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Real Places Behind Famously Frightening Stories
’Tis the spectral season, when darkness approaches sooner, and chilly temperatures bring folks around hearths--literally and figuratively--to tell ghost stories. Light your pumpkin and read about the real places behind some of the world’s classic spooky tales.
By Robin T. Reid
Smithsonian.com, October 16, 2009
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(LOOK Die Bildagentur der Fotografen GmbH / Alamy )
Washington, D.C.
When Blatty was a student at Georgetown University in 1949, he read newspaper accounts of an exorcism performed on a boy in the D.C. suburbs. He never forgot them; by 1973, they had laid the groundwork for his bestselling book and Oscar-winning movie.
Blatty set his exorcism in Georgetown and made his victim a young girl. In the film, she lived--and levitated and spewed vomit--with her mother in an imposing brick house at 3600 Prospect Street, NW (Blatty had lived on that street during college). Just a short walk away is the famous outdoor stairway that Father Damien Karras tumbled down to his death. The house is private, but the steps are very public, linking Prospect to the busy thoroughfare of M Street, NW.
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Comments
At some point or another every historian becomes interested in the real Dracula, Vlad Tepes. It is interesting here to learn that it is open to visitors. Great article.
Posted by Stacy on October 22,2009 | 11:02AM
Actually it wasn't father Damien in the film that took the tumble down the steps. It was the boyfriend of the mother. Just thought you should know.
Posted by Nathan Branstetter on October 26,2009 | 09:56AM
The boyfriend took the first tumble, but Karras throws himself down the stairs, too.
Posted by Sara on October 27,2009 | 08:46AM
And the exorcisms actually took place in St. Louis, in a hospital that has since been torn down.
Posted by Miles on October 29,2009 | 03:44AM
Visitors to Cape Point in South Africa will have to enter the Table Mountain National Park (not the Table Rock NP as stated in your article).It is a fantastic place to visit - and the windswept heights and barren mountains lend an espceially romantic atmosphere to the whole Flying Dutchman story too.
Posted by Caroline Voget on October 30,2009 | 12:15AM
Although the final exorcisims took place in St. Louis, the boy was posessed and first had signs at his home in the Mt. Ranier neighborhood of Northwest D.C. a few miles north of Georgetown.
Posted by Aysha on November 5,2009 | 10:00AM
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article. Like most people when I heard these stories I would imagine what the places looked like. It was really neat to see some of the places look exactly what I had imagined.
Posted by Tracey on November 12,2009 | 08:51AM
Sprague Mansion in Cranston, R.I., should also be of interest. There have been many sightings there by folks who no nothing about this old estate. There have been sightings of children playing and many other things seen too! Murders have been linked to the people who lived there in the past!
Posted by Melvyn G. Tavares on November 19,2009 | 05:59PM