Urban Legends

John Dickinson Plantation

John Dickinson Plantation is said to be haunted by John Dickinson himself, also known as the “penman of the Revolutionary War.” The sound of a quill pen writing on parchment has been recorded in his den and his bed mysteriously becomes rumpled in the afternoons, as if he has taken a nap. The John Dickinson Plantation is just two miles south of the Delaware East Asylum Trinity Hospital. The wheat and many of the vegetables that feed the patients come from this farm. Some have claimed that the food that comes from this farm is poisoned. Some claim that John Dickinson's son Junior killed him to take over the farm. One thing is certain, anyone that goes by the John Dickinson Plantation will always take note of all the crows flying around in the air.

Woodburn Governor's House

The 1790's mansion is said to be haunted by some wine-loving ghosts, known to empty a decanter that was filled every night. Among the ghosts reported here for decades are the apparition of former owner Dr. M.W. Bates’ father, another apparition of a man who wears a white wig, a floating specter who wears a Revolutionary War outfit, and a little girl in a red gingham dress. Due to the nature of the home the current Governor has chosen not to move him and his family into the home and some say that spiritualists will sneak into it at night to perform rituals. The church has asked the city to demolish the home, but because it was deemed a historical site the property now sits unused.

The Ghost Of Charolette Wilkenson

In the year of 1789, eight-teen-year old Charolette Wilkenson was admitted as a patient who suffered delusions of beasts and demons. At the time no one believed her. Both parents had been savagely killed. She, herself had been brutally beaten and assaulted in the worse way possible. The police couldn't use the information, simply because they didn't believe her. Instead, she was locked up in Delaware East's Asylum where she died a year later. Any records on what happened to her vanished. No one really knows what happened. Only that she died while still a patient. No one knows where the body ended up, either. To this day, some believe she haunts the entire building, wreaking her hell upon the staff every chance she gets. Of course, the staff members don't seem to be the only targets of her rage.

Lady In The Long Black Veil

This is the urban legend of a poltergeist woman in a long black veil who crosses over from the spirit world seeking vengeance for her the man she cheated on her husband with, who was put to death for a crime he did not commit. He was making love to her, his best friends wife on Halloween, while her husband was murdered in a robbery in Hickman. The lover was accused of the crime because his best friend owed him a lot of money. They asked him for an alibi, but would not confess that his alibi was her to protect her honor. With no alibi he was sentenced and hung for the crime he did not commit. She had to go to the city square and watch in horror as he died covering up her adultery. The murderer of her husband still at large drove her insane. She found the man, and killed him. After his death she was so grieved she went to the South Graveyard in Little Creek and died of a broken heart standing over his grave. Her spirit now returns in the forest crying over his grave, some say she has killed people for approaching her.

The Graveyard Necromancer

This is the urban myth of The Graveyard Necromancer. It is said that on the last day of each month he will travel from the city of Dover to the North Graveyard in Little Creek. There he will dig up a grave of people buried from the 1600's and scatter their bones and cast spells. Some believe that he has an entire group of occult follower that either went there to assist him in his evil magic, or are the people in which he has resurrected from the grave. It is also likely that this myth was created to scare children and adults from lurking around the old graveyard at night, or perhaps to tempt them to visit and find out for themselves.

Vampires

In the early 17th century, rumors began to circulate around the village of Trenčín in present-day Slovakia. Peasant girls looking for servant work in the Csejte Castle were disappearing, and no one knew why. But before long, many locals began to point their fingers at Countess Elizabeth Bathory. Known as "The Blood Countess" the rumors are that she became a vampire, drinking the blood of her victims and turning them into vampiric monsters. The urban legend is those vampires have taken ships, and come to the United States. They walk the streets in Dover at night. A man was found with bite marks on his neck and no blood, and since rumors have spread of a vampire woman who is the demon spawn of Satan looking to drink people's blood.

Corpse Light

Cape Henlopen State Park is said to be the origin of the Corpse Light, a mysterious phantom light with no discernible source. There is no lighthouse at Cape Henlopen, yet people often see lights flashing from the location. The light was allegedly a curse from a local Native American tribe. After British soldiers stormed a wedding ceremony and massacred many guests, the tribe conjured up the light as a means to lure ships to doom. The Corpse Light fulfilled it's intended purpose on Christmas Day 1665 when it attracted the Devonshireman. The ship, following the beams from the nonexistent lighthouse crashed into a shaft of stone instead. That night 200 men died in the wreck, and some say the ghost ship periodically appears to reenact the famous crash.