'Tales' from the campus

A legend holds that two female students stayed in McNutt Quad during Christmas Break years ago -- when the campus was virtually desolate.\nLate one night the women heard reports on the radio about a hatchet man on campus. One of the roommates decided to get food downstairs and promised to return shortly.\nFive minutes, fifteen, an hour -- and still no sign of her. \nSoon after, the roommate heard a dragging sound, then a thumping sound, and finally scratching, and thought it was a joke. \nThe next morning, the roommate awoke to police outside of her room and opened the door. There was her roommate, dead in a pool of her own blood, her fingers worn down to stubs.\nAs the story goes, the hatchet man was never caught.\nThe 'McNutt Hatchet Man' and other urban legends intrigued more than 100 souls Wednesday evening during the Folklore Institute's second annual "Ghost Walk" throughout campus.\nTwo large groups of anxious students, families, and Bloomington residents clad in winter coats and scarves followed the path of their breath -- and direction of several folklore professors who told creepy tales of ghosts and legends about several of Indiana University's landmarks and buildings.\nDuring the event, students from a Theatre and Drama makeup class created an eerie atmosphere as two female students dressed up and followed participants around, while others told urban legends.\nAs a brisk, chilling breeze swept through the trees and darkness set on IU's wooded campus, two groups of 60 anxious souls left the Folklore Institute and began heading toward La Casa, where one of the first stories was told.\nLa Casa director Lillian Casillas stood on the stoop of the former residence and spoke about a female presence often seen in the house.\n"Several student staff members have seen the silhouette of a woman upstairs walking around," Casillas said. "I've heard the sounds of a typewriter when no one has been there."\nJust three weeks ago, Casillas said a student was about to lock up and heard running upstairs.\nAgain, nobody was there.\nThe folklore professors, dressed in oversized cloaks and lanterns in hand then led the groups to other spots near the IMU and Dunn Woods to tell more tales.\nBecause of last year's overwhelming turnout, the Folklore Institute decided to organize this year's event and possibly continue it as a yearly tradition.\n"Every year around Halloween the phone in the (Folklore Department) rings off the wall with requests to hold a ghost walk," said Ruth Aten, administrative services coordinator of the Department of Folklore. "This has been a collective effort of researchers, organizers, players, and story tellers not only from the faculty, students, and staff in our department, but from other participants around campus, like La Casa and the Indiana Memorial Union."\nLeading this year's walk were several distinguished folklorists, including Aten, John McDowell, chair of the folklore department; Ruth Stone, director of the Ethnomusicology Institute, professors Sandra Dolby and John Johnson, and Emeritus Professor Linda Degh.\n"Most people are fascinated by the possibility of transcending the basic laws of nature, especially with regards to our mortal condition," McDowell said. "These legends about the unquiet dead hold out hope of getting beyond our limits, and they energize the familiar places by endowing them with a hint of mystery."\nAs the walk concluded in the Indiana Memorial Union, PhD student Dan Peretti led the group into the Federal Room where he told the story of Mary Burney, whose unfinished portrait can be seen in the popular meeting room.\nSupposedly, Burney (an art critic) didn't approve of the commissioner's job of her portrait, and before changes could be made, she died in a fire with her husband and son.\nLegend holds that building managers have noticed some of the valuables missing from the enclosed cabinets and on occasion, if someone is alone, the smell of Burney's perfume may fill the room.\nPeretti said near the painting were two urns containing the ashes of Burney's husband and son, and both have mysteriously disappeared.\n"It's easy to feel comfortable when a big group is in this room," Peretti said. "But it's when you're alone that you can feel her presence and smell the whiff of her perfume"