HGB Ep. 227 - Hinsdale House

 
Moment in Oddity - Air Bombs Reason Behind Bermuda Triangle Disappearances
Suggested by listener Annji Taft

The University of Colorado in Boulder has some scientists who think they have cracked the secret behind the Bermuda Triangle. The culprit behind all of the mysterious disappearances over the decades could be these atmospheric disturbances called air bombs. The meterologists were studying  satellite weather images and noticed these unusual hexagonal clouds in them. Clouds don't usually form straight edges, which is what caught their attention. These clouds in the Bermuda Triangle are an exception to that rule. It is thought that these clouds are the air bombs, which are deadly blasts of air that can easily exceed 170 miles per hour. These winds can generate waves of more than 45 feet in height. This would go along with theories that rogue waves might be causing boats to disappear in this region. Is it possible that these winds are breaking up boats and planes so thoroughly that nothing is left behind? And for people who think that the Bermuda Triangle is a thing of the past and no longer relevant, the last disappearance was just in 2015 when the cargo ship "El Faro" disappeared. More research needs to be done on air bombs, but it's a fascinating theory and certainly is odd!

This Month in History - Janis Joplin Found Dead

In the month of October, on the 4th, in 1970, singer Janis Joplin is found dead. Joplin was born in 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas. She loved music and enjoyed singing and joined the band Big Brother and the Holding Company in 1966. Joplin was wild with a very distinctive and raw voice. She brought attention to the group and got them a recording contract. Their first big hit was "Piece of My Heart." And while the band and Joplin were rising to the top of rock stardom, Joplin was falling heavily into drugs and alcohol. Her drug-fueled performances mesmerized fans, but her band mates were not pleased. Soon Big Brother and Joplin parted ways. She continued with her success as a solo act. Her most popular songs were "Down on Me", "Ball 'n' Chain","Summertime","Me and Bobby McGee","Mercedes Benz" and "Piece of My Heart." The road manager for the band she was recording with before her death, went to the Landmark Hotel to see why she hadn't shown up at the studio and he found her dead on the floor in her hotel room. She had overdosed on a potent hit of heroin. Even though she passed away at the age of 27, she is still one of the top-selling musicians in the United States with 15.5 million albums sold in the USA.

Hinsdale House

A rather nondescript and falling apart farmhouse in Hinsdale, New York has been described as one of the most haunted places in the state. The house has a mysterious history and unexplained paranormal activity that eventually led to an exorcism being performed. Many families have tried to live in the house, but not many have stayed. The experiences of one of those families, the Dandys, was featured on a 2006 episode of "A Haunting." Paranormal Investigator and co-host of the Curiosity Radio Show Tim Shaw joins us again to talk about this creepy location. Tim was actually featured on the Paranormal Lockdown episode about Hinsdale House.

Clara and Phil Dandy moved into the farmhouse with their children in 1973. They stayed for a little over a year and in that time, they experienced some crazy paranormal activity if they are to be believed. Initially, the sounds that they heard didn't bother them. They figured it was an older farmhouse settling. As activity started to ramp up, they thought that perhaps their imaginations were a little over active. Then they started seeing full-bodied apparitions that included our infamous Lady in White. Stranger still are the claims by the family that they saw bizarre animal-human hybrids. The haunting then turned violent with objects levitating and throwing themselves. On one occasion, a lamp threw itself at one of the Dandy's daughters.

One of the more frighting stories the family would go on to tell was of a night when they noticed a group of strange faces staring in their windows. However, when Mr. Dandy ran outside to chase away the trespassers, the faces reversed and were then peering back at him from the inside of the house.  They eventually called the Catholic Diosese and Father Alphonsus, a priest from St. Bonaventure University, came to the house to perform an exorcism. A paranormal investigation group joined him and all the witnesses claimed that the paranormal activity was the strongest that it had ever been during the exorcism. When it didn't work, he returned again and performed another cleansing. None of the exorcisms eradicated whatever spirits were haunting the place and the Dandy's finally gave up on their dream home. A 2006 episode of "A Haunting" on the Discovery Channel, featured the Dandy's experiences with the Hinsdale House.

Author Paul Kenyon befriended the family and became a caretaker at the house after they left. He documents the Dandy's story and his own experiences in a book he published in 2009 called "You Know They're Here." He returned to the house as he was writing the book and the current owners at that time said they had some activity, but nothing like what the Dandy's described. He writes in the book about a phenomenon we had never heard of before: ground lights. Here is what he wrote, "One puzzling new development, very puzzling for myself, which has been experienced by many is that of strange ground lights that appear. They are extremely bright and either fade out slowly or are gone in the blink of an eye.The lights mainly appear on the ground with no apparent source and are totally baffling. We experienced one recently only 15 feet from us at the edge of the road. Two of us ran directly toward it as it began to fade out. There was absolutely no source whatsoever for this strange light and we stood in the exact spot it had appeared."

Kenyon also goes on to talk about connections to the land that could be causing the haunting. There is a hanging tree on the property from which a woman was hanged. He also claims 1,100 Indians were murdered on the premises long ago and that a shaman burial site is located just above the Hinsdale House. A stagecoach way station also used to be near the hanging tree and it toppled over in 2007. An innkeeper murdered people there. The last people to physically live in the Hinsdale House were Joe and Florence Misnik. They left the house when they both passed away, which they did just a few months apart from each other. They didn't seem to have any experiences. This maybe backs up the idea that it is the land and not the house that is haunted.

Few paranormal investigators have entered Hinsdale House without having some kind of experience. Is it possible that something connected to the land has taken up residence in the home? Is Hinsdale House haunted? That is for you to decide!