The Figure In White.
Mysterious happenings at King’s-avenue, Lynn.
What is the solution?
At a quiet little house – 3, King’s-avenue, Lynn – mysterious happenings are reported to have occurred during the past ten days. These have been the chief topic of conversation among the residents in that neighbourhood, and everyone is anxious to solve the problem.
Stones and dirt have been thrown through the doorway; rappings and queer noises have been heard; and a figure in white is stated to have made an appearance, but no one has been caught!
Yesterday (Monday) a Lynn News reporter visited the house and interviewed the occupants. Living there is Mr Morris Carter, a railway shunter, his wife and son, and his wife’s mother (Mrs Hanslip). When our representative called he found them all at home and quite prepared to discuss these mysterious happenings.
Mrs Carter first produced a pan full of soil and another receptabcle containing several fair-sized stones and flints. There were also a few dried and withered apples! Just as our representative was about to sit down near the door Mrs Carter warned him that it was dangerous. Two men, she said, had called on her recently and one of them had sat in the same place. Suddenly a volley of stones and mould had poured in through the door and over his legs!
“This stone throwing,” she declared, “began on September 6. At first we thought someone was playing a practical joke. We thought it might be some schoolboys.” Unfortunately, however, it seems that these annoyances have continued systematically, judging by further statements of Mrs Carter’s. When asked if there was anyone who might not be on the best of terms with her she replied, “No.” She and her husband had occupied the house for 14 years, and, so far as she was aware, she had no enemies.
The theory that someone in the next house could be responsible for the happenings was suggested. This received no support. Mrs Carter said that the house was empty. “Sometimes,” she said, “we would look out of the window for hours and nothing would be thrown in, but as soon as we turned our backs, there was a ‘thud’, and a heap of rubbish and stones would fall either in the yard or inside the door. The stones would travel right across from the back-door to the opposite side of the room – a distance of about 12 feet.”
Mrs Carter said that her little boy had been hit on the head twice by stones. Curiously enough, as Mrs Carter spoke, the boy went outside into the yard. Suddenly he shouted excitedly, “Look! There’s some more!” and on going outside a piece of fresh and moist soil was found on the recently-swept pathway! No one was in sight. “As the soil on the garden-beds was bone dry the earth could not have come from them,” states our reporter, “so I asked if the earth was thrown in very often. Mrs Carter said it came in at any time – in fact there had been some only half-an-hour before I had arrived!”
Mrs Carter was then asked if she had ever seen anyone when the mould was thrown in. “I did, once,” she replied. “I was looking out of the window one day. Suddenly some small pieces of earth and stones clattered into the yard. I rushed out into the field at the back of the house and saw a figure in white. It looked like a man. It turned round when it heard me and then, in a second, it had vanished completely.”
The intruder, however, is quite a humorist. He has taken to rapping! Mrs Carter said that noises as if someone were scratching the wall had been heard.
“But how is it,” asked our reporter, “that no stones are thrown from the front of the house?” “Well,” replied Mrs Carter, “that did happen once! My boy went out by the front door one day and immediately there was a clattering of earth and stones against the door, but he did not see who it was. Since then we have not used the front door and we keep the blinds of the front windows down.”
Both Mr and Mrs Carter said that although it was “a nerve-wracking business,” they had no intention of leaving the house, in which, apart from the annoyances caused by the stone-throwing, they were very comfortable. It was also stated that the police had been informed and it was ascertained on inquiry that the official view was that some practical joker – with a curious mental sense – had been at work. Mr Lacey Holman, the landlord, also took a similar view and expressed the hope that the happenings would soon cease. “We don’t want any windows broken,” he said.
And what is Mr Carter’s view? “Do you think it can be all this wireless?” was practically his only question. He is not worried!
Lynn News and County Press, 17th September 1929.
The King’s-Avenue “Ghost”!
Still “walking,” – and now throwing stones!
The “ghost” of King’s-av., which created such a sensation last week is becoming more aggressive! On Tuesday of last week a stone shattered a lower pane of the living-room window at the rear of the house. No-one saw the stone coming, and no-one was seen in the vicinity.
The ghost took a well-earned rest on Wednesday and Thursday, but on Friday, further quantities of mould fell, and this continued until Monday. On Monday afternoon a Lynn News representative again visited the house. Mrs Carter, the tenant, answered the door, and appeared very worried. She explained that at 12.30, whilst they were at lunch, another pane was broken. All the family were seated except the little boy who was standing on the step. The stone was resting in a fold of the curtain, and was about three inches long. Mrs Carter said that her husband was the only one who went out. The rest of the family were practically prisoners, and neighbours were supplying them with water, they not daring to go out for it. Unfortunately Mr Carter’s work takes him away from his home at irregular hours, and in his absence Mrs Carter and her mother keep a lonely vigil behind drawn blinds. Perhaps if they raised the blinds they would stand a better chance of “spotting” their unwelcome visitant!
Lynn News and County Press, 24th September 1929.
The Lynn “Ghost”
“Laid” by the Chief Constable!
Mystery of broken windows solved.
The King’s-avenue “ghost” further distinguished itself on Thursday evening when a large stone was hurled through the pantry window of the “haunted” house. Although the neighbours began to “get the wind up” lest their windows might suffer, they were lamentably sceptical of the supernatural character of the manifestations, and indicated to a Lynn News representative that they had shrewd suspicions as to the identity of the perpetrator.
These suspicions were confirmed when, as the result of an interview between the Chief Constable and a juvenile member of the family resident in the “haunted” house, the latter confessed that it was he who had broken the windows and otherwise scared the inmates and neighbours. Thus was the “Ghost” of King-avenue “laid,” and we trust that, by this time, he has received his just reward!
Lynn News and County Press, 1st October 1929.