`Sōri Kōtei` The Official Residence just after completion in 1929
The Japanese cabinet has formally denied months-long rumours that prime minister Shinzo Abe has not moved into his official residence over fears the mansion is haunted.
The conservative leader took office in December but has yet to move into the 11-room brick home in central Tokyo.
According to local media, it is the longest holdout among any of his predecessors.
Several former prime ministers have reported experiencing unusual phenomena at the mansion, which was centre-stage for two failed but bloody coups in the 1930s.
Former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi once told reporters he had never encountered any ghosts, despite wanting to see them.
Some first ladies have refused to live in the mansion over fears its was inhabited by spirits.
An opposition politician asked about the presence of ghosts in the prime minister's residence in a letter to Mr Abe's cabinet.
"There are rumours that the official residence is haunted by ghosts. Is it true?" the politician wrote.
"Does prime minister Abe refuse to move to the official residence because of the rumours?"
He said the decision could delay the prime minister's response time in emergencies because the residence is next door to his executive office.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
Mr Abe's cabinet issued a terse written statement in response, saying: "We do not assent to what was asked."
In May 1932, a revolt by naval officers ended in the murder of then-prime minister Tsuyoshi Inukai and the plotters' surrender to military police.
Several years later in 1936, about 1,400 rebel troops killed several political leaders and seized the heart of Tokyo's government district including the official residence for four days.
A popular yet controversial Philadelphia-area Halloween attraction that takes place on
the grounds of an infamous hospital for the mentally ill is at the center of a personal injury claim filed this week by a New Jersey man.
Steven Chrzanowski, who lives in Gloucester City, N.J., filed a federal complaint at the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia on May 21 against the operators of a haunted house that is open each fall at the site of the former Pennhurst mental institution.
Chrzanowski claims in his civil action against Pennhurst Asylum, Pennhurst Haunt LLC and Bates Motel Productions LLC that while attending the haunted house attraction on Oct. 9, 2011, he sustained serious leg injuries after two employees working for the defendants “jumped onto or otherwise abruptly caused a hospital bed to strike the plaintiff in his left knee.”
The negligent act caused Chrzanowski to suffer a posterior horn medial meniscus tear, patellofemoral chondrosis, and infrapateller neuroma, which caused the plaintiff to have to undergo surgery, the lawsuit claims.
The complaint accuses the defendants’ employees of acting in a negligent, careless and reckless manner.
As a result of the incident, the suit states, Chrzanowski experienced pain and suffering, discomfort, incapacitation, and he incurred expenses related to his medical treatment.
The complaint says the alleged incident occurred while the plaintiff was standing in line for one of the indoor attractions of the haunted house at about 9:30 at night.
Pennhurst Asylum and Pennhurst Haunt LLC are Pennsylvania corporations based in Chester County, while Bates Motel Productions LLC is a Pennsylvania corporation with its principal place of business in Gradyville, Delaware County.
The Pennhurst haunted attraction, which first opened in 2010, has had its share of controversy, namely due to people opposing the use of the historic site as a Halloween gimmick.
The reason – the facility was shut down amid claims of patient abuse and mistreatment.
According to online records, the facility first opened in the early 1900s and was originally called Eastern Pennsylvania State Institution for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic.
The building, which straddles the Chester County and Montgomery County lines, was designed to house mentally ill and physically disabled patients from southeastern Pennsylvania.
The institution, however, ended up being shuttered in the mid 1980s following news reports of unsanitary conditions and inappropriate treatment on the part of staff against patients, something that led to one of the first class action abuse lawsuits of its kind in U.S. history.
That case, according to news reports, was Halderman v. Pennhurst State School & Hospital, which concluded that developmentally disabled patients under state care have a constitutional right to appropriate treatment and education.
The federal case was filed by former Pennhurst patient Terry Lee Halderman, who claimed that the conditions at Pennhurst were not just unsanitary, but both inhumane and hazardous, violations of patients’ Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
Halderman had argued that cruel and unusual punishment was the norm at Pennhurst.
Records show, however, that the United States Supreme Court ended up vacating the trial court’s ruling due to the Eleventh Amendment, which prevents federal courts from forcing state officials to enforce state laws.
Nevertheless, Pennsylvania officials did finally agree to close down Pennhurst in the summer of 1986, and move its residents to other institutions, according to an archived New York Times article.
From start to finish, the litigation lasted about a decade, records show.
In addition to being the location for the haunted house attraction, Pennhurst is also a popular site among paranormal investigators.
Chrzanowski, the plaintiff in the current lawsuit, seeks compensatory damages in excess of $75,000, plus interest, attorney’s fees, litigation costs and other court relief.
He is being represented by attorney Frank D. Allen of the firm Archer & Greiner.
Note: Pennhurst has been featured on the shows Ghost Adventures on Travel Channel, Ghost Hunters on SyFy, Celebrity Ghost Stories on BIO, The Haunting Of... 'Beverley Mitchell' on BIO, and the self-titled movie 'Pennhurst', featuring Beverley Mitchell and Haylie Duff.
An untold love story behind one of Scotland’s most famous military ghosts has been uncovered.
On Monday, a wreath will be laid near Montrose Air Station Heritage Centre, 100 years to the day after Lieutenant Desmond Arthur was killed in a flying accident near the base.
Tales of supernatural sightings in the years following his death are well known but the identity of a young woman pictured in a locket found in his breast pocket have proved a mystery — until now.
Curator of the centre Dr Dan Paton said: “Until recently little was known about Lt Arthur but his great-nephew recently provided us with information which gives us a more complete picture of the dashing young pilot.
“One of the most interesting facts is that, following his death, a miniature of a beautiful young woman was found in Lt Arthur’s breast pocket.
Miss Winsome Ropner
“This photograph has now been donated to the heritage centre, along with Lt Arthur’s diary.”
Dr Paton discovered the lady in the photograph was Miss Winsome Ropner from West Hartlepool, who was aged just 14 at the time of the crash.
He said: “In these times such an attachment might cause concern but in 1913, when attitudes and behaviour had not changed from the strict moral standards of the Victorian age, it would have been seen in romantic terms and the prelude to
marriage.
“Miss Ropner went on to marry a man who was also a pilot but she never forgot Desmond Arthur. Thanks to information from Lt Arthur’s great-nephew Nick Arthur and Paul Willcox, the grandson of Winsome Ropner, we now know much more about him as a man.”
Display material will now portray the pilot as a pioneer of aviation and the miniature portrait of Miss Ropner will also be put on show.
An investigation into the crash began two years after Lt Arthur’s death, around the same time as sightings of ghostly figure at the air station were first reported.
Dr Paton said: “These sightings, which coincided with an official inquiry into whether the aircraft’s plunge to the ground was the result of Lt Arthur’s recklessness, caused considerable alarm.
“The Court of Inquiry eventually cleared Lt Arthur of blame and, once exonerated, the ghost made one last appearance on Christmas Eve 1916 and then disappeared.”
A small party from the centre will lay a wreath on Lt Arthur’s grave at the town’s Sleepyhillock Cemetery next week at the behest of his family.
Beijing residents claim they have been terrorized by a spate of late night scary phone calls from a local number, in which they hear cries for help, a woman screaming, or a baby crying.
If they call back, they are told the number does not exist, which has led to online claims that people are being harassed by a "ghost call."
Web users who posted their experiences of answering the call on Sina Weibo say these calls all originate from the same number, which is 010-67679910. Many other residents said they had also received calls from that number late at night, but missed it, as it rang only for a short time while they were asleep.
China Unicom - Line Operator
The subject of "ghost calls" has become the top trending topic on Sina Weibo since last week. Many Web users posted pictures of missed call records from their phones, and celebrated that they did not pick up the call. Some are afraid that they merely received the call, even if they did not answer.
Web posts on receiving horror calls from the same number date from 2010.
Two customer service staff from China Unicom, a State-owned telecommunications operator, told the Global Times that the number is in the range of the company's phone numbers, but they cannot find the number in their database. They both suggested the possibility that the number was set through some software.
An insider in the communications industry in Shanghai told the Global Times that Internet telephony which includes software that can change the number shown on recipients' phones is likely to be involved.
Those who made the calls have breached the Law on Public Security Administration Punishments for repeatedly dispatching intimidating information to disturb others' normal life, while supervision on Internet telephony is a legal vacuum.
Beijing police said that if residents receive the calls, they can report this to their nearest police office. Officers will take down the information, and tackle the case if reports intensify, the Beijing News reported.
The Lord Mayor of Dublin says there have been spooky occurrences at the Mansion House.
Naoise O Muiri says his daughter Briona (4) has witnessed a ghoul at the historic Dublin building.
The Fine Gael councillor says he didn’t believe in ghosts until an incident in February when his daughter saw a young girl watching TV in the living quarters of the building.
“In the middle of the night my six-year-old daughter Ailbhe walked from her room through the sitting room and into mine.
Naoise O Muiri - Sceptic
“Briona followed her in the next day she turned to me and said she saw a girl with dark curly hair sitting watching TV at 3am.”
O Muiri said he knew the Dawson Street building which dates back to 1705 had a reputation for strange happenings.
He told the Irish Sun: “I was sceptical coming in but there is definitely stuff happening”.
He believes his daughter’s youth and innocence is the reason why there is proof that there is a ghost.
“Briona has never heard or had never heard any talk of ghosts. She is very small and young, very sensitive.
“It happened 12 weeks ago and we haven’t brought it up again.”
In 2009 the then Mayor Eibhlin Byrne reported that her bulldog Sam had noticed something spooky at the Mansion House.
She said the dog refused to walk past a particular door.
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