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    Haunted Scranton: After Dark in the Electric City
    Haunted Scranton: After Dark in the Electric City
    Haunted Scranton: After Dark in the Electric City
    Ebook132 pages1 hour

    Haunted Scranton: After Dark in the Electric City

    By A.C. Bernardi

    3/5

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    About this ebook

    A tour of the spookiest spots in this Pennsylvania city, filled with local history and legends . . . Includes photos!
     
    At the heart of the Lackawanna Valley, Scranton is haunted by those who once walked its streets and worked its mines and rail lines. From the woman in white who lingers in Courthouse Square to the passenger of trolley car #46 who never reached her destination, the specters of Scranton make their presence known.
     
    Supernatural investigator A.C. Bernardi chronicles chilling tales of the city’s landmarks, from the mysterious happenings on the sixth floor of the Lackawanna Station Hotel to stories of the angry spirits of victims of the Spanish influenza epidemic who lurk in the basement of the Banshee Pub. Join him as he traverses the dark side of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781614236924
    Haunted Scranton: After Dark in the Electric City
    Author

    A.C. Bernardi

    Through historical research and his own documented experiences during actual paranormal investigations of local haunted sites, A.C. Bernardi developed the script for the popular "Scranton after Dark, A Walk through Haunted History"? tour.

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    3/5

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    • 4/5
      This book is part of a series that is called 'Haunted America' by the History Press. This series of books is heavy on local history, legends and lore. I have read a few of the books from this series, and was so excited to see that there was finally one about my home area since my family has lived in the Scranton area since my great great grandparents moved here over 90 years ago. This specific book has a great balance of historical information, legend and lore. If you like our Scranton history you will like this book. If you like Paranormal or Ghost related stories a most read.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      Another local history FAIL. I have worked in Scranton for over 36 years, made a lot of friends among people who have lived here all their lives, patronized innumerable local businesses, and visited most of the purported haunted locations mentioned in this book (restaurants, office buildings, cultural venues, etc.) for conventional (not paranormal) reasons. If the examples cited in this book are the best the city has to offer, I can understand why, in all that time, I have never heard a single "ghost story" associated with this town. Not one of the tales of haunting recited by Bernardi seems to have any foundation in real events---none of the so-called ghosts are tied to specific violent deaths, none of them have names rooted in history or even in family lore. That does not stop Bernardi from speculating freely about who these spirits might be, or why they are hanging around. I am profoundly skeptical about all paranormal stuff anyway, but it can be fun to read about. Can be. Wasn't. The writing is so bad it makes me want to avoid anything published by The History Press forevermore, even though their mission really appeals to me. This particular effort would have earned a low "C" from my high school English teacher, for ruddy awful sentences, adverbial recklessness and peculiar use of adjectives. If it didn't mean forcing her to read the darn thing, I'd love to hear my daughter's assessment of it from a rhetorical perspective.Review written in 2012

    Book preview

    Haunted Scranton - A.C. Bernardi

    INTRODUCTION

    HOW I GOT STARTED

    I never truly believed that ghosts really do exist until I was twenty-five years old. Up until that point, I was just an optimistic skeptic who loved the darker side of history. From the time I was very young, I remember being fascinated by tales of haunted houses and spirits of the past that roamed the darkened forests and roadsides during the dead of night just waiting for an unfortunate traveler to come along to hear their tragic stories. This interest stayed with me throughout the years and sharpened as I read every book I could find about famous haunted places far and wide. Soon, I found myself visiting some of these places to experience the history of the location and hopefully catch a glimpse of something paranormal, but I never really thought it was possible or could happen to me. However, that all changed on an August night in historic Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, back in 2001.

    At the time, my fiancée (now my wife) and I were attending an introductory seminar on ghost hunting held by the Philadelphia Ghost Hunters Alliance at the Inn at Jim Thorpe. We were viewing the event only as a fun weekend getaway with the possibility of learning something new. To our delight, the seminar turned out to be extremely interesting and a great opportunity for training with some of the basic equipment and techniques used during paranormal investigations. On the second night of the event, we were very fortunate to have conducted a short investigation at the nearby gorgeous Asa Packer Mansion (built in 1861), guided by the attending members of the Philadelphia Ghost Hunter’s Alliance. Here the employees of the estate educated us regarding the history of the lush mansion and the paranormal events experienced in the building throughout the years, which included everything imaginable up to sightings of full-bodied apparitions. They believed that the original owners of the mansion still walked the halls and kept watch over their beloved home from beyond the grave.

    I soon realized that this could be a possibility while alone in a darkened bedroom on the third floor. I was using a night vision monocular to view the room when I was shocked to see a glowing orb the size of a baseball come out of a wall to my right at head level, pass directly in front of me and then vanish into another wall on the opposite side of the room. I initially thought it was a trick of some sort, or perhaps the headlights of a car from outside coming through the window. However, I then remembered that I was on the third floor, high above the ground surface. The heavy opaque drapes on the windows were drawn shut, and the room was in the rear right corner of the mansion and did not have a view of any nearby road. During the short time I observed the ball of light, I managed to close the eye I was using to look through the monocular and open my other eye to view the strange object without the aid of night vision. To my surprise, the orb was only visible while looking through the monocular. At the time, I remember feeling that I was not alone in the room and that this could be my first real encounter with a spiritual entity. Fortunately, I was not afraid, and the experience sent my mind reeling with possibilities and the desire to see more.

    Later that night, I was with my fiancée, Olivia, and another couple in the first-floor study room taking pictures of the space in attempt to catch some photographic evidence of a spirit. I was so overwhelmed with the beauty of the building in general that I commented out loud regarding the exquisite craftsmanship of the woodwork with its detailed carvings. Playing on this, Olivia openly thanked the spirits in the house for letting us visit and experience the building. During this time, the two people with us were recording our investigation in this room with a digital audio recorder. When the night’s investigation in the mansion was over, the four of us went back to our hotel room immediately to review the evidence. Upon listening to our audio recordings from the study room, we were floored to hear a response from an unidentified source on the device. After Olivia thanked the spirits for letting us visit the mansion, a grainy, but clear, disembodied voice answered with the phrase You’re welcome! We knew that the voice did not belong to any of us, and we all agreed that we did not hear it at the time of the recording. To get a second opinion, we took the evidence to the lead investigator of the Philadelphia Ghost Hunter’s Alliance for his analysis, and he exclaimed that the disembodied voice was indeed an electronic voice phenomenon (EVP) originating from a spirit. That specific EVP turned out to be the best sample of evidence collected by anyone attending the seminar that weekend and the starting point for my career in paranormal investigation. From that moment on, I was hooked and have been involved with paranormal investigations ever since.

    It has been over ten years since my first brush with the paranormal, and since then I have conducted numerous paranormal investigations within my home state of Pennsylvania, as well as in other states, including New York, Arizona and West Virginia. In this field, I have worked on my own and as a member of paranormal research groups, where I have met and befriended interesting individuals such as local historians, psychic mediums and other paranormal researchers. Each location that I investigated provided me with new experiences and insight into the spiritual world. Initially for me, these investigations were more of a thrill-seeking hobby to see what sort of evidence I could collect. However, later on, this hobby evolved into a way to apply my knowledge of the physical sciences and engineering, further develop my spiritual growth, help frightened people living with spirit entities and potentially help the spirits themselves.

    There are many possible reasons why a ghost of a deceased person would linger within the living world. Some more common explanations include the resolution of unfinished business, refusing to pass on because the spirit does not realize it is dead or simply choosing to stay behind at a certain location because the spirit loved it during life. As I stated previously, the latter could be the explanation of why the spirits of the Packers still remain in their past home. I learned that behind every true haunting there is an underlying history associated with it that is waiting to be discovered. By painstakingly unraveling the history, one could find the possible explanation for the haunting and the identity of the spirit involved with it. Once all the necessary details were uncovered about a haunting, then provisions could be made to help the residents of the location deal with the entity and help the spirit to pass on from the world of the living if that were the decided best course of action.

    I believe ghosts should be treated with respect because, after all, they were once living persons with life experiences and memories. After my very first investigation at the Packer mansion, I discovered that utilizing aspects of a location’s history during the investigation paired with treating the resident spirits with respect worked the best for me when it came time to review the evidence. For example, if we had not treated the Packers respectfully during our visit to the mansion and thanked them, I might not have witnessed that pivotal EVP that launched my career in paranormal investigations and essentially changed my life.

    Years later, I now find myself to be the lead investigator and founder of the Scranton After Dark Paranormal Society (SADPS), a paranormal research group that investigates within the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and the surrounding areas. The SADPS works exclusively with the Lackawanna Historical Society (LHS) in an effort to raise funds for this important organization, which strives to keep the area’s local history (even the darker side) alive for future generations to learn about and enjoy.

    The tales of ghosts contained within the chapters of this book have originated from firsthand events experienced by the owners, employees, residents and/or patrons of the locations. These stories have been eagerly passed down throughout the years and survive to this day due to the general interest most people have regarding history, the afterlife and the paranormal. A large amount of the world’s population today still believes in spirits and/or some form of the afterlife, and many of the living have had some unexplainable brushes with the supernatural, whether or not they will openly admit to it.

    Modern science theorizes that energy can neither be truly created or destroyed but can be converted into another form of energy, such as electrical

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