The disturbing history behind the “Bed sheet ghosts”, a thread

The disturbing history behind the “Bed sheet ghosts”, a thread: 

The concept of a ghost interpreter dressing up in a white bed sheet goes back to the 16th century and at its core it makes perfect sense. You see the body of the poor at this time were most often covered in a white sheet upon its burial so if one were to rise from the grave it would make total sense that doing so the ghost would be covered in this white sheet. 

Between the 16th and 20th century it was actually quite a common occurrence to see people roaming the streets dressed up as a ghost, with one of the most common costumes being the white bed sheet. Most people did this as a gag, to mess with people and possibly scare someone, getting a nice laugh out of it. But other people dressed up as ghosts with a way more maleficent intent. 

During the late 17th century a man called Thomas Wilmot dressed up as a ghost to disguise himself while robbing people on the street. In the 18th and 19th century many people dressed up as ghosts when performing awful acts like murder, robbery and rape. This gave birth to the legend of Spring-heeled Jack, a person dressing up as a ghost finding lone women and sexually assaulting them, and this legend is based of actual events in the early 1800s. 

And then we had the accidental damage the disguised ghosts could cause, in 1792 one man dressed in a white sheet scared a horse when running out in front of it that the horse fell over killing the man riding it. And in the 1830s another man was charged with murder after giving an 81 year old lady an heartattack after running up to her in a ghost costume. 

But this could also lead to some dangerous situations for the so-called ghosts as well, in 1804 one Thomas Millwood was shot in the face being mistaken for a ghost when walking the streets. And in 1844 6 men beat up a person dressed as a ghost so bad that he was hospitalized. 

These are some examples but giving it a quick googling will give you many more and believe me it is disturbing reading!

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