Union Cemetery, Easton
The Damned Story: At the junction of routes 59 and 136 in Easton, next to Easton Baptist Church, the nearly 400-year-old Union Cemetery is allegedly one of the most haunted spots in Connecticut. Renowned ghosthunters Ed and Lorraine Warren (and their New England Society for Psychic Research) have done extensive investigation of this site — as have dozens of other paranormal investigators — gathering a substantial amount of video and photographic evidence. The Warrens have even published a book about the cemetery: Graveyard.
What’s the draw? Well, the star of the show is the White Lady, who has been seen by dozens of witnesses and even captured on video (most famously by Ed Warren) and in still images. She has been described as wearing a white gown (obviously), and having long black hair; apparently she’s a bit of a prankster as her m.o. is to appear in the middle of Route 59 and be “hit” by a car, only for the poor shaken driver to stop, check and find no one. (Apparently your sense of humor doesn’t leave you in the afterlife — good thing!) Visitors have also reported seeing her floating among the grave stones. The ever-popular ghost globules and other spirit-type mists have often been captured digitially here also. Another spirit called “Red Eyes” (aptly named as it appears exactly as it it sounds — red eyes glowing in the darkness) has also alleged to been seen here.
Legend has it that the White Lady is the spirit of a woman who was murdered in the 1940s after she had killed her husband; others think it was another woman who had been killed at the turn of the 20th century and had her body dumped in a sinkhole behind the church; still others believe it’s the body of woman who died during childbirth and is roaming the earth searching for her lost child. Since no one has actually gotten her to sit down for a chat, her identity remains a mystery.
Our Damned Experience: I went to Union Cemetery with a friend back in August 2000, right around sundown — we brought a camera (old school — film!), waited for night to fall and snapped a bunch of pictures at random spots around the cemetery. We also explored behind the church, taking multiple pictures there also — all of which yielded nothing upon development. It was a clear night, and we kept a sharp eye out for mists, globules, hands reaching up from the dirt or anything else unusual. Unfortunately, we did not witness anything other than the occasional leaf blowing past and lots of real quiet gravestones, nor were we covered with ectoplasm when we were done. I suppose we could’ve gone later in the evening when there was less traffic around and the spirits less shy, but we were there for a while without any sightings.
As I’ve indicated, we appear to have been in the minority as many others have claimed to have had experiences and seen unusual things there. Maybe next time.
Update: We returned to Union Cemetery on a cold winter’s day in December 2008. Again, we didn’t see or photograph anything otherworldly, although we did come across an odd set of footprints.
If You Go: The cemetery is strictly off-limits after sunset, and the Easton police are very active in keeping it that way. If you do decide to visit after dark, rather than encounter the White Lady, there’s an excellent chance you’ll run across the Men in Blue — and rather than being the one taking pictures, you’ll be the one having pictures taken of you (with a set of numbers across the bottom).
View Easton Baptist Church in a larger map
I recently went to Union Cemetery. Cops do patrol but I had no problem at all. I Just parked my car and walked around until it got dark and took random pictures. I posted a video on YouTube if anyone is interested. The first few minutes are pictures from the day into the night. Towards the night time is when the orbs started to come out in bunches. Its a pretty cool thing.
in regards to last comment
check it out
I have been to Union at night.
Back in March, 2009, I went with a carload of my neighbors. There were five of us alltogether.
As we pulled up, from the car, we saw the “Red-eyes” immediately.
We were excited, as due to all of the stories, we wanted to see activity.
well, the “Eyes” were there, in all of their glory.
We shone our flashlights on them, and we discovered….that they aren’t “eyes” at all.
Two silver dollar sized bicycle fender reflectors, mounted on a piece of wood, leaning against a headstone.
We looked closely (without entering, we were respectful of the “No Trespassing” signs.
We clearly saw the wood, the round edges, the small round little bumps, or dimples inside the reflectors, and they glowed, or reflected nicely when our lights were on them, and went dark when our lights were off.
An Easton cop drove up while we were there, and contrary to all reports, were extremely friendly, but again, we were not inside, nor were we drinking/drunk, loud,.
We told him what we saw, and he laughed. He explained that these reflectors get moved aroundthe cemetery from time to time, an obvious hoax, as someone is trying to start a legend, ghost story, etc.
In the daytime, you can see the wood, reflectors, etc. very clearly!!
We went back about three weeks ago, on Saturday night 09/12, around 1 am.
We didn’t see the reflectors. They were gone. Another cop drove up, and once again, we had a great conversation, and he was extremely friendly. We exchanged stories, and left shortly thereafter, but again, this officer explained that the reflectors get moved around often. Probably a neighbor trying to scare people away, but is actually drawing people there.
Red-Eyes….DEBUNKED!!
I can be reached at kmer2@snet.net, if anyone wants to discuss this.
Any of my neighbors will attest to all of this, as will the Easton Police Department.
Sorry to all true believers.
No comments on White Lady, as we didn’t see anything, but “Red-Eyes” is an obvious hoax.
I went for a good old scare sometime around Halloween 2007. I went with a group of friends from school and we went to get a bit of a spook on. The area is surrounded by churches, but the Church where the location supposedly is, is quite obvious. It begins the split in the road. We parked at another church or building where we knew the car wouldn’t get towed, and continued to the site. We literally scoped out as many parts as we could. Took pictures of everything, cemetary, boarding house and even the church itself. You can tell that it is desolate, but nonetheless there are some spooky things that happened. Nothing really affected us while we were there, we just got some footage, thought we heard some voices but just let our imaginations get the better of us. The ride back and when we stopped to get food is when it got weird. We went to a local diner near where we all lived and started processing all the footage we got from the site. We didnt think we saw much until we really got into it all, and realized certain orbs, or images appeared out of the ordinary on the camera! We investigated more by zooming in further and the images couldn’t be explained. The so-called white lady who haunts it, it was more like a grim reaper in my books. The image appears above a headstone. We tried to justify it but it is definitely not a person walking in the back, nor another part of the cemetary. Then while we took images of the house, you could see apparitions appearing in the windows, of a woman looking like she was screaming. There are woods behind it, and in the background of those woods there were the “red-eyes” I don’t feel like they were complacent with where the previous commenters have said they were but at the same time they were there.
This is where I thought it was weird, I dropped my friends off and decided it was time to go home. I was heading a root I always take home, and right before a bridge I took a turn and got struck by a drunk driver. I am alright but she did a bit of damage. Now I stress I am not religious nor do I carry rosary beads in my car, but my friend (who did not come with us) attests to their ownership but doesn’t know how they got there., but shortly after the accident when I went to put the car into park, I noticed they were there. I can’t explain it, and I have been dying to go back again but been very busy back at college and everything, but its an adventure.
[...] Union Cemetery, Easton — The home of the infamous White Lady, this 400-year-old grave yard has been popular with [...]
Does anyone know who we may contact to obtain permission to enter after dark?
[...] http://www.damnedct.com/union-cemetery-easton/ [...]
A friend and I decided to take a ride up there Halloween night 2006. We live about 35 minutes away. It was a chilly night, so we naturally had the heat on. We just wanted to drive by, neither of us had the guts to get out of the car. Of course we didn’t see anything. However, as we circle around to leave and we are passing the cemetery for the last time, my friend starts saying that she doesn’t believe the hype. Well, the heater decided to give out and blow strictly cold air at us….frigid air. This totally freaked us out….about a half mile after passing the cemetery, the heat was returned….coincidence???? who knows, but if freaked us out!
I used to mow the grass in this Cemetary when I was a boy scout!
I’m a photographer who went there one fall afternoon about a year ago to take pictures of old gravestones. I got some great pictures and didn’t experience anything odd but a few weeks later I was looking at the pictures and noticed a few things that were mentioned above by Dave. In one picture there is a large bright circle in front of a stone – there is no natural reason it should be there. It was during the day so no chance of it being my flash catching dust and creating an “orb”, but this could definitely best be described as an orb, in broad daylight. It floats about three feet in front of the camera, two or three feet off the ground, and is maybe a foot or so in diameter.
Even stranger though was the image of what I can best describe as a hooded figure in the woods behind the gravestones. The outlines of the shadow appear “warpy” and show no natural reason. It looks to me like a woman wearing a full cloak or maybe an old nun’s habit, with a folded hood. She’s facing left and in full profile. If anyone would like to see these images, let me know and I’ll send them to you. What concerns me about it is that some people I show it to see the figure immediately and others don’t see it at all; which makes me wonder if I’m just “seeing shapes in clouds” as they say. I don’t think I am, but as said I’d be happy to share the pictures. srbutler75@yahoo.com
Oh, and I’d love to compare pictures with Dave July 21st, 2010 12:22 pm
Thanks,
Sean
srbutler75@yahoo.com
just wanted to tell you that the posted picture 2 of 6 creeped me out. i immediately see a bright red floating orb and then in one of the clusters of tombstones a more pinkish figure poking from behind one of the stones almost as if someone is peeking out trying to figure out who is snapping picks of his home. coool
I’ve been to this cemetery 3 times. Once during the day and twice in the middle of the night. Took pictures during the day but got nothing of any sort. But twice in the middle of the night is when both times my friend and my ex girlfriend experienced enough to believe this place is truly haunted! I have a couple of pics that are (or was on) Ed and Lorains site! The first time was simple, took a lot of pics around 1am in the morning about ten years ago. All showed nothing until I got deep into the number of pics. Three of the pics show heavy white around some grave stones and one pic with my friend in it has the haze be hind him! I had taken a few paranormal classes with the Warrens and gave Ed my pics and he put them on the site. The other time was with my ex girlfriend. This story is too long and scary to write right now! I will tell it tommorrow.
Ok I will tell it now. We had gone during the day with video and a camera went home viewed everything and came up with nothing! Not satisfied we went around 12 had borrowed my friends expensive camera who was a photographer. We pulled up to the front gate so I grabbed the camera and walked around my truck to the passenger side where my ex was sitting. She would not get out of the truck for some reason nor she wouldn’t let me go into the cemetery to walk around to take pics! She was never like this and it made me a bit nervous! So I agreed to stay near the truck and take some pics. Now mind you I bought new batteries for this camera earlier. Camera was on so I tried to take a pic and it would not shoot a pic! I tried repeatedly but nothing. The green light was on telling me to hold the button down to take the pic..I would push down…hold for a sec but would not take a pic!! I tried everything took the batteries out put them back in but nothing! She started screaming at me telling me to get back into the truck that there is a reason why the camera isn’t working! At first I kept messing with the camera but hearing her being the way she was normally not got back in the truck. Here’s were its gets scary! I tried in the truck to take some pics but again would take. So we decided to get the Hell out of there. As I was driving out of the cemetery I decided to pick the camera up holding the camera in my right hand and driving with my left.still in the vicinity of the cemetery with the camera facing the front of the truck I pressed the button to snap a pic and it flashed and took a pic!! Scared the Hell out of us both!! For some reason I pointed the camera towards the back seat of my truck and tried to take a pic and it would not take pic! I turned it to the front it would take pic and turned it again to the back seat and again would not take a pic!!! Both of us started to flip out!! Not only did something not want us to take pics of the cemetery but something was in my back seat and as if it escorted us out of the area! Meaning there was a spirit in my truck! What else could this all mean!! We got on rt 8 towards Waterbury. That’s were we live. Kept trying the camera thing and it wouldn’t take the pic towards the back seat. I kept my composer while she was getting very nervous. I decided to pull in front of our church in Waterbury. We are both Catholics and started praying to take this spirit out of my truck! We said a couple of prayers tried the camera..nothing! Said a few more prayers and all of a sudden the camera started taking pics towards the front and in the back seat. Pic after pic!! Whatever was there at the cemetery did not want us there and wanted to see us out!! My ex who is the mother of my son till this day talk about it. The next day afterwards we took all the video and pics and threw them out! I wish we never did but at that time were extremely scared. The union cemetery is definitly alive!