Union Cemetery, Easton
By Ray Bendici | Category: Damned Investigations, Hauntings
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).
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 [...]