Lynda Lee Mackin, a Rutgers University graduate, works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Toms River.

She also believes in ghosts.

In fact, her paranormal encounter 13 years ago was the subject of a 1996 segment of TV's "Unsolved Mysteries."

"I think ghosts co-exist with us, but in another dimension," said Mackin, a Staten Island native who lives in the Forked River section of Lacey with her five cats.

Mackin wrote about her own ghostly experiences in a book titled "Adirondack Ghosts." Another of her books is "Haunted History of Staten Island," filled with stories of ghostly tales from her childhood home. Her newest book, published this year by Black Cat Press of Forked River, is "Ghosts of the Garden State."

In the 73-page, soft-cover book, selling for $7.95, Mackin relates about 50 tales about mysterious happenings and famous phantoms in New Jersey.

She wrote that New Jersey has been haunted from the days of the first European settlers, through the Revolutionary War, to the state's business barons, and all of their specters still roam their earthly abodes. "(New Jersey's) long history and hefty population are part of the answer," she writes. "More than 100 battles were fought in the state during the American Revolution."

Mackin said the spirits are often located near a place where some type of tragedy happened.

"According to experts in paranormal psychology, haunted places contain the spirits and vestiges of past dwellers," she wrote. "Maybe there was a fire, a shipwreck, murder, suicide or dirigible crash - the only explanation for the inexplicable occurrences expressed in this book is GHOSTS!"

Local haunts Mackin visits in the book include college dormitories, restaurants and the Garden State Parkway, which is said to be haunted by a tall male ghost wearing a long, belted raincoat.

Mackin said the Parkway apparition has been observed as far back as 1955 and is usually seen on foggy nights, waving his arms wildly as if he wants to cross the roadway along an eight-mile stretch near exit 82 in the vicinity of the Toms River barracks of the state police.

According to Mackin, motorists have stopped to help the man but when they do, he disappears.

Other ghostly sites in Ocean County include historic Hangar One at the Naval Air Warfare Center at Lakehurst, where 36 people perished during the fiery crash of the Hindenburg, plus the Mansion of Health, now the Surf City Hotel.

Hangar One is believed to be haunted by several ghosts, including a silver-haired woman in a white gown who visits the clinic area, and an airman dressed in vintage fly-gear who is said to have greeted workers with "Good Morning!" Some evenings, muffled voices of men shouting "Away the lines, away the lines!" and "She's afire!" have been heard on the tarmac near the hangar.

A lavish three-story hotel known as the Mansion of Health was built in 1822. Edward Jennings was its caretaker and the designated wreck master responsible for reporting shipwrecks in the area. On April 18, 1854, the wooden schooner Powhatan sank with 300 affluent German immigrants aboard.

Corpses from the schooner washed ashore and Jennings piled the bodies on the sand. When the coroner asked if any valuables were found, Jennings said no.

But months later a pile of leather money belts cut open were found hidden near the mansion. Although the caretaker wasn't formally charged with the theft, his reputation was ruined. He left the state, headed south and was murdered in a barroom brawl.

For years, the apparition of a woman holding a child was often seen in a hotel window. Others have heard the screams and cries of the doomed passengers and crew on the ship, according to Mackin.

Monmouth County also has its share of spooky places. The most notable is the Spy House in thePort Monmouth section of Middletown, behind the sand dunes of the Sandy Hook Bay.

The oldest house on the Jersey Shore, the 1663 building was named by US News & World Report as "one of the three most haunted houses in America."

The building, which today is known as the Shoal Harbor Museum, was saved from the wrecking ball by Gertrude Neidlinger.

Since the 1950s, Mackin said, more than 30 ghosts have been counted and more than 70 sightings have been reported, including the spirit of Thomas Whitlock, the first permanent white resident of New Jersey who built the house.

Mackin writes that "the aroma of his pipe tobacco fills the air and he is thought to steal cigarette packs from workers and then put them back."

She said pirates are also thought to call the Spy House home, including a blood-thirsty buccaneer called Captain Morgan, and his first mate, Robert.

Other hot spots for ghosts in the Garden State include Liberty State Park, Jersey City; Burling-ton County Prison; Drew Univer-sity, Madison; Ringwood Manor and Victorian Cape May.

Before she wrote the book, Mack-in said she spoke with historical societies, researched the archives of newspapers and the Internet, talked to people familiar with the sites, as well as visited some of the sites.

"I've visited most of the locations but I wouldn't go there at night," she said. "Ghosts fascinate me but they scare me, too."

Mackin said ever since her expe-rience in 1988 at a lodge at Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks in New York, she has a physical reaction in places spirits are known to frequent.

"I get nauseous or light-headed sometimes when I'm in a place that might be haunted, even if I don't know that the place has a ghostly story," she said.

Before Mackin saw a ghost on the lake at the lodge, she said she got a "creepy feeling" while in her room.

"I felt I had to sleep with the lights on. It was hard for me to look in the mirrors," she said.

"And all the batteries I had -- for my flashlight, for my camera -- went dead even though they were new," she said.

She and her friend were sitting in a gazebo at the lake when she saw what appeared to be a wom-an whose hair and feet trailed off in the water. The woman was looking at a cabin along the lake.

Later, at the lodge, Mackin asked friends who once worked at the lodge about its history. It was then she found out that a woman named Grace Brown drowned in the lake in 1906 and a man named Chester Gillette was later charged and then executed for her murder.

The book, "American Tragedy" by Theodore Dreisler, is based on the event, Mackin said.

"Ghosts of the Garden State" is available at book stores. To reach Black Cat Press, write to P.O. Box 1218, Forked River, NJ 08731, or call (609) 971-9334. The e-mail address is llmack-in@hotmail.com.

• Story originally published by:
Asbury Park Press / NJ | Bonnie Delaney - Oct 17.01

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