Spooky Connecticut: These Are The Haunted Halloween Hotspots

CONNECTICUT — Over seven months into a pandemic that has killed thousands and upended the lives of millions, it's fair to ask: "Is there anything left to scare us?"

In Connecticut, around Halloween, the answer is: "Booyah!"

Many of the commercial so-called "haunted houses" have shuttered for real this season — and let's face it, it was tough enough for those places to gin up real scares even when the actors weren't carefully separated from their audience by at least six feet. On the bright side, that gives scare-searchers all the more reason to do some real ghost-hunting. The Nutmeg State has hundreds of horrors waiting for the brave and curious, usually just a short drive away.

In Connecticut, ghosts don't practice social distancing. At the Makens Bemont House in East Hartford, unseen entities were thought to push the workers restoring it down steps. The spooks came around eventually, according to paranormal researchers who now classify "Benny" and "The Blue Lady" as "friendly ghosts."

Slightly more enigmatic is "The Green Lady," who can be found, believers say, in the Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery in Burlington. The former Elisabeth Palmiter met her end in a nearby swamp, but was her drowning an accident or something more sinister?

But when it comes to women roaming around graveyards long after their expiration date, no spook can top "The White Lady," hailing from Union Cemetery in Easton. Investigators can't decide whether she was the victim of a murder in the 1940s, or a mourning mother still searching for her long-lost daughter. What they do agree upon is that she can often be sighted along Route 59, and occasionally on Route 111. Famed Connecticut paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine wrote "Graveyard" about the escapades of The White Lady and other supposedly restless spirits dwelling in and around the Union boneyard.

Other states have haunted houses and demon-possessed cemeteries, sure, but Connecticut has an entire cursed town. Dudleytown is the complete package: ties to a royal curse dating back to 16th century England, an area built on Mohawk tribal grounds, a mysterious plague, and nearby mountains that shade the region so heavily the adjacent woods were named "Dark Entry Forest." The area is now private property in Cornwall, and according to the local historical society, the people who live there are "completely fed up with thrill-seeking, would-be ghost hunters."

... So unstrap your proton pack and instead venture a little ways south to the Lockwood-Matthews Mansion Museum. The National Historic Landmark in Norwalk embraces its ghostly legacy, even hosting "ghostly sighting tours."

Mental health facilities had a history of hauntings long before the "Silent Hill" video games turned the idea into a franchise, so maybe the producers spent their formative years in Connecticut. Is there an abandoned asylum in this state that isn't alleged to be haunted? Cedarcrest Sanatorium in Newington, abandoned sections of the state hospital in Middletown, and the Fairfield Hills State Hospital in Newtown are just a few of the asylums where the shrieks continued long after the patients died, according to paranormal investigators.

Connecticut may be home to some of the country's finest restaurants, but more than a few of the great meals served up come with a side order of ectoplasm. At The Litchfield Inn in Litchfield, ghost-watchers say the spirit of a Native American woman hangs out in the dining room, and another mystery woman can often be found waiting for guests in their rooms after they check in.

What's made "undead bride" such an enduring and creepy trope? We're not sure, but you can do some field research into the topic at the Lighthouse Inn in New London. There, a young woman in full wedding veil and dress fell down a flight of steps moments before getting hitched, and some say she's wandered the corridors ever since.

The most celebrated among Connecticut's haunted inns is the former Curtis House in Woodbury. Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay spent a week there for his "Hotel Hell" TV show. Ramsay regaled his viewers with the escapades of ghost Betty, who haunts Room 16 of the hotel where she is believed to sometimes tuck guests snugly into their beds. Ramsay believed she locked him in his room. Betty's hospitality, along with the exploits of a number of now-dead former employees, has perennially placed Curtis House atop many lists of Connecticut go-to ghost-spots. But recently the historic inn was shuttered, only to reopen this summer under new management as 1754 House. Do the spirits approve? Make a reservation and ask them yourself!

What's the scariest house, graveyard, abandoned asylum or Victorian inn in your neck of the haunted woods? Tell us in the comments section below...