This photograph of the Combermere Abbey library was taken in 1891 by Sybell Corbet. The figure of a man can faintly be seen sitting in the chair to the left. His head, collar and right arm on the armrest are clearly discernable. It is believed to be the ghost of Lord Combermere. Lord Combermere was…
A person would be inclined to think that a city as chic and seemingly immaculate as San Luis Obispo would not put up with littering of any kind, but on the same street where a cup of coffee will set you back 7 dollars, and the purchase of a genuine porcelain Dalmatian is a cool…
Antony Baekeland – On 17th November 1972 he stabbed his mother to death. At his trial witnesses told of an incestuous relationship between Antony and his mother. Barbara had been trying to ‘cure’ her son of his sexual preferrences. He was discharged from Broadmoor in July 1980 and went to live with his grandmother in…
Mafia, hierarchically structured society of criminals of primarily Italian or Sicilian birth or extraction. The term applies to the traditional criminal organization in Sicily and also to a criminal organization in the United States. Most scholars agree that the Mafia emerged in Sicily in the 19th century during Italy’s unification, but others suggest the organization arose during the late Middle Ages. In…
A contract killer for newark’s DeCavalcante family & NYC five families. He was 6’5″ 300lbs. committed his first murder at 13yrs old. Richard Kuklinski, byname The Iceman, (born April 11, 1935, Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S.—died March 5, 2006, Trenton, New Jersey), American serial killer who was convicted of four murders in 1988 and of a fifth in 2003, though in…
There’s always a swarm of tourists buzzing around this thing at the end of Whitehead Street in Key West. It’s the Southernmost Point in the United States just 90 miles from Cuba. This spot is closer to Havana than it is to Miami. There used to be just a sign here but some of you…
This big six foot diameter coquina sphere in St. Augustine, sits beside A1A near the visitor center. Perhaps you’ve seen it and wondered “What’s that big stone ball?” It’s the Zero Milestone that was placed here in 1929 to mark the eastern end of the Old Spanish Trail that ran from St. Augustine all the…
The need to eliminate Les Innocents gained urgency from May 31, 1780, when a basement wall in a property adjoining the cemetery collapsed under the weight of the mass grave behind it. The cemetery was closed to the public and all intra muros (Latin: “within the [city] walls”) burials were forbidden after 1780. The problem…
Longwood’s Big Tree at 3500 years old is the oldest living thing in Florida. Towering 126 feet the huge cypress, nicknamed the “Senator,” has a girth of 47 feet and contains an estimated 50,000 feet of lumber. Think about it, this gentle giant was an adult tree before the birth of Christ and although it…
Most people think family cemeteries, particularly ones in the western United States, consist of a couple of tumbledown marble or wooden headstones surrounded by a rotting picket fence. Sad to say, this is mostly true: but there are exceptions. Take for example the family plot of the McMillins, in Roche Harbor. John McMillin owned the…
