Paranormal Field Investigators

St Johns

We have all heard them, whether it is the hitchhiker who gets in your car on a certain road only to disappear when you arrive at the destination or the figure in the mist that suddenly appears in front of you just as you run your car over him, only to look back to find nobody there. We hear the same stories with variations all over the world... these are our modern day legends, our contemporary folklores often referred to these days as Urban Myth.

They are stories that sometimes may have had a grain of truth to them, but have been exaggerated, twisted and are perpetuated by word of mouth, and these days, by the internet, until they become fact in some peoples minds. Modern day folklores and legends… they are normally just harmless fun and nobody gets hurt by them… right?

But what happens when this harmless Urban Myth takes a turn for the worse and becomes damaging both to a persons reputation and to the location that the story is staged?

And bear with me on this, as there is a point to be made here. But first I would like you to settle yourself down and take the time to read a story. It is a true story and one filled with horror and terrible deeds. A story that is still very much alive today.

For this tale of woe we must go back briefly in time… in fact back to 1850 when there was a small Irish sheep farming community living peacefully in a small town, then known as Johnstown north of Adelaide, South Australia. One day a priest came along to this small community and decided these people and their sheep, were obviously in desperate need of a church, along with a large house for his own accommodation. Low and behold, no sooner did he think it then it was done!! There it stood strong and proud, glinting in the midday sun and blissfully unaware of the reputation it was soon to acquire. It’s name???.... St Johns.

Time tracked on as time does, and soon the Sisters of St Joseph, led by Mary Mackillop set up residence there turning it into a school, but obviously not a successful one as it soon closed down and became a reformatory for wayward girls instead. To this reformatory came another priest… drum roll… *enter the infamous Rev. Martin*. Here was a man who spent his years trying to reform these ‘delinquent’ independent thinking girls into upstanding citizens who would go on to dress correctly, speak when spoken to and dedicate their lives to the duty of sewing and cooking for their men folk without complaint. A man, who still remains in the cemetery to this day, but for eternity, will carry a blackened name. A name that is so terrible it strikes fear into innocent youngsters both child and lamb… a name synonymous with the raping of the girls, followed by barbaric rituals of abortion, which he insisted on performing himself (one assumes with one of the nuns knitting needles perhaps), and yes… gasp, horror… even the occasional murdering of these poor innocent children!! All this of course was hidden very cleverly from the 4 Sisters of Joseph that were stationed there at the time. Blissfully they slept; completely deaf to the tortured screams of the girls and never questioning why they would be serving breakfast to a suddenly empty seat from time to time...

And then it happened, one of the girls under his care died in hospital. A girl who had obviously had to endure his wicked ways, who had fought back whilst he gave the ritual abortion, wanting desperately to keep her unborn baby, even if it was sired by the most wicked priest in Australia!!! But the struggling was to no avail, the deed was done. Alas, that night though, the Rev. must have been off his game, his usual skill at such a task deserted him entirely and something went horribly wrong. Ruby Olive Bland was rushed to hospital only to die 13 days later. One can only imagine Rev Martin’s heartbreak at not having murdered this one also… now the cat was really out of the bag!!

A few days later the reformatory was shut down and what was left of the girls after Rev. Martin had seen to them in his special way, were moved up to another reformatory well away from his reach. Not only did they move the girls out of his reach, but the church moved most of its items too. Leaving the evil Rev. Martin alone and unloved up in his dwelling to slowly go mad and eventually die of starvation.

But death could not keep such a wicked man down!!! Oh no, not this evil priest… to this day he stalks the cemetery and the ruins of the reformatory, protecting his territory like a vicious guard dog, scaring unsuspecting visitors and yes… even sometimes flinging them across the cemetery. As they flee in terror he makes sure that they never return often by chasing them down the road. Nightly he is cursed… with hatred and scorn being poured upon his name and his grave whilst poor Ruby sadly searches the cemetery for her lost fetus.

What’s that I hear you say? “What a load of garbage!!”

“Do you reckon 0_0???” is my answer.

And yet, this is what is believed by a VERY large amount of people who read this story and its many variations on the internet every day. You just have to Google Kapunda, Rev Martin, Ruby Bland and a massive amount of rubbish appears, some of it no doubt thrilling to say the least. But harmless? Sadly not.

Because of this Urban Myth, people trek up to this location on a nightly basis and take their drinking and vandalising ways with them. I have personally sat and listened to people yelling at Rev. Martin with language so appalling and so filled with hate, I will not repeat it here. I have found and read the letters that are posted on Ruby’s headstone commiserating with her and cursing that mongrel Rev. Martin who killed her. And still the myth grows unchecked seemingly with a life all of its own, as does this hatred of a man accused of things he can now no longer defend himself against. The final insult was the other night when some of these people, obviously holding such misdirected hatred against a man they never met, dug out half his grave and took down the cross.. not a mean feat when you consider the size of the cross.

The cross showing where two priests lie, one being Rev Martin

I am sure if I went to a site tomorrow and spun a tale on the net, even if I believed it to be correct, people would soon be going there and experiencing all kinds of phenomena to back up my story. They then would continue to build on that tale, forums would start to fill up with experiences and the snowball rolling would grow bigger. Nobody questions, it is either accepted as reality by some, or just harmless urban myth by others all the while not realizing in some cases the damage that can be done because of it.

But let’s go back to Rev. Martin for a moment. What was the real story, did this man truly deserve this hatred and his name sullied for eternity?

Yes the sheep farmers and their sheep were real, as was the glinting church and reformatory. The nuns and the girls... yup real. Rev. Martin surely didn’t exist though… actually he existed too as did Ruby… but this is where fact blends into fiction.

This story was started years ago, and it didn’t help that a book and a documentary came out of the woodwork that was based on this Urban Myth and not on factual research. Since that time it has been spread further by so called “Ghost Hunters” who in reality are just “thrill seekers” not interested in REAL research, but instead find ‘evidence’ to back up these fairy tales and then plaster it over the net. If they had taken time to do the REAL research, they would find that these characters did exist but the story was very different.

We did uncover documents and letters from the nuns written at the time. There was concern with Rev. Martin without a doubt, but NOT because he was wantonly raping and killing the children but because he was very strict with them and he was showing possible signs of possible mental illness. Something which these days he would and should have had help with, but in those days the church pretty much abandoned him.

And what of Ruby Bland, well if the research was done properly there too, they would also find out that Ruby Bland did not die at the hands of Rev. Martin at all, but had apparently suffered from gallstones for a time before her eventual death from complications. This is borne out on her death certificate. There was no baby and no rape by the ‘evil’ Rev. Martin, let alone any abortion. There was no murdering of children and if he is still wandering around St Johns angry, then it probably more because he is fuming at all the idiots that desecrate his grave purely based on hearsay and nothing more.

So here is a man who was nothing but a victim of circumstance himself. Life had dealt him a raw deal like it does to many of us and sadly, due to people being more interested in thrills then the truth, death has dealt him a pretty raw deal too. This is a man that certainly wasn’t a saint, and had many faults, but there is no evidence of being guilty of what he is accused of. All the girls were accounted for; there was no indication of murders, no raping and no abortions!!

The moral of this tale...???

There would be plenty of stories worldwide similar to this one, and maybe even one near you. This story is not and should not just be seen as one small place in Kapunda. So I am going to appeal, if you are paranormal researchers and investigators and do the work sensibly, which I know a lot of you do, help to fight back against the ones that go out there for kicks “hunting ghosts”… those that cause damage, spread false stories, cause pain and give us all a bad name. Please when investigating endeavor to find out the truth and make sure it is included in your research. Don’t accept stories as being factual. If the historical research isn’t done, and yes I know it can be tedious and time consuming, and you just go out there and feed the myth more, then you are as guilty as the people who dug out the grave and brought down Rev Martin’s cross.

At the end of the day, even if Rev Martin was of dubious character, his life would not have been easy, especially living with a possible mental illness, and in death he has been punished and continues to be punished by these idiots for nearly 80 years now.

He has certainly paid the price, so maybe it is time to finally let him rest in peace along with the location itself!!