The Ghost Wore Black

"elegant, thought out, novel and surprising work."

Dr Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog https://www.strangehistory.net/2013/10/30/review-the-ghost-wore-black/

Woodyard has taken on the substantial job of "newsprint resurrectionist," peering into the dark, cobwebbed corners of newspaper morgues in order to separate the weird wheat from the cheesy chaff, discoveries that she regularly shares on the websites, "Haunted Ohio Books," and "Mrs. Daffodil Digresses." The latest book-length result of these Herculean endeavors is "The Ghost Wore Black."

"GWB" covers the full spectrum of spiritualist phenomena. Crabby spirits armed with lists of grievances against the living? Check. Death angels and banshees come to warn you that it's high time to get the will written and the tombstone carved? Check. Ghastly physical souvenirs left by visiting spooks? Check. Hoodoos that snare the unwary? But of course. Avenging phantoms of murder victims? You bet. Yankee rivals of the legendary Spring-heeled Jack? Hell yes. First-hand sightings of His Satanic Majesty himself? Need you ask?

Think the "Men in Black" are new curiosities spawned from our modern UFO era? Guess again. We even meet ancestors of the eeriest of recently-reported paranormal sightings: Spooky Black-Eyed Children, meet the sinister Daughters of Darkness. Woodyard also includes a section devoted to what we now call "Fortean" accounts: physical manifestations and spirit-sightings that do not easily fit into any traditional supernatural categories. All these tales are greatly enhanced by Woodyard's erudite annotations, which provide extremely useful historical context, as well as follow-up information,when available.

In short, "The Ghost Wore Black" is highly enjoyable reading, but even more importantly, these newspaper reports serve as a cache of primary source material dealing with an often-ignored aspect of American cultural history. Whether or not the stories found in this book can be believed, they represent a view of this world and the next that many people of the era wanted to believe.

Strange Company https://strangeco.blogspot.com/2013/10/book-review-ghost-wore-black-by-chris.html

Concentrating mainly on American stories, [Woodyard's] selection is rich and strange, and [the] comments admirably knowledgeable, pithy and perhaps oddly for such a subject, light in tone without being glib.

Lynn Picknett Magonia Review of Books https://pelicanist.blogspot.com/2015/02/into-graveyard-together.html