Joe Dagastino and the Wilcox Ghost
I have told this story numerous times since my Dad, Cy Johnson,
relayed it to me after a hunt he had at the camp many years ago. It takes place on a perfect hunting
morning. Fresh snow had fallen the
night before, the clouds were clearing and it wasn't going to be bitterly cold
for the day. Joe Dagastino was at
the camp just a few weeks after leaving the hospital after an operation. He was anxious to do some hunting. I can't remember who offered but they
loaded Joe up in one of the camp jeeps and drove him up Cardiac hill, about two
thirds of the way to the Mass road, right about where it starts to level
out. That's were they left him,
settled in, back to a tree, morning sun rising and warming him as it did. He was to stay put for the
morning. They would be by to
gather him up for lunch a bit later.
That's what they did.
They headed down Cardiac to pick up Joe. To their surprise he was standing in the road with his
pistol in his hand, shaking and as white as a sheet. He was all nerved up from something, but he wouldn't say
what. His partners supposed it was
some complication from his hospital ordeal and decided to watch him closely at
lunch. There was a bit of friendly
banter about what had happened but Joe wasn't saying much, just getting even
more agitated because of all the talk.
As Cy tells it, he and Joe sat down with a beer after lunch and
talked. Cy made sure that Joe knew
that whatever Joe saw, he believed Joe was not making it up. Joe relaxed and began to tell Cy the
whole story.
Joe had fallen asleep while hunting. He awoke to someone tapping
him on the shoulder. He gazed up
to see a young woman dressed in a white lace dress with buttons all the way up
to a high collar. She wore old
fashioned, button, high top shoes but no coat. Joe was startled.
She looked down at him and said "Who are you, what are you doing
here?" Joe told her he was hunting
as a guest of the Yonkers Rod and Gun Club. She told Joe that this was her property and he should leave
immediately. With that she turned
and walked into the woods until disappearing below a hill.
After Joe's story is heard around the camp Cy and a handful other
hunters decide it would be best if they all headed back up Cardiac with Joe to
see if they could make sense of the story. They arrived at the tree and Joe told the story again,
pointing into the woods where the girl disappeared. The new snow from the night before revealed no foot prints
leading away. Joe guided some of
the men in the direction that the girl took and hollered as they disappeared
over the hill, "That's where I lost sight of her". They stopped and started kicking around in the snow and
leaves. That's when they
discovered it, a gravestone! This stone was one of many scattered around the
property, but one that had not been found before. To their surprise it was the grave of a young woman in her
teens. Her last name was Wilcox. She had died in the late 1800's and had
lived right there where Joe had been hunting.
Written by, Rich Johnson