With the release of IT: Chapter Two, Braydon and Belinda decided to cover haunted amusement parks/carnivals. They discuss Kings Island in Mason Ohio, a 364 acre amusement park where the land has seen over 100 deaths. Following along with Lake Shawnee Amusement Park which was once an ancient burial ground for the Native Americans. Belinda also tells the true tale of Elmer McCurdy and how his mummified body travelled from carnivals to movie sets for over 60 years!!
EPISODE NOTES:
We start off with Belinda talking about Elmer McCurdy. He was a shot and killed at the age of 31 in 1911 after robbing a train in Okesa, Oklahoma. After his body was left unclaimed at the local funeral home, the undertaker took it upon himself to embalm the corpse and set him up for display. Visitors could see him if they put nickel in his mouth. In 1916 a traveling carnival came into possession of the corpse and had him for the next 6 years until they sold him to Louis Sonney and his travelling Museum of Crime. But after Sonney passed away the mummy was put into storage for the next 15 years.
Then his claim to movie fame came about when Elmer's body was used in the movie She Freak in 1967. In 1968 he was sold to Spoony Singh, the man who started the Hollywood Wax Museum. After a terrible windstorm knocked over the display in Mount Rushmore and broke fingers and toes off, Singh sold him to The Pike in Long Beach, California. He remained in the "Laff in the Dark" ride as a prop until a crew member from "Six Million Dollar Man" tried to move him. McCurdy's arm fell off and the police were called. He was finally laid to rest in 1977 with concrete on top of his casket. He will never go on another rollercoaster again.
Braydon starts off the spooky-coaster with some hauntings on King Island. In the 1800's the island had an ammunition factory but an explosion had caused around 100 deaths, possibly more. The amusement park was then built in 1972 and is the 10th largest in the world! The park features over 100 attractions, 14 rollercoasters and a 33 acre water park. But, in 1991 three people died in the same day. Two security guards were electrocuted to death in a pond and a drunk lady fell 20 metres to pavement and died upon impact when riding the Flight Commander. The park also features an Eiffel tower where a drunk man climbed to the top and then fell down the elevator shaft and again, died upon impact. He now haunted the tower and is called "Tower Johny."
Johny isn't the only ghost. There is a little blonde girl between the age of six and nine, she's dressed in a blue dress and can be seen running in the car park. Her ghost is called "Tram Girl" because she runs in front of oncoming trams and stops on the tracks forcing the tram drivers to stop immediately. "Racer Boy" is an apparition that can be seen before or after sunset. He haunts the Racer previously known as the "Shooting Star" at Coney Island where the ride was bought from. The are reports of a boy falling out of the cart on the ride and being crushed to death on the tracks by another on coming cart. The Racer Boy is believed to be that young man. To make things worse, Kings Island also has a cemetery called "Dog Street". There are graves there dating back to 1803. The park is still active today.
Why stop at 2 stories? Belinda talks about Lake Shawnee Amusement park that was abandoned in 1966. Though the park is open for tours during October and can be book for private events, it is not in operation and everything is grown over. The land was once the scene of a horrible event the massacre of the Clay children by the Shawnee Native American tribe who scalped two of their victims. Though the Clay men killed some of the natives in retaliation, they still executed the third Clay child by burning him at the stake. The farm owned by the settlers was sold off some years later to Conley T. Snidow in the 1920's. He then built the park with with circular swings, a ferris wheel, a water slide, a dance hall, a speakeasy and opened up the pond and swimming whole complete with canoes.
The park had seen about six deaths but closed after two young children had died there. A young girl riding the circular swings was killed instantly when a truck backed into the path of the ride. Her ghost sometimes appears and she is still wearing the pink ruffle dress she was wearing but now its covered in blood. ON another occasion a young boy was swimming in the pond when his arm got caught in a drain and he drowned to death. The park was bought 20 years after being closed and the current owner says he can hear children's laughter, footsteps and the swings moving. When approaching the swings there seems to be cold air around them but a warmth inside the seats. A man can be seen sitting on the ferris wheel quite often though it would be impossible for anyone to get upn there. A visitor has even been locked in an old ticket booth even though it can't be locked.
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