16 Ghosts Who Are The Heroes, Not The Horrors, Of Their Narratives

The Story: In 1994, not far outside Sacramento, California, a woman was awoken from a dead sleep and was convinced she needed to immediately leave the home where she was staying, despite the dark hour. She roused her husband and jumped in her car, heading down state on Highway 50. At some point, she noticed something on the side of the road and pulled over. As Paranormal Witness later reported, she thought she could observe "a nude woman lying near the shoulder of the road. The woman was positioned on her side, bent legs together with an arm over her head. She was ghastly pale and looked dead." She made tracks for a phone booth and called authorities, but when the Sheriff's Deputy showed up, there was no nude woman or sign of her anywhere.

Meanwhile, earlier that week, a young woman named Christene Skubish took her toddler-aged son and hit the road—they'd failed to communicate with their family, but when relatives reported two missing, investigators claimed they'd show up eventually. However, Christene's aunt began having multiple strange dreams, including one wherein she saw a woman's silhouette in the back of a car, with a boy in the front seat. Since she had a history of predictive dreams, she was worried about her visions and prompted investigators to search for her missing niece. 

While searching the area around highway 50, eventually finding a child's shoe in the area where the nude woman had first been reported. When they turn their sights to the bottom of the embankment and searched the bottom of the cliff, they found not a nude woman but instead, a nude three-year-old boy alone yet alive in a wrecked automobile. The mother's body — Christene's — was fully dressed, but dead, and her son had survived without food or water for nearly a week.

The boy later recalled "a glowing white light hovering" over the car along with a shadowy figure. Others declare the ghostly nude woman must have been the ghost of his mother drawing attention to the place where the crash occurred, ensuring her son would be found alive. “I absolutely think something special happened here,” the Deputy later told Paranormal Witness. 

Why You Should Cheer For This Ghost: There's nothing stronger than the protective love of a mother, even when she's a ghost. 

The Story: Legend has it that The Green Lady was once a serving girl in Stirling Castle in Scotland. Mary, Queen of Scots was almost killed when the curtains in the room where she slept caught fire. The girl saved her from the fire, but she died in her place. 

Why You Should Cheer For This Ghost: She is said to roam the castle looking for fires, which is a pretty considerate thing to do. Also, giving your life to save someone deserves a thumbs up at the least.

The Story: In 1897, Zona Heaster Shoe was found dead in Greenbriar County, WV, her head in a strange position. In the time it took for the doctor to arrive, Shue's husband washed and redressed her body and was acting strangely, seemingly trying to hide her neck and obstructing the doctor from making a full examination. Shue's mother had a dream in which her daughter informed her that she was murdered. The mother's dream and the husband's odd behavior convinced prosecutors to reopen the case. When they exhumed the body, an autopsy revealed obvious injuries to her neck and determined her death to be caused by strangulation. During her husband's trial, it was discovered Shue was his third wife and the second to die.

Why You Should Cheer For This Ghost: Three cheers for a ghost who returns from the grave to help solve their murder and convict their killer.

The Story: In 2002, Lisa Posluns was working late at her real estate office when she was attacked, raped, and murdered. Janitor Rui Marques was questioned, but DNA tests cleared him from the crime. However, he proved instrumental in solving the case when the ghost of Posluns appeared to him in a conference room and pointed to a black table. He remembered former janitorial employee Nelson DeJesus always wore black to work, and police discovered he had been harassing Posluns for a few months. DeJesus's DNA also matched the evidence found at the scene.

Why You Should Cheer For This Ghost: A more modern tale of a ghost helping solve their own murder deserves a thumbs up and some gratitude for effort, even if their clue was pretty vague.

The Story: Sir Victor Goddard discovered a ghost in a photo of his World War I HMS Daedalus squadron when he noticed the face of Freddy Jackson in the back row. Jackson had died two days earlier, accidentally killed by an airplane propeller. His funeral was happening at the same time of the photo. Other members of the squadron easily recognized Jackson's face, as well.

Why You Should Cheer For This Ghost: Give the guy a break; he just wanted to be in a photo with his friends.

The Story: Delphine LaLaurie was an affluent and stylish woman who owned a mansion with her husband in New Orleans' French Quarter in the 1830s. But beneath LaLaurie's refined exterior lurked a serial killer. After a fire swept through her house, a secret room was discovered in the attic. The contents of that room were nearly unimaginable. Slaves had been chained up, tortured, experimented on, confined to cages, killed, and made to live surrounded by human remains.

Why You Should Cheer For These Ghosts: These ghosts are angry – and rightfully so. The LaLaurie mansion is probably the best known haunted place in New Orleans and has changed ownership several times due to supernatural events. The LaLaurie family also escaped the city without any repercussions, so these ghosts may never find peace.