The Haunting of Knight Hospital

Ghosts, Specters and Spooks, as scrooge would have said Bah! Humbug! UFO’s, Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, nothing but Balderdash! That is what John Stanton had always thought. John was a born skeptic, and he had not witnessed anything in his 35 years on this old Earth to convince him any differently. 1

Some people were the proverbial sucker, as the showman P.T. Barnum had once said, referring to the patrons who had made him rich and famous. This view had been instilled in John from an early age. His parents did not believe in lying to their only child. When other kids were waiting for the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny or Santa Claus, John was being told the bare ugly truth. This had caused more than a few confrontations, some which ended in fists to cuffs, in the school playground.2

John had, to date, proved every unnatural or supernatural occurrence had a naturally explained cause, and still it would end up in confrontations. People tend to vigorously protect their beliefs a professor in college had once said, when John commented to him about the gullibility of the human species.3

So when John learned of the Old Knight Hospital, reputed to be the most haunted location in the Southeast, he could not pass on the opportunity to, once again, set the record straight.4

John and his cameraman, partner and friend Fred Mastersen had selected October 31st, Halloween, supposedly the scariest day of the year, as the date they would bust this latest ghost hoax. 5

Fred, like John, had been raised by parents who valued truth above popular fiction. They had met at the University of South Florida and became aware of each other’s common view during a heated debate which broke out in an American Lit class. The debate, once again started by John while trying to set a classmate straight, concerned the mysterious disappearance of the 115 inhabitants of Roanoke Island in 1590. The classmate was sure the colonists had been wiped out by an ancient evil. When John started to argue about how the settlers probably just moved to the main land and settled elsewhere, the discussion turned ugly. Then out of the myriad of obtuse minded people a voice broke out in support of John, it was of course Fred.6

After college, John and Fred decided to start a small side company dedicated to educating the masses that there is no such thing as a ghost. Bigfoot is just a man in a suit, the Loch Ness Monster is just a floating hunk of wood and UFO’s were no more than swamp gas or weather balloons. So the Stanton and Mastersen: Agents Against Superstition and Hoaxes or SMAASH was born. 7

They both invested heavily in obtaining the latest Ghost Busting equipment; analog and digital cameras and recorders; night vision glasses and parabolic microphones. And the most advanced Digital Video Recorder’s on the market. And of course their most valuable piece of equipment, their own untainted minds.8

They pulled in front of the old hospital in their company van, a 1962 VW van John’s parents had used to go to rallies and protests in their younger days. John and Fred painted over the peace symbols and large colorful flowers which had adorned the van before being transformed into the Ghost SMAASHER express. On the side was their logo, a ghost being smashed under a huge hammer. The building looked like hundreds of others they had seen before, large imposing, smashed out windows from kids who were showing how brave they were by attacking a defenseless old structure, but in their minds taunting the ghosts within. The building itself had been built in 1862 during the Civil War to tend the thousands of soldiers wounded in battle. Some survived, most did not, the war had claimed 600,000 souls in its thirst for blood sacrifices by the time hostilities had ended.9

After the war ended, Knight Hospital continued its medical duties, but as the Knight Psychiatric Hospital for the Criminally Insane. During these times, the hospital became tainted with horror stories concerning the various experimental treatments, which were often cruel and inhumane. One reporter in 1947 compared it to Auschwitz, and Doctor Stephen Kingston as Auschwitz’s infamous Dr. Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death. The news article spurred a series of Congressional hearings which resulted in the hospital closing its doors in 1948 and Dr. Kingston being sent to life in prison without parole.10

There had been a few attempts to reopen the building as a hotel, an office building and a museum, but all these endeavors failed due to the disturbances.11

It was 3:00 in the afternoon when they started to off load their equipment. They liked to get to sites early, not because they feared the dark, but because it took several hours to get the equipment set up before the show would begin, and this job was going to take much longer due to its size.12

The hospital grounds were surrounded by a 10 foot brick wall with guard posts positioned at 10 yard intervals. The hospital was an impressive structure three stories tall. Due to the interior being made entirely of wood, they would have to be careful of rotted areas in the floor. The building had been constructed to house 500 seriously wounded soldiers on the first floor, later this floor was reserved for the less violent inmates. No bars were installed, it almost seemed the official’s wanted inmates to try and escape. 13

The second floor was reserved for a main headquarters from where the war was coordinated in this region these had been turned into doctor’s offices. The top floor was the psych ward, here the most dangerous and violent inmates were kept. This floor did contain bars and only the most heavily armed guards worked this floor. There were two smaller buildings at either end of the hospital which were added during the hospital’s sinister evil era. On the right end was a crematory and on the left end were the staff quarters. 14

The once immaculate white outer walls of the building had since yellowed and faded, the paint peeling in places revealing the weather worn brick beneath. The floors of the hospital were of wood, some of the boards had become loose and warped.15

John and Fred loaded a cart they used to transport all their equipment into the main entrance. As they entered the building they were confronted by a spacious foyer with a hallway on either side. A large reception desk had been added sometime during the mental hospital era. They became aware of the same smell they had encountered many times in old houses, the dusty and dank smell of an old building. There was also a foul odor which, although familiar, escaped definition. 16

Debris was scattered everywhere inside, leaves blown in through the broken windows, furniture lay broken as well as dirt and dust piled high in the corners.17

“Ok Fred, let’s start with the ground floor. They turned left down a long dimly lit corridor containing four rooms on both sides. Most of the doors were either missing or broken revealing open air patient rooms. Fred looked into one of the rooms and saw beds lining either side of the walls each room could hold 30 patients. The beds now were no more than rusted frames with rotted out remnants of bedding sagging within. The windows were covered by thread bare curtains which billowed with the breeze.18

“Let’s set up a camera at the end of this hall facing the main entrance” John suggested. As they approached the end of the hallway, John looked into the last room on the right. “Look at this.”19

The room had several stainless steel tables set against the left wall; next to each table was a large metal pail, now rusted and full of holes. A tray sat on the counter running along the wall on them was old rusted surgical instruments. “Is this an operating room” John asked?20

“I don’t think so” Fred said. 21

John moved next to Fred and looked into a pail. “Are those what I think they are” John asked?22

“They look like...”Fred started to say.23

“Body organs” they finished together. Inside one pail were the petrified remains of what looked like a liver, intestines plus other organs whose identity was a mystery.24

“My God this in the morgue, but why did they remove the organs,” John wondered?25

“I think I know” Fred said. He was standing in front of a cabinet which was holding several bottles. Fred, holding a particular bottle said, “This is Natron, the stuff the Egyptians used to embalm their mummies. They were mummifying the dead.” 26

“Alright, let’s setup camera one here.” John said.27

After setting up their equipment in the morgue, making sure the camera faced the direction they felt would show the most activity, they exited back into the hallway.28

“How about if we set up camera two at the beginning of this hallway facing this end”, Fred suggested.29

They did this setup for each floor and each hallway, running the cables to the main lobby where they set up the monitoring station. 30

“Ok all set” John stated, satisfied they had the whole building covered. “Now let’s set up some equipment in the outer buildings as well.”31

“Fred, I need you to perform a sound check on all the camera feeds.”32

Fred went to each station and standing in front of the camera and said the standard test speech “Testing 1, 2 3 testing. “ John would tell him over the Walkie Talkie if it was fine or an adjustment had to be made. 33

It was 6:30 in the evening by the time they had finished. The folding chairs they had brought were set up by the receptionist’s desk where they had set up their monitoring equipment. John reached into a cooler and produced two sandwiches. “Here have some supper” he said tossing a sandwich to Fred.34

They both sat looking at the screens eating their meals and having a cold beer. They passed the time in small talk about what job to take next, about needing to get back out on the lake and catch some Large Mouth Bass.35

Suddenly, a noise could be heard from the direction of the morgue. Two sets of eyes snapped to the monitor displaying camera one’s images. A shadow could barely be seen just off to one side of the camera’s peripheral vision. “Damn, we need those tripods with the motors so we can swing these cameras around,” John muttered under his breath.36

They headed down the hallway carrying flashlights. As they drew closer to the door whispering could be heard, not loud enough to know what was being said, but just enough to know it was coming from the room. Fred held out his audio recorder and started to record the sounds. 37

They slowly turned into the room. Movement just to the left caught John’s eye. He had just caught a brief sight of what he thought was a shadow, but when he brought his flashlight up, nothing was there. Something moved to their right. As one, they both aimed their flashlights to the noise, there on the floor was a large rat scurrying away from the sudden intrusion.38

“Hey, Mister Rat seen any ghosts lately” Fred said after the rodent? “2330 first contact, a rat in the morgue”.39

John stopped short as they re-entered the main foyer. All the monitors were dark and paperwork was scattered all over the floor. They could hear the generator still running so Fred went straight to the power strip. “We still have power”. He got up and pushed the power buttons on the monitors, one at a time they glowed back to life. 40

“A rat certainly didn’t do that” John said looking around. “I think we need to set up another camera in here to monitor our equipment. We may have somebody trying to taint our findings”.41

They settled back in again after picking up the papers and hooking up a camera. John took a legal pad out and started to log the events which had occurred. 42

At midnight, they started to hear footsteps from the floor above them. Checking the cameras did not show any cause of the noise. Armed with the audio recorder, they ascended the stairs to the HQ floor. 43

Cresting the top step the foot falls were coming from their right. They were slow with what sounded like a foot being dragged along, scraping the floor. As they headed that way a faint sound could be heard accompanying the steps. Very low and quite faint it was the sound of moaning. Fred turned on the recorder and held it out in front like a sword. 44

Entering the hallway a shadow could be seen about halfway down and walking their way. The steps of the figure and the sound matched. Step Drag. Step Drag. This time, John had brought a handheld camcorder with him. Bringing it up, he hit the record button as he watched the apparition approach in the view finder. The hair on the back of John’s neck was standing on end as well as being covered in goose pimples. He had never seen anything like it this appeared to be a genuine ghost.45

“What is your name? Why are you here?” Fred said in a loud clear voice. The ghost did not answer, but just kept on approaching. As it drew closer, features became more pronounced. This non-person looked to have been middle aged when they died; he had a bandage around his head. It dragged a dead leg as it stepped closer to them. There were two empty holes where the eyes should have been. The smell of rotted meat grew stronger with each step it took; it was the smell they could not identify when they entered the building. It was now 10 feet away when suddenly it vanished.46

“What the hell was that,” Fred said visibly shaken? 47

“I…I am not sure,” John stammered.48

They both stood still for a full minute, ensuring nothing else was going to happen they headed back down stairs, a little faster than was necessary. They both pulled a beer out of the cooler and drank deeply. With his hands still shaking slightly he went to log latest events. “Oh shit!”49

“What,” Fred said looking around!50

John held up the pad and showed Fred. There written in Old English script were the words:51

Get Out While You Can.52

“That sounds like one hell of a good idea” Fred said hoping John would agree.53

The room started to get bone chilling cold. Their steaming breath came out like they were smoking. You’d think they were in the Northeast in the middle of winter, instead of the Southeast in a warm balmy fall night. 54

Looking around ghostly figures were surrounding them; some moaning others screaming and all had the look of hatred. One ghost in particular emerged from the throng; John recognized it from the staff pictures hanging behind the desk, it was the ghost of Dr. Kingston. The disembodied spirit was floating three feet off the floor; it suddenly flew at them with incredible speed, screaming “GET OUT!” The ghost disappeared two feet from them. 55

“Ok, let’s go” John said reaching for the eject buttons on the Video Recorders. Armed with the recorded evidence, and nothing else, they ran out to the van. 56

As they got in the van to take off, the night air was broken by the sounds of unearthly screams and maniacal laughter coming from the hospital. Ghosts could be seen walking every where on the grounds. John hit the gas as he fish tailed down the driveway back on the highway and the hotel they had rented when coming into town.57

Five miles down the road, John pulled over, his hands shaking so bad he could hardly hold the wheel, his heart racing so hard he just knew you would see it pounding through his chest like in the cartoons. Sweat was pouring from both their foreheads, even though the night air had a slight chill to it. After composing himself a few minutes, he eased back onto the road. 58

Pulling into the Dew Drop Inn parking lot in front of room 12, they got out and opened the door. Neither one wanted to sleep; they were still too scared shitless for that. John took out the portable video player and hooked it up to the rooms TV. "Ready,” he asked as he pushed play?59

The picture came on, the text in the lower right corner identified the images came from camera one. The recorded time clicked onward to 2300. Suddenly a shadow passed in front. John stopped and rewound the tape to play it slower. As the shadow came into view, John hit pause. There was a figure that looked like it was made of smoke. Hitting slow play, it walked over to one of the tables and went through the motions of cutting something on the table with long slashing motions. This was no surgeon; it looked like he was butchering meat.60

The microphone mounted on the camera picked up the sound of footsteps coming from the hallway. Another ghostly figure passed the lens, this one dressed in a hospital gown, went up to the figure that was cutting, pulled a phantom pistol out and shot. The head of the ghost doctor immediately exploded into nothingness. Soon afterwards John and Fred came into frame.61

“Wow,” Fred said after sitting for a minute letting what they just saw sink in. John took out another pad, the first one still sat on the table in the hospital lobby. He wrote down what they saw on the videos. 62

The second story recording was next. Once again the footstep could be heard. The ghost appeared near the end of the hallway; John zoomed in and saw it was the same figure they had witnessed. By the look of the uniform he seemed to be an officer of some rank. They also saw his wind pipe had been sliced open from one side to the other, the head barely attached. The moaning sound came from the gaping hole in his throat.63

Each video they watched showed ghosts, seemingly hundreds of ghosts, many more than what they heard. All seemed to be wounded and in agony. Some wore civil war uniforms of various ranks, others hospital gowns.64

Fred pulled out his audio recorder after they had watched the last video. Pushing play the audio sounds from the morgue was heard. Overlapping voices, hundreds could be heard. Then one voice was heard crystal clear. “No! No I don’t want to die”! And, “My God what are you doing? I’m not dead! God it hurts!” The voices multiplied; overlapping to the point one voice could not be distinguished from another.65

John and Fred looked at each other, their faces drained of all color. “My God it sounds like a chamber of horrors” Fred finally said.66

“I can’t listen any more,” John said. “I think we have witnessed our first authentic haunted house.”67

The next day they pulled in front of the hospital again, this time to retrieve their equipment. Approaching the desk, the pad which had been left lay on top. Writing could be seen clearly, entries had been made on every page, filling the entire pad. “Look at this,” John said. 68

Fred walked over and took the pad from the pro-offered hand. Flipping through, he saw row after row of neatly printed names, each in a different hand like a volunteer sign in sheet. On the first page had been entered Victims of Knight’s Hospital, and underneath columns labeled name, date and cause of death. All the names were different, the dates varied but the cause of death all read the same MURDERED.69

Walking back out to the van with the last of the equipment, John saw Fred looking at the van. “What’s up buddy?”70

“Think we need to change our name and logo” Fred asked?71

“Nope, there are still plenty of hoaxes out there. But I am not going to dismiss anyone’s claims anymore.” 72

On their way out the gate, John stopped the van and got out. Walking up to the entrance, he replaced the WARNING: CONTRUCTION AREA sign back up. I wonder where they will go once the new high rise is built73