Post by alienbeing on May 19, 2010 0:13:40 GMT 10
Mystery of Wem ghost solved by an 88-year-old postcard and an eagled-eyed pensioner 
It was a picture hailed around the world as offering compelling photographic evidence for the existence of ghosts.
But almost 15 years after the 'apparition' was captured in a photograph of a blazing town hall, the mystery could finally have been solved by an eagle-eyed pensioner and an 88-year-old postcard.
Brian Lear, 77, said the girl in the photograph of Wem Town Hall taken by local amateur photographer Tony O'Rahilly as it burned to the ground bears a distinct likeness to a girl seen standing in a doorway in a photograph of the Shropshire town's high street.
This was used on a postcard dating from 1922.
Mystery: The infamous photo of the 'Wem Ghost', showing a girl in the fire at Wem Town Hall in November 1995
Mr Lear, 77, a retired engineer, spotted the image when it was reproduced last week as part of a nostalgia item in a local newspaper.
He said his eye was drawn to the girl because of the close similarity between her dress, bonnet and ribbon and that of the 'ghost' of the Wem town hall fire.
'It is interesting to compare the two pictures', Mr Lear, from Shrewsbury, said.
'I was intrigued to find that she bore a striking likeness to the little girl featured as the 'Wem ghost'.
'Her dress and headgear appear to be identical.'
The 'ghost' photograph was taken by Tony O’Rahilly, a sewerage farm worker and keen photographer, as he stood across the road from the building among a crowd watching the 90-year-old town hall burn down in November 1995.
At the time, neither Mr O'Rahilly or others in the crowd noticed the figure. It was only when he developed his film a few months later that he 'saw' the little girl.
The image created international headlines and sparked the legend of the Wem Ghost.
Solved: A street scene postcard from the 1920s taken in Wem shows a similar looking girl to the one who appears in Mr O'Rahilly's photo
There was speculation that the girl was 14-year-old Jane Churm, who accidentally started a disastrous fire in Wem in March 1677 by igniting her family home's thatched roof with a candle flame.
The fire destroyed the town hall and the rest of the town and the teenager is reputed to have haunted the town hall site since.
As ghost fever spread, locals altered a sign on the town's outskirts to read 'Ghost Town', experts in paranormal activity visted and there was even a scroll and a plaque erected to mark the spot where the ghost was spotted.
Mr O'Rahilly went to his grave in 2005 insisting the photograph was no hoax.
A close-up of the girl from the 20's postcard
But the image has long divided both photographic and paranormal experts alike, many of whom believed the 'ghost' was actually a simulacrum - a representation of a person formed through a trick of the light.
They said a piece of burning wood, the remains of which were found leaning on the rail where the' figure' appears, was the probable cause.
In February 1996 councillors considered calling in paranormal investigators after terrified workmen who were clearing the site reported seeing a ghostly figure emerge from a staircase in a swirl of mist.
The following April, a photographic expert who examined Mr O'Rahilly's picture on behalf of the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena reported it showed no evidence of being tampered with.
Dr Vernon Harrison, who had been a member of the Royal Photographic Society for 60 years and its president for 20 years, agreed the image likely the result of a trick of the light caused by the effects of the fire, rather than a ghost.
Experts at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford then examined the negatives and found a series of horizontal lines on the girl's face which were not seen elsewhere on the image.
They said it suggested her face had been captured by photographing a television set, with the image then superimposed on to the fire photograph.
Greg Hobson, the curator of photographs at the museum, now renamed the National Media Museum, said he was totally convinced the two photographs were of the same girl and that Mr O'Rahilly's picture was therefore a hoax.
He said: 'The postcard offers pretty conclusive proof that this is a hoax. The girl on it has the same face, bonnet and ribbon as the girl in the 'ghost' photo. I think we can say the mystery has been solved.'
Mr Hobson said the technique used to produce the doctored photograph was probably similar to one used by Edwardian era mediums who purported to capture images of spirits with their relatives during the relatives' consultations as a way of boosting their credibility.
The mediums would first ask for a photograph of the deceased person, then take a picture of it in the back room. When the client returned later for a consultation, the image would already be partly exposed on to a glass plate.
Another picture would be taken of the client during the session and exposed on to the same plate, giving an image apparently showing the spirit of their relative visiting them during the seance.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1279329/Mystery-inferno-ghost-picture-solved-photographer-reveals-famous-image-copied-postcard.html
It was a picture hailed around the world as offering compelling photographic evidence for the existence of ghosts.
But almost 15 years after the 'apparition' was captured in a photograph of a blazing town hall, the mystery could finally have been solved by an eagle-eyed pensioner and an 88-year-old postcard.
Brian Lear, 77, said the girl in the photograph of Wem Town Hall taken by local amateur photographer Tony O'Rahilly as it burned to the ground bears a distinct likeness to a girl seen standing in a doorway in a photograph of the Shropshire town's high street.
This was used on a postcard dating from 1922.
Mystery: The infamous photo of the 'Wem Ghost', showing a girl in the fire at Wem Town Hall in November 1995
Mr Lear, 77, a retired engineer, spotted the image when it was reproduced last week as part of a nostalgia item in a local newspaper.
He said his eye was drawn to the girl because of the close similarity between her dress, bonnet and ribbon and that of the 'ghost' of the Wem town hall fire.
'It is interesting to compare the two pictures', Mr Lear, from Shrewsbury, said.
'I was intrigued to find that she bore a striking likeness to the little girl featured as the 'Wem ghost'.
'Her dress and headgear appear to be identical.'
The 'ghost' photograph was taken by Tony O’Rahilly, a sewerage farm worker and keen photographer, as he stood across the road from the building among a crowd watching the 90-year-old town hall burn down in November 1995.
At the time, neither Mr O'Rahilly or others in the crowd noticed the figure. It was only when he developed his film a few months later that he 'saw' the little girl.
The image created international headlines and sparked the legend of the Wem Ghost.
Solved: A street scene postcard from the 1920s taken in Wem shows a similar looking girl to the one who appears in Mr O'Rahilly's photo
There was speculation that the girl was 14-year-old Jane Churm, who accidentally started a disastrous fire in Wem in March 1677 by igniting her family home's thatched roof with a candle flame.
The fire destroyed the town hall and the rest of the town and the teenager is reputed to have haunted the town hall site since.
As ghost fever spread, locals altered a sign on the town's outskirts to read 'Ghost Town', experts in paranormal activity visted and there was even a scroll and a plaque erected to mark the spot where the ghost was spotted.
Mr O'Rahilly went to his grave in 2005 insisting the photograph was no hoax.
A close-up of the girl from the 20's postcard
But the image has long divided both photographic and paranormal experts alike, many of whom believed the 'ghost' was actually a simulacrum - a representation of a person formed through a trick of the light.
They said a piece of burning wood, the remains of which were found leaning on the rail where the' figure' appears, was the probable cause.
In February 1996 councillors considered calling in paranormal investigators after terrified workmen who were clearing the site reported seeing a ghostly figure emerge from a staircase in a swirl of mist.
The following April, a photographic expert who examined Mr O'Rahilly's picture on behalf of the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena reported it showed no evidence of being tampered with.
Dr Vernon Harrison, who had been a member of the Royal Photographic Society for 60 years and its president for 20 years, agreed the image likely the result of a trick of the light caused by the effects of the fire, rather than a ghost.
Experts at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford then examined the negatives and found a series of horizontal lines on the girl's face which were not seen elsewhere on the image.
They said it suggested her face had been captured by photographing a television set, with the image then superimposed on to the fire photograph.
Greg Hobson, the curator of photographs at the museum, now renamed the National Media Museum, said he was totally convinced the two photographs were of the same girl and that Mr O'Rahilly's picture was therefore a hoax.
He said: 'The postcard offers pretty conclusive proof that this is a hoax. The girl on it has the same face, bonnet and ribbon as the girl in the 'ghost' photo. I think we can say the mystery has been solved.'
Mr Hobson said the technique used to produce the doctored photograph was probably similar to one used by Edwardian era mediums who purported to capture images of spirits with their relatives during the relatives' consultations as a way of boosting their credibility.
The mediums would first ask for a photograph of the deceased person, then take a picture of it in the back room. When the client returned later for a consultation, the image would already be partly exposed on to a glass plate.
Another picture would be taken of the client during the session and exposed on to the same plate, giving an image apparently showing the spirit of their relative visiting them during the seance.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1279329/Mystery-inferno-ghost-picture-solved-photographer-reveals-famous-image-copied-postcard.html
