I have had the Ghostbusters II Kickstarter for about four years and other than periodically looking at it, and deciding that I must do something with it, nothing has eventuated. With my interest with the Pulp Genre I need to paint up some ghosties and what better than some featured in the movie! Although only having a small extras part my favourite in terms of size and modelling is the Washington Square Ghost.

To this day, more than 20,000 dead people are estimated to be beneath the cement and grass of Philadelphia’s Washington Square, which makes it easy to believe it could be haunted.

Southeast Square, as it was originally called, was laid out in 1682. As the city grew, the need for space allotted to burials increased. The Square began to be used as a potter’s field from 1704 to 1794. Potter’s Fields were the designated burial place for paupers, foreigners, and those who weren’t considered worthy of a Christian burial – no wonder these poor souls are restless. People were buried with the bare minimum. No casket; wrapped up in canvas fabric.

Today, hundreds of years later, Washington Square visitors still encounter the ghosts of the early inhabitants put to rest there.

According to legend, Washington Square is haunted by the ghost of a Quaker woman named Leah. Centuries ago, Leah protected the burial ground from grave robbers.

Even though most people buried at the site were poor, this wasn’t always the case. Take the Carpenters, for example, a prominent family. They separated a burial site for their family at the center of the Square due to one of their members committing suicide. This rendered her unworthy of Christian burial. Graverobbers were known to scope out these prominent interments, dig up the fresh graves, and steal the items the corpses were buried with.

Men known as resurrectionists would resort to body snatching in order to obtain cadavers to sell to physicians for their anatomical studies.

And that’s where Leah comes in. It’s said that in life, she monitored the grounds, walking around the Square with a lantern and scaring off potential graverobbers (and bodysnatchers). Even today, some who have visited the park at night feel as if they’re being followed and watched by an unseen presence. Some even swear they’ve seen a bright light floating through the grounds.Could it be Leah with her lantern?

As I said above the Washington Square Ghost is only a minor antagonist in the 1989 American comedy-horror film Ghostbusters II.

After the river of ectoplasm underneath New York summons countless spirits to New York, one such ghost manifests as a giant monster at Victory Arch in Washington Square.

“Are we actually gonna go before a federal judge and tell him that some moldy Babylonian god is going to drop in on Central Park West, and start tearing up the city?” – Winston Zeddemore

Who are you gonna call?