Ghostly Tales Refuse to Die : ‘You will soon die. Over your grave they will erect a stone, that all may know where your bones are crumbling . . . .’

Most ghosts and goblins at Halloween are the pint-sized make-believe kind that scare candy out of the neighbors, but there are those who would say other--perhaps less innocent--spirits are lurking in the shadows across the land.

Whether the products of vivid imagination or unexplainable truth, tales of haunted houses, eerie spirits and ghostly happenings abound in America.

To celebrate Halloween, here is a sampling from around the country.

In Bucksport, Me., it wasn’t long after the tall granite monument was placed over the grave of Jonathan Buck in 1852 that a dim black outline began to emerge, right under the carved letters of his name.

The image was so dim at first that no one really noticed. But as the years passed, the outline became blacker and more distinct, and people would stop by the old graveyard to stare.

The dim form on the 15-foot monument was that of a boot, etched deeply over the years into the New England granite atop the town founder’s grave.

Local people will tell you about the curse of a witch who was ordered executed by Col. Buck, a witch who promised with her dying breath that the grave of Bucksport’s founder would carry her mark forever.

According to the legend described in the book “Jonathan Buck of Bucksport” by Blakely B. Babcock, a woman accused of witchcraft was brought before the puritanical Buck, who found her guilty and ordered her put to death.

The scene is described in the book, which quotes a story from the Haverhill (Mass.) Gazette of March 22, 1899. That story, in turn, claims to quote a story from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“The day of the execution came and the condemned woman went to the gallows cursing her judge with such terrible imprecations that the people shuddered, but the magistrate (Buck) stood unmoved and made a sign to the officers to hasten the arrangements. All was ready and the hangman was about to perform his gruesome duty when the woman turned to Col. Buck, and raising one hand to heaven, as if to direct her last words on earth, pronounced this astounding prophesy:

“ ‘Jonathan Buck, listen to these words, the last my tongue will utter. It is the spirit of the one and only true and living God which bids me speak them to you.

“ ‘You will soon die. Over your grave they will erect a stone, that all may know where your bones are crumbling into dust. But listen, upon that stone the imprint of my feet will appear, and for all time, long after you and your accursed race has perished from the face of the earth, will the people from far and near know that you murdered a woman.’ ”

Of course there are unbelievers, and even Babcock’s book says firmly that Buck never judged any witches.

Stonecutters who have examined the monument say the outline is simply a fluke, a discoloration of the stone that sometimes happens to granite monuments.

Some townspeople think Col. Buck is an important historical figure who should be remembered for something more than a mark on his gravestone, and they agree the legend fits poorly with historical fact.

“From what we can gather the story must have been made up, because this was really after the time of burning witches, and the persecution of witches never made it to Maine anyway,” said Diane Barlow, Bucksport’s librarian.

But tourists stop every summer to view Buck’s 15-foot gravestone and the black boot that seems to hang down from the Buck name.

Many American presidents and their families have created legends, but none seems to have generated as many ghostly tales as the Abraham Lincoln family.

Several of the modern-day residents of the White House have reported hearing the clump-clump of the boots of the assassinated President, who is said to periodically pace the corridors there.

And in Fort Howard, Md., anyone visiting Todd’s Inheritance, the 312-year-old farm that belonged to the Maryland branch of Mary Todd Lincoln’s clan, may sense the structure has a life of its own.

Like a grande dame from the nation’s Colonial days, the house, separated from the Chesapeake Bay by the family cemetery, holds the secret to centuries of American history, domestic rivalries and unexplained phenomena.

A plaque once adorned the home that read, “Whatsoever Happens Here, Stays Here,” but 20th-Century members of the Todd family took the plaque down and sold the house in 1976.

The plaque may be gone, but the sentiment remains with the mansion, and the ghosts of sea captains, soldiers, hunchbacks and eccentric family members are said to roam from the slave quarters to the house’s third-floor perch. It was from that balcony that the family warned horseback telegraphers that the British were coming to set fire to Baltimore during the War of 1812.

Sometimes, the kind of haunted house tales that make youngsters alternately scream and giggle have more substance than their parents might imagine.

For years, children growing up in Tierra Amarilla, N.M., dashed by the courthouse as quickly as possible because of stories that several human heads were buried there.

In 1982, county workers looking for a water leak unearthed two human heads--in glass jars. Looking back through records, officials found that the heads belonged to two Texas trappers killed in 1922, allegedly by their companion, Price Clements.

Brought to trial at the time, Clements pleaded innocent and based his alibi on wounds inflicted upon the dead men’s heads. In a gruesome legal turn, the district attorney in the case ordered the bodies decapitated in order to have the heads on hand, in the jars, to disprove Clements’ story.

Clements was eventually convicted, and the Supreme Court upheld the verdict. But as the case dragged on, court officials could no longer stand the sight of the “evidence.” In 1926 they buried the glass jars in shallow graves next to the courthouse in case they were needed again.

Clements’ life sentence was commuted to 10 years in 1930 and he was released from prison, his case and the glass jars soon forgotten. But long after, children skittered past the courthouse in fear of the severed heads.

Since long before Romeo and Juliet, lovers have been the stuff of legends, but in Santa Fe, N.M., one lovers’ tale has a ghostly ending.

As the tale is told, a young lover went to a local “bruja,” or witch, to get help in winning over his girlfriend. The potion the witch gave him worked wonders, but the young suitor refused to pay her.

The bruja retaliated by cutting off his head--which is said to roll down one of the town streets every Halloween.