HGB Ep. 572 - Seelbach Hotel

Moment in Oddity - The Skeleton Flower (Suggested by: Duey Oxberger)

There is a lovely little Asian plant that blooms early to mid summer. It is commonly known as the Asian umbrella leaf, umbrella leaf, or skeleton flower. The plant is native to Japan and can be found in the mountainous regions of both Japan and China.  They prefer cool temperatures and partial to complete shade and can be grown in zones 4 through 9. Its delicate white blooms with yellow centers do not look like anything too unusual. There is something that makes this plant very unique however. Any time the flowers become wet, they become transparent like glass, then, once they dry out, they return to their normal white color again. They are a lovely whimsical choice for the correct growing environments. They are a slow growing, deciduous perennial. We of course had to research these plants for home growing with a name like skeleton flower. Sadly, where we live in Florida, the summers are just too hot and humid which would stress these plants.  They can be ordered online for those avid gardeners who have the correct environment. These distinctive, delicate flowers that can turn to glass with some droplets of water, certainly are odd.

This Month in History - King Henry VIII Marries Anne Boleyn

In the month of January, on the 25th, in 1533, King Henry VIII married his second wife Anne Boleyn. During this time, Henry broke away from the Church and he declared himself the head of the Church of England. This allowed him to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and marry his mistress Anne Boleyn. Catherine of Aragon had provided King Henry six children, but only a daughter survived. Henry wanted a son and Catherine's longest living son had only survived 52 days. The divorce happened in January 1533 and shortly thereafter, Anne was married to the King. Her coronation would come in May of that year, but a male heir from her would never come to fruition. In 1536, Anne was arrested on false charges of heresy, adultery and treason. She was thrown into the Tower to await execution. She was executed on Tower Hill. Henry VIII also had the fifth of his six wives executed. In addition, King Henry imprisoned Sir Thomas Moore and Bishop Fisher of Rochester in the Tower and they were executed because they refused to acknowledge him as the head of the Church of England. Many people were arrested under his monarchy due to religious and political reasons. During his reign, the Tower of London would come to be known as the Bloody Tower. 

Seelbach Hotel

The Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky was so beautiful and iconic that it inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby." Stepping inside the lobby, takes one back to an earlier time with its lavish decor. The Rathskellar down in the belly of the hotel gives flashes of the Prohibition era and it wouldn't be surprising to spy Al Capone sitting at a corner table. There are several ghost stories connected to this Louisville treasure that we will share with you here. Join us for the history and hauntings of the Seelbach Hotel.

I have been inside this iconic hotel several times. The first time was on a ghost tour. The second time, I met up with a fellow podcaster who was staying there and we did some exploring. This most recent time, Kelly and I decided that we couldn't pass up the chance to actually stay overnight ourselves. The lobby is breathtaking with its grand staircase, imported European marble, large murals and carved wood. The hotel sits near the West Main Street Historic District and at the time that Louisville was starting as a settlement, the state of Kentucky was still part of the state of Virginia. A rudimentary fort would be the first bit of civilization and was established by Lieutenant Colonel George Rogers Clark in 1778. Louisville would receive its town charter in 1784 and was named for King Louis XVI, who had helped the United States defeat Great Britain during the Revolutionary War. Louisville became a main point of trade since it was near the Ohio River. The railroad arriving in the mid-1850s helped with that growth as well. 

The outbreak of the Civil War found Kentucky declaring itself neutral and it spent much of the war under Union occupation. After the war ended, Louisville experienced enough growth to become an economic powerhouse. The downtown was transformed with new buildings. And this brought entrepreneurs. Otto and Louis Seelbach were brothers who grew up in Frankenthal, Germany, which was a small town in Bavaria. Louis immigrated to United States in 1869, when he was seventeen. He traveled to Louisville to learn the hotel business. Louis settled into work at the Galt House Hotel and he saved up his money so that he could open the Seelbach Bar & Grill in 1874. The restaurant did very well and Louis used some of his money to bring his brother Otto to Louisville in 1891. Otto helped Louis to open the first rendition of the Seelbach Hotel above the bar and grill that same year.  

The brothers decided they wanted to build their own hotel and they chose a spot at the corner of 4th and Walnut Street to do just that. Walnut Street would actually change its name to Muhammad Ali Boulevard in 1978 in honor of the boxing great who grew up in Louisville. Construction on the hotel began in 1905 and was designed by W.J. Dodd and F.M. Andrews in a turn-of-the-century Beaux-Arts architectural style. The goal was to give it a luxurious and opulent feel in the style of Parisian hotels. As we said, the lobby is just breathtaking and one reason is that it is topped by a vaulted dome of 800 glass panels. The floors and columns were formed from imported marble from Italy and Switzerland and this is trimmed with beautifully carved mahogany and bronze that has a Renaissance styling. On the upper walls encircling the lobby are murals featuring pioneer scenes from Kentucky's history that were painted by artist Conrad Arthur Thomas. He was most well known for his paintings of Native American culture. Turkish and Persian rugs were laid throughout. Guests exit the lobby via a grand staircase that leads to the mezzanine with elevators, a 3,400 square foot ballroom and the Walnut Room. The hotel also features conference rooms the Fitzgerald Suite, a Grand Ballroom, the Presidential Suite, the Seelbach Suite and 321 guest rooms. When the hotel originally opened, there were 150 rooms.
 
When the Seelbach had its grand opening in May of 1905, it was billed as "the only fireproof hotel in the city." Twenty-five thousand people attended the grand opening. The Seelbach brothers couldn't believe how popular their hotel had become and they decided that they should immediately start building a 154-room addition, which they began in the fall. In 1907, that expansion was completed and probably the coolest part of the hotel was added during that expansion, the Rathskeller. When Diane visited the second time, she did a live video for the Spooktacular Crew. We'll pull that and post it again on YouTube and Facebook. It was locked when we visited this time, so Kelly only got to experience it through windows, but it still is mind-blowing when viewed from the outside. The walls are decorated with rare Rookwood Pottery and this is the world's only room made with this pottery. The patterns were hand drawn on the soft clay before being fired. The zodiac is preeminent in this space. Not only is there a zodiac clock mounted outside of the Rathskellar, but all twelve zodiac signs are featured on the ceiling of the space. There are many pelicans found around the room and it is thought this was to symbolize death. This is an event space today and most likely hosted a variety of things in the past. Definitely a few gangsters here and there, which would have included Lucky Luciano and Dutch Schultz, who was known as the "Beer Baron of the Bronx." Another member of alcohol royalty would be George Remus, who was known as "The King of the Bootleggers" and he hailed from the mob in Cincinnati. 

Al Capone also enjoyed the Seelbach. His favorite spot was The Oakroom and he enjoyed dining in there and guests can still dine in a small alcove in the room. Capone also enjoyed blackjack, poker and bootlegging here. The room is gorgeous with lots of hand-carved American Oak paneling on the walls and columns. The large mirror in this room was a gift from Capone. This wasn't just from the goodness of his heart, but rather so that he could watch his back. This is a very male space and was meant to be that way. When the hotel opened, this was known as a gentlemen’s billiard hall and featured a private bar and card room. There are still cue racks on the south wall. The room also harbors a secret. There was an escape route for the gangsters. A boarded-up panel on the southwest wall hides what had been the doorway to a secret staircase that led to the Rathskellar, which led down to the Sub Basement and into a tunnel system with two exit paths leading into the city. 

There were many famous people who stayed here as well. Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald loved the Seelbach and he enjoyed bourbon and cigars while there. One time he had too much bourbon and was banned for a bit. He met some of the gangsters too and was very taken by George Remus whom many believe inspired the character of Jay Gatsby in his novel "The Great Gatsby." The Grand Ballroom was the backdrop for Tom and Daisy Buchanan's wedding reception in the book. The whole hotel really served as inspiration and the restaurant off the lobby features that with its name, Gatsby's on Fourth. They had a great breakfast buffet and our hostess Monica regaled us with ghost stories from her house. Carlos was great too - he was our waiter - and he said that he had worked there 24 years and never experienced anything weird. (Kelly comments on the staff.) Several US Presidents have stayed here including William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. Billy Joel stayed here when he was on tour with Elton John and he played the piano and sang in the Old Seelbach Bar. Heather French Henry, Miss America 2000, held her wedding reception at the hotel. Two movies have shot at the location, "The Hustler," starring Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason and the 2013 movie "The Great Gatsby."

Louis Seelbach died in 1925 and Otto followed him eight years later. The Seelbach Hotel Company couldn't hold itself together and the children of Louis and Otto sold the hotel to Chicago-based businessman Abraham M. Liebling for approximately $2.5 million. He later sold to the Eppley Hotel Company, which owned properties throughout the Midwest. Sheraton Hotels bought the Seelbach in 1956 and eventually changed the name to the Sheraton Hotel. They later sold to Gotham Hotels in 1968 who returned the name to the Seelbach. Unfortunately, the economy took a hit in 1975, the company went bankrupt and the Seelbach closed. In the early 1980s, two other men H.G. Whittenberg, Jr. and Roger Davis, joined in a partnership with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company to buy the Seelbach and they began an extensive renovation. This cost $28 million to complete. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company bought out both Whittenberg and Davis. A subsidiary of Radisson Hotels called the “National Hotels Corporation” then managed the Seelbach Hotel until Medallion Hotels, Inc., purchased the building in 1990. Medallion Hotels built the conference center. In 1998, Meristar Hotels and Resorts, bought the Seelbach Hotel. Investcorp International became the new owner in 2007. Rockbridge Capital bought it in 2017 and it is managed as "The Seelbach Hilton Louisville." 

 The Seelbach Hotel is not shy about their spirits. There are several here. The most famous ghost at the Seelbach is the Lady in Blue. This spirit is said to belong to 24-year-old Patricia Wilson. Her body was found in an elevator shaft on July 16, 1936. She gets her nickname from the clothes she was found wearing, a long blue dress. As to how she came to the bottom of the shaft, there are a couple of stories that are told. The first is a story of suicide. Patricia had either been estranged from her husband or gotten a divorce. The couple decided to try to work things out because they still loved each other, so they agreed to meet at the Seelbach. Unfortunately, her husband got in a car accident on the way to the meeting and was killed. Patricia was devastated. As to how she managed to kill herself jumping down the elevator shaft is anybody's guess. The more probable story was discovered by Larry Johnson, the hotel historian.

An article in a 1955 True Detective magazine tells a different story. This article was titled "Bluegrass Justice for the General." The general being referenced was General Henry Denhardt who had been in the Kentucky National Guard and had been a war hero. He had also been lieutenant governor of the state of Kentucky. The General apparently had been staying at the Seelbach where Patricia Wilson was working as a lady of the evening. Apparently, Wilson had joined a traveling salesman boyfriend to Louisville and he abandoned her there. She was destitute and turned to prostitution. The General got in an argument with Wilson and this was witnessed by a guest on the 8th floor. The guest decided to mind his own business and closed his door. Shortly after that, he heard a loud noise and a woman screaming. The guest ran out into the hallway and he saw the general running toward the elevator. It is thought the argument was over his lack of payment for services. Nothing ever happened to the General because nothing could ever be proven.

Larry Johnson is the hotel historian and he joined the Seelbach team as a bellman in 1982. He has written the definitive book on the hotel called, "The Seelbach: A Centennial Salute to Louisville’s Grand Hotel." He found out that Patricia Wilson's real name was Pearl Elliot. The General finally got caught over another crime he committed. He was engaged to a woman named Verna Garr Taylor. The couple were on their way for a shopping trip and got in an argument. The General pulled the car over and Taylor got out. He followed her and shot her to death and this time, a witness saw everything. This was a farmer and the General tried to tell him that his fiance had committed suicide, but the farmer knew better. The General was arrested and put on trial. He was staying at a hotel with his lawyer and they were outside talking when two of Verna Garr Taylor's brothers walked up to him and shot him to death.

On July 3, 1937, The Courier-Journal ran an article with the headline: 'Girl’s Death is Blamed on Denhardt.' The article reported, "Brigadier General Henry H. Denhardt was accused of causing the death of Miss Patricia Wilson, 25, whose broken body was found on the top of an elevator in the Seelbach Hotel, July 14, 1936. In a suit for $70,000 filed Friday in the Jefferson County court by Edward C. Langan, administrator for the girl’s estate.  The petition prepared by James T. Robertson, attorney, charges that General Denhardt assaulted, beat and bruised Patricia Wilson, causing her to fall down an elevator shaft in the hotel. Mr. Robertson said it was hoped that filing of the suit would be delayed until completion of the investigation and preparation of the case but the deadline for filing made it imperative that it be presented without further delay." Robertson had re-opened the case because he received several stories from clients who linked Denhardt to Patricia Wilson’s death. Since Denhardt was murdered, the case was never finished. So the final say was the coroner’s jury, which reported that Wilson had a fractured skull and two broken legs and was discovered by James Embry, an employee of the hotel. He told the coroner’s jury he first noticed a glove sticking out of the top of the dummy elevator that is used for carrying linen. In the end, the coroner’s jury ruled Wilson died due to her own carelessness and negligence.

Interestingly, Larry Johnson told Spectrum News, "I wrote my first book in 2005 on the Seelbach and put the Lady in Blue story in the book. A woman purchased my book and she gave my book to her father. She sent me an email and said, 'You won’t believe this. My father, who was 93-years-old, said I hope you don’t hold this against me, this was before I married your mother, but I think I know the Lady in Blue.' He told her about a house of ill repute and was introduced to this girl named Lucy in 1935 when he was stationed at Fort Knox.  He came back in 1936 with his unit at Fort Knox and went back to the house and asked for Lucy.  He was told that Lucy had died in an elevator shaft at the Seelbach Hotel."

Many staff members and guests have experienced unexplained things and seen actual apparitions. James Scott was working as a chef at the hotel in 1987. He was cooking waffles and omelets for brunch outside of the Oak Room and he had a clear view of the elevators. During a break, he saw a young woman with long dark hair in a long blue dress walk into the elevator. This wouldn't seem strange except the elevator doors were closed. He was unnerved and he called security. They checked the elevator and couldn't get it to work. Engineering came and pried the doors open and they got the elevator to come to the first floor and then it worked perfectly fine after that.  

A housekeeper named Sharon White saw the same woman stepping off the elevator on the eighth floor a few days later. The dress was of an earlier period. That elevator had broken down again and wasn't working, so she ran to tell security. There was no woman in a blue dress found anywhere. Staff at the restaurant reported seeing a woman who looked older, wearing very worn and ragged clothing, peeking from behind a mirror. Anytime an employee approached her, she would disappear. In 2004, a couple was staying on the 8th floor for their honeymoon. They awoke to find a strange man standing by the window. He was looking out at the city. The room got incredibly cold and then the figure disappeared. Other things that have happened include ghosts seen in mirrors, the faint scent of an old perfume, disembodied footsteps and disembodied voices.

A security guard named Patrick Rhodes is referred to as the "ghost whisperer" because the ghosts seem to like him. Many times when people have taken pictures of him on ghost tours, there are weird anomalies in the photos. A couple times could be explained away, but it happens a lot. Not just orbs, but streaks of lights and fuzzy distortions. Rhodes says that when he walks the property at night, checking doors and such, he whispers the Lord's prayer to himself to keep the spirits at bay. Especially near the Rathskellar.

So we had something weird happen during our Spirit Box session. I kept thinking I was getting these great multi-word answers. Here are a few. (Spirit Box I Love You) Same voice (Spirit Box See Them) (Spirit Box Something City) (Spirit Box Woman) But as I looked at the sound waves, they were all the same pattern in these sections and when I calculated the distance between each, the distance was the same. It was a pattern, which says to us, we were picking up either some kind of station frequency on that same part of the band or spirits were able to communicate on that certain band area.

The Seelbach Hotel is not to be missed. We honestly can't wait to stay there again, it was so magnificent. We didn't have anything we would define as ghostly activity, but many people have. Especially around the elevators on the mezzanine. Is the Seelbach Hotel haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 571 - Old Montana Prison

Moment in Oddity - Justin Bishop Blind Skateboarder

Sometimes you'll see a Grom going goofy-foot as they anchor-grind, maybe they are doing a pop-shove-it, hand plant or an alley-oop, but rarely do you see anyone skating as a blind person. These descriptive words are all skating terminology, as in skateboarding. When I was young, I used to skate on my penny board eventually graduating to a real deck. As a kid I even taught a couple of tricks to my neighbors. I recently came across the story of Justin Bishop. At just 8 years old, Justin was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa. This is a rare eye disease which typically causes the afflicted to go blind by middle age. Justin lost the majority of his eyesight at 25 and stopped skating while he concentrated on learning how to navigate life which would be his new normal. But Justin Bishop is anything but normal. His passion drove him to get back on his deck just four years after that! Justin skates with a cane. This additional sensory assist helps him feel the curve of a bowl or the width of a wall that he is grinding on. During an interview, Justin shared this about another item that assists him while he skates. "Zappos kind of saw one of my videos using it (the it being a beeping box that helps him "see" an area with his ears) and they do a program with Not Impossible Labs, and they actually made something called a phased array speaker system. It’s pretty much a beeper box on steroids. So I can actually change the direction of the sound. I can make a wall of sound. I can manipulate sound in all these crazy ways. So I’ve been using that a lot more to skate." Previously Justin was skating by muscle memory. Today he is a professionally sponsored skateboarder and is learning new tricks and gaining speed with confidence. This type of triumph that Justin Bishop has obtained takes perseverance and passion and I don't know that it makes him odd, but he certainly is awesome!

This Month in History - Aberdeen Snowman (Suggested by: Michael Rogers)

In the month of January, on the 2nd, in 1963 an incredibly large snowman was built in Aberdeen, Scotland. It all started during Britain's Big Freeze which began on Boxing Day in 1962 and continued on for the following three months. Due to the amount of snowfall, school kids were enjoying a snow day. Siblings Roddy Stuart, age 16, brother Michael, 21 and sister Leslie 18 decided to create something unexpected during their time away from school. Leslie's boyfriend David, now husband, assisted the siblings as well. A snowman is not unexpected, however, a 17 foot tall snowman is not something one sees every day! It took them less than a day to complete the towering chap and the group topped him off with a straw basket hat, scarf and a pipe. Not only did the frozen creation resemble a snowman, but it had sculpted shoulders, arms, hands and legs! It was quite the endeavor that the young adults accomplished brilliantly! The snowman also caught the attention of the press and articles were run in the local Evening Express and international newspapers. Even a five year old girl in Florida saw the news about the snowman and she wrote a letter which was sent to Aberdeen. It was simply addressed to "Snowman Builder Roddy". Her letter read,  “Dear Roddy, I thought you might be happy to see how far your talents have reached in this wonderful world of ours.” Roddy responded to the young girl by writing her back and sending a copy of the Evening Express article along with 2 photos. The kid's fantastic feat is still noted today. And, not for lack of attempts by others, but there has never been a taller snowman built in Aberdeen to date.

Old Montana Prison (Suggested by: Sara Jimison)

The Old Montana Prison is said to be the most haunted location in Southwest Montana. This was a state prison that was used for over 100 years and was the first Territorial Prison in the western part of the United States. The prison closed in 1979 and has reopened as a venue with multiple museums, the main one being the prison itself. There were deaths here and a violent riot and perhaps that is why spirits walk the corridors and hide in the cells. Join us for the history and hauntings of the Old Montana Prison!

Deer Lodge is the second oldest town in Montana. We generally start these city histories with the Native American groups that lived in the area, but when it comes to Deer Lodge, there were no indigenous groups that lived there. They occasionally gathered for events like horse races. Lewis and Clark were the first documented visitors to pass by the Deer Lodge Valley and by 1846, the valley was part of the Oregon Territory. It moved to the Washington Territory and then the Idaho Territory before it finally was the Montana Territory in 1864. Johnny Grant was the first settler here and he raised cattle and horses. He encouraged others to join him, which wasn't hard to do when gold was found nearby. At the time, Deer Lodge was known as LaBarge City. In 1866, Conrad Kohrs bought Grants holdings and he became a Cattle King in Montana with over 50,000 head of cattle that grazed over 10 million acres. That property is now the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site. A territorial prison would be established at Deer Lodge in 1869.

This is a really cool looking prison. It looks like a red brick castle with lots of windows along the sides with turreted towers and iron gates. The property has several buildings including the Administration Building, the General Population Cell Blocks, the Library, the Death Tower, the Chapel, isolation cells and Maximum Security. This all got started with a Federal bill that put aside $40,000 for a Montana Penitentiary. The local government picked C. S. Ream and William Sturgis "to locate and fix the site for said penitentiary" and they chose a town called Argenta. The Territorial Government decided against the recommendation and ultimately chose Deer Lodge City, as it was called at the time. But as is the case so often with bureaucracy and funding, there wasn't enough money and there were many delays before the cornerstone was finally laid on June 2, 1870. George McBurney and William Lenior were contracted to construct the new prison. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, Lenior died suddenly. McBurney continued without him. Convict labor was used to build the prison and they laid 1.2 million bricks. Those bricks were quarried from a nearby area.

There was nothing fancy about this jail. The first wing to be finished was described as "nothing but bare stone walls, roof, floor, fourteen brick cells, six by eight feet, in the clear--with nothing between them and the roof, and only gratings for the lower windows." The outer sandstone walls stood 24-feet high with an additional four feet below the ground to prevent escape. The prison officially opened and took in its first nine convicts on July 2, 1871. William F. Wheeler was the U.S. Marshall for the Montana Territory and he was placed in charge of the Montana Prison. The first prisoner was Samuel E. Hughes who committed an armed assault and was sentenced to a year in prison. In these first couple of years, the prison was under Federal ownership even though only one person was a Federal prisoner. The rest were territorial prisoners. This seemed to be the case at many territorial prisons and the U.S. Congress decided to transfer the penitentiaries to their respective territorial governments. The Montana Prison had this happen on May 15, 1873. There were 21 inmates incarcerated at the time.   

A three-member directors' board with a warden was chosen as the best route to manage the prison. Those members were Hugh Duncan, J. H. Robertson, and Granville Stuart. C. B. Adriance became the warden. The board immediately petitioned for more cells to be built. Congress awarded the money and the new cell block was described as, "The building is of stone and its length is eighty and its width by forty feet on the outside. The walls are two feet thick and twenty-two feet high. The mansard roof makes a story and gives room for a third tier of cells. When the building was accepted it had but one tier of fourteen cells built in the center of the ground floor...Since then we have constructed a second tier of cells, above the others at a cost of $6,000.00." Despite the new cells, the prison was still inadequate for the needs of the community. The central administration building was constructed in 1884. This was made from stone and 50 feet long and housed the guards sleeping quarters, warden's office and a visitor's reception room.

In 1890, Frank Conley became the warden. As a teenager, he helped create Yellowstone National Park and then later he joined the Central Montana Vigilance Committee. He became a Deputy Sheriff and was assigned the duty to transport criminals to the Montana State Prison. He liked it there and joined as a guard and worked his way up. Conley would be responsible for building the bulk of the structures here. He was the one who constructed the outer walls that still stand today. He built separate housing for female prisoners. Several cell blocks were added. Several hundred inmates could be housed after this. And he built the first ever prison theater. This would be the WA Clark Theatre, which was named for Copper King William A. Clark who donated $10,000 for the theater. The theater had leather seats and could seat 1,000 people. There were plays, concerts, prize fights, movies and more. A fire broke out in the theater in 1975 and completely destroyed it. It was ruled arson. Conley became mayor of Deer Lodge eventually. he also became a corrupt man through the years and got very powerful. He was stripped of his role as warden, but stayed mayor. He died in Deer Lodge in 1939.
  
Life in the prison was very regimented. Inmates did all the work when it came to construction and they also made their own clothes, cooked, cut lumber, and performed 'all that is done for the prison and themselves.' If an inmate wanted to grow a mustache, he had to get permission from state authorities and there were written guidelines they had to follow. Potential escapees were issued shoes with concrete soles that weighed twenty pounds each. The interior was painted a drab gray and there was a broad yellow stripe along the floor to define the prisoner's walkway. Solitary confinement cells had heavy metal doors that blocked out all light and sound. Two of the worst areas in the prison were nicknamed "Siberia" and "The Hole." Siberia was an area that was freezing cold in the winter. Maximum Security was known as the Black Box and as many inmates died there as those who were executed. 

Let's talk about some of the inmates. Charles Panzram served time here from 1913 to 1915. He was an American serial killer, spree killer, mass murderer, rapist, child molester, arsonist, robber, thief and burglar who confessed to having murdered twenty-one boys and men, only five of which could be corroborated. It is thought he may have killed upwards of 100 boys and men.

Paul “Turkey Pete” Eitner resided in Cell No 1. Eitner had been convicted of murder and sentenced to life in 1918. He got his nickname because he was placed in charge of the prison's turkey flock. Turkey Pete was a model prisoner who eventually lost his mind. The prison's website describes what happened with Turkey Pete next, "Losing touch with reality, at one point he 'sold' the entire flock for the sum of 25 cents per bird, beginning a new career as the prison entrepreneur. Humoring his mental condition, inmates were allowed to print Eitner checks in the prison print shop and he was permitted to 'purchase' the prison and run it from his cell. He 'paid' all prison expenses and 'paid' the guards salaries. At age 89, Turkey Pete died in 1967 after 49 years behind bars. At his death, Cell No 1 was retired from use. His was the only funeral ever held within the walls of the prison."

One of the female inmates here was Muriel Murphy who was one of the youngest persons ever sentenced to life in prison. She was fifteen at the time. Murphy was an accomplice to her boyfriend William Newman who robbed a man named Gust Anderson outside of a bar. Murphy lured him outside and her boyfriend hit him over the head. Anderson was taken to a hospital where he developed pneumonia and died a couple days later. Murphy and Newman were charged with first degree murder. They were found guilty and would've been given the death penalty had the teens not claimed that Anderson had grabbed Muriel and Newman was defending her when he hit Anderson over the head. The judge gave them life in prison instead. The judge really felt bad about giving the teens this sentence and before they were led away he said, "This sentence does not really mean what it says. You may apply to the executive department and when the time comes, I will do all I can.” Muriel and William only served three years before they were released on conditional paroles. They married and started a family.

Lucy Cornforth was another female inmate. She ended up here after very tragic circumstances. First, Lucy was deficient intellectually. A local sheepherder took advantage of her by asking her to deliver a note to the young daughter of her neighbors. The little girl's parents got the note from their daughter and when they read it, they discovered it contained improper intentions. The parents came to Lucy and threatened to  ruin the lives of her and her daughter, Mary. Lucy's response to this was that she decided to kill herself and her daughter Mary. She went and bought some strychnine and poured it into a cup. Then she thought about it and decided that wasn't a good idea and put the cup aside. Mary had heard her mother talking about the poison and what she was going to do, so she grabbed the cup and drank the poison. Nobody knows why she made that decision. Lucy was arrested and she plead not guilty and then later plead guilty and a judge was going to giver her the death penalty until he realized that Lucy had mental in-capacities. Twenty-five years later, in 1954, a retired teacher wrote the parole board asking that Lucy be considered for parole. It was decided she couldn't cope with the outside world. She was sent to the Warm Springs Mental Facility for several years after that, but she eventually was released and she moved to Florida where she died in 1966. 

By the way, that psychiatric hospital is known as the Montana State Hospital and is still open today. It opened in 1877, so has been open for nearly 150 years and was the first hospital of its kind in the state. This was one of those hospitals that embraced eugenics and at least 256 people were forcibly sterilized from 1923 to 1954. Reports of abuse of patients have happened as recently as 2023. There are two cemeteries on the property and its thought that up to 5,000 people may be buried here. There are those that claim some restless spirits wander the cemeteries and the grounds. A ghost nurse haunts the main hospital.

Orlando Camillo Hanks was known as Charley Jones or Deaf Charley. He was an outlaw who was part of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch. Many claim he was the toughest of the outlaws. He robbed trains and was finally caught in 1892 robbing the Northern Pacific train at Big Timber, Montana. He served 8 years in the Montana State Prison and was released on April 30, 1901. Then he joined Butch Cassidy. He would come to his end in a saloon in San Antonio, Texas when Pink Taylor, who was the local law, recognized him and pulled a gun. Shots were fired and Deaf Charley fell dead.

Inmate Jerry Myles was the instigator of a riot at the prison in 1959. The Montana Prison was one of the worst in the country and was run with a "con boss" system. A con boss system is like a dictatorship among the inmates. One rises to the top and runs everything and that "everything" is stuff like protection, goods and illicit activities. The boss gets to the top  with manipulation and sometimes physical strength and he is usually part of a gang that he already runs, so he has the back-up of his gang members. At the Montana State Prison, Jerry Myles was one of the con bosses. He had been in prison longer than he had been free and he liked the hierarchy of the prison. He was a psychopath whom everyone called "Little Hitler." Myles was ruthless in his domination and he stalked young men for sexual favors. Another inmate named Lee Smart joined Myles in starting the riot.

The governor of Montana had appointed all the wardens up until 1958. It was after the resignation of Warden Burrell in 1958 that the Montana Council on Corrections decided that they themselves would conduct a nationwide search. They believed it was time for change. Floyd Powell was a man of reform who was from Wisconsin and the council chose him as the next warden. Powell had eighteen years of experience and he brought along his friend Ted Rothe to be his deputy warden. The two men committed themselves to abolishing the con boss system. They worked on getting rid of the black market in the prison and also getting rid of the drugs. Many guards were involved in the black market and they cracked down on them, either firing them or retraining them. Food quality was improved, but a rule was implemented that inmates had to eat all that they took. Both guards and inmates were resistant to the changes and con bosses weren't about to give up their power.

Into this steps Jerry Myles who already had experience with starting big trouble in prisons. He organized a mutiny in a federal penitentiary in Georgia in 1944, which ended up with him being shipped off to Alcatraz. While there, he learned all about rioting from the Battle of Alcatraz. He had arrived at the Montana prison in June of 1958. In April 1959, Myles instigated the riot with Lee Smart. Smart brought on his buddy George Alton. The men had figured out that the inmate to guard ratio was at its lowest during the dinnertime turnover. Alton had access to gasoline in the prison garage, so when the turnover started he grabbed some and gave it to Smart. Myles made a torch out of a mop. They loitered near a guard named Gus Byars who was on a catwalk in Cellblock 1 and surprised him by throwing gasoline on him and then lighting the torch with a match. Byars realized he was going to die if he didn't cooperate and he gave up his keys and rifle. Smart and Myles then locked him up in the hole.

Other inmates ambushed the other two guards in Cellblock 1. Several of the inmates then went to Cellblock 2 where the ammunition was stored. They easily overtook that block as well. Within 30 minutes, the inmates had control of the whole facility except for the upper floor of the Administration Building and the minimum security housing. Deputy Warden Rothe was oblivious to what was happening until Myles rushed into his office with a meat cleaver. Rothe managed to fight him off, but then Smart came in with a rifle and hit Rothe in the chest with a blast from it, killing the deputy warden instantly. The inmates forced another guard to call Warden Powell and tell him that there was a slight disturbance. The minute Poweel entered the Administration Building, he was taken hostage. The warden was forced to call the Governor, who was out of town, but he left a message that was a code the Governor would understand and know that the Warden had been compromised.

The Warden was left with a prisoner whom he promised amnesty if he helped and the inmate agreed and spread the word to the rest of the inmates. Several of them helped the Warden escape. Myles and his crew of inmates were angry to find out the Warden was gone and they began building an escape tunnel, which was doomed from the bigging because the jail was specifically designed to prevent tunneling. Warden Powell came back into the prison and negotiated with Myles who said he wanted reporters to be brought in so they could see the conditions the prisoners lived under. The Warden agreed, but he said nothing could be printed until all the hostages were freed. By the next day, the riot was international news. Three reporters came in and interview inmates and they left without incident. But Myles was angry, He wanted lots of reporters, so he wouldn't agree to release hostages. Myles said he wouldn't release anyone until the story ran and the Warden refused to run it. This started a 24-hour standoff.

Myles kept shouting to reporters outside the jail, but the rest of the inmates were giving up because they knew escape was impossible. The Montana National Guard finally came in and broke up the riot. It had lasted thirty-six hours, with only Deputy Warden Rothe dying on the police side, but several other guards were injured. Myles and Smart died via a murder-suicide. The Warden went through the entire prison with the National Guard and had all 438 inmates strip searched and their cells were emptied. Nearly 400 knives were confiscated and several truck loads of contraband were hauled off to the dump.

The prison eventually became outdated and the guards were horribly underpaid. The facility finally shut down in 1979. Today, the Old Montana Prison hosts five unique museums that include the Old Montana Prison, Powell County Museum, Frontier Montana Museum, Yesterday's Playthings and the Montana Auto Museum. It's closed during the Winter. Visitors can do guided tours of self-guided tours and there are also overnight ghost hunts. And there are ghost hunts because this is one of the most haunted locations in Montana. People claim to have been scratched. Disembodied footsteps are heard. Paranormal investigators have found that they get some of the best responses when it comes to responsive knocking. Investigators will knock out a pattern and ask for it to be replicated. Or they might ask for knocks as replies to questions. The general public usually doesn't have access to the Death Tower (which is technically the Northwest Tower), but ghost hunts do get to go to this area. Guided ghost hunts also get to investigate the Administration Building, Maximum Security, General Population and the Auditorium.

Ghost Adventures investigated during Season 11. They caught an interesting orb coming down directly from the noose in the gallows and also the sounds of a loud trap door noise and disembodied footsteps. The Ovilus came up with the words: "TOM", "WOODS", "SHOOT", "SELF" and "WEAPON." They had equipment issues and the batteries in one of the cameras even started fizzling acid. They felt cold spots and captured a figure on the SLS Camera going up and down the stairs in the gallows and moving its arm on command. They also caught a figure using the digital still camera outside in the yard.

Ghost Files with Ryan and Shane visited the prison in October 2023. They set up cameras and recorders in various areas, one of which was the 1912 Cellblock where apparently, a cannibalistic Satan worshiper was housed. The show claims this was Stanley Dean Baker who murdered, dismembered and partially ate James Schlosser in Montana. He and an accomplice were apprehended in California and brought back to Montana. Everything I looked up said Baker was sent to Park County Jail and then a mental hospital called Warm Springs. So I'm not sure he was at this prison. He was arrested in 1970 and this prison closed in 1979. So anyway, when Ryan and Shane asked how long someone had worked there or lived there, the Ovilus responded "eight." They also managed to get a spirit to respond with two solid claps. They stomped and got more clapping.

Ghost Lab investigated during its second season and Barry Klinge said this was his favorite episode from that season. An investigator told The Blaze rock station in 2021, " I experienced tables and chairs moving inside cells as well as disembodied whistles in the main cell block." A group investigating in 2017 asked the Spirit Box for a name and got "Jerry." They also captured three unexplained knocks. Then a flashlight started flickering and an investigator asked if someone was messing with the light and they caught a voice saying "That was me." There were also disembodied footsteps recorded. They also captured a whispered "no" and a male voice mumbling. And a maximum security cell opened and an investigator yelled "That was me!" This was followed by a cell slamming shut and the investigator yelled "That was not me!"

The Spokane Paranormal Society investigated in October of 2018. The Montana Right Now website wrote the story about the visit. A woman named Heather Gregory is a docent at the jail and she gave the group a guided tour before they investigated. She said, "At nighttime you'll feel like you're being watched, and turn around and get that glimmer." During the tour, the group heard unexplained sounds and one member was scratched on his shoulder by something as he descended the stairs from one of the towers at the prison. He said, "It hit me as I was going down the last part of the stairs." The group detected the smell of sulfur and a couple members felt nauseous. One of them was their medium Sarah James. She said, "I pick up on the negativity of this place. But, it's a prison. Anyone would think it would be negative. I do believe there's good here as well." During the investigation, they captured a couple of shadow figures on GoPros and noises on recorder.

An article on the Visit Southwest Montana website shares about a ghost hunting experience at the jail, "It wasn’t until we were exploring the prison alone that I truly felt an unexplainable presence. The first such experience took place in the prison yard in the Canteen. We entered the area, placed a simple cat toy on the ground between us and turned on a highly sensitive microphone. While I could hear nothing, someone mentioned hearing footsteps entering the room – we were of course alone and no one joined us. While the cat toy had remained unmoved up to this point (even with a couple strong gusts of wind) we asked the spirits to make the toy light up if they were there and promptly without question the ball lit up. As the flickering stopped, we proceeded saying that if they wanted to communicate to again move the toy and make it light up. Again, the toy flashed on. 'We are going to ask you some questions, light up the toy if you understand' – instant lights. 'If the answer to the question is yes, please light up the ball. Does that make sense?' – again the ball lit up. We carried on a conversation and eventually asked 'do you like visitors at the prison' – yes – 'do you want us to stay' – nothing – 'would you prefer if we left?' – yes. We quietly thanked the spirit for their time and exited back to the prison yard. Having been on edge all night, a sense of calm washed over me following this experience as if reassured that the spirits themselves enjoyed our company."

The Old Montana Prison has a long history. Like so many other historic jails, this one has its share of ghost stories. Is the Old Montana Prison haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 570 - Aiken Rhett House

Moment in Oddity - Voo-per-tall  Sh-vaber-baun (Vader Braun) (Suggested by: Michael Rogers)

In Wuppertal Germany, there is a semi unique mode of transportation. There are many suspended public transit railways around the world, however the Wuppertal train is one of only two that actually operates upside down. Dubbed the Wuppertal Schwebebahn, it is the oldest elevated railway with hanging cars. The cars themselves are constructed with extruded aluminum and fiberglass composite. Each individual car weighs just under 25 tons. The train transports approximately 80,000 passengers every day and the entire route only takes about 30 minutes to travel from end to end gliding a distance of 8.3 miles. The route itself offers beautiful views of the Wupper River for 6 of those miles at a mere 39 ft above the water's surface. There are 20 stations along the course, some of which display Art Nouveau architecture. It is a very  popular mode of transportation for both locals as well as tourists.  For those without a fear of falling, the Schwebebahn provides an awesome adventure albeit admittedly alarming for some, and this manner of transportation, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - The Sinking of the HMS Formidable

In the month of January, on the 1st, in 1915, the British battleship HMS Formidable was sunk. The ship was out on exercises about 37 miles off the Devon coast. When suddenly the first of two torpedoes from German U-boat 24 hit the Formidable's number one boiler on the port side. The second torpedo hit the starboard side, near the bow. The explosions caused the ship to list heavily to its starboard side while large thirty foot waves crashed over the damaged ship. The captain, his second in command and a signaler stayed at their posts as the ship began taking on water. They sent flares and rockets off at regular intervals hoping to alert other ships for rescue. It is said that nobody panicked. While lifeboats were being lowered, someone played a ragtime song on the piano and others sang. Without warning, the ship gave an enormous lurch. With that, the Captain exclaimed, "Lads, this is the last, all hands for themselves, and may God bless you and guide you to safety". The captain then walked to the foreship with his dog and waited for the inevitable. Many lifeboats were destroyed as they were lowered while still others sank due to the size of the waves.  One of the lifeboats known as a pinnace, or small boat with sails or oars, was spotted from land by a girl and her parents. The alarm was raised and thus rescue efforts began. Of the nearly 750 men, only 199 were saved.

Aiken Rhett House (Suggested by: Savannah Marchione)

The Aiken Rhett House is located in Charleston, South Carolina. This is a partially restored house museum that can be toured and was a home that remained in the Aiken family for 142 years. Some of their furnishings remain as do some of their spirits. Our listener Savannah Marchione suggested this location to us and she joins us to share about the history of the house and her own paranormal experiences that she has had while touring the house. 

For us, Charleston is synonymous with great old mansions. The city is very similar to Natchez, Mississippi in that respect. This is a place you come to see these beautiful and distinctive mansions. They are all very different. We'll sprinkle in a few here and there throughout this episode. The Aiken Rhett Mansion isn't opulent anymore. It isn't even completely refurbished, but it has it's own distinct beauty in its unfinished state. One can imagine what it had been like at its prime in the early 1800s when grand parties were thrown here. This mansion captured our listener Savannah's heart. (Savannah 1 - Savannah shares with us the history of the house and how she got interested in it to begin with. The Aiken Rhett House is located at 48 Elizabeth Street in Charleston, South Carolina. The house was originally built by Charleston merchant John Robinson in 1820 as a typical Charleston double house. The Aiken Rhett House stands three-stories and has 23 rooms and was built from brick.)

Six years before John Robinson built what became the Aiken Rhett House, he built the house that still carries his name at 10 Judith Street. Savannah will share that this merchant ran into financial issues, but through it all, he held onto this house, which is considerably smaller than the Aiken Rhett House at just 6,000 square feet and two and a half stories with a raised basement. It features double piazzas and an iron staircase leading to the front door. This home was later owned by Commander Peter Stevens who led the Citadel cadets at Fort Johnson against the Union at Fort Sumter. It was Stevens who ordered the shots at the Star of the West, a resupply ship sent by President Lincoln to Fort Sumter. This act is considered by some to be the first shot of the Civil War.  

In 1825, Robinson lost 5 ships at sea and he was forced to sell the house to meet his financial obligations. So in 1827, Willkam Aiken Sr. bought the house. Aiken was an Irish immigrants who had gained a large fortune as one of the cities leading merchants and used the house as a rental property. When Aiken sr died in a sudden carriage accident, his holdings were split between Henrietta Wyatt Aiken ( Williams wife) and his son William Aiken JR. In 1833 when William Sr and Henrietta decided to officially moved in and started to renovate the home and creates one of the most impressive residences in the 19th century Charleston. William Jr was a business man, Rice planter, and distinguished politician, and governor of South Carolina. William Jr was one of the states wealthiest citizens. Will Jr and his wife would vacation in Germany and come home with fine art and furnishings for their home. In 1858 Aiken Jr commissioned his cousin Joseph Daniel Aiken to design and oversee the construction of an art gallery, the only one of its kind in the city. Alot if the object acquired by the Aikens on their travels remain in the art gallery room.

When William Jr. and his wife Harriet obtained the house, they began to make several alterations to the property. The main entry moved from Judith Street to Elizabeth Street and a new foyer was created. An eastern wing was added, as was a large dining room on the first floor with a ballroom added above it. The central hallway was closed. Several outbuildings were added with Gothic Revival styling and these imcluded a cow shed, chicken coop and matching corner privies because why have only one when you can have two and matching, I mean, come on, this is the south! of course, another slave quarters was added and this is the bad part of the Aiken history as William Jr. was one of the largest slaveholders in South Carolina. He had a plantation on Jehosee Island with 700 slaves. The house kept nineteen slaves. While Aiken supported the Confederacy, he was not in favor of secession.

William Jr died in 1887 in Flat Rick N. Carolina. William Jr left his property to his wife Harriet. She continued to live in the house until her death in 1892. Their daughter Henrietta ( william jr named his daughted after his mother) and son in law Major AB Rhett raised 4 sons and one daughter in the house. Upon Henriettas death, the house was divided between her children and their heirs.    Your able to take tours in the home. You can tour the basement, the first floor and second floor but the third floor is blocked off. You are also able to tour the grounds, the horse barn with the horse caregiver living above the horses and cars. And there's a slave quarters and kitchen, the kitchen was located on the first floor and the bedrooms were located above the kitchen. The Aikens had 20 enslaved African Americans living on property. Like most large houses in the south, this house had a bell system to call for help when they needed. When Henrietta wanted a bath, one of the head female slaves would have to get up to 10 gallons of waters from the well, boil it and carry each bucket of water from outside kitchen and up 2 flights of stairs to the porcelain claw bath tub. Two of the slaves who were at the house were able to become emancipated, but do to lack of the funds they decided to stay at the home and passed away in the house not to long after. The Aikens always had up to 3 horses at the house, even after the children had bought 2 Duryea Motor Carriage, and one still sits in the barn. There was one man who would take care of the horses and he was an older white gentleman who was a family friend, i wasn't able to find his name. You are unable to tour the upstairs of the horse barn due to it being unstable. The library held up to 275 books and William Sr kept the books in constant rotation with new books. 

Two of the sons I'on Rhett and Andrew Burnet Rhett Jr continued to lived in the house until the mid twentieth century. Frances Dill Rhett, whose husband was a direct descendant of Gov. William Rhett, donated the house to the Charleston Museum in 1975 and it opened as a museum.[6] The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.[1] Since 1995, Historic Charleston Foundation has owned and operated the Aiken-Rhett House as a historic house museum. I want to break in here to talk a little about the Nathaniel Russell House. If you are in Charleston, you have to tour this mansion. The free-flying, three-story staircase that is inside is an architectural marvel. The staircase supports itself as it winds up in a cantilevered way, meaning it is fixed at only one end. And it has lasted all these years. It is truly mind-blowing. The mansion is at 51 Meeting Street and was built by its namesake who owned 18 slaves. The rest of the mansion is very unique with geometrically shaped rooms and elaborate plasterwork ornamentation.

The Aiken Rhett house is to be considered a very haunted house. Some visitors think it's haunted by the spirits if the family members that once lived there. There have been some experience of people hearing footsteps coming from above them and in front of them. Doors have been heard and seen opening and closing on their own, their is no central air or heating in the house, so whatever the temperature it is outside it's going to be inside, the only room that has air and heat is the art gallery room, and the basement where you check in for the tours and the gift shop. Some people have seen a women crying in a mirror in the ballroom. People have taken pictures and have had ghostly figures standing on the room. There have been loud noises and echos from the upper floors and sometimes there's been a string wind and a loud commotion after feeling the wind and a lot of the times the noises come from the ballroom. There were 2 architects working in he the house in the late 80s, say they saw a women crying when they looked into a mirror in the ballroom. If you walk through the slave quarters you feel a heavy feeling of anger and unease as you walk around the bedrooms. People have said they seen dark and black figures walk past them or behind them and get a shiver down their back. A few people have said they have heard singing but can't make out what is being sung and it sounds like old gullah.

Savannah shared her unexplained experiences at the house, "Now I've had 2 experience while I was in the slave quarters, I felt as if a dark figure had been falling me as I walked from one end to the other end, so I kinda stopped and started talking and saying I just wanted to learn about the history and didn't want any trouble and didn't want to case any harm, and it felt like the figure backed off and seemed to go and into one of the other rooms. There are 3 rooms in the slave quarters. And one room seems very dark and like something bad happened or there was al ot of hate in that one room. So you can do a self guided tour, you get an email and you open the link and you get a voice recording of what route to take and of the history of the house and the family and what your looking at. So i had gone inside and upstairs into the bathroom where the tub is, i felt a woman's presence in the bathroom, I had my head phones in and I was listening about the tub and there was a pause in the recording to give you a minute to walk around, well there was nothing playing for about a minute and I heard humming and I figured it came from the recording, I had one headphone in, so the recording came back on and said something about the sink being from France and their was another minute or so pause and I heard the same humming again. I was by my self with no one else around me or near me, I was the only one in that part of second floor. I have asked some of the staff and of course most of them deny any Hauntings of the house or the area and a few of them get upset if you ask. There are 3 or 4 cousins of the Aiken family who are in the board of the house to make sure it stays at is. There has been very very minimal work to the house and it looks like it had when the original family had lived in it. And one of those cousins works in the house to help answer any questions people have about the family. And I got lucky one day when I had asked a lady who was probably in her mid 30s if she thought the house was haunted, and she 100% thought it was. She went on to tell me she had a few experience in the house. She had 2 different shutters slam on her as she was opening them for the day and there was no wind that day. And one experience that absolutely horrified her was when she was upstairs in the bathroom with the tub she heard the same humming I did and had a feeling it was Henrietta because that was her bathroom, so she walked out of the bathroom she was a blonde women walk out the doorway of the bathroom and into the hallway and she say the balcony door open and then saw the back of the women walk down the stairs and into the ballroom, so the lady tried to get half way down the stairs to look into the mirror to only see the a dark figure run across the bottom of the stairs and out the back double doors that led to the back yard and as she looked into the ball room she say the blonde women with no face and heard screaming coming from behind her, the lady said she rain out the front door so fast she forgot to like the door and went and sat across the street and waited for the other lady who was opening with her to arrive, she said as she sat across the street she could hear the doors opening and closing, she could hear it all since she had opened all the shutters on the second floor."

The Aiken Rhett House was a place of opulence and parties, but also one deeply connected to one family. Perhaps that is why there are spirits still here. Is the Aiken Rhett House haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 569 - Return to Waverly Hills Sanatorium

Moment in Oddity - The Origin of Times Square's New Years Celebration (Suggested & Written by: Dwight Shepherd)

Most holidays have traditions that grow up around them. Things that, over time, just become almost a natural and expected part of the holiday. Did you ever stop to think how some of these traditions got their start? Take New Years, and in particular, New Years Eve. I’m sure every one of you is familiar with the dropping of the ball in Times Square.  Most of us have probably watched it at one time or another.  For some, it’s just something that we do EVERY New Years Eve. A few of you may even have seen it in person in New York City. Over 1 million people do that each year. Worldwide, another 1 billion people watch it on TV. Did you ever wonder how all that got started? Well, would you believe that its very beginnings can be traced to a small cemetery in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee?  Indeed, that’s where it all began. The cemetery is First Presbyterian Cemetery.  For those of you not familiar with it, it’s located behind the Tennessee Theatre. Let's go back to the year 1869.  An 11 year old boy had to pass by it on his way home from his job at The Knoxville Chronicle, which was located over on Market Square.  There were no child labor laws then, so he got off work at midnight each night. This meant the area near the cemetery was very dark and deserted. There were stories whispered that at least one of the residents of First Presbyterian Cemetery didn’t always stay in his grave, or at least his spirit didn’t. So, many nights, this 11 year old boy stayed at work until daylight. Now there were no beds at The Chronicle. Heck, there wasn’t even an employee breakroom back then. So in order to be allowed to stay, this boy started “helping out” throughout the paper. He began to learn about all aspects of producing a newspaper.  His family moved away briefly the next year.  However, within another year they were back in Knoxville.  He was back working at The Chronicle, and back to learning and earning his keep overnight. By the time he was 19, he was capable of running a newspaper himself.  And he soon got that chance.  He heard that a newspaper in Chattanooga had gone bankrupt.  Through the help of family and friends, he was able to put together $250 to buy The Chattanooga Times in 1878.  He turned that paper around, and was soon making a profit.  As a side note, although it has since merged with The Free Press, that paper is still in business today. In 1886, a friend let him know that a paper in another city was close to going bankrupt, and was available for sale.  Coincidentally, it was also named The Times.  He was able to come up with the $75,000 to buy that paper.  He turned it around as well.  The job he did was so impressive that even today, the masthead of The New York Times continues to list Adolph Ochs as publisher. Now Adolph Ochs grew The Times so much that he had to have a new building constructed to house his paper.  That building is located at what is now called Times Square in New York in its honor.  To celebrate the completion of his new headquarters, Ochs had fireworks set off from the building on New Years Eve 1904.  It was so well received, that they began doing it every year.  In 1907, they began dropping a ball as part of that celebration.  It has taken place every year, except 1942 and 43, because of World War II. They say that truth is stranger than fiction.  The fact that way over 1 billion people celebrate New Years Eve having its beginnings because an 11 year old boy was scared to walk past a haunted cemetery in Knoxville at night certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Hank Williams Checks into the Andrew Johnson Hotel Before Dying (Suggested & Written by: Dwight Shepherd)

On December 31, 1952, Hank Williams checked into the Andrew Johnson Hotel to wait out bad weather and by the wee hours of the morning, he was dead. The Andrew Johnson Building on Gay Street in Knoxville will soon be renovated into a mix of commercial/retail space, permanent residences, and overnight rental accommodations. For a number of years, it housed the Knox County School System Central Office.  Before that, it was something completely different.  It opened as a luxury hotel in 1928, and was at the time, the tallest building in Tennessee.  In the 1930s radio station WNOX broadcast from its upper floors.  Their Mid-Day Merry Go Round program featured live performances from a list of entertainers that soon would be among The Who’s Who of Country Music. In 1936, Amelia Earhart stayed here.  During an interview conducted here, she told a local reporter because of the nature of flying, she didn’t expect to die of old age.  She disappeared on her around the world flight a year later.  In 1943, Russian composer Sergi Rachrominoff stayed here while giving a concert at the University of Tennessee.  It would prove to be his last concert. He died three months later. On New Years Eve 1952, Hank Williams checked in here because bad weather had canceled his flight.  Williams, in addition to being a country music superstar, was also a legal morphine addict.  A back injury caused him so much pain that he actually carried a card that authorized doctors to give him morphine to control the pain.  Unfortunately, Hank was also an alcoholic.  Those two are not a good combination. After getting to the hotel, Hank told his teenage driver, Charlie Carr, to get him a bottle of whiskey and a doctor to give him a shot of morphine.  Folks at the hotel told him where he could find both. Now, naturally the doctor had never treated Hank before.  Exactly how he figured the dose of morphine, only he knew for sure.  Anyway, it couldn’t have mixed well with the alcohol. Later that evening, Hank’s manager called.  Hank was in no condition to talk to him, so young Charlie Carr took the call.  Hank was due for a concert in Charleston, West Virginia.  They couldn’t wait for the weather to clear.  They needed to get on the road and keep driving until either they came to an airport where they could get a flight out, or they reached Charleston by car.  At 10:45PM, the driver called the front desk.  They were checking out, and he’d need help getting his boss to their car.  Charlie pulled a 1952 blue Cadillac to the hotel’s side entrance.  Porters and bellmen who helped Hank to the car said he was unresponsive, except for a couple of coughing noises, and was cool to the touch. Charlie finally pulled over in Virginia, and flagged down a highway patrolman.  Hank Williams was dead at age 29.  Many people believe that he actually died at the Andrew Johnson in Knoxville.  It has been reported that on foggy New Year’s Eves, an old blue Cadillac can be seen circling the AJ Building. Maybe Hank hasn’t quite checked out yet.

Return to Waverly Hills Sanatorium

In April 2018, Diane visited Waverly Hills Sanatorium for the first time and several listeners joined her on a tour of the place. The group experienced some unexplained things and Diane has been dying to get back and show me the place. Covid thwarted our plan to investigate privately with a group of listeners in April 2020. So, with an unexpected trip to Louisville in December 2024, we couldn't pass up a chance to do a tour. Gargoyles maintain sentinel duty atop the imposing structure of the sanatorium. Are they keeping ghosts locked inside or protecting the interior from spirits? It's hard to say. Perhaps a little of both as Waverly Hills Sanatorium quite possibly is one of the most haunted locations in America. Join us for this return to the history and hauntings of Waverly Hills Sanatorium!

Most people are probably unaware that Tuberculosis still kills over one million people every year. This isn't just a disease that ravaged people during the early 1900s. The disease was often referred to as Consumption because it seemed to consume the afflicted individual. Others called it the "white death." This disease was highly contagious and there was no cure. The city of Louisville was hit with the highest case load in the country by 1900 and they needed a place that could not only get the sick away from the rest of the population, but make sure the sick got the three main forms of treatment being used for TB: nutrition, fresh air and sunlight. Waverly Hills Sanatorium would become that place.

Waverly Hills sits on a spot where a school once stood. Major Thomas H. Hays had bought the land in 1883 with the goal of building a school for his daughters to attend. That school was just a one room school house that was located on Pages Lane. Lizzie Lee Harris was hired to be the teacher and she named the school "Waverley School" after some novels named "Waverley Novels." Major Hays followed suit and named the property "Waverley Hill." The Board of Tuberculosis Hospital kept the name after purchasing the land and opening the Sanatorium. The original sanatorium that they built was not the large structure that stands today. The first was a framed building with a hipped roof and only had two stories. It could accommodate around 40 to 50 patients. The climate of Jefferson County, where Louisville is located, was conducive to the spread of TB and by the early 1900s, the county was hit hard. The original hospital was ill equipped to handle the amount of patients that would be flooding in. The city of Louisville started to plan a new hospital in 1911.

The Board of Tuberculosis Hospital was given $25,000 to erect a new hospital for the care of advanced cases of pulmonary tuberculosis. In order to start the building, the patients from the City Hospital had to be moved to tents set up on the grounds at Waverly Hills. The new pavilion was finished in 1912 and could care for another 40 patients. A children's pavilion was added as well for both sick kids and the children of patients. The plan for Waverly was to continue adding buildings and it eventually became like many other TB properties. These properties would become self-sufficient mini cities with their own water treatment facilities, post offices and growing their own food. Waverly followed the same pattern. But eventually, there was a desire to build a larger structure and that is the building that still exists today

Construction began in March of 1924 on the brick, five-story gothic styled building. It was designed by architect James J. Gaffney. The sanatorium would be able to house up to 400 patients. It was designed to provide a variety of treatments and was considered state-of-the-art at the time, despite the fact that many of the treatments they used for TB, we would consider barbaric. The facility officially opened on October 17, 1926. One of the treatments offered at Waverly Hills was time out on the Solarium.These were large patio areas on the outside of each floor where patients would sit for hours to take in the fresh air and enjoy the peace of the wooded area that surrounded the sanatorium. There was an audio system set up where patients could listen to music and the radio station broadcasting from within Waverly Hills. Our tour guide said it was like the first iPod. Some patients would be left out here up to 13 hours and there are even photos that show that some patients would actually be covered in snow. For this reason, the first electric blankets were used here. Another treatment was time in the sunroom, which was a room with heat lamps that were to provide a feeling as though being in the sun. The more barbaric treatments included electric shock for people with TB of the brain and surgical procedures to remove ribs and muscle. One of the worst treatments was a process where a lung would be deflated because TB needs oxygen to survive. This treatment did help some people, but mainly ended up killing people.

The facility served as a tuberculosis hospital until 1961. In 1943, streptomycin was discovered and it proved to successfully treat TB. This eventually would make Waverly Hills obsolete and so it did close in 1961 with any patients still remaining being transferred to Hazelwood Sanatorium. The following year it reopened after renovation as WoodHaven Medical Services, a geriatric facility for people with mobility issues and dementia. This facility ran until it was closed by the state in 1981. This was supposedly due to patient neglect. Simpsonville developer J. Clifford Todd bought the hospital in 1983 for $3,005,000. Todd joined forces with architect Milton Thompson and the men planned to convert it into a minimum-security prison for the state. Waverly is surrounded by a neighborhood and obviously, these people were not about to allow a minimum security prison in their backyard. The men switched to a plan to build apartments, but that fell through as well.

Robert Alberhasky bought the property in 1996 with the hope of turning it into an arts and worship center. He wanted to also build a replica of the Christ the Redeemer statue that is in Rio de Janeiro. This statue was going to be 150 feet tall and 150 feet wide and placed on the roof of the sanatorium. Donations fell through and the project was cancelled the following year. Tina and Charlie Mattingly then bought Waverly Hills in 2001. The Mattinglys hold tours of Waverly Hills and host a haunted house attraction each Halloween, with proceeds going toward restoration of the property. Restoration is going well, but is slow. The rooms that we saw that were restored looked great. Waverly Hills Historical Society is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and restoration of Waverly Hills Sanatorium.

It is no secret that Waverly Hills is haunted. And while I generally leave it up to you to decide if a place is haunted or not, I can tell you that I believe something I cannot explain is going on in this building. Thousands of people have had experiences here, including us. The smell of fresh baked bread has come from the former kitchen. Many ghost hunters claim that the ghost of a small boy named Timmy roams the halls. There are no records of a Timmy at the sanatorium though. The creepiest story in connection to Waverly is that of The Creeper. The Creeper is a dark and terrifying entity that crawls along the floors and the walls and many believe it is demonic in nature. Others believe it’s a human spirit that's been twisted by the trauma of tubercular death. People who see it are filled with dread.

The refrigeration room has child ghosts that like to play Hide and Seek. A group investigating in here once caught an EVP on a phone. You can hear the guest say "Ready or not" and then a child's voice responds "Here I come."  Apparently, the refrigerators were sometimes used for more than just food. The vegetables and meat would be pulled out and replaced by bodies. People who are closed up in the unit routinely feel their hair being pulled or the shirts being tugged upon. Children also haunt the former cafeteria and are sometimes joined by a ghost cat. People feel it rubbing up against their ankles.

The Cult of Weird website reported the following experience, "As we continued our conversation I began to notice a small orb-shaped pinpoint of light moving across the second floor solarium. It was the size of a firefly but a blue-white color, and it would disappear only to reappear with perfect timing in every other window. My companion asked if I could see a blue light. I said that I could. We watched as it traveled the entire length of the west side of the building heading east. At first it appeared as if it was inside the building, but as it progressed it moved up above the solarium windows in front of the exterior brick. When this happened it became two separate identical points of light, spaced so closely they almost touched each other. When the light neared a bend in the building—the sanatorium is roughly question mark shaped—we lost sight of it. The light(s) traveled roughly 350 feet in approximately 10 seconds."

Diane visited with a bunch of listeners in April 2018 and we couldn't pass up the chance for Kelly to get to see it when we drove to Louisville for Jerry Paulley's memorial service. We were joined on the tour by Bailey Landrum and her friend Ellie. We started the tour where the cafeteria, kitchen and bakery were once located. We then went to the former chapel on an upper floor. There we were shown a picture captured on an investigation in 2003 by a staff member who has worked at Waverly Hills for 21 years and the picture features two guests standing in front of a window in the chapel and there is the head of another person between them. This was someone who was not standing there for the picture. And being that this was the third floor, it couldn't have been someone standing outside. And there was no glass in the windows in 2003, so it wasn't a reflection of someone else in the room.

There was a woman who had lived at Waverly Hills named Lois. She passed away here in a room that guests visit on the tour. Lois was only 28 when she died from TB in 1956. She had been pregnant when she got to the sanatorium, so when it was time to give birth, she was taken somewhere else to give birth and then brought back. Lois never got to touch her son that she gave birth to. She suffered from TB for 8 years and spent all of those at Waverly. Her sister, Audrey, also had the dreaded disease and joined her in the room. She managed to recover and lived to be in her 90s. Investigators have picked up EVP of a female voice saying "Audrey" as though Lois is searching for her sister. A flowery smell is sometimes detected and she likes to play with people's hair. We didn't get any activity here, but we were told that Ghost Hunters saw a full-bodied apparition here when they investigated. Our guide Kristal saw her only apparition near this area. (Kristal Experience)

Our tour group in 2018 had an amazing group experience at the elevator shaft on the third floor. A homeless man and his dog were thrown down to the bottom of this shaft and reports claimed that it had been a ritualistic murder. The homeless man had lived in the building for quite some time and he was very protective of it. As the tour guide was telling us this history, Diane clearly heard a dog whimper. She thought perhaps it was the power of suggestion until the tour guide asked if we all heard it and everybody said yes. Then a little bit later there was another whimper followed by a door slam. And we again heard the dog whimper a third time before we left the area. It was clear. It was audible. Diane had no doubt that the ghost of a dog had joined us...or at least a residual whimper. This time around we didn't get any activity, but were told about the ball moving down the hall on the Ryan and Shane Unsolved Buzzfeed Show. The ball went down the hallway and then turned the corner by itself, as if a dog was carrying it and we were also told that Tina once saw the apparition of a dog lying down in the hallway and then it disappeared. Then our guide shared this audio with us. (Dog Audio)

Diane had a guide tell her about an experience he had on the fourth floor. A group had arrived in a chauffeur van and the driver had joined the tour. The driver was bringing up the rear with the guy telling Diane the story and they distinctly heard the sound of dance music floating up the hall and they also could hear the sound of feet dancing on the floor. The fourth floor is probably the most haunted floor and is very creepy. People often feel uneasy and nauseous on this floor and it is cloaked in darkness with just a hint of ambient light. To get to the floor, you go through a metal door and the guide told us about some teenagers who were ransacking the place and they got locked in by something. They had brought an axe with them and tried to open the door with it, but had no luck. The marks in the door are still there. Whatever is on this floor does not seem to be human. There are supposedly shadow figures everywhere poking out of doors. We thought we saw a child ghost peeking out of a room several times. We went into a room that was used for the surgery and it was here where many people suffered and died from various experiments to ease their symptoms. A person in our group captured a weird picture of Bailey in here. And Kelly felt weird in here with tightness in her chest. 

The fifth floor opens up onto the roof. A nurse supposedly hanged herself in the center room. She had fallen in love with a doctor who was married and carried on an affair with him. She discovered she was pregnant and she told him about it. He rejected her and in her dismay, she committed suicide. Some stories claim that she lived in Room 502 and hanged herself there, but guides believe she hanged herself in the public area. We're pretty sure that is the truth as we were told a story about a man who visited and told the guides that he was 8-years-old when he came to the sanatorium with his mother who was a nurse and they walked off the elevator and into that open area and discovered the nurse hanging. Kristal pointed out that she didn't think it was a suicide because what nurse would hang herself near the children's wing, which was on the fifth floor. She thinks its possible that an orderly was asked to take the nurse out on behalf of the doctor.

The Morgue Wing has a cafeteria above it and in order for a patient to eat in the cafeteria, they had to get dressed. They couldn't enter in their gowns. There was a morgue slab still in the morgue that could hold three bodies. Only the bottom one can still hold any weight and many times, investigators try out lying down in that bottom one and being left for awhile. We were told on the tour about one woman who decided to do this and when her team returned 30 minutes later, she was curled up in the fetal position at the back of the slab. This was shared on TripAdvisor, "I got away from the other folks and did my own thing. I laid on the bottom morgue slab, hoping to get touched. But didn't. Later, I did a flashlight session with a female in the shock therapy bedroom while sitting on the bed and she answered questions by making the flashlight turn on. THEN, I went down the Death Chute alone - a 500 ft walk down in complete blackness. I could hear footsteps behind me but when I turned to take a picture, there was no one there. I turned on my FLIR and have two videos of an entity which followed me down the Death Chute and then led the way back up. It even played with my hair!" What that person meant by Death Chute is the infamous Body Chute. It was out last stop.

The creepiest location at Waverly Hills has to be the Body Chute. This is a long chute that went downhill a very long way and has 145 concrete stairs next to it. A track system would carry the bodies to the bottom where families could pick up the bodies or the local funeral parlor would collect them. The reason this was used was because so many people were dying, the administrators were worried that it would depress the patients and they would give up their fight and all hope when they saw so many of their compatriots die. The chute is dark and it smells. When Diane took the tour in 2018, the guide shared a story about an experience that she had at the Body Chute. She was giving a tour and had her back to the chute. She noticed that several people in her group were getting startled looks on their faces and one of them told her to turn around. When she did, she saw a white misty figure at the bottom of the Chute. She has experienced enough at Waverly Hills that she thought to herself, I'm okay as long as that just stays where it is. When she turned back around, she saw that her entire group had run away. She turned around again to see why they had run and the white figure was running straight at her. People report hearing screams and cart wheels on investigations. Kristal has seen someone get scratched on their abdomen here. A SWAT team has run out of the Body Chute they were so scared. Green orbs with faces have been captured in pictures. We had an experience there on this tour too. (Body Chute Sound) (Body Chute Amped) (Body Chute Full Audio) At the end here you hear that Kelly and I heard totally different sounds.

Visiting Waverly Hills Sanatorium is an experience that every paranormal enthusiast needs to have. Are the former patients and staff still wandering the halls in the afterlife? Is Waverly Hills Sanatorium haunted? That is for you to decide!