THE CURSE OF THE CRONE
Hidden deep within a cave in a remote mountain range sat a carved wooden figure with nails driven into its eyes and a bloody noose around its neck. Despite this gruesome object bearing all the hallmarks of the occult, a hiker who found it took it home wit
IF you drive for two and a half hours north of New York City you’ll hit the Catskill Mountains, a mecca for fishermen, hikers and skiers.
But while it might be easy on the eye, the Catskills are also steeped in superstition and folklore.
In particular, the Catskills have been associated with witchcraft and black magic.
Now a new, modern- day curse could well have been inflicted on a couple of unsuspecting day- trippers.
Creepy
It began with a thread on the social media website Reddit, posted by user known only as Danny, and accompanied by a series of images.
He wrote: “Last weekend my friend and I went hiking in the Catskills and found this really creepy statue in some caves.
“It has nails in its eyes and a noose around its neck. Looks like it might be old.
“I don’t think it’s been there very long but it’s weird because this cave was way off the trail.
“The statue really wigged me out but my buddy decided to take it home with him, even though I told him not to.
“Everyone says that Devil worshippers come out here to sacrifice animals and do their spells, so I didn’t want anything to do with this thing.
“A couple of days later my friend calls me and tells me he thinks the statue is haunted because it keeps moving from its spot and he keeps smelling weird stuff.
“He says he can’t sleep at night because banging keeps waking him up.
“He’s super weirded- out and thinks he has a ghost because of the statue.
“Before we go set this thing on fire I wanted to see if anyone knows what it is.
“Has anyone ever seen something like this or heard of a statue causing ghosts?’
A string of replies followed.
Some accused the poster of talking rubbish.
But then, a day later, an update followed.
It said: “My friend is out- ofhismind scared.
“It started out just as knocks and banging but he said that by Wednesday he was waking up in the middle of the night feeling someone watching him.
Crazy
“He says every night since Thursday the statue has moved into a different room from the one he left it. He thought it was his dog moving it around but his dog won’t go anywhere near it.
“Last night he was woken by his dog barking like crazy. He said the pond water smell was stronger than ever and when he went into his hallway he saw muddy footprints everywhere.
“Not like shoe prints but barefoot. And all his doors and windows were locked. Sitting in the living room was the statue, which had moved again and he says when he started to go near it he heard someone breathing. I’ve never seen him this scared – he even started crying.”
BAD NOOSE: The Crone is said to bring bad smells and spirits into people’s homes
WET NEXT: Dana shows footprints on sofa
It was nothing less than a public cry for help and the poster sounded desperate.
And the call was eventually answered by Ohio- based Greg Newkirk, a historian and journalist and the curator of the Paramuseum, a collection of other supposedly haunted artefacts.
Greg took the object, which has now been dubbed the Crone of the Catskills, into his care and has been observing and gathering evidence.
He’s even trained a series of webcams on the Crone to let the world see any if paranormal activity takes place.
And what he’s captured is startling – including the Crone ‘ flicking’ a nail away that had been balanced against it.
Greg says: “When you’ve been sent countless ‘ haunted’ objects through the years, it’s hard to shake the preconceived notion that the creepy porcelain clowns, weird paintings, and African
CHRIST ALIVE: Crone broke crucifix and flung it across a room
idols will never live up to their alleged reputations – they rarely do.
“So for us, the arrival of the Crone was just another day at the office. Later that evening, however, while in the living room, my wife Dana and I heard a commotion in the office.
“Thinking it was our cats, I volunteered to break up the fight, only to realise that the door had been closed the entire time.
“Nothing seemed out of place, and the cats were nowhere to be seen. In fact, they were in another room, afraid to leave.
“Everything seemed in order until I almost stepped on Jesus!
“On the floor was a plastic figurine of Christ, normally found nailed to a crucifix.
“He was missing an arm. On the complete opposite side of the room, swinging silently on a cross hung in the corner, was Jesus’s missing appendage.
“Something had not only pulled the Christ from the cross but it had thrown it across the room. I’ve still never been able to find missing nails.”
CHILLING: Carving has pins stuck in it
Then, between the hours of 3am and 4am, one of Greg’s cameras triggered three times.
He said: “The Crone had moved on its own.
“Things only got stranger from there. Several weeks later, with no further activity, Dana called me into the living room to ask me why I’d been standing on the furniture after a shower, pointing to the wet footprints on the back of our sofa.
“I’d not showered for hours. We then heard the dull thud of something hitting the floor.
“The Crone had managed to roll off the coffee table and under our television stand. As I knelt down and reached under the stand to grab the carving, Dana yelled and rushed to me.
“When I turned, she was propping the television up with both hands.
“The screen had nearly fallen onto my head.
“As we shared a brief look of fear, three loud knocks came from the wall, rattling picture frames and flickering the bulb from the room’s single lamp.
“This is an extraordinarily powerful artefact.”