Keeping Secrets

Montrose Whiskey & Bottle of Poison (c) 1916

Over the years I’ve been asked to investigate hauntings.  Some ghost claims have merit while some don’t.  What I am about to tell you is the unexpected result of this particular investigation.

After reading an article in a local newspaper, I was asked if I would investigate the home of Jill and Philip. They were convinced their home had a ghost and I agreed to investigate.

Shortly after I arrived there, I discovered that the house indeed had a ghost, however, that is not the surprising twist of this story.

I had an unusual feeling as I walked through the house. It gave me an odd sensation, a feeling of dread, sadness and even a bit of horror.

I told the owners about the feelings I was getting.   Jill said, when they first moved in, the neighbors told them that one of the owners of the house used to kill people. “We ignored it, we thought these people were nuts.”

What I later became aware of is how close to the facts these neighbors were.

I visited the house from time to time, and that sickening feeling continued the moment I stepped into the building.  Then one day, everything changed.

There was a fire that started in one of the bedrooms.  The fire department was called and they extinguished the fire quickly. The room was soaked, and the plaster and lathe walls of this old house, crumbled from the weight of the water. After the fire department left, I got a call from Philip, he wanted to show me something.  

The crumbling plaster uncovered a hole in the wall.  In that hole was an empty bottle of whiskey and a small clear bottle marked POISON.

Jill, Philip and I used every conceivable method to investigate the long-gone previous owners of the house. For days and nights, we went over town, state and county records, made inquiries from the older neighbors and anyone who may have known this family dating back to the 1920s.   

To properly tell you about the step-by-step method of acquiring our information would take up an entire book.

This is a condensed version of what we found. The time frame was late teens and early 1920s.

About this time, we know that the owner turned his family home into a boarding house.  Transient men came and went, his two daughters prepared the meals and tended to the cleaning duties.

Once a sickly boarder arrived, the owner seeing how sick he was, insured the man with life insurance.  He somehow found a doctor, who gave this boarder a clean bill of health. The boarder became increasingly sick and eventually died. The insured beneficiary of the policy was, of course, the owner of the house.  A simple split with the doctor and the matter was closed. I could only find one incident of this happening, but if it worked, I’m sure it wasn’t the only one.

A whiskey bottle with a bottle of poison could mean he most likely gave it to one or more of his boarders. Why? We can only guess.

 Another form of income in this household, I discovered was a scheme by the husband and wife in smuggling babies into the United States.  Possibly, a payoff by parents wanting a child but couldn’t conceive?  The husband and wife would take trips to England once or twice a year. I would assume the woman advised the steamship line of her pregnancy and returning a month or so later, with a baby wouldn’t be a surprise. The baby was recorded on the voyage manifest.

In searching the census records of the times, these babies were never recorded as being members of the household.  The records I could verify, would indicate this happened at least twice.

The principal players in this story are long dead. There is no one to prosecute or answer for these crimes.  Crimes that could be achieved easily back then, with today’s technology, would be impossible now.

I purposely did not divulge the family’s name. If there are still relatives out there, they don’t need to have their surname associated with this.

*The whisky bottle: Montrose Rye Whiskey Pennsylvania Distilling Co. The bottle was wrapped with The  Country Gentleman newspaper (1852-1955) dated October 7, 1916

  The POISON bottle. Manufactured bottles of this type were made in the late 1800s and used to the early 1930s. The bottle still has a clear liquid in it, however, was never tested as to its content.