According to urban legend, lying just beyond the city of Tokyo is one of the most haunted locations in all of Japan. The exact location of the Himuro Mansion (or Himikyru Mansion as it is sometimes known) is widely unknown but the legend puts the mansion in a rocky region just beyond the city limits of Tokyo.   The mansion is said to have been home to one of the most gruesome murders in modern Japanese history. Local lore has it that for generations, the Himuro family had participated in a strange, twisted Shinto ritual known as “The Strangling Ritual” in order to seal off bad karma from within the Earth, every half century or so. The most popular version of the tale states that bad karma would emerge each December (other versions simply say “toward the end of the year”) from a portal on the Mansions grounds. In order to prevent this, a maiden was chosen at birth by the master of the household and isolated from the outside world in order to prevent her from developing any ties to the outside world, which would in turn, jeopardize the effect of the ritual.  Read More

Alcatraz, which earned the nickname of the "Rock", was the ultimate American prison for many years was on Alcatraz Island, which was located in the mists off of San Francisco.  This prison was supposedly inescapable due its location which was surrounded by water.  Famous criminals such as Al Capone, Alvin Karpis and Machine-Gun Kelly and others were confined here, along with the spirits said to haunt there.  It was eventually closed down because it wasn't a place for rehabilitation, but rather a place of punishment and minimum privilege.  Those who survived life in the prison did so at the cost of both their sanity and their souls.  Al Capone along with countless others have lost their sanity there due to the harsh treatment of prisoners and solitary confinement.  Attempts of suicide and self-mutilation were not uncommon,  it was believed that more men suffered mental breakdowns at Alcatraz, by percentage, than at any other Federal prisons.  During the 29 years that Alcatraz was in operation, there were over 14 escape attempts in which 34 different men risked their lives to try and make it off the Rock. Almost all of the men were either killed or recaptured. Only one of the men was known to have made it ashore, but later he was recaptured.  Although the prison isn't in operation anymore, you can take a tour of the place now; lost souls are said to still haunt the place to this day.  Many reports of strange ghost related phenomena have been reported there, including the sound of a banjo playing...Al Capone's supposed calling card.

One of the most haunted houses in the U.S. (According to the Travel Channel's America's Most Haunted, the house is the number one), the Whaley House was built on part of a cemetery in San Diego, California.  Thomas Whaley built the house in 1857, and is now a museum through years of renovation.   About 120,000 people visit the house annually including stars such as Tom Green and Hugh Hefner.  What brings people here are the stories of ghosts haunting the historic location.  The grounds which the house stands were used for public hangings prior to Mr. Whaley's purchase of the property, including the most famous hanging of Yankee Jim Robinson on September 18, 1852.  Yankee Jim supposedly still haunts the house today, along with the spirit of Violet Whaley (daughter of the Whaley's), who committed suicide there in 1885.  Mr. & Ms. Whaley, and their great-granddaughter (who died tragically in 1912) are believed to haunt the house as well.  Visitors reports seeing the spirits, odd smells (such as cigar smoke which Mr. Whaley's used, and other paranormal anomalies here. Visit http://whaleyhouse.org for the Official Site.

The Waverly Hills Sanatorium was a hospital dedicated to the treatment of tuberculosis patients.  Tuberculosis was a common disease in the early 20th century known as "white death," and had no cure at the time.  An estimated 63,000 people died in the sanatorium, possibly due to reports of mistreatment and experimental procedures on patients...It's no wonder why its haunted to this day.  While some patients survived both the disease and the treatments,  the majority of patients left through what came to be known as the “body chute”.  This was an enclosed tunnel for the dead which led from the hospital to the railroad tracks at the bottom of the hill and was created so that living patients would not see the dead.  The spirits of children playing, the smell of cooking food in the kitchen, footsteps in the hallways, and countless other ghostly phenomena have been reported over the years.

The Queen Mary has had its fair share of ghosts and tragic deaths (49 to be exact).  She was called the Grey Ghost during her years as a World War II transport ship, and many people who have worked on or visited the old luxury ocean liner report seeing things that fall well into the lines of a haunting.  The Queen Mary has since however been turned into a Hotel when it was purchased by the city of Long Beach, California in 1967.  There are accounts of people seeing a "lady in white" around the front desk area of the hotel, and furniture moving by itself. One of the most haunted areas is the engine room of the ship where a young sailor was crushed trying to escape a fire.  Many people report knocking and banging noises on pipes around the door.  The ghosts of children have been said to haunt the pool/changing room areas, and in the front hull of the ship, a spirit can be heard screaming sometimes.  You can also take tours of this interesting place.  http://www.queenmary.com/

One of the most well known places in America is apparently a very haunted one too.  The White House is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. Several former presidents (dead of course) have been seen here walking around in ghostly form including President Lincoln (frequent sightings), Harrison, Madison and Jackson.   It is believed that a phantom black cat haunts the basement of the White House as well, and appears in moments where the United States stands still and mourns. The black cat has made its presence known just before John F Kennedy was killed, right before the stock market crash of the 1920s took place, and on many other different occasions throughout history. 

During the turn of the century, in the backwoods of Vinton county, and deep in the woods of Wayne National Forest, the small iron producing town of Moonville thrived. The Baltimore and Ohio steam locomotive regularly traveled to the town to deliver supplies and passed through the infamous Moonville Tunnel. Locals say that one rainy night a drunken brakeman waved his lantern to stop the train, stumbling he fell upon to the train tracks losing his head to the oncoming train. On rainy nights some say you can see the brakeman's lantern waving to stop a train that is not there. Another ghost story arrives around a young woman that walked the tracks to see her lover in Moonville. She was trapped by the train on the trestle and had no place to flee. She decapitated by the train and is now said to roam the Moonville area around the tunnel.