should be enough for an arrest.

The girl in the photo is wearing an Egghead Software T-Shirt.

There has been much speculation as to what happened to Tara and what the source of this photo is. Some think that the photo has nothing to do with Tara ans was totally unrelated. Possibly kids playing around with a camera in mock kidnapping scenarios. Police state that the photo was taken inside a white van. The white van which has been the source of many jokes concerning pedophiles is very likely since they can have no windows and provide room for deviant sexual acts. Others state that during this time frame and area white children were being kidnapped in droves and being prostituted at truck stops. Supposedly the other photos of Tara turned up in California and hinted at pornography.

Also the two people in the photo do not appear to be terrified as you would expect being bound and gagged in the back of a van. More so the girl appears to be bored and the boy simply tired. You can see the tape over their mouths but can only assume that their hands are tied or bound behind them. Also if they were abducted and being held against their will, why would the girl be allowed to read her favorite book. She would also need her hands free to read it. Why would the photo be left in the parking lot, sounds like an amateur mistake going against the alleged abductor going undetected for all these years. Also based on previous abductions, MOST abductors stick to a certain profile, they hardly ever abduct children/people of different ages or sexes.

An excellent video on the topic by Alana G:
Tara Calico Video

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)

Edward Mordrake: The Man with Two Faces

by Chris Chaos

 A well disputed case concerning Edward Mordake or Edward Mordrake was a documented fact but embellished with fictional tall tales as do most people from histories past. Edward was a doubtful heir to English peerage who was the source of these legends. It appears that he may have suffered from a form of diprosopus (craniofacial duplication, is an extremely rare congenital disorder whereby parts or all of the face are duplicated on the head). According to writings of the time period, they stated that an extra face was attached to the back of his head. This second face could not eat or speak out loud but was allegedly credited with the abilities to laugh and cry. Claiming that his demon face whispered to him at night, Edward begged to have it removed, but no doctors would even try. Sadly, when Edward was 23 years old, he committed suicide.

The Fear of the Dark: Nyctophobia

by Chris Chaos

FEAR
Dictionary.com defines fear as: a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.

The Dark...why are so many afraid of it? Many children fear going to bed due to the dark and need to have a night light left on. Some adults even experience this fear of the dark. The dark symbolizes the unknown and it conceals what MIGHT be there. Some of the greatest and most widespread fears to man is of the unknown. The darkness provides the perfect cover and cloak for the imagination to run wild. Could a monster be lurking under the bed or in the closet? Could a robber or rapist be hiding in the darkness of the parking garage?

Fear of the dark is not totally irrational, it is inbred into us, it protected our ancestors from the unseen dangers of the night, wolves, venomous snakes and spiders...cliffs. Usually the fear of the dark presents itself after the age of two. When rational fear becomes irrational and impairs a person it is called achluophobia, nyctophobia (from the Greek "night"), scotophobia ("darkness"), or lygophobia ("twilight").

Sigmund Freud considered the fear of the dark as separation anxiety disorder.
CLICK: Sigmund Freud

Many movies up the scare by making the scary parts take place at night, in dimly lit areas and also during rainy thunder storms.

Many scientists try to understand and isolate what causes fear and conducted many experiments. One such experiment took place in the 1960's and used rats, which are naturally nocturnal, to look for a molecule responsible for memory. The test rats were conditioned to fear the dark and the claim was that "scotophobin" (http://www.yourdictionary.com/scotophobin) was extracted from these rats and injected into unconditioned rats (transferring fear) proving that memory was chemical based. There is much debate concerning this and other experiments claimed to have debunked this experiment.

As a child becomes an adult and learns that there are no such things as monsters, part of the irrational fears of the dark diminish as the adult becomes acclimated to the concept of the dark. This holds true in known areas such as the house, but rational and real fears still linger, such as an attacker in a dark parking garage. Real dangers can present themselves in the dark and some take advantage of this fact.

The Process of Fear:

1) The thalamus collects sensory data from the senses
2) Sensory cortex receives data from thalamus and interprets it
3) Sensory cortex organizes information for dissemination to hypothalamus (fight or flight), amygdala (fear), hippocampus (memory)

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)

Raymond Robinson (The Green Man)

by Chris Chaos

Mr. Ray Robinson was born in Pennsylvania on October 29th, 1910 and was also known as The Green Man and Charlie No-Face. When Robinson was eight years old he was attempting to view a bird's nest when he was severely injured and disfigured by an electrical line on the Morado Bridge. A year earlier a boy was killed on the same bridge which carries a trolley with electrical lines of 1,200 and 22,000 volts.

Despite doctor's expectations, Robinson survived but lost both his eyes, nose, one ear and his arm leaving him severely disfigured.

Ray, a resident of Koppel, became an urban legend when he went out for his late night walks on State Route 351 feeling his way around with a walking stick.. He chose the later timed walks to prevent a panic when he ventured out into public due to his appearance. Many people feared his disfigured appearance and created stories about him. Other local residents gathered and drove along the road that he lived on in the hopes of meeting him face to face. Many thought that these tales about Charlie No-Face were just legends and were very surprised when they found out that they were real and many locals liked Robinson. He was hit by cars several times on his nightly walks, but nothing was going to stop him from doing what he wanted to do.

Robinson became a local myth in the Pittsburgh area, and his real story was obscured by urban legend. In the stories, he was the Green Man, an employee of a power company who was hit by a downed power line or struck by lightning, after which he died or hid in an abandoned house. To the disfigurement Robinson suffered in reality, legend added an open hole in one cheek and glowing green skin. Through several generations, Robinson's story has been passed on so many times that his name and his real history have been overshadowed by the ghost story that grew out of them.

He was very productive and passed his time by making doormats, wallets and belts that he would sell. Robinson usually hid from the public's eye, but on occasion he was known to pause for a photo in exchange for a beer or cigarette.

He stopped his walks during the last years of his life, and retired to the Beaver County Geriatric Center, where he died  June 11th 1985 at the age of 74.

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)