We have a rich history of Ghosts in Montreal from 1600’s to the present day and I am told that even some taxi drivers are afraid to ride through the sector known as old Montreal for fear of some of these legendary ghost hauntings.
The most famous of all Montreal Ghosts is the ghost of Mary Gallagher. Mary Gallagher was a prostitute and on an infamous Friday afternoon, June of 1879, Mary and her best friend, another prostitute, Susan Kennedy, went down to Place Jacques Cartier (in old Montreal) with two bottles of whiskey to have a good time. Mary picked up a young man by the name of Michael Flannigan, and the two hookers took him back to Susan’s house on the corner of Williams Street and Murray. One thing let to another and after the young man passed out, Susan, in a jealous frenzy got into a fight with Mary and chopped off her head with an axe and threw in pail of water that she kept beside the stove. Kennedy was charged and served 16 years in prison. It is said that every seven years Mary haunts the streets of old Montreal (last alleged sighting of Mary was 1928) looking for her head.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette
/news/story.html?id=749d7bd0-d5ae-4dad-90cb-05a707580b06
Montreal oldest Inn, Ste Gabriele Inn in old Montreal is said to be haunted by the ghost of a little girl who died in a fire sometime in the 1800’s. http://media.www.mcgilltribune.com/media/storage/paper234/news/2004/10/26/Features/The-Question.Of.Ghosts-780425.shtml
Continuing with ghosts of Montreal, particularly old Montreal, we have the amusing story of Jean St. Pere, one of the first French fur trader settlers. He was fixing his roof one day in 1642 when the Iroquois attacked him. They killed him by cutting off his head, but when they carried it off with them the head started hurling insults at them in their own language, of course the French settler did not even know the native language. The head began to shriek at them and spook them so bad with its insults that they had to stop and bury it just to get away from it. http://www.cstn.org/reports/general/spookyspots03.html
We all know that John Wilkes Booth was the Abraham Lincoln’s assassin. Booth was sought out and shot in his Virginia Home on April 26, 1865 or was he? Montreal detectives were certain they apprehended it him three days later at the Garneau Hotel and let him go. His own brother claimed to have seen him years later in London. Montreal’s famed McGill University has the bloody towel that was used for Lincoln Head wound showcased in the McLennan Library. http://media.www.mcgilltribune.com/media/storage/paper234/news/2004/10/26/Features/The-Question.Of.Ghosts-780425.shtml
The McGill Tribune has a quite a few ghost stories as I have been mentioning here. Another tale they tell occurred in 1929, about a haunted house on Prince Arthur between Ste Famille and Ave du Parc, apparently there was a ghost or a young girl who lived there that was tying knots in curtains all over the place, the story changed from girl to ghost when a tenant said the same strange phenomena was happening to her belongings as well.
More Tribune stories:
Could we have haunted colleges? Lights mysteriously turning on and off, doors locking and unlocking by themselves and other strange goings on in John Abbot college in Ste Anne de Bellevue (on the Island of Montreal) have security guards wondering if it is so.
Mark Twain wrote in the Harper's Magazine's September 1895 issue about his "sole experience in the matter of apparitions." Basically he met a woman he had not seen in over 20 years wearing a certain dress in the Windsor Hotel in Montreal, and later that evening he met up with her again in the same dress only she claimed she had just arrived in Montreal an hour earlier.
If you love ghost stories and you are planning a trip to Montreal why not check out the Montreal Ghost Walk tours in old Montreal, there is also the, The New France Ghost Hunt, and the Montreal Historical Crime Scene Show. It is great fun or so I am told. I am going to put these shows on my agenda for the summertime myself.
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Comments: 35
Also had no idea about the John Wilkes Booth towel in my favorite of all university libraries, the Maclennan library.
Learn something new every day.
A book you may enjoy is Bones by Tess Gerritsen. It takes place in Boston, both current day and 19th century, but = though not a ghost story - contains many eery happenings and much interesting medical facts. Gerritsen was a practicing MD until about 15 years ago when she switched to writing. Fabulous writer. Gripping.
I saw the story of Mary Gallagher on the TV show Creepy Canada. Apparently a group of people have a vigil once a year to watch for her ghost.
I just wanted to say I am finally going through what is now under 6,900 pieces of gather new mail that is in my inbox on here. So with that in mind I have finally come to a piece of mail that was addressed to me in regards this article submission you have created to share with the gather community. Thank you for taking the time and sharing your piece with us here at gather. :o)
And I hope you have a Happy New Year... in 2009 :o)