[...] One professor, who studies ghost folklore, said places in Alabama, really in the entire South, are especially fertile for haunting, or at least for tales from the netherworld.

"I think a lot of it has to do with the sad legacy of slavery down here and the Civil War. People in the South, as a region, have suffered more than the rest of the nation," said Alan Brown, professor of literature and writing at the University of West Alabama.

That suffering gives rise to stories of tragic death. Combine that with deeply religious beliefs of an afterlife and you've got all the makings of paranormal visitors lurking on many a staircase, he said.

"Southerners love to tell stories anyway," said Brown, who recently published a book called "Haunted Places in the American South." [...]