Armchair Reader Weird, Scary & Unusual (2008)

Fiona says, “Among all the anthologies I’ve researched and contributed to, this is one of my favorites. That’s partly because I wrote so many of the stories in it. But also, researching these stories was challenging and fascinating.”

From the book description

Weird, Scary & Unusual Stories & Facts, from the popular Armchair Reader series, is an entertaining and eye-popping collection of freaky facts, scary stories, strange stats, and odd occurrences sure to boggle the mind.

There are more fascinating tales and outrageous facts about our weird and wacky world than you could ever imagine, and you will find hundreds of the funniest, weirdest, strangest, and scariest in this book.

Fiona Broome’s stories in this book include:

• The eerie (and sometimes romantic) ghosts of San Diego’s Hotel del Coronado.
• Chicago’s haunted Water Tower on the Miracle Mile, and how Mrs. O’Leary’s “lantern in the shed” led to a string of tragedies… and ghost stories.
• York, England’s Golden Fleece, where you can share a toast or an evening with some memorable ghosts.
• The real “Hound of the Baskervilles” – proving that facts can be more terrifying than fiction.
• The White House ghosts–William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln–said to haunt 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.
• The Bell Witch, one of America’s strangest and most enduring hauntings.
• The mysterious handprint that reappears in Carbon County Prison in Pennsylvania despite extensive efforts for more than 125 years to remove it.

Here’s more of what you will find in Weird, Scary & Unusual Stories & Facts:

• The Watseka Wonder, one of the most authentic cases of spirit possession in history.
• Eyewitness accounts of UFOs, USOs (unidentified submerged objects), and other unexplained phenomena, such as crying statues and disappearing ships.
• Mike the Headless Chicken, the incredible story of a scrappy bird who lived for 18 months after his head was chopped off.

Weird, Scary & Unusual Stories & Facts entertains and amazes with hundreds of incredible stories of hauntings, monsters, spirits, hoaxes, mysteries, freaks of nature, and curiosities.

Though this book is now out of print, you can still find copies at Amazon and other booksellers.