Courthouse Spirit

Terri Erney didn't believe in ghosts until she started working at the Northampton County Courthouse in Easton.

The night custodian started smelling odd perfumes and hearing strange noises last year while she was alone cleaning sections of the 142-year-old building.

She is one of several courthouse employees who share unexplained experiences they attribute to the spirit world.

The courthouse abounds with stories of slamming doors, odd sensations and haunted computers.

"I started out as a skeptic," Erney said. "I didn't believe it was going on until it actually happened to me."

Erney couldn't explain a powdery perfume smell that persisted despite the strong odors from her cleaning supplies. As she mentioned the perfume to others, she learned she was not alone in experiencing odd phenomena.

Stenographer Karen Mengel heard what sounded like a child running in a bathroom while she was working late by herself last fall. The bathroom is next to her office on the third floor of the courthouse.

Mengel said she heard trash can lids banging, faucets turning on and off and toilets flushing. When she got up to investigate the commotion, the noise stopped and there was no one in the bathroom.

"Somebody was really going to town, and then it stopped," Mengel said. "It was crazy."

Down the hall from Mengel, stenographer Lori Peck has also had experiences she wishes she could explain.

About five years ago, her laptop computer refused to turn off. A computer repair man removed components to try to fix the problem, and the machine still ran even though the technician had removed vital pieces.

"He said, 'I'm telling you, this is the "Twilight Zone," ' " Peck said.

The solid wood door to Peck's office slammed open in the presence of Mengel and another court reporter. It happened twice three years ago and hasn't happened since, Peck said.

The law library might also be a locus for otherworldly activity, according to librarian Anita DeBona.

A somber husband and wife from out of state visited the law library last summer, DeBona said. The wife was too upset to speak, but the husband claimed one of his wife's ancestors had embezzled from the county and committed suicide in the law library more than a century ago.

The woman sprinkled holy water around the cursed bookshelves, DeBona said. DeBona does not recall the name of the couple, nor could she recall the name of the ancestor.

DeBona has heard her share of ghost stories since taking over as librarian in 1991. She said during her tenure some books have fallen off the shelves for no apparent reason.

Nazareth title searcher Bernie O'Hare said he once heard newspapers rustling in the library, and when he got up to see who made the noise, no one was there.

As the stories piled up, Erney decided to bring in people with experience in the paranormal. She called on friends Wallace Lossing and Lisa Deegan to evaluate her workplace. Lossing was unavailable for an interview, but Deegan said she came to the courthouse last fall at the request of Erney and Erney's co-worker Norma Jean Antonelli.

Deegan, a 36-year-old receptionist from Lower Saucon Township, said she has a gift for perceiving spiritual energy and even communicating with the dead. She cultivated her ability by studying psychic development at St. John's Church of Faith, Metaphysical Universal Ministries, in Allentown.

Something otherworldly inhabits the courthouse, Deegan said.

"It was just a very heavy feeling," Deegan said. "Imagine going to a funeral for someone who had an untimely death. It's a sorrowful mood there, sadness."

Deegan said she got an inexplicably sharp headache in the law library. She said she was drawn to the area near Mengel's office and the noisy bathroom.

"I felt pulled all the way to the left of the hallway," Deegan said. "There was heavy energy, there was a lot of sadness and discomfort. They told me that was the area where they did executions."

Although legend has it that there were once hangings in the courthouse, it is unlikely executions were performed there, according to Nazareth teacher James Wright, a member of the county historical and genealogical society.

However, on the other side of the third floor wall, Deegan said, she felt pulled toward the old prison, where Wright said he believes people were indeed hanged on occasion.

Deegan said she was also drawn to a painting on the wall in courtroom four, the courtroom nearest Mengel's office.

Deegan said she believed the painting in the center of the jury box was of a "hanging judge." Actually, the portrait is of Edward J. Fox, who was the son of a president judge and the father of a state Supreme Court judge, but was not a judge himself, according to the history book "Two Hundred Years of Life in Northampton County."

Before he died in 1889, Fox represented many men charged with murder, including three of the Molly Maguires. That group of union-activist coal miners is linked with sorrow, controversy and a famous and popular legend -- the story of the mysterious, irremovable handprint that one of the Molly Maguires is said to have left on the wall of the old Carbon County jail.

It was a quiet winter and spring for the courthouse's spirit world, but it looks like the ghosts returned during the past couple of months, Erney said.

Peck said something banged into a metal garbage can in the hallway two months ago while she worked late in her office. She heard a second bang an hour later and quickly ran out into the hallway, but no one was there.

"I'd be glad to hear any explanation for the things I've heard," Peck said.

About two weeks ago, a door leading to the courthouse's historic courtroom one swung open without reason, Antonelli said. The door has a keypad and was locked, but it swung open violently and nearly struck a nearby custodian, she added.

Then there is the story of the white shoes.

Less than a month ago, a female custodian was sent to clean the men's bathroom near Mengel's office. No one answered her knock, but upon entering she saw a pair of feet with scruffy white leather shoes inside one of the stalls. She went outside to wait with Erney and Antonelli, and with Mengel nearby in her office.

After about 15 minutes, she went into the bathroom to check on the man with the white shoes, and the bathroom was empty.

The cleaning ladies can't explain how the man in the white shoes could have walked out past them.

The phenomena have made Mengel nervous.

"If I'm in (my office) after the cleaning people were here, I close the (bathroom) door," Mengel said. "I don't want to take any chances."

For any naysayer, Erney has a photograph.

She, Antonelli and a third custodian were photographed inside the courthouse, and none of them can explain the hazy white image seen next to them in the photograph. They say the photograph proves the existence of a ghost.

Wilson printer and photographer Dan Murgia developed the photo, which was snapped by one of the ladies' friends. Murgia can verify that no one doctored the negative or airbrushed the print.

"Apparently, it was there," Murgia said of the white haze. "No doubt about it."

"I always believed there are spirits," Antonelli said. She said it stands to reason that spirits would haunt a place where people were sentenced to death, especially because the justice system was not as discriminating a century ago. She said she believes the courthouse is home to ghosts of innocent people who were unjustly hanged.

"I'm not afraid of them," Antonelli said. "They won't hurt you."

Deegan agrees.

"I don't think of it as ghosts, a scary white figure floating around or something to be afraid of," Deegan said. "I feel like it's the lingering energy of a past or present time. It's not frightening of theatrical."

Erney prays for the ghosts. She hopes her prayers can help them find their way past their earthly torments and to the great beyond.

"They just need to be released," Erney said. "If it were me, I'd want somebody praying for me.

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