Graphic - Saturday 5th April 1873
Since the execution of the West Auckland poisoner there has been much excitement in the neighbourhood, caused by the reported appearance of the ghosts of several of her victims. The scenes of the apparitions are the churchyard from which the bodies were exhumed, and the old rectory where they were dissected. On Monday week a pitman was followed home by the spectre of a child, which went upstairs, and then made such unearthly noises that the man and his wife ran in terror to a neighbour's cottage, leaving their child behind. A young man who boldly undertook to bring it, came back in a fright, saying that he had seen the ghost on the stairs. The child was at last rescued by a lady, who it is said has had much experience with apparitions. Several pitmen have given up work rather than pass the spots supposed to be haunted.
