The Community Press – 10/25/2006

Satanic worshipers in Blue Ash?

Wednesday, October 25, 2006
By: RICHARD SHIVENER
COMMUNITY PRESS STAFF WRITER

BLUE ASH — Ghost-hunting Web sites are still recognizing a group of Satanic worshipers who allegedly gathered somewhere in the city.

According to forgottenoh.com, “Satan’s Hollow in Blue Ash is the name of an underground ‘altar room,’ located in the sewer system, where a group of Satan worshipers supposedly raised demons and even dealt with the Dark One himself.”

The Web site also reports that one of Satan’s minions, “a demon in the form of a ‘shadow man,’ haunts the underground tunnels where they performed their ceremonies. The screams of a woman are often heard echoing through the passages.”

Does this group or altar room really exist, or is it all hear-say?

A: Beverly Mussari, Blue Ash resident of 25 years, has never heard of the satanic-worshiping story. She is the curator of the Blue Ash Historical Society Museum.

“It could have been some pranky thing that was created,” she said. “Even the old-timers haven’t said anything about it.”

Walter Reuszer, a resident of Blue Ash since 1941, said there are giant sewers near Kroger off Hunt Road, but he has never heard any stories about the altar room or worshipers. Alan Smethurst, father of Reuszer’s wife, Gerry, moved into the city in the 1920s, working for the first fire department of Blue Ash. Gerry or Smethurst never talked about the Satanism either, he said.

A group of high school students once addressed this story to Mary Lou Rose, a resident of Montgomery and author of “History of Blue Ash 1791 to 1991,” and “Celebrating Blue Ash in 2005.”

“We weren’t able to determine where that story started,” she said. “I checked, but I couldn’t find anybody who knew.”

Contacts from forgottenoh.com did not return emails for comment.

The Ohio Exploration Society published a similar story about this incident, though.

“A group of Satanists is said to have made animal sacrifices here and opened a door to hell,” the society said on its Web site, ohioexploration.com.

“Unfortunately I do not have any further information on this story,” the society’s founder, Jason Robinson, wrote in an e-mail late last week. “It was submitted (by a contributor) a few years ago and the original e-mail has since been lost. I’m not sure where the exact location is nor do I know of any groups that have been there before.”

Mussari said other reports of hauntings and ghost stories aren’t very popular in Blue Ash.

“I guess Blue Ash is pretty safe to be around during Halloween.”

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Thanks to Rich Shivener for contacting the Ohio Exploration Society about the satanic worshipers in Blue Ash. If you have any further information about the Blue Ash story, please email .