There are a number of well-known places across the U.S. (and around the world) which carry a high-profile reputation for being haunted, with one of them being the R.M.S. Queen Mary. From the time it was permanently docked in Long Beach, California in 1967, several crew members and visitors have said that they've had experiences of a ghostly nature while on board the retired British ocean liner. These experiences have included hearing phantom voices (as well as other odd noises), and witnessing apparitional figures that seem to resemble passengers from the height of the ship's seafaring days in the 1930s and 1940s. Claims that the ship is inhabited by ghosts continue to persist even today - there are ghost tours being regularly held on board for visitors, and one particular room on the ship has just recently been made available for rent again by those who might be particularly curious about its rumored history of unusual activity. Could the Queen Mary really be haunted? As one means of looking into that question, the producers of the popular American TV show Unsolved Mysteries had once invited British psychical researchers Tony Cornell and Howard Wilkinson to conduct a ten-day field investigation aboard the ship in August of 1988. Joining them on this investigation was parapsychologist William Roll, the PRF's first research director. Their efforts to delve into the matter were filmed and profiled as part of a segment about the Queen Mary and its alleged haunt that was shown a few months later on a special Halloween episode of the show. And now, thirty years onward, a digitized video copy of that special episode has been made available via the online video archiving site Dailymotion, which can be viewed at the following link (the Queen Mary segment is the first one that appears in the episode):
(In addition, this linked version of the episode also contains a better copy of the segment on the General Wayne Inn and the investigation of its alleged haunt by parapsychologist Michaeleen Maher, which had been the focus of a previous PRF blog post. That particular segment begins at around 28:31.) To consider the matter a bit further in depth, an updated review article which takes a retrospective look at this investigation of "The Grey Ghost" from 30 years back and discusses some of its possible implications is available to view at this link. The article is in Adobe PDF format. The PRF wishes everyone a very happy and safe Halloween!