Helmeted ghost in profile holding open book Larger Image

“I was about seven, in Lacawana, New York, near Buffalo,” says Pete Wagner, 56, about his first paranormal experience. “Woke up in the middle of the night. I felt something on my feet. I got up on one elbow to see. It was a little old lady. She was glowing. I hid under the covers, went back to sleep. The next morning I found my toy box had ben emptied all over our kitchen floor. I got blamed.”

Wagner, who makes a living delivering newspapers when the rest of us are sleeping, says he got the bug to start “Ghosts R Us” while “listening to the Art Bell show on the radio. I was working the 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. shift. The graveyard shift. On the radio they were walking through graveyards with tape recorders, recording voices.

Angel with child, a man leaning against the tree, some outstretched hands Larger Image

“I started taking pictures in graveyards. Graveyards are like train stations. People come in, people go out. They’re like portholes to the paranormal.

Is Ghosts R Us business or pleasure, then?

“I don’t charge anybody. None of us do.”

Wagner says one of the “hot spots” in Portland is “right behind Hadlock Field. All over. It depends on how much electricity is in the air.”

He was surprised when we told him that was the site of Abenaki attacks in the late 1600s, all along where the railroad tracks are now behind Deering Oaks.

“Ghosts can’t hurt you. They’re there. I say a few words before I take a picture. If you respect them, they’ll come up. When I visit a client, I’ll go to the house and ask them to tell me what they’ve experienced. I’ll put that on tape. Later that night I’ll go back and take pictures.”

How many ghostly faces can you count in this Freeport graveyard? Larger Image

The photos on this page were taken in “a Freeport graveyard.” To contact Wagner the conventional way, call 879-1187.

At least two ghost faces appear toward bottom center, among trees. Larger Image

©2003 Portland Magazine Colin Sargent, Editor & Publisher editor@portlandmonthly.com Click here to subscribe

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