On the spookiest night of the year, the ghosts and ghouls of Gainesville gleefully greet the town, but which are truth or fiction is still under speculation.
Most ghost sightings are psychic recordings or imprints of emotionally charged or repetitive events, said Andrew Nichols, the founder of the North Florida Parapsychology Association.
“Anywhere that humans have lived and died is haunted,” he said.
These types of hauntings are neither intelligent nor interactive and are usually described as a feeling, sound, smell or other sensory effect, he said. Very rarely do full-bodied apparitions show up.
When these phenomena start, ghost stories and urban legends are often created as explanations. The stories usually involve an event or character that existed but with a fictional twist.
Just because the story isn’t true doesn’t mean the paranormal phenomenon isn’t real, Nichols said.
Gainesville and UF have a few ghost stories of their own.
Norman Hall is rumored to be haunted by school children involved in an elevator accident when it was still an elementary school.
Beaty Towers are rumored to be haunted by a girl who jumped to her death in the ‘70s and inspired the Tom Petty song “American Girl.”
However, UF historians have found no proof of an elevator accident at Norman Hall or of a girl who committed suicide from one of the towers.
UF spokesman Steve Orlando said he had the opportunity to ask Tom Petty if the song was about her — the singer said it wasn’t.
Thomas Hall is rumored to be haunted by Steve, a cook who worked in the building when it was still a cafeteria. There is a little bit of truth to this tale: Students made up a story to remember a cook who actually lived and died there.
Another local haunt is the Herlong Mansion in Micanopy, where the daughter of the original owner is rumored to inhabit the building. Current owner, Carolyn Stevens-West, said Inez Herlong moved into the mansion and supposedly died in a diabetic coma in her bedroom on the third floor.
Stevens-West said this story was made up by a previous owner in the 1980s to attract more business. Inez bought the mansion but couldn’t have died on the third floor: It wasn’t renovated into bedrooms until the 1980s, and there’s no evidence she died in the house.
Although the story is false, guests regularly report strong scents of rose or lilac in the bedrooms. But that’s the spookiest thing happening in the historic bed and breakfast.
The Hippodrome State Theatre also boasts its own ghost story.
Rusty Salling, the theater’s resident ghost expert, said it is haunted by a woman who arrived late to the trial and execution of her son when the theater was still a federal courthouse in the early 20th century.
There’s no evidence that the story is true, and he’s never seen the ghost, but a few times a year, people claim to see or hear her son. A few years ago, an intern had a conversation with a man who apparently wasn’t there.
She refused to go to the basement again.
