Creepy Tales Of Victorian Ghosts

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

Whether or not you believe in hauntings, ghosts, and spirits, well, sometimes, you at least have to admit that the tales behind the hauntings are completely true. Take the oft-reported haunting of the Vermont College of Fine Arts. For a long time, students and faculty have said it's haunted by the spirit of a murdered woman named Anna, who can be heard whispering words like "lover" and "jealous." Michelle Singer, program assistant for the college's MFA writing program, heard the stories and wondered if there was any truth to any version of Anna's legend. There absolutely was.

"Anna" is Carrie Anna Wheeler, and in 1897, she was engaged to Jack Wheeler. (No, they're not related, says Singer.) Jack was a handsome sort of guy, and he also caught the eye of Lena Merilla Brewster... unfortunately for them all.

Singer found that the two women had confronted each other, then headed down College Street for Jack's house. Before they got there, though, Brewster shot and killed Anna, then herself. Anna was buried days later, yet Brewster survived: she lived the rest of her life with the bullet still lodged in her skull. She was put on trial, and it was one of the first time an insanity defense was successful. Further news stories suggest that Brewster had been pregnant with Jack's child and had an abortion; she, too, is still reported to haunt the courtroom where she was put on trial.

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