Never before seen paranormal photographs.

[link to imageshack.us]

The Axeman of New Orleans?

Édouard Martel was an unsuccessful French photographer and inventor who travelled throughout the U.S. during the first two decades of the 20th century, trying to drum up interest and investors for a device that added timer and automatic exposure features to Kodak’s popular line of folding “Brownie” cameras. During his travels he took thousands of automated photos to test and refine his invention. Often he would wake up early, set up a hidden camera in an inconspicuous spot on the streets of whatever city he happened to be in, and then walk to a nearby café or bar, so that he could capture candid scenes of daily life to remember his travels by. The best of these photos were selected for Martel’s one and only gallery show, in Paris, 1924.

Unfortunately, Martel died penniless and unknown in 1955, and it was left to his daughter Jeanne to sort through the boxes and boxes of photos he left behind, to see what should be kept and what could be discarded. During this process she came across this photo, taken in New Orleans on the morning of October 28, 1919, a few hours before Martel boarded a steamer ship and returned to France. It turns out that Martel hated motion blurs in his photographs, because he thought they would reflect badly on the speed and accuracy of his lens mechanism. This prejudice made him cast aside and overlook what was probably the most important photo he ever took.

What makes this photo so special? The night before it was taken, the notorious and still unidentified serial killer known only as “The Axeman of New Orleans” had committed his last murder, hacking Mike Pepitone to death in his bedroom and then fleeing the scene just as Pepitone’s wife was discovering the body. Could this be him returning to his residence? It’s impossible to say, but if it is, the image appears to belie the legend (based on the shaky testimony of Pauline and Mary Bruno, and prevailing prejudice of the time) that only a black man was capable of such savagery.

[link to imageshack.us]

Charlie Noonan’s Last Interview

Charlie Noonan was an amateur folklorist who travelled throughout the South and Southwestern United States during the early years of the 20th century, collecting tall tales and stories of the supernatural. According to his wife, Ellie, Charlie was told a story one day by an Oklahoma farmer about a strange woman who lived alone on an isolated property in the panhandle. The farmer claimed the woman was not a woman at all, but something else, something that hid its true nature beneath a headscarf and was never seen without a large dog by its side. Noonan was apparently intrigued enough to try searching for the woman during one of his research road trips. He was never seen again.

[link to imageshack.us]

The Grand Caverns Cryptids

This photo was taken in 1895 by an amateur spelunker/photographer named Oren Jeffries while exploring an unmapped section of Grand Caverns, in Southwestern Virginia.
At the time it was taken, Jeffries was conducting photographic experiments, using super long exposures to see if anything at all could be captured in the total absence of light—otherwise known as “cave darkness.” He would situate himself on level ground, extinguish his lantern, and then open the lens of his homemade box camera for as long as he could stand the darkness.
During one of these experiments, he heard something approach from the deeper recesses of the cave. Frightened, Jeffries abandoned his experiment and set off one of the Blitzlicht flashes he used for taking traditional photos underground.

[link to imageshack.us]

The Grand Caverns Cryptids

This photo was taken in 1895 by an amateur spelunker/photographer named Oren Jeffries while exploring an unmapped section of Grand Caverns, in Southwestern Virginia.
At the time it was taken, Jeffries was conducting photographic experiments, using super long exposures to see if anything at all could be captured in the total absence of light—otherwise known as “cave darkness.” He would situate himself on level ground, extinguish his lantern, and then open the lens of his homemade box camera for as long as he could stand the darkness.
During one of these experiments, he heard something approach from the deeper recesses of the cave. Frightened, Jeffries abandoned his experiment and set off one of the Blitzlicht flashes he used for taking traditional photos underground.

heh whenever i think the thread has died i find it filled back up the next day.

[link to imageshack.us]

The Grand Caverns Cryptids

This photo was taken in 1895 by an amateur spelunker/photographer named Oren Jeffries while exploring an unmapped section of Grand Caverns, in Southwestern Virginia.
At the time it was taken, Jeffries was conducting photographic experiments, using super long exposures to see if anything at all could be captured in the total absence of light—otherwise known as “cave darkness.” He would situate himself on level ground, extinguish his lantern, and then open the lens of his homemade box camera for as long as he could stand the darkness.
During one of these experiments, he heard something approach from the deeper recesses of the cave. Frightened, Jeffries abandoned his experiment and set off one of the Blitzlicht flashes he used for taking traditional photos underground.