Forget Salem. Forget Amityville. If you want a city where things go bump in the night all the time, head to the Florida coast and the nation's oldest city.
St. Augustine has so many reputed spooks and ghouls that there are nightly walking tours named "A Ghostly Experience." A new book, "Ghosts of St. Augustine," is filled with two dozen haunted tales from St. Augustine, a settlement established in 1562 some 40 miles south of Jacksonville.There's no better place to start than with the 300-year-old home of Pat and Maggie Patterson, who say they aren't squeamish about sharing it with the ghosts of a former governor of Florida, a sentry, a calico cat and a shadowy white figure.
The fun-loving apparitions at the Patterson residence like to turn on lights, hide jewelry and move furniture, the owners say. And there's that empty coffin on the third floor - a leftover from when a doctor occupied the house and kept a couple of the boxes around to bury the dead.
"It's an exciting house to live in," Maggie Patterson said. "We didn't expect this to happen when we bought the house."
The hijinks started just after Pattersons moved into their coquina house in St. Augustine's historic area in 1981. Maggie Patterson had heard tales about ghostly visitors, but she was only joking when she entered for the first time and said, "Well, if there are any ghosts in here I wish they would give us a sign!"
Lights in the home's entrance and stairway suddenly came on.
Then there was the ghostly appearance of Don Pedro Benedit de Horruytiner, a Spanish governor in the 1600s who lived in the house.
Patterson said she was shocked, but the apparition dressed in black with a white ruffled shirt, removed his hat, bowed and smiled.
"I was so frightened, I jumped up and ran," she said.
The Pattersons' story is included in the ghost book written by Orlando author Dave Lapham. Since its publication earlier this year, Lapham has collected more spooky stories from St. Augustine, enough for a second book.
Lapham said he believes in ghosts but has yet to see one - not for lack of effort, however. While writing the book, he spent the night in the Catholic cemetery in St. Augustine hoping to see the ghostly figure of a woman in white. No luck.
"It was spooky in there," he said.
Among the ghosts reported to be haunting St. Augustine are Henry Flagler, the business magnate who built the Florida East Coast Railroad and the Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine, which is now Flagler College. Some students who have lived in the ancient hotel have encountered Flagler, including a student who was so shaken by the experience that he left the city.
Sandy Craig, who also has never seen a ghost, runs the tour business. Her company leads tours every night of the year, with guides dressed in costumes from colonial days and carrying lanterns.
Among the stops are the Castillo de San Marcos, the lighthouse, inns, two downtown historic cemeteries and homes.
"Ghosts have been a part of my life," Craig said. "I really think there is something out there. You feel there are people from the past that are sharing with you. I think they are enjoying this."