Community Corner

The Ghosts of The East End: Haunts from Montauk to Cutchogue

Ghosts are said to appear at the Montauk Manor and the Rogers Mansion in Southampton.

There are tales of spooks and sprits a-plenty across the East End, from the ghost of an Indian chief who haunts the to a farm hand who appears with an ax in Cutchogue.

All the tales have been investigated by Kerriann Flanagan Brosky, who has written a series of books under the title Ghosts of Long Island. The books, which were recently released in e-format, were penned with the help of paranormal investigator Joe Giaquinto of Hampton Bays.

Before Brosky was a ghost hunter, she was a journalist working for publications including Newsday and Hometown Publications in Huntington.

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Brosky said her love of history led her to ghost hunting.

In 2005, Brosky said, she found herself conducting lectures on local history in Huntington around that same time she was asked to do a special Halloween presentation on the ghosts of the area. The event packed an old barn.

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She soon realized that ghosts combined with local history are big business.

She teamed up with Giaquinto and began what she called a “spiritual journey.”

Together, Brosky, who calls herself a soccer mom as opposed to a ghost buster, and Giaquinto, a former computer repairman, began to investigate paranormal activity in an attempt to demystify Long Island haunts that are often associated with the Amityville Horror.

They conducted interviews, took photos and gathered electronic voice phenomena in an effort to dispel myths with respect for the spirits, said Brosky.

“We don’t go out calling for the ghosts to come out,” she said. “It’s not like what you see on television.”

What the pair did find was that some of the myths perhaps aren’t myths after all.

The Indian Chief of Montauk Manor

“I’ve had my own things happen at the Montauk Manor," Brosky said.

Brosky said that while investigating the tale of an Indian who haunts the Montauk Manor, now a condominium resort, she heard unexplained drums playing near the Fort Hill cemetery.

“I don’t mess with Indians,” said Brosky, who said the manor was built on an Indian gravesite where a massacre occurred.

“It is very sacred up there,” she said. “It has a lot of energy.

Brosky said the area is also a place where many of Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders died of disease, possibly tuberculosis.

Southampton Haunts

“Any place can be haunted,” said Brosky, including the in Southampton Village.

While she said she did not feel anything unusual at the spot, she has heard that a little girl who lived on the property and died after falling down a flight of stairs, is said to haunt it. There have also been reports of unexplained footsteps at the , where it is rumored that a woman who was scalped by Indians roams the halls.

The Lady of Red Creek

Hampton Bays, being one of the oldest hamlets in Southampton, is full of ghosts, according to Brosky, who said she has heard tales of the , who haunts Squiretown Road and a ghost who hangs out at .

The Ax-Wielding Farmhand

While investigating the Wickham Farm in Cutchogue, Brosky said she learned of a tale of a farm hand who is said to haunt the area, chasing people with an ax. Folklore says the man was in love with a girl and when she didn’t want his affection, he ran through Southold with an ax in hand.


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