Category: Joan Harbor Books

The Girl On the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge Just Disappeared

People packed the City Officials’ meeting rooms in Brooklyn and Staten Island. Although the meetings were separate, the questions were the same. How did a five-year-old girl get onto the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge? And how in the hell did she run down the middle of it?

“She could’ve been killed!”

“Someone needs to be held accountable!”

“What the hell is wrong with her parents?”

“The kid should be removed from the parents’ custody.”

The city official running the meeting in Brooklyn waited for the crowd to quiet down. Then she asked a simple question. “Who watched the child disappear?” No one spoke. Even though every motorist in the room claimed to have stopped their vehicle for the little girl. “No one wants to say they saw her vanish. Because that’s in the reports we’ve gotten.”

One man in the back stood. “My name is Randall Clay. The father of the little girl on the bridge.” People turned and looked at him. “Her name is Jessie. She’s been dead for ten years. Today’s her birthday. She has always been a mischievous kid.” He wiped his eyes with his hand. “Every birthday she runs across the bridge. She’s not trying to scare you. She just likes the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. Because it was named after one of her great ancestors, Giovanni da Verrazzano.”

Everyone was quiet.

If you enjoyed the story, send it to a friend and join my newsletter. I’m almost out with my new book. I’ll keep you posted. And if you want to read my novella, click on MATTIE. You’ll love this little girl. She’ll scare you, but try it. Be safe out there and watch the ghosts.

 Joan Harbor

The Living and the Dead Come Together Sometimes. Scary?

“Brain cells survive for the first few minutes of the after-death (postmortem period). It is during this period that the spirit can escape the body’s tomb and roam the earth. Or continue to live the life it had. How that spirit comes back is anyone’s guess.” Dr. Koffin Grave, Undertaker

Every Thursday at 3:58 a.m., the 114 train speeds through the town of Eastman, New York. Buildings shake. The ground rumbles. The whistle blows. It warns people it’s coming through and to clear the cows off the track. Residents who live in the area say the train doesn’t bother them anymore. They are used to it.

They know the 114 stopped coming through Eastman more than one hundred years ago. Train tracks were removed from the area fifty years ago. Only the remnants continue to pass through Eastman at 3:58 a.m. Because Train 114 crashed into ten cows on the tracks in 1904. All one hundred passengers—men, women, and children—were crushed to death under the heavy railroad cars. The eyewitnesses’ conflicting statements about the tragic event live on today.  

Some archived statements from that day in 1904 say nothing was on the tracks. Other statements said a woman in a white dress was on the tracks. She was believed to be the young mother who was murdered in the town of Eastman the day before. One statement that baffled investigators then and now was from a man named Joe Torred.

Joe was the husband of Lisa Torred, the murdered woman. Joe said Lisa and the train conductor, Bryan Karr, were having an affair. He told the police Bryan killed Lisa because Lisa refused to let him end their affair. It was actually the payments.

Byran had paid her four dollars (around $100 today) every week when they began to have sex. She told him he could end the affair. But not the payments. He said he would end them. She threatened to tell Bryan’s wife, Nadeen, about them if he did. Bryan knew Nadeen would take the kids and leave. Killing Lisa was the only way out for Bryan. And killing Bryan—even in death—was Lisa’s revenge.

I have a new book coming out soon. It’s being written in serial form. Do stop by and read a few pages. See if it’s to your liking. I think you’ll enjoy it.

See you next time!

Joan Harbor