Submitted by Olivia on
In 1998, Jane Fishman, a reporter for the Savannah Morning News, wrote a series of articles about a haunted antique bed in the home of Al Cobb of Savannah, Georgia. High levels of poletgeist activity were reported at the house.
Cobb bought the vintage (late 1800s) bed at an auction as a Christmas present for his 14-year-old son, Jason. Three nights later, Jason told his parents he felt as if someone had planted elbows on his pillow and was watching him and breathing cold air down the back of his neck. The sensation made him feel ill. The next night he noticed the photo of his deceased grandparents on his nightstand was flipped down, so he righted it.
The next day, the photo was facing down again. Later that morning, after leaving his room for breakfast, he returned and found it in the middle of his bed with two Beanie Babies next to a conch shell, a dinosaur made of shells and a plaster toucan bird.
This got his parents and his twin brother, Lee's attention. Trying to make sense of the irrational, Al called out, 'Do we have a Casper (ghost) here? Tell me your name and how old you are.' Then he left some lined paper and crayons and, with his family, walked out of the room. In 15 minutes they returned and found written in large block childlike letters, Danny, 7.
When his family were out of the house, Al decided to continue to try and communicate with the spirit of Danny. With the same kind of notes, Danny indicated that his mother had died in the bed in 1899, and that he wanted to stay with the bed. He also made it clear that he did not want anyone else sleeping in it. "The same day they found a note reading, 'No one sleep in bed', Jason, who had moved out of the room, decided to stretch out and pretend to take a nap. That turned out to be a mistake. 'I got off the bed to pick up my clothes,' remembers Jason, when this terra cotta head that had been hanging on the wall came flying across the room, just missing me before it smashed on the closet door'.
Even after the bed was sold, Danny remained.
Fishman writes in her second instalment, about the increase in paranormal activity at the property, which includes moving furniture, the kitchen drawers opening and closing, chairs being moved and flipped over. Jason also speaks of other ghosts: Uncle Sam, who had come to reclaim his daughter he said was buried under the house; 'Gracie, a young girl whose sculpture sits in Bonaventure Cemetery; and 'Jill,' a young woman who left a number of handwritten messages, among them one inviting the Cobbs to a party in their living room."
New notes appeared, among them, "Danny sorry," "Tell story," "Lee, stop smoking." New communication ensued. When Al and Lila left a tic-tac-toe grid, "Danny" filled in a line of O's and the words, "Ha, ha," "Beat you," and "Tired."
When Lila asked what he looked like and where he lived, she came back later to a note that read, "Brown eyes brown hair" and "To (sic) story mansion."
Parapsychologist Andrew Nichols, head of the Florida Society for Para psychological Research, investigated the case. "What happened at the Cobbs," he told Fishman, "- more specifically to Jason, would have happened without 'Danny,' or the bed. It was the electromagnetic energy of the wall that Jason started sleeping next to when they moved the bed there that charged a psychic ability that the boy already had."
Resources:
http://www.ghost-story.co.uk/index.php/poltergiests/208-the-danny-poltergeist-georgia-usa
http://savannahnow.com/stories/051499/ACCaccfishman051499.html#.VUa2ZbHp8pp