On a recent October night, Jon David Lowe, a sixth-grade science teacher at Sykesville Middle School, is leading about 20 people through historic Ellicott City.
It?s his second ghost tour of the evening, and he?s doing his best to keep the energy up. Lowe looks like an extra from a Marilyn Manson music video, with a close, blond crewcut and goatee.
He?s wearing all black ? a leather coat, leather boots and a kilt, and his temples and forehead are painted with icons of the sun, moon and stars. A healthy portion of glitter is sprinkled over his body.
The ghost tour snakes through the town and stops off at destinations that are supposedly haunted.
Only five people on the tour admit to actually believing in ghosts, which Lowe said is about on par: “Most people are skeptical.”
However, two stories capture the crowd?s attention: the tale of the murdered woman at the Tiber River Tavern and Al the car mechanic.
The woman at Tiber River Tavern has been seen by many restaurant employees and patrons ? including Lowe. She dresses in white Victorian-style clothing and is prone to crouching in a tavern corner, as if mourning, Lowe said. According to legend, one evening an audacious tavern employee who was closing down the restaurant alone decided to test the woman.
He called out to her: “If you are really there, why don?t you come out and have a drink?”
He reportedly heard a woman?s voice yell back: “Line them up!”
Since then, no Tiber River Tavern employees has been allowed to close the restaurant on their own, Lowe said. He also tells the crowd about Al, the owner of a local garage who died of a heart attack while working on a car. Al has been known to haunt the current tenants of his old garage, which until recently was the furniture shop What?s In Store.
Al reportedly also likes to walk around with the Ellicott City ghost tours after the stop at his garage.
Two 13-year-old Elkridge boys roll their eyes at that anecdote.
But by the end of the night, Baltimore resident Jessica Nelson says she thinks she?s captured some ghosts on the tour. She proudly shows off a photo from her digital camera of a cobblestone alley, where a Confederate solider was supposedly shot to death.
There is a tiny ball of white light floating on top a nearby staircase.
“I love it,” Nelson said. “I?m a believer.”
When the Ellicott City tour ends, several people noticeably quicken their pace back to their cars. Running late for dinner, perhaps? Or meeting friends? Or maybe they don?t want to give Al the mechanic a chance to jump in their back seat.
