Eric Lavender is no stranger to a good ghost story. The Isle of Palms resident has been giving guided tours for nearly 20 years with Bulldog Tours and has witnessed paranormal encounters up close and personal while showcasing the Lowcountry to tourists. From downtown to the islands, Lavender has experienced his fair share of thrills and shrills that still give him chills to this day.
Lavender has been involved in the production of several paranormal TV shows including “Paranormal State,” “Ghost Adventures” and “Ghost Hunters.” In 2011, he gave renowned paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren a tour of downtown Charleston. Warren has investigated thousands of cases, wrote numerous books and lectured on the occult and paranormal phenomena. Her extensive research into reported hauntings and demonic possessions inspired the “Annabelle” and “The Conjuring” film franchises. Lavender claimed that Warren was visibly terrified and vowed she would never step foot inside the Old City Jail.
The following stories shared by Lavender are not urban legends told around the campfire. What makes these stories scary is that they are true. Real incidents that happened to real people.
TOP HAT
The house on 29th Avenue had a way of keeping its secrets. In 2011, a married couple moved into the bottom floor of an old duplex. Groaning floorboards were the least of their worries.
The wife felt it immediately – a presence lingering in the hallway that connected the kitchen to the bedroom. Out of the corner of her eye, she would spot a tall, faceless silhouette crowned with a top hat. His shadowy figure reminded her of a president from long ago: Abraham Lincoln.
She never told her husband. He had never believed her ghost stories anyway. She never felt threatened by the ghost’s presence, so she kept the secret, living quietly with the top-hatted figure for two years.
On moving day, her husband sighed, “Well, I guess I can say it now that we’re leaving. … That ghost was really creeping me out. I’m glad to be gone.” She turned pale as a sheet. “Oh my God. The one with the top hat?”
He froze, his face bleached. For two years, they had both seen the same man in the top hat and neither had spoken of it.
GHOST OF POE
It was the summer of 2005 when Carli Jones wandered along the southern tip of Sullivan’s Island, hunting for seashells beneath the Carolina sun, not far from the port where a young Edgar Allan Poe had served at Fort Moultrie.
Jones squatted down to examine a particularly intricate shell. When she looked up, a man was walking toward her. Dark hair, dark eyes and a soulless presence. But his voice was soothing, and his smile was disarming. He spoke of shells with a vast knowledge as though he had walked these shores for decades. Jones presumed he was a marine biology student at the College of Charleston.
Mesmerized by the kaleidoscope of colors, Jones bent to pick up another shell. When she looked up again, the man had vanished – as if the dunes had swallowed him whole. Disturbed but intrigued, she returned to her boyfriend and told him about the odd encounter. Shortly after, they packed up their belongings and went home to get cleaned up for dinner at a nearby restaurant.
While sitting at the table, Jones’ eyes fell on a framed portrait hanging on the wall. Her heart sank. It was the same dark-haired, dark-eyed man who had spoken to her on the beach several hours before.
“Who’s that?” Jones asked the waitress refilling her glass of water.
“That’s Edgar Allan Poe,” she proudly replied.
Jones’ face drained. This was impossible. Poe had long since passed away in Baltimore in 1849. Yet, there he was walking the sands, speaking to her, as if she was trapped inside a time capsule.
CALL FROM BEYOND
It was the final stop of the night on Lavender’s ghost tour, on Philadelphia Alley in downtown Charleston. The cobblestone streets were quiet now and the glow of gas lanterns lit the way.
Lavender had just five minutes left before the tour ended, but he decided to tell one more ghastly tale.“Let me tell you a story,” Lavender said, “just as I first told it that night.”
In 2010, Dr. Anna Fletcher, a world-renowned cardiologist from Brussels, Belgium, flew to Charleston for a conference at the Medical University of South Carolina. She arrived late, weary from travel and went straight to her hotel to check in. The Embassy Suites to be exact.
One of the guests shrieked, “Oh Lord have mercy, that’s where we’re staying!” Lavender grinned and proceeded.
The first night, all seemed normal. Dr. Fletcher turned on the bathroom light, cracked the door for comfort and slept soundly. But the second night was a different story.
Restless, she felt a weight in the room, like someone was watching her sleep. The clock read 3 a.m. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement at the foot of the bed. She spun her head and froze. A tall man stood there, clad in a gray uniform. Dr. Fletcher rubbed her eyes, convinced it was an illusion caused by severe exhaustion. But when she looked again, he was still there. Except this time she noticed a drastic difference. He was headless.
Dr. Fletcher fled the room, changed hotels and caught the next return flight home to Brussels. She told everyone about her terrifying stay. End of story. But not quite.
The couple to whom Lavender told the story went back home to Tennessee the next day. When they arrived home, they noticed a message flashing on their answering machine. As soon as it began to play, they froze. It was Lavender’s voice, recounting the very same ghost story he had told them the night before.
Cell phones were prohibited on Lavender’s tour, but apparently eavesdropping ghosts aren’t.
To book your next ghost tour of Charleston, visit bulldogtours.com.
By Zach Giroux
Leave a Reply