Report Number 04WOS01-01

 

 

Report for Karen Stevens   by Stephen Weidner AAPI

 

REPORT PREPARED BY: Stephen Weidner

DATE: 12/28/03

SITE LOCATION: Wapping Old Stairs - London, England

CONTACT FOR SITE: Karen Stevens

CONTACT INFORMATION: KStevensP@cs.com

RELATIONSHIP TO SITE: Tourist

E-MAIL: KStevensP@cs.com

REASON FOR INITIAL CONTACT:
Karen had taken this photo taken while on a trip to England. She has, also, submitted it to another group but asked us, in person, if we wouldn’t mind looking at it to see what we could find. E-mail communication followed below:

DATE OF INVESTIGATION: 12/28/03

START TIME: N/A
STOP TIME: N/A

PARTICIPATING INVESTIGATORS:
Stephen Weidner

INTRODUCTION & HISTORY:
Communication via E-Mail is as follows:

Karen: Hi, Stephen--if you go to google, type in "ghostweb.com wapping old stairs" you should see the photo I told you about when you were in Billings. I'd be interested in your opinion of it. Happy holidays,
Karen Stevens

Here is the actual link I came up with:
http://photos2.ghostweb.com/ksteven1.html
After downloading and saving the photo from this site, I then began running the photo through a manipulation process in which the photo was transposed by enlarging, B&W in which a negative of both was drawn. I also enlarge the view into sections and examined the segments that had been blown up, even further. Concluding, I was able to classify more questionable activity in the photo.
More e-mail continued:

Karen: Thanks, Stephen. The funny cross-like object at top is a satellite dish that is mostly obscured by the whatever-it-is. I had gone down those stairs to the mud-covered river flats at the bottom (tide was out at the time) and when I came back up I tripped. Somehow my foot didn't clear the step about halfway up. I thought at the time I was just tired, but looking back I'm not sure something just didn't want me to leave. We picked up the photos from the camera shop early in the morning, and when we saw that one, we went back to Wapping Old Stairs and said a prayer for the release of all those trapped souls. This past October when I was in London I went back twice, but all those negative
feelings were gone. Conditions were identical to our earlier visit, mild and dry, but this time neither Frank nor I got anything on photos. Perhaps our prayers had helped.
Karen

Stephen:
Karen;
Do you remember what the temperature was like? Cool? Warm? Etc.Also, is the Dish in the upper left hand side of the photo where the mist is? I found this face in the mist and , from what I've been able to gather doing research and so on, sometimes spirits will use objects to create anomalies. The attached enhancement is the first thing I've found. I also have noticed a skull and another screaming face.
This face you can see the eyes and the bridge of a nose along with the fullness of the face and a mouth. Dark hair as well. I also have it in a negative view, B&W, etc.....
Stephen

Karen:
Stephen
The temperature was mild, probably in the 70s, perfect fall evening for a nice walk. No river fog. Other photos show the lights on the opposite bank of the river sparkling brightly, not obscured.

The satellite disk was above the railing leading down the stairs, near the top left of the photo. Yes, it's in the mist, but the heaviest part of the mist seems to be just above and to the left of the stairs themselves. I wouldn't be surprised if you find faces there. Hundreds of men who had been captured by press gangs would have been rowed out to waiting naval vessels from those steps. At high tide, a small boat can come right up to the steps. Those men would have been kept in irons all night in the cellars of the next-door pub, the Prospect of Whitby, and faced years away from home and loved ones in the awful conditions of a naval ship.

Also, in 1688, the notorious Judge Jeffreys was captured here, either in the pub or on the steps, trying to board a ship to flee the country. James II had just fled to Holland due to anti-Catholic sentiment, and Jeffreys was about to follow him. He was hated because he had sentenced hundreds of the Duke of Monmouth's rebels to death. Jeffreys really had little choice, since the laws demanded the death penalty and the king refused mercy to the rebels, but Jeffreys bore the brunt of public hatred. He was nearly lynched on the steps, but rescued by military men and taken to the Tower, where he died a year later of terminal kidney disease.

According to local rumor, the River Police not too long ago saw the ghost of a man thought to be Jeffreys on the steps there. Not verified, however.

BTW, my friend Pat Cody also took photos there but got nothing odd. Her photos too show there was no river mist that night.
Karen

ANALYSIS OF PHOTOS:

INITIAL INVESTIGATION DETAILS & FINDINGS:
At first glance there seems to be a face appearing in the upper left hand corner of the mist (item A). The mention of a satellite dish brings a question, but does not readily appear through the mist in the photo as stated. In further study of the photo through magnification there seems to be a second face towards the outer edge of the haze on the upper right quadrant (item B). The final image noticed was that of a skeletal feature located on the thick part of the mist towards the bottom right hand side(item C). These items are blown up in the report below as A, B and C.

Cropped section enlarged for image enhancement. No matter how the segment is manipulated, the figure still remains prominent in the photo. There is unquestionably facial characteristics. It is also a well-known fact that life-force energy can manipulate objects to assist in forming a manifestation or anomaly as well. If this is indeed where the satellite dish is located, circumstances could have aided in rendering a recognizable appearance.

While not so clear in the enlarged image above, the B&W and its negative below do show a more discernable facial anomaly. Curiously, however, the features do not seem the same from one picture to another, even though they are the same picture.

 

The impression in both the original cropped section and the manipulated pictures below is the same; there is a definite and readily identifiable form in the unmistakable shape of a human skull. What is even more interesting is the apparent off-setting of the lower jaw from the general angular direction of the rest of the head, which would be commonly seen in a body which had been buried, the jaw being one of the first pieces to readily detach with pressure of the surrounding earth.

EQUIPMENT AND SYSTEMS UTILIZED: All computer enhanced; using Photoshop 7.0, Irfanview and ACDSee software that allows the manipulation of JPG data for augmentation and magnification.

PHOTOGRAPHIC EQUIPMENT DESCRIPTION: (See Attachment #1 for printed photographs)
35 MM Camera – original camera taken on trip by Karen

DATA ANALYSIS:

SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONS: (Emotional, intuitive, etc.)
In having known Karen for almost 20 years, there is no reason in my mind to doubt any emotional or intuitive reasoning she may have had for taking the photos. I believe her 100% as to her logic in taking the photo and the outcome henceforth. As stated in her E-Mail to me, following a question regarding the persuasive characteristics to take the photo, here is her answer:

I was in England in September of 1998 with my friend, novelist Pat Cody, who was doing research
for another Regency novel. She's also my ghost-hunting partner, so we visited a lot of supposedly haunted places as well. We decided to have dinner at the haunted pub, Prospect of Whitby, that evening, then stroll back along Wapping High St. to the Tower and catch a cab back to our hotel. One of Pat's friends, Barb, another writer, accompanied us.
The Prospect of Whitby is supposedly haunted by Captain Blight of Bounty fame, and also claimed to have the best supper buffet of any pub. None of us felt anything at all spooky in the place, nor did any of our photos, 35mm, Polaroid or digi, turn up anything unusual there. The food was good, though. While we ate, I kept feeling that I needed to leave, that I was being "pulled" somewhere else and that it was important that I go there. Pat and her friend were tired, and didn't really want to walk the mile or so back to the Tower, but I felt I had to and told them I would walk alone if they wanted to take a cab back right away. They reluctantly agreed, so we started walking along the cobbled
street. I walked faster and faster, getting ahead of Pat and her friend, in my hurry to get wherever I was going.
When we got to the Town of Ramsgate pub, I stopped. A narrow walkway ran from the street between the pub and an old warehouse next door, and a sign on the pub wall said "Wapping Old Stairs." Somehow I knew this was my destination. At the time I knew nothing about the ghost seen on the stairs, but I did know this was the disembarkation point for pressed men, and also that the notorious Judge Jeffreys had been captured on the stairs or in the Town of Ramsgate pub just to one side of the stairs.

We walked through the narrow passage and stood at the top of the steep stairs leading down to the water's edge. The tide was retreating, but dark water still lapped at the bottom of the stairs. When the tide is fully out, it is possible to walk out about 20 feet on wet mud. Across the river, lights shone
bright and clear. There was no river fog that evening. It was warm and dry, about 70 degrees.
We all took some photos from the top of the stairs. A satellite dish had been set up to the left of the stairs, in stark contrast with the mock gallows that stood nearby, a grim reminder that pirates had once been executed not far away. Then I made my way carefully down the muddy, slippery stairs to the edge of the water and took more photos. I also took a few photos shooting upwards to where Pat and her friend stood waiting. I started back up, and about halfway up my right foot somehow failed to clear a stair and I tripped. All of a sudden I felt drained.
Pat called anxiously, "Are you ok?"
"Yes," I replied. "I just tripped."
"Or WERE tripped," Pat's friend added darkly. I didn't think anything of it, because it had been a long day and by then we were all getting tired, but after seeing the photos next morning, I began to wonder whether Pat's friend might not have been right. We had gone out right after breakfast to pick up our photos, because we had to leave for home that morning. When we looked at the photos from Wapping Old Stairs, we got quite a shock. One of the 35mm photos showed a swirling cloudy mass of "something" partially covering the railing and the stairs, just about where I had tripped--or been tripped. It wasn't river fog, because we knew there hadn't been any that night, and the other photos
were perfectly normal.

Could it be something paranormal? I can only say that an atmosphere of fear and despair hung over the stairs. Perhaps it was an impression left by the hundreds of pressed men who had been ferried out to waiting naval ships, knowing that they would not see their families for years if ever. In any case, Pat and I felt that we would have to try to help whatever souls lingered there, souls who perhaps had tried to prevent me from leaving in a desperate plea for help. We took a taxi back to Wapping Old Stairs and, while the taxi waited, said a silent prayer for those men.
Did it help? In October, 2003, I returned to Wapping Old Stairs twice on mild evenings similar to the one when we got the strange photo. On both occasions, the photos I took were perfectly normal and the atmosphere of misery was gone. It was on this trip that I first heard the River Police had reputedly seen a ghostly figure on the stairs several years before. I have not been able to verify this, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it were true. Hopefully, though, whatever lingered there has been freed.
Karen

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS:

In review of the photo and concluding before and after circumstances, and absence of mist as well as another camera by a second person present showing nothing on those photos, I believe the anomaly in this photo to be genuine and true.

SIGNED BY REPORTING INVESTIGATOR: Stephen Weidner

DATE: 12/30/03
American Association of Paranormal Investigators
Office (contact) Address: 13973 E Utah Circle
City: Aurora
State: Colorado Zip: 80012
Phone: 720-535-6789 Fax: N/A
E-mail: aapi@ghostpi.com Website: WWW.GHOSTPI.COM

Original Photo downloaded from the directed site: