The Black Hope Horror: The True Story of a Haunting

Rating:
Summary: Good writing
Review: I am an ordained minister, shaman and experienced paranormal investigator. I've had experience with a LOT of the same type of phenomenon described in this book personally so I will personally testify that this story is most probably true to the core. This gives a very good insight into how a haunting or disrespecting the spiritual world can cause serious consequences. If I could find enough copies of this book for my group I would make it required reading.

Rating:
Summary: My grandparents lived in this neighborhood
Review: I have not read the book yet, but I'm planning on it. My grandparents lived in this neighborhood for 10 years and I remember them talking about this family's house. My grandparents are very conservative and old fashioned born and raised in the east. This is not the kind of thing they would usually even give a moment of their time to, unless it held some definite truth and weight to it. They did take it very serious and felt awful for the family. I didn't know a book had been written, I was just browsing through other various books on haunted houses when a reviewer suggested this book. Strange coincidence.

Rating:
Summary: My grandparents lived in this neighborhood
Review: I have not read the book yet, but I'm planning on it. My grandparents lived in this neighborhood for 10 years and I remember them talking about this family's house. My grandparents are very conservative and old fashioned born and raised in the east. This is not the kind of thing they would usually even give a moment of their time to, unless it held some definite truth and weight to it. They did take it very serious and felt awful for the family. I didn't know a book had been written, I was just browsing through other various books on haunted houses when a reviewer suggested this book. Strange coincidence.

Rating:
Summary: The Black Hope Horror
Review: I loved this book!!! You know a book is good when you can't put it down and you bug everyone you know to read it. :) This book hits home for anyone who has experienced similar situations or know of someone who has. Now that I've purchased the book, I am trying to find the t.v. movie that was made..... Thanks!

Rating:
Summary: Some Scary Stuff!!!!
Review: Okay, this book actually had me spooked! I watch tons of horror movies, and read alot of horror fiction. This is one of creepiest books I've ever read. It's well written and works as a biography of a simple family living in a haunted house. If you are interested in the supernatural in any capacity this is an excellent read.

Rating:
Summary: A tale of high strangeness indeed
Review: There's nothing like a good ghost story, especially when it's a true one, but I must say that The Black Hope Horror is a rather unusual tale full of untraditional, poltergeist-type events. Ben and Jean Williams were the first couple to move into the new Section 8 subdevelopment, but the home of their dreams soon became the home of their darkest nightmares. At first, strangeness came in the form of material things: snakes, many of them poisonous, all over the place (not necessarily unusual), freak rainstorms leaving behind large numbers of huge worms, invasions of giant ants oblivious to hot water cycles of dishwashers, toilets which flushed themselves at all hours of the day and night. Members of the family also often had the feeling they were being watched by someone or something, footsteps began to haunt the halls, and the older and younger members of the family changed significantly in terms of their personalities. Cold spots manifested themselves quite often, and electrical malfunctions of an inexplicable sort began happening. One night, Ben encountered two black forms whose icy, enveloping touch sent him to the hospital with something akin to an asthma attack. Similar events influenced the lives of neighbors as the new community began to grow, although no one communicated their experiences with one another until two decomposed bodies were found buried beneath one neighbor's backyard, thus confirming the Williams' fears about the sinkholes in their own property. The family is shocked to learn that the development was constructed above an old black cemetery.

Assuming this story is true (and handfuls of families don't just leave homes and their investments behind and let their properties be foreclosed upon without good reasons), it is quite an interesting, somewhat nontraditional haunting. Two things about this book pose a small problem in my mind, though. First and foremost is the style of the narrative. This is basically the Williams' story as told to John Bruce Shoemaker, and he writes of these events as if he were there recording everything that happened along the way. Memories, especially negative ones such as these, become distorted rather quickly, and I find the plethora of direct quotations from multiple family members, including some this author never met, somewhat laughable. I think the story would be more believable if it was simply described in standard, objective narrative form. Secondly, there is far too much emphasis placed on peripheral events; I refer especially to the very unusual number of emotional problems, sicknesses, and deaths that affected the Williams' while they lived in the house. I just think too many things are blamed on the "haunting." The fact that a couple visits the house a time or two just doesn't seem to explain the breakup of marriages. While it is quite remarkable to see six close family members die in a period of only three years or so, it does not mean the "things" were causing all of the problems. After all, Jean and Ben never got sick or divorced and they lived in the house for several years.

This is a vivid, sometimes fascinating tale of undeniably bizarre events; there aren't as many goose pimple sections as you might find in a more traditional haunting account, but clearly something of a very unusual nature took place on this area of land that was once Black Hope Cemetery. I don't think this book will change anyone's opinion about ghosts or unduly frighten anyone, but certainly there are elements here of high strangeness that make for a compelling read. Even if you set aside the whole haunting premise, what you have left is a pretty powerful human interest story.

Rating:
Summary: I went and visited this actual neighborhood!
Review: This book is based on the haunting of a street in the Newport Subdivision in Crosby, Texas near Houston. The horrible ordeal the Williams family faced was well documented in 1987 articles in the Houston Chronicle newspaper and in other U.S. newspapers as well.

"Shag" and Jean Williams moved into their pristine, new dream home when they were in their fifties. Ben was a rank-and-file worker at a local industrial plant. They sunk a lot of their savings into the home thinking they would retire there. Shortly after settling in the toilets began flushing themselves,ants overflowed from the dishwasher, pets began to die mysteriously, and freakish storms centered only over their home and a few others near them. Snakes began appearing out of nowhere, and at night they would hear barely audible voices and see shadows. These and many other disturbances culminated in the unexpected deaths of several people close to them.

The Williams' were not the only ones to experience this horrifying phenomena. Neighbors living around them also suffered similar fates. The reason became clear when a contractor began breaking ground for a neighbor's new pool and dug up two bodies! What ensues is truly a nightmare for this unsuspecting couple and their neighbors as all try to hold onto their sanity long enough to recoup their money from the title company. Prospective buyers were nonexistent due to publicity and a law that required the owners to divulge that the houses were built over a cemetary.

This book was made into a tv movie in 1992 titled Grave Secrets:The Legacy of Hilltop Drive, starring Patty Duke and David Selby. The Newport hauntings have also been included in several documentaries on the supernatural. One of the editorial reviews here seemed to question the veracity of this story. What can't be dismissed is the fact that something caused many residents to abandon their new homes allowing the banks to foreclose on their entire investment, that many people on the street suffered emotional and familial breakdowns, that several unexplained illnesses and deaths occurred, etc. This book is out of print but often available thru Amazon market sellers. If you want a good scare, read it.



Rating:
Summary: Good writing
Review: This book was written well for being well exaggerated.
I lived in this section of Newport a few doors down on Poppets Way St. Many of these circumstances were highly exaggerated. This couple were friends of mine and my children. My daughter spent a lot of time in that home and never saw any of these things. The question should also be raised that if these things really happened and they really feared their lives, then why did it take them so many years to move out.