It's Halloween season and what better way to celebrate than to trawl through the newspapers to find spooky reports of the past?

The "woman" ghost who roamed Upper Serangoon

In 1955, the residents of the Somapah Estate along the 6th mile Upper Serangoon Road were spooked by a "woman" who walked up and down the kampong.

Chillingly, whenever she appeared, the kampong dogs fell silent, and whimpered mournfully instead. It was a sign of a supernatural encounter.

Residents who encountered the "woman" also reported experiencing a chilling feeling.

Some of the residents interviewed by the Singapore Free Press claimed that the "woman" was actually a known male resident of the kampong who had two wives and 10 children. According to them, the man was normal in the day.

But come midnight, the man, possessed by something "queer", would dress up in a kebaya and sarong and roam the kampong.

Queer indeed.

[related_story]

When Siglap was haunted by 1000 ghosts

Four years after the horror that was the Sook Ching (ethnic cleansing) during the Japanese Occupation, residents in a Siglap village were apparently haunted by the spirits of Chinese men who were killed and buried in a mass grave in the area.

Starting from late January 1947, the villagers heard 'spirit-chilling' screams and wails just like the cries of the slaughtered Chinese men so many years ago. This prompted them to offer a mass offering to the souls of the dead.

"Last night in the house of a friend a hundred yards away, I kept midnight vigil. The screams and the wails were still there. The village who have lived there for years and had been made by Japanese to fill in the graves of the victims say this has never happened before."

- Sunday Tribune reporter, dated 2 February, 1947.

Prayers and offerings were made at a nearby temple too, but it seemed to have little effect in pacifying the supernatural visitors.

The poltergeists of Lim Chu Kang

In 1971, 300 villagers had their lives turned upside down when their village, Lorong Perahu at 19th mile Lim Chu Kang Road, was attacked by poltergeists. According to a Straits Times report dated May 19 1971, the villagers were bombarded with showers of stones and even had their glasses and bowls smashed.

The manifestations initially started at night, but slowly became more frequent and occured in the day. Reporters for the paper, while investigating the occurrence, witnessed a glass being smashed on the floor.

In another incident, two policemen were in the village investigating when a shower of stones fell on them.

According to the report, mediums were engaged to try to exorcise the poltergeists but to no avail.

Spooky.

Top image adapted via.