Ghosts of Scarlet Knights past: The creepiest Rutgers stories

And you thought drunk buses were scary

The scariest part of Rutgers is actually going here.

Just jokes, but also it’s kind of true: with a 250 year history as the eighth-oldest institution in the United States along with being one of the nine colonial colleges, we’ve got our fair share of myths, legends and of course, ghost stories. Whether you believe in the supernatural or not, here are some creepy stories to get you through this Halloween season.

Passion Puddle tragedy

You probably don’t think of anything particularly scary when you think of this romantic locale on Cook/Douglass campus. We all know from freshman orientation that if you walk around the pond three times with your lover, the two of you will get married and live happily ever after. What your orientation leaders probably didn’t tell you was that a 12-year-old boy from New Brunswick drowned in the pond in 2008. It’s not clear what he was doing in the pond, but according to RUPD at the time, he had been underwater for 15 minutes. When rescuers were finally able to locate him in the murky water, they were unable to revive him. There haven’t been any reports of supernatural phenomena by the area since his death, but it does make walking by Red Oak Lane a slightly less idyllic experience if you ask me.

Miller Hall Morgue

After reports of unexplained noises, whistles and sounds of footsteps were spooking university faculty and staff, curiosity got the best of former Associate Dean Marc Mappen, who examined university and city records and found out the building was actually a mortuary before being purchased by Rutgers. If you want to find it for yourself, there’s still a stone inscription on the building that says “McDede Burial Company.” Some believe that there might still be a hidden morgue in there, too, but it is yet to be found. As for hauntings, there are rumors that all those noises and footsteps could be the spirit of mysterious McDede himself.

The lady in the lake

Mabel Smith Douglass, the revered and respected first dean of the New Jersey College for Women, and for whom Douglass College and what is now Douglass campus is named for, was a pioneering woman who helped to advance education for women. However, her life had a sad ending. After a series of financial and personal problems after her retirement, Douglass went up to Lake Placid in upstate New York with her daughter in September 1933. She took her rowboat out on the lake and vanished. Her body was found by a diving club 30 years later in 1963, the corpse completely preserved underwater. According the diving club, there was a rope looped around her neck that was attached to an anchor, alluding to it being a suicide. As they brought up her body, the corpse began to deteriorate, with limbs and her head falling off. Police determined that as the only known person to go missing on Lake Placid, the body had to belong to Mabel Smith Douglass. Despite the evidence, no one is completely sure if the cause of death was suicide or accidental. Locals refer to her as the “Lady in the Lake,” and legend has it, her ghost haunts the area. They say that at night, you can see Douglass standing on a rock near where her body was found.

Demarest Hall suicides

Demarest Hall on College Ave is mostly known for special interest housing, its drag show, its history as housing for football players and for being the place where Pulitzer Prize winning author Junot Diaz lived during his time as a Rutgers student. But back in 2010, a 19-year-old student committed suicide in his room. The police at the time didn’t say how he died or what his motive was, but since then, many students have moved out of the room since discovering what took place there. Supposedly, there have been other suicides in the past 66 years since the building’s opening, and one person once reported seeing a ghost in the main lounge whose head would fall off before disappearing. The cupola of the building, which is locked, is also said to be haunted by ghosts of Demarest Hall’s past.

The minister and the choir singer

The doomed lovers.

Currently, 23 Nichol Ave. is used by the university as a Deans Residence. But in 1922, it was the home of Rev. Edward Hall, pastor of St. John, the Evangelist Episcopal Church on 189 George Street. Hall was found brutally murdered alongside his lover Eleanor Reinhardt Mills, a choir singer at the church, just outside New Brunswick in an orchard in Franklin Township. In a high profile case, Hall’s wife Frances and her two brothers were put on trial under the charge that Frances was jealous of Hall and Mills’ very public affair and had recruited her brothers to help her kill them as revenge. The evidence and position of the bodies supposedly incriminated Frances – the injuries to Eleanor Mills were significantly worse than Edward Hall’s – a scorned woman indeed. However, after two investigations, no indictments were made due to lack of evidence, and it remains unsolved to this day. Because of the wealthy statuses of the families involved, the case became one of the most notorious American crime cases, only to be shadowed later by the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh’s baby. In fact, the case was so influential that many scholars say that it inspired some parts of the classic novel The Great Gatsby. Supposedly, mysterious sounds can be heard in the basement of 23 Nichol.

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