HGB Ep. 531 - The Haunting of Loretta Lynn

Moment in Oddity - The Eschif in Perigueux (Suggested by: Karen Miller)

In the country of France, there is a very unique building that dates back to 1347 called the Eschif in Perigueux. It is located in the city of Perigueux (pear-hee-GOO) and consists of an oak timber framed building with wattle and daub infill. Wattle and daub is a composite building method used for making buildings where a wattle, or woven lattice of wood strips, is daubed with a sticky material which was typically a mix of wet soil, sand, animal dung and straw. The unusual building is balanced on the narrow ramparts of Puy-Saint-Front (poo-wee-sant-fron) which was the medieval center of Périgueux, and is supported on oak struts along its length. At nearly 700 years old the fact that this building is still intact is amazing. During the middle ages the building was used as a method of surveillance of the Tournepiche (TOR-na-peesh) bridge, which was a toll bridge. The building, which is shaped like a house, sits atop a wall. The rampart looks to be approximately 20 feet high. Aside from the angled support beams, the width of the supporting rampart looks to only be about a third of the building's footprint if it were sitting on the earth. Structural engineering today can produce all sorts of amazing feats, but a nearly 700 year old building still accomplishing this in modern times, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - The Three Mile Island Accident

In the month of March, on the 28th, in 1979, the Three Mile Island accident occurred. Three Mile Island was a nuclear generating station near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The accident started at 4 a.m. and began releasing radioactive gases and iodine into the surrounding areas. There was a failure in the non-nuclear secondary system which then was compounded by a valve in the primary system which became stuck in the open position. There were further mechanical failures that arose. The Three Mile Island incident is considered one of the worst accidents in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history. It brought about new regulations to the nuclear industry. This also stimulated the anti-nuclear movement activists who fought for the ceasing of nuclear production due to worries of regional health effects. The cleanup of three mile island began in August of 1979, officially ending in December of 1993. The nuclear plant was restarted in 1985 but then was officially retired in 2019. The decommissioning is predicted to be finished in 2079 at an expected cost of $1.2 billion.

The Haunting of Loretta Lynn (Suggested by: Ivy Johnson) 

Hurricane Mills Rural Historic District is the name of Loretta Lynn's ranch in Tennessee. This is a large 3500-acre property that is basically its own little village. Loretta Lynn wasn't shy about telling people that her ranch was haunted. Loretta embraced the paranormal and even claimed to have her own psychic abilities. The world lost an amazingly talented singer and songwriter when she passed in October of 2022. On this episode, we will explore the life of this coalminer's daughter and the hauntings that surrounded her.

Loretta Lynn once said, "To make it in this business, you either have to be first, great or different. And I was the first to ever go into Nashville, singin' it like the women lived it." We think she was being modest as she proved to be both great and different. While many might think of her as a classic country and bluegrass singer, she wasn't afraid to twist things up as she did in 2004 when she recorded the duet "Portland Oregon" with rocker Jack White of the group White Stripes. She was only the second country music singer to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And with three Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, eight Broadcast Music Incorporated awards, 13 Academy of Country Music awards and eight Country Music Association awards, she remains the most awarded woman in country music history. Although she rose to these great heights, she started from very modest means.

She started as Loretta Webb in April of 1932, named for film star Loretta Young. Loretta was born to Clara and Theodore Webb in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky. Ted was a coal miner who battled black lung disease for many years before dying of a stroke at the age of 52. She had seven siblings, one of whom is country music star Crystal Gayle. Butcher Hollow was a remote Appalachian hamlet and the family lived in dire poverty in a mountain cabin with Ted Webb providing much of the family's food from what he raised on their property. The family clearly had music though, based on the musical success that has come from this family, right up to Loretta's granddaughter Emmy Russell who tried out for the recent season of American Idol and got her ticket to go to Hollywood. But becoming a music legend wasn't initially in the stars for Loretta. Getting married and raising a family seemed to be her destiny and it came early. She was only fifteen when she met 21-year-old war veteran Oliver "Doolittle" Mooney Lynn. The couple were married a month after meeting and Doo, as Loretta called him, moved her to northwest Washington to live in a logging community.

The marriage would last nearly fifty years until Doo died in 1996. It wasn't a happy marriage. Doo was a hellraiser and a serial philanderer. Loretta had four children by the time she was twenty. The couple would add twins in 1964 after Loretta got started on her music career. And it was that music that saved her sanity. Imagine being moved away from your country roots and everyone you knew at such a young age and then being responsible for a home and children when still a teenager. Loretta wrote in an autobiography, "I married Doo when I wasn't but a child, and he was my life from that day on. But as important as my youth and upbringing was, there's something else that made me stick to Doo. He thought I was something special, more special than anyone else in the world, and never let me forget it. That belief would be hard to shove out the door. Doo was my security, my safety net. And just remember, I'm explainin', not excusin'... Doo was a good man and a hard worker. But he was an alcoholic, and it affected our marriage all the way through." That something special was definitely her voice. Loretta would sing while doing her chores of hand laundry, gardening, canning, cleaning and cooking and Doo would listen and tell her over and over that she was better than anyone he heard on the radio. 

Doo was so impressed with Loretta's singing that he bought her a guitar and told her she needed to learn how to play it and write songs. Lynn said, “After he got me the guitar, I went out and bought a Country Song Roundup. I looked at the songs in there and thought, ‘Well, this ain’t nothing. Anybody can do this.’ I just wrote about things that happened. I was writing about things that nobody talked about in public, and I didn’t realize that they didn’t. I was having babies and staying at home. I was writing about life. That’s why I had songs banned.” She started performing at nightclubs in the area and one night when she was at a club in Vancouver, Canada, executives from Zero Records heard her sing and they offered her a contract. She debuted her first single "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl" in March 1960. The song was based off a woman Loretta met while performing at a club who was very intoxicated and told her about how terrible her life was and was recorded in the Bakersfield Sound style, which meant it had a west coast shuffle. Doo and Loretta hopped in their Mercury and drove around the country self-promoting the song to radio stations.

Nashville loved the song and she was invited to sing at the Grand Ole Opry on October 15, 1960. The Wilburn Brothers befriended her and helped her polish her style and got her signed by Decca Records. That contract came because Decca producer Owen Bradley loved Loretta's song "Fool #1," but he didn't want to sign another female country singer. Teddy Wilburn said he could only have the song if he signed Loretta. Brenda Lee went on to make "Fool #1" a pop hit. Owen eventually came to adore Loretta and he dubbed her "the female Hank Williams." Loretta's first song with Decca was 1962's "Success." This made the top ten and would just be the first of 50 top-10 hits for Lynn. The Grand Ole Opry invited her to be a regular member of the cast in 1962 and it would be during this time that she would become friends with another subject of one of our haunted people episodes, Patsy Cline. Cline taught her how to dress and style her hair and make-up and the friendship was so enduring that Loretta named one of her twins after Patsy.

In 1966, Lynn's song "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)" hit No. 1, making her the first country female recording artists to write a No. 1 hit. Controversy was a part of many of the songs that Lynn penned. Her most controversial was 1973's "Rated X." The song was about the stigma women faced in the early 1970s after getting divorced. It reached No. 1 and spent a week there. The White Stripes often included the song in their play list at concerts in the late 1990s. Loretta teamed up with Conway Twitty in 1971 to record a duet and it was the beginning of a long and beautiful professional relationship. They would have five No. 1 consecutive hits from 1971 to 1975 together. *Fun Fact: Shel Silverstein who wrote the beloved classics "The Giving Tree" and "Where The Sidewalk Ends," wrote Lynn's No. 1 hit "One's on the Way."

The 1970s were a huge peak for Loretta. She made many appearances on TV talk shows, was featured on the cover of Redbook and Newsweek, was the first woman to win "Entertainer of the Year" at the CMA Awards and she was named "Artist of the Decade" by the Academy of Country Music. She's the only female to have that honor. The film "Coal Miner's Daughter" debuted in 1980 starring Tommy Lee Jones as Doo and Sissy Spacek as Loretta. Spacek won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance. The movie was based on her first autobiography. Lynn would write a second one in 2002. Loretta continued to produce hit sings and albums for the rest of her life, even experiencing a late career resurgence in 2004 that continued to 2022. The year 2012 brought a third autobiography. Her 50th studio album dropped in 2021. Loretta had a stroke in 2017 and broke her hip during a fall in 2018, but she fought back and continued performing. She died in her sleep at the age of 90 on October 4, 2022. She was buried on her ranch next to Doo, who had died in 1996. His death was heartbreaking for her and she never remarried.

Loretta's ranch is the sixth largest attraction in the state of Tennessee. It stretches over 3500 acres and is known officially as Loretta Lynn's Ranch. Loretta and Doo were looking for a piece of Tennessee they could call their own when they stumbled upon Hurricane Mills in 1966. The property had been around since the late 1800s and the Lynns wanted the big house on the hill. The owner of the house would only sell if the couple would buy the whole town too. So they bought the full 3500 acres in 1966. There were many historic buildings, including a grist mill on the property. The Lynns preserved the old grist mill and the village is centered around it. The Hurricane Creek Dam was built in 1839 from wood and stone and refaced with concrete in 1912. There was also the Hurricane Mills Bridge, which is a gorgeous steel bridge built in 1911 by the Nashville Bridge Company and the Hurricane Mills General Store and Post Office, built in 1926. A school is also on the property. The Hurricane Mills Rural Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. The paperwork has very detailed descriptions of all the buildings: https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/99001449_text

Loretta and Doo lived in the Classical Revival-styled mansion here from 1966 to 1988 that was originally known as the Hillman-Anderson House. It was built in 1876 and has a two-story Queen Anne-style front porch with the rest of the farmhouse being in a Neoclassical Revival-style. The interior has a central-hall floor plan with a curved, self-supporting staircase in the central hall. There is molded trim, carved scrollwork and paneled doors and transoms and Greek Revival and Queen Anne wooden mantelpieces. The Lynns renovated, adding a new kitchen, a one-story side wing, new bathrooms and central heat and air. After they moved out, the home was open for touring, so that people could see how they lived and see memorabilia and family photos. A replica of the cabin she grew up in has been recreated and is on the property for touring and was used in the movie "Coal Miner's Daughter." The museum on the ranch features Loretta's outfits she wore during performances and awards she won. And up until her death, Loretta lived in a small private residence behind the mansion. There are several guest cabins and 300 powered campsites for RVs where people can stay and there are many things to do on the ranch from horseback riding to hiking to fishing to jeep events to motorcycle events and there are places to eat.

There is a paranormal side to Loretta Lynn via not only her haunted ranch, but the woman herself. Loretta claimed that she could see and talk to spirits from a very early age and at first she didn't think it was strange. She thought all kids experienced the same thing. Lynn claimed that her mother had been psychic too and she thought that it came from the Cherokee side of their family. Her mother would have premonitions of things that would happened two weeks later. People would laugh when she would tell them things, but after she continued to be right about so many things, family members started believing her. Loretta claimed her mother had told her that she would meet Doolittle. Psychic abilities came to Loretta not only in being able to see family members and others who had died, but she would have very vivid dreams. Many times, the dreams would scare her. Often she would say that spirits didn't scare her, but her dreams did. Shortly after moving to Washington, she awakened at 4am and told Doo that her father had died. She saw him in a coffin. Several minutes later, a neighbor knocked on the door and told Loretta she needed to come to his house for a phone call because she and Doo didn't have a phone. The call was her sister-in-law telling her that her father had passed. When she got home for the funeral, she told her mother that her father was in the coffin and suit she had dreamed about. 

Loretta Lynn appeared on "Celebrity Ghost Stories" on Season 3, Episode 9 and psychic Kim Russo came out to explore the ranch. Loretta told the show that the mansion had been used as a Civil War hospital. Album covers that lined the walls of the staircase would get turned upside down and would be crooked. At night they would hear things like disembodied footsteps. Her twin daughters would tall her stories in the morning about a woman who would come and stand by their beds. This would be a woman dressed in white with her hair up in a hairdo from another period. Her son Jack once claimed that he laid down on his bed one night after doing some drinking and he was awakened by a man trying to pull his boots off. When he turned and looked at the man, he saw that he was wearing a Civil War soldier uniform. His dog was in the room and growling at the guy. The dog lunged at the guy and went right through him. That's when Jack realized he was looking at a ghost. Jack got up, ran out of the room and nearly fell down the stairs because he was so scared and running away.

Loretta was really sick on tour once and had to be put in the ICU. She dreamed that she had lost her boy. Shortly after that her husband came in and told her that Jack had died. He had been riding a horse and he drowned in the river on the property. The really weird twist to this story is that Loretta's mom had visited her right after the Lynn's had purchased the property and as they walked the property, Loretta's mother grabbed her arm and told her that one of her children was going to drown there and that she should move away. Loretta had hoped that her mother was wrong. A seance was conducted on the property with the singer and her closest friends and they contacted a spirit calling himself "Anderson." He seemed angry to have them contacting him and Loretta claimed that he started shaking the table angrily and it eventually broke apart.

Loretta was walking up to the mansion on a day when it was misty raining and she looked up and saw a woman in white standing on the balcony. The woman was crying and wringing her hands. Loretta thought that perhaps her twin's babysitter had upset the woman, so Loretta went in and asked the babysitter, Gloria, who the woman was. The babysitter said that no one was there, but her. The balcony was empty when they checked. Loretta wanted to know who the woman was so she visited several people in the area inquiring as to who had built the house and who had lived in it. One woman brought out an album of pictures and Loretta was looking through them trying to find a picture of the woman and she found it. The lady in white was a member of the Anderson family and her baby died during childbirth and she mourned herself to death. She cried all the time. Kim Russo claimed that a James Anderson joined her in the car as they drove onto the ranch. He wanted the car to be stopped near an open field and he told Russo that he was going to serve as a guide for her. She got out of the car and could feel a vortex of energy and she could hear the horses and sounds of battle from the Civil War. She could smell the artillery and saw a lot of bloodshed. Those spirits are still running around the property. James said he sticks around to protect Loretta and her family after her husband died. James claimed he was going to mess with the audio to let them know he was around and Loretta's audio got really overdriven at one time.

Loretta's grandson told Tennessee’s WJHL News that “The power happened to go out one night, and as I was rounding the corner to get back into my room, the chandelier was the only light that was on in the house. What’s so strange about this is that the entire house is on the same electric breaker. There’s no possible way the chandelier could have been on while all the other lights were off.” Lynn's son Ernest and his girlfriend had said they didn't like to be outside their home on the property at night because there were so many spirits around. They would see the apparitions of Confederate soldiers and that was probably because several had been buried in the yard near their home. WKRN visited the house in 2016 and the crew claimed some weird stuff happened in the haunted room upstairs. One thing was knocking coming from inside the closet. They would open it and find nothing inside that could be causing the knocking.

Loretta's ranch was the first celbrity home that the Ghost Adventures team visited. They caught the following EVP: "Get Your House Back", "I Hear Them, I Hear Them Coming", "I Need To Go Down The Stairs", "Possibly In Trouble", "Loretta", "Lynn", "I Was Hurt", Vulgar Voice, "Gonna Cut Ya", "Ya Can't Touch Them." Aaron and Zak both claimed to be physically touched.

A review on TripAdvisor in 2011 reads, "We Loved Our Fall Visit to Loretta Lynn's Hurricane Mills Ranch. We did not know of the History of Paranormal Activity in the Area until we watched the Show on BIO last night. I remembered these Photos taken down at the River by the Campground during the "Songwriter's Festival" in 2009. We were puzzled with the two photos as there was no fog or mist in the area. No light other than from a few campfires nearby. It was clear and nothing was in my Camera View when I personally took these Photos. As you can see several were made within seconds of the ones with the Strange Mist / Orbs and are fine. I compared my photos with other Friends who were taking Photos that night. No one else had anything strange show up in their Photos. We could not explain these photos."

A tour guide was leading a group through the house and stopped at the staircase. She stepped up onto the staircase in the foyer and explained that the spirits don’t like it when you mess with the picture frames. And the guide then moved on of the picture frames. She turned around and then noticed that the visitors were looking at her funny, or rather at something behind her. They claimed that a shadowy kind of thing had appeared behind her. She was then pushed off the second step onto the floor. All the tourists ran out of the house and the tour guide followed them.

Loretta hasn't been gone that long and there haven't been any stories about her apparition appearing anywhere...yet. But if there was a place she was going to haunt, no one could doubt that it would be her ranch. Was Loretta Lynn psychic and is her former home haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 530 - Kitty Knight Inn

Moment in Oddity - Little Debbie Park (Suggested by: Michael Rogers)

Little Debbie is a popular snack cake company and just saying the name may make our listener's mouths water. I know Diane is salivating as I read this. Their company began in the 1930's by the McKee family and were featured as "The Official Snack Cake" of the World's Fair in 1982. Through the years the tasty pastries garnered all sorts of popularity, even producing a vinyl record in 1965 with the Little Debbie commercial jingle on one side and children's stories recorded onto the B side. Today, if you visit Collegedale, Tennessee, you may just happen upon a most unique park. This is the "Little Debbie Park" which features giant sized Little Debbie snacks. The sculptures were created for children to play upon and they include a huge cosmic brownie, oatmeal cream pie, and Christmas tree snack cake. The park is 10 acres in size and also features a large pavilion with restrooms, swings, benches, playground and picnic tables. The acreage was donated to the city by the McKee Foods Corporation. Little Debbie Snacks are iconic, but a park featuring giant sized replicas of the tempting tasty treats certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Birth of Sam Houston

In the month of March, on the 2nd, in 1793, Sam Houston was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia. As a teen, Sam ran away from home and spent 3 years living with the Cherokee, adopting the name Raven. During the war of 1812, Houston served under General Andrew Jackson. Despite his time spent with the Cherokee, Houston presided over the mass removal of the Cherokee from Tennessee. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1823 and he heartily supported Andrew Jackson's presidential run. In 1827, Houston was elected governor of Tennessee, later resigning in 1829. Sam Houston moved to Texas in 1832 and led the Texan Army to victory at the Battle of San Jacinto. Following that, he won the 1836 Texan presidential election. He played a vital role in the annexation of Texas and thus, was elected to represent Texas in the United States Senate. In 1859, Houston won the Independent vote for governor of Texas with a 56.8% to 43.1% margin. Sam Houston was forced out of office in 1861 after refusing to swear an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy. He died just two years later in 1863 and is honored in many ways, the city of Houston which was named for him being the most noteworthy.

Kitty Knight Inn (Suggested by: Steven Saint-Amour) 

Located along the Chesapeake Wine Trail and a scenic byway is the Kitty Knight Inn in Maryland. Kitty Knight was an amazingly brave woman who saved this house from destruction at the hands of the British. She went on to buy the house and apparently, is still caring for it in the afterlife. Join us for the history and hauntings of the Kitty Knight Inn!

Galena is located on Maryland's Upper Eastern Shore and is home to the inn. The town was originally named Downs' Cross Roads when it was founded in 1763. The name was for early settler William Downs who established a tavern in the town. The town later became Georgetown Cross Roads and then eventually Galena, which is a type of silver extracted from lead ore. Town legend claims that a mine near the town had galena extracted from it, but there is no actual record of this. Galena is also home to the 301 Devils Playground haunted attraction. This attraction is Maryland's number one haunted attraction and has four areas: House of Hell, 3-D Phobia (3-D blacklight experience), The Barn of Torture and The Harvest. Plan a visit and make sure to book a room at the Kitty Knight Inn, which is a tribute to a woman who made a name for herself during the War of 1812.

In 1803, the Napoleonic War started between France and England. To stick a thumb in the eye of England, Napoleon negotiated the Louisiana Purchase with America, giving the new country all the French territory west of the Mississippi River. This helped build tensions between England and the United States. On top of that, Britain was boarding American ships and forcing the men aboard into conscription with their military. Britain needed more bodies because they were having trouble with desertion. Congress responded with demanding reparations and a cessation of impressment of Americans. They also expelled British ships from American waters. And then they passed the Embargo Act of 1807 to help avoid war, which eventually would come with the War of 1812. That war lasted for almost three years and didn't accomplish much for any side. But there were many stories that spawned from this conflict and several are connected to the state of Maryland, like the writing of the National Anthem and the valiant tale about Kitty Knight. 

Catharine Knight was known to everybody as "Kitty." It is believed that she was born in 1775 to John and Catherine Knight, who were both very active in the area. Kitty was said to be beautiful woman, who was tall and graceful. Her family was prominent, with her uncle serving in the General Assembly and as a member of the United States House of Representatives, and so when a ball was hosted in Philadelphia during a session of the Continental Congress, she attended. George Washington was one of the men who punched her card for a dance. Anger was growing in the area, just as it was on much of the east coast, towards the British. President Monroe and Congress declared war on Britain in June of 1812. Maryland wouldn't get much attention until the spring of 1813. The British had their eyes on the Chesapeake Bay. Britain saw this as a den of thieves and pirates.

Baltimore gets most of the attention in Maryland when it comes to the War of 1812, but the Eastern shore was very involved and paid a heavy price with two battles, seven skirmishes and 14 British raids. Whole towns were burned to the ground. This is what would happen in the Galena area. Turner's Creek was a village of about 60 people that was an important port for flour and grains. British Rear Admiral George Cockburn had a plan to squelch any resistance in Maryland. He would severely punish any resistance. On May 6, 1813, he landed several barges on the small village of Turner's Creek and told the residents that if they cooperated, they would be left unharmed. The British loaded up on supplies and claimed that they paid "full value" for those supplies. A man named John Stavely was forced to be a guide up the Sassafras River to Fredericktown, Georgetown and Galena. Local militia fired on the British from both sides of the Sassafras River. They were quickly overcome and retreated to Fort Duffy. Fort Duffy no longer exists, but a memorial marker was erected listing the names of the men. Because all of those towns resisted, Cockburn turned them to ash, save for a few locations in Galena because he met a brave woman, Kitty Knight.

So the British went on to the Galena area and they were marching to a hill where two brick houses sat, along with a church. We aren't sure if Kitty lived at one of the houses that ran as a boarding house or if she was just protecting two of the homes in her community, but as the British approached, she stood her ground. A sick and destitute elderly woman lived in one of the houses and the British started to put flame to it when Kitty rushed up and stamped out the flames. She declared to Admiral Cockburn, "I shall not leave. If you burn this house, you burn me with it." The British attempted again to burn the house and she stamped the flames out again. Her heroism greatly affected Cockburn and he ordered his men to stand down. He directed them to load back up the barges and the group left, leaving the church and two houses unburned. Kitty later bought the house that now bears her name in 1836. When she passed at the house in November of 1855 a newspaper wrote, "Her heroism at the burning of Georgetown...she saved several families from being made homeless and friendless by the fire and sword." She was buried at Saint Francis Xavier Shrine Cemetery. 

Sueann Hall bought the inn in 2018 from Ford and Ralph Hall. Jamestown Hospitality Group owns the property today. The two houses on the hill that were saved, were joined together in the 1930s. The older one was known as the Archibald Wright House and was built between 1773 and 1783. A white plank fence leads up the hill to the three-story red-brick inn with columns. The Kitty Knight Inn was probably built in 1800 and was known as the William Henry House. The inn was recently renovated and features 11 guest rooms. Along with the rooms, there is the Deep Blue Restaurant that also is an event venue. And... there is the ghost. 

April Doughty who is the director of marketing for the Jamestown Hospitality Group said, "We definitely have chatter about the house being haunted. Guests say that doors will shut, or you’ll hear voices when no one is there. While it’s always exciting to view the findings of paranormal investigation teams, the haunting of Kitty Knight remains a mystery." The house embraces the hauntings and not only has had members of the Mid-Atlantic Paranormal Project (MAPP) come and investigate the inn several times, but the group hosts public investigations. Our listener Steven who suggested this location participated in one of those hunts. He wrote, "We stayed there for a paranormal investigation and it was very active - cat balls and flash lights - lighting up on request. It has at least four spirits to include Kitty Knight herself." He shared a picture of one of the cat balls going off.

Tony Avallone is the Founder of the MAPP team and he said, "We strongly believe that there’s a presence that could be Kitty Knight herself." The group feels her presence most prominently in the room that bears her name and was apparently her actual room at one time. Avallone has overnighted in the room and had unexplained occurrences happen. He shared, "Our team investigated the room all night, and I ended up sleeping in the bed after we wrapped up around 3:30 a.m. At about 6:30 a.m. I woke up feeling a tugging, and I was freezing cold. I could see my breath. The thermostat was entirely off, but when we watched the footage, no one had touched it.” The rest of the Inn was at a normal temperature. 

The team has picked up orbs that they believe are supernatural in origin because the orbs seem to move with purpose and a couple have had distinct human features. Another spirit that they believe is in the house belongs to child and they have played ball with it, rolling the ball back and forth. Children are heard laughing and crying down in the basement. 

A Washington Post article from 1992 by Mary Z. Gray talks about the haunts in Kent County and the inn came up. She wrote, "In recent years, the manager's husband found the bathroom door blocked after he had showered. He was alone in the house. With great effort, he got the door open and found that a large TV set had been pushed against it. Later, a guest locked his door, only to see it open by itself, the hall light streaming in. He locked it again, propping a chair against it. When it opened once more, knocking over the chair, he packed his bags and left."

Horror Zine's Media Director Trish Wilson spent a couple nights at the Kitty Knight and here are her experiences, "I awakened to a great deal of noise coming from the room next to mine. It sounded like a party was going on in there. Too tired and embarrassed to complain, I checked the clock for the time – 2:30 am – and then tried to go back to sleep. I was surprised there was so much noise. It seemed odd to me, as if something were wrong, but I couldn't put my finger on exactly what that was. I wanted to say something about the noise, but I was too timid to speak up. I didn't want to cause any trouble, and I didn't want to come across as a stick in the mud. I awakened again at about 4 am. The inn was uncannily quiet. The partygoers must have checked out for the night or passed out. I felt a chill of excitement and a little fear as I pulled the blankets and sheets up to my chin. What if I encountered something in the dead of night, alone, in my room? What would I do or say? I had often read that the best thing to do when confronted by a spirit is to ask what it wanted. I was far too frightened to even think of doing anything of the kind! I had read books by legendary ghost hunters Hans Holzer and Elliott O'Donnell. Holzer worked with a medium who helped troubled spirits move on to the afterlife so they were not trapped on this plane. In my experience, demonic themes like those found in the "Conjuring" movies and "The Amityville Horror" weren't very common at that time. Ghosts were more often seen as sad, lost souls who were mostly harmless. So, I felt safe and quite thrilled.

Momentarily, I heard footsteps walking down the hallway away from my room. Who would be wandering about the halls at this late hour? Whoever it was took heavy steps as if wearing boots. Was it a guest of the inn – or a ghost? I wasn't about to open my door to find out! If it was Miss Kitty, she had a heavy step as if she wanted to be sure I knew she was there. While I felt frightened and very excited, I did not feel in danger. According to the legend, Miss Kitty wandered about the halls at night to check on her guests. I suppose she was satisfied I was squared away in my room. Early the next morning, I showered, packed, and walked downstairs to check out. I told the woman at the front desk about the party going on in the room next to mine, and how loud it was. She gaped at me with a deer in the head lights expression on her face. She said I couldn't have heard a party. I was alone in the building all night! The prickly things ran up and down my spine. I had experienced ghostly phenomena! 

While I would love to believe I had encountered one hell of a haunting, I was aware that the kitchen was downstairs from my room. Most likely, I heard the kitchen staff cleaning up for the night after dinner service had ended. It was very late, though. Later than I expected the kitchen staff to still be in the building. So … what if? What were those footsteps I heard clomping down the hallway? I had not imagined them. Even if the "party" was the staff cleaning up, I heard those footsteps moving just outside my room. Thrilled that I had a wonderful haunting experience to talk about after so many years of my own private investigations, I wanted to return. And return I did – with my husband. Our day at the Kitty Knight House was uneventful. We enjoyed a delicious dinner and gazed at the beautiful view of the Sassafras River. The patio was closed because it was nearly winter, but we did walk outside. I had enjoyed coffee on the patio the first time I had stayed. We stayed in the same room I had during my first time at the inn. I was afraid we'd end up leaving and not experience anything, but I was happy to return. We watched a little TV and then went to sleep.

I snapped awake in the middle of the night when someone – or something – had turned on the overhead light. I'm a very light sleeper, so that light turning on woke me up immediately. It was eerily quiet, which made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I remembered my husband had turned off the light before we retired for the night. I was too tired to get up and turn it off so I ignored it and went back to sleep. I awakened shortly before dawn, and the light had been switched off.The next morning, I asked my husband if he had turned the light off before going to bed. He said he had. He had not turned it back on at all during the night. Who had turned on that light? And who came back and turned it off?

I also heard those steps in the hallway again, just like my first visit. There were people staying in the inn that night so it could have been anyone. However, those were the same heavy footfalls I heard the first time around. Was Miss Kitty looking after me again? I recalled reading that her ghost had a habit of flicking on and off the light switches in addition to wandering about the hallways at night. I haven't been back to the Kitty Knight House since, but I would enjoy a return visit. I felt comfortable, safe, and curious. Whether or not my ghostly experiences were real, the inn was beautiful and welcoming. I'd like to think I experienced a haunting. I'm satisfied that I had. And what a haunting it was! Ghosts enjoying a party in the room next to me! Phantom footsteps! Lights turning on and off in the middle of the night! I couldn't have asked for a more thrilling stay. If Yelp were around, I'd have given the Kitty Knight House a great review – ghosts and all.

Less than five miles away, in Millington, there is a Cry Baby Bridge. This version claims that a mother gave birth to a deformed baby and she threw him off the bridge. The child later began to haunt the bridge and the forest near it by knocking over trees with crying fits. Any fallen trees are blamed on him. This area near the Sassafras River sounds beautiful and the inn sounds like a great place to enjoy it and some ghosts. Is the Kitty Knight Inn haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 529 - Haunted Calgary

Moment in Oddity - Largest Male Family (Suggested by: Chelsea Flowers)

We always marvel at how many children couples often had years ago. Although many times it was due to the expectation of loosing some of their children in their younger years, sadly. One family near Jonesboro, Tennessee is on record from the 1950's, as having the most male children in a family. The Harrisons' had a total of 13 sons which led to the marvel of this largely male family. What began their 'news worthy' recorded journey, was that Mr. and Mrs. Emory Harrison suffered a fire that burned down their home. Their community rallied by supplying for the needs of the large family. As a 'thank you' to their community, Mr. Harrison sent a letter to their local press. The news editor saw the promising prospect of covering the story of this family. The editor's story of the 13 sons was sent to nationally syndicated news columns. This newly found popularity brought them to New York for a family photo that taken in Times Square. Mrs. Harrison was given the "Honor Mother of the Year" award and the family even appeared on the original "Tonight Show" as well as winning $3,200 on a game show. Later in 1959, the couple added a daughter as their 14th living child whom they named Barbara Ann Harrison.  Having a large number of children in a family can be unusual, but a family comprised of 13 sons, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - The Birth of Amerigo Vespucci

In the month of March, on the 9th, in 1454, Amerigo Vespucci was born in Florence, Italy. It was the height of the Renaissance and he was born to a distinguished family with connections to the Medici dynasty. He was surrounded by the world of trade and maritime practices from the time he was young. This encouraged his pursuit in astronomy, mathematics, navigation and foreign languages. Fed by his personal passion for discovering new locations, in his 40's, Vespucci accompanied a Spanish expedition as an astronomer and mapmaker. During the explorations, Vespucci charted the constellations and also recorded various flora and fauna as well as indigenous tribes encountered. His many correspondences with friends and colleagues have become known as the "Vespucci Letters". They were touted as dispelling the belief that Columbus had reached Asia during his voyages. In the year 1507, to honor Vespucci's discoveries and documentations, a German cartographer drew a map of a recently identified continent and labeled it "Americus" in honor of Amerigo Vespucci. This is said the be "America's birth certificate"

Haunted Calgary (Suggested by: Amber Phillips)

The city of Calgary is gorgeous with the Canadian Rocky Mountains as its backdrop. The bustling city is the financial center of Western Canada. If you like rodeo, Calgary is your place as the city hosts the largest stampede in the world, the Calgary Stampede. Calgary also hosts several haunted historic locations from schools to homes to libraries to churches and so much more. Join us as we explore the history and haunts of Calgary!

Indigenous people settled the area that would become Calgary around 12,000 years ago, sometime after the last ice age. These were a nomadic people that lead up to the Blackfoot or Siksika Nation that are the First Nation people the Europeans would have met when they came. The early nomadic people left behind their field stone medicine wheels, pictographs and cairns. The fur trade brought the first Europeans by the late 18th century. Hunters and whisky traders set up fortified posts, two of which include one near the present-day Glenmore Reservoir and the other was named Fort Calgary. That second one was founded in 1876 and the name is Gaelic meaning bay farm. The first settler named John Glenn had arrived in 1873. The railroad came in 1883 and Calgary was incorporated in 1884. Calgary was known as a thriving cattle town and later was important as a transportation center and developer of oil and natural gas reserves. Many historic locations from Calgary's earlier years still exist today and several of them are reputedly haunted. 

Calgary Stampede

This is hard to believe, but the city didn't initially embrace the idea of the Calgary Stampede. And it had a very slow start. In 1884, the Calgary and District Agricultural Society formed in an effort to convince people, specifically farmers and ranchers, to move to the area. They hosted a fair and then bought land in 1889 along the Elbow River. They continued hosting exhibitions until 1895 when years of bad crops and other financial hardships forced the closure. A future Prime Minister named R. B. Bennett bought the property and later sold it to the city, so it could build a park they named in honor of Queen Victoria, Victoria Park. A new company, Western Pacific Exhibition Company, hosted an agricultural and industrial fair in 1899. The company would continue the tradition for years until the Government of Canada took over in 1908 and they widely expanded the property, adding six new pavilions and a racetrack. With these additions came a rodeo that featured trick roping and horse races. If you have listened to Ep. 101, you heard us cover the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch and the Wild West Show they hosted. One of their trick ropers was Guy Weadick. He was part of that first exhibition hosted by Canada and he came back in 1912 to convince local government officials that they needed to make the show more about the "wild west."

The government wasn't interested, but money talks, so Guy went about getting investors and convinced four businessmen to fund a new event. These men came to be known as The Big Four and were Pat Burns, George Lane, A. J. McLean, and A. E. Cross. A new rodeo arena was built on the exhibition grounds and hundreds of cowboys came to compete in front of a crowd of 100,000 in September of 1912. This was a huge success, but another event wasn't hosted until 1919. This too proved to be successful, but was just another one-off. Eventually, the rodeo event was combined with the other exhibitions in 1922 and formed under the new name Calgary Exhibition and Stampede. This new combined event was hosted the following year in 1923 with a huge parade and multiple events over a week. Locals were encouraged to dress in western clothes and the downtown businesses were decorated like the "wild west." And that was the start of the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth that continues to today. This years event in 2024 takes place from July 5th to 14th.

The Calgary Stampede Grandstand, which is now called the GMC Stadium, was built in 1974 and could seat 17,000 people. During the construction, a worker was killed in an accident and people claim that his spirit is at unrest here. There are claims that strange noises are heard, disembodied footsteps are heard and his apparition has been seen.

The Deane House

The Deane House was built on the Fort Calgary site in 1906 for Captain Richard Burton Deane, for who it is named. The Captain was not only the first resident of the house, but also an actor, a gardener, a North-West Mounted Policeman and magician. Deane was described as having a drooping mustache, pale complexion with cold eyes and he had an acerbic tongue, which he used regularly against his superiors and politicians. They referred to him as a torment. He was the last serving North-West Mounted Police Superintendent in Calgary. The North West Mounted Police established Fort Calgary at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers in 1875. Before that time, this had been a place of gathering and ceremony for the Blackfoot Confederacy, which includes nine groups. The police signed Treaty 7 in 1877 with the indigenous people believing that this would be a sharing arrangement. The Canadian government claimed that they had surrendered the land and began displacing the indigenous groups.

Deane had moved his wife and five children to Canada in 1882 and initially was an inspector for the police, but he proved to be a very capable leader and was promoted to superintendent. He eventually got a post in Calgary where the house was built. Two of his children died before his wife who died in 1906. Right when the house had been built. He remarried in 1908 and his second wife passed in 1914. After that, Deane left Calgary for England and eventually moved to Italy where he died in 1930. The house was two-stories with a large wraparound porch. The Grand Trunk Railway purchased the house in 1914 and moved it to a new location to serve as the office and Station Master's house, so that it wouldn't be demolished. In 1929, the house was moved yet again, across the Elbow River to where it sits today on 9th Avenue. The Deane House was pulled across the river by steam-tractor on temporary pilings. We'll post a picture to Instagram. It's crazy and even Popular Mechanics Magazine called it an astonishing feat of engineering. For many years it served as a a boarding house under the name Jasper Lodge. Alex Brotherton bought it and renamed it to Gaspe Lodge, which ran until the late 1960s. In the 1970s, the house became an art gallery called Dandelion Gallery. Today, it is a restaurant with gardens that was redeveloped and refurbished in 2015 by Fort Calgary Historic Preservation Society. Weddings are also hosted on the property.

There is a history of hauntings connected to the house, due in part to tragic events connected to the boarding house. A boarder fell down a staircase and died. A 14-year-old boy who lived there had epilepsy and apparently after repeated bullying, he hanged himself in the attic. Roderick Umperville lived in the house in 1952 with his wife and children and one day he lost control and stabbed and strangled his wife in front of their children. He then killed himself. Owner Alex Brotherton died in the house in 1968. Visitors to the house claim to smell cigar smoke and they hear an antique piano play by itself. There is an old telephone in the museum that is no longer hooked up and doesn't even have any guts and it will ring. Storage bins will have blood stains appear that can't be washed off. Shadow figures have been seen missing their legs below the knees and they disappear. The house came from a sacred place to the indigenous population and a the apparition of an indigenous man is seen wearing a long-sleeved shirt and vest with a long single braid in his hair. One woman who saw the spirit claimed that it told her she shouldn't be in the house because it was a sacred place.

The Prince House

The Prince House is located in Heritage Park, which is a village full of historical homes and a section set up like an old west town. The Prince House started at 4th Avenue and 2nd Street in the Eau Claire district. It was built by Peter Anthony Prince who was born in Quebec in 1836 and learned the lumber business. He moved to America in 1866 and became a US citizen, but returned to Canada in 1886 where he settled in Calgary. Prince became Manager of the Eau Claire and Bow River Lumber Company, but he had his hands in other things as well. He was a hydroelectricity magnate and he obtained an exclusive contract to provide electricity to Calgary. Prince apparently fell while walking on an unlit sidewalk and decided things needed to change. He formed the Calgary Water Power Company in 1890, which harnesses power from the Bow River by building a dam. Prince also built a brewery, grain elevators and flour mill. He married four times, having three wives die before him. He passed away in 1925.

The Prince House was built in 1894 and was based on the design of a cottage from Connecticut that was featured in Scientific American in November 1893. The house was relocated to Heritage Park in 1967 after Prince's stepdaughter Nora Whitlock died in the house in 1965. All three of Prince's wives who passed before him, died in the house as well. The Prince House is said to be haunted and more than likely by the wives. Peter's second wife was Emma Wallin and she had tuberculosis so she was confined to the third floor of the house. Her spirit is said to be on the third floor, which is an area closed off to visitors because the stairs leading up there are servant stairs, so they are narrow steep and dark. A lady dressed in a white, high-collared period dress has been seen in the nursery on the second floor. The ghost wraps what looks like a baby in a blanket and then moves to sit in a chair in the corner where she rocks the baby. A security guard claimed that he saw lights turn on on the third floor where there was no electricity. Another security guard watched as a window on the third floor swung open and closed several times. He tried to get his guard dog to enter the house with him and the dog froze up and wouldn't go in the house and it had its tail between its legs. Staff have heard stomping of feet on the second floor.

This was posted to a forum on Bella Online in 2012, "I first heard about this haunted house in Heritage Park Historical Village, Calgary, Alberta, Canada on an episode of Celebrity Hauntings on the Biography Channel. Actor Drake Bell talked about his experience there while working on a movie with John Cusack. Drake Bell and a friend decided to check out the haunted house one day when they had some free time. They took a video camera with them and caught some interesting footage when they approached the empty house. The curtains on a second floor window were flung open and stayed open for several seconds as if someone was peering out at them. A few nights later, John Cusack decided he wants to check out the house. A group of people including John and Drake Bell went with the caretaker of the home to see the Prince House. As the caretaker approached the house with his dog, the animal refused to go into the building. The caretaker decided to stay outside with his dog and told everyone else to go on in. They walked up to the second floor with their flashlights as there was no electricity inside the building. As they ascended to the second floor, the mood and vibe changed. Drake went to the room where the curtain had lifted a few nights previously, and claimed that it felt very spooky. Almost immediately, although there was no electricity in the house, all of the lights in the room turned on, even the gas lamps that were only in the room for show. Drake saw a woman dressed in colonial clothing standing in the room. He ran out of the room screaming, 'Let's go!' and everyone followed him out of the house. The caretaker was standing outside waiting and showed them a picture of the house from the newspaper that clearly showed a woman standing in the second floor window, although the house had been empty at the time the picture was taken."

The Calgary Zoo Bridge

The 12th Street Calgary zoo bridge was built in 1908 to facilitate travel across the Bow River between the community of Inglewood and Memorial Drive. This was first used by horse-and-buggy, but before long, automobiles were traveling across the span. The bridge was deemed unsafe for vehicles and closed to only foot traffic in 2016. By 2017, the bridge had been removed. A horrible crime was committed under the bridge in July of 1946. A six-year-old boy named Donnie Gross had been playing with friends in a park near the Calgary Zoo when they were approached by a man named Donald Sherman Staley. He asked the kids if he could play with them and they said "no" since he was a stranger. He went away, but gave it another try the next day when Donnie was playing in the same park alone. Unfortunately, Donnie went with him under the zoo bridge and was sexually assaulted and stabbed 17 times before being dragged back to the park and left.

A tour guide for Calgary Ghost Tours said that she was hosting a tour when a nine-year-old boy on the tour asked her if he could go play with a young boy he saw under the bridge who had a ball. She looked over at the bridge and saw no child. Employees at the security shack claim to have played with the ghost boy. They throw a ball when they hear a knock on the door and the ball comes back to them. They believe it is Donnie. Donnie did reveal himself to another boy who was visiting the zoo with his mother and he told his mother that a little boy named Donnie asked him to come and play. People on the bridge would claim to hear a young boy calling for help and some have even called emergency services, but no child is found.

Alexandra Center

The New East Ward School was built in 1902 in Inglewood, Calgary. Inglewood is Calgary's oldest neighborhood. The school was designed by architect William Dodd in the Classical Revival style and is a long, rectangular, three-story school of solid sandstone. A concrete-block gymnasium was added in 1956. One of the first principals was William Aberhart who came to Clagary in 1910. He eventually became the founder and leader of the Alberta Social Credit party and Premier of Alberta. The building served as a school until 1963 when it was closed. The school was converted into the Alexandra Centre in the 1970s for use as a community center. A caretaker at the building was named Joe and he was a troubled man. He hanged himself in a stairwell in the building, so people believe he haunts the location. A shadow figure is seen and disembodied footsteps are heard as though Joe is still making his rounds. 

The Suitor House

The Suitor Residence is named for Robert Suitor who was a Quebec-born building contractor, politician and businessman who lived from 1858 to 1938. The house was designed in the Queen Anne Revival style with large gables, a circular tower with turret and octagonal corner tower and was built in 1907. The house later became an isolation hospital for patients with infectious diseases and then a boarding house for railway staff and their families. Today, it is medical offices. A young couple were one of those railway families that boarded at the house. The husband would jump into moving train cars as part of his job and one day he slipped and died. His heartbroken wife died a short time later. The widow is said to haunt the house and appears as a shadow figure or as a full-bodied apparition in a long white dress with black curly hair standing on the third floor balcony.

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church

St. Andrew’s started as a Presbyterian church and was built and designed in the Gothic Revival style. The church has an octagonal tower with a tall open steeple on the corner and was made from brick, stone and cast concrete. The north and west facades featured ornate exterior mosaics and the interior had stained-glass windows and carved woodwork. Most Presbyterian churches joined the United Church of Canada, but St. Andrew's resisted. The congregation eventually moved to Haysboro in 1961. In 1965, an Italian Catholic parish moved into the church. Twenty years later it became a Vietnamese Catholic church and was named St. Vincent Liem Catholic Church. Today, it is no longer Catholic, and hosts the All Nations Full Gospel Church.

There was a single woman who was studying to become a teacher at a college with a strict morality clause in the 1910s. She fell in love with a young man who was sent over to France to fight in World War I. He was killed in battle there. Shortly after that, the young woman discovered she was pregnant and she was thrown out of her college. Her family also rejected her, so she came to the church for help. The church wouldn't help her either, so a story claims that she climbed to the top of the bell tower and jumped. The bells were removed in the 1970s, but that doesn't stop parishioners and neighbors from hearing bells ringing sometimes.

The Lougheed House

The Lougheed House is a grand sandstone prairie mansion that was built by James and Isabella Lougheed in 1891. James was a prominent lawyer, businessman and senator. He would buy lots of real estate and build office buildings on the properties. James owned so much that at one time it was believed he was paying half the taxes in Calgary. Architect James R. Bowes designed the Lougheed House in the Victorian eclectic style and had an irregular roofline. They added to the house in 1907. The house had all the modern conveniences of the time including indoor plumbing, electric lighting, hot and cold running water and central heating. The house featured stained glass windows and corner and rectangular towers. The Lougheeds furnished the house with Spanish mahogany and faux marble. They called the house Beaulieu, which means "beautiful place" in French. The home was a social hub for Calgary and the family was very influential. In 1916, James was knighted and remains the only Albertan to have that honor. He died in 1925. Isabella's parents were Metis, which means they were of mixed indigenous and Euro-American ancestry. She was a wonderful hostess and dubbed the "Hostess of the New West" as she entertained dignitaries and royalty. She passed away in 1936. 

The Lougheeds had four sons and two daughters. The Great Depression hit the heirs hard and they had to decide between keeping their parents beloved estate or their downtown properties. They chose the downtown properties and Calgary seized Beaulieu and everything was sold at public auction in 1938. The house was then turned into the Dominion-Provincial Youth Employment Training Program. Eighty women lived in the house as they learned nursing and housekeeping. During World War II, the house was used as a barracks for the Canadian Women's Army Corps. A blood donor clinic was established in the basement by the Canadian Red Cross. After the war, the house became a dormitory for returning servicewomen until they could find other housing and in 1947, the Red Cross purchased the house and used it until the 1970s. In 1978 they moved out and the city took ownership of the house and it fell into disrepair. The community joined forces with the Historical Society of Alberta to save the house in 1988. Through the 1990s the house was restored and the Lougheed House Conservation Society was created. Today the house is open for tours and hosts exhibits.

There are people who claim to see a translucent couple dancing in the ballroom. Other visitors have seen an elderly woman in a period dress sitting at a front window looking outside. This was a place where Isabella liked to sit and watch the bustling Calgary streets outside.

Historic City Hall

The land where city hall was built was donated by a resident in 1885. The first building was built from wood, but was demolished a few years later. Architect William M. Dodd designed the new city hall in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, which was started in 1907 and completed in 1911. Financial and design issues plagued the project and when residents wouldn't agree to provide additional funds, Alberta Building Company walked off the job. William Dodd was later fired and replaced by Hodgson & Bates. Funds were then provided and when city hall was done, it cost double the initial budget. There is a single clock tower with a Seth Thomas Clock. The interior had highly ornamental cast-iron staircase and sky-lit rotundas. City Hall doubled as a police station and city jail between 1911 and 1914 with 15 jail cells. The first prisoner was Charles Munro and shortly after that a woman named Kathleen "Kitty" Quinn arrived. Two prisoners died in their cells, William Morgan and J.W. Lewis. Today, the building is used as an office for the Mayor, members of City Council and the municipal clerk.

Security officers and employees have claimed to see the specters of a man and a woman in the building. One employee ran from the building one night after seeing a ghost. Barbara Smith wrote "Ghost Stories of Alberta" and "More Ghost Stories of Alberta" and she shared this from Don Morberg, a City communications official in the 1990s, "The man may be a former prisoner who died years ago in the police lockup. [The female ghost has been] seen on the old stairs. We have no record of any female dying in the building. I’ve heard that she might be a former alderman’s wife or perhaps a madam who had been locked up in the basement cells at one time.”

The Hose and Hound

The Hose and Hound is located in Fire Station No. 3, which was built in 1906 and served the entire east area of the Elbow River until 1952. This is a red brick building with a distinctive, protruding, second-story oriel window. There are large rounded doorways trimmed with sandstone and the roofline has metal trim inscribed with "FIRE STATION No. 3." James "Cappy" Smart was the first fire chief in Calgary and he worked out of this station part-time. Cappy was an eccentric guy who often picked fights with police chiefs. Like this was some kind of one-upmanship. Cappy really like exotic pets and one of these was a monkey. He loved that monkey, but after it built a child, it had to be put down. The monkey's spirit is said to haunt the former station where it throws cans off shelves and messes around with the billiard table, cues and balls. The restaurant claims that sometimes the dishwasher starts on its own, which makes us say that the monkey is welcome to hang out. Cappy's horse Lightning died in a fire and it is thought to be haunting the station as well. As a matter of fact, several horses have been heard in the station. TJ Kastner was a bartender and he told CTV News, "I was sweeping up a little mess and every time I’d go back to get the broom, it would be in a new spot. So, I didn’t really know what was going on. I just assumed it was the monkey because we all always kind of do."

The Cross House

We mentioned A.E. Cross earlier as one of the financiers of the Calgary Stampede. Cross was born and raised in Montreal and he moved to Calgary in 1884. Cross moved into the Cross House in 1899, but the  home was built in 1891 in the Queen Anne Revival Style with a widow walk and gingerbread trim. This is a two-story frame house with sandstone foundation. The property covered seven lots and featured a large lawn, gardens and a 1937 outbuilding that was used as a garage. A.E and his family hosted community events like polo matches and large dinner parties. While the Crosses lived there, they called it The Brewery. The Cross family owned the property until 1973 when they donated the home to the City of Calgary for use by the Parks & Recreation department and the Calgary Horticultural Society. The property downsized to two lots. The A.E. Cross Garden Cafe was opened in 1991 after a big renovation. Paul Rogalski and Olivier Reynaud took over the business in 2001 and they renamed it Rouge Restaurant, which is what it is today. The Cross family was struck with diphtheria, which killed two of their three children and almost killed A.E.'s wife Helen.

Rogalski is the chef and enough strange stuff has happened to convince him that ghosts are a thing. He watched pots and pans fly around in the kitchen, doors have opened and closed on their own and things have gone missing. Mediums claim that the Cross' three-year-old daughter Nellie haunts the location along with her mother Helen and father A.E. People have seen Nellie sitting next to A.E in front of the fireplace. Employees have heard boisterous laughter coming up from the basement and the heavy freezer door shuts on its own. Calgary Association of Paranormal Investigators, CAPI, investigated the restaurant and they captured an EVP on a camera microphone that also captured a figure flying away.

Rose & Crown Pub

The Rose and Crown shut its doors permanently in January 2023, which is a bummer because it apparently is quite haunted. And for good reason. It used to be a funeral parlor.  The first building to be on the lot occupied by the pub was built in 1902. In 1906, that building was either rebuilt or extended and David and Dora Davidson moved into it with their three children. David died in 1921 and Dora passed in 1930. Their daughter Maude lived in the house until 1931 and then a man named Harvey S. Perkins bought the house and lived in it until 1935. The house was demolished and a new building designed by  Calgary architect D.S. McIlroy was constructed. This opened as the Memorial Park Chapel funeral home and it was one of the largest funeral homes in Calgary. The funeral home operated until 1984. The Rose & Crown Pub opened three years later. 

Customers and employees have reported seeing shadow figures, being tapped on the shoulders and interacting with three spirits: a lady in white, a little boy and an older man. The lady in white is middle-aged and wearing a big white billowy dress. The little boy is thought to go back to the funeral home and was a member of the family who lived there as caretakers on the third floor. No one is sure how he passed, but he is often seen lurking downstairs near the furnace. He is the most often seen ghost. The elderly ghost is nondescript other than he is male. 

Al Hunter was a bartender at the Rose & Crown for over twenty years. He found himself having several experiences that raised the hairs on the back of his neck. In the late ‘90s, a group had reserved an area on the second level for a party. A bunch of helium-filled balloons were brought in to decorate the room. Hunter was downstairs when he watched a balloon come down the stairs, drift past him, go down another set of stairs down into the main bar, went back out and then it went down towards the kitchen. Hunter chased the balloon down and put it back upstairs in the room. The balloon did the same thing, three more times.

A couple of women from the United Kingdom took a picture of themselves outside of the bar and when they got home and developed the pictures, they were stunned to see that they captured what looked like the spectral image of a little boy standing next to them.

Lots of great historic locations in Calgary to visit. Make sure to bring your cowboy boots and EMF detector! Are these places in Calgary haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 528 - Haunted Vegas Casinos

Moment in Oddity - Medieval Sword (Suggested by: Michael Rogers)

Waterways around the world are routinely dredged to reduce the sediment that can impede water flow. Dredging is the process of removing mud, sand, weeds and trash from a river, harbor or any body of water. In mid January, 2024, there was a surprising discovery while dredging a river in Poland. The incredible find was a sword, estimated to be over 1,000 years old. The Provincial Office for the Protection of Monuments was immediately contacted and the sword was transported to the city of Toruń. The preservation of the archeological artifact was rushed and research on the object will proceed from there. Although several news outlets reported that the sword is of Viking origin, archaeologist Robert Grochowski is skeptical of the theory. Grochowski stated that, “Without detailed research, this (idea) is completely unjustified. It is difficult to say anything more than the fact that it is an early medieval sword.” Just because the sword is engraved with Scandinavian patterns doesn't automatically mean that the artifact is of Viking origin. Only once the research has been completed will we have a clearer answer. Once the study is finished it is expected that the sword will be returned to Włocławek to be displayed at the city’s history museum. Dredging the depths of dark, debris littered waterways, only to discover a medieval treasure, certainly is odd. 

This Month in History - The Birth of Glenn Miller

In the month of March, on the first, in 1904, American big band leader, Glenn Miller was born in Clarinda, Iowa. His music is synonymous with the World War II era. His prowess as a musician led him to drop out of the University of Colorado to begin his musical career. In 1925, Miller was hired as a trombonist to play with Ben Pollack's orchestra. Later, he began freelancing his musical arrangements and trombone skills with bands like Benny Goodman, the Dorsey brothers and many others. Eventually, Glenn studied musical theory under Joseph Schillinger which led to Miller's advancement of the instrumentation of his pieces later on. After the disbandment of his first orchestra, Glenn immediately started a new group. The sound was unique and this was the start of what would bring him lasting fame. He was quoted saying, "A band ought to have a sound all of its own; it ought to have a personality”. He created that effect by having a clarinet play the melody, doubled by a tenor saxophone playing an octave lower and other saxes in harmonic support. The band's success took off from there, performing in casinos, ballrooms and even playing on national radio broadcasts. At the end of 1939, Miller's band was given their own radio show that was broadcast three times a week. From hits like "In the Mood", "Moonlight Serenade", to the big bands recording of "Chattanooga Choo Choo" for the 1941 movie Sun Valley Serenade, Glenn Miller's Orchestra had many iconic pieces the people are still enjoying today.

Haunted Vegas Casinos (Suggested by: Colin Weaver)

The glowing lights of Las Vegas have always beckoned those seeking expression for their seedy sides. This place is the capital of entertainment and a good time. Las Vegas plays host to more than just the living though. A city like Vegas is the perfect setting for ghostly activity. There are a number of casinos here in Sin City that are reputedly haunted. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of some Las Vegas casinos.

Las Vegas means "The Meadows" in Spanish. The Las Vegas Valley was oasis-like and contained springs that were only known to Native Americans until a scout named Rafael Rivera came upon the area while searching for water. Around fourteen years after Rivera's discovery, John C. Fremont led an expedition out to the west and his group camped at Las Vegas Springs in 1844. This was one of four expeditions he led. Fremont was an interesting character in history. In 1847, he was appointed military governor of California. He was court martialed for mutiny and insubordination and later during the Civil War, he was relieved of his position by President Lincoln for insubordination. Despite these things, he was really popular with the American public and he went on to become a multimillionaire and a semator for California. He later moved to New York and became an active abolitionist who ran on the Republican ticket in 1856. The second most famous street in Vegas is named for Fremont. The first, of course, is the Las Vegas Strip. Both of these streets are home to Vegas' world famous casinos. 

The Flamingo

Back in 2015, we did an episode on the history and haunts of the Flamingo and Bally's casinos. Gangsters were very involved with the casinos and the Mob ran Las Vegas back in the 1940s. The Flamingo is the oldest operating casino on the strip and was built by none other than Bugsy Seigel. The casino cost him $6 million to build and opened in 1946 under the name The Pink Flamingo Hotel and Casino. Originally, the property was owned by Charles "Pops" Squires. He was one of Vegas' first settlers. Margaret Folsom bought the property from him in 1944 and then sold it to Billy Wilkerson. He was planning on building a resort that would be the finest in town, but the war caused supplies and building materials to soar and Wilkerson soon ran into financial issues. Bugsy and his gang had come to Vegas for the gambling and when they heard Wilkerson was having problems with finances, they posed as businessmen and bought a two-thirds share of the project. The Flamingo was built in the Art Deco and Streamline Moderne Styles with George Vernon Russell as the architect. Some of Wilkerson's design ideas would become staples at casinos. The idea for no clocks and no windows in the casinos was his as well as the fact that even non gamblers have to walk through the casino to register and get around the hotel. When the finances dwindled and Bugsy and his partners were brought on, another architect was hired named Richard Stadelman. Del Webb became the contractor. The hotel opened with 105 rooms, tennis courts, a nine-hole golf course and a trap shooting range. There was a habitat built for flamingos that was a garden courtyard. The Flamingo did not receive its name from Bugsy, but rather Wilkerson gave the casino its name when he first started designing the building.

Bugsy may have been good at running criminal enterprises, but he had real issues running a legitimate hotel and casino. During building, which was still ongoing even after the casino officially opened, cost overruns reached $4 million. The Grand Opening of The Flamingo was a complete flop and the casino lost $300,000 in its first two weeks because without completed rooms for people to stay in, they took their winnings elsewhere. Business was so bad that Bugsy closed The Flamingo. He finished construction and reopened in March 1947 with a much better reception. Despite The Flamingo running a profit, investors were not happy. They wanted bigger returns and since most of these investors were other mobsters like Lucky Luciano, Bugsy was in hot water. A meeting was called in Havana and Bugsy completely lost his temper and stormed out. Not a good idea with the Mob. As one would expect, a hit was ordered on Bugsy and he was killed while sitting on a couch in the home of his girlfriend on June 20, 1947. At the same time, several mobsters walked into The Flamingo and took over operations peacefully. The killing of Bugsy would make national news and suddenly, everybody wanted to come to exciting Las Vegas. The Flamingo changed ownership and names many times along the way, including becoming the Flamingo Hilton under the Hilton Corporation for some time. Harrah's Entertainment was next and Caesars Entertainment is the current owner. The hotel has expanded over the years and hosted countless performers. 

Bugsy Seigel invested a lot of time and money into the Flamingo, so it is not surprising that he would want to stick around in the afterlife and he has. He is seen most often as a full bodied apparition in the Presidential Suite that he designed with bullet proof windows and five exits. He is also seen near the pool. There is a memorial for him in the garden and occasionally his spirit has lurked there as well. A cleaning lady quit after seeing Bugsy's ghost on the fifth floor.

Horseshoe Las Vegas

The Horseshoe Las Vegas used to be known as Bally's Casino. This originally started as The Three Coins Motel that opened in 1963. That business was short lived and the Bonanza Hotel and Casino was built on the property in 1967. In 1973, the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino was opened in place of the Bonanza. It had 2,084 rooms, making it the biggest hotel in the world at the time and it cost $106 million to build. Kirk Kerkorian was the owner and he loved the movies and he owned MGM, so that is where the name came from. The decor reflected Hollywood and it had two large theaters. It became the standard for Las Vegas.  The Grand Opening was attended by Cary Grant and Gregory Peck. Dean Martin opened the showroom. When going to the MGM, everyone dressed to the nines. A fountain with a giant statue of Zeus was installed. People stepped down into the casino, which was relatively quiet, and they could take elevators down into the shopping area that had the most high end shops of anywhere. A 300-seat movie theater was down there as well with blue leather plush loveseats and couches. There were tables at each seat with red call buttons.

Everything was wonderful until November 21, 1980. A fire started in one of the restaurants early in the morning and made its way up into the hotel. Tragically, 85 people were killed, mostly from smoke inhalation. The number could have been higher as there were 5,000 people in the hotel at the time. One thousand people were rescued from the roof alone. There were no fire sprinklers in the casino. And if it hadn't been for the opening in the stairwells and elevator shafts and faulty smoke dampers in the ventilation system, the smoke might not have reached up into the hotel's tower, which is where most of the deaths occurred. New fire standards were created after what was the worst disaster in Nevada history and the third worst hotel fire in modern U.S. history. The MGM Grand was rebuilt in eight months. In 1985, the hotel was sold to the Bally Entertainment Corporation for $594 million and renamed to Bally's. The Hilton Hotels Corporation bought Bally's in 1995. Hilton eventually formed their casino holdings under Caesar's Entertainment, Inc and it bought Bally's in 2005. The casino became Horseshoe Las Vegas named after Binion's Horseshoe in 2022.

The upper floors at Horseshoe Las Vegas report the most activity, which started almost immediately after the big fire. Full bodied apparitions have been seen many times. The disembodied sound of weeping and screaming is heard. The acrid smell of smoke is reported many times and the occasional fire alarm goes off for no reason in particular. A service elevator in the North Tower was the scene of several employees' deaths. Modern day employees claim that they all avoid the elevator at all costs because of the strange occurrences that happen with that elevator.

Casino goers have reported seeing a strange misty smoke in a corner that seems to be enveloping a woman. This apparition has actually been witnessed playing the slot machines before disappearing. A bluish green spirit that appears to be disoriented has been seen. A comment at TripAdvisor states, "The hotel was good and the location is right in the middle of the strip. I had a nice room on the 23rd floor. The only odd thing was that at 0630 one morning I observed a women standing in my room for about 3 minutes until she slowly faded away." One of Horseshoe's most active apparitions is that of a young boy. He is heard in the corridor of the seventeenth floor calling out for his mother. On the same floor, an elderly couple are witnessed walking down the hall and they just disappear. The man has his arm wrapped protectively around the woman.

Another commentor at TripAdvisor had stayed on the 23rd floor and found the experience harrowing:

     "I had no clue about what I was getting into. I upgraded to a renovated room on the 23rd floor. Initially I was happy about the room until I encountered weird things that took place in early am...3. I had the worst 4 sleeps ever! My wife had her first night terror ever. She was facing the wall yelling and screaming at the top of her lungs, so loud I jumped out of bed clinching my chest. She was yelling stuff like OMG and leave me alone and was running towards the door. The screams coming from her were so loud that I thought security was going to be called. I was so frightened that I had a hard time breathing for like 45 minutes. This was the first time in her life she had a night terror. Other weird things were chills running through my body constantly. It started from my head and would go thru my body out of my feet and cycle thru repeatedly. I travel a lot and I thought this was weird so I decided to go talk to customer service and I asked them of there was history to the room. She assured me that she had no recollection of anything on that room recently and offered us to stay on a much lower floor. I declined because I wanted to still have a bar fridge and I don't believe in ghosts or supernatural stuff, and convinced myself it was probably a bad dream that she has no memory of. My wife and I returned to the 23rd floor and as I exited the elevator, I made a comment to her that was what would you do if there was a fire here...I never made comments like that before. Again I continued to have chills, the bar fridge made banging noises, and it felt weird. The last night as I couldn't sleep I looked over at the curtains and saw clear air waving movements in the corner. I didn't want to look anymore so I slammed my eyes shut and prayed. Then as I started to fall asleep I had a bad dream and woke up instantly. It was about a man running frantically, that I thought he was chasing me, but was running for water, like a calm ocean, but was running fast in panic on the shoreline. I thought all this was crazy, and had explanations like the a/c was what gave me shivers and the night terror was from a late meal...etc. When I arrived home I was curious so I started to google things and found out that the 23rd floor is most haunted and a fire broke out in 1980 where 85 people perished. I had no knowledge of this before and will now check for history's before I book another hotel"

The Venetian

The Venetian Hotel sits where the Sands Hotel and Casino once stood. That casino was demolished in 1996 after it was decided by a new owner that an update was needed desperately. The Sands opened in 1952 under founder Mack Kufferman with 200 rooms spread out over four two-story wings. Crime bosses financed the venture as did Frank Sinatra who made his performing debut at The Sands in 1953. Icons of the enteratinment industry of the 1950s and 1960s performed in the hotel's world-renowned Copa Room. These were singers and performers like Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Nat King Cole and Sammy Davis Jr. Those last two pushed back against segregation in Las Vegas. They were allowed to perform, but couldn't eat in the dining room. Frank Sinatra put a stop to that when he invited Cole to join him for dinner. Harry Belafonte was later allowed at the casino and became the first black man to play cards on the Las Vegas Strip. The original Ocean's 11 was filmed at The Sands in 1960. By 1966, The Sands had a 500-room tower added and the following year, Howard Hughes acquired the casino. Sheldon Adelson bought the property with some partners, whom he bought out, and then he closed the casino in 1996. 

Construction began on The Venetian in 1997. The casino cost $1.6 billion to build and opened in May of 1999. The name represents its theming, which is based on Venice, Italy during the 1400s and 1500s. To hundred fifty artists and scupltors worked on decor and the exterior has replicas of the Doge's Palace, the Rialto Bridge, St. Mark's Campanile and Venice's Grand Canal is represented on the exterior and interior including gondolas. There is an indoor recreation of St. Mark's Square with shoppes and eateries. Adelson died in 2021 and The Venetian was sold to Vici Properties for $4 billion with Apollo Global Management leasing the casino for $2.25 billion. 

During construction, there were several deaths. A worker fell in January 1998 with another worker being crushed several months later by an 8,000 pound facade that fell from a crane 32 stories. In 1999, an electrician fell 30 feet through an open hole and died. Those construction workers are said to haunt the hotel and some claim that former mobsters that liked to frequent The Sands seem to have carried over to the new casino in the afterlife. Tupac Shakur was shot inside a BMW as it drove near The Venetian in 1996. He would die four days later in a hospital, but people claim to see him outside of The Venetian with his distinctive bandana tied around his head. He is seen crossing the street towards the casino and is sometimes spotted as a shadow beneath a nearby flickering street light.

Ellie wrote on TripAdvisor: "I stayed in 4135 suite right at the end of the corridor with a concrete view at the Venetian. Not sure if the same room, but things were happening that we couldn't explain. I Don't believe in ghosts, but have to admit was a bit spooky. My friend woke up at about 3am on our first night there saying someone was in our room, it woke her up by calling her name repeatedly, standing by the window. I looked and saw nothing, told her she was imagining things and to go back to bed. She fell asleep I watched the window the curtains started to move (probably draught from air con) but only happened that one time. Next day we woke up, I opened the drawer in our bed side table to see the holy bible on my side. I made a joke, said it didn't effect me cos god was on my side. (she is a atheist, but she moved the bible to her side, ha ha!) The next night, we slept right through. In the morning when she woke up she couldn't find her glasses. (Normally she'd put them by the tv so she wouldn't break them accidentally half asleep) they weren't there. She spent a good ten minutes looking for them, when I got the thought of looking in the drawer. We found them on top of the holy bible... She blamed me saying I put them there to freak her out. (I didn't) Also there was a massive lamp there that we couldn't get working, I had the idea that I would turn it on, so it could help her sleep on our last night. Couldn't figure it out. We ended up leaving it off. (we're idiots.) We got back at about 4am and the lamp was on. The next day when we woke up, the lamp was off. This trip I slept like a baby. Mainly because if there is any truth about ghosts, the ghost was after jenny :-)"

Circus Circus

Circus Circus was a real hit with Diane as a kid. This was one of the only kid-friendly places on the strip and it had live circus performers on top of that. This is the largest permanent circus in the world. Circus Circus opened in 1968 with a casino on its first floor and carnival games on the second floor. The casino was designed by Rissman and Rissman Associates in a circus tent structure formed from steel and concrete. The tent-shaped roof was made from a plexiglass material painted white and hot pink. Trained monkeys roamed the casino and an elephant named Tanya would throw dice and pull slot machine handles with her trunk. A hotel wouldn't be added until 1972 and this was a 15-story tower with 409 rooms. Jay Sarno and Stanley Mallin were the original owners and they eventually leased operations to Bill Bennett and William Pennington after authorities started connecting the original owners to organized crime. 

Sarno had previously opened Caesars Palace. He had intended for this casino to be like a Roman circus, but then he decided he anted it to be a circus circus and that is where the name came from. The new owners built another tower of rooms in 1975 and added an RV park in 1979. More rooms and towers were added through the years and eventually an amusement park opened in 1993. The resort was acquired by MGM Mirage in 2005 and is currently owned by Phil Ruffin. He has been renovating and has plans to possibly turn the RV park into a swimming pool complex. The clown on the roadside sign that rises 123 feet is known as Lucky, of course. This is one of the most photographed signs in Las Vegas.

Many people staying at Circus Circus claim to hear phantom noises and have other weird things happen. Possibly due to homicides. A Vietnamese couple was found stabbed to death in their hotel room after a robbery gone wrong in 2018. They were part of a Vietnamese tour group and when they didn't show up for the Grand Canyon tour, hotel staff were asked to do a welfare check. The couple had multiple stab wounds. It was thought that it could be a murder-suicide because nobody had entered the room after the couple did, but eventually a suspect was arrested.

Another homicide was said to have taken place in Room 123 and there were two victims, a mother and her son. Unfortunately, it was later determined that the mother had killed her son and then took her own life. As an aside, interesting that the sign is same height in feet as room number. This room is said to be haunted by the mother and son. Guests staying in the room claim to hear whispers, many times saying the words, "help me." Words are sometimes written on the mirror in the bathroom, which we could possibly debunk as other previous guests fooling around. Another guest ran into a woman and her young son who seemed to be frantically looking for someone. When asked who this was, the woman said they were looking for Robert. Possibly her husband? The pair then disappeared. Furniture moves around on its own and a little boys apparition has been seen in the hallways near Room 123. 

Luxor

Rising along the Strip is a very unusual sight, a giant black pyramid. This is a casino named the Luxor and it is the third largest pyramid in the world. Giza claims the two largest pyramids, but the Luxor does have a claim to fame that neither of these pyramids has, the most powerful man-made light in the world. This is a beam that shoots up into the night sky from the tip of the pyramid. The light is known as the Luxor Sky Beam and is generated by using curved mirrors to collect the light from 39 xenon lamps and focusing the light waves into one intense, narrow beam that can be seen up to 275 miles away. The beam was activated for the first time on the night of October 14, 1993 when the resort had a pre-opening party. We've heard stories of curses connected to pyramids. Is it possible that this modern pyramid has a curse too? It is quite possible. 

The Luxor was built in 1993 by Circus Circus Enterprises. Veldon Simpson was the architect and the casino was named for the city of Luxor in Egypt with a plan for a 30-story tall pyramid featuring Egyptian theming inside. This included an indoor Nile River ride. The initial idea was a pretty cool one though too with a moat that had a real casino riverboat traversing it. Various replicas of Egyptian artifacts were brought in as a part of the decor. The exterior was formed from metal and glass. Construction cost $375 million.Two hotel towers were added later and the casino has undergone numerous renovations, many that have taken away much of the Egyptian theming. A tram was added to connect the Luxor to The Excalibur Casino and Mandalay Bay Casino. Vici Properties bought the Luxor and MGM operates the resort.

The Luxor has a reputation for having a high number of murders, suicides, and other deaths, some of which took place during construction. Because of that, people claim the place must be cursed. We mentioned Tupac Shakur earlier. He was staying at the Luxor at the time of his death. A casino worker was killed by her boyfriend in plain sight of people in 2012. A man fell from the 10th floor. An employee at the Luxor food court was killed in 2007 in the Luxor parking garage when a homemade pipe bomb exploded. He was apparently targeted by two other men who were apprehended and given life sentences in 2010. Las Vegas has a huge number of suicides every year for obvious reasons and the Luxor seems to have the greatest number of them. Another reason why there may be issues at the casino is the fact that there is only one sphinx guarding the entrance. Egypt of the ancient world always held to a practice of having a pair of sphinxes to guard entrances. Could it be that this lack of tradition has allowed something dark to get through?

Most paranormal experiences take place in the pyramid part of the resort rather than the towers. There is one room here that has a poltergeist and that is Room 30018. The spirit here doesn't like to share its space. Nearly every morning at 8:30 am, a metallic noise rings out in the room. A blonde spirit known as the Luxor Blonde haunts several rooms and she likes to make her presence known by strangling people in their beds. Guests awaken when they feel hands tightly gripping their necks and are shocked to find that they are either alone or their partner is sound asleep and not trying to murder them in the bed. Some of these people describe the experience as being more like a very vivid dream and during the dream they see that it is a blonde woman trying to strangle them. Other people claim to have intense chest pains.

Other activity includes the pounding of doors by unseen fists. Guests get up to yell at whoever has awakened them from slumber to find the hallways empty. Shadow figures have been seen out of the corner of the eye. Construction workers who died have appeared in the quieter parts of the hotel. Acrid smells out of nowhere invade the senses and lights sometimes flicker on their own. Another female ghost supposedly walks through the halls of the 12th, 13th, and 14th floors and see likes to push people or breathe down their necks. Visitors say not to look over railings because something malevolent tries to convince you to jump.

A woman left a review reporting, "Here is the best part. My fiance screamed for me to 'come here' when I was brushing my teeth. I came out and asked 'what's wrong?' He looked stunned and couldn’t speak. He said a little girl just appeared in the room and asked for help. Wow, now we have a ghost in our room. He woke me later to ask if I could hear singing."

Another review from December 2016 said that a woman woke up when she felt a hand on her face. She jumped out of bed and saw that her husband was awake and looked terrified. he told her that he had just seen a blonde woman wearing a hat, possibly a beret, and that she had been standing at the bedside and then she disappeared. After that, they decided to sleep in the other bed in the room. Their peace didn't last long as the woman was awakened once again, but this time she felt someone wrapping the covers tight around her and leaning against her back. They told the concierge about their experiences the next day and she didn't seem surprised. She gave them a new room in one of the towers. 

Another review reported, "Running the risk of sounding insane, I swear my room was haunted. I always felt like there was a shadowy figure just at the edge of my vision and this creeped me out like nothing before."

Casinos in Vegas can be a ton of fun, as long as you don't mind losing some money. They might have an added bit of fun for those of us that enjoy a good ghost story and a little love tap from an apparition. Are these Vegas casinos haunted? That is for you to decide!