Ghosts & the Supernatural – When I was in the Army from 1973 to 1976, I was stationed in Nurnberg, Germany. Before working as an undercover DST (Drug Suppression Team) – CID (Criminal Investigation Division) agent and traveling all around Germany, I did a small stint as a Sergeant Major driver. The Sergeant Major who was working at Merrill Barracks, needed a driver and the Sergeant Major choice me. I lasted a week, the Sergeant Major didn’t like my way of driving a jeep.
Even though I was no longer his driver, somehow he bonded with me and asked if I would like to go with him on vacation to Bologna, Italy. We arrived in Italy, after traveling through Austria and Switzerland. His Italian wife lived in Bologna and owned an Italian restaurant. The spaghetti was dirt cheap and there were many varieties of spaghetti. With the spaghetti you get a bottle of red wine and all of the bread you can eat. I was in heaven. While in Italy, I partied with 2 Air Force guys at a nightclub called The Dome, this club was huge. What was unique about Italian nightclubs is that all of the women will go out on the floor and dance. The men surround the dance floor and wait their turn for an Italian girl to ask them to dance. During the time I was in Italy, I went with the Sergeant Major to the island of Daksa via the Sergeant Major’s boat called “Endurance” that was docked at Ravenna.
The Sergeant Major took me via the Endurance to the shores of Slovenia and the shores of Croatia. While in Croatia, the Sergeant Major told me that after he conducted some restaurant business in Dubrovnik, he would take me to the island of Daksa, which is 1.5 nautical miles from the city of Dubrovnik. Daksa is very gorgeous, beautified with cactus, pine, lemon, orange and cypress trees. I learn that Daksa means in Greek…”right hand”. The island once served as protection for sailors. While I was at Daksa, I learned later in life that this island has a reputation of being haunted. The island is incorporated with a splendid villa, a 19th century lighthouse, boathouse and of course a dock. There are ruins of a 13th century Franciscan monastery at the highest elevation of the island. The monastery is called St. Sabina. The monastery is named after a Roman woman that martyred herself in 126 A.D. She martyred herself, because she turned to Christianity.
Just a few years ago, people discovered numerous skeletons on the island. People were now seeing ghosts. Theory has it, that since the skeletons were being dug up, it disturbed the spirits. The skeletons are from the deaths of many people who faced the firing squad. The firing squads were from Partisan forces that rounded up many Nazi collaborators and this included Priest Petar Perica and the mayor Niko Koprivica.
An estimated 36 residents faced the firing squad. The bodies were placed in make shift graves. Many Nazi collaborators were rowed out from the mainland to the island and secretly executed. If locals were to open their mouths about the executions, they could also face the same fate. No records of the actual executions were kept. In 2009, an individual stumbled across a mass grave on the island. Since 2009, people have been seeing shadowy apparitions.
What is really disturbing is the fact, that in some of the graves can be found crosses, rosaries, priest’s collars, indicating that many priests were executed. It is believed that many of these people that were executed were not Nazi collaborators. Now residents of the medieval city of Dubrovnik say ghosts of the executed men still haunt the island of Daksa, seeking some sort of revenge.
After I returned to Bologna, Italy, I hooked back up with the Air Force guys and partied every night at The Dome. Being young and immature, I finally ran out of money in Bologna and had to sneak on the train back to Nurnberg, hiding out in the bathroom when the ticket man came around. When I arrived in Nurnberg, the German Polizei and Military Police were waiting for me. The Military Police recognized me and said…”Hey that’s Porkchops!” Note: Porkchops was my code name in CID. I yelled back…”I didn’t want to be AWOL!” I received a citation and was able to go back to my CID unit, embarrassed by my fiasco.
In this article, I talk about my adventures in Slovenia; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Nurnberg, Germany and Bologna – Italy. Now, let’s see what are some of the hauntings in these locales.
DEVIL’S TOWER IN SLOVENIA
This beautiful tower is part of the Soteska Castle. The tower is adorned by a renaissance style gate. According to historic records, the Lords of the Castle would conduct hedonistic entertainment at the tower. The locales heard about this and called the tower the Devil’s Tower, because of the sinful practices that occur at the tower. I believe this tower has a strong residual haunting, because people visiting the tower will hear strange noises and the screaming of women. It is said that many women were brutally raped in this tower.
LORKO IN DUBROVNIK, CROATIA
Now Dubrovnik is very, very haunted. Lots of residual energy from murders, tortures and everything else you can think of. 
One of the best haunted stories is the story about Lorko. This is about a palace that is haunted by tortured souls. The palace is damaged in many parts due to the Russian – Montenegrin Siege of the 19th century. The palace was owned by an aristocrat named Melko. Melko was an elderly gent and he married a young bride. Poor Melko could not keep up with his young bride in an intimate way and she strayed off and cheated on him. When Melko found out, he killed her lover. Come to find out, his young bride was pregnant from her lover and Melko kept the baby as his own and kicked his bride out of his palace. When his grand-daughter became an adult and fell in love with a noble, Melko came clean and told his grand-daughter that he murdered his wife’s lover. When his grand-daughter learned of this, she was very upset and killed her step-father Melko by smothering him. To this day, Lorko has a reputation of being haunted. People hear moaning in the palace, they see shadow figures, they see Melko stabbing to death his wife’s lover. When tourists visit Lorko, some tourists claim that they feel touching, grabbing and even slapping. Some people have ran away from Lorko after visiting, because the haunting activity was too much.
BOLOGNA, ITALY
At the Towers of Bologna, many locales and tourists say that the towers are haunted. The towers were created during the 12th and 13th centuries. It is said that the towers were used as an offensive / defensive mechanism during the Investiture Controversy period. Some locales and tourists have heard faraway screams coming from the tower sections and a phantom monk has been seen wandering the grounds of the Azzoguidi Tower and is known as the Phantom Monk of Azzoguidi Tower. A tourist by the name of Floretta McMahan says that the Phantom Monk walked directly towards her and then walked right through her. Floretta felt a flush of cold air when this occurred.
NURNBERG, GERMANY
For a spell, I was stationed at Merrell Barracks in Nurnberg, Germany. These barracks were originally used by the SS Nazis and when the US took siege of Nurnberg, they became US Army barracks. On the 3rd floor of Merrell Barracks, soldiers back in 1974 would claim that they would see 3 SS soldiers in full uniform walking down the hallway and walk into a room and vanish. One soldier that encountered the ghostly SS soldiers ran screaming to his First Sergeant. The soldiers would call the 3 ghostly SS soldiers – The SS Three.
By Paul Dale Roberts, HPI’s Esoteric Detective
Halo Paranormal Investigations – HPI International.
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