The Spooky Reason This Indiana Mausoleum Has a Working Telephone
This story is about a man named Martin Sheets, who was a successful businessman who lived in Terre Haute, IN, back in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Martin always had the fear of being buried alive, so while he was designing his final resting place, the mausoleum pictured, he decided to include a working telephone. Why? Mr. Sheets wanted to be able to notify someone outside the mausoleum in the event that he did end up being 'entombed' alive. Martin Sheets died in 1910 and his wishes were honored - the telephone inside his mausoleum was installed and sat silent for years.
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The spooky part of the story, the part that might have inspired filmmakers, came years later, when Mrs. Sheets (Martin's widow) passed away. When she was discovered, Mrs. Sheets was laying on the bed with the phone receiver in her hand. It is said that she had a look of terror on her face. People close to Mrs. Sheets just assumed she was using the phone to call for help, but it was too late.
Mrs. Sheets was taken to the graveyard where she was to be interred next to her husband in the family mausoleum. Workers opened up the tomb, which had been locked for years, and as expected, noted that everything was as it should be - well, almost everything. Workers noticed that Martin's phone was off the hook.
Did his ghost somehow call home? Did that call kill Mrs. Sheets? Did the ghost have to dial 9 to get an outside line? I guess the world will never know.
Big shout out to Debbra Herrick for taking, and sharing, pictures of the Sheets mausoleum.
[h/t: TerreHaute.com]
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