Real Screaming Skulls

As a Ghost hunter I wanted to find as much information on the paranormal phenomena known as the screaming skulls. Some of them may still be found in the homes which they appear so unwilling to leave. But it must be admitted that there is not one single case of a "screaming skull" which has stood up to the examination of ghost-hunters as of yet. I have searched the internet as well as ready many great books on haunted screaming skulls and am wanting to share this information and seek out others who share my interest in them.

Since a child I have always had a fsacination for relics and skulls the first thing I ever found in books was the story of the alleged skull of John the Baptist. "The skull of St. John the Baptist was originally in the possession of the Byzantine and fell into Ottoman hands after the conquest. His Skull certainly is not catogorized as a screaming skull but this is what spurnrd me on my quest to find them.

SKULL OF JOHN THE BAPTIST

Muslim tradition maintains that the head of John the Baptist is interred in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. In later times it was rumored that the Knights Templar had possession of the head. Some Christians believe that his head is kept in Rome. Some that it is buried in the town of Halifax, West Yorkshire, England.

John's right hand, with which he baptised Jesus, is said to be in the possession of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Cetinje monastery.

The relics of John the Baptist are also said to be in the possession of the Coptic Orthodox Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great in Scetes, Egypt.

It is said John the Baptist's arm and piece of his skull can be found at the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, Turkey.

The Church of St. John the Baptist was built over one of Jerusalem's earliest sanctuaries. In fact the original church, restored over the last two centuries, is located more than seven meters below street level! And although it wasn't constructed on a New Testament site, the church harbors a bone believed to be part of St. John's skull.

Story originally published by •
AFP via Bahrain Tribune - December 28 2000 - A cave unearthed last year under the remains of a fourth century Byzantine church on the east bank of the Jordan River was the winter home of the Christian New Testament prophet John the Baptist, project director Mohammad Waheeb said Wednesday.

But experts are still investigating the identity of a human skull found near the cave to determine if it could also belong to John, who the Bible says was the cousin of Jesus Christ, Waheeb told AFP.

He was commenting on a report published Wednesday by Al-Dustour newspaper, which said the skull found near the cave in Jordan's Wadi Kharrar "could be that of St. John the Baptist".

"The cave and the skull were unearthed last year," Waheeb said. "Reseach has determined that the cave belonged to St. John the Baptist, but experts led by Dr. Abdullah al-Nabulsi are still examining the skull," Waheeb told AFP.

"Until now, testing on the skull has not been completed, so we can only say it belonged to a hermit, because the region of Wadi Kharrar was inhabited by many hermit," he said.

The cave carved into the rock was dated to the 1st century A.D., Waheeb said.

The skull was found "directly next to the cave, buried on its own," he said.

Remains of three other ancient churches were found around the cave, demonstrating the "sacredness" of the site, where Waheeb and the Jordanian ministry of tourism say Jesus Christ was baptised.

Over the past few years, Jordanian archeologists led by Waheeb have uneartherd ancient churches and huge baptismal pools in Wadi Kharrar, known in antiquity as Bethany Beyond the Jordan.

It is located just east of the Jordan River and opposite Jericho. The gospel of Saint John the Evangelist says Jesus crossed to the east bank of the river to be baptised by John the Baptist.

Further east is located the biblical site known as Machaerus, where John the Baptist is said to have been beheaded on the orders of Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee.

Fearful of John's great influence over the people, Herod had him arrested and imprisoned at Machaerus on the Dead Sea when John denounced his adultrous and incestuous marriage with Herodias, wife of Herod's half brother, Philip.

John was beheaded at the request of Salome, daughter of Herodias, who asked for his head on a plate at the instigation of her mother after dancing for the king and being promised a reward.

Israel and the Palestinians claim that Jesus was baptised in a spot on the western bank of the river known as Qasr el-Yahud.

Skulls are all of humanity's foremost symbol of death... Aren't they?

Thirteen crystal skulls of apparently ancient origin have been found in parts of Mexico, Central America and South America, comprising one of the most fascinating subjects of 20th Century archaeology.

An old Native American legend tells of thirteen life-size crystal skulls, which are said to hold crucial information about humankind's true purpose and future destiny. The skulls would be discovered and their secrets revealed when the human race was sufficiently developed. The authors hear of this legend while in the jungles of Belize and set out on a quest to discover its truth.

"The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls" follows their journey from Maya temples to the British Museum, the Smithsonian, and to the crystal laboratories of Hewlett-Packard, where tests lead one scientist to conclude, "This {crystal} skull should not even exist."

In the end, shamans and native elders reveal the sacred knowledge the skulls contain and answer the questions this enduring mystery raises:
Are the skulls artifacts from the lost civilization of Atlantis, or are they extraterrestrial in origin?

Made from piezo-electric quartz crystal, used in today's computers, are the skulls information storage devices?

The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls: A Real Life Detective Story of the Ancient World by Chris Morton, Ceri Louise Thomas

Haunted Screaming Skulls

There have been several reported cases over the years of human skulls that have screamed when attempts have been made to move them from their last resting place. In each of these cases it was found that the owner had left specific instructions on what was to happen to their body after death. However, it seems that these instructions were opmetimes more then once ignored. Most screaming skulls seem to live in England but I am finding a few stories of those that reside around the world.

Haunting's of this kind of spirit that plagued not individuals but entire generations of families, never posing an evil threat but always looming formidably in their victims' lives - These spirits were the so-called screaming skulls, pestilential presences in many English country houses. To look at, they were no different from any charnel - house relicts, and they could be hefted and tossed in a grisly game of catch. But, as befitted former vessels of human intelligence, such skulls had inflexible will. They in truth like were they live and do not want to leave. More important they seem to be having the want to be treated as part of the family and respected and cared for.

Screaming skulls are usually placid and just sit there, since the families they afflicted quickly learned to respect their wishes -mainly that they be undisturbed within their chosen home which is what they consider their final resting place. Some Skulls are placed in cases others just collect dust on a shelf or make themselves comfortable as a book end or conversation piece.

Some screaming skulls are reported to be locked behind closed doors or sealed in walls. And many consider this for the protection of the living not the skull. Many who live with them say they protect them or even chase away unwanted guest or intruders.

A few screaming skulls possessed a power that added immeasurably to their terror a capacity to move from place to place - chillingly at odds with their stony, inert character. Not satisfied to reside in a chosen niche, such skulls pursued their victims, confronting hapless mortals at moments of vulnerability. These diligent haunters often had motives more urgent than a dying wish to remain at home, in one case, in the north of England, a pair of skulls haunted a country house for reasons of revenge.

The skulls were those of a couple, hanged on charges trumped up by a landowner who coveted their garden plot. In life, the couple had been meek, but after their wrongful execution, their skulls set about hounding the landowner and his family with diabolical energy, screaming without provocation, bowling down the carpet into the great hall in the mist of banquets and springing onto the stairs to bar the way of family members. In the end, the torment ruined the proud family. Generation followed generation, each more spiritless than the one before, until the last heir died childless and penniless, and the line was extinguished.

Sacred Skulls

La Santa Calavera (The Sacread Skulls Ritual)

Every year the municipality of San José celebrates a peculiar tradition. Every first of November three skulls are the utmost subject of worship, a tradition that consists of people that make promises and solicit a chance to visit the Scared Skull "Santa Calavera" for a petition. Following the leadership of “El Prioste" (honourable man in the community in charge of the church; for they don’t have a permanent priest) visits are made from 6:00pm till dawn.

The Sacread Skulls ritual, is a tradition of the Maya Itza Culture, one of the 21 Mayan groups in Guatemala.

As mentioned before, there are three skulls but the tradition talks about eight. It is said that the skulls are the remains of the first settlers of which their skulls were brought to the church many years after their death. It was a tradition that had as subject to give thanks to the deceased and his family. The Skulls remain preserved in the urns of the church and are taken in procession every year rotating form the All the Saints Day. On that night all the penitents are visited.

Screaming Skull Ghost Stories

Often the craving of a skull to repose forever within a certain habitation reflected the dying desire of the skulls mortal owner. Such was the case at Burton Agnes Hall in Yorkshire. There, during the reign of Elizabeth I, lived a young lady named Anne Griffith, who dearly loved the hall - and then she died. On her deathbed, she exacted from her sisters a promise to sever her head from her corpse and keep it in the manor house permanently. Believing she was delirious, her sisters ignored her macabre wish, and her body was placed complete in the family vault.

But her kin had little time for quiet grief. Several days after the interment, the family awoke in terror as a ghoulish gibbering that seemed to mingle grief and mirth rang from every corner of the dark house. Stalwart young men prowled the corridors in their nightshirts, with daggers drawn, yet the source of the racket eluded them. Night after night the disturbances continued, the shrieks sometimes sometimes fading into heavy groans of the dying, until at last the sisters decided to seek the advice of the local vicar. He reminded them of their promise to the dying girl and suggested that they open the tomb. And when the flowers so recently strewn for the burial were swept aside and torch - bearing kin descended into the vault's fetid air, the vicar's advice proved sound. For the corpse reflected Anne Griffith's dying wish. The body was not decayed, the bright dome of the cranium was bare of flesh, and mysteriously severed from the body. The head rested upright on it's grinning chops, shadows dancing in it's empty orbits.

The kinsmen's course was clear: They followed Anne's wish to the letter. The skull was taken to the house and placed as a ghoulish centerpiece on the table in the salon, and Burton Hall was quiet that night and every night for many years.

Later generations speculated that time might have moderated the skull's desire to retain a place of honor in the hall, but Anne Griffith's spirit vividly demonstrated the strength of it's attachment. A scullery maid was the cause of the episode. Watching a cart laden with cabbages creak along the lane that wound near a kitchen window, she decided to rid the hall of it's ugly guardian. She ran to the salon, snatched the skull and tossed it out the kitchen window at the cart, where it wedged among the cabbages. Instantly the driver began to curse, for his cart had halted, as if mired in mud. The old nag strained under his lashing, but the dray would not budge.

Drawn to the scene by the commotion, the master of the house ordered the maid to return the skull to the salon, but she could not bring herself to touch it. At last a young man of the family hurried outside and plucked the skull from the cabbages. The cart shot forward, tumbling the driver off his bench and redoubling his curses.

The young man gingerly returned the skull to it's place. And there it stayed, regarded with renewed awe by the occupants of the hall, until another family succeeded to the premises. One evening, scornful of what seemed a worn-out superstition, they ordered the relict buried in the garden. But as a servant tamped down the earth over the skull, the shrieks heard centuries before, and vividly recorded in the tales told - by the country folk, surrounded once again the corridors. All night the terrified family vainly sought the source of the ghoulish chorus. Their horses had gone lame, and a late frost blackened the garden.

Without leave from his masters, an old servant borrowed a spade from one of the gardeners and dug up the skull. He shook the clods from it, cleaned the mud from it's sockets and returned it to the hall. Peace returned. Once again the skull had bent mortals to it's implacable will.

A few screaming skulls possessed a power that added immeasurably to their terror a capacity to move from place to place - chillingly at odds with their stony, inert character. Not satisfied to reside in a chosen niche, such skulls pursued their victims, confronting hapless mortals at moments of vulnerability. These diligent haunters often had motives more urgent than a dying wish to remain at home, in one case, in the north of England, a pair of skulls haunted a country house for reasons of revenge.

The skulls were those of a couple, hanged on charges trumped up by a landowner who coveted their garden plot. In life, the couple had been meek, but after their wrongful execution, their skulls set about hounding the landowner and his family with diabolical energy, screaming without provocation, bowling down the carpet into the great hall in the mist of banquets and springing onto the stairs to bar the way of family members. In the end, the torment ruined the proud family. Generation followed generation, each more spiritless than the one before, until the last heir died childless and penniless, and the line was extinguished.

Fearsome as a screaming skull's outbursts could be, it's horror persisted even when it was silent. It's quiet presence, grinning and hollow-eyed, drained joy from the lives of it's mortal housemates. In that respect, a screaming skull resembled the many other spirits that did not attack or pursue the living but merely flickered into view and then faded.

The Wardly Skull

This hall is now the home of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Salford.
In this hall there is a human skull situated in a small aperture at the top of the staircase of Blessed Ambrose Barlow, who was a priest during the reign of William III. He was hung, drawn and quartered at Lancaster on September 10th 1641, and his head was taken to a relative, living at Wardley Hall to be preserved as a relic of his martyrdom.

This screaming skull belongs to Wardly Hall, located a few miles outside Manchester, England. The skull, which dates from the reign of Edward VI, is associated with both an improbable legend and a likely tale.

The legend involves Roger Downes, a dissolute member of the family who owned the house at the time of the English Civil War. One day while in London drinking and carousing, Downes vowed that he would kill the first man he would meet. A poor, hapless tailor chanced by and Downes thrust his sword through him. Downes was arrested and tried for murder, but his influence at court enabled him to go free.

Comeuppance was soon at hand, however. Shortly thereafter Downes was crossing London Bridge in a drunken and rowdy state. He attacked a watchman with his rapier. The watchman fought back and was strong enough to successfully sever Downes' head from his body with one blow of his weapon.

The watchman and his friends sent the head to Wardley Hall. Later, the skull was placed in an aperture in the wall above the house's main staircase, but not before several unsuccessful efforts allegedly were made to get rid of it by burning or drowning. Subsequent efforts to move the skull met with violent responses such as destructive storms.

But such a colorful story was discounted because the last Downes of Wardley, oddly enough named Roger and also a rake, was buried in the family vault with his head intact, the skull more likely to be that of Dom Edward Ambrose Barlow, identified in the History of Wardley Hall, Lancashire by H. V. Hart - Davis and S. Holme.

It seems before the English Civil War and it's religious persecutions against Catholics, Francis Downes owned Wardley Hall. He and his wife were devout Catholics and they dangerously allowed Mass to be celebrated in the Hall's chapel. Barlow, a Benedictine monk who has successfully eluded authorities for 24 years, met his fate on Easter Sunday 1641 while officiating at neighbouring Morleys Hall.

Barlow was seized, arrested, tried and condemned to be hanged, drawn and quartered. His head was impaled either at a Manchester church or Lanchester castle. Downes secretly removed it and took it back to Wardley, where he hid it so well that all trace of it was lost until the mid-18th century.

At that time, Wardley was owned by Matthew Moreton, who found the skull in a box that had accidentally fallen out of a ruined wall. A servant later thought it was the skull of an animal and threw it into the moat. That night, a terrible storm broke out, and Moreton theorized that it was the skull screaming for it's place to be restored in the house. Moreton drained the moat and recovered the skull.

The Bettiscombe Skull

A screaming skull that takes it's name from an old farmhouse near Lyme Regis, Dorset, England, and is tied to a local legend. The skull traditionally was thought to belong to a slave from the West Indies brought to Bettiscombe Manor to serve Azariah Pinney in the 17th century.

Bettiscombe is a hamlet in west Dorset, England, situated in the Marshwood Vale four miles west of Beaminster. The village has a population of 63 according to the United Kingdom Census 2001.

Bettiscombe Manor, a manor house in the village, is known as "The House of the Screaming Skull" due to a legend dating from the 17th century. Other ghost stories are also associated with the manor.

The slave was either the victim of, or the perpetrator of, a murder. On his deathbed he stated that his spirit would not rest and would haunt Bettiscombe until his body was taken back to his homeland. Contrary to his wish, he was buried on English soil in Bettiscombe churchyard, and he thereafter fulfilled his warning by haunting the place in protest. Screaming was heard from the grave, and unexplained noises were heard in the farmhouse. The noises were silenced only when the body was dug up.

Renewed attempts to bury it brought about the same noisy reactions. This procedure was repeated so often that the skeleton was lost and only the head remained. The skull finally came to rest on a winding staircase leading to he roof of the house.

The myth was shattered, however, when Professor Gilbert Causey of the Royal College of Surgeons concluded that the skull belonged to a prehistoric woman in her early twenties, perhaps a sacrificial victim meant to bring prosperity to an earlier dwelling built on the site. In spite of this pronouncement, the skull remains at Bettiscombe against the professor's possible misdiagnosis.

The Burton Agnes Skull

The Screaming Skull of Burton Agnes Hall
The skull at Burton Agnes Hall is another famous screaming skull, although its exact whereabouts in the hall is unknown. It is thought to reside behind one of the walls, having been bricked up and forgotten about years before.

Tradition relates that three sisters built the Hall in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Before they managed to complete the building the youngest of the three sisters was attacked and mortally wounded by a cutthroat while walking in the park. She quickly fell into a fever and died. Before she passed away her sisters promised her that they would bring her head back into the hall so that she could see the completed structure. Her two sisters did not fulfil their promise and had her body buried, after they had moved into the finished Hall they began to be plagued by "strange moaning and weird sounds" until they could stand it no more and had their sisters skull disinterred. It was found to be already detached from the body and was fleshless. After it was placed in the hall all was well until a servant - who disbelieved the story - wrapped the skull in a cloth and threw it on the back of a wagon and horses. The horses reared and trembled in fear, the hall shook and pictures fell of the wall until the skull was replaced. After this the skull was placed in a niche in the wall, and eventually walled up.

The actual origin of the skull is unknown, but the Hall was built for Sir Henry Griffiths in the 16th century, and not for the three sisters - who may have been Sir Henry's three daughters. But it is difficult to ascertain whether the skull actually belongs to Anne Griffith, as tradition asserts.

The spirit of Ann was also thought to haunt the hall and was known as Owd Nance. She is still said to appear on the anniversary of her death.

Tunstead Farm Skull

An imperfect skull named "Dickie," probably that of a woman, haunts a farmhouse, Tunstead Farm, near Chapel-en-le-Frith, England. According to one legend, a girl was murdered at some unknown date in the room where the skull is kept. Another legend says that Ned Dixon, an ancestor of the farmhouse's owners, was murdered in the room. The house also is said to be haunted by a woman's ghost, which appeared in the late 19th century to herald the death of the tenant's daughter.

Tunstead Milton is a village in Derbyshire, England.

It is situated on the B470 road west of, and in the parish of, Chapel en le Frith near the northern edge of the Coombes Reservoir.

It is the location of Tunstead Dickey a "Screaming Skull" and is mentioned in Highways and Byways in Derbyshire by J B Frith a guide published in 1905 and in Blacks guide published throughout the 19C.

The Name Tunstead is likely derived from hundred homestead and Milton from Mill town.

The Hamlet has in the past had a post office a garage and two public houses all of which have now closed.

It should not be confused with Tunstead, which is roughly five miles to the southeast, near Wormhill.

Dickie is said to function as an unworldly guardian of the house. It has been said to sound noises and knockings at the approach of strangers. Some of these disturbances, including rattling of farm tools in the barn, has been so severe that temporary hired help have complained and even fled the premises. Dickie also has sounded warnings upon the birthing or illness of farm animals, or upon the imminent death of a member of the family.

Like other screaming skulls, Dickie resents relocation. Once it was stolen and taken to Disley. An ensuing racket at both Tunstead Farm and Disley was so unendurable that the thieves gladly returned it. Similar disturbance broke out after the skull was buried in consecrated ground.

Screamin Skull Sources:

The Encyclopedia of Ghost & Spirits by: Rosemary Ellen Guiley

The Screaming Skull (1958)

WATCH THE FULL MOVIE "THE SCREAMING SKULL" HERE

Directed by
Alex Nicol

Writing credits
John Kneubuhl

Release Date:January 1958 (USA)
Genre:Horror / Thriller
Tagline:The tortured ghost who claims vengeance in the bride's bedroom! more
Plot Outline:A newlywed couple arrives at the home of the husband's late wife, where the gardens have been maintained by a gardener faithful to the dead woman's memory. Soon eerie events lead the new wife to think she is going out of her mind.

Starring
John Hudson ... Eric Whitlock
Peggy Webber ... Jenni Whitlock
Russ Conway ... Reverend Edward Snow
Tony Johnson ... Mrs. Snow
Alex Nicol ... Mickey

Runtime:68 min
Country:USA
Language:English
Color:Black and White
Sound Mix:Mono
Certification:USA:Unrated / UK:X (original rating) / UK:PG (re-rating) (2005)