I notice your sight is lacking in stories from Southeastern Ohio, you know, we DO exist. We also have interesting ghost stories. Here's a few:
The man known as top hat has frequented the operating room of Scioto Memorial Hospital for years. He's dressed in 18 Century garb and sports (you guessed it) a top hat. One day a nurse going to the OR was walking by herself down the corridor to the OR and saw this man. The man politely said "Good day madam." and she responded likewise and walked on. It dawned on her as she walked that no one should be in that section of the hospital unless they were dressed in hospital garb. She turned around and saw him fade away.
No one has had unpleasant run-ins with top hat. He's polite and courteous but never stays long to chat. Unfortunately no one knows what happened to this distinguished gentleman.
The former intensive care unit of Mercy Hospital has been the home of the white nun. She's dressed in white and doesn't speak. When she is near, you feel cold and peace. You don't realize that you've been visited by her until she is gone.
Several people have seen her float by hospital rooms, over guards heads and she's been seen on the monitors as well. There was a connection made between the nights she was spotted and when a patient would die. It was theorized that she was the angle of death.
The counterpart to this story is there is the black nun that haunts the floor above her. No one has seen it, but THEY HAVE FELT IT. When the black nun is present, the room temperature drops and you are chilled to the bone with dread and fear. To my knowledge, nothing has happened with this creature. But plenty has happened on this floor, and it started in the early 1980's.
Year ago Our lady of Mercy hospital was ran by the Catholic Church. The hospital had the priest and nuns there as part of its administration. One night the nurses on the floor (I believe it was the step down unit) had a couple of slow nights, and one nurse brought in a Ouija board. The nurses were playing with it. I should add that there was always something wrong with rooms 5, 8 and 237 (I'm guessing on the last one) one nurse asked what was wrong with room 8. Bed sheet would crumple up and things would be misplaced and then placed back again. The board replied l-o-o-k i-n t-h-e m-i-r-r-o-r. The nurses were scared and understandably didn't want to go, but one nurse, a petite brave little redhead, said she would go. She marched up to the room and went to look in the mirror. Every one in the conference room waited for her to come back down. A bloodcurdling scream was heard across the hall. She immediately ran downstairs, quit her job and left. Last I heard, she had moved out west. The nurses were baffled but break was up, so they went back to work. Mother superior, on making her rounds, heard about the Ouija board in the intensive care unit break room, and marched up to get rid of the board. She asked with a furious voice, "Where's that board!". The nurse who brought it in said it was in the break room, where they had left it. Mother superior went into the room to destroy it, but it was nowhere to be found. She searched high and low, but it never surfaced. She went to the nurses station and asked vehemently where it was, but the nurses said it was in the room. The board had hid itself to keep it from being destroyed, or so the legend goes. Since then, odd things have been happening on the floor, particularly the rooms 5 and 8. Bed sheets crumple after being made, equipment and monitors go haywire. One night, and my mother can attest to this, the other hospital in the area was full and was sending a patient over, and standard procedure was to go to the room, turn down the sheets and turn on the monitors. When the monitor was turned on (it was back in the '80's, when it still used paper to print out on) it started to act like it was printing out a heartbeat, then it began to make upside down crosses. It did this several times before the patient was wheeled into the room. The minute the patient came in the room, the monitor quit and went back to a straight line reading.
Some would say that a portal to hell was opened up that day. Oh yeah, and the nurse? Years later after mom started working there and when the catholic church gave up control of the hospital, my mom asked a priest who had been there for a while if there was any truth to the story of the nurse who ventured to room 8. The priest confirmed this and when asked by mom what she saw, his answer was "a demon'. And he left it at that.
I have no first hand knowledge as to the location or authenticity of these tales. I simply have presented them as they were sent to me to provide some information on hauntings in the southern portion of Ohio in which my site is lacking. If anyone has information as to the exact location or to add to the above account, please feel free to contact me at
This post, including photos and commentary, originally appeared on James A. Sheets' site.
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