Ghastly Figure

The ghastly figure ghost appears disfigured and rotting. Their appearance is monstrous but these ghosts are not evil or violent. Normally a ghost will visually manifest exactly as they appeared in life. However, this ghost appears as a decayed and rotting corpse. The ghost has missing eyes, its hair falling out and their clothing looking ragged and dirty. Their sightings are often accompanied by a foul stench of rotten garbage. Their presence fills rooms with a sense of death.

These ghosts do not communicate verbally. It is unknown whether their visual appearance is intended to be a form of communication. Their hideous manifestations could be a desperate plea for help or attention. Maybe these ghosts are aware that they are dead and the perception is affecting their appearance. Their manifestation could be a direct result of how they perceive themselves. While being extremely frightening to encounter, these ghosts do not seem to be manifesting for the sole purpose of frightening people, nor do they seem to have malicious intent. Their appearance is gruesome but these ghosts seem to be alone and struggling with the reality of death. The ghosts are stuck on earth – rotting away.

Story of a Ghastly Figure

There is a house haunted by a ghoulish woman on Martin Street in Detroit, Michigan. The house is named the Cole house after the previous owners, Bill and Lillian Cole, who were the first to experience the ghost.

The modern house was perfect for the Cole family. During the early 1960s, Bill Cole used the spare bedroom off the kitchen as a place to rest after his midnight shift at the local Cadillac assembly plant. The bedroom was small but cozy and it was away from the rest of the daily noises in the house.

Bill went to sleep in the room one day and had a horrible nightmare. He dreamt that he opened up the closet door to find a blood-soaked disfigured woman’s corpse. He jerked out of the dream, sweating and gasping for air. It was the most realistic dream that Bill had ever dreamt. It scared him enough to make him go sleep in another room.

Bill’s mother slept in the spare room when she stayed with the family. She complained that there were strange noises in her room keeping her awake at night. One of the noises was a pounding sound coming from inside the closet. She described the pounding as someone trying to break through the door. The family’s pet dog would not enter the room so Bill decided that it was time to lock the door to the bedroom.

When a family friend came to stay with the Cole family, Bill was still in denial about the haunting. He let his friend sleep in the spare bedroom without telling him about his past experiences. A little after midnight, the man awoke from a deep sleep because someone was rolling him over in bed. He could see the back of a woman standing in his room looking out into the kitchen. She had long hair and was wearing a blue dress and fur coat. The man thought that it was Lillian Cole. When he got up from the bed, all of the lights in the house went out. He walked into the kitchen and the lights came back on again. Lillian was in the kitchen but she was not wearing a blue dress or a fur coat. The kitchen filled with a putrid smell that made everyone gag. Suddenly, the trap door in the utility room floor rose up by itself and then crashed back down. The Cole family called the police to the house that night. The police searched the house from basement to attic without finding a perpetrator or anything out of the ordinary.

Bill decided to stay in the room in order to get to the bottom of these strange events. The haunting activity began quickly. Bill had only turned off the bedroom’s lights and gotten into bed when he began to hear rustling noises at the door. He thought it was his wife so he asked her to go away but Bill’s wife was not at the door. The most hideous face Bill had ever seen appeared out of the darkness of the room staring directly at him. The eyes were empty and its mouth looked like it was trying to speak but only a hissing noise was coming out. The ghost’s body was like a rotting corpse. A foul smell emanated from the ghost.

Bill Cole’s plan to see the ghost worked but he was not prepared for the experience. He bolted from the room in utter panic. His wife and friend had to throw a blanket overtop of him and hold him down on the kitchen floor until he calmed down. While they wrestled with Bill, the trap door opened up again. The rotten stench of decomposing flesh poured out before the trap door slammed shut again.

Enough was enough. Bill and his family moved away from the haunted house on Martin Street. Many years have passed since that awful night. Looking back at the experience, Bill wonders if the ghost was trying to show him something. Maybe there was a murder in the house and the ghost’s real body was buried somewhere inside the house – possibly underneath the trap door. It is unknown whether the sightings of the decomposing lady are still manifesting. The new owners will not answer questions about the ghost and do not want to be bothered.