Local entrepreneur makes it his business to scare people out of their wits

By Jennifer R. Horan

On one not particularly dark and stormy night a few years ago, a Wellesley woman awoke in the infamous Room 24 of Concord's Colonial inn with a ghastly stomach ache. Lying sleepless in bed with no prospect of slumber ahead, the woman suddenly felt a tingling, almost like an electric charge on the tip of her head, which caused her hair to stand on end. The sensation crept from her cranium through her body to her feet, paralyzing her for an instant. Then the tingling disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. In the ensuing minutes, the same phenomenon occurred a second and then a third time. Afterward, the ache in her stomach subsided and she fell asleep again.

She, like many others before her, had requested the room — which is booked for months in advance — because of its reputation for being haunted by the spirit of Revolutionary War physician Timothy Minot. When the inn was Minot's home, the doctor treated injured soldiers from the battles of Lexington and Concord.

"It is said that Dr. Minot is still making house calls.'' said Jim McCabe, founder of the Wellesley-based New England Ghost Tours. The woman with the stomach ache was McCabe's wife, Carol, who is first flutist in the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra. But McCabe snored through the entirety of his wife's paranormal experience that night.

In the middle of the night, the relentless pain in Carol's stomach had prompted her to call out for Dr. Minot. Was the tingling she felt the doctor's home remedy for sour stomach?

McCabe, who has been spinning ghost tales for about five years, leaves the conclusions to his listeners. Schooled in the realm of haunted places through historical research and consultations with experts in the field, McCabe visits a variety of local haunts as he guides walking tours of Boston and bus tours of nearby towns known for their ghostly histories.

The 90-minute Boston Spirits Walking Tour travels to historic and spirited downtown Boston, making stops at the Boston Common, the Central Burying Ground, the Boston -Athenaeum and the Parker House Hotel.

The Witches, Wizards and Pirates bus tour heads to the North Shore to explore bewitched Salem and Marblehead on the North Shore.

The Colonial and Native American Spirits bus tour roams through the colonial towns of Littleton, Groton and Concord. This tour includes a visit to Room 24 of the Colonial Inn. The bus tours are about three-and-a-half hours long.

On each journey, McCabe recounts the history of each site on the itinerary, adding ghoulish tales about people's inexplicable experiences at those places. But he does not employ actors to deliver spooks or use special effects to simulate a haunted experience, he pointed out.

"I try to create a situation where people can use their imaginations," said McCabe. "I recreate authentic happenings in people's minds"

McCabe has no haunted tours of Wellesley because it's just not chilling enough. The only haunted place in town McCabe has ever heard of is the tavern at the Wellesley Inn.

"It is said that one of the old bartenders sometimes takes tips from the bar and plays tricks on the people in the tavern." he said.

The same lack of ghost-inhabited places goes for all of Metro West.

“There is no Metro West tour. There's just not enough places.'' he explained. "I’m looking for legitimate stories where things still happen."

McCabe doubts such tours would attract enough people to make his business profitable. The tours he currently offers are busy throughout the tourist season, from spring until late fall, and the buses, which he rents, are full, he said.

"I'm in it to build a business and prolong it.” he said. During the off-season, McCabe contracts services for financial institutions — the business he was in before he decided to go his own way with his one-man show.

But Boston makes for an ideal haunted destination, he said.

"People want to see Boston from a different perspective, especially at night," McCabe said. "On the tour, they see and hear about things people don't normally know about Boston. It's off the beaten tourist track.''

McCabe's love of history and innate storytelling ability drew him to establish New England Ghost Tours. McCabe's great grandfather, Sean An'Ahig also known as Jack the Exaggerator, was a renowned storyteller in Ireland.

"New England is so fascinating, with buildings that have been here since 1675, 1650. You know there are stories behind them.'' McCabe said.

While McCabe himself has never experienced a haunting, he said many of his guests on the tours have either seen or felt the presence of spirits. "On one of the bus tours to Salem, there was this one woman who 'was very talkative all the wav down. Then we went to the Joshua Ward House. On the way back, I noticed she was very quiet. So I asked her, is anything wrong?’

As part of that tour, McCabe talks about a “lady in black” that has been seen on the staircase of the Joshua Ward House.

“She saw it,” he said. “She stayed behind as the rest of the tour moved into the next room and she said she saw a dark figure zip up the staircase.”

During a visit to the Parker House Hotel on the Boston walking tour, a woman from Texas had to excuse herself, McCabe recalled. She had told him that she always felt sick to her stomach in the presence of spirits.

“Well, I hope it wasn’t because of my presentation,” he joked.

In another room of the hotel, the Texas woman’s son said he felt a weight on his chest and also had to leave the tour, McCabe said.

About three weeks ago, a woman from the Wisconsin State Police Department’s evidence unit sent McCabe a letter and a photograph from the tour. While visiting the Parker House, the woman wanted to get a picture of a portrait of the hotel’s founder, Harvey Parker, who supposedly haunts the hotel. Not sure which painting was Parker; she took a roll of 24 photographs of the portraits hanging in the hall. When she had the film developed, only one photograph came out — the one of Harvey Parker, McCabe confirmed.