That’s
not the end of the story, however. A private mansion was later
constructed on the island near the original site of the casino.
An elaborate summer home, it has changed hands frequently through
the years, with nobody living in it more than a couple of summers.
For financial
reasons, the house has never openly been admitted to be haunted,
but rumors abound of several strange occurrences there. Frequent
sightings of apparitions running frantically along the shoreline
have been reported. Several claims of residents seeing the figure
of a hanged man dangling from a tree limb behind the mansion have
leaked to the public.
Screams of
terror have been heard late at night, coming from the edge of
the island, but no source for the screams could ever be found.
The most morbid phenomenon reported, however, was rumored to be
the final straw for several of the residents. They described seeing
one or more bodies of bloated, drowned men floating up to the
boat dock. These men would typically stare up at the residents
with unseeing eyes, and then sink slowly beneath the water. Divers
and rescue crews called to the scene have never found any such
thing beneath the surface.
People familiar
with the island’s sordid history attribute the reports to
the spirits of the casino’s victims, still haunting the
place where they were murdered. Of course there are a number of
people who are not aware of the island’s past. Those are
the source for the mansion’s next buyer.
GHOSTS
OF THE THOUSAND ISLANDS
