So, pack a night light -- the truth is out there, from coast to coast.  
          
        MENGER HOTEL  
        San Antonio, Texas  
        The ghoul: Chambermaid Sallie White  
        Her beef: She was O.J.-ed by her hubby right outside the hotel where she worked. Instead of getting even, she directed her afterlife anger in a more positive direction by continuing to clean the hotel’s Victorian wing. She’s the one dressed in a long gray dress and matching bandana. Don’t plan on tipping her, though - she never delivers the towels she’s carrying (you just can’t find good help these days).

        The haunt: Babe Ruth and Ulysses S. Grant both laid their drunken heads at this five-story charmer near the Alamo. Nowadays, it has 130 rooms, high-speed and a gym (from $TK/night; mengerhotel.com).

          
        SAINTE CLAIRE  
        San Jose, Calif.  
        The ghoul: Bridezilla Julia  
        Her beef: Was this close to getting married at the hotel’s “Palm Room” in the 1930s when her fiancé decided to leave her at the altar. Humiliated, Julia offed herself in the basement. Today, her ghostly high heels are heard angrily clip-clopping down the floors. Strange thing is - get this - the floors are all carpeted. Need a change of underwear, yet? Yowza.

        The haunt: The Sainte Claire is one of San Jose’s oldest properties (which could be anything over 10 years old in Silicon Valley, but this one happens to be 80). Its 170 rooms range from basic to luxury suites (from $Tk/night, thesainteclaire.com).

          
        ROSARIO RESORT & SPA  
        Eastsound, Orcas Island, Washington  
        The ghoul: Alice Rheem - one oversexed biker babe  
        Her beef: Alice was the second owner of the Rosario hotel, living there from 1938 to 1958. She was such a floozy, in fact, her husband built a separate mansion adjacent to the hotel to contain her out-of-control libido - it’s there she boozed herself to death. Nowadays, her randy ghost is spotted trolling the halls in high heels and a little red nighty. Beds creaking and other sounds indicating Alice had no problem achieving the big “O” still come from her bedroom. Look out: she’ll also barrel down the second floor on her favorite hog from time to time.

        The haunt: A posh, seaside resort on an island in the Pacific Northwest, Rosario’s 116 rooms and suites occupy acres of forested hillside. Alice’s mansion of celibacy now houses a restaurant and spa (rosario.rockresorts.com).

          
        HOTEL MONTELEONE  
        New Orleans  
        The ghoul: Dead kid in a striped shirt  
        beef: In the late 1800s, Josephine and Jacques Begere left their son Maurice back at the hotel with the babysitter while they went to the opera. From here, the stories differ. One account claims that on their way back, Mr. Begere was thrown from their carriage to his death after the horses were spooked, while his widow Josephine croaked from sadness a year later. Another legend says that Maurice died from a fever and convulsions while his ‘rents - who both returned safely from the opera - were away. Either way, Maurice is still wanders around looking for mom and dad -- he just wants to be loved, is that so wrong?

        The haunt: Hotel Monteleone downplays the city’s all-too-real morbidity of late, and plays up its liveliness: 600 rooms, rooftop pool, and seafood bistro (from $TK; hotelmonteleone.com).

          
        GREEN MOUNTAIN INN  
        Stowe, Vermont  
        The ghoul: The road to hell is paved with good intentions - and Boots Berry walked it  
        His beef: Boots was born in room 302, the bastard son of a horseman and a chambermaid. He eventually became a horse caretaker like Pops. Unfortunately, Boots later fell into a life of alcohol and prostitutes, and wound up in jail where he learned to tap dance from his cellmate. He later was released, and returned home in the middle of a snow storm, only to rescue a young girl trapped in the blizzard. She survived, but he slipped from the icy roof and died. These days, you can hear Boots tap dancing on the third floor when the weather’s bad.

        The haunt: Four-post beds, afternoon tea and wedding-wrothy surroundings make this a paradigmatic New England inn (from $129/night; greenmountaininn.com).

          
        ST. JAMES HOTEL  
        Cimarron, New Mexico  
        The ghoul: Thomas James Wright, the card shark that got filleted  
        His beef: Giving a much more fun and literal meaning to the term “dead money,” Mr. Wright was shot in the back after winning the deed to the hotel in a game of poker. The room in which he slowly bled to death, #18, has been forever locked. Now his invisible spirit pushes people around in the hallway.

        The haunt: St. James maintains the same 19th century aura about it (no phone, no TV) as it did when Billy the Kid and Clay Allison slept here between busting caps in lawmen’s asses and dancing naked on the bar, respectively (from $80/night, stjamescimarron.com).

          
        LIZZIE BORDEN B&B  
        Fall River, Massachusetts  
        The ghoul: Lizzie Borden: femme fatale or innocent lumberjacking enthusiast?  
        Her beef: After being accused of violently axe-murdering her dad and step mom (each receiving about 10 blows apiece) in 1892, Lizzie was acquitted in court. Nevertheless, her Fall River community didn’t buy it, alienating the 30-something spinster who was possibly having a lesbian affair with actress Nance O’Neil. Years later, an ax was found in the house while it underwent renovations. Her “shadow" has been spotted, even filmed, in various room, hatchet in hand.

        The haunt: Seven bedrooms are available at this charming slaughterhouse-turned-inn. Eat breakfast exactly where the victims ate the morning of the unpleasantness -- the johnny-cakes are, of course, . . . TO DIE FOR, MWAHAHA (from $150/night; lizzie-borden.com).

          
        CRESCENT HOTEL & SPA  
        Eureka Springs, Arkansas  
        The ghouls: A quack and his “patients”  
        Their beef: Your HMO really sucked if you ever found yourself in the waiting room of Dr. Norman Baker, an ex-magician and radio DJ who treated cancer patients with a phony cure composed of watermelon seeds and carbolic acid. Hundreds died by his hands in a hospital that’s now the Crescent Hotel. Baker was later arrested for practicing medicine without a license. Sightings of Dr. Feel Bad, his nurses and cancer victims are common.

        The haunt: The hotel sits on 15 acres and looks the same as it did back in 1886. And while spa treatments aren’t any more medically sound than watermelon elixirs, the hotel’s New Moon Spa doesn’t claim to cure cancer. Just promises to relax you (rooms from $109/night; crescent-hotel.com).

          
        STANLEY HOTEL  
        Estes Park, Colorado  
        The ghouls: Death imitating art  
         Their beef: Steven King once checked into the Stanley Hotel to escape the most horrifying thing in his life - his kids. The creepy digs inspired him to write “The Shining”. And while you won’t find Jack Nicholson axing his way through doors, there are hundreds of spirits - the dead owner, his wife and staffers - onsite to provide all the necessary redrum (probably still angry over the fact that the hotel only appears in the mini-series, not the film).

        The haunt: A large 138-room lodge in the snow provides cozy rooms, awesome views of the Rockies, and a spa (from $119/night; stanleyhotel.com).

          
OCEAN EDGE RESORT  
        Brewster, Massachusetts  
        The ghoul: Good widow Addie  
        Her beef: Roland, the son of wealthy developer Samuel Nickerson, married a lovely woman named Addie, and they had three kids. So Samuel built a mansion for his only son and his family, which suspiciously burned to the ground in 1906. Samuel vowed to rebuild it - which he did - but Roland, who ailed from heart complications, died before it was completed. Nowadays, the ghost of his doting wife Addie still wanders the place, still in a funk over the whole ordeal.

        The haunt: Atop a dramatic bluff, Ocean Edge sits amid 429 acres of pine trees, offering wowing views of Cape Cod. The (rebuilt) Victorian Nickerson Mansion has been preserved, and provides 90 of the resort’s 334 rooms (from $TK; oceanedge.com).