PITTSTON — Helen McHugh has always been fascinated by paranormal phenomena.
She even experienced a few eerie events in what, according to local history, is a hotbed of mysterious activity — the Suscon area of Pittston Township.
So McHugh’s interest was piqued during an event for the book, “Suscon Screams Louder,” written by Pittston Township resident John Stanley, held at the Pittston Memorial Library on Tuesday.
McHugh recalled a time when she and some friends drove on Suscon Road to a bridge where, according to local folklore, a ghostly woman who wanders the area dressed in white would appear.
“When I was a teenager we would get in the car and drive up there,” McHugh said. “The scary part about that was, that bridge that’s there, you couldn’t go through it straight through. You had to stop and wait to see if somebody was on the other side to get through. We did see this white thing, but of course we thought we were seeing things.”
The story of the woman in white at the bridge is one of many urban legends about Suscon that are covered in the “Suscon Screams,” Stanley’s first book on the topic. “Suscon Screams Louder” is its sequel of sorts.
McHugh said hearing the story of the woman in white from another source like Stanley all but confirmed she did see the ghostly woman long ago.
“It’s scary,” she said. “I’m just totally amazed by all of this stuff.”
Stanley’s first book “Suscon Screams,” which covers popular Suscon-area urban legends, has sold 800 copies since it hit shelves in 2014.
His second book “Suscon Screams Louder,” offers some new information about legends from the first book and discusses new spooky stories.
As he spoke about stories in “Suscon Screams Louder” at the library event, Stanely also discussed more popular myths, such as Big Foot and if the mythical creature lives in the area.
One of his stories tells the tale of a hunter in the area who claimed he saw Big Foot and reported it to authorities, but they would not investigate as the sighting was on private land.
The story was one that Stanley revisited in his second book thanks to a phone call he received during his weekly Sunday night radio show “Paranormal Science” from the hunter himself.
“A couple of months ago this guy calls me up and says, ‘I haven’t spoken about this in 20 years, but your story on your book is wrong,’” said Stanley. “This is live on the air and he said, ‘I’m the hunter that this happened to.’ It just so happens that I know the guy after he introduced himself. He told me he saw something, he went to get the police and they refused to come up. He said he definitely saw something.”
Joyce said she hopes to bring Stanley back for another presentation in the future, as well as other guests who have supernatural stories to share.
“It’s a cool subject and an interesting subject,” she said. “I’d love to move into other people’s stories about the area. It’s neat because I think everybody has a story about something supernatural or paranormal.”
