With All The Bumps In The Night They Can't Say Mary Doesn't Live There Anymore (Frankfort)

The Montreal Gazette, February 28, 1979 (enlarge)

As far as hauntings go this story of Mary is fairly innocuous but ghostly just the same.

Alan LaRue and his family bought the mansion on a hill overlooking Leelanau Street in Frankfort in the late 1970s for $15,000 less than the asking price but got far more than they bargained for. Now that I have the grammatical cliches out of the way let me segue into the paranormal ones.

As soon as they moved into the house the unusual activity began. First a macrame planter mysteriously moved 4 inches from its original setting and then a vinegar bottle was repeatedly found tipped on its side in the cupboard. Minor trifling for a horror story but in ordinary common existence quite an unsettling occurrence.

So when their 80 pound dining table twice moved four feet from under the chandelier to the edge of the bay window four feet away while the family slept they knew it was more than a practical joker's ruse. When mentioned to a neighbor they were informed of Mary, the poltergeist, who was known to infuriate the previous owner's 9-year-old daughter by turning off the shower water while she occupied it.

Other incidents included the prerequisite footsteps, unexplained voices, doors opening and closing, lights turning off and on, typewriters tapping, the sound of heavy objects moving, breaking glass when there was none and a television starting up without the aid of human hands.

The more harrowing stories include a picture climbing two feet up a wall before crashing to the ground without breaking and the family cat seemingly being levitated into the air as if it had jumped without actually jumping. The incident left even the cat's hair standing on end.