room (the aforementioned dining room of earlier days).  Yelling for his mother's attention, the boy stood staring into the room.  The mother walked over to the tot and they entered the reading room.  The boy pointed toward the fireplace saying, "There it is. There!"
    According to the mother and the children's librarian, no one else was in the room.  The child was insistent and kept pointing.  When his mother asked him what he saw, he pointed again and said, "The lady." 
    The mother reported feeling very disturbed, with chills running up and down her spine, and wanted to get out of the reading room immediately.  The apparition, visible only to the youngster, was of a dark-haired lady with a long dress that reached the floor.  The boy told his mother that he said hello to the lady but got no response.
    The library ghost is also well known to the Bernardsville Police Department.  Former Police Chief John Maddaluna revealed that in 1950, when he was a new recruit on the force, he was walking the midnight beat with his training sergeant.  While shaking doorknobs and shining his flashlight into storefront windows, he noticed movement inside the library.  Aiming his flashlight through the window he saw a female figure wearing a long white dress that trailed on the floor.  Then he lost sight of her.  Thinking there was an intruder inside, Maddaluna ducked down and snuck around to a couple of other windows.  Once again he saw the figure, only to lose it again.  Alerting his sergeant, he was told not to worry.  It was "just the ghost," which the sergeant himself had seen several times.
    Police Officer Nicholas Valente told FATE that a regular routine for officers on the night shift is to park across from the library, hoping to catch a glimpse of Phyllis while having their sandwiches

and coffee.

Library Ghost Hunting
    The library has attracted the attention of a few noted ghost hunters.  In 1976 the prolific and controversial psychic investigative team of Ed and Lorraine Warren visited the library.  Lorraine, who claims to be clairvoyant, reported sensing strong haunting activity immediately upon entering the building.  She identified a couple of highly active areas marked by pockets of "psychic cold," and described the spirit of Phyllis Parker quite specifically.  In 1987 psychical researcher Norm Gauthier attempted to record evidence of electronic voice phenomenon (EVP) at the library.  Sophisticated recording equipment using sealed tapes provided by local news reporters was set up on January 29th, the day believed to be the anniversary of Phyllis' traumatic discovery.  (Notably, most of the phenomena have occurred in the winter).
    The all-night session by Gauthier and several reporters resulted in the recording of possible EVP, including the sounds of furniture moving, dishes and glasses banging (tavern sounds?), and a fleeting voice, unintelligible except for the word "please."  The reporters all agreed that they heard none of these sounds during the taping session; they were audible only during later playback.
    With the cooperation of the library staff, I organized a full field investigation at the library on the night of April 7, 1995.  I arrived with fellow police officers and paranormal investigators Peter Villani, Art Vernon and Gerry Wyhopen.  Anne Jones, a civilian psychic who has worked with New Jersey law enforcement, also joined our team.  Library staffers Pam Clancey and Brooke Mullen were on hand to assist us.  The library was closed and locked up for the night