Tells court of the ghost with a laugh.
The ghost with a nasty laugh… with Christmas at hand this sounds like just another ghost story, but it was, in fact, told by a man in the prosaic atmosphere of Hull Police Court yesterday. Figuring as the Haunted House was a dwelling in Prince-street, Hull.
George Robert West, twenty-nine, one of the people who live there, said that noises started in the dead of night. From one of the upstairs rooms came tapping. Then from another part of the house came weird bumping noises. “Sounded as though somebody was kneading dough and bumping the bowl on the table,” he said.
Mr J. R. MacDonald (Stipendiary): Is it a very old house? West: About sixty years old.
There was no Wicked Baker living there once, who buried his wife in dough or did the Sweeney Todd business? – No sir, but I heard it again last night. He added that every time the noise ceased somebody started laughing. Then it went on. “It starts about 1.30 in the morning. It scares me a bit and I can’t find out what it is,” he said. Mr MacDonald: This is a case for the Society of Psychic Research. It is dashed odd. But West was not in court primarily to give evidence about ghosts. He said that one night the “bumping” started when he was with Walter Gill, thirty-seven, who also lives in the house. “I know what they are doing,” suddenly said Gill. “They are digging my grave.” West said that early in the morning he found Gill with his head near a gas oven. “It was through a girl,” he said. Yesterday Gill, accused of attempting to commit suicide, was remanded to Hull Prison for a medical report.
Last night, writes a Daily Mirror correspondent, I went to the haunted house. Mr George Hawkins, who occupies a room with his wife, said: “Yes, I have heard noises. One night I woke to hear stealthy footsteps on the stairs. They appeared to stumble outside my door, and there was a low groan as though someone had hurt himself. But when I looked the landing and stairway were deserted.” West said he had seen a “ghostly figure” descending the stairs. It was in front of him. Suddenly it vanished – but the front door did not open.
Daily Mirror, 22nd December 1938.