[URBAN NOTE] "Demystifying the legendary ghost story at U of T’s University College"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's Peter Goffin debunks an old University of Toronto ghost story.

At night, when the University of Toronto is bathed deeply in shadow, Richard Fiennes-Clinton will show you the mark on the oak door, left 160 years ago by stonemason Paul Diabolos’s axe.

He’ll tell of another stonemason, Ivan Reznikoff, killed by Diabolos’s next blow.

He’ll show you the grimacing gargoyles Diabolos carved into the College wall, and tell you that Reznikoff’s spirit walked the campus, until his body was discovered in 1890.

But Fiennes-Clinton, owner of Muddy York Walking Tours, will cut some of that spookiness with a disclaimer.

“I do tell people that it’s a legend, it’s probably been embellished over the years,” he says.