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Clearing up Tower Johnny


KIghostguy
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This is the first time that I've seen a picture of the young man that I knelt down and found him to be deceased on Friday May 13, 1983 as a KI First Aid employee.   I will keep my comments brief, but want to stress that John and his high school friends were given professional care throughout that horrible evening. I agree, that "urban legend ghost stories" become very meaningful when you think of the actual human beings involved.   Your descriptions are accurate and expressed well.   May Johnny rest in peace.

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Just throwing this out there-after visiting John's grave, as me and my aunt were driving through the cemetery trying to find the gates, she popped in a CD without looking. The first song that played was Night on Bald Mountain, which is the song in Disney's Fantasmic where the ghosts and demons dance for Chernabog. One of the opening shots in the Fantasia sequence is ghosts rising out of a graveyard, and that was the section playing as we were driving through the cemetery. I still don't know what that means.

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Just throwing this out there-after visiting John's grave, as me and my aunt were driving through the cemetery trying to find the gates, she popped in a CD without looking. The first song that played was Night on Bald Mountain, which is the song in Disney's Fantasmic where the ghosts and demons dance for Chernabog. One of the opening shots in the Fantasia sequence is ghosts rising out of a graveyard, and that was the section playing as we were driving through the cemetery. I still don't know what that means.

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Fascinating. I can see how such an eerie, incredible coincidence would bolster one's interests in the supernatural. 

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Okay, here's a creepy story. This happened recently, last 5 years or so. This was told to me by a former Kings Island employee, who was friends with the person involved.

A security guard was walking around the Eiffel Tower's base. It was almost midnight, way past the park's closing. As he passed, he heard a creaking sound. He turned around and saw the gate that blocks off the stairs swinging open. The guard assumed that it must have been the wind, even though it wasn't windy out, and he closed and locked the gate, and started to walk away. He then heard the creaking again, this time accompanied by what sounded like a teenage boy laughing. The guard turned around, not only seeing the gate opening, but also saw a shadow in the shape of a teenage boy run up the stairs and vanish. The guard double and triple checked the area, which only confirmed he was the only one in the area of the Tower.

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  • 6 months later...

I hate bring this thread back from the dead, but recently some new information has come to my attention. 

First, I was incorrect earlier in saying that John climbed right into the elevator shaft from the 50-foot platform. After reviewing some Cincinnati Enquirer articles (via newspapers.com), I found that he climbed the fence onto the emergency stairwell that runs to the top platforms. He climbed up a bit and then climbed onto a beam in the shaft. He somehow got tangled in the elevator cables (the newspapers weren't really clear on that) and then was hit by the counterweight and fell 50-60 feet onto the elevator as it passed the 50-foot platform.

Second, he did not just become lost at the park. My cousin, who lives in Delaware, has a friend whose mother was the class of 1983 and knew John Harter. She was also at Kings Island that night. My cousin asked her about it, and she said that the mother told her that he got in an argument with his girlfriend and broke up. He ran off from the rest of the group and that was the point when he started drinking. This corroborates several other accounts online such as one from "CoasterDad64" on  http://coasterbuzz.com/Forums/Topic/pkd-eiffel-tower-accident-like-15-20-years-ago .

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One must remember that both journalism in general and newspapers in particular had different standards back then.

Decorum. Dignity. Respect.

A man is dead. He will remain so.

His family grieved. And still does.

Endless speculation and digging is unbecoming, unnecessary and even hurtful. Morbid fascination is not good.

I, for one, think society, the park and we ourselves would be better off without continual rehashing of this unfortunate death.

It's 2016. Long past time to move on.

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I don't know,  maybe it's just me. Sadly we see death and destruction almost every day. 

 

There has been things that have happened in the past at alot of parks, and undoubtably there

is surely things that will happen in the future. 

 

I, personally, and it just my opinion, don't like to think about that stuff about the park. Just seems

to take something away from it.

 

Many years ago, When I was around 13-14 years old, I rode the Galaxi at the old Myrtle Beach Pavilion.

Enjoyed it. When I got off of it a couple of guys decided to tell me how it was at another park and that someone 

got killed on it. Creeped me out and I didn't ride it again. 

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  • 3 months later...

 There is just as creepy story as tower Johnny that supposedly occurred back at one of the WWC towers. This is from a girl that worked at KI. She kept hearing stones bounce off the side of her tower after closing time.  I can only imagine how dark it is way back there. I guess after she finally got the courage to look out and see if somebody was messing with her, she actually saw a large rock lift off the ground and slam against the tower. This was told by the worker herself. She was posting on a forum.  Anybody heard about that one?  I also remember reading about maintenance workers who sometiimes had to walk to the front of the park by themselves(if they didn't catch a ride)  after dark and totally got a case of the heebie jeebies. I did research about all these ghost stories a couple years ago, but I don't remember all the sites I was on. I found most of the same stories and photos as the original poster.

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Ah yes, Tower 2 at White Water Canyon...one of my very favorite ghost stories from the park comes from there.

One of these days I'll have to do a "Clearing Up" Missouri Jane post. Unless, of course, you guys want me to post the story here. ;)

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Ah yes, Tower 2 at White Water Canyon...one of my very favorite ghost stories from the park comes from there.

One of these days I'll have to do a "Clearing Up" Missouri Jane post. Unless, of course, you guys want me to post the story here. ;)

 

 Awesome thread KIghostguy........although we may be a few months early. Kudos! Post it wherever you want.

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