Celebrity Ghost Stories: Dead Rooster Author Tells His Tale

Its cold, black eye-holes began glowing with hell’s orange embers, and when it opened its mouth, I thought it was trying to speak, but to my horror, it was merely a build-up of maggots forcing its jaws and spilling onto the floor like globs of writhing oatmeal.

OK, not quite. What really happened was this:

It was in the fall of 1992, and I was working as a quality control manager for an aerospace firm called American Automated Engineering in Huntington Beach, California. I had heard random stories of ghosts in that building for the full 7 years I worked there, but, aside from a few unexplained footsteps or creaking chairs in unoccupied offices, I hadn’t experienced anything major until the final year of my employment.

Two things happened that year that I just can’t explain; both were in the presence of my former secretary who was transferred upstairs to the accounting department which was located just outside the two owners’ offices. Although there were stories of ghosts in all parts of the building, the most activity seemed to accumulate in or near those two offices.

At first, my secretary was happy about being transferred upstairs because, let’s face it, who would want to work for me?—but, after a couple of weeks, any time she was left alone up there, she would call down to my office and beg me to come up and keep her company. She wasn’t shy about telling me why, either: she actually saw the ghost on several occasions and it continuously menaced her.

Naturally, as a non-believer in ghosts, I took the opportunity to go upstairs and heckle her about it a little bit. She didn’t really like it, and I wasn’t really mean about it, but she put up with it rather than be up there alone.

Then I began experiencing things myself. One day while talking to her, I was leaning up against the doorway that leads into her office area when I felt someone firmly push me to get by; I was certain it was the president of the company who would do that kind of thing in a playful manner; however, when I turned to see who it was, there was no one there.

OK, “big deal,” you say, and I agree with you. I figured it was my imagination and didn’t think anything of it. But, I really did feel something, so I used it as inspiration to tease the secretary.

“Hey, I just felt the ghost push me!”

She gave me a look as if to say, “You wouldn’t be making fun of this if you experienced what I have.”

I felt a little bit sorry for her and gave her a few days without any teasing; but then I got the ultimate inspiration:

I saw the ghost myself.

As I walked by the president’s office, out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw someone other than the president sitting at his desk. Curious as to why some unknown person would be sitting there, I looked back and for a split second saw a man with dark-brown hair wearing a white dress shirt, blue and white striped tie and his black suit jacket on the back of the chair.

After I blinked, he was gone.

I immediately figured it was my mind playing tricks on me and wasted no time telling the secretary, who was sitting just outside that office, that I just saw the ghost. She, of course, thought I was teasing her and forced a small chuckle.

I laughed a little bit then confessed that I—if only for an instant—really did think I saw someone in there.

What she said to me next caused me to never tease her again. She said, “I know… he’s got dark-brown hair wearing a white dress shirt, blue and white striped tie and his black suit jacket is on the back of the chair.”

I LITERALLY felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up.

She turned and went silently back to work.

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