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A White House Haunting. I'm Jason Horton. I'm Rebecca Lebe.

And this is Ghost Town. Occult behavior can happen anywhere, dark basements filled with candlelight,

graveyards at midnight, and even the White House. Yes, the White House.

Though 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is perhaps not the first place you'd think of

lifting the veil between the living, the dead, and the spirit world, for years, first ladies,

flotuses with their own agendas, have been convening with mysterious forces for power, answers, and knowledge. And who can blame them?

A high-pressure political role requires support, however you can get it. So, to Dan Gostown,

the known and not so well-known, First Ladies of U.S. history, who believed and dabbled in the occult.

Though many First Ladies believed in ghosts, according to Pat Kreider, the executive director

of the National First Ladies Library, let's make a distinction between the belief in the supernatural

and playing an active role in witchcraft and occult activities. As a note, Grace Coolidge,

Eleanor Roosevelt, Lady Bird Johnson, and Jackie Kennedy all claimed to have seen Lincoln's

ghost or felt his presence during their years in the White House. But again, not exactly what we're

talking about here. No. Today we'll focus on six first ladies who took it much further than that,

showing a fascination and participation in witchcraft-like activities for a means to their own ends.

From March 4, 1853 to March 4, 1857, Jane Pierce, wife of Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States,

...