The William Floyd Estate

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Our blog story for today is a freaky tale that you might not want to read alone. Many times we get stories that are nice, friendly and fun. This is not one of those. It takes place on a closed estate that has its very own graveyard. Add to that the house and grounds have a history of being haunted by ghosts. Where is this place? It is the William Floyd House in Mastic Beach, New York.

In September of 1862, the Civil War reached the William Floyd Estate. At that time the Old Mastic House was the home of John Gelston Floyd, Sr., and his wife Sarah. Their fourth child, John G. Floyd, Jr., enlisted and joined the Union army at Staten Island along with 27 other Long Island men. John served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 145th New York Volunteer Regiment, Company G. John was killed in the battle of Gettsburg. The battle took a heavy toll on the 145th and the remaining enlisted men were transferred to the 107th, 123rd and 150th Infantry. The regiment was discontinued. John’s body was returned home at the request of his family. He was buried in the cemetery and is said to walk the grounds looking for his men.

On July 16th, 1867 John’s sister was out riding her horse. She lost control of the animal after being startled by a rabbit. The horse ran headlong into a grove of apple trees. Mary, who was 12 years old, failed to duck and literally lost her head. It is said that both headless rider and horse can be heard and seen to this day in the apple groove.

Charles McGrainy was a convicted killer. He was on his way to prison to be executed for his crimes. He was able to break free and found himself on the grounds of the estate. He thought to “enter” the main house to take the supplies he needed to get away. What he got was a shotgun blast to the face by John Sr. It is said that he walks the main house looking for revenge against John Sr.

There are other stories that I could have related, but I think you get the idea. The William Floyd Estate is one haunted place. Our story comes from Oliver Robertson who resides in Brookhaven, NY. John is a ghost hunter and he sent this in:

William Floyd House in Mastic Beach, New York

Hello Ron. First thank you for sharing my story. I have been a ghost hunter for ten years now and for the most part it has been pretty calm. That is until I met up with the William Floyd Estate. A couple of our members have never come back after this one.

We had gained special permission to roam the grounds at night. They would not let us enter the main house, but had access to the graveyard, stable and corn fields. It was late October that there was a corn maze that had been set up. That was where we decided to begin our investigation. Mostly because it sounded like fun and partly because it ended up at the entrance to the graveyard. Very creepy endpoint, don’t you think?

We had night cameras, audio recorders and a ghost box with us. Four of us took on this challenge while the rest of the group headed to the apple orchard. Rumor had it that there was a headless girl there. The path through the maze required that we go single file. I was in the lead followed by Janice, Anita, and in the rear was big Mike. We were about six minutes in when Big Mike began to squawk, “Something is following us!”

I stopped and sure enough I could hear the corn stalks behind us rustling, “The Wind?”, I asked.

“What wind?” retorted mike.

He was right, there was no breeze at all. I called out thinking one of the group had decided to join us. There was no response. I told Anita to start recording and Big Mike headed back to investigate. We stood silent listening and waiting. We could all hear the racket that Mike was making, but nothing else. It was then that Mike let out a scream. It tore through the night like a banshee.

He came running back. I shined my flashlight at him and he was pale. Also he had a long scratch on his right cheek. “What happened?” , I asked.

‘It tore into me, it was big, had claws, and looked like some kind of impossible humanoid raven!” he was raving., “we gotta get out of here!”

Well not that way. Deep down I wanted to confront whatever it was, but safety made more sense. We continued along the maze right into a dead end. We would have to head back after all. Mike was so shaken that I traded places with him and took the lead heading back. Any thoughts of collecting evidence were long forgotten.

We were almost back to the intersection when another scream rocked the corn field. This time it came from behind us and it was not human. Decision made! We made our way back to the entrance and were huffing and puffing as we broke out.  I turned back to look over the maze. A dark figure about six feet tall flew out of the corn field and was heading towards the main house. It was dark but his form seemed to have some kind aura surrounding it.  I felt chills go through me. 

We got back to where we made base camp. We had set up some cameras around the estate and our tech guy was there monitoring them. He had not caught anything that we had seen, but he too had heard the screams. We waited for the rest of the group to arrive and called it a night. We have no evidence to support our claims other than the scratch on big mike’s face. He and Anita left the group vowing to never go ghost hunting again. 

What happened? Heck if I know. There is quite a history to this place, but nothing that even suggests a large humanoid raven that glows. – Oliver Robertson

This Week’s Podcast: On the program this week we have an episode of the OTR series The Inner Sanctum. It stars the great character actor Peter Lorre. A man falls prey to love and has to murder to get it. Also, on the show Ron will review the audiobook Paranormal Pet Sitting – True Stories of the Paranormal by Susan Hill. You can listen to this podcast on Thursday at Ron’s Amazing Stories, download it from Apple Podcasts, stream it on Stitcher Radio or on the mobile version of Spotify. Do you prefer the radio? We are heard every Thursday at 10:00 pm and Sunday Night at 11:00 PM (EST) on AMFM247.COM. Check your local listing or find the station closest to you at this link

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