In 1955 an employee of the London Underground was working in the Covent Garden tube station. To his surprise he noticed a very distinguished looking man “wearing an old-fashioned grey suit with a funny looking old-style collar and light coloured gloves”.

When he moved towards the man to see what he wanted, the man vanished suddenly before his eyes. He had just seen one of the reputed ghosts to haunt the Covent Gardens station.

Sometime later, the employee saw a photograph of a man who looked identical to the ghost he had seen. The man in the photographed was identified as an actor who was born in February, 1847 named William Charles James Lewin.

William Lewin took up acting and changed his name to the more suitable William Terriss in 1867. Due to his distinguished looks and good talent he soon made a name for himself in Victorian London. William was particularly fond of playing the swashbuckling hero and theatre-goers were soon calling him by the nickname “Breezy Bill”.

Of course becoming famous also brought about jealousy from other actors – in particular one Richard Archer Prince, a former friend and colleague. Prince did not like seeing William’s success and he became obsessed with the actor.

Prince had become known as ‘Mad Archer’, and was desperate for regular work. During the run of the play ‘Harbour Lights’, Terriss took offence to something that Prince had said about him and had the man dismissed. Terriss, however, was not without generosity and sent small sums of money to Prince, via the Actors’ Benevolent Fund. He also used his influence to get him small parts in touring productions. Prince was, however, frequently fired from the plays and became more and more unstable.

On December 16th, 1897, William was excited about the new play he was doing called “Secret Service”. The performance was to take place at the Adelphi Theatre on the Strand. The reviews were good and he was expecting another good show.
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In St. Francisville, Louisiana, there is an inn which is reputed to be the most haunted place in the USA. Exactly how many ghosts are said to haunt The Myrtles plantation is unknown, but it seems that the number is around 12 to 15 of them.

According to legend, the plantation house was built in 1794 by General David Bradford on top of an old Indian burial ground. General Bradford is also reportedly the first person to have seen a ghost in the house. It is said that he saw the ghost of a naked Indian girl, which is still seen on occasion today. When the General died, the management of the estate passed on to his daughter, Sarah and her husband, Judge Clark Woodruffe. Together, he and Sarah had three children, Cornelia Gale, James, and Mary Octavia. Judge Woodruffe eventually bought out the plantation from his mother-in-law before she died in 1830.

Judge Woodruffe was apparently not very faithful to his wife, taking on a mistress. Her name was Chloe and she was one of the plantation slaves. After some time the Judge tired of his mistress and she began to worry about her eventual fate. She started listening at keyholes to try and hear what would happen. One night the General caught her eavesdropping and as punishment cut off her ear. Due to the disfigurement, Sara took to wearing a turban to hide her mutilated ear.

Chloe decided to try and ensure her continued place in the home by pretending to save the family from harm. She decided to poison a cake with Oleander leaves and then nurse the family back to health – thus becoming the hero. Unfortunately her plans went awry and Sara and her two daughters died from the poison. The Judge did not eat the cake so was spared an agonising death.

Chloe was terrified that she would get found out and rather than face the wrath of the community, she fled to the safety of other slaves. When the other slaves heard what had happened, they turned on Chloe, dragging her out of hiding and hanging her from a tree. They then weighed down her body and disposed of it in the Mississippi river. Since then the ghost of Chloe has often been seen wandering around the Myrtle plantation.

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