Nonfiction Accounts of Hauntings and Other Unexplainable Mysteries

There’s nothing scarier than something that evokes terror but which is unexplained or undefined. Nonfiction and firsthand accounts of the paranormal or supernatural reign supreme with a crown of heebie-jeebies.

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1. The Mothman Prophecies: A True Story by John A. Keel

The Mothman Prophecies- A True Story by John A. Keel

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From the editor:

West Virginia, 1966. For thirteen months the town of Point Pleasant is gripped by a real-life nightmare culminating in a tragedy that makes headlines around the world. Strange occurrences and sightings, including a bizarre winged apparition that becomes known as the Mothman, trouble this ordinary American community. Mysterious lights are seen moving across the sky. Domestic animals are found slaughtered and mutilated. And journalist John Keel, arriving to investigate the freakish events, soon finds himself an integral part of an eerie and unfathomable mystery.

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What people are saying

The Mothman Prophecies by John Keel is the only book I’ve ever read that gave me legitimate cold chills.

@TuttiFortuitous

John Keel has spent decades researching strange phenomena- it’s unsettling stuff and it’s real! He is sort of considered one of the foundational authors of high-strangeness.

@greymaresinspace

2. Missing 411-Western United States & Canada: Unexplained Disappearances of North Americans that have never been solved by David Paulides

Missing 411-Western United States & Canada- Unexplained Disappearances of North Americans that have never been solved by David Paulides

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Missing 411 is the first comprehensive book about people who have disappeared in the wilds of North America. It’s understood that people routinely get lost, and some want to disappear but this story is about the unusual. Nobody has ever studied the archives for similarities, traits, and geographical clusters of missing people, until now.

A tip from a national park ranger led to this three-year, 7000+ hour investigative effort into understanding the stories behind people who have vanished. The book chronicles children, adults, and the elderly who disappeared, sometimes in the presence of friends and relatives. As Search and Rescue personnel exhaust leads and places to search, relatives start to believe kidnappings and abductions have occurred. The belief by the relatives is not an isolated occurrence; it replicates itself time after time, case after case across North America. The research depicts 28 clusters of missing people across the continent, something that has never been exposed and was a shocking find to researchers.

Topography does play a part in the age of the victims and certain clusters have specific age and sex consistency that is baffling. This is not a phenomenon that has been occurring in just the last few decades, clusters of missing people have been identified as far back as the 1800’s. The manuscript for the research was extremely large so the story was split between two books, Missing 411 Western United States and Canada and Missing 411 Eastern United States.

Some of the issues that are discussed in each edition:

  • The National Park Service’s attitude toward missing people
  • How specific factors in certain cases replicate themselves in different clusters
  • Exposing cases involving missing children that aren’t on any national database
  • Unusual behavior by bloodhounds/canines involved in the search process
  • How storms, berries, swamps, briar patches, boulder fields, and victim disabilities play a role in the disappearance
  • The strategies of Search and Rescue personnel need to change under specific circumstances.

Major news organizations do a deplorable job of covering stories and issues which are deemed too unusual or too far outside the box. Chances are, they will find a way to trivialize or ignore the disturbing evidence accumulated by David Paulides, a former lawman turned investigative journalist. The paper trail uncovered by Paulides through sheer doggedness is impressive, and the evidence indisputable.

People are vanishing without a trace from our national parks and forests, yet government agencies are saying nothing. At a minimum, this story deserves space on the front page of every newspaper in the country, and it warrants a formal high-level inquiry by the federal agencies whose files leave little doubt that something very strange is unfolding in our wilderness.

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What people are saying

If nothing else Missing 411 was great because their research uncovered that there exists a skeptic activist group seeking to sway public perception and opinion thru Wikipedia edits. That’s not illegal or immoral or anything, but it does make me feel like someone is trying to sell me a narrative.

@MarcMercury

I think its the saddest aspect of the Missing 411 that we forget when we get swept up in the mystery. Every name, every case, is an entire family, friends, pets, whole communities changed forever. It’s something I really respect about David Paulides – that he understands the emotional and personal aspects of these cases.

@GiftShopEnthusiast

3. True Haunting by Edwin F. Becker

True Haunting by Edwin F. Becker

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This is the story of a true haunting. It was the first ever filmed and televised by NBC in 1971. A young couple purchases a building that was built and occupied by a single family that refused to relinquish their hold, even after death. Investigated and verified by experts, this residence brought chaos to the lives of those who chose to reside there. Unlike a horror novel, this chronicles what a real ghostly experience would resemble. Long before the laws of disclosure, a young couple winds up in the midst of strange occurrences prior to the term paranormal becoming a common description.

Only a little known organization came to their aid. Author Tom Valentine, brought in a nationally known psychic, Joseph DeLouise, who then asked assistance of an exorcist from England, Reverend William Derl-Davis. Together, they gave their best effort at exorcising the multiple spirits inhabiting the building and disrupting the lives of the living. Events were filmed by NBC, who sent their most prominent Chicago journalist, Carole Simpson, to cover the event.

Follow a young couple with a newborn as they attempt to cope with inexplicable events, experience denial, plead for help from their Church, and step into the world of the paranormal. Understand why ghosts cannot be exorcised and a true example of their strong sense of domain, even after death. Learn what experts and gifted people did in a failed attempt to assist this desperate couple.

Learn many of the various manifestations that can be common in haunting. Ghosts can be seen and heard. They can propel objects and interrupt utilities. They can affect your moods and feed off of your emotions. They can appear as solid as you and me. They can react and become hostile if threatened or violated. There are certain subtle occurrences you may find the most frightening, because you just might relate and recognize them. If so, guess what? You may have a ghost!

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What people are saying

True Haunting by Edwin Becker is written as non-fiction. Who knows if it’s true or embellished, but both were creepy and enjoyable reads!

@Outside-Island-206

I felt like Edwin Becker’s books (read them both) we very honest accounts. I felt like he truly did his best to lay out the occurances, those were probably one of the most interesting true haunting I’d read.

@Marisleysis33

4. The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren by Gerald Brittle, Ed Warren, and Lorraine Warren

The Demonologist -The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren by Gerald Brittle, Ed Warren, and Lorraine Warren

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If you think ghosts are only responsible for hauntings, think again. This New York Times Best Seller reveals the grave religious process behind supernatural events and how it can happen to you. Used as a text in seminaries and classrooms, this is one book you can’t put down. For over five decades Ed and Loraine Warren have been considered America’s foremost experts on demonology and exorcism. With thousands of investigations to their credit, they reveal what actually breaks the peace in haunted houses. Chapters include Annabelle and The Enfield Poltergeist.

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What people are saying

The Demonologist scared the bejeebers out of me and I had to quit reading it several times. It’s the true story written by Ed Warren that The Conjuring was based on.

@CategoryTurbulent114

The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren – the scariest book I’ve ever read was not horror, and it was all the scarier since it’s supposedly based on “real-life” events.

@Mind101

5. Hunt for the Skinwalker: Science Confronts the Unexplained at a Remote Ranch in Utah by Colm A. Kelleher Ph.D. and George Knapp

Hunt for the Skinwalker- Science Confronts the Unexplained at a Remote Ranch in Utah by Colm A. Kelleher Ph.D. and George Knapp

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For more than fifty years, the bizarre events at a remote Utah ranch have ranged from the perplexing to the wholly terrifying. Vanishing and mutilated cattle. Unidentified Flying Objects. The appearance of huge, otherworldly creatures. Invisible objects emitting magnetic fields with the power to spark a cattle stampede. Flying orbs of light with dazzling maneuverability and lethal consequences. For one family, life on the Skinwalker Ranch had become a life under siege by an unknown enemy or enemies. Nothing else could explain the horrors that surrounded them — perhaps science could.

Leading a first-class team of research scientists on a disturbing odyssey into the unknown, Colm Kelleher spent hundreds of days and nights on the Skinwalker property and experienced firsthand many of its haunting mysteries. With investigative reporter George Knapp — the only journalist allowed to witness and document the team’s work — Kelleher chronicles in superb detail the spectacular happenings the team observed personally, and the theories of modern physics behind the phenomena. Far from the coldly detached findings one might expect, their conclusions are utterly hair-raising in their implications. Opening a door to the unseen world around us, Hunt for the Skinwalker is a clarion call to expand our vision far beyond what we know.

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What people are saying

There’s a book that presents it all in a really appealing spooky way, in my opinion – called Hunt for the Skinwalker by George Knapp.

@MakingItWork_Some

Plug for Hunt for the Skinwalker. Definitely in the same vein as Mothman.

@Ignoble_Rot

6. Hostage to the Devil: The Possession and Exorcism of Five Contemporary Americans by Malachi Martin

Hostage to the Devil- The Possession and Exorcism of Five Contemporary Americans by Malachi Martin

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One On One With Satan

A chilling and highly convincing account of possession and exorcism in modern America, hailed by NBC Radio as “one of the most stirring books on the contemporary scene.”

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What people are saying

M. Martin’s nonfiction book Hostage to the Devil on possession is amazing. I couldn’t sleep for nights after.

@

Hostage to the Devil was scary as hell but also impossible to put down. I do not recommend it for anyone in an emotionally fragile state.

@MaxMMXXI

7. The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

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In December 1975, the Lutz family moved into their new home on suburban Long Island. George and Kathleen Lutz knew that, one year earlier, Ronald DeFeo had murdered his parents, brothers, and sisters in the house, but the property—complete with boathouse and swimming pool—and the price had been too good to pass up.

Twenty-eight days later, the entire Lutz family fled in terror.

This is the spellbinding, shocking true story that gripped the nation about an American dream that turned into a nightmare beyond imagining—”this book will scare the hell out of you” (Kansas City Star).

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What people are saying

The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson is much scarier than the films. Disturbed my sleep for a few nights

@Agil85

Friend, have you read The Amityville Horror? If you like horror in your horror, it’s…. it’s up there. You’ll never look directly at empty black windows when you’re out after dark ever again in your life.

@Bucklehairy

8. Deliver Us from Evil: A New York City Cop Investigates the Supernatural by Ralph Sarchie

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Demonic possession. Exorcism. Haunted Houses. Satanic Rituals.

For most people this is the stuff of nightmares, horror movies, folklore, and superstition. For New York City police Sergeant Ralph Sarchie, it’s as real―and dangerous―as midnight patrol . . .

A sixteen-year NYPD veteran, Ralph Sarchie works out of the 46th Precinct in New York’s South Bronx. But it is his other job that he calls “the Work”: investigating cases of demonic possession and assisting in the exorcisms of humanity’s most ancient―and most dangerous―foes. Now he discloses for the first time his investigations into incredible true crimes and inhuman evil that were never explained, solved, or understood except by Sarchie and his partner. Schooled in the rituals of exorcism, and an eyewitness to the reality of demonic possession, Ralph Sarchie has documented a riveting chronicle of the inexplicable that gives a new shape to the shadows in the dark.

In Deliver Us from Evil, he takes readers into the very hierarchy of a hell on earth to expose the grisly rituals of a Palo Mayombe priest; a young girl whose innocence is violated by an incubus; a home invaded by the malevolent spirit of a supposedly murdered nineteenth-century bride; the dark side of a couple who were literally, the neighbors from hell; and more. Ralph Sarchie’s revelations are a powerful and disturbing documented link between the true-crime realities of life and the blood-chilling ice-grip of a supernatural terror.

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What people are saying

This one had me afraid of the dark and feeling truly spooked. Loved it!

@SalemMO65560

I’ve bought and read hundreds of horror novels. I feel I am dulled to most if not all of the worst of the worst. However, the book that has affected the most, even to this day, is Deliver Us From Evil by Ralph Sarchie. The fact that it’s true and written by a cop just related to me. I wear a St. Benedictine medal going on 7 years because of this book. Fucked me up. Also tells how to perform an exorcism.

@Flat-Tomorrow-8227

9. Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey

Ghostland- An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey

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From the author of The Unidentified, an intellectual feast for fans of offbeat history that takes readers on a road trip through some of the country’s most infamously haunted places—and deep into the dark side of our history.

Colin Dickey is on the trail of America’s ghosts. Crammed into old houses and hotels, abandoned prisons and empty hospitals, the spirits that linger continue to capture our collective imagination, but why? His own fascination piqued by a house hunt in Los Angeles that revealed derelict foreclosures and “zombie homes,” Dickey embarks on a journey across the continental United States to decode and unpack the American history repressed in our most famous haunted places. Some have established reputations as “the most haunted mansion in America,” or “the most haunted prison”; others, like the haunted Indian burial grounds in West Virginia, evoke memories from the past our collective nation tries to forget.

With boundless curiosity, Dickey conjures the dead by focusing on questions of the living—how do we, the living, deal with stories about ghosts, and how do we inhabit and move through spaces that have been deemed, for whatever reason, haunted? Paying attention not only to the true facts behind a ghost story, but also to the ways in which changes to those facts are made—and why those changes are made—Dickey paints a version of American history left out of the textbooks, one of things left undone, crimes left unsolved.

Spellbinding, scary, and wickedly insightful, Ghostland discovers the past we’re most afraid to speak of aloud in the bright light of day is the same past that tends to linger in the ghost stories we whisper in the dark.

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What people are saying

There is a terrific book by Colin Dickey, Ghostland, that includes a chapter on the Winchester House. Dickey explains how the legend of the Winchester House was a creation of newspaper stories and urban legend, and had no basis in reality. Sarah Winchester was not the person these stories claimed she was. It’s a great book.

@SmallDarkCloud

Check out: Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey. Goes into depth about why certain hauntings exist and how it ties to socioeconomic status.

@blatantmutant

10. The Demon of Brownsville Road: A Pittsburgh Family’s Battle with Evil in Their Home by Bob Cranmer

The Demon of Brownsville Road- A Pittsburgh Family’s Battle with Evil in Their Home by Bob Cranmer

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October 1988: Bob Cranmer buys a house in the Pittsburgh suburb he grew up in. He has no idea that his dream home is about to become his worst nightmare…

The Cranmers seemed fated to own the house at 3406 Brownsville Road. As a young boy, Bob had been drawn to the property, and, just when the family decided to move back to Brentwood, it went up for sale. Without a second thought, they purchased the house that Bob had always dreamed of owning.

But soon, the family began experiencing strange phenomena—objects moving on their own, ghostly footsteps, unsettling moaning sounds—that gradually increased in violence, escalating to physical assaults and, most disturbingly, bleeding walls. Bob, Lesa, and their four children were under attack from a malicious demon that was conjuring up terrifying manifestations to destroy their tight-knit household. They had two choices: leave or draw on their unwavering faith to exorcise the malicious fiend who haunted their home.

Now, Bob Cranmer recounts the harrowing true story of the evil presence that tormented his family and the epic spiritual war he fought to save everything he held dear…

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What people are saying

The Demon of Brownsville Road is a pretty cool story as well! Read the book about it and that also stuck in my mind. The home is a bed and breakfast these days.

@DineWithTheGods

Read The Demon of Brownsville Road by Bob Cramner. You won’t be disappointed.

@TamIAm82