Archaeologist sees spectral figures

Archaeologists conduct a dig at a mass grave of Irish immigrants who worked on a Pennsylvania railroad line. A university professor is convinced the dead men haunt the area:

FRAZER-- An apparition and a series of subsequent, strange occurrences fuel Dr. William Watson's passionate interest in "Duffy's Cut," a mass burial site in Malvern.

"My colleague, Tom Conner, and I did see something that we cannot explain back in September 2000," said Watson, an associate professor of history at Immaculata University.

According to Watson, he and Conner were witness to the incarnation of three glowing men, who appeared to be standing on the campus lawn. The shapes quickly disappeared.

Watson is now the head of an archeological dig at "Duffy's Cut," a burial site of 57 Irish immigrant workers who died mysteriously while doing work for the Pennsylvania Railroad back in 1832.

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There is suspicion, however, that foul play, rather than cholera, had a hand in some of the men's deaths.

"The official cause of death for the men was cholera, but the 100 percent casualty rate here is not found in other contemporary outbreaks, where rates of death are usually in the 40- 60 percentile," said Watson. The context of anti-Irish and anti-immigrant feeling fueled the common fear that immigrants were the bearers of cholera."

There is also the absence of documentary evidence which we know existed in the past," said Watson, "indicating that evidence was removed by later individuals."

According to Watson these elements suggest that something more sinister may have been at work in the valley.

"A vigilante group was in fact operating in the area at the time," said Watson.Only the Duffy's blacksmith and several Sisters of Charity attempted to aid the sick men. There were, however, no effective treatments for cholera in the early 1800s. The bodies of the deceased men were subsequently buried in a large ditch without proper funerals.

Watson expounded on the three things that made the original ghostly sighting witnessed by himself and Connor "exceptionally odd."

"It was an Ember Night, when according to old Catholic tradition, souls come out of Purgatory to find people to help them and pray for them," said Watson. "It (the sighting) also coincided with the construction of housing next to the site of the mass grave."

Watson also pointed out that what he and Connor saw was, unbeknownst to them at the time, consistent with what people have reported at the site of the mass grave for about 170 years.