Читать книгу Ghosthunting Ohio: On the Road Again - John B. Kachuba - Страница 22

MY WIFE, MARY, AND I WERE IN SYLVANIA because I was giving a talk about ghosts and ghosthunting at Our Lady of Lourdes College. I’m always amazed at the variety of places that invite me to speak about ghosts, but that’s proof of just how popular ghosts and ghost stories are these days.

Before my talk we were taking in the sights of downtown Sylvania when we happened upon Jenna’s Mediterranean Restaurant on Main Street. We stepped inside for a late lunch. When we read Your taste is my command on the menus, we knew we were in the right place. I had hummus with beef tips and Mary had the chicken shawarma, both of which were excellent, but the baklava we had for dessert was the best baklava I’ve had anywhere and, believe me, over the years I’ve eaten my fair share of baklava! We complimented our waitress, Angie, on the good food. One thing led to another, and I told her about my book and why I was in town. To my surprise—although it happens so often that I really shouldn’t be surprised anymore—Angie told me that the restaurant was haunted. She suggested I talk to the owner, who was not in but would be in the morning.

That evening I gave my talk at the college, and in the morning I went over to Jenna’s. The restaurant wasn’t open for business yet, but the owner, Jerry Assad, was already getting things ready for the lunch crowd. Jerry was a young, energetic guy, trying to make it big in the competitive restaurant business with a restaurant named for his beloved, deceased daughter—I have no doubts that he will be successful.

While he was busily working in the kitchen he told me that, yes, the place was haunted. He wiped his hands on a towel and steered me over to a small table where a framed newspaper article was prominently displayed. He picked it up and handed it to me.

“This article will tell you all about the haunting,” Jerry said.

I began to read the article, and it did start off with the haunting at Jenna’s, including a few quotes from Jerry. But as I continued to read I found that the reporter expanded the article to include other Ohio ghosts and was now talking about me and my work, including some quotes from my books! Jerry was as surprised as I was to find my name mentioned in the article.

“So, this restaurant was the scene of a murder?” I asked Jerry.

“Yes, it seems that it took place in this building,” he said. He handed me a book titled Murder in Sylvania, Ohio: As Told in 1857 by Gage E. Gindy, who had collected and compiled all the newspaper accounts of one of Ohio’s most gruesome crimes. “This book really tells the story,” Jerry said.

I sat down at one of the tables and perused the book. According to the newspaper accounts, on February 3, 1857, Olive Ward told her husband, Return Jonathan Meigs Ward, that she was leaving him for good (they had already been separated). That day was the last time anyone ever saw Olive alive. As people searched for her and rumors began to fly about her disappearance, suspicions fell on Return Ward. Could he have done away with poor Olive? A policeman came to the house to interrogate Ward but found no evidence of any crime committed (later testimony from Ward revealed that, while the policeman was in the house, parts of Olive’s body were in a box under the couch).

Despite that initial lack of evidence, the police remained suspicious of Ward, and on a subsequent search of the house discovered bits of human bone in the ashes Ward had thrown out from the fireplace. There were also bones found in the stove. It appeared that Ward had murdered his wife, cut her body up into pieces, and then burned them.

Ward was arrested and tried. He was found guilty and admitted his guilt. Moreover, he confessed to two other murders in Richland County. On June 12, 1857, Ward, Ohio’s first serial killer, was hanged at the Lucas County Courthouse in Toledo. His last words were, “Oh, my God, I am thine. Thou art mine.”

I put the book down and looked around the dining room. Early in the day yet, there were no patrons. It was a pleasant place and it was difficult for me to visualize such a heinous crime taking place there. It was difficult to imagine the screams of poor Olive as her husband hacked her to death. But Jerry is certain that the strange events taking place at Jenna’s are caused by the restless spirits caught up in that crime so long ago. And Jerry is not alone in that belief.

He told me that he once had a waitress who had gone into the ladies’ room. It was 3:30 in the afternoon. Suddenly, he heard what sounded like three loud gunshots. At the same time, the waitress in the ladies’ room saw the lock on the door turn, the door opened by itself, and then slammed shut; two other doors in the hallway where the ladies’ room is located also slammed shut. Jerry said that the terrified waitress came running out to the kitchen “with her pants around her knees.” She quit and has never been back to Jenna’s since that day.

Jerry said that people often feel breezes blowing through the hallway by the ladies’ room, even when all the doors are closed. I examined the hallway and went inside the bathroom to check the lock and the door. They both worked fine. I could see no way that the lock would turn by itself or that the door would open or close without human intervention. The hallway exits at the rear of the restaurant where there is another door to the outside, and I thought the slamming doors might have been caused by air pressure from the outside door but again, examining that door, I could not see how that would be possible.

There are other paranormal occurrences at Jenna’s. Jerry said that when he was first renovating the restaurant, he heard music coming out of the walls. “It was old saloon kind of music,” he said. “That’s exactly what it sounded like.”

Jerry once felt a presence standing near him and heard someone clearing his throat; he was alone at the time. He has also heard footsteps running up and down the hallway and the sound of giggling children. He has heard those same sounds in the basement as well.