Haunted New Jersey: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Garden State

I am a Jersey Girl and have found this book to be very interesting. These are the kind of things they don't teach you in history class.

This was a fun book to read on a plane. Lots of short informative stories. I use to live in NJ. but didn't know half of the history that are mingled into each tale.

Continuing Stackpole Books' outstanding series on regional hauntings comes "Haunted New Jersey", 120 pages of hauntings, monsters, and other strange goings on in the Garden State. With some 70 plus tales they are only a page or two in length and designed to show off as many of the legends of New Jersey as possible and again, it succeeds! The book is arranged by geographical region and filled with fantastic lore. For instance there is the former Governor's mansion on Perth Amboy where Governor William Franklin resided. Franklin was the son of one of America's greatest Statesmen and founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin. But when the Revolution started, William refused to join and maintained his loyalty to England despite repeated pleas from his father. William would be exiled to England where he would die lonely and in shame. His ghost is said to yet occupy the mansion, ever regretting his fateful decision. Then there is the story of Antoine LeBlanc who killed three people in 1833. Was later captured and hung. His body was given to a local surgeon for dissection. LeBlanc's skin was removed and tanned and used to make various objects. One purse still exists at the New Jersey Historical Society. This was also seen in an episode of the Travel Channels "Weird Travels". LeBlanc's ghost is said to haunt the area of Morristown, looking for these objects. While many people think of Salem or even Connecticut when you talk about witchcraft in early America, New Jersey also had its suspected witches including Elizabeth Garlick who was put on trial but later set free and moved with her husband and child to the small town of Rio Grande. No burial plot has ever been found for her but around Halloween its said a strange mist swirls around the grave of her daughter. There is also an account of the less well-known witchcraft trials that took place in New Jersey in 1730. The ghosts of former Vice President and suspected traitorAaron Burr and his father, also named Aaron are said to haunt the cemetery and regions around Princeton University. Of course you can't talk about the weird in New Jersey without talking about its most famous monster, The Jersey Devil. This creature has been haunting the Pine Barrens area for almost 150 years and has been the subject of numerous segments on TV shows dealing with strange phenomena as well as a feature motion picture. The book also provides information on ghost tours in New Jersey and websites you can visit that specialize in the research of the strange in Jersey. Yet another great addition to Stackpole's series of books on hauntings! Reviewed by Tim Janson