Tue 18 May 2010
4:10PM
compton

Spooky Case of the Wem Ghost

There's an interesting story doing the rounds which you may or probably won't have seen recently. The Shropshire Star reports on an old chap who spotted what appears to be a very uncanny resemblance between a 1920s B&W photograph and a famous picture of an alleged local ghost.

See the story with full images here.

I was intrigued, and decided to compare the two images a bit closer, and there does seem to be a striking resemblance. See what you think using the image below. Click and drag the Fade control to fade from the 1990s image of the so-called Wem ghost to the 1920s image of a very much alive and sulky looking girl. You can use the other slider to zoom in or out on the image for a closer peek.

These images are both taken from the Shropshire Star story, and are untouched except to shrink the 'ghost' one so that it is the same size as the girl. I didn't process either image other than that - the brightness, contrast, rotation, proportions are all exactly the same as in the original two photos.

Some elements, such as the belt on the dress and the line of the girl's hat against her hair, seem to match nearly exactly. What do you think? Can there still be room for doubt? One thing's for sure, the guy who first spotted the resemblance has got eagle eyes!
Fade
Zoom

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Lennii

8:46 pm, Thursday, 17 February 11
I really think you've chosen a clever way of showing how this is the same girl. Well done!
 

Rodger, Australia

2:51 pm, Wednesday, 23 March 11
Thank You, you have saved me some work, though I was looking forward to doing this same thing, I was not keen to start as I have to find some new photo editing software (just moved from XP, to Win7)

this highlights perfectly that there is no doubt that the girls in both pictures are indeed the same girls, but more than that, the EXACT same, too similar infact, proving the WEM Fire Pic is a fake.
 

Gregori

3:59 pm, Wednesday, 6 April 11
It's not easy to tell, since the postcard girl's face is less distinct than the fire girl. If that's hair down the middle of the postcard girl's forehead (could be shadows, can't quite see), and none are visible on the fire girl, my tendency would be to consider the resemblance a possible coincidence, and little more. The post card girl's hair also appears to be basically much fuller. The biggest resemblance is the clothing. Someone may have perpetuated a hoax, but is this the answer?
 

Blair Jett

3:49 pm, Sunday, 22 May 11
But you are only fading one photo into another and it was resized to match. I fail to see how this is conclusive evidence.
 

Cj

8:45 am, Saturday, 11 June 11
Wow in the post card photo it dosn't look the same but now I can see the resemblance good job!!!:)
 

Guest

8:28 pm, Tuesday, 26 July 11
This is brilliant!!! I had been interested in the Wem Ghost photo, especially since no one has been able to prove it fake until now, but couldn't really tell if it was the same girl or not. This finally proves that it was fake, but how anyone could tell they were the same just by looking at them is beyond me. Well, I guess Mr. Eagle Eyes did, and he was certainly right about this one! Thank you so much! ;)

ANP
 

Guest

9:25 pm, Wednesday, 27 July 11
For me there is no doubt when I look at the hat-line (where it meets her head)...it is exact.
 

don

9:09 am, Monday, 12 September 11
WOW.. Pure Genius on the guy who spotted it first. And Thanks for making it 99.9999999% clear.
 

Symona

9:08 pm, Wednesday, 16 November 11
IMHO you've got the right answer!
 

Cubbie

12:32 am, Saturday, 4 February 12
so fake...It's not even real
 
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