GHOSTS OF JOHANNESBURG, part I
Each and every city has its ghosts. In England every more or less respectable castle or town has ghosts too. The price of a place sometimes include price of a ghosts and the more famous ghosts are the higher the price of the castle or home.
Johannesburg is relatively new city. The history of Johannesburg can be counted from 1886, after the gold rush started. Despite being relatively “young’ Johannesburg has its ghosts too.
Ghosts N1
Daisy de Melker.
Daisy is a famous infamous woman, a nurse, “pure devil”, a woman, who was convicted in murdering 3 people by poisoning them (2 husbands for their insurance money and her son) and a second woman ever hanged in this country. She is as famous as Jack the Ripper in England. Daisy’s ghost was seen in places where she lived: in houses in Bertrams and Turffontein and also haunts Court 3 in Johannesburg Supreme Court.
Daisy’s ghost lives in children’s ward in Transvaal Memorial Children’s Hospital in Hillbrow, Johannesburg and, they say, was responsible for couple of death of children, when no cause could be found.Ghost N2
Jose Dale Lace.
She was born Josephine Brink at Richmond in the Karoo. Adventurous, beautiful, dangerous woman, she definitely had incredible power and influence over men she met in her life. Her history started in England, where she was sent to study in elite school. English aristocrat Sir Cecil John Rhodes proposed to her and she was presented to Queen Victoria.
Apparently something went wrong, she did not marry Rhodes. Later she was spotted as mistress of Baron Grimthorpe. She had affairs with some famous people, including Edward the VII.Then she became an actress and performed on stage. In England she met Dale Lace, an incredibly rich man and married him twice; second time- in Cape Town.
After that Dale Laces stayed in Northwards in Johannesburg. Jose was very eccentric. She is known for her habit of going out on streets of Johannesburg in a carriage with two zebras and her servants announced her appearance with the sound of a bugle. Dale Lace became bankrupt and died.
Jose lived in a small house at the end of her life.
Her ghost haunts Northwards Mansion (which was designed by Sir Herbert Baker, who also designed the Union Building in Pretoria) and also, as they say, guards her portrait in London’s Royal Academy.
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