New York, 1896: the police station that rattled its own empty cells.

What the paper reported

Three young women passing the Fort Hamilton police station screamed at a ghost-like figure. The next night, near midnight, officers heard someone trying to unlock the empty cells below; the rattling stopped when they reached the stairs. Later a white figure appeared by the pond behind the station and vanished when a shot was fired over its head.

Exhibit A · Transcription

Policemen After a Ghost.

Members of the Twenty-fifth Precinct Say the Fort Hamilton Town Hall Is Haunted.

There are many good and wise people in Fort Hamilton who until a few nights ago never believed in “ghost yarns,” but now it must be said that they have a ghost which is not only puzzling to themselves, but to the police as well. The ghost, according to the story told, was first seen at about 10 o’clock last Wednesday night by three young women who were passing along Eighty-sixth-st. They had just passed the police station in that street when one of the women gave a scream and, pointing to a ghost-like object which was about fifty yards away, she ran down the thoroughfare. Her companions were not long in following her. …

Later in the same article (not in the image)

On Thursday night, just as the hands of the large clock in the station-house pointed to a quarter of twelve, the silence was broken by a sound as if some one was trying to unlock the doors of the cells below. Knowing that there were no prisoners within, the policemen began an investigation. The rattling of the locks continued until they arrived at the bottom of the stairs, and then it suddenly seemed to die away. Each lock was examined carefully, but they were all in the same condition as they were in the early part of the night. Every place that could be used for concealment was looked into, but no object of any kind was to be seen.

Later in the same article (not in the image)

He pointed to a white object that was scarcely more than forty yards away, and which was overlooking the pond in the rear of the station … They stood looking at the object for several minutes before they decided to send a bullet whizzing over its head. When the shot was fired the figure immediately disappeared.

Transcribed from the page image, spelling as printed; line-end hyphens joined. “…” marks words we left out. Checked word by word against the Library of Congress’s OCR text.

Newspaper

New-York Tribune

Published in

New York, New York

Headline

Policemen After a Ghost.

Date

September 28, 1896

Page

11

Permalink

www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1896-09-28/ed-1/?sp=11

Source

Library of Congress, Chronicling America. Public domain (published 1896).